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galaxyarvii · 4 days ago

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rant about mileven?

First let’s look at this from Mike’s perspective. Mike’s had a pretty boring, ordinary life, but then all of a sudden he gets thrown into this mysterious situation where his best friend is missing. Then him and his friends are out looking for Will when they find El. Literally find her. Alone and lost in the rain. And Mike’s first instinct is to take her back to his house because she’s obviously in trouble and he wants to help. Originally Mike just wants to help El. He has no clue that she could help them find Will, he doesn’t fall in love with her at first sight, or even want to befriend her at first sight. He just sees this girl in trouble and wants to help her, there’s no hesitation. And she’s quiet and weird and his friends are all a little freaked out by her, but he just sees a girl in trouble, not a friend or a crush or a way to find Will, just a girl who needs somebody in her corner.

But then over the course of the week, El has this strong personality that comes out in the most quiet ways and Mike gradually starts opening up to her and seeing her as a new friend to join the party (and then eventually as even more than a friend, but we’re getting to that).

El’s perceptive, she notices the little things about him that he’s insecure about, like the cut on his chin from Troy, and he’s so scared of her judging him and seeing him as the outcast weirdo everybody at school does, but instead of judging she just immediately empathizes and understands. She stands up to his bullies for him. She sees Troy talk bad about Will, and then she sees him about to go after Mike, and she literally makes him piss his pants (How can you NOT love Eleven after that?) She’s so protective of him. A good example of that would be the compass incident. Lucas got mad at her about that, but Mike just saw it as El wanting to keep them safe and doing whatever she could to make sure of it. El is beyond selfless, that word doesn’t even start to cover just how much she puts others before herself. Everything from helping the boys look for Will even though she barely knew them, to in the end literally sacrificing herself for them, she’s so fiercely loyal and selfless to them.

God I could keep going on. El is brave and clever and curious and honest and compassionate and ten trillion traits I could keep listing and give endless examples for each, but the point is, when Mike took El in, he didn’t instantly see her as someone who’d be important to him. She was just this girl he wanted to help, but then over time she revealed this intense and strong personality to him, and he was enamored. Quite literally starstruck.

And something I just gotta point out is, Mike is not perfect okay. He’s loud and intense and he can come off really strong. But El understands him on this much quieter, more emotional level. He’s not the same person around her as he is around the rest of his friends. El brings out this softer, gentler part of him and he lets himself feel vulnerable in front of her. With El, Mike doesn’t feel like the leader or the Dungeon Master or the paladin or any of his labels within the party, he shows a part of himself to her that he doesn’t show the others

Now from El’s point of view. Okay, we could go on forever and ever about how much Mike helped her and saved her and all that, because he did. El would probably be dead if she hadn’t met Mike and he took her in. But the fact that he helped her isn’t why she fell in love with him. Mike is a one-of-a-kind person okay. He’s attentive, protective, patient, gentle, accepting, caring, empathetic, all these traits I could keep listing on and gives endless examples of for each, but what I’m trying to say is, Mike is really unique. There’s not many people in the world who would have acted the way he did in his situation, he’s incredibly selfless. El didn’t fall in love with Mike because he helped her, El fell in love with Mike because he’s the kind of person who just possesses all these amazing, selfless traits that were all the root of why he wanted to help her.

And another thing I wanna point out is that Mike is a very emotionally intense person. We can see that in all aspects of his character, but I don’t think we talk enough about how much El loves that in him. El was raised with white walls and deep scowls and endless manipulation. Brenner and the lab workers were nothing but cold to her, and El spent most of her life always having to guess how they felt. Meeting someone like Mike who just wears his heart on his sleeve, it’s honestly liberating for El. She loves that about him. Mike is so open about his emotions and he feels everything so strongly, and that kind of passion appeals to El so much. Mike’s a fiery intense person, and that can be both good and bad for him, but El loves that about him so much.

Beyond that, Mike provided this sense of stability for El. He makes her feel like a normal life and a family and all that are possible. She’s coming from absolutely nothing, just years of being abused and sheltered, and really so much of El in s1 is all about her wanting to feel normal and feel like she fits in. She craves this ordinary life that in reality she knows she’ll never have. But Mike does have that sort of life. He comes from this “perfect” nuclear family at the end of the cul-de-sac, he gets good grades, has close friends, etc. but he knows this ordinary life he leads isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Mike and El are sorta opposites in that way. Mike’s had an ordinary, boring life and he craves fantasy and adventure, while El’s been involved with some of the most adventurous things out there and all she wants is some feeling of normalcy. And together they each give each other a little bit of each. El gives Mike some adventure, she brings him out his ordinary life. And Mike brings El this sense of stability, he wants to give her this normal life. Mike and El together make this perfect little mix of normalcy and adventure.

Lastly, El and Mike trust each other so much. They’re both shown to be vulnerable around the other, they rely on one another, and most of all, both of them just constantly want the other to feel safe and happy. Their whole relationship came from these two things, “promises” (commitment) and “Friends don’t lie” (honesty). I honestly have so much more I still could say but this is ridiculously long enough as it is, so here. Mike and Eleven love each other and this has been my TedTalk

#mileven

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