a VERY rambly discussion and appreciation of mike wheeler through the seasons (as someone who loves this character):
anyway, i watched stranger things and i needed to yap about mike wheeler because he’s my favourite character and i love him and i do not care what others think of him and he’s soooo much the party’s heart and the heart of the show for me.
from season one, where we are shown how much influence mike has on the party, i’ve always seen him as the party’s leader and their glue. from lucas feeling jealous because mike had to divert his attention to eleven, to dustin being reassured by mike that he was his best friend too and feeling good on hearing that, to mike caring for el in the sweetest, gentlest manner to him doing his best to look for will. mike feels so much and so deeply. one scene i particularly recall is when him and lucas get into a fight after el’s deception with the compass has been discovered and he gets into a spat with lucas and defends el but the moment el throws lucas off to the side—mike gets angry at eleven on lucas’ behalf. he’s always juggling all his friendships and relationships and he doesn’t want them to ever feel like he doesn’t care about them, and he lets his emotions leak into his actions, for both the better and for the worse (for which, i think, he gets barely any grace from the fandom but i digress).
season two is when he is grieving over el and is very wary about letting anyone else into the party—not only because he’s worried for max’s safety but moreso that he can’t bear the thought of someone else coming in and replacing eleven while he’s stuck in this unmoving limbo of both believing el is dead but also holding out hope that she’s alive and out there and hearing him everyday.
he also pours all his energy into caring for will and he does so wholeheartedly. he’s so vulnerable with his emotions when the time comes, for will’s sake, not his own. and his reunion with eleven? that was heartwrenching. so was his outburst with hopper because it shows that mike CARES so FUCKING much.
in season three, mike and eleven are making up for all the lost time and also acting their age—irreverent teenagers who are also traumatised. i honestly think season three was kinda unfair to mike since we do not get his side nor we do not get a “win” for his argument until the confession scene. that said, mike was one of the first and only people to realise that el is just a human like the rest of them and her powers needed to be used with care and consideration, instead of demanding results from her as if she were a vending machine. by what happens by the end of the season, mike’s concern for el is proven to have merit.
this is also the season that mike and lucas want to try out being teen boys and enjoy time with their girlfriends than play dnd, which is a valid change in priority. will, however, wants to hold onto his childhood after having experienced the ud and having lost his wonder for the world—to an extent—through what he survived there. i think both parties were unfair to each other. mike’s words to will are often treated as cruel but will’s words are not brought into conversation. mike canonically has repeatedly shown how he gets worked up when one of the party members insults another/is in conflict with another. he has been angry with el for pushing lucas, has fought lucas about el. eleven is VERY important to mike and will knows this through their conversations in season two. as such insulting el is a surefire way of blowing through mike’s patience and when that happens, mike says stuff he does not mean. i, for one, do think will should have also apologised for insulting el—but i get that mike’s words were more severe so it makes sense that he would have to make amends and he does.
because that’s another thing i love about mike. he acknowledges his mistakes and doesn’t go about seasons waffling and not making an apology. though mike does have a tendency to not really expect apologies himself when he’s been said something hurtful or when he has been wronged. he makes up with people without having a need for such things—which sometimes comes at the detriment of the fandom itself glossing over the fact that in conflicts, the clap happened with two hands and that mike wasn’t the only one who did or said something wrong.
also one thing about the mileven breakup is that it is ultimately hopper’s fault. yes, mike is still responsible for the choice he made, but i find it funny how very few recognise that hopper basically strongarmed that breakup. the whole reason mike lied to eleven was so he could continue meeting her, scared that hopper wouldn’t allow it. remember how i mentioned that they were traumatised? mike has already experienced losing el once and has spent 353 days away from her, because hopper kept him in the dark. that hopper would keep el away from him was a very realistic fear for mike—one that would make him act in a way he usually wouldn’t. when he realises that el might have caught on, he immediately asks lucas for help and they set out to buy her a gift.
mike is so well-intentioned about eleven and has always done his best for her—it actually truly pisses me off when people misconstrue and inflate his actions to paint him as something he is not.
onto season four! i did agree with many about mike’s reduced screentime but i still enjoyed his character and i was glad he was able to finally confess to el herself—having overcome his fears and issues with self-worth. people meme’d alot about will calling mike the heart of the party and while it was a little one the nose, like i said at the beginning, mike has ALWAYS been the heart of the party for me. when dustin contacts them in season three, it’s mike he reaches out to. when will feels the mind flayer’s presence, it’s mike who assembles the whole team. when he comes up with the sauna test, he asks el and max to trust him and they do. lucas, dustin and will follow his lead despite all of them having strong personalities in their own right. his leadership goes hand in hand with him being the heart.
in season four, mike is in the dark about el’s situation in lenora because el was feeling just as insecure as mike, if not more. when mike gets to california, we learn that will and his friendship has grown awkward but like season three, the blame does not and should not fall onto mike singularly. he says something to the effect of, “why is it that i am always the bad guy?” i think part of it is that everyone expects mike to be stagnant as he was in season one—where he was soooo dedicated to his friends that he jumped off of a cliff for dustin.
any conflict he now has with a party is taken as an offence by the audience. “this is not the mike we know” well, mike exists as a character outside his care and dedication to his friends, too! yes, he’s the heart, but the heart has its own beat. he does not exist just to serve as emotional comfort to the party. i think will needed to hear that he was also responsible for their friendship falling apart.
that said, his fear of saying i love you to eleven was evident in season three itself and i do not know why that was so difficult to grasp but i’ll save that in-depth discussion for later. this is already getting out of hand. mike’s words have always meant alot to el and they have repeatedly brought her strength and comfort. mike just needed to believe in himself and will helped with that and i loved the monologue and what it meant for mileven. el finally got to hear what she wanted to—at that point, she had also fought her demons (including brenner)—and mike’s encouragement gave her the boost needed to fight vecna. it’s also mike’s belief in her that she could achieve the impossible that helped her try out her hand at saving max even after her heart had stopped beating.
point is, mike is the heart because he influences the party so much and they accept that influence. he is not perfect, he makes mistakes but he also tries so hard for everyone around him.
in season five, he’s a lovely older brother to holly, the voice nancy can soundboard off of, the one who helps nancy get on task after what happens to their parents. the one who finetunes their plans, the one comforts eleven and infuses optimism into himself and her, the one helps will figure out that he might have a capability that he didn’t know he possessed, the one who looked after the kids and protected them like he once wished someone could have done for him and his friends. mike has grown up over the seasons but he’s also so much the same young kid with a heart of gold i’ve always seen him as. this gold is malleable and bruised after years but it’s still golden and if that sounds cheesy as fuck, that’s the point. mike’s unabashedly living through his messed-up life while trying to keep it together for his sake, his family’s sake and his friends’ sakes—how can i not love this character???
