#andartha

-! -!!

Oh....bugger.

Short answer:

Hope, compassion, grace and positivity. Long answer:

enemies to friends to lovers is a real popular trope. Because mending broken fences? Pretty hopeful and positive.

while Billy is abusive, he is also an abuse victim, and unlike the other abuse victims in the show (El, Kali), he is still currently being abused and unlike them has nobody to help him get out of that abusive situation. Since people are compassionate, they’d like to see Billy escape his father’s abuse and receive the same kind of support as other abuse victims.

since Billy’s violent behaviour is very likely to be the result of the abuse he suffers (because abuse can really fuck with you and give you anger and impulse control issues, amongst other things), there’s the tantalizing possibility of him changing for the better and becoming someone true and good once he’s out of the abusive situation. That’s a rather hopeful, positive message.

redemption arcs, where a villain works at making amends and repaying the debt he owes the people he has wronged are another fave, because again, positive and hopeful. Especially considering that all of us fuck up from time to time, and in that case really would like to be able to redeem ourselves too. And because if someone has wronged us, them offering a heartfelt apology and making amends goes a long way to healing our hurt.

Steve is faster than Billy and he’s good at evading blows when he’s expecting them. And....when he is fresh. Once he’s taken a hit, he’s pretty dazed and no longer in good fighting shape.

But even then, he’s still redeemable.

While, given the info that we have, it is very much possible that Billy isn’t racist, there is an equal (if not higher) possibility that he IS. So interpreting Billy as racist is VALID and it also fits with the interactions we see on the show, since they are ambiguous in that regard. At the same time, we need to stop treating racism like an inborn, unchangeable trait.

Racism is a LEARNED  behaviour.

Which means it can be UN-learned.

And replaced with better, tolerant behaviour and thought patterns.

Also, racism is a base motif for harmful actions, similar to greed or jealousy (though unlike these often part of a wider systemic pattern) and so, if someone wants to change, they need to take responsibility for their past actions.

Which means putting in a lot of hard work to make amends and eating quite a bit of humble pie.

   is dating Nancy Wheeler

   Nancy used to be cool, but has “a stick up her butt” since she started  dating Steve, who the kids consider a douchebag / jerk       

   Nancy dressed up as an Elf for the gang’s Elder campaign four years ago

   Nancy and Steve “made out a couple of times”, but Nancy doesn’t quite consider them together yet (”It was a one time, two time thing...”)

   Steve hangs with Tommy H. and Carol, who are NOT nice people

Steve leaves messages for Nancy to meet him in the bathroom for make-out-sessions

he almost failed chem, got a C-

one meeting point with Nancy is Dearborn and Maple (they never make it there)

he’s surprised that Nancy studies so hard, making flash cards and all. It’s apparently not a thing *he* does. Like…he doesn’t take studying seriously at all, just viewing it as an excuse to make out

flippant about Nancy’s concerns - “Are you crazy? My parents are here” vs. “That’s weird….I don’t see them here”

former girls he made out with apparently include Laury, Amy or Becky and whom he labels as “sluts”

DOES take a no when it’s firm

has some decency. When he sees Jonathan putting up missing posters for Will, he says “Oh god, that’s depressing” but silences Tommy when Tommy goes “bet he killed  him”

but not too much decency. When Tommy and Carol make “Oh Steve!” noises in the cafeteria, basically outing Nancy as having slept with Steve, he can’t help but grin a bit and doesn’t say anything. This despite Nancy telling  him earlier that she was worried about exactly this kind of thing happening.

confronting Jonathan and destroying his camera is less about being protective of Nancy and more about venting his own anger

cares about superficial stuff, like getting in trouble with his parents, when there are lives at stake, and doesn’t want Nancy to talk to the police about the party they had, after which Barbara disappeared. Comes to Nancy later on to apologize though and says he shouldn’t care so much about people’s opinion.

keeps wanting things to be normal. Want to go to the movies with Nancy while Barbara is still missing and “Will’s” funeral just went down

not half bad as a singer

vindictive, selfish little shit. When he thinks she’s been cheating on him, he’s perfectly fine with seeing her publicly humiliated

when he’s angry enough, he WILL start pushing people around “Finish.the.sentence.” and he gets absolutely MEAN: Jonathan just lost his kid brother and here we have Steve Harrington, douche  extraordinaire, shoving Jonathon around and going on and on about Jonathon’s house being a house of screw-ups.

Steve doesn’t suck at fighting…but he isn’t really good at it either. He gets in a few hits, but Jonathan quickly gets the upper hand and beats the shit out of him

realizes when he has fucked up, and does something about it. He takes Tommy and Carol to task for being dicks to Nancy…but for starters, there is a touch of hypocrisy since he postpones holding himself accountable to the same degree.

backs out of a fight when he knows it’s not worth it and he can’t win

ultimately DOES have the spine to admit his mistakes and work at making amends. And apologize.

has a freak-out but ultimately adapts quickly to nasty surprises

WILL run TOWARDS danger for people he cares about

knows how to handle a baseball bat (did you see that little flourish when fighting the Demogorgon?)

is not afraid to take point when they expect to go into battle again