History Woobie / StrangerThings

!!JerkassWoobie
* Jason Carver has some {{Jerkass}} moments [[spoiler: and his blind pursuit of Eddie and the Hellfire Club is definitely not okay]] but he does warrant some sympathy. Jason subverts the JerkJock trope by genuinely loving his girlfriend Chrissy, even adamantly stating that she would never do drugs or get into trouble, [[spoiler: and becomes heartbroken when he discovers she was killed. Through a combination of grief and fearmongering propaganda, he becomes convinced that Eddie and by extension the Hellfire Club are a cult who invoke the powers of Satan to commit these killings and ignorantly spreads the seeds of anarchy in a misguided attempt to get justice for his girlfriend. Then he witnesses Patrick, his friend, being brutally murdered right in front of him. And after all that, he unintentionally causes Max to be killed by Vecna, leading to the Gates to open, and getting himself killed in the process as well.]]
* Billy is an AxCrazy, {{sadist}}ic bully to his step-sister and her friends (as well as Steve)... and then you find out [[FreudianExcuse his father is]] ''[[FreudianExcuse even worse]]'' to him, [[AbusiveParents violently bullying him and calling him derogatory names]]. And ''then'' you find out that he grew up watching his father abuse his [[GoodParents beloved mother]], resulting in a traumatic divorce and Billy being cut off from her. There's no way he could have turned out as anything but the bastard he is. Being [[spoiler:used by the Mind Flayer]] couldn't have been pleasant for him either.

** In season 2 she is rescued by Hopper but has to live in a cabin away from society out of fear of the government capturing her again all while dealing with a disgruntled and frustrated Hopper whose parenting skills are not exactly perfect despite wanting to see Mike and the others again, then when she sneaks out and risks being discovered she sees Mike with Max and mistakes this interaction for being replaced in the group. After getting into a fight with Hopper, Eleven then decides to go and find her birth mother, only to discover what Brenner did to her and that she has a "sister" in the form of Kali/Eight. Upon finding her however she learns that she not only is a delinquent and criminal but she has a far more violent methods in getting back at the people who hurt him, causing Eleven to be disillusioned by Kali and head back to Hawkins.

[[/folder]]

!!Jerkass Woobie

!!The Woobie

* Victor Creel arguably rivals Terry Ives in terms of how tragic of a life they had. [[spoiler: As a former captain in the army, he ordered a strike which led to the death of a baby which has haunted him even to this very day.]] He moves into a brand new house with his wife and children, only to be targeted by what appears to be a demon, revealed to be Vecna, who kills his wife and daughter and nearly kills his son. Victor is then deemed insane by Hawkins and pinned as the killer to which he attempts to commit suicide to join his family, only to be stopped by the orderlies at the asylum he was condemned to. It's no wonder this man claims to still be in hell [[spoiler: but if that wasn't enough, it's revealed that his wife and daughter weren't killed by a demon, but his own son who developed psychic powers and resented his family and humanity in general.]]

[[AC:The Party]]

[[AC:The Teenagers]]

[[AC:The Adults]]

* Hopper all the way: While he is a very blunt and snarky man, you can argue his entire jaded view of life was caused by [[spoiler: the death of his daughter to cancer and his eventual divorce with his wife]]. Season 2 also pushed him into this when [[spoiler: raising Eleven but keeping her protected for most of the events leading up to Season 2 caused tension between the two of them]]. Add more onto [[spoiler: implied feelings for Joyce and then comforting her when Bob dies]], it's hard ''not'' to hug him. [

* Hopper all the way: While he is a very blunt and snarky man, you can argue his entire jaded view of life was caused by [[spoiler: the death of his daughter to cancer and his eventual divorce with his wife]]. Season 2 also pushed him into this when [[spoiler: raising Eleven but keeping her protected for most of the events leading up to Season 2 caused tension between the two of them]]. Add more onto [[spoiler: implied feelings for Joyce and then comforting her when Bob dies]], it's hard ''not'' to hug him. [[spoiler: And then Season 3 has him being a super PapaWolf to Eleven, trying to start a relationship with Joyce only to be snubbed (accidentally) and just when it seems the two are going to be a thing, he's either ''killed'' due to the Russians' experiment of opening the Upside-Down again or he's kept prisoner in Soviet Russia by the end of it]]. [[spoiler: Season 4 shows he is now in a Soviet prison, tortured for information and being prepared to be fed to a Demogorgon and after attempting to stage a plan to escape with a corrupt guard, the plan goes south when the middleman Yuri decides to double-cross them. It gets to the point where he seemingly gives up and confides with Enzo that he sees himself as a curse that kills everyone he loves, and now is heartbroken that his plan will most likely get Joyce killed.]]

[[AC:Gem Glow]]

* Joyce Byers. She's mentioned to have had anxiety issues prior to the series, and her divorce with her JerkAss husband is said to be especially messy. Then she loses her son Will in the first season and is made to think he's ''dead'' due to the Hawkins Lab's machinations, going so far as to have to attend a funeral for him while completely in denial. She goes through intense psychological distress in her efforts to find Will, arguing with her older son, Jonathan, and being forced to face all manner of horrific monsters from the Upside-Down, as well as traumatic visions of her son trapped in her walls. She then has to go to the Upside-Down herself to try to rescue him.
** This only gets worse in Season 2, when Will is [[DemonicPossession possessed]] and she has to put him through intense pain to try and free him, face off against corrupt doctors and hidden conspiracies, and [[spoiler: lose Bob, her new boyfriend and chance at happiness, quite horribly as he is mauled by Demodogs in front of her while all she can do is scream]].
** ''Then'' in Season 3, this loss has left her with clear PTSD that both makes her consider moving out of Hawkins and prevents her from being able to pursue a romantic relationship with Hopper, which causes him to act quite harshly towards her. They eventually make up at the end of the season...[[FromBadToWorse just in time]] for Hopper [[spoiler: to be caught in front of the gate during a fight, which Joyce herself has to close, apparently killing him in the process]]. No wonder the poor, kindhearted woman seems broken by the end scenes.

* Terry Ives; Arguably the most tragic character, who didn't even face a gruesome death! [[spoiler: After going through a near-fatal childbirth, her baby daughter (Eleven/ Jane) is taken from her (which she witnesses but nobody believes). Then she finds her daughter in the rainbow room many years later, but just as she is about to save her daughter, Dr. Brenner and his men capture her and strap her down to a table, where they silence her by electrocuting her (setting it to the highest level-450), which then leaves her brain dead, with nothing but the worst, painful memories of her life]]. The tie-in novel ''Suspicious Minds'' reveals that her parents died when she was young, was regularly subjected to painful experiments by Brenner and [[spoiler: her boyfriend Andrew was killed in the Vietnam War as part of Brenner's manipulation]].
* Hopper all the way: While he is a very blunt and snarky man, you can argue his entire jaded view of life was caused by [[spoiler: the death of his daughter to cancer and his eventual divorce with his wife]]. Season 2 also pushed him into this when [[spoiler: raising Eleven but keeping her protected for most of the events leading up to Season 2 caused tension between the two of them]]. Add more onto [[spoiler: implied feelings for Joyce and then comforting her when Bob dies]], it's hard ''not'' to hug him. [[spoiler: And then Season 3 has him being a super PapaWolf to Eleven, trying to start a relationship with Joyce only to be snubbed (accidentally) and just when it seems the two are going to be a thing, he's either ''killed'' due to the Russians' experiment of opening the Upside-Down again or he's kept prisoner in Soviet Russia by the end of it]]. [[spoiler: Season 4 shows he is now in a Soviet prison, tortured for information and being prepared to be fed to a Demogorgon and after attempting to stage a plan to escape with a corrupt guard, the plan goes south when the middleman Yuri decides to double-cross them. It gets to the point where he seemingly gives up and confides with Enzo that he sees himself as a curse that kills everyone he loves, and now is heartbroken that his plan will most likely get Joyce killed.]]

* As of Season 3, Karen Wheeler. We see how frustrated she is with her role in the home and her marriage to a man who earns a lot of money but has no sense of appreciation for what she does and what the family goes through. She seems to seek solace in a glass of wine and romance novels while her kids get older and are less dependent on her. She only seems to liven up when Billy, a boy who is around the same age as her daughter, flirts with her and she even goes so far as to consider cheating on her husband until she realizes she could destroy her family. and when Nancy confides in her misogynistic workplace, Karen pretty much reveals that she used to be ambitious and wanted to make her mark on the world but after being beaten down because of her gender and perceived intelligence, she gave up to be a stay at home mom whose only focuses on how her house looks and how pretty she is, all for a husband who doesn't notice.

* Jonathan in season 1. In the midst of an already difficult adolescence, he's forced to arrange a funeral for his little brother because his mother appears to slowly be going completely insane. At one point, he has to purchase Will's casket immediately after fighting with his mom in public to keep it together and shooing away several nosy onlookers and looks completely overwhelmed and lost.
* Joyce Byers. She's mentioned to have had anxiety issues prior to the series, and her divorce with her JerkAss husband is said to be especially messy. Then she loses her son Will in the first season and is made to think he's ''dead'' due to the Hawkins Lab's machinations, going so far as to have to attend a funeral for him while completely in denial. She goes through intense psychological distress in her efforts to find Will, arguing with her older son, Jonathan, and being forced to face all manner of horrific monsters from the Upside-Down, as well as traumatic visions of her son trapped in her walls. She then has to go to the Upside-Down herself to try to rescue him.
** This only gets worse in Season 2, when Will is [[DemonicPossession possessed]] and she has to put him through intense pain to try and free him, face off against corrupt doctors and hidden conspiracies, and [[spoiler: lose Bob, her new boyfriend and chance at happiness, quite horribly as he is mauled by Demodogs in front of her while all she can do is scream]].
** ''Then'' in Season 3, this loss has left her with clear PTSD that both makes her consider moving out of Hawkins and prevents her from being able to pursue a romantic relationship with Hopper, which causes him to act quite harshly towards her. They eventually make up at the end of the season...[[FromBadToWorse just in time]] for Hopper [[spoiler: to be caught in front of the gate during a fight, which Joyce herself has to close, apparently killing him in the process]]. No wonder the poor, kindhearted woman seems broken by the end scenes.

* Nancy in season 2. She is racked with guilt over her role in the death of Barbara and can't even tell her parents or begin to make amends because of the GovernmentCoverup. This starts to go away once Jonathan joins forces and she begins to get the ability to act on her issues.
** In Season 3 Nancy learns the hard way that her gender and lack of experience are a massive hindrance when it comes to working in a white-collar business. Even when she displays more passion and skill at journalism than her superiors, all she gets in return is nasty gaslighting.

* Joyce Byers. She's mentioned to have had anxiety issues prior to the series, and her divorce with her JerkAss husband is said to be especially messy. Then she loses her son Will in the first season and is made to think he's ''dead'' due to the Hawkins Lab's machinations, going so far as to have to attend a funeral for him while completely in denial. She goes through intense psychological distress in her efforts to find Will, arguing with her older son, Jonathan, and being forced to face all manner of horrific monsters from the Upside-Down, as well as traumatic visions of her son trapped in her walls. She then has to go to the Upside-Down herself to try to rescue him. This only gets worse in Season 2, when Will is [[DemonicPossession possessed]] and she has to put him through intense pain to try and free him, face off against corrupt doctors and hidden conspiracies, and [[spoiler: lose Bob, her new boyfriend and chance at happiness, quite horribly as he is mauled by Demodogs in front of her while all she can do is scream]]. ''Then'' in Season 3, this loss has left her with clear PTSD that both makes her consider moving out of Hawkins and prevents her from being able to pursue a romantic relationship with Hopper, which causes him to act quite harshly towards her. They eventually make up at the end of the season...[[FromBadToWorse just in time]] for Hopper [[spoiler: to be caught in front of the gate during a fight, which Joyce herself has to close, apparently killing him in the process]]. No wonder the poor, kindhearted woman seems broken by the end scenes.

* Max Mayfield. She comes from a troubled home life where she lives with a sadistic older stepbrother. She's rough around the edges, but she's still a good person who wants to make friends and is treated rather coldly. While Lucas is consistently nice to her, Mike is rude and crass towards to her for no other reason except the feared belief she's replacing El. And when she finally meets El, the latter coldly shrugs her off out of jealousy. [[spoiler: Season 3 makes it worse when she ''still'' loves Billy despite his shitty behavior towards her and is borderline shaken and left devastated when he dies saving not just the whole world, but her. Season 4 then outright shows that she has developed PTSD from Billy's death and though her abusive step-father is gone, her mother has to work two jobs to make due with bills and has become an alcoholic as a coping mechanism. She ends up pushing her friends and boyfriend Lucas away and becomes Vecna's next target, which tragically leads to her getting killed (in front of her ''boyfriend''!). And while El saves her physically, she's at best comatose or braindead at worse.]] Over all, poor girl.

* Victor Creel arguably rivals Terry Ives in terms of how tragic of a life they had. [[spoiler: As a former captain in the army, he ordered a strike which led to the death of a baby which has haunted him even to this very day.]] He moves into a brand new house with his wife and children, only to be targeted by what appears to be a demon, revealed to be Vecna, who kills his wife and daughter and nearly kills his son. Victor is then deemed insane by Hawkins and pinned as the killer to which he attempts to commit suicide to join his family, only to be stopped by the orderlies at the asylum he was condemned to. It's no wonder this man claims to still be in hell [[spoiler: but if that wasn't enough, it's revealed that his wife and daughter weren't killed by a demon, but his own son who developed psychic powers and resented his family and humanity in general.]]
* JerkassWoobie
** Jason Carver has some {{Jerkass}} moments [[spoiler: and his blind pursuit of Eddie and the Hellfire Club is definitely not okay]] but he does warrant some sympathy. Jason subverts the JerkJock trope by genuinely loving his girlfriend Chrissy, even adamantly stating that she would never do drugs or get into trouble, [[spoiler: and becomes heartbroken when he discovers she was killed. Through a combination of grief and fearmongering propaganda, he becomes convinced that Eddie and by extension the Hellfire Club are a cult who invoke the powers of Satan to commit these killings and ignorantly spreads the seeds of anarchy in a misguided attempt to get justice for his girlfriend. Then he witnesses Patrick, his friend, being brutally murdered right in front of him. And after all that, he unintentionally causes Max to be killed by Vecna, leading to the Gates to open, and getting himself killed in the process as well.]]
** Billy is an AxCrazy, {{sadist}}ic bully to his step-sister and her friends (as well as Steve)... and then you find out [[FreudianExcuse his father is]] ''[[FreudianExcuse even worse]]'' to him, [[AbusiveParents violently bullying him and calling him derogatory names]]. And ''then'' you find out that he grew up watching his father abuse his [[GoodParents beloved mother]], resulting in a traumatic divorce and Billy being cut off from her. There's no way he could have turned out as anything but the bastard he is. Being [[spoiler:used by the Mind Flayer]] couldn't have been pleasant for him either.

** Jason Carver has some {{Jerkass}} moments [[spoiler: and his blind pursuit of Eddie and the Hellfire Club is definitely not okay]] but he does warrant some sympathy. Jason subverts the JerkJock trope by genuinely loving his girlfriend Chrissy, even adamantly stating that she would never do drugs or get into trouble, [[spoiler: and becomes heartbroken when he discovers she was killed. Through a combination of grief and fearmongering propaganda, he becomes convinced that Eddie and by extension the Hellfire Club are a cult who invoke the powers of Satan to commit these killings and ignorantly spreads the seeds of anarchy in a misguided attempt to get justice for his girlfriend. Then he witnesses Patrick, his friend, being brutally murdered right in front of him. And after all that, he unintentionally causes Max to be killed by Vecna, leading to the Gates to open, and getting himself killed in the process as well.]]

** Jason Carver has some {{Jerkass}} moments [[spoiler: and his blind pursuit of Eddie and the Hellfire Club is definitely not okay]] but he does warrant some sympathy. Jason subverts the JerkJock trope by genuinely loving his girlfriend Chrissy, even adamantly stating that she would never do drugs or get into trouble, [[spoiler: and becomes heartbroken when he discovers she was killed. Through a combination of grief and fearmongering propaganda, he becomes convinced that Eddie and by extension the Hellfire Club are a cult who invoke the powers of Satan to commit these killings and ignorantly spreads the seeds of anarchy in a misguided attempt to get justice for his girlfriend. Then he witnesses Patrick, his friend, being brutally murdered right in front of him. And after all that, he unintentionally causes Max to be killed by Vecna, leading to the Gates to open, and getting himself killed in the process as well.]]

** Jason Carver has some {{Jerkass}} moments [[spoiler: and his blind pursuit of Eddie and the Hellfire Club is definitely not okay]] but he does warrant some sympathy. Jason subverts the JerkJock trope by genuinely loving his girlfriend Chrissy, even adamantly stating that she would never do drugs or get into trouble, [[spoiler: and becomes heartbroken when he discovers she was killed. Through a combination of grief and fearmongering propaganda, he becomes convinced that Eddie and by extension the Hellfire Club are a cult who invoke the powers of Satan to commit these killings and ignorantly spreads the seeds of anarchy in a misguided attempt to get justice for his girlfriend. Then he witnesses Patrick, his friend, being brutally murdered right in front of him. And after all that, he unintentionally causes Max to be killed by Vecna, leading to the Gates to open, and getting himself killed in the process as well.]]

* Victor Creel arguably rivals Terry Ives in terms of how tragic of a life they had. [[spoiler: As a former captain in the army, he ordered a strike which led to the death of a baby which has haunted him even to this very day.]] He moves into a brand new house with his wife and children, only to be targeted by what appears to be a demon, revealed to be Vecna, who kills his wife and daughter and nearly kills his son. Victor is then deemed insane by Hawkins and pinned as the killer to which he attempts to commit suicide to join his family, only to be stopped by the orderlies at the asylum he was condemned to. It's no wonder this man claims to still be in hell [[spoiler: but if that wasn't enough, it's revealed that his wife and daughter weren't killed by a demon, but his own son who developed psychic powers and resented his family and humanity in general.]]

* Nancy in season 2. She is racked with guilt over her role in the death of Barbara and can't even tell her parents or begin to make amends because of the GovernmentCoverup. This starts to go away once Johnathan joins forces and she begins to get the ability to act on her issues.

* Chrissy Cunningham from season 4. Though she looks to be a perfect and happy girl with a loving boyfriend and bright future, [[spoiler: Chrissy was emotionally abused by her mother for not meeting her standards of being a proper lady, which causes her to do drugs to relieve her pain. She becomes tormented by Vecna with nightmarish visions until he makes her his first victim, brutally killing her in Eddie's home.]]

* Jason Carver has some {{Jerkass}} moments [[spoiler: and his blind pursuit of Eddie and the Hellfire Club is definitely not okay]] but he does warrant some sympathy. Jason subverts the JerkJock trope by genuinely loving his girlfriend Chrissy, even adamantly stating that she would never do drugs or get into trouble, [[spoiler: and becomes heartbroken when he discovers she was killed. Through a combination of grief and fearmongering propaganda, he becomes convinced that Eddie and by extension the Hellfire Club are a cult who invoke the powers of Satan to commit these killings and ignorantly spreads the seeds of anarchy in a misguided attempt to get justice for his girlfriend. Then he witnesses Patrick, his friend, being brutally murdered right in front of him. And after all that, he unintentionally causes Max to be killed by Vecna, leading to the Gates to open, and getting himself killed in the process as well.]]

* Max Mayfield. She comes from a troubled home life where she lives with a sadistic older stepbrother. She's rough around the edges, but she's still a good person who wants to make friends and is treated rather coldly. While Lucas is consistently nice to her, Mike is rude and crass towards to her for no other reason except the feared belief she's replacing El. And when she finally meets El, the latter coldly shrugs her off out of jealousy. [[spoiler: Season 3 makes it worse when she ''still'' loves Billy despite his shitty behavior towards her and is borderline shaken and left devastated when he dies saving not just the whole world, but her. Season 4 then outright shows that she has developed PTSD from Billy's death and though her abusive step-father is gone, her mother has to work two jobs to make due with bills and has become an alcoholic as a coping mechanism. She ends up pushing her friends and boyfriend Lucas away and becomes Vecna's next target.]]

* Eddie Munson quickly becomes an example of this in season 4. He is branded a freak and outcast simply for liking heavy metal and being the leader of a ''Dungeons & Dragons'' club, which during the 80s was mistakenly seen as linked to Satanic or Occult practices [[spoiler: before quickly being pinned as the prime suspect behind all of Vecna's killings, including Chrissy who was at his home when she was killed. Eddie has no choice but to hide as the whole town excluding the Party see him as a pariah while also having to deal with Jason and his friends hunting him down.]]
* Jason Carver has some {{Jerkass}} moments [[spoiler: and his blind pursuit of Eddie and the Hellfire Club is definitely not okay]] but he does warrant some sympathy. Jason subverts the JerkJock trope by genuinely loving his girlfriend Chrissy, even adamantly stating that she would never do drugs or get into trouble, [[spoiler: and becomes heartbroken when he discovers she was killed. Through a combination of grief and fearmongering propaganda, he becomes convinced that Eddie and by extension the Hellfire Club are a cult who invoke the powers of Satan to commit these killings and ignorantly spreads the seeds of anarchy in a misguided attempt to get justice for his girlfriend. Then he witnesses Patrick, his friend, being brutally murdered right in front of him.]]

* Jason Carver has some {{Jerkass}} moments [[spoiler: and his blind pursuit of Eddie and the Hellfire Club is definitely not okay]] but he does warrant some sympathy. Jason subverts the JerkJock trope by genuinely loving his girlfriend Chrissy, even adamantly stating that she would never do drugs or get into trouble, [[spoiler: and becomes heartbroken when he discovers she was killed. Through a combination of grief and fearmongering propaganda, he becomes convinced that Eddie and by extension the Hellfire Club are a cult who invoke the powers of Satan to commit these killings and ignorantly spreads the seeds of anarchy in a misguided attempt to get justice for his girlfriend.]]

* Jason Carver has some {{Jerkass}} moments [[spoiler: and his blind pursuit of Eddie and the Hellfire Club is definitely not okay]] but he does warrant some sympathy. Jason subverts the JerkJock trope by genuinely loving his girlfriend Chrissy, even adamantly stating that she would never do drugs or get into trouble, [[spoiler: and becomes heartbroken when she discovers she was killed. Through a combination of grief and fearmongering propaganda, he becomes convinced that Eddie and by extension the Hellfire Club are a cult who invoke the powers of Satan to commit these killings and ignorantly spreads the seeds of anarchy in a misguided attempt to get justice for his girlfriend.]]

** Season 4 has shown to have made things worse. She struggles to make friends, is targeted by bullies and [[spoiler: still mourns for Hopper]] all while lying to her boyfriend that she's having a good time in California. [[spoiler: She then hits her bully Angela with a roller-skate out of revenge for embarrassing her in front of Mike, not only bringing up past trauma from her time in the lab but almost ends up in juvi for her actions. Then she learns that her friends are in trouble and agrees to let Owens re-awaken her powers, only to discover that the presumed dead Brenner is alive and that the method to regaining her powers involves reliving one of the worst days of her life where she apparently killed all of the other children within the lab.]]

* Victor Creel arguably rivals Terry Ives in terms of how tragic of a life they had. [[spoiler: As a former captain in the army, he ordered a strike which led to the death of a baby which has haunted him even to this very day.]] He moves into a brand new house with his wife and children, only to be targeted by what appears to be a demon, revealed to be Vecna, who kills his wife and daughter and nearly kills his son. Victor is then deemed insane by Hawkins and pinned as the killer to which he attempts to commit suicide to join his family, only to be stopped by the orderlies at the asylum he was condemned to. It's no wonder this man claims to still be in hell [[spoiler: but if that wasn't enough, it's revealed by his wife and daughter weren't killed by a demon, but his own son who developed psychic powers and resented his family and humanity in general.]]

* Max Mayfield. She comes from a troubled home life where she lives with a sadistic older stepbrother. She's rough around the edges, but she's still a good person who wants to make friends and is treated rather coldly. While Lucas is consistently nice to her, Mike is rude and crass towards to her for no other reason except the feared belief she's replacing El. And when she finally meets El, the latter coldly shrugs her off out of jealousy. [[spoiler: Season 3 makes it worse when she ''still'' loves Billy despite his shitty behavior towards her and is borderline shaken and left devastated when he dies saving not just the whole world, but her]].

* Jason Carver has some {{Jerkass}} moments [[spoiler: and his blind pursuit of Eddie and the Hellfire Club is definitely not okay]] but he does warrant some sympathy. Jason subverts the JerkJock trope by genuinely loving his girlfriend Chrissy, even adamantly stating that she would never do drugs or get into trouble, [[spoiler: and becomes heartbroken when she discovers she was killed. Through a combination of grief and fearmongering propaganda, he becomes convinced that Eddie and by extension the Hellfire Club are a cult who invoke the powers of Satan to commit these killings and ignorantly spreads the seeds of anarchy in a misguided attempt to get justice for his girlfriend.]]

* Hopper all the way: While he is a very blunt and snarky man, you can argue his entire jaded view of life was caused by [[spoiler: the death of his daughter to cancer and his eventual divorce with his wife]]. Season 2 also pushed him into this when [[spoiler: raising Eleven but keeping her protected for most of the events leading up to Season 2 caused tension between the two of them]]. Add more onto [[spoiler: implied feelings for Joyce and then comforting her when Bob dies]], it's hard ''not'' to hug him. [[spoiler: And then Season 3 has him being a super PapaWolf to Eleven, trying to start a relationship with Joyce only to be snubbed (accidentally) and just when it seems the two are going to be a thing, he's either ''killed'' due to the Russians' experiment of opening the Upside-Down again or he's kept prisoner in Soviet Russia by the end of it]]. [[spoiler: Season 4 Teaser confirms it's the latter.]]

* As of Season 3, Karen Wheeler. We see how frustrated she is with her role in the home and her marriage to a man who earns a lot of money but has no sense of appreciation for what she does and what the family goes through. She seems to seek solace in a glass of wine and romance novels while her kids get older and are less dependent on her. She only seems to liven up when Billy, a boy who is around the same age as her daughter, flirts with her and she even goes so far as to consider cheating on her husband until she realizes she could destroy her family. and when Nancy confides in her misogynistic workplace, Karen pretty much reveals that she used to be ambitious and wanted to make her mark on the world but after being beaten down because of her gender and perceived intelligence, she gave up to be a stay at home mom whose only focuses on how her house looks and how pretty she is, all for a husband who doesn't notice.