I'd Actually Really Like You To Tell Me Where You Think Billy Should've, Or In Fact Even Could've Gotten

I'd actually really like you to tell me where you think Billy should've, or in fact even could've gotten help from. And not from the standpoint of a modern fan watching a historical-setting TV show with therapy and modern concepts of psychology and sociology at your finger tips.

I'm talking about where does an abused, bipolar, isolated, terrified victim living in an era where beating your kids is discipline, stuck in a backwater town full of snotty teenagers and gruff men in their fifties, get help?

Therapy in the eighties was for war vets, alcoholics and depressed housewives. The cops were just as likely to beat you up as your abusive parent. A town like Hawkins was unlikely to have any viable professional options for therapy outside of some underqualified school counsellor. Much less anywhere an 'orphaned' almost-adult with no money and no other family could go.

Billy is a complete stranger to anyone in Hawkins, so its not even like he has any foundation of trust or respect or loyalty to rely on.

Billy realistically has no money (the moment he eventually gets a job he's possessed and killed anyway), nowhere to go, no support system, no understanding of himself, no resources.

And lets not forget; the first person to know about Billy's abuse left him behind, the second watches him get abused, and the third routinely believes he deserves it and is frequently, even if unintentionally, the cause of it.

Telling people that Billy should've just helped himself, or asked for help, is like telling a homeless person to just 'stop being homeless.'

Every now and then I get a sudden resurgence in bot followers and I sit and ponder what sin I committed on this site that lead them to my trail. Which post did I like, which seed follower did I miss, which of my posts drew them in like moths to a flame?

Just know that all the time you take typing out huge hate rants on my posts is wasted on me. It takes me less than 10 seconds to delete it and I never think about it again.

Creative freedom in the 911 fandom will get you sniped on sight by a Madney blog.

The fact that we're slowly losing the understanding that if we want more of something like a TV show or a type of merch we have to support it is. Astonishing, honestly.

People are demanding to know why they should have to spend money on X or tweet about Y or leaving ratings and reviews on Z and why can't they just get more of it without having to do anything for it and each time I want to shake them and tell them that its a transaction.

Studios don't make movies for free. Creators don't make merchandise for free. If a TV show has dirt-low numbers, the service is going to cancel it so it stops making a loss and can funnel resources into something more popular.

I cannot stress this enough. If you want something to succeed and if you want more of something, you absolutely have to engage with it and support it and push for more.

Creator and fan relationships are transactions. The creator gives you the content in exchange for things like your money, your ratings and your views.

omg so true about the 911 thing!! don’t they get exhausted?? I’m certainly exhausted by seeing them blast fics they don’t agree with continuously

I can honestly say its reached the point where if I see a discourse post about 911's fans and fan content, I know its a Madney blog before I even look at the URL.

Its perfectly fine to generally disagree with what someone has written, or to dislike what they have written. But the solution to that is to simply move on and not read it. Everyone would happier that way.

Fanfiction is like food. Its personal. Everyone has different tastes. If someone is eating food or making food you don't like, you are under no obligation to eat it and you certainly have no right to demand that they stop cooking/eating.