#thenamesophiaisalreadytaken

[thestobingirlie]

I’ve seen you talk lots about Steve’s parents and i was wondering if you had any thoughts on Robins parents and how her and her parents dynamic as well as Steve and his parents dynamic could play into their friendship.

I am aware how they’re portrayed in Rebel Robin, but the books are not canon and was wondering if you had any further thoughts?

robin’s parents are also very fun to me!! i don’t have proper decided upon names for them like i do for the harrington’s. but i think in the book mrs b is called melissa? and mr b is called richard, which i think is funny lmao. so i kinda subscribe to those being their names.

now, i love the buckley’s being hippies. like they’re vegetarian, they spent robin’s childhood living in a van, she calls them by their names instead of mom and dad.

i think they accidentally joined a cult at one point, after which they moved to hawkins. for a bit more of a stable childhood for robin. i think they’re judged a lot around the neighbourhood, which makes it harder for them, but they love robin, and they want her to get as many advantages in life as she can. and robin is so bright. they know they can’t homeschool her if they want her to reach her full potential.

i think they’re very loving and affectionate, kinda the opposite of the harrington’s in that way lmao. and i think they’re very loving to robin. maybe she almost feels stifled a bit. i don’t think robin’s ever really had any best friends before steve, so she hung out with her parents a lot growing up. doing puzzles and helping in the garden. they would absolutely be supportive of robin being a lesbian (homophobic buckley’s my beloathed), but she still doesn’t tell them till she’s ready, once they’ve all gotten out of hawkins.

i think because of her parents, she really dislikes steve’s parents lmao. she can see from outside the affect their dynamic had on steve, whereas steve is more stuck in it. she jokes that steve’s dad is far more of the “dick” than robin’s is (because both are named richard lol).

robin will always be a dick harrington hater. number one!!! it takes steve a few more years to catch up to her in that regard. because he hates his dad, but he’s also his dad, you know? and i think steve’s parents are actually a source of strife within stobin. at least in the early years of their friendship. robin wishes steve would just cut and run, and steve sticks up for his parents when robin gets a little too into shit talking them, which can bubble up into arguments. not big ones, but they definitely have to take a bit of space after.

neither of them have stereotypical parents, but i think robin’s parents go against the grain almost in the same way that stobin’s friendship does. most people don’t get it, but it’s healthy and they love each other. so robin’s friendship with steve, it’s everything she’s ever wanted. it’s the kind of relationship she dreamed about as a lonely kid. whereas steve had a lot more of an unhealthy dynamic to look up to, so i do think he kinda romanticised a future with a partner where they never argued and they were always happy etc. and obviously real life isn’t like that. but i do think steve interacting with robin’s parents and seeing them interact with each other, it, like, heals something within him.

anyway, when stobin get lavender married the buckley’s are beside themselves with joy. they love steve. and they’re so excited to become parental figures for him (it’s a position they have to battle for with claudia. it gets bloody (they decide to split christmases)). they know it’s just a lavender marriage, but hey, they’re not very fucking conventional either!