#idk to me the only thing it sounds like is they need to find a way to balance the mirror matches but even everyone complaining about that

[glisten-inthedark]

I’m rewatching some of Mike and Will’s smaller scenes in season 2 ‘cause when I first watched season 2 I think it was really easy for me to fall into the trap of thinking all of Mike’s behavioral issues stemmed from missing & grieving El

And I still truly believe that’s a massive part of it because I think he has a form of survivor and almost caretaker’s guilt from El’s supposed death. He took care of El and then she singled him out in a goodbye and seemingly died protecting him and his friends. That is a helluva weight to carry around and he’s experiencing PTSD as the anniversary effect kicks into gear.

But in s2e1, before Will has to go into Hawkins Lab, Will is clearly down in the dumps in class because of the Zombie Boy note he got in his locker. We don’t see Mike notice, but later he says “He’s quiet today,” which shows that he did in fact notice his mood. Which is a really nice subtle parallel to Rink o’ Mania where we don’t see Mike noticing Will’s mood but then Mike himself reveals that oh yes, he has been incredibly aware of Will’s mood, attitude, and behavior.

I also just love how the camera focuses in on Mike when the boys are watching Will leave. The creators are screaming at the audience, “HOW MIKE FEELS RIGHT NOW IS YOUR PRIORITY,” and yet it’s so easy (at least it was for me, on my first watch) in Mike’s very next scene to take his moodiness as missing El, because we find out from his parents that he’s had behavioral issues all year, so my silly little brain went, “Oh, because of losing El.” But when the scene starts, before Karen even brings up the two boxes of toys for the yard sale, Mike is sullen and picking at his food.

And again, this is Mike’s next scene after they very intentionally focused on Mike being concerned for Will going to the lab. So he’s not picking at his food because of El—it’s because he’s worried about Will. (Contrasting Dustin & Lucas going to the arcade to watch Max, most of their focus on her.)

Then this dinner scene is followed by Nancy & the Holland’s dinner scene, which ends in Nancy experiencing her own guilt over losing her best friend….and only then do we get an El-focused scene for Mike. Directly after a deep display of grief and guilt from Nancy over her platonic best friend. In Mike’s scene with the toys, he sets aside Rory the dinosaur, which he and the audience associates with El…..except…..she showed zero interest in this toy in season 1. He also picks up the Millennium Falcon, which Dustin tried to get her to fly, but Mike never witnessed her actually levitating it. He associates it with Dustin’s attempt to make her fly it, but not her actually engaging with it.

And all the while, hovering over his head and shoulder, are Will’s drawings. After he picks up the Millennium Falcon, he’s framed between two of Will’s drawings.

Of course Mike misses El; he cares for her and he’s seen firsthand her communicate through the radio, and we’ve seen that he was able to sense her presence like Will did when he was in the UD, and he tells Will that he feels like he keeps seeing her, so I think El visiting him really heightened that need to keep reaching out, and also the guilt that would come with stopping reaching out. After all, in the scene in s2e1 when he uses his radio to reach out to her, it is absolutely Eleven whose voice we first hear, not Dustin. It sounds exactly like her. And then before Mike starts talking, we hear Dustin say “Mike?” and it sounds completely different. So imagine him experiencing that on and off for a whole year! The poor boy would struggle to move on so incredibly badly.

But before the basement scene, it was Will on his brain. Not El. Will was the reason he was sullen at dinner.

Idk I just think it’s so interesting how even though I’d rewatched season 2 a ton of times before season 4 and now, I had M*leven on the brain and so let that color how I perceived things and the assumptions I made.

Hello! Oh this is why I love getting asks, I didn't even notice all of this.

To be honest I also assumed his behavior change was due to El at first, but thought better of it not due to the things you noticed but because after I watched I thought about it and realized it was most likely a situation where there's a lot of trauma from what happened to El and what happened to Will intertwined.

I've talked about this before very on a surface level because no one here needs a psychology Ted Talk, but I truly believe El and Will are very enmeshed in Mike's brain due to trauma coping mechanisms.

Will disappears, he gets El. El gets Will back but disappears and he thinks she dies and she gets her back, connect this with Mike's internalized homophobia/biphobia and we have a recipe for his behavior down the line.

[sevenines]

i saw this tweet and found it interesting for two reasons. one is that some people base how good cartoon network would be to toh by how it treated su, and despite the fact that su’s treatment by the network was considered poor at the time, now its thought to be exceptionally good in comparison to modern shows.

two is how exactly su got impacted by a limited budget. a common criticism is how characters like connie, peridot, and lapis are left out of missions. but balancing a lot of characters is not only hard but also costly (extra animation, extra voices—it’s been revealed that the show is limited to a set number of characters per episode otherwise they’re over budget). animation mistakes are not uncommon since retakes cost extra. the entire reason the original show got cut short was due to loss of funding!

[ajdrawshq]

thrilled to announce that twewy still goes hard as fuck

[jrueships]

guess whos not going in at all this week, actually

[gregoftom]

pretty sure i’ve seen romance movies with scenes like this

[bunnihearted]

🦈2

[crandberrysaucewithpulp]

we should all be done with trying to smear our distinctive qualities into the dent of societal normalcy. i am going to seek every weirdo freak and nerd and assemble them into a union to rival insecure conformists, and then convert them into their own authenticity

[deus-ex-mona]

up next on chapter 36 of idol sengen… _(:3 」∠)_

[imadhatt3r]

"First gay experience", "first gay date", "first gay sex"

[piplupod]

are you the most annoying person in the world or do you just need to eat something: a memoir by me

[poppyseed799]

I think one of the weirdest signs that I was trans was that I was fine with being called a woman but NOT a cis woman. I felt awful cuz I was like “do I have a problem with people calling me cis even tho I am???” cuz I am NOT someone who minds being called accurate descriptors such as cis. I felt like I just wanted to be special or something even tho that wasn’t it and felt so bad. Something just felt really wrong about being called a CIS woman. Definitely one of the more thought provoking signs I was trans lol

[kareenvorbarra]

read the beginning of a popular book out of curiosity and something happened in the first few pages that made me realize it might be least For Me book ever written

[pebblezone]

this Tylenol ain’t shit w

[toytulini]

splat fans be normal about japanese players challenge

[bunnihearted]

🍓

[isa-renee]

okay but why is it literally easier to explain my thesis topic to non-linguists??