Posted by Jonathan Klotz | Published
The worst thing you can do when you like something is connect with other fans online. Nothing will make you want to throw away any love you once had for an author, series, franchise, band, YouTube channel, or podcast faster than seeing how dangerous internet fandom has become over the past decade. Stranger Things Season 5 is a recent example, with the series’ penultimate episode, “The Bridge,” now ranking as the worst episode on IMDb (5.4).
The strange thing here is that it’s not just because of the usual bombast that sometimes happens whenever the series admits that a character is gay. It is because of the anger of the fans that the series did not turn Will and Mike into a couple. It’s the horseshoe theory in action, and it’s another example of fans getting upset when their ideas and headcanon don’t come to fruition.
Byler Takes the Unknown and Puts It Down in History
Like all successful series, Stranger Things it has fan-inspired ideas and different ships (“shipping” is a term for pairing different characters together, usually with a cute nickname inspired by Bennifer). In this case, “Byler,” or “Will Byers and Mike Wheeler,” is the latest fan ship to be brutally beaten by creators, and has been hit by a storm of fan rage that local news stations have been reporting. There has been a lot of evidence throughout the series to support this ship, and who knows, it may still happen in the final episode, but the chances are very low, and like all toxic fandoms, Byler fans are willing to take a page out of the Synderbros playbook and burn the series they say they love without getting what they want.
This time, it includes an alleged two hours of deleted scenes Stranger Things Season 5 supposedly proves that Byler is in a canonical relationship. Zach Snyder fans finally got the Snyder Cut of justice league, but that was an event that only happened because of a disaster. It hasn’t stopped more than 300,000 fans from signing an online petition calling for the video’s release.
The New Bottom of Internet Talk
This proves two theories: the first is the horseshoe theory, which explains that if you go far enough in the political sphere in any direction, you end up with the same result. Byler’s bombastic fans are very left-leaning, revising-bombs because Will is gay from conservatives, but in practice, the result is exactly the same: the number of productions is decreasing and there is nothing about the actual changes of the series.
Another idea is new: “Everyone is 12 years old.” It’s believed that the constant endorphin rush that social media provides has led to everyone acting like they’re back in middle school, especially with “deep” thoughts and details that sound exactly like you’d imagine an eighth grader to be deep and insightful. “The Duffers are wrong, this theory is right, and here’s a still from “The Bridge” that proves why I’m right,” and the character’s anger at being gay when that was literally explained in the last two seasons, both of which reflect the kind of media literacy expected of a 12-year-old.
Stranger Things Season 5 Doesn’t Meet Anyone’s Expectations
That being said, Stranger Things Season 5, even for people who don’t spend all their time on the Internet, is one of the weakest seasons, full of slow pacing, awkward dialogue, and a lack of dramatic moments that turned the show into the last great monoculture series we’ll ever see. No moment so far has been in the same ballpark as Season 4’s Kate Bush and Metallica needledrops, or the Mindflayer battle of Season 3. You don’t have to believe in fans or some fan theory to think it’s a bad season.
In defense of the Byler fans out there, they may be proven right, and it’s not out of the question for Will and Mike to be a couple. That’s because the Duffer Brothers and Netflix are cowards who won’t show a gay couple. Robin and Vickie were able to kiss on screen once, but the two closest men came were Joe Keery (Steve) and Charlie Heaton (Jonathan) at the Golden Globes. There are plots, and the Byler ship has some basis, but by sticking to the middle, it pisses everyone off.
A Big Waste of Time?
The best thing for anyone upset about Will’s exit scene or Mike’s lack of response to it is to remember that it’s only a Hollywood series. When the final episode plays, whether it’s good or bad, Stranger Things we’ll still be around to watch it again, and instead of being upset about what could have been, enjoy what we did get. Five seasons in 10 years, with a budget bigger than a big movie, a kind of watercooler series that has overtaken our broken media landscape, an 80s series full of nostalgia caused Google searches for New Coke to spike in 2019, and some of the most emotional moments of any show ever made.
Assuming the two-hour finale sticks around, otherwise this was a huge waste of time, and really, the Duffers should have gone with the “Eddie as Vecna’s lieutenant who betrays him when he finally becomes a hero” idea. Anything is better than the “it was a D&D game all along” ending, which we’ve been taught since Season 1. Even if your ending theory doesn’t work out, it’s not worth ruining the series; we did what we did before social media and wrote fan fiction.
