#Seriously though what do they mean Elmax??? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mikesbasementbeets · 2 years

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i’ve been thinking a lot about elmax recently and how it seems like the show is genuinely setting them up romantically, while also consistently establishing max and lucas as a romantic pair

keep in mind, this is the show that has been setting up byler since season 1. they seem to know what they’re doing when it comes to queer coding, so i refuse (for the purposes of this analysis at least) to believe they’re unaware of what they’ve been doing so heavily and blatantly with elmax, and also with max in particular (el too, but i’m focusing on max).

i've talked about why i think mike wheeler is gay. this is why i think max mayfield is bi. and elumax should be endgame.

queer coding of max mayfield

right off the bat: her name. max. just like el was at first, due to her shaved head, max is mistaken for a boy by those who don't know her. first the party, who see the name madmax at the arcade, and later dr. owens in season 4 (he might even assume that she's el's boyfriend). when she's first introduced by mr. clarke using her full name, maxine, she quickly corrects him. it's max.

this leads into the larger point of queer coding around max. her androgynous fashion sense, the way she carries herself, distancing herself from performative femininity, ie, playing video games ("girls don't play video games,"), skateboarding, making friends with an all male friend group, her general "tomboyish" presentation and attitude - all of it reads as heavily queer coded to me. i'm not saying that any of these things is necessarily queer, or mean that a person in real life is queer, but the way it all comes together in max feels like a purposeful character choice.

i'm not an expert in queer coding so there's probably a lot i'm missing, but one of the biggest signs for me is max's constant association with rainbows. the other characters have their color palettes, and max has rainbows. literally. as many times as mike and will have been coded with rainbow imagery, max is drowning in it.

and then there's the most important piece of queer coding... her relationship with el. i'll come back around to that though, because i want to talk about boys first. because clearly, max does like boys.

this shot is largely played for comedic relief, but it actually does something important for the narrative i think. it establishes again, with a max that has (once again) broken up with lucas for reasons she doesn't seem to have really explained, that max is attracted to men. my optimistic reading of it is honestly, "hey, we know what we've been doing here with max, so just in case you were thinking she's a lesbian... she's not." ...or if you want a different fun read of it... max realized she likes girls recently (i'll get to that) and is just making sure she still likes boys. ladies dig it? do they steve? oh, wait, yeah.

she's also talked about other boys with el in the past, showing pretty unambiguous interest in them

(these scenes are still so gay though seriously... "you must be an angel".... contrasting milven's scene where el didn't like mike's singing... rainbowsrainbowsrainbows... talking about kissing and then emulating a spin the bottle game, later introducing el to wonder woman while they're in bed together, waking up together always rainbows come ON)

and of course, the other most important part of this, her relationship with lucas, which is shown continuously to be one of real, romantic attraction. in season 2, this was mostly established through contrast with her relationship with dustin, who also had a crush on her. max and lucas start off by becoming close as friends, and then begin to develop a romantic connection. max and dustin, meanwhile, are established several times as not clicking in the same way that max and lucas do. they have heart-to-hearts that feel intimate and genuine, and, as steve and dustin discuss, are layered with the kind of "electricity" that denotes mutual attraction.

at the same time though, while we understand that it's genuine on both sides, we're shown that max and lucas' relationship is far from perfect.

for a couple that reads as endgame and has parallels with several of the other endgame couples, they also parallel a lot of the obviously not endgame couples. i'm gonna come back around to that too. first, the other thing.

romantic coding of elmax

elmax. honestly, i can't even get into everything i want to, because it's literally everything about them.

first of all, the start of their friendship is byler romantic coded

"i just walked up to you and i asked... it was the best thing i've ever done."

this sequence in particular though. this is. so bi coded i'm going insane. (also rainbows rainbows rainbows)

not hopper, not mike. you. (there's more to life than stupid boys. *HOLDS HER HAND*)

the next sequence is also pretty gay imo but is also kinda just gals being pals, so i'm gonna focus on the song, Material Girl by Madonna. this is definitely meant to be about eleven here, finding herself, away from mike (and it's also just a great shopping montage song), but the shot layout also subtly indicates that it applies to max and lucas too.

"some boys hug me, some boys kiss me, i think they're okay." and what about girls, max? what do you think of them? el? opinions?

(the clothes are emulating a literal rainbow flag behind her ok red yellow blue green purple and max is the orange she's part of the flag like shut UP i can't do this anymore)

and. okay. look, i'm not going to fully explain this one but i need to point it out.

getting back at the straight girl bullies (shown flirting with a boy) in front of a burger king. max taking off her sunglasses (we've talked about the symbolism of mike's shades in season 4) as they run away holding hands. taco bell coming soon. "there's more to life than stupid boys." like. am i reading way too much into this? (yes)

even back to their first meeting though, i'm seeing the seeds being planted. go ahead and read this as purely platonic admiration if you want, i don't care, but there's no way in my mind, especially after seeing seasons 3 and 4. like imagine you're a young bi teenage girl who's been hearing stories about this awesome girl with superpowers who saved everyone's life and then mysteriously disappeared, and then she suddenly mysteriously reappears, saves your life too, and walks in looking like this

personally, my tiny gay heart would stop.

yeah

but let's actually move on to season 4 for a minute.

season 4 was setting up canon bisexual max

i'm going to argue something here that i don't have a ton of actual evidence for: i think one of the reasons max broke up with lucas after season 3 is that she realized her feelings for el. max's arc in season 4 is all about her dealing with the trauma of last season, and guilt for her role in what happened. the guilt is extremely important to this. it's a big part in why vecna chooses his victims: not just kids with trauma, but kids who feel shame surrounding their trauma. most of that for max obviously has to do with billy's death. but i think there's something else that max is dealing with too.

as soon as i started season 4 i was struck with strong “queer max” vibes. first of all, her more feminine and rainbow splashed outfits from season 3 have been replaced again with the more tomboyish, androgynous style of season 2. and then there's the first sequence we get to running up that hill (which starts, funnily enough, on a scene of el walking down the hall at school, upset). the first time i watched this i was literally shocked because it read so explicitly queer to me.

first, max looks at group of girls (thinking about el, most likely)

her gaze trails after them, and then, next shot, max looks at a couple kissing

and then max looks at lucas

only after watching it again did i realize it didn't necessarily have to be queer coding (if you take it as max missing her friend and then, separately, her ex-boyfriend) but holy shit, if that's what they meant, they did NOT have to put the couple making out in between those two shots, with further shots of max looking away almost guiltily. we all know that lucas was max's boyfriend. they didn't have to precede that shot of him with the shot of the couple. that's already their established dynamic (and we haven't even learned at this point that they've broken up).

what's not been established yet though, is the idea of max and el as a couple. and i think..... that's possibly what's being hinted at here through max's perspective. the sequence of shots is so telling: 1. girl friends, 2. couple kissing, 3. ex-boyfriend. guilt. what i'm getting from this sequence of shots is that max's friendship with el is something she's thought about in a romantic light. max is making this association. and feeling guilty about it when she looks at lucas. whom, despite their closeness still at the very end of season 3, months after starcourt, she has since broken up with. the reason the show establishes for this is that max has been pulling away from everyone since billy's death, dealing with the fallout in her family, her mother's emotional absence and alcoholism, etc, and her own grief, guilt, and trauma around it. that makes perfect sense, and i'm not saying it's not true. but i think el moving away was also a factor.

it wasn't until season 4 that max was shown to have really pulled away, after el moved to california. maybe it's a reach, maybe it's nothing, but max as a character is so similar to mike, who was shown to have exactly this response to the byers' moving away: isolating himself and pushing away his friends, suffering his depression alone, and talking to no one about it. meeting el in season 3 showed us a new, bubbly happy side to max (that, yes, probably also came from the rest of her friendships and lucas, but el's is the one we were shown). max and el spend almost the entire season together, and max is undoubtedly going to be affected by her best friend moving away. especially if, like mike, it feels like she's losing more than a friend.

it's not just those shots though. when lucas tries to talk to her later, telling her he knows something's wrong... as soon as she turns around, there's a rainbow.

"right, yeah, there must be something wrong with me because i broke up with you."

then in dear billy, lucas confronts her again. and the language reminds me of karen's speech to mike in season 1. and jonathan's to will in season 4. "you know you can talk to me, right? i'm here for you."

guilt and shame are a big part of max's plot this season. the two characters most associated with that for max are billy and vecna - max feeling guilt over billy, and vecna using that guilt against her.

and those scenes also feel intentionally queer coded to me.

and then there's the dear billy flashback sequence.

while she's trying to escape vecna using her happiest memories, max is also comparing her relationships with lucas and el. they are both friendships. and they are both romantic. she thinks of them in alternating flashbacks. lucas, then el, then lucas and dustin, then el, then max's face, then lucas and dustin, then el, then max's face, and then this particular sequence: lucas, el, mike.

this may a reach, but... if she has feelings for el, she's probably feeling guilty around mike, too. this is the only shot of mike in the sequence. after this, in quick succession, it's lucas, then lucas, then lucas, and then el.

then lucas, then lumix snowball kiss, then max's face, then high fiving el, then her eyes open, and she breaks free

there are more shots of lucas than of el, but that's just the thing: max keeps trying to just think of lucas (because, as shown by the shot of mike, the way she's thinking about el makes her feel guilty, which is the opposite of what she wants), but el keeps coming back in. she thinks of her first kiss with lucas, and then thinks of high fiving el after they "dumped their asses." and that's the shot that breaks her out.

(and the song itself? 1. birthdaygate coded, 2. ROMANTIC. baby, darling, angel. you must be an angel. the voice of an angel saving victor creel from henry, el saving max. i'm reaching again. but. seriously.)

and then the flashbacks in episode 9 (and i'm not even touching el's flashback montage here). it's so difficult to be brief about this because they're literally doing SO MUCH here. i'm might have to make a separate post with every shot in this sequence because it's so good. (edit: here)

literally just. go back and watch the entire thing if you need to, but i need to go through this. elmax is unbelievably romantic coded this episode. there is no getting around it.

max chose the snow ball as her happy memory to hide from vecna in, but it didn't work. when vecna finds her, he says, "you can't hide from me, max." max turns around and, with a determined look, closes her eyes. closing her eyes almost seems like she's trying to keep hiding, but facing the door where venca is feels more like defiance. she's not going to try to hide anymore...

in the first shot, she spins the bottle in her mind, and her memories flicker from her first time meeting lucas, to the movies with lucas, to the start of her friendship with el, back to the spinning bottle, and then. the last two shots repeat. movie date with lucas, el approaching her in the street. but the lucas shot flickers shorter, and the el shot lingers, and then it's max's mom tying her hair too tight for the snow ball.

like maybe... this wasn't her at her happiest. forced conformity is killing the kids, right?

and the bottle flickers in again and it's el. it's max dancing in el's room, you must be an angel...

and then we come back to max's face and there are rainbows reflecting in the light

"is mike a good kisser?" el laughing, more rainbows

after that, she gets distracted by vecna and broken out of her memories, and when el shows up, max asks,

"are you real? did i make you?" she was thinking so strongly of her memories with el, she thought that it had worked.... and everything is romantic coded, there's nothing even to argue for here, it's just. there. seriously, like. just watch the episode. it's elmax.

after this the focus goes back to el mostly and it's still extremely romantic but i can't get into it anymore, i need to focus on max.

the way it all ends brings me back to the elumax question again. because right here, i'm clearly seeing elmax/byler vs. lumix/milven. paralleling mike's love monologue failing to help el, lucas' protection, both physically and in her mind, was not enough to save max.

that was el. that was el that saved her. (of course, she saves your life because of "friendship")

el's love for max is what saved her. not mike. not lucas. elmax.

going back to the latter half of season 3... el and max's relationship progressed very quickly through shared trauma, and max is the one there for el all season... and when billy dies, el is the one who holds her.

season 3 also made it clear that max's relationship with lucas wasn't without flaws.

all of the romantically inept things that mike was doing with el? lucas was doing them first, max was breaking up with him, and lucas was later advising mike on how to fix it. and especially by the end of the season, max seems much more like she's in el's corner than lucas'.

why i think it's possible max and lucas might end up as friends

after she's broken up with him in season 4, lucas spends most of the time just trying to be her friend again. he doesn't even seem bothered by their breakup (although we don't know how long ago it was), he seems to really just want her in his life again, to talk to him.

and, yes, they spend season 4 rebuilding the relationship in a way i think would be beautiful to see work out romantically. but i don't think it's inevitable. (remember that they also rebuilt stency this season.... as much as they might like each other, we've been shown in past seasons that their romantic relationship was flawed.)

i wish i could get into all the parallels, because they're the biggest part of what confuses me on the show's endgame goals but i really can't because it would take up an entire post. the duffers love parallels, obviously, it's one of their main narrative techniques at this point. and i think they usually work really well, because they're not trying to show that each of these characters or couples is exactly the same. they use parallel situations to exemplify the small details that make each character and relationship unique.

for example, milven and stency often parallel each other, but they're not quite the same. i don't think mike ever had genuine romantic feelings for el. he thought he liked her, but ultimately he's gay. nancy, on the other hand, did genuinely have a crush on steve (hc her as a lesbian if you want, i fully support that, but i think the show thinks she likes boys). that is the show's example of a teenage crush that sparks and then fizzles, not turning into deeper love.

whereas lumix, which also sometimes parallels these two ships (for example, their habit of sitting across from each other rather than beside. not always though... they're inconsistent), i believe is an example of a love that is real and genuine... but might not be meant to last forever. because in addition to those other two, they also parallel byler, jopper, and jancy, which i believe are endgame ships.

to be honest... all of this makes me believe even more firmly in gay mike too. because unlike mike’s complete lack of romantic feeling for el, or nancy's naive crush on steve, this is a narrative that sets up genuine, but possibly not everlasting love. a bi character discovering her sexuality by falling for her best girl friend while she’s dating a guy she also really likes. i think lucas is max’s first love, but not her only.

however

all this said, i also think it's very likely that lucas and max will end up together, and el might end the show on her own. lucas and max are NOT milven or stency, and whatever flaws they have don't necessarily spell out a doomed relationship. there's a lot of good there too, i just didn't get into it here.

and el's whole character arc has been about family, friends, and finding herself outside of other peoples' influence. i think this could still work if she were with max, since max has always been the most supportive of el's independence and self-fulfillment, but i can really see the show ending with el on her own, and it being a natural and positive conclusion to her journey

either way though, i think with everything they've been doing, they might actually confirm in canon that max and el have romantic feelings for each other (...or indicate it so obviously that they think it’s undeniable and then later confirm in interviews when most viewers don’t get it because they’re too subtle for their own good)

anyway, here's how elumax can still happen

look, i don't really trust the show to be able to pull this off, mostly because it just. isn't something that's done. not in popular media like this. but honestly, it's hard for me to grasp all of this because it feels like the show is telling me that max belongs with both el and lucas. i think most people assume she will end up with lucas after the way their relationship was rebuilt in season 4, and i think that absolutely makes sense. but i truly think elmax has been built up just as much, just a lot more subtextually. it's just that no one expects it to actually happen. 1, because lumix not ending up together would feel pretty disappointing after all this build up, and we don't want to see lucas, who truly loves max, end up alone. especially when max loves him too. and 2, because of heteronormativity - most people assume elmax are only being set us as friends, regardless of whether they're picking up on the romantic coding. and the "norm" is one romantic partner per person. but max needs el just as much as she needs lucas, and the ending season 4 proved that. lucas holding max in his arms, thinking he's alone with her, but then we see that el is actually there too. right alongside lucas. el saved max's life after she died in lucas's arms.

i could just give up and assume that elmax is platonic and they're giving max both a romantic and a platonic love story, but as i've already talked about, max is queer, and her dynamic with el is romantic. (theres so much evidence of this from el's side too that i just didn't get into)

going into season 5, max is in a coma. we already know that lucas is spending his time at her bedside. and i think it's fair to assume, based on el's priorities after the pizza dough freezer, ignoring mike completely to stay with max and lucas, and to revive max, she's going to be very focused on max too.

this is already way too long but i'm almost done, i want to briefly talk about lucas and el's dynamic from season 1. of all the party members, lucas was the most skeptical and deeply wary of eleven. he didn't trust her, and she ended up inadvertently hurting him when he fought with mike. but over the course of the season, they both learned to trust each other, having moments together than felt just as important as el's friendship with mike.

if season 5 is a return to season 1 dynamics, especially seeing the way season 4 left these two characters (sharing the same priority - max), i think lucas and el will spend a decent amount of time in season 5 together, or at least share a plotline (around max?). now that they're finally being given the chance to actually spend time together, i can see them growing much closer next season, maybe even leading to a mutual understanding and acceptance of both of their feelings towards max (maybe even falling in love?). and if max wakes from her coma to discover that the guilt and shame she's been suffering around her feelings for these two people is actually unnecessary, and that they can all be happy with each other, in whatever way they decide, even if other people might not understand?

*slides the duffers $5*

that would be an absolutely iconic ending.

#elmax #max mayfield #byler #honestly though i would sell my soul for canon elumax #if they could pull that off in season 5 i could die happy #also i'm giving the duffers a LOT of credit here i'm just choosing to give them the benefit of the doubt #this got SO LONG i'm sorry #mikesbasementbeets posts

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sterlingarcher23 · 7 months

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It's going to happen

For the record: ElMax will happen just not the way you may like it though. It's Blue & Yellow. (Seriously, no one sees this?)

Written on the pages is the answer to a Neverending Story.

This show is not a "we are just telling some stuff and have no idea where it's heading or how long it's gonna be" for TV in which they use queerbaiting but a show for a streaming service FYI. This show has a planed plot. (And it's final season was greenlit before S4 was even released.)

It uses proxy dialog & moments to tell more than one story.

This show is not there just to ship characters, this show wants to tell it's audience something through these ships and to make an impact. Oh...and it's in the supernatural genre too. They aren't playing with you (although they are playing two ship-fans against each other.)

Btw. Lumax relationship happened within, um, a single season and back then Max was already curious about El. It just takes...about as long as it took Korrasami to happen. Although they didn't have the courage to let it happen within the show but had to confirm it afterwards... That show was for kids. Stranger Things' actual target audience is much, much older.

And it gives you everything you need. You only trust what you see...? Well, I repeat myself here:

She says it in this scene in which we see El in Max's head.

"This is Max"

But I doubt many of you'll like the explanation and what's basically going to happen. (Btw I don't think Byler is going to happen the way people want it to happen either) Which brings me back to my problem. A dilemma....I talked about it before. You will not like the answer. Or believe it. Why am I doing this?

Me:

"You will need to fly."

"To become a superhero...gone to Max's."

Lucas speaks to her loss of vision & touch. I mean this isnt done for shits and giggles. "We are gonna get you some help...." Yeah, I get it. (This should actually be in another post though)

And El is the cure. Connection causes reaction.

One of two cures. Two cures for two different things...

#elmax #max mayfield #stranger things #el hopper #elmax is endgame #stranger things analysis #blue and yellow

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aemiron-main · 2 years

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I feel like we don’t talk enough about how finding her in the woods, the yellow t shirt, is the best memory that mike can think of to try and save El??? With Will in s2, he was pulling out the tears, spilling out how alone he felt, how happy he was that Will agreed to be his friend, but with El, he focuses on a.) the night they met and b.) that yellow Benny’s burgers t shirt. Two things that are traumatizing to el, considering how terrified she was in the woods, and the fact that Brenner and co terrorized/chased her at Benny’s.

He could have talked about any of her “superhero” feats, considering that he literally calls her a superhero. He could have talked about romantic moments between them, like kissing at hop’s cabin, or the sno-ball: but he doesn’t. Why? Because those aren’t good memories for mike., and, although not intentionally, mike is being selfish. The superhero ones, obviously, are tinged by the trauma of near death. The sno-ball is tinged by mike’s clear upset at seeing Will dance with a girl. Kissing at hop’s cabin is tinged by mike’s embarrassment when El shuts down his singing, and his discomfort when she puts her hands on him, to the point where he takes them off.

This might be controversial, but: what good, happy memories do El and Mike actually have once they’re in a romantic relationship with eachother? Like just between them? Using memories like max and El at the mall as an example, are there any memories like that for Mike and El? Genuinely? Maybe I’m missing something, but I can’t think of any. El saving mike at the quarry was shared between El, Mike, and Dustin, and even then, that was traumatic because mike had literally just tried to jump to his death.

The only small, happy moments they have are things in S1 before they kissed- things like Mike showing El the la-z-boy. But that would mean admitting that all of the best moments between them were before their relationship- that they were better off platonic.

Where’s the small happy moments in their relationship amidst all the pain around them? Because I can list a million of those moments for pairings like Byler, Lumax, Elmax and Jopper. But I genuinely can’t think of any for m!leven.

And I don’t mean this in a “they hate eachother,” way, but more in a “the heteronormative pressures surrounding them that have pushed them into a relationship have prevented them from really truly getting to know and befriend eachother,” especially since it’s established in S1 that El isn’t interested in any of Mike’s interests, and in S3 that mike feels like he has to grow up in order to be with El. (And also feels like he has to be with El.) Their romantic relationship is getting in the way of any genuinely happy moments between them.

The sno-ball could have been a great platonic moment: but instead, Mike and El both felt like they had to be romantic together, which caused Mike some issues when it came to grappling with why he was feeling upset about seeing Will dance with a girl, even though he’s the one that encouraged Will. If Mike and El were platonic, that conflict wouldn’t have been as difficult for Mike to process imo, because he wouldn’t have to juggle both “why do I feel this way about Will,” and “why don’t I feel this way about El.”

Seriously, I can’t think of any genuine, happy moments just between Mike and El that come after they’re in a relationship. Because their relationship keeps getting in the way!! They stop being themselves, stop being individuals when they’re in this relationship with eachother, which makes it impossible for them to get to know know eachother as individuals. Even when it comes to things like Mike’s apology in the grocery store aisle, that moment goes from happy to frustrating/anxious for both of them because Mike can’t say the word “love,” and El can’t figure it out. Not to mention that mike didn’t even apologize for lying, which is what upset El in the first place.

Maybe I’m missing something, but if El and Mike are so good for eachother, then where’s those happy moments? The answer is that there isn’t any. Max had memories with Lucas to run to. El doesn’t have ones with Mike to run to, especially since even considering the handful of “cute moments,” before their romantic relationship started, El was still afraid that Mike was going to send her to an asylum. As far as I can see, of her memories with Mike are tinged by some sort of trauma, which happens, especially considering the supernatural circumstances, but even then, El and Max have those happy memories. So why don’t mike and El?

Mike pulls from the Benny’s burger memory, the yellow shirt, because that’s his best memory of El. And he’s being selfish, not thinking about what’s best for El, what her best memories are. Seriously. Based on his warped and unfair perception of her + his subconscious focus on Will thats always been there, maybe it is the day his life started. Because that’s the moment that there was hope for finding Will. His life ended the day Will disappeared, and started again that night they found El. That’s the moment that spurred everything else (finding Will) into motion. And yes, ‘not everything is about byler,’ but the monologue is so strangely written, that it’s worth looking into.

#stranger things #byler #mike wheeler i know what you are #mike wheeler #will byers #byler endgame #st4 #stranger things s4 #byler canon #byler analysis

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loveourfuture-c · 2 years

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🔥 + hopper and also stranger things in general? Lol. But also I would kind of love to hear your take on all the ships?🤷🏻‍♀️ but I know that's a lot so if you want to pick then that's cool haha

Okay, first of all it’s never to much because I absolutely adore talking about stranger things.

DISCLAIMER: I am not trying to attack anyone or make anyone feel bad these are just my opinions. I will tag this accordingly.

Hopper- DILF, the end.

Okay, but in all seriousness I absolutely love Hopper. I love his development and his desire to protect the people he loves. I don’t care what anyone says, Hopper is a great dad. He isn’t perfect (no one is) but he always did his best to protect El. Once she came into his world, she become his world. One of my favorite moments with them was in season three when they were at the mall and he told El that she, “didn’t have to do this” (I’m paraphrasing) meaning fight the monster thing the mind flayer made. He always let her know there was an option not to use her powers, which was something that she had never had before. Also another one of my favorite hopper moments was when he basically threatened Mike. I don’t care what anyone says that was hilarious.

Stranger things as a whole:

Is it perfect? No, but no media is. It is extremely enjoyable and I love it. It’s extremely endearing and I love how all the scary monster stuff is contrasted with the kids being goofy and being friends. This has quickly become one of my favorite shows and I forgot how much I loved it until I watched season 4 and went back and watched seasons 1-3.

Ships:

I have many many thoughts on this. I’m just going to do the mainish ones so if I leave any out I’m sorry.

Jopper: Absolutely perfect

Stancy: I am going to make some people mad but I feel like a large majority of Stancy shippers view Nancy as some sort of consolation prize for Steve. I can see why people ship them but I think it does a disservice to their character development to have them get back together. In the wise words of Winston Schmidt, “don’t be a backslider”

Jancy:(is that the ship name idk)

He took pictures of Nancy when she was naked without her knowledge or consent. “Oh but that was a long time ago so much happened since then” I literally don’t care. He barely apologized and they just never talked about it again. It’s super weird. I love Jonathan and I don’t think he is a bad person. I just think being in a relationship with someone who did that to you is super weird. This is more on the writers for how they handled it tbh.

Lumax: Absolutely perfect. I adore them with my whole heart.

Ronance: I absolutely love this. It’s very wonderful.

Vicky x Robin: They are super cute!!! They have really good potential and I am curious to see where they go with that. Also having similar quirks does not mean they are carbon copies of each other. Calm down people.

Steddie: Amazing. 10/10. My wonderful beautiful friend @tyrannusbasiltons writes fic for them and it’s amazing.

However, a lot of the shippers need the calm the fuck down and stop harassing that poor actress that plays Chrissy.

Eddie x Chrissy: SUPER CUTE!!! I love the idea of it and it’s very sweet. Also they have very cute fanart.

Mileven: They are very cute!! I do enjoy them, not as much as I used to though. They have a very sweet pure teenage love.

Byler: This is a very cute ship. I support Will Byers in all his romantic efforts even if I believe he could do better. One of my favorite pastimes is watching Byler edits to Taylor swift songs. My personal opinion is that Mike is Bi. I think there is real validity to this ship. It would be cool if they could make it cannon but in all honesty I just want Will to end season 5 happy with a boyfriend. Doesn’t have to be Mike.

Also this is conflicting cause I absolutely adore El and want her to have the whole entire world. I do think it would be good for both El and Mike to date other people though.

Elmax: Absolutely perfect. 100/10. I think this ship is super adorable.

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erectionsandtea · 3 years

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Skipping class/playing hooky headcanons!

Ships:

Lumax - these cuties skip class to go make out under the bleachers (idk why I see them doing that, I just do). that is, until they remember today is the day something special is happening, something they wouldn’t be able to do unless they skip class. (ex. special one-time screening of a movie, add a second scoop free of charge at the ice cream parlor, a parade or festival or something that takes up the whole block)

Byler - a while back, our boys found a secret room somewhere in the school, and they skip a boring/terrible class to go to this room that they have declared officially their own (if Mr. Clarke didn’t disapprove of cutting, he would just lend them a room) and just hang out. Mike would write and Will would draw pictures to go along with the writings bc they are totally going to release a comic book one day (based on their DnD adventures)

Elmax - they arrive at school, only to hang back behind everybody else, walking really slow, and when the halls are deserted, they turn around and go back out (because it’s more exciting when you have to sneak around). El is like “why do we ditch?” and Max is like “because we can, duh.” and then they just go wherever and do whatever they want, real spontaneous. excessive amounts of hand-holding and/or linked arms (just a lot of touching, okay)

Duzie - they just skip school altogether to literally go exploring in the woods (bc Hawkins is somehow surrounded by woods apparently). they find a cool lizard and Dustin totally wants to catch it, but he doesn’t have a free container, so they have to empty one of their food containers. then they go to the library to find books about lizards and do research on what to feed it and how to keep it content until they can show it to Mr. Clarke (they will release the lizard after)

Mileven - they wait until it’s the time that all the adults will be at work, and then they bike back home (her on the back, just like they used to). the house is empty so they get free rein to do whatever they want. this includes, but is not limited to: watching movies/tv, embarrassing karaoke, and not-always successful cooking experiments (at least one with waffles). they need to go to the store though to buy more chocolate bc they don’t have enough and El loves chocolate. they end up buying too much stuff, seriously like Mike’s whole allowance is gone lol. also just lying together, cuddling, occasionally talking about something, but mostly just enjoying the moment.

Friendships:

Will/El - they totally play hooky to sneak into a movie. something pg-13, or R if they’re feeling especially daring. if Steve and Robin still worked at the movie theater, he’d disapprove like the good mother he is, but she would let them in the back way AND sneak them free movie snacks (bc you know Robin totally did things like this when she was in school)

Mike/Max - they do something “rebellious”. not actually rebellious, but like Max heard about Mike graffitiing the bathroom stall that one time, and is like “so rebellious.” and Mike is like “like you’ve ever done anything that badass.” and she’s like “watch me, bitch.” and so they end up...idk, loitering or something. going to a store and taking literally every free sample. maybe sneaking into some “off limits” room in the school. you know. rebels.

Max/Dustin - arcade, obvsly. constantly competing. every time one of them gets a high score, the other will race over and immediately try to top it. at the end of the day, there are no arcade games left with anyone other than her or him in the ‘top players/high scores’ list.

BONUS:

Dustin takes the whole party to some abandoned place that he swears is haunted (that’s what he heard, anyway). hear me out, Dustin is smart, yes, but I totally don’t peg him as a skeptic, that’s Lucas. it’s like-

“who even told you this place is haunted?”

“jeremy, from math class”

“you’re dragging us all to this potentially dangerous place on jeremy’s word??”

“I’m telling you, he totally saw something”

“he totally didnt’! because ghosts. don’t. exist.”

“look, I’m not saying for sure that they exist, but you have to admit there’s some weird shit that can’t be explained”

“that doesn’t mean it’s a ghost!”

meawhile, Max just leans over to Will and is like “this is still better than school” and Will is like “yeah” and then “hey, are we going or what?”

(I’ll put the rest of this in its own post :) )

send any ideas or requests to my askbox, or feel free to add your own on this post! let me know if you want to be tagged in the headcanons.

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serendipitous-magic · 5 years

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My Initial Rant - Warning, Spoilers!!!!

No, seriously, SO MANY SPOILERS. OKAY? This is your warning.

_--_

For real, look away now.

_--_

Okay, my main problem with this trainwreck of a season? It completely lost touch with the emotional aspects of the story. Like... entirely.

There was a plot there, but a) it didn’t address like... anything that they set up in the first two seasons, emotionally, and the plot felt more like a cheesy, over-the-top comedy/action/adventure/??? than anything else, and b) it was not character driven at all. The plot just kind of happened to the characters

Moreover, the first two seasons felt like they were about real people. Season 3 felt like it was about characters. Empty, one-dimensional characters. Every single character was reduced to a cheap caricature of themselves - and I mean every one. I’m not sure I can think of a single moment that felt emotionally complex or even in-character. The writing of seasons 1 and 2 felt like we were hearing and seeing real people talking and reacting to things and relating to one another - this season felt like every single line was from a bad B-list movie. I mean, the actors did the best they could with what they had, I’m sure, but... The writing did not sound like real people. It sounded like the characters were just being fed cheesy, over-used lines that would further the (action-and-drama-driven, paper thin) plot.

They reduced Hop to a bumbling moron who doesn’t even act like a cop, much less his real self. I mean, really, who in the fucking hell is this new character? I don’t know him. He’s just an alcoholic who stumbles around saying, “I’m the chief of police, I can do anything I want,” punching people and being a fucking dick to Joyce.

They reduced Joyce to just... yelling. Like, her character just became this somewhat headstrong woman that yells. No complexity. No character at all, really. She’s barely even seen trying to take care of her kids except for saying, “Our kids are in danger!” once or twice. Who. The fuck. Is this?? Where’s Joyce Byers? Because I don’t know this woman who looks like her.

They reduced Will to a non-entity with maybe half a relevant moment. He just becomes an evil-barometer, and that’s about it. He’s the main fucking character. And we get a single scene that’s actually about him, it never gets closure, and after that he’s shuffled over to the sidelines.

They reduced Mike to a jerk. Like he’s just a walking stereotype of a teenage guy. Like, I see none of Mike’s character in this season. Where’s his kindness and empathy? His earnestness? His leadership? His nerdiness? His (relative) emotional intelligence? His intelligence? His loyalty? His relationship with Will (and that’s even besides being shippy - like, the first two seasons hinged on Mike being very close to Will, and them being best friends since they were five, and Mike being determined to get Will back and then keep him safe, and now it’s like... Do they even know each other? At all? They seem like vague acquaintances.)

I think they might have forgotten about El’s backstory and personality entirely. The only good thing I can say for her in this season is that she did get her character arc of going out in the world and establishing her own personality more, outside of the lab or the cabin or her boyfriend. But aside from that arc, in this season it was like she was just a magic bullet. They reduced her to her powers. She slammed shit around with her mind for a while and went into the Void and like... giggled with Max? And don’t get me wrong, I really appreciated the Elmax content, but it just seemed like it was not earned in the slightest. She did not feel like the same character. (Like all the other characters tbh.)

And that’s not even to get into all the other characters that just kind of moved around like puppets on a stage depending on what the plot required of them, who got, like nothing as far as actual character content or arcs. (Nancy, Jonathan, Steve, Dustin, Lucas...)

And speaking of plot? Nothing felt deserved. Nothing felt built-up-to or significant. The characters got beaten up and thrown around a lot (seriously, there was a lot of violence in this season, and all of it felt very unnecessary and artificial), but none of it really... Meant anything? Like, Steve gets the crap beaten out of him and almost tortured by Russians (??? why the Russians. Why. Whyyyyy.), Jonathan gets the crap beaten out of him by the not-zombies, Nancy gets beaten up and thrown against a wall by the not-zombies, El gets choked, B*lly gets hurled around a fair amount, Hop both takes and deals a fair amount of violence (apparently for no reason??? like none of it really makes sense)... But none of the action or violence really seemed to have a reason or meaning beyond just “look, action!!” It didn’t mean anything beyond just moving the plot forward to the next shock-factor scene.

Why was the Party never together?? Like, ever. I think they had like two scenes where the Party actually had plots that touched at all. Other than that it was like they were just off doing their own thing in like 3 or 4 completely separate stories. We didn’t get any moments of them crossing paths, really, in the organic way that stitched together the interweaving plots of seasons 1 and 2.

They treated women like shit in this season??? What the actual fuck. And not just the season, but the characters treat each other like shit! Hopper tells Joyce to “stick to sales”! Jonathan tells Nancy that she should give up on her case! Not to mention that Nancy is humiliated and treated like shit at her job, and it is not handled well at all by the writers - it feels like a bad, cheesy movie where the villains just holler out some sexist shit and then guffaw about it, and that’s like... Never addressed. Lucas and Mike call girls “a different species.” And then they spend the rest of the season doing their weird girls-are-mysterious-creatures-that-you-can-win-back-with-presents thing???? The cougars at the pool were unnecessary and really uncomfortable. Robin was a cool character until all the sudden they had to be like “oh and she had a crush on Steve in school!!!111!!11!!” ......... why.

And on that note, why any of the heterosexual bullshit?? Why?? It didn’t even feel deserved or organic in this season. At least in season 2 the straight ships felt well-deserved (mileven, lumax - they were built organically, over the course of the season, and their love story felt like it meant something). Here it’s like they just paired up as many male-female pairs as they could and shoved it in our faces, with no real emotions or meaning behind it. Even Jopper, which was a great ship in seasons 1 and 2, just got... uncomfortable. Like, they treated each other like shit. It was really uncomfortable. They had no chemistry. They just bumbled around like idiots, being mean to each other. I.... I don’t understand.

Furthermore, why did Billy get a kind-of-redemption-arc?? Why did they have to do the whole “oh, he was abused as a child and that’s why he’s a monster, boo hoo!” thing??? The message they send with that is so fucking awful. Billy is a human piece of shit (abuser, violent, racist, sexist, etc., etc., etc.) and they’re like “But we show you his shitty childhood, which means he’s pathetic and worthy of redemption!!!” FUCK. NO.

The monster made no sense. I mean, emotionally. Symbolically. All the setup they did with the Mind Flayer in season 2? All the foreshadowing about how only the undead can defeat it (aka Will, zombie boy)? They made a fantastic monster and villain... And then they just made it into a gooey meat monster that turns people into zombies for shock factor. And its whole connection with Will, and all that? It was used as, like... like Will was just an evil barometer who occasionally said, “He’s here,” and that was it. The Mind Flayer went from being a fantastically horrifying, effective, interesting, powerful villain to... a cheesy movie monster.

Why the Russians. ... Why. There was literally no reason for them to be there. To open the gate, I guess, but... Honestly what significance did that whole plot have? Okay, so the Russians infiltrated Hawkins to take advantage of the Gate, to try to open it again, and they used the mall as a front to do that, and one of them was basically the Terminator and he was after Hop and Joyce (which also just felt so artificial and contrived), and... And they were in cahoots with the mayor...? Honestly, from a storytelling perspective, they could (and, I think, should) have used either Hawkins Lab or Brenner or Kali or something, anything they’d already established to fill that exact role!! Because the Russians in Hawkins just felt like stereotypes that marched around holding guns. They added no emotional relevance or impact to the story. They didn’t really add anything to the story except for some convenient plot devices (that weren’t even very clever or compelling). They could have had Brenner come back (they hinted he wasn’t dead) with the New Hawkins Lab or whatever and fulfill the same exact role, plot-wise, and that would have been so much more emotionally relevant than just shoveling a bunch of Russian stereotypes into Hawkins and making them punch people.

The fucking ending. The Byers leave? That’s it? That’s the story? After all that pain and suffering and struggle and victory and relationship building and everything (I’m talking about S2 here), they just... pack up and leave? And there’s a 30 second scene of Will crying while he hugs his friends and then Joyce shuts the door and that’s it? The end result - the ending is that they need to cut ties and move on and grow up? That’s the moral? After all that, “sometimes change is good even though it hurts,” and the Byers leave all the people that care about them? How in the hell is that an emotionally satisfying ending? How is that an ending at all? And I’m not even talking about ships here (again, that’s a whooooole ‘nother rant). Just for the story, it fell so completely and entirely flat. It did not feel deserved. It did not feel meaningful.

And honestly, I think that’s the problem with the whole season.

It did not feel deserved, or meaningful, because there was no emotional connection from the beginning. We never connected with the characters emotionally. There was hardly anything there to connect with. It started out off-key and kind of bland and emotionally distant, and it stayed that way through the entire season, to the point where I wasn’t even engaged. I was just watching so I could be done with it.

The plot was rushed and driven by shock factor. It felt over-the-top and cheesy, and not in the good-old-fashioned-80s-movie-nostalgia way. The characters were treated as side notes, and all of them felt paper-thin and completely out-of-character for themselves, lacking any complexity or emotional depth. Very few things in the plot actually engaged me or made me feel for the characters, because it was all so rushed and meaningless. None of the relationships (family, friends, ships, etc.) felt real or genuine at all, and frankly many of them were just uncomfortable because they were jerks to each other the whole time with no real closure or arcs.

Not to mention they completely threw away all the interesting loose ends from season 2. What happened to all that hinting that Will has powers?? What happened to Brenner possibly being alive? What happened to Kali? What happened to “it was the best thing I’ve ever done” and that whole arc? What happened to “the way to defeat the Mind Flayer is with an army of the undead (Will, zombie boy)” (which they turned on its head and made the Mind Flayer into zombies???? What?? What?)?? What happened to literally every good and interesting and complex thing in the show, and why did they replace it with meaningless, unearned, paper-thin, badly written action and drama, coming from characters that are bumbling imitations of themselves?

Y’all, I’m fucking mad. Like. I don’t even know what the hell to say right now. I don’t fucking know if this fandom is even salvageable. I don’t fucking know.

And that’s not even to really get into byeler, which... fucking ouch. I was expecting angst, but we didn’t even get that - we didn’t even get that! We got nothing. We got a single 30-second interaction of them one-on-one, in which they’re fighting, and then their relationship is literally never addressed in any real capacity again. After S1 hinges on Mike trying to get Will back. After “crazy together,” after “we won’t let him,” after “it was the best thing I’ve ever done,” after all that - it’s like they barely know each other. Are they even friends, let alone best friends for life? Do they know each other? Do they even look at each other? They hug for half a second and we’re supposed to believe that Mike and Will - attached at the hip for the entirety of S2 Mike and Will, who have been one of the main close relationships on the show, who the show focused on as being one of the most complex and deep relationships - they just hug for half a second and walk away, while there’s narration about how “change is painful sometimes but it’s good, time to move on.” Fuck. This. Entire. Season.

#season 3 spoilers #sts3 #i'm fucking mad

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