still mourning shelter

| he/they | 🏳️‍🌈 | 20s | even if it's not canonically queer i find a way

[cashytouille]

Blood in the sea.

[cashytouille]

Blood in the sea.

[cashytouille]

Simon has a crush (and is severely touchstarved 👀.)

[kaidenchii]

collide like two stars for a while💫

[queermediaismypassion]

OP turned off reblogs so here have a screenshot.

as someone who has been deeply invested in both newtmas and byler since i was a child, comparing the two is genuinely insulting.

will is a queer character who has been called slurs by his own father and bullies in school for as long as he can remember. he was kidnapped and sexually assaulted at the age of 12. he has been in love with his best friend since he was 13 years old and he feels deeply ashamed of this fact. this is CANON.

he finally built up the courage to tell mike about his feelings after moving away, poured his feelings out on the canvas to give mike a painting because he knows he loves his art. then the time comes and mike is having problems with his girlfriend, and will sets aside his own feelings to try and fix it. he’s made to suffer in order to save a failing straight relationship.

(this also sets up the cyrano trope, except it doesn’t go anywhere or pay off in any way, so it’s just narrative queerbait)

a year and a half after this he is STILL deeply in love with mike and witnesses queer love for the first time. it gives him HOPE. he asks his new lesbian friend many questions about how to know if someone likes you back, and immediately tests out her tips to see if mike reciprocates, to which mike has a very ambiguous non-reaction.

cue a heartfelt scene between our two queer characters where she helps him come to terms with the fact his queerness is not wrong and he should accept himself regardless of if the person he’s in love with reciprocates or not. with newfound hope and courage from this scene, he unlocks his powers and we see a flashback to the first time he met the person he is in love with.

EVERYTHING points to him finally building up the courage to be honest about the painting, no ?

except that does not happen. will is put in a supernatural trance and tortured, shown images of his assault and his fear and shame over his own queerness is used against him. he is forced to come out to a room full of people he barely knows, because he’s terrified the villain will use his fear against him. and then he downplays his own love for his best friend as “a crush” and insists he’s gotten over it. (mind you, it has been maybe 24 hours)

do these situations sound REMOTELY the same ??

newt had some queer coding going on, sure, but was he canonically pining for thomas for years on end ? did he get assaulted and then have that same person use his queerness against him ? hell, newt wasn’t even intended to be queer. james dashner agrees with the reading of him as queer now after listening to fans, but it was never intended to be in the text. and newtmas was NOT. QUEERBAIT.

[moonchildbichen]

love everything you've said and to add on, why are people feeling so smug? we're ALL losers here. this time even more so considering the rise in conservatism and how will's entire arc through the show has been humiliating. he hasn't had a single win except for unlocking his powers and that too is downplayed to nothing. all this does is give ammunition to homophobes that queer people drag down stories, not realising it's their own brethren of straight people writing the show.

how is this something to laugh at? if it's funny then it's no wonder mainstream media doesn't care to put enough thought behind having canon queer rep.

i can't ask my parents "hey have you watched heated rivalry?" but i could ask them if they've watched stranger things and/or recommend it to them. but not anymore. cause what's the point? will's character is almost exactly like me and i, and so many queer people, felt so represented by him. to watch him be tortured over and over even just for being who he was is not funny. seeing him have to beg his friends and family to not hate him for being different is not funny.

what they did to will byers as a character is not funny.

[queermediaismypassion]

this.

it makes me so sad to see fans of other non-canon ships be so smug about us bylers now being queerbaited. first of all, majority of bylers have been through this before. it’s not “baby’s first queerbait” like i’ve seen people say. (and even if it were, why would people be mean to someone going through that pain for the first time?)

it’s tone deaf and just plain sad to see people celebrate that queer fans got baited once again. should you not wish for representation to finally happen ? why do you revel in queer misery just because it also happened to you in the past ?

here are some replies under a destiel fan telling bylers “my culture is not your costume” because someone redrew the destiel “i love you” scene as byler.

it’s just upsetting. we should want things to improve, not whatever this is. why are you gloating that queer audiences once again lost ? whatever happened to solidarity ?

a ship of 9 years that was half-canonized by one character being canonically in love with and pining for the other not being canon isn’t something you should celebrate or take any pleasure in whatsoever.

[queermediaismypassion]

OP turned off reblogs so here have a screenshot.

as someone who has been deeply invested in both newtmas and byler since i was a child, comparing the two is genuinely insulting.

will is a queer character who has been called slurs by his own father and bullies in school for as long as he can remember. he was kidnapped and sexually assaulted at the age of 12. he has been in love with his best friend since he was 13 years old and he feels deeply ashamed of this fact. this is CANON.

he finally built up the courage to tell mike about his feelings after moving away, poured his feelings out on the canvas to give mike a painting because he knows he loves his art. then the time comes and mike is having problems with his girlfriend, and will sets aside his own feelings to try and fix it. he’s made to suffer in order to save a failing straight relationship.

(this also sets up the cyrano trope, except it doesn’t go anywhere or pay off in any way, so it’s just narrative queerbait)

a year and a half after this he is STILL deeply in love with mike and witnesses queer love for the first time. it gives him HOPE. he asks his new lesbian friend many questions about how to know if someone likes you back, and immediately tests out her tips to see if mike reciprocates, to which mike has a very ambiguous non-reaction.

cue a heartfelt scene between our two queer characters where she helps him come to terms with the fact his queerness is not wrong and he should accept himself regardless of if the person he’s in love with reciprocates or not. with newfound hope and courage from this scene, he unlocks his powers and we see a flashback to the first time he met the person he is in love with.

EVERYTHING points to him finally building up the courage to be honest about the painting, no ?

except that does not happen. will is put in a supernatural trance and tortured, shown images of his assault and his fear and shame over his own queerness is used against him. he is forced to come out to a room full of people he barely knows, because he’s terrified the villain will use his fear against him. and then he downplays his own love for his best friend as “a crush” and insists he’s gotten over it. (mind you, it has been maybe 24 hours)

do these situations sound REMOTELY the same ??

newt had some queer coding going on, sure, but was he canonically pining for thomas for years on end ? did he get assaulted and then have that same person use his queerness against him ? hell, newt wasn’t even intended to be queer. james dashner agrees with the reading of him as queer now after listening to fans, but it was never intended to be in the text. and newtmas was NOT. QUEERBAIT.

[inrainbows-lover]

i don’t care if they’re trying to throw us off before the release, but the way they’ve been talking about will’s love for mike like it’s some silly childish crush completely contradicts what the show actually presents. like, why would you even say that? it just opens the door for homophobes to mock the community and make fun of the character’s feelings. it’s genuinely so frustrating, they’re really pissing me off

[pain-of-creation]

Robin publicly announced she had a date and then walked around in the woods with Will that night, Dustin knows they lied about the flux capacitor to leave together, Robin said “I like Dick” (which definitely doesn’t help), Mike noticed Joyce and Robin are getting along better, Lucas teased Robin and Will because they stayed behind to talk during the mission (only Mike wasn’t looking at them) and they burst out laughing…

Please let this be the set up for a huge misunderstanding

[queermediaismypassion]

​i see a lot of people shit on this theory/idea because of their ages, and while i agree i absolutely would not want to see an age gap like that, we gotta remember this show is set in the 80s. there were different norms and the characters thinking a 16 and 19 year old might be a thing would not be unrealistic or that crazy all things considered.

i mean karen wheeler nearly slept with a freshly graduated billy in season 3.. what makes people think there couldn’t be a rowill misunderstanding ?

[deepnightmareobservation]

the fact that I've been a fan of tmr for like 7 years now is CRAZY when and how did that happen

[sweetsweetbbyboy]

both your hands in the holes of my sweater (i was sleeping) tgc @bylerw

[superbylerfanfanfan]

he is like if you took sunshine and rainbows and turned it into a person

[bylerworld]

i have a feeling byler would be really into nose kisses like you can't look me in the eyes and tell me that's not the truest thing that's ever existed i feel it in my bones okay

[cheshire-smiley-fries]

at this point I'm more invested in fictional relationships than my own life and i feel like that should be concerning. but like. i'm not worried about it

[significant-ace-nnoyance]

absolutely flabbergasted that i’ve seen NO ONE bring up the most important callback of the season

THE ENIGMA?? ALAN TURING???

oh my god i just know she made will feel so safe with that one line like. comparing will to a gay historial hero that he made a whole presentation about 🥺

that’s the subtle importance of queer community right there

[toonightspooky]

That's GENIUS

[wizardcleric]

will byers with straight relationships:

will byers with gay relationships:

my heterophobic king

[willelworld]

do you guys remember when a lot of us theorized this was will giving up and sacrificing himself? whole time it’s actually will finding his inner strength by thinking about how loved he is. by accepting who he is and gaining power from it.

he thinks of meeting mike, of hanging with him in mike’s basement. he thinks of drawing for jonathan and joyce. of building castle byers. he thinks of the things that make him special - his creativity, playfulness and wonder and whimsy.

he is an artist. he is a sorcerer in a hat and robe. he is a good friend. he’s sweet and sensitive and thoughtful. he is a son and a brother. he is queer. he is STRONGER because of all of these things.

vecna called him weak, and he immediately said “no the fuck i’m not?” and drew on self-love and love for the people in his life, all to tap into his power and SAVE THEM.