Barbara Holland/Nancy Wheeler

Pairing
Pairing:	Barbara Holland/Nancy Wheeler
Alternative name(s):	Bancy
Gender category:	Femslash
Fandom:	Stranger Things
Canonical?:	No
Prevalence:	Rare
Archives:
Other:	Barbara Holland & Nancy Wheeler (platonic)
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Barbara Holland/Nancy Wheeler, also known as Bancy, is the femslash pairing of Barbara Holland and Nancy Wheeler from Stranger Things.

Canon

Barbara and Nancy are best friends prior to the start of the series. While at Steve Harrington's house Nancy and Barb have a fight, causing Nancy to go outside by herself, leading to her being captured and killed by the Demogorgon. Nancy spends season 1 looking for Barb, and season 2 feeling guilty for Barb's death.

The Duffer Brother, creators of Stranger Things, on Barb's role in season 2:

Barb finally got her justice this season. Was that always planned, or was it in a response to the fan outpouring last season?

Ross: It’s hard to know. We had Barb’s parents and Nancy dealing with it long before this season; we were working on Season 2 long before that came out. It’s so hard to know how much effect it had, but we certainly wanted a big idea for this season to be the characters to be dealing with the trauma of what happened in the past. We wanted people to react realistically for that, and for someone like Nancy who feels guilty because she played a part in her best friend’s death, that’s not something you can just brush aside and get over in a year. So we needed her to be dealing with it. So that storyline was already set in motion by the time the Barb stuff came out which took us all completely by surprise. We were not expecting that.

- ‘Stranger Things’: Duffer Brothers on ‘Scarier’ Season 2, Justice for Barb and That Death (SPOILERS)

Fandom

Many in the fandom have argued that Barb is a queer coded character, and additionally that she has unrequited love for her best friend Nancy. A common joke among fans is that Barb is a queer character because she is deceased, following the bury your gays trope[1]. "Justice for Barb," became a common phrase.

Common Tropes in Fanworks

• Pastfic: focusing on Nancy and Barb's relationship before the beginning of the series
• Pining: one sided romantic relationship, usually Barb pining for Nancy
• Barb lives: Barb is not killed by the Demogorgon

• Barb/Nancy is a rarepair that sprung up due to Barb's status as Nancy's best friend and her sudden demise. Multi-pairing works involving Nancy Wheeler are fairly common, and her relationship with Barb may be explored along with her relationships with Steve Harrington and Jonathan Byers.

Example Fanworks

Fanart

Drawing & Illustration

• only on ep. 2 of stranger things but i’m kinda secretly hoping that barb and nancy pull a “girls like girls” move on steve and become girlfriends, ^{Archived version} by fanruodan (September 4, 2016)
• how it should have ended…, ^{Archived version} by crowzep (August 16, 2016)

Graphics, Manips, & Edits

• nancy and barb, ^{Archived version} by grimrhythms (Sep 6th, 2016)
• She’s missing and something terrible happened to her. I know it. I know it!, ^{Archived version} by dean-thomas (September 8, 2016)
• Pride Moodboards 4/? - Barbara Holland/Nancy Wheeler (Stranger Things), ^{Archived version} by ghost-grantaire (June 19th 2017)

Fanfiction

• Under Pressure (All Devils Here Now) by thatsarockfact55 (2016)
• Broken Glasses by AccioInvisibilityCloak (2016)
• i'll stop the world and melt with you by skywalkingsolo (2016)
• Over Burning Coals by estelraca

Archives & Fannish Links

• Barbara Holland/Nancy Wheeler works at AO3
• Tumblr Tags: Nancy x Barb, Barb x Nancy, Bancy
• Stranger Things Femslash's curated bookmark collection where Barb/Nancy are the focus