Is It Weird That I Haven’t Really Been A Fan Of Stranger Things Proper In Years? Like, I Consider Myself:

im not even surprised it's the billy stans that are supporting grace and the eddissy shippers because if anyone knows what it's like to get hate, it's us.

I know I’m about to sound like a petty bitch here but I kind of can’t wait for someone’s fav to be killed off. I’ve had to listen to the majority of the ST fandom saying awful things about my favorite character saying he deserved to die in such a violent horrific way. Saying the abuse he endured didn’t matter at all. So like sucks to be you now. 🤷‍♀️

The true tragedy of Billy Hargrove is that he was a too complex character for the world he was set in.

His very existence strikes at the core of the show and its character by inviting the viewer to dive deeper into his motives and the nuances of his character. Which then leads to questioning other characters.

Which is a big problem for some viewers. Once you start doing it, you realise all of your faves are problematic. El is a murderer fueled by rage. Hopper is a murderer. Alexei is a murderer in a way. Jonathan is a creep. Eddie is a drug dealer - and we're not talking just weed, we're talking serious drugs. And so on...

And once you have to step back and realise that all of these characters are flawed human beings, panic might start to set in because your cinnamon rolls aren't that sweet after all.

So you're left with three choices:

To stop thinking about it and enjoy the show casually.

To accept they all have flaws. The world itself is not black and white.

To live in denial and become an anti. Because if you can shut up those who are affecting your core system of beliefs or label them as evil, then you can pretend all is well. (Except it's not and all your favs are problematic. Their complexity is what makes them such compelling characters in the first place. I mean if you're looking for something simple, I'd recommend going back to kids cartoons. Just not Peppa Pig, from what I saw of it, she's a little piece of shit too.)

just would like to bring up again that billy hargrove was 100% correct when he said “my 13-year-old sister goes missing all day, and then i find her with you—at a stranger’s house—and you lie to me about it.”

His hair is longer than mine, and he and Jonathan like to smoke smelly plants together. Jonathan says the plants are super safe because they come from the earth, but to NOT tell Joyce.

Stranger Things

I’m just starting season 3 of Stranger Things and, ugh, I have feelings and I must write about them.

TL;DR: The Duffers are not prepared for the challenge the Stranger Things season format presents and the characters suffer for it.

So here, my complaint dump under the cut.

Word count under the cut: 3,562 words

That was your last warning.

Keep reading

A rant (kinda?)

Billy's story was told based on his importance to the overall plot of Stranger Things rather than the importance of the issues the story brought up and I'm still kinda pissed about that. Obviously, each character can only get so much time. But if you know from the start that you're only going to give a certain character a small amount of screen time, you shouldn't add elements as huge and complicated as parental abuse/abandonment. Or, if you do, you should also consider devoting a very large portion of that character's on-screen time to those things or giving the character more time.

Because I'm just really sick and tired of posts where Billy is erased or censored or called irredeemably evil. It's really not fair to fans of his with abuse in their pasts who related to him. It's not right that what people seem to have taken from his storyline is that there is a right and wrong way to be a teenage victim of child abuse, and that if your anger at your home situation causes you to lash out (generally in ways that you would need a fairly high level of emotional maturity not to), you're not worth anyone's time.

And it sucks that parallels were drawn and then dropped in ways that encouraged the fandom to compare Billy to other characters in different (currently non-abusive) situations and with different levels of support, and find him lacking. Because it inevitably places a lot of really unfair blame on a victim (why didn't he just make friends like Eleven did that could have helped him? Why didn't he reject his father's violence like Jonathan (apparently single-handedly) did? Why wasn't he able to still be gentle like Will?). Especially because the situations of all of those characters are drastically different than Billy's was.

Billy wasn't his abuse, but the abuse was an inescapable part of him. Much like a plant choked by weeds isn't defined by the weeds but is massively affected by them. And you can't expect a plant still covered by weeds to be anything like a formerly choked plant that has been moved to empty soil and given water and a clear path to the sun's light. You can't expect it to be anything like a plant that's been properly cared for all its life. If the choked plant happens to have enormous reserves of strength and resilience and manages to bloom as brightly as the other plants despite the weeds, that's wonderful, but it's never something that should be expected without help. Ever. And I wish Stranger Things had been clearer on that.

Can we take a moment to appreciate the fact that Penny Haywood is Pro Snape

You know, it annoys me every time someone calls Billy a racist asshole, he wasn't, I know for a fact he wasn't.

He never once said anything racist, never acted out in disgust at any other black characters, not even Lucas himself, not Lucas' family, not any background characters, non of that, he never made any comments about race either,

And don't bring up the "That kid is one of them" into this, because do you know what he saw? He saw some random kid arguing with his sister, he saw some kid making her upset to the point she walked up to the car teary eyed and tried lying about what happened, that's what he saw, he stood there in the background watching the entire time and I'm sure he may have heard a thing or two due to their arguing, Max said it herself that Lucas treats her badly, that is what he saw and of course, despite him taking his anger out on her, he cares, it's shown he cares because he saved all of their lives by sacrificing his own in the end.

Billy was never racist, he just didn't get the full picture of why Max was already walking to his car damn near crying when they've just moved into the town.

Tldr: Billy wasn't racist, just saw Max coming to his car nearly crying and thought she was being bullied already.

To the many peoole who think Billy is a irredemable characther and completly beyond redepmtion or deserved to die. Cool. Have your opinion but I would suggest that those people never go into the field of child protection or working with abuse victims. The thing about abuse victims, especially child victims is that anger and lashing out are very normal behavioural reactions. They model what they see, they use toughness to protect themselves or to convince the world they don't care. It self protection and survial.

This is a kid who gets beaten by his dad, got left by his mother and never understood why she didnt take him too, left to the hell she was trying to escape from. Got a new family thrushed upon him where it felt like this new sister got treated better than him for no reason and at the time of his death was still living in that horrible situation. He was still a kid when he died. Now does that excuse his actions and they way he treated Max or any or the rest of themm No it doesn't. Is Max entitled to how she feels about him? Sure. She has her own trauma. But was he evil? Nah, he was a scared, lonely kid who never got to explore the world outside his abusive life. Who obviosuly has enough good in him to sacrifice himself at the end, who seemed like he never truly wanted to hurt anyone judging by how upset he was.

In my opinion the way many see Billy is sympathetic of how we treat kids going through these situations. It is easy to feel sympathetic and wanting to help the kid who is showing the signs we expect of trauma, the ones we feel just removing them from the environment and showing love will magically fix. Its easier to look at season 1 Eleven who hid and didnt speak, (also valid reactions to trauma) but the truth of it is that the Billy's are far more the norm in these situations than we think and I have worked with many and not a single one was irrredemable or beyond growing for the better and there is not a single kid who deserved what happneed to them. Billy is no differnt. I really think he could have grown as a characther and had the potential to be able to make up for his actions and forge a relationship with Max.

Anger and lashing out is one of the signs of abuse we we are taught to look for. So if you are someone who is abuse victim and sometimes the only way you can deal with it is to lash out and get angry just know you are not bad or beyond help, and I am proud of you for surviving the best way you onow how and for wanting to change. You are dealing with your situation the best you can and you can grow. Your are more than a sum of your worst moments. I ❤️

The characther of Billy deserved way better than Season 4. Why do that to him? Uhh!