it’s been a good year since nancy graduated by season 5, yes? or at least 6 months i’m not really sure. and in that year, she has killed innumerable military personnel. i don’t know a fucking thing about emerson, but is an unexplained gap year and, more importantly, homicide not a concern? nancy’s just sliding in (and out of) emerson?

because what do you mean the girl who got into this whole upside down business because of her guilt associated with this one particular event never resolved that guilt with the person she shares it with?

and what do you mean the guy who got into this whole upside down business because he loves this girl so very much never even found out if this girl loves him back?

if you’ve seen my blog before, you’d know that i am quite categorically salty about their respective endings. neither of their endings made even the slightest sense to me, unless conformitygate is in fact happening, and that’s a whole different rabbit hole.

nancy, whose arc was about dealing with her guilt, learning how to depend on the people around her, and maybe, for just fucking once, actually communicating her feelings, did not find resolution on any of these fronts.

similarly, steve, whose arc was about rising above the high school status quo, finding his path in life by coming to terms with who he actually is, and leaving the town that is both his cage and his safety net, did not find resolution on any of these fronts.

the only way this shit makes sense to me is if it is deliberate. if this regression to who they thought they were meant to be at the beginning of the show is a subconscious coping mechanism to deal with trauma. if the show was meant to end ambiguously for these characters.

in which case, i am fully for it. historically, steve and nancy are one of the few characters that have this tendency to consider everything their responsibility. nancy, with her guilt. and steve, with his care for the children.

given that neither of these perceived responsibilities have been fully sorted by them, it makes sense for them to be unfulfilled. and to regress to the vision they obviously don’t have for themselves anymore.

nancy, by putting herself onto this path of intellectuality and forced seriousness. and steve, by dedicating himself to more children. literally please just let steve have a meaningful conversation with someone his own age who isn’t fucking jonathan.

steve and nancy having a conversation was so unbelievably crucial to their arcs. and i’m not even talking as a stancy shipper right now. just as a general watcher of the show and someone who cares deeply about these characters.

because for nancy, steve represents the guilt she has been wearing like armour for nearly half a decade. and for steve, nancy is the one person that has ever caused him to have hope or ambition in any sense of the words.

if nothing else, their arcs could not possibly come to a conclusion before they deal with these points i.e. each other.

no closure -> no completion of individual arcs -> regression to past idealisations

we have never once seen nancy happy when she is alone. i think some people really need to figure out the difference between being stoic and literally just suppressing one’s emotions.

and yes, while i do believe that nancy needs to be alone with herself in various aspects to understand herself better, i don’t think her character development is one that requires her to lack any meaningful one-on-one companionship by the end of it.

all her endeavours to go it alone have been sacrificial in nature. shooting at billy, going to the library by herself (which isn’t sacrificial, per se, but running on the assumption that you won’t be believed doesn’t have a lot of positive connotations), literally offering herself as bait in the finale of the show.

which is why i just don’t see the arc she has been accorded as being a positive thing. this isn’t even about stancy or jancy. i’m just sick and tired of media misrepresenting a strong female as a lonely one.

because tell me why a man’s arc usually ends up with him learning a life lesson and getting the girl, but a girl is only self-actualised if she doesn’t get the guy? as though her being alone is the only evidence required to declare that she doesn’t need anyone?