Caethes

18 // she/her

[caethes]

I've something to say about the choice of 💜 purple rain 🌧️ for the bomb. We all know Mike tried to use the butthole surfers' Human Cannonball first, which is objectively a really out there song, and considering his season 1 distaste for the Clash raises two possible reasons for how he got into that kind of music:

1. Will, which supports the Byler of it all

2. Eddie, who is notoriously against conformity (and supports the crush thing, but that's not the point I'm making)

Because we know he would have had to listen to the entire album (unless he went through the records saw "Human Cannonball" and said "this is a bomb", but he defends it to Robin, so: No 🙂‍↔️) and that album is ✨ Experimental ✨ and he had to enjoy it!

And this is all fine and dandy, but then Robin goes and tells him to put on a decent song (or sth like it) and he chooses?

💜 purple rain 🌧️

And here's my issue. I don't care how fitting the meaning of the song is, Prince was in a band and friends with a lesbian couple and later in his life joined Jehovah's witnesses and refused to meet and tour with these women again unless they gave up being lesbians.

I DON'T CARE that in the timeline of the show, this hasn't happened yet, it is what I find when I Google Prince and his stance on LGBTQIA+ matters and I don't care that Robin might reasonably have suggested the song because she knew that he worked with lesbians and thought "he's cool". The message this is sending to a modern audience is that Mike conformed to Prince's (excuse my French) fucking asshole demands!

This has been bothering me for weeks now, and I needed to share it so maybe I can actually move on. And all this is to say that I hate, HATE, despise that scene not because it broke my Byler heart or because I subjectively think the song isn't even that great but because objectively it represents the downfall of Stranger Things being for freaks and outcasts.

[shardlily]

From the „Will Byers Archive“ book which I think is canon.

[yuunnn888]

I miss clouds. I miss you

I’m still at the restaurant unfortunately…

[olsonshroom]

One last byler art before the finale! I learned about the "I miss clouds I miss you" thing and it broke me 💔💔💔 you're so right, Will, I miss Mike Wheeler too, that boy better lock tf in

I actually love how this one turned out so much and I was so excited to show it to you as fast as possible!! We're all going to see how it goes down in a matter of HOURS (although I'll be watching in the morning on the 1st) and even tho I'm stressed I'm actually mainly extremely excited and trying to have my hopes up 💙💛 that's why I also wanted to post this fanart while I'm still feeling cheerful, just to enjoy it with you :)

I've had SO much fun interacting with this fandom for the past month, making fanart for you to enjoy and I'm so thankful for your general, overwhelmingly positive response 🫶 I fell in love with Stranger Things right away when I first watched it in 2017 and even tho I wasn't very active in the fandom up until this year - I had been lurking 👁👁 y'all are geniuenly so fun and creative and smart, it's been such a rewarding experience and a pleasure going crazy together and I hope we will continue to enjoy ourselves, no matter the outcome! I'm actually going into the finale very hopeful 💖

Happy 2026 and see you on the other side!

[sconesfortea]

RIP Anthony Stewart Head (1954 - 2026)

[expressions-of-nature]

by Alex Rimsky

[thememedaddy]

[chucktaylorupset]

(via hornedchick)

Kurt Vonnegut wrote: “When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of “getting to know you” questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject? And I told him, no I don’t play any sports. I do theater, I’m in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes.

And he went WOW. That’s amazing! And I said, “Oh no, but I’m not any good at ANY of them.”

And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: “I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.”

And that honestly changed my life. Because I went from a failure, someone who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could “Win” at them.

[domi--mi]

just remembered all over again how this happened and then seemingly had no impact on their relationship because mike went on to ignore and dismiss Will for the next 2 seasons and they didn't even have the decency to put this moment into Mike's trauma montage that played when Vecna was being killed

[the-lost-seven-7]

I miss clouds. I miss you.

[michael-mike-wheeler]

people who claim to be mike fans but only like him for his ships get out get out get OUT. you can’t claim to love his character without seeing him as his own individual person. of course you’re allowed to like his ships but please oh please I need more people to give him undivided attention.

[limbel]

❀❀❀ bbc merlin ladies + flowers ❀❀❀ for @morgwenmicrofic

[akikarts]

Tried some watercolor!!! It's quite a silly quote but I find it kind of nostalgic in a melancholic way

[adampov]

Mike Wheeler in S05E04 Sorcerer

[m1ke-queerler]

guys should i buy the byler record or wait for another one??? it’s like $45 with shipping so idk 😭😭

[wheeleritsme]

is finn wolfhard serious rn

[imisscloudsimiss-you]

sometimes i start to feel byler not happening is fine its totally okay. mileven isnt that bad either. its fine. but then i remember the type of shit they pulled in the actual show. and it really is that deep. they used all their queer characters (will and robin and vickie) to build this narrative and uplift the worst het relationship ive ever seen. mileven is literally built on the back of queer love and suffering. im not kidding.

robin both got together and broke up with vickie offscreen. they kissed ONCE so will could see it and get hopeful. all of the rebelwise convos are about finding love. they couldve made robin a true queer mentor and have them talk more about their experiences growing up in a town like hawkins but they dont really – its just one conversation where robin assumes mike is straight. they try to make it seem like it was all about will accepting himself when his entire arc was centered around finding love, specifically with mike. this is them literally overwriting what they did in the last 4 seasons.

will is out here doing all the emotional heavy lifting of being in a tumultuous relationship all while he isn't even in one. mike and el's relationship gets magically fixed with this painting that symbolises will's love. they dont even have to talk it out ever in the show. will's love is so pure and powerful that it can save the lives of his friends, give him magical powers and fix mlvn but in the end its just a crush coz ofc gay love is so damn stupid isnt it. theres no way it could ever be reciprocated? only straight love is serious.

(like ofc none of this means ANYTHING at all)

bro i cant. im getting mad all over again. omg this show sucks. wonderful characters with sm potential trapped in the stupidest narrative ever istg. i still remember most of the ga being so on board with byler back in november. everybody making reaction videos and being all like – OMG MIKE IS IN LOVE. its been 5 months and i cant move on. i feel so strongly about this ship. it was right there. its like somebody stole it from me. im so mad.

[sword-wielding-sapphic]

thinking about "it's unreasonable to assume that a character knows what genre they're in" and how in series 1-3, Merlin (and the audience) thinks that he's in a fantasy adventure comedy. no one realises that he's in a tragedy until it's too late.

[sword-wielding-sapphic]

the worst part is that the writers themselves also don't realise what genre they're in and therefore don't allow plot points the emotional weight that they deserve. it's only when you reframe the genre that you realise how absolutely heartbreaking so much of the first half of the show truly is.

[sword-wielding-sapphic]

like in The Sins of the Father where Uther says that Merlin is “a trusted ally in the fight against magic”

THATS FUCKING DEVASTATING. but it's played as funny.

AND THEN it ends with Merlin saying "Arthur's thanking me, Uther's grateful, you're proud, I've never been this popular! just let me enjoy the moment" because every episode has to end on a light note.

hun. you just enabled your own genocide. this is not cause for celebration.