#the way y’all lack the critical thinking skills to do proper analysis is embarrassing

[sourstiless]

the severe lack of media literacy yall possess is embarrassing sometimes. like i’ve seen people compare shipping eddie and steve to shipping billy and steve in stranger things, saying they’re both “abusive” dynamics and that people only ship steve and eddie bc they’re both attractive. which like, yeah in some cases sure, that happens with a lot of ships tho. but comparing eddie holding a broken bottle to his neck out of fear for his life, and billy beating the shit out of steve just because he thinks it’s fun is just so weird.

eddie and steve aren’t on bad terms at all. eddie was afraid. he was hiding because people thought he murdered someone, and he was severely traumatized after watching chrissy literally snap in front of him in his own house. he was terrified that they were “hunting” him, to haul him off to jail, to beat him up, to kill him even. he didn’t know steve, and was only able to calm down when he saw dustin and dustin was able to make him feel safe. he did not feel safe before. after all that happens, eddie and steve are on good terms, and we see that. we see steve’s little wave to eddie. we see steve go out of his way to thank eddie for saving his life. we see eddie trying to help steve with his love life, and then bonding over their relationship with dustin. we see steve telling eddie not to be so hard on himself for doing what any normal person would have done in his situation. they may not be the best of friends but it is clear that there is no bad blood. it also says a lot about their relationship that steve trusts eddie to watch dustin in the upside down, and keep him safe.

with billy it was different because billy served to be an antagonist in every sense of the word. steve and billy had a rivalry. they never liked each other. billy is always taunting steve, as if trying to get a rise out of him. and then billy goes and tries to beat up on of the kids steve is watching, so steve intervenes and billy nearly beats him to death, and would have if max didn’t stop him. billy wasn’t doing it out of fear, or out of self defense. he was doing it because he enjoyed it. even when steve was landing punches, all billy was doing was laughing and still taunting him. the scenes are incomparable. no one is saying u have to like steve and eddie together, but it’s absurd to act like it is in any way the same as billy and steve.