Me: why did the fandom collectively decide that Steve’s parents are never home and severely neglet him? This all seems to be based on the fact that his parents were out of town in S1E2, which we know was just narrative tool to get those teens at the same place at night, doing risky things so Barb could get abducted. We canonically have no reason to believe that his parents are NEVER home. It was one business trip and then their absense is mentioned again, yet it seems to have become a trope in every fic I read. Why did we assume that his parents practically abandoned him in a big empty home? Why did we imagine such a sad lonely life for lil Steve? Why did we do that to our boy?
So I’ve actually thought about this a lot.
I suspect the biggest reason is similar to why the Duffers have never had Steve’s parents onscreen—narrative convenience. Parents are kind of a drag, man—half the stuff we have Steve getting up to wouldn’t work if he had parents who were involved in his life.
But I suspect, with Harringrove writers specifically, the reasoning goes somewhat deeper. Billy can be attracted to Steve for a lot of reasons—he’s pretty, he’s rich, he’s unattainable, he’s good-hearted, he’s loyal, etc. But what would Steve see in Billy, especially post-S2? Sure, he’s slipped a few rungs on the popularity ladder, but Steve has it all—looks, charm, money, lifelong relationships with the people around him.
However…what we see of Steve in the show fits right into the mold of the emotionally neglected teen. Think about his eagerness to please, his obsession with status markers, his nearly instant bonding with people who pay him the remotest bit of attention. If that’s the case, if his parents are nearly always absent, and jerks to him when they’re around (the latter of which is semi-canon already)…of course he’s going to find Billy’s single-minded attention alluring, however he might try to ignore it.
Additionally, it’s worth considering that emotional abuse and neglect is a topic that gets very little attention in the public consciousness. Sure, people who physically abuse or neglect their children are awful, we all agree—but emotional abuse and neglect takes a toll every bit as severe. Parents who are never there? Who tell you you’re stupid? Who don’t acknowledge you as a separate human being with your own choices to make? Yeah, that shit leaves marks—they’re just harder to see at first glance.
Of course Steve and Billy are going to be drawn to each other—they’re both damaged, both broken. The question is whether they can find ways for those broken edges to fit together in a healthy way, where they strengthen each other’s weak points and inspire each other to heal and grow, or whether they slip into the pattern of reinforcing each other’s dysfunction and spiral down into something destructive and traumatic all its own.
I’m starting a tag game because I think it will be fun and I’m bored. So post a picture of your most weird or obscure childhood crush and tag some friends to do the same.
When I was very young my Grandma bought me a copy of the 1957 version of The Pied Piper of Hamelin. For some reason I fell in love and went through a short period where I would watch it at least once a day. My little 8 year old heart beat so fast for the Piper. For a while I wondered if it was some weird childhood fever dream but then found my old video. So yeah lol.
This funky lil character is called Fly and he’s from a movie called “Help! I’m a fish” it was a strange movie and as a youngling I had a very big crush on him because he was cOoL
And also these two.. Milo because he was voiced by Michael J Fox and I had a THING for him especially in back to the future too and the Kida because she was freaking HOT okay
Just for reference here’s a pic of Marty Mcfly aka Michael J Fox because I was in love with him
