here are the different possible byler endings, and why i don’t think (or do think) they will happen.
1 - mike accepts will after he comes out and moves on with his life
honestly, the fact that anyone thinks this will happen is the funniest thing ever. how can anyone think will is going to spill his feelings extremely openly (whether telling mike about his crush on him or not) and mike will just be like “oh, cool, thanks for telling me dude”. its the 80’s, may i remind you. i’m not saying everyone was homophobic back then, but it wasn’t seen as ‘normal’ to be gay, so the idea that they will just make mike have a very bland or ‘nice/kind’ reaction just isn’t it, not when mike and will have been best friends for years and regardless of whether you react well or not, it’s a big thing to learn about a person, especially considering how ‘unconventional’ it was in the 80’s. will being gay is a storyline that ESPECIALLY in s4 has been pushed to the extremities it can without explicitly stating ‘will is gay’, and for mike, will’s best friend AND will’s longtime crush to have a bland, kind of nice response, would be literally the shittest writing ever.
2 - mike doesn’t accept him
i think we all know this won’t happen. to throw away 4 seasons of best friendship between mike and will is such horrid writing, mainly because it’s just something that doesn’t have to happen. will has already gone through indescribable traumas, and currently believes that the one person, his best friend, who he has been in love with for years, will never love him back and has in fact come to accept this. to end his already heartbreaking arc by making the first and only person we know he has had any canonical romantic feelings for not only reject him but also not accept him, proceeding to make his arc end depressingly, is just such awful writing. also the simple fact that he has already accepted mike will never love him back already, before s5, raises the fact that unless mike does like will back, there’s not many other deep or exciting ways to end their arc, ending a whole 4 season long deep and complex relationship in either a bland or very awful way.
3 - mike accepts will while experiencing an inner turmoil
ambiguos byler ending is not it, not at all. again, no clever director would ever do this, I PROMISE. this just leads to so many questions, the main one being ‘why is mike experiencing this inner turmoil?’, because to anyone who doesn’t care that much (the ga), mike could accept will, no questions asked, with the kind of bullshit excuses of ‘they are best friends and he loves him (platonically)’ or he doesn’t accept him, and ‘it wasn’t typical or normal to be openly gay in the 80’s’, but, in all seriousness, regardless of how little i want those things to happen, (ESPECIALLY the latter) they have more depth and meaning than a ‘will he won’t he’ kind of ending. that would be horrendous writing, especially when said relationship has been built up for 4 seasons, and they couldn’t even end it with purpose or strength. that is never going to happen.
4 - byler endgame (mike accepts will AND himself)
try and tell me it wouldn’t be the incredible writing to have one closeted gay character and another closeted gay character, one with internalised homophobia and the other with acceptance that his crush will never like him back, happening to be best friends, and ending up together. not to mention, making mike anything other than gay with internalised homophobia would be throwing away a perfectly good character that could have had brilliant writing, because it would mean his whole thing from s3-4 would literally just be because he’s a bitch. not to mention it would be really awful writing because, it’s not like mikes character gets tremendously worse, he just, gets progressively more annoying and bland for 3 whole seasons? yeah, you can’t convince me that that is even the slightest bit likely. because mike was kind of all you could want in a character for s1-2. how come he literally just becomes a shit friend and an even shitter boyfriend for absolutely no reason whatsoever, simply to remove any of the great qualities he had in s1-2? like, that would just be so odd and weirdly written. not to mention the completely unnecessary fact of will having a crush on mike in the first place. like, it didn’t need to happen, and the idea that they will just make will even sadder than he already is due to everything he has faced over the past years by making the first and only person he has only every canonically romantically loved reject him and/or not accept him, consequently having his arc end awfully, would just be awful awful writing. and may i remind you of this scene, one that single handedly secures my hopes in byler endgame :
dededos
kianamaiart
turnnoffyourmind
prguitarman
annaxmalina
