#rain fight analysis

[howtobecomeadragon]

Mike feels abandoned by Will for a girl so Mike turns around and does the same thing to Will

2x09 and 3x01, just one episode later

the party is having fun together, Mike and Will are stuck to each other's sides

But then a girl takes them away from the group. Will says yes hesitantly, with Mike's urging despite his devastated face here. Mike goes willingly.

Mike watches Will and complicated feelings about it.

Will watches Mike and has complicated feelings about it.

Both feeling sad!

I think there's something to be said about Mike learning about how things are going to go as they grow up at the Snowball. Lucas left them first to go with Max, and then Will went off with some girl, which hit him even harder for some reason he may or may not get yet. Dustin walked away to find any girl to dance with, which left Mike alone until El showed up.

He was hit hardest by that feeling of abandonment at the Snowball bc he was the only one left alone. He decides to roll with the lesson he learned and make sure to always be the first to bail after that. He runs off with El, thinking that's how he can make sure not to be the one left standing once everyone's run off with a girl. This is made stronger by his fear that he doesn't like girls.

El is there so he clings to her as the girl he can run off with so he's not left alone once Lucas and Will and Dustin find girls to be with instead of being with him.

This also goes along with his projection during the rain fight.

Mike is projecting his own feelings here, and I think a lot of this came from the Snowball. He saw how Lucas left the group easily with Max, he saw how Will (who he was probably hoping to hang out with all night) leave with some random girl, and Dustin, instead of staying with Mike, left to spend time with a girl, any girl. Mike wasn't about to ask any girl to dance, he didn't want to, plus El was there in the background, she'd tried to kiss him again before closing the gate, even though he hadn't really wanted to (he didn't close his eyes or lean in). He had an excuse to not seem like he wanted to dance at the Snowball, but he hadn't expected everyone else to leave to dance. He's the one that wasn't expecting everyone to suddenly need to get girlfriends, and he was the one left sitting at that table alone, wondering when everyone had grown up without him and why he wasn't feeling that same way towards girls.

And Mike is surprised and devastated when he throws that hypothetical future that he wanted but felt like he couldn't have in Will's face and Will says he wanted that too. Even though Will went to go dance with a girl, he's saying now that he thought they'd never have to get girlfriends and they could hang out together forever. But Mike is too far into his facade at this point to backpedal.

I can imagine that a lot of this is stirred up again when reading that Will has a crush on a girl in Lenora too. Mike is right back at that table, watching Will walk away for some girl he doesn't even know.

[byleriscanon713by]

Wait a damn minute Mike doesn’t know Wills gay… he’s projecting…

[love-byers]

what was the piece of byler evidence that convinced you? what pushed you over the edge?

for me it was the rain fight parallel. not only is it obviously paralleled to the eyewitness but it's paralleled to mikes breakup with el

but the eyewitness parallel is what converted me. like what the fuck else is that supposed to mean. "oh yeah we paralleled will and mike to a gay couple where one of them has extreme internalized homophobia and the other is desperately in love but will and mike are just friends. we just liked the cinematography"

yeah nah

[mystuffynose]

One of the most important pieces of Byler evidence for me is that Lucas wasn’t in the rain fight, when he was clearly a part of the arguement and he didn’t follow them, it was just mike and will at the fight, which is what we are used to but WHY THE HELL WOULDNT THEY WRITE LUCAS IN THE FIGHT TOO? I mean it would make sense if will was mad at him too, so why? They wanted it to feel personal to, another great reason to emphasise on the eyewitness parallel (which by the way ended in a kiss) so like… that was my yap

[gayofthefae]

Thinking again about the pattern of Mike's response to people doubting his relationship with El being to discredit: "you're crazy, you lying piece of shit, she's conspiring" etc.

And how "it's not my fault you don't like girls" in context, isn't actually an attack, but just a discredit too. It isn't "you're the gay one not me". It's much closer to "you wouldn't get it".

He finds anything he can on anyone accusing him, and that's what he had on Will. Everyone else has a reference point with girls. Hopper would know best that he can't be convinced Mike's behavior is normal, so Mike went straight to telling OTHERS he was a "crazy liar who hates joy": lying for personal gain, because he knew convincing Hopper nothing was wrong wouldn't work. Max was the same she was committed to her dislike of their relationship, so he went with "she's saying whatever nonsense because she hates me, not because it's based in anything".

But with Will, he could convince him he was just wrong. He was the only one he could. He put a smear campaign on everyone else who accused him so if they figured it out and outed him, they'd already be the Mike-hating-impulsive-liar. But with Will, arguably, he was trying to play nice, in a weird way. Because with Will, he could just say "you're not crazy or stupid, you just wouldn't understand. This IS normal. This is how straight boys act. You just wouldn't know." (And then you hear that last part out loud. And then you go 'yikes')

He wasn't saying "you're gay not me", he was saying "I'm really normal you think I'm not but you wouldn't know".

"Hopper is crazy and Max is a liar, but you're just out of the loop. This IS normal of me, I swear."

[counting-stars-gayly]

They’re not going to rebuild Castle Byers because Will can’t rebuild his childhood, which is the reason he destroyed Castle Byers in the first place. He’d been trying to hold on to a level of carefree ignorance that no longer existed for him. The problems Castle Byers saved him from have been replaced by new problems that are bigger and stronger than a child’s fort. He needs to face them differently. Thank you and goodnight

[byler-alarmist]

More and more, I think the miscommunication between Mike and Will in S4 is caused by the rain fight in S3 and the elephant in the room that was left unaddressed.

Will keeps trying to avoid having that conversation again in fear of getting to the heart of the issue and making the rift between them even deeper.

Meanwhile, Mike keeps trying in various ways to restart that conversation, to repair the rift by getting to the heart of the issue and bring them closer together.

[heartsgettingwiser62]

Guys if a bts pic of finn wearing a yellow button up gets leaked im actually leaving the country and hiding in a cave for the rest of my life

[booksandpaperss]

And there they were, clinging desperately to each other among the ruins of Will’s childhood. Of their childhood, so violently ripped away. Crying, choking, drowning as the rain stripped them raw. Will held Mike as tears and rain water mixed, because if he didn’t have Mike then what was left of him? Of who he used to be? Will could hardly remember it himself, he didn’t think Mike could remember either.

Not after what he’d said. What he’d done. What they’d both done, in the Before, even if Mike had forgotten.

But Mike was here, here and holding him. Like he was truly just as desperate, just as scared to lose what they were as Will was.

Though Will thinks the pouring rain may have washed that away already. It was certainly trying to, pelting them both and soaking Will to the bone with every pained breath he took. Like simply being here was a crime. It probably was.

Will gripped Mike tighter, and Mike choked out another sob in response. Another muddled apology, too distorted by the overwhelming crash of water against the ground. Against their skin.

Will felt like the rain might wash Mike away too. Take away the very last piece of whatever was left from Before. Maybe it already had. Maybe that’s what that fight, what those awful words, had been for. To rip away the last piece of Will’s heart.

Maybe Will was clinging to a ghost.

Maybe Mike was too.

Maybe it was only a matter of time before they were no longer solid enough in form to hold. Before they slipped through each other.

Before they faded.

Before.

…

Clinging to Before, a poem of sorts, loosely inspired by @bookinit02 ‘s latest chapter of “slaughterhouse (an outlet mall)”

[dinitride-art]

Mike and Will’s arguments and fights affect each other in different ways, but they are both still affected by what they say to each other. Usually when we look at the rain fight, we see how Mike’s words affect Will, and sometimes how Mike’s words may be reflecting his own feelings. It’s not as often that I see people talking about how Will’s words might have affected Mike, and how Mike may have interpreted them.

“Will, you can’t leave. It’s raining. It’s a cool campaign. It really is. We’re just not in the mood right now.”

“Yeah, Mike. That’s the problem. You guys are never in the mood anymore. You’re ruining our party.”

A lot of people tell Mike he’s doing things wrong in season three. Hopper disapproves of Mike and El’s relationship and goes as far as to lie about Mike’s nana and threaten him because he thinks that Mike is doing something wrong. Max tells him that how he talks about and treats El is wrong and calls him controlling over her powers and person. Lucas makes fun of Mike and El’s relationship and compares it to his and Max’s. He and Max go on dates, he’s “spending quality time with [his] girlfriend” at the movies. Everyone is telling Mike that he’s doing something wrong in his and El’s relationship, that he is the problem. Then Will tells him that he’s “ruining [their] party.” Not only is Mike being told that he’s the one that’s ruining his and El’s relationship but he’s being told that he’s ruining everyone’s friendships as well.

Mike is being told that he’s the problem in almost every aspect of his life. That there’s something wrong with how he’s treating El and how he’s treating his friends, and there is but Mike isn’t trying to be a bad friend, he’s trying to be normal. He’s being told that he’s being normal incorrectly. Something about Mike doesn’t allow for him to fit into the idea of normal like Max and Lucas, and now Will is telling him that his inability to be normal extends to the rest of his life. It’s Mike that is ruining everything because he can’t figure out how he’s supposed to exist.

“That’s not true.”

“Really? I here Dustin right now? See? You don’t know and you don’t even care and obviously be doesn’t either, and I don’t blame him. You’re destroying everything- and for what? So you can swap spit with some stupid girl?”

Will lists how Mike is messing up in both his relationship with El and with the rest of the party. He singles Mike out, they’re not talking about Lucas and Mike anymore, they’re just talking about Mike. Lucas can have a girlfriend and not ruin the party, but Mike can’t do the same. Will tells him that, “[he’s] destroying everything.” Mike is ruining the party, he’s destroying it, something about Mike makes him unable to be like Lucas. Something about Mike is ruining everything. Mike is “destroying everything” “so [he] can swap spit with some stupid girl.” Mike and El’s relationship hasn’t been much more than kissing in Hopper’s cabin and Mike knows this. Mike’s ruining everything so he can play at being in a relationship. Will devalues Mike and El’s relationship because of his own feelings and frustration about it, but in doing so he implies that Mike and El’s relationship isn’t real.

Something about Mike is destroying everything and his relationship with his girlfriend isn’t a real relationship.

“El’s not stupid. It’s not my fault you don’t like girls. I’m not trying to be a jerk, okay? But we’re not kids anymore. I mean, what did you think, really? That we were never gonna get girlfriends? We were just gonna sit in my basement all day and play games for the rest of our lives?”

Mike doesn’t deny anything Will says. He focus’s on Will calling El stupid, and he tries to deflect the implications of Will’s words. Mike has a girlfriend and he likes a girl like he’s supposed to, this is what is normal. He’s doing everything right. “[they’re] not kids anymore” they have to grow up and figure out how to fit in. They’re supposed to get girlfriends. They aren’t allowed to to want this for the rest of their lives. Mike is doing everything right. He’s trying to be normal. He’s trying to be like Lucas.

Mike doesn’t deny that he’s destroying everything. There’s something wrong with him. Hopper can see it, Lucas can see it, and now Will’s telling him that whatever is wrong with Mike is ruining everything. Mike is trying to do everything right, but he’s still doing everything wrong.

“Yeah. I guess I did. I really did.”

Will tells him that he thought they were going to do that for the rest of their lives, that he didn’t think it was wrong to want that. He tells Mike that he doesn’t want to try to be normal like Mike.

Mike’s ruining everything by trying to be normal and Will tells him that he didn’t need to be normal.

“Will. Will! Will, come on!”

Will just told Mike that the reason Mike was ruining everything was because he’s trying to change.

Mike doesn’t kiss El back at the end of season three. He doesn’t tell her that he loves her back. He doesn’t even write that he loves her. He joins Hellfire with Dustin. He admires Eddie Munson, a guy who stands out and doesn’t care who says anything about it. He wears black jeans and black converse and is completely comfortable being a nerd, a freak. Lucas is the one trying to be normal and Mike refuses to do the same.

Will told him that was okay because he wanted that too.

Then when Mike gets to Lenora, he still doesn’t tell El that he loves her. He barely kisses her. He’s cold to Will because he thinks Will made a painting for someone who he likes, a girl. He thinks Will is doing the exact same thing that he yelled at Mike for doing less than a year ago but Mike learns pretty quick that isn’t true. Will’s still pushing him, he’s still asking about their relationship and Mike defends himself at first, but once he figures out that Will hasn’t been trying to be normal, he cools off. He listens to what Will has to say. He apologizes to Will. He tells Will that he didn’t deserve it, that Mike was the one who was wrong.

Will keeps telling him that everything is okay.

Their conversations have opposite effects on each other. Will thinks that he’s pushing Mike towards El, and Mike thinks that Will is telling him that it’s okay not to be normal- which he is because Will is drawing from his own feelings when talking to Mike.

Then Will gives Mike the painting. All of his words match with what Will’s been saying to him, that it’s okay to be different, that who he is isn’t going to push everyone away, that him and Will are going to be okay.

“You’re the heart!”

The monologue is when Mike realizes that Will’s pushing him towards El. When someone’s life is on the line, you can’t be who you are. So he tells El that he loves her, even if he knows that he doesn’t. He’s scared that something bad is going to happen, and he’s managed to pretend to be normal before, even if he was ruining everything.

By the end of season four, Mike has made a decision. He isn’t trying to be with El anymore. He doesn’t follow her to go talk to her, or stand next to her when they look at the storm over Hawkins. He chooses to stand in between Will and El at the hospital because he’s choosing to stand next to Will.

Mike told El he loved her and Max died. He’s done with destroying things, with ruining everything trying to be normal.

He’s staying with Will because that’s where he wants to be, not where everyone is telling him he’s supposed to be.

[light-lanterne]

it always makes me sad when i read an exquisite analysis of the show (tropes, characters, symbolism,,, anything really) and then bam, they get mike's motivations or personality all wrong, or over-simplify his arc / trauma, or straight up omit things / make stuff up about him in order to vilify him or make him less important to the overarching plot or whatever :(

it happens to every character from time to time, but mike mischaracterisation tends to be rather frequent amidst bylers (the clique i interact more often with), whereas other characters don't get as misrepresented as mike does within these circles and it just makes me sad :\

[bylertruther]

what do you think about will's line "you make [me] feel like [I'm] not a mistake at all" coming after the rain fight? he was devastated by the rain fight and thought of himself as stupid because of what mike said to him about not liking girls. he also destroyed castle byers because he was so hurt by mike's words. how does that fit into will's perception of mike as someone who has never made him feel like a mistake and who makes him feel better for being different?

(I really hope this ask doesn't come across as anti-mike or anti-byler bc I love mike and I love the ship so much, I'm just trying to understand how will's clear hurt after the rain fight and the distance from mike in lenora connects to the van scene and I'm asking you because you seem to have a good grasp on will's character)

warning: this is Extremely Long and i am Extremely Sorry, but the rain fight and what it means for their characters is one of my favorite things to talk about ever and so i have So Many Things to say abt it. sorry i lov u don't bite me pls.

no, i think it's totally fair to ask that! seriously, don't worry at all about how you come across. i don't agree with the idea that liking something = never acknowledging its flaws, so i'm always down to discuss stuff like this. i'm going to dive deep into my interpretation of the rain fight, because i feel i need to express that first in order to answer your question fully.

if i'm honest, back when it aired, the rain fight was what 100% struck down any microscopic crumb-of-a-crumb of hope that i had for byler in Any capacity, platonic or not. i finished the season and then didn't give a single shit about the show as a whole afterward, because i felt like it was such a slap in the face. not only to will, but mike, too, considering this is a character that's stood by will's side against all sorts of monsters, whether they were middle school homophobic bullies or eldritch monsters.

at the time, it was exceedingly difficult to reconcile the mike i loved and the mike i was seeing on screen, but i feel a little more clear on it now. i could be totally wrong, clouded by my own bias and perception, but here's how i see it all.

the rain fight hurt me more than anything in the entire show, because of how real it is and how neither of them are objectively wrong.

mike is in his very first relationship. it's shiny, exciting, and new. he's kissing all day, getting a rise out of authority figures, and having enough fun that he spends All of his time with her. it's not a serious relationship, but he's a kid, el is the first girl ever that isn't repulsed by him, they have an Insane trauma bond, and she's his "superman". it's not serious but it's Serious 2 Him, you know? he feels like a Big Boy now and he hides from his Very Bad Do-NOT-Touch-Or-EVER-Think-About Trauma behind this relationship. it makes him feel like he's moving forward.

will is feeling a similar sense of exhilaration and freedom. the gate was closed and the upside down has fled their world for good. hooray! he can finally be a teen again! he can finally be his version of Normal now, aka the will he was before the upside down! no more now memories, true sight, or fear that Something will come to get him, whether physically or mentally. he's a hostage unchained basically. it's summer, he has his party, and he just wants to have a good time with them. he just wants to be happy, live a little, and feel safe.

mike is seeking safety and reprieve in a girlfriend and will is seeking safety and reprieve in his friends.

but then...

mike's turning point:

mike is told that if he wants to continue to see el, he has to lie to her. so he does and then his Serious 2 Him relationship is over in a very unserious blink of an eye lol. he doesn't know how to win her back, because he doesn't actually know her, and he's understandably upset because he Wants To Have A Girlfriend Again because she's his Crutch.

he Needs her to feel Normal, but she does Not need him, which canonically makes him jealous. remember that this is something Super Important to his character, because having a girlfriend means he's Cool and Normal and Needed, which are more important than water and food to mike right now. i reiterate this, because that's mike's Entire Thing Since Forever. he Needs to keep up the act, because he doesn't like who he is without it as we learn in s4. he Needs it, desperately.

as such, this has him out of sorts and he seeks out lucas's help to win her back. we know mike, which means we know that he can get tunnel vision when he fears he might lose someone. so, this aggravates his already-negligent behaviors ("i was worrying too much about el" [paraphrased], "it's been like this all summer") and he turns into a Super Shitty Friend.

... i was going to go over will's turning point, but his journey is pretty clear, i think. everyone has a girlfriend and they all want to do girlfriend activities and they canonically forget about him in the process. he's there and yet no one sees him. ouch. lets fast forward to the fight.

will has reached his breaking point, because this campaign he's worked so hard on and is putting genuine effort into to make engaging for his friends is being treated like a joke. they're not laughing with him; his friends, his best friends are laughing at him. and that fucking Hurts. he's been trying to get them to do things they used to do, he's been trying to have fun with them in any capacity, and now that they're here... he's the fucking joke of the hour and they're quite literally jumping up and running at any opportunity to cast him aside.

so, you know what? fine. whatever. you guys win; i give up. have fun with the girls. i'm going home. lucas is shocked to the point of speechlessness at how upset will is, but mike immediately jumps into action. he softens, tries to go back to the game in earnest this time with lucas, and goes after him - almost trampling lucas - when his pleas are ignored.

will was invisible (to all, to mike) until he wasn't. (something about being careful what you wish for..?)

now, we fast forward again to the moment when will's heart is torn in two: "it's not my fault you don't like girls!"

first, let me say this: michael wheeler is a fucking bitch. we know this and we love him for it even when it hurts. that was a shitty thing to say, but... that does not make him The Shittiest Boy Alive, Ever. not even a little bit.

in season three, mike is a teenager behaving like a teenager. he felt ambushed by will's feelings and like it wasn't fair that this was all on him. ("you're the heart / without heart, we'd all fall apart"; again, the party is his responsibility, "but why is this all on me? why am i the bad guy?"; mike always has to be the leader, carrying the party on his back, but he himself doesn't get to unwind which is unfair in his eyes.) he isn't privy to will's journey like we are; he's caught up in his own world and his own shit, remember? he doesn't react super well, but will is yelling at him, very upset over something He Didn't Even Know He Was Doing All This Time ("you knew she was having trouble for a year and didn't tell me" aka this is where the "will doesn't tell mike the truth until it's too late" pattern begins), and telling him that he's the one ruining the party over some stupid girl, aka his (ex-)girlfriend, aka the girl that saved their lives, aka the girl that saved the Entire world twice so maybe don't call her stupid, will. (mike always sticks up for people, so of course he isn't going to react well to el being called stupid here, even by will.)

he shouldn't have said it, but mike is knee-jerk, cornered-animal reacting to will putting this all on mike's shoulders at the very last second after never having given him a chance to fix any of his actions. will bottled this all up and then exploded on him. of course mike isn't going to react well. of course he's going to put his foot in his mouth and say the first thing that comes to mind.

because in his mind, it really isn't his fault that will doesn't like girls lol. and it isn't HIS sole fault that the party is falling apart. not everything has to land on HIS shoulders. not everything has to be HIS responsibility.

he's a kid going through his own shit, that's lashing out at someone for lashing out at him first. it was shitty, it hurt will to his core, but i don't think mike meant to be cruel. he immediately backed down, tried to explain himself rationally (that they're all just changing and will should've expected that bc it's not like they can be the same kids forever), and then went after will (literally across town, on bikes, in the pouring rain and thunder, to his house and then to castle byers) to apologize.

he doesn't do this with anyone else—not even lucas or his own girlfriend. and when he does apologize? it's because someone is forcing him to, walking him through it, or because they did it first. mike doesn't ever make the first move or humble himself first... unless it's will. then he suddenly knows exactly what to do and what will needs from him. because he knows will and he listens to will.

everything that he did for will in that scene is precisely, word-for-word, what max told eleven that he'd do for her In The Same Episode just moments prior—but he didn't. he didn't!

he did everything he was "supposed to" without guidance or hesitation or headassery... for will.

when eleven confronts mike in season four and tells him he never says i love you, mike responds, very seriously, with "i say it." and you know what? i agree with him wholeheartedly.

mike loves will more than anyone. we're shown very clearly from the very beginning that the only person in the show that rivals his love, devotion, and loyalty for will is joyce. and will knows this! that's why mike is his bestest best friend! that's why he's hopelessly in love with him! because "max, dustin, and lucas, they're great..." but they're not mike! no one treats will the way mike does, and mike doesn't treat anyone the way he treats will! they're perfect for each other and will knows this! that's why he expected and wanted a future with mike!

and... he thought that mike wanted that, too. because THAT'S the crux of the rain fight. it isn't that will is gay. it's that will thought mike wanted Crazy Together, too! it's right there in the dialogue, what it is that they're really fighting about:

MIKE: I mean, what did you think, really? That we were never going to get girlfriends? We were just gonna sit in my basement all day and play games for the rest of our lives? WILL: Yeah. I guess I did. I really did.

the fight is representative of an amalgamation of things and it cuts will's life into yet another before and after, but the point isn't that will doesn't like girls. the point was that will really thought it was always going to be them together—he thought they both wanted that; that that would be the one thing that never changed, even if they and everything else around them did.

when will is looking at a picture of them and saying "stupid.. so stupid" and RIPS IT DOWN THE MIDDLE BETWEEN HIM AND MIKE, with the memories that Start And End With Mike And His Voice Being The Focal Point, i interpret it as him feeling stupid enough to think that his feelings, his wants, and his dreams were ever reciprocated. stupid enough to believe that mike really did mean crazy together in every single way. that he meant it the way that will meant it and had always meant it.

mike is the one that brings up forever and will confirms it. he says yes, i did want that with you and i thought you wanted it, too. their argument ends there, because THAT was the real issue. You Got A Girlfriend And Replaced Me With Her; Something I Never Thought We Would Do To Each Other. THAT'S (!!!!!) the issue. THAT'S why mike looks so devastated afterward. THAT'S why he bikes in the rain to apologize. THAT'S why he looks so sheepish when will puts his dnd book in the donation box, why he's worried that Will Is Going To Replace Him With Someone Else!!! because their rain fight was about the fact that it was no longer him and mike against the world!! mike got a girlfriend and broke their unspoken promise!!

THAT'S why mike repeats "we're friends. we're. friends." at rink-o-mania, why he tried calling him all the time for Months (he felt like he'd lost will the same way that will felt like he'd lost mike last summer, their roles were perfectly and exactly reversed here), why he said that hawkins wasn't the same without him / there's no one like you, why he said they should be a team again (an Us, a We, Crazy Together; curiously after his gf breaks up with him lmao). it's the same fight all over again. "i lost you" / "i'm right here." + "friends... best friends." / "not possible." it's always about loss with these two.

that's why i feel like the rain fight doesn't contradict will's van confession. i think will's line of thinking is that mike can't help how he feels; aka, "i can't blame him for not returning my feelings / outgrowing our childhood love". and him not returning will's feelings doesn't make will feel like a mistake.

what made will feel like a mistake was his desire to go back to how things were and the realization that that was impossible. will tears down castle byers because it's too full of everything he once had and he learned the hard way that There Is No Going Back, There Is Only Going Forward. the theme of s3 is about change and will realizes this in the most heartbreaking way possible.

i hate the idea of anyone reconstructing castle byers, because the point is that will outgrew it. he can't hide through escapism in dnd or in castle byers. he has to build a life that he loves and feels safe enough in that he Doesn't Need a castle byers. (that's why s4 has him coming out of his shell wrt his sexuality and wanting to be open and honest about it as much as he can be with the ones that he loves and trusts, and he'll continue/conclude that journey in s5).

in season three:

mike learns that he doesn't Need eleven (see: how happy he was with will especially at the end, seemingly on good terms, and giddy still as he told el abt them coming over for christmas [note how he mentioned playing games in their basement for the rest of their lives in their fight vs how he's making plans to have them both over so they can play with their gifts {aka he's still thinking of will bc he Wants that future with him, too, deep down}]) ... until she kisses him, tells him she loves him, and then his brain breaks and all hell breaks lose again because the byers are literally leaving in just a couple minutes so how the FUCK is he going to deal with any of that, AND THEN in s4 when he does seem okay with being broken up with again he's then 1) reminded that she's his responsibility and 2) he needs to save her because if he doesn't then the world literally goes to hell and they all fucking die. so. yanno. that's tough. mike takes two beautiful steps forward and then gets pulled fifty steps back every time.

and will learns that hiding is not the same thing as living and that he needs to stop that if he wants to be able to move forward (see: "he's good at hiding", using dnd as an escape vs him giving away his dnd books + hopper's letter and the cave metaphor + being more open in s4 and wanting to "come clean" about being gay + the gay-coded advice he gives mike abt truth and fear).

mike definitely hurt him, but that's one moment out of a million where he's otherwise made will feel strong, loved, and capable, and will has told us that much himself more than once. will doesn't fault mike for wanting something else, someone else. he loves him without any expectation of it being reciprocated in that way.

he loves him, just because; because mike has always loved him and shown him a kindness and mercy like no other; because mike has known what he is and loved him anyway; because mike came to him and told him he didn't deserve anything after their fight, that hawkins wasn't the same without him, that the past year was weird without him, that he's more to mike than any of their other friends even after all this time, that they should be a team again as they face the end of the world together without superman's help.

because no matter what... they always love each other in a way that no one else does. even if will wants more than that, even if he aches with it, he still knows that what he has with mike is so special as it is. and that's enough for him.

mike didn't treat him any differently when their biggest concern was some mouthbreather calling him a fairy and he didn't treat him any differently after the upside down when everyone walked on eggshells around him, thinking he was about to break. mike has always treated him like a person that is strong and loved, and one sentence in the middle of a fight during a very stressful time for both of them doesn't diminish a history bursting with love.

i think what will fears isn't mike knowing he's gay, but mike knowing how will actually feels about him. i say this, because of the van confession and this line of will's in particular:

Sometimes I think 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… what if they don't like the truth?

this is played with the [tender, emotional music] which we know the sound directors used for intimate moments. will is also gauging mike's reaction here, giving him a searching kind of look, like he's testing the waters. will doesn't know this, but we as viewers know that this is a conversation about mike not being able to tell eleven he loves her. it isn't a reach to say then that will is talking not about being gay, but specifically about "how [he] really [feels]" about mike. that's what scares him: his unreciprocated crush, not his sexuality.

the duffers have said that will is trying to make himself be understood in the van scene and that will cries because mike doesn't get it. if he thought that mike was a homophobe, he wouldn't want to share this about himself. instead, mike makes him feel better for his otherness in all its shades. he wants to tell mike, because he wants to be honest with him and release some of that burden from his chest. but he's scared. he's so, so unbelievably fucking scared.

because, it's exactly as will says: "what if [he doesn't] like the truth?" what if that ruins the friendship that they just rebuilt? what if eleven finds out and then it's Even More Weird and Uncomfortable for everyone involved?

and considering how self-sacrificing will is... i feel like that's his other biggest concern regarding that entire clusterfuck. he loves them both. he doesn't want to hurt them or come between what he Thinks they have, because that'd be selfish and will isn't ever selfish even when he should be.

will's line about mike making him feel better for being different has canon support from season one and two. mike's outburst in season three is an outlier in his otherwise spotless record of loving will byers to an unhinged degree. even in season four, we see that mike never stopped reaching out to will. it was will who never reached out and mike was understandably upset about that, but even then he did try to include will afterward only to get iced out which "sabotaged the whole day" in his eyes. will didn't know this, though, and that's why he behaved the way that he did. still, will knows who mike is when he's not pretending and he wants mike to know who he is when he's not hiding. the rain fight hurt will indescribably, yes, but not because of the "it's not my fault you don't like girls" line in the way that it's understandably interpreted. so... i think it all fits together just fine.

[emblazons]

I just watched the airport scene for the first time in months (in its natural context) and 😭😂 Argyle and that shitty knockoff line after forcing Mike into a hug—

—thank you for that Duffers, cause honestly the tension of what happened with Will being called out not .005 seconds later was NECESSARY oh my god.

QUADRUPLE POINTS for the fact that you can tell Mike is being fake because Argyle loves Mike’s shirt…but Mike from minute one is actively annoyed and grated by all things Argyle.

…almost as though his real self has zero resonance with any of his California-cool-kid airport behavior.😏

[love-byers]

paralleling byler to a canon couple but specifically a scene that ends in that canon couple making out is crazy work by shawn levy

[cluelessbees]

Ever think about how Mike saw Joyce and Jonathan tell special moments between them and Will, and he has the time to think of what moment to say as he waited and he decided that the most special and most important moment to him was the day he met Will because it’s not just one moment for him it’s Will that’s the most special thing to him.

[gayofthefae]

Thinking about "it's not my fault you don't like girls" as "When you danced with her, I figured you'd get a girlfriend too. I always figured you'd get a girlfriend, so I got one. You never did. I regret it. Everything would be so much easier on my guilt if you had done what I did. But you stuck it out for me. You were strong and I wasn't."