To all my fellow byler shippers who have been feeling sad since S5 ended, please take the time read this <3 (it'll be worth it, I promise!) : why you can still picture Mike and Will getting together
I know everyone is feeling a little sad, especially on tumblr. I see so many people doomposting, feeling betrayed, angry, and so dealing with many many emotions that are 100% justified. We are all grieving what Byler could have canonically been. So I wanted to write this, and I hope you will spread the message, because what I fear even more is losing the byler community.
I have colossally overestimated the Suffer brothers for the past five months. Many of us have. Right now, we are all dealing with dissapointment. We thought this show was supposed to advocate for outcast. It was, at first--but mainly, it was an illusion. I assure you this show has not rooted for any other minority than males having nerdy interests : they could have deepened Lucas' storyline about being a POC, they could have written Will's storyline otherwise, they could've written El's borderline misogynistic's ending otherwise; they didn't though. Which maybe, we could have picked up on, and so we would have considered the queerbaiting more, we could have braced ourselves more. And we didn't. BUT that is not our fault. We had hope, we thought we were seeing the signs they wanted us to see.
Now, I'd like to dive more specifically into how you can deal with the dissapointment now, how you can transform your sadness and your anger into something much more powerful: interpretation.
I know, I know its hard to see that it is not canon, but let me tell you, Will and Mike's story isn't over yet -- yes, even their romantic story isn't over yet. And it is not up to the Suffer brothers to tell it.
See, the thing is, a lot is left to the interpretation of the audience at the end of season 5: the question "is El alive or dead?" for exemple, is directly and explicitely left up to interpretation. But through lazy writing, the Suffer Brothers actually left every character's ending pretty open. Will Lucas and Max leave Hawkins? Is Dustin still with Suzie? Are Jonathan and Nancy still a couple? (which is really ambiguous if you focus only on the show itself and not the articles) Were Robin and Nancy kind of flirting at the end? Is Robin still with Vickie? How could Max graduate with them? Hell, even conformitygate is an interpretation, which would explain why everything felt so eerie. Basically, they didn't have the guts to really give the characters a proper ending, cause they were scared it would dissatisfy one side or the other of the fandom.
So now, let's focus on Mike and Will's ending, which are also ambiguous. Starting with Will: we still don't know if he truly gets an epilogue boyfriend. Even that is up to interpretation, because you can see this scene either 1) as Mike imagining a futur for Will (with a bf that's a carbon copy of him mind you) or 2) Mike imagining this future in another city for him and this epilogue bf clip is a flashforward, a glimpse of the future. Mike's ending is also pretty ambiguous tbh, and to me, that final shot of him placing his book on the shelf next to Will's can be interpreted as 1)him really being straight after all, but the shot focuses on saying goodbye to your childhood or 2)realizing he really missed an opportunity, accepting his choice of loving El instead of WIll and being doomed forever (or at least that is what he thinks).
I'll come back to their stories later. First, I would like to explain to you why, in the end, it doesn't matter what ending Matt and Ross gave their characters. I know it's hard to conceive it, but you, as a fan of Will and Mike's bond, are not entitled to believe in what the Suffers are telling as a story. Let me prove this to you.
If I were to ask you: was Will in love for many years? You would answer with 100% confidence that yes, he did love Mike for many many years. If I asked you: do you believe Will could get over it in less than a day? You confidently answer 'no, it is totally impossible'. But you are wrong. I mean, if you consider the canon events of season 5, you are wrong. Will canonically got over Mike in less than 24 hours and it was just a crush, in the canon of season 5. But does it change the fact that you know Will has loved Mike for many years and was probably still not over it in the epilogue? NO! Why is that? Because there is a plot hole inside the canon. The story does not add up. And it doesn't matter, because our interpretation of Will's feelings is based on the first four seasons, which are technically as canon as the last season, but we consider way more valuable to believe in.
Well, you see the logic. Now apply it to Mike Wheeler. Its a little harder, I know, but try it. The van scene, the bedroom scene, the crazy together scene, the mileven fights... etc, etc, I could go on and on forever. You see my point. You could confidently say he was in love with Will Byers until episode 5 of season 5. And after that tower scene, you felt betrayed, you thought "oh but there were so many signs that he was gay and in love with WIll, turns out he wasn't?" Well he is. Just as you can ignore Will having just a crush in season 5, you can ignore Mike 'friendzoning' Will (I'll come back to that later). Canonically, he sees Will as a friend in episode 8, but just like with Will's storyline, there is a plot hole. THE STORY DOES NOT ADD UP!
The thing is, it is easier to just brush off the plothole about Will's 'love then crush' in your mind. We all just live on and interpret it as being love, because that is how the story was established in our heads long ago. And this is why you struggle to do the same with the Mike gay/straight plothole: you thought the only way to establish gay mike in our heads was through canon confirming it in the end. But instead, what you can work on is how you establish Mike's story as logical: either 1) you think it was doomed unrequited love from the start and he was always a straight homophobic asshole; or 2) you actually ignore the blatant plot hole stranger things has, the same way you ignored Will's love being transformed into a silly crush, and you just know that Mike wheeler is gay. Do you realize how much power you have? You litteraly have the power to let the story you want exist, as much as you let the story exist of Will still loving Mike in season 5 up until the epilogue even if (canonically) he has moved on. Canon. Doesn't. Matter. You don't care about it when it comes to Will, and you shouldn't care when it comes to Mike, because he was clearly canonically in love with Will up until episode 7, before they turned him straight again so he could have his aah goodbye moment with El.
If you still have doubt about what I have just said, just think about the ending. I talked about Mike and Will's endings, but even Byler's ending was left open; not because it implied romance, but because of lazy writing. The lack of an explicit rejection, the painting not being adressed and us still not knowing if Mike truly knew the depth of Will's feelings are lazy plot holes BUT they are a gift to us because they leave questions hanging in the air, meaning Byler's story was never fully told. Their. Story. Isn't. Fully. Told. And that seems veryyy frustrating at first, but it might actually be a good thing-- like, do we really trust the duffers to write their story well? I wouldn't. Look, after this final season, we can all agree that their writing is shit, not only for byler-related reasons. So why would those straight white men be more legitimate than you to tell Will and Mike's story? To imagine their story? To know their story? It's not a reach to say that the stranger things fanbase knew the show better than them (picking up on the birthday thing and litterally all the other plotholes from s5), so is it really a reach to say we know their characters better than they do? I don't think so. Millie Bobby Brown, for example, stated that Will and Kali were the ones that understood El the most, and so much better than Mike did--which resonates with Mileven's season 4 dynamic, their season 5 ep 1 to 7 dynamic, but contradicts their episode 8 dynamic when El tells him 'you always understood me'. But would you say Millie was wrong? No, because she wasn't, and you know it. We are as legitimate as the writers, if not more legitimate than them to understand characters, just like Millie knew El better than the writers. So I assure you, it is not a reach to still say that Mike is gay/bi and in love with will for almost five seasons, because he damn is even if they turn him 'straight' for an episode.
This really relates to The death of the author, which is an essay developped by the litterary theorist Roland Barthes; once the author publishes a book, its interpreation is up to the reader. The reader brings the story to life. The story exists as much in the autors head than in the readers head, and you can not force an interpretation upon the reader. Same thing applies with stranger things. They cannot force an interpretation upon you, because there are as many versions of the stranger things story in the universe as there are people watching the show. So basically, what am I trying to say here? 1) Canon, is bullshit in itself because there are narrative incoherences 2) The stranger things that you consider real is a legitimate as the stranger things that you can watch on netflix. 3) We, as Bylers, can say we understand Mike, Will and El better than the writers do. 4)We know byler is endgame, because it should be.
And when I say byler is endgame, i don't mean directly in the show itself... I mean in the story that we imagine, that has as much value and is as real as the one the Duffers wanted to tell. Look at the ending scene: clearly, the suffers made it clear through interviews 'byler was never the plan' (which is total bullshit in my opinion) blablabla, but the ending scene guys. You can tell some people on there were fighting to include little details that could leave byler kind of ambiguous. Their. Ending. Is. Open. as i've already explained, because of the lazy writing. But their ending can be seen as ambiguous: I say this mainly because of the looks Will and Mike give each other at the end, the corny 'sorcery' line, 'heroes' playing, and mainly Mike looking sadly at the two books. See, maybe duffers didn't want to make the ending ambiguous, but through other ppl, it became ambiguous-- I just know Finn and Noah tried, with those shared looks. People who decorated Mike's room and made it completely yellow, hung the painting there. And so what, maybe they did it to rub it in our face, but who cares? Maybe, in that moment where Mike writes his story, he already knows Will painted it for him, he's still working through his feelings. The point is, you shouldn't care about what their intentions were behind those directing choices. You should only care about how you see the story. And just as I choose to believe Mike's theory about El, I choose to believe that Mike was repressing his feelings for Will all this time, that he is in love with Will. That is my interpretation of the story and I wouldn't give it up to please straight cis white dudes who can't write proper representation. Even the friendzone scene can be seen as partly cute and romantic, in the way Mike stutters and smiles (it gets to the point where anti-bylers got scared during the scene). You have the right to consider this as Mike fumbling the hottest hoe in hawkins and later regretting it. You can consider this as Mike being once again oblivious about Will's feelings, only reassuring him about Will's sexuality not changing anything. You can chose to ignore the scene completely if you want. I do, cause honestly, byler would be even more ambiguous in the ending if we hadn't had that tower scene.
So really, remember that the fate of byler does not rest in the hands of the suffer brothers. Sure, they gave birth to their characters and the bonds between them, but we are allowed to do those characters some justice. And personnally, I interpret byler endgame in my own way as 'Will will pull Mike out of his conformist mental prison'. I will read fanfic and those works will have as much value as the canon. I will imagine their romance for myself, and i will give it as much credits than stranger things itself: and I know that Will and Mike stayed close friends after graduation, Will never got over Mike, Mike never got over Will, and one day they will find their ways back to eachother, may it be a month after graduation or years after-- it doesn't matter, because in the end, they'll always do. I believe.
no because look at me and tell me that this is not the look of “ive been yearning for you all my life and I love you with all my heart” on BOTH OF THEIR FACES.
did they forget to tell finn and noah that mike and will “are just friends. best friends 😃”
and if I said we'll get two finales instead of one, the first having a bad ending with byler not endgame and many deaths, the second one releasing on 12AM EST with a happy ending for everyone... then what.
yall if the finale feels wrong or out of place or too tragic, just wait two more hours!
The Bridge is currently sitting at 5.4/10 on IMDB. This is because 40% of the user reviews are putting it at 1 star.
I'm to understand that people like Elon Musk have started an anti-woke campaign because of Will's coming out scene. We can not, and should not, stand for this.
Regardless of what you may feel about the episode as a whole, I'm sure you don't see it as a 1 out of 10. Please, I am asking that people go and give The Bridge a high review to help offset these review bombs.
Don't let homophobes send the message that creators shouldn't make gay storylines in hit mainstream shows.
PLEASE I’m begging you to go vote episode 7 10/10 on imdb! I know it’s not perfect (I myself hated the coming out scene) BUT currently we are sending the message that queer storylines should be pushed away. I myself thought review bombing would be a good thing, but I was wrong.
I know our intentions are good but we as a queer community need to defend queerness in modern media against fascist like Elon Musk who hated on the coming out scene.
*the traumatized gay character is forced by his abuser to come out to like 20 people as they ignore him while he cries and he reduces the love of his life to just a silly hallway crush as said person just blankly stares at him and doesn't react*
So they have one hour and a half to: develop Mike’s pov, explain his behavior over the past three seasons, reveal the painting lie, make them confess and then kiss… all while saving the world. Yall they are defo bones there’s no time for allat 😭😭😭
Basically we’ll get one heart to heart then they defeat vecna with the power of rejection i guess 🤨
When you take off the blue and yellow glasses, put aside sexuality at all, and look at what is presented to us in the show about Mike Wheeler’s character, Byler (ending up with Will) is STILL a better (more perfect, if you will) ending for his character than ending up with Jane or ending up single.
There are several reasons why.
Mike’s coming of age involves embracing his inner child.
In Season 2, Mike is told by Karen to give away his toys (often symbolic of children) as punishment for stealing from Nancy.
Mike is a writer, so I’d bet it’s not the toys he’s mourning, but what they represent - his childhood. Memories with El, and memories with his friends, which most definitely includes Will.
This scene coincides with Dustin and Lucas becoming interested in Max, which Mike doesn’t understand because this girl is not like El at all.
He’s upset about Max because another girl being around the party makes him miss El, but I also think Max is a wake-up call of sorts to Mike: girls are interesting now, grow up, the days of playing D&D are over. But Mike doesn’t get the appeal of crushing with his friends or why they would like her so much before they even talked to her.
Mike answers this wake-up call brought on by Max and dances with El at the Snow Ball at the end of Season 2. By season 3, El is the most important thing to Mike. He can’t be bothered to play D&D with his friends anymore.
At the end of season 3, though, the audience sees that deep down, Mike doesn’t want things to change. Since there are few accidents on Stranger Things according to Shawn Levy, focusing on Mike during lines in Hopper’s letter about change almost certainly reflects Mike’s point of view.
Season 4 for Mike is about stepping back into his role as leader of the party. He does this by reconnecting with Will. With Will, glimpses of Mike’s younger self come back.
Friendship is the most important thing to Mike Wheeler. He deserves to date his best friend.
Mike Wheeler is introduced as the boy who would jump off a cliff for his friends, literally. Mike cares so much about his friends’ feelings that he makes a point out of saying Will, Lucas and Dustin are all his best friends.
When Mike pull away from his friends in Season 3 because of El, the audience is supposed to see this as a bad thing. It’s against how he normally acts as a character.
That’s why it’s all the more sweeter when Mike focuses on his friends again in Season 5.
The Party will likely split up when they leave Hawkins at the end (if they make it out alive), and I’m sure Mike will still want all his friends in his life. I can’t imagine Mike starting a new life all on his own being a happy ending for his character.
Mike is happiest when he’s being a NERD and he deserves to bond over nerdy things with his love interest!
Hellfire Mike at the beginning of Season 4 shows the audience that Mike is visibly happy when he’s talking about D&D. Something he pulls away from in his relationship with El.
D&D is Mike and Will’s love language, too. They bond over their love for it. It’s how they connect on a deep emotional level, how they understand each other, which is crucial for a sustainable relationship long-term.
Example: Mike uses D&D classes to talk to Will about how his powers work.
Mike needs to overcome insecurity to grow, and El IS the source of his insecurity for much of the series.
Jane makes Mike feel like a random nerd who found the cool superhero girl by sheer luck.
Will sees Mike as the heart of the party, defining him by his actions and not what happened to happen to him. He empowers Mike.
Mike deserves someone who understands HIS trauma and what HE’s going through.
Mike has been through it more than most of the characters on Stranger Things, actually.
He hasn’t been to the Upside Down, but every time he gets close to Will and El, the two people that matter most to him, he loses them in some way. He’s developed disorganized attachment to them, anxious because he doesn’t know when they’ll be gone again and avoidant because if he pushes them away, it’ll hurt less when they’re gone.
Mike’s also been bullied and felt ostracized. When he tries to connect with Jane by opening up about this, she shuts him down. (Which El was in her right to do, because she was making a point that her experience is fundamentally different than Mike’s. That’s the point - they don’t and can’t understand each other).
When Will starts to open up to Mike at the junkyard, though, something clicks for Mike. They’re on the same wavelength, and maybe Will understands how he feels, how it’s scary to tell the truth to people you love.
Mike is always protecting his family and friends, so he deserves someone who protects him.
Jane has protected Mike since season 1, which could be part of the reason he was drawn to her.
When she starts to pull away from Mike and branch out on her own, this scares Mike. He can’t lose her, the one person he feels can protecting him from danger. If someone isn’t protect Mike from danger, then he can’t be the hero and protect other people. But by season 4, El isn’t Mike’s superhero anymore.
When Mike’s in danger, life-or-death danger, at the Mac-Z and El is on her own mission, who steps in? Will.
Mike wants to be loved just as much as Will does.
Specifically, Mike wants to feel valued for his good leadership qualities and his fierce loyalty to his friends.
Nobody knows how valuable Mike Wheeler is like Will Byers does. I’ll point to the painting again as evidence of this.
Jane, on the other hand, doesn’t make Mike feel like a leader or a hero. He feels like Lois Lane in his relationship with her, a lover waiting on the sidelines while she fights.
This isn’t what Mike wants. Mike doesn’t actually want to be defined by Jane, he wants to be Mike The Brave. He wants to be the brave leader, and Will sees him as that brave leader.
To love himself, Mike needs to let go of forced conformity and see himself, all of himself, as worthy of love.
Mike spends the entire series of Stranger Things focusing on the wants of other people instead of what he wants.
Even when he’s at his most selfish at the top of Season 3, Mike is spending so much alone time with El because she can’t leave Hopper’s cabin. Prioritizing her (perceived) happiness and desire to be with Mike over being with his own friends.
He spends most of the series helping out El and Will, wasting no breath on how he wants to spend his time.
By elevating El and Will in his life, Mike shrinks the significance of his own wants in his brain and puts his sense of self-worth in them.
In Season 2, Mike also starts to go along with what his friends do, and what Nancy does in romantic relationships (read: make out) instead of LEADING his friends, which is his strong suit.
The conservative household Mike was raised in, paired with his lack of self-worth and desire to explore his own feelings, makes him privy to forced conformity.
Kiss a girl, go to the Snow Ball, date a girl because that’s what boys are supposed to do. That’s what growing up means.
Mike isn’t concerned with chasing social status at all, he just hasn’t considered if the life he was raised to want is the life he actually wants.
He doesn’t see his feelings, his true feelings, as something valuable enough to act on. What Mike wants doesn’t matter - just take care of everyone else and keep them happy. Don’t rock the boat. Middle child behavior, am I right?
To truly lead his band of outcasts, Mike needs to accept the fact that he may be different, too, in a way that challenges everything he thought was true about himself.
To come of age fully, and Stranger Things is a coming of age story, Mike needs to accept his desires - not El’s, not his parents’, not Nancy’s, not his friends’, not even Will’s - regardless of the risk.
Mike needs to act on emotion instead of logic. And loving Will comes to him so instinctively.
Hi guys I’m just sharing this little canon compliant fic I wrote that takes place between s3 and s4 :)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/76208106
Here’s the summary:
The 24th of December 1985 can be studied in the same way you study a scientific phenomena: it is for William Byers and Michael Wheeler an inevitable moment of closeness.
OR
It's Christmas Eve, 1985. Mike phones the Byers, and for once, someone picks up.
remember when all of us including myself said over and over again that mike would have to make the first move because there is no world where will would. i’m sorry season 5 will byers i was not familiar with your game.
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