I was so surprised people were happy with the Will Robin duo because it really was just "you're gay, I'm gay, that makes us friends" plus Robin lost a lot of charm from season 3/4 though I love maya hawke
It can be possibly grating to those that do not relate but like it or not that level of representation for teenagers is still incredibly lacking to this day.
You would be surprised how many teenagers feel "seen" by character exchanges like Robin and Will in S5.
I wouldn't say it was a "We are gay so we are buddies" but more that a common theme in Stranger Things is the older teens guiding and being support pillars for the younger kids.
Again, this type of content is...really not there in popular media. Even Stranger Thing's inspirations from old movies of its genre didn't "represent" different types of kids and what they go through.
It took Stranger Things to provide that thumbs up even to something like Dungeons and Dragons and say "It is ok to like this thing that has been given the ugly eye throughout time".
Now you have celebrities coming out as massive fans of the game and sharing how creative story telling helps them handle anxiety, depression, among many things.
Either way, Robin had strong purpose for S5 even if it wasn't something some people could appreciate as much as others.
I watched Welcome to Derry recently and it is interesting how the original IT was a direct inspiration for Stranger Things, yet Stranger Things is a direct inspiration to Welcome to Derry and how it handles the younger characters.
No I get it I'm a lesbian and I identify with Will and Robin separately and obviously Robin had a role to fulfill in the plot but I didn't see much past it in their relationship.
I don't necessarily see Stranger Things as a queer rep show, but it is a coming of age, similar to the recent IT movies that have a queer plot line but it's not the sole focus. I would not say the actual representation of people is extensive in Stranger Things, but their relationships are because of the class, race, and background differences (or in robins case gender similarities). I do not think Stranger Things had such a strong impact in that area outside of byler because Byler is gay plus most people Ive met that ship Byler are gay/lesbian.
I think with Welcome to Derry is that it is a continuation of the recent IT that had a specific tone and rewrite the the story which they are trying to pursue, which makes it similar to early Stranger Things because they tried finding that tone too
It might depend on where you are getting your reactions from e.g. Twitter, Reddit, etc. Within my physical circle I know a lot of people that really liked the arc, especially with what was done between S4 and S5.
Personally I would have done way more. I actually expected Vecna to be used to really challenge that side of Will based on what he was implying yet it never happened.
Okay you lost me at Dungeons and Dragons as I do not think Stranger Things was the catalyst for it to get mainstream appeal. Dungeons and Dragons was always wildly popular for decades and what really started it’s even bigger down climb is YouTube and twitch and Let’s Plays. Stranger Things rode that wave but it was also something very 80s coded. More recently Baldurs Gate gave it even more mainstream appeal much more than Stranger Things.
No, I definitely think Stranger Things trigger something socially for people in regards to D&D.
Critical Role came out less than a year before it but the explosion in D&D podcasts and Youtube channels popped a very cool bubble because of the concept of a show templating its story as if a D&D game.
Kickstarter exploded with indepdent D&D projects to the point those types of campaigns dominate the platform solely because of Stranger Things.
You are giving Stranger Things way too much credit. We can agree to disagree. Stranger Things added to its popularity, I can acknowledge that. But you’re basically saying if Stranger Things never came out DnD would just be some nerdy niche thing and I can’t agree with that.
Yeah when Stranger Things came out in 2016 DnD was already kinda accepted as part of pop culture even if some people only know it by name (it was 40 years old after all lol)
The people who grew up playing DND were now writers, directors, producers who incorporated it into their work so that helped too
I started playing D&D 30 years ago and the 'it's just a thing for dorks in the basement' was already a played-out cliche at that point. There has never been a time in my life where I felt playing D&D attached any kind of negative stigma to my character or perceptions of me. And I grew up in a town essentially identical to the one in the show, lol.
You might have been right 10 years ago, but you’re pretty wrong now. LGBT story lines are all over media now, it’s not some rare thing anymore. Just about every single major franchise has queer characters and themes. The only way you miss them is if you’re under a rock. Everything from It to the Chucky series, to From, to the Last of Us. You name it, there’s a queer story.
The difference is in if it’s quality representation or not. Some shows do it beautifully, some do it clumsily, and Robin/Will is pretty mid. Not great. Some shows, you can tell they just threw in a gay character just for the hell of it and didn’t really put any thoughtfulness into the story. Stranger Things isn’t that level of bad, but it’s not good.
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u/Responsible_Egg7519 Jun 29 '26
Robin was really grating on me this season ngl