Your Local Byler Enthusiast

Like I get such bad secondhand embarrassment when I see bylers flipping their shit when they talk about this fruit theory. Like please tell me ya’ll aren’t being serious. Because the straights use this theory to showcase how insane we are and I just feel like we’re being laughed at and not taken seriously. Like “hahah look at the fruity boys in the fruit section haha so funny”… like… cant you see how uncomfortable it is when you guys point it out like that???? No????

Idk maybe I’m overthinking but it’s just makes me uncomfortable and annoyed when y’all make jokes about it. Kinda like when a lot of you were making fun of Will’s walk cuz it looked fruity…. It’s just so ick to me idk.

First of all let me address the fruit section theory. Why is that so much weirder to you than the new coke old coke theory or any other vague theory? Like it’s just a theory first off and yes queer people have been called fruity throughout history so the theory adds up. Not to mention a big part of the theory is that the ships are all sitting together including byler and it’s just the cherry on top that they happen to be in the fruit section too. Also I’m sorry but I have to disagree with you, QUEER PEOPLE calling QUEER CHARACTERS fruity is not weird or uncomfortable. Fruity when said by other queer people is not and never will be problematic. Also as someone who is pretty visibly queer I don’t find it offensive at all when other queer people make fun of (in a good nature) “stereotypically queer” characteristics. Such as if another queer person said to me “lol you look so gay” I wouldn’t find that problematic at all. I obviously understand that if people are demonizing or genuinely mocking these characteristics it can be hurtful to those with them but no one was genuinely bullying Will or being homophobic. Also not to mention, pointing out or having “stereotypically gay” traits has been a way to identify other queer people for centuries without being at risk of being hatecrimed. Now if this post was directed towards straight people in the byler community overstepping boundaries I would totally understand and respect that but since it seems to be directed at anyone who said these things it feels a little “gatekeepy” for a lack of a better word. I guess I just don’t see what’s so hurtful to you about the queer community making jokes (that don’t affect anyone) about queer things. My last point here is Will is a fictional character, yes people resonate with him, yes he represents queerness in a time and place when it frowned upon, but if people are not being hateful towards him and just joking about him a bit who does that affect? If he was a celebrity or someone that people were making fun of I could see how you would find that weird but he’s fictional, he’s feelings won’t get hurt by any of this.

throughout the season mike and will are consistently half-lit during their scenes.

The Mike monologue to El is NOT supposed to come across as romantic, at least, not in the sense that you would expect.

In Mike's monologue, he tells El "You can do anything! You can fly. You can move mountains. I believe that."

This is important, because this part of the monologue sounds a whole heck of a lot like the speech that Brenner gives El when she tries to leave to go save Max.

In this scene, Brenner says, "You came to me broken, and you've learned to walk again, but if you want to stop One, you'll need to do more than walk. You will need to do more than run. You will need to fly."

This is not the first time in the season that we see Mike getting paralleled with Brenner. In fact, this happens at the end of the S4E2 when Mike sees El hit Angela over the head with a rollerskate and says "What did you do?," the exact same thing Brenner said after finding El in the rainbow room surrounded by the other lab kids who were all killed.

Before we get deeper into the monologue itself, let's take a look at the note that Mike and El leave their relationship on before she leaves. We see their fight in her bedroom where El brings up that Mike never expresses love to her. El tells Mike that she doesn't belong anywhere, and that everyone looks at her "like a monster," and accuses Mike of seeing her this way too. Here he deflects the allegations and calls her "Eleven," not El. When he attempts to mend this with her, he uses the words "incredible," and "superhero" to describe El.

We've already talked about the implications that using these adjectives describes idolization rather than love, but what's more here is that he puts the same emphasis on her powers that Brenner does. By referring to her as Eleven, not El or Jane, he subliminally sends the message that he is thinking of her as an "other," and to her, this holds the connotation of an experiment since that's what the numbers signified in Brenner's lab.

It is made very evident here that we are supposed to align Mike with Dr. Brenner.

Before El leaves, in her last scene with Mike when she is being placed in the cop car, we see him say to her, "Eleven, Eleven, listen to me, okay? Eleven, will you please look at me? Everything's going to be fine. I'm going to fix this."

Not only does he repeatedly once again call her Eleven, instead of the affectionate nickname he gave her, but he specifically uses the word "fix," perfectly mirroring what Brenner says when he refers to El as "broken."

So when we then see language from the same conversation El has with Brenner come back in during Mike's love confession with the word "fly," the viewer is once again subliminally meant to associate Mike with Dr. Brenner.

What's so interesting about this confession scene is that it also heavily mirrors Mike's shared memory with Will in season 2 as he's trying to break through the Mind Flayer's possession of Will.

In this scene, we see Mike describing the first time he met Will. We see Finn give a shockingly visually similar performance to his monologue with El, but here we see Mike shedding tears, and the way in which Finn delivers these lines is not frantic or off-the-cuff, but instead the tone is quiet and the strength of the speech lies solely in the emotion behind his words. This scene comes across as much more tender and genuine, and stands in stark contrast tonally to the way we see Mike speak to El.

Here, Mike says that he "felt so alone" during that first day of kindergarten, but then he "saw [Will] on the swings, and [he was] alone too," establishing a kinship and connection with Will immediately. Mike continues by saying, "I just walked up to you, and I asked. I asked if you wanted to be my friend. And you said yes. You said yes. It was the best thing I've ever done."

In this monologue, we not only see that similar language is used in the Mike love confession scene in which he tells El his "life started" when he found her in the woods, but we get this interesting contrast in which Mike's words are actually able to break through to Will here, whereas when he is confessing to El, Vecna's grip tightens until she looks over at Max.

By drawing this parallel, it simultaneously codes this monologue from season 2 in a romantic light, since we are meant now to associate the scene with the "romantic" love confession in season 4, but it also discredits the genuineness of Mike's season 4 monologue as we see the stark contrast in Finn's performance. In both scenes, the stakes were high and people he cared about were in danger, so why does one read with such deep emotion while the other comes off as clichéd and inconsistent with past events?

When we combine the messages of these two parallels in Mike's monologue we are left with a rather confusing and disturbing message: that Mike and El's relationship is entagled with other parties, and here's why it's important to consider these points together:

Subliminally, El is associating Mike's words during this monologue with the way Dr. Brenner makes her feel, while Mike subliminally associates his words in contrast to the way he feels about Will.

Therefore, for El, what's getting in the way of her relationship with Mike is that he seems to see her in a similar way to how Dr. Brenner does, zeroing in on her powers, her usefulness, and her otherness.

But for Mike, what's getting in the way of his relationship with El is repression and the complicated feelings he has for Will. I've tried, for arguments sake, to find a non-romantic reasoning for this parallel, but I really don't think there is one.

I couldn’t say the word “lesbian” even after coming to terms with it.

I too also didn’t come out but my mother (in Will’s case,Jonathan) just knew and gave me the “I will love you doesn’t matter what” talk

I too also had people whisper about me in school saying I was a lesbian

I too felt like a mistake

I too hated myself,thought there was something wrong with me for not liking boys the way my friends did (in Will’s case,the other way around)

I too felt different from other kids,even before knowing I was queer

I too was a “sensible kid”

I too have a homophobic father and an awesome mum

I too felt isolated from my friends when they became interested in boys (in Will’s case,girls) and I just,wasn’t interested and couldn’t see the appeal

It was realistic.We weren’t expecting Will to say “btw I’m gay and in love with Mike Wheeler,deal with it”

What we are mad about,is than they used Will’s feelings as a tool to help mileven.As if they didn’t had season after season of time and episodes to build the ship.

Using Will’s feelings -a queer character feelings- as a way to help the main straight ship without taking notice of him,making him suffer in order to give the straights a “happy ending” is not okay.

His coming out process was incredibly realistic,specially being set in the 80s,but the way they handled his character as only a tool to help the “straight” (I’m firmly believer of gay Mike but whatever) people was not okay.At all.

Will deserves more than this.We deserve more than this.The queer community deserves more than fucking pain.Like,they have just been making Will go trauma after trauma,being bullied,the upside down,being possessed,his friends ignoring him,fighting monsters,etc etc (he was probably one of the characters with most trauma) and then more? Internalized homophobia,self hate, “unrequited” (unrequited my ass) crush, but hey.He’s gay.We’re not homophobic.

Obviously putting one of the only queer characters through the worst things and make him go through more horrible things than the rest of the characters (except maybe El) is totally fine.Obviously.It’s amazing representation.Because gay people can never be happy! /s

Watch our show,queers!