If he asks for a light and you hand him your lighter, he's gonna put it in his pocket and never think about it again. He is notorious among his old friend group for this and he never even realizes that he's doing it.
It isn't until Eddie is snooping through his stuff and finds SIXTEEN very distinct lighters that he's lost over the years in the glove compartment of Steve's car that anyone finds out.
I’m just curious how many people at some point in their lives have played/learned to play an instrument of any kind.
I included a nuance button bc I know there might be some folks who might be like “well I played the recorder in grade school but idk if that counts” — count it if you want or hit nuance if you’re unsure! 😊
To be clear, if you studied an instrument to any level of proficiency, even if you’re out of practice now, please select yes!
Reblog with your instrument, if you wish 🙏🏼 Or just for more accurate results
tragic: mutual puts a fandom poll on your dash begging you to vote for blorbo bleebus but you know in your heart that the other option, blingus blarbo, is the correct choice. on some judas shit. forgive me brother for you have forced my hand.
AU where Eddie's manager just told him that he'll be training two new employees and it's just Steve and Robin. They have this whole 'we'll burn this place to the ground' vibe that Eddie isn't crazy about being associated with.
@morganbritton132 tag preservation squad: #Eddie is gonna somehow get blamed for management hiring two apparent arsonist#he just knows it#Eddie is increasingly concerned when they mention that they worked together at Family Video (caught fire during the earthquake)#and Scoops Ahoy (burnt down in a mall fire)#Steve: Completely unrelated to us by the way. the mall fire.#Robin: We were there#Steve: We were there but the fire was unrelated to us#Eddie (later): Gareth these guys burnt down the mall
Steve and Robin after a customer spent the last ten minutes berating them for being bad at their jobs, "You're right, ma'am, we should kill ourselves. Right here. Right now."
"In the store," Robin nods. "Steve, give her your box cutter. She can stab me first."
Checked with a ruler and took screenshots - the circles are completely stationary. The effect is also not generated by the arrows, rather by the oscillating color.
The rings have 1px wide borders that oscillate out of phase with their interiors, and your eyes perceive the phase shifted borders as moving edges. It’s really neat, our optic nerves have specific hardware for edge detection and this gif fools it!
Also if I look away from the gif and stare at a spot, the gif looks really trippy in my peripheral vision. A++
just had a really stable moment where i opened a redbull at the exact same second someone started playing industrial music in the apartment below and i briefly thought it was coming from inside the redbull can
i keep thinking of tommy hagan fall of senior year, so angry and seething with jealousy at steve and nancy, who finds a new king to serve in billy hargrove. wants so badly to be billy's attack dog, but billy doesn't need one the way steve did. billy's a wolf unto himself. but tommy yaps at his heels anyway, desperate for attention and validation.
then early november, nancy dumps steve to run off with that freak byers once and for all, and tommy feels sick satisfaction that the wheeler girl broke steve's heart like he always knew she would.
a day later, steve shows up to school with his face beat to shit, even worse than from his fight with jonathan last year. and tommy has to fight the instinct to attack whoever did this to steve. has to school his face as he shoves past steve in the hallway, biting out "what happened to your face, harrington?" concern disguised as insult. and steve ignores him, sick of his shit. (continues below the read more)
and then tommy realizes it was billy-- of course it was billy-- who did that to steve, so he drops billy for a bit but it doesn't matter. when tommy tries to catch steve in between classes or at lunch, he just gets the cold shoulder. and when he runs into him after school, he always seems to be carting around some kid in a baseball cap with a loud mouth.
so tommy ends up orbiting billy anyway again because its easy. because billy likes having someone around to echo back his taunts, and if billy sometimes pushes tommy around its okay because tommy likes it, and he'll give it right back.
the first time billy and tommy fuck it's against a wall in some abandoned warehouse by billy's place. they're both angry and horny and who gives a shit if tommy wants to picture steve standing behind him, touching him like that? it's no one's business, not even his own.
that summer, tommy stops by scoops ahoy to tease steve for his girly sailor costume, something low in his stomach thrilling at the sight of harrington's rosy cheeks in that stupid hat. but steve takes one look at him and walks into the back, and a moment later a girl named robin is at the counter, rolling her eyes and asking him if he's gonna stand there gawking or pick a flavor. so tommy leaves, fuming, and if he watches steve from afar while sitting in the food court with carol, what's it to anyone? and when he stops at the pool and watches billy preen for the middle aged moms in their swimsuits, he tries to pretend it doesn't bother him. but he's lonely and angry and hurt anyway.
then the mall catches fire, apparently, and tommy finds out billy died in that fire and he feels something like grief because billy hadn't been nice to him but tommy didn't need nice anyway, he'd just needed someone who wanted him around, which billy had, for awhile. and he freaks out when he hears a rumor that steve had ended up in the hospital after that fire. tries to give him a call-- an old instinct, an old closeness. but steve doesn't pick up and never calls back. steve's name never ends up listed in the memorial section of the paper, so tommy breathes easier. he can't stop checking the paper after that, afraid his nightmares will come true.
--
the next time tommy sees steve, he's working at the Family Video Store and that girl Robin is there, too, and the obnoxious kid with the baseball hat is behind the counter still talking steve's ear off. and steve sees him enter the store and goes stony-faced and looks away. robin intercepts him once again to play customer service, and tommy just shakes his head in disgust and leaves.
and tommy isn't just mad anymore. he's grief stricken. he doesn't understand why steve can't stand to even look at him. billy's gone, and tommy's out of high school and he never even bothered to apply to college, because that's not what hagans do. he's working for his dad's construction company and the guys there are fine but no one pays him much mind. he feels set adrift and lonely and it's too fucking much.
and later that year hell opens its gates in hawkins with the earthquake, swallowing what feels like half the town. and his dad says this is great for business, they'll be busy for months, plenty of construction work. but people are leaving hawkins in droves while they still can, smoke rising in the air, and tommy is sure steve is leaving with his parents-- why would the harringtons stay, anyway? they've always had one foot out of hawkins.
even carol leaves, escaping in the final days before the military quarantine really starts. tommy and carol had been on again off again for over a year since billy, but when she leaves for real the loneliness sets in in full force. all tommy has anymore is work. so when he hears "rockin robin" on the radio reference her friend steve on the sound effects, tommy thinks "no fucking way." it's just wishful thinking.
but then he sees steve driving around town in the radio van with that same fucking kid in the baseball cap. and tommy doesn't get it, he could have sworn he heard mr. and mrs. harrington had fucked off to chicago or something. so tommy pulls up beside them while they're at a stoplight, rolls down the window and wiggles his fingers in lazy greeting-- "hey harrington, new ride?"-- and steve had ignores him, not even bothering to roll down the window. the kid in the baseball cap gives him the finger.
---
then it's the fourth of july, three months after the quarantine started and the military is trying to keep the peace so while there's no town fair like last year, there's some government sanctioned fireworks down at the high school that people gather around for. tommy goes with some guys from construction, but he quickly loses them after a few beers, sick of trying to make dull conversation.
he spies steve perched on the hood of his beemer, watching from the parking lot as the fireworks set off. he's alone, and tommy approaches again because he doesn't know how to stay away.
it's been a year since billy died and he feels something sick and twisting at his core, billy's voice mocking him as he approaches, telling him he's such a freak for harrington, always has been. and tommy knows he was right, knows it as he taps steve lightly on the shoulder with a can of cold beer, wet with condensation. steve startles, going tense, and he doesn't relax when he sees tommy. his face is unreadable in the late evening shadows, form outlined in bursts of color as the fireworks explode in the distance.
"here alone, harrington?" tommy asks casually, still holding out the beer in offering. nothing mocking or rude, but steve is suspicious as he accepts the beer, fingers brushing his momentarily.
steve stares at the can in his hands. he cracks it open before responding, "drove some friends here, but i wanted some time alone."
tommy thinks the word "alone" might be pointed, but he ignores it. "i wanted to be alone, too."
"oh yeah?" steve's voice is distant, guarded. military vehicles rumble past in the distance, the MPs keeping an eye on the Hawkins crowds.
"yeah," he says, leaning against the hood beside steve without waiting for an invite, side by side facing the fireworks.
they sit alone together, sipping their beers. at some point, tommy asks about steve's parents, and steve confirms they left before the quarantine orders.
"yeah, carol and her parents left, too." tommy says quietly, and steve finally looks at him at that, something sharp and searching in his gaze.
"shit, dude, i'm sorry," steve says at last.
"yeah well. it's crazy to stay." tommy says dully. "i mean, my dad's company is here and there's plenty of work to do, so i have my reasons. not sure why you did, though."
"i'm crazy, i guess." steve leans forward on his knees, clearly lost in his thoughts.
tommy wants to say something to steve, but the words feel caught in his throat. beside, he's not sure what he'll say. that he misses him? that's pussy shit. so he chews his lip instead and for a few minutes pretends they're just steve and tommy again, best friends like they've been since they were kids. better at being than talking.
when the firework show ends, tommy hops off the hood of the car, hip brushing against steve's knee as he does. "hey, i'll see you around?"
steve shrugs. he's watching something over tommy's shoulder, and he turns around to see a group of younger teens walking toward them, laughing and talking. the curly haired kid with the baseball cap is with them, looking as stormy as tommy feels.
he feels the old meanness growl up from inside him. "i guess i'll leave you to chauffeur your children, then," tommy bites out before storming away.
"what's with that asshole?" he hears the curly-haired kid say to steve, but tommy doesn't hear what steve says back.
he doesn't get it. doesn't get steve, not like he used to. steve has left him feeling off kilter ever since nancy wheeler and junior year. ever since steve called him an asshole for doing the thing tommy thought steve wanted him to do.
no one's ever been good enough for you, huh steve?
--
the quarantine makes the already dull town of hawkins feel even duller. nothing new comes in, and no one goes out. it's a ghost town, the people left behind trying to hold onto normalcy with clenched fists.
months later, to his surprise, its steve that seeks tommy out. he shows up outside of tommy's house in his beemer, a pack of beers on the back seat. "want to catch up?" steve asks, and tommy feels a fierce grin tug at his own lips in response, a dangerous joy catching in his throat.
they drive to the edge of town, pulling off the road right before the barbed wire fences of the military border zone cut them off from the wide open fields beyond. steve and tommy tramp into the woods like old times again, seeking out skull rock.
tommy pulls out his cigarettes and offers one to steve. "i don't smoke anymore," steve says, but he accepts it anyway. "my friend robin hates it."
"well she's not here, is she?" tommy grins cheekily.
they settle into the hollow of skull rock, sitting in the place where the jaw gapes open. it's a hungry place, skull rock. tommy helps steve light up and they crack into their beers. they talk for once. tommy tells steve about billy and carol, and all the assholes who left him behind. steve talks about his friend dustin and his grief, how it makes him mean and angry. tommy doesn't recognize the name, but he figures he knows who it belongs to. the jealousy curdles in him like sour milk.
"it's like we can't stop biting each other's heads off," steve says. "and i'm pissed all the time at a dead man, like it's his fault for dying."
"yeah, i get it," tommy says, thinking of billy.
tommy used to think grief was a thing that brought people together, but now he knows he was wrong. grief just leaves people reeling and alone, ripping their own guts out because they need to hurt. because they need the world to know that they hurt, and to hurt the world back.
talking about his friend, steve sounds heartbroken and confused, and it reminds tommy of junior year again-- steve's seething anger and pain when he realized nancy didn't need him the way he wanted her to need him.
"your friend sounds like an asshole," tommy says easily. he knows he's an asshole, too. knows steve is used to assholes. attracts them to him, whether he realizes it or not.
"yeah," steve agrees, and there's something harsh in his tone. "aren't we all."
tommy touches steve first. he reaches across and runs a hand through his hair, tugging just enough to make it hurt. steve sucks in a breath but doesn't say anything as tommy leans in, just closes his eyes and lets it happen. their lips meet and steve tastes like beer and cigarette smoke and something else that's just steve, sweet and familiar. in the shadows of the woods and the cocooning silence of the rock, they lose themselves again like they did when they were thirteen and tommy had begged steve to show him how to kiss.
after, steve looks sad as he drops tommy back off at his house. tommy hopes they'll do it again. says as much.
steve shakes his head, "i don't know, man."
and tommy just huffs at that-- a sharp exhalation of breath as he turns on his heel, not wanting steve to see his face. "sure, harrington."
--
tommy's an attack dog looking for someone to attack. that's why he waits around outside of hawkins high later that week, looking for tell tale curly hair and a baseball cap. when he does, he swoops in behind the kid and grabs the handle bars of his bike, tugging it away from him before he can react.
"you friends with harrington?" tommy asks, a sneer playing on his face as he reels on the kid. looks him up and down-- short and kind of weird looking, features soft and doughy. the familiar cruelty of high school rears up in him like it's never left.
the kid stiffens, eyes narrowing as he looks him up and down. "what's it to you, asshole?"
"what's he see in you, huh?" tommy tips the bike over, giving the front wheel a spin as it lies there on its side. "you a charity case or something? some way he can feel good about himself?"
"fuck you," is the kid's only response, hands curling in fists at his side.
tommy hopes he swings first. is dying for him to make the first move, so he can pummel the shit out of him. it would be easy, oh so easy.
and the kid-- dustin, it's gotta be-- looks just as ready for a fight. looks like he wants an excuse to get hit.
"if i'm steve's current charity case, i think you were his first," dustin says, words dripping and cruel. "but he dropped you like the pile of shit you are." the kid tries to shove past him on the way to his bike, but tommy doesn't budge. grabs him by the sweater collar instead and drags him in close.
"steve tell you all about me, huh?" tommy asks, their faces inches apart. "bet he'll drop you, too." he wants to shake him up. make him piss his pants a little. but the high schooler's eyes are dull, practically bored. he's got healing bruises on his face already, like he's used to getting into fights.
"no, he never talks about you," dustin replies with a condescending smile. he sniffs. "i can just smell the shit on you."
so tommy gives him a black eye, and the kid doesn't even care. just shouts abuse at him as he drives off.
--
the next time tommy sees steve, they're both at a gas station. steve comes up to him and swings first. tommy lets him. lets him shove him to the ground and pummel him, right there in broad daylight. hawkins is so desolate that there's no one around to notice.
"i'll fucking kill you if you touch him again," steve snarls, and tommy laughs through the blood in his mouth. of course, this is about that freak. he stares at the blood and bruises on steve's knuckles, inches from his face. for one wild moment imagines kissing them, and the thought startles him back into his body. the asphalt is cold and unyielding against his back.
"look at me, hagan," steve says, shaking him by the shirt collar.
tommy does. he meets steve's eyes, those same brown eyes that had stared at him in soft wonder and sadness beneath skull rock. steve looks like he could kill him now. tommy wishes he would.
"i hear you, steve," tommy breathes. steve's fingers curl in his shirt even tighter, almost choking him, before releasing.
just as suddenly as it all began, steve stands up. tommy misses the weight of him. he stays on the ground as steve stalks back to his car, feeling the blood roar through his ears as pain throbs through his face and body.
steve doesn't need an attack dog anymore, tommy realizes as he watches steve drive off.
Awful realisation: Dustin and Steve were friends for around 18 months by the time of season 4 which means that by season 5 they spent equal amount being close friends and arguing all the time this is awful
@bombshellsandbluebells This is a hot take in relation to Dustin, Steve, and Eddie.........but I've always clenched my teeth over how the relationship between Steve and Eddie (and Dustin's role in it) gets reduced down to simple "pettiness and jealousy" on Steve's end (I used to think fans were light-heartedly joking about that, especially when it came to the topic of ships, but seeing how it's become a common take in discussions now makes me realize people were being more serious about that opinion than I initially believed), or the accusations that Steve was the one who pulled away first in his relationship with Dustin prior to Eddie's death, with the nasty insinuation attached that it's somehow Steve's fault that Dustin treated him badly during season 5.
Not only do I find that to be a gross oversimplification which ignores the complexities behind the situation, but it also ends up diminishing the brief friendship Steve and Eddie developed during season 4, and how that factored into season 5 (specifically the fight between Steve and Dustin in the Rainbow Room, and what was said there).
Fair warning that this will be a long post so I can better explain my perspective on this.
I'm just going to state for the record that I don't see this as either Steve or Dustin pulling away from the other prior to season 4, so much as them having different interests outside of each other that they wanted to pursue. Once Steve got his job with Robin at the Family Video Store, he wanted to focus on dating, and Dustin really didn't care that much for Steve's dating life (outside of maybe wondering why Steve wasn't pursuing Robin, whom Steve wasn't going to date for obvious reasons). Dustin, meanwhile, entered high school, was looking to fit in, met Eddie, and joined Hellfire Club because of his love for D&D, which is a game Steve implies on the show that he isn't really interested in playing. It doesn't make either Steve or Dustin wrong, nor does it mean that they were being bad friends. It just meant that they had a social life outside of each other.
I discussed this last month about the tie-in The Dustin Experiment, but when it came to Steve and Dustin's relationship, Dustin still enjoyed hanging out with Steve and Robin at Family Videos, whether that was to get the newest movie releases, judge the patrons and their movie tastes in their spare time, or otherwise Dustin going to Steve for advice about issues he was having at school. The point is they were still close with one another as friends, even with the different interests they were pursuing. We can even infer that from season 4 as well, given how Dustin was comfortable enough calling Steve at his work to beg him to be a substitute for Lucas at Hellfire Club, or even how Dustin and Max later showed up at Family Video to set up their "base of operations" to locate Eddie after he was accused of Chrissy's murder.
In regards to Steve's feelings about Eddie prior to them bonding, I see several factors in that beyond simple jealousy. For one thing, there was Eddie's unsavory reputation in Hawkins (including as a drug-dealer), and all the rumors surrounding Eddie, which Steve was likely aware of. It's even something The Dustin Experiment spells out when Steve discusses his wariness about Dustin hanging out with Eddie:
It's preconceived notions about Eddie, just like the preconceived notions Eddie had about Steve based on Steve's previous reputation in high school. Obviously, both characters turned out to be incorrect about each other, and part of their character growth in season 4 (especially in contrast to the rest of Hawkins who was determined to see the worst in Eddie) was about them overcoming those biases while realizing the image they projected out there did not align with the reality of who they were as individuals.
Another factor is the fear on Steve's end that Dustin would get a target put on his back if he hung out with Eddie. Not just because of Eddie's reputation, but because this was around the same time the Satanic Panic was taking effect, and it was being linked to D&D (which was a whole plot-point in season 4). Given what Jason did later by turning the town into a lynch mob against the Hellfire Club, that fear wasn't entirely unfounded on Steve's end. Steve wasn't going to helicopter-parent Dustin, and he makes it clear to Dustin in the book (which we also see on the show) that he wasn't going to stop Dustin from hanging out with Eddie if that's what Dustin wanted to do. Steve made his concerns known, but also recognized it was Dustin's choice at the end of the day whom he spent his time with.
Orienting this back towards the show (because I know there are fans out there who either don't care for the tie-ins or don't consider them canon), I would argue another factor is that Steve felt insecure about Dustin outgrowing his friendship with him. I know Dustin's insecurities about having a "best friend" have been discussed before, but I notice there's never really been any discussions about Steve's insecurities over where he stands in his relationships with others (and not just with Dustin either), or constantly being treated as stupid, or even both. I look at his relationships with Tommy and Carol in season 1, and the impression I've always gotten from them is 1.) It was a one-sided relationship where Steve was the giver to Tommy and Carol taking from him, 2.) It's not a relationship where Steve felt comfortable showing any vulnerability around Tommy and Carol unless he wanted to be ripped to shreds by them (as we see with their mean-spirited taunts whenever the subject of Steve's relationship with Nancy was brought up), and 3.) Tommy and Carol were not above using Steve to indulge their own personal whims, whether that was having sex in Steve's house (despite Steve's irritation over that), or treating his relationship Nancy like it was their own personal reality show where they could make nasty comments at Steve and Nancy's expense, or them piggybacking off of Steve's popularity, or just looking for reasons to be cruel in general (which finally led to Steve cutting ties with them). The fact they never made any attempt to apologize or reconcile with Steve after season 1 only reinforces for me that they never truly cared for Steve as a friend. Then you have Steve's relationship with Nancy in season 2 where he was trying to make it work to the best of his ability...............only for Nancy to drop the bombshell that she didn't love him (and likely had felt that way ever since the end of season 1), leaving Steve heartbroken (I'm NOT accusing Nancy of using Steve in that manner, but I am pointing out that Steve did put a lot of investment into a relationship with her that he cared about, only to get unceremoniously dumped and left to deal with the fallout). Even in season 3 when it comes to the Party visiting Steve at Scoops Ahoy................they're not really there to hang out with Steve, so much as get ice cream and use the backdoor to sneak into the theater. Dustin is really the only one who wants to be with Steve at work (whether it's Scoops Ahoy or Family Video).
So when Dustin does start hanging outside more with Eddie once he returns to school while also rubbing his relationship with Eddie in Steve's face (as we see in the season 4 premiere during their phone call), I get why Steve wasn't particularly impressed by that. There were signs as far back as season 3 of Dustin having an insensitive, condescending streak (I still have major problems with Dustin's "tough it out like a man" line towards Steve in season 3's "The Bite" AFTER Steve had just been tortured and drugged by Russians), but season 4 is where we really start to see that repeatedly in his interactions with Steve. And it's implied that had been going on for a while. I took Steve's refusal to sub for Lucas at Hellfire Club as not wanting to be put in a humiliating situation where a.) Steve isn't as knowledgeable about D&D as the other players are, which results in him getting ridiculed for it by Dustin, and b.) He gets compared unfavorably to Eddie during the game.
The irony is that we later find out Eddie felt the same way in regards to Steve, and that Dustin (whether he meant to or not) made Eddie feel just as insecure about where he stood in his relationship with Dustin all those times Dustin was talking up Steve, as Steve did when Dustin was talking up Eddie to him. It's also indicated via dialogue between Steve and Eddie ("This kid's gotta get his ego checked." / "It's his tone, right?") that Eddie was also on the receiving end of Dustin's ego and patronizing attitude. Dustin may be intelligent when it comes to topics like science, math, and so on, and he is one of the few members of the Party to be able to develop friendships outside of his current group. However, when it comes to Dustin’s emotional intelligence.........there's a lot to be desired on his end.
In any case, I think it's noteworthy that despite Steve's wariness of Eddie, he doesn't make any attempt to sabotage Dustin's relationship with Eddie, nor does he try to engage in a macho competition against Eddie so that Dustin will see Steve as the better "older male figure." He recognizes at the end of the day that it's Dustin's choice whom he chooses to hang out with. I emphasize this because, in the wake of season 5 where Jonathan was pulling this kind of toxic crap with Steve and the majority of the fandom refused to call Jonathan out on it, I admittedly get irritated by the "Steve was being petty and jealous towards Eddie" take when Steve arguably handled this situation with a lot more maturity than Jonathan did when his came to his behavior in the last 2 seasons.
Going back to Dustin's behavior for a minute, another reason I've always side-eyed the idea of Steve and Eddie being hostile to each other is because I never saw that when I was watching season 4. The closest we get to hostility between them is when Eddie attacks Steve with a broken bear bottle at the boat house, and that had less to do with any animus towards Steve himself and more to do with Eddie being scared out of his mind. For the most part, the interactions between Steve and Eddie came off to me as cordial, and the impression I got was that Steve was trying to get along with Eddie during the brief time they knew each other. There's Steve helping to bring Eddie food while he was hiding (and doing a little friendly wave when he arrives). There's Steve's concern over Eddie following Patrick's murder, and his warnings to Dustin that they can't just march through the woods in broad daylight when Eddie's a wanted man. There's even Steve's eagerness to brag about El to Eddie (which Eddie takes note of). Eddie also reciprocates with Steve. Notably, Eddie's pretty quick to agree with Steve about Dustin's attitude towards both of them (like how he echoed Steve's comment about Dustin being a "butthead"), and he also goes out of his way to help Steve in small ways. This post puts it best, but in comparison to when The Party is at the Creel House, and Dustin belittles Steve for not bringing a flashlight, Eddie is pretty quick on the boat at Lover's Lake to wrap up a flashlight in a plastic bag because he knows Steve will need it when he dives down. Steve doesn't even have to ask, and Eddie doesn't belittle him for it either. Same goes for when Eddie later gives his vest to Steve in the Upside Down because he'd rather have Steve wear something to cover himself with.
And it's one of the reasons I really love that conversation between Eddie and Steve in the Upside Down: Not just because of Steve and Eddie bonding, but because we see them bring out the positives in one another. Steve is grateful for Eddie saving his life (demonstrating he is NOT petty and gives credit where credit is due), and even tries to get Eddie to cut himself some slack when Eddie's self-deprecating (more on this in a minute). Eddie, meanwhile, is genuinely nice towards Steve in this moment. In fact, I would go as far as to argue that this is the first interaction Steve's had with another character where said character isn't belittling him or making him feel stupid, which must be a relief for Steve after being constantly treated like an idiot. When Steve doesn't get the Ozzy Osbourne reference, Eddie doesn't make him feel dumb for it. Furthermore, Eddie's pretty quick to reassure Steve that Dustin has nothing but positive things to say about Steve, which Steve is visibly touched by, especially given how Dustin's barbs towards him were becoming more pointed. I would argue it meant a lot to Steve to have someone like Eddie who not only was empathetic towards Steve's situation (and also wasn't above calling out Dustin for the ego he was developing), but also had his back and genuinely wanted to be Steve's friend.
And that's what makes season 4 such a gut-punch when it comes to Eddie's death: There is the tragedy of Eddie dying, how he got framed for murders he didn't commit, and how that negatively impacted Dustin..........but there's also the tragedy of how Steve and Eddie were beginning to develop a genuine friendship/camaraderie..........only for Vecna to snuff that out.
On top of that, Steve had to spend 19 months in the wake of Eddie's death watching Dustin (his best friend) deteriorate into an angry, grief-stricken, self-loathing mess, all while any attempts by Steve to try and help Dustin are at best ignored and at worst result in Dustin lashing out at him. Meanwhile, Dustin's barbs become more mean-spirited as he constantly belittles Steve on a daily basis and insinuates that Steve is stupid and useless. On top of that, Jonathan comes back from Lenora, purposefully goes out of his way to not get along with Steve, repeatedly insults Steve, finds reasons to be offended by something Steve said/did, engages in a one-sided macho competition with Steve in a pathetic attempt to impress Nancy (who is NOT impressed by Jonathan's behavior), and becomes genuinely unpleasant to be around. All because Jonathan is insecure in his relationship with Nancy, and doesn't want to put on his big-boy pants and admit to Nancy that he'd planned to "slow-motion break-up" with her. That's also including how Jonathan had been lying his ass off to Nancy for multiple months. 19 MONTHS of having to put up with this from both Dustin and Jonathan, and yet this fandom still expected Steve to have the patience of a saint and vilified him because he was (rightfully) starting to get sick of being the emotional punching-bag for these two.
(Side Note: I could write an entire essay about how gross and disturbing I find it that fans not only didn't think there was anything wrong with how Dustin and Jonathan treated Steve this season, but were also perfectly okay victim-blaming Steve for said treatment. It's something I have a major chip on my shoulder about).
In any case, this all leads back to the eventual blow-out between Steve and Dustin in the Rainbow Room.
I'm just going to state up-front that I have zero patience for the idiotic claim put out there by fans that Steve was purposefully ragebaiting Dustin by bringing up Eddie because it completely ignores how Steve was trying to defuse the situation prior to that point. The whole reason he wanted to partner up with Nancy is because he was worn out by Dustin and Jonathan treating him like shit, and Steve also knew that he and Dustin were dangerously close to coming to blows. We know Steve gets refused, and then later Dustin snottily tells him to stay in the Rainbow Room, which he does (because Steve's trying to defuse the situation) only for Dustin to get pissed about that. Steve knows that Dustin is looking for a fight with anyone (just like he did with Andy and the other jocks in the season premiere) to offset his feelings, and even calls it out as such ("You wanted a fight, and that's what you got. Just look at your face."). Steve bringing up Eddie to Dustin isn't about ragebaiting him; it's about calling out the root of the problem in Dustin's behavior. The impression I've always gotten is, prior to this argument, Steve had avoided talking about Eddie with Dustin for quite a while because he figured it wouldn't do anything to help. However, now that Dustin's behavior has reached a point where his judgment has been compromised (which is a big reason why Steve was reluctant to trust Dustin's theory about the Lab), Steve realizes he can't avoid that topic anymore.
And the thing is Steve isn't wrong about what's really going on here: For as much as Dustin's put Eddie on a pedestal ("Because no one could ever be as perfect as he was"), the truth is that Dustin was angry with Eddie. Angry at him for abandoning Dustin while he charged into a swarm of killer bats and got himself killed in the process (which Steve also calls out). And Dustin hasn't been dealing with that loss in a healthy way, nor does he want to acknowledge that fact. Otherwise, it would mean having to face the ugly reality that Eddie's death didn't need to happen the way it did.
But the thing I notice doesn't get discussed enough is how Joe Keery plays Steve in this argument. If you pay attention to Steve's voice when he's calling out Eddie for how he died, it isn't just cold anger; there's also a mixture of grief and guilt within, like Steve's trying to convey to Dustin "I did not want this to happen anymore than you did." I know some fans might dismiss that as a reach, but it's important to remember that Steve was there with Eddie in the Upside Down when Eddie was self-deprecating about how he's no hero outside of D&D. Steve was the one trying to get Eddie to cut himself a break at the time (which Steve would understand better than anyone, given how he almost ran out on Nancy and Jonathan in season 1 before coming back to fight the Demogorgon), only for Eddie to brush past this. I maintain a big reason why Steve was very specific later in telling Eddie and Dustin to abort the plan prior to the Battle at the Creel House if things went wrong, and to not be heroes at that time, is because Steve (correctly) suspected that Eddie might try to pull something in a need to prove himself (because of how Eddie was feeling at the time) and didn't want Eddie to do anything that would put himself or Dustin in danger. Then Eddie dies, and Steve is left with some serious unresolved guilt because now he's wondering if he could've said something different to Eddie to prevent him from making the choice that he did, or even wonder if things would have gone differently had Steve gotten to Vecna in time before Eddie got attacked by the demobats. And that guilt eventually morphs into anger on Steve's end, not just because Eddie's ill-fated decision left both Steve and Dustin to deal with the emotional fallout from that, but because Steve considered Eddie to be his friend (even if that friendship was only for a brief period of time compared to Dustin's friendship with Eddie) and didn't want Eddie to die anymore than Dustin did. This isn't pettiness or jealousy on Steve's end; it's anger mixed with grief, while also combined with the emotional toll of the last 19 months of consistently being treated like shit.
I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Steve came to believe at this point that Dustin wished Steve had been the one to die in Eddie's place. I'm NOT saying that's true in the slightest, but it wouldn't surprise me if that's how Steve perceived it in that moment, given how nasty Dustin's become with Steve. It's why Steve isn't really concerned for his own safety when he's charging forward to save Jonathan and Nancy from the melting Lab, and why he initially ignores Dustin's warnings about the ladder: Because saving people is the one thing Steve knows he's good at (or has been made to believe he's good at), and he's fine taking the risks despite the danger. It isn't until Dustin pulls him back and finally breaks down that Steve finally relents.
My overall point is that Steve and Eddie's relationship was a lot more complicated than just "pettiness and jealousy" towards one another. Reducing it down to that kind of black-and-white thinking is not only a disservice to both characters, but it diminishes the tragedy behind the brief friendship those two developed, and how it factors into Steve and Dustin's conflict during season 5. It's also just tiresome seeing fans fall back on viewing Steve through a season 1 lens only, while haphazardly trying to draw poorly thought-out parallels between Steve's relationship with Eddie vs how Steve acted in season 1 when it came to Nancy and Jonathan's relationship (The irony is that Jonathan embodies those traits of pettiness and jealousy moreso in season 5 than Steve does 🙄). Sometimes, I wonder if the fandom in general decided to discard Steve's character development the moment season 5 dropped. It's sure felt that way for the past 4 months. 😒
I will freely admit that this take of mine is rooted in some bitter feelings on my end: I am prickly with the fandom right now over how much venom was directed at Steve when season 5 came out, and how everything regarding Steve's behavior and motivations were reduced to the most shallow and vapid interpretations possible. It's frustrating how fans unironically insisted that Steve was competing against Jonathan for Nancy, even though we find out later that this wasn't the case (with there being foreshadowing that this conflict was a product of Jonathan's insecurities, rather than anything Steve was actively doing to sabotage Jonathan's relationship with Nancy). It's frustrating that Steve and Nancy's relationship was reduced by the fandom to Steve "wanting to get back into her pants," as opposed to how both of them pushed the other to grow while they strived to maintain a friendship with each other despite how their break-up went down. It's frustrating how this fandom demonized Steve for not coddling Dustin over his self-destructive behavior (and also accused Steve of treating Dustin like ass), even though Steve had been trying for 19 months to reach out and help Dustin, only for Dustin to continue lashing out at him. It's frustrating that Steve and Eddie's friendship is reduced to simple "pettiness and jealousy" when there was a lot more going on behind their dynamic (as posts like this point out). It's frustrating how Steve repeatedly gets treated poorly (both in-universe and by the fandom), yet he's held to these rigid moral purity standards that other characters are not. Other characters can be as awful as they please (with fans tripping over themselves to make excuses for their bad behavior), but if Steve says/does anything remotely questionable (even if it's something he regrets and apologizes for later), then Steve's treated as the scum of the Earth, and suddenly this fandom decides his character development and redemption are automatically null and void. The hypocrisy, double-standards, and bad-faith takes about Steve are just aggravating at this point. 😒
Anyways, that's my lengthy take. It's something I've wanted to get off my chest for a while now.
Rules: make a poll with five of your all-time favourite characters and then tag five people to do the same. See which character is everyone's favourite.
Tagged by @powersuitup. Probably very predictable picks for anyone who knows me but whatevs.
Bestest Blorbo
Matt Ishida (Digimon Adventure)
Julian Bashir (Star Trek: Deep Space 9)
Castiel (Supernatural)
Clark Kent (DC Comics)
Wanda Maximoff (MCU)
Voting ended onNov 28, 2024
NP tagging @tweetthang96, @coolnerdyrn, @kayliemalinza, @raaorqtpbpdy, and @thephilosophersapprentice.
in my unbiased opinion heh,,, OTSW is pretty coolio…. /silly
fuuuck wait who do I like help I can’t remember any of my fandoms rn
favourite👀
Invader zim🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️ (invader zim…)
Mind (ccccv1…)
CB (starlight express‼️)
Paul Matthews (tgwdlm)
Gatsby (the great gatsby😌)
Voting ended onApr 5
Help it was so hard to pick I was looking around my room for all of my interests and I felt like that “dear god it’s all mario” image but wiyh Chonny jash
Augustus Gloop (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)
Bustopher Jones (Cats)
Voting ended onMar 30
No pressure tags: @fun-twisted-tales @knizuu @moronislop @cityoftheangelllls @nucimylio @sidetable-drawer @supermacaroniandsqueezeblr @emmikay @sxftlii-lizziee @a-living-cartoon @vincentholdsapen @tosimornottosim @katsket-kidz @strawberiiiii and anyone else who wants to do it :)
Tagging @literallyidontwannadothis @somepomegranatetea @talesofruby01 @dino-the-raptor @stargayzingidiot @myloveofskateboarding @imadoctornotanescalator and anyone else who wants to join!
@steviesnailbat @coo1username @itshappeningyesterday @brambleberrycottage @dustin-bird (sorry if you've already been tagged, I don't know that many people 😅)
+ anyone who sees it and wants to join in despite not being tagged!
janainaart
turnnoffyourmind
titsay
jbbartram-illu
izzy806
2087
