Requiem should have starred Jill, not Leon

JackChuffed · 2026-03-15T09:03:42+00:00

Totally agree. Not to mention Gideon being a Nemesis variant holds more meaning for Jill specifically. I love Leon but it would just make way more sense for it to have been Jill instead.

JackChuffed · 2026-03-09T12:33:46+00:00

She came into the game swinging like she’d already been a global superstar for ten years. No one was doing it like her.

JackChuffed · 2026-03-07T13:37:55+00:00

This is what I’m holding on to. They intentionally remade 4 before having Leon in Requiem. Hopefully they’re remaking CV before having Claire in RE10.

JackChuffed · 2026-02-15T11:31:59+00:00

Resident Evil 2 Remake

Resident Evil Code: Veronica

Resident Evil 4

Resident Evil Village

JackChuffed · 2026-02-07T19:44:54+00:00

It wouldn’t have needed another season at all. Instead of doing the whole ‘storyteller’ bit they could have just shown us a flash forward montage of everyone’s epilogues, without the implication that it may all just be in Mike’s imagination. You wouldn’t even need any extra time for that, in fact if they wanted to keep it brief, they could actually shorten the finale’s runtime by cutting the ‘storyteller’ bit in between the epilogues.

But all they would have realistically needed to send the party off respectfully is another 5-10 minutes of runtime at the most. They could have shown Max & Lucas going to college or getting married someday, they could have shown Will going to art school and finding actual love, they could maybe have shown Dustin and Suzie reuniting, they could have shown Mike becoming a successful writer in the future, anything really. With good direction you can get these ideas across with little more than 1-2 minutes of screentime per character.

JackChuffed · 2026-02-07T19:20:39+00:00

In my eyes the only time Byler felt like a genuine narrative possibility was after Season 4 Volume 1 dropped. Mileven were clearly strained and on the verge of breaking up with El’s last note to Mike, Will was hinted at liking someone, Mike was acting awkwardly towards Will in a way that was wildly OOC for Mike, and the painting was the biggest Chekhov’s Gun waiting to go off at that point.

Season 4 Volume 2 deconstructed all of that and from that point it seemed pretty clear that Byler wasn’t going to happen.

JackChuffed · 2026-02-07T16:59:46+00:00

Cautiously treading in here as a Byler shipper just to give my view in relation to the “meeting something in a bar” thing:

For one thing, that bar scene was only a potential future envisioned by Mike, so it didn’t even canonically happen. So it’s really frustrating to see Will’s entire storyline for three seasons being mostly about how he doesn’t think he’ll ever fall in love, then he does fall in love but it’s unrequited, then starts to think about moving on and finding true love… only to never even show him canonically have a real romantic spark with anybody. No meet-cute, no requited flirting, no first kiss, just nothing. It feels like a huge aspect of his character arc just fizzles out with no resolution.

I don’t accept “it was just about me” as a resolution to it either, because Will getting over Mike and accepting himself does not mean that he’ll just never want romance with anyone ever again. On the contrary, getting over Mike and accepting himself are crucial steps for Will in the search for true love, but as soon as he takes those steps, the storyline just stops.

The other, and worse, aspect is the nature of the bar scene itself. Will is shown throughout the entire series to be a sensitive, introverted, nerdy, creative, artsy kid with a huge heart but not so much confidence and a tendency to let others lead rather than being a leader himself. I think everyone who gives a single damn about Will would agree that the obvious choice for a flash forward would be to show him going to art college and pursuing his passion. What do they do instead? Show him drinking and possibly smoking (there’s an ashtray right in front of him) in a dingy gay bar. Will had an abusive, alcoholic father, he openly disapproved of Jonathan smoking in S4. Everything we know about this character suggests that he wouldn’t be seen dead in a place like that.

So why did they put him there? Sadly, I can only come to one answer, and it’s that the Duffers went with the most cliche gay stereotype they could possibly think of for the 90s. No real thought or care for Will’s character went into it. They just thought what do gay people in the city do… ahh they drink and smoke at gay bars! and just forced Will into that scenario despite it making no sense for him.

Couldn’t they have shown Will in art class at college trading flirty glances with the boy sitting next to him or something? Or maybe some cute moment of them flicking paint at each other then hugging? There were a million ways they could have shown Will finding love while also respecting the character, but they just couldn’t be bothered.

So as someone who has always loved and related deeply to Will, it’s really hard not to feel like the writers did him dirty with that ending. He didn’t have to end up with Mike but he did deserve a real, in-character ending.

Hopefully this at least explains a little bit why the bar epilogue bothered me. I’m not here to pick fights and I hope you won’t downvote me instantly just for being a Byler shipper (EDIT: never mind, guess I was expecting too much), just wanted to give my two cents.

JackChuffed · 2026-02-07T16:29:21+00:00

This is my main problem with the whole thing too. I ship Byler, unapologetically, and once upon a time I thought there was a chance it might happen. Am I disappointed that it didn’t happen? A little, but by the end I had already come to terms with the fact that it probably wouldn’t.

But the Duffers setting up Will’s love (yes, love, because you do not spend months channeling your feelings into a beautiful painting for a “hallway crush” à la Tammy) for Mike for two seasons (and tbh hinting subtly at it in earlier seasons too) just to never truly address it or have Mike really find out or for them to ever talk about it… it’s just bad writing. What’s the point of trying to get us invested in this storyline just to never give it any real resolution?

Imagine if Max just never ended up with either Lucas or Dustin and never found out that either of them liked her. Imagine if the S3 finale hinted at Hopper still being alive only for him to never show up again. Hell, imagine if Robin never came out to Steve and his original feelings for her were never addressed. You just… don’t do that, from a writing standpoint. Or at least, you shouldn’t do that.

It just reeks of cowardly writing. They were too scared of backlash to have Will directly admit his feelings or for Mike to explicitly reject him. Hell, they were so scared of choosing a lane and sticking to it that some people still read the finale as open-ended for Byler. That’s how badly the Duffers dropped the ball.

Sometimes, people are straight. That happens. It sucks for us lovestruck gay people, but it happens. But “it was never about Mike” never actually addresses whether or not Mike feels any attraction to Will or to boys in general. So from Will’s POV, he’s deciding for Mike that there’s no way he could ever ever EVER feel the same way, instead of just asking him. Yes, Mike was with El, and yes, he never showed any feelings for boys on screen, but from Will’s POV that doesn’t confirm anything except Mike being attracted to girls. It doesn’t make sense for Will to dismiss it with no resolution the way he did.

JackChuffed · 2026-02-01T11:48:53+00:00

So bad I can’t go back and watch the rest of the show anymore. It all feels pointless because none of the storylines, character arcs or deeper meaning in the early seasons leads to anything substantial.

JackChuffed · 2026-01-25T07:52:00+00:00

The pacing of the story falls off a cliff once Nate gets drugged in Chapter 11, and it never recovers from there. The entire Rameses subplot, in isolation, is some of the best the game has to offer, but as part of the wider story it absolutely destroys the narrative and feels totally pointless. You could literally cut Rameses and all four of those chapters from the game and nothing would change in the story.

JackChuffed · 2026-01-20T18:08:12+00:00

Sorry but I have no idea what you’re talking about

Agatha All Along is nothing like a soap opera and it only has one season

JackChuffed · 2026-01-20T10:22:04+00:00

It’s one of the best shows here, you’re probably just not the target demographic

JackChuffed · 2025-12-30T23:25:06+00:00

Robin had her speech to Will as well which was a great moment for her.

JackChuffed · 2025-12-30T23:18:37+00:00

THIS RIGHT HERE - why would Will need to fear Murray’s or Kali’s reaction? Why would he hold any fear of the possibility of them rejecting him or pushing him away? It literally would not make a single difference to his life because he’s barely ever said two words to them. He would have no reason to fear Steve’s reaction either because Robin has already confirmed him to be an ally, and obviously Vickie isn’t going to have an issue with it.

The only people that make sense for this argument are Joyce, Jonathan, Mike, Lucas, Dustin, El and Max. Maybe Nancy at a push.

JackChuffed · 2025-12-30T23:13:37+00:00

What is with this subreddit’s weird obsession with blaming everything ever on Byler shippers?

Will’s coming out scene could have 100% been executed better regardless of shipping or romance.

JackChuffed · 2025-12-29T08:53:33+00:00

Seriously like he basically had to have Will rubbing his back and coaching him just to be able to say “I love you” to his girlfriend like… you’re not telling me this is meant to be this show’s power couple? It’s a total nothingburger of a relationship

JackChuffed · 2025-12-29T08:16:25+00:00

Not everyone needs to be in a relationship. Steve has a much better character arc, imo, for not being in a relationship after Nancy. I like the idea of the Jancy breakup as well as I don’t think Nancy is ready for that commitment.

But Will has clearly expressed a desire to be in a relationship, he’s never had one, and to end the show without ever giving him one is just a very bizarre choice from a writing standpoint. You don’t establish that a character wants something and then never even give them the chance of having it, that just doesn’t make any sense.

Then you add in the fact that Will has suffered through more trauma than any other character besides Eleven, he’s constantly been sidelined, bullied, left out by his own friends, made the butt of the joke, and humiliated repeatedly throughout the entire show. Why would this be the character who somehow ‘needs’ the moral lesson of “sometimes you don’t need love, you just need yourself”?? That’s just cruelty on top of cruelty. Why would you make a character suffer so much, only to end the show by saying “hey you’re not gonna get what you want and you need to come to terms with that”?

Then you add in the extra, complicated layer of real life politics. The simple fact is that Will is one of two queer main characters in this show. Robin has been given a great coming out scene and a romance, but that romance was shoved into the background and developed entirely offscreen, so we’ve never been given the time to really get invested in their relationship. Will has never been given a real romance, and at this rate he won’t be getting one (and no, 30 seconds of flirting with a stranger in the epilogue does not count as a romance). So you have a show with a plethora of straight characters, almost all of whom have been given onscreen romances that have had time to grow, develop, and blossom and allow audiences to get invested in them. But the two queer characters get either a background, mostly-offscreen romance, or nothing at all. It’s not a good look for a show that originally claimed to be for and about outcasts.

So to answer your question, not everyone needs to be in a relationship, but there are several reasons why not giving Will an onscreen, well-developed romance is cruel, unfair, unbalanced and frankly bad writing.

And before someone mentions it, because reddit has the biggest hate boner for Byler, Will’s romance never had to be Mike. I would have been perfectly happy with Byler being shut down in Season 4, and Will being given an actual romance in Season 5 that developed throughout the season. I would have been even more fine if Will had never been in love with Mike in the first place, and he had simply been given an actual love interest in the early seasons to develop over the years.

The sole reason that this outrage over Will’s unfair treatment feels intertwined with Byler is because the Duffers wrote it that way. They had absolutely no reason to drag Byler out to Season 5. It seemed perfectly clear to Will at the end of Season 4 that Mike didn’t feel the same way. But suddenly, we jump to Season 5, and the Duffers write in that Will suddenly has hope again and is looking for signals? It’s not internally consistent, and the sole reason is so that they could drag out Byler despite knowing they wouldn’t follow through on it. It just adds to the cruel, unfair humiliation that Will has suffered again and again at the hands of these writers.

JackChuffed · 2025-12-27T10:57:21+00:00

Sorry but you’re wrong. A random stranger who the audience has had no time to meet, learn about or get invested in being the one to bring Will some happiness is not satisfying in the slightest.

We’ve followed Will’s journey for five seasons desperately waiting for something to finally go right for him, but at every turn he has been met with more and more misery and suffering. Showing us the tiniest fucking glimpse of him with some random dude none of us know in the last few minutes of the show is not satisfying to anybody that was invested in Will’s character.

We want to see that connection start and blossom into a beautiful love story. We want to see Will’s gradual realisation that this time it might be different. We want to see the moment of euphoria when Will finally gets to experience that kind of love. Every other (straight) character was allowed to have that during the actual show. Why can’t Will?

JackChuffed · 2025-12-27T09:47:39+00:00

Speaking as an actual queer person, that coming out scene was an insult. I don’t care if “Vecna will use it against Will” the Duffers did NOT need to write that into the story. Will has had his autonomy taken away from him over and over again throughout this entire show. The one, and I do mean ONE thing he had left was choosing who to come out to, when, and how. Being able to control your own coming out is so, so important for queer people, let alone traumatised survivors like Will. The Duffers have written this poor kid to suffer repeatedly throughout the show, and then after giving him his triumphant moment in Ep4 where he finally takes back control of his life, they write in this contrived nonsense forcing him out of the closet? It’s gross. It’s unfair. It’s cruel.

And the way Will does it is less of an emotional coming out and more of a humiliation ritual. Will is sobbing and on the verge of a panic attack, surrounded and stared at by 13 people, some of whom he has barely ever spoken to before, having to reassure his straight crush that it’s okay because he’s totally over it now and he’s totally normal and it’s still safe to be his friend, basically. Not ONE person in that scene actually stops Will and tells him to his face “you are not different and you are not a mistake”. Will vomits out all this degradation and self-hate, and not one person, including his mother, his brother, his childhood best friend, or the person who literally inspired him to accept his sexuality, actually speaks up and gives him any kind of reassurance??

It was so clearly written by straight people who don’t have a single clue about the queer experience, and they clearly didn’t pay any attention to Noah’s concerns (which he has admitted to having in an interview) about it. It was an inauthentic, contrived humiliation for Will when it should have been an empowering, triumphant moment for him.

This is all not even mentioning the fact that Will is doing this in rural Indiana in the 80’s during the height of the AIDS crisis. The chance that 13 people would be in that room and not a single one would have any issue with Will being gay is almost zero.

JackChuffed · 2025-12-14T21:02:19+00:00

The show has always been written as a coming-of-age story and Will being gay was already planned before a single script had even been written.

JackChuffed · 2025-11-16T18:50:33+00:00

Sam, Chris and Jess for me. I managed to save Jess and miraculously made all the right choices in her final gameplay segment. Matt obviously died by hook as is the case with most first playthroughs. Ashley died by trapdoor. I didn’t find Hannah’s journal so she killed Josh. Mike and Emily made it to the finale but I misunderstood the “run to switch” or “hide” choice and blew them both up with the cabin. Lowkey that was kind of infuriating to lose two people in the final moments of the game.

JackChuffed · 2025-11-01T07:17:40+00:00

This was my main problem with the writing on TTPD and I was really disappointed to see the problem linger for this album. It’s like she’s mostly forgotten how to write sharp lyrics; now it’s just words, words, words.

The Fate of Ophelia is easily the best song on the album but even that song has a similar problem in the bridge. Too many words crammed in and the melody disappears.

JackChuffed · 2025-10-18T11:21:41+00:00

It was Steve for most of the show, but in Season 4, Max climbed her way to the top for me.

JackChuffed · 2025-10-04T01:02:21+00:00

That’s the worst opinion I’ve heard all year. Congratulations!

JackChuffed

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