#⚡ — rel / & nancy.

[harringtontmaa]

⚡ — META :   steve  +  nancy  ( seasons 1 - 3 )

   well, here we go !   i’m going to talk about steve’s relationship with nancy  &  i’m going to do it in great detail  —  much to steve’s dislike.  this post going to be broken up by season,  &  it’s going to be extremely long  &  it’s probably going to hurt both steve  &  me,  &  maybe you, too, if you read it.

                                            i do just want to start off with the disclaimer that a lot of this will be more my analysis of the canon than personal headcanon, though i will often be discussing steve’s mindset at key moments throughout their arc.  &  of course, i will be focusing heavily on steve’s perspective,  &  especially how his relationship  &  subsequent breakup with nancy affected him.  i will actively not be trying to speculate about nancy’s thoughts or motivations, as she’s not my muse.  the focus of this piece will only discuss her actions as seen from steve’s point of view.       so without further ado, let’s bite the metaphorical bullet of their relationship ! 

⚡ SEASON 1  —

     steve  &  nancy are introduced in the first episode as as a very early relationship,  &  i think it’s clear that steve starts the relationship with pretty selfish intentions.  steve’s characterization in the first episodes is textbook gross high school boy, from meeting her in the girl’s bathroom between class periods to make out  &  trying to get her to “go park somewhere” despite her insistence that she has to study, then later sneaking into her room through her window  &  suggesting that they turn her flash card game into a strip version, to slut-shaming the girls who he himself has slept with in the past.  nancy says that she is not like those girls, which is the beginning of the narrative thread that “nancy is different” from all the other girls, at least to steve.  this implies to me that steve has never had to work very hard for girls to find him attractive  &  endearing before, which is why nancy originally captures his interest.  she seems complicated  &  hard-to-get by comparison to the other girls he has dated.  she’s smart, she’s a challenge,  &  he likes that !

                              later, at party at steve’s house, the audience is shown signs that nancy is starting to like steve more seriously, including that she bought a new bra for the occasion,  &  having her shotgun a beer to impress him.  as we all know, nancy goes upstairs with steve.  the two sleep together,  unknowing that the demogorgon has attacked  &  killed barb in the pool below.  &  it’s at this point that i believe that steve begins to like nancy in a serious way, as shown by the way he comes to find her at school the next day, trying to reassure her about people gossiping, &  kissing her in the hallway ( in front of people  — which is significant to the still reputation-obsessed king of hawkins high ).           however, it’s also at this point that things start to deteriorate for nancy.  she notices barb has not come to school,  &  begins looking for her.  when nancy comes to steve looking for support about the demogorgon,  steve questions what she saw,  &  also notably appears to be more concerned about any trouble that he might get in with his dad if the cops tell him that they were drinking at his house than barb’s safety.  still being a self-centered douchebag, naturally.  after finding an outline of the demogorgon in one of the photos that she had picked up from jonathan when steve broke his camera, nancy understandably goes to ask him about that night.  jonathan alone listens to nancy,  &  they go out together to see if they can find they begin making a plan to go out looking for whatever might have taken both barb  &  will. 

                              at this point, steve does come to see nancy  &  apologizes for being, in his words, “a total dick.”  these are our earliest rumblings that steve at least wants to be better.  he makes a point to ask about barb,  &  when nancy tells him that there’s no news, he offers to take her out to a movie to take her mind off of things. but nancy refuses, as she plans to go out looking for the demogorgon with jonathan.  &  this is where we begin to see the earliest signs of one of the biggest factors that will ultimately lead to their breakup : the inherent difference in how they deal with painful situations.  nancy knows that barb is missing  &  it almost seems like she  absolutely must  do something to find her.  steve, however, genuinely believes there’s nothing he can do to help find her, so he thinks that the best thing they can do is find a way distract themselves from if for awhile  &, in steve’s word’s “just kinda pretend everything is normal for a few hours.”  i think that steve is well used to smiling through fear  &  pain  &  loneliness, at pretending everything’s fine even if it’s not.  but nancy already has her plan with jonathan,  &  she has to see it through.

          so, as we know, she then goes into the woods looking for the demogorgon with jonathan, enters a portal to the upside-down,  &  almost gets stuck there, but does eventually make it safely home with jonathan.  meanwhile, steve has gone to the movie with tommy  &  carol instead.  but afterwards on the drive home, steve says that nancy was acting like something was wrong earlier, and that he wants to go to her house to check on her. i think it’s also notable that tommy  &  carol tease steve for caring about her, with carol even sarcastically saying “ awww, steve has a heart ! ” which i think speaks to the fact that nancy is the first girl to affect steve so strongly that he would worry about her.  however, when he climbs up to nancy’s window, he sees her in her room with jonathan.  while their actions are entirely innocent, steve  —  who it has already been established has a parental relationship in his life that’s entirely lacking in trust  &  plagued with infidelity — assumes that she is cheating on him.

                              upset, steve returns to the car  &  tells tommy  &  carol that jonathan was there with her.  the two react strongly at the idea that their friend has been cheated on,  &  the three end up working together to spray paint the theater marquee with the message nancy “the slut” wheeler.  steve does not actually paint the message, but he does put tommy on his shoulders so he can reach to write it.  i could honestly do an entire separate meta on the theater incident  —  &  maybe i will sometime  —  but i think at this point that steve knows beyond doubt that his actions are wrong.  but he’s angry still, so therefore, when nancy  &  jonathan confront him, steve initiates a fight with jonathan on purpose as he  &  nancy are walking away.          i personally believe that steve started this fight intending to be beaten up, because he already felt guilty for how he was behaving  &  like he deserved it.  so he said things that he knew were wrong, specifically because he knew would get a rise out of jonathan in order to start a fight that he never had any intention of winning.  &  if you watch the scene closely,  steve does not appear to even be trying.  he only throws a blow against jonathan one single time, instead just shoving him  &  scuffling with him rather pathetically,  &  even pushing tommy away when he comes in to help him.  &  this theory is also supported later on by steve’s comment to dustin in s3 that the fight with jonathan ‘doesn’t count’ as a loss  —  he said this because he lost this fight on purpose.

                              the cops arrive  &  jonathan is arrested while steve runs away,  &  we all know what happens next.  steve snaps at tommy  &  carol at last  —  notably when carol starts making fun of jonathan  —  &  defends nancy to both of them.  he also expresses regret at going through with the graffiti,  &  scuffles briefly with tommy, but refuses to start a real fight with him in the end.  after he leaves them, steve first returns to the theater  &  helps clean the marquee  ( iconic moment ).  then he heads to the byers house with the intention of apologizing to jonathan.  &  he is surprised to find nancy there, too, noticing her bandaged hand.  he forces his way inside, concerned for her safety,  &  nancy threatens to shoot him if he doesn’t leave.  but just then, the demogorgon appears.  though it disappears again only a moment later, it’s still enough to make steve freak out.  again, nancy tells him to leave,  &  steve makes for the car.  but when he glances back  &  sees the lights in the byers house flashing,  he makes the choice to do the right thing for once  &  go back inside, using the nailed bat to help protect nancy  &  jonathan.  the three of them successfully lure the demogorgon into the fire trap, weakening it enough for jane to finish it off at the school.

         the season ends with a scene two months later, at christmastime.  steve has bought a new camera for jonathan,  &  has nancy give it to him.  steve  &  nancy are seen cuddling on the couch together, with steve smiling  &  looking extremely pleased to have gotten his girlfriend back, while nancy looks pensive  &  maybe even a bit disappointed.  per her later conversation with jonathan in season 2, after the demogorgon attack, nancy says that she waited “for like, a month” for jonathan to ask her out,  so i’m to assume when he didn’t, she got back together with steve  —  as he was no doubt hoping for.  &  as of now he’s got the girl, so he’s happy as a clam !  the poor boy just has no idea,  &  ignorance truly is bliss  —  you can see it on his face.

⚡ SEASON 2  —

     it’s the beginning of steve’s senior year, baby,  &  he’s been with nancy for almost a year, now !  the season opens with him  &  nancy together in his car in the school parking lot, with her reading over his college admissions essay.  nancy critiques his writing,  &  steve is quick to get discouraged, saying that he’s just going to end up working for his dad anyway.  but after looking at nancy, steve wonders aloud if that would really be so bad.  after all, he says, the job comes with benefits  &  insurance  &  “all that adult stuff,” as well as allowing him to stay close to nancy while she finished her senior year of high school so she doesn’t “forget about” him.  this scene makes it so incredibly obvious to me that steve is, at this point, planning to have nancy in his life forever,  &  even molding his plans for the future to stay with her.  at this point, he is fully under the impression that they will be spending the rest of their lives together.  &  i think it’s painfully obvious how he genuinely believes that they’re in love, the way he says “i love you,”  &  smiles when he looks at her, with her responding “i love you, too.”  the next time we see them is in the hallway at school, when steve sneaks up behind nancy  &  pulls her into his arms.  she tells him to take his stupid glasses off, to which he says “i’ve missed you.”  nancy says “it’s been like, an hour,” and steve replies “tell me about it,” while kissing her.  this boy is so in love at this point it hurts,  &  nancy genuinely seems... almost annoyed by him.

                              that night, steve  &  nancy go to barb’s parents’ house.  nancy is very clearly grieving  &  still struggling with guilt over barb’s death,  &  also over nor being able to tell barb’s parents the truth about their daughter.  when she tries to discuss this with steve at school later, accusing him of “pretending everything’s ok,” he reminds her that there is nothing they can do about it  —  that there is a reason that they aren’t allowed to tell anyone what happened to barb,  &  that there will be consequences from the government if they do.  he says, “it’s hard, but let’s just go to Tina’s stupid party and wear our stupid costumes that we’ve been working on for a stupid amount of time and jusst pretend we’re stupid teenagers.”  but while she says “ok,” this is clearly unsatisfying to nancy, an insufficient response.          this conversation is a perfect mirror of the conversation when he invites her to the movies in season 1.  i think it’s incredibly obvious that steve  &  nancy just have fundamentally different mindsets when it comes to processing their trauma.  if steve believes that there is nothing he can do about something, like the government’s non-disclosure agreements he signed, the way he survives is through intense mental compartmentalization.  as noted earlier, steve is an expert at pretending everything is fine when it’s not,  &  even finds moments of escape in the his pretending that everything is okay  &  normal.  whereas it’s clear to the audience that nancy  does not  accept that there’s nothing she can do,  &  finds steve’s desire to fake it insulting.  i really don’t blame nancy for this ; i can see how steve’s actions could leave her feeling isolated  &  alone in her grief.  they are just both dealing with it in such different ways, that they’re both truly not capable of offering the kind of support the other one needs.

                              &  then we have the dreaded halloween party, which as we know, does not end well for poor steve.  we all know the scene.  nancy gets drunk, seemingly resentful at steve for wanting to “pretend” to be a “stupid teenager.”  steve tries to stop her from having yet more punch when she starts slurring, but she struggles with him, leading to the drink being spilled all over her white sweater. they go to the bathroom, nancy trying to clean up  &  steve trying to convince her to just let him take her home.  but in her drunken state, nancy calls steve out for being “bullshit,” accusing him of pretending like everything is ok like they didn’t kill barb,  &  for pretending like they’re in love.  steve is surprised  &  hurt to hear her say “like” they’re in love,  &  asks her “you don’t love me ?” to which she replies again “it’s bullshit.” 

     now, it’s important to remember here that steve’s parents were the farthest thing from loving toward him  &  he has mostly had superficial, reputation-based friendships up until this point.  nancy was  the first person that he was sure really loved him.  &  so to hear that she didn’t, even though she had been telling him that she did for the better part of a year ?  that was like shooting him through the heart.  &  there’s no other way to say it :  steve freaked out.  he left the party immediately so that no one would see him break down,  &  jonathan took nancy home.                               the next day, nancy comes to find steve at his basketball practice.  she doesn’t remember a lot of what happened,  &  steve fills her in on some of the tings she said.  when he tells her that she said that she doesn’t love him, she insists that she was just drunk.  he asks if everything that she said was bullshit too then,  &  when she says yes, steve asks nancy to tell him that she loves him.  &  nancy responds, i quote, “really ?”  with a smile.  which really just makes steve feel like asking for her to love him is like asking for something unreasonable, impossible, like it’s just too much to ask for him to be loved.  they are interrupted at that moment by a teammate who calls to steve to come back to practice.  steve gives nancy another moment to say something, but she doesn’t, looking down.  &  steve walks away, telling her that he’s starting to think she’s the one who’s bullshit.

      it’s important to note at this point that this is still not technically, officially a breakup.  it’s bad, yes, but they have not actually said to each other at this point “we are done, we are not together anymore, it is over between us.”  &  steve, bless his optimistic little heart, still thinks there is hope to salvage the situation.  if you asked him that very moment, he would still refer to nancy as his girlfriend,  in spite of the fight.   &  meanwhile, nancy goes to jonathan, embarking on their adventure to infiltrate the lab  &  prove that they killed barb.  that night, nancy sleeps with jonathan at murray’s hideout.  the next day, tommy tells steve that nancy  &  jonathan had ditched school together the day before  &  not returned yet.  &  after all of this, steve still tries to keep nancy back,  getting a dozen red roses  &  going to her house, intending to declare his love  &  apologize  —  though notably, even he isn’t sure what exactly he should be apologizing for.                               but nancy isn’t there.  instead, steve runs into dustin at the wheeler’s house, who immediately ropes him into finding dart, pulling him into the upside-down shenanigans.  during the adventure, steve refers to nancy again as “different from the other girls,”  &  also warns dustin not to fall in love, because girls are only only going to break his heart  &  that he’s way too young for that, showing how raw steve is feeling at the current moment.  still, he answers the call to adventure  &  fights the demodogs at the junkyard to protect dustin, lucas,  &  max.  &  after following the dogs when they run off,  they meet nancy  &  jonathan at the lab.

        afterwards, everyone returns to the byers house.  &  it’s actually here that steve finally realizes it’s over between him  &  nancy.  there is a moment, you can see it, where jonathan is worrying over will,  &  nancy is standing over him with a hand on his shoulder, worrying over jonathan.  steve looks on in the background for a moment, before putting his hand on his face,  turning,  &  walking away into the next room.  &  i think this tiny moment, this tender little interaction between nancy  &  jonathan that steve happened to witness, is what really hammered home to him that nancy didn’t want him anymore.  after all, she had never been that way with him.  so seeing her with jonathan that way, he finally got it. 

                              later on, while outfitting the shed into a makeshift interrogation room, nancy tries to spark conversation with steve, not once, but twice.  first, she tells him that it as cool of him to take care of the kids,  which he brushes off by saying “those shits can be a real pain in the ass.”  then, later, she tells him that she doesn’t want to leave mike again, but steve promises her that no one’s leaving anyone, that he’ll be staying there to keep him safe.  it’s this moment where steve has his iconic line “i may have been a shitty boyfriend, but turns out i’m actually a pretty damn good babysitter.”  &  it’s notable as well that steve is referring to himself as boyfriend in the past tense here.  &  when nancy tries to respond to him, saying “steve…” he cuts her off, saying “it’s ok, nance. it’s ok.” before walking away.

        in my opinion, steve just flatly refused to talk about it at the time because, well… what is there to say ?  nancy doesn’t love him, that much is clear to him at last.  maybe she never did.  but regardless, she clearly wants jonathan now.  he gets that, finally.  he doesn’t need to hear her say it, as it would only hurt him still more,  &  he definitely doesn’t want her to try to comfort him or anything like that.  he understands,  &  what good would talking about it do, other than hurt some more.  he doesn’t want her guilt or her pity or attempts at platitude.  if she doesn’t want him, then there’s really nothing more to say, as far as steve is concerned.  &  he ends season 2 very raw, with a broken heart.

⚡ SEASON 3  —

      welcome to season 3, it’s time to talk about the lingering effects that the breakup had on steve !  before nancy, steve was a dick, but he was also pretty confident in himself in general, especially in his skills with girls.  during his relationship with nancy, steve fought frequent feelings of inadequacy  &  the belief that he was not good enough for her, but he also felt for the first time like he was finally actually being a good person, like maybe he could be good enough to be worthy of being loved by someone good, like nancy.  &  that’s what he tried so hard to be.                              but in the aftermath of learning that the most real love he’d ever known had all been bullshit all along, steve’s confidence  &  slowly budding sense of self was pretty well shattered.  as mentioned earlier, nancy was the first person that steve was sure loved him.  &  to find out she didn’t actually really rocked not only his self assuredness, but also played on the belief first laid down by his parents’ neglect that he’s fundamentally too much for anyone, that to be loved would be something he has to earn, rather something that he inherently deserves.  this sense of desperation for love is on full display in early season 3 while he’s trying  &  failing to hit on every cute girl he sees.  but he’s lost his charm.  he’s down on himself, he’s anxious, he’s awkward.  he’s trying, but he’s struggling.  &  this is exactly the right moment for him to meet robin.  

     meeting robin is a massive breakthrough for steve.  she pulls no punches with him, laughs at his lack of game  &  calls him out when he’s acting a fool.  but she is also the first girl that he meets that he can actually just talk to as himself, rather than trying to be perfectly charming all the time in an attempt to schmooze her.   &  steve wasn’t ready to meet robin before now this moment, because honestly, she probably wouldn’t have liked who he was before now.  but as it turns out, they like each other !  with both of them being who they really are, with neither of them pretending, they just connect.  so of course it’s to robin in the end that steve finally admits aloud  ( kinda )  how much nancy really hurt him  —  albeit under the fading influence of russain hallucinogenic drugs.  &  of course, steve does develop a crush on robin as well, thinking that because they connect so well that it must be romantic between them.  this is because steve has never had a functional platonic relationship with a girl his own age before, after all, so he assumes she must be The One for him.  &  steve also makes the surprisingly astute observation that robin is actually a lot better for him than nancy.  &  when robin does reject him, this genuine  &  honest friendship with a girl his own age who he truly loves, but knows he will never date, becomes the is the natural next step in his growth arc.  he did meet The One, but it was in a way he never expected :  he finally met his best friend.

                             &  this is relevant to his connection nancy because it was for nancy that steve originally started his growth arc, but i think that it’s incredibly important narratively that steve continues on his arc without her, even in the face of yet more rejection.  it would have been so easy for steve to get dumped  &  rejected  &  revert  &  say  ‘ well that whole being-a-good-person thing didn’t get me what i wanted, so why not just give up on it, ’  but he doesn’t !   he keeps on growing independently of nancy, even when there’s no reward in it for him.  &  it brings him to robin.  &  it’s through his friendship with her that steve regains some of his confidence.  &  grows even more,  in all new ways that he never even knew were possible before.

⚡ CLOSING THOUGHTS / SEASON 4  &  BEYOND  —

     to wrap up,  here is the post i made after viewing vol.2 with my initial thoughts about why steve  &  nancy getting back together would not be healthy for them.  &  in addition, a follow-up post will come later on outlining my specific scene-by-scene canon divergences for season 4, which i will insert a link to here once it’s complete.                             but i hope, given my analysis of the first three seasons  &  the effect his relationship with nancy had on steve the first time around, you can see why i personally think that st*ncy as endgame would amount to some serious crawling backward rather than forward for steve.  &  as a character whose whole arc is focused on his growth, i just dislike that whole concept tbh,  &  will  not  be writing their relationship that way on this blog, regardless of what happens in the final season.     in my blog canon,  steve  &  nancy finally learn to communicate with each other, talk honestly about what happened between them,  &  eventually become friends.  he still loves her  —  of course  —  &  he always will.   but steve is finally no longer  in love with her,  &  he definitely does not still picture her as the linchpin of his dreams for the future.  even he isn’t that naive.  &  i genuinely believe that for steve  &   nancy both,  growth would look like a functional friendship built on a strong foundation of mutual care  &  respect.

[harringtontmaa]

⚡ — portrayal notes : season four  &  beyond  steve  +  nancy            spoilers for st4  &  personal opinions under the cut !

    so with steve  &  nancy getting set up for a romantic reunion by st4  &  being very clearly positioned as endgame for the suffer brothers as we look ahead to st5, i want to take a moment to say that regardless of what happens in the canon,  I WILL NOT BE WRITING STEVE  &  NANCY AS ENDGAME. this post is my attempt to explain why.     let me start by saying that i do see the foundation for them getting back together as a concept,  &  i can see why it appeals to people. i’m not here to bash the ship. i think it’s both incredibly obvious  &  absolutely crucial to his character arc that steve was deeply in love with nancy at the end of st1  &  beginning of st2.     &  i also think that steve is the type of person that does not know how to fall out of love with someone. once he loves you, he will love you in some form or another for the rest of his life, no matter what happens. therefore, it is true that regardless of how their relationship is, steve always holds love for nancy  &  always will.     so therefore, i do think that steve still loves nancy,  &  while i personally don’t want them to be together, as someone who tries hard to study steve’s character  &  be true to the decisions he would make, i do honestly believe that he would take her back  &  try again if there was any indication that she wanted that. this romantic boy might even get the romantic notion into his head that the reason that nothing with the other girls ever felt right was because nancy was always The One for him. he essentially admitted as much when he said that she is always a part of his dreams for the future, which... i really don’t like, especially as it flies in the face of what he had just said the sentence before about learning to crawl forward  &  grow  —  which i loved seeing that self-awareness from steve.      so let’s say that at the end of st5 everything works out, steve  &  nancy both survive,  &  they decide to enter into a relationship again. everything’s great, right ?    well here’s the issue : steve has severe abandonment issues,  &  the honest truth is that the way that he  &  nancy split up the first time fed into those fears in an incredibly harmful  &  toxic way. it’s important to remember that nancy didn’t just fall out of love with him; by saying that he  &  their entire relationship was nothing but bullshit, even when he asked if he loved her, nancy implied to him that  she had never loved him. that every time she had said that she loved him over the year that they dated, she had been lying. it had all been, as she said, nothing but bullshit.        &  the thing about that which really fucked steve up was that he couldn’t tell. he had always believed her when she told him she loved him. &  yet even when he asked her the next day at school when she was sober to tell him that she loved him, she couldn’t say it. so he is left to believe that for months, she lied to him about how she felt  &  her desire to be with him  &  he had no idea.         so now, if they get back together, not only does nancy specifically set off his abandonment issues  ( because steve really could not handle being left by her a second time ), but every time she said that she loved him, it would trigger his anxiety. because she’s lied about loving him before, he would always have that voice in his head whispering that she might still be lying to him still.  &  what’s more, that if she is lying, he wouldn’t be able to tell. so deep down, though he still loves her, steve cannot ever again fully trust that nancy loves him. no matter how many times she said it, there is just something broken there between them that cannot be fixed.    & i think that would lead to an incredibly unstable  &  unhealthy relationship. steve would likely become incredibly clingy  &  insecure, possibly to the point where he stifles nancy’s big ambitious dreams, which would easily builds resentment on her side, which then feeds right back into his anxiety. i genuinely believe that it would be a toxic spiral that would only end up with them hurting each other even more in the end.  &  i don’t want that  — for either of them !           this isn’t even mentioning the simple fact that they clearly want different things from their future.  i mean, did no one else hear how when steve was discussing his dreams of having five or six kids that nancy replied with “sounds like a nightmare” ? like they are just continuously not on the same page,  &  getting back together without even addressing what happened between them or what they want going forward does not seem like the road to a happy ending for me.     plus, this is all not to mention that making steve  &  nancy’s arc lead back to each other after everything would be so incredibly regressive for them both. i think that loving nancy made steve into the man he is today, but that returning to her would set him backward to the place he was when he was with her. one of my favorite things about steve is that even when he doesn’t get the girl  &  he doesn’t get rewarded by the plot for trying so hard to grow  &  be better than he used to be, he never stops trying. it would have been so easy for the end of his relationship with nancy to be the end of his growth, but he continued on entirely of his own volition, not out of hopes of reward but purely because he genuinely wants to be a good person.  &  he’s had so much growth since then that i want him to keep moving forward, not go back.        &  while i don’t write from nancy’s perspective  &  can’t speak to her motivations, i feel that she deserves better as well !  one of the things i hate so much about the way that they executed the steve  &  nancy relationship plot is that it came at the expense of literally everything else nancy had going before that, from her career to her college prospects to her relationship with jonathan  ( which is intentionally  &  consciously not talked about on her part btw ). after they start pushing her with steve, none of that is so much as mentioned again.  &  watching her flip-flopping back  &  forth from jonathan to steve like this  — always without having her ever communicate about it with the person she’s actually in a relationship with — does her character an appalling disservice. i have liked nancy very much as a character,  &  this also upsets me, because while she is not my area of focus, i genuinely don’t think that’s true to the character of nancy; i think that’s reflective the duffers sacrificing consistent characterization for the sake of plot drama. personally, i think that the best thing for nancy would be to not be in a relationship for awhile  &  focus on her career, which is clearly her priority.  &  there’s nothing wrong with that whatsoever !  it’s just... not sustainable as a foundation to build a romantic relationship with someone like steve, who clearly hopes to build his life atop of a romance.     so to sum up: while i think that steve  &  nancy getting into a relationship again is probably going to be endgame in st5, i just don’t want that kind of relationship for my muse. so while i will happily explore all aspects of steve  &  nancy’s relationship throughout the timeline,  &  will never downplay how much steve loves nancy in my portrayal,  i will also not be writing them as endgame.  &  if the duffers do indeed make them endgame, i will be going canon divergent.

[harringtontmaa]

⚡ — steve / tags.