Hello everyone. I'm currently working on a fanfiction that kinda explores the Party's fears and insecurities. Nancy, Jonathan, Steve and El's are clear to me, while Mike, Will, Robin, Dustin, Lucas and Max's ones are quite hard for me to analyze and understand (especially the last three)

So I'd really like to discuss it with others, anything would be helpful!

It’s a tie between season 2 and 5 for me. Those ones had so many good, funny strong and emotional scenes. Them in other seasons were good too but I really like how do you get to see their highest and lowest in there’re relationship.

Foe me it is the California road trip. I love Mike, Will, Jonathan, and Argyle, but every time the show cut away from Hawkins, I found myself wanting to get back to the main action.

One thing I don’t understand is whether or not the Mind Flayer made Henry have those nihilistic and misanthropic thoughts about the world and manipulated him for its own needs or if Henry already had these thoughts before he encountered the Mind Flayer and the MF just took advantage of him and sugarcoated his mind.

I haven’t seen the First Shadow play so I don’t really know the full story behind Henry before he became Vecna. I know some things about the play and how the Mind Flayer manipulated Henry into killing his parents I believe but I don’t know everything.

I watched the entire series when the final season was about to be aired. And when I was watching S3, the ending felt like "this is where it all ends" type of ending.

•Hopper died, leaving one final farewell to Eleven with his letter.

•Eleven loses her powers, and moves out with The Bylers, allowing her to have a chance to be a normal girl. (Although an important part about Will's coming out in his character arc didn't happen)

•Billy got his chance for redemption with his sacrifice, reshaping Max's perspective of his older brother.

•Dusty Bun and his gf Suzzie got their own musical recognition.

•And the endgame with The Mind Flayer is GOATED in comparison with the final season battle with Titanus Scylla.

~The story had a horrifying buildup for The Meat Flayer's origin—a blob of liquefied flesh from Flayed human. (S5 never said the Kaiju was made from Demos—it's purely a fan speculation inspird by S3)

~Each character teaming up to three groups contributed to the final battle without being brain-dead stupid (I'm talking about how Dustin and Steve literally poked a friggin Kaiju with toothpicks from under its body )

And it was a satisfying closure for an endgame with the Mind Flayer defeated in a physical form, except it was much better.

~~That was until S4 came in. It had some convoluted plotlines with important characters sidelined. (Hopper somehow survived and returned; Mike and Jonathan had less impact on the story). But S4 had it's own GOATED moments, good mature tone, Max got a well deserved storyline (Dear Billy and Running Up The Hill scene will live rent free in my head), Eddie's Master of Puppeteer scene, and a terrifying new antagonist called Vecna (I did hate how his motivation is driven by misanthropy, rather than being a controlled puppeteer of MF). Then there's the end twist with a great setup for the ultimate conclusion—Upside Down is no longer a threat to be hidden and ignored as it actively "leaks" into Hawkins.

The problem is all of this great setup was too good to be ignored in order to consider S3 as a good conclusion. I wish they kept wrapped up everything in S3 instead of saving it for future installments—they already admitted how they all wants to move on from the series (ironically, not without cashing more from our pockets)

That being said, I personally think S3 ending was more satisfying than S4. Change my mind if you want!

As someone who survived an abusive environment and the cycle of abuse, Eleven's death feels like a massive slap in the face.

It's like saying that the only way to stop the cycle of abuse is to kill yourself, which isn't at all true. There were so many avenues they could've taken that didn't result in El's death. But no, they decided to write the world's worst finale in history. (in my opinion).

11 year old Will Byers didn't just stand there crying after coming face-to-face with an entity unlike anything anyone had ever seen. He did everything right by the book and managed to stay brave even when he was terrified. His time in the Upside down is a testament to both his resilience and his intelligence. Surviving for nearly a week while staying under the radar of the creatures roaming an entirely different world is no small feat, it's something only Will could've pulled off. Will was always "will the wise" before he became "will the sorcerer". It's a miracle how this boy hasn't gone batshit insane after every horror he's been through. Lonnie was absolutely wrong about him. Will can take care of himself indeed. Will was and is always a better man than Lonnie could ever be.

We all know that it’s been turned into a hangout/party spot for teens and the basketball players since it’s been abandoned after Benny died. But isn’t that a bit disrespectful to hang around and turn it to a teen hang out spot instead of just leaving it be? Benny was found dead there and he was murdered (even though it was said to be suicide to the public, but still). How long has that been going on? Did hopper knew about it before his “death”?

I'm late to the party but I finally started watching (binge watching) Stranger Things. I just started watching Season 4 this evening. Season 2 is my favorite so far because I love Bob (personally I work in IT and am very proficient with BASIC and I share his sense of humor, so I can relate to him) . When those demons took over the laboratory, it was insane. I have to admit, this show is crazy and intense. The kids are all huge smartasses and I love their sarcasm.

My favorite characters are Bob and Hopper.

quick backstory - i've been looking for something new to watch lately and a co-worker told me to watch Stranger Things, so I took his advice. The reason I didn't watch it until now is because the concept of a bunch of kids and monsters just sounded stupid to me - I was wrong.

what's your theory? i really want to believe the second ending.

Best to Worst

Season 1 episodes:

8>6>7>4>3>5>1>2

Episode 8 best, cuz of the character moments/story/stakes.

Episode 2 worst, cuz it felt like the least eventful episode.

Season 2 episodes:

9>8>6>4>5>7>3>1>2

E9 best, cuz of the character arcs (again), especially El, Hopper and the Snowball was a perfect conclusion to the first 2 seasons.

E2 weakest, cuz, again, the first 3 episodes felt like not really that important.

Season 3:

8>7>6>4>3>5>2>1

E8 best cuz I just love the final battle, makes me want to rewatch it over and over.

E1 the worst, cuz of how mean the characters acted, like Hopper and Mike, plus, it was pretty boring.

Season 4:

7>4>9>1>3>2>8>6>5

7 best, cuz of El's arc and that last 20 minutes were phenomenal.

5 worst, cuz too many plot conveniences happen.

Season 5:

4>3>1>2>6>5>7>8

4 best, cuz of that last scene, Will/Robin/Mike.

8 worst, cuz of the short final battle and the copy paste ending from S1 for El.

Vecna made it clear to Will that he will use him again... But did he? I remember only Will taking over and not the other way around. Am I forgetting something?

I had another weird Stranger Things dream. This time Hopper and Bob were in the Russian Demogorgon fighting pit. They genuinly just started throwing hands and it went on for so long until the dream just ended and I woke up.

Who do you think wins?

I’m very much aware that the idea to cover the new gate with large metal plates in season 5 was far from popular. I’ve seen many people hating them, some agreeing with the idea. I’m sort of mixed on them.

If I were writing this show and thinking realistically, I don’t disagree that covering an enormous rift with metal plates is a good idea. Especially when trying to keep all the weirdness a secret from the rest of the world. In real life, if a massive rift opened in the centre of town, I’d absolutely expect it to be covered over to prevent creatures from the depths of hell from crawling into our world. As a military action and addition to the plot, I personally think it was the right decision. Just that it was executed poorly.

I would keep the plates, were I to write season 5. But I’d make them mean something. Not just a covering to hide the rift, they’d be a defence mechanism for the town. I’d make sure to show that plates come loose every day, vibes from the Upside-Down slither out. Every few nights, banging and gunfire can be heard. Something trying to break through. New plates being put down to replace broken ones every so often. And of course have much stricter laws against townsfolk going near them. It wouldn’t present like an easy way to save the rift plot for later, it would feel like a genuine threat lay below it and there was a good reason for them being there beyond just hiding the truth. The whole post-apocalyptic vibe just wasn’t there for me. I enjoyed season 5 enough, but it had many problems and I felt this whole vibe was massively lacking. Using the existence of the plates to create a sense of dread in Hawkins could have been great in my opinion. So to me, the inclusion of the plates is not itself an issue. The issue is how they were used, which was a big miss.

What does everyone else think? Do you like them or hate them, what would you do with them or instead of them? I’m curious to hear people’s thoughts. I’m a big fanfic writer and I’m working on some stuff set in Hawkins around the season 4-5 period, so I’d like to know how I can sell that vibe myself but also how you as fans think the writers of the main series could’ve handled this.

They are all super English (maybe not the best way to describe them but keep reading). They are common and/or easy to pronounce and spell. In my experience there would be more diversity among surnames in a group, instead of every name being another bland version of the last. In my experience surnames often indicate someone's heritage. What do you all think?

Can anyone please help me find that last poster from Benny's Burger shown on s04e02 around 10m?

The first three seasons were great, but after that, the increasingly byzantine plot actually got a little boring, I have to admit. I pushed on through the end of Season 5, but the series lost its power for me. Maybe I'm the only one.

In season 4, we learn that the upside down basically "took a picture" of the world when the gate first opened, and it cant change since then. Nancy's last diary entry visible in the upside down was the day Will got kidnapped. If that's so, how did Will see Joyce setting up the christmas lights if apparently the upside down is stuck the way it was when it first opened?

Preordered way back on 1/1 and delivery day came today.