#they spent all of s4 establishing mike wants him and Will to be a team…

[chirpsythismorning]

Milkvans saying what they want in s5 for milkvan is for them to be a team…

[stranger-feathers]

Why Lucas' arc in S4 doesn't work narratively

I will not talk about Lucas on the Line or the Dustin Experiment in this analysis, since I have read neither, nor will I go into the topic of racism in the 80s and the show's constant refusal to grapple with it directly. I will purely focus on what the show itself could have done to make the arc work, within the constraints of what the writers established (aka canon typical lack of acknowledgment of racism and its effects on Lucas). Feel free to discuss those topics in the reblogs or replies, I simply didn't find a way to fit them in satisfyingly, since none of these would have single-handedly fixed my issues with the show's choices.

1. Lack of foreshadowing in S3

The sudden inclusion of Lucas playing basketball was a surprise for most viewers when S4 aired, and for good reason : there were little to no hints towards that development beforehand. We know Lucas mows the lawn for neighbours to get money; we remember his iconic wrist rocket and army-like costume in S1, or his "kicking a door open at school" stunt in S2, which are all physical activities he seemingly partakes in happily. But while Lucas has always been hinted to be more sporty than the rest of the party, basketball was never one of the activities associated with him, or even sports in general, let alone school ones. That lack of foreshadowing means that Lucas is likely to lack the viewer's support from the get-go, because he appears to be the one breaking the status quo for no reason by choosing basketball over D&D. That might be intended, it might not, but I lean towards unintended : S4E1 tries too hard to make the viewer empathise with Lucas if they didn't want us to side with him at least partially.

2. Flawed setup

Rewatching Season 4, one of the main issues I had with the setup for Lucas was who it was focused on : Mike. It's a logical choice given their previous interactions, because Mike and Lucas have always been pivotal characters for one another, especially in S3 where they spent the season tied together at the hip. The idea behind the conflict works really well : it's a continuation of their conformism in the previous season, except Mike is now trying to go back to who he was before it all. Lucas is understandably a bit upset that Mike changed his mind on something they apparently discussed (Mike nods when Lucas mentions plans to change things before they started high school), yet the viewer knows why Mike has done so (the rain fight comes to mind, along with the D&D themed goodbye to Will). It could have used a bit of foreshadowing in S3, but it's relatively easy to infer what's going on.

But this setup doesn't work past episode 1, since Mike fucks off to California for his romcom plot, which makes the conflict hard to resolve. After all, by the time Mike comes back, Lucas has bigger problems (his girlfriend in a coma and a pseudo apocalypse). A focus on Dustin would have been much easier to resolve, but the D&D/basketball conflict is never really brought up between them either. So, if it it's not treated as an intraparty conflict that needs resolving (as opposed to the S1 fight, for instance), what is it supposed to be ? A commentary on high school cliques and the damage they cause is my guess.

The other huge component in the setup is the high school cliques. Jason and Eddie are representative of their two clubs : the Basketball Team and the Hellfire Club. The boys are mostly caught in the crossfire between them, rather than the conflict being an active choice by Lucas or Mike/Dustin to not attend either of the activities. Lucas would come to Hellfire if Eddie moved it, and the other two would come to the game if it wasn't for the campaign. None of them are willing to lose their social standing over it, but there is no desire to force the others to choose : the only thing Lucas asks is a rescheduling, not for Dustin and Mike to ditch Hellfire. This in some way absolves them of at least some responsibility in the conflict, and might be why the writers decided that the personal resolution through either Mike or Dustin was unnecessary. None of them wanted to hurt each other, circumstances and high school mentality were the real issue.

The Jason/Eddie conflict is the root cause of the conflict, and it's through these characters that the writers will aim to solve it. The dispute starts as rather petty, one where Eddie is far from innocent : episode 1 leaves the viewer with a pretty terrible image of Eddie, as a pretentious man child who pretends to be more than he is through being the leader of a D&D club. The Chrissy scenes show a better side of him, but he still doesn't come across as a stellar individual with the boys (intended or not, considering Dustin's view of him later on, but that's a "Eddie's writing is eh" issue, and not one directly related to Lucas' arc). Regardless, it's still mostly a high school clique rivalry, not anything serious beyond the overall theme of outcast vs conformity of the series, and the question of "conforming to anti-conformity" while disparaging anything "normal" being, in itself, conforming (a pretty big part of Eddie's mindset). The issue lies in how Jason and Eddie then evolve as characters, and how this evolution forces Lucas to be presented as wrong, while Eddie and the other two boys aren't.

3. Intertwined arcs and delayed payoff

Jason and Eddie start the season as about equally in the wrong : by extension, so do Dustin and Lucas. However, Eddie gets a chance to grow out of the mindset that led to him hurting Lucas (seen notably in his speech to Steve), while Jason falls from grace more and more as the season goes on.

This leads us to the finale, where Jason is a direct antagonist, whereas Eddie dies a hero : they're not on equal footing anymore, but the conflict has yet to be resolved. Lucas is therefore forced into a setup where he "admits his wrongs" ("I never should have knocked" and "normal's just a raging psychopath", both very rad lines that nonetheless put him as firmly in the wrong thematically), whereas Dustin waxes poetry about Eddie's bravery. It's an unfair payoff to the initial setup, because Lucas was the character who was wronged in the first place, and is the only one who apologises. Regardless of the reason - unexamined bias on the part of the writers or innocent poor execution - the conclusion still leaves a pretty bitter taste. The payoff came too late into Jason's arc to be right for the initial conflict, and Eddie and Lucas don't get to have any scenes to resolve things before his untimely demise, leaving the viewer unsatisfied.

A simple scene between Lucas and Eddie would have done wonders to resolve the feeling of Lucas having been wronged, and would have let the Jason scene be what it was supposed to be : Lucas' refusal to fall down the same way he did, and his realisation that he will not find safety and happiness in conformity, nor in making himself anything less than he is. Imagine if the Steve scene had instead been a Lucas and Eddie scene, where Eddie gets to admit his wrong mindset and the hurt it caused ? Especially to someone we saw him hurt ? That certainly would have made the scene a lot more memorable than "Nerd learns Steve the popular jock isn't that bad : Electric Bugaloo (but without the build-up Robin's had)", and helped a lot in making Lucas' arc more satisfying.

Alas, that did not happen. The best we can hope for is for some reference to the conflict in Season 5, be it in some lingering tension between Mike and Lucas who have yet to clear the air between them, or in letting Lucas have a differing opinion from Dustin on Eddie. We will have to wait and see, although I would have much preferred the conflict to be well written in the first place.

[wibble-wobbegong]

Considering the duffers said the first two episodes won’t cover anything to do with relationships…how do you think they’ll handle byler then? Cause I initially thought mike and el would break up and mike would find out about the painting BEFORE the time skip etc but then 2 years later realise he has feelings for will, but now idk

well, i generally tend not to take what the duffers say with 100% guarantee so i’m sure we’ll get something, but the first two episodes are definitely gonna be heavily supernaturally based

gonna be honest about this little idea i have of what the first episodes might end up looking like but bear in mind this isn’t fleshed out at all. just a little concept

i think we’re gonna get the first episode as the episode where the things that were learned in S4 all tie together and a plan of action gets formed, probably with mike, el, and nancy making connections and creating the plan of action with hopper and/or joyce’s help after it gets revealed to everyone that vecna isn’t dead. they aren’t gonna want to wait around after that, and i really can’t see a situation where will or mike would keep that information to themselves

there are definitely some things that’ll get addressed in the first episode like eddie’s death and lucas and el getting established as a duo for this season. i could also see some jancy stuff happening too. as for byler, i don’t think we’ll be getting a whole lot of moments between them but i think a lot of their screen time is gonna be spent together. in general, i think we’re gonna get some teams established and some emotional prerequisites put in place with grief and reuniting and stuff which could definitely include the break up

the second episode would be putting that plan into action. gathering weapons, locating the gate they plan on entering to get into the upside down (maybe a little trouble from the government here or el opens a new gate), probably a few moments between pairs. the painting thing could go a lot of ways, but i think it’d be interesting if we saw will confess that he lied if they were heading into a life or death situation and mike tells him that he and el broke up. honestly, if my interpretation of mike is correct or close, then i don’t think mike would be mad at will. at least, the situation wouldn’t be set up for it if it’s the life-or-death i think it could be. maybe it’s a little self indulgent but i kinda want it to go like this

“i lied” - will is admitting to mike that he loves him without actually saying the words, avoiding that negative connotation

“i know” - han solo reference + returning the sentiment of loving will and then idk he gets to be a super fag and hold will’s hand that would be great

after that, i’m not too sure how the hunt would go, but I think it would be cool if mike got taken during it because i am a mike hostage theory kinda guy at heart and the mike hostage theory naturally plays into mike’s fake death coming true

i have a lot of theoretical thoughts about this that i wanna get into once i’ve sorted out all the new information in my head but yeah. thank you for the ask :)