the byler/mileven post.

stranger things is really important to me. some definitions for the unacquainted:

byler = michael wheeler and william byers

mileven = michael wheeler and eleven ‘el’ ‘jane’ hopper

from the hit critically acclaimed 12-time-emmy-awarded american streaming television series created for netflix, stranger things

as previously mentioned in freffy/ceffy page (coming soon), i unfortunately love a love triangle and have trouble choosing sides. in this case it is not so much a matter of loving both ships equally as much as me wanting to maximize all possible joy for michael “mike” wheeler.

i am not going to provide any stranger things context because unlike skins, i think everyone has watched this show, and also because i don’t feel like it. however, i am first going to make my case briefly for why i care so deeply about michael wheeler.

my twitter bio was mike wheeler’s defense attorney

putting aside the fact that he is played by the beautiful finn wolfhard, mike wheeler is truly the heart of both the main 4 and the show as a whole. he is the glue that ties the rest of the friendships among the guys together (it’s canon that he essentially formed the group), he’s the one who had the heart to take eleven in and give her a home when the rest of the boys were calling her a freak, he is the FIRST to stand up for his friends (literally jumped off a cliff at the age of ELEVEN!!! to protect dustin), and has deep love and loyalty for everyone around him. simultaneously, mike has been through so much trauma and is so deeply misunderstood by some of the general audience cough cough will fans. fine, i will give you that he was not raised in a torture lab and he was not trapped in the upside down for like a week or whatever when he was 11. but.

mike wheeler was bullied his entire life, was fully ready to kill himself, witnessed horrific supernatural sights in front of his eyes. his best friend goes missing and he fights tirelessly to try to find him before finding his alleged DEAD BODY in the water, witnessing that horrifying sight, and being like that’s not will and still fighting and doing everything he can to save him. just as soon as he starts getting to know and developing feelings for his first love, he watches her literally disappear in front of him into the upside down, and she’s taken from him AGAIN and AGAIN while he sits at home, calling her every night, waiting and waiting for her to come back to him. i just want to give him a hug like he truly loves his friends and family and el so very deeply and is so fiercely loyal and people hate him because what?? he’s a little pissy and sassy?? he’s FOURTEEN. you were like that at fourteen too. or maybe i just relate to him because i was, i don’t know, the point is everyone hating on him would not last a day in his shoes.

now turning my attention to the love interests at hand. we have el hopper, my girl love of my life princess sweetheart perfect angel, and will byers who is a character as well.

three hundred and fifty three days

anyone who tries to deny mike wheeler’s love for el hopper is simply willfully ignorant or engaging in bad faith because this is quite literally a key plot point of the show. you can maybe get away with arguing that mike’s love for her is stronger on the platonic side, and their kissing/romantic moments are more so mike’s internalized homophobia in an effort of him wanting to appear straight, but that is definitely a stretch. (literally just watch 11 year old mike’s face of disgust when el asks if he’s like her brother.) mike’s displays of love for el are, if anything, even stronger in private, and there is never a moment in the show that would make us doubt he is attracted to her/loves her romantically. what bylers point to as proof of mileven death (his inability to say i love you to el in all of season 4) is entirely disproven by his monologue in the finale, i mean, he spells it out very clearly. you can say he’s lying in it all you want but boy was itching to tell her he loves her for two straight seasons.

and come ONN there are so many other downright adorable mileven moments. their s2 finale reunion are you kidding me??? the snowball dance??? him literally becoming most hated in the friend group because he couldn’t stop ditching his friends to smooch her in s3??? (was this kind of shitty of him, yes, but he was thirteen) “i love her and i can’t lose her again”????

mileven is so beautiful because it’s so grounded in mike’s admiration for and complete acceptance of el. not to say it’s one sided at all (we’ll get to the one sided ship don’t worry), but i think his love for her really stands out because we see their dynamic in contrast to both of their dynamics with the rest of the gang. mike is so fiercely protective over el, but not in a possessive way at all. he protects her from other people’s exploitation of her which is so beautiful because he’s really the only one in her life who ALWAYS sees her for who she is beyond her powers and rightfully calls others out for treating her like a machine instead of a human being. and their relationship is really much more mature than people give credit for. yes, they have their silly, “i dump your ass” breakup, because the first half of season 3 is very fun and lighthearted. but let’s not forget that they are broken up when mike protects her in the sauna scene, in the hospital waiting room scene, and of course when mike confesses his love for her in front of the gang, STILL BROKEN UP. their love goes through silly middle school ups and downs, yes, but at its core, it does not falter.

mike and el are soulmates in every sense of the word because truly nothing can separate them and they know that. mike calls her for a year straight, every single day, waiting for her to return. el senses mike in literally any universe she is in. god they are so endgame it’s insane and i don’t know how anyone could genuinely believe the duffer brothers could end the show any way other than having these two happy together forever. any other ending and riots would spread across the country.

“they do say it makes you crazy……” - mike wheeler age 13. he KNOWS.

every time i think about season 3 mileven i feel like i need to be put in the psych ward like those are actually my babies.

crazy together 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

however.
i love angst, i love mutual pining, and most importantly, i love CHILDHOOD BEST FRIENDS to LOVERS.
okay obviously will byers is in love with mike wheeler, we know this, at least i think we all know this. this has become pretty much common knowledge to genpop by the end of season 4, but the clues were very obvious as far back as season 2. in fact, dare i say they were much stronger back then.

season 2 byler will always hold a special place in my heart, which is tough because season 2 mileven is equally beautiful. but god i can’t deny that mike’s monologue to will in the hospital in season 2 is so much more impactful and tear jerking than his i love you monologue to el in season 4. him with a tear falling down his cheek saying becoming friends with will was the best thing he’d ever done? yeah, he said that with a lot more conviction than him saying his life started the day he met el in the woods (because that’s also the day will went missing so like what did you mean by that mike). and don’t get me started on ‘crazy together’ and every single moment that he comforted will. he just has that special sense with him where he notices before anyone else when will is struggling, it’s so heartwarming. anyways we now can basically confirm that throughout all of these early moments, will had romantic feelings for mike, which makes the scenes that much more heartbreaking to watch back.

byler is such an interesting ship, and creates such a ruckus in the stranger things community, because there are so many ways to interpret their dynamic. mike is, on one hand, completely oblivious of will’s feelings towards him, to the point where he literally can’t notice will crying into the window right next to him after showing mike the painting. at the same time, there is definitely an inkling of understanding on mike’s end, whether it is conscious or not.

let’s look at the infamous “it’s not my fault you don’t like girls”. i don’t think that’s just something he said in the heat of the moment to be mean, because we know mike is not the type to use that as an insult (remember he protects will from bullies calling him gay all the way back in season 1). i think mike knows will’s sexuality and maybe even his feelings for mike deep down, but he’s trying to suppress all of that so hard, and that’s why it comes out like that in the argument when he lets his filter slip. i mean, it’s easier for him to say to himself, ‘oh, how sweet, my best friend made a painting for me and is now giving me a big speech about how much my girlfriend loves me’ than ‘oh my god this is a romantic gesture and he is SO OBVIOUSLY talking about himself here’ because the latter will make him confront some big feelings and hard truths.

and there are some moments as well for which there is simply no straight explanation. for example, why does mike keep staring at his best friend’s lips?? i’m sorry, i thought bylers were crazy for this at first, but literally watch it back in season 4, it’s so noticeable. but to be honest, i think that’s less the duffer brothers’ direction and more so the fact that finn wolfhard physically cannot play a straight character who is not in a homoerotic relationship with his best friend (don’t get me started on reddie).

to be honest, for this reason, i think most byler scenes in the actual show don’t really hold up as proof of byler endgame because any actual concrete evidence in the script is really only furthering will’s feelings for mike vs. mike’s love for will as a best friend. the proof is finn wolfhard looking longingly and gayly at noah schnapp. and then also insane things like fruit symbolism in the grocery store scene in season 3 because bylers are crazy gay twitter people and trust me i know. yes, i read the 300 page byler doc.

but then at the same time let’s talk about how there is zero straight explanation again for one of the season 5 episodes being titled “the paladin and the cleric”. you really expect me to believe that there will be no dramatic love confession and kiss here when the episode is titled after them. (and where is the dedicated mileven episode title? yeah.) and how about ‘blue meets yellow in the west’ like come on :( how about mike looking at will and being separated from el in literally every promo pic. see how tricky they are with this little cat and mouse game? i think the duffer brothers are #1 queerbaiters.

anyways, to sum up my thoughts, i identify as a byler simply because i think will and mike are so cute with each other and have a strong foundation for a relationship (dare i say even stronger than that of mileven like their friendship is by far the strongest out of the gang). even if will’s love is unrequited, mike still loves will so deeply as a best friend, which makes their ship that much more bittersweet. would i cheer at a byler scene in season 5? of course i would. but i am also a realist and not delusional and understand that there is no way byler will actually be endgame because mileven is not only the heart of the show for normal stranger things fans who are not gay or on twitter, but also clearly the favorite of the duffer brothers, who are writing the scripts after all. but i can cry about them all i want still because god they are also my babies and care about each other so very much.

i just want mike wheeler to be happy :)

at the end of the day, mike wheeler is princess and whatever mike wheeler wants, mike wheeler gets. i think that’s why i support both love interests for him, because he cares about el and will both so very deeply, in such different ways. i summarize it best by saying that i am a mileven endgame truther but a byler at heart.

honorable mentions

these are some ships which may seem silly to you but i am very serious about as well, from the show stranger things.

elmax - eleven and max. “are you real?” “i’m real.” “there’s more to life than stupid boys.”

wheelclair - mike and lucas. this is genuinely my ship like i claim this ship because no one understands it like i do or cares for them like i do. best friends with a bond so deep it’s rivaling byler. the way mike is so afraid of losing lucas when he joins the basketball team. the way lucas is so jealous of el having mike’s attention in s1. plus they are my top 2 favorite boys. just love them.

madwheeler - mike and max. this is like schrodinger’s asshole in that i am only kidding about this if people get mad at me. i don’t like actualllyyyyy want them together but shipping them is so much fun. their dynamic is so fun and silly and fiery i love how they banter with each other.

stancy/jancy - nancy with steve or jonathan. to be honest i don’t care about literally either of these ships. jonathan is a boring loser and steve needs to move on. also i think nancy is gay.

jopper - my hag ship.

stranger things 5

just know that i have been holding myself back ever since the hype for stranger things 4 died down, but as soon as the final season comes out, i am going to be literally unbearable to be around, because i don’t know if you can tell, but i have strong feelings about this show. me and roommate are gonna have a watch party for it (she doesn’t know about this yet but we will). there will be soooo many tears i can’t wait!!!!!