it might sound weird but your post made me wonder if el would've continued loving mike in a pure brotherly way if he didn't pursue her romantically.. i mean.. idk i don't want to be a mileven hater but i can't help it when realistically if will was a girl everyone would've preferred him with mike. they have such a solid foundation, they have the tenderness and the wholesome love? also el needed to grow as person first and gather experience before being given a boyfriend.
I don’t think she would have. She was basically following his lead. To her, being with Mike was simply what was supposed to happen. She never questioned it at all until she finally became friends with Max. Mike never seemed to question it either, and he obsessed over a girl he knew for a week. It was a highly emotional time for him with Will being stuck in the Upside Down, and then she sacrificed herself for Party, so him being worried for her is normal. It doesn’t explain why he thinks she is the love of his life, though.
This isn’t about being anti-Mileven really. While I do think Mike and Will would make the better pair, my main problem with Mileven is that it’s presented as a bad relationship, but marketed as a good one. They were in an obsessive, possessive, codependent relationship since she returned. Their breakup was not treated like a dramatic moment. El was legit happy to be spending time with a friend and figuring out what she likes, but even then she was simply following Max’s lead. She still hasn’t figured herself out yet. On the other side, Mike was such an obsessed jackass that all his friends pointed it out at some point. He bitched and moaned when he was dumped, and his attempts to make amends were clumsy at best. Contrast this with his desperation to apologize to Will. He didn’t think about it, he just did it. It insults my intelligence that they expect me to think that Mike and El are meant to be just because they’re on good terms after their fight this season.
Yes, if Will were a girl it would be a different story. It would essentially turn into a Team El vs Team Will situation where mainstream fans argue over who Mike is meant to be with. I’m glad this isn’t the case, because Stranger Things deserves better than some poorly-written teen drama ship war.
If these were real people, I would theorize that Mike is sublimating his feelings for Will onto El, and El lacks the emotional and social development to understand the dynamics of a romantic relationship or distinguish it from friendship or family. These aren’t real people though, and official sources have flat out said that Mike only focused on Will in Season 2 as an outlet for his feelings for El, and that he fell in love with her at first sight. It makes no sense, and that’s why it bothers me so much if it ends up being the case.
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