#i actually know mike and will lmao

[runninguplenorahills]

It’s canon that Will fell off his bike once and broke his finger.

[lemonisntreal]

okay @biaweck brought this old piece to my attention in their recent post, and also made me go through all my old uploads to double check [horrific]. But apparently I never actually uploaded this one, so:

My bad! 😛

This was started all the way back on January 27th of 2023, so it's like a whole year and a half old. Honestly, didn't age too horribly, I might redo this one at a later date [also Mike smokes, and you can't convince me otherwise [well kinda [see tags]]]

This redesign also REALLY needs an update or two, it was really hashed together at the time [which is a reason why it wasn't ever uploaded, if I were to guess]

[royalarchivist]

Mike: How am I not going to win this? How am I not going to win this!!! :D

Mike makes his debut and experiences the epic highs and lows of Dress to Impress. 👗

[marvey-sideblog]

Law firm Specter Ross represent gay club in Seattle

[emblazons]

Thinking about how people who only (or primarily) understand Mike’s arc through a “hes queer and coming to accept it / struggling with heteronormativity/will get his happy ending when he gets with Will” lens are missing at least half of what defines his arc in the wider context / themes of the show.

Forewarning: long post (& also maybe an unpopular opinion)

Even as a queer person myself, I know that his arc isn’t solely about embracing his queerness (though it’s inherently interlinked). In Mike, you have a character who is being radically challenged by both external circumstances and his own decisions through a journey away from all kinds of forced conformity (social, familial, romantic & heteronormative) and into someone self actualized enough to live how they want…while also being strong enough to accept that they made mistakes along the way. Someone who is learning to be brave enough to say “this is who I am, what I enjoy, and what/who I love…and while it took me a lot of time to figure it out, now I can exist in the world embracing that even though it will take consistently resisting the tendency to accommodate people who think it’s unacceptable.”

Like. Even from a time before puberty (see: S3) Mike wants a life that stands apart from what’s expected of him in every area, not just in choosing a romantic relationship with another guy. He wants to continue to be a nerd and “child at heart” even though something else is repeatedly demanded of him by everyone from his parents to El in his romantic relationship. He wants to be a writer and someone who takes those nerdy interests into his adult life (cue aggressive gesturing toward the duffers themselves) and grates against all that’s been constructed for him even when he’s not (yet) brave enough to challenge it directly. Mike liking boys/loving Will is just “the final nail in the coffin” of his social and societal nonconformity—not the first (or the last) aspect of what makes him different from Hawkins or the life he was made to believe would suit him best.

Even the fact that Mike has a desire to be “normal” comes from an insecurity and fear that choosing what he truly wants will lead to him being outcasted and losing the people he cares for entirely—which is partially motivated by his queerness yes, but that also has a basis in his general interests and personality…which becomes especially obvious when you realize we are repeatedly shown that he is punished/has his wishes ignored in all areas he doesn’t conform, even long before we get into a plot where it’s clearer he likes boys.

We see it in how his parents have already started to demand he put boundaries on the time he spends playing his “childhood games” the very first scene of season one, how they demand social acceptable emotions from him when Will is missing, and how Karen & Ted want him to give up toys in S2 when he’s showing signs of depression (because they think the issue is him growing up, not that he’s struggling with loss or guilt for what happened to El).

We see it in how his own father comments about taking his CA trip away from him after calling Hellfire being a group for “dropouts” in S4 (implying that he is failing on an academic and social level that matters to wheelers—and that Nancy is good at).

We even see it in the way everyone from his bullies to his own girlfriend threaten and take things away from him when he doesn’t conform to social expectations...from Troy telling him to jump off the cliff to save Dustin in S1 (as punishment for the one time Mike stands up for himself in the gymnasium) to El jumping straight into breaking up with him and spying on him when he doesn’t do exactly what she wants him to in Season 3.

All of these moments are critical to understanding Mike as a person because they show us that, even without addressing his queerness, Mike’s desire to conform to socialized expectations involves but is not solely about him moving out of heteronormativity—it’s about him moving against everything that WASP, patriarchal, heteronormative and capitalistic and performative “wholesome American” values…and how he is learning to move past the fear of what will happen if he steps outside the lines in general, even though he already knows he hates those standards.

Mike’s “coming of age” arc is about finding the strength to choose the “path less traveled” in all areas of his life—even when it means (potentially) losing the support of the people he cares about. It’s about starting from a place of privilege and becoming okay with being outcasted from it in a way your insecurities never let you be before (which is inherently different than Will, who has always been shown to have some kind of support not just for his queerness but his artistic endeavors as well). Mike’s lack of support is why he starts from a place of deep insecurity, yes—but it’s also why him learning power of choosing to be himself, even if it means “losing” people when he’s honest about who (& what) he is will be universally powerful.

You don’t need to be queer to understand the power of what it means to know you will be okay even if people leave you. You don’t need to be queer to understand the power of stepping outside social expectations or your family’s way of raising you. You don’t even need to be queer to understand the weight of breaking up with someone you were only with to satisfy what you thought you should do, rather than be with who you want to.

The power of being strong enough to overcome your insecurities in order to “step out of line” and live and love as you want to is universal, and a stunningly brave choice no matter what or why you chose to do so. The fact that Will will be there waiting to love him in that honesty with himself is beautiful, yes—but it’s not the only lesson to be learned for Mike’s character.

Mike starting out with everything the world (or, at least America) tells would make you happy, realizing he is not happy with those things and rejecting them knowing it might have consequences is what makes his arc powerful, because he is learning (exactly like his sister Nancy) to be brave enough to accept those consequences (which for him are getting dumped, and feeling like he’s being left behind by some of his friends) to follow his own heart.

Even though The Duffers aren’t writing this into a tragic ending (aka: he’s not going to die or be left alone, because the duffers writing is inherently designed ro champion the outcast), these are the things that have (and will) make him relatable even to an audience that doesn’t know queerness. Erasing the fact that his lesson is the bravery it takes to follow your heart solely to talk about him liking guys (even Will) is to undermine his humanity, and the lessons to be learned from him by even the most general an audience.

TL:DR - the heteronormative aspect of Mike’s character is not the sole or even inherent issue within Mike, though heteronormativity is inherently built into his struggle.

There are deep dives on how his arc is also about a war against toxic patriarchy, toxic masculinity, emphasis on capitalistic and academic accomplishments over artistic ones, and even conformist relationships (whether they’re queer or not) that should be explored for his character—and I for one like him too much not to move out of just “this boy is queer because xyz” and into “let’s talk about Mike in terms of the wider scope of his cultural context and upbringing.” 🤷🏽‍♀️😂

[pathetic-gamer]

The truly bizarre homoeroticism of noir comedy PI Hunch Curio carrying the unconscious body of Dan Fucks into his dim, smoky office and using frozen steaks and whiskey to tend to his wounds????? the raw intimacy of Dan waking up to Hunch stabbing him in the chest with a comically large syringe and thinking he's in heaven?????????? I am a changed man.

[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.

[heartsgettingwiser62]

So I absolutely DIE every time I think about the whole "Mike was recreating the best thing he'd ever done when he asked Will to be best friends again" in the s4 bedroom scene, but LOOK:

They're in the same position that they had been in the swingset scene all those years ago, with Mike being way taller since he's standing/sitting on the bed and Will being way shorter since he was sitting on the swing/kneeling on the floor.

So. If we had a swingset scene, this would be a DIRECT PARALLEL to it.

But I'm fine tho (me when I lie)

[chirpsythismorning]

Mike pulling up to his house in a pizza van w his sweetie pie by his side ☺️

[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

[runninguplenorahills]

How is this-

– literally the scene that introduces Mike to us in s4 and there are still people who think this boy is straight??? And there are still people who think the duffers don’t have the guts to make byler endgame??? And there are still people who think Mike’s sexuality won’t be addressed in s5???

[a-pirate]

Cmdr. Michael "Mjölnir" Shepard

[rotisseries]

"I can see will appreciating all types of music genres" well I cannot. peace and love<3

[bearenjoyers]

sorry im just thinking about bcs but like. why not add a few smaller scenes of gus interacting with his own men? why does it seem like, in comparison, mike is almost immediately elevated to a higher status than those two in bcs purely because we actually get to see him having normal conversations with gus? like i understand they might not keep the plot moving as well because of the fact obviously if victor is currently doing something it’s because gus told him to etc. but for the most part all of the smaller interactions gus does have with those two ends up being in a somewhat high stress situation where it feels very tense between everyone. and it’s just like damn! is it always like that?? why do those two even care that much about their jobs if their boss is a bit of a dick? etc. i think even an additional scene or two with those guys (either alone or the both of them) talking with gus in a more normal situation could’ve both added a bit more depth into how gus treats his employees (we got a lot with how he treats lyle and co., but not a whole lot with the illegal side of things), how comfortable vic and tyrus feel around him in a calmer setting, and exactly why they both feel the need to be as loyal as they are to the guy.

and also on the other side of this i don't think it'd hurt to maybe elaborate on their pay just a bit..? i'm not saying to randomly put a number out into the atmosphere but i just mean some smaller things like. do they buy nicer things for themselves? what's their housing situation? what's their car situation? are the escalade / yukon their own vehicles or does gus just use those two for business situations? do they use them when they're doing their own stuff off the clock or do they have their own cars? etc. that can also help with understanding their motivations a bit. don't get me wrong i don't think they should be visibly rich or something because that's not what gus would want but just smaller things! cause it's easy to write their loyalty off as Well they probably get paid super well, which i'm sure is true, but if they don't show a single hint of that then what's the point. even something as simple as giving tyrus a nice watch, or maybe victor having a nicer looking gun, etc. something small like that. because as it stands right now the average 41 year old viewer who watched the show once only knows and will only ever know victor and tyrus as those two guys in the background who do random stuff for gus with no clear motivation. just the personification of "On it boss (salute emoji)". and to be honest this is true for a whole lot of fans who do watch the show multiple times and enjoy thinking about it more in depth, because on screen we barely have anything about the two.

and to be clear i'm not trying to say we should have an episode just for them or something like no i understand they're side characters. i understand we don't need all that. and i understand this is also primarily Jimmy's show. but it's not like these two are on the same level as like, arlo or paige and kevin etc. these guys have been around since brba. victor was literally introduced in the same episode gus was. and they are a huge part of gus's story, especially in brba. s4 wouldn't have been what it was without victor and tyrus. and in bcs, ignacio's situation wouldn't have been the same if it weren't for victor and tyrus as well. and i just personally believe that if their goal with gus in bcs was to go back and elaborate on how everything came to be and show what he was like a few years younger, they could've dragged victor and tyrus into that. and i think his character would've benefited from taking that extra step with those two.

[emblazons]

"Straight, straight (...) it just doesn't make any sense."

Byler In Law Jonathan Byers & Mike Wheeler in Papa

[kermit-the-hag]

Steve: Would you guys be there for me if I was going through something?

El: Nope.

Will: Absolutely not.

Mike: I hope it sucks whatever you're going through.

Lucas: I hope it emotionally scars you for the rest of your life.

Dustin: I hope you reach out to me so I can ignore you.

Max: I can't wait to go to your funeral knowing I could have changed that outcome.

Eddie, Robin, Nancy, and Jonathan: What the fuck?