Probably thinking about the ocean

[dinosaur-party]

INTRODUCTION🦈

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I have started posting more on here in light of recent events (st season 5) and thought it was time for an (incomplete) intro :l

General info

He/him

17

English is not my first language

Ftm and bi

Autistic and chronically ill

Interests/Posts

I do not adhere to frequent posting whatsoever and will mostly just post about whatever I'm fixated on at the time, this will include:

Rants and Rambles

Occasional art

Movies

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Dead Poets Society

Star Wars

Tv shows

Stranger Things

Shadow and Bone

Etoile

The Office

Books

Maurice

The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Goldfinch

Six of crows

Aristotle and Dante

Other interests:

Classic Literature

Marine biology

Greek Mythology

Musical Theater

Crafting

Pls dni if you're racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist or a similarly unpleasant person

[dinosaur-party]

Marcus Aurelius

[dinosaur-party]

Venus Italica, Antonio Canova

[dinosaur-party]

Black tip reef shark

[dinosaur-party]

George Harrison

Portrait practice

[la-plum-sefue1]

max should’ve been disabled

will should’ve been in the brink of death and lost his eye

mike should’ve been so overwhelmed mentally that it affects him physically, and he should’ve broken his arm

lucas should’ve been more impaired by him injuries

dustin should’ve been more impaired by his injuries

double jane’s pain and give it to the next person

[dinosaur-party]

I randomly decided to watch Falsettos today, which I knew almost nothing about, WHY DID NO ONE WARN ME

[dinosaur-party]

Sometimes I think I've made peace with the fact that Byler (allegedly) isn't canon and then I remember that I will never see Mike "we're friends! We're friends" Wheeler overcome his internalized homophobia and Will "to date" Byers finally getting to experience a romantic relationship and get sad all over again.

[dinosaur-party]

The albeism in Stranger Things is still something I am so mad and upset about. Especially with Max in this season. They had the chance to write a beautifully layered and three dimensional disabled charecter and just... didn't do it. This would have meant so much to me, as someone who needs/uses mobility aids, and to a lot of other disabled people as well.

Max is someone who has always been portrayed as someone very active, to have had her having to come to terms with not being able to do things in the same way as before and finding ways to do them differently would have been so powerful (?).

Characters with mobility aids and disabilities in general are way too scarcely portrayed in media and if they are it is often still interlaced with ableism to a certain degree.

In hindsight, I'm sad how much hope I had in how Max's storyline would be continued. To see her just being (physically) completely fine felt a bit like a gut punch.

(and also all of the other main characters)

[dinosaur-party]

Byler sketch I did as eye practice :l

(please ignore the bad camera quality)

Reference below

[narrativelogicofbyler]

this is going to be my last post before the finale, and i’m saying this as someone with a degree BA hons in film and television: if byler doesn’t land, i genuinely won’t understand what the writers think they’ve been doing with either character’s arc.

from a craft perspective, you don’t structure, block, and frame a relationship the way they’ve done with will and mike unless you’re building toward romantic payoff. none of their major scenes have been staged like platonic beats, not in performance, not in camera language, not in narrative placement. if the intention was “just friendship,” they could have cleanly closed that loop in season 4. instead, they’ve carried the emotional tension all the way into the finale.

and here’s the thing: using a queer character’s emotional arc as narrative fuel for a straight character’s storyline is not neutral. it’s a choice with implications. if they end this by saying “actually it was always just friendship,” after years of romantic coding, that’s not subtext, that’s queerbait. and at that point, yes, they should be held accountable for it.

giving will an epilogue boyfriend would only underline the problem. it would confirm that they abandoned the story they themselves built. structurally, thematically, emotionally, the narrative doesn’t make sense unless will gets the ending that aligns with the love he’s been written toward from the beginning.

dragging out byler’s arc for multiple seasons only to end it in rejection or platonic resolution wouldn’t just be disappointing; it would be narratively incoherent. and honestly, it would be unbelievably cruel to the character they’ve spent years centering in this emotional journey.

[skysmadness]

low effort vol 2 doodles. fuck you

[rosgi]

“not all crushes will work out is an important message to send to younger viewers” so you decide to use the homosexual character for that story? even though we have already seen 3 characters who’s crushes did not work out (robin, steve and dustin)…?

it’s all just an excuse for bad writing lol

wdym will byers who has been the victim of pain and suffering throughout the entire story is the only character that does not get to experience love within the entire show

[dinosaur-party]

You know, I'm wondering if essentially forcing a gay character to come out to a room full of people instead of coming out to the ones he cares about most of his own volition was really the best option here.

[dinosaur-party]

The idea that a queer character (in this case Will) shouldn't need a partner but instead find happiness in themselves, is a homophobic ideal that we have seen repeatedly throughout queer history.

Two people of the same gender being together used to be illegal, they were expected to repress their sexuality and either end up alone or married to someone they couldn't love.

In the aids pandemic homosexuality was again often seen as something dirty and unwanted that would transmit diseases. Many people wanted Gay men to repress their feelings and not participate in anything sexual or romantic.

Today the belief of 'i don't have anything against gay people as long as they do it in private' is still common. They don't want to see queer love between main characters of a popular show played out on their screens.

Now with the show being about and for freaks and outcasts, never having been intended for a large ga, do we really think the Duffers are going to promote a homophobic ideal?

PLEASE LET THE GAYS HAVE THIS ONE

[kieusol]

every time someone posts things like “byler becoming canon wouldn’t be that significant” or “byler isn’t adequate queer representation” or “it’s not that deep” in reference to the extent of their impact i want everyone to remember that not even a month ago japan officially criminalised same sex marriage. i want everyone to remember that american legislators were just as recently debating taking similar action and i want everyone to remember that the parliament of the united kingdom has been enacting laws to erase the english trans community in its entirety. slowly but surely the most culturally and fiscally progressive countries in the world are beginning to repeal rights for queer individuals and it’s becoming increasingly more dangerous to exist as queer anywhere in this political climate so i don’t want a single person to claim that canonising byler would be anything less than monumental for us. maybe byler isn’t perfect representation and maybe stranger things isn’t a perfect show, but mainstream television rarely is, and the fact of the matter here is that the biggest show in the world— a statistic which includes countries that still criminalise homosexuality and same sex marriage— is currently setting up a developmental arc which could end in two of its pivotal main characters finding love in one another and expressing their queerness on a global stage, and that is so immensely important right now. film is an art, and art is irrevocably political— you cannot take the social politics out of stranger things. you cannot take the cultural politics out of a dynamic like byler. and you cannot deny that for what is presently the most popular and influential show in the world to so openly promote a queer relationship wouldn’t be of titanic significance— in the same way, you can’t deny that for them to strip their only central queer character of any happiness and conclude his story with the mantra that queer individuals can only find love and solace in themselves would be terrible and abusive writing, especially right now.

it’s always that deep.

[genderful-ghoul]

I’m sure people have pointed it out, but I want to make it clear that the reason the hate against Will Byers from a few Mileven shippers hits in a more uncomfortable space is because of who Will’s character represents.

*For the Mileven shippers, Byler shippers, and anyone else who wants to learn

TLDR at bottom

There are plenty of Mileven shippers who are chill with Will, just as there are plenty of Byler shippers who are chill with El. There are also Mileven shippers that don’t like Will for various reasons. But the actual hate against Will coming from a few of them simply on the basis that they don’t want Byler is what I’m addressing here.

I’ve heard predictions that these hating ‘White Cishet Gen-Z Girls’ /neu who ship Mileven are going to be upset if Byler becomes canon mostly because they won’t get representation. El is a character that represents them, and they want her to end up with the emo Wheeler. I wouldn’t give too many shits about this “it needs to be representation for me” attitude if this show was taking place in the current era. But this show is taking place in the 1980’s, in a small US town. Which means…

Will Byers is direct representation for gay men who were young in the 80’s. (He also serves representation for queer people of all ages.) It’s so important to recognize how traumatizing it was to be a gay boy living through the 1980’s, especially in a small, conservative town. And the things that happen to Will signify the darkest of those traumas. Will is assaulted in multiple ways, his bodily autonomy is taken from him, he goes missing, he is found dead, he is bullied, and he had experienced abuse before ST takes place. When Will goes missing, Joyce worries he’s been a victim of a hate crime. This was reality for gay boys in the US in the 80’s (and before). There are gay men alive today who experienced these traumas. There are gay men alive today whose friends and lovers experienced these traumas. There are people alive today, queer and straight, whose gay loved ones were killed in this era of hate. And all along with the AIDS Epidemic traumas. (These traumas are still happening to many queer people in the US, just at lower rates because of a much more accepting society. These traumas are currently the norm for tens of millions of queer people in other areas of the world.)

Point being, Stranger Things is intentionally providing representation for these people. And with Byler, they want to respect these people with these lifelong traumas by showing that gay lives aren’t meant to be all suffering. That being forced to live in dangerous situations doesn’t mean there’s no opportunity for love.

If Byler is endgame, it’s going to be healing for people with these traumas. For the men who were unable to be themselves and pursue happiness when they were young because the threat of being hurt or killed was too high. For the people whose loved ones died before they could pursue love, or died in pursuit of love. For the parents who lost their sons too young and never got to see them grow up and fall in love and live a happy life. Byler being endgame will be a validation. Showing a gay boy in the 80’s who gets to be himself and pursue happiness in his youth. Showing a gay boy in the 80’s making it through traumas symbolic of theirs and getting to pursue love in the end. Showing a gay boy in the 80’s who makes it to adulthood and gets love and happiness. There are practically no films that have offered this healing representation, and having one as popular as ST would not only make film history, but queer rights history as well.

If Mileven is endgame, it’s essentially another straight ship? Of which there are more than plenty in 80’s media and modern media. And Eleven doesn’t get to experience a life outside of being in a romantic relationship. Even if it may be healing for some girls’ traumas, there are plenty of other films with straight ships that offer the same.

If Byler is endgame, and that subset of Mileven fans who are ‘White Cishet Gen-Z Girls’ have feelings of upset at not having representation, it’s gonna be a Wells For Boys situation. “That’s because it’s not for you. Everything is for you, and this one thing is for him!” If Mileven isn’t endgame, those fans can browse through the billions of other feel-good straight couples in film to find representation. If Byler isn’t endgame, gay men who lived in the 80’s have no films to turn to for representation. The only ones I’ve ever heard of are really fucking sad and upsetting.

When Byler is canon, I will cry because it will be cute and romantic, but I will mostly cry because of the representation of queer joy in film, because of the feat of new queer film history, because I have to hide my queerness and don’t get to experience queer joy like Byler, and so many of my tears will be tears of grief for my queer elders.

If you are a young American who hasn’t really considered the meaning of this representation before, I’d like to suggest you ask queer elders and ally elders about what the mainstream culture around queerness was in the 80’s and during the AIDS Epidemic. Personally, connecting with queer elders who survived the AIDS Epidemic is something I’m really grateful for. I carry a much deeper grief now, but that means I’m connected to the community, and it inspires me to respect the trauma my neighbors carry. We didn’t live in the violently homophobic culture of the 80’s, but many people in our lives did, and it’s our responsibility to learn about that time of trauma before us. Especially at a time when base-level educational institutions aren’t teaching it to us.

TLDR: Will is representation for gay men who were young in the homophobic 80’s and during the AIDS Epidemic. Will ending up in a happy relationship with Mike is validation for those men who didn’t get to be themselves or be happy when they were young, and for their families and friends. Byler endgame also shows that there can be queer joy despite the traumas gay boys were forced to endure. Mileven is another straight ship out of billions in media, but Byler is a ship that will help validate and soothe the trauma our queer elders live with, which is essentially non-existent in media. Cruel criticism of Will and Byler is insensitive to the people Will is representing. Please learn more about homophobia in the 80’s and the AIDS Epidemic from queer elders.