Pro Billy Hargrove - Tumblr Posts
all of this billy attacked lucas billy attacked a kid he hit a kid-
no. watch it again.
billy came in, held lucas against a wall, told lucas to "stay away from her".
and then lucas kicked him in the nuts. lucas fought back, kicked billy, and billy staggered back. and then what did he do? did billy punch lucas? grab him again?
no.
"you are so dead sinclair," billy yells.
also side note; "he has a name now" billy says to max earlier in the series, yet here billy is using the kid's name. so billy clearly never had a problem with max knowing lucas' name, never thought of lucas as a second class citizen; he was just saying shit his dad woulda said, to try and get max to back off for both their sakes.
"so dead," says billy. but billy doesn't do shit. doesn't set up for a punch, doesn't get ready for a fight. he does fuck all.
because billy hargrove is the king of empty threats. "you know what happens when you lie," billy tells max in the car, when she says lucas is just a guy from school. he makes it seem like if she lies, there will be consequences. but in their next scene together, max is lying to billy about "mormons" being at the door, and billy knows she's lying, it's so obvious. and he doesn't do shit.
'you know what happens when you lie' - nothing. nothing happens when max lies.
because billy's threats are always empty.
because he's not his father. he's not abusive.
it's neil's threats that carry weight. neil threatens billy, and then hits him.
so when billy goes after max, and lucas, and holds lucas against a wall, threatens him; it's a warning. not to lucas, but to max. it's a warning that the next time it might not be him who comes after them. it might be neil. and if neil finds max with lucas, it'll be much worse. cos neil will start throwing punches. hell, if neil hargrove can hit his own son just for not knowing where his sister is, think about what neil would do to the black kid who's been helping max sneak out of the house.
billy's threats are empty. neil's aren't.
and when billy goes into that house and holds lucas against a wall, he wasn't there to beat up lucas, didn't want to go off on some kids. he just threw his weight around, grabbed lucas, to warn max that next time? next time it might be neil who comes looking for her.
and neil will start throwing punches at kids.
Begging pleading needing people to let Billy Hargrove exist without Max Mayfield. Write it on my grave header. Tattoo it on my forehead.
Not everything in context of Billy has to be about, revolve around or relate to Max.
He's his own person. Neil Hargrove forcibly made Billy's life revolve around and to a degree be controlled by Max. I'm literally begging you to stop carrying that trend into fandom and how you interact with fandom content. There's nothing wrong with creating a better, healthier relationship between them but I'm dog-sick of seeing people acting like Billy's entire existence relies on Max. Like there's no feasible value in Billy surviving and thriving unless he's still shackled to Max and to the idea of being her responsible, doting brother.
He was an abused teen shoved into a replacement family that was weaponised against him. Whatever responsibilities you think Billy has to Max I can assure you don't exist.
My new favorite act of warfare is going on Instagram and commenting babygirl on posts involving Billy Hargrove. As we speak I have 16 pending message requests from positively incensed white girls.
Something that will never fail to amuse me about anti-Billy Hargrove stans is just how much room he takes up inside your heads. You can't be on Tumblr for thirty seconds without thinking of him. You can't ever see something involving him and leave it alone. Its an obsession for you. Its eating you alive and he's fake and he doesn't care and all the people who are actually capable of critical thinking skills and compassion and just vibing and you're destroying yourself. He lives in your head and you're not even charging him rent.
you are over the age of 18 and are still making up fake scenarios over these “anti billy hargrove stans” 😭
Is it a fake scenario though. Is it.
I could not have made this up if I tried. Immaculate.
Something that will never fail to amuse me about anti-Billy Hargrove stans is just how much room he takes up inside your heads. You can't be on Tumblr for thirty seconds without thinking of him. You can't ever see something involving him and leave it alone. Its an obsession for you. Its eating you alive and he's fake and he doesn't care and all the people who are actually capable of critical thinking skills and compassion and just vibing and you're destroying yourself. He lives in your head and you're not even charging him rent.
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.'
No, no, they're right.
But also, it does contribute to my analysis of how the approach to characters is different based on whether the canon content is geared more towards realism or fantasy.
Waiting for the thinkpieces about how Astarion and Billy Hargrove are extremely similar characters but only one was well written...