#st4 teaser

[tal-vez-o-quizas]

How I became a Byler

It wasn't fate, it wasn't destiny, it was just simple dumb luck! 😜 

Get some water guys, this is long.

When Stranger Things first came out in 2016, my older brother was the only one who had a Netflix subscription at the time (I have one since 2 years ago) and I remember he said to my whole family (except my Dad who usually gets home late for work) that we had to watch this show that was super popular with Wynona Ryder, and that everyone loves it.

Now, of course we all knew who Wynona was! Even my Mom, who never remembers the name of actors or singers recognized her, lol. So we were like "Yeah, let's watch it!"

And we were all so impressed and flabbergasted by the show. My mom loved the cast and her favorite kid is Dustin cause she said he looked like such a naughty kid, haha. I absolutely loved it as well and I wanted to know more about Will, who seemed like such a lovely boy.

After that, I watched each season everytime it was released but I was not a hardcore fan at all. I didn't ship anybody, didn't analyze things, I just purely enjoyed it, found it very entertaining and thought that it was very well done.

When S3 came out and EP3 happened with the rain fight, I was like "Oh, are they gonna-? Nah, I don't think so... Will they? OMG" with displaying Will's sexuality. At the time it didn't occur to me that Will was struggling with his friend's exclusion and his sexuality at the same time (I know, dumb me). So I was like "I mean, he could be a late bloomer, I didn't get interested in boys until I was like 14" but now that I'm recalling middle school, I had crushes on different guys, lol. My mind was in denial because I just thought that Will being gay wouldn't be shown properly or in a sensible and serious way.

Then, when that first ST4 teaser ("With love, from Russia") dropped with Hopper in the snow, everyone and their mothers freaked out and the worldwide Stranger Things frenzy began all over again. I also remember that I saw some news online that said that ALL productions were suspended for Covid and that included ST or course. Me and my brothers were kinda mad because everyone knew ST was gonna be released like in 2 years or something, waaay later than it was supposed to.

Then, like a month and so before Volume 1 premiered, I don't recall how, but I watched the rest of the ST4 teasers (002, 003 and 004 with the Hawkings gang, the Hawkins Lab and the Cali one) and I got so excited! I started to watch a lot of the cast press interviews, videos and content, then I rewatched ST again, and was so surprised to realize, all over again, that it's such a great show and the cast is amazing. But my Byler senses were still dormant. The idea of Mike and Will romantically never crossed my mind (again, sorry for my ignorance).

Which is weird because I'm good at clocking queer characters.

Like, back in college, we had to watch a movie about this family who pretended to be someone else everytime they moved; they were imposters in a way. Thanks to the camera angles, the fact that he seemed uninterested in any girls and micro-expressions from the actor, I said to this girl next to me in class "He's gay" regarding the son in the family, and she was like "What? How do you know?" and I just told her to keep watching. Indeed, towards the middle of the movie, the guy (the son in the family, who was a teenager) went to this party; he started talking with this guy and they got in a car I think? Or was it outside the house the party was at? Can't recall. Anyways, the guy got closer to his school colleague and tried to kiss him, but the other guy flinched and said "I'm sorry, I don't feel that way" or something like that, he left, and the girl next to me was like "You were right!"

I've always been very open-minded, but I think I was used to watch media where queer characters where displayed as queer or in love with their friends in their late teens, so Byler was not something I ever considered.

After rewatching all the seasons, ST4 Vol 1 premiered on May 27th and boy, was I excited! Before that, I watched the first trailer, Sadie on Fallon, Millie on Fallon, the cast interviews on the ST4 premiere days ago and I knew that they were going to move forward with Will being in love with Mike thanks to that cut on the trailer when Mike and El are skating and Will stares at their hands. So I was like "Oh, what are they gonna do with Will?"

I was free from work on that Friday (it was not planned at all and I did absolutely nothing on that day, woohoo!). I started watching ST4 around 10AM in the morning in my living's room TV.

Now, I was incredibly hooked since the intro (I knew right away that El didn't murder those kids because the way their bones and limbs were broken didn't align with how El has attacked people before), got very interested after El said that Will was painting a lot and that maybe it was for a girl, clocked what was gonna happen later in the season with the basketball game and Eddie's campaign (Mike saying that they thought Vecna was killed by Kas, Eddie declaring that Vecna lives, the 11 that Dustin threw and it wasn't enough to win) as well as who actually massacred those kids in the Lab back in 1979 after Chrissy was taken by Vecna.

I found Mike so weird and odd in EP2 but I didn't know what it was; his outfit was horrendous and after EP3, I said to myself "Hold on, Will is in love with Mike in the same season when Mike can't say I love you to El's face? That's no coincidence" and kept on watching.

I knew Peter was Vecna immediately since he appeared on EP5 because there was not another new character that fit the vibe but I didn't know he was Henry Creel or 001, lol. Him being 001 was there for us to notice but I didn't, for some reason, haha.

I stopped watching on EP5 I think, in the afternoon. Did some stuff and then picked it up at 9PM.

After the master reveal and plot in EP7, I went to Twitter and started to check people's opinions or takes for this season, then I saw a tweet that linked Kaypeace21's "Why I no longer think Mike is bi, but gay" post, saying that Will loved Mike and Mike reciprocated, and I was like "WHATT?! OMG! This looks promising" and read the whole thing.

When I tell you that I felt like I had an epiphany it's downplaying things (not an exaggeration). It felt exactly the same as when I watched Maze Runner's "The Death Cure" on theaters and Newt threw Thomas against the wall in the middle of the film after screaming at him and I felt such an insurmountable amount of tension between those two characters that I started to read Newtmas fanfiction when I got home.

Everything on Kaypeace21's post seemed very well thought, it made sense and after that I read more Byler theories as well as overall theories for the supernatural, Vecna and more. I got obsessed, became a proper fan of the show and the characters, and waited for Vol 2 to drop. Stranger Things actually replaced my Heartstopper fixation.

The show was more popular than ever, the hype was so real. Even my brothers, who haven't still watched Season 4, said that they read that The Duffers "forgot" Will's birthday and I was like "yeah, I don't really believe them" because I actually do not believe anything that comes out of The Duffers or Shawn Levy's mouths until I see it with my own eyes, lol.

Anyways, when Vol 2 premiered, I woke up at 4AM on July 1st, I think, to watch it and when we got to Will saying "Can I show you something?" to Mike, I actually paused my laptop, took a deep breath and started pacing in my room, haha. I was like "Sh*t, so early on the episode?" because I felt I was gonna have a heart attack. I was flabbergasted, shocked and a bit sad after the van scene, but found it so beautifully heartbreaking.

Now, I'm very objective and being the Libra that I am (not that I believe that much in Astrology, but there is a degree of certainty to it), I always see all sides of things and I do not consume media in a subjective way only. When Mike "confessed" to El on Surfer's Boy Pizza, I stood very quiet and watched the whole thing, but felt nothing, because it came across as very clichéd, lies were spouted by Mike and the whole situation happened in the middle of Max getting killed by Vecna and everyone was at the brink of death. It felt like an empty moment.

Then, towards the end of Vol 2, I was like "Well, Mike and Will seemed closer than ever at least".

I checked Tumblr and everyone was losing their minds. Me as well, but in a more subdued way. Then, the Byler hope was restored pretty much like Aang restored peace in Book 3 of The Last Airbender, I saved so many Byler blogs on my browser, visited them everyday, liked all their posts, learned more and more about the show, read even more theories about many things and a few weeks ago created a Tumblr specifically to indulge on my Byler hyper-fixation and here I am.

Byler Tumblr has made me more aware of symbolisms, plot devices and how to digest media more acutely. Thank you guys so so much.

Love that for me!

[grapesodatozier]

This is me asking about the theory 🫴🏻 hand it over

lmaooo you are an angel thank you for this lol

OKAY SO. the theory i had about brenner pre-st4 when we knew he was coming back but st4 hadn't come out yet!

brenner escaped the demogorgon bc we never saw his body in season 1. he could NOT outrun that thing, so how'd he get away? there was a portal to the upside down nearby, that we know the demogorgon didn't go through--imo, (my pre-st4 opinion ofc) the most likely way he escaped.

in 2x07, that guy says brenner is alive, and kali has a board full of information about the lab, including something that includes a codename "americana"

in s3, we learn that russians know about the gate, and have learned that it can only be opened in hawkins. how the FUCK would they have known to look in some random suburb in indiana unless someone told them where it was? sure, maybe they tracked it down with some science stuff or something, but that never got explained, so between seasons 3 and 4 i was like, well, someone may have told them to use information as bargaining power. someone they might call "the american," which is what the russian guards say in the post-credits at the end of s3, and which would make the "americana" codename from 2x07 be a cool bit of foreshadowing.

so it's post s3 and i'm telling everyone and their mother that i think brenner is "the american" in russia in the post credits scene, then they release the teaser of hopper in russia. hopper, who is alive, but we don't know how, and who was last seen near an open gate to the upside down! just like brenner the last time we saw him before s4!

so my st4 theory was that somehow the gate led them to the same place and they were both in the same russian prison, and hopper and brenner would have to escape together! and it would've been really emotionally complex! and brenner would've eventually learned that hopper had adopted el, and would've taunted him about not raising her and not understanding or whatever, and he would've asked hopper if el knew that hopper was the one who sold her, mike, lucas, and dustin out in the s1 finale, if she knew that he sent the people from the lab after them in exchange for a chance to save will's life, and it would be obvious that no, hopper has never told her that, and brenner would've held that over him!! and it would've come up again!!!! bc that was huge and it just has never come up and no one but hopper and brenner know about it so it should've come up and it would've been so incredible to have this plot between them where they're forced to work together to get back to el and joyce and hawkins!!!!!

and it could've worked so well with what actually happened in s4!! they'd get back to el by like 1/3-1/2 way through the season and el would tell hopper that she wants to go with owens and brenner bc she has her canon s4 crisis of not having powers and needing to save everybody and mike and hopper could band together to explain to her that it should be her choice and she's loved no matter what (alonng with help from the byers bc they've been family for the better part of year and they love her too, which gets forgotten halfway through the season). and it could've been so compelling and she still could've killed brenner and there would at least be SOME sort of explanation and the parallels between hopper and brenner's fakeout deaths would make sense and they'd address the fact that hopper sold her and mike and lucas and dustin out in s1 and the russia plotline wouldn't have had to drag on and on the way it did and just UGH it hurts so bad it could've been so good i'm gonna stand by this theory forever

thank you again for asking and thank you to anyone who made it to the end of this lmao have a lovely rest of your weekend <3

[readygetsteddiego]

seeing multiple ST4 stuff has reminded me of when the first teasers/trailers were coming out and I was so sure that eddie/dustin were going to kill the big bad by playing music

colour me surprised when that played out differently lol

[pr3ttym3ssy]

Am I the only one that was a bit upset that they made Robin’s character push for Stancy. Like shit if I was Steve's supposed best friend, I would have told Nancy like " Don't even think about breathing in his direction. You're not going to hurt him again. I know what happened between you two and may I remind you, you called him BULLSHIT"

I like Nancy buuuuutt not for Steve. With her flipping back and forth. As soon as she sees Jonathan she's going to do exactly that.

[beepboop358]

Wills project is about Alan Turing. Interesting

OH YESSSS.

Alan Turing, famous brilliant mathematician, (& literally invented computers), who was gay.

SPOILER****: That's for their 'who is your hero' project from the spoilers that leaked awhile ago - El's is Hopper (her father) which is why she’s building a replica of his cabin and him in the teaser, and Will's is a gay man.

brb crying

[hufflepuff221b]

Eddie has Steve's nail bat in the teaser for volume 2.

I repeat!

Eddie has Steve's nail bat in the teaser for volume 2!!!!

[lucascsinclairs]

In 2022 the Global Phenomenon Returns

uʍop ǝpᴉsdn ǝɥʇ uᴉ llɐ,ʎ ǝǝs

[morbid-longing-picturesque]

Micheal Bronski Wheeler showing up in the new teaser in a tank top looking and awful lot like another influential queer person from the 80s

[im-supposed-to-put-a-name-here]

Some people: "Will isn't gay, he just doesn't want to grow up!!!"

Will Byers, literally doing a 'who is your hero?' project on Alan Turing: "Um..."

[mistique-libra]

robin my beloved (NO SPOILERS!!!)

[tal-vez-o-quizas]

I don't know what am I going to do when the table read video for ST5 is released.

With movies and tv shows, I HATE seeing behind the scenes pictures, or videos while it's being made because it breaks the "magic", so to speak.

I love seeing that stuff after I have watched the movie or tv show.

You guys don't know how much I enjoyed ST4 when it premiered: I had no idea what was going to happen, except for the things we saw on the first trailer (I hate watching second trailers). I had so much fun watching Vol 1 on May 27th of last year.

I wasn't part of Byler Tumblr either, so... Less expectations.

Lots of trailers nowadays show so much of the story and it irks me. As of late, I'm just watching teasers cause I like to be surprised. Or I don't watch the trailer at all.

Should I close the Tumblr App on my phone and stop visiting the Byler tag for a few months or should I stay and see all the craziness that will happen?

I actually hated seeing the spoiler video of Mike and Will on the sofa before Vol 2 premiered, lol. I was like "Ugh, no!" but the damage was done after it showed up on my Dashboard :(

So, my dilemma is basically:

[gwenversion]

finn wolfhard moodboard <3

STRANGER THINGS 4 IS OUT!!!!!!

[deaduris]

i'm not sure if someone already pointed this out, but i'm pretty sure will is next to mike in this scene? it would make sense since they are in his room. i do wonder why jonathan seems to be yelling at them before the shooting starts though

[since0f94]

[beepboop358]

I'm sorry but I can't stop laughing at this, everyone looks serious or surprised, and then there's Jonathan - just so fucking high.

[kumishona]

Last night I dreamed that I was trying to study for my quantum final whilst hiding from demigorgons. Not sure which I was scared of more—the flesh-eating monsters screeching blood-curling murder in the background or the physics exam I was wildly unprepared for