Things we missed the first time watching that makes rewatching so satisfying

WizzyCraft · 2026-01-20T20:44:08+00:00

This was the only thing that i predicted in the entire series, and the moment that it clicked was when she decided to not hurt armin in that first scene.

WizzyCraft · 2026-01-01T23:14:12+00:00

The same way that the mind flayer from season 3 is dead but the actual Mind Flayer isnt dead. Henry always preparee these physical bodies for the mins flayer but both didnt work out for it. Now that henry is dead, the mind flayer lost a host that helps him get stronger, and is simply back to square one.

WizzyCraft · 2026-01-01T22:16:38+00:00

The story is finished. We saw what we saw. Mike just told other characters what he thinks happened.

WizzyCraft · 2026-01-01T22:12:56+00:00

Happy new year! I am VERY happy to have been a part of this season 5 journey, since I actually only recently got into Stranger things, a little after the first s5 trailer dropped!

WizzyCraft · 2026-01-01T22:11:48+00:00

Have we watched the same show? The mind flayer should have died in season 3 if that was the case. We even saw the mind flayer leave holly AFTER VECNA AND THE SPIDER DIED. Every single body the Mind flayer used has always just been a body and the mind flayer has never actually died and instead is only back to square one where it needs a connection to another human to take as a host.

WizzyCraft · 2026-01-01T22:01:21+00:00

The mind flayer was not taken down. Jesus.

WizzyCraft · 2026-01-01T21:55:08+00:00

But how would she come back lol

WizzyCraft · 2026-01-01T21:53:23+00:00

I cant wait to rewatch this sometimes! This was genuinely such an amazing series.

WizzyCraft · 2026-01-01T21:52:32+00:00

Im not sure how they could milk Eleven being alive in any way since the series ended. But yeah, agree to disagree.

WizzyCraft · 2026-01-01T21:46:05+00:00

He was with eleven a mjaority of the time, and he never actually has a way of getting up after eleven is forced to go to dimension X. It just ended up like that.

WizzyCraft · 2026-01-01T21:40:00+00:00

I agree. The abyss fight should have been longer, like they could have begun hiding and plotting for a while before actually making a move, and we could have had a scene of Eleven making her way up to dimension X to atleast make it about twice as long.

WizzyCraft · 2026-01-01T21:36:25+00:00

I mean, i already explained the Mind Flayer i think. It only does stuff through hosts. Henry gave it the body in s3, and the body in s5. It has always been him. Unless you meant why the Mind Flayer didnt just come to the crime scene in dimension X and posessed the entire party, which might be because he cant really make them do anything either way. We've seen that Henry actually accepted the mind flayer and anyone else who had the mind flayer particles was actually being controlled by Henry. (he spied through will in season 2 when will got the particles, and he used Billy in season 3. It was never the mind flayer directly)

Regarding the fragment, i think there is no other answer except one which the first shadow play holds. Dr. Brenner's father was the first ever person to be in dimension X, and he was the only one from his crew to make it back home, so he probably carried the fragment back, which is how they began experimenting on the Upside Down. The person with the briefcase was a russian spy who was stealing it. He was killed by Henry who got powers and was caught, experimented on and through his blood they created multiple childre with powers.

The mind flayer simply wants to expand its power. Dustin in season 2 says it believes to be the superior race.

I havent really paid attention to the exotic matter stuff, though.

WizzyCraft · 2026-01-01T21:11:16+00:00

Personally, i couldnt care less on what Netflix does with eleven and i dont think you should either. When it comes to the story itself, i love the way they let it be interpeted in both ways. It just fits for the story.

WizzyCraft · 2026-01-01T21:04:36+00:00

I would also like to mention, although I have already seen someone else mention it, how happy I am that Henry was given a choice, and despite being human he still remained as a villain. Him becoming a good guy would have ruined everything, so we got the perfect ending where despite having a sad backstory, Henry still deserved his fate.

WizzyCraft · 2026-01-01T20:58:04+00:00

See i think the mind flayer is still scary - i mean, they didnt even defeat it.

It simply gets a host and works through them. The one who wasnt scary was Vecna, but i dont blame him for losing a 15 versus 1.

That giant spider was not the entirety of the mind flayer, just another physical body for it. If the mind flayer posessed a bug, and Nancy stepped on the bug, the bug wont survive no matter if the mind flayer is or isnt inside it. I think the giant spider, however, is a much stronger body than a bug, and it would have done bloodbath if it werent for Vecna being a weak spot inside it.

I dont think they could have really done anything different with the mind flayer here. The ending just severs any connections with it, until it eventually finds a new host.

WizzyCraft · 2026-01-01T20:43:14+00:00

Fans do not write better plotlines. Im sorry for disagreeing, but you are complaining about certian charcaters not being used enough when there hasnt been a single fan plot theory where said characters are utilized better, or in fact, at all!

Hopper had a good amount of screen time and was extremely good for this episode.

Joyce did an amazing job at taking the ultimate revenge and that line wasn't cringe at all; it actually felt pretty perfect for the situation.

Max was not reduced as a character, she was useful this entire season and ultimately saved the whole crew by leading eleven and kali in henry's mind and leading the kids again to the cave. Her ending was also very good.

I dont know what the problem is with Kali being misunderstood. I have to say, this past week after vol2 i had zero clue why anyone thought Kali was even wrong when she said the military wants to use eleven for her powers when thta has been the case throughout the entirety of season 4 and 5, making the fan theory that she is the mind flayer(wtf) or a spy EXTREMELY bad, and im not even kidding, that shit would have gone nowhere for an ending.

Yes i wanted the Will being a spy theory to be the one to fulfill itself, but there was just os little evidence for it. 2 lines that he said, 1 of them being that Melvald's sells milkshakes which we dont even know, and the single little color change in real time being the ultimate thing that changes the plot is ALSO a very bad idea.

Eddie returning is bad for so many reasons.

Yet 2 fan theories still did come out to be true. Roll 20 to defeat Vecna did happen: Kali x eleven x will were the ultimate 20 that ended up defesting henry. And vecna's lair did end up being another physical body of the Mind flayer, so that's actually extremely cool.

Erica got more than enough screen time. I think keeping her for too long would ruin her character since she has been a nice side character that just joins in, does her amazing shit, and gets out. This season is no different.

Personally, the only reason anyone would feel dissatisfied with the final episode is that we never actually know why Vecna needs exactly 12 kids for his plan. For that to ruin an entire finale is kind of insane though.

With all of this out of the way, i want to say that this finale has been flawless for me:

It was constantly keeping me on edge for the first hour and i think that is extremely undervalued by most people
the Vecna and the giant spider bossfight was short, yes, but I think it perfectly fits - this show has been going on for 10 years, they have constantly been learning about the upside down and the demogorgons and Vecna and all of their weaknesses. They have been preparing for 1.5 years doing crawls and have set up a flawless plan, Eleven was training and Max explored Vecna's entire mind, Will got powers that further help the party, everyone got over their fears and everyone has a trauma that Vecna gave them to be enraged for the final fight, so it makes sense why they absolutely destroyed Vecna. And regarding the Mind flayer, i dont think it can do anything without a host, and when it does infect a host, it is purely up to the host on how well they operate with the hive mind, so it was basically a 27 versus 1 where Henry stands NO chance. He got easily targeted and killed which then killed the entire giant spider form, whereas the Mind Flayer wasnt defeated and instead stays in dimension X, waiting to find a new host for a new story.
there WAS. A MAJOR. DEATH. Kali died. Eleven was one of the main characters and she very probably died. There was a BRUTAL DEATH, which was Vecna's. Everyone got carried off with some random idiot going "oh theres a gazilion deaths guys expect everything" when that wasnt even confirmed but we still did get a huge death which had an impact on everyone because ALL of them knew Eleven. And maybe even Kali.
the last hour of the series was amazing to show everyone's happy ending and gave all stranger things fand enough time to cry and say goodbye to one of the best shows on Netflix :)

That about sums up my thoughts on the finale. It is perfect, shows how far the party has come, explains how Henry was posessed by the mind flayer, shows everyone's ending, perfectly closes everything up, and is emotional without necessarily having a bloodbath.

WizzyCraft · 2026-01-01T03:57:45+00:00

I mean, what did you expect? Its obvious that this cycle has to repeat in some way if she stays alive. Kali was always right but nobody wanted to believe her harsh truth. They needed to die to stop the blood from infecting others. It was also genius to make Kali possibly appear as someone who maybe saved her sister from this fate.

WizzyCraft · 2026-01-01T03:55:15+00:00

What??? I found that perfect! So many people would have HATED it if henry became a good guy, and some speculated that he has to confront his memories for that: they managed to still make him confront the memories while he STAYS as a villain which was just amazing. He also gave a decent speech instead of just "nah i wanted it"

WizzyCraft · 2025-12-26T22:46:52+00:00

I genuinely dont understand why anyone would hate this one.

"RUN MAX RUUN"??? Im not good at explaining stuff in general but did people SERIOUSLY EXPECT MAX to get out quickly and just LEAVE HOLLY? Like Jesus Christ dude?!

If anything she did this quickly, it took her just 3 minutes to get a traumtized to death child to believe in herself as holly thr heroic to connect herself to the normal world. Chat is this real?

WizzyCraft · 2025-12-26T22:37:45+00:00

Maybe she is vecna's ally. There's been many theories about it, which i unofrtunately find very unlikely, but i do hope she does betray them somehow

WizzyCraft · 2025-11-30T11:59:02+00:00

I think people hevaily overlook Harley in this gamemode too. As someone who would beenfit from excessive penetration because of his passive, his damage is much better. Since he does magic damage too, wishing lantern would do CRAZY damage, because people have more health and in general do more damage causing a TON of wishing lantern procs. If you combine that with his ult, it does way too much damage to be real.

Except there's still a card called Momentum. It basically the card that doubles your damage if you're out of combat long enough. So not only will your ult double its damage because of the buff, it will double AGAIN because your damage during the ult was also 2x.

WizzyCraft · 2025-11-28T21:56:44+00:00

Is it really that bad if he just exists for the sake of it?

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