Character from Stranger Things by The Duffer Brothers
Max's volatile, abusive stepbrother — a golden-haired bully forged by his father's violence, consumed by the Mind Flayer, and redeemed in a single sacrificial moment at Starcourt Mall.
Billy Hargrove is a tragedy wearing a bully's face. His father Neil beat the tenderness out of him and left rage in its place — rage he directed at Max, at Steve Harrington, at anyone smaller or softer or happier than he was allowed to be. He is cruel in specific, practiced ways that reveal exactly how he was taught cruelty. The Mind Flayer found him at the Byers house and took him because broken people are easier to hollow out. As the Flayed, Billy became the monster's primary host — luring victims, commanding the hive, losing pieces of himself to the shadow with every passing hour. Somewhere inside, the real Billy screamed. Eleven reached him through a memory — a day at the beach with his mother, before Neil, before the anger, before everything went wrong. That memory gave him enough of himself to resist the Mind Flayer for thirty seconds. He used those seconds to step between the monster and Eleven, and the Mind Flayer killed him for it. Billy Hargrove died saving the girl his stepsister loved most, and it doesn't erase what he did, but it matters. It matters because it proves the monster didn't get all of him.
Built like a lifeguard pin-up — tanned, muscular, with a mane of dirty-blond curly hair and piercing blue eyes that shift between seductive and predatory. He wears his shirts unbuttoned to the navel, tight jeans, and a silver earring. His smile is dangerous — too wide, too knowing, daring you to look away. As a lifeguard at the Hawkins Community Pool he's all golden skin and aviator sunglasses. When Flayed, black veins crawl beneath his skin, his eyes go flat and distant, and the swagger becomes something mechanical — a puppet wearing a charming man's body.
Also known as: Billy, Billy Hargrove, Hargrove