#Duffer brothers if you kill robin I will find you

[nervousgardenerkid]

Welcome to the final show

a/n: holy shit oh my god it's DONE😭😭i honestly can't believe it holy shit and yes i ended it on another cliffhanger!! if the duffer brothers can do it then so can i LMAO i really hope you guys enjoy this and are happy with how it ended cause honestly i am lol credit to the gif owner! <3

part one | part two | part three

You should be amazed right now. The way Eddie is killing it on the guitar is absolutely phenomenal but given the circumstances, you can't find it in yourself to enjoy the free show. You look over at Dustin feeling yourself ease up a bit when you see him nodding his head along to the music. Your eyes fall back onto the empty street in front of you and you can't help but worry about each and every one of your friends. Having this plan in action meant Max was currently under Vecna’s curse. It meant that Nancy, Steve, and Robin were stepping foot into the creel house.

Your hands tighten around the bat you're holding when you see Dustin look into his binoculars. They're coming, and the horrible gut feeling you have has yet to disappear. If anything, it's gotten worse.

“Guys!” Dustin shouts over the loud music. You and Eddie are quick to look his way making sure he was okay.

“Lockdown in t-minus thirty seconds!”

Eddie nods his head and your eyes fall back onto the sky when you hear the all too familiar screech of the bats. You don't usually pray, you don't even consider yourself a religious person but right now, in this very moment, you find yourself praying to God that everyone is okay and that they're going to be okay.

“T-minus 20!” Dustin shouts.

You close your eyes and take deep breaths trying to ease the nerves that are overpowering you. An adrenaline rush would be very appreciated right now.

“Ten seconds!”

Your eyes shoot open and it feels like a hundred things are happening all at once.

“Five!”

Five seconds left. How the fuck are there already five seconds left?! You find yourself shaking your head. No, no this isn't right. You guys shouldn't be here, none of you should be here.

“One!”

It's like your brain goes on autopilot. The three of you were quick to jump off of the roof and onto the truck that was parked on the side trailer.

“Move, move!” Eddie shouted.

“Let's go!” You shouted.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!” Dustin shouted while running as fast as he could to open the gate. The three of you fell into the entrance out of breath and terrified.

“Shut it, Eddie! Shut it!”

The gate is slammed shut and Eddie locks it before a bat throws itself against the gate trying to get to you all.

“Get inside, hurry!” you shouted while opening the trailer door. Once you saw everyone was inside you slammed the door shut and leaned against it with your eyes closed. The only thing that could be heard was everyone panting to catch their breath and the screeching from outside.

“Dude,” Dustin rasped out. “Most. Metal. EVER!” he shouted while jumping up and down with Eddie.

Their screams mixed with each other and even though you all could've died, you couldn't help but smile at the two boys letting loose. The three of you jump when the screeches get louder and you hear the bats start to crawl up in the ceiling. Your backs are all pressed against each other as you start to circle the room, then you're met with silence. The screeches and banging come to a halt and you feel Dustin and Eddie relax a bit, but you know better.

“Hey, dipshits!” Dustin shouts. “Give up that easy, huh?”

Eddie shushes him and you shake your head.

“Is that really necessary?!” Eddie whispered aggressively.

You hear banging on the ceiling return and your eyes shoot up to find the source.

“They're on the roof.” You said while looking up, your eyes following wherever the bat was crawling.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Dustin whispered.

The three of you walk forward following wherever the bat was, then you see it. There's a vent on the roof. Your heart drops to your stomach and you push Dustin behind you.

“They can't get through there, can they?”

As if answering his question the bat pushes the small vent cover out and screeches at you before trying to come in. Eddie and Dustin are quick to use their spears and stab away at the two bats that were fighting their way in through the small hole.

“Die! Die! DIE!”

You watch with wide eyes as Eddie and Dustin try their best to stop the small creatures trying to get in the trailer.

“Y/n! We could use your help here!” Dustin shouted.

Finally snapping out of it, you look around the room quickly and an idea pops into your head when you see one of the shields next to a small dining chair.

“Move, move, move!” you shouted while grabbing the shield and dragging the chair below the small vent. As soon as Eddie and Dustin see you step onto the chair they move the spears and watch as you slam the shield into the ceiling. You hold the shield there for a second before you drop your hands to your side and let out a sigh of relief when it stays put.

“Smart.” Dustin pants out. You look toward him and shake your head.

“You just had to torment them?!”

Eddie chuckles at Dustin who's now looking down at his feet.

“I thought we won.”

You jump down from the chair and grab the bat that you abandoned.

“We don't win till we're all together again. Let's just hope everyone else is doing okay too.”

-

Steve grunted as he landed on one foot trying his best to avoid the hive mind. Stealthy like a ninja Steve he thought to himself. He grabs onto the railing of the stairs where vines aren't wrapped around and makes his way to where vecna could be. He heard robin grunting and panting behind him and he was praying that she doesn't stumble on her own feet. Once the three of them were on top of the stairs they grabbed their weapons and got ready to walk in.

Before they could even take a step the house begins to shake and Steve is quick to reach out and grab Nancy. The three of them stumble around trying to stand still and not disturb the hive mind. Once the shaking stopped Steve looked over at Robin and Nancy, a sigh of relief leaving his lips when he saw they were both okay. Robin lets out a sigh and looks at Steve before she hears something slither against the floor. All eyes fall to the floor and they freeze when they see something wrap around Robin’s ankle.

Robin screams when she gets pulled to the floor and is held against the wall. Before she has time to process what's going on her wrists are tied and pinned down and she can't ignore the cold feeling that's on her neck.

“Steve!” she shouts out. “Nancy!”

Nancy is quick to hit the vines that are wrapping around Robin with the end of her shotgun, and soon Steve joins in and tries to slice them away from his best friend. He slams his axe into one of the tentacles and pulls it out getting ready to put it back, but instead, he feels himself getting pulled away. He turns around and sees his axe trying to get ripped away from his grasp. Steve tries his hardest to pull his axe back to him but he reluctantly lets go when he feels himself getting lifted into the air.

His hands fly to the tentacle that's wrapped around his neck and he swings his feet trying to kick away the vines that want to wrap themselves around him. A gasp leaves Nancy but she can't even wrap her head around what's happening because she falls to the floor fighting the tentacle that's trying to bring her the same fate her friends may be facing. Nancy tried several times to reach for the gun that fell out of her hands but it was no use. Soon she feels herself being pinned to the wall and watches in horror as her friends start gasping for air with her.

Steve has come close to death many times, but each time was different. He doesn't want to sound cocky but he was pretty positive that he'd make it out alive back then, but now? Now it's different. Now, Steve is fighting for his life trying to find a fresh breath of air. His mind suddenly thinks about you. You were always a fresh breath of air to Steve but he fucked all of that up now, there's no way you'd go near him even if you had a six-foot-long pole. He was supposed to fix everything between you two. He was planning on apologizing and slowly start to pick up the pieces of your semi-broken relationship, but now he can't.

He fights against the strength of the tentacles that are holding him down. If he could break out of them and rip off the ones that had held onto his neck, then he'll be fine. He could save Robin and Nancy and everyone could get the hell out of here and be fine, but he can't. Steve can't break out of the vines, he can't fix your relationship, and he can't breathe. He just hopes you're doing a lot better than he is right now.

-

“Are there any other vents?” Dustin asked while looking at Eddie.

“Shit,” he whispers before he's running to a corner of the trailer to open the door to one of the rooms. You and Dustin are quick to follow him and scream when multiple bats break through the small vent that was on the floor. Eddie shouts at you both to get back before he slams the door. You're all eyeing the door with caution, weapons ready in your hand for when they break through.

“That's not gonna hold!” You shouted.

“Let's go!” Dustin shouted while standing under the gate.

You crouch down and link your fingers together to give Dustin a small boost to climb up.

“Eddie go!”

Eddie shakes his head. His sight leaves the door for a second to look at you.

“I'll go after you! Go!”

You stand next to the makeshift rope for a second, dropping your bat onto the floor as your heart sinks into your stomach. He isn't coming. You think to yourself.

“Y/n c’mon! What are you waiting for?!” Dustin shouted up at you. You look up at the gate and back at Eddie.

“Promise me you're coming!”

“Of course, I'm coming! I'm not gonna die here!”

That's all you needed to hear before you start climbing up to Dustin, a grunt leaving your mouth when you fall face-first onto the mattress. You roll off of it and join Dustin to get ready for Eddie.

“Eddie c’mon!” he shouts. Eddie drops his things on the floor and grabs onto the sheets that are waiting for him. He starts to climb but stops halfway up. You start to shake your head slowly when you see him turn to look at the door the bats are behind.

“Eddie! C’mon, let's go!” Dustin shouts again.

He's not coming. He's not coming. He's not coming. This is the only thought running through your head right now.

“Eddie you're so close! Let's go!” Dustin is screaming as loud as he can, he knows Eddie can hear him, he's just not listening. Eddie falls back down onto the mattress and is looking up at you and Dustin with wide eyes.

I'm sorry. He wants to say, but his eyes are saying it for him. He looks back at the door and you see him leave for a split second. Before you can even register what you're doing, you grab onto the sheets only stopping when you feel Dustin grab onto your shirt.

“No! I am not losing the two most important people to me! You're staying here!”

You laugh. It's the only thing that you can do without showing how fucking scared you are right now.

“I’m telling Steve that Eddie and I are the two most important people to you.”

Then, you start to climb. Dustin is shouting for you to stay but you can't hear him. You see Eddie standing with the spear Erica and Lucas worked on and you start to climb faster when you realize that Eddie planned on cutting sheets. Eddie moves fast to cut them, but you move faster and fall through the gate just as the spear slices through the cloth.

“Are you two fucking insane?!” Dustin shouts at you two. You jump off the mattress and shove Eddie's chest.

“What the fuck is your problem?! Why the hell are you trying to sacrifice yourself?!”

The banging and scratching on the other side of the door are getting louder.

“There's a time and a place for questions but right now isn't a good time!” Eddie shouts.

“What the hell are you two doing?!” Dustin asks in a shaky voice. You look up at him and feel your heart break when you see tears falling from his eyes.

“Eddie, stop! Stop it, Eddie! What are you doing?! Tell me!” He begs as Eddie flips over the mattress that you landed on seconds ago. Eddie’s eyes lock on yours and it's like you two are having a conversation without saying anything at all. You grab the bat that you abandoned a while ago and Eddie grabs the shield.

“I'm buying more time.”

Eddie grabs your hand and starts to run to the front door of the trailer, Dustin’s protests being the last thing you hear before the bats overpower him. You and Eddie get onto the bikes that were left in his front yard and start pedaling to God knows where. Your legs feel like they're on fire and you're too scared to look back to see how far away you are from the bats. You're guessing they're not too far behind you because you can still hear their screeches as clear as day. Eddie glances behind you two and pedals even faster than before.

“Motherfucker.” you groaned before speeding up next to him.

“Come get me you sons of bitches!” he shouts.

God, he's just as bad as Dustin is. You let out a yelp when a bat swoops down at you trying to knock you over. You chuckle when it misses but stop when you see Eddie get knocked down. You stop pedaling, throw the bike down, and sprint over to him to help him up. Your hands are holding onto each other tightly as you both start printing away from the bats. You feel your arm get tugged on and you stop running to look back at Eddie.

“What are you doing?!” you pant out. “We need to run!”

Eddie looks back at the bats and shakes his head. “We'll never make it. We need to fight, no more running.”

You let go of his hand and grab your bat that was slung over your shoulder, lifting it to get ready to swing at whatever was coming your way.

“What happened to not being heroes?”

Eddie grabs his spear and shield. He's standing next to you and throws a smile your way before looking at the bats that were coming your way.

“Plans change.”

Eddie lifts his shield in front of him and wraps his arm around your waist to bring you close. Before you can ask what he’s doing the both of you are screaming as the shield blocks you from the bats that are flying toward you at full speed. Once they stop, you and Eddie are back to back watching as they swarm around you both.

“We're trapped,” Eddie said while looking around trying to find an opening.

You open your mouth to say something but stop when you see a bat flying toward you.

“Step back!” you shout as you swing at the bat. You try not to gag when you feel some blood splatter on you and swing at the bat again once it is on the floor. You and Eddie let out grunts and screams every time you hit a bat, your arms feel like they're on fire and you can't tell your left from your right because of all the quick spins you're doing.

“Come on!” Eddie shouts at the bats.

“What the fuck,” you grunt while hitting a bat. “Is up with you and Dustin tormenting these things?!”

Eddie turns in your direction to answer you but stops when he feels something wrap around his ankle and drag him to the floor.

“Shit!” you shout while swinging at the bat. Eddie kicks it away from him and stands back up hitting them away with the spear.

“Stupid,” hit. “Fucking,” hit. “Bats!” hit. You raise your bat high to hit the screeching animal but stop when you see an opening in the swarm. It's small, but if you time it right, you're pretty sure one of you can get through it.

Don't be a hero. You hear Steve's voice in your head.

3.

Don't be a hero.

2.

Don't be a hero. Please.

1.

You shove Eddie out of the circle the bats have made around you and smile when you see him tumble through the other side unharmed. You hear a screech from your left and get ready to swing when you feel your bat get yanked out of your hands. You turn around trying to find where it went but then you fall to the ground. You sit up and see a bat’s tail wrapped around your ankle. You kick at it with one foot but scream when a bat wraps itself around you, before you know it your arms are pinned down and you can hear Eddie screaming your name. You open your mouth to tell him to stop and go find the others but all that comes out of your mouth is a gasp.

You feel a tail wrap around your neck and tighten. You squirm around trying to break free from everything but stop when you feel a sharp pain on both of your sides.

You let out a cry and thrash around trying to shake them off of you.

“Eddie?! Y/n?!” Dustin shouted.

You were dying. You had to be, there was no way Dustin managed to get back into the upside down.

“Dustin!” Eddie grunted out. He took his spear out of the bat he hit and looked over at you.

“I'm gonna get him! You'll be okay, I'll be back!” Eddie knew you weren't listening, he's not sure why he told you where he was going. Maybe because he felt like you'd fight harder that way, but you didn't. You got tired, and you got tired fast. The grip on your neck was getting tighter by the minute and your vision was getting spotty. You tried your best to keep your eyes open but with every new wave of pain, you felt your eyes stay shut as you screamed in pain.

Then, it stopped. The bats that were flying around you fell to the ground, and the tight grips that were holding onto you finally loosened up. You gasp for air and cough a bit, wincing from the pain you felt on your sides. Quiet screams left your mouth as you pressed one hand on your side to place some pressure on your wound, but you were too tired to keep it there. Your breathing is rapid and unsteady as you look into the inter-dimensional sky, gasping when a flash of red appears. You fight to keep your eyes open trying not to scare Eddie for whenever he comes back, you figured he wouldn't appreciate another scaring memory to keep him awake at night.

“Five minutes,” you whisper to yourself. “Just…close ‘em for five minutes.”

-

Steve feels his eyes widen as he gasps for air and falls to the ground. He, Nancy, and Robin were all coughing as they gasped trying to catch their breaths while standing. They watched as the tentacles that were wrapped around them slithered down the stairs

“I don't believe in a higher power or divine intervention. But that was a miracle.” Robin panted out. The three of them stood tall as they turned around facing the door that Vecna was behind.

“Then we better not waste it.” Nancy said while taking a step forward.

“Phase four.” Steve said.

“Flambé.”

The three of them walk into the room, hands on their weapons ready for a fight. Vecna is in his “resting” state and the three of them stare up at him with determined eyes. Steve grabs a glass bottle from his bag and places the rag over the fire from the lighter he had stashed in his pocket. When he saw the rag was on fire he lifted his arm and threw the bottle at vecna, his hand going in front of his face to block the debris that came his way. Vecna let out a scream as his body went up in flames and fell to the ground, catching himself a bit as he looked up at the three of them.

Steve was thankful he was the first person to throw. He's frozen in his spot as vecna begins to stand up and slowly walk toward them. Robin flicks the lighter that's in her hand, lighting the rag as Steve did before and throwing it toward vecna. They watched from behind their hands as the bottle hit his arm and made him stumble back from them. Nancy acts fast and aims the shotgun at vecna and takes a step toward him. Vecna stands tall as he watches Nancy come forward and pull the trigger, shooting him in the arm. He grunts out in pain and steps back from the impact of the bullet as Nancy cocks her gun and aims for him again. The bullet flies into his stomach causing him to stumble back some more, she cocks the gun again and aims for his other shoulder.

When the bullet hits him he stumbles onto the window behind him, catching himself on the window sill he turns around to face Nancy. Nancy cocks her gun one more time as vecna stands tall and lets out a scream. Steve and Robin hold on tight to their weapons getting ready to help Nancy whenever she needs it. He begins to take some steps toward her as she aims the gun at him again. She pulls the trigger one last time and watches as the bullet hits him in his stomach once more and sends him flying out the window. The group runs toward the window and watch as his body hits the roof on the way down. They quickly run downstairs to check and make sure they actually beat vecna, but when they were outside his body was gone. They looked around them with wide eyes trying to find any clue as to where he went but they were greeted with nothing.

“No way.” Robin panted out. “There's…there's no way- Nance?”

Nancy was shaking her head. “I don't…I don't understand. What happened?!”

Then they heard the chimes. Their posture stiffens and they all look at each other silently questioning if they all heard that. Another chime sounded off and they all ran into the creel house stopping in front of the clock by the time of the fourth chime.

“Four chimes,” Robin said while looking back at Nancy and Steve.

“Max.” Nancy panted out.

Steve’s heart stopped as soon as the name left Nancy’s lips. Before Steve could process what happened, the house began to shake again. The three of them stumbled around trying to find something to hold onto for balance, they expected the shaking to stop soon but it never did. The world kept shaking and the chimes kept going. The three of them latched onto the railing, trying their best to stay steady but not even that helped. Eventually, the shaking stopped and it was only then that the three of them had the same thought running through their mind.

This might be a fight they can't win.

-

You're not sure how long your eyes were closed, you're guessing it was longer than you expected because you hear Eddie's feet come to a stop when he sees you on the floor.

“Shit, shit, shit!”

“Oh my god. Is- is she dead?!”

Your eyes shoot open at the sound of Dustin’s voice and a sigh of relief leaves their lips.

“Jesus Christ,” Eddie mumbles while sitting on his knees next to you. “We thought you were a goner.”

You gently shake your head and look over at him. “Gonna…gonna take more than bats eating my flesh to get rid of me.” you slurred out. Dustin feels tears begin to form and he limps his way over to you, helping Eddie as he lays your head on his lap.

“How the hell did Dustin get here?”

Dustin wipes his tears away and clears his throat.

“I uh, I jumped through the gate. Pretty sure I broke my ankle or something.”

You hum and reach out to grab his hand, forgetting that your hand was painted with your blood.

“‘S okay dusty. You're strong, y-you'll heal up fast.” you feel heavy, like there's weights on top of you, and you're too tired to take them off.

“Hey, hey keep your eyes open sweetheart,” Eddie says while grabbing your face to make you look at him.

“It's bad, isn't it?”

“No, no you're gonna be fine y/n! We just have to get you to the others!”

You shake your head and don't even bother to try and hold back your tears.

“I told you. I had a bad feeling about this.” you whimpered out.

“Hey, you're gonna be fine. We just have to get you up.” Eddie grunted out while getting ready to carry you.

You shake your head trying to stop him, the position he had you in making you more uncomfortable.

“Eddie, stop.”

“Y/n you gotta let him, please.”

“Ow- Eddie stop, it hurts,” you grunted out while pushing yourself away from him. You let out a sigh and shake your head.

“Just…just give me…a minute,” you mumbled while closing your eyes.

Eddie squeezes his eyes shut and opens them again hoping this is some kind of nightmare. Maybe if he thought hard enough, the scene in front of him would change and everything would be okay when he woke up, but this wasn't a dream. This was real life and you were dying right in front of him.

“Why the fuck did you sacrifice yourself?!” he whispered while pushing some hair out of your face.

“It's your year, Munson. Wasn't gonna let it go to waste.”

“That doesn't mean you-”

“It was either you or me.”

Dustin nudges your arm lightly.

“Hey, open your eyes.”

“‘M tired.” you slurred out while trying to open your eyes but were unsuccessful.

Eddie tries picking you up again, his heart falling into his stomach when you don't try fighting him like before. You're getting weaker, they both know it.

“Hey,” Eddie grunted out while standing to his feet with you in his arms. “We still have that concert. Don't even think about leaving me to go alone.”

Dustin unties the bandana that's around his head and places it on your side hoping it'll help even just a little bit.

“Steve.”

“What?” Dustin asks while leaning onto the spear for balance.

“Take Steve. H-he’s…he's gonna need a friend.”

“Steve has friends,” Eddie said while trying his best not to move you around as he made his way to the trailer quickly.

You shake your head. “Take him. Please.”

“Okay, I'll take him.”

“P-promise?”

Eddie sniffles and nods his head only to realize you can't see him cause you still have your eyes closed.

“I promise sweetheart.”

-

That was the last thing you remember before you were embraced by the cold quiet darkness that engulfed you. You're not sure how long you were out, but you certainly didn't expect to wake up in a hospital room with Nancy humming a soft tune. Your eyes flutter open and you squint from the bright white lights that were in your room.

“Ow…” you groan out while your hand falls to your sides. You look under the gown and see your midsection wrapped up in bandages.

“O-oh my god! You're alive!” Nancy exclaimed while setting down the book she was reading.

You wince from the sudden loudness and smile at her. “I hope so.”

“This is- holy shit. I'm gonna grab a nurse! I'll be back!”

She runs out of the room and into the hall leaving you alone in your hospital room. You look around the room smiling when you see balloons and a card that says get well soon, but that's not what catches your eye. On the small table beside you is a Tears for Fears t-shirt and on top of that is a polaroid of Eddie and Steve at the concert.

“I see you got your shirt.”

Your eyes quickly follow the voice that came from the door and you feel yourself smile when you see Steve leaning against the doorway.

“You're alive.” you breathed out.

“You're alive,” he said while walking toward the small chair Nancy was in earlier and taking a seat. “Jesus, I thought we lost you back there.”

You clear your throat and shake your head. Steve grabs the small cup of water near you and brings the straw to your mouth, smiling when he sees how fast you're drinking.

“How's Dustin? What about Eddie and Robin? Are they okay? Have you heard from Max and-”

Steve shushes you and places the back of his hand on your forehead.

“Easy there, tiger. You just woke up, take one step at a time.”

“I need to know if my friends are okay, especially Max, Lucas, and Erica.”

“Lucas and Erica are fine.”

Your blood runs cold. “And max?”

Steve avoids eye contact with you.

“Steve, how's max?”

“Let's just wait for the doctor to get here, okay?”

Tears start to form and your gaze falls to your hands that are resting in your lap.

“Oh.”

Steve grabs your hand and places a kiss on the back of it.

“Listen, there are some things we need to talk about.”

“Like what?” you whisper.

Steve sighs. “You know what.”

“I- are you really trying to talk about the fight right now?”

“No! I'm just…I’m saying we need to talk about it.”

“Oh my god, Steve there's more to life than us right now!”

“Not to me!” he said loudly. He lets out a deep sigh. “Not to me.”

You open your mouth to say something but stop when you hear a boom of thunder from outside. Your eyes look at the window and you furrow your brows as you watch the world outside get darker.

“Help me up,” you say while tossing the blankets off.

“What?”

“Help me up.”

Steve rushes to your side and helps you out of the bed.

“Jesus, where are you go…” he trails off when he helps you walk to the window and sees what you're seeing.

White things float in the air, something that can easily be mistaken for snow but it's not. You know in your soul that it's not snow, you've seen snow before but you've also seen this.

“Is that…?” Steve asks quietly.

Your breathing gets rapid and your heart is pounding out of your chest. No, no. It can't be. Your hand tightly holds Steve's shirt as you watch a small crowd gather in front of the hospital but then you see something worse.

Plants and trees that surround the hospital start dying before your very eyes, but that's not even the worst part. There's smoke. Huge black clouds of smoke start to fill the once bright sky of Hawkins and along with it are familiar flashes of red.

“Did you guys ever see Vecna’s dead body?”

“I-i don't know…”

You nod your head. You understand now. The “earthquakes”, Max not being okay, the all too familiar darkness, the white specs in the air. You knew, you knew that you lost the battle, and the war is just getting started.

taglist <3

@drxwstxrkxy @steveismyboi @555stargirl555 @fujiihime @stevesdick @hcloangcls @louweasleymalfoy @kiki17483 @sweetcreatue98 @spideyjass @keerah19 @freezaz123 @eighthwvnder @s0vval @sammararaven @mottergirl99 @cityofidek @simpingoverfictionalppl @how-to-disappearrr

[thewrongmoon]

honestly season one of stranger things really stumps me. because i know what the duffer brothers have said and very much want you to believe that they've had the whole story figured out since season one but part of me just goes "yeah that seems like bullshit"

like el and steve were originally supposed to die in s1. and yet they have plots centered pretty closely around them in the following seasons. and this was a GOOD change that they made btw, i can't imagine the story without either of them.

but when it comes to byler, i honestly have no clue if it was something that was planned from the beginning or not. like, i'd LOVE if it was, don't get me wrong at all. the idea of swindling netflix into publishing your 5 season slow-burn gay romance is the most amazing thing i can think of.

BUT... i think that it would also be okay if it wasn't planned from the beginning, and if the duffers just saw the potential for mike and will to be romantically involved later on in the making of.

i know that will has been planned to be gay from the beginning. however, the duffers love their angst. like. they wanted will and el to kill their paternal figures in cold blood in s2. i think that it is possible that they didn't consider the idea mike actually returning will's feelings until later on.

they could have planned on mlvn being canon, but saw a better, more compelling story in byler. and i know mlvns like to use the "mlvn has been together since the beginning, they're the show's first and main couple!" argument, but really that means nothing.

the duffer's "planned" relationships don't always pan out. and it's usually for the better. steve and robin were supposed to be a couple. and they ended up changing it, and getting a way more interesting story out of that.

byler isn't any less special if it wasn't really "planned from the beginning."

if it was only found out later that this relationship was more interesting, more unique and more gripping than mlvn was supposed to be... then it's special in a whole new way, isn't it?

in all honesty, i hate the idea that byler being planned since day 1 is a foregone conclusion. like could it have been? absolutely! could it have also been something that was discovered later on? 100%!

i've said this many times, but you and i do not have free access to the duffer brother's brains. like. i have no fucking clue what their thought process is or what ideas they have. so i personally cannot say for certain what was actually planned and what they literally just made up on the spot.

i think this is why it's important to explore a multitude of other ideas and possibilities. usually when i do this, i still find that byler is the most logical answer, no matter how i really get there.

[st-hc-s]

As much as I love reading fix it steddie fics (and I cannot stress this enough, I LOVE reading them) I am a pretty rigid thinker so I find myself being overly critical of the ways some people choose to rewrite the ending of season 4. It’s all baseless nitpicky stuff but I’m usually saying things along the lines of “the duffers wouldn’t write it like that” or “that’s pretty unrealistic.” So instead of being the Scrooge of steddie fics and grumbling without offering solutions, here is my fix it that I think would be canon compliant and still play along with the bullshit that the duffers are capable of pulling.

- -

It’s 1988. Hawkins, Indiana is experiencing extreme heavy rainfall and flash flooding, and has been for the last 2 weeks. To many outsiders, the town of Hawkins would be deemed a disaster zone, a now uninhabitable town of despair and ruin. To the few residents that remain, it’s all standard fodder. The thunder and the heavy rainfall is now background noise to some. There are a select few, however, who fear what the thunder could bring and are not totally fond of what follows. Those few are The Party, or rather what’s left of it. To them the thunder brings back memories of rancid, ashy air and the smell of decay. It brings back memories of death and dying, loss and heartbreak. To Dustin Henderson, the thunder brings back memories of the older brother figure he never got to spend enough time with. It reminds him of Eddie Munson.

Dustin sits on his bed, rocking back and forth to stop the anxiety from overtaking his body. It’s bad tonight. It’s always bad on nights like this. He knows what to do when it gets like this he just wishes he never has to.

Dustin tiptoes to the kitchen, praying he doesn’t wake up his cat, Tews or worse, his mother. If she sees him in this kind of state, with tear tracks littered down his cheeks, she will not let up until he confesses what’s ailing him. She’s a good mother, Claudia Henderson. She always has been. Dustin thinks of how lucky he is to have her. Any other night he’d give in and let her comfort him but on the bad nights, like tonight, even if he wanted to share his history of the Upside Down with her, he couldn’t. It’s a horrifyingly evil secret that he’s sworn to protect her from.

He grabs the phone off the wall and tiptoes backwards into his room, thanking his lucky stars that his mother bought the phone with the extra long cord. Once Dustin’s certain that she’s too absorbed in her cheesy romance novel to look up and see him, he closes his bedroom door as quietly as he can. Without hesitating he begins dialling the number he knows so well and calls the Harrington house. Steve answers within 2 rings.

The concern in Steve’s “Hello?” is enough to bring Dustin back to the brink of tears, tears that he thought he had long finished shedding.

“Steve,” followed by a sniffle.

“Dustin? Are you okay?” Steve already knows the answer, on a night like tonight, why else would Dustin call?

“Steve… I miss him.”

Steve sighs. “I know Dustin, I know you do. I do too.”

“He’s got to be out there somewhere right? He can’t be dead?”

“Dustin you can’t do this to yours-“

“Because if he is, then we killed him. We left him to die.”

The tears are coming hard and fast now, searingly hot as they fall down Dustin’s cheeks.

“No, hey, listen - we brought him back Dustin, we didn’t leave him anywhere. We brought him back through so he wouldn’t stay in - in - that place. He was gone… Dustin, there was nothing we could do.”

They both think back to that fateful night. Both sets of memories shrouded in misery and grief. That night Dustin watched as the light died in his best friends eyes, and felt as blood that wasn’t his soak through his clothes. Steve watched as the younger brother he always wanted, cradle a deceased Eddie in his arms, wailing as he refused to let him go.

“NO! NO! NOOOO! I’M NOT LEAVING HIM! I’M NOT LEAVING HIM TO DIE!”

Robin, fear and despair thickening her voice says, “Dustin please, we have to go! Vecna isn’t dead, we don’t know where he is!”

“NO WE CAN’T LEAVE HIM HERE! HE’S NOT DEAD - HE’S NOT -“

Now nancy tries to reason, ever the calm one, “Dustin, I know -“

“NO YOU DON’T! I’M NOT LEAVING HIM HERE! JUST GO - YOU GUYS GO AND I’LL STAY!”

Steve has stayed back this whole time. It always takes him longer to take it all in but in moments like this, where the heaviness can’t be denied, he’s even slower. As Nancy and Robin both plead with Dustin, their voices heavy with desperation, he pushes through them. He kneels opposite Dustin, on Eddie’s other side, getting a close up look, for the first time, at the severity of the wounds. Steve chokes back a gag as he meets Dustin’s eyes.

“We’ll bury him. We’ll say a proper goodbye, okay? We’re not gonna leave him here, we wouldn’t do that.”

Nancy starts, “Steve we don’t have time - “

“We’ll bury him.” Firm and strong.

Dustin softens, “Really?”

“Will you let me carry him through? If you grab his stuff and mine - will you let me carry him through?”

“We’ll give him a proper burial?”

Steve nods.

Dustin lets out a meek “Okay” as he leans back.

They spend the next 20 minutes finding a way through the gate at the Munson trailer. Eventually they find a step ladder just tall enough for Steve to push both Eddie’s body and Dustin through as he can’t move much, his ankle seeming pretty far gone.

Once back in Hawkins, they each, Nancy, Robin & Dustin, grab something to dig with and make their way alongside Steve, still carrying Eddie’s body, to the forest tree line near the park. They dig as much as their tired bodies allow before placing his body in the trench. They tie Eddie’s bandana to his spear where Robin sticks it firmly in the ground at the head of Eddie’s makeshift grave.

They all say a few words, as clearly as they can through their sobs. The words they share that night stay between them, too personal and harrowing to share beyond that space.

“He can’t really be dead Steve. He can’t.”

“Dustin-“

“No listen! El came back, Hop came back, even El’s creepy dad came back and we all thought they were dead. Would it be so crazy after the shit we’ve seen?”

“I know Dustin, I know - I hear you, but what about Barb… what about Bob and - and - Billy? They’re not coming back. They’re dead, Dustin. I know you want him back but it’s been 2 years. You can’t do this to yourself. He’s gone. Eddie’s gone.”

The silence they share is painful.

“Yeah. You’re right. I was stupid to think it anyway.”

“Dustin, hey, come on now - “

“I’m okay, I just… needed to be talked down. Thank you for listening Steve.”

“Dustin!” But the line is already dead.

Dustin spends that night crying himself to sleep, with all the lights and lamps on, as he does every night, just in case Eddie tries to make contact.

Steve never tells anyone this (except Robin, he tells her everything) but it kills him whenever Dustin calls to talk through his theories on how Eddie could still be alive. The hope it gives Dustin never acts as a comfort to Steve, but rather a catalyst for an intense bout of panic and guilt. He especially never shares these feelings with Lucas and Dustin, and even Mike who was surprisingly close to Eddie. He’s scared to tell anyone this but Eddie’s death hit him hard. Harder than he would have thought possible for the short amount of time he knew him, like really knew him.

The grief haunts him, constantly. The few moments of reprieve he has from thoughts of Eddie feel like heaven. Then when he remembers it all, his world crashes down around him, like he’s seeing Eddie, dead, in Dustin’s arms for the first time again. The pain has never subsided or gotten easier.

He feels that nauseating guilt make its way through his veins now as his hands start to shake. Luckily his parents have long since fled Hawkins and he has the house to himself as he lets out a wracking sob. At least he can grieve in private. Steve falls to his knees and he knows he won’t make it upstairs to his room this time. The panic attack overwhelms him and he falls flat to the floor. Eventually he falls asleep here after hours of tears and pain and apologies to the beautiful, dead boy he’ll never see again. The next morning he wakes to puffy eyes and that familiar hopeless feeling, as he has done almost everyday for the past 2 years.

MEANWHILE

The rain lets off steam on the road’s surface as it lands. These aren’t normal raindrops, ones you would typically find during the rainy seasons of Indiana. No, these are violent, landing with an audible thud. They seem to carry so much more that just water from the sky, they carry things like pollution and ash. Since the Upside Down has taken over Hawkins, any type of abnormal weather (outside of the now standard drab, dreary grey skies) is intense and ruinous. Rainfall turns to floods and cyclones. Lightning turns to electrical storms that lead to forest fires. Wind causes dust walls taller than the old mall that swarm and decimate what’s left of the town. The few brave residents that have stayed spend most of their time indoors due to the unpredictable and furious weather. Tonight is no exception.

The thunder is particularly loud tonight, it’s cracking is so violent and sudden that the ground vibrates with each boom. The grass of the Forest Hills Trailer Park is absolutely flooded now. You couldn’t walk more than 2 steps before having to turn back and change your shoes due to the amount of mud. As thunder cracks and a bright shot of lightning hits a tree on the forests’ edge, the ground begins to shake. There is a small clearing past the tree line, about 8 feet or so in, where a mound appears to move. You’d never notice it if you weren’t looking for it, but the spot is wriggling, as if something is pushing up from underneath it.

The mound gets taller as the movement gets faster, more desperate, like an animal trying to dig its way out. Suddenly something breaks through the surface, the dirt it is caked in immediately cleaned off by the heavy rainfall. It’s a hand. Followed by an arm, a shoulder, a head. A head covered in matted, unruly dark hair, lots of it too. The figure pants as it pulls the rest of its body out of the hole it came from. The filth covering it washing off quickly. The figure takes a moment to breathe once its face is clear. It looks up to the sky and… laughs. It laughs. Not manically, not hysterically. It’s a joyous laugh, as if what it is viewing is amongst the greatest things it’s ever seen.

“It’s good to be back,” Eddie Munson says to himself, deep and gravelly, determined yet elated.

Eddie steps away from the shallow grave from which he came and makes his way through the heavy downpour to find his friends. This is gonna be good, he thinks.

[will80sbyers]

every time I stop to think about other characters in the show it just confirms to me that the Duffer brothers are actually good writers and I wasn't tripping when I got obsessed with this show in s1, like just thinking about the relationships between the families in this show or how they show all these different sibling relationships like we have

older brother who's protective and caring for his younger brother that is a little shit sometimes but we love him + adoptive sister (also twins)

older brother & little sister dynamic with support and love but they also make fun of each other all the time

older sister & younger brother & younger sister in a family that doesn't talk about feelings much so they are not usually super close with each other emotionally but it's made clear through their actions that they love each other and the older sister wants to protect them

lost sisters that find each other again after years and learn from each other

we also have those that were an only child and that find each other like Steve and Dustin... (and Robin? I don't remember if she has siblings now)

and also really toxic sibling relationships with Billy that is abusive towards Max or Henry that literally kills his sister lmao

anyway I start thinking about all of these different things in the show and just know that they will not fuck up in s5 because you usually know before because they would have already made very questionable choices before (like the writers in got did or some writers in doctor who) but the Duffers for now have only delivered a solid narrative even if it ends up that there are some errors in production like if Will's birthday isn't a plot twist I think the story is (for now) still really well written in general... it's not perfection but it is really really good and it deserves the hype

[mytragedyperson]

Honestly kind of excited about stranger things season 5. I saw a post that said they were going back to S1 groups in S5, which is probably just kids, teens, adults, or I guess teens, young adults, older adults. I'm kind of lowkey excited to see how the other characters react to Argyle, if he's there which I'm pretty sure he will be.

I'm pretty sure Steve and El are going to die this season, Steve because they've wanted to kill him since S1 and El because Millie wants to die or wants more deaths in the show but also I feel like the Duffer brothers would definitely do something that ends the show as it began. We see a scene of the kids, now teenagers playing D&d before the show ends as it began, with will saying goodbye to Mike before going home, only now they're boyfriends. The show arguably began with the party and particularly will and Mike. It would be kind of beautiful if the show ended with them too.

Speaking of Will, kinda want a scene where he and Robin talk. Maybe Robin realises his feelings for Mike and talks to him about it. Robin adopts will and takes him under her wing.

Also I feel like, if Steve died that would be the thing that encourages the characters, all of them to fight back harder. Robin losing her best friend, the kids losing their older brother figure, all of them losing someone who's always been there, always been reliable, always put himself between them and danger, and if he dies tyring to protect one of them, maybe protecting Jonathan, that would not only encourage them to fight back, but also be a beautiful end to his character. And stancy don't get back together because that wouldn't really make sense for either of their characters or arcs. Also extra shootout to Dustin finding out he's dead or seeing him die and having a "not you, I already lost Eddie, I can't lose you too" moment.

Dustin doesn't die. I'm sorry if Dustin dies that will be too much for me personally.

I've seen people saying Mike might get vecna'd, makes a lot of sense. If baler is endgame, kinda want a scene where Mike is getting vecnad and El is trying to help him, it's not working, will tries and Mike manages to fight it and has a Max escaping Vecna moment. This would be pretty good evidence that it truly is requited and would show what the endgame is.

Will plays a big role in helping kill Vecna, maybe we find out why he was allowed to live. I know Vecna may have wanted a spy but why Will? When he was taken El wasn't known yet. When Vecna took Barb he killed her pretty soon after. Will survived, was allowed to live and later escape. He was used as a spy but after that the ficus shifted to El, stopping her. Either way El and Vecna probably will fight again and either El will kill him but destroy herself in the process by using her powers to much, or she'll lose and be killed.

Jancy will discuss their problems. Haven't decided if I think they'll break up or not but I do think they'll be endgame so even if they do break up canonically I'd imagine they'd get back together in the future.

Also possibly Mike and Will getting Murrayed in some way or Mike and el depending on which is endgame, preferably byler, because if they're not endgame it makes very little sense for him to be in live with Mike for 4 seasons

Also a scene where Mike either talks to El about the painting she apparently commissioned and El is like "I didn't commission a painting" or Mike rereads El's letters and realises the painting is the one El thought was for a girl Will liked. This could leads to Will and Mike having an argument about Will lying about the painting and Will blurting out that he likes Mike. However if this did happen, I think I'd be happier if Will was the one getting vecnaed and Mike trying to save him. Mike has another monologue but there's a clear difference between this monologue and the El monologue in that it seems more genuine and personal to their relationship, he references their meeting mentioned in S2, their fight in S3, how will showing him his painting in S4 gave him courage, how losing him in S1 felt like his world got ripped out from under him, maybe he mentions the jumping off the cliff to save Dustin scene in S1 in some way, maybe he apologises for forgetting his birthday, or maybe he didn't forget, maybe he had a present for him but never gave it to him because he was too busy arguing with him. Maybe he reminds him they're supposed to go crazy together, that it's up to them like always. Basically a big monologue mentioning events from last seasons and ends with Mike admitting he loves him too, he was just scared to admit it. Before this event him and El broke up because of the problems in their relationship that were never truly addressed or understood. And Mike saves will.

OK sorry it appears my predictions for S5 turned into a mini fanfiction so let's try and bring it back.

Idk what will happen with max but el will try to save her and, if she succeeds, lumax will be endgame.

Joyce or Hopper could die but I really hope they don't.

I feel like Robin could die but they wouldn't have much reason to kill her so probably won't, thankfully.

If el doesn't die and mileven is endgame, somehow, I feel like will could die, but this feels like it would be a less satisfying ending to me personally.

Obviously these are all just my opinions on what I think will happen. I could be wrong, they could just kill Mike or Nancy or Jonathan. Or they could decide to have Nancy and Robin get together. But these feel less likely and wouldn't make as much sense to me as the rest of what I've said

I hope we'll see more rockie but if we do it will probably be short scenes between all the action.

[shutuperce]

hey byler babes (that’s ur name now, that or byler besties) i’ve been having a really rough day and it is actually related to byler. 

so i got into a conversation with a queer friend of mine about byler endgame. keep in mind we both agreed to respect each other’s opinions and in 2024 if we’re wrong we’ll admit it so i don’t want to hear any hate to them. 

they agreed mileven isn’t a good ship romantically. they agreed el is going to have her independent girlboss arc. after i explained some stuff to them they agreed the show doesn’t seem to be setting mike and el up for an endgame ship. 

but. they don’t believe in byler endgame. i explained some proof to them, went on a little rant as i do, being a byler truther. they wholeheartedly agree it should happen, they just don’t believe it will. i told them about will being confirmed gay, and they were really happy. i explained how if the duffers don’t go through with this, they’ve made a show about a gay kid getting kidnapped, possessed, starved, nearly killed multiple times, ignored by his friends, and then rejected by the love of his life, as well as many other traumas. they said they think he’s going to have to find happiness in his friends and family after mike’s inevitable rejection, because they don’t see mike as anything but straight.

we talked about queerbait, and how it most often doesn’t have any confirmed queer characters, so byler is by definition different. we talked about how stranger things is for the outcasts, the losers, the weird kids. we talked about how they’re doing a great job of representation with robin, and how there will probably be a robin and vickie romance in season 5. but they still don’t believe. not in byler. in the duffer brothers to make it happen. 

which, just makes me really, really sad and angry. how fucked up is it that our entire lives we have learned that people like us just don’t exist in media? that we can’t have mainstream tv and movies with good queer representation? that when we get representation, an entire population of people screams hate at us for wanting that and getting it? that countries remove scenes or ban media entirely because we finally got to see someone who loves the same people we do, who feels the same way we do, who experiences life as a queer person and is happy? cause we’ve learned to expect queerbait, at this point. we’ve learned that queer characters just don’t get happy endings. 

so, yeah, sorry for all the negativity. i’m just feeling really queer tired right now. 

tl;dr: if you have any happy byler shit on your mind, please send it to me, i could use it rn :’)

[thestobingirlie]

I honestly don't see r*nance ever happening. But I do love a challenge, so I'm writing them in a fanfic. And honestly, it's gonna take a lot of work. Mostly from Nancy, since she's never really had to work for her relationships. And if I make Robin's lack of filter a strength instead of a flaw - 'cause the way she talked about her mom saying that didn't sound hurtful imo - Nancy can be held accountable. (I also believe Steve knows she cheated but blames himself for it, which is a common reaction, so he didn't tell Robin) and I don't think he can find peace with it, unless he can close the chapter on Nancy. I still don't know what Robin could gain but maybe single Nancy can develop into someone good for Robin. For me, they'd have to be a slowburn, maybe not even canon at the end of S5, but more implied that they could get together. It also depends if Nancy can live with Steve being Robin’s #1 priority. 'Cause that's why Robin and Vickie won't work out in my fic. 'Cause Vickie does want to come first, which isn't wrong, and Robin can't give her that. But the main reason why they break up, is that Robin calls Steve family and Vickie says that he technically isn't, which hurts Robin 'cause 1. She's adopted and her parents taught her that it's relatives you can't choose but you can always choose your family. 2. If they want kids, and they pick the donor route, one of them won't be the biological mother, which gives them fewer rights (which is still a thing in 2023, except Robin and Vickie can't marry to change that) And Steve'd have to give Nancy the shovel talk 'cause he's seen Robin get hurt before and would never want Robin to get hurt like he was, even if he blames himself for it.

TLDR; r*nance could work, but it needs a lot of work and I have zero faith in the Duffers' abilities

i don’t think r//nance would ever work, but i especially don’t think it would work in canon. there just isn’t enough time to fit in nancy healing from her barb trauma, breaking up with and getting over jonathan, and having a sexuality crisis. and i would kill the duffer brothers if they wrote nancy emotionally cheating on yet another partner.

good luck on writing that fic! sounds like it’ll take a lot of work. nancy’s relationships are just so unhealthy, and i think it’ll take years for her to have a healthy one. and i can agree that robin calling out nancy’s bad behaviour could be good in the long run, though i don’t think nancy would appreciate it, she doesn’t really like being critiqued, and especially by a significant other.

i could see steve knowing about nancy’s cheating, but not wanting to deal with it. but at the same time, he just has such a volatile reaction to cheating, that even if he wouldn’t blow up at nancy, i think he would tell robin.

and i just don’t think nancy would be able to handle coming second fiddle to steve in her own relationship. one of the reasons she and jonathan argue in s3 is because he doesn’t prioritise her, and i think especially being second best to her ex (especially an ex she broke up with) would just grate her the wrong way.

and i’m glad you’re at least giving a reason for why vickie and robin don’t work, most people just ignore her.

and i think steve’s version of a shovel talk for nancy would kind of end up being him listing all the reasons why they went wrong, and telling her not to do the same to robin. i suppose in a way it would end up being the closure that he needs out of the relationship.

but yeah, r//nance to me is just a relationship that would require so much work and healing, that i just can’t see happening within, like, a decade

[mieczyhale]

Okay, lads, we’re venting here.

And maybe getting weirdly emotional and personal about it.

They finished watching episode 8 and the general consensus, aside from like.. one guy, is “i still don’t get why everybody loves him and no matter what he does in the finale i’m still not gonna get it”

Like okay first of all: he’s not for you. You don’t have to get him because he isn’t yours. He belongs to the queers and the freaks. Second of all: a character does not have to be “useful” or a genius or whatever the fuck to be a good character, to be a well loved character. What the fuck kind of take is that?? “He hasn’t done anything so why do people love him??” Excuse me?? He is RIGHT THERE being unapologetic-ally himself, his authentic goddamn self, despite a whole town being out for him basically because of it. He’s a dungeon master, a nerd, kinda snarky but goofy and caring, the guitarist for his own band. He’s a relatable character. He’s a realistic character. 

“All he does is run and hide” HE HAS PEOPLE HUNTING HIM??? WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT HIM TO DO, STANIEL?? 

We meet him in the first episode and he’s loud and weird and tells it like it is: forced conformity IS what’s killing the kids, they ARE being unfairly treated because they play a fantasy game instead of playing sports or going to parties. He takes Hellfire seriously not only because he loves D&D but because that club is so clearly also a safe space for kids who don’t fit in. He didn’t know Mike, Dustin, and Lucas were into D&D when he approached them, but he knew they were nerds - he knew they weren’t going to force themselves to fit in like a lot of other kids do. “You were wearing a Weird Al t-shirt. Which i thought was brave.” Them being themselves without a second thought is all he needed to take them in. If anybody knows how fucking cruel the world is it’s Eddie

He just wanted to be himself, have fun, play music, finish his campaign, and graduate.

He tries to help Chrissy - in getting her the drugs she’s asking for, in going out of his way to make her laugh and make her feel safe, in trying his hardest to wake her up when something was clearly wrong.

And then he saw a girl die - horrifically and right in front of him, he learned that monsters and alternate dimensions are real, he now has a whole town hunting him - quite a few who want to kill him (Jason, the more he losses it especially. You don’t buy a gun because you wanna chat, Karen) 

Instead he ends up fighting inter-dimensional monsters, sacrificing himself for his friends because he wants to make sure they make it - make sure they save the world - and because he thinks poorly of himself for running away (even though running away is the reaction just about anyone would have to what he saw) He hates himself for something he shouldn’t so he plays hero, even knowing it could kill him, because dying a hero is better than running again i guess?? At least in his mind apparently right then. 

He distracted hundreds if not thousands of demobats with a goddamn Master of Puppets performance on top of his trailer in the Upside Down. Which was not only metal as fuck, it was also HEROIC as fuck. 

He distracted the bats. He tried to make sure Dustin couldn’t come back through the gate bc there’s no way Dustin was going to stay out of the Upside Down if he thought he could help. none of us were surprised right? We know Dustin. And so does Eddie. So he tried. Dustin, fortunately or unfortunately, is too stubborn to stop. But Eddie tried. He tried to keep Dustin safe. And then he tried to make sure everyone would be safe. Robin. Nancy. Steve. He wanted to make sure there was no risk of the bats fucking up their job, and that there was no chance of the bats finding their way into the right-side up (not sure if the duffer brothers thought of that but i mean if a tentacle can make its way through the gate to grab steve w h a t is stopping a demobat from coming through??)

Eddie is just a dude, out here living his life the way he wants to, he falls into a mess he NEVER could have expected or been prepared enough for, he does his best with the information he has and the heart he has and his ever-growing insecurity about the fucking running and he dies. Because he’s just a dude, who isn’t a genius, who hasn’t cracked Russian codes, who was faced with an evil bigger than the creature made of human corpses and - for the most part - is left to himself. To overthink and work himself up all while knowing like.. just about nothing. Like truly we see him get filled in on the bare minimum. 

And shit keeps happening and people are after him and these people are helping him and now they needs weapons and he wanted to be “better”. Because he thought Chrissy (and later Patrick) deserved better. Because his new friends deserved better. Because they believed him and helped him and they didn’t have to do shit - most people wouldn’t have done shit for him. But they did. And that means something to him. Because he might just be a dude, but he has a heart and he cares. Despite *gestures at everything* he. cares. 

He is loud yet soft in a world that has been unkind to him. Like.. Okay: consider a porcupine. Spiky and defensive. But that doesn’t mean they’re mean or horrible animals. They are just cute little guys, but they need a way to protect themselves from the things that would harm them. That’s Eddie. He looks the way he does because that’s how he wants to look, yes, but it’s also excellent armor. That and add in his loudness, the performative outwards personality. Not saying it’s not him, because it 100% is, but that’s not ALL he is. He’s got layers. Like an onion. Or Shrek. People only see Eddie the way he wants to be seen, and while it’s 100% genuine Eddie Munson, it’s turned up to 11 around people he doesn’t know or trust. And they will never see any other side to him. 

For all of that, he is relatable. He is what it’s like to be lgbtqa+, to be labeled a freak because you don’t know how to / don’t want to pretend to be someone else, to find your own armor to protect yourself in a way that gets you through the goddamn day without sacrificing who you are. He is what it’s like to find a small group like you, in a place you thought you were alone. He is what it’s like to have a small town whisper opinions and pass judgement on you when they don’t even know you. 

Being a bad student, maybe because you arent smart or maybe because you struggle or maybe because you just dont care, almost not graduating or actually not graduating. Having shitty parents, or at least one parent that’s shit. Being passionate about things that get you bullied. Being just.. a fucking mess.

If you people pulled your heads out of your asses and looked beyond “usefulness”, and beyond the surface level of the content you’re watching, /maybe/ you’d “get it”. 

If you used your brain to consider people who aren’t yourself, who don’t live like you, for a moment - /maybe/ it would occur to you that you don’t have to understand why people love him. You don’t have to get it, and you don’t have to love him yourself. Nobody gives a shit if you do or don’t. But you could - and should - stop being such an obnoxious fucking jackass about it.

Eddie deserves all of the love he gets from people who get him. 

Whether you agree or not.

End of.

[sattlersquarry]

Gonna send you another thing I hope you don't mind.

🍹What I want to see in s5 is Steve having an actual arc that isn't solely about his love life. I want him and Dustin to have deep conversations and finally give us a hug. I want Steve and Lucas to bond because they are fundamentally the same person, especially because we got robbed in s4. Kinda wish we get a conversation about popularity and their love for basketball, but realistically that won't happen. Still bitter it wasn't in s4 tho. And I want Steve to show emotions about Max, I need to know what's in his letter. In general I need to see him break down and finally acknowledge the trauma he went through since '83.

What I think we get tho is him still running after Nancy and how they set up s5 he will spend some time proving to Jonathan that he's a changed person because the Duffers can't let him move on and have to remind him he was the worst in high school. I think we'll get a good fight scene, but I don't think he'll die. Finn said every character gets the ending they deserve, and while I don't have high hopes for a meaningful Steve storyline, they will give one to Dustin. And Dustin wouldn't have a happy ending without his brother. There will be a scene where he'll do everything to keep Steve safe so he won't have to repeat the Eddie situation. The Duffers confirmed Dustin will be grieving Eddie, to take away Steve would be too cruel.

As for the general ending I have zero clues other than almost no main character (not sure about El and Jonathan) will die because Stranger Things was never a show where it ends in a massive massacre. I do think the show will be set in an apocalyptic setting and that the monsters from the UD will get to the real world. Kinda wish Nancy's vision comes true because idk why it was included otherwise. But yeah idk about the general ending bc I mostly care about Steve and his closest friends. I do wish he leaves the show with Robin and Dustin, everything else would be unacceptable lol. And lastly the Kas theory is complete bullshit and I hope Eddie stays dead.

I don't mind at all! Send as much as you want!

OOH my thoughts on all this below the cut!!!

I agree that I want Steve to have more of an arc. I'd love if he did find someone special though, but I don't want that to be all he does. He and Dustin definitely need to have a real heart-to-heart, especially now that Dustin's lost Eddie.

Steve and Lucas have so much in common! I think they could be as close as Steve and Dustin honestly. We deserved to see them bond more for sure, and I hope ST5 rectifies that.

WHAT IS IN STEVE'S LETTER?!!?! I want each letter read, but I especially want to know what Max put in his. I feel like we should've seen more of them bonding as well. One thing that really bugged me about Season 4 was Steve complaining about staying behind with the kids while Nancy and Robin went to the asylum. I feel like that's out of character compared to the Season 2 Steve that went so far to protect the kids. However, one could argue that Steve was so adamant to go to the asylum because he's so desperate to get answers for Max, which feels more in character.

The Duffers absolutely are going to try and force Stancy and I'm not happy about it :( Steve has changed sooo much and if Jonathan doesn't realize that at this point, he never will lol.

I also don't think Steve will die. I feel like the Duffers like his character so much. I think they'll tease his death, like how they did at the end of Season 4 Ep 6, but I don't think it'll actually happen. I agree that Dustin's happy ending includes Steve being safe.

I really really hope that no one dies, but that's probably wishful thinking 😅 My theory is that they'll kill off primarily side characters. For example, I think if Murray is in the season, he's going to be killed. I also could see them killing Karen Wheeler or something, if only to motivate Mike and Nancy in the final fight with Vecna.

I'll be furious if El dies—she deserves the happiest of happy endings! Jonathan dying would be so sad but he's been sidelined so much. I hope he gets a real proper storyline in Season 5.

I'm so down to see an apocalypse. I want Hawkins in shambles, as fucked up as that might be lol. I totally could see Nancy's visions coming true, with the monsters killing soldiers and flooding the town. Maybe that'll be the big final battle.

OOOOH I'm actually not even sure how I feel about the Kas theory. On one hand, the Duffers love to reference D&D creatures, so it makes sense to me. However, they follow the rule that if someone dies on screen, they're dead for real. (That's how they could bring Brenner back, because he only ever got attacked off screen.) I guess Eddie coming back as Kas would still follow that formula, because the theory hinges on Eddie dying completely and being resurrected, but I just don't know if the Duffers will go that far, you know? Also the cast is already insanely big, so they might keep him dead.

One thing I think about a lot is how is it even worth it to bring Eddie back? Like, if he comes back as Kas, what sort of happy ending could he even get? Or would they bring him back to just die again? That would suck, so I absolutely hope they don't do that.

[soapyscoobert]

Uhh I was thinking about stranger things- I like it lots but I just never bring it up..

I’m like 90% sure Robin is going to die in season five.. It just makes sense in my head- I’m worried for Steve if she dies, because yknow they’re platonic soulmates and all. The toll that would take on that man. If it’s an Eddie and Dustin situation where he is in a situation of needing to run and get out there, he wouldn’t leave her he would rather die before leaving her he would have to be dragged away from her to leave her. There needs to be more angsty Robin fanfics (because pain) I might write one we will see

[loveronlineee]

Stranger Things Season 4 Volume 2 spoilers.

At first it was denial.

I saw the signs. I saw how he said Never change Dustin Henderson. I saw him say again and again that he’s no hero. I saw him go back to give the others more time. I watched as he lay so close to gone with Dustin holding him and I still didn’t believe it.

Then it was shock.

How the time skip happened and everyone was safely back, out of the upside down. No mention of Eddie from anyone, until Dustin.

Then it changed again, going back and forth between heart wrenching mourning and white hot anger.

I am upset. The kind of upset where your feelings overcome your body and you can’t even stand, your knees giving in beneath you. Crying on the floor. Watching the tears fall onto the ground, inches from your face.

I am upset. The kind of upset where you can’t even hold back the fury. Where nothing will calm you down and you’re shaking and tense, and you just have to feel that feeling with every fibre of your being until it turns back into tears.

I convinced myself that Eddie wasn’t going to die. I read posts saying that Eddie and Jonathan were gonna have scenes next season, they put forward the point that Why would there be so much promotion for a character that wouldn’t even be in the next season?

I couldn’t even enjoy the rest of the episode after that. I couldn’t be excited about Robin and Vickie. I didn’t feel anything when Hopper and Joyce reunited with their kids. I didn’t care that Hawkins was in trouble. Nothing else mattered after that. I felt numb.

Thank you Joe Quinn. For bringing alive a character that I love more than any other I ever have. No other is even close. And fuck you Duffer brothers for absolutely ruining him.

I’m only half serious, because I understand that when you make something and people love it, you’re terrified that one day you’ll fuck it up and all those supporters will turn on you. I know that the Duffers originally didn’t want Eddie to be that likeable, since they planned on killing him. But they didn’t change what they planned even after casting Joe.

And I think what makes me the most angry is that his death wasn’t even a good death.

No one mourned for him. There was no funeral. We don’t even know that much about what happened after. We can assume that they just left his body there, to rot in the upside down. Alone. Forever.

He never got to meet Will. He would have loved him. He would have taken him under his wing and protected him and become a second older brother. He never got to meet El and see her awesome powers in action. He never got to meet Hopper, or Joyce, or Murray or Argyle or Holly or any of the parents or anyone else.

I wanted to see him become part of the group. I wanted to see him interact with the others. What would Hopper have said after taking one look at him? It would’ve made me laugh whatever it would’ve been. I wonder what Eddie would’ve thought of Dustin’s girlfriend Suzie. Did he even know that this girl with superpowers was Mike’s girlfriend???

His name was never redeemed. Everyone still hates him. He never graduated. And no, he didn’t die a hero. His death wasn’t an epic sacrifice like Billy’s was. He died even though the exact same thing happened to Steve and he survived.

His death didn’t feel like it meant anything.

And it should’ve

It could’ve.

If Eddie died it could’ve been him protecting Steve, Nancy and Robin. He reaches the house, saves them but ultimately doesn’t make it. Maybe he makes such a ruckus that Vecna has to find him and kill him himself, giving El and Max more time to save themselves.

If they were planning on it, it could’ve been so. Much. Better.

Duffer brothers you made me fall in love with a show and continue to love it for 6 years. And you ruined it in just under 4 hours.

But even after everything, I still love this show. And I will not stop writing. Eddie Munson you stole my heart and I have no regrets about that.

And I will share this love with every person who reads my work and interacts with my blog who loves him too.

I’ll write Eddie the story he deserves.

Eddie I love you. You freak.

- Willow.

[corgiplays]

As to not flood @ronance4everbrainrot comment section I'll be posting some of my rambles here

Time line wise the duffer brother absolutely make no sense since it's supposed to be 6 months after the battle of Starcourt which would be December or January depending if you're counting the rest of July or not but it's spring break? So I'm fixing that and my mess of a comment from last night.

--------------------------------------------------------

• July: Robin spends her time with Steve mostly since she doesn't know if the kids like her enough (Erica and Dustin hang out with her though since they know her, and Max likes her but won't admit), this month is mainly Robin and Steve bonding some more and starting the healing process of their trauma, Dustin starts to speculate that Robin and Steve might like each other more than friends but both Steve and Robin are very against the accusation, Robin also starts to bond with the rest of the kids

• August: This is where Robin and Murray officially meet without the danger of being killed, the two bond over their conspiracy theories and love for languages, weekly movie nights turn into Murray and Robin hanging out and debating if Elvis is alive or if the recent Bigfoot sighting is real, we also have Nancy and Jonathan having a rockier relationship in the background (if Jonathan is going to movie night Nancy won't be there and vice versa), Erica brings (aka forces) Max to her and Robin's hang outs so Max and Robin start to bond

• September: Before the Byers leave Jonathan and Nancy break up (it was mutual between the two of them), Nancy leaves halfway through a movie that week and Robin decides to find out what happened *emotional talks in Nancy's bedroom*, Nancy would definitely say "I don't know why I'm even sad our relationship was already dead even before we officially called it off", Robin would 100% run her fingers through Nancy's hair to calm her down argue with the wall, Lucas joins Erica and Max when they go to Robin and he gets life advice from Robin "I spent so much of my time in school trying to fit in and being invisible that it took a flesh monster and Russians for me to realize that theirs nothing wrong with doing what you want to do" after that Lucas joins the basketball team, Robin and Nancy also hang out a little more (like 2 more times after the breakup), Robin talks to Murray over the phone since he's not around as much

• October: Max and Robin have a matching Halloween costume (they go as Jack and Wendy from The Shining, Nancy may or may not find Robin hot in her outfit but she thinks she's jealous that their costumes look so good), more Murray and Robin hanging out, Nancy and Robin have a cute moment when the party plays a horror movie and Nancy grabs Robins hand 👀, more bonding between Robin and the rest of the party

• November: THANKSGIVING WITH MURRAY (Robin's mom doesn't do Thanksgiving or really any holiday and just works if she can), Murray teaches Robin how to cook when she stays over for Thanksgiving, Steve finds out that Nancy thinks that's him and Robin are dating (angst time), Erica talks to Robin about her nightmares so Robin plans a sleepover between the two of them at the Sinclair house (Lucas joins since his nightmares haven't been better either), the Sinclair's absolutely love Robin and she gains another family

• December: Big angst, Steve constantly makes excuses to not hang out with Robin or drive her, Robin is hurt (both emotionally and physically because it's not smart to bike on snow and ice), Nancy finds Robin in the girls bathroom before school starts sniffing and running her bloody and shaking hands in warm water (homoerotic hand bandaging, because Robin ate shit on ice going to school), Robin tells Nancy about how distant Steve's been which Nancy things she caused saying she didn't know they were dating, Nancy also offers Robin a ride to her house and asks if she wants her to be her new ride, Max talks to Robin about if it's okay to like guys and girls (Robin cry's when Max comes out to her and teases her about her crush), Christmas is at the Wheelers + Murray is there, Robin's mom is shown more (gaslight and gate keep)

• January: Even more angst, the big fight between Steve and Robin (Steve either calls Robin a slur which he later regrets or says the typical guy when finding out a girl is a lesbian by saying if she tried a guy she's wouldn't be like this, he's an asshole but he gets a sort of redemption), Robin then gets kicked out by her mother a few days after the fight (her mother makes losing her friendship with Steve her fault and definitely brings up her dad, even more angst??) Robin calls out her mom which is how she got kicked out (metaphorically and physically?), she going to Murray's since he's the only one who's been a good parental figure (he definitely knows Robin is a lesbian, she probably came out to him during Thanksgiving), Max, Erica and Lucas search for Robin after she missed their hang out day (she's never missed one before), Max is tempted to beat the shit out of both Robin's mom and Steve until Dustin probably mentions how Robin and Murray are friends, the three go to Murray's and stay with Robin for the rest of the week (Robin tells them what happened and mentions her dad but doesn't elaborate)

• February: Robin comes back with Murray who bought an apartment for Robin to live in while he goes back and forth between his home and the apartment, Robin and Steve relationship is non existant and very strained, Max, Lucas and Erica are the Robin protection trio, Robin finds out that Steve has been following Nancy like a lost puppy so Nancy and Robin's relationship is also strained

• March: This is where Steve and Robin's friendship comes back, it's not what it was before but their on better terms, Nancy and Robin aren't talking though since Nancy thinks that whatever has happened between the two means that their back together and it hurts her thinking about it (she thinks she's jealous of Robin but it's actually Steve), Max and Erica tear into Steve (they threaten him) while Lucas does his best disappointed dad face

• April: Season 4 starts, mostly everything is canon here idk if we wanna change some things so I'll just leave it as it is normally

--------------------------------------------------------

Oh boy that took forever, little thought I though of was that Robin's dad is dead (Rip man 😞) I'm thinking car accident while Robin was at the wheel (idk if they had permits back then but something like that) which is why she doesn't have a license along with being poor

Comment and ideas are welcomed and have a nice day/night 🫡

[eddielives-kinda]

THE MASTER EDDIE THEORY POST

I think theres a way Eddie can come back and it might have been set up since his first episode. You've probably heard a lot of this, but im trying to figure out the details. This is going to be long. Perhaps stupidity long....

But I think the most important thing with these theories is 'can it be easily revealed and make sense' and i think this can. Most of it is foreshadowing and clues, but the main bulk just has to be "can he come back, can they quickly explain how "

I'd like to stress that i don't think he's going to be a literal vampire, the same way the Mindflayer isn't a Cthulhu in a dress. I think its just going to be the "killed by bats/back from the dead/works for Vecna" part thats going to make Dustin think of Kas. The rest is clues and foreshadowing for the audience.

The How

Kas: a DnD character who “sacrificed himself to Vecna to become a half-human, half-vampire. He was Vecna’s trusted soldier, but after years and years of imprisonment; he broke his trust and waged a war against his master and finally killed him”

-Eddie technically ‘sacrificed’ himself to Vecna since the bats are Vecna, one big hive mind, Steve says as much, and Eddie sacrificed himself to them to save everyone

-He was bitten to death by 'bats', preeetty 'vampire' like

-I think the bats bites contain some sort of venom. And if they're connected to Vecna, so is the venom. Basically you're injected with Vecna. That venom then acts like psychic 'strings’ he can use to 'puppet’ people, since again, hivemind.

-I think Robin talking so much about rabies was to subtly introduce the idea that the bats could put something in you, that would change you, make you aggressive etc. When they figure out the truth, it's the perfect setup for Robin to make an awkward joke referencing that

-I think the reason Steve was fine after being being bitten is that you have to die after being bit while its still in your system, and/or while in the Upsidedown (although we dont know whats in store for Steve in S5...)

-I think Vecna uses the bats to do this because anyone actually getting through his portals or coming that close to his house would be useful. Find out what their plans are, what they know, and use them against others

Clues

-There’s going to be a time jump next season so 'years of imprisonment’ fits.

-He wore that Michael Myers mask, a dude famous for dying at the end of his movie and coming back, and it reflects Vecna doing the same thing, and creating a subtle connection between Eddie and Vecna and 'not dying'

-You know how they always first introduce a DnD villain during the opening game, then they name the coincidentally similar Upsidedown threat after it? Ep1 of season 4 during the DnD game when Eddie reveals Vecna’s still alive:

Dustin: Vecnas dead!

Eddie: So it was thought, my friends, so it was thought

Mike: Killed by Kas!!

So Kas has already been mentioned in a DnD game, while Eddie was revealing to 'his friends’ that Vecna is alive…

-Eddie also chanted "hail lord Vecna" during that game

-They wouldn't let Joseph Quinn keep a wig, almost like they still need them...

-The Duffer Brothers confirmed that Eddie is “definitely dead” (a 'vampires’ definitely dead) and his death will have “huge repercussions” in season 5. But I mean…how? Its going to be like 2 years later, I can see it having an effect on Dustin, a "huge effect" or "huge impact" but not “huge repercussions”…..unless when he died he brought back by Vecna to use against them; a huge repercussion specifically happening because he died

-Major character deaths per season: Barbara, Bob, Billy, Brenner...and Eddie? One of those doesn't fit. Almost like its not supposed to...

-Kas fought with a one-handed blade and a shield with spikes on it, sound familiar?

Here's the most famous image of Kas, fighting Vecna:

May I point out the 'the demobats are extensions of Vecna' thing, and how Eddies essentially fighting Vecna there?

-He literally is wearing a shirt with what looks like a horned vampire with bat wings next to a flaming sword, and constantly mimics that face

-The Master Of Puppets thing. A good way to have Vecna 'puppet’ someone raised by the dead, and make it believable as to why we havent seen it happen before: its the venom in the bats specifically that needs to be in the person when they die. That's never happened, because nobody's ever gone into the Upsidedown and dealt with the bats and died after being bitten

-And if Vecna; the master of puppets, puppeting the bats through a hive mind, killed Eddie and resurrected him...then he was killed by the puppets of the master of puppets that he summoned playing Master Of Puppets and then became the master of puppet's puppet. That's fun, I like that

-Also Eddies tattoo definitely looks like a demon puppeting a demon (that's got the same horns as the Hellfire Club logo/Kas helmet/that face Eddie makes)

-Eddies also wearing a pin for the song Mercyful Fate by Metallica, which contains the lyrics: Raised from my grave by the dead/And I was made a mercenary/In the legions of Hell. Literally describes Kas

-This Iron Maiden album that came out in 86 that says "Eddie Lives" on the right:

-I think the demonic skull tattoo:

Is straight up Undead Eddie. It's an undead skull with pointy teeth and blood in its mouth.

-He's got a black widow spider tattoo. The Mind Flayer is basically Vecnas second in command, but clearly not by choice. He found it, molded into a spider, and controls it. I think Eddie spider tattoo is referencing that he's going to be the new 'spider' that Vecna found, molded into what he wanted, and controls. His new second in command, just like Kas

-Now! This is a picture of a guy hanging posters of a missing loved one who we last saw in the Upsidedown. He will soon be told that loved one is dead…that will turn out to be not true, they’ll actually still be in the Upsidedown, alive:

And this is a picture of a guy hanging posters of a missing loved one who we last saw in the Upsidedown. He will soon be told that loved one is dead…

That can’t be a coincidence, come on. Wayne is wearing the same jacket while doing the same thing, in the same position just shot from the opposite side. A pile of really incredible film makers could not do that accidentally

-Speaking of parallels with that, the same music plays when Hopper and Joyce find Will 'dead' in the upsidedown and revive him with CPR as they do when Eddie 'dies' in the upsidedown, as well as during Max's death before she's revived by El. All of them dead, laying on the ground, held by a loved one. Three death scenes, all with the same music, all in the same position, and 2/3 of them are revived

The Sword

-"The Sword was created by Vecna's own skill." Eddie didn't grab his guitar, he grabbed the one from the Upsidedown, where everything was created by Vecna's own skill

-"The Sword whispered dreams of treachery to Kas until he betrayed his master" I believe will just translate as anytime Eddie plays it, the music does what it did for Max, and keeps the 'half human' part of him alive.

-They wouldn't let Joseph Quinn keep the guitar, almost like they still need it...

-"The Sword of Kas could be used to call down lightning from any clouds overhead" they sure used this imagery a lot

Nothing is 1:1 with the actual dnd character, I don't think he'll be out there like heavy metal Witcher with an actual sword, but I think they'll twist the 'sword' concept into something that fits with the show

The music (from his guitar) has been keeping bits of Eddie still there and able to fight, being able to be reached after an emotional speech from Dustin, who he then fully betrays Vecna to save.

I think Dustin will have long hair, wearing Eddies Dio vest, basically trying to become him as if that will keep him alive. Breaking his 'never change' promise, and that being an issue throughout the season (still not something I'd describe as "huge repercussions") which will be resolved with another emotional moment between them. Dustin stops being himself in an attempt to 'resurrect' Eddie, and its a resurrected Eddie that 'resurrects' Dustin

And, one final cherry: an interviewer said they wished "Eddie was still alive"

Joseph:

Oh hes definitely he alive

Extra thanks to @cherry-clown for discovering the missing poster scene parallels, and the theory that they quarantined off town with El still inside. And @sharp-and-swift for showing me the spider tattoo

[jancysmixtape]

you know from experience

I've noticed that steve, nancy, and robin stans are the most disgusting fans I've ever met. and that's just putting it lightly

in one single day, I've been told 14 times to go off myself for even saying that billy is my favorite character. and it's really funny there because you all claim that billy is this, billy is that, billy would do this, billy would do that

but a nancy stan is telling me that i should rot because I try to explain why billy is even my favorite character.

and it's always the billy antis that are saying that their blog isn't a safe space. like how low can you even be to say you blog is horrible because of how stans are treating billy.

oh he's racist, oh he almost killed Steve in the fight

he was literally 17 with an abusive father that cares about images. he had time to grow out of that mindset. you are acting like you never met a 17 year old that grew out of their habits.

he went to find his step sister that snuck out and lied to him, he went to find his sister after his loving father gave him a lecture for even saying that she wasn't his sister while his loving step mother did nothing.

he went to find his sister, only to find out that she was in a strangers house with only men around. and when asking the only one to even be allowed to be alone, lied to him in his face.

Billy put his hands on both Lucas and Max in season two. He tried to run over the boys in the same season. He is a canon racist and abuser. I do not care about Billy, and yeah I don’t feel comfortable with many of his stans so my account isn’t a safe place for them bc I’m not going to keep my opinions of him off my account. I’ve been told I should die because of my opinions on Billy, so that fandom isn’t innocent either. No, you don’t deserve to be told to rot, but Billy wasn’t a good person and people are allowed to hate him when he tried to hurt the kids multiple times. Even before season three, he was racist to Lucas. It was confirmed by the Duffer brothers that he was a racist and abusive. Nobody has to like a character that has done really bad things, their feelings are valid.

[stardiveatnight]

the way the duffer brothers wrote eddie kind of set him up to be a main character in the next season

i’m just genuinely confused about eddie’s death. like i know i’ve ranted a lot about how it falls just in line with what the duffer brothers have always done, introduce a character only to kill them off… but if you compare eddie to barb, bob, alexei and billy, his whole involvement in the show and the plot was just absolutely different.

like, it genuinely felt more like they were trying to set him up as a main character.

barb… even though the way the aftermath of her death was handled was kinda horrible and how it seemingly only affected nancy, she didn’t have much to do beside be nancy’s friend and kinda be the angel on her shoulder during her relationship with steve. and her disappearance caused nancy to start investigating and eventually find out about the upside down.

while bob’s death was definitely avoidable, it’s always been obvious the show was planning on jopper being endgame. and he didn’t have his own story line, but he still affected the overall plot in many ways, and even though i would have loved to have him around i felt like towards the end of the season his death was very predictable. and at least it made sense that he did what he did right before he died. he just happened to die in the middle of it all.

alexei... i loved him to death but i feel like no one expected him to stick around for long. like, even if he hadn't died i wouldn’t have expected him to turn back up for season 4. his death was strange, the fact that it happened out in the open and no one but murray noticed was weird... his death was solely for shock value and to undermine the evilness of the terminator arnold schwarzenegger looking ass dude, okay. in the end, he had fulfilled his role in the plot so the writers killed him off, fine, but i also never had a feeling that they were setting him up to play a bigger role in season 4.

billy... well, i guess he is a bit different as he is around for two seasons. i'm still disappointed with the direction they took with his character, that they just made him the villain because they realized people didn't love him as much as they probably hoped they would and because of the emotional aspect of max being his sister... i liked billy and i would have loved to see them explore his trauma and his character more, maybe give him like an anti-hero role... yeah, i kinda felt they were setting him up to be a main cast member and then just didn't, but with him my confusion isn't so big as with eddie since billy was never really likable.

now eddie... unlike billy, the immediately introduce him as a super likable character, and since the audience sees what happens to chrissy, no one ever doubts that he is a genuinely good guy. i'm just so confused why they made him such an important character. like, why did they give him so many scenes alone, why did they make him a part of the whole nancy-robin-steve gang if they were just going to kill him off anyway? i get it, i get it, shock value, but with the way they wrote him into the story they totally set him up to be a main cast member in season five. kind of like with max in season 2. i guess i should have realized something was up when they didn't even try to create any sort of bond between nancy and eddie or him and robin but... i was hoping for all of that in vol. 2. instead we got a whole lot of nothing. he just feels so much more important to the plot than, say, barb in s1 or bob in s2. his death was meaningless, it was so dumb and it was just painful to watch. with so much of the vol. 1 plot revolving around finding eddie and keeping him save and involving him in everything that's going on, building his character and making him feel like an important part of the group... everything that happened to him in vol. 2 was just so shallow.

and i think that + how horribly written his death scene was is one of the reasons why people are so upset. because once again, just like with many other things this season, the duffer brothers set up an expectation (eddie is going to survive and become a main cast member next season - just like steve is going to die, byler is gonna happen or at least will is going to come out, there will be many emotional deaths), then feed into that expectation only to chicken out the last minute. i'm not sure whether they realize that they're only hurting themselves in the long run like this.

and maybe this is all just me in denial but still. this shit doesn't make any sense.

[lesbianlotties]

Okay real question. After seeing how popular Ronance has become (plus everybody wanting Robin happy and Nancy + Jonathan (or even Steve) decaying), do you think there's a chance the Duffers considering Ronance? They still have to write season 5 so who knows? They need to give fans a good queer couple (I personally think Byler won't happen since Mileven is too popular and Duffers are too attached to the couple). So maybe we have Ronance? Their popularity has become insane! Don't wanna have my hope up but I can't stop thinking about it

Uh oh. 'm seriously struggling with this answer because I can't help but be realistic BUT I'm also aggressively delusional at this point... let's say i'm 50/50. i'll give you both answers...

first,

I really, really, don't think they'll dare to make Ronance canon for a few reasons. they already seem overwhelmed and out of their depth with one and a half gay canon gay characters. if they don't straight up kill Robin or Will, they probably can't handle more than one gay relationship on their show and, i agree with you, I doubt Byler has any chance, and it seems unlikely that they'll just drop a new love interest for Will out of nowhere, so that leaves us Robin, who already has whatever that was with Vickie. they did not handle the Vickie situation well, but she is more than just an extra, and the actress!! they have to bring her back. i'd kill for Ronance but I think it's so much more likely that Robin will end up with Vickie. Do I think they're right? Absolutely not. Do I think they'll be able to dig themselves out of the "Nancy's entire arc revolves around Steve or Jonathan" hole that they put themselves in? I doubt it. and as aggressively gay as the Robin and Nancy interactions might seem to all of us, I'm not sure if any of it was gay enough to overpower all the odds against them

on the other hand,

it would just make so goddamn sense 😭😭😭 and we all love to hate on the duffer brothers but at the same time, they do have the most popular show in the world, they can't be that stupid, right? they have to be aware of the things their audience wants (tho after seeing vol 2 apparently all they want is to anger their audience so yikes) like. the audience wants it. the actresses support it. it would be a wonderful twist. it would make so much sense and do wonders for Nancy arc, rising above the love triangle bullshit to find her real self and fall in love with someone that would be her future and a departure from all the trauma of the past. it would be fair with robin! an actual love story instead of attaching her to a copy of herself because they couldn't think of a personality for another gay character??? there are many more points in favor that i've seen in other posts as i'm sure you've seen and like. i genuinely believe it would make sense, it would be a smart decision, and they can absolutely pull it off if they really wanted to.

OH and like. i kind of believe both things but i choose to stick with the delusional part of my self so yeah. if you want to discuss more of why it should totally be canon and how it definitely will be canon. i'm here!!