#byler jancy parallels

[love-byers]

these scenes play back to back btw

just thought you all should know that

[gayofthefae]

Just noticed Mike and Nancy both have the ily fight in episode e3. Then separate and spend the rest of the season with the Byers until reuniting in episode 8 with Steve/El having found new purpose for themselves and self love and established themselves as individual people outside of their relationship in that time. Pacing choices.

[waynepistachio]

I find it incredibly interesting that the song used here when El kisses Mike and he stands there completely confused when they bring up the topic of him saying that he loves her and he assumed he didn’t hear her since he was talking to Max (The First I Love You)

Is the same song but remixed and slowed played in this crucial scene here when Nancy and Jonathan deny their romance lying that they’re “just friends” when clearly they are in love with each other even though neither has admitted it verbally (The First Lie)

But the thing I noticed the most is that the fact the song played here with Will (Being Different)

In the scene where Will is practically breaking down confessing his pent up emotions the past year with Mike not having really talk to him and struggling with the fact he wants him romantically and feels like he’ll never have the love with Mike that El has is literally another remixed and slowed version of The First Lie except this one is MASSIVELY remixed. Notice how every one of these similar music pieces are literally the revolving around a love triangle, realization of feelings for said person in the triangle and it’s always a Wheeler and a Byers like……????

Obviously we don’t know much about Mikes POV involving Will and his feelings but I find it INCREDIBLY important that they’ve made it where this melody is literally only played with the Byers/Wheeler relationship I think this music alone is a massive hint that Mike could indeed in fact end up with Will romantically.

[gayofthefae]

I love that all the Byers and Wheelers flirt the same familially it's the most adorable family resemblance

So I was scrolling through my camera roll and oh well okay, The siblings are siblinging

Now tell me who deserves a raise? The casting directors for casting them as siblings or Finn and Natalia for twinning out these "trying to hold my laughter down" facial expressions while interacting with their respective Byers?

[will80sbyers]

They all find their lovers vs. El (saves) finds herself

[jonathanbyersphd]

Jonathan and Argyle in the front seat: Sleep deprived, stoned, have been driving for hours looking for El

Mike and Will in the back seat: 500k words, childhood friends to lovers, slowburn, minor angst, hurt/comfort.

[willbyerssupremacist]

jonathan definitely looked at these two and got major deja vu bc wtf😭😭

THE SAME BYERS/WHEELER PLACEMENT AND EVERYTHING??

[gayofthefae]

I genuinely think people have been socialized to forget about friends. Friends who are super close are not inherently basically siblings OR basically dating. Friends can BE that close.

The idea that "closer than friends" exists just leads people to go "Will and Mike are closer than friends, so they can only be either in love or have a sibling relationship".

We agree though. They're "more than friends". But they don't have to be brothers just because you don't think they're in love. Regular friendship exists and it isn't just a stepping stone to found-siblinghood or romance.

It only seems contradictory to romance because in your mind "super close" means either the wants to date category or never will date ever category.

And also we know it isn't the second one because either of these categories have to be mutual. If Will doesn't see Mike as a brother then their relationship isn't brotherly.

Just two brothers looking at each other how brothers do.

Yup.

Sibling interactions.

Anyways reminder that my sister does not look at me like this and neither do my friends. But if you thought of them as siblings, you're not wrong. You probably just mislabeled thinking of them as more than friends because you were taught to. But you can just hold the belief that they're platonic. That's a thing. And then it also doesn't warrant disgust at the idea of them dating because totally platonic people become romantic all the time, but totally platonic and familial ARE different, even though they've been falsely equated a lot.

Saw that post about how OP saw Will and Mike's relationship as brotherly and I couldn't help but wonder how tf were all those longing looks the same as Will and Jonathan's relationship, or Mike and Nancy's relationship????

I'd be a little concerned if they looked at their family members like that

[messrsbyler]

EEEEEEKKKKKK!!!

[love-byers]

reminder that the scene that plays immediately after this....is this

and the song that starts playing around halfway through the byler scene plays through the entire jancy scene.

they do this in the s3 goodbye scenes too

the jancy scene plays immediately after the byler scene, and the music begins when mike smiles after will says "not possible", and plays throughout the jancy scene

[gayofthefae]

The fact that Mike and Will were singled out from their friend group from the beginning, not just in comparison to Mike and El shows me that this is a love story not a love triangle. As the seasons progress, El is worked more and more into their friend group and town, making more relationships with people other than Mike to secure her place of normalcy and status in their friend group. Season 2, Hopper, season 3, Max, season 4, Will (, Jonathan, Joyce). Her screentime is spent integrating her into being just like everybody else in Mike's life as a permanent fixture that has other ties and therefore would not disappear if they weren't connected anymore. Will spends his seasons spending alone time with Mike, having individual plots and being emphasized and singled out even when they're in a group setting like in season 3 - they still had Mike chase after him and not Lucas so they had a moment alone.

If Will was going to just retreat back into blending in with the friend group, they would have spent more time on his relationships with Lucas, Dustin, Max, and El, but they didn't. They spent all their time making sure you knew that they're a friend group and they're "all best friends" but especially Mike and Will. If there's no romance, what's the point of "especially". Will having feelings for Mike does the "especially" that would be necessary for him being the most important to come out to on its own, you didn't need to point it out throughout the series.

Mike and Will were singled out before Mike even met El and that's why it's a love story and not a love triangle. Because it was already there. And because they were emphasized for years completely disconnected from onscreen or marketing the idea of competition. If it was a love triangle, it would have only come up to threaten Elmike's relationship like how Steve and Nancy don't have moments between their breakup and season 4. Their stories aren't about each other so they don't need each other narratively when it isn't in relation to Jonathan. Mike and Will exist outside of Mike and El and have from the beginning. It can't be a love triangle if the second relationship has no bearing on the first.

[angelwithnightmares]

I think I’ve seen this before

And I liked the ending

[soniclion92]

"We're just friends" *looks at your lips longingly*

[bylerisrequited]

someone pointed this parallel out on twitter and now i'm going to think about it forever.

[gayofthefae]

I've seen some sweet ones after the breakup leak that were like "goodbyes" saying "I think this is the end guys, we had a good run". As I always say, I wish them the best fix it fics if that's what they want. If not, the JUICIEST for their rebound ship.

Also SO excited for El, Hopper, Max, Lucas plot. I mean we knew El's arc is about Hop and Max but STILL to know they know it too is always amazingly exciting.

And now also thinking again on the parallels of El resting her head on Mike and Nancy resting her head on Steve at the end of season 1 but with one lingering interaction with their Byers boy - a kiss on the cheek, a shoulder touch, whatever it may be. The way that sets up in an identical way. Also just the coolness of connecting them to their siblings in almost this implied cyclical way of aging even though it's not.

i prayed for times like this...s5 is going to be so good guys

[willbyersenthusiast]

yk i just thought of something

this is gonna be a bit hard to explain but it’s about the parallels between jancy/stancy and byler/mileven.

so there’s plenty of people that ship jancy or stancy but no one REALLY knows what’s gonna happen. same thing with byler (except we basically know now thanks noah)

stancy resembles mileven so much to me and jancy resembles byler. and i think they did that for a reason. because i think jancy is gonna be endgame and i also think byler will be endgame.

my reasoning being they resemble each other. they represent a healthy relationship.

mileven and stancy on the other hand (in my opinion) resemble an unhealthy maybe even toxic relationship. they both have their own reasons as to why the relationship didn’t work. nancy because she liked someone else and steve- well im not sure what his issue was but she had an issue with him not addressing the issues around them?

oh doesn’t that sound familiar (i’m realizing this as i’m typing).

same/similar thing with mileven. one loves someone else (i think we all know who that is) and the other wants him to address the issues at hand, which some of these she doesn’t even know about (i think we know what that is)

so ik this was mostly rambling and me having realizations in the middle of saying words which is how much of my conversation is anyways, but the point is; these four specific relationships parallel each other and it’s clearly for a reason.