ian★

“it’s forced conformity,

i’m sorry but that moment has passed. if the duffers were insane enough to write a slow burn rejection (just basically making will suffer even more) s5 would be different. 

season 4 ends with will basically accepting that his love for mike is unrequited, he’s decided to get it over with quick and rip the band aid off. he does everything he can to make mileven work, because he literally gave up.

but suddenly, a year and a half has passed and he’s now interested in the signals of someone liking you back and how obvious it is? will, the pessimistic character who had accepted the fact that they’ll never be together is all hopeful? mike has been different during those 18 months (and definitely broke up with el because will is not the type of person to steal his sister's bf), enough to make up for his shitty behavior AND make a relationship possible. he didn't „fix their friendship“, the snowball is turning into an avalanche.

it was possible to make the moral of the story „hey sometimes your crush is straight but you have to love yourself!“ in season 4, his „unrequited feelings“ make him miserable, which was the perfect set up for season 5 to show him letting mike go and being happy for him while accepting his identity. but that’s not what they did! they made their friendship stronger and told the audience repeatedly that at least will thinks he has a chance (which we know would not have been easy).