#byler callbacks

[gayofthefae]

@niamosss got me thinking about how queerness was equated to your deepest connection to your childhood and how Mike says things about straightness like

"We're not kids anymore" "Old people say it to each other"

Queerness is the joy you felt when you were small and innocent and free.

Straightness is the feeling of forcing yourself to be an adult at 14.

They're clear about their values.

Straightness is "we're not kids anymore"

Queerness is "I felt so free. It's like I could fly."

[gayofthefae]

Mike, Escape From Camazotz: "Get to Max, I'll stay with Will"

We know season 2 Mike is back because he is also back to his classic delegating ways of "everyone else do something else while only I stay with Will" XD

[gayofthefae]

The scene where they first met being the epitome of how Mike and Will express their love with each other.

Mike initiates and verbalizes

But Will kicks his feet

[gayofthefae]

Wait oh my god

In the original script for the Snow Ball.

Will went to dance with that girl, Mike reacted sadly. He sat alone depressed for the rest of the night. When El came in, he danced with her. He did not kiss her.

Will watched them yearningly, jealous over their happiness.

IT'S BASICALLY FUCKING SEASON 4. IT WAS THE SAME MISCOMMUNICATION.

Will does something to make Mike think he's not interested so Mike goes to El. Then it cuts to Will watching sadly like "why did he choose El :(".

ADLJFAOIJEOA IT'S LITERALLY THAT. IT'S THEM. THEY'RE ALIVE ALL THE WAY BACK THEN.

The original script for The Snow Ball was Mike feeling dumped by Will and hesitantly - without a kiss - moving on from Will, only for us to find that Will was always going to come back, and when he tries to come back, finds Mike with El.

It's them oh my god

*breaking bad voice* THEY CAN'T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS

[gayofthefae]

The bloody shoes. Will's bloody shoes on the couch.

[gayofthefae]

"I don't know. He was quiet today."

"You were barely talking!”

Yeah, he's still in there. It just comes out different now. He's just scared to say it til it all gets too much.

Mike, baby. It would have been okay if when Will was in the bathroom or something you turned to El and said "hey, he's quiet today, do you think he's alright?" But I know that's not all you wanted to say. And I know it felt like cheating. You're okay. It's all real complicated and messy but at the end of the day, Will knows you better than anybody so he knew

"you were barely talking" was just "he was quiet today". And "he was quiet today" was just "I miss you".

Yeah. He's still in there. It just comes out different sometimes.

[gayofthefae]

Do you ever think about how in 2x04 Will was absent and didn't pick up the phone for one day and he immediately assumed he was in danger and Mike was sad and lonely the entire day and could only think or talk about Will -

And how he went to Will's house as soon as he could after school?

And how Will didn't pick up for 6 months - but this time he was across the country?

"Anger is just sadness that had nowhere to go for a very long time"

We saw how Mike was with Will after missing him for just a day. I think if Will hadn't picked up for a week, a month, he would've hugged him that much tighter. But Will didn't pick up for 6. And by then he couldn't hug him at all.

These are the same scenes. The first gif happened. You can be sure of it. But this time, it passed. This time, the sadness didn't have anywhere to go.

One thing Mike does is he never asks if Will knew he tried to call. Or tried to call back. That's why he's so surprised when Will says "what about us?" When Will cares at all. He felt like he was yelling at a wall. Someone who had been a wall all day. Someone who had been a wall all year. Then that someone said "I care about this relationship and I didn't get your calls". The fight isn't Mike talking to Will. It's everything Mike wanted to say for 6 months of no calls too, just like Will.

If Will had called him back in November, they would have talked all night. But he didn't hear from him until March. March 22. And we see what he's become from it plain as day on March 21.

[gayofthefae]

We don't come back to this enough and how these are DIFFERENT. LOOKS. He cries. He's willing to cry. He is okay with being vulnerable and okay with being vulnerable in front of his mother. He is on the verge of breaking down in gif one. He is walking on autopilot, not looking up, eyes unfocused in gif two.

In gif one, he hasn't allowed himself to truly feel it until he is able to collapse into his mother's arms. In gif two, he started thinking and he has not stopped. Gif one is him breaking down into feeling something. Gif two is him sitting in something.