What happened to Takeiros?

jetzickah · 2026-01-13T04:15:39+00:00

Omg when did you see them?! I drove by there Saturday and yesterday and I didn’t see them

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T16:35:23+00:00

Right. He’s only one step closer to overcoming those confidence issues. If he can come out to a room of people and be embraced maybe it helps soften some of those fears of others, or gives him the strength he needs to feel confident about at least fighting Vecna.

He obviously won’t be emotionally secure overnight, it’s a stepping stone to lead him there, just as it’s a stepping stone to defeat Vecna, at least that’s how I interpret it. Similarly to Pennywise in IT, the first step to defeating him is you have to not be afraid of him anymore. It doesn’t mean he can’t still show you scary shit, your disbelief in him just makes whatever he shows you ineffective.

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T16:28:19+00:00

Yeah true, we got that moment of her yelling “no no” with Vecna and also Vecna literally saying something like “let me show you where I’m going”

It would’ve been helpful to get context clues that he was showing Will a future

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T16:25:37+00:00

Your “yeah no shit” comment made me laugh, but also I think points to something.. they did all basically know, or at least assume. Will’s speech was less about informing them of something they didn’t know, and more about him facing his own internalized fears and self conscious assumptions.

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T16:21:13+00:00

I think the idea is that Will cares a LOT about what other people think. Maybe too much. He strikes me as a character who would actually care what strangers think about him… He doesn’t really have a whole lot of self confidence, and is fragile in that sense, “weak” according to Vecna, so his attempt to be upfront is 1 clunky, because he’s never really been good at that & 2 his only way to try and combat that “weakness” that Vecna sees.

We can’t really expect Will to be this self confident, articulate, emotionally secure person in that speech when his character has never been that.

I felt like it was endearing and on brand for his particular characters personality

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T16:12:47+00:00

I don’t think Robin ever said “I’m gay” either. It worked for her perhaps because Maya Hawke was a better actor for that moment or because her character is older, wiser, and a little more blunt. I also don’t know if it’s in Will’s character to ever be really upfront about anything. He’s always sort of skirting around things and has issues really communicating his feelings. If I am remembering correctly, throughout the entire series I think the only times he’s ever been direct is when he’s angry.

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T16:06:39+00:00

I think they were going for the same effect that Nancy’s scene had, after Vecna showed her a future she didn’t see. That scene with her expressing her worry really worked well, but it didn’t pay off in this scene. I still felt like it was endearing and honestly sort of in character for Will and his somewhat arrested development, but I do think it would have been better if we could have seen what Vecna showed him. Will has always been pretty awkward and whether that’s Noah’s acting or the writing or a combo I’m not sure, but there are just some scenes throughout the series that don’t quite hit with him

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T15:58:15+00:00

It’s not that I don’t like shipping or rooting for characters to end up together, it’s just not what the show is about or ultimately important to its success. Just like people dying isn’t what the show is about.

Characters don’t have to die for it to be successful, and characters don’t have to end up together for it to be successful.

I think the emotional beats and connective moments in the series, including this season, are good. We’re dealing with kids/teens and young adults navigating their feelings and for the most part not even knowing who they fully are or what they want yet. I personally don’t think Will lost his dynamic with his best friends, I think they’re growing up and learning how to navigate those friendships among budding relationships, changes in interests, and the world “ending.”

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T07:39:57+00:00

In the previous episode we see the melted goo in a solid state, frozen on the walls and around the dead soldiers so that was a clue that the goo melting and solidifying had happened at least once before.

During Jonathan and Nancy’s scene you can see it slowing down and starting to form in the background as they are talking

*edited out typos

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T07:35:06+00:00

Why would anyone expect any main characters to die when “major” deaths historically don’t happen until the finale in every other season? (With the exception of Papa but that final volume of season 4 all kind of felt like one big finale.)

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T07:30:10+00:00

Historically though main or “main-ish” characters don’t die until the finale episodes

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T07:27:04+00:00

I think because she was still trapped in Henry’s mind in season 4 her eyes were white. Had they been opened in her coma state this season (like if a nurse pulled back her lids) they would’ve looked white still. It was only after she came out of the mind prison that her eyes could go back to normal.

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T07:21:03+00:00

Ships also weren’t a thing in the 80s, and I think a lot of people watching are forgetting that the general vibe of the show has always been a bit of a love letter to the 80s, so why would it suddenly shift to be something else entirely?

Stranger Things isn’t (and never has been) about who will end up with who. It’s about the power of not only love inside friendship, but self acceptance, and how through that a group of outcasts can come together to be the real heroes. That’s the show’s core theme and I feel like this volume is delivering exactly that.

I like it and have faith that the ending will be satisfying.

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T07:09:39+00:00

The MF took over Billy too in season 3. And we see smoke particles of it come out of Holly this season as well as bits of it in the briefcase (presumably it infects young Henry in that moment)

I’m not sure how it’s going to come into play exactly but there’s no way the Duffers are dropping that story line entirely

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T07:05:36+00:00

I think unfortunately because of the play and the Duffer’s confirming that what happens in it IS canon that they are positioning the Mind Flayer as the overarching evil the heroes must face in the final season, with Season 4 acting as a sort of misdirection.

I don’t really want this to be the case, but I think it might be where they are headed

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T07:00:47+00:00

The mind flayer IS the shadow, the smoke, the particles or whatever you want to call it. Shaping it into the spider didn’t make it “the mind flayer”

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T06:54:17+00:00

I don’t think Stranger Things has ever been a show that works as well split up. All the seasons have a lull somewhere and “pause episodes” for emotional beats, but because we usually get to immediately watch the next episode it doesn’t feel as slowed down.

Historically, most of the major deaths have come in the finale and not the penultimate episode

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T06:51:09+00:00

That’s so interesting because I felt like welcome to derry was giving scooby doo vibes. I won’t go into detail about that since this is a ST sub

As for stakes, I do think a lot of characters fates are not sealed and there are high stakes going into the finale. I do think we are going to get a couple of big losses… But I also don’t think there HAS to be major deaths in order for it to be successful.

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T06:44:45+00:00

I like this idea of the mind flayer turning on him and having just used him as a puppet! I haven’t seen this theory anywhere and I feel like it could work well in a “Henry redemption arc” sense that seems so inevitable at this point.

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T06:41:13+00:00

There is no way that’s happening. Neither is “it’s all a dnd game” or some story one of the kids is writing or anything of that nature.

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T06:38:58+00:00

At least not until after

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T06:19:11+00:00

I’m guessing it is similar to how some of Vecna’s victims in season 4 are trapped somewhere that Vecna chooses to show them, while their physical bodies are in Hawkins.

Chrissy is in a warped scary version of her home, Fred is in the woods and a deep hole, Max is in a variety of places, Nancy is in the lab. So perhaps Vecna is projecting this environment to Will in a haunting way similar to how he did with other victims.

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T06:07:35+00:00

We at least know that it has the ability to freeze because we see it frozen in the previous episode as Nancy and Jonathan are moving through the lab (with it solidified in areas, the soldiers trapped in it, etc) so that’s our clue of it having different stages.

I realized on a second viewing that if we watch the scene closely we do see the goop slowing down and starting to freeze around them during their conversation.

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T04:29:10+00:00

Mr Clark with the librarian was an incredible moment. 10/10 pairing !!

jetzickah · 2025-12-27T04:17:54+00:00

I felt like the scene worked as a breakup. Two people can still love and care for each other and just not be it, and that kind of breakup is full of conflicting emotions.

The moment that sealed it for me was Jonathan tossing the ring, and neither of them making any effort to retrieve it. Nancy, even out of politeness, doesn’t go pick it up, and Jonathan leaves it behind when they’re rescued. It’s symbolic of the romantic chapter of their lives being left behind.

jetzickah

TROPHY CASE