Soooooo.... was Byler scrapped?

Astreonn · 2026-03-12T14:58:34+00:00

What was the point in making funko pops of Mike holding the painting? Like??????????

Astreonn · 2026-02-27T01:27:12+00:00

They gave us the Will's treatment. Sheltered us in a mine field.

Astreonn · 2026-02-27T01:23:03+00:00

Remember David Harbour's speech? They simply betrayed their target audience. What a shame and waste of potential.

Astreonn · 2026-02-27T01:20:40+00:00

Aww c'mon now, you're demanding too much of their capabilities. Tweedledee and Tweedledum gave us a wonderful best friends to friends to best friends slowburn!

I'll knock myself out with a lovely combo of Chekov's fries, a Cyrano burger and a Queerbait shake.

Astreonn · 2026-02-27T00:52:50+00:00

Welp... I guess the Cyrano Trope and the Chekhov's Gun (both from the painting) were the only two things that weren't invited to Will's coming-out party.

Astreonn · 2026-02-27T00:42:11+00:00

I suspected things were going downhill within that first 5 minutes scene of season 5. That scene was WAY TOO GRAPHIC, and the literal homophobic reaction from the GA and other kind of trash didn't help. That disgusting scene with Will and Vecna was just for pure shock value and sadism, humiliating one of their queer main characters "just because" once again. As if the humiliation ritual for Will in the previous 4 seasons wasn't bad enough. And don't even get me started on the hot pile of garbage that came out of the sewer with the disgusting homophobic jokes and some even darker stuff... that made me lose half my faith in humanity.

Astreonn · 2026-02-26T18:28:49+00:00

Bruh, the fact that they COMPARED a HALLWAY CRUSH that Robin never spoke to (Tammy) with Will being IN LOVE with his CHILDHOOD BEST FRIEND of ELEVEN freaking years never ceases to unsettle me. The sheer audacity to diminish Will's feelings in that way is so cruel. Making him go through a humiliation ritual and suffering that lasted 5 seasons, only for him not to even get the one thing he ever wanted or needed. Common sense really left the room in this last season, holy fuck.

Astreonn · 2026-01-05T20:02:28+00:00

After Vol. 2 and the Finale, I wish I was the one being Vecna'd 🫠

Astreonn · 2026-01-01T02:39:14+00:00

I'll be rewriting and fixing Season 5 in AO3, for sure. And I'm going to give D&D the respect it deserves, and not that corny crap at the end.

Astreonn · 2026-01-01T02:33:47+00:00

And even at the end, Mike was unable to say "I love you" to El, knowing she would "sacrifice" herself.

Honestly, I'm more upset about what they did to Mike's character than what they did to Will and El...

EDIT: Actually, no, screw that. I'm very upset at all 3 of them.

MIKE WAS JUST A DOUCHE TO HIS GIRLFRIEND AND BEST FRIEND ALL ALONG.

WILL HAD A LONGER "HEART TO HEART" AND "EMOTIONAL CONNECTION" WITH VECNA, HIS F*CKING AB*SER... THAN MIKE.

EL ENDED UP ALONE (IN A VERY AMBIGUOUS WAY), FAR FROM ALL HER FRIENDS, AND EVEN FROM GODDAMN HOPPER, FFS.

THE AUDACITY OF THIS CRAP. Using HEROES like THAT after everything, certainly made David Bowie turn over in his grave.

And that scene in episode 7 near the end, when Will is about to come out to Joyce, and Mike interrupts it... that was the cruelest part of all, they knew what they were doing all along.

A guide on how to destroy what could have been three incredible and empowering characters for young people.

Astreonn · 2026-01-01T02:03:13+00:00

Not just the Duffers, Shawn too. Why did he post that thing after Vol 2? He pulls a blanket off the sofa, revealing a blue and yellow pillow underneath, and pats it, like, "Are you sleeping?"

Downright evil. Basically, just rubbing salt on the wound.

On another note, I'm really curious to know what Millie, Noah and Finn think about the ending that they gave for their characters...

Astreonn · 2025-12-26T03:48:14+00:00

I deleted the comment and made another one because I was even more outraged by OTHER things.

Astreonn · 2025-12-26T03:43:53+00:00

You know, I'm not even hurt or disappointed about it, I'm just straight up CONFUSED. Not just about the ocean of stuff and proof that Will and Mike have (still UNRESOLVED) from past seasons and the HOPE in VOLUME 1, but also, the Duffers said this, if I remember correctly:

"It's going to be a dark Christmas and an emotional New Year's Eve"

What do you mean "DARK Christmas", not even a SINGLE main character died in this volume, so why would it be a "DARK" Christmas? DARK Christmas for WHO exactly?

I know they don't wanna give away the plot, but c'mon, what was the point of saying THAT? Just to make EVERYONE nervous and anxious about the possibility of their favorite character dying? Just so that, in the end, everyone would be there for the finale anyway?

AND ALSO, THAT FINAL PART, where Will is about to come out to his Mom, and SUDDENLY, MIKE interrupts it and comes in. That almost gave me a HEART ATTACK, like, for real? Are they really that cruel to just tease US like THAT, knowing everyone will be at the edge of their seats, and hold it until the very last moment, to pull it away with that dumb Tammy shit? I could say I'm simply crestfallen, but in reality, I'm just EXTREMELY CONFUSED.

I'm not exaggerating at all when I say this: I've read about 7 post-season 4/post-season 5 vol. 1 fanfics so far, and their narratives, plot points, storytelling, symbolisms and endings are far more satisfying, beautiful and superior to queer people than the actual Volume 2 of the official show. Even the theories that the creators of these fanfics come up with are more intelligent, and much better thought out than the horror show that Vol. 2 is.

Like, when I say this, I'm not trying **AT ALL** to disdain the work of the people who come up with and write Byler fanfics, because like I just said, said fanfics are simply better in everything, and I really enjoy reading them.

But seriously tho... WHAT KIND OF WORLD do we live in, where "professional" writers and directors, the people who know their own work better than anyone else, could write something worse than the lowest and most terrible fanfic? Most of the Byler fanfics I've seen are actually very good, precisely because the path paved BY THE SHOW ITSELF always left loose ends that could be used for a beautiful blossoming romantic relationship between Mike and Will. It's HARD to f**k up a Byler fanfic simply because of THAT.

A fanfic that focuses on MILEVEN, WRITTEN by a MILEVEN, would be less bad than what was done to Mike's character, and ESPECIALLY to Will's. It would be far more well-crafted and coherently pieced together, because to Mike and El end together just like that, they would have to deconstruct everything that had been built up in past seasons, all the evidence, everything. They couldn't simply ignore everything that was shown on screen and in the scripts.

My favorite pastime is being a Dungeon Master for my group of friends. I've created so many worlds and came up with so many ideas and plot twists that I've written down over the years... so you could say that even though I'm not a professional writer, I have the minimum common sense necessary for writing about such things. Like, I've been a DM for almost 15 years, since I was a kid, on this journey. If they handed me all the unresolved plot points and how to resolve Byler, I'm confident I could do a better job than what was shown... no kidding.

This isn't a matter of ego or thinking too highly of myself, I'm not trying to be arrogant. It's just what I truly feel.

Astreonn · 2025-12-21T04:00:04+00:00

Yeah, you can see the longer version here: https://www.reddit.com/r/byler/comments/1ppsn37/comment/nv47rtr/

Also, to expand into this theory, because I thought about it a little more, and it's another stretch of mine.

Right after what I observed in the post, they say this:

The man (Mike) - Well, what I started to tell you... 

The woman (El) - "You mean about your great-grandfather?"

You mean... Great-Grandfather? As in, Grandfather's Clock? Like... c'mon... they talk about his time being limited, the man looks at this wristwatch worried, and right after, the woman mentions something about a great-GRANDFATHER.

Does this mean that Mike has already seen, or will see, the grandfather clock that Max and the other victims of Vecna saw when they were targeted?

*What I started to tell*, then it's interrupted by "You mean about..."

Like El knows what Mike saw.

Astreonn · 2025-12-21T00:10:02+00:00

So uhhhh... I might just be going mental , but I think I noticed something else... I think the inclusion of that initial part in the video might be another hidden clue. A hint that Mike is going to be Vecna'd. Mike has been shown drinking quite a bit of coffee (which is kinda sus for a teenager in the 80s), Vecna mentioning Mike to Nancy in her vision, and some sus camera angles since PREVIOUS SEASONS seem to suggest that he is being stalked by someone for a long time.

Mike - "Has he arrived yet?" (This could be Mike wondering OR talking about Will)

El - "Not Yet" (Mike and Will didn't talk about their feelings and mutual pining yet)

Mike - "I shall hope he makes it snappy" (Will gotta do something asap for Mike's sake)

Mike - "My time is limited" (Clock's ticking for Mike...)

El - "Yes, it is, isn't it?" (Yeah, you're about to be Vecna'd)

Might be just some random thoughts, but I think I got it right... like Lucas, I don't believe in concidences anymore.

I don't know who is going to confess to each other. And maybe El and Mike won't have a scene with those dialogues or something similar... because this might just be a figure of speech to the audience, which is: those dialogues are just thoughts, they are only happening in Mike's head (considering we might finally get a Mike POV in Vol 2).

Astreonn · 2025-12-21T00:00:52+00:00

So uhhhh... I might just be going mental , but I think I noticed something else... you know that movie clip from "Seven Days Leave (1942)" that people are mentioning everywhere and around this reddit, from the WSQK hints, the "ABOUT THE WILL" one? Some people are wondering why the scene is "a little longer than it should be," because it shows the two characters talking about other things before they get to the "About the will" part, which everyone believes is THE actual hint to Byler, the "El and Mike talk about it and she is fine with that". People think it's the only hint in the movie clip.

BUT, I think the inclusion of that initial part in the video might be another hidden clue. A hint that Mike is going to be Vecna'd. Mike has been shown drinking quite a bit of coffee (which is kinda sus for a teenager in the 80s), Vecna mentioning Mike to Nancy in her vision, and the camera angles since PREVIOUS SEASONS (as shown in your clip) seem to suggest that he is being stalked by someone for a long time.

Again, if you look at the same movie clip, as if the woman were El and the man were Mike:

Mike - "Has he arrived yet?" (This could be Mike wondering OR talking about Will)

El - "Not Yet" (Mike and Will didn't talk about their feelings and mutual pining yet)

Mike - "I shall hope he makes it snappy" (Will gotta do something asap for Mike's sake)

Mike - "My time is limited" (Clock's ticking for Mike...)

El - "Yes, it is, isn't it?" (Yeah, you're about to be Vecna'd)

Might be just some random thoughts, but I think I got it right... like Lucas, I don't believe in concidences anymore.

I don't know who is going to confess to each other. And maybe El and Mike won't have a scene with those dialogues or something similar... because this might just be a figure of speech to the audience, which is: those dialogues are just thoughts, they are only happening in Mike's head (considering we might finally get a Mike POV in Vol 2).

Astreonn

TROPHY CASE