#also lol I def got ranty but god anon you brought up some amazing points and I got carried away lol

[two-sides-samecoin]

Hiiii. Just wanted you to know you are not alone in your rants about the ST fandom. Yes, I have preferences regarding what little actual canon romance exists in ST, but it is a nostalgia show about folks in Indiana who slowly find out they’re in a fucking war with an evil wizard clockmaker from another dimension, and they get through all the horrors and trauma because of the strength of found-family.

We’re getting closer to ST end times, and it’s like maybe people believe if they just vote in enough meaningless polls and smush their headcanon dolls’ faces together in the perfect way, they’ll magically see it onscreen in s5. The show creators aren’t going to turn 1980s Hawkins into clumps of 2022 crackships/polys just because Steddie won tumblr this year. But some people truly believe fanon and harassing everyone on social media will have an effect on the writing decisions. Maybe because back in s2 the Duffers actually did give in to Justice for Barb?

Anyway, sorry this got long. You’re not alone.

Hi! Im glad I’m not alone in my thoughts on this fandom cuz like ngl I feel like I’ve either been too negative or just alone in my opinions. So thanks for making me not feel alone about it 😊

And you worded what st is perfectly and I love it. Cuz that’s essentially what st is! And you absolutely worded it perfectly.

Yeah maybe the thing is is that st is coming to a close and thus people are scrambling to get their voices heard so that it can happen on screen. Despite the fact that some theories or reveals that some people want would have already been set up clearly in the last few seasons. Yeah you’re absolutely right like they aren’t going to change what happened because steddie won this year and they won’t change it simply because of fan service. Which ironically is something that the fandom itself complains about and about how they’re giving too much fan service but then they want things that have no build up in canon to actually happen. Like it makes no sense to me. And also something that I think a lot of people forget: these writers are bold writers!! What I mean by that is that sometimes they know some plot lines that they want to do that maybe the fandom wouldn’t care about or complain about , and yet they do it anyway. Look at season 4 stancy (I know a lot of people myself included didn’t like the way it was written) The writers wanted to explore going back to that dynamic despite feeling/possibly knowing what people would say about it. They wanted season 3 to be different despite what audiences were going to say and they still did it. This is enough to say that while they def do play into fan service a lot: the writers are also pretty bold in what they want to explore and some people on the internet expressing that they want a specific ship or dynamic to happen : is not gonna change their minds and fix some parts of the story.

Ohh I love that theory about the Barb thing and why people believe that they would give in because of what happened in the past. I think this is a very instance in a fandom where they also forget why this plot line did make sense on the first place though. Which is why it was so easy for the duffers to give into this demand from fans. First off, they’ve established in season 1 that Nancy and Barb were best friends. A big chunk of Nancy’s arc in season 1 is also finding Barb and being distraught over her disappearance. Secondly, nancy would feel the guilt and survivor’s guilt because Barb died at the party that Nancy had a fun time at. Nancy also briefly felt that something was wrong but then went back to having a fun time. Thirdly, the gov tried to just write it off as Barb went missing so Nancy has to deal with the fact that she can’t tell barb’s parents that Barb is dead. Fourthly, along with this she’s being forced by the gov to keep quiet. Fifth, Nancy is already established as getting stuff done and going after things such as the demogorgon in season 1 so it wouldn’t make sense for her character to just stay quiet about the whole thing. These are things that make sense in the narrative so it’s my theory that this is why the duffer bros caved in with the whole ‘justice for Barb’ because it wouldn’t make sense for Nancy to be magically okay with the death of someone that is her best friend. It wouldn’t make sense so they caved in with this demand from fandom.

However, rn the fandom is demanding stuff that won’t make sense in canon because there isn’t enough build up there at all. There wasn’t any build up to a lot of fans that scream about ships that should be canon. And also there’s a lot of stuff that just means nothing for the narrative as a whole unlike the whole Barb thing. With the Barb thing you have Nancy feeling some sort of closure about her best friend’s death, you have barb’s parents finally knowing that their daughter is dead, you have the gov facing some consequences for their actions considering that once the tape leaked the lab shut down for good, along with that you have the town knowing that something has been going on with that lab and that it isn’t safe, and you have the town who also understands what happened to Barb. That’s a lot of loose ends that they’ve tied up that was even left open in the first season. So there’s all of that going on that is very important for the narrative aspect meanwhile a lot of people’s demands for things to happen in season 5 add like nothing to the actual plot at all. Anyway sorry about that long rant: you had just brought up the perfect idea to talk about and I wanted to explore more about it.

Also thanks for ranting and letting me know that I’m not alone. Also sorry if this ended up being way more ranty on my part than you had wanted