TrishFish Fandom Stuff

El moved to iceland after s5 and started afresh

She settles in a small village and when the people living there see a teenage girl alone with an air of melancholy? Immediately she is taken in as the village child to look after

someone sees her using her powers by accident and the whole village silently agrees “we tell no one. She is ours to protect now” and they go about their daily lives

years pass, el grows into an adult and takes over the village bakery after the elderly owner passes away

sometimes she checks in on The Party, using her powers, she watches mike and will fall in love, lucas and max blossom, and she is so very happy for them

and then she sees dustin. Dustin does not fall in love, she doesnt understand why because dustin always talked about suzie when they were dating, el figured dustin really valued romance

after a long while of living—when shes about 25-27—she is taking her daily walk through the forests and waterfalls (the one time a day she lets herself truly think about what she left behind) and she comes across a small child. No older than five or six, and so *so* small, shivering, terrified. El looks at her and sees herself that night in the woods when hopper found her

she remembers what hopper said the last time they saw eachother “give her the life you never had”

so she does

a year later dustin—a fully fledged nasa engineer—moves to work in iceland to study the geothermal vents and renewable energy possibilities. Hes posted in a small village.

the day after he arrives he walks into the village bakery to see el—jane—laughing with a customer behind the counter, flour on her cheek, her hair long, so long (she never cuts it, not after the lab) and smiling. Really truly smiling.

he’s about to call out to her, sweep her into a crushing hug, cry, shout, *something*, a young girl comes running behind the counter waving a sheet of scribbled on paper shouting “mama look what i made!”

and dustin comes to the conclusion that Jane has well and truly moved on from everything. From hawkins. From everyone.

he leaves the bakery without buying anything

and now has to try and get through his year long post without running into Jane, or her daughter

Hey gang! This is a pretty thorough analysis of Mike's mental health, or, in other words, a deep dive into what mental disorders he could (key word: could) have. I'll be touching on four: PDD, MDD, BPD, ASD, and ADHD. This is probably the longest post I've ever made, so props if you choose to read it lol.

Before we start, it is important to note that the fact that this is a sci-fi TV show with a ton of stuff going on makes it difficult to match full criterions. Some symptoms could be there, but we simply don't see them on screen. (For instance, all of these disorders involve insomnia, and Mike is never shown on screen having difficulty sleeping.) This is why it's necessary to look less into specific symptoms and more into the big picture of his behavior and actions.

But that's enough yapping. Grab a snack, cause this is gonna be a long one!

*cw for discussion of poor mental health and suicide*

mike ending up like ted. even the same hairstyle.

robin suddenly dressing in frills and has long hair

rovickie break up out of nowhere when last we saw robin was promising to take her on a date

el saying goodbye to mike in her mind when the sirens were blaring and she shouldn’t have been able to do that

the voltage dial turning from grey to red

the coming out scene dialogue inconsistencies

mike being unable to tell el i love you even though that was his plot for the entirety of st4

el saying mike understands her better than anyone else when el says the opposite in st4 and her love for max is what makes her more powerful than she’s ever been

the mind flayer and vecna defeat being very underwhelming

max at the dnd game crashing out about how the campaign doesn’t make sense the way we’re crashing out.

all the wsqk clues not adding up

duffers said we’ll know who opened the byers door bolt in ep1. the show still hasn’t told us

why was will framed as the exotic matter in the bridge episode drawing with an x over his heart?

why was the painting not addressed when it was wills entire st4 plot?

mike and wills eternal sunshine outfit inspirations when it led to absolutely nothing

max graduating with the boys when she’s missed a year of school

WHAT was vecna’s plan exactly? what would merging worlds do? what would it look like?

where were the demos both in the upside down and the abyss?

what about birthdaygate? why do henry and will share birthdays?

why do joyce and hopper never mention knowing henry?

what was the point of the “snowballs to avalanche” conversation?

why did will go from hopeful to giving mike up in a day?

why do the military let them go? and why is there a memorial with eddie’s name on it (as seen in BTS)?

why wouldn’t mike touch will even before the coming out? and more so after?

is mike grieving el the emotional weight of the finale? because it didn’t move me. in fact it pissed me off that he couldn’t say he loved her even then.

the duffers equating el to her powers in an interview saying she had to die. when millie herself said el’s st5 arc was realising she’s more human and less superhero.

if i’m missing something, feel free to reply and i’ll add it in edits

edit (more):

creelby parallels with byler going unmentioned

“can love defeat fear?” theme in tfs, but the finale was “can weapons defeat the mind flayer?”

where is henry’s backstory? and patty?

does will still have powers?

we never saw Will's Vecna Vision

mwtfdydg

do the kids have powers now?

is the mindflayer even dead?

the lies and contradictions in Interviews

the tape in promo

will standing like henry in shock jock and that not leading up to anything

where’s the turnbow family?

how did steve become a teacher without going to college?

what happened to owens?

what happens to the pregnant women in the lab?

how did killing the mind flayer and beheading vecna not hurt will?

everyone in the epilogue sitting with their hands like henry:

the whatzit board game in hop’s cabin in the epilogue (and in mike’s basement in the epilogue)

hop moving on from el’s death faster than mike, when all of st5 was spent showing us that mike barely mentions el and hop was ready to die to keep her safe.

why does the epilogue parallel the campaign at the end of season 1: 10 hours long, full of plot holes.

why do nancy and karen, mike and ted have the same hairstyles - which is also coincidentally henry’s hairstyle

AI generated images in the credit rolls or at least drawn to look like AI art.

will is a magic user (illusionist) in the credits. he’s never been that in the show.

the graduation robes in the epilogue being orange when in the ronance book, nancy’s graduation robes are green

the blank yellow poster in the graduation scene

mike’s hand weirdly twitching all the time

volume two suddenly splitting byler and elmax when we know that mike and max have always been two of the most important people to will and el respectively.

even more inconsistencies:

karen’s scar disappears in the final scene where she opens the basement door and calls the party up

the handle on the door in the basement behind the party is on the right (when it’s originally on the left)

the duffers intentionally sounding stupid in interviews (saying the demos aren’t in the final battle because they didn’t anticipate it. when vecna saw through the memories of both el and hop that episode AND can spy through will)

why 12 kids? the duffers said they didn’t really think about it an they like clock imagery, but robin in the narrative specifically asks “why 12 kids?”

will’s vecna vision is basically the ending mike wheeler got

“and me” “and me” / “i believe” “i believe” sounding like cult chants (this is just an observation)

floors, outfits resembling chessboards.

no mention of suzie at all

where’s the 3rd waterfall in mike’s version of el escaping? if it’s his fantasy, why isn’t it right?

dustin says “chaotic good and chaotic bad” but it’s “chaotic good and chaotic evil” (they even put the alignment in the credits) also there are three classes of chaos - chaotic neutral too.

expanding on a point before but melvalds doesn’t sell milkshakes like will said it does

will can’t enjoy getting lost in the woods

they said barb’s body will return. we didn’t see it. they also said no scenes were cut in st5.

five chimes as the abyss starts to descend. last season we were told that each chime represents one victim

why are the “popular kids” suddenly chummy with the party? what led up to that?

why does mike hold el so awkwardly in his last conversation with her?

scene of party playing dnd and will is in his will the wise costume in the finale - not a scene that happened in the show.

Having a character grow up in solitary confinement and then ripping her away from the only family she's ever known to live a life of solitude once again is not good writing.

Having a character be in love with his best friend and then just compare it to a high school crush is not good writing.

Having Eleven say that Mike has always been the person who truly understood her after showing us in the previous seasons that he only sees her as a superhero IS NOT GOOD WRITING.

Let’s see those pearls!!

SURVEY LINK

During my time in mcyt fandom, I've watched as the fandom's perception of creator boundaries has grown and shifted into a cornerstone of our fandom, and yet we don't actually have any good data on how the fandom as a whole perceives them outside of discourse posts.

The goal of this unofficial study NOT to make a value judgement on whether creator boundaries should be respected - it is to understand how the fandom currently perceives and interacts with them.* Is respecting creator boundaries important to you? Has your favorite creator made a boundary list or spoken about it on stream? Do you find some boundaries acceptable and others not? Have you ever been the target of hate for engaging with boundary-breaking content? Whether you think boundaries should always be respected or you think they're being used as tools of censorship, I want to hear from you. What are boundaries, and why do they matter so much to us?

—

This survey is a mix of multiple choice and optional long-response questions. It should take about 15 minutes if you’re only doing the required questions, and much longer if you choose to answer the optional questions.**

If you are able, please reblog and share this survey link around. Feel free to post it on any platform, as I am currently only on Tumblr, which is not representative of the fandom as a whole. In fact, I’d love it if it reached Twitter. The more responses, the more accurate the results will be for the whole of mcyt.*** Anyone in mcyt spaces, including creators, are welcome to take the survey to share their thoughts. However, I ask that for the comfort of content creators and the spirit of good fandom etiquete, please do not directly share the survey with any creator or post the link in any creators’ official communities. Thoughtful discussion is always valued over reactionary comments.

The survey is set to close at 11:59pm EST on August 1, 2026 - I may extend this date if there is still a high volume of responses coming in, or if there aren’t enough responses yet for meaningful data. I will aim to publish the results within a month of the survey’s close, and keep you updated on the timeline if that’s not feasible for any reason.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped beta this survey- you all gave such wonderful suggestions! I wish I could’ve kept every question, but in the end a lot needed to be cut to make this manageable. Please know that I appreciate every one of you, as this survey would not exist today without you.

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* Why I think this data is important to collect: The idea for this survey came to me almost a year ago, and I started developing it around February of this year. I’ve spoken with dozens of people about this topic with diverse opinions, read and catalogued hundreds of tumblr posts, rewatched streams and videos by creators and fans, and watched as opinions have shifted across fandoms in real time. I feel extremely confident in saying that every person on every side cares deeply about respecting others and creating safe, welcoming communities in all mcyt spaces. Where they differ is on how to show that respect, which kinds of expectations they think are reasonable in different spaces, and beliefs on how those in power should be using their influence. I don’t expect this survey’s results to fundamentally change anything - this debate has been going on longer than mcyt has existed. But I think it’s still important to analyze the actual arguments people are making and how they affect our communities, instead of focusing on expected behavior from others based on our own values, so we can see the varying expressions of humanity in each other and work towards a better future for our fandom. I don’t think we’re as different as the discourse may have us believe.

** This survey is designed to encourage all participants to think critically about their position and the effects it has. I am aware that I have my own personal biases, so I have taken steps to ensure that the survey is as bipartisan as possible and also gives participants the opportunity to explain their answers for every question if they feel the need. Because of this, there may be questions that make some participants uncomfortable. While I would appreciate knowing why a question has made someone uncomfortable, participants are always free to skip such long-response questions.

Also I feel your secondary gender/sex is just as important in omegaverse as someone’s primary gender/sex when it comes to their gender identity. At least that is the way I tend to write it. Will might actually hate the idea of being an omega, Mike might hate the idea of being an alpha. If you were to create a real life comparison, a taller extroverted assertive woman is not a man and a shorter introverted man is not a woman. If someone were to say that they would rightful be considered an asshole.

The people are twitter are way too upset about omega Mike Wheeler. Like if you want more omega Will fanfiction write it, don't talk shit about fanfiction writers. Also there are still way more omega Will fanfictions than omega Mike ones.

The way they talk about Will makes me feel like they view Will as the girl in the relationship, they are both boys.

Frankly it feels like gender existentialism. If they really want to be progressive they would write omega Will x omega Mike and alpha Will x alpha Mike fanfictions, which I would love to see more of.

Personally I love alpha Will x omega Mike because it a sensitive artsy yet strong protective alpha and leading stubborn yet sweet nurturing omega.

I feel Will would be a beta or alpha. I love that boy he is sweet and soft but also seemed like that kind of person who gets awkward when someone is upset and trying to comfort them.

Like he would say there there and hug them. He is not great with kids, he tackled a kid when trying to protect him while Mike played eyes on me to protect the younger kids. He was pressured into a more masculine roles by his father and forced to learned to use a gun while Mike was not. He would go all aggressive alpha if he needed to protect his family and friends. In the show it he made fun of for being different than other boys, artsy, sensitive, dressing in colorful clothes. It would be more interesting and make more sense for him to bullied for being an alpha who does not fix the stereotype rather than an omega that does.

Someone who is an omega or expected to be an omega won’t be bullied for acting like an omega. An alpha or someone expected to presented as an alpha wouldn’t be bullied for acting like an alpha.

Meanwhile Mike gives off overprotective mom friend energy who will let you know when you annoy him. He is good with kids. He is the leader and makes the plan while making sure everyone has been feed and asking if they slept. They would be out on a plan and he would shove a granola bar in their faces. He quite literally built El a nest and made sure she had food and warm clothes and wasn't out in the rain in the first season. He is very good at the caretaker role. Frankly Mike is a lot clingier than Will and becomes depressed when they are apart to the point it is concerning. The basement feels very much like his nest.

a collection of soft byler moments :p

close-ups and explanations/headcanons/my thought process of each under the cut :> fair warning : i ramble so they get Long lol

ok so. this one might b my favourite honestly and its supposed 2 b post-confessions, post-coming out 2 the group, and like. post-end of the world ig? like obviously idk how s5 is gonna end but this is if everything goes back 2 normal or at least as close as they can get 2 normal. like far enough in the future where they r comfortable enough 2 just insufferably b Boyfriends in front of the party ig. like, in my head they r ~17 in this. and i also dont think that the byers end up going back to california but this moment could still work even if they did (think like. they come back for a holiday or for summer or smth like that)

basically this moment is every1 (dustin, lucas, max, el, and any/all of the older kids if u want) are just hanging out somewhere and this is how they r standing while leaning against a countertop. and will doesnt even really notice? he's just still talking abt whatever (dnd probably) until some1 (probs dustin) makes a comment on it (like "jeez mike he's not going anywhere" or smth along those lines) and they get all defensive and flustered abt it :)

i sorta talked abt this one in the tags when i posted the lineart, but basically i hc that will can Definitely pick mike up and this is like. the firsttime he does it (sometime after getting back 2 hawkins - note the outfits - in the two day timeskip) and dustin or lucas says smth like "jfc will when tf did u get so Big ??" and somehwere in the ensuing conversation, one of them essentially dares him 2 try and pick mike up - which does take some convincing cuz both of them r like "well- i mean- uh- he doesnt have 2- that would b- yknow-" also dustin Definitely notices mikes reaction and is just like. 'hm. noted.' and then uses it against him in the future once byler r actually 2gether lol

genuinely all this one is is 'its literally the end of the fucking world, let them hug 4 fucks sake' . all i want in s5 is the longest, most emotional, rib-crushing, heart-aching hug-no embrace between them. they deserve it-- will deserves it (especially after the fucking airport thing)

this is my other favourtite and its another moment of them being insufferably boyfriends around the party. it's set the same summer as the other one (so again- 17 and out 2 all their friends and some family) and they r on the hill w cerebro? the cerebro? idk is that even what its called lmao. i dont remember. the big radio thing dustin made. anyways, the party is on the way back from idk talking 2 suzie? so its late and mikes complaining abt having 2 walk or smth probably so will picks him up like this :p also i could definitely see this as a polaroid that some1 takes of them while the others r like 'ew guys. really. can u not 4 like five seconds. good god' which of course only makes it worse bcuz they r little shitheads lmao

ALSO as u can see i gave will the darker clothes and mike the lighter ones in this and that is bcuz i hc that they 10000% share clothes- possibly even b4 getting 2gether. but i think its more mike than will? like will will put on one of his jackets or a sweater or smth sometimes but mike will absolutely go home in mostly wills clothes 9 times out of 10 after spending the night. i also think they have a designated drawer/space in their closet or whatever of each others clothes . and that when mike comes downstairs wearign one of will's shirts, some1 will ask (karen, genuinely or nancy, teasingly) where he got it from, to which he would reply very smoothly (< lying) that it must have just been smth will left here that he picked out w/o thinking abt it (also at this point they arent even sure themselves on whose clothes r whose)

this is supposed 2 another one probably in that same summer, or maybe even the one b4, where they (the party + the older kids) go 2 the lake for a day when its super hot outside while most other ppl r at the pool so they can b more alone, (i hc most of them as queer in some way and its a complete fun-vibe killer 2 swim w ur s/o and not b able 2 b . affectionate? ig? w/o fear of judgement, or worse. i know this from personal experience) and this is when they first get there and r wading out in2 the water (holding hands obviously) and mikes behind him so he says "hey will?" and will turns like "yea?" and mike kissses him - queue exasperated groaning and yells of protest from every1 else lol

I’ve seen a lot of the sentiment that “they don’t really get it” and that Destiel wasn’t queerbaited near as hard. Yes, I know that particular queerbait was done differently than Byler, that’s expected given when it came out, but if you haven’t actually watched the show I would genuinely advise just watching a compilation of those moments to get where they’re coming from.

If you’re someone who’s under the impression Destiel was “just misread looks and jokes” because that’s what you’ve heard online, I get it, I do but you don’t have the whole picture.

I’ve also seen people saying there were no hints of Dean being queer (wrong) as though he didn’t spend half the show having his own subconscious and other characters calling him “daddy’s little girl” and implying his relationship with other men besides Cas, and a scene where he admits to liking wearing a pair of pink silk panties.

Dean knew what the gay bar Purgatory was and where it was by name alone. A siren who becomes whatever someone desires to lure them in becomes a man for Dean, who he styles his hair all cute for before going out for drinks with him, and it works. This monster hunter is CLUELESS.

He gets so flustered when men flirt with him that he stutters and walks into tables, and pouts when he finds out the man only flirted with him for information and wasn’t actually into him.

In a companion journal, it’s revealed that Dean spent his seventeenth birthday on the first monster hunt his father ever made him do alone— he sent him to an asylum to destroy the spirits of two lesbian nuns who died for their love. Yep. You did read that correctly.

Now for Cas, fun fact, our possessive little bastard angel carved a message into Dean’s *ribcage* that essentially translates to “if any of you fuckers EVER, and I mean EVER, touch this shining beautiful human, I will use all my heavenly wrath to turn you into a molecular stain”.

He abandons heaven for Dean. Develops the ability to *feel* and *care* and *love* because of Dean (which he says verbatim himself).

“Not for nothing, Cas, but the last person who looked at me like that… I got laid.” is something they have Dean say, only for Castiel to visually double down on staring harder.

Dean is asked to call for Castiel. “It’s not like Cas lives in my ass,” Cas immediately shows up, “Cas get outta my ass.” Castiel’s response is to start saying he was never in Dean’s ass out of confusion, then trails off mid sentence like he rethought it. This is never elaborated on.

Sam prays for months to Castiel and gets no response. Dean prays once and Castiel shows up two seconds later, despite being in the middle of a war. When Sam confronts him about it, his reason is that “him and Dean share a more profound bond”.

They suffered purgatory together, and when Castiel stayed behind there, Dean hallucinated him on the side of the road and in the trees because of missing him so badly. This directly parallels Sam’s relationship with Jess, his dead ex girlfriend, who he hallucinated on street corners due to guilt over her death. Jess is repeatedly said to be Sam’s soulmate in the show, because he still thinks about her fifteen years later. Dean completely rewrote the narrative of what happened in his head to blame himself for abandoning Cas, because the idea that Castiel chose to stay behind without him was so mentally unbearable.

When Cas returns and gets cleaned up and looks like himself, Dean gets tongue tied, shuffles in his chair, covers his lap and shifts his legs like he’s trying to hide a physical reaction to the sight of him alone.

Castiel lost his memory, and married an identical clone of Dean in woman form named Daphne, who Dean was immediately suspicious of and pissy toward upon meeting.

Cas shows up naked on Dean’s car covered in honeybees during his crazy phase.

When Castiel gets angel lobotomized and turned into a machine that’s been trained to kill Dean no matter what, who’s been trained on thousands of perfect copies of Dean, all it takes to break him out of it is a bleeding real Dean on his knees begging Cas that “I need you” (originally written as ‘I love you’ in the script).

The king of hell mocks Castiel because his jacket smells like Dean’s car.

A high ranking angel says to Dean (after not warding against Angels despite being in danger from them, simply because he hoped Castiel would come home to him), “the moment Castiel laid a hand on you in hell, he was lost”.

Another angel calls Cas “the angel in a dirty trenchcoat who’s in love with you.”

Castiel’s ‘canonical’ love interest, Meg, says to Dean “I don’t know, he was your boyfriend first.”

When Cas dies one of his various deaths, we get an entire WIDOW arc for Dean, scene by scene playing out the trope to perfection. This isn’t even the first time, he also carried Cas’ coat around in his trunk for a year after another death.

Dean makes a mixtape for Cas of Led Zepplin songs that his parents fell in love to.

And the thing is? That’s barely the surface. That’s just what I remember off the top of my head, after a decade. That didn’t include the cast, the stuff said at conventions, the visual parallels with other canon couples, the visual choices or cinematography decisions.

Maybe they get it in a different way, but they get it. We’re all in the same boat, and if we want queer media to be better, we need to stick together and not fight about who was baited “the worst” and focus our anger on the people doing the baiting.