Murray Bauman Detective Agency

it's the toxic relationship you step out of and you're finally noticing all the crap you forced yourself to overlook through the years

The way the Duffers did Mike protect Will in season 2 just because Mike lost Eleven and he didn't want to lose another friend... Like they really made Mike's personality only about El since the beginning omfg... They really thought that they made Mike be a great character by just being Eleven's boyfriend 🫩🤡

That was what finally ruined Byler for me. So, the fact that Will, his best friend, was taken by some alien creature to another dimension where he died didn’t affect Mike at all. But the loss of a girl he’d known for a week is his greatest trauma and the main reason he ended up bonding with his BEST FRIEND? How does that make any sense? It was as if Will hadn't existed in his life before November 7, 1983, and not El.

The fact that the Duffers haven’t mentioned the painting once since s4 yet have said so much embarrassing stupidity in the past few months makes me wonder if they actually believe the painting wasn’t important enough to mention again. It’s an claim many anti-Bylers are already saying: “who cares about the painting? it’s not that important, it doesn’t matter, it wouldn’t magically change Mike if he learned what Will really meant!” Even though that thing was at the center of Will and Mike’s s4 story and made Mike’s entire relationship with El ring hollow by the end of s4! It was set up from the very first episode of s4 and haunted the whole season with the mystery of what it depicted and why Will made it. And then it was the catalyst of Mike’s entire character arc that season, giving him the inspiration to commit to El because he fell under a false impression of how she felt about him. He was saying “I love you” to the person who gave that painting to him and believes he is the heart - with no idea he was actually saying it to a person who knew nothing about the painting and never said he is the heart. And then it continued to define Mike’s character for the rest of the show because in s5 he’s back to being a leader after being decidedly not a leader in s4; the catalyst for that change in him was Will’s speech in that van, which he thought was a mere parroting of El’s belief in him. That painting was the only reason Will’s true feelings for Mike became fully known to Jonathan and the audience, the only reason Mike and El reconciled, and the only reason Mike told El he loved her for the first and only time in the show.

The painting and the way they used it and Will's feelings to prop up Mike and El's crumbling relationship without letting Mike know the truth in the end was truly what ended the show for me. It was not only my favourite show but also my comfort show in my darkest moments for 10 years and now I might never be able to watch it again without feeling rage, and it's mostly because of that idiotic, unresolved cyrano trope.

"the fandom is dying" no it's not. i'm here

the fact that they want to make us believe that Vecna needed Will to find Max is so stupid because couldn't your stupid ass look inside the mind of idk Max's mother? Or even just GUESS that someone in a trance would be in a fucking hospital???? you can invade the minds of random kids in all parts of Hawkins but checking inside the minds of a few hospital workers or ppl near her is too complicated???? 😐