Can I just ask, like genuinely what in the show told yall Mike was reciprocating Wills feelings?
Without any of yalls "Oh i have media literacy and analyzed this one clips for 6 days"
Like what ON screen undeniably told yall he liked that boy?
It’s not one or two isolated scenes – it’s a multi-season pattern.
ST1: Will, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin are best friends. But look at how Mike, in particular, is affected by Will’s disappearance and how strong the connection between the two of them is.
ST2: Will is possessed, and everyone is worried about him. But look at how Mike is especially concerned and never leaves his side. Notice how tender their interactions are and how Mike is the one who reaches Will during his episodes. Here’s a sweet story of how they met before anyone else in the Party because their bond is extremely important to the show.
ST3: Mike’s romantic relationship with El disrupts the Party’s dynamic. But look at how Will is particularly affected by it and how heartbroken he is because nothing is the same anymore. He can’t spend as much time with his friends as he used to, especially with Mike. And notice how Mike regrets the way he treated Will and how much he still cares about him.
ST4: Will and Mike are taken out of the supernatural plot and put in several heartfelt scenes where they discuss their relationship and confide in each other about their deepest worries. Look at how supportive they are of each other and how they bring out the best in one another. Oh, and let’s heavily hint that Will is in love with Mike while making Mike’s feelings ambiguous enough to keep everyone speculating – especially as his current romantic relationship begins to fall apart.
ST5 V1: Mike and El’s relationship is ambiguous enough for people to wonder whether they’ve broken up while Will is given a “gay mentor” who teaches him how to recognize the signs that someone might like you back. Let’s introduce the whole “snowball to avalanche” metaphor that sets the audience’s expectations for a major payoff! And why not include Will flirting with Mike, Mike getting flustered and smiling shyly, Will’s love for Mike becoming one of the things that saves the day, and the final scene ending with Mike looking at Will in awe!
And no, I’m not saying that their relationship was romantic in the earlier seasons. It was sweet and full of tenderness. What I am saying, however, is that if Will were a girl, everyone would immediately read Mike’s special treatment of him as romantic. They would immediately assume it was more than just friendship, just as they did with Mike and El simply because Mike was kind to her in ST1. Heteronormativity makes people see romance everywhere a boy and a girl exist together.
While there are definitely scenes where hundreds of thousands of us perceive romantic tension between them, I don’t think there’s any single scene that says it all. Rather, it’s the accumulation of everything that has happened between these two characters and the broader context surrounding their relationship.
Because what other fictional show spends multiple seasons building up a uniquely close bond between two characters, one of whom is canonically in love with the other; makes that bond stand out among its other friendships; contrasts it with one character’s crumbling canon relationship; fills it with romantically coded moments; employs well-known romantic tropes… and then never resolves any of it?
Anyway, if this still isn’t enough, just try swapping them with Dustin and Lucas. Have you ever seen Dustin and Lucas interact the way Will and Mike do? Has one of them told the other how special he is compared to his other friends or confessed that he thought he’d lost him? Has one of them promised the other they’d “go crazy together”? Have they looked at each other as though nothing else mattered? Do they share the same emotional tension when they’re alone together? Have they had multiple heart-to-heart conversations in a single season? The list goes on.
Stranger Things has done everything it could to establish the unique connection Will and Mike share compared to the show’s other friendships, and that’s simply undeniable. That is exactly why so many viewers experienced the queerbaiting as especially painful.
P.S. I linked three other posts in my response that delve a bit deeper into the evidence if you’re genuinely curious. But as I always say, if you don’t want to see it, you won’t – even if it’s right in front of you. :)
