Mike and Will’s first shared apartment lease - 1995
One Nice Bug Per Day
Cosmic Funnies
AnasAbdin
todays bird

if i look back, i am lost
tumblr dot com
h
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her

titsay
Sweet Seals For You, Always

JBB: An Artblog!

shark vs the universe
sheepfilms
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
Monterey Bay Aquarium
hello vonnie

Janaina Medeiros
No title available
Misplaced Lens Cap
we're not kids anymore.

seen from Türkiye
seen from China
seen from Belarus
seen from United States

seen from Taiwan
seen from Norway

seen from Malaysia
seen from Switzerland
seen from Switzerland
seen from United States

seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from Malaysia
seen from United States

seen from Spain
seen from United States

seen from United States

seen from Türkiye

seen from Türkiye
@beholdiing
Mike and Will’s first shared apartment lease - 1995
How obvious?
A meta-analysis on Robin and Will's conversation about queer "signals"
Okay, I love this scene, and not just because it features Will and Robin discreetly discussing the nuances of queer romance.
I love this scene as a writer specifically, due to it's clever and subtle use of authorial intrusion disguised as character dialogue.
Authorial intrusion
Through authorial intrusion, the author/s can address the audience intimately, even under the guise of an existing character. It allows the author/s to communicate directly to the audience; commenting on the narrative, stating an opinion, or posing a question. It doesn't require a breaking of the fourth wall. It's similar to author or audience surrogacy. For example, Steve often acts as an audience surrogate in the series — the "simple" voice who asks questions which prompt exposition (usually from Dustin or Nancy), clarifying the plot.
Will and Robin’s scene is certainly seeking clarity, but it isn’t about exposition. It’s about introspection.
So, what is the alleged moment of authorial intrusion in question? It's this simple (and incredibly meta) line from Will, who is this season's lead protagonist: "How obvious?"
Of course, what Will is referring to here is Robin's notion of signals, aka subtle flirtation or signs of mutual attraction — particularly through the lens of queerness, which can be more difficult to navigate and discern.
To provide a succinct summary, the scene plays out like this:
-> Will asks Robin how she knew Vicki wanted to date her. -> Robin says Vicki sent her subtle "signals" such as a brush of the knee, a bump of the elbow, or a shared look. -> These little things (compared to a snowball) accrued and eventually became "obvious." -> Will, acting as a stand-in for the authors, poses the ultimate question: "How obvious?"
This is an extremely "meta" line, because it's as if the authors are completing an exercise in writing a queer romance in real-time. Through this question, the writers are examining their own craft, and gently prompting us to join them.
Questioning the approach
The writers are pondering their own approach to Mike and Will's storyline; How obvious can we make it, or rather, how obvious should we make it? What is even considered "obvious" in this case? Is a shared look or lingering touch obvious, or not?
It's not a condescending question either — they're not saying you should find it obvious, and if not, you're an idiot.
It's not, "How obvious do we have to make it for you to get it, dammit?!" It's more like, "We've tried to lay down the foundation, but we're unsure if it will land. How can we make this work?"
And this is why it's a question worth asking — there's no clear, universal answer. The writers don't have a lot of material to draw upon. They've probably been pondering this question in the writer's room for awhile.
So, they want to know if their signals have been received, and if so, were those signals obvious or obscure? How obvious should they make it to land the plane?
Providing an answer
The funny thing is, although they're curious to know what the auidence thinks, it's not intended for us to answer — because they've already finished the script.
They've made up their minds concerning "how obvious" they wish to go, and what that looks like to them.
They declared their answer through Robin:
It will become an avalanche.
They've even provided us with a visual metaphor for their chosen technique:
-> The subtle, "little things" like shared looks are like snowballs. -> The snowball accrues and builds over time, gaining mass. -> Eventually, it becomes an avalanche; massive and sudden.
The visual metaphor here emphasizes mass and timing — if they do this, then they want it to feel crushingly heavy, and abrupt.
And although they want to make it as obvious as an avalanche, they don't want it to be obvious all the time, and they don't want to make it too predictable — because avalanches cannot be predicted, it's only possible to assess the risk or likelihood.
Will foreshadowed as the "receiver"
So, this question deserves a thematic answer, because it's been introduced as a story element which Will is keenly invested in — it's Chekhov's gun.
There was no point to including this scene unless we can expect to see a snowball turn into an avalanche. Otherwise, they've taught Will how to examine his love life only to... not give him a love life.
You don't tell a character to look for signals if you're not going to give them signals to pick up on. And curiously (yet not so curious, because it was intentional), Will has already been referred to as a receiver of signals.
Like, quite literally in the episode before this conversation took place, by the same exact person.
So according to Robin, Will is a receiver, because he has an antenna.
Antennae convert electric currents into radio waves, or vice versa. In that way, the role of Will's metaphorical antenna isn't just to pick up signals, it's to convert them into something meaningful.
To decode them.
Why does that sound familiar?
Ah! Because Robin is already an expert in decoding — she solved the Russian code in s3, after all.
She even explicitly states that the point of code is to communicate something sensitive.
This is a commentary on the queer experience: you have to be careful, subtle, and possibly even use another language (or "cant") if you want your message to be safely received. For example, gay men and women in the UK used to speak in a form of cant called Polari to identify each other when homosexuality was criminalized. (x).
Will and Mike seem to agree with Robin — some things are very hard to say outright, and out loud.
The signals are "queer code"
And yes, that is a play on words.
The queer signals must be decoded and therefore, they are a form of queer code. Furthermore, Robin makes a direct reference to the Enigma machine — a cipher device used by Nazi Germany during World War II.
Robin states that the Enigma machine "won the war" which is simplified phrasing. Perhaps what she means to say is that the Enigma code won the war — because cracking the code played a crucial role in the Allied victory.
In fact, Alan Turing's contributions to cracking the Enigma code as cryptanalyst were so instrumental that he was awarded an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire).
Alan Turing was famously gay (and later persecuted for it), and also happens to be the historical figure Will chose as his "hero" for his history assignment in s4.
While shared looks, subtle lip glances, and the brushing of hands are all signals intended for Will to decode, these small "easter eggs" are signals for the audience.
Subtext and text which hints at Will's queerness — because as of Season 5 Volume I, he is still yet to claim his sexuality (even if it seems obvious to us).
This is queer-coding in practice. And yes, Mike receives his own fair share of coding too — just look at his ridiculous bedroom.
Where is this leading?
It's leading to gay romance, obviously.
Will receiving no signals simply isn’t narratively coherent. The story has already established him as the receiver and decoder of queer signals.
What I'm personally getting from this, dear reader, is that we have two possible outcomes before us:
Will experiences a fully developed on-screen romance with a new love interest, complete with subtle signs which eventually become obvious over a period of time.
Will continues to recieve signals from Mike, which culminate into an "avalanche" scene — the writers' attempt at making it "obvious."
It's not a question of, "will he receive signals?" It's a question of, "who is he going to receive signals from?"
I now pose the question to you: which of the two options feels more likely, considering the way the story has been written thus far, and the screentime we have left?
I think the answer seems obvious, but I guess I could be wrong. After all, the entire point of the question is that "obvious" is not so easy to define.
At least we know Will is going to get some use out of that "antenna" of his.
“We really need some magic up here” he said to the “magical radio receiver”
THE F*CKING RADIO TOWER BEHIND MIKE LMAO he’s broadcasting signals and he doesn’t even know it. Funny how the radio tower/station has been broken down this season and they’ve been having to connect some wires and reset the breakers…
will byers our main character!!!
#when the person you already love becomes even cooler
OHHH THIS FOOD IS SO FUCKING GOOD LOIS
It's actually great that Will ended up using Robin's advice not to look for signals in Mike but to signal him of his own interest.
Not only is it pretty safe because then Mike will only respond if he's interested and nothing changes if not.
But also, I've said before that Mike has incredibly valid reasons to believe Will does not like him back.
This is good. Will is giving him reasons to hope.
Mike has fulfilled at least one if not sometimes all of Robin's criteria every season for communicating interest. Will never does, Will never has. He has looks, but that's about it. He doesn't initiate. Not touch, not flirting, not even the fight they had about their relationship! Mike did that one at the roller rink too!
Will initiating is really good for this actually. I hadn't expected it, but it is definitely needed to support Mike's arc. He has reason to believe he has a chance now.
what “you’re like a sorcerer” and “you’re the heart” will do to a mf
they're so flirting here be so fr, look at Will's smile, the tone of his voice, and it clearly WORKED on Mike, that boy MELTED.
so we were right about robin clocking them in less than 5 minutes after witnessing them together
Stranger Things 5 - The Sorcerer
LESS THAN 24 HOURS UNTIL SEASON 5!! WE DID IT!
CLAIM YOUR BADGES!!!
This is the best thing I've read today. Everyone wants a piece of Mobius, Loki is gonna be the jealous one next
currently laughing my fucking ass off at the idea of mobius and loki both being in deadpool and because of the difference in age rating not only are they an item they fuck it out on screen and then back in the show loki is like ah yes i just love that sylvie love of my life
i suggest a running joke in the movie where deadpool keeps flirting heavily with mobius, and every single time he gets too suggestive, loki throws a dagger at him and stabs him in the head
there’s a scene where loki and deadpool start flat out arguing over mobius, deadpool calls him a “sweet dilf,” loki doesn’t know what that means, there’s magic involved, they fight about it, and all the while mobius is stood there like 🧍♂️
i would PAYYY for a scene where deadpool calls mobius a dilf and loki's like "????? what ????" to which negasonic teenage warhead just says "it means dad i'd like to fuck 🙄" and loki sees fucking red and strangles him
please I can't wait can someone just write this fanfic
GUYS THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING I CAN'T
Colored a sketch I did of poor… poor… Michael Shelley.
10. Distorted
I tried to do one of those distorted drawings! Had quite some trouble with it honestly, but the result turned out pretty good.
Now I have another drawing with some more colour >:) Most of my drawings turn out pretty dark and shadowed ToT
I love my boyo Michael though, and he always comes with colours.
Also have the non-distorted version of the drawing. I love giving him luscious locks~
“ ...That was when I first started to think that something might be wrong, because his laugh didn’t… sound right? I, I don’t know how to describe it, but it wasn’t, it wasn’t a human laugh...„
hehe
Been thinking about how Turnabout Goodbyes was just this
Reblog, don’t repost!
Instagram / Twitter : Laquilasse