#mileven and jancy parallels

[jancysmixtape]

Millie is a Jancy warrior!! Finn, Millie, Charlie, and Natalia have all shown support to Jancy. I love today.

[messrsbyler]

EEEEEEKKKKKK!!!

[fruitbythefoot7]

hi this is your friendly reminder that all of the endgame ships (jancy, lumax, byler, jopper) have a very clear parallel between all of them that mlvn very clearly does not have. 

in s1, nancy gets stuck in the ud, calls out for jonathan, and is pulled out and into jonathan’s arms. 

in s2, will is stuck in one of his ud episodes, calls out for mike, and is pulled out and into mike’s arms. 

in s2, hopper is stuck in the ud tunnels, and inevitably gets saved by joyce (who had been calling out his name) 

in s4, max is in a trance, calls out for lucas first, and gets pulled out by lucas’s knowledge of what her favorite song is and falls into his arms. 

and in s1…el is stuck in the ud, calls out for mike, and gets out completely on her own. 

so. what does that say about them? 

[londondziban]

byler constantly parallels jancy and jopper and even at times lumax. milevens don't want to talk about the fact that their ship constantly parallels stancy, a canonically failed ship (no season 4 wasn't setting them up to get back together), and the dart and dustin dynamic

[insomniacirl]

Okay yes- we talk about the s3 Byler fight scene all the time:

BUT CAN WE PLEASE TALK ABOUT THE SCENE PRIOR TO THIS???

Because yes, Mike and Lucas act like assholes towards Will because they're too concentrated on the girls- but as soon as Will finally breaks and gives them the,

"Okay, fine. You guys win. Congratulations."

Mike KNOWS he's fucked up and immediately tries to fix his mistake.

"Will I was just messing around- let's finish for real, how much longer is the campaign?"

"Just forget it Mike!"

"No- we want to keep playing- right?"

*Turns to Lucas and gives him a look*

"Yeah totally!"

"We'll just call the girls afterwards-"

CAN WE TALK ABOUT THAT VS THE ENTIRE REASON MIKE IS DISTRACTED TO BEGIN WITH???

That boy has no idea how to apologise to El, how to make it up to her- after being broken up with he fully pins the blame on El and argues to Lucas that it makes no sense- that he's the victim.

BUT AS SOON AS WILL'S UPSET WITH HIM? Now that's a whole other story.

And to really get that message across, also pay attention to the very blatant fact that Lucas has been trying to help him with the girls this entire time, telling him what to say and do- but it's Mike's turn to tell Lucas what to do when it comes to Will, that's where his expertise come in. It's second nature, with Will he knows what to do, he acts on instinct to reach out and soothe any injury he's left and he only ever blames himself.

Up until the fight that is.

Say what you Will about season 3 Mike Wheeler, but I will defend that boy with my life.

Yes, he acted like a douchebag- but he was also an extremely confused, extremely frustrated 14 year old boy, with no idea how to fix all the mistakes he seemed to be making just by trying to do what people were telling him was right.

[your-friendly-neighbourh00d-fag]

same ship different fonts (derogatory)

[musicalchaos07]

Ok but has anyone thought maybe they gave us a St*ncy resurgence to draw parallels to Mike and El's failing relationship?

[36beetles]

Mike telling El that he has always loved her and wants a future with her (despite previously implying otherwise) that wouldn't make either of them happy:

Steve telling Nancy that he has always loved her and wants a future with her (despite previously stating otherwise) that wouldn't make either of them happy:

[liquidisedfrogs]

Just a random thought:

Both Mike and Nancy are ignoring the obvious love intrest and falling for the alternative, unexpected person that they've known for much longer than their previous partners.

[freetobeeyouandme]

Rewatching Stranger Things really drives home how the Duffers really only know how to write one type of love story. They're like if it's not "known each other since forever, getting with the wrong guy first while the other one pines, 200k slowburn and always choosing each other when shit goes down" we don't want it....and honestly yeah keep it up guys I'm loving it

[jancysmixtape]

These are THE SAME scene. The way Mike and Nancy’s faces both going from in denial to in complete shock, and their reactions to hearing how El and Jonathan knew what they did and they had no clue.. god, they’re so tethered it’s insane.

[frozenfrogz]

"But Mike said 'I love you' like seve-" *gunshots*

[bitofanupsidedowner]

the california plot line in general... i just can’t. despite the literal mission being about getting (mike) to el, the emotional emphasis almost exclusively comes from mike and will’s relationship, and mike’s conflicting feelings about el. 

i don’t get the milkvans thinking cali plotline was a win for them just because it ended in a monologue that was filmed and written in a way to intentionally stress out the viewer. i see it as a pretty unromantic thing to not be able to tell someone you love them, especially when it makes them visibly upset. 

you could argue it’s about his parents toxic relationship, but nancy has the same parents and... well. she did have trouble saying i love you.

to steve. 

[will80sbyers]

What makes you believe that byler is real? I ship Mileven personally, but I'm trying to understand byler shippers' logic, because a lot of the time it feels like it makes no sense.

I personally think there are some scenes in the show and there are some choices that the writers made that are telling us that the plot of the show is going towards Will getting a "pay off", in terms of writing, at the end of the show and Mike and El finding out they are better as friends instead and Mike discovering he has romantic feelings for Will!

The writers have emphasized Will's sadness in relation to Mike and El as a couple both thematically and visually, in the writing & filming of the show there are too many scenes like this especially in season 3 and 4 they have made it clear that he will never be happy if Mike and El are the endgame relationship, even during Mike's love monologue after he supposedly decided that he was ok with El having his own feelings for Mike by saying that the painting was a thoughtful gift from El when it wasn't... They put a shot of Will's sad face in the middle of the monologue, and also he was framed behind Mike when he said "I love you" which in film is a EXTREMELY weird choice unless it means something more is going on that should make us not want El and Mike's relationship to work - the writers have been sabotaging the emotional connection of the fans with mileven by doing this and I don't think that professional filmmakers don't know that, I think it's on purpose!

The writers have shown Mike and Will as having a deeper relationship than all the other relationships Mike has, putting him in the same category of El as one of his possible love interests in the plot, they have multiple scenes bonding in a tender way than Mike has with any other of his friends, they happen in private usually or in emotionally charged moments that they film to make you as a viewer feel like they are in private and show how they have this connection that's more than just friendship

The writers have wrote in the show since season 1 MANY parallels between Mike and Will and other official couples (Mileven too!!!) that are, in my opinion, hinting at them ending up together at the end of the show

You can find the parallels here

The writers have continously shown El and Mike to have some kind of problem in their relationship and made El decide to leave Mike behind multiple times even if to save his life because she loves him, the writers have been showing us how Mike is not her PLOT priority and instead they have put having a romantic relationship with Mike as Will's deepest desire since season 3

The writers are building up El's character to have a coming of age that has recurrent themes of her finding herself without the influence of others around her, her becoming completely free from any kind of influence, and Mike has been represented as having too many internal fears to overcome at the moment about their relationship, especially with the love monologue at the end of season 4, he has beliefs about himself as a person that clash with El's character arc about not having to feel influenced in any way, the end of the show for El should be her having complete freedom in all aspects of her life because of the circumstances of her upbringing... Not saying that Mike is influencing her in a bad way necessarily, I think they both love each other a lot but having a relationship with someone that is that much insecure about his role in your life because you have powers will always be a type of influence

The writers have shown Mike and El as not being a team at the same level by separating them constantly after s1, instead they have shown the other couples that work as working together in the supernatural plot (Jancy, Jopper, Lumax, Byler)

The writers have paralleled Mike and El's relationship to all the ships that are not working for some reasons/are not endgame and have more infatuation than a real "true love" kind of relationship (Steve x Nancy, Karen X Ted, Bob x Joyce)

The writers have wrote in multiple scenes of Mike acting awkward with Will (Mike!!! Not Will) or them having coded conversations about how much they care for each other that have no sense to exist unless there is a pay off at the end

The writers have presented El, Mike and Will as being in a love triangle and have been framing them in a love triangle composition in the framing of multiple scenes, with Mike at the centre

When during season 4 the writers talked about all the movies that have inspired season 4 and 5 they have put multiple movies with love triangles that are almost identical to the situation between Mike, El and Will

Will and Mike have multiple fight scenes that are scenes you give to two possible love interests usually, the way the fight happen is written as two lovers having emotional fights instead of as how you would write two friends fighting

The writers wrote in the show a precise parallel in all the scenes of Vickie and Robin... between them and Will and Mike, paralleling Mike to Vickie specifically... who is a canon bisexual character and even paralleling Steve and Jonathan in that context as observers of the couples!

The directors filmed their scenes how you would film romantic scenes in stuff like Bridgerton or a romcom lol

The whole painting scene was Will making Mike feel so loved that he felt comfortable being vulnerable with El, but this means he was still not comfortable on his own relationship with her, he didn't feel safe enough to open up on his own and needed that talk and needed to believe all of those ideas about him being the heart came from Eleven so that he made the jump and told her how he felt instead of being selfishly silent on it because he was too afraid of her possibly leaving him one day... When you are really deeply in love with someone in the context of movies the characters don't let those type of fears influence them and if what gives him courage is the feelings of another character in the love triangle it means he's the right person for the character

( idk if you saw gossip girl but the was a love triangle situation between Blair, Dan and another character where Dan made Blair believe the other character felt some type of way towards her, she understood that she loved Dan because of this act because she wanted those words to be from him and not from the other guy... The whole painting lie is that same trope)

The writers are obsessed with IT from Stephen King and there are clear parallels with it in the show, the whole plot of s4 about the painting is a reprise of the plot between the romantic relationship of Bev and Ben in IT (with the postcard and the poem) Beverly is supposed to be Mike, Ben is Will and Bill is El.... Mike and El share a kiss at the end of season 3 that is supposed to parallel a kiss between Bill and Bev (they did love each other and liked each other but are not endgame)

Both Will and Mike are queercoded multiple times during the seasons

There are WAYYYY more reasons but this post is becoming too long so I'll leave it as this lol

You should rewatch the show and imagine if Will was a girl, I think many people would be seeing what I'm talking about way more and take it as a sign that Mike is going to choose "Willow" and see how Will is the better love interest for him...

Maybe it's all just queerbaiting, who knows, but at the moment I believe this is way too much for it to be queerbait!

I personally think Mike is bisexual

Masterpost about it here

and has feelings for both of them, but his feelings for El have always been a "puppy love" type that is growing to become more platonic than romantic with time, and I think he's a best match with Will, I think Will is able to make him be the best he can be, he's capable of making Mike feel worthy in a very natural way unlike the relationship with El does at the moment!

In my fixed post in the blog you can find all these things in more detail if you're interested!!

Thank you if you read all of this, regardless of what I believe I think everybody should be free to ship what ship they like best!! 😊

[your-friendly-neighbourh00d-fag]

ok i just have to say it. stancys never get mad or rant at steddies. or ronances. but they do however get mad at and rant at jancys. because they know that jancy has a chance of happening and is an actual threat to their ship. same vice versa.

but milevens get mad at and rant at byl- [GUNSHOTS]

[lordystrange]

10 best byler proofs by me

10. The cast, especially David (who knows the ending) and Finn (who might know something), are always so happy talking about Byler. They wouldn’t be if Will ended up dying alone as a sad gay. Also no one likes milkvan except maybe Millie unless she’s acting… Caleb even said ”Lucas and Max’s love is real unlike Milkvan’s”.

9. Mike has been queercoded throughout the whole series. Especially with queer colors, he spent s4 dressed as a gay pride flag. Also bi and pan colors are associated with him. Also Ted’s ”our son with a girl?” and everything Eddie said about forced conformity etc

8. Byler parallelling other romantic ships like Jancy, Jopper and Lumax. I’m not listing examples because there are SO MANY! (Also Milkvan parallelling all the platonic/dead ships)

7. Mileven being bones. We have nothing that shows their actual, deep love they’re ”supposed to have”. We don’t know what Mike loves about El and what El loves about Mike. We don’t know what makes them a compatible match romantically. We only know things that don’t make them compatible: El feeling the need to lie to Mike, Mike feeling embarrassed of his nerdy self with El, El feeling unloved by Mike, Mike feeling inferior to El…

6. The desert scenes. The triple take ofc, but also the car roof top convo with Will (jancy parallell). Will is talking about how it’s scary to say how you really feel because what if they don’t like the truth. And Mike NODS. If the truth was that he loved El exactly like El wanted, El would like that truth. So what is the truth Mike is worried that El doesn’t like…?

5. Mike’s monologue. He had to be pushed by Will to open his mouth. He lied about him loving her at first sight. He copied the t-shirt part from Eddie. He kept saying she’s his superhero which El doesn’t wanna be. He didn’t include anything personal about El and their relationship after the t-shirt thing… Also El didn’t seem to like what she heard and their love didn’t save the world. And they didn’t even talk after it. And while filming it they didn’t focus on just the couple (like they did with byler in s2 shed scene) and they let Finn improvise as if it wasn’t that important (as important as the van scene…)

4. Mike would be so poorly written if he wasn’t into Will and I don’t think the Duffers would just ignore his character. Also all the lip glances and heart eyes wouldn’t make sense.

3. Byler/Milkvan contrast. When Will was gone and they found his ”body”, Mike heard Will breathing in a radio channel and believed he was alive. He didn’t rest for a second, he did everything he could to find him. When he thought El was dead, he didn’t go looking for her, even tho a couple times he actually saw her. Also in s3 when Milkvan had a fight, Max said Mike will be crawling back to her begging for forgiveness in no time. Instead Mike laid on a sofa and ate and complained. When Byler had a fight… well we all know what Mike did then.

2. Mike and Will’s relationship has always been different from other friendships. They’ve said it themselves (”pls don’t tell the others, they wouldn’t understand”, ”Hawkins is not the same without you”, ”you make her me feel better for being different”). Also their scenes together have always been a big deal (van scene took an entire day to film, crazy together was written before s1 was even filmed) and they are shot in a really romantic way (music, lighting…)

1. In the beginning of s3, Will said to Joyce that he’s not gonna fall in love. That made his arc about romance. We know now that he already fell in love, but he doesn’t believe it’s requited. If s5 goes from ”i don’t think he loves me back” to ”he doesn’t love me back” we get literally nowhere and the entire storyline (since s1) would be useless and waste of time and money. They wouldn’t make Will suffer 4 seasons and then suffer some more. So believe me when I say it goes ”I don’t think he loves me back” to ”He does love me back!”

I wish you all a very merry byler endgame in s5! 💚