#i don't like that vicky got sidelined so much

[calliesadeckis]

Hey Jaiden!! I hope ur doing well today, I wanted to ask if you could write a Robin Buckley x reader where reader has to watch from the sidelines as Robin pines over Vickie and doesn't realize reader is right there. Then reader starts talking to simeone else (to distract herself from Robin because she believes it's a lost cause) and Robin's like maybe i do like reader?

Thanks:)

i'm doing well, thank you for asking <3 and oh my god, of course. i love robin so much, she's everything to me

—

and i despise my jealous eyes

pairing: robin buckley x fem!reader, and minor robin x vickie & steve x reader

summary: having a crush on your girl best friend was... complicated. even when knowing that she's attracted to girls, just one girl particularly, and that girl was not you

cw: many cups of angst, one sided pining turned two sided (because they're idiots), jealousy (on both ends), happy ending

a/n: robin is everything to me, she's a version of me as well because i kin her so bad, i just felt like she was created for me (as well as for other neurodivegent sapphics out there). also title is lyrics from lacy by olivia rodrigo and i thought it fit here

masterlist

you knew and have been friends with robin buckley since middle school and during that time, you've been inseparable. your parents would say how much you're both attached to each others hips, which was quite the understatement.

when the both of you were close enough, she came out to you. trusting you enough with who she really is and has not told anyone else. of course you'd understand, maybe not entirely for your 13 year old brain, but.... how could you hate your best friend, your ONLY friend for who she loves? you thought people hating on someone for that was dumb, yet again, you're young, you don't know much of the world and why they act the way it does. but nothing was ever gonna change on how you viewed robin.

once you started high school together, you've experienced some changes yourself. that you found yourself going through an experience that your friend was a couple years prior, but at the time, it didn't mean anything important. and you though, 'this can't be a coincidence that i'm attracted to girls, as is my best friend' and speaking of that best friend.... through this discovery journey, you started seeing robin a different light. she was still your best friend of course, but these feelings were just growing into more than friendship, and that feeling never went away.

you were unsure about your sexuality for most of your high school experience, up until senior year. robin was in band, and she met this cute girl in band, vickie, and it made your just a little bit angry. and it's not just the fact this girl is taking time away from your best friend, but it was the fact robin was looking at a girl like that, and that girl wasn't you.

it's not like you hated vickie, you don't even know her, it was just possessiveness that got to you. everything was just so fucked and you didn't wanna talk about your feelings because you weren't exactly the best at communicating your emotions. especially when you don't like talking about them to begin with.

so, the second best option was to move on, though that probably would take multiple year and not over a span of a few days. you needed some type of distraction, of course. so you decided to hang out with steve harrington. and you a a freshman would be confused and wouldn't believe they'd be friends with steve harrington during your senior year.

and we'll, you were in luck. steve was looking for someone to take as a date to lucas' championship game so you took the opportunity to volunteer. and getting to know steve, he wasn't exactly your type but he was sweet, and yeah, a bit dumb, but he had heart and cared for others. and obviously this wouldn't be a permanent thing for you, but you felt kind of sad for steve because he's been mentioning about finding a girl who isn't leaving out of state to go to college, to find someone who isn't gonna be some boring one night stand and never speak to you again. you knew he wanted something real with someone, maybe it wasn't you but... you wanted to help.

to be honest, he was a gentleman. it wasn't even a dinner date, it was going to a high school basketball game and the two of you were sitting in the bleachers. he did buy you some food as you watched the game, you weren't overly invested since you didn't know much about basketball, but you wanted to support lucas.

during the game though, you and robin occasionally gave one another glances. this had made your heart beat a little too fast, but you ignored it.

the game was over and you and steve were walking towards his car to take you home, then you made a pretty dumb move and kissed him. obviously you didn't like him like that but... distracting yourself in anyway with anyone felt good, but it made your stomach twist up in knots. that had gotten progressively worse that robin was watching the entire thing by the time you pulled away. and she was walking away heartbroken and you were just standing there frozen til steve snapped you out of it by clapping his hands together to get your attention, "hey!" and you looked at him, and you knew, that he knew, "go after her, okay? i'll be fine."

"i'm sorry, steve." you felt awful for using him like this, he was your friend and you took advantage. but he brushed it off, "it's fine. i'd rather have robin be okay than me." and you smiled at him before running after your long time best friend. and you called out to her, "robin, can we please talk?"

"there's nothing to talk about, alright." she didn't turn back to look at you and just kept walking, "i just want you and steve to be happy. i don't wanna get in the way of that." but you managed to catch up to her, making her face you. "that's not what that was, okay? he's not my type." and you got her full attention, "like i won't deny he's easy on the eyes and i think he deserves a girl who'll make him happy, but that's not me. i kissed him because i wanted to distract myself from my feelings. and i'm bad at talking about my feelings. so i just push them down and pray that they'll disappear over time but... some stuff just stays."

robin was trying to understand what you meant, she couldn't exactly understand who you were referring to, "so what are you saying exactly?"

"i like you." you blurted out, "maybe even love you. you're my best friend, and i didn't wanna ruin years of friendship because of how i felt about you. and you have a crush on vickie, which is cool. i'm happy for you, but i just... can't go on without being honest with myself. and i'm sorry if i'm talking too much and i-" but the buckley had cut you off with a kiss. and this time around, it felt great, and it felt real. the feelings and emotions were all there on both ends. she pulled away a few inches to just rest her forehead against yours, "i feel the exact same way. for years, actually."

you gasped in surprised and lightly and playfully punched her shoulder, "are you serious? why didn't you say anything?"

"i didn't think you'd feel the same." and she pulled away from your face with a big smile on her face, "especially since i thought you were straight and i didn't wanna ruin our friendship." and the two of you giggled like idiots. you brought her into another kiss before hugging her tightly, "we're both such idiots."

"yeah, pretty much." she chuckled.

[strangertheories]

How do you feel about how Will and Robin were handled in Volume 2...

Oh boy do I have opinions and they aren't good ones. Especially on Will (you'll see my rant in a second). I'll start off with Robin. In S4, Robin got a decent amount of screentime and we got to see some new sides to her character and understand her a bit better, which I appreciated. Volume 2, she had a lot less screentime but overall I don't think she was sidelined too much. Unlike a certain character I'll talk about in a second.

I thought her scene with Vickie was cute enough. But Vickie isn't really an established character beyond being bi and awkward. I really wish they'd explore her character more but right now she just feels like a Robin clone who exists to say "we have a bisexual character". Bisexual representation is very important and deserves to be more than a character with a limited personality and no development as well as no screentime. I'd have much preferred bi Nancy but that's obviously not going to happen as I think the writers would explode if they had to write her character without involving men.

And then there's Will... Oh god there's Will. I love his character so much. I've spoken a lot about how he got me through a tough time when I realized I was gay and how meaningful seeing the struggle of feeling left out because you don't like the opposite sex. But we don't know if he actually doesn't like the opposite sex. It's "up for interpretation" apparently. Is he gay and miserable? Or is he an immature third wheel who needs to grow up and like girls? You decide! It's like choose your own adventure, only shittier.

Why did they say they were going to clarify his sexuality? That it would be addressed? That was such a lie! He never said he liked Mike. He never said he was gay. Instead we got Noah Schnapp tearing up a lot and heavy subtext. Now the Duffers may think that the vast majority of people watching it will know he is gay, and I think that's true. But you know that there are people on Twitter and Reddit right now saying that "he's not gay, he just misses his friend. He feels different because he hasn't matured and liked girls yet! You're delusional to see yourself in him. Will Byers is not gay, stop forcing every character to be gay. It's the 80s anyways so it's super unrealistic."

You see a chunk of the audience are desperate for Will to be straight. They're not homophobic, they just don't get why everything has to be gay (/s). And unless you make it really explicit, they're not going to believe he is gay. Which really sucks. I saw myself a lot in Will and canon confirmation would've made me really happy at that time. And I'm sure many more people will see themselves in him too. And I don't want people saying this to be told they're forcing him to be gay or feel afraid to say Will is gay despite the fact that he clearly is. Queer representation is not the kind of thing you can just imply because there are people out there who unless you say it very explicitly will still maintain that he is straight.

That's not to even mention the sidelining of his character. This season, Will got barely any screentime and what he did was him looking teary eyed at Michael Wheeler romancing the girl he loves sooo much. And I know in S5 he'll probably get more now that he's a spy for the Upside Down or whatever. And I know he'll get a coming out in that season too. But I don't know why he didn't come out now? That scene with Johnathan would've made so much sense from a writing stand point but again we get heavily implied sexuality issues.

I was never hopeful for Byler, because I'm a huge pessimist. But I thought at least Will was going to get confirmed as gay. Because they told us that he would. They lied to us. So as much as I loved volume 2, I'm feeling pretty disappointed, but also I'm feeling angry and like I've been tricked somehow.

Damn that was a long rant. Thanks for the ask, anon (:

[duskdrawings]

Kind-Of Rant About ST Queerbaiting

I know it may seem silly to get so worked up over fictional characters and relationships but, honestly, this whole queerbaiting bullshit with volume 2 of Stranger Things season 4 has really thrown me. And it's not just a problem with this specific show by any means and I do love Stranger Things a lot and I always will - but I just feel that so much potential was lost and it could have been so much better.

I wasn't expecting all of our beloved gay ships to become canon and everyone to come out and ride down a rainbow together but we literally didn't get ANYTHING of substance (Besides some bare-bones last minute attempt with Vickie and Robin, which felt rather lazy to me, especially in comparison to all of the other pairings in the show that seemed to get plenty of airtime).

I've experienced plenty of queerbaiting in the past with other shows but after so much of it, it just gets to the point where I almost feel like, is this all we'll ever get? I feel like we deserve so much better than this. How wonderful could things have been if such a huge mainstream show really said "fuck the str8s for one second" and gave us Byler or Ronance or Steddie or even just a proper coming out scene for Will or Robin (as literally only Steve knows about her being gay) or someone else.

Why is it that a character could be so strongly implied to be gay but so many people still deny it and say it's wrong? (Heck, even after Robin literally saying she likes girls and NOT Steve, plenty of people STILL try and pair her up with Steve). Why do we always have to strongly justify gay pairings when so many straight pairings have been thrown together for literally no reason, besides the fact that they are a man and woman and know each other in some form. The amount of times I've sat through films and watched a man and a woman get together and have had NO IDEA why and the amount of times I've seen two people of the same gender have amazing chemistry and potential but then get sidelined for some straight coupling that came out of nowhere.

And why should we have to be happy and grateful for literal crumbs. The emotional scene with Will talking to Mike and basically saying how he felt about Mile but framing it as if this was El, I already know plenty of people will take that and say we are reaching, whilst others will say we should be happy that we even got that. Why should we be happy when a big chunk of the audience can't even tell that the meaning behind it was gay?

Also there's that whole "we need more healthy friendships between two guys/two girls", which I understand to a certain degree but also that's literally MOST of what we have anyway. Most shows revolve around the girls sticking together, the guys sticking together and anytime a girl or guy interact then they MUST want each other.

Whilst queer fictional characters don't HAVE to have a storyline surrounding them being queer, I just feel like there should be at least some kind of canon recognition of the fact that they are queer in some way? We shouldn't have to come out but with where we are at the moment, we still have a long way to go with representation and I feel like it's a bit different with fictional characters. It doesn't even have to be anything big and loud and ground-breaking, just give us SOMETHING. And when we do get something, there's always people saying that it wasn't necessary and questioning why we need LGBTQ+ representation? Which I don't even have the time to go into all the reasons why we clearly need it!

And I know people are saying that something could happen in season 5, but why must we always have to keep sticking around and just hoping that these writers will throw us a bone right at the end of their shows? Whenever we do get LGBTQ+ representation it often has to get thrown in right at the very end, so we often barely get to see much actually come of it, or the LGBTQ+ characters end up dying at the end anyway. Is it too much to ask to see a group of 80s outcasts being rainbowy together?

But my Ronance heart will forever stand strong, regardless of what the Duffer Brother's do! And it honestly makes me so happy and proud of our LGBTQ+ community to see everyone rallying together and wanting to create content to fix all the problems the show had, so our favourite characters and ships can thrive. Now that's truly something special! So, to end on a happier note, FUCK queerbaiting and all of your favourite characters are alive and LGBTQ+ and all of your favourite ships are canon! Why? Because we say so! 🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

[chirpsythismorning]

Eh, since Will is pretty much going to be a central character in the next season, I think it is very likely that S5 starts with Vecna contacting Will before Will has a chance of spying on him or using the connection between them. That would put the Will at the center of the story, and that interaction would circle back to S1, this time not hiding behind a Demogorgon or a mind flayer. Vecna interacting with Mike before Will doesn't make any sense as the show's start, sorry.

Will is definitely going to be central to s5! I don't disagree with that!

However I don't think Will being central stops other characters, specifically El or Mike, or even other main characters, from having their moments at the center. That's going to happen regardless of how major of a role Will plays.

And I would probably agree with you if this was just some random character, but this is Mike we're talking about...

I don't personally like how every season starts cryptically in some far away place with unknown subjects. But that's how almost every season starts, and I'm being serious when I say every season is then followed shortly after by Mike being late.

And so I would argue that Mike being late in some capacity at the start of s5, would make sense, as it would just be following the exact formula it always has.

That doesn't mean I don't think Will wont play a big part in how this could play out though, arguably he would play the biggest part, just like he did in s1!

We also have them admitting s5 is similar to s1 with the show coming full circle in a lot of ways, and so what happens could very likely feel like deja vu, assuming it's something we're gonna have already seen play out in the past in some capacity.

Honestly, I think Noah's role will be comparable to s2, either that or a lot more than that, no less though!

And yet, I do disagree with bylers that have sort of convinced themselves that Will is going to be the official main character next season...

But here's the thing, the Duffers also said this about Amybeth's character Vickie when they announced her role on the show, saying she would play a major role in events to come (only for her to get like 3 scenes in s4... praying they do her justice in s5). They even said this in an interview when asked about the significance of clocks, word for word they said that clocks would play a major role in events to come.

This is a phrase they use, which says a lot while saying nothing at all.

And so to be clear, the Duffers saying that Will plays a big role in events to come, wasn't them saying that Noah is now magically the top billed cast member. They were literally saying that he is central because he is, just like he was in s1 and especially s2, meaning he wont be 'sidelined' like he was in s3-4 at the very least I pesornally think.

However, this doesn't mean he is literally the main character, as Noah is not going to get a raise with him literally surpassing Millie and Finn... That's not happening.

What I also want to remind everyone, is that a lot of what they say and do is intentional.

When it comes to Noah being all spoilery and stuff, I do think that is intentional.

Noah, along with David, were the only cast-memers to talk about s5 post-s4 initially. And we all know David is the Duffers known scapegoat, who is known for not being able to keep his secrets to himself...

Noah has also been referred to as the Tom Holland of the show. If you guys don't know, the phenomena of Tom spoiling things eventually got to a point where marketing for Marvel took advantage of all the attention Tom got for leaking things, and created even more hype by making it seem like it was him accidentally spoiling things sometimes, even though it was entirely intentional to create hype... sound familar?

This means that full serious, if Noah wasn't supposed to be doing something, he wouldn't be. It's very likely he has been told to be unhinged because it works out well for them at this time. Seeing as a majority of the audience still aren't clued in on the likelihood of Mike and Will yet, (or even gay Will Byers for that matter), it makes sense to have Noah kind of keep people intrigued, but not enough to sound any alarm bells to the majority. They need a scapegoat rn and it's Noah (David is who they usually use as their sort of voice of speculation for what's to come, and trust me he'll be back eventually).

It just so happens that Noah is great with fanfare, and it's clear at this point he's the only one actually comfortable with doing it, and so they're letting him run wild because he IS a major part of the overall story and his character is finally going to be able to be acknowledged more fully in the story after years of being sort of sidelined. This is what everyone expects, and this is what everyone assumed after those interviews with the Duffers dropped and the reaction from fans also wasn't horrible? Like I remember there was a bunch of hype around that time when they revealed this and that's when the Will focused s5 fan posters started dropping and there was even one with Will and Mike holding hands that got like almost 500k likes on Twitter. And that was probably like a big moment for them, I'm sure in terms of feeling confident about how they should proceed with s5 promotion.

And I think this also contributed to them kind of just going with it, because it also allows them to keep a lot of s5 under-wraps, having Noah who is great with fanfare, keep reminding people of byler as a concept, while the rest of the cast is silent for the most part. It works.

And even despite that, I also think we're going to be getting byler and potentially willel wonder twin in some capacity, which are VERY big revelations to the main audience, which they don't see coming. And them only hyping up Will's role in s5 supports the audience not being prepared to see all of that coming.

Not only does there have to be closure for Will and Mike AND Will and El, we also have Mike and El's relationship to resolve, AND all their personal arcs. Will's importance to the story isn't going to prevent the writers from making sure the other main characters arcs feel fulfilled. I don't think those things are mutually exclusive and I don't know why people think they have to be?

And so even though I do agree that Will's role will be comparable to s2 (most likely more) in s5, I don't think it's going to be enough to bypass Millie or Finn in the credits. Which means that there is still going to be a major component to those characters arcs for El and Mike in the story, alongside Will's. I don't necessarily think this means that their roles will be bigger or smaller in some major way, but more likely equal in terms of how they handle it in accordance with those arcs coming together, and to ensure we actually feel satisfied with where everything ends up.

I'm not saying we won't get any Will focused promotional content like posters and stuff, I do think it will feel like the s2 era again, with him finally being seen as a major focus substantially. And yet I'm willing guess that El will still be the main focus of the main poster, with Will and Mike being more so equal to match the triangle aesthetic (also likely Noah is going to be upped to next to Finn in the credits with Millie getting her own slate, THAT would mean Noah's role is so major they're willing to bump him up over Caleb and Gaten which is saying a lot, though going any further than that wouldn't be standard because it took a lot to have Millie go above Finn, they're not going to do that again.).

What I personally think is more likely is that we'll get something similar to s2, with willel giving reflection (twin) vibes perhaps, and Mike being more secondary to that to also fit the triangle vibes.

With this being like a huge epic series, they're going to want those top first names to match with what the show started as so that it feels right. Why have Millie be above all the other kids if it doesn't feel right by the end of the story? If she's there, it will need to feel right narratively, not just based on their demand as actors by the end of this.

And this is also why I do think they have an obligation to make it more clear to the audience what Mike's arc is as a character, very likely related to him being in the closet for the last however many seasons. This would overlap with Will's arc because it also affected his ability to be his true self and El's arc because it also affected her ability to be her true self. And it also provides layers of importance to Karen's arc and Nancy's arc, and other characters arcs as well. That's what makes for a well rounded story, assuming they want us to be able to rewatch the show from beginning to end, and over and over again, feeling satisfied with how they closed everything off.

And arguably, circling back to the beginning of the show to see Mike at the center, would only really be satisfying if it ended with us feeling truly understanding of where his character ended up, making us root for him all over again.

That doesn't take away from Will being central, as he has always been central, since the beginning. Even when he was sidelined in s3-4, it was technically all preparing us for an end that would truly do him justice.

That doesn't mean they're not going to do all of the other characters justice though by any means. Both can coexist.!

[tal-vez-o-quizas]

I think many people expect that we should be grateful for the Duffers for putting the minimum effort to include Vickie into the show. They didn't even give her enough screen time yet alone a surname while giving all of those unnecessary screem time to other characters like Jason, Eddie, Jason's mob group etc. Plus, they gave the Russia plot way too much screen time that it got dragged way too long.

They obviously cannot manage with the time and managing the main characters' arcs at the same time.

Especially when we have so many characters. They add new side characters into the show, and then give them unnecessary amount of screen time when they should be giving that to the main characters. It is very jarring, considering that those side characters are written into the show to die in the first place and only got added to exist in one standalone season. But they still get screen time unnecessarily, whereas the main characters get trashed or sidelined in favor of those characters.

They painfully sidelined Will, Mike, Jonathan. I like Argyle and Eddie, but let's be real, their characters were unnecessary and took way too much screen time away from the main other characters. Vickie is only given 1-2 minutes, while Jason gets a huge focus despite the fact that Vickie is supposed to be a rep character and is supposed to be Robin's love interest, she does get next to zero characterization, lines and screentime.

The Duffers might talk about how it is important for them to be finishing the characters' arcs in a satisfying way but with how they continue to write this situation, I am afraid many of the characters' arcs will either be dropped, sidelined, ignored or will be underhwelming again.

They should have fixed this problem after S3, however they haven't. They capitalized more on focusing the Russia plotline when it was already way too much in S3. They still preferred sidelining Will to a great extent, minimizing Jonathan and Mike's characters but in a worse way in this season. Now they have to develop and fix those things and close the main characters' arcs while developing new added characters like Vickie and giving Robin and Vickie screen time and it is way too much already when you also consider that they have to portray Byler in a more explicit way, break up Mlvn, fix Mike and El's relationship, focus on the supernatural plot, fix the Stncy and Jncy drama, give Jonathan the screen time he deserves, save Max, focus on Max, Lucas and others, and concluding the supernatural plot in a satisfying way and... and it is way too much already.

YES, YES AND YES!

I COULD KISS YOU ANON.

I'm so glad we're all finally talking about this!

I wholeheartedly agree, except for the part where you say that Argyle's screentime was unnecessary. If anything, Argyle was part of the Cali plot, which was paid dust; they deserved more. He brought a freshness to the plot and made it light-hearted. Argyle deserved a surname as well! The Byers and El together as a family deserved more screentime too.

Now, I liked watching Jason & the jocks, Eddie and I guess I must be one of the few who throughly enjoyed the Russian plot, but yes, they could have shortened those a bit to distribute the screentime more evenly between our main characters. But wanna hear something? I genuinely think The Duffers (and the crew/team/writers) planned for it to be like that and that's what they actually wanted. They've been doing it since S3 already; it's disappointing.

Like, honestly, what more would I need to know about El and Hopper that I already don't? Those 2 are the MOST fleshed out characters out of the entire show. Notice how they always get amazing complete arcs each season, but what about Will, Jonathan, Mike, Lucas and Joyce? if anything, Will and El are the center of the main supernatural plot (besides VH1) and we still know NOTHING about Will's abduction after 3 seasons.

Even Steve (who already has a lot of screentime but as a comic relief character, which is all right, but that has eclipsed his traits as well as being obsessed with getting a girlfriend) and Robin could have had more of an arc that makes me learn about them and connect with them in a deeper way, but it seems they don't even want to do that.

But I don't know what is their thought process or how many things they have changed in post-production given the fact that they shot Season 4 for 300 days, like Finn mentioned on Fallon, which is insane. Do they have unused footage that didn't make it and will they include it on Season 5? I'm not a director so I don't know the struggles or pressure they must have or the ideas they have had to come up and ideas they have had to quit to deliver a great season for their show, and I guess we will have to wait for the last season, but so far, the disparity on screentime is their biggest issue.

There are many TV Shows that are able to juggle many plots and storylines without abandoning some characters for others, so it all seems very intentional with Stranger Things. Nonetheless, the cast always speak very highly of the show and The Duffers...

And just like you wonderful Anon, I am also worried about how they will "give each character and storyline a satisfying ending" given the fact that the neglect they've given to many of those lowers my expectations considerably.

The thing I must be most mad about is how they seem to hate Jonathan and gave him NOTHING this season.

Besides Byler, the main supernatural plot, Milkvan's relationship, J*ncy vs St*ncy, Jonathan's much needed and necessary screentime, save and focus on Max, Lucas, Joyce, R*ckie, the rest of the characters and don't forget Dustin, the consequences of Eddie's death and how that will affect him as well. Eddie's death is the new Barb for sure and that will play out into this last season.

So many things that they could have already begun to tie up but they left it all for Season 5...