Okk Hear Me Out.....

The Strange Postponement of Mike and Will's relationship

If Mike and Will had remained as close as they were in Season 2 in the subsequent seasons, the "are they gay?" rumors absolutely would have spread among the General Audience, as they entered their official teen/dating/sexual awakening years.

There have been peculiar writing choices that seem to have no other explanation but to postpone romantic rumors about these two.

The show does it's damnedest to keep these best-friends-since-kindergarten apart once they enter puberty. The only interaction that possibly hints at romance in Season 3 is their virtual double date with Lumax where Mike is concerned for Will's well-being one time. This was necessary to reestablish their "good friendness" at the start of the season to set-up their breakup during the Rain Fight.

Then, of course, the Rain Fight happens. Mike says "It's not my fault you don't like girls." They effectively "break up."

But then there is the strange, interesting choice that there is no resolution ever about the Rain Fight. The apology for ignoring Will's D&D game comes from Lucas instead of Mike:

Will had his blow-up with MIKE, not Lucas! And we know that Mike absolutely was DRIVEN to apologize to Will, but we don't see it. Maybe he actually did, but it was offscreen. But why not have it ON screen? Why not clear the air on whether Mike thought Will was gay and was being homophobic to Will? Why not clarify THEN that Mike is a straight ally who supports his gay best friend, setting things up for Will to have a coming-out arc where he finds a love interest who is not Mike?

Instead, the writers made sure they had NO conversations for nearly all the rest of the season. They made sure Mike was focused on trying to repair things with El and blurting out "I love her." These two things together kept the Gay Rumors(TM) in check.

Season 4 then dramatizes how they'd GROWN APART -- specifically, how they don't seem to have stayed in contact and Mike seems to ignore Will.

What a strange thing for the writers to do! Mike and Will had been on good terms. That's because it was the start-of-season set-up for an ARC where they become close again.

Alright, so they soon repair things. But for what?

The Will Counseling Hour:

They literally have no conversations with each other where Will isn't comforting Mike and/or talking about El. To the extent that the GA was annoyed that Mike was "useless" and the California plotline was a "waste of time."

(Either the Duffers were bad writers or had a reason to spend so much time on the California plot. Hmm...)

The show was putting Byler in a holding pattern. The show established that Mike and Will were friends again, but with a "beard" on Mike: his relationship with El. Will's attempt to talk about anything ELSE -- like playing Nintendo and D&D -- was ignored as Mike worried about El.

The Will Counseling Hour ends only with their very LAST conversation of season 4, when Will shares that he can still feel Vecna. Mike becomes the Counselor: he resolves that they will beat Vecna. The bringing of these two together, along with signs that Mike and El are drifting apart, lay the trajectory for Season 5.

Season 5 will be the first season with Unfiltered Byler(TM) since Season 2.

EVERYTHING that kept the GA from thinking about the possibility of Byler, (1) how young they were in Season 2, (2) their being kept artificially apart and (3) Mike's focus on his relationship with El, will have fallen away.

For the first time since Season 2, the A Plot and Mike and Will being close ("a team") will mesh.

Meanwhile, we'll get Season 2 Mike because Will will also be the center of the story and IN DANGER. It's impossible to imagine Mike being his aloof start-of-Season-4 self. Add to all this Season 4 hormones: we're likely to see the heart-eyes romantic, Will-Voice-speaking boy in love we Bylers see in the 2nd half of Season 4.

And there's the Painting Lie, which the Duffers have told Finn Wolfhard will "pay off in the end." Mike WILL KNOW Will loves him, and loved him so much as to sacrifice himself for him.

Even if one doesn't accept Byler, one can't deny that there has to be a DIRECT RECKONING over whether Mike returns Will's feelings.

The entire structure of how the show has presented their relationship is building up toward this. The Strange Postponement of Byler had a purpose.

-teambyler

EDIT: You might enjoy my s5 speculations in "How the Duffers likely will make the general audience AWARE of Byler and CHEER for Byler" =D

they are ugly though. there is no way they didn't know schapp is a zionist. he gets part of the proceeds from those photo ops--they chose to put money in the pocket of a genocide supporter. they prioritized their love of a fictional ship over the lives of real people. they're like people who still insist on being harry potter fans. they're selfish and they have blood on their hands.

I don't know how to change your opinion, but what I can share is my world view.

EVERYONE BELIEVES THEY ARE A GOOD PERSON OR IS TRYING TO BE A BETTER PERSON THAN THEY ARE NOW

ig the reason I'm even responding is because I feel like nuance is being lost, I believe that just because not everyone is living their life always making every decision based off of Palestine doesn't make them a bad person. That's who this is about, I can have as much of a nuanced opinion of Noah Schnapp as I want, but those two people who are being insulted? they didn't ask for that.

If your first question to people is, do you support genocide? and not something like what tv shows do you like? maybe it's less about defending a VERY IMPORTANT LIFE SHATTERING GENOCIDE and more about feeling morally superior than people because they like a gay ship in fandom.

And yes maybe it is selfish, but everyone seeks self fulfillment first and foremost after any other basic needs, why doesnt every Zionist donate all their money to Israel? why doesn't every Palestine supporter donate all their income to Gaza? why is that money more important than the billions going to Israel for more weapons that could be going to Gaza for humanitarian aid instead? Like I said we should call out these behaviors but we should also try and educate rather than insult, and focus on where there needs to be an impact most. Which I can assure you is not the st fandom.

How much can one person do? Harm, help, doesn't matter, if they aren't a part of something bigger than themselves, nothing. Supporting a group as an individual brings about a sense of community, so being in a community can become supporting a particular group. If you are influenced by certain communities the things you believe in are gonna be different.

A good person supports their community right? If your community is yelling and screaming that an injustice was done against them wouldn't you support them? They wouldn't LIE or have other motivations.

This isn't an excuse for anyone's opinions, everyone is their own person who could educate themselves.

also I won't say that Schnapp doesn't deserve to be paid (???) for the work he does? You could be anything and you should still be able to be paid for your labor no matter your opinions.

Why are Steve stans and Jonathan stans arguing about who's better they're LITERALLY gonna make out in season 5

WHY ARE THEY FOLLOWING ME EVERYWHERE

(byler in the church??)

Y'know what THE byler song is for me?

It is absolutely 'Turning Out' by AJR. It's just so perfect for everything for them I'm telling you it's so them !!!!

I beg you all to listen to it because it is veryveryvery Mike Wheeler coded

oh I feel

my byler/stranger things fixation is not dead but it is dormant. tactically so... it is hard to survive a drought otherwise... but i think it would take all of one (1) official post or update to reawaken it. y'all feel ?

Mentally I'm still here

im going crazy from lack of byler

THE LAST ONE IS KINDA LOUD SO DONT HAVE THE VOLUME TOO HIGH!!

Stranger Things as Tubbo and CoyPiso clips because I got bored as hell