it also frustrates me when Bylers claim they understand Mike more than Mileven fans but everything they "understand" about him is purely a headcanon. Which like headcanons are fine but saying you understand him cause of his internalized homophobia , means you actually don't understand his character. He was never written in the show to have internalized homophobia, if you want to write that into a fanfic like obvi be my guest but in the show its very clear he is a very anxiously attached guy. Who spent six years trying to hold onto this impossible girl. Too scared to be uneeded that he failed to understand he was wanted.
No literally. Like let’s just run down everything that specifically happens to Mike in the series:
His best friend goes missing
He’s forced to jump off a cliff by his bullies
He watches his best friends dead body be pulled out of a lake
The girl who helped him find his best friend disappears into thin air
his best friend is possessed by the mind flayer
gets threatened by his girlfriend’s dad who kept her away from him for almost a year
almost gets knocked out by flayed billy during the sauna test
does get knocked out by billy at startcourt
his best friend and girlfriend leave the state
living in a house with 2 parents who don’t love each other at all and are always going back and forth
almost gets attacked by monsters multiple times
goes to visit his gf and bff in lenora and has to watch his gf be arrested
goes on a mission to find said girlfriend and finds her amongst a sea of dead scientists
goes back home and his town is split in half
and this is all before season 5. I get that Mike doesn’t have the most trauma of everyone in the show. But he’s definitely traumatized and for good reason. If the only rationalization you can make for Mikes more unsavory behaviors are that it’s because he has “internalized homophobia” then you’re just lazy. and go ahead and ship what you want, you can write, draw, read whatever fic/headcanon/ships you want. but acting like it’s canon because you don’t pay enough attention to the show says more about you than it says about Mike and the show in all actuality.
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