immortan96

Inactive

[1mmortanj]

just started thinking about els favourite colours, yellow and purple, where she might’ve gotten that from.

we know el first meets mike and the party wearing a Yellow Bennys Burgers tshirt, so she might relate this colour as her finally finding a sense of “Home” with them. Or, perhaps it begins earlier, she finds comfort in the colour yellow because of Benny, who was the first real example of human kindness and care to her (besides her mother). Or even *earlier* than that, we see in S2 flashbacks with her mother Terry Ives, that amongst them were sunflowers. It could very much be a tether to her mother, who loved her unconditionally & transcendently. It could therefore symbolise her humanity in many ways, when she was treated just like a person, and first stepped into the world, away from the hostility of the lab. Is it gauche of me to also mention her comfort food (eggos)? Similar train of thought, she relates that colour to safety and warmth, in contrast to the sterile, depressing environment of the lab she grew up in.

For the colour purple, I think this is drawn straight from Kali and the purple streak in her hair, as we see her implement the colour purple in her eyeshadow by the S2 Snowball alongside a punk-inspired look. So that colour could be associated with her familial love, but I think it most likely represents her individuality & independence, and her path of heroism, it marked a time where she set off by herself, travelled to a new city and learned about her roots, a different (slightly dubious) walk of life, learned something new about herself and her powers, and it showed her clearly the path she wanted to take; to save people. This is where I apply the heroism, “they can’t save you jane/no, but i can save them”. She set out her own path, aligned with her morals and desires first, above what her sister and her mother might’ve wanted for her. I think that experience was absolutely critical in her self development and thats why that colour and by association Kali/the chicago journey was so important to her, she found herself in that way.

shes carried those two colours throughout the whole series and I just mindlessly accepted those were her two faves without interrogating the *why* which feels a bit silly in retrospect, but to me this makes so much sense.

[1mmortanj]

Max Caulfield being played by last name Hopkins in the Live Action series… Maxs’ iconic tee saying “Jane (Doe)”… Max’s super-powered ability allowing her to go into past memories…the narrative kicking off with your love interests’ best friend being missing…Chloe being against authority and defiant…Chloe telling Max “You saved me”/“I believe in you”… Chloe calling Max a “superhero”…having a week together before fate forces them apart and in a life/death situation…its all coming together.

[1mmortanj]

seeing a bit too many “stay with me” into the woods tiktok edits to movies/tv shows like im feeling threatened and scared

maybe this is counterintuitive talking about it but i just hate when songs i like trend on there it loses its meaning and appeal… but I get it like Ive edited characters to that song in my head I just didnt expect it to randomly catch on

[1mmortanj]

Ian gallagher is the best character of all time send tweet

[1mmortanj]

bylers churning out anti-mileven content by putting random mainstream copypasta/ trends on mileven scenes and forcing it to be perceived as funny, like ik ur not actually laughing behind that seizure u typed in the replies.

but im sat like, you want mileven to be collectively hated not just amongst yourselves but globally… like have we considered there are greater endeavours? like… a job? or idk, creating content for the ship you love so much? But at this point its blurred… you love to indulge in ragebait/misery by editing mileven whilst also on occasion hitting up AO3. But its a vice and you should quit it for your health bc genuinely subscribing yourself to misery does no one any favours.

I want to say I don’t care if a reality is that mileven is universally hated, but I *know* they aren’t, because st 2-5 existing is proof of that. mileven was so loved, stranger things was typically referred to as “mileven things”. it was so loved, that was the whole promo around S2, and for S3. Stranger things put netflix on the map, Eleven became a cult phenomenon… and I cant lie, this forced ass narrative they keep trying to push does make me annoyed because you’re literally trying to rewrite history - when ST was respected and critically acclaimed, thats also when Mileven was at their peak, thats no coincidence IMO.

but fuck it… if the worlds against mileven I am against the world ! But on a serious note, how does any fictional adolescent ship deserve this kind of bashing, 5 MONTHS after the fact? Is that not insane? Why does STTWT have to be so continually toxic and hostile, genuinely? Its a free-for-all now. This performative and yes propagandist hatred is so pathetic and weird to me. Like genuinely whats not clicking? Mileven did not kill your grandma and they never did.

[1mmortanj]

is st fandom still under this perception that theyre woke cause they’re all allegedly lesbians and “queer dominated” or has that bubble popped because, nothing about st fandom is progressive. its actually more kin to cave men, like neanderthals. and what I mean by that is, cave men see Fire! Fire Bad. They don’t like anything new or challenging, and have herd-mentality.

Im just saying, you take the “we’re all women and lesbians” out of the equation, you look a lot like raging incellic women hating, disabled people hating, homophobic chuds like. I dont think MOST of you like being different or are empathetic to marginalised people, you want to conform and will bully and harass anyone who doesn’t align with you on a simple basis such as preference. crying about how ST has been marketed to people who would bully the kids in ST, and thats true, but the fandom is a clear reflection of that now.

[1mmortanj]

for all the effort of morally purifying and chastising “writing” you deem problematic (eleven as a character, mileven as a ship), does it ever cross bylers minds that they dont extend this morality on their ship fanon dynamic?

I back and defend eleven because I love her as a character, but continually trying to prove shes well written, not to be written off as a “female love interest” that “revolves around mike” and “needs to be independent” etc, is genuinely exhausting, when fandom is supposed to be fun, Im instead assaulted by “thinkpieces” around “Janes” character, basically condemning her, belittling her and bastardising her characteristics. But I know about the double standards which just makes these posts even more frustrating - Bylers enjoy the toxicity, you can’t enjoy “canon” Byler (when people thought it was made to be canon) without co-signing that Mike is lying and therefore using Eleven, and they explore themes of obsession, co-dependency to the point of genuine abusive dynamics (the popularised “attic wife” trope).

So my question is, even if Eleven is as you say - reduced to Mike, unhealthily dependent on Mike, has nothing to offer outside of that, why now is it a bad thing(in ways it isn’t with Will/Mike)? It just feels like female characters aren’t allowed to be flawed and breathe and be treated as characters in their own right rather than representatives of what “women” as a group is - I once saw a byler say el “set feminism back by 200 years”.

It just feels massively controlling which is ironic for a character trying so hard to escape control and authority, and to make choices for herself. It just feels like female characters are treated with much more scorn and aren’t considered as fully fledged and complex as other male characters, which is based on real life social bias of “boys will be boys”, that men are considered the “default human”, a mouthpiece for the human experience, whilst women already having set expectations and shamed/humiliated for the way they act and behave, and defined by their gender. I guess whats also interesting about that is, Eleven is “othered” in the show, and also “othered” by the audience and both has to do with her humanity.

I just think the way morally chastised bylers approach El is very vacant, safe… and not her at all. Ive seen multiple admit that they just feel they can “do what they want with her” or forget her completely because they inherently believe all of els writing is “misogynistic”, so shes branded as full of whimsy and childish, immature or whatever is complimentary to the other characters. I don’t know, I just think we should all stop being weird about El if we aren’t going to extend or condemn other characters for their problematic writing, it feels targeted and born out of hatred, it cannot be genuine because of these double standards.

[1mmortanj]

byler confirmed, once again, to have never been in the cards, as-well as the duffers being confused as to why the actors are saying el is dead outright. god bless el vindicated el ambiguous ending, el spinoff in 10 years trust me.

and absolutely NO mention of el being a “symbol of childhood magic” again I would have done something drastic. Els survival is something very serious to me, it should’ve never been like this in the first place but here we are, clinging to a duffer interview because the duffers are incompetent delivering a clean and resolved s5. El deserves certainty and security, a proper ending and thats why shes going to return one day.

side note though I think they shaded 2x07… the placement was bad and so was some of the crews personalities but ill never think its a bad episode gn

[friedobservationdeer]

Will is not the chosen one, El is

Or at the very least she was the original chosen one. Like, yeah Will was kidnapped by Henry, and was used as a puppet, but that’s not the same as being the chosen one

Clearly this doesn’t refer to being used as a spy, and this clearly refers more to El than Will. Think about it

• Person is singled out by destiny, prophecy or unique lineage to save the world: Will has two normal parents and an average childhood. It is confirmed he had no special powers before Vecna gave them to him. El on the other hand, comes from a special lineage (Henry) and is chosen by Brenner and groomed into being an assassin. Her mother also had her own powers and funnily enough in “suspicious minds” a semi canon novel, and the comic six, there are characters who have premonitions regarding El

For all of this fuss about Vecna choosing Will, it seems as though everyone forgets that it was El he asked first, El who was canonically like Henry, El who was the only child who was just like him.

Will to Vecna is a means to an end, he is easily breakable, a plaything to Vecna and the mindflayer. El, on the other hand, is the only one capable of matching their strength and beating them. They see her as an actual threat.

• Typically possess special powers or origins: cough Hawkins lab cough telekinesis cough

• Struggle with their unwanted destiny: El doesn’t fight the idea of saving people, but she does escape Brenner and his idea of what her destiny should be. She wants to be normal above all else really.

• Burden of responsibility: This is a must-have if you are trying to be the chosen one. Think of Anakin Skywalker “You were the chosen one!” Aang “You’re the avatar! I’m just one kid” Harry Potter “The boy who lived” or Percy Jackson “The forbidden child”. All of these characters carry a heavy burden and are expected to save the world, they are the only ones who can.

Will is not expected to save the world, for all the praise he receives in season 5, he himself says to El “I know you can beat Vecna, but I’ll help”. Which is exactly what he does, he helps, but he doesn’t kill Vecna. El does, he just gives her a hand like everyone else is doing.

El is expected to fight Vecna, she trains specifically to beat him, Dr Owens says outright that he belives El is the cure. Mike says that she can move mountains, she shows up to close the gate and turn the tide on the mindflayer the moment she shows up in the season 2 finale.

El is the chosen one, it is in her character DNA, I swear anyone who denies it is smoking. Lord have mercy on me, if I see one more TikTok replacing El with Will in the chosen one setup, I will throw my phone. 😡

[1mmortanj]

Stranger Things being a scifi show and Eleven being the one pivotal character to bring the “scifi” element, as well as having the most screen-time across all seasons, having the original Chosen one trope, front and centre on every single poster, most widely-known character and cemented in Pop culture, the Duffers describing ST4 as “Eleven and friends” in an open letter, aswell as a ST5 interview stating that El is “for a lot of reasons, the heart of this story”, aswell as Els journey being inspired by Luke Skywalker (S2), consistently being a focal point of every season and given the most care and interesting arcs, the show starting with her and the climax being her “ending”.

And yet theres still some people (exclusively it seems in the fandom/ online space) that want to argue she isn’t the main character (if there is one). Theres literally no Stranger Things without El, and it’s crazy we even have to prove her validity when she automatically would be considered the protagonist if she was a male character. If Elevens not the main character, no one is.

[findoesstuf]

Me n gng when we’re being chased by the military

[1mmortanj]

Just revisited a podcast/interview Cameron Monaghan did around coming back to shameless, where he talked about how they explored so much of his character, but since they “lost his primary relationship” and “sort of premise of the show” IE Mickey Milkovich, he ultimately knew his character was reaching a dead end, and he elaborated on what he found so interesting about their relationship: “finding a person who’s had a life of mistakes but is with somebody who has made far worse mistakes… and how they protect eachother and fight for eachother and essentially how they’ve kept eachother alive… i think thats kind of fascinating” well YES! Im literally so thankful the actors saw into their nuance and fought for them, all the ways till they finally ended up married after years of Mickey leaving!

Mickey and Ians relationship remains one of the most layered and psychologically complex to me (individually speaking and their dynamic), so expanding on “essentially how they’ve kept eachother alive” their co-dependency, taking care of eachother… they’re so toxic in so many ways, but ultimately they understand there is no one else for eachother because of it. Ian not fronting and learning to be cared for (particularly in seasons 11) and Mickey managing Ians temperament and learning how to best navigate Ians BPD without scaring him like ugh… anyways, whilst there are so many inconsistency’s and writing failures, what remains constant is the passion and care N & C put into their characters, you can feel how much they understand them and want to do right by them. Like to me, this is the only time when yelling at the Showrunners was the correct thing to do - the mere possibility that I&M’s story could’ve ended with that Jail visit. JHC.

Its just so nice to hear CM recognise the value in I&M’s rel to Ians character - Ian is my favourite, and he can as a character stand on his own two feet, but Mickey is essentially his other half and a lot of what made his story so compelling, and its cool hearing CM see that truth despite working in absence of N and developing other relationships outside of Mickey (which I think was the correct way to go, it was healthy for Ian to develop new bonds and experience other relationships).

[1mmortanj]

when the government whos been chasing you since birth wants to falsely imprison and abuse you again but then you remember choosing to kill yourself first is lowkey gas, and conveniently forgoes the humanity you’ve restored so that your friends and family can have null impact: mourning you is framed as something thats setting them back, and it also singlehandedly absolves anyone of guilt and responsibility (including the government) for what happened.

[1mmortanj]

I feel like, because online spaces/ this generation is so hyper-focused on coming across as an individual, self-examination and being defined, like fully pathological, people forget that practically no one knows themselves or has anything figured out.

El having no identity, or starting without one, is kind of the point of her character. To her core she is deeply lonely and “unknowable”, she wears hand me downs from mike/hopper/will/jonathan, has a haircut similar to joyce in s4. her name itself “jane”, like “jane doe” an anonymous person. yet she carries the people she loves with her, and thats what “makes” her (terry + mothers love being what initially gives her strength to fight , kalis sisterhood + punk look + terminology, maxs friendship + guidance and learning how to cure wounds, mikes love + his promise ring + learning trust + boundaries, hop + saras bracelet + parental figure, learning compromises and adopting behavioural characteristics and more).

I think she gets so lost in translation because people want to see themselves in characters, to be known, to be seen. El, as the “Other” and self-perceiving “Monster”, with no access or belonging to conventionality, society, anything like that normalcy, and with only a desire to fit in, kind of stands in contrast to the kind of identity politics of today which is to have Ultimate self-expression, know who you are, and stand out to everyone else. Reinforcing this, El is who she is because of everyone shes loved and who has loved her, rather than being this separate “inner personhood” that is popularised in recent times that says you are inherently unique.

[nakamurafiver]

imagine loving someone so intensely that you absolutely cannot accept their death so you make their heart beat again using the memories you share. they were the true purple rain. I'll never be able to get over them.

[1mmortanj]

S4 Elmax genuinely makes me emotional. And coming from when they first met where El just saw Max as a threat and was standoffish to her to this…. Truly the most formative and beautiful relationship on the show and they blasted it to smithereens. Wait and the vision of El being the final motivator that releases Max from Vecnas grasp oh my god…. The yearning of it all…ELMAX 😭😭😭

[moreraspberry]

One of the biggest reasons I love Mike and El as a pair is that, at their core, they quietly defy conventional gender roles.

That is also part of why I sometimes struggle with readings that immediately fold them into a queer framework — not because I have anything against queer fanon or queer reinterpretation at all. Fandom is meant to be playful and expansive, and people should have fun.

But when I look at them in canon, what moves me is something slightly different.

Mike is a soft boy. He is emotionally open, deeply caring, attentive, vulnerable, expressive. He cries, he listens, he comforts, he loves with his whole chest. And in the context of the 80s, that comes with a particular kind of vulnerability. Those are precisely the traits boys were mocked for. So when softness in a male character is treated as something that must automatically be explained through “he must be gay,” I think something gets lost. Because then we are not challenging the stereotype, we are just repackaging it. We are still saying that a boy who embodies traits culturally coded as feminine must therefore belong somewhere else.

And El stays with me for the same reason, in the opposite direction. She is a girl whose trauma has made her a person of action. She is the one who moves first, who enters solitude, who carries the heroic burden, who often has to act before she has the luxury of breaking down. She has an inner life, a will, a severity, and a force that people more easily accept in male heroes. If she were a boy, no one would question whether she “has the personality” for that kind of journey. But because she is a girl, people often want to soften her, explain her away, or imagine that strength must mean she belongs outside of womanhood.

That is why Mike and El feel so refreshing to me. He does not become less of a boy because he is gentle. She does not become less of a girl because she is fierce. Their dynamic does not work in spite of that; it works because of it.

To me, Mileven is one of those rare relationships where masculinity and femininity stop feeling like cages. Mike brings tenderness without shame. El brings force without apology. Neither one cancels the other out. Neither one needs to become more “correct” in gendered terms to be worthy of love.

And that has real consequences, because the real damage begins when people are taught that if they lean feminine, they are not really men, or if they lean masculine, they are not really women. That is where shame starts. That is where people begin to feel alienated from themselves.

You do not need to perform your gender correctly to deserve love. You do not need to fit a stereotype to be real. Sometimes you just need to exist as you are... and be loved there.

[1mmortanj]

one last fight, and this whole nightmare, it’ll be over. It’ll finally be over.

[1mmortanj]

…tweets within the last couple days that have been purposefully posted on bylertwt for entertainment / “buzz” purposes:

damn so like, bylers have become so enabled and comfortable, that they know posting objectively misogynstic, dehumanising bullshit about a fc (whos done nothing, and their fave character literally benefitted from her misogynistic writing all s5, just to die at age 16) will be played off for laughs and comedy.

and the thing is, bylers who would be uncomfortable about this (and rightfully), don’t even say anything because theyre scared of being characterised and framed as a mileven and treated accordingly by being attacked.

There has to be some acknowledgement that this is objectively cult behaviour. You shouldn’t be scared to hold your own thoughts and opinions, you should feel free to discourage misogyny and bigoted behaviour. You shouldn’t want to surround yourself, as a woman, with a culture that propels misogynistic thinking. Yes this is a fictional character, but the ideology/rhetoric that leads you to find humour in that isn’t.

If you keep deflecting and characterising milevens as the enemy, and dont stop to look around, you will ultimately fail to see that the hostile environment bylers have created, makes for a more (or on par) unsafe and “unwoke” place.

You are not immune to propaganda. The content you consume can and will affect your ideology. It does deeply concern me such a large subtwt endorses this type of behaviour and there is a genuine fear for accountability, whilst milevens are villainised in their heads. I can hear “oh well, milevens were homophobic that one time” and probably so, but the scale is not the same, and your misogyny isn’t justified by past homophobia, it just isn’t, especially when you use that to deflect and validate even more bigoted behaviour (putting real life politics into shipping). I digress but, this shit is getting extremely weird and awful to watch. like what will make bylers calm down as a collective and be more normal about el? I just feel like it gets worse every day.