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[inactive] 22 | she/her | art under #aeilus

[aeilus]

behold my weird little cave full of my weird little interests (used to be a stranger things-centric blog, you can find my finished st art under #aeilus art, wips under #aeilus wip. if u want both at once it’s all under #aeilus)

trin !! — she/her, 22, blk, queer. talk 2 me about art or film or anything on my blog 🫶🏽 things i like: marvel dc twdg and moreeee!! please send me asks i love to run my mouth

[a-cipher]

happy it's fucking saturday saturday

[emblazons]

So uh. Did my own reading and came back to people saying they are doubting things which…interesting, but:

considering all 127 pages of that just confirmed a lot of what I already suspected and saw myself, im just gonna list some quick personal faves, including:

El getting a “her breath catches” moment over Max

Confirmation that I was in fact reading the talk El had with Vecna as what drained her correctly when I rewatched the season last month

The contrast of Will calling Mike “the heart” only for two seconds later El to show that “her heart” is Max instead

The fact that we get El “throwing away an old board game” in the cabin (rather than a paper in the sink that made the final shot) which DEF plays into the thinking of her outgrowing games/into her own and also serves as a DIRECT contrast to Mike’s arc of embracing his love of games (thinking back to hopper S3 letter too)

+ bonus points for it being Will who is concerned she is shutting them out, rather than Mike lmao

Dead flowers as important symbols script confirmed

El being (playfully) shady af with this line about Mike being a dog—fully playing seasons long shade of her being referred to as people’s pets

LUCAS READING MAX A WONDER WOMAN COMIC RATHER THAN THE TALISMAN!?! 😭

And also just this. Because even in the script, we cannot escape Mike not being El’s focus…but Mike still looking to Will for reassurance 🥲🫡

[foodiewithdahoodie]

S5 finale where most of the Party/older teens/adults have visible scars and damage from fighting. Not just Max losing her eyesight or being paralyzed, but maybe a How To Train Your Dragon situation like somebody instead of just getting killed off/sacrificed. They're surviving war and they're not gonna be unscathed.

[aeilus]

petermj’s first kiss scene in spiderman far from home…byler

the way it’s awkward and chaotic but it’s still just the two of them against the world and they have time to talk about their feelings right in the middle of it. yeah

link to the clip

[aeilus]

oh i just remembered something else. friends-to-lovers first kisses that start with a hug >>>>>>>>>>>

[aeilus]

(modern) ronance wip that i will probably never finish oopssssss

[gaywill-deactivated20260129]

[aeilus]

petermj’s first kiss scene in spiderman far from home…byler

the way it’s awkward and chaotic but it’s still just the two of them against the world and they have time to talk about their feelings right in the middle of it. yeah

link to the clip

[hellfiresbyers-deactivated20231]

what fo you mean by that ? "i get not liking mike and el as a couple but the discounting of their relationship’s importance to the plot of st is getting concerning" 💛

people have been talking about if el and mike will be close friends after they break up and the popular opinion seems to be that they won’t be? which i don’t really get because to me them ending up being just civil with each other or not very close goes against how important to each other and to the emotional core of the show they are. i think people are just tired of them getting screen time because they don’t like them together which is fair lol but the way the love triangle has been set up points towards them splitting up amicably and being able to grow closer as a result of not being boyfriend and girlfriend anymore and no longer having to put on an act with each other.

[bhilasar]

I just don't get it when people use the "realism" card. So when we are talking about El and Mike, the narrative/storytelling perspective simply disappears?

El, Will and Mike are the closest we have from a main trio. Expecting El and Mike to not end up being very good friends is so out of reality to me. You still can be friends with people you don't share interests. You still can platonically love people you're not "compatible" with. The writers would never break up M*leven to then not make their (platonic) relationship improve a lot from the break up.

Irl or in a dramatic soup opera El and Mike would probably grow apart and that's it, but since this is a "coming of age" and "friendship and love defeat evil" story, it needs to be shown how the shift in the main trio dynamic is one of the things they needed (symbolically) to defeat Vecna. And it only can be achieved if the writers work on El and Mike's friendship.

I agree they won't be platonic soulmates, but El's going to be at least like what Dustin and Lucas are to Mike. Their relationship needs a good closure.

[bylertruth3r]

*evil smirk*

(i can’t find who posted this one so if you know it let me know in the comments)

also

“so yeah El needs you (i need you) Mike and she (I) always will”

[natalieironside]

Steve Harringron in season 1 of Stranger Things is the most character. He did some bad stuff and immediately went "Aw, beans. That wasn't cool. I better go apologize" at which point The Plot he'd been blissfully unaware of for the entire show immediately tried to eat him.

[natalieironside]

Steve: "Hey Nancy I wanted to apologize for--"

Nancy, cocking a gun: "Wall's haunted."

[femmehaljordan]

Steve: “What-”

Jonathan, tossing him the nail bat: “Wall’s haunted”

[wibble-wobbegong]

i think someday society will accept that mike’s gay mentor was eddie. canon in everything but words

[aeilus]

i always go “hmmm” seeing ppl say that there’s not enough time to introduce and resolve new plot points or arcs in s5 in a way that won’t confuse the audience. i used to feel the same way but if you really think about it, it’s totally doable?? season 4 had completely brand new information and characters such as:

- vecna’s introduction, backstory, and reveal

- vecna’s curse, its symptoms, 4+ important deaths (3 of which being brand new characters)

- eddie’s introduction, entire arc, and death (though I PERSONALLY think they fumbled this bad and should’ve either kept him alive or completely rewritten his death. but that’s for another post)

- fully establishing will being 1. gay 2. in love with mike and dedicating multiple scenes to the progression of that plot

- argyle’s introduction + integration with the rest of the characters

- vickie’s introduction + her relationship + her breakup + setting up robin’s romance plot with her

- the ENTIRE Hopper-In-Russia arc (aside from the backstory we’ve previously been given) including its epic conclusion

plus more I can’t remember off the top of my head. you could make a list like this for every season. while some storylines are executed better than others, the stranger things team has demonstrated that they’re capable of juggling multiple things at once. the great thing about season 5 is you don’t have to worry about the eddies, the jasons, the vickies—we’ll largely be dealing with characters we’ve spent the last 4 seasons with. things like time travel, mileven’s breakup, byler, vecna’s origins and motives, and more that we’ve been theorizing about will ALL be built on what we already know to a certain extent. (if it was completely predictable, it wouldn’t be as exciting! the best twists are only obvious in hindsight!)

in terms of time, it doesn’t actually take that long to make large and meaningful strides in a subplot. will and jonathan’s talk in the SB kitchen was less than two minutes, yet it told us so much about their relationship and will’s identity. robin’s coming out scene in s3 was like 5-6 minutes in full and it was done beautifully. you don’t need entire episodes dedicated to one thing, that’s never how they’ve done things. and that’s just a couple examples. once they give us these scenes, the pieces from previous episodes and seasons start to click into place. if executed well, these types of plot-progressing scenes don’t need to take up precious minutes with exposition, they’re meant to build on what we already know. and if for some reason they’re really struggling to clearly convey a certain thing, they can slap a flashback in there and make it impossible to misinterpret.

trust the writers on their ability to pack information into a limited amount of time! they want this season to succeed. they want to wrap up the biggest show in the world in the best way possible. i have faith that they can stick the landing in the ways that count. will every single character get the perfect resolution? i mean, i hope so. it could go either way. but the BIG stuff is going to be fine. remember that we are at the whim of the writers and the duffers—we are only working off of what’s been revealed to us thus far. they literally already know exactly what’s going to happen (and have for a while). they have more up their sleeves than i think we realize.

[emblazons]

hi marie, its me again <3 the anon with byler doubt haha ... you made such great points! and tysm for such a thorough response.

I am SO CURIOUS how do you think they'll get Mike and Will together? I think that's the aspect that has me doubting the most because it feels so so MESSY and they can very easily mess it all up if they aren't careful.

Explaining Mike's internalized homophobia etc might be something too difficult to unpack in just one season, on top of everything else going on as well with the world literally ending. I also don't know what the point was of having Mike say he loved Eleven if it wasn't true, what do you think they were trying to achieve with that?

Do we truly think she'd be okay with breaking up with Mike? And if the answer is yes, how will that affect Mike and El's dynamic going forward, you think? Will they really not only break up milkvan, but leave elmike underdeveloped in favor of Byler?

I look at the Steve/Nancy/Jonathan love triangle and that has been a mess for seasons now and still no resolution, so I don't know how they'll do it for Mike and Will. I fear they'll go for the "easy route" (aka milkvan endgame) to focus on the supernatural and other characters more. Because if Byler is endgame I feel like they'd need to devote a great chunk of the season to them in order to explain wth is going on with Mike specifically + giving him closure with El.

I suppose something else that gives me doubt is how Mike and Will have been sidelined in these last few seasons to give more screentime/protagonism to other characters and dynamics, so I don't know if I can fully believe the Duffers care THAT much about romantic!Byler if that makes sense.

Hopefully this all doesn't sound overly pessimistic or something, I am genuinely curious about your thoughts in some of these more like looking for reassurance tbh! Especially after reading your response to my first ask <3 TYSM once again!!

hello again!

To be honest, you've got a lot of questions that require separate (and equally detailed) responses, but...let me see if I can briefly explain each, and maybe link to other analyses I've done that might help make sense of why I say.

note: some of these are just my frankest opinions unfiltered, but I do have analytical reasons for all of them. Your questions are also asking things it's taken several rewatches and a year to sort through so...apologies if you just get the simplest version of the idea delineated here haha. also, a cut, because this got really long.

1: How do you think they'll get Mike and Will together? Transparently? I'm not really all that into specifics, because expecting specific things means I'm going to fall into the trap of thinking I'm the one writing it when I'm not and then say The Duffers "lied" or "messed up" because I expected something they never put in there. That said—in terms of plain setup, they will need to address the painting because that was a critical plot point from damn near minute one of S4, and now it's become fully integrated with not only Will's feelings for Mike, but Mike's own sense of El's feelings for him.

Beyond that...I think El will need to be the one to initiate the "complete" breakup, because she's the one who wanted space in the first place, the one who is repeatedly having her romantic partner paralleled to parental and tragic figures, the one refuses to be vulnerable & who built lies into their relationship...and the one whose general arc centers around reclaiming autonomy and choice from the men in her life. I also think Mike will be the one to initiate the romantic aspect, if its not a bit mutual.

2: Mike's internalized homophobia etc might be something too difficult to unpack in just one season - I disagree. We managed to sort through introducing Will's romantic feelings and sense of his queerness in a single season just fine...and Mike has had queer-coding show up throughout every season if you know what you're looking for.

The fact that this boy already has a one way sign into his closet, has repeatedly yelled about "boys only" every season AND shows clear signs of male attraction already has most people (even the supposed 'GA') suspicious of his sexuality, and combined with his devotion to will + the wider context, there are plenty of ways to introduce the idea of him liking boys explicitly that don't require any intense delineation...unless you expect them to say "he's gay" out loud, which they didn't do when Robin came out, and still haven't done for Will either...despite everyone knowing damn well they're gay.

3: I also don't know what the point was of having Mike say he loved Eleven if it wasn't true - I think that most of the breakdowns I've done of parentified!mike make clear that the love he has for her is somewhat genuine...though its being written as misplaced familial love, because he spent so much time believing he needed "a girl" to assuage his insecurities.

While I absolutely lean toward a gay!Mike reading myself, it's still clear even without a label that Mike's love mirrors Hopper's more than it resembles any of the love given by potential romantic partners to other women across the show—and Mike, given that he was being told by Will that El needed him to say he loved her for her to win, did what he thought was necessary to help her.

I do not think his love for her is a lie—I simply think it isn't romantic, and has now been so conflated with something negative in El's mind that it wouldn't matter if he mean't it romantically anyway. That said: narratively, Mike had to say he loved El because unless the fullness of what was expected (an I love you) was accomplished, it would hang over the story and any relationship Byler might have. El needed to hear it...so she could reject it, which she did.

4: Do we truly think she'd be okay with breaking up with Mike? yes. I think El will be absolutely 300000% just fine being broken up with Mike lmao. She has Hopper back now (who she was mourning the loss of, and therefore looking to fill with Mike emotionally), on top of having Max's "there's more to life than stupid boys" at the fore of her mind saving her.

Mike is also paralleled to parental and abusive figures in El's mind, on top of the fact that she has been keeping him at an emotional distance for the entirety of S4. Given that she and Lucas will probably also get closer in the search for Max...I'm quite sure she's not going to take it as hard as people imagine, especially given the fact that we already know she was happiest in S3 when they were broken up.

I also don't have any expectation of ElMike being super close friends (beyond party bonds + civility) either, which...I mean if you are I apologize but. I don't see that happening in canon, so them being developed deeply as friends before the show ends is not important to me as a plot point, and doesn't really have any canonical backing considering their ongoing lack of platonic connection outside of the necessary + lack of common interest. That's even a note thematically in the show...which means its makes sense for them not to be that close by the end of the narrative.

5: Steve/Nancy/Jonathan love triangle and that has been a mess for seasons now and still no resolution, so I don't know how they'll do it for Mike and Will. Truth be told, that love triangle has a resolution—Nancy has chosen Jonathan, and continues to, even though she flirted with Steve when she felt lonely. Nancy's arc has always centered around choosing something different than her parents and has from S1—her brief flirtation with Steve aside, her loyalty to Jonathan hasn't changed, though they are absolutely not a perfect couple.

If anything, the end of S4 set up Jonathan and Steve learning to be friends less so than anything implying Nancy might choose Steve instead—Jonathan is finally in a narrative position to choose something for himself now which frees him up to be honest with Nancy, and even outside of that, Nancy is far more likely to end up with single than she is with Steve—which is the exact opposite of how they've set up Mike to be with Will rather than El over the course of the season.

6: I fear they'll go for the "easy route" (aka milkvan endgame) to focus on the supernatural and other characters more. I don't agree. The supernatual plot has always been well-integrated with the romantic elements in every couple across the board, from Mike's "first love lost" energy happening when El disappeared in S1, Lumax bonding in S2 in a fight with demodogs, Jancy's bonding across S2-3 happening in the lab seeing the gate, while Will was un-possessed, and while they fought the thing monster in the hospital....and Jopper in Russia fighting a demogorgon in S4.

The Duffers have never slacked in setting up their romances in conjunction with the supernatual plots, and there's no reason to think they're gonna start with Byler, especially given Will's mirroring of Vecna/Henry, the way the day his disappeared is the day the UD is frozen, and how he's the one who can sense him...while now having Mike glued to his side.

7: if Byler is endgame I feel like they'd need to devote a great chunk of the season to them in order to explain wth is going on with Mike specifically + giving him closure with El. The 5th season is going to bring all of the characters together again, and they've already said Will is central to that. I've written before about the reason why they had to sideline Will in their plot to make a narrative point, but regardless...like I said before, if you know how to read subtext, Mike being queer won't come as all that much of a surprise.

Note: I've done several (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) analyses on Mike and his arc, which might help.

Beyond that...again, I honestly don't think The Duffers care much to make ElMike besties like fanon seems to think they should be (they haven't done it with any of the other romantic couples they've broken up) so...closure can include civility and acceptance for them the way it did S2 Steve with Jancy, imo. What Mike needs most is to gain the courage to accept himself and realize he doesn't need a girl to assuage his insecurities—and him being casual friends with El the same way he is casually supportive canonically with Max makes more sense than trying to skirt over all the mess of their relationship for the sake of an attached fandom ☠️

—that was a lot to cover, but hopefully that cleared up my position on a lot of your questions? I would also encourage you to take a look at my ST commentary tag & analyses highlights list (soon to be updated again) and even my asks for more context, on top of maybe giving the show a rewatch in its entirety if you can.

Sidebar: I also encourage you to dig into my Duffer Brothers tag and commentary (see bottom of the page), because knowing who made the show is just as helpful as understanding the show itself.

Its really easy to get caught in other people's wants and headcanons for the show if you don't keep going back to it yourself, so—as lovingly as possible, I really do encourage you to just sit and watch it with the "byler knowledge" you have from users like me, your other fave analysts, and maybe some of the "old guard" like @kaypeace21, who was integral in my own development of opinions before I dug in for myself. If you're ever doubting, that's always your best bet.

That said: It's literally impossible to summarize a framework crossing nearly 37 hours of TV in a single ask (or even 20)...which is why I've got almost a year worth of posts about it (and have evolved my depth of understanding dramatically over time).

The same way you can't spark notes your way through a degree without missing a lot of context, even me saying this with evidence won't help a lot if you haven't dug into it yourself—and doubt will repeatedly creep in if you're trusting me over the show itself, even though the show is where I've pulled all this from lmao.

—this got really long, but....I hope it helped. And again, sorry if I seemed short anywhere lmao. This was a lot to cover. Still, as always, thanks for the ask!

[bujomoss-deactivated20240105]

S5 poster concept

[howtobecomeadragon]

five years down the line some people are going to be like "hey did you ever watch stranger things? no? me neither, let's watch it. yeah I don't know much, just that Running Up That Hill is important and the bowl cut boy ends up with that other boy from when everyone was freaking out about it a few years ago"

and then they're going to watch and they're going to be like "aww Mike said he's the only one who care about Will" and then they're going to see El's introduction and one person is going to call a love triangle and the other will go "I mean it's the 80s and he's gay, he probably just feels pressured to like her." they'll laugh so hard they have to pause when El asks "will you be like my brother?" and they'll boo at the kiss

they'll go "aww" at the hand hold in s2, and get a little teary at the shed scene. they'll be a little 🤨 at El almost kissing Mike before going to the gate (one of them will shout "he's just not that into to you, El") and someone will point out how scared Mike looked. they'll freak out over the Snowball scene and see it for what it is.

they'll get sad over the rain fight and understand how slow of a burn it really is. they'll go "oh my god, poor Will, Mike just needs to talk about his feelings, it's obvious he's struggling. he loves Will, we KNOW they end up together, and he's acting different this season bc of it."

they'll get excited over the ramp up of Mike and Will's flirting in s4, bc finally, finally things are getting close. they'll be frustrated beyond belief at the monologue, throwing popcorn at their tv. "get it together, Mike! stop lying to her and go kiss your bf "

and then they'll watch s5, see the payoff, and they'll think wow, what a great slow burn. those crazy mother fuckers really pulled it off.

one person will say "I can't believe so many people were freaking out when they finally got together, it was so obvious." and the other person will shrug and say "idk we already knew it was coming. they didn't." and they'll both shrug and move on with lives. maybe that first person will tease their friend or family member who they remember complaining about byler post s5, going "it was right there in the show all along, were you even watching?"

[scrunchietown]

Breaking my silence on a difficult topic because I refuse to believe this is actually a difficult topic, so I’m just going to talk about it willy nilly

It’s a shame that we have to work to normalise things that are already normal, but hey, that’s the internet age for ya. So: there will be mention of sexual topics in this post; read on if you are emotionally mature (or if you’re not), if you’re curious, nervous, interested, open-minded or feeling frustrated about the puritanical gatekeeping surrounding the portrayal of Byler’s sexuality in Stranger Things.  

Let’s begin…

…with heroesbyler’s Always Sunny reference, cos its hella hilarious. 

(THE FACT THAT DENNIS DREW OUT EACH LETTER AGAIN ON EVERY PAGE SO HIS ACROSTIC WOULD COME TOGETHER IN A VISUALLY PLEASING WAY. Dennis how long did you spend on this presentation?!)

So I got to thinking about the Sunny episode where the gang goes to therapy (‘The Gang Gets Analysed’). One character, Mac, sees a pen on the coffee table and immediately picks it up, making an abrupt and unprompted phallic association.

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