#should've been a big deal! el needs to learn that she can't just use violence to solve problems | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mlchaelwheeler · 2 years

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With the Angela situation-- yeah i think it is bad that that situation is treated like some girlboss moment but what is weirder is that El literally previously has been shown to break another bully's arm (Troy) on the show and made him pee himself too. The narrative didnt treat it as some sort of a bad situation. It was actually meant to be a well deserved comeback and ''cool'' scene. So it makes you ask why it's different now when El hits Angela? Troy being pushed or being his arm broken because he was being homophobic was a good and satisfying scene but Angela getting a similar treatment is supposed to be not? Is it because El hit her without using her powers? I am sorry but I am not getting it lol. We've seen this girl did similar things on the show before so why the treatment is different now when she does the same thing?

I mean if Will did smack Angela and if the narrative treated it as some sort of a shocking moment I would have understood because Will never uses violance or stands up to bullies. But El has done the same thing all the time previously on the show so it aint making sense when the show seems to portray two different narrative choices here when the both scenes are pretty much the same.

yes, the way el interacted with both troy and angela are relatively similar. with troy, she saw that mike and dustin were in danger (and she saved mike from death), so she quick jumped to action by breaking troy's arm. with angela, el obviously didn't have her powers, so she did the next-best thing she could think of and smacked her in the face.

i think that the difference (for me at least) is that when she physically hurt troy, it was because he would've caused mike to die (and may have physically cut dustin with the knife as well). also at this point, el had been in the normal world for what.. 2 days? however when she physically hurt angela, it was because she got bullied in front of a ton of people. el physically attacked angela even though she hadn't been physically attacked herself; it wasn't a life-or-death situation like with troy. with troy, she broke his arm to quickly stop the situation from getting worse, especially since he was still holding the knife. with angela, she wasn't in any "danger" per say but still smacked her in front of the entire roller rink. also at that point, she had been in the normal world for over a year and should've realized that was going to have some major consequences.

el does have a problem with violence in the show. yes, it is due to her upbringing in the lab where she was encouraged (and forced) to use violence against her "siblings." at some point though, she does need to learn that not all situations can be solved by smacking someone in the face, especially when they're not life-or-death situations.

also, the bullies in s4 were really stereotypical and 2d imo. angela was bullying el why? because of her clothes? because of the way she speaks? angela didn't really have a motivation to be a big "menace" to el, which made the bullying seem overly stupid imo compared to what the party went through in s1. with troy and james, they were blatently homophobic, racist, and ableist. troy forced mike to nearly commit suicide and said it was better off will was dead because he was gay. this imo is far more.. (not meaningful (i can't think of the word)).. but real in a sense because these are situations where death is appreciated because of someone's sexuality. that is a much bigger deal than pouring a milkshake over someone's head at a roller rink. just my opinion though, i'm not trying to start an argument.

#not sure if this answered your questions but these are my thoughts #sorry if they're all over the place #el hopper #ask sarah #anon tag

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