sex-repulsed ace, my biggest hc for the longest time. i also occasionally hc him as aro as well. i like genderqueer and tfem mike a lot, they're not cis thats for sure.
the fight with billy in s3 ep8 scarred, there's no way it didn't. he was bleeding like a leaky faucet it was deeep.
also i like the birthmark on the cheek and i did to the birthmark on the eye but leaning away bc fym mike isn't involved with the ud fuck off
karen taught mike the basics of cooking and easy recipies bc nancy didn't want to learn and karen wanted to cook with her children. he's not great at it but it's helpful when karen needs extra hands in her kitchen (18 month gap with the byers) since no one else in the house cooks (her ass is not letting joyce cook)
mike and nancy inherited their anxiety and depression from karen (and more but still fleshing it out) also substance abuse runs in the family (ted, karen, nancy)
worst case of late sleeper + early riser, max three hours a night (not projecting don't talk to me) i think nancy is the same way. also sleeps curled up into a ball (hes the little spoon in mileven this is cannon trust)
background checks/shovel talks all of nancy's bfs this is why he knew so much abt steve s1. jon still got a shovel talk even tho they knew each other. mike cheered at both breakups (he saw the signs)
mike can only pick one person up and it's holly and he does it a lot. (post getting holly back from vecna he would not set her down shes not getting taken on his watch) he's also holly's favorite sibling. nancy is mike's favorite, he wanted to be just like her.
eyesight isn't that great he just refused glasses for so long but accepted them after it became hard to write (farsighted)
favorite places are the basement, nancy's room, the cabin, and the byers house.
can i say mike picks up smoking from hop bc i think thats interesting, he gets hops old lighter..same brand.... can iii
el and mike can read each other's mind, one look and thats it. they team up for storytelling + special effects for dnd.
mike learns how to braid hair for holly and then spirals into him styling max and el's hair. madmileven trioism is realll.
platonic madwheeler locked in post starcourt. even when max was pulling away mike would try to reach out, she was canonically at his house a lot. mike would call saying he needs helps babysitting holly, its a lie. max and mike have similar taste in rock/grunge music and they share their taste with el.
the wheelers are an abba household.
mike is the party's weighted blanket, he will lay on/tackle people affectionately. he's just blanket sized (why so tall)
terrible relationship with food, practically canon.
has hundreds of sweaters and is constantly letting party members borrow them. each member has two of their own mike sweaters.
dont come after me but hes the most likey to end up in a toxic relationship
Brenner is a groomer (henry + el + lab kids) he takes a parental role for the lab kids, kidnaps and isolates them, controls and coerces them to do what he wants. S4 shows us his relationship with El specifically where he singles El out making her special compared to the rest of the kids, a grooming technique. The constant emotional abuse swaying between acting as a caring father (he takes on the title papa) and putting her in physical danger both by his hand and by association. (putting her in the void while saying she was brave+strong was abuse and part of this push pull narrative) Brenner made El entirely dependent on him for comfort and safety while being the source of harm which does apply to grooming. All of this applies to Henry (and henry himself uses these techniques). Brenner utilizes the Creel Tragedy to take the place of Henry's parents and manipulate him. Henry is 001 and Brenner's first as said before he makes Henry feel special. Later on Brenner tries to give Henry the assumption they are equals (henry is allowed to work with the kids like doctor yet still is under brenners control) A tactic used by groomers is allowing children to feel like they are equals with the groomer, giving them autonomy, trusting their decisions, treating them like an adult to gain trust. Which Brenner does with Henry. El in s4 is treated vaguely similarly as Brenner wants for them to be equals while saving the world, he lets her take charge of NINA while in the program. (yet he doesn't like not having control and kept treating el like a child once again taking a parental role) (i believe this lack of respect is what let henry and el breakaway from brenner as the blindfold of familial comfort was taken off as they aged and this childlike protection was a barrier for their growth and not the only safety/freedom they could have)
Brenner+Hop parallels. El tells Hopper that he "is like Papa" and the scene itself is exactly what Brenner was doing. Hopper isolates El for a whole year, Brenner kept El isolated before and after the HNL Massacre, Hopper is also the only person El has contact with during that year. Hopper puts himself into a parental position for El, he also replaces Sara (and also his ex-wife imo) with El forcing a familial relationship with her. Much like Brenner taking over a parental relationship with Henry+El+Lab kids, taking them away from their parents and becoming their "Papa". Which Hopper does as well, hiding Terry Ives and El's birth name Jane from El to instead lure El to his cabin and keep her trapped their (much like the lab). Hopper also has the same push pull relationship with El, comforting/protecting her while also being the cause of her emotional (sometimes physical) distress. El's breakdowns in s2 are both tied to Hopper lying to her and keeping her trapped inside, he then later comes back with things that he is sure will comfort her and bring her back to him. He is used to this cycle so it's safe to assume El is too, Hopper will cause emotional distress in EL (through the isolation) and then comfort her. El is dependent on Hopper for everything like she was with Brenner in the lab. S3+4 don't make it better seeing how Hopper involves himself so heavily in her life with a strict curfew and several rules. He continues to present himself a father which is what Brenner does in s4, showing how both of them are way to emotionally invested in replacing familial relationships they don't have by controlling El.
I think I could go on for Mike+Nancy and Henry / Creel+Wheeler parallels for a while but I don't know much about the Creels so I do not want to say too much. (i also don't subscribe to genetic creelers theory i just like their parallels) The family themselves match up well except the fact that both Nancy and Mike fit into the role of Henry. Both of them being attached to the upside down through Vecna who is an extension of the MF. Henry is isolated from his family emotionally, Mike is also isolated from his family. He is visually and emotionally separated them from Karen+Ted (neither of them try to reach out to mike post fake-body while karen is seen several times to try and pry nancy open to talk to her) Henry+Alice and Mike+Holly parallels, both the younger sisters getting trapped by an extension of the MF. (all information from the show alone i have not seen the stageplay) I could pull more but there is a parallel, not sure how important this is to the rest of MikeHop but it's there. If Hop parallels Brenner and Mike parallels Henry then the Locked Car scene is an extension of the Brenner+Henry drama.
Drawing back to what I've said about Hopper using grooming tactics on El similar tactics can be found in his relationship with Mike. The push pull relationship and the specialization of their relationship. Hopper causes emotional distress in El and then comforts her making her emotionally reliant on Hopper. Hopper also causes emotional distress in Mike and then will comfort him. S2 Hopper causes a breakdown in Mike due to him keeping the knowledge of El's safety a secret but also through his reaction to Mike reuniting with El and rightfully being angry at him. Then in the same scene after grabbing and manhandling him (which would not help the breakdown in anyway) proceeds to comfort Mike. Many believe Hop is offering fatherly comfort in this scene to a kid who has just been through hell which would add onto the replacing a parental figure technique (thats not something that fits mikehop just thought I would mention it) The specialization happens in the previous scenes and a lot in s3. S2 Mike spends a lot of time with Joyce and Hopper, where both adults give him some sense of authority. Joyce lets Mike adultify himself and Hopper listens to Mikes ideas and plans. He talks to/looks at Mike specifically about El in the last episode of s2. At the end of s3 Hopper looks at Mike alone and tells him to be safe despite both El and Max being right there as well. S4 Hopper has a whole emotional reunion with El and later has a similar one with Mike. Mike relationship with Hopper is also highlighted. The Locked Car scene can also be added for this but the strangeness of that scene is important to me. The Locked Car scene in s3 always raised red flags for me imo. It's similar to the scene of Max and Billy from s2 and Billy was abusive (neil and billy remind me of brenner and henry). Mike has never been afraid of Hopper this is the only time he has shown to be afraid of an authority figure, he stayed brave faced against Lab men. Hopper's anger is very different in this scene he isn't lashing out he is controlled, this adds to the terrifying nature of the scene. S4 brings up the idea of "don't talk to cops alone" I think that can be applied to this situation, don't talk to a cop alone in a locked car. The cut is placed in such a way we get some of the threat, none of the car ride, and none of the fallout. Mike in the next episode is shown to be uncomfortable with the idea of even talking about what happened. Lucas asks if Hopper threatened to kill mike (which he has) yet Mike doesn't tell Lucas that, he doesn't even tell Lucas that he was right with that assumption. He goes silent and refuses to elaborate. It's a red flag, if Mike was angry he would be complaining about everything Hopper said but he's not. Mike is still scared of whatever happened in the car that we didn't see. If it was anyone else and Hop's anger was taken seriously this scene would be terrifying and not the funny joke its become. I think this adds onto the push pull relationship I've mentioned but it also has its own category of keep Hop away from kids imo.
The reason for all of this I believe is that Hopper sees both him and his ex-wife in mileven's relationship. I've mentioned before that El is a replacement for Hop's entire family, including his wife. Mike is very anti authority, he fights back against Hopper, he's aggressive at times and very rash, he's strong willed. Hopper describes his younger self with anecdotes of fighting against his father, not respecting his father or authority, making rash decisions like joining the military, and being an aggressive kid (and an aggressive adult). The way Hop describes himself is similar to how Mike act and how Hop sees him. Hop believes he is the reason why Sara died and his wife left him, his wife left him due to his overwhelming grief that turned into the anger issues he had as a kid. Him projecting the same fears onto mileven is rational. He sees twos kid, one his daughter and the other that reminds him of himself, and he wants to make sure the same mistakes don't get repeated. If that means rejecting El's autonomy to keep her trapped and in his eyes safe he will do it. If that means manipulating and controlling Mike to be better in the ways Hop couldn't he will do it. Hop isn't against doing terrible things to get what he wants, he's good at pushing aside the fact his actions are bad as long as he gets the outcome he wants. I do believe he struggles with feeling guilty when it doesn't relate to people he considers direct family. He is willing to do so much to keep his family safe when in fact what he does ends up hurting them. Like despite his desire to keep El safe locking her up like this is only hurting her.
At the end of all of this I'm not saying Hop is actively grooming El+Mike rather his relationships with the both of them are similar to Brenner's relationship with El. (or maybe i'm saying he did idk im cursed with pattern recognition and fear for elmike) Similar actions for similar and different reasons. I would say all of the actions I've listed from Hop could be unconscious but he still does do them and he is a shitty person. I do believe however that he was trying to micromanage their relationship which led to some of the issues they had to face in s4+timeskip. I think s4 also leads into their relationship with Hopper in s5. S4 El has to go through Brenner again but this time when he tries to control her with fatherly affection it doesn't work as well because she isn't given much respect, much like Brenner and an older Henry imo. She takes this lesson and is able to apply it to Hopper, Hopper keeps trying to go back to the father daughter relationship they had when she was younger which is not what El needs. She needs Hop to respect her autonomy and her choices which is why she's so bitchy with her in vol1. But he refuses to give her that respect trying to manipulate her with 1. Sara 2. her name Jane and 3. childhood memories. Mike learns the opposite lesson from El in which he doesn't try to fight against Hop's manipulations but instead goes along with what Hopper wants. While yes El and Mike do fix their relationship someone, they both learn to trust each other and be more open. But Hopper is the one who put the idea that Mike isn't good enough for El in his head in s3 which is what he's most insecure about in s4, his anxieties were proven right in his mind at least. So he becomes what Hop wanted him to be, a "better" version on himself. The person Hop couldn't be, Mike becomes someone that wouldn't ruin a relationship. He doesn't interact with Hopper in s5 but in s4 he initiates the hug with Hopper (which hopper happily accepts even though their relationship hasn't been close since s2) and Mike imo would not hug Hopper. Mike isn't shown to hug anyone but his friends and his mom, Mike has had a complex relationship with Hopper and especially after s3 it should be worse. The hug to me indicates that Mike is giving in to Hopper and agreeing with Hopper's view instead of his own and that is why Hopper is willing to give Mike a hug back.
All of this just ties back into the grooming themes of many of the characters in ST. Especially those closely related to the UD but I'm sure there are many others who can explain that better but willelmike continuously suffer. Hop Brenner parallels come kick me in the ass all the time, get them both away from kids. I do want to throw in the term emotional incest because I do see it applying to Brenner and Henry+El+Lab kids and it kind of connects to what I was saying abt mileven and Hop/Ex-Wife projection. But I didn't want to learn too heavily on that as it's just not what I'm trying to saw here. Do I know what I'm trying to say, not really. Keep Hop away from Elmike lmao.
writing mikehop from both perspectives is wild, one of them is continuously breaking down due to this relationship and the other acts like it's any other tuesday and that everything between them is fine
