Please Pay Attention To This As Well. People Can Actually Grow And Be Sorry For Things They Have Done,

the lack of critical thinking in the wider stranger things fandom is insane to me. i ended up on st tik tok and the rhetoric surrounding billy is giving me HIVES. like, yes! he’s a shithead! he’s awful!

but i GENUINELY do not understand how, after seeing neil hargrove slam him into a wall and call him a slur to his face just because max is gone and billy doesn’t know where she is, you can’t put together the fact that

1) neil is the bigoted racist homophobe in that family and

B) every time something happens in regards to max, billy’s the one who gets blamed and then literally hate crimed and beat by his own father.

he’s an angry, terrified teenage queer-coded boy. he tries to run down dustin, lucas and mike. he’s volatile and violent and explosive. in his mind, if his bigoted father sees max with people he doesn’t like, he takes it out on billy! hello?

he’s also the reason any of them are still alive. so.

This literally made me cry my eyeballs out. He deserved so much better, more than what the gross narrative, the Duffers and the fandom/antis gave him.

And for the Billy stans/Harringrove fandom? I love you all so much. Keep the energy, and never let others bully you or threaten you for liking Billy. You don't need to give them reasons, or explanations. At the end they'll never understand, so don't waste your energy

This is my first and probably last post I will ever make. I’m here to consume the content, not necessarily create it.

I see all of you fighting the good fight for Billy and his story. And I wanted to add my thoughts into the ring.

As someone who works with children and adults from abusive backgrounds EVERY SINGLE DAY. I can tell you that Billy checks every single box for being in his survival state 24/7.

I have had extensive trainings about trauma, how to recognize it and the effects it can have on a person and how they act. Personally I have endured a lot of trauma myself and had to unlearn a lot of unhealthy behaviors and ways of thinking because of it.

With that being said: someone who is in a state of survival constantly is not capable of thinking rationally, the only goal is to…survive.

Billy Hargrove was an abused child. A CHILD. Not just physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. Does this forgive his actions? No. But it explains them. Gives us a deeper insight into the “why?”

Neil hit his son, he insulted him, called him a slur and then reminded him that Max, his younger stepsister’s well-being is in his hands. That’s a lot for a 17 year old to go through. Then he goes to the Byers residence where he’s insulted and lied to. His sister (who’s well-being is in his hands) is alone with 5 boys, one of them is his age? THEN to top it all off, Steve punches him? All that built up rage from what just happened with Neil comes spilling out. Oh and to make matters worse, he gets sedated and Max MIRRORS Neil’s abuse by making him repeat himself. Keep this in mind, while all this is going on Billy has absolutely no idea what is going on. He still doesn’t know what Max is doing with all of these boys in this house.

Moving forward- Billy gets possessed by the mind flayer, he still has no idea what is going on and loses control of his own body. He had to watch as his hands take the lives of many people to feed this creature from his worst nightmares. Then this group of children lock him in a sauna, he is FINALLY able to beg for help and sobs. Even then NOBODY tells him what’s going on, no one really makes an effort to help him. It’s only in the final episode of season 3 that El breaks through to him, she see’s his past, his mom leaving, the abuse. Even standing up to the mind flayer Billy has no idea what he’s up against, he’s still in the dark. All he knows is that it’s him or this child that showed him how to come back to himself. It’s him or Max, and as we already know Max’s well-being is in his hands. Nothing is more terrifying than Neil’s wrath. And in his dying breath he apologizes.

For my fellow Billy Stans- Please never let anyone bully you about what characters you can and can’t like. Your ability to see deeper into the characters and push past the hate is needed in this world. Not just in fiction, but in the real world. If you relate to Billy as I do, from past trauma, I am so sorry. I am so very sorry that you have to fight, explain and rationalize your love for him every time. For whatever reason you stand behind Billy Hargrove, it is valid. And unlike Billy’s story, I hope that yours doesn’t end in tragedy. My inbox is always open for those who need to talk.

Now, for the Antis- I want to say, good for you. You managed to take a broken and deeply complex character and reduce him to a heartless villain in your minds. Think what you want about him, it really doesn’t matter. What does matter is how you act to the people who do relate to Billy. The name calling, the hate, the wild assumptions about real people!! It’s so insane to me. I hope that turning into the bully to make a point was worth it. How other people relate to a character doesn’t affect you in any way at all. Somehow many of you have managed to put people down and make them afraid to express their love for a character. It’s not something to be proud of.

I am not willing to argue with anyone on this, this is just my views and my opinion. Dacre Montgomery stated that he worked hard to humanize Billy Hargrove. Seeing his character be dragged through the mud and continuously be turned into the irredeemable monster by the Duffer Brothers and the fans is just really sad.

Billy Hargrove means a lot to me. For a lot of different reasons. He deserved so much more than he was given. He deserved a chance to redeem himself and to tell his side of the story. He deserved a chance to apologize for everything he did in his survival state. He deserved the chance to finally be happy and be surrounded by people who actually cared for him, who wanted to help him.

Just keep going everyone. ❤️

he speaks truth @reylos watch it

wade: don’t fuck elvis

vanessa: don’t fuck colossus

…

wade: (okay but you didn’t say “don’t fuck cable”, so im still good)

I thought I was the only one...

that eyebrow raise in Joaquin Phoenix’s camera test for the Joker makes me feel things….

I'm obsessed

OK WHY DO I LOVE THIS MAN SO MUCH

That moment melted my heart, Dream looked so amused and actually surprised of Jed's interpretation of The Sandman.

one of most favourite moments of morpheus (and i adore them all) is when he meets jed in his dream in ep 8 and jed tells him "I'm the sandman". i bet it was the first time a kid made him lose his shit this much, i mean HIS FACE AND A CHUCKLE???

I "like" Quaritch, but that's bc I find him interesting for the first time. Idk about y'all, but human Quaritch was just plain; boring, kinda of predictable too but, Recom Quaritch? It feels as if he doesn't know exactly who he is, so he's following the river he has been put on. The whole clone thing, a whole new person, but with someone else's memories, "I'm not that man", thing has potential for a redemption arc where he sacrifices himself at the end. He doesn't give villain vibes anymore. (Plus, I gotta admit his Na'vi form is very attractive)

Lyle can fuck off, still boring af, still the lap dog of Quaritch.

But oh, OH DEAR, Tonowari?? I could make a whole essay over Tonowari. That's my man, he's a five course meal. He's what Jake think he is. Not to mention how good of a chief/husband/dad he is. He's so kind, so soft, and at the same time, very terrifying and intimidating.

This is maybe my last post about it but the fact that y'all fixated on Quaritch and LYLE instead of Tonowari is just. Insane to me.

They're married, no one can convince me otherwise 😂