#willelmike

[kidovna]

Summertime madness (insp)

[taeiris]

90s willelmike <3

its 1992, they’re in college, will started experimenting with hair styles, eleven is insanely happy and excited to be living a normal life and mike is mikeing, honoring eddie with his hair style🫶

[hothammies]

concept designs for the zombie apocalypse au i'm working on - pt. 1 (small au details under the cut regarding their designs)

--- mike's design

always wears his bomber jacket (normally decorated with pins) - was given to him by nancy when he was ten and he grew into it

signature weapon is a machete - likes its versatility + has terrible aim with guns: the only one he can kind of use is a shotgun, but he rarely uses it because the kickback fucks with his shoulder

will's design

always wears a long sleeve around his waist "just in case" (normally his military jacket or a flannel)

watch was given to him by jonathan when he was ten

signature weapon is a hunting rifle - is the second best with guns after lucas + follows the st canon of him using a rifle in s1e1

el's design

wardrobe always consists of one thing from a different party member (ex. gray hoodie is actually mike's, next day she wears a lucas jacket or a will flannel, etc.) it makes her feel safe :'D

doesn't have a signature weapon + is very versatile - just tends to use whatever's on hand at times or the environment around her

---

other notes: i fucking love apocalypse shit :P i'm still working on the whole outline of course, but if you're wondering, the infection i'm imagining would be a mix between days gone + l4d + a smidgen of tlou while the world is similar to tlou and a little of twd. i'll include some upside down stuff with the infection to make it feel like st :D i'm currently planning where i want this universe to go, with backstories and relationship dynamics between the entire party - byler will be the main romantic relationship, but i'll also dedicate some time to lumax too. however, the biggest theme surrounding this au is found family for me, so while romance will still be important, i want to put a lot of focus on the entire group's dynamic as a whole!

[cherbearsz]

fanart i drew of mike wheeler, will byers, and el hopper dying in a glue trap

[wynsvre]

on the van ride back to hawkins

[will80sbyers]

when it's clearly a love triangle but people don't accept it because it's queer

[elevenmayfieldz]

el would NOT be upset about mike liking will!!!! she would be upset about being LIED TO but she would GET OVER IT!!!! you dont know el like i do!

[byler-alarmist]

Why did I think of this scene.....

[ekza-art]

even if the world is going to hell, these guys need a minute of rest

season 5 timeline

[taeiris]

little hcs for @pinkeoni ‘s theory

considering one of the “leaks” for s5 are that apparently noah will use prosthetics playing will+ the left hand theory

[queen-of-hawkins-why-ler]

No but like El will be happy about Byler. Like actually happy, not just okay with it. It's not just her who doesn't "get" Mike and his nerdiness and need to be the hero, it's also Mike who doesn't understand the depths of El's humanity despite being a "superhero" and all of the trauma she deals with and has yet to work through. Her uniquely feminine experience and all of the challenges and milestones that come alongside maturing as a young woman, which is something that Max understands perfectly well, and this is the reason why El has begun to prioritize her friendship with Max over her relationship with Mike. El knows in her heart that she and Mike are already doomed romantically, I just think she was in denial about it until Mike's monologue. The only fear both El and Mike have now is that the absence of romance from their relationship means there won't be a relationship period i.e. they are destined to lose each other. For El, knowing and understanding that Mike is gay and in love with someone else and literally CAN'T be with her romantically will be the biggest signifier that they were never going to be able to hold onto that romance in the first place. Now they can work on being friends. If anything it's Will who's going to struggle to be with Mike in light of the guilt he will feel from "stealing" Mike from El, and I wouldn't be surprised if El is going to be the one to ultimately push Will towards Mike and encourage the two of them to be together.

[wynsvre]

happy holidays from willelmike ❤️💛💚💙

[will80sbyers]

The Love Triangle

[therainscene]

I’m obsessed with @wheelersboy’s theory that Mike thinks Will is in love with El. It’s one of those takes that’s so simple, yet so perfectly explains every odd little detail you couldn’t quite account for before, that you know you’re on to a winner.

I always thought it was bizarre that the Willel reunion at NINA was framed in blatant love triangle imagery:

If this was supposed to be yet another reminder that the sad widdle gay boy has fee-fees for his best friend, we’d expect him to be gazing at Mike or otherwise looking conflicted at both of them. But he isn’t. His steady, adoring gaze is for El only. Yes, he loves her, but that love is strictly fraternal, so why the romance symbolism?

Is it straight-bait? This scene comes after his thinly-veiled love confession to Mike (in the same episode, no less), and the Duffers and Noah both made a point of confirming that Will was gay in post-vol.2 interviews, so making the audience think that Will is in love with El clearly wasn’t the intention here.

The Willel romance-coding isn’t for the audience -- it’s for Mike.

We often joke about Mike being crushed that Will didn’t laugh at his vomit green socks, but follow Will’s gaze -- it’s a little hard to see in the still image, but he’s staring at El, checking to see if she’s going to heed his advice. Mike's discomfort isn’t because he’s upset that Will didn’t like his joke, it’s because he doesn’t understand the weird tension between these two and is frustrated that his attempt to lighten the mood didn’t dispel it.

Mike’s smart enough to correctly connect the dots by the time Will starts sobbing in the van though: Will is destroying himself in his efforts to be supportive of the relationship between his best friend and the person he’s in love with.

But heteronormativity and a severe inferiority complex lead him to draw the wrong conclusion -- he thinks he’s the best friend and El is the one Will’s in love with, and that gets confirmed in his mind when he catches them making goo-goo eyes at each other at NINA.

And not once, after figuring it out, does he get jealous about it -- he guides El into Will’s arms at NINA, he looks conflicted as hell during the “I love you” monologue as Will hovers over his shoulder -- he just wants them to be happy and is prepared to put his own feelings aside to make it happen, even though it would hurt him terribly to do so. Exactly the same fucking thing Will is doing. It’s utterly farcical. I love this theory so much.

I’d like to springboard off this by taking a look at what it implies about S5.

Between Will’s history with Vecna and the Wonder Twins foreshadowing--

--it’s looking pretty likely that Will and El are going to be spending a significant amount of time together next season.

So we can already see that conditions are perfect for Mike to go through a similar arc as Will did in S4: being a third wheel between his best friend and the person he’s in love with and feeling like he can never truly be more than a third wheel, leading him to sacrifice himself in an effort to support what he thinks they have together.

Mike is very much at risk of doing something stupidly self-harming in S5 -- this is the same kid who jumped off a cliff to protect Dustin’s baby teeth, after all. He feels like he has no value if he isn’t needed by Superman. And there’s a goddamn mind-reading despair demon stalking his friend group.

Of course, it’ll all work out in the end. He’ll be saved at the last moment, the truth will be tearfully revealed, and we’ll finally get that big, dramatic, affirming kiss for our OTP.

You might have noticed that everything I’ve said in this analysis so far is consistent with either Byler or Milevn being endgame.

Many Milevns and GA members don’t just believe that Milevn will triumph over Byler -- they believe there isn’t any conflict between Milevn and Byler in the first place. The lack of evidence that Mike isn’t into boys is meaningless to the heteronormative mindset -- he’s the protagonist and dating a girl, therefore he’s straight, therefore Will’s hopes are dead in the water, therefore Mike has no romantic dilemma to solve.

By introducing a misunderstanding in which Mike imagines that his best friend is competing for his girlfriend -- couching his dilemma in relatable heterosexual terms -- the audience will be forced to accept that Mike is experiencing a distressing internal conflict involving Will and romance that won’t be resolved until the queer truth comes out.

The GA felt bad for Will in S4 because they assumed there was nothing he could do about it, but they’ll be tearing their hair out with frustration at Mike in S5 -- “you’re wrongly assuming he’s straight, you idiot! Just talk to him and this will all be cleared up!!”

It would be an absolutely genius way of getting the audience to question heteronormativity without them even realizing they’re questioning heteronormativity.

Once Mike’s queerness is revealed, the parallels between his arc and Will’s will suddenly become clear, and the audience will realize that, despite his straight-passing invisibility, Mike was just the other side of the same gay coin Will was on all along.

[Part 2]

[gayofthefae]

Forever funny to me how the Stranger Things marketing (in terms of the love triangle) was

Season 1: the party

Season 2: BYLER

Season 3: BYLER

Season 4: BYLER

Like not only did they market Byler over Milkvan every time it was an option even before there were supporters, but in season 1, as I've somewhat mentioned THEY DIDN'T MARKET MILKVAN. They had ONE photoshoot and their whooole thing with merch and posters and stuff was the power of friendship and friend groups.

Byler is romantic and singled out from the rest of the party while El is grouped in with every other member of the party to Mike.

(And it's actually really sweet when you think about their arcs. Will gets to be special and El gets to be normal)

[booksandpaperss]

fic idea where Will is turning 21 soon and Mike and el have been hanging out a LOT lately and Will is starting to think they’re getting back together and he’s having Feelings abt it but Mike and el are actually just in charge of planning Will’s surprise birthday party