he's a pretty reserved and quiet guy but we still get to see him be a dork in s1 and act like a typical teenager!!! having fun riding his scooter during the blackout with his brothers, getting SO excited over perfecting his split kick, and the background stuff too, like reading a book (and getting interrupted by the battle shell almost running him over in "fallen angel" rip), and eating junk food with his brothers.

but you get further into the series, and a lot of that stuff just kinda... fades away. he'll still mess around and play with his brothers sometimes before the plot starts, but the more obvious dorky teenage stuff sort of stops, and 99% of the time in the background shots in the set-up to the plot, he's training. And it's not even the fun, "i REALLY want to get this move right, hey look guys i did it!!! :3", kind of training like with the split kicks. he's taking it 100% serious, like it's life or death. And well..... I think for him, it definitely feels that way.

I mean, Tales of Leo pretty much shows us what is most important to him. (and i always go kind of bonkers over just how explicit they are in laying out just who exactly Leonardo is and what makes him tick in that single episode. Obviously the show does it at least once for the others too bc it's a kid's show, but once they give us the basics of personality early on, they let the characterization come through more subtly. In comparison, this episode comes late into the season and it kind of feels like them grabbing us and going "are you paying attention? this is important. it will be important.")

we get to see how focused he is, how he's been there to save his brothers when they get into trouble, how they trust him and his judgment, and most importantly from splinter's tale, protecting his family will always outweigh any fear he has. Leonardo is at his bravest when his family needs him. and we get proof of this moments later when he wakes up from his coma ("Leonardo, my son, you must gather all your strength and confront your fear"), he wakes up because he heard his family tell him they needed him.

and I think, pre-series, this protective drive, this responsibility he has gladly put on his shoulders, wouldn't be that much of an issue. Obviously, there were dangers but. Intermittent ones. Ones any of them were fully capable of handling on their own and as kids.

But then the show starts happening and their adventures get more dangerous, more lethal. And the stakes keep getting higher and higher.

And Leo feels this change the most keenly because he feels so responsible for the lives of his family. And, unintentionally, his family ends up reinforcing this belief, inadvertently places expectations on his shoulders, because at least once per season there's some big high stakes fight and everyone looks to Leonardo to pull through and finish things.

And obviously if they knew, if they realized how this might be affecting him, they would say something, do something, but Leo would never tell. He wants to protect them. He's probably happy and proud that they rely on him.

And so the series goes on, with his family none the wiser of what's happening, but, imo, you can see the cracks in the façade.

We know from Return to New York with the way he freezes and has a flashback when fighting the Elite that he most definitely has a little trauma from the Shredder Strikes Back. That he was afraid during that fight, even if he didn't show it. That he might've been scared during other moments in the show but didn't show it because his family needed him.

When he makes a mistake, he's so harsh with himself. In s3, Hunted, Leo steps on a mine and he immediately goes "stupid, stupid, stupid!" at himself. In the recap episode of s2, Raph points out that Leo isn't so perfect considering how he almost believed the Shredder when he tried to get Leo to join him. And unlike in the first episode of s1 where Leo pushes back against Raph's taunts, he just full-on agrees with Raph here. Splinter tries to let him know it's not his fault but he brushes off any comfort or reassurance, because in his mind, he should have been better.

All of his spare time now seems to be spent on training, because he needs to be ready for anything. And on that point, his hypervigilance is through the roof. If there's someone in the shadows, some quiet sound hinting at an attack, it's almost always Leo that notices. I think constantly of the moment in Hunted when Mikey would have been sniped if Leo hadn't noticed the glint of the rifle and got him out of the way. I'm sure what could have been haunts Leo. And it's those small moments, where Leo needed to be ready and able that keeps reinforcing Leo's belief that he has to be on the look-out, has to protect his family, because if he isn't, they will die.

I always find it odd when people refer to Steve as a “himbo” or make jokes about him being a “dumb jock” or whatever. I just… don’t know where that comes from?

 In canon, Steve is really smart. It’s not just that he’s a “tactical genius”, we see over and over that he has great deductive skills, he’s observant, thoughtful, and knowledgeable, and he’s excellent at quickly assessing situations/people and figuring out a course of action based on that. Just a few examples off the top of my head:

CATFA:

manages to infiltrate a HYDRA stronghold, take it down, and save several hundred prisoners, BY HIMSELF

leads an elite team of five people to successfully take out more HYDRA bases

after the ice, he wakes up in a strange place and immediately figures out that it’s not New York and that the woman there is lying to him

The Avengers:

figures out Loki’s plan to use Stark Tower at the same time as Tony

finds SHIELD’s stash of HYDRA weapons (before Tony is able to find out what SHIELD is hiding)

makes pretty much all the leadership decisions during the Battle of New York, including the timing of when to close the portal 

CATWS:

realizes that something hinky is going on with SHIELD, and connects it to the helicarrier project (which Fury hadn’t done)

is able to successfully figure out who can be trusted and who can’t (when even Fury put his trust in the wrong people)

realizes that the ambush in the elevator is going to happen before it does

figures out where the secret HYDRA bunker is at Camp Lehigh

comes up with the (ultimately successful) plan to take down the helicarriers

CACW

is the only person we see actually READ THE ACCORDS and make his decision based on that

figures out how to dismantle the Iron Man suit enough that Tony won’t be able to keep fighting

rescues his friends from the Raft, one of the most secure prisons in the world

he sees bucky again for the first time since 1945, standing on the business end of a gun, and through the pain and shock of this earth-shattering revelation, what does he say? what is the only thought he keeps coming back to? "even when i had nothing, i had bucky." which is such a powerful and, and intimate line, it knocks the breath out of you.

he has a moment to himself to gather his thoughts, and where does his mind travel to? to the lowest point of his life. the day he had to bury the only parent he had ever known, and found himself entirely alone in the world. yet the focus of that memory isn't so much on steve's grief, as you would expect; it's rather on bucky's comforting presence, his support, his unconditional affection. it's bucky offering to be steve's home, both literally and figuratively, and reminding steve that this, this thing between them, it's forever, no matter what.

there's just, this unspoken but very palpable tenderness between them, that steve keeps calling back to throughout the movie.

even when bucky's actively shooting at him, stabbing him, punching him with all the superhuman strength in his arm, steve doesn't see a heartless killing machine that must be stopped. even beaten to a pulp and on his way to bleeding to death, when steve looks up at bucky, he only ever sees the boy who loved him. the boy he has loved his whole life.

and now, now bucky's the one who has nothing. bucky's been stripped of everything: his name, his humanity, his sense of self, his freedom, his past. his entire life. for the past 70 years, he has been nothing but a weapon passed from hand to hand, used and brutalized without remorse.

and steve walks into that helicarrier determined to show him that what bucky told him that day, all those years ago? it goes both ways. that even now that bucky's got nothing, he still has steve, even if bucky doesn't remember that yet.

steve takes his helmet off, and lets go of his shield, and lays himself bare to bucky's rage - makes himself vulnerable in every way he possibly can - to show bucky that no matter what, there is one person in this world who loves him, and always will. that he's not alone, not anymore. steve will never let that happen again, even if it costs him his own life.

Bucky: *glances at Steve*

Bucky: *glances at Clint*

like they planning things for robin, discussing people they like (both being bi) etc

and would you believe that when jonathan said this i believed it. why else would this be in the script? obviously because we were going to get a moment of quintessential steve heroics in the final fight: taking a hit for one of the kids (mike?) that would have killed them but he's strong enough to take, protecting someone (maybe nancy) while they made the big play, being the fastest one to get to point x in time. something that required him to use one or both of his two key strengths (his bravery and his athleticism) to do something that no one else on the team could have done. a job for good old steve harrington. and we the audience would think, "wow, it's a good thing steve didn't fall off that tower, or else so and so would be toast!"

but nah. instead you have steve taking a passive backseat role - something he's never done in all five seasons. offering no leadership skills or experience as one of the most expert fighters on the team. not caring when nancy offers herself as bait. stabbing ineffectually at a gargantuan kaiju beast with a long pointy stick.

The problem, however, is that none of this is organic or earned on Jonathan's part. He spent the majority of this season with not much to do beyond getting into petty fights with Steve, and watching his relationship with Nancy deteriorate. The season 5 premiere literally has Joyce volunteering Jonathan to go with Steve on the Crawl because (apart from how Joyce didn't want Will out in the open) Jonathan otherwise would've been hanging out at the Squawk with nothing to do. And even then, Jonathan wasn't particularly helpful in that situation. It's a major contrast to Steve, who has spent most of this season active, whether that's driving during the Crawls, or doing the majority of the physical work in setting a trap for the Demogorgon at the Turnbow house, or offering the suggestion to Nancy about following the Demogorgon into the Upside Down to track it (which Nancy approved of), or breaking Jonathan and Nancy out of the room with melting exotic matter, or even coming up with the beanstalk plan to defeat Vecna.

So for them to have Jonathan take on the mantle of leadership in the final episode just comes out of left-field. There's no build-up to it. There's no instance of growth on Jonathan's part this season to justify taking on that role. It's just something the Duffer Brothers give Jonathan to compensate for how they've otherwise written him for the past few seasons. Even Jonathan saving Steve from falling off the tower is a cheap way writing-wise to absolve Jonathan for how much of an asshole he's been towards Steve for the last 19 months while also rewarding him with a friendship/camaraderie with Steve that he hasn't truly worked for. It's like the Duffer Brothers realized way too late how poorly Jonathan came out looking in season 5, with this being their last-ditched attempt to fix that. And it doesn't work.

Like, for all of the self sacrificial tendencies he has, Steve as a character has never been reckless or eager to put himself in danger. If nothing else, I’d argue that he’s one of the characters with best survival instincts in this show.

He’s the one that says “don’t poke the thing” and “this plan will get you all killed, so no” and “yes, I grabbed the thing to defend us all because we are always about to die” and “don’t be heroes, run away”.

His first instinct when faced with the UD is to run away, get to safety and call for help. But then (but then!) as he’s leaving he realizes that help will not make it on time. That Jonathan and Nancy will die if someone doesn’t intervene. And that he has the opportunity to intervene. So he does. Because…

It just so happens that he’s also extremely protective of people and a doer, able to recognize when he’s the best person for a job…

The only time we’ve seen Steve be arguably reckless was during s2 playing demodog bait, and even then it was part of a plan, not some impulsive choice or hero complex.

After that? Every dangerous choice he’s made was simply recognizing he was the person for the job and doing it.

Big ass man threatening the kids? He fights him even if he gets his shit rocked. Kids going into the tunnels? He goes with them to keep them safe. Russian about to turn them in? Charge against an armed man to stop him. Russians coming in for him and the kids? Hold the door, and yes, that means staying behind, getting caught, being tortured, but the plan was just giving Dustin and Erica a chance to escape. Billy about to kill Nancy? Slam a car into him. Etc. etc. etc.

We see this clearly in s4. Taking the oar in case he has to fight Eddie. Not letting Max on her own too long. Diving into the lake (because he’s the best choice) but not fucking around with it, he does his job, comes back to report… and when he gets dragged against his will, as soon as he’s able he arms himself and tries to fight back.

My point is… Steve Harrington very much doesn’t want to die. He’s actively trying not to die, as a matter of fact. He isn’t reckless or impulsive or trying to get himself killed.

It just so happens that he’s very physically capable (the tool for the job), that his reaction to things is fixing them (he’s a doer) and that he’s very protective of the people he loves (who are constantly putting themselves in dangerous situations).

He’s a pragmatist too so, with all those cards on the table, how could he make any other choice? It’s the logical one for him.