Spoilers Ahead, You’ve Been Warned.
With October coming to an end, the anticipation of the show Stranger Things Two, created by Matt and Ross Duffer was imminent this past weekend. Everywhere I looked on social media, someone was posting the binging of the show. You did not know what to expect after watching season one's ending, but the most delightful surprise came from Steve Harrington’s character development.
Steve’s role in season one was the iconic 80’s school jock that everyone loved to hate. He chased after Nancy to only then treat her badly, bullied Jonathan into breaking his camera, and his jealousy got the best of him. There seemed to be no redemption or humanizing moment for him until the end of the season where he told off his friends and tried to reconcile with Nancy and Jonathan. His iconic bat with nails made an appearance to help the whole gang fight off the Demogorgon. His slow transition to helping others started when he bought a new camera and secretly gave it to Jonathan through Nancy.
As Steve’s Hair got bigger, Steve’s heart also grew. Dealing with the breakup of Nancy and the new character Billy becoming the schools “better Steve” he became an outcast which led him to again help Dustin and the other kids. His purpose essentially became to be a father figure to Lucas, Max, Will and most importantly Dustin.
Steve showed compassion for the kids by promising Nancy to look after them and listened to their problems. His maturity appeared when he was not angry at Jonathan and Nancy but accepted that Nancy did not love him like he loved her and tried to move on. One of the greatest feelings of watching a character grow like Steve is that you’re always rooting for that person because you see some of it in yourself. No matter how interesting bad is, we always want good to succeed.
This season was about Steve becoming what he was meant to be, the encouraging character that finally knows who he is and what he wants. Just goes to show the writing of the duffer brothers, that they can get the audience to accept a lovable character from what he was in season one. People started writing across social media “Justice for Steve Harrington” because the audience felt that he didn’t deserve all the bad things happening to him during this season. His status of power with a relationship, friends, and school fell but he came out a humbler human being. And that’s a victory in itself.
