Notice: this is about redeeming Billy Hargrove!  I, personally, am very anti-Billy. I believe his "redemption" in season 3 was weak at best and bullshit at worst. However, I try to be fair so everyone can understand exactly why I feel this, because often this argument is reduced to "oh, you hate Billy??? You think all abuse victims should die and burn in hell??? Huh??? HUH???"

Which is, again, bullshit.

You know, I saw someone do this with the Kylo Ren ""redemption"" (Bendemption) but this really didn't merge as well as that one did. Whatever. That's not the point. The point is this:

Hi, Booksfoxesandcoffee, it's me! The hypothetical Billy anti and The Good Place fan!

First, I'd like to ask if you've watched the fourth season of The Good Place? If not, then you've missed the Brent arc. They tried giving Brent "external love and support." They tried to help him.

And Brent did get better...by an inch. He was hard to help, he was a disrespectful asshole, and it was exhausting to help him. It took the realization he was in hell for him to so much as say "sorry."

The message wasn't "drag yourself to death trying to fix this asshole!" it was "every one can change, but it isn't your job to fix them to your detriment if they don't want to be fixed." 

Second, I'd like to remind you, as many Billy fans like to point out, Billy isn't a real person. He's fictional. A character — and a 2D side character at that. Which means, no matter how hard you try, he isn't as complex as a real person. He doesn't evolve like real person.

So when I say "Billy's 'redemption' wasn't a redemption" or "I don't like how people headcanon Billy's redemption" I am not saying "Billy is irredeemable as a person!"

I am saying that the way he, as a character, was written needs a lot more work than "sad backstory and a 'sorry'" to be redeemed.

And this is the part where I upset everyone, because I do believe Billy could have redeemed, if the Duffers actually set him up to be redeemed. But they didn't. Let me explain:

When people (both the show and fans) talk about redeeming Billy, there's two issues that they often run into.

1. They don't talk about Billy now. They talk about how sad he was in the past, what a good kid he was in the past, but they don't address what he's doing now — the actual issue.

Because it doesn't matter how sad he was in the past, what matters is that now he's a racist abuser. That's what he needs to be redeemed from. Especially because, for a lot of people, those things are considered irredeemable (and I certainly agree that it needs a lot more work than a lot of people, the show included, put into it.)

2. It isn't the job of the people Billy hurt to "fix" him. I mean they can, if they want, but a lot of people just go "and everyone forgives him because he said sorry once, and if they don't they cruel evil assholes" and leave it at that.

Which isn't fair to them at all. Trying to fix someone who hurt you, and probably continues to hurt you, can be exhausting.

Especially, again, when it includes racism and abuse, because those are attitudes that often take a lot of work to dismantle. Work that shouldn't be on the victim's shoulders, but on the perpetrator's.

So, I suppose, that brings up the question: how could they redeem him, if I'm so convinced?

First of all, don't plan for him to be an irredeemable human villian. Don't have him be the Brenner replacement. These are all things the Duffer actually said in Beyond Stranger Things, and it's like breaking your knees right before a race.

I'm not saying you can't introduce a character as seemingly irredeemable, then reveal more later, but you have to plan for that. You have to add small hints so it doesn't feel completely out of no where.

Secondly, if you have to keep the racism and abuse, actually address that. I think it's very telling the mentality the show runners had towards these topics that they thought they could just drop it without ever addressing it.

We need to see Billy grow. We need to see his toxic traits confronted and addressed.

This is why his "redemption" arc is so weak. He's possessed as soon as the end of the first episode, so there's no time to actually show him growing. Instead they try to add in this sad backstory and some "oh, look how tragic he is" but that doesn't erase what he did in the present. It just pretends none of it happened!

Also, if you're going this route, just accept that some people won't forgive him. Just accept it. These are real life events that hurt real people, you cannot force or shame someone into forgetting that over a fictional character.

Honestly, if I wanted to do a redemption, I just wouldn't make him a racist abuser. I just wouldn't. Because Stranger Things isn't a show with the time to give a solid redemption to that kind of side character. Hell, if you go by the creators they barely have time for their main characters (which, if you ask me, is something they brought on themselves by refusing to shift attention between the main characters instead of always focusing on the same four, but I digress.)

Thirdly...maybe have Billy actually repent to the people he hurt? Because everyone's like "oh, Billy should be forgiven, he saved El!" Which, yeah, he did. He save some random white girl who reminded him of his mother. How does that prove he's not racist? That he's not abusive? That he feels bad for literally any of the shit he did? There were three people he hurt (Max, Lucas, and Steve) and none of them were involved in his "redemption" aside from Max not wanting him to die.

PS: A lot of people say Max deserves better than to be made to cry for her abuser, which I agree with, but a lot of them act like it's a flaw in the show, which I disagree with. Max is a kid, and a highly empathetic on that that. While I don't blame anyone who isn't upset, I also wouldn't expect Max to be okay with the idea of murdering someone, let alone watching them be impaled right in front of her in.

Of course she's going to cry, if only for the fact the most stressful day of her life just ended with the world almost ending and watching someone get fucking impaled.

Honestly, at the end of the day, I just...wouldn't redeem Billy.

His fans make a lot out of "oh, you hate abuse victims if they aren't perfect little angels!" but...wasn't that Max's arc? Wasn't it Max who struggled with trust issues and her fear of her abuser, only to over come it and break the cycle? Wasn't it Max who cried and spilled her heart to Lucas that she fear she was like her abuser (who is Billy, mind you) but didn't know any other way?

I would just lean into that aspect of Max's story and leave it at that.

There are many characters in Stranger Things with stories of abuse. Kali, El, Max, and our Byers. They all have their own reactions, they all have their own experiences. It's so reductive to pretend it's either Billy's way or the highway. You like Billy or you think all abuse victims are doomed to repeat the cycle.

The Duffers introduced Billy as a human villian. Max's Brenner. You wouldn't try to redeem Brenner over some sad sob story. That's why I don't like Billy's redemption. That's why it didn't feel real to me, and why it didn't feel real to many others.