Assuming that everything that happens in the show is part of the "campaign", you're telling me a group of eleven year olds sat in a basement in 1983 and one of them was like "and what if my character is in love with your character and spends years quietly suffering, thinking his feelings are unrequited?" And the other went "got it" and started penciling emotional repression and internalised homophobia onto his character sheet.

Will: roleplaying, trembling voice "and when you're different, you feel like a mistake..."

Duffers saying El was never going to be with the gang in the end , because she "represents the magic of childhood" is just sad. Because , yes, characters can represent something -but writers need to understand they're MORE than just a symbol . They’re also a person/character in the narrative. The fact she also represents the magic of childhood of all things is awfully portrayed since Jane herself never had a real childhood - and because of the writers she doesn’t get an adulthood either .

They also just ignored how they purposely wrote mileven problematically , and instead of letting them break up , or even having El fake her death to find happiness elsewhere (with her sister) . They instead just let mileven kiss (hand wave their issues with an empty speech/ montage) and then immediately kill El off (after they shot Kali ). Also, El says “I love you “ right before she dies … and mike still doesn’t say it back 🙄. She deserved better than that!

What was the point of Hopper’s speech where he says Kali/El shouldn’t have to off themselves, and that they deserve a happy ending (despite life being unfair to them) ? Guess it was pointless. Can’t let El/Kali : the victims of government oppression and abuse ever get a “happy ending”. In fact , both die due to the government . What an uplifting message during these fraught political times. 🙄 This is the opposite of an uplifting message for ab*se survivors: "break the cycle" by offing yourself??????!!!!

El says in reference to Mike’s plan of going somewhere with waterfalls , that : “this isn’t like one of your campaigns ; you don’t get to write the ending”.But then he does just that (he writes HER ending in HIS campaign )! And after 18 months … Will and Mike never get closure or even bring up the painting ? In the “friends don’t lie” show??? They ignore the lie/ cyarno trope all together? Mike even hangs the painting up in his room cause he’s still oblivious and thinks El commissioned it ? Mike falls for the fantasy of El (that Will created) . Just like Mike falls into the fantasy story he created : where El is the mage who is still alive and looking at a waterfall. Did Mike ever really see the real her (or was she just a fantasy to him )? Just like the fantasy characters in his childhood d&d games . Similar to how the duffers claimed El was just a symbol for the “magic of childhood “, ick. Mike is wearing those ugly glasses cause he’s channeling his final form as his oblivious father (who is blind to everything around him) . mike’s worst fears come true : he’s alone, full of regrets, the party drifted apart, and he seemingly never moves on. And it’s implied Will eventually gets a bf who doesn’t have a name , and is on screen for less than 0.5s. . The writers were cowards .

This is why we can’t trust straight dudes to write woman or queer relationships. Even if you believe el survived : then they brought Kali back to kill her friends, torture her , shoot her , and facilitate the white heroine’s happy ending (which is also super gross optics ) . They also chicken-ed out on byler . And said: let’s queerbait and kill the main heroine ( so we don’t have to follow through on breaking up mileven ). Since we’re afraid to follow through on the og plan: let’s just kill her instead (so no one is allowed to ever criticize the main ship ever again) ! I'll never forgot how they compared mileven to ted/karen in multiple seasons . And In s4 made countless parallels of mileven to El/Brenner . El claims Mike always “understood her the most” in s5 , but in s4 she straight up said he doesn’t “understand” her? You can't gaslight us , and claim they were some great love .

Also , they never explain how hopper is allowed to be the police chief again. They had a funeral? What was the cover story to allow him back in Hawkins PD?

Don’t even get me started on the other plot holes … so many plot holes.

I will be doing a more rational breakdown of the Duffers problematic writing choices later (when I’ve calmed down). I actually wrote a whole break down of those issues before the finale just in case so it’ll probably be out soon. And no it’s not just about byler (that’s only 1 bullet point of like a 25 bullet point list). The duffers didn't subvert tropes like we expected them to. They literally tried to bring back old problematic ones.