#unreciprocated byler

[gayofthefae]

Little weird Byler details. Like, you know the classic everyone looks down the line until the last person does something? Usually for the first person to cue the last person in line. The party does that when Dustin gets back and El is pranking him...sort of.

Max and Lucas share a look, and then Lucas and Will share a look, and then....it just stops. Will does not look at Mike, Mike does not look at Will. He looks over at El to cue her.

So that exchange wasn't for the cue, because Mike would have had to be either listening himself or consciously tracking the others' looks without looking, so then that whole thing was just to set up: It's starting. Mike and Will are avoiding perfectly normal things so they don't "look romantic".

Lucas and Max looked at each other, sure, but so did Lucas and Will. This isn't a "thing". Nobody cares if Will and Mike do. But the fact that they both didn't makes it noticeable. We start seeing it as early as here, both Will and Mike avoid their usual interactions when El is there.

It's especially interesting contrasting that we've just seen them with Lucas and Max without El acting perfectly normal. So she's the difference. Look at your best friend to cue him in this prank you've set up? No, that'd be gay.

It's funny too because I actually rewatched this scene because I thought I remembered Will looking at Mike but Mike not looking back but no. Technically, Will initiates the lack because how is Mike supposed to "look back" if Will isn't looking at him. They're both doing it. They both know not to do what they do in front of others and they both know not to do what they do in front of El.

This post was gonna end but I keep having thoughts because now I'm thinking about Mike being "unreciprocated" and thinking that because yeah, Will did start acting different when he started dating El.

[fromdarzaitoleeza]

You can suffer nostalgia in the presence of beloved if you glimpse a future where beloved is no more

{Quotes: Balance varela /I Loved You Before I Was Born Li-Young Lee /jhon grisham/Geoffrey hill /A poem for a moment with you by Eisha Tandon/emery allen /anais nin/Can't Help Falling in Love Song by Elvis Presley/Milan Kundera, Identity}

[demobatman]

looking back at my old byler posts i made when i was bitter after season 4 is so scary i was so certain byler wasnt gonna be canon like girl LOOK AT THE MATERIAL U WERE CRAZY

[softbumblebi]

are they… going to give the reddie treatment to byler

[intergalacticaquarium]

Tumblr is great actually I can't think of another website where i can get so worked up in an argument with a person that I don't actually disagree with I'm laughing my ass off

[oursonwithagirl]

“byler is cute but it will be unrequited”

“one-sided”

“unreciprocated”

“mike will let will down gently”

“he’s just a close friend”

“it wouldn’t be realistic”

“he’ll definitely get friend-zoned”

“it’s obviously platonic”

“mike doesn’t want will’s affections”

to quote that one person: “who the fuck writes a slowburn rejection?”

[wakeupthemembersofbylernation]

One of the most frustrating categories of human have got to be the queer people who rush to side with toxic Melvins and homophobic Reddit dudebros on everything

“As a gay person, I don’t think Mike is gay. He is the straightest character to ever exist.”

“As a queer person, Byler is impossible. The entire point is that it’s unreciprocated.”

“I’m as gay as they come, and I don’t think they should’ve made Will gay. Not everything has to be woke.”

“I’m bi and I think Bylers are delusional AF. They ruin the fandom. Milkvan forever!”

“As a member of the LGBT+ community I-”

bruh shut up. weakest links fr

[byernation]

Whenever you doubt Byler, remember that Will was planned to be in love with Mike from the start. Remember that Finn and Noah had to take a chemistry test. Remember that Mike has never had moments like that with anyone but Will. Remember the Venkman Lucas/Max Mike/Will foreshadowing. Remember every heart to heart Will and Mike have had. Remember the Variety interview. Remember Brett Gelman. Remember Eleven wasn't supposed to come back after season 1. Remember how most of the cast ships Byler. Remember how Byler has way more chemistry than Marijuana. Remember that the Duffers have taken inspiration from many shows with best friends to lovers tropes. Remember that Shawn Levi is for Byler. Remember Finn and Noah are for Byler. Remember the scripts. Remember the Eyewitness parallel. Remember the Byler docs. Remember nobody believing us about Will being gay and calling us delusional when we were right. Remember that Mike and El have nothing in common, and never have normal conversations. Remember the Duffers saying they don't believe in love at first sight. Remember Mosquito breakups being shown as comedic. Remember Byler fights being shown as a serious breakup. Remember Season 2. Remember the final placements in Season 4. Remember the show cares about detail. Remember Megamind is paralled to doomed relationships. Remember that, Byler, Jancy, Jopper, and Lumax are endgame couples, and have been all paralleled to each other at least once. Remember how the four endgames are always standing together. Remember the Duffers calling Mildew puppy love. Remember the cast's reaction to the monologue. Remember the stupid ass monologue in general. Remember Causeineedu. Remember NaturallyBrielle. Remember Millie improvising in almost all Mormon scenes. Remember the duffers mentioning one of their favorite shows growing up was a show where a man fell in love with his best friend who had a gf, and it turned out he shared those feelings. Remember that Mozzarella is paralled to Byler, but Byler is always the better version (You make me feel better for being different/You think I am a monster [] I say it/You didn't have to) and many more. Remember that Byler is absolutely going to be endgame, and they wouldn't build it up for 4 seasons for it to be unreciprocated. The duffers make mistakes, everyone does, but they know what they're doing (they made a hit show) and if you're still doubtful, it isn't just them writing it. Also, we have the music, the sets, the outfits, and camera angles on our side as well. Let MinnieMouse deny it all they want, but Byler is endgame along with Jopper, Jancy and Lumax. We have already won. It's been confirmed many times before, we just have to wait to prove it. And in those to years more proof will come, and we've gotten a lot of it already and it's only been 2 weeks. I know that sounded really stupid, but I see a few people giving up hope that the Duffers can pull this off (including myself at times) and I think despite all the proof we have we all need to hear this, especially with the Malaria shippers flooding everyone's inboxes lmfao. Anyways have and anazing day/night Byler nation. I am done with my rant.

[deletedaccountnumber5000000]

honestly Mike being gay is the best option to explain his character. Mike is disliked heavily by milkvan shippers and the vast majority of the fandom as a whole (for good reason) because when you view his character through any lens OTHER then him being gay + repressed and hiding his feelings for Will , he does come off as an asshole. To alot of people, Mike is just a kid who was brave and caring but took a nosedive writing wise in season 3 , I've seen his s3 onwards character called a character assassination numerous times. This unfortunately *is* the case if they decide to make byler unreciprocated.

Being controlling of E| , questioning Wills perception of their friendship multiple times unprompted, being toxic to his girlfriend in s3, not being able to tell E| he loves her, being weird to Will at the airport and at the rink, the list goes on. The number one solution to the problem of Mike Wheeler is him being queer and repressed, it solves all of the "random" jumps in is character, it explains not just one but all of his actions. He literally does not make sense from a writing perspective otherwise, and no, being a confused teenager cannot be the scapegoat explanation when numerous other characters are also teenagers and do not act like this.

[gayofthefae]

Mike said he loved El accidentally once and the entire rest of the season was building up to her saying it back.

Mike detailed how important Will was to him like four times and Will still hasn't said it back.

Definition of long-game/slowburn jfc. I guess that is what I say about getting your happy endings too early being a bad sign but damn, man.

(smart tag I had to transfer):

The audience is told that Will's feelings are unreciprocated to distract from the fact that Mike's actions are.

And as I say that, I suppose that's why they are. Because we're in Will's perspective, and in his perspective, he's so focused on his own feelings being unreciprocated that he's distracted from the years of actions that are too. He doesn't even think of them that way, so why would he return them - thus, revalidating to Mike that his feelings, too, are unreciprocated. Because while Will takes Mikes actions towards El as rejection, Mike takes Will's inaction towards him as rejection.

[bylerpolls]

We Bylers often say it would 100% be queerbaiting if Byler isn’t endgame, and yet most of the GA- even some queer people- are blind to Byler and see no evidence Mike isn’t straight. A lot of our arguments are based not just on the narrative itself pointing to Byler, but on the belief that the Duffers and their writing team have been subtly queercoding Mike since the beginning.

But if lots of straight people are blind to queercoding in general and Mike’s in particular, do you think it’s hypothetically possible that the Duffers- assuming they are straight- truly accidentally queercoded Mike, and no queerbaiting is involved? (at least in the actual show- some of the S4 marketing might be a different story). Is it hypothetically possible that the clues we find are truly accidents, and we’re just filtering things through our subjective queer knowledge and experience?

That Mike is less complex than we think? That any odd behavior in Mike is just because he’s an awkward, contradictory teen boy? And that the writers always intended Will to be a gay kid falling in love with his straight best friend? And all the perceived queercoding, including the visual parallels to other ships, is from that?

I ask this not because I believe this btw, but because most of the GA does believe this. They say it wouldn’t be queerbaiting for Byler to be unreciprocated, that we’re looking too far into things, and that it’s highly unlikely the writers intentionally wrote Mike as a queer character.

So what do y’all think?

A) While unlikely, it’s hypothetically possible

B) It was possible at first, but S4 took things into explicit queerbaiting territory if true

C) It’s not possible at all, not even in earlier seasons. The story and queercoding clues for Mike/Byler are too specific for this to be true.

D) It’s hypothetically possible, but writing a slowburn story where a gay kid falls madly in love with his straight best friend would still be queerbaiting, so they wouldn’t be off the hook

E) I believe this is what happened

F) A secret sixth thing

[aemiron-main]

cannot stop thinking about mike’s fear of losing people and how that could tie into his refusal to admit to his feelings for will. because if he assumes that a.) will is straight and/or b.) that will doesn’t reciprocate his feelings

mike already feels like he’s failing in his relationship with El. he’s been feeling that for the past god-knows-how-long. i think that El amicably breaking up with Mike and Mike realizing that they can remain friends afterwards is going to give him more confidence when it comes to his feelings for Will.

Now, I don’t think that byler would break up/need to remain friends, I think that mike’s worrying unnecessarily about that. However, I do think that if mike’s even aware of his own feelings, that he automatically assumes they’re unreciprocated, especially considering the dumpster fire that is his self-esteem. So, in order for him to even be able to confess his feelings, he needs to know that he’ll still be friends with Will even if he did mess up a romantic relationship between them, because Mike very likely assumes that he’ll mess up a relationship and lose Will again.

It’s interesting because in s3, Mike says “I can’t lose her because I love her,” or something along those lines regarding El. I think that this ties into mike’s fear that if he can’t love El, he’s going to lose her. That quote from s3 tells me that Mike’s love for El and his fear of losing her are TOTALLY intertwined- but he’s not afraid of losing her because he loves her. He loves her because he’s afraid of losing her.

Even when he’s taking to Will in Jonathan’s bedroom in s4, and talks about “if I had said that thing, maybe Eleven would have taken me with her.” He doesn’t talk about how he regrets not saying it because wants El to know that he loves her, doesn’t even say that he regrets not saying it because she wanted him to. His reason for regretting not saying it is because he thinks that if he had, maybe El would have taken him with her. Maybe he wouldn’t have lost her.

Mike has such a deep, deep fear of losing people. Even interdimensional monsters aside, he’s already insecure about his friendships in terms of his friends liking him for who he is (like how he puts up a front at the roller rink/when he first gets to California, how he changes his interests when El shows no interest in his hobbies, the way he sees himself as so disposable that he was willing to jump off a cliff to save dustin’s baby teeth). He’s been so emotionally dismissed by his parents that he can’t process the idea of someone wanting him, so he needs them to need him.

He’s lost/almost lost Will so many times, watched them pull his body out of the quarry, watched him be possessed by the mindflayer, and going back to the emotional loss, felt the distance between them in California. He’s lost/almost lost El repeatedly, thought she was dead. He even felt like he was losing Lucas in s4 with the basketball-dnd conflict.

Mike is terrified of losing people, and justifiably so. And to mike, the pain of losing someone is going to be 1000x worse when it’s his fault that he lost them. When, in his mind, Will inevitably rejects him, or on the miracle chance that will doesn’t immediately reject him, Mike ruins a romantic relationship between them and therefore ruins their friendship.

Mike can’t lose Will again. He can’t lose El again. And to Mike, the solution to not losing El is to love her, even though he doesn’t. And the solution to not losing Will is not to love him, to push those feelings down.

Despite the fact that in reality, it’s actually the opposite: Mike’s attempts to love El are just pushing her further away from him, and Mike’s attempts to not love Will are pushing Will away from him.

(and when I talk about Mike not loving El, I mean romantically. I know that they love eachother as friends, absolutely, platonic elmike for the win, but I mean this in a romantic context.)

[dearparrishh]

something so monumental to me, that i literally just picked up on, is els ‘promise’ ring from mike vs mike and wills matching watches.

pictures for reference :

let’s start with el’s ring :

this ring is confirmed to have been given to el by mike between seasons 3 and 4. she is seen wearing it in scenes in season 4, but it’s not made very obvious at all. i really noticed something about this. as you typically would if you gave someone a ‘promise’ piece of jewellery, you would have the ‘other half’ or a matching piece to signify your connection to this person - in this case, romantic. mike is never pictured with any jewellery in s4, meaning there is no ‘other half’ - something that i truly believe signifies that milkvan is a relationship of unreciprocated feelings from mikes side, since he is the one who doesn’t have the other half of the jewellery - similarly to how he doesn’t have the ‘other half’, or what we might call it ‘romantic love’ for el.

let’s see how this compares to byler’s matching watches :

mike and will have been pictured with their matching watches since s1 ep1 :

(just zoom in and you will actually be able to see the watches)

until the last episode of season 4.

unlike milkvan, they have had these matching watches for the entirety of the show, and to our knowledge, have kept them on almost all of the time from s1 ep1 until s4 ep9. also unlike milkvan, mike actually shares the ‘other half’ of the ‘jewellery’ (being the watch) and symbolising their emotional connection. as well as this, like i said, they have the watches on for the entirety of the show, further symbolising that no matter what they are going through, they are connected emotionally and loyal to eachother. despite their lack of contact between s3-s4, they were still connected, because they are meant for eachother and they have an unbreakable bond.

i’m aware watches don’t fall in to the category of jewellery, or ‘matching / promise couple’ jewellery, but the importance is that mike and will, yet again, share something that el and mike don’t.

[willbyersapologist]

Stranger Things 4 spoilers

“byler is unreciprocated” my ass. look at these two idiots. this right here, is love.

[bylerforall]

‘byler is unreciprocated’ my guy look at these two idiots their obviously in love

[imyoursgiogio]

the scripts we get from the strangewriters twitter will most likely make it look like milkvan is endgame (try and make byler look unreciprocated)  and they could edit things out to throw us off. Just don’t give up on byler, it’s still endgame