Mike X Will - Blog Posts
They know what we want
Season 5 Byler scene where Mike or Will has to find the other in the upside down and they’re running around screaming for the one they’re looking for and it’s set to Somebody to Love by Queen and at the end of the song they find each other and kiss
Since I’ve seen a lot of people saying that Noah Schnapp shipping Byler or saying things like “some of Mike and Will scenes can be interpreted as romantic” (paraphrasing) could turn into queerbait if the ship doesn’t come to fruition, I feel like y’all need to be grounded.
Noah is an actor, not a writer. He is a gay human being and viewer of the show. He is allowed to ship the characters the same way the audience does even if he didn’t know the ending —the way he didn’t when he stated he shipped Mike and Will in S4.
His comments such as “scenes can be interpreted as romantic” are him interpreting the show the way a viewer that enjoys the ship does —he is not god.
And if the ship does not come to fruition the way you’re hoping it does, it was not queerbait on his behalf. He is just enjoying the joy you get from his character’s queerness. And it is definitely not “the worst thing he’s ever done.” He has already done much worse with his responsibility as a young adult in the public eye 🤨🤨🤨
Watching people analyze Mike’s character change in S3 and 4 is so fascinating because it’s like he’s the only one they wrote like an actual 14 year old??? Dustin? Terrible 14 year old, too emotionally adjusted which is why he fits in well with the older gang. Lucas? We get a small identity crisis with the popular kid switch in S4. 14 year olds have confusing feelings about identity and how they fit in socially and their role to their peers. That can cause kids to perform extremes in their actions ie. the past two seasons Mike’s identity has p much been being El’s boyfriend and it’s not working out for him. Yes, all of the characters experience development, that is how a TV show works, but no one captures the soul of real teenage obnoxious dumbassery like Mike Wheeler.
Thinking about how it makes no narrative sense to have Will confess romantic feelings and then Mike flat out say “I’m not gay, man.”
Yes, this happens in real life, but what would this accomplish for the show? When would it happen?
All it would do is change (and likely ruin) the dynamic of their relationship for the remainder of the show. You could argue they could have a “RobinXSteve” confession —but Steve’s tender moment with Robin is different because he thought he liked Robin and didn’t know she was gay. Will would be risking more than Steve or Robin. And nobody wants Mike and Will’s friendship walking on eggshells for the wrong reasons.
There are a few other possibilities:
1. Will’s romantic feelings for Mike magically resolve themself, despite spending all of his time with Mike. Therefore never feeling the need for a confession. Alt. A non-existent new love interest appears
2. He never comes out to Mike particularly, or if he does, does not express his feelings. In this scenario Mike might end up with Eleven. However, Mike ending up with Eleven is contradictory to a focal point of the show where Eleven grows into herself and her identity as a human, rather than an experiment. Mike still sees her as the “superhero” that landed on his doorstep that needs him to protect her from the bad. While the show has kind of played itself off as almost anti-will the past two seasons, it really has been rooting for him. The first two seasons were about saving him. So an ending where he is “trapped” in his childhood with his trauma behind the closet would not be satisfying to the audience for a core character. This is a coming of age show at the heart. Not The Tragedy of Will Byers.
3. Um, Mike dies. I’ve seen this one. It’s possible ig but it’s highly unlikely.
4. Slow-burn MikeXWill romance throughout the season in the different ways people have been predicting. Which at this point it would take a lot to convince me is not going to happen.
5. Will realizes his feelings for Mike are him romanticizing his memories of a time before he went missing.
El being ace actually makes a lot of sense. If the show was more queer and focused more on that, I could see El realizing she is aroace and was taught that romance was expected and was just trying to fit in
st fandom collecting queer couples be like:
(yeah el is ace because i said so hehe)
