Max Mayfield

Maxine "Max" Mayfield is one of the main protagonists of the franchise. She also appears as the titular main protagonist of the novel, Runaway Max. She is also the ex-girlfriend of Lucas Sinclair. 
She is portrayed by (who also played young Ziggy Berman in the Fear Street: 1978 and Constance Berman in Fear Street: 1666), and Jacey Sink and Belle Henry played the character as a child.
==Personality==
Max was a tomboy with many interests, including skateboarding, arcade games, and horror movies. She was initially antisocial and wary of other people, but once she accepted the gravity of the situation, she was ready to lend a helping hand. She initially shrugged off Lucas and Dustin's attempts to befriend her, but eventually put up with their rough treatment in order to be included. When she was finally accepted into the party, she was loyal to her new friends, seeing herself as "Zoomer" as her role on the team, and sided with Billy to protect them.
Max is friendlier and more loyal to her friends after moving to Hawkins and meeting new people. She is skeptical of the supernatural, but slowly comes to accept it. When Eleven asks for relationship advice, Max gleefully tells her what to do, using her previous breakup with Lucas as a reference. Max harbors a grudge against her brother for the way she treated him, and when she and her friends discover he's been possessed by a mind-bender, she begins to care deeply for him. However, Max's grief and guilt leave her vulnerable to Vecna, who kills the Hawkins teenagers to open a portal to the Upward.
After experiencing her first vision and believing she was going to die, Max wrote goodbye letters to her friends and family and accepted her fate. However, when Lucas, Dustin and Steve play Max's favorite song while she is in Vecna's trance, Max finds comfort and strength in her memory of Lucas and her friends, allowing her to escape Vecna and a gruesome death. Max showed extraordinary courage as she was willing to risk her life to become Vecna's target again to give her friends a chance to kill him. After Vecna broke her limbs and nearly gouged out her eyes, Max was horrified and sobbed as she passed out in Lucas' arms, pleading that she wasn't ready to go.
==Biography==
===Background===
Max Mayfield was born in July 12th, 1971 to Sam and Susan Mayfield, and her mother would later go to marry an man named Neil Hargrove. In 1984, Max meet Neil and Billy Hargrove along with her mother. Susan and Neil were dating and planned to get married. Max developed a love-hate relationship with Billy. Billy was sometimes emotionally abusive to Max (it's unknown if he physically abused Max but it's unlikely) but he also was willing to teach her how to drive and Billy gave Max her nickname "Mad Max". Billy also sympathized with Max with how they both hated Neil. When Neil beat Billy Max attempted to help Billy and give him ice although Billy lashed out at Max.
Max made a friend named Sam. Billy met Sam and decided to break his arm in order to show Max wasn't "easy going" likely in an attempt to be overprotective. Max and her family moved from California to Hawkins, Indiana after her mother officially remarried to Neil. She and Billy were not happy about the move.
===Season Two===
During her early stay in Hawkins, Max would visit the Palace arcade and beat the high scores of Dustin Henderson, which gained the latter and his friends' attention. When at school, Max noticed that a group of boys were stalking, and wrote a letter to tell the "creeps" to stop following her. She later went to the arcade after being dropped off by Billy, and was watched by Dustin and Lucas Sinclair, whom had fallen for her since she had beaten their high scores. The following day, Max was greeted by the two, who invited her to join them in trick-or-treating and to join their group of friends. After class, Max was driven home by an enraged Billy, who attempted to drive Dustin's friends off the rode due to his anger at Max being late.
Mayfield decided to meet with Lucas and Dustin during trick-or-treating to make up for Billy's actions, which caused their friend Mike Wheeler to get annoyed since he believed they were making her Jane's replacement. She later witness Will have an episode, and asked Lucas and Dustin why he was acting strange. The next day, Lucas told her the false story of Will's disappearance from the previous year, but she remained skeptical. After class, Dustin showed Max and the group a slimly creature he found, but Mayfield was locked out of the room when Mike and Will told Dustin and Lucas where the creature came from. Annoyed, Mayfield opened the AV club's door with a paper-clip and witnessed Dustin's creature (named "Dart") leave, and she agreed to help them find it.
While looking for the creature, Max confronted Mike on why he acted cold towards her, and he explained that their friend group had a girl named Jane who moved away. Mayfield attempted to convince Wheeler to have her join their group by doing skateboard tricks, but was knocked down unknowingly by Jane, who had escaped from Hopper's cabin to find her friends. Max and the group then witness Will have another episode until he was awaken by his mother Joyce, and she was shaken by the incident. She also became irritated with the group keeping secrets from her, and explained her frustration to Lucas. Leaving with her brother, Max was told by Billy to not hang around with Lucas since there were people she shouldn't be around.
At the Palace arcade, she was tricked by an employee Keith into meeting Lucas, who revealed the truth about last years events. She initially dismissed him as messing with her, but started to believe him but asked for proof, which Sinclair couldn't provide. The next day, Lucas asked her to meet him at the junkyard with Dustin and Steve Harrington to show proof. There, she witnessed Dart and the Demodogs arrive before heading off the Hawkins laboratory. Regrouping with the others, Mayfield is informed of the Mind Flayer taking over Will and that the tunnels of Hawkins were infected from the Upside Down's portal. Max, Dustin, Lucas and Mike were left in Steve's care, and witnessed him fight Billy until Mayfield used a sedative to knock her stepbrother down.
Max then helped her friends in burning the infected tunnels to distract the Demodogs, which allowed Jane to close the gate and Will to be freed from the Mind Flayer. After the incident, Max went to the snow ball with Lucas, and the two began a relationship after sharing a kiss.
===Season 3===
In the summer of 1985, Max assisted her friends in throwing a surprise welcome party for Dustin, and witnessed the latter spray Lucas when they scared him. Henderson then revealed a device named cerebro that he invented, and the party agreed to help him assemble said device to speak with his girlfriend Suzie Bingham also became close to Jane, whom came for dating advice since she believed that Mike was lying about his sick grandmother. Believing that Wheeler was lying, Max advised that Jane break up with him if he didn't provide an explanation. The two then went at the Starcourt mall and hanged out together, but eventually encountered Wheeler with Lucas and Will. After witnessing Jane break up with Mike in front of everyone, the two traveled to cabin and used her abilities to spy on others.
When spying on Billy, Jane sensed something was wrong when she heard someone screaming off screen and sensed her presence. Max and Jane then traveled to the Hargrove residence to find any evidence, discovering a bathtub full of iced water, a bloodied whistle, and a lifeguard fanny pack. Continuing their investigation, the girls learned that community pool lifeguard Heather Holloway had went missing, but later encountered her and Billy at the Holloway's home. Believing that everything was fine, Max left the residence with Jane, but the latter still believed something was wrong. However, the two were contacted by the party the next day, as Will explained that the Mind Flayer was still in Hawkins by grabbing a new host. With Jane explaining what she saw in the void, the group theorized that Billy has been possessed. 
Reaching the community pool to spy on Billy, the party formed a plan to lock Hargrove in the sauna room to test if he was possessed by the Mind Flayer. The theory was proven true when Hargrove was taken over by the Flayer, managing to break out of the sauna to attack the group. He was stopped by Jane, using her telekinetic powers to push him through the wall, allowing him to escape. Following the incident, the party was informed by Jonathan and Nancy that a woman named Doris Driscoll was exhibiting the same behavior as Will when he was possessed. Realizing that the Mind Flayer has obtained more than one host, they deduced that Heather and her father had become one as well.
Going to the Holloway residence, they found the house empty and filled with chemicals, deducing that the Flayed were consuming substances to make new material. The group then realized that the Holloway family had been flayed, and Will proposed that they meet with Doris to find the location of where people were being possessed. At the hospital, the kids witnessed Jonathan and Nancy be attacked by hospital creature that formed from the bodies of Bruce Lowe and Tom Holloway. After the creature escaped to the sewers, the party returned to the cabin to allow Jane to go into the void to see Billy's memories. Though successful in finding the location of where people were being flayed, it allowed the Mind Flayer to sense theirs. 
The party was then attacked by the Spider Monster at the cabin, but Jane managed to split its head, incapacitating it along enough for them to escape. Going to a local supermarket to tend to Jane's wound from the monster, they were contacted by Dustin, who was working with Steve, Robin Buckley and Erica Sinclair on investigating the Russians operations in Starcourt. Saving the Scoops Troop at the mall, Max witnessed Jane collapse from the pain in her leg, which contained a piece of the Spider Monster, and using her powers to take it out. Reuniting with Hopper, Joyce and Murray Bauman, the group formed a plan to stop the Mind Flayer - to deactivate the Russian's machine to prevent them from opening the gate while the others found shelter.
When preparing to leave the mall, the group were forced to flee due to Billy's arrival and needing the ignition cable. The Spider Monster soon arrived and Billy managed to capture Jane despite Max's pleas, but Hargrove was able to break from the Mind Flayer's possession to protect Jane and his sister. Max then witnessed Billy's death, and was comforted by Jane as she mourned her loss as Hopper "sacrificed" himself to close the gate. Months after the Starcourt incident, the Byers decided to adopt Jane and move from Hawkins to California. Max said her tearful goodbye to her friends, and returned home to Billy's room, still mourning his death.
===Season 4===
After the events of the previous year, Max's life has been in turmoil. Following Billy's death, Neil divorced Susan and moved out of their home, causing Susan to get two jobs to keep her and Max afloat. Max has also been suffering from insomnia and nightmares about Billy's death, feeling guilty for not being able to save him because of her hatred of him before being possessed. At school, her grades have dropped and has been reluctantly seeing the school counselor, Ms. Kelly. She and Lucas have split up and she shunned all her friends in Hawkins.
Max arrived at Hawkins High School on the last day of school before spring break and Ms. Kelley asked her why she had missed the previous day's session. She attended a basketball prep rally with Mike and Dustin and looked on in disgust as the school cheered on Jason and the basketball team. Later that morning, she was cornered by Lucas who tried to give her a ticket to his basketball championship game. Max refused the invitation and became offended when Lucas commented that she should "find something she should care about." She refused to talk about her feelings and claimed that it was normal for people to change. Later that evening, she witnessed Chrissy coming home with Eddie in his van and heard a scream and watched as Eddie ran back out to his van, alone this time, and drove away.
Max woke to the sounds of police and discovered the Munson trailer alive with a body inside. Unable to find Lucas, Nancy, or Mike, Max visited Dustin and told him about seeing Eddie and Chrissy together the previous night and that Chrissy was the murder victim. When Max stated Eddie was likely a suspect, Dustin refused to believe Eddie was responsible for Chrissy's death. Max revealed to Dustin that she saw the electricity in her home flickering rapidly for a moment before witnessing Eddie flee. Max and Dustin realized that Eddie was the only person who knew what actually happened to Chrissy and decided to seek him out to ask him for answers.
Max and her friends take Nancy to the trailer park where they tell her about Vecna being Fred and Chrissy's killer and their theories on how he attacked his victims with curses or spells. When Nancy reveals how Fred immediately began acting scared, nervous, and upset when the two of them arrived at the trailer park yesterday, Dustin realized Fred's behavior was similar to Chrissy's. Max then paid attention to Robin's observation that serial killers usually stalk their prey before killing them and theorized they could have seen Vecna before they died. Max then remembered spotting Chrissy leaving Ms. Kelley's office before finding her in the bathroom and realized Ms. Kelley might have information on Chrissy encountering Vecna before her death.
Max searches through Ms. Kelley's file cabinets and finds both Fred and Chrissy's files. She then hears a clock chime and goes to investigate, but finds herself back in the office. Max realizes she has fallen under Vecna's curse and will be killed by the entity tomorrow. By the time Nancy and Robin arrive, Max is in a trance similar to Chrissy's, and tells her friends that her trance is not the only thing they should be concerned about. Max and her friends discover that both Fred and Chrissy are suffering from Vecna's curse, with Chrissy having a headache a week ago and Fred having one six days ago. Max and her friends are horrified to discover she is Vecna's next target, with only twenty-four hours to live. When Steve goes out to investigate, Max and the others follow him outside the lobby, only to be startled and surprised when Lucas reveals himself. Max then warns Dustin of his basketball teammates, Jason Carver, Patrick McKinney, and Andy hunting for Eddie, and tells Lucas about Vecna and how her life is now in danger.
Max and her friends arrive at the abandoned Creel house and discover that the front door has a stained-glass window depicting a rose, which she recognized as the window she saw in Vecna's mindscape. When Steve and Nancy find the door locked, Robin suggests they use a brick to get into the house. Max and her friends enter the house and discover the house's electricity to be dead. In a hallway, Max notices a grandfather clock that looks like the one she saw in her visions. When the gang split up, Max partnered with Lucas to search the first floor of the house while Dustin, Steve, Nancy, and Robin investigated upstairs.
The group of teenagers gathered in Max's trailer to discuss what Nancy's vision meant. They realized that Vecna had been hinting at the four gates the entire time, and that he was only one kill away from succeeding in his plan. To defeat him, Max offered herself as bait and suggested that she make herself vulnerable to him again in order to give the others time to kill him. The group decided to visit a store called "War Zone" in which they could adequately arm themselves, and Eddie led them in stealing a family's trailer. At the War Zone, Max and the others found the weapons they were looking for, but also ran into Jason and several of the basketball players on his team. Jason confronted Nancy while she was checking out a shotgun, but she evaded his questions and managed to get the others out in time before he became overly suspicious of them. Armed with the supplies they needed, they found an isolated field where they temporarily set up base and worked on building their weapons. They then drove to the Creel House to drop off Erica, Lucas, and Max, before continuing on to Eddie's trailer where they would enter the Upside Down.
Max and Lucas waited for Erica's signal to distract Vecna, and Max used her lantern to locate him. She then sat down on the attic floor to have a "conversation" with him, revealing her deepest and darkest thoughts. As she was at her most vulnerable, Vecna struck, taking the physical form of Lucas. In the vision, Vecna taunted her and told her that her death would break the world. Max realized she was being deceived and ran from the monster, while Jason entered the attic and confronted Lucas. When Jason accidentally stepped on Max's Walkman, destroying it and severing her lifeline to the real world. Vecna stalked Max through her memories and almost killed her before Eleven appeared and flung him through wooden bleachers. Eleven's triumph was short-lived when Vecna recovered and began throwing the girl around the room. Max tried to intervene, but was brutally thrown across gym floor into the wall where she crumpled in a heap. Vecna forced her against the stained glass door and bound her arms, legs, and neck as he ordered her to watch the killing of her friend. Eleven's determination renewed with Mike's encouragement, she broke free of her own retraints and threw Vecna away from Max with a scream. With Vecna temporarily defeated, Max woke from her trance and fell to the ground where Lucas gathered her up in his arms. Max regained conciousness just as Vecna pinned her to a tree and began breaking her limbs one by one. Eleven mourned her friend's death along with Lucas, before reaching out her hand and focusing all her concentration on Max.
Two days after her encounter with Vecna in the Creel House, Max was taken to the hospital where Lucas stayed by her bedside. Eleven, Mike, and Will found him reading to Max, who was covered in bandanges, wore a neck brace, and had both of her arms and legs in casts. Eleven asked Lucas if the doctors knew when she would wake up, and he told them how her heart had stopped for over a minute, clinically killing her, before she had been brought back. He admitted that the doctors had no idea how she had survived and had called it a "miracle." Eleven then attempted to find her mind through the Void, but ultimately failed.
=== Season 5 ===
TBA
==Abilities==
*Expert Skateboarder: Max is a very talented skater. She was shown to possess excellent balance and parkour skills. She was able to jump across the surface to touch the ground with ease.
*Lock-Picking: She can open locked doors with a paper-clip. She successfully unlocked the door of the AV club, which accidentally allowed Dart to escape.
*Driving Proficiency: At a young age, Max was able to drive fairly well because her biological father had taught her how to drive. Max was able to drive her stepbrother’s car to the entrance of the Mind Flayer's tunnel system where she then safely parked the car.
*First Aid: Max had very knowledgeable skills in providing medical care properly to heal and stitch up a patient’s wounds/injuries. She knew to clean Jane’s bleeding leg with soap and to put pressure on it before using any Antibiotics and succeed at getting her better.
==Quotes==
==Trivia==
*Her nickname "MADMAX" is a reference to the Mad Max film series.
*Max is the youngest member of the Party who knows how to drive.
*Max is the first character from Stranger Things to have a stepfamily and the first character to have a sibling die on the show.
*Max alongside Lucas Sinclair, become the deuteragonist and tritagonist of Season 4 with Lucas and Max's relationship being a central part of Stranger Things Season 4.
*When Max was captured by Vecna, her friends played her favorite song: "Running Up That Hill" by Kate Bush, which allows her to escape from Vecna's land.
**The use of the song caused a real-world surge in popularity to the song, reaching number 1 on iTunes.
*Max is the second member of the Party to die and be brought back to life; the first being Will Byers.
==External Links==
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