el coming over to watch max play video games and cheer her on despite not understanding or caring about the games whatsoever just bc she likes to be around her (and it gives her an excuse to stare)
bro el doesn’t know what gay people are she’s just sitting there while will is sobbing his eyes out while saying “i don’t like girls…” and el’s just sitting there like ??? okay??? girl idgaf the world lwkenuinely ending rn what is happening
Right so I go to the comments and people are saying byler and someone replies with this or smt like it on multiple of these comments saying byler:
Maybe the show never promised Mike would reciprocate but there were a few posts from an official stranger things account leaning into byler as well as the cast bringing it up both of which gave us hope.
I’m not blaming the cast in any way btw, I just hate that people say byler wasn’t queerbaiting because Mike didn’t directly reciprocate in the show, there was lots of official members of stranger things leaning into byler and Mike and Will not even having an actual talk about feeling is what made it queerbait
I'd argue the show did in fact create a narrative promise of reciprocation and then backtracked on it at the last second and blamed it all on "will's hope." yes, of course will hoped mike felt the same, but that hope was shown through clear narrative tools that indicate reciprocation. from subtextual ones like references to other queer romances or the cyrano trope, to structural ones like the avalanche scene. yes byler was queerbait because of promos etc, but let's not forget that the actual show did in fact hint the possibility of reciprocation (even rather directly through mike's final shot in sorcerer) and then blamed it all on will's "hope" making him misread the signals, which is infinitely crueler
I worked hard on this so if you like this comic then I would love a reblog or a comment <3
As always I'm putting a few close ups and some of my thoughts and favorite details under the cut ^^
I started this in march and it took me exactly 40 hours to fully finish.
A few close ups <333
I really just wanted to make a sweet little comic about El and Max playing that spin the bottle game again and then accidentally finding out about byler, who have been secretly together. (I have another comic idea for a funny "confrontation" scene later on but idk if I'll ever draw that. Maybe I'll make the idea into a little fanfic instead.) But yeah it was really fun to draw something with a little more plot and figure out what the frames should show, how much focus to put on the speech bubbles, the transitions between pages/the way pages blend together and also how to like progress from them being in El's room to them being in that mind void. I think it's so fun that El can bring others in there with her, she should use that to her advantage <3
Okay some more art thoughts ^^
I had lots of fun with the entirely black background, I rarely use just plain black instead of a dark blue because I feel like it sometimes can dull the feel of a drawing, but here it was appropriate in my opinion. I don't think the mind void would have worked if it wasn't truely entirely black. I also really liked drawing the little noises Will and Mike make in the background onto the fully black parts, they really pop so well on it and I did do a lot to blend it in properly, I even made the dot pattern around it lighter to show the shine more, if that makes sense. In general I think that all the vibrant colors look so nice on the fully black background but I also love how well they match the yellow background of El's room. I wanted to keep this in a really bright and comic-y artstyle and keep it a little more simplistic (if that's the right word?) so I didn't do much shading and instead focused on patterns/textures for detail and all the colors looking good together, which they do in my opinion. I really really love how all of this turned out, especially Max and El's designs, they look so cute individually and together. I based both their hair mostly on the epilogue so Max's hair being all big and curly and El's hair being loong and in a ponytail but still a little messy and just like herself. I think my favorite page is either page 2, 3 or 7, either because I really like the way I drew the characters there or because I really like how all the colors look together. My favorite frame is the one at the bottom of page 3 whith El and Max's side profiles and my other favorite frame is the byler one on page 7, the full body pose. That one turned out so pretty and I love the movement there and how in the moment it feels ^^
Okay, now... my favorite details, or at least some of them cause if I put all then this will get way too long: El's plants in her room, I feel like she'd be such a plant mom and take such good care of them and give them all cute, little names because it makes her happy; Max's hand in her hair when she's lying on the bed; the green outlines for Max's shirt even on the write parts of it; El's blue hairtie; El's many earrings and Max's nose piercing; the design of the pillows and the byler blanket on El's bed!!!; El wrote all the names on the pieces of paper in blue sparkly gel pen because she would!!! She would use those pens to write everything; the bottle they use is a water bottle lol; also I just like the way El's hand looks when it's next to her knee on the bottom left frame of the second page; all their nailpolish colors (including Will and Mike's; I really like both El and Max's shirt designs and the way El's pants are rolled up; the close up of the walkie turned out sooo good!!; El blushing when she tries to tell Max what she's seeing; El and Max friendship bracelets they made for each other (also they both have more specific designs than just stripes cause I love making friendship bracelets and think they have so many cute designs); I really like the way the transition from the yellow to the black background looks; Max also doing the little "huh" after she asked El what she means by "huh" and El calling her out on it; the blanket over the back of the basement couch (I've realized that I really like drawing those quilt-style blankets, they're so fun); also whenever I reread the comic the byler reveal makes me so excited like I'll be jumping up and down even though I've literally made this comic and reread it so many times already; both Max and Mike's freckles; Will pushing Mike's legs open hehe; Mike's fingers in Will's hair and especially the way they look when you only see the top of their heads (I also really like that view/perspective of it, like first you only get to see the hair and Mike's hand and Then you get the reveal of their full pose in the next frame); Will grabbing Mike's wrist; the hickeysss hidden under their shirts; I adore the idea of El not fully knowing what Will meant when he came out and then just. Not asking him about it; also her little excuse of "I grew up in a lab" is supposed to be a thing she says because Max, after she wakes up again, uses the "I was in a coma" excuse all the time and so El kinda decided that that was funny and she wanted to do that too and Max absolutely Adores it; Elmax having a cute little convo and it being broken off by Mike moaning so Loudly fhdvdusv; also pleaseee I love Will's pants!!! I love the shape and the little stars on his back pockets; the way Mike pushes himself up against Will on page 7 and also their linked hands and also the way Mike hugs Will with one arm and pulls Will's shirt and also his own shirt up with it, revealing more hickeys; I also gave both Mike and Will a bracelet and a ring of the opposite person's color <3; Will's green socks and Mike's yellow socks; all the little sounds and scribbles of words Mike and Will say to each other and the way they get more intense toward the end (especially Will's little "you're so-". it's really not that visible, it's on the bottom left corner of the 7th page but I adore it so I wanted to point that one out specifically); Elmax's little giggles at the end and I especially love the way El's face looks in that last frame <333
i sometimes wonder what her life was like in california before she moved to hawkins. did she surf? did she feel the sun on her face as she laughed with friends? or was she happy to be lonely, sitting at the edge of the skatepark watching the boys sneering at her while she flipped them the bird? did she want to follow jane to california with the byers or was her heart too far gone, stuck in hawkins at the point?
