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are u and henrysglock a thing yet

thing? like that thing made of melted plastic and microwave bubblegum?

#finn ‘rpf is fine’ wolfhard I know it’s you #ask #anon

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ROBIN BUCKLEY in STRANGER THINGS 3.02 | Chapter Two: The Mall Rats

#robin buckley #steve harrington #stranger things #queue me up scotty

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who do you think the ultimate evil, ultimate villain, ultimate big bad of ST is if it’s not henry/vecna/one? is it brenner? the mind flayer? (so basically an eldritch, lovecraftian terror) edward? dark will or dark el? normative, predatory, homophobic society in general? Is ST a “we live in a society” story ultimately lmao

Hot Take: There is no singular Big Bad Evil Person to blame for every single bad thing.

That's the thing about people-centered stories: Everyone plays a role.

Who made Vecna the way he is? Brenner, definitely. El had a role, though. And Virginia, too. So did the Mindflayer, sooner or later. Who's the BBEG? The one who runs the lab, the one who put him in the lab, or the one who sent him off to become buddy-buddy with the Mindflayer in the first place? Who opened the gate and let the Mindflayer in in the first place?

Can you kill this in a single stroke? The answer is no. Your so-called BBEG is a victim, too. So is the guy who ran the lab that created him. So is the mother who sold him out to the guy who runs the lab. Henry kills Virginia, but it doesn't solve the problem. El "kills" One, over and over in different forms, but it doesn't solve the problem. Kill Brenner, and another doctor will pop up to take his place. Kill the Mindflayer, and eventually some other creature will crop up looking to cause trouble. Killing one guy will not solve your problem, because the problem is bigger than that one guy.

That said: ST isn't going to be a "we live in a society" story, because society isn't the root of our problems. It didn't help, but ultimately...society is a symptom. Society will reflect the systems in power. Government.

This has been a continuing theme since ST1: The system created the problem.

The government funded Brenner's program. The government covered it up. The government sanctioned the Philadelphia Experiment, which kicked everything off with Dimension X if you go by The First Shadow.

We can delve into a little of the reasoning behind the government's actions, though. Why did the government accidentally send Brenner's father to Dimension X? Fear of the Nazis in '43. Why did they fund Brenner's program? Fear of the Commies from '59-'83.

Fear.

As Joyce says when discussing the central idea of Dark Of The Moon in The First Shadow: Can love defeat fear?

The government is your overarching BBEG, and our driving motivator is fear. In order to solve the problem, the systems in power must change. Killing one guy will not solve your problem.

#absolutely slayful and right and correct at all times… james never misses #henry creel #stranger things

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hey don’t cry. trees grow out of the ground.

#positive

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New art for Haru's birthday event!!!!!! I can't believe we're still getting more content in the year of our lord 2024 thank u kyoani

#WOOIIGFUHFHGGJKGHK THEMMMM #free! the final stroke #free! #haru

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Why do you think a lot more people, GA and more committed fans alike, are sympathetic to billy way more than henry even though it should be the opposite? is it because of S3 and the sad backstory they gave billy? because dacre is hot? something else?

It's because Billy's story didn't involve extending nuance to murder, alleged or confirmed. Billy's story also didn't involve Will or El, so...y'know. We can overlook the racism and assault of children /s.

I think the lack of sympathy is an artifact of NINA. With Henry, you're given 4.07 and then asked to sympathize. Like...that's a lot of dead kids that he allegedly killed. And the dead family members aren't helping. Plus the delivery is laced with enough danger that it counteracts a lot of the "Yeesh, poor Henry. That's horrific." I think if we'd been given this backstory before the massacre, people would be more inclined to go "...Wait. That's not right. What's going on?" because they would still be "friendly" with Henry when they get his backstory. Does that make sense?

Like... at face value, 4.07 goes MURDER -> "Yeah my mom fucking sucked, and I was put in a life or death situation where I lashed out and well. Maybe I didn't feel quite as much remorse about my mother as you'd expect me to. And also I then got kidnapped and locked in the breeding program basement." -> Fighting with our beloved El

They're asking you to overlook the murders and consider the boy Henry used to be...which is a tall order for a fandom that thinks we piss on the poor iykwim. I think Henry's reception would have been more sympathetic if it had been "Nice Henry -> 'yeah my mom ratted me out to be locked in the breeding program basement, so I wasn't exactly feeling bad about her death' -> MURDER -> Conflict with El"...simply because we'd be more open to feeling compassion towards him early on.

Then we add the whole extra layer of "Is what we saw in NINA even real/accurate? Did Henry actually do all that? Can we link the monologue to Nancy's vision? Could NINA be fabricated either partially or entirely? Did the Creel murders happen the way we're told they happened? How can we fully trust something Brenner created?"

Which...that's WAY beyond the current understanding of the larger fandom, but it puts the more dedicated fans in a position of "Oh God...we might have been blaming him for shit he didn't do? People are blaming a kid for his circumstances, and now we're blaming a guy for murders he may not have even committed???"

And that extra knowledge/understanding has us going "how do people not feel absolutely horrified when they think about Henry and what was done to him???" But the GA doesn't have that understanding, they were closed off to Henry by the murders. They don't want to pull back the curtain and have to acknowledge the shit that led up to where we are. [Murray voice] They like the curtain.

With Billy, you don't have that added debacle. He hasn't done anything the GA deems "irredeemable". He hasn't hurt Will or El without us being spoon-fed that he's flayed and not in control of it. So..."we" can excuse the racism and assault of a little black boy. We can excuse the scene where he almost runs the Party over just because Max pissed him off a little. [dead-eyed "this has to be a fucking joke" stare]

#we live in a society #stranger things #henry creel

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#mp100 #queue me up scotty

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porn is unequivocally art btw

#important

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Do you think a lot of bylers dismiss el too much, largely because of the shipping war?

I think a lot of byIers are overly annoyed with EI not only because of the ship war but also because she "sidelines" Will. That's how you get "deus 'el' machina" and "EI has too much screen time" arguments.

When it comes to the former...They don't like that Will hasn't been incredibly super central to the supernatural plot since ST2. I get that. But that frustration leads them to ignore the fact that deus 'el' machina has never been portrayed as a good thing. It's not something that works, and it's actually part of her growth arc as a character. El as the superhero is unsustainable, and we see that in ST4...but it's an arc we could see coming since ST1. El can't fix everything by putting her hand up and screaming. It never works. Deus 'el' machina, as a concept...doesn't exist.

For the latter...arguably, EI is at least one of the big 5 mains, the others being Nancy, Will, Mike, and Henry (ooh I know people won't like to hear that, but Henry's the crux of the HNL plot and the starting point for filmed canon...you literally wouldn't have El or HNL or the Vanishing without him. Pony up the cash). Will's supernatural arc was put on-hold in ST4, but that doesn't mean the supernatural plot doesn't continue. Will is not The supernatural plot. Actually, I'd argue that EI, Brenner, and Henry are the big three question marks when it comes to the HNL/supernatural plot, and that's all a core part of the story. Hell...it's the central plot of the show, and it exists separate from Will atm. You can't get around that. Obviously, the girl who came from HNL, the product of Brenner and Henry, is going to have a lot of screen time to explore that whole part of the story and show us how we got to Will's story in the first place.

This ^^ all is borne of a behavioral pattern/mindset I like to call "will-stan-itis". Bylers and Will stans love Will, and they think he deserves more attention. I understand that, but it also means they feel they have to find someone to blame for Will's reduced relevance in ST3/4. It can't be Mike, he's half of byIer. Can't be Nancy or Joyce, they're the exposé girlbosses (same for Hopper, but only in the exposé sense). Can't be any of the other supporting cast, because it's just not true at that point. So EI gets blamed for "taking" Will's supernatural importance and screen time. They've done the same thing to Henry and his backstory irt "copying" Will's trauma (even though Henry came first chronologically. Try to figure the math on that one).

#speak the truth #eleven #stranger things

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it’s monday i’m in the labyrinth

#henry creel

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The best thing in the world is when your friends tell you little tiny meaningless tidbits about their day. A photo of leaf they thought was cool, a complaint about a bad cup of coffee, an anecdote about a stranger they met, enthusing about a good thrift store find, a little drawing they made, talking about a class, sharing something silly their hair is doing, noting that they got to see one of their other friends. Just these little moments that don’t always need a proper response, but are an outpouring of fondness and affection. Someone was annoying at work and I know you’ll care about it. My cat keeps stealing my water and I know you’ll think it’s funny. They cared about that little moment and wanted to share it with someone else and that person was you.

#positive

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when your mood is instantly ruined bc you made 3 tiny and utterly inconsequential but otherwise annoying mistakes at work

#i was feeling Really foul this morning. then leveled out. but I’m back to feeling foul #head hurty… #i say things

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oh to have a silly little house like this...

#ugh dream houses fr #aesthetic #queue me up scotty

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not now mom i’m wasting my life on a website the entire internet believes to be dead

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@ fic authors what do you personally consider a successful fic? What’s the bar?

#my friends keysmashing to me in the group chat

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if holly does go missing in the second episode and i have to watch mike, at the same age jonathan was when he lost will, go through all of that again but this time with his little sister, if i have to watch his older, protective brother instincts crank up to a thousand as he relives all that trauma to save her life meanwhile being traumatized all over again i will simply not cope with it im gonna end things the following day im so serious

#oh my god this will rule so fucking hard. let’s goooo #mike wheeler #st5

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[nervous laughter]

#haha uuhhhh [tapping on the glass of my enclosure] hellooooo #st5