#elmax theory

[milliebugydementia]

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max and el are both incredibly lost at this point in the absence of each others' only true friend, and they both become withdrawn from the people around them in trying to act like everything is fine - el trying not to show will when she's upset, and max trying not to show lucas that she's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

[lestatlioncourtt]

will and mike going to prom as a couple but obviously being very nervous about it so Mr Clarke let's them use the AV club classroom so they can slow dance together without any worries 💔

[inconspicuousdreamgirl]

Stranger things bts spoilers ahead!!

So they are still filming at the moment and filming this scene. A lot of people have assumed these kids are the main group but let me tell you it’s not.

First off it would be flashback so it’s clearly not the main boys as looking at the costumes it looks more late 80s outfits

These are the types of clothes they wore not even remotely similar.

So what is this scene? Well I think it could be anything really other than a flashback of the main characters.

Personally I think this will obviously take place in the last episode. It could be a scene where the grown up group or mike sees a group of four boys resembling his friends biking in the streets like how they used to do. It would be a sweet nostalgic/ looking back moment as the group are graduating and leaving to explore their lives. It would be a bittersweet sweet scene.

Season one and the first introduction to the main characters begins with the boys biking home with Mike watching them ride off. so this could be a parallel to this as a grown up mike is seeing his own friends and childhood in these kids.

[love-byers]

helloooooo welcome to my account :)

here are my most popular stranger things posts, most of which are byler related, including theories and analyses. some of these were also covered on my tiktok back in the day. i've colored my favorites/the ones i think are the most important:

season 4

'not kids anymore' music coding

wild byler music editing

who makes mike feel better for being different?

the monologue is not a fucking hyperbole please shut up

the ONE time el and will butt heads...

van scene cinematography analysis

s4 epilogue cinematography analysis

Mike's self-pity parallel

Airport shenanigans

Rink o mania lighting

El does not trust mike

Mike dropping everything to fight with will

When blue meets yellow in the west is NOT reach

It's been a year, Mike. (byler s4 analysis/theory)

Harry Potter parallel

Byler being paralleled to canon couples

the whole point of Dear Billy...

Mike is a guilty liar

Mike wont stop whining about it. (byler phone theory)

Bedroom scene script analysis

Byler Romione parallel

Breaking down Mike's apology

You ruined my day!/You basically sabotaged the whole day!

Rink-o-mania detail

Mike/hopper parallel

Season 4 themes analysis

byler/rovickie parallel

Ell/Will parallel

Mike lying vs Mike telling the truth (mileven/byler parallel)

Discogate

max & lucas vs mike & el

mike was lying in the monologue

season 3

lucas the wingman

mike/hopper 'corruption' parallel

s3 finale scenes analysis

byler blocking

mlvn vs jancy cinematography

the concept of liking girls...

love triangle imagery

season 2

What was the point of it was the best thing I've ever done?

El/Will upside down parallel

why the emphasis on mike?

how to make an intimate scene

jancy/byler scenes

mike being weird at the snowball

season 1

mike lashing out at el

mike treats all his best friends the same...except will

stancy +mileven music coding

byler being built up from s1

general analyses

mike and will vs actual "unrequited" ships

DMGATE

Stancy/joyce & bob/mileven parallel

HEARTGATE

The biggest byler proof

el does not trust mike

Mike's weird language when he talks about el

Stranger Things Music Coding

every time we've heard 'I love you' in stranger things (ongoing)

El's makeovers/Elmax analysis

why i stopped shipping mileven

how mlvn could've been likable

"Will is mad at me I hope I die"

Byler if there was no heteronormativity

Use of flashbacks in stranger things (not my post but it is inspired by a discovery i made and it's incredible so give it all the love)

more will be added as i post more!

[bylerkeepsmeupatnight]

someone made a reel asking what predictions for season 5 ppl have.

i know we say we’re a hive mind but look at this

it’s all variations of mike and el get married despite not liking each other, robin stops being gay, will gets rejected and dies, and everyone gets married.

i honestly feel bad for milevens that they feel like mikes love interest has to die for mileven to be canon, they know byler is canon. also their perception of marriage is honestly making me sad, not everyone has to marry for two people to be in love.

no hate to all milevens tho, some of you are really nice :)

EDIT: i found the best one

there’s definitely more but i don’t think i can deal with seeing more of these

[teambyler]

Everything after Mike's monologue shows that El has moved on from Mike

After the climactic events of season 4 including Mike's monologue, we have ZERO scenes between El and Mike talking about what happened. And we're never explicitly shown what she's thinking: we have to pick it up through clues.

Here are ALL the significant things El does afterward that give us any clue of what she thinks about their relationship.

Mike tells El to "wake up," and then El says (while looking at Max) "No... You're not going... No." The first "no" can also be a direct response to Mike. She is choosing not to go back to Mike and to help Max:

Of course, she wants to save Max's life. But her "no" becomes more significant when we see her thoughts while saving Max. She remembers her s3 friendship with Max, where she found herself happier dumping Mike and becoming independent. Max told her about ANOTHER female superhero Wonder Woman, said "Not Hopper, not Mike, YOU... There's more to life than stupid boys... Against the rules? We make our own rules":

We then time jump to 2 days later. Mike and El are sitting next to each other in the van, but they don't interact.

When they visit Max at the hospital, El puts her head on Mike's shoulder and he puts his arm around her. This is the ONLY expression of closeness we see between them after the monologue. Even here, both of El's arms hang at her sides:

But in this and later scenes we see Mike having more interactions with Will than with El. When Lucas says the doctors thought it was a "miracle" Max came back to life, Will and Mike have the same thought -- that El saved her -- but they look immediately at each other first instead of El. El, meanwhile, hadn't shared that Max almost died (and what she had done to save her) with Mike. She doesn't look at him. (Thanks to @romainlettusdinnerparty for pointing this out)

While cleaning Hopper's cabin, El tellingly closes the door after entering her old room, immediately after glancing at Mike and Will together. (There is no reason to close a door when you're cleaning a musty old house!) We find out that she has barely been talking to Mike:

Finally, the last scene. The three of them walk out onto the field side by side. Mike and Will stop at the same time. El walks forward ahead of the other two. Mike doesn't follow his girlfriend and stays by Will:

Since this is the very last scene and there's no dialogue, it's fair to say that what we're seeing visually will foreshadow events in the next season. She is walking ahead into the rotting part of the field (the Upside Down?). And she is moving away from Mike, and Mike is choosing to stay with Will. Mike and Will aren't holding hands, but they're BREATHING IN SYNC.

To drive things home, she sees the EXACT same kind of flowers that Mike picked for El and gave her at the airport, the yellow and purple flowers:

... But now they're wilted... a very on-your-nose symbol of their relationship. She holds on to the wilted flower while looking at the devastation in Hawkins. This reflects and foreshadows her personal journey:

The only other reading of these final images is that she will defend what is good -- Hawkins -- from Vecna. But the chosen symbol is too associated with Mike's bouquet. It can't be her protecting their relationship from Vecna. It has never been threatened by external threats. (In fact, facing shared danger from the "bad men," etc. brought them together.) Their relationship has corroded from within.

The absence of ANY scene between Mike and El post-monologue is startling. We get MANY scenes in the epilogue where we see how the main characters now relate to each other. El and Will hug Dustin, we see that Robin and Vickie might enter a relationship, heck we even see how Mike and Hopper regard each other. But for Mileven, where THE arc this season has been "Will Mike say he loves El?" we get no resolution!

Instead, we get implications and symbols. And everything makes clear that Mike and Will have grown closer, while Mike and El have grown more distant.

This, AFTER Mike said what El told her he needed to say for their relationship to work out! If anything, it made El MORE distant. As if El realized that isn't what she wants after all... unlike early in s4, El is now hardly relating to Mike whatsoever.

Mileven is a sinking ship. But that doesn't mean Mike and El must end up unhappy.

-teambyler

[byler-alarmist]

The Very Curious Consistency of Elmax Wearing Yellow and Blue on their Wrists

I first noticed it in S3. El wears the blue hair tie that used to belong to Sara Hopper as a bracelet. Max wears a yellow watch. These respective accessories stay consistent despite their many outfits:

But that only started in S3, right?

OH, WAIT

(She took off the watch for the dance, but the cuff of her sleeve is still yellow!)

But it ended after S3, right?

OH, WAIT

Curious.......very, very curious........

[eilissxx]

OH MY GOOODDDD

JOPPERS WEDDING AND MY BELOVED GIRLFRIEND MAX MAYFIELD IS OKAY

ELMAX IS SO BACK!!!!!!!

[pandabyler]

did i eat

[lordyssac]

It’s 2:09 AM and my brain went ”What if El chooses to stay with Max in wherever her mind is trapped in?”

So neither of them would actually be dead but Max couldn’t wake up and El doesn’t want to leave her so she does something to get to her.

That could explain the scene with Mike and Hopper. And I’d be sad but also happy because that’s some sort of Elmax endgame 😅

[lestatlioncourtt]

I can't help but be a little disappointed about the lack of insight in stranger things characters, and I know, trust me I know that it's a sci-fi show and the plot focuses in explaining the supernatural events and their roots but I just wished they touched more upon the characters struggles (like will being queer) bc I feel like everything is so "subtle" (not really but you get what I mean) and we don't get to really understand what's going inside the characters minds most of the time

[redpusea]

The reason Vecna could target Vickie is because historically the Mind Flayer/Hive Mind feeds off fear and shame. How much fear and shame would a straight passing girl have about having a girl crush? Probably at least a little….

[inconspicuousdreamgirl]

officially 24 weeks until stranger things season 5

(I will be doing this weekly to countdown)

[sterlingarcher23]

Please, repeat my words:

Remembered this scene in Fight Club - El repeating Max's words is like the Narrator who repeats Tyler Durden's words.

Oh, and spoiler:

The narrator in Fight Club has DID, a multiple personality disorder - Tyler Durden is his alter.

As said earlier, El speaks in the flashbacks but not so well in S1. Why? The Duffers mentioned one reason (their words) when asked...

But what's the other? El has a prompter.

Aka the Zoomer. You know her as Max Mayfield. Or as El put it: This is Max.

Btw the show probably had already and hopefully will have a more overtly "Quantum leap" reference in 5 (a show with Scott Bakula who travels through time and ends up in others people's bodys) and...

...and combined it with Black Swan.

A film in which the protagonist, Nina, shows signs of Dissociative Identity Disorder - her alter is played by Mila Kunis.

I think the "And I woke up looking like a corpse" pointing to A) El waking up in 5 looking like Max because...she said so. And wrote that foreshadowing note to Hopper that she's gone and sleeping over at Max's. Like literally. B) her waking up in the memory, the girl in the lab is only a projection of herself and should look differently.

There's a C) but it's more a guess that may explain what the eggs in the UD are actually for. 🤔 And the owls (that have a double meaning) ...and artifical bodies: "You know that we are living in a material world. And I am a material girl."

And El's heart is literally beating in Max's chest as her heart beats are echoed by the heart monitor.

Why do these post always end up to be that long? It was just the Fight Club scene I wanted to mention 😔- And just btw: I think the Duffers will reveal a lot and explain very little, I don't necessarily expect a "full make complete sense" story but more hints and clues that are dropped how they think all of this could make sense but presented in a way of films of the 80s that spawned a lot of theories.

So, I expect a lot of revelations but the explanation, how this works exactly, is up to us to interpret. That's why certain aspects may stay in a "Wait, how?/Doesn't make sense." state in the end.

[nothoughts-onlywomen]

Camazotz

I grew up reading a Wrinkle in Time, and remembering the storyline for that has sparked some season 5 theories in my mind…

Camazotz is a planet that succumbed to the Black Thing, which is considered to be pure darkness and evil. We know of another place that’s very similar…

The Upside Down is generally assumed to be evil, or at least contain evil things. But the other thing I’m noting here is the “hive mind.”

Camazotz and the Upside Down both operate under a hive mind. Meg’s dad Alex was imprisoned in Camazotz because he refused to conform. And, as we know, Max is trapped in the Upside Down somewhere.

Vecna’s connection to Master of Puppets makes me think that he’ll either have control of others or be under control by the Mind Flayer. Either that, or Max is actively fighting being under Vecna’s mind control, which is why she’s stuck there.

Yes, Camazotz could be a reference to the death bat, but I refuse to believe that the Duffers would post this carelessly:

Which leads me to my point. Why do I find this so important?

Upon their initial trip to Camazotz, Charles Wallace allows himself to be hypnotized by IT so he could find their dad. Calvin and Meg go back to Camazotz to find and free Charles Wallace. And when Meg finally faces IT, Charles Wallace is still under IT’s control. She has to tell him she loves him, and remind him how much she cares about him in order for him to be broken out of IT’s trance.

Picture this. Max may not have intentionally allowed herself to get trapped in the Upside Down. But there’s no doubt in my mind that she’s using whatever energy she has left to see if she can figure out any weaknesses of Vecna’s. In some way, Vecna will be trying to control her mind, and she’ll be actively resisting him, but running out of stamina and time. So now El and Lucas have to go in to save her.

The show has utilized this same trope that A Wrinkle in Time did: the power of love against evil. Something we’ve already seen here:

I have a fairly good feeling that Max will be in danger of succumbing to the Upside Down and/or Vecna’s mind control. And Lucas (and/or El) will have to talk to her, plead with her, tell her how much they love and cherish her. Bonus points if they use her letters to do so, offering positive memories that she included. And I think Lucas will do a Mike in this scenario and finally tell Max that he loves her and hasn’t given up on her.

And this, ultimately, will allow Max just enough agency for them to smuggle her out of her cage. Hugs and hopefully a Lumax kiss (several, even. Complete with embraces and tears and face caressing) will ensue.

And we’ll all be crying our eyes out.

[bylerbeotch]

Rewatching s4 now and am so surprised how much el and lucas's stories parallel each other and how i never noticed it before.

they both start the season on opposite ends - el struggling with being bullied and wishing she could befriend her tormentors and lucas being fed up with his bullying and actually becoming one of them

and even some of their scenes align with one another i.e ep 3 when el has been detained and is being questioned by police then an immediate cut to lucas following the basketball players to interrogate the hellfire club on eddies whereabouts-

how did I never notice this when it was so obvious????