Byler vs Mileven

Ship War
ShipWar:	Byler vs Mileven
Date(s):	~2017 - Current
Location:	Tumblr, Twitter, Reddit
Fandom:	Stranger Things
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Byler vs Mileven is a ship war in the Stranger Things fandom, between fans of two Mike Wheeler pairings: Will Byers/Mike Wheeler (also known as Byler) and Eleven/Mike Wheeler (also known as Mileven).

The ship war has generated considerable controversy within the fandom, drawing the attention of the show-runners and actors – in part due to shippers bringing up questions about it regularly and questions being posed by interviewers during actor interviews.

About

Overview

Eleven (known more often as El in canon) and Mike are a canonical couple, with Mike shown to have feelings for El early on in the show. They break up briefly in season three, then are separated by distance in season four which puts a strain on their relationship, though they reconcile throughout season four. As of the end of season four, Will and Mike are a fanon pairing, though it has been confirmed that Will is gay and has feelings for Mike.

While all three characters were present from season one, Will was not in many season one scenes with other characters due to him being in the Upside Down. Then, in season two, El was separated from the rest of the cast for most of the season, having returned from being in the Upside Down with only Jim Hopper knowing. This lack of screen-time shared between the three of them meant that the shipping wars did not start significantly until the end of season two, and escalated throughout seasons three and four.

By the time it was confirmed that Will was gay and had feelings for Mike, many Byler fans had already compiled long lists of examples, multiple meta essays, and numerous discussions around how aspects of the show were hinting that Will/Mike were going to be endgame. In some Byler circles it was considered a further confirmation of their endgame theory that they were correct in their interpretations of Will's character being gay.

First Peak: Season Two-Three

The ship war started to appear at the end of season two, but became much more prevalent throughout season three. Mike and Will had multiple scenes together in season two, as Will suffered under the effects of the Mind Flayers' efforts to control him, and El was absent from many scenes with other characters. She did, however, attend the Snow Ball with Mike at the end of the season. As a result, shipping of both pairings began to increase in fan spaces.

In season three, with conflicts and difficulties between the two sets of relationships arising, shippers of each pairing increasingly began to put forward evidence for why their ship was the more favoured, whether that was in canon, in fandom or both. When the concept of Will/Mike as a pairing was raised in social media discussions, some fans felt that the pairing came out of nowhere and had little basis in canon. With Will's sexuality only being hinted at in canon so far, some fans pushed back strongly on the possibility that Will might be gay, leading to some homophobic comments directed at Byler shippers.

Other fans, outside of the direct shipwar, were unenthusiastic about the possibility that a love triangle might be introduced between the three, concerned that there had been enough minor love triangles in the show already, and that the love triangle between Steve Harrington/Nancy Wheeler (Stancy) and Jonathan Byers/Nancy Wheeler (Jancy) was already likely to make a return in later seasons.

Other fans felt that the show could be providing subtext for Will being written as gay, but felt that it would be out of character for him to then directly affect El and Mike's relationship, though the opportunity for angst and jealousy story-lines or tensions were both possibilities some fans raised.

I see your point and I'm with you. A love triangle would be stupid. They did it last season with Mike, El, and Max and also with Lucas and Dustin. If Will is to be gay, then they'll probably address it subtly.

I don't want Will to get in the way of El and Mike. The relationship "Mileven" is one of the greatest thing about the show. The purity and goodness of them is something everyone appreciates.

I don't think you need to worry about this. As you said, their relationship is a selling point, but also deeper than any typical relationship. I also can't see Mike abandoning El, along with you.

I think all of this is evidence of a really strong friendship, and absolutely nothing romantic.

Shawn Levy has said that their relationship is "brotherly." They're close but even if Will is gay, I wouldn't believe he'd try to get in the way of Mike and El. He knows about El and what she means to Mike. And Will's not the kind of person sabotage a relationship.

Bottom line, I see your points and I don't want Byler either. Leave it to fanfiction. But if anything, if Will is gay, I don't see it affecting Mike and El's relationship. But I also wouldn't put it past them to have some tension, like if Will feels forgotten or jealous that Mike is spending so much time with El.

hayden1821 at r/StrangerThings, April 2019 

Second Peak: Two year gap between seasons

With the two year gap between seasons three and four, there was a lot of time to speculate about how the show would proceed, with fans knowing that both El and Will were leaving Hawkins and therefore would be separated from Mike for some time. During this time, a lot of theorising took place by fans of the Byler ship, with some creating very detailed meta and scene analysis to demonstrate why they believe Will/Mike was the endgame couple.

Fans of the El/Mike pairing pushed back, arguing that their ship was being set up to be the endgame as the show would almost certainly start and end with Mike and El's relationship as a core part of the story-line.

Third Peak: Season Four

With the events of Season 4, many Byler fans felt that cracks in the Mike/Eleven canon relationship were apparent. Mike and El had struggled to communicate over the distance, with El in California and Mike in Hawkins, as had Will and Mike. When Mike arrived in California to visit, Mike was awkward with Will and El hid the truth of her experiences in California (where she was bullied greatly by classmates) from Mike. Both of these led to arguments between both relationships. El's absence from the group for multiple episodes throughout the season meant more Will and Mike scenes, before the final few episodes reunited El and Mike and included reconciliation scenes between them.

These scenes were all analysed in great detail by shippers, with claims that it was setting up one or other of the two ships for season four. With the mid-season break for season four, a number of Byler fans believed Byler would become canon by the season finale. When this did not happen, some Mileven fans took to social media to mock their earlier analysis and predictions.

Discourse between some Byler and some Mileven fans became increasingly unpleasant, including homophobic comments being made about Will, and misogynistic and ableist comments made about El. Personal attacks, name calling, and deliberating tagging anti-ship posts in each others tags also occurred with increasing regularity. Some fans made new accounts to pretend to be fans of the opposing ship so they could "get into" fan spaces and then feed the comments back to other fans for mockery.

Season Five Pending

As of May 2024, the fifth and final season of Stranger Things is being filmed. After the initial flurry of fan activity following season four, the ship war between Bylers and Milevens has peaked and dipped. It tends to get reignited whenever the official accounts release teasers for the new season, behind the scenes snippets, and scripts or missing scenes from past seasons. The staff running the official social media accounts seem very aware that there is a lot of attention paid to the ships in Stranger Things and will use the fandom engagement as part of their promotion. This has led to fans raising questions about where the line is between baiting and just joining in with fan enthusiasm.

Additionally, there have been various fan activities, ranging from polls to large discussions to fan weeks which reignite the ship war. For example, many polls were run by fans on the Stranger Things subreddit as an activity between seasons. If these polls involved Byler or Mileven in some way – as a pairing, voting on favourite scenes or episodes, for example – then fans would often seek out voters from other social media platforms to ensure their ship "won", leading to arguments across platforms.

The expectation is that the ship war will reignite as strongly as it did in the previous two seasons, if not more so, when the final season is close to being aired and will continue past the finale for some time. With the pro-Israel and pro-Zionist comments made by Will's actor, Noah Schnapp, as well as other cast and crew from the show, some Stranger Things fans have expressed a commitment to not watch the final season, and have abandoned the Byler ship.

Showrunner Involvement

Not only is it commonplace for questions to put to the cast and crew of Stranger Things via fans through social media or when there are opportunities to send in questions, questions about shipping have also been raised by interviewers during various actor interviews.

While questions are asked about many Stranger Things ships, the Byler vs Mileven questions remain amongst the ones appearing with the most regularity, alongside the Jancy vs Stancy questions.

Whenever answers are provided by the cast or crew, or whenever particular posts are made on official social media channels, some fans will use these as further proof that their ship is the one that the season will end with.