#i love being a byler

[kittykat940]

I'm delusional but I'm free

[frozenfrogz]

IM SO MAD! The Duffer Brothers are now being reduced to the Suffer Brothers until i forgive them. I was very disappointed today. Exept all the Byler fanart today was cute 😊

[scapegods]

putting him through the horrors again

[gayofthefae]

You know how I know Mike is queer?

These are the same person. Mike is an inherently caring, loving, and protective person. It's what Will called out in 4x08 and reminded us of with Mike's desire and practice in attempt to be a "hero" and be able to help the ones he loves.

But when El tells him she feels unloved by him, he doesn't comfort her. At all. He defends himself. He doesn't even say "yes I do". He says "I say it". Even when he's arguing that he loves her, he is defending himself, not comforting her. If he was comforting her he would have reacted to her crying at all. He doesn't. He just becomes increasingly desperate and escalates the tactics that are making her cry more.

Because the accusation is that important to him. Not many things could be so important to him that he would deprioritize her or taking care and protecting and comforting those he loves. He even does quite well at it at the start of the scene. We have PROOF that he is pretty stable these days with any sort of accusation or invalidation with how well he takes "you don't understand" and simply asks questions without any sort of offense. So he CAN take it. He takes it IN THIS CONVERSATION.

But when she says he doesn't love him, he stops the "they just don't know you". He stops the "don't say that about yourself, you're lovable," which is what this is really about for her. If he had said that even if he couldn't say it himself, it might have still helped a little bit: frame it as his own fault if he can't. But he couldn't do that. Instead, he went with how it reflected on HIM that he couldn't say it and defended himself AGAINST her. FOUGHT her on it.

There are few things that can make him fight a person. And they've all actually been pretty similar. They're all El:

"You're prioritizing El over Will"

"There is something off about your relationship with El"

"You're prioritizing El over [Will]"

"He's right that your and [El's] relationship wasn't a good one"

"Your and El's relationship wasn't a good one"

"You're prioritizing El over [Will]"

"You don't love [El]"

He is comforting. He is kind. He prioritizes others' comfort and safety consistently. He takes other accusations fairly lightly and focuses back onto the person making them and their emotions. And yet, what does he say in those instances and only those instances?

"SHUT. UP."

"You lying piece of shit. You're crazy!"

"It's not my fault you don't like girls!"

"He's just some crazy old man"

"You're conspiring against me!"

"We're friends! We're friends!"

"You're being ridiculous. What is this?"

People who say his character has gotten worse are stating it under the idea that he is always like this. The entire discovery so many people, including myself, had that he's queer was because we noticed that his outbursts were consistent. People think he's random and angry because they think the situations are random: Lucas, Hopper, Will, Max, El. But they're forgetting to note what each of those people questioned about him right before.

The biggest proof is that he doesn't ever talk like this outside of these situations. It's lighthearted debates and empathetic conversations.

Mike Wheeler is a kind person. If he said "You're being ridiculous. What is this?" it is not just because he's scared of vulnerability or commitment.

[jonathanbyersphd]

Do y'all think sometime in the mid-90s there was an Unsolved Mysteries about Will (and Hawkins). The Party is obsessed with it (they like to point out the inaccuracies) but it mostly gets forgotten by the general public.

Then in the mid-2000s they go over "The Strange Town of Hawkins and The Mysterious Vanishing of Will Byers" on Buzzfeed Unsolved and that picks up and every horror/true crime podcast is covering it, and 45 yo Will is like "are you fucking kidding me?" and Mike thinks it's the funniest thing.

[chirpsythismorning]

Bringing this back bc I think we as a society moved on too fast

[oliverhangout]

cat dads 🐈‍⬛

[cluelessbees]

I feel like (in my opinion) a lot of people misinterpret why Lucas was sad after seeing his friends celebrate winning the DnD campaign.

I don't think he was sad because his friends ditched his game to play DnD, because he already knew they weren't at the game. He saw that there was an empty spot for them.

And, yes, that could've him being hurt by it, but the way he reacts was more a sense of realisation.

I think this is the moment he realises that he isn't happy being popular. That night he finally got what he wanted. He wanted to have his moment, to be part of the team, to feel like a winner. He finally reached "popularity" and yet he isn't happy. Or – he isn't as happy as he would've been winning the campaign with his friends.

Like we see him try to put on a smile when Patrick comes to get him for the party, but it doesn't stick. He isn't happy. This isn't what he wants.

And this is literally confirmed in his monologue to Jason. It's the moment Lucas accepts that he's okay with being a "freak." He's okay with who he is and he doesn't have to change.

This show is an anthem for being different. For accepting who you are. And that's what Lucas's story is.

[kaiminluu]

"when you slam the door i think you know, that you won't be away too long, you know that i'm not that strong"

hi @campbyler you destroyed me

[seagull9111]

did you know that if byler was a straight couple this whole thing would be considered a "perfect love story"...

[katimanki]

From Hate When I Sin by @foodiewithdahoodie 💖🫶🏻

When I started this fic and read the first scene, I had to put my phone down, grab my iPad and sketch it out immediately!!

[lkmo-ntes]

DUDE. SERIOUSLY THOUGH. BYLER KISS IS VERY POSSIBLY ALREADY EXISTENT. THEYRE HALFWAY THROUGH FILMING. BYLER KISS MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED. WE JUST DONT KNOW IT YET

[astrobei]

in my heart of hearts mike wheeler is absolutely an athena kid but i also have to offer up a concept that i think has extreme comedic and dramatic potential aka: repressed gay teenager mike showing up at camp half blood unsure of who his godly parent is and feeling insecure about not having powers and one day when he’s making not-so-secret heart eyes at his best friend and son of apollo will byers is when a bunch of glowing floating hearts show up above his head. and that’s how mike gets claimed by none other than aphrodite, the goddess of love and sexuality, and is in full denial about it for three days because he thinks it’s some kind of sick and twisted JOKE

(on aphrodite’s end, she’s upset mike is throwing away the gift of true love and keeps trying to trick him out of repression by making more and more improbable and hilarious gifts appear when he and will are hanging out. mike hands will a book and it turns into a box of chocolates and he has to fling it away like a frisbee before will sees it. they’re having lunch and romantic music starts playing. she gives mike the same blessing she used to claim piper and will can’t even look in his direction for a full day because he starts blushing so hard. fifty bouquets of flowers show up at the apollo cabin’s doorstep with a note that says love, mike and by the end of it, mike isn’t even repressed and unsure about his sexuality anymore — he’s just trying to not throw himself into the bonfire out of sheer embarrassment)

[theoriginalsapphic]

If Mike had the same focus on his mental health as part of his character arc in season 4 like Max did, he wouldn’t be as a disliked character by the general audience as he currently is.

I’m being serious.

Their behaviors throughout season 4 are similar enough to draw parallels between them.

They both treat Lucas like crap in less than ideal terms.

They both get their declining academic performance pointed out by another character.

They are both hiding things from people, and being open and honest about it could help them but they won’t do it.

They both mistreat and push away someone they love.

They both lack self-preservation, which leads them to have suicidal tendencies and put their lives at risk.

The show even makes a point of putting Mike next to Max in two of the symptoms mentioned in the Vecna’s curse.

The only difference is that Max’s character has a huge focus this season, and most of it is centers on her deteriorating mental state. On the other hand, the only time Mike gets a chance to explicitly and verbally acknowledge that he is struggling with something, he admonishes himself for caring about something so irrelevant considering the ongoing situation, and the scene shifts to be about Will and his disguised confession through the painting.

.

.

.

So, with all being said... what could this possibly mean for Mike in season 5? Well, Ms. Kelly said it best:

[kidovna]

happy birthday to my favourite stranger things character since 2016!!

(companion post to)

[chirpsythismorning]

Them Duffers are the most immature mfs in show biz