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dog!steve. lion!billy.

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In my head, Billy and Steve are two sides of the same coin. I think they’re both angry and lonely. They both want attention. It just manifests differently.

It’s easy to ignore that Steve started off in the show in a very similar place. Maybe because a lot of his demeanor, even when he’s boiling with anger, is just not as exaggerated and visible. Obviously the fight with Jonathan comes to mind. But there’s also scenes with Tommy and Carol: Before the fight, he yells at them to shut up. And after the fight, he yells at them as well.  It’s also such a fun parallel that both Billy and Steve seek to drown out their anger and loneliness in the same things: Popularity and sex/romantic relationships. Steve learns in the show that he’s better off unpopular as long as he’s in a good relationship- but the relationship ultimately ends breaking apart and so does his social life once again. Because you can’t build your entire personality around popularity, but you also can’t build it just around a romantic partner. You still need friends and a social life outside of that. Meanwhile, Billy is using popularity at school (and, implied, sex) to compensate for the helplessness he feels at home. He probably likes the ‘conquest’ when he starts hitting on Karen, an attractive, married, older woman. Being desired is an ego boost- but it’s also empty and meaningless. Karen not going through with cheating on her husband highlights that: She might not be as fulfilled in her marriage as she wants to be, but her family is still more important to her than a night out with an attractive guy. And the heartbreaking thing is: When Billy is on his way to the motel, already looking forward to the ego boost of his conquest, he ends up cold and scared and lonely as the victim of the Mindflayer. 

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Maybe Billy survives. Maybe he gets some fucking therapy and the chance to sort his shit out. Maybe he gets to study something he really enjoys, gets to surf and work on his tan in his spare time and maybe he learns to accept his scars because the tan makes them more visible than ever. Maybe instead of cutting off all his hair he just lets it be, stops perming it or spraying half a can on it to make it stay in place. Maybe, eventually, he tells someone that he lived... but first he's gotta prove to himself that surviving was worth it.

And maybe he does it by sending this picture of himself.

Hi, I'm new to the Harringrove fandom! Come talk to me and invite me to your groups, I know no one on this platform!

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goin absolutely bonkers over this post. yep

my piece for @summerof85zine 

 🔪🔪🔪в вк не переть🔪🔪🔪

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powerbottom!billy

that’s it. that’s the post