#raspberryjars

he parallels brenner by making her feel like a monster and unloved (despite not being mikes intention), we actually see a lot of this as quite a bit of the way mike acts towards her or what he says to her in s4 specifically, reminds her of ways brenner spoke to her!!

and more commonly his actions are really similar to hopper’s, both are super protective over el and mike has a lot scenes where he’s seen struggling to accept el’s independence and we see his fears that she will leave him behind and not need him anymore (like hopper, which is explicitly stated in his letter at the end of s3), we see this for mike in s3 where he’s anxious over her usage of her powers and is reluctant to let her draw her own limits, and again in s4 his whole arc surrounds his fear of her not needing him!!

which is why its INSANE that their relationship is romantic!! and also i think it offers a lot more value as a platonic bond as it takes away the weirdness and still shows the complexities of their bond (as it’s impossible to argue that they don’t care for and value each other)

i have a lot of thoughts and idk if this makes much sense…. but yk!!!!!

jane!!!!! my baby!!!!!!!