#it just hit me

[hishoi]

OK BUT WAS I THE ONLY PERSON WHO JUST NOW REALISED EYE OF EDEN IS LITERALLY SUCH A CLEVER NAME.

The eye of the storm: the calmest place in a storm, the middle of a tornado.

Eden: paradise (the garden of eden)

THE EYE OF EDEN MEANS THAT IT'S THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACE IN PARADISE.

#IT JUST HIT ME #how did i not notice this before #this is so clever #i am feral #sky cotl #sky children of the light #sky: cotl #thatskygame #that sky game #eye of eden

[https-hunter]

Same person same exact font

#it just hit me #like they are The Same Person #what we do in the shadows #wwdits #nadja of antipaxos #scary godmother

[bonez-yard]

I wonder how Lucifer is gonna react the moment he finds out Charlie made a deal with Alastor, regardless if it involved her soul or not.

Would he help find a way to get her out of it? Or must he follow the rules about deals and let her make her end of whatever favor Alastor has in mind.

Oooooh I cannot wait for the second season already

#it just hit me #he doesnt know #ooooooo the dads are gonna go at it #alastor #lucifer morningstar #hazbin hotel #hazbin alastor #hazbin lucifer #charlie morningstar #hazbin charlie

[letters-to-rosie]

wait wait idea

timebomb bird shapeshifter AU

#timebomb #ekko #jinx #arcane #ekkojinx #i was like wait they are the characters with bird motifs #and @cauldron-of-oddities made that art #it just hit me

[dinitride-art]

Why Byler Would Be a Failure of a Queerbait

Queerbaiting is used to draw in an audience and usually results in a strong fandom. It’s goal is to gather a larger audience, and the audience that would not want queer characters. What I’ve noticed about it, is that it usually is comprised to two straight characters who are good friends. They then sprinkle stuff into interviews outside the media from actors. Things like, maybe she likes her? I guess you’ll just have to find out in the next season! Or saying they could see it happening. Basically anything that would draw in people who want to see a queer pairing, but keeping a reasonable amount of doubt available to those who don’t want to see a queer pairing. Also fan service when the queer bait is being directed at an audience of mostly straight women shipping two male characters. It’s a marketing tactic.

Queer baiting does sometimes result in queer characters, but not the ones that they’re marketing. Or if it is the ones their marketing, they immediately die. The Queer baiting and bury your gays combo. See, supernatural. Having canon queer characters usually isn’t what is intended. They aren’t important to the plot, and can be easily disposed of once they’ve played their part. Their part being covering up any trace of queer bait with the argument that they actually have a queer character in their show. These characters, more often than not, are one dimensional side characters and aren’t there to stay. Main characters revealed as queer, can’t be more than one, and are only revealed at the last possible moment as not to lose the part of the audience not being queer baited.

Stranger Things has two characters that are canonically queer and are relevant to the plot. Robin on her own could be seen as potential queerbait, if byelr were at that time, popular enough to warrant baiting. The queer side character backtrack comes after pressure from a queer baited audience. Not before. Prior to season four, there were more people on tumblr who shipped Mike and El, than Mike and Will. On tumblr. In fact, there were so few byler shippers, that they were in a position where they could be targeted by Mike and El shippers with no consequences. In season three there would be no reason to even think about smoothing over anger from a baited fandom. There was no fandom to be baited. The audience being baited needs to actually be present for it to work.

With one queer character introduced there is no need for another. If Robin were a side character who died in season three then that might allow for another queer character to be introduced in season four. However, Robin is very much alive in season four. She’s not going anywhere and actually has a character arc discussing both her as a person, and her experience as a lesbian in the eighties in Hawkins. That’s pushing it for queer bait. It’s really pushing it.

Will Byers is in love with Mike Wheeler. That’s canon in season four. It’s been built up to since the beginning. If Stranger Things was baiting a queer audience, this would be a weird move. Considering that Byler shippers have never been worth noting before season four, and that Will’s the character that they built the foundation of the show off of, this is a terrible option for queerbaiting. Not because it wouldn’t draw a queer audience that wasn’t to see queer characters, but because it would push away the audience that doesn’t. That is a line that they cannot cross. Will Byers would be crossing that line, and then some. This character is not one that can be thrown away without consequence. He’s important and affects almost everything that happens. I have never seen a main character be queer, and have their story represented in a genuine manner. Never would it affect a central straight relationship. They wouldn’t dare lose a single member of a heteronormative audience.

Two queer characters that are this important are not queer bait. They are not a marketing tactic, they’re integral to the story. Their experiences are integral to the story. Robin Buckley was the first straightbait I have ever witnessed. She is a queer character who was a character first, and queer after the work was put in to make the audience see her as a person. This character is enough to say that Stranger Things represented a queer character well.

Will Byers says that Stranger Things is about queer people. He’s in love with another main character, and it’s affecting the plot. Will Byers being in love with Mike Wheeler is actively changing Mike and El’s relationship. It has been since the beginning.

You can’t queer bait an audience that isn’t there. You can’t bring in a queer character to cover your asses when no one’s accusing you of anything. This isn’t something I’ve ever seen before. Robin is introduced in preparation for Will. It’s the literally opposite of queer baiting. It’s creating a story with queer characters, about queer characters, and marketing it to a straight cisgender audience.

Queer baiting has never been done like this. Because this isn’t queer baiting. It doesn’t effectively function as queer baiting because there was no audience, and their largest audience is the one they’re testing. It is more of a problem to lose a straight audience than a queer one that barely exists.

Byler cannot be queer bait because that’s not how queer bait works. There are not two canon queer characters in a queer bait. Certainly not one of the characters the plot has been centred around since the beginning. And definitely not a character that they would lose members of their audience for writing him as gay.

Will Byers is in love with Mike Wheeler. Will’s relationship to Mike is still important to both of them even after the audience sees this. In fact, Will is affecting Mike’s decisions, and it’s stressed how much he cares for him. Mike and El’s relationship is in shambles and Will is the character they’ve chosen to get involved in that.

This doesn’t happen.

Will is in love with Mike, and he’s still someone who Mike cares about. There’s no distance put in their relationship. They actually spent an entire arc repairing and strengthening it.

Will Byers is in love with Mike Wheeler.

And he’s still alive. He’s still important. He’s still important to Mike.

I literally don’t know what to do with Mike and Will. Because it’s not queer bait. It doesn’t function as queer bait because queer bait is not an aspect of the story. It’s always marketing to an audience. Never an experience or a conversation or anything that’s significance goes further than saying there’s a queer character for the sake of having a queer character.

And it’s never a main character.

When your main character is queer, your story is queer.

They cannot use queer bait as a marketing tactic because they’ve already committed to writing a queer story. Their main audience is not queer. There’s no reason to queer bait a straight audience that doesn’t want queer characters in the first place. It doesn’t work like that. Queer baiting has never worked like this.

This isn’t queer bait. It never has been.

They’re going for it. They are actually going for it. And I can’t wait to see it.

#it just hit me #it’s always been about this #byler #stranger things #oh #I’m in this story #oh fuck #I’m gonna start crying

[therentyoupay]

you guys i'm literally writing a book

#IT JUST HIT ME #about therentyoupay #therentyoupay life #therentyoupay phd

[ihhfhonao3]

Very important information please reblog

And yes I mean the little blue guys who dance and wear shorts with built in booties and little hats and have tails for some reason and sing the happy song whose creator made them a female counterpart to make people not think they were gay but only made things weird

If anything vanity Smurf and hefty smurf are dating. Masc4fem

#it just hit me #the smurfs #im making myself known on smurfblr help #poll #polls #tumblr polls #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtqia #queer

[cl0wnsexual]

"talking to you is making my head hurt" <- guy who's had one meal today

#it just hit me #lol #i'll probably delete this later

[wickerfemme]

Oh! I never get tipsy like this

#it just hit me

[unknown-gerenuk]

I feel like Light is the type to scream in the shower instead of singing or crying.

#That or laugh manically #I don't know why #It just hit me #death note #light yagami

[pechebeche]

HOLD ON. IS GALE OF WATERDEEP VOICED BY ALISTAIR THEIRIN

#IT JUST HIT ME #IS THIS THE SAME MAN?? I MUST KNOW. SURELY IT IS #caps lock #bg3

[alchemistdetective]

Something I just realized but

Do you know how weird it is that we didn't get strange sightings like UFOs or the lochness monster anymore, now that we have portable cameras able to capture high detailed footage in our pockets

#OOC #it just HIT ME

[incorrect-splatoon]

Can't believe they release,

Covid-Shiver

#for eels #I am sorry for this one #it just hit me #and I HAD to share it #shiver #covid19 #covid #mask #covid shiver #splatoon #deep cut #frostfest #splatfest

[harper-collins]

Does anyone else imagine the end of a really long fic you're writing and then think to yourself...

"god, I'm gonna sob so hard writing that" ?

Like it's not even the scene it's the fact that it's finishing-

#of course this wont happen for a long time lol #it just hit me #and i was like #well im on tumblr #writing #harper talks for no reason