Bby girl, he’s also the birthday boy

I just realized something so sweet and personal about Will's painting.

Their DnD characters don't look like that. We saw him draw them plenty in season 1. Will the Wise has a long beard and Mike's character I think has straight blond hair.

Will didn't just draw their characters per usual, he drew them as their characters. He's drawn Mike's knight character a hundred times. But he's never drawn Mike as a knight. He was understanding that Mike's character is a projection of who he aims to be, like all of them, so he drew MIke as the knight this time. For the first time.

That's what this smile is. Mike has played a hero for years. But he's never been one. He saw a dragon and probably expected his character, overjoyed with more of Will's familiar art, but instead, he was met with a glorious knight in shining armor with black, wavy hair. He was the hero this time. *(you can even see his facial expression change from happy excitement to this broad smile)

In season 1, Mike initiates the search party because of Will's heroics in DnD meaning that he would do it for them. He acknowledges that Will's actions in character are still his own. This is the same. This is Will saying "To play a hero, you have to be one yourself. And you are. I see through your character disguise. I see you. This is just the hero you've always been without the mask."

THAT is why it's different. THAT is why it's so much more personal than all the others, not just the heart, MIKE. THAT is why it hurts so bad (Will too but I'm referring to me/us).

I've said in a previous post that it wasn't about the heart, the heart was kind of for us, it was more-so about the heroism. And that's exactly what I standby. The heart isn't the only new thing about this painting. The hero has never actually been Mike before. And Will responded "Yes it has been. It always has been."

I think mike not reaching out to will is important actually. btw

Why the Troy and Angela Situations Should Not Be Compared (+ Why Mike's Reaction Is Valid)

One of the things that gets my blood boiling as a Mike defender is when people try to compare the bullying/El's reaction to said bullying between the Troy and Angela scenes. They are not the same thing, not even close! Yes, they're both cases of bullying, but two very different levels of extreme.

Yes, I understand that words can hurt just as much, if not more, than a physical weapon, and Mike understands this too, that's why he tries to connect with El the morning after. But in the real world, one without monsters or powers, the one they believe they're living in at the time, violence is almost never the answer, it only makes things worse, as it did. Mike also understand this. Now, yes, it took him a minute to figure out that El didn't quite understand this yet, but he works to fix his mistakes as soon as he does.

Now, let's look at season 1's incident. Troy is threatening to cut Dustin with a knife if Mike doesn't jump off the quarry cliff. Two lives are in immediate and direct danger in this situation. El, literally at the last second, saves Mike as he's falling, so that's one problem fixed and one less life at stake. By this time, yes, Troy has moved away from Dustin, but he is still holding the knife! And then he aggressively steps towards El, threatening her with it, so she snaps his arm and makes him drop it. This is self defense, as well as defending her friends from a dangerous situation.

In season 4, Angela publicly humiliates El. Yes, it's awful, and yes, she deserves the smack that she gets for it, but it's nowhere near as bad as what Troy was doing. Angela isn't putting any lives in immediate danger, she's not brandishing a weapon! Legally, El smacking Angela is assault, because at the point of the roller-scate-smack, the ordeal is done with, and there was no physical harm done. I'd like to add that I'm aware of El falling, and that she may have been hurt, but technically no one touched her, so it still isn't technically self-defense (I may be wrong here, pls correct me if so). This is a very unfortunate situation, and I feel terrible for El, as should everyone, but I'm a firm believer that when it comes to bullies, you shouldn't fight fire with fire, and Mike seems to carry this belief as well, as he repeatedly tells the boys to just ignore their bullies in s1. @foodiewithdahoodie has an old post (can't find it irl, but it's stuck in my brain) in which they say El treats Angela, a normal girl who is not a serious threat, with the same extreme hostility she shows the UD monsters, and I completely agree with this. El is flawed, and Mike's not a bad person for reacting to those flaws, that just happen to include unnecessary violence, the way a normal person would.

Anyways, what I'm getting at here is that these two situations are completely different (again, Troy has a literal weapon, two peoples' lives were being actively threatened!) and Mike's reaction in both circumstances were completely valid! In season one, he was seconds away from death, and so when El saved him and made the threat go away, he was eternally grateful for her defense. In season 4, he tries so hard to get to her when he realizes what's going on despite having just found out she'd been lying to him for months, and he was even completely on El's side, trying to find and comfort her, until she hit Angela, then he believed she went too far (she did), so he made that known. He's never been one to sugarcoat when he disagrees with certain behaviors, and he doesn't start here, he tells it like it is: Angela doesn't look fine. It also is just a lot to process, so it doesn't surprise me that it takes an overnight thought-session for him to figure out where he went wrong, and again, he tries to make it up to her! To connect with her, bringing down some of his walls in the process! She just disregards his experiences, then brings up him not saying ILY, so he gets defensive and puts back up his walls, and they never get to continue this conversation! (This is an analysis for another day in and of itself tbh)

To reiterate, it just irks me when people compare these scenes to try and make Mike out to be a bad person, when they are nowhere near the same situation! His reactions being different makes total sense, esp when adding the shock-factor of it all! I'll stop talking now cuz this could go on forever and I lowkey feel like I'm just repeating myself now.

Pls tell me your thoughts on this!

Guys Willow is gentle and sensitive and artistic which are all perfectly acceptable characteristics for a young girl to have so she doesn’t struggle with homophobes the same way Will does. It’s actually Michelle who has trouble at home and gets called mean things at school for being loud and weird and “gross” and “unladylike”. She used to have long hair that she cut off bc she hated that it was the only feature she thought everyone liked about her because it was girly and pretty. But when Willow starts complimenting her new hair and it makes her feel funny things in her belly, she goes over the top and even steals her mom’s hairspray to impress Willow with her big fluffy hair.

Inspired by Daydream from disaster_energy

"It's a typical Thursday morning, except for the part where Will gets Chosen by the Moon Goddess and suddenly Mike's choice of which Paladin order to join gets a lot easier.”

My post for Byler Week 2023 - Day 1: DnD/Cleradin

mike wheeler ft. what the hell was he about to say???

My honest reaction:

just like magic

It takes one, two, three seconds before Will’s heart starts beating again. And another three before he remembers to be mad at him about it. “Don’t call me that,” he protests weakly, but it’s no use. Mike’s grin only grows.

“Anything for you, Your Highness.”

“Michael,” Will hisses, yanking his hand away, but Mike is already laughing. It’s always been easy to get a rise out of him where Mike is involved, which is a fact Mike not only knows, but exploits on the regular. “I’m going to put the venom back in your arm and let your flesh rot off your body.”

Will really wishes Mike would learn that armor does not equate to invincibility. For Mike's own sake, it's probably a good thing Will knows magic.

1x02 + 4x09

no one look at me im thinking about the fact that season 1 is entirely driven by mike's love for will then 3 seasons later he won't even hug him in an airport

Oh yeah remember when Finn said Mike was trying to be normal.

What the fuck was that. Because he spent all his time in Hawkins with Eddie freakin “the freak” Munson emphasizing to Lucas how he did not care about being cool.

The only other thing he did all season was try to tell El he....oh

going to be brave on here and say that i used to be mike wheeler's no. 1 hater. any conversation i had about stranger things with anyone always included "you hate mike? good." or "you don't hate mike? alright. here's why you should." but then i had a big epiphany that was maybe somewhat influenced by that one post that goes like "maybe you weren't a horrible person. maybe you were just fifteen," which led me to actually think about mike's character for more than two seconds. it was then when i realized i hated mike wheeler because he reminded me of me. mike, the emotional turmoil of a person, is just a teenager whose a bit sad and so, so, so confused. but he tries so hard and he cares so much and i am so full of love for mike wheeler. he's truly just out there trying to do better, trying to figure out what 'doing better' even means. all while facing an apocalypse so. maybe he deserves some slack. and a hug.

I want to preface this post with the fact that I find Mileven completely adorable in seasons 1 & 2. They were truly at their peak and I adore them. I also absolutely love Dustin and Lucas. Now onto the post:

Dustin and Lucas make me so mad in s1 on behalf of Mike. Them telling Mike that he's practically obsessed and in love with El just because he missed one (1) day of school to help a kid who is their age and obv scared/in need of help, then kept her around because he thought she could help them find their missing friend... is insane to me.

I understand that they are kids, and that's why I don't really hold this against them... but it's so frustrating to watch from both a Mileven perspective and a Byler perspective. Mileven because they (or Mike at least) didn't get the chance to come to this conclusion on their own, he was basically forced to confront his newlyfound feelings in the middle of one of the worst times in his life. Byler because if Mike really does suffer from internalized homophobia omg did this mess him up even more. Like "oh, they think I like her so it must be true, right? Maybe I'm not so weird after all." type thinking was probably occurring.

Plus just the forced-ness of it all in general makes me uncomfy.

Watching Dustin say "all you ever wanna do is pay attention to her" as if it's a completely bad thing is so saddening to me, because yes, Mike really does care for El, but he's also so deadset on keeping her around and believing in her at that point because he knows she has a direct connection with Will.

Also Lucas's "El, will you marry me?" and Mike being so genuinely confused and annoyed by it is so telling to me. He was definitely not focused on his feelings for El, romantic or not, at that time! I don't see how he could be! His best friend is missing, he's known El for a couple days at least, and we know the Duffers don't believe in love at first sight (which doesn't mean they can't write it but still).

Idk, I know I'm not alone on this, but the whole situation just feels weird and slightly forced w/ romantic Mileven in s1.

Byler vol 1 be like

Mike: Will I was so scared I’d lost you, I don’t feel the same way abt you like with our other friends Yk?

Will: Yeah that’s rlly cool Mike, and I feel the exact same way bc I’m in love with you. Too bad ur obviously in love with El and you could never love me that way :(

Mike: Actually me and El aren’t rlly working that well anymore, I don’t think she needs me and it would probably be better if we brea-

Will: You two are so in love :((

Mike: Actually I think I’m gay-

Will: soulmates :(((

Like cmon, Mike may be king of obliviousness but Will isn’t too far behind him 💀

"my comfort character is mike wheeler" somehow makes you sound more damaged than "my comfort character is will byers"

but god, "my comfort character is jonathan byers"...