Okay, Part 2! Time to get into that tasty, tasty Steve/Nancy comparison. For that, I don't think I'm really getting into any new ground, I feel like people have said this before, but it's worth stating again.
Steve having unrequited feelings for Nancy is a bad choice to compare to Will having unrequited feelings for Mike because he's a little busy basically being a perfect El parallel.
Look, okay, Nancy and Mike were automatically attracted (whether you think it was real romantic attraction or just attraction to the idea of being with them) to Steve and El respectively because they were impressive. El, of course, was "Superman landing on Mike's doorstep" and Steve had all the "King Steve" shit going on.
But Nancy and Mike both had preexisting history with a Byers boy. Mike and Will have been best friends since kindergarten, and Nancy knew Jonathan through them.
Shit happens, Nancy and Mike both lose their best friend, a lot of drama happens that basically leads to a rift between our respective pairs, but Steve and El both face down a Demogorgon to save a Wheeler (and some other people) aaaand a relationship still manages to happen despite all the shit going down. Kind of hard to ignore getting saved from a monster by a pretty person, right?
But there's still something...unspoken, between the Wheelers and the Byerses, even when the Wheelers are dating their superheroes. And when push comes to shove, when it really comes down to it...Mike and Nancy can't even honestly say "I love you", and this causes the two pairs to split up.
And...while they're split up...Steve and El both sort of...rise from the ashes of their former selves. Form new identities. But also...sort of their old ones.
Steve had lost his superpower, the thing that attracted Nancy to him in the first place. He was no longer King Steve.
For fuck's sake, he was being bullied. By some loser with blond hair. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
And on top of all that, the girl he loved most couldn't even love him back.
They parted, on terrible terms, and while they were apart, Nancy found her comfort, comfort Steve could never provide, in Jonathan.
But, while he was alone, he reclaimed his old superpower. He was king again, and he'd found something new to fight for.
He didn't ever really need Nancy to fulfill him. He just needed to be his own hero.
And El?
El had lost her superpower, the thing that attracted Mike to her in the first place. She was no longer Superman.
And for fuck's sake, she was being bullied. By some loser with blond hair. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
On top of all that, the boy she loved most couldn't even love her back.
They parted, on terrible terms, and while they were apart, Mike found his comfort, comfort El could never provide, in Will.
But, while she was alone, she reclaimed her old superpower. She was Superman again, and she'd found something new to fight for.
She didn't ever really need Mike to fulfill her. She just needed to be her own hero.
Steve and El both ended Season 4 with their relationships with Wheelers still sort of up in the air, but Nancy still ran to Jonathan while Robin comforted Steve, and El and Mike weren't talking while Mike and Will are.
And both Steve and El--in very different contexts--end the season mostly focused on, not their romantic prospects, but their best friends.
And I really think that's where their focus is going to stay.
Oh, and one last assurance--something that's been said SO many times before but bears repeating again--is this:
It's kind of hard to miss what' the story is saying's going on when the writers are saying "This is what constitutes romance," and then having Will and Mike follow the exact trail they set out, step by step by step. Not just Will, Will and Mike. It's not one-sided.
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