Jonathan Byers Deserves The World

Jonathan Byers (and the lovely man who plays him, Charlie Heaton) fan blog! Main: smolmccartney

[dailyjonathanbyers]

Do you remember the day dad left? We stayed up all night building Castle Byers... just the way you drew it. And it took so long because you were so bad at hammering. You'd miss the nail every time. And then it started raining, but we stayed out there anyway. We were both sick for like a week after that. But we just had to finish it, didn't we? We just had to.

[will80sbyers]

STRANGER THINGS | Jonathan Byers

[dailyjonathanbyers]

JONATHAN BYERS 2.03 The Pollywog

[moonlightmarvey]

jonathan!

[themistymountainscold]

jonathan: where did you get that tomato soup?

argyle: it’s actually a bowl of ketchup i just microwaved.

[dxmianwaynesstuff]

yup, exactly what this image i found in my gallery says

[tonyofthetrees]

a birthday gift ask from @billgenbrough to @smolmccartney of Richie Tozier & Dustin Henderson :-D

[lucy-byers]

I love this so much!!!!

[that-thing-that-feeling]

I'm seeing people on twitter saying the duffers edited out the scene where Jonathan is taking pics of Steve and Nancy. I haven't watched S1 in quite a while so I don't remember enough about the scene to say whether they have or not. What do you think? Have they or do some people not remember the scene, think it was worse than that and are making stuff up to drag Jonathan? They are saying it's been done to make Jonathan look better and Steve to look bad.

No ST didn’t edit it; this tweet is completely wrong and look how many likes it has:

It would be helpful if people actually watched the show—however, there is something about that scene that could confuse someone if they didn’t watch it carefully. As someone who loves Jonathan but does not like this moment and has answered so many asks about him taking the pictures, I know that scene and the aftermath v well. P much all the replies on that tweet believe it and are like ‘omg they’re trying to fake redeem Jonathan by editing the scene’—uh no, the scene has always been bad for Jonathan and also the pic in question makes no narrative sense. It’s also bad enough for him without embellishing details about the scene, whether bc fans misremember or want to vilify Jonathan and make Steve a saint in s1--or both. 

To remind everyone of what happened in order (I’m borrowing my own gifs from old posts):

Jonathan goes out into the woods to look for clues of Will’s disappearance and take photos of the scene to see if the police missed anything:

He hears a girl scream and runs towards the scream thinking it could be related to Will or is someone in danger (it’s not; it’s just Steve, Nancy, Tommy, Carol, and Barb in the pool in Steve’s backyard). He should turn around there, but Jonathan is effectively thrown under the bus for an important plot point (that he ends up getting the demogorgon on film).

He takes pics of all of them in the pool enjoying life. That’s already a violation of privacy enough that he’s in the bushes taking their pictures, even if that wasn’t his original intent. The show makes it into that he isn’t used to interacting with people and uses photography both to hide and as a way to observe people as they really are. You get the sense when you’re watching it, though, that he feels like a total outsider, is going through it what with his brother missing, and sees this glimpse of normal teenage life he perhaps wishes he has (even if he says he doesn’t).

Honestly, Steve could have broken his camera just for him taking the pool pics. Instead, the show goes a step further; he takes this picture of Nancy in a contemplative moment in the striped shirt that he later explains he thought captured the real her (hmm):

People seem to forget, the scene then stays in Steve’s room with Stancy and does not cut to Jonathan for a bit. It shows Nancy taking her top off and Steve looking at her and having a moment. We don’t see Jonathan take a picture here (however, we find out later that he did).

It then shows Stancy beginning to kiss. At this point, as soon as they start to kiss, the scene cuts back to Jonathan finally putting his camera down (he never took pictures of them “hooking up” as that tweet says):

He then turns his camera and gaze away from Stancy and focuses on Barb; this is where he gets a critical pic and plot point (he inadvertently captures the demogorgon before it attacks Barb—Nancy will later notice this in the torn up pic, etc)

It’s only AFTER all of this, when he’s developing the pictures, that we find out that in addition to the ones we saw him take (the woods by where Will was taken, the pool, the pic of Nancy looking out the window, pics of Barb):

That he also actually did take an even worse pic of Nancy—one of her taking off her shirt in the scene that had stayed on stancy in Steve’s room:

So, yeah, you can still drag Jonathan for this. Only when you do so, don’t add he went to the woods to stalk Nancy (he didn’t), he took naked pics of them hooking up (he didn’t), or the Duffers have edited the scene to make him look better (they didn’t and he doesn’t look better!)

Also don’t say he didn’t apologize and it was never addressed. He apologizes here:

And the show again raises the scene in question when they’re fighting in the woods. He gets “redemption” by apologizing to her, having his camera taken away and learning how to interact with people not hidden behind a camera, he respects and is super careful with Nancy’s boundaries, and only then is he given the camera back—once he no longer would use it like this. In terms of if you forgive him or not, you can also ask why did the Duffers even think to put that extra photo in when it wasn’t necessary to the plot (again Steve could have broken his camera based on the pool pics alone or the shot of Nancy looking out the window). But don’t try to forget that both guys severely screwed up in s1 and the Duffers exhibited sexist writing towards Nancy. In a different violation of privacy, Steve climbs to her window, looks in without her knowing, and observes Jonathan and Nancy together:

He then essentially helps Tommy and Carol write “Nancy the slut Wheeler” on a movie marquee for the whole town to see. Like Jonathan apologizes, he realizes that was terrible and helps clean off the marquee. So, yeah, they both did something awful to Nancy in s1, but with Jonathan, there def was an apology and a long development of their relationship in s1 in which they learned how to trust and be there for each other. You also get scenes of Jonathan that continually invoke consent (like “is this okay?”), when he’s in her room in s1, etc. The trust that develops between them is deep and grows over multiple episodes of the show.

Tl; dr: no they didn’t edit the scene, it’s still up there on Netflix rn exactly like this. I am still curious if we can catch what they did edit in previous seasons, but it wasn’t this scene lol.

[lucy-byers]

LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK.

[olive-gardens-breadstick]

nancy wheeler just trying to find the thing that took her and her little brothers best best friend with his older brother and almost dying in the process: :’(

steve ‘the hair’ harrington seeing her in her room with Jonathan: what a slut >:(

[starrazorr]

jonathan: spirals into a self sabotaging depressive episode and smokes pot to cope while simultaneously pushing his gf away out of fear of her feeling trapped with him and locking both of them into a marriage reminiscent of his parents’, ie. one of his greatest fears

the fandom: i hope he dies

[that-thing-that-feeling]

people are really out here just hating Jonathan Byers for existing huh :/

Yup—which why not, he’s grown up with an abusive father, had to be a steady presence in his house for both his mom and brother, helped caretake and co-parent Will, held down jobs to help contribute to his family’s finances, is fiercely loyal and caring to those he loves, is the only one trying to be there for Will’s difficulty fully coming out. He has lots of flaws too, has had to grow up too fast, is v stressed that he turned to basically self medicating himself for a time, but yeah he made a joke, so yk he’s the actual worst and useless.

[charlie-pippin-faraday]

sorry i will not get over how much jonathan byers says during the one scene in 4x08 without saying one single word

will says el told him to do the painting and jonathan’s eyes immediately snap up, because he knows it’s a fucking lie. jonathan knows full well el did not ask him to do that painting. el was wondering what that painting was, wanting to see it. jonathan knows there’s something more to what will is saying.

he goes back to driving for a bit, but then will gets to the part in his monologue where he says to mike that el has been lost without him, which of course catches jonathan’s attention once more, because will is getting suspiciously emotional considering he’s talking about someone else’s feelings.

at that, we see him look up to see his brother on the verge of tears.

And by that point, seeing that face, he definitely knows: will is not talking about el anymore. he may be using el’s name, and while they might be similar to the things she’s feeling, he’s not talking about her. he’s talking about himself. calling himself “different,” thinking that he’s a “mistake” but that mike makes him feel like “not a mistake” and giving him courage to keep going.

and jonathan definitely sees will crying to himself. it cuts directly from a shot of will crying to a shot of jonathan, looking at him in the rearview mirror.

i fully believe that if they hadn’t been in an extremely time-sensitive situation that jonathan would’ve pulled over the van on the side of the road to give will a hug right then and there. like…….he Knows. you can’t look at jonathan’s face right there and tell me that he doesn’t. he knows that will lied about that painting being el’s request, and he can see the raw emotion on will’s face as he pored his heart out to mike, even if he very thinly veiled it as someone else’s feelings. maybe jonathan didn’t get it before, but he certainly does now. there’s understanding in that expression, and definitely a bit of concern for his brother who has just implied that he feels like a “mistake” sometimes for being “different” and who is actively crying in the backseat. he for sure knows the truth. and i expect him to very gently ask him about it and give him some emotional support/comfort next ep. god the expressions here were so good, from both of them, it’s fuckin crazy to me how much i saw from jonathan without him uttering a word

[note: i have not seen the finale episode these are just my judgements from this episode, no one say a goddam word to me on this post about the finale episode]

[that-thing-that-feeling]

Charlie on drums with The Shadowboxers covering the 1975

[mack-will]

“He [Argyle] 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.” ↳ anonymous requested: jonathan byers, high as a kite

[444aslut444]

I do not care what anybody says, Jonathan Byers is sexy as fuck and he can rail me. That is all.

[that-thing-that-feeling]

Charlie’s Early Hair Test for Season 4 Jonathan

[dxmianwaynesstuff]

Ok so I’m here to defend my boy Jonathan Byers about the "naked pictures" situation from season 1

First of all, I want to say that what he did, in general, is actually creepy. Like, taking pictures of people without consent is a no-no rule, guys. Having said that, let’s review the evidence.

Jonathan starts his night by going off into the forest to search for clues about Will (who at that point of the timeline was lost in the Upside Down) but in the middle of that he stumbles upon Steve Harrington's house. The Harrington's house, where what he perceived as a bunch of friends were having a party, were having fun. Two things that we later learn he doesn’t have at all (friends), or he doesn’t have very often (fun, I mean, my man worked, went to school, and shared the household chores with Joyce).

So he’s there, with his camera in his hands and something he doesn’t see very often happening in front him, he probably has that desire to join, to forget that his brother is missing, his father used to abuse him, his mom is cracking under the pressure and he has to keep going because if not what, but he can’t. They are not his friends, they probably even bullied him before, he can’t be normal like them, so he starts taking pictures.

Jonathan takes pictures of all of them, swimming, laughing, drinking, and then everyone goes inside, so he moves his camera to the window that he can see better before Barb come out of the house. And yes! It is, in fact, that same window where he finds Nancy, so he snaps one picture, just as he’s been doing the whole time to a whole bunch of people, the problem here is that he’s snaps it just when Nancy starts to undress.

BUT, when he notices it, he stops taking pictures, and when Steve and Nancy start kissing (both things happen like in the same 10 seconds) he stops looking and lowers his camera altogether.

Like, THAT IS THE WHOLE REASON HE STARTS TAKING PICTURES OF POOR BARB IN THE FIRST PLACE AND CAPTURES THAT STRANGER THING.

Yes, I’m not going to lie, him taking pictures of them was creepy and weird, and probably depressing considering the fact that he’s actually sad about not having friends, but his intention was NEVER to take naked pictures of Nancy or to see Steve and Nancy having sex.

I swear to god, I keep seeing people shitting on him and calling him a pervert because of that scene so I went to rewatch it and, were we even watching the same thing?

Also, to the people that say he didn’t even apologized, he did when him and Nancy were revealing the Barb picture, lmao.

"I shouldn’t have taken that, I’m sorry."

Now some Jonathan pics because he looks cute here:

[lucy-byers]

Louder for the people in the back.