Stoncy Has Consumed Me

You know, out of all my brother's friends, you're my favorite. You've always been my favorite.

And Steve insisting on paying for groceries and bills, and just trying to be as helpful and grateful as possible while living with his best friend and her family. And it goes really well. Insanely well. Well enough to when he's sincerely considered part of the family.

And then when Robin and Steve move out on their own the parents celebrate by asking Steve if they can adopt him. And he cries, Robin cries, the parents cry. And that's how he became Steve Buckley.

Soldier: Nancy

Poet: Jonathan

King: Steve

And I get it to an extent. Nancy shoots things. Jonathan gives good pep talks, particularly to Will. Steve is literally called King.

But I don’t think that’s the only way to read it. Jonathan isn’t really the poet, using his words to cut people down or manipulate people’s perceptions. That could much more easily describe Nancy, who can be very scathing when she wants to be, who is a journalist, who was desperate to reveal the truth about Barb even if it killed her. She yells at Steve in a bathroom and aims right for his insecurities, knowing exactly what they were. She chased down the story about the rats because she knew something was afoot. She nearly got herself and Jonathan killed exposing the truth about Barb because Nancy Wheeler is not a girl who will let herself be muzzled. The truth will come out, whether you want it to or not, because Nancy will hunt it down and tell it.

Steve is the soldier. He doesn’t necessarily want to fight, but he never has a choice. Because he’s the protector, he’s always the one who has to resort to violence. And not easy, clean violence like firing a gun. He’s the one with bloody knuckles and a bloody face. He’s the one who had a plate smashed over his head and bit a bat in half. He’s the one who uses his body as the last line of defense, because it’s all he has.

And Jonathan? Jonathan is the king. He was burdened by so much at such an early age. He had to work and take care of Will. He had to take care of Joyce when Will disappeared. He was the one to plan the funeral. His crown may not be golden, but he’s still weighed down by the expectations placed upon him. He’s the one who had to sacrifice his childhood for someone else’s vision of what he should be. The one who always sacrifices for the good of the kingdom (his family) and never gets thanks because he never lets them see how it hurts him.

I've been watching ST since s1 came out and I feel like over the years peoples opinions of this scene have changed drastically but maybe that's just me?