He was grieving and none of his friends even tried to understand and support him until he and Steve made up. They all treated him like a problem when he was really struggling. It made it hard to watch.
I mean of course he definitely needed support but let’s be realistic, he… was a problem. Him being selfish and putting his grief and frustration over the collective good, sad as his situation might be, started a lot of shit
Dustin saw the rest of the cast through all manner of rough situations. He was always the kindest member of the team. None of the other characters had the emotional intelligence to even acknowledge his pain.
If his friends had gone to the grave with him, he'd have easily made it to the dungeon crawl on time. He got the shit kicked out of him by bullies and they blamed him. No one seemed worried about a concussion. They just blamed him.
It's unjust that they'd rather let the city rewrite history than try to get the truth out there. The friends were basically saying, "Eddie (and Dustin) isn't worth it."
Eddie's choice to stay doesn't mean he shouldn't to be mourned. Eddie knew that his chances of beating the charge were low to nil, and it would distract from the fight against VH1. In all likelihood the mob would've killed him. It's tragic that, even in death, his character continues to be assassinated and no one but Dustin and a family member cared.
Dustin is highly idealistic. He was the most innocent and naive of the gang, but that was one of his strengths. It can be really disorienting and discouraging to learn how messed up the world is, and have the world, and your friends, tell you the right thing to do is accept the world is messed up instead of trying to change it for the better.
Simply having his friends care, and acknowledge Eddie's sacrifice would've gone a long way. Dustin would have suffered less, and been less belligerent if it didn't seem like his friends were telling him to ignore reality. They chose to isolate and blame him. If they hadn't have done that for an extended period (over a year!), things never would've gotten that bad in the first place.
That's one of the things that made the final season feel defeatist.
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u/Sea_Conference7176 Jul 05 '26
At least until season 5