#Spicy Byler

[bylrlve]

Finn made a new Stranger Things playlist today, STurn - it has some very interesting lyrics

- Angst in my Pants (🥴😳)

… Ahem… alrighty then!

- Don’t Ask Me to Explain, by Montreal

This reads as if it’s from El’s POV… reminder that on her ST2 Netflix playlist, one of the last songs was Jolene…

@greenfiend you may be interested in the blatant sexual references in this play, given your excellent theory that byler will have sex at lover’s lake (x, x)

This, from Promises I’ve Made, makes me nervous for El - recall Millie’s supposed shock at El’s ending. Promises are a m*leven motif, so it’s fair to assign this to that relationship, but otoh the lyrics are very gay so…

Most excitingly, the last song on STurn is Just What I Needed, the last song on Will’s Castle Byers Classics!

As for preceding songs, Breakdown’s lyrics are incredibly gay - and while Block Rockin’ Beats’ lyrics are sparse, The Rebel Kind is all about being yourself and has lyrics tying in to Mike in Hellfire.

[problematicbyler]

an incomplete history of byler sexuality discourse

and how widespread fandom purity culture and homophobia created a flourishing nsfw sub-fandom

some may call me chronically online, but i call myself a fandom historian. i've been a member of some fandom or another since i was about thirteen, and i've always been interested in the rise and fall of fandom discourse. though it's annoying in the moment it's happening, i think it's very interesting and telling to look back at the overall arcs and trends.

so, let's talk about the many times the fandom has cancelled people over byler sexuality, and how each level of "hornygate" has contributed to the growth of the proship/byler smut community.

(i use the term proship in its intended definition, which is to say, not "problematic shipping," but rather being pro-fiction, anti-censorship, and anti-harassment; it is a position of believing the fiction one creates or consumes doesn't reflect a person's real life beliefs or morals.)

i have been a stranger things lover since season 1, a byler shipper since season 2, and an active part of the byler community on tumblr since season 4. i'll mostly be focusing on post-season 4 discourse because that's what i've really been most present for and that was the period that really marked a turning point in the fandom.

seasons 1-3

i wasn't as plugged into fandom discourse back in the day, but the broad strokes of early discourse was mostly thinly veiled homophobia. claiming that it was sexualization to assume will or mike could be queer despite blatant queer coding, implying that analysts were no better than will's bullies to assume his sexuality, etc etc. people were criticized for shipping byler at all because they were so young (but these people naturally had no issue with mileven, so, again, homophobia).

season 4 (may-july 2022)

now, season 4. this is where byler was brought to the attention of a lot more fans, and stranger things' viewership reached wider than ever. the byler fandom on tumblr booms from 4k to 100k over the course of season 4's release.

this brought a lot of new people who have never been in fandoms before, people who never learned don't like don't read or your kink is not my kink and that's okay or ship and let ship.

or, a lot of times, people who had only been in fandoms for celebrities and bands, which tend to have different rules when it comes to shipping and sex, because they're real people. hence a lot of young antis' conflation of character with their actors, but that's a different rant.

so with a rapidly growing fandom, a show ripe for analysis, and the art of media literacy bleeding out on the ground in front of us, the hellscape of the fandom post-season 4 in 2022 followed as such:

august 2022

jo/kendra gate where two extremely popular analysts were called out for "sexualizing" byler while being adults (early to mid 20s). they were dogpiled and harassed because one of them said that will was giving mike "bedroom eyes" (he was) and one of them said mike was checking will out (he was):

pyshiie and moogate. the proship side of byler twitter rose up and started to divide itself. i'll credit my own joining-the-dark-side to pyshiie and moo, formerly barbjeanisms, who were two popular artists called out respectively for sexualizing byler and generally being proship. similarly, people were called out and criticized for even following or interacting with those accounts after this discourse.

september 2022

hosegate is the most famous across the byler fandom, and it's when some users proposed that the scene in the pizzeria uses phallic imagery to imply mike turns will on (or vice versa) and a lot of people thought that was too sexualized, it caused a divide, and more fanpolicing, etc.

october 2022

the artist noodlesandtea was harassed for having liked arguably nsfw bakudeku art (they were shirtless, it wasn't explicit) on the same account where they draw characters who are minors. they also drew byler kissing, which was a problem for some? anyone who defended them was also called a pedo, naturally. noodles also got called out for having drawn fanart of the popular e-rated fanfiction....

the unmarked mixtape. a massively popular sequel to a massively popular fic, the red envelope. for a long time, those were the most widely recommended byler fics, but it very soon became taboo to even admit to reading them because the sequel has explicit sex and the first has them making out.

sonnet116 gate is another fic that was beloved and then rapidly turned on by byler twitter because it had implied, fade to black sex scenes. it was about them hooking up but had no smut. and even the non explicit idea of that was offensive and pedophilic of anyone who dared read it. around this time, another fic was called out for having will moaning into a kiss, because writing a teenager moaning was also offensive and pedophilic.

i'm told i (jana / troublebyler gate?) may have influenced a lot of people joining twitter for byler smut after writing illicit affairs and some other smutty oneshots in rapid succession, seeing a lot of byler shippers moving to the proship side of the fandom just to discuss and write byler smut. i also hosted a little fandom gossip column on my curiouscat where a lot of folks confessed to reading or writing smut while pretending to be "normal" in the "main" fandom. it basically revealed/implied that a large amount of popular authors, artists, and accounts were secretly pro byler smut, and that many proshippers were "undercover" in the "main" fandom.

the blocklist era. around this time the "main" fandom also created a "st twt safety" account on twitter which was basically targeted harassment and mass reporting of proshippers. the account does warn of some genuine bad actors sending gore images via dms, being racist, etc. but by far, the majority of it was simply calling out proshippers for sexualizing byler, sharing screenshots they thought were "gross," which only resulted in spreading nsfw content to unintended audiences of minors that likely never would have seen the nsfw accounts otherwise.

november 2022

practice kissing gate is where a handful of popular fic writers were criticized for writing practice kissing fics (such as undertow), and in fact, any amount of byler making out, because adults "fantasizing" about teenagers kissing was "gross."

the proship corner of st twitter continued to grow a lot thanks to so many lovely fan creators, all of whom i couldn't possibly list but who have done a lot for the community! but we continued to get bombarded with endless callout posts and block lists and witch hunting. people were unabashedly policing people's following lists and likes on twitter to call people out for engaging with any questionable users or content. (if you search byler twitter now you can still see the wreckage of so many witch hunts.)

onward through 2023

over time things have mostly calmed down, or at least enough of the folks on "opposing sides" of the fandom have mutually blocked each other to survive. this is likely also influenced by the hiatus leaving the fandom to quiet down, the collapse of twitter-turned-x having many users migrate their fandom content elsewhere, and the mass exodus of many people from the fandom for political reasons. if i had to guess, the ramp-up to season 5 will see all new conflict as more "casual" fans return to the fandom. but who's to say.

which brings us to now:

spicybylerpolls gate, wherein the byler tag on tumblr collectively had to reckon with the fact that people want byler to have sex and it doesn't make them creeps to vote in silly polls about it. people criticized the blog for being overly sexualized and pure fantasy versus more "acceptable" analysis, with many making sweeping moralizing statements about anyone who dared interact with the blog.

this has kicked off tumblr's own sort of horny revolution in encouraging folks to be more open on here, whereas previously we were confined to our corner of twitter.

so in summary:

people over and over again put fan creators on a pedestal just to turn on them when they're "betrayed" when a person's views did not one-to-one line up to theirs.

teens in the fandom especially were "betrayed" by adults in the fandom they thought were "safe" (and i would argue that self proclaimed "safe" adults in fandom are far more dangerous to real life minors than the proship fans who sexualize fictional characters but dont interact with real teens)

most everything has been fueled by widespread ageism at any fan over the age of 18, widespread homophobia and puritanism in regards to exploring queer sexuality or discussing sex at all

so much hate has been over what are essentially "thought crimes", with people watering down serious accusations like pedophilia into a petty insult over disagreements on fiction

and the cycle repeats itself endlessly until things devolve back into witch hunting and policing peoples following and likes etc

the best part to me is that every single cancellation just resulted in more people flooding to the horny side of the fandom to post more freely and without shame. every time a person on twitter posted screenshots of my account to say how "gross" it was (while simultaneously exposing my 18+ nsfw content to their audience of minors) i had a surge in followers. the more the fandom squeezes, the more people slip from its hold.

but that doesn't make the harassment campaigns okay, and it doesn't mean the fandom didn't do massive amounts of harm to real people in an attempt to protect fictional characters.

my hope going forward is that the fandom can coexist as a community where people don't have to like or agree with certain content to treat the people who create it with respect and dignity. and i hope that, while this side of the fandom might grow more on tumblr, we don't have to relive the same old discourses and go through the same cycles we went through on twitter.

and remember kids, the block button is both free and fun.

[pinksmonkey]

The Truth About Hosegate and Lover's Lake

(An analysis by scrunchietown)

I found this like a year or two ago on here, but when I was making my Ultimate Byler Evidence/Analysis List, I was unable to find it again and realized it had been deleted. Luckily I took screenshots and had reposted them on Reddit so I could link to it in my list because I think it's really good. Anyway, now that I've reposted my evidence list on Tumblr, I figured I should post this too. I'm not sure why the original post was removed, so I apologize to scrunchietown if they removed it intentionally for some reason, but I think it's a really important thing to talk about so I want to share it here.

So anyway, here it is. :P

Because of the 10 image max, I will have to post this in multiple parts.

Here's Part 2.

[wisehearts]

I'd die for a morning after scene where will is just in an oversized tshirt from mike and his underwear, I mean they've done it before - imagine this but will's ass 😭😵‍💫

especially at lover's lake with the morning light coming through... and they have to scramble to get ready because others are coming to check on them. Thanks so much

[moleaboveyourlip]

[spicybylerpolls]

FOAH SIGHTING OMG FINALLY!!!!!!!!!! WE WON!!!!!

The boys are back!!!

[romainlettusdinnerparty]

ik it might look like mike is looking at the ground here but in reality they are filming triple take part 2: will’s ass edition

[willbyersbookshelf]

hi spicy byler tumblr!! I have painstakingly compiled a list of some of my favorite spicy byler fics and authors. this is all so incredibly subjective to me and my taste but I do like to think I have absolutely stellar taste so take that as you will hehe. all the love in the world to anyone who wrote any of these fics!! here is the link to my absolute pride and joy, my notion page of good smut:

tagging some lovely spicy byler creators and authors for some love as well!!

@problematicbyler @wisehearts @id-rather-be-home @jaseywolfhard @mirroringme @willbyershandmoles @souverian-are-we @kissingpractise @bylerfields @weebowill @castlebyersafterdark @spicybylerpolls @starsarefire824 @pluralbyler @moleaboveyourlip

[lath3o]

mike, will, and holly?,?,!,,,!!, will is definitely living with the wheelers

[id-rather-be-home]

similar to the post you reblogged about Mike can’t help but to stare at Will’s lips but now with the bike photos and him purposely going slower than Will so he can stare at his ass 🤭

if we don’t get some blatant ass staring from mike this season i’m going to actually be actually so disappointed in the missed opportunity that was RIGHT THERE

but considering the duffers were already bold enough to give a cheeky scene where mike briefly checks will out in his bedroom in lenora AND insinuate that will turns mike on with hose gate, i think the chances of a scene like what you’ve mentioned is highly likely

i mean mike literally cannot help himself from staring at will’s lips at any chance he gets! he’d have the most self control of any teenage guy in the world if he doesn’t stare at will’s ass at least a couple of times

[castlebyersafterdark]

will dropping things purposely so that he has an excuse to bend down and pick them up to make mike feral with desire

Oh, you mean Will Byers' number one flirt move, his tried and true method of seduction? He's very well aware of his strengths and plays to them constantly. Coincidentally and conveniently, his strengths are Mike's weaknesses 🤭 How does he render that mouthy boy speechless? Bend over. Distract Mike.

The party's all hanging out together and Mike is really on a roll that day, peak form, in one of his more abrasive moods. Will can't deal with it anymore. As some new argument strikes up, Will bends over to look through the pile of tapes by the TV, feigning interest in digging through to find a movie to suggest instead of continuing to put up with the bickering. He's bent over, signature tight shorts stretched across his ass, kind of absently shifting and swaying in place as he looks through the bin.

Mike's suddenly quiet now. Mouth slightly parted, spots of red flushed high on his cheeks. Eyes tracking Will's slight movements like the pendulum on a clock, like a compass searching for north. He sits down on the couch, tries not to linger on the pleasant feeling that jolts from his stomach to his groin. He bites his lip and looks desperately up at the ceiling, foot tapping in place. Everyone's there in the basement, this can't be happening to him right now. Will hands his movie choices over to the others to decide, renewing the argumentative spirit of the afternoon. But Mike's still quiet. Will sits beside him, face neutral for a moment though he so much wants to burst into giggles. It's too easy. Their thighs are touching and Mike mutters under his breath how unfair that move was. Will pats Mike's leg and reclines back, sinking into the old couch. Too damn easy.

[pluralbyler]

i just think will would stare at mike 's hands and fantasize about them all the time

[darkcrowprincess]

How Lucas finds out about Byler:

Lucas: When did this even happen?

Byler: At the house by lovers lake.

Lucas: AT LOVERS LAKE! Does Dustin know?! Does El? Does Hop- Oh my god Hopper is going to kill you Mike!

Will: Yes Dustin knows, Mike broke up with El before the fact, and no Hopper wont kill Mike. He doesn't know yet, but he wont(I wont let him).

Lucas: Well why does Dustin know before me?

Mike blushing and bashful: He kind of found us cuddling in bed after we, well we um.*Mike nervously looks away from them both.*

Will blushes but smiles sweetly at Mike: Yeah.

Lucas:

[wisehearts]

You guys CANT deny Finn is getting buffer and more toned after those pictures of him and gaten released.

Imagine that Mike picking Will up bridal style 😍

I just saw Will byers have a stroke after seeing those pictures

🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️ See I never had doubts that will is getting picked up, carried and thrown around by mike because it was just logical he could do it, but this visual now for mike? It's even more real. he looks AMAZING 🫠

This is current mike wheeler because they're still filming??? Oh my god... will is drooling, he is down atrocious and so so very gay

[moleaboveyourlip]

[spicybylerpolls]

I genuinely think your anons need to stop gossiping because it IS gossip and they also need to let go of noah schnapp and stop talking about him. He’s cancelled. A piece of shit who got called out and no one likes him anymore except some of your weird anons. Idc if we can stick to spicy byler or anything, but stop jumping the gun and mentioning that man. I have no problem of mentioning Finn unless it’s not weird, he’s a model and he’s unproblematic unlike noah schnapp.

Foah isn’t real either gtfo with that stuff finn would never love noah they aren’t even friends and he probably makes fun of him too.

You have no idea how dumb and immature and silly you sound.

"He is cancelled."

Get out of here and leave that nonsense to Twitter. The idea that you think an anti-censorship blog would encourage your kind of obnoxious behavior is beyond me. This is an immaturity free zone.

"I have no problem of mentioning Finn unless it’s not weird, he’s a model and he’s unproblematic unlike noah schnapp."

Wait until you realize no one is truly "unproblematic" and holding people to impossible standards like that is unwise. Your mindset is the exact same thing that literally tried to get Finn cancelled this week for going to Starbucks, so I guess Finn's not so "unproblematic," is he? And also Noah literally models too, so you sound extra silly.

"Finn would never love noah they aren’t even friends and he probably makes fun of him too."

Lying and practicing faux activism? Wow. Pick a struggle. The fact that you're attacking my anons for "gossipping" while thinking you have the moral high ground for calling Noah a "piece of shit who got called out and no one likes anymore" is disturbing.

"Stop jumping the gun and mentioning that man."

Noah isn't Voldemort. You don't have to like him anymore or agree with him or accept his apology or whatever- that's on you. But to come on here and talk about how excited you are for Byler endgame while pretending Noah doesn't exist, while pretending he isn't probably acting his heart out right now playing 1/2 of your favorite ship (and probably playing your favorite character in that ship?)

Galaxy Brain Absurdity.