One thing By/ers always underestimate is just how much Mike canonically loves Eleven.
When she disappears in s1, he calls her for 353 days straight into s2, even when he didnāt expect a response.
In s3, theyāre inseparable only until Hopper steps in.
Even when ābroken upā, all he wants is to win her back. He ignores Will in canon to focus on Eleven.
In s4, Mike and Eleven work through a rough patch, she lied to him and he wonāt say āI love youā. Thatās because heās afraid to say it, as far back as season 1 heās even afraid to tell Eleven he likes her as more than a friend, and in season 3 āblank makes you crazyā. This scene in season 4 was set up perfectly so that Mike could tell Eleven in a moment where she thought all was lost, but the words from her boyfriend help her fight Vecna, this is a deliberate writing choice to help further the plot with Vecna and also makes sense from what we know about Mike in canon (never being able to say I love you because heās afraid of losing her again). Will helps Mike spit it out because Mike can be stubborn and Will knows heās afraid to say it. Despite Wills feelings for Mike he helps him in that scene to be honest about his feelings for Eleven. That was the point in Will telling Mike āyouāre the heartā.
In s5, even when she ādiesā, Mike never stops thinking about her, going into a depression over losing her, believing sheās out there.
By/er was never going to happen because the majority of āevidenceā for it is confirmation bias.
Yes, Will is gay and that is evident. However, Mike never showed any evidence of having feelings like that for Will in return, let alone other men as a whole. Mike is not āqueercodedā as so many of By/ers claim, because he likes a band called the Butthole Surfers or because he reads Jack Kerouac (this one annoyed me because I read Kerouac, Jack famously was not open about his bisexuality and it was not in his writings, Ginsberg was more open also while Iām on it even if Jack was open this doesnāt really mean anything? People can read LGBT writers).
If they wanted to write By/er, they would have planted seeds much earlier on. For example, when Mike and Eleven ābroke upā in season 3, they could have easily kept them apart. He could have stayed to play DnD with Will if he cared more about him than Eleven, but he didnāt. Letās not forget all he wanted to do was spend time with Eleven in season 3, a very major plot point that certain people just ignore. You can ship and have headcanons and itās all in good fun, but donāt act as if the show owes you something or that you got queer baited, no you didnāt you brainwashed yourself into believing it. To say this show has āset upā Byler is crazy when Mike has been shown to be in love with El over and over again.
(If anyone knows the gif credits please lmk because I donāt know the direct makers)
