#will Byers would never

[birdiegray01]

It’s that time of year where i have to fight the demons that tell me to rewatch stranger things, obsess over Byler, and cry over how similar to Mike Wheeler i am. I’m failing miserably btw and literally about to start my 50th rewatch.

[bagsbyler]

i wonder what he was smirking for…. hmm i wonder….

[riseandfallofamidwestbyler]

“what if will and mike kiss while mike is still with el?!” you fools. you utter buffoons. you underestimate just how much william jacob byers cares for his family. he would never and i mean NEVER let anything happen between him and mike before he knew that their relationship was 107% completely over. he wouldn’t want to hurt el (even though he probably feels like he already has just for liking mike.)

[scroofy-was-here]

if byler isn't endgame, why did they let it drag on for so long?

why have they been building it up season after season? why haven't they had mike reject will already?? why didn't they resolve it in the same season where it's a major plot point??? why are they giving us the possibility that it could happen if it's not????

why even give Will a crush on Mike?????

[vanweezer]

from february 💘

[phoebebuggers]

”i feel like my life started that day we found you in the woods” to el while will was RIGHT THERE was crazy work mike wheeler when i catch you

[the-strangest-heart]

obsessed w how mike and will’s hands always get so so close to touching, but never quite do, bc the space between them is louder than any casual brush of fingertips

[mikeslawyer]

[mashkdemss]

To me, people saying Mike LOVED El is like people saying Ennis LOVED Alma (Brokeback Mountain). It feels like people are just going with their first impressions of the characters and not wanting to learn more.

Seriously, I've seen people recently saying Ennis is bisexual when I'm pretty sure he's just gay with internalized homophobia due to childhood trauma and the attitudes of 50's–60's society. I don't want to say anything against bisexuals or people who believe Mike is bi, but if Mike and Ennis are bi, I think that would be pretty bad representation. In Mike's case, they could have at least given the viewer some hint that he is attracted to girls as much as his friends, when he is just written as a boy obsessed with his relationship with his first girlfriend, who is incredibly similar to his best friend, and he himself does not even want to think about the problems in their relationship because he only cares about how it looks from the outside.

Another example that recently came to my mind: people who say that Mike LOVED El, to me is the same as people who say that Jo LOVED Laurie (Little Women). Usually, this is said by those who have not read the books and only watched the 2019 adaptation. Although in any case, it is obvious that Jo did not love Laurie from the very beginning to the very end. Yes, she LIKED him, but she did not LOVE him. In Jo's case, she was just lonely and she WANTED TO LOVE SOMEONE. In Laurie, he mistook his first crush for true love, but eventually found someone he REALLY loved. Maybe I am wrong in some ways, or I am exaggerating, but it makes me a little sad that people do not want to delve into these characters and prefer to see what they want to see.

[gayofthefae]

Will haunting the narrative as both the innocent who was wrongfully destroyed AND the one that got away.

Season 2 Will impacting everything Mike does from that point forward just as much as Will's death impacts everyone.

El thinks of him when she confronts Brenner about the mind flayer, we know things like that. But Mike also thinks of him when he tells El he loves her.

They're all thinking of him. The last time they saw him.

The way he was never the same.

But Mike is thinking about the last time he saw him.

Losing him.

The way they were never the same.

(The way he can't get him back)

Yes, Will's disappearance changed everyone's trajectory forever. But he also changed Mike. He also made Mike's personal and romantic life impossible to return to after him.

He haunts more than just the people who mourn his death.

(The sole purpose of Mike's season 2 separation from El in the first place is so that he can never truly go back after Will)

[snowangeldotmp3]

hey do you guys ever think about the fact that in season 3 robin chooses to stay behind so erica and dustin can escape the russians? she chooses to stay with steve and hold the door so dustin and erica can get out. she doesn't know these kids. not as well as steve does, at least. and yet she still chooses to stay behind. it's not a huge moment. in fact, it's a blink and you'll miss it moment, but it's the fact that she chooses to put herself into the danger for these kids that she does not know. she is willingly to be caught and captured and tortured by russians. all she wanted was to get through her shitty job.

[jonathanbyersphd]

Jonathan introducing Will as his baby brother and people expecting a toddler but it's actually the fully grown man next to him who's at least a head taller

[kissboybyler]

fuck conan gray man, why is his music so will byers-coded and why am i watching byler scenes in my mind on repeat and crying

[literallymikewheeler]

i feel like no one ever talks about this, but mike honestly looks like he is starting to tear up in the scene in season one where troy starts being disgusting towards will

like ???? am i insane ??? or does he genuinely look like he could start crying ???

[lighthouseas]

how much of my heart can i afford to hide

Mike’s head is absolutely fucking pounding, and it’s made worse when he sits up too fast and the room starts spinning around him. He can’t breathe through his nose, and when he breathes through his mouth instead in order to, y’know, get oxygen into his body, his throat dries out and burns painfully. He feels hot but also freezing cold at the same time, and just as he makes eye contact with Will, he starts hacking up a lung.  “Mike, jesus!” Will jumps back as Mike continues coughing right on him, the action hurting his head even more. He can feel tears forming in his eyes from the pain, but he’s too delirious to actually care. 

In which Mike catches the flu, Will helps him out, and Mike has some weirdly gay fever dreams about it.

[phoebebuggers]

i’m a birthdaygate truther but the thing about birthdaygate is that it implies that not only did mike and el forget will’s birthday, joyce and jonathan did too☹️