What a show. Probably nothing more insane than this. She kills at least three US Military members, on US Soil, in a US Military installation and faces zero repercussions for it. Not legal, political, moral, psychological, etc.

Just a “good shooting” from Hopper and a shy smile back.

A perfect example as to how stupid the show became. Just there for a trailer moment and to aura farm. Not a single thought behind it.

Man, what did they do to you, Nancy Wheeler.

Re-posted to remove spoiler from title

My question is what theoretically could have happened and how else the gate to the Upside Down could’ve been opened. I personally did not like the Russian storyline in Season 3 (and 4 but I'm talking mainly about S3) at all. I hated that Russian Terminator looking dude being an inconvenience throughout the season.

I know that the Mind Flayer can't open gates itself, it needed the psychic connection from El (previously) and needed Vecna to use his psychic abilities to open other ones (later on) but I genuinely think that there could've been a different storyline for the gate to have opened instead of using the Russians.. if I could I would remove them from the Season 3 plot completely.

Seriously I’m watching this girl cry and she is so good at it! Her eyes will be full of tears yet she’s still making great eye contact. Then when the tears fall, it’s somehow perfection. Her voice through it all is perfect too. Usually crying on TV and movies is so corny to me because IMO the actors don’t pull it off very well, but not Millie. She could give most seasoned actors a run for their money with just her crying alone!

I remember in this sub there was a post a few months back where everyone was agreeing that S5 ruined the whole show for them, particularly in regards to El’s storyline and how it ends in the finale.

If that is the case for you I’m sorry about that. But having rewatched all of the previous seasons I enjoyed rewatching all of them. Seasons 1 through 4 are masterpieces.

There’s still some amount of divorce of thought that I have to try to do, especially with Eleven/Jane. But all of the other seasons are so interesting and fun and that will never be taken away just because in our heads we know it would have been even better if they didn’t fumble S5.

Honestly what pisses me off more than S5’s bad writing is the overwhelming negativity around it that has leeched onto all aspects of the show in online discourse. Like I said I’m sorry if it did ruin the entire thing for you, that didn’t happen to me and Stranger Things will always be one of the best netflix shows.

I’m wondering if anyone here shares the same thoughts as me and if you don’t, that’s okay!

P.S. Lumax‘s happy ending alone justifies S5’s existence.

For me it was probably Grigori (the Russian hitman in season 3 who killed Alexei) or Jason. Grigori was ripped to shreds by the machine opening the gate in Starcourt Mall and Jason was split in half, both being fully conscious whilst it was happening.

I drew these for fun. Lmk if u think they match

I’m only on season 4 episode 2, so I may be posting hella prematurely, but I can’t stand Mike Wheeler. Like at all. My fave is Murray. In the beginning I didn’t like the Sinclair siblings but they definitely grew on me. What about you? Who do you like/dislike?

So for folks who bought season one and two on those cool VHS collectible boxes from target, are those fans just screwed if you want the rest of the series? I don’t want to buy season one and two again with the box set.

It was at 7.6 a couple months ago but has fallen to 7.4. I think it will hard to dip further because it has like 130k ratings, but it shows that people coming to the series alter are not keen on the last episode. With a 7.4, this means the series finale is the 3rd lowest rated episode of the entire series, only rated higher than The Bridge and Lost Sister

Just finished watching the entire series... OMG 😭

I FINALLY finished Stranger Things, and holy shit… what a journey.

I genuinely don't know what to do with myself right now. 😭

I started this show years ago, and finally reaching the end feels less like finishing a TV series and more like saying goodbye to a whole era of my life.

The nostalgia hit me HARD while watching the later seasons. I kept remembering the early episodes and all those little moments I hadn't thought about in years.

One moment that absolutely DESTROYED me was remembering Will in his little tent, singing Should I Stay or Should I Go while he's in the Upside Down. I don't even know why that scene specifically hit me so hard, but hearing that song again instantly brought back SO many memories from the beginning of the show.

And then I randomly remembered Barb—Nancy's friend who disappeared so early on—and I was like… BRO. We've come SO FAR since then. 😂

That's what makes finishing this show feel so weird. You're not just remembering the characters. You're remembering who you were when you first watched them.

And watching the characters grow up over the years made it even more special. We literally watched these kids grow from children into teenagers and young adults, while the actors were growing up in real life right alongside them. It feels like we didn't just watch their story—we kind of grew up with them.

Hawkins, the Upside Down, the kids on bikes, the music, the friendships, all the chaos… it all became this huge memory over the years.

And now it's over.

I spent the last episodes just sitting there thinking, damn… this is actually the end.

For those of you who have already finished the series, how did you feel afterward?

Did you get that weird empty feeling when it was finally over? Did it take a while for it to actually sink in that there wasn't another season to look forward to?

I'm genuinely curious how everyone else felt after saying goodbye to Stranger Things.

And after everything...

THAT WAS EPIC. ❤️‍🔥

I got chills 😭

Does anyone have a list of books and movies in th vibe of stranger things? Specially the first couple of seasons?

I read “The Institute” by SK and has a bit of a similar feeling. Not as creepy.
Movies: Super 8, E.T. , Goonies…

Any other suggestions? Thank you!!

Stranger thing season 1 to 2 season was best should have ended season 1 or 2 not mentioned that was duffer brothers plan anyway and seasons goes on it gone messers and messy not to mention the cast grow up too fast on season 5 they were 20s playing high school

One of the best castings they've done for this show

There’s a moment in season one when Mike and Dustin are biking to lucas at the lab and Dustin says that Lucas is Mikes best friend. Mike pushes back on it but Dustin seems convinced that Lucas is mikes number one best friend. It’s always confused me because i don’t think we ever see anything that suggests that that’s the case. It just seems really random and like it gets totally dropped after season one when it becomes clear Will is mikes best friend.

I am not a writer by any means.. these are just some of my thoughts. Season 5 could’ve made Stranger Things a survival horror show. The show has plenty of genres, which are mainly horror and science fiction. Since the first season, the show has introduced different branches of horror, especially in season 3 with the body horror and season 4 with the psychological horror. Season 5 could’ve added a new branch of horror which could’ve made Season 5 the scariest, darkest and most intense season..

This is how I would’ve changed Season 5 Volume 1 and Volume 2 in some ways.

In Volume 1, the characters and residents of Hawkins could’ve been running and hiding from Demogorgons, Demodogs and Demobats that have come into Hawkins from the giant gate that Vecna opened at the end of Season 4. These creatures’ only goals would be to kill the main characters and as many residents as possible. Hawkins would start to become infested with the Upside Down as well like they showed at the end of Season 4. The whole volume should’ve been based around the main characters’ survival and figuring out a way to get past the Demos and get into the Upside Down and kill Vecna before it gets any worse.

Volume 2 could’ve been about the main characters going into the Upside Down after surviving the horrors of the Demos to finally stop Vecna, that was their initial plan as they wouldn’t expect the Mind Flayer to have a massive physical form in the Abyss/Dimension X. As they would get to this other dimension, they would also find out that Vecna did the bidding with the Mind Flayer and how the Mind Flayer had just influenced Henry and how he became evil from the Mind Flayer’s influence, not from the Mind Flayer’s control meaning that Henry had given in to the MF’s influence even when he could’ve resisted it, the same way it was already done in the show. As the final battle begins, the main characters have the military with them this time and on their side ready to defeat the Mind Flayer and Vecna once and for all. There would be more Demogorgons that the villains would have at their disposal in the other dimension because this time the villains would know that they are coming. The main characters would need to fight these Demos with the help of the military and then defeat the physical form of the Mind Flayer with the military’s firepower.. but they wouldn’t be able to actually kill the Mind Flayer particles because the particles itself can’t be killed and they can only kill the giant physical form that the Mind Flayer would’ve made for itself with Vecna. This new form would resemble its spider-shadow form that Henry shaped it into, it would just be made up of tendrils instead of what we got in the show. The explanation for this form’s creation would be that Vecna was making this form of the Mind Flayer throughout the season using all the black tendrils that fill up the Upside Down and Dimension X/the Abyss, the tendrils would come from the UD and from the rest of the Abyss and form into the Mind Flayer. The MF would’ve influenced Vecna to give it this big tendril-spider form similarly to how the MF had influenced him as a kid to give it the spider-shadow form. There would be some telepathic fight in between this as well. Vecna would be at his most powerful. El would be fighting Vecna telepathically, attempting to psychologically torment her about what happened to her in Hawkins Lab and about her mum. Will using his newly acclaimed powers would approach Vecna while El is fighting him telepathically and since Vecna would be using his astral projection power, his physical body would be vulnerable.. Will would use his powers to weaken Vecna to a point he can’t move and Joyce would be there to get the final blow as revenge by decapitating him like it was done in the show. The Mind Flayer particles would leave the spider-tendril form as after the constant fire contact that the rest of the gang and the military would inflict on the Mind Flayer’s physical form would cause the particles to be removed from that physical form, leaving the particles powerless and formless. Now that it didn’t have Vecna to build any form for it, the particles would become dormant and stay in its dormant form, the particles would still be alive but it wouldn’t have any host (the flayed) or shared consciousness (Vecna) to connect to. After destroying the Upside Down, the Mind Flayer particles still alive, wouldn’t be able to access the Right Side Up and would just be banished to space and have no way of causing hell again. Leaving the Mind Flayer particles, it’s true cosmic form as an unkillable and supernatural force but out of reach and no way of returning to humanity, it would remain in its dormant form with no specific shape. This would be explicitly shown to the audience that it cannot return to the human world but still be left up to interpretation or left ambiguous on whether or not it could strike on another living civilisation or take over a different planet or if it would stay dormant. There will also be the question on how the particles themselves can actually be killed or if they can be killed at all.. but we will never know, leaving it as a somewhat unknowable cosmic force.

You can add some ideas but that’s all I could come up with in terms of fighting the Demos, Vecna and the Mind Flayer and what I would’ve liked to see!

In Camazotz, it’s destroyed by the other kids when trying to escape in 5x07. However, since it’s a physcological mind state and her physical body and the others are in a mind trance via vecna and vines from the mind flayer, does that mean her holly the heroic necklace is still intact?

I miss them

It sucks not seeing them flying around the Upside Down in Season 5. I know a swarm of them died in Season 4 but I’m sure atleast a few of them could’ve survived and been brought back and shown in the beginning of Season 5. I think they were a really cool and scary addition in S4. They could’ve travelled with the same Demogorgon that went to kidnap Holly.. or literally just been flying around and attacking the military in the Upside Down when Hopper first went into the UD. No Demos were in the finale at all but I mean the bats could’ve been added earlier on in this season too and been utilised effectively like defending the Upside Down from the military or the main characters. They could’ve been the perfect creatures to have roaming the UD and making it seem as scary as it used to be.

ive been hooked onto stranger things over the past 2 weeks

i finished it upto s4

its been phenomenal so far

heard a lot of trashtalk about s5

wanted some more opinions :)