mikesbasementbeets

[mikesbasementbeets]

El's protectiveness and friendships in the lab

wanted to take a minute to appreciate that El's protectiveness isn't a character trait that only emerges post-lab. she's always been that way [assuming, for this post, that NINA stuff more or less happened]; it just couldn't always present in a way that looks badass on a poster.

El and Eighteen

only crumbs here, but if I have to point out a lab kid that El is friendlier with than the others, it's Eighteen.

El holding Eighteen's hand is the only affectionate act I've ever noticed between any of the lab kids, and offering that comfort to her littlest sister is probably as "protective" as El can afford to be (esp as an eight year old with the least power and social standing of anyone).

when the kids in general laugh at El for failing at the light game, Eighteen is not one of the kids shown doing so.

Eighteen is the first dead child El is shown to be upset about. it's not that she looks more distressed about her than the others, but it's odd that she saw Ten dead on the floor next to Brenner a second before this and didn't really react. (maybe she couldn't tell Ten was dead from the doorway? idk)

maybe an El/Eighteen friendship is cornplating or whatever the youths are calling it, but bearing in mind that we're never actually told that El/Eight had some super close friendship, maybe theirs looked something like this.

side note - are friendships even permitted in the lab?

letting the kids form friendships could be dangerous, as Brenner, couldn't it? risks them forming alliances against you? this is why I was asking the other day if socializing seems discouraged in the RR. like, even the bullies, who were "friends," never chatted openly in there unless the cameras were off. maybe any lab friendships have to be hush hush by nature.

anyway idk there's just something about us going "🤯 same numbers!!!" upon seeing the 001 / 011 tattoos, and then 008 + 018 being the only other kids El is hinted at being friendly with... why are we reusing the same pattern? 001 / 008 / 011 / 018 just happen to be every combination of those three numbers within the number of available children.

especially with El "being 8" (as in, years old) at this time. it's giving Henry, 12 / mother of 5. idk where I'm going with that but I'm squinting. Eighteen, you're not some bizarro Little Eight who has an inverted friendship with Big El, right?

El lashing out in the lab

we're shown repeatedly that El hates seeing people get hurt, but multiple times onscreen (and you know innumerable times off) she witnesses severe abuse to her siblings, and we never see her act in their defense like post-lab El would. of course, that's because she realistically can't. we know trying to help anyone in the lab accomplishes little except getting both people in trouble. but I was thinking about how we DO see El lash out for her own sake in 1983. so what's the takeaway? El cares more about protecting herself than others? nah. let's look at the other guard killing scene (again. assuming this really happened):

when similarly cornered in 1979, El's immediate response is silent surrender.

why is her behavior so different? because she's weak? too scared / well controlled? too nice to kill? all those factors have already been established as non-issues in this moment. (she does have her powers here; the circle game proved that Brenner can't control El and knows it; killing when cornered is canonically within her nature)

you might think having a staff member on her side would make her more defiant, but instead she's more compliant here than in '83 (either time. even in the non-guard-killing flashback, El screams and struggles the whole way.)

El and One

he's the difference. she doesn't know he's her brother or has powers yet, but he has presented himself as a fellow prisoner rather than someone in a position of authority. she's also already seen him get punished because of her.

as far as El knows right here, if she lashes out - whether she then escapes successfully or not - she'd be bringing SEVERE punishment onto a nice guy who can't defend himself or escape.

she has a chance at freedom, the power to kill, and the escape route all planned out, but she doesn't do it. the thing that's not in her nature is abandoning a friend to God-knows-what punishment on her behalf.

so while One killing the guards is an act of protection to El, it's also a massive act of protection to One that El is ready to throw out the whole plan right here. don't miss it just because it's not the classic El-screamy-hand thing.

she's sacrificing her chance at freedom in hopes of slightly mitigating his punishment. (they're both doomed to very bad punishment upon capture right here, but if she escapes I think he'd get punished even worse. so she's choosing to share in pretty bad punishment over him being punished extremely severely and her not at all.)

even aside from punishment, she knows she'll be returning to an even worse home life than the one she believed necessitated her immediate escape (Brenner apparently arranging for her to be killed).

so here, can she afford to act out not only because she's acting alone, but because she's an only child, so to speak? there's no one else who could potentially suffer as a result of her actions. no other siblings to use as leverage. no one to protect.

whatever consequences Brenner carried El off to after killing those orderlies, she bore it alone.

I can sorta read this as protective of the other kids in general - not that she did it, but that she didn't until now.

am I saying Brenner might have randomly punished other kids as a result of something El did?

have you met the guy? definitely would've threatened it, might've actually done it. manipulation by whatever means necessary.

when you work in a building full of superpowered people who hate you, you gotta control them psychologically, because physical control isn't something you can maintain for long. it's imperative that they're more afraid of the consequences of kicking your ass than they are of whatever torture you're putting them through. emotional manipulation using friends and innocents as pawns is a classic move. (another reason the kids might want to keep lab friendships secret even if they're allowed.)

that's not theory - we've seen Brenner use this tactic onscreen, telling El that he'll have Owens killed if she tries to get to him. he knows he can't physically control her, so he exerts psychological control by placing Owens' blood on El's hands to get her to cooperate.

the phrase "blood on one's hands" means being responsible for deaths, not having literally, personally committed murder. this imagery is used onscreen to denote El's sense of guilt about the massacre well before she comes to the conclusion that she actually did it. (this could be symbolism that El's mind organically dreamed up instead of engineered fuckery, but who knows. we have no textual explanation yet for how her hands would be that bloody).

and together with Brenner very textually using the kids against each other in other ways - having them literally duel each other in the circle game, but also the "driving them to do exactly what he wants" stuff - I don't think it's unreasonable to figure that fear of harm to the other kids was a manipulation tactic used in the lab.

that definitely includes One - lines like "I'm not going with you / if he finds me he will find you" "I wanted to help you, but I only made things worse" smack of a guy kept in line by fear of something happening to the kids.

and the Brenner-orchestrating-El's-murder story smells like a psyop. is this just Brenner wanting One to think harm would come to El as a consequence of his actions? (she became "uncontrollable" as a result of his coaching). El is too valuable an asset to actually kill. who would know better than One that the treatment for being uncontrollable is soteria, not death? assuming One is being truthful, why would he not see through that. idek what I think is going on here anymore

anyway. MKUltra is ALL about manipulation but I'll talk more about that in my other post

times El protects her friends the same way she protected One

practically every move El makes is about protecting her friends but I want to point out a few times that are specifically reminiscent of her protection of One, where she's ready to give up her freedom to protect her friends even at risk of the worst case scenario (going back to the lab):

sacrificing herself to protect the party from the demogorgon ("no more") <- is that line in reference to the 6 people the demogorgon has snatched, or is that a massacre reference given how incredibly parallel these scenes are. I'm not sure whether "goodbye Mike" meant she thought she'd die or just get so wiped out that she'd be easily recaptured by the lab

leaving Kali and "freedom" to return to Hawkins and protect her friends, where she volunteers to go back into the lab to close the gate

leaving Cali and "freedom" to return to the lab to get her powers back to protect her friends

final thought: I just had a chuckle with myself at the fact that iirc it's Mike and Nancy whose lives El has individually, directly saved the most times.

[honorable mention for Max because I don't know how to quantify 4x9. is that like one massive save?]

like, Mike, okay, but why the Nancy emphasis when she and El have basically zero onscreen relationship. (actually I have a lot to say about El and Nancy coming up soon that might add context)

idk.. lab sibling guilt smth smth El protecting Nancy "she'll be like your new sister" and Mike "will you be like my brother" Creeler. you gotta love it

[mikesbasementbeets]

Not to kind of hop in the "Edward Creel" madness but i do have to say that in a show that's pretty consistent with its use of the word one to signify the involvement of, well, Henry/Vecna/One. There's an unprecedented amount of "one"s when Dustin and Max are talking about Eddie in 4.02

And that's not even counting the "someone" and "anyone" of which there are also a lot of in the same scene. And it is definitely A Choice because when Nancy talks to the cops after Fred disappears, she says "anybody" and the cop repeats it. Taking into account the fact that Eddie was literally the person that embodied Vecna in the campaign....Is it that much of a stretch...A reach...Anyway

#‘not to hop into the edward creel madness’ top ten funniest opening lines to a stavpost

[mikesbasementbeets]

max mayfield, professional zoomer.

[mikesbasementbeets]

Hello! firstly, I wanted to say how much I'm been adoring your art with how you have been incorporating symbolism with such subtlety and care. And for your art requests, can I suggest something around old byler? Since people don't really play around with the concept that much and I would love to see your take on them. Thank you!

Thank you so much for your kind words!!! 💕💕

I agree that we don’t see older Byler enough! I hope you like how this one turned out.

Them playing Nintendo (for the rest of their lives).

#middle aged byler my beloveds

[mikesbasementbeets]

worst feeling ever is when i agree with 99% of a post but then there's that 1% that makes me want to set fire to op's blog

[mikesbasementbeets]

finally did a painting for one of my favourite series. hoping to do more in the next few weeks too, wanna make a collection of these paintings. 

[mikesbasementbeets]

(gets 0 notes on a post i made five seconds ago) sigh.... i see how it's.... (walks into the dark scary forest)

[mikesbasementbeets]

Make Me Choose | @softasawhisper asked: Two Favourite Seasons - Part 2 (part 1) - (in/sp/o)

[mikesbasementbeets]

you people are so unserious

#stop using the tags of my gifsets to posture about your Good and Correct fandom opinions #if you cared you wouldn’t be addressing it as tags on a gifset months later you just have nothing else of substance to say lmao #also. nothing is confirmed you sound stupid #i’m vagueposting sorryyyyyy #every single person is saying the exact same thing i’m tired. be more interesting #beets posts

[mikesbasementbeets]

reminder: you don’t need to talk about all the things you dislike about a piece of media in the tags of gifsets of it. in fact…….. don’t

#sorry but i’m. getting annoyed. if someone makes a gifset maybe just assume they liked it enough to spend time making art with it and #don’t go out of your way to leave them a note on what you didn’t like about it. it’s rude and disheartening as a creator to have to read #all that. dont rb a gifset of something if you don’t like it 👍 you don't need to tell a creator why this thing they made art of sucks #my gifsets are not an open house for you to air all your grievances. thanks. #beets posts

[mikesbasementbeets]

If we go too fast, I'm afraid you could become lost in the darkness. And if you are lost... so are we all.

happy birthday to the one and only stav @heroesbyler !!!!!!

sorry it took me so long but this one's for you 🤍

#The bad man. men. of all time(s) #like. who is she

[mikesbasementbeets]

idk if anyone has already talked about this. I haven't seen it if they have. But.

EXCUSE ME.

HELLO!! They even gave us a super close-up on the tie. So let me just:

and that's not even mentioning the hair???

"Oh James, the hair thing is just the mirror."

Ok, so I mirrored it back! And now it looks even worse!

[sobbing begins again] Who are you??

I literally cannot deal with this rn...Like regardless of blood, these two fuckers have the same tie and hair situation going on/they match the second Brenner above:

SO WHERE'S THE THIRD GUY???

#whom

[mikesbasementbeets]

JONATHAN AND ARGYLE

4.05 | The Nina Project

[mikesbasementbeets]

If we go too fast, I'm afraid you could become lost in the darkness. And if you are lost... so are we all.

happy birthday to the one and only stav @heroesbyler !!!!!!

sorry it took me so long but this one's for you 🤍

#happy birthday stav ily i hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy the moving old man images <333333 #i spent way too long on some of these but man this was so much fun to make dhfbsdjhsf #stranger things #strangerthingsedit #stedit #martin brenner #el hopper #mikesbasementgifs #flashing tw

[mikesbasementbeets]

[tender, emotional music playing]

[mikesbasementbeets]

ok i bought tickets to go see the sufjan stevens musical w my roommate fjskdjhs spontaneous train trip to nyc in a few weeks… maybe i’ll do this for tfs too when it comes to broadway bc i still haven’t done anything about going to see it in london……

#i would love to see it w the original cast but. the amount of planning and money comparatively… idk #anyway i’m extremely excited illinoise was such a formative album for me as a teenager #i can’t wait it looks like it’ll be incredible #beets posts

[mikesbasementbeets]

"redemption arcs are toxic, you shouldn't try to fix someone!"

actually it is so important to me that being in community and experiencing human connection can save people. thanks