Do you ever feel like that part of the reason that people don't ship Wheelclair as much as Byler is racism?
Like, especially racism in m/m ships especially in regards interracial pairings is ignored and not talked about, and I feel like Byler is one of this. If you go into into the early wheelclair posts, (yes I scrolled that far, I have no life) there are quite a few bylers that straight up hate on wheelclair.
And then theres the fact that arguably, Lucas does more acts of love for mike than Will.
When Max breaks up with Lucas, Lucas decides to focus on Mike's breakup and help him through a tough time in his life, while Will tries to focus on his interests.
In season 1, Lucas fights with Mike because he's worried that El will hurt him.
In season 5, he's literally the only one in the party outside of Max and El to comfort him about the fact that his baby sister is missing, his parents are in a coma. Dustin decides becomes obstinate (like, sure dude, I know you and steve are having issues and you are traumatized by eddie's death, but get it together you best friend of seven years has his family kidnapped or in the ICU)
And then there's Will with his flirting.
but for some reason, they take the smallest look of mike and will and turn it into a full romance plot, while they have Mike Tenderlly looking at Lucas's chest wound and go "yeah, that's platonic"
Yes, I really do believe this. A lot of Byler shipping is racism, and a lot of the ignoring of Lucas is also racism. Much of Lucas's writing in show and by fans is racist, people don't care about him and write him poorly and fall into stereotypes and mischaracterization.
I can definitely see bylers hating on wheelclair 😭😭. And also the preference of the white on white m/m ship is usually because of subconscious racism or white superiority/centrality and subconscious misogyny. People just want to see two white men do it, they don't care for women or characters of color.
And YES. LUCAS AND MIKE ARE BEAT FRIENDS. Lucas cares for Mike so much, he's always there supporing Mike and he's always by Mike's side. Lucas in s1 ive seen gets some hate for being rude to El, but he's 11 his friend is missing and his best friend is messing around with some girl with powers and a mysterious life. He wants to keep his best friend safe and he's doing how he thinks he needs to BECAUSE HE CARES SO MUCH. isn't this conflict and care more interesting than will byers shits on mike every season..
Lucas is always there emotionally for Mike, like you said in s3 after the breakup but also after hop threatens mike, Lucas is there. Season 5 Lucas is one of three people who notice Mike's feelings, and Will isn't one of them.
People who hate Wheelclair are honestly not noticing their chemistry and love because they don't like Lucas, and that's mostly because of subconscious racism. Like Kali hate to a smaller degree.
And the Byler supremacy is also the continuation of white on white m/m ships that rot fandom