The thing about byler is that yeah in the end it became queerbait but it was never that. It makes me very angry that the Duffers are trying to recontexualize byler. "It was never in the cards". Bro you gave us the cards.
People shipped byler in S1-3 sure, but there is a reason why it exploded in S4. You wrote that. You destroyed mileven (your endgame ship) to prop up byler. You created a scenario where Mike and Eleven simply do not understand each other, actively lie, and are bad partners to each other to contrast with Will and Mike's deep and complex friendship. You made Mike's feelings ambiguous but had his actions speak volumes (gaslighting his gf while being able to actively apologize to his best friend).
I can't even call Season 4 queerbait because back then there was no huge byler audience to bait. You made byler big by pulling it out of the subtext and tying it to the main narrative. You used cinematography, composition, costuming, and visual cues to prop up Mike and Will's relationship. So much so that now you cannot make a romantic montage of your endgame ship without Will being in the same fucking frame. These were choices made by you, not the fans.
There is reason why the most popular episode of the entire series is the most byler-heavy, it's because you build that groundwork, you dealt those cards, and, of course, it worked. The general audience started shipping byler because the setup was VERY MUCH THERE.
You wrote byler and then you didn't deliver it. Don't ever gaslight me into thinking otherwise.
