STRANGER THINGS S5 V1 SPOILERS AND STEVE HARRINGTON RANT
We need to look at Steve's trauma and responses to everything going into Season 5 and not just everyone else's (including Dustin's). Dude feels the survivals guilt as well. He told Dustin and Eddie to stay and be a distraction. He comes back with Nancy and Robin to see Eddie dead in Dustin's arms. He's dealing with complicated grief of bullying someone in school and then realizing they're not bad and actually cool AGAIN (Robin being the first) only for them to die because of Steve's decision. Steve feels that guilt and likely builds up a wall to pretend he doesn't care. Dustin since season 3 had been calling Steve names and generally being dick because Steve isn't as smart as him. We often take it as a cute brotherly bond thing but after a while it picks at you and wears down your self worth. Steve likely feels that if he WAS as smart as Dustin he might have been able to save Eddie. So he's got that guilt going while Dustin further pushed him away. Steve has had 0 healthy relationships including friendly and familial until Robin (His friendship with Dustin isn't exactly healthy because it's founded on Trauma and mentorship mixed with Dustin's ego and cruel "joking" words to Steve which can get toxic if one party doesn't have an age appropriate friend to fall back on who helps uplift the good traits). He's lost friends before thanks to his guilt and he likely feels that by not pushing back and communicating with Dustin he won't loose him. By letting Dustin push him away it creates more issues that Steve wasn't likely aware of by being complacent. I feel like so many people forget STEVE'S trauma:
- Emotionally neglected/abused by his parents so he falls into the wrong crowd and had to develop a certain mask to keep from loosing them and being alone. I'm doing so developing toxic and cruel mindsets to keep from loosing.
- Getting beaten for the mask and the way he coped and insure he's not alone anymore. (100% not okay how he does it. That being said it's been shown he is a lonely guy who doesn't have a stable home life or idea of what love IS. His fear of Nancy cheating stems from his parents relationship and his dad's lack of fidelity. Tommy and Carol pray on this because it means a place to party and f**k without parents interfering.)
- Witnesses a literally monster attempt to ripe apart the girl he likes and the kid he bullied.
- Gets called bullshit, accused of assisting in the murder of his girlfriends friends death (which is a whole other can of worms since it was Steve's fault what happened to Barb. Nancy pushed Barb to go to the party, Nancy peer pressure her into shotgunning the beer, Nancy told her to go off alone while bleeding) and essentially treated as nothing more than a place holder for Jonathan by Nancy.
- Nancy and Steve aren't even officially over (they never say it's over at any point until AFTER Nancy sleeps with Jonathan) before she's running of with Jonathan.
- Gets beaten again for trying to protect the kids from Billy.
- Gets beaten by Russians while trying to make sure Dustin and Erica can get to safety.
- Crashes a car (twice since S5 vol 1 was released) in an attempt to save the day and be useful.
- Almost drowns while being dragged into the upside down. Is then almost immediately almost strangled to death while being eaten alive by demo bats (not as bad as Eddie but the bats did TRY).
- And seen so much death from the occupants at the Mall to the people being snap crackle popped by Vecna.
And is expected to keep being the goofy dorky idiot he's been since season 1. He's constantly called an idiot or dumb despite his attempts to learn and grow. It's seen in Season 2 that he feels inadequit and knows he's "dumb" which is a sore spot considering he wasnt accepted into College (WHICH HE ACTUALLY WANTED). He takes hit after hit and no one thinks to comfort and talk to him about it. So yeah, he's gonna cope the only way he always has. Except now he has friends creating distance. Any advice he gave to Dustin, i.e don't poke the bear (because he can't stand to loose Dustin like he's lost so many others (his parents due to neglect and lack of care, Tommy Hagan (a terribly friend but still), Carol, Nancy, Eddie (when he was finally seeing he COULD be friends with him), Max) Dustin does it anyway because he likely perceived it as "forget Eddie and move on" which it wasn't. It's a "I understand your grieving but don't put yourself in danger to do it." We have evidence from the dialogue of the first few episodes that Dustin just isn't listening to people not wanting him hurt. So of course Steve's response is going to be annoyed indifference because you can only do so much and be ignored before you stop caring.
NEITHER OF THEM ARE COPING WITH THEIR TRUAMA WELL! No one is addressing it. On top of everything else Steve is dealing with emotionally and mentally to this point, Steve also has Jonathan calling him selfish, cruel and rude for being empathetic to Nancy and trying to find who he is without Dustin or Nancy.
I don't see the entire "race to the top of the tower" as being about Nancy at all. This is always how Steve's acted in an attempt to be useful- putting himself in danger to get things done. By Jonathan making it about his fragile masculinity and Nancy, it puts in question whether Steve is even useful anymore. I don't see any Nancy-Steve romance here. I see Steve genuinely trying to be a good friend and feeling like he had to compete with Jonathan to be see as valuable and necessary as well as being seen as a friend at all. I feel like a lot of the "Steve still has feelings for Nancy" comes from a) Eddie thinking he still likes Nancy and b) Steve has no clue how to act around her since they broke up and he's evolved. Nancy sees he's a changed man but she doesn't have feelings for him. Nancy didn't jump into Watergate because she loved him. Nancy did it because she couldn't stand the idea of someone dying if she could prevent it (Season 3 trauma as well as trauma from Barbs death). They never got closure on their relationship because Nancy immediately jumped to Jonathan and then the gate needing to be closed. I feel that the scenes we've seen in S5 V1 has very much been them finding that closure and realizing they were never meant to be and it never would have worked out even with character growth on both sides.
Jonathan's hasn't seen everything Steve had done because following Nancy and Jonathan getting together Steve focused on... DUSTIN. Then the mall burned down and the Byers moved. Jonathan is seeing season 1 Steve where he no longer exists. So yes, Steve is going to fight back how he can- verbally because dude can't win a physical fight. So Jonathan's issues of not being good enough for Nancy and his lack of interactions with Steve post Season 1/2 means he can't and won't acknowledge that Steve has changed. Which further fucks with any sense of self worth and growth Steve has developed. Steve can't do shit without Dustin AND Jonathan being rude. One because of grief (Dustin), and one through petty jealousy.
I can see Steve being done. Dude had been through it and every attempt he makes to ensure the people he cared about are safe gets twisted, unappreciated, or just flat out ignored. If Jonathan tried to have a conversation with Steve outside of the petty Nancy drama he'd see that Steve isn't who he was in season 1. Everyone is looking at the surface level of Steve and Nancy and El and Will and Mike without looking at everything they've gone through and what it made them. Steve isn't regressing back to S1 Steve, he's finally growing a backbone and navigating who he wants to be and how he will allow people to view and use/accept him. Something he is learning from Robin.
