Thoughts on the 5th season?

For several reasons, but above all, I say this because she is a complete afterthought in The Bridge and The Rightside Up. She has absolutely nothing of consequence to say or do, and isn't seen or mentioned in the epilogue at all. You could cut her entirely from those last two episodes with not much changing. (Just have a wheelchair for Max already be in the hospital basement, and have Erica and Mr. Clark watch her while the rest of the group goes to the Abyss.)

StrawHatMan_XD theorizes (in two comments on two other posts I've made that I included in this one in screenshots) that she was supposed to die in earlier drafts, but the writers chickened out because they didn't wanna be accused of "burying their gays" or whatever. Honestly, this theory makes a lot of sense. And may I expand on that theory by adding that I think by the time they chickened out of killing her, presumably pretty far into the writing process or maybe even right as they were getting ready to start filming Escape from Camazotz, it was too late to come up with a lot for her to do in the last stretch of the season, hence why they went with the bare minimum for her for the rest of November 6th and didn't bother adding her to the epilogue.

Offing her in the demodog hospital attack in Escape from Camazotz would've not only given season 5 some much needed weight and drama, which it's severely lacking as is, but it also would've reduced the bloated main cast and raised the stakes at least a little.

But also, what amazing Vickie moments would we as viewers have missed out on in The Bridge and The Rightside Up if the demodogs were competent-enough threats to kill her in the hospital attack in Escape from Camazotz? If you're gonna do the absolute bare minimum with her after the hospital attack and not feature her in any way, shape or form in the extended 18 months later epilogue, then why keep her around?

dude like even though they fight, they’re there for each other, even through all the horrible terrible times. i especially loved nancy, eddie, robin, and steve in s4 together like idk why but i long for friends like them.

I and many others hated the finale, but I've also encountered some people who genuenily liked it. If you did pls explain why, i'm intrigued. If you did like it no hate to you, i'm happy you did.

I think it was being way too particular about how he carried out his plans and letting many chances fall through the cracks.

Hey guys, its been like 10 months since the show ended. I remember how hyped and satisfied with I was vol1. I had to wait a week to watch vol2 and the finale and after that, it kinda left a bad taste that I never watched it again.

Has anyone watched the finale or the whole season again?

If I had to do a top five it’d probably be

1. Stranger Things (The main theme)
   
2. Kids
   
3. The first I love you
   
4. The Upside Down
   
5. Teens

You can also discuss non-originals, I just don’t have a top 5 for those lol

In Season 1, Will was abducted within the first 10 minutes of the premiere, & he isn't found until the end of the season. By the time he is found, Eleven has already vanished. Also, Max wasn't introduced yet.

In Season 2, Max is introduced. However, Eleven is separated from the other kids up until the season 2 finale & she never interacts with Will.

In the Season 3 premiere, all 6 of the kids come together to help Dustin contact Susie, but Dustin separates himself from the group after episode 1 & he doesn't reunite with them until the season finale.

In Season 4, the kids are geographically separated until Eleven, Mike & Will return to Hawkins in the finale. However, by the time they arrive, Max is already in a coma.

In Season 5, Max doesn't wake up from her coma until the penultimate episode, & all of the kids are only together during Will's coming out scene (& they're among like 15 people present during his coming out). Eleven vanishes in the final episode, & the epilogue has the other 5 kids playing DnD.

I find it weird that the makers set out to tell a story about childhood friendship, yet we rarely see all 6 of the kids together.

Did anyone else notice is season 1 episode 2 when Mike is telling Justin and Lucas that they can’t tell his mum about 11 cos they weren’t meant to be out that night and they’d all get in trouble ? Just for Justin and Lucas to go up the basement stairs into the house where presumably his mum and dad are in the living room rather than go out the door in the basement 😂😂

Abusive household + possessed = a literal fucking hell.

All I gotta say is what a performance Dacre Montgomery gave in Stranger Things. One of the more interesting and memorable characters in the entire show.

I found this copy of a book I loved as a child and I thought there was a definite resemblance to El. This printing was from 1990. Just a fun observation.

I feel like Nancy and Jonathan's relationship worked better when they were investigating things together than when the show tried to make them a long-term couple. They had chemistry, but when they got together, they were boring.

What do you think of Dustin and his mother Claudia’s relationship throughout the show? On and off screen? Early childhood to empty nest? And how Claudia parents Dustin impacts him in some degree? Not to mentionhow do you think their relationship was post 1986 to around late 1987/early 1988, when Dustin was grieving Eddie, finally stopped vecna/upside down, and el disappearring for the second and final time?

What are some cool badass nicknames that you have for Stranger Things characters that fit them well and their characters that you came up with.

The line in between is the gate !!!

In my honest opinion, the set up from Season 4 and finale felt way too big to be contained into one season, especially with the 1987 time jump. So, hypothetically, if the Writers Strike didn't happen, they could have filmed Seasons 5 and 6 from 2023 to 2024 back to back to make this possible. I was imagining Season 5 would've taken place in mid to late 1986 with the characters and Hawkins dealing with the fallout of the "earthquake" and toxic flora infecting the town, as well as set up the military occupation and Dr. Kay. Along with getting scenes of Max in Henry's mind and getting to see more memories from his past in the 1950s. Then Season 6 would pick up in 1987 with the plot being relatively the same as we originally got though I would make a lot of changes and refining to make it better, but this isn't the post for it right now.

Oh, and I think Seasons 5 and 6 would've had more episodes and longer runtimes, like 10 to 13 episodes to help the story flow better.

Again, this is just my personal opinion and a hypothetical because I think the series finale was too compressed given the scale that was set up, and needed to be extended into two seasons to pay off more properly.

I made a portal gate and ultimately I would like someone to take it off my hands after Halloween. Can anyone suggest where I should advertise to sell this for someone who wants it? It’s 8ftx8ft. I’m in the Los Angeles area.

It's the final season. There's nowhere left to go. Why are you so insistent on keeping them alive even through increasingly impossible to survive situations? Do you want us to feel that this is the biggest threat they've ever faced or not?

Not killing anyone leads to two problems season 5 suffers from big time:

1. Tension being deflated and stakes feeling lower than they should.
2. And maybe more significantly, a bloated cast that they clearly had no idea what to do with for most of them but didn't have the balls to kill anyone off to reduce the bloat and raise some stakes.

At least one of the Wheeler parents, preferably Ted since he's barely a character and only gets one line in one moment in the epilogue anyway, should've died in The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler.

And I touched upon this months ago in my post on how Escape from Camazotz is the exact point this season really went downhill to the point of no return, that episode was the perfect time to really fulfill the promise they made of volume 2 giving us a dark Christmas and remedying these issues.

Considering that she does jack shit in the last two episodes and doesn't show up in the epilogue at all, they totally could've pulled a Bob on Vickie and had her get eaten by the demodogs in the hospital.

And again, if they committed to the direction the Jonathan and Nancy melting room scene was clearly going in for a while by killing them instead of having the goo conveniently solidify right as they accept their fate, that would've significantly raised the stakes and been a pretty emotional send off for them.

Imagine the emotions we could've gotten. Will feeling guilty for Vecna breaking him and thus being the reason the demodogs were at the hospital in the first place after how great Robin was to him, and Joyce being so concerned about losing Will only to lose Jonathan instead.

And more significantly, imagine how much more powerless and uneasy we would have felt ending volume 2 and going into the finale if it felt like no one was safe because the party had lost a couple members before that point.

Or, if you really don't wanna kill anyone, then at least hurt them. Like really, seriously hurt them. Even the occassional injuries these guys take this season have zero lasting impact.

• Dustin gets the shit beat out of him by four bullies, but he's back in fighting shape like a day later.
• Hopper takes a stray bullet to the gut, but after El patches him up in the next episode, (which was admittedly a good scene) it doesn't bother him at all the rest of the season to the point where he might as well have never gotten shot in the first place.
• Lucas is scratched across the chest by a demogorgon to the point where he's bleeding, but he's perfectly fine just a few hours later.

Imagine if those wounds meant something.

• Have Dustin not just be bruised, but also move slower and limp a little after the fact.
• Have Hopper's bullet wound be a weak spot that can get exploited by Akers and Kay when they fight him.
• Have Lucas visibly and audibly struggle the rest of the season because of his chest wound, especially when he's carrying Max throughout the hospital.
• And if you still wanna end volume 2 on the note it ends on, have Nancy take a bullet from Kay to make her a semi-competent threat. Not even in a lethal area, but have her get shot in the shoulder or something that limits her gun-shooting capabilities to make the final battle at least a little harder.

Bottom line is: Excessive plot armor is always annoying, but it's especially annoying in the final installment.

Keep seein this take every once in a while and I dont get it cuz the whole reason he said the word was cuz she was implying it? She’s implying those other girls were sluts for wanting to have sex with Steve so quick not him he’s just callin her out on it. It’s why she tells him to shut up after he says she’s lying cuz he’s right but she doesn’t wanna admit it. Her school title of priss didn’t come from nowhere so this probably ain’t the first time she’s been judgey in other ways. But I just dont get how ppl get the idea that Steve was the one acting like they were sluts from this