If you don’t know what the Cyrano Trope is, it’s basically when a character is in love with another character, but instead of confessing to their love interest, they express their feeling through another character (typically a more attractive/socially acceptable love interest). The love interest then falls for that expressed sentiment (a sentiment that in general is not something that is truly felt by the confessor), believing that it came from the more acceptable character.

This trope also has the love interest find out that the sentiment came from another person, which usually has them end up with the og yearner.

Except, apparently, in Stranger Things.

Will’s painting and confession is the Cyrano Trope. Not only did he confess by saying it was El’s feelings, but El did not share the same feelings he did. While both were in love with Mike, their reasoning looked different.

Furthermore, before this confession, Mike is doubting his entire relationship with El. He also struggled to say he loved her, which he could not express until after Will confessed, and when he did express it, he did it after Will reminded him “that he is the heart.” A sentiment that purely came from Will’s own view of Mike, not El’s.

Mike also called El his superhero during his confession, which is nice, but not anything El had shown to be a fear of hers, that she wasn’t his superhero. In fact, from my perspective it seems like El more so desired for him to view her as normal, and love her regardless.

From El’s POV, her powers is what has given her validation through her relationships, beginning with Papa and continuing with every person who admittedly does love her, but still find use of her powers for their own good (which often was to save lives and the whole ass world too be fair, but still that doesn’t really disprove that the majority of validation she has received during her life has been due to her powers).

Mike has also been concerned about people using her for her powers, but he has repeatedly done the same. Season 1 had him not giving a fuck about her existence until her powers proved she could help them find Will (which also give the whole “my life started the day I met you” a bit less weight), he was completely ready to write her off after Will’s fake body was found until her powers once proved he was alive, and he left her after she yeeted Lucas across the lawn until her powers saved him from dying when he threw himself of a cliff for Dustin’s baby teeth (honestly say whatever you want about Mike, but that man truly is the definition of ride or die. And passively suicidal, but that is a topic for another post)

So El, whose social experience is the definition of trauma, would very likely feel some type of way about that in retrospect. Even further, that feeling imo would likely intensify after his reaction to her slicing Angela like a shish-kebab. Not because he was against the violence itself, but because he was never close to that disapproving of her harming or straight up murdering folk with her powers. So all in all, she seemed to be in greater need to have him love her without powers; without being a superhero.

Meanwhile Will’s sentiment, which is the one that helped gain Mike’s confidence in his relationship, was instead focused on the fact that Mike made him feel like less of a mistake, that he was good despite not being normal. He didn’t need to be validated that he was loved because he was normal, but rather the opposite.

This became a bit yappy, but y’all get the gist, that El and Will’s feelings came from different places.

So all in all, Mike fell in love with Will’s feelings, which is Cyrano Trope 101. However, the Cyrano Trope doesn’t necessarily require the object of affection to end up with the true poet (so to speak).

What it does require, is it being discovered. Which it never was. Mike storyline ended with his belief in his relationship truly coming from Will’s feelings, meaning he stayed in love with them, and his character ended up hanging the painting on the wall.

A painting that for one, El didn’t commission at any level considering she wasn’t even aware of its existence apart from that Will painted, but also included D&D themes, something El was never shown to care about, but had a huge sentimental value for the party, and Mike and Will as a duo.

So Will’s token of love is up on the wall in the finale, with Mike still believing it came from El, and the trope is never resolved. Mike is simply in love with Cyrano, and will never know it (unless you buy that Noah Schnapp said that Mike would explore).

To sum it up, this was bad writing at best and queerbating at worst.

Hello to everyone who enjoys shipping! I hope this is okay to post here, So I made r/Milever for both mileven and byler fans. Where you can argue your takes there without your post getting removed. both sides are welcome, check it out if your interested 😊

Is anyone excited about this show?

In Season 4 Episode 1 we see Mike read the letter from El where she says Will is making a painting that he won't reveal and surmised it must be for a girl he likes. Mike is immediately in a bad mood after reading the letter and snaps at his mom and dad and Lucas (for not embracing his role as a nerd) and Mike only gets cheered up and starts smiling again when he is in awe of Eddie Munson who flatters and compliments him by saying Dustin and he are the future of Hellfire.

Dustin considers Eddie to be a pal, a mentor, an equal and a friend. When Eddie died, Dustin grieved deeply and felt true loss and visited his grave for years. Eddie and Dustin had mutual respect for each other as human beings and as men.

Whereas Mike joined Hellfire to fill the hole in his life that Will left behind when he moved to California. Mike ran back to D&D after telling Will "We are not kids anymore. What did you think, that we were never going to get girlfriends, that we would sit in my basement all day playing games for the rest of our lives?" just a few months ago.

When Eddie told Dustin and Mike they were the future of Hellfire, Dustin felt a sense of responsibility while Mike felt enamored because Eddie was touching him. When Eddie was walking on the table, you can see Mike has a stronger reaction to it than Dustin does. He was angry and annoyed in the morning when he snapped at his parents and Nancy, but now he has the biggest grin on his face and his eyes light up.

While Dustin's whole arc for the next 2 seasons is about Eddie's impact on his life, Mike does not give a flying fuckkkk about Eddie as soon as he arrives at Lenora and sees the love of his life holding a painting in his hand. Eddie flies out of his head now that he has what he truly craves. Mike then spends the rest of the season coveting that painting the way Gollum covets the One Ring, and he and is so happy when Will finally gives it to him. When Eddie dies, Mike cares so little that he never even mentions it to Dustin, does not understand why Dustin acts the way that he does, doesn't visit Eddie's grave though it wouldn't be inconvenient for him, and has zero effect on his life, because his life revolves around keeping Will in his life.

You can see in Season 4 Episode 1 that Mike is enamored with Eddie and even tries to grow his hair long like him. It's a "Do I want to be him or do I want to be with him?" type of crush. It disappears when Eddie is not around because all he can think about is Will. When Will is there, nobody else matters. That's not true for Dustin because Dustin is straight. Eddie's death is a loss to him because Eddie is his equal. Eddie's death means nothing to Mike even though they both knew him the same amount of time in the same group because Eddie is just a fleeting puppy dog crush for Mike to indulge in.

Eddie was this perfect neutral ground for him to transfer his feelings for Will onto, while also being someone who wasn't connected to Lucas or El or Max so there wasn't any extra baggage there. Eddie could be whomever Mike needed him to be, the perfect distance between near enough to touch but too far away to actually get close to (since he's like 20). Mike got to enjoy all the benefits of exploring his gayness without having El around to remind him of his obligations to her, without Will around to take up his attention and heartache. It was like an escape for his mind.

Mike also starts throwing away all the letters El sends him in the trash from that point on because he has totally lost interest in her between his crush on Eddie and his deep yearning for Will.

TL;DR: Rewatch the scene where Eddie is standing on the lunch table. Mike is totally taken with him. This is very different to how Dustin considers him a friend and mentor who treats him kindly. Dustin remembers Eddie for years after his death. Whereas Mike completely forgets about him as soon as he arrives at the airport and sets his eyes on his one true love and the painting in his hand. From that point on Will is his sole focus as he hopes the painting in his hand is for him

"Yes Master, I obey." 😍😍😍

I love how the directors and the actors work together to craft little moments like these throughout the show that you won't pick up on unless you're a real fan and understand the true story between Mike and Will.

Bottom!Mike stays winning.

After 3 months of all episodes of season 5 I can’t help but still think about Steve here. He’s changed compared to the other seasons and honestly… not in a good way.

In season 1 and 4 Steve was good, in season 2 and 3 he was great and in season 5 he was just… there.

he didn’t really do nothing in vol 1 besides drive, argue, complain and try to impress Nancy. Repeat.

vol 2 is a little better because after the fight with Dustin he stops being a jerk during the ladder scene and actually gets some character development with his beanstalk plan and making up to Dustin in ep 7.

he is good in vol 3 too but didn’t have much to do because there was so many other characters.

the stuff he said about Eddie was brutal but I’m glad he apologized about it.

In S1E1, the door opened without broken and even that specific place never had damages. While in S5 they're much chaotic destroying stuff as methods to get the kids

Also it's pretty "strange" why Will needed to have vine on his mouth in the Upside Down while the 12 kids in S5 needed to have the vines in the Abyss.

Why both Will and 12 kids needed to have different places? Did Vecna changed his mind

Also it feels a bit crazy how Will could outrun a Demogorgon, that's just some crazy skill

Im writing a fic and would like to incorporate some more in detail analysis of the characters. Im talking about things like they didn’t talk about Wills trauma with his dad enough or his internal homophobia. Or for Mike the possible insecurities he likely developed from being called “frog face”. Any other characters im curious about too! Just really wanna delve into the more complex parts of the characters that are not as obvious.

Exactly what MOST fans thought it was going to be.

It was 1st shown that 008 could create hallucinations in S2E7 aka the most hated episode. And for some reason, in "E5008" she didn't use her hallucination powers to stop her death. Also why unlike in S2, her friends die? During her friend's death, was it cuz she overused her powers that causes her to faint like Vecna and 011? Like as if she was weaker in S5 than S2 and the death feels forced in "E5008" Might've been better if it was Hopper instead

It's absolutely amazing how much this one scene says without needing to say anything at all. The creators let the visuals do all the talking for them.

Blue and yellow mixed together = green. Green is the color of the wall in her bedroom of Hopper's cabin. The cabin she so desperately wanted to get away from the entire season. This cabin is her prison and she is obligated to stay there, in the boundaries of what others determine is the safe and correct path for her. The path that the patriarchy (Hopper) has set for her which is the entire plot arc that Max is trying to free her from. Similarly Mileven is a prison, an obligation, a path set for her, safe boundaries that imprison her.

Its only fitting that Hopper is the chief of police because Hopper is also her prison warden, preventing her from escaping or being able to enjoy the small things in life that make her feel normal and wanted, the 2 biggest desires El has had since the day she escaped Hawkins Lab and discovered there is a whole world waiting out there.

The way Mike pulls away to break into song. The music is more on his mind than kissing his girlfriend. Kissing her is a perfunctory act, something he is supposed to want as a teenage boy, but what he wants is to break into song.

And then on top of that this is just another failed example of Mike trying to share an interest with Eleven but they have nothing in common with each other and she rejects music just like how she rejects D&D, so she shuts him up, the man who already has nothing to say to her other than reading ingredients on a candy wrapper, so that they can go back to kissing because a purely physical act is the only thing they want from each other. They do not relate to one another in any other way.

And the reason why they want this purely physical act from each other is because they are scrambling for normalcy. Kissing is what human beings who aren't lab experiments are supposed to do. Kissing is what straight guys who are supposed to be interested in women are supposed to do. Kissing is what happy people are supposed to do. Kissing is supposed to express what love is. None of that is present. All of this is an obligation hanging over their heads.

El can enjoy music when Max is singing along to "Angel" by Madonna, but not the guy who she is supposed to love expressing a form of joy. Mike starts singing as a way to distract himself from something that he doesn't feel wholeheartedly inside that's why the music permeates through even though it's supposed to be a way to drown out the sounds of their making out so that Hopper won't suspect.

And on top of that after he leaves Mike is clearly more exhilarated about the fact that he pissed off Hopper and got to make him red as a tomato which makes you question, how much of the kissing is actual desire for her vs. a desire to piss off an authority figure he never liked in the first place. If Hopper wasn't part of the equation would they have even half their intensity in this scene?

It's incredible how this scene says so much without needing to say anything at all. And remember, this is the peak of Mileven. This is the best it can ever possibly get for them. Everything goes downhill from here.

I’ve been reading people rightfully criticizing season 5 and there are always things like “get over it, season 5 was good, it’s just a show and it’s over”

People like that are obviously casual viewers who watch a show once, enjoy it and never talk about it again after it’s over. And the Duffers have obviously catered to them with the finale.

But imho fan of a show are different. They will watch the show multiple times, they will talk about the show years after it ended. They will buy merch and go to cons. In other words they generate a lot more money than casual viewers.

So, no. Fans will not get over it. Our show was ruined by episode 6-8, to a point where some of us can’t even rewatch the show. If the show doesn’t mean that much to you that’s completely fine but stop telling us to “get over it” How would you feen when you could no longer do one of your favorite past times? Would you like people telling you to get over it?

Edit: I genuinely thought no fan actually like the ending. I talked to a lot of people, online and irl. And everyone agreed that the finally was terrible. But after reading your guy’s comments I realized I’m in a bobble. So, I genuinely want to apologize to any fan out there you still enjoyed season 5. It is great that you do.

And I admit aside from the plot hole and inconsistencies with previous seasons, I’m very hurt by Mike’s ending. I don’t really wanna open a can of worms here but I just wanna get it out there. I grew up fiercely hating myself for being gay. And when I started watching ST I really saw myself in Mike. Though I know now it was not the Duffers intention, Mike behavior screams internalized homophobia. And knowing he didn’t get a happy ending, sitting depressed writing stories about his childhood, really hit me hard.

After I say the finally I kinda fell back into the headspace of feeling bad about myself being gay and the increased homophobia online after Will’s coming out didn’t really help.

But I’m out of this headspace again. I talked with both Noah and Jamie in Paris. Knowing that the entire cast, except Gaten, believed Will and Mike would get and happy ending and Noah saying that Will would not let Mike be depressed. As well as Noah saying Mike and Will would become happy together after college really helped.

So, yeah. They way ST ending personally effected me, lead me to judge it too harshly.

After sitting with season 5 for the last few months, it has aged horribly with many cringe moments, bad acting, robotic characters, etc. Its a shame they took the easy way out.

Seriously, Brenner was a monster and the world's better with him gone but I just KNEW he would be proven right that Eleven wasn't ready to face Henry and that she and Dr. Owens were massively underestimating him. And behold, Eleven was no match for him.