I saw someone disliking that post about El's "This isn't one of your campaigns" quote proving Byler. I can't find the post again, but they were reminding everyone that Mike has hurt El too, and that El's quote wasn't even about relationships - that she was being a realist, and all that.
And I 100% agree with both takes.
Mike uses campaigns and DND strategization to cope with what's going on and to try to understand it better. So far that's turned out well for him.
El has lived too long in a world of fiction- of "maybe"s and "what if"s and "imagine"s. She needs to be a realist- and she needs her partner to also be a realist, for just one moment. To just not "imagine" and think in hypotheticals, but to be 100% in the real world.
Mike doesn't; he needs someone who can sit and strategize with him in terms that he can understand and he needs to be able to play different scenarios out, and he needs his imagination to get through the day because his reality his whole life has been to "stop imagining for one moment" and to "grow up", etc etc.
They do not fit. That's the point. They need each other to be different to be able to work together; he needs her to imagine; she needs him to be Real.
That's why Byler works; Will fuels Mike's love for the imaginary, Will encourages Mike's thought processes, Will never makes Mike feel like he needs to change or grow up.
El isn't the villain for saying that line- she's totally in the right to want Mike to think realistically for a moment. (We don't even know the context of that conversation)
But that line Does show just how out of loop they are with each other. They will never be able to be what the other needs in a partner.
