Barb is a key to ronance?
I’ve just had a revelation!
You know how Barb is being considered queer bc the UD is a metaphor of internalised homophobia where Will’s taken, and then Will and Billy are the MF’s hosts, and Billy represents Will, and then Holly is taken too, and Holly is Mike, and Mike is queer; and even Henry is probably queer if bobgate is real, and so on? (Does it mean that all 12 kids are also queer !!?? at least we had Derek representing byler, and Holly x Mary doing the same and and… but I digress)
And now when we had the connection that Barb could be Vecna’d, I’ve also started thinking about the shame she had experienced. Which is the same, internalised homophobia, right? Ig, I won’t be the first to assume that she had a crush on Nancy. And this is where I’ve just had an epiphany.
That as Nancy’s queer coding starts here, Barb’s possible influence on s5 can fr develop Nancy’s journey to her sexuality. We had wsqksync nodding at ronance, (which ngl made me doubt how trusted all the sync part can be as I’m not sure whether they’d go with multiple gay ships in the finale, but anyway the sync is there, take it or leave it), we had apparently (and for Camazotz suddenly) queercoded Nancy, and Robin had more vibes with her in that one scene than in all the episodes (s5) before. And as Nancy had this infinite guilt about Barb, and Barb will get back one way or another, ig it mb reconsidered somehow. Maybe Nancy never noticed or, better, ignored some hints from Barb, and Barb never went for it to clarify things with her, so Nancy was playing the good girl card and behaved the way she should’ve behaved from s1 perspective of her.
But as you know, s4 ronance vibed a lot, and if it all comes together after 5x08, there can happen hell of a twist. And I’m saying “twist” bc I’m still not sure if they’d go for it making at least two Wheelers openly queer (and there’s also Holly, right…): dgmw I would be all for it, it’s just I’m not sure that plot-wise it can happen, for me it looked like a good chemistry but maybe not a real endgame; I’d be happy to be wrong tho! (Same for Holly and Mary, if we’d get them in a spin-off or smth, they’re certainly a shipping material, but how possible it is that all three Wheeler siblings will be confirmed openly queer? Honestly, idk)
However, now when Nancy is single and definitely done with Steve, some opportunities might open:
if Nancy will acknowledge that “it isn’t her”:
So you’ll probably ask me: what was the epiphany if we all already knew that Barb was queer and we apparently saw Nancy’s queer-coding?
It was this all being connected through Barb not only bc she was taken to the UD the way queers are taken there, but also being Vecna’d for shame, and we’ve never known Barb enough to assume anything else aside from her relationship with Nancy and the apparent parallel with Will. And here’s where Nancy’s queer-coding takes place along with s4 ronance to complete the picture.
It’d be especially fruitful (the pun is not intended) to explore all that through the perspective of Mike’s queer journey (in which, I hope, Nancy will play her supportive sister role) but also maybe it’ll turn out ironically somehow the way I drafted my little Queerler siblings’ headcanon. Nevertheless, I expect Barb to play her part in anything upcoming whether she’d be just a ghost of Nancy’s past through stumbling on her in the UD, or mb she’ll even get back to life in another timeline. We’ll see.
