Byler playlist analysis PART 1 (others will be linked at the end as I post them)
This is my analysis of the chronological Byler playlist I made using Conan Gray songs (and Good Luck, Babe. Oops) to cope. I had to divide it into parts because it got quite long, so this particular post includes the first 3 songs that are set pre-s1 :)
If you don't particularly care about my analysis, here's the playlist, so feel free to come up with your own interpretations :) Hope yall enjoy!
This playlist follows Mike and Will from their first meeting, (And you said yes, you said yes) and looks at their story through the lens of Mike slowly losing touch with reality after s5 ep5 as Vecna takes over his mind, and there's a little bit of Will almost noticing this, and a general aura of a half-aware delusional state towards the end for both Mike and Will.
Colour coding:
Timeline; Song Name; Analysis; Noteworthy lyrics from Will's POV , Mike's POV and from both POVs
So without further ado...
Pre Season 1
Song 01. (Can We Be Friends?)
Analysis - this is pretty self-explanatory. I see this as what was going through Mike's head when he first saw Will by the swings sitting alone, as he approached him, and as he asked Will, "Do you wanna be my friend?'.
Could you be my best friend? Let's hang out every weekend. This is Mike tentatively asking Will if he was as lonely as Mike was, if he would want to be less lonely with Mike.
Could you be my best friend? I'll tell you all my secrets. This is Will, daring to hope, wondering if this curly haired boy on the swing next to him could be the one he could really be himself with.
And if anybody fucks with you, they fuck with me. So if anybody fucks with you, I'll knock their teeth out! I imagine this as the trademark Mike-ramble, his almost-too-good-to-be-true potential reality, a nod to his innate ability to tell a compelling story, no matter how far fetched it might actually seem. I also see it as his protectiveness for Will kicking in as early as kindergarten, wanting this sweet, kind boy to feel nothing but loved.
*wondrous spurt of laughter, almost disbelieving*. I see this as Will's response to how much Mike honestly cares, him not quite letting himself believe all this bravado is real, but being amused nonetheless.
Could you be my best friend? Can we be friends? x2. Both of them allowing themselves to find a home in each other, to let themselves love and be loved unconditionally, full of childhood innocence, in the way only kids can.
Song 02. Little League
I imagine this song to be the years before Lucas joined the friendgroup, when it was just Will and Mike, exactly as it was in Will's flashback montage in s5 ep4. Just full of childhood whimsy and being lost in a world they made up for themselves where they feel invincible. I also interpret this to be them trying to deal with the casual homophobia by their respective fathers, as I imagine the adults started to clock something deeper between Mike and Will as they grew older. We know from Joyce that Lonnie used to call Will the f slur, and after Will goes missing, Ted says, 'See Michael? See what happens?' with subtext heavily implying that he was reprimanding Mike for acting in a non-heteronormative way, which the adults assumed was the reason Will went missing in s1. We know this because it's explicitly said that the rumour circling around town was that 'A queer took him'.
Could've sworn that you and me could get away with anything. We lay on the grass all day talking, cuz we snuck out of class when no one was watching. I remember you and me, yeah I remember everything. This paints a picture of a carefree childhood when no one cared what anyone thought, before societal expectations became a thing. I imagine two little boys having fun, full of joy and life.
Lately I've been feeling strange, and everybody's telling me to act my age, I never thought that everything I had would fade away... I see this as the start of homophobia, of 'grown-up boys don't act that way', of offhand comments by Lonnie and Ted that made Will and Mike aware of how their friendship was different from other boys' for the first time, and learnt to hide the 'wrong' parts of themselves.
When we were younger, we didn't know how it would be, we were the dumb, the wild, the free. Little league. This is them wishing for the simplicity of childhood once again, when no one questioned when one of them wanted to spend the entire day at the other person's house, or they had sleepovers.
And when we were younger, we wore our hearts out on our sleeves. Both of them feeling shackled by the expectation to act 'normal', but never quite understanding why it has to be that way. Wishing back to a time when they were allowed to exist without criticism, when life wasn't demanding and it was just the two of them in their own little league.
Cause I don't know what to do with everything I'm going through. This could be Mike not quite knowing what to do with the confusing feelings he's been having, but only knowing that they are wrong and that he has to stop them, because Ted thinks so. As for Will, as much as he wants to stop wanting to be with Mike, he can't. I imagine this is also when Lucas joined the friend group and started hanging out with Mike more and became Mike's best friend (atleast according to Dustin in s1, so I imagine Will had similar thoughts)
Song 03. Idle Town
I imagine this to be the years when The Party used to hang out in Mike's basement all day playing DnD, biking all over Hawkins and going on adventures in the woods next to Will's house (We know that they named the road to Will's house through the woods 'Mirkwood'). The town of Hawkins never quite manages to change, and is stuck in conformity, but atleast away in the woods or in Mike's basement, away from their parents' watchful eyes, the four boys can just exist, living out what they don't know would be the last carefree years of their lives. This song feels like car rides in your childhood when you were half asleep, like playing out all day and only coming inside to have lunch or dinner. It's nostalgic and a reminder of when time felt stretched and the days never ending, when life felt like it would be running around in fields for the rest of time.
This town will never change. People come and go it's all the same. Hawkins being stagnant.
All we do for now is sit and wait. The Party waiting to grow up, to grow out of their middleschool awkwardness and bullies, waiting for a time when they could be the narrators of their own stories in the real world.
We invent our own little games... When the lights out at the stadium fade... making life a spinning arcade... Curfew's at midnight, we watch the sunrise... I imagine this to be a time when parental supervision was minimal, and the four boys were free to do whatever they wanted with their free time, so they chose to create their own little bubble to pass the time.
Springtime when the air is thin, we're getting antsy and they're noticing. While everybody's off partying, we're watching stars over ice cream. I see this as another glimpse into life at school being the freaks and the outcasts, always being sidelined but refusing to let their bullies have their way. I see this as The Party being stubborn in their unwillingness to conform, to lose their integrity even while being relentlessly bullied for it. This, to me, sounds like them knowing that they're nerds who will never quite fit in, but choosing to stay true to themselves regardless.
Yeah I think we'll all be okay. The idle town stays as it stays, and everyone I love is in this place. So curfew at midnight, we watch the sunrise. Every day bleeds into the next, and every day is the same as every other day, but they still find magic in the passage of time. The town stays the same, but it doesn't matter because as long as The Party stays together, they're happy and entertained and everything is just as it should be.
HOLY SHIT THAT WAS LONG. I expected to analyse the entire playlist in one post, but I'm only 10% of the way through, so I'm gonna have to do this in parts. The next 7 songs in the playlist are from after Will was taken to when the Bylers move to Cali, so I think I'll divide them into 2 as well for the analysis.
I'll link the others as I post them, but as of right now, I need a very long break from staring at a screen. Hope yall enjoyed!
