#jancy vs stancy

[angelbabywheeler]

If i had a nickel for every time a Wheeler siblings character was reduced down to a love triangle they didn’t ask to be in, I’d have 2 nickels which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it happened twice.

[alg3braicc]

I feel like there’s a possibility that the whole Jonathan vs. Steve climbing up the radio tower scene may foreshadow the outcome of the whole love triangle.

Them racing the ladder to the top = competing for Nancy’s attention (obviously)

Nancy obviously sick of it, doesn’t care and turns her back to it not paying attention, and Robin is like the 3rd party that agrees that it’s ridiculous [“what is it about your presence that brings out their inner neanderthal?”]

they are both focused more on all the important stuff going on in their life (murray’s smuggling/the crawls) instead of the love triangle,

And then when both Jonathan and Steve reach the top, having fixed the radio tower, they expect Nancy to choose one of them or show favor to one of them, but she’s already gone. She left with her friend to focus on the important stuff.

Both of them expect for her to just “choose” one of them, but maybe this means that neither of them end up with her at all, and she goes to college either alone or with robin, since they both left together in the scene and make a pretty good detective/journalist duo.

It would also allow Steve and Jonathan to escape the 2 dimensionality of being the boys competing for attention in the triangle. Steve can finally move on and find someone who really loves him, and Jonathan can go to NYU and not worry about holding Nancy back from following her dreams.

I love jancy so much, but i also like the idea of nancy being able to spend time away from boys/her complicated love life and instead spend more time with her friend. I think that would be a nice full circle moment especially because of Barb’s death, and it would be a nice twist on what we’d all expect from a long drawn out love triangle.

[redhexx]

growing up is realizing nancy was better on her own.

this may be a hot take but nancy was perfect on her own, neither jancy NOR stancy really worked.

steve and nancy just didn't get each other the way jon and nancy did. yeah, steve was an asshole during season 1 (love him, but it's true) both of them had flaws during their relationship, and even though he did change—partly 'cause of nancy, they still didn't really fit. the growth was there!! the compatibility wasn't. 🤷‍♀️

now jancy, i’ll admit, they were better than stancy. they had a deeper connection and actually understood each other. sure, part of it was trauma-bonding, but it still felt real. and the way they broke up was kinda healthy. i liked them, but they needed space to grow up on their own, like individually!

(edit: additional)

sure, steve and nancy fit well aesthetically, he was the popular jock and she was the smart pretty gf, but that doesn't mean they automatically fit.

i also forgot to say, that i do acknowledge jon's weird behavior that time in s1, that was also one of his flaws—like steve being an asshole. the pictures weren't really confronted by nancy, she didn't know what was going on when she saw steve break jon's camera, still doesn't really makes it okay. we didn't see a growth in him since he wasn't confronted BY NANCY, and they didn't make this a bigger issue. i feel like they kinda forgot about it 😭 what steve did to his camera was so mean though, like imagine all of your savings break into pieces.

honestly, you cannot even defend on what he did, it was just a weird, pervert thing to do. i admit, giving away the sweater was a redflag 😞 and that's why my take is nancy better on her own!

this is for the stancys that might come at me for not acknowledging jon's behavior too.

even though the duffer brothers didn’t really write nancy’s “independent woman” arc that well, the breakup with jonathan was necessary. it just could’ve been written (if they even did) way better 🥀

i could talk about jancy vs stancy for DAYS and i stand by this take. seeing stancy reposts everywhere hurts a little like… i’m not even hating, but did we even watch the same show? they clearly didn’t work out and were way better as friends. the tension in season 4 felt more like for hype than anything else.

and before anyone says anything, i'm a professional analyst when it comes to jancy & stancy 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️😏

[slytherflowerao3]

here’s a harsh breakdown of why stranger things failed jancy in s4 (and the answers i hope we get in s5)

no sugarcoating, no niceties — let’s get into it

okay. i think most of us can agree that season 4 was rough for jancy fans. if not rough, then at least deeply awkward. it felt like the entire show hit rewind back to s1 — back when nancy looked at steve with wide-eyed adoration — completely ignoring the growth she had between s1–3.

by s3, jancy were a solid unit with two full seasons of build-up. even when they fought, they communicated. they understood each other. the duffers framed them as “the nice girl and the freak who become more than stereotypes,” the doomed, trauma-bonded duo destined to end up together despite the odds.

and then s4 happened. the whiplash was insane.

add to that the s5 marketing leaning aggressively in stancy’s favor and the GA suddenly treating jonathan like he’s disposable — some wishing he’d die, sacrifice himself for the “nuclear couple”, that stancy will name their child after him (like wtf is wrong with people? do they really think that’s an emotionally fulfilling arc?).

so yeah, it makes sense why jancy fans felt gutted.

but on rewatch… i finally pinpointed why the whole thing gives me the ick. even as someone who never cared for either ship.

and it’s actually very simple:

nancy is in an impossible situation… and steve’s storyline only made it worse.

let’s talk about the “pathetic steve” trajectory. sure, we love seeing him a bit pathetic, we want to see him as a hopeless loser in love — we saw seeds of it already with robin in s3.

but don’t overdo it. at some point he becomes unlikeable, and s4 just pushed it too far.

the writing leaned so hard into the lovestruck-idiot trope that it broke his character logic. in the first scene we see of him in s4, he proved he loves robin as a person and wants her in his life without a romantic aspect — that’s a huge character development for anyone, especially steve!

he spent three seasons going his own way, and became a better person for it. why should it be discussed positively in a scene and then later in the same scene ignored when steve shoots his shot, knowing nancy’s relationship status?

the timing is insane. at first steve is saying the four of them should hang out, a few hours later he’s talking about his life long dream of wanting six kids, and then he confesses he wishes he had a second chance with her, and that his dream always included her as well.

steve thanking nancy for “giving his head the biggest thump of his life” and in the same breath confessing his feelings is… what’s the word?

bullshit.

it’s not fair. and it’s hard seeing how suddenly he’s back to mooning over a girl he dated three years ago — a relationship based entirely on nancy trying to be someone she wasn’t.

it makes him look lost. and it blind-sides nancy during a moment where she’s already overwhelmed.

but the real heart of the issue is jonathan.

jonathan is terrified of repeating the worst mistake of his life.

during s4, in contrast of nancy’s concerns, jonathan loves her still and misses her a lot. the problem is that he’s staring down a dilemma that hits at the core of who he is:

— he knows nancy wants emerson

— he knows their talks about their future were always more of a fantasy on his end

— he knows his family’s economic disadvantages compared to her’s

— he knows his family depends on him due to trauma

— and he knows what happened last time he chose nancy over will

because yes — we have to talk about s2.

jonathan’s entire arc begins with failure: he wasn’t there when will was taken (taking an extra shift), then again when he followed nancy to murray’s and will gets possessed. he gets two seasons of guilt tied to the fact that he failed to protect his little brother.

jonathan can’t live with repeating that.

so when nancy pushes toward her future, he pulls back. not out of lack of love — but because he cannot fathom the idea of abandoning his family again. nancy doesn’t see this, not because she doesn’t care, but because her trauma shaped her in a different direction. she became fiercely independent because no adult ever protected her. she doesn’t understand why leaving is impossible for him.

nancy’s s4 arc is her coping mechanism.

nancy throughout s4 is anxious, lonely, and unsure where she stands with jonathan. hawkins is falling apart around her.

so what does she do? the only thing she knows to. she throws herself into problem-solving, leadership and action — the places where she feels strong.

but the writing frames her glances at steve as if she suddenly regressed to s1. that’s the part that feels wrong. not because she can’t look at him with warmth — but because the show framed it as romantic tension instead of anything else.

and here’s the harsh truth:

if stancy is endgame in s5, then nancy’s entire arc collapses.

because it means:

— the steve/nancy tension in s4 was romantic, not contextual

— nancy did emotionally reciprocate it while still with jonathan

— and that crosses the line into active betrayal

which would break a character who has been built on integrity, loyalty, and hard-won moral clarity. that’s why it’s so hard to watch her scenes with steve, because she was always the character that knew right from wrong.

nancy describes jonathan as loyal early on in s4 and adds that it’s the reason she loves him so much — if she does this to him, what does it say about her?

(that’s partly why i think stoncy — nancy/jonathan/steve ship — is so strong right now, because at least with nancy having feelings for both of them, and them being reciprocated and accepted by all three, it becomes okay.)

it would also destroy jonathan’s arc — turning his trauma, guilt, love for nancy and growth into a punchline for a ship the show already deconstructed back in s2.

what i hope s5 answers:

— how does nancy truly feel about jonathan once she understands why he pulled away?

— will jonathan finally verbalize the weight he’s been carrying?

— will the show address that he can’t just leave his family again?

— will nancy’s independence and jonathan’s caretaking arc finally meet in an emotionally realistic way? or are stancy endgame?

because at the end of the day, s4 didn’t “ruin” jancy for no reason — it set the stage for a conversation they’ve never had. one that could either mend their arc… or end it for good.

[dumblefork]

Byler is bones

Mileven is bones

Jancy is bones

Stancy is bones

We have no idea if Rockie stayed together or nah

Everything is bones

Why did we even have ship wars im so sad

Also, can someone hug mike? And check on him?

[heppiki]

Okay where's all the Creelby and Byler parallels? Where's Mike's POV? When they hinted at Will getting controlled and becoming a spy again or even a traitor, I really imagined a lot more, at least some more emotional scenes.

We can clearly see what the arcs for the finale are, but is there enough time to close them all properly in just 2h? They have to defeat Vecna which will probably have a big reveal about Henry, that he's not actually bad but controlled by the mind flayer. They have to manage to close or erase the whole wormhole.

I feel like Jancy/Stancy thing is already over - Nancy is her own person and needs to figure herself out on her own. And also the Steve/Dustin thing is resolved I guess...

But the whole Khali arc is just awful and there's gonna be an emotional scene where El makes her final decision. El's arc has only been really about her role as Henry's substitute and her relationships with Khali vs Hopper, and as her relationship with Mike hasn't really been shown, I believe he won't play any part in resolving this arc. Especially when s4 ended with his monologue to her, it can't go the same way in s5 - just him telling her he loves her and her deciding to not sacrifice herself. Hopper has been shown being a lot more invested in that storyline and will definitely play a crucial role there.

And even though Byler didn't have many scenes, I believe that it's really the only way Mike's character and his arc can be resolved. Will is going to fight along the other's and while El has cleary other people to help her make her decision, the only one for him is Mike as he's already gotten support from Jonathan and his mom before. So yes, I believe Mike will be there by Will's side and will finally realize Will's feelings for him and acknowledge them and when we see his POV, finally acknowledge his own feelings as they have been built up over seasons.

The only reason these 3 episodes had only had Byler crumbs is because the finale has a seperate release date and the Duffers decided to wait with the reveal till the end. I don't like how they've handled it, you can feel that the script was written for that exact purpose only. I hate that the mainstream media is keeping us from exploring these relationships and POVs. And obviously the mainstream media only cares about building the suspense and keeping it for as long as possible, only revealing the outcome of the love triangle at the very end...

We can see that the writing isn't the best in the last episodes, so even if Byler happens, it'll probably feel less satisfying than it could with a better build up for the reveal of Mike's feelings.

To be honest, I don't have super high expectations for the finale to be mind blowing and to tie all loose ends perfectly, but I'll be satisfied enough if the execution of all the plot twists and endings is at least a bit thorough and has any purpose.

But if they never show us Mike's POV then why is he even there, what is he doing that is so important? He hasn't really helped much in the last episodes, so how can he be one of the main characters when his story is not shown at all and nothing about him is explained...