Confirmity gate aside and writing that had is own evolution in this show, but at least I got to see baby Byers happy and finally accepting himself.

I knew i wouldnt watch it on release and I was okay with that, I figured I'd just stay offline until I watch it, and then I saw the negative reaction to it and... had no desire left to watch. I was so ready to see byler happen and a cute little talk between Jane and Mike so they can be friends and just anything to make up for the bullshit they went through. And then I heard about the queerbaiting and lost all my joy and whimsy.

I saw enough posts that I know every significant detail, I've seen clips and edits but not even a single episode of the final season.

Now I can't decide if I should watch it for the sake of it or just ignore its existence and continue living life with byler and Jane and all of my babies happy and alive in my head.

I'm genuinely so upset that they ended up ruining the show that brought so much comfort to so many people. I used to watch it when I was learning english to help me practice, and then I watched the same episode over and over when I was sick for almost a year. I grew up with those kids, I was 12 when I watched it and when I was watching I didnt feel alone, I felt like I was part of them. My best friend at the time used to say I was really similar to Will and El and then I grew up to realize I was queer and guess what! Will is too!

Raised alone by a single mom and an absent father, found comfort in drawing to the point where it became part of who I am, bullied in school, moved away and lost all my friends, realized I was queer and finally every feeling I had not fitting in made sense.

Only for us to wait a decade for the most dissatisfying finale ever? For Will to have his personality taken away and be reduced down to his sexuality? After music and art being a huge part in saving him, being brought up over and over again, and we only get him at a bar?

Not only that, but leading us to believe for all this time that maybe for once this wouldnt be queerbaiting, only to ruin their own show in the end. To have their own characters be pulled out of character and ruined.

This is not the first time a queer character has been used this way, and it won't be the last, but this one sure fucking hurt.

I won't get over how angry I am at them, I don't even want to say their names, but at least there is a community that's keeping the characters alive.

OG post on TikTok:

some general thoughts:

1. why can’t he say ily to el? mike is portrayed to be a character who isn’t very connected to his emotions but wasn’t the whole ‘from mike’ letter saga in s4 already addressing that? in the finale’s void scene HE WAS NEVER GONNA SEE EL AGAIN and he still couldn’t say it back?

2. if the directors were truly adamant about going down the route of el sacrificing herself and mike having to be an eternal yearner, why couldn’t they have established mileven more during vol1 and 2 of s5 so mike’s yearning would make sense? having mileven not kiss at all and act awkward around each other does nothing to the plot except bait byler supporters. and having mike still be hung up on el’s death after 18 months while hopper doesn’t seem sad at all does NOT make sense. season 1 mileven was really cute, if they kept that up, yearner!mike would be so bittersweet and tastefully done

3. saw an interview about the void scene and it not being real but if it was, why would el choose to communicate with mike and not idk? hopper😭. or even will! millie herself has said that will understands el more than mike does

4. epilogue boyfriend.. i wasn’t a byler shipper before, but after watching the entire show, i honestly think that byler was the only acceptable way to end will’s story. the epilogue bf/carlton wouldn’t understand the stuff will has been through as much as mike would, and leaving will single until the end would just be cruel.

5. what was the point of the whole ‘signals’ talk between will and robin? and let’s say will noticed that mike wasn’t reciprocating the signals and will wanted to get over him, there is NO way will managed to accomplish that in the span of like 3 days. reducing his feelings to a ‘crush’ when he genuinely loved mike is insane

6. will could have been written as gay and having a crush on any random guy, it being mike does nothing for the plotline if byler wasn’t going to be canon

7. heroes in the credits. no comment.

8. i guess the ‘one way’ sign to mike’s closet represents the fact that he’s forever going to be in there 😭

9. honestly after vol1 came out i was pretty confused and didn’t ship byler because i thought they were going to develop mileven and i didn’t know how they were gonna break them up just for byler. but THEN they didn’t even bother developing mileven 😭

10. when the fuck was the painting gonna be addressed? and patty newby? and the fact that henry went to school with all the parents? and the suitcase guy in the cave was honestly super random

11. repeating the same point but.. “mike had a gf for 4 seasons he’s not gay!” well yes that would make sense if he actually acted like he liked his gf, as i said before i genuinely think season 1 mileven was really cute. and again tons of people date someone of the opposite gender for many years before realizing that’s not what they’re into and vice versa

12. max throwing and breaking stuff during the epilogue dnd game CAUGHT ME OFF GUARD. flashback to that scene where billy said that he would break stuff and max has said before that she wouldn’t ever want to be like him. were the duffer brothers trying to prove that you can’t escape the cycle with this or?? really really weird

13. nancy’s hair cut like karen and mike looking exactly like ted

14. why was mike lobotomized omg.. finn’s acting threw me off sometimes but he’s a good actor in other shows so the script has to be what restricted him

If all that Duffers could give us is a bunch of coincidences I'll tell you what I noticed in the show (and they didn't apparently).

Will's name. I'm very interested in names genesis so I checked it. William derives from germanic words 'willo' (meaning will/desire) and 'helm' (meaning helmet/protection). The name mean's Esther 'someone who desires protection' or 'strong protector'. Both of it coresponds with the character in my opinion

El's names. a) The symbolism of the number 11 includes sin and mistake but in numerology it's a very positive number which is connected with enlightenment and finding your purpose in life. But to be honest I'd like to connect 11 with 12. 12 is the number of full. 12 months in year, 12 hours on a clock, 12 main greek and roman gods, 12 Jesus' apostles (you don't have to be Christian to know that Bible has a very big impact on the culture). 11 = 12-1. El opened the portal and created the Upside Down when she was looking for Henry sent by her to the X dimension. The Upside Down got destroyed when Henry got killed and El sacrifieced herself. 11+1 is full. I'm not putting the genesis of the name Jane here because it doesn't give us anything. The important part is that Jane is the name which is given to the unknown victims. 'Jane Doe' means 'unknown female'. So basically El's name is the name that points that he doesn't have a name. I know that the name Jane is given to children like any other and that Terry chose that name but I find the choice interesting.

Vecna's names. The name Vecna is of course given in the lore so we know. About 001 it is shown the he was first experimental object. Exceot this obvius fact 1 is the most perfect number which symbolizes universe, god and the first cause of existence. But 1 also can symbolize loneliness. In astrology 1 is connected with egotism (destructive aspect) and idividualism (constructive aspect). Also 11+1=12 as I wrote before. Henry derives from the Germanic name Heimirich which means 'ruler of the house'. Can you find better description for Mr. Whatsit than that?