saw stranger things bylering out on main again and it got me thinking about how will keeps trying to downplay his abilities and how robin and lucas incorrectly call him a wizard. compare that with how mike is SO adamant that all of them, will included, get it right and know the truth.
will is a sorcerer. a real life, honest to god sorcerer.
see the thing is, robin and lucas weren’t there at the mac-z when will unlocks his sorcerer abilities. only mike and joyce (and erica, from further away) are the firsthand witnesses of this moment. joyce, obviously, doesn’t participate in the wizard vs. sorcerer debate, whereas erica (who has become the biggest nerd about d&d) chimes in to support mike’s argument.
mike is the only participant in this debate besides will himself that was actually there and knows the truth.
we know that will as a character is always going to downplay his abilities. he has a tendency to make himself smaller and to make things seem less important or impressive than they truly are. will feels like he failed when he didn’t. he still saved the lives of three of his closest friends. we know that. mike knows that.
no matter what will thinks about himself, mike knows the truth. and we, the audience, who have seen what will has done and is capable of, do too.
will is a sorcerer. that matters. mike makes sure that will, their friends, and the audience remembers that truth.
now fast forward to the other crucial will scene of this season. for better or worse, will comes out. he’s still recovering from being tortured by vecna, and he’s rightfully terrified of the ticking time bomb that is his secret. he makes the decision to tell his friends and the entire team about his sexuality, and he also pushes himself to let his feelings for mike go.
will downplays his love for mike as he reveals this secret. again, when it comes to himself, will has a tendency to make things seem less important than they really are. we’ve watched the show. we know will’s feelings for mike aren’t just a silly crush. mike and el tell us (in a different context) that when will has a feeling, it matters. so why downplay feelings that have been so core to will’s story arc for the last 2 seasons?
will doesn’t just have a crush on mike, and we all know mike is more than just will’s tammy. mike is his best friend, his very first friend. mike isn’t just some girl he met in high school, like robin did with tammy. the love will has for mike is a core part of who will is, and the flashback sequences in sorcerer show us that. will is relying heavily on robin’s own romantic experiences to work through his own, but robin is not will. she wasn’t there throughout will’s life (something joyce reminded us of in vol 1), and she certainly wasn’t there in all the quiet, intimate moments will had with mike! that doesn’t diminish robin’s mentorship to will, but it does help contextualize this information.
this volume showed us (again) that will is an unreliable narrator when it comes to his perception of self. we see it in the sorcerer discussion. we see it in how he downplays his love for mike.
so, why should i trust will when he says that mike is his tammy?
the key to all of this, as we already know, is mike. what i find most interesting about all this is that, when will downplays his sorcerer abilities, it’s not lucas or robin or any of the others who are so adamant on correcting him. they weren’t there; they didn’t see firsthand to know that will’s perception of the event is incorrect.
but mike was. mike knows the truth about will being a sorcerer.
and now, after will’s coming out scene, mike knows the truth again about will and about himself. and mike has been there through every moment that made will fall in love with him. he’s not some outsider watching this relationship; this is his relationship too. and now, thanks to will, mike is armed with the understanding he needs to finally stop being afraid, to live without any regrets, and to be “mike the brave.”
will thinks mike doesn’t love him back. it’s up to mike now to help him to see the truth.
will loves mike, and mike loves him too.
