the only thing i genuinely hate about volume 1 is how much steve and jonathan are being… well, them.
like why are they fighting over nancy like children? it’s such a massive turn-off. if i were nancy, i genuinely wouldn’t pick either of them.
and i say that as someone who’s been in her shoes before: that kind of behavior is a massive ick. it’s immature, it’s a red flag, and it makes you wonder,
if they fight like that with each other, what happens when it’s me they’re upset with?
am i going to get actual communication, or the same ego-driven nonsense?
it’s just disappointing to see characters who have been through trauma, growth, introspection, redemption arcs — reduced to posturing and jealousy. it undermines all the nuance they’ve earned.
nancy deserves emotional maturity. she deserves a partner who communicates, who respects her choices, who doesn’t treat her like a prize to win.
and honestly? so do steve and jonathan. turning them into rivals again flattens all their character work, and for what? cheap tension?
they’re better than this. the show knows they’re better than this. and i really hope volume 2 gives them back the depth they’ve earned.
and if you agree… you might actually like my fic caught on film, where both boys get their emotional intelligence back. link here 💛
Every season, Steve and Nancy are saving Jonathan or willing to die to protect Jonathan.
Don't you think that means something? Nancy is doing it because she is in love with Jonathan and Steve is doing the same thing as her because hes in love with Jonathan. Its not a coincidence thats its specifically Steve doing the same thing as Nancy every single time.
This is yet another parallel in the long list of parallels between them. The only season they don't protect/save him is S4 because hes not there.
Part 2: Story of how Steve Harrington fell in love with Jonathan Byers.
Part 3: Steve's obsession with the scent of gasoline.
Part 4: Who's Incharge?
Part 5: Grand Plans, Roadmaps and Dreams of Steve & Jonathan
Part 6: Mr. Cool Loves Mr. Hot
Part 7 : Met someone
Part 8: Steve and Jonathan keeping each other tools real close.
Part 9 : Jonathan misses Steve
Part 10: Distraction
Part 11: Steve's Fudged confession | Steve's Type
Part 12: Jonathan's Type -> cute teddy bear + Skull Rock
Part 13: It's heart to heart
Part 14: The Snack: cookie, coke
Part 15: Steve's Gay Charm
Part 16: Tapes and Telephones
Part 17 : Nails
Part 18: Fake ☺ Smiles ☹
Part 19: Hammer, Triangle symbolism, Music ; s5
Part 20: Stonathan parallel
For a more nuanced perspective and deeper context, this section pairs best with my brilliant mutual @strange-anni’s Stonathan analysis posts + critical assessment of Jancy and Stancy. READ HERE
why stonathan is still a slow burn (even when they’re together)
i’ve seen some discourse about me writing stonathan as a slow burn even while they’re technically already in a relationship, and honestly… i can’t picture them any other way.
as much as i love jonathan, he’s deeply closed off. and steve, for all his growth, still struggles with insecurity and legitimacy in relationships. that combination doesn’t magically disappear just because they’re “together.”
(that’s also why i never fully believed in jancy long-term — they’re too similar in their avoidance and too different in their lived experiences. but that’s another post.)
what’s interesting to me is that byler and stonathan feel similar on the surface in terms of dynamics — but their trajectories are completely different.
once mike and will figure their shit out, they know. they know they love each other, that this is it for them. they have years of shared history and emotional familiarity to fall back on. they have foundation.
stonathan doesn’t. when they step into something romantic, it’s new territory. they know they care about each other already — but care doesn’t automatically translate to certainty. especially not in high school.
sometimes relationships don’t move from “we like each other” to “this is solid” in a straight line. sometimes there’s that messy in-between where you’re questioning if it’s real, if it’s lasting, if you’re projecting hope onto something that might not work.
and yeah, byler has that angst in floods — but mostly before they’re dating. stonathan has it during, and that is deeply relatable to me — way more than the childhood-best-friends-to-lovers arc (i get the appeal — i love it too — it’s just not my personal experience).
so yeah. stonathan will probably always be slower in my hands, even when they’re technically already together. because that’s just who they are to me.
edit: also, two queer, masculine teenagers from a small town in the eighties? of course they can’t communicate properly. that’s half the fun!
Steve NEEDS Jonathan the most right now-The Unanswered Phone Call Pt 1
When Nancy tells everyone her story about what Vecna showed her: [the end of the world]. Steve's immediate reaction to this is: "CALL THEM AGAIN." We find out he means call the Byers place again But why? It makes sense why at the end of the world, Max and all the others are worried about their friends and want to say their last goodbyes and they need them right now. But wouldn't make sense with Steve [to a non-Stonathan fan]-again he sticks out like a sore thumb.
Steve [talking about Jonathan/his family] Try 'em again. Try 'em again.
Max: Rang a few times, then went to busy signal.
Steve: Maybe you punched it in wrong. Try again.
Max: I didn't punch it in wrong.
Steve: Well, I don't know…
Dustin: I think she knows how to use a phone.
Steve: I'm just saying, she could've typed it in wrong.
Max [tries again]: Same shit.
Steve was the one most desperate for the phone call to work and tells Max to try in the first place and then tells her AGAIN to 'try them again'. Steve was the one most desperate about getting through to the Byers more so than anyone else.
Why is that Steve's reaction to that? He wasn't close with Will, El, or Joyce. AND Steve and the others all think El lost her powers so it wasn't about that either.
So why was Steve so desperate to get ahold of the Byers? There is only ONE person left: Jonathan.
When Steve found out the world was ending his very first thought was Jonathan and that he needed to see/talk to him again and he just needed Jonathan... That was his first thought to being told they were all going to die. He just wanted and needed Jonathan right then.
"Listen that doesn't count" "Why doesn't it count?"
Good point Dustin. Why wouldn't it count? Why is Steve saying his fight with Jonathan 'doesn't count as a fight'/saying it differs from the fight with Billy or this future potential one with the Russian guard? And why is Steve smiling about it while remembering it like its a happy memory?
It's different because during their fight, Steve didn't actually want to hurt Jonathan like he did with Billy or the Russian guard. That's why it doesn't count.
Plus technically Steve did win that fight because his goal wasn't to hurt Jonathan, it was to touch Jonathan, get on top of Jonathan and have his body against his. So technically...Steve won that fight. Just not in the way one would think of winning a fight. Steve did win by getting what he wanted.
Steve didn't even consider it a 'fight' even before Dustin zeroed in on it and asked why it didn't count. Steve doesn't think of that as a 'fight'. It wasn't the same thing.
Will tells Steve to 'run' in the trailer CONFIRMS Stonathan is on the way [Why cut out the name in the trailer version unless it was Steve?]
In the leak someone yelled: "Steve run" and people couldn't tell who it was/narrowed it down to Dustin or Will. Even though it sounded like Will that said it, everyone back then said 'lol why would it be Will'-so people ASSUMED it was Dustin.
But unfortunately for those people- In the trailer: We find out it WAS Will that screamed 'Steve run' [and they cut the name out of the trailer who Will was telling to run so why cut it out unless its Steve?] but I see ppl are ignoring that and say 'Will and Steve aren't together during that scene why would the Duffers pair them up?' But to anyone paying attention it makes perfect sense why Jonathan's brother and his love interest are teamed up in a scene.
It proves that my 200+ posts on the Stonathan Analysis were right and Stonathan is coming. What I believe is happening in this scene: Its one of these three options: Most like its the 3rd point though and this is how Jonathan finds out Steve is in love with him afterwards: 1. Will Steve and Jonathan [and possibly others ] are facing off against Vecna/an enemy-Jonathan is dead [cause he died protecting Will ofc] and when Steve is holding Jonathan and crying and is frozen on the spot [much like Lucas with Max in S4], the other people that are there run away, but Steve is staying put with Jonathan and holding him and Will tells Steve he has to run now [cause otherwise Steve will stay with Jonathan and die too].
2. Or if you want of the nice versions: Jonathan is just passed out and Steve is trying to stay with him/save him but hes taking too long/Vecna is coming at them too fast and Will is trying to protect Steve and is like "I can protect him [Jonathan] myself. Get out of here and save yourself" [cause its hard enough Will looking after himself and Jonathan without a 3rd person involved.
3. Or Steve already has Jonathan and is saving him and trying to stay with Will to help Jonathan by staying with Will so he doesn't have to face this alone and Will is telling Steve to hurry up take Jonathan and run. Basically: 'save my brother. Leave me behind don't wait for me.' All that matters to Will is keeping Jonathan safe.
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It's another 'What's the big mystery Stonathan moment' #3567. Why tf was whoever Will was yelling it to-their name was cut out of the trailer? Why hide the persons name for example, if Will is yelling to Mike or someone he's usually with? Exactly they wouldn't hide it. They would HOWEVER hide the persons name if it was Steve-because then the audience would be like 'woah why are Steve and Will teamed up?' and they'd figure out eventually that Stonathan was on the way and we all know how desperately the duffers have been trying to keep Stonathan a secret since S1E2 to surprise the audience.
It would be revealing too much before the writers are ready to share it. They keep trying to make Stonathan a 'surprise'-its not a surprise to people like us-the people who are actually paying attention to Steve's storyline and who he was really doing all of this for/ Steve's entire storyline is about being in love with Jonathan and changing for the better because of him.
We know better, BUT the Duffers 'plan' its working on the duds- definitely seems to be working with the GA-cause they're all like 'lol
why would Will be talking to STEVE? In what world would they ever team up?" I'm like "UMM…in a Stonathan world. That's when they would team up. Ofc Jonathan's little brother and his love interest would be together with Jonathan at the end of it all. Why wouldn't they be?
The writers don't want the audience to knows its coming and want it to be this huge reveal/surprise, but to us Stonathan fans its really obvious.
Plus the pictures they showed months ago showing Steve and Jonathan together again pushing the Stonathan agenda…. They're going for it on the show BUT don't want to give too much away about Jonathan-and his absence in the trailer also confirms there is absolutely nothing they can give away about Jonathan because its all monumental apparently so no Stonathan/no Stonathan vs Jancy scenes/no death scenes ext]. They're keeping Jonathan's storyline top secret.
If I'm wrong and Will wasn't saying 'Steve' he was saying 'please' or whatever the audiences excuse is now, then oh well doesn't eliminate the 200+ Stonathan posts, but I had to weigh in and point out: Will telling Steve to run/that they were together in a intense scene is not far fetched at all like the audience is making it out to be.
Steve's reaction to Jonathan's return is the same as Nancy's
Steve's reaction when the love of his life finally comes home when he never thought he'd see him again: His reaction is the same reaction Nancy has to Jonathan's return. Again, its not a coincidence Nancy's reaction and Steve's are shown back to back so the audience catches it. Steve's look is the same as hers. As if some angel showed up in front of them. Disbelieving trying to see if Jonathan is real or they just were just wanting him so much they were imagining him again.
There are so many times now throughout this analysis that we went over how Steve and Nancy react the same way/do the same thing when it comes to Jonathan. And we know Nancy is in love with him. So if Steve is doing the same thing as her all the time...
