Stranger Things Stuff

Thoughts, theories, and art related to this obscure 1980's period piece Kids-on-bikes genre horror you've probably never heard of.

[the-hellfire-freaks]

Yeah, I don't think there's anything left for me here in this fandom.

Honestly, this was the first show that I got so excited about that I actually made a Tumblr just for it. And the payoff just wasn't there.

I've been in a lot of fandoms --undertale, homestuck, sandersides, superwholock to name a few-- I've seen how toxic they can get. I'm not new to this shit. Usually there are elements that make them worth it though.

But what's left here? The show has ended on an incredibly disappointing note, that pissed everybody off in some way or another, but if you comment on any of that, there is somebody who is pissed off in a slightly different way who will conclude that you are with those other fans. There's no nuance in the discourse here. No discussion to be had. Everyone's brains are so wired for the shipping war, that it's all boiled down to confirmation bias, and straight up disdain.

There was potential for the fandom to do what fandoms do; to fill in the points that left us wanting with remedial fanfics and beautiful fan art. And for a hot minute we had that. And it was actually really fun going crazy with y'all over conformity gate. I mean, I really hope the duffers are kicking themselves for leaving so many bread crumbs and then not doing what could have been one of the most meta and awesome twists ever.

All I'm seeing now though is a bunch of oppression fantasy from folks identifying with their ship as if it's who they are as a person, insisting that people who ship the other thing are somehow horrible people who are attacking every value they stand for personally. If you ship byler, then you're clearly cultish and anti woman for some reason, and if you ship mileven then you're a GA conformist and anti-queer or whatever. And each of you feels so gawddamn persecuted by the other.

You all got fucked over by the showrunners, but you'd rather fight each other for liking a different relationship. It's fucking stupid.

And the way you march in lock-step with the people on "your side" and refuse to think critically anymore is the epitome of conformity so quit sucking your own dick about what a free fuckin thinker you are.

Congratulations Stranger Things fandom; I've been on this hellsite since 2012, and never has a fandom actually managed to make me say "fuck this I quit." And the worst part is, you didn't even do it by being particularly spiteful or mean, you did it by being borish and disappointing.

[phoebebyers]

the thing that gets me is that clearly someone in the writers room in season 4 understood the reality and gravity of being queer in 80s indiana (robin telling steve she would be “the town pariah” for asking out the wrong girl) but then this understanding is completely dropped in season 5. robin talks about her date in the radio, in which she will be at a public restaurant with another girl where anyone can see. assuming that push in the field is flirting, it’s a forward move that not only seems ooc for will (mike also currently dating el) but also is, again, right out in the open for anyone to see! mike would never harm will for being gay, but if he were to have clocked him here word got out somehow that would be dangerous for will. the worst possible outcome for him is not just “feeling stupid,” it’s being hatecrimed possibly to the point of death. that’s without even getting into the way the coming out scene was handled. it just irritates me beyond belief that the creators of this show are obviously looking to get their flowers for diversity when there’s not even consistency in how their queer characters are written with respect to st as a period piece.

[jackietaylorapologist]

[zo0eyy]

WE WERE ROBBED OF ELMIKE BESTFRIENDISM. IF YOU EVEN CARE

[the-hellfire-freaks]

Hot take, but Milevens should be just as pissed off as Bylers about how this show handled their romance. There's a reason why Byler has so much more resonance with so many fans. For a moment, let's actually put aside the usual ship discourse, which generally focuses on how much more believable Byler was and how badly we got queerbated with that one, and let's talk instead about how lazy Mileven was presented, because I for one didn't find their relationship believable for 2 minutes, and I would argue that I absolutely should have. The reason for this being, that for the entire five seasons the Duffers really relied heavily, just absolutely leaned on the heteronormativity of it alone to sail that ship.

They were not the least bit careful with how they presented their dynamic. Season 1 had its moments of childhood curiosity and wonder where they shared their first mutually experimental kiss, and second season had a sweet moment of reunion, but third had them breaking up as soon as the adolescent novelty of makeout sessions wore off, and a tentative making-up that didn't address the true elephant in the room of Jane having so much catching up to do in figuring out who the hell she is as a person before she can handle who she is in a relationship. Season 4 sees a conflict about Mike's insecurity around the L word that feels like it was pulled randomly from a hat full of romantic subplot tropes, and then being completely hostile and condemning to El in the wake of her violent outburst towards Angela (what happened to the Mike Wheeler that would have protected and tried to understand her) all of which is supposedly remedied with a clumsy motivational speech the Duffers couldn't even be bothered to fucking script, which ended up undermining thematic points the rest of the season had supposedly been trying to establish. And then in season 5 they barely interact. And while all of this is happening, Byler is right there in the background getting fed everything that an endgame ship should be fed. Even Jancy is being treated with a deep complexity that the supposedly central ship could only stumble its way through. What the Duffer's ultimately sold us with Mileven was a relationship fraught with unnecessary drama, repeated and deep disconnection and misunderstanding, and at times, actual resentment.

And why does this suck so much? Because there are critical moments in the story that truly could have been impactful from Mike and 11 if I actually could have believed that they loved each other that deeply. The aforementioned Pizza freezer speech where Mike somehow managed to bullshit his way through giving 11 the boost of confidence she needed to escape Vecna; the moment in the abyss where 11 is fighting Henry and Mike looks up at the mindflayer and knows that his girlfriend, supposedly the love of his life, is going to need support and rallies their friends into a Counter-Strike; the final goodbye scene and their last kiss; the crumbling of their plans to run away together; Mike's revelation about her possible escape; the deep sadness that he expects to carry for life. You can definitely see in these moments, that the Duffers really believed that they had something here. so why was it so hard for them to make so much of the audience believe it? Romantically or as friends, I needed to believe that the love between them was deep enough for these things to matter, and we never got that. Whatever you ship, we as an audience got robbed.

[f1nnyf1sh]

One thing I really hated about the finale is how they made Janes death.. about Mike. ick ick ick, yuck. She should have talked to Hopper or Will instead of having the worst kiss I have seen on television with her gay boyfriend.

[velvet4510]

“What if it isn’t a mistake?” - Patty Newby to Henry Creel

“You make [me] feel like [I’m] not a mistake at all.” - Will Byers to Mike Wheeler

“bYlEr WaS nEvEr PlAnNeD.” - The people who wrote the two lines above!! Unless they didn’t…

[queerofthedagger]

sometimes you just gotta go "man i actually don't give a shit" and keep scrolling. online survival skill 101

[w1uhiv]

my beautiful daughter on the beach 😊🌊

[0ceansoftime]

clubbing byler but make it medieval. cleric will in his flowy robes and he has flowers in his hair and he’s dancing in the town square festival and paladin mike sees him and time slows down.

[oliveespineapples]

*slams hands down on table* TANGLED-FIED BYLER!!!!

[dick-hardboiled]

There is absolutely a platonic explanation for that

[dick-hardboiled]

But I will also entertain the non platonic for my own edification do u understand

[goldensunset]

[biteorflight]

Fucked up thinking about them again

[furbetii]

Jane Hopper also known as Eleven as a character genuinely makes me cry, and the fact she was so let down by the creators tears my heart apart. Looking at pictures when she was young makes me so emotional. She wasn’t herself in the last season, merely a husk of what she was in past seasons, it’s criminal how badly they messed it up. Jane my angel you’re forever in my heart ☹️☹️♥️

[nachosforfree]

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

The radius and ulna are among my favourite bones specifically because they do this

[jessica-problems]

I hate this. I hate that they do this. I think about this every time I rotate my wrist. It seems like the sort of thing that would go wrong in all sorts of horrible ways and leave a bone sticking out of my skin. and yet it keeps happening. every day of my life.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

I rotate my arms regularly just because I like it when they do this.

[aberrantemotion]

iiiiiii dont. think thats how bones work

[frankencanon]

Here are two videos on Reddit demonstrating how the radius bone rotates around the ulna bone: link / link

[aberrantemotion]

Yeah i doubt someone would make these gifs for the purpose of an online joke so I have no choice but to believe it

[invisible-goats]

i have a degree is bones (bioarchaeology) this is how bones work and i hate it

[the-hellfire-freaks]

That's probably a big reason why anatomical position has the hands with palms facing forward

[adventures-in-poor-planning]

yesterday I got the "are you a boy or are you a girl" question from a six-year-old, and I told her that some people aren't boys or girls (like me!) I was expecting her to be a little confused, but she nodded thoughtfully and said, "wow, just like snails."

[snailspotter]

[scoopstroopog]

"mike was the first person to treat el with kindness and like a human being"

put some respect on his fucking name please

[glowcowboy]

“it’s not that deep” it’s not that shallow. now what