#anti elmike

[nobodyinourstars]

My life would be 10000000000000000000000% happier if the Byler presidents direct Stranger Things.

They aren't the Duffer brothers, they're the Byler brothers 💙 💛

[dragonpasta]

ok, so I know there are so many signs pointing to byler being canon, but I want all of you to know that even if the duffer brothers leave their relationship "up to interpretation", I AM GOING TO BALL MY FUCKING EYES OUT. IF THEY DON'T HAVE AN EXTREMELY EMOTIONAL KISS WITH TEARS ON CAMERA, I WILL SUE THEM FOR EMOTIONAL TRAUMA.

[halfshellman]

mike don't get paralleled to one of el's dad figures challenge (impossible)

[unhinged-waterlilly]

Hate when sometimes people are like "Fuck canon" on a great thing. Like, let's not do that, I quite like this canon. There's a bunch of other canon you can tell to go fuck itself. This isn't one of them. This is a very nice canon. Leave it alone. <3

[gayofthefae]

There's a moment where both their fake joyful personas drop at the same time

[queen-of-hawkins-why-ler]

"They won't split up the MAIN couple of the show >:(((" and the main couple of the show in question is a girl whose arc has actively included her becoming progressively more self-reliant and less dependent on her boyfriend across ALL seasons + a boy who has been staring wistfully at his best friend's lips and reaching for his hand since they were like 12

[teambyler]

El's arc of "pleading with the wrong people" in s4 (Byler analysis)

There's a pattern in season 4. El's learning the difficult lesson that you can't always rely on other people to be what you want them to be:

There was no point in pleading with Angela to prop up her lie to Mike. There was no point in appealing to Vecna's humanity. There was no point in hoping that Mike would be a boyfriend who'd make her feel loved.

El had huge issues of feeling worthless and like "a monster" in s4. With such a low opinion of herself, she kept looking to others to solve problems she needed to take on her own.

That's why Mike's "love confession" -- after she had confronted Dr. Brenner for being the real monster -- was so against her ACTUAL arc in s4. She had confronted the source of her self-loathing, her abuser (Dr. Brenner). She was learning to love herself instead of pleading for love and kindness from others.

There was no happy-couple resolution for El and Mike after the "confession," because she now had a different view of what she wanted from her relationship with Mike, if she still wanted one at all:

She's focused on how she failed to stop Vecna, and she's not really opening up to Mike or seeing him as a partner in helping her process that. In retrospect, since they became official she's never really involved him in the biggest issues in her life, except to paper over them (start of s4) or to be in conflict with him (how to use her powers in s3).

To Mike, El doesn't seem to NEED him the same way she did before (exactly what Mike had feared). She's moved on to other matters.

She is in a different place now. And so are Mike and Will:

-teambyler

[noodlesbatches]

when they say “I love you.” but Mike kept ALLLL of Will’s drawings.

[stranger-theory]

"What is.. friend?" -El Hopper

How can a girl who knows nothing about friendship be in love with a boy a week after meeting him?

"How do I know what I like?" -El Hopper

How can a girl who has no idea what it means to actually like something know she likes and is in love with a boy?

I don't even have to pull this out of my ass for it to be crazy, this literally comes from straight from the show.

[thefirstlioveyou]

s1 mileven is so platonic it's driving me crazy. like really looking back and rewatching it after consuming copious amounts of byler, it can easily just be interpreted as two friends.

then you have the kiss, where the set up and delivery is so off. el hadn't seen mike in that way until mike kissed her, literally asking if mike would be his FAMILY right before. the kiss just feels so forced on mike's end. almost like a, "fine i'll just do it," or "i think i'm supposed to kiss her now."

there is so little romantic foundation to mileven in s1. but hey... if it's a girl and a boy, they have to be in love. they just HAVE to!!

[nobodyinourstars]

Guys plis stop calling Mike and Will gay!! They are so straight🙄🙄!!! Mike just look at Will's lips cause they are best Mates 👍💯

[will80sbyers]

They are so funny to me here, I love this scene because you can see just how much they both are trying so hard to pretend that they are cooler than they actually are... and at the end of the day if after years dating this is still how you're approaching your romantic relationship this relationship is definitely not for the long run, they have been together for months and in the summer they spent so much time together and yet they are still super awkward and embarrassed and they don't feel like being themselves and that's all I need to know that they are not meant to last as a romantic couple

[bangtanthoughts]

"but they've been building up mileven for 4 seasons!" my brother in christ. el got attached to mike cause he was the first guy her age that she met after she ran away and el was the first girl who showed any signs of any kind of interest in mike and mike felt like he had to have a girlfriend or he wouldn't be "normal". hell, even ted knows mike has zero interest in girls (”our son with a girl?” ), mileven was so forced it's crazy. they were kids who kissed a WEEK after they met because they felt like they had to, at least mike did cause el didn't even understand what the fuck love is. she didn't even have time to understand herself before understanding relationships with mileven being so rushed. it was not love at first sight, mike was ready to send her back where she came from right after she took them to will. mike's life DID NOT start the day he met her in the woods, he was there to find will in the first place. and when they found "will's" body? he literally almost spat in her face screaming ”what is wrong with you?”. and now when they're older, they still don't work. they don't understand each other, they're not giving each other what they deserve, they're making each other feel like they're in a room with no exit. mileven is toxic as a couple and they're SO much better as friends. i rest my case

[byler-alarmist]

Sometimes it crosses my mind that El must've never forgotten how desperate Mike was to find Will, and how angry and dismissive of her he was when Will was thought to be gone forever.

[gayofthefae]

The way he not only doesn't move until slightly at the end but also doesn't look down at her lips like she does at all

[queen-of-hawkins-why-ler]

Will Byers on his way to stand in the middle of the background in every romantically coded scene of Mike and El like his life depends on it