#stranger things character analysis

[stranger-feathers]

The Byler miscommunication in Season 4, and why I find it so interesting

This is a continuation/inspired by what I said in this post, you can think of it as a preview of this.

Miscommunication plots are usually hated in fiction, and it's easy to understand why. They're often trite and uninteresting, only existing by chance and contrivances to create pointless conflict. We all have seen that scene where a character walks in or out, at the exact wrong moment, and ends up making up a completely outlandish scenario, or completely misinterprets someone's intention while we're left sighing and hoping for the end. It's annoying, everyone hates it, but we all live with it regardless. You may then ask : why do I like the miscommunication conflict used in ST4 so much if I normally hate them ?

At its core, it is a miscommunication conflict, there's no real denying it. Mike and Will are somehow both convinced the other doesn't care anymore, despite the audience knowing that this assumption doesn't make much sense. The interesting part though is why they end up thinking so. Buckle up, and let me tell you a story of why this conflict was actually very well done on the part of the writers.

1) Backstory : Mike & Will's relationship before the conflict (S2 and before)

Mike and Will are presented as a special pair from the beginning of the show, I don't think this needs to be demonstrated here (there are countless analysis that have done so better than I ever could). During Season 2, we are shown a Mike who is constantly looking out for Will, and reaching out in ways that others do not. He tries to call the Byers' house to check up on Will when he misses school, and, most importantly, he's the only one who actually goes there to find Will when calling does not work. Put a pin on that, Mike going to see Will when calling fails will come back. This motif of Mike reaching out to Will is so fundamental that it is highlighted as being the very way they became friends. They were both alone and Mike reached out : "And I just walked up to you and… I asked. I asked if you wanted to be my friend."

(he's such a sweetie pie sometimes).

Mike is the leader of the group, and it really shows in this tendency to initiate things. It's easy to realise that, early in the series (and presumably before as well), Mike makes the plans to hang out. The writers use the D&D games to showcase that fact : they happen at his house, and he is the DM. He prepares them for weeks and clearly puts efforts into them, all so his friends can have fun with him. He initiates things and expect others to answer present : that's simply how he prefers to communicate. But what does that have to do with Will ?

Will as a character is reached out to in a lot of his interactions. The plot of Season 1 is heavily focused on reaching out to Will stuck in the Upside Down, be that with Joyce's lights or with El's powers (the talkies and the void both). Here, Joyce and El are allies in communication, and El particularly so where Mike is concerned. Put a pin on those two, they'll also come back (less positively unfortunately). However, Will as a character rarely initiate interactions. Will seems to strugle with opening up if the people around him don't make an active effort to reach out, which is why we so often see Jonathan and Mike actively asking him if he's okay and initiating their scenes. That's why Mike is such a good fit for Will : he knows how to coax him out of his shell and reach out, which Will treasures immensely.

The other side of the coin then is : why does Mike treasure Will ?

Will seems to be one of the rare characters to react positively to Mike being vulnerable, and one of the rare characters Mike opens up to in the first place. After all, most of his overtures of closeness with Nancy are rebuffed, his relationship with his mother is in an awkward middle ground between apparent care and lack of good worded communication, his friendship with Lucas tends toward confrontation in early seasons... Mike apparently struggles with expressing himself and his vulnerable emotions fully. Or well, he would, if it wasn't for Will, or so the show implies.

If we take the crazy together scene as an example of their usual friendship (which is up for debate, but I usually assume it to be the case), Mike feels comfortable enough with Will to calmly express his feelings towards El and her death, and they manage to meet each other in the middle, ending the scene with the mutual declaration that they'll go crazy together. This is a question initiated by Mike : Will is simply the one answering it. However, this exchange still puts Will in a pretty restricted and cherished category for Mike : someone who answers positively to Mike's overtures of closeness and vulnerability.

Interestingly enough, Mike asserts in that scene that El would understand too : after all, she's the one who understood him in Season 1, when Will was unreachable. Sadly, we see that understanding diminish with time, leaving Mike more and more isolated : two examples that come to mind would be the "blank makes you crazy" scene (where El fails to answer Mike correctly) and the complete shutdown of his attempt to empathise about being bullied during their Season 4 fight. (This is mostly a tangent, but it fits the overall theme of this analysis so I'll let it stay here)

Will answering positively to Mike's reaching out is also the one thing Mike chooses to highlight about their dynamic during Will's possesion, proving how deeply appreciated Will's answers are : "And you said yes. You said yes."

As Mike says : "It was the best thing I've ever done". Letting himself be vulnerable with Will, and Will reacting positively, was the best thing ever for 13 year-old Mike.

Do note that I'm French and the French version is specifically "[you saying yes] was the best thing that ever happened to me", which supports my point here even better. That probably colors my perception of this scene, but the underlying idea is still there in English in my opinion.

And Will rewards Mike being vulnerable again by responding extremely positively : he starts tapping in Morse code, an answer to Mike's desperate reaching out.

Now that we've layed out the ground work for how they work at their best, let's see what happens when this dynamic falls apart.

2) The big conflict : Season 3's fallout

It's summer of 1985, and Mike spends most of his time making out with El. He seemingly stopped reaching out to Will, or at the very least, doesn't do it half as much as he used to. Will, feeling left behind, decides to be the one to reach out this time : he plans a D&D game, the same way Mike used to do. This is Will attempting to clumsily replace Mike in their usual dynamic : if Mike doesn't want to initiate things anymore, then Will will try to do it instead. He quite literally replaces Mike's role as the DM (aka the initiator and planner in D&D), but the game still happens at Mike's : this is, after all, Will's way to reach out to Mike specifically. The others are never really accused of leaving Will behind, and rightly so since they seem to have kept up with him much better.

Unfortunately for Will, that plan does not go smoothly at all. Freshly-broken-up-with Mike is not in the headspace to answer positively to Will's reaching out, and they end up fighting, presumably for the first time in a long time (or ever) if Mike's surprise is anything to go by. Mike digs his grave more and more before realising that he truly fucked up, and decides to try to fix things by, you guessed it, reaching out to Will. He bikes to Will's house under the pouring rain, profusely apologises (not that Will actually hears it, but the intent is there), and keeps looking for Will until he finally finds him at Castle Byers. Unfortunately for Mike, this is too little too late : we never get to see Will's answer, nor do we know what Mike did to apologise once he found him. The conflict is slipped under the rug rather than resolved (as Lucas' discussion with Will in the next episode highlights). What Will learns from this interaction is that reaching out to Mike when Mike fails to do so isn't a solution : it simply seems to make things even worse.

Fast forward to the end of the season, and Will uses D&D to get this point across : "I'll just use yours when I come back. I mean, if we still wanna play." Whatever happens next, Will leaves it to Mike to reach out.

Mike reaches out to Will one last timen before he leaves : "What if you want to join another party ?" And Will answers the exact thing Mike wanted to hear : "Not possible." Both of them end up seemingly on the same page : back to their usual dynamic, smiling brightly at each other with an unsaid promise that things won't change. Unfortunately, things do change, and not for the better.

3) Post-conflict : THE miscommunication (Season 4)

It's March of 1986, and Mike is on a plane to California. We know from the first episode that Mike and El sent each other letters, but we have no information on the communication between Will and Mike. Then comes their first meeting on screen and it is more than awkward.

Will is prepared for a big hug, yet Mike is keeping his distance for unknown reasons. It's obvious something happened on Mike's side between their last conversation and this, but what it exactly is is left up to our imagination for now.

The start of an answer is given in their fight at Rink-O-Mania : "[Mike] called maybe a couple of times [...] meanwhile [El] has like a book of letters from [him]". Whatever happened on Mike's side isn't a one time thing, but a continuous issue in communication between them. Mike seemingly doesn't want to reach out to Will anymore, leaving Will hurt and feeling abandoned by one of his favourite persons. (Jonathan's behaviour in California also does not help remedy that fact, since he has never been as distant from Will as he is this season)

However, a few episodes later, we are given a very strange piece of information by Dustin : "Joyce has this telemarketer job, she's always on the phone. Mike won't stop whining about it." Now why would Mike whine about the phone, if he barely even called Will ? It's not like Mike was calling El, we established both at the end of Season 3 and at the start of Season 4 that they communicate by letters (as Will confirms) and talkies. A plausible conclusion for those two pieces of information is then that Mike did reach out to Will more than Will thought, but just couldn't get through. (this is the conclusion I use in this analysis, even if it has not been confirmed to be the case)

But wait, remember that pin about what Mike does when phone calls don't work to reach Will ? He goes directly to his house. A shame that the Byers moved to the other side of the country then, wouldn't you say ? Mike is therefore left to stew in his hurt feelings, convinced that Will doesn't want to answer like he used to. With that, Mike loses one of the rare persons that he can be fully honest to (and as we've established, El's understanding of Mike is also looking worse and worse as time passes).

The move is an obstacle to the very premise of their communication, and that's what makes it a great conflict. Will feels like Mike doesn't want to reach out anymore, and Mike feels like Will doesn't want to answer. This isn't a conflict that exists in spite of the characters, but because of them.

Speaking of external obstacles to communication, remember that pin we put on Joyce and El being allies in communication ? Well, it's certainly not the case anymore. Here, Joyce is the obstacle that prevents Will from answering Mike's calls. And El is the obstacle that prevents Mike from reaching out by letters. As he puts it himself, "[El] has a book of letters from [him] because she's [his] girlfriend". And Will, who obviously isn't Mike's girlfriend, doesn't need letters.

And with those informations, we can now reconstruct what happened on Mike's first day in California.

Mike is feeling out of touch with Will ("I feel like I lost you") and is therefore awkward as hell. This makes Will think Mike doesn't want to talk to him anymore ("you're not interested in anything I have to say"), which means Will doesn't answer the way Mike wants ("you were rolling your eyes, you were moping, you were barely talking"), which leads to their fight. That whole day at its core is Mike failling to initiate correctly, which makes Will freak out and answer incorrectly : this is them not being on the same wavelength anymore, and a clear indication that their usual dynamic has been deeply disturbed by the last few months (or year, because as Joyce says, we're all time travelers, but especially if you're gay pining for your best friend).

Another very interesting detail to me is the implication that, while Will clearly still cares about Mike, wanting a big hug at the airport, we hear very little about Will's own attempts at reaching out. Mike points out the same thing when they fight : "Well maybe [Will] should've reached out more. Why am I the bad guy ?". And he isn't wrong per se. Will could/should have reached out more. But given their previous conflict in Season 3, and their history of communication before that, Will didn't feel comfortable reaching out. He tried last summer, and it ended up blowing up in his face : once bitten, twice shy. He's waiting for Mike to make the first move, even if that means not communicating at all. Will won't let himself ask more of Mike than Mike is willing to give him, or so he tries to convince himself as a deeply ashamed gay teen in the 80s (he does still get pissy about being the third wheel, which is understandable). It's a very juicy and dramatic series of events, but it still manages to feel very organic to me, and deeply in character. Will is more than understandable, despite being somewhat in the wrong and unknowingly self-sabotaging. Another interesting part is that Will himself does seem to come to the conclusion that he wasn't being entirely reasonable. When Mike comes to apologise, Will attempts an apology as well (quickly shut down by Mike though), because Mike's words made him recontectualise the situation.

In that same apology, they manage to make the first step towards fixing their relationship. Now that the situation allows it, they go back to the exact dynamic that worked out so well for them before : Mike initiates and seeks Will out with an overture of friendship, and Will answers gratefully (even grabbing his painting, the very proof of his love and understanding of Mike).

Later down the line, Will covertly apologises for not reaching out more : "if [I] was mean to you, or if [I] seemed like [I] was pushing you away, it's probably because [I'm] scared of losing you". Since this comes from his speech about the painting, Will's name isn't on those words, but it's still progress for Will to admit and word it aloud, even if it's only to himself.

Besides, feelings don't always need to be said (as they put it themselves "I didn't say it." "You didn't have to"). The painting itself is proof enough for Mike that Will thought about him despite the distance. Mike really needed to know that, more than he needed an apology. Will finds the right answer to reasure Mike in the van scene, and they truly fix their friendship there (for now at least, since Mike has yet to realise Will broke their other rule of communication : "friends don't lie").

This plot is very dear to my heart because both of them have fucked up and hurt each other (and themselves) without meaning to. They acted out of carefully built familiarity with the other's behaviour (but also informed by their unresolved fight) even when the situation itself didn't allow their usual communication to work. That's why it blows up in their face, leading to the Rink-O-Mania fight. But this deep familiarity is also why they're so quick to build their relationship back up, seemingly stronger than ever. This is miscommunication done right folks, take notes.

[queen-of-hawkins-why-ler]

I really hope that Vickie gets her own story and character development in s5. I feel like the writers kind of set her up for failure by only introducing her in s4 and only showing her to us from Robin's perspective. I feel like they could've pretty easily introduced her in the end of s3 after we found out that Robin is a lesbian, and she could've even been the girl that Robin had been crushing on in class. That way, Vickie could've taken more of like an Argyle or Eddie type of role in s4 and we would've had time to get to know her and like her so that the stakes would be higher and we'd want to see her and Robin together more in s5.

Don't get me wrong, I love Robin and I'm excited to see her get a gf, and I'm sure I'll love Rovickie as a ship once we get to know more about Vickie, but for the time being I still prefer Ronance as a ship and I'm much more invested in seeing Mike and Will get together, just because there's been so much more buildup. I wish they'd set up Rovickie since s3 so that they'd actually be able to compete with the Byler hype.

[honeii-puff]

So me and my friend had a debate and it made me realize how you can see which characters are favored by the creators by how much of their backstory (how the grew up, what happened before s1, their family lives) we know of them.

For this, im going to be using characters that got introduced in S1, as they have had the most time to be added onto (almost a decade), plus Max as a shoe-in.

This list would be: The Byers(+el), the Wheelers, The Hendersons, the Sinclairs, the Mayfields, and the Harringtons.

The Byers:

Joyce married Lonnie and had Jonathan and Will before separating (I don't remember explicitly why, probably because he was a piece of shit). Jonathan and Will live with Joyce with no visitation from Lonnie, and are very close. Joyce isn't the most stable parent, so Jonathan helps around, kind of co-parenting Will. El grew up in the lab, and we see all the stuff that happens when shes younger, which makes sense since she is the main face of the show, so she's kind of exempt from this list.

The Wheelers:

On the outside, they're seen as the perfect suburban family, but in reality, Karen and Ted are in a loveless marriage, especially proven in s3 when Karen is having a weird relationship with Billy. The Wheeler siblings have a normal sibling dynamic of shouting and a love-hate relationship, with (this mainly applying to Nancy) the pressure of having to hold up the "perfect family" image.

The Mayfields:

Max's mom married Billy's dad when Max was young (I dont know if they mentioned what happened to her dad or if i just forgot), after Billy's mom had died. They lived in California until they were introduced in s2. Billy's dad is physically and verbally abusive, which has influenced Billy's actions towards Max. After Billy's death, we know that Billy's dad left, and that Max's mom isn't in a good mental state, leaving Max to take care of herself while also coping with her brother's death.

Now lets compare that to what we know about the Hendersons, the Sinclairs, and the Harringtons:

The Hendersons:

Dustin's dad isn't in the picture (we dont know why), and his mom likes cats.

The Sinclairs:

Lucas has both of his parents, who are in a loving relationship, and he has his sister Erica, who he has a generic sibling relationship with.

The Harringtons:

Rich background, Steve's parents are never around, but it's never expressed as to what his relationship with them is like. (Ik he wasn't meant to be a main character and he was supposed to die in s1, but its been a decade, they could have added onto it at any time)

We can also see this in how their trauma affects them

El and Will both have similar "im the freak" mindsets, which gives them the struggle of being able to make new friends and expand their circle. They also have a lot of trauma from the upside down, and El unknowingly blocked memories of what happened with 001 due to how traumatic they were.

Mike was bullied his whole life, which does reflect in his character, making him quick to react to situations rather than analysing them before responding. His trauma doesn't come from his family, but from other people he has been around. With both him and Nancy, it is shown that they both struggle with telling people that they care about "I love you" (Nancy with Steve, Mike with El), probably from seeing how "love" affected their parents.

Max's mental health had a steep decline after loosing Billy, and it is explicitly shown and a large part of her character in s4, so that one needs little explanation due to how blatantly obvious it is.

Now, Dustin, Lucas, and Steve have all been dealing with the Upside Down just as long as the others have been (besides Max), and little trauma is shown from it.

Dustin and Lucas were both bullied like Will and Mike were, yet it doesn't seem to actually affect their character like it has for Mike and Will. Both also have their share of events happening with the Upside Down.

Steve did go through a character arc, but we don't see how trauma has affected him, especially since he seems to be the shows punching bag. He got tortured by russians, almost got shot by his ex, has gotten into fight after fight for these kids, and got dragged to the bottom of the lake by his ankles and proceeded to get strangled and attacked by bats.

And none of them seemed to be affected by any of it.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

If there are any other ST characters you want an analysis on, send an ask!

[gwenstrikesagain]

vecna slash henry slash one

S4:E8

When Robin starts to rant about how they were wrong about Vecna, she refers to all of the names we know him as:

Vecna.

Henry.

and One.

Robin asks what they're calling him now, and I think it is interesting who picks which name.

Erica calls him Vecna.

Dustin and Lucas call him One.

Nancy calls him Henry.

So why are they picking each of these names? and why is that interesting to us as viewers?

First of all, up until this point, Erica has been shielded from most Upside Down gore. She saw El's leg in S3, but she never saw the Mind Flayer in the mall, nor did she see a Demogorgon. She was told what was happening by Dustin. The story was laid out for her, a story that she hasn't lived yet. Dustin acted as a DM for her, laying out the story.

Canonically, Erica is still 11 years old. At her age, Erica's brain will protect her from trauma by considering these things a game, or relating them to a game. Which game would she relate the horror she's hearing about and seeing? The one she has become so passionate about since S3 and the one that directly correlates to the victory she just had. She calls him Vecna, because in her mind they've already defeated Vecna. It is the safest option for Erica.

This is why the very end of E9 is a transforming moment. When Erica breaks into the attic and finds Max dying in her brother's arms, there is a dramatic shift we can see in her eyes (serious kudos to Priah, she's incredible). In that moment, the gravity of the Upside Down hits her as she sees it cause the death of someone she loves in front of her eyes. For the first time, it isn't a game anymore.

Next on the docket: Dustin and Lucas. Unlike Erica, they have seen the gore and horrors of the Upside Down first hand. They have seen the Demogorgon attack and El kill in S1 and the Demodogs that almost killed them in S2. In S3, Lucas sees the Mind Flayer several times. He throws fireworks at it, cuts it off of his friend, and watches it possess and kill his girlfriend's brother in front of her. Meanwhile, in S3, Dustin sees the gate opening, and knows that the roaring he hears over Cerebro promises imminent death for his friends. For those two, and the others, this battle is no longer a game or a comic book.

Dustin and Lucas have seen Eleven defend them on countless occasions. They have seen the power she holds first hand. For Lucas, he has even been on the receiving end of what her powers can do. For those two, and the kids who aren't present, One is the most familiar and understandable way to refer to and understand him. To them, El is their superhero, and One is the villain. Much like the comic books they read, and the games they play, he is a big bad that the good guys will overcome. They've saved the day every other time, and they will do it again.

They have a lot of trauma in their past. Compartmentalizing and placing One in the same box as Eleven is the most comfortable option. One is the big bad, and El is their hero. It is the safest option for them.

Also, they themselves are 14/15. Developmentally, Lucas and Dustin will rely on the familiar as a coping mechanism. Comic books and D&D are the reference they will rely on. In those, however, death is not final. No 14/15 year old boy acts in self preservation. Mortality isn't real to them. Just like in the comics and in their games, danger is not real. They won't die, nor will their friends. In their stage of life, death isn't an option.

But, in E9, they both lose. Dustin loses Eddie, and Lucas loses Max. Both of them watch as the big bad wins, and the ones they love most die in their arms. This is no longer a comic book with classic heroes and villains. They have escaped relatively unscathed in the past, but now? Now the danger is in their faith and it is throwing their mortality in their faces. Not only is death final, but it is personal. This is human, and this battle is no longer safe.

Finally, Nancy refers to him as Henry. When she is cursed by Henry, he shows her his childhood. Specifically, he shows her what he looked like as a human child. In S3, when Max and Mike are arguing, Nancy reminds Mike that El is her own person in control of her own decisions. In the moment, we get a glimpse into how Nancy sees El. Unlike Mike, she doesn't look at El and see a superhero or only her powers. Nancy sees that El is a kid, and a young woman making her own decisions. In the same way, Nancy sees Henry as a boy who has made his own decisions.

To Nancy, he is human. He isn't the antagonist in a D&D match, or the supervillian in a superhero's comic book story: he is Henry. Nancy sees Henry as a man who has chosen evil, and has chosen to torture.

She never had the luxury of seeing this as a game, or heroes verses villains, like the others. This has been human and real to Nancy from the moment Barb disappeared. She never had the luxury of ignoring mortality. Her best friend was killed at the very beginning of all of this.

Developmentally, at 17/18, Nancy is coming to terms with adulthood and what that means for her. With it, she is facing the fact that she is mortal, and her decisions will influence her future. The college she goes to, the friends she choses, and who she decides to love are things that do not feel safe: they feel vulnerable.

Of them all, Nancy is the most in tune with what they are facing. As such, she immediately jumps into action. Nancy makes the decision to go into the Upside Down, to allow Max to be bait, to assign Eddie and Dustin to distraction duty, to step forward and pull the trigger on someone she sees as a man, not a monster.

Nancy is the leader this season. Robin says it herself, Nance is in charge. That responsibility, and the choices that came with it, will haunt her. She made the plan, and assigned tasks just as she would at the school newspaper. The deaths and injuries that occurred under her orders will follow her, just as Barb's death had followed her.

Next season, it will be interesting to see if the group unites in what they refer to Henry/Vecna/One as. Will they be a united front, facing an enemy they see in the same light, or will they still be divided?

[mind-travel-er]

The ring on Eddie’s right hand is often recognized as a “mood ring”. BUT there's a debate that it might be a specific stone. An obsidian snowflake. In close ups, you can actually see the ring better, with black and speckles of white.

A mood ring would be pretty cool. I'm all for it. But guess what?

Upon further research, an obsidian snowflake just so happens to be of importance in DnD. Here’s the description: “When exposed to dragon's breath, the stone absorbed an unpredictable portion of the damage and disintegrated. It is formed when the scorching-hot lava inside a volcano spurts out and cools down. Its birth signifies that in every chaos, peace is inevitable.” Coincidence? Or is it exactly describing Eddie's character arc? In the most chaotic of all places, the Upside Down, Eddie finally found peace when he "didn't run away this time, right?". Joseph Quin described Eddie as guilt ridden over what happened to Chrissy. Eddie could have found some serenity after all, by avenging her in his own way, and buying time for his friends to fight Vecna. It also builds Eddie's character in such an awesome way. He probably stumbled upon that ring in a shop and recognized the obsidian. Just the kind that would protect him from a dragon's breath. A strong metaphor for people waisting their breath on him, calling him a freak and other colorfull nicknames. Eddie is the kind of guy that pays 👏🏻 attention 👏🏻 to the smallest things, wearing daily a DnD reference that most people won't notice. That melts my heart, because it shows our boy is detail oriented.

AND, in lithotherapy, the obsidian snowflake is the stone of rebirth and emotional growth; also why called “the flowering obsidian”.

[byers-bowlcut]

I've seen people say El likes the IDEA of having a boyfriend more than she actually likes her own boyfriend, and jfc it's so true 😭 Like it's all over the show:

Season 1

She's initially attached to Mike because he's the first person to give her shelter, food, genuine human care and just,, not calling CPS immediately. Her feelings for him was born from trauma and dependency in season 1. And throughout the rest of the 3 seasons, we don't see it grow past that.

Also I think it's noticeable in S1 that:

She was uninterested when Mike tried to share his hobbies with her

She also did not seem to mind AT ALL when she questioned if Mike could be her brother. He voice is neutral and curious here, not the least bit repulsed by the thought of being siblings with Mike, like girl does not care 😭

Season 2

This season has zero onscreen moments of Mike and El actually getting to know each other further. They were separated nearly the whole season.

What we DO see:

El's attachment and dependency on Mike that was developed from S1

We also find out how El spent a year of her life watching melodramatic romance films. Many other middle schoolers might identify that relationships in real life don't work like those films. But El is fresh out of lab life, she's literally learning the world through this TV, and has now become obsessed with the IDEA of having a boyfriend/relationship just like that.

Season 3

Again, no onscreen moments of El showing interest in who Mike is as a person.

The very first scene we see of them, she's trying to get him to stop singing along to the song they're listening to. She seems to like kissing Mike. But isn't shown enjoying anything actually characteristic about him, like sharing interests with him such as music.

Hopper indicates that they don't do anything meaningful together either. We see here that before hanging out with Max, El had little sense of her own style, her hobbies, her interests- meaning spending time with Mike for months probably didn't involve many talking points did it?

Also in season 3, El dumps Mike with ZERO hesitation. Then she has the time of her life with Max. The most acknowledgment we get that she's oh so heartbroken is a small frown to Max that her and Mike aren't on best terms. And even that doesn't seem so paramount cause 1 episode later she totally dismisses Mike after he explains how Hopper threatened him. She just tells him maybe Hopper was right 😭😭

It's literally ONLY once she starts becoming in danger that she starts clinging onto him again. I feel like we've seen this film before hm.

Like where are any signs that she likes Mike as an individual, and is falling for who he really is, rather than simply being attached due to trauma, and liking the concept of doing romantic things (ie: kissing, dancing at the ball, etc.)

Season 4

This is the season it becomes the MOST OBVIOUS: El loves the concept of a happy relationship and being loved, but not really loving Mike for who he is. And bringing in Will's feelings just emphasizes this point.

To start, El continues doing all these relationship-y things that she did in the start of S3. She has Mike's name and pictures plastered all over her room. She makes a "Mike box" with his pictures decorated all over it. But the thing is: this is all sort of a façade at this point. We know she's BEEN unhappy with him for months ("From Mike! From Mike! From Mike!"). But with all these items, she's basically trying to convince herself that she's in this happy, fantasy, movie-like relationship, like she probably watched in hopper's cabin in season 2.

And then, there's the sheer difference between her and WILL in their feelings for Mike. We see it right off the bat when Mike comes to the airport: Will and El both have plans to give Mike something.

Will plans to give him a painting he worked extremely hard on. The painting is a connection of what they BOTH love: DnD, and it includes their friends who also play the game. It's very personal and immediately touches Mike. What's more is, the painting illustrates the exact qualities about Mike that Will loves: his leadership, his bravery, his guidance. This painting literally spells out to us that Will truly loves Mike for WHO HE IS.

Meanwhile, El plans on giving Mike a fun reunion date. She has the whole day planned out. And immediately: we see that what she wants to do doesn't actually takes Mike's interests and personality into consideration. You can see and hear the strain in his voice when he talks about "burritos for breakfast" 😬

You can see how he's not that relaxed at rinkomania, and nervous about skating, saying he's clumsy. He probably would've much preferred movies and playing a board game, over skating. But El has her own ideas. When she brings Mike to rinkomania, she tries to act really cool about it. She wants to impress him, wants to seem like she fits in and belongs.

Her present was never actually ABOUT Mike, and about loving Mike that she would plan this huge date for him. Her present was about her desperately wanting to have this cool date like every other normal teen girl might, with a normal boyfriend, and make it seem like they have a happy perfect relationship.

And then finally we reach their S4 fight. I find it extremely interesting how Hopper's cabin is framed in the background during their whole fight. It's almost like an indication that her desperate need to be loved by Mike stems from her trying to cope with losing Hopper and the hole left by him, that clearly did not exist when she happily dumped Mike in S3.

In their fight, when the topic of bullying comes up, Mike says he understands her, but El is quick to say he doesn't. She thinks Mike doesn't understand her, but this is just as much her not understanding HIM as well.

She doesn't get the extent of Mike's insecurities (definitely partially a result of bullying), something that Mike later divulges to WILL and not her. If the writers wanted to show us how much El understands Mike and loves him for who he is, her and Mike would work through his insecurities in their rs together, NOT through a middle man.

Overall it's pretty striking that we've never once heard El actually compliment Mike, or articulate, or even show what exactly she loves about him through four whole seasons. I mean...

Attachment to him due to trauma or grief =/= loving him for who he is.

Wanting to BE loved =/= loving him for who he is.

So really in terms of a relationship, what El ACTUALLY wants is the concept/idea of a regular boyfriend, and a happy easy relationship, all in an attempt to feel normal. And that's why we see them fall apart the way they do in season 4, and why Will is currently so involved. Because Will DOES see and love Mike for exactly who he is.

[sade-alicious]

lighting in stranger things is so intentional and always has been. because in this scene hopper is clearly positioned in the ray of light

so all the other scenes where will is literally bathed in light as mike’s looking at him, or the blue and yellow lighting at rink-o-mania, its all on purpose

[himynameis4]

Hmmm… I’m a gay Mike truther, but I’m ultimately pretty content as long as Mike’s a boy liker & gets a fully realized character arc outside of his romantic relationships (…and byler endgame, but like. Yeah).

So for me, it was a lot of little things that made me lean towards gay Mike. If I were “changing” canon to make it into an arrangement where bi Mike was more conceivable, I’d probably start by changing Mike’s facial expression when Dustin compares Suzie to Phoebe Cates in season 3. I’d remove the bit in season one where, just before kissing El for the first time, he struggled to articulate what made their relationship different from a sibling relationship. Mike wouldn’t lie about El being his cousin. Remove at least some of the parallels between Mike & El’s parental/familial figures? Just a few, to make it less extreme, even if the parallels are still a way to demonstrate some of the issues in this alternative mileven dynamic. I’d include more evidence of crushes Mike has outside of El & Will, overall. Phoebe Cates, yes, but just… a little more evidence that Mike has crushes on/is attracted to girls/women, the way stranger things had el talking about potential other boyfriends (although i have a variety of headcanons about el’s sexuality tbh). There are other things, but those are the big ones, for me.

Everything else depends on Mike & El’s relationship in this slightly-alternate canon that’s still mostly canon. Of course, I’m operating from the position that bi mike is less supported by canon & altering canon, but bi mike truthers operate from the perspective that bi mike is canon without having to alter canon, so it’s probably more productive to try & view canon through a different lens rather than trying to deviate entirely. Even if i believed that mike was bi, im not sure if i would believe that he & el were ever in love. Should i alter canon for this idea that he & el were in love & fell out of it? I think people rush into relationships and confuse platonic feelings for romantic ones very easily—even when they ARE attracted to the other person’s gender. Even if it were bi mike, i don’t think i’d buy that he and el ever had serious romantic feelings for on another… they just cared a whole lot. Maybe i’d have him not physically remove el’s hands from his face during their make-out sessions? Other than that, i don’t think a whole lot needs to be altered.

So yeah. Thems my thoughts. Thank you for the question, it was very thought-provoking! Imma go skim the notes & see what everybody else came up with now, im genuinely curious.

Okay, so with all this talk about echo chambers and stuff regarding Mike's sexuality I do want to like run a thought experiment. So, imagine you have complete creative control over Mike's actions from the series. What would you change to make him bi or gay or would you not change anything at all?

Ground rules - 1) He still dates El, and 2) He cares about El

[steddielations]

gotta talk about how Eddie didn’t understand the hive mind until Steve explained it for him, and he didn’t question Steve or doubt him at all, he just trusted Steve’s word. that must’ve been validating for Steve, who’s usually the one getting things explained to him or having to argue his point so people listen

something about, Steve knows what it’s like to be out of the loop and he kept trying to make sure Eddie was keeping up, to the point of over-explaining and Eddie’s like “yes you mentioned the superpower girl thank you now please tell me our son isn’t cursed”

and yeah maybe Eddie should’ve known what a hive mind is since he’s super into fantasy sci-fi, but he was under a ton of stress and instead of Steve being like “you of all people should know” he just broke it down for him and i love that actually

so when Steve doesn’t get the Ozzy reference later, maybe Eddie was just giving Steve the same understanding that Steve gave to him, explaining it and not making him feel dumb for not knowing

[queen-of-hawkins-why-ler]

The genius of Byler in s1 (the significance of Mike and Will spending all season separated)

Y'all, I started a ST rewatch from season 1, and I just wanted to make a post about how genius the setup of Byler and Mike and El's relationship is from the very beginning of the show. Actually, I believe that Byler has only been able to progress as a slowburn love story and eventual plot twist because of how strategically it was initially set up.

Mike and Will are introduced as having a "different" sort of relationship with each other, as opposed to the standard friendships they share with Dustin and Lucas. Right off the bat, we see that Will values being honest and vulnerable with Mike more than he values things that would otherwise benefit him. Around Lucas and Dustin, he acts as though he is fine with winning the DND game as long as Mike doesn't see the roll, but as soon as they leave, he admits to Mike that he lost and that the demagorgon got him.

We can also see that Mike has a different sort of relationship with Will than he has with the other boys. What is important to note, though, is that in s1 we only see the special care and affection Mike has towards Will in the context of Will not being physically present, as he has been taken by the demagorgon. Mike acts a good deal more concerned about Will and more eager to find Will than Lucas and Dustin do. He is the character of focus or the "protagonist" in s1, so we see him talking about Will to his family, and we see how upset he gets when he sees Will's "corpse" at the lake. El, Lucas, and Dustin all stay at the quarry, and Mike has an emotional meltdown and bikes home crying and hugs his mom. In this way, the show is suggesting from s1 that Will is special to Mike in a way that is different from how Mike views/treats Lucas and Dustin. But the thing is, we assume that Mike's perspective is only highlighted BECAUSE he's the protagonist/character of focus and not because his relationship with Will is unique and something we should be paying attention to.

I fully believe that if Mike and Will had been together in s1 the way they are in s2 and if we'd seen the way Mike acts around Will in s2 from the very beginning, then Byler would have been a lot more obvious, and I think we would've been able to recognize from the very beginning that Mike and Will are gay and that their relationship is building up to a romance. But because we only see Mike's care and affection for Will in light of Will's absence in s1, we can't connect those dots and recognize the love they have for each other. Also, we are introduced to El right after Will gets taken, and Mike spends all season with El, developing a relationship with her: a relationship that for all intents and purposes holds the appearance of a romance, even leading to a kiss. It's no wonder why the audience ships M*leven in the beginning instead of Byler, because all we have to go off of is Mike and El's close relationship and the high amount of screentime they spend together vs Mike and Will's one shared scene. We don't see Mike's sweetness and protectiveness over Will until season 2, but by that time, we have already had the expectation set for us that Mike and El are in love, so we never stop to consider that maybe the show is actually building up Byler. S2 is a direct reversal of Mike's relationships with El and Will in s1, with him looking for and missing El the way did with Will in s1, and sharing a lot of screentime/sweet moments with Will the way he did with El in s1. But because s1 already set the precedent that M*leven is romantic and Byler is platonic, we have no reason to assume that the roles are actually opposite from what we were initially shown.

The only reason Byler works the way it does is because 1. we are tricked into thinking that we are only shown how much Mike cares about Will because he is the protagonist and not because his relationship with Will is special, and 2. s1 builds up Mike and El's relationship while never properly showing us Mike and Will's relationship, only introducing the true prospect of Byler once we have already grown attached to Mike and El's relationship and the idea of Mike and El being in love. In s3, Mike and El date and make out all the while Mike and Will's relationship is rocky, so we have reason to believe that Mike is in love with/cares about El primarily and struggles in his friendship with Will because he is too focused on El. Even leading into s4, we assume that Mike and Will's friendship is still rocky bc Mike has been neglecting Will in favor of El and not because he's coming to terms with his feelings for Will and dealing with internalized homophobia. Yet, once Byler becomes canon and people go back and watch the show in light of it being canon, they will see that Will has always been special to Mike and that their relationship has always been highlighted as being noteworthy and different. We simply weren't able to recognize it from s1 because we never saw Mike and Will together: only how much Mike cared about Will while he was gone. And by the time their relationship turned blatantly romantic and special in s2, we still couldn't recognize it because of the expectation of M*leven. The writing for Byler is just so genius and well thought out even from the start.

[lesbyers]

dog metaphors are all about devotion, devotion to a person, a concept, a place etc, to be a dog is to be devoted.

there are three types of dogs

dog 1: pet dogs; loyal and devout, they follow after the object of their devotion desperately even when it is not reciprocated or out of their reach. they are usually (but not always), somewhat innocent (think puppy love). they are below or believe themselves to be below the devoted in terms of power/worth/status etc, at the end of the day they are just someone's dog. they feel they are owned by who or what they are devoted to, whether enforced by them or by their "owner" differs. some are naturally selfless and obsessive, others bullied into submission, some are mix of both.

dog 2: guard dogs; aggressive and loyal, protector and/or provider in some way, (think knight and king dynamic) use anger and violence as an expression of love and devotion, either prone to harming who/what they are devoted to or are dedicated to the protection of it in all forms. this varies depending on the morality of the characters. low morality guard dogs are possessive and challenge their devotion using violence and threat to gain control. others are valiant and heroic, usually with a strong moral code that will not be broken. they are often bad at communication and addressing their own emotions, choosing to speak through their actions rather than using words.

dog 3: wild or wolf-like dogs, at their core they are a large animals that are unaware of their strength and size, their displays of love and affection, although genuine and passionate, can end up harming or negatively impacting the objects of their devotion, (think dogs showing affection through biting not realising the sharpness of their teeth), usually impulsive, controlled by emotions and erratic, they are volatile and often illogical. to love and be loved by them is dangerous. violence is a natural or taught characteristic of theirs that is inherent and inescapable. these characters often don’t intend to cause harm and when they do it’s usually from an un-calculated place of impulsive destruction or an emotional outburst.

[gwenstrikesagain]

Rewatching S3:E8, Battle of Starcourt, and noticed something interesting about Eleven:

El knew about the exit inside the Gap when the others didn’t. (Mike pointed to the stairs, and Max didn’t think of another option)

As someone who worked in a mall, the exit that El, Mike, and Max use is not a public exit. That hallway they end up in is an employee-only area. We see it when Steve lets the rest of the party in the back to sneak into the movies, but El never sees that. Mike might have told her about sneaking around with Steve’s help, but she couldn’t have known exactly where that was.

Here’s the thing: those doors are almost always unmarked. They aren’t true exits deserving of exit signs because they dump into a maze of corridors. In an emergency, it’d be the worst evacuation route, which is why they often remain unmarked. We don’t see exit signs above the door in the Gap or the door in Scoops. El had to have seen an employee use that door and recognize its use when she was in the mall with Max early in S3.

All of this means one thing: El is always looking for exits.

Whether it was subconscious or not, El was keenly aware of a way out of the Gap. She was with Max, a safe person, and away from the lab, but she still noticed an unmarked exit well enough to recall where it was days later.

She was locked away her entire childhood. It is reasonable to assume that El would look for exit routes in any space she was in.

In S1 we know she escaped the lab through the pipes. In S2 we see her escape from the police raid on Kali using an alleyway she had to know would lead away from the cops. But, in S4, we are instead shown El’s desperation for escape: in the police transport, when she first sees Brenner, when she’s trapped by Vecna’s vines, etc.

In S4, her means of finding escape routes was taken from her and her friend.

We know that El looks out for and protects her friends. She couldn’t help Max escape, and we see her still looking for an escape route for Max when she tries to find her in her coma. But, she doesn’t find one.

So, in S4, El loses not only the battle with Vecna, but also a comfort in finding escape routes for herself and her friends.

I’m curious to see how El handles that guilt and potentially forces friends to escape in S5.

[milliebugydementia]

i like to think that the parallel between mike destroying the pillow fort el slept in and will destroying castle byers is actually very meaningful -

i like to think that the choice of a pillow fort was deliberate for hiding el. it's a childish object in the same way castle byers is, and the destruction of it symbolises a loss of a kind of softness and innocence that will never come back.

when will destroys castle byers, it's after trying to make things go back to how they were before he went missing. it's the emotional culmination of all of his angst that the things that have happened to him have happened, and that he's stunted in place when everyone else is moving on and managing to be straight. especially because castle byers was something he & johnathan had built to cope with their father leaving.

when mike destroys the pillow fort it's because he's lost el, and with her any hope of finding will.

it's notable that in the scene, he first stares at the door as if waiting for el, or even for will, to come back. he cares for el at this point as her own person, but i think in this scene he is angry because he feels stupid for ever letting himself hope that he could find will again, and that things could go back to normal - just as will felt trying to get the party to play D&D with him.

for both of them it is a deep embarrassment holding frustration and grief of losing their childhoods, and of losing each other, as two people who were boys together.

the fact that mike has this development so much earlier than will in the show is testament to how the trauma changed the both of them - mike grew up too fast, and will didn't get to finish growing up.

i think mike's actions in the show all follow on from here. his grief of losing will - first when he went missing, then when he came back and was wounded - was so much that he shut it out in favour of being angsty about eleven. and then once she came back, he couldn't understand why everything still felt wrong, and instead he rejected childish notions and preferred to think of his woundedness as maturity, getting obsessed with eleven in order to avoid doing things that reminded him of how things used to feel when they were still kids. this is why he is so mocking and cold to will, because he hasn't really processed how much will going missing shook the security of his world at such a young age, and he never acknowledges that it did. he also hasn't been able to grow up, he's just trying to hide it from himself.

[pinksmonkey]

I'm deciding to post a link to specifically my Byler Evidence YouTube playlist, because it is in my ultimate list, but this will make it easier for people to find who just want to watch videos and not read hundreds of posts. XD

Have fun I guess. Share this if you want. Byler is so endgame fr fr.

[lillie98]

Deaf!Will HC:

Will loses his hearing as an unfortunate side-effect of his Vecna Connection (Vecna wanted to make sure Will always remembered their connection, so he took what Will loved most—his music). Will struggles to accept his new reality and withdraws from the world, grappling with his altered body.

Time goes on and Will slowly comes around, taking small steps to reenter society. His friends and family learn ASL and agree to “Voice Off” hangouts, so Will feels included. They rent subtitled movies, buy him a TTY machine (captioned phone), and Hopper even shaves his face to make lip reading easier. Their support keeps Will afloat and he eventually accepts and embraces his identity as a Deaf Man.

Nights prove the hardest—Will wakes up screaming at 3 am, feeling the sound reverberate in his chest, unable to decipher between reality and flashback. Mike tries everything to calm him, from deep pressure to night lights, but nothing grounds him. Mike’s voice always calmed his traumatized mind, and Vecna cruelly ripped away Will’s ability to hear it. Mike finds himself at a loss after months of sleepless nights and Will begins to fear bedtime, terrified of his own mind.

Once again, Will wakes up screaming and frantically signing that Vecna is back and everyone is going to die. Mike knows it’s a flashback, but Will is too overwhelmed to comprehend Mike’s words. He stares at Will, desperately wanting to help, and then it hits him. Will’s hand is on his chest, feeling his breaths and cries through vibrations. Mike gently coaxes Will to lie down, pulls him to chest, and starts to sing. Low and quiet, just loud enough to create strong vibrations through his chest cavity. Will latches on like a sponge, pressing himself tightly against Mike’s body. He takes a deep, soothing breath and finally relaxes, falling limp against his boyfriend. Mike smiles to himself, relief washing over him. He wonders if Will can feel what song he’s singing, if he knows the rhythm to “Boys Don’t Cry,” the song that saved him from Vecna. Tears soak Mike’s shirt as Will realizes, after six agonizing months, he never lost Mike’s voice at all.

[artist-issues]

I think ya’ll crave adoration so much that you see it in every character’s every interaction, so that you can vicariously experience “I’m obsessed with someone and they’re a little obsessed with me” in every fictional moment.

enemies or friends

acquaintances or family

positive or negative

major or minor

platonic or sexual

direct interaction or imagined

EVERYTHING is romantic love to you because you’re starved for “I need to adore and be adored”