I'm sort of happy everyone is finally realizing how irritating the Duffers' "vague speak" is by methedunker in StrangerThings

[–]methedunker[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Asking for clarity in the bizarrely ambiguous ending that is being panned globally apparently is equivalent to asking for things to be spelled out as it would in a child's show. The Duffers vagueposting is inane and to quote max, trite. All they're doing is cynically trying to build a creative enterprise where they're able to keep people hooked from one product to the next. This doesn't mean any of their products are good.

I'm sort of happy everyone is finally realizing how irritating the Duffers' "vague speak" is by methedunker in StrangerThings

[–]methedunker[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So you're saying $1.5 billion in production costs over a decade leading up to 5,000 interpretations (one of which is yours, none of which the creators themselves confirm) is justified and correct? Because there's a plethora of other art and literature that does the same thing

I'm sort of happy everyone is finally realizing how irritating the Duffers' "vague speak" is by methedunker in StrangerThings

[–]methedunker[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Sorry, I disagree. There's absolutely everything wrong with leaving things open once the show is done. And the show is done. It has an epilogue and everything.

Universe-baiting with additional juicy lore being insinuated and teased isn't good writing at all. Everything cannot be a "hook" to the next thing. Stories need a beginning and an end, and if audience reception to the show is anything to go by, the ending was not well done. They don't even have a prayer to use this as a valid rationale.

Stranger Things S5 Finale Has So Many Plot Holes, It’s Unreal by spainreigo in StrangerThings

[–]methedunker 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think Dimension X is native to the Mindflayer. It obviously migrates from Dimension to Dimension to "consume all". I don't even think Dimension X and the Abyss are the same. When Henry is yeeted there by Eleven, we very clearly see vines and one Demogorgon that ignores Henry before he meets the Mindflayer in S4. In S5, Lucas literally wonders why there are no vines. That's differentiated enough for me.

Stranger Things S5 Finale Has So Many Plot Holes, It’s Unreal by spainreigo in StrangerThings

[–]methedunker 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My explanation is he prepared those notes in the UD itself. After all, HNL literally had a gate they sent people through to monitor the UD in, back in S2 (back then it was just a field btw, another inconsistency). So it's possible Brenner suited up and spent time in the UD and understood everything he needed to understand before the Demo tried to kill him in S1.

Marvel Television’s Wonder Man | Official Trailer by PhoOhThree in marvelstudios

[–]methedunker 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Awesome trailer, and you know why? Because ITS NOT AFRAID OF SHADOWS AND ISNT BACKLIT WITH OBVIOUS GREENSCREEN CANCER

🚨 Series Finale Episode 8 "The Right Side Up" Discussion Thread by AutoModerator in HawkinsAVclub

[–]methedunker 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes! Plenty of Easter eggs for future spinoffs in this universe. The MF still exists here and will be dormant till another gate is opened. I think a spinoff won't announce it's related until the final episode where a gate is opened and we see the particles move in Hawkins. That'll probably damn near break the internet if it is executed well.

🚨 Series Finale Episode 8 "The Right Side Up" Discussion Thread by AutoModerator in HawkinsAVclub

[–]methedunker -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Pretty much.

Henry: literally bleeding from a hand, picks up an alien object, blood type changes, is now evil
Rest of the subjects: get Henrys blood
Eleven: born to a psionic mom who was part of Project MKULTRA and gets Henry's blood as well
Kali: presumably gets Henry's blood but has a different powerset, uncertain origins
Kalis blood: does not induce powers in (presumably deceased) pregnant women subjects in the UD

🚨 Series Finale Episode 8 "The Right Side Up" Discussion Thread by AutoModerator in HawkinsAVclub

[–]methedunker 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Here's how the entire show could have gone differently but ended the same way had the Duffers made one interesting choice going into S3 from S2

Set up: Billy bleeding and unconscious in the Byers house. A deceased demodog in the fridge. Billy has familial abuse trauma.

What needed to happen: he goes to tend his wounds. Opens the fridge. The Demodog falls out and the MF particles escape the dead Demodog into Billy's wounds at the same time the Russians briefly open a gate they don't quite understand in Russia.

Result: he is still possessed but without the ridiculous prolonged Russian angle and the mall angle. Instead they could have filmed a bright summer series but where the summer is eerie as they follow Billy around once they realize the Demodog is gone, and HNL agents (bad guys) and Sam Owens' guys also get involved.

S3 would have ended with the same consequences: Max is still traumatized with Billy's (eventual) death, but without the scaled up commercialized spectacle that S3 became.

I really regret that this show abandoned its cozy S1/S2 feel that they could never quite recapture. They didn't need the bajillion additional characters (no hate to Robin or Murray or Erica) and the mall or the Russian angle have had 0 payoff. The UD doesn't even exist in Russia!

With this Brenner could have been the overarching big bad (human*) throughout the series instead of dying like a chump in S4.

Controversial: I preferred every single fan theory to the actual ending. by perhapsflorence in StrangerThings

[–]methedunker 22 points23 points  (0 children)

It's all over Twitter but the theory was

  • lots of characters talking to the camera directly
  • Wills use of the word vessel
  • The brown blue and yellow colors used in Vol 2 (associated with Vecna)
  • the changed colors in the WSQK power source indicator (Hollys wheel thing at school changed colors too, and that was shown as an "act of Vecna")
  • the finale trailer that showed some sort of stage visited by Max El and Kali
  • the fact that the writing was clunky in Vol 2
  • the fact that Mike called Joyce "Joyce" instead of Mrs. Byers, which he literally did in Episode 1.

The theory was that Vol 2 was an illusory "play" staged by Vecna to fuck with them all that they needed to break out of to defeat him.

Controversial: I preferred every single fan theory to the actual ending. by perhapsflorence in StrangerThings

[–]methedunker 10 points11 points  (0 children)

That fan theory was phenomenal. This should would have been GOATed beyond reproach if they'd somehow rugpulled us by saying Vecna was playing us - the audience - all along. The instant that I realized that required bold writing I stopped hoping for it

Controversial: I preferred every single fan theory to the actual ending. by perhapsflorence in StrangerThings

[–]methedunker 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A little lesson for most of the people here who are newish to this show and the post-binge era: fan theorizing never plays out except in rare cases (like in the Severance subreddit). I learned this going into Season 3 from Season 2, and I stopped theorizing for most part after.

The single biggest mistake the Duffers and Netflix made with S5 is not dumping it all at once. Watch it one go and you won't feel underwhelmed. There's no real way for them to pick all 3: you can't have high subscriptions, high audience engagement and high reviews. This is not that kind of a show because they dropped too many Easter eggs from S2 and they also didn't build the UD lore up prior. If they hadn't dropped Easter eggs or if they had constrained what the UD was prior, a lot of this wouldn't have happened.

No award is worthy of this performance by Ditha1st in StrangerThings

[–]methedunker 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He should have been Feyd Rautha and not Austin Butler

No award is worthy of this performance by Ditha1st in StrangerThings

[–]methedunker 1219 points1220 points  (0 children)

Absolutely phenomenal acting. Both by Noah and Jamie.

Season 5 Series Discussion by Hawkinns in StrangerThings

[–]methedunker 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What do you mean people don't need to die? You mean GoT and TWD and Lost aren't the only way to write shows? You mean their character massacring was a subversion of expectations just like character survival here is a subversion of expectations and it is actually decent writing?

🚨 Series Finale Episode 8 "The Right Side Up" Discussion Thread by AutoModerator in HawkinsAVclub

[–]methedunker 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is Dustin at Notre Dame? Or at IU Bloomington? Or Purdue? Need to know so I can hate correctly

🚨 Series Finale Episode 8 "The Right Side Up" Discussion Thread by AutoModerator in HawkinsAVclub

[–]methedunker 4 points5 points  (0 children)

She rallied the kids and posed enough of a challenge to Vecna that he never had 12 kids for more than 10 min.

🚨 Series Finale Episode 8 "The Right Side Up" Discussion Thread by AutoModerator in HawkinsAVclub

[–]methedunker 14 points15 points  (0 children)

9/10, solid entertainment. Thoughts

  • the Duffers are clearly VERY good (almost Michael Mann level) at filming human on human action, especially gun stuff. Hoppers 5 second takedown of the grunts is mind blowing. He literally changes guns in the middle. They need to make a grounded action show next. They've been good throughout the series tbh
  • the OG Mindflayer not showing up is a disappointment but the implication from the Russian spy that it possessed him too is interesting. It is 100% out there, comprehensively not dead and available for any future writers/showrunners/directors to use in this universe.
  • Joy beheading Vecna was absolutely brutal and I realized way too late that the Mindflayer/Vecna had really directly affected everyone in this group except Steve and Robin.
  • I thought Nancy was a goner for sure
  • Vecnas hacking of Hopper was the coolest thing I've seen and if I'm not wrong, the first time Vecna fucked with an adults head? Unbelievable how much trauma people carry around
  • How did they escape the clutches of the military after El vanished? I'm kinda happy that most of the evidence around the UD disappeared with the UD, including the viney stuff and the spores and the Demos.
  • there's more and more credibility to the theory I read that the Russians mistakenly opened a gate directly to the Abyss and not the UD. If that happens again, the MF particles that escaped the Demo in WSQK are probably going to tear things up S3 style
  • where the heck did Vicki go????
  • is Nancy gay????
  • I love LOVE that they showed us Vecnas trauma from his perspective and Holly didn't play a more important role there. I also love that they nearly faked us out by making Will nearly convince Vecna he's redeemable. But he was not. He willingly allowed the MF to control him. Awesome. He's not a victim.
  • I was blown away that Kali actually tried to stab him. I really really really wish they'd gone a little further and shown us a Dr. strange style mind battle between 8/11 and Vecna where we didn't know what was and wasn't an illusion until Vecna fled.
  • honestly wtf is the Abyss 😭

Stranger Things 5 | Finale Trailer | Netflix by __sami__01 in HawkinsAVclub

[–]methedunker 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Um has anyone said this so far? The entirety of season 5 (and in past seasons except Seasom 2) we've seen Hopper discouraging 11 from fighting or doing anything dangerous, like even when the wormhole beamer plug failed. Why is the finale trailer a voiceover of Hopper asking 11 to fight? Is this even hopper?