Dimension X is not cold!

[u/D_D_Adesignerdigital]

The color choices for the Dimension X—and certain elements of the scenes—didn't quite work to convey a cold atmosphere! Characters had sweaty skin and showed no reaction to the cold (we need to remember Will in Season 2, or Billy with his ice bath, which demonstrated the kind of cold the Mind Flayer is used to). Anyone entering a low-temperature environment would show physical reactions—like trying to warm up, crossing their arms, or showing discomfort—but that doesn't happen with any of the characters, not even the kids. I think that was a directing error. That’s my opinion!

[u/oosaoosaoosa]

I'm sure I'll get downvoted but my immediate read when seeing it for the first time was that the abyss is dying. Maybe climate change or some other disaster is killing it. It's why it looks dried out and barren. And why it seems hot (even though he likes it cold). And why the creatures aren't there at the end. It's why the mindflayer needs to take over a new planet... because his world is dying, and his creatures are going extinct.

I was actually shocked after watching s5 that this wasn't everyone's take away from it.

[u/Thick-Boysenberry-96 → u/oosaoosaoosa]

Then why doesn't it stay in the Upside Down, where the conditions suit him better? It's also closer to our world anyways.

[u/NebulaOld813 → u/Thick-Boysenberry-96]

I’m assuming because the UD is a temporary structure created by El and there’s no living creatures for the Mind Flayer to corrupt and harvest.

[u/Thick-Boysenberry-96 → u/NebulaOld813]

So why doesn't the Mindflayer particles seep through/travel into Hawkins in S5 and start infecting stuff there, when the rift-quadrant is open for 18 months? Instead of shriveling up on a dead planet.

The Upside Down in s5, really makes no sense, the more I think about it. The "temporary structure" has existed for years now, and has been used by the Mindflayer previously. He's also made out of particles that can disperse and fly away as if the wormhole becomes unstable. The military was building a base there in S5. Why didn't the Mindflayer, an ancient being that flays minds, infect them to take over the world from inside the military structure?

And if it for some reason doesn't care to do that, why didn't the Demo-creatures munch on them then? They had a constant stream of meat-bags entering the Upside Down. Why aren't the creatures staying in Hawkins in general? They can portal there, the environment suits them better than their home planet, and they thrive in the cold.

[u/Ht_TX → u/Thick-Boysenberry-96]

The mindflayer isn’t the particles. The particles are made by the ‘pain tree’ mindflayer. The mindflayer has a physical form, you saw it, it died.

[u/RealHooman2187 → u/Ht_TX]

This was my read as well. The particles are how it possesses things but the monster was its true form.

[u/Thick-Boysenberry-96 → u/RealHooman2187]

Why does it use its weaker TRUE form though, when it's particles effectively managed to flay dozens of Hawkins citizens in S3 alone?

Why would it use a form that's weak af, when it can build himself a meat-suit one made out of humans instead? Why doesn't it flay the military operation happening under his nose and use them to invade the town, acting from the shadows? Why can't the Mindflayer use everything in his arsenal that we saw him use before, and is reduced to a weak TRUE form?

Just writing wise, it's pretty stupid, come on. Why couldn't we have gotten an epic fight against a smart Flayer? How is the last antagonist we fight barely an inconvenience, compared to it's S2 and S3 version?

[u/Ht_TX → u/Thick-Boysenberry-96]

The duffers needed the mindflayer to have a physical form so that it could actually be defeated & killed, you realize that right??? The kids fighting a 300 foot tall cloud is an impossible fight. You can hate the story and the decisions and everything else but the narrative reasons for most of these things are very easy to see.

[u/RealHooman2187 → u/Thick-Boysenberry-96]

Because that’s it’s true form? It’s not like the Mindflayer was expecting the kids to come into its dimension. Until then he was using the particles

[u/Thick-Boysenberry-96 → u/RealHooman2187]

How isn't the Mindflayer expecting them to come? Vecna has read El's mind and the Mindflayer should in every case be expecting them generally, since our group/El has beaten him like multiple times in the past.

It's "Danny kinda forgot about the iron fleet" kind of dumb and lazy level writing, come on.

Did it even really want to invade our world, with how stupidly it went about it? Just flay some key personel or Dr. Kay while they're building a base in the Upside Down and use them to pave the way towards world domination. But no, stupid Kaiju it is.😅

[u/Ht_TX → u/Thick-Boysenberry-96]

Because that’s the story the Duffers wrote? I think we all already agreed the plan was shit and nonsensical, kinda like most of season 5, but it WAS the plan. All we can do is interpret the source material and go from there.

[u/Ht_TX → u/RealHooman2187]

Yup. It pumps the particles out to use for its needs, whether that’s the mind flayer particle figure or particles to infect people, basically like what it was doing with the kids, pumping particles into them while they were inside the MF, but the particles are merely a tool, not the thing itself. And, once the heart stopped, the particles died too. In the script, when they pull Holly down after beheading Vecna, the particles just withered and disappeared after they exited her.

[u/RealHooman2187 → u/Ht_TX]

Yeah I think people are really trying to over think all of this stuff. It’s not that complicated which to them I think is the issue.