cheriawi

we know will is an artist, we don’t need more scenes of him painting. what we need is confirmation that he’ll continue to grow into his identity, that he’ll find community and belonging. we saw him let go of shame, we also need to see him embrace pride.

will’s story has always been inextricable from his queerness, therefore it makes sense that his ending highlights it. one of the first things we ever learn about him is that he’s good at hiding; now, five seasons later, he’s finally found somewhere he doesn’t have to.

why do you think gay people suddenly stop being complex human beings once they enter a space made for them? why do you see going to a gay bar as some kind of vapid, debasing pursuit? did they reduce dustin to his intellect when they showed him at a big, fancy university?

Just that he's gay and in a club now

But is he successful? Is he in college or something else? Who are his new friends? What's his new life like? Is he doing okay or is he saying he is like he's done in the past? We don't know.

Yes he is gay and it is important but that shouldn't be the only thing he gets to have in his future

Not to mention just the horrible experience he's had with Lonnie and we know this and how it traumatized him, the fucking Duffers know this and they put him there drinking with an ash tray there too meaning he was probably smoking, the Duffers know this is a direct parallel to Lonnie and Will's trauma and I won't believe otherwise because we know they don't give a shit about crushing the rep we have beneath their heel and throwing it at us

I'm fine if Will goes to the bar tbh but the way the Duffers did it, hell I'm not even trying to say he can't drink or smoke if he doesn't want to

Abused and trauma affect people differently so maybe he'd still be fine with it but the fact that the Duffers decided to use it as a direct parallel is what angers me so much. He should be able to be his own person and happy and free, not being like his father. Not saying he can't be free because now he's like his father.

They were purposely trying to parallel him to his abusive father who he'd never want to become

It irks me so badly

He looks sm like him in that scene and even parallels to an exact scene we see of Lonnie

I want to see Will find himself and be able to happily be queer and have a good queer experience but I don't want him to be made by the showrunners to only be gay and forget who his character is and reduce him to "Haha, gay boy who's only here to be gay and has no other personality trait" and then decide to throw everything out about him as well

Will's trauma from possession persists with more physical effects and visions. To avoid confronting the trauma, he glues himself to DnD. After he destroys Castle Byers, Henry approaches him as his child self and offers to be his friend. Will is so desperate for someone who understands him that he ignores the sinking feeling in his neck and follows the young boy to the Creel house. There, they play games and bond. Heavy amounts of parallels between Will and Henry. The world becomes more fantastical the longer he's there.

Mike and Lucas come across the remains of Castle Byers and realize Will is missing again. They lead the search to redeem themselves for their previous mistreatment. This places them in a similar mindset to s1. They're forced to confront why they're so eager to grow up, concluding that they're avoiding the trauma of Will's disappearance. They empathize with Will now that they understand he was using DnD to run from the same thing, only it's far worse for him. Eventually, they both give him a proper apology.

The young vision of Henry increasingly becomes... off. He speaks like he's from the 50s and expresses concerning thoughts of revenge against Will's friends. Will wanders out of the Creel house and comes across memories of his time in the Upside Down, except they aren't from his perspective, they're from someone else's. He brushes it off as his PTSD and returns to the house. Sensing that Will is becoming distrusting, Henry presents himself in his adult form and claims to be Henry's dad. He informs Will of an incident Henry experienced when he was younger that caused him to be odd, coaxing Will into relating to him again.

Joyce teams up with Jonathan and Nancy to research the Creel house after El saw the rose door in the void. There's some Joyce and Jonathan bonding with acknowledgement of his parentification. They find Will's body in the dusty attic, but his consciousness has been taken.

At the same time, El searches the old lab with Hopper to find where the Upside Down was able to seep through. As she walks the halls of the abandoned building, her memories of the massacre come back. There are no Russians, the lab has started hidden operations elsewhere. Once they find the new base, El witnesses a scientist be disintegrated by the gate and her memory of banishing Henry comes back.

Henry tells Will that imagination is his strength and he can create a better world where he's accepted. In this version, Will would have creation abilities or some other power Henry needs to create his vision of a perfect world. Will's increasing doubt in Henry's fantasy allows El to speak to him in the void about Henry's deceit. This helps them find common ground after Will's initial iffy feelings about her because of how she contributed to his ostracization, building up to their siblinghood in the epilogue. El gets kicked out by Henry. Will finds the courage to enter the maze of memories and confront his trauma. He realizes escapism won't recover what he lost.

HIS SISTER IS DEAD

HE REPLACED THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE WITH SOME NOBODY WHO KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT HIM OR HIS STRUGGLES

HE GOT REDUCED TO HIS SEXUALITY AND NONE OF HIS ART WAS ADDRESSED

also not to mention that people who use this phrase and ship byler don't even gaf about mike's ending

✨ HEWWO 🗣️ ✨

Here's another comic. As I said before, this isn't an exact continuation; this part of the comic takes place some time after the first part I published. This is a contextualization of Will's story, and how he experienced it. I'll be uploading more soon; there's a LOT to talk about.

Another facts: Mike is the only one who feels such a strong attachment to Will because curses are something he fears (Holly had a curse but it was removed, it wasn't that complex).Besides, in their small adventures, he's the one who most closely follows their plans.

Will was taken away from his family when he was younger (around age 7, he wasn't sacrificed at that time, each child is prepared to be given to "that thing" and be a suitable candidate, and depending on their quality, that thing gives them a "blessing.") now he is 11 years old.

The reason he doesn't remember his family is due to the same curse; his memories are unreliable, although he is unaware of it. So you can consider Will an "unreliable narrator" hehe.

As mind boggling as it is, it's also apparently canon that Will was accurately conveying El's feelings, too? Because I don't see any other way they could not address the painting and have it make a return in Mike's future scene where he endlessly pines for El.

We'll just ignore the fact that one of the main reasons El was so upset in season 4 was that Mike wasn't making her feel that way, no matter how much she wanted him to. They just shoehorned it all in "off screen" I guess.

Except this would be even more egregious given Will is giving the whole ass speech himself.

They cut to Will looking out the window when he’s saying ‘And when you’re different sometimes you feel like a mistake’ as if to say ‘this is something that Will feels too’, almost as if the primary focus was meant to be on El’s supposed feelings which Will can break away from momentarily and then, on a secondary level, relate to.

"Realism" doesn't lend to emotional catharsis. In reality, yes, it could/would make sense for Will and/or Mike to have different relationships before getting together. But we don't have to be constrained to "realism" when it comes to fiction.

I also find it interesting in these interpretations of Mike and Will dating others that it's very clear to both of them that their minds and hearts are already set on each other. Thus their current relationship(s) they're in is merely their second option, and the OC boyfriend is only used as a vechicle for Mike and Will to get together. And in general I don't really like third parties be the culminating reason for a couple to get together. In a world where Mike and Will have nearly lost one another time and time again due to supernatural forces, even facing death's door countless times, lends to many different routes to them revealing their feelings.

Paladin!Mike would notice immediately that this Mike and Will aren’t together. Bc he can read Will too well (he spend years learning the smallest shifts in his expressions so he could protect Will the best and then love him the best like Will deserves) and it’s obvious to him that this Will is miserable, hiding his feelings.

At first he doesn’t say anything bc he knows it would only hurt Will more. But some instinct in him flares up anyway, that one that’s always lived in his bones - to protect Will and in this reality it's form another version of himself bc at the beggining he hates normal Mike a little. How could he not love Will? How could there exist a version of him that doesn’t treasure Will, doesn’t see his suffering, doesn’t drown him in affection at every opportunity?

Of course normal Mike hates how close Paladin!Mike stands to Will, he’s almost ready to fight him, to yell at him to stop touching Will like that, stop looking at him like that, stop acting like he has any right to- to- oh. To stop stealing him alright?!

And Paladin!Mike recognizes THAT and his whole view of normal Mike shifts, he sees the protectiveness and love, maybe it manifests differently, maybe it's hidden behind the wall of fear but it’s there. So he backs off, watching instead, feeling an ache not only for Will but for normal Mike too bc he sees the way Mike hovers near Will, the way his voice changes when he speaks to him and yeah, he knows those signs, he does the same with his own Will so he shouldn’t feel hatred but sympathy. He tries to talk to Mike about it. It goes terribly.

Mike is NOT open to discuss anything with Paaladin!Mike bc duh he's JEALOUS guys he can barely look at Paladin!Mike he reminds him of everything Mike isn’t, he's better at everything, has broader shoulders, longer hair caught in careless half-bun (and god does Mike wish he knew how to pull that off when he had longer hair), he's more mature and isn't stumbling over his words every time he opens his mouth and he's.. he's not afraid to love Will openly. Standing in front of him feels like staring at a version of himself he’ll never live up to. And it stings. So yeah NO Mike will NOT talk to him nonono. So Paladin!Mike decides to talk to Will instead bc he trust him, he knows his Will had been braver than him many times and this Will doesn’t seem so different. He just needs to believe he can get something he wants. His Mike.

But it doesn’t go the way Paladin!Mike hopes either. They’re inside the Wheelers house trying to form a plan and obviously Paladin!Mike can’t walk around Hawkins in full armor so since normal Mike wants nothing to do with him, it’s Will who takes him upstairs to find something else to wear. It’s not surprising how easily they fall into banter. Paladin!Mike even starts to flirt a little, he doesn't do it intentionally it's just that this Will is SO SIMILAR to his Will, the same chemistry, the same rhythm between them, so it happens naturally. Will is giggly at first, thowing one of normal Mike’s shirts at him as Paladin!Mike takes off his armour and ends up bare chested and it's all so nice so he starts asking questions and they drift to Will’s love life.

Paladin!Mike wants to tell him what he suspects, that normal Mike loves him, that it’s written all over him, but Will admits he’s never even had a real first kiss and oh oh Paladin!Mike forgets everything bc no that's not right that NEEDS to be fix like... right now. Someone like Will shouldn’t be walking around that untouched, that lonely, especially if this Will is anything like his Will and has been aching for it for far too long. So Paladin!Mike comes closer and asks if he'd want to and they end up kissing, it's very gentle and soft and slow like an apology for all the years Will went without it and after it's over Will is crying bc it was beautiful but he wanted- he wants it to be his Mike. Not just someone who looks like him. Paladin!Mike opens his mouth to encourage him to- he doesn't get to say anything bc they hear footsteps thudding down the stairs and somebody probably saw that and oh god oh god Will looks horrified bc it probably was...

…yeah it was Mike. Bc there was no way absolutely NO WAY he was leaving Will alone with that perfect version of himself for long so he went to check on them and saw… well he saw a lot but what stuck in his mind was how happy Will looked. And how right they looked together. It keeps replaying in his head, the image of them kissing (and the cruelest part is he didn’t see the tears in Will’s eyes, didn’t hear what Will said afterwards bc he left before the kiss ended!!) and yeah that Mike is more masculine and oh god that hair - he's never gonna have a hair like that - but otherwise dressed in Mikes clothes he looked just like him and seeing all that showed Mike how it'd look like if HE was the one kissing Will, if he allowed himself that one thing he keeps dreaming about over and over and over again. And the world didn't stop, nothing terrible happend when someone who looks like him kissed Will so maybe it isn't as impossible and dangerous as he always believed it was?

Wings of Fire miwi/byler...

"the whole episode has to be building up to her killing herself"

so when kali first brings up how the only way out is suicide, anyone familiar with how writing works is going to think "oh they brought this up to subvert it. shes going to choose to live in the end otherwise they wouldnt have had her thinking about it for half the season." when el says "i dont belong anywhere" in s4, you expect the narrative to prove her wrong, because thats how that pattern normally works.

when will says "im not gonna fall in love" and "he was just my tammy" and the cyrano trop gets set up with the painting, you expect will to get proven wrong. you expect the trope to be fulfilled, because thats what subversion normally looks like.

they think they did a plot twist because they subverted the subversion. the plot twist was there there was no plot twist. thats why they think its meta.