There’s an extremely dishonest claim that quite a few use to villainize Will: “He didn’t protect El during the six months in Lenora while she was being bullied by Angela and her friends." They say too "even if he didn’t intervene directly, he should have told Jonathan, and that since El is his little sister, it’s his responsibility to protect her.”
Let’s break this down from the beginning:
1. Will’s history with bullying and trauma
Will has been harassed and bullied his entire life—both at school and at home by his own father—to the point where the town wasn’t even that surprised when people assumed hatred might have played a role in his disappearance at twelve. I was bullied for just a single year, and it left me with long-lasting scars. Are we really supposed to believe that someone like Will, who has endured this his whole life, wouldn’t be traumatized enough to hesitate when it comes to confronting bullies, especially when it’s about stepping in for El?
Typically, even classmates who are not traumatized and who have never been targets themselves will still stand by and do nothing out of fear of becoming targets too. Yet somehow, we’re supposed to hold a victim of bullying to a higher standard, as though it’s his duty to put himself in harm’s way?
What’s worse is that the show makes it clear Will is there for El in his own way. He stays with her, accompanies her, encourages her, and reassures her—even if it’s just through a calming look or a supportive nod, like in the scene during her class presentation. When her project is destroyed, he’s the first to step up and say, “We are going to fix this,” and he helps her put it back together. He supports her by being present, and he doesn’t owe her more than that.
On top of that, the Lenora episodes show that Will isn’t hanging out with anyone else either. He hasn’t made any new friends. He’s isolated too. He’s not the one being bullied this time because El’s struggles stand out more visibly, but that doesn’t mean he’s thriving. Lenora, being a bigger and slightly more open-minded city, may have been marginally safer for someone who looks “different” or is more sensitive—but that doesn’t mean Will was having a good time. He and El basically only had each other at school.
2. Will is not her “big brother”
They’re the same age. Will has never been a big brother to anyone. And even if, on paper, El technically became his “stepsister” after Joyce adopted her following Hopper’s (fake) death, emotionally they cannot be compared to siblings who grew up together.
Put yourself in Will’s shoes: one night you’re abducted by a supernatural creature, trapped in a parallel dimension for a week without food or water, constantly running from monsters with no idea how to escape, barely able to communicate with your loved ones except for rare moments with your mom. You come back—after barely escaping death—only to learn that the mysterious girl with powers who appeared during your absence, who helped find you and bonded with your friends (especially your best friend), is the one who opened the gate that allowed you to be kidnapped in the first place.
Then, for the next year, you suffer from severe PTSD. Everyone treats you like a “freak” who’s about to shatter at any moment, and the only person who doesn’t make you feel that way is also spiraling into depression with survivor guilt—because of the “death” of that same girl you’ve never even met. When she comes back, she saves you again, but now she starts dating your best friend.
From then on, while they’re together, your best friend stops spending time with you and the rest of the group because he’s so wrapped up in this relationship with a girl you never got the chance to actually know. She rarely even joins the group hangouts. When you finally call him out on his selfish behavior and how it’s destroying the dynamics of your friend group—not to mention how toxic and codependent their relationship is, especially considering she broke up with him—he projects onto you and basically throws in your face that you’re the problem because “you don’t like girls.”
Then, after yet another near-apocalypse where she saves everyone again, this superhero girl who “stole” your best friend—and the boy you love—suddenly becomes your stepsister overnight.
Will and El’s relationship is far more complex than people make it out to be. Of course he doesn’t hate her—El is kind, sweet, and she’s saved his life multiple times. But we can’t ignore that the single event that triggered his abduction, and the entire chain reaction that followed, started with her opening the gate. It’s natural that they wouldn’t be as close—especially from Will’s perspective.
And yet, season 4 makes it clear that in those six months, with only each other to rely on, Will and El did grow closer. Their support for each other is shown through quiet gestures and shared presence, even if they weren’t confiding in each other deeply. You can see it when they reunite in the desert and hug—they genuinely care about each other. I believe it’s Will’s resilience that allowed them to build this warm, healthy bond. He chose not to hold resentment against her, and he accepted that she’s Mike’s girlfriend, even though that acceptance breaks his heart.
3. Will doesn’t even confide in Jonathan about his own struggles
Why would anyone expect him to bring up El’s bullying to Jonathan when Jonathan spends most of his time stoned with Argyle? Back in season 2, Will didn’t even want to talk to Jonathan about his own harassment and the “Zombie Boy” nickname. Will tends to internalize his pain, and he assumed El would feel and think the same way about her bullying—which was a mistake, because people process harassment differently. But even then, it wasn’t Will’s responsibility to say something or to “fix” it.
Anyone who has actually watched the show, understands how human beings function, and possesses even the most basic knowledge of psychology and sociology knows that these arguments make absolutely no sense. I genuinely believe these are desperate attempts to villainize Will—to paint him as someone who harms El—so they can justify their hatred toward him if Byler becomes canon in season 5. It’s a deeply dishonest mental gymnastics.
But if they’re so eager to scrutinize the “responsibility” of people traumatized by bullying, then I’d love to hear their take on El, who literally minimizes and denies Mike’s lifelong trauma of being severely bullied. This is the same intense, violent bullying that she herself witnessed in season 1—when she humiliated Troy to protect Mike from being beaten, and when she literally saved his life after he was pushed to the point of (both figuratively and literally) throwing himself off a cliff to his death.
Not to mention the “Mike, I understand” moment, when Mike confides that his chin injury came from Troy, admitting that he’s been bullied and that he lied about it because he was ashamed. Yet three years later, when Mike vulnerably reminds her that he’s lived with this his entire life—hoping she’ll remember that he understands her pain and that she can talk to him about it because he’s been through it too—she responds with, “No, you don’t.”
That line is cruel and cutting, even if it wasn’t intentional on El’s part. Mike literally attempted suicide because of those bullies in season 1, at just twelve years old, but sure, El, he doesn’t know what it feels like…
Of course, that dialogue is more nuanced. El is in a completely different headspace at that point, blinded by her own pain and insecurities. But that doesn’t erase or excuse what she said. And honestly, we should be talking about that instead of inventing baseless projections.
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