#stranger things pro ship

[siblingskissing]

Hellbike Ship Board

"Your ship moodboards are so cute🥰. May I request one for Mike Wheeler/Eddie Munson, please & thank you?"

Requested by @hetasibs

Feel free to request!

[sunnysaystuff]

have you considered that multishipping is the best choice for your own happiness? have you considered that instead of getting worked up over shipping discourse, you could just love All Of Them. have you considered that

[curiositysavesthecat]

*this poll was submitted to us and we simply posted it so people could vote and discuss their opinions on the matter. if you’d like for us to ask the internet a question for you, feel free to drop the poll of your choice in our inbox and we’ll post them anonymously (for more info, please check our pinned post)

[milevenstancyendgame]

On Eleven, Complex Trauma, And Romantic Relationship (s4)

This probably has been pointed out way back in 2022, but I just re-watched a bit of s4 and it struck me that El lying about being bullied in school is completely due to her surpressed trauma.

When you first watch it, the whole "I'm friends with Angela"-pretense seems pretty out of character for El - the only other time I can remember where she lied so overtly and consciously about something big to her friends was in s1, about the gate. As we know she did this because she was scared.

At the beginning of s4, we can't understand why she lies, and neither does Mike, and probably neither does El herself.

But then comes the Nina project and she unearths all of these trauma memories, which have been hinted at the whole time.

We see that she has been bullied as a child by her peers in the rainbow room and importantly that they threatened to kill her if she told anyone about it.

This explains her deeply entrenched fear of telling anyone (remember that she also didn't tell Joyce about it, nor the teacher at school when she asked her directly) about the bullying in school - although she couldn't remember the previous trauma, her body remembered it and reacted in the same way to keep her safe. This is a very typical trait of trauma.

And since El has complex trauma (there was continuous trauma in her childhood), this peer bullying got connected to other trauma, which happened soon after - the massacre at the lab.

We see that she has recurring flashbacks in s4 of this massacre, and she starts to believe that she killed the other children.

Add to that the whole trauma of being abused by Brenner and the other lab staff, this explains of course why she feels like a monster and believes that everyone else sees her as that too. If you've been treated like trash as a child, then that's what you believe yourself to be.

So the peer bullying trauma is connected in her psyche/nervous system to fatal danger if she tells anyone about it, and to her doing something terrible.

So when she finally snaps and attacks Angela with the roller skate, and everyone is horrified, of course this re-enacts the trauma of the past and confirms to her the belief that she is a monster/everyone sees her as a monster.

This then sets the stage for the argument with Mike, which - as others have rightly pointed out - didn't even have a lot to do with Mike. It was about El and her trauma.

Yes, the whole "Mike can't say he loves me"-thing was of course a problem for her. It was a cruel coincidence that all these negative things happened at the same time for her: Losing Hopper, moving away from Mike and her friends, a new environment, the school bullying, and the flashbacks. That's why she became fixated on this detail and it got entangled in all those trauma layers and became just another proof for El that she was unloved, because she is a monster.

It was literally just the wrong thing at the wrong time though, or the cherry on top. If she had stayed in Hawkins and there wouldn't have been Angela and co, and a new environment, and school, and horrid flashbacks; and if she had had all of her old friends around her, and Hopper! -

Well, she probably still would have been confused and hurt by Mike never saying the word love, but we wouldn't have had that kind of charged and escalating argument.

But as it was, the argument was about so many things at once, and the love-thing just came up out of nowhere, because everything was crashing down for El, and Mike was clearly overwhelmed and couldn't follow her or understand what was going on for her.

And again, like others have thankfully said before, saying that if Mike actually loved her, he would have hugged or comforted her in that moment - that would have been disastrous!

First of all, as I said above and as was more than obvious, Mike was overwhelmed himself. He was in no position to comfort anyone. He needed time to process.

Second, El was clearly pushing him away, she was in a very destructive state of mind, because all of that above-mentioned trauma got activated and was in full swing.

Anyone with an ounce of emotional intelligence could tell that she was not able to receive any reassurance in that moment. We saw that Mike tried to reassure her the whole time and it didn't work!

Trying anything further would have been forcing something on her, which obviously Mike would never do.

So, in summary - the bulk of El and Mike's relationship issues in s4 was about El and her trauma. There was at no point any hint that they don't love each other any more. On the contrary, both were scared to lose the other.

And to those who say that they shouldn't be in a relationship, because El/both have so much trauma:

First of all, it's bullshit. You clearly know nothing about trauma healing. I have complex trauma and the one thing I learned in my recovery journey about healing is that actually the only thing that truly heals you is love. Self-love is important, yes, but that can't happen in isolation. You need safe relationships to learn about safe relationships. The original trauma was caused by unsafe relationships, so it only makes sense that the healing needs to happen through safe relationships.

That's what is called a corrective experience. And we can see that El has had many corrective experiences with Mike, as well as her other friends.

And why would a romantic relationship be bad for El's healing, but not other relationships?

What's messy and shitty is that El nor any of the other characters are getting any trauma therapy, and yeah, in reality there would be a whole lot more issues, for all of them. But El doesn't have any more relationship issues with Mike than with Hopper (!!!!!) and strangely I don't see anyone suggesting that the last thing she needs is a new father figure.🙄

And secondly, Will has a fuck-ton of trauma too, lol. So saying El needs to not be in a romantic relationship to heal, but wanting Will and Mike to be in one, is hypocrisy.

El experiences Mike to consistently be there for her when she needs him, he's constantly showing her that he loves her, and he's saying it in words too.

And after the argument in s4, he showed to El that he still loves her, that he doesn't think she's a monster. Both his actions proved this and then also his words in the monologue, and he gave her what she needed, he said "I love you" many times, and he explained why he couldn't say it before, that this had nothing to do with her, it was his own insecurities and fear.

And this made El stronger than ever. And this is the set-up for s5.

Thank you for coming to my TED-talk.

[dwobbitfromtheshire]

Reverse bisexual awakening Mike Wheeler, where he thinks he's gay until he meets El, and he realizes he likes girls. El does not care that Mike's a boy. El isn't particular about gender for herself. It depends on her mood. ❤️

[chirpsythismorning]

The way fans on the st sub are almost all in agreement Nancy ending up with neither Jon nor Steve wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, and how they can even come up with a sleuth of reasons as to why, honestly pretty valid and fair reasons, but then are absolutely gobsmacked when fans merely speculate something along those lines for El is, quite something.

[lexyscross]

I just saw a Byler calling Mileven shippers "delusional." That is the goofiest and most self-speaking shit I've ever heard because they're always the delusional ones.

Zero evidence of Mike being in love with Will.

All evidence that Mike is in love with El.

They fully believe their ship will be endgame.

And this part is kind of irrelevant, but they're the most toxic people in the fandom. Insane work!

[can-i-ship-in-queering-peace]

Thisssss!!!!!!

SAY IT LOUDERRRRR!!!!!

[mileven11forever]

Hiii :D I’m a Byler and I LOVE how you answer your questions, you’re so kind to everyone even if they have different opinions, and that’s something this fandom is really lacking! So thank you!!!!! 🫶🏻 (Btw I also think mileven is SOOOO cute and I think that the way some bylers see them is wholly untrue )

Thank you! <3

[even-more-pro-fiction-jellicle]

What kind of comics does Eddie Munson read?

CW: many

In the behind the scenes video showing the Munson trailer set, we see a specific issue of Heavy Metal magazine on Eddie's bedroom floor, beside his bed

I managed to find and purchase a copy of this issue

So let's take a look inside, see what kind of stuff is in the cover story!

(Black box censors done by me, this is a graphic comic.)

Here's our heroine, Druuna, being forced to show her breasts by officials:

Here's superior lifeform mutant leader not really knowing or caring how to tell the difference between their daughters and their wives. Daughters and wives are possibly one and the same.

Just to show I'm not kidding about the superior lifeform bit:

The Mutant gets interrupted by a daughter/wife wanting to have some fun. Huge size difference, some "child-coding" you could say. Also, beneath that lower left black box is a penis. The Mutant has both breasts and a penis and testicles. I can't remember it right now but I'm pretty sure there's a specific term used for this in fandom stuff, and it's a controversial topic

Druuna engages in an exchange with a doctor to get medication. He uses some sort of unspecified device that seems to be painful:

She enjoyed it though:

Druuna immediately gets held up by thugs wanting her meds and things like this happen:

Woman gets attacked by monster and this is the response of the general populace as they all watch:

And after all this, the back cover of the magazine is an ad for a movie with teenage main characters and a child actor:

TL;DR Eddie Munson is the freak in your DNI

[homucifer-ryotan]

"Proship this anti--ship that get a job"

Pro-shippers/people who are tired of antis making fandoms messy that have jobs:

[mikesmelodrama]

how do people ship jancy/lumax and then ship mlvn... like genuinely do they not see the difference in the relationship dynamics? do they not see how jancy and lumax have actual conversations and intimate scenes between them and then mlvn is just 50/50 making out and fighting ?

[wheneverfeasible]

I’m sure this has been brought up and posted before but…

I’m constantly looking up ship names whenever one of the ships I’m unfamiliar with or lesser used ones are mentioned to appropriately tag things, and I know that there’s discourse on what official ship names are at times, but I figured I’d post the link to the fanon created Stranger Things Shipping Wiki for myself in my reference tag for future use and if anyone else wants to use the resource.

And no one fight or start shipping wars. This for fun. Jfc.

[space-and-galaxies]

why are there suddenly people defending n*ah schapp in the byler tag? did i miss something?

[milevenstancyendgame]

In Defense Of Mike

Sometimes antis inspire you to write meta - I don't know why, but today I feel like going through these Mike accusations that someone left on my Eleven post, lol:

No one talks shit about my boy Mike on my post.😎

-"And not to make this about shipping because El is her own person and should be discussed outside of ships, BUT" - goes on long ass shipping discourse.

You nailed it right there, buddy.😂

-"Mike babies her throughout their relationship":

I think it's so funny that those who are on the fence shouting about El needing to break up with Mike, to be independent, are doing exactly what they accuse Mike of doing (gaslight much?). You're willfully ignoring her love for Mike, which is canonical, projecting your own dislike of him onto her, like you know what's best for her. You're babying her.

So when does he baby her? I can't think of any time, but since you also said that he's protective and "El wants to be trusted and supported", I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you're talking about SOME scenes between El and Mike in s3.

I think it's funny that antis wave Mike's protectiveness over El in s3 as though it was some big red flag.

Like, ya'll act as though he wanted to lock her up in the cabin. Oh wait, that was Hopper in s2, actually. I don't see you hating on Hopper though, even though he's an adult.

Mike is worried and traumatised from losing El several times before. Yes, he doesn't know how to deal with this, but like you keep saying, El is her own person and should be respected as such.

So what does El do? She shows that she doesn't like it, and in an intimate moment away from the over-the-top comedy of s3, she tells him "I need you to trust me".

And how does Mike react? Did you actually watch that? Because it doesn't sound like it. He ACCEPTS what she says IMMEDIATELY, even gives Max an acknowledging glance, and backs off, letting her do her thing.

Like this right there. That's growth.

And that's him doing exactly what you say El needs - that's trusting, supportive, and letting her decide for herself. Which, by the way, he has been doing the whole time and continues to do.

He apologies to her and shows that he has been self-reflecting, and is overly hard on himself. He's aware that he was jealous and that he doesn't know how to deal with his strong love for El.

That's healthy and wholesome, and also huge for a 14-year old emotionally neglected boy, who has no blueprint for a healthy romantic relationship.

But no, you don't want to see this. Nor anything else, apparently. Just literally this ONE DAY on which he was overwhelmed and worrying about El. And you interpret that as "babies her throughout their relationship". That is…wild.

-"Mike puts El on a pedestal" & "Mike never compliments El's personality" :

Wow, this feels like the most unjust accusation of all. You interpret him thinking and telling her she's a superhero as putting her on a pedestal?

First of all, how can you do that, when you just said that he babies her throughout.😆 It almost seems like your various views about him are incompatible...maybe because they're not founded on reality...👀

He's the one who constantly reminds everyone else that El is not a machine, that she has limits, that she has human needs...seriously, have you watched the show? S1? When everyone saw her as a problem or a weirdo or a traitor or a monster or a criminal or a science experiment....and he was the one who treated her for what she was - a scared, friendless child in danger. An equal. A friend.

How come you're not hating on Dustin and Lucas? Maybe you're able to see how they changed? Or Max, because she's in awe of El in s2 and in s3 is 100%ly confident that she will be able to defeat the monster on her own? Maybe you're able to see that she had a normal reaction to finding out about someone's super powers and that she simply was mistaken? Or Steve, because he refers to her as "this girl with superpowers that we usually rely on"? Maybe you're able to see that this didn't reflect any dehumanising on his part?

Oh, but Mike is different of course.🙄

Mike never treats El as anything else but his equal. If he actually put her on a pedestal, he'd constantly be like: "Oh, but I'm sure El can fix it!" for every problem they have, and he'd be disappointed and shocked to witness her humanity - her flaws, her needs, her imperfections.

Well, he doesn't. On the contrary, he tries to provide for her every need, reminding others of them, is worried about her overexerting herself (which you hated on a moment ago, but now strangely seem to have forgotten), and never pushes her to fight for them. He's also always the one who wants to provide a back-up for her, to not let her fight alone or do everything for them (like in the caves in s2, or in s3 when they try to overturn the car in the mall).

Okay, and my personal favourite: "He also does this with Dustin and Will" So I'm guessing you're referring to Mike telling Dustin in s1 that his cleidocranial dysplasia is like a superpower, after being bullied; and in s2, when he tells Will he's like a super-spy now. And of course telling El that she's a superhero.

And you think this is bad????????

😳

Sorry, I just....HOW? He's literally reassuring Dustin that he not only accepts him as he is, but that his difference is cool, he compares him to the coolest people they know and admire, the super heroes from comics. He's trying to cheer him up after he got humiliated for being different. I mean...I guess if he had given him a hug, you would have found a way to interpret that as bad.😬

And the same with Will - he sees that his friend is barely keeping it together, he's rightly panicking, because he's possessed by an interdimensional monster, but Mike finds a way to distract him, invite his mind to see things in a different way that actually EMPOWERS him, reassuring him that they won't let the monster spy back, and again, this is bad, because?

Or do you mean it's only bad when he does it with El?😂 Because it's the same thing. He's trying to reassure her that she's not a monster, that he loves her.

And once again - when she shows in s4 that she doesn't like something he's doing (not saying "I love you"), he accepts that, he feels bad, and tries to give her exactly what she asked for at the next opportunity!

Apparently you didn't see that either.

And "he never compliments her personality". How many hoops do you want him to jump through?🤣

Mike shows that he loves and respects El all the time, he doesn't need to say "You have an awesome personality." for El to feel that. And she never expressed any need for that. Does Hopper compliment Joyce's personality to her face? Did Joyce do that for Hopper? Did Nancy do that for Steve or Jonathan or vice versa? Did Max say that to Lucas? I guess Lucas is the only one who really loves his partner, because he did that once.🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣

Oh, and of course, the whole monologue at the end of s4 doesn't count, because. "I love you on your good days, I love you on your bad days, I love you without your powers, I love you with your powers...I love you exactly for who you are."

That's somehow not valid, hm?

Mike can't win in your eyes, because you don't want him to. This is called scapegoating, btw.

Lastly, it's strange that you have a reference to him in your username, when you clearly think he's so horrible and accuse him of all this...together with a reference to Will...hmm...how mysterious....🙄🙄🙄 Almost like you had double standards for a certain agenda.🤔

*Drops mic*

[dwobbitfromtheshire]

"I never gave up on you. I called you every night." - Mike to El in season 2.

Sending positive vibes to the Mileven Tag. I'm not a shipper myself, but I support it. By the way, they WAY he looks at her when she walks in. . .he's not in love with her, my ass.