This is well said and very much covers my own thoughts here: Eleven's run was very much about Irony. And for all those who waited before, he got a taste of waiting, himself. And he learned what they all know - sometimes the slow path, while painful in many ways - is a beautiful path. I may not have been crashingly in love with how Eleven regenerated (but then, no matter how he left, it would never have been good enough), but I was proud of him. Fiercely so.