#- el hopper

[spookystarfishzombie]

[michaelswilliam]

people have talked about what kind of scenes that the duffer brothers will have to ease the audience into understanding and noticing byler in s5, @teambyler have listed the perfect flow and scenarios in their post.

but i cant help but think that one of the best ways to show the audience the byler build up is through El's perspective. especially since it would literally kill two birds with one stone (ending any doubts about byler AND ending any narratives that milkvan should be endgame)

okay hear me out on this:

a scene in mike's room where El stumbled upon one of mike's unsent letters to will and discovering that mike had signed then with "love, mike."

a scene where vecna is about to get to will and everyone is scrambling and panicking because apparently music does not work for will. nothing works, not even el can help bring will back and then suddenly joyce tells everyone to shut up and begs mike to talk to will. to tell him to comeback. and it works.

and last, when it comes to mike, the same thing happened, no music is working, el's begging does not work either. and el has to do what joyce did and begged for will to talk mike out of his trance and it works.

el has to witness and experience and connect all the dots by herself that mike and will are in love with each other.

it needs to be shown that el finding out about byler's love does not hurt her the way she thought it would.

it needs to be shown that for El herself, being independent and not defined by who loved her and whom she loved is the best ending for her

and el herself must conclude that will needs mike in the way she doesnt and vice versa for mike

the audience must witness all this through el's eyes so that they will finally see byler and erase any narratives that milkvan should be the endgame

i feel like all these need to happen from el's perspective to squash down any "byler came out of nowhere" and how unfair it would be for el or god forbid portray her to be a pitiful victim

[whereintheworldisspencerreid]

“i’m so normal about them” i say as i vibrate out of my skin thinking about it

[evilbookworm]

Ok, but the ultimate byler proof is that Mike really did lie in his monologue to El. And milevens refuse to acknowledge it. He didn’t instantly fall in love with El the second he met her. He was completely focused on Will. He thought she was from an insane asylum. He wanted his mom to send her back. The only reason Mike even decided to let her stay is because he thought she could help find Will. And while I do believe he grew to love her, I believe that love is completely platonic. There was no reason for him to lie. He could’ve mentioned when he really did fall in love with her, but he didn’t. And why’s that? Because Mike isn’t in love with El.

[the--last-great-american-dynasty]

el and lucas' relationship is sooo under appreciated. they're so sweet together

little El theory for s5, feat. Lucas:

Ever since I saw her red shorts/grey sweatshirt/blue bandana outfit, I wondered why she picked the bandana—whether it was Hopper’s and he gave it to her or she picked it out herself. It doesn’t necessarily clash with the rest of her outfit, but her overall outfit is very athletic and then having a bandana “scarf” seemed odd.

Then I saw the new official wrapped BTS photos and saw her with the bandana wrapped around her head, and I had the thought:

Oh. That’s just like Lucas!

I think El is using this bandana either to get into the zone/get serious for training or as a blindfold when she needs it—and I think it would be really sweet if she got it from Lucas. I theorize that El will spend a lot of the season trying to find Max and will spend time with Lucas in Max’s hospital room. Him giving her a bandana of her own to use as a blindfold when she tries to find Max would be really lovely and a nice gesture of appreciation, friendship, and solidarity.

[luttyloot]

Day 3/365 of the ST calendar and we already got Mikey. Very telling indeed.

Also heres a drawing to go with it based on it:

[brionysea]

stranger things + text posts 11/?

[cherimarie]

Btw mileven shippers will not deny that will is gay but when mike was obviously shown tactics of liking will at all—they’ll deny every bit of it just because he’s been in a relationship with el and because they’re supposed to be only “bffs”. As if like mike didn’t leave eleven in the woods or something because he thought will was dead, smh

[blundering-owl]

Max is the one who makes El feel normal and Will is the one who makes Mike feel special SEND TWEET

El wants Mike so she can feel normal and Mike wants El so he can feel special and neither of those things are happening rn

[somewiseoutthere]

My favs are El and Will

But like fr i love them

LOOK AJDJDJEJSJSJSJD

If you hate any of them please don't talk to me

[deafeningdestinyaster]

pov. a boy feeling giddy that his bestfriend will always know what to say to make him feel worthy and happy and understand him no matter what..

pov. a boy slowing realizing that he's losing someone whom he was supposed to be in love with..

.

.

.

hope in future i could edit this to add pov. a boy finally happy with his childhood sweetheart..🥹🤌🏻

[phoebebuggers]

thought about el too hard and redownloaded capcut for the first time in years to make this

[lorax-devito]

El future hcs (a series):

she adopts a daughter and raises her to be an absolute ray of sunshine

[elephantshoetoo]

To the point about El knowing what homosexuality is because she's watched TV...

Gay representation on TV in the 80's was basically non-existent. The only show I can remember watching that even referred to gay people at all was Three's Company, which boiled down to Jack Tripper, a straight man, pretending to be gay so he could be roommates with two single women. So whenever their landlord was around, he put on an exaggerated gay persona with all the stereotypes -- the queer lisp, the fruity mannerisms , the overly sexualized unwanted advances, etc... He was a caricature of a gay person for the purpose of laughing at gay people, because that was high comedy in the 70's and 80's. I'd like to think we've evolved considerably since then.

El mostly watched soap operas and romance movies, which had zero gay representation. As a kid, I watched soap operas with my grandmother in the 80's and I can't recall a single gay character. Ellen coming out on her sitcom was so groundbreaking because it just wasn't done before that, and that wasn't until 1997! Will and Grace didn't air until 1998.

So no, the fact that she'd watched TV does not mean she'd had any exposure to or understanding of queer people at all.

And I agree, because El grew up without all the societal biases and rigid gender roles, she'd be the perfect person to help Mike see how completely stupid, arbitrary and baseless homophobia really is.

Thoughts about El's understanding of homophobia and how it can be presented

Basically I was thinking about whether El knows what homophobia is or not (obviously she wouldn't be homophobic). Because she grew up away from society and had very little interaction with others, and unless Papa and the others taught her it, I don't think she knows? And from what we've seen, I don't think there's anything to suggest she was taught it.

And while she was present when Troy and James were making homophobic comments about Will to Mike at the gym, again I don't think she understood what they were talking about, just that they were bullies and "mouth breathers".

And so this led me to think about how El would react to either Mike or Will coming out to her or just talking about it. If she doesn't know about homophobia or doesn't understand/realise why it exists, it can give the audience a rather simple view of how stupid and nonsensical homophobia really is, if that make sense.

For example, Mike could talk to El, apologising to her and expressing how "disgusting" or "wrong" he feels or something for loving Will instead of her, but for El to express genuine confusion as to why he feels that way. For her to ask why he feels wrong for loving someone, and why it's any different for a boy to love a boy, or a girl to love a girl. Because at the end of the day, homophobia really is so stupid, and it's so easy to see it when you've never come across it or grown up with that prejudiced societal view before.

I used Mike as the example here because while I would not be opposed at all if Will were to come out to El, I do think he'd come out to Jonathan before, and I do want to see Mike and El talk (platonic Elmike save me). I want Mike to tell her that he does love her and that he does care about her, but not in the way he's "supposed to", in the way that boys are supposed to love girls. And for El to also say the same (as I also think she's not in love with Mike). I want them to realise that it's better for them not to be together like that, and that it's okay for them to change and figure who they are and who they want to be, emphasising the core message that it's okay to be different, in whatever way that is.

I'd really like to see different perspectives of how people view and disagree with homophobia. Having someone like Jonathan, who knows what homophobia is and disagrees with it and is accepting, is awesome! But also seeing another perspective from someone like El, who's never even heard of it and who provides a very simple but insightful view of it, would also be very impactful.

[lavenderstobins]

this is so unbelievably stupid

[luttyloot]

Day 2/365 of the ST calendar. We got the end game couples blocking behind El from s3.