ok, i know it's been months. but let's talk about this season (side note: I meant to post this months ago but kept forgetting)
I’m so mad that the most of the story was ‘to end the cycle of abuse, kill yourself’
*stares at the wall contemplating whether life is worth living, getting umbrella academy s4 flashbacks
I hate how El is being reduced to ‘superpowered baddie’. I love El, I love her girl boss era, but she has so much depth. She’s not just the telekinetic girl, she is an abused child who didn’t know her real first name for the first like 13 years of her life. She is a science experiment. Her name is a number.
(They also had her forgive her abuser which actually made me sob). Jane Eleven Ives/Hopper/Byers would not kill herself. She had hopes for a better future. She would find a way. In s1 she had no other option. This season she chose to die with the upside down. She had just found want to live for- her family. Speaking of her family, what the fuck was the dynamics this season. She was screaming, crying, throwing up last season to save Max and now all we get is ‘hey.’ When max comes back? What. Also, since when can she bring people into her mind scape? And why was it MIKE. No way she says ‘ you see me. The real me.’ And it shows a clip of her in that FUCKASS wig. I wanted my platonic Elmax energy, because Max taught her how to be herself, how to discover who she was. She didn’t even know what clothes she liked. Max helped her become Jane, not just ‘Hopper’s child’ or ‘Mike’s gf’. I wanted my wonder twins. El took one look at this boy and was like ‘ mine. My brother. Imma protect this little kid with my LIFE.’
Will heard this random voice in the upside down and went ‘seems legit. Tell my mom I love her.’
In s4, Will could rebrand himself, stop being bullied. He is canonically the one in the party who girls like the most. (See: the girl in s4 we think was flirting with him, the girl who asked him to dance at the snowball, the girl who cried at his funeral etc. etc.) But you know what he does? Protects his sister.
I wanted my Hopper and El moment, because hopper was losing another daughter and El was losing another dad, and she got mad at him for wanting to sacrifice himself and now she’s killing herself??
I wanted Joyce and El, much for the same reasons bc they were mother and daughter
But they gave us El and Mike, who looked like they were posing for a ‘how to still have the Holy Spirit while dancing with the opposite gender’ clip art. He wasn’t even touching her?! he was actively trying not to touch her??
Speaking of wonder twins. Let’s talk about Will Byers.
Remind me to not trust two straight white men with my gay son’s arc ever again (Viktor Hargreeves 🤝Will Byers -> forgiving their abuser?? Pushing thru so much hardship to be accepted and loved w internal hatred for being different, and then having their plot line reduced to ‘suicide’ and ‘the gay guy’)
Let me tell you I’ve been a Will Byers Stan since season 1. He was my emotional support child. My mental health depended on this twink. I loved him. He could’ve had a perfect acceptance arc, realising he was loved even though he was different and getting over Lonnie. Instead they assembled the entire avengers, no the entire MCU to tell them he was gay. Did he really look his CHILDHOOD teacher in the eye and come out?
Let me make it clear I think the coming out scene was nessecary. I just hate that he didn’t do it of his own free will, Vecna forced him into it. Even the actor said it felt like a press conference- thats how you know, you fucked up.
Also wha were they thinking with that epilogue scene? Will used to hate it in s1 when his mom smoked, and now he’s smoking in a bar with a leather jacket. Paralleling his dad, who abused him for his entire childhood. WTF. Rub salt in the wound why don’t you. I wish that they put him in art school. His character being reduced to ‘gay’ when he’s a complex character makes me want to scream.
Also I’m so mad about how they handled not only my byler (romantic version) but also my byler (theyre so best friends)
Also, speaking of byler, wtf is this MICHEAL WHEELER. I have also been a mike defender since season 1. Why are we hating on a teen character whose personality is a cry for help? in that one cliff scene, He didn’t know eleven was there, he was willing to kill himself for his friends TEETH. This man has so many issues and I love him. He needed closure, he needed to open up to someone and get better. This man is DEPRESSED. But what does he do? He can’t even tell his GIRLFRIEND I love you before she was about to kill herself- ok listen. I don’t like mileven. But I think it honestly could’ve been handled well. Somewhere out there in a AU we have a beautiful love story with an abused girl finding love. Duffer brothers didnt write it. So I thought maybe we could get a love story of a boy accepting himself, and letting him love. We don’t get that either. You know what we do get? MIKE WHEELR PARALLELING HIS DAD. One of his biggest fears (Mike Wheeler 🤝Five hargreeves- being my favourite then having your characters brutally massacred in the final season)
Listen I adore Mike. Great character. Very complex. (And unpopular opinion I think his arc wasn’t ruined because he wasn’t gay. Supposedly not gay. I believe) I think what his arc needed was closure. He needed to actually talk to someone about his issues, because his internalised homophobia is not the only issue he has. This man is depressed, has crippling PTSD (imagine within solders being ripped apart by weird ass inter dimensional creatures at 12. At 12 I was handling getting my period.) he had parents issues, he got bullied as a child and through his teenage years, he’s seen people he idolises (Eddie especially) die, he’s been fighting monsters, lying to his loved ones, he’s grown up in a household where they married out of convenience, he’s watched his both two best friends ‘die’ (Will and El btw in season one. Platonic elmike supremacy) and then had his little sister disappear in the exact same way. He has issues. And let me say this, the did not ‘lobotomize’ Mike, ok. They wrote him a good arc.
He is a grieving teen, grieving Eddie. Just like Dustin. Suffering from severe trauma. Like Dustin. But people have different ways of processing these things. Dustin lashed out. Mike had already done that. (See: season one - what’s wrong with you? Why did you tell us he was alive? What is wrong with you? See: season two - Wtf hopper (I don’t remember the dialogue) + screaming at Max. See: season three - the infamous ‘it’s not my fault you don’t like girls’ + ‘I don’t understand. What did i do wrong? See: season four - ‘I don’t not say it- Eleven you’re being ridiculous)
he’s lashed out plenty. Now what does he do? He shuts down. They wrote him a good arc. Just… didnt finish it. (Side note: I’d have closed his arc like in vol. 1 or early vol. 2 with a great big emotional breakdown. His sister is gone, his parents are dying, and everything is going to hell. He’s supposed to be Mike the brave, but all he’s been is Mike the coward. He’s been holding it together, shutting everyone out and now he’s finally buckling and breaking under the pressure. I want him sobbing, breaking down and confessing he tried to kill himself at the ripe age of twelve, I want him breaking down his walls and laying out his traumas and having someone finally realising ‘oh shit he’s going through so much shit.’ I would have him have ‘the you’re braver than you think’ arc, you’re the heart arc and have someone finally understand him, believe him, accept him and that gives him the strength to be the heart, the leader. Side side note : I would’ve loved if it were Max. I know, it’s not possible but they are like, same person different font who I feel kinda Have similar issues) I didn’t need him to be gay. I needed him to have CLOSURE. We didn’t even get that.
Another side note: the plotholes are a whole other can of worms that we do not have time to dissect right now
Anyways I’ve gone on such a tangent I’m very sorry about that. ok, no one probably still cares about this after so long, but byeee
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