[ SECRET POST #4568 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4568 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.



__________________________________________________



02.


__________________________________________________



03.


__________________________________________________



04.


__________________________________________________



05.


__________________________________________________



06.


__________________________________________________



07.


__________________________________________________



08.


__________________________________________________



09.







Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 19 secrets from Secret Submission Post #654.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

06. https://i.imgur.com/iqnR1nm.png

[(Anonymous)]

This is one aspect of the show I'm lukewarm about. Didn't care about the angst of puppy love. Definitely don't care about the pre-teen melodrama and yeah, Mike IS kind of a dick.

[sparrow_lately]

This makes me even less enthusiastic to finally get off my ass and watch season 3. There's nothing wrong with their crush on one another (though I think it's overdone), but I teach middle school. I do not want to watch middle schoolers trying to date in my escapist tv.

[(Anonymous)]

Shouldn't they be in their mid-teens by now? Season 1 was a pretty long time ago, and I thought they were preteens then. Is it gross because most teenagers on TV who date and make out are played by adults, so these characters seem younger than they are?

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah the characters are 14 or 15, I think.

[(Anonymous)]

1) I think most people perceive 14 to be significantly closer to childhood than 16.

2) We've watched these kids grow up a bit, so that makes it feel weirder.

3) What you said. If they were played by young looking 18-year-olds I don't think it would feel nearly as...whatever, as it does feel.

For the record, I like Mike/Eleven, and I didn't have much of a problem with seeing them making out. But I was definitely aware that it felt very different from watching the characters of most teen shows make out. To me it felt voyeuristic in a way that watching characters make out usually doesn't. I was a lot more aware of myself, an adult, watching it, than I usually am.

Yeah.

[(Anonymous)]

14 does seem like the average age to actually start making out, but, yeah, I don't really want a whole lot of focus on that.

And, yeah, Mike has issues. The character sort of feels like a wartime consigliere - fine when there's chaos and something to fight or be rightfully angry about, kind of a dick during everyday goings-on.

Re: Yeah.

[(Anonymous)]

14 does seem like the average age to actually start making out, but, yeah, I don't really want a whole lot of focus on that.

yeah IA that I don't really care about it as a storyline but I don't think it's, like, inappropriately portrayed or anything (NB I have not finished the season yet)

The character sort of feels like a wartime consigliere - fine when there's chaos and something to fight or be rightfully angry about, kind of a dick during everyday goings-on.

I love this analogy so, so much!

Re: Yeah.

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

Yep.

I love this analogy so, so much! Thanks!

[nightscale]

I haven't gotten around to s3 yet but I was always very luke-warm on them tbh. Like they're fine I guess? But I don't care if they stay together or are endgame.

[rosehiptea]

I liked them OK in seasons one and two. This season not so much. I didn't like watching them make out either, though fortunately there was only so much of that.

Truth is I ship Eleven with Max, though that's obviously not going to happen.

[nightscale]

I think Lucas/Max are cute, or at least I liked them in s2, no idea about s3 yet. I've avoided spoilers for the most-part but I have seen that El+Max do seem to have some positive interaction this season which is nice.

[(Anonymous)]

I loved Mike in S1 and liked him okay in S2. I liked him less in S3, but I think the writers were just being realistic about what 14-year-olds are like. I didn't find him misogynistic or mean. Maybe a bit selfish, though (see: the show being realistic about what 14-year-olds are like). His comments about girls would definitely be sexist if he were a few years older, but I think he's having thoughts that most kids probably have about the opposite sex at that age, and I don't think it's indicative of an underlying tendency to disrespect girls and women. He was pretty rude to Hopper, but then Hopper was being a tremendous dick, so it seems like more of a case of Mike reacting to Hopper's own bullshit, albeit in an immature way.

I do miss S1 Mike, though. Honestly, I liked S3 well enough, but I miss the way pretty much all the characters were in S1.

[(Anonymous)]

As much as I have been overall enjoying the later seasons, I still kinda wish season 1 had just been a standalone entity.

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT - I feel the exact same way, anon.

[tabaqui]

This. They're kids in the 80's - there's a lot of stuff going on that we would hope doesn't go on *now*.

And he does start figuring things out as they go along, and El gets her chance to be apart from him and figure her own stuff/self out.

I'm not a fan of romance as a rule, period, but what they're doing (obsessively needing to see each other, always wanting to hang out, hold hands, etc.) is pretty par for the course for that age.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes.

[(Anonymous)]

This secret is bizarre to me because the characters in season 3 are shown to agree with you - that Mike and El shouldn't be moving so fast, that Mike is controlling and too immature for the relationship, that the relationship is unhealthy. So... congrats on getting the point the writers were clearly trying to get across? That was one of the big strengths of season 3, in fact, that El developed a healthy friendship and was shown to be more independent and less concerned with Mike.

As for the making out, it was brief, and I thought it was presented in a (realistically) cringey way. In fact, it was all so OTT and ridiculous that I can't imagine the actors being uncomfortable with it, and it certainly didn't seem to be sexualizing them.

I watch this show but have avoided the fandom because, man, people bend over backwards to be scandalized by the teen characters doing what teenagers do.

[(Anonymous)]

+1

These were pretty much my thoughts on this secret too.

[(Anonymous)]

+1

It reminds me of Arya in GoT and people getting real weird about seeing her get with that Gendry dude. Except she was an adult at that point, so people's reactions were even weirder. Kids don't stay kids forever, they grow up, they explore their sexuality, they make out and have sex. Like, I get not necessarily wanting to watch it, but the "we watched them grow up" reasoning will always and forever be fucking weird to me. Yes. You did. And now they're appropriately old enough to engage in more than hand-holding. Get over it? Stop mentally picturing them as babies? idek

[(Anonymous)]

I intensely dislike Mike, so . . . yeah.

[(Anonymous)]

Okay, I'm baffled. I didn't love season 3 at all, but how is Mike a misogynistic asshole? When he's with his guy friends after El dumps him, he does go "ugh girls! They are SO CONFUSING"... but the girl duo, El and redhead, were WAY worse about "guys are so stupid!".

Mike intensely wants to protect El, but not because he's misogynistic at all. He wants to protect her because he cares about her and knows what she's been through, and also knows that El is still learning about the world and the extent/limitations of her powers. Sure, he doesn't handle it that well, but he never struck me as possessive or something. Frankly, I sympathized with Mike more than the redhead in the fight. And at any rate, Mike sincerely apologized to El for not taking a step back and just letting her make her own decisions.

Anyway, what child character is less of a dick than Mike? I think Will, and that's it. Both of the girls can be really mean - especially redhead. Lucas is funny but has said some dickish things. Dustin's okay, but not nicer than Mike.

I just don't get this view. To be clear, I'm not attached to any of the characters and am very lukewarm about the series now, but truly don't get why Mike would elicit such strong dislike.

[(Anonymous)]

Seconding pretty much all of this.

but truly don't get why Mike would elicit such strong dislike.

I think Mike is still the most central of the boy's group, and therefore his flaws and screw-ups aren't played as quirky and/or funny the way Lucas and Dustin's flaws and screw-ups often are. So that may be part of it. People may be giving his flaws and screw-ups more weight than the other boys' because of the tone the narrative takes with his character.

Also, I think Finn Wolfhard does have a snarkier line delivery style than the others (except Max), which I think may cause some people to take things he says more to heart than we're meant to.

[(Anonymous)]

I've found Mike annoying since season 1 tbh. The kid is just not an interesting character. I can't even describe what his character is beyond asshole who orbits around other characters, mostly Eleven.

[(Anonymous)]

I liked season 3 even if I wasn't a fan of the Mike/11 relationship. It felt forced as a plot device and like fan service. As to Mike's behavior, he acted like a typical young teenage boy. Most are little misogynistic jerks until they mature a bit.