Obsessedwithbyler - It's All Coming Back

bro I can imagine the news articles now,

"Ever Since Season 1 A Whole Community Has Predicted The Unforseen Ending Of Stranger Things"

BYLER IS SO REAL GUYS

soft byler moments part 4 !! this time it's a modern au + i tried 2 format it like theyre snapchat stories in a groupchat but i've never actually been in a sc groupchat so i had 2 guess lol

also im So sorry for how long this took 2 get done, i literally started this august 13th. the tracked time is over 32hrs. ive semi-lost my mind bcuz of this.

reblogs >> likes

u know the gist , close-ups w clean versions and backstories/thoughts behind them under the cut >

little preface:

- these will probably be very short so im gonna do two at once

- theyre aged up a lil (15/16) and its set in 2022

- the groupchat is called 'byler hate club <3' and i think that the two of them get added periodically and either get kicked or leave themselves

- their snap names are 'dustin B)' , 'lucas' , 'madmax' , and 'el🌸' (and mike and will's would probably also just b their names like lucas?) but if u wanna go a little further, i think their users would b things like ‘dustinanddragons’ or ‘dungeonsanddustin’, ‘bboylucas’ or smth, either just ‘madmax’ or ‘sk8rgirl’, el’s would probably just b her name like ‘elhop’ or ‘janehop’, and of course mike’s and will’s would be ‘paladinmike’ and ‘willthewise’ bcuz duh.

- they have a seperate groupchat called ‘the party’ that does have all of them , this ones just 4 shits and giggles

- i made mikes hair curlier bcuz i wanted 2 and its 2 late 2 stop me so

- if u see anything that looks wrong or weird just ignore it i cannot b bothered 2 work on this anymore lmao

all refs i used can be found here (as well as spoilers for future stuff :O)

these two are a prime example of them just being in their own little bubble and completely forgetting that other people are even around. i wanted to give mike a more .. alternative? style. something similar to mine, and i usually dress in all black with bits of red, so for mike i did mostly black with bits of blue :) (also peep the pins on his backpack and the patches on the shirt and whatnot). once again i have will wearing different colour nail polish in all of them, but mikes is still only black . (first ones set in the wheeler basement , second one in the school)

this first one is kind of unintentionally sad? i didn’t realize how upset he seemed until after i finished it. actually these two could work as the second one being the day after the first. oH also in the first one i gave mike a belt that i actually own and its literally so cool its my favourite belt ever. (first one set on the hill where cerebro would b if this was still set in the 80s , second one in mikes room)

fun fact one of the reasons this took so fucking long is bcuz i was procrastinating doing the backgrounds for these two and the next one. u can probably guess why. anyways i really like how these turned out, they might be my favourite tbh. i dont really know what 2 say abt these .. i think they r pretty self explanatory. OH ACTUALLY i gave mike a black iphone w a clear case that has blue stars on it (which u can see in the second and seventh one) and will a white iphone with a .. idk what u call that pattern but its the phone in the first one. (first one is max, el + will waiting in mike’s front yard 4 him 2 get home from.. somewhere? maybe a weekend trip 2 visit relatives w his family or smth. second one is dustin, lucas, will + mike impulse-baking cookies at some ungodly hour at night during a party sleepover at mikes)

i really hate how mikes hair turned out in the first one but i spent so long on it and redid it So many times that i simply cannot b bothered 2 try and do it again. also pls notice how both of them r wearing ponytail holders in all of these (except this last one i lowkey forgot but we can pretend they r just on the other arms) tbh i dont really know if i think mike would listen 2 the nbhd or not but its what was on the shirt in the ref and i didn’t want 2 have it just b a plain black shirt so i kept it. (first one is a hangout session w the party.. i dont really have a specific idea as 2 where, so that can b up to u. second one is .. honestly im not entirely sure i just thought the ref was cute so i used it lol)

once again sorry about this taking a literal month, but my life kinda got a little fucking crazy in august so i didn’t have much time or energy to work on this. i have no idea as 2 when the next one of these will b coming, but i have a few ideas for it already. i think thats all? ill probably have some more byler art coming soon thats not gonna be like this, but no promises lol

rb if you think asexual people are cool

I wanted to come on here and make a post about Noah Schnapp because people in the fandom have been taking very divisive stances on him (and reasonably!) in and I just want to open up a couple of points that people ignore when they are trying to defend him. I hope this post is as accessible and introductory as it can be as I know a lot of the people in the fandom are very young. I also insist that you read the ENTIRE POST before engaging in any way or I will simply respond by telling you to reread the post.

I want to start off by saying I am the same age as Noah, and he's been practically raised in Hollywood, and so the people he's surrounded by and his PR teams are definitely going to be in spheres where political engagement isn't encouraged where it will conflict with his career. One of the major things we've seen in the Israel-Palestine conflict is that celebrities are totally disengaged and will not take a stance unlike with other social issues because it threatens their careers to do so, as much of the infrastructure of Hollywood is directly entwined with Israel - a lot of Hollywood is owned by Zionists and the power at the top overwhelmingly supports Israel, which is why supporters of Palestine have experienced as much disenfranchisement as they have. Additionally, state tactics of Israel to pinkwash, rebrand and propagandise are essentially linked to Hollywood, including using Arab racialisation to villainise characters for decades now in films.

This is particularly true for celebrities that refer to the Israel-Palestine conflict explicitly as an apartheid and a genocide, who are often labeled as anti-semitic. This is part of the weaponisation of the Holocaust, which has been used by Israel to make people uncomfortable picking sides lest they be labeled an anti-semite, which more subtly functions to equate Zionism with Judaism. This tactic also equates pro-Palestinian movements as anti-Zionist and therefore anti-Semitic, which has then been used to shut down these movements and sentiments online and in institutions. The problem with this is that it is not antisemitic to be an antizionist, but because of the internet's harsh political environment there becomes an extreme polarisation and accusation between different expressions of beliefs, where either sides of the argument massively demonise and estrange each other by becoming very radicalised by questionable evidence that exists in an echo chamber, particularly on twitter, and then regurgitate misinformation about the unforgivable actions on either side of the conflict so as to morally shun one side in order to excuse the other. This detracts from the point at the heart of the conflict that Israel is a state and Hamas is the terror organisation that they are attacking, and that Palestine is the subject of this state-sanctioned mass violence and dehumanisation.

I want to emphasize that I am not trying to personally criticise Noah Schnapp, I think he is a child star who is undeniably in a position of vulnerability and control, and I think people are being reductive when they don't understand that the path he is on and the spaces he's in have predisposed him to falling into the traps he has in the way he defended his actions when he was photographed in proximity to the "zionism is sexy" stickers.

I think we are living in a new age of media manipulation as well as moral condemnation, where when people, and particularly celebrities, do things that reflect their ignorances or maybe disagreeable politics, people tend to really jump at broiling them for it - it's where cancel culture comes from, and it's absolutely rife on Tumblr because a lot of the community on here are autistic or OCD in a way that gives them black or white thinking about morality in politics and doesn't lend a lot of space to nuance when it comes to political behaviour. Equally PR teams respond to this by keeping their celebrities as politically neutral and uninvolved as possible. And we've seen that what this means for Israel-Palestine is a total withdrawal from commentary by major celebrities because people are generally uneducated enough about Palestine to not really know what is right or wrong, but want things to progress as comfortably and similarly as usual so that they aren't too affected by it, and this includes celebrities. While a few celebrities have shown vocal and unwavering support to either side, most have avoided moral shunning by emphasizing that they want everyone on either side to remain safe, and that they only want peace.

The problem with this type of rhetorical argument is the same reason that political disengagement from the BLM movement in a similar manner, of saying "all lives matter", was harmful. Because it equates both sides of a conflict that is borne from systematic inequality. By saying "all lives matter", because the statement is so simplifying, one resolves that the goals of the BLM movement are for the acknowledgement of Black lives as equals and seeks to rectify this with declaratives, rather than understanding that BLM represents the need to rectify the systemic disenfranchisement and disempowerment of Black people that is entrenched within the state. Similarly, often when celebrities talk about Palestine, their stance is such that they just want peace on all sides. By not picking a side in Israel-Palestine, one automatically sides with Israel, the more powerful aggressor.

In both of these cases, the issue is that mass resistance is necessary for change in a social movement - by saying "all lives matter" or "I support peace" in an uneven conflict, one is ignoring and even negating the nature of the conflict. In the case of Palestine, celebrities often say "I want both sides to stop the violence", which implies that the actions of Hamas are not reactionary defensive acts of a small terrorist organisation in comparison to the sanctioned violence of a state backed by global powers. By saying they "just want peace" actors are trying to morally absolve themselves from taking a side in a situation where it is necessary to oppose the actions of an aggressor that has much more power and is acting of its own free volition when using violence (whereas Hamas is acting in defense of the occupation of Palestine). The typical argument that is made in rebuttal against this is that Israel's invasion of Palestine was a retaliation against the attacks on October 7th, but these are reductive claims about the history of the Israeli occupation and do not take into account that the extent of the destruction in Palestine, particularly that of civilian deaths and targeting hospitals, cannot be explained away as an attempt to remove the terrorist threat. And because a massive amount of media organisations are owned by Zionists, a different narrativisation of what's going on has been favoured in public discourse.

This is similar to what happened when Elon Musk Hitler saluted on live television, and everyone rushed in to defend him, claiming that it wasn't what it looked like. Whenever people see a celebrity doing something that could be morally condemnable, they rush in to both defend and accuse in anticipation of either party. Noah might not have been involved with the people giving out Zionist stickers, nor are his actions in any way comparable to Elon, but his implicit support for Israel by failing to condemn the actions of the state in his apology tell us enough about his views if we can apply the same level of media literacy we apply to Byler analysis.

When Noah said "we should all stand together for humanity and for peace" he did not say "against state violence" or advocate for a ceasefire. His apology message was rife with rhetoric and sentiments that suggested either a lack of understanding of the imbalance between the sides of the conflict - when he said "we all hope for the same things, that being those innocent people still being held in Gaza to be released and returned to their families, and equally hope for an end to the loss of innocent life in Palestine, so many of those people being women and children." - or simply a lack of regard for Palestinians. I truly cannot read this sentence with any other interpretation than as a very insidious and subtle way of trying to suggest that the tragedy of these two things is equal and I think it demonstrates that he is really prioritising Israeli lives, because it feels like he adds Palestinians in as an afterthought to the sentence and then adds on the part about them being women and children as if to emphasize that they really are innocent despite being Palestinian, and that's why they deserve a reprieve from killing. That might be an exaggeration, but for me the lack of a suggestion that what we want is a ceasefire in order to achieve peace makes me think he doesn't care that much about Palestinian peace.

That being said I do think we can lend him a lot of understanding that the reason he said these things is because it is the same rhetoric that everyone around him is pedaling to cover up covert Zionism, and he has good faith in these people because they helped raise him, and he may not understand the gravity of his words because he may not have the time or the education to be able to get into the history of Israel-Palestine, and more importantly because he is not in an environment that encourages him to do so whatsoever. I think this was clear when he had earlier reposted an Instagram post that said "You either stand with Israel or you stand with terrorism." which showed that his understanding of either side was already manipulated to not see Israel as the original perpetrator of the hostilities. I say he is very susceptible to this kind of rhetorical propaganda because he is very young and because of his position as a gay Jewish celebrity in Hollywood. I do think despite this that Noah is still responsible for his own actions and whoever he might be as a person exists beyond the political implications of his actions, though, and he doesn't deserve the insane harassment and backlash he's faced. It is unforgiveable that he has received death threats for it. Nonetheless we definitely should expect better from him and we can be encouraging and be fans within that. I believe he is a good and kind person and he wouldn't endorse genocide if he really understood what was going on, and I also don't believe he really is in a position to necessarily be able to understand what's going on - for a lot of people, being in encampments, communities and organisations is what has allowed them to actually get reliable and trustworthy information and education about Israel and Palestine if they aren't reading books about it, and I would doubt that Noah is, and I would frown upon calling in a moral failure if he isn't. However, he is now collaborating with Amazon, which is on the BDS list for its direct complicity and profiting off the Israeli occupation by providing $1.22 billion of cloud technology to the Israeli government and military. As a celebrity in the public sphere, choosing to collaborate with a corporation is a declaration of support and a participation in increasing the popular support of that corporation. In the face of his previous brush ins with being implicated in Israeli politics, I really think Noah should know better and should not be endorsing Amazon. I don't think he should be attacked for it but I do think we should take it as what it is. It is very directly and undeniably an endorsement of Amazon. I've tried to comment on his post about it but it seems comments about it have been limited. The fact that the endorsement happened the same week as Will Byers' birthday really rubs this in for me because I think it's a publicity stunt for Amazon. I did really want to believe that Noah maybe supported Palestine but didn't want to receive backlash for it, but this has changed my mind about it and I think now it's necessary to boycott season five by pirating it even if we are superfans of this show, because Eduardo Franco dropping out and Brett Gelman's continued presence on set really can't mean good things for the cast as much as that breaks my heart.

But social change can't occur without resistance, and killing is still occurring even now, after the ceasefire, so it's okay even if you haven't been involved or engaged up until now and you might not even be aware of some of the things talked about in this post. Israel should not be allowed to make territorial and financial gains by devastating tens of thousands of innocent people and neither should the people that support Israel. Whether or not there can be a one state solution, the violence needs to stop and Israel needs to be held accountable for the mass killing and ethnic cleansing that has occurred, otherwise the world will move on as normal as if what happened and is still happening is at all justified. It's not much to ask, just pirate season five or at least stop defending Noah Schnapp, please! I would hope that the people who are closest to Noah and have the time to educate themselves do so and pass that onto him, because celebrities are a key point that corporations are able to use to get support in the face of mass violence like this!

Mike and Will have emotional arcs in Season 5...

It isn't clear whether this is true (which I'm totally fine with! I don't want to ruin the suspense). But if this is true, El Mike and Will "leading the final season" is kind of huge for Byler Nation.

Because remember this quote from Shawn Levy:

Stranger Things isn't just about flashy action and monsters; it's about the emotional arcs its characters go through. They must battle their internal demons to "become heroes" to confront external ones.

Season 4x9 had possessions and snapping limbs, but at its core it was about:

Max confronting her guilt over Billy's death

El defying Brenner

Lucas rejecting "the cool crowd"

And yes, Mike "confessing his love"

Mike, El, and Will being the leads in s5 means THEIR EMOTIONAL ARCS come to the fore this season as well...

It's already confirmed Will's emotional arc "will tie the series together."

So what on earth could Mike's emotional arc be this season? Hmmm?

And what do Mike, El, and Will have to resolve, in order to band together?

And how on earth do Will and Mike manage to band together, when Will's canonical love for Mike, the Painting Lie, and not coming out to him are huge dangling plot threads? When David Bowie's "Heroes" is canonically associated with these two?

I'll wait!

-teambyler

With the ides of march fast approaching we must be prepared

Please reblog to make sure everyone is equipped!

If Byler doesn't become canon I will delete my tumblr

Not bc I ship it, but because the site will become unusable

should've taken AP Physics instead 🤩 (literally my favorite class rn)

save me tiny desk concert

In a mike wheeler with a heart-shaped birthmark mood rn

thinking about will byers, who’d always been visibly different, forced to conform at a young age by his father- but quickly learns that he doesn’t need to like or do something because people think he should. his mother cherishes his sensitivity, nurtures his kindness, encourages his artistry and love of colorful creations and clothes. his brother tells him he can like whatever he wants, that being a freak is cool and conforming is lame, and that he’ll love him no matter what.

will byers doesn’t pretend to be someone he’s not. he is authentic and open about what he enjoys and how he expresses himself - D&D, art, comic books and games, his clothing and style, his nerdiness - he never treats these as bad things or something to “grow out of”. will has a good idea of who he is, what he likes, and how he expresses this to the world. he never tries to conform due to social pressure, especially not when it comes from his closest friends.

thinking about mike wheeler, whose family voted for reagan, whose father is emotionally absent, and who rarely leans on his family members for support. mike wheeler, who has to be told he likes el in s1, and pushed to say he loves her in s3. who believes the root of his relationship problems is social pressure from “mouthbreathers” rather than his own actions. who is deeply insecure about his usefulness to his friends, and believes the only way his girlfriend will stay with him is if he “just said that one thing” and told her what she wanted to hear.

mike wheeler pretends to not like d&d anymore in s3 to try to “grow up” as he begins a relationship with a girl for the first time. he shows up to california in a silly outfit he thinks will help him fit in, one that’s explicitly called “a shitty knock-off” to his face. he lies his way through a love confession that doesn’t magically save the world like he wanted it to. the first person to tell him that it’s okay to be different and that conformity is harmful dies.

which one of these people sound more likely to have a self-acceptance arc in s5?