byler was infact queerbait and if you disagree, you're wrong.
queerbait is when the creators deliberately frame same-gender relationships using romantic or queer-coded tropes to attract queer audiences, but never follow through with it. so basically byler.
if byler didn't have a chance of being endgame, they would've made a statement years ago. they know their fanbase and they know majority of it is filled with bylers. and before u say, "if they made a statement it would've spoiled it." exactly. if it would've spoiled the show, that means there was a VERY CLEAR chance of it happening.
byler was 100% queerbait, it wasn't just us getting our hopes up.
not to mention, they dragged out will's love for mike for 5 seasons straight and then watered it down to a silly hallway crush only a couple days later of him asking robin how she knew vickie wanted to date.
netflix has used byler as promotion MULTIPLE TIMES! such as using the crazy together scene in a slideshow of "ways to say i love you without saying it", using mike and will for 'bf' slideshows, and calling el a thirdwheel and saying byler was the real couple? that IS queerbait. it's relationship framing and they framed byler romantically.
Alright, if you want Byler hope, read this (PART 1)
This is from elements outside the show (mostly), the actual volume 2 (and how it connects to volume 1) Byler proof I will do later since I can’t rewatch right now, and I need more people to have hope NOW since it’ll take a while to analyse the whole volume and compile the proof.
I'm gonna do this in sections:
What volume 2 did to expectations
Interviews, articles, the writers, the actors
Characters POV's
The core 4 are outcasts
The time we have left in the finale
Chekhov's gun(s)
Tropes
Vecna... wins?
Part 2
Forgive me if this is all over the place or makes no sense i didn't proofread it
1. What volume 2 did to expectations
Basically:
(i love this joke)
Many people after seeing vol 1 started to change from Mileven to Byler, the die hard haters were starting to see it. "A bad plot twist is an expected one", and people were starting to expect it: woops!
They know we’re not stupid, they know that we would see the obvious arc in volume 1. They have in fact been building it since the start of the show, and they aren’t building it down. The whole thing with the UD is the main focus of the group.
So how do we stop this from happening? Focus entirely on the UD and nothing on them! A lot of us are now going: we’ve been queerbaited, it’s over. Which is what they want you to think. Is it shit that the way they’ve done this makes it better for homophobes? Yes, unfortunately, but I believe it’s still happening. They didn’t get scenes together in volume 2, correct, and I do believe that this whole volume could have been better, BUT, my points still stand.
A lot of people are saying that it simply doesn’t make sense for the sudden turn of events, for it to suddenly just, not happen. And that’s the whole thing: Mike being reduced to Tammy, Will’s love for Mike being reduced to a crush, Will suddenly loosing hope in two fucking hours? You’re right! It makes no sense! Because that’s not what’s happening. This is Will self-sabotaging and trying to lower his own expectations. (see the point on his pov).
2. Interviews, articles, the writers, the actors
We’ve established they cannot spoil, they are under contracts. We’ve established that they LIE. “Hopper is dead”, “Will isn’t gay”, and oh! Both of those happened. We’ve established that articles and interviews are not where we get our proof from, its where we get our doubt from, and lo and behold, that has happened again!
Though I won’t deny that the way they made this has lead homophobes to cheer, they are liars. Finn, who hates Mileven, suddenly shipping it? Noah, who loves Byler, suddenly not caring? Don’t even try me. They’re all liars.
The people who carefully designed outfits and rooms, all of those details they said meant something, suddenly doesn’t? Lies on lies with a side of more lies.
3. Character’s POV’s
Notice how Byler was okay until after Will passed out? Them hugging, and Mike nerding out about him being a sorcerer multiple times. In the scene where Lucas and Erica are telling their plans, we see Mike and Will come from the other room together. They are fine.
Then, Will goes bye bye. Passes out and is stuck in Vecna’s mind again, this is also presumably where he gaslights Will into thinking that he and his friends will separate in the future. And after that, there’s… nothing.
Will is an unreliable narrator, we know that for a fact, and I believe Will is lying to us too. He didn’t just see that, Vecna isn’t that nice. Will saw Mike rejecting him, he saw everyone being homophobic, he got flashbacks from the rain fight, and he saw himself get called stupid. He saw more and he is lying. Lying, like the lying liar that he is when it comes to his feelings for Mike.
And Will has in fact been successfully manipulated by Vecna, he all of a sudden believes it’s not reciprocated, and that is all Vecna’s doing. He is dumbing his love down to a crush to make the rejection hurt less. Will is, like us, trying to not have hope so the disappointment doesn’t hurt as much, he has been disappointed before.
Everything that we are still seeing is Will’s pov, why we haven’t seen Mike’s yet is beyond me – which brings me to that. We haven’t seen Mike’s pov, not one bit of it. We simply don’t know. Don’t know what he feels, what he thinks, we know nothing. And I hope we see his emotions soon. We haven’t seen him in a scene alone, just him. These are characters, they won’t put on a façade for a camera because to them there is no camera. So since he is never alone, he is constantly hiding. His thoughts and feelings are unknown to us.
In season 2, Will doesn’t seem that interested in Mike at all… this is what we see from Mike’s pov. To him, Will isn’t interested, so I honestly wouldn’t trust him either… but…
We know now that Mike knows Will likes him. It WILL be brought up, and Mike is smart, he has, or will soon, figure out the painting lie as well. Byler happening is all dependant on Mike now.
Many times we’ve seen that other characters pov’s are correct, outside pov’s. In the s4 van scene, we see Jonathan look in the rearview mirror, and what does he see? Mike looking at Will, Mike is the one looking, not the other way around. In the volume 1 field scene, we see Robin clock Will’s flirting, but at what point did she start looking? She started watching when Mike was talking, she too saw that Mike was the one that was looking. Now, let me present to you this image:
Mike, next to Jonathan, next to Robin. The three people who know Will likes Mike. The person Will loves. The person who “is going to help Will get what he wants”. The person who would try to fish information to see if it’s reciprocated.
Robin told Will that she would only have had the courage to talk to Vickie if she came out, which she did, to Steve. Guess what Will did, he came out. Guess what Mike is probably going to do since he knows now everyone supports them, come out. The acceptance -> coming out -> confession pipeline is happening to both Will and Mike.
Dare I say the confession has already happened? When Will was staring at Mike when talking about his “crush”. Dare I say Robin and Jonathan will encourage Mike to confess once he comes out to them by saying he likes Will. Dare I say we will have two confessions from both, the second one being a proper confession to the other while they’re alone.
4. The core 4 are outcasts
It is a show about outcasts for outcasts. If Byler doesn’t happen then this is simply untrue.
[Reading the s1 character sheets] So we have… a gay character who is called slurs right… a racial minority who is called “midnight” yes… a nerd called “toothless” who has a genetic condition that affects him physically uh-huh… and “frogface” who… uh…?
[Looking back and fourth between the character sheet and the writers] Uh.. so that one’s just, like, ugly…? That’s why he’s an outcast…? He’s just… ugly? Uhm…
I said this before and I’ll say it again: He’s an outcast because he is queer, not because he is fucking unattractive. (which isn’t even true)
5. The time we have left in the finale
Two hours, 40 minutes of which are an epilogue, meaning there is 1 hour and 20 minutes for them to solve EVERYTHING. The same amount of time that some movies have – movies where we get backstory, the actual problem, the solution, and the aftermath.
We have time, we know that in moments of panic or right before those moments, a talk between two characters is pretty much guaranteed. There is plenty time, and it won’t be rushed.
6. Chekhov’s gun(s)
There’s more than these but these specific two things that have been introduced but not ended yet that are very important are: Painting lie, avalanche. The gun needs to go off, if it doesn’t, why is it there?
The painting lie will be addressed, it is the first time Will confessed to Mike, even if it is under the lie of Jane’s feelings. You are going to bring in “snowball -> avalanche”, throw a couple snowballs in my face, then just use the force to stop the avalanche? Don’t think so bud.
There's more to this topic that i'll talk about when I do the part 3 to this.
7. Tropes
Childhood friends to lovers, slowburn, cyrano (Will trying to get mileven back together), love triangle, forbidden love, forced seperation (Byers moving to Cali), forced proximity (timeskip), hidden truths, unrequited love (though it's not)
I mean, i can go on and on.
But, one thing that is obvious is the trope where "well evil man says this because he's evil but he's evil so he's clearly WRONG! and love wins yay" - this ties to my next point, but basically: Will in the coming out scene is convinced it won't happen. Which... means... it... will.. happen...
8. Vecna... wins?
Are we forgetting that Will not getting his boy will prove Vecna right? Is that what we’re doing? Proving the abuser correct? Proving evil wins? Is this actually what we’re doing? Incorrect, we KNOW Vecna won’t win, we know that, we also know that everything he says is utter bullshit to place fear into people.
This is what he does, he scares people, and it works. Place yourself in Will’s shoes, your demon abuser comes back and – doesn’t tell you – SHOWS you that you will be rejected and everyone hates you… damn, yeah, I have no hope on the love of my life anymore either.
Vecna WILL be defeated, and he will be defeated because of love.
9. Part 2
I reached a limit so i had to delete a whole section... moving on... All this aren't from scenes in the show but outside of it, yet there's still proof. Obviously the show itself has more, truer, proof, and these are the three (+one) topics I’ll do in part 2 of this (though many other people are already analysing and it’ll be done before I do this, I’ll still compile everything in one post later on)
- Things in volume 2 that lead to Byler
- Things from volume 1, and what connects to volume 2
- Seasons 1-4
- What it happening VS not happening means for Mike and Will's characters (section i had to delete bc of space, will add this in part2)
fuuuuck i just realized that the future idealized version of myself cant exist without current me being the catalyst for change and doing hard things. has anybody heard about this
