A Fun Fact About Me Is That I Utterly Loathe Stranger Things As A Clumsy Narrative And As A Pop Culture

All I’m saying is that Prince Zuko, the proud son of a fascist world-dominating warlord, did not become one of the most beloved characters in all of Western media just for you to turn around and literally wish death on a confused, angry teenager poisoned by his environment.

For shame.

The Silenced Victims Meta

Similar to both Severus Snape and Ben Solo, Billy got the same narrative treatment of an abuse victim who didn’t “cope properly” being punished by no one giving a shit except that one “special person” bullshit and I hate it.

Because what a backhanded ass concept. 

Harry for Severus: Harry is literally the only person alive who knows or cares about everything Severus did in the background for years to stop Voldemort. The only one who gave a shit about his own father’s bullying of Severus and showed to be disgusted with it.

Rey for Ben Solo: Again, the only person left alive who knows about Ben’s abuse by Snoke and him sacrificing his life for her. Hell, it’s not even known if Ray told anyone about it. She’s the only one who mourned his death (thanks novels) and saw him as a human and not a monster.

Max for Billy: Once again, only person that gives a shit that he’s dead (yeah know besides his abuser) only person that seems to care about his sacrifice. Oh, and let’s not forget the kick in the face line of “Your braver than you’re brother.” You know your brother who tried to fight off an interdimensional mind controlling monster for weeks alone. The one who sacrificed his life to stop it from, who knows taking over the world. But who cares about that, the writers clearly don’t.

So, have you guys noticed a fucked up pattern here?

Abuse victim who did not cope properly must sacrifice their life for some great or good, and even than what they did will never fully be recognized.

Even in death the narrative is still actively punishing them, by either lack of acknowledgement or their sacrifice being reduced. Similar to the very abuse they faced.

Notice something else these three all have in common? No support system. No one to turn to, no one to acknowledge their abuse, no one to help them. And yet this itself isn’t even acknowledged or even brought to attention in the story.

Now in the end am I saying all these writers planned this narrative? No

But am I pointing out how strangely common this formula is? Yes

Because it gives a message. Those who react badly to their abuse via anger or bad coping mechanisms deserve the bare minimum in storytelling.

They don’t get redemption arcs. You don’t get to see them heal, see them progress. Because they’re sacrifice was all they were in the end and even that won’t be acknowledged. Even in death they’re silenced once again.

am i a joke to you…

Hey duffle bags, way to shat all over Dacre’s hard work on trying to humanize Billy whilst he couldn’t be on set to defend him.

His hair is longer than mine, and he and Jonathan like to smoke smelly plants together. Jonathan says the plants are super safe because they come from the earth, but to NOT tell Joyce.

being showcased to relatives and family friends as a perfect child but everything that is being said about you is false and you know that either the person describing you is lying or has fabricated a fake image of you but no matter which you are strongly aware that you have failed to be the person your family desires you to be

Please ignore the shitty quality I don’t know why my phone does this 😂

i know we sadly didn’t get a chance to see how billy and max’s relationship had evolved from s2 to s3, not even a single scene between them without billy being already flayed but i do think we get glimpses in s3 of how things had progressed between them. 

before learning that anything could be wrong with billy there’s a lightness in her speech when he’s mentioned, which didn’t occur during s2. this, for me, is the most significant change:

Keep reading

And a 🖕to the idiots spouting bullshit about all Billy fans hating Argyle when I’m standing right here.

Only good thing to come out of Vol 2 was my beautiful man Argyle making it out of this shitshow alive and unharmed.

I don’t know why my mind insists on making me sad, but I just can’t stop thinking about Max in S3 being SO in denial about Billy being the new host for the Mind Flayer or ANYTHING being off about him. Even when El, someone who knows MUCH more about the Upside Down and the Mind Flayer, claims something odd is going on with Billy, she persistently tried to rationalize all the weird things discovered.

Such as when they found ice bags in his bathtub:

Max says that they were “probably for his muscles or something [cause] he works out like a maniac”.

Even if Max really believed that it was some weird workout thing, if I found my sibling’s tub full of ice, I would have definitely been more weirded out; she was mostly dismissive about it.

Or when El said that Billy seemed wrong when they found him at Heather’s house, Max reassures in a humorous way:

“Wrong is kind of like his default, but it’s nice to know he’s not a murderer, because that would have totally sucked”

Despite seeing that Heather was indeed ok, there was still the BLOODY WHISTLE found in her brother’s room. And she was adamant that, as long as Heather didn’t seem harmed in any way, it was enough to disregard ANY suspicions of Billy doing wrong.

Or the Party points out how weird it is for Billy to be fully covered from head to toe at the pool

Max: I don’t know, he looks pretty normal to me.

Lucas: Normal? How many times have you seen him with a shirt on?

Max: I mean it’s a little weird….

Max knows Billy better than anyone in Hawkins. She KNOWS that Billy shows off his body any chance he gets. It is NOT normal to dress more conservatively out of the blue.

It is only during the Sauna Test that she couldn’t deny the fact that Billy is, without a doubt, the new host.

It is so heartbreaking because we can tell that their relationship has improved from where it was left in S2 (when she nearly crushed his nuts with a spiky baseball bat).

I can already imagine that between S2 and S3, they came to a sort of truce. Their relationship wouldn’t do a complete 180 of course. But it would be the type of truce where they would try to be less hostile towards each other, keep their tempers in check, and minimize the arguing between them. That would eventually lead to them having a mutual understanding and respect of each other.

Billy and Max share a lot of similarities (both are headstrong and outspoken) and been put in the same miserable situation (moving away from their home in California), that once they were able to put their bitterness towards each other aside, they formed a kinship and found out that, hey, maybe having this little shitbird/asshole as a sibling isn’t so bad.Their relationship was finally improving and on the path for the better.

Until the Mind Flayer put that progress to a screeching halt.

Alright, I’m done with my depressing rant.🥲