Dustin this season

So I’m on my second rewatch of season five and I’ve seen some discussion surrounding Steve and Dustin in this season and I have to say I’m 100% on Steve’s side here

To preface I love Dustin just like I love Lucas, Mike Will and everyone else so I’m not singling him out

Obviously I understand that Dustin is grieving Eddie you can tell from the way he’s acting still visiting Eddie’s grave adopting Eddie style while wearing the hellfire shirt defending Eddie from everyone I understand that 100%

And we, as the viewers understand why he’s grieving Eddie was someone he looked up to he made promises to Eddie. Eddie sacrificed himself for the group. Eddie is of course a hero and I’m not denying that, but we need to look at things from the perspective of everyone else in town.

They don’t know about the upside down, 11 or Vecna as far as everyone else in the town is concerned Eddie was a super senior who sold drugs to his classmates and may or may not have had something to do with one or three people’s violent deaths and started a satanic cult, which literally wore the name hellfire which some people attribute to the massive “earthquake“ which killed even more people and caused the government to quarantine the entire town, which none of them have been able to leave or have outsiders visit for 3 years

If we were living in Hawkins with no connection to anyone from the group we would view Eddie the exact same way

And that’s just the towns people let’s talk about the government next obviously they know hellfire club had nothing to do with the gate being opened, but Dustin drawing attention to himself and by extension, the others who have been investigated numerous times by the government in the past for their connections with weird stuff like this happening in the town I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re being heavily surveyed more than everyone else in the town

Am I blaming Dustin for everything? No, of course not I understand Dustin‘s grief. I understand his pain and I understand that he’s just trying to keep his friends memory alive and defend him but the time for that isn’t now

Mike was absolutely right when he said “you’re fighting too battles“

Now onto Steve I think Steve is instigating a little bit like when Dustin first showed up after getting beat up I do think that he was beating that horse a little too much but I understand where Steve is coming from he and Dustin are basically brothers and he’s watching his little brother, actively put himself and their other friends in danger because (and this is where I think Dustin’s major character flaw is coming in) he refuses to admit that he is in the wrong to go back to the scene where he meets up with everyone after getting beat up he lies to everyone about how he got bruised because he knows that if he tells them Andy and his friends beat him up, they would all tell him he’s antagonizing them by wearing that shirt which on some level he has to know he is

Dustin is a very intelligent kid, but his major character flaws that he’s refusing to admit he’s wrong and he’s letting his ego and grief block his common sense

But I do wanna know what other people think or am I reading too much into it?