#mikes monologue

[star-41306]

ARCHIVE WAKE UP. WAKE UP ARCHIVE. AO3 CAN YOU HEAR ME?? AO3?? AO3?!?! CAN YOU HEAR ME?? ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN. ao3?? I don't know if you can hear this but, but if you can, I want you to know I'm here, okay? I'm right here. and, I LOVE YOU. ao3, do you hear me? I love you. I'm sorry I don't say it more, it's not because I'm scared of you. I'm not. I've never felt that way! never! *lightning crash as a reminder that some of the most immoral fics ever created reside on ao3* but I am scared that one day you'll realize that you don't need me anymore. and I thought that if I said how I felt it would somehow make that day, hurt more. *camera pans to wattpad and tumblr* but the truth is ao3, I DONT KNOW HOW TO LIVE WITHOUT YOU. I feel like my life started that day I searched you up on Google Chrome. you were still in light mode, and it burned my eyes. and I knew right there and then, in that moment, that I loved you. and I've loved you everyday since. I love you on my good days, I love you on my bad days, I love you on dark mode, I love you on light mode. I love you even when you're under attack. YOU'RE MY SUPER HERO!!! and, I can't lose you!!! okay? I CANT LOSE YOU. YOU CAN DO ANYTHING. you can make people laugh and sob uncontrollably, you can get through this. I believe that, I really do. but right now, you just have to fight. okay? ao3, do you hear me. you need to fight. you have to fight. fight!! FIGHT!!!

[mikeslawyer]

el: *proceeds to have a literal whole episode about how she doesn’t want to be treated like a superhero but just like a regular person*

mike: you’re my superhero, your powers are my favourite thing about you, i’m so glad you saved me with ur superpowers did i mention i love your superpowers

HOW ARE SOME OF U EATING IT UP ITS BEYOND ME

[bylerspookie]

it's actually canon that Mike didn't fall in love with El at first sight fight me

firstly, that's just terrible writing. many writers, including the Duffers, have literally made fun of this trope.

remember Eden and Argyle??? THEY WERE LITERALLY MAKING FUN OF THE TROPE.

and they have Mike, right behind them, looking disgusted. in fact, that entire scene is queercoding for Mike but that's another story...

remember this?:

Mike, watching Lucas and Mike crush on Max:

Dustin/Lucas: She's awesome.

Mike: Awesome?? You haven't even spoken a word to her.

Mike, talking to Max:

Max: Why do you hate me so much?

Mike: Hate you? How can I hate you? I don't even know you.

REALLY GUYS??

you're all stupid if you think Mike's monologue was truthful and made to destroy Byler, it was literally made to destroy Mileven, why do you think El was ignoring Mike afterwards???

it goes down to the fact that Mike said I love you to El 9 times (9 represents failure in st), the fact that he talks about what she wears (it's a direct quote from Eddie), the fact that Eleven looks hurt when he says it, the fact that she loses (and Vecna just??? let it happen?? he knew it was gonna cause failure), the lights were flickering in a way of anger, not of love (we see how the lights look when she channels love vs when she channels anger), the fact that Will was right behind him in frame and literally had to rub his back and call him pets names in order for Mike to say it even though El was literally dying, the fact that Mike had to brace himself, the fact that "You're the heart" and "you're different" line up perfectly, the fact that he-

IF I GO ON I WON'T BE ABLE TO STOP.

[jaegerisim]

I think this may have been said before but..l

I've just realized why Mike's monologue is weird af!! It finally clicked after reading someone analyze Mike's parentified role!! it isn't a romantic speech! It's a motivational!! It also clicked in my mind yesterday when I was at a fencing competition and my coach said the almost exact same thing to me. He told me "Girl, you are a champion, you can win this piece of shit. You can ace this, I believe it. I know you can! All you have to do is fight." and there is 0 romantic feeling between him and me so, ummmm 🤨

[frozenfrogz]

Mike after the monologue

[buckieduckie2]

guys i think it’s important to remember that scripts don’t actually matter at the end of the day. of course, they’re important for production of the show obviously, but the end product, the actual show, is really the only thing that matters. The show, how they portrayed the characters, that’s what matters. if they wanted milkvan endgame so bad then they would’ve changed the way they wanted the actors to portray their lines. they would have yelled “cut! can you act more genuine and in love with el? thanks” like they wouldn’t have kept that footage. like be fr y’all. they wouldn’t have written it like that in the FIRST place. they change stuff on set all the time!!! it’s not written in stone!!!! ITS SKELETON!!!! SCRIPTS ARE SKELETONS!!! OF WHAT THE SHOW WILL LOOK LIKE!!! AND MORE!!!!

THEY DONT GO ON STAGE AND READ THE SCRIPTS OUT LOUD VERBATIM FOR THE AUDIENCE!!!!!!!!!!!

anyways, scripts never are and never have been a viable source of information for the show. the only thing we should be using for actual proof? is the show itself. come on people, we know better than this. do better.

[lupon]

New anon here: whether Mike ends up being gay, bi or straight, imo the monologue was badly written and a very weird scene. It was ugly and did not have any emotional intensity.

I understand people who say that this was shot this way on purpose to show that Mike was lying/half lying/not in love with El but was this all really necessary? Now a good portion of the fans/ of the GA are shitting on Finn's acting. Bylers are confused. Even some Midlevens found it weird and embarrasing. Only hardcore Midlevens and incels on Reddit are pleased.

I really don't know how the Duffers are gonna deal with this in S5

Mike's monologue is the scene I have the most complicated feelings about.

On one hand, it's just kinda blah. A lot of what he's saying is cliché and doesn't feel like Mike. It didn't address a lot of things it could have (Mike having poor self-esteem, validating El's feelings about how Mike was treating her, ect.) and sticks out like a sore thumb compared to how other monologues/heart-to-hearts have gone. Mike made a lot of statements nobody expected him to, and it definitely felt like some things came out of nowhere. We weren't shown the aftermath or clued in to how El feels about what he said, meaning her reactions are entirely up to interpretation. Which is probably a big part of why it didn't land well with a lot of people, since there's no clear answer for how the audience is 'supposed' to feel about it. It feels incomplete and lacking.

On the other hand, I think it's probably supposed to come off that way. He's a scared, confused teenager with a lot of trauma and is known to have problems with being open and expressing his feelings. They hadn't properly reconciled about their fight, and was lied to about how she feels about him. He had to be slightly pressured and reminded about Will's lie in order to talk, which isn't a sign that Mike felt confident in what he was saying. It's overall just a complicated situation with a lot of different things to factor in. It does make sense why the whole thing feels slightly off, but I agree it could have been better.

I think there's so many different ways they can handle it, and even handle it well, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried.

[hoteadepresso]

btw when I first watched s4 I was still in my “clinging to M*leven even tho it stopped working before it became an actual relationship” and even then listening to the monologue I was cringing so hard

��you can move mountains” line made me snort out loud

like, you can clearly see that he is not in love

why would local aspiring writer Mike Wheeler use a cliche like that if he loved someone romantically

[lynx-224]

my english teacher was talking abt her favorite shakespearean monologues and i was sitting in the back of the class thinking about mike wheelers infamous monologue of ‘86

[mikeslawyer]

i knew mike’s monologue was shit when he said he’d loved her since he met her like he didn’t literally go “that’s not will” and want to leave her right there PLEASE

[cloudycleric]

tbh i don’t really have “byler doubt” or whatever this fandom has come up with. the monologue was the monologue. who knows if they changed it before releasing it, or whether millie bobby brown was given different directing for how to act, we really can’t say for sure. plus, the love could still be platonic. or maybe mike was tapping into some old feelings.

OR (& i know this is a controversial one 😋) mike could be…. BISEXUAL. ISNT THAT CRAZY????? that like bisexual people are real & exist?????????

or.. he could realize this is the end of his relationship. god knows i’ve done the craziest shit when the last few weeks i was with my ex. & then again he could be lying. idk.

[chirpsythismorning]

They were sick for this 😭

[jaegerisim]

so I’m doing an edit and I’ve rewatched Mike’s monologue so many times that I‘ve actually learned it by heart. Might do an analysis of it later idk

[bluebugjay]

Call me delusional but I do think that Mike's "My life started that day we found you in the woods" can be spun to be not absolutely atrocious.

Because yeah, Mike saying his life started the day Will went missing doesn't sound great but that's not how he phrased it, and I think his phrasing is important.

He says his life started the day they found El in the woods. Not the day he met El. But the day they found her in the woods. So the action not the consequence. And what were they doing in the woods? Looking for Will. He was looking for Will but he found El. Also it started the day he found El, not the moment he found her but the whole day. And what happened earlier that day? He found out Will was missing and he went against Hopper's order to not intervene (which is how he came to find El.)

When Mike says 'his life started' I don't think he's writing off everything else in his life previous, or means that it was the best day of his life or anything. (We already know what the best day of his life was) I think he literally means his life started. His story. He was just a kid before and all of a sudden on that one day his entire life is flipped upside down, his friend goes missing, he disobeys authority (which is kind of a big deal in relation to his character arc being one about being proud of who he is and not being / doing what others tell him he should) and he finds a magical girl in the woods. His life did start that day, all of their lives did. That was where the story began. (It's a little fourth wall break-y I know but still)

Mike's life started when he fully accepted his role of leader, when he went against what he was told for the greater good, when he resolved to finding his best friend no matter what, when he found El in the woods. When he was needed. By his friends, by Will, by El. If Mike sees being needed as his purpose in life which we can infer to a point by other things he says then it makes sense that this was the day his 'life started'.

I think, just like a lot of his monologue, he's using twisted truths so he can avoiding actually lying as much as possible. He says it in a monologue where he tells El he loves her so it comes across as romantic or at least trying to be, when really it's not supposed to. Yes, on that day he met El, he found a friend, someone he cares about so so much but he didn't love her then like he says.

The line is more about Mike himself or even what El has given to him by coming into his life than his romantic relationship with her. She gave him purpose, a friend and a wider, deeper view of the world. The whole thing really becomes way more understandable and thoughtful when you take the 'romance' out of it.

[buckieduckie2]

WHATS HAPPENING. SINCE WHEN DID THEY RELEASE MONOLOGUE SCRIPTS. WHERE WAS I WHEN THIS HAPPENED. I CANT FIND THEM. WHAT- WHERE- WHEHRHJKHRJ\

@l0v3c0r3e@weirdo09@littldolli

@will80sbyers@theonesbyler