sorcerer ✨
Reblogged
i just realised why i prefer the dynamics between queer characters when the show is queerbaiting us vs when it's a genuine queer central show
it's slow burn. all the queerbaiting shows go on for SEASONS and SEASONS and DECADES. i need queer slow burn
i need to have time to do all the analysis and get excited over the details like we did with byler and johnlock and whatever else and then i want to see that PAY OFF. i feel like if its just a movie or it only takes them one season, there is so much less pay off
i think maybe artists are scared of creating that because they will likely be accused of queer baiting, until the pay off, but PLEASE SOMEONE RISE UP
honestly please i need queer slow burn
Reblogged wayward-sherlock
tgc bylerq
Reblogged sugarcubetikki
More and more and more writing decisions of st5 show that they don’t understand wtf this story was supposed to be about because what in their right minds made them think that we’d want Stacey trying to flirt with Dustin aka Dustin getting approval from the popular bully, instead of Dustin being in a relationship with Suzie, who’s a nerd just like him, who’s super intelligent and dorky, who defied her father and faith for him and actually loves him for who he is, opposed to the praise he got for giving a speech at graduation.
What the fuck happened to “maybe you should date someone you actually like for once instead of someone you think will make you more popular.”
Reblogged byersbrained
oh he totally thought Neil was going in for a smooch
Reblogged letsgocrazytogether
a picture says 1000 words but i could write a book about this
Reblogged bugssavetheworld
Reblogged
now let’s talk a bit more about how noah was treated by the duffers. noah has mentioned how he struggled when journalists would ask him about will being gay because they would then also ask personal questions about his sexuality which was very difficult for him since he wasn’t ready in his own personal journey to deal with that. let me remind everybody that noah was a child for most of the time the show was filming.
noah explains that the duffers never sat him down to explain that will was gay which makes it seem like they never put that much thought about developing that aspect of his character. later on, it looks like they all had this silent agreement and understanding since noah noticed like all of us that will was meant to be gay. so here we can see how the duffers just threw him to the wolves because they either wanted to have will’s sexuality as a plot twist which is a very insensitive thing to do or that they were cowards that didn’t want to admit until the last minute that they had a queer main character on such mainstream show so they let a child deal with explaining it. it would’ve been so easy to sit with him and guide him how to answer or even make some sort of statement saying “yes will is written to be gay but he’s still growing up, keep watching to see how his story develops” which wouldn’t expose anything plot wise but would protect their young child actor from invasive questions. now that it’s out in the open, they elevate themselves as proud allies that wanted to make it right for will and noah. now they are finally saying that will was always meant to be gay and it was written in the show’s bible.
i think it was super insensitive to deal this way with will’s sexuality while working with a child actor. at the end of the day, noah being gay just like will is a coincidence. throwing some random child actor to deal with all this shows lack of care and understanding of queer storylines.
now years later, noah came out and had more definitive thoughts about will’s queer arc based on his own experiences being a young gay man. they had him waiting and waiting for it, and when asked if he had any input, he said he didn’t want to overstep which speaks for itself. he also was the one who suggested a scene between will and mike getting some closure because the duffers didn’t think about that at all. noah is the only one who thought that fans who invested their time and energy into that relationship deserved closure as well which also tells me what the duffers think about their fans.
i can’t help but think what would’ve been of will if noah wasn’t gay considering how misguided the duffers seem to be while dealing with queer storylines which shows us again the importance of queer representation in tv productions specially in the writers room because at the end of the day, this weight shouldn’t fall on the actor’s shoulders because they don’t write the show and their real life sexuality shouldn’t matter in the writing if we have writers that are truly committed to the characters.
to end this, i have to say that it’s funny how ross can shade people and respond to rumors on his ig all the time but it was crickets when we had so many homophobes mocking will’s coming out scene (including the owner of a big social media platform) and attacking noah, an openly gay actor that they should try to protect if they truly believe in allyship.
I want to add to this that I started to get suspicious when Noah said he got the bravery to call the Duffers before s5 and say, "Will has been sidelined since s3. What do you have planned for him for this next season?" And then they didnt give him scripts or plot points because they didn't trust him and it was after that apparent call (perhaps not solely due to it but definitely noteworthy) that the Duffers said, "Since we started the show with Will, it made sense to end it with him. And we knew we had a lot of work for his arc, since he wasn't really around in s4... so we structured the mid way point to his story."
My bad faith reading can say that the Duffers may have done a powers reveal but not in the centering way they did for s5 ep 1-4. Because they so easily sidelined him from that point on, despite there being Henry connections and GODDAMN POWERS. And it also makes me wonder if they had to be /reminded/ by Noah of the acting versatility he could show. And he and Charlie also had to have them include the Jonathan and Will "I'll always be there for you" scene in s4 so fuck those two's arcs that season, too, ig.
That + not seeming to understand the impact of Noah's sidelining to his reputation as an actor or his self-confidence as an actor, the invasive qs he would get asked as the FACE of queer representation in the show despite being one of the youngest of the main cast, his bowl cut punching bag reputation by the GA, the reason so many have been invested in Byler, and how Byler fans are treated online .... I don't have much faith in them.
I think this probably confirms something very important overall about Byler, as well. Noah saying he was never explicitly told that Will was gay and it just became obvious around s3-s4, tells us that the entire subtext of Mike/Will was never said aloud. My biggest question is whether Finn knows about his own character's intense queercoding; I used to believe that Finn knew what the story really was (Byler), but now it seems like he was kept in the dark about that queercoding and subtext. I wish I could understand Finn but honestly I struggle to comprehend him... But the writing really was on the wall for Byler, they didn't plan to do anything with Will/Mike at all, the show didn't conform, the Duffers didn't bow to Netflix in the end, there isn't a conspiracy, and they didn't even chicken out on a built-up, set-up Byler endgame: No, they simply never had great plans for Will in the first place; they don't even understand queer people enough to realise that 'crushes don't work out and it's okay so move on and find someone else who's actually gay' is an awful message for queer audiences. They really had their one gay character fall for his best friend who was his biggest source of the power of love in the second season, just so he could realise he's gay and then revert all his romantic feelings to platonic feelings - because Mike is straight so oops, that was a mess. But it's all resolved now! It's all back to how it was before Will had those silly, misdirected gay feelings. No, Finn may not have full knowledge of his own character's heavy queercoding, and the rest of the cast is completely oblivious and ignorant of it. The only person who might be in the know, the one person that I think might see us and actually understand what we're talking about: Noah. And I really, really, really wish he could speak to us and honestly tell us what happened.
want to reblog for @prismhearts-electric's commentary here. I can't begin to know what is in Finn's mind either unless he lays it out bare. But the fact that Noah had to figure out Will was gay on his own terms, just from the context clues and coding himself, as the actor who PLAYS Will is insane. He was analyzing the show the same way that we were. He was trying hard to find motivations in his own character in subtext, around the same time he was struggling internally with those own realizations in his head, and then he was proven right without the Duffers ever actually sitting down with him and saying, yeah, Will is gay? It makes sense to me how he would see Byler using that same method, too. but as you pointed out and others have pointed out, the Duffers had no fucking plan past making him a gay boy with an unrequited crush. Which meant that they also emptied motivation from Mike in scenes like the van scene, which were apparently only included to establish Will was gay. They were scenes to develop Will only. They forgot to treat Mike as a character, and even Finn has said in the famous 'it'll pay off' panel answer that he couldn't understand why Mike was not recognizing what is happening in all his scenes with Will. Finn mentioned at the time that he thinks Mike's emotional compartmentalization is probably making him unaware of things that are going on, but I'm not sure what else he conceptualized for how Mike felt about Will in general from the scripts he got. I know Finn recognized Mike was trying to be "normal" and he used to say his dream ending for the character was that he would leave Hawkins-- and now we have reason to believe the Duffers didn't debrief him on those motivations. Or if they did, then they just have a weird thing of not telling Noah about his character. Those things Finn says about Mike alone have queer subtext, but I can't tell if he was making a bigger picture from that. I thought he was from his acting choices, but now I don't know, given how 'fine' he seems with the ending and seemingly not taking Byler seriously. And if Finn is not queer nor used to looking into queercoding (which, given how he's talked about his past actually-gay roles as "brothers", it might be likely he never learned to), that makes it even sadder that Noah was probably actually alone in trying to figure this out, what the end goal of this Byler unrequited love arc could be. And it's sad because if Finn wasn't, and the Duffers were not even trying to, it was a fruitless goal that he alone had to steer the performance, PR, and emotional weight of. All while it was hitting personally for him. The worst thing an author or director can say about a work you're involved in (either directly or through investment as a fan) is that they have no fucking idea what they're doing with it. Or that what they think they're doing with it is so fucking simple and careless and stupid that it makes you stupid for having trust.
Reblogged sufferingfrommoodpoisoning
It’s funny how Will’s love for Mike is strong enough to awaken superpowers and it’s strong enough to save 3 different characters simultaneously and it’s strong enough to magically fix all of milevens issues without them ever having to do that work themselves! But when it comes to just idk, allowing a gay guy to actually feel and express the love they intentionally wrote him to have, suddenly it’s just a hallway crush and it’s not serious at all and he can get over it in 24 hours despite being canonically in love for years, which is not at all how that works. It’s almost like they’re saying gay love is worthless unless it exists to serve straight people! Whatever tho! It’s cool!
Reblogged danmeicoffeecat
