i really, really hate what they seem to be setting up for el’s character in the final episode. “el has to choose between her boyfriend’s delusions & her sister’s suicide pact” is already wild (like, why is it suddenly mike vs. kali when el’s arc has been connected to hopper since vol. 1?), but i’m angry for another reason.
at this point in the story, el has secretly agreed to kali’s suicide pact & plans to sacrifice herself without telling any of her friends or family. to me, this is pretty clearly foreshadowing that el won’t be going through with kali’s plan in the end. she will either “choose mike” (gag me with a spoon) or forge her own path, because as much as the writing in this volume has already let me down, i do refuse to believe el is about to kill herself in secret when she just spent both volumes berating hopper for attempting to do just that, lmao.
now that we’ve established that, let’s unpack what the duffers have already said about it & what it implies outside of the context of the narrative: kali’s ending is being posed as a tragic but necessary sacrifice that el may be unable to avoid. mike’s ending is being posed as a fairytale ending—optimistic, hopeful, unrealistic:
hmm, where have we heard that word before? oh, yeah. every single time byler is even mentioned as a possibility in canon, everyone & their mothers—including the duffers—leaps at the opportunity to bitch & moan about how a requited queer love story that takes place in the 80s is simply far too unrealistic to portray, & that the oh-so-beautifully tragic realism in will’s arc of rejection & “self-acceptance” (which vol. 2 already made an absolute mess of, but that’s a conversation for another post) makes for a “much better story”.
i was already angry about this, but now i’m even angrier, because mike’s blatantly unrealistic hope for a happy ending with el (+ the rest of the party) is being explicitly posed as something we, the audience, should be rooting for. why is the heterosexual couple (that only continues to exist due to a queer character’s suffering & sacrifice, mind you) allowed to overcome evil with the self-described unrealistic power of love/hope, but the queer character who has yearned for nothing but romantic connection for three seasons straight isn’t allowed to be rewarded by the narrative whatsoever, lest it supposedly shatter the audiences’ fragile suspension of disbelief? give me a fucking break & say the quiet part out loud: you have no interest in portraying impactful queer stories that serve a coherent narrative. you care about squeezing as much suffering out of will byers’ torture-porn of a character as you possibly can in a cheap attempt at creating something meaningful.
to be as clear as possible: el deserves a happy ending. el deserves to live. el does not deserve to sacrifice herself for the sake of the world after everything she’s already been through. i’m just upset that all this talk of realism seems to go out the damn window as soon as our heterosexual heroes are the topic of conversation. it’s a blatant double standard & i’m over it. it’s not “beautiful”, it’s not “empowering”, it’s just bleak.
gummygunk
vaporwave
yousharknotpass
pixelskylines
prguitarman
dailybridgerton
kianamaiart
