#and ahhh hopper and el’s familial relationship is SO GOOD

[hawkinslibrary]

i love hearing what you have to say about season 4!! i promise it’s not too long lol, anyway i have a question for you: what do you think the next season holds for mike & el? i’m a little worried tbh

ahhh thank you !! same rules apply: spoilers ahead, so please read no further and blacklist/filter out the ‘s4′, ‘st4′, ‘spoilers’ tags if you don’t want to see anything !! 

i’m going to talk about them both as individuals and as a pair but first, i have to say that i don’t personally feel like you have to worry about them breaking up or anything again this season. i think s4 is really going to establish romantic jopper and once that happens, i don’t see them, mileven, or jancy not being endgame unless someone actually dies. which -- i’m not going to think about the possibility of anyone dying until i’m forced to confront it, so. this is fiction and it’s already unrealistic and i’m gonna take my ‘everyone survives, happiness all around, time to relax’ endings and go. anyway, i would love to add lumax to this list but i honestly think it could go either way depending on what happens in s4. that’s a different essay, though.

i tend to think that the most important dynamic on the show is the one between the whole group and i just don’t really see them spending much more time trying to develop romantic relationships outside of the ones set up since s1/2. maybe steve, robin, and will get love interests, maybe they decide to develop dustin and suzie more, maybe suzie is never even mentioned again, idk. but these will probably all be secondary -- as in less screen time, not less important than the main romances, but probably still less developed. unless it happens to be a new person added to the main cast. which, as of now, the only new mains are brett and priah who has gone from recurring to regular. so.  

i think s3 showed how messy and complicated romantic relationships (or, really just relationships in general) can be. everyone was arguing, there was miscommunication all around, everyone thought they knew what was best, no one was seeing eye to eye. but when it comes down to it, they would do anything for each other. they understand each other better than anyone else ever could. i can’t see them spending another season on breakups and romance drama after the ending of s3.  

mike and el have already been separated once before. this time, mike knows for sure that she’s alive and that’s she’s with the byers. this time, el won’t be kept completely isolated away from everyone else. they’ve made plans to meet for the holidays. they can still call and talk to each other as much as they want. i’m hoping they handle being separated this time better than they did in s2. i don’t want mike to be moping and i don’t want el to spend a lot of the season thinking about how much she misses him. in fact, i think in their case that some distance could be good for them. the same for jancy and jopper, too, honestly. it’ll be nice to see them existing outside of these relationships while still acknowledging how important they are.   

as far as i know, the byers and el stuff has not started filming yet so all there is to speculate on are rumors, the audition tapes, and logical guesses about where the story goes after s3. el obviously moves away with the byers. we still don’t know where. she’ll still be mourning hopper and trying to figure out life without her powers. and, of course, she’ll be in a long distance relationship with mike. i think she’ll be having a hard time and she’ll wish that mike was around, but she’ll realize she’s got a pretty good support system around her now with the byers, too. i’m very, very excited for more joyce and el content particularly, but there’s gotta be some great scenes with her and will and jonathan as well. 

there’s only one audition tape that i can confidently tie into the byers + el plot(s?) and it’s the queen bee/mean girl character ‘angela’. if we’re running with the whole ‘there may be some truth to the audition vids’ thing, then this one teases that el will be going to school and that angela will be bullying her. this is something she would probably want to talk about with mike (b i g troy s1 vibes) but i don’t know if she actually would ? so this is probably more a thing that el and will could bond over or that she could talk about with joyce or maybe jonathan. i do think there will be at least a few calls between the two of them before the action really hits and the whole group is (hopefully...) reunited.

so, el -- at least in the beginning of s4 -- will be going to school where ‘angela’ bullies her, forming a bond with joyce + will + jonathan and becoming part of the family, mourning hopper (+ hopefully having conversations about him + his past with joyce), missing her friends back in hawkins, continuing to learn how to navigate life without her powers, and trying to maintain a long distance relationship with mike. 

mike... i’ve been seeing some wild theories about him today but they aren’t really that far-fetched i think. first, going back to the audition tapes, the ‘eddie’ audition i saw makes it seem like mike is going to be part of the hellfire club with dustin. i’ve recently learned that there’s another version of the scene where ‘eddie’ is only talking to dustin and mike might not be a part of the club after all. if he isn’t part of the club, then the basketball v. hellfire, jocks v. nerds thing turns into lucas v. dustin and mike’s probably there just caught in the middle while max is off distancing herself from everyone.

at this point, i really want mike and max to become good friends. i think the end of s3 gave them the perfect opportunity. s4 max has s2 mike vibes. it’s not the same situation at all, but he knows kinda what she’s feeling and they could connect through that + the fact that they’ll both be missing el. i also just really want... some wheeler siblings content. i’m hopeful that s4 gives us good nancy and mike scenes bc there’s no reason not to give us good nancy and mike scenes (+holly!). however...

while there’s proof that gaten and sadie and natalia and priah have all been filming since production restarted, and while i have reason to believe that caleb has been filming a lot inside/at the studio recently... there’s no evidence that finn has been on set. there’s none for maya and joe, either, but people have said that finn isn’t even in atlanta right now. maybe he is and maybe he just hasn’t been seen and maybe he’ll pop back up tomorrow. or, maybe he already filmed whatever he needed to film for hawkins before production stopped.  

the wild theory that’s popped up today is that everything gets to be too much for him in hawkins and he just... hops on a train to go visit el + the byers. i don’t know if i buy it, but it is interesting to note that he was sitting with them at the table read. and since we can guess that steve and robin will still be working at the video store, robin and nancy will be investigating pennhurst together, lucas and max may have some angst, joyce and murray are probably teaming up for the finding/saving hopper plot, and el is going to bond with will and jonathan, it seems like the order might mean a little something. i’d even bet that dustin and erica have scenes with them bonding over d&d.    

now this theory pretty much only exists because no one’s seen finn on set and one of the paps posted some pics of some trains. there’s also always theories about how there will be issues at home with the wheeler fam and if that’s going to happen, what better time than in s4 when all of his friends are pulling away and el’s gone again. so if he is missing el (and will) that much, and if he has any reason to worry about her and how she’s doing, or if the party becoming distant and issues at home are weighing on him and he feels like he needs to get away, he’s absolutely the type to venture off on a train by himself. i don’t know how it would work since he’s definitely supposed to still be in school and his friends/nancy at least would notice he’s gone, but.. it’s fun to think about and we’ve got zero actual content to go off of right now.  

another way i could see mike’s plot going is that he’s the one trying to keep the party together this season. playing mediator with lucas and dustin, becoming better friends with max, being the connection between the hawkins plot and the byers plot (along with nancy). 

there was also talk of him joining the track team bc the track has been set up with hawkins high colors for filming. but mike ‘this isn’t a stupid sports game’ wheeler? i don’t think so... basically, no one knows at the moment what’s happening with mike wheeler in s4 lol.

s4 mike is just like s4 byers fam -- a complete mystery to me currently. i don’t personally think that he’ll be leaving school and hopping on a train to visit el. i think he’ll be a part of the hellfire club with dustin, or that he won’t and instead will be attempting to keep the party from completely disbanding. i hope that we get wheeler siblings scenes and that max and mike have a breakthrough and become better friends. i also feel like he’ll be having some complicated feelings about hopper, the last interaction they had, etc. and, again, the whole long distance thing with el. 

so... mike and el broke up in s3. it was messy. but then they reconciled. and then hopper “died”. s3 ended with them at this weird place where she’s heard him say that he loves her and she’s told him that she loves him back. things are a little awkward in the scene bc everything has changed at this point, but a kiss, an ‘i love you’, planning to meet up on the holidays, and promising to call frequently all sounds like they’re back together and going to try making the long distance thing work to me. 

i think they’ll be together when s4 starts. i think that we’ll probably only see them talking on the phone or their radios for the first few eps. maybe we’ll see flashbacks or something to them being together on the holidays. the distance might be hard and they’re definitely going to be missing each other. like... el doesn’t have mike or hopper with her now and i’m thinking the party is going to be drifting apart, plus they’re both probably going to have other personal issues that have nothing to do with each other or the party. maybe they’ll be experiencing some emotional distancing of their own while dealing with the aftermath of hopper’s “death”, the move, and whatever’s going on with them at home and at school. i think that once they reunite (probably not until the last half of the season), they’re likely to be stronger than ever. 

now, onto personal theories that have zero basis. for some reason, i can’t get it out of my head that this season might dive into psychological horror a little bit ? like a greatest fears type of thing ?? and i keep thinking about brenner popping back up and using the people el loves to get to her or something and 👀👀 

[crackers4jenn]

Stranger Things spoilers behind the cut

Holy crap, the last two episodes were so intense--and so good, I must've wept upwards of 8 times. Overall, this has been one of my favorite seasons, and not just because of Nancy constantly reevaluating her life and why, specifically, Steve still isn't in it. BUT MY THOUGHTS:

I was expecting sooooo much more to happen between Will and Mike, but dang! Hand that Noah kid all the awards, he wasn't wasting what little screentime he had. Him stifling his crying into his hand????? After talking to Mike about El but really about HIMSELF and Mike not getting it???? GOD. I know people have been real dang quick to call out the lack of, well, anything explicitly indicating Will has feelings for Mike as queerbaiting but, what?! I feel like his feelings have been SO evident and handled sooooo carefully and beautifully, especially in how Jonathan has been observing it all. I can't imagine the show is just gonna make this a one-off thing, it, like everything else this season, had a dot-dot-dot of "to be continued" all over it. (Also, the painting reveal was worth the wait! You just know Will's 'El commissioned it' lie is going to catch up with him.) (Also also, Jonathan is probably my least favorite main character, just in terms of like... how much screentime I wish he had, but every scene he shared with just Will was a 10/10 no splash slap to my heart.)

I can't believe they killed Eddie!!! I was full on Troy "my emotions, MY EMOTIONS"'ing from the second he and Dustin committed to being decoys, to him buying everyone more time and staying in the Upside Down, to him deciding to stop running, TO DUSTIN CRADLING HIM AS HE DIED. Ahhh!!! I kinda figured, even with all the "ohhh, so many characters are gonna die" talk it wouldn't be a main character, and it wouldn't be Robin, so it had to be him, but I was still bummed. I know Steve-and-Dustin is an untouchable duo but the Dustin-and-Eddie dynamic carried the second half of the season for me.

Thank god El was piggybacking from a pizza freezer and could save Max. Semi-save her. The Vecna deaths were already horrific when they were happening to characters we didn't really have a lot of emotional investment in, but seeing Max go through that? While Lucas was losing his mind with grief???? I know I already said Noah was killing it in these final episodes, but honestly, hand alllll those kids an award, they were on a whole other level in vol. 2.

Sooooo happy Joyce and Hopper are leaning hard into their feelings for each other. You know, why keep fighting it when one half of you was legally declared dead for 8 months. They're so sweet and they deserve to go on that damn date.

The reunions between Will + El, Hopper + El, and Joyce + El had me straight up sobbing. I love their family! If I had been an emotional robot the entire previous time, if I hadn't had already sobbed a million times and stayed dry-eyed, El and Hopper's convo in her room would've gotten me to break. HE'S HER DAD 😫

Still here for the Stancy of it all. I'm juuuuust a little disappointed we didn't get more of a reaction to Steve pouring his heart out about Nancy being the one in all his Harrington brood family vacay dreams (!!!!!!!!!) but, like, she's with Jonathan. She loves Jonathan. I appreciate that no lines were ever really crossed. But now she knows how she feels. She can do something about it if she wants to, especially because! It's so clear the show is trying to do with Nancy/Jonathan what they did at the end of s1 with Steve/Nancy. That "oh, I don't think I'm emotionally in this relationship anymore but I'm gonna put on a brave face and power through" thing I despise so much. If there's a time jump next season, I'm gonna be real surprised if those two are still together. And if they are, you know it's gonna be by a damn weak ass thread. They love each other but they're not even TRYING to be there for each other.

And back to making this a Steve/Nancy bullet point! You know who was there for each other this season? Steve and Nancy! In so many "look at how far they've come!" ways. Their faces and the way those faces were looking at the other all throughout this season? Exquisite. 🤌 They just have soooo much chemistry. All the show has to do is let the camera linger on Steve staring at Nancy a little dazed, a little lovestruck, and Nancy staring back at Steve a little smirky, a little flirty, AND I AM SOLD, BABYYYY.

Which makes Nancy running into Jonathan's arms, IN FRONT OF STEVE, after everything, all the more soul-bruising. Some good looking out by Robin in that moment, though. Just like Steve was there to try and console her after she peeped HER crush locking lips with someone else. Their friendship is one of my faves.

(I just remembered when Steve and Nancy jumped back into the Upside Down and almost kissed!!!!!)

In conclusion: 🥹♥️

[themikewheelers]

(1/2) K but something that is so underrated (I feel) about mike and el's relationship is that mike understands aspects of el's personality no one else does?? like tbh the bike scene in season 1 episode 3 where el tells him she understands his feelings after being tripped by the bullies and when mike tells will that el would understand his feelings is SO SO UNDERRATED like eleven has so much empathy because of the experiences she has had which is why she is able to connect with sweet sensitive

(Continued) mike and also why she is able to forgive hopper when he explains about her daughter. like ahhh people don’t understand their connection is based off mutual understanding established from that bike scene AND I WISH IT WAS INCORPORATED MORE INTO FICS!!

————–

That scene of the two of them in the woods in s1ep3 will forever be one of my favorite scenes between the two of them because it’s all so casual and nothing about it is really IMPORTANT, but you can just see this amazing underappreciated part of their dynamic. That moment is really the first time the two of them start to understand each other and trust each other.

From El’s point of view, she’s just been blindly trusting this boy to take care of her, while she really knows next to nothing about him? She knows his friend is missing, and she knows about his friends and his family, but she doesn’t know anything that’s actually personal. And then she finds out about all his bullies at school, and she sees his scar, and I think El kinda has a moment where it hits her “I’m not the only person who’s been hurt like this before.” I mean, she’s seen other people get hurt before. She’s seen lab workers be hurt and killed, and she saw Benny get murdered, but those situations weren’t the same. She’s seen people get hurt before, but never in the same way she’s been hurt. What the lab did to her was bullying. At the end of the day, it was this intense, horrible, abusive, violent form of bullying. And I think it was a big deal to El to see that she’s not the only person who’s been victimized like that, even if Mike’s situation isn’t even nearly as bad or intense as hers. She can relate to him, and that’s a big deal for her. That “I understand” line has so much subtext because she really does understand and she knows what it’s like to have people who just want to harm you and she has so much empathy for him. She sees this sweet kid who’s done nothing but help her and protect her these past couple days, and she learns that there’s these people out there who relentlessly hurt him. And then that part of it connects to the other thing she said, “Why do they hurt you?” because she really just doesn’t understand why someone would want to hurt anyone like Mike, who’s been nothing but good to her since she met him. She can’t see how such a good person could be hurt and hated that way, and I think her realizing that is really important for her, cause we know she struggles a lot with seeing HERSELF as a good person and seeing herself as anything more than a monster. Seeing that even good people can be treated as if they’re nothing is important for her, especially after the lab had spent 12 years teaching her that being in there was what she deserved. Learning about Mike’s bullies makes her empathize a lot with him, and it makes her a bit protective over him, but at the same time it has this big effect on her because she’s starting to realize that she’s not alone and there’s other people in the world who’ve been hurt and bullied and taken advantage of the same was she has. She’s not the only one to go through this sort of stuff, even if her situation was way more intense than a schoolyard bully.

And then from Mike’s perspective, El is still a complete stranger to him. He knows she has superpowers, he knows her name is a number, he knows she’s on the run from people who want to kill her, and that’s it. He really knew nothing else about her at that point. And Mike is a very insecure person himself (partially a result of the bullying) and you can tell he doesn’t want to open up about Troy and he only said anything cause El asked. So then he does open up to her, and it’s a very brief moment, but he does get vulnerable, and I think he expected El to judge him. He thought she would think he’s weird, or she’d pity him. He thought she’d start to view him as weirdo, like the other kids at school do. Mike is an outcast at school, outside of his friend group he never exactly had the best interactions with kids his age. But then El didn’t judge him for it all, she understood what he was going through and she empathized, because she knows what it’s like to have someone who just wants to hurt you. I think that moment was just very special for Mike, because he was getting vulnerable, and instead of reacting with judgement or pity (as most people outside his friend group probably always had), El understood what he was going through, because she knows what that’s like, and she didn’t see him as any different because of it

I really love that moment, because it’s so short and sweet but it is a big deal for the both of them. I think that interaction was really the time when they realized they could relate to one another and that neither of them were alone, and as a result you can see how much they trust each other after it. You can instantly see how much more comfortable they are with each other and until the day I die I will believe that scene is the moment they both started to develop feelings for one another. It’s right after that when they finish talking and they’re smiling at each other and giving heart eyes and I will never be able to explain just how much I love that scene and how much I think it influenced their relationship

[raviposting]

Stranger things for gen relationship?

My favorite parent-child relationship Ahhh well Joyce with Will; her dedication to finding him was everything. 

My favorite sibling relationship OH NO DON’T MAKE ME CHOOSE BETWEEN JONATHAN/WILL AND NANCY/MIKE (poor Holly whoops). 

My favorite family relationship (other) Well since I didn’t mention Joyce/Jonathan, them too. 

My favorite friendship between two people Lucas and Mike! They’re the antagonistic friends who are ultimately loyal to each other and that’s a trope that I’m forever a sucker for. 

My favorite friendship between a group The boys + Eleven what a squad Will and Eleven need to be there at the same time so they can all chill. 

My favorite mentorship Hmmm idk if there is a mentorship but I think Hopper and El could be a good one! 

My favorite rivalry Uh? Steve and Jonathan bc I can’t wait for them to fall in love and be in a relationship with Nancy be best friends

My favorite hatred/antipathy Well I guess with Lucas/Eleven because he got over it and they made up, rather than him hating her all throughout the end (although he was antagonistic for most of it but tbh I don’t really blame the kiddo I doubt most adults would have trusted her much less a preteen boy lol). 

My favorite potential relationship between characters who never talk in canon Okay fine so they technically have spoken in canon but GIVE ME WILL/ELEVEN FRIENDSHIP OR GIVE ME DEATH. 

Or hey Will and Barb chilling in the Upside Down.