#Mike wheeler is gay

[lune-moon-nuit]

Can't wait for the season 5

Why I no longer think Mike is bi, but gay (deep-dive analysis)

I guess, I’ve been putting this off for a long time, because I was afraid of the backlash- since so many toxic-milevens send me hate despite the fact I never cross tag. But honestly, I’m so used to it now, it’s honestly become humorous. But, I think the main reason I didn’t want to discuss this was because so many people happily head-cannon Mike as bi/pan. Which is rare in a fandom, since even when a character is confirmed/heavily implied to be bi, people erase their sexuality and pretend they’re gay/lesbian. Which I find incredibly problematic, given how common bi-erasure is in real-life. And how it makes it seem like other gay people refuse to see themselves in a bi character- so they erase their sexuality instead. But, honestly, as someone who has head cannoned Mike as bi since s1ep2, it’s hard for me to see him as anything but gay now! This is because the evidence in s3, re-contextualized everything in the first two seasons.  And him being gay (rather than bi) explains all of his out of character behavior. So, lets begin. Warning this is going to be long! XD

In the Montauk pitch (later named Stranger things) they describe the Mike and El dynamic by saying “ If Mike is the Eliot of our show,Eleven is our Et.” (AKA they’re from different planets)

And In s2 , Erica  is forcing He-man and barbie to make out. Lucas angrily separates the two. And then this discussion happens.

Erica: “Hey , They’re in love!”

Lucas (livid- and standing right next to a rainbow): “No, actually,  they’re not. They don’t even exist on the same planet.”

Mike (like Elliot) loves El (ET) and is deeply sad when she disappears but contrary to Mike’s confusion on the matter it was never romantic. We see El compared to Et on multiple occasions (the bike scene, reese’s pieces vs eggos, the makeover, etc).  And then there’s the  old euphemism of “girls come from Venus, and boys come from Mars”. So El telling mike he should ‘stick with his own species’ (aka boys). And the Duffers saying mileven isn’t in love cause they’re “not from the same planet” -is just them telling us Mike is gay. Further reiterated when  Will tells Mike “welcome to my world (Planet)”

Similarly Dustin (like Lucas) is used as a narrative-device to foreshadow Mileven’s fate and give us insight about how the writers are actually portraying mileven.

While climbing up the hill, Dustin talks about Romeo & Juliet (while mileven is out of frame). R&J is  about the dangers of not knowing the difference between love and infatuation. R&J were teenagers who claimed that they were in love with each other after knowing each for a few days and deciding to get married…sabotaging the closest relationships they had with their friends/family (all in the name of ‘true love’) . Similarly Mileven thought they were in love after only a week of knowing each other, and the second they are reunited they start dating and spend all their time with each other, becoming apathetic to the people they care about. Also,  after Romeo (El ) is banished , Juliet (Mike) just complains about how in love/sad she is, but never pursues looking for him (sound familiar)? So the fact that after this R&J reference, Dustin describes mileven, saying “IT’S BULLSHIT!” Should raise a few alarm bells, because when was the last time someone used that line to describe a romantic relationship?!

 (x)

Well, it was what Nancy (Mike’s sister) said about her first real relationship.Insert Murray’s conversation (with Nancy): “ Afraid that if you’d accept yourself for who you really are (cough queer-subtext), and retreated back to… name, name? Steve. Steve! we like Steve (El) but we don’t love Steve (El).”

Mileven is paralleled heavily to many doomed ships- but their’s an emphasis on stancy in s3.  Being called “bullshit” (aka never in love). Mike and Steve singing to their gfs and neither being fans and cutting them off. Making out on a bed to cheesy music. In s1, both Nancy/Mike slap Steve and El and then both yell “ What is wrong with you?!”  El and Steve both are compared to Ted. El being a fan of ted’s lazy boy. (Karen in s3 looks at Ted in the chair when the lyric “I should have walked away “ plays). And Steve and ted continuing to eat chicken as their gf /wife storm off from the table upset , and they do nothing. Steve and Ted both tell Mike to “stay on the bench/you’re on the bench.” And Nancy says about Karen/ ted that they “never loved each other” (just like mileven and stancy which are “bullshit.”) All 3 wheelers were with people cause it seemed like the rational choice ( rich guy/ popular guy/ girl). Not to mention mike said “ I don’t remember” ( in reference to saying he loved el ) . And doesn’t say it back when el says “I love you”. Which mimics Nancy saying “I don’t remember ” (saying the relationship is bs) . And she is also unable to say she loves Steve when he says“say you love me.” And Steve and el walking away as both wheelers stand there in silence. Unable to say “I love you” back.  Also, when stancy officially breakup it also pans to mileven on the porch. 

But we’ll talk more about s3 later but now let’s go back to the beginning…

Afficher davantage

[mikewheelerisaboyliker]

[bylertruth3r]

they already gave us the unrequited love trope with Dustin and Max and stobin and they gave Dustin a gf in the next season and they didn't use a Dustin love confession to fix Lumax and they didn't make it a slow burn (they made Byler and Jopper a slow burn), remember that slow burn rejections aren't a thing, plus they made Steve confess to Robin in the same season and Robin rejected him (because she's a lesbian) even though they straightbaited the audience by making them hold hands, they're also gonna straigthbait the audience with mlvn in s5

[wenclair-more-like-whenclair]

How can Mike Wheeler be so gay, transparent, and EMBARRASSING?? Please, because why did he go straight to wrestling practice where there are sweaty men all up on each other to look for people to play DND?? He consciously put a poster of a buff shirtless dragon man with a sixpack on his wall and was like "Hope no one suspects that I'm gay." Like, pack it up, Michael. We know what you are.

[lorax-devito]

when my mum looks over to me smiling at my phone and asks if i’m texting a boy but it’s just a byler theory

[bylerpining]

i want to know if they told finn to do the lip glances or he just picked up on the vibe

[gayofthefae]

Here's my thing with Mike and El and the idea of gay Mike.

I can't picture them doing romantic stuff other than kissing.

I can't see them cuddling. I can't picture impulsive sprinkles cheek kisses from Mike. I can't see her head in his lap with him running his hands through her hair. Just don't see it. It doesn't feel consistent to me.

They kiss. But they aren't affectionate. What I'm saying is...there isn't much voluntary. Like there isn't much he does that he doesn't have to do, that wouldn't be suspicious for him not to do. He brought her flowers and that was sweet but at the end of the day, he brought his friend a gift that made her happy. He listens, he's a good friend, and even the gift itself is stereotypically romantic and therefore in ways, performative.

I can picture her laying her head on his shoulder. But in that image, I can't picture him laying his head over her head. Or kissing the top of her head when she does so.

I can't picture private affection, sweetness. I can picture kissing. I can picture one sided affection from her. I believe acts of service like mix tapes and flowers. A hug and a forehead touch. But a casual, passive, romantically affectionate act...I just can't see it.

I can't see Mike running his hands through El's hair. But I can see him braiding it. I can't picture him kissing her on the cheek for no reason at all. But he'd whisper in her ear.

This is them.

This is not.

It's the closest we've ever gotten and one of the last scenes I was convinced of them in (and even so it's a bit forced - even hesitant looking). But even this was in response to something. I always thought so and Milkvans surely do too. This was him responding to her "I want today to be about me and you" with "aw that's so sweet". Not to even mention how he was more romantic and closer to my description than he's ever been, albeit awkwardly, on the day that he was self-proclaimed focusing on Will's perception of him the entire day.

I cannot see Mike doing anything romantic unnecessarily behind closed doors. I just can't picture it.

He quiet-quit his relationship from the moment it began.

[heavydirtysoulzz]

real, but I know I will cry with him

I need Mike Wheeler to cry. I need him to scream and sob like he did in season 2 with Hopper. I need him Vecna'd. I need him to feel anguish. I need that twink obliterated. I need Smalltown Boy to be playing. I need The Quarry mentioned. I need the other characters to sob with him. I need the strained relationship between him and Nancy brought up. I need him in pain. I need a Byler fight. I need it to be messy. I need them to be wrecks. I need them to address how much they missed each other. I need them to realize that the other needs them equally. I need sobbing, crying, screaming gay yearning.

[willbyersenthusiast]

now i have discovered january gate

do you guys ever stop???

[hessolivagant]

Guys, you have no idea how close we are to getting stranger things 5. Remember how fast months go by? Yeah, it'll be here by the second. I estimate it'll probably be here by summer-fall which is 5-8 MONTHS??? ;!;!,!,!;$:$;$:72881 and we're definitely getting the trailer soon, I'd say trailer drop might be February to maybe may? That's 2-4 months. It's SO CLOSE

[reddthekingg]

me and my friend were yapping about byler the other day and we kept saying mikes name but making it increasingly worse so we were saying shit like ''I mean of course microphone wheelbarrow is gay'' and now I want the world to know about my love for microphone wheelbarrow

[astronglywordeddm]

and the way he looks so uncomfortable when rl leans on him 😭😭 also the fact this reminds me so much of me edging closer to people who i like in crowds and stuff-

ts the gayest shit ever to me you’re telling me you couldn’t wait 5 seconds to be literally velcroed to your bestie come on bro lock in max is in a coma

[vihbrj]

There is no explanation for Mike being so offended by “What about us?”

Will was talking ALL the time about how their FRIENDSHIP was going and Mike strangely takes “What about us?” to another meaning

[bylertruth3r]

remember when Finn acknowledged Will as Mike's love interest? Because Mike loves Will back, in the same panel he said that the van scene will pay off in the end and that he doesn't ship in his own show but he's gonna ship Byler if they happen

[bkdk-bylerthings]

A MUILTIPLE PART PREMIERE?! YES PLS OMG 😭

[lune-moon-nuit]

Your analysis is fantastic and prove that actually season 3 is more obvious than I was imaging about Mike feelings

something i noticed, during the s3 byler argument, Mike says “El’s not stupid, it’s not MY fault you don’t like girls.” Mike’s “it’s not my fault” doesn’t fit as a retort, the theme of his retort should be defending El. He should have said “it’s not HER fault you don’t like girls”. Knowing there were other versions of that line the writers must have consciously chosen to leave this one in, knowing how it could be interpreted. anyway, do you have any idea why mike even said that line?

Yes, I have talked about it -here (in my long ‘why Mike is gay post’). But since so many people misinterpret the meaning of Mike’s words- might as well do a shorter/more brief version .And do a post focusing on it. HE’S SAYING THIS TO HIMSELF!

First some background

Mike DOES NOT think Will is gay. Dustin foreshadows their fight in s1 saying “Dustin: “He’s just jealous.”  Mike: “What?” Dustin: “Sometimes your total obliviousness just blows my mind?”  Dustin: “ What matters is, he’s your best friend. And then this girl shows up… and all you ever want to do is spend time with her!” Mike: “that’s not true!”

Dustin:  “Yes it is! And you know it. And he knows it. But no one ever says anything until you’re both start… yelling at each other like goblins with intelligence scores of 0. And now everything is weird”

Mike: “He’s not my best friend! … I mean he is. But so are you.”

 He won’t let himself consider that Will could be gay because then it would be harder to pretend he isn’t gay himself . That it isn’t just a weird phase that he’ll grow out of. We see that throughout the show Mike is projecting his feelings for Will on to El . Who in s1 was described by 5 characters as looking like a boy (and specifically like Will, by 3 characters ). There’s just way too many examples of him projecting to list here. But s3 we see Mike is trying to mimic romantic moments between him and Will (from s2) to El (in s3). In order to transfer his romantic feelings for Will on to El. The “blank makes you crazy” vs “crazy together”, the shed scenes of “most important thing” vs “the best thing I’ve ever done”,etc.

The difference between past seasons though, is that Mike is now conscious that he’s doing this. The more feminine El gets- the harder for him it is to pretend. Especially now that they’re going through puberty- and the physical differences between boys and girls is becoming more prominent. We see this in the first ep of s3.  I talked about it more here, but the Duffers use music with all the characters to convey plot points or the emotions of the characters. One example is when Mike forces Will to dance with a girl so he ‘fakes a smile’. 

So yes, the fact that the very first lyrics that play when we see mileven kiss for the first time  is “Just a little uncertainty can bring you down”-  reflects Mike’s true feelings.And we know this is how Mike (not El) feels about their relationship because he begins to sing the song right after this lyric.The song is even from the album titled “boy in the box”. AKA: Mike is in the closet

“And nobody wants to know you now. And nobody wants to show you how.So if you’re lost and on your own. You can never surrender.” He fears that if he isn’t straight everyone he cares about will abandon him, and that he’d be lost and the only one ‘like this’ -all alone.But he can’t ‘surrender’ the false-idea of being in love with El (out of fear). This is the rural Indiana in the 80s- at the height of the aids epidemic. People on the news said gay people were being rightfully punished with the ‘gay cancer’ (aids). They equated being gay with being a perv, p*d*phile, murderer, or mentally ill. Churches said you’d ‘burn in hell’. In rural areas people would form gangs and murder people they thought were gay. Of course Mike is terrified and wants to be straight! His parents in s2 were Reagan supporters. And Reagan was notoriously homophobic. He’s probably afraid his parents will hate him, kick him out, or that someone will kill him or he’ll die from aids by simply kissing a boy.

  We see Mike is doing his own f-ed up form of conversion therapy. He kisses El but he puts on the wall a drawing of Will so he can look at it while he kisses her. Probably hoping to transfer his romantic feeling for Will on to her.

Like that’s Will! He has light brown hair (not black) and Will is the only one associated with fire and has drawn himself with fire in the past. And Will even overlaps with the rainbow drawing that reads “mike”  before we see the mileven kiss. It was intentional.

So when Will Says “you’re ruining everything (their relationship) .And for what?! So you can swap spit with some stupid girl.”

This infuriates Mike because he thinks swapping spit with El is the best way to save their relationship! And he’s been trying to ‘fix himself’ so Will doesn’t hate him- and it hasn’t been working, to Mike’s frustration. So he screams “El’s not stupid, it’s not my fault you don’t like girls!” because he’s projecting. And although, he loves Will… a part of him probably is a bit angry that he’s making him feel this way. 

Mike never actually says to El’s face that he loves her- he even says during his fake-confession  “[old people] say it”.And later Mike apologizes to El and says “sorry, I sound like a [7 year old].” Aka the number Will rolled in s1. Right after he discusses d&d with Will and talks about seeing both of them for the Hollidays. So it’s telling that after he says “El’s not stupid . it’s not my fault you don’t like girls” (to himself). He immediately regrets yelling at Will. He even closes his eyes and takes a breath before continuing.  And apologizes,  by giving a heteronormative answer of:  

“I’m not trying to be a jerk, but [we’re not kids anymore]. What did you think, really?! that we’d never get girlfriends. That we’d just sit in my basement and play games for the rest our lives?” 

Mike is yelling this at himself to keep his feelings for Will under control.El is an idea to Mike about what adulthood is- which is why he doesn’t really defend el (and his ‘love’ for her) but just talks about “girlfriends” in an abstract way.  This was essentially Mike telling  himself-  he’s NOT allowed to just be with Will and never have a gf. He has to grow out of his ‘childish feelings’ for Will- before it’s too late, because being a gay man is dangerous.  That’s why when the camera is on Mike (when he looks back a the byers house -and they only show Will and Mike). The dialogue is  “But I know you’re getting older, growing, changing. I guess, if I’m being really honest, that’s what scares me. I don’t want things to change.”He doesn’t want things to change (and his feelings for Will to evolve into love, because that means Mike has to admit he’s gay and accept his future as a gay man-which at the time, didn’t seem very bright). They both are afraid of the future because of this. Mike tries to act like a ‘straight-adult’ and Will tries to revert back into his childhood because of this. 

Mike also mentions “games’ because d&d is a symbol of byler’s romantic relationship. He’s just pretending to not enjoy the d&d game. Mike says they have to get girlfriends and they can’t play games for the rest of their lives. But that’s what Mike wants- he just wants to be with Will for the rest of his life (playing games) without either of them having girlfriends. Because, we see Mike never took any of Will’s d&d art off his walls.Even though he changed his poster (from the same wall  that had will’s drawings on it) Mike couldn’t remove any of Will’s d&d art.  It was an act - which is why he was upset (in the last episode) when Will was donating the game, and why during the Hopper speech,  it pans to Mike as Hopper says “I miss playing board games every night.”

Mike even has a binder filled with every d&d drawing Will has ever given him.

In the pilot, they even say Will uses d&d to “escape” his insecurities about his sexuality “like mike” & Mike uses d&d to “escape” his insecurities about not having a gf.  * And no, dustin & Lucas didn’t use d&d to “escape” anything- in the pilot script.

And right before Mike says the famous “crazy together”line it zooms in on Mike’s d&d set.

The  “crazy together” scene is romantic since both Mike & Flo both equate love making you ‘crazy’. Mike saying “it makes you crazy” and Flo saying saying in s1 “ only love makes you crazy and that damn stupid”). 

(x)(x)

Mike is lying about his feelings for El- and El is just confused about her feelings for Mike.  The only one’s with mutual feelings for Mike is Will! Will even has a breakdown and goes ‘crazy’ after seeing a pic of them the night they promised to go crazy together - and then Will repeatedly calls himself ‘stupid’ . Because this is when he realizes and admits to himself he’s in love with Mike. And so he grabs a bat (that his dad- who called him a ‘queer’ taught him to use) and destroys castle Byers in a fit of anger and self-hate. That fight was what caused Will to realize his feelings for Mike and the jealousy he had been feeling were because he was in love with Mike. When Mike asks “what did you think, really? That we’d never get girlfriends… play games for the rest of our lives?” 

Will is 100% honest a says brokenly “yeah. I guess I did” And then says angrily “I really did!” . Even if both don’t understand the gravity of their words in that moment Will was honest- he doesn’t want to ever have a girlfriend he just wants to be with Mike for the rest of his life. And Mike, who assumes Will is straight, is shocked that this conversation upset Will. Or that he would disagree with his words.

And again their last conversation (about d&d is very telling and is foreshadowing). What Will meant when he said ,  “I’ll just use yours when I come back- I mean… if WE still wanna play”. Is essentially foreshadowing that the ball is in Mike’s court. If he wants to be with Will for the rest of his life he has to initiate it and prove he loves Will after pretending for so long to love El, instead.

gif credit:  first 2 gifs ampwn98 , 3th gif by janebycrs, 5th gif Cath-avery , 4 & 6th gifs mine