Proof of above all proofs is that the painting scene is a direct reference to Cyrano (lying about the credit of a romantic gift being a more conventional/socially accepted person for the person you're lying to to be with), Cyrano ends up with the person he's in love with, and The Duffers would never in all of their days
BREAK a reference.
Queer rep and trust aside, they are baseline NERDS, and they might betray queer people, but they wouldn't betray source material.
A HALF reference with the most VITAL PART OF THE REFERENCE CUT?
Despicable. And THEY think that.
"Romeo and Juliet adaptation where their love isn't forbidden" like...
Cyrano gets Roxane. That's the whole thing. It is intrinsically tied *to* the romantic gift - in his case love letters - itself.
The entire theme of the play and every iteration of the TROPE, not just adaptation, they also use this trope with a childhood blanket in the sitcom Young & Hungry, is that the character who is being deceived by Cyrano then pursues the person the gift was credited to when in reality they are in love with the "type of person who would think to give them that gift".
THAT'S the basis. And they LOVE the works they reference. They would not just...cut...that part.
The "I love you" seems like disproof but it's actually what MAKES it Cyrano. Without it it's barely a reference, almost just a lie. The first half of the plot of Cyrano is Cyrano gives Roxane something romantic because he's in love with her, he tells her it's from Christian, so she goes to be with Christian.
The entire point of Roxane/Mike telling Christian/El they love them is to confirm their love for Cyrano/Will. It is to say "the feeling I felt in reaction to that romantic gift was romantic love".
The point of Cyrano and the usage of the Cyrano trope is ALWAYS and has NEVER not been to position the endgame love interest as Cyrano.
The point being made about a character to the audience is:
"I love him better than her" by demonstrating "I know him better in doing this thing that she did not think to, and my love for him is so selfless in not taking credit and doing it for no personal gain that you have no choice but to root for me"
The entire point of the Cyrano trope in a larger work is to influence the audience to "I have no choice but to root for you"
"Cyrano loves Roxane regardless of personal gain". "X loves X selflessy" wins not only selflessly, but over the simple lack of that statement for the other character.
It should also be noted that in most versions of this, Cyrano and Christian are very close and this is also greatly an act done on behalf of Christian. The Half Of It is an adaptation that does a great job of portraying this relationship (and it's a lesbian love story and on Netflix).
My point is: in the same way that if you can only use one tiny thing with all else stripped down it's single bare essential in a feeble attempt to reference Romeo and Juliet, you reference "forbidden love"
If you can only use one tiny stripped down thing to reference Cyrano...
You reference "Selfless love and being known *gets the girl*"
They did not reference it and cut out the POINT.
Even if they were homophobes, you could not deny the fact that they are NERDS. They would NEVER.
