When They Were Special

Once upon a time, a princess got lost. Her prince went off to find her. Then the prince got lost and they had to find each other.

[catasters]

[mmy7souvlaki]

i think everyone needs to see this

[johnconstantius]

Yes, everyone needs to see this.

[tastefullyoffensive]

[roachpatrol]

i enjoy that every single human’s reaction to penguin is unrestrained delight

[ayellowbirds]

And penguins lack large terrestrial predators, so their reaction to humans tends to be, “HELLO STRANGE GIANT PENGUINS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? DO YOU HAVE ANY FISH?”

[it-is-bugs]

I will reblog this on my deathbed.

[huggableotter-deactivated202010]

Please let him science 🐧

[mrshamill]

i think at least half of the million reblabs on this are from me

[ekjohnston]

There is an international treaty that says we’re supposed to stay 6m away from penguins, and it’s really difficult because no one told the penguins, and they all desperately want to wander up and say hi.

[johnconstantius]

I love this so much there are no words. Hello, strange giant penguins, have you any fish?

[pangur-and-grim]

[johnconstantius]

I like LeGuin, in particular A Wizard of Earthsea. But her intense need to claim other writers are Doing It Wrong was never a good look.

[anotherlonelydancer]

today I am thinking about susan pevensie.

thinking about how a part of her would always know what truly happened during the war.

how a part of her would always know where she truly went.

how a part of her childhood and adulthood would always be lost to the land of no time

how a part of her would always remember that her family was lost there too

no matter how hard she tries to deny it, she knows

she remembers

she remembers the god that threw her out of paradise and knows that she can no longer step foot in a church

she remembers silk dresses and heavy crowns and knows that scratchy nylon and caked makeup will never suffice

she remembers blood stained fields and war torn siblings and knows that this world was worse in every way for it

she remembers herself

she doesn’t know herself

she sits in front of her bedroom wardrobe

it does not have carvings of trees or fauns or fairytales

it holds flimsy dresses instead of winder coats

she opens it up and walks inside

she prays to a god that she doesn’t believe in

she prays to the version of him that she knew

she prays for her family people back

she prays that this time the back of her wardrobe will fall away and take her with it

it never does.

today I am thinking about susan pevensie

she deserves to be thought about

[johnconstantius]

This is beautiful.

I’d only make two changes.

No god threw her out of paradise. She threw herself out of paradise.

She did make it back. Not in the books — but Professor Lewis did say she would.

He did, after all.

[sugar-petals]

i fucking love ryan gosling for saying this. he gets that if a movie hits like crack and gives us something ‘more’, the certain something beyond market value, we will naturally go full barbenheimer on our local theaters.

[cornyonmains]

If I was Ryan Gosling, I’d say so much worse, and you can tell he wants to. I saw a figure recently that said about 85% of Hollywood right now is run by nepo babies. They’re in writer’s rooms, directing, acting, there’s so goddamn many of them they’re moving sideways and trying to get into stand-up now because there isn’t room for all of them.

That is at the heart of what is wrong with Hollywood, and if I was someone like Ryan, watching the industry burn for the sake of fail kids after climbing to the top, I’d start pouring gasoline. Of course he gets it. He’s one of the six actors left in Hollywood who had to make people like him organically.

[yetanotherdayofdrudgery]

Once upon a time some entertainers would change their name to make it on their own steam instead of their parents’ fame. Some succeeded, some failed, but I definitely respect that.

No more, I guess.

[johnconstantius]

I’ve been surprised by how many “nepo-babies” there are in Hollywood. If you look at Avengers: Endgame, both Robert Downey Jr. and Josh Brolin had parents in the business; Chris Evans did not. Maya Hawke of Stranger Things obviously is a nepo-baby.

But even as a non-nepo baby, I’ve always thought that nepotism can get you the audition — it can’t get you the job.

The MCU made *billions* off of nepo-baby Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark. I don’t care who his father was, RDJ had talent that put asses in seats. (And despite her complaints about “fair” compensation, nepo-baby Gwenneth Paltrow did not. Not in the MCU, at any rate).

There’s definitely unfairness here — a reasonably talented nepo-baby is much more likely to get a Hollywood role than an exceptionally talented hayseed from Wichita who has to rock up for a cattle call audition. But I’m not sure how to fix that.

[fromhersoul]

[hauntedhunted]

kiss this babey

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

"Let's get cherished by mamas"

[radrabbitx]

pt 3 to my doodles! :D mike & el once more. spoilers but this is my fav scene from @johnconstantius "When He Was Special," specifically chapter 31: The Star :)

When i first read this scene on Mike's sacrifice & El's love for him, i felt so many thingsss. so today when i had extra time (& motivation to practice procreate) in starbucks, i drew out my feelings for this one. haha. 

--

"Don't let me go," he whispered.

"I won't," she said.  "You're here with me, Mike.  You're here with me and I’ll never let you go."

--

thank you so much for writing such a wonderful story @johnconstantius! :D I love how you write mileven and of course all the characters! 

here’s the fic link for anyone interested: x

also, why do i keep drawing these two like vampire knight? 

[johnconstantius]

OMG @radrabbitx this is wonderful! I’m so honored and touched that you would draw this scene (which is my favorite too)! 😊🙏

There are no words — this really made my day. Thank you so much!!

[johnconstantius]

@1mmortanj I will totally answer, I’m afraid I just haven’t watched the show yet 😊! Much to say at that point, I have no doubt!

[johnconstantius]

So apparently a 75 year old millionaire big game hunter, with a home filled with trophies from African safaris, was recently trampled to death by a herd of elephants.

I’m an agnostic, but every now and then it feels like the universe is trying to prove to me there is a God.

[johnconstantius]

I’d love to know how you’re getting on with When They Were Special, if you are or want to say!

I hope you’re taking care of yourself :)

(This isn’t me asking when, I just want to know how you’re feeling about the project!)

So I know you didn’t ask about timing, but Chapter 16 is well underway 😊. It’s an El POV that overlaps chapter 15 and then moves forward from there. There is fluff, action (including Dart of course) and El & Max discussing *ahem* El’s night on the telescope.

How do I feel about the project? Much better.

Like the Duffers in S3 through S5, I have been struggling to come up with more to say about Mileven after When She and When He. I now recognize that as a creator it is genuinely hard to come up with new, meaningful content after you’ve told the story you wanted to tell. I think that’s one of the reasons Hopper became a caricature after S2 and Joyce became all about “Will!” — the Duffers and their writers room ran out of ideas for those characters.

I feel like I now have more things to say about our favorite couple. If S5 had any upside for me, it’s that it inspired me with what it did wrong.

I don’t consider the following a spoiler, because Mike is going to buy the ring in the next few chapters, but two days ago I finally figured out the scene where Mike proposes to El and I love it.

And yes, of course Mike is going to propose to El in All The Days 😊. The Special series is my version of S4 - S5 and you can be damn sure in my universe it turns out right.

[lcwebsxoxo]

When did the younguns decide they can't say "ass" anymore?

[johnconstantius]

Good lord, is this a thing?

[johnconstantius]

So a post crossed my dash where someone listed twenty Mileven fic recommendations. None of mine were on there.

Which, fine, no one owes you a read or a recommendation, you have to earn that on quality.

I just suddenly feel very tired.

[apricops]

Stranger Things season 1: beneath the superficial image of “peace and prosperity” in 1980s small-town America, there was the painful legacy of countless atrocities committed by the American government in the name of ‘freedom.’

Stranger Things season 4: evil Russians (not Soviets) have sent our All-American Hero to the gulags which apparently still exist in the 1980s and it’s up to us to save him 🇺🇸🦅🫡

[johnconstantius]

An interesting post. The comments section is… curious (to be charitable). I should mention that I am someone whose partner is Russian, but I’ve been fascinated by Russian (and Soviet) history long before I met her.

A few things:

“Soviet” and “Russian” were used interchangeably by Americans during the Cold War, as Russia was by far the dominant state and culture of the Soviet Union. So ST using this nomenclature means absolutely nothing other than the Duffers are familiar with the time period. So folks should relax on this one — sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

The Russian nomenclature for the USSR survives despite the tyrannical autocrat Stalin being from Georgia and Brezhnev and Khrushchev technically being Ukrainian. To be fair, Ukraine had been part of the Russian empire since the late 1700s, so until ~30 years ago this was a distinction without a difference.

The gulags still existed in the 1980s. The fact that OP apparently doesn’t know this is… sad.

ST has *never* been about “the countless atrocities of the American government.” ST is 80s nostalgia, which includes post-Vietnam suspicion about the US government à la Three Days of the Condor and Firestarter, as well as fear of the Soviets à la Red Dawn and the vast majority of the James Bond films.

Media like Condor and Firestarter typically draw distinctions between the “normal” government who came and went with each election cycle and were generally clueless, and permanent, shadowy agencies running their own game under the radar with a black budget — a government within a government, if you will.

So let’s be clear — ST isn’t saying Brenner was running his lab because Reagan was President. ST is saying Brenner would run his lab no matter who was President. Which is the most terrifying thing of all, because it means elections don’t matter and ordinary citizens can’t stop the likes of Brenner without taking extraordinary action (which El did).

Completely unrelated to ST, but some in the comments apparently don’t understand what the John Wick series is about. Wick, through heroic efforts, got out of the game. Then, in a moment of understandable weakness — because his dog got killed and his wife was dead — he went back in again to pursue vengeance. Everything that happens to him over the rest of the series is a consequence of that decision. IMO it’s a modern day Shakespearean tragedy, because it wasn’t in John’s nature to resist that decision, and as a consequence hell opened up beneath his feet and everyone else’s.

[theduchesswrites]

I would love, love, love to hear your take on the possible storyline for an ST movie 5 years from now as the Duffers and Netflix get desperate for another payday.

If it helps, I’m assuming that at a minimum Millie, Finn, Winona and David come back, but everyone else is a toss up.

Ooh, this is an interesting one.

Millie and Finn would definitely come back. I say this based on what they've said over the years about their love for their characters and Mileven, their cryptic answers during the S5 press tour, and their social media activity post-finale.

I'm not as certain as you about Winona and David. Winona doesn't need the money and seemed pretty done during the S5 press tour, while David is now part of the MCU and also seemed pretty checked out. Of course, an easy paycheck is an easy paycheck. The only two cast members I can't see coming back are Sadie and Charlie. Sadie has made it very clear that she's glad to move on and doesn't care, while Charlie was consistently shafted post-S1, which is a shame considering he's probably the best actor of the younger cast.

With that, I think an interesting storyline would include more of the dark matter from Dimension X or remnants of the Upside Down showing up. El has to act, even if surreptitiously, but her tether with Mike brings them back together. Maybe he hears something about it and wants to learn more for a book, maybe it's taking place in Hawkins because of course it is. At the end, Owens helps El get amnesty from the US Government — it'd be around the time of the 1994 MKUltra report — though she still chooses to leave the United States with authentic documentation, finally making a choice to leave on her own terms, but not before a tearful reunion with Hopper and Joyce. Mike, being an adult capable of understanding and accepting what risks may come with it, goes with her, as she learns to finally let someone else make a sacrifice out of love for her.

It'd need to be gritty, à la Seasons 1 and 2. Not necessarily R-rated, but more adult than what we got in Season 5. And it would absolutely need to return to the anti-establishment ethos of the first two seasons.

Someone like Shawn Levy will likely take over directing duties — good, and also worth noting that he posted "I believe" multiple times post-finale — and a new person will take over the script. The Duffers, being the blabbermouths that they are, have admitted that they sold the IP to Netflix, which could still mandate a follow-up whether they like it or not.

[johnconstantius]

Reblogged this but forgot to add my thoughts 🙄. So reblogging again 😊.

I love this take. I take @theduchesswrites point about Winona and David, maybe they aren’t in it.

I suppose my biggest concern about the ST movie, which like the Duchess I think *will* be made eventually in a cash grab, is that it won’t specifically be a Mileven movie. There will certainly be Mileven, that’s part of the show, but I suspect it will be very sci-fi horror focused rather than a relationship movie.

I love the Duchess’s proposed storyline though, especially El leaving the US to go back to Iceland and Mike going with her. It would be great for El to get the gift of someone else making a sacrifice for her.

And of course the Duchess should write it 😊.

[orangepenguino]

(nyt)

No. I'm fine, really. I'm just ugly crying about Carroll crater. A bright spot on the far side of the moon. I'm fine. I'll stop crying eventually.

[johnconstantius]

I thought this was beautiful.

But I hesitated to repost.

It probably comes as no surprise that I’m a big space exploration nerd — I love Stranger Things and sci-fi generally, so wow, what a shock. I’ve probably read a dozen books about the history of the space race and endlessly watched documentaries and dramatizations of the exploration of the Final Frontier.

So Artemis II has been kind of emotional for me. But when I saw some of the comments on this post, the level of toxicity was stunning. There are no words for how much hatred is out there. I was genuinely concerned about brushing up against that level of hatred.

But what can you do? Don’t let the haters stop you from reposting, that’s what you can do.

[arlosworld91]

One of my oneshots I thought about writing a second part, going so far as to write 1.5k words but it just wasn’t working so I abandoned it 😅

[johnconstantius]

I’ve had a fair number of ideas that I gave a try and then abandoned. I’ve also had cases where I wrote whole chapters that I then tossed and started over from scratch. Personally I think it’s a good sign of writing development when you’re willing to recognize the times that your own stuff isn’t working.

I sometimes think this is what people mean when they say to writers, “Kill your darlings.” But I’ve seen that saying applied all kinds of ways, so maybe not.

[sweeetestcurse]

Dane DiLiegro as Feral Predator/Predator in Prey (2022) 03/??

[johnconstantius]

Taking a break from your regularly scheduled Mileven to say just how much I like the Predators. The best was the original movie but Prey is a very close second.