#but tbh i would've been screaming/crying/etc a lot more

[onyxisnotuniqueenough]

long rant (+question) about jonathan from stranger things

disclaimer : NO ZIONISM OR ZIONIST-APOLOGIZING HERE. this show has been in my life since it came out and carried me through middle school and high school. i still love it to this day, especially s1 and s2 (i don't have that same attachment to s3 and s4 idk why. i didn't love them, didn't cry, nothing). i have been watching reactions to s1 lately and i love seeing people speculate about the demogorgon and the plot (you know by now how much i love watching reactions to my favorite shows). I was reminded of a few feelings i've had for a while now. i DON'T encourage you to watch it on netflix- no money for schnappers- and tbh i've never watched it on netflix because i never really had a subscription. despite everything, it's full of nostalgia for me and holds a special place in my heart, and you have to admit it is an amazing show (s1 and s2 only. s3 and s4 are fan-service and the scope is too big and the characters lost a lot of their charm)

ok! disclaimer over!

i have a genuine question

i know that jonathan taking pictures of that gathering at steve's back in season 1 was a plot device to get evidence for the demogorgon, and so that nancy sees it, but other than that : what the hell is his justification?

he didn't go into the woods with the INTENTION to stalk on steve, nancy, barb, etc. he went there to.......take pictures of the ground? looking for some kind of hint or footprints??

like what???

the pictures displayed on screen aren't pictures of anything. you'd think he'd go with a flashlight or something to FIND SOMETHING and have his camera ready IF he did -- but he just went there with his camera and started clicking away. to me that doesn't make sense.

also, after he heard the scream and realized it was just carol, why did he take pictures? in that short time he can't have thought "i am capturing the essence of being a teenager having fun cause that's like artistic" or something. he can't have thought "i am keeping these cause i'm so unpopular and i wish i was there and i'm gonna take dozen of pictures of these people that don't like me just so i can fantasize about being a normal teenager"

dude you were in the woods at night alone, taking some kind of risk to be honest, searching for your missing kid brother. that can't be on your mind. it would've made so much more sense if he dismissed it after he realized what the scream was, and maybe came back after he heard a strange noise coming from the pool area, when barb was sitting on the thing.

and he's TAKING PICTURES because it's unusual

and barb and the group HAPPEN to be on the pictures-- so it still seems strange to nicole (?), and she still snitches to steve inc.

steve still breaks the camera, nancy picks up the ripped photos, etc etc.

that way! jonathan is not just a creep!

what do you think? do you know what the duffers were doing?

long ranty sidenote : i think jonathan is very underrated in s1, and the writers dismiss him completely in later seasons - until they just completely write him off to focus on his goofy comic relief friend.

charlie heaton is a great actor and i think about the funeral-related fight he had with joyce a lot.

jonathan has a cool passion (photography) that is USEFUL to monster/paranormal/scary plot. so he is a great plot device in that regard. he also acts as a mentor and a great big brother figure for will, who needs an understanding and caring male figure in his life to fill his father's void. so he's also very plot-relevant in that way when will is the center of the story.

but otherwise - there's a few things i want to say about his character that i feel are important and often underappreciated details about him

he's a relatable loser who's bullied at school. maybe that's not interesting on it's own, but he is unique in the set of characters because unlike mike, lucas, dustin and will, who are bullied losers that DO have each other, he is a true loner. and that aspect of him is not handled in a "boohoo pick me" way.

his dad fucking sucks ("you're getting stronger", he struggles with his tie at the funeral, he looked in THE TRUNK OF HIS DAD'S CAR FOR WILL! i don't see enough people pointing that out. the fact that it's a possibility blows my mind)

he's forced to take on the "man of the house" role for his family, forcing him to take night shifts, drive his brother around, take care of his brother's funeral alone, take care of his mother, etc. it's a heavy responsibility and it drives him further away from "normal teenagehood" cause he doesn't have much time to think about himself, and he doesn't have anyone to reassure him, to take care of him like he takes care of his mom or brother. no nancy doesn't. count. argyle doesn't count either they had nothing in common and he was just there for comic relief

he is dealing with a 22 year old charlie heaton's receding hairline! i feel bad for him! and then the writers decided to cover it up with A BOWLCUT for s3 and s4 i was so so :( like cover it up with anything else. get a toupet and stick with the season 2 hair.

i wish the duffer brothers didn't throw a blunt at him in season 4 and run with that. they could've talked about hsi relationship to drugs in a different, more meaningful way.

also sidenote if i was attracted to charlie heaton i would 100% be attracted to jonathan. except for that hairline. maybe we could get him a trip to turkey or something and then i could read fanfics about him.

[brittlebutch]

if its alright, I'd love to know why you picked them! tbh partner choices for pokemon AUs always have me curious and these look like good choices! (like for example, having mimikyu for Tim makes sense! and i'd love to know why you chose the rest of his team) (and tbh i would've asked sooner but i've been 'head full, thoughts of spiderman' for the past couple days lol)

no problem!! i’d absolutely Love to talk about it lmao, i hope you don’t mind this getting Long

So, for Tim I think that he found the Cubone first, on one of his last escapes into the woods before he was released from the hospital. I like it because of its mask, but mostly because it’s lonely and prone to tears. Tim doesn’t think very much of himself, but he IS a very natural and empathetic caretaker - he would be really good at taking care of a small and orphaned pokemon - especially one that reminds him a little bit of himself. I picked Duoduo because it has two heads that never sleep at the same time - one is always awake to defend itself and the other. The two brains also can communicate telepathically with one another!! Tim is absolutely not jealous of this ability, trust him. 

Yamask isn’t technically tim’s pokemon. He found it in his apartment after a black out, and doesn’t remember picking it up, but it refuses to leave. Tim doesn’t care enough to force it to leave, but they’re both very aware of the fact that He is not technically the one who owns it, even if it still follows him around. “Each of them carries a mask that used to be its face when it was human. Sometimes they look at it and cry” - Tim knows that some part of him relates, even if he’s pretty sure he wishes he didn’t. When Tim throws away the Mask at the end of the series, Yamask digs it back out and refuses to let go of it - it carries two masks these days. 

I already talked a bit about the mimikyu because it hides its face to try and fit in and appear less scary, but also because, in its busted form “It stands in front of a mirror, trying to fix its broken neck as if its life depended on it. It has a hard time getting it right, so it’s crying inside” and in its disguised form “it’s a quiet and lonely pokemon, but if you try to look at what’s under its rag, it will become agitated and resist violently” - Tim tries Very Hard to just fit in and get on with his life in broader society, but his chronic lack of friendships means that he’s not very good at it, and the way he has to continually search for whatever work will hire him means that he’s Extremely dependent on trying to appear Neurotypical and acceptable to customers and employers (but also isn’t very good at it), and we do see him protest very strongly when he’s literally unmasked by Alex, but also when he’s more figuratively unmasked by Jay’s publication of his medical records. 

Jay’s team includes Klefki (admittedly, mostly because of “KEY”, but also because it’s a collector who is willing ‘to sneak into people’s homes’ to get what it wants, which is Jay through and through). He has an Oddish because it’s very nocturnal and spends the nights “roaming actively” however it pleases (just like Jay’s bizarre choices to do a bulk of his investigating in the middle of the night). Sentret is a nervous pokemon who can raise itself up on its tail to get a better view of its surroundings - Jay and Brian both spend a lot of time Watching, but Jay’s is a lot more nervous than Brian’s is (I talk more about that when I get into Brian’s team lol), so a sentry pokemon both resembles him AND would be good for him to have since it’ll cry out to warn others if it sees something concerning. Zigzazoon is a Super curious pokemon - literally described as “relentlessly wandering everywhere at all times. The pokemon does so because it is very curious. It becomes interested in anything that it happens to see” - I like to think that Jay and Zigzazoon were both aimlessly searching the woods one night and stumbled upon each other, and then got almost instantly invested and never split up. 

I do kind of like the dramatic irony of Brian having one or more flying type pokemon on his team considering the circumstances of his death, but Pidgey specifically I chose because it’s a pretty conflict-avoidant pokemon - more known for kicking up sand to hide and escape in instead of going straight for a fight. Brian’s first instinct in almost every fight we see him in is to run first, but (like Pidgey) he can ‘ferociously strike back’ if the need arises. Arbok I chose because it’s described as having a “vengeful nature - it won’t give up the chase, no matter how far”, which is a Very Hoody sentiment. 

(I did figure out a timeline for Brian’s Arbok - it was an Ekans that he just had because he likes snakes, and they were both pretty content with its bite being ‘harmless’, but was accompanying brian to the hospital filming, and after Alex left Brian for the Operator, Ekans evolved because it needed to be able to defend Brian in a way that hadn’t been necessary before. the two of them are both traumatized by what happened)

Haunter is similarly dedicated to stalking its victims - “it lurks inside walls to keep an eye on its foes”; also “If you get the feeling of being watched in darkness when nobody is around, Haunter is there” and also so is Brian. Natu is another flying type, although it can’t actually fly yet, instead it hops around, and “The look in its eyes given the impression that it’s carefully observing you. If you approach it, Natu will hop away”, very much like Brian startling and bolting like a deer in the majority of his appearances lmao. Pokemon that stalk and watch their prey would be important to Brian, who seems to take the role of an observer/herder for the majority of the series, but having them be Offensive would also be a priority - to protect others or himself, while still seeming distant and eerie (there’s no way that Brian doesn’t Actively choose to make himself seem scary) 

For Alex, Umbreon is a pokemon that hunts at night and strikes fear into the hearts of anyone around it - it also hides silently in the darkness and waits for its foes to make a move. Alex isn’t really an active hunter? He goes after people for sure, but also seems very reliant on making them come to him (He calls Jay and Jay and Jessica come to him when he tries to shoot them in the woods, he’s in the woods when Hoody and Masky try to get Jessica out of the situation and he almost seems to just stumble upon them, he waits for Jay to wander into the basement, waits for Tim for weeks before lighting his house on fire, and then waits longer for Tim to go back to the college, etc). Houndoom’s pokedex entries talk a lot about the sound of it - which reminded me of Alex’s insistence on his monologues, and the way he’ll scream at people while trying to track them down (mostly Tim). It also says that ‘if you are burned from the flames it shoots from its mouth, the pain will never go away’, which makes me think of the way that Everyone got reinvolved in this stuff years after the fact because they just couldn’t seem to let it go - like a wound that never healed. 

I chose Lycanroc because it’s described in two different ways: it’s Midday form is “a trustworthy partner who will absolutely never betray its trainer” and its Midnight form claims that it “will attack with no regard for its own safety” and “doesn’t seem to mind getting hurt at all - as long as it can finish off its opponent”. Alex gets stabbed multiple times before Tim finally gets him on the floor to attack him relentlessly, and is attacked by hoody/masky multiple times earlier in the series, but he never backs down or out. and Trust and loyalty are qualities that I thought were important for Alex’s team to have because 1) he’s paranoid and Extremely distrustful of everyone who used to be his friend, so having a team that would solidly have his back would be important to him, but 2) a team that is Willing to follow Alex’s instruction even against people and pokemon that they know and are familiar with would also be key to this sort of set up. They’re not happy about what they’re doing, but they’ll do it anyway because it’s what Alex wants, and he’s the one that they actually trust and listen to. Growlithe was chosen for its trustworthy and loyal nature as well, although I do think that Alex has had Growlithe the longest - it’s probably the most upset by the change in circumstances, so Alex probably uses it the least these days (not out of spite? He definitely doesn’t hurt or abuse his pokemon, he only uses them offensively as an absolute last resort and I don’t think he tries to actively hurt the other’s teams either - though he will defend himself thoroughly if the need arises)

Some honorable mentions are Absol - a pokemon that warns of impending danger but often gets mistaken as a harbinger of doom instead, which reminded me a lot of totheark (particularly with Entry ######), but I couldn’t decide if it’d fit better with Tim or Brian. Lucario is a good hunter that strikes without mercy and ‘finds out things it would rather not know, so it gets stressed out easily’ a lot like Alex. Munna might have been a good fit for Tim since it’s a ‘dream eater’, but the pokedex entries didn’t put a lot of emphasis on nightmares, so I wasn’t sure how much I liked it. Was also tempted to put pokemon like “Salazzle” or “Tsareena” on Alex’s team just as a cheeky little wink to the ‘alex is Definitely a weeb’ talk that went on during tim’s last livestream lmao. Tim also would have been good with a Phantump i think, since they’re literally the spirits of children who got lost in the woods, which tim would empathize heavily with, and because he’d be a good caretaker for it the same way he would be with Cubone. Comfey would have been good for any of them as like an aromatherapy pokemon - all of these guys need some mental health days to just Relax and be calm and safe for once.