#no one is saying Mike and Will should attempt to hold Hawkins’ first pride parade and tell every Troy and Billy that they’re dating

[tender-emotional-music]

I hate when people accuse us of having double standards by wanting El to end up single and Will to end up in a relationship. It completely ignores how their arcs are written and what they’re about.

El has had her whole life decided for her by male figures. No, Mike is not the same as Brenner, but those Hopper/Mike/Brenner parallels exist and that is the common thread. El literally asks “how do I know what I like?” to Max in season 3, yet we’re meant to think she just knows she wants for be with Mike forever? She follows his lead in that relationship (along with that of the movies she watches in season 2). It’s largely something that is decided for her when she enters the normal world, before she knows enough about herself to understand all that entails. It would be empowering for her to choose what her relationships look like, and to be break free of the restrictive male influences that has been inhibiting her self-actualisation as a young woman (and yes, combat the stereotype that being single is a death sentence). This would be an awesome message to send to young girls who look up to El.

Will, on the other hand, has spent his life giving up his happiness for little to no return. Him not ending up with Mike would just be more of the same. He gets put through hell and uses his own feelings to help Mike and El’s failing relationship and all people want him to get in return is the bare minimum of his friends and family not hating him? Not only is that a flat character arc, but we already know that his family and friends will accept him. Joyce and Jonathan have made that very clear, and his friends were okay being friends with the “gay kid,” and we see how Mike springs to action to defend him against Troy in season 1. There is no mystery there. If his story was just about acceptance, it would have been written very differently, as you guys said. It’s not about Will realising he’s gay and struggling with whether or not his family will be okay with it. It’s written so that Mike is centred in his sexuality arc. It’s written so that Will, a selfless character who, once more, gives up his happiness for little return, will finally get the sort of love he so willingly gives. It’s not that he’s “not gonna fall in love.” It’s that he wants to, but doesn’t believe it’s possible for someone like him. Proving himself wrong would represent the ultimate happy ending for Will, and will send out a far more empowering message to gay audience members.

El’s arc is about making her own choices after having them decided for her by male figures her whole life. Will’s arc is about finally receiving the love he gives, and realising he’s worthy of it.

It never ceases to amaze me that there are people who think that a satisfying ending for Will would be getting gently rejected and learning to accept himself. I know I've written before how rooted in heteronormativity that sort of ending for a gay character is, but some people still think it's the best ending he can get.

The entire mindset of such an ending is based on the idea that LGBT people should be happy without having a partner. It's the pseudo-progressive viewpoint based on the whole "love the sinner, hate the sin" bullshit that "compassionate" Christians love to throw around. Oh, you deserve to be loved, but you're still sinning if you try to act on your desires, so just find contentment in the fact we're not making you a pariah.

Will deserves love. He deserves it even more for being so willing to swallow his tears for what he thinks is his best friend and sister's true love. Will has been amazingly selfless, and the "reward" that some people think he has coming to him is *checks notes* not losing his friends and family. People think he should just stop crying and be happy with the absolute bare minimum of decency simply because it's the 80s and "gay people couldn't be in relationships back then."

Fuck all that noise and the people who make it. If the Duffers made Will's story all about acceptance then they wouldn't have written Will to be in love with Mike. They would just have made Will struggle with his homosexuality and feeling different from his friends, including his best friend Mike. He'd constantly feel out of place, maybe making sneaky glances towards boys. His California plot could have been about him meeting another gay boy with hints of feelings there. But, no, they specifically made his story about knowing he's gay because he fell in love with Mike.

There's no happy resolution here if Mike rejects him. Anyone who argues it just doesn't think LGBT love is equal to heterosexual love.