Since its release in 2016, Netflix’s Stranger Things has turned the world upside down. (Pun intended.) Its intricate storylines and fascinating characters hooked Netflix viewers from the jump, spawning fan accounts across every imaginable social media platform and creating the community of dedicated fans we know today.
Additionally, the Duffer Brothers, along with the talented crew of writers behind the show, were able to delve deeper into the relationships between each character throughout each season. Some love stories blossomed and some faded into oblivion, but not without creating fan debates online.
The famous Jancy vs Stancy love triangle is a great example of that, which pitted characters Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) and Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton) against each other in the battle for the affections of Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer). However, the most voracious group of fans that we have encountered online are definitely the Byler shippers. So, let’s find out what the couple “Byler” is truly about, and why fans have become so obsessed with this ship throughout the show.
What Is Stranger Things‘ Ship “Byler,” And How Did This Pairing Become Such A Huge Trend On Social Media?
As stated beforehand, fans of Stranger Things have become even more vocal about their favorite couples online each season. Jancy and Stancy are two of the most important couples that fans have obsessed over, going all the way back to Season 1. One couple that has slowly taken root in the fan community is Byler, alongside another ship, Mileven. Byler is the acronym for the same-sex couple that is made of two core characters in the series, Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) and Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), with Mileven being the couple that consists of Mike and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). Let’s see how the discourse between the two couples evolved, and how the Byler community was born.
The story of Stranger Things began, as we all know, with Will disappearing. Consequently, his friends and mother Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder), began searching for him non-stop, with the help of Chief James Hopper (David Harbour). As the seasons went on, viewers and the characters alike realized that their seemingly ordinary town, Hawkins, Indiana, harbored dark secrets and a supernatural world, named the Upside Down, with the government working on top-secret research to find out its origin. Meanwhile, the group of high school kids in Hawkins met a kid named Eleven, who had phenomenal telekinetic abilities; along the way, Mike and Eleven fall in love. But some fans, known as Byler shippers, noticed (imagined?) the dynamic between Mike and Will growing deeper and deeper in each episode.
So, why have fans become so obsessed with this ship? Well, there were subtle glances, alongside scenes of Mike always trying to protect Will and risking it all for him (in Season 2 especially), which highlights that this pair had a connection that goes deeper than simple friendship (like they were each other’s anchor). However, as Mike and Eleven became a couple in the series, viewers began suspecting that Will might have been harboring a crush on Mike all along (see: the fight outside Will’s house, and every character looking at Will in the scene that Mike accidentally blurts out that he loves Eleven in season three are great examples of that), fueling the possibility of Byler being a longterm endgame.
This theory was heavily hinted at in the fourth season with not-so-subtle subtext (Will longing over Mike at the skate park while he is with Eleven, Jonathan and Will’s heart-to-heart moment) and emotional scenes between the two characters. According to Virgin Radio UK, the most talked about scene is Will’s veiled love confession to Mike in Jonathan’s van in Stranger Things Season 4 Episode 8 (“Papa”). In this moment, Will gives Mike the painting he made for him, regaling him with a beautiful speech about how he’s the heart of their group, reassuring him that he is enough, but talking from the point of view of Eleven, not his own. In the end, Will turns away from Mike to look outside the window, with stifled tears. This scene led to fans theorizing (you can read here) that Will was the one that actually prompted Mike to say “I love you” to Eleven in the following episode.
As Season 4 ended, Byler’s hashtag following skyrocketed on social media, with over 334K views overall on TikTok alone, especially after Schnapp confirmed Will’s sexuality in an interview with Variety. This hashtag is filled with video edits made by fans, fan video analysis that proves the couple will be endgame, and even the cast offering their support about this potential supercouple! Needless to say, the Byler fans are more sure of the possibility that this pair could actually become canon in the final season, which starts airing next week. That is because of a spoiler accidentally revealed by Schnapp during a convention on November 2nd, and other cryptic statements from the cast during an interview with Pride on the red carpet of the Stranger Things premiere in LA last week. It’s now or never…so we are excited to see what the fifth season has in store for Byler!
