I never talked about this before and probably never will again, but I'm very tired of seeing people say stuff along the lines of "Ronance is just Lesbyler." I feel like that's very reductive, unfair to both ships, and just straight up wrong. Like, please, let's just think about it for a single second.
When you really look just a little deeper than the superficial similarities, and actually pay attention to their actual dynamics, they are just two completely different ships.
To start, Byler are childhood friends, they grew up together and care deeply about each other since ever. Ronance only met later in life after Nancy had already lost her best friend, Barb. A loss that Nancy carries in her back like a cross and makes it harder for Nancy to open up to a friendship with Robin.
If you really think about it, the dynamic and the development of Byler throughout the show is much more similar to Barb's and Nancy's storyline.
In season 1 Nancy was trying to fit in, she was dating Steve Harrington, and Barb was feeling left behind, much like Byler on season 3 and 4, where Mike is trying to focus in his relationship with El, and Will feels left behind.
I think Mike is aware, one way or another, of Will's and his own queerness, and being deeply repressed himself he pushes Will away, which I believe is more or less what was going on with Nancy in season 1. I don't believe Nancy ever really liked Steve, I think she started to go out with him because part of her was aware she was different and that scared her a lot, so when the king of the school started to hit on her, she just jumped at the opportunity to blend in, and in that effort she ended up pushing Barb away.
By the time Nancy meets Robin, though I think her deeply repressed queerness still plays a part on what keeps them apart, that's not the biggest rift between them on Nancy's part. The biggest rift is that Nancy thinks she is to blame for everything that happened with Barb, and she doesn't want to repeat the cycle by letting Robin in. Nancy has a big guilt complex and she feels like if she let's anyone be that close to her again, then she will end up "killing" them the same way she "killed" Barb.
Robin can't be the Will of Nancy's Mike, because Nancy's Will is already dead and she thinks it's all her fault.
Will and Robin are also in different steps of their queer journey, and also, in totally different queer journeys altogether. Though there are overlaps, we can't forget that gays and lesbians face different experiences. Experiences that also intersect with different gender expectations and dynamics. Even if we were to make the comparison using Lesbyler instead of Byler, just the fact that Will and Mike have different personalities than Robin and Nancy would already make things different. But let's not dive too deep into that because I don't wanna turn this into some kind of gender studies essay, I'm not even qualified to do so.
Anyway. Throughout the show we see Will grow up and discover himself, he is still in his baby gay era, falling in love with his best friend, having to deal with his first romantic heartbreak by seeing Mike choosing El over him. In comparison, by the time we meet Robin, and the time she officialy meets Nancy, Robin is already completely aware of her sexuality, she is already in another step of her journey, Nancy is not Robin's first love or crush. The foundation of their relationship is totally different from Byler's foundation. By the time Robin starts to catch feelings for Nancy (In my interpretation of Ronance's timeline, ofc), there's a lot of other stuff happening–that goes beyond the whole guilt over being in love with a "straight" friend and feeling like a creep–that makes Robin fight against that attraction and resist it instead nurturing it. She is best friends with Steve, Nancy's ex, who is clearly still interested in her, and who is also the guy Robin's first crush was obsessed with. Robin also has a second alternative, Vickie, who Steve is already supportive of, so it's a much safer option for her to pour her heart in, especially when you remember that Robin has to watch first hand how self-sacrificing Nancy is, and falling in love with someone who won't think twice about doing some stupid shit–like being bait for a monster a hundred times her height–must be really scary. She just can't afford to let her feelings for Nancy grow.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that in Byler's dynamic they are already close to each other and already have deep feelings for each other for way longer before the romantic feelings start and Will can't help but to keep nuturing his affection because he's a sensitive boy and that's his first experience with romantic love, while Mike is trying to repress it and keep Will at arms length because he just can't deal with it.
While in Ronance both parts are trying to repress it and keep each other at arms length, trying not to catch feelings almost from the start of their relationship, and they are also failing miserably because they can't help but being close to each other because their magnetic fields keep pulling them together.
This is like, just a quick assessment of the differences that quickly come to my mind and there's a lot of others, including personality stuff, different drives, tastes and whatever, that I'm too lazy to really write about it now. The important thing that I wanted to take out of this is that, there's nothing weird about being invested in Ronance and not being in Byler, or vice-versa, because they are two different ships, with different dynamics, and even if they had more similar dynamics and the very same personalities, they would still have different plots and backstories surrounding them which also affects how the ship works, so you can like one and dislike other, or be indifferent to one and love the other. And it's alright to like both, neither or only one of them. I just feel like is not fair to any of the ships to treat them as if they were the same thing when they are not.
I think is funny how they decided to put all three main female characters of tdwp in some sort of relationship with a man in tdwp2, and call me a conspiracionisty, but I truly believe that this, specially Andy's relationship with that Peter guy, and the addition of Miranda's new husband, were an actual effort of someone behind the scenes trying to say to the audience "no homo". And call me delusional, but I also think that there was someone there who was actively pushing against the "no homo" effort, and that's why we also have gayass scenes in that movie like Andy staring longingly at Emily through the window, because I'm sorry, there's no way Andy Sachs was staring that way at a necklace, lol.
So a while ago I went to see a production of Mamma Mia, and since I can't deactivate the part of my brain that wants to make everything about my favorite gays, when Sam Carmichael said something along the lines of "I'm just a divorcee that has been in love with you for 21 years" my brain went automatically "omg, omg, omg, sachston, omg".
At the time, I kind of pushed the thought away because I wanted to pay attention to the play. But I'm thinking about it now so...
Imagine like, Sachston in a Mamma Mia situation, not the three possible dads thing, but like, maybe an alternate universe where the events of dwp2 never took place, so Emily and Andy never reconnected. One of Emily's children is already 20 or whatever and is going to get married, and the other is going abroad to study very soon. They are both kind of worried about their mother because after a long streak of bad relationship with men (that never ends well because Emily is a lesbian in deep denial, and also very bad at choosing men), she has been single for a while and she is also lonely in the friendship aspect. So the children are afraid they are going to be leaving her alone.
One day (a few months or even just weeks before the wedding), they find an old box with the stuff from Paris, and some stuff about Andy Emily collected without meaning to (or at least that's what she tells herself) along the years, old articles, newspapers, etc. They start to dig in and discover that Andy is just some old coworker of Emily, but that she's also clearly important enough that their mother kept all these stuff with her throughout decades.
After a lot of Google searches and background checks to make sure Andy is a good person they decide: let's invite Andy to the Wedding without telling anyone to see if we can help our mother reconnect with this important person from her past (initialy not necessarily in a romantic way).
Andy is obviously thrilled when she gets the invitation, thinking it was Emily who was inviting her. She appears in the place the wedding is taking place (that could be a greek island if you wanna keep the Mamma Mia vibes), and is welcomed by Emily's children, she is like "omg is so great to meet you, where is your mother I wanna say hi!" And they're like "yeah, that's not going to happen, she doesn't know you're here". Andy is like ??? And they lie about how Emily is always talking about the "good old Runaway days" (which she obviously never does) and old friends, so they decided to invite Andy as a surprise for her. Andy, of course, panics because if Emily didn't invite her, then she shouldn't be there, and she should go before Emily finds out, because how crazy would it be if Andy had just dropped everything she had to do to go to the wedding of some random kid she doesn't know just because she thought a person she hadn't spoken in more than 20 years invited her? Haha. But the kids convince her to stay at least for a while.
When Emily finds out that Andy is there, she is livid because, omg, what the hell is she doing there??? And right before her kid's wedding? Emily can't deal with it right now. Yeah, she is happy to see her again, but she is also angry, because she has also old unresolved and complicated feelings about Paris, and Andy leaving without a note, and that phone call Andy never answered, and whatever.
Not wanting to get the children into trouble, Andy lies saying it's all a complete coincidence. And Emily is like "alright then, stay, but i don't wanna see you, I'm too occupied with the wedding". And Andy tries to stay away. But stuff starts to happen, like problems with the wedding, with the flowers, with the food, with whatever, and Emily is going insane trying to deal with everything alone (because the children's father, Emily's ex-husband, ofc, is useless, and is not even there yet), so Andy's problem solving skills kick in, and she starts to help Emily. They start to spend more time together. New and old repressed feelings start to grow. Andy starts to bond with Emily's children, too. Something, something, something. The wedding day runs smoothly thanks to Emily's and Andy's share efforts (unless you wanna add some drama to stir it up). And when it all ends, the only thing left for them to resolve are their feelings for each other.
Of course, everything ends well, and they live happily ever after.
I was going through my notes app again–as I often do–and found the draft for a fic I referenced here before but never posted because I never finished. It was a post where I shared my headcanon about Robin deciding sometime between season 4 and 5 to ask random questions to Nancy when she realized she didn't know the small things about her, like favorite color, favorite ice-cream flavor, etc. I never got past the favorite color question. But rereading it, I thought it was pretty decent and that it didn't need the rest to function as a small one-shot. I also really loved how I ended it because I wrote this before Season 5, part 2, and it kind of accidentally contrasts really well with the Jonathan hating pink thing. I originally wrote most of this in Portuguese, except for the dialogues, so I had to re-write the rest in English too, most of it it's what I already had written last year, I just added a few things in some parts that I thought were empty. Anyway, if anyone spares the time to read it, I really hope you enjoy it.
This is the link to read it on ao3 if anyone prefers to read there instead of Tumblr:
Pretty in Pink
"What's your favorite color?" Robins asked.
----------------------
The question came out of nowhere.
Nancy shifted her gaze away from the red traffic light shining ahead to look at her. Robin was staring right back at her, watchful eyes slightly widened, fingers tapping softly against the center console of the car, as they often did while unoccupied.
"My favorite color?" Nancy echoed a little amused, the small hint of a smile threatening to show in the corner of her mouth.
"Yeah." Robin nodded.
Nancy narrowed her eyes.
"Why do you wanna know my favorite color?" She asked a bit amused, watching Robin turn her face away to look ahead as her cheeks reddened a bit.
Nancy copied the motion to verify the traffic light. Her own finger starting to tap a little impatiently against the steering wheel as she realized it was still red. She took the opportunity to look at Robin again. A little too deep in thought for such a simple question, staring at her own lap, lips caught between teeth as she searched for an answer.
"I don't know" she ended up saying "I guess I'm just curious"
"About my favorite color?" Nancy pressed, raising an eyebrow. She couldn't help but to do so. It was a bit silly to get so hung up on a simple question, she knew that, but she couldn't even remember the last time someone bothered to ask her something like that. Second or third grade, maybe?
"If you don't wanna answer that's okay, y'know?" Robin said flatly, rolling her eyes "Jeez..."
"No, no. That's not it. I just... I guess it's..." Nancy closed her eyes and took a deep breath "I just don't understand what brought the sudden curiosity"
Robin huffed.
"What's it with you, journalists, and the inability to not question everything?"
"I don't know" Nancy grimaced "Habit probably"
A few seconds passed by, Nancy checked the traffic light again. Red. Just great. She thought. Fingers drumming against the wheel. The silence filled only by the sound of the engine and the music softly playing from the radio. It didn’t feel like enough.
Nancy bit her lips.
"Blue" she murmured.
"What?"
"My favorite color is blue" Nancy said a little louder.
"Ah" was the only thing that left Robin's mouth.
Nancy stared at her. Robin was looking down at her own lap, hands there fidgeting with one another, she had a crease between her eyebrows.
"Ah?" Nancy repeated back at her.
Robin shrugged.
"I thought it was pink" she said.
If anyone else had said it, Nancy would have probably bit back with "Because I'm a girl?" Or something like that. She didn't. Because it was Robin and Robin never meant ill. Still, it bothered her a little. It wasn't even a crazy supposition. Nancy loved pink too. Her room was pink, she had a bunch of pink stuff. It was, in fact, probably one of her favorite colors. Still, it bothered her.
Maybe it was the conformity of it all. The idea that she might still be perceived as the same girl she was when she dated Steve Harrington. The soft girl trying to fit into society norms.
"Well, it's not." Nancy said more bitter than she intended.
Her tone set off alarm bells in Robin's head.
"Why do you sound annoyed?" She asked, eyes wide, attentive.
"I'm not annoyed"
"But you sound so"
Nancy shot her a sharp look–one that probably contradicted what she was about to say.
"I'm not" she said firmly.
It killed the conversation. Robin didn't add anything more to it, letting that unusual silence occupy the car again. The same silence usually filled by Robin and the countless topics that inhabited her mind.
The light turned green.
Nancy changed gears and pressed the accelerator.
They drove off quietly for a few seconds.
Nancy didn't like that silence.
"Robin" she called tentatively.
"Hm?"
"What's your favorite color?"
A beat of silence.
Nancy looked at her through the corner of her eyes. Robin shifted in her seat, she wasn't looking at Nancy. Eyes watching the street.
"I don't have one" she said.
Nancy's hands tightened against the steering wheel.
"That's not fair."
Robin finally looked at her again.
"How is it unfair that I don't have a favorite color?" She asked, puzzled.
"I told you mine" Nancy said matter-of-factly.
"I know that." Robin answered with a bit of shrill on her voice "But I don't have one to tell"
Nancy scoffed.
"Then choose one"
"That's not how it works" Robin protested, frowning.
"That's exactly how it works” Nancy said emphatically “you just... choose the one you like more"
Robin thought for a second.
"I like them equally"
Nancy grimaced.
Bullshit.
"That can't be true"
"It is true!" Robin said, moving her hands along to accentuate the words leaving her mouth.
Nancy didn't buy it at all.
"Then how come I never see you in pink?" She asked.
"You have seen me in pink" Robin rolled her eyes.
Nancy took a second to realize what she was referring to.
Pennhurst. Right.
"Yeah, because I made you wear it. You were miserable the whole time"
"Because it was itchy!"
"Robin" Nancy said flatly "Pennhurst doesn't count"
"Okay, but just because I don't wear it, doesn't mean I don't like it. Alright?" Robin rolled her eyes, turning her head away to stare through the car's window again "I like pink. And I like when you wear it."
The phrase came out from Robin's mouth as softly as it could, it still hit Nancy like a thunder. Her mind went blank, she tried to find something to say in response, but suddenly her cheeks were burning and her vocal chords felt no longer like a functional organ. Her hands tightened even more against the wheel as she tried to keep her eyes on the street. It was in vain. They kept being drawn back to the other girl like a magnet. Half a second went by before Robin's eyes widened and she snapped her head around to look at Nancy again.
"I-I mean, there's no correlation between me liking pink and you wearing it." She blurted out panicked, Nancy was too struck to really process why "You look great in pink. Awesome really. But that's not why I like it, that's not, uh- that's not what I meant. What I meant was that–" Robin paused mid-sentence to breathe "that I like pink as a color, and the part about you wearing it was just–just a completely separate observation, cause you, uh... you wear pink... sometimes... and... and I'm babbling like an idiot, sorry." She finished. The avalanche of words drying up as she became increasingly self-aware.
Through the corner of her eyes Nancy watched Robin lower her head again to stare at her own lap. She forced her eyes back to the street, ignoring the warm sensation in her chest and the flow of blood coloring her cheeks. It didn't mean anything. She tried to convince herself. It was normal to blush when a friend complimented you. It was normal to feel a little dizzy too. She was just getting used to having a friend again. That was all.
"That's not... you don't need to apologize. It's fine" Nancy dismissed. Because it was fine. She liked to hear Robin babbling. Not that she would admit it to her.
"Okay." Robin said, a pitch higher than usual "Cool"
They didn't talk the rest of the way. Nancy tried not to analyze the interaction too much. Shutting off the part of her brain that wanted to dissect it. It was just an innocent conversation, small talk between friends. There was nothing to dissect really. No deeper meaning. Nothing relevant. And if Nancy started to incorporate more pink into her wardrobe after that... Well, it didn't have to mean anything, either.
Just woke up, and I'm pretty sure I've dreamed of an alternative universe where The Devil Wears Prada 3 was being released and it would be, in fact, a romcom between Emily and Andy, and as the film's campaign Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway were making jokes and talking about other characters they played throughout their careers also being in love, lol.
Now I need to come up with a new fun post idea to feature the Nancy in front of the lesbian projector image, so maybe, if the Tumblr gods are feeling generous, I can have my top three posts be Nancy and her lesbian projector.
I just did a rewatch of all Batman Live Action Movies, and if I may give my 2 cents, I think they should make DCU's Bats a full-on Teather Kid. I'm talking Bruce in the Bat Cave, working on a case to the sound of The Phantom of the Opera.
Just watched Stepford Wives, and really, it should be an obrigatory watch for everyone in the Bridgerton fandom (and everyone in general). Especially for every Eloise hater and the "fans" that don't see a problem on the way Bridgerton is leading her storyline. Like, please, go watch it, it's free on YouTube. I'm begging you.
I have to say, one thing I think could have elevated Supergirl 2026 would be Blondie actually playing in the movie instead of just the trailer (because I'm a sucker for Blondie), and if they went all out with more punk rock and new wave in the soundtrack.
I truly believe Nancy fully disassociated during Will's coming out scene because she is way too repressed to deal with an identity crisis right before a suicidal mission. She heard "I don't like girls" and her brain shot down immediately because if it kept working, it would come to the conclusion "Can't relate" and she wasn't ready for that yet.
Supergirl was released early in Brasil, and I enjoyed it a lot, I fear it is not as good as the Woman of Tomorrow comic, so it might disappoint some people. But I thought it was quite fun, and honestly, I wish it could've been longer because I would really enjoy seeing more of Kara and Ruthye. It's kind of lonely not seeing other people commenting about it but it's also kinda unique cause it means the only other opinion who could influence mine is my father's who watched with me, and I think he might have liked it even more than me, lol.
I just remembered that season 4 script scene that didn't make into the show of Robin asking Nancy her secret to making everyone fall in love with her, and wanted to remind anyone who might read this of it too.
izzy806
baratheonpilled
gracieabrams
amandla
