#but for byler…anything lmao

[emblazons]

I really like fictional couples that actually enjoy spending time with each other. It seems like such a simple, mundane thing. It feels like such a basic thing, but it’s something that I actually don’t see that often.  insp. (x)

[butterflysonnets]

yes i'm rooting for m*leven breakup because byler is neat but mostly? i'm rooting for m*leven breakup for the sake of el and mike.

to me, their romance was always a puppy love born out of a combination of social pressures, naïve curiosity, and a lack of true understanding regarding intimacy and romantic love and what it really is. it was real in that they do truly, deeply care about each other and they are close friends, maybe even shared an attraction, but a maturing romance is so much more than that. they've grown up and out of being boyfriend/girlfriend, and that's okay! i think television/film needs to show more often that most of us don't have definite "soulmates" or first childhood loves that we spend our whole lives with. it doesn't mean these relationships meant nothing and didn't impact us, it just means they've run their course and that something else is in the cards, and this is part of life!

i've always felt el was at her best and most confident self when broken up with mike, discovering who she was and what she liked alongside another girl her age instead of just relying on mike for mentorship on how to live in the real world. she deserves more of an opportunity to find herself, her autonomy, and her independence, and to love who she is, and she's made it clear she's felt insecure in the relationship with mike because she isn't being loved and understood the way she wants, needs, and deserves from someone who is her partner.

also, it's okay if mike doesn't love her in "the way he should". he is not obligated to love her romantically and stay in a relationship with her just because she's a girl, because she "needed someone", or because he cares about her a lot. he shouldn't be pressured into a romance if it's not truly coming from his heart. he deserves freedom to find out and honour who he is, too, instead of just staying in his non-functional first relationship — one he got into as a child, essentially — and defining himself that way because it's what's expected when a boy and a girl are close. he loves her in some way, yes, but it's okay if he doesn't feel comfortable or secure being her boyfriend anymore, for whatever reason that is. he's felt insecure too, and that's valid and it matters.

they are their own people and are steadily growing and changing every day. they need time to figure out who those people are, and it's become clear (at least in my opinion) that those people aren't meant to be a couple at this stage.

they deserve freedom. they deserve to grow up and be authentic to themselves and not feel like they need to lie for the sake of a relationship. they deserve to move on from this version of their relationship that isn't making them happy and rekindle the best part of their bond: their strong, beautiful friendship. they don't have to be a couple if it doesn't make them stronger and better and happier people.

i think it would be healthy and wonderful for a show, especially one consumed frequently by young adults, to show a relationship starting, progressing, and ending on good terms in this way. sometimes things don't work out, and that is okay.

[bewilderedbuck]

anyways. i hope byler makes out until they cant breathe n have to pull away gasping for air in s5

[bylertruther]

not to be too real but since we're talking about it... we always talk about will feeling lonely which is fair, but... it is such an Ugly, isolating, and genuinely heart-wrenching feeling to be the odd one out in your family, and to watch them treat others who aren't related to you the way you wish they would treat you, to watch them perform their familial roles with them and not you.

nancy's the only person in his family that mike could talk to, the only person that has the same trauma and would understand, and yet... he can't. they don't ever talk unless it's to be snippy and bite. nancy spends more time caring about max and will than she does mike, her own little brother.

holly is too young for him to bond with like that. she's just barely a kid, one that still needs to be cared for.

his mom tries her best, but he doesn't feel comfortable being vulnerable with her. considering the fact that she did everything "right" according to society's standards and married their dad of all people, i doubt he feels comfortable showing her who he really is. he lets her hug him when he's at his lowest, but we don't see them actually connecting.

his dad is just some ghost that haunts his house. he doesn't care about mike or think highly of him at all. the only times we've seen him pay mike any attention are when he belittles his interests, mocks him, punishes him, or shuts him down by telling him to listen to his mother. the only support he gets from him is financial in nature.

meanwhile, everyone else has a family they can turn to. dustin, despite lying to his mother to keep her out of his shenanigans, seems to have a decent relationship with her. even if he doesn't, he still has steve and robin. lucas is shown to have a healthy relationship with his parents and erica. will and el have their family.

max's situation is different, but she has the backing of the party; people that love her and actively try to help her and pull her back into the world of the living. she isn't thrust into a leadership role that doesn't allow for vulnerability. she has nancy who is willing to fight monsters for her, el who literally performed a miracle for her, and lucas who has stood by her since the beginning.

and mike... well. he has will back now, sure, but... things have been different between them for a long time now, even if they're both trying their best to be how they were before. and before then, will obviously was in california, not returning his calls or reaching out, making mike feel like he'd lost him for good.

so... all that being said, it's not that surprising that mike is the way he is: riddled with abandonment issues, wanting to be needed, immediately apologizing whenever he dares to open up, inclined to give others the protection and comfort no one's ever given him, prone to jealousy and possessiveness, unable to be completely and wholly honest about what troubles him, not exactly the most open to new people, and someone with appallingly low self-esteem.

you know how they say people that are drowning don't always look like they're drowning? that's mike.

[byclairs]

i just think that if you truly believe barely any bylers dislike/vilify el then you’re just turning a blind eye and being naive on purpose

[prfctmxxnlight]

back at it again

[rotisseries]

"I can see will appreciating all types of music genres" well I cannot. peace and love<3

[cosmobrain00]

thinking abt cannibyler/ canniwill again (.. for no particular rsn<3) n the relationship will would have w eating ppl once he eventually starts, if we're coming from a "came back wrong" perspective. yk I thought at first "ok maybe its exclusively ppl who're not so great ppl/ maybe its a hannibal type think w rude ppl n mike goes "might as well bc they were rude to will, right?"" but there's smthing special abt will having a good relationship, a great, special one even, w another person n eventually eating them anyway. "bc he can't help himself??" well sure in a way, but maybe bc it makes him hungry in a way cruel ppl dont, the urge to consume someone who grows increasingly important to him bc cant love be more powerful then hating someone, esp for will byers himself?

...ill see myself out

[lighthouseas]

chapter 20 of the strawberries are dying, my byler 1930s au, is now up!

Mike has always hated doing things he didn’t want to do, even if said things were necessary in order for him to develop into a normal human being. This was maybe why his parents, particularly his father, had very obviously disliked him more than their other kids when he was growing up—he was stubborn. Unmoving. Unwilling to meet in the middle with most things he didn’t like. “Compromise” was not really a word occupying his vocabulary. He saw the world in black and white for a long time, refusing to even toe into a gray area. Was this a bad thing? Probably. Of course, he’d gotten better with it all since he’d met Will, but he still kind of saw the world like that on occasion.

[hellinhawkins]

would you believe me if i said i wasn’t a swiftie? anyways. bylers, you don’t get a “none” option.

i’m 90% sure that’s all of them. if i missed one let me know 😭

edit: well. i missed fearless. we’ll call this a semi-accurate poll, then

[emblazons]

Listen. If they wanted me to believe in mlvn they would have had Vecna take Mike from El. They would have her say “it you touch him again, I will kill you, again” before giving them a one-on-one romantic reunion where Mike did something like parallel being saved from the quarry + said “you saved me—you’re not the monster, not to me. I love you.” They would have had him encourage her to her face in a way she could respond to—before she won, or at the very least managed to save him from death the way she saved Max.

Funny how nothing like that happened tho. Instead Mike confessed, the world broke in half, Murray, Steve and Nancy delivered the final blows while El just stood there as Vecna faded away…and then this?

FOLLOWED BY THIS?

I’ve spent an entire year giving y’all the deeper context for the storyline and all it’s subtleties but…lmao this was more than enough on its own, and I haven’t even touched 99.9% of byler, or the return of “there’s more to life than stupid boys” with Max.

But…of course it’s me whose delusional, right? 🙃

[demadogs]

this is my impression of a byler:

“narratively speaking…”

[thestobingirlie]

i think stancy and byler have more in common than some bylers that hate stancy want to admit

[apatheticlexicographer]

what eras of byler were u here for

pre-v1 (wild west era lmao)

byler advent calendar

swingset painting

tender emotional music

static kiss

“mike and will steal weed and get high and stargaze on the roof of the van and share shitty motel beds” trope

“will’s sexuality is up to interpretation” (noah worstie era)

will gets vecnaed vs mike gets vecnaed (the photo of noah in the harness 😭😭)

should i stay or should i go vs boys don’t cry

mike’s mixtape + unsent letters

"without heart" leaked on the calendar

vibrantwaters

will=20

michael wheeler i know what you are (pre-v2)

michael wheeler i don’t know what you are DDD: (post-v2)

mike wheeler hate club

doja cat drama

“will is gay and in love with mike” (noah bestie era)

dry as a california summer

you’re the heart x being different

will confirmed as s5 focus

mike has depression

HSM2 parallel

microbes, michaelangelo, mr men, monster munch, mommy milkers 

brett gelman ships byler

matthew modine pfps

SCR*PTGATE before shit went down

sock anon wedding

SCR*PTGATE after shit went down

slim jims twitter ships byler???

twiter byler exodus + 100k

the mike & will RP accounts get together

mike wheeler cults (bald, stephanie, frog, etc)

locked in the basement by matt duffer

destiel takeover

[bylertruther]

we secured byler in the top four and so many ppl are giving up now................... can't relate i would bite kill lie and cheat for byler i'm their top shooter in these e-streets and i will NAWT lose to a redditor ever in my entire life i Refuse 🫡

[shippingfangirl013]

Time to pretend homework doesn’t exist and work on my WIP and give my blorbos depression too!

See y’all on the other side of this chapter. 🫡