beware: paragraphs in my tags

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First of all, I want to say thank you for still being here! I took a HUGE hiatus because of grad school and my mental health, so it's nice to know some folks are still around from way back when :)

To answer your question, I 100% believe in Byler endgame still. If anything, I am more convinced after what we got from s5 vol1 than I was at the end of s4, and even then I never really had much doubt.

As I've mentioned in a couple other posts, I just don't see the narrative sense in having scenes like pipegate and the Mike Wheeler Lego Batman stare and the flashbacks being half about Mike happen after Robin's speech if we were meant to take that as Mike not reciprocating Will's feelings. I sincerely think that they are writing through more fakeouts and distortion, continuing the themes present in s4, but we are starting to uncover more truths.

The thing about Stranger Things is that actions have always mattered more than what is explicitly said. We are supposed to pick up on the emotional cues from character body language and shared looks. It very much reminds me how much both Robin and Eddie were pushing that Nancy was Steve's "true love," in a very similar way to Lucas telling Mike how he looked at/spoke to El was because Mike "loved" her. These characters out loud seem to be pushing a narrative, but if we examine Nancy's body language from season 5 especially, we see her discomfort with Steve after his love confession and we see much more closeness expressed with Jonathan, even though this is not the closest they have been historically. The same is reflected in El and Mike. In their rooftop heart-to-heart, there is visible space between them, meanwhile Mike is purposefully closing space between himself and Will in the field scene to the point where they are brushing elbows. If you were saying goodbye to your girlfriend whom you loved and were attracted to, wouldn't you be cradling her? Holding her? Crying with her?

Ben needed his grandfather so badly… Anakin should’ve been there for him to tell him what the darkness has done to him & Padmé… Anakin would’ve understood Ben’s suffering, his sorrow, loneliness, & inner conflict better than anyone…. Anakin would’ve been the only one who could’ve helped him