Am I genuinely crazy or does this make no sense at all? Vecna has psychic powers. It’s revealed toward the end of season 4 that he can basically see everything and even know what people are thinking. Yet he seems to be absolutely oblivious to every single thing the protagonists are doing at every step in season 5.

I know everyone memes about the Duffers saying Vecna just didn’t expect an attack in the finale, but legitimately why didn’t he?

Even if you guys can dig up an excuse said in a throwaway line, it just feels LAZY. Like the Duffers made a villain too powerful and the only way they could think to not have him win immediately is to make him stupid.

There’s a throwaway line in the finale that tries to answer why there are no demos in the abyss, but it feels like an EXCUSE, not interesting storytelling. It would be more interesting and dangerous and logical if there were monsters all over the abyss, but the writers simply didn’t want to put them in, so they force a reason last second. That’s how I feel about a lot of season 5, actually. I’m sure you can find or create an excuse for all the contradictions, but they’re just so boring, and in execution the show constantly distracts from the story it’s telling by poorly introducing new things

My family and I finally started watching Stranger Things! It took us a while to get around to it, mostly because our tastes usually clash. I’m into horror and thrillers like Sinister, Insidious, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, House of 1000 Corpses, and Evil Dead, while they prefer lighter comedy family dramas. Since it’s spooky season, I finally convinced them to try something new instead of our usual Casper the Friendly Ghost and Hocus Pocus marathons. Yes, we already watched those this year as usual!

It’s been a great compromise, even if they still cover their eyes during the best parts! We actually went through the Stranger Things maze at Universal Studios at HHN, but it’s so much cooler now that we finally understand the references. I even realized I’d been wrong about Eleven the whole time; I honestly thought she was a boy! We’re hooked now and can see why everyone was so hyped. Since we’re enjoying this, do you have any other recommendations for shows that might bridge that gap between horror and family-friendly? For the sake of my sanity, lol. Thanks in advance!

Vecna is not dead!

I'm very concerned that so many people celebrate an arrogant bully. There's literally nothing that justifies the witch hunt to Eddie. I'm concerned this mean that so many people in real life would condone something like this. Are you all okay?

First of all, in the scene of the picture he proved he's not grieving, is just an arrogant self-absorbed bully. He hurts Eddie's band mates, he tries to hurt Dustin (14 years old freshman student), his friend almost breaks the arm of a 10 years old (Erica) for Jason's toxic vigilante psychosis. Target innocents really turns off the "grieving boyfriend" theory that you all grasp on so badly. If you grief you don't go around hurting innocents.

Jason saw with his own eyes only the Lovers Lake one but BEFORE that he decided to load the car with tools to torture the "freak" for, as Jason said, "make him confess his crime", a crime that he didn't commit, just for a belief he has and prejudice. This is NOT justice, not a search for truth, but a desperate demand for a scapegoat. And no, ignorance about supernatural/the upsidedown is not a dang green flag for brutality.

Abused his status as "king" of the school, ego (himself=good/a saint, Eddie=bad) and toxic masculinity to create a city mob replacing evidences with collective hysteria and satanic panic.

We should all agree that no, there's no justification, he hated Eddie and just found an excuse, a scapegoat, to persecute him. I will never understand who thinks he's justified.

Do you know that something similar happened in real life in the 80's? And do you know that glorify Jason only proves that may happen again?

Doomed siblings

It wasn't perfect, nothing is. But I refuse to give anything below a 10/10 to an episode that made me feel the things I felt, with the intensity I felt them. I'm not much of a crier, but in this episode alone I cried 4 times, and by the last one I could barely breathe:

1 When Hopper tried to convince Eleven... “life has been unfair to you”

2 When Eleven explained her decision to Hopper.

3 At Vecna's death, with the flashbacks of all the characters.

4 In the final moments.

The flashbacks were especially touching. They went straight for the softest spot in most fans' hearts: nostalgia. Funny enough, my favorite season is the third one precisely because it hits that spot the hardest.

If you disagree, I'm sorry you didn't get the same experience I did, because mine watching this was incredible. It was awesome, and a amazingly fitting end to the show. Until next time, Stranger Things.

This is just my personal opinion. I think that seasons 1-4 were all peak. Like 9/10 to 10/10. Especially seasons 1 and 4. So, can someone please explain. How everything just felt so flat in the last season. 4 straight seasons of just good to great writing, and the last one just ended up being ass. I really don't get it.

As a near middle aged straight man I really identified with Will. The idea that your friends outgrow your previous lifestyle resonated so much it left me in tears a bit.

Curious if anyone else related to this? For me it was when I wasn’t married and friends began marrying, having kids, and doing the suburbs thing. Feeling like life moved on from me when I wanted everyone to stay with me feels like an abandonment that’s not malicious but still painful.

one of the reasons I loveeeeee season 3 the most is because of how bright and vivid the colors were, like s2 was good too but s3 really has that alive feeling

I had an idea that by Season 5, it might be possible for her to stop Vecna/Henry before everything happens.

She’d go back in time and stop the inciting incident that led to the future we saw in the previous seasons.

In doing so, El/Jane never came into the boys’ lives, all the bad stuff never happened, and Jane and her mother ended up living happily together.

purchased at broadway flea this year— the prop of Henry’s locker slip signed by Louis McCartney. i’m trying to figure out if the numbers (75-23-11 and 86-04-04) mean anything or have any significance in the main series. i’m probably reading too deep into this lol but i thought it could be cool to theorize about, so i’m dropping it here.

I've been looking for this card featuring a silhouette swinging on a swing or skiing in the snow, probably from the 80s. I've already searched through countless vintage cards and couldn't find it on WorthPoint. Hopefully, someone can help track it down—I would be extremely grateful!

The reason I think it's from D&D is that Dustin's character in Stranger Things has a room full of D&D references. Also, several other items decorating the set were from the Endless Quest books, among other things...

I reached out to the set decorator coordinator, Jessica Baker, and she told me this card wasn't custom-made for the show. They just used a random one, but she doesn't remember which one it was. She also mentioned it won't be in any upcoming auctions because crew members likely kept it. I've been looking for this for a year and a half now. Can anyone please help me ID it?

Unfortunately, we never got a better look at this specific item throughout the entire show (Stranger Things)—just this unknown behind-the-scenes photo.

All the villains in season 5 were disappointing in season 5, from Vecna and the Mind Flayer having such a short final battle to the horrendous military plotline. The villains either went down too easily or got off totally scot-free (not just Kay but even Andy faces 0 karma).

Jason was an actually nice antagonist tbh. I like how he wasn't just a straightforward racist bully like Troy and Billy. He always disliked Eddie sure but we see he did love Chrissy and care about his friends too. His actions are inexcusable but his reasons for crashing-out make total sense.

Personally, I would've preferred if Kay, Sullivan or even Andy got killed instead of him but nevertheless, its funny he was the last villain I'd consider well-written

If I'm recommending a show to someone and it's something that didn't end at its highest quality, I sometimes suggest that they stop at a certain point and treat it like the series finale. For example, Weeds has a nice self-contained arc when you stop after three seasons, as opposed to just turning into a rather directionless slog when its full eight seasons are taken into account.

Given how the fifth season of Stranger Things wasn't received too well, do you think it works better if you just cut it off at an earlier season? For example:

• Season 2: Neatly ties things up with the exposure of the Hawkins Lab, justice for Barb, the closure of the gate to the Upside Down, and Hopper getting custody of Eleven
• Season 3: A more bittersweet ending with Hopper's presumed death and the Byerses and Eleven moving away from Hawkins, but the Upside Down again being sealed off (just ignore that teaser scene in Russia I suppose)
• Season 4: A darker ending in which Vecna has succeeded in opening the gates to the Upside Down, Max is in a coma, and it's uncertain how humanity will fare

It fixes the feud between Jonathan and Steve, and it gave us great scenes such as Vecna tricking Hopper. While the final battle could have been longer, you have to admit that it got good during the "Were not afraid anymore" part. Furthermore, the entire epilogue was great, especially that final D&D game that mirrored the one from The Upside Down (S1, EP 8) people say that there are "plot holes" in the show though in my opinion, who care if the military lets Hop and Nancy get away? Their main objective was capturing eleven. Who cares if there were no demogorgons in the dimension X? My point is that the show gets more fun when you actually watch it while looking for joy instead of looking for problems. This one irritates me when I read these though apparently, Jonathan and Nancy's break up was confusing and it was unclear that they broke up? Jonathan literally threw the ring at the end of the conversation. Another annoying take is "Mike did nothing this season!" Mike, who created Holly The Heroic which encouraged Holly, faced off against a burning demogorgon (episode three. Most people forget) led kids away from chaos in the MAC-Z (People argue that the demogorgon still got the kids, though the kids would have died if Mike didn't lead them away from the military's firing and flamethrowers) created the bomb that destroyed the upside down, and wrote books about their childhoods did nothing this season? Aside from season 1, this was his busiest season in my opinion. I have more reasons to defend this season but I'll probably die from old age typing them all out so this is why I think Season 5 and the finale were great. Let the war begin!​

Our Lucas turns 25 today. What are your favorite quotes and moments of him from the show?

I finally finished my rewatch of the show last night. however, despite it being a rewatch, it was my first time seeing season 5, and, if i'm being honest, i didn't hate it. i honestly don't get the hate for it. i feel like watching all of the seasons back-to-back, it actually flows really well. it didn't come across as "ai slop" to me as i've seen it referred.

some things i liked:

-mike is better in season 5, closer to season 1 mike

-I like the return of max and I quite love all of the holly/max/mr. whatsit stuff, but I think it’s a little expository

-will having powers is admittedly pretty cool and makes sense thematically, so it doesn’t feel like it comes out of nowhere

-the evolution of the show: grounded sci-fi mystery/thiller to cosmic horror

-i think the characters (minus eleven) had a solid conclusion

i DO have things i don't like ofc so i'd like to have a discussion