i just want to say that if, in the future, i talk about mike’s queer coding or the subtext of mike’s queerness, i don’t want any of yall to think im giving the duffers ANY cookies for that writing. no fucking way bro, i’m giving myself those cookies for turning their weird ass straight boy self-insert into something actually genuinely interesting

me waiting for s5 of Stranger Things

me after watching s5 of Stranger Things

Now that the final episode has been released, we must confront an uncomfortable truth: the fact that Vecna never once attempted to weaken Will by exploiting his fears—including his homosexuality—renders the coming-out scene narratively unnecessary.

Will explicitly states that he chose to reveal his fears, to name them aloud through his coming out, so that Vecna could no longer weaponize them against him. This confession was framed as an act of reclaiming power. And yet, Vecna never uses this knowledge. Not once. There is no consequence, no narrative echo, no payoff. The promise collapses into silence.

This means that, from a storytelling perspective, the scene ultimately served only two purposes. First, to suggest that Will is “moving on” by reframing his feelings for Mike as a mere crush, reducing them to a childish infatuation—his so-called “Tammy.” A claim that rings false, because love does not evaporate in twenty-four hours. Second, to expose Will’s sexuality as spectacle, offering homophobic segments of the audience an open stage on which to mock him.

There was no reward for the vulnerability demanded of him. No narrative protection. No dignity.

This could have been an intimate coming-out scene—quiet, human, reverent—one that honored queer experiences rather than consuming them. Instead, it was staged as public theater: a performance played out before an audience, centered on a Will who is crying, apologetic, and visibly terrified. A boy laid bare, not held.

What makes this more disturbing is the reality behind the camera. Noah Schnapp was subjected to twelve hours of filming that forced him to tap into the deepest, most fragile parts of himself as a gay person—so deeply that he reportedly dissociated by the end. And yet, the creators later had the audacity to present this scene as a flawless example of progressive representation, proudly positioning themselves on the “right side.”

But this scene is, in fact, a perfect reflection of how Will’s arc—his feelings, his sexuality—has been treated all along: pure performance, concealing manipulation, steeped in heteronormativity and internalized homophobia. The emotions of a young gay man are exploited to prop up a heterosexual couple that was already narratively broken. Will’s love becomes an instrument of emotional and psychological torture, used against him until it culminates not in growth, but in humiliation.

And worst of all, this is where his personal arc ends.

He is denied reciprocity after being fed false hope—both as a character and as a mirror for the audience. His story is then summarized in a hollow epilogue image: Will in a gay bar, paired with a generic boyfriend, as if that alone were fulfillment. As if his soul were not better reflected in an art school classroom, or a museum, or any space that resonated with his sensitivity, his creativity, his inner life.

The Duffers dared to reduce Will to this: a martyr who never attains what he desires most—not only love, but mutual love—and the sole gay character of the series.

Mike, too, is hollowed out. Reduced to nothing more than Eleven’s obsessed boyfriend, despite never behaving that way throughout the season. His trauma is ignored, his complexity erased, his character flattened, retroactively rewritten so that all his emotional turbulence since season three is never explained. A convenient simplification that discards years of nuance.

The fact that most of the strongest Byler-centered episodes since season two—and Volume 1 itself—were not written by the Duffers, while Volume 2 and the finale were, stands as damning evidence to me. Evidence that the Duffers are, at best, mediocre writers who have reaped praise built on the labor of others—the true storytellers behind the series’ most compelling, layered, and human moments.

What remains is a story that asks queer characters to bleed for symbolism, to suffer for aesthetics, and to disappear once their pain has served its purpose. A story that calls this progress.

But progress does not look like this.

i’ve played these games before

rare aesthetic: closeted gay men mourn for their lost potential with the love of their lives

This post is so funny because Eddie and Jack are dead and Will is upstairs eating lasgna

one thing I’m not seeing anybody talking about is that there was literally no payoff for will’s coming out scene. like it didn’t help him in the final battle, it didn’t explicitly make him stronger, and vecna didn’t even try to use his queerness against him so like…why did the duffers make him come out in the first place if there was gonna be no payoff? kinda feels weird and homophobic and like they were just trying to please bylers so they put together a shitty impersonal coming out scene and said “here damn”

Oh, no, I hear you on this. They deliberately framed it as something Will needed to say in order to take away the only weapon Vecna had to break his mind. It makes no sense that it wouldn't come back up. The Duffers even said in an interview that Will that that to keep himself safe "or, at least, that's the hope" or something like that.

Then they just do nothing with it. Will basically walks in and takes over the hivemind again.

It's just another suspicious thing about season 5, particularly the finale. Something just doesn't add up here.

Something really weird as well is that in the documentary trailer (I think?) there's a writer's board on which they wrote a confrontation between the MindFlayer and Will that did not happen...???

I don't understand. I really don't...??? What is going on...

This right here.

This pisses me off if nothing more comes.

I have been waiting years for Will to confront the Mindflayer. But all he really did in the finale was try, and fail, to bring Henry back to the light, and then help El kill him.

just gonna leave this here

i genuinely cannot overstate how jarring mike’s character derailment is in volume 2 and the finale. it’s not just a writing choice i disagree with, it’s a structural collapse. the duffers spent four seasons building a very specific emotional language around mike: loyalty, protectiveness, emotional intuition, and a narrative function tied directly to will’s arc. then suddenly, in the final stretch, he’s flattened into this weird, unrecognizable version of himself. from a craft perspective, it’s almost surreal to watch.

and the will situation is even more baffling. from a storytelling standpoint, you cannot position a queer character as the emotional core of your ensemble, the one whose internal conflict literally shapes the thematic spine of the show, and then make him the only character denied a romantic arc. especially when every other character, even the ones with significantly less narrative weight, gets a fully realized love story. it creates a glaring imbalance in the emotional architecture of the season. it’s not just disappointing; it’s narratively incoherent.

what makes the whole thing even stranger is the tonal whiplash. episode 4 is a legitimately brilliant piece of television. it’s tightly paced, emotionally calibrated, visually cohesive, and character-driven in a way that feels intentional and deeply considered. it’s the kind of episode you’d show in a screenwriting class as an example of how to escalate stakes while grounding everything in character psychology. and then the rest of the season feels like it was written by a completely different team who didn’t read the show bible, didn’t track character arcs, and didn’t understand the thematic groundwork laid in earlier episodes.

the inconsistency is so stark it becomes distracting. you can literally feel the shift in authorship, the loss of internal logic, the abandonment of character motivations, the sudden reliance on plot mechanics over emotional continuity. it’s the kind of thing that makes you pause and go, “did they change writers mid-season. did someone swap out the outline. did they forget what story they were telling.”

from a tv craft perspective, it’s not just a misstep. it’s a breakdown in narrative cohesion.

when will successful shows realize that just because youve gained the budget to be able to go big does not mean you HAVE to go big. sometimes all you need is paint and christmas lights.

Making a lesbian character say weird ooc dick jokes constantly

Appropriating the rainbow symbol from queer culture only to proceed on doing torture porn on the gay character that they created and give him the first slow burn rejection in the world

Main gay character can't even kiss his fake epilogue boyfriend made up by his real future husband (after he gets fustigated 50 times)

They didn't even bother to cast an epilogue boyfriend actor with actual chemistry with Will so they don't even look like boyfriends

Only bisexual character in the show disappeared with no explanations after making her the focus of multiple romantic moments with Robin and was also introduced with zero purpose outside of being a romantic interest in the first place

Mike Wheeler's closet blown into pieces while they were well aware of Byler being the biggest ship in the show, and he doesn't even say I love you to his girlfriend who he treated like shit for no reason other than random drama

Using the feelings of a queer character to resolve the problem of a straight relationship that is doomed anyway in the finale, then diminishing the depth of queer love while propping love born by A TRAUMA BOND between Mike and El that suddenly always "understand each other" when they do not in the previous seasons multiple times... Then keeping the queerbait at maximum level until the last moment possible by never doing anything more than platonic between the straights until the finale

it was more of a fuck you to us but…okay?

what are they even talking about😭😭😭this is just bullshit

how was it a fuck you to vecna when vecna literally forced him to do it lmao

And then Vecna didn’t even gaf about Will in the finale and didn’t come after him in any way so what was it all for

priah ferguson deserved better too what they did to erica was so unfair bro

This is what the Duffers had to say about Erica by the way:

They’re not even pretending to give a shit about her. “No one’s concerned about her” and she can “go where she wants to go.” And of course, she’s just sooo tough, because that’s not a tired stereotype for a Black girl at all.

I’m willing to bet they never put a single thought into an ending for her and only remembered she existed during this interview.

Byler aside, the mileven storyline was ass and I will stand by that. Argue with the wall.

How do you go from door-slamming, “you don’t say it” and I love you ONLY as a last resort to whatever the hell that scene was.

Seriously, someone tell me. How?

They barely had chemistry. They barely had screentime together. They had maybe two full conversations with each other this whole season

HOPPER’S moments with El made me tear up more than Mike’s. Her FATHER was the one who saved her from killing herself, not Mike

MAX is the one who was able to help her find her true self, what SHE wanted. Not Mike.

How do you position them as hung up on each other after that? How do you claim that Mike is the one who understood her best when that quite simply is not true?

For the billionth time I’m saying it: if mileven wasn’t badly written, I might actually like it. Except it SUCKED, it had no buildup and no chemistry, and so I’m obviously going to dislike it. jfc

i can never look at hopper again without knowing he picked up his daughter and left her sister to die. he could have helped her too. he could have picked her up, dragged her. anything. she weighs 80lbs and she's on a smooth linoleum floor. ill never forgive him or the duffers. im not. seeing her lying alone like that was one of the worst scenes in the show and one of the worst things a character has done to another in the show.

Deadass im being so serious, couldn’t HE have been the character they brought back and killed off instead of Kali???

@magentamee

Can we talk about how they sidelined their two black characters, killed off their brown female character and made her an antagonistic force to the white characters, sidelined their lesbian couple and implied that they were broken up in the epilogue, had their canonical gay character end up with an IMPLIED epilogue boyfriend while diminishing the love he had (has) for his best friend as a simple crush, had their female main character end up committing suicide and erase all of the setup to her getting her independence and her happy ending, sidelined their main female friendship and gave them a very lackluster reunion, and had their very obviously queer coded male character end up repressed, depressed, and alone in his basement while his friends moved on without him? And can we talk about how not only did they just have Mike be El’s boyfriend, but they had Lucas just be Max’s boyfriend as well??

All while giving the male white cop who kept threatening to kill his daughters sister, a woman of color, a happy ending where he ends up marrying a woman with whom he spent an entire season arguing with and yelling at while she was grieving the traumatic death of her boyfriend, and he goes back to being the chief of police despite the entire town believing him to be dead and despite the fact that his black male co-worker was established as the new chief in the previous season. The co-worker whom, as far I know, was no where to be seen in the finale nor the entire season.

How. Do. You. Fuck. Up. This. Bad.