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first encounter 🗡️🍭

(except its the princess mononoke art meme)

They shy

go follow me on twitter @KatarinaSkyArt

IM SO HAPPY they are here! also the doodle too hehehe... ⚠️ #do not separate ⚠️

artist: @clownmovieyaoi

the only two ways i can categorize height is if i see something tall i go 'woah, big boy man' and if i see something short i go 'hah.. baby man' and idk what to blame for this. anyway wanna hear about the times ghosts have touched my ass

Mike alternates seasons between El and WIll not just through time spent or who he's fighting to get back to, but in another way I noticed too:

Season 1 Mike and El is about their romance. Season 3 is about their friendship. Season 2 Mike and Will is about their friendship. Season 4 is about their romance.

And this is so important an order for what these stories are, too. El and Mike are the story of two people who date then find that they still really enjoy the time they spend together while broken up and face less conflict as friends. Mike and Will are the classic story of friends who, on that basis of friendship, are able to build a romance.

Mike and Will are two sides of the same coin. But Mike's curse is invisibility

I really love how @aemiron-main brought to light the idea that Will is a representation of LGBTQ people who are actively targeted because of their sexuality, and hated by their parents—parents who clearly perceive them and hate them for it (or at least one of them does, like in the case of Lonnie).

Meanwhile, Mike is a representation of LGBTQ people who slip through the cracks, the invisible ones, the ones their parents can’t see even though they desperately want to be seen and understood by them.

And I think it’s such a brilliant idea to have written them this way, to portray these different realities within the LGBTQ community—because yes, the 80s setting fits, but it’s not just about that. It breaks down stereotypes by showing us the overlooked representations, the so-called invisible community, the one Mike represents—so invisible that even the general audience of Stranger Things (aside from film students who know how to read cinematic language, and LGBTQ people who understand because we’re way less affected by the lens of heteronormativity) can miss it.

The fact that Mike and Will are both gay but in completely different situations is so fascinating. Whether it’s Lonnie or the bullies, or the people in town filled with judgment and prejudice, or even the ones who mean well—like his mom, his brother, and his friends—everyone sees Will.

Lonnie and the bullies take his sensitivity as an insult and attack him for it. Joyce and Jonathan cherish it and accept him for who he is. But either way, he’s seen.

And that’s the double-edged sword: being visible means he’s an easy target for hatred and violence. That’s why no one—not even Hopper or Ted Wheeler—was surprised at the idea that Will might be a victim of a hate crime.

But on the other hand, the people who love him and accept him can see him. They notice immediately when something’s wrong. They know when he’s not okay. They realize right away when he goes missing.

Who ever noticed that Mike was suffering? How long would it have taken for the Wheeler parents to realize Mike hadn’t come home if El hadn’t saved him from falling off that cliff?

Like the post said so perfectly—people don’t recognize Mike’s difference.

Sure, he’s spared from the bullying—kind of. He still gets bullied for his frog face, for being a nerd. But before Will disappeared, he didn’t seem to be targeted by the homophobic slurs that were directed at Will.

It’s not that they hate him. It’s that they don’t see him.

And that would explain his obsession with superheroes and people with powers, but also his desire to be normal. Deep down, Mike wants to be different. He wants to be seen. He wants to be himself—but he also knows how dangerous that is. He’s seen what happened to Will. And to El.

And one really important thing that aemiron-main said (which I think would explain the cliff scene so well, and which I really hope Season 5 will explore):

Will represents gay men who die from hate crimes. Mike represents gay men who die by suicide.

Will represents gay men who are too visible (through no fault of their own), whose families and the people around them sensed their queerness from a very young age. Mike represents gay men who are invisible—not hated, but never supported either.

Will represents gay men who are tormented, or taken away by force. Mike represents gay men who run away from home—or disappear by taking their own lives.

Will is a gay boy who gets picked on and called “queer” because of how he dresses. Mike is a gay boy whose clothes go unnoticed.

Will is good at hiding because he’s visible. He has to hide because people seem to see right through him.

Mike isn’t good at hiding. He’s not good at pretending to be “normal” because he never had to. He’s invisible. No one ever saw him before.

He never had to hide the way Will did.

Will had to learn how to hide and how to act “normal.” That’s exactly why he hates when people treat him differently, like he’s a “freak.” Will doesn’t want to be treated differently—because he’s always been treated differently.

Because he’s too visible. So he had to learn how to act “normal.”

Meanwhile, Mike wants to be treated differently—because he’s been invisible his entire life.

He never had to learn how to hide, or how to behave “normally,” not really. Even though now he tries, he doesn’t know how, because he never had to before.

Where Lonnie noticed every trace of queerness in Will, Ted just… ignored everything. Too busy being passive and watching TV.

Will was so visible that he couldn’t even breathe without Lonnie noticing and forcing him to play baseball, because “that’s what boys do.” Mike is so invisible he could’ve screamed “I have a girl with magical powers in my basement who’s wanted by the government” and Ted wouldn’t have noticed a thing.

Mike and Will are two sides of the same coin.

And now that I think about it… poor Mike is just lost. He doesn’t know where he fits.

Because he’s an invisible gay kid, he doesn’t feel normal—so he thinks he has to protect himself by hiding his difference and pretending to be normal. He performs heteronormativity for the whole world to see (aka the cis-het “normals”).

But at the same time, he’s not seen or accepted by the “different” ones either—because they don’t perceive his difference.

(Like when El says “no you don’t” after Mike tells her he knows what it’s like to be bullied—because she meant being different, and she didn’t see that in him.)

Mike doesn’t feel at home with the “normal” people, because deep down he knows he’s different. But he doesn’t feel different enough to be embraced by those who are different.

So he’s stuck. He’s floating in between. He doesn’t know where his place is.

Which also explains why it’s so hard for him to develop a sense of self-worth outside of being needed. Outside of being useful.

He suppresses and denies his own trauma because he thinks it doesn’t “count.” Because he didn’t go through what Will went through. Or what El went through. So he tells himself it’s nothing.

His curse is invisibility.

Even we, the audience, don’t get access to his point of view. He’s ignored, overlooked, minimized—and especially misunderstood.

And all of this gives him that aching feeling of belonging nowhere. Not normal enough, not different enough. Not this, not that.

Mike Wheeler is Vecna’s playground, honestly. If he isn’t one of his targets in Season 5, then what was the point of writing such a painfully complex character?

Here is the post who inspired me this post.

Kohaku: [lifts Senku up]

Senku: Seriously though, do I even weigh anything to you?

Kohaku: No, it’s like holding a couple of grapes

gen loves… [x]

My Restless Brain at a 6 pm: Shizuo and Izaya were literally Made for each other. Shizuo was created literally For Izaya, otherwise Izaya would move Too Freely on the Plot.

My brain, going on at 11pm: Shizuo and Izaya could easily be each other's true soulmate on literally any soulmate AU, since they complement and fit each other so perfectly. They would have 1003 problems on DRRR!! actual plot but on literally any other plot, they w o u l d work so well.

My brain, constantly, at 2 AM by now: But it makes So much Sense on DRRR!! actual plot, their refusal to akcnowledge each other's as soulmates and their Deep Feelings for each other that seemingly came out of nowhere. It would explain their behavior and animosity due to their refusal to accept destiny and how their first impression was so strong despite not meeting previously. And also how they ultimately gravitate towards each other.

And a refusal to acknowledge your soulmate aches, not only by rejecting but as being rejected, and could easily become hate.