Troy & James

Troy and James are minor antagonists in Season 1 of the Netflix series Stranger Things. They are cruel bullies who attended Hawkins Middle School in November 1983, and especially liked to make fun of and often beat up Dustin Henderson and Mike Wheeler, as well as Will Byers and Lucas Sinclair, though not as much as Dustin and Mike.

The two friends make their first appearance in Episode 1, "The Vanishing of Will Byers", where at the beginning of school, they confront Lucas, Mike, and Dustin, who Troy referred to as "Midnight", "Frogface", and "Toothless", respectively, and joked which of the three would make more money in a freakshow, which James chose Dustin, who then had to once again explain his cleidocranial dysplasia which caused his lack of baby teeth; the two then forced Dustin to flex his arms forward due to his dysplasia, which disgusted Troy and James as they laughed and walked off.

In Episode 3, "Holly, Jolly", the two bullies once again confronted Mike, Dustin, and Lucas at a playground, where Troy laughed and said that his father said that Will was dead, and that he was killed by another queer. Mike tried walking away, but Troy tripped him, which resulted in Mike cutting his chin. Troy and Jame high fived each other and walked away.

In Episode 4, "The Body", as an assembly was being held for Will, as everyone believed he was dead, Troy and James cruelly made fun of his death, which caught the attention of Mike and Eleven. Mike confronted Troy in front of everyone in the gym, and Troy and James say they were laughing because grief shows itself in funny ways, and that Will was in fairyland now with all the other fairies, all happy and gay. An upset Mike pushed Troy to the ground; Troy tried retaliating by running towards Mike, about to beat him up, only to stop dead in his tracks and pee himself thanks to Eleven's telekinesis; everyone laughs at a shocked Troy before they all leave, even his friend James leaves Troy there.

In Episode 6, "The Monster", Troy and James had tracked Mike and Dustin to the woods near Hawkins, where Troy pulled out a switchblade and he and James chased after them. They eventually caught them at the quarry where Troy held Dustin at knifepoint, demanding to know how they made Troy pee himself; yet he didn't believe that their friend Eleven caused it with her mind. Troy then decided it was Mike's turn to wet himself by jumping into the quarry and killing himself, or else he would cut out Dustin's teeth. At this point, even James didn't agree with Troy that this was a good idea. Mike jumped; Troy let go of Dustin, and they along with James ran toward the cliff, and to their shock saw Mike floating, before he was lifted up to the ground next to the three. Eleven appeared and used her telekinesis to push James to the ground; Troy once again pulled out his knife, and Eleven broke his arm with her mind control. She told them to go, and they ran as Dustin yelled at them they better not mess with them again or else Eleven would kill them.

In Episode 7, "The Bathtub", a few hours after having his arm broken, Troy and his mother are at Hawkins Police Station giving an alternate version of what happened (it's unknown where James is), where the latter is accusing Officers Callahan and Powell of humiliating her son by saying a little girl had broken his arm. Chief Hopper wanted the officers to make a statement before he left to keep talking to Jonathan and Nancy, but stopped dead in his tracks when Troy stated that the girl who broke his arm had no hair. Knowing this is probably the girl he's looking for, Hopper questioned Troy, who said she can make people fly and piss themselves (Powell found this funny); he then told Hopper that she hangs out with Mike, Dustin, and Lucas, which is how he'll find the boys as well as Eleven. It's unknown what happened to Troy after this.