#eddie meta

[corrodedbisexual]

The way Eddie can't even accept at first that they truly believe his story. Because not knowing about the Upside Down, it does sound insane. Who knows what Eddie had been thinking the entire time on the run. Shocked, terrified, alone and helpless. Must have turned that memory over in his head a thousand times, and it did not make sense, it could not make sense, it was impossible. If the party hadn't found him, I imagine he could have actually ended up convincing himself that he did somehow kill Chrissy, and the rest was some hallucination from drugs he didn't remember taking.

#i'm not crying it's just rainy tonight #stranger things #eddie munson #eddie meta #dustin henderson #robin buckley #max mayfield #steve harrington #gifset #misha-bawlins gifs

[sevensoulmates]

Buddie 7x01 Meta

Okay! Finally, I was able to watch the full episode uninterrupted and have had a couple days to gather my thoughts. Quite simply this episode was fucking fantastic. My meta does sometimes include some spec, so if that's not your thing feel free to ignore those parts. Those of you who follow me know I write long ass essays, so fair warning for a long meta under the cut. ((Also idk how to make gifs, so enjoy my shitty screenshots)).

First, I love to see Buck and Eddie back at it again in their natural element being partners on a scene.

This was very obviously a call back to season 2, even down to the positioning, having Buck watch Eddie be competent in defusing a bomb. Buck has complete faith in Eddie's abilities, it's the fighter pilot whom he distrusts. In the end, they narrowly avoid getting blown up, just like they did in 2x01. This one scene re-establishes the Buck/Eddie work dynamic and shows how they inherently trust each other on and off the field.

Next, we get a scene of Buck and Eddie getting dressed in the locker room. Notably, Buck is fully dressed and Eddie is without his shirt until halfway through the scene. Buck also keeps his eyes on Eddie's naked torso pretty much through the whole shirtless section. This is another blatant callback to season 2x01 when Buck's first introduction to Eddie is when he's shirtless. This draws attention specifically to Eddie's physical attractiveness and how that affects Buck. This scene is odd to have with Eddie half-naked if we're then gonna make comments later on about "sexual tension" with friends, no?

In the same scene we are reintroduced to Buck and Eddie's separate love lives. Eddie is just now learning that Buck and Natalia broke up, and gives an odd facial expression that looks far too much like vindication. We know from the graveyard scene in 6x17 that Eddie wasn't really a fan of Buck's relationship with Natalia (I don't think there's ever been a relationship Buck's had where Eddie has legitimately been happy about it, which is weird if they're just friends, right?) so to him, this was always coming down the road. He seems proud that Buck was able to end it this easily.

Meanwhile, Eddie's going on a "not-date" with Marisol to chaperone Christopher's date with Penny. It's telling to me that Eddie doesn't classify this as a date with Marisol, but Buck does. Buck considers being at home watching Christopher as a date, and yet he seemingly doesn't classify all the times he's been over at Eddie's hanging out with just him and Chris to be a date? To me, this shows the first big disconnect in Buck/Eddie's brains that the show will likely dismantle this season: what is classified as platonic and what is classified as romantic, and which gender is allowed to be in each category. We'll come back to this when we get to the next scene.

Eddie is very supportive of Buck breaking up with Natalia. He doesn't say it directly to his face, but it's implied that Buck really lost himself when he was with Natalia, hence Eddie's "Welcome back to the land of the living". While Buck did struggle with figuring out his life purpose at the end of season 6, he falsely prescribed that purpose to Natalia. Thankfully, this was rectified here. This also shows significant growth for Buck from his last relationship with Taylor Kelly. Buck was able to identify issues in his relationship quicker and was able to cut the relationship short when he realized it was no longer healthy to maintain for him. I am extremely proud of Buck in this moment, as is Eddie, which is the first of two big moments in this episode where Buck and Eddie really showcase their pride in the other's personal growth. "You were missed" is such a simple yet perfect line for Eddie to give to Buck. To show Buck that Eddie has always seen him, and will always see him, even through personal lows, and will still remain by his side when they come out the other side. I really love this showcase of unconditional love here.

The next time we see Buck and Eddie, the chaperone date has already passed. Eddie and Marisol are seen watching Chris and Penny from behind the wall, but it's highkey awkward to watch and the focus of this scene is really not Eddie/Marisol but rather Chris and Penny and Eddie relaying this info to Buck. I first want to point out that we don't actually get to see Eddie/Marisol's first date, we don't see any subsequential dates, and the first time we DO see her, in an episode meant to be establishing couples, she's so blink-and-you'll-miss-it that I had to try 3 times to get this screenshot because it went by so fast. It's never a good sign when we don't actually get to see the beginnings of a non-established relationship.

Additionally, Eddie/Marisol's relationship is framed WITHIN Eddie recounting the night to BUCK. The important Eddie relationship we're supposed to be paying attention to in this scene is not Eddie/Marisol but Eddie and Buck's. It's not important for us to see Eddie and Marisol hanging out, but it IS important for us to see Eddie TELLING Buck about the night. That isn't insignificant. This means the show is clearly placing far more importance on Eddie/Buck than on Marisol, and for a pointed reason to be revealed hopefully later this season.

This is the only line that Marisol has in the entire episode. This being the one line she has is interesting because it's a callback to Eddie's arc last season ie. "Eddie has no game with women". Christopher makes a pointed comment about it in 6x18. And of course, it's a callback to Performance Anxiety 6x14 where Eddie was being pressured about dating women and 6x17 Love Is In The Air where he once again pressures himself into dating women until he finally settles on Marisol. It's an interesting call back to have, considering this scene could have been considered Eddie successfully dating a woman. And of course this ties into later in this episode where we get the "turning women off" comment, which I'll talk more about later.

Eddie goes on to tell Buck that he didn't really see any difference between Christopher hanging out with his male friends vs hanging out with his female friends. This is drawing attention to two things. The first is a call-back to Buck and Eddie's previous scene where we saw that Buck and Eddie have two different ideas of what constitutes "a date" when it's with a man versus a woman. Buck thinks that an at-home date with Marisol to watch Chris counts as a date, Eddie doesn't. Yet Buck doesn't consider his own at-home "hang-outs" with Eddie and Chris to be a date despite them being far more frequent and more meaningful than what we just saw with Marisol. Eddie also doesn't see it that way. This line is an indicator that both Buck and Eddie have blinders on currently when it comes to their interactions with each other, interactions which very much COULD be considered a date (including the later mentioned "underlying sexual tension") if they had done the same thing with a woman. They're just unable to recognize the truth of it at the moment, and this is clearly demonstrated when Eddie can't tell the difference between Chris having his date with his male friends vs. female. My prediction is that this will become more defined for Eddie by the end of the season or leading into next season.

But it's very interesting that this idea of not being able to recognize the possibility of romance except for the heteronormative options is coming into play now because there's really only one gay way to subvert that.

Which is then doubled down by Buck in the very next scene.

This is blatantly not a true statement. Buck is not only assuming Chris's sexuality, but he's assuming the same would be the case in general, which is not true. Buck knows many queer people, but at the same time, every queer person he knows canonically falls more into the gay-lesbian binary, and not really anywhere in the middle (ie. bi/pan people). It's an oddly heteronormative statement coming from Buck, who is known to be very open-minded and also researches a shit ton? So why are we being shown that Buck has this sort of narrow-mindedness specifically when it comes to the possibility of people being bisexual?

(Spec) Firstly, I think this is to set up for a bisexual Buck arc. It's showing that Buck actually 1.) hasn't ever been with a man before so this is not just a casual bi reveal and 2.) that he's never actually considered it a possibility to have sexual tension with a man before. This is what we in writing call "the character's fundamental misbelief" and it is brought in specifically to be challenged, and I'm near-positive it will be at some point in the season.

Secondly, On the surface, this statement is telling the audience that obviously Christopher would only have tension with his female friends, right? (sarcasm). But what's interesting is that this statement is purposefully gender-neutral. It leaves the real meaning up to the audience to decide. Why? Because this part of the conversation is not really about Christopher. On the surface, yes, but beneath that, this line and the line before it are about Eddie and Buck's relationship with each other. Buck's not out here talking about Christopher having sexual tension with people, and even Eddie recognizes that it's weird to talk about in relation to their child. He's still in the nest for christ's sake! These lines are in relation to Buck and Eddie's friendship and how both of them are blind to the fact that it very much IS possible to have sexual tension with your female AND male friends.

And this is where the gender-neutrality of that phrase gets extra interesting. Because as we've seen before, Buck and (more prominently) Eddie often lack chemistry with their female love interests. It's up for debate, but the general consensus was that most people did not feel any chemistry between Buck/Natalia, and Eddie/Ana or Eddie/Marisol. What's fascinating is that Buck has had chemistry with some of his female love interests, but Eddie hasn't had any since Shannon (and this is not an endorsement of Eddie/Shannon's romantic relationship. I'm not getting into the extreme nuances of that right now.) Some argue Eddie's had chemistry with Felisa or Vanessa, but they aren't the ones Eddie's dating right now, are they? So Eddie, unlike Buck with his female LI's, hasn't really had any sexual tension with Ana or Marisol. The only person that (most) people agree Eddie has had sexual tension with is Buck. And we had a scene with them earlier with Buck watching a half-naked Eddie change too. So in this case, the line might also be a reference to Eddie having chemistry with men, but not really with any of his female LI's. I think the purposeful vagueness here though was a very telling choice on Tim's part.

Additionally, the use of the word "underlying". Underlying implies that the sexual tension isn't overt, but rather is something that lingers unspoken. Under the surface. Subtextual, if you will. Of course, it's possible to have subtextual sexual tension between an M/F pairing. But placing it in the context of this scene, where Buck is being weirdly heteronormative, it feels contradictory. If Buck believes that he (and Chris by proxy) can only have sexual tension with a female friend, why is it something that is hidden under the surface? If anything, due to heteronormativity, the sexual tension between a boy and girl should be plain as day for anyone to see, on the surface, very much textual and with no room for interpretation (ie. "He was a boy, she was a girl, could I make it any more obvious?"). But let's flip this around. With queer pairings and couplings, there's a huge history of their sexual tension and romance only being able to live and breathe in the subtext. This line being spoken between two men that many people for years have pointed out are heavily queer-coded and have a romantically-coded "bro" relationship with each other that so far has only been able to exist in subtext? Tim, you're not sly. I see right through you.

After that, Eddie tells Buck about Christopher seeing 5 girls at the same time. Everyone's shocked and Eddie insinuates that Christopher didn't get this from him. By pointing out that Buck is a reformed playboy (I personally disagree with aspects of this statement but that's neither here nor there), Eddie is implying that Christopher may potentially be getting this trait from Buck. Which is an interesting thing to say to someone if they're not already heavily involved in the process of raising your child. Eddie claims that he's a "nester", which in my mind means someone who is very paternal/maternal, or constantly trying to build the home or the family. ((Sidebar: I googled nesting and apparently it's ALSO a term used in both polyamorous spaces and was later separately coined as a term referring to "where men treat women like they’re in a relationship, but they expect those women to know that it will never lead to real one." I don't interpret this line to mean either of those other definitions, I just think it's interesting that this is what popped up when I googled Nesting)).

Eddie then says he "married the first girl he dated" and Buck instantly volleys back with "think you mean slept with", which is EXTREMELY telling of a few things. First, I want to point out, that I don't believe this is Buck denouncing or disrespecting Shannon's important role in Eddie or Chris's life, but rather recontextualizing it.

We got clarification last season that Eddie fell into his relationship with Shannon almost in the same way that he fell into one with Ana and Marisol. It was heavily implied that Shannon was the pursuer, the one who made their relationship happen. Not Eddie. While Eddie was a little less passive with Ana and Marisol, being the one to ask both of them out, he still exhibits extreme passivity in the furthering of each of these relationships, preferring to "stick it out" rather than actually end it when it's not working. This is the exact same thing he did with Shannon. It's interesting that Buck argues that Eddie married the first girl he slept with rather than the first girl he dated.

Dating someone implies you really genuinely want to form a deep romantic relationship with someone (ie. call back to Buck's line to Maddie "at least when I date someone, I date them"), whereas sleeping with someone does not have to immediately mean wanting to be with them romantically. To me, this implies that while Eddie might've deeply loved Shannon as a friend and eventual mother of his child later and had sexual chemistry with her, the reason why he stayed with her is not because he wanted to continue dating her or being with her because he was IN LOVE with HER but rather because they slept together. And what came about from sleeping with her? A fucking traumatic teen pregnancy.

Both Buck AND Eddie recognize that in this scene (which is huge, especially for Eddie). I'm kinda blown away honestly. It's extremely important for the audience to see that while Eddie did, does and will always love Shannon, it is NOT romantic love, and may have not ever been. Which is FINE. They were literal teenagers for god's sake.

This is once again a recurring theme in Buck and Eddie's story in this episode. Defining what is considered romantic and what is considered platonic AND the possibility of redefining those distinctions years later. And it's interesting that in this case with Shannon, a woman, it's finally being acknowledged that it might not have been as romantic as Eddie may have believed for all these years.

Eddie then asks Buck to be the one to talk to Christopher about his relationship indiscretions. We see Eddie making the active choice to bring Buck deeper into the co-parenting role that's already been established in seasons 2-6. Right after Eddie talks about being a nester, a home-builder, he brings Buck deeper into his family in a parental role. To me, this scene doesn't imply that Eddie can't do it, or that it's out of his wheelhouse, but rather because he feels like Christopher might relate to Buck more about this. But even more so, it shows that Eddie inherently trusts Buck to be the one to talk to Christopher about this, because he's seen how Buck has grown over the years.

Eddie doesn't want Christopher to continue making bad choices in life and he tries to convey this to Buck, but Buck, with his own self-esteem issues, assumes that Eddie doesn't want Christopher to end up like Buck. Which is fascinating because Buck's made it a huge point throughout the series to show that he's grown past his sleeping-around phase (which was never about disrespecting or using women, it was always about Buck's own desire for love and connection that he felt he could only get through sex). And yet with this line, we see that Buck still doesn't realize how far he's come. He still feels like he isn't worth emulating or being someone to look up to. But Eddie does. Eddie sees and loves Buck to his core, and so he points it out to Buck that no, Buck actually didn't become that person, and that Buck is, in fact, worthy of being the one to parent Christopher in this situation. Once again, this is a great moment of showing how these two are able to see past their facades to the truth of each other's issues and provide strength, reassurance, and clarity to each other, as an ideal life partner would be able to do.

Then we get to see this amazing scene of Eddie talking down a panicking woman using his own unique "jello" methods. This coping mechanism tool he walks her through really does sound like something a therapist might teach their patient. Eddie not only is able to admit to having panic attacks but he's able to do it in front of strangers and his team alike with no shame (even a bit of pride at the end). This scene, which could've gotten very awkward very fast, ended up becoming a very sweet, serene moment where we also get to see that love reflected on Buck's face just how proud he is of how far Eddie has come. This episode made a point to show Buck and Eddie recognizing the other's growth and their pride in the other, as well as demonstrate how both are able to be there for the other emotionally in their times of need.

What's interesting is that this is all stuff that we've seen before. Buck and Eddie have been each other's emotional pillars for many years now. This is just a re-establishing episode. We know that this season their relationship is going to be shifting, growing, and showing a new side to it. So I'm intrigued to see how that will manifest given that we have already seen in one episode how Buck and Eddie are each other's closest person. Some might argue that this episode actually frames them to be closer and more emotionally supportive of each other than two of the other canonically romantic couples on the show.

Bathena are shown to be having marital problems in this episode, with Athena worrying she and Bobby might not actually have that much in common outside of the chaos. Madney is shown with pre-martial problems, with Chimney unnecessarily worrying he and Maddie's spark might fizzle out over the years and they might grow to resent each other. I'm not saying either of these relationship problems is really accurate, but it's just interesting to look at in comparison to how Buck and Eddie were framed in this episode, despite not being in a canonical romantic relationship at the moment.

This exchange absolutely took me the fuck out. Because this line did not need to be there. Even for the giggles. It could've even been a line of Buck being sincere and saying that he's proud of Eddie or something. Instead, we get this. "I've never seen a man turn a woman off with such skill". This line connected with the line from Marisol are both callbacks to Eddie's series-long issue with dating women. We get this in conjunction with Buck pointing out that Eddie doesn't really date these women he's in relationships with. He's just with them due to circumstances. Even if the circumstances are of his own making (which could be a symptom of compulsory heterosexuality). Eddie has never once talked about dating women like he's actually attracted to women. I'm so sorry. AND combined with the line where Buck and Eddie actually acknowledge that Eddie wasn't really with Shannon because he wanted to be with her but because of the family they accidentally created. All of this in ONE episode leading up to this line where it's heavily implied that Eddie's skill is his inability to turn women on, and to actually be able to turn them all the way off. And I'm just going to say it, but this line HEAVILY implies queerness. This is the kind of line you'd expect someone to say to a gay man or someone who doesn't actually want the sexual attention of a woman. This, again, in conjunction with Eddie not being able to tell the difference between a date with a woman vs. a man, is all too pointed.

This line alone in a vacuum could maybe not mean queerness, but alongside the whole rest of the episode where beat after beat after beat implies that Eddie has in fact NEVER been in a relationship with a woman 100% of his own active desire for her as a person and not just for what she can provide to his or his son's life?

This points to a very particular direction with Eddie that I'm expecting to see him fight against really hard this season. I would not be surprised if he ends up holding onto Marisol as the last shreds of perceived "normalcy" (ie. heterosexuality) are being threatened. Hopefully, he'll be able to reconcile the truth by the end of the season or going into season 8.

God this is so long and we haven't even gotten to the buddifer scene yet. This part will be a bit more condensed because I'm not really analyzing Chris as a character here or his relationship with Shannon. Maybe I will later.

I'm really loving seeing Christopher become his own person this season. But what really fascinates me here is Chris as a parallel to both Buck and Eddie. Christopher's abandonment trauma is starting to manifest in him through his choices with his love life. The same thing happened with Buck and with Eddie individually. Buck's trauma growing up informed his choices of sleeping around and seeking love from a myriad of individuals who didn't necessarily have his best interest at heart. Eddie's trauma manifested in him being so self-sacrificing that he can't ever choose a relationship for himself, but it always has to be in service of someone else or in pursuit of a perceived "Normal" standard.

In this case with Chris, his trauma is manifesting in a way more similar to Buck's, which is another reason why it's so perfect to see Buck being the one to discuss this with Chris, even though they don't necessarily delve too deep into it. There's no question Buck sees his own issues reflected in Chris. This has been true since 4x08 Breaking Point when Chris runs to Buck's house and confides in Buck his worries about people leaving him. Chris demonstrates a similar issue that Buck and Eddie both hold individually. That being the notion that "it doesn't matter what I do, or how good of a person I am, or how good of a partner I am, I am not worth staying for."

But the difference here is that Eddie and Buck, like the amazing co-parents they are, recognize the problem and take steps to address Christopher's trauma in a way that gives Chris autonomy and isn't condescending or out to make Christopher feel bad about making mistakes. The Buckley parents and the Diaz parents both failed Buck and Eddie in these ways because they blamed their children, never actually took the time to see the underlying issues let alone address them, and made them feel like everything was their fault, even going so far as to actively put their children down over and over and over again. Eddie and Buck get the beautiful chance to break the cycle here with Chris and get to be the parents that they never had.

It was so amazing to watch this episode with Buck and Eddie being supportive partners to each other and supportive parents to Christopher. It was an episode of growth just as much as it was an episode of reintroduction to a new audience. It was also extremely telling of what the future conflicts and themes will likely continue to be for Buck and Eddie for the rest of this season. I'm so excited to see what the rest of this season brings! And thank you from the bottom of my heart, ABC.

#911 abc #911 meta #buddie #buddie meta #buck meta #eddie meta #911 #911 spoilers #911 analysis #buddie analysis #damn this was long as fuck #thank you to anyone who actually sat here and read all this #I will likely do one for episode 2 once I get back from my trip #this episode was fucking amazing #and it's only the beginning of the season

[worstsequence]

one thing thats wild to me is the idea that eddie is impulsive with words when his ass is always thinking before speaking. he is very deliberate about word choice especially in storytelling mode.

steve is the one who is always just saying shit

TO ME! to ME.

#🐯.archive #eddie meta

[princess-josephina]

Thinking about how Eddie taught himself Master of Puppets in under 18 days and the resulting headcanon is this: Eddie absolutely hyperfixates on his interests.

I imagine him getting his hands on that Metallica album as soon as it is available in Hawkins, scratch that, he definitely drove to Indianapolis to buy it. Master of Puppets captivates him completely. He needs to be able to play it. The next week goes by in a blur. He eats once a day and only because Wayne's cooked something and practically forced the food down his throat. He sleeps a little, but keeps jumping out of bed and grabbing his guitar throughout the night because somewhere between sleep and wakefulness, his brain finally understood how that particular solo bit is played. He's maybe showered once and been to school twice that week, walkman playing Master of Puppets on repeat during breaks, his mind replaying the song in class as his fingers move over imaginary bars. His friends let him be, knowing it's no use trying to get him out of that bubble when he gets like this. (They do remind him they have D&D next week, and he will absolutely make time for that; unlike school, the Cult of Vecna is actually important. Besides, he's gotten most parts of the song down by week two. He can afford some distractions.)

He's probably like that with everything. He frantically writes D&D campaigns overnight, oversleeping and missing morning classes because he just has to get all of these ideas on paper before they escape him. If he's into a book, he's gone to the world until he's read it cover-to-cover, and then re-read it to highlight and memorize some of his favorite quotes. But those are never the books from the school curriculum - most of that shit is boring. Oh, is it currently Math class? Who cares, Eddie's too busy sketching things that won't leave his brain alone, be it Hellfire T-shirt designs, or a new Corroded Coffin logo, or D&D character concepts, or the absolutely metal tattoo he's getting next time he goes to Indianapolis.

No wonder he's failing school and repeating senior year twice. Eddie's not dumb, far from it. He just can't be bothered to do homework and attend school regularly and pay attention in class when there's so much more fascinating stuff to be done.

#eddie munson #stranger things #eddie headcanons #eddie meta #I've seen some autistic!Eddie headcanons #I'm not a psychiatrist and definitely not fit to diagnose a fictional character #but it kinda fits even if you just look at canon facts #that song is one of the most difficult to play and he mastered it in a little over 2 weeks??? that's some crazy commitment #you can't do that unless you spend every waking moment on the task #I will forever stan Eddie being way smarter than people give him credit for

[desiccatedwithering]

Eddie & Steve parallels (and the pointlessness of Eddie’s death)

this was originally going to be a comment on this post: https://www.tumblr.com/whookami/688603046879657984/the-steve-proxy-a-discussion-of-an-unfulfilling

but then it became so long and unhinged that I didn’t want to inflict it on others unprompted lol

Anyway, I’ve been rewatching parts of previous seasons, and it’s been making me even more infuriated about the Eddie & Steve parallels (and how pointless Eddie’s death was), so have roughly 5k words of (probably incoherent) ranting:

Honestly, Eddie’s whole storyline is basically a shittier version of Steve’s in season one, with some parts of seasons 2 and 3 thrown in for flavor. As I said in a discord server, the Duffer brothers fucked up by letting Joseph Quinn make Eddie an appealing character comparable to Steve post season one, while sticking to their plan to treat him like season one!Steve and kill him off in Steve’s place.

[[Also, it was pointed out (by brid in the fruity four discord) that it’s very obvious how the writers wanted Eddie to be a bully, given the way Jeff, Gareth, and [unnamed dude, because they couldn’t be bothered to think of one (1) more name] act like Eddie’s lackeys.]]

Quick partial season 1 recap:

Steve and Jonathan have their fight in episode 6. In episode 7, Steve calls out Tommy and Carol for being assholes, and as he’s driving away, Tommy shouts, “That’s right. Run away, Stevie boy! Run away! Just like you always do.” [I bet you can see where this is going]

Steve goes back to clean the graffiti off of the theater and then heads to Jonathan’s house to apologize to him. He finds Nancy injured, incorrectly assumes that Jonathan hurt her, and barges in to find the house set up for demogorgon hunting, which is when Nancy threatens to shoot him to get him to leave. [side note: incredibly weird dialogue in vol 1 when Nancy said “You almost deserved it” about nearly shooting Steve. Why? Because he was understandably freaked out by the suspicious injury, insane Christmas lights, nail bat, gun, and the smell of gas, so he didn’t want to leave?]

Anyway, the demogorgon shows up while Steve is still in the house. The three of them run into Will’s room to try to lure it into a bear trap, but it disappears without stepping on the trap. They venture back into the living room, where Steve has a little freakout about how crazy this is (which Eddie’s freakout after seeing the bats for the first time parallels) and tries to call for help before Nancy snatches the phone out of his hand and throws it across the room and tells him that he needs to leave right now. [side note: Nancy will also fling the Byers’ phone in season 2, which is so funny. Nance, you could just unplug the cord. You don’t have to keep breaking their phone.]

And here’s the part that makes me truly insane: Steve runs. Nancy tells him to leave, and he listens. He’s got his car unlocked, the door open, about to get in, when he notices the lights flicker inside the house.

And he realizes that running was the wrong choice. He goes back in (completely unarmed!!), grabs the nailbat that Jonathan dropped (fucking insane that he even saw it, given the flashing lights and enormous monster getting ready to eat his girlfriend), and hits the demogorgon until it backs into the trap and they can light it on fire.

He is rewarded for choosing not to run, for choosing to stay and fight.

The second he makes that choice, he gets his Big Damn Hero moment. He saves Nancy and Jonathan, and his choice actually impacts the story. If he had left, one of them (or both) would’ve died. There’s pretty much no question about it; Jonathan was prone and the bat was out of his reach. Nancy shooting the demogorgon was enough to get its attention and make it leave Jonathan alone to target her instead, but the shots didn’t actually seem to do any real damage, and she was out of bullets anyway. Maybe Jonathan would’ve been able to get up and grab the bat to protect himself, but I doubt he would’ve been able to do it fast enough to stop Nancy from being killed.

Steve runs three times in season 1: Once from confronting Nancy when he sees her and Jonathan in her room at night and assumes that she’s cheated on him. A second time when the cops show up to break up the fight, leaving Jonathan to be arrested for a fight that Steve instigated. And a third after seeing the demogorgon for the first time.

All three times, it is the wrong choice. Running away either ends up hurting people or has the potential to do so. Each time, he has other options, which he finally realizes with the demogorgon.

Eddie also runs three times: Once after Chrissy dies. Second when the jocks find him. And finally to distract the bats.

At first, Steve was dealing with normal human problems and the consequences of his own actions; Eddie, on the other hand, was dealing with supernatural murders (and Chrissy was already dead when he ran; there’s nothing he could’ve done for her) and jocks literally out for blood.

And that third time, Steve was running away from danger, from a monster, leaving Nancy and Jonathan to fend for themselves alone. The third time Eddie runs, yes, he’s technically running away from monsters, but he’s drawing them away from Dustin and the others.

The writers gave Eddie a worse version of Steve’s season one arc by trying to make it seem like Eddie needed redemption for running/needed to take a stand and be brave, when he didn’t actually do anything wrong and didn’t have any other options available to him. And then they gave him a poorly-conceived moment of “bravery” and punished him for it. Eddie is killed for making that same choice that Steve did: to stop running and fight. And it doesn’t even have the same narrative justification. There are no consequences if Eddie continues to run, but people will literally die if Steve does.

Eddie never actually puts anyone else in harm’s way by running. He wasn’t running from the fight at the end of season four. In fact, he was running into danger. Volume 2 seemed to remove a lot of the teeth from the Upside Down, at least as far as the characters are concerned (see: Steve letting Robin go off ahead without an ounce of worry), but it’s still a world full of monsters and toxic spores, and Eddie was willingly running deeper into it, further away from the gate and safety. Steve ran from the demogorgon to protect himself. Eddie ran from the bats to protect everyone but himself. He was already being brave and trying to help the others, so he had no reason to stop running and try to fight the swarm.

And he had been brave even before that! He had already followed everyone else into the Upside Down and helped fight the bats (which Steve tried to point out, before Eddie was possessed by the Duffer brothers to tell us that we should all be shipping Stancy again), and then he chose to return to the Upside Down and act as the distraction, an objectively dangerous job. Depending on how you look at it, it might actually be the most dangerous option (excluding Max baiting Vecna, but that’s not something anyone else could do), since the Vecna team was going to be hitting him when he wouldn’t be able to fight back right away. And Eddie had seen the aftermath of a few bats attacking Steve, so he knew the damage that a whole swarm could do.

The way the writers treat Eddie’s decision to run isn’t even coherent within the narrative of the season! In episode one, during the D&D game, Eddie says, “There is no shame in running. Don’t try to be heroes.” The kids refuse to run. They decide to continue the fight, and they win. Then the Duffers proceed to shame Eddie for running constantly (instead of… idk being found with a cheerleader’s mutilated body and thrown in jail? being murdered by jocks?? genuinely don’t know what the alternatives are here, guys), but also kill him the second he decides to stop running and fight back. Like, it makes sense for Eddie to have hang-ups about running away—he’s been through something extremely traumatic—but the narrative presents that (almost) completely unchallenged. But then it also punishes him for making the “right” choice and no longer running, which is just incomprehensible.

(Also, all four of the older teens run away from the bats at the Lovers’ Lake gate, but no one is claiming that that was cowardly or the wrong choice or a mistake. They were clearly outnumbered and unprepared, so running was the only thing they could do. It was the smart decision. Sometimes you just have to run, regroup, and then tackle the problem.)

To circle back to season one!Steve for a second, it’s interesting that Tommy does call Steve out for always running away. I feel like, coming from Tommy—an outside perspective—the words hold much more weight than when Eddie talks about how he’s a coward (most people are their own worst critics, after all). Sure, Tommy and Steve were fighting, so he could’ve just been making shit up to get in Steve’s head, but it felt more like he was picking at an insecurity that Steve already had. And, honestly, Steve probably does often run away from things and avoid conflict. We know he doesn’t like violence and would rather avoid it whenever possible (highly recommend that you go read werewolfsteve’s posts about that, if you haven’t already).

Meanwhile, in season 4, we have a character who’s whole arc revolves around Running Away vs Not Running Away, yet the only person who actually talks about it is Eddie, the dude who’s been jumping from one traumatic experience to the next. He doesn’t have an accurate assessment of himself or the situation. 

Steve’s tendency to run away is less obvious at first glance (because the writers trusted us to be able to connect a single line of dialogue with what we had watched, rather than have the characters remind us of things every thirty seconds). But it’s also significantly more satisfying when Steve bucks that trend and takes a stand.

Also, “buying more time” is such a nebulous concept to risk your life for. More time for whomst? Presumably Team Flambé Vecna, but does Eddie actually know that they need more time? How will he know when their mission is completed, and he no longer needs to be a distraction? Is he just banking on the hope that killing Vecna will kill all the monsters (something there has been absolutely no evidence for so far)?

Honestly, I don’t know why Dustin and Eddie were even waiting around in the trailer in the Upside Down after they successfully got the bats’ attention. They could’ve climbed back through, and then if it seemed like the bats were losing interest, they could’ve jumped back down to resume being the distraction. They assumed that the reinforcements they added to the trailer would be strong enough to keep the bats out, so it’s not like they were standing there to defend the gate (evidence: the fact they only decided to bail after the bats started to break in).

[[Multiple people have made the argument that if Eddie had followed Dustin through the gate, the bats would’ve gone as well. Which might be the case, but we don’t actually have any super compelling evidence to support that. The bats could’ve gone through the gate at Lovers’ Lake at any point, but they didn’t.

But say that is the reasoning for why Eddie goes back out/why the two of them were just hanging out in the Upside Down trailer: Working with the information they have, there’s a decent chance that the gates would’ve closed up after killing Vecna (since we saw Chrissy’s and Fred’s closed, and Nancy would remember that the gates the demogorgon made also closed on their own), so even if some bats managed to fly through into our world, they would’ve died once the gates closed. And they would be unlikely to do widespread damage in the time it took to kill Vecna.]]

You know who does have a good “create a distraction to give others enough time to complete the mission” plotline? Steve in season 2! 

When Steve and the kids go down into the tunnels to set the vines on fire, it’s not to vaguely “buy more time.” It is, very specifically, to draw the attention of the demodogs just long enough for El to reach the gate and close it (while they hightail it out of the tunnels so that they’re not killed in the process). They had a plan and an exit strategy, and that was from a pack of feral thirteen year olds and their extremely concussed babysitter, who only woke up when they were basically at the tunnels. But Eddie, infamously tough DM, who had significantly more time to prepare, couldn’t come up with a better contingency plan than “idk start running and hope the bats miraculously die before they eat me”?

Sure, Steve and the kids could’ve tried to outrun the dogs to prolong the distraction, but they knew that was an unnecessary risk. The rewards didn’t even come close to outweighing the consequences, since you’re never going to be able to sprint faster than a dog-esque creature (or, for that matter, a bat-esque creature). They just had to trust that El would be able to get the job done with the extra time they were able to give her while staying (relatively) safe themselves.

And another parallel between Steve and Eddie: Setting the tunnels on fire leads to Steve and Dustin being the only two in danger. All the other kids make it up the rope before the pack of demodogs reaches them, but Steve and Dustin don't have time to. They don't stupidly refuse to get to safety; they have no choice. Just like with Eddie and Dustin in season 4, they’re the only two in immediate danger. Except, in season 2, the dogs just run right past them, completely ignoring them in favor of getting to El. Neither of them are bitten even a little bit.

And their distraction was necessary to the plot. Even with it, the walls by the gate were swarming with demodogs, and they nearly overwhelmed Hopper. If Steve and the Party hadn't set fire to the tunnels, El wouldn't have had time to close the gate, which would’ve led to everyone dying.

Steve and the kids go against the agreed-upon plan (since they should’ve been staying on the bench), but the narrative makes it clear that they made the right call, that it was the right decision to put themselves at risk to help the others.

Meanwhile, Eddie putting himself in the line of fire is justification for him to be killed off. And it’s not like his distraction even mattered!

Eddie’s choice was pointless to the outcome of the battle. It didn’t accomplish anything. The bats were already distracted, and even if they hadn’t been, they all died minutes after taking Eddie down. Sure, he had no way of knowing that in-universe, but if we’re talking about creating a satisfying narrative (and not just blatantly ripping off Steve’s plot from previous seasons, except worse), it’s an abysmal writing decision. There are countless other ways that he could’ve been killed off that would’ve been more compelling. Because as it is, his actions literally did not matter one way or the other.

If he had kept running, the rest of the plot would’ve been exactly the same, because it was Murray with the flamethrower that actually killed the bats. Even if the bats had lost interest in him and started flying back towards the Creel house (which would’ve at least been a reason for Eddie to stop running), they wouldn’t have made it back in time to hurt anyone. (Also, in-universe, Eddie had no idea they were about to die, so him continuing to run would’ve made more sense with his stated goal of distracting them and buying the other team more time, since the bats would’ve stayed focused on him, rather than killing him and just returning to the house.)

[[Tangent: It's baffling that the demobats all just drop dead like that. When the tunnels were set on fire in season 2, that didn't kill any of the demodogs. There's no reason why it would. Sure it's a hivemind, but that doesn't mean that killing one monster kills all the rest. It just means that the rest know where you are and will probably be drawn to you. The tunnels and the dogs were both in Hawkins, and the dogs were completely unharmed by the vines being set on fire. But I'm supposed to believe that Murray setting a few dogs on fire in Russia would kill an entire swarm of bats in the Upside Down version of Hawkins? The demogorgon that is also in Russia and also set on fire doesn’t even die from that!! It makes no sense!!!

[sub-tangent where I’m deluded: Sure, maybe the bats were killed so that Dustin could get to Eddie and they could have that final conversation (which seems unlikely since, while heart wrenching, it was pretty redundant. Eddie was just repeating things he'd said before. Except for telling Dustin he loves him, but that was improv, so not a reason for the Duffer brothers to need them to speak again). Or maybe they were killed so that they wouldn't eat him completely, keeping his body mostly intact. Like, Bob got completely fucking torn apart. Billy got stabbed by six tentacles (or whatever we're calling those things) and then got stabbed in the middle of his chest. Also, he was soaked in blood. If you look at Eddie, there are a few spots, but honestly nothing that screams “this man will die of blood loss.” (Pretty sure there’s roughly the same amount of blood on Steve’s bandages as Eddie's shirt when he dies, and Steve's injuries certainly don't slow him down at all.) So unless the bats have some kind of venom (which is pretty unlikely, given that Steve was also gnawed on), what is Eddie dying from, exactly? It’s all pretty suspicious, if you ask me… 👀]]]

Now that I’m (temporarily) done being deluded, I’m gonna veer even more off topic and rant about how Eddie’s death was truly just shock value. Like, he didn’t even fit the template of previous characters who were brought in just to be killed. Because in previous seasons, the characters that died did so after accomplishing their goals, or at the very least, in a way that moved the plot forward. Both Bob and Alexei were vital to the plot, getting the main characters just close enough to their goal to be able to figure out the rest on their own.

In Bob’s case, he solved the mystery of the tunnels by figuring out that Will’s drawings were a map of Hawkins, and he calculated the distances and figured out Hopper’s location, so they were able to save him. Then in the lab, Bob knew what he was risking when he stayed behind, but it paid off! His knowledge of BASIC allowed everyone else to make it out of the lab safely. His sacrifice wasn’t in vain. And he died while trying to escape as well, rather than doing something stupid and pointless (though he and Eddie both decided to stand still knowing there are monsters nearby, like fucking idiots). And his death then inspired the kids to be brave and go down into the tunnels and create the distraction to give El more time to close the gate. He had knowledge and skills that no one else in the group had, which were necessary for the various missions to succeed.

Alexei had insider knowledge from working on the device that was opening the gate. He told them how the machine could be shut off (and how it could be destroyed), where the keys were, and that the code to access the keys was Planck’s constant. He gave them all the pieces they needed, so even though he died, they were still able to successfully break the machine. Sure, Scoops Troop had been down in the base, but they didn’t have any idea of how the machine worked. They didn’t know where the keys were or what the passcode would be. The information that Alexei was able to provide before his death was vital to stopping the Russians and subsequently killing the flesh monster mind flayer. And his death led to both the introduction of Suzie and the Hopper-in-Russia plotline.

Eddie… didn’t do anything like that. The plot just sort of happens to him, rather than him making contributions that move things forward (aside from stealing the RV). For a season where music was the solution, the musician did a remarkable lack of saving the day. We all expected him to play Nancy’s favorite song to break her out of Vecna’s curse. But nope. No one even suggested that, and Vecna just let her go. Sure, Eddie played the guitar to distract the demobats, but his presence wasn’t actually vital. Electricity works in the Upside Down well enough for them to use a drill. They could’ve just hooked up some speakers to play music. Or anyone could’ve just strummed some random notes on the guitar; it didn’t actually have to be someone playing a legit song.

Hell, even Billy accomplished more with his death, and he’d spent two seasons being an antagonist and most of season 3 literally possessed. But he still saved El by sacrificing himself, which also led to Max’s season 4 character arc.

Eddie’s death did nothing. It changed nothing. Hardly anyone cared. The kids talked about and mourned Bob. The adults took a moment to acknowledge and visibly regret Alexei’s death. Max sobbed over Billy’s body with El and Mike right beside her and then spent a whole season grappling with her feelings about his death. Even the fake out deaths were acknowledged more: Murray asks Joyce about Hopper, and then El gets to read his speech. When El disappears, the boys all scream for her, and we see Mike sobbing in his mother’s arms. We get a lingering shot of the blanket fort still set up in the basement, and just a few minutes later, Hopper puts some eggos in the woods, all but confirming that she’s not dead anyway.

Eddie got what? Dustin crying as he died, and then Dustin talking to his uncle two days later. None of the other cast even mentioned him in passing. [excuse me while I become delusional again for a second: unless I’m remembering wrong, this is the only actual major character death seen by a single character. The only other exceptions are Hopper and Max’s fake-out deaths. (Excluding the characters that die to kick off the Upside Down stuff, like Chrissy or the guys from the newspaper in season 3.)]

Arguably, Brenner’s death fit the “new major character dies to push forward plot/character development” pattern established by previous seasons better than Eddie’s. Sure, he's not actually a new character, but he was reintroduced after being presumed dead for two seasons. And he helped El get her powers back, which let her go fight Vecna and save Max.

Honestly, I’m probably reading too much into this, but I kind of feel like they were going for a parallel between Brenner and Eddie’s deaths with “I need you to understand. Please tell me you understand. Please.” and “Say ‘I’m gonna look after them.’ Say it.” (Which would be wild since one of them is a villain and the other is one of our heroes, but whatever.)

But the closest parallel is actually Max's fake-out death.

Someone they love holding them: check. Explicitly stating or implying that they don't want to die (Eddie saying that he was finally going to graduate; fight me on this): check. Only having a single character present for the death (at least physically, since El was also mentally with Max): check. Dustin telling the others: check. (He’s actually the only one who tells other people about Max and Eddie; he tells Will and El that Max is at the hospital and Wayne about Eddie's death). [Another instance of weird dialogue: Dustin saying, “Oh God. You don’t know,” after Will and El are concerned about Lucas being in the hospital. Yeah, no shit they don’t know! They just rolled up in a random pizza van, and you have no idea that El has her powers back. Literally how would they have known about Max being in the hospital?]

And then Steve and Robin never mention either of them. Which is insane! Nancy at least gets to go to the hospital to see Max (where she and Jonathan just lurked in the back of the shot while the boys (minus Dustin) and El were by her bedside, so not really much acknowledgement, but more than we get from Steve), even if she completely ignored Eddie’s death.

Robin didn’t want to tell Eddie bad news earlier in the season because she didn’t want to see him sad. But two days is enough for her to completely get over whatever reaction she had (if any) to finding out that Eddie died? And I know we haven’t seen her interact with Max much in the show, but, really? Absolutely no concern about the teenage girl who they know died long enough for the gates to open?

And Steve Harrington! Steve, the dude who's been protecting these kids for three seasons and would rather (literally) dive head first into danger than let someone else get hurt in his place. That Steve wouldn't go to the hospital to see Max, a girl who literally died on his watch? He wouldn't even ask Dustin how she's doing? We know that they’re close. Max wrote letters to the rest of the Party, her family, and Steve. None of the other young adults got one, not Robin, not Nancy, not Jonathan. Just Steve. And Max already had a brush with death in the graveyard. And we saw how worried Steve was, how devastated he’d be if he lost her. And then we’re supposed to believe that he doesn’t bother to visit or at the very least ask about how she’s doing?

He was the adult, the oldest person there who had experience. Keeping everyone safe was his responsibility. But he wouldn’t feel any guilt about Eddie being killed and his body (presumably) being left in the Upside Down? Even if he and Eddie hadn’t bonded, he still knew that Eddie and Dustin were close friends. He knew that Dustin looked up to Eddie. And he wouldn’t even feel bad about how losing Eddie would affect him? [[unrelated, but why was Dustin, the kid with the injured leg, the one limping around giving people water? Steve, you were flipping around with open wounds in your stomach; take over water delivery and let the poor kid stand still and sort some clothes. Don’t get me wrong; I love Steve Looking Supportively At Queer Ladies, but like. Should Dustin be walking around right now??]]

[[Honestly, they’re all behaving bizarrely fine for a group of people who 1. are living in a town that has a bunch of hellmouths that opened after three to four teens were brutally murdered, killing more people and swallowing houses in the process, 2. have a friend hospitalized, in a coma, with many broken bones because they failed to kill the man psychically torturing her fast enough, and 3. had a new member of their group—who had already been unfairly blamed for murders he didn’t commit and then hunted by a mob led by his classmates—get eaten alive in a hell dimension they led him to. Genuinely cannot tell if this is just terrible writing (almost certainly) or purposefully incredibly suspicious behavior (perhaps…?)]]

tl;dr This is all an extremely long-winded way of saying: 1. There are an insane number of parallels between Steve and Eddie because the Duffer brothers said “Hey! Remember how we were gonna kill Steve in season one? What if we did that now, except create a character arc using aspects of Steve’s plotlines from seasons 1-3, let the actor give him post-s1!Steve level personality, and make it a Steve stand in so people don’t actually hunt us down and kill us.” 2. Somehow in the process of ripping off Steve’s plotlines, they managed to make them worse at every turn. 3. Eddie’s death is a Significant departure from the norm in several aspects and also parallels Max’s fake-out death, which allows me to be extremely deranged and convince myself that he’s not actually dead.

#stranger things #st meta #eddie munson #steve harrington #st s4 #s4 vol2 #eddie meta #does this make any sense? #are these the ramblings of a lunatic? #me [shaking the duffer brothers]: let people react normally to things for ONCE!!! #also killing the new character isn't shocking and doesn't raise the stakes when you do it Every Single Season #I saw eddie stop running and i was like whelp! he's dead! so i guess max will be fine #max: [bones start breaking] me: damn that's gonna suck to recover from #my post #my meta #st negativity #st s4 negativity #my writing #technically?

[tommy-evan]

also let's be serious right now okay. the choice to have tommy call buck "evan" was so inspired, because as this journey begins for him, the healing has to start from the very core. and before buck was ever buck, he was evan. evan was the core of all his insecurities and his hurt. what buck is hurting from is what evan has been hurting from this whole time

and now, he's free and he can start healing. and evan has to heal first. evan gets to learn and figure things out with tommy as his guide and that's beautiful. tommy is there to guide evan so that buck can face the world. so that buck can get what the core of what he really wants, and who he's been looking for this whole time. tommy will allow evan to be seen and heal in this new light, but we know who's been seeing buck this whole time

#9-1-1 #911 abc #911 spoilers #evan buckley #eddie diaz #tommy kinard #911 meta

[whaliiwatching]

diagnoses u with fanfic tags

yeah i caved. welcome spideysona

their universe is 1990s san francisco. by day they work as a struggling writer for the bugle, sort of following in the footsteps of (movie-adjacent) eddie brock; by night they’re spider-scrawl, fighting systemic injustice, writers’ block, and the occasional mad scientist invention. his world is less rife with supernatural evils than most, but he’s also fucking with the government and corporations and all, so it balances out

their unique thing is that they have, like, shitty meta clairvoyance in the form of inherently understanding tropes, clichés, story structure, etc. like if cinemasins/wins were a superhero. they were approached to join the society because miguel thought they’d be chill or even helpful with canon events—unfortunately scribble here is not whatsoever into following rigid plot structure for the sake of unnecessary thematic suffering, saw the plot twist a miles away, and peaced. but not before snagging a day pass so they could watch atsv in person

they never take off their mask, and no one knows their name—he says it’s because he doesn’t want to lose his identity in a sea of spider-people, leading most to theorize that san-fran-spidey is some flavor of peter parker, but who’s to say for sure? the doylist reason, which he is in fact aware of, is that i don’t know either lol

#spider man: across the spiderverse #spidersona #spider scrawl #spider punk #spider noir #hobie brown #noirpunk #just a tad ;) #brass tacks means facts! #haha do you get it miles like a mile away but miles was the one wh— #so anyway sona shit #eddie in their universe has left the bugle for better things (read: got fired movie style) #still a bangin journalist tho and scrawl aspires to be like him #their deadpool is just as meta as them. they’re buddies #usually i’m not one for sonas but this was fun #static and colors inspired by that can u ever forgive me movie from 2018 #scrawl puts on the mask to feel more confident about fighting the system #hopin & prayin it’ll do the same for me :’)

[lazylittledragon]

just realised i never posted any of the stuff i did for the alternative steddie dads au

#steddie #stranger things #steve harrington #eddie munson #we're getting meta #this is the alt version where bee was the product of a one night stand and eddie skipped town and never told him #the original was too wholesome i guess #also you can tell i made some of these months apart #ft. uncle gareth seeing through eddie's bullshit #i was just going to post the newest ones but you need. context. there's lore now #i am insane

[otteranha]

Steve’s always been told that the string of pearls from his grandmother would one day belong to his girl of his dreams, perfect accessory to compliment a wedding dress. When he’s getting his birth certificate and passport out of his father’s safe on the day he leaves for good the pearls in their velvet case catch his eye and on a whim, he takes them along. Leaves a note explaining that it won’t be a white wedding but they’ll be going to the person he loves most in the world.

It may seem incongruous on paper, but when Corroded Coffin plays their first big gig, everyone remarks about the total badassery of frontman Eddie Munson’s look, pairing black mesh shirt, frayed black jeans and combat boots with a string of flawless white pearls.

#stranger things #steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things hc #stranger things au #stranger things meta #of course eddie also wears them on their actual wedding day too #they become something of a signature piece for him

[steddielations]

once again thinking about how Eddie’s realization that Steve’s actually a good dude probably has to do with how Steve kept making sure he was in the loop (girl with superpowers) and placating his worries without making it seem silly (Dustin’s not cursed, just mental) and never once making Eddie feel dumb for trying to keep up and going blank under stress (not saying ‘you should already know’ when explaining the hive mind) I know we love how Eddie doesn’t make Steve feel dumb about the Ozzy reference, but Steve was also doing that for Eddie too for most of the season

Just thinking, with Eddie having failed grades and clearly struggled in school and not being seen as “traditionally” smart, he’s definitely been treated like he’s stupid before. Both him and Steve know what it’s like to feel dumb and they made such a point not to treat each other that way and it’s so!!!

#they tease each other and steve’s like ‘you got it easy. i just had to grab a bat and start swinging. no questions asked’ #i made another post about this but i was thinking about it again because!! #yeah it’s probably part of why eddie was like hey he’s actually a very good dude #steddie #eddie munson #stranger things #steve harrington #steddie headcanons #st meta #mp

[tawaifeddiediaz]

wait eddie finding someone with similar interests actually goes beyond buck's jealousy or anything else because he's finding someone who embraces these parts of him that that previously were framed around his trauma (or rather, he's finding someone to embrace these parts with, even if tommy isn't necessarily aware):

the army

helicopters

mma/fighting

cars

like...this isn't just him getting a new friend. it's also him embracing all these things as hobbies rather than the depths of things he struggled with. (army, being shot out of the sky, street fighting, crashing his dad's truck/buying one with illegal money, etc)

anyway im gonna go cry about him

#zee rambles #911 meta #911 spoilers #eddie diaz #tommy kinard #911 abc #911 on abc #this isn't an exhaustive list but like.... #this just occurred to me

[corrodedbisexual]

So what I've seen a lot in the "Eddie survived, Vecna's dead, happy end" fic timelines (aka "what we all agree actually happened") is that the Munsons' trailer was completely destroyed, along with all of Eddie's stuff, his precious sweetheart, his music collection, etc. etc. So I rewatched that scene several times for my own fic's purposes. And hey, you know what, I think Eddie's stuff is fine.

We see how the upside down crack starts from the gate and rips through the trailer's outer wall, and obviously, RIP the mug collection.

BUT. The crack only goes in one direction, and we don't see the other side of the trailer, where Eddie's room is, affected in any way.

This wasn't exactly a normal earthquake. Like, buildings that were at the very epicenter of that final blast seem completely unaffected, as long as they weren't in the way of the cracks / vines. Also, as long as the crack doesn't go right through it, a part of a building would be left standing.

TL;DR Eddie's room was most likely just fine and he'd probably be able to get his precious guitar and everything eventually. Sorry about your stuff uncle Wayne.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk.

#stranger things #eddie munson #eddie meta #eddie's trailer #reference #eddie trivia #misha-bawlins meta

[sevensoulmates]

Buck, Eddie, Love Interests & Vulnerability

So I noticed something interesting while I was watching a romcom with my friend tonight and I wanted to share my thoughts.

I remembered that in writing romance, whether for screen or in written format, one of the fundamental keys to making your characters establish a deep relationship is to have them share vulnerable moments.

Why is it important for two characters to be mutually vulnerable to develop a romance? Because if your potential partner is not able to see the most vulnerable parts of yourself and love you for it even more, then that's not the partner for you. Most of us are aware of this, and that's why those moments in any romance where two characters open up and let each other in are extremely important.

Now I want to talk about Buck and Eddie's relationships with their various LI's (hopefully as briefly as I can) and analyze the relationships and the audience's reception to them.

With Buck, his relationship with Abby, love it or hate it, definitely included many vulnerable moments with the two of them opening up to each other. Buck felt like Abby could see him, and he was able to be vulnerable with her about how he felt. Abby was very open about her struggles with her mom. This bonded them together quickly and allowed the audience to at least understand why they were into each other if nothing else. I still believe Buck's relationship with Abby was the strongest of his female love interests in the show (even despite all the faults).

With Ali, the only time we see Buck be vulnerable is right after the truck explosion, and instead of that vulnerability being accepted, it is rejected by Ali, hence why their relationship does not continue.

With Taylor....this relationship was lopsided. Taylor managed to open up to Buck during the pandemic episodes, and about her past, and Buck accepted her and supported her, but the same could not be said vice versa. With the exception of the scene where Taylor tries to help Buck after Eddie is shot (and even that has him rejecting her and her insisting but I digress), when Buck opened up about things, his insecurities, etc, they were almost always met with skepticism, mockery, and even exasperation, even though she was no longer outwardly cruel. Buck made a lot of mistakes in their relationship too, but all of this (in my personal opinion) was done because he knew, subconsciously, that he and Taylor were not fully connecting on the emotional level they both needed, and that led to their ultimate breakup.

With Natalia, the girl wasn't comfortable with any part of Buck's life, and I don't think either of them really shared any truly vulnerable moments at all. Even though they were talking a lot about Buck's death. I think at first, Buck misunderstood Natalia's interest in his death as acceptance of his vulnerabilities (exactly what he was missing in his last relationship with Taylor) but in the end, he realized that once again, they were not connecting the way they needed to, and he ended it.

Now, I'm going to shift to Eddie because he's interesting. The first relationship we see him in is with Shannon. We see moments between the two of them where Shannon is able to open up about her vulnerabilities with Eddie...but (in my opinion) I don't know if Eddie was ever able to truly accept them, as evidenced by him being "unable to trust her" even after he's already begun sleeping with her. In contrast, I don't think we ever really see Eddie open up to her, not really, not even during the very last time they have dinner together. His speech to Shannon is less about him being open and honest with his vulnerabilities, but more so a promise to stifle his worries about their relationship, his fears about what she could do to Chris (and Eddie) emotionally, to fall back into the comfortable nuclear family they'd made, to keep his issues to himself all in the pursuit of "making it right" with her. In Eddie Begins, we also see that when Shannon tries to make vulnerable connections with Eddie they are shut down, and when Eddie is given opportunities to open up to Shannon and let her in on how he's feeling, he denies them. I understand why some people find their relationship fascinating, but I think most people agree these two were never right for each other because Eddie and Shannon are never able to make the true, deep vulnerable connections necessary in order to really truly be there and accept and love each other as true forever partners.

Next, we have Ana. Good lord the only vulnerable conversation these two ever had on screen was their breakup. They have awkward dates where they talk about math, and when Ana tries to get Eddie to start talking about Shannon ie "I know there's not been anyone in his life since his mom" Eddie very promptly shuts down that convo. Later on, even after Eddie is shot, they still don't have any vulnerable conversations. Then, when Eddie has his panic attacks, still nothing. The only time Eddie is ever 100% honest with her is when they break up. And that's why literally no one watching had any investment in these two as a couple.

I want to spare a brief interlude for Felisa Valdez and Vanessa. I hypothesize a lot of the reason why people think Eddie "had chemistry" with these two was not just because they are all hot individuals or had any sort of special connection (let's be real they were all virtual strangers to each other). But there is one thing that sets both of them apart from Eddie's other two love interests. Felisa was able to be very open and honest with Eddie about why she stays in not-so-healthy friendships, and in turn, Eddie shared with her about the tsunami and Chris. They were able to connect through mutual vulnerability (even though it wasn't too deep on Eddie's end). Similarly, Vanessa is able to be open with Eddie about how she was hurt by her ex-fiance in the past and that she wants to protect her own feelings now. Eddie both admires her honesty and connects with her vulnerability (as it is a shared one even though Eddie doesn't tell her so onscreen). But because of that vulnerable moment, most of us actually really liked Vanessa and thought she and Eddie were cute.

Moving on to Marisol, it could be argued that Eddie sees Marisol in her most vulnerable moment (when she thinks her brother is gonna die), but that was not really a moment where Marisol chooses to be vulnerable with Eddie, he just happens to be there witnessing it. Then fast forward through the rest of the scenes they have in season 6, there are no moments of them being open and vulnerable with each other (and no I don't count the asking-out scene that was just awkwardness). Then we head into season 7, she's been in one scene, and that was all surface level too. In fact, the person that Eddie's being most vulnerable with in that same scene is Buck. For that reason, and external reasons related to the actress, most people are not interested in Eddie/Marisol at all.

Which brings me to my next and biggest point.

The person that Buck and Eddie have been able to share most of, if not all, their biggest vulnerability moments with is each other. Yes, Buck has vulnerable scenes with Maddie (but that's his sister), and both of them have vulnerable scenes with Bobby (but that's their father), but even those moments are outshined by just how deeply vulnerable Buck and Eddie are able to be with each other.

I could go on to list each and every moment Buck and Eddie have been vulnerable with each other and then found equal and reciprocated acceptance each and every time, but that's unnecessary because most of us already just flash-forwarded through all their scenes at light speed, so I don't need to tell you what you already know. But I think the sheer amount of times that Buck and Eddie have been vulnerable with each other in ways that are EXCLUSIVE to each other, is why a fuckton of us in this fandom are so down bad for them as a couple and will fight tooth and nail for them to get their happy ending together.

So, with that being said I'm interested to see where the rest of season 7 goes. Are we going to get some actual real moments of vulnerability between Eddie and Marisol (or Buck and *maybe* Tommy)? Or are they just going to remain surface level, never actually developing their relationship into anything worthwhile. And if what the endless amount of articles on Buddie keep saying is true, then it's Buck and Eddie who are going to keep being open and vulnerable with each other, getting closer, and seeing their relationship develop into new territory.

#911 abc #buddie meta #911 meta #eddie meta #buck meta #analysis #speculation? #buddie #this was spurred on because I had this epiphany while watching Irish Wish on Netflix #that Eddie has never been vulnerable with any of his LI's not even Shannon #and the only person he even remotely trusts with all of him is Buck

[worstsequence]

who else is here on this day thinking about eddie lovey dovey free with affection known dustin for not even a year uses his dying breath to tell him he loves him munson

#hes so ebbiecakes sorry... you can make him mean all you want based on you misunderstanding the cafeteria scene in your own special ways #it will never be true <3 #'hes very judgey and pretentious. literally has a munson doctrine with set rules' oh? the one he mentioned in his #dramatized retelling of how he thinks steve is really cool and that judgeing him based on highschool cliquey stereotypes would be wrong #and that if he WAS the judgey gatekeepy dick you all want him to be so desperately that its something hes clearly reexamined vis a vis #steve ur so cool speech? and WOULDNT be something hed still be doing to steve? #that one? thats your citation cool cool i see yes of course #what if disney princesses were FUCKED UP! buzzfeed thread type of take to me. its fine. do as u please #he just wants to play his little guitar.. cc were practing in that garage having fun and smiling and giggling playing their little songs #🐯.archive #eddie meta

[flowercrowngods]

who did this to you. part 3

🤍🌷 read part 1 here | read part 2 here pre-s4, steve whump, protective (but scared) eddie. now with robin!

The number rings in his head, echoing off the inside of his skull and sinking lower and lower until his heart strings join the symphony that leaves him shaking as the memory of Harrington’s slurred voice is drowned out by the dial tone that feels harrowingly like a flatline right now. 

Said I’ll go blind. Or deaf. Or just… die.

Eddie doesn’t really feel like his body belongs to him anymore, or like there’s anything left inside him other than panic and fear and that stupid, stupid shaking that he can’t suppress even as he bites his knuckles. Hard. 

The pain helps a little not to startle too much when the dial tone stops and a female voice begins speaking to him. Still he almost drops the phone, cursing under his breath as he pulls his hair to collect himself and get his voice to work. 

“H— Hi, hello, Mrs Buckley? This is, uh. I. I’m. A friend of Robin’s, could you, uh—“ 

“Oh, of course, dear,” the woman says, and Eddie feels his eyes beginning to prick with how nice she sounds even through the phone. 

Does she know Steve, too? Would she worry if she knew? Would she curse Eddie for not taking him to the hospital right away? Would she blame him if anything happened? 

“I’m sorry? What did you say your name was?” she asks, repeating herself by the sound of it. 

He blanks, for a whole five seconds, before he spots a note stuck to the fridge saying Don’t forget to eat, Eddie :-)

“Eddie,” he croaks. “Uh, Eddie Munson.”

“Alright, Eddie Munson, I’ll see if I can grab Robin for you. You have a good day, dear, yes?” 

No. “Thanks.” 

The hand clenched in his hair pulls tighter and tighter until the tears fall and he can pretend it’s from pain and not from— whatever the fuck is happening. 

He waits, phone pressed to his ear with a kind of desperation he’s never really felt, and never wants to feel again. He doesn’t even know what to tell Robin; what to say. It’s not like they ever hang out or have anything to say to each other, so why would she— 

“Munson?” Robin’s voice appears on the other end, a little too loud for Eddie’s certain state, and he does drop the phone this time, scrambling to catch it and only making the situation worse as it dangles by his knees. 

He drops to the floor, pulling his knees to his chest and reaching for the phone again. 

“Hi.” 

“What do you want? How’d you even get this number? I swear, if you—“ 

“It’s Blue. I mean, Steve. Harrington.” 

That shuts her right up, and Eddie clenches his eyes shut for a moment, hoping to keep the tremor out of his voice if only he takes a moment to breathe. 

The moment stretches. And Robin’s voice is wary and quiet when she speaks again. 

“What about Steve.” 

Eddie rubs his face, leaving more dirt and grime to fill the tear tracks, and clenches his fist before his mouth. 

“Eddie,” Robin demands, dangerous now. Nothing left of the rambling, bubbling mess he knows her to be on the school hallways. “What. About. Steve.” 

“He… He’s hurt.” 

There’s a bit of a commotion on the other end, before Robin declares, “I’m coming over. You tell me everything.” 

“You— I mean, he’s in the hospital with my uncle, so—“ 

“I am. Coming. Over,” she says, enunciating every word as though she were making a threat. Maybe she is. But the certainty in her voice helps a little, anchors him the same way that Wayne’s calmness did. “And you tell me everything.” 

Eddie finds himself nodding along, knowing intuitively that there is nothing that could stop her now. Knowing that he doesn’t want to stop her. 

“‘Kay.” It’s a pathetic little sound, all choked up and tiny. She doesn’t comment on it. 

One second he hears her determined exhale, the next she’s hung up on him and Eddie is greeted by the flatline again. He lets out a shuddering breath and leans his head back against the wall. 

Breathing is hard again, but it’s all he has to do now, all that’s left to do, so he focuses. Inhale. Hold. Exhale. Hold. His lungs are burning and there’s something wrong about the way he pulls in air and keeps it there, desperately latching onto it until the very last second, his exhales more of a gasping cough than calm and controlled. 

It takes a while. Longer than it should. But with Harrington’s blood still on his hands, with his heartbeat in his ears so loud he can’t even hear the words Wayne used to say about breathing in through the mouth or the nose or… or something, he— 

He’s fine. He’s home. Wayne’s got Blue, and Buckley is on her way, and… He’s fine. 

People don’t just die. 

They don’t. 

He’s fine. 

Eventually, Eddie manages to breathe steadily, the air no longer shuddering and his hands no longer shaking. It’s stupid, really, being so worked up over someone he doesn’t even really know. Sure, everyone knows Steve fucking Harrington, and everyone sees Steve fucking Harrington — whether they want it or not. He has a way of drawing eyes toward him even if all he does is walk the halls with his dorky smile and that stupidly charming swagger he’s got going on. Always matching his shoes to his outfit.

Eddie can relate.

Always reaching out to touch the person he’s talking to; clapping their back or shoulder, lightly shoving them in jest, ruffling their hair or chasing them through the halls, moving and holding himself like teenage angst can’t reach him. Like he belongs wherever he goes. Like he’s so, so comfortable in his own skin. Like the clothes he wears aren’t armour but just a part of him; a means of self-expression. 

Again, Eddie can relate. He can relate to all of this. 

It’s almost like the two of them aren’t so different after all. Just going about it differently. 

And now he’s… Bleeding. Slurring his speech. Wheezing his breath. And Eddie feels protective. Eddie feels responsible. Like he should be there, like he should get to know more about him. About Steve. About Blue. 

But he can’t. And he won’t. So he gets up with a groan that expresses his frustration and the need to make a sound, to fight the oppressive silence that only encourages his thoughts to run in obsessive little circles, and he hangs up the phone that’s been dangling beside him all this time. 

He needs a smoke. 

He needs a smoke and a blunt and a drink and for this day to be over and for time to revert and to leave him out of whatever business he stumbled into by opening the door to the boathouse and, apparently, Steve Harrington’s life. 

But unfortunately, the universe doesn’t seem to care about what he needs, because just as he steps outside and goes to light his cig, he catches sight of a harried looking Robin Buckley, standing on the pedals of her bike as she kicks them, her hair blowing in the wind to reveal a frown between her brows. A wave of unease overcomes Eddie, an unease he can’t really place. Maybe it’s the set of her jaw, or the tension in her shoulders, or maybe it’s the worry and anger she exudes. 

It never occurred to him before that Robin Buckley might not be a person you’d want to set off. And not because of her uncontrollable rambles. 

“Munson!” she calls over, carelessly dropping her bike in the driveway and stalking toward him. 

Almost as if summoning a shield, Eddie does light the cigarette. Pretends like the smoke can protect him. 

She doesn’t stop at the foot of the steps, though, climbs them in two leaps and gets all up in his space with that unwavering look of determination — so unwavering, in fact, that it almost looks like wrath. Cold. Eddie wants to shrink away from it, not at all daring to wonder what could make her look like that upon hearing that Steve’s hurt. 

I don’t wanna die, Munson. I never… I didn’t. With the monsters or the torture.

But those are the words of a semi-conscious teenage boy beat to a pulp, they can’t— There’s no way. Eddie misheard him, or Steve was talking about some kind of inside joke, using the wrong terminology with the wrong guy. It happens. It happens when you’re out of it, really! The shit he’s said when he was shot up, canned up, all strung out and high as a kite… He’d be talking of monsters, too, and mean some benign shit. 

But the way Harrington looked, none of that was benign. The bruising all over his face, the blood still dripping from the wound by his temple or his nose, the way he held himself, breath rattling in his lungs, or— 

“Hey!” Buckley demands his attention, giving him a light shove; just enough to catch his attention, really, and just what he needed to snap out of it. Still the smoke hits his lungs wrong and he coughs up a lung, further cementing his role of the pathetic little guy today. 

“Hey,” he says lamely, his voice still croaking as he crushes the half-smoked cigarette under his boot. “Sorry.” He doesn’t know for what. But it feels appropriate. 

She shakes her head, rolling her eyes at him as she crosses her arms in front of her chest. 

“Tell me,” she says at last, and even though there is a tremor in her voice, she sounds nothing short of demanding. “I want the whole story, and I want it now.” 

And so he does. He tells her everything, bidding her inside because he needs the relative safety of the trailer even though the air in here is stuffy and still faintly smells blue. He pours them both some coffee and some tea, because asking what she wants doesn’t feel right in the middle of telling her how he found her supposed best friend beat to shit in the boathouse he went to to forget about the world for a while. 

She stills as she listens to him, staring ahead into the middle distance somewhere beneath the floor and the walls, her hands wrapped around the steaming mug of coffee. Eddie stumbles over his words a lot, unsettled by her stillness, her lack of reaction. She doesn’t even react to his fuck-ups. People usually do.

He wants to ask. Where are you right now? What have you seen? What’s on your mind? What the fuck is happening?

But he doesn’t ask, instead he tells her more about Steve. About how he seemed to forget where he was. About the pain he was in. About the smiles nonetheless. The way he reassured Eddie. 

That one finally gets a choked little huff from her, somewhere between a sob and a laugh. 

“Yeah, that sounds like him alright. He’s such a dingus.” 

There is so much affection in her voice as she says it that Eddie can’t help but smile into his mug. 

“Dingus?” he asks, hoping for some lightness, hoping to keep it. 

But the light fades, and her eyes get distant again. Eddie wants to kick himself. 

“Just a stupid little nickname. An insult, really.”

“Oh.” He doesn’t know what to do with that. If he should ask more or if he should say that he has a feeling Steve might appreciate stupid little nicknames. Especially if they’re unique. Especially if they’re for him. But what right does he have to say that now? What knowledge does he have about Steve Harrington that Robin doesn’t? 

So he bites his tongue and drinks his coffee, cursing the silence that falls over them as Robin mirrors him, albeit slow and stilted, like she doesn’t know what to do either. Or where to put her limbs. 

“Wayne’s got him now. I took him here, after the boathouse, because I didn’t know what to do. He said he didn’t want the hospital, said there’s…” He trails off. 

Robin looks at him, her eyes wary but alert. “Said there’s what?” 

It’s stupid. Don’t say it. 

“Eddie?” 

With a sigh, he puts his mug on the counter and stuffs his hands into his pockets. “He said there’s monsters. In the hospital, I mean. He said that.”

Instead of scoffing or at least frowning, Robin clenches her jaw and nods imperceptibly, her eyes going distant again. Eddie blinks, the urge to just fucking ask overcoming him again, but with every passing second he realises that he doesn’t actually want to ask. He doesn’t want to know, let alone find out. 

He just… He just wants to go to bed. Forget any of this ever happened. But he can’t do that, so he continues. 

“Brought him here and Wayne took one look at him and convinced him he needed a doctor. And, Jesus H Christ, he was right. I’ve never… I mean, those things don’t happen,” he urges, balling his hands into fists even in the confined space of his pockets. “Right? I mean… Shit, man.” He bumps his shoe into the kitchen counter; gently, so as not to startle Buckley out of her fugue like state. 

“You’d be surprised,” she rasps, staring into the middle distance again and slowly sinking to the floor. There is a tremor in her shoulders now, barely noticeable, but Eddie knows where to look. Without really thinking about it, he grabs two of his hoodies he’d haphazardly thrown over the kitchen chairs this morning while deciding on his outfit and realising that it was altogether too warm for long sleeves today. But now, right here in this kitchen, the air tinged with blue, they’re both freezing. 

Because fear and worry will take all the warmth right from inside of you and leave you freezing even on the hottest day of the year. 

She barely looks at him when he holds out his all-black Iron Maiden hoodie to her, freshly washed and all that, but she takes it nonetheless, immediately pulling it on. It’s way too large on her, her hands not showing through the sleeves, her balled fists safe and warm inside the fabric. It would make him smile if only it didn’t highlight her stillness, her faraway stare, and the years he has on her. She’s, what, two years younger than him? Three? 

It seems surreal. Everything, everything does. 

Robin Buckley in his home, sitting on his kitchen floor, swallowed by a hoodie that is a size too large even for him, but it was the last one they had in the store and he doesn’t mind oversized clothes, can just cut them shorter when the need arises or layer them or declare them comfort sweaters for when he wants to just have his hands not slip through the sleeves on some days. And now Robin is wearing his comfort hoodie because her best friend was bleeding in his car earlier and then on his couch and now in his uncle’s car, and they never even talk, but he knows that Robin’s favourite colour is blue, but not morning hour blue because that makes her sad; only deep, dark blues. 

Her favourite colour. Her favourite person. 

It’s so fucking surreal. 

He drops down beside her, leaving enough space between them so neither of them feels caged, and mirrors her position: knees to his chest, chin on his forearms. Staring ahead. 

And silence reigns. 

“Your uncle,” she says at last, finally breaking the silence that’s been grating on Eddie’s nerves and looking at him, really looking as she rests her cheek on her forearms crossed over her knees. “Tell me about him.” 

There is a gentleness to her voice now despite how hoarse it is. Maybe she’s just tired, too. And scared. At least the shivering has stopped. 

Still Eddie frowns, confused as to why she should be breaking the silence to ask about Wayne when everything today has been about Harrington. About Steve. About deep and dark blues. 

“Uncle Wayne?” he asks. “Why?”

“Because,” she begins, and sighs deeply, works to get the air back in her lungs. Eddie wants to reach out, but instead he just clenches his fingers a little deeper into the fabric of his hoodie. “My best friend is hurt very badly and the only person with him is your uncle, and I need to know that he’s in good hands. Or I swear to whatever god you may or may not believe in, and granted, it’s probably the latter, but still I swear I’ll give into my arsonist tendencies and burn down this city, starting with your trailer if you don’t tell me that your uncle is a good man who will do anything in his power to make sure that boy gets the help and care he needs. And deserves.” 

Her jaw is set and her bottom lip trembles, but it doesn’t take away from the absolute sincerity in her threat. 

“So, please,” she continues, her voice breaking just a little bit. “Tell me. Tell me about your uncle.” 

Tell me about your favourite person. 

Eddie swallows, and mirrors her position once more, so she can see his eyes and know he’s sincere. Because he’s learned something about eyes today, about how much in the world can change if only you have a pair of eyes to look into. 

And he nods, looking for somewhere to start. “He’s the best man I know. He’s the best man you’ll ever meet.”

She clings to his eyes. Searches them for the truth, beseeching them not to lie. He lets her. 

“Took me in when I was ten, because my dad’s a fuck-up and my mom’s a goner. Took me in again when I was twelve after I ran away. Makes me breakfast and I pretends the dinner I make him is more than edible.” He smiles a little, because how could he not? “He’s my uncle, but still he’s the best parent anyone could wish for. Writes those little notes that he sticks to the fridge, y’know, the one with the smiley face? Tells me to eat, because I forget sometimes. I tell him to drink water, because he forgets. First few years, he’d read to me. And the man’s a shit reader, has some kind of disability I think, and at some point I learned that he wasn’t reading at all. He was telling me stories all the time, conning me into thinking that the books were magic, and that every time I’d try to read the book for myself, the story would change.” 

There’s a lump in his throat now, and his eyes sting again. But Robin doesn’t seem to fare any better than him if her wavering smile is any indication. 

“There’s no one,” Eddie continues, “who will make you believe in magic quite like uncle Wayne. Or in good things. And d’you wanna know what he told Blue when he said he was scared of going to the hospital?” 

Sniffling, Robin shakes her head. 

“He said, Okay. Then we do it scared. And all of that after he just… with that patience he has, told him everything that was gonna happen. And that he’d be there with him through it all. That he knew the doc and wouldn’t let anyone else near him, and that there’s no need to be scared at all.” 

He sighs, breathes, stills. Swallows, before looking back at Robin. 

“So, if there’s one person who’ll make sure that boy gets the help and care he needs and deserves…” 

“It’s uncle Wayne,” Robin finishes his sentence, her voice still hoarse, but Eddie likes to think it’s for a different reason now. 

“It’s uncle Wayne,” Eddie says, nodding along as he does. 

There is something like understanding in Robin’s eyes now, and Eddie hopes it’s enough. Enough to calm the spiking of her nerves, enough to settle the coil of freezing nausea that must reside in the pit of her stomach, enough to let the next breath she takes feel a little more like it’s supposed to be there. 

He wants to say something more, wants to reach out and reassure her that everything will be okay, but he can’t know that. He doesn’t feel like it’s entirely true, let alone appropriate right now. 

There’s something in Robin’s eyes, in the way she holds herself, like she’s waiting for the other shoe to drop. Like she accepts his words at face value but doesn’t really believe them. Like she’ll only rest when she’s got her best friend back in her arms and hears the story — the whole story — from him. 

And Eddie doesn’t fault her, because the thing is, he doesn’t know what happened. Steve said that Hagan came at him, but that’s really all he got out of him before he started talking about death and shit, and Eddie really didn’t want to ask any more questions then. 

So they sit there for a while, the silence oppressive and unwelcome, clumsy and awkward; Robin’s mouth opening and closing a lot, like she wants to ask questions but doesn’t dare to ask them — and Eddie doesn’t know if he’s glad about it or not. Doesn’t know if he wants to hear the kind of questions asked with that kind of stare. 

It is only after a long while, when Robin’s shoulders start shaking again and she buries deeper into the hoodie and her own spiralling thoughts, that Eddie breaks the silence again, replaying in his head the last moment between him and Steve. 

“He’s not gonna break,” he tells her, aiming for gentle and reassuring. 

What he doesn’t expect is the minute flinch, the jolt shooting through her body and the pained expression it leaves her with. What he doesn’t expect is what she says next. 

“You know,” she begins, her voice as far away as her eyes, and it’s like she doesn’t even know she’s speaking. “Sometimes I wish he would.” 

What?

Eddie blinks, swallowing hard.

“Just for, just for a break. Just so he can rest. Let the rest take over for a while.” 

That… He doesn’t— What the hell does that even mean? 

“Like maybe then the world would… snap back.” She snaps her fingers, just once. This time it’s Eddie who flinches. “And everything bad would disappear. But it won’t. And he won’t.” She swallows. Then quietly, almost inaudible, “He won’t break.” 

And the way she says it… It was reassuring before. And now it feels like a burden. A curse. 

Who the fuck are you, Steve Harrington? And you, Robin Buckley. 

Eddie shudders, knowing he doesn’t want the answer to that anymore. He doesn’t want the questions either. So he buries his face in his hands, closes his eyes, and breathes. The adrenaline has worn off by now, the repeated panicking that added fuse to the fire has ceased now, leaving him worn out and strung out, tired and exhausted. He pulls up the hood, burrowing into the warmth. 

And then he stills. His usually twitching, fumbling, fiddling body falling entirely still beside Buckley. 

It’s like time stops for a while there, even though Eddie knows that it’s dragging ever on and on. He’s inclined to let it, though. He’s too tired, too exhausted to really care about what time may or may not be doing. 

“Why’d you call me?” 

It takes a while for Eddie to realise that Robin’s spoken again, asked him a question out loud, the cadence of it different to the endless circles of questions Eddie’s got stuck in his head since the early afternoon tinged in blue against crimson. 

He lifts his head, tucking his hands underneath his chin, and looks over at Buckley. Her hair is dishevelled now, her mascara smudged and crusty. Her lipstick is almost all gone, with the way he sees her biting and chewing on her lips. 

“I… It seemed like the right thing to do, y’know? He kept repeating your number. In the car, it was like… Sounds dramatic, but it was like his lifeline, almost. Repeated it so often it kinda got stuck.” He shrugs. “Seemed important, too.”

Robin frowns; a careful little thing. “How’d you know it was me?”

“Well, he just talked about you. Y’know. Tell me about your favourite person, I told him, because that’s the thing you gotta do to keep people, like, talking to you. Not shit about what day it is, or what. Just, y’know. Let them talk about things they like. Things they’ll wanna tell you about. ’N’ he talked about you.” 

She’s quiet for a while, letting his words sink in. And Eddie wonders if she knew. That she’s his favourite person. If he ever told her. If maybe he took that from him now. It’s a stupid thing to worry about, really; the boy was bloodied and bruised on his couch just an hour ago, there are worse things at hand for Eddie to worry about. But now he wonders if he just spilled some sort of secret. Some sort of love confession. 

“Did you, I mean… Are you guys, like, dating? Did I just steal his moment?” 

Robin huffs, but it’s more like a smile that needs a little more space in the room, a little more air to really bloom. It’s fond. She shakes her head, her eyes far away again, but closer somehow. 

“Nah,” she says, and the smile is in her voice, too. Eddie kind of likes her voice like that. “We’re platonic. Which is something I’d never thought I’d say. Not about Steve Harrington, y’know?” 

And the way she drags out his name… Eddie can relate. Like it means something, but like what it means is nowhere close to reality. Nowhere close to what it really means. Nowhere close to Blue. 

Robin sighs, the sound more gentle than it should be, and leans her head against the cabinet behind her. “We worked together over summer break. Scoops Ahoy.” Her voice does a funny thing, and her eyes glaze over as she pauses. Eddie waits, his lips tipped up into a little smile, too; to match hers. 

“What, the ice cream parlour?” 

Robin hums, her smile widening at what Eddie guesses must be memories of chaos and ridiculousness. “I wanted to hate him,” she continues. “But try as I might, he wouldn’t let me. Or, he did. He did let me. Just, it turns out, there’s no use hating Steve Harrington, not when he’s so… So endlessly genuine. There’s nothing to hate, y’know? And then he…” 

She stops, her mouth clicking shut as her eyes tear up a little. The Starcourt fire. Eddie remembers the news, remembers the self-satisfied smirk when he’d heard about it, remembers sticking it to the Man and to capitalism and to the idea of malls over supporting your friendly neighbourhood businesses. 

Guilt and shame overcome him as he realises that they must have been in there when it happened. 

“He saved your life?” 

Robin’s eyes snap toward him, wide and caught, and Eddie raises his hands in placation. 

“In the fire? Were you there?” 

“Y—yeah.” She swallows hard, avoiding his eyes. “The fire. He saved me. Yeah.” 

Eddie nods, deciding to drop that topic right there; to lay it on the ground as gently as he can and cover it with bright red colours so he never steps on it ever again. 

“He must be your favourite person, too, then, hm?” he steers the conversation back away into safer waters. 

“He is,” she says, sure and genuine and true. “It’s just. I don’t think I’ve ever been anyone’s favourite. He has a lot of people who care about him, you know? A lot of people he cares about. Even more numbers memorised in that stupidly smart head of his.” She huffs again, burrowing deeper into Eddie’s hoodie, pulling the sleeves over her hands some more. “It’s stupid, to be so hung up on this. Is it stupid?” 

“I don’t think it is,” Eddie says, scooting a little closer to Robin. “Like, I don’t even know that boy, right? But even I know that he’s got some ways to shift your focus or something. Give you a silver lining, or something to take the pain away even when he’s the one who… I don’t know, that’s probably stupid, too.” 

“Nah,” Robin says, scooting closer to him, too, until their sides are pressed together and she can lay her head on his shoulder. “It’s not stupid. You’re right; that’s Steve for you. ’S just who he is.” 

It is, isn’t it? 

You’re so blue, Stevie. 

She’ll say something corny when, when you ask her, jus’ to fuck with you. Sunset gold or rose, jus’ to mess with… But is blue.

Blue. ‘S nice. 

Yeah. Yeah, he is. 

Eddie lets his thoughts roam the endless possibilities and realities that is Steve Harrington, the depths he hides — or won’t hide, maybe, if you know how to ask. Where to look. 

Maybe he’ll find out, one of these days. Not about the terrible things that leave him scared of the hospital, not about the horrible things that have him speaking of death and dying like he’s accepted them as a possibility a long time ago. 

He swallows hard and shakes off these thoughts, because things like that just. They don’t happen. They don’t happen to blue-smiled boys who trust you to be kind even when they’re beaten straight to hell. And they sure as hell don’t happen when uncle Wayne’s around. 

Nothing bad has ever happened when uncle Wayne was around. 

And he wants to tell Robin, wants to make that promise. But part of him can’t bear the thought of being wrong. So he keeps his mouth shut and just sits with her, their heads as heavy as their hearts as they wait. 

The sun is long gone when the phone above him rings again, spooking and startling them out of their timeless existence. 

“Yeah?” he answers, his heart hammering in his chest. “Wayne?” 

“Hey, Ed,” Wayne’s voice comes through the phone like a melody. Calm and steady. Robin is scooting closer, and Eddie shifts the phone to accommodate her so they can both listen. Somehow, they ended up holding hands — and holding on hard. “We’re coming home now.” 

🤍🌷 tagging:

@theshippirate22 @mentallyundone @ledleaf @imfinereallyy @itsall-taken @simply-shin @romanticdestruction @temptingfatetakingnames @stevesbipanic @steddie-island @estrellami-1 @jackiemonroe5512 @emofratboy @writing-kiki @steviesummer @devondespresso @swimmingbirdrunningrock @dodger-chan @tellatoast @inkjette @weirdandabsurd42 @annabanannabeth @deany-baby @mc-i-r @mugloversonly @viridianphtalo @nightmareglitter @jamieweasley13 @copingmechanizm @marklee-blackmore @sirsnacksalot @justrandomfandomstm @hairdryerducks @silenzioperso @newtstabber @fantrash @zaddipax @cometsandstardust @rowanshadow26 @limpingpenguin @finntheehumaneater @extra-transitional (sorry if i missed anyone! lmk if you don't wanna be tagged for part 4 🫶)

#steddie #steddie fic #steve harrington #eddie munson #robin buckley #who did this to you #something has Shifted in this part and i wanna do a literary/meta analysis of it but i dont wanna ruin the fun or be annoying but hhh #also sorry if you don't like this bc it's so different from the other two but the sudden adrenaline crash will do that to ya #we'll get Blue back soon don't you worry 🤍 #also eddie's mind is running in circles and he doesn't have wayne to stop him this time sooo if this feels repetitive and redundant??? #then let's pretend it should read that way actually (and also eddie is an obsessive little guy he'll ruminate forever if he doesn't have #an outlet sooo) #also rambling fumbly robin going deadly still over an injured steve is the hill i will die on actually like that just makes me feral #dio words

[katyobsesses]

Thinking about the fact that we really only see Eddie from Bucks POV in 7x04. Thinking about how silly and goofy and smiley and happy he is when we do. Thinking about the fact that this is how Buck sees Eddie.

Also thinking about the fact that in the firehouse scene we never see Eddie looking at buck, even though in other episodes Eddie is almost constantly gazing at Buck. Thinking about how Buck likely misses those glances, how Eddie likely looks away before Buck can notice.

Thinking a lot about Buddie

#911 #911 spoilers #buddie #evan buckley #evan buck buckely #eddie diaz #911 meta #my meta