#byler Analysis

[teambyler]

Love conquers hate in Stranger Things, and what this proves about Mike's "love confession" (Byler analysis)

Stranger Things established that El could unlock her power if she could tap into a memory that makes her angry:

Henry/001 teaches this to a young El, because this is how he taps into his own power:

The show then establishes that a very young El could overpower Henry/001 himself because she taps a memory of LOVE from her mother. Her memory of love overpowers Henry/001's thoughts of hate:

So in the s4 finale, by the RULES THE SHOW ESTABLISHES, shouldn't THIS have helped El overpower Vecna?

But it didn't.

Instead, what gave El the power to break out of the vines was the sight of Max about to be killed and Mike urging her to "fight!" When El broke out, she let out of a scream of RAGE:

When you rewatch the scene, you'll see that the TURNING POINT when Mike's words helped her break out of the vines was when he stopped talking about his love and urged her to "fight."

El broke out by tapping her "lesser" power: her anger and rage. Her greater power is when she taps into love. But, by the rules the show establishes, Mike's "love confession" HAD to have been enough to help her break out of the vines.

So we HAVE to conclude: El didn't feel love from Mike's confession. He loves her at least platonically, but his words didn't cohere with what El knows and feels to be true about Mike from earlier in the season.

We now understand why El was "barely talking" to Mike at the end of the season. The exact thing El had pleaded Mike to do -- say that he loved her -- did not right their relationship. She seems to have moved on. Unlike what some Milevens hope and believe, words by themselves do not a relationship make.

Season 5 will be about Mike realizing that he felt love and confessed his love to the person Will talked about in the van, which was Will.

-teambyler

[glisten-inthedark]

My dad just let me know he just pretended he didn't know Will was in love with Mike.

I was talking about how much I enjoy the show and he was like, remember when you pointed out Will was in love with Mike?

Yeah, that was pretty obvious since season 2.

Y'all, I don't know whether to laugh or to be offended.

[pinksmonkey]

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that there's going to be a super special Byler Theory live stream on Saturday with me and Byler Mom! We're going to be talking about some of my recent posts and stuff related to that topic (teenage characters and sexuality).

We want to have a discussion with other Bylers so please let us know your thoughts in the chat when we go live.

(*Also I want to mention that we won't be talking only about Byler, but about the topic more in general with Byler as a main example, so we'd love to see non-Bylers opinions on the topic as well. So feel free to join even if you don't watch Stranger Things at all, getting outside perspectives would be interesting and add to the conversation.*)

I'm not sure exactly what time it'll be, but after my mom is done work, so sometime in the late afternoon/evening MDT (Mountain Daylight Time).

There's a link in my bio where you can find a link to my YouTube channel. You can subscribe and turn on notifications so you'll know exactly when we're about to start the stream. It's going to be a lot of fun, so I hope you join us! ☺️

[myname1sca1]

When Finn Wolfhard's nervous lying tell (pursing his lips) shows in his acting

[ghostlyaces]

Byler Kiss 🤭

[love-byers]

will byers may be a shy gay but he's more ballsy than ANY OF US COULD EVER BE

the boy he likes, his best friend, said "did you really think we were never gonna get girlfriends and just spend the rest of our lives together??" and without an ounce of shame he said YES I DID.

like it's insane that part of what mike said was literally "you thought we were never going to date girls" and will was like Yup sounds about right

and not only that, he manages to make mike FEEL BAD????? he made mike feel bad enough that he biked across town in the rain, banged on wills door, apologized, called himself a 'total asshole', and when will didn't answer didn't just accept that will didn't want to talk to him, he WALKED THROUGH THE WOODS IN THE DARK RAIN LOOKING FOR WILL

will don't worry you have that boy wrapped around your finger

[redshoes-blues]

By the way, Will is explicitly written not only as a gay character who is in love with his best friend, but also as a character who grew up believing that he’d never fall in love. He’s someone who still believes that he doesn’t deserve to be loved, because he feels like his feelings are a mistake. This isn’t the type of character arc that will end with him watching the only person he has ever expressed interest in, the boy he’s in love with, be with with someone else. That wouldn’t be satisfying for viewers, wouldn’t make sense for Will as a character, and it would be needlessly cruel. In a story focused on demonstrating why society’s outsiders deserve love and acceptance, he’s going to find just that. It’s the only end for him that fits with his arc and the show’s narrative themes. To have it end otherwise is terrible writing.

[ven0moir]

... DID KAREN LISTEN IN ON BYLER'S CALLS? Okay so hear me out

HER SIDE EYE HERE AT TED'S COMMENT ... like, she knows something. i doubt she knows about Byler per se but she knows something we don't know or at least suspects something. Like she did in S1 before the Wheelers learned about El.

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED DURING THOSE PHONE CALLS? one thing Karen and i have in common is that we're both nosey af i need to know what the heck those two talked about. bc i understand this moment:

was when they both had butterflies for the first time / established that 'mutual understanding' thing they got going on, but i've always felt that something meaningful may have happened during those phone calls to prompt Will to draw that painting. So i get the feeling those phone calls matter for further context.

circling back to Karen, Mike telling Karen "how many times?" literally makes it canon that this moment in S3 was NOT the first time Karen listens in on HIS phone calls specifically.

so i do think this either means Karen having listened in on their phone calls will be brought up in s5 for some reason involving exposition, or we will literally hear their phone calls .... through a recording.

During a moment of action / when something else is going on. Just LOVE the theme of people listening in on private phone conversations, huh? And guess what scene comes RIGHT AFTER THIS ONE? Yup. MIKE ARRIVING AT CALIFORNIA.

We know phones / phone calls have been lightly associated to Byler especially in S4 but now let me introduce to you the idea of them being SPIED ON while having those phone calls, by Karen (intentionally) AND Hawkins Lab/military people (by chance/coincidence)

this is right now my favorite theory i have came up with, bc honestly it is SO much fun finding clues about it. And i feel like whatever conversation they had will be relevant somehow. and this all might be a reach but a part of me feels like i am onto something. perhaps we will have a karen/mike parallel to nancy's conversation with her in s3.

I'll keep updating this if I find more evidence of Karen spying on their phone calls but if anyone else has anything to add that I might've missed I'd greatly appreciate it!!

[sirfrogthe3rd]

"If an artist falls in love with you, you can never die."

[queen-of-hawkins-why-ler]

Thinking about the fact that Mike doesn’t feel comfortable acting gay or in love with Will when other people are around, but the moment he gets Will alone he completely lets his guard down and loves flirting and being sweet with Will. He’s not even ashamed of loving Will, he just doesn’t want to get caught. The internalized homophobia he experiences is truly only tied to how society and his loved ones view him, because the second the pressure goes away to “be normal” and “act straight,” bro is .5 seconds away from kissing Will at all times. Bro is down on one knee with a ring in hand.

[faelorelia]

I genuinely don’t understand how some people can call Byler shippers or other fans of the show delusional for analyzing details like props, costumes, lighting, colors, and character arrangement. There are professionals whose job it is to choose the right elements for every character and scene. They don’t just grab whatever is available; they carefully decide what suits each specific case because they’re creating a piece of visual art. Everything has its purpose, or else the crew wouldn’t spend time and money on these “unnecessary details”.

[bibylers]

HOW DO PEOPLE LOOK AT THIS PICTURE AND JUST GO:

“The pairings don’t mean anything??? That’s just how they ended up standing, it isn’t that deep.”

LIKE UM, IF IT ISN’T THAT DEEP THEN WHY DIDN’T THEY JUST MAKE THEM STAND LIKE THIS INSTEAD??

[glisten-inthedark]

I've seen people talk about how the GA might claim that Stranger Things went woke or whatnot if they make Byler canon and I don't want to start anything, but that would just convince me they haven't grasped what Stranger Things is about, anyway and frankly I don't give two flying bucks about what a bunch of homophobic pieces of shit have to say.

I said it before and I'll say it again, but Stranger Things is about subverting tropes and expectations. It's not meant to be taken at face value, and it most definitely it's critical towards various social issues.

Max and Lucas are having a relationship and both are an interracial couple on a small town in the 80s.

Joyce is a single mom working hard, it's divorced and yet she found love again.

Eddie is a much of a threat as a teddy bear, let's be real.

Nancy chose the "creep" over the asshole jock.

The asshole jock turned out to be a sweetheart and a very good role model for the children and it's best friends with a lesbian when mind, everyone assumed they'd get together because heteronormativity 🎆

The show literally discusses racism, satanic panic and how easy it is to believe word of mouth and for things to escalate, it literally talks about corruption within the government, talks about the dangers of trauma and of the fear of the unknown.

So if people bitch about it, it'll just further prove their point anyway. It'd prove that they understood absolutely nothing, that they may as well not have watched the show at all, because God dammit even my 7 years old cousin could grasp this.

[queermikewheelertruther]

mileven vs byler fight

I think by now we’ve all seen that “I really want s5 to be milevens season” post, but I noticed something interesting about it.

“No fights.” Now this isn’t just specific to this post, I’ve seen plenty of other milevens say similar things and just generally being against the idea of a mileven fight.

But compare this to Bylers. I’ve seen countless amounts of posts wishing/begging for another Byler fight, a rain fight, etc. But why is this? What’s the difference between mileven and Byler’s fights?

With Byler, their arguments always end resolved. Mike apologies to Will, and they tend to have some sort of intimate moment(s) afterwards. But compare this to mileven, they don’t. Any relationship issues mileven has had throughout the series haven’t really been resolved.

These problems just kind of build up overtime and result in things like an argument “you can’t come back from.” I also feel like this is why milevens don’t want a mileven fight again. They know that it wasn’t really fixed. Their relationship isn’t doing so well by the end of s4.

As for Byler, their fights build on to their relationship, and also just their characters. As we’ve seen in s4, the rain fight encouraged Mike to join a dnd campaign again, and also attempt to bring the party back together. And their s4 fight, well I mean, all I have to say is the flirtatious bedroom scene(s) LMAOO

But milevens can clearly see that it’s not the same case for mileven. A fight wouldn’t help their relationship, because they don’t understand each other when they have a disagreement romantically.

(id also like to add that milevens arguments just… aren’t on the same level as bylers. for example, milevens ‘fight’ in s3 didn’t feel emotional. it felt like the average teen couple breaking up but it didn’t feel devastating or even that big of a deal. as for byler, they want you to feel kind of taken back by their fights. they want you to go “wow, this is a pretty serious argument that no other friendship seems to have in the show.” and for a reason too. milevens fight in s4, it was upsetting but in a specific way. they’re trying to make it feel unappealing, hence why mileven is always separated and having problems throughout the series.)

[myname1sca1]

Okay. So, this part is obviously heartbreaking. We've discussed Mike not hugging him. But look at WILL. Look at his hand. Look at how he GRIPS Mike. Like this bitch needs a hug SO BAD. He is suffering from WITHDRAWAL. MIKE PLEASE JUST FUCKING HUG HIM

[ghostlyaces]

I can’t stop thinking about them