#WE LOVE YOU MIKE

[unofficially-racetrack]

I personally love how Mike Faist talks as Riff 💖

Yes. Just yes. His accent. His voice. He is just. Chefs kiss.

[gigilovesmovies]

My God he finally got out ,haven’t seen him since the challengers interview

Mike Faist spotted at Romeo + Juliet on Broadway last night in support of Rachel Zegler

With long beautiful prince hair… and wearing his favorite shirt… Jesus was seen!

[chloesimaginationthings]

Michael Afton let his FNAF trauma slip again…

[bellamoooon]

Art loves friendship bracelets, and I mean this man is OBSESSED with them, receiving them and making them.

He first noticed a little handmade bracelet on your wrist when getting smoothies after one of his games at Stanford, him being the curious boy he is, he asked about it.

“What’s this? Did you make it?” He said softly as he gently grabbed your wrist analyzing the bracelet that had “donaldson” written with small letter beads and surrounded by a tennis ball kind of green colored beads.

“Oh yeah— I made it the other day while I was watching a movie, I wear it to all of your games now” you answer with a smile as you see him still looking at the bracelet moving the small beads around with his signature side grin.

“I can make you one if you want”

When those words reach arts hearing, he almost felt like throwing up— not like he was disgusted by the idea, the complete opposite in fact; He wanted to cry out of the mere fact that you were willing to take the time to make a bracelet for him, so of course he accepts with the widest smile you’ve ever seen on him.

Then there you are a week later, waiting for him at the courts entrance with a shy smile as you see him wave at you as he wipes the thin coat of sweat covering his forehead as he grabs his tennis bag.

“Hey, pretty.” He says with his usual smile as his kisses your cheek while the two of you walk out.

“I made you something” you speak with the excitement practically spilling out as you hand him a bracelet with some pink beads and your last name written on it just like the one you had with his last name.

He takes the bracelet spinning it in his hands as he smiles, his eyes shining with amazement at the gesture.

He slips the bracelet on his wrist as he takes your hand in his intertwining them to then leave a small kiss over your knuckles.

“I love it” he mumbles as he looks down at you wondering how the fuck he got so lucky for you to actually like an awkward guy like him.

After that, he wore it everyday even if it didn’t match with what he was wearing for the day; When Patrick visited, he made fun of him for a while saying how down bad he actually was that he was now wearing a pretty pink bracelet with your last name on it, but Art didn’t care, because Patrick’s girlfriend wasn’t making bracelets specially for him.

So friendship bracelets became your guys’ thing; Usually when you two would stay in for a date night it would be a movie— usually a cheesy romcom he insists he let you choose but is actually content with them— churros you got from the cafeteria before he got to your dorm, and making bracelets he ended keeping in a small box that had pictures of him and Patrick from MRTA, letters you wrote for him on past birthdays, letter from his nana, and other valuable little things.

Safe to say, he doesn’t really love the bracelets themselves, he loved the fact that you made them for him and with him <33

[crxzytogether]

Listen im a mike defender through and through BUT MIKE WTF DUDE, go give your girlfriend a hug or reassurance or literally any comfort my goodness😭😭

[rodrickheffeley]

this puppy

[kaiminluu]

"when you slam the door i think you know, that you won't be away too long, you know that i'm not that strong"

hi @campbyler you destroyed me

[astrobei]

in my heart of hearts mike wheeler is absolutely an athena kid but i also have to offer up a concept that i think has extreme comedic and dramatic potential aka: repressed gay teenager mike showing up at camp half blood unsure of who his godly parent is and feeling insecure about not having powers and one day when he’s making not-so-secret heart eyes at his best friend and son of apollo will byers is when a bunch of glowing floating hearts show up above his head. and that’s how mike gets claimed by none other than aphrodite, the goddess of love and sexuality, and is in full denial about it for three days because he thinks it’s some kind of sick and twisted JOKE

(on aphrodite’s end, she’s upset mike is throwing away the gift of true love and keeps trying to trick him out of repression by making more and more improbable and hilarious gifts appear when he and will are hanging out. mike hands will a book and it turns into a box of chocolates and he has to fling it away like a frisbee before will sees it. they’re having lunch and romantic music starts playing. she gives mike the same blessing she used to claim piper and will can’t even look in his direction for a full day because he starts blushing so hard. fifty bouquets of flowers show up at the apollo cabin’s doorstep with a note that says love, mike and by the end of it, mike isn’t even repressed and unsure about his sexuality anymore — he’s just trying to not throw himself into the bonfire out of sheer embarrassment)

[formerprincewille]

let’s talk about the mike and will convo on top of the car. not because it parallels jancy (tho it does), or the interruption trope (tho it happens), or the [tender, emotional music] (tho it’s there), but because of what is specifically said. mike says “i should’ve explained myself cuz then maybe eleven would’ve taken me with her and things would be different, but…i didn’t…i didn’t know what to say.” then will says “sometimes i think it’s just scary to open up like that. to say how you really feel. especially to people you care about the most. because what if…what if they don’t like the truth?”

what if they don’t like the truth?

that is such a choice to use that specific line. as an audience, we know that will is talking about his own feelings for mike, but this little speech from will is also supposed to apply to mike’s situation with el. just like when will confesses his feelings to mike using el as a conduit, it’s supposed to also apply to el’s actual feelings for mike.

but the thing is, mike is thinking about the fact that he didn’t tell el he loves her. because if he had, maybe she would’ve taken him with her and things would be different. because “i love you” is what el wants to hear. if loving el is mike’s truth, why wouldn’t el like to hear it?

and then mike’s nod after, like he agrees with what will is saying. like he knows will is right. but why would el not like “the truth” of mike being in love with her?

unless that’s NOT the truth.

[katierosefun]

insane to me that if harvey had been even an iota less insane, he probably could have gotten mike to be a lawyer the more normal way. i mean, man is a big shot attorney who graduated fifth in his class at harvard law school and probably has a gazillion connections and he absolutely could have just gotten mike into harvard law school (and talked harvard people into looking the other way about how he got kicked out of college . . . worse people have gone to law school tbh), and then harvey could have just negotiated with jessica about not having a personal associate for another three years or just have had mike become a summer associate or something and then hire mike onto pearson hardman, but noOOoOoOoOOoOOO, harvey was so impatient to get his hands on mike that he had to go through this whole fraud thing. gay behavior

[alreadycrazystuff]

and when season 5 of stranger things airs and we have a scene where will almost dies and mike freaks out because he can't imagine living without will (a.k.a L word), and someone (El) watches everything, like this scene from hunger games

and she connects the dots right away

[marvey-sideblog]

sorry but harvey being submissive in bed is the most delusional take ever this man is dominance incarnate, “i like to bend people to my will”… “good boy”..”puppy”….”I want it to know who it’s DADDY IS” like cmon now!!! that man dcks mike down each time he gives lip and it’s cannon..

anon he contains multitudes! yes he would do these things, yes he could dominate mike and enjoy it. but! that man has to be macho in-control all the time and sometimes, anon, he really fucking enjoys (like, a lot) when someone he's attracted to completely manhandles and controls him.

He LOVES it. It is so so sexy to him.

And he LOVES when Mike talks back to him, when Mike is telling him what for. Yes sometimes the sexual satisfaction would come from putting Mike in his place over that...That would 100% be sexy to him. And Mike would 100% LOVE being subm/ssive to Harvey; that boy has Fantasised. Yes, Mike's "aye-aye, Captain" did things to Harvey, that is a scene of all time (and, tbf! Mike is actually the one taking the lead there! Harvey Captain fantasy where Harvey still gets to be subm/ssive.......). BUT. Harvey would also LOVE Mike turning the tables on that. Mike's an equal to him, and Mike taking control would be so hot, for both of them. There'd be a lil amusement for Harvey and then he'd genuinely be so turned on by it. I'm not talking about Season 1 Mike. I'm talking about the people they became together, to each other. Sometimes their sex is pure vanilla just love...Sometimes Mike would tell Harvey what to do and relish in it; they both would.

And, for the matter at whole...You think when Harvey's mind wandered about Jessica, he was thinking about domming her? NO. It would be Jessica domming him in every never-gonna-actually-happen flitting fantasy. Yes, ma'am. Come now. He'd be giddy at that.

Harvey is not one dimensional he actually loves to be playful and feminine and pushed into the mattress and told to take his shirt off.

[taeiris]

“you can’t even look at me!”

CW: blood, trypophobia, very mild gore i think

based on this theory of mine giggles

i rlly enjoyed working on this a LOTTTT hope you guys like it<3

also feel free to write fics or draw my design of bonkers will or whatever you guys wanna call him cause i think he looks cool👍

[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…

[gayofthefae]

We don't envision season 5 right when we talk because what is that actually gonna be like? This isn't a romcom. Mike finds out about the painting but Will is like throwing up blood and slugs in the corner.

edit: to clarify I wasn't saying "no time for romance" I was saying "it's horror show with raises stakes and angst. Mike will have to figure out how to bring up this truth bomb he discovered when more important things are clearly going on and there aren't the most conversational opportunities". I mean MORE juice, not less.

[eddiezpaghetti]

It has come to my attention that SOME OF YOU who read my last Byler post remain UNCONVINCED. So I'm gonna tack onto it this:

I'm older than fucking God and air, and I've been out and proud since 2007. Yes, I know what homophobia is, and yes, I know what queerbaiting is. I know about Supernatural and Teen Wolf and Sherlock and blahdyblahdyblah. No new ground is being covered here. I thought I made that clear in the original post, but, clearly, I did not.

I am aware of queerbaiting and homophobia, and I'm still wholeheartedly certain in Byler being canon anyway.

Okay, so there are three types of relationship I want to discuss when it comes to queerbaiting. They're all, like, "queer relationships that could have happened, but didn't".

First off, queer-coding. This isn't really a thing so much anymore, but it still crops up every once in a while. I'd argue it probably happens most with male-male relationships in family shows these days. First example that comes to mind is Mr. Smiley and Mr. Frowny from Steven Universe. You can't make a relationship canon because some shitty overhead bastard overhead said no, so you get as close as you can without compromising the show. Can't make someone gay? Well, now their comedy routine is a blatant allegory for a romantic relationship. Boom-shaka-laka. This is something I don't see being a problem with regards to Stranger Things, but I want it to be there as contrast, a demonstration of one of many things queerbaiting is not. However, one could argue that, thus far, Will Byers is, canonically, queer-coded. It's pretty fucking heavily implied in the show, and the creators have confirmed it, and you're gonna be able to see it if you're not FUCKING BLIND, but word of god is not technically canon which means that interviews don't technically make something canon, blahdyblahdyblahdyblah, technicalities, Robin has been explicitly stated in the text to be queer while Will has, thus far, not, outside of good ol' Show-Don't-Tell. Of course, anyone with two brain cells to rub together can tell that that's going to change by the end of Season 5, but, hey, for what it's worth, I'm throwing this out there.

Alrighty, Thingamajingama Number Two: "Oops, I accidentally made the greatest love story known to man." AKA, a genuine, honest-to-goodness mistake. Unfortunately, we do live in a heteronormative society. Sometimes people who don't think about being gay much write a friendship that's incredibly compelling and don't even consider the possibility that it could have been read as romantic. Something something Top Gun something. This is, again, not queerbaiting. This is Steddie, this is Ronance, this is Elmax, this is your favorite flavor of non-canon ship this week, this is not Byler. The creators know DAMN well what they're doing. They've talked about it. We know this. Nothing new here.

Which brings us to the topic of discussion here. Actual queerbaiting. This usually starts out as an "accidental greatest love story", and then reacts to fan response. And when I say "reacts", I mean like a goddamn chemical reaction. Like bleach and ammonia, bitch. It's noxious and it's gonna kick your fucking ass without mercy. This is when a creator is like, "Hey, let's get our queer audience invested, but we're not actually going to give them what they want because our straight audience isn't here for that/we personally think it's gross/we don't give enough of a shit to want to research a goddamn thing to write a real gay character," blah blah blah whatever excuse they want to come up with this time.

And when you think "queerbaiting", I want you to think "bullying". Because that's what it is. It's lucrative bullying, like beating us up and taking our lunch money, but it's bullying all the same. And it's a real goddamn thing, even if people misuse the word a lot, often when they mean one of the two above, sometimes when they mean "bury your gays", which is another homophobic thing entirely that I'm not going to get into here. Queerbaiting is the thing we're focused on, and it's real, and it's bullying. And here's the reason I want you to think of it as bullying:

They

Think

It's

Funny.

They are actively making fun of us.

That's why Dean had the "Cas, get out of my ass," line in Supernatural. It's why the "Do you like boys?" line happened in Teen Wolf. It's why "Lie with me, Watson," happened in the RDJ Sherlock Holmes movies. Because "It's just a joke, mate." "It was just a prank, bro." "You didn't really think it would happen, did you?" "You should see your face."

So here's probably the biggest reason I don't think it's specifically queerbaiting in this specific instance of Will Byers and Mike Wheeler.

Stranger Things has never, not once, made a gay joke. Ever.

Every single time queerness comes up, it's dead serious.

Lonnie calls Will a fag, and the show is not at all reluctant to show what a goddamn horrible person he is. And when Hopper latches onto that, it's not as "Hahah, is he gay, though?" It's because he's trying to determine a potential motive for Will's disappearance, and even if someone had interpreted it as a joke, Joyce immediately has a line that functions as snapping her fingers in front of the audience's face and yelling "FOCUS" when she says "He's MISSING." Basically outright saying "This isn't funny!"

Troy calls him a fairy, along with targeting Lucas and Dustin for their skin color and disability respectively, and Mike gets damn near murderous. Troy is portrayed as a goddamn monster and the show portrays it as justice when El makes him piss his pants and later breaks his arm.

Steve calls Jonathan "queer" as a slur and gets the shit beat out of him for it.

Billy's father is revealed to be homophobic and abusive in the same breath.

Mike says "It's not my fault you don't like girls!" and we're shown how devastated Will is and Mike immediately follows him to beg for forgiveness.

There is a joke in Robin's coming-out scene, but it's not at Robin's expense. It's at Steve's. Specifically for being heteronormative.

Jonathan has multiple scenes where he's trying so hard to tell Will that he's always going to love him as he is, whether he's gay or not, without pressuring him to come out before he's ready.

Even when there's a little bit of ribbing at Robin's expense, it's always because she's an awkward nerd who's nervous around pretty girls, just the same as Lucas and Dustin are teased when they both first develop crushes on Max, and even then, even then, it always comes as a package deal where they make fun of Steve's girl problems at the same time.

Stranger Things is an emphatically pro-gay show. It may not be the core point of the show the way it is in, say, Our Flag Means Death, but there is nothing less than respect for its queer characters. Its queer characters are always taken completely seriously. No one is making fun of us. They never have. That's why I have serious doubts that this is queerbaiting. It would come completely out of left field for the bullying to start in Stranger Things' final season.

So it's not at all likely to be queerbaiting because queerness is taken completely seriously. The creators have talked about Will's queerness, at least, so it's not an accident. And queer-coding would be silly to expect from this show when it's already on its final season. Like, what is Netflix gonna do? Cancel it? Not to mention all the explicit queerness that's in there already. And no one's gonna "What about the children?" a show that's had sex scenes in it since the first season.

There's no fakeout here. It's gonna happen. Breathe.