#st 4x08

[forbescaroline]

11k celebration: top 50 m/f friendships (as voted by my followers) #09. steve harrington and robin buckley - stranger things

[stancythings]

THE CAST REACTS TO STRANGER THINGS SEASON 4, EPISODE 8

[nightnut]

💛🥹🎨💙

[felicitykings]

EL HOPPER & WILL BYERS

STRANGER THINGS (2016- ) ↳ 4.08 Chapter Eight: Papa

[princessrhcenyra]

STRANGER THINGS

2x02 ⇢ 4x08

[vivelegalite]

EDIT: the script might have been fake, but i still stand by my interpretation!!

at long last, it is here! about 12 hours of work, culminated in this here google doc:

vivelegalite's analysis of the van scene in 4x08

Alright, so. The script. We’ve all seen it. And at face value, it makes absolutely no sense. Let's compare it with what happens in the sho

25 pages may seem daunting at first, but the word total is about 2.7k words, so the average length of a oneshot. there's just about 40 pictures to illustrate my points.

my analysis may not be groundbreaking, but i really do think i managed to get a pretty good grasp on what mike's thinking.

i've been told it's also pretty funny, so there's that also. my beta readers i am kissing you on the forehead gently

the doc is open to comments, and i'd love any and all notes y'all may have for me!

enjoy and stay delulu<3

check out my (much shorter!) post on the important distinction — i hate who i am/i hate myself

[aliferousdreamer]

eddie really is the boromir to dustin's merry/pippin... and we all know what happened there 😭💔

[sugarcubetikki]

The show literally presents the reason to why Mike can't tell El he loves her initially is because he's insecure as El is so special whilst he's just some random nerd and he's scared that she won't need him anymore so he feels unworthy of her love. However, Mike realises that's not the case because he's told that El needs him, that El commissioned a painting for him planning every detail in it, that he's the heart of the group especially to El, that El felt lost without him because she's different and when you're different you can feel like a mistake but El feels like she isn't a mistake around him and she feels better for being different when he's around and that gives her the courage to fight on and that if El seemed mean or pushed him away it's because she was just as afraid to lose him like he was.

And that's what contributes to his development in terms of his relationship with El and that's what helps him grandly confess his love for her because he's reminded that he's "the heart" to her.

And the person telling him all of this isn't El. All of this doesn't come out of El's mouth as it should. It's his supposed best friend Will Byers telling him this and what his best friend Will Byers actually means telling Mike all this is that...

"I need you too. I made you this painting just like I used to make you art when we were kids, you're holding a heart shield on the painting because to me you're heart of the group you're everyone's emotional support you've always been the leader kept the party together since the very first day and without you we'd all fall apart especially me because you were always there for me when I was going through the hardest times you stood by me, supported me and believed me when I was possessed by the Mind Flayer. But we grew up and grew apart, I felt lost without you not just because I moved because you stopped reaching out I stopped reaching out and things were different between us because I'm different. I realised I'm not like you or the rest as we grew apart when you all got girlfriends and cared about nothing else. When you're different, you can feel like a mistake and I felt like that having these feelings for you was a mistake. I was supposed to grow up and get a girlfriend like you did but all I wanted to do is stay in your basement forever and play d&d with you to be honest. When I'm around you I feel better for being different and you give me the courage to fight on in every d&d game we've ever played and in real life that's why I didn't surrender not when I was taken nor when I took a risk for the party the night before. If I seemed mean or pushed you away, I was just as afraid to lose you like you said you were back in Lenora in my bedroom and I was so glad to hear that you felt the same way and that this isn't unfixable that we haven't completely grown apart and that the part of you that stayed by my side when we were younger is still in there somewhere."

Everything he said referred to his own feelings, not El's. It's unique to him and AS YOU CAN SEE I LITERALLY BACKED UP ALL HIS WORDS WITH HIS POSSIBLE THOUGHT PROCESSES IN THAT SCENE AND I BET YOU IF I TRIED TO DO THAT IN TERMS OF HOW IT WOULD LINE UP WITH EL OR MIKE I WOULD STRUGGLE TO DO THAT AS SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE THEIR RELATIONSHIP IS SO BASIC (imagine "I asked Will to make you this painting on my behalf because I can't paint as well as him and I know I lied in my letter about it possibly being for Will's crush but I wanted it to be a surprise" like please how does that even sound). The fact that a reminder of these words filled with Will's emotional intent helped drive the M*leven love confession because Mike thinks Will's words were actually El's will forever be the weirdest thing ever and I want to clown and say it's intentional because honestly what the hell was wrong with the writers during this volume they didn't do byler and can't even write m*leven properly why?!