byler stan 4 life

how was your day? do anything interesting?

hiiiii

im just going to start out by saying that my hopes were VERY high for volume 2. I couldn't sleep last night because I was just thinking about canon byler. instead what we got was a messy plot and ZERO character development for will, mike and el. I'm going to break it down using those 3 characters. remember these are MY THOUGHTS. also going to to be talking about social media posts also that contributed to the queer baiting.

WILL

firstly, im so over the gay pining trope omg my best friend is straight and he'll never love me back. it's one thing if mil even was put back together this season (it's repetitive and boring and annoying but whatvever) but using a queer person's experiences to further plot lines? a big no no. and even the fact that will's painting was hyped up to be such a big deal and relate to will's sexuality (which the duffer brothers LITERALLY stated in an interview) and it just turning out to be something to help mike tell eleven that he loves her. which if he did, why didn't he say it in their argument where she was literally crying? example number 1 of lazy writing. the coded conversation with Jonathan in the pizza shop was such a let-down. ALSO WHY CANT THEY SAY THE WORD GAY. ITS NOT A DIRTY WORD. and its clear the Jonathan knows but of course they have to keep it discreet and "up to interpretation" for their homophobic audience. don't even get me started on the cabin scene which would have been a perfect opportunity to parallel season 2 and have mike hold will's hand. but of course not. then they had that lame ass shot at the end of all the couples standing next to each other just to hint at the queer audience that "omg this is the byler scene" and then to leave it at that. I mean the cast wasn't wrong when they said we would need time to process what happened after it finished because literally what the fuck was the mess that is volume 2.

MIKE

sigh. what have the duffers reduced his character to at this point. seriously, what point does he serve in the plot other than el's boyfriend? it seems as if the writers love to introduce new characters just to kill them off (rip Eddie) and simultaneously ignore their characters development that has been built up throughout the seasons. the fact that he couldn't say I love you to el in the bedroom when she was crying, but only say it in the heat of the moment when she was almost dead USING WILLS GUIDANCE. this is literally just a repeat of season 3 where he uses all of his friends, but this time will instead of Lucas, to help fix his own relationship. it's like he's not even his own person anymore. it also makes no sense that he would be awkward with will in the airport and argue with him and stuff if he has no feelings for him? he also hugged dustin in the previous episode? like what. im so angry because the writers had the best chance ever to make mike wheeler one of the best representations of internalized homophobia but they took the easy route instead so that the casual viewers and general audience don't riot and say that "it came out of nowhere" he feels like a completely different person than he was in season 1 and 2. lastly the fact that he said it was the best day ever when he found eleven on the DAY WILL WENT MISSING??? fuck you mike, but more importantly fuck the duffer brothers.

EL

im only going to say one thing: the fact that she had the most character development when she was AWAY from mike speaks volumes to me. that's it. why does she need someone so that she can believe that's she's worth something? someone who doesn't treat her very well, mind you

SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

aside from the Netflix geeked posts, Noah really disappointed me. and before y'all start, because I know one of you will, I know Noah does not write the show. but if he knew we were getting literal minuscule crumbs of byler content, why would he tweet that? it makes no sense. and all of them getting giggly in interviews and stuff. and the fact that Finn and Noah had no interviews together, yet they were in the same plot line? bye.

at this point the only explanation is that the duffers cut content from the episode bc it was originally supposed to be 2 hr and 30 min but its 2hr and 21 on Netflix. so, yeah.