-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Stranger Things S4 | OT | Every ending has a beginning (Open spoilers)
- Thread starter Conditional-Pancakes
- Start date
- Entertainment Video/Streaming OT
The Eddie complains are getting annoying.
Eddie and Dustin are *distractions*, whether the demobats can follow them through the portal is irrelevant, they need to be away from Creel's house in order to give Steve/Robin/Nancy a chance to get to Vecna. Without his sacrifice that party would have been dead and add Dustin to it. He dies with a perfectly good reason.
How and why it's recreating the Hawkins moment frozen in time. Possibly its origins in general. And we will learn how the Shadow cloud works and what it is. But I believe it's peaceful/neutral, corrupted by Vecna
Unless it's literally something like "it's an alien world", I honestly haven't the slightest clue where they're going with it at this point.
I love it, mind, but no idea what angle the 5th season will take.
The question is, what is the signifigance of that? I'm having trouble of thinking what that reveals and how that will be relevant to the story.
They made it a point to let us know that detail. I rely on them to tell us why
Just now starting the last episodes, but had to stop it to say that I still think Noah Schnapp was probably the best actor of these kids ("kids" now but still) and I'm so glad for that scene in the back of the van, absolutely wonderful. I hope there's more Will scenes in this and the next episode that hit as hard c'mon there has to be a coming out scene please
It's wild to me that there are still people who claim the show doesn't have stakes because they aren't killing off more main characters. Game of Thrones really did a number on television discourse and the unrealistic expectation that people have when it comes to that.
Honestly it's just tiring that people think stakes have to be people dying. That's part of it but it isn't everything. If a character needs to die to progress the plot and it feels necessary then that's great, but it shouldn't be an expectation that a season finale needs to have some big bloodbath where a swath of main characters die. Stakes can be more than that and I think they did a great job balancing that with this season finale.
We saw Max get her limbs snapped, her eyesight is gone, and she's in a coma. We saw Hawkins turn into ground zero for the Upside Down leaking into the real world. Eddie died, Jason died, tons of Hawkins citizens died. Hawkins was always in the dark when it came to what was going on but now it's right in the middle of it and it's unavoidable once the creatures start coming out.
I kind of hope he and Robin have a scene together. Especially since I feel like Robin is more confident with herself with Steve encouraging her. Will is not really in the same place yet.
I think it's because Will had been happy that night so it created a copy, a sort of footprint, of his memory.
I think it's to setup that the place can be shaped into anything and that El will take control of it to turn it into some sort of afterlife for
whoever is dead by the end of the show
The Upside Down is a physical realm. It's not the same thing as the Astral Plane that Eleven and Vecna operate on while remote viewing/possessing/communicating.
Of course, I don't mean to imply otherwise. I just find it funny because the show is largely about some kids on a sci-fi adventure. Having more deaths to "increase the stakes" just means a bunch of kids getting fucked up. lol and I'm not sure what that really adds to the narrative here.
I'm not sure how you can really feel cheated if the scene evoked an emotional out of you? They set-up a pretty compelling storyline for her in the season, and she's still in jeopardy for all we know.
But we all take away something different from TV shows.
Didn't he speak about shaping the world as they see fit when he went full villain monologue at a pre-teen girl? I didn't take it as a metaphor, and how the Upside Down changed from his flashback to current day seems to prove he was able to impose his will on it.
Right, my point is I don't see how Eleven would be able to turn the Upside Down into an afterlife for all the dead people. It's an actual physical location - the Astral Plane is different, and that's the only place I could see Eleven being able to go to "visit" people who had died.
I think the Upside Down made a copy of Hawkins (and perhaps even the entire earth?) in '83 as a way to keep both dimensions linked and to easily facilitate portals for an invasion.
Why it happened that night… I don't know, but I think there is more to the portal in Hawkins lab opening than Eleven stressing from meeting the Demogorgon. Both of the portals El opened herself (Henry and the Demogorgon) closed themselves almost immediately, yet the main Hawkins lab portal stayed open with the implication then being the Mind Flayer was the one keeping it open.
Why it happened that night… I don't know, but I think there is more to the portal in Hawkins lab opening than Eleven stressing from meeting the Demogorgon. Both of the portals El opened herself (Henry and the Demogorgon) closed themselves almost immediately, yet the main Hawkins lab portal stayed open with the implication then being the Mind Flayer was the one keeping it open.
The Upside Down (spoilers all)
If VecnaslashHenryslashOne is responsible for corrupting the Upside Down (shaping it as he sees fit) I hope it ends with him getting torn apart by a swarm of Demos. Eleven or Max is established as the new ruler of the Upside Down.
I really had NO idea what to make of his character at first but he really grew on me. More positive metal heads in fiction pls
Season Five Theory...
Max won't make it out alive. I see her being a "part" of Vecna, and that will likely play a role in taking him down in the end. Like.. she will be able to hold him off from within wile El does what she needs to do, but by killing Vecna, Max will also die in the process since what's left of her is tied to him. I can see her having one last realization of her choice being to return to a broken body, or going out by saving her friends and choosing the latter.
I think that would be too cruel. I don't think they would've had her survive this season just to sacrifice herself again next season. She would've just died here for real.
Important question regarding the opening of the last episode: do Soviet prisons give their prisoners toothpaste?
How was the finale very by-the-numbers? It's the most different finale in the series, the villain won, and the only season ending that radically changes up the status quo, while also leading directly into the next season.
i think in season 5 it turns out the Upside Down was the Rightside Up all along and humans are the real monsters (kappa)
Holy shit man. Just holy shit.
Max fucking blinded and recovering from snapped limbs. I was not expecting her to come out of this that wounded. Hell I wasn't expecting her to fuckin' die there for a minute.
And the Vecna reveal. So he is the Mind Flayer? Or he uses the Mind Flayer? The Mind Flayer has been such a big part of the show and it's wild to see it totally recontextualized like this.
The Upside Down and Hawkins actually falling into one, man this final season is going to be absolutely insane. I really hope it's not another three year wait.
And the Vecna reveal. So he is the Mind Flayer? Or he uses the Mind Flayer? The Mind Flayer has been such a big part of the show and it's wild to see it totally recontextualized like this.
The Upside Down and Hawkins actually falling into one, man this final season is going to be absolutely insane. I really hope it's not another three year wait.
Vecna's been the brains behind everything, yeah. The sense I got with the... Shadow Dust is that it was a living-ish thing, but kind of a more base, animal intelligence. It was raw hive mind material for him to take control of and repurpose to his ends.
I think the safest way to describe it is that
The Mind Flayer is effectively an avatar that Henry formed out of the Shadow. He most likely then filtered ti into all of the denizens of the Upside Down, establishing the hive mind linking all of them together. The Flayer is a distinct entity from Vecna, but it does work to serve his goals.
Yeah also, I feel like "The Shadow went into them" and "They are it" or however that went exactly essentially solidifies this in terms of how Henry came to dominate the Upside Down. It's as close as you'll get in a TV series without them busting out straws and whiteboards.
Season 4 turned out to be my least favorite season.
I will preface my complaints with stating that I still found it quite good after all and I sure was entertained.
That said, this season feels different than all other seasons. Maybe production during Covid is to blame, I dunno. Everything felt a bit more disjointed and loose with the groups being seperarated all the time and characters didn't ooze the same kind of charisma as in earlier seasons. Moreover, the season had hardly any comfort / whimsical moments that I cherished so much in the earlier seasons, only hints of those. It was all pretty stressful and dark. The balance just was a bit off for my tastes.
Lastly, ~2 hours is too long for an episode.
Edit: one of my favorite moments of the season...
I will preface my complaints with stating that I still found it quite good after all and I sure was entertained.
That said, this season feels different than all other seasons. Maybe production during Covid is to blame, I dunno. Everything felt a bit more disjointed and loose with the groups being seperarated all the time and characters didn't ooze the same kind of charisma as in earlier seasons. Moreover, the season had hardly any comfort / whimsical moments that I cherished so much in the earlier seasons, only hints of those. It was all pretty stressful and dark. The balance just was a bit off for my tastes.
Lastly, ~2 hours is too long for an episode.
Edit: one of my favorite moments of the season...
Last edited:
I loved 4, but 3 is still firmly my favorite so far. So much soul and edge-of-your-seat action.
I think the problem is that the show continues to introduce good characters each season, only to kill them off as a way to tug at people's heart strings. Yes, you don't need to kill people to increase the stakes. I fully agree that Hawkins in its current state increases the stakes exponentially. That said, I can't say the same about Max because given Sadie's popularity, I don't see her condition lasting long. This show isn't gonna end with her being blind and crippled.
Enjoyed the finale. Super frustrated by how lame TV show discourse has become. There is so much more to media than whether or not characters live or die.
It's the game of throne effect, people seem to forget that those deaths had a purpose in the narrative besides shock value. What would the death of the main characters add to the story?
These children are repeatedly in deadly situations with monsters that tear people to shreds and they have no real fighting skills to justify it. They still always survive. It breaks the immersion when people feel like certain characters are constantly too lucky, especially compared to others in the show.
Yeah same really. I didn't mind the darker tone, but having all those separate storylines was never worth it, there was no payoff for this in the finale and it felt really superficial (like we're 10 000 miles away but maybe if we kill those things at a totally random time it might just end up helping the kids at just the perfect moment. Please.)
The finale was insanely entertaining though, and I'm very much looking forward to the last season.
Whatever the writers want ? What an odd question. This is an ensemble show, it's been done plenty of times in the genre with memorable results.
Does it absolutely need to happen ? Of course not, but I can understand people's frustrations considering this season in particular the writers started by pulling a main character's resurrection out of their asses (with little to no value as Hopper's story was nicely wrapped in season 3), then proceeded to having the worst trouble handling the main cast properly throughout the season. Like, so many characters' "journeys" this season only boil down to the simplest sentimental woes and barely anything else.
Of course people wanted more out of a character that had such a fantastic introduction when there's barely anything else out there they can sink they fangs into, in terms of character development.
Besides, the supporting cast throughout the years was decent, but not much more as it would tend to be used as cannon fodder. [REDACTED] is really the exception to the rule here, so there are going to be stronger reactions of course, nothing to be shocked about.
For one, it would trim the overly bloated cast the show now has. Lose Hopper, boring Russia subplot goes poof for example. Either way, it is up to the writers to add narrative purpose to a character's death. The show can be written with that in mind. When the show advertises 'NO ONE IS SAFE' it baits certain expectations, even though it had no intentions to see that threat through.
And on that note I'm glad to have Argyle to blame for introducing that monstrosity to the world. He's the true villain
I feel like if your initial reason for killing off characters is to trim the cast... Your basically start off on the wrong foot for writing character deaths.
It's a meta narrative reason that allows greater focus on other parts or for them to just make shorter, more focused episodes instead. It'd imo have been the greatest benefit for the show at this point.
I disagree. I know for some if a character is boring, that they should die- but... when you start writing actual deaths that mean something in the story and you have a large cast. It becomes very quick to become very numb. You want each death to mean something. You can't trim a cast this big, and not make the deaths super clear why the writers are doing it.
But ultimately your ending every and all potential of that character.
I know people hate Mike and want him to die because he's not as entertaining as other characters, but that ends any possible chance the character has to grow and evolve. And sure, where now going to be going to the final season but that's exactly why some characters that didn't chance to shine as much this season get another chance to make an incredibly strong finish.
I have cared absolutely 0% about the Hopper Russian sub-story line. It was absolutely a big ball of nothing.
Just 100% skip worthy material.
It's like a video game, where you're made to go to a different world that's trash, just so you can get part of some tutorial out of the way. Ugh.
Just 100% skip worthy material.
It's like a video game, where you're made to go to a different world that's trash, just so you can get part of some tutorial out of the way. Ugh.
This is a show where they sing an 80s cult classic while being chased by an eldritch horror, some perennial goofiness is part of the DNA. It's a kids show with horror elements, not a horror show with kids.
Desperately needed more decisive editing. There were probably 20 minutes of people just walking slowly towards each other oh my god
Bingo. It's a TV series that purposely uses a cheesy 80's B movie script with the cinematography and budgets of a blockbuster movie with an amazing result. It was like that since season 1.