#let him play dnd and nintendo with will pls
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If you could only pick one piece of Byler evidence to convince someone that Byler is endgame, what would you pick?
First off - I wrote this stream of consciousness style so please be kind aha.
Iāve been thinking a lot about this question and I think itās simply the fact that if Mike is in fact straight, then what is his character arc?
Let me explain.
A lot of the GA view Mike as a glorified side character - sidelined after S2 to fulfil the role of Elās incompetent boyfriend whilst simultaneously leaving Will (his best friend) behind and treating him like a dick. The GA also view Mike as straight. For many GA viewers, the idea that Mike is gay/bi, let alone in love with Will, seems implausible and were it to happen, it would come out of nowhere.
Which leaves the question of: what is Mikeās character arc?
From this GA perspective, he doesnāt have one. Heās destined to make up with El in S5 and support her independence, and kindly turn Will down and go on with being besties like the supportive guy they remember him being in S1/S2. If anything, his character has regressed from the early seasons into a douchebag - a mouth breather.Ā
Not to mention that from this perspective, he has no real internal or external trauma to be unpacked. While this is obviously untrue as it has been made clear by the Duffer brothers and even within the show (Mikeās suicide attempt, Wheeler family discussion around his behaviour at school) that he is struggling with depression, that doesnāt seem to play into their predictions on his ending. If anything, many GA viewers donāt really view his characterās conclusion in S5 as something important because to them, (just to repeat my earlier point) heās just a glorified side character.
Of course, if you watch the show carefully and focus on Mike, youāll quickly realise that his character is dealing with a lot of the direct pressures of heteronormativity and internalised homophobia:
His family is your classic nuclear family, Nancy talks about the Wheeler family dynamic extensively in a heart-to-heart with JonathanĀ
S1 has a lot of homophobia - all of it is about Will, but a lot of it is targeted and directed toward Mike
There are multiple times he is visually shown to come to realisations about his feelings toward El and Will, respectively. Now I wonāt analyse those in this post because technically, none of the contents of those realisations have been made clear to the audience, itās just my own interpretations. Iām sure this will come back in S5, though.
To show Mikeās queerness in S5 is not changing his sexuality, simply just revealing what has been shown to the audience the entire time. Stranger Things is brilliant at show vs. tell. They tell us something, and then show us something entirely different or even something that directly contradicts what we were told. Much of the GA donāt pick up on this (and tbf I donāt really expect them to, itās intended to be subtle!).
To reveal concretely that Mike is queer and in love with Will would change everything. It would be shocking! The GA would lose their minds - and many people would, at first, struggle to believe it. But upon rewatching the show, it would all make sense. It would turn what many view as an unimportant character into one of the most well thought-out and planned queer stories in media history (definitely an exaggeration but bear with me aha, Iām not normal about these boys).
What people thought to be an incompetent boyfriend and an absolute dick to his best friend for two seasons in a row would turn out to actually be a deeply traumatised boy struggling to remain on the ānormalā path (quote from Finn Wolfhard on Mike), within the bounds of heteronormativity. A boy who desperately wants to play DnD and Nintendo with his best friend, but realises that what he feels for him isnāt ānormalā. It would reveal so much about Mike and all the things we never got to see from his perspective.
And in terms of my predictions, Iām absolutely a believer in Mike being Vecnaād, and weāll finally see Mikeās point of view on all of this. Just imagine Vecna taunting him about how he failed to be normal. He failed to do the ārightā thing. Heās been in love with Will since before he even realised it.
So yeah. Byler is real. Byler is endgame. And Iām 10000% certain that Mike is going to become an extremely popular character once we get his insight. Heāll also absolutely need a hug once all is said and done. I will be hysterical.Ā
But at least heāll have his cleric <3.
A really good video on Mike's internalised homophobia that essentially sparked me to write this post in the first place, and I highly recommend if you haven't seen it yet, was this one (@lesbianmindflayer) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6IOlmBEEgE&t=80s&ab_channel=LesbianMindflayer
But yeah! What would you pick as your one piece of evidence?
#byler#byler analysis#mike wheeler is gay#mike wheeler is bi#mike wheeler is queer#mike wheeler#byler is endgame#byler is real#stranger things 5#st5 predictions#mike wheeler needs a hug#i will defend mike wheeler as long as i breathe#i love him so much#let him play dnd and nintendo with will pls#just one scene in s5 of them getting to hang out pls#duffer brothers ill do anything
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