CHALLENGERS (2024) dir. luca guadagnino

STRANGER THINGS S05E04 | Sorcerer

Happy 10 year anniversary to this absolutely foundational post

#really cannot emphasize enough how much iguanamouth changed the site’s sense of humor and therefore the timeline of the western world

byler in a once more to see you mitski way🕺

To those who don't understand why what Stranger Things did is so painful and so harmful to the queer community, or who lack the words to express it themselves:

They showed so much queer pain. From episode one, they were calling Will a f*g. Hopper thought he might've been hate crimed and that's why he went missing. In season 3 even Mike was homophobic toward him, and that was never truly addressed. The scene right after, where Will destroys Castle Byers, his safe spot, with the baseball bat his abusive dad gave him trying to make him man up, yelling fuck as he does? I know that feeling, that fear that I won't be loved, that I will never be accepted, that I will always be other. The pain that comes from that. Everyone queer does. It's like he's taking the bat to my heart, like I can feel the bruises all over my body. In season 4, when he all but confesses his love for Mike, just substituting himself for El, and cries after? I cry with him because I get it, I understand. And I'm mostly accepted by the people around me, the people I care about; I can't imagine how much more people who don't have that acceptance relate to it.

These scenes are cathartic to me. Or at least they were, when all signs pointed to a happy ending. But for all the queer pain they showed, they didn't show queer love. Queer joy. They could have told every queer kid that they're worth it, their stories are worth telling, their love is worth showing, their lives are worth living. That no matter how hard it is now, it will get better. That we can have those epic love stories. That we can defeat monsters, not in spite of who we are, but because of it. But all they gave us was a vague "he and Robin might end up in relationships." Nothing good ever confirmed for the queer characters. So now when I watch those scenes, all I see is never ending pain. And I can't imagine the scars that will leave on people who need that happy ending even more than I do -- especially when the finale is very easily read as romanticizing suicide to escape abuse.

They gave us hope, that suffering is not all there is, that queer people can be happy and joyous and loved and worthy and powerful, and then they ripped it all away and left us with nothing but the pain.

To every queer person reading this: They are wrong. We are all of those things they denied us and more. Don't give up, and don't lose hope.

if the duffers can just go around saying joyce and hopper realized henry was the same henry they went to school with off camera i don’t think it’s at all unrealistic for me to say mike kissed will with tongue off camera. thanks for coming to my ted talk 👍

yall are misplacing your genius by projecting it onto the duffers. no, they didnt come up with your fucking fantastic theory that connects the characters' arcs and motivations to the message of the show and the 80s reference that was brought up. it was YOU. all you.

Influences ♥

i’m free

u can either reach me on tumblr dot com or hand written letter

modern dustin would love fnaf lore modern mike would love owning the minecraft realm modern will would love drawing fanart modern lucas would love fortnite modern max would love speedrunning modern el would love the sims franchise send tweet

The little world next door

if i had created a finale with this many problems, i'd kill myself

i know s4 isn't exactly peak stranger things and had many flaws, but s5 makes it look like cinema. the transition between el and max walking down the school hallway to running up that hill. chrissy getting vecna'd. the dnd game with hellfire mike. argyle. the buildup to max finding out she's the next victim, hearing the clock for the first time and walking into the dark hallway and seeing the clock there!! ronance. the entirety of the rink o mania fight with all its queercoding. the van scene. el's arc culminating in "i'm not the monster." running up that hill!!! el meeting max in the void. max's death with lucas holding her and calling for help. max saying she's not ready to die. friends. best friends. el and hopper reunion. what the fuck happened