#st 2

None of the other characters were ever able to truly appreciate this moment

Oh. You don't see Will?

Here let me--

→ find all things stranger things related here!

UPDATED: 01/12/26

mike wheeler

imagines

you’re not crazy

through the tranquility

requests

you're burned into my memory

seventeen days | seventeen and a half days (part 2)

blurbs

playing with your hair

friends to lovers mini series (mike + y/n)

canon fics following s5 + my own add-ins

some protector

the turnbow trap

the sorcerer

shock jock

escape from camazotz

the bridge

final ep teaser chap

side stories that are interconnected

pretty far from the ocean

finn wolfhard

off the record au

Acknowledgement | Resolution | Pursuance | Psalm

The main similarity between Mike's s2 monologue to Will and his s4 monologue to El is that they are both speeches in which Mike remembers the first time he met each of them in an effort to save each of them from supernatural control. But the differences are profoundly baked into the artistic compositions of each scene, especially in three particular aspects: the writing, acting, and cinematography, which are all polar opposites. Nobody is "delusional" to notice the creative choices that were made in each of these scenes. No matter if the filmmakers were intending for the El speech to be romantic and the Will speech to be not romantic, the fact remains that the finished scenes are vice versa in pretty much every way.

Writing: The speech to Will is entirely unprompted. Nobody else in the room asks Mike to say anything to Will, nor does Mike have any preconceived notion of what exactly Will wants to hear at this moment; he just says it, without hesitation. When he does, he describes with great specificity something that Will did for him. He admits how alone and scared he was until he saw Will that day, until Will became his ray of hope. He then recalls how Will accepted his offer to be friends, a simple action that changed everything for Mike. Finally, he describes their whole meeting as an active choice: the best thing he's ever done. And that's it. He doesn't embellish or dramatize his speech; the topic is clear and focused. There's nothing he needs to add; he connects with Will by simply speaking from his heart. He does not say anything cliche like “I love you” or “I can’t lose you”; he conveys those very sentiments by showing how much that specific moment meant to him, and still means to him to this day. On the other hand, the speech to El is prompted. Will urges Mike to say it, and Mike knows there is something El wants to hear, so he says it, only after a noticeable hesitation. He then launches into a long ramble full of what the text of s1 proves to be lies. His only specificity is in what her shirt looked like that day, then he switches to generalities. Instead of mentioning any specific moment where she actually did some particular thing that deeply affected him, he just makes claim after claim - “I love you on your good days AND your bad days” and “I can’t lose you” - without anything substantial to back them up. In short, though both are technically telling, El’s only has telling, while Will’s has showing within the telling.

Acting: Finn Wolfhard’s performances in these two scenes are night and day. At 14, he does some truly astounding work in his speech to Will, far surpassing the talent of most child actors at that age. He uses the “Will voice” the entire time, telling the story in that soft, low, tender tone and pitch. There is a restraint and yet a deep heartfelt passion in his face and his voice. And, in an extreme rarity for Mike, he openly sheds a tear. He doesn’t overdo it; he simply speaks directly from his soul to Will’s soul. It is an achingly intimate and emotionally genuine piece of acting. On the other hand, with El, he never whispers nor sheds any tears. Instead, he basically shouts. He speaks loudly and emphatically to her, which adds such a sense of artificiality to all his words, as his volume feels performative, like he’s thinking “I’m saying it, okay? happy now?” There is tension and pressure in his expression and overall physicality. It feels forced, not genuine. The eye contact is also polar opposite; he looks directly into Will’s open eyes, but there is a barrier between him and El since her eyes are closed and her reactions are literally a world away.

Cinematography: This is the most staggering comparison because the entire aesthetics of these scenes could not be less similar. The background behind Mike and Will is blackened, so that the room and people around them literally disappear, and they are placed into a visual world of just the two of them. They might as well be in the Void with how nonexistent their surroundings become. The camera is focused solely on the two of them; Mike’s baring of his soul, and Will’s reactions. Other people are in the room, but they are irrelevant, so they are entirely ignored. The shots of Mike include the back of Will’s head, emphasizing that Mike is saying this directly to him, rather than just sending words into space. Will’s reactions are brightly lit, symbolizing the light that Mike is restoring for him with his love. On the other hand, nothing is dimmed for Mike and El. The pizzeria remains visible behind him and the mindscape remains visible behind her. Not only that, but the camera does not stay with just the two of them. It also cuts away to draw attention to Will and Jonathan’s reactions, destroying any potential intimacy and adding to the sense of this being a performance with an audience. Also the shots of Mike either isolate him or frame him with Will visibly behind him; none of them frame him together with El. And El’s reaction shots show the vine tightening around her, and the lighting around her remaining dark and ominous and creepy; the visuals convey that his words are not moving her.

♡ A Stranger Things Limited Series, from Misha’s Masterlist Library. 📼 ALL Episodes (+infodump file) below

☾⋆⁺₊ Welcome to the full series masterlist. ⋆⁺₊☾

Nanny!Steve Harrington x baby girl Prior King Steve turned unpaid babysitter turned full-time nanny to a newborn baby girl. Playboy turned protector, and eventual love story when Steve meets someone who finally helps him move on from Nancy. But the real love story is the paternal love he shares with little Mia Browne. 18+

🍼 SUMMARY: Steve Harrington had no clue that taking a beating from Billy Hargrove and protecting those kids in the tunnels full of demodogs… would make him go from pretty playboy to protector.

After the Starcourt Mall collapses and Hawkins calls it an “act of God,” the former king of high school hallways accidentally falls into the best job of his life: nanny to an infant baby girl, born into a ridiculously wealthy family that barely seems to notice her. Hired through pure small-town grapevine gossip and vouching moms who swear he’s responsible as hell, Steve goes from flunkout fuqboi Scoops Ahoy dingus to full-time “manny” faster than he can even process it. Mia Browne becomes his routine, his calm, and the only place his nightmares don’t follow him, turning him soft and fiercely overprotective in ways that confuse the hell out of him. While he’s still carrying a torch for Nancy Wheeler and rebuilding his life alongside his new best friend Robin, and looking out for the kids who roped into all this mess… Steve quietly discovers a purpose that feels a lot like family.

Translation? Hawkins hottest babysitter grows up by rocking six pounds of innocent little magic to sleep — and ends up completely whipped for it.

♡ AUTHOR’S NOTE: There's nothing I love more than when an insecure playboy of a heterosexual male, who's got both mommy and daddy issues, gets humbled by life and becomes a protector... then family man.

Especially if said male is Steve Harrington. <3

As always, this went from being a 45k+ word one-shot to an extended entity of its own. Same thing happened with "Tell Me What You Need" (TMWYN), it just became far bigger than I expected and expanded into a multi-part fic. Granted, this won't be like OSWDLS or MERCY — where's is a multi-chapter, 4-book saga. This work of mine simply lives in its own little snow globe on my self-indulgent library shelf.

this series is forever dedicated to my pen pal && uni sister @moonlightdreamer111 ♡

[see my author’s file scraps below with misc. details, face cards etc]

:) enjoy "Hawkins' Hottest Manny."

Xx, misha

starts end of S2 -> into pre/during/post S3 -> S4 -> S5

THIS IS AN 18+ FANFIC. Minors, do not initiate.

🍼 OVERALL SERIES WARNINGS/NOTES: strong language and mature themes, Upside Down mayhem ensued with real-life darkness, neglected childhood and postpartum, substance abuse (alcohol, drugs, etc.), deeply rooted traumas, mutually shared triggers and traumas, some graphic descriptions of injuries and medical procedures, very outdated mindsets and misogyny (the 80's weren't all that fun, guys, and here we are — still dealing with some of this shit), some Stancy pining and eventual smut when Steve's love story enters the picture... with a surprise crossover character.

EP 1 | Season 2 (The Pilot: "The Manny") [takes place post-S2, after the tunnels] EP 2 | Season 3 (The Fall of Starcourt) EP 3 | Season 3 (West Wing Mornings)

EP 4 | Season 4 (The Calm Before the Storm) EP 5 | Season 4 (The Earthquakes) EP 6 | Season 4 (Aftershocks) EP 7 | Season 4 (Day 2: Volunteering in Hawkins) EP 8 | Season 4 (Day 3: A Career that Matters) EP 9 | Season 4 (A World in Motion) NOVEMBER 1986 — NEW YEAR’S EVE (-> into 1987) EP 10 | Season 5 (Crawling) EP 11 | Season 5 (Crawling Forward)

EP 12 | Season 5 (Saltwater, High Tide and Low Tide) EP 13 | Season 5 (Undertow) EP 14 | Season 5 (Little Gold Studs) -> Part II: Mia’s 1st Birthday 🎈

SOUNDTRACK [coming soon] Season 2 🎧 “Long Story Short” by Taylor Swift 🎧 “Right Where You Left Me” by Taylor Swift 🎧 “Take a Chance on Me” on ABBA Season 3 🎧 “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To” by Dinah Shore 🎧 “Don’t You Ever Grown Up” by Taylor Swift 🎧 “You Are My Sunshine” by Bing Crosby 🎧 “Healing Hurts” by BLÜ EYES 🎧 “August” by Taylor Swift Season 4 🎧 “Good Thing” by Fine Young Cannibals 🎧 “You’d Never Know” by BLÜ EYES 🎧 “When It’s Cold, I’d Like to Die” (Orchestra Version) Season 5 🎧 “There She Goes” 🎧 “I’m Not the Man I Used to Be” by Fine Young Cannibals 🎧 “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps” by Doris Day 🎧 “My Kind of Girl” by ABBA 🎧 “Epiphany” by Taylor Swift Series Finale 🎧 TBD