#elmike speculations

[gayofthefae]

Will first slowly leaves the frame during Mike's speech when he says he isn't scared of El. Because this is what Mike wanted to tell her. "The problem wasn't you". That's the truth he needed her to know regardless of his fear. He then says that he's afraid of her leaving him. We know this to be true because he said it when she wasn't there. He tells her he doesn't know to live without her. Sweet, and no reason not to be true.

But once we get to the story. The "my life started" story. Will inches back onscreen...

Which is odd. It isn't even a change back. Because when he says that he loves her again, Will is once again gone. So it was just for this shot.

Then we return for "I love you on your good days, I love you on your bad days, I love you with your powers, I love you without your powers. I love you for exactly who you are."

But would you look at who's onscreen for the immediately following line "you're my superhero"

They put a one second shot between these to transition it. Not even a reaction shot from El. It's the shot of their hands. And this is only shot Will is in here. It goes straight back after this single sentence.

Will slowly leaves the shot for "I can't lose you" and stays out for the rest of his speech until the final "fight!"

This isn't so much a lie as it is a joint truth. This is not a romantic sentiment. It is showing the entire motivation of Will encouraging Mike in the first place - they are doing this together because they both want to save El in the same way. This is an agreed upon action with an agreed upon goal - one being stated here: "fight".

So what does this tell us about truths:

I love you. 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. But I am scared that one day, you'll realize you don't need me anymore. And I thought that if I said how I felt, it would somehow make that day hurt more. But the truth is, El, I don't know how to live without you. I feel like my life started that day we found you in the woods, and you were wearing that Benny's Burgers' t-shirt. And it was so big it almost swallowed you whole. And I knew, right then and there, in that moment that I loved you. And I've loved you every day since. I love you on your good days, I love you on your bad days. I love you with your powers, I love you without your powers. I love you for exactly who you are. You're my superhero. And I can't lose you. Do you hear me? I can't lose you. You can do anything. You can fly. You can move mountains. I believe that. But right now, you just have to fight. You have to fight. Fight. Fight!

Everything remaining is Mike's truth and only Mike's truth. He is sorry. He isn't scared of her. He's scared of losing her. He loves her regardless of her powers. He believes in her. He wants her to fight. That is the truth. That first "I love you" is different and he knows it. So even though he repeats the words, that time, it's a lie.

I also note the sentence "said how I felt". Because that's what makes it true. It would not be true if he said "if I told you I loved you". He said "if I said how I felt". And with that, let's put this in a true context. Let's use these truthful lines in the context he wanted to use them in. Let's set the scene:

The last few days, I've had to think about the last talk we had. You know, before the cops and the whole world went to shit and everything. I guess I just, I don't know, I guess I just wanted to say 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. I just can't love you the way you want to be loved, but that doesn't mean that I don't. But I'm scared that one day, you'll realize you don't need me anymore. And I thought that if I said how I felt, it would somehow make that day hurt more. But the truth is, El, I don't know how to live without you. I do love you. Every day. I love you on your good days, I love you on your bad days. I love you with your powers, I love you without your powers. I love you for exactly who you are. And I can't lose you. I can't lose you.

I added one line. One line only that changes "won't need me anymore" from a reason to an elaboration. Everything else is the same. Everything else did not need to be changed to fit the other narrative.

As I said recently...something should have contradicted at some point. It didn't.

The consistency of which is truth and not is also supported by what's used when he's begging her to wake up.

Subtle but not total inclusion of Will, who also wants her to wake up, but with focus still on Mike for "come on, come on" (with even a cut back to him)

But when it cuts back to him on the 'I' statement "I know you're in there, Will has been addressed in reaction and is now out of the shot.

Mike and Will in the shot is about both of them, proven by the reaction shot of Will that follows; just Mike is only him, proven by the shift and timing with the "I" statement.

These are also, of course, different enough angles that the camera requires adjustment to capture, so it was important to them, as it also not enough difference to have been more than one camera.

[gayofthefae]

I have always wanted El to ride a bike in this show. Max has her skateboard so it's different but yk all those like posters and stuff with the kids on their bikes? Gimme one with El too and Max riding her skateboard with them (or zooming on her fuckin sports wheelchair idc)

It would be awesome if Mike taught El how to ride a bike in S5.

In S1 he’s chauffeuring her around on his bike. And that dynamic continues when they start dating.

So it would be symbolic if he taught El to ride a bike on her own, as their journey together as a couple comes to an end and they part ways.

She needed him and he needed to be needed. Now she doesn’t need him anymore.

[bitofanupsidedowner]

I ASKED MY SISTER TO RECORD THIS SCENE FOR ME SO I COULD POST IT AND SHE TURNED IT INTO A FULL EDIT YOU GOTTA WATCH THIS IT'S SO FUNNY I SCREAMEDD VERY LOUDLY

PLEASE WATCH THIS

it's byler x new girl and it's the best thing ive ever seen

[stranger-chichka]

The jackets, HELLO????? I already can smell the parallel

@greenfiend already wrote a while ago how that scene from s1 may foreshadow Mike coming out to El and I think that’s maybe it! Or they’re having a heart-to-heart after just to clear things up/open up about Will

I mean, look at him!!! It’s the same Mike who feels understood and accepted for who he is

[queen-of-hawkins-why-ler]

After the teaser dropped the other day, my sister who likes Milkvan said that she is “worried about the Mike and El situation” 😈😈😈

[stranger-theory]

something so funny about Milevens is that they post shit about them from s2 and caption it "soulmates!!" like sure buddy they may have looked like it then but im pretty sure that was before the lying and gaslighting.

i think this is something a lot of Milevens fail to understand. they think that because Mike said he loves her they can go back to posting shit from back then as if they're still at that level. this is something i HATE.

a good plot resolve should play out like this: Mike cant say he loves El because he's afraid she'll realize she doesn't love him. more miscommunication, blah blah blah, but then Mike overcomes this fear and says he loves her. they talk about it and finally go back to being a happy couple!

here's how it actually went: Mike can't say he loves El because he's afraid she'll realize she doesn't love him, they miscommunicate, get separated, reunite. Mike says he loves her. she refuses to talk to him for about two full days and this is explicitly called out by two of the characters.

"Has she talked to you at all?" –Will

"Not much. I mean- a little." –Mike

why would that interaction be included at all if it's not necessary for catching us up on their relationship status? in fact, the reason Will asks this is because the camera pans to Eleven making a face at Mike before walking into another room and shutting the door. he notices that she's acting weird. they're not acting normal, they're not on speaking terms, that plot wasn't resolved. the issue is still relevant. we're supposed to notice.

the ignorance for people to casually assume they're okay now is astounding and shows clear evidence that these people don't even have any idea what's going on. this is basic media literacy and they're not even batting an eye.

this is lightly inspired by @teambyler , i liked his video a lot !

[lorax-devito]

platonic mileven in s5:

“el let’s be bffs instead”

(ten minutes later)

“so who in the fuck is this crush will has hmmmmmmmmm’

[lunabug2004]

If y’all are getting Byler doubt from these bts pics of Mike and Hopper possibly being abt El… I honestly don’t even know what to say.

Would you not grieve over the girl you brought into your home when she was lost and scared and made her feel welcomed? Would you not grieve over the girl who has saved you and your friends’ lives over and over again, who you have saved her life? Would you not grieve over the person who you had already lost countless times over the worst reasons just to lose her permanently to the absolute worst reason?!

El is much more to Mike than just his girlfriend (or his ex-girlfriend). He has a genuine deep bond with her. Along with Will, she is the most important person to him. She was with him through some of life’s hardest times. Harder times than any normal kid should have to go through.

Y’all are… insane.

[lizbetlovesbyler]

apparently they think that we think el has to die for byler to be cannon?

idk about other people but i’m throwing hands if they kill eleven, byler endgame or not

[gayofthefae]

Reconsidering El breaking up with Mike then the hill scene being a closure follow-up conversation and explanation.

Under that idea, though, that very much changes the place Mike is in.

And I love the idea, too, of him feeling relieved but also exposed. Tempted, even, and scared of that. He wants be with Will, El was the way he talked himself out of it. El was his excuse for inaction. Now he doesn't have one.

[starrycloak]

Last night I saw a lighthearted post (sorry, I was doomscrolling and half-asleep so I missed it before I could think about it again. if you see this and you're the OP, please let me know!) that wondered how wild the reaction to the hypothetical scenario of willelmike becoming endgame as a poly relationship (unicorn polycule or angle??) would be like from both m11s and bylers, and that sent me back to think about people's reactions towards these ships (and fanon throuple) throughout the years. While I cannot 100% attest to this, (mostly bc I don't have the figures at hand, only anecdotal information from back when I ignored how twisted a-oh-3 is as an organization), it's quite telling how, from the very beginning, most fans kind of realized a polycule-to-solve-the-love-triangle for once wasn't really in the cards for these three characters in canon.

let's take a look at some of the st fandom's shipping preferences across the years ->

s1: "look at these sweet kids, surving the horrors and just being innocent. I hope mike and el reunite and one day they can date for realsies" <- that was the GA and most of the first wave of fans back in 2016. Not denying that some of the earliest fans did feel a bit concerned about the aforementioned traumatized kids (especially the little girl raised 'alone' in a lab) jumping into crushes and kisses in less than a week, but hey, it was the first season, why not wait and see where this is going? So yeah, that was the 'm11 majority era', as far as fan content and viewer investment is concerned.

@ that person from twitter who posted about miwi/byler fifteen days after s1 was released + earliest wheelclairs and miwis: all the love in the world <33

the post-s2 fandom landscape, however, largely transformed with the direction the text took with yk, pretty much everything related to how the writers handled m11 and placed much more focus on miwi going through hell together and how deeply their bond ran, recontextualizing the weight of the events and reactions during s1 even more. Externally, I'd argue a few adjacent 2017 pop culture moments, particularly the release of Muschietti's IT Chapter One, with finn playing a queer-coded boy from the 80s in a supernatural/horror setting, also played a part into the fandom looking at (or pondering about) one mike wheeler in a new light. A ST x IT crossover from back then that didn't feature the reddie + miwi combo was, for the most part, a rarity, especially when it came to that one staple moment (/aff) where the 'tozier-wheeler cousins' roasted each other about who was more whipped for their respective brunette besties. So yeah, while miwi couldn't have ever been considered a crackship (not even in the s1 era, also considering will's own 'ambiguous' -at the time- queercoding being an elephant in the room), its new popularity made it so it was less and less common to see an exclusive m11 majority in the fandom.

thus, from 2017 on, many multishippers (big fans and casuals alike) entertained the possibility that at least there could be something there hanging between mike and will, still unbeknownst to both of them. However, that lightheartedness probably came more from trying not to expect anything more than that in the show down the road, given that m11 seemed to have smooth sailing after the s2 finale and, possibly, the average viewer probably giving them the benefit of the doubt one more time (i.e "well, we haven't really seen el and mike interact in peacetime in a while, but we know they love care about each other surely -hopefully they'll be a cute power couple!")

a 2018 intermission is very interesting, considering it's the year that saw the most poly!willelmike works in a*0*3 (around a hundred in total in the tag by the time of posting) -majority with a "mike loves them both and they work it out ft. stoncy mentors" (and even some ocassional polyam-bi!will in a unicorn polycule -i.e. where all three of them date each other), but most of these take place in non-canon compliant aus. This period is also worth mentioning because, after the release of s3 in 2019 canonized -okay, "heavily implied"- gay!will and how m11's canon relationship is indeed meant to be written like that for a bigger narrative purpose (el's independence and autonomy and mike's journey towards honesty and embracing his own rules about growing up), a similar level of engagagement (and hype for that particular dynamic) hasn't been reached again in six years.

flashforward to 2022 and pretty much where we still are today: m11 as a failed (romantic) relationship being detrimental to both parties involved -one arm of the angle down-, will's feelings for mike and his gay identity (almost) confirmed (so his sexuality would be incompatible with el as a femme character anyway even if she weren't pretty much his adoptive sis now), and, besides him clearly not being in love with El in s4 -or ever? shall we also mark this arm of the angle as down now??-, mike's true feelings still up in the air (as far as official confirmation goes, that is -schodinger!mike being a well-written character or not depending on whether or not he's grappling with being true to himself and the one he loves.) The big waves of former-m11s-turned-bylers post s4, the level of vitriol and defensiveness hardcore m11 stans have adopted to protect their ship against 'slander' and 'delusion' in the last few years (and some particularly homophobic folks popping in from time to time), and the attitude of some casual fans towards byler, claiming it would be 'forced' if it turns out to be the endgame ship, all across this period are also noteworthy. So, taking all of this into consideration, imagining a last-minute ménage à trois being presented the final, rewarding, comforting resolution to this story so nobody ends the show "alone and sad, though"? That's gotta be, yep, impossible to sell narratively, in-universe AND for the audiences in a way that even makes sense.

So yeah, highly unlikely outcome: pretty much everyone would be getting clowned on that way, and not only because of their shipping preferences.

On a much more lighthearted note, I actually love how this little attempt at historical recollection reinforces how mike really has long and largely been percieved as the one who cannot stop seeking will and feeling a certain way about him, and yet he's "the straightest character in any media ever" lmao

[sunflowerbyler]

I could honestly see Mike coming out to El because she was never taught hate in that regard. She’s someone who wouldn’t hate him for it. She didn’t know what fairy meant when Troy called Will that but she knew it upset Mike so she protected him. Just El kicking homophobes asses in S5 please.

[dwobbitfromtheshire]

At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if the Duffers had Mike choose both Will and El just avoid any conflict and confirming Mike as bisexual. Plus, I can totally see El sweetly offering it as an idea to Will and Mike using the fact that she shares clothes with Will. . .why not a boyfriend? And Will's just like:

"Can we do that?"

And El's just like:

"What is stopping us?"

Neither Will nor Mike could come up with an answer because nothing is stopping them from doing that. Maybe it's not the permanent solution. Maybe it doesn't work, but for right now, in the middle of the apocalypse, all three of them don't have to worry about that. . .Honestly, this would be the ideal situation for me because I want El, Mike, and Will to get whatever they want. All three of them deserve to be happy. Maybe it's a little weird for a brother and sister to share a boyfriend, but. . .I'm going to do it, I'm going to say it. . .stranger things have happened. . .I don't know, am I weird for thinking they might do this?

[queen-of-hawkins-why-ler]

Will Byers on his way to stand in the middle of the background in every romantically coded scene of Mike and El like his life depends on it

[radagasttt]

i used to be such a creelers denier but day by day i come around to it more and more. thinking about mike being related to henry and el being "related" to him. all the lab kids having henrys blood injected in them, mike having creel blood, the elmike sibling parallels.... idk

[quaticcooooo]

when the fandom sees this image

s5 leak spoiler

Mileven fans: omg cute Mileven scene! Byler fans: BREAKUP

and it’s this image.