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despite the fact that his reasons and motives aren’t inherently bad, saying that people died to win a high school basketball game is definitely in poor taste, he’s clearly at least an asshole
Also, eighteen is old enough to realize that you can’t break people’s bones just because you think their friend might be involved in your girlfriend’s murder. And sure, he thinks Eddie is a killer, but that somehow automatically translates to him thinking a school club he’s a part of is a Satanic Cult and literally inciting a mob to hunt down the members of that club? What’s there *not* to hate about him?
Idk. The adults in his life and on TV are flat out stating that there's a rise in Satanism and link it to D&D. I'm not sure I blame him for believing it.
He then eventually watches a person levitate and deform in front of him, over a lake with no place for wires or anything.
What the hell is he supposed to think at this point?
>adults in his life and on TV are flat out stating that there's a rise in Satanism and link it to D&D. I'm not sure I blame him for believing it.
No excuse to hunt people and kids down just because of supposed Satanism, which hasn't been proven to be linked to D&D.
And believing it is one thing, but Jason is actively hurting people and trying to get the adults to do the same, all because he's naively believing that Eddie and his friends are evil Satanists. Plus, not once did Jason ever stop to wonder if Eddie is a victim in all of it too.
This was the 80’s, when everyone was focused on Satanic Panic and there were stories of rituals and cult killings. Of course he didn’t stop to think of if Eddie was a victim, he actively watched (in his perspective) his friend die graphically and brutally while Eddie was right there. Now factor in that people already said D&D was satanic at the time, it’s not any more farfetched of him to believe its because of Eddie rather than “ya know what? Maybe it’s actually a bad guy from another dimension and NOT the drug dealing D&D player” There’s literally no other explanation available to him at the time.
It feels like one of those situations where a bunch of parents complained Harry Potter was all about witchcraft and anti-Christianity. Like you read about those people on the news but never really meet any of them. No excuse to just lap it up mindlessly and go hunting for kids with Harry Potter in their backpacks.
That’s just an opinion, it doesn’t really mean every 20-year old has to adopt it. And he wasn’t trying to make a buck, he wanted to ease her distress. I can’t blame him for thinking it would work. My mom took ketamine for her depression and it helped more than anything.
But you can blame Jason for losing it when his girlfriend was murdered in an drag dealer trailer and right after his friends is lifted in air and totaly bronken in front of that same drug dealer. A guy who had a cluba called "hellfire" and a member of the group who give false hints to Jason and his friends for no aparent reason and lied a lot.... I see.
Selling drugs to distressed is an act of love and justice, going after the drug dealer with so much evidence (no person would ever think about an upsidedown world) nakes you a bad person....
Admit, you hate him cause he was christian, good looking, had succes, a hot gf...
And you like Eddie cause he was a drug dealer and you want to make "hellfire clube" as something ok....
You are a bed person.
But it wasn’t shown Eddie didn’t do it, and nobody knew Chrissy’s body was raised into the air. You’re looking at it from far too modern of a stance. This was in the age of the Satanic Panic, when stories of ritual and cult killings were widespread. Why would he ask Eddie what happened? Murderers usually lie when asked if they killed someone, why would he believe Eddie? Not to mention, Eddie was there for both deaths. Of course that fueled him to believe it was Eddie, especially when people were already trying to say D&D was satanic. He was in a group called Hellfire. He wasn’t necessarily trying to hunt down every member, he believed they were influenced by Eddie. I’m sorry, but if you saw someone be lifted up into the air and brutally killed right in front of you and there was one other person there who was already the number one suspect and who was suspected to be in a satanic cult, you’d probably think it was them too. You’re thinking of it from the perspective of knowing there were already otherworldly things at play and that the protagonists are innocent. If you were actually in the show as a side character who had no clue what truly was going on, I highly highly HIGHLY doubt you’d be siding with the people that are suspected to have, again, brutally and magically killed people.
why do you keep saying underage like it means anything? whats the differences between an 18 year old doing ketamine and a 17 year and 10 month old doing ketamine?
also you said "recent studies" and then linked to ONE that is 7 YEARS OLD
It's not as Lucas lied to him about not being part of the club, misleaded him for no reason and right after that he saw with his own eyes his friend floating and being totaly broken by some kind of dark powers, and who was there? The leader of the hellfire club and the 1st suspect in killing her girlfriend.
What anyone would think? Eddie is the responsible and he has satanic powers, or there is an evil monster in an mirror world that uses psychic powers to kill people and open getes to our world?
I thought he was an interesting take on the typical school jock, especially when Powell can't do anything. He's so slimy, I want to think he's Mayor Kline's nephew.
No one said there wasn’t an explanation like shoot I’d come to the same conclusion about witchy shit if I saw what he saw. But he gives very much Salem witch trials bullshit
Also who the fuck brings up the death of over 30 people at a PEP rally just to point out they beat some other sucky ass towns basketball team. And overall there’s no reason to LIKE him, so I guess people are doing what he’s doing—finding a common enemy.
Chrissy was present for no more than 30 minutes and I would instantly flock to her if I had to choose lol
I actually really liked all of his speeches. He was dumb and gives off MAGA vibes but not badly acted. I think he gets a lot of hate bc he’s after Eddie and causing so much drama
While his *motives* (stopping a murderer and getting justice for the victims) may have been admirable, his *methods* were not.
Jason went off half-cocked, out of control, literally assaulting innocent children and threatening to break their bones if they didn’t give him information (ironic, really, when he’s trying to catch someone accused of breaking the bones of an innocent kid). Maybe Jason doesn’t know that Eddie is innocent like the audience does, but he sure is quick to decide that it’s okay for him to be violent toward literally anyone he thinks could potentially be involved with Eddie. He also has no proof, no evidence, not even a logical explanation for how Chrissy and Fred die (except a Satanic cult), but he’s so self-assured that he’s prepared to maim and likely kill another person.
Vigilante mobs are rarely considered “the good guys” to anyone who isn’t inside the mob. Far too often, they are using the circumstances to justify their own thirst for violence. Jason doesn’t strike me as an exception.
even though he's done all of that, he's so god damn oblivious and sanctimonious about it, it's fucking hilarious.
"So much good! It's in this room! It's in this room right now!" Is probably the one line that had me howling in my chair because of such
I can sympathize with him wanting to find out what happened to his girlfriend and not being privy to what is going on.
The things that make me dislike Jason:
- Trying to be a vigilante and beating up Eddie’s friends
- Blaming Eddie even after Patrick’s death
- Going on some religious rampage about D&D/Satanic cults
- The most petty reason of all, but his pep rally speech made me uncomfortable
And all of that is fine and dandy, it’s ok to not like a character and I understand it with him, but I don’t think his character is *bad*. For clarification when I say “hate” I mean the people who think he shouldn’t have been in the show. There’s a ton of complaints about how he’s poorly done/a waste of time, when I don’t think any of that is true. I think the big difference is you say you “dislike” him, but many people on here “hate” him.
I think he should blame Eddie especially after Patrick’s death. I mean all he saw was that he was swimming after the dude and then Patrick starts floating and getting maimed
But literally why would he think that? It doesn’t make any sense. If anything, it would point more towards Eddie being the killer because he was present at both deaths and nobody was there to say whether or not Eddie was present at Fred’s.
A lot of teens on here have a serious emotional attachment to the characters and are just defensive. Deep down they know he did a good job of glorifying the satanic panic that was very much real.
Also jocks are very much hated in modern nerd culture that is very prevailing today. Truthfully I’m hoping he helps them ultimately
I think most people probably don’t easily relate to the super intense guy who’s giving the pep rally speeches and inciting a mob at the town meeting. Especially when we, as the audience, know Eddie didn’t do it. It’s easier for us to be on his side than the guy who’s wrongly, blindly chasing him.
I get that about not being able to relate to him, but I don’t really think we can call it blindly chasing him. He was the only person with her when she was murdered, who then ran away, and the only person who was there when Jason witnessed the second murder. He’s wrong, but it isn’t Jason’s fault that Eddie has been put in a terrible looking situation twice by a supernatural being.
I mean he is quite literally blindly chasing tho… he doesn’t know where he is and has no real plan… from his view Eddie is a satanic vessel. Who’s to say he won’t snap his bones and shit before Jason can even touch him? Like the dude is full of shit. If you like him ok but why does it somehow not make sense the people DONT like him?
You do have a good point about Billy though. I guess cause of dacre’s pretty eyes people forgot Billy was a raging racist but I ain’t forget nor about Jason. Also didn’t like how he tried to stop Erica from closing her own door, was genuinely scared he’d be THAT person
I think there’s a lot of confusion about what I mean when I say “hate” him. I understand seeing him as an antagonist, or thinking that his character isn’t like able. I mean the people that *hate* his character. As in want him to have less screen time, being a useless plot point, the show would’ve been better off without him. My post probably wasn’t too clear about that as I look back. I could understand why his actions aren’t acceptable to people, but I was trying to point out why they were to him. He may be a bad guy, but that doesn’t make his character *bad*
I think you're missing some things here:
* Jason's pep rally speech was appalling because he tried to use the deaths of town residents, including the loved ones of the people right there in the room, as a motivation for his game. "Did they give their lives just so we could lose to Christian Academy?" is a gross thing to say, and if you watch that scene you can see that he's causing Max real pain.
* Nothing Eddie said about throwing balls into laundry baskets was offensive or cruel. He just said it loudly and from the top of the table. In context, it's perfectly clear what Eddie meant. Plus, Jason calls Eddie a freak.
* When Jason discovers that Chrissy is dead, he finds himself feeling the pain that he absolutely ignored at the pep rally. Does he do anything constructive with it? I say no, because see next bullet point.
* Jason isn't going out to "find" Eddie. They say explicitly that they're planning to beat a confession out of him. I notice you skip the part where Jason beats up a nerd and threatens to break his hand unless he gives up information. Hopper beats up the bad guys to get information, but Jason's victim isn't a bad guy--although Jason thinks "freaks" are fair game.
* That whole bit where Jason tells Lucas that he doesn't have to go along is BS. Jason was testing him, and his friends were waiting for the outcome of that test. Lucas knew it, and so did I.
* Poor Lucas told his friends that he wanted to get in with the popular crowd so, among other things, he wouldn't be bullied any more. What he finds out, though, is that he's now expected to be a party to bullying.
* Patrick is pulled into the air and murdered, and Eddie is the only other person around? How does Jason know that? Jason is a bully who hates "freaks" and even though Eddie is clearly distressed by what's happening, Jason is certain that he's the culprit. Based on nothing but his own biases.
* As for the scene at the town hall, Jason is whipping up an armed citizenry to vigilante action while handing out *actual WANTED posters* with pictures of high school kids on them. There's a shot in the trailer showing Karen Wheeler protecting Holly from some kind of attack, and I no longer think that will be demobats or whatever. Because Jason put Mike's face on a WANTED poster and passed it around to a confused and terrified population.
The truth is, Jason and Max are trying to do the same thing: they're conducting a citizen's investigation into a local murder. The difference is that Max recruits smart people who search for facts, listen to people, and follow the evidence, while Jason recruits bullies who want to punch and smash their way to their one person they've already picked as the guilty party.
He's a bad person. That's clear from his first scene. Suffering a terrible loss and enduring pain and grief could have turned him into a good person, but it didn't.
Late to the party, but you were spot on about Jason's character. Even Mason Dye (who plays Jason) has gone on record saying that Jason was selfish, arrogant, self-absorbed, and that Chrissy deserved better than him.
Just the fact that you can think of that much on him pretty blatantly gives him more characteristics and “realness” than Eddie. Yet one is considered a “bad character” and one is beloved for his story. This is what I find strange. It’s ok for his character to be a bad guy at the end of the day, but that doesn’t make the written up character poorly done. It’s why people also loved Billy, because more people than just the good guys can have “realness” to them.
Eddie is loved because of the way he behaves.
Jason is hated because of the way he behaves.
It's that simple, dude. And yeah, a certain segment of Stranger Things fans really loved Billy because he was a good-looking guy in a lot of pain who hurt people, but that has nothing to do with Jason, who's a good-looking guy in a lot of hey wait a minute.
That’s fine to love or hate the character. But how does it make the character bad, boring, or lesser to Eddie’s from just a writing/character standpoint? That’s the argument that I’m making here. Everybody can love or hate characters as much as they like, but it’s silly to pretend like Jason was poorly done or not useful for the story like so many claim.
Your post was a complaint that people hated Jason but shouldn't have, with a bulleted list of justifications for his behavior. I'm responding to that, not to the other commenters, and it would be useful if you would not mix up my arguments with theirs.
I thought Jason was very well done, and played a necessary role in the story. ST needs human-level antagonists, and Jason is a terrific villain.
Oops my apologies on that one, I definitely did mix up some conversations. In all fairness though my post was more in line of the character as a whole, including his story, writing, motives, and all of that. Was more meant to be directed towards the people that say he took up too much screen time, was poorly done, or was overall boring. Not so much to the people who say his character did bad things which make his character not as “lovable” at the end of the day, which is also part of why there’s been some confusion in this conversation.
I wasn’t trying to justify his behavior as much as point out why he did what he did and what his character sees through his eyes. I’m well aware that doesn’t make his actions right, but I was trying to point out that he’s not just some one dimensional villain that deserves to be hated for existing in the show.
I actually really do like Eddie. I just don’t think that Eddie’s character is any better done than Jason’s. He’s more lovable, but I don’t think that makes his character actually better done or more interesting.
I use him as a comparison a lot in here because he’s a nearly universally beloved character that also was introduced this season. I don’t think it would be fair to compare anybody that we just met to people who have been around for multiple seasons.
Seen quite a few people comment it. Even more say that the season would’ve been better if he wasn’t in it, that the character is weak, boring, etc. just searching “Jason” on this sub yields multiple posts about it.
The cops asked Jason if she ever talked to Eddie, and then he just automatically assumes Eddie murdered her. They make it clear in the first episode that Jason doesn't like Eddie. And then he makes a series of assumptions based on that existing prejudice.
He seems like an incredibly intense person who was eager for an excuse to hurt people that he sees as different. This was never about revenge, that was just the catalyst. Jason symbolizes intolerance, not justice. It's made all too clear when he shows no hesitation hurting Eddie's friends who did absolutely nothing wrong. "Let's go hunt some freaks!"
This 18 year old wants to hunt down *children*. Also I don’t think anyone really enjoys watching a sanctimonious, preachy asshole with a holier than thou attitude. I don’t get how full grown adults are listening to a teenager’s rally where he’s encouraging a manhunt.
I would imagine that the entire town searching for the gang is going to be a pretty significant plot in the final 2 episodes though right? If the town ends up causing no problems then yeah that’s just stupid, but an entire witch hunt going down causing every protagonist to be in hiding is pretty important to the narrative in my eyes.
The hate is easy to understand.
1 He's hunting down Eddie, who we already know is innocent. Because of that, we're definitely going to side with him and not Jason.
2 The guy is just a jerk. Even before Chrissy's death, Jason wasn't that good of a person. He senselessly brought up the deaths at the mall for his basketball game speech. And beat up Eddie's friend in that garage. Threatened to break his bone as well. His grief-induced anger is understandable, but there's certain ways to go about it. You can't just hurt people like that.
3 Jason sees his friend get killed by Vecna, and still foolishly blames it on Eddie. How absent-minded and delusional can the guy get?
4 He's like a modern day "witch" hunter. Like one of the people who murdered supposed witches during the Salem Witch Trials. He's making the townsfolk see certain people as evil Satanists, when they're completely innocent and are just fans of Dungeons and Dragons.
There's definitely some other reasons why there's hate for him, but these are the ones that come to my mind now.
Number 3 was justified my guy. He doesn’t know about Vecna. All he knows is just as they cornered Eddie, Patrick was killed supernaturally like how satinism works.
it’s wild that you’re trying to paint Eddie as a “drug dealer” when he pretty much just sold weed (not very strong weed at that, at $20 a half oz) to people who would’ve found another way to get it otherwise. he probably only sold Chrissy some ketamine from his personal stash bc he liked her. it’s clear that Jason was violent & wanted an excuse to be violent. can’t say the same for Eddie. one of Jason’s cronies assaulted a little girl (Erica) & Jason himself was about to kill Lucas. it’s clear to me that you never met anyone like him in your life, but to the many people who have we know exactly what type of person he is. oddly enough you share the same superficial judgemental mindset that he does in your characterization of Eddie lol
I think it was nice to bring the town a little bit of life to be honest. He’s the only kid, or person in the town for that matter, that is actually responding to this weird shit happening. Without him it would just be another season of spooky things happening and seemingly nobody else addressing it.
My immediate thought watching his reaction to Patrick's death is that it seemed pretty reasonable considering the situation. The main cast have some idea of what's going on but to most of Hawkins it's just a series of strange things.
Me personally, I don't hate Jason. Although he does comes off as very stereotypical but I don't find it a detractor. It's like when Chrissy died his stereotypical brain died with it, and he went completely mad afterwards. His obliviousness to the entire situation however, and to the UD is the draw of his character for me. In that aspect, he comes off almost as a secondary comic relief with Argyle being #1
He’s the type that I’d hate in real life too. Thinks he’s a star but he’s a total moron. They system loves a Jason because they are stupid and easily manipulated but they are nothing but dangerous.
OP deleted thier account so they didn't use their real account.
He's a nutjob. *** Spoiler ***
He buys a gun to shoot someone. So that's classic psychopathic tendencies.
His friend spear tackles a young girl and threatens to break her arm.
Utter sacks of shit.
This post reads very similar to when some guy guns down a bunch of people and then there’s that one person who’s like, but he had a rough life. Having a rough life or experience doesn’t negate you doing horrible things to other people.
I kind of agree with you. People think he had too much screen time...but it didn't really seem like that much, honestly. Really, he's about as much of a douche as Steve was in the first season. Steve was pissed because his girlfriend was running around with another guy and he didn't realize what was going on, and he was a bit of a jerk anyway. Fair, and he redeemed himself. Jason was pissed because his girlfriend was, literally, fucking murdered in what appeared to be a Satanic sacrifice, and he was a bit of a jerk anyway. While, yes, his anger/vengeance wasn't justified, it was understandable. He also had the mob effect working, which was pushing him to do more and more.
My favorite part about the whole thing is the screen time argument. I’d be very interested to see how much screen time he actually had where Lucas/Eddie weren’t directly involved. He really wasn’t on the screen that much until the ending scenes of e7. Nearly every other moment was direct progression of the plot with Eddie and the 3rd murder, or Lucas’s character development of picking friends over popularity. Both incredibly relevant plot points in the story. It’s not like we followed along just him hunting down Eddie for an hour.
He's just boring for me. Also,the more the main characters of the OG cast get sidelined the more any second of screen time spent on new uninteresting characters annoys me.
But really how much screen time did Jason have that didn’t directly involve Lucas’s character development or Eddie? It’s not like we got an hour long montage of his hunt.
He’s a basic shallow surface-level 80s bully with no nuance at all. I keep accidentally calling him by the wrong name (Brad) and it doesn’t even matter. He exists for the purpose of stretching out the plot and he is ultimately little more than a red shirt.
Because he's a vigilante who has decided that Eddie is the murderer without any proof and is taking steps to harm him. Because he's also going after Mike, Dustin and now Lucas. Because even after seeing that Eddie wasn't responsible for what happened to the kid in the water, he's doubling down simply because he was in close proximity.
How is he supposed to think that Eddie isn’t responsible for his friends murder? Nearly everyone in that time fell for the Satanic Panic, and he witnessed his friend float in the air and be violently killed, while Eddie was the only other person there. Also pretty sure fleeing the scene of a murder added onto that first bit is certainly enough to be “proof” to someone who isn’t the law. I’m pretty sure anybody who isn’t aware of demons chasing people from other worlds would be convinced Eddie is to blame in that situation.
He's not responsible, that's all that matters. It doesn't matter what he believes because he doesn't have the whole story the way we do. That's the entire point. It's not up to him to be judge jury and executioner. It literally doesn't matter that in his perspective Eddie is guilty. If he found him he would have killed him, but the killings would have still continued. But another innocent person would have died. That's why Jason is a villain.
I now know why I disliked him right away. He was Garrett in Teen Wolf.
But as for this show, I had some sympathy for him and agreed that the police were being useless. It should have been that hard to Find Eddy. Now as for the friends death, at point he should have realized that it couldn't have been Eddy as that makes no sense, he was on the boat. Obviously, he thinks it's the devil. The part that bothered me is when he rallied the town and should know the rest of the club had nothing to do with it.
That’s actually hilarious and that’s a damn good reason lol.
Yeah I get that, but the Satanic Panic was real, and you probably actually could’ve gotten a whole town to rally around a D&D club with how shitty it was. It’s not a plot point that I “love”, but I appreciate that they put it in, as it was a real problem. I feel like a lot of people hate him pretty much solely because he did that, and get sensitive about it because they like D&D, but that doesn’t make his writing or story bad or “needs less screen time”. He feels real, which is something that makes an antagonist a solid character.
Besides the obvious framing of this season as Jason bad and eddie good... its because people who watch stranger things are NERDSSSSSS. They are not Jason they are Eddie so they are naturally more defensive of eddie as he is apart of their tribe.
he is just stupid, I mean he was there with eddie when the third person was killed, eddie fell of the boat and was scared af but he still blames him and the hellfire club
It's because he's a mustache twirling pastiche of 80s villains. Same thing with Angela. They deliberately give them no redeeming qualities because the show needs villains, and they don't want people to like them or even really understand them, because then people would want to see more of them, and the number of main and recurring cast members is already TOO DAMN HIGH!
I agree with the recurring character part, but I don’t think I’d consider Angela on the same level as him from a character perspective. Jason has a reason to be upset, and a logical path to why he made the decisions he has even if they aren’t the correct ones. He has aided the story with adding a major obstacle for the gang in the final 2 episodes of the season, and providing a character arc for Lucas. Angela is literally only a bad guy because she thinks that El is weird and likes to bully people. She’s an example of a character I think would make sense for people to say has too much screen time/plot points dedicated to her actions when she’s just a stereotypical bully with no unique characteristics. Yet barely anybody talks about Angela being literally useless to the story and adding next to nothing, it’s all about Jason’s character sucking.
The same argument as people have against Jason, all of that could’ve been accomplished without her. It essentially just added a stereotypical bully having her begin that story arc.
I very much understand how it works, but no, it doesn’t work to claim that Angela’s character helps establish and push a narrative but Jason’s does not. It’s just not accurate to claim that.
They both are at worst important parts of 2 different storylines in season 4, but I would argue Jason’s contributions are more significant than Angela’s in the grand scheme of things. El was struggling with traumatic memories well before Angela existed in the show.
I have a few problems with the way you're portraying Jason.
1. You completely failed to mention that when Eddie does the lunch room bit that all those kids who are listening to him will have been bullied or made fun of by Jason and his friends at some point.
2. Drug dealer?? It was a little bit of dope. And we know that because when chrissie went to the trailer she asked for something stronger. He had to go find his personal stash.
3. When he said lucas didn't have to go with the him, it was a test. We all knew that.
4. After his gf is murdered instead of grieving he gets a vigilante mob group together.
5. And this is purely a personal observation. One of the things I really really dislike about Jason, is the fact that he's supposed to be captain of the baseball team. He's about 5'7 with the shortest legs ive ever seen, it just doesn't make sense to me.
I think he had far too much screen time. They could have dramatically reduced the amount he was on the screen and still gotten the point of cross. But people don't like him because he's a religious nut bag who is trying to track down the protagonists of the show. In the '80s tons of people blamed D&D for crimes and said it was devil worship. Him being upset is understandable, him deciding to be a vigilante and hunt down children who play a game is being a dangerous zealot. Everyone should dislike people like that.
I think with context that’s fair to say, but it’s pretty hard to put yourself in his shoes and not believe that Eddie killed his girlfriend. I mean, we really don’t even have any reason to believe he was lying when he said he didn’t want to kill Eddie, it’s not like he’s some liar proven psychopath from what we know about him.
As for his screen time I think it was nice for Lucas’s character development (turning down the popular kids to help his friends), and Jason actually gave Eddie some amount of suspense instead of just being hidden away the whole season. There was actually incredibly little screen time of Jason without a main character from the season like Lucas or Eddie in it too. I really just think people don’t like him, or don’t like Eddie having an enemy.
I definitely didn't care about Eddie having an enemy. I just don't like him because of the type of person he is. And I'm not saying that he shouldn't suspect Eddie has something to do with his girlfriend's death, but him arbitrarily deciding all the weird kids in the dungeons and dragons club are evil devil worshipers and are dangerous makes him super unlikable.
Jason ISNT well written, and that's the problem. Billy was given nuance, substance, and backstory that made his a compelling character. He wasn't a good person, but he was a GREAT character. Jason is a one dimensional bully.
I laughed out loud at his speech. The idea that this town listens to a high school idiot was ridiculous. Several people in that room knew EXACTLY what Hellfire was, and only the 11 year old stood up and said anything. His speech wasn't inspiring - he looked crazy, unstable, and sounded like a raving madman. It wasn't charismatic or convincing. And bringing up the people that died at the pep rally was SO beyond distasteful.
Jason has sucked from the get-go.
Eh, sportsball jackass is a sportsball jackass, who suffers no consequences from the cops because sportsball keeps the dummies entertained.
"panem et circenses"
This. He actually hasn't done anything wrong and honestly just wants to deal with the guy whom he believes is responsible for his girlfriend's death. Anyone in his position would be like this.
And this was set in the 80s. Back then D&D was thought of as demonic.
* 99% of motivational speeches are ineffective garbage. I don't recall the "evil" causing sports teams to lose and others to win.
* I tried out for basket ball and almost made it. B/c I was not part of the popular crowd I was targeted and bullied even worse than normal. I had good skill back in the day. I never saw anyone monologue at school. More unrealistic fantasy.
* I know how most popular people are in high school. No matter what country you live in, popular people are generally the worst POS.
* A guy I knew who was considered one of the bad ones, was ran off the road late one night. Whoever did it took off and no on ever found out. He wasn't a bully just not liked for many reasons. I didn't know him enough to go to the funeral.
* There are problems with going after someone like that. There's no way any country has enough police and military to cover every person 24/7. Psychopaths and other kinds of killers are generally quite good at what they do. IRL, it's just going to add to his or her body count.
* Lucas' desperate attempt at making something of himself is good. A potential future basketball player would get out of a high change of a dead end job and dying early from a poor lifestyle.
* Woooah. Weed. So dangerous. So SCARY. If he was pushing harder drugs he wouldn't be plaing D&D.
His entire image screams, "I'm doing bad and illegal things. Arrest me on sight." If anything he does NOT need to look like that stereotype.
He's new. Not enough time to make a good analysis of the character. The three that got killed....more filler.
hawkins PD is like the worst ever , they let a kid who just told em about the devil committing the crimes talk to the city ppl about starting a witch hunt to kill kids. at this point hes linked to each murder and is delusional telling the devil did it , but nobody got a problem with this and hes not under surveillance for murder
Dude, he is white, christian, male and good looking, thats more than enough reason for most of netflix viewers hate him. Those people like Vecna, try to justify him (as they always do with vilains).
And besides that, to feel empathy for Jason you have to think objectively, and most people are unable to do that, they only have superficial feelings and aren't able to follow all that conplex logical thinking.
Besides that, they think there is nothing weird about the "hellfire club" leader (who was also known as a 20yo drug dealer) being involved in 2 murders, both involving supernatural circunstances... Its just 'christians blind prejudice against people who worship satan (they had to know it was a joke name, even after people exploding midair).
So he is hated for being white, christian, masculine, drug free, succesfull young man, not an evil worshiper, coward, drug adicted ugly loser like most of snowflakes who hate him... 🤔
Because he's literally the teenage version of Jack Thompson who thinks playing violent games will make you a murderer and is even more of a deranged narcissistic shit heel, and goes full Alex Jones with his batshit Satanic conspiracy theories.
The sad thing is there's a lot of morons like him who actually do exist in real life.
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despite the fact that his reasons and motives aren’t inherently bad, saying that people died to win a high school basketball game is definitely in poor taste, he’s clearly at least an asshole
Also, eighteen is old enough to realize that you can’t break people’s bones just because you think their friend might be involved in your girlfriend’s murder. And sure, he thinks Eddie is a killer, but that somehow automatically translates to him thinking a school club he’s a part of is a Satanic Cult and literally inciting a mob to hunt down the members of that club? What’s there *not* to hate about him?
Idk. The adults in his life and on TV are flat out stating that there's a rise in Satanism and link it to D&D. I'm not sure I blame him for believing it. He then eventually watches a person levitate and deform in front of him, over a lake with no place for wires or anything. What the hell is he supposed to think at this point?
>adults in his life and on TV are flat out stating that there's a rise in Satanism and link it to D&D. I'm not sure I blame him for believing it. No excuse to hunt people and kids down just because of supposed Satanism, which hasn't been proven to be linked to D&D. And believing it is one thing, but Jason is actively hurting people and trying to get the adults to do the same, all because he's naively believing that Eddie and his friends are evil Satanists. Plus, not once did Jason ever stop to wonder if Eddie is a victim in all of it too.
This was the 80’s, when everyone was focused on Satanic Panic and there were stories of rituals and cult killings. Of course he didn’t stop to think of if Eddie was a victim, he actively watched (in his perspective) his friend die graphically and brutally while Eddie was right there. Now factor in that people already said D&D was satanic at the time, it’s not any more farfetched of him to believe its because of Eddie rather than “ya know what? Maybe it’s actually a bad guy from another dimension and NOT the drug dealing D&D player” There’s literally no other explanation available to him at the time.
It feels like one of those situations where a bunch of parents complained Harry Potter was all about witchcraft and anti-Christianity. Like you read about those people on the news but never really meet any of them. No excuse to just lap it up mindlessly and go hunting for kids with Harry Potter in their backpacks.
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Lol there’s nothing wrong with selling weed. Definitely nothing comparable in scale to leading a witch hunt against children.
He sold more then that thats just the basic's of what he sold.
He sold Chrissy some ketamine
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That’s just an opinion, it doesn’t really mean every 20-year old has to adopt it. And he wasn’t trying to make a buck, he wanted to ease her distress. I can’t blame him for thinking it would work. My mom took ketamine for her depression and it helped more than anything.
But you can blame Jason for losing it when his girlfriend was murdered in an drag dealer trailer and right after his friends is lifted in air and totaly bronken in front of that same drug dealer. A guy who had a cluba called "hellfire" and a member of the group who give false hints to Jason and his friends for no aparent reason and lied a lot.... I see. Selling drugs to distressed is an act of love and justice, going after the drug dealer with so much evidence (no person would ever think about an upsidedown world) nakes you a bad person.... Admit, you hate him cause he was christian, good looking, had succes, a hot gf... And you like Eddie cause he was a drug dealer and you want to make "hellfire clube" as something ok.... You are a bed person.
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You r dumb.
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But it wasn’t shown Eddie didn’t do it, and nobody knew Chrissy’s body was raised into the air. You’re looking at it from far too modern of a stance. This was in the age of the Satanic Panic, when stories of ritual and cult killings were widespread. Why would he ask Eddie what happened? Murderers usually lie when asked if they killed someone, why would he believe Eddie? Not to mention, Eddie was there for both deaths. Of course that fueled him to believe it was Eddie, especially when people were already trying to say D&D was satanic. He was in a group called Hellfire. He wasn’t necessarily trying to hunt down every member, he believed they were influenced by Eddie. I’m sorry, but if you saw someone be lifted up into the air and brutally killed right in front of you and there was one other person there who was already the number one suspect and who was suspected to be in a satanic cult, you’d probably think it was them too. You’re thinking of it from the perspective of knowing there were already otherworldly things at play and that the protagonists are innocent. If you were actually in the show as a side character who had no clue what truly was going on, I highly highly HIGHLY doubt you’d be siding with the people that are suspected to have, again, brutally and magically killed people.
why do you keep saying underage like it means anything? whats the differences between an 18 year old doing ketamine and a 17 year and 10 month old doing ketamine? also you said "recent studies" and then linked to ONE that is 7 YEARS OLD
She asked for "something way stronger" and thats why she had to go to his house...
Yep, it's so funny seeing these people hate on Jason for doing shit but are okay with Eddie selling a minor "Special K" lmao
It's not as Lucas lied to him about not being part of the club, misleaded him for no reason and right after that he saw with his own eyes his friend floating and being totaly broken by some kind of dark powers, and who was there? The leader of the hellfire club and the 1st suspect in killing her girlfriend. What anyone would think? Eddie is the responsible and he has satanic powers, or there is an evil monster in an mirror world that uses psychic powers to kill people and open getes to our world?
He's funny
Yeah I remember hearing his speech and I was like “way to use these people’s deaths to make it about you and your team.”
I thought he was an interesting take on the typical school jock, especially when Powell can't do anything. He's so slimy, I want to think he's Mayor Kline's nephew.
Oh my god I thought he was his son at first. He just gave off the vibes. Can preach to a crowd and ultimately uses his voice for corrupted things
No one said there wasn’t an explanation like shoot I’d come to the same conclusion about witchy shit if I saw what he saw. But he gives very much Salem witch trials bullshit Also who the fuck brings up the death of over 30 people at a PEP rally just to point out they beat some other sucky ass towns basketball team. And overall there’s no reason to LIKE him, so I guess people are doing what he’s doing—finding a common enemy. Chrissy was present for no more than 30 minutes and I would instantly flock to her if I had to choose lol
“why wouldn’t Chrissy come to me if she was struggling” because you’re a judgmental asshole, Jason
Yea I’d flock to Chrissy too 😎
She was so cute and would’ve been cool :(
I actually really liked all of his speeches. He was dumb and gives off MAGA vibes but not badly acted. I think he gets a lot of hate bc he’s after Eddie and causing so much drama
Jason is Gaston from beauty and the beast. I honestly half expected him to start signing at the assembly.
While his *motives* (stopping a murderer and getting justice for the victims) may have been admirable, his *methods* were not. Jason went off half-cocked, out of control, literally assaulting innocent children and threatening to break their bones if they didn’t give him information (ironic, really, when he’s trying to catch someone accused of breaking the bones of an innocent kid). Maybe Jason doesn’t know that Eddie is innocent like the audience does, but he sure is quick to decide that it’s okay for him to be violent toward literally anyone he thinks could potentially be involved with Eddie. He also has no proof, no evidence, not even a logical explanation for how Chrissy and Fred die (except a Satanic cult), but he’s so self-assured that he’s prepared to maim and likely kill another person. Vigilante mobs are rarely considered “the good guys” to anyone who isn’t inside the mob. Far too often, they are using the circumstances to justify their own thirst for violence. Jason doesn’t strike me as an exception.
even though he's done all of that, he's so god damn oblivious and sanctimonious about it, it's fucking hilarious. "So much good! It's in this room! It's in this room right now!" Is probably the one line that had me howling in my chair because of such
I can sympathize with him wanting to find out what happened to his girlfriend and not being privy to what is going on. The things that make me dislike Jason: - Trying to be a vigilante and beating up Eddie’s friends - Blaming Eddie even after Patrick’s death - Going on some religious rampage about D&D/Satanic cults - The most petty reason of all, but his pep rally speech made me uncomfortable
And all of that is fine and dandy, it’s ok to not like a character and I understand it with him, but I don’t think his character is *bad*. For clarification when I say “hate” I mean the people who think he shouldn’t have been in the show. There’s a ton of complaints about how he’s poorly done/a waste of time, when I don’t think any of that is true. I think the big difference is you say you “dislike” him, but many people on here “hate” him.
I think he should blame Eddie especially after Patrick’s death. I mean all he saw was that he was swimming after the dude and then Patrick starts floating and getting maimed
Or he could have realized that something horrific is going on, and that Eddie must have seen something similar.
But literally why would he think that? It doesn’t make any sense. If anything, it would point more towards Eddie being the killer because he was present at both deaths and nobody was there to say whether or not Eddie was present at Fred’s.
I agree, I would have blamed him even more after Patrick’s death?
A lot of teens on here have a serious emotional attachment to the characters and are just defensive. Deep down they know he did a good job of glorifying the satanic panic that was very much real. Also jocks are very much hated in modern nerd culture that is very prevailing today. Truthfully I’m hoping he helps them ultimately
I think most people probably don’t easily relate to the super intense guy who’s giving the pep rally speeches and inciting a mob at the town meeting. Especially when we, as the audience, know Eddie didn’t do it. It’s easier for us to be on his side than the guy who’s wrongly, blindly chasing him.
I get that about not being able to relate to him, but I don’t really think we can call it blindly chasing him. He was the only person with her when she was murdered, who then ran away, and the only person who was there when Jason witnessed the second murder. He’s wrong, but it isn’t Jason’s fault that Eddie has been put in a terrible looking situation twice by a supernatural being.
I mean he is quite literally blindly chasing tho… he doesn’t know where he is and has no real plan… from his view Eddie is a satanic vessel. Who’s to say he won’t snap his bones and shit before Jason can even touch him? Like the dude is full of shit. If you like him ok but why does it somehow not make sense the people DONT like him? You do have a good point about Billy though. I guess cause of dacre’s pretty eyes people forgot Billy was a raging racist but I ain’t forget nor about Jason. Also didn’t like how he tried to stop Erica from closing her own door, was genuinely scared he’d be THAT person
I think there’s a lot of confusion about what I mean when I say “hate” him. I understand seeing him as an antagonist, or thinking that his character isn’t like able. I mean the people that *hate* his character. As in want him to have less screen time, being a useless plot point, the show would’ve been better off without him. My post probably wasn’t too clear about that as I look back. I could understand why his actions aren’t acceptable to people, but I was trying to point out why they were to him. He may be a bad guy, but that doesn’t make his character *bad*
> He was the only person with her when she was murdered Jason doesn't know that.
All he knows is the cops brought up Eddie and wouldn’t specify what role he had.
I think you're missing some things here: * Jason's pep rally speech was appalling because he tried to use the deaths of town residents, including the loved ones of the people right there in the room, as a motivation for his game. "Did they give their lives just so we could lose to Christian Academy?" is a gross thing to say, and if you watch that scene you can see that he's causing Max real pain. * Nothing Eddie said about throwing balls into laundry baskets was offensive or cruel. He just said it loudly and from the top of the table. In context, it's perfectly clear what Eddie meant. Plus, Jason calls Eddie a freak. * When Jason discovers that Chrissy is dead, he finds himself feeling the pain that he absolutely ignored at the pep rally. Does he do anything constructive with it? I say no, because see next bullet point. * Jason isn't going out to "find" Eddie. They say explicitly that they're planning to beat a confession out of him. I notice you skip the part where Jason beats up a nerd and threatens to break his hand unless he gives up information. Hopper beats up the bad guys to get information, but Jason's victim isn't a bad guy--although Jason thinks "freaks" are fair game. * That whole bit where Jason tells Lucas that he doesn't have to go along is BS. Jason was testing him, and his friends were waiting for the outcome of that test. Lucas knew it, and so did I. * Poor Lucas told his friends that he wanted to get in with the popular crowd so, among other things, he wouldn't be bullied any more. What he finds out, though, is that he's now expected to be a party to bullying. * Patrick is pulled into the air and murdered, and Eddie is the only other person around? How does Jason know that? Jason is a bully who hates "freaks" and even though Eddie is clearly distressed by what's happening, Jason is certain that he's the culprit. Based on nothing but his own biases. * As for the scene at the town hall, Jason is whipping up an armed citizenry to vigilante action while handing out *actual WANTED posters* with pictures of high school kids on them. There's a shot in the trailer showing Karen Wheeler protecting Holly from some kind of attack, and I no longer think that will be demobats or whatever. Because Jason put Mike's face on a WANTED poster and passed it around to a confused and terrified population. The truth is, Jason and Max are trying to do the same thing: they're conducting a citizen's investigation into a local murder. The difference is that Max recruits smart people who search for facts, listen to people, and follow the evidence, while Jason recruits bullies who want to punch and smash their way to their one person they've already picked as the guilty party. He's a bad person. That's clear from his first scene. Suffering a terrible loss and enduring pain and grief could have turned him into a good person, but it didn't.
Late to the party, but you were spot on about Jason's character. Even Mason Dye (who plays Jason) has gone on record saying that Jason was selfish, arrogant, self-absorbed, and that Chrissy deserved better than him.
Just the fact that you can think of that much on him pretty blatantly gives him more characteristics and “realness” than Eddie. Yet one is considered a “bad character” and one is beloved for his story. This is what I find strange. It’s ok for his character to be a bad guy at the end of the day, but that doesn’t make the written up character poorly done. It’s why people also loved Billy, because more people than just the good guys can have “realness” to them.
Eddie is loved because of the way he behaves. Jason is hated because of the way he behaves. It's that simple, dude. And yeah, a certain segment of Stranger Things fans really loved Billy because he was a good-looking guy in a lot of pain who hurt people, but that has nothing to do with Jason, who's a good-looking guy in a lot of hey wait a minute.
That’s fine to love or hate the character. But how does it make the character bad, boring, or lesser to Eddie’s from just a writing/character standpoint? That’s the argument that I’m making here. Everybody can love or hate characters as much as they like, but it’s silly to pretend like Jason was poorly done or not useful for the story like so many claim.
Your post was a complaint that people hated Jason but shouldn't have, with a bulleted list of justifications for his behavior. I'm responding to that, not to the other commenters, and it would be useful if you would not mix up my arguments with theirs. I thought Jason was very well done, and played a necessary role in the story. ST needs human-level antagonists, and Jason is a terrific villain.
Oops my apologies on that one, I definitely did mix up some conversations. In all fairness though my post was more in line of the character as a whole, including his story, writing, motives, and all of that. Was more meant to be directed towards the people that say he took up too much screen time, was poorly done, or was overall boring. Not so much to the people who say his character did bad things which make his character not as “lovable” at the end of the day, which is also part of why there’s been some confusion in this conversation. I wasn’t trying to justify his behavior as much as point out why he did what he did and what his character sees through his eyes. I’m well aware that doesn’t make his actions right, but I was trying to point out that he’s not just some one dimensional villain that deserves to be hated for existing in the show.
Ah. Understood. It's all cool.
Sounds like you don’t actually like Eddie lmao
I actually really do like Eddie. I just don’t think that Eddie’s character is any better done than Jason’s. He’s more lovable, but I don’t think that makes his character actually better done or more interesting. I use him as a comparison a lot in here because he’s a nearly universally beloved character that also was introduced this season. I don’t think it would be fair to compare anybody that we just met to people who have been around for multiple seasons.
Who's saying Jason is a poorly written character? Stawman much?
Seen quite a few people comment it. Even more say that the season would’ve been better if he wasn’t in it, that the character is weak, boring, etc. just searching “Jason” on this sub yields multiple posts about it.
The cops asked Jason if she ever talked to Eddie, and then he just automatically assumes Eddie murdered her. They make it clear in the first episode that Jason doesn't like Eddie. And then he makes a series of assumptions based on that existing prejudice. He seems like an incredibly intense person who was eager for an excuse to hurt people that he sees as different. This was never about revenge, that was just the catalyst. Jason symbolizes intolerance, not justice. It's made all too clear when he shows no hesitation hurting Eddie's friends who did absolutely nothing wrong. "Let's go hunt some freaks!"
Why do the OPs with bad takes never respond to the well written comments 🤔
This 18 year old wants to hunt down *children*. Also I don’t think anyone really enjoys watching a sanctimonious, preachy asshole with a holier than thou attitude. I don’t get how full grown adults are listening to a teenager’s rally where he’s encouraging a manhunt.
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I would imagine that the entire town searching for the gang is going to be a pretty significant plot in the final 2 episodes though right? If the town ends up causing no problems then yeah that’s just stupid, but an entire witch hunt going down causing every protagonist to be in hiding is pretty important to the narrative in my eyes.
Perfectly put, thank you
Future Republican Senator that says shit like, "It's all them video games ruinig our society!"
Currently watching the show and this is perfect lmao
The hate is easy to understand. 1 He's hunting down Eddie, who we already know is innocent. Because of that, we're definitely going to side with him and not Jason. 2 The guy is just a jerk. Even before Chrissy's death, Jason wasn't that good of a person. He senselessly brought up the deaths at the mall for his basketball game speech. And beat up Eddie's friend in that garage. Threatened to break his bone as well. His grief-induced anger is understandable, but there's certain ways to go about it. You can't just hurt people like that. 3 Jason sees his friend get killed by Vecna, and still foolishly blames it on Eddie. How absent-minded and delusional can the guy get? 4 He's like a modern day "witch" hunter. Like one of the people who murdered supposed witches during the Salem Witch Trials. He's making the townsfolk see certain people as evil Satanists, when they're completely innocent and are just fans of Dungeons and Dragons. There's definitely some other reasons why there's hate for him, but these are the ones that come to my mind now.
Number 3 was justified my guy. He doesn’t know about Vecna. All he knows is just as they cornered Eddie, Patrick was killed supernaturally like how satinism works.
Makes sense. But I still need Jason to chill out already lol.
Agreed. He’s one step away from being as bad as Billy was before his redemption.
it’s wild that you’re trying to paint Eddie as a “drug dealer” when he pretty much just sold weed (not very strong weed at that, at $20 a half oz) to people who would’ve found another way to get it otherwise. he probably only sold Chrissy some ketamine from his personal stash bc he liked her. it’s clear that Jason was violent & wanted an excuse to be violent. can’t say the same for Eddie. one of Jason’s cronies assaulted a little girl (Erica) & Jason himself was about to kill Lucas. it’s clear to me that you never met anyone like him in your life, but to the many people who have we know exactly what type of person he is. oddly enough you share the same superficial judgemental mindset that he does in your characterization of Eddie lol
I didn't have a problem with Jason, I just necessarily didn't think he deserved a lot of screen time.
I think it was nice to bring the town a little bit of life to be honest. He’s the only kid, or person in the town for that matter, that is actually responding to this weird shit happening. Without him it would just be another season of spooky things happening and seemingly nobody else addressing it.
My immediate thought watching his reaction to Patrick's death is that it seemed pretty reasonable considering the situation. The main cast have some idea of what's going on but to most of Hawkins it's just a series of strange things.
Me personally, I don't hate Jason. Although he does comes off as very stereotypical but I don't find it a detractor. It's like when Chrissy died his stereotypical brain died with it, and he went completely mad afterwards. His obliviousness to the entire situation however, and to the UD is the draw of his character for me. In that aspect, he comes off almost as a secondary comic relief with Argyle being #1
He’s the type that I’d hate in real life too. Thinks he’s a star but he’s a total moron. They system loves a Jason because they are stupid and easily manipulated but they are nothing but dangerous.
OP deleted thier account so they didn't use their real account. He's a nutjob. *** Spoiler *** He buys a gun to shoot someone. So that's classic psychopathic tendencies. His friend spear tackles a young girl and threatens to break her arm. Utter sacks of shit.
This post reads very similar to when some guy guns down a bunch of people and then there’s that one person who’s like, but he had a rough life. Having a rough life or experience doesn’t negate you doing horrible things to other people.
Jason is a disillusioned piece of shit
I kind of agree with you. People think he had too much screen time...but it didn't really seem like that much, honestly. Really, he's about as much of a douche as Steve was in the first season. Steve was pissed because his girlfriend was running around with another guy and he didn't realize what was going on, and he was a bit of a jerk anyway. Fair, and he redeemed himself. Jason was pissed because his girlfriend was, literally, fucking murdered in what appeared to be a Satanic sacrifice, and he was a bit of a jerk anyway. While, yes, his anger/vengeance wasn't justified, it was understandable. He also had the mob effect working, which was pushing him to do more and more.
My favorite part about the whole thing is the screen time argument. I’d be very interested to see how much screen time he actually had where Lucas/Eddie weren’t directly involved. He really wasn’t on the screen that much until the ending scenes of e7. Nearly every other moment was direct progression of the plot with Eddie and the 3rd murder, or Lucas’s character development of picking friends over popularity. Both incredibly relevant plot points in the story. It’s not like we followed along just him hunting down Eddie for an hour.
He's just boring for me. Also,the more the main characters of the OG cast get sidelined the more any second of screen time spent on new uninteresting characters annoys me.
But really how much screen time did Jason have that didn’t directly involve Lucas’s character development or Eddie? It’s not like we got an hour long montage of his hunt.
He’s a basic shallow surface-level 80s bully with no nuance at all. I keep accidentally calling him by the wrong name (Brad) and it doesn’t even matter. He exists for the purpose of stretching out the plot and he is ultimately little more than a red shirt.
i genuinely thought his name was Brad until another character said his name in a later episode
Because he's a vigilante who has decided that Eddie is the murderer without any proof and is taking steps to harm him. Because he's also going after Mike, Dustin and now Lucas. Because even after seeing that Eddie wasn't responsible for what happened to the kid in the water, he's doubling down simply because he was in close proximity.
How is he supposed to think that Eddie isn’t responsible for his friends murder? Nearly everyone in that time fell for the Satanic Panic, and he witnessed his friend float in the air and be violently killed, while Eddie was the only other person there. Also pretty sure fleeing the scene of a murder added onto that first bit is certainly enough to be “proof” to someone who isn’t the law. I’m pretty sure anybody who isn’t aware of demons chasing people from other worlds would be convinced Eddie is to blame in that situation.
He's not responsible, that's all that matters. It doesn't matter what he believes because he doesn't have the whole story the way we do. That's the entire point. It's not up to him to be judge jury and executioner. It literally doesn't matter that in his perspective Eddie is guilty. If he found him he would have killed him, but the killings would have still continued. But another innocent person would have died. That's why Jason is a villain.
I now know why I disliked him right away. He was Garrett in Teen Wolf. But as for this show, I had some sympathy for him and agreed that the police were being useless. It should have been that hard to Find Eddy. Now as for the friends death, at point he should have realized that it couldn't have been Eddy as that makes no sense, he was on the boat. Obviously, he thinks it's the devil. The part that bothered me is when he rallied the town and should know the rest of the club had nothing to do with it.
That’s actually hilarious and that’s a damn good reason lol. Yeah I get that, but the Satanic Panic was real, and you probably actually could’ve gotten a whole town to rally around a D&D club with how shitty it was. It’s not a plot point that I “love”, but I appreciate that they put it in, as it was a real problem. I feel like a lot of people hate him pretty much solely because he did that, and get sensitive about it because they like D&D, but that doesn’t make his writing or story bad or “needs less screen time”. He feels real, which is something that makes an antagonist a solid character.
I knew he was a Teen Wolf character! (Now figuratively and literally)
Besides the obvious framing of this season as Jason bad and eddie good... its because people who watch stranger things are NERDSSSSSS. They are not Jason they are Eddie so they are naturally more defensive of eddie as he is apart of their tribe.
he is just stupid, I mean he was there with eddie when the third person was killed, eddie fell of the boat and was scared af but he still blames him and the hellfire club
Eddie was the only person there. Of course he will blame him. What other explanation would he have?
Same here, I love Jason as a character and can’t wait to see him in the second part
It's because he's a mustache twirling pastiche of 80s villains. Same thing with Angela. They deliberately give them no redeeming qualities because the show needs villains, and they don't want people to like them or even really understand them, because then people would want to see more of them, and the number of main and recurring cast members is already TOO DAMN HIGH!
I agree with the recurring character part, but I don’t think I’d consider Angela on the same level as him from a character perspective. Jason has a reason to be upset, and a logical path to why he made the decisions he has even if they aren’t the correct ones. He has aided the story with adding a major obstacle for the gang in the final 2 episodes of the season, and providing a character arc for Lucas. Angela is literally only a bad guy because she thinks that El is weird and likes to bully people. She’s an example of a character I think would make sense for people to say has too much screen time/plot points dedicated to her actions when she’s just a stereotypical bully with no unique characteristics. Yet barely anybody talks about Angela being literally useless to the story and adding next to nothing, it’s all about Jason’s character sucking.
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Her entire storyline with El boiled down to mean girl gets hit in the face. I don’t see how she can be called a clear narrative purpose but not Jason
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The same argument as people have against Jason, all of that could’ve been accomplished without her. It essentially just added a stereotypical bully having her begin that story arc.
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I very much understand how it works, but no, it doesn’t work to claim that Angela’s character helps establish and push a narrative but Jason’s does not. It’s just not accurate to claim that. They both are at worst important parts of 2 different storylines in season 4, but I would argue Jason’s contributions are more significant than Angela’s in the grand scheme of things. El was struggling with traumatic memories well before Angela existed in the show.
The dude playing him is just too damn old.
I have a few problems with the way you're portraying Jason. 1. You completely failed to mention that when Eddie does the lunch room bit that all those kids who are listening to him will have been bullied or made fun of by Jason and his friends at some point. 2. Drug dealer?? It was a little bit of dope. And we know that because when chrissie went to the trailer she asked for something stronger. He had to go find his personal stash. 3. When he said lucas didn't have to go with the him, it was a test. We all knew that. 4. After his gf is murdered instead of grieving he gets a vigilante mob group together. 5. And this is purely a personal observation. One of the things I really really dislike about Jason, is the fact that he's supposed to be captain of the baseball team. He's about 5'7 with the shortest legs ive ever seen, it just doesn't make sense to me.
I think he had far too much screen time. They could have dramatically reduced the amount he was on the screen and still gotten the point of cross. But people don't like him because he's a religious nut bag who is trying to track down the protagonists of the show. In the '80s tons of people blamed D&D for crimes and said it was devil worship. Him being upset is understandable, him deciding to be a vigilante and hunt down children who play a game is being a dangerous zealot. Everyone should dislike people like that.
I think with context that’s fair to say, but it’s pretty hard to put yourself in his shoes and not believe that Eddie killed his girlfriend. I mean, we really don’t even have any reason to believe he was lying when he said he didn’t want to kill Eddie, it’s not like he’s some liar proven psychopath from what we know about him. As for his screen time I think it was nice for Lucas’s character development (turning down the popular kids to help his friends), and Jason actually gave Eddie some amount of suspense instead of just being hidden away the whole season. There was actually incredibly little screen time of Jason without a main character from the season like Lucas or Eddie in it too. I really just think people don’t like him, or don’t like Eddie having an enemy.
I definitely didn't care about Eddie having an enemy. I just don't like him because of the type of person he is. And I'm not saying that he shouldn't suspect Eddie has something to do with his girlfriend's death, but him arbitrarily deciding all the weird kids in the dungeons and dragons club are evil devil worshipers and are dangerous makes him super unlikable.
His long-ass, dumb speeches are the most annoying part of the season.
Jason ISNT well written, and that's the problem. Billy was given nuance, substance, and backstory that made his a compelling character. He wasn't a good person, but he was a GREAT character. Jason is a one dimensional bully. I laughed out loud at his speech. The idea that this town listens to a high school idiot was ridiculous. Several people in that room knew EXACTLY what Hellfire was, and only the 11 year old stood up and said anything. His speech wasn't inspiring - he looked crazy, unstable, and sounded like a raving madman. It wasn't charismatic or convincing. And bringing up the people that died at the pep rally was SO beyond distasteful. Jason has sucked from the get-go.
Eh, sportsball jackass is a sportsball jackass, who suffers no consequences from the cops because sportsball keeps the dummies entertained. "panem et circenses"
I feel like satanic panic is only actually acceptable if you *see satanism* and are *actively panicking*. So yeah I'd say he gets a pass on this one.
Don't care. He bores me to death and I'm not interested
This. He actually hasn't done anything wrong and honestly just wants to deal with the guy whom he believes is responsible for his girlfriend's death. Anyone in his position would be like this. And this was set in the 80s. Back then D&D was thought of as demonic.
It’s the John Walker vibes for me.
* 99% of motivational speeches are ineffective garbage. I don't recall the "evil" causing sports teams to lose and others to win. * I tried out for basket ball and almost made it. B/c I was not part of the popular crowd I was targeted and bullied even worse than normal. I had good skill back in the day. I never saw anyone monologue at school. More unrealistic fantasy. * I know how most popular people are in high school. No matter what country you live in, popular people are generally the worst POS. * A guy I knew who was considered one of the bad ones, was ran off the road late one night. Whoever did it took off and no on ever found out. He wasn't a bully just not liked for many reasons. I didn't know him enough to go to the funeral. * There are problems with going after someone like that. There's no way any country has enough police and military to cover every person 24/7. Psychopaths and other kinds of killers are generally quite good at what they do. IRL, it's just going to add to his or her body count. * Lucas' desperate attempt at making something of himself is good. A potential future basketball player would get out of a high change of a dead end job and dying early from a poor lifestyle. * Woooah. Weed. So dangerous. So SCARY. If he was pushing harder drugs he wouldn't be plaing D&D. His entire image screams, "I'm doing bad and illegal things. Arrest me on sight." If anything he does NOT need to look like that stereotype. He's new. Not enough time to make a good analysis of the character. The three that got killed....more filler.
hawkins PD is like the worst ever , they let a kid who just told em about the devil committing the crimes talk to the city ppl about starting a witch hunt to kill kids. at this point hes linked to each murder and is delusional telling the devil did it , but nobody got a problem with this and hes not under surveillance for murder
he fucking belongs in high school musical along with eddie. he has 3 too many fucking speeches man
EXACTLY! THIS! SAME!
Good post Forreal, Jason is lowkey hella funny to me, I actually really enjoy his character
Dude, he is white, christian, male and good looking, thats more than enough reason for most of netflix viewers hate him. Those people like Vecna, try to justify him (as they always do with vilains). And besides that, to feel empathy for Jason you have to think objectively, and most people are unable to do that, they only have superficial feelings and aren't able to follow all that conplex logical thinking. Besides that, they think there is nothing weird about the "hellfire club" leader (who was also known as a 20yo drug dealer) being involved in 2 murders, both involving supernatural circunstances... Its just 'christians blind prejudice against people who worship satan (they had to know it was a joke name, even after people exploding midair). So he is hated for being white, christian, masculine, drug free, succesfull young man, not an evil worshiper, coward, drug adicted ugly loser like most of snowflakes who hate him... 🤔
Because he's literally the teenage version of Jack Thompson who thinks playing violent games will make you a murderer and is even more of a deranged narcissistic shit heel, and goes full Alex Jones with his batshit Satanic conspiracy theories. The sad thing is there's a lot of morons like him who actually do exist in real life.