#after their rinko mania fight

[bylerisc4non]

i feel like will went home after rinko-mania, locked his door, blasted the smiths, and cried.

[basicallymikewheeler]

Byler has some of the most obvious colour coding ive seen, like ever in teenage-adult media.

and one of the scenes that feels like they are dangling them right infront of them

okay so, mike = blue and will = yellow, we all know this. and the two times they were wearing eachothers colours simultaneously, they fought.

rain scene:

and the other time being what im talking about rn, is the rinko mania fight.

as the fight begins, we can see the obvious blue and yellow lights in the background, which are also accompied by pink/purple colours (els typical colour that she is coded with)

i think this scene was a bit of mixed perspective of both will and mike, so im going to talk about it like its from both their povs

It feels like the yellow and blue lights are further down on the wall, almost like they are making their way up into both of their thoughts. But they are still worried about eleven, so her thoughts stay above

and here, we see all three colours in wills frame. like hes still worried about his sister, but also the flaming hot garbage can of a friendship both he and mike have

also to mention- contrast - as the scene progressed the blue and yellow stop fading together on their faces, they start to contrast, symbolising the clash of characters

and then we switch to mike, who is quite literally ALLL blue and yellow. after will brought up their relationship, its all hes thinking about. all hes concerned about. and he clearly doesnt like the thoughts hes having because he become quick to be defensive, “WE’RE FRIENDS…. we’re friends.”

and when will follows up with “well we used to be BEST friends,” mike suddenly retracts, realising hes overthinking it, and will is being purely platonic. realising that he had those thoughts that will was talking about a friendship. and that he shouldnt have thought like that. WHICH TO IMMDEIATLY FOLLOW THAT FUCKINNNNG CONVERSATION

AS SOON AS HE STARTS TALKING AGAIN:

A STRANGER THINGS CUSTOM SONG CALLED “IN THE CLOSET” starts playing. (a double meaning song cus el is literally in the closet as they’re arguing.)

and then mike gets defensive, taking the blame of these queer thoughts off himself.

then after his defensive outburst, he feels guilty. And his mind goes immediately back to el. “lets just find el”

and then theres this frame that i dont even have to fucking say anything cus wtf

[hessolivagant]

Mikes expressions explained, lets go!!!

“the painting was for me not for a girl, don’t know what i was so worried about. :)” this part of the scene is so cute, there’s just pure joy on this mans face. Throughout the seasons we can tell that mike is a fan of wills art, mike also likes gifts stated in s3 last episode.

Will: “well, el commissioned it”

“What lol”

After will says this and continues his coded rant about “el” needing mike, mikes face drops from his very happy expression and mike seems conflicted and confused. He was told by el that she doesn’t know what will is painting and that it’s probably for some girl he has a crush on. Literally the whole fight in rinko mania was just mike being jealous and mad thinking that will is pushing away from him.

Literally at the airport he looks down, which i think is him seeing the painting and immediately being like “wtf why did he bring the painting he’s making for his crush”

Mike knows that the painting could be for a crush so during the van scene we get THIS

THE HEART EYES HELLO?? Mike knows more then what we’re thinking, I’m always seeing people say that he’s braindead(he is) but i want to bring up a Byler theory and it’s that a lot of the byler scenes we see are in wills point of view. Because at the end of their conversation, will pulls away from the conversation, ending it, we see mike blurred out and he looks back at will. We can’t see mikes expression, but during that part i was thinking that he was still confused, probably trying to make sense of the conflicting information he’s being given

“but el doesn’t know what he was painting what, why would el lie about not knowing something? El isn’t pushing me away either? What is happening? Is will lying???”

Mike has probably caught onto the fact that will is lying about something because of this facial expression !!

This is the face he made after will slips up a bit about the “party” he takes a sharp inhale, indicating that he’s nervous. Why are you nervous mike huh? Would you like to share for the whole class mike?

He then looks away and looks back at the painting that is most definitely “commissioned” by “el”, and he seems confused again. El doesn’t play dnd so why would she commission a dnd painting for mike, she’s not even in the painting😭

Mike is definitely picking something up, and after this conflicted look on his face we just see mike looking at will, barely looking away. While will is literally confessing to him through els name, he gives will two lip stares. Why mike?

We all know mike wants to kiss will, why is his body language so???? Finn wolfhard really wanted to make it obvious that mike is not straight because the facial acting tells me a whole different story. Mike is not in love with el, he loves will.

Bonus, mike being flustered about will touching his hand.

The photo doesn’t really show much but if you watch the van scene and look at his expression. He’s definitely nervous/flustered.

So yeah, either mike is gay or written poorly. Either way, byler endgame💙💛

[alexandrast17]

Since B*lers want to claim that Eleven was going to “break up” with Mike in pizza scene. Let’s do a quick analysis and review of the scene.

Let’s start with B*lers claim: El was going to “break up” with Mike during the pizza scene.

Reasoning: Is that El put emphasis on the “I missed you” and during that conversation she looks away from Mike.

For reference the Pizza Scene is episode 4x09 “Piggyback” It starts at 34:59 and ends at 36:34 (mind you I started it when their scene starts after Max’s and then ends when they switch over Jonathan and Will and we can no longer hear them)

Quick summary of the Pizza scene: The group proceeds to go to a pizza shop, because there is enough salt there to create a tank for Eleven. Mike makes her special goggles that block out light. They sit together at the shop, and Mike makes El giggle after he jokes about "looking so cool" with the glasses on. Eleven then holds his hands, and talk about how she missed him. He says that he missed her as well, and begins to talk about his feelings for her, but they are then interrupted by Argyle. Argyle places a pizza on the table, telling Mike and Eleven to try it. Mike immediately refuses, due to there being the pineapple as a topping. El tries the pizza, and says that it's "really good". El and Argyle force Mike to try the pizza, shoving a slice in his face, and telling him to "try before you deny". In the subtitles, you can see that he admits it's good after trying it.

Let’s look at a couple clips from the scene:

We see Mike and El hanging out and having a good time for a few minutes. Mike even manages to make El giggle before the conversation turns serious when El emphasizes that she missed Him. Even when says “Mike” she’s still laughing and smiling and grabs his hand (personally if I was going to break up with some I probably wouldn’t grab their hand or being so laughing and smiling through it imo) Also you don’t say “I missed you” to someone you’re going to break up with. And if she was, she would’ve said “I missed you, but” and not given him any room to respond. Instead she gives Mike room to respond instead of steering the conversation back to her if she was going to break up with him. The only reason she emphasized that she missed Mike is because she really did. The last they had seen each other they were in a “argument” then El was getting arrested and when they finally seen each other Mike finds out she ended back up with Brenner and El had gone through a painful memories and it probably would have been easier is she had Mike their for emotional support. El looking away is probably because Mike brought up their fight/rinko-mania just a few seconds beforehand. It’s more than likely that El was probably just embarrassed and she was probably going to address it before Mike started talking. El said she missed him and he did a little wiggle of relief/excitement because throughout those couple days of being separated he was scared that she wasn’t going to want him anymore. So hearing her say she missed him was so relieving to him. And when he’s trying to tell her something, it’s very obvious it’s to tell her he loves her. It’s literally a parallel to the grocery store scene in s3. Instead of Dustin interrupting them it’s Argyle this time. The only reason she emphasized that she missed Mike is because she really did. People also forget Mike struggling to so I love you to El isn’t a brand new issue. This is an issue they have been struggling with since towards the end of s3 so it’s not a surprise they finally tackled this issue in s4.

That’s my take on the whole “El was going to break up with Mike during the pizza scene” thing imo. El had no intention of breaking up with Mike and same goes for Mike. I don’t think he had any intention of breaking up with El this season.

[blushyeleven]

Omg I’m so mad and I’m also stupid😭

I had a great promt from @lopsicle and I answered it, I meant to save my work to a draft but posted it instead so I deleted it and now can’t reply to their ask😪 I’m so bad at using tumblr LMFAO

so instead I’ll just write it!

summary of promt: cheer up tickled with lee: eleven and ler:max. Max came to California instead of Mike and reassures el she the right thing (not to sure what you mean by the right thing but I had an idea so hopefully this is okay!!)

(also please be kind this is my first fic so it probably won’t be that great😭)

this takes place just after eleven hit Angela in the face with the roller skate and they returned back to the byers house

characters: ler:max lee:eleven

warnings!: this is a tickle fic so do not read if your not into that!

𝐦𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫

“el please let me in!” Max said with concern in her voice. Worryingly standing outside elevens bedroom door. “no.” she heard a muffled voice from the other side.Silence filled to empty hallway until max spoke up “okay.. well I’ll be in the living room if you need me” max sighed, as she turned to walk away she heard the fiddling of a door handle and she subtly smiled to herself; all max wanted was to check up on eleven after the incident at the rinko mania .she also knew el could be pretty stubborn but el couldn’t deny she had a soft spot for max. When she looked at max she saw nothing but pure love in her eyes and that’s what made her feel safe. “wait.” max heard and immediately stopped in her tracks and turned around with a subtly smile to see elevens door open. She softly walked back to her bedroom and stepped inside to see eleven sitting on her bed. Hugging her knees. Max knew this wasn’t going to be a case of just making her laugh to forget about it. She had to break her slowly.

“Hey” was all max said and sat infront of her and reached her hand out to hold elevens. “hey.” El responded softly. “I promise you I’m not here to make you feel worse I just don’t want to leave you in a time like this.” el looked up from her knees with heavy eyes but a faint smile. If max spent to long looking in her golden brown eyes she figured she could drown in them. Getting lost in her loving gaze and her perfect smile

“if you want to talk about it, we will and if you don’t we can talk about anything you want” there was another pause, not awkward just a break of silence.

“max.” “yea?” concern filled max voice. “I’m sorry for lying to you.” elevens answers were short but gentle. Max furrowed her eyebrows softly “what do you mean el?” max spoke with a low but reassuring voice, comforting el was all that mattered right now. “In the letters.. I told you that I was friends with angela” el didn’t make eye contact instead she just looked away with sorrow. “hey, el it’s okay! you don’t need to be sorry I would have rather you told me because I could have helped! I don’t want to see you go through that ever again especially alone! look I love you and nothing in this world can change that” that’s when el broke into a beaming smile. Max smiled right back at her. Now came the easy part.

“Are you upset about hurting Angela? Because you did the right thing you should never let anybody treat you like that” “No I just wish that people saw me the way they see Angela. they think everything about her is perfect” el says glumly. “Well clearly her nose isn’t perfect anymore..” max teased but subtle enough for el to know she is joking. Eleven looked at her with a sarcastic shock looked, fighting back the giggles from happening.

“Come on you know you wanna laugh” max smirked continuing the teasing “max that wasn’t funny!!” she responded with an obvious dorky smile growing on her face. “The look on your face tells me differently” max knew exactly how to tease El, she couldn’t resist throwing in snarky comments, enlightening the situation.

“Okay.. but seriously - are you okay?” Max softened her gaze.There it was. The dreaded question. The question eleven always avoided by answeing with the classic lie everybody tells themselves “I’m fine” she snapped back not meaning to sound as harsh as she did. “Oh are you going back on your own saying?! Friends don’t lie eleven!” She said with a playful smile still trying to softly break eleven. A laugh escaped El mouth driving maxs smile from ear to ear. She did it, now she could have some fun

“your laugh is so cute” max said through her stupid smile. Eleven could feel her cheeks warming up and max could see it, they glowed an obvious shade of red. “What are you blushing at?” max smirks. “Your blushi-“ she gets cut of by max delivering a poke to her side causing el to squirm and let out a adorable giggle. “Oh now your laughing at me?!” Max pointed out pretending to be offended as she gave el another poke

“mahahahax you know what your doing!” Max laughed at her before rapidly jabbing her fingers into elevens defenceless sides and adding mocking comment “Oh do I? I don’t think I do..” “eeek! bahahahhahahahah mahahahahaaxxxx” eleven squealed and fell onto her back giggling opening up more areas for max to attack. She wasted no time in climbing on top of els waist starts spidering her fingers into elevens ribs, sending vibrations into her skin causing eleven to react with loud boisterous laughter “EEEK ABHAHAHAHAHABBAHA MAAAAHAHHAAXX STOOHOHOHOOOOP” max didn’t understand how somebody could be so cute “awh stop? But it’s clear your enjoying this”

eleven loved spending time with max, especially playful times like these. Acting like a child because she never got the chance to do that at the lab. Eleven was squiggling under max’s grip while screaming in ticklish laughter “BAHAHHAHAHHA MAAAHAHAHAX” “woah im bearly even touching you and your going insane!! Just wait untill I get your stomach ” and then she went for the kill moving her fingers to her stomach scribbling at it mercilessly which caused el to double over in laughter. “BAHAHHAHAHAAAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH PLEASE MAAAAHHHAAXXX NOHOHOHOOHOOOO”

after max finally decided that she had tortured eleven enough she slowed her fingers down to a Hault and placed a gentle kiss on elevens cheek. Elevens residual giggles still filling the room. “thankyou” she eventually says “ofcourse” max says before climbing off of her to lay next to her. Both staring at the ceiling.

“Is their anything else bothering you?” Max adds “I just wish everybody didn’t look at me like I’m a monster” eleven says with bluntly. Max sat up now looking at el. “Well your my monster” max said with a reassuring smile and watched as el cracked into a smile.

Max always knew how to make el laugh even when times were rough. She understood eleven like nobody else. That’s why she was so special

omfg my first fic! I’m so exited to have finished this and I’m actually quite proud! I hope you all like it<3

[bylerisc4non]

Just followed a bunch of breadcrumbs about a single word: man. Like hear me out, when do we hear characters say man? Why don't we hear Will ever say man? (Especially not to Mike.) My initial thought was man is used platonically. For instance, at the airport when Jonathan and Argyle greet Mike. It's said a lot by Jargyle, but it's also said between other friends, such as Eddie and Dustin.

I couldn't think of many events when Mike and Will say this to each other. In fact, I couldn't recall a single time I've heard Will say this to him. This may not mean anything though, because I'm not sure Will has said this to anyone in the party. As for Mike, I could only think of two times he's said this to Will: 1. after it's not my fault you don't like girls fight and 2. at Rinko-Mania.

You know what these two events have in common? First of all, they're the only fights we've seen these two have. And they're centered around El. And you know what Mike is around El? Fucking fake. Argyle said it best: a shitty knock off. Mike uses El as his beard and tries to hide behind a facade of being heterosexual. So, I was thinking and why would Mike use this super platonic, friend-zoning word with Will in these two specific instances? Most likely because he's hiding behind this identity and wants to come across as straight and therefore he friend-zones Will. Mike uses man almost passive aggressively, if that makes sense.

In both situations he's being fake. In season 3, Mike is hyper focusing on El, using her as his beard, and trying to hide the fact that he's gay (or bi or whatever) and in love with Will. When Mike arrives in Lenora, he's being fake again. He's upset Will didn't call him back at all. He has most likely realized his feelings for Will and is desperately trying to cover them up. In both situations he's not being himself.

Something else I found interesting was that Mike doesn't call Will "man" unless they're around other people. In the season 3 fight, when Mike and Will are alone, Mike lowers his voice and uses Will's name. However, as soon as he's with Lucas or in public like at Rinko-Mania, he uses "man."

In conclusion, based on what I found, man is a platonic word used in the show. That's why Will doesn't use it with Mike. (Someone please let me know if he uses it with anyone else cuz idk.) And when Mike uses it with Will it's because he's trying to friend-zone him for the purpose of not revealing his own romantic feelings towards him. He uses it to cover up the fact that he's in love with Will. He uses it to hide behind his straight persona. Thanks for reading! Feel free to add onto this.

[bylerisc4non]

This might be a stretch even for me but is it possible Hopper and Joyce fighting about how Joyce went to Mr. Clarke's to talk about the magnets in season 3 parallels Mike and Will? Like think about it: Hopper's upset because Joyce stood him up and didn't even CALL. Will's upset at Rinko-Mania for similar reasons, like how Mike didn't write or call him. Joyce was with someone else but not because she was in love with the party's science teacher, but because she was trying to figure out the situation with the magnets.

Mike is focusing on someone else (El) and is trying to navigate through his platonic feelings for her and his feelings for Will.

Now, what if we flipped it around? The other option is Mike can be compared more to Hopper. From his point of view, Will has been making this painting for this girl and he's completely jealous. And from what Dustin said about how Mike's always whining about the busy line whenever he tries to call the Byers, maybe Mike DID try to reach out to Will. So then Mike feels forgotten and abandoned kind of like being stood up. And my little theory is that Mike was waiting for Will to return his calls and Will was waiting for Mike to reach out and try to save their friendship.

The miscommunication trope really thrives in season 4.

Anyway, with Mike paralleling Hopper, that leaves Will to parallel his mom. Mike is jealous of the fact that Will supposedly likes a girl and the only thing he says at the airport that he's really thinking is "are your friends going to meet us there?" (check out this post) which is meant for Will. (Because he thinks Will is bringing along the painting to give to a girl later.) So, from Mike's POV, Will is pining after some girl and he's jealous.

Or maybe this is like super unintentional and maybe means nothing. Idk.

[bylerisc4non]

call me crazy but i feel like okay, yes, el may be upset that mike doesn't love her, but honestly she gonna realize she doesn't need him and that they're better off as friends and i have a sneaking suspicion that she'd be a byler shipper. i mean, from what i can tell about el's character, she wants will to be happy.

and something that i just realized thanks to lesbianmindflayer (causeineedu) on tik tok is el probably already knows what's going on between them since she probably heard their rinko-mania fight. and she heard will pep talk mike into telling her he loves her.

so el's not stupid she most likely knows there's something there and she knows mike's confession was bullshit. she'll probably be hurt for a while and keep ignoring him and will (because she also hadn't talked to will after the confession) but in the end she loves will cuz he's her brother and she loves mike like a best friend.

she'll understand she doesn't need mike after all and maybe mike will realize he didn't need her to need him in the first place. because someone else needed him. these three's whole relationship dynamic for season 5 is going to be mike and el being besties, will and el being supportive siblings, and mike and will being boyfriends. ;)