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I miss u

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mike reminding el of her traumatic past in the lab, specifically of dr brenner happened not only once BUT TWICE and that cannot be a coincidence. and no, a healthy relationship would not make you feel like this.

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when someone asks me what i did all summer but this was literally it.

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i‘m so excited for all the chaos that is gonna unfold in the stranger things subreddit once byler is canon because i can‘t step one foot on there saying my opinion without getting attacked so it‘s gonna be real embarrassing for all these people calling us delusional on there

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people bring up the fact that steve is a huge theorizer in the show, and therefore bylers arent delusional for paying attention to small details, and I think that's great, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone talk about this scene.

we, as bylers, are CONSTANTLY told that the details, subtext, and queercoding we pickup on are just small things that could be a coincidence, or just don't matter:

"you're seeing patterns that aren't there. coincidence."

"but what if...its not?"

and who was right?

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Byler endgame for my friend that feels like she doesn’t fit in when her friends talk about guys, byler endgame for the part of me that feels I won’t ever find romance like my friends, byler endgame for my gsa club that can’t even put up posters because of parent complaints. Byler endgame for the REPRESENTATION

It goes so much deeper than just being a ship, having 2 main characters in a mainstream show be a gay couple is powerful.

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I think i would literally bet money that the Miwi flashback is going to be Mikes/Wills happiest memory, and heres why.

Its established all the way back in season 2 that El can hop into peoples brains and see their memories. We see her do this in seasons 3 and 4 as well with Billy and Max. And I have no doubt they’ll be doing this in season 5 too. I do feel like she’s going to use this power with Henry, but i also think she may use this ability on either Mike or Will. Especially if either one of them is targeted by Vecna.

The reason why, is that if byler is going to be canon, it would be a moment of closure for her. El has never seen the relationship that Mike and Will have. The only way she’s ever seen Mike care about Will was when he was missing. But once she’s been incorporated back into the group, suddenly Mike is all over her and doesn’t pay Will that much attention.

Imagine we see El, walking up to Mike in the void, touch his face, and then she’s suddenly in the Byers back yard. Mike is waving a stick around at the family dog, not actually hitting it but pretending its a dragon or something. And then we see Will, standing up on a chair, looking down at him and laughing. Eventually Mike runs up to Will and picks him up off the chair, spinning him around. “I’ll save you!!” He yells before running away from their dog. Jonathan comes outside and tells Mike to put will down before one of them got hurt, and Mike just sticks his tongue out at him or something.

This would give El context. Why Mike and Will have so much tension. They really were best friends before El was around. They loved each other. And with this context, i think she’d be able to piece together the fact that Will might be in love with Mike. And if this is Mike’s happiest memory? Mike might be in love with him too.

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rowill is so important to me

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i lowkey want a mileven to explain to me why mileven would be good for literally any of their character arcs. and like talk in depth about each of their individual characters and the personal journeys they are all on. because mileven as an outcome is quite literally not good for ANY of them. like the more i think abt it, the more its like—-why???

like—elevens whole arc is finding out who she is as an individual, outside of all the other (male) influences in her life. not papa. “not hopper. not mike.” her. who she is. mike puts her up on this sort of pedestal and sees her as a superhero, rather than el. who she is as a person, even without her powers. and no, this issue was not resolved by the end of s4. actions speak louder than words.

mike’s whole arc is the fact that he doesn’t feel needed, and that he has a very low sense of self worth—-a sense that is only made worse by his relationship with el. he thinks that he’s “just some random nerd that got lucky that superman landed on his doorstep.” and the thing is… el doesn’t really need him. but do you know who does need him, and “always will?” do you know who’s love did make him feel loved? love that gave him the self worth and courage to step back into his leader role in s5? …….right right.

and will’s, i feel, is the most obvious. he completely does not believe that he will receive that type of love. not only that, but he doesn’t even believe he deserves that kind of love. he does not have any hope. he’s completely resigned himself to not only repress his feelings and push them aside, but use them to push mike and el together, believing that will at least make them happy, even at the cost of his own. so… what? he’s just going to be proven right in s5? they’re going to prove that: yes! this gay teenager will not find happiness and will die alone, and everyone will be fine with that!

no. nope. sorry. none of that is happening.

anyways. byler endgame 🤷

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I think what i really want in season 5 is Mike HOPELESSLY crushing on Will. We finally get to see what Will looks like from his perspective, and Mike just has the worst case of puppy love you’ve ever seen. He’s crushing and he’s crushing HARD. Now that he’s beaten his internationalized homophobia demon, the only thing thats stopping him from kissing Will Byers is the fact that he has a girlfriend that he needs to break up with first. Mike Wheeler s5 needs to constantly be staring at Will, even if everyone else in the group is staring at something else. He needs makeup to lay that blush on THICK. I need Mike to walk in on Will fixing his hair or something, and I need him to drool over that boy.

Meanwhile Will is like “He’d never want me. He’s straight 😔😣”

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if i had a nickle for every time mike started an episode in a yellow button up

had a fight with his girlfriend

and his bestfriend

which he responded to in wildly different ways

and then showed up in teal (a combo of blue and yellow btw)?

i would only have two nickels but its weird that it happened twice

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thinking about how much the duffers love dawson’s creek…

thinking about how they purposely made rink o mania look like the gay bar…

yeah look at my parallels dawg my ship is gonna be endgame.

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The other thing that was off about Mike's "love confession"...

Mike hesitant about saying he loves El the whole season and needs a push from Will to say it.

Since when have we ever seen Mike hesitate to say or do something?

The only other time he was pressured into something was in Season 1, when Dustin made him shake Lucas' hand after their fight. But that only demonstrates Mike's STRONG WILL and STUBBORNNESS even more. Even then it was only to offer his hand and comply with the Party's rule; he never backed down on HIS POSITION that they needed El to take on the Demogorgon and they argued again.

I once said that Mike's "love confession" to El was foreshadowing "leader Mike" coming back in Season 5, with Will reminding him he's "the heart" being key to his becoming a leader again.

But it's also the ONLY time in the show that Mike, in order to supposedly speak his mind, had to be led.

-teambyler

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the GA when a 12-15 year old boy (who had been abused by his dad, got called slurs by his whole town, randomly got kidnapped, got sent to literal hell, almost got murdered several times, was POSSESSED by the same guys who kidnapped him, killed a bunch of random people against his will, got STABBED by a fire poker, had his childhood best friend ignore him for a girl he hasnt even really met yet, was forced to move from all his friends EXCEPT the girl who he ends up moving in with, watched her get letter after letter from the love of his life who couldn't even bother to call, HAD EVERYONE FORGET HIS BIRTHDAY(???((?, pretended that all his feelings were his sisters to save the very relationship hes envious of, traveled BACK to his home town to stop the 569347th disaster from occurring) gets rejected by one of the only people in his life that let him feel loved (queer people dont deserve love ofc) and dies a horribly gruesome death (bury your gays) by the man who tortured him and gave him an immeasurable amount of trauma, incomparable to 99% of the entire show's never ending list of characters:

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i dont understand how anyone can deny that s2 had so much aids crisis messaging in there like

a room full of doctors not being able to tell a mother what is wrong with her son? a room full of doctors prioritising themselves over the people suffering?

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I love how El’s dress over almost the same shirt as Will makes her look like the girl version of him. El was compared to Will from the start and she is still being compared with him because Mike chose the girl version of his best friend to start dating

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To people who have Byler Doubt because "the show has been so subtle about it, what if it isn't true?"...

Just remember that the show has been subtle about WILL BEING GAY. Before Season 4, Will being gay had only subtle hints: the slurs, the rainbow ship, Will "not growing up," etc.

Even NOW after Season 4, Will has never said he was gay or that he loves Mike, and there are still viewers who don't know he's gay!

So the Duffers have ALREADY presented a queer character figuring out his feelings in a subtle way.

And there's far MORE evidence of Byler now, than there was of Will being gay after Season 3.

EDIT: Some people saying Byler is not subtle at all. For some people, yes. But when I first watched season 4 I didn't see it. I'm not sure why some people don't accept that some people don't catch on to it. Heteronormativity is a real thing. If you saw it on first viewing, great! But be considerate that that's not true for everyone.

-teambyler