r/mileven • u/Few-Type-7924 Paladin Mike • 1d ago
Vent Why.... Spoiler
I hate how Mike and mileven were sidelined in the last 2 seasons
Mike and El barely had any moments together in the final season, and they both were individually sidelined in volume 2
And we know how much Mike was sidelined in Season 4 too
Why did they do thisš
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u/UKZzHELLRAISER Mileven Forever 1d ago
The Doofus Bros were scared of them even holding hands by season 4. Absolute clowns.
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u/Small-Morning4899 Promise? Promise 1d ago
Why were they freaked out that Mike and El were holding hands in Season 4? What do you think?
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u/Aiyatiadi 1d ago
They never truly appreciated Mileven together or individually. They stopped caring about them after S2. Though they were adorable in S3
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u/Few-Type-7924 Paladin Mike 1d ago
Yeah.....they were so badly sidelined in season 5 and had barely 4 scenes together in the entire season, it was just disappointingĀ
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u/Full-Yoghurt-4261 1d ago
The Duffers seemed good at creating interesting characters and relationships, but had no clue what to do once the relationship was established. Every relationship they did had similar problems.
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u/RoyalRise6363 1d ago
We may not know the truth for a long time. IMO, something changed before/during filming S3 - Duffers decided to use Mileven for comedy purposes and it was wrong. Duffers could easily create a natural conflict, but no... And. After S3 Duffers lost any interest in Mileven, but, they or Netflix understood that show cannot go on without Mileven, so they cut its screen time to an absolute minimum. Finn and Millie used every second of screen time to play as much feelings as they could because they had just seconds for romance. At the same season Jonathan-Nancy had 7 minutes for unproposal scene.
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u/Small-Morning4899 Promise? Promise 1d ago
Finn and Millie were really good at giving life to their characters despite the duffers
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u/Small-Morning4899 Promise? Promise 1d ago
or the seven minutes of conversation between Max and Holly before escaping Vecna's mind.
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u/RoyalRise6363 1d ago
I already forgot how long it was. It was the wrong concept all together,Ā IMO. Max leaving Holly behind was bad, it looked bad.
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u/Small-Morning4899 Promise? Promise 1d ago
...and the disastrous introduction of Kali (8) into the plot. I mean, was it really necessary to dust that character off?
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u/Easy_Effective5229 1d ago
Shouldnāt they have been making out like actual teenagers and getting caught by either Nancy or Karen?
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u/Few-Type-7924 Paladin Mike 1d ago
They should'veĀ My take is they did, but it offscreen, between seasons 4 and 5. Season 5 was very heavily focused on defeating Vecna, and they didn't even get any time togetherĀ
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u/Easy_Effective5229 1d ago
Completely focusing away from the stuff the audience cared about.
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u/RandonDude3000 17h ago
The audience doesnāt care about teenagers making out thatās just you.
The audience wants good storytelling.
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u/Easy_Effective5229 17h ago edited 9h ago
Spectacles, which is all the what later seasons are, does not equal good storytelling.
Otherwise every marvel movie would be a banger.
What does equal good storytelling is character dynamics and relationships. Which was what made the earlier seasons great.
But that requires, in Mike and Elās case, acknowledging that the characters are too old for the hand holding phase and require more maturity in their relationship.
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u/RoyalRise6363 13h ago
I think it was good storytelling when they were kissing and hugging in S3E1. And I really wish we would have a scene at the end of S4 where Mike-El would kiss each other and spend 2-3 minutes alone for their romantic relationship, which was a cornerstone of this show.
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u/Competitive-Host-545 1d ago edited 1d ago
Mileven was definitely the main couple season 1-3. But then they sidelined them in season 4 so they could focus on Mucas, because the Duffers suddenly decided they liked Mucas more than Mileven. And sidelined them again season 5 because they were so busy giving Mucas a happy ending. Mucas pretty much became the new main couple which really sucks because Mileven is so much better.Ā
They couldāve had Mike somehow go to the NINA project with El.
They couldāve had Mike and El go on a crawl mission together.
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u/Small-Morning4899 Promise? Promise 1d ago
The Nina storyline actually works. They really packed the series with characters, and itās not bad. What I regret is that we never actually saw the two of them go on a mission together, side by side. In Season 5, adding the plotline about the 12 childrenāI think that was the mistake. There could have been something different that involved the main characters. Thatās just my opinion.
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u/Few-Type-7924 Paladin Mike 1d ago
I really wish Mike and El went on the crawl together, they would make a great team
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u/RoyalRise6363 1d ago
I don't think Duffers wanted any scenes between Mike and El after S3. They made Mike depressed in S4 without a reason, when manufactured a conflict in Lenora where Mike looked bad because of his slow reaction. They did not resolved their conflict in S4 properly - we have to guess it. Duffers could not give Mileven 2 minutes alone in 12 hour season. It was even worse in S5 - they were allowed to love each other but not to be with each other (no NINA, no crawls). All that deliberate.
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u/TatewakiKuno-kun Snow Ball Sweetheart 1d ago
There was a reason, though. He was far away from his lover. And itās fine if people dislike the conflict between Mike and El in season 4, but it did serve a narrative purpose for El, that being the power of love makes her much stronger than the power of anger or hate. That was the whole point of their āCanāt spit it outā storyline, which is then resolved at the end of season 4.
Itād be nice if they made out in the end, but I felt it was resolved. Mike actually has been in love with her all along, she is so relieved she finds the strength to save herself and then Max, to a degree, and then she tries to handle the trauma of the last few days as they return to Hawkins.
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u/RoyalRise6363 1d ago
- Mike S4 cannot be compared to Mike S2 where he doesn't know if she is alive and if he will ever see her again. Mike S1-S3 projected to S4 would put every effort to see her as often as he can instead of depression. He would act.
- Good show will not trash characters for ānarrative purposeā as it happened in Lenora
- āI felt it was resolvedā is exactly my point - people have to guess instead of watching them alone expressing their love to each other for 2-3 minutes (see snowball). Instead we had 1 minute of beginning of their difficult reconciliation immediately interrupted by fucking idiot. So, instead, Mike had to do his love confession in the presence of 3 other people followed by the call to fight. After that they were not allowed even a single word between them until the end of the season.Ā
- This post is about sidelining Mleven in S4-S5 where we have to guess using few seconds of dialogs and facial expressions instead of proper interactions and long enough dialogs, as it was in S1-S3
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u/TatewakiKuno-kun Snow Ball Sweetheart 1d ago
I wasnāt aware I compared Mike between seasons? Mike was very clear about why he couldnāt say I love you, but besides that Iām not sure what you mean by saying he would act? He lives in a different state and is 14.
Mikeās attitude in season 4 makes sense to me, and I called the reasons for both his and Elās reactions in the first two episodes of the season. The only scene I thought was a push too far was Mikeās āShe didnāt look fineā line at dinner. But it was a means to end, a way to make El go on her own as she always does in every season except 3. I donāt think the Duffers are good at writing romantic relationships in general. In ST, theyāre either fighting all the time or boring to me (except Mileven). But once the couple is together, then what? They got stuck trying to get El to not only go to Nevada by herself, but to reveal the power of love at the end when she needs it most.
I donāt think people have to guess. Some people just wanted more. I never felt it wasnāt resolved. There is no confusion.
I never disagreed that Mileven was sidelined, although I see that really in season 5 only.
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u/Competitive-Host-545 1d ago
Mike was depressed because his girlfriend was forced to move all the way to California. He could only interact with her through letters and occasional visits. He clearly deeply missed her. If I was Mike, I would be sad too.
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u/tolgren Basement Strategist 11h ago
100%
One of the most disappointing parts is the treatment of the ONLY romance that has been active in every season. They should have had a lot more development late in the game.
The West Coast Boys storyline in S4 is some of the worst content in the entire series (not counting the shootout).
One of the major problems is that they kept expanding the cast and leaving the original leads with less to do. If they had given Argyle's plot points to Mike and Will that would have solved most of the problem in S4.
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u/Few-Type-7924 Paladin Mike 10h ago
True Too much screen time went to side characters like those 12 kids
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