#didn't nancy have a similar romance problem back when she was with steve that she now having with jonathan??

[belovedvictory]

I'm enjoying this first half of the newest stranger things season, but to say I am unamused by the Steve and Nancy romance subplot would be an understatement. I hate this will-they-won't-they thing they keep pushing. Nancy and Jonathan were perfectly fine!!! In fact I found them pretty cute (from what I remember from previous seasons). I'm very likely speaking nonsense right now, but maybe it's a specifically 80s trope to have a girl go back and froth between being interested in two guys, but I hate this?? It's so annoying, just let Nancy be with Jonathan 😒🙄

#didn't nancy have a similar romance problem back when she was with steve that she now having with jonathan?? #like steve was out the picture for the most part so it gave her time to develop a romance with jonathan #like relationship problems with steve gave her chance to start something with jonathan -> now it's sorta flipped with jonathan #idk i could be completely misremembering but i swear that's sorta what happened?? #maybe this subplot eventually leads to something of merit but im not very confident :/ #hopefully to nancy and jonathan gaining a stronger relationship if anything #bibah talks #bibah talks about stranger things #text

[lupon]

I agree that Mike still hasn't had a realization moment, the moment he realizes will be the moment when the audience realizes at the same time imho, and tbh Mike's situation seems to be a parallel to Nancy's situation in the love triangle. Ofc the difference here is that Mike and Will have a mlm storyline, but the love triangle positioning is the same. Nancy thought he liked Steve and while she has some sort of an attraction towards him, she came to realize in S2 that she liked Jonathan instead. They are conditioned to be more compatible in terms of being in a relationship. And most 'Mike already knows he is gay/bi' readings stem from the S3 finale scene, but that moment seemed to be more about Mike being stunned and it inserting a *doubt* to the scene like you said, it's not about him realizing his sexuality or his feelings for Will. I feel like the way the writers are approaching this situation is making Mike and El's romance as a past thing (like Steve and Nancy's thing) and them portraying Mike and Will as a likelier and more compatible option (like Jonathan and Nancy). It seems like they're gonna give Mike a realization moment after El breaks up with him, and he'll have a moment similar to Nancy's in S2. And my controversial opinion here is that I think Mike will be easier to accept his sexuality and will be the one to act on his feelings easier, and that the writers won't portray him as secretly gay since I seriously do not think they're planning on completely discarding Mike and El's romantic relationship, but they're rather planning to make them incompitable and a past romance.

THISSSS 10000% agree. I don't think the "big bad" of Mike's story is internalized homophobia, I think it's change. I used to be a hard-core gay Mike truther, but now that just doesn't make sense to me anymore. Mike and El did love each other, but they just don't make a compatible couple. Their relationship problems aren't caused by Mike's awareness that he isn't in love with her, it's that they're just different people with different interests who want different things out of a relationship.

Same with S2 Nancy and Steve. Steve didn't realize that he was unintentionally hurting Nancy by trying to pretend they were normal or saying they shouldn't try and speak out about what the lab did to Barb. And Nancy thought she was in love with Steve, until she started hanging out Jonathan, who actually listened to her concerns, was able to understand how she felt, and aided her in getting the justice Barb deserved. I definitely think Byler is going to be a lot more like that.

I can totally see where people got the idea Mike's self-aware. But the more I'm looking at the scene, the more I think it's actually pointed a lot more toward showing how he's stuck in denial out of fear of things being different from what he's used to. "I've been stuck in one place" "If I'm being really honest, that's what scares me. I don't want thing to change" "That's why I came in here, to try and maybe stop that change" "Turn back the clock, make things go back to how they were" Him not being saying ily to El or kissing her back was a sign of him starting to doubt his feelings. Hopper's letter was honing in on the fact that he doesn't like the change he's feeling. He wants things to be normal. He's scared of what could happen to himself and his relationships if he accepts change.

I'm glad I'm finally finding some like-minded people out of this.

#bi mike wheeler #byler #mike wheeler