#this isn't the first time she's ever seen ice cream (Benny) so this has been bothering me for a while | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

givehimthemedicine · 1 year

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🍦I just got the elmax ice cream thing

ok El's ice cream has been bugging me and I finally have the answer to a question you didn't ask

as I and many others have said, Max suggesting the trade was sus given how much more of her ice cream cone El appears to have eaten already. even if Max likes strawberry and vanilla equally, she's taking a significant loss in this deal in ice cream volume.

while that's true, I want to note that El hasn't eaten any more of her cone than Max has of hers. they both look almost the same as when they received them:

Steve didn't seem to be charging them, so budget wasn't an issue, but Max's order is a modest single scoop of strawberry. El's order is vanilla with extra whipped cream and sprinkles.

now I know this is totally subjective and no offense to vanilla as a flavor but... girl, this is the weirdest, blandest ice cream order. sprinkles look fun but have no taste. whipped cream is good but not hugely flavorful, mostly a volume filler. is this some kind of all-flash-no-substance metaphor, I wondered?

stranger still, El's cone is barely even filled to the rim in the first place. and "extra whipped cream" means probably most of the contents of that cone is whipped cream, not ice cream. is not Max's cone what a 1 scoop cone looks like? El could only have a half scoop at most? she must have asked for it to be that way, but why?

Steve doesn't announce this part out loud, but look at their cones. Max ordered a sugar cone, El ordered a waffle cone.

ha ha, El and waffles, yes, but keep going.

waffle.... whipped cream.... sprinkles... negligible amount of ice cream despite it being an ice cream cone. do you see what happened here?

El walked into Scoops Ahoy, saw the words "waffle cone," and ordered an Eggo Extravaganza, not knowing that's not a thing.

Max and Steve had to help her reverse engineer what that meant, and it turned out that it didn't even involve ice cream. Steve was probably like "well, this is an ice cream place, don't you want a little ice cream in it? what do you want, like... vanilla?" and she was like, sure fine? Scoops likely didn't offer Hershey kisses, jelly beans, or Reese's Pieces as toppings, so sprinkles had to suffice.

so: Max asking if El wants to trade cones (not "let's trade" not "trade me" but "you wanna trade?") is actually a symbolically important detail!

El doesn't look unhappy with her order at all, but Max, aware now of the Eggo Extravaganza origins, wants to give El yet another opportunity to branch out and try something new, at Max's own personal loss.

it's another subtle shedding of Hopper and embracing of new things. and then she dumps Mike a minute later holding that cone. Not Hopper, not Mike, you! 🍦

PS El did like strawberry and part of it is it reminds her of Max. she's wearing the strawberry festival shirt for the El / Max RUTH transition <3

#this should have been a major plot point in my eggo analysis dang #this isn't the first time she's ever seen ice cream (Benny) so this has been bothering me for a while #mine #elmax #character analysis #eleven #bestof

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