Everybody Moved On, I Stayed There.

The Untamed FANART

collecting posts of this type

Milkvan is really just the epitome of "do I love them or do I want to be them?" with El looking at all his family photos and Mike idolizing her ability to save the ones she loves from the start.

I completely missed the parallels in s4 between el and max, especially in episode 1

- theyre both struggling with grief and loss of a family member who they had mixed feelings about. billy had been paralleled to max's stepdad, and hopper had been compared to brenner. they're both girls who have grown up in violent and controlling environments, but we see them bond in season 3 as each others' only female friends amongst the nerds. they get to have fun being girls together and el grows massively as a person for it

then in season 4 she's immediately tossed into the deep end as soon as she was trying to find a sense of self. we don't see max's mom, but we hear that she drinks, and we see joyce also having wine and being sad, not that this is ever shown to affect her parenting. but max and el are both incredibly lost at this point in the absence of each others' only true friend, and they both become withdrawn from the people around them in trying to act like everything is fine - el trying not to show will when she's upset, and max trying not to show lucas that she's seeing things, and being defensive to the rest of the party.

in s4e1 we see el getting mocked in her presentation while max is walking out of the counsellor's, both in positions of vulnerability trying to move very fast and get away from the past which is clearly haunting them (and they're both talking about the past and the specific trauma they're dealing with in the scenes prior) and failing to.

they're also both being pursued by vecna, which i feel is likely intentional on his part because he can read max's mind and knows he can use killing her to break down eleven.

and max is also so relieved when el finally comes to save her, from vecna but also from everything he is bringing up - el's intervention is as a hero but also as emotional support after max has been so isolated and alone in her feelings for so long, and we never really get to see her and el bond over their mutual grief before she moves away, nor exchange letters about feeling each others' absence.

it would be nice if in season 5 we get a reunion from them that explores some of that in their relationship as it develops, if they decide to bring max back.

i also think it's noteworthy that el and will and max and mike are also kind of parallel characters? mike and max have a lot of sassiness & sark and strength in character for standing up for the people they love & their friends, and a lot of their feud comes from being the same kind of defensive bitch (especially of eleven) and bickering cos they're just the same person? and even in terms of like gender nonconformity, max is a masculine girl while mike is not necessarily effeminate but by being the weedy gay autistic phenotype is kind of inherently gnc.

and el and will are both the sensitive, impressionable counterpart who they fight for, who've also both come from violent backgrounds, experienced a load of trauma pertaining to the same one guy, have the same terrible fringe and cry and have ptsd episodes a lot.

which i think is relevant because for both will and mike and el and max, that separation really strains on all of them, and when they come back together they realise just how much they missed each other.

in conclusion elmax byler supremacy

*at Bill's House in his bed*

Bill shutting off his phone alarm: Good morning sweetie- AGHH!!

Bill, looking at not his wife but Richie: What the hell are you doing?!

Richie: It's a week till mine and Eddie's wedding, so we're having a final heist! It's heist day!!

Bill: Couldn't you have just sent that in an email?!

Richie: No, this was the only way! I have to go alert the others!

*Mike's house*

*Mike opening the fridge to grab milk and shutting the door to reveal Richie*

Richie: IT'S HEIST DAY, MIKE!!

Mike dropping the milk: AGHH!!!

Richie: Whoop! Sorry about your milk! Gotta go!

*Ben and Beverlys house*

Ben walking over to go wake their daughter up: Come on, Rose, time to wake up for school- AGHHH!

Richie in Rose's bed: It's Heist Day, Ben!!

Ben, as Beverly runs in at the commotion: Where's Rose?!

Richie: Oh! She's downstairs eating the donuts I brought with me! Gotta go!

*Back in Richie and Eddie's apartment*

*Eddie walks into the bathroom to see Richie hiding under a robe with the shower running*

Eddie: Babe, what're you doing?

Richie, confused: I was hiding so I could surprise you... but if you're here, who's in our shower?

Stanley: It's me!

*Stanley flinging open the shower curtain with dramatic flair*

Stanley: Stanley Uris! It's heist day, Richie!

Richie grinning: OOOOOHHHH!!

Eddie and Stanley joining in grinning: OOOOOOHHHHH!!!

I found this unfinished Lawlight Laputa drawing in my drafts!

"An old professor of mine had this great thing. He said "On the level of individuals and civilization, personality predates ideology." Meaning that before you were a fascist, you were a bully and an asshole." -Brennan Lee Mulligan in conversation with Amy Vorpahl, Adventuring Academy S1E2

👩‍❤️‍👩SenGen I kept getting obsessed over since last night. I was thinking maybe they‘re in the all-girl school dorm, something like that 😋

happy holidays !

I need max and mike to play scrabble

(live footage of max and mike playing scrabble:)