#mike analysis

[gayofthefae]

Thinking about how a season has to change something from point A to point B and Mike and El's relationship in season 3.

3x01: Mike and El were happy together with no issues

3x08: Mike and El are happy together with no issues

cannot be it.

And "Mike is scared of her breaking his heart" can't be it either. Because that's a reveal, not a change. An arc has to be that he learned something. We know he didn't come to terms with whatever he claims to have in season 4 because that's the whole point - that he doesn't know in season 4.

So the question narratively is, what does season 3 exist for for them?

From El's line in 3x04 it seems like they needed to break up for a different reason so that she could realize she likes being single, but she isn't really who we're talking about here. Because she doesn't apply that knowledge by ending the show single.

But while at the beginning of season 3, Mike is fighting to get back/stay with El seemingly, I think the change is from trying to feeling trapped. Season 2 is him getting a taste of that relationship with Will to learn it's what he really wants before suppressing that. Season 3 is him getting a taste of a friendship with El to learn that it's what he really wants (before suppressing that).

Actually, let's just talk about Mike changes:

Mike starts season 1 thinking of El as a scientific discovery and ends thinking of her as a person (Finn's words)

Mike starts season 2 thinking of Will platonically and ends (however consciously) thinking of him romantically.

Mike starts season 3 thinking of El romantically and ends (however consciously) thinking of her platonically.

Mike starts season 4 not what to do with that information and ends knowing exactly what to do (but being prevented from doing it).

[uhgo6d]

Very convenient that Lucas is always at the crime scene, and the camera always focuses on his reaction.

This one is so- I need to put the whole reaction, a pic isn't enough. That boy is having flashbacks.

Lucas has a lot to talk about with Eleven too.

[wibble-wobbegong]

Mike vs Selfishness

The sheer number of people who misunderstand Mike as a character, even as fans of his, face one major flaw; they root his actions in self interest. They believe he is selfish. Even with positive connotation, this is wrong.

For some reason, it seems that the world has decided we must have balance between selfishness and selflessness between characters— if Will is selfless, then Mike must be selfish. This is the very trap that the writers set in S4. Their intention was to mislead and misconstrue. Will is shown to be giving up many things over and over and over for Mike, so he’s painted as the selfless hero (which he is). Mike? We mostly see him from others’ perspectives, meaning we only see him take. He isn’t aware of the sacrifices being made for him, but the show is producing the image of him never sacrificing in turn. Your mind will naturally lead you to view him as selfish because of the lack of reciprocity being shown. They want you to go blind to Mike’s sacrifice so the reveal hits that much harder.

But we aren’t blind. Mike is a character so inherently good that even stripping him of any sympathetic connection with the audience cannot hide the love and kindness inside him. The writers are true to their characters, so no amount of hiding will keep Mike’s true nature repressed— you just have to look, and look we have.

If we’re to look at Mike and know he is not what we perceive, how is it that so many people fail to understand that he is as selfless as any other character? Mike is not a boy with a monster hidden under his skin waiting to take what it wants despite how often we see this description of him floating around. This idea is in omnipresent in so many analysis posts or by those who say they’re fans of his imperfect characterization when that isn’t what makes him imperfect.

For example, it seems to be commonplace to believe that Mike is dating El to hide to some degree— not necessarily as a beard, but as an excuse for his behavior; his prioritization if her; his avoidance of Will. Rather than using El as an excuse, it’s much more plausible that Mike legitimately puts El above other people sometimes. When you look at Mike’s story with El it is so very blatant that he wants to do things for her and help her and make her happy. The very beginning of their friendship in S1 had been Mike seeing El and wanting to help. He rescued her and let her stay and took care of her when he first found her— sending her back to Pennhurst was not malicious or uncaring. He genuinely thought it was best for her at the time.

As Mike gets to know her he learns of her tragic past and comes to admire her as a person for her strength and sense of justice. El has lived a life of anger and sadness and abuse and Mike knows this. He sees a good person who has known nothing but suffering and wants to help her live the happiest life she can lead and Mike believes part of her happiness comes from being with him. Of course he’ll do it. He may not love her romantically, but he loves her so strongly in other ways that he’s willing to pretend for her sake. He’s been pretending since the end of S2. She moves to kiss him and he freezes, but they end up at the Snowball together anyway.

He’s giving too much of himself. He takes it too far and abandons intrinsic parts of himself for her happiness— this includes movies, hanging out with friends, music, and more than anything else, Will. Not Will himself but the part of him that belongs to Will. The part that loves him.

Mike’s selflessness reaches the furthest extremes. He’s willing to kill himself for Dustin with zero hesitation. He’s willing to abandon his personhood in hopes El is happy. He’ll shoulder the blame in fights with Will and hide the truth when he realizes Will never meant to hurt him. In fact, he tries to prevent Will from ever realizing he’s angry with him and continues to push him away during the fight at Rink-o-Mania. Mike consistently backs away from any confrontation where he has to address himself and his wants and his feelings when they aren’t there to help others. With Lucas at the beginning of the season, he backs down the second Lucas explains himself. During the rain fight, he’s calm and apologetic until Will brings El into it. Mike will always try to redirect things away from himself and Will is the only person who wont let him.

Normally, selflessness doesn’t take such intense and demanding forms. It doesn’t hurt others. Selflessness is usually shown as positive altruism or as an isolated punishment upon the self. Mike falls into the end of self punishment.

Self punishment always leads to unintentionally hurting others. Usually, se’d see this displayed from the perspective of the punisher. We don’t have Mike’s perspective. The punishments he imposes on himself are not visible to us.

Mike is a good, selfless person. He’s so sacrificial and feels so inferior that he doesn’t value his side of the story and acts as a servant to the happiness of the people around him. He’s rarely confrontational about issues that center around his wants and his feelings. When I say Mike is the prime example of a character who is a victim of themself I mean that he will destroy himself to hand out the pieces to people who he thinks need them.

There is nothing about him that is selfish or holds expectations that can’t be broken down. Mike’s rare selfish acts crumble like worn towers and his sacrifice will never be enough in his eyes. It’s all self imposed, but self imposition does not equate to selfishness. That’s what people miss about his character.

Mike is selfless in the most destructive, dangerous way positive. He has lost any sense of self importance, and that’s pretty clearly reflected in his monologue in the van (which happens to be the only time he really opens up and immediately calls himself stupid for it).

BASICALLY: mike’s not selfish he’s just selfless to the point of destruction and hurts people. hurting people is not inherent to selfishness . bro is big stupid and lives to please lmao

[hessolivagant]

God, this scene tells me a lot about how mike is feeling. Mikes micro expressions from el to will, is so??? Mike seems to have some conflict going on but we don’t exactly know what it is yet, which i 100% think is going to be addressed in s5. All of the looks, heart eyes and speeches are all going to add up to mike being a gay man. I know that Will isn’t going to be used for his queerness to help a straight relationship. This will ruin all three characters arcs, it would not make sense and it would also be harmful to the queer community:(

Mikes arc: this is based off my interpretation of mike and what i think his conflict and how he’s going to end up in s5. His conflicts are his queerness and his internalized homophobia that causes him to push everyone away while also watering himself down to the standards of “normal” mike is actually a gay man who loves to play dnd with his friends, he also loves star wars and writing :) but his father makes fun of him a lot, he was bullied in middle school, and he is associated with the “occultists”(dnd group💀) at school, he’s pretty much been outcasted his whole life for being different, so of course the poor boy is gonna have internalized homophobia and he going to repress who he actually is to impress el and to seem straight. He even pretended to not gaf about dnd but immediately after s3 he joins a dnd group, clearly he’s pretending to be someone he is not. At the airport he’s wearing his silly little outfit, and argyle points out that it’s a shitty knockoff, which is a double meaning. The clothes are knockoffs of ocean pacific and mike is a knockoff of himself. He was pretending the entire day. So his conflict is pretending he’s normal. Even though he stated in the first episode(with his gay montage) that he doesn’t want to be normal but then he turns around and does this? Interesting.

Mike and eleven: why i think mike and el won’t be endgame, mike won’t have his arc of being himself again and he’s gonna repeat the same thing his parents did(nuclear family) which is boring as hell and also ew? Why are we romanticizing this possibility?? Mike changed for el, mike changed to impress el. He also feels inferior to el and he’s said “i love you” twice to her for the past?? 4(?) years(I don’t remember I don’t pay attention to milkvan) mikes arc would be useless if he was just pushed into this other than, accepting himself and being who he was in s1 and s2 where he didn’t feel the need to pretend.

Mike and will: will, doesn’t pretend to be someone he is not. He’s still in the closet but he’s still himself. He doesn’t want to pretend to be anything else whilst mike is pretending. Mike needs will to fulfill his interests and accept who he is. They need each other to be themselves and they need each other in general because they love each other. If mike ends up with will, we will see our beloved s2 mike. And we will see a more interesting version of mike than mike with el.

Mikes s5 ending: none of us know but one thing i do know is that he’s gonna have his gay little moments, and i want it to be NOTICEABLE. I want people to be like “ohhh, okay that makes sense” LMAO YK?? Also byler kiss!! I’ll take anything, as long as they kiss and confess to each other. I don’t think theyll pull a reddie or all of us bylers are going to riot💀 so i want mike and will alive, they deserve a happy ending.

Also in s5 i want mike to be with another queer character where they open up, like robin orr vickie(?🤨) or maybe even just a conversation with will. OR SUPPORT, ANYTHING FOR THE POOR BOY😭😭 el could be like “mike, ik what you are” and it would work. Please, he needs comfort 😢

(Im in class and my teacher has been showing us monkey photos for like 30 minutes, so um���???)

[gayofthefae]

Thinking about this and Mike thinking the painting is from El and the words are from El but still falling in love with Will as the one who chose to say them. Even if El called him a hero behind his back, Will is the one who chose in that moment to say it to his face to make him feel good. So stuck on this idea of Mike falling in love with Will's intention to make him feel happy and not being distracted by who's credited.

anyone else up thinking about how mike wheeler dreams about being seen as a hero and being good enough to protect the ones he loves and how he thinks he’ll never be deserving of love until he proves himself worthy of it meanwhile will already sees him as his knight in shining armor and paints him a picture just to show him how loved he already is

[aru-noel]

Me n who pls

[gayofthefae]

The talk in the junkyard getting Mike on the right track but him still not having figured it out and his speech in the van not being that he thinks he figured it out or that he's committed to breaking up with her, but rather more matching in the speech's anxious energy in being

"What if I don't figure it out in time? What if I show up and I'm trying so hard and she says 'too slow' and leaves me?"

The fear not just that he's not enough, but that with all the effort he's pouring into solving this, his best isn't enough. The feeling of lost effort or unacknowledged effort. The feeling that unlike just a fact of being incapable of it and her being hurt by that, the fact that he still is trying.

"What if El gives up on us for me? What if I'm not giving up and she 'calls it'? She deserves better than someone who makes her wait like this. What if she realizes that in time?"

That's the line. That's nearly the line he says.

So let's break it down, actually.

"What if- what if she doesn't need me anymore? - I keep telling myself that [she'll always need me] but- I don't believe it. She's special. She was born special. Maybe I was one of the first people to realize that, but the truth is: when I stumbled on her in the woods, it wasn't fate. It wasn't destiny. It was just simple dumb luck, and one day she's gonna realize that I'm just some loser who got lucky that Superman landed on his doorstep. [She's already beginning to understand she doesn't need me. I saw it- I saw it in her eyes that last time we talked.] I mean, at least Lois Lane is an ace reporter for the Daily Planet, right? But-" [I will also be referencing the cut line

Now subtextually.

"What if I can't figure it out in time, and she stops waiting around for me? I keep telling myself she'll be patient with me, but I don't know. She's amazing, she always has been. But I'm not the only one who knows that anymore, I just happened to be the first to tell her. Anyone who took her in could have told her that, I was just the first person who had the chance to know. It was coincidence that we met and one day she's gonna realize that. She's gonna realize that it wasn't some fantasy true love fate or destiny. She just needed someone - anyone. She could have been found by anybody that night and whoever that random person was would have told her she was amazing just like I did. I'm not special. I never brought anything to the table but making her feel lovable, which anyone who knew her could do. Then lots of other people loved her and she only kept me around because I didn't fall behind. Now, I'm falling behind. What reason does she have to keep me around, then? She's starting to realize that. I couldn't make her feel lovable like I used to. When we fought, I saw it in her eyes: she started to give up on me. She realized that the one thing I could give her, I couldn't anymore. She loved me because of what I had to offer and I don't have that to offer anymore. I haven't for months, in our letters, she just hadn't noticed yet. She's noticed now. What if next, she realizes not only am I of no use to her now, but she doesn't need to wait around for me until I am? At least Lois Lane has other value, I don't. All I can do for her is love her and I can't even do that. She knows I can't right now. What if she gives up for me - *on* me? I'm trying still, but what if she calls it? What if she decides she's done waiting for me and it doesn't matter when I get around to loving her because there are plenty of other people who already do and plenty of other people who could? What if I get around to it and she doesn't care because...I just took too long?"

It all comes back to that same idea: if he knows the problem and explicitly, word for word, how to solve it...why is he scared? He's not scared of the solution not working. And his confusion and fear he keeps repeating in episodes 4 and 5 too aren't about what that solution is. He's scared of the ACTUAL unknown: what happens if he fails.

Because he doesn't know. Maybe she doesn't leave him, but look what happened last time he failed. She could barely look at him then she left.

I don't think he knows yet. I think he's panicking because he still doesn't. He's on his way, but he still doesn't. He empathized with not wanting to admit he still can't because it would upset El like Will said, but he hasn't given up on trying yet. This isn't his reasoning for why he can't say, it's his panic around the fact that he can't.

Then Will comes in. Lovely, comforting Will...with a painting. And for those first couple seconds...it's from Will. And I think that's what ruined everything. That's where the feelings came crashing down. That's the thing he can't unknow. It broke his illusion. It answered his questioned.

He was terrified El wouldn't stay with him if he couldn't love her because he thought he was generally unlovable if he wasn't of use. Will showed him that he wasn't. Then said it was from El. And he was disappointed. And then he knew why.

Because for everything I've just written, he knew too...his face shouldn't have fallen Will said it was from El.

[love-byers]

reminder that will byers said the equivalent of "yes i did truly think we were never going to date girls and spend the rest of our lives together doing what we love and i thought that's what you wanted too but clearly i was wrong"

and mike reacted like this:

this his not just sad regret this is YEARNING. the realization that will actually DOES want that has made him not want to let go.

[wibble-wobbegong]

tldr for that big ass analysis earlier mr michael wheeler wont go for will over el bc he hasnt learned to prioritize his need to be his truest self over his loyalty to his friend and the one time he got close was when will made him feel as though he was a person deserving of being himself and more than someone who exists to please others and then “you’re the heart” happened and mike was incredibly betrayed and felt lied to because he knows el would never say that and he thought will did but then will confirmed he didnt so mike lost value in himself and reverted to a people pleaser and gave his speech to el

he’s coco loco bro

[fiendforbyler]

SO YOU ARE TELLING ME THAT THIS HAS ‘ROMANTIC UNDERTONES’??? OH I’M GOING TO BE SICK

my miwi 😭❤️

[gayofthefae]

Right???! We so often forget because having background noises in those moments in film would be weird and is better left out. It would also make the scene different to have extra reactions.

But like..the roller rink could hear them. There were still people around.

In the same way that I often forget that Jonathan couldn’t just see but could hear them the whole time in the van.

In the same way that many of you likely forget that even ARGYLE knows the ENTIRE PAINTING SITUATION AS WELL. 

Like every is still THERE. Just because they zoomed in and played music and it “feels like they’re the only two people in the world” doesn’t mean they actually are.

In acting a big thing is “stakes”. As people, they still made those choices to say those things in front of people - be it big crowds of strangers or two people close to them.

I have a post about how Mike is very emotionally intimate with Will and not super weird or outbursty - but specifically when alone with him.

We know conceptually about the social stakes of being gay. But I think we forget it on a smaller scale. There are times that, maybe Mike would have totally said things to WILL. But they were still yelling in public. Or he wanted to say something when he saw Will crying but Jonathan and Argyle were right there. We forget these things. The stakes are very much real in those moments. 

I saw something stating that El was right behind the door and may have overheard Mike and Will’s fight. Maybe Mike thought of that too. That not knowing where she was, she could be hearing them. Anyone could be hearing them.

Maybe one of the things exaggerating his reactions or in the case of the van, minimizing them, was also their environments, not just his comfort level with Will - which we see change...based.  on. environment.

Not to ramble on, but a quick example not in the referenced post is also how Mike seems about to say something - not only before Argyle interrupts him in the desert. But until Argyle reminds him by doing that they are not alone.

thinking about how will and mike missed each other so they made sure everyone in that goddamn roller rink heard all about their business like they were YELLING IN PUBLIC i keep forgetting

[mashkdemss]

I made a Byler Iceberg, which included scenes from the series, phrases, words of the authors and actors proving the byler, and also several of the most interesting theories in my opinion. The higher the takes are located, the more obvious they are!

(I'm almost dying right now with a fever and I feel so-so, but hyperfixation is hyperfixation, so I hope the near-death state did not affect this iceberg in any way LOL)

[sirfrogthe3rd]

"If an artist falls in love with you, you can never die."

[paladin1985]

WAAAITTTTTTTTT they did it again in s4

[gayofthefae]

This is hilarious

Also just remember its literal perfect alignment with “I like presents” from the season 3 finale that I had forgotten about so thank you for this reminder.

quick side note acknowledgment though for the moments I get to see wholesome milkvan fandom moments bc this was very cute and respectful, albeit oblivious.

Here’s to supporting El getting Mike a present platonically in season 5 <3

Yeah, imagine…

[strangelysilver]

Mike constantly trying to call Will but never writing him actually makes a lot of sense.

Letters are tricky. They force the writer to consider the relationship between them and the person they’re writing.

Picking a greeting forces you to evaluate the level of intimacy between yourself and the recipient. There are “rules” to writing salutations. Use this for your girlfriend, that for your mother, that for your teacher, etc. “Dear Will” has different connotations than “To Will” or “Hey Will”, or like, “To whom it may concern”.

It’s the same with closings: “Love, Mike”? “From, Mike”? “Best regards, Mike”? I mean, Mike and El literally argue about this. There are expectations for which specific words to use with which specific people depending on the situation, relationship, and topic.

Calls are different. They’re much more like normal conversations, where words are said but the exact phrasing is much more flexible. There’s less worrying about how a specific sentence will be received because there’s less room for that sentence to be pulled apart for its implications.

Basically, Mike wanted to call Will instead of writing him because writing letters would force him to clarify their relationship via a greeting or closing… which would force him to confront his feelings. Ha.

also I’m personally a huge fan of the idea that Mike has a bunch of half written letters to Will that he gave up on because they were too revealing— to himself