ElephantShoe

short form writers look at people writing 100k+ fics as though this is some sort of talent given as part of a fae bargain, that the commitment required shows some sort of ungodly mental fortitude.

TL;DR

Please read the AO3 fic The Byler Files by Elephantshoe. It's my all time favourite Byler fic and a balm for your bruised soul! SO, so, so good.

This is for all of y'all who are still bruised by what the queerbait bros did to our lovely story and need a long story that honours Byler & the characters they created.

All of the details, including TW:

I'm a Byler baker so I made this for the boy on his special day

Sides of the cake

"Castle Byler" - from The Byler Files, by ElephantShoe

And a very happy Will Byers' birthday to all who celebrate!

Growing up, queer people were not common in television. Glee was a rare exception. I had the chance to grow up with this show. Kurt and Santana were icons, diversity was everywhere in every forms, Klaine and Brittana were loved ships. Plus, both couples married at the end of the show. Glee was also a hit show.

However, Stranger Things can do something that Glee never did. Brittany, Santana's love interest, only appears in episode 2 of season 1. Blaine, Kurt's love interest, appears in season 2 (only to be have this role tbh). Mike and Will appear at the same time, in season 1 episode 1, in the first 5 minutes of the show, and even have the first ever one-to-one conversation. Both are main characters. None of them are side characters.

If you trust the Duffers enough, you know that they planned this from the beginning. That Mike and Will always meant to be a couple, from season 1, episode 1, minute 1.

Glee is only one example. There are many shows with queer characters who are side characters and/or only there to be a love interest.

This is why Byler is important. For queer people, queer history, television history. Furthermore, the fact that this is supposed to be a plot-twist is absolutely genuine.

If Mileven win at the end, it will be a huge loss, the worst mistake ever made. For queer people and television. A big win for misogyny and bigotry. And we all know too well that it's not the message the Duffers want to share.

As a queer person, a Byler happy ending would mean more than words can describe.

mike: what no we cant

paladin!mike: cant?? i know not of cant. why pray tell can we not?

mike: hes in california..?

paladin!mike: what the everloving fuck is a california? is it some type of baneful magic spell?

mike: no...its just a place very far away.

paladin!mike: ...

paladin!mik: then we must go to this california immediately. where, i ask again, is your steed???

mike: i dont have a fucking horse and we cant go to california its like 7 million miles

paladin!mike: then we must hail a carriage of some sort

mike: hello?? we cannot go to california??? its like really fucking far

paladin!mike: This means nothing to me. do you mean to say you would not travel the great expanse to see your beloved?

mike: uhhhh i mean he probably doesnt want to see me like itd be weird

it was also honestly one of the biggest reasons i was so confident in byler and them doing will justice and yet... i would really appreciate ur professional opinion on what could've happened to make these 2 scenes so fundamentally distinct on both a writing level and a behind-the-scenes level. i know i've got my theories (divorcegate, writers strike, duffel bags egos, etc), but i'd love to hear yours because it's always so confusing when writers clearly demonstrate what they're capable of and then turn around and write like they never had those capabilities in the first place.

and thank you for all your insightful posts, as always

you’re not imagining the dissonance. robin’s coming out scene and will’s coming out scene aren’t just different; they’re built on completely different principles of screenwriting, and that’s why the gap feels so jarring.

robin’s bathroom scene is crafted from interiority. it trusts her. it trusts the audience. it trusts silence and subtext. the camera is subjective, the blocking is motivated, and the dialogue reveals character, not plot. it’s written by people who understand that coming out isn’t a twist, it’s a psychological event. it’s intimate, it’s character driven, and it’s allowed to breathe.

will’s WSQK moment, by contrast, is written like the writers are terrified of letting him have an interior life. it’s not treated with care or love; it’s treated like a narrative inconvenience that needs to “push the plot on.” the emotional beat is framed around avoidance, he’s positioned as a vessel for exposition rather than a character with agency. and the staging makes that even clearer: they put twelve other people in the room for a moment that should have been private, grounded, and character centric. no writer trained in character driven storytelling would green light a coming out scene staged like a group project. it’s the opposite of intimacy. it’s the opposite of respect. it’s a scene built to avoid the thing it pretends to be about.

and to have an actual gay actor do that scene, to ask him to pour his heart into something so structurally misguided, is honestly disgraceful on a craft level. noah gave everything. he’s extraordinary. but even his performance couldn’t save a scene that was fundamentally mis designed. the whole thing feels off, tonally confused, and at times uncomfortably close to parody, not because of him, but because the writing and staging undermine the emotional truth he’s trying to deliver.

the thematic function widens the gap even more. robin’s coming out resolves her season arc, reframes her dynamic with steve, deepens the show’s queer texture, and sets up her future. it’s clean, intentional, dramaturgically sound. will’s scene gestures at an arc, refuses to resolve it, refuses to name it, and refuses to let it change anything. that’s not an accident, that’s a mandate.

and in my opinion the behind the scenes context matters. robin’s scene was written before the show became IP‑driven, before the franchise expansion, before the “protect the mystery box at all costs” era. back when the show still believed in character first storytelling. will’s scene was written in the era of brand management and optionality, where queerness is something to gesture at without committing to, because committing would reshape the endgame.

robin’s queerness doesn’t threaten the franchise’s central romantic marketing. will’s does. so robin gets a scene written by people who understand queer storytelling, and will gets a scene written by people trying to have it both ways.

and that’s the heart of it: robin’s scene is emotionally literate. will’s is emotionally evasive. robin’s is character driven queer storytelling. will’s is franchise driven queer containment.

it’s not that the writers “forgot” how to write. it’s that they were writing under different constraints, for different goals, with different levels of freedom. they used to write like they cared about the kids. now they write like they care about the brand.

With Will, though, his coming out wasn't even about him. It was tragic in that he felt compelled to do it out of fear of what might happen if he didn't. He did it in front of a room full of people, some of whom he barely knew. He was a wreck the entire time, visibly nervous about how it would go. The camera continuously focused on other characters, particularly the object of his one-sided affections, making it as much about them as it is about him. It did not enhance Will's character in any way, especially as the audience already knew all of this before he said it to the other characters. It was just a vehicle to move along the plot. Nobody roots for Will. Anyone who was going to already had been.

The weird thing is that the apparent intent was to set up an attempt to mentally break Will, only for him to have gotten out in front of it. But...nothing ever happens. This is where Will's personal arc ends, and there wouldn't have even been a followup conversation with him and Mike had Noah not personally asked for it. This leaves the entire coming out feeling unnecessary because it doesn't even enhance Will as a character, let alone factor into the finale. It ended up seeming like they did it just because they knew they had to after doing all that buildup.