Billy Deserved Better - Blog Posts

I made a uquiz for Billy bitches only!

Which Billy are you???

This is my first uquiz so don't expect anything good

There have been countless mini-essays about how Billy anti’s hate him because he’s an “inconvenient abuse victim,” and how because he doesn’t react perfectly to his abuser, that that somehow means he deserves to be hated/left behind/left to die.

And it seems that because of this newest interview with Caleb that even some Billy stans here and on twitter are now buying into that kind of thinking too. I can’t even begin to tell you how disappointed I am in those people.

You know all that racist/violent/abusive behavior is from his father, you know that if he’d lived past s3 he would have turned his life around. He’s a 17-18 year old kid in the 80′s, he’s not doomed to forever be a monster.

It’s literally been like: “Oh no! This imperfect character that I like for being imperfect has been acting imperfectly this whole time!” suprise pickachu face blah blah whatever

Or maybe it’s because he represents a certain portion of abuse survivors that don’t become meek and docile but instead angry and aggressive due to not having an active support system to help unlearn unhealthy coping mechanisms like the other characters you mentioned, ever thought of that?

You guys have characters such as Eleven, Max, Will, Jonathan as representation for abuse but you guys pick the racist abuser who likes to attack and threaten children. If he wasn’t an attractive white man y’all would not be on his side.

Hey duffle bags, way to shat all over Dacre’s hard work on trying to humanize Billy whilst he couldn’t be on set to defend him.

some people just don’t like traumatised/abused characters who aren’t soft and sweet and mistake free

the character in question is, in their mind, only valid/worthy of redemption and happiness if they react to trauma in an way that’s deemed ‘appropriate’

Please ignore the shitty quality I don’t know why my phone does this 😂

The world should have protected you.

after the night at the byer’s, billy and steve both sport the same bruises.

and it doesn’t make sense.

steve’s sure he didn’t get that many hits in, and even then, it wasn’t hard enough to give billy a shiner like his.

and the worst part is, he feels bad.

“Hey, man,” He starts, cornering billy after a particularly difficult basketball practice. billy was awful. he kept his shirt on, too, which was weird. steve was benched completely; he can barely see out of one eye, and the other is still swollen shut.

billy’s panting from practice, hunched over as if it hurts to breathe. facing his locker and not replying to steve.

“um,” steve continues. “i…feel bad about what happened this weekend. i was just looking out for the kids, y’know, and i didn’t mean to hit you that h-“

billy turns around, snarling. looking like a battered, cornered wild dog.

“oh fuck right off, harrington,” he spits, and shoulders his way out.

“dude,” steve says, curling his lip. “i’m trying to apologize to you, asshole.”

“i don’t need your apology,” billy replies, and it hurts a little.

“well maybe if you hadn’t been a racist asshole i wouldn’t have had to hit you in the first plac-“

billy seems even angrier.

“i am not a fucking racist, harrington,” he snarls, but it lacks the horror his voice used to hold because of the wounds on his face.

steve grimaces. “yeah, totally, you just attacked lucas because he happened to be the closest.”

billy looks around the locker room as if someone is watching him. nervous.

“it’s not because of that,” he mutters, chewing on his swollen bottom lip.

“then why?” steve presses. “because if i recall, he didn’t do a damn thing to you, billy.”

billy swallows and refuses to make eye contact.

“it’s my fucking dad, harrington. he finds out max is messing around with a black kid and all three of us get a shiner worse than mine. i couldn’t care less about what those little shits are doing, but he does.”

steve’s face softens.

“so you’re…taking the punches for max?”

“that’s a stupid way to put it.”

“i…” steve gapes. “why don’t you go to hopper or something? he could put your dad in j-“

“because, harrington, i’ve got nowhere to go and no one gives a shit anyway if a dad beats his son as discipline. but i can’t let him put a hand on max. she doesn’t deserve it. even if she’s a fucking bitch.”

billy shakes his head like he’s said something awful.

“now you know. congratulations, harrington. i spent all this time stealing your crown and now you know that i’m just a pussy whose dad beats him. have fun spreading that one around.”

billy turns to leave and steve catches him by the arm.

“i’m not going to tell anyone,” he says, and billy scoffs.

“i promise. i’m not like that anymore. like you said…turned bitch.”

billy laughs.

“so, what? you look at me like i’m a kicked puppy every time i come to school with my teeth knocked in? because i’d rather you spread rumors about me instead.”

steve shakes his head.

“i wont do that either. promise. i just…i dunno. can i help in any way?”

billy shrugs him off.

“do what you do, i guess. protect those little shits. i’m not as good with kids as you are, mama bird.”

steve flushed at that and grimaces.

“please do not ever call me that again.”

and they laugh. and it feels nice.

“hey, uh, are you doing anything this friday?” steve asks, and it feels natural.

“probably looking after max. parents like to go out a lot and leave me with her.”

“well, why don’t you and her come with me and we can catch a movie maybe? she can bring lucas and you two can patch things up?”

“are you asking me on a date, harrington?”

steve’s face gets even redder.

“no, i just meant-like y’know, it would be nice, and i could, um-“

“it’s cool. i’ll come by friday. 5:00? you get lucas, i’ll bring max.”

steve nods. “um, yeah. that sounds good.”

billy smiles softly. “good. and don’t pick some girly movie. max and i like slashers.”

“right. got it.”

“see ya, steve.”

billy nudges him before jogging off, undoubtably late to pick up max.

and steve is frozen. what started as an apology for his own moral compass turned into a date. steve’s going on a date? with a boy? no, it was just a joke. maybe. probably.

he hopes it wasn’t, though.

I've accepted that the showmakers will never treat Billy with the same love and care as Dacre or the fandom does and that's okay.

Because every time they throw him in the dumpster, I'll fish him out, hose him down, fix his hair, give him a set of clean clothes and a kiss on the cheek and send him out into my fic and art to be his sleazy hair metal self who's thirsting after the dethroned King of Hawkins, Steve "The Hair" Harrington, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop me.

billy isn't a character.

hes a plot point. an object used for max's development. but he could've been. but the duffer brothers were too lazy to actually put the effort in to redeem him properly. so they took the easy way out and hoped it'd work to kill him off in a hero's sacrifice. which feels hollow and unemotional as he was literally a puppet for 95% of the season.

but they dropped all these hints to deeper shit they could've used to make an actual character-an interesting one too. that they did absolutely nothing with and is never mentioned again.

billy being abandoned by his mother and left with his abusive dad who punishes him for his stepsister's perceived bad behavior. that same father ridiculing him over his perceived masculinity, and calling him slurs when he doesn't perform. a step mom who sees it but doesn't intervene. moved from his hometown against his will. hes alone in a town he hates. no friends, no freedom. he cant even surf any more.

the animosity betweeen billy and max being about the move to hawkins. something mentioned several times but never explained. they both blame each other for it. billys performative masculinity, yet his clear obsession with steve harrington. calling steve pretty boy, the one earring, the very specific slur his father uses against him.

ALL of that is just canon.

now, billy is an asshole straight up. he threatened to run over a bunch of kids for no reason and broke max's skateboard. like yeah. hes such an ass. but theres a lot of complex shit packed in there.

he was screaming for help when he gets possessed, watching himself kill people. he's literally screaming. and nobody gives a single fuck (except for max) and that makes sense for the characters as they've been treated pretty horribly by billy. but he was 17 years old. he never got a chance to change or to even realize he wanted to. thats fucking depressing. him being an abuse victim (and nowhere near a perfect one) means he never got to grow outside of the box hed been shoved in. he never got to be anything else.

he's not a character. not with any motivations or anything. he existed to be in the way and then to die to further max's development. and i can't just be okay with that.