lifedontjustexist

sol, she/her

[lucy-harker]

STRANGER THINGS 5.06 "Escape from Camazotz"

[taggsvansen]

🐐THE GOAT HAS FALLEN 🐐

[malibuklaus]

[galadriel1010]

Sometimes you get a brief glimpse into the American worldview and decide that you don't want to know.

[transcyberism]

I cannot stress enough that this meme is entirely literal. there's no reference or subtext you don't know. these are simply the objectively most popular works of art from each denomination.

[fivendandelions]

STRANGER THINGS 5.07 — Chapter Seven: The Bridge

[be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie]

Steve is MAD at Eddie for dying. He's mad. He's mad at what it's done to Dustin and mad he lost a friend. That fight was so well done. Dustin isn't capable of hearing those things but he needs to. He has to. And Steve is tired. How many times has he tried to talk about this to Dustin only to be rebuffed and insulted? Ugh they put two of their strongest actors and gave them the plotline of a lifetime.

[couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name]

if demigods were allowed smart phones the very first contact percy would make with any of the greeks in SoN would be sending thalia a video of him using the 12th legions eagle to shoot lightning and smirking into the camera. no words spoken. no context given. she's crushing her phone in her hand as she watches it.

[itsdragonfire13]

What makes this even funnier is that she is in the middle of looking for him. And he probably had to do it from a random phone he ‘borrowed’ (stole).

[couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name]

exactly she's been freaking out trying to find him for MONTHS and after this she just texts back "stay missing"

[egberts]

forget recession pop. we are recession posting. everyone get funnier immediately

[rosecolouredheart]

we've been recession posting since livejournal. it's the damn economy's turn to improve 😭

[egberts]

i immediately rescind my post because your point is so good

[whereareyourightnow]

"twice the number of tributes, twice the glory"

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (2026) Official Teaser

[margoterobbies]

SADIE SINK as MAX MAYFIELD in STRANGER THINGS 5. Vol 1

[yenvengerberg]

"I still had the music to guide me. So, I followed it. And it led me through new memories... terrible memories. And it felt like they would never end. But then eventually, they did. I'd finally found it. The way out." MAX & LUCAS, Stranger Things Chapter Four: Sorcerer

[stancythings]

[likelyheart]

nancy & desires

jncys have rewritten the narrative to say that nancy doesn't want steve around but her actions say otherwise. it's always the "they're not compatible because nancy's this guns all blazing girlboss." well yes but that's not all that there is to her. she's compassionate and feels EVERYTHING down to her bones. her rage and passion are fueled by injustices and people she loves getting hurt. but she's also just someone who wants to be loved. her parents' relationship is the root of her communication issues and "daddy issues" but i feel like. right from s1 she was shamed for being so "girlishly" in love with steve because that was unbecoming of her, to fall for the advances of the high school "bad boy" when she was so good. have we ever thought, why him? in beginning even she thought it was just a one-time fun hookup but that turned into more. if you look at her expressions and the stage direction, it shows the same thing.

i'm tireddd of them twisting the night they had sex into something so sinister. if steve was manipulating and coercing her into drinking and sleeping with him, WHY would she be eye-fucking him

i mean I totally get you girl, i would've pounced on him too if he was giving me this look:

and later on, when they go upstairs, you can obviously tell steve is giddy with anticipation like a lovesick fool but he doesn't act on it, he waits for her. nancy makes the first move. again, why would she do this if she didn't have the agency to make her own decisions?

that is the very reason why she feels so much guilt for barb's death because that night at every turn she was the one making the choice to do that thing. and it goes to show that she completely stops being playful and flirting when she gets with jonathan, but we see that again with steve in s4. and this time, it's different because he knows when it's time to be serious and mature, just like nancy but it feels like she's been repressing the part of her that used to be carefree as a trauma response; she's still punishing herself for barb's death to this day. it's ironic that jonathan doesn't seem to notice or care.

natalia made a great point in a s4 interview that when she's with jonathan she's the caretaker and when she's with steve, she's being taken care of. and i don't mean in a physical sense, nancy's no weak damsel, but in an emotional one. the sincerity, honesty of steve in s4 even if that truth might hurt them both VS jonathan dancing around lies. that's not an equal partnership if nancy has to bear the emotionally romantic burden of the relationship because of jonathan being so detached. even physically speaking, the way he took care of the kids in s2, 3 and 4 clearly impressed her a lot. i mean that lingering look after he says "it's not like i have some practice" is everything.

i think every accusation is a confession with some people because why is nancy acting like a normal teenage girl with desires so triggering for you, unless you think that makes her a slut.

[clarkegriffins]

the stranger things fandom is one of the most unserious fandoms i've ever seen, like y'all be popping veins over these cuties?????

silly exes who still have so much warmth and fondness for each other, who would do anything for each other, right person wrong time pookiebears who can't help but melt around each other

[wheelerharrington]

3.05 // 4.03

[ofswordsandpens]

would love hear more about what you find most compelling about stancy

Because by rewriting Steve's character in season 1 to be more nuanced and giving him a last-minute moment of redemption, it also recontextualizes Steve and Nancy's initial relationship in a way I don't think the writers were fully intending, and it adds more layers to the consequent implosion of their relationship in a way I find both fascinating and tragic.

Before Steve was rewritten, it's very clear the archetype he was likely going to fulfill: The asshole jock that didn't really like Nancy but was just stringing her along to get in her pants and once his true colors were revealed to her, he would then get his rightful comeuppance a la demogorgon. The original role of Steve's character was solely to be a roadblock of tension between Nancy and Jonathan, to exist as the "wrong" choice for Nancy, and to stand in contrast of Jonathan. The popular athlete (who's actually cruel) vs the poor misunderstood loner (who's actually the real nice guy).

But once you change Steve's character to be more genuine. To someone who's charismatic and funny with a clear capacity for kindness and growth, it completely upheaves that narrative. - Steve didn't pursue Nancy because he was a sleaze, but because he sincerely liked her. When Jonathon makes snarky comments about Steve, it's no longer evidence of Jonathon's supposed insight, but now reads like Jonathan doesn't have a good handle on who Steve (and Nancy) are. When Steve becomes a permeant fixture of the story beyond the first season and is entrenched in the world of monsters alongside the rest of the main characters, he's no longer a sound metaphor of the mundane loveless future that Nancy fears.

In short, the genesis of stancy is genuine affection. They were with each other because they liked each other, as simple and straightforward as that. And from that view, I then think that makes the following implosion of it legitimately sad on a level. They were two teenagers in a blossoming romance that were suddenly eaten up and spat out by a horror sci-fi plot. And to be clear, I'm not saying that Steve was a saint in season 1, but since we've been shown that when push comes to shove, Steve does choose to be a better person, there's an argument to be made that if monsters didn't exist and Barb had never died/disappeared, then Steve and Nancy very well could have stayed together.

But Barb does die. And when Nancy is desperate for answers and support and understanding, and Steve doesn't give her that because he's still the type of person to cling to normalcy when things get hard, she finds it in someone else.

And it's sad. And it's messy. And I'm sort of obsessed with the moment when Nancy drunkenly tells Steve that they killed Barb because damn, what a fun piece of character exploration. What if you intrinsically linked your very relationship to the death of your best friend? What does it say that she initially stayed with Steve when she's clearly been carrying this guilt for so long? Was it complacency? Was it a perverse form self-punishment? Could she have or did she sincerely love Steve but Barb's death ruined any chance of her letting herself feel that for him without mountains of guilt and self-loathing? (they just wanted to create season 2 angst for Nancy and Jonathon lol)

And the thing is that Nancy shouldn't blame herself or Steve, because dear god, who could have predicted that trying to include your friend in on a night of fun was going to lead to her death via an alternate dimension monster, and I've been itching for the show to explore this and resolve it but lol rip.

Anyways, I thought the season 2 breakup was essentially going to be the final death wail of stancy but then but then, you have Season 4 and when shit hits the fan, who's suddenly there to support Nancy? Who's there to help and search for answers? Steve. Because he's become that exact person to do so. Now, he's someone who can understand her and who wants to. And then you have the lingering looks. Moments of realization, recognition of change, and again, yeah I know we're probably just doing this dance for unneeded Nancy and Jonathan tension, but damn if I'm not eating it up.

Because tldr: stancy is about growth, it's about change, it's about second chances. What if you're right for each other then wrong then right again? It's yearning and loss. It's about forgiving yourself for something that you couldn't have stopped, known, or predicted. It's reconciliation.

[ofswordsandpens]

it really is so unfortunate and dumb that I comprehend the potential of stancy far beyond the capacity of the source material. like yes, I have in fact crafted a compelling narrative from the aimless, half-baked threads that I fully recognize will never ever happen and is only going to set me up for disappointment but even knowing all that it doesn't stop it from existing like a worm inside my head. because it's about the yearning. the tragedy. the violent disruption of something that had just begun to blossom, of something genuine. it's about the guilt and (potential) absolution.

[ofswordsandpens]

percy, mentally ill: I feel like I deserve to die. It's a punishment because im a horrible person. Does that sound crazy?

jason, also mentally ill: No that tracks bro samesies

[ofswordsandpens]

adding in my tags <3