GothicalBravery

[kidovna]

90s Jane ‘El’ Hopper 💜

(90s will • max • mike • lucas)

[gothicalbravery]

I’m crying

Ship so peak that ppl think what’s canon is Fanon

[gothicalbravery]

Was Finn Wolfhard making a statement when he shipped two best friends from Harry Potter?? (Will and Mike are best friends??)

[gothicalbravery]

Someone give me byler fics I was not prepared for this ao3 partial shut down

[gothicalbravery]

What the fuck was that snl???? Making fun of wills coming out scene after Noah literally came out about how much it ment to him, playing it down to a ‘I like di€k’ joke? As if that scene wasn’t significant for all the queer people like myself out there?? Then the max joke??

[gothicalbravery]

I thought I would never see the day

[a-che-delat-to]

With this piece i bid the show farewell.

Thank you, stranger things, for the good and the bad you provided. We as future creators will learn from both.

Them in fantasy x dnd au with Skyrim soundtrack again bc im a sucker for that like you don’t know

Name of the song in the video: “From Past to Present” by Jeremy Soule

[gothicalbravery]

I love cleradin artists I hope both of ur pillows are cold

[gothicalbravery]

Any other good shows like stranger things that isint about queer people but has a canon queer couple (possibly the main characters) with a good ending for the queer character (ice already watched arcane) I need to get over the queer bait of the century stranger things has just given

[gothicalbravery]

The concept of Mike looking at wills lips through season 4 was not because of the byler buildup but because FINN WOLFHARD willingly looked at NOAH SCHNAPS lips MULTIPLE times

[caramelwhim]

so..! to recap !!!!

we don't know why will was taken specifically

hopper and joyce just happened to conveniently forget going to school with henry

the painting lie hasn't been addressed

we don't know why el recognized will in season 1 without having ever seen him before

we don't know who opened the door the night will was taken

mike and will's colors just HAPPEN to be blue and yellow and the cast, crew, and WRITERS THEMSELVES telling us to "pay attention to detail" was deadass just generational queerbait

after everything, mike STILL couldn't say i love you to eleven

patty newby is non-existent and creelby just happens to parallel byler for literally no reason 🩷

will was about to FORGIVE henry.

the duffers genuinely forgot their OWN MAIN CHARACTERS BIRTHDAY AND AGE MULTIPLE TIMES

the russian involvement in s3 and s4 was never explained so it was prob just capitalist propaganda except they don't want us to realize that so they gave jonathan an entire anti-capitalist film storyline for the sake of "screwing conformity" i guess

ohhh but! critiquing society???? fuck that! because they also didn't show us vickie in the epilogue at all, giving her and robin a completely ambiguous ending in which 90% of the fandom believe they broke up off-screen!!!!!!! A+ for representation !!!!!!

not only that, but will doesn't even have a CONFIRMED epilogue boyfriend. that is full well a cute lil headcanon that MIKE has for him.

terry ives, lonnie, enzo, max's mom, suzie, argyle, dr kay, the turnbow family, the school counselor with the clock necklace, and dr owens just vanished into thin air, ALONG WITH ALL THE DANGERS OF THE UPSIDE DOWN???? where were the demodogs, the demogorgons, the demobats????

max's letters were just completely insignificant and had no reason to be mentioned again i guess

november 6 just happened to be a funny coincidence

they ALSO happened to forget that nancy had a vision of mike being killed by vecna in s4 bc that boy wasn't even remotely in danger at all while every other wheeler was put through hell

dr brenner's obsession and fascination with the upside down and abyss stemming from how his father was involved in project rainbow was also not addressed

not to mention that the dude is literally horrendous at drawing animals but when it comes to the flipping hexcore he's da vinci

melvalds, the general store, just happens to sell milkshakes

will adores getting lost in the woods because that's such a fun activity for him

henry just gave holly her favorite song because he was feeling kind

they never actually defeated the mind flayer !!!! which is wonderful

we actually never find out whether or not will lost his powers

el's water tank in the upside down being completely full although there has literally NEVER been water in the upside down before

mike is somehow the only one who has ever understood el even though she was 10x happier with max. could they not have just admitted that they made the elmax reunion so incredibly lackluster because they refused to let ANY gay ships win regardless of how much chance they had of being canon?

the 'lovebirds' parallel between jonathan + steve and mike + eleven??? what was that even for

all the dick jokes, mike listening the a band called the BUTTHOLE SURFERS, the camera panning to mike 7000 times during will's coming out scene, mike not being able to touch will, all just happened to be fun coincidences

not only that, but the mike-will-eleven and nancy-jonathan-steve love triangles were resolved by none of the couples working out! wow.

they really just made us wait 3 whole years for something BEYOND mid.

[elephantshoetoo]

SO MANY QUESTIONS...

1. What the fuck was that airport hug then?

2. Why describe the "signals" as things Mike and Will have done repeatedly throughout the show?

3. What was that exploding pipe in a bathroom named Dick all about?!

4. The snowball became an avalanche and... then what? Global warming?

5. Why could Mike STILL not say I love you to his supposed girlfriend? And why did their relationship feel more platonic than Stonathan (the other "lovebirds") all season?

6. So Mike really just was an asshole for two seasons for no reason?

7. Why show Ted crashing through MIKE'S closet, of all places? Mike's CLOSET! Why?!

8. Why was everyone crying at the final table read? Because the story was so bad?

9. Who left all these guns lying around?

10. Why did Jancy and Stancy have more closure than the main characters?

11. What the hell were all those LIP GLANCES?? And the lack of personal space? And the way Mike looked at Will like he hung the moon. And why did Mike look so flustered every time Will was anywhere near him?

12. What about the painting lie?

13. What about all of Mike's love confession lies?

14. How could El say Mike always understood her when he was repeatedly shown to not understand her?

15. What was that final shot of Season 4 then, with the "couples" paired together?

16. So Mike really was just his Tammy? Wtf?!

17. Were the Duffers not allowed to tell the story they had built up? Or are they just queerbaiters and crappy writers?

18. Why focus on Mike and Will looking at each other when Robin made the "I like dick" joke?

19. Why have the album Mike defends as great be The Butthole Surfers? Were we not supposed to read into that?

20. What was with the shitty knockoff airport outfit? And having Mike wear camo during the coming out scene? AND THE GIANT TRIANGLE ON HIS SHIRT???

21. Why go out of their way to repeatedly show us how perfect Mike and Will are for each other, how well they complement each other, understand each other and always give what the other needs... and then go nowhere with it?

And I'm sure there are tons more... This is all I can think of at the moment.

Feel free to reblog and add to the list!

[gothicalbravery]

I’m so done

[skysmadness]

low effort vol 2 doodles. fuck you

[sihain]

Having a queer character believe he won't find love and proving him right is not good writing.

Having a character grow up in solitary confinement and then ripping her away from the only family she's ever known to live a life of solitude once again is not good writing.

Having a character be in love with his best friend and then just compare it to a high school crush is not good writing.

Having Eleven say that Mike has always been the person who truly understood her after showing us in the previous seasons that he only sees her as a superhero IS NOT GOOD WRITING.

[wildchipceo]

i give it two weeks before a 50k word finale byler fix it is released on ao3 by a 14 year old whos first language isnt english and who has never written a day in their life. it will go on to garner hundreds of thousands of kudos and comments and bookmarks and be translated and made into podfics. it will be better than anything the duffers ever have or ever will write and will even be complimented by some of the actors and shawn levy.

[green-in-the-midwest]

People who aren't in the Stranger Things fandom and say Stranger Things didn't queerbait are moronic losers who are completely ignorant to their own reality

Don't listen to people who say Byler and Will's story weren't queerbaiting. ESPECIALLY people who have never been in the st fandom. Even if they love the show, even if they're queer, even if they say "Oh, well, I was there in the 80s!" Ok... you're queer and/or were alive in the 80s. The stranger things fandom is for a show made from 2015-2025. We live in reality, in the present. Not the past. And it doesn't matter if someone's queer! They're not in the fandom and have no idea what's been going on in here for the last 10 years.

You know more about this show than they ever will. You saw the byler promotional materials going all the way back to 2017. You saw the articles about how "Will Byers' sexuality will finally be addressed and plot relevant in s4!" and how all he did was fix Mileven in S4 Vol 2. You saw the Season 5 rollout and how yesterday, on 12/30/2025 they started rolling out tweets about how Mike and Will's story wasn't over yet because people lost faith and called the Duffers/producers/Netflix's shit after S5 Vol 2. Not to mention the narrative queerbait we've seen with Byler and Will's series-long narrative arc.

Ok? So you've got it. Right? You know what you saw. So don't fucking listen to anyone who tells you anything about stranger things ships and characters when it comes to queerbaiting. They have absolutely nothing of value to add to the conversation. They're bigoted idiots who hate queer people and want to see us 1) miserable in real life, and 2) completely disappear from media.

We all know the truth. We know what happened. Even, on some level, the general audience and the homophobes. Marketing is one thing. The micro details in the show are another. You cannot deny the actual main narrative of the show and its characters. Anyone who does is either lying or hates queer people.

Love you all 🫶

[gothicalbravery]

What the fuck.

[gothicalbravery]

FINALE PREDICTIONS

- Mike and will forced proximity im upside down

- paintinggate

- kali is a traitor

- El dies (I HOPE I’M FUCKING WRONG)

- Steve or Robin dies

- Mike gets possessed

-pls Mike do something u have done NOTHING through vol2

- NO EPLILOGUE BF

- will becomes a professional artist I yearn for it