Stranger Things is something of a cultural phenomenon, bridging Millennials with Gen Z with its compelling stories, 80s culture and captivating characters. Dustin Henderson is one of the most likable members of the crew. He's made some glaring mistakes, but he's generally a positive and intelligent young man we all love to watch. We love him to the point of hurting along with him when the rest of the gang wrongs him.
It's not like the Stranger Things gang is full of jerks, either. These are just kids who naturally make bad decisions sometimes. Even so, the few times that Dustin's friends have hurt him tend to stick with us.
10 Shut The Door In His Face
Nancy Wheeler wasn't an official member of the Stranger Things gang yet when she rudely shut the door in Dustin's face as he sweetly offered her some pizza during the first episode of the show, but the gesture was enough to make us fall in love with him and hate her.
Nancy later won us back after first losing us even more after what happened to Barb by becoming one of the fiercest heroes on the show and being kind to Dustin at the dance, but this will forever remain our first introduction to her as well as the first of many mean things to happen to Dustin.
9 Will Didn't Tell Him Dart Was From the Upside Down
During season two when Dustin was obviously head over heels for his new pet, D'Artagnan, he thought he'd discovered an entirely new species. We kind of think he should've known it wasn't of this world based on his experiences during the first season's events, but he's still an excited kid who just got caught up in the moment.
Which is where Will Byers comes in. Will actually recognized Dart as one of those slug-like creatures that he spat up after returning from the Upside Down. He failed to give Dustin a head's up, though, and now poor Mews is history.
8 Steve Calls Him Names
Steve Harrington has come a long way since his popular jerkface days. He's now known as the unofficial mom of the group, as well as Robin's BFF, Dustin's mentor and the favorite character of many a fan. He and Nancy have grown the most on the show, but they've also both been mean to Dustin. In Steve's case, it's been in the form of name-calling and generally being annoyed by the younger teen.
To be fair, Steve calls just about everyone in the show names, even Nancy, and he's come a long way since. Still, those moments had to hurt Dustin at least a little.
7 Made Him Feel Left Out
In the first season, Dustin made it clear that he knew he wasn't anyone's choice for BFF. He revealed that he was well aware that Lucas and Mike were best friends when Lucas refused to shake Mike's hand after their fight, insisting that Lucas was jealous of Eleven since he was Mike's BFF.
Obviously no one did this on purpose to Dustin, and Mike tried to insist that Will and Dustin are also his best friends, but Dustin says that logically you can't have more than one. He's very diplomatic about it, giving wise counsel as ever, but he's also obviously a little hurt.
6 Shamed Him For Bringing The Food
Dustin is obviously meant to be an allusion to characters in other 80s movies, like Chunk from The Goonies and Vern from Stand by Me. He's a much more layered character, but he still has an appreciation for food, and when he thinks of bringing a bunch of snacks on the gang's quest to find Will, he's met with disdain from Mike and Lucas.
It's not like they won't need food, after all. Sure, weapons would be nice, as would other equipment, but Dustin's not wrong: as teens, these kids are growing, hungry by the hour and expending lots of calories while they hunt for their friend.
5 Lucas Wanted Dibs On Max
When both Lucas and Dustin were interested in Max when she was new at Hawkins, it really wasn't cool of either of them to want to compete for the new kid's affections. All platitudes aside, friendship should come first, and both boys should've just let Max choose one of them naturally without getting territorial about it.
Max was obviously not pleased with either of them, referring to them as stalkers, which really chalks this one up to one of the worst things done to all three of them: Max feeling like her privacy was violated and two old friends getting briefly competitive over her.
4 Surprised Him When He Came Home
Poor Dustin through this friends had just up and abandoned him (which they would do later) when he came home from Camp Know Where. It was pitiful to see, even though most fans had already seen the previews in which his fans surprised him to the point of fear... which really wasn't very thoughtful of them.
How would any of them feel after experiencing the horror of the previous two seasons only to come home to all of your toys coming to life? It's no wonder he practically blinded Lucas in a knee-jerk reaction to their ill-planned homecoming.
3 Abandoned Him To His Radio
Once upon a first season, the boys of Stranger Things would have loved traipsing up a hill in the middle of nowhere to try out a mega radio together. In fact, they likely would have been obsessed with it, but at this point they are more into becoming young adults than bonding as their A/V club, so he's abandoned by most of them as they head off to do their own things.
Again, it's natural for this to happen as teens mature and move away from one another, but that doesn't make the sting any easier to bear. If Suzie lived closer, it's possible that Dustin would've done the same.
2 Made Fun Of His Singing
Lucas and Max took great pleasure in making fun of Dustin's singing "Neverending Story" with Suzie in the final moments of the Battle of Starcourt. While this might be normal behavior for friends, they did it over and over again to Dustin's irritation, and it only added insult to injury after not believing him about Suzie existing in the first place.
Given the fact that both Lucas and Mike had girlfriends they routinely abandoned their friends for and Dustin, while annoyed that he was often left out, didn't mock them, they could have been nicer about eavesdropping on their conversation.
1 Didn't Believe Him About Suzie
Has Dustin ever lied about anything? Okay, there was that one time with Dart, but despite the many times he's been compared to Chunk when the show is contrasted with The Goonies, he's really no fibber. The fact that his friends think that he made up a summer girlfriend while he was away at camp is distressing at best.
It's bad enough that the boys moved away from one another--first emotionally, then literally later--throughout the third season. It's a natural part of growing up. But to dub Dustin a liar after years of friendship was heartless. We all cheered when Suzie came through, even if "their song" cost Hopper time and his life... or did it?
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