#Just Mike being dumb.

[euryleli]

Am I going crazy when I say El has never seen Will and Mike be... WillandMike?

In s1 El and Will missed each other entirely. When he came back, El got trapped in the upside down instead and s2 was the same thing - Will and Mike worked together as duo for most of the season and El was off doing her own thing.

In s3 we learn that El barely spends time with the rest of the party and she only connected with max after the whole ordeal about Mike's nana (which happened months after the ending of season 2), so El and Mike spent all of their days together completely alone at her cabin or actively ignoring and ditching the party during group hangouts

We don't actually know what happened during the time skip from the battle of starcourt to the byers move, but I don't think it's a stretch to say Mike and Will's friendship was still off (especially because of their infamous fight and "it's not my fault you don't like girls")

In s4 we know El and Will finally got to properly know each other - they're family now, not only acquaintances with a connection to the supernatural - but when Mike arrived in Lenora... well, the airport and rink o'mania scenes speak for themselves. They were being weird and El was obviously too preoccupied with her own issues to actually do or say something about it

But El's not stupid... so do we think if she had seen how Mike and Will act around each other, she would've known?

She's really perceptive and her upbringing being so disconnected from society also means she doesn't see the world through straight and heteronormative lenses...

[chirpsythismorning]

El being *12 hours earlier* than the Cali timeline when she arrives at Nina. Will saying ‘it’s been 9 hrs’ in the scene following his monologue in the van.

We know that at some point their timelines merged when they arrived to save her…

But we don’t know when exactly those alignments took place when they were still apart… which just makes you wonder…

[lun3ria]

maybe i’m alone on this but i like to think that matt & jess became incredibly close platonically after the mines. jess subconsciously trusting matt after he saved her bc he saw her at her most vulnerable then still stuck by her side and held on for the both of them until they were rescued. matt seeing jess’s sheer strength/endurance and cooperation. i think the lack of her typical brash and provocative persona pained him even though it wasn’t something he ever found endearing.

and don’t let me bring emily into the mix bc the way she’s one of the most important people to both of them?? matt clearly feels inferior during certain moments and like he has to prove himself as emily’s bf. and jess clearly wants to show that she’s better off without emily who’s below her and prove herself as mike’s gf.

and the way matt and jess both think dealing with mike is somehow the solution to their direct relationship with emily. matt thinks verbally warning him and physically bringing him down a peg will resolve any resentment or secrecy between HIM and emily. and jess thinks being intimate with mike will somehow heal the longing and betrayal between HER and emily. ughh i don’t know i think matt & jess are wretched mirrors of each other and the object of their desires is emily.

[al-luviec]

juvie buddies

[homefryboy]

I like how much effort is put into drawing him in pain : )

bonuses

[mikesbasementbeets]

to be real for a second, i think there is a moment in the show where mike has a ~realization~ of sorts about his feelings but hasn't quite put two and two together yet.... and it's this:

this realization of "hey my feelings for will are actually maybe different than my feelings for my other friends, but i'm not sure why" happens at the end of season two. and then mike spends the entirety of season three acting sort of strange and different around will while having his relationship with him constantly juxtaposed with his relationship with el. reaching the end of that season which, despite all the supernatural shit going on, took the time to focus so heavily on those two relationships (and how fundamentally different they are), and having mike have the same realization he had at the end of season two makes no sense because it would mean he accomplished absolutely nothing in his emotional arc during the course season three

especially to claim that he still believes he has feelings for el going into season 4. especially to claim he still believes he has feelings for el by the end of season 4. it's to claim that he has not made any emotional progress in his relationships for at least two full seasons, that he's been going through all of this for it to not have made any conscious impact on him, and the changes in the way he acts from s2-3 and from s3-4 aren't a product of his character developing (growing, changing, to quote hopper's letter) but rather..... ? i don't know actually. just him feeling weird but not understanding himself at all. still. it just doesn't make sense to me. he's one of the main characters of the show, and to keep him emotionally stagnant for 4 out of 5 seasons (especially when we can see that his behavior is changing, that he has not been stagnant at all but rather deeply affected by everything) would be a disservice to his character, first of all, but also a disservice to the narrative which has been showing us his (as well as the other characters') struggle with growing up and growing into himself every season. and it simply doesn't align with what we're being shown

mike is already having realizations by the end of season two. but by the end of season three, he's starting to be really honest with himself about what they mean

[spotforme]

their little platinum song <3 this whole scene cracks me up

Joey is so so very deeply ashamed of what they created, Michael is having the time of his life and Malcom just stumbled onto this disaster like ?????

[heartsgettingwiser62]

Do you guys ever wonder if Mike slipped that sticky note into Will's locker. And when he found it he was scared bc he thought it was someone bullying him again. Until he read it and he absolutely melted. And he just stood in the middle of the hallway, re-read it 10 times, looked both sides to make sure nobody was watching, clutched the note against his chest for a second, gently shoved it inside his schoolbag and walked away. (And had to come back bc he had forgotten what he had to do in his locker lmao i love him)

[shikai-the-storyteller]

One of the funniest things about the QSMP finale was Pac going "Yeah, Cucurucho transferred my consciousness into this Egg body to save me," and Mike is immediately like, "Wait, why the hell didn't they save me?!?" pfttt

[voydhund]

the mini-culture shock i got from going from Reddit to Tumblr was so much

When i first made my acc i was really hesitant to post anything Byler related because i was afraid the Byler Community was like 30 people and everyone else were Mexicanfoodtruck shippers

I fully expected to be like, cursed out and sent hate for posting Byler stuff :( Reddit sucks man :( why are they so mean

[stimmingandstruggling]

i (guy with a younger sister and brother) understand michael afton more than the rest of you ever will

[irlwakko]

can you be robbed of something if it never actually existed. anyway we were robbed of villain zoey

[kingcriccket]

The thing about the fall of the house of usher is that like. I think Mike Flanagan is a great character writer but... somehow maybe not a very good horror writer? Which I know is an insane take given his body of work but like. He's great with suspense, but when that tension finally breaks, at least in Usher, it tends to feel kind of... stupid rather than scary.

Which means you're watching all of these interesting, horrible people play off of one another in excellent ways, portrayed by excellent actors, as they unerringly make their ways towards extremely obviously telegraphed and kind of stupid deaths.

[reikunrei]

i don’t think i’ll ever get why ppl hate mike and el so much as a romantic pairing, and even more so why ppl think that mike and el can’t or shouldn’t be friends... like i understand not thinking they’re good for each other, i agree with that, so they shouldn’t be together romantically in canon, but just... so much hate for them?? is so weird??? and dumb?? like what a lameass thing to get up in a twist about..... like... for why

can’t help but think that, for a group of people who wants mike to be happy so so so badly, the folks who hate on his relationship with el sure seem to not care about his feelings

[zipzaptoastainthebath]

Happy b-day, Will. 

Today ended up being one big gay win for me.

[gwasgy]

as an impulse-driven person who is prone to pure hedonism when i have free time to myself-- it's a rather blessing curse that all of my vices i allow myself provide me with a tasteful side of severe physical discomfort