Steve X Nancy - Tumblr Posts

Okay, disregard my previous post. This actually makes a lot of sense.

Steve was never the "safe" option for Nancy. Jonathan was.

Nancy has an ongoing trait of taking action to avoid feeling emotionally vulnerable, and hooking up with Jonathan after breaking up with Steve fits this pattern. She already shares a powerful emotional connection with Jonathan because of their shared trauma, which made him the perfect candidate to be her rebound. At this point, Nancy feels ambivalent towards Steve, a confusing mix of love and resentment. She's convinced herself that Jonathan is a better option for her because she's projected the traits of her ideal partner onto him, as seen in 4x1 when she's telling Fred why she loves him. And it’s easy for Nancy to project these traits onto Jonathan because she’s seen him display them – towards his family. He’s caring and compassionate towards his family. He’s protective over his family. He’ll never back down from what’s right for his family.

This is the biggest source of tension between Nancy and Jonathan in season 3. Nancy is expecting Jonathan to be all those things for her, to be compassionate and protective when she's being mistreated by their bosses at the Hawkins Post, to want to investigate the rat story with her because she's right. But Jonathan won't do that, because his priority will always be his family, and he doesn’t consider Nancy to be his family. This isn't a new trait either. In season 1, Jonathan doesn’t do anything to defend Nancy from Steve and his friends, only fighting Steve when he starts insulting Jonathan’s family. But the lady at the police station then convinces Nancy that Jonathan did this out of love for her, which contributes to her misunderstanding of him. Deep down, both of them are aware of this. It's not a coincidence that after making such a big deal about Nancy not being able to say that she loves Steve, the show never has Nancy and Jonathan say it to each other onscreen.

Murray is wrong about his assessment of Nancy as "retreating back to the safety of...Steve" in 2x6 (mainly because he is, by his own admission, only guessing because she's "harder to read") but he's right about Jonathan. He has trust issues. This is why Nancy has to jump out Jonathan’s window in the morning rather than leave with him through the front door, even though Joyce and Will are clearly aware of her presence and their relationship. This is reminiscent of how Jonathan complains to Joyce about Bob spending the night in season 2. To Jonathan, Nancy has always been an outsider to his family unit, which is coming to a head now when he's choosing to stay with his family over his relationship with her. He also shows that he's projecting onto her too; despite telling Argyle about how ambitious Nancy is, he still expects that she'd give up her dreams to be with him in California and end up resenting him.

After their argument in season 3, Nancy says to Jonathan “I guess we just don’t understand each other anymore.” The truth is, they never did. They just happened to have intersecting goals in the past, which disguised their disconnect. If Nancy’s rat story hadn’t ended up being related to the Upside Down, this fight likely would have resulted in their breakup. Instead, Nancy gets to see all those traits she wants in a partner in Jonathan again (though still not directed at her. He does nothing to save her when she's about to get hit by Billy's car) and once again convince herself that he is that ideal partner, delaying their breakup.

Meanwhile, Steve has been growing into someone who actually embodies Nancy's ideal partner traits. This has always been at the heart of Steve's character arc. Nancy's character arc is about overcoming her fear of emotional vulnerability, which is the main reason for Stancy's breakup (she attempts to bury her resentment towards Steve and their relationship until it eventually explodes out of her when she was drunk, and she can't tell him she loves him). Her encounter with Vecna creates the perfect opportunity for her to finally address this flaw, to forgive herself and Steve for what happened to Barb, and to be honest about her feelings. Then she and Steve will finally be ready for each other.

The J*ncy breakup and Stancy reconciliation doesn't just makes sense. It was inevitable.

DON’T COME FOR ME BUT

I ship Stancy. People always say Steve deserved better and completely ignore Nancys trauma. Everything was fine up until Barbs death then Nancy suffered from survivors guilt and blamed herself for Barbs death as if she had any idea what would happen when she went to sleep with Steve. It wasn’t her fault but she still blamed herself. She literally says ALL of this to Steve in season 2 when they’re in the bathroom at that party, she says the line “As if we didn’t kill Barb” and all Steve (and everyone else) focuses on is the fact she doesn’t love him.

We also see this in season 1. Everyone goes at Nancy for having Jonathan sleep in her bed but she had PTSD. She was scared and she couldn’t talk to anyone about it except him cause who else would believe her? Then Steve sees and (fair enough) gets the wrong idea but instead of talking to her he allows his friends to PUBLICLY slut shame her and yet people still say he deserved better.

Then Nancy and Jonathan bonded over the shared trauma/monster hunting but honestly all the characters bonded over that. And I think Murray a complete stranger telling them they were right for each other isn’t as much proof as teenagers their own age looking at Stancy and saying yeah there’s definitely something there.

My point is Nancy and Steve were really happy until Barbs death then Nancy had personal problems that Steve (no fault of his) couldn’t understand but also never really tried to. He just wanted things to go back to how they were before. Which Nancy (no fault of hers) couldn’t do anymore. Neither deserved better than the other they were both good people who made mistakes and were a classic case of right person wrong time.

And the right time is now. I don’t think it’s back tracking like some people say. They’ve both spent time apart and have grown as people. Steve has matured (you’ll NEVER see him letting anyone get slut shamed) and Nancy has (for the most part) recovered from Barbs death. I think it’s a nice full circle moment.

And that is why I ship Stancy

headcanons about that period between season 2 and 3, like after the breakup and they navigating the rest of the school year in a unfamiliar distance? How their routine would change. I think about that a lot

After the events of season 2, Nancy hyper focused on journalism and becoming part of the school paper. Her passion for investigation and seeking truth came from her journey of uncovering the secrets of HNL, but also needing to keep herself busy to keep her mind off of Steve and the Steve shaped hole in her life.

Steve, on the other hand... He hung out with Dustin some weekends, but the rest of the school year was a blur. He continued with basketball and the swim team, but only because he was going through the motions. He wasn't sure exactly who he was ever since he lost Nancy and he didn't want to go back to the old crowd of "friends" he ditched, and at that point wasn't ready to find out yet. Hell, he was so aloof and in his own head that he didn't even notice that he was getting bagel crumbs all over the floor in class or care that prom queen Tammy Thompson practically asked him to ask her on a date nearly every Friday for three months before she eventually gave up.

Both Steve and Nancy have important relationships and lives beyond their romantic relationship with one another, but I think that losing each other shook both their worlds far more than they wanted to admit to themselves, which was shown a bit in season 3. They didn't know how to process not being a part of each other's life anymore and neither one handled it well.

IKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

like i'm sorry but jonathan is such a homewreaker for being all cute and stuff with nancy in s1 and then like s4 he's just talking about slowmotion breaking up with nancy like i can't j@ncy is sooooo toxiccccc😭😭😭😭😭

and the fact steve literally was always there for nancy like hello?

he clearly loves her and cares for her much more than jonathan like he fr looks like the grinch💀💀💀💀

stancy literally for life

can we all just agree that j*nathan is the homewrecker and Steve never tried to homewreck j*ncy because a lot of people still think Steve was at fault when he's not. j*n literally tried to get Nancy to break up with Steve right from the beginning in Season 1 when he tries to get in her head about ending up with a one time jock. He had no right to say this stuff to her. Then in Season 2, when they are at Murray's creepy basement, he knows Nancy is with Steve and he still sleeps with her. Meanwhile Steve has been supportive and respectful of Nancy's decision to be with j*n. He told her to go with j*n in S2 while he stayed back to look after the kids and then in S4 he tells her that they should all hang out as a group (including Robin). The 6 nuggets speech is literally a reference to the party (sadly not including Erica) and I don't get why people still don't understand that lol he literally told her the truth about his feelings since they are headed towards a situation where their death is possible. He's not trying to tell Nancy she needs to break up with her boyfriend. He's just thanking her for helping him change and he regrets how things ended because he thinks things could have gone differently. Let's also remember that Steve and Nancy never get to have any closure in their relationship or have a discussion at all throughout the seasons because everyone does the talking for them and makes decisions on their behalf (Murray technically decided for Nancy that she should be with j*n - sorry but their relationship has never felt consensual to me). This is actually the first time we see that they get to talk about how it ended, and for some reason people are upset that they are finally getting the chance to talk??!?

I literally can't get this thought out my head after re-watching Stranger Things, what if Jonathan took a chance with Samantha at the party would steve and Nancy still be together or would she still break up with him and just pinning over Jonathan like he did in the beginning