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us when mike wasnt able to platonically hug Will

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Imagine if the guns shot above our heads and then like we kissed as though nothing could fall and the shame was on the other side

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this was me like two weeks ago

how old bylers coming back probably feel like

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i love my bisexual daughters ❤❤❤❤❤

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and then when i see the gay news tiktok guy on my fyp going “GAY NEWS, stranger things just did THIS….” in 2025

what then

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The siblings 🫴🏻

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there’s no way mike is getting ready to say some stupid shit again

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it was even rough in SEASON FOUR. i do not understand how these people can watch an entire show with their eyes closed

I remember having to fight tooth and nail to prove to people that Will Byers is gay back in seasons 2 and 3

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everyone ready for the “stranger things becomes woke” articles?

super ready for byler to be canon, super not ready for the insane homophobia i’m going to see on the internet

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“byler is endgame,” i say into the mic.

the crowd boos. i begin to walk off the stage, my held hung, when suddenly a voice calls out in the darkness.

“no, she’s right,” the voice says. i look up. there in the stands is netflix’s marketing team

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reblog with your favorite screenshot of byler evidence

i’ll go first

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if you watch stranger things four like more than once it is literally so obvious that byler is canon like what

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Honestly, we should have known

"I've never felt like this with anyone before" then an inability to describe what "this" is when asked.

Much like being unable to describe the difference between a friend/sibling and a crush, or saying "you know what I think of you" or instead of describing how El makes him feel, simply repeating "I love you" over and over again.

Which is ultimately a shorthand we use, by the way. Not a description of feeling.

Mike has never once described how he feels about El. And it was played as cute for a while - like he's too nervous - but now? Having the "pay off" and he still didn't describe it?

He can't. Because he doesn't. know what it. feels like.

Every conversation with her about is:

"I have feelings for you" "Oh? And what do they feel like" "...You know...like when you have feelings for someone" "Which feels like...?" "loving somebody" "which feels like...?" "Like when two people are dating. Or when old people are married they feel that way about each other" "how do they feel about each other" "Like how I feel about you. How I feel about you deeply. How I've felt about you for a long time, since I first met you."

He basically says over and over again "My feelings for you? They're the ones I'm supposed to have. That's what I feel for you."

You go to school dances with someone that you - you know - someone that you...like; I've never felt like this with anyone before -old people say it to each other sometimes; you know what I think of you"

He never defines it relative to himself or what he feels for her. It's what he's supposed to. "I feel for you what boys feel for their dates at school dances". "I feel for you what old married couples feel for each other". "I feel for you what you want me to feel for you"

"what you want me to feel for you" is also his volume 2 speech as it is a direct response to El's previous words, essentially just saying the opposite of what made her cry last time. You can see further beat for beat breakdowns of that here and here

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if byler isn’t canon in season 5 i genuinely believe it was retconned because there’s literally no way

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will telling mike “you’re the heart” before mike’s monologue to el to motivate him to say i love you is honestly all the byler proof i need

even the song that plays over it is called “you’re the heart” literally why. there’s no pro-milkvan explanation for this

it was will’s feelings (that he disguised as el’s) in the van that motivated mike to say what he said. and the funny thing is, will’s feelings literally can’t even be applied to el - “you make her feel like she’s not a mistake at all, like she’s better for being different.” we learn this is simply not true from mike and el’s argument in s4e3. “i am different”, “you think i’m a monster too.” THAT DOESN’T SOUND LIKE HE MAKES HER FEEL BETTER FOR BEING DIFFERENT??

so basically. mike was able to say i love you because will motivated him TWICE with his own feelings for mike that do not apply to el, and even the soundtrack highlights the one line will says during that part of the scene as opposed to literally anything mike was saying. i genuinely do not understand how it could get more obvious than this

why wouldn’t el be the one to motivate him? even if she doesn’t directly try to motivate him, why didn’t they write it so mike is motivated by el’s feelings and el’s love and his love for el instead of needing his best friend to get him to say i love you to his girlfriend of two years

at this point the only argument that can be made against byler endgame is that the duffer brothers are bad writers, and even that isn’t very strong argument because literally why are they good at writing every romantic pairing except for milkvan. also i feel like a bad writer wouldn’t write all the shit with will’s feelings in? like if they were bad at writing milkvan would just be boring and byler would barely even be a possibility. also, come on. the cinematography in season four when it comes to mike and will is so telling and so well done. from that alone i can tell that the duffers know what they are doing with these two

tl;dr - something something byler endgame

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mike wheeler just once EVER explain your goddamn feelings for your girlfriend beyond the most surface level easy-to-make-up bullshit like every other person in a romantic pairing does

your homosexual is showing

"Max and Lucas and Dustin, they're great. They're great, it's just, it's Hawkins. It's not the same without you" is better than "But the truth is, El, I don't know how to live without you," actually.

The time I've spent without you hasn't been the same even with all the people who should make me feel better.

Being away from you is hard.

None of his entire speech has any subtext. Because it is a script. It is surface level lines he has heard used romantically.

Even marginally more specific, though not as cliche romantic and therefore obvious to the audience, is better. Is more romantic.

"The last year has been weird" IS EVEN MORE SPECIFIC THAN HE EVER GETS ABOUT HIS FEELINGS WITH EL. HOW. DO. YOU. FEEL, MICHAEL? HOW DO YOU FEEL!!!!

Weird? Like you lost her? Not the same without her?

Or did you just feel "in love"? Scared of losing her?

He also never describes what being without her is like. To Will, he tells him being without him was weird and not the same and generally not enough/less happy. With El, he told her that he didn't want to be without her. There was no why. There was no 'what it feels like when he is'. Just that he didn't want to.

Akin to "being broken up...it's been hard." How so? No, please, elaborate. Prove just ONCE that you can.

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the three most suspenseful scenes in stranger things 4 💔

Stranger Things 4 as an 90's anime (video), art by me 🖌️