Omg I need a conformity gate fic where it’s like Wandavision where Mike is slowly becoming more and more aware of it but desperately wanting to live in the fantasy world bc apart of himself feels like he deserves it until he literally cannot pretend anymore
(Yes I’m writing it bc I heard the Squawk static and immediately thought of Wandavision)
1) Joyce’s arc wasn’t really going anywhere this season. She did what she does best and mothers her kids (or just Will, rip) and supports Hopper and gives him advice. Was all around very nurturing. Part of her arc though was learning to let Will be independent and trusting his to take care of himself. If she died through say, a motherly sacrifice, then it would be the ultimate way of letting go of her kids.
2) The dynamic of Vecna killing Joyce would be absolutely insane. They were friends at one point in time. Once upon a time, Henry looked up to her. Imagine him killing her in cold blood despite this history.
3) Hopper would have lost someone that wasn’t his only daughter. Not only that, but he, being Hopper, would have absolutely taken in Jon and Will as family. The same thing Joyce did for El. Would they have ever gotten to be a complete and full family? No. But it would subvert Hoppers arc so far and he would find a way to take care of his kids.
4) Overall theme-wise, it would mirror the first season perfectly. Will went missing and Joyce fought to the ends of the earth to get him back. If Joyce sacrificed herself for him it would bring that idea back. Doubly so if she sacrificed herself to save Jonathan, whom she hadn’t really had any interactions with since season 1. If this was her last and only chance to be a mother to Jonathan that would make it heartbreaking in all the right ways.
”we asked Finn to carry a lot of weight this season”
gaten and Caleb hearing that after consistently getting some of the heaviest storylines this season while mike stands in the background with a blank expression and no purpose to the plot:
Idk, I kinda feel like Stranger things is my last like hardcore fandom. I’m in the mood for going crazy about the show. And also it’d be great to get the creators or someone to address the quality drop.
At the same time I want it to be real because if there is a CHANCE that one day we’d get to see a beautifully written byler in its entirety I’m gonna fucking take it
People claiming cutgate isn't possible are wild to me, because this absolutely could and does happen. The final cut probably went up to some studio exec who wasn't involved in the process until the end to give final say, and he threw a tantrum and demanded they go back to the editing room to gut the show. This kind of thing happens in corporate America ALL THE TIME. I've seen it with my own eyes. And let's not forget Netflix is a product of Silicon Valley first and Hollywood second. The fact that vol 1 was finalised in the summer and vol 2 didn't complete edits until several days before the drop is telling. It's entirely possible the writers and editors scrambled for months to act on instructions to rip the heart out of the show and patch it back up in a way that passed muster. They obviously failed. We all saw how incongruous and off vol 2 was. But plenty of the GA didn't. They thought it was maybe a little lacklustre but enjoyed enough of it to watch benignly and move on to their next mindless watch. At the end of the day, I'd much rather believe homophobia at the c-suite level destroyed this show than the writers room was mysteriously lobotomised or maliciously retconned us for grins. And sometimes the simplest explanation is the right one. How else do we explain any of this? I just hope it gets exposed someday and spells the downfall of netflix for good.
Episode 7 was so hidden, and Maya Hawke literally stated in an interview that they would return to the Wheeler house in that episode. It was hinted at so many times throughout the WSQK Radio too, specifically the basement. Yet nothing happened.
I don't wanna bring the document that's been going around into this discussion because I don't want to potentially spread misinformation although I do 100% believe there are many cut scenes throughout the season and something has definitely happened because otherwise I've never seen such a miscommunication throughout the entire cast and crew - absolutely nothing they said about Volume 2 actually happened.
Mike Wheeler/Finn Wolfhard - "emotional weight" - doesn't exist.
"Dark Christmas" nope.
The whole going into Will's mind was SO underwhelming it was like a 2 minute scene and then he immediately woke up. It feels like so much should've happened.
The only plotline that seemed to get screentime and go into proper depth was the Holly and Camazotz plotline but even now I don't see where this is going and how it can be wrapped up within 1 hour and 20 minutes (considering the rest of the finale is epilogue.)
Lumax was great but so many things don't make sense with Max - I loved the scenes between her and Will but they seem random as before they never really had scenes together or seemed close meanwhile her and El barely interact or get a reunion - she also had no reaction to Kali or Hopper?
So many character relationships and interactions don't feel real or fall flat cause I feel like barely anyone takes notice of Kali or even questions her. Going off of this, many big moments or character reveals that I would have liked to see other character reactions to such as Will's powers were heavily brushed off and the characters just were immediately cool with it just felt a bit unrealistic to me (although this part could just be me nitpicking in all honesty.) The same can be said with Kali - everyone just ignores her presence apart from Hopper and we don't see anyone's opinion on her. Mr Clarke just gets dragged into everything and witnesses Eleven's powers and after a moment of shock is completely cool with it. Nothing about it feels real unlike other seasons.
Mike and Eleven feel so fucking distant I'll actually still be shocked if the show tries to still present them as endgame in the finale cause whenever they're on screen it feels like they only just met eachother yesterday.
Putting Byler aside, Mike and Will's relationship as childhood best friends is completely gone. Once again doesn't add up with anything Noah or Shawn Levy has been saying about Volume 2.
Did something genuinely happen with Netflix or the Duffers last minute because this has felt like a dream. Volume 2 doesn't feel real or look like anything that the cast described.
At the end of the day, it could genuinely just be awful writing with the cast under NDA to cover it up and lie, and perhaps we'll see this come to light after the finale airs and the cast are free to criticise.
Maybe some of these opinions will change after the finale and it'll clear everything up (doubt.)
But the quality difference between Volume 1 and 2 is genuinely insane. The ending of Sorcerer (which was incredible) and the hype that it created made volume 2 feel super misguided and distant from the first as it didn't live up to what it implied even though I did like episode 5 (honestly I did enjoy watching the whole volume other than episode 7 - I think I'll always love the show which is why I'm so disappointed - there is always gonna be aspects I love even in this bleak Volume 2 but I'm never gonna forget how much better this could've been.)
There are many other aspects that don't add up either - actors who said they'd show up on Volume 2 never did - the only sets that we really saw throughout the volume was the WSQK, Upside-down, Camazotz, etc (felt very trapped and disassociated), many BTS of scenes that never happened.
I really don't know what to think, other than something really suspicious is going on.
I guess we'll wait and see what happens after the finale.
Probably nobody is going to take the time to read all this, but I honestly just wanted to get all of my thoughts out of my head. God knows what the fuck is going on with Mike/El/Will and I mourn what we could've had and I genuinely think some of our theories would've been better than whatever happened.
I genuinely did not hate this volume, but episode 7 is what ruined it, that, and the fact that we all went into it expecting SO much more thanks to what was teased (stuff that never ended up happening) and also expecting stuff that makes much more sense for the story than canon.
If you took the time to read all this, thank you. But I'd like to hear everyone's opinions about potential last-minute censorship or cut plotlines because it seems even the cast may not have knew. I would love it if someone made a masterpost of interviews, etc. of things that were said about Volume 2 that never ended up happening (unfortunately don't have twitter so it'd be hard for me to do so.)
Not y’all coming at Gaten on Instagram. Now I already know my fellow byler veterans aren’t doing this shit, so imma need y’all new fans that just got here acting like this to sit tf down and chill out. Y’all are pmo so bad. You’re making the rest of us look bad acting like this. We’ve literally been right about so much shit for a decade. We said Will had powers. We said Will was in love with Mike. We said byler was going to happen. And guess what? We started byler analysis because we thought MIKE was gay and into Will, not the other way around. You really think when we have a track record of being right based off of actual analysis, that we are gonna be wrong about the literal origin of the ship aka Mike? Oh brother give me a break, and quit acting like children throwing a tantrum. The cast is going to lie. They will lie no matter what to protect the secret of the end of the show. Get that through your heads, quit looking to them to confirm the biggest spoiler and plot twist the show would fucking have and STAND UP! Stand tf up and own it or be silent at the very least my god. You’re literally making the rest of us look bad because y’all don’t know how to act right!
Byler fans stop conflating your headcanons and theories with show canon. A headcanon is not evidence.
Canon is what the show explicitly gives us. It doesn't have to be spelled out but it must be provided by the show.
Mike has internalised homophobia- theory that has yet to be proven ( no, I don't care about your interpretation or analysis or ideas)
Mike and Eleven are broken up - This has not been stated anywhere in the show. Just because you assume they did to validate the theories of Mike and Will getting closer in the time skip does not make it canon.
Mike does not love Eleven- Until that boy opens his mouth to say he no longer wants to be with her, it's canon that he loves her. And I don't care if you want to call it platonic love for some reason. In the show, his love is still romantic, and until the show says otherwise, that is the canon.
Mike is secretly gay and loves Will romantically- until the show explicitly tells or shows me this, I refuse to take it as fact. What the show has told me so far is that Mike sees and loves Will as a best friend, nothing more and that's canon. So
And for God's sake, stop asking people to watch that damn lawyer's video to prove your ship. People want to think for themselves, not have so-called proof spoon-fed to them. Him being a lawyer means jackshit, and his video is not some gospel to convert others to your cause.
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