#max and mike

[ohfallingdisco]

How Max had a happy memory reserved with only Mike in Dear Billy that played out in full, and how she wrote him a letter even though he was across the country when she thought she was going to die, and how there’s the flashback of them in class together sometime between seasons 3 and 4 where Mike has a camera and she’s smiling, and things like Mike listing Max before Lucas and Dustin to Will, and how she was distancing herself from everyone but stood next to Mike at the pep rally in some sort of weird solidarity, and how they somehow ended up in his basement to cry even though Mike was in California when Max found out she was being targeted, and how it’s all too beautiful of a story in subtext.

All I want for them is everything

[nickismyspiritanimal]

✨Siblings✨

Wlw and mlm solidarity. Bisexual + Gay friendship. More like twins than actual twins. They help each other with everything. They talk about their crushes together. Very wholesome

Wlw and mlm hostility. Gay on gay violence. Bisexual versus Bisexual. Max literally stole his girlfriend. They are constantly bullying each other. Mike tried to make fun of her for being gay but Max says "you're literally gay also." They try to physically fight but Max always wins.

[will80sbyers]

STRANGER THINGS 2 | Madwheeler fights are my favourite thing ngl

[howtobecomeadragon]

Max and Lucas, 4x01 - Mike and Will, 3x02 - 3x03: fight parallel

S4 parallels here.

[madwheelerz]

Madwheeler Dissection- Family Edition

A talk in the similarities and differences between Mike and Max’s family situations. This actually drives me insane, and I personally think it’s wild.

First let’s talk about the lack of positive father figures in their lives.

Mike’s father, Ted Wheeler, is very inattentive. From the little interactions Mike has with him we see that Mike is very annoyed with him and doesn’t seem to like or care much about him at all. This is pretty vice-versa as well. Ted seems pretty willing to let Brenner and his men do whatever while Karen is expressing skepticism regarding what they could possibly want with her son. It’s also interesting how in all of season one Mike reassures El using his mother. He never says that his father will help her he just says his mom will. He also says that El would have sisters in Holly and Nancy. There is no mention of his dad. It’s like his dad is an afterthought, most likely due to Ted’s own negligence which we see Dustin callout pretty often.

Now Max, oh boy Max. Max’s biological father is all the way in California, so we don’t see or hear much about him, but it doesn’t seem like he keeps contact with her. Max does remark at some point that she misses him though. Max’s mom seems to want nothing to do with him, but notably Max has kept his name. He’s absent from her lift in any case. Then we have Max’s stepfather, Neil Hargrove. Neil is legitimately an awful person. He abuses his son and it’s unclear if he does this to Max or Susan. The most that Max says about Neil is that she’s glad her mother divorced him even if their lives are more difficult for it.

Now the estranged opposite gender older sibling. This isn’t an invite to compare Nancy and B*lly. He sucks. She doesn’t.

I know a lot of people want a Mike and Nancy family bond, but let’s be real it’s pretty nonexistence. Nancy doesn’t seem to show much care for Mike unless he’s in immediate danger and even then, it’s a fifty-fifty shot. She doesn’t dance with him like she does for Dustin. She promises to be there, but she never is when he reaches out. Mike seeks her out first when it came to finding a substitute for DnD and she looked at him as if he’d committed some sort of war crime. We also know Vecna showed her a horrible vision of something happening to Mike, most likely his death, and that she doesn’t approach with any sort of affection even with that hanging over their heads.

I think maybe we brush past exactly how bad their dynamic was in season one. This isn’t new. Mike was convinced Nancy would sell him out to the government. We have multiple characters question the idea of Nancy and Mike working together. Even the ever-inattentive Ted knows that. When the boys are hiding with El we have Lucas remark how weird the idea of Nancy contacting Mike is. Their relationship was never all that. Even after promising not to keep secrets, we immediately see a huge distance between the two again. While Jonathan is constantly with Will whenever danger arises, Nancy is never really with Mike. In season one she’s with him briefly at the school. In season two we only really see them together when driving away from the lab. In season three she literally leaves him in the mall. You can’t tell me you see Jonathan doing any of this. Yikes.

Obviously then we have Max and her strained relationship with B*lly. The entirety of season three is basically Max trying desperately to push away the notion that there could be something wrong. Now Max struggles with her feelings when it comes to B*lly because he is a pretty sucky guy to have as an older sibling, but she doesn’t want him to be possessed even if she’s not sure she likes him. B*lly is the source of many traumas for Max. She watches him nearly run over the party because she refused to do what he said. She also watches him attack Lucas because of her. Her relationship with her brother is mentally abusive (I don’t think he’s hit her until he was possessed).

She bares the unfortunate burden of these conflicting feelings of relief when B*lly is gone, but it’s coupled with guilt. In conclusion her relationship with B*lly is messy. She doesn’t really like him, but she doesn’t want him dead except his death relieved some part of her. This a response to the mental abuse that she suffers from him.

An odd little add-on is the fact that Nancy drives Mike to school just like B*lly used to do with Max and both sibling relationships are strained.

The neglectful without meaning to be mother.

Karen Wheeler while we know she cares about Mike, does he? I don’t think so. Throughout the series Mike experiences various encounters with loss and the supernatural. He goes home and he’s upset, but no one really approaches him about it. Sure, we have Karen tell him that he can tell her anything, but that only occurred once in season one. She never does it again for Mike, but she does it twice for Nancy. She reaches out to Nancy in season one and in season three. With Mike it’s always him kinda exploding under the weight of his emotions until he can’t handle it then him seeking out his mother’s comfort. This is probably at least partially why he’s so surprised when his mom hugs him at the end of season four since she’s never really the one reaching out.

Susan Hargrove also cares about Max a lot. We see her express concern when she returns home and Max is gone out with Lucas. We also see her affectionately prepare Max for the Snowball. She isn’t around often though. This is extremely evident in season four after she gets her second divorce. Susan comes home and drinks often. She doesn’t seem all there given everything that’s happened, but she tries to do her best by Max by making enough money for them to live on. She’s neglecting Max without meaning to.

In conclusion, even their family lives seem extremely intertwined. The one piece that Mike’s family has without direct comparison to Max is their youngest, Holly, and we don’t see her often.

[teabagboy]

So everyone has been kindof analyzing Mike's walls in his room in s4 and I think I found a wholesome detail!

[ For those who were not alive in the 80s/90s or just haven't heard stories like I have, there were popular collectable cards called the "garbage pail kids". Each card was stylized (grotesquely, might I add) towards a specific name, and so people would find ones with with own and for their friends etc. ]

Anyways! I was trying to identify some of the things on Mike's corkboard and I noticed three images that looked like garbage pail kid cards and did some research. The only one I was able to pin down (based on the times they came out etc.) was the one I have circled. And look!

I'm pretty sure mike has one for Max! I can't place the other two (I had some contenders but they weren't perfect) but I bet they are from his other friends. I just thought this was a cute detail to share!

[symphs-space]

Mike: Why did you give Max a knife?

Steve: She felt unsafe.

Mike: Well now I feel unsafe

Steve: I’m sorry.

Steve: Would you like a knife?

[poisonedprose]

im a max and mike bestie truther

[jmiewrites]

looking for a 1x1 semi-literate to literate partner to write stranger things with in discord! must be 18+ please. i have a preference for writing max or mike in either of the below ships, but i'm open to more. :)

lucas + max

max + mike

like this post if you're interested and i'll reach out!

[chloesimaginationthings]

FNAF movie Mike is besties with Shadow Freddy

[mollymurakami]

were we just kids, just starting out

[its-emimi]

Stranger Things 4 as an 90's anime (video), art by me 🖌️

[princessdave]

Hopper accidentally becomes the biggest ally in Hawkins out of hatred for Mike Wheeler. El wants to date Max? Perfect, Mike is terrified of Max. El wants to date Max and Lucas? Even better, more people to keep Mike away. Will comes out to Joyce and Hop? Hopper is immediately studying up on gay culture and flagging so he can find him a Hop ApprovedTM boyfriend. He sees that nice boy Gareth cuff his jeans one time and starts inviting him to family dinner. Mike seems annoyed that Steve is spending more time with Munson? A pamphlet titled “Accepting your Bisexuality” finds its way into Steve’s jacket pocket. Hopper has never seen Mike as furious as the day Steve and Munson arrive at dinner holding hands. It’s a good day. Hopper isn’t sure how Nancy dating the Buckley girl will annoy Mike, but he’s willing to give it a shot.

[samgelina-jolie]

[rose-nobles]

stranger things s04 vol. 1 + tumblr text posts

[madwheelerz]

Ayo intelligent people let’s play a game. Who between Max and Mike had nosebleeds indirectly caused by Vecna while the other was in the background in a stripped blue shirt? Both their watches were visible too.

It was Mike obviously

I guess Max too