no bc dustin has so many repressed insecurities about his expendability and worth in the party and you guys are just not seeing it.

so based off of scenes from the entire show it’s easy to conclude that the original four is split into mike/will and lucas/dustin when it comes to “best friends”, and i use that term loosely bc they’re all best friends but some are closer than others (dustin says this himself).

however, in s1 dustin calls lucas mike’s “best friend” and expresses that he understands he’s not bc “i moved here later and i live further away” so even though lucas is with dustin a lot more, dustin lacks security in that friendship and thinks lucas is closer to mike.

he’s insecure about his closeness with his friends and his worth in the party. we know this bc after seeing max and lucas hold hands dustin says “if you want your girlfriend to replace me that’s okay”. he seeks friendship in a fucking LIZARD and later steve in s2

and expresses his fear of being replaced by max, who’s brand new while he’s been there since the 4th grade. it’s not shown a lot but considering those scenes it’s apparent dustin has an insecurity over his place in the party and he’s had it for years.

it doesn’t get any better at the end of s2, when everyone has someone to dance with except him (thank you nancy!). this lack of security extends to s3 when he at first thinks his friends have abandoned him the day he returns, only for them to actually do so later.

this is when he visits steve and includes him in the russian plan rather than his friends, bc he feels rejected by his friends and now he turns to steve. he’s clearly hurt by his friends’ apathy and it’s not exactly in his head either.

all of his friends are either caught up in relationship drama or handling with their own trauma (understandably so, they’re kids), so much that he becomes an afterthought. we know bc of the byler fight when he’s mentioned and also the fact that they don’t try to contact him

until later. basically, dustin feels like an unimportant member of the party and although he’s very insecure about it, he rarely expresses it. in fact, he rarely expresses any sort of negative emotions at all. he never talks about his trauma, and when he’s frustrated he rarely

takes it out on his friends. he tries his best to remain the upbeat, funny friend even though on the inside he deals with a lot of trauma, sadness, and insecurity. not to mention there’s all that unknown shit with his dad.

in conclusion there’s a lot more to dustin than meets the eye and if the writers could just address it rather than write him off as the comedic relief yall would FINALLY give him the appreciation he deserves.

bc even though he feels unimportant and expendable among his friends, he’s actually one of the most important and smartest members and has contributed a lot. and i hope y’all see it, and he sees it soon too.

also i wanna add i’m not blaming any of the other party members for dustin’s insecurities. they’re all kids dealing with their own shit, there’s just a lack of communication about it bc again they’re kids and they don’t know how to tackle their trauma yet.