The Stranger Things fandom is so much younger than all the fandoms I've been in. For a lot of people it's their first fandom. Like sure S1 came out in 2016 but not everyone watched it right away - so many people joined after season 3 and season 4.
And since the show was mainstream and somewhat targeted towards kids, you have a ton of younger kids on here who might not know proper fandom etiquette, or even if they do they just are not jaded enough to realize that sometimes things just ...
Suck. And you can't do anything about it. Sometimes people are shitty and decide to queerbait for profit. Sometimes people just write a bad season, and it sucks but it's not the end of the world. Or your ship doesn't become canon. It's happened to all of us, me more than once.
I haven't been on Tumblr for very long because I just never made an account. But I've been around long enough in fandom spaces to remember a lot of the queerbait. And those of you who have know that you are, 90% of the time, going to be disappointed. Like, we all remember Destiel, right? Well, let's just say that was a special case. Sterrick, Klance, Johnlock... many ships never even make it off the ground.
Byler is another special case. We got half canon, which is more than I can say for many other ships. But the way the fandom has treated the ship - both those who ship it and those who don't- has been astoundingly immature. Much of the analysis supporting it does make sense, especially by @bylerbutmakeitacademic (check out their stuff) and most of the stuff by the Byler lawyer.
When shipping becomes more than just a fun thing you step into the territory of craziness. Of taking Conformitygate seriously beyond just a fun theory/AU. Or, on the other side of the spectrum, bullying Byler shippers online for being connected to the ship. (I'm not even going to TOUCH the homophobic side of the fandom. I can't fix them.) It's not fun anymore.
There isn't anything inherently problematic about Mileven. Or maybe there is, but it doesn't matter. I thought it was cute, and then I thought Byler was cuter, and I'm not likely to change on that anytime soon. But I have noticed a lot of negative language surrounding the ship and the Duffers in the Byler fandom - censoring Mileven (midleven, mil3ven, etc.) calling the Duffers names, calling antis crazy and it's honestly really disappointing. (Or on the other side, calling Bylers delusional) I'm disappointed in my fandom for behaving with immaturity.
It's just a show. Its special to me, too, but it's just a show and you all need to chill because fandom is supposed to be about fun, not about who is right. This fandom may be on average younger than the Supernatural fandom, but that doesn't mean we can't deal with disappointment.
