#MILKVANS WOULD FREAK OUT

[noodlesbatches]

ross duffer should post rockie and byler on june 1st with no context tbh 🤷‍♂️

[cheesynachosworld]

HELPPP I just saw someone on TikTok say that APPARENTLY byler doesn’t exits and the only proofs we have are things taken out of context that we give another completely different meaning,, this was for a “no nuance November” video😦😦⁉️

then she made another video saying that she knows Will is in love with Mike, but Mike isn’t. AND THEN she was agreeing with comments on her video of people saying that Mike is “violently straight” and he would be offended or grossed out if he knew about Will’s feelings for him, she said she viewed this as a possibility!!!☠️☠️WTF??!! She also said that if the Duffer Brothers make byler endgame it would be fan service, just like if they revive Eddie😦😦⁉️⁉️ SHE’S SO WRONG, WHAT DOES ONE THING HAS TO DO WITH THE OTHER??!! AND BYLER IS MORE PLANNED UP THAN MY BIRTH

FIRST OF ALL: Mike is definitely NOT straight at all, he’s literally a homosexual man.

SECONDLY: even if Mike was straight, he would never treat Will like that, he used to always defend him from the homophobic bullies and he loves him VERY MUCH!!!

this freaked me out sm because the GA of stranger things has no idea what they are talking about, plus they also don’t know how to interpret Mike’s character👺

but this person wasn’t a milkvan either bc she also said that Eleven shouldn’t have been in a relationship with Mike bc she didn’t knew anything about life or relationships or herself,, I mean she was kind of getting the point,, but still didn’t🧍🏻

I saved her @ to see her reaction when season 5 comes out and byler become endgame >:)💖

[evil-ontheinside]

Free Day byler fic recs!

(which I use to rec some fics I forgot or wasn't sure how to categorize)

No one should ever have to look at themselves. by Stanningeverything

Mike discovers his asexuality, catastrophizes, thinks his relationship is doomed by learning the fact and despite everything his family still weighs on his mind. He deals with all of this (badly)

Just the ordeal of figuring yourself out, dealing with your family issues, all while thinking you are the worst person on earth. Hopefully he has a great support system with his friends and boyfriend.

i turned around and nothing was here by ethqreal

Mike didn’t care. Maybe because he always managed, he made his own choices regardless of what his parents chose to preach and if he really was cursed with ice running through his veins, it didn’t matter because he would always love the boy across town until his very last breath and he had frozen from the inside-out.

or a cursed boy, his boyfriend, an idle town and them against the world.

The End of the World by eagle_ace

Post season 4, vaguely pre-season 5. Things fall apart, to say the least. After everything, the party's not really a party anymore. Mike wants to fix it, but he doesn't know how.

Mike's POV, lots of emotions, I tried writing in the present tense which I don't normally do. There's byler, there's an el-initiated milkvan breakup, there's the party (sans max unfortunately) being friends. Hypothetically this could take place between seasons, but I'm certain there'll be something in season 5 that makes that impossible.

Left to Rot by Cate_Olivyn

“Oh.” Mike snapped his fingers, huffing out a laugh. “Oh, this is like that- that black and white movie my mom likes to put on at Christmas. The Jimmy Stewart one.” He stood a little taller, a wild look in his eyes. “Alright! I’ve learned my lesson! I can go home now, and appreciate my life, yada yada.”

Nothing happened. Mike snapped his fingers again, more urgently, before raising his voice in a yell.

“Lesson learned! I wanna go home!”

The world stayed as it was, broken and decayed, and Mike screamed into the cold, stale air.

Or: After a bad fight with his friends, Mike wakes up in an alternate reality that seems to be plunged into an apocalyptic nightmare.

an ode to hope (and other funny things) by @pyschologicalrocketgirl

“Everything's going to be fine, please don't freak out.” Nancy starts to say, which causes Will’s eyes to widen.

“That’s…not really reassuring, you know that right?”

Nancy huffs a laugh, “Yeah, it isn’t, sorry.” He hears shifting through the receiver, and he thinks maybe that's all she's planned to say.

“Mike’s in the hospital.”

Will sucks in an involuntary breath, letting the air back out, shaky. He nods repetitively, a little numb as he tries to process, before realizing Nancy can’t see him.

“Okay.” He aims for level but his voice cracks mid-way. He’s almost whispering, “Is- he okay?”

Mike's in the hospital, which kickstarts a drive to Boston and a worried Will as he thinks about Mike, the past, and love, all while conveniently held up by New York traffic.

the loneliest blackout by @drop-of-infinity

Will knew the stages of Mike’s breakdowns. First came the silence, then the welling tears. They would stay there, perched on the edge of his eyelids until he began to talk, and then they would make their enviable path down Mike’s face. The tears would increase as his words trickled off, and eventually he would break into gasping sobs, unable to speak, unable to do anything but cry.

Or, Will tries to rip the bandaid off. Mike breaks down. They figure it out in the end.

@bylerficrecweek thank you guys so much for organizing this! the whole week was so much fun and I really enjoyed going through my bookmarks and discovering new fics loved by others <3

[byersfanclub]

You can just tell that milkvinis really don't pay attention to this show because as of today, one of their most used arguments as for why Mike is in love with her and the right person for her is because in season 3 he was in the right while controlling her on how much she was using her powers instead of letting her choose herself, and according to milkvinis, since no one listened to Mike, El overused her powers and that's why she lost them. But in season 4 it was established several times that Vecna made the Mind Flayer bite her leg and suck her powers (that's how he became stronger and was able to start opening gates the following year). Literally the whole point of the "Mike not letting El use her powers by herself" plot was to show the lack of trust and healthy dynamics in that relationship. It's even worse when they go even further and accuse Max of manipulating El (when she just taught her to make her own choices, stand up for herself and make the choice to dump a boy if he's not treating her like she deserves). It really bugs me that they want to misinterprete a feminist arc on the main female character and accuse her friend (first and needed positive female influence on her life) of being toxic and manipulative, just for the sake of defending a sinking ship.

That's why we shouldn't take them seriously anymore, even if they come to the tag to cross tag and spit their dead ass takes

I think pretty much all of their reasonings are bad, including this one, but also just... so many other things that make el and mike a bad couple when they'd be better off as friends. I've never really taken them seriously in the first place, they're hopeful over a dying relationship where both individuals have constantly felt cheated and lied to, where neither can feel confident and secure, both continuously put on a front to seem cool to one another when they both know they're "freaks" and it'd have been different if this got resolved in s3 altogether and not slapped them back "together" at the last 5 minutes of the season and actually just showed us that mike and el can work and they are good for each other, but they didn't do that and went into season 4 showing us that they still lie to each other and make one another feel bad about who they really are and that they have to hide their true selves. milkvan will never be able to overcome this if they stay together or else it would have been resolved by now instead of dragging out this toxic, shit on and off relationship throughout 4 seasons while showing us how good mike and will are together and how confident and loved they make one another feel and the tension and jealously when it comes to girls between them. tbh, el never actually stood a chance with mike, she just got caught in the crossfire that is comphet and internalized homophobia within mike (as someone who is a gay mike truther, it's my belief he never actually liked el romantically, ever) and before anyone comes after me, I love el, but this is specifically targeted at other characters because stranger things isn't JUST about el, it's an ensemble cast for a reason and she doesn't have to be the center of everything all the time. she's used for story arcs for both hopper and max as well, I don't see how it's out of the realm of possibility she's used for mike and will and their relationship as well. THIS GOT WAY TOO LONG! anyways, yes, I overall agree to this.

[lordystrange]

The actual spin off idea that Finn guessed was this:

“An encounter with the Upside Down evolves into a grand adventure for video game-loving twin brothers living on the outskirts of 1980s Tokyo.”

The ”Eleven where are you?” comment was him telling about the time when several cast members were joking around with spin off ideas. And he didn’t even say Mike would be the one saying that comment. He said ”we”.

I can’t stop milkvans from being delusional, but I hopefully stopped a couple bylers from freaking out. 🙃

okay!!!

[heheidks]

Nancy and Mike : Story Arcs

ft. the word "bullshit"

"Everything that people tell you is important, everything that people say you should care about, it's all just... bullshit."

this line is has heaps full of subtext.

two of them pertaining to :

(i) popularity/conventionality

(ii) heteronormativity

(i)

the first one here applies to nancy who is figuring out her way through relationships and is constantly having two options in front of her.

steve : representing the conventional type of relationship (popular, sports jock, rich dad bla bla). he would also fit in this description given by nancy about her parents :

"My mom was young, my dad was older, had a cushy job, money, came from a good family. So they bought a nice house at the end of the cul-de-sac and started their nuclear family." "screw that."

jonathan : representing the so-called "outcasts" or "freaks", as society would call them. and here i would like to highlight this snippet from the show :

and what is bullshit? nancy says her love for steve is bullshit (ouch), nancy says her relationship to steve is bullshit.

(ii)

the second applies to mike and his relationship with el and will. same as nancy, he also has two options :

el : representing conventionality. representing heteronormativity. el is a girl. she has superpowers which make her easier to love and admire (according to mike). el would help mike to fit in, to become normal. and while nancy is trying not to be like her parents, mike is going out of his way to achieve that kind of pseudo-normalcy, and may i say, failing miserably.

will : will is the freak. he is gay. mike is in love with him. he represents the unconventionality here.

milkvan was also called "bullshit". (remember? by dustin)

in other words,

*both conventionality and heteronormativity have been called "bullshit".*

and while nancy is right on track in figuring out her arc, mike is still struggling.

mike wants to be with will. but he doesn't think that's possible (heteronormativity/societal expectations), and in s5 he will complete his arc and express his feelings for will.

the show is called STRANGER things. it obviously will consist of the most non-conventional storyline ever. byler IS endgame.

[shroomwar]

A list of Byler things I'm manifesting for the s5 trailer when it comes out in a couple years that we will all freak out over, maybe not all of them need to happen but I'd like at least one

An actual, little snippet of a Byler hug, and not some shitty one either, they're holding onto each other for dear life

Byler combat duo, just a glimpse at them kicking ass together

One of them screaming, and you can read the other's name on their lips (ok I know this would put everyone into a panic but like what if an epic rescue scene follows)

Close up of a hand hold

One of em gripping the other's shoulders as they're being vecna'd

Them in v e r y close proximity bc they're hiding from something but there's ✨tension✨ because they're always acting gay even in life or death scenarios

Idk this is just a lil idea I had but like Mike with a sword wrapped in cloth and gasoline, lit on fire, and there's like a swirling cloud of darkness which ig is like the mind flayer but anywho Mike slices the sword through the cloud, making a path right to Will who's at the center of it all

One of em needs to levitate istg

The bikes need to make an appearance. At first I wanted it to be Will riding on the back of Mike's bike but that's a pretty direct Milkvan parallel and I think it should be clear that they are very different relationships. Still tho that'd be cute

Will Byers with a fucking smile on his face for once in his goddamn life

"I know what you are" over a clip of Mike staring longingly at Will as per usual

Badass apocalyptic outfits

Crying and holding each other

Kinda angsty for my tastes but maybe one of em collapsing into the other's arms

A clip of them that seems totally random and we'll all be dying to know the context (smth like them chillin in the upside down next to the corpse of a demogorgon, or like a 3 second shot of them driving the pizza van and screaming)

This concludes my list. I do not think I will be able to survive two more years like this.

[buck-yyyy]

a summary of the situation, from what i’ve gathered by poking around tumblr for the last 20 minutes

so the script came out yesterday, and people were freaking out about four things:

1. will hates himself and has “ripped off the bandaid”, meaning that he’s never going to say anything more to mike about his love for him

2. will and el’s reunion was more meaningfully written than mike and el’s

3. will recognized brenner, but he’s never seen him on screen, possibly implying that he was a prospective number in the lab or saw him in the upside down or something (basically further confirmation on the wills having powers theory)

4. a lot of the lines sounded super fanfic-y, particularly ‘his mouth was as dry as the california summer’, which was super funny because it meant the duffers wrote like wattpad authors

well. here’s the thing.

the stranger things writers (a confirmed account) posted on twitter today that any released scripts were not real- meaning that these scripts from 8flix were fake and people were scammed out of their money.

HOWEVER?

nick, the guy behind 8flix, has been doing this for years, since before stranger things even existed, for a very small audience. he’s been in the film industry for 20+ years. it makes no sense that he would compromise his sites integrity and his own career by scamming people with fake scripts??

ADDITIONALLY

people who posted the whole script online were COPYRIGHT STRICKEN by netflix, which would imply that they are real?? not to mention that bylerscript was trending NUMBER ONE ACROSS THE WORLD ON TWITTER THE OTHER DAY, along with other tags and stuff, so it makes no sense that the writers would only speak up about it now?

so everyone is confused as hell, the people who paid for the scripts are very rightfully pissed off, half the milkvans are rubbing it in our faces that the scripts are fake, and essentially everything is chaos and no one knows what’s going on.

EDIT:

also, the stranger things writers confirmed that they’ll be releasing bits of the script for us every week, so we at least got one win out of this.

[thebestfriendstoloverstrope]

It depends on what moment we're talking about!

If we're talking about the look on Mike's face after El tells him "I love you, too" and kisses him, I interpret that as him being freaked out by the big commitment. It's one thing to kiss someone and like them, it's another to commit to the big "I love you". It feels a lot more adult, in a way that 14 year olds are often freaked out by, and in a way that Mike (who also likes being a kid, even though clearly he feels like he should be pushing past that) would be very freaked out by. This is how I interpreted that scene before I became a Byler (I wasn't a Melvin, not by any means, but more like a general audience member who sort of just accepted that Milkvan were the established couple for the show), and I still see it that way honestly!

If we're talking about the look on his face when Will and El leave Hawkins (and the way he looks when he's hugging his mom in shock), I interpret it as a sort of addendum to his shock after El kisses him: life is changing, and there's nothing he can do about it. Like it or not, they're growing up, and he's losing people (El and Will alike, regardless of the romance aspect for either of them) that are very important to him, and even if he sees them again, things will never go back to the way they were before. And I think Mike's freaking out about that and extremely unsure as to what to do about it.

So tl;dr: I think the general theme of the final scene of S3 is the fear of change that every adolescent goes through, especially when something key to their childhood gets taken away and you have to learn how to grow up without it.

byler’s who think Mike is still largely unaware of his feelings for Will, what’s your interpretation of the season 3 finale and Mike’s RealizationTM (put in tags)? this isn’t judging I’m genuinely curious and want to hear ppls thoughts bc whichever way I slice it it doesn’t make sense to me that he didn’t realize it and I want to hear other perspectives 🫶

[jahiaang]

i'm totally aware that this is the byler tag but i have a question related to m!leven. nothing serious here, it's just like a small survey and i wanna know what you guys think and calm myself down bc my byler confidence suddenly dropped and i got panicked. i'm absolutely not a milkvan faking myself as a byler or a byler transforming into a milkvan so pls don't hunt me down or i'll cry

here is the question: what if in s5 m!leven decided to have a break from their relationship and during that time, mike learnt how to truly express his feelings to other people and resolved his problems with his friends with a sincere apology, el figured out her true self and realized that after all this time, she still wanted to be with mike? in other words, if m!leven was endgame but well-written, would the plot still make sense? would that complete mike's character arc in a good way? would there be any way for the writers to create a satisfying happy ending for will without being with mike? on a scale from 1 to 10, how likely do you think m!leven would be endgame?

this question is such a mess bc i'm literally freaking out but hope you guys still get it. if anyone wants to answer anonymously, my ask box is open

[mixu]

I read Milkvan fanfiction so you don't have to

I'm not in the habit of reading Minions the Rise of Gru fanfiction, but yesterday I came across this:

My morbid curiosity is a fatal flaw. I wanted to understand what twisted but fascinating mind was behind this thing. This are the highlights of those 5k words:

The fanfic, while not exactly well-written, was nowhere as bad as how the post above made it seem. That just took it to another level.

The story was supposed to be a character study of Mike, but it's clear the author doesn't understand the characters, like at all.

The story losely takes place during S3 and starts with Michael suffering because Hopper made him lie to El. Which worsens a case of self hate because apparently every time he opens his mouth he hurts one of his friends. Okay there was the It's not my fault you don't like girls line but still, Mike doesn't go around insulting his friends left and right. There's some self-harm thrown in there bc why not. Oh and his friends call him control freak. He has a breakdown, El enters his mind, they wander around his darkest memories they kiss and it's El, the only one who ever tried to understand him, that saves the day.

Now, for some honorable passages:

For all they claim we hate El, I don't think any Byler has made me think of her as a guardian dog as this fic.

I'm not a Ted Wheeler defended but this sounded more like Lonnie to me.

This is how this Mike treats Will. What?

Mike and Lucas fight all the time.

Apparently Mike looked defeated when El dumped his ass.

At least they recognize Milkvan should share other interests aside from making out.

It is a kiss that brings forward Mike's good memories.

They only manage to understand each other after El enters his mind bc communication is for losers.

Everyone is a better person because of El.

All in all, this was anticlimatic. I didn't even get to laugh. If anything, I got to confirm that many Mixtapes don't process what they watch.

Would I do it again? Maybe, if I'm bored enough.

@shreya11111 this was for you and the rest of Bylers who were curious.

[lupon]

When will milkvans realize that the reason there's so little milkman content going around is because she show itself isn't giving them any content? Think about it: milkman only really got a date where everyone was upset, a dramatic fight, a wholesome reunion, one cute moment where Mike tried to make her smile, and a love confession. That's literally only 3 scenes of them that milkvans can enjoy, and Will was there for all of them. Almost every scene of milkvan was also a scene of byler. Now when people think of Mike and El, they associate Will, because that’s how the story is written. Plus, byler in general just got way more content than milkvan this season. Not only by the fact they have more scenes together, but with the amount of subtext there is to sift through. And it’s a fairly new ship to the general audience, so people took a lot of interest. 

The general audience just finds milkvan boring now. Like the ENTIRE fandom freaked out when Mike and El reunited in s2. It was an iconic moment that had everyone hyped up about the ship. And now they have a love confession monologue and nobody really cares other than people who ship them. It got widely overshadowed by relationships like lumax and steddie, as well as the reveal that Will was in love with Mike. I have honestly seen more steddie and lumax fan art than milkvan. There were so many big and new ships this season (or drastic changes in relationships like lumax and jopper), that people didn’t care about Mike’s love confession because everyone just thinks “oh, well yeah of course he loves her” and moves on. Most probably couldn't even tell you what he said in it. But you know what people do remember? “from Mike, from Mike, from Mike, from, from, from” because THAT was a huge reveal. THAT was the big and exciting moment in their relationship this season. It was unexpected and had people interested. So why would they not keep going with it? Why would they keep going with the moment that made the GA go “oh yeah, duh” and look away? 

Makes no sense.