Happy to Be Me!

What I wouldn't be able to get over if Conformitygate isn't real at all (I still fully believe it's real but hypothetically speaking) is that the writers, ALL of them, then decided it would be cool to queerbait the audience? And the thing is they KNOW how to bait people already.

Because they did it before. There is no "they are stupid and just didn't know that they did it." They know how to subvert expectations and not cater to homophobes or viewers who only view relationships in a heteronormative lens. They technically made fun of them by literally "straight-baiting" the audience in season 3 with Steve and Robin. (I know it is not the same thing as queerbaiting FYI, queerbaiting is actually harmful and cruel, I am just calling it this as a comparison)

In the third episode they hold hands in a moment of panic, implying there's a possible romance building up, which would eventually unfold over the course of the season. Yay, hopefully Steve will finally get a new love interest!

Then BAM, just kidding 😘, Robin comes out to him in a moment of vulnerability on the mall bathroom floor. They hit the audience out of nowhere with it in the 7th episode.

Like, I had never witnessed "straight-baiting" before this show had done it, and I loved it. They were basically like, "oh you thought something straight was happening here? Just kidding! Fuck you homophobic uncles 🤗"

So how could these be the same writers in season 5? I just don't believe that they were mocking the Mike x Will dynamic that people have noticed in the writing for years in season 5. That would genuinely not only be cruel but, kind of out of character, imo, based on how they handled the Steve and Robin dynamic.