#both works for me but I'm a Bi Mike truther!

[eclipsebyler]

Mike and the “Truth” (A Long Analysis)

I always think about this S4 Byler heart to heart in the desert and how we understood the queer-coding of Will’s statements here:

And how Mike nods along with it, like he understands and agrees with the sentiment: "Because what if they don’t like the truth?”

Which will always baffle me because it doesn't make sense that he agrees here given the context of his problem.

Mike was opening up about his situation with El in this scene. How he wasn't able to tell everything to her. How he couldn't say I love you to her. He's thinking that maybe if he did do that, he would still have El by his side.

He didn't say the full details of the problem to Will. He keeps it vague. And Will tries to empathize with it anyway with his own thoughts. Something that he relates with about 'not being able to tell someone how you feel' and adding how 'scary it is because they might not like the truth'. And Mike nods in understanding.

But... why would vocalizing his love for his girlfriend a truth she wouldn’t like? When El herself has cried and confronted him about it and was asking him to reassure her that he still loves her. It’s something El has been waiting for and would love to hear. It shouldn't have made him feel scared or made him think she wouldn't like it or that it would hurt if he said it because it hurt her more that he didn't.

Unless this isn't what Mike is thinking about in this scene. Maybe he has another thing he is scared of her knowing, something she definitely wouldn't want to hear. Maybe there’s another reason why he’s having a hard time vocalizing his love for her — the full truth that he's holding back to say.

And what could possibly be a truth he’s scared El might not like?

In a few S4 scenes, we see Mike opening up about the truth to his feelings. He even starts his statements with it when he slowly gets vulnerable. 

1 - The bedroom heart to heart scene

The truth: His best friends are great, but they’re not Will. Will’s presence in his life is different from the others. Hawkins, their hometown, isn’t the same without him. 

If we recall in S1, Dustin insisted that Lucas was Mike’s best friend after they fought — Mike denies this and says all of them are important to him. Lucas, Will and Dustin are all equal in Mike’s eyes at this point of canon, they're all his best friends.

But then in S4, he says Max and Lucas and Dustin are different to Will. Will is in a tier higher than them now. There must be a gradual shift to how he sees Will through the years as they grew older. He’s more than a best friend to Mike now.

And then another truth he opens up about is that he felt like he lost Will because of worrying too much about El. 

Being in a relationship with El made him lose Will, has affected his friendship with him— but not his friendship with the other party members. This is another proof pointing towards Mike seeing Will differently from his other friends.

Instead, Will’s always being compared beside El — his supposed love interest. Mike even makes the comparison himself in their rink-o-mania fight.

When Will asks why he's been distant and didn't communicate with him for the past year, no letters, little to no phone calls; Mike retaliates with the reasoning that Will’s not his lover (like El is) for him to do that. He emphasizes they’re just friends.

What’s interesting in this scene is that Will isn’t even implying that. He just wanted to be close to be Mike again, like they used to be — best friends. 

Mike made the implication himself that if he did send a letter to Will, if he did call him as much — it would mean something more. Even though that’s a simple communication that should be normal you do with friends. Unless Mike has started thinking differently and have this exact train of thought when he thought of reaching out to Will. 

It wouldn't be farfetched. Given that Will did the same thing — he didn’t reach out as much to Mike and we know why. He must have been scared Mike would catch up on his feelings, that Mike would notice he's acting weird. He pushed him away because he’s scared of losing him.

(Mike has also felt weird the past year. Mike has also pushed Will away on a few occasions. It's easy to assume and put two and two together.)

2 - The van scene 

The truth: He doesn’t believe El needs him. He thinks she just needed someone, that anyone could have found her in that moment but he just got lucky that night. Their first meeting is not fate nor destiny, it’s just simple dumb luck.

Mike is having doubts about their relationship just like El is. El thinks he doesn’t love her, and Mike thinks she doesn’t need him. They don’t believe in each other anymore because they both see what’s happening in their relationship. Where Mike couldn’t say nor even write the world love to El even after being together for long, meanwhile there’s El who couldn’t depend on Mike and tell him the real situation of her life in Lenora. 

They’re slowly losing trust in each other, or rather, losing trust in their romantic relationship. (Or maybe they have already lost it.)

3 - The pizza dough freezer scene

The truth: Mike doesn’t know how to live without El. His life only started to have meaning or purpose when they found her in the woods. He fell in love at her at first sight and has loved her every day since. 

Mike’s monologue is an emotional speech of everything El needed to hear at this moment. Mike finally says he loves her, tells her that the reason why he couldn’t say it is because it would hurt at the end if she didn’t need him anymore, and not because he was scared of her (in relation to her worries of being perceived as a monster). He goes on a long list of how much he believes in El’s abilities and that she could do anything, that he loves and accepts her for who she is. But more than anything, El is his superhero. 

Now I don’t believe everything he said here is a total lie like most people say it is. Mike does love and cares so much about El, he does believe in her and he’s scared of losing her. El is important to him, just as she is to everyone else she loves. 

But some of the things he says here are very contradictory and doesn’t sound like the full truth — especially in relation to their romantic relationship. One of the biggest ones being how he says their first meeting is this fateful night where he fell in love with her. Out of all the sweet and cute moments between Mike and El, why is their first meeting (a horrible night for everyone no less) something he focused on and made it sound so romantic? 

It’s hard to believe because previously he admits that their first meeting is just simple dumb luck and suddenly it’s this grand romantic night of him meeting his first love. 

Nevertheless, this whole speech is Mike pouring out his love and care for El. 

However, between these three major scenes where Mike opens up about his feelings — which of these sounds like a truth Mike is scared of El knowing, a truth she (and the people he cares for) wouldn’t like?

Definitely not his grand love confession, because everyone already knows he loves El. If anything, El is the only one left doubting it and waiting to hear it. Mike finally says it, and whether El believes everything he said or not, we’re not sure of yet. But one thing for sure is Mike said everything she needed and would love to hear, not the opposite. 

“Sometimes, it’s just scary to open up like that. To say how you really feel. Especially to people you care about the most. Because what if they don’t like the truth?”

The only narratives that could fit this sentiment is the first two truths he says in his heart to hearts with Will. 

Mike might be scared of admitting that Will is more than a best friend to him now. He already grew romantic feelings for him. His life isn’t the same without Will. Mike has felt like he lost him because of El. And he wants him back like they used to. To be a team together, again.

And it also fits with how Mike admits that his relationship with El isn’t fated to happen and that it’s not going to last any longer. That after everything is over, he believes El won’t need him anymore. That with her, he feels like he’s just some random nerd who doesn’t have anything worth loving about him. Mike feels inferior to El, the same way El feels with him. They’re both stuck in this relationship that doesn’t help them grow individually.

Both of these are neither of the things he admits to El in the pizza dough freezer. He didn’t tell her the full truth (and given the grave situation at hand, I can understand why he couldn’t. El needed encouragement, not more disappointments). But more than that, Mike might still be scared of fully admitting and coming to terms with everything he feels.

I truly believe that in S5, all of these truths will be unpacked and come full circle. The biggest catalyst of it would definitely be the painting and the "You're the heart" speech. And it would affect all relationships involved one way or another: El and Mike. Mike and Will. And maybe to some extent, Will and El.

[strangeswift]

WHAT ARE YOUR HEAD CANONS FOR THE PARTY AS ADULTS??? INTERESTED TO KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS.

Interested in MY thoughts??? Very flattered, genuinely.

Okay I'm gonna do college aged headcanons cuz they're fun and middle aged people bore me.

I think everyone will go to college, outside of Hawkins obviously, and I don't think any of them will return to live in Hawkins afterwards. But assuming Hawkins is still intact at this point, I think their parents would all live there still including Joyce and Hopper, so they'd all come back for holidays.

I'd like to think that they all go to college together, but realistically I think Mike and Will would go to a school with good art and creative writing programs, which wouldn't be where the others would end up.

Dustin would go to a school with a good Technology/Engineering program, where Suzie would also attend. I think Lucas would study something in STEM and Max probably a social science, maybe sociology. El would study a social science for sure, probably child psychology.

So I'll say that Dustin, Suzie, and Lucas would all end up at the same school. And Will, Mike, El, and Max all together at a different school.

Will and Mike would be roommates in college, as would El and Max, and Dustin and Lucas. Dustin and Lucas would come visit the others often and crash in their dorms, even if the school was far from them, they'd road trip. Suzie comes a few times but usually she's too busy because she works as a research assistant in a lab and is taking an insane course load.

Mike and Will are together, but they're only out to the party and their families. They're happy. They share a small dorm and they pushed their twin sized beds together, but there's a gap in between that Mike always complains about falling into. And when Will suggests, "Well you could just stay on your side of the bed," Mike is incredibly affronted that Will would even suggest such a thing. (I am a clingy Mike truther.)

Don't get mad at me guys, but although I do love the idea of Elumax (with Lucas and El platonic because El is a lesbian) I like the idea of Lumax and El finding another girlfriend more. I think El-he's-my-first-boyfriend Hopper would go on dates with lots of girls in college, trying to figure out what it is that she wants in a relationship. I think she'd unintentionally be a little bit of a heartbreaker. But eventually she'd find the right girl and they'll be super happy. Also while she's dating around, Max (bi icon) respectfully gives her opinions of the girls. Max and El respect women.

Lumax are long distance in college, but as I said Lucas visits often, and when he does he crashes in Max and El's dorm while Dustin crashes in Mike and Will's. Lucas also likes to hear about El's girlfriends so the three of them stay up and gossip like it's a sleepover. They taught Lucas how to braid hair.

Will and El hang out a lot, they both like to have time alone together. Mike always wants to tag along, and Will can never tell him no, but El can and she does. They do all hang out together frequently, but the sibling hangouts are sacred to El.

Mike and El are actually close now that they can be honest with each other. They love each other a lot and they're still physically affectionate, hugs, etc.

But when Will and El hang out alone, that leaves.... my favorite.... MIKE AND MAX BESTIES!!! Reluctantly at first, they start hanging out and end up really bonding. They talk about sexuality struggles, their tendency to push people away, etc. They still argue a lot and have a very sarcastic teasing relationship. They're hilarious to watch interact because their banter is never-ending and they're both very witty.

Lumax are completely, head over heels in love. They talk on the phone every night, and when Lucas comes to visit they spend every minute together and go on lots of movie dates. But as always, they aren't huge on PDA and they aren't as lovey dovey as say... Will and Mike. Or El and her girlfriend of the week. Or Dusty Bun and Suzie Poo.

Dustin and Suzie are gross. Sweet, but gross. PDA like crazy. Always PG, but it still makes Lucas roll his eyes. Though he really is happy for them. He just misses Max a lot of the time.

That is all I can think of right now. Well, that's a lie but I need to cut this off somewhere.

Thank you so so much for the ask!!!!

[oceanic-sunsets]

"We're friends. We're friends." Or: an analysis of Mike's feelings and the Rink O' Mania Fight

So, first of all, I'm sure there's more analysis and different interpretations of this scene. This is just my perspective! Also, keep in mind I read Mike's character as gay (bi!mike truthers ily. we're in this together).

I'll be analyzing dialogue, characters, and their actions, rather than the cinematography of the scene or lighting. There's a great analysis by @rainy-raerae that addresses that, and you should totally check it ou.

Now, let's begin.

The first thing we need to understand this scene is the context: El and Will hadn't seen Mike for approximately 6 months. During these 6 months, El and Mike wrote letters to each other. There's no mention of them having calls, but Will says Mike "called a couple times". We, as the audience, know Mike joined Hellfire Club after meeting Eddie in high school, so he got back into that hobby.

Now let's go back a bit to the airport scene. Keep in mind this is the first time they see each other again, and they're supposed to have fixed things back in s3. Will and Mike were on good terms. And yet...

Will is extremely excited to see Mike, and we see him carrying the painting. But Mike doesn't match his energy, coming off as cold and uninterested. We never get an explanation for his behavior here, but we do have some clues that help us put the puzzle together: the few times they talked, it was because Mike called. Mike knows there's a painting Will has been working on, and it's probably for a girl he likes. He brought the painting to the airport.

So, despite us knowing the truth about Will, about how the painting is for Mike and how much he cares, Mike doesn't. Will thinks Mike doesn't want to talk to him through letters (so it must mean he doesn't care?), so he doesn't try to reach out either. It'd make sense if he thought keeping distance would make it easier, trying to cope with his feelings. But again, Mike doesn't know this.

We feel bad for Will, and are upset/confused at Mike's weird behavior because we know the truth from Will's side. Mike doesn't. To Mike, Will moved to California and didn't try to reach out either. To Mike, Will is doing just fine without him, he even got a crush on a girl and is painting for her. And he had to find that out from El, because Will never told him. To Mike, he's the one that tried to reach out.

So he's upset and acts cold towards Will, overcompensating, trying to be overly affectionate with El ("You don't care? Well, I don't, either!"). And Will doesn't deserve that (as Mike later tells him during the heart to heart). Later, when they get to Rink O' Mania, this just keeps getting worse: El and Mike are so caught up on each other (For the wrong reasons. Both are lying and overcompensating here.) that they basically ignore Will.

Will is understandably sad, so he gets more quiet, rolls his eyes more often, and doesn't attempt to join the conversation. But El and Mike don't try to include him either. So, for Will, his best friend just saw him again after a long time but is not interested in talking to him. But for Mike... This is true too. He probably expected Will to act 'normal', shrug off the awkward airport interaction and not overthink anything. This is probably how a friend who doesn't secretly have romantic feelings for Mike would've acted. But for Will it matters more, so he doesn't shrug it off.

This leads us to the actual argument. It's been building up for a while, but it blows up once Will tells Mike that El has been lying to him.

And Mike says "bullshit" in a defensive tone that always stood out to me: Mike isn't offended by Will implying that El is lying to him. He's upset because he's also been lying, so if El is lying, and he is lying, their relationship is not as perfect as they try to paint it, meaning there's a reason for that, a reason Mike isn't ready to acknowledge and try to fully understand.

Then we get to THE scene:

Will: What about us?

Mike: What?

Will: Were you mad that I didn't talk to you? Seems like you made it super clear that you aren't interested in anything I have to say.

This confirms the point addressed before: Will recognizes that Mike is upset about Will not talking to him, and he thinks he's uninterested in what he has to say. But he misses something: Mike is upset because he thinks Will doesn't care.

Mike: That's just not true.

Mike is being honest here. It is not true: he IS interested, otherwise, he wouldn't have been paying attention to Will "moping and rolling his eyes". He's also the one that tried to reach out and call Will, even when the line kept being busy. He does not mention this, tho.

Will: You called maybe a couple of times. Meanwhile El has like a book of letters from you.

Will says it himself. Mike is the one that called. Mike didn't write him any letters, but neither did Will, otherwise, we would've known.

Mike: That's because she's my girlfriend, Will.

Will: And us?

Mike: We're friends. We're friends.*

Will: Well we used to be best friends!

Mike: Well then, maybe you should've reached out more, I don't know. But why is this on me. Why am I the bad guy.

Mike is trying to be nonchalant as he tells Will he should've reached out more, but remember the context we analyzed before: he's upset about Will not reaching out, so he's trying really hard seem like he doesn't care. Because he cares too much.

Just try to picture this argument between Mike and Dustin or Mike and Lucas. It's odd, out of place, because for them, the lines wouldn't be so blurry, it'd be clear why they're upset, and they wouldn't overthink it so much. We as the audience understand Will, but Mike's attitude is vague and hard to read for a reason. It's a conscious writing choice.

*Now, I'm writing this separately because this line is what made me write this analysis in the first place: We're friends. We're friends.

Again, there's a lot of interpretations about what Mike means here. Personally, I don't believe he's aware of his feelings for Will or his sexuality. I think he's confused, and that's why a lot of his actions, what he says vs what he does don't make sense, his words and actions don't match.

But. For Mike to react so defensively and insist they're friends, he has to be somewhat aware, too. Will didn't mean "And us?" as something romantic. He kept the conversation explicitly about platonic feelings, Mike is the one twisted it, mentioning how he wrote El because she's his girlfriend and Will is his friend. His friend.

So to understand him, let's go back a bit before he landed on California. Let's take a look at the cafeteria scene with Eddie.

Mike's reactions to Eddie stand out from the rest. They're supposed to stand out. Even when Dustin is looking away, Mike is not. It's obviously a crush, not a crush in the "I want to date you" way, tho. More like a crush you have on someone who you think is handsome and you admire, kind of like celebrity crushes. And the fact that "Fever" by The Cramps plays during this scene is not a coincidence either. The intentions are clear.

For Mike, tho, Eddie isn't just someone who he can recognize as attractive. Eddie is the first person he met who was so unapologetically himself, no matter how others perceived him. He met him in one of his lowest points in life, after a summer full of confusing feelings and then his best friend was moving away and things would never go back to the way they were. Eddie was the perfect character to introduce in s4 to further Mike's self-acceptance arc, and he's going to keep playing a key role in s5 for Mike's development.

So, back in Hawkins, with Eddie so present in his life, it's easier for Mike to be himself, easier to embrace being different. But it's not enough for him to connect the dots and come to the conclusion that the he has romantic feelings for Will. And with the "Satanic Panic" subplot and the allegory of DND/Queerness, it's inevitable that Mike doesn't know what the media says about queer people or the aid's crisis. He knows it's bullshit media propaganda with a conservative agenda, but that doesn't mean it's easier to accept and recognize his own feelings.

Mike was there when Will was bullied and called homophobic slurs. He knows how society is, he knows his family and what they think, too. So when he gets too close from the truth, he shoves it down, doesn't allow himself to think about it.

We've seen this behavior very clearly two times:

"It's not my fault you don't like girls!"

"We're friends. We're friends."

Both times he was projecting. He wasn't being homophobic or mean towards Will. That was about himself. It's not that Mike is aware that he likes boys/Will. But he knows it is a thing and he doesn't want to think about the too-real possibility and what it would mean for him. So when it starts getting Too Real, Too Close to where his mind doesn't let him wander, he reacts that way. And overcompensates; focusing on El only and being mean to his friends, especially Will, because he reminds him of feelings he's not ready to come to terms with.

Will doesn't deserve any of that, of course. And Mike is aware, that's why he tells Will he was being a self-pitying idiot. Telling Will that, he was admitting he was acting that way because he cared too much about Will not talking to him, not reaching out. He was only thinking about himself, how upset he was, so he was mean and forgot Will probably felt that way, too.

So, he sort of has an idea in the back of his mind of what these feelings could be. But he's not too aware, not yet. He's scared, and he's not only trying to prove to other people that he's your average teen straight boy. He's trying to prove it to himself, too.

He's not being a bad boyfriend to El out of malice or because he doesn't love her romantically. He's not consciously lying to El, he's really trying. He's trying to convince himself. But he is failing, and post-monologue, the realization is going to be inevitable.

But really, the thing that is going to make it all fall into place, the missing piece of the puzzle... It's the painting. The truth about the painting.

[will80sbyers]

I think that if they go with gay mike maybe one of the reasons they could have framed milkvan as somehow romantic in S1&2 could be that Mike was an unreliable narrator. So just like Will, who's a bit of an unreliable narrator in S4, where we see milkvan framed as having fun and being super in love, but then we are shown that in reality they looked a bit miserable. So maybe, since in the earlier seasons mike was blinded by heteronormativity, he didn't know about his feelings for will yet, and he met this girl who he admired and cared a lot for, he could himself believe to like her, and the romantic-framed scenes are a reflection of his POV. Then since the ending of S3 (and The open eyed kiss™) and in S4, he's starting to realize that he is in fact, a bit homosexual, and at the same time milkvan starts being framed less and less romantic, while mike realizes that he mistook friendship love and deep admiration for something else.

And maybe by using this technique of unreliable narrator!mike in the first seasons, the duffers are also able to treat byler endgame as the plot twist (since I think they have always intended for it to be a plot twist for the audience). They themselves said that the best plot twist are the ones that have a few clues, but are not obvious, specially in the begging.

Also I wanna clarify that I'm not a gay mike or bi Mike truther since I'm a bit in between both and I see both options as equally posible, and this isn't in any way me trying to discredit your interpretation or saying that you are wrong! I'm just offering explanations for how the duffer's thought process if mike ends up gay could've been, if you are interested on seeing different takes, but of course at the end of the day we can't now for sure until S5, and what really matters is that they end up together🥰

Anyways sorry for the long ass essay I never know how to explain things briefly lol😔

maybe, but that's not usually how tv works for these things... it would be a really weird directing choice to me because it would make it feel like retcon to the audience, I just don't get it personally

Also they did this only for Mike and El but never framed other supposed straightbait couples as such? they never framed Steve and Robin as romantic even when they made them hold hands they didn't focus on them like they did for El & Mike

I don't get this choice, it's confusing visually for no good reason to be honest

Also personally I disagree that they made Mike and El look miserable from a distance I think that's just a random shot of them talking tbh and it wasn't meant to convey they're miserable

we'll see anyway!

I'm not going to complain if they go with gay Mike anyway because I don't really care tbh I just want canon byler and Will to be happy ♥️