#theyre not supposed to be perfect little examples of goodness and purity

[reikunrei]

there’s people that have and still absolutely scrutinize jonathan to this extent, while never scrutinizing s1 steve on the same level—from the moment he looked through nancy’s window without her knowing to his active participating in her slutshaming. every single time, without fail, each regurgitation of s1 jonathan vs s1 steve discourse by stans based on the pics/slutshaming comes off so hypocritical and stale

like either both are unforgivable or both are recognized as capable of change, and maybe we can finally move on, but this petty ass fandom probably won’t ahhhh

you're right and you should say it!! tbh i hadn't even thought of the comparison to steve, but yeah, like if steve is allowed to actively slutshame nancy and then spit the word queer at jonathan like a slur and be an absolute dick about his family, and still be viewed as capable of change? then jonathan is also allowed some grace lol

i feel like a lot of modern day fandom arguments could be avoided if people stopped looking at characters as people and started looking at them as pieces of the narrative. sure, they're there for us, the viewer, to relate to and whatnot, and it's fine to humanize fictional characters, but they fundamentally cannot be held to the same standards as a real person. at least not entirely, imo

like, jonathan taking those pictures is integral to his character and to the plot. they're a way to show us that he's a loner, that nobody hangs out with him bc he's a bit of a weirdo, and they display that he has this intense yearning to belong, to have friends. it's also important to the plot bc he takes those pictures of barb, which ends up bringing him and nancy together to solve the mystery of her disappearance. like, he HAD to take those pictures. it was important for many, many reasons

and sure, you can still say it was a bad thing to do, but you cannot claim that it shouldn't have happened at all when it is so deeply integral to the story. besides, as i said in my earlier post, he was punished for it in canon! you don't have to keep punishing him for it! he knew it was bad from the start, and then he was reprimanded, and he apologized for it! idk what else you need!

#i just dont think i'll ever understand holding a fictional character accountable for their actions #like. at least from a fandom perspective #like. they're little pieces of a greater piece of art #theyre not supposed to be perfect little examples of goodness and purity #(unless that's the point of the character but it's not in this case so !) #like. especially in this show the characters are meant to be reflections and commentary on real life #and real life is messy and imperfect and we do weird things that we regret later like #and especially if theyre punished for it in canon like. why keep holding it over their head #all humans are capable of change! and jonathan is not a bad guy! #he's a good guy at heart who just did something dumb! #ask #stranger things // #jonathan byers