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I got permission to reblog this amazing description about one of my favorite shows from the creator @extra-terramisu

Thank you for this work of art 😭

Jason Carver is fucking terrifying to me. He is poster child for pretty and popular white boy who goes to Klan rallies on weeknights and burns crosses in yards.

He literally organized a lynch mob against a group of social pariahs and y’all want to say “oh well his girlfriend died” 🥺 Um, no. Have y’all ever once looked at the history of lynching in the U.S.? Jason Carver’s storyline in the show is frighteningly similar to the hundreds of recounted stories of white violence against minorities, specifically African Americans.

Yet again I’m worried about the fact that the Duffers, who are in charge of the direction of this multi-million dollar property seen by people the world over, so lazily handle the implications of racism in their show… The show wants so hard to be colorblind but refuses stop placing its few black characters in the midst of violence (Lucas, Erica, Patrick), and have that violence against them be instigated by Jason Carver, who we’re supposed to sympathize with!

*shoves my African American History books off the table in a rage* Godammit I’m so tired of this…

FACTS!!!

Reasons why Mileven drama/breakup and Byler endgame in ST5 are unlikely

Looking at the whole show, we can see two constants regarding these relationships:

-Mike and El keep overcoming external and internal obstacles, and always end up together again

-Will's homosexuality is hinted at from the start, as well as his deep feelings for Mike.

Regarding the latter, this creates the expectation to have Will accept his own feelings and then his friends do the same.

In S4, it's clear that we got the first. Will's monologue didn't achieve the coming out, but he did express his love for Mike, albeit disguising it as El's feelings. He basically sacrificed himself in order to support Mike, who in turn was able to support El, who then managed to (barely) save Max.

Based on that, I think we have two possible scenarios for S5:

-Will won't confess his love to Mike openly. He has accepted that Mike and El love each other, and we see him having moved on from this right from the beginning of the season. His coming out as gay will still happen though, and Mike's acceptance of that will be crucial for Will.

-Will will confess to Mike that he's in love with him - I'm thinking of the close-up of his face during Mike's monologue in S4, when he says "And somehow I thought telling you how I felt would make that day hurt more." Will clearly feels the same way, but maybe hearing Mike confess this to El gives him the courage to confess it to Mike as well.

No matter which scenario we'll get, I think the focus will be on Mike's acceptance of Will's homosexuality, on him being different, but Mike making him feel better for it. It's possible that Mike might mess it up, not knowing what to say, but no doubt he will be accepting of Will's sexuality, and I think this will give power to Will to be freely himself (and maybe kick some butt).

However, from a storytelling perspective, I really don't see Mike suddenly realising he loves Will and not El. It would be extremely bad writing, because they have been telling us that Mike and El love each other since they first met in S1.

If they had not planned for them to be endgame, they would have sunken the ship already. There were plenty of opportunities. But what we got instead were relationship issues and them being able to work through these issues.

Mike not being very articulate at telling El how he feels about her has also been a constant since S1. However, this finally got resolved at the end of S4.

That's why I think that ST5 will start of with a strenghtened bond between them and their love won't be tested any more.

Mike finally told her how much he loves her, El has no more reason to doubt him. Mike doing a 180 degree turn and realising he lied to El would be equal to creating a new character for Mike. It also would spit on everything they took the pain to show us of Mike and El's love during the whole show.

From a storytelling perspective, this would be total self-sabotage. Why waste a whole series to tell viewers that two characters are in love and then saying "Surprise! It was a lie all along!"? What would be achieved by that?

If it had been their goal to show us that romantic feelings can change, then they would have had to tell a completely different story and would have sowed the seeds for doubt from the very beginning. Instead we got nothing but soulmatism for Mike and Eleven (including their relationship issues, because they overcame those).

Also, remember that this story is about defeating the big evil with love. El is the super-hero. Destroying her biggest source of power (love) would make it impossible for her to win against anyone.

Apart from all this, considering everything that needs to be wrapped up in S5, there simply is not enough time to have Will confess to Mike, Mike figuring out his new feelings, getting up the courage to tell El, the drama of breaking up the main ship of the show, have El get over it, establish Mike and Will as a couple, get all their friends' support, AND defeat Henry.

This is why they resolved Mike and El's conflict in S4. Because there won't even be time for their established relationship to have any drama. This is why they already showed us that Will accepts and supports Mike and El's love, so the love triangle situation has been resolved as well.

The only thing left to resolve is Will's coming out to his friends, which doesn't need to take up a lot of time. It could be one or two scenes.

EXACTLYYYY

Mike Feeling Insecure About How Eleven Sees Him

Warning: This analysis accepts Mileven as canon and is pro-Mileven.

I think it's great that Mike's insecurity regarding Eleven's opinion of him was shown to us early on in s1, but it never really stood in their way, until it was brought back up in s4.

In s1, Mike tells El: "I don’t know why I just didn’t tell you. Everyone at school knows. I just didn’t want you to think I was such a wasteoid, you know?"

He's giving us a glimpse of having a low opinion of himself and projecting that onto El. He feels ashamed for being bullied and assumes that others will think him weak for it.

Then later on, when Lucas and Mike fight, Lucas accuses Mike of being blind with regards to El because she's the first girl to not be disgusted by him. I consider this a low blow (I love Lucas) and we can see that this hits Mike deeply (just rewatch it and look at his face). He starts punching Lucas after this.

So this further elaborates the context of Mike falling in love for us. It's not clear whether he has been in love before and got rejected, but either specific girls have been mean to him or it's just something that the boys assume, because they never had an explicitly positive relationship with a girl.

In s2, we see a group of girls in school giving the four boys weird looks, as they scramble for Max's note in the trash bin. All in all, it just seems like they aren't popular with their peers in general.

Plus, in s1 Ted Wheeler also said sarcastically "My son with a girl?" Which gives us a good idea of where Mike's low self esteem originates.

So Mike having the basic belief that girls don't like him, makes it inevitable that this will become an issue within his relationship with El, if left unaddressed.

Which is exactly what happened, as his basic negative beliefs about himself combined with his fear of losing El - we hear this in his talk to Will in the pizza van, sharing his fear that El might not need him any more, because she realised that he's "just a random nerd."

Mike doesn't believe himself to be special or worthy in any way, which is exactly what his parents treat him like (emotional neglect).

He further shares the belief that El only became attached to him because she needed someone when they first met, and he took her in. This further shows that he believes being loved is conditional and bound to performing a service to the other person/being of use to them.

In a more indirect, but nevertheless meaningful and realistic way, we see Mike giving El unconditional love - like so many unloved, lonely people, he gives her the love that he desperately craves himself, but doesn't feel worthy of.

There are many instances of this, but I'll just point out here the beautiful arc from him reassuring El about her appearance in s1 ("You don't need it." & "Yeah, pretty. Really pretty.") to "I love you on your good days, I love you on your bad days, I love you with your powers, I love you without your powers. I love you for exactly who you are." in his s4 monologue. And we have his actions to back up these reassurances.

Now that Eleven overcame her own insecurities and self-doubt in s4, and Mike has finally told her "I love you" and has made himself completely vulnerable to her, admitting his fear of losing her, of her not needing him anymore; I think a powerful/beautiful monologue from El in s5, reassuring Mike of her feelings for him, would sort of have them come full circle and close their low self-esteem/insecurity in the relationship arcs.

A lot of what went on in S2E7 is building to what Eleven's motivation will be in S3.

It's important.

Shitting on El’s character and episode 2x07 in order to show how other characters are supposedly more important is lazy thinking. Try justifying how 2x07 isn’t important without diminishing El’s character OR sounding racist. Try it. If you want to shit on any character in this show, maybe pick on the ones who weren’t narratively important to s2. Like, um, idk, B*lly?

"abuse and trauma is not one size fits all."

I agree with the whole thing but that line was really powerful.

Think about that for a moment.

They were both dealt two cards.

Both got one of abuse.

But Jonathan got one of love with his.

And Billy got one of abandonment.

just saw a gif set that made my blood boil so let’s chat real quick about how the primary reason Jonathan got the chance to be a cycle-breaker was because Joyce kicked Lonnie out. she cut the thread. she freed her sons. Jonathan was given a safe and supportive environment to process the abuse he’d been subjected to as a child, set boundaries between himself and his abuser that were fortified by Joyce, and express himself without fear of judgement or ridicule by a parent who loves him unconditionally and who was always in his corner. he was able to provide that same support to Will because it was modeled for him by Joyce.

Joyce fought for her children at every turn. Jonathan hid Will, protected him while their mother fought for them. both of those boys knew that Joyce would do anything for them, that she was breaking up her marriage for their safety, that everything she did was with them in mind. she didn’t give the cycle a change to take root. she said absolutely not and dealt with the problem for them, giving them the tools and confidence to stand up to Lonnie in the future. she did not let Lonnie be a black cloud over her children. she made sure that her boys knew that they were loved and supported and worthy of kindness. she fought Lonnie for them.

Billy’s mom, on the other hand, who isn’t even granted a name in the narrative, just…left. she saved herself. whatever safety and comfort she provided while living in the house left with her. no matter her intentions— whether she meant to come back for him or not, whether she had some other plan —she didn’t tell Billy. her actions, on the surface, communicated to him “you’re on your own, kid.” left alone with his abuser. left alone to survive. he had no one. absolutely no one fought for the little boy crying on the phone for his mother to come home. in flashbacks and in the canon timeline we do not ever see Billy with friends. his abuser has him exactly where he wants him: isolated, scared, vulnerable. Neil could do whatever he wanted to Billy without consequences. even if Billy tried to fight back, Neil knew he could threaten and/or beat him into submission. there was no one for Billy to go to, and the older he got the less likely it was that someone would help because to the outside world he just looked like a bad kid that Neil was stuck dealing with.

more than that, Billy did not have a model for behavior outside of Neil. his father was his example for how to interact with the people and the world around him. he had no one showing him that softness or kindness was an option. he wants someone— Max, for example —to do as he says? he’s got to get loud. he’s got to get aggressive. he’s got to the be the bully, because bullies get listened to. that’s what he learned. the one person who might have shown him another path left him in the dust. he had no warm fuzzies. no support.

Jonathan physically, verbally, and emotionally pushes back against Lonnie multiple times in season one because he is free to do so. he doesn’t live under the same roof. he knows that if Lonnie tries to come after him, Joyce will raise hell. he even gets the police chief in his corner by the end, knows that both Joyce and Hopper would defend himself and Will if push came to shove. he has Nancy, too, eventually. she’s tiny and scrappy and even if she never meets Lonnie face to face, she provides Jonathan with emotional support. Will, too, provides safety and comfort and support. even Argyle, with all his goofiness and quirks, clearly loves and supports Jonathan. Jonathan fights knowing that he’s not alone in that fight. for his early-series loner persona, he’s truly surrounded by people who love him and who would go to bat for him without blinking an eye.

when Billy tries to do the same thing, pushing back against Neil because he was tired, fed up, strapped with Max for a full week, thinking there was a set time that his obligation was fulfilled only to have Neil and Susan saunter in three hours late, he gets backed into a corner. manhandled, hit, talked down to. and he knows that no one is coming to save him. he doesn’t have friends he can go to — all of his relationships feel very superficial. Susan is shut down when she tries to speak up, tries to tell Neil to back off. everyone in that house is under Neil’s control. Billy has to choose: keep fighting and get hurt, or shut up and obey. he chooses self preservation. he’s got to keep his head down to survive, because no one is coming for him, there is no one to run to, there is no one to help him. he learned a long time ago that Neil will always get his way, that Billy will always be his punching bag. he doesn’t have the tools to fight back in any real sense, and that is exactly what both Neil and Lonnie likely want. the difference is that Jonathan had support, and Billy did not.

and, on top of all of that, Billy gets immediately parentified when Max comes on the scene. and yes, I do see a problem with the parentification of Jonathan as well. both Billy and Jonathan were far too young to have that much responsibility on their plates. but it is indicative of both the time period and their socioeconomic statuses. the parents had to work. the older siblings had to step up for the younger siblings. it perpetuates today even stepping back from that, Jonathan seemed to like taking care of Will. he loves his brother, and he wants to be there for him in any way he can. he loves his mother, who supports him, who loves him back, and he wants to help her. Billy is just shoved into a big brother role with a literal stranger. he didn’t know Max from a hole in the wall and all of a sudden he’s responsible for her every move, is punished when she does wrong, has to watch his father treat her better because she’s the golden child. all of this while some other woman is taking up the space his mother left behind and not doing anything to help Billy, whether she’s too afraid to speak up or she turns a blind eye.

while these two boys have similar early childhoods, their upbringing is simply not comparable. Billy and Jonathan had two different experiences, and pitting them against each other lauding one as a cycle-breaker and the other as a perpetuator completely ignores the nuances of their individual situations. abuse and trauma is not one size fits all. healing does not happen overnight. cycle-breaking can happen at any time, and Billy was robbed of the opportunity. Jonathan was in a state of healing, surrounded by people who loved and supported him. Billy was actively being abused every day, and never had the chance to discover who he could be without the dark cloud of Neil looming over him. you don’t have to like Billy to acknowledge that his situation is not the same as Jonathan’s, that these two boys were dealing with similar trauma in two very different circumstances.