#byler validation

[gayofthefae]

Also reminder that if it's queerbait, we can sit back, we don't gotta do shit. Lizzo and Kit Conner will go to fucking war for us.

[withdevovotion]

how could they do this to him. he deserved so much better

[gayofthefae]

This Leigh Janiak thing is actually SO validating. I know it's not confirmed but the Matilda Effect is so real to this day. And guess what she wrote? Fear Street. A supernatural horror series centering acclaimed queer representation.

For those who don't know, she was married to Ross Duffer...until season 5. When suddenly and confusingly, setups stopped being paid off, plot themes seemed to stop being understood, and queer representation got worse.

I feel so vindicated at that idea. Mike telling he loves her was his CAVE - the place in the story where every character is at their WORST. Him not being with Will was narratively to Max DYING based on the timing and structure that is REQUIRED.

The painting was CYRANO. They stopped in the MIDDLE of the Cyrano trope and DID NOT COME BACK TO IT.

And something recently irking me in reading The Duffers' interviews is they never seemed to understand their characters, abuse themes, and queer representation in interviews as much as they demonstrated in the show.

Maybe now we know why.

It reminds me of a post I saw recently about how to tell when writers use AI [or just didn't write their own work]: ask them about it. Ask them about details, ask them to elaborate on things - big things, little things, it doesn't matter. They will be SO. EXCITED to tell you at LENGTH.

I always thought The Duffers were just holding back and would do that once the spoilers were out. But maybe they just didn't have it in them in the first place.

In all recent interviews I've seen they have lacked an understanding of their characters to the depth their writing from season 1-4 represented. Now I think we know why.

Byler was intended. Every basic narrative structure pointed directly to it, I said that a million times. I originally said it would betray their writing quality in a way queerbaitors never have, incomprehensibly demonstrate a sudden loss of skill.

But that's not what it was. It is very possible that it wasn't a loss of skill. But a loss of the one person who had that skill.

They understood queerness with extreme depth until a sudden point never made sense. Someone else did and she left makes a hell of a lot more.

And it did not.

[gayofthefae]

We love to see it.

[gayofthefae]

This article in Collider, which describes the Mike and El scene as "dooming" and says it's plausible that they already broke up, and that it would make sense because Mike is being set up to be with Will, also brought up an analysis of the Mike and El scene I hadn't considered before:

He talks about their happy ending as fantastical: Once we succeed, we'll go to a far off land in the far off future and do vague happy things.

With Will, it's: you are wonderful currently, therefore the immediate next thing to happen will also be wonderful based in your recent actions and current existence.

Once again, as I've said many times, anything that even seems romantic is pulling from something else and/or non-specific. He states a "happily ever after" but never describes a real image of it, making a lighthearted comparison and joke instead.

With Will, he tells him something that is currently true.

The article also talks about how the conversation ties Mike and El's relationship to the supernatural, prompting the thought that once the battle is over, it can't exist outside, not in the way it does now or originally developed as a romance, which was always contained within this threat and every milestone of has been in direct relation to as well.

Very good read. Jennie Richardson, comment if you're here on tumblr. I see you, girl.

[gayofthefae]

They're taking him seriously. Because he recorded his full process and the have proof documented that it was gradual and he never went suddenly "crazy delusional" and every opinion he has formed has been based in the material itself, they're treating him as credible.

This is a comment from one of Matt's Multiverse's recent posts.

I was hopeful this would happen. Because he went in without a specific expected outcome, fully willing to come out with no proof towards Byler, and beat by beat gradually converted - the way any love story progresses, a relatable viewing experience we ourselves have experienced before:

They're taking his word.

[gayofthefae]

@teambyler IT'S WORKIIIIIIIIIING

[gayofthefae]

"The GA doesn't want Byler"

This is the GA.

This is always what the same people who say they don't trust it'll happen look like during those scenes.

[Magic Magy on Youtube btw]