The Sorcerer and The Heart

We haven’t seen Mike’s perspective in a while, we have mainly seen him through the perspective of others for the past 3 seasons and that just doesn’t feel normal to me!

I feel like all the other party members have had their perspectives and storylines put in focus by the narrative.

Even in ST5 Vol 1 itself — Lucas, Dustin, Max, El and Will — all have had their perspectives and individual character arcs put on focus at some point. However, with Mike, it feels like we’re watching him through someone else’s perspective and so far his character has existed to contribute to someone else’s character arc/move the plot forward but we never get insight into what his individual character arc is.

Just getting some toughs out of my head...

Back to the Future x Stranger Things

"The Flux Capacitor is down again"

Flux Capacitor -> allows time travel

The flux capacitor is down -> time travel not possible yet

"It's fixable, but it's a two man job"

Will and Robin fix the flux capacitor -> time travel is now possible

"This is my son's life..."

"...in the future, we will try and leave a note"

They will restore the timeline

"Where none of this traggic stuff ever happened..."

"...we'll meet again"

The deaths won't happen

The characters will remember the previous timeline.

No, they won't throw away all the character growth and arcs.

Mechanism like the DeLorean

If you're inside the DeLorean -> you remember the previous timeline even if it was restored

Back to the Future -> Marty comes back to the future in the DeLorean -> timeline is restored -> he remembers the previous timeline

Stranger Things -> ?? -> timeline is restored -> they remember the previous timeline

Who drives the DeLorean? Will.

He is creating wormholes...

Max: your brother is super cringe

- He was strong when he gave up his toy truck to a girl he didn’t know, knowing he couldn’t afford a new one, just because he didn’t want her to be sad.

- He was strong when he softly told Dart he wouldn’t hurt him, even after his deeply traumatizing encounter with a demogorgan.

- He was strong when he gave the credit for his painting to El, believing that saving her relationship with Mike was the key to saving Hawkins.

- He was strong when he encouraged Mike to tell El he loves her, knowing that it was the last thing he wanted to hear himself, just because he wanted to save the town that hates him.

Yes, he had remarkable survival skills at twelve years old. But his strength extends beyond his ability to find shelter, shoot a gun, outrun a demogorgan, or jump from a tree. The idea that Will was weak without these 5 minutes is a testament to how our society looks down on any display of softness from men.

Will Byers is strong because he has every reason to be evil, and he chooses not to be.

Why is it that when Billy or Henry endure abuse and become the abuser, they have so many people jumping to their defense?

But when Will chooses to remain gentle and kind and self-sacrificial in spite of the abuse he has endured, he’s suddenly useless and the weak link of the group?

"OOH i know whats going to happen next, based on typical template, the lie is going to be found out by everyone and blah blah blah shot frame shot lighting"

I had lots of posts about it in the other blog, but I've lost them 💔

My idea for the monologue is that Mike wasn't lying, but he is also not really telling the whole truth without realizing it, the thing is he doesn't know the truth himself

he thinks he's in love with El, but in reality he is idealizing her in his mind and he feels really insecure about himself at the same time like they shouldn't be together anyway, but then this changes when he believed Will's monologue and believed that El felt like that for him (a lie) and that they could fix things between them

he didn't lie about what he's saying... but he means that love more in a platonic way even if he is convinced it must be romantic - he does love her but he's not in love with her

it's a mix of idealization + a desire of being needed + not wanting to lose her from his life because he truly cares about her + thinking that he doesn't have any opportunities with Will even if he feels different when he's with him (but he's suppressing this so he's not aware yet, it's more subconscious - he still thinks what he has with Will is platonic) + wanting to save her life and wanting to help her fight/give her courage in that moment (which he did!)

It's sort of the same situation as when Laurie in little women does his love declaration to Jo, that's also why this movie is directly paralleled to season 4 multiple times and why it was on the board of movie inspirations for season 4, El is even parallelled directly with Jo because both of them talk about feeling like they don't belong and then Mike is making a love monologue that sounds very similar to this...

Laurie believes 100% that what he feels for Jo is true love but this was never true love, this was childhood infatuation + idealization...

He doesn't get it though, that's why he's hurt when she says that she doesn't want to accept.... but years later, when he grows up, and gets to know Amy as an adult and really falls in love with her... he's eventually glad that Jo rejected him, because he understands that real love is what he has with Amy and he never actually was in love with Jo even believing that he was, that was childhood love !

You can still call it love if you want, but it's not mature or endgame material, especially in a TV show lol

He cares about her so so much and he does love her and he does like being with her and kissing her etc but what they have is not a real partnership, it's not the real deal as will be the love with Will, it's idealizing someone - and that means that you don't truly see them and if you don't truly see them you can't love them even if you think you do or want to convince yourself of that

It's also true that he was afraid of opening up and being vulnerable with her and telling her at first because he was afraid that she would leave him and it would hurt more if she left him after he did that, after he trusted her with that, (again, he believes what he's saying and he's convinced it's what being in love should be like... He's 14 so it's normal imo ) and then Will made him believe that he could actually trust her with his heart... when it's not true... but he liked that feeling of being loved (by Will) so much that he thought he would feel like that again once he confessed his love for her...

Will's involvement is actually what will make them fail, because you can't resolve things in your relationship using feelings from a 3rd party, if you're not confident on your own in your love for someone... there's something wrong in the relationship, there's misunderstanding in the middle and incompatibility... ESPECIALLY if you live in a TV show and you're being written that way lol

when you don't resolve this problem only between the couple or having a conversation and heart to heart where El makes Mike feel like he can fully trust her finally then it means that the writers are not really putting the couple as endgame IMO, literally never seen it happen, especially when the other one involved is part of the love triangle lmao

What happened is literally the "Cyrano trope" or the Benverly trope, the Dan and Blair trope from gossip girl? idk call it how you want to call it... but the painting is what made Mike feel so loved that he thought that feeling was because of Eleven when it was all actually Will, it's a misplacement of feelings

Plus if we think about it Mike here was prioritizing his own emotional safety to El's happiness, he looked at her crying in his face and still couldn't find the will to tell her on his own... Which I don't think that someone that is truly in love would have done, plus he doesn't resolve this on his own as we said, there's no real development outside of Will's intervention AND we don't even see a scene of Mike and El talking in the finale and "resolving" things, we have a scene of El looking weirdly at Mike and going in her room and then the final foreshadowing of El LITERALLY leaving Mike behind!!!!

Whatever Mike might feel for her, SHE is the one that I can tell you for sure doesn't love him romantically and has also fully realized that she doesn't really want to be in a relationship with him anymore 💀

Anyway for Mike, I think it's mostly because of his low self esteem that we're in this situation, he somehow is convinced that she won't need him at all unless they're in a relationship, and he feels this desire of being needed ( BY EVERYBODY in his life not only El!!! ) and he feels like if El doesn't want him it will hurt so he doesn't want to let her go (yet) he doesn't want things to change between them, he is TERRIFIED of things changing because it could mean that if things change between them then she doesn't need him and if she doesn't need him she doesn't want him even as just a friend because she's a freaking superhero why would a superhero want to even be just friends with HIM???? He just started to think of himself in such a shitty way since when he started dating her and she triggers his insecurities so much even if she doesn't want to do that that's what happens and so they end up not understanding each other and just feeling all this pressure on themselves!!!

Mike feels the pressure of "I need to look cool to her + I need her to need me or she will leave! I can't be myself because I'm lame as fuck and she's an amazing superhero!"

El felt the pressure of "I need Mike to want me so I can copy him and be normal like he is and good like he is! I am a monster and different while Mike is good and normal and knows how to be normal, so I have to appear cool and make him believe that normal people like me so he will keep liking me and not see just how much fucked up I am from growing up like I did"

And they both place themselves in these roles of girlfriend & boyfriend instead of being just Mike and El because they have too many insecurities about themselves that they need to work on and the relationship triggers them and is just making them stagnant because they don't feel like they can be vulnerable enough with the other or like the other could understand them... if this wasn't a TV show maybe they could have resolved things with a bit of therapy but I really don't think this is what's gonna happen because of how the writers handled it in season 4 and because they involved Will in this relationship... I think El and Mike are just not compatible at this point and they need to be single and work on this by themselves and find who they are!!!

Also the people that inherently fix these problems in Mike and El are Will and Max lol

Will is able to make Mike feel like a hero and like an inspiration and at the same time he ALWAYS puts Mike as a partner never above himself, but he sees the real Mike and he's able to reflect that to Mike as the painting shows... El is not able to do that for him

Max is able to make El feel normal like she's perfect as she is and like she doesn't have to be a superhero and she doesn't have to be special, she can be just El and she's equally as important and great and she makes El feel like she can explore options and learn new things about herself and Max doesn't need El to need her, she just wants El in her life as a partnership too!!! I loved the approach/explanation of the stranger things VR game about their relationship, I strongly suggest people watch that whole game because they got it, they got exactly why Max is perfect to balance El!!!

Anyway I just started ranting LMAOOOO sorry I hope it's clear, imo the situation is actually pretty simple to understand! Just keep in mind they're all really young and El and Mike are the least mature of the group for now but they're growing up ❤️❤️❤️

mike thought will had a crush on angela

mike thought will was ignoring his calls

mike thought el commissioned the painting will had made for him

mike thought he was losing will

mike said hawkins is not the same without will

mike thinks him and will should work as a team, as friends, as best friends

mike thinks going up to will on the swing when they were 8 was the best decision he ever made

mike has a binder where he keeps will's drawings

mike even hang some of them on the walls of his basement

mike went home crying after thinking will was dead

Some people are saying he’s possessed which might be true, but to me, his scream sounds more like human desperation than possession.

When Will was possessed in s2, his scream was weird, disembodied, and demonic, but in this scene, the only voice i’m hearing is Will’s.

If you listen to the leaked audio of this scene, Will (presumably) says, “Mike! Please! Do you hear me?! You need to run! RUN!!!”

At this point, Mike may already be in a trance and floating in the air, hence why Will is looking up.

Will also screams, “Do you hear me?!” which is what other characters, such as Eddie, said when they were trying to break someone else out of a Vecna trance.

I think that Will is screaming at Mike to outrun Vecna just like Max did in the Running up that Hill scene in s4.

Another thing i would like to point out is the way that Will’s expression turns into to sheer terror at the end of the clip. He’s truly HORRIFIED at whatever is happening in front of him.

I also think that this scene will be SO much more terrifying if Will isn’t being possessed and his blood-curdling screaming is just because of his desperation and love for Mike, rather than anything supernatural

I'm so thrilled about this new S5 theory that has been going around about this clip:

The inicial theory was Will feeling Vecna taking over his body again (getting possesed), so he screams at everyone to get away from him to not hurt anybody. This could make sense but i highly doubt Will's gonna get possesed again like in S2, besides, in that season his voice when he was possesed and screaming didn't sound like him at all, it sounded like a monster, distorted, and in this clip is 100% Will´s voice screaming.

Now, there's another theory which makes more sense (at least to me).

As we all know, this sound was leaked before the teaser came out, and it says something like:

"Steve/Mike! (someone's name), Do you hear me? You need to run! Run!"