Broken_pieces Together

How do you go from door-slamming, “you don’t say it” and I love you ONLY as a last resort to whatever the hell that scene was.

Seriously, someone tell me. How?

They barely had chemistry. They barely had screentime together. They had maybe two full conversations with each other this whole season

HOPPER’S moments with El made me tear up more than Mike’s. Her FATHER was the one who saved her from killing herself, not Mike

MAX is the one who was able to help her find her true self, what SHE wanted. Not Mike.

How do you position them as hung up on each other after that? How do you claim that Mike is the one who understood her best when that quite simply is not true?

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.

Will is an artist, he is with Mike, a fantasy/sci-fi author, and he illustrates his covers.

Dustin is in technology and Lucas is in a field where he can combine his science and athleticism though idk what that is.

Nancy is obviously in journalism, probably an investigative journalist, and Jonathan is either an audio engineer or with CPS- not so confident on that one tbh.

They addressed that bonding over shared trauma is not a healthy basis of relationship, saying that it only creates a feeling of closeness for a few years before it feels stifling. I had NO expectation that they would say this about them. Wonderful job. The unproposal together instead of just Jonathan realizing he shouldn't and never telling her he was going to was so sweet, I loved that scene.

I expected them to address Dustin's grief and the parallel between Steve and Eddie in his life, but I did NOT expect them to directly address Steve's jealousy in season 4 and how it affected his relationship with Dustin and Eddie's death! That was AMAZING! I was very impressed.

Honestly, overrall, that whole group's season 4 plotline and my analyses of it I did not expect to be so brought to light. I said that Nancy wasn't interested in Steve just, finding ways to distance from Jonathan, and she SAID that. I said it wasn't about Nancy for Steve, it was about feeling rejected by Dustin and he SAID that. Both those topics were only really clued into by one or two lines in the whole of season 4 but they came back to them very directly!

Max directly telling Holly that not acting in a situation where you could not have helped and only would have endangered yourself too is not the same as cowardice is what I've been saying about Will's plot and the themes of the character deaths - including Eddie's, which was MENTIONED in this context - for YEARS! And they had her directly address it to Holly. That not stabbing Vecna with a fire poker because you know it won't help and standing by at the sight of violence are not the same thing. Sometimes your body paralyzes you because it knows there is a reason for your fear, and you should NOT overpower it out of some moral self-berating. That is a LIFE-SAVING message I have praised in this show for YEARS but never have they said it explicitly like that and they DID.

I also really liked that they came back to El's anger at Hopper for planning to sacrifice himself. That was a smaller, side one for me but I didn't expect them to, I kind of expected it to be swept under the rug and them move on in their fight, but it wasn't. She did lose him for almost a year and she was hurt by his decision to risk that again. It makes total sense and I think it was very strong for them to address that.

And actually TO talk about Will's queerness, let's do it.

They started that coming out strong out of the gate. With his fear not just being rejection, but change. Even in allyship, that his loved ones would treat him as some fragile thing again and their relationship would change. That they wouldn't leave him on purpose but that it would just naturally cause them to drift over time. Those are very real and common fears that are extremely under-talked about. The grief over connection in adolescence he mentions, that he's saddened by the fact that they have always shared so much that it felt strange when he couldn't relate to them on something. It isn't always that he wanted to be straight but that he wanted to continue to be the same as them.

Those are all very specific details not usually addressed or acknowledged. It's usually simplified to "fear of homophobia", because that's about all that straight people understand of why people don't come out. But "I'm afraid you'll try your best to keep me in your life and support and accept me but we will ultimately drift apart because we won't be able to relate to each other in the same way anymore" brought back VIVID memories for me.

And the actual framing of the coming out itself. I already felt great when we started with that conversation between Will and Robin. Coming out was not described as a goal. It was described as a step. That made me very happy. It is rarely done. But queer stories should not center straight people finding out. Straight people patting themselves on the back for simply not rejecting you. As if straight people provided you your happy ending in choosing not to harm you. It is a step TOWARDS your actual personal desires. Coming out is an important step TOWARDS the romance that is actually your goal. The want you realized that started this all. It is a checkbox, not a finale. It is a jumping off point.

Everything but Mike hit the nail on the head for me. Honestly. That's what confuses me. Because it is the same values they just demonstrated so beautifully that would save his character in this finale.

I just had this entire theory/analysis I guess? written out , and I really should have watched the coming out scene first because oh my I was very off track with it. In all honesty I haven’t watched Ep 7 yet, but I wanted to write this after hearing what’s been going on, especially with that episode.

But I agree that it seemed very, forced almost?, like they had good moments I feel like!, it just really felt like they could have done better, and it almost seemed like Will was forced to come out because of Vecna, which is upsetting. But I still have similar interpretations as before. So I tweaked a few things but I felt the Impulse to share my thoughts, because I love talking, too much honestly.

I still have hope that Byler could be canon, there is still one more episode left that is 2 hours long, and the reason for this is do you remember how the duffers got people to change their minds on Will in an hour?, and have an entire acceptance arc that was very lovely that spanned over an hour or two if I’m remembering correctly. They have two hours to do this again but with Byler and other plots they have not addressed. I am not saying their writing is perfect, it isn’t. And I cannot be fully certain with how I haven’t watched Ep 7 (I am watching with family and they didn’t want to continue until tomorrow) and I get two hours is not a lot, but I really do not think they are that bad of writers that they would write in SO many hints to it not being one-sided accidentally. Will calling Mike his Tammy makes sense, he could be saying that because truly he doesn’t think that Mike could ever reciprocate Wills feelings. He took Robins speech, and applied it to himself, he saw how free she felt after she got over Tammy and he thinks the same thing will happen with him. I may be reading this wrong, but from what I interpreted in that scene when they were trying to Frankenstein the Demogorgan and Will was asking Robin more about her and Vickie, she tells him that she did not ask Vickie out soon after she got over Tammy, she wasn’t confident enough to have done that at that point in time. Will looks disappointed in a way. He asks what helped (or I think he did, my memory sucks so bad sorry) and she said telling someone, she told Steve, and to which she then took the steps with Vickie eventually. Will tries to follow her advice, he doesn’t further initiate any sort of flirtatious gesture with Mike like he did a few days ago, but I suppose he didn’t really have time to. He comes out to his friends and family, but it isn’t just one person, it’s at least 7 people. Because he says it’s important for him to be honest as to be able to fight Vecna, and truly accept himself. (Maybe it feels rushed because Will is trying to get over Mike because he sees no possible outcome of them actually being together, he is taking Robins advice and rushing it so he can get to where she is currently faster, he wants to feel free, happy. He wants what Robin has, he wants “his Vickie”.

which is what I said before watching the scene, I still hold some of the same thoughts, but the rushed part I feel like is more so because of the pressure of the upside down and being ready to face it..

But I could very well be wrong, the Duffers (Shawn levy too’s)writing might just suck and the pacing is just off. But again they said they do things with intention, and I hope that was true. But however I still have things to say.

what if Mikes clear look of nervousness in that scene was the gears turning in his head, because it read to me like he was thinking “Oh, he doesn’t like girls.. he is over his crush, I see myself in this in a way” Or “Shit maybe this isn’t as platonic as I thought it was” something along the lines of that. Because he doesn’t know that the Tammy will was referring to was him. As far as he knows it was some random boy in Lenora that Will talked to. Mike could also be processing what this means for him, questioning himself, or maybe this is what starts Mikes emotional weight arc that Finn and the developers were talking about. It could very much be him dealing with his own internalized homophobia, with how much he’s bottled things up, Wills honesty may have been a hit that broke the dam. He see’s that it is okay, but there’s still the truth that the vast people don’t think it is.. all of this, the awkwardness of Vol 2, at least in specific to Will and Mikes storylines, could show that you can’t just toss your feelings away, especially not ones as strong as what Wills is with Mike, if done correctly. However it only really would be If they end up actually having Will realize that Mike is not his Tammy, and that it wasn’t just a dumb crush you get over; Jancy broke up because their relationship wasn’t healthy, or at least it wasn’t what the two of them needed at this stage of their life, and Byler for the opposite reasons would get together, they’re healthy for each other, and HAVE been what they needed for years. This is not a slight to Jancy btw!, I just took that as a break up and a mutual one. I mean because if one Byers and Wheeler broke up than a new one can get together right? /J. I have hope, doubt but also hope, I really think it would be amazing, if a TV show as big as Stranger Things, (or any really), could depict a queer relationship in a positive, meaningful, and satisfying way. By satisfying I mean having a confession that means something and is well written and thought out, and not a rushed lazy one that they threw in in the last 20 minutes of the episode as if alluding to a storyline that would be off screen. Like a “here you go! Enjoy your out of character badly written confession :)” because I’ve seen it happen before and it’s sad.

but I suppose what I am meaning to say is that I feel like you shouldn’t give up hope yet, doubt is okay, anger is reasonable, your emotions are completely valid. And by no means am I a good analyzer or whatever it is I wrote. Also I would like to clarify that I do not think that there isn’t flaws in the writing of the show, and I also do understand the concern with how they’re taking the final episode. I’m mixed on what to feel, but I suppose this is my thinking optimistically, maybe rather delusionaly!. Also Some of you are incredibly impressive with your analysis just wanted to say that, Nancy would approve /Pos /Lh

oh another thing, I deeply apologize about how all over the place my writing is, but I hope it’s not too difficult to read haha :,))

Please do your research! There is so much misinformation out there and a lot of lies.

Everyone should know the truth so please try to know as much as you can so you can spread awareness and help!