oh wow my hands already hurt. god chronic illness got hands tonight. Aight yall we gonna keep this brief but I dont wanna see any hate in this post 👀
Sigh okay. I've seen a lot of frustration and annoyance at Will's coming out scene, so I want to break it down some and hopefully provide some positive perspective on this. I'll definitely type a more in-depth analysis (gushing) later on my computer in real person hours, but I need to get some thoughts out. So, in an abbreviated version:
Will comes out to (literally) everyone.
Getting into this scene, we learn some important things the audience (especially GA) needs to understand: there is SO MUCH that happens that we aren't shown. Such as... Will seeing his greatest fears when Vecna mind-captures him again, such as coming out to everyone and it going to shit.
So, to deal with this fear, he puts it out there. It's no longer an unknown Vecna can use against him, it's just a memory now. So he tells everyone. No like literally everyone. Wow. But I mean, hey— better to know where everyone ur fighting with is at before going into the big bad battle. Like, sure he's not close with all of them, but can u imagine how fear could warp that?
Kali doesnt have to know about him, but if she does find out and has a bad reaction??? bro is super-powered. Its scary enough with regular ppl, I dont wanna find out what discrimination from a mind-power kid would look like....
Vickie. Guys.... Sure, she doesnt know Will, but *come on* do yall get how important that scene was not just for Will, but for Robin as well?? and in tandem, for Vickie??? She's not focused much during the scene, but she's so emotional over it. Like that really did affect her, because that IS her. She doesnt even know this guy, and he just had the courage to come out. That's brain-changing tk experience as a closeted queer person.
Steve now knows that Robin has talked with Will. Steve knows that Robin will be okay, that she's not alone and has someone she can really talk to about this. Not only that, he can get that he helped Will too, that way. Because he gave Robin courage— the same way Will thanked Robin in e5 and she thanked Steve. He needs to see that, the growth he's had as a character to still affect this kid somehow, even if they haven't interacted pretty much at all *on screen (emphasis here bc again..... so much off screen that we're never showed. It's been TWO YEARS since s4 with only one flashback???). Also (and this part I DEFINITELY will go do deep into in a different post bc IM SOBBING) Steve needs to be there not for Will, but for Robin. When everyone says "and me" and she copies it too, girl is crying her eyes out. But she doesnt get up to hug Will, too. Its not her place right then, and no one else really knows how close they are and *why.* But the next time we see her on screen, Steve had a hand on her shoulder, and she's reaching up to him. He's there as an anchor for her, knowing how much this affects her. Steve is stabilizing Robin in a very emotional moment, making sure she knows that she is loved too, that he wont leave her. That she also has so many ppl know that will be safe, that when she chooses to on her own (w/out liquid courage) she can come out and BE SAFE. And I will forever love Steve (and Joe) for that detail.
Murray....... ya know honestly why not? He's kind of a conundrum anyway, I could see that personality reacting poorly. Rather, being very afraid of how Murry would react poorly... if he's gonna find out about Will, it should be surrounded by ppl that Will knows would protect him.
Mr. Clark. I know Dustin is the star student (as he should be 🙌🏼) but Will is still Clark's kid, too. That's the boy he watched grow up in AV Club and his middle school science, the kid and his friend group that crumbled that one awful day. The kid that came back, defied all odds, whose mom comes knocking at his door way too often with the strangest (ha) science questions shit. Genuinely, god that would be amazing to see.
These aren't just random people, theyre all connected to each other through each other. If one person knows, another might. So tell them all, rip it off like a bandaid. If anything bad happens, it happens all at once, right now, and Will can deal with it before the world ends. Vecna cant use it against him if he already knows where everyone in that truck stands.
now I am sleepy now and my fingers are locking up but u bet ur ass I'm making a post about Mike's reaction (and Lucas and Dustin parallel) to Will coming out bc OH BOY. If Mike really does turn out to be straight, Im gonna need a lil word with Finn bc *why does he always play his characters Like That.* Finn, you wonderful boy, that is some fruity and suspicious facial reactions for a best friend character.
ALSO BECAUSR YOU ABSOLUTELY KNOW MIKE WAS GETTING S3 FLASHBACKS TO THEIR FIGHT IN THE RAIN. And literally all that time between s3 and s4 where they just,,, dont talk???
"I dont like girls" ".... ah fuck."
"Some of you worry and I push you away[...], some we just drift apart more and more over time—" "......oh. oops."
Like byler canon or not, I would LIVE for a scene of Mike going to Will thinking he made that Will's great fear for Vecna to use bc *he made it come true* and Mike finally just talking with Will. A parallel to "what if u join another party?" "not possible."
That fear Will had, the relief of just knowing that the people he loves won't push him away and won't let him push them away... I need y'all to understand how important that is to see. I don't need another sad story, I want hope. I want to know that even during the 80s, this could've happened. That it can happen now. It doesnt alway have to be a sad story, and it doesnt always have to be perfect. It took my parents YEARS to come around on me being nonbinary, and they're still working through things. But the point is that they always promised they would stay by me, no matter how they felt about that. I wasn't going to get to push them away, and they wouldn't run from this Big Crazy Thing. This is a story for outcasts about outcasts. Its a story about love and acceptance and finding peace with yourself within literal hell. Its about how if this clump of weirdos can find hope and love in all the shit theyre dragged through, then we have no excuse to find it ourselves somewhere.
