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30s/🏳️‍🌈/any pronouns/currently lurking #strangerthings #byler #grishaverse #broadway

[nerdygoob]

Personally I feel like conformitygate is too good to be true (as much as I wish it would happen) but since all of y'all's evidence is fascinating and I maybe feel like I have something no one else has mentioned I figured I may as well throw it out there.

I work in the receiving room at Barnes and Noble. We haven't gotten ST things in months. Last week we started getting it in again, not a lot a lot but enough that I noticed. Mostly the YR novelizations but a few odd coloring books and sundry as well. The novelization of s4 is coming out for the first time. It just feels like an odd and otherwise random uptick.

[nerdygoob]

In the trailer, who is that standing in between El and Kali? I paused it and couldn't tell. They don't look tall enough to be Hopper. Max? Mike? Murray? Jonathan (makes no sense but was my first thought)?

[nerdygoob]

I scrolled tumblr before I actually watched the new Stranger Things episodes so I saw a lot of the despair and disgust so maybe I went into the episodes with my expectations way lowered but... I don't think Mike/Will is dead.

I'm disappointed that they didn't get to interact more, even in just a best friends way, but I also definitely don't think anything that happened or didn't happen negates the possibility. Like... yes, the coming out scene was clumsy and awkward with all those people there (and obviously the element of being outed). But volume two continued to focus on Will and specifically on his sexuality with his talk with Robin and said coming out scene. I mean, if they were going to leave it at an unsatisfying place it would have made more sense to skip that additional rooftop chat with Robin or change it so he told her specifically he was going to let Mike go.

Mike really didn't do much this volume, but he was shown worrying about Will a handful of times. It wasn't nearly as cold turkey as I'd been lead to believe, though obviously more time together would've been nice and narratively warranted.

I'll be as pissed as anyone if that's the end of the arc (especially since Mike stands up for the hug after Dustin, who has barely interacted with any of the boys since season two and certainly not with Will; Mike's always been the one closest to Will, however you want to read the relationship and unless they were going to give him something additional with Will they should have at least let him jump up at the same time as Jonathan). It just doesn't FEEL like the end of the arc. Like, even if the writers aren't going ahead with Byler they have to know that Mike+Will is one of the most popular dynamics and that a huge number of fans will feel hurt and betrayed if their relationship is dropped. If it was all about Will getting over "Tammy," why wouldn't they let him talk to Mike almost immediately and then use the rest of 5b reestablishing a new dynamic for them that is fully platonic? They could have worried about El together or supported Lucas or Max or talked about Holly or any number of things, but with fewer shared looks and arm brushing. It would have been disappointing for a lot of us, but if they've decided that Mike is just Will's Best Friend Forever and not the love of his life, why not let them act like it?

In any case, I feel like 5b did a lot of the heavy lifting with the plot which, I'm hoping, will leave more time in the finale for character beats. I've got my fingers crossed that we waste less time with Holly this time. I seem to be in the minority but Holly's bloated screentime is maybe my top complaint about the season. I assumed that her vanishing was going to be used to reflect on Will's, but that very much doesn't seem like the case and it's frustrating to see her (and Mrs. Wheeler and Derek, who I admittedly do like) getting so much screentime when other, established characters (namely Mike, but arguably everyone) aren't getting enough.

And maybe I'm delusional. I was 100% convinced of endgame Destiel and endgame Nandermo. I'm not 100% convinced of endgame Byler (though it still feels the most satisfying to me and certainly I want it very much), but I'm absolutely not at 0% either. I'm going to go into the finale guarded, but I personally think that there's still as decent a chance as there ever has been.

I mean... Bylers seem to be the only ones who actually, actively like Mike. At this point, what do they have to lose?

Honestly, the thing that upsets me the most about 5b right now is that it's been reiterated that Vecna took Will because he was a weak, malleable child which is NOT TRUE. If he just needed any child, why on earth would he have chased Will around the Upside Down for so long instead of bailing and finding someone weaker? They need to clear my boy's name.

tl;dr I think Byler still has a chance. I'm going to steel myself, but I still have hope.

[nerdygoob]

This is not anything that people here haven't already done and done better but this is part of a longer Stranger Things powerpoint I made for my parents (pre-5a) with reminders, theories, and jokes since they aren't as obsessive as me. As a still-closeted queer person IRL, I tamped down my enthusiasm as much as possible and gave what I thought was an easy, unemotional primer on why Mike/Will > Mike/El without digging into any of the difficult stuff like heteronormativity or internalized homophobia or how important this kind of mainstream representation would be (both in general and for me personally).

When I was done, my dad said, "I don't know why you keep assuming Will is gay."

[nerdygoob]

I don't think anyone major is actually going to die in Stranger Things (Ted survived that demogorgon attack. Do we really think Ted is going to survive but, like, El won't?) but I want to put it out in the universe that Will, Max, Lucas, Robin, Jonathan, and Mike (unless he really is just a bad friend/shitty straight boyfriend, in which case he's demoted from my list of favorites) better be alive and well at the end of this thing. I'll be sad if anyone dies, but I might not recover from those six.

[nerdygoob]

I read ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, the Stranger Things Nancy Wheeler mystery and made a fairly thorough list of some of the little details and moments that Stranger Things fans might be curious about (no spoilers for the mystery plot of the book):

The Steve/Nancy/Jonathan love triangle:

Obviously a spinoff book is not going to definitively answer a question that the show has been dancing around for five seasons, but a Nancy book by necessity has to touch on Nancy's relationships. Based on what is in this book, it feels like Steve/Nancy is absolutely dead (which is not news to me), but Nancy/Jonathan and single Nancy both feel like plausible outcomes.

Nancy was absolutely weirded out by Steve’s six little nuggets speech in season four. It strained their friendship to the point that she is avoiding him. He tries to apologize for it, but Nancy isn’t quite ready to let him off the hook. She thinks, and I quote, “you told me you wanted me to pump out six of your kids so we could all travel the country packed into a van like a bunch of sardines.”

Karen is skeptical of Jonathan and Nancy’s relationship because, not knowing about the supernatural stuff, she misinterprets Nancy’s anxiety about the future and hesitation about college as a sign she’s going to stay in Hawkins for a boy rather than pursue her dream. She is convinced Jonathan is going to get stuck in Hawkins. She's actively cold to Jonathan for a while because of it. After she and Nancy talk and she better understands where Nancy is coming from, she changes her tune.

Nancy and Jonathan’s struggles in large part stem from the fact that she is continually looking to the future, to what’s next, and he is focused on the minutiae of the here and now.

Nancy is generally quite avoidant with the boys. She ends up solving the mystery with Robin because she just doesn't want to engage with the current awkwardness with Jonathan and Steve. Both boys give her opportunities to talk it out, but she defers.

Nancy and Jonathan have a fraught conversation about the future of their relationship at the very end of the book. She’s still worried about his lies, but decides to just focus on the here and now. For the last conversation, they essentially both concede and take the other's position. He assures her that they’ll find Vecna and she encourages him to live in the present, romantic moment. I like Nancy/Jonathan, so Nancy worrying about their foundation and focusing on their beginning being trauma concerns me a bit, but the overall scene seems basically good for them.

The Will/Mike/El Love Triangle

El does not actually appear in this book, and Mike and Will are only occasional presences, but surprisingly there's still come interesting stuff here. I'm probably definitely biased, but I feel like One Way or Another leans more towards Will/Mike than Mike/El.

There is seemingly no awkwardness between Mike and Will despite everything that happened in season four. They're minor characters and as the book is in Nancy's POV she doesn't dwell on their relationship in any way, but there are several scenes of them just hanging out and one instance apiece of one of them attempting to slip away from someone else's conversation to find the other (Will escapes a Nancy/Jonathan conversation to find Mike, and Mike tries to slip away from Karen reminiscing with a school friend to find Will, but is reprimanded for being rude).

At one point when Mike and Will are hanging out in the basement, Nancy assumes they’re making plans for Mike to sneak out to see El.

At another point Nancy teases Mike by saying "I'll get your girlfriend to explode your brain" and he rolls his eyes. This is the only time Mike acknowledges or references El in One Way or Another.

Mike is the one who offers that the Byers move in with them (without running it by his parents first). He suggests Will share his room but doesn’t consider any of the other arrangements: "I was just saying, why don't they stay with us? [...] Will can share my room, and you guys can— I don't know, Mom'll figure it out." Will is pleased at the prospect of “a sleepover" but everyone else gently rejects the plan, to Mike's annoyance (he mutters "I don't get it"). Later, Karen instructs Nancy to help Mike clear out enough space in the basement for "the Byers boys," having already talked to Joyce about it. There's no indication of why Will has been moved from Mike's room to the basement in the plans.

When Nancy and Jonathan have their fraught conversation about the future of their relationship, they're sitting on the roof of the radio station at sunset. This is the exact setting for Mike and El's conversation about the future of the party in 5x01, both in location and in time of day. In both cases, one could make an argument both that the conversations are pointing to a breakup or that they're potentially paving the way for a future together. I do also think there's a way to make an argument that it points to Nancy/Jonathan making a future together and Mike/El breaking up, but that may or may not stem from my own preferences.

Interestingly, that same scene also has a Mike/Will parallel. When Mike first suggests that the Byers family move in with the Wheelers (and specifically that Will stay in his room), Will says “I don’t mind sharing. It will be like a sleepover." In the final scene, Nancy breaks the news to Jonathan by saying “Sleepover at my house" (my emphasis in both cases).

General Nancy

Nancy calls her mother’s life “a horror show” in a fit of anger but later apologizes; Karen says that while there are things about her life that she wants to change, she doesn’t hate herself and reminds Nancy that “there’s always a way out.”

Nancy delays Emerson but she still ultimately wants to leave Hawkins.

Nancy is still working at the Hawkins Post. She keeps the job in large part because it’s a hub of information.

Despite mentally checking out for the last few months because of everything that happened, Nancy graduates top of the class (possibly because everyone else also mentally checked out for the last few months).

Barb and Eddie both weigh heavily on Nancy’s mind.

Robin and Nancy hang out on Robin's roof. It's a safe space for Nancy, who considers climbing out windows as a way to escape where she is rather than being a place to stay.

At one point Nancy gets annoyed at herself for wearing impractical shoes and wonders how she hasn't been more careful about footwear considering how often she has to unexpectedly run for her life.

Life in Hawkins

The reason the Byerses are staying with the Wheelers is because there’s almost no available housing in Hawkins. Despite the mass exodus, the opening rifts destroyed enough properties that lots of people are displaced and homeless. The Byers stayed in a temporary military shelter along with many other families before moving in with the Wheelers.

There is a new editor at the Hawkins Post who was working there before but who was not part of the boys’ club. Work there is frustrating because there is constant, direct military oversight and every single story they put out has to be approved.

Powell is still chief of police, but Hawkins PD is also under direct military supervision and can’t really make any of their own decisions. 

Misc.

Jonathan immediately clocks Robin and Vickie; Nancy can tell she’s missing something, but has no idea what it is.

Robin listens to a police scanner every night because she’s afraid she’ll hear the name of someone she loves on there.

Mike was ready to square up against a military officer for Nancy but immediately stood down when she told him to.

Robin's parents are over-invested in her love life, but cluelessly. They tease her and wiggle their eyebrows when a boy calls her.

Robin and Vickie don't seem to be officially dating yet, but there's an unmistakably flirtatious vibe between them. Nancy is confused about why Robin can persuade Vickie to do things when she, Nancy, failed.

Robin used to volunteer at the hospital with Vickie, but doesn't anymore

[nerdygoob]

Where did "Dunne" come from as Vickie's last name? From the confidence and ubiquitousness of it I just assumed that it was correct even though I didn't myself remember anyone ever saying it in the show. But I just finished reading One Way or Another (the Nancy Wheeler/Ronance mystery) and it definitely calls her "Vickie O'Neill." I know the books are only semi-canon/canon until stated otherwise... but a surname seems like a basic/easy thing to fact-check, especially for an author who also writes on the actual show. Thanks for the help!

[nerdygoob]

Some Thoughts About Will in Stranger Things 5a

It is a great time to be a Will Byers fan. It’s occasionally rough going in the Stranger Things general audience when Will is your favorite character. Or… it was before 5a released. He’s a chronically underappreciated and misunderstood character. Because he’s soft and gentle and—in the past couple seasons, not quite in the center of the action—a lot of people have stopped thinking much about him beyond ‘cries a lot’ and ‘has a bad haircut.’ But Will has been one of my favorites, if not my outright favorite, since season two (his standout season, and not coincidentally my favorite season). It takes immense strength to remain gentle and emotionally vulnerable after trauma and abuse. Will is a boy who was hunted and stalked by creatures from the Upside Down but who, when face to face with a small one, reassures it that he won’t hurt it, who immediately asks after his brother’s bandaged hand after waking up in the hospital after having been kidnapped and kept in an alternate dimension for a week. He’s a boy who lost his childhood and his innocence and his sense of safety at an extremely young age but who never complains about it or bothers anyone else with his discomfort. He’s a boy who tries to play relationship counselor to the love of his life because he wants him to be happy even if it’s with someone else. Will is amongst the sweetest fictional characters I’ve ever come across… and people hate him because he cried like three times? In emotionally traumatizing moments? Because he’s a closeted child with PTSD perpetually stuck in world-ending situations? He’s also subtly hilarious. It’s easy to miss how snarky Will is with the people he feels comfortable with because in the grand scheme of things he’s largely conflict-avoidant, but he shades particularly Jonathan and Mike regularly. It’s just very endearing to me, particularly as a person who insults exclusively the people I’m closest to.

So much of Will gets missed and disregarded I guess because people decided he was an incidental character and dismissed him? I don’t know. All I know is that when I was discussing my various predictions for the final season and took Will’s being gay as an established fact—because, you know, it is an established fact—my dad pushed back on me and acted like I’d just fully made that up. Like, what did you think that pizza van scene was about? Or the one with Jonathan in the freezer? If we’re missing massive parts of the character like that, perhaps it’s not a surprise that some of the more subtle elements aren’t being fully appreciated. If you weren’t paying attention to Will, sure, maybe his glow up was a surprise. If you were… well, this is just Will turned up to Eleven.

It was impossible that Stranger Things wasn’t going to loop back around to Will because so much of the plot and lore is directly tied to him. Most of the show’s biggest lingering questions tie directly to him. It was inevitable that Will was going to be a major driving force of the plot in this final go-around, but the show brought him back onto center stage not just for the supernatural goings-on but for some truly beautiful and empowering personal storylines as well. Right off the bat, Will is given a little more narrative space to just be. Yes, he’s immensely plot-relevant, but he also gets to… make a new friend. Stand up for himself. Rebel a little bit. Joke around with his mom. All the things he’s done kind of in the background or alongside overshadowing dramatic things. Like, you’re likely to overlook Will sassing Mike about being dumped when the bigger conversation is about whether or not overreliance on powers has given El brain damage or to laugh at Will shading Jonathan about not having any friends in the conversation that’s more about being “Zombie Boy.” Season five, despite ramping up, lets him have some of these moments more highlighted. In a scene with Will and Joyce, when Will apologizes for talking back but still teases her a little, my mom said, “Oh, Will’s cute this season.” Will is actually not any different in this season than he has been in previous ones… he’s just in focus and has gotten to be himself—not kidnapped, not possessed, not in the middle of an emotional breakdown—for the first time in a long time.

And that’s before you get to the really important stuff. I distinctly remember my reaction in the immediate aftermath of season four. I absolutely loved that a huge, blockbuster fantasy show had a gay lead character... but I was also disappointed and concerned that it was so easily overlooked. It’s obvious, but it’s obvious in the way that if you get it, you get it and if you don’t want to see it, you won’t. I wanted the show to bring it into the forefront, but I also didn't expect it. And then Stranger Things 5 really said, “if you think that Will is weak or that his being gay is unimportant or ignorable, you are wrong.” 

To be honest, my expectations were low. I hoped that it would come up more in the final season. I expected Will and Robin to have a couple of talks and for Will to come out to someone important beyond Jonathan, probably Joyce or Mike. I hoped Will would end up with Mike but actively tried to keep said hopes low because when has a mainstream show ever done anything like that? I'm used to mainstream queerness being blink-and-you-miss-it, especially in fantasy.

What we actually got was so much better than one or two little conversations that would let the writers cross Will being gay off their to-do list. One of the things I love most about Robin is that being a lesbian is a major part of her identity that encompasses her love interests but is not defined by them. That’s a part of the experience that straight people don’t really get. Like, yes. Robin liked Tammy and loves Vickie and Will loves Mike… but the experience doesn’t end there. When Robin and Will start bonding, there’s instant understanding between them. They share a core part of their identities and it lets them truly come out of their shells together in a way that perhaps they couldn’t even with their other closest friends. When they talk about their relationships, it’s not just a surface level ‘I am gay it is hard.’ It’s about expressing themselves through coded signals. It’s about self-acceptance. It’s about finding yourself again after forcing yourself to hide it for years. It’s about how being queer is first and foremost about your relationship with yourself. It's a really difficult experience to explain to people who don't intrinsically get it. It's a difficult experience to explain even internally. I first suspected I was queer when I was like fifteen, and I repressed it so aggressively that I didn't really consider it again for another decade. Now, at 32, I"m STILL trying to figure it out and untangle it all. So even in subtext, Will was deeply, deeply important to me. That friendship between Will and Robin is so incredibly important to me.

And then that midseason finale. It’s apparently now the highest rated Stranger Things episode overall, which, yeah. It’s fantastic. But more to the point, for Will, it’s powerful. It takes the sidelined gentle abused self-loathing gay character and lets him regain the internal sense of love and pride that was ripped from him so long ago. A lot of the conversations—including, admittedly, mine—around Will’s sexuality have been about Mike. And that’s fair, and I’m certain we’ll get a lot more of that in the second half of the season. But by jumping right to Mike, we’ve looked past what is ultimately, intrinsically, the most important part of it. It’s easy for Will to love Mike. It’s hard for Will to love Will. So when Robin shares her story and tells Will that everything he needs is already within himself? And Will listens to her? That’s amazing. The midseason finale and massive twist of the final season of the biggest show in the world depicts a repressed, depressed gay man rejecting his shame and accepting the entirety of himself to heroic effect, saving the lives of his loved ones in the process. Already great, right? It gets better. 

A lot of general homophobia, but also homophobia directly levied at Will, rests on the idea that queerness is something taboo and adult that children need to be protected from. When people, particularly queer people who relate to Will, suggested that he was deliberately written to be a gay character the response was largely: ‘actually he is a child and children are too young to know if they are gay but also it’s totally fine that El and Mike are making out in season one because children are allowed to know about being straight.’ It’s always ‘oh no how will we explain the dirty gays to the pure, innocent children’ and never ‘maybe telling children about queerness is something that will protect them.’ Will—and Robin (and Mike and Lucas)—are explicitly positioned as the protectors of children in season five. Will actively chooses to put himself in danger for the opportunity to save Holly, and specifically to save her from the same pain he went through. The children don’t need to be protected from gay people like Will. He is himself a child who was not protected and who in direct response is not able to protect them because he had not yet healed and accepted himself. Look at Will before and after he saw queer joy as a possibility! Look at Stranger Things, through Robin, reframing queer joy and pride not as something as antithetical to childhood innocence but as something that brings you closer to it. Robin doesn’t know anything about Will’s relationship to Mike. But she knows that if Will doesn’t love and accept himself, whether or not Mike does ultimately won’t matter. 

Because the thing is, being accepted by his family and friends is not and cannot be Will’s Stranger Things arc. A lot of the fanbase, inexplicably, hates Will. Will hates Will. But in-universe? Will is the most beloved character in Stranger Things. The show only exists because of how completely and deeply his friends and family love him. If they hadn’t, Will would have been just like Barb or Benny or any of the other people who died in season one because of Hawkins Lab and the Upside Down. Saving Will has always been the plot of Stranger Things. No, his friends and family are not going to reject him. The only one who might have is Will himself, so to give him a moment to reject all the horrible things he’s heard about himself from Lonnie or from James and Troy or any of the other countless unnamed bullies is incredible. He had to let go of all the shame and guilt and internalized homophobia and fear before he could think of doing anything else. And it had to come from inside, because everyone else has already told him how loved he is. Jonathan told him he loves him and nothing could ever change that. Joyce told him she trusts him and loves him and will always watch out for him. Mike told him that he’s magic and that there’s no one else like him and that everything is better when they’re a team. And Will heard all those things, but until Robin prompted him, he didn’t believe them because it did not fit with his internal worldview that he will never be loved and doesn’t deserve to.

And do you know how we know that he can believe those things now? Because Vecna told him the opposite. Vecna told Will to his face all the things that the world (and the fanbase) have been telling him: you’re weak, you’re broken, and people like you don’t belong in this world. And if you don’t believe that that last bit was related to Will’s sexuality, both the flashbacks were to Will crying over Mike. Not long previously, Will would have believed that. He would have believed that the fact that he was taken and cried about it made him weak. He would have believed that all the pain he felt watching Mike with El meant he didn’t deserve love. But now? 

Will has never been weak or whiny. And, unlike what Vecna said, he did not break easily or even at all. If Vecna just needed someone weak, why’d he chase Will for a week in the Upside Down instead of just grabbing someone else? If Will broke, why is he out here cracking demogorgons in half? Why does Vecna need so many more kids now? Also… you know what happened to the other William who was bullied by his father and who was possessed by the Mind Flayer? He bullied other kids, did the Mind Flayer’s bidding immediately, and immediately died the one time he stood up to it. Breaking abusive patterns is way harder than maintaining them! Will was always one of the most emotionally strong characters. He just finally realized it and through becoming empowered became, well, literally empowered. 

And that’s why Mike was smiling at him like that. It’s not just that he’s glad he didn’t die (Joyce is presumably also glad she did not die, and her expression is very different). It’s not even that he’s attracted to people with powers (although, to be fair, it sort of seems like he is). It’s because, when he told Will a few scenes previously, Will didn’t believe in his own power. But now he does. That’s Mike seeing Will see himself the way Mike sees him: a sorcerer.

And, for the record, Will beating his internalized homophobia and loving himself completely does not mean that he’s not also going to have a lovely romantic storyline. Loving himself is an important step, because Mike is not the answer to all his problems. But if this was the entirety of his arc, it probably wouldn’t have gotten so neatly wrapped up in the first half of the season. Will doesn’t need Mike to love him. He wants it. If he wasn’t going to get that, if empowered aloneness was his endpoint, it would have taken him longer to get there. Also, why is it only gay characters who have to content themselves with self respect? If either Will or Mike was a girl, no one would be saying “self respect is enough.” Self respect has to come first. And if the purpose of that scene was to show Will moving on from Mike in addition to accepting himself, they probably shouldn’t have had Mike tell him pre-powers that he’s innately magical or have so many of those Will’s truest, happiest self flashbacks include him. It would have been very easy to tweak the scene to remove any and all romantic implications from it without altering the fundamental content of it at all: have Joyce or Robin, not Mike, suggest to Will that he might be able to grab the strings. Move Mike into the tunnels and have Joyce or Lucas closest to Will for his big moment. And let Will’s memory reels—like Robin’s—feature only himself (or just Joyce and Jonathan, or Mike alongside Dustin and Lucas). It’s a scene about Will coming into his own and accepting all of himself. His love for Mike is a part of himself he’d hated himself for, and it’s a part he accepts now. Mike is not the center of the scene by any means, and certainly not in a Will lets go of Mike sort of way.

[eeriesilkworm]

It's not Mileven propaganda (at least, I dont think...)

An unabashedly byler-baised breakdown of El's novel "Starcourt Mall Escape"

Okay. I’m actually going to defend the new ElMax book (based off the preview). I think the characterization is mostly fine, and I don’t think it’s that Mileven-baised at all.

In fact, it’s pretty accurate to how Mike and El behaved early in s3, which we all know led to... problems.

Allow me to share some observations – you can call this Byler copium if you like, lol. I won't read the full thing because I don't fancy YA/ teen novels, but I'm curious to know how it plays out once the full book is released.

Let's go!

We start off with a love = crazy reference. Nice! I'll take the crumbs.

El takes a relationship quiz and the results are not flattering. We get an entire section dedicated to suggesting that Mike and El’s very new relationship is already “fizzling out”, at least by teen magazine standards.

El is dissatisfied that her and Mike never leave the cabin or go on actual “fun” dates. She’s (rightfully) resentful that he can lead a normal social life while she waits for him at the cabin every day.

I’m glad that this novel highlights the conflict between Hopper and El in s3, because he wasn’t a perfect father.

Yes, he was protective because he loved her and she was technically a fugitive, but the whole point of El and Hopper's arc that season was to emphasise that El was still a normal teenager with normal psychosocial needs that weren’t being fulfilled.

This book highlights El’s struggle with isolation, and the fact that Mike was her main source of social enrichment at the time, which isn’t healthy.

Obviously, a teenaged girl might not reflect on thatbeing unhealthy, but a savvy reader could.

El loves kissing Mike more than anything – as in, more than talking, bonding, spending time getting to know him. It’s not “Mike, who she loved more than anything.”  and the option to write it that way was right there.

Is this not what we’ve already been saying? El spent the year before watching soap operas and romance movies in Hopper’s cabin. She's enjoying the romantic aspect of their relationship, which is just kissing, and nothing else. Understandable, because it’s at least partially fulfilling her social needs – just not fully.

I think this also positions Mike as a form of escape for El, which just further suggests why she may be so attached to him despite them hardly talking and mostly kissing.

Again, this could be framed as romantic but that would be doing her character (and the author) a disservice. This is a pretty accurate portrayal of someone who is socially isolated, seeking connection just to make her feel alive. She is so lonely, guys. It's awful.

El feels that she is in purgatory. Mike offers a spot of normalcy and something for her to look forward to during her boring, lonely days.

Ironically, it’s while El laments her loneliness and waits to see Mike (he’s not coming) that she’s interrupted by the TV advertisement for Starcourt Mall, which she feels is taunting her because it’s promoting a social teen lifestyle she wishes she could have.

Really just further confirmation here that El and Mike’s relationship was not “normal” because Mike followed Hopper's rules.

Allow me to elaborate: if they wanted to portray Mike and El as two star-crossed lovers who were meant to be together despite the obstacles, Mike would have acted more like Max in s3. Mike would have been the one to encourage El to break the rules and live her life.

Instead, El is nervous about leaving Hopper’s cabin, indicating she really has been on a “house arrest” this entire time. I know Mike just wanted El to be safe, but a boyfriend shouldn’t be an enforcer of rules set by their girlfriend’s dad. A boyfriend should be an equal companion, like what Max is being.

El feels freedom for the first time due to Max, so she never felt freedom while hanging out with Mike. Just contented and less lonely.

What the heck have Mike and El even been talking about all this time? El is shocked to see Downtown Hawkins looks different. The fabric of the town has changed and it shocks her, suggesting this a development she cares about. She saw the advertisement for Starcourt Mall but doesn’t know anything about it. You’d think if Mike has already been going there, he’d mention it in conversation to her.

By the time we get to s3, Mike has already made a routine of getting Steve to help him sneak into the theatre (it clearly wasn’t the first time), so why doesn’t El know what Scoops Ahoy is?

“Yeah, Steve snuck us into an MA rated movie because he works at this ice-cream shop that has a backdoor that leads to the cinemas. It was so cool.” - A thing Mike totally could have mentioned to El.

My only charitable interpretation is that Mike doesn’t tell El about what he gets up to during the Summer because he doesn’t want her to feel left out. Still kind of sad, though.

El and Max catch Mike and the boys at the arcade, when she had been expecting him to visit her.

El's reaction is honestly hilarious and adorable, and also just an accurate portrayal of teen horniness. (I hate that word, but what else could I use to describe it?)

Mike ditched El without calling, but she’s willing to put aside her annoyance because she wants to kiss him. Again, kissing is something El really likes doing. No surprises, here.

It's interesting that this seems to change by s4. When El was annoyed at Mike, she remained annoyed at Mike, and wasn't so easily swayed like she is here. They also only kiss once in s4 even though she likes it so much? Something changed.

Mike is just scrambling here, lol.

Yeah, so... that was a lie.

I think Mike just forgot that he was supposed to visit her. He subdues her with a kiss, probably because he knows it will work. It’s described as “quick” and “stolen”… a lot like the first kiss in s1?

There. He did it!

Slightly awkward characterization aside, this makes sense too.

Mike wants his relationship with El to be noticed and needs validation that he’s doing it right. Dustin is just jealous that he doesn't have a girlfriend unlike Mike, who does. Obviously.

"...he'll come back like me." - aka, cuffed.

I think it’s interesting that he refers to it as unavoidable, too. What does that mean?

Interestingly, all this talk of getting girlfriends never comes back to Will. Lucas, Dustin and Mike all discuss having a girlfriend or potentially getting a girlfriend, but no one pressures Will to get one.

Byler crumbs! I'll take them.

Will, who El has noticed has been quiet and subdued, suggests they play D&D.

The group "paused" and the "air shifted". This suggests the vibe became a little bit awkward. Maybe the others didn’t really want to play D&D but didn’t want to hurt Will’s feelings.

But Mike advocates for Will. His expression softened…

I'm going to read into that because I choose to. Thank you.

This author may have had Will smirk while saying “just look at El and Mike” but I think they’re still acknowledging Will’s canon feelings for Mike.

Will only wants to play D&D if Mike is Dming. Adorable.

Well, that's all I've got, folks!

The gang proceeds to agree to head to a double feature/ scavenger hunt event at the mall together. Mike initially worries about getting into trouble, but does eventually decide it's worth it to have El get to experience something fun and normal.

What do you guys think? I really don't think Bylers should be crashing out over this at all, lol. I mean, we even got a "Mike's expression softened" moment. Like, come on!

[nerdygoob]

I've literally never posted or commented on Tumblr despite being a long-term lurker but I felt like I had to weigh in since I seem to be the first person to have read this book (I'm literally the only review on Goodreads rn). It's... hilariously bad. It definitely trends more Mileven propaganda than anything else, but that is also because it doesn't engage at all beyond the very surface level (and even then it gets a lot of basic details wrong). It definitely includes a few hints about Will's crush on Mike (it's possible to miss, but if you know you know), but most of the plot is El using her powers in unnecessary moments and then kissing Mike. The sentiment it ends on, at least regarding the relationships, is Mike signing a photo for El "Mike & El--Always." Personally I'm not super fussed about it because there is simply NO WAY anyone proofread this one for content because it includes things like El casually overhearing the Russians in the mall, Max randomly/accidentally finding Hopper's cabin, Mr. Clarke running a mall scavenger hunt with Steve and Robin as ostensibly the only employees present at all, Will bragging about never having been dumped, El having Will-esque neck tingles, a reference to El's Snow Ball dress being pink, and more. The characterizations and references are honestly so bad that I couldn't even be annoyed at them because it turned the corner to being funny.

As long as I'm here anyway (and since Tumblr is probably a more interested community than Goodreads), here's my longer/more specific Goodreads review:

Because I am a nerd, I have read ALL of the official YA Stranger Things tie-in novels (Runaway Max, Rebel Robin, Lucas on the Line, The Dustin Experiment, and Starcourt Mall Escape) and this one is... very much the worst one by a hilarious margin. All the other ones are essentially character studies that use the characters from the show and fill in some gaps or explore in some of the empty narrative space. There are arguments to be made about whether they're effective at what they're doing, but at least they have some clear purpose.

Starcourt Mall Escape, though... I honestly don't even know what it is trying to do. It is less a novel and more a collection of references. Remember when, post-breakup, the boys laughed about smelly farts? I hope you thought that was hilarious, because it's referenced at least four times (specifically the nacho cheese; it's not just the farting generally). And the phrase "dump your ass" is included dozens and dozens of times. And that might be fine and fun if you're just a fan hoping for some bonus content between seasons. That would have been fine for me, because that's what I was looking for. I mean, this is an Eleven book and Eleven is a character who spends all her time doing supernatural stuff. I am always hoping for more everyday El. My favorite version of El is the one who dumps Mike and hangs out with Max. I was hoping to see more of that El, the one who is figuring out who she is and what she likes and how to be a normal girl without pressure from either the men in her life OR the forces of evil that need battled. This book obviously had no intention of digging into anything, which is disappointing, but whatever. Silly fun times with the kiddos of Stranger Things. That should be fun, right?

The problem is that Starcourt Mall Escape just has so. many. continuity. errors. And mischaracterizations. Like, a ludicrous amount. As someone who just rewatched the show and has a decent memory, these were egregious and pulled me out repeatedly. Some are just weird and unnecessarily wrong. Like when El spots a photo of herself in her pink dress from the Snow Ball (El's dress was blue). Or when Max references living in a trailer (this novel takes place before season three; she moves into the trailer after Billy's death between seasons three and four). Or how Lucas and to a lesser extent Mike spend the entire book trying to beat Dustin's high score on Dragon's Lair despite not being good at the game (in season two, Dustin can't beat Lucas' high score on Dragon's Lair). Or when the boys all confidently predict that Dustin will come home from science camp with a girlfriend (when, in fact, they were so surprised by this development that they assumed he'd made her up).

Whatever, you might be thinking. Those are small details. Who cares about the color of El's dress or the fact that Mike specifically requests couples' portraits at the mall (despite canonically hating having his picture taken; in this book, Will is the photo-shy one)? That's just the start of the problems. A lot of them run deeper. There are just plot points and character details attributed to the wrong character, or inserted before their time. For instance, El makes absolutely no effort to keep herself hidden and uses her powers repeatedly and publicly (in front of, inexhausively, Billy, Robin pre-Russian-base, and Troy's cousin). She also repeatedly has visions of the future and senses danger nearby (she essentially gets a more powerful version of Will's neck-tingles). She also overhears the Lynx workers speaking Russian, and spots rats everywhere. Why does El have everyone's season three plot to herself? And remember Hopper's super secret cabin and how it's a great place to go whenever they need to be safe from prying eyes? It would be awkward if Max just randomly stumbled across it on her way home from skateboarding, right? Well, she does. She finds it by accident and it just like "hey, I bet this is where Eleven lives. I'll drop in on her!" Also, remember how everyone is able to figure out complicated lore and make logical plans in life-or-death situations? I hope not, because when the crew is given a clue that LITERALLY INVOLVES THE SLOGAN FOR SCOOPS AHOY it takes them a full page and a half of debate to figure out that they have to go to Scoops Ahoy.

Then there's bad characterization. Can you see Will snatching a walkie talkie to brag to Max and El about never having been dumped? Will in general is WILD in this book. Aside from when he's asking to play D&D and, at the end, forgiving a bully he's unrecognizable. There's a weird broishness to him that is very inconsistent for him, which is disappointing in particular because he's absent for most of these books (Will is my favorite character so am admittedly biased, but still). Max, during a game of truth or dare, dares Mike and El to kiss each other despite the fact that they've been PDAing all day. I'm sorry... in a game of truth or dare you dare someone... to kiss his own girlfriend... even though they've been kissing so much that day that... you've already told them to stop? What? Max, do better.

And there's bad writing on top of all that. If Robin has a single line of dialogue without the word "dingus" then it's an outlier. Billy's mullet gets a special shout-out just about every time he's on the page (and ditto for Will's haunted eyes). And I would LOVE (hate) to get a kiss tally for Mike and El because it is too much. Admittedly I hate El and Mike as a couple (I love them both independently when they're broken up, but I hate them together) so I'm biased, but if we got a kiss-to-page ratio it would be shocking.

Honestly, Starcourt Mall Escape is so bad that it's funny. It manages to absolutely mangle the continuity from the show, butcher just about all the characterizations, and not get any deeper into Eleven—its supposed main character—than "likes to kiss Mike" and "is sad she's not in a yearbook." I'm almost impressed. If someone told me that this was published as a joke, I'd believe it. I spent half the book thinking "surely the end of this is going to reveal it's some sort of Vecna-vision or trap" because I could think of no other explanation for how it could manage to simultaneously be so surface-level and get so many things wrong.