Saw a post that mentioned how Steve's torture at the hands of a violent foreign military force is played for laughs while Hopper's similar experience is treated with the gravitas it deserved and I genuinely cannot stop thinking about how unfortunate and unfair that is.
I know Steve is meant to be a character that brings more whimsy to the show and his comedic lightheartedness & comforting earnestness is a big part of his allure and a necessary reprieve when things get serious but this show is at its best when it prioritizes balance and humanity rather than leaving characters in their defining boxes. They've done this subversion with tropes, esp in Steve's case which i adore but I wish it applied more often to the portrayal of the weight/repercussions of characters' experiences. So for example letting more serious characters like El or Will goof around is necessary but also so is letting the comic relief characters like Steve or Dustin or Erica leave that role, however briefly, to have their struggles and traumas be taken seriously. Steve does get that on occasion, like in s5 with his Dustin Eddie conflict but it's rarely about what he's personally been through.
This isn't to say that I didn't like the russian bunker scenes/episodes or think it was entirely tasteless and out of place that they threw some comedic absurdity into those moments, or had steve cope with humor bc it's in character and I do love a lot about the scoop troop basement nightmare. Or I don't mean to negate that he's a tough kid with an impressive ability to bounce back. But a torture hostage situation where he was bound and helpless and visibly terrified while brutalized and drugged (mostly alone too because he was separated from Robin and took the brunt of the aggression) at the tender age of 18 would have and should have fucked with him (and Robin) more long-term, not just in the moment. It's not something you just get over even if the severity of what you went through doesn't hit until later. It's not just your average ass kicking.
TLDR I just would have loved more on screen attention/acknowledgement of Steve's season 3 torture trauma, even like a crumb or two, because the utter horror of that whole ordeal is tragically underexplored. And it's sometimes reflected in the way certain parts of the fandom dont seem to think he went through anything significantly horrific
