#I also will fight if you say steve doesn't have hidden depth in s1 cause he comes back for Nancy and Jonathan

[jonathanbyersphd]

Unpopular ST Opinion

But I’ll be honest I think the reason I hate Eddie more with every passing day is because he’s just an obnoxious version of Jonathan? The background of their characters are SO SIMILAR (poor, alternative music taste, town freak) like I will go so far as to say that Eddie, for the most part, is an Expy of Jonathan and the Duffers created him because they couldn’t use Jonathan for this plotline. But the difference of viewpoints of Jonathan “you shouldn’t like things because someone tells you to” Byers vs. Eddie “list of things The Party is KNOWN to like are conformist” Munson turns them into Foils imo. (But this has been lost on the GA/majority of the Fandom)  

Like Jonathan would NEVER treat Lucas poorly for being part of the Basketball team as long as he thought Lucas was enjoying it. (Jonathan is a big fan of do what you want unless you’re hurting someone) Whereas Eddie intentionally made Lucas choose between two things he loves doing. Like in this instance Eddie canonically does not allow for character depth. He’s a lot like s1 Jonathan in that way, but where Jonathan sees Nancy (and Steve) show these hidden depths and grows his opinion, Eddie doesn’t really. (Which yes he’s only here for a season but the Chrissy thing happens so early he could’ve changed)  Yes one could argue that Eddie calls Chrissy a “freak” and tells Dustin that he shouldn’t change but it’s still that Black and White binary of freaks vs normies. They grey area isn’t there for Eddie. And it’s frustrating to have a character that has been around since season one, has such a similar character themes but isn’t as binary in his thinking be ignored by the larger fandom because he’s quiet (or not a pretty boy)???

Like I truly believe that Eddie is meant to contrast and highlight Jonathan’s character (and his growth from s1) but because it’s NOT as simple as let’s say Steve vs. Jonathan in s1 it was lost on the audience. It also doesn’t help that we don’t see a scene with them directly interacting. But, if you think about it both of their storylines this season are driven by their affection? (obvi Jonathan is in love, but Eddie is some flirting this seems like the best word) for Nancy and Chrissy respectively. Eddie tells Steve to make Vecna pay (for Chrissy) and Jonathan drags everyone across the country for Nancy. I also truly believe that Eddie dies at the end because there is no sense in keeping both his and Jonathan’s characters moving into season 5, we already have a loner/unpopular archetype who has more depth and is more integral to the overall story.

Furthermore, if they are seriously considering returning to season 1 groups this puts Steve (and Robin by extension) with Nancy and Jonathan (and likely Argyle for comic relief) and in terms of character ensembles there really isn’t room to have Eddie and Jonathan in the teen group. If you think about the five man band trope dynamic everyone in the current lineup (Nancy, Jonathan, Steve, Robin and Argyle) already fills a role and unless they want to extend to six there’s no room for Eddie. (this is also the reason Max is coma’d so they can draw parallels between The Party + El and the older teens) Additionally, I would not be surprised if they actually reduced the teens down to just Jonathan, Nancy, and Steve which would make even less sense for Eddie to be around. 

All of this isn’t to say Eddie is an inherently bad character, he serves a purpose. But with Jonathan back in Hawkins and the Satanic Panic allegory finished that purpose is over. 

I know this is a lot and probably doesn’t make sense but TLDR: Eddie is a foil of Jonathan and I’m mad he’s loved more.