Warning: This article may contain spoilers from Stranger Things season 2
First off, if you haven’t watched Stranger Things season two, what have you been doing with your life for the past week? Secondly, Steve Harrington is the best character from the show. It's not up for debate, and here's why.
1. Steve Harrington has incredible character development
Basing actor Joe Keery’s character of Steve off of season one, fans could say he was the stereotypically '80s jock, who’s more than a bit of a jerk. Instead of paralleling that stereotype into season two, the Duffer brothers—the show’s creators—developed Steve into one of the, if not the best, characters of Stranger Things. Arguably, he has the best character developments since One Tree Hill’s Brooke Davis. Steve’s transformation is that good. Most of Twitter also agreed with this:
2. Nancy treated Steve like dirt and acted like she did nothing wrong
The season starts off with Steve, and his longtime girlfriend Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer ), mourning and coming to terms with the death of Nancy’s best friend, Barb (Shannon Purser), as seen in the first season. The aftermath of the death not only leads to struggles in hiding what they know about the “upside-down” but also sparks trouble between their relationship. The climax of the struggle ends with Nancy drunkenly calling Steve and their whole relationship “bullsh*t” and claiming that she, in fact, does not love him like she’s claimed before. All in all, Nancy did poor, loving Steve dirty.
3. Steve and Dustin’s surprising bromance is the highlight of the season
The most unlikely pairing of the season includes Steve and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo.) In an effort to seize and capture Dart, the molting Demogorgon creature, Dustin is left with no one else to help him, except Steve. Through this, the audience gets the most adorable pairing Stranger Things has ever seen. I’ll even go as far to say it beats Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Hopper (David Harbour), or any other dynamic duo in the show.
Through their time together, Steve not only risks his life to capture Dart, but also gives Dustin some advice on girls and hair. What more could you ask for? The highlight of their relationship has to be during the last episode before the Snow Ball. Steve drops off a Farrah-Fawcett-hair-sprayed Dustin and warms the audiences’ hearts with his words of encouragement.
4. Steve Harrington has killer motherly instincts
Starting with his relationship with Dustin, the audience sees just how much Steve cares for these kids. During the season when Joyce, Nancy and Jonathon (Jonathan Heaton) are trying to exercise whatever’s inhabiting Will, and Hopper and Eleven go to close the opening into the upside-down, Steve is “babysitting” the kids. He selflessly gets pummeled to a pulp by Billy (Dacre Montgomery) after the Hawkins-newbie attacks Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin). Also, he leads the kids through the tunnels of the upside-down, making sure they got out safe first. Which results in him hypothetically sacrificing himself for them if it wasn’t for Eleven. Steve Harrington for mother of the year? I think so.
5. Actor Joe Keery is pretty great himself
It’s hard to remember sometimes that Steve Harrington is in fact, a fictional character. But don’t worry, Joe Keery who plays Steve is just as cool. You may not know it, but Stranger Things is Keery’s first breakout role, and it’s safe to say that he killed it. Along with acting, Keery is also in Chicago-based rock band Post Animal though he hasn’t been able to work/tour with them lately due to acting. He is good-looking, a musician and an actor — so a solid triple-threat. Even Joe Keery himself knows Steve Harrington is a lovable character. Recently, the actor tweeted out this picture featuring his multiple nail-adorned baseball bats:
