finn

24, he/him. byler enthusiast and mike defender

[m1kedefendr]

will on r/askreddit

is my (15m) best friend (15m) gay and in love with me too??

so basically my best friend and i have been friends since kindergarten. He walked up to ME and asked ME to be his friend. We made two other friends over the years but he always seemed to be closer to me, i thought it was just because we’ve been friends longer. A few years ago when we were 12 some scary shit happened and i was missing for a week, and apparently in that time he looked for me but he also met this girl that he seemed to have a crush on but she seemed to have disappeared? After i was found everything went back to mostly normal for almost a year until halloween, when i had a ptsd attack (cuz he can’t talk ab the upside down obviously). He immediately wrapped his arms around me and didn’t let our other friends touch me. He said he would take me home then took me to his basement. We had sort of a heart to heart and i said i feel like im going crazy, and he looked at me and said “if we’re going crazy, we’ll go crazy together right?” and OF COURSE MY BABY GAY ASS AGREED?! Anyways after that i have a really bad time with my ptsd and he stays by my side, even telling me about how asking me to be his friend was the best thing he’s ever done.

Then the girl he liked came back. Some more stuff happened but we all went to the snowball dance and that’s where him and her started dating. Ever since then he was acting completely different, he was hiding away with his girlfriend, ignoring our friends, but mainly he was ignoring ME. His gf dumped him and I thought we could all play dnd to cheer him up, but he just mocked and made fun of me the whole time. When i finally stormed out of his place we got in an argument, i called his ex stupid and he shot back “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls” which is like, woah man. he knows i’ve been called slurs before, he doesn’t know i’m gay for sure but he should have an inkling on it. So i ran away, but he ran after me. We didn’t actually get to reconcile correctly because something came up again, and by the end of everything i was moving away. oh and he got back with his girlfriend who now became my adopted sister and had to move with me.

Now this is where it gets super interesting. He didn’t write me ONE letter. He called a couple of times. He sent multiple letters to my sister, though. So i was very much upset. He came to visit during spring break and at first it looked like they were a perfect happy couple, until i realized my sister was lying to him. why was she lying? anyways we all went skating and my sister got thoroughly humiliated in front of everyone, and my best friend was arguing with ME? He was yelling at ME for not telling him she was lying? He was pointing out how I sabotaged the day?? As if his GIRLFRIEND didn’t get humiliated? Then we found my sister and she had hit the bitch in the face with a roller skate, which was such a serve. girlboss. but Mike acted like a DICK. Ever since there relationship was hella off? they got in a big fight and then she ran off. After she was gone he turned into the person he was before?? Like during the ptsd attacks and everything. He apologized to me, told me that home isn’t the same without me, even with our other friends still there. He also told me that my sister was mad at him because he couldn’t tell her something?? We had to go look for my sister, and He was awfully close to me again. He was staring a lot. He seemed worried about his girlfriend so i tried to reassure him but he went on a weird rant?? Like he kinda compared her to superman and him to lois lane. And said meeting her was dumb luck. So i chucked it up to him being afraid of losing her, and i decided to give him this painting i made him but tell him it was from her. He looked super happy when he saw the painting but his smile faltered when i said it was commissioned by my sister. I kinda confessed my feelings for him under her name, and he looked absolutely mesmerized by me?? but we didn’t talk much after that.

Anyways after we found her another big thing happened and she was in danger, and my best friend was freaking out. I told him he had to be the heart, so he goes to confess his love to her. apparently he’s never told her he loves her?!? anyways he says all this bullshit that contradicts what he said to me about how asking me to be his friend was the best thing he’s done. He also says a lot of shit that doesn’t make sense to me because he literally said meeting her was dumb luck but told her he knew he loved her the moment he saw her?? that’s when i got kinda suspicious. Now we’re back in our hometown because the big deal that had my sister in danger originated in our home town. My sister broke up with my best friend and she won’t tell me why, only that she’s perfectly okay and so is he but he might need comfort on something else. So i hung out with him and he was really touchy and clingy and now i’m super fucking confused help me??

[m1kedefendr]

need to come back on here more often, who up for doing a miwi shared birthday event on the 31st cuz i WILL host it

[bbluesidess]

You’re wrong, mom. It’s my fault.

Happy birthday Will Byers! My favorite character to ever exist <3

[olsonshroom]

the birthday party he deserved ❤️‍🩹 happy birthday, Will Byers

In my mind it takes place during their college spring break!

I've waited a whole month to finally share this! He would've been the same age as my dad and I'm not quite sure how to feel about this

[miwiheroes]

the party in college:

lucas: finally more poc that i can relate to max: wait whats bisexuality.... interesting jane: who am i without my powers? a whimsical girl who joins every club and society i can :) dustin: whens my next roadtrip with steve-

mike and will in their 100 sqft flat:

[velvet4510]

One of the many ways that the Byler van scene is so powerful is that it is really the one and only scene in the entire show where anyone makes Mike feel truly loved and valued and cherished for exactly who he is.

Will’s gift and his words give Mike a level of support and understanding that nobody else ever gives him. El may save his life, but she never does anything like this for him. She never has any one-on-one moment of genuine connection with him where she shows that she gets what makes him tick. She doesn’t even like D&D. (And that’s not her fault; she just doesn’t get him like Will does, since they’re not compatible.)

That scene rightfully gets attention for what it means for Will, but let’s not forget what it means for Mike. That painting truly changes the way he sees himself. It’s no exaggeration to say it changes his life.

That’s why the disappearance of the painting in s5 breaks the entire narrative and Mike’s entire arc.

That painting is the key to Mike’s soul, to all the parts of himself that he was taught to be ashamed of and try to outgrow. It is the appeal to Mike’s inner child that the film/memory reel is to Will’s inner child. While being with El only makes him question and doubt himself, just one gift from Will completely validates his special interest and his quirks, and makes him feel like he is enough. It is completely and utterly nonsensical to compare this depth of understanding and this monumental sense of being seen to a hopeless hallway crush that one needs to just get over.

[deyageka]

Mike’s hair gets long enough that Holly starts putting it in a braid. The boys are flabbergasted (minus Will, he’s digging the hairstyle)

[m1kedefendr]

I have come to a point in my Byler shipping career to where I have to plan to be queerbaited just in case, while simultaneously wondering how the fuck they’re going to dance around all this evidence of byler endgame to queerbait me, but i can’t sit here in my 100% confidence anymore because logically? They could queerbait me. Do you understand what I mean?

[m1kedefendr]

baby they diabolically abandoned all sense of plot and storyline, you were right. how are they gonna dane around it? by just ignoring it. and not even just byler, but everything.

[hawkinsschoolcounselor]

Remember the nice month after volume 1? When I was posting images of snowballs rolling downhill, and we were enjoying Mike being a total Will fanboy?

Yeah, those were good times.

I hope we get those times back.

[bylerlumax]

they do, in fact, write slow burn rejections!

[tickleyourfaceoff]

no like I’m literally losing my mind. They gave Mike, THEIR MAIN CHARACTER, the saddest ending humanly possible and assassinated his character oh my gooood.

He barely had any plot relevance other than asking el/will if they were okay.

He was relevant in volume 1 and then NOTHING!!

THE PAINTING. Jesus Christ, the painting. I was expecting them to give him a shield and sword so he’d look like Mike the brave. But NOOOO they gave it to Dustin!!! (He’s a sweet angel but C’MON give Mike SOMETHING). They gave him a flare gun which, in the grand scheme of things, had ZERO impact on the mind flayer/vecna

Also he’s canonically stupid bc he never acknowledged/realized that el did NOT commission this fucking painting

He didn’t come up with ANY part of the final plan.

Holly had a bigger leader role in the finale!!!

he didn’t even HELP get holly out at the end which would’ve been such a satisfying moment since giving her holly the heroic helped her be brave and run from vecna. So it was HIS influence that saved her + helped her lead the kids

What happened to Mike being THE HEART?????

el literally kills herself and she pulls him in to her mind to say her final words. She says I LOVE YOU and he DOESNT say it back. To his dying GIRLFRIEND (???). Like baby we got over this in season 4?? Or we were supposed to?? Like c’mon THIS is your endgame ship????? He can’t say I love you when she’s DYING!!!! Which makes him look like a terrible boyfriend (one of the few things his character is defined by bc, again, they gave him no other plot. And we’re reminded of this when el is the only flashback that shows up for him when Joyce is decapitating vecna when, granted, vecna did SO much to him, his family, and other friends).

El also says that he’s the only person that understands her when we’ve been shown time and time again that they always fight and he very clearly does NOT understand her so yaay let’s remind the audience that he’s a terrible boyfriend

And on top of that a Terrible kisser bc that kiss scene had negative chemistry ???

Then poor boy has to be retraumatized by her death (bc this is EXACLTY what happened in season 1) and live with eternal guilt to the point of diving head first into DELUSION and ruminating for 18 months to find a way to cope and convince himself that el is alive. Like he is D E L U D E D. HOW does that seem like a positive ending ?????

And one of, if not the biggest, crime: he is STILL in the closet

[clericbyers]

all three doors were taken.

el took the first door (take your own life)

mike took the second door (accept your fate)

will took the third door (escape)

[sticklystag]

THE HEIGHT DIFFERENCE WE COULD HAVE HAD IT ALL

THEYRE LITERALLY PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER ARE YOU KIDDING ME??

[byebyelurk-deactivated20260125]

You know what’s extra fucked up about the tower scene?

Mike trying to apologize for being so shitty to Will. And the writers not even LETTING Will accept the apology.

He is self deprecating until the very end. Insistent that Mike shouldn’t have noticed his pain or been there for him. That it was better for him to suffer in silence until he managed to get over his feelings. Because how dare he inconvenience Mike with his gay feelings?

He’s excusing all of Mike’s shitty behavior so the audience can, too. He’s stating that he was always meant to get over Mike, so the audience can too. And he’s furthering the homophobic narrative that sympathizing with a gay person as a straight person is uncomfortable and confusing work, so it shouldn’t be expected. The audience can nod along with that, too.

Some self acceptance arc, Duffers. We can really tell that Will has grown into his sexuality from how much time he spends apologizing for being gay. And telling the straight people in his life that they shouldn’t bend over backwards to be considerate about his painful lived experience. Fantastic job, really.

[fatfatgaybitch]

Everyone used to say George Lucas’ work got shittier when he got divorced and I thought that was bs until Ross Duffer rolled around and decided to make his divorce everyone’s problem

[hawkinswsqk]

If you can’t handle having queer people in your show, don’t put the in. We don’t need representation by people who don’t know what they’re doing.

[demibanshee]

So let's recap

•No patty newby mention

•why was the UD stuck on the day of Will's disappearance

•vecna gets slimed in like 10 minutes

•The mindflayer gets slimed in 2 minutes

•Byler, mileven, stancy, jancy and somehow steddie fucking bones

•Will is only part of the hivemind when it's convenient for the plot

•we just?forgot will has powers? He used them like twice the entire season

•el fucking killed herself

•the entire ending is ambiguous as hell (are they showing the characters' futures? Or is it all Mike's imagination? Is El even alive?)

•melvald's sells milkshakes now apparently, they're next to the Christmas lights

•painting unaddressed

•did will go missing at 11 or 12?

•henry just so happens to have the same bday as will for no fucking reason

•vickie is just GONE (and implied broken up with robin? Wtf why can't gay people win you assholes)

•Dick jokes and butthole surfers jokes for shits and giggles

•el telling Mike that he's the only person who has ever understood her, which is factually not true lmao y'all didn't even talk

•mike doesn't even say ily back even though she's literally DYING

•artist will found dead in a ditch

•no deaths, stakes were never lower

•only death was KALI who WASN'T EVEN AT FAULT FOR ANYTHING

•We got Holly x Derek before any actual Mike wheeler character arc

•Only way to end the cycle of abuse is by KILLING YOURSELF GUYS!!! GREAT MESSAGE!!!

•Will is mlvn romance counselor again cause that's what gay people are for ig

•Hopper loses another daughter

•joyce has like three lines in the entire finale

•They don't recognize Henry?? The lead in their senior play? Bitch?