The ST ending, Stand by Me and The Long List of Tragic Queer Endings
Stay tuned if you want to let your day be ruined because I just remembered my first thought after the ST ending (I forgot it because it was 4 in the morning).
So they really end the show with Mike's ending paralleling Gordie's from stand by me.
Chris and Gordie, who have a really close bond, and whose relationship could definitely be read with a queer lense.
But it's always Chris who seems more obviously in love with Gordie, to the point that you can interpret it as a one-sided crush. But then, they are just really close and you can't tell if both have feelings for each other.
Chris btw. has an abusive father and who the whole town thinks will never make anything out of himself. Remind you of someone?
Exactly, the son of up-to-no-good Lonnie Byers.
Anyway, the reason the ending parallels make me so mad is that in the ending scene, Gordie reminisces how he and his friends grew apart. Chris and Gordie were both able to follow their dreams, Chris left the city and Gordie became a writer. And then Gordie finds out that Chris died (I think that's the reason he writes the book? It's also said at the beginning, I can't remember the exact details but also, Gordie is a Stephen King self-insert. Yup)
Alright, so apparently, Chris died - in the 10 year time-skip or so - in an accident, stabbed as he tried to break up a fight in a restaurant.
This is not a universally acknowledged reading but I always read it as Chris being hate-crimed. It was just too suspiciously random a headline - who dies trying to break up a fight in a restaurant? It just felt like a movie I'd seen before.
It has in a way parallels to Jack Twist's death in Brokeback Mountain: Jack who embraced being gay whereas Dennis remains in the closet. But then Jack is killed in a suspicious accident and the implication is that he's hate-crimed (the other reading would go too deep into Brokeback Mountain lore)
Or take James Baldwin's Giovanni's room (I love James Baldwin's works but I'm not a big fan of Giovanni's room and it's been some time since I read it so please excuse crudities): Again, we have David who is concerned about what society thinks of him and Giovanni who is more accepting of himself and more openly gay. Giovanni is repeatedly forced to sleep with other men in exchange for a job or food but then he kills one of these men in a bar fight and is sentenced to be executed. The men stand in for the societal conditions that do not accept him as a gay individual; Giovanni's last act is one of despair. And David? Full of guilt he can't stop picturing Giovanni being executed in his mind.
In other words, for me, the ending of Stand by Me is just another one in the long line of tragic queer stories with the same pattern: Accept yourself and be killed or stay in the closet forever, unable to be happy. And I guess Stranger Things is just another example for this: the more "obvious" queer person, who learns to accept themself leaves the city, while the other scared queer person stays in the closet forever and watches as the other one is hate-crimed.
So, at 4 am in the morning I was just incredibly upset how the could end Will's story that way.
Of course, this is a very subjective reading. I'm not sure whether my Stand by Me interpretation is shared by anyone else and it is a very dark and pessimistic reading. Nothing really points toward Will's death in the finale, rather the opposite, we see him more confident than ever and happy. But part of me just sees these parallels and this interpretation. And even if there is no direct implication of Will being killed, the message is still "and after everything he left for somewhere far away where maybe someone will love him".
Just fuck all of this. Afternote: I don't want to write this to depress anyone. Especially not queer people. I know that the world is bleak enough right now, that these stories are still the reality to so many queer individuals. I wish Stranger Things had ended differently. But if you're reading this and feel like this is going to be your life - no, it is not. There are good endings for queer people. Good endings with requited love, hope and acceptance from people that love you. And if it's not safe to be out where you are - you can leave. Maybe not now but one day. Don't give up, you are strong, amazing and beautiful just the way you are. You can do this. And if you feel alone and desperate and need someone to talk to - you can always message me.
