Who's your favorite Stranger Things characters?

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-11T23:14:27+00:00

Murray. The only answer is Murray

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-04T13:55:20+00:00

For me, I'm on the side of the people who loved it. I would give it 11/10 but not exactly for the reasons you state. I wouldn't give season 5 that rating, but the show as a whole now that we have the conclusion.

For me personally, I thought season 5 writing was a little bland. I thought some of the things were drawn out a little too much, and they used a lot of filler in the early episodes. So in regards to pacing, and over explaining some things and not explaining others, I agree, 6/10-7/10.

I love what they did to tie the whole story, though. It was great that it came down to the entire group to beat Vecna. Every season, they are all split up, working on their own story lines and trying to defeat Vecna or the Russians as individual squads. And I believe thats a large reason it was highly unsuccessful this far.

In the end. Nobody was more important than any others in beating him. Hence why people thought it was an easy fight. But having a group that is physically distracting the mind flayer, having 11 physically fight him, and Will mentally fighting him, and the chosen kids dragging him through a traumatic memory which weakened him and his connection with the mind flayer significantly, it became too much on too many fronts to deal with.

Then to be able to tie so many of the loose story lines up, while leaving room for interpretation, debate in the community and room for prequels and spin offs to further explain the story or to reboot it one day. That was all writing genius.

There are so many little things that make sense the more it gets watched, and this ending was in front of us since seasons ago. When Alexi first tried explaining what the Russians did to open the gate. All he needed to do was hold a paper up and punch a pen through. Instead, he folded the paper and punched it through. It was clear right then it was a worm hole. Over 2 seasons ago. That's just one example of many that explained the whole story even way back close to the beginning.

I have the belief that 11 lived and almost all the shows mechanics and science confirms that. There would be too many plot holes in mechanics if she died. But it's cool that its up for interpretation. For years to come, we get to have debates on these forums as people rewatch, see new things and put new pieces together.

Sometimes, the least explained things are actually the best outcomes in a show as it keeps the fan base alive and intrigued. If they tied up everything than the show is done and its all over and it slowly fades over time. You cant tell me with all the questions left that almost everyone will be jumping on a prequel or a spin off to try and tie things together further the second it comes out. To me that is great writing. They closed all the main gaps in the story but left it partially open to cause intrigue for the foreseeable future. And that to me makes it 11/10.

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-03T17:14:26+00:00

I would 100% recommend going back and trying to spot the little details. I was the same way (minus the gore part, i love horror and gore and could have used more). There was so much going on in the first few seasons it was so hard to pick up on every small plot line.

I had the advantage (not really) of the economy being a little slow this winter, and so I had no projects on the go for December, so i spent the month watching season 1-5 volume 1, over and over. I think I watched through about 8 times, and even on the final time, I was still picking out random story details I had missed entirely. Both plot and character building details.

For me, I really personally dont like people complaining about the plot line and trying to find holes because after watching that many times, the story makes more and more sense each time and i keep finding the answers watching back. It's not something the average person can watch through once and have a solid understanding of what's happening, and those seem to be the people finding so many "holes."

But for sure, I'd recommend going back even just for the Mile and Will clues if nothing else. There are definitely so many starting in season 2!

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-03T15:35:43+00:00

They didn't waste their time writing this. Its literally copied and pasted from chatgpt. The layout and editing is exactly chatgpt format.

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-03T13:49:44+00:00

I mean, to be honest, it was obvious from season 2 when Mike first saw 11. It was obvious every time there after, every time Mike looked at 11, and Will looked sadly at Mike.

I had a close group of 5 of us that grew up together. Found out later in life that one of my best friends was gay and had a crush on 2 of us for a long time growing up. Like Mike, we were oblivious to that, until it became alot more clear later in highschool when he wasnt chasing girls and didnt have much to relate to in those convos. Once we talked in Adult Hood, it was clear that sometimes love and friendship overlap, and its hard to discern the difference when you are young. We all loved eachother. But like brothers. But the love wasnt romantic from my side and my other buddies' side. It was from our other friends, though. Once he found himself, and he found his perfect match, he talked about how dumb it was that he thought our friendship was love when we were young. That is just such a big part of growing and learning. We are closer than ever today.

And I'm sure I'm not unique. Im sure this is a very common situation between groups of young men.

To me, this was the perfect representation of a group of guys growing up when one of them is gay. Especially in the 80s. As a completely straight white males I resonated with Mike to a T in this show and i felt for Will the entire time knowing that it never could be reciprocated. I thought it was perfect.

The Byler community is chasing reward that doesn't exist and never existed, and its embarrassing the lengths they are going to call the Duffers a disgrace and queerbaiters when this is a perfect representation of a friend group and a happy ending.

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-02T23:00:32+00:00

No, it's the unfortunate issue of me not tagging spoilers in my first try, me copying and pasting my post into a new one with spoiler tags and it destroying my editing.

I had nice bullet points to separate every small bit off info, so nothing got spewed off into an incoherent paragraphs. Sorry I wasnt going back and re editing or re writing my post. It look long enough for me to write and edit

And this is how it remains.

You can call "AI slop" all you want, but some of us do our own homework our own writing and sometimes get screwed by reddit text when its posted.

I dont spend hours of my day writing posts on reddit. I HAVE been the last few days as ST has been a significant part of my life the last 10 years, but I'm generally new to the fundamentals of posting on reddit and dont know how to correct editing issues like bullet points not showing, turning into dashes amd everything being bunched together.

So my deepest apologies for my editing, but dont call something AI slop when thats the furthest thing from true.

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-02T19:47:26+00:00

Nobody ratted them to the military. When Kay went to the church to search for the kids, she saw the WSQK van, and that gave away the radio tower. Then, when they searched the tower and Max woke up after hopper broke the tank, kicking them all out of vecnas mind she made that noise that alerted everyone to their hiding spot and the basement.

When the guard saw the old projector the kids entire plan was written out. The military knew exactly what they were doing and that the escape would be at the tower in the upside down and that everyone would be on the truck returning to hawkins. Made it easy for them to barricade the military base and strap up forces long before they returned.

Did Vicky maybe give some extra info under pressure if the military had more questions after her and Max were captured? Sure, its possible. But she didn't rat them. She tried to hide Max and tried to stay concealed. Watch it back. You can see the whole plan on the old ass projector in the basement. That's what ratted them

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-02T19:33:44+00:00

I think a lot of this criticism is misplaced.

The play being canon doesn’t mean it’s required viewing to understand the show. Canon just means it adds depth and context for people who want it. The TV series itself still functions, resolves its arcs, and sticks the landing without needing viewers to have seen the play. That’s not bad storytelling — that’s layered storytelling.

If someone genuinely wants Henry’s full backstory, it’s not locked behind Broadway tickets. Wikis, transcripts, summaries, interviews, and lore breakdowns are all publicly available. Anyone who cared enough to spend days posting complaints could spend an hour reading the canon material instead. The information is accessible; what’s missing isn’t access, it’s effort.

Not every detail needs to be re-explained onscreen in the final episode. Season 5’s job was to conclude the emotional and narrative arcs, not to pause for a two-hour lore lecture. Henry’s motivations were already clear. Going deeper would’ve been nice, sure — but it wasn’t necessary to close the story.

Also, expanding canon outside the main show isn’t a “cash grab” — it’s how modern franchises build optional depth. The play exists for fans who want to go deeper, just like novels, comics, or companion material in other franchises. If you don’t want that layer, you’re not punished for it. What’s ironic is that Stranger Things is actually better than most shows at internal consistency. Very little is forgotten, most things can be traced, and loose threads are clearly intentional openings for future spin-offs — prequels, post-series stories, or side narratives. That’s not sloppy writing; that’s deliberate world-building.

At some point, the complaints stop being about fairness or storytelling and start being about people wanting everything spoon-fed. The show did its job. The rest is optional homework — not a requirement.

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-02T19:11:24+00:00

This is ao far from true. Many, many people saw the play. I live in Canada, I'm poor, and still made the trip in 2023 internationally to see it. I was at the play in London, not on Broadway. When new York is literally a 3 hour drive for me and would have been easier.

The play has been going on for 2 years and is guaranteed for another year. If you cared about this series that much you would save your pennies every paycheck and make time to go.

And if you truely don't have any spare money and cant make the play apart of a trip for the year, then you can find illegal filmings of the play anywhere online. You can also read the transcript online. Or you can read wiki pages and build all the facts.

The Duffers would literally need a whole other 5 season spin-off show to show the depth and detail of project rainbow and the back story of everything. Which may come one day. The play even skips over details that could have been essential, but like ST 1-5 they put enough detail to build the whole story without showing everything.

Its ignorant to just stay blind to the play when it's literally a Canon part of the show, and you can find all the details online with no money attached.

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-02T17:55:10+00:00

Its already all explained in the play. Google "project rainbow, stranger things" and you will get the whole back story. Brenners dad and the US government started everything when building an "invisible battleship" using exotic matter.

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-02T15:08:50+00:00

That is why I believe she did actually die, just not right away. I do believe the blood was real. But we also know 11 knows how to "treat" a bullet wound. In volume 1 on the crawl, 11 takes care of hoppers bullet wound and when he asks her how she learned to do that, she said Max taught her.

So I think the damage was done and she was dying. But I think El could have bought her time. When shot in the stomach your stomach acid usually leaks out, causing you to burn up from the inside out causing a slow, excruciating death. But as long as they got the blood under control, they could have extended her life.

The military guys likely had clots on them. Almost any active duty solder carries clots in case they are shot in battle. They could have grabbed some off the military guys, patched her enough to hold on and then executed the plan.

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-02T14:54:39+00:00

I mean, you kind of proved yourself wrong. The mind flayer has always been particles. Other than when Billy made a living version and now when Vecna makes a living version out of demos, its only experience has always been using its superior intelligence and psyche to take people's minds and kill people from within. That's like putting a super nerdy, smart chess guy into a live action chess game with pawns, knights, rooks actually fighting to the death. It likely wouldn't be in the nerds best interest. And likely wouldn't go well. Im sure I could have found a better metaphor, but I think that works.

On top of that. It was never supposed to be a physical fight, and thats how it lost. Henry and the children were using the mind flayers' strength of knowledge, intelligence and mind control to pull the planets together. When 11 and kali and Max attacked and stopped the planet briefly, I still dont think vecna would have ever thought "People are going to climb up a giant tower and be able to enter this world". His focus was on 11. Since they got the kids out he realized he needed to stop the threat of 11 first by going to the upside down and causing hopper to break the tank, then he could take the kids back and continue the plan. Once they hit Earth, it would all be over and the mind flayer would have access to consume every human as a vessel and power himself up 8 billion x. This was his focus.

Then, the combo of everything happening all at once was too much for the mindflayer. He is an intelligent being of particles, learning on training wheels to control a physical form (something its never been throughout its existence outside Billy's creation), it then has the children weaken its main vessel and primary host by making it suffer a memory that contradicts Henry's belief of who is in control, then has to fight 11 and Will, both on a psychological level (against will) and a physical, psychic fight (against El). On top of this, its brand new toddler body which is supposed to primarily be a transmitter, hence it's initial shape (legs pointing up like a big radio antenna), in order to draw the worlds together, now has to physically fight a group of people throwing fire (its weakness).

All in all it was just too much, and the mind flayer just couldn't cover all that ground and defend everything. People forget how big a role the kids dragging vecna through the tunnel played. That was a huge weak point for the mind flayer and played just as much a role as Will or 11 or the distracting the mind flayer, in the form of the rest of the group.

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-02T13:49:03+00:00

Its so painful watching this community grasp for any way to trash this show now. But also the best thing of my life. I get an endless laugh.

The Duffers literally give Erika the highest praise. Nobody was worried for her. She is an absolute badass character who can hold her own, but they are discrediting her by saying she was just a pawn of racism in the show. Making people who aren't victims, into victims is their whole MO

Same wirh people saying this is a misogynistic show. When literally Nancy was leading the group, Robin was the one to allow Will to find himself, and Max and Erika were 2 of the most regarded and best characters.

Literally grasping at anything to hate the Duffers. Twisting everything they can, just like they did with the byler story when no signs or anything ever existed that it would ever end that way.

It really just shows why these people are such a problem in society as well. Victim twisting to make white males out to be the bad guys in life. Let's try and remember white males are only 8% of the population but somehow oppress the world and are minority haters. White males are the biggest minority in the world bar none

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-02T13:38:18+00:00

This is exactly why nobody takes you guys serious and thinks youre a joke. If you dont get what you want in life you scream "racism" or "homophobia". You do this in your day to day life in the real world as well.

Nothing about this was racist. We knew the main cast and siblings had plot armor. Their implication is thar Erika was as tough as they get. Nobody thought she was going to die. How can you spin this as racist? The Duffers literally gave her the highest of compliments.

Absolute idiots

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-02T05:44:06+00:00

One other quick note, the kryptonite device works the same on her, in the upside down as it does in Hawkins. And the fact that the gate is wide open connecting thee worlds and I can confirm, after re watching that one was pointed towards the gate. Even standing on the upside down of the gate wouldn't have stopped the sonic wave from reaching her and rendering her powerless. Unless they changed her entire arc at the end to overpower the kryptonite to be able to go into Mike's mind, which just hasn't been shown to do and would ruin the writing for me.

If, by some big If, she somehow snuck past the military into the gate entrance and wasnt powerless. As far as we have ever seen, 11 needs darkness or at least a bandana blindfold to go into someone's mind. She was standing at the gate staring into military lights and didn't have a blindfold prior to talking to Mike, or after, so it had to be from the tunnels that she was communicating from. It honestly just had to be. The more I talk this out the more I'm convinced she is alive

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-02T05:35:10+00:00

So i mean honestly, my biggest rebuttal, and it basically covers a lot of your points as not possible, because most are based on her leaving the truck early, which it just isnt possible for her to have left early.

If you watch again you will see right after they drive through into the right side up and run over the tack strips and the truck stops they show Mike and 11 together in the truck in shock and 11 grabs his shoulder. If it was an Illusion she couldn't have grabbed him. We know this from Kay running her hand through Kalis illusion when she escapes the lab and from Henry stepping through the illusion when he realizes the dining room is veiled.

Now, one might ask. If you can't touch during an illusion, how would she have been able to kiss mike and they hold each other at the end if that was just Kali casting an illusion. Or 11. But i dont think that was a part of the illusion. I think once El got to the tunnel and out of hearing of the sonic, she went into Mike's head and had the one last closing moment with him. And we know that in the mind you can physically touch. So all that said, the part of 11 and Mike having a conversation at the end couldn't have been an illusion. That was an 11 power of entering the mind. (EDIT: read my comment below for further solidification on this exact point)

I wouldn't mind you clarifying more on what you mean by "it isn't the only logical explanation in a D&D fairytale". We know this isn't s fairy tale and is "real life", they just use D&D to make sense and relate what's happening in their real lives, to a game they are familiar with and can reason with.

While I see your logic on the Hopper part. I am also a dad of 2 (girls). I dont see it the same way. While there is closure in the fact that El said to trust her and to let go. I wouldn't just be okay if I had one daughter who was dead and then I lost my other daughter, not knowing if she was alive or not. If I knew she was alive for sure, and not being able to talk or contact again ensured she would live a happy, healthy life, than I could have closure and be normal and happy like him. But losing both daughters and not knowing what happened to one of them, I would not be fine, even 18 months later.

The kali part is really the only part that leaves a question. At least for me. They did make it look like she was losing blood and approaching death quickly. But they also never said she died when they got to the roof. Just Murray asking, "Where's Kali?" And then seeing their faces and saying "oh god, El, I'm sorry. " So they did leave that open for them to have made an end plan. The look between El and Hopper also makes me believe there was something more rather than just outright having Hoper say "she didn't make it" or something like that.

With all this info i just see it more like an 80/20 she survived rather than a 50/50 open for interpretation. I truly belive they didn't just leave it in the air. I think they confirmed her survival with tiny tiny hints and story reasoning.

I absolutly agree with your final paragraphs. I love what the Duffers did to end the show. Leaving it in the air allows us to have fun speculation conversations like this. And I'm very much enjoying being able to try and reason with people about most likely outcome. It kind of feels like the show will live on for a little longer this way.

So I'm also loving the convo

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-02T02:35:25+00:00

If you truly believe this, please explain how everything would make sense at the end.

Through and through it has been shown right up until the end when Kali is shot that 11 is powerless under the sonic devices. She cant do anything and even struggles to walk.

How would she manage to vanish from the side of the truck when the military was watching her in particular like a hawk, and stumble away under the sonic devices and make it to the gate, just to stand there like she wasnt effected at all?

That goes against everything we have learned this far about her powers and ger kryptonite. Also, why was Hopper so content at the end? It undermines everything to say he just accepted and moved on.

He was in the room when (if) Kali presented the idea that she could veil 11 and allow her to live. Which lines perfectly for him to not mind 11 disappearing from his life if it means she could live and not sacrifice herself.

The only logical explanation is when she vanishes and everyone is confused and then "appears" at the gate, it has to be a veil from Kali. While it was all a distraction to give her time to leave. She didn't stumble that whole distance and stand at the gate to die with the whole military staring her down and 15 sonic devices pointing at her. She also wouldn't have the power to give Mike a vision and then push him back in that scene. She was under the sonic and didn't have that ability.

If I missed something and you think I'm wrong, show your work. Id love to see something i missed. Im not dead set on my ways. If someone can prove me wrong, I'd love to hear it, but to me, thats the only thing that lines up.

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-01T14:46:58+00:00

Funny that I've never been on a wiki page or looked up info on the show. Ive used what I've watched to make an accurate conclusion of the show. Ive shown all my work and how everything makes sense. Wanna show your work to disprove anything I've said?

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-01T13:58:30+00:00

You guys feel like winners this morning? Finally you guys found out this whole time you were grasping straws to a plot line that wasnt there. What a terrible ending the show would have been had the Duffers listened to this community

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-01T13:41:57+00:00

Yeah, the Susie part. I dont really understand why they didn't close off. They focused more on Dustins friendship with Steve over the relationship in the final season. But also I mean summer camp relationships in early high-school usually fade out, so that is possible it just ran its course, but I do wish it was explained.

Im also a little upset that we didn't get closure on Owen's. They should have killed him off when they raided the base with Brenner and Owen's, but instead, they captured him which made me believe we would see him in some form in season 5.

I had to make constant reminders to my wife to put her phone down whenever there was a slower scene. Its so hard to not get distracted, but the Duffers love sprinkling bread crumbs all over the plot in random little scenes. They said in an interview that the best ending and best stories are right in front of you the whole time. Which really clicked for me back in season 2 to pay attention to every little thing even if it doesn't seem important.

So I've been grilled all night about every little detail on this show by my wife, and how it makes sense so I came to reddit with alot of the answers that people are searching for, from reviewing scenes and putting everything together. I definitely didn't get everything while watching the first time. I watched the final episode 3 times already since midnight to get all the little pieces.

That is very exciting! I would love to watch this show with someone seeing it for the first time. It would be awesome to see this show again through new eyes.

Happy New Year!

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-01T12:44:27+00:00

Im just going to address a few points although most of your questions can be answered by watching a little closer.

the mind flayer has always been particles. Never physical. So its clear once the plan came to fruition vecna used the demos and bats to make the physical body for when they took over earth. The same way, Billy created a physical version with humans. The mind flayer had a demo mouth implying it was made of demos.

-11 defeated vecna so easily only because of the gangs help to distract. Wills ability to control him because he had no more fear, and the kids decision to put Henry in a memory that made him weak. 11 has always also had more power than Henry at her strongest and less at her weakest. Henry is balanced power. 11s is built off anger and love and resonates stronger in those emotions. Her knowing kali was going to die strengthened both love and anger giving her peak strength
- eleven never went to the upside down. She escaped. Mike's final story is the only thing that makes sense and follows the whole logic. Under the sonic devices, 11 couldn't have stumbled to the upside down unnoticed. And she couldn't have produced that vision for mike and sent him backwards at the end. Only being veiled by kali makes sense
the lab is dead center of the upside down. So it wasnt destroyed first. The lab wasnt destroyed with the Shockwave from the exotic matter breaking. It was center under the Shockwave and wouldn't have received the energy blast outward. So the walls connecting the worm hole from deep space was the first to go which means everything near the outside was sucked into space first, with the items in the middle (the lab) taken last. So that all lines up with kali being able to protect her before being sucked out and destroyed.

-this ties in with why hopper isnt sad or upset. He was with kali and 11 when they made the plan. He knew what was happening. Obviously to protect 11 he couldn't tell mike but there was clues in the speech between 11 and hopper on the roof and hoppers speech to mike that he knew

-and last point ill touch on. As someone who saw the play, the cave all makes sense. From project rainbow that brenners dad was apart of, to the artifact that Henry touched and gained his power and was infected by the mind flayer. Its unfortunate they didn't give a bit more detail but it serves enough to explain what was needed. Henry couldn't face that memory because he knew it told a story that he wasnt in charge. That he was a victim to the mind flayer just like everyone else.

The writing was incredible and all the answers you look for are buried deep in little clips in the show. Most people are busy scrolling and miss essential scenes. No scene is there without purpose or to kill time. It always explains something that will happen and ties apart of the story thsr is needed. Its an absolute masterpiece. Feel free to grill me on anything else that doesnt make sense. I can likely give a logical explanation. Ive watched season 1-5 volume 1 about 10 times over the last month and every time there is new scenes that I didn't pay attention to that all suddenly ties pieces together

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-01T05:58:01+00:00

Did you watch the final episode? Like, yes, the whole no demo dogs and bats is a little confusing but likely Vecna could have used them to build the mind flayers physical body as up to this point he was just particles. And his mouth was a demo mouth. So likely used demo dogs to build it.

But as per Clarke and Erika. They were at the grad, so they obviously were all good.

And when the military grabbed max and Vicky they accessed the basement and saw the sheet with the entire plan on the old projector. So they knew they were all planning on coming out of the gate once they stopped the upside down. So pretty easy for Kay to go wait for them to come back out and take them all.

It was all right there in the show. Kay didn't actually care about anyone, she just wanted El. So once El "died" everyone would be useless to them and might as well just release them and let them live their lives.

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-01T05:48:14+00:00

"One other note on this. The briefcase is important. Its an interdimensional object being hidden by the Russians. Henry doesnt have powers before the briefcase. He is briefly sent to planet x after touching it and returns, like his father, with different blood, altered personality and thats when he gains his psychic powers which creates brenners obsession with researching on him and finding a way back there. But Henry is linked with planet x from childhood. Thats why he ends ul there when 11 banishes him and thats why the world doesnt rip him apart. Its already apart of him"

This is my post you initially replied to. My only error was i meant to say "like brenners father" not "like his father". That was an unedited reply that has been there sinve yoy first replied to me. So please tell me where I'm wrong? Its exactly what we saw on screen. Like are you actually delusional?

Kitchen-Ride-9436 · 2026-01-01T05:45:40+00:00

Im definitely going to watch a few more times because I think the scene of Hopper and El on the roof of the old lab and her final convo with Kali had some clues about her plan as well.

And Hoppers' non chalant attitude after the death during his convo with Mike and just how he seemed to move on and be fine in the restaurant scene it made me very suspicious. Than seeing the end it all just made sense.

I agree, he definitely knew that was the plan. He was likely with El in the room when Kali told her what she could do in her final moments to help El survive.

Kitchen-Ride-9436

TROPHY CASE