lunabug2004

[lunabug2004]

"If Mike isn't gay he's literally just a villain."

Actually stfu.

I'm about to boil over.

[lunabug2004]

Oh the amount of times I've had to drop a fic bc of blatant Mike hate is honestly uncountable at this point 😅 It's crazy to me that even tons of Bylers hate Mike... like that's one half of your ship!

And yes!!! He's been established to be smart intellectually but oblivious emotionally, so I don't know why people are so upset at the idea that he is oblivious to Will's feelings. Even if he maybe thought he did, I think Mike's insecurities would keep him from actually thinking it was true anyways. Then there's the chance that Mike actually picked up on Will's feelings in the van scene, to an extent at least, and then people would have no leg to stand on anyway! I'm not sure whether I believe this to be true, bc I can see both sides, but either way the hate is absolutely undeserved! <3

Every time I see someone claim Jonathan hates Mike an angel loses its wings.

Every time I see someone claim Hopper hates Mike a kid drops their ice cream.

Every time I see someone claim Max and Mike don’t care for one another a firefly loses its glow.

[lunabug2004]

“Like it’s a fight you can’t come back from” being followed by two of the most flirty interactions in the show should honestly be all the proof we need 😂 

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I feel like we don’t talk nearly enough about “Mike and me? I mean no one was nice to us.”

[lunabug2004]

mike wheeler is a massive loser and i love him for it

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[lunabug2004]

hangout idea: we watch all of stranger things but I pause it every 3 minutes to give a lengthy analysis of each frame

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Does anyone know if El heard Will tell Mike to give her the monologue? Because I’ve never really thought about it but it makes sense that she would have, right? 😬

[lunabug2004]

mad ranting time. sorry

no, mike isn't a fucking devil for asking the dj to stop the music. sorry he didn't blow up the place with his mind powers or whatever you think he should've done. at least he was actually doing something. at least he tried stopping it. at least we actually get a scene of him looking for her instead of standing around with his arms crossed.

no mike was not more concerned about his fight with will as it was occuring. he expressed wanting to hold on it two different times because he wanted to find el, who was just humiliated in front of an entire crowd. which. yeah. that's the problem right now. do you expect mike to juggle two different problems at once right now? be real. be so real right now. mind you, mike did call and talked about it so much it was enough for his friends to call it whining. mind you, will indirectly admits to pushing mike away during his speech. but we won't talk about that, right? it's allllll mike because communication really is just a one way thing apparently.

i have seen people get mad at mike for bringing soggy eggos to el, using this as byler proof. it already has syrup on it?? no fork?? he's a terrible boyfriend. this is funny to me because he's the only one in this scene actively concerned about el, enough to not even touch his breakfast and leave to give el hers. but of course. mike's the bad one for doing anything at all. he should've just sat there and enjoyed his breakfast. oh wait he would've still gotten shit for that too. really can't win can you?

the show goes out of the way to show how much mike gives a damn about el. he's the one that follows the police car to reassure el he is going to fix this. he pushes jonathan and will out of the way as he tries to go stop the van that's taking her.

and you know what. i'm gonna say it! people get on mike's ass for his monologue and it is shitty. but have we just. never thought to wonder why this is all on him? why is he the one that has to be the only one to say something to keep this girl alive? obviously, this is a story. this isn't real. but points are still being made.

he then carries the entire california plot with his leadership even though yall fail to see that too. but its very much there in your face

i can literally feel immense pressure for mike the more i think about s4 from his perspective, and this isn't even getting into the depression he's already in. growing white hairs just for him.

idk yall are just horrible about mike and don't deserve him or what he'll look like in s5, truly.

[lunabug2004]

reminder if you think mike should be the one to break up with el/think he should’ve broken up with her a long time ago:

for el, breaking up with mike is difficult and sad. for mike, breaking up with el is dangerous.

el is the main factor in preserving mike’s perceived heterosexuality. she’s his shield, his cover, his defense for any suspicion anyone might have about him being queer. basically, as i wrote about will saying here:

el keeps it contained.

unlike almost every other teenage boy in the show, he’s never seen expressing any interest in girls (talking about how attractive they are, having posters of girls on his wall, etc) which could easily be clocked as unusual… but he has a girlfriend! of course he can’t be gay, of course he’s interested in girls, he has a girlfriend!

if he and el break up he won’t have that excuse anymore. he’d have to somehow find another girl naive enough (as el was when they met) to believe he likes her, or with little enough self respect to ignore the fact that he doesn’t. and he would also have to somehow keep her around for a long time.

i’m not saying that mike tricked el into a relationship just to be his beard. i don’t think he had the forethought to plan that out at 12 years old. but i do think he was heavily influenced by dustin and lucas thinking he had a crush on her, and blindsided by the idea of being seen as a “normal” boy and the possibility of less bullying. el was the perfect girl to get into a relationship with: not socially adapted to the world (therefore not understanding romance) starving for genuine connection, especially with someone her age, and dependent on mike for food, shelter, and interaction. of course she formed an attachment to him. to be clear, el was not and is not stupid, but she was essentially new to society at that time. by s4 she has more experience with the world, which is why she knows there’s something wrong in her and mike’s relationship.

the GA itself is a good example of how effective el is at protecting his heterosexuality. to put it plainly, mike isn’t actually the best at hiding his queerness. no, seriously, he’s uninterested or disgusted when talking about girls (see: the faces he often makes), has posters of buff men in his room, is framed as the odd one out when it comes to lucas and dustin’s growing desire for girls, takes el’s hands off his face/keeps eyes open while kissing her. the GA doesn’t see any of this just because mike has a girlfriend. his shield is working on the audience—he can’t be gay, he has a girlfriend! there were no signs, plus he has a girlfriend!

guys. mike would look gayer than will if he weren’t dating el.

i don’t think i have to explain why mike would want to hide that he’s gay in a conservative 80s small town. i’ll just assume you understand that well enough, and assume you understand how dangerous it would be if people knew.

does mike care about el? absolutely, just not romantically. i even think most of this isn’t/wasn’t in his conscious mind, and he probably used to think he was into el. you can convince yourself of a lot of things through comphet. el deserves better than this, but the fear that’s motivating mike to stay with her is real.

all this to say, imo it’s unlikely that mike is gonna be the one to break up with el, or if he is, it’s pretty clear why he didn’t do it sooner. he would be risking so so much. in fact, if he does break up with her it’s an incredible act of bravery.

[lunabug2004]

A lot of people are misunderstanding Mike’s internalized homophobia. It’s an inside thing he feels specifically about himself. He doesn’t hate gay people, he hates himself, and nobody seems to be portraying it how it is or talking about it.

He wasn’t being homophobic to Will in the S3 rain fight, when he said “it’s not my fault you don’t like girls!!” it only kind of slipped out. This is something Mike has probably been telling himself since he realized he doesn’t like girls. He is so obviously projecting, but he’s destroying everything in his path along the way.

Mike is anything but homophobic, he literally pushed Troy to the ground for calling Will a fairy. But I think he also did that as a defense tactic for himself. He took those words to heart. He internalized the homophobia meant for Will. When Ted said “see what happens?” he wasn’t blaming Mike, he was blaming Will for being gay. He was trying to teach his son a lesson and say “see how they treat gay people? This is how they’ll treat you. Don’t even think about being gay.”

And Mike is a sensitive, emotionally-driven character. He probably has every homophobic slur and every passive aggressive comment from his father stuck in the back of his mind on replay. He says to himself, “see, you shouldn’t be gay, it gets you hurt.”

Anyways I’m just trying to say that if Lucas or Dustin were gay, Mike wouldn’t care and he really wouldn’t make it a big deal. But he acts so differently around Will because by now he knows he likes Will. There’s no use in denying it anymore. But the only problem is that Will is gay too, which makes things too real for Mike’s comfort. The chances of Will liking him are astronomically higher than the chances of Lucas or Dustin liking him. But maybe it would be easier to reject them and act straight than it would be to reject Will and see his heart break in real time.

[lunabug2004]

sorry but literally no explanation as to why you would look at your girlfriend crying and breaking down because you never say you love her and not just... tell her you love her makes sense to me other than you just literally don't love her

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can the vehicles chill damn

[lunabug2004]

Coming back to the fact that the scene focused on how much Mike loves El is titled after how much Will loves Mike

He was barely in the scene. It was like 5 minutes of only Mike talking about only El and his love for her and strengthening her

And it was titled for Will. For Will's romantic feelings for Mike.

Mike told El he loved her. And the title of the song that played over that, 99% of the scene under that song being Mike telling El how much he loves her, was not "Mike loves El", but "Will loves Mike".

Mlvns complain about it like it's an accident, but it isn't. They literally gave away Mike and El's romance to Will.

We've counted before. Every single romantic moment, he's present. And sometimes, he's even its NAMESAKE.

Will owns their romance now and that's insane. They didn't just ween audiences off of Mike and El to get them attached to somebody else. They gave it away to the person.

And not just in terms of him having the power to keep them together or not, I'm talking about the AUDIENCE.

You can never again think of Mike and El without thinking of him. It belongs to him now. That's why Mlvns talk about us under every one of their completely Will-absent edits and posts but we seldom talk about them. Because one cannot talk about Mike and El without talking about Will. Because as of season 4, their romance belongs to him, that's insane. Mike and Will belong to themselves and each other. And Mike and El's friendship belongs to themselves and each other. But their romance belongs to Will.

He is always there. He is holding them together. He was provided the power to tear them apart. They are NAMED for him. It's like naming the ship between Mike x El "Will Byers".

"What's your favorite Mike and El moment?" "'You're the heart'" "Oh, the Mike and Will moment?" "NO, Mike's LOVE SPEECH TO EL"

they created a world where you have to correct it every time. Where the default for anything you say is to mean Will.

They essentially installed autocorrect to every time you say "I love Mike and El", go "did you mean 'Will'?"

"No, goddamnit, I said Mike and El WIll"

"Mike and El Will"

"M!leven Byler"

[lunabug2004]

There’s a scene in season 4 that I believe doesn’t get nearly the attention it deserves. At first glance, it might even go unnoticed — but when you really pay attention, it turns out to be one of the most revealing and subtext-rich moments of the entire season.

It’s not a scene that stands out for its drama or for any particularly powerful dialogue. But if you pay attention to how it’s constructed, you realize it’s key to understanding Mike’s internal conflict.

It’s the moment when Mike reunites with Eleven after all the chaos in California. In theory, it should be one of the emotional high points of their relationship: they hug, emotional music plays, there are restrained reactions. Everything seems designed to make us feel tenderness or relief.

But what happens visually and expressively on screen doesn’t quite support that idea.

The framing and direction: nothing is accidental

The camera focuses on Mike and Eleven in the foreground. She looks at him intensely. He smiles. But it’s not a completely natural smile. There’s something forced, held back. As if he’s more focused on doing what’s expected than on letting himself feel.

And then, almost imperceptibly, Mike shifts his gaze toward Will, who’s standing slightly behind, a bit out of focus, but clearly within the frame.

And in that moment, Mike’s expression changes.

The smile freezes. His gaze loses warmth. There’s no longer any certainty, no spontaneous emotion. Only something that looks like… doubt.

It’s a tiny gesture, but it says more than any line of dialogue that follows. Because it’s not a big mood swing. There’s no obvious discomfort or exaggerated reaction.

What we see is a microsecond of clarity. As if something inside him suddenly clicks. As if simply seeing Will disconnects him from what he’s supposed to be feeling.

And that’s the key: what he’s supposed to be feeling.

Mike’s emotional conflict: body vs mind

That gesture — that fleeting look — reveals the gap between what Mike does and what he truly feels.

His body responds with closeness to Eleven, but his mind — or heart, or whatever is buried under layers of denial — is activated the moment he sees Will.

And it’s so subtle that it might seem like a continuity error if you don’t know what to look for. But if you’ve been paying attention to Mike and his dynamic with Will for a while, that expression becomes a kind of silent confession.

Because it’s not that Mike is rejecting Eleven. It’s not about him no longer caring for her.

What’s happening is more complex: what he feels for her isn’t what he should feel if he were truly in love.

And when he sees Will — the person with whom he’s had unresolved emotional tension all season (and all the previous ones) — that unspoken truth flashes across his face for just a moment.

Will in the frame: what it symbolizes

Another important detail is where Will is placed in the scene. He’s not just physically present — he’s between them, in the shot.

He literally becomes a presence that interrupts or unsettles Mike and Eleven’s moment, even though he doesn’t say a word.

And that’s not accidental. The way he’s positioned reinforces the idea that Will isn’t just another character in this dynamic — he’s the emotional center that destabilizes what Mike pretends to want.

It’s also interesting that, in this instance, Will isn’t the one watching with pain.

He’s not the one projecting unspoken feelings. This time, it’s Mike who looks at him.

And that completely shifts the energy of the scene.

Because now the focus isn’t on Will’s repression — it’s on Mike’s confusion.

And that nuance changes everything in how we understand the evolution of this triangle.

What isn’t said… but is felt

That extra second. That pause in the gaze. That microexpression.

These are the things that make this seemingly simple scene one of the most important moments in Mike’s arc. Because it shows — without a single word — that something is beginning to fall apart.

That the story he’s told himself — that he’s in love with Eleven, that everything fits, that everything’s okay — no longer holds up so easily when Will is in the picture.

There’s no need for a confession, or an argument, or a stolen kiss to understand that in that moment, a crack opens up in Mike.

A crack he won’t be able to ignore for much longer.

[lunabug2004]

Stfu...😭

[lunabug2004]

"i love that one thing finn wolfhard is in!"

"which one?"

"you know, the one where he plays a boy in love with his male childhood best friend?"

"....which one?"