My Poor Son

Honestly, the entire time watching S3, I was clinging onto the hope that, by some miracle, he was going to be saved, that the main cast will say “yeah, Billy was a major dick to most of us, but NO ONE deserves to be used by that monster in such a gruesome way” and that he was make it out alive. BARELY, but alive.

But WHAT did they do??

Delay every possible second they had to kill the Mind Flayer (and possibly save Billy) and put in some corny ass singing montage for some cheap laughs. Some forced cutesy montage was given more importance than giving Billy a fighting chance to make it out alive.

….let me tell you, I have never felt a bigger slap in the face by a TV show EVER.

The Duffers gave Billy’s character the ultimate middle finger. By not giving him a chance to change and repent for his actions. By not giving his relationship with Max a chance to heal and grow into a more healthy dynamic. By not letting Billy become a better person, than BOTH of his parents.

There was SO much potential to show that people who turn out like Billy ARE capable of change, to undo the toxic coping mechanisms that they learned, to heal their relationships, and, most importantly IMO, that they are worth fighting for.

The Duffers really demonstrated that they don’t know how to handle the complexities of their own characters and that they don’t really give a shit anyway. It’s all about the cheap laughs and lazily recycling 80’s tropes.

The theories of Billy (and Dacre) possibly returning is the only reason why I will try and watch S4. And if Billy only returns as flashbacks, I will stay for those scenes and then leave the rest of the story up for my imagination.

Look I know how much we all hate Neil. I hate him too, with all my heart. But just a fact - billy's mother abandoned her son. She left him. With Neil, knowing what kind of person he was. She made a choice to save herself, but to leave her little son to drown.

Neil could've given billy for adoption/foster home/abandoned him too. He didn't. He kept him. As a punching bag. Was it the only reason? My guess is, he was.just.responsible. Just like his own dad had probably taught him to be.

I don't know what's better in this case, honestly, to be given up for foster care or to be abused by your father during YEARS.

I hate Neil, but I hate Billy's mom more.

And Billy???? I've read a lot of fics how he hates his dad. And, yes, he should. He does hate his dad. However, that's the thing about parents - no matter how much you hate them, deep down, in your core, you love them. The relationship between parents and children is so hopelessly complicated.

Why am I writing all this? To cry about billy one more time. I think he loved his mom, despite the fact that she selfishly chose her own interests over the well-being of her son. I even think Billy loved his dad, under all those layers of hate, despite the fact that he was an abusive piece of shit.

I'm writing it to once again put into words my disgust for the duffers, because BECAUSE you don't take a broken teenager, show everyone HOW and why he was broken and torn, and then kill him off to a tune of Neverending story or whatever this stupid song was called.

The more I think about Billy, the more heartbroken I become because it's abysmal, how deep his suffering was. Instead of fixing it, they chose the Neverending story finale, sending what kind of message to all the broken teens out there ..???? That it's all fucking hopeless?? That you can drown in your pain and nobody will give a damn?

Fuck them, honestly. You can't really make a cheap goo monster horror story based on the suffering of a child.

Aaand I made myself cry again. Yay.

Cosmo: So, are you the little spoon or the big spoon?

Anti-Cosmo: I’m a knife you ignorant boob!

Anti-Wanda, across the room, eating a sandwich: He’s the lil’ spoon.

“Is defending Billy Hargrove really the hill you want to die on?”

Well yeah I’ve already planted my feet so like

Friendly reminder that if you shit on Barron Trump just because he’s Donald Trump’s son, you’re a shit person.

And a 🖕to the idiots spouting bullshit about all Billy fans hating Argyle when I’m standing right here.

Only good thing to come out of Vol 2 was my beautiful man Argyle making it out of this shitshow alive and unharmed.

“I think that maybe a part of me died that day too”

THE SHADOW FANGIRLIES ARE EATING GOOD TONIGHT Y’ALL

Even though King Julien’s character in the PoM show is more selfish and narcissistic, I love that Julien’s soft spot for children is consistent across the board.

When I first started AHKJ and watched S2E8:“Daddy Julien”, despite the weirdness of Mort pretending to be his son, I loved seeing Julien act so sweet and caring towards his “child”. He feed him, played with him, read parenting books, and comforted “Prince Falcon” when he got upset. It really drives home the point of what Julien truly desires: a family of his own, where he can give unconditional love and receive it in return (likely stemming from his neglectful upbringing with his own parents).

At first I thought “if only this side of King Julien existed early on in the PoM show “. But, after rewatching the show recently, there is definitely moments where his paternal side shines through!

Some notable examples are:

Lemmy the Robot Lemur 🤖: Julien was so happy to “raise” Lemmy and teach him all his dance moves, it is very similar to how a father proudly teaches his son all his favorite activities to spend time together. He was so unexpectedly heartbroken when the penguins blew him up that they decided to fix Lemmy again to make him happy. He acted like such a proud dad too when he saw Lemmy on TV before he was eaten by an alien.

Eggy the Duckling 🐣: In his first appearance, Julien was smitten with that tiny duck egg. He had a whole song dedicated to him! Singing about all the things him and his “JJ” would do together once he hatched. My heart broke for him when Mama Duck took Eggy back and said “Does she get to keep ALL the JJ’s”. But when he returned, Julien encouraged Eggy’s (albeit dangerous) dream of being a commando. And when Eggy couldn’t defeat him, he cheered him up by showing him the ways of “shaking booty”. Cause there was no way his “JJ” would be sad on his watch!

Baby Skipper 🐧: Julien was gushing over baby Skipper, whom he named “Petey”, about how cute and tiny he was. And despite being an annoying babysitter, Julien still tried to take good care of him. He played peak-a-boo with him, “feed” him (a misconstrued way yes but it’s the thought that counts), and sang him a lullaby. But his greatest moment was when he jumped in front of “Petey” to protect him from a flying brick thrown his way. That lemur would do anything to protect an adorable baby!

Baby Fossa 🐱: Though he spent most of the episode being afraid of the baby fossa and tried to ship him away, the minute the fossa called him “dada” he did a compete 180! He went as far as to keep him safe from Savio! You know, the giant boa snake whom Julien abandoned the Penguins and Marlene to in a previous episode, and even offered himself up to be eaten first instead of the baby fossa. He has such a soft spot for babies, it’s implied he stayed around the fossa afterwards despite being bitten by him constantly, and referred to himself as “papa” when saying goodbye on the fossa’s last day at the zoo.

It goes to show that even in his worst adaptations, Julien still has a good heart deep down❣️, at least when it comes to children.

Even though it’ll likely never happen, if Dreamworks ever decides to give him kids, I firmly believe King Julien would make a great papa! 👨‍👧‍👦

The true tragedy of Billy Hargrove is that he was a too complex character for the world he was set in.

His very existence strikes at the core of the show and its character by inviting the viewer to dive deeper into his motives and the nuances of his character. Which then leads to questioning other characters.

Which is a big problem for some viewers. Once you start doing it, you realise all of your faves are problematic. El is a murderer fueled by rage. Hopper is a murderer. Alexei is a murderer in a way. Jonathan is a creep. Eddie is a drug dealer - and we're not talking just weed, we're talking serious drugs. And so on...

And once you have to step back and realise that all of these characters are flawed human beings, panic might start to set in because your cinnamon rolls aren't that sweet after all.

So you're left with three choices:

To stop thinking about it and enjoy the show casually.

To accept they all have flaws. The world itself is not black and white.

To live in denial and become an anti. Because if you can shut up those who are affecting your core system of beliefs or label them as evil, then you can pretend all is well. (Except it's not and all your favs are problematic. Their complexity is what makes them such compelling characters in the first place. I mean if you're looking for something simple, I'd recommend going back to kids cartoons. Just not Peppa Pig, from what I saw of it, she's a little piece of shit too.)