Operation Cycle-Break: Final Boss Mike - fears & feelings
“Turns out, getting to Mike, that was the key.”
Is Stranger Things all a DnD Campaign manifested by Michael? Well, yes, it sorta is.
Except it’s a metaphor (analogy?) for Mike’s Hero’s Journey to accepting his true self. Which, especially being queer in the eighties, and as Will could already attest to, could feel a whole lot like having to fight for your life against unimaginable horrors and monsters (hopefully with the help of your friends and loved ones – the party). But we often only see Mike as “the Storyteller”, the Dungeon Master, which is more proof that Mike is inadvertently controlling the narrative, not actually being a hero within it.
Fittingly broken up into four gates parts:
How does Mike's fears manifest through the seasons?
Season four - who puts a face to Mike's fears?
Why is Mike the bad guy? (and my take on Tharizdungate)
This goes against a few of my predictions I’ve had in the past, in that I no longer think it will all come down to Mike needing to save a dark-sided Will; we’ve seen that before anyway in s2. Mike and Will will equally save each other. Will may very well be the one to enlighten Mike, you could say. Something, something, Will is Pelor, the god of light. And, in other words, I don’t think Tharizdun is the BBEG we think it is, but more on that later. :)
I think a part of Mike realizes, to some extent, his feelings for Will on November 6, 1983 when they share their first scene together – when Will is honest with Mike about “the roll, it was a seven”. This scene already establishes that Mike and Will’s relationship is different than the other boys as Lucas was just telling Will to lie to Mike about the roll. “Friends don’t lie” is Mike and Will’s rule to friendship and Will honours that even if it means “the Demogorgon got” him. The two boys share a look and the lights flicker. The electricity, synonymous with connection and/or romantic chemistry as the show suggests, surges and Mike, unsure what it means at the time, turns off the electricity.
This sets off the events for the entire show, and as the future DnD scenes throughout, it’s foreshadowed by Mike’s campaign just as he is realizing the extent of his feelings for Will. I think everything from the show manifests from Michael’s repressed feelings, repressed self, and his fears through the party’s DnD campaigns and, to me, that means Mike is the real Final Boss.
The supernatural plot and lore are absolutely reflective and based in how the HIV/AIDS crisis progressed in the eighties, but I think it also manifests from Mike’s repression. Conforming, that’s the real monster, right? Hear me out. Mike is constantly self-sabotaging when he is not true to himself, either through his own character actions or, unbeknownst to him, through the supernatural plot that he manifests or foreshadows. It affects almost everyone around him, but never really affects him as directly as he is not facing his fears, he is actively repressing them, and always running away. Is it any wonder why it took him until season five to see the Upside Down for himself for the first time? Even still, with season five most likely being all an illusion, we still can’t say for sure how or if he does ever face his fears and himself.
How does it manifest through the seasons:
Let’s go through the seasons, shall we? I’ll have a post up soon about how eighties politics, especially the response to the HIV/AIDS crisis, works in tandem with Stranger Things chronology. But, for now, let’s focus on how Mike’s fear of embracing his true self manifests through the show.
As mentioned above, I think a part of Mike realized the extent of his feelings for Will, or just that he has different feelings for Will in the very first episode and that’s what sets off the events of the show. Of course, Mike doesn’t understand the full extent of his feelings, he just suspects he feels something different for Will. Nonetheless, he is scared of this realization – “scared of who I really was.” He doesn’t understand and is scared enough by what it could mean, he shuts it down, literally turning off the flickering lights – the electricity – in the garage.
So, Mike doesn’t understand what it is, where it came from, but he knows that it’s scary to him. And just like that a Demogorgon, a faceless, alter-dimensional being, appears and takes Will away. A Demogorgon – we don’t know anything about it, we don’t understand it, where it came from, it is a very abstract monster indeed. The monster is abstract and unknown at this point, just as Mike doesn’t fully comprehend what he is so afraid of. There is, in fact, a lot of dialogue from Mike of him saying “I don’t understand” throughout all five seasons.
And funnily enough, Billy has the same dialogue and repetition that Mike loves so much, “I don’t understand. I don’t understand!” as Billy gets flayed in season three. Billy is also a repressed queer man, let’s not forget that.
When Will is missing, internally Mike is torn up and torn apart by it. I’m sure Mike is pleading with anything, anybody, any god, to bring Will back. He insists he will go out on the night of November 7, and find Will. Mike makes a wish to get Will back. And when Mike is in the woods, wishing Will to appear, Eleven enters his narrative. It’s a common idiom to say you “make a wish on elevens” (meaning making wishes at 11:11 a.m./p.m.), and wouldn’t you know it, Mike makes a wish for something and Eleven manifests in his world. “In her face, the mirror of your dreams!” Eleven represents a lot of beautiful things and, in a way, she is exactly what Mike needs to help him get his Will back. Not sure what I mean by that? Check out these posts: here and here. But, in short, El is a manifestation of queerness, and by extension Byler itself. “I was thinking once Will’s back and you’re not a secret anymore [...] my family will accept you." (1x08).
During season two, we explore the true and pure devotion Mike has for Will, staying by his side as he is hurting, broken down, tortured and possessed all season. It is not a question that Mike loves Will, but to what extent? Does Mike even know yet?
The main monster this season – The Mind Flayer – is arguably even more abstract than the Demogorgon, and it’s not even visible to Mike, still only Will can see it. Will, who has arguably come to the realization of his true self earlier than Michael. Will knows the monsters better and because of this, is rightfully even more scared of them than Mike, who still doesn’t fully understand them.
El (queerness) is hidden away all season, but Mike still senses her and never gave up on her. And when El returns at the end of season two, Mike has a generational crash out, exclaiming “I don’t understand. I don’t understand!” :(
As El returns, Will is able to be saved from the Mind Flayer. Then, at the Snowball, when Will is dancing with a girl, Mike’s feelings for Will manifest once again. I think he is starting to understand them better now.
The monster in season three I think is much more reflective of the HIV/AIDS epidemic progression in tandem with Stranger Things events. But, in terms of being a manifestation of Mike’s fears, it finally eases up on Will and the party for the most part. Interesting. So, you’re saying that after the Snowball, when Mike is presumably starting to understand his feelings for Will, Mike then suddenly, coincidentally proceeds to be a shitty friend and push Will away in season three.
Mike is already self-sabotaging through his own actions; he doesn’t really need supernatural forces and inter-dimensional monsters to do it for him at this point. Mike is being his own worst enemy, his own version of a monster he would otherwise manifest to make sense of his fears. He is also already doing some of the monsters’ dirty work by effectively breaking down Will’s spirit and “childhood magic”. He also doesn’t really spend any time being a Dungeon Master this season, so the Mind Flayer takes action into her own hands and targets another “William”, Billy in this case. By the end, I believe Mike finally realizes and understands his feelings for Will, aka his fears, when El kisses him and he loses Will again. Earlier this season, you could say Will even foreshadows Mike’s realization: “welcome to my world”.
So, just as Mike’s feelings become realized at the end of season three, in the subsequent season, we get Vecna. Vecna enters the narrative - we get a “face”, a poster boy, to the horror of the Upside Down. Vecna was once a boy himself and he is a more personified villain to Mike’s manifestation of fears. He is a more realized monster, while the previous ones were more abstract – because we weren’t meant to understand them, their motives, where they came from, just as Mike didn’t truly understand his feelings until the end of season three.
Season Four – Eddie is Mike Part II and Vecna
Vecna puts a face to these feelings and fears of Mike’s because Mike understands them now to some extent – he loves Will. But still, he keeps repressing himself and running away. And we have another DnD campaign that foreshadows and manifests in the future events of the show, Eddie’s Hellfire night. And let’s not forget that Eddie is a reflection of Mike, so, in a way, Mike himself is still manifesting Vecna and the events of season four through his fears. Mike is aware of his feelings for Will now. He runs away from those feelings so much so that he is removed from the Hawkins storyline altogether and essentially a mirror of himself, Eddie, takes his place in the party.
Eddie is Mike part one here. Eddie’s conclusion in s4 is one opposite of Mike’s. They have a very similar build up but entirely different endings. Just as Eddie has to go into hiding after 4x01, Mike removes himself from the Hawkins storyline by flying to California, hiding from Hawkins in a way as well as hiding from himself. As Mike starts gaining courage by making amends and rebuilding a foundation with Will, Eddie comes out of hiding to help the party in Hawkins. In Mike’s perspective, he probably thinks he is acting recklessly getting so close to Will knowing the risks, like Eddie coming out of his hiding and subsequently getting killed because of it.
For myself and a lot of people, Eddie is easy to love for many reasons, but especially because he is so familiar to us. He is supposed to be akin to an early seasons’ Mike. Eddie is very reminiscent of s1 and s2 Mike, as in a truer and less fearful version of him. Eddie's very own story progression in s4 is just like Mike’s from s1. Eddie (Mike) is targeted and threatened by bullies all season while he is compelled to solve the mysteries and supernatural causes of Chrissy’s death (Will’s disappearance). Eddie (Mike) is wrecked with Survivor’s guilt and even willing to sacrifice himself to “save his friends”, specifically Dustin.
Just as Eddie completes his anti-conformity and bravery arc – he faces his fears and doesn’t “run away this time”, Mike retreats back to safety with El thinking he can never love and be loved by Will.
Mike loves Will, but he can’t completely read Will, in the same way Will can’t completely read Mike, at least they don’t want to risk anything by reading something the wrong way. They both send mixed signals and retreat back to safety and lie to protect their feelings. It’s honestly just the miscommunication trope again and again for these two; more about Mike’s perspective here. At this point, I feel like even El herself is begging Mike to let her go, because it’s not helping either of them anymore and he “has all the answers, he just has to stop being so goddamn scared”.
What’s interesting is Vecna. Henry, or 001 I guess, seems very anti-conformity himself in his monologue to El in 4x07. “I know what it’s like…to be different” (Mike says something just like this to El in 4x03, which is weird). Vecna says he “found comfort in the spiders” but if the Mind Flayer is the spider-like creature we know it as and my interpretation of the Mind Flayer is true, then isn’t Vecna saying he finds comfort in hate, fear, homophobia, and conformity? Contradicting himself a little bit here. But if my theory on Vecna is correct, then his next line checks out, “like me, they are solitary creatures. Deeply misunderstood.” Deeply misunderstood, I do believe Henry is such. The rest of the monologue:
“Humans are a unique type of pest, multiplying and poisoning our world. All while enforcing a structure of their own, a deeply unnatural structure. Where others saw order, I saw a straight jacket. A cruel, oppressive world dictated by made up rules. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades. Each life a faded lesser copy of the one before. Wake up, eat, work, sleep, reproduce, and die. Everyone is just waiting, waiting for it all to be over. All while performing in a silly terrible play day after day. I could not do that, I could not close off my mind and join in the madness, I could not pretend (I can’t walk the stage). Then I realized, I didn’t have to.”
001 is obviously depicted as very evil and ominous in this scene, but this sounds very Escape from Camazotz coded. And if Henry – 001 – Vecna is meant to be a mirror for Will, could this be foreshadowing Will being the light and Will escaping?
My point is Vecna is an interesting villain, because as I interpret the Mind Flayer as the epitome of fear, hate, homophobia and conformity, Vecna seems to be the antithesis of conformity, yet he is still the Mind Flayer’s five-star general. I stand by the idea that Vecna is self-hatred and internalized homophobia’s final boss, but his victims are different. So maybe it’s around this time when they realize it’s better to go for someone like Mike…hear me out.
The victims being different in season four, just as season three starts infecting a lot of the town of Hawkins, could also be reflective of how the HIV/AIDS epidemic progressed, but again more on that in my next post. Let’s keep focusing on how Mike’s fears and self repression keep manifesting in Hawkins despite Mike being 3000 miles from the scene of the crime. I’d say Mike is quite similar to the four other victims of Vecna.
In s4, Mike is especially hiding from himself. He really tries to pretend to be normal and not at all someone who has feelings for Will. Just as Mike hides from himself this season, we hear Vecna tell Max, “They can’t save you, that is why you hide from them”. Yet, Max is able to be saved. So, that’s encouraging, at least. Max is also hiding from her friends and hiding from herself, trying to be normal, pretending to be fine, like Mike, she is playing her part “in a silly, terrible play”. In fact, it’s explored that all of Vecna’s victims aren’t just traumatized, they are all actively trying to conform despite not feeling “normal”. The victims he targets specifically are teenagers that are hiding from their problems, trying to ignore / forget their trauma, running away from their fears, downplaying their feelings and their pain, pretending to be fine, hiding from themselves, denying their truths. Mike sounds an awful lot like Vecna’s victims, the more you think about.
So, why is Mike the bad guy?
He doesn’t mean to be, truly, he can’t help that he is self-repression and self-preservation personified. By season five, I believe Mike is absolutely at war with himself and his own worst enemy.
@upsidedownlurker made a post recently in their #rightsideupgate series, about how they interpret the Dustin and Steve fight in the Upside Down Rainbow Room to be a fight between Dustin and Mike. This makes a lot of sense to me, especially after analyzing Eddie as Mike. So, remember that Eddie and Mike are absolutely mirrors of each other and they have entirely opposite endings to their otherwise identical arcs by the end of s4. Just as Mike conforms once again and retreats back to safety, Eddie is killed while doing the opposite. And remember Mike has his own progression of courage as he was getting closer to Will. This progression of Mike’s bravery played in tandem with Eddie coming out of hiding. I said earlier that, in Mike’s perspective, he probably thinks he is acting recklessly getting so close to Will knowing the risks.
So, if Steve is really Mike in this scene, Mike is more or less saying that because Eddie was acting out, because Eddie was so anti-conformity and acting so recklessly in his final moments, he was basically asking to be killed. Eddie was flying too close to the sun (Eddie’s novel is Flight of Icarus) and therefore his stupidity to act out in such a way got him killed. Mike might think if he continued to act so recklessly by getting closer to Will as s4 progressed, he might as well have had the same fate as Eddie. But, the opposite of what Mike is so adamant killed Eddie is actually what’s killing Mike right now. Btw, Eddie dies by the Camazotz bats, as Mike is dying by the Camazotz prison by s5.
By season five, Mike has trapped himself in his own Camazotz. He is Mr. Mike Whatsit Wheeler and he is continuing to manifest the events of the show through his fears and self-repression. And the twelve kids are actually the members of the party following his narrative, his campaign. Mr. Whatsit portrays himself as a friend to get everyone’s trust, Mike is the heart of the party. In 5x03, they emphasize how they have to get someone that the Turnbows trust to infiltrate the family and begin their attack. One more for you: Eddie, who is Mike, was a drug dealer, you could say he helped to numb and ease people’s pain. In 5x03, Mike knows an awful lot about benzos and putting people to sleep. He lulled everybody into his conformity world and is controlling everyone’s narratives. He is the Storyteller; he is the Dungeon Master of Camazotz. He thinks he is protecting them just as he tries to protect himself from the truth because the truth is still too scary for him to face.
I promised I would wrap this up with Tharizdungate:
Tharizdun is a god that was locked and hidden away ages ago, a god only DMs – Mike would know about. In my humble opinion, Tharizdun is not the BBEG that we think it is. But he is the BBEG that Mike keeps chained up, locked away, because Mike thinks if it’s released, it will destroy his entire life and the world around him.
Mike has never been to or seen the Upside Down, but if he manifests it (and the monsters that come from it) with Tharizdun, the scariest monster of all to him, in mind – Will describes it as “dark, it’s so dark and empty and it’s cold!”. I really believe Will created the exotic matter and stabilized the Upside Down when he is taken there. Will has his own powers of light, creation and connection. I theorize about his powers here. But Mike manifesting it in a way and El opening the gate to it just as Mike first realizes (to some extent) his feelings for Will on that there night of November 6, 1983, I just think that's insane!
Tharizdun was locked away ages ago, people believe he is evil and will destroy the world; everyone and everything in it. But El is his avatar! And remember El is representative of queer love. In my previous analyses, I interpret El’s character as such, she is meant to represent queer love and acceptance and by extension the very concept of Mike + Will. All the way back in 1x01, Mike “makes a wish on elevens” to find Will and Eleven appears; Mike’s love is what helps save Will. El has saved both Mike and Will a number of times and Mike and Will have saved each other. If El is Tharizdun’s avatar and she is the manifestation of queer love, queer acceptance and Byler itself, shouldn’t Tharizdun be representative of something similar? Something scary enough to think it will “ruin the party, ruin everything”, but something that actually needs to be freed to save everyone.
Mike’s feelings scare him so much, he thinks unlocking them, freeing them would destroy his life and everything in it. But again, El, the avatar, is the manifestation of the love between Mike + Will and has saved them again and again. She is the avatar of a god that was locked away and El herself is locked away for nearly half the show and is made to believe she is the monster. And Mike thinks this Tharizdun is the scariest “monster” of them all. Tharizdun is Mike’s queerness and his feelings for Will. Tharizdun is the truth and I think it’s about time to release Tharizdun and free El. In fact, I think this is the only way to win this war. Maybe it will “end the world as we know it”, to make room for a new one - a better, more loving, compassionate, accepting and less fearful one.
Operation Cycle-Break parts: [two, three, four, five]
