Head empty

I barely have time to draw for myself nowadays because of school, but I've had this screenshot of @androgynouswizardbanana's post saved on my phone forever so OF COURSE i had to jump at the opportunity to finally draw it

Mike’s Monologue (Actually Romantic Version)

Hey y'all! So, a lot of the analyses I’ve seen about the monologue and things I noticed about it myself as to why it sucks ass were kind of just easily fixable things related to the editing of the scene. And because I have an editing software and thought it would be a fun way to practice…I fixed it. So here’s what Mike’s Monologue could have looked like if they had wanted it to be actually romantic.

Notes and process under the cut.

mike wheeler comes out

Eleven is going to die. Eleven deserves to die. I want Eleven to die. Eleven needs to die in s5 for a happy ending.

Eleven is going to die at the end of season 5 and Jane Hopper/El Hopper will take her place. Eleven is going to lose her powers, which means she going to die, because Eleven is nothing without her powers. Unlike El/Jane Hopper, who is a vibrant, kind, intelligent, funny, wonderful individual without her powers, Eleven, is nothing more than her powers.

In s4, when Mike is focused on El’s powers, and talking about how she’s a superhero, he calls her Eleven. But she doesn’t want to be a superhero. She doesn’t want to be eleven. She wants to be ‘normal,’ to be Jane, to be happy. And it’s not even that she has to change herself or become normal- I don’t even think that has to happen. I think that it’s not so much about wanting to be normal as it is about wanting to be herself.

Because “Eleven” is a name that was bestowed upon her specifically to pigeonhole her into a box of expectations and remove her sense of self. Just like how Eleven gets her hair shorn off, but Jane grows it long. It’s not about the length of the hair but rather, about the choice and agency behind it (or lack thereof when it comes to getting her head shaved).

It’s not even about the name “Jane,” being a better or “normal” name. People who love El for who she is call her ‘El’. Because that name, like Jane, but unlike Eleven, isn’t meant to force her into a certain lifestyle- it’s meant to invite her into one. Into a family. El is a name bestowed by friends. Jane is a name bestowed by family. And even past that, it’s about choice, El’s choice- what does she want to be called, who does she want to be? And as far as we’ve seen from El, she doesn’t want to be Eleven, she doesn’t want to be a superhero. Which is why I think Eleven needs to die.

Eleven has been dying for multiple seasons now. Eleven was fatally wounded when El and Max went to the mall. Eleven was fatally wounded when El joined the Hopper-Byers family, and on so, so many other occasions. And I hope that in s5, they strike the killing blow.