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One underrated piece of byler evidence in my opinion is Mikes apologies (or lack thereof) to other people versus Will. In the first season (episode 6) he had to be basically coerced by Dustin into apologizing to Lucas even after Mike had literally PUNCHED HIM IN THE FACE. In the third season he doesn’t even try to say sorry when El breaks up with him. He just goes and sits on his couch to eat chips and complain. BUT the second he says something hurtful to Will, Mike rushes over to his house in the pouring rain and bangs on his door desperate to apologize. Will is the only one we ever see Mike show this kind of behavior with. That right there my friends, is homosexual.

@mikewheeler-is-a-simp helped me think about this

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Ok, if you ship mileven, that’s ok. BUT if your one of the milevens who calls byler a “crack ship” or says stuff like “miKe iS stRAighT stOp sAying tHat tWo bOys cAnt hAve a pLatoniC rElatiOnshIp” or “WiLl shOuld gEt a gIrLfRiEnd in sEasoN 4” ITS ON SIGHT. IF YOU DONT GET OUT OF MY DIRECT OR EVEN INDIRECT LINE OF FOCUS I WILL SMITE YOU. But to all the non toxic milevens you guys are fine :)

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I just want byler to be endgame already. I want all the heteronormative people to get punched in the face when byler becomes officially canon lmao I’m so tired of people always assuming that everyone is straight

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I still cannot comprehend that there are some fans who think the writers plan on not doing anything with this...

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I love that Will is in the frame every time this part of the lyrics show up 👀

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🌈📻🍀 - good luck 😭

@ literally anyone, send me 3 emojis and i’ll make you a moodboard <3

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tumblr rlly feels like a safe space on the internet for me. like i can literally just talk about and fan girl over my comfort characters and ships, and it feels like no one ever judges me. and i can stay in my own little bubble on here. i can follow people who are fans of the same thing and who enjoy it as much as i do and it’s almost like tumblr knows to filter out what i don’t like. like on instagram there’s so many fights between milevens and bylers, and stuff like that pops up on my feed all. the. damn. time. and I’m just like, I don’t want to see this! 😭 but on here it just feels so much easier to filter it all out and find little spaces that are just positive. idk this may not be a universal experience, but i just rlly love it on here that’s all. 😌

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i cannot get over the se3 mileven/byler juxtaposition. no matter how much i think about it. it’s endless fuel and it won’t let me sleep.

just... mike is known to be shit at apologies, but max expected him to go crawling back to el regardless. he didn’t. he never apologized for lying to her, took ages to admit to any guilt and dismissed her emotions as illogical.

you know who he crawled back to? yep. will byers. when they fought, mike said sorry immediately, saw what an asshole he’d been and followed will home in the rain to apologize once again. idk what would be the definition of crawling if not exactly that.

the writers are literally spelling out these parallels for us, there’s no excuse to ignore them.

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as perfect as this whole post and the reblogs are, i just want to add something.

stating byler is a “crack ship”, as in them being two boys with great chemistry and care for one another deeply. a fucking “crack ship”?

i really love to see how people all come up with ideas on how byler is unrealistic when if anything they are one of the most realistic couples in the show. is it really that hard to imagine two boys who are best friends having feelings for one another?

it’s genuinely fucking insulting to call it as such, because surprisingly gay people existed in the 80’s and often hid in heterosexual relationships. you know, we didn’t just show up when heterosexual cis people decided to become woke. we existed then and we existed before that.

the reason you have seen people ship, i’m guessing you were referring to queer ships? and they end up not being canon is something i shouldn’t even have to say. i think you can figure it out for yourself. it’s 2021 now, i think it’s about time we move the fuck on from heteronormativity and accept that more gay people exist than you think.

Why shouldn’t people feel there is “something real there?” They clearly built up to those “I love you” moments and Mike/El growing and figuring things out together was a real plot thread.

This idea that there’s been a romantic thread between Will and Mike has always confused me. Yeah, Will needs to come to terms with his sexuality, but there has been nothing beyond super deep read subtext from tumblr users and the like to suggest Mike is bi/has feelings for Will. The show just isn’t that deep. Subtle clues aren’t exactly what it’s known for.

And Netflix has fairly heavily promoted Mike/El at times. The are the crux of the show. I don’t know what the end game will be, but I doubt it has Mike and Will ending up together even if Mike and El don’t.

I’ve seen this time and again, over multiple fandoms. It’s fine to ship a crack ship but I doubt that it’ll realistically be made canon. They aren’t gonna do a crazy reverse in season 4 of 5 or 6.

One really just has to watch, really watch, the trajectories of both Mike/El and Mike/Will over the course of three seasons. People are too used to how things usually work in popular media, that their brains are doing a lot of work autopiloting things lately.

I've done a lot of this already in my previous posts, particularly in my "Why Do You Lie?" post about Mike. That boy has had his feelings for El and Will all tangled up since season 1. El always manages to show up when Mike is thinking about Will.

Mike was intensely worried about Will when El showed up, and really latched onto her when he felt she could help find Will. Notice the intensity of his anger with her when he thinks she lied, or even the lesser annoyed anger when he realizes she's leading them in circles. Will is at the forefront of his mind, but this girl is a convenient outlet for feelings he's not allowed to have. Mike being kind to El is very sweet, especially when we see what she was dealing with before, but, seriously, he knew her for a few days, and she didn't even have a concept of love. This is not a romantic scenario, and people should stop treating it as such. If they were adult characters, it would be quite creepy.

In season 2, Mike is shown still worried about Will. He spends a lot of time calling out to El, but he curiously never tries to look for her. This is the same boy who was willing to tear the world apart to find Will. I don't think Mike actually thought El was out there. He was just in grief. The only one who managed to make him seem like his old self is Will. This is the season that had so many fans thinking Mike and Will could be a thing. Mike's worry for Will in season 1 was cute, but it could still be just a friend thing at that point. Season 2 showed us that, no, Mike treats Will very differently than he treats Dustin or Lucas. We weren't able to see a lot of Mike and Will's individual relationship in season 1, but we got a lot of it in season 2, and it was beautiful.

It always rubbed me the wrong way when some misguided fans would suggest that Mike's behavior towards Will was only because he was upset about losing El. Everything about how Mike treats Will is in line with his season 1 behavior. Mike isn't afraid of losing Will the way he lost El. He's afraid of losing Will the way he almost already did a year prior. He sticks by Will's side and tries to protect him with the same intensity and stubbornness he used when searching for him. Yeah, he's in grief over El, but I don't think that is influencing his behavior towards Will. It probably did, however, make him feel some measure of guilt for accepting El's fate when he didn't with Will. I do think he held himself personally responsible for El's "death."

Oh, and I'll add this in without comment. If you don't know why, then nothing anyone says is going to convince you, anyway.

Just a reminder that El just happened show back up in Mike's life shortly after that scene.

Even in the Snowball, which seemed to undo everything done to build up Mike and Will, there are little details to be seen.

Mike had urged Will to go dance with the girl, but then he has a very curious look on his face as Will walks off with her. It's not impressed disbelief or friendly pride. Mike seems uncomfortably unhappy. It's like he's upset, but he doesn't understand why. He then goes off and mopes. We can't say it's because he's jealous Will has someone to dance with. Lucas had already gone off to dance with Max, and Mike was fine with that. In what could have been a scene to show off Mike and Dustin's friendship, they both stare, moping, at the two couples on the dance floor. Dustin had spent the season crushing on Max, but now has to watch her dancing with someone else (poor guy also got brutally rejected by other girls). Mike shares a similar look and posture, despite being the reason Will is on the dance floor to begin with. Mike is upset Will is dancing, and it both confuses and upsets him.

Then El shows up, again, as Mike is having intense feelings for Will. This has been a repeating event throughout the show to this point.

In season 3, we get to see Mike and El together, and, wow, it's not pretty. They duck their friends to go make out, which seems to be all they really do together. Now that they've gotten together, it seems there's not much there. We don't really see them sharing interests or talking. Indeed, when they do try to have conversations, it's forced and awkward. Mike ends up having highly paralleled breakup scenes with both El and Will. One is in broad daylight, has a comical tone, and ends with one character celebrating while leaving while the other one stands there, cluelessly stumped. The other is dark and rainy, with a dramatic tone, while one character sadly leaves in the rain while the other forlornly calls after them. Oh, and Mike only attempts to chase down and apologize to one of them.

That's a big deal right there. Mike has been shown to be a real ass at times, and he basically needs to be forced to apologize. When he does apologize, it's more or less done begrudgingly. With Will though, Mike hurries to apologize, openly stating what an ass he had been. This parallel is bigger than people seem to understand. They couldn't have made it any more obvious that they intended us to compare these scenes. Mike is only willing to be vulnerable to one person, and it's Will.

Dare I even bring up the epilogue where the Byers move away? Mike and Will have their coded conversation where Mike is scared Will would move on from him. Mike then has an awkward conversation with El that ends with an unreciprocated kiss.

Mike and El don't have the buildup of an epic romance. They have the buildup of an epic tragedy. El is going to have her heart broken, which, hopefully, at least leads to her learning what real (romantic) love is. Mike and Will, meanwhile, have been dancing around each other for years. Will is convinced Mike will never love him like that, and Mike has been trying to convince himself he's straight.

Do we really think it's acceptable to build up Will as gay only for him to end up rejected or with some random guy in the series finale epilogue? This is 2021. Those sorts of tropes have no place in a modern world.

I'm not some sappy teenager. I've been through this journey many times. I've been shipping pairs who don't end up together since before many of you were born. I'm not sure I've ever had one that actually felt real like Mike and Will do. In all other cases, I kinda knew the couple I shipped wasn't going to happen, especially back in the early 90s.

It becomes ever increasingly clear to me that people just don't know what real romance is anymore. Everyone is so accustomed to unrealistic, "love at first sight"-style relationships in fiction that they assume this boy and girl are genuinely in love each other the night the boy, frantically looking for his missing friend, and the girl, just having escaped the Lab she spent her entire life in, meet in the woods. The fact that it's easier for people to see romance in there than in two boys who have been intensely close for most of their lives is, well, just plain sad.

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Why shouldn’t people feel there is “something real there?” They clearly built up to those “I love you” moments and Mike/El growing and figuring things out together was a real plot thread.

This idea that there’s been a romantic thread between Will and Mike has always confused me. Yeah, Will needs to come to terms with his sexuality, but there has been nothing beyond super deep read subtext from tumblr users and the like to suggest Mike is bi/has feelings for Will. The show just isn’t that deep. Subtle clues aren’t exactly what it’s known for.

And Netflix has fairly heavily promoted Mike/El at times. The are the crux of the show. I don’t know what the end game will be, but I doubt it has Mike and Will ending up together even if Mike and El don’t.

I’ve seen this time and again, over multiple fandoms. It’s fine to ship a crack ship but I doubt that it’ll realistically be made canon. They aren’t gonna do a crazy reverse in season 4 of 5 or 6.

One really just has to watch, really watch, the trajectories of both Mike/El and Mike/Will over the course of three seasons. People are too used to how things usually work in popular media, that their brains are doing a lot of work autopiloting things lately.

I've done a lot of this already in my previous posts, particularly in my "Why Do You Lie?" post about Mike. That boy has had his feelings for El and Will all tangled up since season 1. El always manages to show up when Mike is thinking about Will.

Mike was intensely worried about Will when El showed up, and really latched onto her when he felt she could help find Will. Notice the intensity of his anger with her when he thinks she lied, or even the lesser annoyed anger when he realizes she's leading them in circles. Will is at the forefront of his mind, but this girl is a convenient outlet for feelings he's not allowed to have. Mike being kind to El is very sweet, especially when we see what she was dealing with before, but, seriously, he knew her for a few days, and she didn't even have a concept of love. This is not a romantic scenario, and people should stop treating it as such. If they were adult characters, it would be quite creepy.

In season 2, Mike is shown still worried about Will. He spends a lot of time calling out to El, but he curiously never tries to look for her. This is the same boy who was willing to tear the world apart to find Will. I don't think Mike actually thought El was out there. He was just in grief. The only one who managed to make him seem like his old self is Will. This is the season that had so many fans thinking Mike and Will could be a thing. Mike's worry for Will in season 1 was cute, but it could still be just a friend thing at that point. Season 2 showed us that, no, Mike treats Will very differently than he treats Dustin or Lucas. We weren't able to see a lot of Mike and Will's individual relationship in season 1, but we got a lot of it in season 2, and it was beautiful.

It always rubbed me the wrong way when some misguided fans would suggest that Mike's behavior towards Will was only because he was upset about losing El. Everything about how Mike treats Will is in line with his season 1 behavior. Mike isn't afraid of losing Will the way he lost El. He's afraid of losing Will the way he almost already did a year prior. He sticks by Will's side and tries to protect him with the same intensity and stubbornness he used when searching for him. Yeah, he's in grief over El, but I don't think that is influencing his behavior towards Will. It probably did, however, make him feel some measure of guilt for accepting El's fate when he didn't with Will. I do think he held himself personally responsible for El's "death."

Oh, and I'll add this in without comment. If you don't know why, then nothing anyone says is going to convince you, anyway.

Just a reminder that El just happened show back up in Mike's life shortly after that scene.

Even in the Snowball, which seemed to undo everything done to build up Mike and Will, there are little details to be seen.

Mike had urged Will to go dance with the girl, but then he has a very curious look on his face as Will walks off with her. It's not impressed disbelief or friendly pride. Mike seems uncomfortably unhappy. It's like he's upset, but he doesn't understand why. He then goes off and mopes. We can't say it's because he's jealous Will has someone to dance with. Lucas had already gone off to dance with Max, and Mike was fine with that. In what could have been a scene to show off Mike and Dustin's friendship, they both stare, moping, at the two couples on the dance floor. Dustin had spent the season crushing on Max, but now has to watch her dancing with someone else (poor guy also got brutally rejected by other girls). Mike shares a similar look and posture, despite being the reason Will is on the dance floor to begin with. Mike is upset Will is dancing, and it both confuses and upsets him.

Then El shows up, again, as Mike is having intense feelings for Will. This has been a repeating event throughout the show to this point.

In season 3, we get to see Mike and El together, and, wow, it's not pretty. They duck their friends to go make out, which seems to be all they really do together. Now that they've gotten together, it seems there's not much there. We don't really see them sharing interests or talking. Indeed, when they do try to have conversations, it's forced and awkward. Mike ends up having highly paralleled breakup scenes with both El and Will. One is in broad daylight, has a comical tone, and ends with one character celebrating while leaving while the other one stands there, cluelessly stumped. The other is dark and rainy, with a dramatic tone, while one character sadly leaves in the rain while the other forlornly calls after them. Oh, and Mike only attempts to chase down and apologize to one of them.

That's a big deal right there. Mike has been shown to be a real ass at times, and he basically needs to be forced to apologize. When he does apologize, it's more or less done begrudgingly. With Will though, Mike hurries to apologize, openly stating what an ass he had been. This parallel is bigger than people seem to understand. They couldn't have made it any more obvious that they intended us to compare these scenes. Mike is only willing to be vulnerable to one person, and it's Will.

Dare I even bring up the epilogue where the Byers move away? Mike and Will have their coded conversation where Mike is scared Will would move on from him. Mike then has an awkward conversation with El that ends with an unreciprocated kiss.

Mike and El don't have the buildup of an epic romance. They have the buildup of an epic tragedy. El is going to have her heart broken, which, hopefully, at least leads to her learning what real (romantic) love is. Mike and Will, meanwhile, have been dancing around each other for years. Will is convinced Mike will never love him like that, and Mike has been trying to convince himself he's straight.

Do we really think it's acceptable to build up Will as gay only for him to end up rejected or with some random guy in the series finale epilogue? This is 2021. Those sorts of tropes have no place in a modern world.

I'm not some sappy teenager. I've been through this journey many times. I've been shipping pairs who don't end up together since before many of you were born. I'm not sure I've ever had one that actually felt real like Mike and Will do. In all other cases, I kinda knew the couple I shipped wasn't going to happen, especially back in the early 90s.

It becomes ever increasingly clear to me that people just don't know what real romance is anymore. Everyone is so accustomed to unrealistic, "love at first sight"-style relationships in fiction that they assume this boy and girl are genuinely in love each other the night the boy, frantically looking for his missing friend, and the girl, just having escaped the Lab she spent her entire life in, meet in the woods. The fact that it's easier for people to see romance in there than in two boys who have been intensely close for most of their lives is, well, just plain sad.

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Mike: I need you.

Will: For?

Mike: Ever.

Will, voice cracking: Oh

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With all love and respect to all of you humans, if you don’t want to ship Byler then don’t ship it, that’s your choice, there’s a LOT more to every Stranger Things character and to the Stranger Things’ plot itself than the romances within and what you ship or don’t ship is up to you and I’m very happy for you, but don’t use ‘Mike doesn’t care about Will’ as an argument against them cause man seriously? Like that’s not just offensive to Byler, it’s offensive to the whole damn point of bonding, friendship and development in Stranger Things.

You people are great but you really cover your ears and shut your eyes in the scenes that don’t suit you. You say Mike and Will are just friends right before blabbering about how they don’t give half a damn about each other.

Nono, in fact, Mike and Will are great friends as long as it suits you, am i right?

Byler or not, Mike and Will are the best and oldest friends amongst the party.

Beside him going up to him when they were what, 4 years old and asking him to be his first and very best friend. He had been told not just by the cops but his own mother to not go looking for Will with how dangerous it was and he instantly went looking for him, ignoring everyone that told him not to the same way you jump right over broken glass. He was literally crying and screaming the moment he found out Will was ‘dead’. And the instant he found the slightest chance that Will might actually be alive he took it like his life depended on it.

When he realised he was right saying there was something off about Will not arriving to school yet, he’s the only one of the three of them [Mike, Lucas and Dustin] that, for starters, is too concerned to argue about whether Mirkwood’s from Lord of The Rings or The Hobbit. Of course they’re all worried, but Mike’s visibily the most affected.

I’m only referring to season 1 because I swear I’ve already seen 5 people say Mike didn’t even care so much about finding Will in season 1, and at least 3 people reblogged that one gifset I made about Lucas and Will to say “I don’t get why y’all ship Byler when Lucas was much more determined to find Will than Mike ever was in s1/when Mike didn’t even care as much” and listen to me - DON’T USE MY BYCLAIR GIFSET TO SHIT ON BYLER. Byclair is their own duo/ship with their own potential, don’t go around tryna put a vs. between them and Byler when they’re both just fine.

Anyway,

If you think it’s an absolute coincidence that Mike and Joyce share the exact same confidence in Will being alive, that his hug with his mother after Will’s ‘death’ was the only one that was paralleled to Joyce and Jonathan’s hug, and that both him and Joyce were the first and most determined to want to look for Will then think away, I do not care.

But don’t go saying Bylers delusionally make stuff up when Mike not caring about Will is one of the best jokes I’ve heard so far.

Thank you.

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I just need a scene where Will's safety is put at risk and we see Mike LOSE HIS SHIT and then Will realizes just how much Mike cares about him.

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my biggest fear is stranger things giving will a side character boyfriend and i’ll be alone in the byler fandom 🥲

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does anyone remember when i wanna be yours by the arctic monkeys was bylers song? after season 2 came out, it was all i used to listen to because of byler.

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honestly i really don't think byler hints are subtle i think most viewers are blind to it bc of heteronormativity and/or don't actually care to look beneath the surface more

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Imagine in the end of the season 4 or somewhere in it, we have Mike and Will build a pillow fort and name it Castle Byer's the 2nd and they just like catch up and talk or have like a heart to heart talk while in it.