Nyx

Noah, Hunter, Bychance! Bi 👻🎧

[22bychancevoid]

I AM GOING TO BE TAGGING MY STRANGER THINGS 5 POSTS WITH THE HASHTAG ‘stranger things 5 spoilers’. I WILL PLACE THEM AT THE START OF THE TAGS! PLEASE READ THE TAGS FIRST IF YOU DON’T WANT TO GET SPOILED.

ADDING THE TAG ‘volume 2 spoilers’ FOR MY VOLUME 2 POSTS AS WELL.

[schnappsource]

Noah Schnapp with friends in Ann Arbor, Michigan recently 22/3/26

📸: bennysfamilydining

[hawkins-batman]

Let's Talk About Noah Schnapp

In light of everything that's happened in the last few days—namely Netflix releasing its first teaser for Stranger Things Season 5—many are returning to Stranger Things spaces online here and elsewhere for the first time in months. Maybe years. So, it's time to have this conversation again, because many people weren't here when some of us were having this conversation in the lull between content; and we're due for an update.

Buckle up—this is going to be long. I intend for this to be a mega post on the whole situation in so far as I can cover it, with receipts and screenshots.

The Conversation Around Noah

Put bluntly—the vitriol around Noah Schnapp has become dangerously insane. It's been that way for 2 years, but the renewed spotlight on Stranger Things, especially as Noah is set to take center stage in a Will Byers-centric season, has revived some of the worst elements of the conversation.

"What do you mean?", you may be asking. Well, I think it might just be better to show you:

This is just a sampling. If I showed you every tweet — every post — every video I've seen with this rhetoric, I'd need another medium to do it. A tumblr blog alone couldn't contain it all. But I take it you see my point now.

How Did Things Get This Way?

There are people on this app and on #that app who will say this behavior/treatment is warranted. They'll tell you that Noah is a "genocide supporter." That he "cheered for the deaths of Palestinian babies." That he "celebrated as people were being murdered." But none of this is true.

As a reminder, this was what Noah actually said—his very first comments on the matter—right after the Hamas attack that happened on October 7, 2023:

Important to note:

"...we will hope and pray for safety, justice, liberation, and self determination in Palestine."

and

"...we will say a Jewish prayer for peace for all Israelis and Palestinians."

That is the literal antithesis of support for a genocide or the wholesale slaughter of anyone.

The very next thing to happen was the infamous "sticker video" about which the most lies have been told, so let's debunk them one by one:

He did not make the stickers.

He did not wear the stickers.

He did not hand out the stickers.

He did not hold up the stickers.

He did not even touch the stickers.

He did not post the video on any social anywhere.

I've posted a pair of screenshots here that give you the gist in lieu of the video itself, but you can Google the video and watch the entire thing to see that I'm telling the truth.

What actually happened was that Noah was taken to a restaurant by a pair of influencers who were his guides while on a school-sponsored trip to Israel. Both were significantly older than him, were responsible for the video in question, were the only ones in it (aside from the waitress) to actually touch the stickers in question... and yet? Noah bore the brunt of the hate that ensued. When the backlash came, they abandoned him and left him to the wolves. (And perhaps because of that, he no longer associates with either one of them, nor follows any related social media accounts—all of which he was required to follow in the first place as terms of going on the trip through his school.)

Noah had just come out of the closet earlier that year and was 18 years-old. He would only turn 19 years-old in the ensuing weeks.

He has addressed these events several times. Most famous was the TikTok that he made explaining his actual position (that he doesn't want anyone, Palestinian or Israeli, to die). Less famous were remarks he made to fans on Snapchat:

I'll post his remarks here for those who can't read the text:

Hey guys! I appreciate you reaching out. To give you context, I did not post this language or sticker. I was at breakfast with friends, it happened to be an Israeli cafe, and a girl was handing out stickers. Someone photographed me and posted and tagged me. As you guys know better than most people, social media can be used however people want to use it. I understand the weight of the situation and take it very seriously. I have friends of friends who are currently being held hostage in Gaza right now. My friends kids were killed in the massacre at the Israeli music festival. Standing up against this terrorism is important to me and why I made my statement after the attack. As one of the only few Jewish people with a platform, I absolutely think it's important to share my message about hatred for Jews around the world right now. However, everyone online is obviously twisting everything and saying I support genocide and am Islamophobic which is obviously entirely false and never have I stated either of those things. Seeing what is happening to the innocent people in Palestine pains me so much and I wish it would stop. I fully support everyone in Palestine as I said in my post on Instagram. One of my best friends in college is Palestinian and we talk about this issue allllll the time and agree on most things. I think people on social media are just animalistic right now so it's hard to even chime in because they just rip me apart so now I'm staying out of it.

I'll let that stand on it's own. I think it provides the context behind his remarks, the situation with the video/stickers, and his actual views versus how social media portrays his views. It also explains why he hasn't said anything else in almost 2 years.

The key takeaway: He was speaking out against antisemitism and the attack on Jewish people on October 7 and he supports an end to what is happening in Gaza and fully supports Palestinians. He literally says it.

And this support, by the way, has been corroborated by his own actions and the word of mouth from Palestinian organizations he has contributed to:

What Has Happened Since?

It would be easier to list the things that haven't happened; but I'll try anyways:

Noah has been called antisemitic slurs; gay slurs and targeted with gay stereotypes; been compared to antisemitic caricatures; he's been threatened with death and had posts go viral fantasizing about his brutal murder; his family has been threatened; he's been threatened with rape and sexual abuse; there are massive accounts on Twitter that doxxed his location while he was filming Season 5—particularly targeting him when he was alone; he's been hacked, had personal pictures leaked; he's had lies spread about his treatment of his cast mates (all of whom have spoken out and said that they've loved him at some point since, making these claims unequivocally false.

Here are a few examples:

Again, I can only post a sample. I hope that sample is enough to get the message across.

It's hard to overstate how cataclysmic this has been. Obviously, he's recovered and healed a lot since the initial incident; but the damage done needs to be acknowledged. These attacks drove him into a dark place by his own admission. He talked about needing therapy on his (now deleted) private spam TikTok account. And they are starting up yet again.

And Then There's the Fandom

The Stranger Things fandom in the wake of all this has been an irritating place to be. Not just because of the above behavior but because of the blanket hypocrisy.

The shipping sub-fandoms in particular have been rank with antisemitism and homophobia—even the Byler fandom, which is predominantly queer. People have:

A) Taken pre-Stranger Things photos—like his baby pictures or pictures with his family—to use as part of their content, their profile pictures, their banners, their fan art, their fan edits, etc.—violating his and his family's privacy for "Will" all while calling him "ugly," a "fag," and lobbing the above-listed threats at him. B) Tried to recast him with a fan cast. These fan casts are almost never Jewish actors, you'll notice. In fact, there's someone on this very app that recast Will Byers as himself. This is gross and absurd. Will Byers is intrinsically tied to Noah Schnapp. Tied to his identities as a Jewish person and a gay man. Tied to his experiences being a character he helped bring to life during his formative years. C) Persist in stanning or support his cast mates despite the fact that they continue to associate with him. This, in particular, is gross hypocrisy. If you're going to be mad at Noah Schnapp for being in a restaurant around stickers you object to—guilt by proximity/association, in other words—those SAME standards should apply to his cast mates, who continue to hang out with him outside of work, state that they love him, and post him on their social medias. I have a whole post about that here.

Instead, the cast is continually afforded blanket immunity while he is singularly targeted for continued abuse and harassment.

It should give the fandom some pause that openly pro-Palestine actors like Maya Hawke not only continue to hang out with him; but in her Instagram story, even stated that she misses it (check the link above for a screenshot of said story). She wouldn't do that if she thought he somehow supported mass-murder; and she knows him way better than any one reading this blog. That goes for the rest of them, too.

They know him better than you. They know his moral compass and what he believes. And they haven't abandoned him and obviously aren't going to. So, are you going to stick to your guns and apply your anger evenly; or maybe consider that you don't have the full picture?

So, Why Care?

I get this in my Asks so often. "Why do you care?" "He's a celebrity." "He don't know you." "He's not your pookie."

I know. It's not about that.

Yes, full disclosure, I am obviously a fan of Noah's. Have been since the show started. And no it's not because I'm gay and he's gay or because he plays my favorite character in Stranger Things.

Like many of his fans, I've spent the last decade seeing his lives on Instagram and TikTok, seeing his fan interactions, watching his vlogs and videos, and I've come to respect him as a human being quite apart from Will Byers or his role as an actor. Fundamentally, I really believe he is a kind and caring human being. The word of mouth from everyone who knows or has met him bares this out—and, yes, he's even been kind to me in the few conversations we've had.

This is only one example from Instagram during The First Shadow premiere this year; but I think it encapsulates what I like about Noah most. He's kind. He goes out of his way to be kind. He does things he doesn't have to do, contractually or just in general, for the sake of being kind. He always has been.

He's also stood up for a plethora of causes. Black Lives Matters, trans rights, the rights of women. He's known to be his cast mates' biggest supporter—and they'll tell you as much, too.

But quite apart from my personal feelings about him and more importantly: this is wrong.

Antisemitism is wrong. Homophobia is wrong. Both kill. Still, to this day. As I am sitting in my kitchen writing this, the news just broke that an Indigenous gay man and a celebrity was shot dead in front of his husband—after having his home burned down and dogs burned alive—in the United States. Yesterday, news broke that a gathering of peaceful Jewish protesters (which included children and the elderly) demanding the release of hostages still held by Hamas was firebombed in Colorado. Luckily, they all survived, but six people were injured in that attack.

Violence and bigotry are ascendent everywhere right now. Minority communities are being targeted. Normalizing the behavior I've described and shown above kills marginalized people. Regardless of your feeling about Noah as a person or celebrity, normalizing the violent and bigoted remarks, tweets, and behavior towards him harms Jewish and LGBTQIA+ people—all of us.

And just as an example of that, I give you the treatment Finn Wolfhard is now receiving just for the "crime" of shaving his head and being deemed no longer conventionally attractive by the fandom:

Yes, the general audience found out about Finn's Jewish heritage and now he's a target, too.

And this fandom is at fault for it.

You cannot normalize bigotry towards one person and expect it to stay contained to that one person. It will always harm everyone in that community. Finn Wolfhard—or any other actor/actress—being your favorite is not going to spare him from the consequences of a discourse you started.

ALL antisemitism and ALL homophobia needs to be called out. The people who insist it's okay that they do that for ANY reason—regardless of if they themselves are LGBTQIA+ or not—need to be ejected from the fandom and never let back in.

Noah Schnapp is a human being. He does not deserve this treatment. No one does. No one is saying you have to like him or even care about him. But you SHOULD care that this is how he's being treated and the impact it is having on others. The impact on Jewish people. The impact on queer people. Standing up and saying that does not mean you support genocide or murder or bigotry of any kind. Quite the opposite, in fact.

I am a person with left-leaning values. I'm tired of those values being spat on and dragged through the mud by people who think THIS is activism or is in any way helping a cause. It's not. All it is doing is perpetuating harm on a real person and real communities—queer and Jewish alike. And it needs to stop.

Related Blogs:

I've compiled some related blogs that expand on other elements of the situation that I've mentioned above in greater detail. This post was already long enough. I'll be updating this as more content comes out.

Examples of Noah’s Support for Gaza and Palestine (by @nymphus-fan-account)

The Evolution of a Lie

No, the Stranger Things Cast Does Not Hate Noah Schnapp

Lyric Vault’s Obsession with Noah Schnapp

There is also now a Twitter version of this post if you are on that app and want to share it there. It links to this blog post.

[90shorrorpaperback]

Friendly reminder that Hunter Romanillos is HOT and BUILT and SMART and has a GOOD PERSONALITY.

[22bychancevoid]

He knows what he’s doing 😌😍

[bopbyers]

will byers has a face men go to war over

[22bychancevoid]

what if Mike has saviour complex because that’s the only thing he can be.

Because why was he having so much issue with El, I’ll and others finally standing up for themselves?!

[bopbyers]

chance wanting will bad so he shows up at mike’s door to steal will away to stacy’s party >>

the rest of the party lowkey ditch mike to join

[22bychancevoid]

I wish Will had confronted Mike about hellfire!

At the start of season 3, Will is pleading with them to play D & D only to get sidelined and told that they weren’t going to remain kids playing games in the basement. When Will is packing for California, he gives away his D & D set and Mike asks him about joining another party, to which he says “Not Possible”

But imagine him coming back to Hawkins and finding out about Eddie and Hellfire through Dustin and being utterly heartbroken. The Mike who told Will to grow up and won’t play the game with him, went on and joined a club about the same game?!

I think that’s why I hate the idea of Will joining Hellfire if we was in Hawkins that year. He would’ve helped Eddie but he wouldn’t have joined the club. He would have also dragged Dustin and Mike to Lucas’ Championship game because friends come first. A sentiment Mike has forgotten since 1985.

[22bychancevoid]

My irl friend: Mike was the only outcast in the party.

Me: The party that had a queer person, a poc and a person with disability.

Girl Mike was the only one that couldn’t have been considered an outcast.

[thirst-for-boys]

[22bychancevoid]

If I say people hate Will going to a gay bar, Will drinking and smoking and Will hooking up because they hate the idea of Will finally gaining confidence and coming into his own terms.

Will was liked when he was the victim, the broken one, the one who needed saving. But the minute Will decides he wants something for himself, it’s “Will won’t do that”

And I if I say all of this stems from the made up fact of wanting that one character to always “save” Will, the one who has the biggest depiction of Saviour Complex I have seen.

[90shorrorpaperback]

Apparently, joining the basketball team automatically makes you a conformist.

Faking your entire personality and all of your interests, and changing your style constantly to try to fit in with whoever you're trying to impress at the moment means you're being your own person.

Also, if you're popular and attractive, you're automatically a jerk. If you're racist, misogynistic, homophobic, perpetually selfish and moody, and you treat everyone around you like garbage, you're the epitome of a nice guy as long as you're also an unattractive and unpopular cishet white boy.

[90shorrorpaperback]

The irony of the jocks being portrayed as universal bullies when they're the ones we see actively supporting each other and having a strong camaraderie on screen. Meanwhile, the Duffers' self-insert character treats everyone around him like trash after S2, and walks around being openly homophobic, misogynistic, and racist, but we're told he's a "nice guy" and one of the heroes.

Your incel is showing, guys.

[yourlocalbadgerscales]

The homophobia and the ableism in Stranger Things really do go hand in hand, which is why I can't help but be quite disappointed by the lack of posts made about the ableism specifically compared to the large amount of posts made about the homophobic treatment of all of the queer characters as well as the queer fans.

Will being the only character out out of all of the "main" characters of the show (save for M*rray, Erica and Holly and her friends) to never be in a romantic relationship at any point of the show is homophobia (it's racism in Erica's case, but this post specifically focuses on the similarities between the homophobic and the ableist treatment of the Stranger Things characters).

Will and Dustin being the only ones out of all of the "main" characters in the show (save for M*rray, Erica and Holly and her friends) to never have an on-screen kiss (or even an off-screen kiss, in Will's case) is homophobia and ableism.

(Honestly, I'm surprised the showmakers even let Dustin call both Phoebe Cates and Suzie 'hot', because [SARCASM INCOMING!! !!1!1] since when do disabled people experience sexual attraction? [end of sarcasm] But honestly that kind of makes it worse tbh, because Dustin never got to tell anyone that to their face, like Lucas did in the s5 epilogue ("You just look so sexy right now."), and AGAIN, he never got to have an on-screen kiss! "Oh but he off-handedly mentioned Suzie reassuring him that kissing is better without teeth in s3—" I am going to show up outside of your house with Jonathan's spiked baseball bat <3 (Not really, pls lmk if I should delete that or tag this post #not ocd safe or something, you guys!)

Moving on.)

Robin and Vickie + Dustin and Suzie being the only couples to seemingly break up off-screen with no explanation or context given, absolutely no acknowledgement that it even happened to begin with (save for a seemingly snide remark directed towards Vickie on Robin's part) and no real reason for it to happen or buildup towards it is ableism and homophobia (it's misogyny in Suzie's case, since she was reduced to being a love interest and a plot device, but this post specifically focuses on the similarities between the homophobic and the ableist treatment of the Stranger Things characters).

In conclusion, the D*ffers are ableist, racist, misogynistic and homophobic pieces of shit.

TL;DR: The homophobia and the ableism in Stranger Things go hand in hand; both Will and Dustin don't get to kiss anyone on-screen and their romantic feelings/relationships are treated like jokes. Rovickie and Suzie are the only two couples whose relationship is reduced to a plot device, and then they break up for seemingly no reason and their relationship is never brought up again. This is all due to the stereotypical view of disabled people which suggests that they're too pure/innocent to experience sexual attraction, as well as a result of them not being seen as desirable in the same way that able-bodied people are, hence why relationships in which one or more people are disabled aren't taken seriously or treated the same way as couples in which every person involved is able-bodied; in the case of Will, Robin and Vickie, this unfair treatment is due to the problematic sentiment that queer people should be grateful for any and all representation they get, regardless of if it's any good or actually just the bare minimum. The general audience doesn't want to see a gay kiss, so obviously there won't be one. Why would the showmakers subject fans to woke propaganda?

[22bychancevoid]

I miss Hunter Romanillos 🥺

[hoe4djo]

jonathan starts writing a film about two boys both trying to impress the same girl but in the end the two boys wind up trying to impress each other because they fell in love. he has an oh shit moment immediately after.

[22bychancevoid]

And he casts Steve, Nancy and himself in the lead roles. The lines on set get so blurred that the three now can’t seem to understand if they’re saying dialogues or their own thoughts.