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I get the crush bc if I walked up to my friend and was like "I'm a little scared about this" and they fucking BOLTED SHOUTING to fix it *immediately*?
I'd be in love too, man, I get you, Will.
This whole episode for them was just Will going "*tugs sleeve* (whispered) idontreallylikeit🥺" and Mike going "😡HE SAID HE DOESN'T LIKE IT GUESS SOMETHING'S GONNA FUCKING DIE TODAY! AND I WILL NOT BE TAKING NO FOR AN ANSWER🤬"
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This concept makes my heart fuzzy 💖
I still think Will would spoil his children so much and almost never say no to them about anything, and a nice contrast to this in theory is that Mike would be the strict one, but tbh I can't picture Mike being that much better. They'd both be massive pushovers and their kids would brag constantly about how "oh well my dads let me play gta" "well my dads let me have ice cream before bed!" "My dads said I can wear shirts with skulls on them!"
They're never irresponsible with it or anything but they're huge pushovers. Mike is more "strict" in a sense of the word, but just marginally
William Wheeler ❌
Michael Byers ✅
hot take im actually so glad that the byler trope "will needs mike and mike needs to be needed" is being dropped after vol 1. because that was always a codependency dynamic between the two of them that was unhealthy, imo.
will no longer needs mike - he WANTS him. that's a lot more beautiful and powerful than saying that he needs mike to achieve happiness.
mike doesn't need to be needed - he needs and wants to be seen and understood which will (hopefully) be explored in vol2. mike will see himself and understand himself, and will do the same.
the message of self love really comes into play here and once that is achieved for byler as a whole THAT'S what will make their relationship a beautiful love story once finally wrapped up. being able to love yourself just as much as you love someone else - NOT a codependency dynamic where if one of them were to be taken out of the picture completely, then the other's character development would fully stagnate as a result.
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Bruh, at this point, it’s ridiculous how people still don’t see it
This is literally just an advertisement. IT IS NOT CANON.
Do you guys ACTUALLY think Mike and Will are going to act exactly like this in the show? Advertisements purposely avoid giving real character details. They only need to make the characters recognizable. MEANING: if these two are like this in a random T Mobile ad, they are going to be twenty times more obvious in Season 5 and people will not be able to deny it anymore.
There are not even shots of Lucas and Dustin next to each other unless the whole group is together. And when they are working on the machine, Lucas and Dustin are doing their own separate tasks. Meanwhile, Mike and Will get multiple shots of just the two of them. Their roles in making the machine are basically identical. They lift heavy stuff together, and both times Mike is either talking to Will or literally running to help him. They get items from the kitchen or bathroom (and btw I love the detail where we see Will opening a drawer from his point of view and then Mike opening one from the drawer’s point of view). And then there is that shot where they are working with screwdrivers. You cannot even tell what they are fixing but they are doing it side by side.
I would say excuse the quality but be so fr, Byler fans are always analyzing blurry background pixels anyway w
NOT TO MENTION
Then Lucas gives Will the baskets. I was already freaking out because they were blue and yellow, but WILL LITERALLY GIVES THE BLUE ONE TO MIKE.
And maybe It’s because I’m crazy, but watching this at an extremely slow speed, Will has this MOMENT. He looks up at Mike with this soft expression, almost in awe, and he gives the basket to him slowly. He takes a breath and holds it in. And yes, I keep saying literally, and I will continue to say it because it is true. We are getting more explicit things now and it is honestly so exciting to not have to search for tiny implications because they are (literally) RIGHT IN OUR FACES.
I also have another detail from when they are looking at the machine. Even though they are standing together in this shot, Lucas and Dustin have a very noticeable space between them. Dustin is also standing more toward the front. There is enough room between them for another person to stand.
MEANWHILE, Mike and Will have about two inches between them. The only time we see them farther apart is when the shot is meant to focus on just one of them speaking.
When their invention fails and explodes, everyone flinches. Human reflex is to protect yourself and move away. We see Dustin and Lucas do this.
But explain to me HOW COME MIKE AND WILL BOTH TURN TOWARD EACH OTHER.
How come, instead of just trying to shield themselves with their arms, they instinctively try to protect each other.
Also, and maybe I am reading it wrong, but it looks like everyone else turns to their right when the machine blows up. Mike does not seem to realize that is the safer direction and instead leans into Will.
And the final moment needs zero explanation. There are enough memes about it already:
Protective-but-also-very-pissed-off Mike, people
Sorry if this was a little lackluster, but if you made it this far, thank you so much.
I saw a comment thread on Insta going down the typical line of argument claiming that Will’s self acceptance arc involved him embracing and prioritising his platonic love for Mike over his romantic love. He’s choosing his friendship with Mike that existed since they were young instead of his crush/romantic feelings because platonic love like that is more important than romance! It’s a more empowering message than them ending up together.
Other than the fact that Will is in love with Mike (it’s not a crush) and that Byler is written to be romantically compatible, I also want to talk about how these people seem to misunderstand a relationship/friendship like Mike and Will’s.
I’ve had the experience of becoming friends with someone and falling in love with them at the same time. My platonic and romantic love for them wasn’t something separate but it was heavily intertwined. It’s because that kind of love emerged simply by getting to know them as a person and building a bond with them.
I was friends with them but I was also in love with them and they felt the same way (I didn’t exactly know that back then but I did suspect) hence even when we were friends, we were never really just friends, we were friends but also something so much more even before we dated. It was this a very deep and intimate bond.
I’ve also heard many queer people tell me that they relate to this experience and they’ve been there before. As Noah said infamously at that one con “you could never really tell if they just had a special friendship or if it was something romantic” really just sums up this queer experience as a whole and Mike and Will’s relationship just fits this category perfectly.
Will’s love for Mike is born from friendship. They possess this deep intimate bond and it was never attraction/crush. You just have to watch the van scene confession to realise that. Him embracing his platonic love for Mike and getting over his romantic love was never an option because they both types of love became one for him long ago. It’s not easy for him to just do that.
I also hate this idea that getting over romantic love and choosing platonic love is an empowering message because you know they only tell gay people that.
It’s also the fact that this message is only empowering if it makes sense within the context. Like…I don’t know…if the characters’ romantic relationship was a chain they choose to wear or they were never meant to be in one then yeah…it is an empowering message to choose friendship instead (Mike and El!).
However, two characters who are mutually in love and compatible and share the deep intimate bond where they can understand each other and their relationship is romantically coded and stuff…that is not an empowering message. It honestly feels a bit like a betrayal. It’s also not very realistic because once you experience feelings like that for someone or a bond like that…which made you feel so free….you know that you can’t just choose to be friends with them if let’s say you broke up or get seperated. Even if you try, it doesn’t work and it doesn’t fit anymore. It’s hard to immediately be friends with someone who you were genuinely so in love with and had this deep bond. You could never be friends with them again or it would take years.
In conclusion, people saying shit on Insta made me write this argument of how people just don’t understand how sometimes platonic and romantic love can be intertwined and how it’s a more common experience for queer people to go through like Mike and Will. Therefore, that’s one more strike against the Will needs to move on and prioritise friendship argument.
Honest Byler was always something so much more than just a silly ship. It's the kind of relationship between two people that gets slipped between the cracks. From the soft touchs, long smiles, and yearning eyes, they were subtle, small acts of true affection that showed how deep their connection is. That's what made It so beautiful, the beauty of not having to flaunt it in your face that these two characters are attracted, soulmates, lovers. This is why we wanted Byler, we wanted to see this beautiful slowburn unfold and tell a deepcutting story that wasn't readily accepted for the time. To show the story that being different is okay, that love is stronger than fear. Not getting this ending was more than just sad it was gut-wrenching. Having to watch a gay character come out of fear for his life, instead of on his own terms and to the people he trusts. Having him have a self-acceptance arc and give him solid hope that the boy he's in love with likes him back, clear signals, bumps of the knee, constantly brushing against eachother, the longing shared looks...just to throw it all down the drain. Having a Lesbian couple be together just so the gay character can learn to accept himself, and then the Lesbian couple never gets any more scenes, and supposedly, they broke up by the finale. The whole "not friends.......Best friends¡" was just straight queerbait not just for us but for the gay character too. Having their gay character suddenly get over years of repressed love for his best friend in like 10 minutes, then just time skipping, and there still close buddies with no awkward interactions?? Giving there gay character a supposed "boyfriend" at the end, while having no dialog between them, and the scene lasts for not even a minute. They don't even let there gay character even kiss or hold hands with a boy. So yeah, we got upset at the ending because this was like a big middle finger to the face. I think it's disgusting and so utterly disappointing that they still try to market this show to be "for the freaks" when there quite literally make all their characters conform by the end of the show. This show isn't for the freaks or outcasts anymore. All this shows is that queer people will always suffer and that they won't get love in the end. So yeah screw the duffers for this piece of slop that just helps promote more bad than good. Rip to Stranger Things vol 2 and finale it could have been so much more. We wished it would have lived up to its fullest. Honestly, I apologize to all the queer people who truly saw themselves in these characters. We deserved better, and I wish we could actually have proper queer media without it being forced or exaggerated. To end this off, the duffers can suck it, I will be unfollowing them and not watching anything they write again because they do not deserve my respect, and yes, you will find me reading solf byler slowburns at 3 in the morning on a Tuesday.
(🔝When I'm talking about not supporting the duffers anymore, I don't mean Im doing that just because Byler didn't happen. I say this as a whole for the season with all the plot holes, loose ends, the rushed writing, the duffers literally admiting they didn't know what they were doing, and the duffers doing just weird shit that's uncomfortable. I could yap about how much this season was so confusing, but like I don't have a free month to write all that. Plus, as a gay guy, this poor queer rep just sits bad with me. Sigh, I thought we were finally going to have non doomed lesbians...)
Much love, everybody, this past month and half have been so much fun (despite the stress) theorizing, talking, and being a part of something so amazing. Conformity Gate and Byler are something I will be believing in until the grave.💙💛
