people lover

Something so painful about Robin's coming out scene is when she says, "if he did know her, like really know her, I don't think he'd even want to be her friend."

She doesn't word her rejection like ‘I don’t like you because I like girls’, she words it as ‘you won’t like me because I like girls’.

Sorry but it's literally them

aka how the DnD universe perfectly reflects the in-show's universe, through a nested universe lens. A story within a story within a story...

As controversial as the nested universes theory is, I want to explain that there are many hints towards it. The basis of the theory itself is based off the DnD universe created within the show.

In the very first episode, Karen cuts Mike's campaign short.

Will rolled a 7, which meant the Demogorgon got him. Once Will revealed this to Mike, that sealed his fate. That's where the campaign ended. It basically ended with Will's character dying.

At the end of the season, Mike turns back the clock allowing Will's character to survive his fight against the Demogorgon. He rolled a 14 instead of a 7!

Basically after Will survives, Mike RUSHES to finish his campaign to the confusion of the other boys.

So as much as Mike wants to end the campaign there, ensuring Will's character's survival, he can't. There's still more story to tell.

The campaign finally continues in ST3, with Will leading it this time. Mike says "it's so early" because he doesn't want to continue the story just yet. Within the campaign, there's a ton of foreshadowing (that's for another post) but basically Mike rushes again to finish it.

This time, Mike gives up and allows their characters to all die. Will becomes very upset by this. Mike later deeply regrets it...

Mike regrets it because Will donated his DnD set, meaning... he was done contributing to the campaign. They sacrificed themselves and that was the end of the story. Mike absolutely does not want that to be the end! So what does he do?

He turns back the clock again... and continues the story for Will, but without Will.

Mike wants to go back to DnD to properly finish the campaign but is held back again... this time by Lucas who is unable to play with them.

This was why he is greatly affected by Lucas' basketball game. He was held back from finishing the story properly.

Erica (the recipient of Will's DnD set) continues the campaign with them.

They all nearly died again... by Vecna. But two characters were left and they decided to stand up against him.

The odds were not in the favour, but despite that...

They won.

Mike successfully changed the story in time.

The DnD campaigns are a clear reflection of the story within the show itself. A story within a story.

So... what if there's another layer to this?

What I'm arguing is that this may be a major hint that a Mike exists beyond the show and is the one writing the story of the show itself. A story within a story within a story.

Will originally was writing it with him, but he moved west (click the link for the symbolic definition of that... my apologies in advance... ), unable to complete it. Mike has to complete it on his own...

miwi edit for the soul ☆

with stranger things we got robin coming out before they even made it blatantly obvious (and confirmed) that will was gay. they've been setting up the el/mike/will love triangle since season TWO. mike's character is a douche rn because he's trying to be normal, eg: the forced conformity line when eddie's talking to hellfire club at lunch. that's the theme for that season. every character feels the effects from that theme in season four.

Every single scene between Mike and Will in season 2 is completely and undeniably framed with a romantic tone, and that’s precisely why it doesn’t work if you replace Will with Dustin or Lucas—but it does work if you replace Mike and Will with Jonathan and Nancy, who are a fully established couple.

We see Mike’s dynamic with Dustin and Lucas all throughout season 1, without Will, and even a little in season 2 with Will present—and the difference is obvious. Even before Will was back, it was already clear that Mike’s friendship with him was different compared to the other two, simply by the way Mike reacted to Will’s disappearance versus how Dustin and Lucas did. But season 2 only reinforces this distinction.

If you replace Will with a girl in season 2, you are literally watching a love story with explicitly romantic scenes. That’s why this dynamic cannot be replicated with Dustin or Lucas—their friendships with Mike are clearly, explicitly, and canonically confirmed to be 100% platonic. But that’s not the case with Will, because in their scenes, you can feel that this friendship is different, deeper than the others. We don’t necessarily have the words to define it, but we know that there is something there.

And the proof? Mike is one of the people chosen to help bring Will back from his possession. They could have asked Dustin and Lucas, who are also Will’s friends and have memories with him. And it's not about who was physically present at the lab—Jonathan wasn’t there either. Yet, for Joyce, Jonathan (and Hopper), it’s obvious that Mike has as much emotional power to reach Will as his mother and brother do. So they let him be there to talk to Will.

And they were right—because it’s Mike’s memory that weakens the possession enough for Will to start communicating. Even though his hands start trembling after Jonathan’s memory, that only shows that the possession is weakening, not that it’s breaking. It’s Mike’s words that actually break through and bring Will back enough for him to signal in Morse code with his fingers. You can see it in his expression—how his eyes shift, how his brows furrow, how he starts to whimper.

This is within a scene of Billy allowing her into his mind, also.

I mean what was the reason for all of that according to Milkvans?

blud this is not how you write an unrequited love story smh