blueberri3s

We gave them far too much credit that Joyce later getting his age wrong in 1983 meant there were some memory shenanigans going on.

They didn't even include his passion for art in his ending. He's just the gay kid. It reads even worse when you consider that this is how Mike thinks of him now.

I’ve been having a lot of thoughts pertaining to what will happen in season 5 relating to byler recently, as have we all, but I’ve also been wondering about the audience’s reaction to it if it happens.

Actually, i’ve been more concerned not about the GA’s reaction, but our reaction to how they handle it. I just want to say beforehand, that I might be projecting my issues with negativity and conflict (i’m a very very optimistic person it’s rough being on social media these days lmao) and I also very much believe that they will make byler canon in some way or another. It just makes sense with the narrative. But I fear we will never be happy with how they do it and we never learn from our previous mistakes lmao

Before season 4 came out, I sort of was a fan of byler, but i was very very casual, as in I didn’t interact with many fan theories, I wasn’t on twitter (still not on there because I have a phobia of negativity eek) and I wasn’t on tumblr, I would occasionally check out the edits and fanarts and I think I was just Aware of it, because I always root for the gay ship to happen ofc..

So when season 4 vol. 1 came out I was excited about the direction they were taking byler, and I could see that it was finally canon that Will was gay, rather than theorised. When season 4 vol. 2 came out, I had not been on sttwt or st tumblr during the time between the volumes because I had other fandoms prioritised around the time. I watched the Van Scene with my parents and suddenly I was acutely aware of just how gay they were (because I always get scared of watching anything queercoded around my parents lmao).

By the end of season 4, I was like YES! this season was amazing for a byler set up next season, although i was more focused on other characters too. I then kind of saw the byler script stuff but not the full extent of it, and I saw many edits and fanarts of them but that was it!

Now it’s 2024 and I have a major hyperfixation on byler, (due to the season 5 bts and the fact stranger things keeps popping up on my fyp it’s crazy) and now I’m on byler tumblr (not twt tho .. sorry) to find all the evidence I can and get all hyped up for s5! But I’ve also seen old posts from around 2022…

Literally every single one was extremely disappointed from season 4 vol. 2, and I was confused, seeing as I was very happy with it and I liked byler (my fave byler scene is from vol. 2 and no it’s not the van scene). If I’m being totally honest, and I might get some hate for this, I think we all had wildly, wildly high expectations and the disappointment was our own doing.

I personally never really judge a show before it’s finished (obviously not sitcoms and shows like that) unless it has really really terrible writing ofc, but I always choose to reserve judgement until all the character arcs are wrapped up and I can look back and see why things were made to be.

I understand the whole anger with Mike’s behaviour towards Will and how Will was treated poorly by him, but isn’t that the point? Mike loving Will back in season 5 would then be more satisfying after all that. It’s a set-up for the next season, no?

I don’t know why or how people thought that Mike would suddenly resolve all his internalised homophobia or something during that season, and I reckon if the whole season had come out at once instead of two volumes (i hate the two volumes thing sm omg) people would have been much happier because we wouldn’t have had time to create insane theories or unrealistic expectations that, let’s be real, were not in line with what we have seen so far with byler.

So, I just want to say that I’m a little afraid for season 5, because I know that byler will likely be canon, but people just won’t be happy because it won’t be in the exact way that they had theorised. Sorry to break it to you, but you, random person on tumblr, are not a screen writer. More specifically, you’re not a screen writer for stranger things.

I think it’s fun to theorise at the moment, but I just want to remind people that this pattern has happened before and we never learn? Like, none of our theories are coming true. Not one of them. Did I theorise the exact van scene? Did I theorise the part at the end where Mike grabs Will’s shoulder? No. But am I happy with those scenes? Hell yeah.

So on the build up to season 5, I just want to caution everyone to not assume that specific things are going to happen when it’s just a result of an echochamber (such as the milkvan breakup scene being right at the beginning or the painting being brought up). You’ll just be angry for no good reason.

The only reasons I’m personally going to be angry with how they handle byler is:

1. If it’s not canon and Will’s love goes unrequited/ he has another love interest somehow…

2. If either of them die after having a relationship during season 5 (bury your gays is stUPID)

3. If one of them dies before the other gets to tell them they love them/ kiss

4. If they get together without Mike apologising (it could be in literally any way, obvious or not) for his poor behaviour.

But that’s it, the rest of it is literally up to them.

I call lazy writing if the monologue is supposed to be a resolution, because the entire setup was that El's perception of Mike no longer loving her, was directly linked to her loss of powers. The circumstance of Mike only confessing once again while she has powers, and then focusing on that as the only aspect that is unique to her in his grand love speech, with no address of it afterwards, is undeniably lazy. I don't want to take that as a resolution to what the writers set up themselves. It relies entirely on the audience only believing what they're told, unquestioning of what they can actually verify with the rest of the story. It relies on the audience not actually caring.

I also don't want to have watched El go through all that torment, focus entirely on regaining those powers through reliving undescribable trauma, for her to be the only one who had a change of heart on where her worth lies.

Learn to deal with your boyfriend reducing you down to one aspect that you hate about yourself, lovely message.

And if we are supposed to believe he changed, the timeline should not be set up where the last important conversation he partakes in is isolating her from him in her powers. The only change of heart in that which he could have had, would be from Will's speech. That sets him up as apparently making El feel better for being different... Which she directly contradicted to him in their big fight. There's no way he learned a lesson on "idolizing" El and her powers from that ("Idolizing" in quotes because it's not necessarily positive, but still largely about putting her on a pedestal). There was no reason for his journey on screen to not have been about that, instead of largely internal and only, to the viewer, focused on the specific words.

The van scene is the first time we are actually given an explanation to why Mike can't say he loves her, in the second-to-last episode, after 3 other conversations centering around his trouble saying it. At least give the character time to grow. There was no reason for the reason to come up so late, when his struggle spanned the entire season.

We could also at least have had a nice, romantic conversation between the two as a response to finally hearing that he loves her. If not just putting the entire monologue in a different situation under different stakes. Which should be more appreciated as a conversation, where it addresses their communication problems, and acts to symbolize the end of those problems. El finding solace in Mike about Max would be monumental for them, but nope, she glares at Mike and Will then almost slams a door. And doesn't say a word to Mike at all in the time after the monologue. On screen.

The only mentioned conversation was about El's powers once again, and ended negatively. Nothing about El's response to that monologue that should've been an end to the relationship drama. It's implied that was the only time they talked, even. Seeing as they talked so little that Will had to point it out.

I want a happy ending for El, and I want it to feel sufficiently earned by everyone involved. Not in the way that I expect them to work for happiness, they have already done more than enough for that. I just want it to come as a result of believable character development, not to have to expect El to be happy just because she heard the specific thing she asked to hear, regardless of the ignorance to the context of her original problem. Mike saying "I love you," does not dispell him hyperfocusing on the fact that she's a "superhero," the established problem El had in the beginning.

I think the happiness that she has earned is based in independence. Not necessarily dealing with everything on her own, as she had been, and I do want her to grow away from that in season 5, but finding value in herself on her own. That was her journey this season. She comes back from Nina with the realization that she's not a monster, and she doesn't need to be a superhero to be worthy of love. I think at this point in the story, she is in a place where she has walked away from seeking validation from Mike that he doesn't make her feel.