immortan96

Like im at the point where I want to dress up like a straight girl just to feel closer to straight girls you know? Theyre totally mystified to me they just have such an aura that I’ve always desired since i was pretty young, that ive never been able to reach. I never did feminine practices like make up or cared about how I was perceived around men like… Idk how to describe it I just feel like I was always shut off from that energy.

anyways Im a fan and I better be serviced in s3 with daemyra in the same room cause it was literal scorched earth barren shit in s2

we know el first meets mike and the party wearing a Yellow Bennys Burgers tshirt, so she might relate this colour as her finally finding a sense of “Home” with them. Or, perhaps it begins earlier, she finds comfort in the colour yellow because of Benny, who was the first real example of human kindness and care to her (besides her mother). Or even *earlier* than that, we see in S2 flashbacks with her mother Terry Ives, that amongst them were sunflowers. It could very much be a tether to her mother, who loved her unconditionally & transcendently. It could therefore symbolise her humanity in many ways, when she was treated just like a person, and first stepped into the world, away from the hostility of the lab. Is it gauche of me to also mention her comfort food (eggos)? Similar train of thought, she relates that colour to safety and warmth, in contrast to the sterile, depressing environment of the lab she grew up in.

For the colour purple, I think this is drawn straight from Kali and the purple streak in her hair, as we see her implement the colour purple in her eyeshadow by the S2 Snowball alongside a punk-inspired look. So that colour could be associated with her familial love, but I think it most likely represents her individuality & independence, and her path of heroism, it marked a time where she set off by herself, travelled to a new city and learned about her roots, a different (slightly dubious) walk of life, learned something new about herself and her powers, and it showed her clearly the path she wanted to take; to save people. This is where I apply the heroism, “they can’t save you jane/no, but i can save them”. She set out her own path, aligned with her morals and desires first, above what her sister and her mother might’ve wanted for her. I think that experience was absolutely critical in her self development and thats why that colour and by association Kali/the chicago journey was so important to her, she found herself in that way.

but im sat like, you want mileven to be collectively hated not just amongst yourselves but globally… like have we considered there are greater endeavours? like… a job? or idk, creating content for the ship you love so much? But at this point its blurred… you love to indulge in ragebait/misery by editing mileven whilst also on occasion hitting up AO3. But its a vice and you should quit it for your health bc genuinely subscribing yourself to misery does no one any favours.

I want to say I don’t care if a reality is that mileven is universally hated, but I *know* they aren’t, because st 2-5 existing is proof of that. mileven was so loved, stranger things was typically referred to as “mileven things”. it was so loved, that was the whole promo around S2, and for S3. Stranger things put netflix on the map, Eleven became a cult phenomenon… and I cant lie, this forced ass narrative they keep trying to push does make me annoyed because you’re literally trying to rewrite history - when ST was respected and critically acclaimed, thats also when Mileven was at their peak, thats no coincidence IMO.

I back and defend eleven because I love her as a character, but continually trying to prove shes well written, not to be written off as a “female love interest” that “revolves around mike” and “needs to be independent” etc, is genuinely exhausting, when fandom is supposed to be fun, Im instead assaulted by “thinkpieces” around “Janes” character, basically condemning her, belittling her and bastardising her characteristics. But I know about the double standards which just makes these posts even more frustrating - Bylers enjoy the toxicity, you can’t enjoy “canon” Byler (when people thought it was made to be canon) without co-signing that Mike is lying and therefore using Eleven, and they explore themes of obsession, co-dependency to the point of genuine abusive dynamics (the popularised “attic wife” trope).

So my question is, even if Eleven is as you say - reduced to Mike, unhealthily dependent on Mike, has nothing to offer outside of that, why now is it a bad thing(in ways it isn’t with Will/Mike)? It just feels like female characters aren’t allowed to be flawed and breathe and be treated as characters in their own right rather than representatives of what “women” as a group is - I once saw a byler say el “set feminism back by 200 years”.

It just feels massively controlling which is ironic for a character trying so hard to escape control and authority, and to make choices for herself. It just feels like female characters are treated with much more scorn and aren’t considered as fully fledged and complex as other male characters, which is based on real life social bias of “boys will be boys”, that men are considered the “default human”, a mouthpiece for the human experience, whilst women already having set expectations and shamed/humiliated for the way they act and behave, and defined by their gender. I guess whats also interesting about that is, Eleven is “othered” in the show, and also “othered” by the audience and both has to do with her humanity.

and absolutely NO mention of el being a “symbol of childhood magic” again I would have done something drastic. Els survival is something very serious to me, it should’ve never been like this in the first place but here we are, clinging to a duffer interview because the duffers are incompetent delivering a clean and resolved s5. El deserves certainty and security, a proper ending and thats why shes going to return one day.

Mickey and Ians relationship remains one of the most layered and psychologically complex to me (individually speaking and their dynamic), so expanding on “essentially how they’ve kept eachother alive” their co-dependency, taking care of eachother… they’re so toxic in so many ways, but ultimately they understand there is no one else for eachother because of it. Ian not fronting and learning to be cared for (particularly in seasons 11) and Mickey managing Ians temperament and learning how to best navigate Ians BPD without scaring him like ugh… anyways, whilst there are so many inconsistency’s and writing failures, what remains constant is the passion and care N & C put into their characters, you can feel how much they understand them and want to do right by them. Like to me, this is the only time when yelling at the Showrunners was the correct thing to do - the mere possibility that I&M’s story could’ve ended with that Jail visit. JHC.

El having no identity, or starting without one, is kind of the point of her character. To her core she is deeply lonely and “unknowable”, she wears hand me downs from mike/hopper/will/jonathan, has a haircut similar to joyce in s4. her name itself “jane”, like “jane doe” an anonymous person. yet she carries the people she loves with her, and thats what “makes” her (terry + mothers love being what initially gives her strength to fight , kalis sisterhood + punk look + terminology, maxs friendship + guidance and learning how to cure wounds, mikes love + his promise ring + learning trust + boundaries, hop + saras bracelet + parental figure, learning compromises and adopting behavioural characteristics and more).