#just completely unable to see flaws in steve like dustin will be like i love him but he's kind of dumb

[stevieharringtonwifeguy]

me 🤝 eddie munson

being absolutely obsessed with steve harrington and unable to comprehend how no one else is

[light-lanterne]

Angel you're a real one for bringing up the Nancy issue in your post. For the longest I really couldn't stand how the writers just gave up on the Wheeler sibs while making the Byers, Sinclairs, Steve and Dustin, even Willel have better chemistry than Nancy and Mike.

Maybe it's cuz I have a really awesome older sister so comparing her to Nancy, Nancy falls entirely short. I want her to have an Over the Garden Wall moment (a cool cartoon I watch every autumn season) where another character points out how un-older sibling like she's being to Mike so she can do better cuz maybe she's truly unaware that this is an issue.

Cuz I don't think Nancy’s going to get it unless someone else on the outside openly talks to her about how she's just not there for Mike in the way she thinks she is. We've never seen Nancy be observant to Mike like how the Byers notice something's off about Will so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt that she can't see what's in front of her cuz the Wheelers only cared when danger was right at their doorstep (Ted and Karen when the government showed up, at the town meeting when Jason started the manhunt)

Nancy's following the theme of being her parents in recognizing something is wrong too late like in s1 when she worried about Mike and never even thought that he could be in danger when his literal best friend Will is missing, along with Barb.

So I dunno, I see Nancy reflecting her parents in that way of never knowing that Mike is also in the pathway of danger nearly constantly AKA a target of the same entity/mysterious bad guy that took Will twice (physically and possession wise)

Anyways sorry for the long ask but I just hate how they write Nancy and Mike's dynamic with no progression in 4 whole seasons. She has survivors guilt from losing Barb and protects everyone else but she leaves Mike in the dust

hi lex ~! please never apologise for long asks, i love to analyse characters (even if i don't do it often).

yes to all you said !! i don't know if the writers chose to completely ignore the wheeler siblings on purpose so there can be a cool storyline with them in s5 (or if they simply don't think their connection is important in the slightest -_- ), but i think it's factual at this point that nancy needs someone or something to knock some sense into her. it's been four seasons without her altering her behaviour in the slightest, so someone (potentially jonathan, seeing as he constantly blames himself for not being there for will) has to reach her lest something terrible happens to mike and she can't avoid caring any longer.

more than that, though, i think the crux of the problem is nancy's need for revenge. ever since s1 it's been well established that she feels entirely responsible for what happened to barb and, being unable to bring her back, has chosen to focus her energy into harming those she feels are also at fault.

so in s1 this translated to ditching the kids to go kill the demogorgon, later pretending that it was to help joyce and hopper in the upside down when it was clearly just an attempt to avenge barb. in s2, she missed out on most of what happened because she was off with jonathan and murray trying to figure out a way to make the lab pay. in s3, she's the first to get the gun ready to attack biIly and, in s4, she's the one who concocts a plan to try to kill vecna.

and while all these plans are ultimately cemented in her desire to keep the party safe, she constantly overlooks obvious flaws to her approach because a) she's only a human girl and there's not much else she can really do against their supernatural foes, and b) even if it's on a subconscious level, she has a strong bias towards violence because she's still trying to punish those who took barb from her (in lieu of punishing herself further because, as previously mentioned, she's the one she blames the most).

so, until she rids herself of this need for vengeance and starts thinking more logically, she will continue to ignore basic problems to her plans and, more importantly, the emotional needs of those around her. particularly mike, who she's grown up ignoring because that's the example her parents have set for her and who, in her mind, doesn't need to be cared for emotionally because what's there for him to be sad or traumatised about ? he got will back (twice), el back (also twice, if we consider the break-up), and he's had the least amount of near-death-experiences out of all the kids (as far as she knows).

in nancy's mind, since mike didn't lose his loved ones, there's no way he could possibly be struggling and so, anything she might actually notice, any signs she might see that defy this idea, she pushes down to keep up this self-imposed illusion. and, when she recognises her brother's behaviour in others, or sees that someone else is in danger, she chooses to hyperfocus on them so that she can continue to ignore mike's pain (or the fact that he's in danger).

,,,anyway,,, there's another half-baked analysis x.x thanks again for the ask lex !! hopefully my rambling is somewhat coherent u.u

[secretsfromthegirlnextdoor]

The Wrongside Up | Stranger Things Time Travel AU

Description | On the way back to Eddie’s trailer, our favorite Hawkins teenagers go through the wrong gate, and it leads them even further down the rabbit hole than they thought possible. Time Travel AU.

Characters | The Hawkins squad (Nancy Wheeler, Robin Buckley, Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson, Dustin Henderson, etc.)

A/N | This could maybe become a series if people like it, but I just loved this initial concept and had to write it!

Main Masterlist

“Wait wait guys, look over there!” Robin shouted, “that’s towards the school, it’s glowing like there’s a gate over there!” She pointed enthusiastically. Just up ahead was the upside down version of Hawkins high school, crumbling and covered in vines. Thanks to the weird clouds above, everything had a red tinge, but the pulsing light coming from the high school was different. 

The rest of the gang looked over their shoulders towards where Robin was indicating and now peddling in the direction of the school. “Robin, wait!” Nancy called out with an exasperated tone. It had been a ridiculously long night. Jumping into Lover’s Lake, finding the underwater gate and being spat out into the upside down, attacked by demobats and communicating with the other side…Not to mention the long bike ride from the Wheeler’s house back to the gate in Eddie’s trailer. They were also banged up, dirty, and on edge, waiting for the bats to come swooping in again for round two. Needless to say, the four teens were exhausted, and quite honestly, Nancy was running out of patience for Robin’s ‘act now, think later’ antics. 

Robin pulled up just short of the curb and twisted around, waiting for the rest of the gang to catch up to where she’d stopped her bike. Despite the fear still accumulated in her stomach and tightening the muscles in her shoulders, she couldn’t help but feel hope at escaping the upside down as soon as possible. “C’mon guys, we’ll just go through at the gate up there! Then we’ll be on the right side up and won’t have to worry about those stupid bats swarming all up on us again!” She bounced up and down on her seat, body unable to contain the excitement of getting back to the real world. 

“If we come out by the school there’s a chance someone will see Eddie and call the cops though” Nancy pointed out, throwing her hands up in the air at Robin’s complete disregard for rational thought and looking back towards the boys for backup. “Yeah as much as I hate this godforsaken place, I’d rather not get sighted and then sacked by some pig and spend the rest of my life behind bars” Eddie added, jaw clenched as a tight smile splayed out on his lips. 

“It’s a no go Robin, c’mon let’s keep moving” Nancy said, sitting back down and moving her heel to push her childhood bike back onto the road. 

“Wait wait guys” Steve urged, looking around with wide eyes and a grin. He could hardly believe he was the only one that had noticed this little flaw in their thinking. “It’s night time! It’s the middle of the freaking night! No one will even see us coming out by the school or going from there to the trailer!” He lifted his hands off of the handlebars and outstretched his arms as if presenting the thought to the rest of the group proudly. 

The teens all stood around for a moment in silence, considering Steve’s revelation, “ya know… Harrington’s not wrong, the sooner we get out of here the better” Eddie relented , “and I know a route through the woods we can take as an extra precaution” he offered, heart lifting at the thought of climbing out of this mirror dimension sooner rather than later. 

“I want to get out of here as much as you guys, but we told Dustin and the others that we were going back at the trailer” Nancy argued back, shooting an annoyed look at Steve and crossing her arms over her chest. 

“Nance come on, the sooner we get out of here the sooner we can find this Vecna creep and make everything right again” Robin pleaded, “all in favor of hightailing it out of the high school from hell gate, please raise your right hand” she insisted, raising her own right hand and looking around Nancy to the boys for confirmation. 

Eddie and Steve looked to each other, with Eddie raising his hand enthusiastically and with a flourish. Steve looked to Nancy sheepishly, then slowly raised his hand and pulled his lips into a tight line, clearly guilty over betraying Nancy’s leadership. 

“Overruled Nance! Let’s go gang!” Robin called happily, swinging her leg back over the bike seat and taking off towards the school with the rest of the gang following closely behind. 

“God I thought high school in the right side up was bad… this place is giving me major creeps” Robin whispered quite loudly as they crept down the dark, grimy halls. 

When the foursome had arrived at the school, a bright red light shooting through the roof beckoned them inside. They dropped their bikes and entered through the double doors,  weaving their way down hallways and in and out of classrooms following the pulsing light, eventually landing in a far corner of the building. 

“Wait, this is where Max saw that clock the other day” Steve pointed out as they all stood in a half circle around the portal. Though fairly similar, they couldn’t help noticing that this gate looked different than the others, less pronounced than the one at the lake, and not nearly as gross and slimy looking as the one the youngins were currently standing under in Eddie’s trailer, waiting for the older teens to pop through. 

“At least we don’t have to hold our breath this time” Robin smirked. “Maybe this one’s different because Vecna didn’t kill someone here?” Nancy questioned as the other girl reached forward to poke at the mouth of the gate. 

“That we know of” Eddie scoffed.

Robin shrugged her shoulders, “No time like the present, right kiddies?” 

“It’s wide enough, we should all go through together,” Nancy remarked. “Link arms with each other,” Steve instructed, pulling Robin back away from the opening by her elbow and looping his other arm with Nancy’s on his opposite side. “We’re not leaving anyone behind in here” he stated as Robin reached out her other arm and linked it with Eddie’s, pulling him close as they both nodded in agreement with Steve. 

“Let’s rock and roll” Eddie exhaled as they all stepped forward and walked headfirst into the unknown. 

The first thing the group noticed upon exiting the gate on the right side was how bright it was. “Jesus Christ I’m gonna go blind” Eddie complained, unlinking his arms from the others to rub his eyes furiously in an attempt to get acclimated to the fluorescent lighting. 

“Fucking fluorescent lighting man, it makes me depressed” Robin scowled, massaging her temples similarly. It took a second before it hit them all at the same time, “guys… it’s supposed to be the middle of the night and spring break… why are the lights all on?” Nancy murmured. 

“Oh shit” Steve cursed, whipping back around to the wall they’d seemingly just walked out of to face a massive mural of a tiger. 

There was no portal. Just like Vecna’s clock that Max had seen momentarily, the wall was completely normal, solid and most certainly not a gate to the upside down.

“Guyswhatthefuck” he exclaimed all in one quick word, clawing his hands desperately over the dimpled concrete wall, “it’s gone, it’s fucking gone” he wailed, causing Nancy to grab him by the shoulders and clamp a hand over his mouth. If anyone was still around, they certainly didn’t want to lead them right to their location. 

“We weren’t gonna go back that way anyway, maybe the janitorial crew just forgot to turn the lights off” she reasoned with herself as much as the rest of the group. “We don’t have a choice, we have to get to the trailer” she continued softly, removing her hand slowly from Steve’s face and shoulder. At that, she whipped around and started down the hallway in the direction they’d come from just minutes before, trying to portray confidence even though she was just as freaked out as the rest of them. 

Nancy turned the corner with the rest of the gang following closely behind, but as they walked down the long corridors all lit up under the fluorescents, they all started looking around, eventually coming to a stop when they were in view of the main entry. It was daylight outside, not the middle of the night as it was when they’d entered the upside down at lover’s lake, “how long were we in there?” Nancy whispered to herself as she stood tentatively in the middle of the corridor. 

“Why would they paint the lockers over break?” Robin asked, running her hand over the cool metal as she caught up with the group, only stopping when she ran into Steve’s backside. 

“Is that a metal detector at the door?” Eddie pointed out, eyes on fire with worry. They all stood still as stone as they really got a clear look at the place they’d entered through the portal, and while it still seemed like Hawkin’s High, there were enough differences to make them all a bit queasy. 

“Guys there’s something off about..” Steve started before he was cut off by a jarring, pulsing sound coming from overhead. All four teens jumped as doors all down the hallways flung open and students began pouring out, chattering and laughing as they opened lockers and exchanged books. In a matter of moments the deathly silent building had become a cacophony that sent the gang reeling as they hurried to press themselves against the wall in hopes of masking their presence. 

“Was that the bell?” Nancy hissed as she pressed her back into a bank of lockers, grabbing Robin’s forearm and pulling her close to avoid the masses. “We are fucked guys” Eddie whimpered as he pressed his face into the wall and tangled his fingers in his own hair. 

“We’ve gotta get out of here” Steve warned, looking with wide eyes between the hallway filled with people and his friends. 

As soon as the words left his mouth, teens in the hall started noticing them, scrunching up their noses and shooting worried glances as they passed by. “What the hell?” A lanky boy wearing a football jersey laughed as he skirted around the group, watching Eddie thump his head against the wall methodically. 

A group of cheerleaders passed by and burst into laughter as they eyed the four out of place teens, “oh my God don’t tell me there’s another ‘dangers of drunk driving’ assembly today, that fake blood is so gross!” one of the girls cackled as the group paused to stare from across the hallway. “Is theater doing the breakfast club this spring or something?!” Another girl chittered, shooting a nasty look at Nancy and Robin. 

“Guys we’re drawing too much attention, we gotta move, now!” Steve insisted, gesturing towards the front door and starting to move before Robin grabbed the back of Eddie’s vest that still hung over Steve’s shoulders and pulled him back. “Steve, there’s a guard by the door now and we’d have to go through those metal detectors” she pointed out. 

Even more students were taking notice of the bloodied teens now, and the group knew they didn't have much time to escape unseen by their peers.  “We just have to wait ‘til the next class starts.” Robin exhaled, “then we can sneak out through the side door next to the band room” 

Steve had lost focus, looking around at the disgusted faces of the people swirling around them, “wait” he breathed, “I don’t recognize any of these people, I know I graduated last year but I don’t see a single familiar face, do you guys?” 

The girls looked around frantically as Steve pulled Eddie away from the wall by his shoulder. “No I don’t know any of these kids” Robin said, shaking her head, “they’re all dressed weird too” Nancy added. She took in the ensembles that each kid passing by was wearing, jeans and sneakers, those would never go out of style, but she noticed girls in athletic sweatpants and hooded sweatshirts, not something she’d ever seen in her four years at Hawkins high. Then she pointed out the uniforms the cheerleaders had on across the hall, “those look pretty different than the ones they had last week, right?” Robin gave the girls a once over, her eyes growing wide as her lips curved upwards slightly, “They look like underwear!” She whispered to the gang. 

“Wait what the hell is that?” Eddie asked as he gestured to a kid further down the hallway with weird looking headphones and a walkman he’d never seen before. “Did that gate spit us into the wrong right side up?” He asked with a shudder. Before any of the others could offer a theory, the pulsing bell resumed overhead and the four teens shuffled around, trying to make themselves busy while the hallways started to clear out. 

“Okay everyone, let’s just calmly and casually make our way towards the band room” Nancy urged as she breathed heavily. “The security guard by the door is gone now” Steve noticed, “let’s make a break for it, just get outside and get to the trailer” he instructed the gang. They all nodded and awkwardly shuffled away from the wall and tentatively made their way towards the entrance. The halls were empty now, and they were almost past the metal detectors when the clickety-clack of high heels stopped right behind them. 

“Ahem, excuse me?!” An older woman’s voice rang out right where the high heel noises had stopped, “where do you think you’re going?” She bellowed, keys jingling in her hands that froze each of the teens in their tracks. “Turn around please!” The woman yelled again. 

Slowly, one by one, Robin, Eddie, Steve and Nancy turned around to face the woman with their hands held up in the air as if to surrender. “You’re supposed to be in fourth period, folks, did you really think you could just walk out the door?” She hollered then paused, looking them over, “young man that vest is not in accordance with the dress code, you’ve got to wear a shirt to school…” she paused, raking her eyes over the group as a whole “In fact, you’re all in violation, you can’t just wander around smeared in fake blood!”

Robin and Nancy eyed each other, both aware of the fact that they’d already outrun several grown adults this week, they could easily make it out the doors and through the parking lot, but as soon as they broke eye contact, the girls realized that three security officers had lined up in front of the doors behind them, they’d never make it around them. 

“Well, what do you have to say for yourselves?” The woman barked. It was then that something above the woman’s head fluttered and caught Steve’s eye. He nudged Nancy, gesturing upwards as Eddie and Robin caught on, following their gaze to the green and yellow banner strung across the hallway above their heads. Before the woman could yell another word, the four simultaneously let out a collective breath, Robin punctuating the moment with a trembling, “holy shit.” 

Hawkins Memorial High School Spring Fling 2022. Friday April 1st, 8pm

[jancys-blue-bayou]

Some thoughts on the Jancy backlash

Okay so season 2 of Stranger Things brought together Nancy and Jonathan and made Jancy canon, which made many of us ecstatic but seems to also have generated a backlash among certain fans and even a lot of hate towards Nancy Wheeler.

The hate towards Nancy is misogynistic. Yes, it is. Because it shows how some viewers hold female characters to a much higher standard than male characters and how some can’t view a female character as more nuanced than either ‘good’ or ‘bad’, while they can easily view a male character as ‘flawed’ or ‘complicated’. All the arguments for how awful Nancy is comes back to the manner in which her relationship with Steve ended. The brutal way in which Steve gets his heart broken in the bathroom, combined with his subsequent journey to a huge fan favorite, has drawn the ire. And yes, it’s brutal and not Nancy’s finest hour. Because guess what? She’s flawed. Nancy is flawed, Steve is flawed, Jonathan is flawed, the characters are not perfect because people aren’t.

Nancy makes the mistake of breaking a boys heart when she’s drunk. In the first season she makes the mistake of treating Barb badly and ditching her. What does she do after that? Spends the rest of season 1 trying to save her friend and when she finds out Barb’s dead, she sets out to kill the monster responsible. Post-S1 she mourns Barb and lives with the guilt of being indirectly at fault for her death and has to keep it all to herself and not being able to tell Barb’s parents the truth (plus deal with the knowledge of a dark dimension with horrifying monsters that she herself has had an extremely traumatic experience with, and the fact that all this is kept a secret as well). She’s also trying to figure out who she is as a person, and wanted Jonathan to make a move, but when nothing happened reverted back to the safety of Steve, to try to pretend that everything’s fine (wishing everything could go back to the way it was, as she says).

From the get-go of season 2 it’s apparent that Nancy and Steve aren’t compatible. The first scene in the car - she tries to help him with his essay but he’s frustrated with it and then lays out his life plan of settling for a job with his dad, a nice cushy little plan that we know from season 1 is Nancy’s worst nightmare, it’ll mean she will become like her mother. The scene when Steve interrupts her talk with Jonathan shows what Steve’s mostly been for her - a nice distraction (that still looks for Jonathan). Then the scene in the library which shows how Steve has been as a support system. Yes, he has supported her and comforted her. But his solution is “try to forget about it” and “we can’t do anything about it”. The second one is a completely reasonable view for most people - but as we see Nancy is not most people. And in stark contrast Jonathan is just game for it. We see in the first episodes Nancy’s internal struggle that Murray Bauman points out in ep 6: retreating back to the safety of Steve and being a normal teenage girl or evolve fully to the person she was for a week in november in season 1, the badass action girl who seeks out the truth, faces danger, can handle a gun, slaps boys who slutshames her, etc etc. Together with Jonathan she evolves to this in season 2, risking their life in getting justice for Barb, the thing Steve thought they just couldn’t do, taking down the man, willing to defend them from monsters with a shotgun and saving Will from the Mindflayer. Pure badass. (Quick sidenote because people forget Jonathan’s character development in s2: he overcomes his trust issues, as he finally acts on his feelings and trusts himself that Nancy feels the same and so he kisses her. He kisser her first. That’s huge).

“Steve did everything right” I’ve seen some people say. I don’t believe that’s accurate + shit, sometimes you can do everything right and it still isn’t enough. It is made superclear that Steve can be there for Nancy in one way, but never in the way Jonathan can - and it’s the way that Jonathan can that Nancy both wants and needs.

Some people thinks she cheated on Steve, and uses this to justify their hate. I guess they could’ve written it even more clearly, but my interpretation from first viewing was that they broke up. Having first told Steve while drunk that she isn’t in love with him and that they’re relationship is bullshit, him then leaving her alone and drunk at the party, and then the next day she is unable to say that she loves him while sober, and he leaves. Yes they could have had them literally say the words broken up (which Tommy later says) to make it clear but jeez. I see it from Steve’s POV - why the hell would he stay with her when she’s clearly not in love with him. Yes, later Steve comes with flowers to her house to win her back, but that’s a clear parallel to season 1 when he comes to the Byers house to win her back and ends up fight the Demogorgon. This time around he encounters Dustin and sets off on the wonderful arc with the kids fighting Demodogs. And it actually shows a flaw Steve has: for his own sake it would be best to just let it go. Again, the girl doesn’t love you, move on, it’s for the best. And he ends up stumbling into that, being dragged of by Dustin and becoming a better person and a hero. It’s best for Steve.

Side-point: have seen some say stuff like Steve “deserves” Nancy or the variant “Steve deserves so much better than Nancy”. First off, saying a guy “deserves” a girl creeps me out. But yeah, hopefully Steve will eventually find love in a good, healthy relationship but for now I think it would be the best for him to continuing growing as an individual. Figure some shit out, Steve.

To sum up: All the teens are flawed people who makes mistakes, but the way in which Nancy is held to a higher standard is misogynistic, it’s a common tendency when viewing fiction that also sadly mirrors real life.