#and s3 he is being the same because he's scared of losing her and joyce at the same time

[clumsycapitolunicorn]

i’ll never be over all the el and hop we got for s2. it was so good (and angsty, but good).

[gayofthefae]

Thinking about how crazy together is so meaningful because it isn't some romantic promise. It isn't just that, without context, "mad for each other" type "we'll go crazy together hypothetically".

It isn't hypothetical. The conversation that led them to that point is "I am scared I'm genuinely losing my mind because I become so immersed in my visions of monsters that I lose reality" "I am also scared that I'm losing my mind because I see people that aren't really there" "Hey, on the upside, maybe we can room together at Pennhurst Asylum"

Like that was the conversation. It was earnestly "our real life experiences and symptoms are making us actually worry about our sanity, let's promise not to tell anybody" and then Mike, loving in the way that he does, says "but it's some comfort knowing that, like everything, we're doing this together too"

And now I'm thinking about "I have no idea what's gonna happen next, but I think it'll be better if we work together. If we're a team. Friends. Best friends" and my other post about how if you look into it's kind of a version of "I want to jump into the abyss with you, I'll be less scared". It's also logistic, of course "us fighting won't help anything" but they had also already stopped fighting. So now I'm thinking about how, really, that's just a rephrasing of "Hey, well if we're both going crazy, at least we'll go crazy together, right?"

It's easy to isolate that line and think of it how it's used in other shows, more of a "hypothetically, we'll go crazy together", but in this, he was saying "this real thing that's happening is made better by you being here with me. I think we're gonna be okay."

And I sometimes read fanfics of it where it's more cavalier, but I feel like we need to remember that "craziness" was very stigmatized, just look at how they all treat Joyce's history with mental illness is season 1 - basically equating anxiety and depression as "only a matter of time before she fell into full delusion and hallucination". I don't think that they'll necessarily repeat it because it wasn't "let's go crazy together" it was "we are going crazy together". Without the real-time stakes to it, it doesn't mean the same thing so a callback would still be romantic but used in a different context, it would be different. It didn't mean "crazy together" like "let's take this supernatural risk together" or "hey, wanna do something crazy?"/"that was crazy of us!" They're using it as the stigmatized word that it is. They're using it with the weight that it holds.

It's closer, to me, to "Maybe I'm crazy! Maybe I'm out of my mind, but God help me, I will keep these lights up until the day I die if I think there is a chance that Will is still out there." - which makes sense with all the season 1 parallels between Mike and Joyce i.e. her seeing the lights vs him hearing the radio and everyone else is like "it's ok sweetie, we know you miss him"

I think the best subtext I can translate is what I already said: a lighthearted "Hey, well, at least maybe we can bunk together at Pennhurst."

edit: a better way to put it is I feel like it's this as opposed to how people usually treat as more of a "you die, I die"(-Dustin to Steve, s3)

[frog4278]

Hello Byler community, @arcadewheeler and I have something to present to you;

Kas Will AU

Picture this: Will Byers goes missing and Mike Wheeler goes missing with him, and they survive together in a way only terrified children can, clinging to each other and speaking in hushed whispers, and then Castle Byers gets attacked.

Mike wakes up in the wreckage alone.

When Hopper and Joyce find him he's so sure Will is still out there, he refuses to leave. Hopper has to drag him out kicking and screaming for him to end up in the hospital and later when his throat still burns they tell him they didn't find anything at all.

But Mike is determined. He knows Will is out there and he watches every flickering light with a focus he can't get in school, with his friends, or when he goes back to the Upside Down and it's cold and dark and this time he's completely alone. Will isn't stupid, and he's not dead (and Mike's hope dwindles every day bit by bit. It doesn't matter if Will wasn't stupid, because he was a tired and weak child).

And then the Mind Flayer gets him.

During Mike's s2 possession arc, the Mind Flayer discovers just how important Will is to Mike (Prior to this the MF had found Will and given him to Vecna to be brainwashed and turned into his servant. After s2 Will is made to specifically go after Mike).

By s3 Mike fully believes Will is dead and places all of the blame on himself. The scene of Will destroying Castle Byers is replaced by Mike destroying it while screaming and crying. When Kas Will comes across the wreckage he gets a strange memory of a young boy building the fort with his older brother in the rain.

When the Byers move out of Hawkins Kas Will makes his base their old house. For some reason being in this certain house sends Will into a rage and yet he's still drawn to it.

The Byers family are in shambles. Joyce kept all of Will's drawings and is still mourning her lost son all these years later. El wonders about the brother she could've had. Jonathan is in a constant depressive spiral about not being enough to save his brother. He keeps listening to Will's favorite music and it's not an unhealthy coping mechanism fuck you.

Mike seeing Kas Will in s4: I'm not coping with this as well as I thought Mike when the "hallucination" is actually real and attacks him and claws up his face: oh shit

He goes to Cali acting like everything is fine and that he was NOT just attacked by his best friend who's supposed to be dead. He has enough issues to be the one who smacks Angela with a roller skate. He and El can tag team her <3 (HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILL!!! *sends a kid to the hospital*)

Jonathan is extremely protective of El, he is not losing another sibling, he was this close to fighting the cops when they arrested El.

The Cali plot is generally the same except now Will is killing people along with Vecna back in Hawkins. Vecna sends Will after Max and it's a shitshow. Max describes him and the others are in disbelief.

RIP Joyce when your boy comes back but he's wrong and he's trying to kill you

Mike just. Refuses to believe it's Will. He won't even entertain the idea. Maybe the Upside Down has shapeshifters, you never know.

Will does eventually remember! It just takes him nearly killing his family and Mike. He's holding his claws to Joyce's throat and then suddenly in the softest voice ever he says "mom?" and he looks so scared and for a split second Joyce sees her son.

Mike has a horrible sleep schedule due to his insomnia. He never feels safe and spends most nights going over all the information he has about Will's disappearance and how he could've saved him until he falls asleep out of exhaustion. Oh and he also has True Sight but sometimes it gets a little silly goof and just sends him to the Upside Down for a period of time.

When Kas Will is stressed/agitated he becomes more monstrous. Like his teeth and claws get longer, he starts to grow horns, and his eyes begin glowing. He can also sprout huge bat wings, and the whole process is horribly painful and gory. His bones literally shift and break to accommodate for the wings. By the end of it his wings are drenched in his own blood and covered in his flesh and skin.

When he lived in the UD Vecna would only help him with wounds if they were life threatening or could pose a danger in the future. So he never really helped Will clean his wounds from his wings so instead there's a bunch of built up scarring where the wings grow out from that always gets ripped open when he sprouts his wings.

There's a final big fight between Will and Mike and by then Will has most of his memories back and doesn't want to hurt Mike, but Mike is determined to get rid of this mockery of the friend he lost. It's just the UD taunting him. During the fight Will, out of desperation, starts singing "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" while choking on his own blood to show Mike it's really him.

Ofc there are soft moments where Mike insists on cleaning the wounds on Will's back and just absorbs the fact that Will's here and he's alive. Will Byers you WILL get held by your best friend and you WILL feel safe for the first time in three years. And the Party will show you all of the DND stuff they've been up to because they couldn't let go of the game (it was their only connection to Will).

Will also has to adjust to suddenly being 15 years old and a monster because he wasn't fully mentally present for those three years he was gone. He keeps running into things bc he's used to being short (RIP). And now Mike is being bulldozed with the realization he has a huge crush on his very pretty best friend. And then when he's cleaning Will's back wounds Will takes his shirt off and Mike very nearly faints on the spot.

Mike: WHOA. Will: The wounds aren't that bad, are they? :( Mike, fumbling: NO THEY LOOK BAD

Will thinks Mike's awkwardness is due to him being a monster because after he saw what he looked like he was so terrified and disgusted that he smashed the mirror apart with his bare hands (also has Mike always been that cute).

The Party gets back together and this time they're finally complete (El is one of the first people Kas Will really bonds with and they both connect with being "monsters"). Steve finally gets to know the kid who's haunted his friends for three years. Once Eddie gets over the whole "being a monster" thing with Will, he thinks he's super metal. Joyce is so overjoyed to have her son back that she hardly cares he's a monster now because he could never be a monster to her. He struggles with socializing and speaking so sometimes he'll just draw out what he's trying to say (He also has to relearn how to draw with his claws).

Because Mike is a dumb little bitch who would rather focus on the end of the world then confront his own feelings and have an actual conversation with his best friend, he starts sneaking out to investigate Vecna's gates and the Mind Flayer to prove he can handle things on his own and so he doesn't bother the others (We all know Mike is just the sneakiest person around).

Anyways that's all for now bye <3

[howtobecomeadragon]

Putting Mike and Will's friendship in s2 in the same scenario (with plot and character tweaks) that Mike and El's relationship went through in s4

Setting the scene and establishing the parallel: S1: Will and Mike started out close, were separated, Will went through significant trauma in the UD. Will and Mike reunite at the end of the season and things appear to be fine. S3: El and Mike started out close, split up, and El went through significant trauma in losing Hopper and her powers. Mike and El reunite at the end of the season and things appear to be fine.

S2 rolls around

Mike and Will are friends but there's some strain there, mostly due to the distance between them emotionally: Will is different from the trauma. Will lies to Mike about being okay after s1, and is hiding how he's dealing with his trauma and gets to a boiling point of acting out as he's being bullied for being Zombie Boy. It's Halloween night, those boys pop out and call him Zombie Boy, and instead of falling down, Will fights back, screaming at them and punches one of them in the face, breaking their nose. Mike finds out and he's shocked at Will's reaction, and their conversation devolves to how much they're out of sync since Will came back from the UD. Mike doesn't apologize or acknowledge that he's not being understanding about how Will is struggling. Will is feeling alienated from their friendship. Will brushes off how Mike has been bullied in the past, even though the audience knows Mike was bullied right off a cliff last season.

When Will is possessed and is dealing with that trauma, Mike is paired up for most of the season with his other best friend, Lucas. Will deals with his possession mostly independently, with Joyce. Mike reconnects at long last with Lucas after their big blowout fight that they had in s1 about El. Lucas and Mike talk about Will and how Mike feels weird about their fights and how disconnected they are and how he doesn't think Will needs him as a support anymore. He knows Will is a strong kid and wonders if Will is moving on from him. Lucas tells him that no, Will does still really need him and their friendship means a lot to Will. Mike has a ton of different facial expressions throughout their talk, but it's obvious that he definitely likes the cool slingshot that Lucas gives him as a gift. They're bff's. 😊

Later on in the shed scene, Joyce and Jonathan and Lucas all try to help Will, sharing happy memories with him but Mike stays quiet until Lucas speaks up ("Mike, he needs you, remember?"). Mike seems hesitant at first, but then shares that they'd been fighting because he was scared of losing Will after everything from s1, that he doesn't think Will is a Zombie Boy, that he remembers the first day that they met, and that he thinks that it's amazing how Will survived in the UD ("you were able to stay alive, you outran the demogorgan every time!"). Some of what he says seems like lies when you parse it out.

After they get rid of the Mind Flayer, we learn that Will and Mike are still on rocky terms with their friendship. Will doesn't want to be babied and feels that Mike did it anyway in the shed, or maybe Will doesn't want to be spoken to about the shitty nickname Zombie Boy like that, or about his trauma so casually. It's not entirely clear why he's mad at Mike, but it's obvious that they're not really talking. Will got rid of the Mind Flayer, but he's still not sure where he belongs in the party anymore, and the camera reflects that: he's shown to be standing away from the party, maybe paired up with his mom and Jonathan. He's still angry, at Mike, at his bullies, at the Mind Flayer. Still feels alienated.

Mike at the end of the season is still shown hanging out with Lucas. They talk more about Will, hoping he's okay, and maybe they go practice using their slingshots together.

---

How would we be feeling about Mike and Will's friendship going into s3?? Not good. I'd be ready for a friendship split. I'd be pissed at Mike, feeling sympathetic for Will. I'd be eager to explore exactly what the disconnect is between them and why Mike is being so avoidant, so callous, so uncommunicative. I'd want to see what Will wants after being treated badly all season. I would not expect things were entirely patched up and that that was their happy friendship resolution.

And of course, in shows, friend breakups don't usually happen this subtly and slowly, but romantic breakups often do.

[yourpreciousrose]

byler analysis: a year

Mike : you knew she was having trouble for like a year

Will: its been a year Mike

Mike: the last year has been weird

Will: these past few months shes been so lost without you

ok lets get into it!! so to understand this analysis we will have to first refer back to Els. in it she says it's day 185 but it feels more like 10 years. from this we know theyve only been gone for half a year. lets make a note of that.

♡its been half a year

now El goes on to say that Joyce says time is funny like that, emotions can make time speed up or slow down. this is important to keep in mind.

♡emotions can make time speed up or slow down

Mike literally read this exact letter the day before he left for California. now of course we will have to take mailing time into account, so its probably a bit over half a year but not much more bc El was still working on her project that she mentioned in the letter.

s3 takes place during summer, they left Hawkins probably around the end of summer. Mike goes to Cali for spring break, so the lines definitely match up to a bit over half a year.

so why are Mike and Will the only two that think its been a year? I mean Mike definitely should know because of the letter.

the answers simple, they are feeling the same emotions twords eachother.

now lets look at the facts we know:

♡Will is canonically in love with Mike

♡Will is scared to lose Mike

♡Mike feels like he lost Will

♡Mike thinks Hawkins isn't the same without Will

♡Will feels like a mistake

♡Will is different

♡Will is scared to tell people he cares about how he feels bc they might not like the truth (Mike)

♡Mike is scared to tell people he cares about how he feels bc they might not like the truth (he nodded in agreement to Will)

♡Mike thinks he's not special

♡Mike thinks he's nothing more than a nerd

♡Mikes been moping

♡Wills been moping

so the feelings associated with these things are most likely what they both are feeling. (I'm just using things from s4 but we do learn this in earlier seasons too.)

now logically they would both need to feel the exact same emotions if they both managed to think its a year right? I mean El said it feels like 10, to our knowledge Mike doesn't think it does. El also doesn't mess up the amount of time its been so Mikes feelings aren't the same as Els. at this point Els still in love with Mike, so not to be that person but....im sure at this point we all know the real reason why Mike can't say he loves El.

now I dont think Mike realized he was in love with Will yet at this point, it was just a crush/attraction/infatuation in his mind. I can go more into that in another post, I think he realized its love during the van scene.

so its safe to assume Mike and Will both are feeling the same emotions which would mean Mike does indeed have feelings for Will.

now at the beginning you can see i included what Will said in the van, the time changed. now its past few months, but why is that? I think hes realizing he doesn't have a chance with Mike in his mind. he is using his own feelings for Mike to fix up his relationship with El so Mike doesn't feel that way about himself. hes accepting he doesn't have a chance. However, Mike is doing the opposite, he's realizing. Mikes finally realizing why he can't say he loves El, realizing its not just a crush he has on Will, realizing who he really wants. Wills thinking he ripped off the bandaid this season while Mikes putting it back on, that is until the monologue. Mikes face before saying he loves El, he's pained...he feels like he HAS to rip off the bandaid (he has to lose Will to save El). he feels in order to save El he has to love her and not Will which this will be important.

El realizes Mike isn't being truthful, she knows. El is probably going to be who pushes byler together just like Will pushed mileven together. she will be the one to end things with Mike, she'll most likely be the one to call out his feelings for Will, she'll be the one to encourage them to be together. I could be entirely wrong but if you watch the show you know El and Will parallel eachother in a way, they are honestly like the same person but different genders.

Will going missing in s1 vs El going missing in s1

Will calling out for Mike in s2 vs El calling out for Mike in s2

Will loving Mike vs El loving Mike

Will being different vs El being different

Will doesnt want to be treated different vs El doesn't want to be treated different

Will arcade moment alone in upsidedown vs El going into Billy's mind and being alone in Hoppers cabin

Vecna/Henry/001 using them both for his benefit

so like Will pushed mileven together, El could push byler together. Mike will most likely have to make the first move with Will, he usually does with Will anyways.

anyways I hope you enjoyed, let me know your thoughts if you have any.