#and like Nancy doesn't think of him except when she's at her low in s4

[jonathanbyersphd]

"And he never thinks of me except when I'm on TV/And I never think of him except on midnights like this" is St*ncy in s4 btw

[kaypeace21]

Hey, can we talk about Jonathan? You're one of the few blogs that seems interested in his trajectory as a character, you always have good thoughts. Most people seem to think stoner Jonathan is funny, but he looks in a bad way to me. I wonder if that's what the fight with Mike is about. It looks like Jonathan has given up on himself. Maybe he isn't being there for Will either, except for basic stuff like rides to school. (Jancy break-up, or mental health issues? I can't decide. Maybe both.)

I know! With jonathan most people don't like or care to think about Jonathan's trajectory... and if so their expectations are low.

I don't think that's why they're fighting - they may be freaking out if El was just taken away from the roller rink or something. And then bam now the gov breaks into the room/house. But who knows...

As far as his trajectory i think it'll be rough for a while.

He may feel left behind by everyone. Will was was supposed to be Jonathan's " best friend " /sibling. And now Will is probably busy being a sibling to el ? Who everyone probably assumes is Will's sibling -over jonathan. Cause willel look more alike. Maybe that's why they say argyle is now Jonathan's "new best friend" on st official twitter. Cause jonathan felt left behind by Will his prior "best friend. " Not to mention joyce is probably trying to help El adjust- but is thus accidentally neglecting jonathan, the oldest, in the process . So now he feels joyce and Will left him behind 😭

Not to mention - jonathan and nancy probably broke up. So now he has no gf and through his perspective: nancy, his mom and brother also emotionally' left him'- that could easily fuel his parental abandonment issues with Lonnie. :(

We know jonathan is a parentified child - he pretty much made his whole purpose in life taking care of his family (aka his mom and brother- both emotionally and finacially ) . He also was always stuck working.And now the byers - whether because of el's inheritance or dr. owens secretly helping,etc, - have a nice house (and jonathan is probably not needed to finacially support them anymore). His whole purpose is taken away. His whole family is probably busy helping El adjust, and possibly through Jonathan's warped perspective they don't seem to need him finacially or emotionally anymore . And joyce,Will, and Nancy all left him behind- just like lonnie.

Not to mention- without the need to constantly work jonathan doesn't have a distraction from his possibly very tra*matizing past. And that could also severely affect his mental health.

We see in some s4 movies this is implied. "Backdraft" the brothers get into the fight: " what you're not a fan of the way I raised you? Dad wasn't around what was i supposed to do? I wanted so many things for you- things I could never dream of cause after that I had no choices".

In "reality bites " winona's character (who makes documentaries)was in her words stuck being a parent to her younger sibling after her parents divorced. And now doesn't have much direction- now that she's officially an adult. "in the visit" the older sibling is also making a documentary- and she was taught things about cameras by her dad who abandoned the family. The siblings get into a fight- when the younger sibling says they thought their dad left cause he messed up in a sports game. The older sibling insitinctually says that's obviously not true , and its not the younger sibling's fault. Which offends the younger sibling who thought this was the case for years . So he says something to hurt the older sibling's psyche and make them cry. The older sibling also was friends with a pizza guy. Yikes.

In some of the movies said to inspire s4: characters act out due to tra*ma - by doing dr*gs/being hyperse*ual. Probably jonathan.

in "enter the void"- older brother who was stuck taking care of his younger sibling. Who even cut his hand like jonathan- started doing dr*gs and ho*king up with a woman old enough to be his mom. gilbert grape: older brother is parentified and is stuck taking care of his mom and siblings, snaps emotionally, also hooks up with an older married women way too old for him. Tw: sa/inc*st. In magnolia & forrest gump & girl with the dragon tattoo, and many other films the character who was sex*ally abused by a parent -starts coping with dr*gs and being hyperse*ual. In magnolia she was into blasting rock music super loud in her room, doing dr*gs , and h**king up with strangers old enough to be her dad - and was afraid to admit what her dad did to her as a kid. In forerest gump- jenny was also m*lested by her father in elementary school- and as a teen and adult she started playing music, doing dr*gs and h**king up with ab*sive guys (similar to her dad). This storyline of doing dr*gs /h**kups cause of se*ual tra*ma stemming from her dad was in- girl with the dragon tattoo,as well. And we also had this storyline hinted at in "black swan " (friend jokes about her creepy ab*sive parent- so she pops the pill when she initially rejected it, then she starts hallucinating and hearing the parent's voice "that's my little girl". She then finds herself making out with a stranger in a bathroom, and runs out of there when she stoped blacking out ). Like that stuff wasn't that subtle- she then goes home and hallucinates ho*king up with someone- and the imaginary person say the exact same phrase as the creepy parent "that's my little girl'. And the parent always made creepy comments,etc... And I'm sadly not exaggerating when I say over 30+ movies on the s4 list- had a plot line about an adult or parent/relative se*ually ab*sing their kid (which wasn't simply up to interpretation). So yeah, I think jonathan may not be coping well now that he has no distractions from his past ...

Also they gave jonathan a Blond Billy-esque mullet ,that's suspicious.

Him and billy do have obvious differences. But the parallels are still there.

Jonathan does have a blonde mullet/is smoking (like Billy), and probably working at “surfer boy’ (like how billy surfed when in Cali,as a boy). Johnathan was even forced to k*ll a rabbit by his dad- billy's surname-hargrove means “field of rabbits”.Both were attracted to wheeler women. Both attacked steve when a younger sibling dissappear. Both are poor and had a parent abandon them.And both their dads: play baseball, call their sons h*mophobic names , and had a son named William who was posssessed .

They say in the runaway max novel: Billy acted worse after moving from California to hawkins. The same could be true for when jonathan moves to California (from hawkwins) . Also his hair sort of resembles Joyce's s1 hair a bit too- which still isn't good cause joyce in s1 wasn't in the best head-space.

I remember after s3 charlie heaton said he wanted to see "jonathan lose his mind... because he's been through all this stuff and can't take it anymore". And it seemed like it could be a bit of eerie foreshadowing .

Maybe I'm totally off- and Jonathan's whole plot is comedic. But I'm not so sure about that... I mean argyle will definitely be comedic. If anything argyle could be a foil to jonathan. Argyle being a happy dude who is just having fun smoking some w**d. Vs jonathan who is using it to avoid more deep seeded issues. I don't know i just have a feeling that jonathan ... is dealing with some stuff.