#for mike wheeler. and me. but mostly mike wheeler

[astrobei]

i think i may have peaked last night

[hoteadepresso]

you’re the heart babygirl

[sade-alicious]

mike is an established smart and clever character from the beginning idk how everyone picked up the “mike wheeler has rocks in his head” joke and ran with it

[jonathanbyersphd]

Just saw a "Happy pride month to" video and one then was "your younger brother who's given you no reason to think that he's gay but you suspect it anyway"and NATURALLY I was like oh Nancy with Mike

[elevenenthusiast]

Mike’s hairstyle looked the best in season 2 and 4 and nobody can convince me otherwise idc.

[booksandpaperss]

so this post by @theonebyler talking about this (alleged) rack-focus shot—

—really got me thinking about the ending of volume 2 actually giving us the Mike POV we’ve (mostly) been missing all of season 4. This started as a quick reblog of Em’s og post but it turned into its own post and I didn’t wanna hijack the original, so here you go byler tag!

What’s interesting about the last 30 minutes of volume 2 is that we really do finally start to see Mike’s POV more clearly with camera angles.

For example:

At the start of volume 2, we get the van scene, and while we do have some head on shots of Mike that are very incriminating, we also get shots like… this

The focus is on Will, and Mike is BLURRED in the background. We are literally being censored away from how he’s feeling here, probably bc that expression would’ve immediately confirmed that Mike actually did understand what Will was saying. But we as the audience don’t get that confirmation here, we’re kept from really seeing Mike.

But then, at the end of volume 2, we get shots of Mike looking at Will like THIS

just LOOK at that. That is a head on shot of Mike just staring at Will. He seems worried, but he also seems mesmerized. And while Will can’t see Mike looking at him like this, this time, unlike the van scene, we as the audience can. We’re finally being given a real look into how Mike is feeling, and I guarantee you that if we had gotten more uninhibited head on shots of Mike like this in volume 1, those quick glances that we eventually caught him doing after looking closely would’ve been a lot more obvious. There’s also something to be said about the fact that Mike seems to be letting himself look a little longer in volume 2… but that’s another conversation.

And to add to Em’s earlier point in her post, this cabin scene shot isn’t the first time we’ve seen a shot like that… it’s just been reversed:

Look at how similar these are. Even the circumstances are similar in the fact that one of them is clearly stressed and their side profiled at the edge of the frame, while the other is staring at them in worry and also… something else 👀

As Em was starting to point out, all the camera angles that were used in volume 1 to portray the depths of Will’s feelings for Mike were being used towards the end of volume 2 for MIKE while looking at Will. And If those shots were romantic for Will, that absolutely means they were romantic for Mike too. I would even argue that atp saying these shots are showing Mike’s romantic feelings for Will is implied canon, but that would probably start riots lmao

This also all lines up perfectly with the formula for byler that the show has been using so far: show Will’s crush in season 3, then show how deep those feelings actually go in season 4 while simultaneously showing Mike’s crush in the same season, which of course strongly suggests that we will be getting Mike POV in s5 in the same way we got Will POV in s4, showing the depths of Mike’s feelings for Will, and so the end of volume 2 was essentially transitioning into what’s gonna be full Mike POV.

It also matches up with my theory/analysis that Mike’s queer realization arc is exactly one season behind Will’s. I might have to revisit these Mike POV shots in more depth and detail actually for that bc like… wow.

[elekinetic]

wip wonday

[pinkeoni]

Spends more time making house sigils for the Thrones AU than actually writing the Thrones AU

[purpleshadow-star]

Imagine if El said Will was acting weird in her letter to Mike because she was actually seeing him act happy for the first time, probably ever.

Like, Will just moved away from his life and the only friends he ever knew, so imagine if, the whole time Will was in Cali, he was just kinda going through the motions. Not necessarily upset or sad all the time, just never really happy. Just kinda... content on a good day.

And then, maybe in the days/weeks leading up to Mike's arrival, or maybe when he started his painting, or maybe even when he first heard that Mike was coming to visit, maybe then he started actually acting happy. After all, he was finally going to be able to see his best friend again! In person! After months! And El, not used to seeing Will actually happy, classified his behavior as weird.

After all, think about it. When have we ever seen Will truly happy in El's presence? Not just content, but truly happy.

[wayward-sherlock]

yall ever wonder what would have happened if el lost her powers early in s1 and then mike stepped off the quarry and nobody was there to catch him and he just fucking. died.

[dinitride-art]

…y’all weren’t fucking kidding about this huh. Like I know why they (not all of them, most of them are chill) hate Will (because he’s gay) but still. They’re pretty bold over there huh.

“Some b tier side character” weird way to refer to the character that has the first episode of season one named after them because they’re that important to the literal start of the entire story (The Vanishing of Will Byers),

one of the main focuses of season's one and two,

and a character who definitely has had more than eight lines in the last two seasons.

Yeah, sorry. This isn't how you put a B-list side character in a shot. Center frame, close up shots, focusing on them speaking- and you definitely don't do close up shots of their emotional reactions to add depth to their character so you can tell the story you want to tell the best you can.

"I didn't know she was lying to you, Mike!" "Is it early, Michael?" "So you can swap spit with some stupid girl?" "Yeah. I guess I really did." "I'm not gonna fall in love." "A day free of girls!" "Funny how a lot of Will's lines in both season three and four have to do with Mike. How his character arc has to do with Mike.

"It's nothing. It-it's just this painting I've been working on."

"Why do you keep lying to Mike?" "You're not- you're friends with Angela and Stacy and you come to parties here?" "For mom's work- that's not what you implied. I just, I don't think Mike's gonna like that you're lying to him, and he doesn't deserve that, and when he finds out he's gonna be mad."

"No, listen to me. She's having problems here."

"She was lying to you, Mike! Straight to your face, ever since you got here and... I've been a total third wheel all day. It's been miserable. So, sorry if I wasn't... wasn't smiling." "What about us?" "You're mad that I didn't talk to you? Seems like you made it super clear that you're not interested in anything I have to say." "You called maybe a couple of times. It's been a year, Mike. Meanwhile, El has, like, a book of letters from you." "And us?"

"Sometimes, I think it's just scary to open up like that. To day how you really feel, especially to people you care about the most because what if- what if they don't like the truth?"

"Well, once we save her, El, we should stop on the way back. El could make us super rich and we'd never have to work. We could just play D&D and Nintendo for the rest of our lives."

Will hasn't been involved in the supernatural plot for the past two seasons. That doesn't mean he hasn't been involved in an equally important part of this story. Side characters don't get relationship conflict that spans over multiple seasons that ties into the larger themes of the story.

"It's not my fault you don't like girls!" "I mean, what did you think, really? That we were never gonna get girlfriends? We were just gonna sit in my basement all day and play games for the rest of our lives?"

As for how Mike views Will Byers, that has always been very clear.

And that's just season two and season four (I don't have season one and three on hand).

Yep. This is him. Will Byers. The B-tier side character who Mike Wheeler has never looked at once in his life, nevermind cared about, and who is barely even going to be in season five!

Definitely not important at all! To the plot OR to Mike! Funny how Mike has more scenes with Will than with El, "Who he actually loves," though. Weird. And definitely not significant at all. Guess the writers just didn't know what to do with Mike while El was away growing as a character so they just stuck him with Will. And really, they didn't know what to do with him in the last shot either! Just stuck him in the middle for some reason. And next to Will!

It's definitely not because Mike and Will are important characters, to both each other, the core themes of the show (forced conformity, abuse, love), and to the plot! Nope!

It was just a mistake. Damn. They really fucked up that last shot bad then. Putting Mike AND Will together in the center of the shot which, well, normally would be intentional in order to emphasis their importance to the story and their relationship but this is Stranger Things! We all know that no ones putting any thought into any detail of this show. Really, it was just a simple mistake. The blocking, the multiple angles emphasizing it, having this as the final shot of the season. None of it matters.

Least of all, Mike and Will.

Just another string of errors attached to these two.

[astrobei]

happy aries season to will byers and mike wheeler only. and also me. but mostly will byers and mike wheeler.

[reikunrei]

sorry to be a sicko freak, but if they do something like have the rest (or some) of our main crew have their own vecna visions, I kind of really really want some aspect of will’s and/or mike’s to be like. either warped memories or just false visions where they’re especially homophobic and nasty to each other. I want one of them to have a vision that starts off maybe kind of sort of like a confession, and then turns into the other being totally disgusted. I want that horrible dread and fear of being rejected for who you love to be front and center. because oh how good would it be for them to have to face that fear and internalized shame and fight against it, assuring each other that the hatred is all a lie

[conanssummerchild]

hi :D ive never done this before but my ao3 is flopping so why not promote my own fic on here

Summary:

"It's okay Mike, hey, it's okay."

"No it's not!" Which—okay—fair enough, it didn't feel very okay to Jonathan either, but he was so out of his depth right now. He'd comforted Will countless times, he'd comforted Nancy, El. Hell, he'd even comforted Mike a bunch of times when he was younger.

A lot younger.

He'd comforted Mike over a broken crayon, or a scraped knee, or Will being sick and not being able to go to school for a week—that one had required a lot of comforting—but that had been a long time ago and those were all just silly, trivial things kids cried over. Now Mike was crying on a dirty bathroom floor, blood tainting his arms, and Jonathan couldn't just give him a new yellow crayon to make him feel better anymore.

if u checked it out it would b cool lol

TW SELF HARM (in the fic)

[iamtheoneandonlyever]

when you overhear tons and tons (like 4) people at your school talking about st and how they think its a brilliant show and you are stuck here like don't ask them about byler don't ask them about byler don- bc you live in a very queerphobic country and will probably get targeted

(idk if queerphobic is a word but since almost all are looked down upon, i am making up this term)

the worst part- i start analyzing them to see if they would ship byler by what they do and how they talk and such and they do indeed fill some criteria but at the end of the day you are still living in a queerphobic country

[jonathanbyersphd]

It's simple really, if I think about "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?" + Stranger Things for too long I'll cry