blueberri3s

[blueberri3s]

Byler tumblr is so dry atm we need more content, ross!!! Or anyone just post new theories or gates like please I’m begging

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„They‘re insane for this!“ and it’s literally just bikes

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This is probably insignificant, but has anyone noticed how in the version of „Heroes“ by Peter Gabriel that is played when Mike hugs Karen crying after Wills body was dragged out of the lake and when Mike hugs Karen after the Byers move away,

It has the lyrics „I, I wish I could swim“ but the original song by David Bowie has the lyrics „I, I wish you could swim“

Now given the context of the first scene (Will supposedly having drowned) this song sounds as though it is from Will‘s pov.

Obviously we know that the song „Heroes“ is a romantic song specifically about a love thats not supposed to happen

Cause we’re lovers, and that is a fact. Yes we’re lovers, and that is that. Though nothing will keep us together. We can beat them for ever and ever.

So I was thinking… Obviously we know how people believe that after having the Peter Gabriel cover in S1 and S3 (not season 2 nor 4 so there is a pattern) that it will play in S5 but this time the original version by Bowie.

If this is the case imagine how it would fit into the Byler storyline.

The Peter Gabriel version could be in Will‘s pov due to the change of the „you“ to „I“ in the line „I, I wish you/I could swim“

Then in S5 assuming that Mikes feelings are revealed, the original song is played where it’s from Mikes pov because he wishes Will could swim „I, I wish you/I could swim“ This time the love song comes from Mike.

I hope this makes sense!

(This is just a rant because I found the change of lyrics interesting)

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everyday we get closer to will and mike taking after their older siblings and going on a romantic tension-filled monster hunting side quest i am so fucking ready

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Why has Ross not posted new behind the scenes pics in so long like babe please give us something

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Just the thought of us seeing byler scenes soon that we’ve never seen before (good or bad) makes me lose my mind

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If the flashback to little Will, Jonathan and Mike will have something to do with the abuse from Lonnie you will not hear from me again

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The Mike not being able to say ily to El in season 4 plotline is stupid as fuck if he really loves her. She already thought he loved her by the end of season 3 and Mike was not able to reaffirm that, when confronted with losing her if he didn't. Instead he just decided to be a defensive little shit about it and call her ridiculous

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Bylers, we need to talk about something…

I’ve been having a lot of thoughts pertaining to what will happen in season 5 relating to byler recently, as have we all, but I’ve also been wondering about the audience’s reaction to it if it happens.

Actually, i’ve been more concerned not about the GA’s reaction, but our reaction to how they handle it. I just want to say beforehand, that I might be projecting my issues with negativity and conflict (i’m a very very optimistic person it’s rough being on social media these days lmao) and I also very much believe that they will make byler canon in some way or another. It just makes sense with the narrative. But I fear we will never be happy with how they do it and we never learn from our previous mistakes lmao

Before season 4 came out, I sort of was a fan of byler, but i was very very casual, as in I didn’t interact with many fan theories, I wasn’t on twitter (still not on there because I have a phobia of negativity eek) and I wasn’t on tumblr, I would occasionally check out the edits and fanarts and I think I was just Aware of it, because I always root for the gay ship to happen ofc..

So when season 4 vol. 1 came out I was excited about the direction they were taking byler, and I could see that it was finally canon that Will was gay, rather than theorised. When season 4 vol. 2 came out, I had not been on sttwt or st tumblr during the time between the volumes because I had other fandoms prioritised around the time. I watched the Van Scene with my parents and suddenly I was acutely aware of just how gay they were (because I always get scared of watching anything queercoded around my parents lmao).

By the end of season 4, I was like YES! this season was amazing for a byler set up next season, although i was more focused on other characters too. I then kind of saw the byler script stuff but not the full extent of it, and I saw many edits and fanarts of them but that was it!

Now it’s 2024 and I have a major hyperfixation on byler, (due to the season 5 bts and the fact stranger things keeps popping up on my fyp it’s crazy) and now I’m on byler tumblr (not twt tho .. sorry) to find all the evidence I can and get all hyped up for s5! But I’ve also seen old posts from around 2022…

Literally every single one was extremely disappointed from season 4 vol. 2, and I was confused, seeing as I was very happy with it and I liked byler (my fave byler scene is from vol. 2 and no it’s not the van scene). If I’m being totally honest, and I might get some hate for this, I think we all had wildly, wildly high expectations and the disappointment was our own doing.

I personally never really judge a show before it’s finished (obviously not sitcoms and shows like that) unless it has really really terrible writing ofc, but I always choose to reserve judgement until all the character arcs are wrapped up and I can look back and see why things were made to be.

I understand the whole anger with Mike’s behaviour towards Will and how Will was treated poorly by him, but isn’t that the point? Mike loving Will back in season 5 would then be more satisfying after all that. It’s a set-up for the next season, no?

I don’t know why or how people thought that Mike would suddenly resolve all his internalised homophobia or something during that season, and I reckon if the whole season had come out at once instead of two volumes (i hate the two volumes thing sm omg) people would have been much happier because we wouldn’t have had time to create insane theories or unrealistic expectations that, let’s be real, were not in line with what we have seen so far with byler.

So, I just want to say that I’m a little afraid for season 5, because I know that byler will likely be canon, but people just won’t be happy because it won’t be in the exact way that they had theorised. Sorry to break it to you, but you, random person on tumblr, are not a screen writer. More specifically, you’re not a screen writer for stranger things.

I think it’s fun to theorise at the moment, but I just want to remind people that this pattern has happened before and we never learn? Like, none of our theories are coming true. Not one of them. Did I theorise the exact van scene? Did I theorise the part at the end where Mike grabs Will’s shoulder? No. But am I happy with those scenes? Hell yeah.

So on the build up to season 5, I just want to caution everyone to not assume that specific things are going to happen when it’s just a result of an echochamber (such as the milkvan breakup scene being right at the beginning or the painting being brought up). You’ll just be angry for no good reason.

The only reasons I’m personally going to be angry with how they handle byler is:

1. If it’s not canon and Will’s love goes unrequited/ he has another love interest somehow…

2. If either of them die after having a relationship during season 5 (bury your gays is stUPID)

3. If one of them dies before the other gets to tell them they love them/ kiss

4. If they get together without Mike apologising (it could be in literally any way, obvious or not) for his poor behaviour.

But that’s it, the rest of it is literally up to them.

Hope ur not too mad, but it just needed to be said.

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I need to know who rebuilt castle byers (or maybe it’s just a flashback)

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did you know that if byler was a straight couple this whole thing would be considered a "perfect love story"...

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“you’re ruining our party 🙁😡😔”

“see how you’re guiding the whole party, inspiring us, that’s what you do 🥰😘😍”

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The most unsatisfying thing to me, if m*leven is endgame, is that Mike had not changed at all in how he saw El through season 4.

I call lazy writing if the monologue is supposed to be a resolution, because the entire setup was that El's perception of Mike no longer loving her, was directly linked to her loss of powers. The circumstance of Mike only confessing once again while she has powers, and then focusing on that as the only aspect that is unique to her in his grand love speech, with no address of it afterwards, is undeniably lazy. I don't want to take that as a resolution to what the writers set up themselves. It relies entirely on the audience only believing what they're told, unquestioning of what they can actually verify with the rest of the story. It relies on the audience not actually caring.

I also don't want to have watched El go through all that torment, focus entirely on regaining those powers through reliving undescribable trauma, for her to be the only one who had a change of heart on where her worth lies.

Learn to deal with your boyfriend reducing you down to one aspect that you hate about yourself, lovely message.

And if we are supposed to believe he changed, the timeline should not be set up where the last important conversation he partakes in is isolating her from him in her powers. The only change of heart in that which he could have had, would be from Will's speech. That sets him up as apparently making El feel better for being different... Which she directly contradicted to him in their big fight. There's no way he learned a lesson on "idolizing" El and her powers from that ("Idolizing" in quotes because it's not necessarily positive, but still largely about putting her on a pedestal). There was no reason for his journey on screen to not have been about that, instead of largely internal and only, to the viewer, focused on the specific words.

The van scene is the first time we are actually given an explanation to why Mike can't say he loves her, in the second-to-last episode, after 3 other conversations centering around his trouble saying it. At least give the character time to grow. There was no reason for the reason to come up so late, when his struggle spanned the entire season.

We could also at least have had a nice, romantic conversation between the two as a response to finally hearing that he loves her. If not just putting the entire monologue in a different situation under different stakes. Which should be more appreciated as a conversation, where it addresses their communication problems, and acts to symbolize the end of those problems. El finding solace in Mike about Max would be monumental for them, but nope, she glares at Mike and Will then almost slams a door. And doesn't say a word to Mike at all in the time after the monologue. On screen.

The only mentioned conversation was about El's powers once again, and ended negatively. Nothing about El's response to that monologue that should've been an end to the relationship drama. It's implied that was the only time they talked, even. Seeing as they talked so little that Will had to point it out.

I want a happy ending for El, and I want it to feel sufficiently earned by everyone involved. Not in the way that I expect them to work for happiness, they have already done more than enough for that. I just want it to come as a result of believable character development, not to have to expect El to be happy just because she heard the specific thing she asked to hear, regardless of the ignorance to the context of her original problem. Mike saying "I love you," does not dispell him hyperfocusing on the fact that she's a "superhero," the established problem El had in the beginning.

I think the happiness that she has earned is based in independence. Not necessarily dealing with everything on her own, as she had been, and I do want her to grow away from that in season 5, but finding value in herself on her own. That was her journey this season. She comes back from Nina with the realization that she's not a monster, and she doesn't need to be a superhero to be worthy of love. I think at this point in the story, she is in a place where she has walked away from seeking validation from Mike that he doesn't make her feel.

Continuing to develop along that in season 5 would feel most satisying to me. And developing a friendship between Mike and El where neither feel pressured to be the most important person to the other. Because they have been through hell and back with each other and deserve to have a meaningful resolution to the relationship drama.

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good morning byler nation we are one day closer to "painting? what painting?"

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So we all know how Mike and Will wear the same shoes they do in s2 only with the color of the other person/opposite colors.

I was thinking what if this implies they’re “in each others shoes” like their roles are reversed.

This could mean several things:

Maybe Mike goes missing/is in the upside down and Will/the others need to save him or maybe mike is the one that’s possessed (opposite to s2) or their feelings are reversed, like Will has given up and is suppressing his feelings more while mike comes to realizations?

I don’t know this is a huge reach but I just thought it would be funny if the shoes would have a literal meaning like “being in each others shoes”

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It’s funny that Bylers are so often accused of being delusional, because I was at my most delusional when I was anti-Byler.

I spent most of S4 refusing to acknowledge that Will had romantic feelings for Mike, despite knowing damn well what all that love triangle imagery and sad gay pining was implying. I convinced myself it was just bros before hoes drama; that perhaps Will wanted to come out to his best friend but felt nervous after six months of radio silence following “it’s not my fault you don’t like girls!”

The van scene forced me to accept that he really was in love, and it pissed me off because what was even the point of making him fall for a straight boy?

Mike’s bizarre “no homo” behaviour was clearly a symptom of growing up in a conservative 80s household, and witnessing Will’s sacrificial act of love in the van was the shitty lesson he needed to get over his homophobia.

I saw a typical straight male protagonist in an 80s coming-of-age film getting to coast his way to self-actualization on the back of queer suffering; a cruel and homophobic trope I thought we’d moved past by the year 2022.

But then the NINA reunion scene rolled around–

–and I immediately picked up on the heavy parallels between Mike and Will in how they greeted El. The realization hit me like a tonne of bricks: Mike feels the same way about her as Will does.

I thought, “wait, does this mean I was wrong about…? Oh my god. No way.

No fucking way.

Will was in love with El this whole time?? What the fuck, he’s been gay since S1 and she’s his sister this is BULLSHIT I will personally strangle the Duffers–”

Heteronormativity is a hell of a drug, kids.

Let this be a lesson to those of you who think media illiteracy is to blame for Byler denial – how well someone understands the mechanics of storytelling is irrelevant if they insist on treating Mike’s supposed heterosexuality as an axiom instead of an evidence-based conclusion. The issue lies with bias, not literacy.

I was stubbornly anti-Byler because I knew I’d immediately fall in love with this ship if I allowed myself to have hope it could be canon, and the general state of queer rep in mainstream media meant I was all but guaranteed to get hurt if I was so stupid as to have hope. But in my desperation to cling to the “safe” heteronormative outcome, I only ended up hurting myself with my own silly assumptions.

We’ve seen both canonically gay characters in the show make exactly this mistake, needlessly hurting themselves with their silly but self-defensive assumptions about their love interests.

Stranger Things absolutely nails its depiction of the subtler ways internalized homophobia can manifest – Will may feel like a mistake and be prone to beating himself up, but he isn’t some pitiful self-loathing queer who wishes he was straight, either. He’s just so crushed by heteronormativity that he accepts it as an inescapable fact of life and lets it guide his beliefs and actions.

Don’t get me wrong: Will, like Robin, is very sensible for being cautious in such a horrifically bigoted environment – trying to openly defy that level of homophobia by yourself, especially when you’re young, is a bad idea.

But unlike Robin, he clearly struggles to accept that he has the right to chase his same-sex love interest. He’s no longer simply exercising caution, but conforming to homophobic standards – much in the same way I thought I was sensibly refusing to be queerbaited, when really I was just agreeing with the heteronormative status quo.

I realize now that this is the real reason Will was written into a homophobic 80s trope: not to teach Mike an outdated lesson in acceptance, but to maneuver Will into position for the lesson he’s going to learn in S5 about resisting conformity.

Will needs to learn that castrating himself to make straight people comfortable is a bad idea too. Not only is that a miserable way to live his life, but what sort of world is he leaving for the next generation of queer kids if he never questions these homophobic standards?

It’s just the cycle of abuse scaled up to the societal level.

This is what gives me confidence in Byler endgame. Queerness isn’t just an incidental element of Will’s personal arc, but suffuses the show to its very core – it’s in its themes, its allegory, its characters.

So Will getting the boy isn’t just nice fan-service for Byler shippers, but a necessary ending if the show’s most important lesson is to land:

That it’s rewarding to make the difficult choice of standing up to bigotry in the face of forced conformity. Of choosing love.

Could it be the case that I was right the first time, and Stranger Things is going to turn out to be yet another heteronormative mainstream show that doesn’t commit to its own themes? Sure, maybe. But that wouldn’t invalidate the valuable lessons this show has already – and apparently accidentally lol – taught me.

Anyone who calls us deluded for hoping a mainstream show is going to have a gay pairing as its main couple just doesn’t realize – or doesn’t care – that they’re contributing to the very problem they’re describing.

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closest thing to a byler hug we got in season 4, you will always be famous