coco

And said "fuck this, dress him like his dad if you wanna give him that ending" "he hangs Will's painting over his bed actually fuck you, and it's right below his one way sign for an extra fuck you".

It wasn't the Duffers commenting on this. It was every passionate artist who loved this story so much and actually understood the characters, doing everything in their power to send the message through the screen everything from "this is ending is a dystopia" to "Byler are still endgame" or whatever each thing hints at. It's not theory or hint. It's spite.

Everything in their power to either imply the right ending is still out there for them in the future, or acknowledge that this is not it. Make that shit blue and yellow. Hang that painting above his bed. And if you're gonna write him into a conformist hellscape, I'm gonna dress him the way I did every time he was miserable and identical to the character who represents misery in conformity.

they turned her death into a man’s story. her father, who spent every season crying over his daughter’s death, got over it in a matter of months. her friends don’t even mention her. the duffers really wanted to make it seem like mike is the only one who cares, because this is the story of a straight white man. she was only there to be the magical girl who changes his boring life and takes him on an adventure, only to die afterward, because she isn’t a person, she’s a symbol of the male protagonist’s childhood. even her own creators talk about her as if she were a dog, an alien pet of their self insert character.

We gave these two waaaaay too much credit.

The conversation in the void never happened? That's quite literally the only part of it that does make sense considering El was legit missing from the scene.

Her appearing at the gate without anyone noticing? Sure, that's questionable.

Her somehow sneaking away, whether it to the gate or tunnels, without anyone, be it her friends or the military, noticing? That requires a lot of suspension of disbelief. She was the primary target for Kay. She'd be the first one they grab.

Kali casting an illusion from miles away in the Upside Down when she was bleeding out earlier? Damn near impossible.

Kay and the military up and leaving Hawkins in peace because El was dead and the Upside Down destroyed? Straight up plot hole they just didn't care to address.

But that entire void conversation between El and Mike not ever happening is just straight up lying to the audience in order to make a dramatic scene. Yes, it was contrived to begin with, but it makes no sense for them to have shown that scene at that moment if it didn't happen. Maybe if they had Mike "remembering" it as he sat by the monument, it could've worked. It would've been a false memory he created to try to cope. But, no, they showed Mike experiencing that in the moment.

God, even conformitygate makes more sense than this ending, and that's saying something. Because the only alternative to piss poor writing is that someone else was responsible for that scene.

They're basically admitting that their ending makes no sense.

Maybe we were the ones being Vecna'd all along, after all.

And all they had to do was have Will be the one behaving weirdly in S3 and 4.

Have Mike remain the steadfast friend we saw in S2, not understanding why he's being pushed away.

Signals being the term Robin uses for queer coded advances...

Will being a human receiver...