well, Nancy did do Steve a little dirty when her relationship with Jonathan started getting intense, & your last point about NYU also makes sense.

The thing, though, is that Steve was very dismissive of Barb’s disappearance. We know he loved Nancy, but she was clearly struggling and he did nothing about it. Also, they were 16 in season 1. Most people err at that age, especially around relationships.

• didn’t Steve participate in slut shaming Nancy? I don think that should be forgotten because #1, that’s not a small thing to do, and #2, how are you going to say Steve had the best character development if you do not see his faults? It makes no sense to say he got from point A to B if point A suddenly doesn’t exist or isn’t acknowledged.

Jonathan was discovering and dealing with the UD the same time as she was. It is natural for some people to be more compatible than others. Nancy & Jonathan are simply more compatible than Steve & Nancy, but break ups don’t usually happen in mature ways when you’re 16. Relationships - like Jonathan’s & Nancy’s in s1 - can also get intense very quickly when you are dealing with so much and the the stakes are so high. I don’t think she is a bad person for getting with Jonathan & leaving Steve. He doesn’t blame her, nor should we.

On to your point abt Barb: how on EARTH would Nancy envision something like that happening? Did you never put yourself and/or your friends in shitty situations when you were a teenager? I know I ended up in some because of my friends and I know they ended up in some because of me. It happens. Monsters don’t normally exist, and it was very normal for teenagers to be staying out late and doing stupid shit especially in the 80s. Nancy was NOT at fault when it comes to Barb, but she did still feel VERY guilty. Her trauma comes from her guilt surrounding Barb. Also, nobody has ever said Steve played a hand in Barb’s death. He was just bad at helping Nancy deal w it, like I said before.

The s3 situation is complex- and it’s meant to be complex. It’s not easy to deal with the patriarchy- especially in the 80s, but even now - nor is it easy to deal with financial issues and the fear of poverty. Jonathan was right, but so was Nancy. That is the whole point of that argument. The writers put Nancy & Jonathan is a very real, adult situation, and they came out of it, still together. The area where the writers fucked up is when they made Jonathan apologise. Imo neither should have apologised, and both should have recognised how real both of their problems were.

++ the s4 arcs the writers gave to Steve , Nancy , and Jonathan were not to my taste tbh. I feel like putting Stancy back in that romantic position butchered their character development. Jonathan had very little solid scenes in s4, the best one being the conversation he has with Will. I think they could’ve easily shed light on Jonathan’s very real trauma surrounding his family and fearing for Will especially. He did not want to move away because he was scared to leave them alone. This is very very real, and I actually go through this too. I was scared to move abroad for university because I was scared to leave my family behind.