I’ll get around to ranking the 3am bonuses but I also wanted to rank it based on what Taylor intended to be the full concept album.
Overall thoughts, I enjoy the more dark pop, experimental sound but lyrically it was way less sound than folklore/evermore. I really enjoyed most of the songs though! I definitely think the ones I was more mid about will grow with time.
Hey! So I wrote this fic, I thought I’d share! It’s basically a Mike centric post season four fic that follows his and els breakup and then him and will getting together. It’s heavily inspired by the little women parallels so basically it’s me giving el her Jo March moment and Will his Amy moment
I so wish November 6th, 2024 was a Friday because how cool would it be for season five to release on Stranger things day/the day will went missing/the day the upside down is stuck in.
Sadly it’s not a Friday but damn if one time netflix could release stuff on another day, this is it.
I keep seeing people defend mikes whole “my life started the moment I saw you in the woods” thing, and it’s pissing me off so here’s my take.
First off, a lot of the defense for it I’ve seen states that since he met el on the seventh, it technically wasn’t the day will went missing. However, Mike found out Will went missing on the November 7th, so yeah he’s saying his life began on the day he found out his best friend of like seven years was missing (and presumed dead)
Further, the whole line makes no sense given mikes character. Mike wheeler is so loyal and such a good friend, that is a primary characteristic of his in season 1 and 2. How he never stopped looking for will. How he jumped off the cliff for Dustin. How he called el every day.
While I’m sure Mike didn’t intentionally say this (honestly I blame poor writing and a poor characterization of Mike in season 3 and 4), the fact of the matter is that he DID say it and Will, who is canonically in love with him AND his best friend, heard it. That shit stings, especially from wills perspective.
This doesn’t ruin Mike as a character for me, and honestly I love him sm so I’m really hoping they get him back to his roots for season 5, but it does make me angry on the behalf of how Mike has been characterized as solely els boyfriend the past few seasons and wills inability to obtain happiness in season four through narratively using him to further mileven.
honestly I still feel just super underwhelmed by vol. 2. There were some great moments but overall, I don’t think the whole GOT style all-in different places but contributing to the fight worked.
Also, the stakes felt incredibly low. Which sucked after the cast hyped it up so much. El having healing powers and reviving max felt cheap, when I feel like if they wanted to keep her alive they could’ve done it either without overpowering el or fully killed her off. They should’ve had them fail with max and then vecna take another, unexpected target (a main character) and use them. The stakes would feel so much higher.
And don’t get me started on the queer rep. Robin pining for a girl who is in three scenes, is a carbon copy of Robin herself AND has a boyfriend through most of it. Eddie being so queer coded and being the ONLY character to die. And will, omg will being treated as a plot device to further mileven, rather than his feelings being addressed in anyway that is about him. And without an explicit coming out scene.
Im just, the two volumes feel disconnected and I feel like there should have been a bigger twist with max not being the final target.
This interview has restored my faith that Will will have a huge role in season five… If the whole him freezing the upside down doesn’t get addressed in season four, why would they kill him off? They wouldn’t.
I’m on a rollercoaster of every hour switching from bylers going to happen to nah they’ll just have will be the sad gay best friend…. But through it all, I keep thinking if byler was unrequited and that’s the end of the storyline, why would they leak it and tease it in all the interviews? Why would they not wait for the reveal in the actual show? It doesn’t make sense for all the interviews to hint at wills sexuality unless there’s some more of a plot line that’ll happen.