What if all of volume 2 is Steve’s Vecna vision.
Nancy getting a vision of all of Hawkins (Steve’s home) getting destroyed. They make a plan to go back into the Upside Down (which Steve was totally against but no one listened to him). Nancy and Robin both getting choked out by vines while he’s helpless and not able to help them.
Robin getting her heart broken by Vickie when Steve is 100% sure she’s into Boobies, but Robin not believing him, which is fair as a lesbian in the 80s. But then her really seeing it and running off heartbroken at War Zone after seeing Vickie kiss a dude. Steve doesn’t want Robin to be hurt ever and he just watched her heart break.
Max, his little pseudo sister, sure she’s cursed by Vecna in Vol. 1, but I don’t really believe that Steve would go along with letting three children go up against Vecna alone when there are other threats out there (I.e. Jason fucking Carver coming in and beating the shit out of Lucas). Seeing her get hurt to the point of dying for over a minute and then being brought back is something that could break Steve.
Dustin. Literally thinking Dustin is in any danger makes Steve go crazy. He trusted Eddie enough to leave Dustin with him and to keep Dustin safe. But then when he gets back from the Creel house fight, and sees Dustin screaming and crying over a dead Eddie surrounded by bats… yeah that’s not a good sight for Steve. And then he finds out that Dustin broke his ankle from jumping back into the Upside Down.
Eddie, who yeah he just met but got to know really well second hand from Dustin and Mike when they sang his praises to Steve. The “older male friend”. The first male his age that Steve actually likes and wants to be friends (or more) with, just ups and sacrifices his life for Dustin. But Eddie runs, he’s not afraid of running, like he said to the party during their campaign: “there’s no shame in running.” Had Eddie kept running or after he fell, grabbed the bike again or even fucking hot wired a car that was in the upside down, he would be alive and would’ve still distracted the bats and gave Steve and them more time.
And even the California crew. Sure Steve didn’t know anything that was going on with them. But he has heard the stories about Eleven and Dr. Brenner. Brenner being back and alive, forcing El to see the things he forced her to in that tank, under the guise of getting her powers back. Traumatizing her even more. Steve may not have known El for long or interacted with her as much as he had with the rest of the Party, but he’s heard stories and knows the stuff that she’s gone through. He would be LIVID knowing what happened in that bunker.
Will, the nicest and most polite out of the Party. Will has gone through so much shit and as much as I liked the Russia storyline because it gave us Hopper, I don’t believe Joyce would just leave her sons and El in California alone with no adult. So for Steve to find out that the mother figure in his life left Will in California alone (with Jonathan but still) just reminds him of his parents leaving him alone all the time. And Steve does not want any of his kids to feel like how he felt when he was growing up.
Also. Back to Nancy. For the last two years or so Nancy has been all Gaga over Jonathan, cheating on Steve with Jonathan and making plans for the future with him and not with Steve. Why would Nancy not respond almost immediately to Steve saying his Winnebago dream was with her with “I love Jonathan” or “I’m with Jonathan”? Sure they’re having trouble with long distance but Nancy seems like the kind of person to only cheat once, since she saw how that basically destroyed Steve.
So yeah. Volume 2 and maybe some of Volume 1 could be Steve’s Vecna vision.
I forgot the most important point.
They lost.
Vecna didn’t get killed and instead two people died. Max came back but we are lead to believe that Eddie is still dead.
But this is the first time in all of the seasons that they just outright lost. No break and thinking they won, just straight up loss.
Sure Steve has lost fights before, but those weren’t life threatening otherworldly fights. They were just petty, typical teenage boy dick measuring fist fights.
