lumaxsworld

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commission for @nothoughts-onlywomen !!!

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please, i've been on my knees, change the prophecy

The Prophecy by Taylor Swift

#lumax #max mayfield #lucas sinclair #stranger things

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rip max mayfield you would love the tortured poets department: the anthology

#max mayfield

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believe it or not max, you're my best friend right now. ..because i'm pretty sure everyone fucking hates me at the moment.

daily dose of madwheeler for my own good

special thanks to @strangeswift for the idea of mike visiting max and @nnilkyway for brainstorming mike hating himself with me <3333

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How does the relationship advice Max gave relate to childhood trauma?

I HOPED SOMEONE WOULD ASK LETS GO

so this is the advice she gives to el, right? what i'm going to go into here is max's trauma about her parents' divorce and her feelings on her stepfather.

this is quite long so i've divided it in parts for you: part 1 which has two sections ('the divorce' and 'emotional abuse') and part 2 which has one section ('conclusion'). the first two sections are basically explaining what happened within max's family, the conclusion is how it all affects max and a tl;dr of sorts.

ALSO THIS IS NOT BILLY HARGROVE FRIENDLY, GO AWAY BILLY STANS

TRIGGER WARNINGS: discussions of divorce and emotional child abuse (nothing graphic)

THE DIVORCE

so, the first question out of the way: can divorce cause trauma? the answer is a quick and easy yes, especially in max's case.

in the book runaway max, which is probably at least half-canon, max describes both her parents. her mother seems to be quite weak-willed, but still seems to just want the best for max. however, it is clear that max doesn't get nearly as support as she needs from her. max is an incredibly understanding and kind child, because she understands that her mom isn't really the supportive type, more like someone who takes care of her without the emotional support part. (NOTE: susan is NOT abusive. one of the reasons why she can't support her daughter is because they understand the world, themselves and each other in drastically different ways: susan cannot reach out to max because she doesn't understand her, and therefore cannot give her the emotional help or support she needs).

sam (max's father) on the other hand clearly understands max much better and doesn't question her boyish style or how she's Different than others (which could be autistic coding but thats for another day asjhshjs). in this case, he could be there, but he isn't, being too busy for her.

we can assume that max, as she was so young, was not given a talk about the divorce as a whole after the divorce had actually happened, given that her mother doesn't really seem the type for big, emotional conversations. she most likely got a simplified version of what was happening and why she'd be seeing her dad less because she was so young (around 8-9 based on max/billy's memories), which lead to misunderstanding and, as her father understood her more, she was naturally defensive of her dad (which is why we see her quick to defend him in the bus talk), and naturally a little resentful of her mom, especially considering she didn't truly grasp what had actually happened due to being so young.

this resentment would grow when susan starts dating again: in runaway max, it's mentioned that susan had flit from boyfriend to boyfriend, each of which eventually leaves because of personal issues (gambling, debts, etc). max sees this as a kind of betrayal to sam, and a complete change in what her family had been like - she would later know, around s2, that the cracks had always been there, and it was just a matter of time, but for now she's too young to think that her ex-family was anything but perfect, so she holds resentment towards her mom and starts to put her dad on a pedastal, as well as thinking that men are liars and cheaters.

EMOTIONAL ABUSE

then susan marries neil, and with him comes billy. max, at first, was hopeful that she'd have a family again after her last one broke, only to be let down very quickly. here's a heartbreaking excerpt from runaway max:

billy doesn't treat her like a sister: in fact, he insists she's not his sister constantly, and emotionally abuses her.

'yes, yes, anthony, but what is emotional abuse?' i hear you cry. here's a definition from google itself:

Emotional abuse involves controlling another person by using emotions to criticize, embarrass, shame, blame, or otherwise manipulate them. While most common in dating and married relationships, mental or emotional abuse can occur in any relationship—including among friends, family members, and co-workers.

the parts in bold are the parts that are relevant to max herself and billy's abuse of her. here's some symptoms and signs of emotional abuse, as well as some examples of said symptoms, taken from healthyplace.com:

you'll notice that billy has almost all the signs and shows off many of the examples given, particularly in episode two. there's this great post by @madcleradin (hey sierra, tell me if you want be untagged) with my reblogs to show the examples themselves and this is the root of max's self hatred and self blame, but the very short tl;dr version is that his abuse of her affects her perception of others and herself in a negative way.

neil also plays a role in this - max probably thought he was just another one in the list of shitty boyfriends, except when things started getting more serious, she started to get confused, though she was happy when told that she was going to have a family again, because at the time she was still in the mindset that 'family = comfort' because again, she was never told what caused the divorce, which lead to her thinking it was sudden and doesn't alter her view of what 'family' just yet.

she was excited to have a comfort, excited to have someone to talk to other than nate (her best friend), because she still associates family with comfort. but when billy abuses her, at first she's confused on why family would treat family like this. that's when her view of what family means does a 180º.

because they told her that neil and billy were family, she started associating the word 'family' with violence, fear and control. as she grew up, this just got planted more and more deeply within her, all while she still resents susan a little for a) leaving her dad and b) marrying neil and bringing him and his son into their life, a decision which has only lead to fear and pain on max's half.

CONCLUSION

you may be wondering what any of this has to do with max's advice to el. well, dear anon and readers, i am here to tell you.

in this, max isn't seeing mike as how she remembers him, and is thinking back to all those times those shitty boyfriends of her mom did the same thing, not realizing that it's not like that because mike genuinely does care about her and because they're fourteen (yk how when you're young you don't feel young until you look back when you're older? yeah that) it's not that deep yet. max has been thinking and calling the shitty boyfriends pieces of shit for years.

NOTE: max does NOT think mike is a bad person, nor does this mean she hates him. she just thinks what he did is shitty, but she clearly thinks he can make up for it (note how she says 'if he doesn't fix this, doesn't explain himself', which i doubt any of the boyfriends of her mom did). this is NOT a mike hate post, he's one of the characters of All Time, this is just about max's trauma !!!

now, this obviously isn't her talking about lucas (see here why honesty is a vital part of why lucas and max are friends), so max is almost definitely referring to her mom's boyfriends and can't see that mike isn't like those guys, as mentioned above.

this is straight up projection. really, all of max's lines regarding mileven this season are just projection, but this really shows. i cut out the part where she says that if he doesn't explain himself, then el should dump his ass because that, as mentioned above, is because mike is still her friend (if tentative because yk).

she doesn't understand why her mom can't just up and leave neil, and so when she sees el who she probably subconsciously parallels to her mother (in runaway max, her book, she describes her mom as "her personality changing into every guy she meets", so she's scared of that happening to el) and so she unintentionally projects her desire for susan to break up with neil onto el.

she wants susan to break up with neil, but as she can't have that and she has trauma from living in close quarters to an abuser she's dealing with her trauma this way.

NOTE: she is NOT using el only for her own gains. she genuinely thinks this is good advice, if only because of her warped perception of love and her mother's (failed) relationships.

this line is also evidence of max projecting onto el and mike, except this time she's not projecting her mom onto el, but instead herself. we know, via scenes in season two, that billy is extremely controlling of max. he gives her unspoken and spoken rules (unspoken would be don't speak back, don't blame him, etc etc; spoken would be the threat of what he'd do if she 'disobeyed' him). she has been controlled for a good near-half of her life via rules, especially considering we can presume neil also controlled her (although much less than billy did). she's been so roughly handled and controlled using rules, rules which she has to go by to survive in that household, that she literally can't see the tons of rules put on el being for her safety, because that's never how it's been for her.

a tl;dr of that paragraph: rules have been used on max with malicious intent for so long that max cannot recognize that the rules on el are for safety and come from a plce of love.

and a tl;dr for this whole essay: all of max's advice stems from her childhood trauma from her parents' divorce, her mom's boyfriends who were liars, and her abusive stepfamily

hope you liked this extremely long essay.... and aren't too upset when you asked for a page and i made you a book shshjshjhjss

yeah this was very long but i loved talking abt it, slr i've been busy but i've been excited to get this finished.

also... if im gonna be honest most of this was just me looking way too deep into what were actually just jokes abt female humor by the duffers and ik that but also like. its a trauma thing because max's experience of love and men is very different and shapes how she views them so ofc her relationship advice was off

anyways if youve read all that i'm platonically in love with you

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Read this in max's voice

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Maturation is realizing in season 3 that both Max and Mike were right about El.

I can understand Mike because she doesn't want anything to happen to El.

But I can also understand Max because she wants El to make her own decisions.

#max mayfield #mike wheeler #stranger things

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we are so back.

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Max's sixteenth birthday passing while she's in the coma and all the kids gathering in her hospital room for a birthday party of sorts. everyone would be lying if they said it wasn't a bit weird, but they reminisce and it's kind of nice. not Max-specific stories, because she wouldn't like being the center of attention, but just fun times from when she was with them. in case Max can somehow hear what's going on around her, Lucas thinks she would like the normalcy of feeling sort of like a part of a group hangout.

there's a discussion in the hallway about whether they should take a group picture with Max to show her later. Will thinks they should because he has his brother's need to document everything, and so Max doesn't feel like a whole section of her life is just lost. Dustin says it's better to have it and throw it out if she hates the idea than to find out she would've liked it and have nothing to show. Mike says hell no because Max would hate having her picture taken like this. El thinks they should, so Max knows how much her friends love her and didn't forget about her while she was away. Lucas gets quiet at the odds of Max ever being able to see a picture in the first place, and goes for a walk alone.

#oh #ouch #lumax

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If they don’t get to be happy in season five i will *kill* someone (le cough cough @ the duffer bros)

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An anon requested a drawing from my friend of Lumax fan art with Lucas and Max in her wheelchair. Unfortunately it won't show up in the tags, hence why I'm trying a text post format! <3 hope you like it!

By the way, my friend is still taking requests if anyone is interested!

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OMG OMG OMG THEY ARE BACK LUMAX IS HERE

#lumax #max mayfield #stranger things #lucas sinclair #wtf #omg #lumax is so back

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do you think little Max used to hunker down in her bedroom and try to disappear into comics and music when her parents were fighting? do you think she used to wish she had a big sister or brother to read to her and turn up the music and protect her from what was going on in the other room and make her feel like she wasn't on her own in the world? do you think she used to wish that one of the superheroes from her comics would swoop into her life and take her under their wing?

do you think when she hears she's going to have a new big brother, part of her thinks oh?? it's sorta too late, but still, it could be happening?? but then it's Billy, and he's the opposite of what she wished for, in fact he's the person she has to try her hardest yet to disappear from.

do you think Max thinks she's such a stupid naïve baby for even sort of letting herself daydream that these boys talking about knowing a superhero aren't simply yanking her chain? do you think when Max sees the legendary Eleven come swooping in and save the day with super powers right before her eyes, she thinks oh?? this is it?? do you think she walks up to El starry-eyed thinking, here I am! are you real? are you here for me? where's that wing and when can you start? do you think she's pretty crushed when the real live superhero, for absolutely no reason, acts like she's invisible?

do you think when out of the blue, super girl asks her help with regular ass stuff, she thinks huh? because she may have super powers but she's not a superhero. she's not invincible and charismatic and larger-than-life, she's literally just some girl, in fact, a sorta mousy and endearingly backwards girl who could stand a little taking care of. who instead of a worshipping fan, really just needs a friend. do you think Max thinks it's kind of funny that she's the one taking that girl under her wing instead?

do you think when her new friend is troubled, Max reaches for the same escapes she used to try to comfort herself with - cheers her with bright new music and distracts her with fantastical new characters? do you think when El climbs into her bed and puts her head on her shoulder, Max thinks of herself, eight, nine, wishing not to be alone? do you think Max is so soft to El because she wants to be the shelter for her that she's always ached for herself?

#delete this #what the fuck #why did you say that #max mayfield

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Lucas wanted to hug her so tight and say "Everything It's gonna be okay." but he couldn't do it. He didn't want to push Max and if he did Max would probably spread his walls even wider. She would disappear completely.

Also Max wanted to hug him and tell him everything. But she didn't do it because she was scared that if she said everything, Lucas would hate her, judge her.

I'M GOING TO BE SICK. THEY NEEDS TO BE HAPPY.

#max mayfield #lucas sinclair #lumax #max x lucas #stranger things

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#DSTTURNSSIX || favourite romantic relationship: lucas sinclair & max mayfield

“I… I didn’t really know Patrick, so it was easy to just look the other way, I guess. But I did know you. And I’m sorry I wasn’t there…but I see you now. I see you.”

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Stranger Things 4 Color Palette Meme: requested by @friendly-jester​​​

Lumax + Wipe Out