#the Lance mcclainification of Steve harrington
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Hereās a 3am Steddie rant I think every Steddie lover (and possibly hater) should hear. I have no goal to convert anyoneājust to say that the ship did not actually ācome from nothing.ā Hereās why:
I donāt understand how there wasnāt Steddie foresight in the writerās room.
So they play it up in season 3 like Steve just canāt get the girl and when he does sheās not the right girl and yada yada yadaācool beans. I love his character arc with Robin, their friendship, her queerness. I love their entire bathroom interaction.
Specifically: āItās somebody that I didnāt even talk to in school. Maybe cuz Tommy H. wouldāve made fun of me, or I wouldnāt be prom kingā¦. First of all, sheās hilarious. So funny. I feel like this summer I have laughed harder than I have laughed in a really long time. And sheās smartāway smarter than meā¦. Sheās honestly unlike anyone Iāve ever met before.ā
Traits Robin Also Has that Eddie Shares:
Outcast
Band Kid
The Witty Banter
Eddieās personality is VERY Robin. Not perfectly so, but maddeningly close.
Another point:
This is just the same person in different gender specific fonts, A.K.A. Steveās ālove interestā versus a guy who called him ābig boyā completely unprompted and interrupted a tender moment between him and his ālove interestā and complimented him for an entire scene while Steve wore his clothes.
So, really, one of themās Steveās love interest and the other is Nancy Wheeler /hj.
I write a lot, and as someone who both writes and consumes an abhorrent amount of media, whoever wrote this down, casted and costumed this way, and allowed for the interactions between Steve and Eddie to be as nuanced as they were (EX: the scene in which Eddie steps forward like he has more to say to Steve before he goes off and kills himself) had to have known what was going to happen. There is simply no way of not seeing it.
And if they didnāt want people shipping Steddie at the scale which they do, hereās what went wrong:
First: defaulting to Steve wanting his ex back is just plain shitty writing. It means you donāt know where to go with the character anymore, and since youāre certain heās done all the growing he can do, heās just gonna double back to the conflict he was in in the FIRST SEASON.
Are you serious right now, bro?
Steveās arc as a character has been absolutely heartwarming to watch. If anything, heād have been better off given the āI need to figure out how to be happy on my ownā narrative. Throwing him back at Nancy is a cop out, a big one.
Second: Eddie. Throwing Eddie in the mix was absolutely a WILD decision, because he looks like Nancy, he banters like Robin, and GENDER IS NO LONGER A PLAUSIBLE REASON FOR AN AUDIENCE TO DENY CHEMISTRY, OR EXPLAIN IT AWAY. Not in the year of our lord 2023, no sir. Not unless youāre going to explicitly state in some way to an audience that these characters are DEFINITIVELY STRAIGHT. And with Eddie, they went as far off that course as possible.
The outcast stuff. The D&D stuff. The hatred of the system. The mysteriously living with his uncle and not his parents. THE HANKERCHIEF IN HIS BACK POCKET.
So essentially, this is what they did:
They took a beloved character, flubbed over his character arc because they werenāt sure what to do with it.
Then, they created a SECOND beloved character, made him likable, lovable, even, and relatable. Then they gave him half and half personality and looks of Steveās last two love interests. Then they gave us scenes of them together where they showed chemistry, genuineness, and playfulness.
Then they EXPECTED that we as an audience had enough heteronormativity left as a society to sayāoh, those two guys arenāt flirting with each other even a little bit because theyāre two guys and obviously that doesnāt happen.
WHEN IN THE SAME SEASON WE WATCHED WILL AND ROBIN GO GAY PANIC AND DESPAIR LIKE?????
Pick a side pick a side, are your characters fucking gay or is your audience fucking blind?
Point being, I have some friends IRL who donāt really get this. They think Steve and Eddie hardly interacted enough for there to be romance at all, but I think itās less about how much they interacted and more about the (unintentional) set up they were given by the writers.
Steveās a truly beloved character and I donāt know on ST fan that wants to see him just end up back with Nancy Wheeler like his entire character arc was just to āget the girlā and āhave six kids.ā Which he already has by the way.
Anyway, thatās just my two cents. Iām not advocating for anyone to ship them, Iām just saying itās honestly a perfectly logical conclusion to make, especially if you CARE about Steve as a character, you know? We want him to be with someone genuine, someone who challenges him to be better, to be different than he was. Nancy couldnāt handle doing that. Robin could, but theyāre platonic af.
So why wouldnāt it be Eddie?
Rest in peace, by the way. You wouldāve loved this text post.
#stranger things#steddie#writers#eddie munson#steve harrington#bisexual#gay#lgbtq#stranger things 4#ultimately Iām just very confused by the writers#their choices seem so deliberate but they canāt possibly be#who instructed Joe to take that step forward?#what was the point of āfor your modesty dudeā#why make Steveās only character trait needing a girlfriend?#why not make Eddieās character a girl?#the Lance mcclainification of Steve harrington
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