#doubleasks

-if you're familiar with the trope, you can skip the next few paragraphs to the part with all the colors-

it's basically when you have a main character that's madly in love with another, but for some reason can't/won't tell them. so what they do instead is create some sort of token of their love that represents how they feel about the love interest. this can be a letter, a song, a poem , a painting, etc. the love interest finds that token of love and falls in love with the person it's from because it's just such a genuine expression of true love that it makes them feel so deeply cared for, understood, and appreciated. it means a lot to them, basically.

but where the trope gets interesting is that the love interest attributes this token of love to the wrong person. this can be through miscommunication, an evil villain doing villain stuff, or the main character sacrificing their feelings because they believe it'd be better for their love to be with someone else (this is usually due to things like the mc believing they aren't attractive enough/don't have a good enough social standing/aren't good enough for their love interest in general). so they watch on as the love of their life gets into a relationship with someone else.

but of course, the love interest has to realize who the token of love was originally from so that the truth can be revealed. they then realize that the main character was who they wanted to be with all along and they end up together at the end. the moral of the story tends to be that real, true love will win out in the end and that you shouldn't hide it if you feel this way for someone. at the end of the day, it's how you love and appreciate someone that matters more than your social standing, circumstances, insecurities, etc.

now! using the magical power of putting two and two together, we can see how the setup of the cyrano trope applies to el, will, and mike.

the love interest -> mike, obviously

the token of love -> will's painting

which makes: our cyrano mc -> will himself

now for the trope to apply here fully, we need three things to be true: 1. the painting has to be will's true feelings for mike, 2. mike needs to be deeply moved by the painting, 3. mike needs to think the painting (and the feelings it expresses) are from someone other than will. so let's go through each:

1. is the painting and what will says after how he truly feels about mike?

this one is pretty easy to put together. will is waxing poetic about how amazing mike is while tearing up. he wouldn't be getting so emotional if he were just describing someone else's feelings here.

i feel like that's enough evidence, but here's some extra if you want more:

the painting can't be from el -> she writes in her letter to mike that she doesn't even know what will's been painting

el wouldn't have commissioned a painting from will -> el and will don't talk to each other about mike -> will tells mike at the roller rink that he didn't know that el had been lying to mike for months about their lives in cali

what will says about what the painting represents doesn't align with el's feelings for mike -> will says, "you make her feel better for being different" -> el shuts down mike's attempt to say he relates to being different and bullied during their fight, she tells him that he can't understand her because she is truly different from the world and him, she says to him "you think i'm a monster too" -> if someone really felt comforted and secure in another person's presence they wouldn't ask if they were seen as a monster by the other person, they wouldn't lie to the other for months or ask for help from their bully to keep lying, they would be able to confide in the other person not hide from them, the other person wouldn't be paralleled to their abusive father figure (who they leave behind by the end of the season) -> el just doesn't trust mike and doesn't feel better for being different around him

^ the only option is the painting and the feelings it represents being from will, not el

2. does the painting mean a lot to mike?

well, he smiles a lot as will gives it to him and gives will this look as he's explaining it:

so i'd say so.

but the real kicker is that will's explanation for the meaning behind the painting, which we established as will's feelings up above, comes back up when mike finally says "i love you" to el.

el had been crying, asking him to say it earlier in the season and he couldn't. he kept talking about it with will after and he still couldn't say it outright. it's only after will reminds him of what he said in the van "you're the heart!" that he is finally able to say the words.

there's a before and after there. the writers show a clear change in mike when it comes to something he's been dealing with all season and tie it back to the painting and what will said in the van all in the same scene.

because of that, we can conclude that it must have moved him to receive the painting since it literally moved his stance on one of his biggest struggles this season.

3. does mike think the painting is really from el instead of will?

it's hard to get into mike's mind this season as we have sort of shifted away from seeing things from his perspective after s2, but signs point to yes, he believes it's from el:

he doesn't talk to will about the painting -> if he saw through will's lie and the painting meant so much to him like we already said, it would be weird for him to not ask about will's feelings -> he would want to know truth about something that meant so much to him

but if he thinks it's from el, why doesn't he ask her about it? -> it seems he doesn't get much time to -> he and el get interrupted at the pizzeria, el doesn't talk to him after getting to hawkins

the painting was used to spur on a love confession to el, not will -> if the painting was tied to will in mike's mind, it would not have pushed him towards el -> he would have known that she didn't have anything to do with it and would have acted accordingly

(not from the show, so i wanna put these in their own little spot: plus we also have an interview with the duffer brothers saying that will was trying to express his feelings to mike in the van and mike "just doesn't get it and not in a bad way". he just doesn't understand. we also have finn saying that he asked about mike not noticing what will was going through in the van and being told that it will "pay off" later by the duffers. both of these confirm that mike isn't understanding that the painting is from will)

okay, finally back to the fruity pizza:

the key thing here is that the scene where will gives mike his painting happens before the pinneapple pizza scene. remember when i said that in the trope, the mc has to watch their love interest be with someone else after they receive the token of love until the truth is revealed? well, that's what happens in the pizzeria scene. will gives mike the painting, mike and el talk and laugh in the pizzeria, and then we cut to will looking at them sadly.

it's the proper setup of the cyrano trope. and from here, it's inevitable that mike will find out the truth about the painting in s5.

that's why the pizzeria scene isn't "threatening" to me or anything. it's perfectly in line with what i understand the show to be doing

1. and 3. okay, i wanted to put these two together just because i think they have some overlap. if they made mike more explicitly gay before s5, with will being confirmed gay and in love with him, it would make byler so obvious. that then leads into the question, "well, why wait till the end for byler then? why not make it obvious?" i personally have a few reasons for this:

-with it being the last season, there's no risk of the show being cancelled. unfortunately, netflix doesn't have the best track record for keeping queer shows around (*cough cough* i am not okay with this). i'm not sure how big of an issue this would be for stranger things given that it practically made the company what it is today, but it's one of those factors that limits a lot of queer stories in the mainstream, so it's something to consider.

-they'd also have less to worry about if there's homophobic backlash or lost viewers. since having a queer storyline, especially among main characters, is bound to be controversial, stranger things could've lost support and view counts going into s5 if they had made byler canon. this would be a sucky reason for them to hold off on byler if it was the only reason, but it can also be understandable. if netflix got pissy about losing money, they might have been more prone to meddling in the last season. it would also definitely hurt the creatives behind the show to have people stop caring about the art they've put years into. i've seen posts of people saying they'll "boycott" ST if byler went canon and by waiting till the final season, they essentailly render that threat useless. you watch the final season to boycott what? rewatching? it could be a smart decision on their part for that reason and i think it is also worth it to note that by waiting till s5 for byler, they're making it much more likely that these homophobic viewers will watch a queer storyline until the end, which can only be a net positive instead of risking them abandoning it halfway. it might change their minds, who knows

-my favorite reason: the themes/character arcs weren't ready for it. truth-telling is a big part of stranger things with "friends don't lie" and all that. s4 is the season that doesn't go well for the characters or for this theme. all of the characters end up lying/hiding something. el lies to mike for months about her life in cali, mike acts different than who he is in cali and tries to lie to el about saying ily to her face ("i say it" "you can't even write it, mike"), will lies to mike about the painting. this isn't even just unique to the cali plot as all of the vecna victims in hawkins are hiding something. chrissy, max, patrick, fred-they all hid what they were going through and that ultimately made them victims ("conformity is what's killing the kids"). i mean, this makes sense given that vecna's curse is an allegory for depression and suicidal ideation, so not speaking their truths makes the depression/vecna's curse worse and is therefore not a good thing for our characters to do.

okay paragraph break. s4's ending is explicitly a loss for our characters (mike saying to will that, "[el's] never lost before" in the cabin). hawkins is in ruins. max is in a coma. things are not great. s4 is the setup of the low point in the story so that s5 can come in and resolve it to conclude the show. i don't think it's a coincidence that s4 is lie-ridden and is also the season where everything goes wrong i wonder if mike's confession giving el the power of love failing has anything to do with this theme of lying bringing about bad consequences hmm. what it sets up is a thematically consistent s5 where our characters develop by learning to tell the truth and eventually save the day because of it. now, what does this have to do with byler? well you can probably see where this is going...

...byler happening would involve some deep truths from both mike and will. it's way easier to lie to yourself and those around you about being straight in the 80s than it is to come out as gay. especially if they are going for an internalized homophobia arc with mike as many bylers like myself believe, lying and pretending to be straight would perfectly fit the bill of a lie that mike has to grow out of in s5. so it's because byler is the truth that we have to wait until s5 to see it be canon. having it happen any earlier would have resulted in a tonal mismatch and some thematic weirdness and just overall worse writing. now, i also think byler is specifically something that absolutely had to wait until s5 because it's going to be important in the upcoming plot. the painting has to come back up again a la chekhov's gun and it being the first time will has ever lied to mike (also them taking way longer to film the van scene in comparison to other scenes and it being so exhausting for the actors, that i think just shows how important this plot point will be). we also know from interviews that the duffers plan to have will's emotional arc be the thing that ties together the end of the whole show. that excites me so much because they focused on will's feelings for mike and his queerness all of s4, so that emotional arc 100% will have to deal with that. we also know mike is going to get a big focus next season along with his emotional arc. with these characters being on a show that loves honesty and has a villain that literally preys on the things that people are too afraid to talk about, there has to be a reveal of some truth for these characters and it has to affect how they will eventually defeat vecna and save the day. milkvan wouldn't be a reveal of any truths, it'd be a continuation of the status quo, and so i just don't see how that reveal could be anything but byler after watching s4 (i mean, they literally set up a cyrano trope with will's painting and one of the core plot beats of that trope is that the truth about who truly loves the love interest has to be revealed. s4's cali plot was also so focused on the willelmike love triangle that it would be bizarre for that not to be a setup for s5).

i also think they made the hints towards mike being gay more evident in his actions (kissing el with eyes open, not being able to balance el and will in his life, not hugging will, etc) as opposed to hinting at it through external means like with will (him getting called homophobic slurs, characters pointing out he's not interested in girls, etc at least until s4). i honestly think these hints towards mike being gay end up being more subtle, especially for the ga, because we're not used to queer characters existing in shows that aren't centered around being queer (think heartstopper or anything marketed as a queer story). when queer characters are almost never depicted within a genre as anything other than minor side characters, villains, or just stereotypes, the audience has been taught to only recognize those characters in those roles. so while i do think some of mike's queercoding is closer to being explicit than people give it credit for (why so many byler shippers talk about all the stuff he does being gay as opposed to will, earlier byler fanfictions being focused on mike being gay and potentially being rejected by a straight will), i think it tends to go over most people's heads especially if they're not queer themselves.

you can skip this next part btw, a side note/rant on the history of queer characters in film: if you want to learn more about how the depictions of queer characters in media has evolved over time and why they even started being depicted that way in the first place i'd highly recommend looking up the hays code. the hays code was a set of censorship rules hollywood applied to itself to try and avoid being policed by the us government. in those rules, there were things like gay characters not being allowed to be depicted unless they were villains or "punished" for being gay by the end (which usually resulted in death). that's where the "bury your gays" trope and the "ever-suffering queer" trope and the "gay villain" trope have their roots because that was the only way queer characters were allowed to exist. a lot of queercoding was also developed during this time to try and get around the censors. and even though this code was lifted during the late 60s, it still has profound effects on how we tell stories through film. the filmmakers that grew up under the hays code saw and used those films as inspiration when they grew up to make their own work, incorporating the elements of the hays code into their films without even realizing. and then the next generation of flimmakers did the same thing with those works and so on and so forth. that's how the tropes that i was talking about earlier have survived so long. that's why the disney villains like scar or ursula or jafar are queercoded in similar ways to the villains of the 50s or 60s. that's why it was so remarkable to get movies like "but i'm a cheerleader" closer to the 2000s because they actually gave queer people a happy ending, despite the code mandating tragic endings being gone for decades. that stuff sticks around. cinema was also relatively new at the time so the film conventions brought about during the hays code times really shaped the way people understood film language since there wasn't much else to compare it to. and i just want to make it clear that i'm bringing this up because the code didn't just shape how filmmakers made their movies and characters, but also how the audience understands them. it shaped people's expectations and how they learned to recognize certain character types and tropes. unfortunately, there isn't much of a precedent for complex queer characters and stories, so a lot of people don't have experience recognizing that or even looking for it in mainstream media. that's a big part of what i think is happening with mike. they don't expect him to be complex so they overlook his queercoding and let the most surface-level information inform all that they see in his character, which is him dating el. a complex queer story about someone experiencing internalized homophobia or comphet just isn't something they know how to see so it has to be told to them that that is exactly what's happening. if you've ever wondered why queer people have always identified so often with villains in media or why some people don't seem to think "real queer stories" can be anything besides tragic, this little history crash course is your answer. ALSO BONUS, just bc it's fun imo: the "foot pop" trope also came from the hays code. if you've ever seen a couple kiss on screen and one of them lifted ("popped") their foot up into the air, that's a relic of the hays code. it originally started as a way for directors to make fun of the rule that was meant prevent sex in film by saying that a couple that was embracing needed to have at least one foot on the ground at all times (so they can't be in bed with both feet off the ground to have sex). it was just weirdly worded like a lot of the code was, so some older filmmakers had fun with it. it's also another example of how long the things developed from the code have stuck around to be things people still recognize today! idk, i think it's kinda cool

finally on to 2. this one used to get me because it seemed like such a clear-cut romance trope. like oh, "character blurts out a love confession in the heat of the moment because they're not thinking clearly enough to hold themselves back," i feel like i've seen that a million times before. but i think what's interesting here is the scene where it gets brought up again.

it happens in the final scene between el and mike in s3. el asks him about what he said and mike starts being avoidant and saying things like "it was all heat of the moment stuff" and "i don't really remember, what did i say exactly?" like he's trying to downplay it. it reminds me of the scene where steve is trying to talk to nancy about something she said and she's dismissive with him too, saying, "i was drunk, steve" and "i don't remember any of that". later on in the scene, steve asks her to tell him she loves him and she can't, which sounds quite familiar.

but back to mike and el. when mike isn't able to say it, el comes up to him and tell him that she loves him and kisses him. keep in mind that mike has been trying to get el back all season after she "dumped his ass". but you know what mike does in this scene? does he kiss her back? no. does he tell her he loves her too? no. he keeps his eyes open the entire kiss (which if that doesn't ring alarm bells for their relationship, i don't know what would) and then just looks confused as she walks away. what straight man in love with his girlfriend would keep his eyes open as she kisses him after telling him "i love you" for the first time? what straight man wouldn't even have a hint of a smile or any positive facial expressions after that? WHAT STRAIGHT MAN-

anyways, that whole scene makes no sense if mike's feelings for el are completely romantic. if mike's truth is that he loves el, then he wouldn't have looked so confused after the kiss. he could've just kissed her back. but he just didn't. what this suggests to me is that mike's confused about his feelings for el when if he was a straight man, he would have no reason to be. and this confusion carries on to s4 with him still being unable to tell her that he loves her back. so that's why that cabin scene doesn't read like milkvan proof to me, just something that has yet to be explained explicitly about mike's character. and despite the cabin scene seemingly being a cliche romance trope, i think it ended up being a subversion of it because of how they continued to develop milkvan's relationship problems afterwards. it wasn't a heat of the moment honest love confession because mike is still struggling with the idea of loving el romantically after.

my own personal interpretation of what was going on in mike's head in the scene where he blurts out that he loves her is that he meant it. he was scared of losing her again after s1 which clearly traumatized him. and he meant it when he said he loved el, but it was a platonic love. however, all of the people around him when he said that of course thought he meant it in a romantic way given that they were a boy and a girl (80s heteronormativity) and that they had been dating. i think it makes it clear to mike that people expect him to have these romantic feelings for el which puts pressure on him to live up to that. it could've also confused him further by making it harder to differentiate between platonic love and the romantic love he was "supposed" to feel for el. i think this confusion and pressure mike is going through in his relationship to el comes through in that final scene i was talking about. like i said, he looks confused as el walks away after the kiss. i think it's also interesting that in the original script for that scene, mike thinks to himself something along the lines of "what is wrong with me?" (i dont remember the line exactly off the top of my head) which encapsulates that confusion and a clear desire to feel what he's "supposed" to feel for el perfectly. but he just doesn't feel that way and he's starting to realize it. we'll see if my interpretation still makes sense after s5.

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