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Not “Only my reading of canon is correct” or “Interpretations are subjective and all valid” but a secret third thing, “More than one interpretation can be valid but there’s a reason your English teacher had you cite quotes and examples in your papers, you have to have a strong argument that your interpretation is actually supported by the text or it is just wrong and I’m fine with telling you it’s wrong, actually.”

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There are a couple of things about current shipping culture that confuse me.  

1. The focus on whether or not a pairing will become canon as a reason people should ship something or not.  Do you not understand what the “transformative” part of “transformative works” means?”

2. This idea that saying “I ship that” means “I think that, as presented in canon,this is a perfect, healthy relationship that everyone should model their relationship after.” 

Sometimes shipping something does mean that.  Sometimes shipping something means “Person A is a trash bag who doesn’t deserve person B but I would love to explore how Person A might grow to deserve Person B.” Sometimes it means “I want these characters to live together forever in a conflict free domestic AU.”  Sometimes it means “I want Person A to forever pine after Person B.  Nothing is beautiful and everything hurts.”  And sometimes it just means you like their faces and want to see Person A and Person B bone in various configurations and universes. 

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some yoongi gifs until he comes back home (72/79) (cr.namuspromised)

ONE WEEK LEFT

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APOBANGPO AND BORA-MOTHER FUCKING-HAE! YOONGI HAS RETURNED AND BTS IS SEVEN ONCE MORE!

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Yes yes yes to all of this!!!! I love mileven, but I understand that not everyone shares that opinion, nor is it my place to hate someone for that fact alone. I do, however, despise those who claim all milevens are toxic, dumb, homophobic, and “media illiterate”, and make up nicknames, not to help “filter searches” like they claim, but to be deliberately mean spirited and be a bully.

I genuinely have nothing against byler as a ship. It’s cute! My issues are with the toxic people in the fandom. Period. I’ve met plenty of lovely bylers who just want to enjoy their ship and the show itself, and I love y’all for that! 💜

It’s no surprise that, as a mileven, I’m more tuned into the hate directed towards us, but I know bylers deal with it too. Toxicity can come from anywhere. That’s a fact. I’m sorry for any unnecessary hate directed towards your fandom! And I appreciate you speaking up for milevens! We can all coexist! Fandom should be fun!

Disclaimer.

Though I do enjoy myself some toxic fandom shenanigans. I do not stand for annoying, picking on or bullying people who ship Mileven. Mileven is literally a canon pairing, and the people who ship it aren't 'media illiterate', they are just interpreting things a different way than you, and those interpretations are totally fair.

Either side could be totally wrong. I don't like people taking away the agency of Eleven, or acting like she's an object to be pushed aside. Be honest, most of us here are women, or at least have had experience being a woman. So the sexist fuckery that occurs in fandoms like this really, really baffles me.

There is evidence for Byler, and I buy into that evidence. However, at the end of the day, one of these ships is canon, and the other is not.

Mileven isn't dogshit, and the people who like it aren't imbeciles or homophobic. You're an imbecile if you attach derogatory labels to people for opinions that truly, truly do not hurt anyone. This also goes for some Mileven fans, don't think I haven't seen some of you guys pull the same bullshit too.

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Awww thank youuuu! I promise I'll be more active as we get closer to S5 hahahaha. <3

do you have any mileven accounts to recommend me? the tag is full of bylers and i dont use tumblr so often. pls send help :(

Sure, although I can't pomise that many of them will be active. At the very least, your feed will blow up with Mileven when ST5 comes out.

@bugismymiddlename

@justablogger234

@mike-haters-dni

@purpleangelsele

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@mikewheely

@mikewheelzie

@milevenstancyendgame

@mileven11forever

@puppywheeler

There's probably more that I missed. If there is, can anyone reading this post send me a message listing who I miseed and I'll add them.

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do u ever see someone elses headcannon for ur fave character and its like….. i completely respect that u have the right to that headcannon, i will not confront u at all and start needless bullshit over that headcannon…. but i will silently sit here and give you the sideways glance of the century

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kate lethbridge-stewart in "lucky day":

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Tramell Tillman in

SEVERANCE 2.10 " Cold Harbor"

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SABRINA CARPENTER 2025 MET GALA

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I don’t really see any implication in the Surfer Boy Pizza scene beyond Mike trying to cheer El up before she fights Henry, and giving them a chance to clear the air. He brought up their previous fight specifically because he wanted her to know how he really feels. Argyle interrupted him, but he was absolutely ready to say that he loves her right then and there. But of course, sometimes things need to happen for plot conveniences, and the DB wanted the confession to happen during the mind fight.

I think the vines continue tightening, not because of what Mike’s saying, but because she doesn’t fully tap into her strength until the end of Mike’s speech. She IS fighting the whole time, but when Mike starts repeating how she needs to fight, we see her take a deep breath and really focus her energy on releasing her body from the vines. She uses his love to fuel her powers, just like she did all those years ago the first time she fought Henry (though at that point she used her mother’s love).

She does smile and chuckle at one point in the speech (when he talks about the yellow Benny’s Burgers t-shirt that almost swallowed her whole), but otherwise, her expressions don’t read as her being mad at Mike. It’s more so her being disappointed in herself, scared for Max, worried about what Henry will do to Hawkins, wondering if Brenner was actually right, etc. There’s so much happening at once.

We have the official 4x09 script because they submitted it for consideration at the Emmy’s, and it was subsequently made available to download. In the script, it explicitly states that she gains strength from his confession, which directly contrasts Henry’s form of gaining strength through hatred and anger. Henry and El are foils. Opposites. In the past, relying on hate or anger only got her so far, meanwhile relying on love (both from her mother and from Mike) helped her defeat Henry. It also notes that she doesn’t begin freeing herself until towards the end of Mike’s speech. Another thing worth noting is that she was originally supposed to think of Mike’s confession right before she brought Max back to life, showing once again how love fuels her powers.

Finally, El wasn’t just ignoring Mike, she was ignoring everyone. And for that matter, Mike mentions that they have talked about what went down, and he’s fully able to articulate why she’s upset. She’s disappointed in herself, and she believes that Brenner was right. That she wasn’t ready to fight Henry. In fact, it’s implied that Mike is the only person she’s talked to the last two days, given that Will had to ask Mike for information, meaning he didn’t already know this himself. And there’s no way Mike could have known what went down in the lab if El hadn’t explained it to him at some point during those two days. Mike and El’s moment of comfort in the hospital where she lays her head on his shoulder was meant to show us that they are still thriving. She may be upset, but it’s not because of him. She’s upset with herself.

Just because they aren’t attached at the hip or being all lovey dovey doesn’t mean they haven’t reconciled. There’s a tendency in this fandom to attribute all of El’s negative emotions to Mike, when most of the time, that’s not the case. She was mad at him in S3 after he lied, but once he explained what happened, why he did it, and apologized, she forgave him, and they both moved on. In S4, she was upset because she didn’t think she was worthy of external love, so she convinced herself that no one could love her, despite it being painfully obvious that Mike does indeed love her, both because he has said it before, and through his actions. He protects her, advocates for her, shows her affection, gets her gifts, constantly praises her, etc. The point of S4 was that El’s perception of reality was distorted by her own insecurities, and once she healed that part of herself through the Nina Project, she was finally able to fully accept and believe him when he says he loves her.

El had lost her father and her powers within the same day, and her home and loved ones a few months later. She was depressed, lonely, grief-stricken, and struggling with PTSD from the reemerging memories of the lab. Mike was the one bright spot in her life, but even he couldn’t stop her own mind from damaging her sense of identity. So yeah. It’s not about Mike at the end of the day. It’s about El herself.

hey milevens, can i ask y’all something in the most civil way possible? i really want to discuss some stuff with y’all because even tho i am a byler, i don’t despise mileven and i would love to know what is you interpretation of how el acts with mike after they get reunited in s4

at first they hug, then they plot everything and the main plot goes on etc. THEN there’s that one pizza scene that is actually a cute mileven scene taken on its own (if we ignore the implication of mike trying something fruity and liking it…).

el is friendly with mike, it looks like she’s willing to make peace with him, maybe even getting him back.

then there’s the love confession scene.

at first i thought that that was going to give her the strength to fight back, but in that scene she doesn’t look happy? and one could totally argue that she doesn’t look happy cause she is technically getting straggled by a super powerful evil being (which would be a fair argument), but at the same time we know how el fights and i was expecting her to like scream and fight back, but actually the vine straggling her get tighter the more mike says “i love you” and then she sees max and she gathers the strength to fight back. and that doesn’t really make sense ??

after everything we see that el is still mad at mike and honestly i can’t see why. she was looked like she was willing to make peace with mike and then he confessed to her, so one would think, “that’s it they’re getting back together”, but they don’t. el is now completely ignoring mike again, and she looks REALLY mad at him.

i’m no expert in writing, but i really can’t explain all of this and to me it really looks like they’re not made for each other.

but i’m really curious to know what y’all think :)

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The scene in S1 where Mike and El are playing around with the reclining chair is so cute because it's the only scene, from what I remember, where El laughs in the whole season. And it's a perfect parallel to when he makes her laugh in S4, because it shows how even when she's in a bad situation and mindset he can bring out the laughter in her. It meant so much in S1 particularly because she was at her shyest, her quietest and most reserved, yet she trusted Mike so much that she let her guard down and let him draw out the laughter and humorous personality within her. it's like we get a glimpse of the El we see in the rest of the show, the one who's more open with her laughter and self-expression— which Mike manages to coax out of her shell in the early days. It's so sweetly reflective of the fact that this is how Mike has always seen her; for who she really is as a person, as a young girl. She really is her truest self around him because he makes her feel safe enough to be, and it's his perspective of her. 🥹🩷

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TVLine knows what’s up. They named mileven as number 17 on their list of The Best Teen TV Couples. And their description is so beautiful!

Here’s the full article if y’all wanna read it.

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Finn stays being mileven’s #1 fan (along with Millie) I know that’s right. I need S5 right tf now. 😭

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In order to fully understand why it was so hard for Mike to express how deeply he loves El, and why his speech at the end of season 4 was one of the biggest, most important moments for his entire character, we need to look at not just who Mike is as a person, but also everything that has happened since he met her.

Every single time he opens up his heart to her, something horrible happens to her or she's taken away from him almost immediately afterwards.

1x08; he's an awkward little ball of feelings that are way too big for a boy so young. He makes a nervous attempt at confessing and asking her out on a date; when he can't find words that she'll understand, swoops in for a kiss instead. She lights up immediately and smiles. It's a brief moment of hope and pure happiness. Maybe they can have some semblance of a normal life and be normal kids after this is all over.

Minutes later, all hell breaks loose-- they're almost shot, El pushes herself too far until she can barely move, she's almost taken away by the Bad Men, the Demogorgon appears, and she uses the very last of her strength to sacrifice herself to save him and their friends.

He has to watch helplessly as she disappears.

He spends a year caught between believing she's dead and hoping she's still out there somewhere (but if she is alive then why won't she talk to him anymore...?). Kept silent under threat by the lab, he can't confide in anyone or even acknowledge her existence, not with anyone except those involved... but everyone else is keen on moving on and pretending it never happened. He can find some solidarity in Will, at least, who is in a similar kind of emotional turmoil... but it's not the same and it's not enough.

2x9; he is finally reunited with El, and she runs into his arms like she missed him too. She tells him that all those nights he called out to her, she heard him; she was there reciprocating his feelings the whole time.

In a burst of emotions that he's been forced to suppress for an entire year, he lashes out at the reason they've been kept apart (Hopper), screaming and sobbing. It's a massive catharsis for him, and for once an adult is understanding enough to hold him and not punish him for it.

Minutes later, she is going to go headfirst into a pit of monsters, the place where Mike had just firsthand witnessed dozens of people (if not more) get ripped to shreds only hours earlier, and she is going to attempt to close the Gate-- a feat that he knows may take every ounce of her power, just like last time. He cries. He can't lose her again. She promises he won't, and before she can seal that promise with a kiss, they're pulled apart again.

He has to watch helplessly as she drives away.

3x1; all seems to be okay now. He and El are happily together, and he feels comfortable enough to be playful, romantic, and intimate with her. It's the most emotionally open we've ever seen Mike thus far.

For reasons he can't understand (bc there's no way Hopper explained himself beyond "I'm in charge so do as I say or else"), Hopper is angry about it and threatens to never allow him to see her again: the one thing he fears most.

He panics big time and fucks it up in the process by lying to her. During a frantic attempt to apologize while also abiding by Hopper's rules, he runs into her at the mall. He panics again-- if anyone finds her here, and knows that he was here too, it's all over, and Hopper surely won't hear reason. El dumps him cold on the spot, spurred on by Max and her rebellious attitude (and without any context of course). He isn't given much opportunity to respond. He knows he's in the wrong for lying to her, so what could he even say...?

He has to watch helplessly as she drives away.

It's a hard blow, and he retreats back into himself, unable to get any joy out of playing D&D (which he clearly hasn't lost interest in), back to the deadpan sarcasm and accidentally snapping a little too harshly at anyone whom he feels would take El's place.

3x6; no one seems to understand the danger El is putting herself in. Everyone is berating him for worrying about her safety. He's seen firsthand what these monsters do to people, he's seen firsthand how El pushes her abilities too far. No one is listening.

The words "I love her and I can't lose her again" burst out in his desperation, perhaps before he's even had a chance to realize how deep those feelings run, despite whatever protective walls he's tried to build around his heart to keep it from getting broken again.

Soon after, all hell breaks loose. El is nearly killed several times over, her leg is ripped open, she pushes herself so hard that she breaks herself and loses her powers completely. Her father is taken from her. She's shattered by all of this, and there's absolutely nothing he could do or say to make it better.

She tells him that when he admitted he loves her, she heard him, and indeed she loves him, too... But now she's leaving.

He has to watch helplessly as she drives away.

4x1; they've been apart for a few months, and write letters back and forth to each other. El's letters paint a picture of an ideal new life: she and the Byers family are doing well; she's starting school and it's going well; she's made new friends, she likes her new home, everything is going well. She seems to be thriving. She sounds happy, maybe even happier than she had been living in Hawkins. Maybe Max was right, maybe she's better off being her own person without him, and maybe the respectful thing to do is step back... It's a small insecurity that creeps up subconsciously. In his replies he holds back, afraid of clinging too hard.

Though there's little logic in it, he's afraid that if he tells her he loves her again, another disaster might strike and this lovely happy life she's finally found might get taken from her. After all, that's what always seems to happen when he does.

4x2; after months of waiting, they can finally see each other again. He wears her favorite colors, picks a handful of flowers for her, and falls happily back into step with how they used to be. Soon that same day, however, reality becomes clear and the facade crumbles. People he was told were her friends show up to torment and publicly humiliate her. She had been lying. She isn't happy here, she hasn't healed, she is right at the edge of a breaking point that he doesn't see coming at all. He can't believe she would lie to him, she's not the kind of person to lie... especially not about something like bullying, something that she was always so understanding about with him.

On that logicless subconscious level, he wonders if it's all his fault-- he should have known somehow, he should have been there for her. She protected him from his bullies, he should have protected her from hers. He tries to come to her rescue. She runs away from him.

He's helpless to save her, again.

4x3; after a night to process everything that happened-- and deciding that the betrayal he feels from her lying to him is nothing compared to the turmoil she must be going through right now-- Mike approaches her in the gentlest way possible, wanting to listen and trying to understand. El, however, isn't receptive at all to his attempts at reassurance. She is at an all-time low, she's given up. She believes she is unlovable, irredeemable, a monster, just a thing that doesn't even have those superhuman abilities to compensate anymore. Mike can't believe what he's hearing-- doesn't she know that she's always been so much more than her powers? She's always been so much more than what she lacks in quote-unquote "normalcy"... None of those things matter, they have absolutely no bearing on whether she's worthy of being loved, because he loves her, completely regardless of any of these things. He always has...

El starts flinging his restrained words back at him, the products of his insecurity and trauma-induced fear. That fear takes hold yet again, and he stumbles, afraid of saying too much or not enough, because surely both could result in pushing her away-- she's retreating, hearing none of it; nothing he tries to say consoles her.

Moments later, local police come knocking. She's taken away in cuffs, and she's so broken inside that she won't even look at him when he chases the police car down the street and promises he'll get her out somehow...

Once again, he has to watch helplessly as she drives away.

4x8/4x9; after days of driving through the heat and dryness of southwest desert, having narrowly escaped being shot at with military-grade assault rifles, witnessing the death of and burying a man whose last words were that El is in danger... After watching dozens of people get mowed down by a sniper in a helicopter, and watching that same helicopter be smashed into the ground in a ball of flames...

There she is. Just as powerful and beautiful and alive as she's ever been. When he runs to her and embraces her, she looks at him like she can't believe he's real. She's beaming a smile right from her soul and it's like all the insecurity and self-doubt that have plagued them both just vanish from existence now that they're in each other's arms again.

Like always, however, the universe comes crashing down soon after. Max is marked for a gruesome death and all of Hawkins is in danger. They're miles away and helpless, and the only possible way for El to save everyone is if she goes in alone. She's stronger than ever, but so is her foe. Once again, she descends to face all the demons of hell on her own, and Mike can't do anything.

She's losing. She's choking. She's dying. He's helpless.

He must be cursed. He must be. Being with her, loving her, allowing himself to admit he loves her, it always brings only pain and suffering and loss. His heart is so full that it's aching, it's bursting out of his chest, and he can't contain it any longer.

She's going to die and it's going to be all his fault, because he fell in love, and it's cursed her.

Just before it all crumbles into utter despair, the earnest support from his oldest and dearest friend-- one who's always shared and understood his feelings of helplessness-- sparks a light of hope in him: "You're the Heart." You're not helpless. You can save her.

The words that come spilling out of Mike's mouth are truer than any he's ever dared to speak before, and it's the most terrified he's ever been, but he has enough courage for this moment. Despite all of the fears that have been building, stifling, choking him to death for years-- fears that the light of his life will inevitably disappear again, and there's nothing he can do to stop it-- despite it all, he pours out his heart to her.

He loves her. He's always loved her. He loves everything she ever was, is, and could be. He can't imagine a world without her in it. She saved him, in every way a person can be saved. And he needs her to live. He believes in her.

And it works. It's music to her ears.

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SHUT UP! MILEVEN, WHEELCLAIR, NANCY! MY BABIES CAME HOME!

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Reblog if you are Team Mike&Eleven