My video detailing the ways how the show treated Will Byers and the Byler fandom was homophobic.
From Wikipedia: "Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or antipathy..."
0:00 New Intro
5:45 Original Intro
18:33 Worst queerbait of all time
33:00 How they prompted, fueled homophobic bullying
45:42 Homophobic exploitation of Noah Schnapp
1:09:42 Homophobic messages in the story
1:48:46 Conclusion

ADDITIONS:
42:50 Another damnable fact is that, if the Duffers actually HAD planned Mileven to be endgame all along, then they homophobically used a gay boy's love and heartbreak (Will and his painting) to make it happen.
1:19:50 - Will has also had an arc of always putting others' needs before his own, and giving love but not receiving it, exemplified most by the Painting Lie. Which is not a healthy attitude for people who face abuse! This, too, needed resolution to show that abused people deserve love and shouldn’t deny themselves of it. The show's endorsement of his decision to not seek love was also harmful in this respect.

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I'm embarrassingly straight, yet I fell for Byler, because they made it so damn obvious. I'm so beyond angry, insulted and hurt, I can't even imagine how the queer community feels.

The fact that mike can't touch will after the coming out scene :(

It would have been so easy for them to put Robin and Vickie seamlessly together in the epilogue at Enzo's! They could have been there during the marriage proposal and clapped for them or something. It would have been so easy. Literally no reason other than homophobia to not put them together in the epilogue 🙄

The way that the synopsis of Will’s future was just a shot of him sitting at a gay bar, flirting with a man, while all the other characters received rounded conclusions that displayed their personalities, really pissed me off. He was a brilliantly tortured artist, and they reduced him to nothing but his sexuality.

Thank you for mention the SA coding of that tentacle scene.  It was so unnecessary to show that, and made me deeply uncomfortable every time.

You KNOW it’s bad when people can make two hour videos about it 💀

I just KNOW the Duffers are pissed off at seeing Heated Rivalry getting popular despite it being an explicitly gay show. They could have had it ALL, the GA and homophobes aren’t the ones who will rewatch every season 50 times a year, or the ones who will buy merch and go to fan meets multiple times— or even the ones who will actively look forward to their next shows or possible spin offs. They have fumbled this so bad that I’m not even hurt anymore, destroying their story just to cut off any possible ways of Byler happening— and now even the GA is upset about the finale as well.

I’m glad they are getting their wake up call.

Ronald, you were the most eloquent at presenting the evidence for Byler in this show, and now you are the most eloquent at presenting the evidence for how harmful the Duffer brothers' actions are in real life. You are a gem.

the homophobia is so disgusting I got 50+ death threats on the internet because I said I shipped byler.

THE DUFFER BROTHERS ARE LIKE PAPA

The whole interview section about forcing the kids to kiss is BEYOND disgusting. Whether they intended to come off as pervy or not, even saying that in an interview let alone doing it on set is so bad

I've felt really embarrassed for how deeply this queerbait affected me. Byler was a way for me to relive the unrequited love I had for my best friend, but it ended up just reopening that wound. I had a friend in middle school (we met the same year stranger things came out and are the same age as the actors) and we were inseparable. We'd talk about living together when we got older (with our boyfriends too of course) and how our other friends were great but didn't understand us the way we understood each other. We even wore our respective favorite colors (blue and yellow) all the time. She was my Mike. Once I realized that I was gay and came out to her I felt a tangible shift in our friendship. She didn't want to dress up together for halloween anymore, she worried people would think we were a couple. She started pulling away, it seemed like my gayness was a sort of stain on our friendship. I kept my feelings for her tamped down for 8 years, fearing I'd lose her. We both dated other people which seemed to strain our friendship, we would both get jealous and petty. Finally, I couldn't keep it to myself anymore. I did the same things Will did, I looked for signals, analyzed our interactions, gauged her feelings, and I came to the ridiculous conclusion that she felt the same way about me. Obviously she didn't. I never saw her again after confessing my feelings. I not only lost hope of having my love be returned, but I also lost my best friend. This was almost three years ago, and it still hurts. Naturally, when I heard other people talking about a secret romance between Will and Mike I was skeptical, I had seen how that story ends. But when I watched your videos about the undeniable evidence pointing towards Byler, I started to feel an echo of the hope I once had. Maybe I hadn't had my happy ending, but it seemed possible that in a fictional world with eldritch monsters and alternate dimensions that a character like me might find his happy ending. I think what made Byler so painful was looking for the signs that it was canon was so similar to our experience as gay people looking to see if our feelings were reciprocated. The duffers were obviously aware of that experience (we see that through robin telling will to look for signals) and ended up making their queer fans experience the "rejection" along with will. A rejection many of us had already experienced in real life. I know it's silly to put so much significance on a fictional relationship, but the way Byler ended just reaffirmed what I already knew: love is not for us, and we're silly for thinking we deserve it.

I am a straight woman but I always felt Mike and Will would end up together. Their chemistry was undeniable. After volume 1 of season 5, I was literally sure that Byler is canon. What they did in volume 2 and finale was shocking. They ruined Mike, Will and El’s arcs completely. I don’t think I can ever rewatch the show again because so many scenes from the previous seasons will not make any sense to me anymore. So so disappointing.

Literally what was the point of Mike’s behavior in season 4?

1:03:53 ICK ICK ICK
outside of the queerbaiting and questionable writing, their treatment of the kids has raised eyebrows. what do you mean they forced sadie to do a kiss specifically because she requested she DIDN'T want it?? what sort of high school bullying peer pressure are they doing behind the scenes because the combination of that, the jabs at each other in interviews, and Noah's discomfort and fear over approaching the Duffer's about his character makes me so uncomfy :/

One good thing about this finale is it has caused me to write more. Purely out of spite  and the desire to make something BETTER than the slop that the duffers threw in our face.

I can only rely on fanfiction and my memories because I genuinely can't rewatch stranger things ever again

Telling the gay actor to SHUT UP when he expresses concern over their queer representation is crazy tone deaf and insensitive.

its the fact the byler was started because everyone thought MIKE liked WILL in seasons 1 and 2. I even remember watching stranger things for the first time thinking "damn Mike you really in love with your best friend" and "bro i hope Will doesnt reject him", which made me all the more confused with Will liking Mike back in seasons 3 and 4, because i thought that MIKE was the closeted gay boy (ngl he even looked the part). Despite me now understanding Byler's mutual love for one another, I still stand on the grounds that Will being gay did not cause byler to happen and it was Mike being fixated on Will and loving Will in seasons 1 and 2 that made byler happen