*When Mikhail Sees Will In His Wizard Cosplay:*

*When mikhail sees Will in his wizard cosplay:*

hah! Harry Pooter!!!

*When Mikhail sees el move something with her magic powers:*

hah! Harry Pooter!!!

*Mikhail when argyle offers him palm tree delight*:

hah. I hyave much much strrronger zan zat, you silly american.

max and mike are wlw mlm hostility 🤩🤩

NO.

el and vecna are actually a prime example of REAL wlw mlm hostility

What do you mean? That's just regular Mike.

hi guys i was gone for a bit but im back what did i miss

OMG the third wheel thing! How'd you find that!!! Also the guy on the front left looks like he's wearing a shirt really similar to Mike's shirt that he wears in Cali? And the fact that the blue shirt guy's in front of a boy who likes like Will and is illuminated by light and next to an orange bottle of what is definitely... maple syrup, which is close to will's color, yellow, is interesting. So basically the scene is divided by the two colors, in the second pic, there's the blue shirt guy and the beaker with blue liquid in the front, and then in the back there's two girls, a yellow "women in science" poster, a guy who looks like Will, and a yellow bottle.

Also, bring some elastic cause this is all a major stretch, but I like how the titration device is placed in between Mike and the kid he's talking to, and more importantly in the second frame we also see that it splits apart the blue shirt guy and the will-esque looking guy. Showing the division between them. Also, I genuinely think there's a reason that they chose to have the will-looking guy in the back, illuminated by light, and turned away from the camera. There's a reason they didn't put the blue shirt (mike) guy there, facing the camera. That would send a completely different message if you imagine it.. Cause the message here is how Mike feels about Will. Distant, unreachable, focused on other things, but still a light to Mike nonetheless. Alsooo the lady across from the Will-guy is wearing a red striped shirt which are Will's colors and holy cow I am getting WAY too detailed with this lmao. I need to stop myself lol I think I'm reaching too hard

oh! and that molecule-ified symbol on the women in science poster is not the symbol for female, it's the symbol for the unification of all sexes/the transgender symbol. Correct me if it also resembles female but I've only seen it with trans/unisex stuff lol. Which makes sense cause "women in science" is about bringing everyone together, duh, but idk. It's about bringing the genders together and yet the girls are separated from the guys in the picture??! With Mike in the middle. I feel like this could mean:

a. he's bisexual

b. he's stuck in a conformist mindset

c. the opposite, he feels like he doesn't fit in with either sex's expectations.

I normally wouldn't analyze a pic so much but the "women in science" thing really caught my attention when I watched it, it looked so intentional, and looking closer now seeing the giant lettering and unique font, the yellow coloring, and the intentional separating of the sexes on either side. I seriously feel like this is to show that the school, or their society at large, is still very binary, traditional, and divided based on gender, and that's why Mike, non-coincidentally in his blaring Hellfire Club shirt, feels like he doesn't belong. Because of gender roles (aka sexual orientation difficulties). And that's why he misses Will, cause Will made him feel more accepted and less alone.

so we’re not going to talk about how chemistry guy is surrounded by blue yellow and green as well ???

YESS OMG I NEVER MADE THAT CONNECTION!

Mike is totally concealing his feelings around El, along with trying to maintain a certain image that does not reflect his inner self, an image that is acceptable and "cool." And it shows how El is having trouble seeing eye to eye with him like you said!!! (he only wears them in scenes where he's across from El. And in the pizza scene he goes from trying on blackout sunglasses, and then later denying to try the pineapple pizza, like he's rejecting the things in front of him on so many levels!!! Rejecting his senses!)

Also this season is all ABOUT eyes, seeing, truth, and deception! Vecna's thing is that he blinds people once he makes them consumed by pain, once he succeeds in convincing them that they should be ashamed of who they are/what they've done. There's no way they put in this scene where that blindness theme is highlighted for NO REASON. It's clearly to represent that Mike is blinded in a similar way to Vecna's victims. He is ashamed of himself and feels incapable of confronting and accepting his inner self, pain, and maybe even mistakes. He needs to look at the love that's around him and trust himself enough to open up and receive it, like Max was trying to do. ((Side note I'm obsessed with the idea that will has true sight and he's like a guiding light for Mike throughout the show, showing him to focus on his feelings and pain instead of running away from them).

What does wearing sunglasses reflect about a character?

Think we moved on too quickly from the fact that Mike Wheeler kept his sunglasses on to kiss his girlfriend after not seeing her for months

and this is the only time we see them kiss this season.

I really want to hammer home the point that none of the costuming (and framing, editing, etc.) decisions on this show are accidental. The filmmakers really said yeah, let’s hide any sort of window into the inner world of Mike Wheeler’s thoughts and feelings by giving him these ridiculous shades while he kisses his girlfriend. Totally not obvious symbolism at all.

Just think about how much of a big deal it is to obscure an actor’s eyes — arguably their biggest tool for conveying emotion onscreen. Google “symbolism of sunglasses in film” and there are a bunch of takes that go far beyond making a character look "cool".

Take one of my favourite movies as an example. The sunglasses in The Terminator serve a practical purpose as a perfect disguise for the titular killing machine to "hide in plain sight". But thematically? By obscuring his eyes, these shades also dehumanize him — no empathy or compassion to be found here.

So giving Mike the stupidest, most blackout shades during his reunion with El? When this is supposedly the show's "main couple"? Sorry, but I just cannot see how this could ever be read as a genuine, romantic moment. They're literally not seeing eye to eye.

And you could maybe argue this was just initial awkwardness from Mike–if not for the fact that we get another moment of Mike hiding behind glasses later at the pizza place in ep 9. Coincidentally, also when he's alone with El in what should be another romantic moment for them.

Once could be an accident (maybe). Twice is a pattern we’re meant to notice.

Jesus, Mike. WHAT ARE YOU HIDING?!

"what's that?" "oh just a painting for a girl I like"

What if when Will asked “can I show you something” Mike was just like “no” and the scene ended