#i truly think the last thing nancy needs in terms of her canon 'arc' is another relationship

[scoopstrooptm]

okay so here is my thing about r*nance. what i honestly loathe about the way the dynamic gets treated in the fandom is about how few people actually explore the, in my opinion, REALLY interesting stuff about them — primarily that this isn't an easy relationship for anyone involved lmao. too often fanon just throws robin & nancy together without any explanation whatsoever ( in favour of exploring steve & eddie which is fine, totally cool, you do you. but honestly robin & nancy in itself as a dynamic has so much baggage and history that is textually there in the canon and by waving it all away so easily so many people just WASTE that compelling potential ). a lot of people also just assume that robin & nancy would fit together easily which, if there's anything to observe about the way they interact in s4, is simply not the case lmao. they may be friends by the end of the season, but only friends in the superficial saving the world sort of way. nancy doesn't know robin is a lesbian, nancy doesn't know that robin used to be bffs with barb ( which isn't canon to the show, i know, but is imo a really good way of actually pushing these two closer together ), nancy also arguably doesn't know she's queer herself either — and i would argue that she would have the hardest journey out of those four ( robin, eddie, steve & nancy ) towards embracing her queerness because of the way that her arc is surrounded by heteronormative relationships with steve and then jonathan. and, something easily forgotten by the fandom, but she lives in the midwest in the 80s. nancy may want to break out of the suburban trappings of her parents' relationship, but she is still arguably trapped by them despite those attempts.

but, at its core with this dynamic, you have nancy, who i love, but is not the easiest of individuals ( embrace her flaws >:(((( ) and has a lot of issues and trauma surrounding not just her romantic relationships with the boys, but also the way that barb haunts her entire narrative. you have robin, who isn't even canonically out to anyone but steve yet, and struggles to even talk to her canon crush, vickie, let alone self-reflect on the fact that she may have a crush on nancy wheeler ( which, unpopular opinion, but i don't think she does during the s4 timeline ), who is the it girl of the show but also her best friend's ex. and then you have steve, an integral third part of this dynamic that should not be ignored, who has absolutely every right to feel weird about the concept of his best friend dating his ex — the same ex who, regardless of who you feel is at fault in the breakdown of the steve & nancy dynamic, canonically broke his heart.

a fundamental truth about this dynamic is that robin will not date nancy or act upon any hypothetical feelings unless steve is okay with it, and steve is fully entitled to not feel okay about it or at least have Something to say about it ( i hate when fanon just brushes over that tbh, stop invalidating steve's feelings, especially by using girl power as an excuse, i fucking hate it ) — at least at first. this is why i fully endorse the idea that the robin / nancy / steve trio should be about robin bringing steve & nancy together to a point where the two of them can resolve their issues and work towards a friendship, as that definitely needs to happen first before robin & nancy can even begin. robin will prioritise steve over everything, to her detriment or not — i do think the fandom's hesitance to explore things that would challenge robin & steve's friendship is a shame, because as with any sort of relationship, a friendship, even one as strong as theirs, is not a fixed thing. it will bend, it will encounter struggles, it will change and mature as the two of them get older. they will always be best friends, but the way they define themselves as best friends in middle of nowhere, indiana, location of their trauma where they only have each other for support, will be entirely different to how they define themselves as best friends 20 years down the line when they are living their best lives, both in relationships, steve with kids.

but back to the point: r*nance is arguably about steve & nancy figuring out their shit first. steve has to come to terms with nancy & robin being friends first — which admittedly he already was working towards in s4, his comment to nancy that it's cool that she and robin are friends now and that they should all hang out when jonathan comes to visit was cute!! and a step in the right direction!! i hate that the show then suddenly shifted gears and started pushing romantic st*ncy. but nancy also has a part to play, since i fully believe that if she were to ditch jonathan and then immediately jump in with robin, she will just end up in the same cycle that she was in when she left steve. before robin, nancy needs some time on her own to figure some stuff out. she needs an arc equivalent to steve's in s2 and 3 where she can figure out what is actually important to her — and part of that is having a friendship with robin, another girl her own age who she can have fun with and who can help her with her barb trauma. the friendship part is vitally important!!!! only then would she be ready for another romantic relationship imo, but then that can only happen after robin comes out to her as a lesbian. and, considering that to robin's eyes, nancy is probably one of the straightest girls out there lmao, that's also not gonna be an easy thing either.

so anyway my tl;dr; about this is just. robin & nancy as a romantic pairing won't be canon anyway, but even if there was the tiniest sliver of a chance that it will happen in s5, i wouldn't want it. because there is SO MUCH that could be ruined for all three characterisations here and considering the duffers reputation for writing romantic relationships ( is there a single canon romantic relationship in this show that i am invested in ? aside from joyce & hop idk jury's out. i'm even sceptical on robin & vickie ), i don't trust that it would be handled in the right way. this dynamic is difficult!!! it challenges everyone involved!! which doesn't make it bad — it actually makes it really compelling, imo, but fanon just throwing nancy & robin together because girls or because they've paired the boys off and need something to do with the girls without any real thought given to it is just.... i'm not a fan ( it's why i'm also not the biggest fan of the fruity four as a concept, another unpopular opinion lmao ).

#&. which star wars? / the one with the teddy bears duh ( ooc. ) #this is more of a rant than anything but i'm still #&. meta ( robin buckley. ) #gonna tag it as this #&. dyn. robin & nancy / gunspluraltm #i just think the complexity of the girls gets ridiculously overlooked #and this is why i couldn't warm to it as a romantic dynamic for the longest time #(or at least until mel made me ship it lmao) #i truly think the last thing nancy needs in terms of her canon 'arc' is another relationship #and pairing her off with robin so easily is a disservice to both of their characters #just.... the girls getting the same depth and consideration that the boys get would be nice #it would also be nice to go into the robin tag and not just see st*ddie but y'know... we can't have it all lmao