ambient man

The crowd parts. The lights turn on and it’s him.

Shawn Levy.

and it’s just so exhausting. because regardless of whether or not byler does end up being endgame, the hints the writers and actors and characters dropped have been undeniable! if you swapped out mike and will’s characters for a boy and a girl, the majority of the fandom would be screaming about the ‘chemistry’, the ‘shared looks’, the ‘foreshadowing’ etc. but because its two boys people say we’re reaching, we’re searching for it, we’re making it up.

but the actors themselves, noah and finn, i feel like they have definitely been leading us on. the marketing has been leading us on. the constant pairing of will and mike in the show, the acting choices made by finn and noah, the way they act in interviews — all of it has been to lead on byler fans! and if they truly don’t go with byler in the end then it will feel so malicious, so unfair.

If you’re going to subtly hint at Mike being a closeted gay man then why not commit to it? Make it fucking obvious!

It’s just so so weird to completely leave byler unaddressed when it was such a huge arc for wills character throughout the entire show.

What was the purpose of the scene about queer signals, if Will was never going to receive queer signals? Why was the question concerned with the obviousness of signals, and not the mere presence of them? Why use the term "shared looks" when that was a known call and response on set for Noah and Finn?

What was the meaning of the snowball and avalanche metaphor? Why include that scene at all? Where was the payoff?

You're going to write an entire meta scene on queer signals of attraction, include examples that we have already observed, indicate an eventual pay off... and not let it pay off? Why? To be malicious?

You tell the audience through Will that Mike was just his Tammy this entire time and expect us to believe it? Was Tammy in Robin's video tape? Did Robin know Tammy since she was five? Did Tammy run after her in the rain or recognize her breathing over the radio?

Having a character grow up in solitary confinement and then ripping her away from the only family she's ever known to live a life of solitude once again is not good writing.

Having a character be in love with his best friend and then just compare it to a high school crush is not good writing.

Having Eleven say that Mike has always been the person who truly understood her after showing us in the previous seasons that he only sees her as a superhero IS NOT GOOD WRITING.

we don't know why will was taken specifically

hopper and joyce just happened to conveniently forget going to school with henry

the painting lie hasn't been addressed

we don't know why el recognized will in season 1 without having ever seen him before

we don't know who opened the door the night will was taken

mike and will's colors just HAPPEN to be blue and yellow and the cast, crew, and WRITERS THEMSELVES telling us to "pay attention to detail" was deadass just generational queerbait

after everything, mike STILL couldn't say i love you to eleven

patty newby is non-existent and creelby just happens to parallel byler for literally no reason 🩷

will was about to FORGIVE henry.

the duffers genuinely forgot their OWN MAIN CHARACTERS BIRTHDAY AND AGE MULTIPLE TIMES

the russian involvement in s3 and s4 was never explained so it was prob just capitalist propaganda except they don't want us to realize that so they gave jonathan an entire anti-capitalist film storyline for the sake of "screwing conformity" i guess

ohhh but! critiquing society???? fuck that! because they also didn't show us vickie in the epilogue at all, giving her and robin a completely ambiguous ending in which 90% of the fandom believe they broke up off-screen!!!!!!! A+ for representation !!!!!!

not only that, but will doesn't even have a CONFIRMED epilogue boyfriend. that is full well a cute lil headcanon that MIKE has for him.

terry ives, lonnie, enzo, max's mom, suzie, argyle, dr kay, the turnbow family, the school counselor with the clock necklace, and dr owens just vanished into thin air, ALONG WITH ALL THE DANGERS OF THE UPSIDE DOWN???? where were the demodogs, the demogorgons, the demobats????

max's letters were just completely insignificant and had no reason to be mentioned again i guess

november 6 just happened to be a funny coincidence

they ALSO happened to forget that nancy had a vision of mike being killed by vecna in s4 bc that boy wasn't even remotely in danger at all while every other wheeler was put through hell

dr brenner's obsession and fascination with the upside down and abyss stemming from how his father was involved in project rainbow was also not addressed

not to mention that the dude is literally horrendous at drawing animals but when it comes to the flipping hexcore he's da vinci

melvalds, the general store, just happens to sell milkshakes

will adores getting lost in the woods because that's such a fun activity for him

henry just gave holly her favorite song because he was feeling kind

they never actually defeated the mind flayer !!!! which is wonderful

we actually never find out whether or not will lost his powers

el's water tank in the upside down being completely full although there has literally NEVER been water in the upside down before

mike is somehow the only one who has ever understood el even though she was 10x happier with max. could they not have just admitted that they made the elmax reunion so incredibly lackluster because they refused to let ANY gay ships win regardless of how much chance they had of being canon?

the 'lovebirds' parallel between jonathan + steve and mike + eleven??? what was that even for

all the dick jokes, mike listening the a band called the BUTTHOLE SURFERS, the camera panning to mike 7000 times during will's coming out scene, mike not being able to touch will, all just happened to be fun coincidences

not only that, but the mike-will-eleven and nancy-jonathan-steve love triangles were resolved by none of the couples working out! wow.

I didn’t believe that it was gonna be canon canon in episode 7, but I thoroughly believed there would be ample build up that made Mike’s reciprocation obvious to everyone.

But there was just nothing.

Mike did look at Will a suspicious amount of times during the cringey ass coming out. Like maybe he really was oblivious all this time and he is just now thinking a thought for the first time ever, but I don’t get it.