Jonathan Byers

Jonathan Byers is one of the deuteragonists of the franchise.
He is the first son of Joyce Byers, and the older brother of Will Byers, who goes missing in Hawkins, Indiana. Jonathan succeeds in finding his brother with the help of his mother, Nancy Wheeler, Will's friends, Jim Hopper, Eleven. In the second season, Jonathan helps Nancy expose Hawkins National Laboratory, and helps his family and friends free Will from the Mind Flayer's influence. In the third season, Jonathan and Nancy become interns at the Hawkins Post, and assisted their allies in dealing with the Mind Flayer's attempt to destroy their world. After the Flayers' defeat in the Starcourt mall, the Byers moved out of Hawkins to California to stay safe from the Upside Down.
He is portrayed by , who also portrayed Cannonball in The New Mutants.
==Biography==
===Background===
Jonathan was born in 1967 to Lonnie and Joyce Byers and is the older brother to Will Byers. In his youth, Jonathan would go hunting with his father, but when he was forced to kill a rabbit, he cried for a whole week. Jonathan states that his parents loved each other once, but he wasn't around for it (hinting that their marriage had fallen apart around the time of his birth).
Eventually, Lonnie left the family, leading to Jonathan to become a role model for his younger brother. Jonathan states that when Lonnie left, he and Will stayed up the whole night building Castle Byers, and created it the way Will drew it. When it started to rain, the brothers continued, and the two got sick because of it.
Jonathan appears to have a strong dislike for his father, who would often bully Will and used profanity to describe him. Also, there is a possibility that Lonnie despites Jonathan, and sees him as weak when he cried upon killing a rabbit. Lonnie also knows that his family hates him, and retaliates by spiting them, and not maintaining a relationship with them.
According to his mother, Jonathan wanted to go to New York University since he was six years old. Besides, Jonathan had a love for photography and music, and created a mixtape for Will, with a Clash Single being one of his favorites. He also appears to be a fan of horror films, as he as a poster of The Evil Dead, and presumably a fan of David Bowie and the French poet, Arthur Rimbaud (as he had a poster of the two together).
Around 1983, Jonathan was working to help his mother get more cash in for the family. He also attended Hawkins High School and was often bullied by Steve Harrington, and his friends, Tommy H. and Carol. It's assumed they did so due to the Byers' family is known in the town, and because they considered Jonathan an outcast at the school.
===Season One===
On November 6, Jonathan decided to cover Eric's shift so that he and his family could get the extra cash. That night, Will mysteriously disappeared, and Jonathan blamed himself, as he believed that he could stay at home with him. Jonathan created missing posters for Will and made photocopies that he placed all over town. His desperation to find his brother led him to leave Indiana to his father's home, where Will was nowhere to be found.
Jonathan spent an entire day in the woodlands, taking pictures in an attempt to capture evidence relating to Will's disappearance. He eventually got distracted, and started taking pictures of Steve's party, and took photos of Nancy Wheeler in her undergarments. Also, Jonathan unknowingly took a picture of Barbara Holland at Steve's pool, with a creature behind her. She was taken by the creature, but Jonathan didn't notice since he was adjusting his camera.
The next day, Jonathan developed the phots in the Hawkins High darkroom, but the photos were caught by Nicole. Jonathan ran away with them but was confronted by Steve and his friends, who were informed by Nicole of what the pictures held. Tommy and Carol noted the nude pictures of Nancy and called Jonathan a stalker before Steve ripped them apart, and broke his camera. While picking up parts of his camera, Nancy collected the ripped photos of Barbara before she returned to the group.
When hearing a discovery at a local quarry, he learned that they had found the body of Will. Driving there, he found his mother in the middle of the road, and the two embraced each other, heartbroken over the loss of Will. While Chief Jim Hopper consoled Joyce, she went on a rant on how Will was in the walls, and that she saw an animal with no face, causing both him and Jonathan to believe that she was hysterical. The next day, the family went to the coroner's to see the body, but Joyce refused to believe that Will was dead, and stated that a causing Jonathan to accuse her of losing her mind.
Jonathan went to a coffee shop, where Nancy found him and told him that she saw something in the photo of Barb. Jonathan believes that it could have been a perspective distortion, but Nancy revealed that saw something with no face. Jonathan realized that his mother said she saw the same thing and decided to help Nancy uncover what was going on. At Will's funeral, Jonathan and Nancy agreed to meet up later in the woods to find the creature. In the woods, Jonathan took his father's gun, and the two practiced shooting. While there, Jonathan and Nancy talked about the photos and eventually argued.
After dark, the two decided to mercifully put down a wounded deer, but it was captured by an unseen creature. Nancy entered the Upside Down after following a blood trail and saw the creature before escaping by the help of Jonathan. Traumatized by the experience, Nancy had Jonathan sleepover, and the two discussed the monster's nature and animals the next day.
The two bought weapons to face off the monster again but came across Steve and his friends in an alley. Nancy saw the obscene words Steve had written on a theater, and she confronted him. Steve revealed that he saw them sleeping together, assuming that they had sex, but she attempted to tell him that he misunderstood. Steve proceeded to mock Jonathan, stating that he was just a little screwup like his father, and stated that wasn't surprised what happened to his brother. This caused a fistfight to spring out between Jonathan and Steve, and ended when the cops arrive, arresting the former and confiscating the weapons. Jonathan and Nancy were asked by Hopper and Joyce to help them find Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and test subject Eleven. They all assembled as the Byers home and decided to build a makeshift tank for Eleven to locate Will and Barb. The group then broke into Hawkins High School, and collected de-icing salt, and learned that Will was alive, as Barb was dead.
Jonathan and Nancy broke from the group to lure the monster to the Byers' residence, but Steve came to apologize. The trio fought against the monster and was successful in maiming it until it returned to the Upside Down. The creature was destroyed by Eleven but sacrificed herself to save the others from it. One month later, Jonathan came to pick up Will from the Wheeler's home but was given a gift and kiss from Nancy. While in the car, Will opened the gift to learn that it was from Steve, a new camera to make amends for breaking his previous one. At home, Jonathan tested out the camera, taking pictures of his mother.
===Season Two===
In 1984, Jonathan was close friends to Nancy and Steve and was still attending high school when he was handed a flyer by Tina to her Halloween party. Despite Nancy's attempts to make him go to the party, he refused. The next morning, Jonathan took a picture of Will dressed in his ghostbusters costume and decided to let Will trick-r-treat by himself, as he went to Tina's party. There, he met and spoke with Samantha before Steve asked Jonathan to take an intoxicated Nancy home (with Steve being upset that Nancy revealed that she didn't have feelings for him).
The next day, Nancy asked Jonathan for what happened at the party and confided to him that she was tired of pretending nothing happened last year. She also wanted to expose Hawkins for what they did, suffering from guilt for the loss of her friend Barb. Jonathan agreed and the two skipped school to buy Walkman's from a RadioShack. Nancy called Mrs. Holland to tell her she wasn't being honest about what happened to Barb and asked her to meet her at a park.
While waiting at the park, the two felt like they were being watched, and returned to the car. A couple of agents confronted them and took them to the lab to be interrogated. The two were introduced to Owens, who gave them a tour, and admitted that they are trying to fix the mistakes. After being warned to not say anything, they were allowed to leave, but Nancy revealed that she had everything he said on the Walkman. The duo followed the direction of Bauman's location and stayed in a hotel for the night, looking at each other's previous wound from last year. Nancy asked Jonathan where he was, as she waited for him until she began to date Steve again. Jonathan responded that she waited for a month and that he was busy watching over Will.
 The two spoke to Bauman, who stated that they didn't have enough evidence to close down the lab, telling them to make the piece more appealing to the public. The two decided to do so by altering the story that Barb died in a chemical leak from the lab and sent evidence placed in envelopes to the Chicago Times. Jonathan and Nancy finally began their romantic relationship and had sex, as Bauman deduced that the two had sexual tension, and should resolve it to work together.
After leaving Bauman's residence, the two returned to the Byer's residence and find it empty. The two found Will's drawing of the tunnels and decided to investigate the lab where they met Steve, Dustin, Lucas, and Max Mayfield. The group gained access to the lab, and met with Hopper, Joyce, and Will during a Demogorgon outbreak, with Bob sacrificing himself for the group to escape. The group managed to aid Eleven, and rid the Mind Flayer's influence over Will's body. On December 15, Jonathan and Nancy went to the Snow Ball together, and Jonathan took dance photos for the school.
===Season Three===
On June 28, Jonathan was up for work at the Hawkins Post with Nancy Wheeler when they were late for fifteen years because her mom got his check cleaned before he drove his car to work so they can't be late for work.
The next morning, he and Nancy went for a visit with Dr. Driscoll, he can be sure that he was shocked and surprised when they got suspended for three days when they were all alone because of them, they entered her house when they had their diseased rats because her husband Jack passed away 10 years ago. She went down to the basement when Nancy saw something weird happened with the rat when it got possessed and diseased. He took a photo of fertilizer and a diseased rat who got caught in a cage.
When Jonathan and Nancy collect all the pictures of the rat at the Hawkins posts when Tom and Bruce bring all the collection of a possessed rat who got flayed by the Mind Flayer till the weekend after that Nancy went for a speech before she went back. After she got coffee with her friends she gave proof to him, when she found a rubber rat for him, it was proof when the rat got sick yesterday before they can take it to an Animal Control Center. 15 years later back in Mrs. Driscoll's house they came back downstairs when she was possessed by the Mind Flayer when she was gobbling some dirt.
Jonathan and Nancy saw Mrs. Driscoll possessed by the Mind Flayer and was crying out loud saying she had to go back and took her to the hospital, she got scared when she was in the ambulance. But when Tom got flayed by the Mind Flayer, they got fired at the Hawkins Post. After they were fired they drove and talked about when Tom was on drugs if he was kind of incredible thing he got screwed. Despite this setback, Jonathan and Nancy learn from the party that the Mind Flayer has possessed several citizens in Hawkins, leading to the teenagers to realize that Mrs. Driscoll is a flayed herself. Going to the Holloway residence since Heather was turned, they find several containers of chemicals that have been consumed. Seeing a new behavior of the flayed to consume chemicals, the group deduce that the Holloway family have all been possessed. 
With Will proposing that they go to the hospital to find the source from Mrs. Driscoll, Jonathan and Nancy meet her but are attacked by a flayed Bruce Lowe and Tom. The two manage to defeat them, but Lowe and Holloway's corpses merge together to form a monster and continue their pursuit. Eleven uses her telekinetic ability to push the monster out of the hospital, and the group witness it escape to the sewers. Returning to the Starcourt mall, the group meet with the Scoops Troop, Joyce, Hopper and Bauman to form a plan to stop the Russians machine to close the gate. Byers assisted his allies in their plan, and Hopper "sacrificed" himself to have the machine be closed, thus stopping the Mind Flayer.
Afterward, the Byers adopt Eleven into the family following Jim's supposed death, and decide to leave Hawkins to California before having his farewell with Nancy.
===Season 4===
Moving to Lenora Hills, Jonathan, Will and Eleven attend the town's school, and the former befriends a stoner named Argyle. 
==Personality==
Jonathan showed himself to be intelligent, kind, but introverted and somewhat of an outcast (alongside his family in Hawkins). He also shows himself to be brave and independent, as he helped his mother by working to get more money, and aided Nancy in fighting off the Demogorgon. He has a close bond to his family, and very close to his brother Will, have helped him build Castle Byers the night of their parents' divorce. He has a great love of photography, often taking pictures in his spare time with his family and other things.
Jonathan is open-minded and believes that opinions matter, as he told Will that someone shouldn't like something because someone told them so. This even further extends to his friendship with Nancy, as her relationship with Steve deals with being part of the popular crowd. Jonathan shows himself to be dependable, as he always puts everything down to help others, notably helping his mother with money, and helping Nancy expose Hawkins Laboratory for what they did.
== Abilities ==
* High-Level Intelligence: Jonathan is shown to have an above-average level of intellect in planning out strategies, options, and tactics in desperate situations. When his brother went missing, he went in the woods to find any clues by taking photos of everything unusual he found and when Nancy asked for his help about her friend Barbra going missing after he edited her picture and saw that the creature known as the Demogorgon took her and Will into the Upside Down and planned to go after it. He used a map to mark all known areas the monster travels and knew it’s next current location then on the day after, Both he and Nancy went to a hunter store for tools and supplies to as a trap to destroy the Demogorgon in his house and took his mother’s advice that when the lights go off it would arrive, then when it got caught in the bear trap they set it on fire as their tactic which worked.
* Expert Photographer: As a hobby, Jonathan is an excellent camera photographer as he prefers to observe people instead of talking to them for he said when he captures the right moments, he could read them better. He snooks in the woods near Steve Harrington‘s and takes multiple photographs of everyone in the pool, Nancy and Steve were in his bedroom, including Barbra near the pool alone then edited all of them in perfect shape. He managed to get great pictures at a virus carrying rat before it exploded by the Mind Flayer.
*Skilled Investigator: Jonathan is very skilled, in doing detective work. He was capable to reconstruct a crime scene in Heather’s house by mind looking at the blood, chemicals, and materials around the scene of everywhere.
*Craftsmanship: When getting in preparation for setting up a trap for the Demogorgon, he took nails and hammered them to a baseball bat creating a spiked melee weapon to use against it with ease.
*Gunmanship: He has basic proficiency in wielding a firearm, as he used to go hunting with his father when he was 10 and shot a rabbit as his first kill.
*Hand-To-Hand Combatant: Jonathan is very skilled in using his bare fists in fighting against opponents in close combat. He demonstrated this ability when being provoked by Steve and punched him in his face, hits him harder after getting attacked a few times which caused him a concussion, and placed scars/bruises to his face. Jonathan defeats Steve in the process.
*Melee Weapon Proficiency: Jonathan is capable to wield melee weapons, any weapon used in direct hand-to-hand close-quarter combat just by putting his hands on ranging blunt, edged, or pointed materials. He quickly grabbed a flower vase to bash against Tom’s face which also affected Ben, then a pair of scissors to stab it in Tom’s neck lethality killing both them due to being Flayed by the Mind Flayer. And he was able to pierce through the Mind Flayer skin with an Axe with ease.
*Immense Human Durability: Jonathan has been shown to take several blows during battle. However, he tends to regroup and getting back into battle with ease. This is presented during his fight with former rival, Steve as well as his showdown with Tom Holloway and Bruce Lowe, once they became Flayed.
==Other Media==
===Dead by Daylight===
Johnathan makes an appearance in the game Dead by Daylight as an alternative skin for Steve Harrington.
==Quotes==
==Trivia==
*Jonathan and Steve are somewhat similar, as both their fathers were not likable people.
*He appears to have a soft spot for animals, as killing the rabbit as a child left him in sorrow for a week.
*Charlie Heaton is the second actor in the Stranger Things cast to play a superhero, as David Harbour played Hellboy in the titular 2019 film and Red Guardian in the 2021 Marvel Cinematic Universe film, Black Widow.
*He appears to have a love for the 1981 film, The Evil Dead, as he has a poster of it in his room.
*According to Stranger Things Worlds Turned Upside Down: The Official Behind-The-Scenes Companion, he is a member of the Photography Club, the School Newspaper, and the Yearbook Club.
*Since he was six years old, he has desired to attend New York University.
==External Links==
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