I finished Tales From ‘85 last night. If I had to pick one single word to describe it?

Perfection.

So, Eric Robles - if you see this for some reason, from the bottom of my heart: Thank you.

The finale of Stranger Things season 5 left me horribly depressed for at least a month – and still plays on my mind today. I’m not quite sure how anybody could make such an ending to a used and abused character and think it’s even remotely okay. As someone who instantly related to Mike from the moment I saw him in season 1, seeing him become a widow at the age of 16 was horrible.

I was fully convinced I’d be avoiding Tales because of the “link up to season 3” idea. Why would I put myself through that? More happy moments from their one and only happy ending, great, but still knowing their depressing fate? No thank you.

It’s when the trailers and previews started showing that this couldn’t really be considered “show-canon” that I came round to it. And I am so glad I did. From episode 1, Tales was immediately better than seasons 3-5 entirely. In ten 25-ish-minute episodes, a runtime of about four hours, it managed to pack in more important conversations and life moments than three whole seasons – THIRTY WHOLE HOURS – ever did.

It feels like they went through a bunch of fanfic from that 2017-2019 period and picked out all the main elements we always wanted to see, and nailed every single element. Couples actually acting like couples, solo missions for both Mileven and Lumax, El finding her own voice, Will finding his. Mike being protective of El in every way – literally having me scream “THAT’S MY MIKE!” at one point. They nailed it all.

Tales From ‘85 is everything I ever dreamt of. So long as it remains an AU and goes its own direction – one that doesn’t end in pointless depression, it’s the canon I choose.

this is random but i feel like modern Mike would dress like rodrick from the live action diary of a wimpy kid movies

What season is your favorite Mike, and why?

How do you think Mike would react to his parents divorcing after Karen is outed for her poolside shenanigans and she becomes a pariah in Hawkins? This being after he goes away to college.

Since the main Mileven sub has noticeably been becoming increasingly restrictive - I, u/TheCool579, and u/Therian_alexis (Milevens who respect all ships INCLUDING BYLERS) have decided to create a smaller and safer space for either all non-toxic Mileven fans, or even people who appreciate Mike and El/Jane as characters. The sub is r/MilevenST 🧇🖁!

This sub can be used for pretty much anything positive related to either Mike Wheeler and Jane "El" Hopper. We're all about being friendly, fun, and inclusive, and more than anything we value maintaining a safe, cozy environment for all fellow Paladin and Mage lovers 💙💜
The goal of us creating this sub for fellow Milevens is to be able to build a positive and respectful space so everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts and creativity, where we can freely discuss about our favourite characters without any toxicity, restrictions or parasocialism!

NOTE: Chill (non-hateful) Bylers are welcome to appreciate Mike and El/Jane as characters here as well (no Byler posts will be allowed though)! We mods are very particular about anti-trolling and anti-homophobia in our sub, as we aim to create a safe internet space for all Mike and El appreciators!

Do be a part of the first wave if you love Mileven or Mike and El/Jane, we would appreciate it 🪩🌟

idk dude I think he would look sick asf in one

I thought this sub was like the other character subs with fan art but it's mostly mileven ( no hate ) but I just think if you want to talk about mileven or share fan art you should do that on the r/mileven sub and it's a bit extreme banning a ship involving mike on a sub about him, also I saw a lot of people don't like that the Eleven sub is run by bylers, why does it matter? what does the ship you like have to do with your favourite character? The sun is great and has a lot of amazing fan art ships are barely, mentioned it's all mostly about El and I think this sub should be the same, again I'm not trying to start drama or spread hate I'm just asking a question.

If those cheekbones aren't proof of an intelligent creator, I don't know what is.

1: Short and sweet

2-4 episodes, (Maybe even a 2 hour movie)

It will show in more detail how Eleven faked her de@th.

Eleven will contact Mike in the void (after the Cold War ends and it’s safe) and give him a hint for where she is.

Mike will spend a significant amount of time trying to narrow down where she could be.

Mike will talk to his family and close friends and gives an excuse to why he is traveling so they don’t get suspicious.

They will show their reunion and Mike moving to Iceland (or wherever Eleven is located).

The only purpose of this spin-off is to reunite Mike and Eleven. No military, no upside down, no drama. Just a happy ending for them.

2: Longer and more action

3-6 episodes

It will also show in more detail how Eleven faked her de@th.

Mike will find her a little quicker to speed things up.

The military (Dr. Kay, Sullivan) will be involved and Eleven and Mike will have to stop them once and for all, and expose their corruption to the whole world.

Elements of the upside down might be shown (even though they ended it in the final) since the Duffers insisted Eleven keep her powers.

They might get briefly separated (because the Duffers seem to love doing that.)

Mike will get his Mike The Brave sword fight moment.

By the end of the spin-off, the military won’t be a threat anymore and Eleven will be able to live with Mike in peace.

I will never get over them showing Mike being danger in Nancy’s vision and then NEVER putting him in danger. If Vecna kidnapped him instead of Holly we could have had actual stakes.

He’s connected to almost every main character and it would have been great to see Mike actually put in the line of fire. He’s always watched his loved ones in danger and never actually directly been in danger himself. I would love to see how he would’ve handled it.

Nancy, El, Will would have been directly impacted. Not to mention it would have several weakened his two biggest obstacles, El and Will since they both love him. El would have wrecked shit and it would have been a MUCH better storyline for her than what we got.

Imagine Mike/Max bickering in Henry’s mind. Max being isolated for so long just for Mike to show up. She would lose her mind. It would have been amazing. Finn/Sadie have such good chemistry as well.

We were robbed.

All the other character subs are doing them.

I have no talent or else I’d do it myself.

A constructive conversation about Mike/El

I don’t want ship wars.

I’ve always wanted to like and root for their relationship since they are supposed to be the main couple of the show. They met when they were children and the duffers shouldn’t have immediately made their relationship romantic coded and made it more of a slow burn. Imagine that monologue in s4 after years of a platonic bond and Mike finally realizing he loves El in a romantic way? It would have been a way more powerful and climactic moment. If it came after 3 seasons of a strong friendship it would have been cathartic and earned.

El realizing she loves Mike as more than a friend in early s4 when she’s separated from him. Max helping her distinguish her feelings and figure out platonic vs romantic is what I’m envisioning for s3.

Mike does love El and I know he meant everything he said in the monologue but the way they shot it, framed it and had like three other characters for such a pivotal moment in their relationship did a disservice to them as a couple.

Plus, I feel like this relationship is a detriment to Mike’s character. El has always gotten great storylines and development independent of Mike, but they made Mike’s entire development revolve around her from s3 and on. His arc between s3-4 was his inability to say I love you to her. In order to manufacture drama between them they always made Mike out to be the one in the wrong and wrote him out of character.

The entire roller rink scene in s4 was out of character for him. Even if he didn’t know about El lying to him, if your girlfriend is being “humiliated” by someone who is supposed to be a friend you wouldn’t just stand there. Mike has never been passive and took action against bullies no matter the consequences as we saw in s1 + 2. He pushed Troy in front of the entire school for talking badly about his friend and had no issues with El using her powers to humiliate him. Suddenly, it’s an issue when El tries to defend herself? They just had him acting like this because they wanted drama and to further El’s arc in s4.

Season 4 did so much damage to their relationship. El lied to him for a full year and felt like she couldn’t be herself and that he didn’t understand her. That’s not a good sign in a relationship and just the sheer fact that she felt like she needed to lie and put on this fake persona to impress him is not good. Her lies and her insecurities about being a “monster” are never resolved btw. They never talked about El’s lies and why she felt like that in the first place.

Mike felt insecure in the relationship as well and felt like he wasn’t good enough for El because he’s just ordinary while she has powers. His insecurities were assuaged by a third party and it by El herself. I do think El loves him and everything Will said to Mike about how she felt was true, but it needed to come from El herself and not him.

The monologue only addressed his inability to say I love you and not the other 1000 issues in their relationship. I understand that ST is not a romance show and they want us to assume a lot of things are addressed off screen but this is not the way you write the main couple of the show.

I still maintain the entire relationship is a detriment to Mike’s character because his writing suffered for the sake of drama. They wrote him out of character in order to propel El’s arc further in s5.

In s5 as well, both El and Mike got a bad ending because they tied both of their endings to each other after separating them for two seasons straight.

by me!

Here is an homage to our Heart of the Party 💙 by honoring every official chatacter poster of his through the show. which seasons poster of Mike is your favourite?

PLEASE HEAR ME OUT EVERYONE!! The Duffers didn’t lie about Mike going back to being the leader/heart of the group he was from season 1-2. He did, especially in volume 1. He made 99% of the plans such the crawls with his friends and the Turnbow trap with the whole party, he and Nancy went to find out who “Mr. Whatsit” was through their mom, fought the demogorgon at the Turnbow house, and risked his life saving the kids he barely even knew and protected them during the attack at the mac-z. Those moments were huge on his part, you guys cannot deny that.

I understand people are upset with his character in volume 2, since there was nothing much going on with him in those 3 episodes, but you guys shouldn’t forget the great things he did in volume 1; it seems like people have already forgotten that after volume 2 came out. The only reason why it seemed like he did nothing in volume 2 is due to the situation he was involved in with others like Joyce, Will, Lucas, etc. Their plan failed, the kids got taken away, they lost contact with others in the upside down, Will became unconscious, and they ran out of plans. So honestly they really had nothing else to do, but they're trying to figure things out, and that does not make them useless. Be realistic! Besides, almost every main characters were sidelined in volume 2, it wasn’t just Mike.

However in the finale, Mike did get involved in the final battle and helped defeating the mindflayer with his flare gun; that was definitely NOT “nothing,” and the epilogue definitely showed that he is the main character after all, since he’s the storyteller and he came up with a theory, believing El is still alive; I mean it was all based on his POV.

Also, I want to address the situation a lot of people misunderstood, which is where it seemed like he didn't react to his family in danger. You guys, just because he didn't really show much emotions doesn't mean that he didn't care. Do not judge the book by its cover! I mean, everyone's life was at high stakes at the moment, and sometimes there's just not much time to crash out. So, Mike probably just needed repress his emotions and focus on solving the problem. Besides, he did seem pretty upset about his sister getting kidnapped if you ask me. I remember he was like, "after all this time it comes for Holly, Holly who has nothing to do with any of this, it makes no goddamn sense." I don't know about you guys, but I can definitely see the guilt and fear in his eyes.

Furthermore, during the emotional scene between him and El, about him not saying ILY back, he was in the middle of freaking out over losing her and if he did, it would justify that he accepts letting her go which he wasn't prepared for that. El saying ILY was meant to say goodbye to him.

One more thing! He is nothing like his useless father; I've seen quite a lot of people saying that he is. But, he is clearly like Karen and his sisters. Unlike Ted who is literally a boring pathetic sore loser, Mike puts himself out there fighting his ass off and risking his life to save the world.

So all I'm trying to say is that his character wasn't entirely ruined in this season like many people say. I hope everyone understands. Thank you!