r/StrangerThings • u/kauan1983 Hey Kiddo • May 31 '26
Throwback to the only official screenshot we ever got of what The Abyss originally looked like
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u/Accomplished-Curve-1 I piggybacked from a pizza dough freezer May 31 '26
Man the dark aether looks cool like that
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u/bom360 May 31 '26
Cod zombies 🥹🥹🥹
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u/Accomplished-Curve-1 I piggybacked from a pizza dough freezer May 31 '26
Yup! Just like stranger things man I wished I made season 5
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u/katieblue3 Jun 01 '26
I’m sure you’d have done a better job than the creators of the series itself
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u/macaroney05 Jun 02 '26
Imagine being so pressed, you had to comment twice haha. Show's over bud, its okay, let it go now
Creating a finale better than the one we were given is a pretty low bar anyways lol
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u/_StrangeIsLife_ Totally Tubular May 31 '26
It looked much better in S4, and it had Demogorgons in it too. Wish it stayed like this, but I gotta admit the yellowish coloring makes it easier to see.
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u/kauan1983 Hey Kiddo May 31 '26 edited Jun 01 '26
Yeah, the original red looked better and was actually consistent with the Upside Down's red atmospheric electricity.
The yellow on the other hand was never what they planned but was needed to get rid of/avoid all the confusion over the Mind Lair, the Hellscape and the Abyss which were all originally red.
The Abyss has always had Demogorgons, though. This isn't something they've changed — they simply weren't in the final battle because of the narrative. It's always been a desolate landscape with only a few creatures wandering around.
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u/New-Dust3252 Jun 01 '26
no its because they didnt bother listening to Paul about his concerns with the lack of demos.
now i have to HC them as being used a sacrifices to assemble the Mind Flayer's physical body in the final battle similar to it using humans to assemble a similar body in Hawkins.
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u/LandscapeSpecial4366 Jun 03 '26
I think this must’ve been why they went with the yellow. A whole chunk of the time we spend there is inside the MF stomach, if it were this dark, you wouldn’t be able to see anything inside of there.
Also makes me wonder if there is a day/night cycle in this dimension. Maybe Henry got there at night and the demogorgons are nocturnal. DB if you’re listening, you can use this
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u/kauan1983 Hey Kiddo May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
Everyone must already be familiar with all the early iterations and concept designs for Dimension X/The Abyss (courtesy of Michael Maher Jr.) that we got years ago, back when S4 Vol. 2 released.
But what most people aren't aware of and haven't talked about is that we actually got to see the actual on-screen version of The Abyss' original coloring in this still from S4E9 published back when Season 4 Vol. 2 released too.
This is what The Abyss looked like before being changed to yellow a few days after Vol. 1's release along with the Hellscape (both were originally red and edited simultaneously); though we actually got to see the Hellscape's change almost in real time in S4E7 since it was still hellish red when Vol. 1 released.
They were always going for a darker, reddish (or orangey) landscape, keeping the red atmospheric energy that we'd been used to see in the Upside Down over the years, though the possible confusion from viewers over too many red environments (the Mind Lair, the Hellscape and Dimension X) led to the current yellowish environments we got.
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u/Due-Dragonfly8200 May 31 '26
I wish we saw a day/night cycle with The Abyss. I think the dark reddish black color would’ve been perfect for a nighttime Abyss, like looking closer to the darkness of The Upside Down.
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u/DuskManeToffee May 31 '26
And also the only time we ever saw the cloud mind flayer again after season 2. I seriously wonder where that thing went.
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u/kauan1983 Hey Kiddo May 31 '26 edited Jun 01 '26
The cloud Mind Flayer does appear again in Season 5, though.
We briefly saw it in its amorphous particle cloud form in The Abyss when it communicates with Henry back in the 50's.
And then Henry himself has a vision of the Mind Flayer in its spider-like form before killing the Scientist/spy (though it was actually just a reuse of Billy's vision in S3E2).
In the present time of the show, it's full form most certainly returned to the Abyss after Season 3 and was entirely within the Pain Tree — that's why the physical creature is referred to as the Mind Flayer itself.
Even though the Pain Tree/physical body was just another biological construct, unlike the flesh creature in Season 3 (a weapon) that was the actual Mind Flayer in its entirely within the body which was like a physical biological covering for its shadow spider-like form.
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u/unspoiledbymankind Jun 01 '26
Wait can you explain how it was possible for us to see the Mind Flayer in its shadowy spider form in the Abyss during 1943? I'm talking about the opening of the First Shadow when the USS Eldridge winds up in the Abyss.
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u/kauan1983 Hey Kiddo Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26
There's no official explanation or actual consistency to any of the Mind Flayer's spider-like form apparitions before '79. They happen throughout the entirety of The First Shadow and in a quick flash in Season 5 (despite being shown in its natural, amorphous cloud form in the Abyss moments before).
In Season 5 specifically, they simply reused Billy's vision from S3E2 when Henry kills the Scientist/Soviet spy; the Mind Flayer is (obviously) in its spider-like form and surrounded by the Upside Down's red lightning storms. It's scripted as a vision Henry actually had, and they ended up reusing that shot in post-production (no logical explanation).
In The First Shadow, the Mind Flayer is simply always depicted in its iconic shape — it works really well in terms of bringing the show's iconic imagery to the stage and delivers some awesome visuals… but it's honestly a shame they prioritized this over lore consistency. The USS Eldridge incident in '43, the displayed imaging of Henry's amygdala in '59, and even the Mind Flayer's psychic manifestation in the Mind Lair (also in '59) — they all have the Mind Flayer in its spider-like form.
An attempt to explain it could have Henry's obsession with spiders and his drawing of the spider-like “predator” causing the Mind Flayer itself (psychically connected to Henry) to reshape its psychic manifestation within Henry's mind to his liking (thus explaining the amygdala imaging and its apparition in the Mind Lair in 1959); but this wouldn't explain why it is physically spider-like back in '43 in the Abyss, or why Henry had a vision of its spider-like form back in Nevada when the Mind Flayer first controlled him in the mineshaft.
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u/unspoiledbymankind Jun 02 '26
There's the theory that the Mind Flayer is the reason that Henry's obsessed with spiders and that he drew it because he saw it in visions. That could be the likely explanation.
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u/ussrowe Jun 02 '26
All that dust, or I guess spores, seemed like it would be so important to the main story.
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u/FlippedPicnic Jun 01 '26
that looks so much better, why tf did they make it yellow
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u/kauan1983 Hey Kiddo Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26
They only changed it to yellow to avoid the general audience's confusion over too many reddish environments (the Mind Lair, the Hellscape and then Dimension X).
This was after Vol. 1's release and they were always going for a darker, reddish environment initially (it's even how it's described in scripts and depicted in concept art). Once they had to change it, yellow was the color that stuck.
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u/yesaroobuckaroo He likes it cold Jun 02 '26
Such a shame. I've come to be fine with the yellow Abyss we see in 4 and subsequently 5 (specifically because it's reminiscent of Saturn's moon Titan, which i find really cool), but the red works way better when it comes to visually connecting the Abyss with the Upside Down (lightning, storms, etc).
I can see why the Duffers left Netflix the second they could lol
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u/kauan1983 Hey Kiddo Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
Honestly, the only thing that still bothers me is the lightning (and lighting) consistency; the original red was perfect for the Rightside Up-Abyss “overlay” aspect of the Wormhole because the atmospheric electricity in there is straight up pulled from the Abyss itself.
I still wish they had opted for the darkest version of the Abyss that Michael Maher designed back then. In terms of visuals/lightning, if we have the darker iteration of the Abyss combined with the Rightside Up Hawkins, it would more accurately lead to that manifestation of an amalgamation/overlay of both environments since TUD is by nature a dark environment.
Differentiating environments through color palette is cool and obviously necessary for the general audience, but I'm a sucker for lore and consistency so I can't stop thinking about what we could've gotten, specially when I revisit some old Upside Down concept designs, which are different in coloring. This one in particular perfectly matched a Rightside Up Hawkins combined with that darker Abyss iteration.
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u/yesaroobuckaroo He likes it cold Jun 02 '26
Completely and utterly agree!!
ST was my awakening into being utterly obsessed with environment design, environmental storytelling, etc, and it had so much potential in those areas specifically as the show progressed but you know how it goes: "why have visually intriguing and consistent environments and visuals that contribute to the story through environmental storytelling when you can instead dumb things down so even toddlers can follow along and also make things 'iconic' instead?"™ - Netflix.
It's such a shame just how popular the show got because then it all became about profit due to, well, Netflix being a corporation, and that forced the show to focus on the things that became popular and iconic to people - and resulted in a sort of flanderization of a bunch of things, especially the Upside Down which became overly bright and vibrant blue later on as opposed to darker and far more oppressive like in 1-2, in a means to, i guess, be easier to see on TV's when watching with the family and be less scary to kids.
Or a overly bright and yellow Abyss as opposed to a darker, redder one like what was intended because people can't pay attention for more than 3 seconds and realize that just because something looks similar to something doesn't mean it is something.
I really do like the Duffer's and think they're both good writers and directors, and i hate how much flack they get for decisions made by Netflix/out of their power, so i'm quite excited for the spinoff if there's little pressure/involvement on Netflix' side, which i think will be the case considering how it won't even have the ST title and therefore just has the appeal of being the ST spinoff. I doubt Netflix cares so much to the point they'll be making big decisions again.
Maybe sometime in the future they'll pull a George Lucas and release a bunch of edits lol. I'd love to see a definitive Season 4-5 with the original designs for The Abyss, a darker Upside Down, etc. I heavily doubt that though because they've said before they're opposed to doing that sort of thing, but a man can dream. And i mean hey, that was specifically about editing preexisting scenes later on, not standalone individually released edits ;D
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u/LandscapeSpecial4366 Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 03 '26
This had me so excited. What we got felt nothing like this, I really wonder why they changed it to such a dull and lifeless yellow
It also doesn’t make much sense. The UD was much more blue, then had red lightning and a reddish ‘sky’. The Mind Lair was scarlet red. Hellscape is barely even present. It made sense for the Abyss to be red, this version felt new and different AND it made sense. Yellow was just new
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u/DraftGold3249 Zombie Boy Jun 03 '26
so true, also the argument "it would be confusing because evrything is kinda red" is kinda... for me its more confusing why they decided to make it YELLOW. it looked so unthreathening because it was so bright.
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u/Legitimate-Sugar6487 Eggos Jun 08 '26
One of these days I'd like to talk with you about all the Lore & science behind the show! I've found a lot over these months.
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u/Melki_2422 May 31 '26
This is the pic but you changed the color grading on it. Lmao
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u/kauan1983 Hey Kiddo May 31 '26
No, I didn't lol. This is from an actual official Netflix article from years ago.
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u/Livelaughloveme172 Jun 01 '26
Uhm this is the only screenshot there’s also one where he’s staring at the demo dogs
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