#mike wheeler hc

[byler-alarmist]

I never understand the "I wish you were a girl" Mike headcanons, mostly because I read him as gay and I don't think he even likes girls, so why would he wish that Will was one?

I'm not a lesbian so I can't answer this, but do lesbians regularly wish their crushes were men?

Maybe the people saying this hc Mike as bi, in which case I can almost understand, but still not really because Mike loves Will completely as a boy, and I don't think he'd want to change anything about him.

[meepmorp1232]

wait so where did the "mike wheeler is a writer" hc come from bc i always thought it was bc he's the dm and writes campaigns or smth

[your-stranger-halfblood-things]

"Mike," Will bumped his nose against the other teen's, "you're really pretty tonight."

"Yeah?" It came out like a croak, an anxious hiccup because Mike was too busy staring staring into Will's eyes to realize how she sounded.

Will caressed Mike's cheek. "Yeah." He ran a finger over the other's lips. "So pretty." And he kissed her cheek.

[s-c-l-n]

mike wheeler winks a lot when he flirts or does something flirty but it never lands and just looks cringy (will laughs but deep down he finds ut kinda cute)

[noodlesbatches]

black haired autistic people have my heart

[beingaseablob]

Mike Wheeler watching The Thing over and over again "for the scare" but in reality he's obsessed because he's got a fat crush on Kurt Russell as Macready

[manic-pixie-aquarius]

I headcannon that he has an iron deficiency cause he is always so damn apathetic

does this fucker ever not have something to complain about

[kennahjune]

Guys—

Eddie’s not weak, nor is he a twig.

Exhibit 1: he was able to YANK both Dustin and Mike out of their seats as if they were fucking hand bags.

Exhibit 2: he’s able to climb up a rope with NO support which uses SO MUCH core strength like bro I could never—

Exhibit 3: he’s in a band, he’s gonna do some heavy lifting and shit

Exhibit 4: when he tried to provoke Jason in that cafeteria scene, Jason fully just backs down

Exhibit 5: MANZ LITERALLY THREW STEVE AGAINST THE WALL

So allow me to present: Steve Harrington who knows full well that Eddie is able to completely and utterly manhandle him and absolutely living and thriving for it.

Thank you for your attention.

[gaysforbyler]

Byler hc that Will draws a portrait of himself and Mike but he doesn’t add that little mole above his lip, so when Mike sees it he grabs Will’s pencil and draws in. Will is confused because he sort of forgot he had that, and Mike is offended because it’s his favorite part of Will’s face

[tr4shkittty]

Omg I’ve never agreed with something more than this

why mike wheeler is autistic

by me, your friendly neighbourhood autistic :)

overexaggerated facial expressions

we might be starting off with what seems like a bit of a reach here, but hear me out

mike doesn’t show emotion visually on his face a lot (also an autistic trait) but when he does it’s usually over-the-top and there’s other people around

the way he looks at el in the ‘i dump your ass’ scene - looks to me like he’s playing up the disgust/confusion/anger face because lucas/max can see him. (i also think the fact that it’s not really clear what emotion he’s trying to show proves my point)

‘what about us?’ in rink o’ mania - when he turns around you can see him look genuinely blank/blindsided by will’s comment (this also has romantic/byler implications) but then he arranges his face in a mask of anger

taking things literally

this is mostly just a bullet point solely for the ‘so i should get her something that literally says ‘i’m sorry’ on it?’ scene from s3. because i think that from what lucas said, a nt person would understand what he meant, and an autistic person is more likely to assume the literal meaning, as mike does here

copying others’ examples of ‘normal’ in terms of life/relationships

ohhh i could talk about this one for ages. so much proof on why milkvan is so incompatible lies here too.

so the way mike views his relationship with el is very performative. it’s very putting on a show of normalcy. the fact that the only thing they do together is make out because that’s mike’s perception of how to show people they’re happy together. and it clearly must be mike’s perception, because what opinions would el have on situations like that? the way they make a big show of leaving the party in 0301 to do this also proves it’s mostly for show.

when lucas comments on this when they go to the cinema together, mike defends himself, calling it ‘romantic’, when both hopper and the party can tell there’s something distinctly abnormal about their relationship. that’s because it has very little substance. mike and el don’t actually know very much about each other, which is why mike had such a hard time picking out a gift for her at the mall. but mike thinks that their relationship is normal, and is healthy, because he’s trying to replicate the relationships around him, but he doesn’t have a very good basis for this as he is most likely going off of stancy and his parents, because he sees very little of jancy together, and lumax (arguably the best canon couple in the show) call him out on his relationship’s unhealthiness.

autistic people tend to have a hard time in relationships, because it’s difficult to tell between genuine attraction/a healthy relationship and performative but toxic relationships. speaking from experience, i understand mike completely here. but he also craves stability, which is why in s4 he fights to keep that stability that he has in el, even though he knows now it isn’t right. we accept the love we think we deserve, and autistic people (in my experience) will put up with a lot of toxic and harmful behaviour/situations in order to keep a stable relationship, because we expect people to leave us if we aren’t directly benefitting them. i struggle with this a lot, which is why mike’s storyline in s4 really resonated with me.

difficulty with emotional regulation

with mike, he either has zero emotion or a lot of it, and this kind of ties into the next point, but difficulty controlling emotions is definitely a mike trait. sometimes he is very monotone/blank and can come across rude. a prime example being the dinner scene after rink o’ mania, where mike says ‘she didn’t look fine’ and el storms out.

of course, the opposite of this is when too much emotion comes out at once, usually manifesting in anger for mike (and me too). the rain fight in s3 i think is actually a great example of this, because to me mike has spent a good amount of time masking around lucas, talking about the girls and pretending to be disinterested in dnd - because of lumax’s relationship, i think mike felt a lot of pressure to act the same way as lucas and change his interests here. i don’t think mike intended to hurt will’s feelings, and i think he genuinely didn’t realise that he was. and then the rain fight happens, and to me it looks like mike is so exhausted from masking, and so confused and scared by will’s reaction and having upset him, that this manifests in anger and frustration which is most likely at himself rather than will. he is just projecting the anger he feels at himself (for hurting will and for having to ‘pretend’/not having the same interests as lucas)

i also think the rink o’ mania fight shows this, because it’s the same principle - mike is frustrated with himself for not being the ‘perfect’ boyfriend/not caring about el as much as he should’ve, and this manifests as anger at will (again). i think will is the only person that mike doesn’t really mask around (the ‘will voice’!!), but unfortunately will is also the person he takes his frustration out on when he gets overwhelmed. seeing as this wasn’t the case in s1/2 (because it came out at other people then - lucas/el in s1, hopper in s2) but now that mike is aware of his feelings for will (yes, i do think he knows about how he feels, but he doesn’t think it’s reciprocated & uses it as another reason to hate himself) he outwardly blames will for his relationship problems even though he inwardly knows it’s his fault (& he feels horrible about that too. because there’s no reason why he doesn’t love el the way she wants him to. the way he wants himself to. he just can’t. and he feels like that’s just another thing about him that’s wrong.)

suppression of emotions/masking feelings

so like i said, this is kind of similar to the last point, but it’s mostly just that we barely get to see any emotion from mike other than anger. there are multiple times throughout the show (but especially in s4) where he’s shown to almost smile and then quickly mask it. he’s hyper-aware of how he ‘should’ react in situations. this is just a pretty autistic trait in general, the overanalysing/trying to predict situations in order to act ‘right’.

echolalia/repetition

so this is a verbal stim, and because mike isn’t shown physically stimming (to my knowledge) i think the way that he often repeats words or phrases is his way of stimming. (& not to be depressing, but since it was the 80s any physical stims had probably been ‘disciplined’ out of him).

saviour complex (cue the pheobe bridgers)

i sort of mentioned this earlier, but it’s basically that autistic people have a hard time with self-worth, and the most common way we allow ourselves some self-appreciation is by serving other people. the ‘i can fix them’ mentality is quite common among autistic people, and this is a huge part of mike’s personality. his driving motivation throughout s1 and s2 is ‘saving’ will, along with protecting el and teaching her about the world. (i do think that the reason mike and el connected so quickly and had a sort of mutual understanding was because i also think el is autistic - & this is also why platonic elmike as a dynamic has so much potential and i like them a lot). this ‘fixing’/‘saving’ mentality is a way for mike to prove his own self-worth, that if he can ‘fix’ everyone else maybe he’ll be worth ‘fixing’ too. (i put ‘fixing’ in quotes because obviously there’s nothing wrong with mike. at all. he just believes there is.)

-

(i do also want to add that his talent/academic ability also shows this, as ‘gifted kid syndrome’ is a very popular autistic situation/trait)

(also i think his special interest is dnd which is why it hurt him so much in s3 to have to mask that, and why in s4 he’s so happy about playing again. just watch the hellfire recruitment scene and tell me his little ‘it has 20 sides!’ isn’t the cutest thing you’ve ever seen. <3)

okay, that’s all i have for now! please add onto this with anything else you’ve noticed or anything like that! i love you guys and i love mike wheeler a lot so thanks for reading if you made it this far lol <3

edits:

very black&white sense of justice

another ‘taking things literally’ moment being at the end of s3 when lucas says to mike ‘that’s the olive branch’ and he js goes. huh???

autism dinosaur hands!!

@biigiiiii pointed out that he does have other physical stims like blinking/nodding/playing with his bag straps/pacing <3

his attachment to his toys in s1/2 (playing with el and when karen asks him to give them away he gets Very upset)

[byler-alarmist]

This is SO miwi-coded

[wheelerslvr]

hey bylers a thought just occurred to me. we could ACTUALLY get will teaching mike how to use a gun. (and mike using one hooray!!!!!!!)

as we know from the leaks mike and lucas have a military outfit so they’re probably using it as a disguise in some shape or form. what do military members mainly carry? a gun. so mike or lucas will probably have a gun with them.

yeah, they might not have to use it, but they’ll have to learn how to hold one even which is where will could possibly come in because he can fire and hold one.

im probably just being delusional but like… what if…

mike and lucas’ army pics below + mike army sprite

[s-c-l-n]

i think a lot about author mike wheeler and just his life with that. like bare with me here ok ? ok.

book -> comic -> tv show pipeline

he and will create the comic together (mike writes and will draws)

he is like tony hawk, youre not really sure if thats mike wheeler or not but pop some readers on him and “oh my god thats mike wheeler !!”

high school english teacher (9th grade)

most kids dont realize who he is (he gaslights the ones who question him)

goes by his married name of byers when teaching

some kids raise an eyebrow at byers cause “isnt he that painter and comic guy ?”, but no ones quite sure

a nicher fav internet old man celeb

big tumblr user (upperclassmen on tumblr make it a game to find his account)

ok thats all for now, may elaborate later

[byler-alarmist]

He'd love EMF- Unbelievable, and you can't convince me otherwise

mike wheeler is going to LOVE 90s music

[willfreakbyers]

S3 Will is literally just me when my friend doesn't want to hear about my newest hyperfixation

[lestatlioncourtt]

my one fear when it comes to byler becoming endgame is if it ends up feeling rushed and I know that's crazy to say given that they've been building that up since season 1 but it's more specifically when it comes to mike's character.

unlike will mike was not bullied for being gay, he did not had people calling him slurs and things like that(only when the bullies were homophobic to will but directed the bullying to mike) he never explicitly said he feels different from other people, like, I know this things are not necessary for a good character development but I am so worried and curious about how they will approach mikes feelings in a way that doesn't make the ga say that it feels forced or that it came out of nowhere, the only way i can see this playing out is if they do some flashbacks/ a lot or conversations between mike and will, especially about their childhood and stuff like that, letting the ga know mike has always felt that way, that their friendship was always special, that they both struggle with the same things

idk guys I'm having insane byler doubt these days I just want everything to be properly addressed