It’s formally 2025, which suggests any day now, we needs to be getting information from Netflix on when and the way they plan to launch the fifth and ultimate season of Stranger Issues. With filming formally wrapping in December 2024, all that’s left is the post-production part, the place the ultimate episodes will actually take form. Based mostly on the BTS images the Duffer Brothers and others have shared, I’ve excessive hopes that the hit Netflix collection goes to have probably the greatest endings in TV historical past. Nonetheless, there’s a small a part of me that’s nervous they could fall sufferer to at least one, sadly, widespread trope: “bury your gays.”
For those who will not be acquainted, “bury your gays” is a literary trope that has been round for over a century and, within the easiest phrases, implies that one of many lovers in an LGBTQ+ relationship should die, usually shortly after confessing their emotions. The trope was initially established to permit LGBTQ+ writers to inform their tales with out dealing with backlash for breaking legal guidelines prohibiting the “promotion” of homosexuality. Though lots of these legal guidelines now not exist, a minimum of in the USA, the trope continues for use closely, usually for pointless shock worth, particularly in terms of lesbian and bisexual characters.
It’s no secret that the Duffers Brothers are a fan of incorporating tropes, particularly ones dominant in horror genres, into every season. The collection additionally has a behavior of creating audiences care about characters solely to have them brutally die once they’re on the verge of success — Bob in Season 2, Alexie in Season 3, and Eddie in Season 4, simply to call a number of. So it’s not completely absurd for me to marvel if the Duffer Brothers would fall prey to the ‘bury your gays’ trope.
In spite of everything, Stranger Issues does characteristic two overtly LGTBQ+ characters on the present, Will and Robin, and each might simply fall sufferer to the unlucky trope.
Take Will, for example; it’s no secret that he’s been harboring a crush on his finest pal, Mike, because the starting. A scene the place he confesses his love for him solely to be pulled again into the Upside Down by Demogorgons for good this time, mainly writes itself.
After which there’s Robin. Whereas she’s develop into a fan-favorite after her touching coming-out scene, she isn’t thought of a major character since she wasn’t round within the early seasons. So, she may not be protected because the Duffer Brothers solely appear to kill off non-main characters. Add that to the truth that on the finish of Season 4, it appears to be like like she has a shot together with her crush, Vickie, and Robin is one dangerous transfer away from changing into one other pointless lesbian casualty within the media.
For a present set within the Eighties that frequently options characters dying, it’s fairly spectacular that the one two canonically LGBTQ+ characters have managed to outlive this lengthy. That alone is a motive to applaud the Duffer Brothers and their staff of writers for managing to chase the ‘bury your gays’ trope. Nonetheless, with Season 5 being the final season and so many individuals begging them to begin killing off the primary characters, my nervousness surrounding Robin and Will’s survival has reached an all-time excessive.
For my part, it could be an enormous disservice for them to backtrack all of the optimistic progress they’ve made by killing off Robin and Will — particularly if the demise comes moments after they’ve gotten to share their true selves with the folks they love. There are many different characters that might be killed off to create the high-stakes drama followers are clearly after — like Steve, who many already consider isn’t making it out of Hawkins alive.
Apart from, maintaining Will and Robin alive might set a precedent and at last finish the pointless “bury your gays” trope as soon as and for all. And isn’t Stranger Issues all about defeating evil for the higher good?
Sadly, it appears I’ll be sitting with this nervousness for a while since we nonetheless don’t know when Season 5 will premiere on the 2025 TV schedule. Within the meantime, I’ll be streaming all 4 seasons of Stranger Issues with my Netflix subscription and maintaining my eyes open for any new details about Season 5 and the fates of those two beloved characters.