#willel really said mike love yourself or we'll do it for you | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

gayofthefae · 1 year

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Remindee that Mike's arc has to do with both Will AND El.

It is not going to be "revealed who it's been about this whole time". No. It is about both of them. Both together and individually.

Romantic love and the inherent payoff that comes with it does not function as a reveal for the overall meaning of the show for him. His love for El is still VERY pertinent.

To separate them in case you don't understand:

A) It's about his struggle with his queerness and feelings for his best friend while in a relationship and a homophobic town, torn and repressing until he learns that that IS something he can have.

B) His first love who grants him deep understanding and teaches him how to love and communicate and that love can survive anything, including a change in nature, and that a true lover always was also a friend and can also be your friend after they are your lover and continue to grant you that understanding because romance does not dictate closeness and you can keep that understanding and love. Things can change and YOU can change and still be worthy and emotionally safe and supported.

He is safe in his identity and he is safe in his personality. And these arcs with these people are not only coexistent but complementary and MUST both exist.

ALSO, it is a wonderful testament to lack of codependency in a relationship and showing via these arcs fulfilled in different places that YOU can be fulfilled in different places and be validated in different ways by different people rather than pressuring one person to be everything for you. His relationship with Will does not erase everyone else in his life from pertinence and so it certainly does not erase El.

Put this in the tags but loved it too much so:

Will validating that Mike is incredibly loved and doesn't HAVE to change and El validating that Mike is incredibly loved and thus is ALLOWED to change >>>>>>

Both are equal and good and not easily done by the same person at the same time! So this is PERFECT. I'm obsessed.

#hot take: el is still the first person to truly grant him that understanding because he never had to take that risk before of talking to #someone who had not gone through the same thing at the same time #and it wasn't until season 2 that his relationship with will really deepened in that way #when he sought out that understanding he now knew that he wanted because he got it from el in a relationship that had previously been more #(appropriately) fun and childish even with common hard experiences #elmike analysis #byler analysis #narrative arcs #elmike <3 #platonic elmike #elmike breakup #but in like an I treat like I'll treat the Byler kiss way because it gives THEM the happiness WITH each other they deserve #EL STAYING THROUGH THIS IS GONNA SHOW HIM THAT IT IS OKAY TO CHANGE FROM WHO SHE LOVED WHEN THEY FIRST MET AND SHE WILL STILL LOVE HIM AND #PEOPLE WILL STILL LOVE HIM EVEN IF HE IS EXTREMELY VULNERABLE OR SHOWS SOMETHING NEW ABOUT HIMSELF OR CHANGES 😭#willel really said mike love yourself or we'll do it for you #willel bonding rather than competing over their love of mike truther #character arcs #i might cry this is such a beautiful arc for him and so relatable #stranger things #mike wheeler analysis #elmike #byler

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