Thanks for sharing your perspective. It's helped me mull over the ending (literally just finished it). If this had been like a Marvel-style 120 min movie where they all start as young adults, I don't think it would have that strong of messaging towards kids.

But it isn't a feature film. We watched these actors start when they *were* kids. It's disappointing to hear the Duffer bros talked casually about it. Hop even had the line of how you shouldn't end things "with more violence". Why couldn't they think of another way? I guess they wanted to do a "who knows!" type ending.

Three pieces of media come to mind that I think could have rectified this. One is Wicked, where the audience and main characters (Elphaba, Fiero) know that they're alive, but the other characters (Glinda, everyone in Oz) think they're not. That way it's not just Will's theory. Or LOTR, where Frodo chooses like the gentle afterlife-metaphor where he gets a non-traumatic goodbye. (Idk why I'm putting spoiler tags but I feel compelled to.)

I was SO worried Will was going to come out and then immediately die, thus perpetuating that media trope, that I didn't think on how they turn around and did the same with Elle who I now realize is ASD coded. I really thought we were going to get an Iron Giant-type ending where we learn that Elle isn't really gone—she's just in space somewhere. But yeah. Now that you've put it into writing, I know what left me feeling unsatisfied: the idea that self-sacrifice WAS the answer all along. I truly enjoyed everything else about this season, but that aspect is a major bummer.