☀️🌀

And sure, I get that we as the audience have to find out about El's background somehow, and Mike is the character she spends the most time with. But like .... how is this one of your lead romances?

He yells at her, uses her as a tool/weapon, and treats her a bit like a stray dog (blanket fort in the basement on a diet of leftovers and eggos for a week). And I get that he's an ignorant twelve year old boy who is going through a really hard time, but it doesn't make for a good romance, especially when we don't see much of a crush from El's side. He also kisses her when she doesn't know what kissing/romance even is, which I feel is a bit odd. And there was no way Mike thought El knew what it meant. She probably only learnt what a kiss was several months later on Hopper's TV. It just comes off as not well thought through on the Duffers end.