Is it me or did it seem like nobody was trying to save billy? It felt like they cared more about finding out if he was flayed and once they did, they didnāt fight for him, instead against him. They didnāt try hard enough like they would have for any other character.:-(
The problem is, I think, that Billy in the show is very ā¦ whatās the word? Two-dimensional? Now, donāt @ me, I am as aware as the rest of you about every single scene that shows his humanity and complexity as a character, but itās not spoken outright and itās not really adressed by other characters, so in their eyes heās not ā¦ well, heās not what he is to us.
See, the Billy that we know and love is not canon!Billy. The Billy that we know and love is the one we have built together, as a fandom, through fics and art, and edits and fanvids and meta and discussions and general screaming. THAT is the Billy that I love, and letās be real - the show was never going to live up to that. They couldnāt possibly.
Yes, I am pretty damn disappointed that none of these so-called āgoodā characters, the āheroesā of the show, even seemed to give a thought on how to save Billy. None of them saw him as anything but a threat, or a person to be saved, and the differences between Billy this season and Will last season are painfully obvious. Everyone cared about Will, and wanted to save him. No one cared for Billy, and no one seemed to even entertain the thought that he could be saved.
But I get it. Itās a show. They needed a villain. Unfortunately, they chose to make a villain of an abused, angry, confused teenager who this fandom has taken to their hearts and latched onto. Billy as a one-dimensional villain does not work for us, because itās been years since he was one-dimensional to us. We are way ahead of the showrunners, in this regard.
So it feels flat. It feels heartless. It feels like a disappointment.
Because to us, he is a complex character, with good and bad traits both, but above all - a character who is worth saving. He is human, to us. He is real. And as such, he deserves more than what the show can give him.
They donāt want him? Fine. Weāll take him. And we will continue to do what weāve been doing for years; humanizing him, building on and exploring his character.
And the people who come after us for this? For loving him? They can come off their high horses. Because Billy is a living breathing person, a fucking stupid teenager - albeit kinda an asshole (which is another post) - and the others in the show gave up on him. Just like that. Heroic, huh? Yeah, they are real heroes, for sure. They didnāt try very hard to save him.
We? Weāve been saving him for years.
