#byler analysis

[mrincrediblyblind]

“Does your species like…M&Ms?” — An Analysis

by me :3

(i’m not too sure if anyone’s analysed this before, if they have lmk so i can give credit. I keep winding up doing already existing analysis’s on accident)

This scene starts with Lucas and Mike by the vending machine, Mike is after a KitKat chocolate bar, we see as the machine goes to drop the chocolate bar, but gets stuck. Lucas and himself start to hit the machine in hopes that it would shake enough to drop, when most of the chocolate drops down into the bottom.

Mike looks over his shoulder, and sees Eleven, who wipes her blood nose. She’d used her powers to make the chocolate fall, so Mike thanks her.

The two hadn’t spoke since the breakup, so Mike goes and sits with her in an attempt to make up with her. However, instead of addressing the conflict they had, apologising for lying and getting her in trouble with Hopper countless times, he holds up a pack of candy coated chocolates and asks “Does your species like M&Ms?”

Now, I find this odd as Mike was going to go for a KitKat, and was settled with the Rainbow chocolates.

I’d also like to draw the comparison between the two rainbow candies that were both in the vending machine. Skittles and M&Ms

Skittles and M&Ms are both rainbow as stated however Skittles have shades of pink and purple.

M&Ms also are only chocolate, only the one flavour despite being multi coloured.

For the longest time, Skittles have been compared to homosexuality. Because of their bright rainbow colours and traditional fruit addition (being “fruity”, get it?), Skittles were released in 1974 (i beleive) and had started to be advertised to the US and advertised in 1979 with their slogan “taste the rainbow”.

M&Ms have been around since the 40s, like i said, only one flavour. Chocolate.

Mike and Eleven then go on to share the M&Ms. The rainbow chocolate of the one flavour. This is likely symbolising them sharing the same gender that they’re attracted to guys. Mike and Eleven both like guys.

The one flavour could also symbolise dark hair bowl cut? Or Mike only having the one type; big brown eyes and dark hair. Eleven, Will, Eddie, Probably button up boy who’s friends with Angela. (bonus points for freckles or fuckass bangs)

Now

Mike wanted KitKat, but got M&Ms

The kitkat is in the middle of Skittles and Reese’s pieces. Skittles, as stated earlier, represents queerness, Reese’s pieces are Will’s favourite chocolate as he tells the doctor in S2.

Now look at the item code down the bottom.

D1 is empty. We got little to no byler scenes in S1 because Will spent most the season in the Upside Down.

D2 has skittles, Mike spent 99% percent of his time by Will’s side. Season Two was peak Byler and likely when Will developed feelings for Mike, or at least when it started being depicted on screen that he had romantic feelings towards his best friend.

D3 I will come back to.

D4 if for S4. Reese’s Pieces is Will’s chocolate. I’m not too sure what directly this could mean, but maybe because it was Will’s birthday when Rink O Mania took place. Or i’m thinking it might be the fact that without Will, the plot wouldn’t have progressed in California. Without Will, he wouldn’t have given Mike the courage to keep positive or courage to say “I love you”.

For D5, I’d like to hear what anyone else has to say, But! Snickers have peanuts in them, like how Reese’s do. Snickers also has nougat, which is what Dustin fed D’Artagnan/Dart. The scenes in the AV club with the part in season two, Mike was very protective of Will. They were also in the same colour (click to see my analysis on clothing) and infront of the old Apple logo. The rainbow apple logo.

Now, for Season Three, Mike wanted the KitKat at D3, but ended up with M&Ms. Similarly, Mike likely wanted to be straight. He wanted to like girls, he wanted to have a heterosexual relationship but instead, he had to settle with an attraction to guys. An attraction to his best friend.

Lastly

After Eleven gets all the chocolate out for them, we have the shot of the machine mostly cleared.

She didn’t drop Skittles, Reese’s Pieces, Twix, 3 Musketeers, Crunch, Kitkat and Milk Duds.

Eleven never got Mike the KitKat he wanted. She never gave him the relationship he truely desired. But she did give him the Snickers at D5. This is Eleven giving Mike space in Season 5, letting him and Will have their happy endings together.

Now, i’ve already spoke about the significance of Skittles, 3 Musketeers, KitKat and Reese’s, so the other chocolates!

Milk Duds. In the Netflix Geeked episode for Season 5, Caleb shows two of the fans that got to see the behind the scenes, the costume room. He shows them Robin’s Scoops Ahoy uniform and the red converse. He tells them that Maya was constantly drawing and drew on her shoes

She would’ve wrote this before before they stocked the vending machine.

Also, we all know that Robin is canonically gay!

Twix has caramel in it, like the snickers bar. But similarly, the name “Twix” means “twin sticks”

because two come in the packet. Two of the same chocolate in the one wrapper. Yellow/Gold as well

Crunch bar or Nestle Crunch consists of crisped rice and Chocolate. However, my previous hyperfixation was ghostbusters so

here, Peter Venkman gives Egon Spengler a crunch bar. Ring any bells? Probably because Will and Mikes costumes in Halloween were:

Egon and Peter/Venkman and Spengler!!!

Not 100% sure what this could symbolise, however i beleive this symbolises Mike giving Will his love in season five :)

And it’s evident that this had to have been purposeful, after all, Will literally chose reese’s from the vending machine and we can see him holding it. I think these details would totally be a part of this if they can have a detail like that!

After all, it’s too coincidental, don’t you think? I thought i was reading to far into it until I recognised the crunch bar

Anyway!! I hope you enjoy this analysis

(also, it’d be totally tubular if you could reblog, ive spend two consecutive hours researching and writing about chocolate 😖😖)

[sweetenerly]

Any and all byler hate/denial is rooting from homophobia

There is a significant difference between friendship and relationship dynamics in Stranger Things and its been shown to us so many times using subtext and paralells that Mike and Will have a chemistry equated to other canon couples.

We have examples of platonic, affectionate friendships with no romantic subtext in ST (ex. Max & El, Lucas & Dustin) none of which are comparable to byler. None of them have moments like lip stares, taking triple takes at eachother (that was actually insane Michael) or cliche romance tropes like moment killers.

It is so painfully clear to me that if Will was a girl, there would be no discussion, i'll even go as far to say that there would be no mileven because the GA would collectively agree on who should be endgame in this triangle. It's just that people cannot fathom the possibility of more than 3 gay people existing in one town in the 80s which is absolutely bizzare. This is a show about outcasts and conformity "killing the kids" and you think they wouldn't put queer people, who at the time werent treated as valuable members of society at the forefront?

[bylerpining]

mike being left speechless by will you will always be famous

[thy-lovelylionheart]

Whenever I see people talking about the Mlvn kiss at the end of s3, I think of this scene from s1e4 of Diary of a Future President where Bobby asks his new girlfriend (the girl who was his crush for the first 4 episodes) to do what essentially amounts to "2 minutes in heaven" in the closet, and he realizes afterward (after coming out of the closet) that something felt wrong and he didn't feel anything kissing her

(the video shows both the DOAFP scene and the Mlvn scene, to parallel them)

Bobby realizes by the end of the season that he's gay and has feelings for his (straight) best friend

Look at the face Bobby makes in front of the closet and tell me it's not the same epiphany Mike goes through in front of the closet

They're even wearing similar shirts

[willelwarrior17]

[la-plum-sefue1]

i honestly am pretty certain that, i think, that will and mike really won’t be ashamed or too panic-y with physical touch at all. i think they’ll be, i mean they clearly will be, just like in season 1 and especially season 2. but when it comes to close proximity, or when it comes to oddly prolonged eye contact and warm smiles, that’s what causes the panic. i think also when said touch becomes more intimate, more gentle and caring and loving, when it feels warmer than just some surface level hug or tug. like it could be these things like a post i read yesterday, where one cleans the other’s wounds. i would imagine the touch is so soft and so careful and delicate, the one cleaning the wound gets closer to be able to see better and when they’re done, they spot the other staring deep, deep into their eyes, unmoving. they stare at each other for a moment, this forcing out a small chuckle from both that they can’t hide from nervousness and they subtly just further from each other. i don’t think they’d get too nervous to the point where one is gulping and just, panickingly, walks away with some sort of guilt or avoidance. i think that song and dance is kinda over. it’s the end of the world, and i think they have bigger things to worry about and be more dramatic over. obviously they’d get nervous, but not distant, i don’t think so. i think they’re super duper close now, and they know better than to be worrying too much about this sort of shit, and it’s just pretty normal for them, but obviously there’s always a hint of something more that makes them shaky and nervous. but even when this is the case, it should be more like “oh, this is normal between them and mike knows it definitely makes him feel something weird he can’t quite put his finger on” making path to the possibility that his realization that he is romantically attracted to will is still a surprise to him, bc holy shit. and then he starts connecting the dots to all those moments and holy shit, i’ve actually felt this way for years… what the fuck, how did i not realize sooner. and obv he has a gay crisis, bc this is what he’s been told his entire life and bc gay ppl are supposed to = bad in the eyes of society, why him? and this super amount of guilt and panic, bc the internalized homophobia is still there, but didn’t manifest so strongly for a long time until this realization. or maybe he’ll embrace it, bc will makes him feel secure and safe and unjudged, and he’s just glad that he fell in love with will of all people.

anyway, thanks for reading my prompt 🙏

[radiobyers]

why mike’s sexuality can’t affect his relationships fate — no matter what his sexuality is:

an analysis of m*leven’s relationship & specifically why i believe that mike being straight still would not equate to him & eleven being endgame.

mike wants nothing more than to feel special for his differences, but el sees him — & being with him — as normal & undeniably, mike’s life has been a lot more “normal” than hers. el wants nothing more than to live a normal life but mike sees her as a “superhero”. el lies to him about her life in california to cope with bullying. she can’t control the bullies but she can escape through fantasy & make mike believe that she’s settling in.

the duffers describe mike as a kid who “escapes” through fantasy gaming. he learns to play d&d to cope with bullying because pretending to save the party from supernatural forces makes him feel stronger. in season 4, he can’t comprehend why el can’t find comfort in being a “superhero” when she’s experiencing bullying, because all he wants is to feel like a superhero. (linked: see page 13, titled: “the kids”. sentence 4 under “will byers”.)

i made a post a while ago about the above scene’s parallel, here.

el admiring things in nancy’s bedroom, calling nancy pretty & asking mike if she’s “still pretty” without nancy’s wig on, has nothing to do with mike at all. it is el trying to comprehend & take on the life of a normal girl. nancy was the first girl she had seen outside of the lab & the life the wheeler’s lived was very new to el. it is a consistent plot line that she just wants to be a regular child. it’s why her friendship with max is so good for her. max wants to partake in typical teenage girl activities & shows el how to join in.

however, el’s new interest is not something that she can enjoy with mike. season 3, episode 2 makes it clear that while el is really enjoying her time shopping with friends, mike hates every moment of his. as a matter of fact, none of mike’s interests can be shared with el either. they quite literally don’t share any common ground other than both liking presents. that sounds like an over-exaggeration but it isn’t. mike even stops playing d&d when el is around, but as soon as she moves away, he becomes passionate about it again.

they don’t watch movies together, they don’t bond over food & they don’t have any real conversations, unless they’re talking about the upside down. lucas & max see movies together, read comics & have inside jokes. dustin & suzie bond over movies, sing together & share most of the same nerdy interests. in comparison to other couples their age, mike & el don’t seem to connect. here’s an example of how differently lumax & m*leven bond from season 3, episode 5:

max & lucas are both happy to sit together, snacking & reading. mike & el are sitting beside them reading the ingredients list on a packet of m&ms. they’ve just gotten back together but instead of catching up or talking about it, they’re reading the contents label on a packet of m&ms… the directors could have given them something else to converse over, but alas, i have nothing to suggest as a replacement.

the m*leven-byler triangle

while this love triangle is complicated, will being in love with mike is not a spanner in the works. in season 4, will does not intend to break these two up, nor is he prepared to expose his feelings to mike. will isn’t an obstacle that m*leven needs to overcome. so why are his feelings so involved in the plot? foreshadowing!

will, a queer character, has a false understanding of mike & el’s relationship. he thinks that they’re happy & in love but they’re anything but happy in st4. however, will does not know that so he gives up hope & waits for his feelings to pass. except they can’t pass, because he’s getting mixed signals. doesn’t that situation sound awfully familiar? you’re thinking of robin & vickie.

in case you need a reminder; robin loses hope that vickie may love her back because she assumes that vickie is already happily in love with a boy. however, vickie’s boyfriend breaks up with her shortly after this so apparently they were not all that happy or in love. the foreshadowing here is that m*leven are headed in the same direction as the “happy couple” in robin’s scene.

vickie’s sexuality was not mentioned in the show at all, yet, the audience believes her to be queer from her actions. do you see how easy it was for them to break up a presumably straight couple & introduce one of those characters as queer?

however, the interesting difference between robin & will in these scenes is that robin looks devastated but will does not look heartbroken at all. in fact, he looks happy. mike however… he looks all over the place. i have no idea why mike’s expressions change so drastically, but i do know that finn wolfhard is a very expressive actor, so i’m willing to bet that he’s trying to convey a mixture of mike’s emotions here.

final note on this: if you read this far, i love you!! i could go on but this is way too long. i’d like to say that i do believe that there’s a lot of love between mike & el but ultimately, their love is not compatible. i may do a contrast post where i discuss how aligned mike & will’s hobbies/goals are because it was fun to get this out of my brain. anyway, i am 100% sure that no other character will be at fault if they aren’t endgame, because they were never built to last in the first place.

[censoring the ship name so it doesn’t show up for shippers]

[love-byers]

will glancing at mikes hand on el's shoulder (because that's what mike used to do with him)

vs

mikes hand being on will's shoulder again, but will not even glancing at it

specifically note how mike's hand (the same hand, might i add) is in the bottom left corner of the screen in both shots. however in one it is slightly obscured and only used as a way to highlight will's longing and heartache. in the other it is fully visible and literally glowing in sunlight.

i've posted before about how mike and el's moments of intimacy are obscured and not handled with care, and that continues here.

all of mike and el's moment must include will. we cannot see mike and el together without being reminded of how it hurts will. they can't even have a moment alone without others invading the shot, except their fight of course. plus the lighting and color grading is not warm and inviting like it is in, for example, the byler cabin scene. mike and el are having a sweet moment of intimacy, but the scene is pale and desaturated and there's literally a cut in the middle of it 😭. meanwhile, mike and will are talking about something daunting and scary, about how vecna is going to kill every living thing if they don't kill him first. but the lighting and grading is warm. the sun is shining down on them, putting mike's moment of physical affection and comfort towards will on full display. well, the sun is shining down on will. mike cannot be in the sun, in the light, in the warmth until he reconnects with will. until he stops avoiding physical contact with him. until he overcomes his fear. there are multiple extended shots of this so we can fully absorb the moment. it doesn't rush by, with distracting cuts and sad people in frame. el was sad in her room as this was happening, but we don't see it. it isn't rubbed in our face that el is hurting as byler are having a moment of intimacy. it is solely about mike and will connecting, about mike reaching out to comfort will, about them agreeing to be a team and kill 001 together. and mind you this is the second to last one on one scene in the whole season, so everything happening is important set up for their dynamic in the next season. it's byler, then hop and el, then the ending sequence begins. and how does that ending sequence conclude?

yeah...

[williambyersmichaelwheeler]

In the eyes you see love in it for real 💕🌈

[gay4byler]

[mrincrediblyblind]

Internalised Homophobia Of Mike Wheeler and My Experience with it

so I wanted to talk about internalised homophobia as someone who’s experienced it first hand and written a character with the same problem. I’ll also be covering stuff from the van monologue that links to this, so you can just skip down to that if you do not gaf 😭 but hey, you might read it and go “haha, Mike coded” so who knows. It’s just me showing that i’m qualified to talk about this 😼😼😼

ANYWAY!!!

So for me, i’ve never actually felt an attraction to the same gender as myself growing up. It was only 2021-2022 that i started to crush on guys yet I didn’t actually understand what was going on because i was in the middle of exploring other things about myself. I tried on many different labels that felt wrong, and then went “fuck it” and forced myself to have a crush on my best friend at the time (who was a girl btw).

At some point, all my friends had forgotten about any signs i’d shown about my identity, yet I proceeded to develop a crush on some guy.

Despite being god awfully ugly, problematic and racist (probably some key contributing factors), i did not want to come to terms on having a crush on a guy for the longest time. I HAD to like girls, despite only ever being in a situationship once in the past.

Quite literally up until late last year I kept forcing myself to crush on girls to not come to terms with that part of me who liked him — Let’s call him badminton.

First, i’d cycle through hallway crushes who were actually just girls I thought were pretty. I ended up “crushing” on a girl in my class and then “Badminton” got with her and I realised how hard it was to escape this shit.

Then last year I “crushed” in several slightly alternative people who are either now just my friends or I drew them in my notebook in class and then never looked at them again (yeah i’m sorry women, my bad 😔) i feel like it was weird to worry so much about girls in a way that none of my male friends did.

And then i wound up having to spend more time with “badminton” as my friend had got with him and i didn’t understand why it bothered me so much, and whenever he was upset i went out my way to try and comfort him and look out for him, which wound up me coming to terms with my feelings. It was almost like I fell for him, but it was actually like re-opening a book youve half read and had been neglecting on your shelf for a while.

Okay imma shut my corny ass up now 😭

NOW THE PART YOU’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR: The Comparison >:D

Literally every byler shipper I’ve encountered on this platform is represented either through Will or Mike. All of you motherfuckers kin one or the other, or both. You’re also all gay.

Through experiences in the past we can relate to these characters. I think for me personally, the queer coding of Mike Wheeler and the fact that — if season 5 plays out right — I have been in the same headspace as him and I know what he’s thinking, what he’s feeling and what he wishes he wasn’t feeling.

Here’s something I picked up on:

we know that in the van scene, Will is using Eleven as a way to express his emotions. We know this because it’s in the script that Jonathan knows he’s lying about El and all. Jonathan looks in the rear view mirror, clocking Will’s lie. (i’m not too sure if that’s what it says word for word, but it’s nearly the same thing.

Will is talking about being different. Feeling like you’re different, “and when you’re different, sometimes you feel like a mistake”.

Not only is Will using El as a metaphor for himself, but i think that perhaps this is a metaphor for coming to terms with your sexuality. After this scene, Mike starts acting completely different towards Will as he’s coming to terms with his sexual identity. What Will says about being different resonates with him.

“but you make her feel like she’s not a mistake at all. Like she’s better for being different”

once again, this resonates with Mike because dating Eleven makes him feel “normal”. It makes him feel easier for him to push his feelings away as he feels like a mistake for his homosexuality and romantic feelings towards the same gender.

Anyway. Maybe this is why I feel so uncomfortable with Mileven 🧍‍♂️

i mean, naturally though. You wouldn’t ship Will with a girl now, would you?

[teambyler]

My video "A LAWYER'S EVIDENCE that Mike and Will become a romantic pair in Stranger Things" is out!

Many of you have followed me ( @teambyler ) or read my essays analyzing Byler (I've linked some of the most-shared ones below). I am actually also a LAWYER who has a YouTube channel called RONALD OFF THE RECORD, and I just released my big video on Byler! (I also have another YouTube channel with 45K subscribers that I mention in the video)

I'm prepared to put my professional reputation as a lawyer on the line to comment on a piece of science fiction, because goddammit this is important to me! It is not "delusional" to think Will and Mike will become a couple, and there is nothing wrong with you if want it to happen! This is a video essay I've been planning for at least SIX MONTHS, and I put a lot of work into it. Please share, and please leave comments. Enjoy! =D

0:00 Why this video 1:38 Hate for Byler on the internet 10:16 Case for Mileven 15:21 Case for Byler: Starting premises 17:56 If Will were a girl… 25:30 The evidence! 29:05 EXHIBIT A: The Snow Ball 31:34 B: Mike's reactions to El and Will being upset 34:21 C: Season 3 ending montage 39:16 D: Airport reunion 47:51 E: Rink-O-Mania argument 51:28 F: Heteronormativity, audience expectations 58:25 G: Throwing away the letter 59:55 H: 2nd heart-to-heart scene 1:05:43 I: Mike can't say he loves El 1:13:27 J: Platonic reunion 1:15:12 K: Will's role convincing Mike to say "I love you" 1:20:08 L: Effect of the "love confession" on El 1:39:54 M: The Painting Lie 1:43:22 Honorable mentions 1:45:27 Non-diegetic evidence 2:01:23 Actor statements 2:10:34 NOT how you write an unrequited love story 2:16:07 Why Byler SHOULD happen (queerbaiting, etc.) 2:28:21 A more powerful story 2:35:45 A personal note

I'm now making this my new pinned post, so I'll list a few of my posts here for people to check out.

ADDITIONS: -28:00 On "We should normalize same-sex friends being affectionate, they don't have to be gay," I should have been clearer. HOMOPHOBIA is the reason for that stigma. Straight friends feeling like they can be affectionate in our society HAS to include normalizing LGBT+ people. -1:16:55 I should've said this more clearly: Will reminded Mike that who HE is, HIS unique qualities, make him worthy of love and make El love him, not dumb luck. And Will of course could convey that because Will loves the actual nerd MIke and everything he is. -1:17:06 Mike making El "not feel like a mistake" doesn't fit El, because she says that Mike looks at her "like I'm a monster, too". Nor did she "push you away because she was afraid of losing you". That's Will, not El. Mike felt love because Will was describing himself. -1:52:36 I forgot to mention that, in the original Nina opera, Nina's lover is ALIVE and DOES return. The Duffers changed the story so that Nina's lover does NOT return, to further suggest Mike won't return! -2:35:22 I'm kicking myself for not being more specific about Mike and Will being heroes in more than one way: I think the theme of bullying from s1 will return, with Will (and also Mike) having to face bullying for being boyfriends in Hawkins.

EDIT: I hit 1000 subs, only to discover THIS VIDEO CANNOT BE MONETIZED. ='( I think I put over 100 hours of work in this video, and this isn't sustainable for me unless I get support. This also means I can't make public videos with the same quality -- using show clips and music makes a stronger impact. I've considered deleting and reposting an edit, but that would losing all the wonderful comments and CUTTING OUT THE LAST SCENE. ='( ='( ='( NO. FUCKING. WAY.

So this is what'll happen: future videos NOT use clips and music to the same extent, except versions I post on my Patreon. And I need Patrons because I don't make money as a social-justice lawyer, and rely on that plus YouTube ads. Here's the Patreon link! (Any future video will be clipped, with the full version on Patreon) https://www.patreon.com/c/theruleslawyer

Some other @teambyler posts:

Mike was saying "I love you" to Will

Questions to ask if ever you have Byler doubt

How the Duffers have set Will up to have a happy ending in Season 5

The most heartbreaking way Byler can culminate (and how I predict it will) (I know this is less likely than an "escape from Camazotz" possession scenario, but I still want this to happen =D )

How the Duffers likely will make the general audience AWARE of Byler and CHEER for Byler

-teambyler

[myname1sca1]

When Finn Wolfhard's nervous lying tell (pursing his lips) shows in his acting

[thy-lovelylionheart]

Projection vs. Reality for @glisten-inthedark

a.k.a., How Will thinks Mike also makes El feel vs. How Mike actually makes El feel

[ghostlyaces]

Byler Kiss 🤭

[butter-bubbles]

The thing that absolutely gets to me in this scene is how Will doesn't even look upset when he sees El and Mike (totally platonically) reuniting.

The GA always argues that Will's included during their “romantic moment” to convey his sadness/unrequitedness/queer alienation, but like he's just happy to have his sister back in this moment. There’s not even a hint of sadness on his face. It's Mike who's acting strange here.

Bro looks like someone just electrocuted his cat, like who is this loser boykisser? Cringefail Mike Wheeler, never change.