The Edginggate Is Real

Not even sorry to say this but oh my GOD some of you guys are so ungrateful with what you've gotten what the fuck. You complain that there's nothing new to talk about and then you get something and just complain that it's boring and the art is ugly??

Maybe take a step back and remember that not everybody in this fandom is digging for clues and spoilers and that they actually like the stuff that gets posted and shared.

"We've seen these outfits before ugh" "why do they look like that?" "What happened to them omg" like ??? Nothing is wrong with the art, it literally looks like the characters just stylized I can't see anything wrong with it. 🤨

Boohoo you got new posts like you asked for, they're not gonna leak every single thing in the show, there still needs to be SOME new things that stay hidden???

You might as well not watch the show if you have "better ideas" and complain about everything you get.

oopsies

the TENSION in this screen shot is insane. I need one of those pointer things with the gloves you would get at scholastic book fairs for this unbelievable crashout. I'm actually going crazy

YES OFC DO YOU THINK WE'RE MENTALLY STABLE??

byler nation are we doing footballgate pt.2 for the super bowl?

oh I feel

my byler/stranger things fixation is not dead but it is dormant. tactically so... it is hard to survive a drought otherwise... but i think it would take all of one (1) official post or update to reawaken it. y'all feel ?

ME ME ME IT'S ME IT'S MEEEEEEEE

Are there any filipino byler shippers becauss i am losing my mind trying to find more.

Istg ALL of the ppl ik who also watches stranger things don't even know that Will is gay🥀🥀🥀

hello mutual..........

Hi mutual..........

Ao3 is down 😭

The Strange Postponement of Mike and Will's relationship

If Mike and Will had remained as close as they were in Season 2 in the subsequent seasons, the "are they gay?" rumors absolutely would have spread among the General Audience, as they entered their official teen/dating/sexual awakening years.

There have been peculiar writing choices that seem to have no other explanation but to postpone romantic rumors about these two.

The show does it's damnedest to keep these best-friends-since-kindergarten apart once they enter puberty. The only interaction that possibly hints at romance in Season 3 is their virtual double date with Lumax where Mike is concerned for Will's well-being one time. This was necessary to reestablish their "good friendness" at the start of the season to set-up their breakup during the Rain Fight.

Then, of course, the Rain Fight happens. Mike says "It's not my fault you don't like girls." They effectively "break up."

But then there is the strange, interesting choice that there is no resolution ever about the Rain Fight. The apology for ignoring Will's D&D game comes from Lucas instead of Mike:

Will had his blow-up with MIKE, not Lucas! And we know that Mike absolutely was DRIVEN to apologize to Will, but we don't see it. Maybe he actually did, but it was offscreen. But why not have it ON screen? Why not clear the air on whether Mike thought Will was gay and was being homophobic to Will? Why not clarify THEN that Mike is a straight ally who supports his gay best friend, setting things up for Will to have a coming-out arc where he finds a love interest who is not Mike?

Instead, the writers made sure they had NO conversations for nearly all the rest of the season. They made sure Mike was focused on trying to repair things with El and blurting out "I love her." These two things together kept the Gay Rumors(TM) in check.

Season 4 then dramatizes how they'd GROWN APART -- specifically, how they don't seem to have stayed in contact and Mike seems to ignore Will.

What a strange thing for the writers to do! Mike and Will had been on good terms. That's because it was the start-of-season set-up for an ARC where they become close again.

Alright, so they soon repair things. But for what?

The Will Counseling Hour:

They literally have no conversations with each other where Will isn't comforting Mike and/or talking about El. To the extent that the GA was annoyed that Mike was "useless" and the California plotline was a "waste of time."

(Either the Duffers were bad writers or had a reason to spend so much time on the California plot. Hmm...)

The show was putting Byler in a holding pattern. The show established that Mike and Will were friends again, but with a "beard" on Mike: his relationship with El. Will's attempt to talk about anything ELSE -- like playing Nintendo and D&D -- was ignored as Mike worried about El.

The Will Counseling Hour ends only with their very LAST conversation of season 4, when Will shares that he can still feel Vecna. Mike becomes the Counselor: he resolves that they will beat Vecna. The bringing of these two together, along with signs that Mike and El are drifting apart, lay the trajectory for Season 5.

Season 5 will be the first season with Unfiltered Byler(TM) since Season 2.

EVERYTHING that kept the GA from thinking about the possibility of Byler, (1) how young they were in Season 2, (2) their being kept artificially apart and (3) Mike's focus on his relationship with El, will have fallen away.

For the first time since Season 2, the A Plot and Mike and Will being close ("a team") will mesh.

Meanwhile, we'll get Season 2 Mike because Will will also be the center of the story and IN DANGER. It's impossible to imagine Mike being his aloof start-of-Season-4 self. Add to all this Season 4 hormones: we're likely to see the heart-eyes romantic, Will-Voice-speaking boy in love we Bylers see in the 2nd half of Season 4.

And there's the Painting Lie, which the Duffers have told Finn Wolfhard will "pay off in the end." Mike WILL KNOW Will loves him, and loved him so much as to sacrifice himself for him.

Even if one doesn't accept Byler, one can't deny that there has to be a DIRECT RECKONING over whether Mike returns Will's feelings.

The entire structure of how the show has presented their relationship is building up toward this. The Strange Postponement of Byler had a purpose.

-teambyler

EDIT: You might enjoy my s5 speculations in "How the Duffers likely will make the general audience AWARE of Byler and CHEER for Byler" =D

guys it's time to accept that every time byler or stranger things is trending that it's not a trailer drop. I'm sorry but it's the truth, I can't keep deluding myself.

doomed yuri this doomed yaoi that. whatever happened to good old-fashioned biblical doomed heterosexual relationships? it’s time to unpack your parent’s divorce