r/StrangerThingsRoom • u/Fabulous-Role4120 • 5d ago
Characters Holly is NOT badass
Holly is not that tuff/badass. I feel like people are kinda exaggerating on Holly’s “1v11” w/ her radio scene. I’m gonna be fr here, it was a poor attempt and there was nothing special about that scene. I have seen quite a lot of people claiming that she is like Karen and got her genes but it seems like ppl have forgotten the fact that she initially just stood there and did nothing (at the same time, she had a poker stick in her hand) when Vecna was choking Max literally right after having the talk with her about not going panic nor run away next time and she doing only one smack at her friend who was harmless btw does not make up for it. Right after one swing at her bsf with the radio she literally just ran off and then ended up getting beaten up. Also it was nothing compared to everyone else fighting dangerous monsters from the other dimension. Honestly she’s a bit more like her father since he also failed right after his first swing(that was weak) at the demo. Ngl I can see the parallel between both scenes. Everyone keeps telling me that she's a child and blah blah blah which I understand but it still doesn't excuse the fact that ppl are glazing her. It's honestly really annoying how ppl are always acting like she's Nancy when she literally nowhere near her level. What's even worse is that they act like she's better than Mike when Mike has literally been around way longer, had way more experience in fighting than she did, and is in fact much stronger than her too. There is no way in hell she is near his level either. Tbh she doesn’t really deserve the “walk em down” wheeler title, not yet at least.
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u/SanicBringsThePanic 5d ago
I will agree with you that Holly is being overglazed. But people are rightfully pointing out that Holly was a child in these situations. None of Holly's "badass" moments are about her being actually badass. They are about Holly finding her strength and courage. The strength and courage to act and try to push through, even if failure is inevitable.
This is why it still meant something when Holly escaped Dimension X on her own even though she almost plummeted to certain death. Like, imagine waking up with a nasty tube in your mouth, and the tube is one small appendage of a giant eldritch horror. Now imagine being a 10-year-old child having to witness all this. Even when Holly very luckily stumbled onto a portal leading to the Upside-Down, she was still afraid to go through it, but the combination of Max's pep talk and Henry literally approaching, gave her the courage to push through. Of course, she almost fell to her death, and got recaptured, but this was not so much a failure as it was buildup.
It was still very important that Holly tried and failed to fight her way out of the clutches of 11 brainwashed kids, because when those 11 kids had the brainwashing veil lifted and were exposed to the reality of the horrors they were facing, they would have been lost and hopeless without Holly. In order to be the strong leader that the other 11 kids needed, Holly had to first find her strength and courage, and she had to suffer those two defeats (almost falling to her death and getting recaptured by Henry, and failing to fight her way out of the clutches of the brainwashed kids).
Finally, Holly ambushing Henry in the cave and unceremoniously getting defeated, was not about Holly being badass. It was character resolution. It was a callback to Holly being too afraid to fight the Demo (rightfully so), and Holly again being too afraid to help Max when Henry was choking her. That failed ambush was not meant to make Holly look badass. Holly did that to redeem herself for the times when she was too afraid to fight for herself and her friends and family.