a footnote will do.

she/her | 21 | lesbian | creative writing student

[mourninglamb7]

you’re the closest to heaven (that i’ll ever be)

by wisehearts on ao3 (@love-byers)

this fic is so good (vibes are immaculate!) im so excited to see what happens next!

[love-byers]

you’re the closest to heaven (that i’ll ever be)

link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/74334241/chapters/194021256

byler AU set in a small southern town in the late 00s, delving into religious guilt/trauma, christian psychology, queerness in the south, and of course forbidden romance (or more accurately, a secret brutal situationship)

chapters: 4/15

word count (so far): 22.6k

summary: “Somewhere around the border of North and South Carolina in 2008, Will Byers is a member of the local church's youth group. Why? Even he doesn't know. When a new member, Mike Wheeler, comes along, Will starts to wonder.

or

Mike Wheeler joins a youth group solely because he has a crush on one of the members.”

[existential-queeer]

TWO COTTAGE TRIPS IN ONE MONTH LETS GOOOOOOOOO

[yenvengerberg]

"I know how to leisure. I know how to leisure perfectly." SOPHIE BAEK in BRIDGERTON SEASON 4

[love-byers]

gonna be honest, i do think it's game over. ill be going into the finale fully expecting no byler.

but that doesn't mean the creators aren't STILL including undeniable motifs and clues. and i really don't understand why because i honestly no longer believe that byler is happening and that there'll be some sappy mileven shit in the finale.

what i mean:

'Eulogy' is the soundtrack motif for death and mourning. this goes for both literal death and grief, and metaphorical death. here's a list of all the times we've heard it

2x01 nancy mourns barb

2x01 mke mourns el (believing she is dead)

2x03 hopper shows el the cabin for the first time "this is your new home" (the death of el's old life)

2x08 hopper comforts joyce as she mourns bob

2x08 mike tells the group about bob founding the av club

3x01 joyce has a flashback of bob

4x03 mike and el fight

5x06 nancy and jonathan break up

when i tell you my JAW DROPPED when i heard eulogy start playing in the jancy breakup. i instantly remembered that the last time we heard it was during the mike and el fight, aka the fight they "can't come back from". like??? are we actually supposed to sit here and act like that makes sense if mileven is endgame/true love??

and on top of that, there is a reprise of 'Eulogy' called 'Letter To Willy'. 'Letter To Willy' plays in:

4x04 max reads her letter to billy

4x05 mike and will talk about mike and el's fight on the car

4x09 dustin talks to eddie's uncle

am i genuinely supposed to believe there was no thought put into this?

they also use 'The First I love You' in the jancy breakup. like are we SERIOUS?? THE SONG THAT PLAYED IN ROBINS COMING OUT AND WHEN EL SAYS I LOVE YOU AND MIKE STANDS THERE WITH HIS EYES OPEN NOT KISSING HER BACK??????

and another thing, every single time characters say i love you it is either platonic, familial, or a lie. i was once again SHOCKED that they continued this motif in s5.

jonathan and nancy didn't start using the word love until s4 when their relationship was on a freefall, and when they finally do say i love you on screen to each other, it's a BREAKUP. and the other time we hear it is when hopper says "i love you, jane"

i genuinely feel gaslit and like i belong in the loony bin. someone working on this show has a vision and personal bias because there is NO WAY. duffers need to investigate kyle and michael and apparently the writers room too.

[love-byers]

episode 1: “if vecna’s gone, then what’s stopping us?”

in ep 4, el thinks the thing the military are keeping and using to target her is vena. she thinks her kryptonite is vecna.

it was not vecna, it was kali. the thing el thought was vecna was actually kali. el’s kryptonite is actually kali.

also in ep 4, mike equated will to vecna.

“but i’m not vecna.”

“you sorta are.”

now in comes:

if not vecna, then what is stopping mike and el?

kali and will.

[love-byers]

i still find it fascinating that in s3 they present the idea of what is most important to mike

he says it to el "you're the most important thing to me in the world" but even el isn't moved by that..

based on his behavior in season 3 alone, what, or who, is the most important thing to mike?

is it the person that mike isn't even affected by when they break up with him? he might lose the most important thing in the world to him, but he just stands there and lets them walk away? he doesn't go after them, he doesn't apologize, he just sits at home joking with his friends waiting for the other person to call?

or is the person who, when faced with losing them due to his own behavior, mike immediately drops everything and changes his demeanor to try and fix it? the person he chases after and bikes in the rain to their house to apologize and make things right? and when they don't answer the door, he goes looking for them in the woods instead of just accepting that they don't want to talk?

if someone is the most important thing in the world to you, you try. you're actually shaken by losing them, especially when it was your own doing.

and this isn't even including the shit from the other seasons...

[hawkinsschoolcounselor]

One part of this that I don't see mentioned much is the distinction Mike draws here. Will gets defensive, saying that he's only a wizard in D&D. However, instead of Mike laughing it off, he doubled down. True, Will the Wise is a Wizard, but Will Byers is a sorcerer. His powers are innate.

Mike is telling Will that everything that's good about him comes from inside of him, not something he's copying from somewhere else. When you think about it, it's exactly what Robin is about to tell him.

But there's another aspect to this. These two speak the same love language.

It's just like when Will used his D&D painting to let Mike know that he, not his D&D character, is inspirational. He's the heart. Everything good about Mike comes from inside him.

They both used D&D symbology to express how important the other is because of their innate qualities, that they see the other for who they are. This is the game where they acted out the people they always wished they could be. They both invoked it to let the other know that they achieved just that.

[love-byers]

bigass electrical closet between them #nooticing

[love-byers]

yes byler not happening would be queer bait because they let this picture and several other angles of it circulate for almost 4 years and never once cleared it up

they’ve said they are aware of bylers and how passionate we are.

FOUR YEARS.

NOT COUNTING THE SIX YEARS BEFORE THAT

[love-byers]

they revealed that mike is actually intrinsically tied to the times in will's life where he loved himself the most and felt the most free (after explicitly stating that that is not the effect tammy had on robin) and then ended the volume and let that hang in the air for a month

[love-byers]

the fact that in robin’s tammy speech she recalls the first time she saw tammy in the 9th grade. it was like one of those lamo movies. time slowed down, like a super cheesy fantastical high school display of infatuation. tammy never even looked at her, but robin was obsessed and thought she was perfect.

and then like 30 minutes later they SHOW US the first time will saw mike and it’s….not similar at all.

it wasn’t a lamo high school movie. it was a film reel of their first day of kindergarten. time did not slow down. it was not cheesy. will was not immediately infatuated. mike’s hair did not blow in the wind in slow motion. mike wasn’t this perfect idealized person, oblivious to will’s existence, he’s the one who asked will to be friends. it was pure, raw, and real. it wasn’t the moment will lost himself in someone else, it was the moment he found himself.

and not only that, but they have robin distinctly separate this cheesy lamo high school movie (tammy) and her 8 MM Film Reel of Freedom and Self Acceptance. tammy was in one, not the other. and then they give WILL an 8 MM Film Reel of Freedom and Self Acceptance, and MIKE IS IN TWO OF THE DAMN SCENES??? robin had to look back to before she knew tammy to remember how to love herself, but will’s film reel STARTS WITH MIKE.

i’m gonna be honest, i’m 50/50 on byler confidence these days. but i cannot ignore a blatant use of show don’t tell like this. we are told that mike is just will’s tammy, and then shown that they are actually nothing alike at all. and after the quote “i don’t believe in coincidences. not anymore.” existing in s5?? I FEEL LIKE IM BEING GASLIT.

[korol--reznii]

[love-byers]

8 mm film.

[love-byers]

the fact that will remembered robin’s words and tried to do what she did. he tried to reach that version of himself by thinking of what his own home movie would be. the time where he felt the most free and loved himself. and the first two memories that come to mind are mike.

that’s not us making this about byler or mike. that’s just verbatim what happened in the show

[love-byers]

duffers…you cannot be this stupid

[love-byers]

“It was never about tone-deaf Tammy. It was always just about me.”

that line doesn’t play during will’s flashback sequence.

will’s home movie isn’t just about himself. it’s about mike and how his earliest memories of feeling free and loving every part of himself are intrinsically tied to mike.

robin didn’t have that. will does