Ok I agree about Max and El but why is Will catching strays? There is no indication he is more powerful than El, he doesn't even really have his own powers, he's just channeling the hive mind. Of course the scene where he uses them for the first time needs to be big, that's how action tv works. But he's always had some sort of connection to the upside down in previous seasons, he's not "becoming El" or whatever. El is the female protagonist and Will is the gay protagonist, why pit two bad bitches against each other?
will is “catching strays” because he is not a good character and yet somehow he’s become the focal point of the last season of this show, sidelining the more compelling characters, and i’m frustrated by that.
will byers has not been well written since season two (so essentially he only was for like. one season. given he’s barely in s1) and this issue is exacerbated by noah schnapp being an absolutely abysmal actor who makes every emotional scene extremely overwrought with his comically wide eyes and dramatic slow motion turning around whenever he feels his neck for the 500th time in a season. for 5 seasons stretched over the span of 10 years, we are asked to care about the Same story moment over and over. s5 starts by making us watch 5 minutes of badly cgi’d noah schnapp in the upside down again. we are constantly getting flashbacks snippets to s1 and 2 will. going missing in the UD has been the crux of will’s entire character over and over and over again. meanwhile other characters are not wholly defined by whatever experience they encountered at the start of the show—nancy lost her best friend to the upside down, but since then she’s had her journalism arc in s3 and became invested in victor creel in s4 and now is looking for her little sister in s5. el escaped from the lab in s1 and then formed a family/met kali in s2, formed her friendship with max and investigated billy’s possession in s3, etc.
will isn’t the only character who is stuck with their s1 plotline, i will say. every single season hopper is relearning all over again that he can open up and be close to his child without having to blame himself for sara etc etc. hopper is also a badly written character. and every show will have its less compelling characters, and they have their place in the story, but the solution the duffer brothers have come up with to appease the multitude of fans online who loudly insist that will deserves to be the focal point of the show is to just….give him el’s storylines. oh his parent is overprotective and doesn’t trust him to use his innate powers? oh he garnered the strength to control his powers by visualizing someone he loves, specifically mike? oh he gets a nosebleed after using powers? where have i seen this all before……..
this is while el is being completely cast aside. the powers that she’s trained and honed for years are just turned off at the flick of a switch. her screentime is extremely minimal. none of her friends nor her boyfriend seem concerned in the slightest that she’s in a dangerous situation. we haven’t gotten to see her mention max even once. and i would argue that will being able to tap into the hivemind and use it for his advantage is definitely a power, and he was able to kill three demogorgons scattered across town, all at once, immediately. think about baby el focusing all her energy on just crushing a coke can. el had genuine build up in how she developed her powers, and will can suddenly kill three demogorgons at once on his first try. it’s frustrating because it feels so deeply unearned, it feels like the duffer brothers trying once again to satisfy audiences, and the icing on the cake is that noah schnapp CANT ACT 😭
also. will is not The gay protagonist. we have robin as well guys. robin has been on the show since 2019, she explicitly came out, she is in a relationship with a woman. a relationship i would have liked to see the build up to btw!! i would have loved to see how they started dating and more of how they interact, but their relationship had to be rushed and ready for the first episode explicitly so we could focus their intimate moment entirely on how it makes will feel.
at the end of the day like….will byers is not exempt from critique when we discuss how this show routinely sidelines its female characters in favor of male characters on the basis of him being gay. i think the arc focusing on his sexuality is, ironically, one of the worst cases of sidelining a female character i.e. robin. i don’t think will is well written. i don’t think will is well acted. i don’t think will deserves to suddenly be the overpowered hero who we focus the entire last season on while el is cast aside and her powers are just turned off by a machine. it feels unearned and it feels lazy and i do object to the notion that i’m doing something wrong by saying i don’t like a character from a tv show and comparing him to his much cooler, more interesting, and more complex counterpart in el
jacobvanloon
vaporwave
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