WHY JANCY BREAK UP ACTUALLY SUPPORTS BYLER ENDGAME AND MILKVAN BONES
(Disclaimer none of this is slander to any of these ships or to invalidate them, I still think personally Jonathan/Nancy have a bit more to them than Mileven but - this is just something I noticed)
So the Duffers have stated that Jancy break up was supposedly “a long time coming” and the reason for this is that they had shared trauma and bonded through these supernatural events but it was “clear that Nancy always needed to be independent” and they both just kind of held on to each other because they didn’t really know what else to do and sort of felt pressured to stay. “They felt like they HAD to stay together” there’s a video interview about it I’ll put a part of it here.
This was interesting to me because it felt kind of similar to how a lot of us or at least Byler’s see Milkvan.
It has always been super obvious that El needed and craved independence, to be a girl, to be someone outside of the men in her life and just to have a family and a normal life.
“Not Hopper, not Mike. You”
“There’s more to life than stupid boys”
We see her time and time again set up to be on her own in scene compositions, in dialogue and in the actual plot.
We also know that Mike and El only met through this supernatural plot line and also bonded in a way over shared trauma and what they went through.
If Byler’s are correct also. Then it makes sense why Mike would feel like he “had to stay” because of his internalised homophobia and need to feel normal, to “stay on a normal path” as Finn has stated multiple times. It also makes sense because he does love El in a certain way that you can’t fake after all they’ve been through and she’s saved him time and time again, he sees her as this amazing superhero and he’s indebted to her.
El on the other hand wants to be a normal girl and what she’s seen in tv shows and in real life is that normal girls get to be pretty and they dress up and they date boys. She loves Mike too and they’re both bonded. They feel like they have to stay together because it just “makes sense” in a world of conformity. Right?
Now looking back on it, El and Mike / Jonathan and Nancy have actually had kind of similar arcs
(not completely, there’s honestly a lot more lovely moments and redeeming parts of Jancy than Mileven … sorry not sorry 😞 but let’s keep going)
So. Both couples have a sort of build up in season one where it toes the line of following where this supernatural plot leads/working together and possible romance hinted throughout. We have them work together and therefore become closer, we have Jonathan staying over at the Wheelers and Nancy keeping that a secret, we also have El staying over at the Wheelers and Mike keeping that a secret. Then we have moments in which the two parings fight (Jancy in the woods and Mileven after finding Will … and then again after Lucas …actually a few times but anyways), and then they come back together again after a traumatic event in which Nancy was in trouble - in the upside down and Jonathan saves her and brings her back - then with Mike he’s also in trouble, he’s jumped off a literal cliff and El saves him and brings him back. Then both pairings hug and make up. THEN we have that scene of Mike and Nancy at the school where Mike asks “so do you like Jonathon now?” And Nancy says “no it’s…not like that” and then “Do you like Eleven?”, to which Mike responds “NO! Ew, gross!”
So we can see that both pairs have been set up not exactly the same but in a similar structure throughout this season. However, neither get together in the end of it - El disappears into the upside down and Jonathan disappears back to his family and so Nancy goes back to Steve and Mike isn’t sure whether El is even alive. Meaning they both are left unresolved and set up for audiences wanting more in season two.
Which then brings us to the second season.
In this season the two don’t follow arcs just as closely as season one, but this is still the season in which both couples “yearn” for each other and have a “will they won’t they?” Sort of deal going on. This season in my opinion is probably where Jancy actually parallels season 4 Byler the most and Stancy parallels season 4 Mileven so obviously this couple IS multifaceted and there’s more to the story - but this is a perspective I feel that we’ve overlooked because of this. So season two is still sort of building up from where we left off in season 2. In Jancy’s case, they work together again and with a little push they come together finally!!! They kiss and fans are ecstatic. They end the build up of them this season, leaving them off with their scene at the snowball, smiling at each other from across the hall and it was lovely, it seemed right. Mileven don’t actually spend like ANY of the season together but the creators definitely build up the suspense of them wanting to reach each other and then finally having their reunion that the audience is rooting for, finally!!! Their final scene is at the snowball together, smiling and then they share a kiss and fans are ecstatic.
In this third season, the couples once again have a different yet eerily similar storyline.
This is the season in which each of our characters sort of lose themselves to find themselves.
With Mike and El, we start off seeing them as this overly lovey dovey couple in El’s room, making out. This makes Mike late for the movies with his friends and he bikes hurriedly out of there. We find out this is something they regularly do from Hopper.
With Nancy and Jonathan, we start off seeing them in bed together in Jonathan’s room, Jonathan with a kiss mark on his face - both late for work and rushing out of there. We can gather that this is something they either do regularly or at least have done before by the way in which the characters each treat the situation and Joyce is not surprised.
We then have a Nancy and Jonathan have a pretty bad fight due to outside circumstances (their job and boss firing them) where they just don’t seem to understand each other and though it’s not a breakup - the two are very distant from each other after and it’s noted that they aren’t talking until the team gets back together, with how Jonathan doesn’t know what Nancy was doing at the hospital and the others chiming in “you weren’t there?” and Lucas and the others reacting to the couples obvious tension. Season 3 is rocky for them.
For Mike and El they not only fight but break up but still it’s a fight cause by outside circumstances (Hopper and then in turn Mike lying because of him) and the two can’t seem to understand each other “why do you lie?” and El dumps him.
This season is arguably her happiest - she leans into her independent side and through Max gets to discover who SHE is. Not who she is to everyone else.
For Nancy, I wouldn’t say it’s her happiest, however it’s clear that she’s starting to go on a self discovery journey of her own. She fights back at her job where the men don’t respect her and her mother, Karen, encourages her to seek more than what they believe she can offer as a woman.
So through the help of other women, Nancy and El find a strength in themselves again that has nothing to do with supernatural powers or Nancy knock em down Wheeler. It’s independent of their partners and it is feminine and it is beautiful.
For Mike - he tries to stay on that normal path and he wallows and then with Lucas’ encouragement he eventually tries to win El back. Sort of.
Mike is waylaid by his emotional arc with Will for a second there and then they head right into the battle again.
For Jonathan, we don’t see much of an emotional arc outside of this unfortunately but we do know that when they head into battle again he realises Nancy was right and tries to also win Nancy back in a way in which he is honest and caring and admits he was wrong.
Both Jonathan and Mike make their “apologies” (I put this is quotations because idk if Mike’s can really be considered a proper apology lol - but regardless, they both make up in not so many words), at the hospital.
They make up at the hospital - Jancy in the Elevator and Mileven in the lobby (with Lucas’ encouragement - but Mike’s arc is a bit different from Jonathan’s… so I think we all know why this is - anyways).
They’ve both made up but there’s a lot of other supernatural stuff going on and drama with El’s powers. We get through it all and then we win the battle but lose a few people in the process.
We go to our final scenes where the Byers and El are moving away.
Jancy having a touching scene in an empty bedroom where they talk about their shared trauma and say a regretful but sweet goodbye.
Mileven have a scene in an almost empty bedroom (everything except Will’s damn teddy bear… right) and there scene is definitely a little more seperate and stagnant than Jancy’s but they still both reach similar conclusions that as the audience we understand both couples are together and saying goodbye and hold love for each other (I’m not gonna speak on Mike’s reactions in this scene cause I think it speaks for itself and I’m trying to focus solely on the parallels of their two relationships for now)
So Nancy and Mike stand watching from the Byers house as El and Jonathan (and Will 👀) drive away from them.
They’re losing their trauma bonded other half’s right now. It’s clearly going to be different from here on out no matter what.
Both Mileven and Jancy spend almost the entire season apart and have established issues where they are lying to each other about one thing or another from the very start.
Jonathan about his application to Emerson and trying to slow motion break up.
Nancy about having to stay behind to work when she just didn’t want to go to California.
Mike not being able to say I love you and then also presenting a ‘knock off’ front when arriving in California. (Among other things).
El about countless things - her life in California, her friends, her grades, her mental health. Almost everything really.
For El and Mike they now parallel Stancy a lot just before they broke up and made room for Jancy.
While Mike and Will obviously grow back together.
El is focusing on regaining her powers so she can end Vecna and save Max/end this.
Mike is focusing on getting El back so they can get to Hawkins to help - but he’s also struggling a lot with all this relationship stuff and some emotions bubbling under the surface.
For Jonathan and Nancy - nancy grows closer to Robin, Steve again and just the kids. She loses another friend and is focusing on her reporting as well as killing Vecna, saving Max and ending this.
Jonathan is focusing on helping El and getting to Hawkins to help, while struggling under the surface to be that support person for his brother and take care of his family.
We then have the “I love you” scene - I’m not gonna speak on it, as many have before and it was very clearly a bunch of bull and literally did nothing to empower El and save Max and stop Hawkins from splitting in four 😭 so …
But after Mileven are barely talking as Mike states and El ignores him, going into her room and closing the door on him at the cabin.
Jancy are also at the cabin and have a sort of awkward conversation where they are talking but not saying what they mean and dancing around the truth once again. That is where we leave both couples off.
The only difference is the very last scene on the hill with Jancy together and Byler together and El on her own.
But once again this is foreshadowing El’s independence arc.
Not sure YET what this means for Jancy.
But here is what we know for sure now.
The duffers stated they’ve been breaking down Jancy since the beginning. It seems they built them up for 2 season and they started dissecting their relationship and allowing us to see the cracks forming from season three to four, to nothing in five until they broke up.
They follow an almost (almost) identical formula to Mileven (though Milevens is arguably more obvious), who were also built up for two seasons and then dissected, broken down and cracked from season 3 to four until nothing in 5.
Both relationships were so lost and reduced in season 5 it’s been hard to see them as a suitable and lovable relationship. There’s no romance between them - this lead to SO MANY truths coming out that Jancy had been holding in and then a beautiful and amicable break up. It makes 100% sense with how they’ve done everything else I just mentioned that they could now do the same thing for Mileven and hopefully very well.
On top of this - it seems that for the most part…the couples that came together through the upside down events (e.g. Jancy, Mileven etc.) are doomed.
Couples that came together from childhood/school friendships/outside of the upside down - e.g. Jopper, Lumax, Rovickie etc. and NOW … hopefully BYLER.
Mike and Will have known each other for YEARS, way before the upside down and all this other trauma. They didn’t bond through that - they bonded through friendship. They met in school and connected on joint interests. They were already established as having a connection before the UD, from their very first scene together and one on one scene.
Lucas and Max met in school, connected through joint interests of arcade games, Halloween etc and already had that established before the UD came into it.
Jopper were the ultimate slow burn, they knew each in school, knew each other for years after and went seperate ways before coming back together and THEN the UD came into it.
Rovickie - tho less developed unfortunately, also met through school and was a sweet crush with joint interest in band and shared humour and then volunteering together and then getting together all before Vickie even knew about the UD in this season.
Yes they all have some form of shared trauma and yes they’re all different and the same in many ways.
But I think it’s clear to see which relationships the duffer brothers see as deeper and meaningful and meant for the endgame.
(I posted this on twt too but like no one follows me on there so… here Tumblr #believe)
