alex🌀

19 she/her

[rokusasuxiii]

bylers creating conformitygate, pointing out all the inconsistencies and plot holes and it getting so popular that not only did the ga find it and agree, but it was even in publications like Forbes

[eclecticpeaceenthusiast]

guys i fear there’s no conformity gate. Moss and Rat Duffer are just genuinely insane and fucking creeps

[sorcererss]

The thing about byler is that yeah in the end it became queerbait but it was never that. It makes me very angry that the Duffers are trying to recontexualize byler. "It was never in the cards". Bro you gave us the cards.

People shipped byler in S1-3 sure, but there is a reason why it exploded in S4. You wrote that. You destroyed mileven (your endgame ship) to prop up byler. You created a scenario where Mike and Eleven simply do not understand each other, actively lie, and are bad partners to each other to contrast with Will and Mike's deep and complex friendship. You made Mike's feelings ambiguous but had his actions speak volumes (gaslighting his gf while being able to actively apologize to his best friend).

I can't even call Season 4 queerbait because back then there was no huge byler audience to bait. You made byler big by pulling it out of the subtext and tying it to the main narrative. You used cinematography, composition, costuming, and visual cues to prop up Mike and Will's relationship. So much so that now you cannot make a romantic montage of your endgame ship without Will being in the same fucking frame. These were choices made by you, not the fans.

There is reason why the most popular episode of the entire series is the most byler-heavy, it's because you build that groundwork, you dealt those cards, and, of course, it worked. The general audience started shipping byler because the setup was VERY MUCH THERE.

You wrote byler and then you didn't deliver it. Don't ever gaslight me into thinking otherwise.

[scroofy-was-here]

i SAW mike wheeler's lingering stare at will's d&d binder, and i SAW as he gently ran his finger down the spine of BOTH his and will's binders. I SAW THAT. don't you dare tell me he didn't love him

[gayofthefae]

I said this before. Queerbaiting never feels to me like queer rep taken away. It always feels like a queer person left in the closet to rot.

[tryingonametaphor]

am i the only one who thinks that they’re fucking with us at this point because there’s just no way…

[eclecticpeaceenthusiast]

mike when he finally realises this was all just vecnas illusion #conformitygate

holy motherforking shirtballs

[eclecticpeaceenthusiast]

i desperately need a fic where the whole party is stuck inside vecnas mind and then they slowly start to realise something is wrong and mike is like HOLY MOTHERFORKING SHIRTBALLS

[eclecticpeaceenthusiast]

mike when he finally realises this was all just vecnas illusion #conformitygate

[saansa]

So like, how the hell is Will supposed to tell his future boyfriend about his trauma without sounding absolutely insane?

Future bf: So, tell me about yourself. How was your childhood? :)

Will: Sure! I lived in a small conservative town with my mom and brother and my father, who was really abusive, left us when i was 8.

Bf: Aaw, that sucks. :(

Will: I then, when i was 12, i was kidnapped to another dimension which was like evil version of own town with bunch of monters and i was there for a week and everyone thought that i was dead. Then a man with superpowers forced me to carry a baby monster (which later ate my friends cat btw) inside of me and i almost died and my mom with a police chief, who’s my current step-dad, had to perform CPR on me. Then the next year, i was possessed by some dark evil particles and i lost my memory and got a bunch of people killed, including my moms boyfriend. And my family had to burn the supernatural being out of me. And then a couple of years later the creepy man with superpowers wanted to combine our world with another another dimension so me and my friends and family had to stop him. But then sadly my step-sister who had superpowers and was raised in a lab, had to sacrifice herself. And i also got superpowers for a moment because i was part of a hivemind so that was at least kinda cool! :)

Bf: ?????

Will: Oh! And also i was in love with my straight bestfriend which kinda sucked. But you know, that’s life. Anyway, how about you? :D

Bf: …

[eclecticpeaceenthusiast]

i like to imagine that mike in camouflage and that fuckass beanie is real mike’s straight evil twin and real mike pushes evil mike off the tower and tells will the truth about his feelings and then they kiss and save the world with the power of love

[eclecticpeaceenthusiast]

“byler was never intended to be canon” this is the most evil fucking thing ever istg. they’ve spent so much time and effort on making us believe we were finally getting proper representation. All the triangle imagery, mikes closet, color coding, hints from the cast and crew, shared looks etc. they were laughing at us for YEARS and they have the audacity to lie and be like “whaaaat byler never heard of him bro idk” literally fuck you stupid fucking loser piece of shit incels the way this show was always for freaks and outcasts (oh wait but only if you’re white straight cis male stink get rejected by girls and enjoy playing dnd in your mothers basement and write fanfiction of your ex bestie and yourself making out till you hear “good luck babe” in 2024 and blow you brains out)

[coreyzon]

papa me no want more movie

[maycelah]

cutgate son or conformitygate daughter

[bylerworld]

the fact will was the most romantic member of the party and he was the only one without a love story is my villain origin story

[caramelwhim]

so..! to recap !!!!

we don't know why will was taken specifically

hopper and joyce just happened to conveniently forget going to school with henry

the painting lie hasn't been addressed

we don't know why el recognized will in season 1 without having ever seen him before

we don't know who opened the door the night will was taken

mike and will's colors just HAPPEN to be blue and yellow and the cast, crew, and WRITERS THEMSELVES telling us to "pay attention to detail" was deadass just generational queerbait

after everything, mike STILL couldn't say i love you to eleven

patty newby is non-existent and creelby just happens to parallel byler for literally no reason 🩷

will was about to FORGIVE henry.

the duffers genuinely forgot their OWN MAIN CHARACTERS BIRTHDAY AND AGE MULTIPLE TIMES

the russian involvement in s3 and s4 was never explained so it was prob just capitalist propaganda except they don't want us to realize that so they gave jonathan an entire anti-capitalist film storyline for the sake of "screwing conformity" i guess

ohhh but! critiquing society???? fuck that! because they also didn't show us vickie in the epilogue at all, giving her and robin a completely ambiguous ending in which 90% of the fandom believe they broke up off-screen!!!!!!! A+ for representation !!!!!!

not only that, but will doesn't even have a CONFIRMED epilogue boyfriend. that is full well a cute lil headcanon that MIKE has for him.

terry ives, lonnie, enzo, max's mom, suzie, argyle, dr kay, the turnbow family, the school counselor with the clock necklace, and dr owens just vanished into thin air, ALONG WITH ALL THE DANGERS OF THE UPSIDE DOWN???? where were the demodogs, the demogorgons, the demobats????

max's letters were just completely insignificant and had no reason to be mentioned again i guess

november 6 just happened to be a funny coincidence

they ALSO happened to forget that nancy had a vision of mike being killed by vecna in s4 bc that boy wasn't even remotely in danger at all while every other wheeler was put through hell

dr brenner's obsession and fascination with the upside down and abyss stemming from how his father was involved in project rainbow was also not addressed

not to mention that the dude is literally horrendous at drawing animals but when it comes to the flipping hexcore he's da vinci

melvalds, the general store, just happens to sell milkshakes

will adores getting lost in the woods because that's such a fun activity for him

henry just gave holly her favorite song because he was feeling kind

they never actually defeated the mind flayer !!!! which is wonderful

we actually never find out whether or not will lost his powers

el's water tank in the upside down being completely full although there has literally NEVER been water in the upside down before

mike is somehow the only one who has ever understood el even though she was 10x happier with max. could they not have just admitted that they made the elmax reunion so incredibly lackluster because they refused to let ANY gay ships win regardless of how much chance they had of being canon?

the 'lovebirds' parallel between jonathan + steve and mike + eleven??? what was that even for

all the dick jokes, mike listening the a band called the BUTTHOLE SURFERS, the camera panning to mike 7000 times during will's coming out scene, mike not being able to touch will, all just happened to be fun coincidences

not only that, but the mike-will-eleven and nancy-jonathan-steve love triangles were resolved by none of the couples working out! wow.

they really just made us wait 3 whole years for something BEYOND mid.

[nerdydaughter]

“it’s forced conformity,

that’s what’s killing the kids.”

[bi-disaster-kit-herondale]

the fact that they could’ve showed future Will in an apartment making art or having a career as an illustrator, and then a guy walks in and leans over his shoulder and they kiss. but no. half-assed ending in a gay bar. and mike was imagining it too, where is my creative out-of-the-box storyteller, MY mike would always picture Will as an artist and see that side of him.

[thewisewill80sbyers]

Making a lesbian character say weird ooc dick jokes constantly

Appropriating the rainbow symbol from queer culture only to proceed on doing torture porn on the gay character that they created and give him the first slow burn rejection in the world

Main gay character can't even kiss his fake epilogue boyfriend made up by his real future husband (after he gets fustigated 50 times)

They didn't even bother to cast an epilogue boyfriend actor with actual chemistry with Will so they don't even look like boyfriends

Only bisexual character in the show disappeared with no explanations after making her the focus of multiple romantic moments with Robin and was also introduced with zero purpose outside of being a romantic interest in the first place

Mike Wheeler's closet blown into pieces while they were well aware of Byler being the biggest ship in the show, and he doesn't even say I love you to his girlfriend who he treated like shit for no reason other than random drama

Using the feelings of a queer character to resolve the problem of a straight relationship that is doomed anyway in the finale, then diminishing the depth of queer love while propping love born by A TRAUMA BOND between Mike and El that suddenly always "understand each other" when they do not in the previous seasons multiple times... Then keeping the queerbait at maximum level until the last moment possible by never doing anything more than platonic between the straights until the finale