Steve’s Axe to Grind

so of course in s4 when she has this idea in the back of her mind, her first instinct is to pursue it alone. even though the others are right there, and they know what’s going on. she still thinks no one will believe her, and she’d rather just do it herself than have someone try to tell her no.

and when robin comes with her nancy thinks that she was right, that robin is just another person who is going to doubt her theories and fight her about whether this is worth their time. except, robin does believe her, she’s just trying to get the information she needs to keep up with nancy. and once they finally get on the same wavelength, everything clicks. robin not only supports nancy’s theory, she takes it and runs with it, and suddenly they have the foundation they need to figure out everything.

and what gets me even more is that, from that moment on, nancy keeps robin at her side. she’s keeping an eye out for her, standing near her in the group, letting her ride shotgun. even when she doesn’t fully trust robin at pennhurst, she still chooses her. and robin proves her wrong again, so nancy keeps choosing her and keeps trusting her.

People who grow up in homophobic cultures and households don’t always have strong feelings against gay people - they’re just doing what’s expected and repeating the same shit they’ve heard from their parents and classmates. “Queer” as an insult against Jonathan would have been making the rounds at school for years because that’s how that works. Ask literally anyone who got targeted that way in school.

When Steve’s trying to provoke Jonathan, because he’s so deeply hurt and feeling betrayed and trying to lash out, he calls him queer and also accuses him of having killed Will himself. Do we, like… actually think Steve believed Jonathan murdered his brother? I really think that would be a stretch. He said that to piss Jonathan off because he wanted to beat the shit out of him (or possibly he wanted to get beaten… sometimes when you’re hurting a lot, the only thing that makes sense is making the outside match the inside. You feel like you should be in PHYSICAL pain because the emotional pain is so great, so you cut yourself, burn yourself, punch walls, pick fights, or over-exercise. Steve is FAR from the only person I have known to have that impulse).

So I really think it’s unlikely that Steve has strong personal feelings about Jonathan’s sexuality. The more likely scenario is: he’s been hearing ‘that fucking queer, jonathan byers’ for years, he wants to hurt Jonathan, so he reaches for the easiest available weapon. He tries calling him a queer and when that doesn’t work (because Jonathan’s already heard it a million times) he goes harder and accuses him of killing Will and eventually he gets what he wants - a fist to the face.

Tellingly, after fighting Jonathan and nearly-fighting Tommy, Steve does actually seem to get the vitriol out of his system and immediately starts trying to make things right. He goes to clean up the graffiti and then goes personally to try to apologize to Jonathan. But I doubt he really saw calling Jonathan ‘queer’ as something to apologize for at that time. First of all, everybody was doing it. Second, Jonathan didn’t seem to care. He’d done actual damage with his hands and with the other provocations, so those offenses probably took priority. Steve is unsurprised Jonathan stays with Nancy so it seems like he doesn’t actually believe Jonathan is gay any more than he actually believed Jonathan hurt Will.

What I’m saying is, I don’t think even in Season 1 Steve actually EXAMINED his own casual (and I do emphasize casual) homophobia. He didn’t have to, because Jonathan wasn’t actually queer; it was just an insult used against him. He doesn’t EXAMINE it until Robin, and when she comes out to him, they’ve literally just been tortured together. They’ve JUST escaped an extremely traumatic life or death situation, she’s his new best friend, he’s kind of in love with her, and she confesses she only likes girls. And he has to decide (while drugged and sitting on a bathroom floor): does it actually fucking matter??? Does he care? Is this the kind of thing he cuts off a friend for? It didn’t MATTER to him until Robin’s friendship put stakes on the issue.

And I just think it’s telling of his character that when it suddenly matters whether he’s homophobic or not, when it’s PERSONAL, it takes him like 5 seconds to decide that he doesn’t actually give a shit. He’s too tired, too wounded, too lonely to have strong feelings about something that’s really not his business anyway.

Also, I just want to point out, when Steve called Jonathan a queer, he had zero idea what was going on. He was still living in his small-town WASP-world where being homecoming king probably seemed like a life-or-death issue.

When he rolled with Robin’s confession, he was a veteran and combatant in fending off an extra-dimensional invasion. He’d been injured, TORTURED, and seen people die over this. He’d been willing to lay down his life to protect the party already. That kind of shit changes a guy’s priorities. Like, seriously, at that point, he has better things to give a fuck about than if gay people exist.

You’re entitled to your opinions but I have to say, this really… is not an example of lazy writing. He made a decision only when he was forced to, and he made it with consideration toward how much the stakes (and his understanding of reality) had changed. He’s all “YAY GO GAY” to Robin in the last season because this is the first time he’s actually choosing a side on this issue, as opposed to just going with the flow, and he’s excitable. Have you legitimately never met a new ally who did the exact same shit? Because I spent years volunteering for PFLAG and let me tell you… I’ve seen a LOT of parents and friends turn aggressively supportive as soon as someone they personally care about turns out to be queer. It’s not actually unusual. I’ve had multiple young queer teens confess to me that like… they’re glad their parents love them but holy shit they’re being so cringe about this, could they maybe tone it down.

Steve also doesn’t have any other close friendships with people his own age so if he ends up a little bit over-invested in being supportive of Robin, that’s probably a little bit of “haha if she ditches me I will be absolutely fucking alone! Let’s not stare into that particular abyss tho!” going on. It’s not exactly SUBTLE that Steve has abandonment issues - they get emphasized, and triggered, repeatedly through the seasons. It’s LITERALLY the reason he flips out so hard in S01 over Nancy and Jonathan.

Steve gets home and immediately realizes it’s a horrible idea, he’s concussed, confused, alone, scared, and in pain.

He panics and ends up walking through the woods alone where Wayne finds him when he’s getting home from work.

Wayne freaks out over the injured sailor boy that looks like he hasn’t slept in days and who is confused about how he got there.

He convinces Steve to come in for coffee, but when they get inside Steve starts looking around fascinated by every little trinket. he ends up in Eddie’s room,

“Where am I?” he wonders and even through the questions and fears it makes Wayne chuckle, 

“This is my nephew’s room” He answers looking at Steve walk around with stars in his eyes at the mess.

“He must be really cool,” he tells Wayne.

Wayne nods and smirks but then Steve catches his own reflection in the mirror,

“is that me? Jesus no wonder you look so worried, I look like shit”

And he says something that breaks Wayne’s heart a little, “I’m sorry,” and he looks so sad too, and so honest like he really thinks him not looking okay is a problem for Wayne. Like Wayne would get mad at him for not being ‘presentable’.

“I should leave,” Steve says.

Wayne raises his arms in mock surrender,

“Woah, no kid, it’s fine, you don’t look that bad, I was only worried because you look tired. When was the last time you slept?”

Steve thinks for a while and frowns, “I don’t remember…”

“Why don’t you rest here in this cool room,” Wayne asks him with a kind smile, “and then will get that coffee, ok?”

Steve agrees and falls asleep the second his head hits the pillow.

Wayne sighs and leaves the room, he sits on the couch and sees on the tv the news about the fire.

It’s an explanation, not the whole truth but it’s something. Clearly, Steve was there but that doesn’t explain the bruises, the confusion, the fear. He feels like something else might be going on.

And why on gods earth was that kid all alone?

Eventually, he falls asleep too.

.

So when Eddie gets home from spending the night at Jeff’s after a gig, he finds his uncle sleeping on the couch and doesn’t find it weird at all, he tiptoes to his room for a change of clothes and there he finds the fucking former king of hawkings wearing the skimpiest sailor uniform sleeping on his bed, and for a second he thinks 'is it my birthday?’ but then Steve turns in his sleep and Eddie sees his face and thinks 'shit’

He is instantly worried, no matter how much he dislikes jocks, no one deserves to be brutalized like that.

And to ruin that beautiful face? A crime.

Once more he tiptoes into the hallway and goes where his uncle is slowly waking up. He gets close, real close so when Wayne opens his eyes the first thing he sees is Eddie blinking at him. 

Wayne jumps a little and bites back a curse, “Jesus kid!”

Eddie chuckles, “Sorry, Wayne. Might telling me about the little sailor in my bed?”

Wayne sighs and tells him.

.

When Steve wakes up a bit later is to the sound of Eddie’s acoustic. He’s sitting in his desk chair, plucking a sweet and soft melody,

“Morning goldilocks,” he tells him with a smile.

Steve, who had a bunch of excuses and apologies lined up already frowns, and inclines his head, “Goldilocks?”

“I found you sleeping in my bed, didn’t I?” Eddie answers sweetly.

Steve blushes, he can’t help it, and once more instead of getting up and leaving he gets distracted by Eddie’s whole deal.

“I’m not even blond” he argues.

Eddie bows his head at him, as if to say he got him there, but then says,

“You have locks of hair that look golden in the sun, goldilocks”

Steve really hopes the bruises cover his blush, he really, really hopes. But judging from Eddie’s smile, he can’t tell it’s not the case.

“I should leave,” he says moving slowly to the edge of the bed.

Eddie places his guitar on the desk and turns to fully look at him, “You don’t have to. If you don’t want to,” he points to something on the bottom of the bed, “Look, clean clothes and my fluffiest towel, why don’t you take a shower and then we drink that coffee my uncle promised?”

And Steve’s heart hurts with how much he wants that. He doesn’t want to be alone, he wants to stay here with the kind wonderful man he met last night and Eddie, who played guitar for him while he slept and thinks his hair is golden, but still…

“Are you sure? I don’t want to impose”

Eddie snorts and mouthes 'impose’ to himself before leaning closer and looking Steve in the eyes,

“I’m sure, Goldie. Go, shower. I’ll go put the kettle on”

Hopper’s death before they saved him worked because we had our hero/main plot character El emotionally devastated. It also gave a tragic end to Jopper, and the kids all had to grow up a bit in general because their main force protecting them from the Lab/Government was gone. Joyce however adopts El, El is a Byers kid now, so the tragedy has logical fallout and we aren’t like “that was needlessly mean” bc she has a support system. Versus like, Alexei for shock or Billy for “we need a death and evil boi must go”.

Now- I can see an excellent case being made for Will, El, or Jonathan. Will would devastate the party & his story has been so tragic anyways. A sacrifice to bring down Vecna could be his big hero moment. However, unless they wrapped up this love triangle, it wouldn’t be satisfying bc that plot thread is too entangled with coming of age narratives. Jonathan also could be a loss of innocence for Will, but it would be unsatisfying for Jonathan’s arc bc they complicated it with distance from Nancy (it’d be better if he and Nancy were making it work, then he was cut off before they got a chance to get back 100%. Right now they’re 5 seconds from break up so it’s not tragically beautiful). Also, Jonathan hasn’t been central for a little while so it’s a cop out, but it could be cool if Jonathan made sure his little brother never had to deal with the UD again via his death.

El is probably the ballsiest move to kill off. It could be narratively satisfying- but also killing your MC needs to be balanced really well, with a lot of foreshadowing or proper lead up that it doesn’t turn your viewers off entirely.

That being said- narratively speaking, Steve is the easiest to kill because you’re not killing a kid. You don’t have to rearrange plot arcs bc he’s muscle/bruiser/driver not an active investigator. You do lose an important leadership role, but Hopper is back and Nancy is stepping up, so the stakes could also be raised because the Tank isn’t there to act as their meat shield. Also, he is emotionally connected to a number of people, so you get a great payoff of grief without a lot of moving parts falling through the cracks. (Bc if you kill Will, Joyce will go nuts and the Party loses motivation. If El goes, where is the heavy hitter psychic? If Jonathan goes, not enough emotional impact.)