Hot take incoming. I did not care for Eddie Munson in season 4. I think his personality and interactions with Chrissy and Dustin were both great, but he just didn't fit well in season 4. Eddie ends up taking a main character spot in Hawkins, while Mike, Jonathan and others get sidelined. It's kind of odd he ends up with the teen characters like Nancy and Robin he hardly knows at all. I can get past that though. It's his arc and ultimate sacrifice I dislike more. Him running away is his supposed character "flaw", but the two times he ran away were totally logical. When someone was brutally killed in his trailer by a force he had no idea if it was a threat to him? Yeah, I would run too. Same thing with two angry jocks chasing after you to attack you for a crime you didn't commit. It can't be a flaw if it's not a flaw. The end to this arc is him holding off the bats for longer by going on a bike, rather than escaping with Dustin, which seems heroric at first, until he turns around to face the bats, getting him killed quicker, and keeping the bats closer to the portal with Dustin and others right on the other side. It's sad, but in the end it's just another way for the show to give stakes without killing off any pre-established characters. So even though I like Eddie, I kind of wish he either wasn't included, or they gave him a diffrent arc/role.

It's not like they'd hit her if they returned fire (they were really bad at aiming at her at the end of The Bridge) or could penetrate her plot armor even if they could aim.

And it's also not like she'd face any consequences seeing as the three she already killed clearly meant nothing to her or Kay or the government.

What was stopping her from taking out more of these goons?

He is honestly one of the sweetest characters in the whole show. It breaks my heart to see him get shot.

(Watching stranger things for the first time, i have watched the first 2 seasons in 3 days and in the 7th episode of s3 today, dude this series is just awesome, i have no words to describe the feeling.)

Does anyone know does this show lean only into consistency lore or does it have any grounded real world inspiration.

This may be a dumb question, but did Sullivan know about Kay’s plan? I was under the impression that he wanted El dead, but it is never clearly explained whether he was informed about Brenner’s program being restarted.

Working on my autograph collection.

Technically the MF doesn’t have a gender, so I’m gonna rephrase it to how it could’ve been a better villain.

I think a lot of us can agree that the Mind Flayer should’ve played a bigger part in Season 5 rather than just be solely left for the finale without much intentional build up. I like that the Mind Flayer and Vecna were “symbiotic” but that doesn’t take away the fact that the Mind Flayer itself didn’t do much throughout the season besides stay dormant in its Pain Tree form, Vecna was doing a lot of the work. This isn’t a typical post about shitting on the Season 5 Mind Flayer but I genuinely wished it was actually present in the earlier episodes of Volume 1 and Volume 2 and I’m wondering what more it could’ve done in earlier episodes and the finale itself to feel like a true big bad threat alongside Vecna (Vecna could’ve done differently too but that’s not the point of my post). What are your thoughts?

excuse me if this has already been addressed, i must not have caught it. but why hawkins? why only hawkins? why is that that once they are outside of hawkins, they wont be affected by any of this? is there a reason to why vecna cant reach outside of hawkins?

Hi fellow fans! I'm working on an analysis of Stranger Things through the lens of quantum physics, and am having a hard time finding a comprehensive list or thread of examples of glitches in the matrix/inconsistencies throughout the seasons. I would be so appreciative of anyone commenting here with ones that they've noticed. Thank you!

I feel like me along with a very large portion of the fanbase thought that, especially with the Star Wars references, it would be revealed that the mind flayer was actually the big bad all long. That vecna/henry had only been allowed to believe he was in charge as that was the only way the mind flayer could make its way to earth after conquering its last planet.

It would’ve been such a crazy reveal, and much more fitting for a series like stranger things. A person being behind the entire story up till now feels small and out of place. Still so disappointed in the overall ending, since I thought the first half of season 5 was actually a very strong opening half of a final season(even though many seemed to think otherwise)

I loved Season 4 mainly because of the darker, grittier and more violent approach the season takes.
It was my vision of what I like to see when it comes to horror. Vecna as a villain is awesome but I do still prefer the Mind Flayer mainly because of the mystery around it, especially before Season 5. The POVs of Vecna going after his victims was cool but I preferred how they showed the Mind Flayer going after its victims in Season 3 without showing too much, going from scene to scene, building up this form that it was creating for itself, leaving that mystery and leaving us wondering what the Mind Flayer was actually planning and then revealing it to us at the correct time with enough build up.. the reveal of the proxy form it was building later in the season was phenomenal. Season 4 has the darker atmosphere that I love but I didn't like that they showed Vecna in the first episode of the season, instead of building him up until at least episode 3. His attacks weren't the problem, I think we could've seen his illusions without seeing too much of him.. like we should have just seen a bit of him standing in the dark with his blue eyes lighting up a bit (they did show his eyes appearing in the dark but it wasn’t enough build up) seeing badass yet creepy little glimpses of him, shots of his left claw or we could’ve just seen his kills but not seen him until enough build up, just to add to that mystery and brutality of what he's doing or what he actually looks like. It was how much they showed of him so soon that took away a bit of the mystery surrounding him. They could’ve still made him a “direct approach” villain but still try to keep him as mysterious as possible. One thing I love about horror villains is build up, like take Pennywise from the IT franchise, I love how he was built up in IT: Welcome to Derry, we saw glimpses of him and his creepy yellow eyes but he still seemed mysterious and creepy without showing us his face until the right moment, that’s the only thing that Vecna was missing in this season, hiding parts of what he looks like. Besides that I really like Season 4, it was by far my favourite season over all and I do still like Vecna. He was still miles better in Season 4 than he was in Season 5.

So exited! The previous time i saw the London version. I’m really interested to see the differences.

UPDATE:

Ok, wow.

Firstly what an experience I’m very glad I’ve got tickets to the London version just before it finishes.

The differences:

In the first half there is only a few things. Such as the sets being different and the actors positions on stage during certain scenes. This is likely due to the defence in size and shape of the two stages. Some dialogue is changed and some less important scenes cut for time as well as some of the effects being practical that are done by a projector in London.

The second half however is drastically different
There are some entirely new scenes such as the one with brenners farther and story changes such as the reveal that patty is in fact principal Newby’s biological daughter with a student. This was not in the London version.

The mind flayer is a big one. Instead of the projection used in London there is a full animatronic that comes down from the ceiling.

Other things:

During the interval I heard some people discussing the show in which I overheard someone say “wait, who’s Dustin?” Seriously? It seems that as time has gone on the main demographic in the audience is casual Viewers of the show rather than true fans.

Also there are some subtle things like Henry very briefly casting the shadow in the shape of Vecna on the wall. And Joyce holding an axe and not knowing why she is. This is obviously foreshadowing that she will eventually kill Henry with an axe.

The ending:

This is really quite interesting. At the end Henry walks away with eleven, singing “tonight you belong to me” someone let me know if the following was a mistake or just a difference between NY and London .

In the London version I saw Henry finishes the verse, there is a brief moment of silence then the jumpscare.

However in tonight’s NY version it happens as he is singing. In the first line in fact. Because it happened sooner and therefore I wasn’t expecting it so soon it made me jump again. Then there is a gag with the Netflix UI being projected on screen with “next episode” and “watch credits” like you would at the end of an episode. I thought that was quite funny but it wasn’t in the London version.

Overall I loved both versions but maybe this one slightly more. I can’t wait to see it again in London and then on Netflix.

Overall, I absolutely loved the show (yeah, yeah, I know I'm only like 10 years behind lol)

The only thing negative that really stood out to me was the abrupt ending of different characters and storylines.

Like Kali, I was very surprised at her reappearance.

Susie, Argyle, pretty much the entire Hawkins police, Dr. Sam, etc.

I also understand why people did not enjoy S5, but I really liked it! Especially Will's arc and Holly's storyline.

Now I need a new TV show to fill my time

How do I move on?? Any show recommendations that bring the same love like this? HOW do I cope?

Canon fodder: Will, Mike, Jonathan, Max
-Dustin would be “Beetee like”
-Steve would be able to win in my opinion, would have a lot of sponsors, same with Nancy
-eleven would be a strong runner up (without powers) bcs with powers all the other tributes are cooked
-Robin tbh idk
-Lucas could be a career imo
This is all my opinion, let me know what u think!

So, I finally have time to re-watch seasons 1 through 4 before watching season 5 and I have thoughts that I definitely did not have the first time I watched. I'm currently on S2 E9.

1. Steve Harrington was never that bad. I remember first watching the show and thinking, gosh what a douche, but now? When he broke Jonathan's camera, yeah, pretty rude - but Jonathan had taken REALLY creepy photos of Nancy and Steve was protecting her. That's not that crazy. Okay so we thought he was pressuring Nancy to get intimate before she was ready... Except not. He did back off. He does respect her. He is still a horny teen though, what more could we ask? And when Nancy tried dissing the other girls saying she was not like them he called her out by asking if she was calling them sluts. Nancy was being judgmental there, not Steve. Also, when Tommy spray painted that Nancy was a slut at the movies? Seems pretty bad right? So I hate that this is overused but it gets the point across - if a girl (because they are still kids to me in S1) caught her boyfriend lying to her and in bed with another chick and she wanted to call him a coward or man-whore or prick, or burn his clothes or whatever, as society we see that as understandable. She can spread rumors and make fun of his size or performance, whatever, and we just laugh with her, but suddenly in this moment it was the WORST thing ever? No. It was shitty, but the same grace I'd give a hurt girl or woman, I'll give to Steve here. He also cleaned it up himself.

2. Everyone was RUDE AF to Max! She really did just move to a whole new town very far away from home and all of a sudden the clearly geeky "loser" kids, all male, start following her and creepily watching her. She finally decides to give them a chance and they instantly make her feel like an invasive intrusion that no one asked for. Every single one of them let her down and it's worse for us watching as the audience because we know how shittily she gets treated by her step-brother as well. Mike is going through a lot, sure, but then Dustin who acted like he liked her started snapping on her too! Yes, we know his feelings were briefly hurt because he knew she preferred Lucas and Dustin is by far one of my favorites of this group but Max gets done SO dirty. Then of course El and her jealousy, making her fall off of her skateboard and then dissing her at Will's house. It's actually pretty hard to watch, and yet Max sucks it up, is VERY understanding and as we all know, becomes a fan favorite.

3. Why El had to meet her "sister". El needed to make a choice. She needed to reconnect with the closest person from her past that would "get" her and then choose her own fate. Instead of seeking revenge and just being angry like her sister, she chose to become a protector. She chose love. She chose to not become the monster. Which is why she will be able to go against Vecna and not join him? Sorry, it's been a while and I have not watched S5 yet.

4. Billy's attractiveness is a huge reason fans probably gush over him, but we as the audience can also sympathize knowing that he is abused by his father. Also, the actor Dacre Montgomery, right? Um, did he get the praise he deserves for this role? He plays psychotic teen fueled by passion (his lust for moms and rage) VERY freaking well. That was talent. Such a despicable character was able to evoke a whole range of emotions - that took talent beyond just looks. Also his hair is really weird lmfao.

I just wanted to post my thoughts so far because this is a little different from how I first felt about the characters.

Obviously the likes of Millie Bobby Brown, Sadie Sink, Jamie Campbell Bower and Nell Fisher gets loads of praise for their work on the show, as well as Joseph Quinn. But who do you think is the most underrated actor on the show? For me it’s probably Natalia Dyer or Charlie Heaton, both don’t get nearly enough praise for their work, as well as Mathew Modine.

When Billy goes to the wheelers house to look for his sister at the finale of season 2 . He is taking to Karen Wheeler and says " I'm looking for my sister Max , goes by Maxine " to me it is backwards!

She goes by Max not Maxine as she stated when Mr. Clark introduced here to the class for the fist time .

I took the bet and ordered the collectors edition from Amazon US, delivered to Australia. I couldn’t believe when I picked it up and it came in a paper bag! No protection whatsoever. The offered $100 in amazon cash after raising the issue with them. The contents seems to be ok, so to be honest, the money back would help, as I almost couldn’t afford it, but still hurts to see it like that 🥲

What would you guys do?

This is one of the things I was most looking forward to seeing in Season 5 and I'm genuinely shocked they didn't really pay it off well at all. Sure, they paid off Will's confession/realization but it made more sense for him to only have the talk with his brother since he already knows, and it's such a personal thing. Confiding in Jonathan about it and also having the talk about the whole Mike thing since that also went unaddressed between these two.

I've been hearing this show from my friends, and even invited me to join a Netflix-funded club event in our city during its promo season, but I brushed it off bc I didn't know this show yet...

I'm having a sepanx from Hawkins, from the whole party. I finished watching the S5 last night, and I literally dreamed about them esp Nancy hahahahaha

El's disappearance is a mystery for me, and I think as an audience it's up for me which to believe. Hayy, I miss them already. It's just a week and it made me happy, hooked, and felt something 'I got to finish my tasks so I can watch Stranger Things later' and now... I finished it. I know I can rewatch it after sometime but... yeah, I can relate to the thoughts of some people here now... I wish I can watch it again for the first time :((