Tbh the resolution to the part of Will's arc about being queer was terrible but we're not talking enough about how poorly they handled his supernatural connections. His sexuality was the only part focused on for him for most of volume two outside of two or three scenes. Having a queer arc can be very impactful when done well but I love will not just because of his sexuality but because I think his connection to the upside down and vecna is really interesting.
I wanted a deeper look into that connection this season and thought we'd get it with Will gaining powers and the season itself beginning with his time in the upside down. I thought they would explain why the upside down is stuck on the day Will went missing and why Will specifically was chosen (I don't think Vecna chose who was "most breakable" like he claims since Will had enough survival skills to make it through a week in the upside down and also a GUN. Why not choose a more vulnerable child?). I thought they would do more with wills parallels to Henry since he literally got called Vecna already. I thought Will would be able to process his trauma from his childhood in the second half of the season or at least have more time to develop his powers.
It's interesting that they gave him powers and immediately chose to ignore them after episode 5 and brought back his season 2 spy thing uselessly because it was only used to find Max for Vecna a single time. It would have been a lot more interesting for me if we brought back something like Will's possession from season 2 for at least a few episodes, but more dangerous this time because instead of the mind flayer it's Vecna. It would give us a more immediate threat for the Hawkins characters who have been relatively safe all season, a good callback to a previous season, an opportunity for Mike to do SOMETHING (he helped will get unpossessed before), and could have been an interesting look into wills head since Vecna would be in there! If we got this it would make more sense for wills continued self hatred after episode four, since he'd feel he still wasn't strong enough to prevent possession (which did happen in season 5 but on a smaller scale). This would have been a better route to go down since his acceptance of his sexuality was done well in episode 4 and it felt odd for him to continue struggling with it after that in volume 2 when they could have been focusing on his supernatural connections after getting his sexuality addressed in volume one. All they would have needed was a coming out scene in episode 5 to Joyce and Mike (giving Mike more time to figure out his feelings if they go the byler route, allowing loose ends to be addressed if not with the smaller group, and having a more personal scene where will can come out in a way that wouldn't be offensive to queer audiences and wouldn't be because of his abuser threatening him) and later maybe a small one with Jonathan. After scenes like those they could do more with Will's actual character outside of being gay as well! Maybe develop his powers more too!
I don't understand why the duffers thought it was a good idea to continue wills acceptance of his sexuality through season five when it was wrapped up almost completely in episode 4 besides a coming out scene. I feel like this hyperfocus on wills sexuality hurts his actual character depth and connection to the plot of the show, since they basically ignore everything else he does/is involved in to drag it on for longer than it needed to drag.
