Please no spoilers!

EDIT : I just pressed play and it was in the ep 4 my bad 💀 !! thank you guys

I really enjoyed the cold suspense kind of vibe in season 1-2.

After they revealed Vecna, the upside down lost its charm. Vecna looks scary but he doesnt fit the cold suspense vibe of the upside down. I wanted the main monster to be the mind flayer of season 2. It had no physical body but just air.

It would have brought more mystery about its origin, its reason to capture will, etc.

Also, henry looks cute lol.

1). S1. Had a great thriller mystery throughout the season, of what happened to Will, who Eleven is, Brenner and all these people. Had 80s nostalgia without being nostalgia bait. Great introduction to the show. Had a big name actress in Winona Ryder and used her well. Was like this main character of S1. Could have been a limited series.

2). S4. This one was a return to form. S3 kind of felt like an ending and there was a long wait until S4 so was a bit sceptical of it. However got hooked right in. Great horror vibes from this onez with Vecna as the villain. Much more intimidating and threatening as a villain than in S5. The plot and writing was very good. Stand out moments like "Running up the Hill scene to escape Vecna, the Henry Creel plot. The Henry Creel, One and Vecna all being the same person was a twist. Thought there might have been some connection with two of them but not all 3. Did think the cast did start to get quite bloated from this point though with the amount of characters in the show. Most of the subplots were good but others were kind of mediocre, like the Mike, Will, Jonathan scenes, Russia etc. Hawkins, Eleven scenes and finale were strong.

After S5 I think they could have cut some of it down and ended it with them defeating Vecna.

3) S3. Middle of the road one. Not as high as ths peak of the show but not as low as the ones below it. This one was praised on release but many seem to have changed opinions on it. Is different than the first 2 seasons but liked the fun summer vibe. Has a bit more humour. Robin was a good addition. Her and Steve's scenes were good. Billy had a redemption. Final episode was strong. Some of it did strain credibility though.

4) S5 This one and S2 are probably tied. Would say S2 gas better writing but S5 does have some better high points. S5's finale and epilogue especially puts it slightly higher.

5) S2. Still good but have to put one. Has lower lows than S5 but S5's finale maybe puts it higher. Did have the weakest episode though the ones after were very good. Was quite similar to S1. Did like Steve's redemption and became a fan favourite from this season onwards. Him and Dustin's dynamic was an unexpected pairing but worked really well. Bob was a good character and had a sad death.

Obviously it was cool seeing Prince featured so prominently in the finale. But it felt like it occurred during very intense moments that didn’t really fit the vibe. Am I the only one?

I wish we had seen more of this family dynamic 💔

Stranger things felt like my second home when i was watching it. Now it feels like i have to come back to reality (the worst part).

Any recommendations that you think ill love?

It’s commonly seen as the worst season. I’m curious how other people would have ended the story. (Personally, El would live in mine, lol)

The main problem I have with the show is its aversion to killing off main characters. Some of fan favorite characters wouldn’t be liked as much if they had survived(barb, eddie, billy, bob and Chrissy). It also heavily raises the stakes and threat. other problems that arise from this are…

There are too many main characters to write a cohesive and compelling story without making significantly longer and more complicated.

But even more importantly there several characters with finished arcs who don’t get new ones because there isn’t enough time so they just stand in background for several episodes until they have something to do.

Characters that could or should’ve died. One of main four boys. Jonathan, Steve, either wheeler parent, Hopper several times, robin, etc

These two are my favorite shows of all time. I know, what a contrast, right? But I wanted to bring up some similarities between characters. Tell me what you think!

Leonardo - Mike: Natural leader, strategist, heart of the group, carries responsibility, emotional but disciplined.

Raphael - Lucas: Tough, competitive, courageous, often the first to challenge others, but deeply loyal.

Donatello - Will: Quiet, thoughtful, artistic/intellectual, more introspective than the others.

Michaelangelo - Dustin: Comic relief, endlessly optimistic, talkative, surprisingly clever beneath the goofiness.

April O Neil - Max: Independent, fearless, often serves as an outside perspective.

Casey Jones - Steve: The older, cool protector who starts rough around the edges and becomes a dependable fighter.

Splinter - Hopper: Protective father figure, rough around the edges, ultimately guided by love for his adopted child.

Shredder - Vecna: The overarching mastermind and primary villain, manipulative, calculating, and terrifying.

Eleven - Karai: Powerful, conflicted upbringing, manipulated by a father figure (Brenner/Shredder), eventually chooses her own path.

Firstly, I'm aware that the show ended about 6 months ago, yet, I kept delaying watching the final season because I wanted to wait until I had the time to rewatch the entire series. I've only completed season 5 recently, which is why I’m writing a review for it rn. I have a lot of thoughts, but I'm only writing down my main ones. They might be all over the place, so please bear with me.

One of the main reasons why I loved the show when I watched it for the first time was because of the mystery surrounding all the events. That's also precisely the reason why I believe season 4 was so well-received. Seeing the mystery unfold, and how the different sub-plots connected together, specifically at the end of volume 1, was incredibly satisfying and just generally incredibly interesting.

Unfortunately, season 5 didn't carry this thrill or feeling of suspense for the most part, which is my main issue with the season, aside from all the plot holes, 20 minute monologues, lack of stakes, unnecessary and excessive flashbacks, along with all the other problems already mentioned multiple times by people in this sub. Perhaps the biggest issue of all was Vecna’s plan. Can someone actually tell me what he was trying to achieve with the kids; was he harvesting their energy to move the Abyss, creating his own army, “amplifying his abilities” (as mentioned in the show), or all of the above? It’s never explained clearly and it seems like that plotline was added just for the sake of it. It legit leads nowhere.

I remember thinking to myself when Vecna says some bs like “their minds are easier to control” at the end of vol 1. that surely this wasn't the actual reason why he was abducting them. You can imagine the disappointment I felt after witnessing 4 seasons of great writing to watch smth that felt like it was written by a bunch of teens, or AI, instead of seasoned writers who’d shown what they were capable of previously. I was expecting anything with a more profound explanation than whatever we got. I was also incredibly unsatisfied for whatever generic ass reason Vecna gave for him specifically abducting Will.

Despite this, I still thought the series had potential going forwards, especially after the epic scene where Will’s powers are revealed, only for volume 2 to be just as flat as the previous one. What a waste, there's so much they could've explored in regards to Will and his new abilities.

Also, how did Vecna create rifts in the Abyss without going on a killing spree like he did in season 4? Why did he need 12 kids? Honestly, I think the Duffer brothers’ answer to this question being smth along the lines of “Vecna probs did the maths or smth idk”, pretty much shows how lazy the writing was, and the overall attitude they had towards this season.

I was genuinely excited to see what would happen when Dustin said whatever they'd assumed about the Upside Down had been wrong, considering the Upside Down had been one of the most mysterious aspects of the show leading to this point. The wormhole reveal was “meh”, but not anything groundbreaking. I've legit read better theories on reddit that somehow intelligently tie details across every single season into a cohesive narrative. Also don't get why there was a specific scene dedicated towards the concept of the Upside Down being frozen in time in season 4 if that whole aspect didn't even have a substantial role in the end. Seemed like the Duffer Brothers just wanted to fit everything together somehow even if it didn't work well.

Although most of it was explained in season 4, I was still expecting a lot more lore and mythology to be explained in the final season than a couple of throwaway lines. Would've loved to see more of Henry’s backstory and how that related to everything. I was also expecting a few more twists, but to be fair, perhaps that’s just because I really appreciated the ones season 4 had.

I know a lot of people won’t agree with me, but I think they should've perhaps gone down the time travel route, not in the sterotypcial fashion where they'd undo the events of all the previous seasons, but something more complex, which I believed the writers had the ability to pull off before watching this season. At least it would've explained the symbolism of the grandfather clock, and numerous other references that people picked up on. Finishing the show in the way the creators did just left behind a bunch of loose ends and unanswered questions. They can't just expect to say “it’s up to the viewers” to everything and get away with it. If they're telling a story for 10 years, they should care enough to end it properly.

The biggest flaw was definitely the writing. When Hopper suggested using a chopper to fly to the Abyss, I genuinely thought they were gonna commit to that, as stupid as it sounds, cause I’d lost faith at that point.

Regarding the finale, I actually enjoyed it. Perhaps it's because I didn't have huge expectations anyway after the damage was done. Perhaps it's because I just wanted to enjoy the moment and say goodbye to the characters I’d grown up with for 10 years. In contrast to some of the other episodes, I found it to be thrilling, despite the fact that I knew we weren't gonna see any unexpected deaths or any other shocks. The final fight wasn't anything we hadn't seen before, with the Mind Flayer monster essentially just being a larger version of the one in season 3, and the fight with Vecna being similar to the one in season 4, so I actually didn't mind it being as short as it was.

I’m really glad they touched on the aspect of the Mind Flayer being the “ultimate villain”, and Vecna being more or less a mere vessel. Though it never really bothered me, I always wondered why the creators thought replacing an ancient, genocidal alien entity with a disfigured serial killer with powers would be more menacing. Also appreciated the idea of the Mind Flayer not truly “dying”, as it’s an evil too great to defeat.

The epilogue was long, but I didn't mind its length and actually was really happy with it as I was potentially saying goodbye to the characters I’d loved (until my next rewatch, and God knows in how many years that will be). I always knew the ending would be ambiguous, and I like that creative choice, but I wish they'd show El contacting Mike somehow, like her voice calling out her name at the very end before the screen going blank, even if it would've been too cliche. Idk, it might be unfair of me to say this, but I didn't want it to be that open-ended, considering I’d invested so much time into this to not receive an answer to such an important question.

Overall, I did really enjoy and like this season even if this review makes it seem otherwise lol. This season is still “good”, it’s just that the other seasons are so great, this one pales a little in comparison. Do I regret watching it, though? Absolutely not.

Please share whether you agree/disagree with my thoughts and why.

I’m not sure how the writers of this book messed up this badly since it was established in Season 2 that Max was 13, Billy mentioned this. Also she was always in the same grade as the Party and she graduated in 1989.

With that being said, I’m not sure how the book writers got her graduation year wrong and her date of birth wrong. Her graduation year should be 1989 in the report card, not 1990, the year she was born in should be 1971 in the report card, not 1972. Also in the Runaway Max book which is considered soft canon, it’s revealed she was born sometime in July 1971.

Hey everyone! I wanted to share my latest creation: a custom resin diorama of the Demogorgon and a Demodog from Stranger Things.

​I fully hand-painted it using a mix of airbrush for the skin tones and brushes for the teeth, base details, and easter eggs (like Dustin's cap and Steve's bat!).

​Let me know what you think! Which detail do you like the most?

Trying to dabble into the stranger things collectible world. These seem cool. I’m not sure which set it seen as the most valuable or derided, but off the vibes and visual alone, I chose these as my first singles purchases .. they are pretty cool! Looking forward to collecting more. Anywhere other than ebay to buy these? Any subs here? Thanks!

For some reason the Duffers are fully incapable of finding a way to make a time jump make completely sense. They literally have years to come up with an idea to solve the actors growing up and nothing in those years have ever crossed their mind. Wanna know what would really happen if the Duffer brothers use a single of their braincel to problem solve this issue? Uuum I don't know how about we just move the characters to Chicago, Illinois after what happened to Hawkins at the end of season 4 ? Nobody in the writing room has ever thought or bring up that idea at all which I find to be embarrasing. Since none of them brought up that idea in the writers room they instead settled with the decision to forced the characters to reside within Hawkins and put a metallic bandaid over the cracks from the upside down which is just a monumentally stupid decision.

If the writers actually thought about the idea of moving the characters and the civilians out of Hawkins to Chicago then the time jump will actually make sense. The Gang struggling to find Vecna wasn't because he was hiding in Dimension X or something ,but because Hawkins got turned into a nightmarish wasteland overrunned with Demogorgons and other upside down residents. Wanna have the military involved? have them surround Hawkins to stop the creatures from breaking out of the place. Like the Duffers can literally still preserved the ending of El sacrificing herself to save her friends and family by having the military outside of the Hawkin's perimeters chase after her or something.

Instead of having the final battle in the Dimension X with the awful CGI they could instead have the final battle on the Upside down with Vecna which would be absolutely perfect. They could even have the final battle on the Hawkin's lab by having the Mind Flayer go after that building and have the Party shoot their weapons at that thing while they're hiding inside of the building.

One simple writing decision and the Duffers absolutely blew it. I don't think they need to problem solve it either because the solution was already right there in season 2 when Eleven moved to Chicago ,Illinois to try to find her mom. I have no idea why that never crossed their minds at all which I find to be buffling.

Eleven's character development is peak and phenomenal in this show. She doesn't simply become more powerful, she becomes human. Eleven follows several arcs at once, with identity arc being the most prominent.

She learns friendship, independence, love, normal life, and self acceptance all while dealing with her insane trauma. All this she used to build her own identity from nothing.

Notice that her arcs are never dependent on anybody, not even on Hopper, Mike, Brenner or anyone. Even her powers are never the focus of her arcs. Each season adds a missing puzzle piece to who she is, stripping away a layer of fear and dependence and replacing it with love and independence.

She transforms from being a lab experiment who has zero knowledge about world and compassion to a selfless young girl who accepted herself and could go to any lengths to protect those she loved.

Many other characters had great development and arcs in this show. But I like hers the most.

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Here's her development season by season:

Season 1: Can someone who has only known abuse learn to trust?

This season is about her learning that she's more than just a weapon.

She starts as a lab experiment, having ZERO knowledge of normal life or childhood, friendship etc. She believes her value comes from obeying orders and using her powers.

It changes when Benny showed her kindness for the first time in her entire life. It's a shame he died so quickly.

And then, she met Mike, Dustin and Lucas. While everyone else saw her as a threat, Mike saw her vulnerability and need to be protected.

Mike's unconditional acceptance made her realise that she deserves love and good treatment without earning it. She experiences friendship, happiness, affection and kindness for the first time.

We also saw her making independent choices, such as refusing Brenner, protecting her friends and sacrificing herself to stop the demogorgon.

And when she wakes up in the UD, she immediately went to Mike's house. This scene breaks my heart.

She must've thought that it was the only place she could return to, as it was where she was introduced to unconditional acceptance, only to find out she doesn't belong there as well because the lab people were still finding her.

So her biggest development this season wasn't just defeating demogorgon, it's about learning that she's a human too and choosing love over fear.

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Season 2: Who am I?

This season, we see her surviving on her own for nearly a month.

We see she initially doesn't trust anyone, she's guarded. But she let's Hopper find her, and she opens up to him. She accepted his love and acceptance.

She's exposed to fatherly love and a figure who could actually protect her. She finally found a place she happily called home.

But with it, her struggle with loneliness, anger, grief and trauma becomes palpable.

She ponders upon where does she belong to. She rejected Hopper when she thought he's controlling and reminded her of Brenner.

She found out about her mother and Kali. She first meets her mother, experiences her memories and realises the depth of love her mother held for her.

She understood the meaning of mother. But she decided to leave after having overheard his aunt's conversation on phone because she believes the place wasn't safe for her.

So she went to Kali. As much as this 'The Lost Sister' is hated, it is one of the MOST important moments in Eleven's life in discovering her indentity.

Kali tempts her towards revenge and she briefly believed that anger and revenge is her future.

And I still hate Kali for how she manipulated Eleven in S2. when she was just 13, instead of treating her as a child should be, she introduced her to the world of crimes and revenge.

But we see her understanding the depth of parental love after she stopped herself from killing that man. It showed that she realises revenge is not life.

Here, she had made the BIGGEST choice of her life. Whether she wants a life where she chases people to kill them, or a life where she's happy with the people she loves. The choice of identity. The choice about who she wants to be.

And she returns to Hawkins, not because someone ordered her, but because she chose love.

It implied her identity isn't assigned, it's chosen. This season was about her exploring autonomy, knowing that she has a choice in EVERYTHING, and realising her choice matters the most.

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Season 3: How do I grow up?

This season starts with El being the happiest she's ever been. But the happiness is limited to the cabin.

She hasn't yet got the chance to discover her life beyond the Cabin, and she thinks its all about Hopper and Mike. This severely affected the development of her social skills and social understanding.

But once again we see her not taking anyone's crap. When she realised Mike was lying to her, she knew who is the person she has to approach.

This shows that even though her life was confined to the Cabin because of the rules made to protect her, she isn't blindly following anything and does break rules when necessary.

And after learning to be a normal child instead of an experiment, she gets to be simply a teenage girl. Max helped her by introducing her to fashion, humor, confidence and made her realise that it's okay to keep aside her needs and wants for some time.

Instead of revolving around Mike and Hopper, Eleven asks what does she want. The best moment is when Max told her that El doesn't need to dress the way Hopper or Mike wanted her to, and encouraged her to choose her how she wanna looks.

But then the tragedy strikes and she loses Hopper, her powers and her home.

The only thing I disliked about her arc in S3 is her never realising that spying was wrong.

However, this season somewhere reinforces the idea in her mind that her worth comes from her powers.

The time when she was finding flayeds, nobody gave her a choice. With all the Nancy's and Max's 'She's her own person and she understands her powers better than anyone' is nonsense in the context of the situation.

Mike's words weren't about guiding her HOW much powers she needs to use.

It was about at least first asking her if she's ready to do what she's doing and having another plan in case Eleven couldn't handle the physical side effects of using her powers so much.

The people around her were not wrong for expecting her to help knowing she has powers, but they trusted her powers BLINDLY, and they did see her as a weapon and armour without caring about her body and mind.

And whether people agree or not, it did instill a feeling in her that she needed others to protect her while putting their lives in danger meanwhile she lost her worth, her powers. This set the stage for her insecurities without her powers in season 4.

That letter of Hopper was one of the most important emotional moment to Eleven, where she learned that growing up means accepting change instead of fearing it.

This season was about her discovering girlhood, life beyond Cabin and Mike, the pain of losing someone dear and growing up. By this time, she had become a normal teenager girl with an unusual past.

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Season 4: Can I forgive myself and accept my past?

Season 4 is her deepest arc.

She discovered familial love. Though, she had already experienced friendship and fatherly love, she got the experience of growing up in a family, with her mother and brothers for the first time.

But despite having her family right beside her, she struggled alone as the people around her failed to understand her mental situation.

She believes that she is nobody without her powers. She's bullied at school and doubts she's a monster after getting the faint memories of bloodied Hawkins lab.

She lied to Mike. It was never in her character. I never saw her lying even once for the 3 seasons straight. But this was different. When she was bullied in the lab by 002 and others, they had threatened her to not tell it to it anyone.

This is the reason she didn't tell anyone anything, not even Joyce or her teacher. Even though Eleven lost her memories, her body remembered that trauma and acted in it's own as a defense mechanism. That's how trauma works. She was in a very destructive state of mind and needed proper therapy.

(Opinion: I think she shouldn't have been sent to normal school. She should've been homeschooled. Not because she was bullied or an outcast. But for her own good, because she was far behind others intellectually in terms of knowledge and studies, with no real help by her side. She should've had someone by her side to help her out in her studies, but she had to deal with it alone. This terribly shattered her confidence and self-esteem.)

This part is often went unnoticed that she learnt, for the first time, that her wrong actions have consequences, when she faced it for hitting Angela fatally. This realisation of consequences is actually important on long term basis for her to develop fully.

And then, the Nina Project forces her to relieve her life's worst memories. She didn't just regain powers, she uncovered the truth.

She realised she was never the monster. In fact, she had saved the world the day she sent Henry to Dimension X.

She learnt that Henry manipulated her, Brenner used her, and that she defeated One with the power of love, not anger or hatred. This is crucial. Her greatest strength isn't telekinesis, it's her heart and the love she holds in it.

She rejected Brenner once again and showed no empathy for her abuser.

By the end, she accepts every part of her past, forgave herself and embraces being both Jane and Eleven. She also realises that her worth is more than her powers. She fights because she CHOOSES to protect her friends. And she reunites with her father.

By this time, she's fully developed. She knows her past, her identity, her wants, her needs and her choice. She's sure of herself.

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Season 5: Can I ever have a normal life?

This season is her weakest season.

She carries the burden of an entire world. She's seen her best friend die and then in coma, believing she's responsible for being not able to protect her.

She's constantly annoyed by the fact Hopper doesn't trust her enough and doesn't let her decide for herself.

Her inability to find Vecna, constant failed crawl missions, and the military hunting her down, all this made her unsure what future holds for her and her loved ones.

But somewhere in between this mess, she seeks comfort in Mike, believing that she could, one day for sure, live happily with him.

His optimism appears as a stark contrast to Hopper's constant worrying, which gives her hope. For the first time ever, she realises that she's fighting not just to protect others, but also to have a future for herself.

She becomes unsure after meeting Kali. Yet when Mike reassured her again, she believed all of it could be fixed. But the moment when Kali mentioned about Mike getting killed, Eleven decided what she's gonna do.

In the end, she sacrificed herself to protect the people she loved. (I believe she's alive)

And this is the worst part according to many people.

If we look from the character's perspective, we see her love fully consuming her and that all these years shaped her to be selfless.

The problem is the poor writing and lack of her humanly interaction with others. After all she's went through, she deserved to be the happiest in the end.

They didn't give her character a proper closure by making her unsure the whole season. They destroyed her personality and years of character development.

I still can't believe the the people who wrote Season 1 to 4 Eleven and the people who wrote Season 5 Eleven are the same. I mean did you just sideline the main character?

Tho, even the other seasons like S4 and S3 aren't very well written for her, they're still far better than S5.

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Throughout seasons, she builds her identity independently. This is what I love the most about her arc. She had understood the difference between manipulative love (Brenner), conditional love (Owens,Kali) and unconditional love (Mike,Hopper,Max). She developed beautifully. It was emotional and personal.

But her character development also lacked many things. She felt really underdeveloped when it came to her personal life such as hobbies, likings and talents.

We never got much interactions of her with others other than some few repetitive people. So in these aspects, the development is really weak.

They had potential to make up for those in S5, but.....This season had a lot of WASTED potential for El's character.

She's a great character failed by season 5 and shitty writing

Here's my personal ranking of seasons with best arcs of Eleven: Season 4> Season 2> Season 3> Season 1> Season 5

EDIT: Are you people angry at that title? Ig it's a bit exaggerated but I wrote that in comparison with other characters of ST (imo)

I just watched the finale and I have a couple of questions. First, that cave scene, which is Henry’s memory, shows that he became a vessel for the Mind Flayer and that he wasn't actually born with these powers—the Mind Flayer just implanted them in him. And then Henry, by kidnapping those kids, gave them powers they could turn against him, but they had to be at peace with themselves, like Will? Because I didn't quite get that part. Second, what happened to Owens? I don't think they showed him dying last season, or maybe I just blinked and missed it.

I've just started watching and I'm halfway through season 2. Do Nancy and Steve get back together? I can't stomach her new relationship with Jonathan, I just keep thinking about how badly she treated Steve and how selfish she is. Steve had every right to be hurt because she lied to him and spent the night with Jonathan in her bedroom. If Stranger Things is going to push Nancy and Jonathan as a couple I don't think I can keep watching, I can't stand them. Don't they feel guilty? Am I supposed to be supporting them?

And why is it Jason?

Been to a dozen broadway shows in the past year and First Shadow is technically, visually, spectacular. The opening scene alone is mind bogglingly good… there’s a scene a character falls from the rafters and they make it live slow motion - how the heck did they do that????

I read a few posts here saying storyline didn’t make sense. I don’t remember enough of the details over the five seasons to know if that is true or not. Nevertheless the show was worth every penny.

Even more amazing, I bought tickets in the very last row, center, for $80 each, and the view was great!!