#milevens are so unserious

[jaegerisim]

🔴BREAKING NEWS!!! MILEVENS DISCOVER WHAT BEING BISEXUAL IS?! **SHOCKING** **EMOTIONAL** **TW: WILL MAKE YOU CRY** 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

[chirpsythismorning]

Mentally I'm here (wait for it…)

[starbylers]

*obviously Byler endgame would also mean no M!leven but it’s like an extra step up

[jonathanbyersphd]

the reason I know I'm supposed to take milkvan as seriously as stanky is bc their little m&ms moment is cut inbetween Jonathan and Nancy fighting for their lives in the hospital. Just like stanky makeouts were cut inbetween scenes of Will missing/Barb dying

[heartsgettingwiser62]

Can't believe we got in the SAME SEASON Dustin and Suzzie bonding over singing together a song that is theirs; and Milkvan listening to a song together, Mike starting to sing and El wanting him to shut up

(Also, why did they choose Never surrender, which is a song about personal growth and fighting on, for a romantic moment instead of a romantic coded song like they did with Never ending story and Every breath you take lmao)

[kikolagito]

why is he staring at Will like that isn’t he trying to get his gf back 😭

[willbyersapologist]

giggles

[kiirotoao]

Can we talk about Mileven for a minute. Another reason I don't buy their romantic relationship is the fact that most of their one on ones as a romantic couple (S3) are comedic and not very serious. Where are the deep conversations and when are we ever shown how much they understand each other... post (S2). It's almost like once they started dating they became a joke? Yes they have a few sweet moments but it's also scripted to be laughable. (S4) never showed them having a honest deep convo resolving issues and growing romantically. It could happen in (S5) but at this point I don't see the emotional romantic draw.

And then there is Byler to compare it to, where most of their one on ones are much much more serious, deep, heartfelt, with actual evidence of understanding and talks involving their feelings (which Mike seems to not have an issue with unlike his plot in S4 with El). This, mind you, happens to some degree in every season with Will. If Mike just sees Will as his best friend, why is he so serious about Will especially alone together. Even best friends are more casual then this.

Also a side note. The (S3) Mileven straight stereotype of the 'lazy, lying, clueless boy' dating the 'girl who is playing hard to get to teach her boyfriend a lesson' troupe is icky and makes me want El to find her power solo and Mike to remember that the old Mike (who has a special will voice) is a much better person and boyfriend. Thoughts?

Damn! Well said, dear anon!! I couldn’t agree more.

To anyone who says anything along the lines of ‘oh, Mleven can’t be broken up, they’ve been building up this whole time!’ Or ‘here’s the slow burn everyone wanted,’ or ‘Mike and El have grown so much even after fighting,’ I really don’t understand how any of that is founded. I totally agree and I feel like their relationship has been rather unserious. Even in the most serious love-centered topics of support (s1), connection (s2), breakups (s3), and expression (s4), it’s really interesting to me how their relationship has consistently lacked depth.

Despite dealing with some of the most important aspects of strong relationships, they aren’t close enough to showing, providing, or proving to have one. Mike supports El in season 1 as she does him, protecting and aiding each other with their strengths. But… so does everyone in that season to each other? The only difference is that Mike sheltered El which is very sweet, but not inherently romantic.

Then there’s season 2, which I must confess - I think that their reunion scene at the end of the season remains one of the sweetest moments on the show. Ever. It’s raw and emotional, and this was the closest thing we got to something romantic. But what shoots it down is the fact that their emotion was due to forced separation and Mike’s very real complex grief which gets completely glossed over in the show. So, I don’t know. It’s tricky. So are they romantic yet? They get virtually no time together. It’s a no for me.

And oh yeah, season 3 was the peak of unserious-ness. I also don’t enjoy that trope of ‘the boy chasing the girl who just doesn’t get it yet and she snubs him until the very end’ kind of energy. I swear that that stuff is littered in family-friendly movies usually as comedic relief, and Mike and El just barely made that trope more serious at the very least. Their breakup is dramatized and humorous, and the way that it’s mended still makes me chuckle. Mike offers her M&Ms, compliments her looks, they smile at each other, and suddenly they’re all good again? Yeah, that’s not very clear romance to me. All season long, they keep resisting each other. Mike lashes out to everyone and declares that he loves El but can’t say it to her face, and El has Max’s words tattooed on her heart that she keeps asserting that she deserves trust. The two just don’t quite reach each other that season. The second that I heard Hopper say that they’ve only been kissing all Summer long without complaining about them talking, I knew that I was not going to be invested in their relationship this season.

And so season 4 was truly the nail in the coffin, the final turning point. They’re not only shallow in making up, they’re shallow in being together. El isn’t honest with Mike about her time in Lenora, how she’s spent it, the people she’s met, the fun she’s truly having. Mike snaps about Will being disinterested, so it’s pretty clear that he was dishonest about his true feelings that day, too. And the most telling part is that he’s not mad at El. He’s mad at Will.

I think that what the writers have done is craft something so deeply intricate and hidden with Mike and Will to the point of confusion in much of the audience today. Will has always been a buffer of affection for Mike. In season 1 he’s the one they’re searching for. In season 2, he’s the one that Mike protects. In season 3, he’s the true breakup that Mike fights for. In season 4, he’s the listening ear and bleeding heart that Mike relies on. Their love only gets stronger and stronger whereas Mike and El are simply loving under the guise of physical closeness. I seriously think that that’s all that they have for each other.

That hug sequence at the end of season 4 really shocked me, because when I saw Mike and El hugging (not to mention that shot with Will right between them) I thought that it was sweet, but then suddenly Will and El are hugging, the siblings who are absolutely platonic, and it felt more emotional than Mike and El’s embrace. So not only are Mike and El visually equated to a platonic relationship, but their bond doesn’t even hold the same weight as the sibling-hood of Will and El.

It’s just wild to me that people don’t see it. I think that Byler is made abundantly clear for us to root for. The crazy together scene did it for me the first time I saw it. It was and still is one of my favorite scenes ever because it’s the total package. Closeness? Check. Honesty? Check. Hurt/comfort? Check. Matching, nerdy Halloween outfits? Check. The lack of anyone or anything else to distract them? Check. The crazy together scene is a marker of their relationship, and it never, ever dies.

Even though they fight, where are they years later? They’ve gone through supernatural and personal troubles together, and they’re still by each other’s side. “Friends. Best friends.” The same at heart. They promise to support each other, they reconnect, they come back from every breakup, and they readily express things on their minds and hearts. They’re there for each other and tell each other things that no other boys in the party have told each other.

Mike and El try to understand each other, they do, and sometimes it’s just trying that’s enough, but on a truly intimate level, that’s bullshit. Mike and Will have everything that they need and want for each other, and there’s no going through hoops to get it besides internalized homophobia. Which I very well think can be reasonably addressed next season.

So yep. Byler is endgame.

[angelwithnightmares]

60 questions to ask the Duffers if Byler isn’t endgame

Thank you @merth-or-nothin for the help!

1. Why emphasize so much on the strong “Friends don’t lie” in the very first episode of the show, showing Will couldn’t even lie to Mike, only for him to lie to Mike for the first time in the second to last episode of the second to last season?

2. Why did Mike and El such a short build up before getting together? If they were meant to be endgame, why not build them slowly, so the audience could be invested in the development of the relationship?

3. Why were Mike and El separated every single season?

4. Why do Mike and El fight so much when they’re together? They barely have any cute scenes at all when they’re dating.

5. Why did El refer to Mike as "her first boyfriend?"

6. If she was meant to only date (then marry) Mike, why draw attention to the fact that he's the only boy she's dated?

7. What was the purpose of El asking Mike if he'd be like her brother in s1? Why give them a familial association?

8. In season 4, why is it revealed that Will is in love with Mike as Mike's relationship with El is eroding?

9. Why make a point to show the audience Will loves Mike the way he wants to be loved, while El makes him feel like a random nerd?

10. Why have Will in the background of every single Mileven scene (except for their bedroom fight) in the entire S4, making the audience to root for Will?

11. Why have Will love Mike at all?

12. Why bring Will into Mike and El's relationship? If Mike doesn't feel the same way, it's a waste narratively and it's anticlimactic.

13. Why did Mike change so much between seasons 2-3 without any perticular reason? And no, it wasn’t just puberty. That change made Mike go from being one of the most loved characters to one of the most hated ones.

14. Why frame Mike and Eleven’s relationship in S3 as unserious and unhealthy?

15. Why make everyone go against their relationship and why break them up as early as in the beginning of the second episode of S3?

16. Why empathize so much on El in EP3 and her independence, making us (the audience) feel genuinely happy when she breaks up with Mike and frame the breakup scene with light-hearted humor and comedy?

17. Why make Will and Mike’s first fight scene in the show dark and angsty? And making it a huge contrast to Mike and El’s comedic breakup scene.

18. Why make Max say “he’ll come crawling in no time begging for forgiveness” to El, which was true, but he didn’t come crawling back to El. He went to Will’s house, begging for forgiveness.

19. Why spend SO MUCH time on the Byler scenes and putting so much effort in them so they’ll look intimate? It’s such a contrast to Steve and Dustin’s scenes for example which is almost always comedic.

20. Why have so MANY Byler scenes at all?

21. Why have “tender emotional music” in almost all of the Byler scenes in S4?

22. Why make Will even confess behind El’s name instead of just confess himself and having Mike rejecting him right away? Why drag it out all the way to the very final season?

23. Why spend an entire day filming the van scene if it wasn’t that important anyway? If Will is just ending up getting rejected anyway?

24. Why the whole painting plot?

25. Why so many parallels with Jopper, Jancy and Lumax?

26. Why the very same soundtrack when they became friends again as when Lucas and Max became friends “On the bus”?

27. Why is Finn describing Mike’s story arc for both season 3 and season 4 as “Mike is trying to be a normal teenager”, “Mike is trying to be as normal as possible” and “He’s trying to keep on a normal path” why so much focus on Mike trying to be normal?

28. Why spending two seasons on Mike trying to say the word “love” to his girlfriend? Isn’t that a kinda boring arc for someone who’s just having bad self esteem because of his parents loveless marriage?

29. Why does the whole cast and even the Duffers always so secretive and giddy and smiley every time Byler gets brought up if it’s just another sad tragic unrequited love story?

30. Why having Will say “I’m not gonna fall in love” with such a heartbreaking tone and then end up making him not get the boy he’s in love with and has been since the very beginning?

31. Why put so much effort in the set design to queer code Mike (as in rainbows, shirtless men, monsters with muscles, the word BOY in the bg, multiple closet imagery, even a big sign towards the closet saying “One way” if it meant nothing or was just weird coincidence’s?

32. Why the triple take? What was the point of that?

33. Why filming and editing the last scene of S3 emphasizing that Mike is going to miss Will more than El? (Him looking back at Will’s house, then it cuts to Will, then it cuts back to Mike who walks up to his mom and hugs her with a heartbroken look on his face)

34. Why make El say in the letter “I think there’s someone Will likes, cause he has been acting weird” but all we see in s4 is Mike acting weird?

35. Why make Mike being able to hug everyone except for Will, when he could hug him just perfectly in s3?

36. Why make Mike treat Will differently than his other friends?

37. Why make Mike and Dustin have the same look on their faces as they watch Will and Max dance with other people and then after that Mike looks upset until El shows up?

38. Why is The Duffers so “hushy hushy” about Byler at all? If it was obvious it’s unrequited why not just clear that shit up because they KNOW they’ll get a lot of backlash if it turns out it was a big queer bait all along.

39. Why start to build up and hint at Will’s love for Mike from the very first episode and make it canon in the second to last season?

40. Why so many coded talks which easily could be interpreted differently? Like Karen’s “I want you to know you can talk to me, I don’t want you to feel like you have to hide anything from me”, Ted’s “See what happens?” About Will’s disappearance (as in see what happens if you’re queer? You get abducted, killed etc) and Ted’s “our son with a girl?”

41. Why make Mike NOD in the scene when Will talks about how difficult it can be to open up about something the other person may not like to hear?

42. Why make Will having to remind Mike of the painting and his coded speech before Mike can say it? Why could he only say it the moment El was about to die?

43. Why make it look like Mike doesn’t want to kiss El by removing her hands away from him (3.01) and not reciprocating, not kissing back with eyes wide open looking confused in 3.08? Why frame him like he isn’t interested in girls at all? (Princess Daphne, Phoebe Cates, Max etc.)

44. Why never show us Mike’s pov?

45. Why SO MUCH effort in flashbacks during the entire S4 except for the monologue when El only remembered one single moment with Mike? Why did she had so many with Max but only one with Mike?

46. The ending scene in S4. WHY put them in couples when they could just have made them stand together all of them instead?

47. Why does it look like El isn’t talking to Mike at the end of S4? Why does she look annoyed at first and THEN sad when she finds the bottle under her bed which reminds her of Max?

48. Why SO MUCH yellow and blue coding when it comes to Will and Mike? Even their colors of their clothes are almost always blue and yellow as well.

49. Why make Mike nervous every time Will is close to him in S4 or accidentally touches him?

50. Why make Mike say “we’re friends” to Will twice when both him, Will and the audience clearly knows that already?

51. Why associate the word “crazy” with “love” and then make the “crazy together” scene?

52. Why having Mike saying “it was the best thing I’ve ever done” about meeting Will but then having him say his life didn’t start until he met El?

53. Why did Mike’s words work for Will in S2 (making him being able to communicate) but didn’t for El (not until she looked over at Max)?

54. Why write the lines for Will “We could just play DnD for the rest of our lives” and “Not possible” about him joining another party?

55. Why make Mike look at Will’s lips so much? Why the flirtiness in the bedroom scenes in S4? They could easily have remade those scenes if that wasn’t intentional.

56. Why all the classic romantic interruptions in season 4 which we’ve seen plenty of times in the show between “more than friends”-couples earlier?

57. Why make such a HUGE contrast between El’s reaction to being without Mike and Will being without Mike in S3? (El did a high five with Max while Will cried and destroyed Castle Byers)

58. Why make Mike say “Hawkins isn’t the same without you” to only WILL and not to El? Why does Mike not have any problems opening up to Will but only to El?

59. Why couldn’t Mike say the full reason why he and El had their fight in 4.03?

60. Why have so much hints and clues in the show that Byler is endgame so it’s possible to make 300+ pages slideshows, hours of long videos with proof of Mike being gay, if everything is just unintentional or “made up”?

[pinksmonkey]

The Ultimate Byler Evidence/Analysis List (Part 2)

If you missed part 1, here it is: Part 1

100. They Are In Love

101. Songs Associated With Mike And Will

102. We've Seen This Plot Too Many Times

103. Byler Isn't Far-Fetched

104. Byler Endgame Makes So Much Sense

105. Pocketgate

106. Hosegate

107. Love This Detail

108. Phallic Imagery In Season 4

109. I Didn't Notice The Queercoding

110. So Unserious

111. It's Supposed To Be About Love

112. How You Doing?

113. Mike Is Not Into Girls

114. Mike And Lucas Parallel

115. Not Love At First Sight

116. Mike Is Protective Of Will

117. To Illustrate How Weird This Shot Is

118. Yeah, Imagine

119. Still Dizzy

120. The Biggest Byler Proof For Me

121. These Scenes Happened Less Than 5 Minutes Apart

122. Mike Is More Attentive To Will Than Any Other Character

123. Oh, Love At First Sight

124. They Said I Love You

125. Byler And Heartstopper Parallels

126. I've Been Chasing After Some Other Kid

127. Jancy And Byler

128. Mike Feels Like He's Not Worthy In His Relationship

129. Why So Many People Complain About Mike's Character

130. That Boy Is In Love

131. Mike's Attention To Will And El

132. Mike's Self Acceptance

133. Mike's Playlist Is 10x Gayer Than Will's

134. No Homo Though

135. This Masterpiece

136. Mike's Guilt

137. El's Superhero Identity

138. It's Time To Switch Things Up

139. Why Byler If No Byler?

140. Mike's Playlist In A Bisexual Interpretation

141. Will's Playlist Analysis

142. Mike's Love Drives The Story

143. Will Deserves Love

144. From Anti-Byler To Pro-Byler

145. Mike And Locker Rooms/Bathrooms

146. Genuine Question About The Cabin Scene

147. Mike Literally Blinded Himself

148. It's Not Even Subtle

149. The Best Thing I've Ever Done

150. Will Deserves Better?

151. Will's Feelings For Mike Are Crucial To The Plot

152. Will's Love Is Beautiful

153. It's A Pattern

154. Mike Is Deliberately Queercoded

155. We're Friends

156. The Writers And Their Sense Of Humor

157. They Still Don't Understand Personal Space

158. There's No Point To The California Storyline If Not Byler

159. Let's Start A New Party, You And Me

160. Mike's Insecurities

161. They Told Us Exactly What's Going On With Mike

162. Find Someone Who Looks At You Like This

163. Heartstopper Parallel

164. Lettergate, Younger Mike To Older Mike

165. Everyone Is Disappointed

166. I've Been So Lost Without You

167. Mike's Gayest Scene

168. Reactions To Hugs And Kisses

169. No Platonic Explanation

170. They Have To Be Joking

171. Lighting Analysis

172. Hidden Expressions

173. The Papa Script

174. Refuting Anti-Byler Points

175. El Likes The Idea Of A Boyfriend

176. Are We Watching The Same Show?

177. I'm Not The Only One In Love With My Best Friend

178. Mike Is So Hopeless

179. Will You Be Like My Brother?

180. Bedroom Decor

181. Will Doesn't Want "Better"

182. Best Friends

183. The Truth About Hosegate and Lover's Lake

185. The Culture of Bylerism

184. Talking About Fictional Teens and Sexuality

186. Mike's Sexuality Is Tied To The Narrative

187. Not Production Errors

188. Good Writing And Bad Writing

189. Shared Shoes And More

190. Smalltown Boy Coded

191. Trying To Act Normal

192. It's Called Foreshadowing

193. More To Their Relationship Than Friendship

194. Refuse To Believe This Was Unintentional

195. There Has To Be An Important Reason

196. Byler Rain Fight Vs Mileven Breakup

197. The Eyewitness And Dawson's Creek Parallels, Too Gay To Be Straight

And unfortunately Tumblr will only let me add 100 links per post, so when I've posted part 3 of this list, I'll link it here: Part 3

[timetobeaghost]

Stranger Things Endgame ships

Jopper 110%

No happy ending without Jopper, not even a bittersweet one. Mom and dad.. Solid as a rock. Forevvva!!

Byler 100%

Might be under Jopper, but still a solid 100%. Iconic, legendary, best thing about the show. Will improve the rewatchability of the show by also 100%! Literally people will gasp when watching S1 after finishing S5. GASP!

Duzie 95%

They gave Dustin the perfect girlfriend. There is no reason to take her away.

Rockie 90%

Obviously happening, as promised in S4. I guess one of them could die, but not likely. Or they could kiss but somehow separate in the end? Very unlikely.

Lumax 85%

I wish they were higher, but I'm not fully convinced she is going to be okay? I really hope they are endgame and I believe so.

Jancy 48%

Could be endgame. I just don't know. It doesn't feel like the resolution of their arc? Jonathan wants to go to that one specific college and be free of his responsibilities, just live for himself for a while and thrive. Nancy feels like another responsibility to him to go to some other college and whatnot... Nancy wants to go to her specific college and pursue a career. What does Jonathan add to her dreams? Both were relieved not to see the other at Spring break even though they love each other, you know? Yeah, sry, I hope they are not endgame. (Better than Jonathan dying tho!!!)

Stancy 10%

I don't think so, as you can tell from the percentage, but I guess they could go crazy to be surprising or something. Please not! Steve deserves real love too and not "I guess you are not as dumb as back in the day and your chest is not bad at all"

Steddie 5%

I'm surprising myself, but I guess the possibility is above 0. No real reason why not. Sure Steve is straight and Eddie is dead, but would you bet a limb on either of those facts? It would be kinda unserious, so I strongly doubt.

Mileven 0%

But I secretly love them and they are canon, so they get a pic. Hope there will be lots of sad Mileven edits for my viewing pleasure post S5! They so cute! Lookatmypookies! Cuuute. And doomed.

[pholiabanna]

Bylers chronically misinterpret and misremember things and it drives me insane. One of the common Byler viewpoints is that Mileven is toxic in season 3 because Mike and El separate from their friends to make out an “unhealthy” amount and don’t spend quality time together. But Eleven isn’t supposed to be seen or caught in the real world! So they can’t exactly go on dates or anything like that. So Mike spends all the time he can with his girlfriend cause why wouldn’t he? He loves her. They laugh and joke around and have a good time together. It’s Hopper who’s at fault for keeping them apart

I don't understand why you're sending me this when I haven't posted in almost a day, and I understand even less why you are on the byler tag if you don't like the ship. But since you don't seem almost as rude and insane as other milkvan anons I got, I'll kindly answer you:

When, in fiction, many characters in the show point out how there's something wrong with a relationship, maybe the writers are trying to make a point across, that wiewers are supposed to catch on! Hopper didn't try to keep them apart forever, he (even though he didn't approach it in the best possible way) only wanted for El to spend one single day without her boyfriend, which is normal, because you should have relationships with other people besides your significant other. The party members also point out how they don't like that they always ditch them to make out, because the main theme of the show is the importance of friendship, so ignoring everyone everyday to make out goes against the core themes of the show, thus meaning the Duffers didn't intend for it to be seen as a positive thing. It is not a good thing in real life either, by the way. There's a reason why El's season 3 plot of breaking up with Mike, making a female friend and hanging out with someone else for the first time and discovering what she likes is presented as a great growth from her character.

Also, no, we can tell they didn't do other thing besides making out because Hopper himself told Joyce "it is constant". I promise you if the Duffers wanted to present a relationship as healthy, they wouldn't make them unlikeable both to the wiewers and to the other characters while they are together. Even if El couldn't go outside, they still could do something else besides making out while being indoors, you know, like watching movies, Mike teaching El hobbies, or just having genuine conversations. But they do none of those. However, Lucas and Max are the same age, and are presented as a more normal relationship for their age in season 3, because even though they break up (unseriously) a couple times, they still hang out with their other friends, never make others feel left out, share similar interests, do something else besides making out... and they are likely to be endgame. That's how genuine relationships are written. Also, I don't think Mike and El are toxic, they just aren't the right person for each other, and they threw themselves into a relationship while facing insecurities for different reasons (that can't be solved by staying together) and that makes them regress as characters. It's really about understanding basic character analysis

[jonathanbyersphd]

El is that yellow benny's shirt that almost swallowed her whole and I am cackling

[theoriginalsapphic]

Why I Believe That Byler Is Endgame (based only on what we have seen on the show). part 2

And by that, I mean: no color-coding analysis, no set props analysis, no actor interviews interpretation, no script analysis, no movies parallels analysis; nada. Only what we’ve seen on the show and nothing else.

This will use a lot of comparisons with m/leven because, despite the fact that some of you refuse to admit it, this is a love triangle.

season 3: puberty and changes

In season 1, El was found by Mike, Lucas and Dustin in the woods while searching for Will. Although the main goal of the party is to find and save Will, they also keep El safe and hidden from the laboratory and Dr. Brenner.

In season 2, Lucas and Dustin are mostly focused on Max, while, on the other hand, we see how during the whole season Mike protects Will and is showed that he has been trying to communicate with El this whole time.

mileven breakup

This is the first season in which Will and El coexist with each other in the same space, and how it affects Mike and his relationships with them. However, I want to make emphasis on the two key moments that take place this season of the two relationships: the breakup and the farewell.

The tone of the scene is unserious and carefree, with bright colors during a sunny day. The scene is not intimate; in fact, everyone reacts to El breaking up with Mike. 'Cold As Ice', a song that describes a lover who is materialistic and selfish (Mike buying a present for El instead of telling her the truth), plays in the background. Mike is left confused while El is rejoicing in the moment with Max.

The tone of the of the scene is serious and somber, with muted colors and downpouring in the background. Despite Lucas being at Mike's house as well, the scene feature only them and no one else. In the two bottom pictures, Will's expression is one of hurt and betrayal, and Mike expresses inmediate regret at the words he just said.

byler 'breakup'

She rejoices in her newfound friendship with Max.

how El reacts to her breakup

He destroys Castle Byers, a place he built with his brother after their dad left and in where he took shelter when he was trapped in the Upside Down. He looked at the place that used to make him feel emotionally and physically safe and destroyed it with a baseball bat and his bare hands.

how Will reacts to his 'breakup'

how Mike reacts to the breakups

the finale

Mike's conversation with Will

Before this episode, I was still on the fence about whether i was reading too much into it or not, but this season finale, in my opinion, confirmed that Mike probably had feelings for Will. Let me show it in images.

We know that three months had passed since the battle at Starcourt, and the Byers are moving. Even though it's not explained what happened during that period of time, it's easy to infer that Mike and Will are in somewhat good terms again.

It starts simple, with Mike askingEel if she packed her walkie and with promises of talking to her often and of whether they are going to meet each other for thanksgiving and christmas. El is about to leave, after the conversation with Mike turns awkward, but decides to turn around instead and makes their conversation serious.

Mike's conversation with El

...they kiss...

... and his face is just pure confusion. love that open closet right behind him tho

The Byers move to California, and with them, so do his girlfriend and his best friend since he was five years old; to put it simply, is a huge change in everyone's lives, but especially in Mike's life. This is one of the few times since season 3 in which we actually get to focus on mike's emotions and perspective but I believe is one of the most important moments for his characters.

Mike

[paintingformike]

genuinely think the worst thing about mileven is that they’ve never been able to solve their relationship problems on their own since season 3...like there always has to be atleast one person that gets involved in their mess because they’re so bad at having actual meaningful deep conversations and like. if we’re really meant to see them as an endgame couple why do they keep making them go into circles like this when they could’ve easily made them actually communicate with each other properly like lumax 😭 like theyre genuinely the only canon couple (out of the relevant ones) that hasn’t had a heart-to-heart ever. season 3 was so unserious for them and in season 4 they got interrupted before they could get into serious conversation territory and its unbearably annoying...except maybe their massive fight in el’s room lmfao

[wakeupthemembersofbylernation]

mileven shippers are so insecure they cant even come up with actual proof of their endgame they just deny ours

It’s honestly really funny at this point, so many of the things Mark of Athenas say are genuinely so ridiculous and unserious

And I just know they regularly go through our tag and fume about it (probably because there’s is so dry right now, as dry as a California summer)