Turns out getting to Mike, now that was the key!

Hello,I am Mel Nice to meet you!! she/her early 20' lesbean | ST theory enjoyer | Mike Wheeler defender | Byler beloved

[oliveespineapples]

do you guys ever just want to cry

[mikewheelerisaqueerler]

genuinely happy mike wheeler crumbs because my diva son is turning FIFTY FIVE

[mel01837]

Omg I have been so inactive lately, the hsr chokehold got me again lol

[miwiheroes]

random but this thing from dustin's book literally haunts me abt mike. for context, robin was trying out this free therapy thing where the boys all wrote down their fears anonymously then she'd read them out:

[tragicbullettheory]

El-volution 🧇🩸🥤🦄🪻

(season 5 doesn’t exist to me)

[byelerheart]

Lowkey the bravewise movement pmo bcs it feels like ppl are using it yet again to shit on Canon Mike. Let me clarify that I'm obviously not talking about everyone and not the concept of the Mike's switching itself, but more about how ppl are using it to be as spiteful as possible towards Mike YET AGAIN. The same way they were with Richie/Boris/Mikhail/Chance/Cartlon/Fanon Mike/ and now Paladin Mike x Will (who sadly gets reduced to a shy soft gay boy in those) Bcs why cant you just enjoy those without pushing down on Mike. Atp just admit that you dont like Byler and it's characters but just the idea of two charas that are obsessed with each other. In comparison, I rarely hear ppl talk about Mike x Cleric Will bcs that would mean actually engaging with the real Mike.

just because it's controversial to say doesn't mean it's wrong. there are a bunch of self proclaimed solo will stans in this fandom that ship byler purely because that's what will canonically wants but then absolutely do not get entire mike's character and because of that they shit on him. why do you even bother with engaging in the ship if you dislike one side of it? i never understood this mindset.

ship will with random guys all you want, they are so flavourless to the point where they are more of ocs than actual characters, i'm not stopping yall but stop saying you ship byler then when you truly do not. and stop tagging it as byler either, when it has nothing to do with them.

as i said before, s4 fandom has done irreparable damage to perception of mike's character. we know that and we see that happening. however everyone's beloved will is also severely mischaracterised, maybe not to the same degree - as a lot has been revealed about will explicitly not subtextually - but it's definitely noticeable enough. will would have went to the party in the epilogue if not mike, yada yada. "will you were done so wrong by the authors i'm sorry :(" and then they say he listens to top 10 songs on the current charts... do you actually know what character are you talking about? i sometimes feel like i'm only one of the people that does not project on those characters and try to look at them through analysis of canon material only.

i have seen comments on tiktok from their fans about how they love bravebyers but hate wisewheeler for some reason and it tells me enough. do you like byler or do you like your ooc soft boy will x finn wolfhard looking guy?

it drives me crazy because true byler's dynamic is so complex and so interesting. there's no fault on each side really, they're just very deeply affected by the world they live in. both of them have flaws, both of them have trauma and struggles that they process in different ways - that's what makes them compelling. the other side of the same coin kind of thing. and their flaws both work in favour and against them. they're always either too early or too late to things. i can understand why it's frustrating on the surface level (i feel like it's supposed to make us feel this way), but i like the version where they are dragged for so long because they have a crucial part in the main plot way better than them getting together without Any Problems (as if that's any realistic).

the thing is, even in s5 without CG mike wasn't proven to be a douche bag who treated both will and el bad for zero reason. it's your own assumption. just like the assumption that mike is straight. because when you look at what story has shown us it'd be really hard to fit a straight mike there, lol. and it's not just his "hidden" queercoding but simple story writing. does everything have to be spelt out for you to understand it? i get that for CG non-believers the story might seem a bit different, but even so, mike is shown to be more as repressed while mlvn scene is not even real, so as much as it must hurt not to see byler become canon there, it does not overwrite anything that has been built up so far.

i truly don't understand how you could blame a teen boy for experiencing comphet while growing in a homophobic environment with zero support around him (and it's not like will was making it any easier to him in s4 and s5) - just because he did not have a happy ending himself? so you decide to replace him with a fantasy version of himself that's not actually him? as if will would want that too?

eh, i don't know what is with this fandom and their screwed perception of the characters they claim to love so much...

[mel01837]

Editing in this post afterwards bcs it is legit just this

[ooblahscooblah]

I don’t know if anyone’s pointed this out yet, but the framing here is so paralleled it feels like it should be intentional.

Look at the square framing at the head of the table! The two lamps! The way the lighting feels strangely artificial when we know this crew can do much more ‘realistic’ visuals (e.g. the van scene).

Even the matching glasses with Ted Wheeler and Henry Creel?? This is crazy to me.

[mel01837]

I miss Mikeeeeee

[erikiara80]

It's like they've all been drugged. What we see is not what it seems. They didn't win.

[thestrangestthing89-deactivated]

It makes me wonder if the spores have something to do with it. It drugged them and pulled them into the vecna verse. We've seen most of our main characters breathing the air at this point. And the military/lab at least in S1 was very careful about wearing hazmat suits. The whole town of Hawkins breathed in spores at the end of S4. But if we are assuming the main characters were pulled into the Vecna nightmare sooner than that, I think Jonathan was the only one who didn't go into the UD before. In S2, Steve and the kids go into the tunnels but they have their faces covered. Dustin is the only one who gets sprayed in the face (along with Hopper). Most of the time, the group isn't careful about if they are breathing the air and we know from the lab in S1 that the air is toxic. But most of our characters have breathed it at some point. I'm focusing mostly on the first 2 seasons here because I don't think we can trust what we see from S3 on. These are the people who either didn't go into the UD at all or they were at least careful about covering their faces when they did: - Steve - Jonathan - Mike - Lucas - Max - El - Erica - Robin It's possible we can rule Max out since she got pulled into a Vecna nightmare in a different way. Unless this is an illusion too?? El never physically went into the UD until S5. It was usually just in her void. But again, focusing on earlier seasons because I think the Vecna nightmare started in S3. Is this the group that will save the day? I said in a post prior to S5 that Mike visiting Will in Lenora felt a lot like Orpheus and Eurydice. He goes to the underworld (Lenora) to rescue him and bring him back to the real world. Argyle acts like Chiron shuttling them back through the desert instead of Styx. Because the UD doesn't have water. But what if the Hawkins Mike brought Will back to wasn't really Hawkins and they didn't wake up the way they thought they did? They are still stuck in the illusion. Joyce rescuing Hopper seems like the dream within a dream component of the story too. Hopper is in a different realm within their Vecna verse and she had to go bring him out. Like Dante's circles of hell. Russia isn't really Russia. It's an illusion too. I think Max going through memories could be a hint of this. It's a maze of illusions and memories.

[mel01837]

Ppl be like cardboard "Cardboard Mike" but what about the cardboard coming out reaction cast bcs everyone besides mike had the most generic reactions ever

[dnlrrr]

wiw

[heroesbyler]

Always a fun time to continue paralleling your character you aim to leave unharmed with his mom that almost died for no reason. Mike my boy you will be so harmed/almost dead it is insane.

[heroesbyler]

[mel01837]

This moment will haunt me forever

WHAT DO YOU MEANNNNNNN

Everything from the lighting, to the voice effect used on Will's voice, to the Wake up, to-

[mel01837]

Everything can be a Mike Wheeler reference if you are crazy enough

[n1k4ma]

princess

[mel01837]

Shock Jock and what rly might have happened

I was going crazy, as always, and let's just say, s3 keeps on being relevant

S5 Shock Jock is invitíng us to look back upon the sauna test

So let's go take a look at it!

The scene is switching back and forth between the hospital and the sauna with both flayed persons getting activated. Both scene are taking place at the same time.

So maybe this is an indicator of what might be happening with Mike in shock jock? On one hand, he is like a patient with Nancy(and co.?) trying to exorcise the mf out of him and on the other hand we have Mike trying to escape/navigate his trance/mind sauna prison?

With Mrs Driscoll and Billy+ the Mike Mannequin serving as stand-ins?

There are some very weird scenes in the episode that feel very eerie when it comes to Mike and the fried demogorgon too

Mike honey your sweater isn't helping your case

Side note: Btw yes 'Light her up Frankenstein'. A Mind Flayer and Mrs Driscoll Connection? And with that, Nana Wheeler too? Ik there is some stuff about Nana Wheeler with the MF (and Mrs Driscoll?) but that is more of @wheelercore expertise. Honestly I can't believe that we have Mike and Mrs Driscoll twinning with the hospital fit, in the same hopsital and possibly in a similar context, it's cracking me up. Also Mrs Driscoll and the rat in the cage going completely crazy in her basement? With Mike also going crazy in his own basement(with and without Will)

Anyways, the scene is even eerier when watching it because of the ost playing there.

Here is a cut version focusing mostly on the demo and Mike

It truly feels like they want the viewers to think something might be wrong

To add to all this, the season 3 scene even had a flashback to the s2 exorcism

What if Nancy has been the one trying to burn the Mind flayer(?) out of Mike? She was the one burning away the Mf out of Will too AND she is shown with Mike at the hospital! Nancy has been present during many instances of Mike's exit imagery (mainly in the hospital scenes but also with doors in s3 and in the few scenes they have shared in s4) Additionally, she might also be the one to kill him?

There might be more tbh but the sauna test ends with destroying the brick wall... I dont think i need to elaborate on that one

I'm not exactly sure what is going on tbh, I do think Mike has been in a trance for most of s5 and maybe the other's might have joined over the course of the season? With more and more exit signs appear above the characters

And maybe... they aren't only trying to free and fry him of whatever is going on but also to

Bring him back to life? Restart his heart?

[lavenderlatte222]

The center point of the 3 Xs is The Quarry.

Going off of @erikiara80's post, there are 3 Xs in ST that stand out to me:

The Library where the four gates converge

2. Hawkins Lab

(photo credit to @erikiara80)

3. Merrill’s Farm

(photo credit to @erikiara80)

I was thinking about Dustin using his 3 points to determine the center of the circular wall in the UD in S8E4, so I was curious to try this with the 3 points mentioned above.

Sure enough, the center is The Quarry.

IDK what this means exactly, but that's a big coincidence. Assuming it's not a coincidence, I know it's where they found Will's fake body, and where Mike jumped but was saved by Jane/El, but I'm wondering if there's a bigger significance.

If you have any thoughts, please share!

(i'm happy to make another post showing my work, but that will take some time for me to get together, and i thought this was an interesting find, so i wanted to go ahead and share)