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The Unrealized Characterization of Dustin Henderson (LONG Post)

🎂 Happy bday, my fictional dude! 🎂 Hope the cake is more thoroughly baked than your arc! 🎂 PSA: Henderhop sub-analysis lies within 🎂 DNI if it ain't your jam 🎂 This is not a Dustin hit piece! It's my long-winded, fully unnecessary dissertation on how my favorite character could've been even better developed. I intend for it to be a sort of master reference doc for my fic WIPs. Sharing since others expressed interest :) BUILDING A DUSTIN: CHARACTER SET-UP As early as midway through S1, we get an initial glimpse at Dustin's character beyond that of one-dimensional nerd. Curiously, I would say he and Lucas get the most nuanced depth out the Party in these formative chapters, whereas Mike, Will, and El aren't as compelling in and of themselves until S2. And of course Lucas and Dustin get even more to work within their dynamic via Max. (I'm a frothing S2 truther, it's the criminally underrated season, fight me.)

Back to those establishing moments, though: Early on, of his own accord, Dustin explicitly self-assigns and accepts being the least important, least prioritized Party member. Even when Mike rejects the idea. He verbalizes it almost nonchalantly in S1E6 as he's already deduced it to be true, conceding, but not very convincingly when Mike argues back. And notably, this statement comes after another pivotal one where he's thrown himself into peacemaking mode, calling out Mike and Lucas for both acting recklessly and breaking up the unit. But we see the passive acceptance begin to wane gradually. Obviously in S2 there's direct interpersonal conflict with Lucas that enforces and magnifies these characteristics. If nothing else, love subplots are good for that. With regard to Max, Dustin abandons his pursuit when the "facts" become clear. He voluntarily recedes into a conciliatory social position again, going so far as to offer to remove himself from the Party entirely. Lucas doesn't even address this, instead refuting weakly the idea that Max could be called his "girlfriend". The scene ends with Dustin again showcasing his keen observation skills only to emphasize that even he picked up on the chemistry that Lucas himself didn't notice. Oof. At the close of the season, he powers through with little bursts of projected confidence, but the multiple Snow Ball rejections are truly the kiss on the brick, my god. It's Steve having added some wind beneath his wings and Nancy's compassion acting as life preservers that prevent his struggles from being completely soul-crushing. His pairing with Steve was brilliant for a lot of reasons, sure, but one of the most important functional aspects of the duo aside from insulating Dustin socially (unintentionally at first) in S2 specifically, is his presence propelling a larger internal and external perspective shift:

External: Providing Dustin with actionable advice/new social tactics that he can employ (albeit often questionable) + creating more "accountability" for him in plot and interpersonal conflicts.

Internal: Absolutely critical to the rest of the story, Dustin feels newly important and prioritized in a time of emotional need and without something being asked of him.

One bit of S2 discourse I find odd is people saying that Dustin keeping Dart was an out of character low-IQ moment. I could not disagree more. To me, that 100% tracked for a nerdy-to-a-fault-plus-lovesick kid who's main method of feeling worthy of friendship and attention up to that point is relying on his perceived book smarts.

It carries through to early S3 as well. In one of the opening scenes he's convinced— within about 5 seconds of being home and without a whole lot of evidence— that everyone's forgotten he's returned from camp. He's despondent about being left on the hill unable to prove Suzie's existence.

ABANDONED SCAFFOLDING All told, we have the makings of some good, complex shit here, but as we trudge through the end of S3 and through to S4, it's like the parts got fumbled and dropped on the floor, then left for the ants because there were 8,000 other cast ensemble arcs and side plots being ferried around in chaos. There's little time for characterization amidst point A > point B hijinks and the government mandated quip quota. My biggest frustration in a nutshell: There's a direct, unexplored Dustin throughline to be had across all his defining attributes, present within nearly every season:

His established flimsy sense of social standing and self-esteem

His aggressive tendency toward know-it-all-isms; clearly what self-esteem he does have comes from his big-braininess + satisfaction in being academically/technically correct about things, so this is a notably obnoxious, yet understandable reflex that he defaults to often to compensate for point 1

His heightened emotional intelligence and observational strengths

His perceived (and somewhat confirmed!) expendability to the Party beyond his intellectual usefulness

His propensity to latch on to older role models

The show had all the pieces there next to each other but didn't sufficiently connect them.

"But 'dett," you say, "that's all they do in S3 onward— pair up Dustin with Steve, Eddie, and older characters!" Well, yeah, and for all that time they spend forcing him out of his own friend group, they don't actually do anything with that contrast textually. Dustin doesn't have an astute realization connecting these attributes in himself, nor do events compel him to have a true reckoning where he confronts the Party or they confront him. @stranger-things-yapper has a similar and great (much more concise lol) text post on this with a little breakdown summarizing how such a dialogue could go. I agree that it could have seamlessly been folded into S3/S4. S4 had the most potential with the mixed groupings, but most of it was still spent zoomed into Eddie, winding up to maximum damage for when his demise came due. They harp on "fun", quirky odd couple proximity, give Dustin some more instances to yell smart things at people, just to give the audience delicious blood a single heart-wrenching, however important death scene. (Maybe an unpopular opinion? It should've been Steve for narrative efficiency, or Eddie should've been introduced in S2/3) Even leaving the comic relief complaint on the table, the dynamic simply overstayed its purpose. There was plenty of time to have Dustin get what he needed out of the teen sidequests without effectively exiling him. He ultimately became fused to this uncomplicated, crowd-pleasing fixture, primarily serving a logistical writing convenience while juicing every last drop of charm from Gaten and Joe's natural rapport. Which, you know, good for them. I genuinely hope those guys keep catching hockey games together. So you set up Dustin early on to have increasing anxiety and insecurity about his place in the Party, his once-steady passivity to that fact is being tested, we're building tension, just to ultimately...keep him even more removed as time goes on except at the very end with no acknowledgement? Hm. Ok. Compare it to Robin and Will. Although a lot of other issues surround that plot line, their sidebar had clear, concise narrative purpose and lasted only as long as it needed to for Will's propulsion.

DARK DUSTIN AND THE NOT SO GREAT, ONLY SLIGHTLY HORRIBLE, NO GOOD VERY BAD GRIEVING PROCESS (SORRY) Perhaps it's redundant at this point, but let's take stock. It's made clear enough why Dustin would get a tad obsessed with Eddie and Steve and why they feature in his story:

They're self-assured, each cool in their own way, and represent two sides of certain attributes he wants/admires

They provide older male mentorship that he doesn't have by blood

They MAKE HIM FEEL WORTHWHILE for who he is as a person (can't stress this enough), however with different approaches

Steve makes him a priority numerous times in numerous ways

Eddie tells him to never change, let his freak flag fly

These affirmations are lacking from his core friend group

It all tracks with his S5 shift. And in this, I cannot possibly find fault even if I tried. Dustin's big brooding character swing was undoubtedly one of the best and realest decisions made in S5.

♡ Shoutout to that one dude on YT who did a S5 rewrite that explicitly erased Dustin's grief because he didn't like him being sad. My guy, please go watch peppa pig or something instead jesus christ ♡ Eddie is dead, Steve can’t get through to him, he’s back to feeling disregarded in every way except insofar as his material value and engineering know-how, and external happenings do kind of confirm it for him: he’s being told to get over his bereavement and abandon his sense of what’s right so that he can function in service to others. He snaps at Steve for bugging him with a radio issue as if that’s the only thing he’s good for. It plays great for angst. But...the text again never actually seeks to draw contrasts. And at this point, some of these disparities have never been more glaring:

The very real, and not imagined friction between feeling uncared for as a friend, up against being relied upon for utility. He hits his breaking point with Steve on this in the lab fight, but not with the Party, who essentially treat him the same

Specifically the lack of mourning on Mike's part??

The emotional alienation between Dustin and the Party even without the grief component is at a multi-season apex, wider than ever (at least on-screen)

Despite Dustin having one of, if not, the best arc in s5, it still only deals with the direct trauma of Eddie's death and not any tougher, long-standing character flaws brought to a head such as his tendencies toward self-sabotage, habitual arrogance and recklessness, or unhealthy attachments. I will die on the hill that he needed a resolution with the Party way more than he needed another one with Steve in the penultimate scenes. The stairwell hug, final planning scenes, and college flash forward sufficed fine.

DUST IN THE WIND | HENDERHOP AND WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN There is and was a ton to work with Dustin as far as a character unaware of their own less quantifiable inner strengths. Pre-S5 he has a charisma that goes unappreciated by peers his own age. He's a got a ferocious sense of justice even to his own detriment.

As stated, all throughout the dang show, he's emotionally intelligent without really realizing it but it's only ever used to the benefit of the people around him rather than furthering his own development.

I think that's the special sauce for Henderhop in particular. Because at his core Dustin can be rabidly, sometimes stupidly compassionate in how he cares for others— especially his friends, especially people he perceives as receiving unfair treatment— He typically doesn’t take connection for granted unlike SOME characters 👀

Side note, but that’s also why I think Eddie’s Lost Sheep bit was so impactful for him on a personal level. He receives it as an ordained "responsibility" and it sort of breaks his emotional load. Think of the potential laid out in early canon: he feels he's been thrust into a kind of observer role his whole life. He's conceptualized and accepted an outer orbit disposition for himself. So while he’s an insufferable nerd in matters of smarts because it's the realm of hard facts where he can endlessly flex, in purely social settings he’s naturally able to step back and making room for others. Which is what El unquestionably needs in spades. It’s one area where he has a deep capacity for patience. Of the Party, second to Will, he's the most capable of seeing her for the person she is and grows into. A lot of their interaction is at its best (both in fic and the crumbs in canon) when it explores friendship dynamics in romance and their unconditional care for each other as people. For Dustin especially, the culmination of the ship would be transformative in surmounting his own imposed expectation of never being a “first choice,” as well as finally deploying his own emotional perceptiveness for personal development. And yes, I am making the case that being with Mike was never an active choice for El. In turn, without context for social hierarchies or the desire/ability to exploit people’s skills, El is able to see Dustin innately and foremost as a person rather than as a resource, or useful tech geek, or walking encyclopedia, etc. (and vice versa e.g., "Mike, look at her" S1E8) Long story long, they'd easily solve each other’s core insecurity through the gradual characterization the canon subtext weaves for each of them over time. While everyone else objectifies them, they have always effortlessly seen the humanity in each other. Part of the reason I don’t like his pairing with Suzie all that much (and I’d like to think I’m not biased. I wasn’t big on it even in the S3 heyday, long before I was brainwashed by henderhopaganda) is that he does to her what others do him— he holds affection for her primarily as a useful genius and a social merit badge, at least in what the show decides to communicate to us. Chalk it up to yet another thing that could've used more flesh on its bones. I find it unlikely that this was even intended in the writing, but with nothing else to show for the relationship in the text of the narrative, it's all utility, "humor" at Dustin's expense, and more lack of substance. Big eh from me dawg. PLATONIC COULDA WOULDA SHOULDA Overall, henderhop aside, it's just so disappointing that we didn’t see more full circle platonic explorations with him amongst his core friends. One throwaway tidbit I can't get out of my head is Will mentioning that he and Dustin built the telemetry tracker together Pre-S5. Presumably while Dustin was in some stage of mourning??? I want to SEE that scene ffs!! Can you imagine?

Think of all the possibilities between all the character combos we never saw play out:

Will and Dustin being collaboratively creative, smart, in tune with their vulnerabilities, and grappling with being seen as reviled and/or pitiable.

Lucas and Dustin sharing in grief and frustrations around the concept of fairness + conflict surrounding clique hierarchies. Wowza, then the grad speech would've made a tiny lick of sense!

Max and Dustin volleying snippy and sarcastic jabs, both possessing keen powers of observation, and THE PARALLEL SURVIVOR’S GUILT? He should've been at the hospital at least once

El and Dustin getting closer with the above mentioned emotional momentum, but add to it the S5 feelings of pushing oneself to the point of breakage, the angst of discarding whimsy, joy, curiosity, happiness, hope etc. for something bigger than yourself (!!!)

Mike and Dustin linked in notions of disconnect, longing, self-worth, identity, anything about Eddie, hitting bigger conflicts around their gap in emotional intelligence skills and so on and so on and...

The ingredients were all there. All the “told not shown” morsels were enormous, actively damaging missed opportunities. Meditate on what S5 in general could’ve accomplished if all those insipid, repetitive flashbacks weren’t the same ones we had seen a thousand times, but were instead exposition scenes of the the unseen time after S4. All throughout S1 for example, we learn about El’s trauma through small blips that trigger her memory (the closet, the cat, etc). As she relives the recollection, the audience is let into her backstory. They could have had their SeASon oNE cALLbAckS by way of expository delivery style rather than straight up reheating their own plot nachos. This kind of storytelling device would have made even more sense within the context of a time skip gap. And well, despite all this, Dustin is still the character ever. I'm off to cry into my unfinished fics RANDOM HEADCANONS AND (MOSTLY) FUN SHIT

El has time on her own somewhere, for some length of time before any henderhop scenario. Whether in Iceland, Uruguay, Hawkins, wherever. Let my girl chill and know herself for a sec!

She relishes pestering Dustin with useless facts that she's learned that he doesn't know. He's usually a good sport about it.

As soon as he can drive, Dustin annoyingly corrals the Party to go to any and all ren faires within a 150 mile radius. He continues this well into college breaks and beyond. Costumes are mandatory

Dustin retains some of his alt flavoring post S5. If the story wanted to be a love letter to outcasts, elements of this evolution should have stuck around and been re-framed in a healthy way. Same goes for all Party characters to differing extents (punk Mike, avant garde/soft goth Will, etc). He's got some piercings, a handful of tattoos, and goes to metal shows, especially getting into fantasy-inspired bands like Blind Guardian and Cirith Ungol.

He's an absolute fiend for Terry Prachett books.

She's an absolute fiend for magical girl anime and early Studio Ghibli films (she's ahead of her time 💅)

El experiments with her look and style often and is always learning a new kind of craft, never becoming an expert at any one hobby before moving on to the next thing that piques her interest.

They love watching documentaries and are both total snobs about them— the cinematography, voiceover quality, etc.

!Sad: Some event happened with Dustin between S4 and S5 that pushes him into the state we see him in. I find it unrealistic that he'd be able to keep up that front for the full timeskip, especially considering the Party talks about his behavior as if it's new. My HC is that Eddie's body was recovered from the UD by the military around summer/early fall '87, they cover it up as some kind of satanic self-infliction, further entrenching the lies about him in the town and that's what sends Dustin spiraling.

More to come potentially!

*Lastly, a disclaimer: All this is not to say that the other characters were any less atrophied or better realized. Honestly the argument for underdeveloped arcs goes for pretty much all of them sadly, with maybe the one exception of...Steve? If we're reaching. Out of the Party, Max got closest to "full potential" imo but still left a lot to be desired. I can just pontificate easiest about Dustin in particular 🤓 And shoutout to @starofthesea37 for posting the original prompt and to the henderhopaganda community for all the engagement on my original comments!

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