Okay kiddies, Stranger Things 3 spoilers ahead, also there is gonna be a lot of “Why Leo has a Problem with Mileven.” So if you hardcore ship it, I would not recommend reading.
So I just reached Stranger Things 3 in my rewatch of all of Stranger Things. And I gotta say, initially I found the Mileven insanely overbearing. Now I just find it a little disturbing. And I am absolutely on Hopper’s side here. Mike is smug son of a bitch and he was corrupting Eleven and they spent way too much time together.
So in ST1, Lucas absolutely fucking called it: You just like that for once a girl isn’t grossed out by you!
And that’s the fucked up thing: Eleven isn’t a normal little girl. She is a little girl who was purposely fully kept ignorant so she could be far more easily manipulated by Brenner, being wholly uneducated makes it much easier to manipulate a person when you have the intellectual upper hand. It’s a tried and true method folks.
So when she met Mike and all the others, the only person who intensely latched onto her and kept her mostly isolated to himself was, you guessed it; Mike. Mike was her main source of human interaction; who told her what to do, where to go, and would in his own way abuse and manipulate her (praise and defended her when she did what he wanted and then ripped into her when she displeased him).
In ST1, Mike keeps her his own little secret pet. She lives in his basement, in a little tent he makes for her. He loved getting to have his own little damsel in distress who could also attack people for him. Towards the end, he kisses her. An 11/12 year old who has no idea what romance or sexuality is. He doesn’t ask her, he just fucking does it.
“Oh but he doesn’t know better! He’s a little boy!” you cry.
Yeah, but little kids who act like that, grow up to be real shit heads. It already shows he feels entitled, especially given everything he said right before he said that. He is fantasizing about keeping her all to himself. Everyone is her new family but him. He clearly intends for her to be his girlfriend. He doesn’t even entirely know her, she doesn’t know herself, and he’s already decided she will live with him, date him, and love him. Then he kisses her.
Now lets move on to Stranger Things 2.
Specifically when he finds out that Hopper has been raising her and keeping her hidden. He doesn’t give a fuck that it was to keep her safe. He’s just mad that his prize, his pet, his perceived love was kept from him. Mike then attacks Hopper. He doesn’t give a rat’s ass about Eleven’s safety, he is mad he was denied her.
“Oh but she missed him too!” you’ll say.
SHE HAS NEVER LEARNED THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FAMILIAL LOVE, PLATONIC LOVE, AND ROMANTIC LOVE.
The Party were the first friends she ever made. Of course she would try and check up on them, the last time she saw any of them they were in danger. Yeah we only see her checking in on Mike, but that’s likely because he wouldn’t fucking stop trying to contact her.
That’s fucking harassment folks.
It’s not cute, it’s not romantic. If an adult male did this, you’d all lose your fucking minds.
Mike sulked and sulked and sulked without her around. Without the one girl who wanted anything to do with him because she craved human contact.
Then we get to the fucking Snow Ball and yet again with no warning, permission or prompt, Mike kissed Eleven. Who still doesn’t understand what the fuck that means.
Now between Stranger Things 2 and 3, we’re left to assume after the Snow Ball, Hopper allowed Mike (and hopefully the others) to come around and visit Eleven, but it’s clear she still had to sort of lay low.
By the time we see them in Stranger Things 3, Mike is apparently over there so fucking often it has driven Hopper insane. And I’m sorry but this isn’t the same kind of “oh I don’t want my daughter dating!” insane. This is “I haven’t gone a whole day without seeing this fucking kid in months” insane. And we clearly see that Mike fucking encourages Eleven to be disrespectful to, dismissive to, and mocking of Hopper. Like he encourages her to make fun of and laugh at Hopper and his boundaries (three inches) right in front of him.
“BUT THEY’RE TEENAGERS! THAT’S WHAT TEENAGERS DO!” you screech.
So I’m gonna state again that Eleven isn’t a normal teenager. She likely doesn’t attend school with the others because guess what? Her learning and growth as person is immensely stunted. She takes on the behavioral patterns and mannerisms of the person she is around the most. She’s a teenager and she’s at the toddler stage of “Monkey See. Monkey Do.” If I had to peg it, she might be emotionally and intellectually at the level of a 8 or 9 year old.
I think a lot of people mistake her speaking better in this season as being more emotionally and intellectually advanced. This is not true. It’s obvious in the way that she still doesn’t understand certain things being said to her. She misses social cues, she doesn’t know when Mike is being shitty to her (literally the only person who looked out for her in The Party is Max). She just knows what Mike tells her.
He’s a fucking hormonal boy who just wants the girl of his dreams, which is a girl who is very stunted.
Let that sink in for a moment: He is obsessed with a girl who is stunted.
“But he says he loves her!” you point out.
Yeah, he loves a girl who isn’t even sure who she is yet because she only started being a person like 2-3 years ago. Mike isn’t so fucking stupid that he isn’t aware that she was an experiment, a weapon, a tool. She doesn’t fucking know better. She never got to grow and develop as person like all the other girls he goes to school with. A girl who he can control, a girl who has powers.
That is what Mike likes about her. She’s whatever he wants her to be.
Let’s not even talk about how he fucking constantly isolates her. How he literally ignores all his friends just to continually be at her house, in her room, in private, and constantly kissing her. That is sexual grooming. He is fucking shaping her to his sexual desires. Making himself the center of her entire world. Lucas and Max are dating and yet manage to hangout with everyone else. No one can hang out with Eleven but Mike.
Mike fucking groomed her from day god damn one to be his girlfriend. That’s why Hopper hates it, that’s why he’s so fucking insane this season. If I had to watch a child that I was trying to rehabilitate and loved as my own fucking child being manipulated by some scumbag little shit weasel I’D LOSE MY FUCKING MIND TOO.
And then there is when they’re having to part ways because Hopper is gone and the Byers can’t fucking be in Hawkins anymore. MIKE IS LITERALLY ALREADY PLANNING OUT HER SCHEDULE WITH HIM ON A FUCKING YEARLY HOLIDAY BASIS.
HE HAS ALREADY MADE FUCKING PLANS FOR HER.
I DON’T KNOW WHAT ELSE I CAN SAY HONESTLY.
TL;DR - Mike Wheeler is an entitled little fucking piece of shit who groomed a girl to be his girlfriend from a young age and the fact that he’s her age doesn’t fucking matter. I don’t care if he ‘got wise’ when everyone started dragging him, he still did what he did and if he really loved Eleven he’d let her grow and develop on her own while she went away with the Byers family. But he didn’t.
