I have never in my life seen the Cyrano trope be used in media and then left unfulfilled. Ever. I spent my entire education outside of mandatory classes studying literature and film, learning the rules of writing and what makes a good story and how it is executed and that is why this will never make sense.
Byler not happening is not just queerbait, and itβs not just cowardice. Itβs also nonsensical, from a writing standpoint. It was narratively set up to happen, unlike most other queerbaits in the past. I have experienced and been there for many of them, including the klance bait.
This? This was not the same. Which is the reason so many of us, myself included, did not believe it could be queerbait. Because there was actual narrative set up. The Cyrano trope IS that setup, and instead of fulfilling it, they just left it entirely unresolved.
It isnβt just bad writing, it defies all RULES of writing. This is not a good thing. This is not some out of the box choice they made. They completely ignored a crucial plot point they wrote for one purpose and one purpose only: to avoid having Mike and Will end up together.
You do not use an established romantic trope, one that is over a hundred years old and has been utilized in hundreds of media only to then not execute it?
The story should have ended as follows: Mike finds out the painting was from Will, and that his feelings for El and his relationship with El post season 4 were built on a lie, and that the love he felt was a direct result of Willβs love for him, thus recognizing that he was in love with Will the whole time, not El.
That is what the Cyrano trope is used for. That is what it has always been used for. They even directly paralleled this to Ben and Beverly in IT, a romantic couple that ALSO utilized the Cryano trope effectively.
Byler not being canon destroys the entire story. Yes, it does, and I donβt care what anyone tries to say about this. Iβve studied this shit. I am a writer myself. It makes everything they wrote for 4.5 seasons pointless. It makes every detail, every parallel, every creative choice MEANINGLESS.
We didnβt believe in byler because the actors just had great chemistry, or because we wanted queer representation. We believed it would happen because itβs quite literally the only thing that narratively makes sense. The entire finale is bad writing for many reasons, but byler not happening was one of the biggest examples of this.
For some reason, they made the choice to ignore and backtrack on everything they wrote for the last decade at the very end of the story. And no, it doesnβt work. It will never work because this was simply not how the story should have closed.
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