please dont interact if you dont have anything postive to add!!
while we didn't get byler endgame, im not as upset as i thought id be.
yes, it was pretty shit writing. yes, byler was perfectly set up. yes, it would have been a better ending for will AND mike.
but thats just not what they ended up doing- whether it was queerbait or homophobic netflix...
at the end of the day, stranger things is still my favorite show. i think if i liked it less, i would be way more pissed off. but its my special interest so i cant really escape it or be too mad (tbh i think i would be fine with any ending they could have done, just cuz i like the show so much).
but its still a little upsetting. mostly because of what could have been. i mean, it was set up SO perfectly. but this doesn't mean queercoding and media literacy is dead. all of the hints and evidence that everyone found for byler was all (or at least mostly) intentional. this is from the pov of someone who has a lot of knowledge about the film making process. we weren't delusional!!!
im not mad about how it ended. i think everyone's endings felt perfect (expect for el...but i choose to believe she reunites with all her friends or something eventually). im also not mad about the epilogue boyfriend. i honestly think it was the best non byler ending for the characters- no mileven and a happy ending for will.
because at the end of the day, my favorite part about byler being possibly endgame was that it meant a happy ending for will. would it have been a powerful ending to see a queer couple get together in a mainstream show? yeah. it would have meant a lot of a lot of people. but i think, in the midst of shipping these two characters, we've overlooked will's arc.
sure, there have been better written queer characters. but just because byler wasn't endgame, im not going to overlook how special, rare, and amazing it was to see the main character of a show this big show will's experience as a gay boy in the 80s. so many people hated the coming out scene, but it meant so much to me. its just a tv show, but will coming out to his friends and family made me feel like maybe i could do that too. he's been through so much more than i have. so to see him be so brave? it makes me think i could be too.
so, yeah...we got the slightly shitty epilogue bf everyone (including me) was scared about. but i just cant bring myself to be too angry at the fact that we got to see an openly queer character have a happy ending!!! i think we should think about how amazing that is, especially in the horror genre, where we've seen the bury your gays trope too often.
this is the ending the duffers wrote. it may not be the one we thought would happen, it may not be the best one they could have done. but its what happened nevertheless.
so i think personally, instead of being angry and sad forever (dont get me wrong, im going to have my emotions about this for a little longer at least), im going to be happy for will. im going to accept that yeah, he didn't end up needing mike. what he needed was to accept himself, and move on to find a different kind of love with someone else. and again, thats not the ending that i would have wrote. but its a story that matters nevertheless. a story that has and will affect so many other queer people like myself.
will didn't get the guy like we wanted him too. but he got a happy ending (and a guy, at least). and im glad he's not the only person who got an epilogue partner/didn't end up with his main love interest. it felt natural, the way everything ended.
as for mike- dont get me started. honestly, im more upset about how his character ended up than byler not being endgame. i think they failed him slightly. he's still my 3rd favorite, though. season 2 mike you will always be famous (and i will always project you onto every other version of your character)
and he will always be gay in my eyes. like, no doubt about it. that boy is gay. and ill still ship byler, even though its not endgame!
i know everyone probably dislikes how it ended. but for me? im just glad (most) of the characters ended up happy. they got/are getting away from hawkins, from all this trauma. they finally get to live their lives.
(i also want to note that while im being positive about this, it was definitely shit writing ESPECIALLY all the scenes with robin to amount to nothing...but !! let me cope. its not like ive always loved st for the writing)
(off topic but i believe that rovickie is still together- the "overbearing" couple line felt like something she would say about vickie if they were still dating. she just wasn't in the epilogue because shes a very minor character, and we didnt need to see her)
