Lucas Sinclair is driven, protective, analytical, and suspicious in both his D&D sessions with Mike, Will, Dustin and in real life. However, these traits lead him to do some rather questionable things. The Netflix series Stranger Things places four young children into some unthinkable situations. They get bullied, they lose their friend, and then have to deal with a deadly monster who wreaks havoc on their beloved town.
Throughout the three seasons, Lucas is forced to adapt and change his personality and loyalties, causing rifts in both his friendships and new relationships. However, his actions force many fans to question his reasoning and his choices. However, the majority of his childhood leaves everyone feeling bad for him
Felt Bad: Losing His Best Friend
At the beginning of season 1, it becomes almost impossible to not feel bad for Lucas and the rest of the group. Their beloved friend disappears with no explanation which seems to have a rather sizable effect on Lucas.
Losing a friend like this is a horrific experience for anyone to go through, no matter how old. Even after fans have only known the group for 2 episodes, it is impossible to not feel for the group of kids who have potentially lost their best friends forever.
Hated Him: Not Accepting El
After going through the pain of losing Will, the group, desperate to find him, stumble across Eleven in the woods. Mike accepts and helps her, Dustin is hesitant but tolerates her and Lucas clearly doesn’t.
He lashes out at El on multiple occasions and arguable never truly accept El. Frustratingly, he is extremely quick to distrust her after she is clearly lost and hurting, he never accepts her help and refuses to be a friend. Although understandable, it hinders the group and ultimately slows down their discovery of what happened to Will.
Felt Bad: Getting Knocked Out By El
At this point, El has lied to them and brought them on a useless hunt to find their friend. So it’s understandable that he lashes out, even if you feel bad for El at this point.
After getting angry at El and Mike, El freaks out and sends him flying towards a bus. She lets her anger get the best of her and really hurts Lucas! Although he gets hurt and you feel bad for him, its the subtext that really hurts. He feels like El has come in and threatened his friendships. Mike is getting close to her and drifting away from his best friend, so when he stands up for El, its the final blow that proves to him that he isn’t wanted anymore.
Hated Him: Lashing Out At El
Before she throws him against a bus, Lucas lashes out at El, he calls her a liar, he belittles her and makes her feel worthless.
Initially, it’s hard to hate Lucas for this, after all, he wants to find his friend and she has just lead them around Hawkins instead. However, once you find out the reasoning behind it, Lucas’ actions were certainly over the top. It causes a rift in the whole party and makes any fan dislike him for his actions. Mostly due to how quick and easy it is to love Eleven.
Felt Bad: Being Bullied
Getting bullied is a horrible thing to experience, it causes you to feel ashamed of who you are and question what you’re most passionate about. Luckily, Lucas, Mike and Dustin don’t let their bullies get them down.
Not only do you feel bad for Lucas, but you end up really hating the bullies after they are racist towards him. Although the scene doesn’t show it getting them down, Lucas’ face tells a different story leaving you feeling dreadful that the boys have to deal with this on a regular basis.
Hated Him: Fighting Mike
The scene where El leads them astray is filled with mixed feelings towards Lucas, Mike and Eleven. Everyone gets angry and emotional due to Eleven lying about knowing where Will is, so when they find out, Lucas is quick to snap.
Interestingly though, he snaps at Mike for bringing her along and accepting her. An unfair argument at the least. Lucas had no need to lash out at Mike and when the two nearly got into a fight, Lucas was the one who was made out to be the bad guy.
Felt Bad: Being Broken Up With
As Max is introduced and Lucas wins the battle for her love, their tumultuous relationship begins. Max is rather manipulative, she tells Eleven that she breaks up with Lucas over the smallest things, forcing him to apologize and buy her a present.
This only serves to make fans feel awful for him. He is clearly being manipulated and isn’t in the best of relationships in the world, yet he adores Max. He is willing to see past it but it must affect him, every week or so he ends up losing her, it can’t be good for him whatsoever.
Hated Him: Abandoning Will
After Will gets back from the upside-down, it’s clear he’s lost out on so much. This poor traumatized child has essentially lost the remnants of his childhood whilst his friends have new interests at heart.
Will is desperate to go back to normal, yet Mike and Lucas are too engrossed in girls to notice how much Will is hurting. He is in so much pain and the two completely ignore that. It’s only when he destroys the only thing linking him to his childhood that they realize how much he was hurting.
Felt Bad: Saying Goodbye To Will
After the group had been through so much and lost so many people, it was only right that Joyce said goodbye to Hawkins.
That doesn’t stop the whole scene from being heartbreaking. Each member of the group had become so strong in the three seasons of madness, so for them to say goodbye to each other for potentially the last time is hard to watch. Lucas seemed to regret the little time he had spent with Dustin and Will so accepting that his friend was gone made it even harder for him.
Hated Him: Abandoning Dustin
Due to his newfound girlfriend and Lucas just growing up, his priorities shift rather dramatically in season 3. In doing so, however, he makes some questionable choices.
Perhaps one of the worst is his complete disregard for Dustin. After Dustin spends a summer at Camp Know Where, Lucas and the group essentially forget he exists. After seeing how close Lucas and Dustin got after Mike met El, it was shocking to see how little he cared for Dustin after getting a girlfriend. Although he makes the effort to go up and meet Suzie, he clearly doesn’t want to be there and has no interest in how happy Dustin is to show his friends his girlfriend.
