#dynamic: el/dustin

[samgelina-jolie]

[londondziban]

byler constantly parallels jancy and jopper and even at times lumax. milevens don't want to talk about the fact that their ship constantly parallels stancy, a canonically failed ship (no season 4 wasn't setting them up to get back together), and the dart and dustin dynamic

[gayofthefae]

Sleepy party >>>>>

[svnraez]

bring back steve and dustin, bring back lucas and mike, we want more mike and will, what happened to el and max blah blah blah. NO. BRING BACK LUCAS AND DUSTIN. I MISS THEIR DYNAMIC. THEYRE THE REALEST EVER I MISS THEM. THEM AND THE PARTY DYNAMIC WHERE DID YOU GO I STILL NEED YOU (i miss all of them)

[thatskindagaytho]

max: mike’s literally bad at everything

mike: HEY-

dustin: mike can’t be bad at everything. he might be a good kisser.

will: yeah, he’s good.

el (simultaneously): no he sucks.

lucas: …

[were-wolverine]

i made these like forever ago… they took so long and then i just didn’t post them anywhere lmao

[jonathanbyersphd]

The wedding AU (which has a name maybe idk I'm between two) Can be summarized as "El is the only sibling with the braincell all weekend"

[reineyday]

sometimes i see posts of steve and max where they call steve "the brother max deserves" and it always irks me a little because billy was the brother max deserved, they just killed him before he could properly show it. 🤦🏻‍♀️

she had a brother, they (the writers) just didnt use him very well. clearly by s3, billy and max were on good enough terms for her to mourn him all the way into s4. her grief and survivor's guilt and the trauma not just from his death but from living in an abusive home and being part of that abusive cycle are the reasons she gets targeted by vecna, and there's an entire episode titled after the letter she writes to him and reads to his gravestone. the last words he ever says are an apology to her.

calling steve the brother she deserves like billy isnt an integral part of her character, like billy isnt worth considering or looking at or like he doesnt exist, like he's somehow a villain that was cast upon max, a punishment she didnt deserve... that aint it. it takes away from their character backgrounds and the nuances held within them imo.

i love steve but the brother max deserves is a living billy, shuttling her around in his camaro and calling her "shitbird" and being like a real brother and sister, the way she wishes for in her letter. i have no doubt that had billy survived starcourt, they would have gotten there. they just chose to let him die instead. :/

[himynameis4]

Okay im gonna keep posting ab the madwheeler role swap au lol. Because when it comes to dynamics and changes I have a lot to say.

First posts here and here. The first link kind of lays out the premise, and the second is about how meeting Max instead of Mike might shift dynamics for El.

Mike’s importance as a leader gets overlooked way too often, and there are so many lovely posts on this site about how fundamental he is to the party as a whole. He makes leaps, connects ideas, is practical and focused. All the party members are so important (how many times over would the entire party be dead w/out Lucas?????) but Mike is the leader, and he’s really good at putting together the pieces.

Mike was the one who encouraged everyone to go looking for Will, the night that they found El. Mike was the one who believed Will was alive, after they saw his body being pulled from the water. Mike is the one who made connection after connection, he and Dustin bouncing off of each other, and Mike’s conviction got the party moving (and… caused conflict & split them apart a bit).

There are a lot of specific examples, and i need to go through them more thoroughly, but without Mike, season 1’s party is a lot more disorganized in their efforts to help Will. We’re not just taking Mike off the board for a bit, though—we’re putting Max in his place. But Max, while confident, doesn’t LEAD the same way Mike does, and has more hesitation/uncertainty when it comes to matters of the upsidedown (i’ll probably grab the specific examples i’m thinking of eventually lol, this is kinda a brain dump). Max, like Mike, has a lot of faith in El. Max has more confidence in El than Mike does, and will likely have less arguments with Lucas in this alternate season 1… but without Mike’s conviction, the “party” won’t have the same momentum and focus in their efforts to find Will.

Also… without Mike as a founding member of the Party… dynamics within the group will be different. Growing up together and shared experiences shape people. While all the party follows their “rules” (Lucas, for example, is a big advocate of them), without Mike, these rules very likely wouldn’t have been written (I believe that Mike was the originator of the rules). Shared interests will still be comics, walkies, biking/skating together, video games at the arcade… but max isn’t as into dnd in canon (though this may be shaped by mike excluding her a bit, but we see in season 3 from the rain fight that they haven’t really played), and I think this would lead the party as a whole to be less invested in it (until they get to high school & meet eddie, at least). They’ll still love Lord of the Rings, but they may not call themselves “the party”. Things like that.

Idk i like thinking about how these shifts would affect realistically change the dynamics, and honestly, it’s so interesting to me.

[pretty-emo-dad]

If I ever come across as a Nancy anti I promise I’m not, she’s one of my favorite of the older teens and I love her, but when I’m talking about characters like Mike and Jonathan, some of their main conflicts are the result of her stubbornness/inability to recognize when she’s wrong

[samgelina-jolie]

[sparkie96]

Chapter Nine of “007 (Another Experiment Steve AU)” has been uploaded: “Reunion”

“Now, we wait.” Mike said with a huff, looking up at Steve with an annoyed glare, “I heard what you did…and that wasn’t cool at all. It was a real dick move.”

Billy, Chrissy, and Dustin looked between Steve and Mike, Steve letting out a sigh and nodding, agreeing with Mike, saying that they could sort this all out later, planning to make things right with both Jonathan and Nancy. After they defeated the monster and got Will and Barb back. And then there was the matter of Dr. Brenner and the suits…

Dustin had asked what exactly had happened, Chrissy had already heard about what had happened from Tommy, Carol and the others, swallowing anxiously as Mike continued on. Mike told Dustin, and now even Billy, that Steve and his “little minions”, vandalized the movie theater with spray paint, spray painting shit like “Nancy “The Slut” Wheeler” and “Byers is a perv” on both the movie theater sign and on the walls of the alleyway next door. Billy looked to Steve in shock, Dustin looking at the Omega as well, Steve shrinking in shame.

“I wasn’t…it was wrong.” Steve admitted, “I cleaned up the sign and now I’m trying to make things right.”

“You publicly humiliated her and shit went around at school,” Mike pointed out, “And to say that shit about Jonathan when he was looking for Will? He went to your house because it's closest to his and he was out looking for his brother! And then you and him got into a fight and then you ran like…like…like a pussy! You were more worried about your stupid “King Steve” shit than you were of her and Barb!” Mike hollered, pointing at him again, “You’re an asshole and you will always be an asshole.”

[gayofthefae]

I love that each character is given defining moments outside of their love stories. That's part of the beauty of an ensemble cast and those multiple relationships. Outside of romance or any singular relationship is where we really get to see who they are and what consistency exists between relationships.

[faithfulcat111]

Yes, thank you, OP! I know the books are only secondary canon, but you can see this so much in Lucas on the Line in how Eddie treats Lucas. Lucas was genuinely struggling during his freshman year trying to try new things through the support of his peer mentor (I love that this is an included bit. I didn't get one my freshman year of high school cause of a disaster, but my college one was amazing). But because Lucas decided to try things like basketball, Eddie flat-out refused to let Lucas join Hellfire nearly all of fall semester. It wasn't until the end when a substitute was needed that he let Lucas join. This led to a huge fight between Lucas and the other two and, frankly, I'm surprised that Lucas so readily believed Eddie was innocent come Spring Break after having dealt with bullying from others in both his extracurriculars for varied reasons. In fact, if it wasn't for Max literally witnessing it and Jason going completely off the rails then, he probably wouldn't have. (I could be projecting though)

I also refuse to believe that Jonathan got along with Eddie at all while he was at Hawkins High. So many authors write that too just because Eddie was a drug-dealer and Jonathan smoked pot in season 4. But it was brought up several times by Jonathan himself as well as others that he didn't have friends (till Nancy) and went out of his way to avoid others. He avoided the mainstream cause he just didn't like it and was also extremely busy between work (in season 1 at least), his family, and photography. Eddie is so over-the-top with his general personality that I think if Jonathan still seems to avoid Steve after he calmed down in later seasons, I doubt he could have been around Eddie for any length of period.

listen, I- I cant help but think every time i see will and eddie interact in fics, that will would not have liked eddie like

at all

Eddie? is a dick.

and like maybe this is me just being insane, but i think will's love of Dnd comes from an actual love and appreciation for character and story and a love of his friends and his community he found playing dnd. It gave him an outlet, it let him express himself, it let him be brave and when you see him trying so hard to come back to that in season 3, you see he uses it as a way to express what he's going through. But most importantly, Will plays dnd because he loves his friends.

eddie is so rigid with his dnd obsession. He uses it as a way to control things, to (honesty) control people. He uses it to build himself a throne. A LITERAL THRONE SITS AT THE HEAD OF THE HELLFIRE TABLE. The party always played at a square table, they all looked at each other, all equal, all on the same playing field. But eddie, he's different. Even at lunch you see him sit at the head of the table. He gets up and walks across them, he shouts, he draws attention to them, invites the tormenting almost, and i don't think will would have liked the way Eddie was constantly bringing attention to himself and, in turn, hellfire as a whole. Eddie uses dnd to antagonize, to start shit, as a marker of his "fuck it" attitude

Will would not have felt safe in hellfire. Eddie's "forced conformity is killing the kids" monologue is such bullshit. Hellfire would have suffocated will. Not because i think will couldn't stand up for himself or hold his own against Eddie, but Dustin and Mike are so enamored with Eddie, they fall in line and worship the guy, so much so that they are willing to ditch Lucas and his game! Will never would have stood for that. Will would have been at Lucas's game. No DnD party is worth it to him if its not with his party

"But, what if you wanna join another party?"

"Not possible"

Are we all just, collectively forgetting this? Like are we just blacking out here? Now yes, this is very byler, but its not just about Mike. Its about Lucas and Dustin too. Its about El, and now Max. Its about his people.

Eddie actively tore apart the party under the guise of being "dedicated to dnd" but the only thing eddie is dedicated to is himself and serving his best interest. At least he was in hellfire.

and yeah, idk, i feel like this is an unpopular opinion, but these are just my thoughts. feel free to share yours.

[thatskindagaytho]

max: hey, how many vampires do you think have been hit by a car backing up in a parking lot because the driver couldn’t see their reflection?

dustin: i’ve never considered it, but you’re shining a light on what’s probably a serious issue

el: see? i always knew vampires were an endangered species

lucas: