#am i even making sense or is this rambly bullshit pls lmk

[queerxqueen]

I am worried that the writers gave us so much Byler in vol 1 so that they could resolve whatever tension was remaining between Mike and Will, before moving on to mileven in vol 2.

I hv seen people from both ships give reasons as to why Mike hasn't been able to say ily yet to El. But haven't really seen an argument from a Narrative pov. That is, the writers are *saving* his ily to give El the strength to fight Vecna, the way her mom did. That is, when characters say stuff like "a fight we can't come back from", they usually *do* come back from it and get back together.

I really don't want this to happen but this is most probably what's gonna happen- they (the writers) have it all set up. (I m highly pessimistic but still hoping against hope considering i m writing this ask).

What are your thoughts on this?

If the writers' intention was to resolve the tension between Mike and Will in volume 1 to focus more on Mileven in volume 2, they've horrifically and hilariously failed.

The only tension Mike and Will resolved is that they've agreed they're friends and they're a team, which is great, but I definitely don't think it's neatly tied up with a bow for volume 2. There's still so much tension remaining for both of them. For Will, we still have his painting and his feelings for Mike unresolved; for Mike, we still haven't gotten into his head to understand his actions this season. There is still so much between them that is unsaid that I truly do think they will still be a focus for volume 2.

Let's ignore all the evidence that Mike doesn't love El or isn't going to say it to her, let's ignore that Byler makes more sense than Mileven. Let's think through this theoretical plotline of what Mileven could look like if that's what they were going for.

Mike is emotionally repressed, or something, so he doesn't know how to say he loves El. He's more about actions than words, or something like that. Okay, fine.

I understand the appeal of Mike being unable to say he loves El as a setup for him being able to say it at a peak climactic moment. It's setup and payoff. Right? It seems to make sense, it's the logical conclusion to resolve the El and Mike fight.

But an important element of this narratively that we have to address is that there needs to be some element of change. Storytelling is inherently about cause and effect, about actions having consequences and making things change, so what forces Mike to change? Mike needs to repeatedly confront his inner conflict to gradually change, pushing him to be able to say he loves El when he couldn't say it before.

In other words, if Mike's journey this season is about learning to express his love for El, we have seen very little in act two so far to push that along, to prepare him better to be able to say it in the climactic moment. Maybe El's absence is meant to push him to think about his feelings for her, and we get some of that with him talking to Will about El. Maybe him opening up to Will about his Totally Platonic Best Friend feelings is the first step in him being able to open up to El about his Romantic feelings for her.

But none of what happened in volume 1 quite fits right into this supposed Mileven narrative. Instead, we see Mike not knowing what to say or not knowing how to "explain" himself, implying that whatever he needs to say to El, it's not the romantic I Love You as we're expecting. We see Mike confronting his relationship with Will just as much as we see him confronting his relationship with Eleven.

But most of all, if Mike does somehow come through with a dramatic, romantic, I love you speech for Eleven, so what? What does that change? What does that impact? How does Mike grow or change from that? How does Eleven grow or change from that? and why tf did they drag poor will's feelings into this if they weren't going to impact anything whatsoever!!!

My hope is that any I love you monologue from Mike to El is about platonic and familial love and how that matters just as much as romantic love. Because the arc we are seeing Mike prepared for is leading to him being honest about not loving El; it's not about expressing feelings but about being true to yourself and not pretending to be someone you're not. It's about conformity--that's what's killing the kids.

I can't stress enough how little any of their arcs make sense this season if it really is ending with Mileven. They would be doing Mike, Will, and Eleven all so dirty and I have to believe that's not what's going to happen. I have to believe the Duffers are better than that, because if they were leading to Mike and Eleven ending up together, they simply wouldn't have done it like this.