Why is no one talking about how monumental it is that Will's feelings for Mike were confirmed by the released S2 script for the Snowball? Like, beyond that script recontextualizing the whole of S2's Byler moments as undeniably romantically coded, I think it illustrates that the Duffer brothers were never unaware of how amibigiously Mike and Will's relationship presented. One of my biggest sources of Byler doubt has been that the (presumably) heterosexual, white Duffer brothers happened their way into gay subtext between Mike and Will while trying to craft an (overplayed, tired, predictable) unrequited, in-love-with-his-best-friend queer narrative for Will, but this has completely changed my mind. Because why would they put so much effort in showing how reciprocal Mike and Will's intense and intimate friendship was in S2 when they were already setting up Will's romantic feelings? Either they are really empathetic and sensitive to the complexity of queer feelings or they just wanted Will to suffer more by including so much ambiguity to Mike's actions, which I'm hoping is not the case. And furthermore, I don't think it's that much of a stretch to say that they were always planning for Byler, given that Will's queerness and Mike's insecurities + desire to perform "normalcy" by kissing a girl are evident from the original pitch. They were originally going to kill off Eleven which, in the context of S2 Mike and Will + Will's burgeoning romantic feelings, increases the likelihood of endgame Byler dramatically. Idk y'all, I'm freaking out because there's absolutely no way the Duffers could even pretend to be oblivious to the romantic subtext of Mike and Will's friendship when they were planning it since Season 2. They are so endgame y'all ahhh!!!
Also, the fact that even in the pitch Will is related to Mike (through DnD) makes me actually sick, like that's actually insane...