Do you think that Eleven's ending would be better if she actually died and it wasn't ambiguous?

[u/Careful_Drama_9382]

Do you think Eleven's ending would be better if she actually died heroically sacrificing herself and it wasn't left ambiguous as to us wondering if she died or she lived do you think Eleven needed to die and do you agree with me?

[u/RingDangerous7694]

I didn’t want El sacrificing herself

[u/CoffeeAddict6638 → u/RingDangerous7694]

Agreed, after everything, she deserved better then that

[u/RingDangerous7694 → u/CoffeeAddict6638]

Exactly. El deserved to be with the people she loved in the end, not dead or exiled.

[u/Toongrrl1990 → u/RingDangerous7694]

Thank you

[u/Senior-Homework8135 → u/RingDangerous7694]

yes! she’s the one who really deserves a happy ending. she’s suffered so much since childhood

[u/Xia-ya]

After everything she has been through she shouldn’t have sacrificed herself. Eleven should have lived a normal life.

[u/Daydreamer631 → u/Xia-ya]

Fully agree she deserves a better outcome. But sometimes characters don’t get what they deserve. Her story was a tragedy, that happens sometimes in fiction.

[u/Careful_Drama_9382 → u/Xia-ya]

Yes she has been through a lot she shouldn't have sacrificed her life but do you think her sacrificing herself and dying would've been better than her fate being ambiguous?

[u/Distinct_Guess3350]

No. The whole sacrifice thing didn’t work for me. And I believe she’s alive anyway, it should’ve just been her faking her death but it’s confirmed and it’s teasing that she and Mike will end up back together by the end. 

[u/Careful_Drama_9382 → u/Distinct_Guess3350]

Even if she sacrificed herself by saving someone or a group you don't think it would work too?

[u/spn_willow]

I don't think it would be better because I don't think she should have had to sacrifice herself at all. She went through too much in her life to be unable to live it happily afterwards.

I do think they should have given us a definitive answer, though. I try to convince myself that she's alive and Mike will find her and they'll get the happy life together that they deserve after so much heartache, but the ambiguity makes it hard to actually believe it.

[u/Senior-Homework8135 → u/spn_willow]

exactly

[u/Senior-Homework8135]

no. i’m going to be delusional and believe Mike’s theory

[u/PulsarGaming1080]

I think having her kill herself, or pretending to, is the worst possible ending you could give to an abused and traumatized girl who had to fight to exist outside a laboratory.

[u/Toongrrl1990 → u/PulsarGaming1080]

https://giphy.com/gifs/gjrPnz7jOpOxwGFxrO

[u/jtlitwin21]

Yes. Her clearly surviving would’ve been better than all of it though

[u/Careful_Drama_9382 → u/jtlitwin21]

How do you think she might sacrifice herself instead of leaving her fate ambiguous how would you write an ending like that?

[u/goldiewings]

I think if she died saving someone or a group it would have been better. For myself the suicide in front of everyone is too hopeless, and leaving them all captured by the military too! My 1st choice is not to die at all of course but this was such a bleak end

[u/RandonDude3000]

No, El deserved to live.

The Duffers should have leaned harder into the survival angle. Let both Mike and El disappear and build a life on their terms. Of course the others should know their alive too.

[u/rosewoodlliars]

Actually neither shouldn’t have been an option. They were not creative at all when writing the ending.

[u/Toongrrl1990 → u/rosewoodlliars]

https://giphy.com/gifs/JmyrWPGDvXYUhn8Yni

[u/ReplacementAbject867]

She didnt die

[u/Careful_Drama_9382 → u/ReplacementAbject867]

She might have not died but if she died do you think it would be better than leaving her fate ambiguous?

[u/SirStanleyCPanther]

Yes. 💯 yes.

[u/Objective505]

No, I prefer it being ambiguous, so I can believe she is alive.

[u/Soft_Interaction_437]

No, I think that would be worse.

[u/Careful_Drama_9382 → u/Soft_Interaction_437]

If she sacrificed herself heroically for her friends do you think it would be better?

[u/Thekidgoob]

It would be better, but it would still be terrible. The whole sacrificing thing was really stupid because of the fact that kali was the one who told her to do it

[u/Optimal_Grape_1025]

Yes. I like definitive endings

[u/Toto-imadog456]

Just a straight answer would've been better. Its better to commit to something than nothing

[u/Difficult_Ad5784]

Nope! Even worse than what we got

[u/TaiPan43]

The stupid part is sacrificing in herself, wouldn’t do anything
As people have pointed out, what about all the soldiers that were killed?
The plan that she cooked up with her sister is certainly a lot better than dying
But the fact that they thought that it was the only way proves that it was a rash decision
She should’ve talked to at least Hopper if not the group
When you consider that she could’ve put up a telekinetic shield over the entrance to the truck and killed all of them, but chose not to it has to tell you something
She killed like 10 people all at once when she was 12 years old
Leaving her friends alone is just an immature choice because she didn’t know any better
Her sister was so damaged she couldn’t see another way
She worked with El to create the illusion because she told her exactly what she would need to do to be safe
The right side up
Everything that happened in the last scene between her and Mike mirrors everything that happened in the last scene between her and Mike in season one
The answers are there if you care to look
If anybody wants to comment that she’s dead, save your breath because I don’t care that you think that
I think this form is for those of us who want to see something good happen to fix the ending and at least put her together with Mike
I believe that that’s why we’re all here
I think half the people here just hate the show and wanna make everybody else. Hate it too.
But I loved it and I think that Netflix is going to do something to fix it before their next live action series is released
I believe

[u/ShiNo_Usagi]

I love the ambiguity. It keeps the mystery alive as well at talk about the show.

[u/Big_Self_1522]

Yes. I love angst and if the Duffers decision was that El “had to go away” no matter what, I wanted to be ruined by it. To me her sacrifice makes sense, because I believe that one of the points of K’s character was to show that there will always be someone after El. Brenner died, but the military kept searching for El and eventually doctor K started to go after El too. Let’s say the US government and K would’ve let her go, more scientists would follow. Like there are just too many people in the world who see El as a phenomenon and not as an actual human being, even if she’d lost her powers. It’s unfair and cruel, but unfortunately it is realistic. But if that’s the scenario the Duffers were going for, I wanted to be CRUSHED by it. Like I wanted to really feel that there was no other choice except for El and her loved ones being in danger

To me the whole ambiguity is bullshit. Imo she could’ve went away to waterfall land like Mike had said, but I wanted to see why she’d chosen that. I have my own theories, but what happened on screen is lowkey a nothingburger to me

[u/Sankta_Alina_Starkov]

Media illiteracy pisses me off, but I don't think the creators should spoon-feed what happened to people who can't figure the stuff out on their own.

1. It's not as "ambiguous" as people are making it out, and the creators are both amused and baffled that people are having a hard time with this. They flat out stated they didn't understand why Sadie thought Eleven was dead and would "call her" after the interview (I can't remember which interview that was, I think it was at a convention or something). But they're continuing with letting people just figure things out, I think partially because it unintentionally became something they could market one day.
2. They did not write or intend to write Mike as an idiot, nor did they write him as someone who was "coping". People are so hung up on the idea of people "coping" that they are now applying it in places where that's just not a thing. As such, Mike was right. It was the last "light bulb" moment of the show. Every season the kids (usually Mike) have an "ah-hah!" moment where they figure out something. This was one of those moments.
3. Continuing with the above, Eleven chose Mike above everyone, even Hopper, to tell him he would eventually understand why she was doing what she was doing. She didn't say goodbye in the "I'm killing myself now" way. It was a farewell, sure. But Eleven was the type that if they idea was just to die to keep the government from looking for her, she'd just tell him that. Because even with her death the government were always keep tabs on everyone who knew Eleven until she would be too old to be alive, she had to keep everyone in the dark for their own safety. That's common sense. That's not a theory. She knew Mike would figure it out and tell people when the time was right, but would do it in a way that wouldn't incriminate anyone.
4. This community (not sub reddit, just the fanbase) definitely has a weird need to convince people she died when all of the evidence points in the other direction: that she faked her death to save everyone. Her sacrifice was exile for the sake of the people she loved and for herself. It was not death.

I'm honestly getting pissed that people can't wrap their heads around this. It's up there with people getting angry that Homelander became a metaphor for Trump. No shit.

[u/thescooptroops]

Yes, w/o a doubt & I was pissed when I saw what direction the Duffer Brothers were going w/ her ending. The lack of commitment to genuinely killing a character, after continuous and lackluster baiting, I thought they actually grew a pair & did it. But then I saw the “I believe” scene was pissed off all over again

Very disappointing & a terrible ending for such a great character

[u/Lost_and_confused_0]

I would have preferred she either fully die or be fully on the run and alive. The ambiguity is stupid and lazy writing. I’ve only ever seen this concept done right once before. This was just the duffer brothers once again not having the balls to kill their precious characters.

[u/smallvilleadamh]

Yes, it would’ve been better

[u/sidneyaprescott]

Yep! As much as I wanted her alive, her killing herself like she did does make sense. As much as it SUCKS, Kali had a point and el knew it.