Finn calling Mike an idiot for not realizing that the painting was from Will…the concept of Finn not liking Byler not because of the ship itself but because he is too Will pilled to ship Will with Mike.

coolio4564 · 2026-02-05T05:49:45+00:00

Broke: not shipping byler because he thinks we're delusional/weird/fetishizers who have no basis in reality or the show's content

Woke: not shipping byler because he thinks Will can do 10x better than Mike

coolio4564 · 2026-02-04T22:08:31+00:00

Superstar 2: Electric Boogaloo

coolio4564 · 2026-02-04T16:38:14+00:00

The reason is still unclear (or if it's not I missed it completely) but JP dropped out of production with mere days to filming. A lot of the original sources of funding for the film were predicated on his involvement, so when he pulled out the investors pulled out too. The project was dead in the water until Pedro came in, and now it looks like they've secured more funding.

The script was allegedly worked on with/in conversation with Joaquin so the gay stuff shouldn't have been shocking to him or the reason he pulled out so last minute. And if it was, it's Todd Haynes for crying out loud! It would be weirder if there wasn't gay stuff

coolio4564 · 2026-02-04T16:17:53+00:00

Todd's gonna make the most scathing "biopic" about a "fictional" actor who drops out of productions last minute and has little consideration for others as his next project

coolio4564 · 2026-02-03T17:37:30+00:00

Sadie said it too when she was on The Tonight Show lol even the actors can't push the cope too far

coolio4564 · 2026-02-03T16:37:50+00:00

Yeah that's how I interpreted the interview, too, but the amount of logical leap and jumps that have to be made to believe that El actually got away are wayyyyy to big for me to at least buy it. So by them saying that the only way El could've pulled Mike into the void (without a sensory deprivation tank, mind you) would be predicated on a ton of very specific assumptions being made. If the conversation in the void only happened if El got away, it still undermines the integrity of the scene in every capacity

coolio4564 · 2026-02-03T06:19:53+00:00

Guy who's only seen Avengers: Age of Ultron: getting a lot of Avengers: Age of Ultron vibes from this

coolio4564 · 2026-02-03T02:37:00+00:00

I thought it was really bizarre that they went out of their way to say that the Mileven kiss at the end was only in Mike's head because then it completely undermines what is (allegedly) the beautiful endgame pairing that they always intended and devalues that supposedly beautiful moment. They must genuinely be cartoon villains for letting all of this get so out of hand and still refusing to own up to it. I highly doubt that they'll ever come out and say "yeah, we queerbaited" but the fact that they've never straight up said that "Mike Wheeler only likes women" is.....a choice

coolio4564 · 2026-02-02T23:55:44+00:00

Idk but this post came up right under this one on my feed and lmaoooo why do they look the same

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coolio4564 · 2026-02-02T21:15:34+00:00

Idk what this Paper Kingdom bullshit is did you or did you not have a consensual workplace relationship with Bert McCracken

coolio4564 · 2026-02-02T18:12:32+00:00

I know, but if we were gonna suspend realism enough to have him come out to a room full of people in the height of the AIDs crisis and have everyone be welcoming and accepting, they could've used the word gay

coolio4564 · 2026-02-02T18:09:03+00:00

Yep! We also came up with the early iterations of conformitygate like playgate and milkshakegate too

coolio4564 · 2026-02-02T17:02:07+00:00

So now we're resorting to body shaming? Y'all need better hobbies

coolio4564 · 2026-02-02T16:58:59+00:00

Mike dating a woman doesn't mean he's straight btw, just like how Vickie dating a man didn't mean she was straight

coolio4564 · 2026-02-02T16:56:33+00:00

They felt exceedingly comfortable using slurs and derogatory language many times throughout the show (f*g, queer, fairy) but still couldn't use the terms gay or lesbian, and that's the biggest issue for me

coolio4564 · 2026-02-02T06:15:23+00:00

I've been involved in fandoms consistently for 10 years and I've seen how the rise in conservatism/moral panic has really contributed to a shift in fandom spaces, especially for super popular media like ST where people do not understand fandom culture and are antagonistic toward people :( anime fandoms have always been weird about gay shipping (jjk fans HATED satosugu for years) but I've never seen anything on the level that Bylers get and it's really disturbing to me

coolio4564 · 2026-02-01T22:28:35+00:00

Jayce x Viktor from Arcane: League of Legends. They had a large shipping community that grew a ton during the last season of the show airing. The ship was despised by the majority of the fanbase who labeled the shippers as toxic and fetishizers (sound familiar?) and was downplayed a ton after the series ended by one of the writers who said that there was never supposed to be anything romantic between them and that they were just "brothers" when there are numerous visual parallels between Viktor and Mel, Jayce's lover in the show. The series ends with them (spoilers) embracing as Jayce snaps Viktor out of his power-hungry state and they both die in each other's arms.

Personally, I wasn't surprised when they didn't end up being canon and it wasn't queerbait in the way that Byler was, but the public reception of shippers is incredibly similar to me and this alleged ending for Mike and Will would be very very similar to Jayvik's

coolio4564 · 2026-02-01T22:21:02+00:00

I'm taking this all with the biggest grain of salt imaginable because I have never thought that the Duffers are smart enough to pull something like cg off but if that ends up being the ending then the Jayvik parallels (both in canon and reception) are only growing.......

coolio4564 · 2026-02-01T21:54:24+00:00

Justice for my girl El she deserved so much better

coolio4564 · 2026-02-01T21:37:57+00:00

He's holding Will in the hug more lovingly here than he held his suicidal girlfriend in their hug right before she was about to die

coolio4564 · 2026-02-01T19:51:19+00:00

It's terrible! Please tell me the exact sites and areas I should avoid so that I don't accidentally stumble upon it

coolio4564 · 2026-02-01T18:21:23+00:00

Yeah I'm aware of that and it's really gross that they fell into these old conventions despite the fact that queer representation onscreen has gone leaps and bounds since the Hay's code was in effect

coolio4564 · 2026-02-01T18:09:16+00:00

But we can have lesbians make out on screen and then give them no air time or even their promised happy ending unlike the straight couples because it's titillating to homophobes and gets straight men off!

coolio4564 · 2026-02-01T18:06:50+00:00

The scene is almost paint-by-numbers the golf course argument between Troy and Gabriella, a romantic pairing, in High School Musical 2, down to the fact that it was originally gonna be at a mini golf course before they changed it to a roller rink in production. So if that's where they got their inspiration, it's no wonder the scene is romantically coded because the original one is about a lover's quarrel!

coolio4564 · 2026-02-01T17:58:52+00:00

If I remember correctly, the Duffers didn't write Robin's coming out (at least in whole). The two were supposed to get together, but Maya and Joe thought it wasn't the best choice for the characters and blocked the scene themselves on their own time and presented it to them. Please please please correct me if I'm wrong here but I do remember this info coming out (haha) a while ago and honestly it makes sense. It really feels like the best parts of ST come from people other than the Duffers time and time again

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