rhythm0fdevotion

[rhythm0fdevotion]

80s shoes ohhh my gosh save me

Stranger Things 2.06 - The Spy

[rhythm0fdevotion]

156 days to go

i keep obsessing over byler like rewatching & rereading theories is going to change anything. like if i watch the van scene or the rain fight again there will be a clear answer to everything. im genuinely going crazy because somehow i wholeheartedly believe something will change each time i look- obviously it hasn't and im soooooo impatient.

[rhythm0fdevotion]

where is his raise

stranger things, but only from scott clarke's perspective

a kid in your class (a very sweet kid) goes missing. his best friends start acting weird. after their friend's tragic death is announced, you extend your support to the family. after the service they approach you, very seriously, and ask about accessing another dimension. naturally, you assume they're thinking about an alternate universe wherein their friend did not end up losing his life. and they look you dead in the fucking eyes and say no.... no, mr. clarke.... an evil dimension. we want to go to an evil dimension. help us.

and then it turns out it was one of those classic "false positive" deaths wherein a nameless boy that doesn't exist was confused for your student. and also, one of his friends might be dating his cousin now even though you totally thought he was gay. they're calling you at all hours and asking you to help them with their curiousity doors one second and the next the not-dead kid's mom is knocking on your door asking how to turn the gravity off. then the mall explodes. then, six months later, the whole town goddamn explodes. you were literally just trying to vibe to weird al and teach a little science. you're not paid enough for any of this.

[rhythm0fdevotion]

Why Will Byer's is Far More Important than it seems in Season Three of Stranger Things

I remember when I first watched Season Three of Stranger Things, I was disappointed by a number of plot points, one of which was how the Duffers seemingly sidelined Will's character. The first three episodes seem to include him in a plot where his friends ignore him, he tries and fails to get them to play DnD, and him and Mike get into a fight over it. Then, it's like the plot for the rest of the season forgot he existed. Will never played his game of DnD, and it seemed like he never made up with Mike or the party.

However, after having rewatched the season recently, I realized the Duffer Brothers had actually, very subtlety, made Will a very crucial character in the season and did it in a way that was so subtle that it flew over the heads of most of the audience. Will's plot was resolved and not forgotten, because him and his friends played through a real-life version of his DnD campaign, and he got his group of friends to act like a party again. In the process, he restored his friendship with Mike, who was beginning to realize just how important Will was to him. The season also points towards a strong possibility that Will and Mike are going to be a couple by the end of the series. Let me explain.

The main story arc of season 3 is how puberty and the transition into adolescence is driving the party members apart. Mike, the party's leader, becomes obsessed over his girlfriend eleven. To be with her as a couple, Mike has to change his personality, which means spending less time with his friends and not engaging in the things he loves to do. Will, obviously struggling with his homosexuality, is feeling left out as each of his friends get girlfriends. Will desperately wants to get his friends back together. In particular, he wants the boy he loves, Mike, to spend time with him. The party needs to learn the importance of their friendship and not only prioritize their romantic relationships as they transition into adulthood. The monster in this season symbolizes the struggles young people experience with puberty. It literally turns people into zombies and transforms them into something else to the point where their personality becomes unrecognizable. The party needs to overcome the monster if they are to keep their friend group intact. Will is the emotional center of this story, and it is Will that actually gets the party to act in unison.

First, Will senses this oncoming monster before anyone else. Every time he senses the monster with his Spidey sense (the neck tingle), it coincides with a moment when the party is fracturing. When Mike and El walk away from the party as they are hiking up the hill early in the season, Will feels the monster. When Mike shows up late to the theater because he was spending time with El, Will feels the monster. After Will gets into a fight with Mike over flaking on the party, Will senses the monster. Will's emotional intelligence, and his deep fear of losing his friends, makes him acutely aware of what is happening. He is Will the Wise after all.

Will doesn't just sense the monster. He then actively tries to steer the party, and more specifically Mike, back on course so they can address the problem. He tries to get the party together by begging them to play DnD. He chooses a zombie-based theme inspired by a movie him and his friends watched at the theater. He is persistent. Even when they keep telling him no, he doesn't give up. Eventually, he ambushes Mike and Lucas with a surprise game, trying to force them to play. Will is doing this not because he is obsessed with the game itself, but it is way to get his friends together and remember how important they are to each other.

This all leads to an explosive fight. When Mike and Lucas don't take the game seriously, Will shows he is upset and walks out of the basement. Realizing how much he hurt his friend, Mike follows him and tries to convince him to stay. Will then tells him off by telling him that he is neglecting their friendship and only focusing on his romantic relationship with El. When Mike tells him "its not my fault you don't like girls" and "what did you think, we were going to play games in our basement the rest of our lives?", Will doubles down. By telling "I guess I did", he is basically telling him "Yes, I thought we would always be together." There is a very subtle hint here that Will is in love with Mike. Even though Will then rides back home, it clearly his words led to a pivotal transformation in Mike's character the rest of the season. He becomes his old self again.

Will proceeds to bike home and destroy Castle Byers, his place of refugee, thinking his friend group is now destroyed. In anger, he rips up a picture of himself with his friends. He then senses the monster again. However, Mike followed him to Castle Byers and brought Lucas with him, indicating that Mike was not going to give up on the party. Will then tells them about the monster. Him and his friends immediately drop their petty fight to work together to solve the problem. What is crucial about this is that Max earlier in the season told El, after she dumped Mike, that Mike would come crawling back asking for forgiveness. However, it is not El that Mike ran towards begging for forgiveness. It was Will. While the general audience might have watched this season thinking Mike and El's relationship was front and center, it was actually Will that Mike ended up prioritizing at the end of the day. Mike and El's breakup is treated as comic relief whereas Will and Mike's fight is treated in a very serious manner accompanied by a thunderstorm.

At first, it seems like Will is then forgotten about in the plot, and him and Mike never resolve their fight. Mike has far more dialogue with El and other characters than he does with Will the rest of the season. However, Mike and Will often communicate without speaking. Mike made it up to Will, not by saying sorry, but by acting like the leader of the party again. He asked then demanded Lucas contact Dustin in front of Will. This is right after a fight where Will claimed Mike did not care about Dustin at all. Mike also contacted El to tell her about the monster, fully trusting Will in the process. Mike, inspired by Will, got the party back together and started acting like the leader.

What is subtle here as well is that Will did get his DnD game, but a real life one. In Will's DnD game from this season, he has the party fight a horde of zombies. Who does the party fight in real life? A horde of zombies created by the mind flayer. Will proceeds to spend the reason of the season getting exactly what he wants: time with his friends as they seek to deal with the zombie threat.

After this, Will seems to be content to in the background as he already got exactly what he wanted. For the rest of the season, him and his friends spend time together. Will doesn't have many lines after this, but he is constantly shown standing next to Mike throughout the course of the rest of the season, occasionally reminding Mike and the party of the threat they face when he starts to feel it in his neck or throwing out some suggestion about what they should do next or telling Mike and Lucas to stay focused on the task at hand. When Lucas tried to bring up the fight they had and apologies, it is Will that immediately told him that there wasn't time to talk about it. When Mike starts to complain that the girls are conspiring against them, Will tells him he needs to change his priorities and focus on the task at hand. Will also, with very little dialogue, pushes the party to engage in actions that have a major effect on the plot. Him and Mike for example came up with the "boys only" plan to target Billy, who they suspected of being a zombie for the mind flayer. Will very subtly is in the background, directing the party's actions even if it is the other characters that get most of the lines and action sequences.

Will and Mike also have a lot of moments where they don't speak but are clearly gravitating towards one another. When Mike complains about having to sit in the trunk of the car, Will tells him "welcome to my world," and they both get into the trunk. There is then a shot of Mike and Will in the trunk, and Max in the backseat wearing sleaves with rainbows on them. This is a subtle hint that these two might become more than friends. Mike is sitting with Will in the trunk and not with El in the front. Then at the grocery store in the mall, all of the main couples (Johnathan/Nancy, Max/Lucas) are sitting in different parts of the aisle, and Mike and Will are sitting next to each other in the "fruit" section. Fruit is a symbol for homosexuality. While they are battling the monster, they are silently spending their time together.

The party then defeats the monster, and they did so with fireworks on the fourth of July. Fireworks are an important symbol here. Young adolescent boys in the United States bond on the fourth of July by lighting fireworks. It is a past time. Crucially, it is Lucas, who previously did not want to play Will's game of DnD, who came up with the idea and Will, with the single phrase "sweet" quietly approves of Lucas' idea to make use of fireworks. They all then to proceed to defeat the monster with a fireworks display.

Then, at the end of the season, we get a couple of crucial scenes. There is one scene in which we see Will donating his box of DnD before he moves to California. Mike then asks him why he is giving it away. Mike also asks about whether or not he will find another party. Will tells him "Not possible". This is telling the audience, once again very subtlety, it was never about a game of DnD for Will. It was about spending time with his best friends and his crush Mike Wheeler. He doesn't have to say it. Mike gets it. It is why he gives him a big smile. Then, we get a second scene, where El wants to become a romantic couple again and kisses Mike, but Mike's eyes are wide open, and he is not smiling at all. It is an awkward moment. Mike realizes in that scene what he wants, and it isn't El. It is Will, the person who loves him in the way he wants to be loved and inspires him to be a hero. It was very easy for the audience to miss this.

In the final shots of the season, Will and Mike don't have a big goodbye speech. They instead have a tearful hug. Will cries his eyes out. Before Mike bikes away, he takes a look at the Byers house. He never says "I'm going to miss you Will". It is shown. He goes back home into the arms of his mother the same way he did when he found out Will had died in season one. Mike and Will, over five episodes, never had a single conversation about the dramatic fight they had, yet they resolved the fight in a very deep, meaningful way.

One last thing. Why all the subtlety? Because the duffers are setting up for a big reveal in season five. Mike and Will are going to get together, and by leaving these subtle crumbs, the audience, upon rewatching the show, will see what they missed the first time around. It was there in front of their faces the whole time.

In conclusion, Will's character is far more important to season three then most people realize. I have a feeling the Duffer Brothers will more clearly spell this out to the audience in Season Five.

[rhythm0fdevotion]

crying.

remembering when noah said his favorite will x mike scene was in s5 and i kick my feet and giggle

[rhythm0fdevotion]

he’s so baby i miss him

"Will is such a whiny little helpless scared boy"

Excuse me what?? Are we talking about the same Will Byers? I really have no idea where those opinions come from... someone's ass I suppose.

There's a lot of talk about Will being traumatized and all but can we please acknowledge that he is also one of the strongest characters in ST? Tbh he's kinda badass if you think about it... but just more of a quiet, resilient, selfless kind of badass...

Ok, let's recap:

01. Will at age 11 beggs his mom to let him see Poltergeist. Fucking Poltergeist. I know people who couldn’t sit through Coraline at that age… This kid is a horror and punk rock fan, that doesn't really scream "snowflake" to me

02. After being followed to his house by an unknown creature at age 12 he doesn't hide under the bed... noooo, he goes outside and grabbs a shotgun - a fucking shotgun! I'd like to remind you, that the only other kid to hold any kind of weapon in S1 is Lucas and it's a slingshot... In S2 Max holds a bat and Mike holds... well... a lamp and a goblet xd To this day I believe he's the only one to hold a gun among the "kids" generation and probably is the only one to know how to use it (though I wouldn't put it past Max tbh)... and it was S1

03. Kid somehow survives a week in another dimension that killed multiple adults during that time... not only that - he manages to figure out a way to communicate (smart kid) and one of his first messages to his mom is not "HELP", it's "RUN" - his priority is to save her, not for her to save him

04. After waking up in the hospital, the very first thing he does is ask Jonathan about a bandage on his hand as if he didn't just almost die... "Don't mind me! There's a cut on your hand, are you sure you're ok??"

05. Will at age 12 starts seeing things that brings him back to the other dimension that tried to kill him but this time there's another creature following him... Then gets possessed by that creature at age 13 and in both instances decides at first not to tell anyone about any of it bc he doesn't want others to worry about him or treat him like he can't take care of himself

06. While being possessed at age 13 he manages to find a way to communicate (again) with a fucking morse code (smartass) and apparently he's the only one aside from Hopper to know it by heart (while being possessed, mind you). And what does he communicate you might ask? Well, he figures out a way to kill the thing that attacks the town knowing full well that it will probably kill him too. Does he say it might kill him though? Nope. He'd rather get himself killed than put his loved ones in danger. Gladly Mike was able to figure it out...

07. After all of that at age 14 he finally can live a "normal" life while still feeling the presence of that thing that possessed him and took control over his body... and he is so fucking patient and tries to keep a level head with his friends that straight on dismiss him and he is able to take so much shit from them (especially from his best friend he is in love with) before he finally snaps. Then again he sweeps that under the rug and doesn't hold a grudge bc there are more important stuff happening which he can feel thanks to that lovely bluetooth connection he has with his former supernatural abuser

08. At age 15 (shortly after his birthday that everyone forgot) he buries his feelings again for (what he believes is) the greater good. He "sells" his own love and a painting that he poured his heart into to repair his best friend's relationship and to cure his insecurities. After that he encourages said friend to make a grand confession at his own expense bc he believes that it might save the day.

And after all of this you want to tell me that he's whiny, weak and helpless? Did we watch the same show?

Funny thing about Will being "saved" in both S1 and S2 is that it didn't come from Will... he didn't ask to be saved. It was Joyce's and Mike's love that saved him, that brought everyone else on board. It was all those people who cared and went out of their way to save him even if he didn't care to be saved.

That is not a testament of Will needing to be saved, it's the testament of how much he means to all of those people for them to love him this much to save him.

He is not weak, he is loved. <3

*I know he goes through so much more shit but I really tried to focus on him handling situations and how it shows his character and not on the stuff that happens to him that makes us feel bad for him if that makes sense xd

[rhythm0fdevotion]

what the hell this is so cute

Hopelessly Devoted - A Will Byers Ballad

[rhythm0fdevotion]

we will be famous

[rhythm0fdevotion]

saw this on twitter and cant stop giggling

[rhythm0fdevotion]

icon

Reminder to yall that this actually happened

HE SET HIM STRAIGHT

Oh wait.

AND DONT FORGET ABOUT THIS

WILL BYERS IS SINGLEHANDEDLY KEEPING MIKE WHEELER IN LINE HE ACTUALLY SHMACKED SOME SENSE INTO HIM

[rhythm0fdevotion]

realizing i’ll never be able to type “omg that’s crazy” without thinking “sometimes i feel like i’m going crazy me too hey well if we’re both going crazy then we’ll go crazy together right yeah crazy together” like for the rest of my life forever

[rhythm0fdevotion]

this is what i’ve been thinking lately… no nukes until 2026? hopefully? after new year’s day ofc. so january 2, 2026? is that okay? pls? thanks!😇

if I die from a nuke before Byler endgame imma have a real good talk with Jesus

[rhythm0fdevotion]

interesting…..

Noah talking about the range he gets to explore as Will Byers at Argentina Comic Con 8/6/25

[rhythm0fdevotion]

Detail from the “unswept floor” mosaic made by Heraclitus, showing a mouse eating a walnut. 2nd century CE, now on display at the Vatican Museums.

Imagine trying to clean this floor–or even walk across it–and constantly wondering, “Wait. Is that one REAL?”

[rhythm0fdevotion]

real

Let's do a quick comparison of El's and Will's first and last scenes...

First shot of season 4:

(El painting Hopper's figurine for her diorama vs Will making a romantic painting for Mike)

Last one on one scene of season 4:

What we know of season 5:

In conclusion, once again, El's personal arc is about family more than romance and her relationship with Hopper seems to be what the writers are focusing on. Will's arc is about romantic love and his feelings for Mike. This kinda spells out how the ending of the love triangle, don't you think? Why would the writers focus on those two pairings in the last season of the show if Mike and El are supposed to be this endgame power couple? Why did Mike promise to be a team and to kill Vecna with his best friend who's secretely in love with him instead of his superhero girlfriend? Where exactly is the supposed "main couple of the show"?

[rhythm0fdevotion]

wow incredible

El's Arc - "Pretty" to "Bitchin'"

tagging @gayofthefae and @hawkinsschoolcounselor bc their posts really help me with my analyses and i wouldn't be making posts without them xoxo

As I said in my post earlier, I have been rewatching seasons 1 and 2 and I've kind of pieced together some separate scenes of El to gather into this really interesting arc about her self-discovery and her self-image after leaving the lab. My guess is that the majority of this arc spans S1 and 2 and perfectly carries on into S3 and 4 where she really has her self-discovery arcs. Also keep in mind there are many many facets to her full character arc, and this is probably just one of many. I'm not an El expert per se, I've never analysed her this much in depth before, but I'll try my best :))

Also, this is not a pro-mileven post, in case you were wondering.

Basically, I've noticed that there are certain repeated words referring to El, and things that she keeps repeating in S1 and S2. From the beginning of S1 and sometimes in S2, she refers to things as "pretty". Later on, she stops referring to things as pretty and instead repeats the words "bitchin'" instead.

Basically, my guess is that pretty symbolically refers to her wishing she could be a normal girl, have a normal, non-lab childhood. Bitchin' refers to her embracing her powers and who she is as a person. At least by the end of S2 and in S3. By S4, she's using Bitchin' to impress Mike again, because she wants her powers back for him to love her again.

This arc is also tied to her wanting Mike to validate her as what she wants to be - a normal girl with a normal life. However, by the end of the arc in S2, she starts to become her own person.

Let's actually begin:

Here is the first mention of the word pretty.

She's referring to Nancy here, looking at the pictures on the mantle of Mike's family who live in the classic, nuclear family, normal lifestyle. She sees the good-girl daughter Nancy Wheeler, and calls her pretty. She isn't just simply calling her pretty though, to me, she's encapsulating everything she sees in this image.

A regular girl, with long neat hair, good clothes etc. El does not see herself as this in the slightest.

Mike's response is to say "I guess" - which makes sense because it's his sister and he's kind of annoyed by everything she does at the beginning of this season. Mike notes that El called her pretty.

The next, arguably the most important, scene is of El looking around Nancy's room. This scene has no other purpose other than to perpetuate this particular arc that she wants to be like Nancy, that she wants to have a normal childhood.

So far, the scenes of her looking around Mike's house have been her finding things that trigger a flashback to her childhood in the lab. This scene in Nancy's room is the last one where she's looking around the Wheeler house alone. The previous scenes which trigger her lab memories are showing her real childhood.

The Nancy's room scene shows the childhood she wishes she had.

The camera pans around Nancy's room, from El's perspective, who is looking at it in wonderment. So far, she's only seen Mike's room. This is a girl's room and she's a girl, so she's seeing what she wanted as a kid.

Here, she's getting emotional over a music box tune. Music box tunes often elicit themes of early childhood and infancy, also calmness and peace. Her getting emotional over it portrays that she's trying to remember something from her own infancy, but her infancy has never been as calming as a music box.

The music that plays in the background of this scene also has notes very similar to a music box. These musical motifs are often associated with "childhood, nostalgia or gentle, whimsical feelings".

The next thing that is extremely important for this arc, is the fact that El gets very emotional over looking over pictures that Nancy has up in her room of her childhood. There are pictures of little Nancy looking happy, doing normal things, hanging with her best friend Barb, looking like the classic young girl with a happy childhood. El is clearly yearning for that in this scene after remembering so many awful things from her childhood.

This scene is the scene where she basically gains the desire to become Nancy - which is portrayed using the word pretty.

Also keep in mind that El probably knows how she looks - not like the typical girl. So when the boys suggest taking her to the middle school and Lucas says that they can't do that because....

....of her appearance, this reinforces her idea of needing to look "pretty" in order to feel like a normal girl with a normal life.

So she gets a make over by the boys - who are the ones to decide what they think makes a normal looking girl. Keep in mind that the make up and the dress and the wig were not her choices.

So after all this pining over Nancy's childhood and looking like Nancy - when Mike, the person who has taken care of her from the beginning of the season, the person who she's definitely attached to by now, calls her pretty - she must feel pretty gratified. She's achieved looking like a normal girl, even if it's just a costume. This isn't just about her looking like a girl that Mike finds pretty either, this is about her looking like Nancy. Who is his sister. Huh okay definitely romantic asf....

Eventually, Mike covers it up by saying pretty good, which El then decides to repeat into the mirror. She looks extremely emotional in this scene where she's looking at herself - and it's important that Mike is also seen in the mirror because, as we see later on, he becomes part of her desire to have a normal life. Part of her normal image.

After all, he's the one to give her a "normal" name: El. The first thing that gives her identity.

The most important thing to note here is that she is literally wearing Nancy's dress. The first interaction that El and Nancy have is about the fact that El is dressing up as her, which makes perfect sense.

Another strange thing to do with Mike kind of inadvertently referring to El as her family, which further gratifies El's desire to be a part of the normal Wheeler family, is the fact he calls her his cousin:

The next biggest turning point of her arc in S1 is when she uses her powers to harm somebody again - Lucas. This brings her mind back to the lab and her very abnormal childhood, especially when Mike says "What's wrong with you!" - basically showing that her using her powers for bad and not being the perfect normal girl is not what he wants. (Although this isn't actually why he says this, this is just how it looks to El). This is very clearly tied to her arc surrounding opening the UD gate, and feeling like she's a monster for doing this.

When she runs away, she roughens up her clothing and her wig. When she looks into a "mirror", the lake, and sees her true appearance and how wrong the wig looks now, she gets extremely angry at herself.

This encapsulates her arc perfectly because it shows the anger at herself for using her powers incorrectly, and shows the anger at herself for not actually looking or acting like a normal girl would - since the dress and the wig were always going to just be costume pieces. She's aware that she doesn't look like a regular girl, maybe she's even aware that she looks like a boy.

This idea keeps being perpetuated by many characters in the first season.

Which I'm sure just makes her feel more like a freak.

When El arrives back at home, again without the wig and with the dress all messed up and dirty, she looks again to Mike for that reassurance that she is still normal even without the costuming.

To me, this is not romantic, and none of the times that he calls her pretty or her wanting him to call her that are. This is her wanting reassurance that she is just a normal girl still, due to her trauma, even though Mike has surely reassured her that she's not a monster. So when he says, albeit weirdly, that she's still pretty (because he wants her to be happy, as you can tell by his tone), she looks back at the mirror, emotional and smiling. This greatly contrasts to her looking in the lake and screaming at her reflection.

She needs Mike to feel normal - just like he needs her to feel normal oh! Twinning <3

Basically, we've established that she believes she wants to be a part of the Wheeler family to feel normal and like she has a normal childhood. Mike is very much part of that picture. This is reinforced when he paints a picture of her perfect ideal scenario of living a normal life when all the upside down stuff is over:

Mike: "My mom, she's a pretty awesome cook. She can make you whatever you like... Well, yeah, Eggos but real food too." *Sighs* "See, I was thinking, once all of this is over and Will's back and you're not a secret anymore, my parents can get you an actual bed for the basement... My point is, they'll take care of you. They'll be like your new parents, and Nancy will be like your new sister."

El:

She doesn't know her feelings. If she knows what romantic feelings are anyways, she clearly doesn't feel any here, otherwise she would make a disgusted face rather than a curious one. After Mike refuses this idea, that's when she seems legitimately disappointed, because he's taking away her chance at what she wants:

No matter what you say about Mike's behaviour in this scene, this is not romantic at all. oh my god - she literally doesn't think that there's a possibility for romance here. She's being presented as this naive "born sexy yesterday trope" nonsense, I hate it when people think this scene is super cute. I mean yeah, it might be innocent, but innocent in this icky way i cant even-

She ends up pressing him for an answer, and this is where she gets a new idea of a normal girl life: being taken to the Snow Ball by Mike. Being taken to a dance at a school seems like a very normal girl, normal childhood thing to do. She just wants a life where she's not this lab creature she thinks she is, and Mike is providing her with that.

This is how Mike Wheeler explains that incest is wrong guys

Also El keeps pressing and says "No? You can't?" and it's like she keeps wanting to be his sister and getting confused whenever he takes that away from her 😭

When El then asks Mike what he means, he says that you don't even go with a friend, but he never actually says that he likes her, and just decides to kiss her - which he expects her to understand as a romantic gesture I guess. She doesn't know. All she knows is that Mike thinks she's special, Mike is going to help her feel normal and have a normal life.

He is the image of a normal life.

So when she almost gets captured again by the abusive father figure that made her feel like a monster, the one who raised her in a lab where she feels like a fucking experiment, of course she is going to reach for Mike, who is her chance at a normal life. Reaching away from one familial figure to the next.

^^ This bit isn't simply her reaching for someone she trusts or loves, it's about her desperately trying to claw her way back to her only chance at safety.

Then we have the scene that basically confirms this whole thing 100 times over:

Mike: "The bad man's gone. We'll be home soon and my mom...she'll get you your own bed. You can eat as many Eggos as you want....... And we can go to the Snow Ball."

She wants this life. This isn't just about her wanting to be romantic with Mike - the writers didn't just have Mike say about the Snow Ball. They had him promise all the other desirable, familial things that El wants too. She wants him to promise that he will give her a normal life, and he does.

Could go on a complete tangent about how "Promises" are presented as something that can never ever be broken by Mike - meaning Mike gets trapped in this loop over and over of knowing that he's promised El a normal life. Even if his own feelings change, he has promised to provide her normalcy. Oof.

Onto Season 2. This theme of familial love and found family is very much carried on into Season 2, but not in the same way. El has sacrificed herself at the end of Season 1, and has tried to return to the Wheeler household, only to find that she is not welcome.

El is then trapped by Hopper. She shows a desire not just to leave to see Mike, but she shows a desire to leave to go trick or treating, aka the most normal childhood thing to do on Halloween. She just wants to be a kid like everyone else. Meaning, whenever she wants to leave to see Mike, she's trying to leave to have a normal life.

(Also, she only learns how to have a romantic relationship through Romcoms and dramatic romances on TV. Not through her own desires. Her relationship with Mike isn't part of her self-discovery journey, it's an obstacle)

For me, this desire for normalcy is basically proven in the fact that when she finds out there is ANOTHER chance at having a normal life (through finding her mother) she completely abandons the Mike thing and decides to go through that route instead. This is also likely because she keeps trying to contact Mike, but he never sees her, and when she goes to the school, she believes he's moved on without her. So she gives up and takes another route to normalcy.

Now for the moment that inspired this whole post. I just really needed to get out my thoughts about this:

El looks around what was supposed to be her childhood bedroom. Paralleling the scene in S1 where she looks around Nancy's room, yearning for a normal childhood.

PRETTY.

This is definitive proof that the word "pretty" has nothing to do with her wanting to be called beautiful by Mike or something. She's not just calling a teddy bear pretty. She's reminiscing on her old desires to be like Nancy. She reminiscing on her old desires for a normal childhood. She's thinking about the possibility of if she was never taken to the lab, she would have been in this bedroom.

The way she says it too, it's with this sad tone. Like she's kind of resigning herself to actually not having a normal life - seeing as she's arrived to her one chance at it and seeing that her mother is unresponsive.

"Bitchin'"

This season is where we fully see El embrace her powers. We all love to hate on Episode 7 of Season 2, but it's actually really really important to her character. We see her be scared that Brenner is back and ready to take her home to her abnormal childhood. We see her channeling her anger. We see her come to embrace what makes her different.

When she comes back, she looks completely different. But not in a "normal" way. She looks......

No longer pretty - aka normal. She's embracing her powers and her true self. Hopper also backs this up - it's important that he is the first person to embrace this because earlier in the season, he was the one to stifle her true self.

This word is then further associated with her finding herself in Season 3, which is where she kind of regresses back into not knowing who she is at the start of the season. She defines herself as Mike's girlfriend, and he's basically the only person she sees. The reason for this? He's the only one that makes her feel normal and happy. If someone out there calls this super romantic and not signs of an insecure attachment I'll throw my psychology degree hands okay

After she hangs out with Max, she no longer thinks she needs Mike. Max is now the one that makes her feel good - she's the one that doesn't just make her feel normal, but makes her feel free.

When El tarts becoming her own person, and in this season she really really embraces her powers, she calls herself this word again:

In some ways, I think this is just fan service to the line in Season 2 LMAO because S3 was ripe with fan service but I can really see this as just being her looking for validation for her new self from Mike again. Her being a "badass' superhero is what he puts on a pedestal. Her powers are important to her sense of self, and when someone that you are attached to puts you on that pedestal because of your powers..... well.....

When those powers are taken away, you feel the need to create a new version of yourself.

And Season 4 is where El reinvents herself and regresses backwards in her arc. She's, yet again, trying to create the normal girl, normal life. She knows that Mike had put her on a pedestal for having super powers, and she's afraid that if her powers aren't good enough for him, and if she shows flaws when she has no powers, then he'll view her as a monster.

This all stems back to her original storyline in Season 1. See, it all comes full circle.

Now, back to this word. Pretty is no longer used. But bitchin' takes on a new meaning. It is the new "pretty".

El seeks validation from Mike again, wanting to seem like she has a normal life, a cool life that he desires and something that he'll show love for. She needs him to like this idealised version of her without flaws, with friends and good grades and someone who goes to fun parties at a roller rink:

Then we see El go through her Season 4 arc which I just cannot begin to summarise, but I'll try to show what it means for this metaphor of her needing Mike to validate her:

Mike finds out about her lies, but she hides from him and refuses his initial comfort. She then acts violently and very out of the line from her idealised version she created.

The way he reacts reminds her of her old, abusive father figure who made her feel like an experiment. (again links to the old S1 arc)

Mike then refuses to talk to her, making her believe that he views her as a monster. She already thinks that he doesn't love her anymore because of the no powers thing.

He calls her a 'superhero' despite her really not feeling like one.

She throws the words back at Mike in a note later. Basically telling him that she no longer needs him to tell her that she's a superhero for her to feel like one.

In the lab, she figures out that she was never the monster. This is extremely important because she does this without needing Mike to tell her that he loves her.

When Mike does tell her that he loves her, it is no longer satisfying because she doesn't need this anymore. He also continues to call her a superhero.

Mike makes El feel normal - he gives her that stability that she was craving since she was extremely young. She just wants a normal childhood. After embracing her powers, she realises that in order for Mike to love her, she needs to have badass powers like a superhero, meaning when she loses them, she reinvents herself as a normal girl again. When she shows flaws, her powers no longer "make up" for them, so she thinks Mike views her as a monster. She wants him to tell her he loves her for her to stop feeling like one. She figures out she was never the monster by herself in S4. Mike continues to put her on a pedestal and overexaggerates her powers in the love monologue, which is no longer needed because she has figured out she...

DOESN'T NEED MIKE

but yknow who does??? will... okay bye guys this took me for ever

[rhythm0fdevotion]

cut to 67 days later & i’m still hung up on this 😔