#it is much more stobin fanfiction

[hedgefrogpresents]

We Wrote Stranger Things Season Five But There's Gay Vampires And It's A Puppet Theater

I wrote a 95 page treatment of how Stranger Things season five would go if I got to be in charge of it and then we acted it out scene-by-scene in the Hedgefrog Puppet Theater and made our friends voice characters with us and also there's a musical number and a drag bar and Eddie is alive and he and Steve are hooking up but it is NOT romantic it is PURELY sexual and also Steve and Robin are a horse and Max gets to have a sword (as a treat) 💕🦇✨🐎💕

[thefreakandthehair]

@eddiemonth prompt, oct 12th: Soulmates | Eight - Sleeping at Last | Perceptive a/n: steddie, soulmates au (phillia + eros). eddie & jeff as platonic soulmates, stobin soulmates mentioned always. un-betaed because I’m challenging myself to write these in under an hour. read on ao3 | link to masterpost on ao3

Soulmates, Eddie scoffs to himself as he doodles in his notebook at the back of the coffee shop. Bullshit. 

He knows it’s actually not, that people walk around every day hand-in-hand with beautiful, swirling tattoos that grow in intricacy and detail the more time they spend with their soulmate. Most days, Eddie doesn’t mind that the simple snake design on the inside of his wrist never so much as slithers, but today? Today, he minds. 

Dating in the world of soulmates is challenging. He tries to just focus on how feels, on if the person sitting across from him is compatible with his lifestyle, on if there’s any kind of spark, but it’s inevitable that at some point, both he and his date look down at their wrists to find nothing. 

His coffee date had gone well enough but, like always, was a dead-end. How many paths can one person try before the destination seems moot? 

So he sits and scribbles in his notebook, hoping that perhaps staying in the coffee shop rather than returning home to the apartment he shares with Jeff will provide some inspiration. That tattoo, the one that’d started as a small star on his ankle, has grown into a whirling galaxy since moving in with Jeff�� a philia connection if he’s ever seen one. But if his eros tattoo won’t build upon itself naturally, he’ll do it manually with a tattoo gun. 

It also helps that the barista is perhaps the most beautiful man Eddie’s ever laid eyes on, enough so that it’s… actually a little intimidating, if he’s being honest with himself. Intimidating to the point that Eddie’s yet to approach him for a refill since the girl who’d given him his first sugary abomination finished her shift. Besides, the mystery barista must’ve already found his soulmate. His entire left arm, from fingertip to at least his elbow, is covered in delicate, colorful designs that twist and wind about his skin, curling around each finger and looping gracefully up his arm.

I can still enjoy the view, he justifies to himself, taking a sip from his cup and remembering for the third time that it’s empty. 

He sighs and sets it back down, clearing his throat. It’s as good a time as any, he supposes, as he stands from his little corner table by the window and strolls across the room to the counter. 

“Hi, what can I get started for ya?” The barista asks, his name tag now visible and proclaiming Steve. 

“Uh,” he starts. “Salted caramel mocha, please?” 

Steve’s smile is bright and he leans on the counter, leveling it straight in Eddie’s direction. All Eddie wanted was a refill on his sweet treat disguised as coffee and instead, it feels as though he’s smacked in the head.

“Comin’ right up,” Steve replies, turning around to get his order going. “You’ve been sitting over there for a while, how’d that date go?” He asks with the confidence and familiarity of someone Eddie’s known his entire life. 

“Watching me, were you?” 

Steve grins over his shoulder, shrugging. “A little.” 

“I’m flattered. Well, I’m still here and they’re not so that oughta tell you everything.” 

Steve hums and turns back to the machine, finishing up his order. Eddie’s heart beats rhythmically, somehow slowing and quickening all at once and his lungs feel buoyed by something more powerful than his breath. When Steve faces him again and hands him his cup, exchanging it for the empty one in Eddie’s hand, they both freeze. 

Eddie’s snake begins to move. 

A clear, serpentine movement at the center as small, geometric lines begin to appear in the background. 

“Holy shit,” Eddie whispers, setting his full cup down so he doesn’t spill it. 

“Yeah, holy shit.” Steve places his other arm on the counter, the blank one, and Eddie sees that it’s not blank. There’s a small, barebones tree on his forearm whose leaves begin to blossom and shake, different shades of greens and oranges appearing before his eyes. 

“But– your other arm?” Eddie chokes out, eyes flickering between his own wrist, Steve’s forearm, and Steve’s other, fuller arm. 

“Philia. That’s Robin. But this one, this is eros.” Steve smiles again, matching the one Eddie can feel spreading across his own face as he looks up from his forearm. “I’m Steve.”

Steve smiles again, matching the one Eddie can feel spreading across his own face as he looks up from his forearm. Eddie looks in wonderment, searching for any sign of lie or trickery in Steve’s eyes and finds nothing but warmth and familiarity. 

“I’m Eddie.”

[strangertheories]

As someone who is neutral on ronance, I think people don't particularly like it because, from what I've seen, sometimes fics sideline, downplay, or even ignore Robin's friendship with Steve. I know this also happens in other ship fics but I think because it's his ex it gets under skin more?

Disclaimer: this is heavily sarcastic!

I agree, our fandom sidelines Steve too much. He only has over 43,615 fics written about him on ao3! Ronance must have so much more than that!

Wait...it looks like there are nearly 7 times as many Steve fics as Ronance, how peculiar.

Well I guess it makes sense. The fandom likes Steve, but the Ronance fandom ignores him. That's why if you remove the tags Steve Harrington and Steve Harrington & Robin Buckley you lose nearly two thirds of all Ronance fics!

And if you filter the completely unrelated tag Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson tag on Ronance fics, surely the vast majority of Ronance fanfiction will remain? Right?

Ok, I'm not being sarcastic now: if you want to read fan fiction including Steve Harrington or Steddie or platonic Stobin, go ahead! I enjoy reading platonic Stobin fics too, and I've defended their friendship multiple times. However, saying people dislike Ronance shippers for not centering a completely different character and friendship seems a bit unfair to me, especially when statistically (as shown above), this fandom, including the Ronance fans, are very focused on Steve.

I'm sorry if I come across as rude, I'm not trying to be, it's just quite frustrating how this f/f ship is criticised for not centering around a male character enough. You can prefer reading Ronance fics that talk about Steve and about that friendship, but it's also ok if they don't. Do people criticize Steddie shippers for not talking about platonic Stobin enough? I don't think so.

[thestobingirlie]

I feel like you will understand some very specific gripe I have with a few Steddie fics.

1. When people take the Stobin bathroom scene and make it about Eddie. It makes me want to tear my hair out. The whole perfect thing about the bathroom scene is the Steve is into Robin, tells her, and then reacts in the best way possible when Robin tells him that she’s a lesbian and therefore can’t be attracted to him. And instead of being an asshole, Steve immediately pivots to making Robin feel accepted in his goofy way. I hate it when people rewrite it to be Eddie that Steve is confessing about :(

2. When Steve is genderbent but only so Eddie can be straight and Steve can be a self-insert. Like if Steve was always a girl, Robin would absolutely have been obsessed with girlSteve over Tammy and Steve had a crush on Robin in canon like in point one, so why wouldn’t they be dating?? I could understand if the authors wrote it that Stobin tried to date, but figured out they were better as friends, but usually Robin is almost totally forgotten in fics like that.

3. This is kinda like point 2, but when Steve is trans fem in fics just so Eddie has a girlfriend again. My favorite trans fem Steve fic is one where Robin is figuring out that she has a crush on Steve while Steve is figuring out that his gender is different, and is honestly more nonbinary than trans fem in the but it’s just so good in my opinion. It doesn’t make sense when people fuck with Steve’s gender but leave his relationship with Robin the same? It just makes no sense in my brain.

anyone making the bathroom scene about characters other than robin are not seeing heaven. that is a stobin moment, and that is robin’s coming out. (i also just don’t see the point in it!!! that’s the way she would come out not anybody else. just be creative!!! that’s the point of fanfiction!!!)

i think with stevie, what’s happening is that people are deathly afraid of getting accused of shipping stobin, so run in the opposite direction when it comes to transfem, or genderbent steve. i mean, steve in canon had a crush on robin, was and/or is (depending on how you interpret it) attracted to robin. and if stevie’s around, i don’t see why robin wouldn’t find her hot, or want to date her etc.

also, this is kind of a different complaint, but so much transfem stevie content is literally just about her gay boyfriend (it is always stressed that he is gay and has never been attracted to women), and i hate it lol. i’m here for HER

[stobinesque]

P for the fic asks thingy!!! 💗

P: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an "architect" or a "gardener"? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the storu unfold as you go?)

Can I be a landscape architect? For original fiction I lean toward gardener, but I've found that with fanfiction I have an easier time coming up with structures for my fic ideas. (At least a part of that is because I tend to write largely within the confines of canon, and lean toward character study-style fics.) I have a hard time getting started on a fic if I don't have a rough blueprint of where it's supposed to go, and I need at least the next few feet of train track laid out ahead of me as I work on a specific section of a fic. That being said, my outlining process is generally pretty iterative. I"ll loosely outline when I start a project, then do a detailed outline for the first few chapters, and as I finish those I'll do a more detailed outline for the next few chapters based on how what I've actually written has changed from what I first planned.

Also because most of my fics are fairly dialogue heavy, and Steve and Robin especially have a tendency to take their conversations in wildly unexpected directions, I cannot reliably outline a Stobin fic beyond general plot beats, because there's a good chance they decide to randomly flee the state in chapter three when they were supposed to just be hanging out.

[buck-yyyy]

an explanation of stranger things tumblr <3

okay so the thing with the stranger things fandom is that it’s VERY divided by ships- so i’m like. in one very specific corner of it yk? i’m in the crowd of literally ~74k~ people on tumblr who are focused on byler, which is primarily about analysis.

so we’ve got the film and english majors analyzing the SHIT out of cinematography, writing, micro expressions, etc etc in order to compile evidence towards byler endgame in season five. it’s lowkey really really impressive some of the stuff that people have picked up on, i can show you if you’re curious. but we just kinda stick to our own corner? there’s a conscious effort not to cross tag, and for the most part people are chill about letting other people do their thing.

then you’ve got the m*levens, who a lot of are fine and really nice, actually, but there’s a fairly decent chunk who devote way too much of their time into invading byler inboxes to spew made up shit about m*leven and rant about byler, most of which is wildly homophobic or borderline pedophilic at worst. we don’t talk about them. for a while m*levens had an issue with crosstagging, and invading the byler tag with shit, but that’s gotten a lot better, so theyre fairly chill now. so despite the shipping war we both just tend to stay in our own spaces to quietly fire shots at the other ship that are properly tagged so the other people never see it- peaceful m*leven shippers ily and you are never included in my ranting about the other members of your tag <3

then you’ve got the st*ddies. the FUCKING st*ddies. a lot of them are really cool! but a LOT a lot of them crosstag SO MUCH. they tag their fics and posts with other ships and characters that aren’t at all mentioned in order to gain more traction, meaning that a good chunk of the byler fanfiction on ao3 is really just st*ddie fanfiction that’s horribly tagged. fuck the shitty taggers, y’all SUCK.

lumax, ronance, jopper and elmax shippers are super chill, just kinda peacefully doing their thing while everyone else goes absolutely apeshit over everything.

j*ncy and st*ncy shippers are constantly at each other’s throats, that’s,, a lot to unpack.

and one other section of the overall stranger things fandom. the fuckin weirdoes.

this section includes the billy stans who are willing to forgive him for being a racist abusive fuckwad simply because he’s pretty, the stobin shippers who enjoy erasing the fact that robin is literally gay, and the m*levens who spend their time popping into byler inboxes practically drooling over the thought of a m*leven sex scene, which is the most fucked up part of relatively surface stranger things tumblr. we don’t talk about any of these people.

i’m not even going to bother talking about the h*rringroves.

and a bit more about byler tumblr because i have a lot to say on the matter- it’s kinda subdivided into smaller sections of people each doing different things, even more so than most other divisions on the overall fandom. there’s of course some overlap, and people will reblog stuff from all over the board, but for the most part people stick to creating one or two specific things. the divisions are the artists, fanfic authors, theorizers, shitposters, and debaters.

the artists and fanfic authors are self explanatory.

the theorizers are absolutely INSANE at what they do, i’m constantly amazed by how much smarter these people are than me.

the shitposters just kinda hang around making jokes and screaming about whatever new crumbs we got that day.

the debaters are.. interesting. they’re the ones that get the most hate in their inboxes, and rather than ignore it, or post it and just make fun of the asker, they end up starting huge arguments on their blog with anonymous askers. they’re pretty cool tbh? they do a really good job of summarizing all our evidence into clear concise points, it’s just. a little overwhelming to see constant fighting over in one corner.

but yeah! stranger things tumblr as summarized by a byler who enjoys poking around other tags :)

[stregoniconiconii]

I thought I was the only one tired of all the untagged r*nance in steddie/gen fic! I have them filtered out on ao3 for a reason, so why I'm still seeing it? I know not everyone is a stobin first, but I am. so for me it's unthinkable to even imagine Robin dating Nancy (or Steve dating Tammy/Vicki). they would never break the girl/bro/bff code like that😔

untagged relationships get to me in general I just don't like getting jump scared altho I have to say I empathise/sympathise with the ronancers it's hard out there for a wlw ship and they have to do deal with sooo much more untagged steddie and also just. actually this fic with the ronance tag is actually just steddie :)) a common problem for popular side ships unfortunately. but it does annoy me bc I don't ship it and a lot of really good steddie or gen fics just have it now. oh well its just fanfiction

I think Ive said this before but it's not necessarily the bff code violation of it all that gets to me with ronance it's the way that it always seems to be a non issue. like robin sometimes gets anxious over his reaction but Steve never gets upset about it or has many feelings about it in general besides oh im so happy my best friend has fallen in love with someone and ofc it was with Nancy bc everyone falls in love with Nancy and I think im supposed to think its some sort of trope subversion like when Steve didn't really say anything when Nancy "chose" Jonathan bc it's like oh look the thing u thought would be a problem and cause jealousy and emotional conflict actually didn't! which. yeah okay whatever. I happen to like problems. and sometimes im like are we going to explore how Steve folds like a house of cards if he thinks that it will cause the least conflict even if he's like dying inside? and then we don't bc he's busy getting dicked down by Eddie. and also I think Nancy is painfully straight but that's by the by

part of it is also me just not vibing with the pair the spares thing that happens in fandom a lot. like there's a popular pairing and then ppl are like well what are we going to do with the rest of them? and they just start pairing them off and if there's like one left over they get thrown into a throuple or something. like how after s3 harringrove shippers started shipping robin with heather so that nobody was alone. it just makes me wonder how much thought is being put into the shipping...idk. at the end of the day wanting everyone to have a romantic happy ever after isn't necessarily a bad thing I just think it's boring. and I obviously don't have an inside look as to why something I don't ship is popular bc well. I don't read it. so maybe there's a lot of very compelling reasons and characterisations or whatever for whatever pairing that im just not seeing. even if the compelling reason is just hot girls should kiss

[demogordon]

Yes to everything what you said in your r*nance post. Literally people in this fandom focus soo fucking much on relationships, it's a problem. Like every single character needs to be paired up with someone. They don't care about the individuals, if it makes sense or not. Even the 14 year old kids are not safe from ship wars, it's so tiring to me. And in R*onance case the ship wouldn't make sense, why would Robin do this to Steve she's better than that but then again it's canon she tried to persuade Nancy to go back to Steve which I'm still not over because wtf did the writers think. Plus like you said Nancy only cares for her after she knows Robin is not a threat for her to go back to Steve. Furthermore I don't think they would even hang out outside the whole monster hunting business. Idk but over the years in various fanfictions/headcanons, both Nancy and Jonathan were always so isolated like if we talk about dynamics is mostly Steve and Robin doing stuff with the party nobody really goes to Jancy for that stuff. They always seem to do their own shit and can't be bothered to hang out.

But yes R*nance doesn't make sense, in any shape or form and I'm tired of seeing fics where everybody is happy with the situation because that's just not realistic. Steve wouldn't be happy and Robin would feel guilty, it would mess up their friendship and if I were Robin idk it would devastate me to lose that special connection for a girl who is a known cheater and the ex of my bff.

anon i have nothing to add really bc my brain is tiny but you’ve hit everything on the head. platonic stobin matters so much more than two pretty girls who stand next to each other sometimes. i also didn’t like their friendship ESPECIALLY watching nancy be incredibly disgusted by robin’s autistic girl swag. as a neurodivergent person myself i hate the rhetoric of feeling like i have to be sorry that my brain is different and i really don’t like watching it. i did however enjoy that their scenes let nancy be more human than she’s ever been before.

[uhnoodles]

Stobin Shipping (ST3)

Hello all!

I’ve been debating whether or not to post this because conflict and confrontation make me physically ill and I’m not usually one to start anything of any sort that would invite such a thing.

I’m not writing this post to invite such a thing either, but unfortunately, I don’t think I can post this opinion without getting a lot of hate. I wouldn’t even be putting my voice out here unless something big happened, which has.

So, here goes.

Stobin is a ship from the 3rd season of Stranger Things featuring Steve Harrington, a character from every season, and Robin, a character introduced this season.

Steve and Robin work together at Scoops Ahoy and seem to be warily civil with each other in the beginning of the season. Various plot points drag them together, and eventually they bond and begin to grow warmer and friendlier with each other, a classic enemies to friends trope that is seen in many a fiction story. What usually comes next in this line of relationships is lovers or something synonymous. And we got a taste of it when Steve admitted his growing romantic feelings for Robin. Robin, however, turns him down because she is a lesbian. Steve is oblivious, then accepting and friendly with her from then on. There is absolutely no hope for them to ever be together in the show because she is a lesbian. I don’t want them to be together in the show because She. Is. A. Lesbian.

...Having said that, I feel slightly more comfortable approaching the purpose of this post.

A lot of people feel that it is homophobic/lesbophobic to still ship Stobin even after Robin came out to Steve, turning down his romantic advances. And I’m not going to tell you how to feel. I’m not in the business of doing that, because I’m not you and I don’t dictate your emotions or reactions. And honestly, if someone does still ship Stobin because they think it’s stupid that Robin is a lesbian and that she doesn’t “fit the bill” or they are just fucking homophobic, then fuck that guy. Because that’s not cool.

But. In my opinion, which is an opinion and not a fact, Fanfiction and shipping were made so fans can live out their non canon dreams.

I ship Stobin. Not because I think Robin being a lesbian is dumb or disgusting, or even because I wish she wasn’t a lesbian. Because I don’t wish that. I’m a lesbian. I was so fucking ecstatic when she turned out to be a lesbian! She is a cool, funny, complex character and she’s ours! Holy shit! YES! I honestly can’t wait for the writers to explore this in season 4 and give us all the sweet lesbian content I want.

Representation matters. I know that, and I feel that. I’m white- so I have had the privilege of being represented in the media my whole life. Hell, I remember when I first saw Beauty and the Beast, Belle immediately became my favorite princess because she had brown hair like me. I’ve also been lucky enough to grow up in an era where the LGBTQA+ community is slowly being accepted by society. I’ve also been lucky enough to have absolutely no issues in that area of my life. I’ve never been faced with prejudice in any way regarding my sexuality. I’m lucky, and I know I’m one of the few. So maybe Robin isn’t hitting me as hard as she is a lot of lesbians.

Don’t get me wrong, please, don’t get me wrong! She is a lesbian, I know this, and I never want that to change! If she and Steve got together in the show, I would be fuckin pissed! That is erasure! That is queer baiting! (I think that’s the term?) Her presence as a lesbian in this show is important because Stranger Things is set in the 80s, a very homophobic period in American history (which is true for all of American history through pretty much now for a lot of people). The fact that we have not just Robin but also Will- and both are accepted and still loved by their friends- is amazing and I have cried multiple times over it! If their presence in the show is of the utmost important to me, a lesbian who has faced zero kicks in the ass in her life, I can’t imagine how important she is to a lesbian who has faced every struggle in the world.

I believe, as I’ve stated, that fanfiction exists so fans may live out their non canon dreams. I ship Stobin because I thought their warm and fuzzy moments slowly building up throughout the season were very believable and they lit up the fan girl in me so fuckin quickly. “Yes!” I thought, “Steve is getting a romance again, and with arguably the coolest girl in the show!” And then she came out as a lesbian, which didn’t even phase me because I knew I could read fanfiction of Stobin to satisfy that whirlwind of fangirling emotions inside me that would never be satisfied canonically, which is completely okay with me.

That’s what fanfiction and shipping is to me. Satisfying my unmet fangirling needs. Am I mad about any of my unfulfilled ships? No! Absolutely not! Every fandom I am part of, I ship most ships in existence. I also ship Steve with Billy, Jonathan, Nancy, I’ve even read Steve and Kali (008) and enjoyed it! The thing about Robin is that, in season three, she only interacted with Steve and 2 children, and her and Steve had many faux romantic moments. I’ve read RobinxOFC and shipped the two! Hell, there’s this Haringrove fic with an OFC that I think she would be really cute with! I guarantee that as soon as she interacts with literally any female character, I will go buck fuckin wild. However, the in-depth character connection she has is Steve.

I know to a lot of you guys, these are just excuses, and I’m honestly very very sorry if I am hurting you in any way by continuing to ship them, completely apart from the canon, in the fics I read a write. I definitely would have kept my fuckin mouth to myself, but I noticed something quite alarming.

“Kill yourself”. Two words. Both simple words. Put together, they could destroy a life. They have many a time. I’ve been the target many times when I write a fic with a ship people don’t like. So alarming. So fucking alarming. Those words can do real damage. In real life. Not a fictional universe, such as the Stranger Things universe. But in real life. Now, I know that representation is so very fucking important, and I know that Robin is a lesbian. I support her as a lesbian and will accept no less in canon. Threatening another human’s life over respresentation in media isn’t okay, not in my books. Even if I didn’t ship Stobin and was as affected by it than a lot of you guys are, I would still be writing this post, just minus the explaining my view of Stobin and fanfiction in general. Because death threats, disturbing messages, and mocking one-off comments won’t get your point across. They’ll just root tour subject of hate more firmly into the ground and harm their psyche along the way.

It’s not worth it. Stranger Things is not worth it. Someone, a human being, in real life, could be hurt by careless, aggressive words. Over something that you could ignore so easily if you don’t support it. And I know that ignoring something you find abhorrent and a violation of human rights can be downright near impossible sometimes, but resorting to such terrible words just isn’t okay. Explain your side, debate, argue, don’t berate, don’t get furious. Or at least don’t let your fury turn you into a monster who threatens another human being’s life. Because doing that, saying those things? It’s monstrous.

I know this will get replies, and I’m not looking forward to it because confrontation, again, makes me hate my life. But you have the right to express your opinion to me if my own displeases you, but know that I will definitely ignore threats and furious massages that I’ve seen circulating around this particular ship.

I don’t know if I properly expressed myself or if this came across at all how I wanted it to. Bottom line:

-Robin is a lesbian, I support her

-I got attached to the teased romance between her and Steve, so I will be reading fanfiction and imagining scenarios myself to satisfy my hunger

- I, personally, don’t think that makes me a bad person or a homophobe/lesbophobe for reasons I’ve listed above

- I sincerely apologize to anyone who is offended or hurt, that is truly not my intention

-I only opened my fat mouth about this because death threats and hostile behavior have been circling this ship and it crossed a line in my head

I’m sorry this is so long. @pelegringo is a blog I know has been experiencing a lot of these threats and I don’t know how many others have been dealing with it. I’m so sorry if my opinion is unwelcome, but I saw someone being hurt and couldn’t ignore it.

I wish you all the best, and I hope you have enjoyed my Ted Talk.

[tryharder-bitch]

Stranger Things: could Robin be bi?

Since season 3 aired, I have seen all sorts of discourse about wether Robin is gay or bi and well, time to add my own two cents.

In my opinion, Robin being a lesbian was one of the best trope subversion of this season. Her being Steve’s love interest would have been predictible and rather boring. Instead, Steve is finally allowed to have a friend of his age without the complications of it being a love story! It shows that you can find happiness in other ways that romantic love! And she was very well written, not reduced to her sexuality but fleshed out as an actual interesting character, useful to the plot! So yeah, I'm glad they went for it.

Of course, Robin and Steve have a great chemistry and they would make a cute couple - but then Joe Keery has chemistry with pretty much everyone, that's just this little man's magic.

And of course, Robin could be bi irl. Sexuality is fluid after all, and even though she rejected Steve, there is a tiny possibility that she could still be attracted by him and yada yada yada.

But it would be a major faux pas to make this her storyline. Why, you ask me?

Stranger Things is a Netflix show airing in 2019. Honestly, it was even a bit surprising that we had to wait until season 3 to have some queer rep. We’re in an era in entertainment where diversity is widely reclaimed by at least a part of the audience. Netflix is run by (mostly) smart people who are eager to answer those demands - in order to, ya know, make money (not that I think they don’t care for representation, but tbh they’re here to sell in the first place).

Right now, Robin is the only canon queer character in Stranger Things (I'm not counting Will, because even though it's pretty obvious that he has some sexual identity conflicts going on, the duffers could still chose not to follow through with that plotline). And when you have the opportunity to show the only gay character in your show be happy in a gay relationship, you can't put her instead in a seemingly “straight relationship”. That would pretty much erase her queerness in the eye of the casual watcher - a sort of "she's queer but dont worry, not that much" (i know her being canonically bi and in a relationship with Steve wouldn't make her straight, please don't @ me and keep on reading).

I would love to see more bi rep in fiction, believe me. And I would be glad to have a bi character in Stranger Things, as long as they're well written.

But as much as I regret this, most people have an easier time understanding homosexuality than bisexuality. Bisexuality is still in this grey zone with lots and lots of misconceptions, whereas nowadays most people get the fact that you can be gay - even of they don't approve it. Therfore if you want to add queer rep in a show, you're probably wanting to begin with something simple, easy to understand. So boom, you choose the gay character!

I feel like the duffer brothers are using Robin to test the waters. If people are happy with her storyline, good, they can add more rep, and if people don't like her being gay... well, she's not that important to the plot, so they can gently push her aside. I think the duffers know their audience and care more about pleasing the mass than writing a specific story they absolutely want to tell - which is both a good and a bad thing, maybe I'll write a post about it. But if they decide to keep Robin (and she's very cool and people love her so I'm pretty sure they will), they are clever enough to exploit her queerness in order to give us a compelling sense of representation.

Now, if you want to ship Stobin, write fanfictions, draw fanarts of them, of course you're free to do it. That's what fandoms are for, so enjoy!

Just don't act like it's canon (because it's not) and don't hope it will become canon (because it won't).

[thefreakandthehair]

Dialogue Prompts

(Find Inspiration Prompts Here!)

(Spicy Six Winter Fanworks Challenge Rules)

New prompts added! Remember, prompts can be claimed more than once if it’s for another medium or another pairing/character/etc.!

1." There’s no limit to how many blankets, [name here].” @stobin-cryptid (steddie, fic) 2. “And, we’re snowed in. Awesome.” @annethecatdetective (steddie, fic) 3. “Who sets the fire alarm off at 3am in December?” / “Who runs outside without a coat at 3am in December?” @hbyrde36 (steddie, fic) 4. “You remember that?” @unclewaynemunson (ronance, fic), @sunnythefriendlyghost (stonathan, fic), @skepsiss (fruity four w/ steddie, fic), @slavicviking (steddie, fic) 5. “Do these lights come to life and fucking tangle themselves in the box?” @hexiewrites (steddisy, fic) 6. “If I wear that sweater to work, my boss will kill me.”  @steddieasitgoes (steddie, fic) 7. “It doesn’t seem right that everything is dead in the winter except for these germs.”  @hawkins83 (stobin, fic) / @ghost--enthusiast (steddie & stobin) 8. “Why are you looking at me like that?” @t-boyeddie (steddie, fic) 9. "I love it..." // "No, no you hate it."  @kikidoesfanfic (steddie, fic) 10. “Hey! No peeking!” @thechaosdomain (steddie, fic)

11. “Colored lights over white lights, always and forever.” 12. "All these lights, and not a single one is flickering. That's a nice change of pace, huh?"  @itsthestrangestthings (jancy & steve, fic) 13. "There’s a slight chance I used too much glitter." @hereforanepilogue (steddie, fic) 14. "Why is your tongue stuck to this pole? You didn't... oh no, you did." @henderdads (stobin, fic) 15. “You really thought you could get that sweater on our cat? You’re adorable. I’ll get the bandaids.”  @sunnythefriendlyghost (buckingham, fic), @undreaming-fanfiction (steddie, fic) 16. "You'll never guess what I saw in the sky!" 17. “Ever notice how the stars seem brightest in the winter?” @pearynice (steddie, fic) 18. “You’re going to New York City for New Years? Have you lost your mind?” 19. “Hey, you’re welcome to kiss whoever you wa–” @kkpwnall (steddie, fic) 20. “You’re the only gift I need… God, I can’t believe I just said that.”  @judasofsuburbia (fic, ronance)

21. “Stop laughing and put the topper on the tree already.” 22. “Guess we’re the only two without dates, huh?” @frankenstein-ate-my-left-shoe (steddie, fic) 23. “What’d you wish for?” @aringofsalt (steddie, fic) 24. “All the movies make this look so much easier.”  @maxineholtzmann (robin/nancy/chrissy, fic) 25. “New year. New me.” / “You’re full of shit.” @starrystevie (steddie, fic) 26. “You don’t have to wear it.” / “Back off, I’m wearing it forever.” @stevespookington (steddie, fic) 27. “So, the bed is big enough for us to share but there’s only one blanket. You’re not a blanket hog, are you?” @stevethehairington (fic, steddie) 28. “Holy shit, it smells so good in here.” @glorious-spoon (steddie + robin, fic) 29. “I need 100 poinsettias, please.” / “... Please tell me that you meant carnations.” @withacapitalp (stobin, fic) 30. “I think you might just be trying to kiss me.” @wormdebut (steddie, fic)

31.“Don’t you have anything else festive that isn’t so… blinding?” 32. “Hey, want to help me get my parents off my ass?” 33. “There’s more frosting on your face than your gingerbread.” @thefreakandthehair (steddie, fic) 34. “I told you to be careful!”  35. “Oh come on, it’s tradition.” 36. “There’s no rule against just looking!” 37. “See? I knew you’d be cold.” 38. “Here, let me help you with that.” / “I’ve got it, I’ve got it.” @soaringornithopter (fic, steddie) 39. “Next you’ll tell me Santa’s not real either.” @is-emily-real (buckingham, fic) 40. “If I hear this song one more time, I’m going to jail.” @hellfireloserclub (steddie, fic)