yes, i am stealing his name for this blog. i'm the ultimate name thief and i am powered with my thievery solely by being genderfluid.
you can use any pronouns for me, though he/ him are the ones people use most.
i'm 20.
this is a multifandom blog, but right now it's probably gonna be 90% nysm. surprise, it's all about bosco le-freakin'-roy.
interests:
âą now you see me (duh)
âą the vampire diaries
âą supernatural
âą avatar
âą dispatch
âą interview with the vampire
âą ice hockey
âą silent hill
âą resident evil
âą baldur's gate 3
âą stranger things
âą IT
âą fnaf
âą marvel
âą dc
âą hannibal
âą f1
âą waterloo road
âą the hunger games
âą the maze runner
âą shadow & bone
âą shameless
âą final fantasy
âą the raven cycle
âą criminal minds
...and about a million other obsessions, but if i list them all we'll be here longer than it took for the newest nysm movie to finally come out.
i have autism and adhd, plus anxiety (making this blog is me trying to punch that in the face as gently as possible). the rest of the diagnoses aren't important since this is supposed to be a fun zone and not my medical chart.
anyway. welcome. if you know me from my other blog then no you don't.
but, really, if you do and wonder why i now have another blog, i just want this one to be less of a spam account.
big loversdeath fan but i also love like every other ship in this fandom. polyhorsemen is always a good one. and polyponies. also the family dynamics of the new movie everyones come up with. so, unless youâre problematic as hell, youâre fine here lol.
⊠He likes his drinks fruity and frilly. If there isn't a stupid umbrella in it, what's the point?
⊠He wears dark clothes because they bring out his eyes. He says this helps him hypnotize, but it's up in the air if that's true or not
⊠He loves bad reality TV shows, and was nearly on one in his early days
⊠He's waiting to be able to fund his mid-life crisis before he fully gives into it
⊠Merritt hasn't had a driver's license in a few years
⊠While he keeps how much he cares largely under wraps, he keeps his eyes on the other Horsemen, and takes care of them in little ways
now that Max is out of the depression pit and Mike is still there, I like to think that Max is constantly bothering Mike over the phone so he doesn't, like. kill himself
"Eleven represents, in a lot of ways, the magic of childhood. And we knew for our kids to be able to grow up, the magic had to leave Hawkins." - the chucklefuck brothers
This is so disgustingly capitalistic (and conformist). In a free society, you don't have to kill your inner child to function. In a society free from the pursuit of profit and material wealth, you would not have to abandon magic and fantasy and creativity and connection.
You don't "grow up" or "heal from trauma" by killing your inner child. THAT'S HOW TRAUMA IS REPEATED OVER GENERATIONS.
There is definitely a conversation to be had about the parallels between Jonathan and Billy but it would be in bad faith not to include the fact that Jonathan was removed from his abuser by his mother (whom stayed in his life) while Billy was abandoned by his mother and left with his abuserâ Neil, his father.
Jonathan is essentially what Billy couldâve been if Billy had been given a chance.
Billy and Jonathan also have parallels in Will and Max but again, their situations are entirely different, not only in that Billy and Max are step siblings. Because where Jonathan and Will have a close bond thatâs encouraged in a place where they are safe, Billy and Max are essentially always pitted against one another by Neil (Billyâs dad). Their relationship would never work with Neil in the picture because his goal as an abuser is to isolate Billy and make him easier to control.
Where Jonathan and Will are set up for success (not without their own hardships) Billy is set up for failure. Max is a little different because she isnât Neilâs child and he doesnât take it out on her.
The Hargrove household dynamic is Billy being made to fill the role of a parent, being responsible for Maxâs whereabouts and getting beaten and called slurs when she sneaks out. Susan (Maxâs mom) doesnât intervene. Neil rules the roost.
Billy is angry when he arrives in Hawkins but, in Maxâs own words, â[Billy] has always been a dick, but now heâs just angry. All the timeâ which shows us how the move had impacted him and a little of how he mightâve been before.
As for Max and Billyâs dynamic, itâs important to note that she isnât actually shown to be scared of him. She swears at him and they bicker. She threatened him with a nail bat and stuck a very questionable needle in his neck. Billy grabbed her arm in the car and, I guess itâs up to interpretation (as is most of the show, apparently!) but it seems to shock her, like she doesnât know what to do, like it hasnât happened before.
Itâs fair to call Billy an asshole and a dickâ he absolutely is and thatâs the part of the beauty of his character and the reason a lot of people love him, heâs real and raw and complex.
Where Jonathan has family, has the opportunity for friendship, Billy had nothing. He quite literally exists in his own bubbleâ one that he canât escape and no one can get into. He has no autonomy and was essentially used as a puppet long before the mindflayer. Billy has no control and no real power. His actions have consequences and Maxâs actions have consequences for him.
And this doesnât even touch on him growing up in a DV household, being preyed on by adults far, far older than him which started, from what we can see in the show, at at least 17, or that itâs heavily implied (maybe stated, I havenât watched S3 in ages) that his behaviour changed after the fight at the Byers.
To give any valuable analysis on Billyâs character, to label him as an âabuserâ, we have to first look at Neil Hargrove, the catalystâ something I donât see much of!
And last pointâ Billy aside, we also have to look at how poorly the Duffers handled all of these subjects. Which is a whole different ballpark with lots and lots of talking points.
TLDR: It does a massive disservice to his character when people write him off as an abuser without looking at anything else. Billy was a 17/18 year old who was consistently let down by everyone, abused and manipulated and tormented most of his life. He has no real power. His actions are very clearly reactive rather than for his own enjoyment. To have a proper discussion, we have to look at the dynamics in his household and with the other people in his life.
Oh, no, I think about this often too don't worry!
Like I said, Billy's abuse still is not suddenly dismissed by the fact that he was also being abused.
By two sides of the same coin, what you said is exactly what I mean. Jonathan's dad also was not physical with him, which definitely shaped him in a different way than Billy.
I would have gone way more into depth with this, as you did, if it hadn't been like 5am. I'm also grieving a recent pet loss, so my brain isn't quite with it.
I've actually lived Billy's situation personally, my anger never went as far though. But I also stood up to my abusers, just like Max, so I think it's unfair to say she wasn't abused by him at all just because she can stand up to him. Otherwise that also dismisses every other abused persons experience when they've done the same. Abused people can become abusers, it may not mean they want to or even realize it though as it's the only thing know from who was meant to teach them to be kind.
I definitely think the move made him worse.
But basically, one side of the coin is Jonathan's side (being removed, growing up shaped into a protector to his brother and in a safe environment despite the abuse and neglect he went through) vs Billy's side (not being taught kindness or care in the correct ways and enacting what he knows onto his sister, who he resents as he's punished when he doesn't keep a good enough eye on her.)
I also wish we could have seen Billy redeem himself, but not with his death.
None of this excuses his racism and harmful actions (verbal and physical) or anything, but it can definitely explain it. I'll forever mourn the man Billy could have become if he was raised in a safe environment or removed from his dad and genuinely given the chance to grow.
