Robin Buckley is one of the greatest characters of all time. She is a lesbian. She speaks four languages. She's in band. Her parents are hippies. She's neurodivergent. She translated and cracked a super-secret Russian code in a day. She talks a lot. She fucked up Prom once. The most popular guy at school confessed to her and then became her bestie when she rejected him and he drives her to school every day even though he graduated already because she doesn't have a driving license (she's poor). She is a weird runner. She figured out music could help against Vecna and saved Max. She's clumsy. She gives great dating advice. She sucks at flirting though. She's funny. She's super smart. She's a dumbass. She's a loser. She's great. Character of all time.

Nancy is fascinating to me because here's this teenage girl who's very much a teenage girl. She's not even old enough to drive in season one, and she worried about boys. But then, whenever people are in danger, it's as if a switch is flipped. A very different switch to when she alone is in danger, mind you.

When there's someone else to worry about, she starts operating in a Fight mindset that's different from anyone else. She's impulsive to an extreme. She loses all sense of self-preservation. Any sense of hesitation and trauma just gets completely repressed till the dangers over.

Just, I don't know how to express how Insane I am over her and the fact that her desire to protect was so strong that she Immediately pointed a gun at the person she was trying to protect; at 15. She lost any care for how this might look or anything else because her mind had become too deadset on getting Steve as far away from the danger as soon as humanly possible. It was impulsive and dumb... and an incredibly genius move that could have worked really well, except she forgot to factor in the way other people freeze in the face of danger.

That's just not even an option in her mind. She sees an unknown glowy portal while trying to save her best friend? She dives in. A little boy is possessed and hurting the people he loves most? She stabs him with a hot fire poker. She sees a car charging her brother and friends down? She stands in between them and shoots. A friend gets pulled underwater? She jumps in right after. Max and her family are being threatened? She decides to Murder a monster as fast as possible with her on the very front line.

It doesn't always work. She's a teenage girl; she's not exactly a tactical warfare expert. Yet, this apparent fearlessness is noticed by everyone around her and they all follow her lead and turn to her for direction.

Meanwhile, she knows that she tends to act like that when she's drowning the most.

Then, when the danger is over, she cries and she shuts down and she remembers she's just a little girl again and she doesn't know how to be that anymore. She's stuck in a fight and protect and just survive mode that she has no idea how to escape.

sometimes out of the blue it’s just like “wow nancy rejecting and pushing away anything she views as childish or immature because the last time she really let go in an age appropriate way her best friend died and she’s never recovered from the guilt of that one moment of innocent teenage thoughtlessness so she doesn’t go to parties and she doesn’t make friends and she focuses on work and gives away her stuffed animals and is embarrassed for anyone to know she has posters or music boxes in her room and sleeps with guns under her bed and relentlessly pursued anything she thinks could indicate a threat because she never ever feels safe or in control and Vecna took her back to that swimming pool because she never actually left it in the first place” and then I sit down and cry so hard I throw up

Holy shit, y'all

The Munsons are Catholic.

btw, this is what max would look like whenever she made valentines for lucas

i love el to the bottom of my heart but i feel like we've gotta acknowledge that el is not a sweet harmless cupcake??? that's will byers tbh

el is violent, dangerous, and reactive. and it's obviously for good reasons - she was taught that and has literally zero social skills. she doesn't want to hurt others needlessly, as seen when she refuses to kill a cat. but her reaction to routine bullying (as in, we see other characters subjected to similar in earlier seasons) is literally wanting to kill angela. if she had had her powers, tell me she wouldn't have snapped her neck!

el, even as we left her in s4, truly only knows how to solve problems with violence. she doesn't currently have the interpersonal skills to navigate intimate relationships or difficult situations like bullying. if it's not a villain that can be slain she doesn't know how to proceed.

this is why i really don't think el's character arc can be that she kills vecna and saves the day yet again. she started her character arc with solo violence, and i really don't think she'll end it that way. she doesn't want to be a superhero; she wants support and meaningful relationships.

i really think vecna's defeat will wrap up el's arc by having her need to work with other people in a harmonious way - something that el currently has no idea how to do.

Reminder that Jason backed down almost immediately in the cafeteria scene, that Eddie manhandled Steve with ease in the boathouse scene, that he killed a demobat on his own and that Jason wouldn't attack him without backup. He has beat the shit out of people before, undoubtedly. Good for him.

i was gonna keep this in the tags but fuck it.

he was absolutely the kid in elementary school who had a bad temper and got into scraps, all the other kids called him a spaz but figured he'd grow out of it. except he didn't, and one day he ended up in hopper's office and since then everyone's kept their distance.

everyone except the kids who get bullied and need a place to sit at lunch. the kid whose alcoholic dad embarrassed him at a 4th of july picnic, or the kid who just came out as gay, or the kid who is too poor to afford new clothes. the girls walking to the parking lot after a late night practice let him walk them, bc of course he'd offer. some people say he gets high on cocaine and can't feel any pain, that's why he jumps so eagerly into fights. the adults say he's just mad at the world. and maybe he is. but he's probably the best bodyguard you could ever ask for.

I love how in a lot of hellcheer works Chrissy tutors Eddie and is largely the reason he gets his shit together school-wise and graduates, but we actually see her report card in the show and it’s like

Our girl was barely hanging in there herself

Why I love them and Why they deserved better

"Wayne doesn't know about Eddie's dealing and would be upset if he found out" I'm so sorry but we all saw Eddie rummaging around for lost ket in the kitchen drawers right. Wayne knows. and he cleared that shit away before the cops came!

Grace Van Dien | My experience on Stranger Things - 1/2 [x]

Wayne and Nancy's conversation in Chapter Two tells me a couple of things about how Eddie's personality developed.

Firstly, loyalty. Wayne immediately knows it wasn't Eddie. He stands by him. He's scared, and he still calls the cops to do right by Chrissy, but he's loyal to Eddie.

Secondly, belief in the supernatural. Wayne straight up thinks that either Victor Creel or something akin to Michael Myers was responsible for Chrissy's death. Something "pure evil."

Thirdly, flare for dramatic storytelling. He really spins Nancy a spooky little story on the spot. Like, goddamn, did he need to go that hard?

In conclusion, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Omg imagine when Eddie was young him and Wayne would go camping, and to pass the time they’d sit around a campfire and make s’mores and tell ghost stories, and Wayne would be such a great, captivating story teller, with the flashlight under his chin and everything. and since Wayne was much younger back then, at the end of a particularly scary story he’d even pick Eddie up and throw him over his shoulder, roaring and growling just like the monster. Set the stage for Eddie being a DM 🥲

— joseph quinn on the harassment campaign grace van dien went through just for playing his potential love interest on stranger things.