#(no UD and Nancy and Jonathan were never single at the same time)

[heavencasteel420]

I’m not so single-minded about shipping Jancy that I don’t enjoy writing about them with other people, but I do feel compelled to make it make sense why they aren’t together. I don’t know who remembers How I Met Your Mother, but it’s similar to how Marshall has to include an elaborate backstory about Lily dying some time ago in any sexual fantasy about another woman.

[spectraling]

My problems with S3

Salty rant in no particular order below the cut

What the HELL happened to the Byers? They went from being the emotional heart of the show to literally having one brief scene together in ep1 and then Will and Joyce had a hug by the end of ep8, which btw Jonathan DIDN’T EVEN JOIN IN ON??? He was literally in the background in that scene, are you trying to tell me my boy Jonathan Byers would not come out to hug his family after all that shit they just went through???? Jonathan and Will spent like what, four episodes standing next to each other and they barely even exchanged a single line?? Not a comforting touch, a hug, anything??

The Byers’ financial situation and how that could’ve given them some interaction, weight to Joyce’s desire to move and also the Byers talking about that AT ALL was lying right there for the taking. Joyce and Jonathan both had obvious concerns about losing their jobs

Joyce got to spend time doing something else than worrying about Will this season which was nice (instead running after manchild Hopper, great), but where are the repercussions of that? With the growing up theme I was hoping for Joyce to start to look into herself, about letting go and who she is when she’s not a mom

Jonathan was once again reduced to being Nancy’s sidekick, spending most of his time following her around and standing next to her while she drove the plot forward with a vengeance. He spent most of his time in the beginning being an abrasive grump and his pov was barely there with the lack of Byers fam content, which made his argument seem as weak as it did in s2. His scenes with Nancy hit the ground running, were rushed and few and far between. As soon as Jonathan was not by Nancy’s side he disappeared entirely from the plot until she called on him again. He didn’t have one single scene without her

Nancy Wheeler would never, ever stoop so low as to mock Jonathan for a) his socioeconomic position and b) his trauma with his dad. A super ooc low blow. Nancy can obviously be ignorant about how economical strife affects others, but actively mocking him??? This is not the Nancy that approached Jonathan “the freak” in s1 and expressed her concerns despite the entire school side-eyeing her. At least Jonathan got to sass back at her later

Where was Nancy’s backstory that was hinted at before the season? Was hoping for her to get some development OUTSIDE of her rallying to save the world 24/7

Will starts out the season having a semblance of an interesting, very relatable arc (abandonment issues, afraid of growing up, done with The Straights) that then goes nowhere in lieu of The Plot and Will just... doesn’t have a lot of beef with the MF. This thing and the other monsters of the UD fucked him for life, let him have something badass to do like I dunno, give him powers you cowards, let him fight the MF you cowards

Also let Will talk to his family about his issues, or have it be a point that Jonathan is now busy with Nancy and how he misses him. Jonathan being somewhat conflicted about spending all this time outside his family and the potential guilt and effect that has on him. Will destroyed Castle Byers that he and Jonathan built together, where the hell were my brotherly feels???

There was a lot of talk about “new pairings” with the characters, but everything felt very same-y. Jopper goes off on their own, jancy does the same thing, El and Mike have a ton of screentime devoted to just them, Steve and Dustin amped up their bromance to eleven, etc. Even when characters that usually aren’t grouped together were in the same scenes, they barely got anything to say or do (Lucas being said to “become closer with Jancy” was a flat out lie or referred to literally physically standing next to them). Where was Nancy and Joyce solidarity, El and Will siblings, Mike and Nancy bonding over their family falling apart, Jonathan and literally anyone but Nancy?

Villain focus completely shifted from the US government to the spoopy, evil Russians with their spoopy language. Stereotypical, tacky and bland af. Being American is Great and in no way problematic! Go patriotism/capitalism!

The abundance of action and cgi. Omg all of the action sequences. It felt like 70% of the season was spent on El throwing shit around with her powers and Hopper fighting Russian dudes. I remember being halfway through the season and thinking they really should’ve slowed down the plot. But that’s an issue with too little time for too many characters. I had no time to bond with any of the characters I liked since the plots were So Big and So Many that they ate up every opportunity for emotional intimacy and reflection. We had time for a goddamn ad for coke but not for the Byers to interact like once???

Also the whole infection/MF working in the shadows thing? Completely wasted potential. It was set up to induce paranoia in the characters and the MF tricking, playing with and torturing them, people not knowing who to trust which could’ve lead to some really compelling scenes. Nope, it’s just a big meaty version of the MF and now it’s running around town trying to fuck El up while nobody conveniently notices and tons of people died but who cares

Robin was shoehorned into the plot and magically had all the skills it took to figure out the code, could decipher Russian with no previous knowledge (the languages she listed as knowing are not at all related to Russian and why tf does she know so many languages??). At least she slapped Stobin in the face and gave us some actual LGBT rep since the doofuses are hellbent on beating around the bush with Will infinitely

Erica was 100% SASS and nothing else. It got old really quick

The entire plotline with Steve/Dustin/Erica/Robin took up about 60% of screentime with memes and sassy jokes and provided about 5% of relevance in the grand scheme of the plot. Everything they found out in the Russian facility could’ve been relayed by the Russian guy Jopper kidnapped

Which btw, why did a random Russian dude take up that much screentime? He had way more emotional development than 80% of the core cast. Also did we need that much Murray?

Speaking of, I did not need Murray doing his creepy, invasive psycho analysis thing on Jopper like he did Jancy last season. It was terrible and lazy writing then and it’s terrible and lazy now

Steve complaining about popularity “not being that great really” made me want to punch him in the face even more than usual. Nobody gives two shits about a rich white boy who got everything he pointed at, all the popularity and more girls than he could count at school while stomping on the outcasts

Also didn’t need that jab at Nancy in his heartfelt scene with Robin (which was funny bc Robin has a lot of similar traits to Nancy)

Karen and Billy was gross, but at least Karen stopped herself to go back to her unfulfilling but legally sound marriage. No need to rock that boat unnecessarily! A completely mediocre man is just fine for her I guess. At least she got a kickass scene with Nancy

Why in the fucking world did Billy get as much screentime as he did. Why on earth did this asshat, racist abuser get some bs sob story about his awful childhood when we have 47 other, way more sympathetic and interesting characters that could’ve been explored instead. And then he did some stupid “grand heroic sacrifice”. I cried more when the Russian dude died

Max was a victim of Billy’s abuse for years which was completely undermined by her ooc constant concern for him and overblown grief at his death

El being oh so concerned about Billy when she knew he was the asshole who had abused his friends Max and Lucas (and beat up Steve) before felt really insincere

Hopper was a huge, loud, violent jerk this season and I’m not having it. I felt sorry for Joyce having to put up with him and then he presumably died heroically (??? he’s obviously still alive guys) and I...didn’t really care? Was kind of on the Jopper train but have no hopes for it now. Where was their supposed “history” together that was hinted at before the season? It just felt like Hopper constantly acting like a huge, controlling manchild and Joyce having to pep/comfort/discipline him. No sense of back and forth support

What the fuck was that music number with Dustin and Suzie?? Omg cringe. I could feel how the characters all died inside

On the subject of music, they stole Jancy’s theme song and gave it to Steve and Robin and then Mileven. Mileven also stole Jancy’s “I love you”, which was clearly hinted from the name of the song on the soundtrack titled “The first I love you”, which is literally a rehash of their theme “The first lie” in s2. A huge slap in the face to end the season with

[nancykali]

My headcanon for Stoncy is that they’ve all known each other since Nancy and Jonathan were in kindergarten, and Steve in the first grade. They live in a small town and if Mike and Will and Lucas have known each other since kindergarten, so have Nancy and Jonathan, and Steve knew Jonathan and Nancy because of Jonathan’s bullies. There’s literally no reason in canon that Nancy can’t be friends with Steve and Jonathan since kindergarten.

Steve drove bullies away from Jonathan on the playground, and Nancy was Jonathan’s best friend and watched the whole thing happen. From then on they had a cautious friendship, the three of them, outside of school, and sometimes on the playground. But Jonathan had to deal with Lonnie and Joyce still living together back then, and he couldn’t go places with both his parents using the single car, and Lonnie making him afraid to ask for anything. Jonathan didn’t get his own bike until he was eleven years old.

They often hung out after school, Jonathan glad to avoid going home for a few hours.  All three of them would race on the high school track (I’m headcanoning that the middle and high school are walking distance here okay) or in a field somewhere,  and Nancy most often won.

He also spent the night at both Steve’s and Nancy’s. Nancy’s place wasn’t as fun because Karen imposed a strict bedtime, and Nancy often had to babysit Holly or Mike, or both. Steve’s parents just never cared, and both of them were never home at the same time, and they were both often gone. 

They’d watch the newest movies in Steve’s basement, where his parents had a second, more expensive TV. At Nancy’s they’d watch a movie late at night, having to keep the volume low because everyone else was asleep. At either house,  Nancy and Steve would experiment in the kitchen together making something to eat, with Jonathan sitting on the counter drinking soda and teasing them (because he already knew his way around the kitchen pretty well by the time he was ten years old). Jonathan was the one who taught Steve how to make pancakes (with Nancy helping, though she was eating her favorite cookies at the time and was having more fun watching Steve and Jonathan cook food for them all), when they were 11 and 12 years old respectively.  

Nancy and Jonathan smoked their first cigarette together, when they were 10 years old, in Jonathan’s room. Jonathan dared Nancy to. Steve was able to sneak more expensive cigarettes from his parents’ room, or his mom’s purse, and they’d hang out under the bleachers smoking and clowning around for hours before Nancy had to leave because of her 8:30 curfew, or Lonnie showed up maybe 20 minutes after school let out, with his mom in the passenger seat, and demanded Jonathan get in the car.

Nancy and Barb were also friends from kindergarten, but Nancy only hung out with Barb one-on-one. Barb knew Jonathan, but Steve intimidated her and she was very shy through most of elementary school. Nancy was protective of her, and it just never occurred to her to invite Barb when she and Jonathan went to hang out at Steve’s.

And before the seventh grade, Nancy would sometimes be babysitting both Mike and Will, and Jonathan would babysit with her. Much more often, Nancy would go stay at the Byers to help Jonathan babysit Mike and Will, because Joyce was working and Lonnie was doing who knows what, sometimes working, sometimes just out getting drunk.

It was the summer before they went to high school that everything changed. Jonathan and Nancy were 14. They kissed for the first time, and it was Nancy who made the first move. But Jonathan told her it was better they stay just friends. Nancy knew Lonnie was still visiting a lot and stressing Jonathan out, afraid Lonnie was practically moving back in. So she agreed, hiding her hurt feelings the best she could, and they stayed friends. But over that summer they inevitably became distant. Steve had been distant since he started high school, so Nancy more often hung out with female friends, examining her feelings for Jonathan and fretting about their friendship for months before she finally took the risk and kissed Jonathan.  Only to have him tell her he didn’t want to be more than friends.

When they began high school, Steve decided to make his own first move. Steve had crushed on Nancy just as much as Jonathan for a long time. But he didn’t know Nancy as well as Jonathan did. Nancy and Jonathan had a bond that Steve envied. Steve’s closest friends were Nancy and Jonathan, and even though he was jealous sometimes, they never made Steve feel left out, like other kids in his grade did. Or his parents, who often ignored him.

Steve and Nancy became much closer in the three months before November 1983, though they didn’t call themselves more than friends until after the night Will came back from the UD. Then, the summer before Nancy’s and Jonathan’s junior year, everything changed again. Nancy could barely believe it, but Jonathan wanted to be with her – and Steve. She felt like the luckiest girl in the world.

Then the Halloween party happens, and Steve thinks she doesn’t love him. But they have to get justice/vengeance for Barb, before Barb’s parents make an irreversible decision that will bury Nancy’s grief and guilt deeper. But after El closes the Gate, and Nancy can finally come forward and apologize, and Steve also genuinely apologize, do the three of them get back together.

This is my missing scene fic about what really happened their night at Murray’s in 2x06.

Please do not reblog my post to add discourse/hate about any of these characters.