i see a lot of discourse from stranger things fans being like, "the final was good, yall are js mad byler didn't happen" and "the finale was good, why are u guys being haters?" and i would like to say that the reason people are mad is because they like st so much that it was a disappointment to see our favorite characters actually being destroyed in real time. to see queer characters and queer love stories as not being a possibility and seeing a LOVED queer character being put on the sidelines after getting told that he was supposed to be a big part of the finale IS JS SO CRAZY. and then seeing that for the people, A CHILD loves, to live she must KILL HERSELF. when in reality they're couldve been a way better storyline for her, a planned escape with EVERYONE instead of her actually sacrificng herself. anything that didnt make her more ostrasized than before, but no. let's make one of the best representations of child abuse actually make her commit. but it's okay because it's for the greater good. LIKE NO. are we being serious? and then having the token black kid not even have character arcs that didn't have to do with his white savior girlfriend... yeah, yeah. this show was supposed to be for marganilized communities, to people who felt strange and felt horrible about their differences, those people were supposed to be seen and heard and feel like they weren't that different, js for it to be built around characters and storylines that say the exact opposite. it's greatly disappointing to see this, as a past enjoyer of stranger things, as someone who loved stranger things, this criticism isn't just because of byler, it's about the greater picture this show was supposed to be for marganilized peoples only for it to cater to general audiences that actually wanted mileven to be canon so that they could say gay people are crazy, the same people that love steve because he's the only relative characer that didn't start as a freak. that's my take.
