#if byler is for byler then they’re for byler

[everythinghasbeenmadealready]

life is tough but i can’t die before seeing byler canon on screen

[bylrlve]

Warning! Spoilers for Stranger Things 5 mentioned,

Rewatching episode 2, and I’m genuinely staggered by how many times Mike peeks at Will. It’s very clear his mind is on Will, in fact. I am also staggered by just how many small byler details are in here.

His whole face drops after no. 4 too, as @starbylers observed here.

I also want to include these @chirpsythismorning gifs from the roller rink scene, as they’re brilliant:

Mike watching Will get out of the van, and seemingly offering a hand to him.

Mike openly watching Will as they take their skates.

(X) (X)

These are very deliberate acting choices from Finn Wolfhard, and he was certainly doing it on instruction.

Some other notes on 402:

The transition from Mike and El being fake -> Murray looking up looking like he’s experiencing his Seeing Clearly -> Robin talking about Vickie laughing ‘and not like a cheap, fake laugh, but a real, genuine laugh’, right after we saw Mike hiding his genuine disgust at burritos for breakfast behind a tone of fake laughter.

Mike’s whole face just drops into an unhappy, spaced-out espression when it zooms in on El - this is after Will ignored his sock joke (video here by @buckybxarnes)

As many have observed, Mike and El look genuinely miserable when viewed from Angela’s perspective, as opposed to the shot of them skating with Will miserable behind them

It’s occurred to me that in s2, 3, and 4, the byler plot really takes off in episode 2. I’m wondering if that’s also the case with s5 - I’ve reconsidered my theory that the Mike + El rooftop scene takes place after the hospital plot in ep 2, as I’ve heard that the paparazzi at the filming site were told it was in episode 1.

The door slam/open transition between Joyce going to the bank to get the 40k random for Hopper, utterly singleminded, and Mike barging into the womens’ bathroom, being kicked out, and subsequently starting an argy-bargy with Will as opposed to continuing to prioritise El… well!

The disparity in time is so interesting. El counts off 185 days since she last saw Mike - which is roughly six months, as is canon within the show (Sept-Oct 1985-March 1986). And here Mike is, saying ‘you knew she was having trouble for, like, a year’ and Will saying ‘it’s been a year, Mike’ and, in 404, Mike saying ‘the last year has been weird.’ It’s pretty obvious the last one is Mike referring to their fight nine months earlier, plus the time prior that Mike had spent pulling away from the rest of the Party to focus on El. The second one is Will potentially referencing the time that elapsed since their fight - even if it’s moreso subtext from the writers. What, then, to make of Mike saying Will knew El was having trouble for, like, a year? What subtext could be meant by this? I’d love to hear your guys’ thoughts because u can’t quite deduce this.

Mike listing off everything Will did is so hilarious given the surveillance he carried out all day on the boy, and given the fact that poor El being humiliated publicly and assaulted with liquid before she skated off bawling did not, apparently, ruin the day. On second thoughts, I understand what Will meant… she’s in trouble having Mike’s gay ass for a boyfriend.

What’s striking me now is that this fight + El’s iconic roller skate moment, are the real emotional climaxes of this episode’s M/E/W plot. It could have been Mike finding El and comforting her before she lashed out at Angela. It could have been him talking to her afterwards. It could have been at the house - him following her up to her room and silently comforting her until she fell asleep. No, no. Mike and Will airing out their grievances (and Mike betraying which of the two truly emotionally affects him more) + El handling her own shit, while Mike thoroughly disapproves.

The way that Will just wants to be Mike’s friend, but it’s Mike making it so deeply weird.

The way, also, that they stick together at the rink even after the fight, and Mike openly is more preoccupied by Will in the van. I’ve seen it observed before: the parallel between El and Will staring out the same window in the van crying: Mike looks at Will in the shot. He does not look at El in the shot.

I think it’s hilarious that Mike ends the fight by feigning concern for El - he offered her no comfort whatsoever, actively stood away from her when she was waiting for Jonathan and Argyle to arrive, ignored her crying in the van, and of course:

She didn’t look fine.

Mike and Will are blocked together, not Mike and El

The sincerity of Mike’s concern over El juxtaposed with the rank falseness of ‘no, that’s…that’s not true, maybe I was a little upset in the moment’ etc really sticks out - the defensiveness is reminiscent of the tone he took with Will during the fight, but even then he was more sincere-sounding because he was more emotionally affected.

Bylers don’t talk enough about the insanity of ‘who… who said that I didn’t?’ In context, thinking logically, Mike is very likely referring to Will here (the bullies were shouting at her, he could hear what they were saying)- and why would his mind immediately go to ‘Will thinks I don’t love El, and has told her his suspicions?’ Why would he take a defensive tone?

Seriously, 402-403 M/W/E may well be the plot that (potentially) spells out byler endgame the most.

[bylermobile]

jopper parallels byler bedroom scene from season 4

hopper/will comforts joyce/mike when they’re upset about bobs death/fight with el

one of many jopper byler parallels 😌

[groovinrightalong]

Omg my roommate has been bingeing Modern Family and I’ve just had SO many byler dads thoughts. Mike and Will like Mitch and Cam and they’re just like The Gay DadsTM. I don’t have a lot of specific thoughts that I can put together coherently but LIKE yeah byler with their adopted daughter pulling up to their kid’s activities and always ending up stuck in the middle of some drama. Having a tight knit relationship with their families/the Party so they’re like one big family. Them getting married finally and their daughter’s the flower girl. (Mike and Nancy as Mitch and Claire and they’re always bickering despite being adults with their own families).

Yeah.

[conflictofthemind]

First, Finn suddenly drops out of FanExpo Dallas due to new scheduling conflicts on June 6th.

A local newspaper confirms they are filming at the Creel House end of May- early June, and we get pictures of said set today after the paps visit.

The paps spotted a new set being constructed - a playground. Scheduled to be filmed at from June 6 - June 12.

The playground is being filmed with Finn present.

It’s also June, which means school aged kids are out for the summer in and around Atlanta. If they needed to be there to film of course.

Byler met at the beginning of the school year, which would be August or September with trees still in full foliage. Season 5 takes place in the fall / winter. It would be inappropriate to film outdoor scenes that take place during an Indiana winter in a Georgia summer (which is why they’re mostly filming inside and at night now).

It would not be inappropriate to film flashback scenes that may take place during warmer months.

Byler meeting. It’s happening. It’s actually happening.

[astrobei]

he’s very tired after his surprise party btw

[mardyart]

Summer ‘87

[yendts]

spoilers for vol 2✌️

some stranger things characters but as cursed photos lol

[silverliing]

inspired by @foodiewithdahoodie’s post. miwi meets millow 🥺💕

bonus after the cut -> -> ->

[strawberrybyers]

noah schnapp: *about mike and will standing next to each other in the final scene of s4ep9* ask the duffers they put us there

finn wolfhard: the duffers said mike’s obliviousness in the van scene will pay off later

and this is why these two weren’t allowed to do press together for season 4 lmaooo

[wakeupthemembersofbylernation]

Sassy writer clapbacks

[taeiris]

mike invited will over to show him his new campaign’s progress but will’s feeling significantly clingy today so he’s distracted himself a bit by doodling on his boyfriend’s pretty face 💔

[bylrlve]

Thinking about kisses, today.

Mileven: one in season one, one in season two, four in season three - 3 in 301, 1 in 308, one in season four. The three in 301 were during a ‘sloppy makeout’ session, to quote Finn during a panel.

Boyce: 2 in season 2 during a sloppy makeout.

Stancy: Makeout in 101, several in 103, one in 103, one in 106, one in 201

Jancy: two big kisses in quick succession in 205, 1 in 301.

Lumax: one in 209

Jopper: one in 408, one in 409

Doomed couples get lots of kisses, as we’ve all noticed. Jancy and Lumax got only one or two kisses, because they’re endgame but their slowburns didn’t last long at all. Jopper got two big kisses, because they’re adults and because they’re the longest slowburn so far. If Byler is going to happen, imo they will get two kisses: one Big Damn Kiss scene (which may have a few in quick succession), and a short kiss at a later point, which may or may not get the emphasis of jopper’s second kiss.

They won’t kiss before 505 at the earliest. 505 looks good because of the 101-202-303-404 parallel, and I have my eye on Mike’s garage as a location - Will cycling away afterwards, but Mike cycling with him unlike in 101 and 303. I also have my eye on 507, both because of this sharp-eyed observation by @chirpsythismorning and because of Noah. Noah has switched from saying ‘hmm, Byler kiss? I don’t know’ last May to saying “byler kiss, byler kiss, byler kiss, byler endgame, Byler endgame, Byler endgame, Byler endgame. You know I ship byler, it’s my biggest ship,” in January, and somewhere in the seven months between those two TikTok lives, he got the episode seven script

[thewillbyersbowlcut]

a Stranger Things billboard in Hollywood, CA

[emblazons]

Thinking about this post by @pholiabanna and wondering how everyone (including the nebulous “GA”) understood bedroom decor + poster implications for the character’s primary attraction with this for Steve

And this for Billy

And even this for Nance—

—but the implications of this/these (+ the one-way-into-the-closet street sign) for Mike is lost on everyone.

Just. You know. Wondering why that might be

[mikeslawyer]

will the oh it’s fine, they didn’t mean that boyfriend and mike the what the fuck did you just say to him!? boyfriend