(please don't spoil anything for me! i'm currently on s3 e2, and i really don't want to ruin the rest of the show for me, thanks - for people who haven't watched that far, spoiler warning)

I personally think (as far as i can tell) that they seemed to have a healthy relationship up until hopper decided to mess with their relationship because he was protective over eleven, which makes sense, (tangent, i think he has paranoia from when his daughter, sarah, died of cancer, which is completely understandable, but that probably bled into a partial reason as to why he's so protective over el) however, i feel like that the dynamic between mike and eleven was a little flimsy (again, can't blame them, they're a first-time couple, as well as hormonal teenagers lmao) which is why it was so easy to sway, however, had hopper not intervened, i think they would have found a way to work it out better naturally over time. so, basically, i felt that their breakup was bound to happen eventually, but the way hopper severed it too soon before it was over reminded me of cutting a budding flower before it's done growing :(