Once upon a time me

GAME OF THRONES

But Carthage was much more than a foil for the Romans. It was a fascinating civilization, but, thanks to the Roman destruction, we can only get glimpses of their gods:

Their writing:

And their culture:

Much more about what we know (and don't know) about Carthage here:

You're telling me Mike was more focused on killing Vecna than with crafting a plan for him and El to run away together? You're telling me he and El hadn't discussed this in detail, despite spending a year and a half planning for the end? You're telling me that Mike didn't know about Kali, and he wouldn't go to El's after picking up Holly to prepare for the crawl and spend time with her after her training session?

I’m still not over the fact that throughout the entire series, Mike only asked for one thing. One singular thing, and it was El and he couldn’t even have that.

In a universe where practically EVERY MAIN CHARACTER gets to have their happy ending, gets to survive and grow and live with their loved ones, the traumatized girl who was born into captivity, treated as a lab rat, as a tool, as an experiment, who had to fight and scrape and claw for every shred of happiness she was able to achieve, is the one who has to give up everything in order for the others to "grow up" and "move on"?

Like what the fuck kind of message is that?

Yes, I know she's a character, I know she's not a real person, but her treatment is emblematic of how women and trauma survivors are treated all the time. They're the ones who have to sacrifice themselves, they're the ones whose histories are rendered as "inconveniences" for others to have to be burdened with and gosh it would just be so much easier if they would just disappear and stop being so inconvenient so we could move on. /s (wish I didn't have to add the sarcasm tag, but this is the internet in the year of our lord 2026)

It's misogynistic and it's ableist and it reveals that the Duffer Brothers care about nothing about actually lifting marginalized and outcast voices. They just want the brownie points for having a "strong" female main character, but didn't want to actually consider how to properly honor her as a character, never mind as a human being in the universe she lives in.

(I'm not even going to get into the racism and gross treatment of queer stories and other bigotries because I'll be here all day and will melt into a pile of rage.)

i will be thinking abt this forever like the flirtingggg. the way mike looks at her with so much desire and love and excitement and el looking giddy and blushing,,., EL being the one to break eye contact and melting at his confidence omg and then the promise ring again and her rubbing his arm. Do you know you have 30 minutes!!!!!!

I haven't written any official "fix it" fics post ST5 finale, but here are some fics I wrote post season 2 that feature Mike and El living long lives together, that I hope can help heal the hurt:

Don't Leave Me - God, this one kind of hits different after that void scene in the finale. Its emotional but I think in the best way. Featuring mileven as married, as parents, as an elderly couple.

With Daisies in Her Hair - the life El deserved and should have had (and the headcanon I now hold above canon, ugh). Featuring mileven graduating, getting married, being parents, and growing old.

Alive - El as an empowered middle-aged woman heals me.