{"id":390298,"date":"2026-01-04T04:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T04:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/390298\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T04:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T04:04:09","slug":"the-duffer-brothers-defense-of-that-stranger-things-scene-you-hated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/390298\/","title":{"rendered":"The Duffer Brothers Defense Of That Stranger Things Scene You Hated"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Chris Snellgrove<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t | Published 28 seconds ago\t\t<\/p>\n

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Stranger Things had a very rocky final season, and its penultimate episode ended up being the lowest-ranked of the entire series. There are many reasons fans disliked that episode, but the one most frequently mentioned is the prolonged scene in which Will Byers came out to his friends, finally confirming to his inner circle (and a few more distant associates) that he is gay. Now, in a recent interview, the Stranger Things showrunners defended this scene by declaring it fit the show\u2019s themes and narratives while explaining more about how our plucky heroes would ultimately defeat Vecna.<\/p>\n

Will\u2019s coming out scene was dragged by many fans for surprisingly different reasons\u2026some hated it for culture war reasons, seeing the addition of a prominent gay storyline to an \u201880s homage as proof that Stranger Things had gone \u201cwoke.\u201d Others just thought the scene was clunky; after all, it takes forever, it features multiple characters Will never interacted with, and (I hate to say it) Noah Schnapp\u2019s performance makes the intended emotional beats unintentionally awkward. However, in an interview with Variety, the Duffer Brothers defended this scene by emphasizing both its powerful symbolism and its importance in underscoring how to defeat Vecna.<\/p>\n

Defending The Worst Scene In The Worst Episode Of Stranger Things<\/p>\n

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According to Stranger Things co-creator Ross Duffer, Will\u2019s coming-out is \u201ca really important scene\u2026not just from a thematic point of view, but also a narrative point of view.\u201d He says that \u201cthis show has always been about our characters overcoming evil\u201d and that \u201cVecna\u2026represents all the dark thoughts and the evil of society.\u201d He said that for our heroes (including Will) to defeat Vecna, it was vitally important for them to start \u201cembracing themselves, and then also embracing one another and coming together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sibling and fellow Stranger Things co-creator Matt Duffer chimed in, saying that coming out \u201cwas the final step in Will\u2019s journey\u201d and that \u201cWill is, in so many ways, the key to defeating Vecna.\u201d Once the young man realizes the importance of self-acceptance, \u201che knows that he needs to\u201d come out in front of everyone, a \u201cfinal step\u201d that \u201che finds the courage\u201d to take. To this showrunner, the coming-out scene is \u201creally the ultimate f*ck you you Vecna,\u201d which he claims \u201cwas the intention of the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good Intentions Are Not Enough To Save Bad Scenes<\/p>\n

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Whether this is a successful defense of Stranger Things\u2019 most controversial scene is all a matter of perspective, of course: I never hated the scene for its subject matter. There\u2019s nothing inherently wrong with having gay characters, and it makes sense that coming out would be a huge deal to a traumatized teenager in the 1980s. The Duffers clearly had good intentions with this scene, but there is often a major gulf between intention and execution. In this case, it\u2019s clear that the road to a hellishly stupid scene was absolutely paved with good intentions.<\/p>\n

The symbolic and thematic significance of Will Byers\u2019 big scene doesn\u2019t change the fact that it was weird for him to come out to a huge room that included people he never met\u2026like, this is supposed to be an important and intimate moment, but there are so many people in the room that it looks like Will turned his sexual orientation into a show-and-tell exercise for a small classroom. The scene is also poorly-acted, something that is obvious when you compare Noah Schnapp\u2019s performance to that of other child actors like Sadie Sink<\/a>. Finally, the scene lasted forever, and it dragged the momentum of an already-slow season to a complete halt.<\/p>\n

As a Stranger Things fan, I\u2019m glad the Duffers chimed in on this controversial scene, but the blunt truth is that learning what they were trying to do doesn\u2019t make a bad scene any better. Representation is and always will be important, but simply including gay characters in your show doesn\u2019t matter if the writers just give them the worst possible scenes and dialogue. Remember, guys: virtue-signalling alone doesn\u2019t make for a good story, and giving one-half of your gay characters the worst scene in the series is actually worse than giving them no scenes at all!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Chris Snellgrove | Published 28 seconds ago Stranger Things had a very rocky final season, and its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,209029,24362,181573,179523,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-390298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-noah-schnapp","12":"tag-stranger-things","13":"tag-stranger-things-season-5","14":"tag-the-duffer-brothers","15":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}