Gay story line developing

There kinda is. At least insofar as IF that's what they do, it feels phony, forced, and pandering to the false "diversity" set. Kinda like how Netflix just HAD to stuff a brief (and utterly pointless) mention of a character having "two dads" in the fucking Dark Crystal show, a show about inhuman ALIENS on another world with an entirely different culture. Yet even with that, they still had to tack on some lame modern human LGBT crap, for "representation". Even though we're literally talking about alien beings, NOT human at all, played by PUPPETS.

By the same token, IF they make Will gay out of nowhere, just because "representation", it really reeks of people who insist (even though they 100% aren't and they're goddamn KIDS show puppets) that Bert & Ernie, instead of merely being best friends and roommates, MUST be gay. Why is it that Will MUST be gay? Why can't he just miss his best friend who he's barely heard from the past year? He doesn't seem to have any new friends in California, and he doesn't really seem to hear from his old friends back in Hawkins. Isn't that enough, that the poor kid is just lonely? Why does it suddenly have to be that he's "discovered his true feelings", and wants to express them to Mike? And to what end? Mike clearly likes girls. Even if Will IS gay, what is telling his friend he's got the hots for him going to accomplish? Besides making things weird and awkward.

But far more importantly, again, why does Will NEED to be gay? Why does there HAVE to be a gay thing? They already have Robin, whose character is perfectly fine, who is a lesbian. Will Byers is just a kid who's had shit really rough. Why can't he just miss his friend, and be too shy and awkward a kid to have openly been interested in any girls yet? It just seems really forced and unnecessary, that they manufacture some "sexual tension" between two kids who grew up best friends. Lame and lazy writing, if you ask me. I hope that's not what they actually wind up doing.

Two male friends, therefore gay?

The upside down made him gay when he came back

There is this wonderful word out there to describe Will. The word is "asexual" and the definition is "the lack of sexual attraction to others, or low or absent interest in or desire for sexual activity." This word fits Will to a tee, but the issue is that it seems everyone has to be labeled as homo, hetero, cis, non-cis, etc. because people think that characters HAVE to have some kind of sexuality. It's like people cannot wrap their heads around the idea that someone just is not interested in sex.

Personally don't care that they added this to Will's story line. What bothers me is that they took everything else away, so all Will did all season thus far was pine over Mike. It's what bothered me most about season 3 - Will's part in the story was fluff. This is an obscene waste of Noah Schnapp's talent, since imo he is on par with Millie Bobbie Brown in terms of acting chops.

Plus, people tend to forget that he survived in the USD the longest on his own as a little kid, carried and birthed a baby demorgorgon in the Rightside Up without anyone finding out, managed to survive being possessed by the Mind Flayer - arguably the biggest bad in the USD - tricked the Mind Flayer in multiple ways while being possessed, and he survived a pretty violent exorcism.

The fact that the only power he inherited were neck goosebumps whenever an USD monster is near is a travesty and a wasted chance at giving another lead child character powers that isn't necessarily a Dr. Brenner creation, so that he could be a secret weapon and they wouldn't always need El to be the hero.

But even if they didn't give him any powers, the Byler story line also detracts from the fact that Will is an integral part of deciphering the USD because of his deep connection to it. Using Max instead of Will to find Vecna made sense in this season, but it was the long way around because Will has an in-built USD radar and knows his way around since, unlike almost every other visitor, managed to avoid the monsters and capture for so long.

Yet, we get piney, Call Me By Your Name Will, doing what...painting? Sure, he was into art in the early seasons, but that was drawing. We don't see him express any feelings about having another person in his family or leaving his friends behind. No call back to D&D anywhere. No fear of his family being in danger due to El being part of it. Nothing normal that would make more sense to portray. I just hope they're saving Noah's talent for later, like they claimed to do for season 2.

Maybe. At the very least, I figure Will will be coming out as gay. But, to be honest, I sorta assumed he was intended to be gay ever since the first season (I believe there was mention about the other students calling him "fag" or something very early on). Up until this season, I actually thought everyone assumed he was intended to be gay (not that it was relevant to the story in any big way).

Having Mike be gay, however, if they actually did go that route would be a bit bothersomely out of left field for me. As not only has it already been shown that he's interested in females, but just from a probability standpoint, I find it unlikely that three characters already in this little friend group would just so happen to coincidentally be gay. Incidentally, this is an issue I have with The Walking Dead, where it feels like nearly every other person who survived the zombie apocalypse is homosexual (assuming the series doesn't take place in San Francisco, I find this highly unlikely to have occurred in such a situation). It's so improbable that I can only assume it's being done for real-world, PC culture reasons. Which I find to be extremely distracting to my suspension of disbelief (almost like bad product placement).

It feels so predictable and unoriginal that Will is going to come out as gay, though, that I kind of hope (albeit, I don't expect) it to be a red herring. And that his odd and nervous behavior is really related somehow to his experiences in the upside-down. And that this somehow connects to the painting he's conspicuously been hiding from everyone.

Maybe Will, but would seem very forced for Mike. Seems just like their friendship was strained due to distance and Mike having a g/f. Nothing more than that.

Will seemed gay to me since season 2, so if they confirm it, I'd be fine with that. If he just thinks Mike is his closest friend and misses hanging out with him, I'd be fine with that too.

I never got asexual vibes, though. The way I saw it, he's either nervous around girls and can't talk to them romantically, or he's gay and likes Mike.