#runaway max

[mrprettywhenhecries]

Interesting things I've learned about Billy and Max from reading the Runaway Max novel

Thought these would be worth sharing for those who haven't read the book, but like me, crave more Max & Billy backstory/lore.

Billy antis DNI

putting under a cut for spoilers

Billy's dad was a security guard at the bank where Susan Mayfield worked as a teller in San Diego, and that's how they met.

Max's mom has not so great taste in men, so compared to the other losers she dated, Neil seemed way better in comparison, at least at first.

Neil thinks Reagan is "the best thing to happen to America since Eisenhower". Figures.

The first time Max met Billy she thought he was super cool because he had an earring.

Max really hoped Billy would be a good brother to her 😢

Billy's car smells like hairspray and cigarettes. That tracks lol

Max's dad sounds super cool, but I can understand why Susan divorced him. He was into some kinda shady shit.

Billy's never been in a serious relationship. He dated a different girl every week, but seemed pretty disdainful of them all. -- "It was like he hated them, except he still took them up to the Sunset Cliffs to make out." Though honestly, it seems like Billy's just disdainful of everyone.

Once Billy got in trouble with the cops for trespassing at a construction site with his friends and Neil gave him the choice of losing his car for two months or signing up for junior ROTC and Billy willingly gave up his car.

Like Tommy, the main reason Billy hung out with his "friends" in California was because they basically just did whatever he said.

After Tina's Halloween party, Neil went off on Billy when he got home for not picking up Max after trick or treating (plus coming back drunk/high). Max left the room, but could still hear Neil hitting Billy. She tries not to care, but she still does. 🥲

Billy canonically works on his own car 🥵

Once Billy Max a cigarette after she told him smoking was bad for him. Susan caught them and went off on Billy, though he thought it was funny. However when Neil got home, asking what was going on, Susan lied, telling him it was nothing. Max had expected her to rat Billy out, but she didn’t. It was then than she realized that her mom wasn’t afraid of Billy, that she was afraid for him.

The first time Max had seen Neil actually hit Billy was after he’d gotten a speeding ticket. Her mom left the room and Max half expected Neil to stop when he realized that Max was still there, but when he took off his belt to use it, Max yelled at him to stop.

Neil only used her outburst to taunt Billy, saying he was weak and needed a girl to stand up for him.

After it was over, Max asked if Billy was okay, but he turned on her, embarrassed that she’d seen, and told her to get away from him. That’s when Max’s illusion that the two of them were in this together was broken.

When Billy said “You know what happens when I get angry. I break things.” is a reference to him breaking Max’s friend Nate’s arm because Nate had stood up for Max.

Billy had said it was an accident, that he’d been showing the boy a wrestling move that went awry, and the adults believed him.

Afterwards, Max's friends avoided her.

When their parents decided to move to Hawkins, they gave a lot of excuses for why—a new start, to get Billy away from his bad friends, to give Max more room to run around and be active—but it was really because Billy was acting out so much and they didn’t know how else to control him.

When Neil and Susan told Max and Billy they were moving to Hawkins bc the bank gave Neil a transfer, Billy cornered Max later in the laundry room and grabbed her by the arm. He blamed her for the move, thinking she’d told them the real reason behind her friend’s broken arm. She denied it, but Billy didn’t believe her.

The day that Billy saw Max with Lucas at the arcade he backs over her skateboard with his car ‘on accident’ but she knows it was his punishment.

Neil tells them that Billy will have to drive her around from now on, though he’d basically been doing so already.

Max decides to try to run away to her dad again, this time from Indiana, but she needed a lot more money for a bus ticket. She asked her mom for some money to go clothes shopping and her mom believed her. However, after Lucas showed up at the house asking her to come with him, she decides to stay in Hawkins.

Overall, it was a good read, a little hard to read at times during the abuse scenes, but I appreciated the back story and the insight into the characters. I was kinda hoping however that there'd be more info about what happened after Max knocked Billy out with the tranquilizer.

[stevethehairington]

reading max's first impressions of nancy and TRULY we do NOT capitalize on THAT dynamic enough!!!! it is SO clear that max thinks nancy is the coolest girl alive. like, the way she sees nancy standing there with her gun and a fierce expression on her face, and yet is STILL scared? the way that would be a COMFORT to max!!! to know that you CAN be both — you CAN be brave and terrified at the same time.

[ickypuppi3]

“billy threw back his head. he was laughing. i was struck by how creepy it was when you hit someone and they just let you do it, laughing like it's everything they ever wanted”

[willbyersoffical]

yall I might be delusional but listen

In "Runaway Max" (a canon stranger things novel) Max was talking about how she has heard rumors about Will and she says "They (kids at school) said he'd come back from the dead, which really didn't explain why they were being such jerks, because you'd think if they actually believed that, they'd be nicer about it. It seemed like a bad idea to make fun of a person who'd been raised from the dead, since he was clearly some kind of superhero."

Max calls Will a superhero. Will and Max are nothing but platonic (obviously) so their is no way this could've been a romantic thing....so why do people think Mike calling El a superhero is romantic? This parallel just further proves that El and Mike are platonic.

I suck at explaining things but this just got my attention, sorry if it makes no sense.

[nebraska-is-a-myth]

Abuse in 'Runaway Max': A Stranger Things criticism

One thing I know to keep in mind is that the book is told from Max’s perspective, so it's her eyes we experience the world from, and her opinions that guide us through the story. For that we have to value her as a somewhat unreliable narrator, considering she is thirteen at the time and dosnt understand certain things.

A quick timeline to keep in mind because the book handles time very messily:

Billy has just turned 17 by the time Max and Billy first meet.

After Halloween in season 2, Max says she’s known Billy for 7 months, which takes us back to early May.

They move in together three weeks after the wedding in late June, meaning Max and Billy have lived together for a total of 5 months by the time they get to Hawkins.

Neil confiscates Billy's car keys for two months in June, so I’ve taken an educated guess that Max first witnesses Neil's abuse somewhere around august, then in September/October Billy breaks Max’s friends arm, leaving for Hawkins late October.

Now onto the deep dive:

In 'Runaway Max', we learn about the terrible Hargrove family dynamic, and how the Mayfield's learn to navigate that. Max gets a very graphic front row seat of Billy's abuse in chapter 10, and during that chapter Max responds to that situation as any 13 year old would, scared and confused. Despite this however, Billy's image doesn't change in Max’s mind. She has no visible compassion for Billy at any point of the book except from this chapter, and after that she states that she’s actively trying not to care about “his stupid life and his cruel dad”. 

From a writing standpoint, choosing this to be a part of Max’s character takes away from her complex experiences in an abusive household. Yes Max is a hardened character, but not exploring these difficult topics of disliking Billy while also feeling sorry for him makes her feel like just another pawn for the audience to make them dislike Billy. The writers could have made the step-siblings dynamic much more interesting to have them navigate this terrifying experience together. But I understand the duffers just wanted another one dimensional antagonist for season 2.

"I'd watched the Hargroves in action. Neil standing over billy with the belt - calling me a stupid little girl - making it clear that he thought I was weak and pointless. Knowing Neil believed that still wasnt as bad as the way Billy had hated me for trying to help him"

I have mixed feelings about this. I feel this description Max gives dutiful to anyone going through that situation, that they would feel disheartened by someone rejecting their help, and verbally berating them for it. However, it’s vitally important to understand the context of Why Billy reacts to Max this way.

During the assault on Billy that Max witnesses, Max calls out and interrupts Neil, trying to diffuse the situation. Neil responds not to Max, but to Billy “Is this the son I raised? A worthless loser who needs a little girl to fight his battles for him?” And then strikes billy again. 

Max assumes this to be an attack on her, however that's not what's happening at all. Neil is using Max against Billy. He takes Max’s intervention as a sign of Billy's own weakness, a softness. “Any hint of softness and he would never let me forget” In a way Billy had been trying to teach Max to harden herself so that Neil couldn't find anything to target her for, Billy had been making her more likeable for Neil. And now this softness that Max is showing for Billy, by standing up for him, is getting him punished. It’s been implied before that this was the case, but now we are seeing it explicitly that Billy is being punished for Max’s actions. This chain reaction forces Billy into a position where he cannot be on Maxes side, he cannot be friends with Max, because siding with anyone other than his father equals punishment.

After Neil leaves, we circle back round to the sentence “Sometimes Billy acted like we were in on some big, crucial secret together / like we were in some sort of secret club together - like we could be on the same team” Billy had been trying to tell her from the beginning, they were both members of a club trying to navigate life with Neil Hargrove, bonded by shared experience. They were supposed to be on the same team too, victims of Neil, but Neil has made that impossible by using Max against Billy. “I could see all the ways he hated me” Neil isolates one from the other, Billy resents Max for getting him hurt, and Max resents Billy for rejecting her.

During most of the sections of the book that happen in Hawkins, Max continues to call Billy a “Monster”. However, never Neil. It’s not untrue that Billy has a mean streak, he can be cruel and heartless, most notably when he breaks the arm of one of Max’s friends. The only time this level of violence is seen in Hawkins is during the fight with Steve.

Both of these big outbursts of rage are built up by attacks from Neil. Note: Billy is still an asshole, these are not excuses for his actions only explanations.

Yes, there are two occasions in which Billy grabs hold of Max’s arm, but there is an argument to be made that this is just normal sibling behaviour. Have you never pushed or shoved your sibling before, or been on the receiving end of that physicality. It’s not always pleasant, but it’s not uncommon for siblings to get physical during disagreements. Max is also only distressed by this on the first occasion, “He caught me by the arm, and it wasn't the first time he’s ever touched me, but other times had always been to push me out of the way in the kitchen or flick me on the end of my nose. This time, his fingers closed hard around my elbow” - however the second and last time goes like this “He reached out fast and caught me by the wrist”. Those are the only times Billy is ever physical with Max.

Despite this, Billy is still the monster. “Billy was the closest thing to one that I had ever known - this was what it meant to live with the monster.” Monster singular. Billy is the most terrible thing living in the Hargrove home, not the man who beats his son.

Personally I find something off putting with Max ranking Billy as a worse monster than Neil. During the night at the byers she says "I understood now that Neil was in his head, and that meant he was just as dangerous as his father. Worse because Neil was cruel and frightening but he cared how things looked on the outside. Billy was crazy" Max isn't stupid, she knows Neil is a bad person, and maybe from Maxes point of view Billy is worse than Neil because Neil hasn't ever physically hurt her. But from a writer's point of view, to say that the victim is worse than the abuser? That is both dangerous and honestly disgusting. To call Billy crazy, and insinuate that he’s acting like a ‘bad victim’ because he doesn't pretend that everything is normal is so hurtful to victims of abuse who see themselves in Billy. 

Continuing this thought, Max then goes on to compare Billy to a recently possessed Will. Which, first off, comparing abuse is never okay. But what Max says is almost worse, "Will had turned into something terrible and frightening, but even with the mind flayer working through him, he was trying not to let it. He'd almost gotten us killed, but you couldn't blame him because he didn't ask for this. He was trying so hard to stop it" Is the author trying to say that Billy should try harder to not let the abuse he has been experiencing at the hands of his father since before he was ten, affect him? Because if Brenna Yovanoff is using Will as a ‘good’ example of a victim of parental abuse, and using him to discount Billy's own experiences, then I’m sorry but who let this book go to print?

Obviously as a character Max choosing this comparison means very little to her because she doesn't know about Lonnie, but the writers do. Comparing Billy to will is a choice.

Billy and will have both experienced abuse from their fathers. Will is on one side of the spectrum of victims, quiet, timid and apologetic. Billy is on the opposite end of that spectrum, his experiences have hardened him, made him angry about what's happening to him. Billy isn't quiet, he’s an asshole and he has issues with authority, but the one thing that sets Billy and Will apart is the fact that Billy is still experiencing that abuse.

Will is a survivor, Billy isn't.

To imply that "you can't blame Will because he didn't ask for it", but it’s okay to blame Billy, does that mean we are supposed to think Billy is asking for it?

There are choices writers make in the information they reveal to their readers, the phrasing that is used and the comparisons they make. It speaks volumes that while Will is praised for his experiences and bravery with his dad, Billy is called a monster for acting out because of those same experiences.

I mean, tell me you're a writer who doesn't understand the complex reactions to abuse without telling me you only care about “good” reactions to abuse.

[stranger-rants]

Very interesting when Antis call Neil beating Billy unconscious, “a fight,” and then calling it Billy “yelling” at her when Billy tells Max “to stay away from him” after he’s been beaten in front of her - especially when Max expressing concern for Billy in front of Neil resulted in Neil beating him harder.

Very very interesting how Billy’s refusal of Max’s help is considered “rude.” Almost like you think abuse survivors have to be nice in order to deserve support, huh? Almost like you would allow someone to continue to be abused because they weren’t nice to you while they were suffering and in pain? I hope you never work with abuse survivors in any capacity. Ever.

Reading that scene thinking Billy was being “rude” for refusing help from a child who couldn’t actually help him… Christ, your priorities suck.

[endofbeginningmp3]

I LOVE YOU MAX MAYFIELD I LOVE YOU LUCAS SINCLAIR I LOVE YOU LUMAX 😭😭😭😭

[prettyboybyers]

Girls be like: "i can fix him"

The guy: burns cats, abuses his little sister, breaks random ass kids arms, is racist, assaulted multiple children, flirts with literal mothers, is rude to his step mom, tries to run over some kids and beat the shit out of a guy cuz he stopped him from assaulting a child, he probs would've killed the guy if he didn't get put to sleep by his girlboss of a step sister.

[himitsy-chan]

anyone who is still defending b*lly should read runaway max, I already hated that piece of shit but

HE BROKE MAX' FRIEND'S ARM

HE LIGHTED A DEAD CAT'S CORPSE ON FIRE

HE IS FUCKING CRAZY ARE YOU KIDDING ME HOW ARE Y'ALL STILL DEFENDING HIM

and yes, I AM tagging him because some of you need to get your eyes checked and stop acting like he wasn't an abusive and crazy pos

[hedgefrogpresents]

I read every Stranger Things tie-in novel and wrote a comprehensive overview/book report on them all 🥞👾🧙‍♂️🌈

[lady-celeste25]

The fact that in Runaway Max she said she noticed El having “Lip gloss and soft tousled hair.” 😏 why are you looking at her lips, Max? I know what you are.

[queerxqueen]

have any of y'all read any of the stranger things companion novels? and if so, which are your favorites / which are worth reading? i'm thinking i definitely want to read lucas on the line but not sure which others!

[ickypuppi3]

runaway max // s2e9

[prncssrninactive]

From Runaway Max we learn that after Neil beat Billy Max wanted to tend to his wounds, to apply ice but Billy told her to stay away.

And here Heather wanted to help him too and he refuses...because his father taught him that getting help from women is a sign of being a p*ssy.

This realization hit me like a lightning

[willbyerssupremacist]

"deep down billy wanted to be a good brother" no. fuck billy hargrove.

all max wanted was a family and he treated her like garbage. i don't want to hear it.

[miaisagirllover]

to b'lly stans:

people can be wrong and also be wronged at the same time, doesn't mean the person's wrong is ok tho

when b'lly antis celebrate his death, we aren't celebrating the death of an abuse victim. we're celebrating the death of a racist violent man who happens to be an abuse victim

if you are a white b'lly apologist, shut the fuck up. you have no space to talk about "billy wasn't racist😭😭😖" you have not experienced racism for you to be identifying it. this is the most grating thing I've ever seen on the internet

b'lly wasn't genuinely apologising to max in the sauna scene. that was the mind flayer manipulating max into letting him out

don't hate on the runaway max book and call it "shitty fanfiction" just because it doesn't play into ur "b'lly is a sweet blorbo who didn't deserve to die😁😯😝" delusion and instead pushes the already canon truth that b'lly is a shitty human being

thank you for listening. i hope you all now stop writing horny fanfics that just make him a sex figure who hasn't done anything bad instead of ignoring the canon facts that he is a horribly person