#theres a difference between a popular headcanon or fic trope and people just straight up lying about canon

[hargrove-mayfields]

Funny how people have been saying that Steve is the big brother Max deserves, but when Max dies he has literally no reaction. He just stands there and listens to the clock chime, along with Nancy and Robin. As if he doesn’t even care. Max sacrificed herself for them and died and they express no grief at all, and I’m pretty sure it’s Nancy who says anything. Yet when Billy thought Max might be in danger at the Byers, he got so protective of her that he was willing to fight someone he wanted to be friends with. He spent the last week complimenting Steve and showing off in front of him, but he didn’t hesitate to beat his ass for putting his sister in harm's way. Who really deserves to be her brother?

Even once Max is in the hospital and they’ve had a little time to process what happened to her and visit, Steve is even more uncaring. He’s somewhere else smiling and playing matchmaker as if the kid he babysat for three years isn’t across the room bawling his eyes out because someone close to him died in his arms. Do you really think Steve still gives two shits about Max in this scene when he can’t even bother with Dustin?

Meanwhile Billy was so torn up that Max hated him (and started mirroring his abusive father) that he spent at least a month trying to figure out how to talk to her. Before the snowball he looks so sad because he knows he fucked up their relationship, and not even on purpose. And then, according to Dacre, between s2 and s3 he’s really trying to be the best brother to her he can and be a better person in general. And their relationship was improving! If Max died you bet your ass Billy wouldn’t just forget about her. He was her brother, not some random older guy she hardly knew who had a hero complex and saved her just to ease his own worries and then moved on with his life. I don’t agree with that characterization of Steve but that’s what the Duffers gave us.

Out of the two, who really cared about Max? That would be her real brother, thank you.

#billy hargrove #billy & max #not tagging anyone else because I really don’t want to argue about this #but it’s been bothering me since the season came out #imagine being so delusional that you act like shit you made up or saw on tiktok is canon #and ignoring what actually is canon bc you dont like it #like okay i dont like canon either #but at least i’ll acknowledge what happened #and if i change it its in fic #not just in rumors #like antis keep deciding what happened for themselves and spreading lies about it #and people just believe it as truths #and bully people who dont agree #theres a difference between a popular headcanon or fic trope and people just straight up lying about canon #this is one of those things