Schneckna

And Will didn't create the burst symbolism pipe, MIKE DID. By himself. And Mike wanted Will to help him repress it, but then makes Will take off his jacket (which represents making him more vulnerable and truth). And I think this is because Mike is very much flustered by the flirting they just did and is getting frustrated at not knowing for sure, even if he is scared of knowing the answers either way. (Nobody is mentoring Mike)

Why have Mike have multiple seasons worth of giving the "signs" Will, and thus the audience, has been told are signs Mike wants to date? Signs Mike, nor Will, have with Lucas or Dustin.

The show was telling us Mike has big feelings that he wants to go away, but they just get more intense until it is written all over his face in "Sorcerer".

In the immediate aftermath, Mike can't contain how into Will he is. Then suddenly he becomes much more muted about it, as if he has realised it's too obvious.

He withdraws from touching Will, and from showing more care than anyone else when Will is unconcious.

It's like a recycled season 2 and Snowball thing. Mike realises he is too deep in his feelings and tries to create distance in s3 and over performs heteronormativity with El. There is no other reason for the awkward "Santa has good taste" line in to El in s5 about her clingy wetsuit, which El receives poorly.

Will is in a fkng coma and El is focused on trying to save him, and has not been able to so far, and Mike wants to comment about her sexy figure? Gross, Mike.

And the water bottle sharing? The lightning happening just as Will drinks to emphasise it? This indirect kiss trope is so unnecessary.

And then it leads to a tragic scene with El sacrificing herself. They are clinging to each other, but look like they are put off by each other at the same time. The whole narrative to this point has told us that the emotional spillover is meant to be Mike and Will, and yet we are with El and Mike. And El is still wearing Santa's sexy wetsuit...

Nothing new is revealed with El and Mike either. For a climatic moment, their relationship doesnt become any more meaningful. It actually becomes less.

She didnt trust him with any of this. Didnt care for his input on anything. Actively had rejected his advice prior: "you don't get to write the ending'.

And Mike doesn't even show that he can say "I love you" and mean it after Will forces him to finally say it in s4. Nothing is fixed.

And the song choice.. "Purple Rain" is not about romance, but severe dysfunction and letting go of those relationships without bitterness. The same-titled movie Prince starred in, wasn't a romance either.

Also, Prince was an awful person.

Prince was a Jehova's witness after 2000s and against homosexuality while profiteering off cosplaying queerness. He groomed a 16yo. Openly was known as an egotistical bully to anyone he saw as "beneath" him. Forbade his wife to talk about their stillborn child and left her to grieve alone, etc.

Anyway, the ST story would have felt right if it was Mike falling apart over Will in it's climatic moment. Everything had been building to an emotional reveal for Mike. THE HEART. MIKE THE BRAVE.

And he wouldn't have to say "love" to Will. That word is diminished now that it has been used as a lie to his gf, and made familial by saying it to his mum (the dialogue was pretty forced for it too). And this is because we have an easy callback of "I didnt say it." "You didn't have to." We were being told that Mike can say "love", but just didn't to El. It's not subtle.

And we also have Will foreshadowing that a kiss is a good way to end an argument.

With Byler, we were narratively being prepared to-

1. See Will struggle with his connection to the hive mind. Life and death. (He got put in a coma already and Vecna did some weird shit to him, and it is never relevant again?)

2. See a kiss ending an argument.

3. Feel intense, romantic love -without the word "love" ever being said. It would be shown very very clearly. No room for doubt like El.

And they make us feel insane because they just don't deliver on the most emotionally critical part of the whole show.

And this is the primary reason I can't let go of there being at least some sort of additional content to resolve this coming. They set me up not to!

I honestly side-eye anyone talking up how satisfied they were with the ending, because it shows a severe inability to connect narrative dots..

If someone was drawing a crocodile. And you see them drawing the teeth, long body, scaley tail.. and then you suddenly get shown a completed drawing of a horse in a swamp? You should have questions!

Anyway, I just want the byler cookie that had been narratively promised for about a decade.

Who I thought I was going to be going into Vol 2: