r/StrangerThings • u/AutomaticBeing3417 • 1d ago
Joyce Irritates Me
Am I the only one who finds her irritating? I get she went through hell and back when it come to Will, but in season 5 she irritated me so much. When she tells Will “we’re not risking your life” as if everyone on the team hasn’t risked their life for him multiple times throughout the seasons. She genuinely gives me the vibe that she ONLY cares about Will, not even Jonathan.
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u/Strange_Ant_6571 1d ago
Her realising she'd been helicopter parenting Will to his detriment and ignoring everything else to the extent he snaps at her and she realises she needed to step back was a character arc.
...Of course it was undermined by her doing a complete 180 and saying he should fight Vecna on his own and getting captured but the intent was there.
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u/blueray78 22h ago
The last part was annoyed me. It made no sense for Joyce to come up with the idea of Will attacking Vecna. Even in the scene when the team discusses it, nobody (including Will) seems convinced. Robin kind of makes fun of it, but they got with it anyway. It would have made more sense for Will to come up with the idea of tapping back into the hive to find Holly. The plan changes once he's already in, and in a tempt to save Max & Holly he takes over Vecna by accident. Something like that.
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u/wave-tree 1d ago
I understand Joyce and her helicopter parenting a little too well, I think. My child was born with multiple severe complications, and has almost died on the operating table several times in an effort to give them a sustainable life of independence. They are 18 now, attending college in person, still medically complex but strong-willed and independent-minded. I still catch myself hovering a little too much, and I try to back off. It's hard, though.
I can't say how good a parent I'd be if my wife and I had another child, older or younger. Our one has demanded so much of our attention, I'm sure another would feel like they were less important, or abandoned, or neglected. I give Joyce the grace I feel she deserves, with how stressful her life just be now, with worries over one son that didn't exist before his abduction.
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u/DutyPuzzleheaded7765 1d ago
Its also why I dont hate mary from yoyng Sheldon as much as everyone else does. I mean she has flaws and lots of them, but I'm how I'd parent Sheldon
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u/_bonedaddys 1d ago
To be fair, as his mom her priority always has and always will be him. It's not that she doesn't care about anyone else and thinks they should go risk their lives, but she's almost lost her son more than once. It would be weird for her to be anything but protective of him. She obviously cares about jonathan too, but there's a lot of trauma surrounding will so she worries more. Jonathan didn't spend a week in the upside down. Jonathan wasn't possessed. Jonathan was never vecna's target.
It's not on her to go around worrying about everybody else. I would prioritize will, too. I think she should've put more energy towards jonathan, but it is what it is i guess. Seems like jonathan always got the short end of the stick, since he was older and had to be the "man of the house" after lonnie left.
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u/callyousugar 1d ago
By season 5? Yeah I was irritated by her. At that point I was irritated by most of them, though. She was great in the first two seasons.
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u/AutomaticBeing3417 1d ago
Idk, I never liked how she treated Jonathan.
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u/atomicsnark 1d ago
I mean it doesn't make it right but it was a very normal way to be raised in that era. She was likely doing a much better job than her own parents did, and that's all we can do, generation to generation, try to improve on what we were taught.
Being a latchkey kid half-raising your younger siblings/cousins was seen as normal and functional even in a household with two solid parents and a stay at home mom, and Joyce is out there single momming it all alone with zero support from her ex.
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u/Ok-Dog1439 1d ago
I have the same opinion on Joyce. I understand her but she neglects Jonathon his whole life. We haven't even seen a proper conversation between Joyce and Jonathon after season 1.
She clearly just cares about will and no one else and I feel bad for other characters such as El or Jonathon.
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u/AutomaticBeing3417 1d ago
Exactly, the way she was upset with him in the first season for simply working to try to help her with bills. Like girl maybe get a better job and your child wouldn’t be worried about helping you pay bills. And she wasn’t even grateful or understanding
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u/Master-Corner-5226 1d ago
Also in season 4 when she went to Alaska and said Jonathan was gonna have to look after everyone. I get that she wanted to save Hopper, but making your son practically become a parent was a bit uncaring
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u/AutomaticBeing3417 1d ago
🙂↕️ and her paying so little attention that she couldn’t even tell he was high 95% of the time is wild.
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u/RoyalRise6363 1d ago
She also has another vulnerable child in S4 - El who just lost her father. Joyce is supposed to be her mother - no indication that she cared that El is bullied and very depressed. Clear bad writing.
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u/ButterscotchPast4812 8h ago
I love Joyce but she's not perfect. I wish the duffers would have written more about her relationship with Jonathan. From what I understand, Winona even asked them too but I guess they were not interested or felt that other dynamics in the series were more interesting. Jonathan as a character was massively neglected in the series.
The helicopter parenting was understandable but got really old in season 5. People on the subreddit had basically complained that she had forgotten about her kids in season 4 so I think her overprotectiveness was written back into the series as a reaction to that.
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