#subtle byler ;)

[bulionzkury]

It's so funny that s4 Lucas and Max are sold together and s4 Mike and El are sold separatly

I found ONE Milkvan set, but it was from s1

[lunabug2004]

One of my favorite details about season 2 Byler is that most people would probably assume at the beginning that Mike is treating Will so softly and so differently from how he treats the others or the others treat Will because of what happened the previous year. However, the show lets us know real quick that that is not the case:

Mike is very purposefully left out of the list of people Will says are treating him differently. This is completely intentional. It's so subtle and that's what I love about it because most people don't even catch it, but it's such a good way to show the audience that the two boys have a very special relationship with one another and they always have.

[gayofthefae]

Thinking about how the Snow Ball kiss was literally confirmed fan service for Milkvans.

That they did not have any intention of having them kiss at the end of that season (abnormal for a romantic reunion don't you think....👀) but Millie thought that fans would be disappointed with that.

"Byler is fan service" meanwhile the writers trying to write Byler and shift away from Milkvan were making little sacrifices to give Mike and El romantic moments.

Their original intention was for Mike and El NOT to kiss and then for it to cut to WILL looking over at them dancing as *the* last shot before cutting away to the mind flayer.

Their original intention was basically this

Not a Mlvn payoff. They wanted to end on a Byler setup.

[love-byers]

a literal SPOTLIGHT shining down on mike from his closet will always be funny

[bylerpining]

just going to leave this here

[phoebebuggers]

will byers is trying to be cool about it and mike wheeler is not strong enough to be your man and i think that's beautiful

[lalallalas-posts]

No Will is so cute in this because

a) he tiny

[qolazz]

hello darling! I loved your previous stranger things artworks, especially elmax, so if it's not a problem, would you be so kind to draw elmax again? maybe with Will hanging out with them, because I just LOVE that idea of elmax+will hanging out together. having their time. the rest is up to you!

Elmax shipper will? Definitely

I am a max & will besties truther 😌

AND THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOUUUUUU YOURE TOO SWEET 🤭

I love drawing my angry little red head and my flannel obsessed twins :3 I swear where ever wonder twins went there was a flannel deprivation

(Please take note will is wearing blue and yellow 🤭🤭)

Let’s headcanon will with a great gaydar (he has this small test thing to see if ppl are queer) but he doesn’t use it on his friends or family (thus he didn’t know about mike) but bc in s2 he said/thought max was gonna hang with the party for one night he tested her (he felt bad about it later) and figured she was bi :) so he playfully joked about it after her and el came out :D

REQUESTS STILL OPEN (I REALLY WANT TO DRAW AU’S AND ESPECIALLY OWM SO PLSSS)

[dysfunctionalupsidedown]

"She didn't look fine" still kills me. Like... Why did he even open his mouth?

[elyssa0907]

I love these two. THEY ARE SO CUTE!! I am not normal about them they are just so adorable together

also. The lip glances 🤭

[mikesbasementbeets]

ha ha ha ha

ha ha

i'm dead inside

[greenfiend]

These Songs Hold Major Clues

Connected to Mike’s love for Will…

We are told within this scene the importance of songs that hold a personal meaning, thus we can assume those particular songs do just that.

Remember, every detail within this show is intentional and important!

It’s also important to note that this is all from the episode Dear Billy. The same episode where Mike declares to Will that he felt as though he had lost him. Plus we are first introduced to the song Letter to Willy within this episode, further connecting Will with other plots that don’t involve him (on the surface) through subtext.

So let’s take a look at these songs, shall we?

All these songs have very similar themes. They’re all love songs. One lover separated by the other, dreaming about being reunited. The one singing is longing for the other.

“I stand at your gate”, automatically my thought went to the obvious gates between the real world and the UD. But, let me remind you of another time Mike stood at Will’s gate…

At the airport. The gate at the airport. Notice the little “snack” behind Will in this shot? Well…

Obviously it’s alluding to the “snack-size gate”. Aka “watergate” found at the bottom of Lovers’ Lake! This is another clue connecting Mike and Will with Lovers’ Lake.

The mentions of the sea are interesting here, especially because they are often connected with water (the quarry, Lovers’ Lake, the ocean imagery etc). Again, the singer is missing their lover… hoping for a safe return home. AND the singer described themselves as “blue”.

“Someone took you right out of my arms”! That’s pretty self-explanatory. Will was taken from Mike. He’s describing his lover as a “light” as well here. And once again, the mention of dreams.

This one isn’t explicitly about separated lovers, but it is still very relevant. More mention of dreams! The mention of sunshine following rain. And of course…

“Castles may tumble”. Absolutely no coincidence. An obvious nod towards Castle Byers which did “tumble”…

So umm… yeah. These are carefully chosen songs!

Dreams, separated lovers, light/darkness��� are all reoccurring themes here.

The dreams aspect is interesting. What could it mean exactly?

Well… according to The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time (huge inspiration for ST):

“The parallel universes might reach our consciousness through dreams, ESP, meditation or artificially induced mental states.”

So it could be suggesting that Mike was/will be reaching out to Will from another universe through dreams… 🤔

ANYWAY, as always, I’d love to know your thoughts on this. Kind of blew my mind when I looked into these songs.

[pinkeoni]

WILL BYERS IN EVERY EPISODE Episode #205: DIG DUG

[gayofthefae]

Say what you will but just like season 1 actually queercoded both Will and Mike through bullying, 4x01 queercoded both Will and Mike too. In both of their establishing school experiences:

In History, a girl tries to play footsie with Will but he pulls away.

At lunch, Mike sits with his new D&D club which is described as "promoting sodomy".

(even the tones of queercoding shows which kid stayed in Hawkins😬)

[castlebyersthoughts]

From the 2x09 script:

See how the Duffers will make sure that the audience can tell when a couple is still together and in love during the epilogue of a season? Flash forward to season 4. El left Mike in episode 3, then Mike did a whole love monologue where she couldn't respond because she wasn't in the same realm of consciousness... and then we don't have a scene of them discussing it? Not even something like this, a little kiss or a shared smile so that we as the audience can tell that things are finally good between them?? Yeah, that's because the monologue didn't resolve anything. And the writers already did this in S3 btw, they left them on an awkward note with Mike not reciprocating the kiss... and then they were immediately having problems at the beginning of S4. Now that I think about it in 3x08 El said "I love you" and Mike didn't respond, and in 4x09 Mike say "I love you" and El didn't respond (wow, true soulmates!). So I think it's safe to assume that Mike and El will be having tension right at the start of S5.

[ghostlycleric]

I’m sorry I can’t keep telling myself this moment wasn’t intentional.

I know he’s pointing at the counter, BUT THEY WERE JUST THERE. THEY JUST SAT DOWN AFTER GETTING THEIR SKATES. FROM THE COUNTER.

Will nudging his leg makes sense (getting his attention because Mike just looked away). After that, he had absolutely no reason to point. Mike knows where the counter is. He could’ve just said what he said, nudged him, and maybe nodded in the direction of the counter.

Did they really do that just to have Mike panic about Will actually giving him attention😭? Why is it framed like Will is holding his chin? Will literally had to lean towards him to align his hand with his face like that. He also had to move extremely fast to fit that moment in before an extra blocked the view.

Why does Mike even look to Will for an answer in the first place? El’s the one that said he needed socks, Will hadn’t been talking to him the entire day, and El is supposedly the one that “goes there all the time”—Will is not.

He looked at Will because he wanted him to answer the question. Mike wanted his attention so bad, and when he finally got some of it, it was that moment. No wonder he came back trying to make that stupid sock joke, and no wonder he looked so upset when it didn’t land. He almost had Will, at least he thought he did.