I hate how people are more focused on the ships within the show, rather than the individual characters and their growth.

People can obviously ship whoever they want, but only centring the show about the relationships instead of the actual purpose of the show (which is about outcasts, trauma, guilt, battle between good and evil, friendships, loyalty, bravery, love, family, coming of age, the fear of the unknown, healing, individuality, acceptance, etc). There’s a lot of great dynamics, and the romantic ones aren’t the only important ones.

For instance I’ve seen a lot of people critique Dustin for mourning his friend, and how Steve is concerned for him. In the first two seasons, Steve wanted to “move on” from Barb’s death even though Nancy was feeling extremely guilty and wanted to tell her parents the truth. This indicates how he handles grief, and that it’s easier for him to suppress his emotions rather than dealing with them. Dustin is the complete opposite, not only because of their friendship but because he faces his emotions.

Steve has always been known as the “mom” of the group, so he’s reacting accordingly. He feels as if Dustin is pushing him away and there’s nothing he can do about it. However, Dustin is reacting this way because there’s no one who’s trying to listen to him. They want him to move on because “it’s been 18 months”, but when you’re in that state you don’t think about how long it’s been. He just misses his friend, and is grieving him.

He’s careless when it comes to putting himself in dangerous situations with the school bullies, but he also can’t stand the fact that the whole school hates someone who was willing to die for his town. They’re spreading lies about him even when he’s dead, and that’s a truly awful thing to experience.

Let me know what you think!!!