#like he seems very preoccupied with this specific cycle of abuse

[castielcommunism]

hm. how to put this. watching the newest episode of the boys where butcher leaves his younger brother alone with their father to join the military puts the stanford fight in spn in a potentially new light. like in the boys the roles are reversed and it’s butcher (dean) doing the leaving, but the set up is very similar - older brother protects younger brother from abusive and highly controlling father. and the consequence of butcher leaving is that butcher’s brother kills himself because being alone with their father is too much to bear on his own. so like I’m just wondering, given the events of 5x16 in spn and how dean talks about sam leaving (“that was like one of the worst nights of my life”), and how eerily similar this story seems to be in the boys, like. I guess I’m wondering if kripke was able to make supernatural now with an amazon budget and the freedom to go a lot darker than cable tv ratings allow, what sam and dean’s childhood would have looked like

#tbposting #spn.txt #bro.txt #the boys spoilers #suicide mention #like he seems very preoccupied with this specific cycle of abuse #sons becoming their fathers and brothers in the family trenches together etc #and just the general familial dysfunction that is produced by this kind of abuse

[bylerbrainrot]

Why Max Grieves Billy

Tw: abuse

Disclaimer: this post is not intended to defend the actions of billy. he does some terrible stuff during the show, and i do not condone any of it.

Sources: any quotes used are from the stranger things wiki :))

i’ve seen a lot of people (specifically on twitter) criticise the direction of s4. there are a lot of things they have problems with, but one of the major concerns is that max seems to be upset over the death of her older step brother, billy. many claim that this is out of character, and that the duffer’s are trying to excuse bigotry. however, as a victim of abuse, max’s grief is something that resonates with me - and i respectfully disagree with the idea that her grieving is incompatible with her story.

the cycle of abuse is a complicated thing. your mood, and your life is constantly fluctuating: from calm to chaotic, distressed to joyous, irritated to exhilarated. you are very much stuck in an emotional tornado, being picked up and whirled through different feelings. it’s a very unique experience, and unfortunately, something difficult to encapsulate unless you too have gone through a similar thing. 

max is the victim of both a neglectful father and mother. although we know little about her dad, its noted that he would be too preoccupied to take care of her  - “showing up late to pick her up from the bus station at times and even letting her go home with a few wounds from accidents”. and from what we’ve seen of her mom, max harbours a form of resentment towards her - a combination of her marrying niel, an abusive assh*le, and moving to hawkins, away from her father and friends. there aren’t many people in max’s life that truely care for her. sure she has lucas, but their relationship is quite turbulent (another affect of abuse i won’t get into here) thus lacking the stability she so desperately desires.

billy, although abusive and bigoted, is the only thing that is truely consistent in her life. he picks her up from school, drops her off at the arcade, babysits her when their parents are away and even gives her unsolicited words of advice. yes he’s domineering and controlling, but he’s always there - whether she likes it or not. max also witnesses the severe abuse niel inflicts on billy, causing her to be somewhat empathetic towards him. as a result, max harbours a form of love for billy, and billy a form of love for max. is it healthy? absolutely not. but as i said before, abuse is extremely complex, and often we love our abusers.

billy’s absence as a result of his death is bound to affect max disproportionately more than others. she loved him in a way that was far from ideal, but loved him nonetheless. so is it out of character for max to grieve him? as someone who is very similar to her, in my eyes it isn’t.

#stranger things #billy hargrove #max mayfield #stranger things 4 #byler tumblr #character study #grief #lumax