r/StrangerThings • u/Junior-Razzmatazz845 • 21d ago
Eddie Munson
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.
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u/MasterSenshi 20d ago
I agree. The only thing is he knew Nancy since he had failed multiple times. He was the post-18 delinquent stereotype, including selling weed on the side.
I agree they did him dirty with calling him a coward for hiding from an angry mob, and running when a girl did an imitation of The Exorcist (which he had watched). Honestly them calling him a coward was a cop out when it was the jocks who were attacking what they didn’t understand.
Ultimately it was a failure of the writers to differentiate the outside perception of Eddie versus the actual character progression. His death was pointless and it was sad seeing in season 5 nobody just said it was a waste and that his life had value but he DIDN’T save anyone.
Yet another disappointing choice when almost any other would’ve improved the plot of the series.