#i love mike and eleven so much

[elevenenthusiast]

If those leaks about stranger things 5 on twitter are true then i have nothing else to say other than that it sounds ass.

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

what I feel like a lot of milkvan shippers and anti-bylers don’t understand is that we literally don’t hate eleven. like at all. i absolutely love eleven and i think she deserves so much happiness and i desperately hope the duffers give her a happy ending. i think she’s such an interesting character and a great representation of giving a character some flaws (i.e. el’s slightly violent tendencies and anger issues) but also still being one of the most selfless and loving characters in the show. i just genuinely don’t think she and mike work. they were cute, they were each other’s childhood crush… but honestly, el wasn’t even socialized at that point and didn’t even know what a friend really was so how would she understand what a crush was. i do think mike had a crush on her and el’s limited understanding of feelings and her genuinely deep love for mike because he was one of the first people who really saw her, led her to misinterpret how she was feeling.

i think the most natural progression for the two of them would be a mutual breakup. neither of them are angry, they both just understand that their relationship isn’t really meant to be a romantic one. this doesn’t discredit their love in any sort of way—in fact, i think it’d be a really cool parallel for them to say ‘i love you’ after they breakup, but this time with an understanding that it’s platonic.

el went on a path of self discovery in s4 and that path should continue into s5 where she begins to understand herself as an individual and that she’s powerful on her own. i don’t want her to end up in a relationship because I think it makes most sense for her to empower herself as a singular human being who matters just as much as anyone else.

[hellinhawkins]

honestly i think that el was my favorite version of herself in s4

[skeletal-butterflyy]

Actually I think el only had bad outfits when she was trying to be “normal” and fit into societal standards. In s3 she was having fun with max and learning to be herself and her outfits were great, but at the beginning of season 4 she’s trying to do/be who she thinks she SHOULD be instead of who she is, hence the less than aesthetically pleasing outfits. Same goes for mike actually, that horrendous mess he was wearing when he arrives in california is what he thinks he SHOULD be wearing instead of what he would actually want to wear.

[andiwriteordie]

i’m a mike defender until the very end because i love my boy so so much but nothing makes me angrier than when he calls el “eleven” 

[justablogger234]

A scene I don't see get talked about enough

So you guys remember this scene from episode 3 of season 4? This one is after el gets arrested after hitting that dumb piece of ......... , ahem my apologies, I just remembered I can't say stuff like that (sorry my sweet lord in heaven 🙏 ❤️ 😊).

Anyway 🙂, this is when el is getting taken away in that police vehicle and somehow mike senses that el was the one being taken away, what gets me about this scene is the way mike is running after the police van and the way he screams, but what is most poignant to me about this scene is what mike says. He says "oh no, oh no", if you notice the way he says it, breathing a bit heavily, one might think it's because he ran and isn't quite athletic but us mileven shippers know better. The way mike says it is in a sad and scared manner, almost like he's getting flashbacks to the last time el left him. We all know, mike does have el-related PTSD, he is TERRIFIED of losing el, nothing terrifies him more than losing el, and this scene just continues to solidify that.

[sickbromeo]

the best thing to ever happen to the stranger things fandom is the rise of lesbian el and gay mike truthers

[delicious-p4ncakes]

Them

But as this book:

Please tell me you guys are picking up what I'm putting down

[milliebugydementia]

i love nonverbal eleven so much like yessss girl say nothing. it's always like "what did you see?" "who's going to die?" "what did you do?" my mysterious autistic angel. my beautiful cryptic princess tell them NOTHING

[sbd-laytall]

My Personal Opinions: The Chaotic Disaster Bisexual, Their Lesbian With Comphet Love Interest, & The Best Friend Who Is The One For The Lesbian

Stiles & Lydia & Alison

Mike & El & Max

Clark & Lana & Chloe

[b0ttled-r0zez]

So I was watching Heartstopper season 2 for the first time and my Stranger things ridden brain immediately connected what Tao was talking about outside the theater to Mileven. Like ik he was referring to a movie but I started laughing on the inside.

“-I mean it all hinges on the romance of two kids. Which is so unbelievable anyway because they fall in love immediately, and like, they’re kids, so obviously it’s not going to last long term”

I find that funny, we know ST and Heartstopper seem like they are paralleling each other and that would be hilarious.

[enamouredless]

controversial byler opinion moment... I don't think mike was lying during his monologue

[reikunrei]

sorry that I don’t shut up about this ever but I just really really love the way ST has shown the evolution of byler and mileven, especially in how it’s becoming more and more obvious how both of these duos work when centered around Mike.

like, with mileven, Mike puts El up on a pedestal. he has from s1 when he immediately fell in love with her and continued to fall in love with her even when they were apart. he built up this all-powerful image of her in his head prior to and during s2, and sees her surrounded by so much golden light that he feels inferior around her. he doesn’t want to feel that way, but it’s becoming increasingly obvious that he does.

I even saw someone point out recently how whenever he talks about being afraid of losing her, it’s framed around himself. when El assures him, she makes sure it’s comforting to him, that he knows she’ll be okay so that he’ll be okay. Mike could turn it around to say “be careful. don’t get hurt” but it always turns into “I can’t lose you. if I do, then I’ll be the one who’s hurt.” so El understands what Mike needs to hear in order to feel comforted, but Mike doesn’t give that selflessness back to her. he’s so worried about his own self in comparison to her that he can only view her in relation to himself right now.

meanwhile, El also puts Mike up on a pedestal. she fell in love with him the moment the boys found her in the woods and he took her back to his house, got her a warm change of clothes, some food, and a (somewhat) comfortable place to sleep. she felt cared for immediately. she adored Mike for making her feel loved, but then… he doesn’t meet her expectations. he doesn’t say he loves her to her face, he doesn’t touch on the root of their problems, he doesn’t share his true feelings with her. so she’s realizing that if he can’t share his true feelings, then how can she? when she confronts him about it, he gets defensive. suddenly, she no longer feels all of that love that she so thought was there. he might say he cares about her like that, but she doesn’t really believe it anymore.

I feel like, for both of them, having this kind of dynamic where they view each other as these saviors while also being in their first relationship is a recipe for disaster, unfortunately. due to their strong feelings for one another, they thought a romantic relationship was the next step. if they feel this strongly about someone, it must be true love, right? sort of, I guess, but they’re so young right now. they’ve conflated these strong feelings with romantic love when, in reality, that’s not going to work long-term. if they keep hyping the other up while dropping themselves lower and lower, it’s all going to crumble.

and Mike is the main culprit of this. he’s put her so above himself while also tying his own worth so closely to her and how she feels about him that it’s completely hindering them both.

then we get to Will. Mike and Will have been best friends forever. you could argue that they each put each other on some sort of pedestal, but… not to the extent that Mike and El have. they adore and admire each other, but they view each other as equals. they’re friends, party members, teammates.

in the end, it was even Will that had to push Mike into telling El he loves her. and he does love her, just not how they all think. I think even El knows that. she doesn’t need the love to be romantic, she just needs to know that she is loved for who she is. Will makes sure Mike knows that everyone loves him for who he is, that he’s the heart, and only once his own insecurities have been quelled can he help the others with theirs.

I think that even if Mike begins to put Will up on a pedestal, if/when he starts to realize where his true feelings lie, Will won’t, in turn, put Mike up on a pedestal with him. Will seems like the kind of guy to remain grounded. he’ll step down off of that pedestal that Mike has erected and assure him that they’re equals, and Mike is just as deserving of love, and he doesn’t need to make himself inferior to make Will love him, and Will doesn’t need to hype Mike up. because Will already loves him for who he is!

Mike and El very obviously love each other, but it’s not in a romantic sense. I think they both think it is and they want it to be that, because they’re so young that they don’t know what else to do. Mike just accidentally set El up for failure because she didn’t have the life experience to know otherwise. and neither did he, really! he was just doing what he thought he was supposed to do, and what his feelings were telling him, and she was just along for the ride. she has so much trauma surrounding love and family that it’s not a surprise at all that she doesn’t fully understand her true feelings yet.

neither of them meant to hurt each other, but Mike has painted them into a corner. and I feel like Will will be the person to make it clear to both of them where their true feelings lie and keep them both grounded.

[blueraine]

it sucks watching stranger things 1 and thinking wow mike and eleven are so cute i love their friendship and then knowing what happens to them in later seasons

[zaskiaz]

my brother convinced me to watch stranger things and i hate those kids. i literally can’t deal with eleven and mike’s stupid everything

[spirit-meets-the-b0ne]

God I love Dustin Henderson so much man, I know Will is in love with Mike because only a deeply down bad homosexual would be able to say Mike “is the heart” when Dustin is alive and in the party. Dustin is the one constantly mediating in S1 between Mike and Lucas, he’s even insecure of his own newness to the group when he conciliates. Because even though the party are all HIS best friends he is able to rationalize why they might have a hierarchy based on seniority. Mike makes it clear that isn’t the case. It’s partly why Dustin is quicker to accept Eleven and partly why he’s so open to including Max “as the new kid” because that was him once. Dustin’s iconic “she’s our friend and she’s crazy!” Dustin and Lucas having parallel deviations from their code of honor in ST2 and Dustin being (so dramatic ik) literally ready to fall on the sword for his misdoings. Dustin basically involving Steve out of necessity but then cultivating that relationship to make Steve a good friend, Steve who had the shittiest friends in high school and attention for all the wrong reasons. Steve never had a true friend in his life and then some 12 year old basically gave him a crash course. In ST3 when Dustin earnestly challenges Steve’s socially conditioned need to be seen as cool only for Steve to become bffs with a band geek. A band geek who is also a lesbian that Steve would rather be seen as a rizzless hack of a womanizer than out her to anybody, even Dustin. All of Dustin and Steve. Dustin going from calling Steve a douchebag, to Eddie saying the kid worships him and thinks he’s a total badass. Dustin who in ST4 is once again demolishing social norms of high school vs middle school because FUCK, his friend is in middle school! His friend Erica, his comrade Lady Applejack, is a black girl in junior high and he dgaf what anyone thinks about it. ALL OF DUSTIN AND ERICA. Dustin teaching Erica to embrace her inner nerd, to Erica staunchly declaring “I’ve bled with him!” When asked if she knows Dustin. Dustin who is the FIRST person that Max goes to when shit hits the fan in ST4 because god damn dude Dustin is the heart. Dustin’s unwavering support of Eddie even when the evidence is stacked against him, Dustin always believed in Eddie Munson. Dustin is the only one who truly offers Wayne condolences. He is the friend of all friends. Dustin is constantly carrying the party through crisis and discomfort, he’s dedicated, he’s unabashedly caring, and he’s the character that is able to socially move across the board in every direction. I fuckin love this little curly haired drama king because these geeks would be LOST without him!!! If Dustin isn’t the heart; he’s the Central Nervous System, he’s the nucleus, he’s fucking vital to not only the party but every other tertiary character of importance. He’s constantly inspiring and providing direction. He’s a goofball, he’s wise beyond his years, he’s a lover and he’s a fighter, he always has a plan and he always has a bad idea, he’s the voice of reason and the resounding falsetto alarm of things gone wrong, he’s never done anything wrong ever in his life, one time something ate his cat but besides that. He’s my heart of the show damn it!