louder for the bylers in the back:
MIKE WHEELER DOES NOT EXIST SOLELY FOR WILL BYERS TO HAVE A REQUITED LOVE INTEREST AND REDUCING HIS CHARACTER TO THAT PLOT POINT OR ACTING LIKE HE EXISTS JUST FOR WILL IS LITERALLY THE SAME SHIT THAT TOXIC MILKVANS PULL
"byler has to be required because it wouldn't be fair to will otherwise"
"milkvan has to be required because it wouldn't be fair to el otherwise"
mike is on his own journey, and has his own arc. will and el are part of it, but it doesn't exist for the sake of either of them.
reducing byler endgame to one character journey defeats the purpose of it being about both of them. of it being about them struggling to find each other.
requited not for the sake of your happy ending, but for the sake of the actual story.
i could go in forever about how both of them deserve satisfying endings, not just one. it goes both ways, i just speak about like because so much of the byler fandom has become so focused on will that there are some problematic ideas
