i still find it insane what they did to mike and el’s relationship in s5, the amount of post wondering if they were still dating or not because oh how weirdly vague they keep their relationship was actually insane
i remember i genuinely thought they broke up at the end of s4 because the show made it clear that mike was a distraction for el and she wanted to focus on fighting henry, we also have will actively flirting with mike in s5 when in the previous season he was more focused on trying to let those feelings go because he didn’t want to hurt el and he had no reason to believe that mike even liked guys too
this is why nothing after the sorcerer is canon to me 😞
i can admit that some "byler proofs" can be a bit of a stretch. yes, i do think the color coding, music, and closet imagery were evidence, but they could be implicit enough to not be definitive. no matter what though, i will always believe byler was queerbaiting because it simply does not make sense to give will hope and have him actually consider pursuing mike if he did not have a good reason to do so. he wouldn't betray his sister, he wouldn't risk his friendship with mike, and he wouldn't make such a dangerous move in a conservative 80s town if mike and el were happily together and mike had given him NO signals.
i think it's funny how even milevens and byler haters thought it was weird how little screen time mike and el shared. the writers had to have known what they were doing.
