local arsonist (for legal intents + purposes this is a joke)

Will: so yeah…I’ve never kissed anyone before

Mike: Wait what?? This is unacceptable

Will: haha…it sucks but I’ll just have to wait for college or something

Mike: or….or….i could kiss you!

Will: WHAT

Mike: as a friend! Of course as a friend…just so you would be prepared…

Will:

that way we know we’re from tumblr without revealing anything

I’m just going to say this to strangers until i find a tumblr person

must keep reblogering!! Im going to be so suspicious if any one tells me this now!

Remember the answer is: I stole them from the president.

chandler outfits that SCREAM mike wheeler to me

A massive issue with the mainstream is that they consume television as if it were a literal news broadcast. They believe that if a character cries, they are sad. If a character says "I love you," they mean it romantisch. They fail to understand that brilliant writers utilize the concept of the unreliable narrator.

Mike Wheeler is the absolute definition of an unreliable narrator of his own emotions. He isn't lying to deceive the audience—he is lying to deceive himself.

When Mike confesses his love to Eleven, the masses see a "romantic scene."

However, anyone looking through a psychological lens sees the staging. He is reciting phrases he learned from movies, books, or his parents. It is a performance.

The mainstream falls for the performance because they believe the actor on the stage. They don't understand that the real story lies in why the actor is so desperately trying to play the part. They cannot separate the meta-level from the surface-level plot.

2. Audience Narcissism: Why the Bubble Sees Truth as a Threat

Why does the "Mileven" bubble react with so much hatred, gaslighting, and aggression when presented with this psychological reality? Because a deep audience narcissism is at work.

These fans do not watch the show to experience a complex, foreign story about the struggles of a queer boy growing up in the 1980s. They use the show as a validation machine for themselves. They project their own desires for a perfect, simple, heterosexual high school romance onto Mike and Eleven.

When you prove to them—psychologically and narratively—that Mike is using Eleven as a vessel, and that he is operating out of internalized homophobia and chronic shame, you aren't just critiquing a fictional character. You are attacking their own ego.

Their cognitive dissonance is incredibly painful because they would have to admit that they were fooled by a shiny surface for years.

Since their narcissism cannot allow them to admit they misunderstood the show, they must destroy you, Noah Schnapp, or any other analyst.

That’s Mike and Ted Wheeler.

Mike: “Dad! I’m gay and Will is my boyfriend! We’re in love and we’re dating and we’re gonna get married one day! So that’s THAT!”

Ted: “Hm, maybe if you got a JOB instead of playing that board game of yours all day you’d be able to support him better.”

Mike: “…huh?”