#and he dealt with them super well in contrast to previously not having consequences in one instance and not fully apologizing when he was
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People judge actions based on reactions and Mike is a prime example. He is a very hated character right now but consider this
Season 1: Mike said to El (twice, I believe) "What is wrong with you!" She ran off hurt but returned within a couple episodes. (People often like to parallel him saying this in season 4 to the cliff scene when he didn't but forget the times he did. He didn't get worse or more hypocritical you just picked bad examples). I don't remember him directly apologizing for this, though he did validate that she was not a monster and he did not see her as such and that could be counted for one of these instances.
He is widely forgiven and even forgotten for this.
Season 4: Mike initiates an attempt to understand and console El. When confronted, he cannot say I love you but tries to say everything else he can to make her feel better. She is crying, speaking poorly of herself, and angrily throws letters while confronting him. After many episodes apart (which he spends brainstorming how to fix things and she spends not bringing it up once) he apologizes to her in full, hitting every point and taking full responsibility, at the soonest opportunity.
He is widely antagonized for this.
#mike wheeler defense squad#mike wheeler defender#mike wheeler#stranger things#he was not ill intended in not saying that to el and i feel that's the only logical reason one could hate him for how he handled it#his behavior with will seeming to becoming a pattern IS concerning#but it's arguably better to demonstrate that when you inevitably fuck up you will handle it quickly and well by taking full responsibility#regardless of forgiveness status rather than to pretend you are and always will be perfect#all he's done is show he can remain calm and understanding in conflict with el#and show that when he doesn't he can take responsibility for that and is a good apologizer (which not a lot of people are. he took full res#onsibility gave an explanation AND validated him against what he had said)#like literally wtf more do people want#i told my best friend people hated on him and she was so surprised when he apologized and texted me super confused bc the hate i told her#about made her think that he wouldn't be redeemed from that rather than literally fixing like a day later#and then spending the rest of the season trying to fix the other thing#like bro what#he made a mistake he made last year and a mistake he would have made all the way back in season 1#and he dealt with them super well in contrast to previously not having consequences in one instance and not fully apologizing when he was#forgiven in the other#and he's bad NOW#but was perfect THEN#ok
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initial thoughts on part 3, because iām digesting still. spoilers abound, ye be warned.
things i very much liked
barbara painting as her way of remembering
on that the stricklander painting and the angor painting are both fucking dope. does barb take commissions??
strickler and nomura training jim
stricklerās fUCKING WINGS I CANNOT FUCKING BELIEVE THATāS CANON NOW
morganaās whole deal like holy fuck sheās hot and i want her to murder me just so i can have the honor
merlin being a shady bastard, thank god
ANGOR ANGOR ANGOR!!!!
angorās entire plotline, though minor, was super important to me and iām so so glad it got a resolution
gunmar calling draal a dog and triggering angorās flashback to his time with strickler
the whole claire vs. morgana dynamic. very very good.
strickler introducing himself asĀ āwalthalomew stricklanderā to merlin like the fucking nerd he is
morgana made changelings and I Die
weird uncle dictatious
barb being concerned about nomura aka heart eyes motherfucker
troll jim aka the cutest boy alive i love him so much
honestly??? most of it??
season 2 was markedly stronger than season 1, and i think that season 3 was even stronger than season 2 tbh
things that did not sit as well with me
how strick/lake ended up. iām not inherently against it because i think thereās potential for an interesting relationship there, but they did it in like. the worst way possible.
no consequences for strickler??? fuck that noise. barbara basically being reduced to a damsel in distress??? Y I K E S.
seriously she was mad at him for like 5 minutes and there was no fucking like..... real, genuine apology, or consequences, or anythingĀ on stricklerās behalf. that plotline literally went fromĀ āiām mad at you walter you suck >:^(ā toĀ āeeeee!!! save me walter i love you!!ā with......... no kind of natural development or..... anything. like...... he didnāt do anything......... they just all kind of wentĀ ālol okay stricklerās cool nowā
also no consequences for the other shitty things he did to like.... almost every character
i love walter but holy fuck the dude needs to deal with the repercussions of his actions
anyway enough about that
draalās death felt kind of empty tbh. lusey pointed out that that it felt very much like a setup for jim to sayĀ āthis is for draalā when killing gunmar and not much else, and iām inclined to agree. them not really talking about him dying or dealing with it made me not feel as much of the emotional weight as i think youāre supposed to, especially when you contrast it with how they dealt with AAAARRRGH!!ās āāādeathāāā after the P1 finale. draal is like... a pretty major character with an important plotline, and so his death didnāt really feel like it matched with that
a lot of the characters that previously felt more 3 dimensional before felt very 2d this time around
it was super emotional and powerful a lot of the time, but didnāt quite manage to make me cry. maybe iāve just got a thicker skin now lmao.
but overall, i really liked it, and i think it was a wonderful conclusion to a show that has come to mean so much to me, and iām excited to watch it again and hopefully fall in love with it all over again.
...........
of course, one final gripe because iām a fucking gay disaster and you probably were expecting this if you watched P3 and you know what My Whole Deal is in this fandom
no???? strickrot??? interaction????? AT ALL????? they were in the same goddamn room?????? and you didnāt have them say a single WORD to one another?????????
like their relationship is farĀ from the most important one in P1, but especially after that tease of gunmar triggering angorās flashback, i thought weād get something. this is meant to antagonize me, sebastian botboyfriend specifically. they knew that i saw the truth that angor rot and stricklander fucked in canon and they had to stop me.
oh well the strickrot conspiracy continues because even though he exploded thereās not a body and if thereās not a body iām gonna pretend that the next thing that happened after The Gang walked into the shadows is that angor (miraculously having cheated death at least a second time) kidnapped stricklander and now theyāre gay troll married somewhere whilst also hating each otherās guts. the end. god what a good fucking show.
thank god strickrot is canon.
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