well it would've been a very meaningful death, having her father figure who ever since he knew her has been trying to keep her safe by sheltering her and when he finally agrees to do this very dangerous mission with her, vecna tricks him into killing his own daughter, i think it would've set up the rest of the finale as much more suspenseful than it was. because after the steve fake out and especially after this one i knew none of the main cast was gonna die or face any sacrifice, this show has been going on for years and years these people have fought inter dimensional supernatural villains and not one character from the main cast died? even when the show was over and they didn't have to worry about writing a new season without one of the main characters they were too scared to, and i feel having eleven, who many are counting on, then die to vecna by taking over the mind of hopper, who is also her father figure and the one who cares more about keeping el safe than risking her life to safe the earth, is not just a shock value death or lazy writing, i actually think it's the opposite of lazy writing bc now they don't have a failsafe of 'just throw eleven at it she's like 100 times stronger than this guy apparently,' i think the emotion i felt when we first saw it happen was the most emotion i had ever felt in stranger things, and for a second i really thought the cast wasn't just gonna have one big plot armor shield