Zora x Nebra for the ship game, their dynamic is so 🤩❤️🔥😎
Just-a-little-fan you just know who to ask me about 😂
Zora x Nebra -> doesn’t make sense, compels me so much
So for the making sense part I’ve read a post made by @the-black-bulls and I agree that this would kind of go against Zora’s conviction. Nebra’s about peasants as well.
However and hear me out they do compel me a lot!
I’ve made an art for them, I have a story planned for them in Paper Hearts and I’m currently reading an amazing fic the Agreement by @f-oighear. I love their cracks ship dynamic so much. They are a mess, they are a disaster, but how great they are together. They’re also very funny <3
I do think that there needs to be some outside input for them to actually start interacting. However once they will and if Nebra goes through character development (she does in Paper Hearts), I think that the attraction will win.
Also there are so many gorgeous arts for them and that’s how I actually got to love this ship. Casually stumbling upon them and then thinking “yeah they would fit my fic”, so another one of my pre-tumblr ships. And i did grow to like them more as I came up with a plot for them. (this is going to be so funny, but in the right time)
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Been having an absolute shit week and all I've been thinking about is Laswell hugging me and saying how proud she is and how brave I've been
So now apply that to her boys and you get mega angst/comfort
"Just want to be good enough" John 'Soap' MacTavish distraught after a mission gone wrong when it could have been avoided easily
"Young enough to still be learning some of the worst parts of his career" Kyle 'Gaz' Garrick having a really bad panic attack after witnessing something truly horrendous/maybe having survived several days of torture
"May have been through literal hell and back but by god does he care about those stupid sergeants and one of them got hurt and he should have been better, he should be perfect" Simon 'Ghost' Riley falling to pieces the second Laswell gets a moment alone with him outside of medbay where one of the sergeants just got out of surgery (he's been waiting there for hours, unmoving and vigilant)
"Those boys depend on me and I let them down, and now one of them is hurt and I'm the one responsible" Captain John Price finally being coaxed into sitting in his chair and letting it out after having paced for hours
Kate Laswell making sure they all remember that they're the 141 for a fucking reason. That they're the best out there, but that they're still very much so human. And that human means flawed, and that there are things well beyond their control.
She reminds them that if they didn't care so damn much it wouldn't hurt so bad, but it's good that it hurts because it means they care. And it's because they care that the injured one made it out alive with an injury that isn't even fatal, not even close to it unless some crazy infection took place and even then it's still damn near impossible.
Just Laswell being MomFriend and holding each of them when they need it most and telling them that she's proud and that they've been really brave, but it's time to rest. It's gonna be okay.
They're her boys, they'll always be okay.
Laswell doesn’t have kids, never planned on having any. But here she is, four grown men that she babysits. She does love them, they need that love. So many times she has held Ghost after a nightmare, calmed Soap down after a bad mission or talked Gaz down from the ledge. They need that love, desperately. Price is the hardest to get to admit it. He doesn’t want to admit he can’t fix everything, that he can’t make their pain go away. Sometimes he just needs to be held like the rest. Some nights Laswell ushers the four into the lounge and the have a sleepover. And, every time, she wakes up surrounded, each man sleeping peacefully. She never thought about having kids, but she has them. And she will kill for them.
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HEYY YOUR SO PRETTY BTW AND I LOVE YOUR BLOG
the ask :
so, i wanted to get ur opinion on s3 mike. such as, what he was going through and his internalized homophobia. things like that!
maybe some things w/ him and his relationship w/ el too!
THANKS FOR ANSWERING IF U DO ANSWER :D
I’m gonna pretend that I’m fine after weeks of getting flustered just staring at this in my inbox! Thank you, anon!!! 🥺🥺 You’re making me blush! But, uh, anyways! Let’s talk about Mike Wheeler! 💙
I think that Mike in season 3 is the most interesting version of himself in the entire show because of how hidden his story becomes. In all other seasons, Mike cries openly with other people and expresses his sadness and fears over Will and El.
In season 3, though? Besides the finale, the tearful goodbyes narrated by Hopper, we never see Mike truly cry and explicitly talk through why. Sure, it can be pretty readily implied that it’s because of the Byers leaving, but we don’t hear that aloud. We don’t see exactly who’s on Mike’s mind as those cars pull away. We're left with silent and unsure stares, looks of seeming regret or something else unknown.
Season 3 is truly a huge turning point for Mike, he’s losing his girlfriend and arguably his closest friend in the Party, and it's so easily overlooked because it all happens at the very end of the final episode. Whereas El goes through hell and fights to connect to Billy and save her friends, where Max also feels the weight of his loss, where Will gets his heartbreaking scene at Castle Byers - all the Party members who are very linked to Mike get their emotional moments that season, and we know exactly why they cry.
But Mike dances around his emotions all season long. In consulting Lucas to deal with breaking up and making up with El, in trying to tell El that he loves her without ever saying it, in fighting with Will because "it's not [his] fault [Will doesn't] like girls."
Oh, Mike. I really don't think that Mike was out to hurt Will when he said that. Rather, it's a culmination of heteronormativity and the poor relationship that he has with El and trying to compensate for it. I interpret the outburst as him saying, 'it's not my fault that I'm in a relationship and you're not, so you wouldn't get it.' And by extension, Will being in a relationship would require, normatively, being with a girl.
But at the same time, for a jab that deep - I can't help but question more.
Mike could have said, "it's not my fault you don't like anyone!" or "don't bring her into this!" or even as simple as, "you wouldn't understand!" But no. Mike takes the direct train to sexuality station and brings up the fact that El is a girl. So it seems to me that Mike is very likely harboring something in his heart about why El being a girl is important for him to argue.
But we never know for sure. This moment is never addressed again due to the Mind Flayer’s sudden return. And so it’s up to us as the audience to decide what we think of Mike’s statement. And personally, as I’m sure many of you believe, too, I think that Mike is projecting and trying to hide the fact that he doesn’t like girls onto Will, pushing away his problems to someone he trusts who’s more similar to himself than he realizes.
Tied to his inability to say to El’s face that he loves her, to the fact that they've - reportedly from Hopper - kissed all Summer long with no mention of meaningful conversation, to the very surface-level relational mending his makes by calling El’s outfit “cool” and giving her candy, to the very end of the season where Mike once again denies saying that he loved El just before an open-eyed kiss and a face like this:
Mike doesn’t need to say anything about that kiss for me to know that that’s not the reaction of someone who’s perfectly happy to be back together with his ex-girlfriend. So do I wish that we had a moment of vulnerability for Mike where he expressed his heart in season 3? Yes, but his nonverbals spoke volumes.
So, yeah, I think that in season 3, Mike is very much gay, but he he acts cautiously and self-preservingly because trauma is drowning everything out.
And what is this trauma? I know that I’m working backwards, but I need to bring up that Mike was separated from El for so long in the time of season 2, and I think that that makes him so attached to her in season 3. Think about what else he says in that scene when he admits his love: “I love her and I can’t lose her again.”
As sweet as it is to be reunited to El by the end of season 2, it’s not a clean reunion for Mike. He’s in shambles when he learns that Hopper was lying to him and not letting El even tell Mike that she’s okay.
Not to mention that this isn’t his first but second time almost losing her to the monster that season.
Because of this unstable connection, I think that Mike has built a protective relationship with El, one that focuses on keeping her rather than knowing her, and we see how that all unfolds with his superficial “superhero” complex he has of her in season 4. Season 3 was just the beginning.
And so I think that Mike in season 3 stands as a version of himself that’s confused protectiveness with love. Even though he arguably behaves with that same mindset all the time, it’s at its highest during season 3 because of his never-ending insistence to help El even if she’s capable to do things by herself. Mike isn’t just clingy, he’s worried. Worried for her life. There’s no time to worry about where the problems in their relationship arise, there’s only time to fix them and go back to how they were at equilibrium - when things were normal.
Thus, Mike behaves rather stubbornly. He’s insistent and defensive, not letting a single thing slip through the cracks and risk any more hurt. In doing so, his personality is left far under the surface and unexplored. He only acts to stir up emotions rather than reflect on them, because any pausing to think will only confuse him more. He’s looking ahead, looking at the light, holding onto everything good he has with all the propriety of a 13/14-year-old who has a heart bigger than his head.
Simply put, Mike is a bit of an anti-hero this season. And I think that it's because of this that he starts to get most controversial for the audience.
I’m clearly a Mike apologist, but I genuinely don’t think that he’s out to hurt anyone when he argues with others this season. He’s just stubborn and loud about it, which can definitely be to his fault at times. But in the end, when it comes down to who he loves, I think that season 3 is the era of change, and that ending scene with Hopper’s letter paints the perfect setup for the next seasons to reveal that Mike has a lot more going on under the surface that’s causing all of this. Maybe some regrets, things he wishes he could “turn back the clock” on, regarding, say, Will and El and how he treats them platonically and romantically? Just a thought.
The question of the day for Mike in season 3 stands: is he being selfish or selfless? And I think that it’s a mix of both, blended in with some heavy confusion due to role changing (not needing to protect El) and uncertain affections (not knowing how to figure out what he has with Will).
So, yeah. All in all, I think that Mike is really closeted in season 3 and doesn’t realize it until the final episode, and I honestly love him for it. As someone who’s gone through similar hurdles of internalized homophobia as a teen, it’s really heartwarming to see him grow and figure things out, even if the journey is far from perfect. It’s a humble origin story. And if he somehow ends up being straight and Byler isn’t endgame, well. I’ll be upset at the writers, but the impact still stands.
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