#will's playlist

[willandmichael]

this song being on will's official playlist 💭

there ain't no sense in pretending

your eyes give you away

something inside you is feeling like i do

[there-was-a-hole-here-itsgonenow]

Contrast of El’s and Will’s playlists for Midleven and Byler

Because I’ve been looking into Mike’s and Will’s playlists, I thought I should explore El’s too. I wondered how many of her songs might indicate her ill-fitting relationship with Mike.

Eleven’s Breakfast Jams has SO MANY songs about unhealthy/ insecure relationships and breaking up or breaking away from a relationship. And just straight-up wanting out of a relationship and even finding independence and self-confidence. There’s barely a genuine love song in her entire playlist. It’s kind of incredible.

One of these songs I want to point out at the moment is Kept Me Crying by HAIM.

There’s a particular set of lyrics from this song that is a dead ringer for a certain scene with El and Mike:

“Kept me crying for so long, my tears have dried

When I hear your voice, those tears they come back to mind

So don’t call me just to tell me

You don’t love me anymore

Still it wrecks me ‘cause

I was your lover

I was your friend

Now I’m only just someone you call

When it’s late enough to forget”

It’s a realization, clearly, just like El realizes good and well that Mike is not in love with her. Mike insists otherwise, but El knows better. And it hurts a lot and makes her feel worse during a horribly low moment. Maybe she thinks she’s just someone he’s been writing letters to at this point. Where does she stand? “I was your lover, I was your friend.” “Was.” They need to rearrange the way their relationship is—to step back as a couple and actually reestablish a friendship. After that monologue, El knows this more than anyone. She’s not going to want to return to an insecurity-driven, loveless ‘romance.’

I couldn’t help but compare this song to Will’s second-to-last song, Breakdown:

“It’s alright if you love me

It’s alright if you don’t

I’m not afraid of you running away honey

I get the feeling you won’t

There is no sense in pretending

Your eyes give you away

Something inside you is feeling like I do

We said all there is to say”

“It’s alright if you love me, It’s alright if you don’t”… and yet the singer is confident the one he loves feels the way he does. In fact, he’s secure about it. The song indicates an understanding of mutual feelings.

In relation to Mike and Will, we already see the signs of their friendship gradually stepping toward romance. We know Mike isn’t going to run from Will. Will may think otherwise for now, as of the end of Vol. 2 and whatnot with his band-aid-ripping, but he is going to realize Mike is feeling the same way he is. The pretending we see from them and their eyes that reveal so much love for each other is going to become clear to them. They’ll finally, mutually, know.

-

Part 2

[this-ismydesign]

[will-callingwell-blog]

                                    Gasoline: Cass & Will

1. Cellophane by Sia 

2. Freak of Nature by Brood Ft. Tove Lo

3. Love Me Now by John Legend 

4. Scars To Your Beautiful by Alessia Cara 

5. Not Afraid Anymore by Hasley 

6. Never Give Up by Sia 

7. Closer by The Chainsmokers Ft. Halsey 

8. Liability by Lorde 

9. Let’s Hurt Tonight by OneRepublic 

10. Gasoline by Halsey 

[there-was-a-hole-here-itsgonenow]

Growing Masterlist

A place to keep analyses, theories, and thoughts.

💙💛

🌈 Conclusion for Byler Prediction!

• Potential Stranger Things/IT Parallel: Will and Mike leave Hawkins Together… Just like Ben and Bev leave Derry Together! ✨

⚡️Will-Focused

• The Iron Rod Metaphor: Will’s Upside Down-related Trauma ✨

• Mistaken Identity, Vecna’s Transcendence, and A Favored Boy: Will is The One Who will End the UD-Apocalypse ✨

Absolutely excellent thread of additions to this post that make it even better with lilitblaukatz, scrunchietown, and starsarefire824.

• The original Pride flag’s purple stripe is “Spirit” — Will the Wise, the strength of Will’s spirit

& Argyle association! (lilitblaukatz)

• ‘One’ appears in sign over Will and Mike’s heads in s3

• The Pink Panther in Will’s Bedroom: Significance on Will’s Value for Vecna?

• Andy Barclay (Child’s Play) and Will Byers similarities I’d wish to see paralleled in ST s5 (if it were referenced)

❤️‍🔥Mike-Focused

• JAWSgate posts:

Will’s JAWS Poster: Targeting Mike ✨

Possible JAWS parallels with Vecna’s end + Mike fake-out death (with thoughts about final battle in water)

More In-Water Imagery for Byler, possibly connected to JAWS and the Void (not Mike-focused but in direct association with above theories/analyses)

• Web/Gridgate Imagery in Mike’s Rubik’s Cube + Willel & Byler color theory -> Mike’s Final Strategy (Rubikscubegate) ✨

• [Ongoing] Split-Shading series ✨:

Split Shades of Mike Wheeler: His Heart is In the Shadows and Light (A+ addition by pppp-lesbian)

MORE Split Shades of Mike’s Heart: Crazy Together

Mike Split-Shading at the Snowball + Will-Resembling Background Character

• S3 MEAT sign above Mlleven (A duo post with howtobecomeadragon!) ✨

• The invalidation of “No. You don’t.” -> Mike thinks his traumas are lesser than.

• thegap Metaphor

• Mike’s fear of losing Will an absolute necessity for s5: Mike ‘losing’ Will at the quarry must be emphasized

• Mike cringing at ‘love at first sight’ while his heart/pocket points toward Will

MORE notes on ‘love at first sight’ for Mike + Numbers and Color Theory + ‘Father’(?)Henry

❤️‍🔥Mike’s Basement Beats

• First three ‘last’ songs describing the eventual progression of Mike’s character - Smalltown Boy, Always Something There to Remind Me, She Blinded Me With Science

She Blinded Me With Science follow-up

⚡️Will’s Castle Byers Classics

• Blue Veins - Will’s POV of Mike and how that POV sets up Vecna to fail

🌷Eleven’s Breakfast Jams & Byler

• Eleven’s Breakfast Jams isn’t pro-Melvin ✨

• Kept Me Crying & Breakdown: “You don’t love me anymore” vs “It’s alright if you love me, It’s alright if you don’t...”

• Stuck & Just What I Needed: “Waste away our lives” vs “I don’t mind you comin’ here and wastin’ all my time”

🌈 Byler Color Theory Posts

• Clues in Mike’s and Karen’s s3 yellow shirts that automatically connect Mike to Karen’s “People are always saying you can’t. That you shouldn’t” conversation with Nancy.

• Green, Blue, and Yellow: All Present in Season 3’s Finale, Explicitly Showing Who Mike Wants to Be With

• Season 3 Will’s Blue and Red shirt, Jonathan’s Green shirt: Brief highlight of Will’s perspective and Jonathan’s love for his brother

• “i lOve HeR aNd I cAN’t lOse HEr aGaIN!”

• The Blue Phone and Yellow Wall: Foreshadowing Mike’s Calls

• “It’s gonna be okay”

• Undefined relationships: A “gray area” in Will’s s4 shirt

UPDATE to “gray area”: Undefined and Defined Relationships in the Same Scene + Mike Split-Shading Relevancy

• Yellow, Blue, and Red In Will’s Closet: “Friends… Best friends.”

🌈 Miscellaneous Byler

• Disney’s Figment in Bingham House: A Symbol of Breaking Convention 🐲 (Figmentgate) ✨

Important Figmentgate Addition! -> Figment is Queer-coded and may indicate Creation Powers for Will! 🌈🐲✨

• 7+7: Will and Mike ARE the Keys for Completion (Excellent thread featuring stranger-chichka and lilitblaukatz) ✨

• A Thread on Loch Nora: Expectations, Conformity, and More ✨

Awesome, very thoughtful additions that made this post better!

stranger-chichka / bylerschmyler

aemiron-main

lilitblaukatz

• Will is Always Involved in Melvin Shots - Even the most Obscure

• Themes of Privacy and Safety for Will and Mike

• Mounted Deer Symbolism (With multiple threads of thought to go deeper and deeper on!)

starsarefire824, googoogagaeyes, pinkeoni, and stranger-chichka - They all made a fantastic thread of info here!!

emblazons - Another great addition!

• Paladin and Cleric Both Guide the Party

• Technically Official Byler Merch

• ACTUAL OFFICIAL BYLER MERCH - No analysis needed!!!✨

• Mike’s Heart would Save Will’s Life

• Hearts gone crazy together

• El and Mike are the show’s E.T. and Elliot: Positive Separation Followed by a Rainbow

🌷Thoughts on El with Byler Relevancy

• El’s Soap Opera Signals Midleven’s End ✨

• El as a Rose: Mike’s untruthful love projections and El’s emerging self-love

[willandmichael]

this is in will's playlist and the blue/yellow color coding is "not real"? ok lol

"cause you'll protect me from all pain" 😢

[there-was-a-hole-here-itsgonenow]

Contrast of El’s and Will’s playlists for Midleven and Byler - Part 2

Part 1

-

Another song from El’s playlist that heavily highlights why Midleven doesn’t work (which is still one of many songs that makes up a great chunk of her playlist) is Stuck by The Aces:

“We talk

Talk 'till we're blue in the face

The words

The words don't resonate

Seasons

They always seem to stay the same

Holding on to things we said we would change

I’m stuck babe

Stuck with nowhere to go”

First, we see just how much the singer and her lover are not on the same page. They clearly argue—heated arguments judging by being “blue in the face”—emotionally exhaust themselves from it, and, despite the changes they said they would make, their relationship remains stagnant. They’re holding onto things that prevent them from moving forward. So they’re stuck. With nowhere to go as they are.

All very similar to Midleven. We haven’t seen the maturation you’d expect to see in a couple that’s been together awhile. Mike’s feelings are stuck, El’s stuck because of it, they don’t have heart-to-hearts that deepen their relationship, and they just… stay the same.

Stuck is obviously about feeling stuck in a relationship. But it goes further than this. As the song goes on, we see just how doomed the relationship is:

“It's overdue

Make your move

Stuck babe

Stuck with nowhere to go

You move

And I don't really know what to say

Too soon

Am I supposed to feel this way?”

You move… Am I supposed to feel this way?? This screams her reaction to Mike’s monologue to me. He moved. Finally moved because he thought it would solve all the problems, thought he needed to, thought it would give El what she needed, but it had the opposite effect. El wound up barely talking to Mike in the following days, pondering her loss, who she could’ve lost, looking at Mike (and possibly Will) in the cabin as if displeased/angry… How is she supposed to feel about a confession that wasn’t genuine? Especially in the midst of what was happening? The confession was long overdue and yet “too soon.” It came, abrupt and prompted, and it wasn’t what it should’ve been. Where they’ve been stuck, it’ll come undone:

“I see it in your eyes, your eyes, your eyes

We ain't satisfied

Waste away our lives, our lives, our lives”

Ultimately, Stuck is about feeling stuck in a relationship that isn’t right. El already figured Mike wasn’t in love with her during the “You don’t love me anymore” scene. Just like Mike [in-script] saw it in her eyes that she doesn’t need him, El sees in his eyes that he isn’t in love with her.

They can’t possibly be satisfied with that. And they WOULD be wasting away their lives if they keep clinging to this relationship, holding onto things they aren’t changing/are unable to change. It helps neither of them move forward individually.

In comparison, I thought about a certain lyric from Just What I Needed, the last song on Will’s playlist:

“I don't mind you comin’ here

And wastin’ all my time…”

This song, to me, is about a guy loving a girl for reasons he doesn’t quite understand but just loves her because that’s what it is—love, plain and simple. It’s not the ‘perfume she wears’ or the ‘ribbons in her hair’ that draws him to her. It’s not surface-level at all. All she has to do is be near him and waste his free time. Because that’s just what he needs.

This may be a song from Will’s playlist, a part of his perspective of Mike, but I think this song also applies to Mike’s perspective of Will. Neither of them would mind at all for the other to just be around and ‘waste their time.’ Because it wouldn’t be time wasted. When you’re with the right person, with someone you simply love because you do and don’t feel stuck with nowhere to go, nothing is wasting away.

Mike gives Will a feeling that makes him feel better—not like a mistake but rather courageous, giving him a reason to keep fighting. Will needs Mike and always will. And Mike… Will’s love, he’ll come to realize, is just what he needs too.