Stranger Things
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
祝日 / Permanent Vacation
$LAYYYTER
⁂
No title available
No title available
KIROKAZE
hello vonnie
Sweet Seals For You, Always
Three Goblin Art
Discoholic 🪩
★
No title available
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
Game of Thrones Daily
d e v o n
ellievsbear
izzy's playlists!
No title available
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from France
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from Austria
seen from Germany
seen from Türkiye
seen from Malaysia
seen from Saudi Arabia
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United Kingdom
seen from France
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from United States
@originalpeachvoidkid
(Eleven and Hopper eating dinner)
Eleven: What is 'gay'?
Hopper: It means...
Hopper: Happy?
Eleven: oh.
(the next day)
Eleven: Mike makes me gay.
Will: Me too, El. Me too.
Eleven:
Lucas:
Dustin:
Max:
Will:
Papa:
Demogorgon:
Demodog:
the Mind Flayer:
the Upside Down:
Pennywise hours away:
Mike:
Mike: What the fuck.
look out for some byler analysis on why the fuck their conversations seem so intimate compared to that of the established couple brought to you by actual film theory
anyway me rn
film brain going brrrrrr 2nite
Me @ byler
finn giving us a byler teaser 🤩😍🙏🥳💯🤪💪
‘stranger things is about eighties nostalgia!!’ ‘stranger things is about the importance of family!!’ WRONG. stranger things is about gay people.
funny how all the toxic milevens ship reddie
swiping through netflixgeeked‘s new ig post about friendships, scared to see byler-
I AM SCREAMING JE SAID ALOT OF NEW CHARACTERS NEW REALTIONIPS IT'S VERY UNEXPECTED
NOAH I SWEAR-
ok but noah schnapp defining st4 with "new relationships" and "unexpected" made my day 100% better
it's the byler reference for me
his fanmios are literally perfect and objective he doesn't run away from questions and give good answers, ugh I just love him keep doing what ur doing mr schnapp
my sister: how is your day going?
me: just me crying over two fictional 14 year old boys who are so hopelessly in love with each other but are too scared to admit it to each other so they just stow away their feelings and then hopefully they'll discover their feelings in the next season as long as their homopobic dads don't find out and then one of the boys will run away to go see the other boy and then they express their feelings and then the end
a picture of finn and noah standing next to each other filming st4 is enough to send me to the hospital
"Crazy Together"/
"Loose Our Minds Together"
Stranger Things/ The Last Of Us Parallels.
_____________________________
This is something I've been wanting to talk about for a while now.
Something that I think will please a LOT of Byler shippers.
Spoilers below for those who haven't played The Last Of Us.
_____________________________
The Duffers said they were inspired by The Last Of Us when they talk about what they wrote in Stranger Things. Of course, it's one of the many inspirations along with all the movies and tv shows they've taken inspiration from.
But I think it's worth looking what they took as inspiration in the story or what might be an inspiration.
The Last Of Us is set in a post-apocalyptic world where a cordyceps has infected people which makes them kill and eat other humans. We follow Joel, a smuggler in one of the quarantine zones controlled by the military who must take care of Ellie, a young girl who is revealed to be immune to the cordyceps. He is tasked to travel through the country and bring Ellie to Salt Lake City where a group named the Fireflies, a group working against the military, is working on finding a cure. The leader of that group is a woman named Marlene who was a close friend of Ellie's mother and took care of Ellie during most of the apocalypse.
First the obvious one, the one everyone is going to think about.
Jim and El = Joel and Ellie.
Both Jim and Joel lost a daughter named Sarah. Both Jim and Joel are broody and even apathetic (and kind of an asshole in some aspects). Both El and Ellie are special, one has superpowers, one is immune and can't be infected. They share a similar name.
Eleven = El = Ellie. It also fits with the "androginy" of El who has been perceived as a boy during season 1 and was even compared to Will.
Ellie is both a name of masculine and feminine origins. El is "he" in spanish.
Both Jim and Joel have an iconic revolver and both takes the role of guardian for a little girl. Both of them have a complicated relationship.
There's also a nice parallel. Jim loses Sarah in a hospital/lab while Joel, at the end, saves Ellie from a hospital/lab.
Joel loses Sarah who is shot by a soldier and Jim saves El from government experiences.
That's one of the main parallels you will find at first glance since right now Jim and El are one of the most popular characters of the show right now and bares a lot of ressemblance with Joel and Ellie.
_____________________________
The Upside Down is also very inspired by the Nests or overwhelmed areas of/by the Infected. The Infected have four differents stages of infection. The victims in the first stage of infection will start to behave aggresively and will want to eat.
If you have been infected for a long time, the fungus inside your body will start to grow all over your skin and pierce your skull where the brain is located and where most of the infection start.
This connects with the Mindflayer who was compared to a parasite and starts to make the host act completely different. The Mindflayer is also regarded as the "brain". If you kill the brain, you kill everything.
This type of behavior can also be linked to the Flayed who become connected to a bigger part of another being just like the Infected in The Last Of Us.
The Infected are also attracted to blood but also use echolocation to survive if they have been infected for a long time. In a way this could be what the Demogorgon use, outside of being attracted to blood, as he doesn't have any eyes and therefore cannot see his victims.
When the infected dies or stay in a place for a long amount of time, they will stay in one place and not move until they might catch another victim. The fungus will than grow all over the place and start to emit spores.
Spores in this case are there to infect other subjects and keep the fungus alive.
This is very reminiscent of the Upside Down, a dark version of our world filled with vines growing all over the place. There is also spores in the Upside Down though it is unknown what it is for as many characters went into the Upside Down or like Dustin and Hopper blown into their face in the underground tunnels but nothing seems to have happened to them.
As a precaution in The Last Of Us, people wear masks much like the scientists, Hopper and Joyce in Stranger Things.
Ellie is able to survive the spores as she is already infected and her body is prepared to resist those spores. As a fun fact, to create a vaccine, you need to kill Ellie as the fungus primarily grows into the brain.
This is very reminiscent of Will who was able to survive in the Upside Down for a long period of time. Will was connected to the Mindflayer and in order to save him you had to make the Mindflayer come out of him, it's a contrast with Ellie who needed to die and couldn't be kept alive which led Joel to save her instead.
Joel also has an old partner called Bill. Bill is revealed to be a tad paranoid and doesn't like strangers much and is even very violent to some of them. Bill is also very sarcastic.
We can make a connection with Billy who is also, due to his father's upbringing, very violent with possibly signs of racism, doesn't seem to like people much and is very paranoid and weird with everything his stepsister, Max does.
(There's also a parallel with Jim and Murray who knew each other. Murray is shown to be paranoid and was called crazy or so by other characters. Just like Bill, he is extremely sarcastic and witty.)
Bill in The Last Of Us is also revealed to be gay and Billy was also insulted by his father of "f*gg*t", a gay slur.
Given Bill and Billy is short for William. We connect this with our favorite wizard Will Byers.
Will Byers who has been queer coded throughout the entire show AND just like Billy was called a gay slur by his own father.
In The Last Of Us, Bill is revealed to be gay by none other than Ellie who is lesbian herself.
Ellie who in the Japanese game manual is revealed to have a surname of eight letters which is "Williams".
_____________________________
Ellie Williams.
Ellie = El Williams = Will
Considering the fact that El and Will have been paralleled to each other and that the both of them are queer coded as El has a shaved head and a shaved head with queer woman can be a sign of empowerment, it reinforces the connections that The Last Of Us might have with Stranger Things.
So far, it's of course only a "speculation" and a "theory" but Byler is considered the main pairing by me and other Byler shippers and if we were to make a comparaison with another relationship in The Last Of Us, it would have to be Ellie and Riley. A relationship explored in the DLC : Left Behind.
_____________________________
Riley is the best friend of Ellie. They were both living in a quarantine zone, more specifically in Boston, in a military school. The two were very close as Riley would defend Ellie from bullies (Mike defending Will from bullies) but one day the two had a heated argument, Riley left and joined the Fireflies as she didn't like the military and left Ellie without saying goodbye. This caused Ellie to be very upset with her.
One day, Riley came back to see her (which she was forbidden to do by Marlene herself as she didn't want Ellie to get into trouble.) and while Ellie was thrilled to see her again, the both of them had unfinished business that they needed to go through. Riley was going to be assigned somewhere else by the Fireflies but wanted to say goodbye to Ellie before she never sees her again so she prepared a whole journey for the two of then where they would explore an abandonned mall.
After many activities in the mall, Riley decides to tell her the truth about her assignment which pains Ellie as she asks herself and Riley, why did she bring her here ? Riley decides to brush it off but Ellie continues the discussion, the subject of their heated arguments comes back on the table. Riley reveals she wanted to see Ellie and even brought with her, Ellie's waterguns which were confiscated by one the higher ups at her school.
They decide to fight with the guns and have fun while doing so. After that, the two are able to come to terms with each other and Ellie accepts that Riley may have to go.
Riley than, decides to put some music in one of the store with the help of a walkman that Ellie had in her bag. The two start dancing but for a moment Ellie starts to be sad and Riley wonders what's going on.
Ellie begs Riley not to go.
Riley regarded the Firefly pendant on her neck (a pendant given to all Fireflies) before breaking the chain and dropping it on the floor. Ellie then kissed Riley but apologized almost immediately afterward. Riley told her she had nothing to apologize for.
But right after that, some Infected came and started to attack them. While fleeing from the Infected, both Ellie and Riley were bitten after an accident.
This led the two of them wondering what they are going to do. Riley than explains all the options that they have, option 1: killing each other by shooting each other in the head but she says that she is not a fan of option one.
Option 2: They fight, Ellie asks for what, they are going to turn into one of those things. Riley replies by saying that there are a millions way they should have died before today and even tomorrow but they must fight for every second they get to spend with each other. Wether it's two minutes, two days, they should not give that up. She doesn't want to give that up.
Riley than says: "My vote, let's just wait it out. You know we can be all poetic and just loose our minds together."
Ellie asks if there's a third option. Riley says sorry, a third option is not possible and that they should go now.
Riley's fate is left untouched but it's presumed that she died or became infected. Ellie on the other hand, survived and ever since that event has Survivor Guilt.
It's also important to note that in the main game, Ellie tells Joel that she is still waiting for her turn as she wanted to loose her mind with Riley.
_____________________________
So if the Duffers do ever take Left Behind or of if they already have as an inspiration, there's already a lot of things we can parallel with Byler.
1. Best Friends = Childhood Best Friends for Mike/Will.
2. A heated argument that never got resolved = "It's not my fault you don't like girls!" A discussion between the two boys that never got resolved in any way.
3. Riley joined the Fireflies (a militia that fights against the military which was compared to a cult) while never saying goodbye to Ellie = Mike joins the Hellfire club breaking the promise he made with Will of joining another party, a DnD Club that is perceived as a satanic cult and will probably be framed for the bad things happening in Hawkins. Now that the military is in Hawkins, there's a high chance that they might be targeted by it if something bad happens.
4. Riley coming back to see Ellie while she was told not to do so = Mike running away to see Will maybe on his birthday while not telling anyone.
5. Riley and Ellie spending time with each other = Possibly Mike and Will spending time with each other.
6. Angst and heated arguments = DEFINITELY ANGST and heated arguments. I even think Will is not gonna like it at first and even be scared due to the trauma created by his father.
7. Riley reveals the reason why she came back to see Ellie = Mike reveals the reason why he came back to see Will.
8. Riley brought Ellie's favorite toy, waterguns = Mike brings with him a DnD game to play with Will, maybe his or maybe Will's.
9. Riley and Ellie are attacked by infected and bitten = Something bad happens in S4, maybe Lonnie catches them if he ever comes to visit the Byers in season 4 and he doesn't like seeing Will and Mike being close with each other. Or possibly Will is kidnapped due to his connections with the Upside Down.
10. Riley dies and Ellie is revealed to be immune and is than taken by the Fireflies = Mike "dies" (I don't think he will but something bad happens to him and Will might think he is dead) and Will reveals his powers because of that as we have been shown he could communicate with the lights in season 1 and has a link with the Mindflayer.
11. If there is any resolve, it's going to be in season 5. I don't think they'll resolve their issues until than but you never know.
Of course this is just a speculation and it could go completely differently than what's in this post but there is so much similarities between the two story that I couldn't help but think the Duffers took many inspiration from it.
And of course, the "Crazy Together". I don't think it needs any explanation. There are already millions of posts around it.
Considering that the proposal of Riley of "Loosing Our Minds Together" with Ellie is heavily romantic and tragic. Create a parallel with "Crazy Together" who can also be interpreted as a romantic line in the show and you get a jackpot. Especially when the few couple on the show related to that line are Jonathan/Nancy, Bob/Joyce and Hopper/ Joyce who were for the most part healthy relationship maybe an exception with Jancy and Jopper in season 3. El didn't understand in the store what Mike tried to say to her. And there's a point with Jonathan actually being more upset about his family than Nancy when he fights in the alley with Steve.
But overall it's a line associated with good things in the show.
_____________________________
So what did you think, do you think there's something worth looking into here ? It's my first real ST meta/theory so it's probably not really perfect but I hope it was entertaining and that you could understand most of my points at least.
Being a fan of both stories, even if all of it is a coincidence, it's kinda fun seeing so many possible similiraties.
So Byler shippers enjoy what's next and try not to scream while watching this.
_____________________________
I think I may have found, if not the, one of the inspirations for our iconic line.
And it was right in front of me. This whole time.
_____________________________
There is more parallels between the two stories but I will talk about them in another post. And trust me there is a lot of interesting stuff to unpack.
dear evan hansen,
today is gonna be a good day and here’s why
NOAH BASICALLY JUST CONFIRMED BYLER WILL BE CANON
OMG
missing byler rn....
manifesting ellie hanging out and having fun with her other friends and slowly moving on from the tribulation jesse and dina gave her in the upcoming orion's belt chapters ✨
Okay... I was looking for a good fanfic to read , and one asshole published a story , ‘bout Ellie and Jesse 👉👌 One question : WTF and why?
God it was almost a month ago. Being drunk I said my friend I love him so officially our relationships are dead😭😭😭
