I LOVE BYLER ANALYSISES SO MUCH

I LOVE BYLER ANALYSISES SO MUCH

i think the thing that ppl dont grasp abt mike's internalised homophobia is that it's primarily pubescent and there is a real FEAR to it that i really hope they play on in s5. that fear is of sexuality as a whole, as an uncharted territory that is frightening and overwhelming and gross, and i think this is emphasized by the shot of the boys looking at the lingerie shop in s3, and it's also why s4 is the most potent with gay tension - i am definitely not the only one who noticed how much noah schnapp/will hit puberty between s3 and 4. his voice dropped significantly, his shoulders totally bulked out and he got a new haircut. he looks a lot more like a man now, and if you were a pubescing mike wheeler having been in a cute relationship with a girl for long enough to feel confident that you already knew what sexuality was because you guys kissed all the time and you understood how it was supposed to feel, you would be FUCKING SCARED when you saw your best friend in the airport and you felt something physical happen inside you. because you wouldn't know what it was! you wouldn't be able to tell the feeling apart from any of the other weird feelings you have about that guy! so you would just be awkward as hell about it. i think mike's look between will and el at the end of the scene is him looking at will, feeling the pang again and realising there is something fundamentally different that he feels towards will than he feels towards el (when previously both relationships could have been understood fairly similarly to him as platonic and deeply loving and caring, whereas now there is a sexual element to them that he cannot remove, and that scares him) and he can't un-realise it. so i think his gay awakening is fundamentally a sexual one and a frightening and disconcerting one.