#another day of proving byler endgame done

[love-byers]

it’s been a year, mike. (MAJOR BYLER REVELATION INCOMING---MUST READ)

mike and will constantly saying "a year" or "all year" when talking about the time since the move when it's only been six months keeps me up at night

i saw people talking about how they say a year when it was only 6 months because they’re idiots in love and are being dramatic. as cute as that is, i didn’t really buy it until RIGHT NOW. i just saw it as a cute headcanon, but now i see that the writers could be enabling you to make this realization by use of subtext.

allow me to explain

^ these are the three times they say it

at first i thought the writers may have just used year because that’s less confusing for the audience because 1 year time jumps have been used before in stranger things and are super popular in books/movies/tv shows. BUT, it clicked for me that that doesn’t make sense. the timeline in stranger things has always been acknowledged. throughout s1 we hear the amount of time will has been missing several times (as far as i remember). in s2, mike counted the days el had been gone. he called her every night for 353 days. when el and hopper argue in s2, el uses specific numbers to tell us how long she’s really been with him. in s3 hopper specifically says ‘6 long months’ when talking about how long he’s been dealing with mike (lol). that's the same amount of time between s3 & s4, yet mike and will don't say 6 months, they say year. there’s a date at the start of every season. and in s4, el says this in her letter to mike. 

185 days = 6 months (almost on the dot)

the writers have specifically told us how long it’s been since they moved, down to the amount of days. and it’s 6 months, not a year. this makes it very hard for me to write off mike and will saying ‘year’ as just the writers slipping up. also in el’s letter, she says this:

this is INSANE. 

mike and will are saying the wrong amount of time. the writers aren’t stupid, they know how much time has passed since season 3. THEY WROTE IT. i’m a writer as well, and i know how much time is passing between what im writing because I CREATED IT. IT CAME FROM MY BRAIN. and like i said, the stranger things writers have proven to be very keen on dates and time. all of this happening in the same season is not a slip up, its on purpose. stranger things 4 had a 30 million dollar budget PER EPISODE. do the math--that’s 270 MILLION DOLLARS. and yes, i know they supposedly forgot will’s birthday, but that’s different. his birthday is a date that was mentioned one time and served no purpose aside from creating emotional tension in that one scene. none of their birthdays are important to the plot, hell, will’s is the only one mentioned in the show and it wasn’t even on his birthday. one date that was mentioned one time and never brought up again is NOT the same as continuous attention given to timelines/time jumps over the course of all four seasons. and some fans theorize that they’re lying about forgetting his birthday anyway. either way, its not the same.  

so....the writers want us to know that emotions can make time speed up or slow down....and that el’s week has felt very fast because of her emotions....and then show us mike and will SPECIFICALLY deviating from the timeline established in the SECOND LINE OF EPISODE ONE “yeah, but you knew she was having problems for months and didn’t tell me.” “its been six months, mike.”, or “it’s been months, mike.” or not even including that line at all, or “the past couple months have been weird” would’ve worked and stayed in check with the timeline we’ve already established. but when writing those scenes, they chose to say year. which is flat out wrong and way off from the actual time they’ve been apart. 

and what did el say makes time speed up or slow down? emotions? oh, okay got it 

the first two times mike and will say it’s been a year are in the same scene: the rink o mania fight. emotions are high. they’re in a pretty serious fight. its not about something dumb, it’s about their ten year friendship and how they’ve grown apart. their friendship is VERY important to both of them. (remember when mike said asking will to be his friend is the best thing he’s ever done?) the third time it’s said is when mike is opening up to will in episode 4. it’s a very emotional scene. mike is being honest and vulnerable with his feelings. in this conversation he apologizes and admits that will didn’t deserve how mike had been treating him, which mike never does to anyone else. he admits his relationship with will is different and home isn’t the same without him, and that he feels like he lost will and wants to be best friends again. 

and the obvious: emotions making time speed up or slow down doesn’t just apply to in the heat of the moment occasions. (in theory) mike and will are in love. the six months they’ve been separated felt like a year to them because of their emotions, just like el said in the letter. and mind you, will is canonically in love with mike, yet they’re both acting the same way about this. it’s not just will. it makes sense for six months to feel like a year to will because of his emotions, because he is in love with mike, right? well, mike feels the exact same way. this isnt even about the characters as people. narratively speaking, mike and will both doing this doesn’t make sense if it’s unrequited. one way writers show how characters aren’t on the same page about something, a relationship for instance, is whether they’re on the same emotional page about different plot points. something major and emotional happens to all the characters---now we watch how they react to it. and i don’t mean small disagreements & such, characters are allowed to feel differently about things. i mainly mean when whatever happened is painful and important to one or more of the characters. for example, steve and nancy. steve and nancy didn’t feel the same about barb, barb’s parents, and everything that happened in general. steve wanted to keep on like nothing happened while nancy was literally eaten up with grief, guilt, and trauma. jonathan was the one who was on the same page as her and made her feel better about carrying that baggage around all the time. they understood each other. and who was nancy in love with? jonathan. narratively, that makes perfect sense and even further sways the audience into understanding they’re in love.

so...what? the emotions that made mike and will’s six months apart feel like a year to them is....friendship? not a fucking chance. mike and el are a couple, and according to mileven fans, they’re the main couple of the show who are in love and are going to be an endgame couple. why save this incredibly romantic coded trope for will and mike, the best platonic bros? idk, you tell me. and the fact that the line about emotions came from someone in the love triangle?? and it was said to someone else in the love triangle?? not a coincidence.

edit: someone reblogged and pointed out how el said 185 in her letter to mike that we SEE him reading. there is no reason for him not to know how long it's been. so either he isn't paying attention to a damn thing el says in her letters or he is just extremely in love with will

another edit: i keep seeing reblogs of people saying they're probably referring to the time since mike and el started dating, which i used to think too. but the context when mike and will say a year makes it hard for me to believe.

"but you knew she was having trouble for like a year and you didn't tell me"

here mike is specifically talking about el's bullying problem which has only been going on since the byers have been gone and she enrolled in school. what he's talking about is something very strictly related to the time since they moved, and it's been six months, not a year.

"you called maybe a couple times. it's been a year, mike. meanwhile el has like a book of letters from you."

will is again, very specifically talking about something that strictly happened between the time since the byers left and the start of s4. he's saying how crazy it is that it's been a whole year and mike has barely called. but it hasn't been a year, it's only been six months.

"the last year has been weird, you know? and you know, max and lucas and dustin, they're great, they're great, it's just..it's hawkins it's not the same without you. and i feel like maybe i was worrying too much about el...i don't know maybe i feel like i lost you or something."

this one i will cut some slack, i think he could be talking about literally the last year, as in since the beginning of 1985. but immediately after he starts saying how home hasn't been the same without will (and separates his relationship with will as being different than his relationship with max dustin and lucas and even el), something specific to the time since they byers have been gone, six months, not a year:

in conclusion: mike and will referring to their time apart as a year when it’s only been six months is not a mishap on the writer’s part. they go out of their way to make sure you know exactly how much time has passed, down to the number of days, and they put this much attention on time in every season. and in the same season mike and will do this, there is a line in the SECOND LINE OF THE OPENING SCENE OF THE SEASON about emotions making time go by faster or slower.

byler is going to be a s5 surprise, but its not coming out of nowhere. there’s piles of subtext in every single season---enough that when you look back, it all makes sense. small details like this aren’t outlandish because this is without a doubt the length writers will go to keep something hidden, and in byler’s case and many other tv show plots case, to keep something a surprise. and for christ’s sake, WATCH THE SHOW! the amount of attention to even the TINIEST details in stranger things is insane. they put so much thought into everything---not just ships, and not just byler. idk how many times the writers are going to have to say details matter and that there are no coincidences until people believe them. 

anyways, byler is endgame. thanks for reading :) 

[kaypeace21]

Byler Fight vs Mileven breakup

I already pointed this stuff out, in my youtube vid- mileven vs byler parallels 

But for those who haven’t watched it- i’ll mention it here. I just find it funny. Cause, the parallels between the fight & breakup show Mike loves Will (not El) and  Will loves Mike and El doesn’t (mileven’s ‘love’ is  just empty words- actions speak louder).

Mike has drastically different expressions after their fights and the difference in weather and music selection ,convey how Mike is feeling. He looks regretful with Will, and almost annoyed with El dumping him.  Mileven breaks up to upbeat music on a sunny day (the break up being in front a crowd and a joke) vs the morose music and the storm shown (with just Mike and Will fighting ). We are supposed to take the byler fight seriously and the mileven one as a joke.

*pics- El oggling a new guy after dumping Mike vs Will crying over a pic of Mike.

*comics- El happily reading comics as Max says she shouldn’t hang with Mike all the time vs Will upset and throwing his comic on the floor

* El saying she doesn’t know if Mike is a good kisser (after 6 months) cause he’s just her ‘first boyfriend’ and has no one to compare to vs Will saying he didn’t want a gf but to be with Mike for the rest of his life.

Mike immediately  apologizing to Will 2x, and  running out in the rain to do so vs blaming El ,waiting for her to call him and apologize. And burping and laughing about cheese(+  never apologizing for lying to her).

Also ted after annoying Karen , and eating chicken , says 2x “what did I do?!” Vs mike after pissing off el , eating chips and saying 2x “what did I do wrong?!” And we all know Karen/ted aren’t in love . And they’re paralleled in various other ways. Sorry, but mileven is not endgame they show that in s3 constantly. And always parallel mileven to byler and mileven always looses. “it makes you crazy vs crazy together”, shed scenes of “best thing i’ve ever done” vs “most important thing”,  el spying and mike not being happy about it vs Mike praising Will for being a ‘super spy’ , “they’re not in love they’re not even from the same planet” vs Will saying to Mike “welcome to my world”, El having a pic of Mike frowning in her room while Will has pics of Mike smiling, El having mike stuff in her room but Mike only has 6 Will drawings on his wall (and nothing relating to El), both calling for Mike in the upside down and Mike only coming for Will, Mike assuming El died  and telling Max the demogorgan “took her just like it did bob” vs Mike seeing Will’s body and then convincing everyone he’s alive. Then all of s3 they parallel mileven to stancy & stobin (and in s1-2 to  karen/ted along with other dead ships). Mentioned that in detail here. Also, all the mileven burns here

But seriously, can they get any more clear with this stuff...

(x)(x)

When Mike tries to confess his “love” to El , he says “Well , they do say it makes you crazy”… much to El’s confusion as  she says “what makes you crazy”? But when Mike asks Will, “We’ll go crazy together, right? Will immediately responds back “yeah, crazy together.El’s new catchphrase in s2 was “not stupid”. She even says this line right before going to visit Mike at the school. And in s3 during the byler fight, Mike says “El’s not stupid.”  As opposed to Will who right after this, runs to castle byers, looks at the Halloween pic where they both said they’d go ‘crazy together’, and cries and calls himself “stupid” (4x). El even says at the mall “there’s more to life than stupid boys.” Just like the other parallels- the show says El is neither stupid nor crazy for Mike, meaning she DOES NOT (romantically) LOVE MIKE! The only one who is “crazy” and “stupid” for Mike is Will. Therefore, Will is the only one in love with Mike!

And out of all the memories in Castle Byers it’s the Ghostbusters photo from Halloween that causes Will to pick up the bat and start destroying everything. That was the night that Mike agreed to go “crazy together” with him. He tears it in ½ right in the center where Mike and Will are- and calls himself stupid. The “crazy together” scene, that Mike initiated in s2 was always meant to be romantic. Not only because of Will’s reaction to the photo in s3, but because Mike in s3 says “They do say it makes you crazy…blank makes you crazy.”  Which is exactly what happens to Will, as he has his breakdown (UNLIKE EL).

Castle byers was built on a rainy night , the same day Will’s dad left. And lonnie called him a “queer” and a “f*g” and forced him to do “normal things” like baseball to have him ‘be more of a man’. And then on a rainy night, after Mike says “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls”… what does Will destroy castle byers with? A baseball bat! The fact Will has a baseball bat (despite in s1 saying he does not like baseball) in Castle Byers, surrounded by things he loves: drawings, d&d, art supplies, a microscope, comics- just shows what an impact Lonnie’s problematic conditioning and abandonment had on him. He used a baseball bat to destroy something he loves -castle Byers, and symbolically he was trying to reject his feelings for Mike using Lonnie’s old tactics of fixing him. Like Jon said about baseball “he’s trying to have you like normal things but you shouldn’t like things cause people tell you you’re supposed to.”

JUST HAD TO POST THIS- Because , I get comments from mileven shippers saying s3 proves how they’re so in love/happiest together . And how they were both ‘so heart broken over the breakup’ - and I feel like i’m watching a different show. They’re confusing fanon with reality. And refuse to see the truth. Like bro... El high-fives Max and has a dance party & Mike says sexist shit about El,  laughs about nacho-cheese-burps & Lucas’s farts. And neither apologized for lying /stalking one another. They’re not ‘soul mates’, not even close.  Mileven is a joke to the writers and people refuse to see that XD

[love-byers]

stranger things music coding (long)

i havent shut up about this on other platforms since july but it’s finally time to make a formal tumblr post about it. this is my favorite thing ever and my favorite piece of byler proof and im SO excited to make one big post about it 

the songs that i’m gonna be talking about are:

The First Lie

On The Bus

The First I love You

Being Different

the first lie has only ever played once, and it was during jonathan and nancy’s first kiss in 2x6. they had been denying their feelings for each other left and right for a YEAR. the kiss is the first time they’ve ever directly acknowledged and admitted their feelings and been completely honest and open about it. the song is basically the same chords played over and over again. go and listen to it now and get that tune in your head because it is extremely important. 

the first i love you has played three times. first during robin’s coming out scene in 3x7, then in in mike and el’s “i love you too” scene in 3x8, then in joyce and hopper’s first kiss in 4x9. the first i love you has a lot of build up in the beginning and then bursts into beautiful synths, it’s a great song. the s3 scenes it’s used in makes a lot of sense. steve is slowly trying to tell robin he likes her and finally does, and then he’s slowly realizing what robin is trying to say: she’s a lesbian, and el is slowly trying to tell mike she loves him. OR....mike is slowly realizing HE is gay. we all know what happened in that scene.....mike was not feeling it and literally pretended not to know what she was talking about. and his face....

...yeah.

also in the first i love you, the chords from the first lie are used. they’re similar songs on purpose. a pattern is forming here. these chords are used every time there is some kind of romantic confession going on. nancy and jonathan finally admitted their feelings and made out, steve confessed his crush to robin, robin confessed her sexuality to steve, el confessed to mike that she loves him and kissed him three times, and mike stood there like he just realized he likes boys. similarly to jancy, joyce and hopper finally admit their feelings to one another by making out. fun times!

i know what you’re thinking. “doesn’t the first i love you playing during a jopper scene mean the coming out scene parallel doesn’t mean anything??” no my sweet angels it does not, and here’s why

like i said, the first i love you has a lot of build up. specifically, theres an inital buildup and release, bu then there’s a dip in the middle and then more buildup...more buildup...and THEN it’s the part that plays during the jopper scene. that intro that’s used in the steve & robin scene and the mike & el scene isn’t used in the jopper scene. which to me, separates this scene from the others. and jfc WATCH the jopper scene and compare it to the two other scenes. there is a STARK difference and sends a completely different message. and regardless, romance is involved in every pair. steve likes robin but it’s one sided. mike and el are dating. joyce and hopper are in love. 

yeahhh the jopper scene doesn’t really discount anything lmfao

moving on!

on the bus plays during 2 scenes. first, during lucas and max’s heart-to-heart in 2x6 on top of the bus. then during......wait for it......mike and will’s heart-to-heart in 4x4. once again, the chords from the first lie are used. but this time, it’s incomplete. it’s not the same kind of song as the first lie. one is synths and one is piano. 

in both scenes, there is a confession going on. max admits to lucas why she’s kind of mean sometimes and also opens up about her family & past. then lucas tells her she’s not like billy at all and says “you’re cool and different, you’re super smart, and you’re like totally tubular” (god they are so fucking CUTE). then they say, “i like talking with you, mad max.” “i like talking with you, stalker.” confessions all around. 

mike admits to will that it’s been weird since he left and hawkins isn’t the same without him, and that he feels like he lost will. before this, mike’s emotionally vulnerable side had been completely absent. and during this scene he is finally honest. then he and will agree that they want to be best friends again. 

i also want to point out that the timing in this scene is definitely intentional. remember, the first lie’s chords is the motif for truth + love/romance.

on the bus starts out with a different tune, then after a few seconds the motif kicks in. in the byler scene, the motif plays right when mike says “they’re great, it’s just...it’s hawkins it’s not the same without you.” then it continues as he says “and i feel like maybe i was worrying too much about el...i don’t know maybe i feel like i lost you or something. does that make sense?” 

the motif for truth + love plays....when mike admits that his relationship with will is different than his relationship with his other friends and even el.....i feel faint

then it goes back to the other chords for a second, then the motif is back. it starts when mike says “friends. best friends.” i dont think i even have to say anything 

go watch this to see what i mean. listen closely

on the bus is special because like i said, it’s very different from the other 2 songs we’ve discussed. the motif is incomplete, but it’s there. when you hear that motif, you’re meant to understand that there are romantic undertones. something romantic is going on here. before the lumax scene, you could probably guess that they were gonna eventually be a couple, but the bus scene is when it’s pretty much confirmed. there were romantic undertones. and feel free to disagree but the byler scene was SO fucking romantic coded. romantic undertones all over the place. ALSO, in both of these scenes, the pair in question are interrupted and have their gazes torn from each other. lucas and max by the screech of a demodog, mike and will by the screech of the tires outside. haha. hahaha. haahahahahahHAHAHAHHAAHAHHA. ITS COOL! ITS TOTALLY COOL! WE’RE FINE!

the last song, being different, is played once. it plays when will gives mike the painting and confesses his feelings by using el’s name. it’s a pretty long song, and the motif doesn’t kick in until almost the end. but when it does, it’s on mike’s face. go watch this to see what i mean

will is confessing his love for mike, but he’s also lying. he’s implying these are el’s feelings when they’re not by using her name. like on the bus, being different is very different from the first lie & the first i love you. the motif, once again, isn’t complete and sounds almost distorted. will is being truthful, but he’s also not. he’s saying these aren’t his feelings, but regardless they still are and he’s saying them out loud TO mike. 

! romantic ! undertones ! 

! truth ! and ! love ! 

also, since this motif is representative of truth + love, don’t you think it would play during mike’s big monologue confessing his love for eleven? i think so too!

but it didn’t. the motif is nowhere in you’re the heart. 

lets quickly go over all of the pairs talked about in this post:

nancy + jonathan (in love, a couple)

lucas + max (in love)

mike + el (a couple)

robin + steve (one sided crush)

joyce + hopper (in love, a couple)

will + mike (one canonically in love with the other/undecided)

the motif has appeared 6 times in total, 2 times per season (2, 3, 4), and with those pairs ONLY. 

and byler isn’t romantic? it’s one sided? methinks NOT. 

[kaypeace21]

not to be rude but i spoke to some people about this and they agreed that they noticed that when you share your theories you give off a “this is 100% happening and i’m absolutely correct” vibe which also shows when you say things like “i don’t want to spoil anything” because it implies that your theory/theories are completely infallible. obviously you should take this with a grain of salt but maybe refrain from ‘not wanting to spoil anything’ and either give the full theory or nothing. (1)

I feel like 90% of these people don’t follow me. And  they just cherry pick the few posts I don’t state it’s a theory. And act and pretend I believe I’m infalliable- when I’m most certainly not. It’s impossible to be right about every single detail of every single theory- I’ve done updated versions of some theories too (proving just that). But just some of my posts (from only this month) to prove my point- about how I don’t believe every theory /detail is going to be right…

I hope people don’t take everything I say as gospel, I’ve said I’m a theorist. That’s all I am. I’m  NOT infalliable! I feel like I shouldn’t have to state in every single post “It’s a theory” cause I assumed that was naturally inferred: when I’m literally doing a prediction based on a film? I’ve watched more than 35+ movies and when the same 6-7 plot points are brought up over and over in at least 20 of them, I assume it will most likely come up in one way or another, even if some details in those predictions are off (so sometimes I assert some theories with more confidence/certainty than others). But again, I’m a theorist- that’s all. You can (and should) take things I say with a grain of salt. Just because I’m very confident in certain theories (like byler) , doesn’t mean you have to be. :)

I suppose, I just like being optimistic based on all the evidence. I think byler is going to happen and I like saying it’s endgame (cause pretty much no one else does). Why bum myself out by saying “maybe” and “if”… when I (personally) don’t think it’s a “maybe” but that it’s inevitable? Do I constantly tell mileven shippers to assert they should write “maybe endgame” in every single pro mileven post? Of course not, it’s their opinion- which they’re entitled to. And I’m entitled to mine. But that’s just me. You can be a byler shipper who thinks it has no chance, but I’m not one of them . When mileven-shippers and even some byler-shippers try to make me pessimistic about byler, it’s jarring. Because we can all have differing opinions.Don’t worry about me being wrong. If I’m wrong , fine. But I just think based on the evidence I’m going to remain optimistic and I like being positive about its prospects. 🤣

*and some of the theories I can’t tell you without explaining like 10 other films (with like 15 paragraphs of background info and 8 other plot points) -because if I just state some plot points without background it will sound crazy. Like the full theory is coming but like I’ve said over and over it will only be done when they’ve given us every film. Because every film gives more insight/alters some of my predictions. And it’s not just one theory it’s like 20+ theories. And they require I collect photo evidence and it will probably be 40+ paragraphs long . And it’s an analysis of more than 40 movies. I write notes on every movie I watch - I have like a 35 page word document 🤣. It’s not something I can just rush through in 1 day.  . But sometimes I just like spreading the positivity I feel from some of these movies - even if I can’t explain it in vivid detail (but just certain aspects/themes) . I can just not do it, if everyone secretly hates it that much? Like genuinely asking (cause I can just stop talking about any of the movies)😢 ? But again I’m waiting till we’re given every movie for the full plot analysis. Because some aspects of my theories change based on the newest movies given(specifically because I’m not infallible, and so I want as much information as possible before giving my predictions).