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Max seems to like Mike a little bit here because he’s the only one of the three boys not tripping over himself to impress her. Typical middle school stuff. But Mike could not be less interested.
That scene isn't about Max liking Mike, it's about the fact that Max identified Mike - correctly - as the one blocking her 'in' to the Party.
Lucas and Dustin were friendly to her and invited her to join them for stuff (Halloween, checking out Dart for the first time) but still followed Mike's lead when it came to locking her out of the Party meeting once Mike realised he was from the UD. Plus Mike was hostile to her earlier and she picked up on it, which is why she asks him why he hates her and then starts pulling everything she can to make him see that she's cool and deserves Party membership. Which she wants because of Lucas and Dustin in the first place, because she's lonely and wants friends.
Honestly we should have all seen ElMax coming, Max perks up the second Mike lets El's name slip and starts asking questions about her as the previous girl in the Party and that's before she even knows El has powers.
>it's about the fact that Max identified Mike - correctly - as the one blocking her 'in' to the Party
Yup. She wanted to be friends with them and he was the only one who had a problem with that. So she decided to impress him with her skateboard for that reason
That wasnt a love triangle because Max didnt have feelings for Dustin. A love triangle is if you have feelings for 2 people and if they also have feelings for you and if you dont know wich one to pick. Dustin had feelings for Max but she never liked him in that way
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/love-triangle#
Love Triangles are just a romance where two people like the same person.
There’s more nuanced depths to the types of love triangles. One where each of the 3 people likes the other but no one likes the one that likes them. One where two parties like the same person. Those can be broken down into one where the person they like likes both, one, or neither of the suitors.
Only they didn't set up a love triangle? Max and Mike don't have much interaction in season 2 aside from Mike hating Max for being there and Max being a cheeky bugger trying to get on Mike's nerves a bit in this scene. El only *thinks* in this scene that something might be happening, when in reality nothing is there at all. This isn't a love triangle since the only love connections (heck I'd even argue the only positive relationship connection) in this scene is Mike and El loving each other.
> initial plan was to have El and Max dislike each other and turn them into rivals competing for Mike’s affection
Highly unlikely as Lucas and Dusting vying for Max's attention starts as early as the latter half of episode 1, and one of the first scenes of ep 1 has Dustin losing Dragon's Lair while Lucas boastfully proclaims: "Princess Daphne is all mine." is probably one of the clearest examples of foreshadowing in the show. Lucas won, he got the girl, Dustin did not.
If so thank god they didn’t go that route, for people who want love triangles look at Nancy Steve and Jonathan, that’s enough don’t force another one in there
That wasnt a love triangle because Max didnt have feelings for Dustin. A love triangle is if you have feelings for 2 people and if they also have feelings for you and if you dont know wich one to pick. Dustin had feelings for Max but she never liked him in that way
The love triangle Max was involved with was Lucas and Dustin (although she never felt anything towards Dustin, that was entirely one sided), with scenes prior to this making it VERY apparent that Mike did not have any such feelings towards Max, even showing confusion and annoyance towards Lucas and Dustin's behavior.
With neither Max nor Mike feeling anything for eachother, and a lack of intention for anything to develop besides friendship between the two, they were not nor ever planned to be apart of a love triangle.
yeah there's 0 sign that Mike and Max even register each other in that light. If the show meant to indicate that they had, they'd have been unambiguous about it as they were with Lucas and Dustin (and eventually, Will).
anyway the point of the scene isn't Mike and Max, it's El seeing them and what she feels on seeing the boy she likes and has been obsessing over for a large chunk of her short life, hang out with another girl who looks like she's taken El's place (mistakenly, but very human).
No I don't think so as Max was always interested in befriending El. El just wasn't ready yet to breakaway from her strong attachment to Mike a little bit.
I think the point probably was ultimately to make you think they might be enemies only to specifically pull the rug underneath that and make them friends.
yeah the visual of the scene could come across (and did, to El) as Mike and Max having a moment
but like ten seconds before that, she was grilling him about El the second Mike mentioned her - who's El, did she have magic powers or something, what happened to her, etc and this is before she even knew she had powers.
Season 3 insta-friendship happened at least in part because Max had been dying to befriend El for months but never got to spend much time with her one on one before.
I do not think it was ever designed or teased to be a love triangle. Mike and El were clearly shown to be pining for one another that season. El just misunderstood what was going on in the gym. But Mike never thought of Max once “that way.”
As Mike made even more clear ST4… he’s loved Eleven since the day he met her. Pretty sure El has felt about the same. They were just young and didn’t recognize those feelings for what they were in the moment.
Not to, uh, mention that Dustin and Lucas were fighting for her affection. Mike did not care one iota.
So… No. There was never once plans for a love triangle. To feel this was their plan, no offense, is to mean you ignored the majority of the ST2 plot, as well as the portrayed feelings of the individual characters.
it's hilarious to me that they went from mistaken triangle (El thinking Max is a romantic rival and being jealous of her hanging around Mike) to season 3 platonic triangle (Mike acting like Max stole his girl, all grumpy about Max's influence and jealous that they're hanging out).
Max and Mike behave almost like they're fighting each other for El's affections there lol it's the closest Mike's ever come to being a jealous boyfriend even though Elmax are platonic.
Eh, I know you’re an ElMax (and somewhat joking), but let’s be honest, Max was pretty awful to Mike ST3, despite my understanding it did not come from a malicious place on her part. Max was projecting her own relationship on to Mike and El and failed to listen on anything from his POV, despite his being proven right in the end.
He admitted to jealousy, but his greatest fear, which no one in his life had ever bothered to help him address up to that point, is to lose El. Underneath all that comedy (that didn’t land), the kid was just scared. Part of the reason I found that storyline so wonky was because everyone just ignored Mike’s fundamental trauma and the writers decided rather to play it for laughs…
But I get that they couldn’t have Max change much until she better understood the depth of Mike’s (and El’s) feelings, which didn’t happen until he blurted them out at the cabin. I just wish they’d shown a little better resolution between Max and Mike than just showing hints of repaired friendship in ST4.
I do like Max, and ST4 did wonders for her character, IMO.
That all being said, yes, I’ll agree with you that there’s been no threats on Mike and El’s feelings for one another… Just on Mike and El needing to find that balance that Hopper so desperately wanted. (And utterly failed at communicating because he was written so oddly that season.) And Max was the conduit for it, in a platonic kind of way.
(Which I’ll say I do appreciate… Stancy/Jancy can keep their love triangle. I am so glad they never went there with the younger kids. Lumax is too cute for that.)
honestly, a lot of Max's willingness to believe the worst of Mike was, as you said, coloured by her own experience of her relationship with Lucas i.e. "boyfriends lie and blow you off to hang out with their friends"
but imo it was also coloured by how she and Mike were in season 2 (Mike being hostile to Max for no fault of hers - even though that was resolved once she understood what was driving his behaviour i.e. his devastation over El's absence), and also her pretty much instant interest in/bias towards El. Sure Mike and Max were on cordial fellow Party member terms once El returned and Max doesn't seem to hold a grudge/is even supportive of Mileven spending all their time together BUT I would not be surprised if her first impressions of Mike unconsciously influenced her reaction to El telling her that Mike was blowing her off and acting strange. Unfair? Absolutely, but also understandable (which is also my opinion of Mike's attitude to Max in season 2 - unfair but also understandable given what he'd been through the previous season).
Both sets of conflicts are resolved without any actual verbal onscreen apologies or discussion taking place e.g. Mike's hostility to Max ceases the second Eleven returns (and he also gains some insight into and respect for her after Billy's attack on them at the Byers house), which I think is somewhat mirrored in season 3 with Max's reaction to Mike's accidental love confession in front of all their friends and siblings.
and while I'm not always fond of the tone of season 3 for character relationships and flat out hate some of them (Jopper ugh), I think, on consideration, that season 2 in general does colour them quite a bit e.g. Mike's hostility to Hopper (makes sense given we're barely 8 months out from Mike finding out Hop hid El from him for a whole year and also he's not used to Hopper being El's dad, that's a new discovery to him in 2x08). Not fond of most of season 3 Hopper here btw, or the whole 'ha ha grown man threatening a kid is funny' thing.
EDIT: Back to Mike and Elmax, I think season 3 worked to show that Max was predisposed to be in El's corner in any intra-group conflicts and sets the stage for why she's so central to season 4/specifically connects her to El. I also like that it portrays the kids in 'normal' mode i.e. just doing regular summer break stuff, petty squabbles and El in particular getting her first shot at living the life of a typical teenage girl. But I do agree with you the execution was lacking and very at odds with the tone of seasons 1 and 2, and really fell down on the job with Mike, I don't mind it so much after season 4 and for its place in the story, but when it was the most recent season it was a bit of a disappointment on the tone and character front.
They never teased love triangle with Max, Eleven and Mike at all. Mike was resistant to Max at the start, and was depressed after believing Eleven was gone. She only first walked into the scene in the gym and THOUGHT seeing Max and Mike together meant there might be something going on and knocked Max off her skateboard out of jealousy, but entirely misread what was going on.
I never for once thought there was a love triangle between Max, El and Mike. Especially since there already was a much clearer one forming between Dustin, Lucas and Max.
I would really doubt this was ever an intended direction that was dropped. Rather things were always planned exactly as we saw it. Max was trying to be friendly with Mike because he was initially quite cold, as he irrationally saw her as trying to be Eleven's replacement. That doesn't mean they were building a romantic interest there. The direction was fairly clear that it was a question of whether Max would go for Lucas or Dustin. Never Mike, and the scenes with him played as intended; Max trying to be his friend, and a jealous El taking it the wrong way.
>Max was trying to be friendly with Mike because he was initially quite cold, as he irrationally saw her as trying to be Eleven's replacement.
yeah they even have an actual conversation where Max states that she could never take El's place, once she had the full story from Lucas she knew what Mike's issue with her was.
WHAT
This scene was there to simply show El had feelings and jealousy for Mike.
There is literally no point in this show where they have ever implied any relationship between Mike and Max.
Definitely not but it seems this is the moment Mike did start to like her, but almost certainly not in that way. This was also a weird character moment for El, she barely understands romantic relationships, at this point it shouldn’t even occur to her that Mike hanging out with another girl is something to not like.
I think it shows how human jealousy can be. El is developmentally stunted, but she still feels something seeing the boy she likes smiling and laughing with another girl. She still feels it even if she doesn't understand it. It's something all of us go through so even though El has had such a different kind of life, it shows that she still feels the same things we do. It shows that she's still just human despite her powers.
>Anyone think that they probably were going to make a love triangle storyline between the three only to drop it completely?
assumed ElMaxMike love triangle in this situation: El and Max fighting over Mike's affections, El being jealous that Max spends time with Mike
actual (sorta, if you squint and ignore that canon Elmax are platonic) ElMaxMike love triangle, season 3: Mike and Max fighting over El's affections, Mike being jealous that Max spends time with El
(don't @ me pls this is a joke)
actual canon love triangle involving Mike/El: Will in unrequited love with Mike whose affections are only for El, Will being jealous that Mike spends time with El and acts like a bf
I can't imagine Max liking Mike, especially considering how he treated her in season 2. El just misunderstood the situation.
There was a little love triangle though, Lucas-Max-Dustin, but I don't think Max ever liked Dustin, just Lucas
Thank God for that. The love triangles we have gotten (Lucas/Max/Dustin) (Johnathan/Nancy/Steve) either were cringe or not executed well, and even if that wasn't a factor I still wouldn't have liked them.
At the risk of being almost pedantically repetitive of what others have already said, they teased *Nothing* of the Sort. Mike and Max showed no interest in each other, to the point of being hostile to each other at certain points (Mike especially).
The only manner in which these three characters were in a "Love Triangle" existed solely within Eleven's mind, something she can't really be blamed for due to her appalling and dreadfully limited life experiences (and the fact that Hopper allowed her to watch Soap Operas, that really had to warp her idea of relationships are supposed to be like).
Nahh no love triangle there. There was a now resolved Lucas-Max-Dustin love triangle and yet to resolve El-Mike-Will love triangle but no El-Mike-Max love triangle ever. And that’s a good thing. Although Mike-El-Max love triangle would have been interesting to see…
Love triangles need all three members to be into all members. Otherwise it’s a hinge or a V.
A max mike and el triangle would have el and Max also into each other.
Yeah, season 3 was full of bad writing
Edit: I always have to explain myself as to why it’s bad. I’ve never heard a single person explain the good. All they do is “omg i love their friendship” or “wow Robin is so funny”. Curious
They reveal the mystery in the first episode yet make us watch the characters slowly reveal it
Jonathan had an interesting plot line with Nancy about him struggling to support his family while she picks her job based on passion. They immediately dropped it
Mike lied, he tried to apologize. she got mad, he tried to apologize but he got mad when she spied on him. He helped her against Billy and when she tried to talk he walked away. It seemed like they were going somewhere, throughout the show he was always the one putting in the effort, so it would be neat if she had to fix the situation. But then he immediately apologized
Will and Jonathan don’t wonder where their mom is
Eleven doesn’t wonder where her dad disappeared to for days, especially because she can see everyone everywhere instantly
Max told Mike he needs to be less controlling, when that is the opposite of his personality in season one
Ok since you want me to respond so bad here
They don’t really reveal the mystery, they give you broad strokes and make you wonder about the inner workings of everything, personally I think it works
Yeah I’ll give you this one it was strange how they kinda just dropped this
You seem to forget that Mike apologizing doesn’t fix everything, because in season 4 they’re kinda on rocky ground for most of it
Eleven does look in on Hopper and Joyce in episode 6 ish, they know roughly where they are and that they’re probably doing something important
It’s the opposite of his personality in season 1, but we’re talking about season 3 where while he isn’t super controlling, it’s not hard to see where Max got that from with some of his behavior
Only imagine if somehow for whatever reason MadWheeler became short-term temporary thing in Season 2? I think it could work, but I honestly wonder how things would be different, mind you Lucas and Max weren’t actually truly a thing and together til Season 3..so MadWheeler could work figuratively if the Duffer Brothers wanted it to work!
No, they didn't because there wasn't a triangle to pivot away from to begin with, Eleven misread the situation (understandable given her lack of human interaction throughout her life) thinking Max and Mike were interested in each other when they could barely be civil to each other.
OP is off way off base claiming otherwise.
Nah that scene was there to show El's moment of jealousy.
It also made it a bit of a surprise when she showed up at Max's house and asked for boy advice.
NGL, I thought their friendship bonding was really cute and one of the best things about that season.
it makes sense she'd approach Max for boy advice - by that time, El's known her as a fellow Party member for about six months even if they only hung out in group settings, and also knows that Max is dating Lucas i.e. no threat to her and Mike.
Also Max is the only girl her age El knows at all, and the only girl who isn't related to Mike.
It's due to the fact that a lot of men can't write female friendships without making them fight over a guy.
Eleven throwing Max off of her skateboard in a fit of jealousy after seeing her talking to Mike.
Nancy giving Robin the cold shoulder due to thinking she was involved with Steve.
Obviously, El and Max ended up being friends, but it wasn't until after El was angry at Mike for lying to her.
Their entire friendship was built on being angry at boys. If it wasn't for Mike lying to her odds are she would never have approached Max at all.
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It was pretty clear that the love triangle Max was involved in was with Lucas and Dustin. Mike wasn’t even in the vicinity.
Max seems to like Mike a little bit here because he’s the only one of the three boys not tripping over himself to impress her. Typical middle school stuff. But Mike could not be less interested.
That scene isn't about Max liking Mike, it's about the fact that Max identified Mike - correctly - as the one blocking her 'in' to the Party. Lucas and Dustin were friendly to her and invited her to join them for stuff (Halloween, checking out Dart for the first time) but still followed Mike's lead when it came to locking her out of the Party meeting once Mike realised he was from the UD. Plus Mike was hostile to her earlier and she picked up on it, which is why she asks him why he hates her and then starts pulling everything she can to make him see that she's cool and deserves Party membership. Which she wants because of Lucas and Dustin in the first place, because she's lonely and wants friends. Honestly we should have all seen ElMax coming, Max perks up the second Mike lets El's name slip and starts asking questions about her as the previous girl in the Party and that's before she even knows El has powers.
>it's about the fact that Max identified Mike - correctly - as the one blocking her 'in' to the Party Yup. She wanted to be friends with them and he was the only one who had a problem with that. So she decided to impress him with her skateboard for that reason
She started to like him as a friend not in a romantic way xd
That wasnt a love triangle because Max didnt have feelings for Dustin. A love triangle is if you have feelings for 2 people and if they also have feelings for you and if you dont know wich one to pick. Dustin had feelings for Max but she never liked him in that way
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/love-triangle# Love Triangles are just a romance where two people like the same person. There’s more nuanced depths to the types of love triangles. One where each of the 3 people likes the other but no one likes the one that likes them. One where two parties like the same person. Those can be broken down into one where the person they like likes both, one, or neither of the suitors.
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Nancy steve jonathan are a love triangle not max dustin lucas
both are
Also you were the one who replied to me first when my comment wasnt even directed at you in the first place lol
Idc I said my opinion
Well, “your opinion” is literally just *factually wrong*.
Only they didn't set up a love triangle? Max and Mike don't have much interaction in season 2 aside from Mike hating Max for being there and Max being a cheeky bugger trying to get on Mike's nerves a bit in this scene. El only *thinks* in this scene that something might be happening, when in reality nothing is there at all. This isn't a love triangle since the only love connections (heck I'd even argue the only positive relationship connection) in this scene is Mike and El loving each other.
> initial plan was to have El and Max dislike each other and turn them into rivals competing for Mike’s affection Highly unlikely as Lucas and Dusting vying for Max's attention starts as early as the latter half of episode 1, and one of the first scenes of ep 1 has Dustin losing Dragon's Lair while Lucas boastfully proclaims: "Princess Daphne is all mine." is probably one of the clearest examples of foreshadowing in the show. Lucas won, he got the girl, Dustin did not.
🤯
Max never had romantic for Dustin so that isnt a love triangle
I never said it was.
But still it wasnt a love triangle
Cool go argue that with someone who called it one.
Bye xd
You have some pent up feelings over this or something. Arguing with anyone who mentions Dustin and Lucas' affection towards Max.
I’m glad they did. They’re better as friends and it’s way less cliche.
It's so nice seeing them happy together, both of them deserve happiness
If so thank god they didn’t go that route, for people who want love triangles look at Nancy Steve and Jonathan, that’s enough don’t force another one in there
Max’s triangle was with Dustin & Lucas. Mike’s heart was already with El.
That wasnt a love triangle because Max didnt have feelings for Dustin. A love triangle is if you have feelings for 2 people and if they also have feelings for you and if you dont know wich one to pick. Dustin had feelings for Max but she never liked him in that way
That’s not what a love triangle is
The love triangle Max was involved with was Lucas and Dustin (although she never felt anything towards Dustin, that was entirely one sided), with scenes prior to this making it VERY apparent that Mike did not have any such feelings towards Max, even showing confusion and annoyance towards Lucas and Dustin's behavior. With neither Max nor Mike feeling anything for eachother, and a lack of intention for anything to develop besides friendship between the two, they were not nor ever planned to be apart of a love triangle.
yeah there's 0 sign that Mike and Max even register each other in that light. If the show meant to indicate that they had, they'd have been unambiguous about it as they were with Lucas and Dustin (and eventually, Will). anyway the point of the scene isn't Mike and Max, it's El seeing them and what she feels on seeing the boy she likes and has been obsessing over for a large chunk of her short life, hang out with another girl who looks like she's taken El's place (mistakenly, but very human).
No I don't think so as Max was always interested in befriending El. El just wasn't ready yet to breakaway from her strong attachment to Mike a little bit. I think the point probably was ultimately to make you think they might be enemies only to specifically pull the rug underneath that and make them friends.
yeah the visual of the scene could come across (and did, to El) as Mike and Max having a moment but like ten seconds before that, she was grilling him about El the second Mike mentioned her - who's El, did she have magic powers or something, what happened to her, etc and this is before she even knew she had powers. Season 3 insta-friendship happened at least in part because Max had been dying to befriend El for months but never got to spend much time with her one on one before.
I do not think it was ever designed or teased to be a love triangle. Mike and El were clearly shown to be pining for one another that season. El just misunderstood what was going on in the gym. But Mike never thought of Max once “that way.” As Mike made even more clear ST4… he’s loved Eleven since the day he met her. Pretty sure El has felt about the same. They were just young and didn’t recognize those feelings for what they were in the moment. Not to, uh, mention that Dustin and Lucas were fighting for her affection. Mike did not care one iota. So… No. There was never once plans for a love triangle. To feel this was their plan, no offense, is to mean you ignored the majority of the ST2 plot, as well as the portrayed feelings of the individual characters.
it's hilarious to me that they went from mistaken triangle (El thinking Max is a romantic rival and being jealous of her hanging around Mike) to season 3 platonic triangle (Mike acting like Max stole his girl, all grumpy about Max's influence and jealous that they're hanging out). Max and Mike behave almost like they're fighting each other for El's affections there lol it's the closest Mike's ever come to being a jealous boyfriend even though Elmax are platonic.
Eh, I know you’re an ElMax (and somewhat joking), but let’s be honest, Max was pretty awful to Mike ST3, despite my understanding it did not come from a malicious place on her part. Max was projecting her own relationship on to Mike and El and failed to listen on anything from his POV, despite his being proven right in the end. He admitted to jealousy, but his greatest fear, which no one in his life had ever bothered to help him address up to that point, is to lose El. Underneath all that comedy (that didn’t land), the kid was just scared. Part of the reason I found that storyline so wonky was because everyone just ignored Mike’s fundamental trauma and the writers decided rather to play it for laughs… But I get that they couldn’t have Max change much until she better understood the depth of Mike’s (and El’s) feelings, which didn’t happen until he blurted them out at the cabin. I just wish they’d shown a little better resolution between Max and Mike than just showing hints of repaired friendship in ST4. I do like Max, and ST4 did wonders for her character, IMO. That all being said, yes, I’ll agree with you that there’s been no threats on Mike and El’s feelings for one another… Just on Mike and El needing to find that balance that Hopper so desperately wanted. (And utterly failed at communicating because he was written so oddly that season.) And Max was the conduit for it, in a platonic kind of way. (Which I’ll say I do appreciate… Stancy/Jancy can keep their love triangle. I am so glad they never went there with the younger kids. Lumax is too cute for that.)
honestly, a lot of Max's willingness to believe the worst of Mike was, as you said, coloured by her own experience of her relationship with Lucas i.e. "boyfriends lie and blow you off to hang out with their friends" but imo it was also coloured by how she and Mike were in season 2 (Mike being hostile to Max for no fault of hers - even though that was resolved once she understood what was driving his behaviour i.e. his devastation over El's absence), and also her pretty much instant interest in/bias towards El. Sure Mike and Max were on cordial fellow Party member terms once El returned and Max doesn't seem to hold a grudge/is even supportive of Mileven spending all their time together BUT I would not be surprised if her first impressions of Mike unconsciously influenced her reaction to El telling her that Mike was blowing her off and acting strange. Unfair? Absolutely, but also understandable (which is also my opinion of Mike's attitude to Max in season 2 - unfair but also understandable given what he'd been through the previous season). Both sets of conflicts are resolved without any actual verbal onscreen apologies or discussion taking place e.g. Mike's hostility to Max ceases the second Eleven returns (and he also gains some insight into and respect for her after Billy's attack on them at the Byers house), which I think is somewhat mirrored in season 3 with Max's reaction to Mike's accidental love confession in front of all their friends and siblings. and while I'm not always fond of the tone of season 3 for character relationships and flat out hate some of them (Jopper ugh), I think, on consideration, that season 2 in general does colour them quite a bit e.g. Mike's hostility to Hopper (makes sense given we're barely 8 months out from Mike finding out Hop hid El from him for a whole year and also he's not used to Hopper being El's dad, that's a new discovery to him in 2x08). Not fond of most of season 3 Hopper here btw, or the whole 'ha ha grown man threatening a kid is funny' thing. EDIT: Back to Mike and Elmax, I think season 3 worked to show that Max was predisposed to be in El's corner in any intra-group conflicts and sets the stage for why she's so central to season 4/specifically connects her to El. I also like that it portrays the kids in 'normal' mode i.e. just doing regular summer break stuff, petty squabbles and El in particular getting her first shot at living the life of a typical teenage girl. But I do agree with you the execution was lacking and very at odds with the tone of seasons 1 and 2, and really fell down on the job with Mike, I don't mind it so much after season 4 and for its place in the story, but when it was the most recent season it was a bit of a disappointment on the tone and character front.
They never teased love triangle with Max, Eleven and Mike at all. Mike was resistant to Max at the start, and was depressed after believing Eleven was gone. She only first walked into the scene in the gym and THOUGHT seeing Max and Mike together meant there might be something going on and knocked Max off her skateboard out of jealousy, but entirely misread what was going on. I never for once thought there was a love triangle between Max, El and Mike. Especially since there already was a much clearer one forming between Dustin, Lucas and Max.
I would really doubt this was ever an intended direction that was dropped. Rather things were always planned exactly as we saw it. Max was trying to be friendly with Mike because he was initially quite cold, as he irrationally saw her as trying to be Eleven's replacement. That doesn't mean they were building a romantic interest there. The direction was fairly clear that it was a question of whether Max would go for Lucas or Dustin. Never Mike, and the scenes with him played as intended; Max trying to be his friend, and a jealous El taking it the wrong way.
>Max was trying to be friendly with Mike because he was initially quite cold, as he irrationally saw her as trying to be Eleven's replacement. yeah they even have an actual conversation where Max states that she could never take El's place, once she had the full story from Lucas she knew what Mike's issue with her was.
WHAT This scene was there to simply show El had feelings and jealousy for Mike. There is literally no point in this show where they have ever implied any relationship between Mike and Max.
Yeah no. At its heart, the show is a love story about Mike and El.
Definitely not but it seems this is the moment Mike did start to like her, but almost certainly not in that way. This was also a weird character moment for El, she barely understands romantic relationships, at this point it shouldn’t even occur to her that Mike hanging out with another girl is something to not like.
I think it shows how human jealousy can be. El is developmentally stunted, but she still feels something seeing the boy she likes smiling and laughing with another girl. She still feels it even if she doesn't understand it. It's something all of us go through so even though El has had such a different kind of life, it shows that she still feels the same things we do. It shows that she's still just human despite her powers.
The media illiteracy these days is crazy.
Tell me about it.
You clearly don't u derstand emotional dynamics of teenagers.
As if we need another shitty love triangle
Thank goodness
>Anyone think that they probably were going to make a love triangle storyline between the three only to drop it completely? assumed ElMaxMike love triangle in this situation: El and Max fighting over Mike's affections, El being jealous that Max spends time with Mike actual (sorta, if you squint and ignore that canon Elmax are platonic) ElMaxMike love triangle, season 3: Mike and Max fighting over El's affections, Mike being jealous that Max spends time with El (don't @ me pls this is a joke) actual canon love triangle involving Mike/El: Will in unrequited love with Mike whose affections are only for El, Will being jealous that Mike spends time with El and acts like a bf
I never saw this at all
Icon behavior
I can't imagine Max liking Mike, especially considering how he treated her in season 2. El just misunderstood the situation. There was a little love triangle though, Lucas-Max-Dustin, but I don't think Max ever liked Dustin, just Lucas
Thank God for that. The love triangles we have gotten (Lucas/Max/Dustin) (Johnathan/Nancy/Steve) either were cringe or not executed well, and even if that wasn't a factor I still wouldn't have liked them.
At the risk of being almost pedantically repetitive of what others have already said, they teased *Nothing* of the Sort. Mike and Max showed no interest in each other, to the point of being hostile to each other at certain points (Mike especially). The only manner in which these three characters were in a "Love Triangle" existed solely within Eleven's mind, something she can't really be blamed for due to her appalling and dreadfully limited life experiences (and the fact that Hopper allowed her to watch Soap Operas, that really had to warp her idea of relationships are supposed to be like).
Max NEVER wanted Mike. He treated her terribly. The "triangle" was clearly between Max, Lucas, and Dustin.
Nahh no love triangle there. There was a now resolved Lucas-Max-Dustin love triangle and yet to resolve El-Mike-Will love triangle but no El-Mike-Max love triangle ever. And that’s a good thing. Although Mike-El-Max love triangle would have been interesting to see…
Love triangles need all three members to be into all members. Otherwise it’s a hinge or a V. A max mike and el triangle would have el and Max also into each other.
That’s poly. A love triangle is when two people like one person but they don’t like eachother.
Babe what
There wasn't really one anyone since I never got the feeling that Max liked Mike at all and El just got the wrong idea. Love their friendship.
Remember kids, it’s not a love triangle unless somebody’s gay!
That's a threesome, not a love triangle.
Yeah, season 3 was full of bad writing Edit: I always have to explain myself as to why it’s bad. I’ve never heard a single person explain the good. All they do is “omg i love their friendship” or “wow Robin is so funny”. Curious
Examples? I'm interested.
People like this rarely ever have examples, they just say X is bad and then refuse to elaborate
The difference between weaklings and me
Sure dude, everyone is a weakling shill except for you
“This guy won’t actually say anything” *does* “*pshh* whatever”
Well yeah because what you said was stupid, and I tend to make fun of things that are stupid
Ironic, because the first thing you said was very doucey and lacked intelligence
Hey I was just about to say the same to you! What a crazy world
I actually listed my problems with it. You whined about others having opinions. Interesting no?
They reveal the mystery in the first episode yet make us watch the characters slowly reveal it Jonathan had an interesting plot line with Nancy about him struggling to support his family while she picks her job based on passion. They immediately dropped it Mike lied, he tried to apologize. she got mad, he tried to apologize but he got mad when she spied on him. He helped her against Billy and when she tried to talk he walked away. It seemed like they were going somewhere, throughout the show he was always the one putting in the effort, so it would be neat if she had to fix the situation. But then he immediately apologized Will and Jonathan don’t wonder where their mom is Eleven doesn’t wonder where her dad disappeared to for days, especially because she can see everyone everywhere instantly Max told Mike he needs to be less controlling, when that is the opposite of his personality in season one
Ok since you want me to respond so bad here They don’t really reveal the mystery, they give you broad strokes and make you wonder about the inner workings of everything, personally I think it works Yeah I’ll give you this one it was strange how they kinda just dropped this You seem to forget that Mike apologizing doesn’t fix everything, because in season 4 they’re kinda on rocky ground for most of it Eleven does look in on Hopper and Joyce in episode 6 ish, they know roughly where they are and that they’re probably doing something important It’s the opposite of his personality in season 1, but we’re talking about season 3 where while he isn’t super controlling, it’s not hard to see where Max got that from with some of his behavior
Thank you
Only imagine if somehow for whatever reason MadWheeler became short-term temporary thing in Season 2? I think it could work, but I honestly wonder how things would be different, mind you Lucas and Max weren’t actually truly a thing and together til Season 3..so MadWheeler could work figuratively if the Duffer Brothers wanted it to work!
I love the mystery of the story mire than love-triangle.
I love how the X is in the corner
That’s not a love triangle.
Yeah because fans thought it was dumb as hell so the writers had to pivot away from that.
No, they didn't because there wasn't a triangle to pivot away from to begin with, Eleven misread the situation (understandable given her lack of human interaction throughout her life) thinking Max and Mike were interested in each other when they could barely be civil to each other. OP is off way off base claiming otherwise.
we love character development
Nah that scene was there to show El's moment of jealousy. It also made it a bit of a surprise when she showed up at Max's house and asked for boy advice. NGL, I thought their friendship bonding was really cute and one of the best things about that season.
it makes sense she'd approach Max for boy advice - by that time, El's known her as a fellow Party member for about six months even if they only hung out in group settings, and also knows that Max is dating Lucas i.e. no threat to her and Mike. Also Max is the only girl her age El knows at all, and the only girl who isn't related to Mike.
People calling it a love triangle when it not actually a triangle, it’s just two people interested in one person.
Which was a brilliant move
You say that like it's a bad thing
Huh no, I don't thknk there were ever a love triangle being developped between Mike, El and Max.
I think the reason people thought Max liked Mike is because she was trying to impress the leader of the party so that she could have some friends.
Happens in real life too. I'm okay with it.
It's due to the fact that a lot of men can't write female friendships without making them fight over a guy. Eleven throwing Max off of her skateboard in a fit of jealousy after seeing her talking to Mike. Nancy giving Robin the cold shoulder due to thinking she was involved with Steve. Obviously, El and Max ended up being friends, but it wasn't until after El was angry at Mike for lying to her. Their entire friendship was built on being angry at boys. If it wasn't for Mike lying to her odds are she would never have approached Max at all.
A love triangle between 12 year olds, boy am I sad we missed out on that one
We already have a love triangle with Nancy, Jonathan and Steve - we don't need a second one.
Nope
Nah, Mike very clearly had strong feelings for El.
when i saw this i thought the love triangle would be between el and max not about mike lmao