bylerpainting

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i love this theory im alnsldjdk

hear me out on a byler only episode

tldr at the end (leaks discussed)

I know everyone has seen this caption on one of the duffers post regarding the teaser

And I know that there's an ongoing theory that episode seven is going to be when byler happens, but what if ONLY byler happens?

What if we only follow will and mike the entire time (maybe they're seperated from the group)

Like okay I know its a long shot but it would be such an interesting narrative choice that they have made before with el's missing sister episode.

(I can not find the link for this anymore pls lmk if you can so I can add it--->) Especially since I know there was a leaker who gave us the titles of the episodes and got them ALL right except for episode seven. What did they say it would be named? The Cleric and The Paladin.

I have reason to believe that, it is STILL named that, but was changed only so it would not be obvious in the title teaser to 'The Bridge'

The following is a list of all the episodes that were named differently to that of the official title tease in stranger things history

SEASON TWO:

SEASON THREE:

I put the link for both of the youtube videos if anyone wants to double check buttt

As you can see they tend to lie or change (however you want to see it, basically they're sneaky) the titles based off of if it gives too much away.

I think the best example is telling the public S3E5 was going to be named 'The Source' because if it was 'The Flayed' it would be obvious that people were getting taken by the mind flayer as that was the big bad at the time of only season 1 and 2 being released.

If we can trust the leaker (and like I said they got every title right EXCEPT for seven) then honestly I think that the episode is still titled 'the cleric and the paladin' but only changed for the title tease, because like I said, that is WAYYY too on the nose for the GA.

Now my theory,

We know that the duffers have gone on record saying that will's "emotional arc for him is what we feel is going to hopefully tie the whole series together." So it's safe to say that Will is extremely important thematically and plot wise to season 5. (This also proves my point that the duffers care about the cohesion between character arc pacing and the plot progression of the show, this is a link to that too btw)

Obviously a big part of will's 'emotional arc' is his sexuality, and a big part of that arc is his feelings for mike. This shows to me that it is NOT outside of the picture to include an episode that is centric to him, and by extension, centric to byler.

Them including clips from the literal FINALE but not episode seven seems to be a very deliberate choice. What if it's because the only content you can pull from it is will and mike, ANOTHER thing they have deliberately excluded from the teaser.

An episode that is solely to develop this relationship into its climax (a confession, kiss etc.) can show how serious the duffers are to focusing on a character they deem vital to the end.

Lets take the infamous 'The Lost Sister' episode for example. We know everyone hated it and its annoying they tried to make a backdoor pilot out of nowhere BUT it exists for a reason. In season two they could NOT have defeated the mind flayer without eleven, right? Makes sense.

But eleven could not have defeated the mind flayer without learning that her powers are stronger when she thinks of an emotion. This was taught to her in that standalone episode by her sister.

So WE KNOW that the duffers are willing to set aside an arc if it is vital to the ending, in season two eleven was, and now they are saying in season five, will is.

TLDR: Okay what does this all mean? We know:

Episode 7 is already being speculated for when byler happens

The duffers purposely change the real names of episodes for marketing

They are willing to have standalone episodes

Will and mike, and episode 7 are both absent from the teaser

Will is central to tying the show together

I think that this shows possibility for a byler ONLY episode, in order to set the scene for the climax that will is undoubtedly a driving force in. What exactly will happen is up to interpretation, maybe its churchgate, flickergate, loverslakegate, anything in this post, or something completely different. Who knows?

I would LOVE to hear what you guys think or if any of this made sense but I know I would be so geeked at an entire episode of just byler content I mean the tension would be GODLY. I know that it’s a long shot but it’s all in good fun anyways:) If anything it could just be further proof that episode 7 will have a byler resolution and that’s cool too:3 Sorry for any grammar mistakes this was kind of a ramble lol and thanks for reading if you made it this far<3!

EDIT: check thamepo’s comment on this blog they bring up a great point that S4E7 did not include mike and will at ALL so it would totally by a full circle moment!

Zarbylerz made a good point on the byler nation community that the duffers have gone on record saying they will not be catering to fans anymore (for those worried about the negative reaction regarding the lost sister) + it’s not like the episode is with random forced characters it would be WILL AND MIKE for pete’s sake!

Also guys I’m thinking of making this a byler gate… I’ve heard some people say it should be bylercentralgate or bylerepisodegate, what do we think?

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this made me chuckle

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i need mike to break down is s5. i’m not talking a couple of tears, i’m talking SOBBING. he needs to have the most atrocious crashout in s5 that the whole fandom is like hell yes i support crashout sobbing wailing mike.

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enough about mike being protective of will. what about will being protective of mike?

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when we get this same video but with the byler kiss and they're all grinning then what

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yeah so I’m fully prepared for 5x4 to be the single greatest episode of stranger things ever

SORCERER YOU ARE GOING TO BE SO FAMOUS

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“you’re my superhero” tbh if my boyfriend said that to me i would immediately crumble under the weight of the unspoken expectations baked into that one sentence.

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🕯️ byler standalone episode 7 🕯️

🕯️ byler standalone episode 7 🕯️

🕯️ byler standalone episode 7 🕯️

🕯️ byler standalone episode 7 🕯️

🕯️ byler standalone episode 7 🕯️

🕯️ byler standalone episode 7 🕯️

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honestly it annoys me when people say “why can’t two guys just be friends?” ..i have a better question, why cant a guy and a gal just be friends? why do they always have to end up together?

like i stg people are so right when they say if Will was a girl then so many people would be up for him and Mike getting together

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tbh the absolutely overwhelming amount of people absolutely banking on Will being the character to die because they like him the least (for whatever reason) only solidifies the fact that he’s surviving for me. The shows whole THING is representing the underdogs. Will being the one to die just to satisfy the thousands of fans who don’t like him- when the duffers have literally said they’re going to ignore fan service and that season five is probably going to piss off a LOT of people- would be unsatisfactory and especially cruel to joyce, and his death would directly undermine seasons one and two. Yall really think wills going to die in the season that the duffers said over and over would HEAVILY call back to the original show’s roots (aka Will’s SURVIVAL being the catalyst of the plot for two whole damn seasons)? bsffr

this is who they want dead so bad. Like cmon

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the thing about queerbait is it often starts out as unintentional. (important byler point incoming)

a post for byler doubters, queerbait-fearers, and people generally worrying about byler’s outcome.

yes, everything in filmmaking is intentional, but it’s true that sometimes the actors have just a little too much chemistry or their looks linger for a little too long. sometimes a gay “joke” misses the mark and just feels gay, or a whole scene feels gay but nobody in production notices through their heteronormative goggles. sometimes the characters are just attractive and have a lot of screen time together.

what might happen from there is that the show airs, and then the showrunners notice how popular the ship has become and how many potential viewers they could get/have gotten because of it. THEN the queerbaiting becomes intentional as they start peppering in hints of the ship, just little enough that they have plausible deniability but big enough that it does drive more viewers, more fan content, and more conversation around the show. if they’re brazen enough they might use the ship in promotional content, actors may talk about it at cons and interviews, and it may become an overall acknowledged thing. or, they pretend it doesn’t exist or even deny it and berate shippers despite how they profit off of it.

eventually comes the make-or-break moment, usually towards the end of the series, which is when whether or not it’s truly queerbait will be determined since the show will be over after. there’s a choice to be made (none of which involve full canonization since this post is about queerbait). you’d think more often than not they’d choose to make the ship canon since they don’t have to worry about retaining viewership anymore and they’d make a lot of fans happy, but that’s not the society we live in. they may choose to leave it up to interpretation, make it “half canon”/one-sided (a la destiel), or leave it unaddressed altogether. all of these are one form of cowardice or another, all showing a lack of respect for shippers and the queer audience.

this is a legitimate trend in many forms of fiction, not just TV. to be clear, not every queer ship that didn’t become canon is queerbait, there has to some form of foundation for that belief, and sometimes it’s not really there (depending on who you ask).

the fact it often starts out unintentional is exactly why byler would be such an egregious instance of queerbaiting if it didn’t become canon.

for the record i 100% believe it will be, but a lot of people have doubt and i completely understand that, especially after all these other instances. a lot of people, like non-bylers, also don’t understand why this would be such a huge betrayal, and again i can see that perspective.

byler did not start unintentionally. it wasn’t an accident. it isn’t something people started shipping that made the writers pick it up for the sake of more views. before season 4, it wasn’t even on most peoples’ radar aside from the small subculture for it online. people already loved stranger things, and even if they wanted to drive up viewership, byler wouldn’t have been the sensical way to do it.

not only did byler start intentionally, but it started before the show even did. this is pretty well known atp, but here’s an excerpt from the stranger things pitch deck back when it was called “Monatauk”:

honestly, i don’t think this is even needed as proof of will’s always intended queerness since it was set up since s1 ep1 (lonnie calling him slurs, homophobic bullying), but this is proof that will wasn’t just perceived by others as gay—which could’ve ended up not being the case—but that he himself has “sexual identity issues”, removed from the context of other people.

sure, this isn’t proof that mike was ever meant to be queer, but there is compelling evidence that he’s been queercoded from the start too (“i’m the only one that cares about will”, “our son with a girl?”, “i just want you to feel like you can talk to me”, “i knew you were acting weird, i just thought it was because of will”, troy and james targeting mike specifically, etc).

even if that was unintentional, they had every chance since then to dial the queercoding back, but they didn’t. they had every chance, s2, s3, and s4 to backtrack, not continue hinting at mike’s queerness, not make will in love with mike, not complicate their dynamic, but they pushed onwards with it every time.

this post isn’t really about proving to you when exactly byler became the plan, but if we run with the belief that it was early on, even s1 (and that’s the belief i hold) it shows why it would be so much worse if it were queerbait.

if byler is queerbait, it was meticulously planned, slowly built-up, carefully constructed, total long-con queerbait.

if byler is queerbait, the show’s intention has always been to hurt queer people.

that would be, and i mean this in my heart of hearts, genuinely BONKERS. there would absolutely no point. there is no motivation i could think of that would make any sense. it would actually more sense to me if byler canon was planned and then they didn’t go through with it, than if it was queerbait all along. with the way things are going, that’s more logical.

this post also isn’t about byler proof in general, but if you’re here i assume you’re pretty well versed in it and why it’s where they’ve been leading us. i assume you know why will being rejected isn’t a good thing. i’m sure you also understand why byler not being canon (and m*leven being endgame) goes against what the whole show stands for. if byler is queerbait, the entire moral of stranger things was some big prank the whole time—outcasts are bad, love doesn’t triumph, gay people don’t deserve their happy ending, and uncontroversial straight relationships are the way to go. the ruder bunch of m*levens and antis would think i’m being hyperbolic and annoying, but if you’re not willing to listen to queer people then i can’t imagine why you’d be reading this. if you’re willing to listen, and especially if you’re queer yourself, i’m sure you know what i mean, and i’m sure you understand the pain it would bring.

byler being queerbait would be cruel, plain and simple, it would’ve been to no end. no narrative improvements, no monetary gain, no plot device could be justified by it. it would’ve all been for absolutely nothing. and that’s exactly why it’s not queerbait.

i hope this gives people struggling with byler doubt some comfort, at the very least in the fact that if your doubt comes true (and it won’t!) you were done so, so dirty, and you’re not crazy.

love you all and thanks for reading <3

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midlevens trying to rub this in our face

but this exists;

oh byler is so endgame.

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Not my comment but they are lowkey highkey onto something

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literal chills

“But byler is unrealistic!”

Literally everyone involved in making stranger things disagrees. This speech was made by David Harbour in 2017, and it is still some of the best byler proof that exists:

“But this award from you, who take your craft seriously, and earnestly believe, like me, that great acting can change the world, is a call to arms for our fellow craftsmen and women to go deeper and, through our art, to battle against fear, self-centeredness and exclusivity of our predominantly narcissistic culture and through our craft to cultivate a more empathetic and understanding society... by revealing intimate truths that serve as a forceful reminder to folks that when they feel broken and afraid and tired, they are not alone.

We are united in that we are all human beings and we are all together on this horrible, painful, joyous, exciting and mysterious ride that is being alive.

As we act in the continuing narrative of Stranger Things, we... will repel bullies, we will shelter freaks and outcasts, those who have no home, we will get past the lies, we will hunt monsters, and when we are at a loss amidst the hypocrisy and the casual violence of certain individuals and institutions, we will, as per chief Jim Hopper, punch some people in the face when they seek to destroy the weak, the disenfranchised and the marginalized, and we will do it all with soul, with heart, and with joy. We thank you for this responsibility.”

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Just Saw a person on tiktok saying "I hate bylers because they all absolutely despise El"

Someone replied "did you see any bylers say that ever?"

They replied "No but people told me they do"

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“if she was going to lose you, i think she’d rather just get it over with quick. like ripping off a bandaid.”

aka

“if i was going to lose you, i’d rather get it over with quick. like ripping off a bandaid.”

aka

if the plan was for mike to reject will, they would have already gotten it over with in season 4

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s5 predictions:

🕯️will byers near-death experience🕯️

🕯️mike crashing out because of it🕯️

🕯️will byers near-death experience🕯️

🕯️mike crashing out because of it🕯️

🕯️will byers near-death experience🕯️

🕯️mike crashing out because of it🕯️

🕯️will byers near-death experience🕯️

🕯️mike crashing out because of it🕯️