we all know that in season 3, will was moved from the center stage to the bleachers, watching passively everything that happened. now, the duffers have implied that season 5 will have will as the central character, he is the missing piece in the plot that still has no answer. and yet they have also said that they want to go back to season 1’s teams and dynamics, which seems to mean that will is going to get alienated once again as el, mike, dustin and lucas are the OG party.
i’m going to analyse the themes of the characters and seasons, and what they mean for will’s own arc, as he is the one member of the main cast that has been used more as a plot device than as a character driven by his own desires and feelings.
THE SEASONS VS WILL
there’s a reason you hide from them.
season 4 has been an almost exact parallel of season 2, with one glaring exception: in s2, will was the main character; in s4, will was the gay best friend a background character. but none of these statements are actually true.
since season 1, will has been a plot device. the literal plot of the show starts with his disappearance.
then in s2 he takes the spotlight, but that doesn’t mean he is a character. the visions and his possession move the plot and the character forwards, and his actions have consequences in all the subplots. his central emotion is fear, and when he does try to face it, he ends up getting possessed and is back to square one. he tries to lie but can’t hide anymore, and trusts his mom and mike. even when he wants something bad (ie. to lie), the plot denies him that possibility.
in s3, he is in the background, but his emotions are used to further the plot, not his own character. he feels like his friends left him behind, like his childhood is over but he can’t move on. it serves to show how childish mike and lucas are in comparison to el and max, and how they’ve all grown up. and then he feels the mind flayer and explains what probably happened, so his feelings get dropped as he moves the plot and characters from a to b. he is a wizard like gandalf, merlin or dumbledore, not harry potter. he helps the heroes understand the situation and promptly disappears.
in s4, will gets back to his s2 arc. he has a secret (seeing the visions/being possessed and being gay/in love with mike) and tries to hide it by lying. his emotions (his fear and his love) seem to be the focus of his character, but that’s a lie too, because his character is there to move the characters forward. he is el’s only friend, he gives mike advice, he pushes mike to confess and save el, he even tries to help jonathan when jonathan is trying to help him. but the difference is that this time, the plot allows him to lie. he lies to mike so he can say the truth about him, because his lie is integral to the plot, not him.
TRUTH VS LIE
the truth is just the opposite. you are better than they are. superior. it is why you frighten them.
season 4 was a season that focused on facing the past and the truth. every main character has faced it in one way or another. el learned about her past and left brenner, mike said i love you (even tho he’s still very much queercoded and hiding his feelings), steve/jonathan/nancy is a thing apparently, joyce saves hopper like she couldn’t save bob, max faces vecna, lucas faces jason, dustin and eddie become heroes.
and then there’s will.
he lies to mike for the first time. he stands behind and looks at the plot and only speaks up when mike or el need it. he goes back to hawkins and gets thrown into the action without him wanting to. el and will are dramatic folds of each other, and now henry parallels will too. even lucas and max parallel mike and will in s2.
we knew her past from other people. brenner and kali and her mother, and then in this season she gets to be the narrator of her own story, albeit against her will and relieving traumas. we learn what she did by her own memories, and that makes her the most human we’ve ever seen her in all seasons. she’s not a superhero, she’s el. she has a family and friends and a past. she leaves the lab behind and faces one.
we start vol. 1 knowing vecna/henry through others. his father in the asylum, el’s memories. and then vol. 2 starts with him telling his story, showing us his memories. he gets the chance to tell his truth and explain his motives.
max parallels will by being the target of vecna. she starts emotionally closed off, just like will in s2, and gets visions that feed on her fear, even as she tries to hide from them. she gets to share her feelings with lucas, and then vecna turns it against her, making max hide in her happy memory, just like the scene in the shed of s2. even if things ended up bad for her, she still got the chance to face her demons.
will doesn’t get that chance. everything we know about him comes from other people or subtle hints. we know he’s gay because the show has been telling us he’s different even from his friends since s1. we know he’s selfless and kind because the characters have been telling us he is since s1. (almost) everything we knew about him in s1 was through memories and other characters. except a few times in s2, his feelings are always hidden behind the feelings of others. he says they’re ruining the party, not him, and doesn’t admit what he thought until mike forces him to. he doesn’t tell mike he felt left out until he talks about el lying and mike confronts him about his behaviour. he says he’ll always be there for jonathan because jonathan talks about being there for him first. he says it’s scary to open up and that he needs mike, but only because he’s putting mike and el’s feelings as a front. he doesn’t even tell anybody he felt vecna until mike says he’s gone.
MEMORY VS FUTURE
he found his strength in a memory from his past. something that made him sad. but also, angry.
memories are a vital part of stranger things, starting from the basis that it happens during the 80s and uses a lot of references and nostalgia to fuel the plot.
i won’t elaborate about the use of memories this season because memories, in this case, are equal to lies. the nostalgia in the show is a lie. the 80s were hell for a lot of people, and as the characters grow up that hell becomes clearer. what starts as bullying because they’re nerds develops into racism against lucas, homophobia against will, ableism against el. what starts as the government wants to take our friend develops into the cold war has tangible consequences (cough cough anti-socialist propaganda cough cough), we have to bury a body and hopper has to endure the gulag.
the central scene of will’s character, the one that explains him in s4, is the one where he destroys castle byers, renouncing his childhood. castle byers represents his childhood, and when he sits inside and looks at the pictures, he only sees the good.
castle byers was his hiding place from his father and the demogorgon when he was in the upside down. the photo of the party as ghostbusters was taken before they were relentlessly bullied and he had an episode and had to be pulled out of it by mike. the drawings of dnd campaigns now meant nothing as his friends abandoned him for girls. the bat he breaks the castle with is the one his father used to force him to play with when he was a kid.
he prefers the certainty of the memories, rose-tinted and nostalgia-fueled, over the uncertainty of a future he knows will bring nothing but pain. getting left behind by his friends, by his siblings, having to hide his sexuality, having to settle for a job. even in s4 there’s a throwaway line where he suggests going to vegas to be rich and never having to stop playing dnd and nintendo.
he’s been forced to grow up. he wants to go back to memories that weren’t real.
HIDING VS STANDING UP
i could not pretend. and i realized i didn't have to. i could make my own rules.
there’s an elephant in the room i didn’t address before, but now i have to, because everything has been leading up to this:
how did will survive the upside down?
he was a child. he was taken and yet he somehow hid for a week. we don’t know (as far as i know the comic isn’t canon now) how he did it, or why he was taken, but there is a reason. and it will be the main thing to discover.
to will, this means doing exactly the opposite of what el, henry, max and even himself have done.
el and henry found strength in their memories. el gets her strength from the love of her family and friends, the confidence in herself she’s managed to build. henry gets his strength from the anger and pain of his childhood, the resentment festering in him for years. max hid from vecna in her happy memories, in the love and happiness of her friends and boyfriend. will found strength in the memory of bob telling him to stand up.
but they all lost.
el and max lost against henry. henry lost against el. will lost against the mind flayer, and then the mind flayer took his memory so he couldn’t hide from him. their memories, at the end of the day, are just memories.
will byers will win because he will stand up, because his arc means that his strength comes from the future.
he is stuck in childhood. he hides in the memory of the music and the games and the party and his family. but in season 5 he has to stand up for the hope of what’s to come. he has a future, and he can be happy, and that’s what his arc has to be about.
if season 5 goes back to the beginning that means that will starts and ends the show. his disappearance starts season 1. his possession starts s2. the part of the mind flayer that was in him starts s3. s4 starts with el joining will’s family. the arc of s5 starts when will turns to see the upside down merging with hawkins.
his search for himself has to end with him facing his past and his truth not to stand up, but to look at his future and say that the truth about himself is that he deserves to be happy.
will byers has to be the hero, because his arc is the one that ends in the future.
