The love triangle is a trope as old as time, and whether you were on team Edward or Jacob for Bella in Twilight, or team Peeta or Gale for Katniss in The Hunger Games, you will know the debate between sides in online fandoms is intense. Ask a passionate fan of any of these relationships, and they would probably reel off reasons why the opposite side of the love triangle should burn in the fiery pits of hell – yet realistically, no bad blood can be found between the fans.
However, when one of the pairings in a love triangle is queer, and the sexuality of the person at the centre of the love triangle is up to debate within the fandom, this is when things can turn genuinely nasty.
Stranger Things, admittedly, is not a show that centres love triangles. Throughout its decade long run, the show snowballed into a one-of-a-kind phenomenon thanks to its dynamic ensemble cast, horrifying mysteries and unsettling plot twists. As the anniversary of the show’s fifth and final season approaches, fans continue to look back upon the new revelations it brought the audience.
None caused more excitement than volume one’s cliffhanger. As demogorgons go for the kill at three members of the party, Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) is revealed to have powers, snapping each demogorgon dead.
Despite many fans having speculated this, it was Will’s acceptance of his sexuality, helped by an earlier speech from the show’s other confirmed queer main character Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke), that allowed him to reach this potential.
Whilst this successfully empowered queer viewers, in others it inspired loud anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes, mainly due to another motivating factor for Will’s powers; his love for his best friend, Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard).
Here is where Stranger Things’ most controversial love triangle arises. Although widely theorised by fans before, season four of the show confirmed that Will was gay, and in love with Mike, all while Mike was dating Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), a telekinetic superhero.
As expected, fans quickly and passionately took sides to prove their favourite couple would win. Most mined the source material for clues, hoping to find that one piece of diamond which proved that, yes, they would in fact win. Yet this also exposed the eagerness at which many jumped to homophobia as an argument.
In my research on this issue, I found countless examples of where this came to play over many years in different situations.
Despite being a show encouraging viewers to theorise, some fans’ readings of Mike Wheeler as queer were quickly responded to with rage, offended at the implication that a character that had so far presented as straight could be read as queer. These readings are often labelled creepy, and there are countless incidents of people insisting Mike is ‘normal’ instead of gay, othering the LGBTQ+ community in the way we have attempted to fight against for years.
Ari, a passionate Stranger Things fan who rooted for Mike and Will to become a couple, found these double standards between discussions of straight and queer couples led to even more troubling accusations being thrown their way.
‘A lot of the response was people interpreting it as, oh, you want to watch them have sex or something. They were kind of trying to say why do you want to sexualise this teenager’s relationship?’
The immediate assumption that queerness is inherently sexual, and harmful to ‘push’ onto younger people contributes to a dangerously homophobic environment, one which sometimes matches the homophobia present under the Reagan Bush administration from when Stranger Things is set.
The comments worsen when concerning Will’s confirmed sexuality and feelings. Tweets, TikTok comments and YouTube comments use Will’s sexuality to conform to the offensive portrayal of gay people as predators, presenting him as someone to be wary of. One twitter user stated that for Will to ‘make moves’ on Mike, it would be ‘#predatory’, which received over 750 likes.
Other harmful stereotypes which society has largely moved on from were also used. One twitter user claimed that Will will get AIDS, a very real, painful experience many gay and bisexual men faced in the 80s. Another twitter user stated ‘Will can find his own boyfriend. tell him to try the park’, using another outdated stereotype of gay hook up culture.
Through disguising these comments simply as a by-product of a heated love-triangle war, homophobia’s place in the Stranger Things fandom became increasingly rampant and normalised as volume one was released. However, just as every story comes to a conclusion, so do its love triangles.
The finale confirmed Mike and Eleven remained as the chosen couple - even if they didn’t get their happy ending - and despite being a cause for celebration for many, the homophobia never ceased for other fans. In fact, Ari explained that ‘after the aftermath of the finale, it really validated the homophobic people in their responses’.
Previous comments made in support of Will and Mike becoming a couple were consistently targeted with fierce reminders that the very possibility of a queer couple becoming a focus in a mainstream show was ‘delusional’ and laughable to even consider. Even more tragically, this response was completely expected.
Linney, a devoted fan whose academic work has stretched to the study of queer-baiting within Stranger Things, shared that after the finale, she ‘didn’t want to go online because [she] just knew what was going to happen.’
Her experiences as a queer woman increased her investment in gaining further LGBTQ+ representation on a mainstream show, leading to her sharing that she felt sick at the thought of how the love triangle might end. A comment that should have remained a vulnerable conversation between queer fans spiralled out of control after the finale.
‘I remember that it was really difficult for me because that was a period online where I truly felt like I had to go offline.
‘I had people finding personal information about me from my other accounts. They were trying to find my location, trying to tell my friends and family about what I was saying, even though I didn’t even say anything bad. And it was so scary.’
Not only did the latter half of the season reveal how far some fans were willing to go to create an uncomfortable and dangerous environment for LGBTQ+ fans, but it exposed how this response of homophobia was not limited as a backlash solely to a queer couple. Instead, any obvious queer representation was unwelcome to many; with the reaction to Will’s coming out scene making this overwhelmingly clear.
Threatened by the possibility of Vecna using his sexuality against him, Will emotionally came out to the party in the penultimate episode of the show. However, many of the audience were outraged by this inclusion and ‘review-bombed’ the episode, purposefully giving it one star reviews to show their distaste for a depiction of the queer experience. Even ten months later, the episode holds a 5.6 rating on IMDb, compared to an 8 star average in the season.
A large portion of the show’s fanbase consistently made fun of this scene, particularly its length, to the point where SNL created a skit out of the vulnerable moment. The lack of regard surrounding a sensitive and inspiring moment for queer fans personally affected Linney.
‘They were making fun of him, but I saw myself in him.
‘It takes so much confidence as a queer person to come out to people when it takes a while to do it. So the act of making fun of how long it takes someone to come out was really hurtful. And I imagine young people seeing that who haven’t come out would have been crushed.’
Outwardly homophobic attitudes continuing as the show concluded didn’t surprise fellow enthusiastic fan Julia.
‘The actual homophobic stuff […] hurts or maybe it shocks, but there’s people who are going to be like that sadly.
‘What impacts me most is not how the message is said, but how is it received and how, by a lot of people, they’re not going to notice or they’re going to follow or they’re even going to make the fire bigger.’
Such a strong distaste towards the coming out scene from the general audience, combined with an environment of normalised homophobia, led to the LGBTQ+ representation within the show being blamed for what many describe as a disappointing ending to the show. Accusations that the show became ‘too gay’ littered some of the general audience’s complaints of the season.
Julia believes that the audience hyper-focused on the coming out scene because ‘it was an opportunity to shift blame elsewhere.
‘Because of course, there’s going to be people complaining and of course there’s going to be people acting in some sort of way. But since [the finale] wasn’t that good and since the coming out scene happened just before the actual [final fight scene] that was supposed to be big and great and it wasn’t. Then it’s like, oh, now it’s gay, it’s bad because if it’s gay.’
This constant stream of normalised, often extreme homophobia can become especially overwhelming considering the content of Stranger Things. The show has always championed the outcast, telling the audience that differences are to be embraced, and is exactly what makes them special. To be thrown hostile comments in the face of difference, when many queer folk run to the show for this empowering message, is insulting.
Ari, Linney and Julia all told me that this experience has entirely changed how they will enter fandoms in the future. More fans I spoke to stated that now they did not want engage in fan discussion at all due to past experiences of being called homophobic slurs and mentally ill.
The intensity of homophobia towards queer readings and representation, and the speed at which some fans gravitate towards this argument, emphasises just how important having characters like Will and Robin on TV is to combat these attitudes.
Dr Alberto Mira, a reader of film studies at Oxford Brookes University, who specialises in queer representation in film, explained that ‘representation in a popular series, and something as popular as this, really helps both the straight community and the LGBT community.
‘It’s putting everybody together. You all watch the same things and it’s coming closer and coming together in that kind of thing. If you do something like gay movies, then only gay people go to see it, and it increases that sense of a bubble.’
‘Representation is important because it engages attention and also because a lot of homophobia, I think, is kind of contradicted by visibility. The more you see, the less homophobic you are. And I think this is very, very important.’
The Stranger Things fandom is only a small part of a much wider problem. Today’s culture of wildly popular streaming successes and accompanying discussions on social media opens up the possibility for a variety of opinions being shared on a piece of media, not all respectful.
Whilst Stranger Things may remain one of the most high-profile examples of this intense homophobia, history has already begun to repeat itself on Netflix’s hit show Bridgerton. The announcement that its next season will focus on the love story between Francesca Stirling and Michaela Stirling, a lesbian couple, has brought similar outrage and anger that Stranger Things received, and only works to prove the serious work we need to continue to normalise queer representation.
The potential power of seeing LGBTQ+ representation in mainstream shows should outweigh any fight over fictional characters endings. We need to see queerness loud and proud. With GLAADs Where We Are On TV 2024-2025 Report showing that 41% of the 489 LGBTQ+ characters on TV were not returning in 2026, the continued inclusion of queer characters, especially on shows as popular as Stranger Things remains more important than ever.
If characters like Will simply existing, and being imagined to be in a happy relationship equal to their friends, leads to this rampant homophobia, then it only helps to prove the point that we need characters like him, to change the minds of those who desperately want him off screen.