cherrybombcutie

There’s nothing simple, basic, or heteronormative about mileven.

We have two kids who fell for each other in the midst of an inter-dimensional fallout and unmasked government conspiracy, despite the fact that one was almost entirely non-verbal and the other was racked with insecurities.

Mike is an outcast; a skinny nerd with no desire to pursue sports, or cars, or anything else traditionally masculine. He even refers to himself as Lois Lane, giving the title of Superman to his girlfriend. He’s an excellent portrayal of quiet, non-toxic, non-traditional masculinity. Within his relationship with El, he takes on the traditionally “feminine” role of the gentle, patient supporter, and he does so without second thought or grudge.

El on the other hand is otherworldly. Not super feminine, she treads her own path, acquiring both masculine and feminine traits as she grows into herself. She’s a rebel, a scrappy fighter, and a challenger. If she was allowed to participate in sports, she make one hell of a competitive athlete. In her relationship, she’s the decision maker, and the protector.

Not one of the main ensemble are conventional, and Mike and El are no exception. They complete each other. They do more than push the boundaries of typical relationship expectations — they completely subvert them.

NO BYTCHES. MILEVEN IS CANON AND IMPLIED ENDGAME UNLESS EL LITERALLY DIES. YOUR FANFIC AHH SHIP WAS NEVER CANON AND IS NOW CHOPPED/BURIED. KEEP YOUR BITTER DELUSIONS AND COPE FILLED PROJECTIONS TO YOURSELVES.

you can't find easter eggs when the eggs don't exist. they made up scenarios the show was never going to pay off, the color theory? the set dec? the more nonsensical it was, the deeper they went and they ignored every single person who told them they were looking too hard into it.

they thought mike's obliviousness in the van meant something more than him not knowing. no, the failure of having will cry in the van when mike is just vibing is a directing failure, either will needed to just be sad as intended in the script or they needed to add mike reacting to his crying. they gave them too much credit at every step because their ideas were more interesting to them than what the show gave them.

they decided they were getting codes and signals from bts and interviews and dug their heels in every time they heard something they didn't like. they called people names and bullied half the milevens straight off most of the social media sites then cried victim at every turn.

Had children run away from him and refuse to touch him because they thought his Black skin color would rub off on them. This happened IN THE THIRD GRADE! And he never told his parents about it!

Calmed his anxiety about being the only Black kid in his homeroom class by coming to the realization that since there was no other Black kids that meant he most likely wouldn’t be bombed

Had to install a camera in his locker because his property got defaced by a glitter bomb

Lost his first and only black friend/mentor who supported him thanks to an ACTUAL MAKESHIFT BOMB being installed in his locker that caused a janitor to go to the hospital for 1st/2nd degree burns (and the white boy who did it barely got punished)

Got teased that the only reason he got on the basketball team was because he was Black

Comes to the realization that he might’ve actually only gotten in the team because the coach has a history of recruiting Black boys for the team regardless of their skill level

Gets called an Oreo (for uneducated: white on the inside, black on the outside) by racist bullies. Erica (who apparently has also been called this) sticks up for him and is the only one who understands what the insult means which means Mike and Dustin don’t know/understand the lengths of how deep the racism Lucas experiences in Hawkins on a daily bases

And these aren’t even all of them! These are just examples I had from the top of my head!

And despite all this happening in the book, “fans” have STILL FOUND A WAY to turn this book about Lucas and his struggles as a Black boy in a mostly white suburban town and his deteriorating relationship with Max and make it about Byler!

The fact that Lucas, one of the only characters of color on this show, can’t have ANYTHING to himself without people using him to push their ships is so aggravating!

He and Erica constantly get shit talked and miss characterized by fans, get excluded/cut out of group shots, and barely get any fanart/fics about them and their struggles compared to the white characters (I could make a whole new post about the terrible way this fandom treats Erica but I won’t do that here). Hell don’t forget that the fandom constantly tries to dispute the racism Lucas received in S2 from Billy was either not really racism, just a moment that Duffer Bros. put in to “ruin” Billy’s character and ultimately can be tossed out and ignored.

The only time I ever see Lucas get any large amount of attention is either due to 1) Lumax (but let’s be honest: 90% of the lumax tag on here isn’t even about them and has now become Elumax 2.0 and most post are people praising ElMax and then being like “oh Lucas/lumax is cute too” in the tags and that’s it). 2) people creating “parallels” of Lumax to their ship of choice (mostly Byler and Mileven) as a way to say that their ship is gonna be canon or 3) to say that he’s bisexual.

And all that is fine and whatever, ship and headcanon things to your hearts content, but if you only care about Lucas if he’s helping push you ship narrative or because you think he’s gay (to the point where some people actually read snippets of the book that talked about Lucas coming to the realization that Black boys like him can be considered attractive and only acknowledge the “queer” reading of the text and completely ignored the big race element that was the main focus), I’m sorry but, that’s not cool. The fact that 95% of the Lucas Sinclair tag isn’t about Lucas himself but white characters like Steve, Eddie, Byler says everything about how the fandom treats him.

I’m just so tired.

Lucas Sinclair deserves the same respect that the white characters get!

I leave you one of my favorite sections of the entire book: Lucas learning to become unabashedly himself:

Rant over.

Dude literally had a year of freedom. He could go outside, go to the park, stay home, just generally go where he pleased. Like a fucking adult who understood he had work to do, and obviously still got it all done because he hasn't been fired or "laid off". Now he's got a collar back on his neck and a chain keeping him at a desk between a set of beige walls and an equally boring ceiling, which was there before, but now he sees it for what it is. And why is it there? Because his boss has a deep insecurity about letting people work without oversight. Because his manager starts to look a little redundant if people can do their jobs without touching base, attending meetings, and generally doing stuff that makes said manager look like a Leader. Because there's people who think "this is the way my parents did it, and their parents did it, and presumably (but actually not) how their parents did it, so it's good enough for me and you, and let's have no more talk of this change nonsense".

The crucial difference between Captain Hook in the 2003 film version of Peter Pan and Captain Hook in J.M. Barrie’s novel is that Hook (as portrayed by Jason Isaacs) is self-aware. 

Part of the tragedy of Captain Hook is that he never realises that he has essentially wasted his life on fruitless attempts of revenge against someone who is basically himself. Both Peter and Hook refuse to move on. Peter refuses to grow up, Hook refuses to give up on revenge. And so, they are both stuck, never really living. But neither of them have worked this out. 

That’s not the case in the 2003 film. Peter realises what he’s missing if he doesn’t grow up, and though it hurts him, he still chooses to stay young forever. Hook goes through a similar ‘arc’. And honestly, it’s one of my favourite scenes because Jason Isaacs says so much even though he is just saying those three words. The look of realisation, and almost horror at that realisation… then he snaps right back to disgust and anger as he throws Peter to the ground.  

It’s almost as if Hook knows he’s wasted his life… but he also knows he’s too far gone to fix anything. Or he’s finally realised the truth, but he doesn’t want to hear it. Both interpretations (and many more) are very plausible. Whatever it is, Hook realises the truth but refuses to do anything to change it. And at this point, he couldn’t do anything to change that.