Willel - Tumblr Posts
I need them to have sibling moments and some happiness
I can’t stop thinking about willel as the mystery twins
LIKE— how can you hate them? 💛💜
so i was taking a closer look at this gif bc i love noticing little details n such especially when it comes to willel and i noticed something
when el is getting up to present, will mouths to her "you got this" 😭😭😭😭
closer look so its easier to see:
(GIF credit to @bylerdaily btw!!!)
I see so many people talking about willel's dynamic and saying that El would be super protective over Will. And while I see where they're coming from, I have to disagree. We've seen, canonically, that Will is way more protective over El than vice versa, and I honestly think their dynamic works so much better that way.
El's role in the party is to be a protector. In season 1, she sacrifices herself to save the party. In season 2, before going back to Hawkins, she tells Kali "I can save them". And she spends pretty much all of season 3 protecting the party from the flesh monster.
Her relationship with Will is an inversion of this. Instead of having to be the protector, with Will she can be scared and vulnerable. In season 4, we see her turning to him for reassurance and support, and him give it to her. He cheers her on while she's giving her presentation, tries to reassure her when she's crying about how terribly it's gone, and tells her that they'll fix her presentation together.
El's arc is about discovering her identity. Season 3 and her friendship with Max was a big step in that arc. But her relationship with Will is just as important. Because while Max teaches her that she's a person capable of making her own decisions, Will teaches her that it's okay to have flaws and insecurities.
El doesn't need another person to protect. She needs someone who she can turn to when she's scared. She needs someone to go to in her darkest moments. And most importantly, she needs someone who can watch her pull a helicopter out of the sky and still see the collar on her neck and think to ask her if she's okay.
El wants to be loved. And Will loves her.
On the other hand, Will has consistently been victimized throughout the show. Season 2 is the worst offender when it comes to this, to the point where we get the line that we all love about how everybody treats him like he's going to break. And while it's obviously coming from a place of love, it's also very clear that Will feels like nobody trusts him to take care of himself.
But it's different with El. With El, he gets to be the one supporting her. He doesn't feel like a victim when it comes to his relationship with her, because more often than not, she's the one being vulnerable with him.
Will is an inherently very selfless character. We see this from his first appearance in season 1, where he casts fireball to fight the Demogorgon. And while we've seen him take this to extremes and self-sabotage (*cough* van scene *cough*), when it comes to his relationship with El, we see a much more beautiful side of his selflessness. El is someone who he can love and support unconditionally.
Will wants someone who will turn to him when they're scared. Someone who will open up to him and be vulnerable. Someone who he can ask "Are you okay?" to and not have the question thrown back at him because what he's going through is worse. (No hate to Jonathan though :) )
Will wants to feel needed. And El makes him feel that way.
So anyway,
✨ stranger things season 5 vibes. a real life dnd campaign for the party. the never-ending story. creation theory. willel wonder twins. the paladin and the cleric. ✨
"we're her brothers, and we're family."
@kingofscoops 30th birthday bash day three: skill: transition // colors: warm palette concept: WillEl Parallels
Thinking about how if El is somehow a manifestation of Will…
@dukeofdelirium and @thestrangestthing89 both have some great posts on this.
Thinking about how if Will were to manifest himself as someone else, someone with different characteristics… I’m inclined to believe he’d pick El’s characteristics.
- She’s female and can present herself as feminine without shame (unlike him).
- She’s female and therefore it’s socially acceptable for her to be in a relationship with a male… with Mike specifically.
- She fulfills the role of Hopper’s daughter thus obtaining a loving father, unlike him.
- She has superpowers… like a wizard essentially. Plus she was able to revive/heal Max, like a cleric.
- She stands up for herself against bullies/villains. Using the fight response instead of freezing.
- Despite what she’s been through, no one views her as a “baby”.
Also, just have to point out how much Will fades into the background (sometimes literally… since the colours he wears often match his surroundings) while El is in the spotlight. Even while Lenora, El is targeted and bullied and Will is somehow completely ignored?
Not to mention how often we have Will disappearing/El appearing or the reverse. Also, I cannot ignore how… almost strange… it is to see them both present at the same time. I mean, Mike sure as heck has trouble with balancing their attention.
El is superman. Will is Clark Kent.
What makes you think El is a manifestation of Will’s? It sounds like an interesting theory and I’ve heard it floating around, but I haven’t looked too much into the evidence and analysis people have for it
Honestly, there’s a lot of parallels and inspirations in ST that allude to it. The biggest for me is simply the fact that as soon as Will is taken, El just so happens to pop into Mike’s life. Then, when she leaves, Will comes back. The characters are constantly paralleled and interchanged, so much so that Hopper thinks he’s chasing Will all season 1 but in reality he’s hunting down El. She’s mistaken for a boy but also specifically for Will.
Then you have the Neverending Story parallel, which is consistently alluded to in ST.
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the Neverending Story, but a young boy named Bastian essentially manifests the fantasy world he gets sucked into. He creates a warrior boy character named Atreyu, who must save the fantasy world Fantasia from a dark force called the “nothing”. But when Bastian gets sucked into the fantasy world, he comes to realize only he can save it by acknowledging he is its creator. Thus, only he can change the neverending story. By naming his creation, he saves Fantasia and is released from the book.
there’s also the fact Will visually looks like Bastian
and El like Atreyu
Also, they’ve sung the song multiple times in the show and even had Will sing it in s4.
Turn around, look at what you see. In her face, the mirror of your dreams. Make believe I'm everywhere. I'm hidden in the lines. Written on the pages is the answer to a never-ending story
Reach the stars. Fly a fantasy. Dream a dream, and what you see will be. Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds. And there upon a rainbow is the answer to a never-ending story
Show no fear, for she may fade away. In your hand, the birth of a new day. Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds. And there upon a rainbow is the answer to a never-ending story
I could go on and on lmao. There are so many parallels between El and Will, and I always thought the Terry plot was sus as hell. Especially considering they’ve never elaborated on it. I don’t think Terry is El’s mother; I don’t think El has a mother. She’s a fragment of Will’s subconscious mind come to life. If the theory is that Will made the upside down what it is (and I believe he did) because he has the power of creation, then I believe he also made El to be his warrior the way Atreyu is to Bastian
I keep thinking about these parts of the Will Byers’ Secret Files book. I’m so sure s5 will drop some big reveal about willel. “I think I know how she feels” mhmmmm….
As with a lot of things in ST, I’m not sure it makes complete logical sense yet because the answer is probably complicated (and has additional lore points we can’t fully understand yet), but I think the idea is very valid. They must have a connection beyond just literary parallels.
Here is my unrelated (but related) spiel on how potentially complicated and wild the lore of the show could end up:
In Montauk Experiments in Time - I’m still honestly so confused by it so bear with me - both the main character and the main research subject Duncan Cameron have another dual half of themselves. For the main narrator, this is another version of himself that lives in a separate timeline where he is a lead researcher for Montauk. The lab activates and de-activates this other timeline so that the information remains top secret and separated from his original form. He has no memories of the other “time-track”.
For Duncan Cameron, he existed in 1943 as part of the USS Eldridge crew but got sucked into the time portal back to 1983. He is basically the inspiration for El and Henry. He has a twin named Edward but he is not really important. The thing is - the lab had actually been experimenting on Duncan in the 70s already! They were stuck in a time loop, and had to keep fulfilling it. The lab (who at this point had figured out time travel) makes a last ditch effort to contact Duncan's father back in the 1940s and tells him to have another child. He does, and they replace the soul of Duncan The Second Child with Duncan The First Child who came through the portal so that time is not broken. Since Duncan exists back in the past again, they are able to experiment on him in the 70s and the cycle continues.
Back to El, though:
I'm not sure her ending will be her soul disappearing / combining into Will's if this is true. I think even regardless of the twin or same-person theories that they will combine powers in order to defeat Vecna. I think her answer would be stepping out of the shadow of being this "not-real" person and becoming a real one, but that would mean being born in a different body somewhere far away and losing her conscious memories as the person who was El. But she will get a real name and a real fresh start. The people she has met through her existence as El each helped guide her into an understanding of how to exist as a human being and learn how to love. Which feels like a strong, profound ending to me.
This is a new movie, so I'm not saying they're taking inspiration from this, but I believe the idea would be similar:
Are we ready to have an honest discussion about Will and El’s dynamic and possible ending yet?
Two characters sharing a similar narrative in this story. How will things end for these two?
It hasn’t occurred to me until recently just how little we discuss these two.
Over the course of the show, the development of Will and El’s co-existence has less to do with their relationship but more to do with Will’s character arc.
In the beginning (seasons 1 and 2), Will is so hidden that El takes over. Will “hides” in the upside down, and is again hidden when he is possessed. El takes the spotlight in his place.
Then in season 3, Will is physically present but in the background. He’s the side character. El is the leader. They barely interact.
In season 4, Will is starting to come out of his shell. He’s still a side character, but he’s closer to being on an even playing field with El. He’s not in the background as often, and is actually seen conversing with El, and he even confronts her on her lies to Mike. Which is also foreshadowing his lies to Mike later on in the season.
I’m going to be quite frank: El and Will are not actually very close in canon. The “wonder twins” idea is beautiful but very fanon. These two had so many opportunities to grow closer, especially since they were separated from the others in California… but they just don’t? They both seem lonely and disconnected in the other’s presence. But yet, they are connected another way: El is Will’s saviour/protector. She is like his security blanket. I mean this literally (textually), and a sub-textually. Obviously she helps him while he’s trapped in the upside down and when he’s possessed- making her a textual, and literal saviour.
But… what do I mean by a sub-textual saviour? Well, she protects him from having to take the spotlight. He is able to hide behind her in many ways.
For one, she takes the brunt of the bullies in Lenora. Will is able to go around unnoticed even as a GNC guy that he is. Back home at Hawkins, he is, unfortunately, very visible to bullies. Visibly different, visibly gay. But in Lenora? Bullies are too distracted by the girl who’s different instead.
Now when it comes to Will’s love life… El also is protecting him in a sense. He desires Mike, romantically, sexually, and intimately. Due to the rampant homophobia that surrounds him, these desires scare him. El is a safe barrier from these desires. Will is also able to safely express himself through her.
If El weren’t in the picture, Will may have been more bold in expressing this side of himself to Mike. He may just let his feelings slip out more. Perhaps he’d let his eyes linger a tad longer, or he’d be tempted to be a bit more tactile with the boy he’s overflowing with affection for.
El shields Will from having to confront many aspects of himself. That’s the problem. Because of her protection, he isn’t able to challenge himself and grow. This is why whenever El saves the day, it never lasts. She merely puts a “bandaid” on the wound. But this wound will grow and fester if the source of the problem is not addressed.
El’s Possible Origin
This is the first time in the entire show that El is mentioned. The context of this sounds like they’re implying that El also “came from” the upsidedown; precisely where Will was at the time.
Now, I’m aware this is a fairly unpopular opinion, but I do believe El was created from Will in a supernatural sense. I suppose in a similar way to how Eve was created from Adam, minus any romantic undertones.
Our very first sighting of El is of her emerging from the forest, barefoot, in a hospital gown, with very little hair on her head, and a limited knowledge of the English language. Not unlike an infant child. Now, please don’t take this the wrong way… I’m not implying that everyone with limited language skills are babies, there are many possible reasons for it. But within this show, it is implied that her lack of language skills are due to her experiences within the lab, and lack of experiences outside of it.
I do have to ask though, why do the other “lab kids” we have seen have no obvious language difficulties? Unless… El actually was an “infant” in a way…
This quote is interesting for multiple reasons. One I’m focusing on here is the mention of life starting that particular day. Of course I’m not referring to Mike’s life starting that day- I’m talking about the person we are shown in this particular shot- El.
Now, I know what everyone is thinking: how does El have memories that predate this day then?
Well, what I’m arguing is that many of her memories could be an altered version of Will’s memories. I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that his memories could have been transferred to El.
This “fake” script of the episode Papa tells us that Will recognized Brenner. There’s a history there! Will likely could not quite pinpoint how he recognized him.
It’s important to note that Will only vaguely recalls aspects of his childhood. There’s gaps. Just like there’s gaps in El’s memory as well.
El’s Possible Ending
I’ve always been surprised just how little people dig into El’s possible ending in the show. I feel like people are somewhat aware of this possibility but choose not to give it any further thought. Truth is- El doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere.
I need to remind everyone of this last shot in ST4. Yes yes the couples, we have heard it a million times already… but look where El is standing. She’s on the other side. She’s in the upsidedown. Where she initially came from. Now, I’m not saying she’ll end up in the current unpleasant upsidedown- she will likely live on in a peaceful version of it. An entirely new environment one that exists…
[In Will’s mind.]
I do think this is an important foreshadowing quote- but not in the way most people think. They won’t work together as twins- they will work together as one person. What I’m saying is…
They will combine. Just like what this hug visually foreshadows… El and Will will become one again.
I can honestly make a whole separate post regarding references made in ST to other media involving two characters being one. There’s a lot…
#Fact👑🔥
These kinds of comments are very pathetic, you guys didn't win anything, Noah's mom congratulated Millie on her birthday so Noah and Millie are still friends.
And Millie is not going to stop being Noah's friend who is someone she has known since she was like 10/11 years old because a bunch of idiots ask her to, and why? because she knows him better than all of us, stop believing those false rumors that the cast is no longer friends with Noah because it is obvious that it is not true.
Ain't no way people ship WillXHenry and WillXEl 😰
His soul left his body
WillElMike Trio
I was little bored so I did those anime official art where they make characters in suits and gowns but by gacha life 2 (because I had no motivation to draw)
Will is such a cutiepie :"0
I keep thinking about these parts of the Will Byers’ Secret Files book. I’m so sure s5 will drop some big reveal about willel. “I think I know how she feels” mhmmmm….
Mike better treat will right or eleven is gon recreate every vecna scene ever ♡♡