♡

byler's lawyer & defender - i'd like to be an art account one day, but i can't stop posting about a silly little monster show

[solskd]

Yo byler nation!! What are your favorite byler fics on ao3?? Please recommend some for me to read because your girl is looking for some good content! Any genre is fine :) Ty!

[solskd]

tiny byler, because i just know mike is a cat person but loves chester because he's will's ofc <3

one with stars bc i couldn't decide which was better and tiny will bc i ♡ him 😢

[blue-lambs]

@solvna you know what you've done....here is the slightly more worked on first kiss between will and mike

THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CANON AND IS JUST A FUNNY LITTLE HAHA TEEHEE THING

--any and all feedback is greatly appreciated!!

Mike and Will's first kiss doesn't happen in the heat of the moment. It doesn't happen while Will was under Venca's control, not when Mike almost lost him. It also doesn't happen the day the Party decide to hang out again, living the final days of spring break before Will has to leave again. No, it took time...lots of it.

It took Mike an entire year to realize he was falling out of love with Jane and in love with his best friend. It took him a road trip across states to see how much Will really meant to him. It took almost losing him, for good this time, for him to start planning. How he'd ask him out, or confess...better yet.

Even with everyone telling him to just go for it. He couldn't muster up the courage, the strength to admit it. To letters he has hidden beneath his bed, all addressed to the boy in California, all to the boy who Mike is so madly in love with...the one that makes him crazy. And sometimes Mike wants to laugh at how stupid he is. 1984, Halloween night, he promised they'd go crazy together...and he spent 2 years telling the same thing to Wills' sister.

..

The Byers-Hopper family came back to Hawkins for Winter Break, and Mike couldn't have been more excited. He'd spent the last few weeks decluttering his room for Will, spent hours redecorating, and even then he still felt on edge. He knows Will, knows the other won't say anything too mean, but...it feels different now. Of course it does, Mike had just found out he's in love with Will and is freaking out about his crush staying in his room for 3 weeks. Cut him some slack!

Now, Mike could go on and on about that break. Speak for centuries if his lifetime allowed for it, just talking about Will. But, there is one memory he's committed to heart. So deeply etched into his being that he thinks its filled a hole in his heart he hardly even knew was gone.

..

It was a normal night in the Wheeler’s household, though if you asked Mike he'd say there was just something electric in the night. Something waiting to spark, and something did.

Lying down in Mike's bed, both boys simply couldn't find it in themselves to go to sleep. Caught up in something beyond their understanding, maybe it was just the Christmas Eve anticipation that ate away at them. They lay staring at one another, simply gazing into each other’s eyes. A staring contest, one in which neither boy wanted to lose. They took in one another and Mike swears that to this day, he can recite every little detail about that moment. The way Will looked back then, under the soft glow of Mike’s nightlight, how he was so aware of the others breathing, so much so he matched his own breath with Will's, wanting to be as close as two souls can be. And he realizes just how much he's missed all of this, just him and Will, just two boys without the stares of everyone else. And he wants to do something, wants to just...act on his emotions. All those weeks painstakingly planning out each minute of his confession was simply thrown out the window. He's tired of waiting, tired of being too scared to do things, tired of pushing this off. Because he honestly thinks he'd rather die than pretend he and Will are just friends.

In the softest voice he could muster, trying so desperately to hold onto the peace they've found together, he asks him, "Can i kiss you?"

[solskd]

Thank you 😢... just thank you... GUYS IM CRYING!!!!

[solskd]

nah fr tho?? 🤔🤨🔍

[prfctmxxnlight]

i’m tired of the “mike wheeler doesn’t deserve will byers” posts because im sorry, are we talking about the same mike wheeler?

the mike wheeler that went out looking for will, not once, but twice, even after being specifically told not to, and even after everyone believed he was dead

the mike wheeler that keeps a binder full of will’s drawings and has them plastered all over his bedroom and basement walls, the mike wheeler who had the biggest smile once he got his hands on will’s art once again

the mike wheeler that defended will and stood up to his bully in front of the entire school

the mike wheeler that would always notice when there was something wrong with will

the mike wheeler that reassured will

the mike wheeler who slept in a hospital chair to not leave will’s side

the mike wheeler that biked all the way across town in the pouring rain to apologize to will after their fight, and when he couldn’t find him ran to the woods because he knew he’d be there

the mike wheeler who said this

and this

you really think this mike wheeler

doesn’t deserve will byers?

[blue-lambs]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

^^ AO3 link

Should I stay... A STRANGER THINGS REWRITE - The Bite

Read The Bite from the story Should I stay... A STRANGER THINGS REWRITE by blue_lambs with 2 reads. party-centric, str...

^^ Wattpad link

CHAPTER 7 IS NOW UP!!!!

STORY SUMMARY: What if Will ended up hearing the Russian transmission? (basically a Season 3 rewrite because Will deserved better)

hope you all enjoy !!!!!!

[solskd]

max and mike solidarity,,, it's almost the end! one more to go!!! 😶

[solskd]

A timeline for all the byler ws (so far)

this is a compilation of all the times byler nation earned a w, through sources such as the writer's Twitter accounts, official Netflix accounts, interviews, articles, and from the official cast + the duffer bros!

Pre S4

Oct 14, 2019→ "Let's start a new party, you and me." The ominous post from the Stranger Things writers…

Oct 18, 2019 → Stranger Things official writers: responding with incorrect answers only, responded to someone asking if they believed in love at first sight. Responded with absolutely. Foreshadowing to the S4 infamous Mike monologue being null?

Oct 28, 2019 → Stranger things official writers describing the characters as musicals. Will was assigned the musical, Spring Awakening, a coming-of-age story, where teens navigate their life coming to terms with their ever changing selves and expressing their sexuality. 

August 2nd, 2020 → Netflix India's Instagram posting the famous "Crazy Together" scene, with the caption "How to say 'I love you' without saying 'I love you'" 

May 22, 2021 → Noah Schapp during a fan interview in regards to shipping Byler, "I do, there's definitely some of that in the next season." 

Feb 17, 2022 → S4 posters were revealed. Mike and Will were seen on the same poster, looking directly at each other.

May 23, 2022 → Netflix Latin America Youtube: Stranger Things Cast Members, Finn Wolfhard and David Harbour hint at Will's feelings towards Mike > DAVID: If you've been watching the show you should know that Will's not interested in El, he's interested in someone else in the group. FINN: Yeah, and you'll see soon, who he's interested in. DAVID: VERY interested in. 

ST4V1 RELEASE: 

May 27, 2022→ The release of ST4 V1

What it brought us:

- The framework of Will's feelings towards Mike in a more non-subtle way. 

- Will painting something for someone he likes. 

- The Alan Turing Project, I mean COME ON 

- The possibility of Mike slowly realizing his feelings towards Will as well (eg, the awkward dynamic much different from previous seasons between the two, Mike throwing away El's letter before heading out of his home, Mike's inability to say that he loves El.) 

- The beautiful scene while they're packing, "It's Hawkins… it's not the same without you… and I feel like maybe, I was worrying too much about El, and I don't know, maybe I feel like I lost you or something." 😭

- The car heart-to-heart!!! Incredible!!

POST V1 

May 28, 2022 - June 30, 2022 → Just a whole lot of theories from Byler Nation

June 2, 2022 → Noah Schnapp's Twitter, "S4 has me shipping byler over anything… vol. 2 now!!" 

June 5th, 2022 → Noah Schapp at Awesome Con on his favorite ships, "...obviously Byler is just- at its peak right now, they're- they're building that up." ((Noah our byler warrior))

ST4V2 RELEASE:

What it brought us: 

- The painting was revealed!!! Mike is Will’s heart!! (Because we all know Mike is NOT the heart of the group lol)

- The heartbreaking van scene, although necessary to let the general audience cue in on Will’s feelings.

- The Surfer Boy pizza scene with Jonathan and Will… although not an official coming out, it does give us the satisfaction of Jonathan fulfilling his brotherly role and reassuring Will, would be met with nothing but love from him, should he ever choose to open up to him. 

- While initially at surface value, this can be taken as an L, Mike's monologue was only prompted by Will and was almost in response to Will’s disguised feelings in the van scene. Even with the monologue, El could not defeat Vecna, and only came close when realizing her self worth. (EL INDEPENDANT ARC??? PLEASE)

- The framework for the general audience and their reception of Will’s feelings, gearing them to feel more sympathetic.

POST V2

Jul 13, 2022 → THE SCRIPT FOR EPISODE 4, DEAR BILLY, BEING RELEASED. OMG CONTENT GALORE!!

Jul 14, 2022 → Noah Schnapp confirms Will is gay, and in love with Mike on an interview with Variety Magazine!!! (We’ve known but it's nice to see this being validated)

Also confirmed: Will has been in love with Mike since S1. This isn’t something that was just “pulled out of nowhere”, like those who deny like to say.

This also shows that we aren’t “looking too hard into things” as the subtext and clues were always there!  We just picked up on that and analyzed it! Now think of how many other things we’ve noticed that can possibly turn out to be canon! 

Jul 15, 2022 → Noah Schnapp in an interview with NBC news regarding Will’s story arc: “They're still working it out, but they have their end goal. There's so many different things they have to address obviously we hope for a coming-out scene…”  they have an end goal…

Similarly, on the same day, Brett Gelman and Shawn Levy are seen to be liking tweets in regards to Byler. Shawn Levy we should particularly take note of as he is a producer and director on Stranger Things.

Jul 16, 2022 → Brett Gelman speaks out on twitter in support of Byler and the LGBTQ+ community!! 

Jul 18, 2022 → Noah Schnapp saying that the ending positions of all the characters on the hill, in the finale of S4 were purposely curated by the Duffer Brothers, and could possibly be foreshadowing…

Jul 20, 2022 -> High school Musical, Byler parallel being brought to the internet and becoming viral in the mainstream media

NOT DATED 

Gaten (pls take this with a grain of salt, I'm not sure if the account was his official one) and Noah liking byler content on TikTok

Millie saying Eleven is in a state in their relationship where, “If he [Mike] doesn’t love me, he doesn’t love me.” ELEVEN DISCOVERING HERSELF ON HER OWN ARC PLS.

[I probably missed some so pls feel free to tell me if I missed any!!]

[blue-lambs]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Should I stay... A STRANGER THINGS REWRITE - E Pluribus Unum

Read E Pluribus Unum from the story Should I stay... A STRANGER THINGS REWRITE by blue_lambs with 2 reads. byler, robi...

CH 6 IS NOW UP!!!!

Top link is AO3, bottom link is Wattpad

STORY SUMMARY: s3 rewrite with Will as the main character

hope u all enjoy!!! any and all feedback is appreciated <3

[solskd]

One scene took us hours... can you guess which one 🗿

[mlchaelwheeler]

Anyways the reason why milkvan doesn't work for me is because they literally don't know anything about each other. When they're together all they do is makeout or lie to each other. It gets so bad that in S4 after El hits Angela and needs comforting, Mike doesn't know what to do except to make her eggos because that's one of the only things he knows about her. He can't think of any other way to cheer her up (why can't he hug her? why can't he tell her he loves her? why don't they understand each other implicitly if they're supposed to be such a monumental romance?).

Mike brings her eggos to comfort her because what else does he really know about her? They never talk about themselves to each other. They have nothing (that we've seen on screen) in common. They have to spell out everything for each other. The eggos are a blatent example that all Mike really knows about her goes back to S1 when they first met each other. Their relationship has hardly progressed at all in the span of 3 years.

[solskd]

Since s1, huh? :,)

[sophie0197]

Yo I'm now 1000000% convinced byler is endgame. I am in shambles retracing will's storyline throughout the show, knowing he has always had feelings for Mike. I can't stand the line "I'm not gonna fall in love" stop it stop ittt

[blue-lambs]

just a little angsty byler blurb :D (this is also semi-canon to our rewrite, so yeah!)

Mike knows he should have written to Will. He knows he should have sent him something, anything. That his excuse that they're just friends is such bullshit. At least on Mike’s part. Because- because he's so in love with the other. So completely undone by the boy before him. So torn to pieces over the fact that he's fallen head over heels for his girlfriend's brother. And he’s known this. Long before his revelation while he was away, when he spent pages upon pages just writing about Will. He knew that summer day, when he last told Will he loved him, although he planned to hide his love away where it would never see the light of day again. And he thinks he knew before all of that, when he went chasing after the boy in the rain. When he promised they'd go crazy together. Before his disappearance, before everything that's happened. Mike knows he's been in love with Will for a long time. He's just barely gotten the memo. And he wonders what would have happened, had he not disappeared. Would Mike still love him so fiercely, would he still be afraid he'd lose him. Would he- would he have told him? In that world there would be no girlfriend, no El by his side. Would Mike have had the courage to tell Will how he felt? 

Looking into the others eyes, all he sees is anger. That's all he ever really sees in Will's eyes now, ever since Mike changed. Since he knew how he felt about him. Since he doubled down on the whole, being completely in love with Eleven thing. When he stopped trying to write letters to Will, when he stopped himself from asking if Will was there during his phone calls. He can't be mad at Will, because Mike is the one who's been pushing him away. His anger is completely justified, and Mike feels like an asshole. Like he's back to how he was, how he'll always be. Maybe it's for the best that Will's upset with him. Maybe Mike can move on, continue living this lie.

So he does what he knows best, he lies. "We're just friends Will. We're just friends." And maybe Will believes him, maybe Mike can continue to push his emotions down, to stop himself from doing something rash. But God, does Mike wish he had enough courage to tell the other. To stop lying...

[solskd]

Omg... 🥺💔...

[solskd]

Salad Days.

Simpler times, because I know Will was the type to write m + w on his notebooks, only to panic and scribble it out .2 seconds later when they were younger.

[solskd]

My friend brought my attention to a post under the byler tag, that basically says, "Why are people attacking Mike for saying meeting El is when his life began and not when Mike said meeting Will was the best thing he's ever done?"

I'll let you guys read the post (I've blocked out the username for the sake of privacy):

Let me explain why this is so: Meeting someone and spending time with them and getting to know them for YEARS, never getting tired of them, sticking with them, building a deep emotional bond- i think that warrants enough for Mike's judgment of meeting Will beingthe best thing he's ever done. HOWEVER, just because he believes it's the best, DOES NOT automatically deny his love for El and the other members of the party. They come as an addition to meeting Will since he was first.. Hell, and if you're really delusional you could say that that quote works in favor of mileven too 💀 because without Will he wouldn't have met El on that one rainy day. The reason they met was because he and his friends were out looking for WILL. But still- this is about the quotes at surface value.

"Meeting you = best thing I've done" : Cherishing the time spent together and the additions to the group after along with said person. All the memories, the laughs, the inside jokes, getting to know that person for who they are-

"My Life Truly Started When I met you" : Admitting your life was dull and boring with no purpose, ignoring the fact that your best friend was at your side the whole time, and even the rest of your party (the group of people that stuck by your side through thick and thin and who you were once even willing to JUMP OFF A FREAKING CLIFF FOR) ignoring your most cherished memories from them ....WHICH IS A LOT to be saying for someone who was 12 at the time, with very little life experience.

So yeah!! In my opinion those two quotes hold completely different meaning!!

I hope this made sense and I hope I didn't come off as rude. I'm just tired of seeing all these attacks against byler,,,

Word of advice, if you're reading this (OP) please censor the word byler to avoid crosstagging and spreading negativity on this tag, thank you!! (Unless that was your intention then wtf :((( )

I hope whoever else is reading this has a wonderful evening! :)

[solskd]

Just had a thought to save what very little hope I have for byler left.

We all know that Mike thinks that El commissioned Will's painting, right?

What if in Season 5, Mike confronts her about it saying something along the lines of:

"You know, back then, we didn't know what was going to happen. I was so worried that I'd never find you and have the chance to tell you- well, you know. But Will- he- he showed me the painting , and he told me everything. About how you feel and how much you cared and- it really opened my eyes. I realized that I was wrong and was being such a douche and-"

"-Mike, what painting?"

"You know! The one you asked Will to paint!"

"Mike... I never asked Will to paint anything."

And then from there on out Mike starts slowly realizing everything. All the times he felt Will was acting strange, the longing stares, the tears swelling in his eyes, the quick but tense exchanges. But it's not just that he realizes. He realizes, holy shit. Those were Will's feelings weren't they? And that's when he notices and comes to terms with just how much Will means to him.

It's a stretch for sure, but I just wanted to spread a little hope for Byler Nation. I love you guys for real. You made my nights scrolling through this tag great. Keep being awesome <3

[solskd]

my heart aches for will </3

[solskd]

WILL BYERS IDC,, YOU'RE MY HEART