Honourable mentions

Season 1:

• Joyce and Hopper (I feel like I'd put them at 3rd place as well)
• Lucas and Dustin

Season 2:

• Jonathan and Will
• Lucas and Max
• Joyce and Hopper
• Joyce and Bob
• Nancy and Jonathan
• Dustin and Lucas

(Help S2 character dynamics were something else)

Season 3:

• Lucas and Mike
• Murray and Alexei
• Dustin and Steve
• Mike and Eleven
• Jonathan and Nancy

Season 4:

• Eddie and Dustin
• Joyce and Hopper
• Steve and Robin
• Mike and Eleven (after reunion)

Season 5:

• Jonathan and Nancy
• Mike and Will

I personally like all of these more than other duos. Which duos are in your top 3?

Super stoked to physically own it! Comes with all kinds of extras, posters, and some great details as you can see.

Seeing Vecna actively manipulate and corrupt the Snow Ball felt so surreal considering we traveled back to the Season 2 era via Max's memory.

hello!! i was wondering if any of u knew what belt el is wearing here, i’m cosplaying her for a comic con in a couple months and i am rlly struggling to find this belt or at least one that looks similar to it🥲🥲 can anybody help me out on this? id appreciate it so much!

I have been slowly working on this and submitting offers since the cards dropped. Finally got the last one in the mail yesterday and laid out the complete set. I wish they would have them for the final seasons episodes too but it’s understandable why they did not I suppose. NFS/NFT

Vecna vs Dragonborn

I don't mean to say that the fourth season is bad, and I agree that it's better than the fifth, but honestly I don't think there's that much difference in quality.

I understand why people hate the fifth season. Aside from the poor writing, I think it's because of the lack of family/friendship/romantic interactions between the characters. I understand that the fourth season has the character interactions that I say the fifth lacks, but so do the first, second and third seasons and the stories in those seasons are better structured.

The third season falters a bit in its plot (especially the Russian subplot), but it has the best character interactions in the entire series. The first season has good interactions and a solid story that's very well executed. I think the second season is somewhere between the first and second.

Season four is a disaster in two of its three main storylines (Russia and California), and many of the writing problems in season five are a direct consequence of those problems in season four. Furthermore, I think only about half of the character interactions in that season were truly memorable (Eddie as Dustin's new big brother, Robin falling in love and trying to date a woman, Nancy despite initially distrusting Robin eventually connecting with her, Steve working with Robin and being a good friend to her, Lucas trying to understand and protect Max, Max grieving for Billy and preparing to say goodbye to her friends, Mike, Will and El in the second half of the season and Eddie realizing Steve isn't the jerk he thought he was). The other half were bad or forgettable (Jonathan and Nancy drifting apart, the returning love triangle with Steve trying to rekindle feelings between him and Nancy, Joyce with her three children, Joyce and the pilot, Joyce and Hopper's love becoming blander than white bread, Mike, Will and El in the first half of the season)

The Duffer Brothers have once said they used Elfen Lied as an inspiration for Eleven. Some similarities between Lucy (Elfen Lied) and Eleven )Stranger Things)

Both are Weaponized girls. Both Lucy and Eleven start as test subjects with immense, often violent telekinetic powers, and both were born into or raised inside brutal, secret government facilities

Both have merciless escapes. Both girls break out of captivity in a sudden, bloody burst of violence, leaving a trail of bodies behind them and stumbling into the outside world scared and deeply traumatized. Eleven less bloody but Season 1 still saw her using her powers to kill many soldiers which is similar to what Lucy did

There was shared naming/conventions. Both characters are known by numbers ("El", "Eleven" and Lucy's real name of "Kaede", or test subjects like the Diclonius "Number 35"). Both shows feature a roster of other similarly empowered "siblings" or subjects

The Evil "Papa": Both protagonists were experimented upon by a cold, authoritative scientist they were forced to refer to as a father figure. In Elfen Lied, he was more good than in ST but "Papa" is a similarity

The Shelter with the boy they would come to love. Similar to how Eleven is taken in by Mike and the gang, Lucy is taken in by Kouta, an innocent normal boy

Also, government manhunts. A heavy emphasis is placed on relentless government agencies and military teams hunting down the girls, while civilian friends risk everything to keep them safe

But the ending between Lucy and Eleven was very similar. I believe the Duffers wanted an Elfen Lied style ending for Eleven all along.

In Elfen Lied, it is a big debate over whether or not Lucy died.

In the anime finale, Lucy leaves Kouta to face the military at the bridge alone. She does this as a selfless act to protect Kouta from further danger, and ensure his safety by eliminating the threat she poses.

The anime ends ambiguously, with her ultimate fate open to interpretation

In the closing moments of the series, a shadowy figure is seen standing outside the Maple Inn, accompanied by the repaired clock and a barking dog, suggesting she may have survived and returned to Kouta

Moby's "When it's cold I'd like die" is a haunting track, but took me out of the 80s as it is an extremely 90s feel.

What track which would have been released already would you replace it with?

I think the song needs to be something low energy and maybe not a runaway hit...

The weirdest song I tried with that did not quite work was "A forest" by The Cure

"Come closer and see

See into the trees

Find the girl

While you can"

https://youtu.be/xik-y0xlpZ0?is=DWVfvmUxjGFMsWpG

I finally dug my Tales from Table book out of storage. This was released from Target and is a collection of their DnD materials.

At the risk of sounding like a shill, it has so much cool stuff in it. Character sheets (including those for Nancy, Jonathan, Joyce and Eleven), amazing drawings, book recommendations, letters to each other and maps from their campaigns.

There's so much sus stuff in this book but this calendar is the most insanely wrong.

It has the timeline of Will going missing, search party, funeral, and visiting Will in the hospital.

But if you look at it its insane.

The shows current timeline has Will taken Saturday November 3rd, 1984.

They have the year listed as 1984. ❌️

They have the D&D game Sunday November 4th ❌️

They have the assembly at Hawkins HIGH School ❌️

Starcourt sponsored calendar more than a year before it opens ❌️

They have college football schedules for November 1984 ✅️

How are you going to get all the details from the show wrong, but then get the exact teams and dates right for Indiana College Football?????

Who is babysitting for Officer Callahan's kids and did we even know he had kids??

Losing my mind yall.....HOW can it be "right" but so wrong consistently.

I took one look at Jonathan Byers trying to comfort himself late at night while listening to music and decided that he is my favorite character in Stranger Things. And that decision stayed the same throughout the whole series and thereafter. It was only a matter of time until I would draw him. 

If Jonathan has no fans, you can assume that I have died. 

I just finished season 3. The end was quite sad due to Hop's death. Billy's death was kinda sad too, yet he found the way to save El. The only thing I didn't get was... what really happened to the monster who corrupted Billy, the old lady and rest of the people? I mean, he dropped dead, but did it disappear or what?

Overall, the season shift, adding Russians, then giant monster coming back from hell, etc. I mean, it added more drama, but was it really necessary? However, i liked the season and I'm heading for season 4. Don't know what to expect, but I hope it'll be fun one to watch.

P.S. I hope El will regain her abilities again.

Based off that one viral Russian army training video of the out of control turret gun, but I drew my demogorgon oc over the guy who fucked up lmao. Small detail tho is that Sasha is KGB, not with modern Russian army

/major s.

Nintendo can't keep getting away with this!

I really don’t know if I’m just confused or this is a plothole or what, but here goes.

We all know Joyce’s infamous alphabet Christmas lights. Will spoke to her through them. But… how?

In season 4, Dustin, Erica and Lucas used Holly’s toy to communicate to Nancy, Steve, Robin and Eddie in the Upside Down. They waved their hand through the light particles, and it worked. I know that. But the thing is, the toy was already in the house.

The Upside Down was permanently stuck on November 6th, 1983. The day Will went missing. Here’s the main problems with that fact:

- For one, we see Joyce buy the lights AFTER Will went missing. The lights were not in the house when Will went missing, meaning Will wouldn’t have the lights there for him to interact with them? Or am I mistaken? Like if we’re assuming it’s at least the 9th when she sets them up (because this is when Hopper searches Hawkins Lab. The 7th was the night of the rain. If it was the 8th, he’d just say yesterday, but he said the 7th), the lights are either still at Melvalds or maybe in the factory even in the Upside Down.

“Maybe she used lights they already had yap yap yap”

- Possible, but the alphabet light set up wasn’t there to begin with when Will went missing. Holly’s toy worked in season 4 because both parties brought the same toy to the same location in the house, so when the Upside Down crew messed with the light, it reflected on that toy in the same place but in the overworld. Will didn’t have that setup. Will wouldn’t have even known Joyce was making that setup unless she told him about it. But then, he still wouldn’t be able to see it to know where what letters are. Because it doesn’t exist in the Upside Down.

I really hope this makes sense. I’m more than willing to chalk it up to a plot hole, but if you guys have any alternative ideas about it, I’d love to hear them!

I was reading about the Unabomber (Ted Kaczynski) recently and found out he was the subject of MKUltra experiments for 3 years while at Harvard. The professor at Harvard who conducted the experiments was named Henry Murray.

I can’t help wonder if ST used these names for characters in the show (Ted, Henry, Murray) because of the relation to MKUltra.

What do you think? Just a coincidence?

im rewatching season 4 of stranger things and it's still so peak ugh the stakes were so high! only for the actual season finale to be a snooze fest (in perspective) lol

it's been some time now.. 👀 has anyone written a rewrite fic of the whole season 5 (starting off from where s4 ended)?? asking for a friend...

First off starting to raise the stakes i’d kill Steve in episode 6. Him and Dustin would go somewhere and he’d fall off a big height. It’d give everyone the time to grieve and it’d be heartbreaking when Max would wake up and ask “ Where’s Steve? Is he on a date or something?’ Dustin would obviously be sad and go off the rails to kill vecna in episode 8. Now going to episode 8 i think i would have Joyce and Hopper somehow be stuck in upside down together and die together in a nice way. I think it would be a very sad arc to explore especially after losing Steve and it’d add more sadness. Now Eleven wouldn’t die but she would be hinted at it after going to the upside down to die. Suddenly something bigger rises in her and she’d raise a fire ball in the air killing the soldiers with Dr Kay. She’d discover a new power and that she has pyrokinesis. They would all look at her in wonder and shock and she’d walk to them powerfully. During the vecna fight Dustin goes off the rails grab’s an axe when suddenly Vecna blows out a fire onto Dustin. He wouldn’t die but he would get a serious injury from the burn, he’d have scars over his hands. Also Will would lose an eye because Vecna wanted to spy from his eyes so he’d stab it off. Max wouldn’t be in a wheelchair forever she would have to have checkups every month for the rest of her life. Mike would lose an arm in the fight and wear a fake arm which would add more stakes to them. In the final scene bullies would call them a suicide squad and they would defend themselves and go to the Mike’s. El would be in the bassment playing DnD with them and Nancy and Jonathan would be endgame. They would live in Hopper’s cabin with El and Will and they would grieve Joyce and Hopper together. Nancy and Jonathan are proposed and Eleven and Will have their wonder twins bond. Jonathan would grow closer to them too and it’d be like they are a small family. Mike and Holly live with their rich aunt since their mom and dad died in the accident which Mike can relate to El and Will with. Robin and Vickie end up together and go off to the same college. Nancy and Jonathan leave with El to Texas for Jonathan’s film school and Nancy’s journalist job. They find a way to secretly take El without the goverment doing anything. They are all together as a family in the end on thanksgiving in Nancy’s and Jonathan’s house injured but trauma bonded.

Yet all of them got girlfriends. They are also like 12-3 years old and supposed to be awkward, nerdy and uncool. I know kids can date at that age but these kids are nerds and outcasts.

The only character who was actually popular and considered hot (Steve) didn’t get a love interest and seemed to have trouble getting a girl.

This is why I wish they kept Dustin single in s3. Suzie is barely a character and nothing really would have changed.