my name's mike. short for microaggressions 🗿 @michaelaggressions - Tumblr Blog

i thought it was gonna be implied that s1 will, while he was plugged into the matrix, was actually chilling in camazotz. anyway fic concept

jediwill

i say chilling. i mean having a horrible time obviously. but not being able to put a finger on why it’s so horrible because mr. Whatsit is so nice and everything seems so perfect…

jediwill

@dearest-loveliest-elizabeth 😵‍💫👍 really good

#yay #will byers

threemanoperation

Stranger Things//Suspicious Minds//Into the Fire: 1, 2

heart to heart.

still love that el’s hands face down and will’s face up. el is the offense and will is the defense. el has had no other choice but to lash out to protect herself and other vulnerable people; will has survived by retreating within to shield himself from the world, but eventually gains the footing to protect his defenders

#willel #el channeling anger vs. will channeling love #el always being reborn vs. will always rising from the dead #el who ''seeks'' vs. will who ''hides''#willel water everywhere and not a drop to drink...

willbyersabyss

If the party were to play fuck, marry, kill with each other as the options, all of them would marry Will like it’s the most obvious choice in the world. No hesitation. When it’s Will’s turn to choose, he gets super flustered because he can only pick one and he doesn’t want to make the others feel bad that their proposals aren’t reciprocated.

In Will’s heart, he would marry Mike, but admitting that feels too real, so he chooses to marry Lucas instead. For the same reason, he decides to fuck Dustin and kill Mike. Mike sulks about it for the rest of the night.

#and dustin and lucas also choose to kill mike as well #<- prev #i think saying any of them for the fuck option would make will too self-conscious. he chooses lucas for marriage and then skips ahead #to blurt out kill mike. derails the game awesomely bc lucas and dustin spend the rest of the night ''explaining'' to pissed mike why #mike--on a ''logistical level''--is the most killable party member. dustin makes a graph

memorycycle

their scared cus they never saw a sandwich that big. but the dad has to look brave for his son

#in my mind this is s1 Jonathan and Will #cause like yea they wouldn't have seen a sandwich that big #<- prev made me laugh

will-mcfly

will’s hand briefly resting on mike’s upper chest after they hugged… he’s just so disney princess sometimes you know

11byers

I mean, it's… it’s like, why him?

STRANGER THINGS LUCAS SINCLAIR & PATRICK MCKINNEY

#lucas sinclair #patrick mckinney

celebrate him NOW 🫵😊

i feel like a lot of fandoms pride themselves on being gayer than the source material but have they considered being less racist and less misogynistic than the source material as well . could be revolutionary

fooledforlove

they obviously never thought about it at all but in my head the connective tissue in Jonathan going from photography -> filmmaking at NYU is that photography is more solitary/can be practiced alone whereas filmmaking is another visual art form but inherently collaborative/a team effort and it's a reflection of how Jonathan has learned to let people in over the course of the show. if you use your imagination

#jonathan byers

will unconsciously building the tunnels such a lackluster ass reveal when will unconsciously building the bridge was literally RIGHT THERE and would have explained why the ud/wormhole shit is so different/important. like, the upside down is specifically so new and exciting in context (especially to the government) because it's a direct access point to dimension x, which by 1983 is not on its own even a new discovery. even the ability to travel between them isn't a new discovery, though nigh impossible without something that can channel insane amounts of energy (eg. uss eldridge experiment, psychic children, russian laser). hence...in season 4, dustin theorizes that vecna is able to open gates to the ud by forming psychic bonds with his victims (and we are ostensibly meant to understand this is a fact, as the narrative sides with this explanation, or at least never disputes it). the ud is essentially one massive hallway between earth and dimension x; it would easily follow that henry followed the same playbook to create this "bridge," the upside down, with will.

#and i have SO many more thoughts on this. bc it seems like the lab kids/jane's purpose/creation of henry was added to the story later #and i know this isn't canon but there is such a fun way to reveal this plot twist in a way that only requires slight reframing of canon #events such as when jane allegedly created the ud. spoiler: she didn't create the ud she created the GATE into the ud.#she wasn't being used to create a wormhole she was being used to find henry who she has never ever been able to successfully locate w/o hel #so when she finds the demogorgan in the void in s1 hunched over ''something'' (and what could it have access to if jane hadn't created #the gate/ud yet?) you have to wonder if she wasn't able to see the demogorgan for the first time bc it was nearby for the first time ever.#bc for the first time the ud exists. so jane witnesses henry (the demogorgan) using will (the thing its hunched over :/) to create the ud #which is why jane recognized will's picture in mike's bedroom #hashtag mytheory...#txt.#will byers

elcorhamletlive

I feel unable to form an articulate thought about it, but something about how Will's version of playing D&D in S3 includes colorful bright costumes, which correct me if I'm wrong is not how we see them playing in any other context? the other boys don't seem to include dressing up as part of their experience--I think the only other person we see do so is Erica in S4, so Will's enjoyment is connected to that of a young girl. and I think this is both sweet and kind of sad, because when he is dismissed by the boys in S3 he is also made a mockery by engaging in these theatrical elements that lean more feminine than the decidedly masculine vibes of hellfire. and yeah they play D&D in the epilogue but the fact that he isn’t ever allowed to fully reconnect with that version of enjoyment is a little depressing to me. Will deserved to put on a bright sparkly purple hat and robe and have fun imagining an adventure with people who didn’t view his way of doing it as embarrassing or wrong.

#I don’t have it handy but I’m pretty sure I read an excerpt from an early draft/the OG s1e1 DnD scene script #(back when it was still Montauk I think)#where they’re fighting over the campaign and Dustin makes a comment about how Will “is wearing a dress” or something #because he’s dressed in the wizard robe #seems like this element was always something they thought abt and which separated Will from his friends even in this shared interest #<- prev #that makes me so sad :(#i never considered the D&D aesthetic shift btwn s1-3 and s4 but it does feel significant actually #i have thoughts on eddie's failed arc in s4 and how he foils jason. and how eddie's performance of rebellion/anti-conformity is somewhat #specious/multi-faceted at best and how that could have been really compelling imo if it was acknowledged/intentional/explored at all #but essentially hellfire is positioned as like this outcasted group of misfits and this is exposited directly in the show #...by the hellfire club in the beginning of the season. in hindsight this is extra dumb considering the show's treatment of lucas and will #and the way mike and dustin are the ones who experience the least amount of on-screen (in dustin's case) bullying/marginalization #(though the show only acknowledges lucas's race and the town's racism through questionable subtext post s2)#which for me should explain why mike and dustin are the ones to be so drawn to eddie's purposefully loud/visible edginess #because they are both at the least risk of social punishment for it. canon mike especially is an obvious tourist #and the way they condescend to lucas about joining the basketball team and can't stick up for him to eddie and how lucas ultimately #juxtaposes hellfire/eddie/jason/mike by staying loyal to his friends despite their disregard for him in the beginning of the season #and how he's able to repair his relationship with max by communicating his care for her in direct contrast to mike lollll like all of this #could have meant SOMETHING. even now thinking of the OG script vs. s1e1 dustin in his drama club shirt and lucas decking himself out #to go find will and later mike's unnecessary s5 outfit changes re: the camouflage lol like all of this is performance but it's only an issu #like it's only something to grow out of/to scrutinize when it comes to will. this is never to be interrogated or subverted in canon #ok rant over now thinking how much more fun/forgiving/inclusive will's style of D&D is and how much fun he and jane would have #dressing up (don't think of jane trying to do voices....don't think about the therapeutic powers of ttrpg for jane).#crit

it's like even though the fandom is able to recognize (to varying extent) that there are issues with the writing/that the writers are latently if not pretty obviously homophobic, still the prevailing strategy for addressing that in fanworks is to hold will responsible for these problems. because even when will isn’t being directly blamed for them, the onus is still on him to bridge the narrative gaps, it’s on will to make himself even more vulnerable, patient, and understanding than he already does in canon to his own detriment. and so it’s not that this is even out of character for will, but for a fandom that loves to grandstand about the duffers’ bigotry (which seems to start and end with “no bylr endgame”), there is so little awareness or fucks given about will’s treatment in the actual story. mike’s (failed) arc spans literal seasons and revolves around his inability to accept/express his feelings, transparently paralleled to henry’s failure to confess to patty in tfs’s supplemental canon, and still it’s somehow on will to rescue mike from the closet? that's your takeaway? it’s such a disservice to both characters.

#fandom crit #txt.

fleetwood-will

Soooo after Noah allegedly said "Mike would have explored," I now see the renaissance of "Will should have been braver" shit. Lmao

Will was BRAVE! He took all the risks—he confessed in code in the van and later came out to everyone, using the language from both the painting reveal and the rain fight. This should have prompted Mike, who has consistently been shown to crack the codes and realize things first ("he's the spy," Nina's computer number, Robin's message on the radio), to connect the dots. He should have realized that 1) Will was talking about himself in the van, and 2) he is most likely Will's crush.

However, the writers decided to dumb Mike down to avoid "unnecessary" conflict and not disturb the tragic Purple Rain goodbye scene. Soooo Mike comes off as either unrealistically oblivious or aware but too scared to address it or even touch Will after because of "no homo"

So, no, Will didn’t need to be braver. Fanon Mike is supposed to meet Will halfway. Please stop babying him, even in your headcanons

#fandom will see mike fail his hero's journey + mirror tfs tragedy explicitly by NOT SPEAKING UP about his feelings in his canon relationship #let alone in his subtextual at best/low-key homophobic at worst relationship with will #and go 🤔 what if the whole Mike The Brave thing was never fulfilled in canon because mike shouldn't HAVE to be brave 💡💡💡#like the show has mike tell holly plainly that his D&D persona is a mask he doesn't truly feel thus implying that mike #has something he's afraid of that he never overcomes in canon. but why would anyone explore the abandoned potential of that #very bluntly dropped storyline when you can instead offload all of the emotional responsibility onto the gay character #whose unrequited love is used to prop up mike's relationship with the girl he objectifies. why even acknowledge any room for growth at all?#this fandom can't even watch will stand up for himself MILDLY without critiquing his tone and now people are talking about how will should #have confessed his feelings explicitly as though we wouldn't have had to read a hundred posts doing damage control for mike's rejection #by saying will was selfish for springing that on mike or some bullshit beeeee so fr #fandom crit

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my name's mike. short for microaggressions 🗿