And Us?

byler brain rotting

[williamwheeler]

duffers on their show about “outcasts”:

[letsgocrazytogether]

I will never regret being a Byler. Their story could have been the most beautiful queer story in media. It could have been so beautiful. I will never regret joining the Byler fandom.

[wllbyers]

byler is endgame because if the writers can choose to ignore plot points then so can I

[castlebiler]

The whole ‘conformitygate’ fakeout theory etc is giving me FLASHBACKS to being in the BBC Sherlock / johnlock fandom - we were also convinced that there would be a another secret episode to tie it all together and give us answers but the reality was that the writers were just 1. SHIT at writing and 2. Homophobic ! The same shit is happening! Can’t believe I’m 26 and fell for queerbait AGAIN when will we get a slow burn well written coming of age queer love story?? WHEN

[auracobaltblue]

The duffers saying Robin and vickie’s love is not as deep, just high school love, as if hiding a queer relationship in small town Indiana in the 80s wasn’t extremely difficult, and was much more than the typical high school relationship experience.

By saying that it tells me everything I need to know about the duffers, that they don’t think queer love is “real” or “serious”. Not only did they refer to will’s years long love for mike as a hallway crush, but this is how they refer to Robin and vickie’s relationship.

They even couldn’t keep their “token queer couple”, who got together off screen together.

It becomes clear the only reason they were even a thing was for Robin to guide Will, who didn’t even get love himself, and afterwards they lost their purpose in the eyes of the duffers.

They just used them as the “shut up here is your representation” and at the end they couldn’t even care about that.

The duffers showed again and again that they don’t care about their queer audience, and that they don’t think queer love is as deep as heterosexual love. They should be ashamed.

[castlebiler]

EXACTLYYY THEY NEVER GAVE A SHITTTT

[sunchildsatoru]

save me epilogue byler save me

[bucketofsnow]

never forgiving the stranger things team for using wills love for mike as a device to lift up a toxic bland heterosexual ship. that’s cartoon villain shit. it makes me sick

[willel-domination]

You know what's so funny (sarcastic) about this ending? They reduced Mike to a plot device.

He was a plot device to express Will’s queerness. They made him say an out of character homophobic comment to express Will’s queerness. They made him behave poorly towards Will in s4 to show Will’s longing for him.

They created conflict between Mike and El so Will could play relationship therapist, through which he showcases his feelings for Mike and uses them to fix mileven's relationship. There's no explanation for why Mike behaves that way, none of his POV on the situation, so you know what that means? They made him cruel to Will to further Will’s arc. They made him unable to say 'I love you' to his girlfriend so Will could fix it, furthering his arc.

Funnily enough, byler not happening meant that they gave no explanation about Mike's behavior, and in turn, it reduces him to byler.

He's a plot device in El’s story too. He's used throughout season 5 to offer El this hopeful ending. He can’t even get a word in during El’s sacrifice. He stands there and provides no input, while El tells him how much she appreciates him.

He's basically a blank canvas for Will and El to express their feelings on. He's not his own character anymore. And that's a thousand times more tragic than his girlfriend dying.

I'm being deadass when I say I wanted byler more for Mike’s sake than Will, because an internalized homophobia arc would have expanded his character so much and explained his actions. In the end, he has no inner monologue, no thoughts or feelings other than grief for his girlfriend (reducing him to El once again). He's nothing on his own.

[draculant]

hello hi i already read the "you took my heart (i was sleeping)" byler fic and now i want more.. but people are lowk reccomending byler fics that're 80k-154k+ words or just 10k worded oneshots. i need a fic that's about the same length as the power outage one 💔💔💔💔💔 any ideas please guys

[lordystrange]

Here’s some I’ve read over the years

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[crazyxtogether]

and it turns out there never was

[as-intimidating-as-a-butterfly]

“I mean what did you think, really? That a show about nerds and outcasts was gonna have a well-written queer romance? That, in the end, queer love could help save the world?”

Yeah I guess I did. I really did.

[bylerkeepsmeupatnight]

what ever happened to visual storytelling?

[nerdydaughter]

“it’s forced conformity,

that’s what’s killing the kids.”

[image-friend]

mike was just a self-insert. what the duffers meant by "a show for outcasts" they meant awkward white guys with nerdy interests who couldn't talk to women. it was no wonder that the only girl mike had a chance with was a girl who was so closed off from society that she didn't know what she wanted. there was no way they were going to give mike a gay romance with will because they're straight incel men. that's part of why mike had no real personality. they needed to project onto him.

[crown-prince-zuko]

It was his birthday they erased the gay boy from his birthday which he spent alone, with no one remembering, third wheeling with his sister and the boy he's been in love with since kindergarten An artist struck out from his own canvas.

[miwiromantics]

Millie saying Kali and Will are the only ones who actually understand El while the duffers tried to say only Mike could.

Finn describing mileven as a ‘leech you can’t get rid off’ and confirming that Mike lied in the s4 monologue.

Noah being the one to add in actual good scenes in volume 3 because the duffers were so bad at closing the story.

How does the cast actually understand their characters more than the creators of those fucking characters dude???

[narrativelogicofbyler]

i wasn’t manifesting anything, i was literally analysing the cinematography, the blocking, the colour theory, the narrative beats, all the stuff i was trained to look for during my TV degree. the signs were there because the show put them there.

the duffers absolutely queer baited the audience. everything I learned academically about visual storytelling was pointing toward a byler slow burn, and then they completely abandoned their own setup. we didn’t hallucinate subtext; we didn’t “make up” a ship. they built it, then pretended they didn’t, and the result reeks of homophobia.

they didn’t subvert expectations, they ignored their own narrative groundwork. that’s not clever writing, that’s just bad writing. they tore down a storyline they spent years constructing, and now the overall story makes zero sense.