#straight fucking mike wheeler

[starsarefire824]

(Not directed at you, just venting)

The backflips people will do to be biphobic are astonishing. Like my siblings in christ, it doesn't matter if Mike is gay, bi, pan or some other version of queer - why are we tearing each other down? I'm bi myself and if Mike is bi, great, if he's not, also great. I literally couldn't care less but to be *-phobic* about it is just wild to me. Like y'all will do so much to deny the existence of bi people.

People need to go touch grass. 🙄

I totally agree with you. I sort of flop between my feelings on Mike’s sexuality depending on my vibe on a specific day. Sure, I like to write him as bi—but that usually is a choice I make because I see a lot of my teenage self in him so it’s easy to tap into—-and it allows for (in my personal opinion) some interesting dynamics to be built between multiple characters.

But that’s just it—-isn’t it??? It’s a headcanon. Any take on Mike’s sexuality other than being straight up until this point, as it is written by the Duffer Brothers, is that he is a straight boy dating El.

Any other variance of that is pure speculation/analysis/hopes for season 5. Season 4 gave us some hints, there has been subtle things in past seasons. There have been a lot of choices made by his character that didn’t make sense until post season 4. And it becomes way more complicated when really taking into account his actions towards Will. But either way, Mike has not come out. Mike has not stated with words how he feels/ given any indication of his sexuality. So therefore, any headcanon by a fan of Stranger Things is valid.

I actually like Mike as gay. I, as a bi person, would fucking love if he was gay. It would be perfectly legitimate by what we’ve been shown, and his relationship with El could be explained away perfectly if season five wraps it up in a well written ending.

But so can bi Mike. Bisexuality is also a valid conclusion for Mike. He won’t be lesser than or not queer enough if he ends up being bi.. He won’t love Will Byers any less if he is bi. He won’t be less sexually attracted to Will if he is bi. He won’t be less of a person if he happened to be in love El and Will at the same time in his life. Or god forbid, be sexually attracted to a female. He is still valid as a character if he is bisexual.

And no……he won’t be “better rep” if he is gay.

While I’m at it, even if Mike chose El in the end (which we won’t know until season 5 because we, in fact, are not in the writers’ room) while still harboring attraction and romantic feelings for men, doesn’t make him ANY LESS FUCKING BI. Or any less fucking QUEER. And im so tired of talking about it.

[queen-of-hawkins-why-ler]

Mike's biggest insecurity is that he feels unneeded, so imagine how over the moon he's going to be when he finds out that the love of his life who he wants to love and protect does need him and wants to be loved and protected by him 🥺🥺

[astrobei]

on june 11th 1993, mike wheeler drags his vaguely amused (and highly endeared) boyfriend will byers to the movie theater, shells out for the largest size popcorn they have available, and gets 2 premium, middle-row seats to watch steven spielberg’s jurassic park

(he’s been vibrating with anticipation ever since the first trailer came out. he makes will go see it with him another five times before it leaves theaters.)

[bylertruther]

not to be too real but since we're talking about it... we always talk about will feeling lonely which is fair, but... it is such an Ugly, isolating, and genuinely heart-wrenching feeling to be the odd one out in your family, and to watch them treat others who aren't related to you the way you wish they would treat you, to watch them perform their familial roles with them and not you.

nancy's the only person in his family that mike could talk to, the only person that has the same trauma and would understand, and yet... he can't. they don't ever talk unless it's to be snippy and bite. nancy spends more time caring about max and will than she does mike, her own little brother.

holly is too young for him to bond with like that. she's just barely a kid, one that still needs to be cared for.

his mom tries her best, but he doesn't feel comfortable being vulnerable with her. considering the fact that she did everything "right" according to society's standards and married their dad of all people, i doubt he feels comfortable showing her who he really is. he lets her hug him when he's at his lowest, but we don't see them actually connecting.

his dad is just some ghost that haunts his house. he doesn't care about mike or think highly of him at all. the only times we've seen him pay mike any attention are when he belittles his interests, mocks him, punishes him, or shuts him down by telling him to listen to his mother. the only support he gets from him is financial in nature.

meanwhile, everyone else has a family they can turn to. dustin, despite lying to his mother to keep her out of his shenanigans, seems to have a decent relationship with her. even if he doesn't, he still has steve and robin. lucas is shown to have a healthy relationship with his parents and erica. will and el have their family.

max's situation is different, but she has the backing of the party; people that love her and actively try to help her and pull her back into the world of the living. she isn't thrust into a leadership role that doesn't allow for vulnerability. she has nancy who is willing to fight monsters for her, el who literally performed a miracle for her, and lucas who has stood by her since the beginning.

and mike... well. he has will back now, sure, but... things have been different between them for a long time now, even if they're both trying their best to be how they were before. and before then, will obviously was in california, not returning his calls or reaching out, making mike feel like he'd lost him for good.

so... all that being said, it's not that surprising that mike is the way he is: riddled with abandonment issues, wanting to be needed, immediately apologizing whenever he dares to open up, inclined to give others the protection and comfort no one's ever given him, prone to jealousy and possessiveness, unable to be completely and wholly honest about what troubles him, not exactly the most open to new people, and someone with appallingly low self-esteem.

you know how they say people that are drowning don't always look like they're drowning? that's mike.

[booksandpaperss]

Mike would actually be even more of an unreliable narrator than Will had been in s4 if we had gotten more of his perspective and only his perspective, solely because no one ever fucking tells him anything 😭

so like the chronic overthinker he is he just ends up filling in the blanks himself and being frustrated and confused

[eightfifteen]

you know what would really be the move of the century?

if they release the Mike Crying Post Quarry Bike Ride in s5 and make it obvious that that was the moment that Mike knew he was in love with Will

literally snatch the rug out from underneath us all

[tenracoonsinacrisis]

Hopper: Finally, El broke up with that asshole Michael

Will, walking in: I have a boyfriend

Hopper: That's fine, who is it?

Hopper, seeing Mike: Not that bastard again!

[nicxxx5]

what the fuck are we gonna do when we get the trailer for s5 and we’re getting really quick clips of random scenes and they’re getting faster and faster then suddenly the last 0.5 second scene is mike yanking will closer to him till they’re nose to nose and that’s the only clip of the two of them together that we get until the first episode releases? 😐

[counting-stars-gayly]

It just hit me that Mike went out of his way to show up at the airport wearing clothes that weren’t from inside his closet. Are you fucking kidding me?

[tryingonametaphor]

miIevens calling mike (in the context of byler) el’s “leftovers” and “sloppy seconds” is reason enough for me to pray for their downfall in s5. don’t say shit like that and then turn around and say you love mike because you’re literally dehumanising him by saying that.

[assbutt-casbutt-ii]

This scene is all the proof I need for byler being real. All of the couples are standing together except for Mike and Eleven.

instead, Mike is standing with... will.

[queen-of-hawkins-why-ler]

In other fandoms, tropes like found family, slowburn queer romances, and one set of siblings loving another set of siblings is purely fanon, but that's actually just what's in our show's script lmao.

[wibble-wobbegong]

rewatching stranger things is so fun cause if you asked me if a character was gay? I’d say will, because they constantly call him slurs and he just generally falls into the quiet and artsy category of queer.

but like?? the implication that HE was the one in love doesn’t really pop up till season 3. i don’t doubt that it was planned or even that they had been hinting at it(calling out for mike, trusting him only with stuff, etc) but it could be best friend behavior(we now know it was not)

side by side with mike. will doesn’t come off nearly as in love as mike does until like season 3/4 if you aren’t reading into the subtext. we don’t see much of will in s1 and in s2 he’s sharing secrets with mike and depending on him when he’s scared but that’s totally something normal best friends do!!! like genuinely

how the fuck am i supposed to pretend that mike forcing his friends to help search in the cold dark rain and claiming that nobody else cares about will (only him!!), hosting someone he thought might be clinically insane because she can help find will (all she did was point at him), breaking down when it was thought will died and then spending hours looking at the collection of will’s art he gathered over the years, being the one who pushed troy down even though troy had called will those names a million times and mike knew will wasn’t dead, LITERALLY almost killing himself at the cliff where will supposedly died over Dustin’s TEETH (he’s able to figure out will is in another dimension but can’t figure out how to get them out of that situation without him dying? bro), AND THEN HE CANT FUCKING SLEEP IN THE HOSPITAL BECAUSE HE NEEDS TO SEE HIM THE SECOND HE CAN TO BE ABLE TO HEAR HIS HEARTBEAT HIMSELF, ISNT LOVE??

NONE OF THAT IS HETEROSEXUAL BEHAVIOR

AND THATS JUST SEASON 1.

[sophie0197]

Just wanna clarify with y'all

At this point we all know Murray is gay right? Like it's been hinted at since forever, he casually flirts with men, has a vibe, Yuri picked up on it, etc

We all know Murray's gonna have to talk to Will and Mike, possibly in an event where everyone is gathered together in the not-urgent-apocalypse type thing, say a wedding? A jopper one perhaps? Post m! leven breakup? 👀

And he's gonna tell them that there is always hope in loving again, there are so many people out there, it can happen to anyone, WITH anyone, and yes, it IS an option to be gay actually, that some people just... Fall in love

And that the key is to just put yourself out there and be brave and honest and genuine, and it's gonna be alright

And the boys are gonna give fake puzzled looks as to why this concerns them bc no sir we not gay haha whaaaat, and he is going to go "well I've seen the looks you give each other, and see, where words can lie, eyes always tell the truth" and we can just collectively lose our minds from there right? Right????

[nyxi-pixie]

no bc people are actually fucking disgusting abt will

if i see one more mfer call him a ‘predator’ for having a crush on his best friend i will lose my absolute shit. HE IS A CHILD. his crush is super innocent and some people in this goddamn fandom act like hes going to use his evil gay powers of seduction to ruin milkvan. 

like its giving unhinged its giving in need of therapy its giving pls what the actual fuck is wrong with some of you.

[rotisseries]

fandom bubbles are so fun because we're at the point where I'll see posts like "it's just so OBVIOUS that mike is gay I mean the queercoding is ACTUALLY INSANE literally just LOOK AT THIS WHO MISSES THIS??!!!" and the "look at this!" in question is a blurry item in the background of a 2 second shot that takes up 5 entire total pixels on my screen and has 3 unidentifiable but vibrant colors so it must be a rainbow obviously