you know how Neytiri calls Jake (from Avatar) Ma Jake? Imagine Mike doing that for Will. OH OH IMAGINE HE DOES IT WHILE WILL'S HAVING A PANIC ATTACK AND IT HELPS CALM HIM DOWN OR SOMETHING???

Wait, I've written something like that before, let me post it with them instead.

Chapters: 4/? Fandom: Stranger Things (TV 2016) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Will Byers/Mike Wheeler, The Party & Mike Wheeler, Karen Wheeler & Mike Wheeler, Karen Wheeler/Ted Wheeler, Holly Wheeler & Mike Wheeler, Mike Wheeler & Ted Wheeler, Maxine "Max" Mayfield/Lucas Sinclair, Eleven | Jane Hopper/Dustin Henderson Characters: Mike Wheeler, Will Byers, Ted Wheeler (Stranger Things), Karen Wheeler, Holly Wheeler, Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Lucas Sinclair, Dustin Henderson, Eleven | Jane Hopper, Eddie Munson (mentioned), Nancy Wheeler Additional Tags: Internalized Homophobia, Homophobia, Depression, Mike Wheeler is a Mess, Mike Wheeler Loves Will Byers, Mike Wheeler Needs a Hug, Mike Wheeler is Bad at Feelings, Touch-Starved, Touch-Starved Mike Wheeler, Slow Burn, Whump, Mike Wheeler Whump, Will Byers Loves Mike Wheeler, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, eventually, Alternate Universe - No Upside Down (Stranger Things), Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Mental Health Issues, No Smut, Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, Author Is Sleep Deprived

The Hawkins gang obviously had stuff to analyze re: Vecna but I was still focused on when the Cali gang was gonna enter that plotline (I was one of the many Mike gets Vecnaed truthers). I think what you did immediately after watching S4V1 tells a lot about you and your interests. I know a lot of people got crazily into Eddie, a lot of people developed a “Fruity Four” obsession, some people were primarily asking questions like, “Is Max’s therapist secretly working for Vecna?” (that was a theory I saw on Reddit and TikTok), I’m sure El stans were primarily focused on El or Mike and El reuniting, I don’t know who these people are but there’s gotta be someone out there who was replaying Russia scenes, Vecna created all the Henry stans, etc.

And there’s a whole genre of people like me whose experience of that month was so heavily centered on Mike and Will. Like, our FYPs naturally sent us content about that, we were writing hundreds of essays about it, someone literally created a 300 page powerpoint, fans who developed during that time thought it was going canon by V2, analyzing the soundtrack names (i.e. in the closet at rink o’mania) people were fighting lots of angry Mileven anons, etc. You really had to be there. When Noah tweeted, “S4 has me shipping Byler over anything. V2 now” our side of the fandom went feral, and it absolutely reflects the dominant feeling people had. Just look at how obsessively people analyzed the roller rink scene and you’ll see. I think whenever someone says, “No one thinks this way,” they need to ask themselves if that’s really true or if their algorithm and the people they surround themselves with don’t