#stancy meta

[stancyworld]

"if I am permitted to see a silver lining in this end of the world doom and gloom.. it's the rekindling of old flames that frankly never should've been snuffed out"

[likelyheart]

nancy & desires

jncys have rewritten the narrative to say that nancy doesn't want steve around but her actions say otherwise. it's always the "they're not compatible because nancy's this guns all blazing girlboss." well yes but that's not all that there is to her. she's compassionate and feels EVERYTHING down to her bones. her rage and passion are fueled by injustices and people she loves getting hurt. but she's also just someone who wants to be loved. her parents' relationship is the root of her communication issues and "daddy issues" but i feel like. right from s1 she was shamed for being so "girlishly" in love with steve because that was unbecoming of her, to fall for the advances of the high school "bad boy" when she was so good. have we ever thought, why him? in beginning even she thought it was just a one-time fun hookup but that turned into more. if you look at her expressions and the stage direction, it shows the same thing.

i'm tireddd of them twisting the night they had sex into something so sinister. if steve was manipulating and coercing her into drinking and sleeping with him, WHY would she be eye-fucking him

i mean I totally get you girl, i would've pounced on him too if he was giving me this look:

and later on, when they go upstairs, you can obviously tell steve is giddy with anticipation like a lovesick fool but he doesn't act on it, he waits for her. nancy makes the first move. again, why would she do this if she didn't have the agency to make her own decisions?

that is the very reason why she feels so much guilt for barb's death because that night at every turn she was the one making the choice to do that thing. and it goes to show that she completely stops being playful and flirting when she gets with jonathan, but we see that again with steve in s4. and this time, it's different because he knows when it's time to be serious and mature, just like nancy but it feels like she's been repressing the part of her that used to be carefree as a trauma response; she's still punishing herself for barb's death to this day. it's ironic that jonathan doesn't seem to notice or care.

natalia made a great point in a s4 interview that when she's with jonathan she's the caretaker and when she's with steve, she's being taken care of. and i don't mean in a physical sense, nancy's no weak damsel, but in an emotional one. the sincerity, honesty of steve in s4 even if that truth might hurt them both VS jonathan dancing around lies. that's not an equal partnership if nancy has to bear the emotionally romantic burden of the relationship because of jonathan being so detached. even physically speaking, the way he took care of the kids in s2, 3 and 4 clearly impressed her a lot. i mean that lingering look after he says "it's not like i have some practice" is everything.

i think every accusation is a confession with some people because why is nancy acting like a normal teenage girl with desires so triggering for you, unless you think that makes her a slut.

[juniperhillpatient]

ok, guess who has more to say about why I liked Stancy so much this season & where I think the show is going with it? this bitch. I'm late to the party so y'all got my liveblogs but now I'm like, thinking about & processing the season. & yes, I do have thoughts on characters other than Steve & Nancy too it's just that Steve & Nancy are more important. anyway. I feel like as much as it sucked that we didn't really see them interact post-breakup until now, it was almost necessary. They both had to grow & change apart to develop into people who could have a lasting relationship. As much as the love & chemistry were there from the start, they also had to grow as people before they could give each other their all. Also, they couldn't have shared too much screen time before it was their time again narratively because they're incapable of existing in the same vicinity without wanting to jump each other's bones. More below the cut because this got long :)

Steve's development & growth this season was a big theme. He himself outlined it specifically in his speech to Nancy about "crawling forward." Which is huge! In season 1 Steve NEVER would've been so self-aware or introspective. Last season we saw Steve & Nancy on separate adventures, both learning about themselves & growing. Steve specifically, had a lot of growing up to do. And looking out for the kids & becoming best friends with Robin (& accepting her rejection!) was huge for him. He grew into himself in terms of handling his platonic relationships & taking on a leadership role.

Nancy's grown a lot too, she's just not as talkative about it as Steve. Nancy is someone who's very reserved about her emotions. She's not afraid to take risks when it comes to fighting monsters, but when it comes to being vulnerable with another person, I think that she is. I do think that Nancy's romance with Jonathan, & his willingness to talk to her about how she's afraid of becoming her mom - of becoming complacent in life - as well as their adventures in high-stakes investigative journalism together - were important to Nancy's development.

I had honestly come to assume that Stancy was never going to be an endgame ship & that we'd be lucky to see them interact much in the future of the show. But as soon as they saw each other again this season the sparks were flying. Nancy is still not being honest with herself about her feelings or her relationship with Jonathan at this point but right away we see how she's curt with Robin thinking that Steve & Robin are a thing. Then when we really get to see them interact it's clear that all that chemistry is still there & that's why they couldn't interact much during the time she was having her romance with Jonatha. They're each other's first love, & that hasn't gone away.

But the thing is - yeah, they were each other's first love but also - they were never going to work out back then. They were both too immature & unsure about what they wanted or how to go about a mature relationship. This season though, we saw Steve take on a leadership role - something he never could've done in earlier seasons. We saw Nancy dive without HESITATION into the Upside Down to save Steve. We saw how desperate he was to help her when Vecna had her in a trance. We saw how well they worked together in The Upside Down. We saw them LITERALLY go back in time to when they were dating as they fought monsters together in another world.

Then, in the end...Nancy's still with Jonathan (even after admitting her concerns about the relationship to Robin) but the one focused conversation we get between them has him still lying to her, & her defending Steve to him. Not exactly promising for the future of their relationship.

So, here's my prediction for the final season: I think that we'll see Nancy really & truly overcome her emotional hangups when it comes to being honest about how she's feeling & what she wants. Again, Nancy is brave as fuck. The girl investigates murders & fights monsters & dives into hell dimensions without flinching. Something worth noting about Steve & Nancy's visions for their futures - Steve sees himself as a father, & that seems more important to him than any particular career. Nancy wants to go to a good school & have a career, & she does not want to become like her mother, stuck in a mediocre marriage or a life that doesn't fulfill her. Self-fulfillment as well as her education & career are the most important things to Nancy. I've seen some anti-Stancy people say that Nancy doesn't want kids, but she actually never says that so I'm ignoring it.

I think that we'll see more of Steve & Nancy working together & both taking on that leadership role they shared this season & kicking ass next season. Obviously, there'll be some focus on the love triangle. I know some of y'all hate that but I'm not opposed, I love love- triangles & I love drama & the Jancy vs. Stancy love triangle is fun to me. I think that what we'll find is that Jonathan (who I've talked about minimally in this post since it is a Stancy post) doesn't actually want the same things in life as Nancy, & isn't sure about their relationship. This season we saw how the relationship didn't seem to bring him anything but stress. Nancy will have sparks with Steve, OBVIOUSLY, this season has made it incredibly clear that these two are incapable of sharing a vicinity without sparks flying. And, well, I foresee more unambiguous signs of true love (as well as a confession from Nancy) next season! I wouldn't be surprised if Steve almost dies & Nancy gives an emotional confession at that point, which I personally would love :) (as long as it's just almost of course)

[stancyworld]

I loved this tiny throwaway line of steve "your lover boy from risky business" because it showed us steve KNEW her favourite movie, her favourite star, and did everything he could to USE that knowledge to make HER feel better (singing the song from the movie, offering to go watch the movie, dressing up as matching characters from that movie he knew she loved so much)

and lightheartedly joking about her celebrity crush, saying carol told him he resembles him, they're just so youthful together yk? by bringing up her cutesy crush he's grounding her back to the "normal" world, a more carefree world, the one nancy so badly wanted to return back to in S5

it's just a stark contrast to jon KNOWING she loved the pink sweater and he used that knowledge to impose HIS own opinion on it and threw it away because HE didn't approve of it.

[likelyheart]

"steve felt more for nancy than she did him" → "nancy never felt anything for him" so she did feel something then? if you were able to measure it?

"it was always one-sided" → "nancy only fell for his looks and the feeling she got by rebelling" so the feelings were in fact mutual then?

on one hand, they're saying stancy doesn't have tangible moments in season 4 and immediately following it up with those were stupid moments. TO WHOM???

when every sentence contradicts the previous one, you know you don't have a solid argument.

[stancyworld]

I think nancy giving steve the green light to test his bopper theory, and then defending him to jon has a much deeper meaning if you consider the ‘one way or another’ book (which isn't canon, but the author caitlin is a guest writer of ST, and knows the extra details of the show, so far some things in the book have been pretty close even if not 100% accurate)

jon not believing in her and doubting her in S3, NEVER left her mind, even after they supposedly made up. She thought she ruined her relationship briefly SIMPLY because she took jon on the rat investigation.

even in S4 she's sort of briefly doubted by robin about the victor creel theory (and atleast robin apologized for coming off as condescending)

in the book, nancy almost dies because she went alone, and robin yells at her for not bringing her along, and assures nancy that her safety is important.

all this doubt and self depreciation is driven by the car argument in S3.

and jon isn't any better in the book either, he doubts her AGAIN

so yeah, she knows more than anyone else what it's like for her theories and hunches being called "silly" and a "stretch"

which is why she made it a POINT to give steve's hunches a chance, she didn't want him to feel dismissed and unimportant the way she was, and steve was dismissed by people MULTIPLE times (ilysm dustin but even in S4 he kept poking at steve's supposed stupidity)

her getting irked at jon makes so much more sense, because again, he's STILL mocking their theories and hunches, despite the fact that steve literally proved his theory correct, and jon still cannot fucking get out of his insecure pessimistic bubble

[stancyworld]

interesting that steve expresses wanting to pair with nancy for a mission ATLEAST once since S4 when the groups split, but someone always chimes in to stop that from happening, this time though, steve comes up with the beanstalk plan, which the duffers literally call the "endgame plan" (very nice wording for this circumstance lol) and nancys face was focused and zoomed when holly went flying backwards (callback to barb screaming for nancy in S1) something tells me these two will be paired off for the last mission to save the kids, there's no doubt in my mind that nancy will the one to save holly, as this kind of a "make up" for what happened to barb

[stancyworld]

after vol 2 I had no idea how they'll solve the barb trauma thing (if at all) I thought they would in volume 2, and sort of lost hope.

BUT then I started thinking of other possible ways of how the story can move, we know barb's body is said to come back, and that scene hasn't happened yet. now I'm beginning to piece together that maybe we'll FINALLY have a steve/nancy team up to save holly and the kids (on a funny note, this leaves room for the 6 nugget thing to be brought up again XD)

it's all coming together in a nice way (if they execute it well) think about it, steve with his beanstalk plan, and the zoom on nancys face when holly was flying backwards (as a callback to barb getting pulled back screaming nancy's name) the vengeance in her voice when she says to mike "it was him.. vecna"

robin and the party weren't able to save the kids in volume 1, but now the opportunity is tossed to the OG babysitter steve and nancy who is getting a do over with holly for barb.

also "a job for good old steve harrington" is such a running tidbit this season, this time it ACTUALLY will be a job for him lol

and as I mentioned, steve has been consistently trying to pair up with nancy alone since S4 but with no avail, there's always someone blocking them, but now jon isn't there, the jncy blockage is resolved, who knows? if we're lucky, nancy might be the one initiating the team up this time, especially with how she went out of her way to go talk to him about the guns freshly single lol

there were also these clues about lover's lake that hasnt been adressed in vol 2, so that's an interesting thing to consider

this way all things can be solved between them while also simultaneously moving the MAIN plot and setting the MAIN plan in motion. the duffers mentioned they wanted steve to come up with the crucial "endgame" plan, so no doubt steve and nancy are very important, they both have a direct link, with steve cementing his role protecting a new set of kids, and nancy fulfilling the role of successfully saving her loved one from vecna.