Hullo! I'm Av. You're cool for looking at my blog. I'm not too active these days but it's pretty much all Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts with a lot of The Dragon Prince, Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings, Downton Abbey, The Hunger Games, Girl Meets World, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra and pretty much whatever else I feel like talking about.
I mentioned on Reddit that I wished that Steve and Jonathan bonded in season 5 over younger siblings struggling with grief and ptsd and someone called nycorix said if I ever got around to writing a fan fic about it, Iâd have a reader. đ„č
This is a very abridged version, but you were so sweet, I really wanted to do something. Iâve had a lot of this dialogue floating around in my brain since November anyway. This oneâs for you, nycorix!
Will and Wonât
Steve sighs as Dustin stalks off. The insults were barely above a dark mutter, yet somehow still manage to echo, long after heâs out of sight.
Steve avoids meeting the silent spectatorâs eye and just says, âDid Will ever getâ angryâ like this? Or El?â
When Jonathan doesnât answer, Steve sighs again and adds, âForget it. Itâs not the same thing; I know that. Iâm sorry.â
But to his surprise, after a moment, Jonathan says, âWill? I guess, sometimes. Mostly at himself though. He never really shut us out, though. Not like this. Thatâs gottaââ he breaks off.Â
Guess Steve canât blame him for not wasting words on the obvious. âAnd El?â
âWell, she hit a girl with a roller skate for talking shit about Hopper one too many times, so yeah, I think she was angry. It took a really long time for that to start breaking through, though. Iâm not sure how much she trusted that we really were her family at first. And that we werenât gonna, like, abandon her at a fire station the first time things got rough.â
âSo⊠youâre saying that Henderson being a dickhead every five minutes is actually a good thing?â
âWell, deep down, he probably knows youâll be here no matter what. So, yeah, that part is promising.â Jonathan swallows. âI was angry. At Hopper, yâknow, for⊠âdying.â Well, âangryâ is a mild way of putting it. It took all my self control not to drive out to his cabin in the middle of the night and scream at his ghost or whatever.â He drops his gaze, fiddling with the frayed hem of his sleeve.Â
But Eddie is, like, the only one Dustin isnât mad at. Where is this going?
Jonathan continues, âBecause Bobâ got killed. Lonnie was useless on his best days. But Hopper? Hopper was supposed to be the one I could count on to be there for my mom and Will, no matter what. No matter if it was Demogorgons, or booze, or pills, or whatever, I was so sure that none of that could ever stop him. And then there was El. Thisâ this little girl who had already lost everything, over and over and over. How could he go and die on her? On all of them? I knew it was stupid and irrational  but I was just so pissed that he left them like that.â Jonathan lets out a bitter laugh, as the outrage over his familyâs long suffering starts to flare up. âAnd that he left me, too. Thatâs the thingâ there was also a little selfish and asshole-y part of me that was angry because I knew I wasnât going to be able to go away for college anymore. I spent most of my life counting down to those four years when I could be away from my familyâs crap but not actually have to deal with the misery of the real world yet. And then just like that, it was gone.â
Steve doesnât know how to respond. Heâs willing to bet a couple of major organs that Jonathan has never said any of this out loud before. Not even to Nancy. All he can say is, âThat doesnât make you an asshole. It means youâre⊠normal.â
âWow, Steve Harrington just called me normal.â But thereâs briefly amusement in Jonathanâs tone before it turns more serious. âLook, the point is, I think maybe, Dustin is dealing with something like that right now. Maybe thereâs this little voice in his head telling him âat least it wasnât Steve.â And thatâs the real reason heâs in such a rage.â
Holy fuckinâ Hell. Steve sits with that for a moment, not sure if he believes that, though. It wasnât even that Eddie was into all the weird dragons and magic shit that Dustin loved so much. Itâs that Eddie was the one who was there at school when Dustin was. He was the one who kept Dustin from getting pushed around too much⊠all while Steve was stuck in his pathetic, dead end job.
Steve tilts his head up, suddenly discovering that the ceiling is absolutely fascinating. Jonathan shared what might be his darkest secret⊠Steveâs conscience, which often sounds suspiciously like Robin, says that he should at least try to reciprocate. âI really am sorry, you know. For all that shit I said after Wonâtâs funeral.â
ââWonâtâs funeral?ââ
âOh. Thatâs, uh,â âSteve resigns himself to spending the rest of his stupid life looking up at this stupid ceilingââwhat Robin calls the fake Will that Brenner had chucked in the quarry. You know, âwill and wonât.ââ
A puff of air escapes from Jonathan despite himself. Maybe itâs safe for Steve to look down again.Â
âI wake up at two AM sometimes and think about what Iâd do if someone said something like that about Dustinâ or any of those kids, including Willâ to me now and I hate myself all over again for being such a prick.â
A beat.
âWell, if you didnât say that stuff, you wouldnât have come over to my house to apologize and Nancy and I would have been Demo food. Even if we werenât, we definitely would have gotten run over by flayed Billy in the parking lot of the mall that time, so⊠uh, yeah. Weâre good, man.âÂ
A little bit of the weight in the back of Steveâs mind lifts. âThanks.âÂ
The Duffers Ended Up Doing Exactly What They Tried So Hard to Avoid. And in the Worst Way
When I found out that Stranger Things was originally pitched as a mini series with the door left open for a sequel to revisit the characters again ten years later, soooo many of the issues in the last half of the show became clear:
The characters whoâve been sidelined and/or awkwardly stalled were obviously the ones with endgames the Duffers were heavily attached to and were afraid theyâd develop too far away from. And sure enough, however awkwardly, characters like Joyce, Hopper, and Jonathan finally got where theyâve been needing to go for, like, ever in the final episode. Well, for the most part.
But Mike and especially El is where they went so terribly, terribly wrong. Both characters were in a rut of sorts for the last couple of seasons as well, but the thing is⊠the âdamageâ was already long done. The moment Hopper adopted El, the idea that she was simply a symbol of childhood magic was over.
To make things worse, they went on to have her and Mike become real boyfriend/girlfriend. For Max, Dustin, and Lucas to become her very best friends. For Will and Jonathan to be her brothers. For Joyce to be her mom. For half a damn decade. She has built her home with her parents, brothers, besties, and her boyfriend.
If she spent season 2 hiding out with Doc Owens before moving back home with Becky and Terry, then that idea could have worked. If she stayed someone who only sporadically came back to Hawkins when need was greatest, it could have felt more like the Pevensie children and Narnia. Itâs not bittersweet to have âET go homeâ when she has no other home. It just feels hollow and forced at best, downright cruel at worst.
For Hopper, obviously he was originally supposed to get a second chance at fatherhood with Joyceâs boys. And while they do manage to scrape that out a bit in the epilogue, itâs too little too late. He barely spent time with them after the first two seasons, so they almost feel like a consolation prize after losing El. đ€ą
If you look at whatâs been released of the Duffersâ original Montauk pitch, I think itâs likely the party would have grown up mostly okay, with their memories of El somewhat dimming as adulthood rationality and doubt crept in. Will, who already suffered a lot, would have been spared grieving her because they never met. Mike would have gained confidence and found a nice girl (Jennifer Hayes, since he was originally going to have a crush on her?) and go on to become a writer and immortalize El in his fiction. As it stands, thereâs a huge wound that will never quite close for any of them. There isnât any chance in hell their relationships with her become a wistful childhood memory. No nights staying up late to debate about how real or imaginary she really was. Just an empty chair at their table where she should have been.
Iâm not that mad because itâs ridiculously easy enough to imagine how they all reunite with her in a couple of years. Not to mention I donât give even the vaguest, slightest fuck what the Duffers say in interviews about the charactersâ futures beyond whatâs shown on screen. But still, so much of the middle seasons suffered because they tried so hard to keep certain characters in predestined boxes. So the fact that they just screwed up so spectacularly with arguably their two main characters is just... I donât even have the words. Itâd be almost funny if it wasnât so frustrating and disappointing.
Um, excuse me, Netflix, but the after credits scene for Stranger Things where Doctor Owens drops by Jopperâs new house with a birth certificate/social security number for Joyceâs niece, Elle Maldonado, appears to be missing.
Stranger Things season 5 Volume II spoilers under the cut:
Ok. Disrespect only partially intended, but what the actual fuck.Â
Jancy isnât even my favorite ship for this series but I always loved and appreciated the way the characters were set up to compliment each other without feeling overly codependent: each was strong in areas the other was weak and they absolutely LOVED those qualities in each other. To the point where they literally spell that out to their friends in the first episode of season 4. Between that and âthe Montauk Bibleâ (essentially the original first draft of season 1) where Jonathanâs and Nancyâs little character summaries are entirely their the backstories + how they fall in love instead of where they fit into the main plot, Jancy always screamed âDuffer Brothersâ OTP/their teenage wish fulfillmentâ to me.Â
So I could tolerate the poorly written angst these past two seasons because I figured either Netflix demanded some Babysitter/Nancy scenes or because the Duffers were afraid of pulling a How I Met Your Mother and letting characters develop too far beyond what they wanted the endgame to be⊠I assumed that theyâd knock it out of the park in the last half of the final season.
But this? Aside from executive meddling, I canât understand why theyâre going this route in the eleventh hour. Especially so⊠pretty⊠with both saying âI love youâ and sharing a spinny embrace with a dang engagement ring in the shot, not to mention that romantic theme playing.
Seriously, whyâ WHYâ  WhHHhYYyyYY have we had to sit through this painfully amateur and bullshitty love triangle just to get here?
If they did this at the end of season 3, we  could have seen Jonathan strive to do more things for himself without needing a push from Nancy while Nancy figured out how to deal with the real world without getting reality checks from Jonathan.
We couldâve seen Jonathan get some much needed parent time with both Joyce and Hopper and accept that his family will be okay without him, leaving him free to chase his dreams without guilt.
We could have seen Nancy have to parent her younger siblings while Ted and Karen recovered, and learn that life isnât as simple as school, where all you need to do is work hard and show initiative.Â
In season 4, we could have had Nancy and Babysitter have some curiosity about what a relationship would be like with these versions of themselves⊠only to realize it feels beyond wrong when they try to act on it⊠kinda like Damien and Janice in Mean Girls but less silly.
Then in season 5, we could have had Jonathan and Babysitter develop a real friendship. We could have even had Jonathan give some advice to Babysitter about how to handle your little brotherâs PTSD.
Jonathan and Nancyâs near death experience could have led to reminiscing  that would establish a true friendship without any bitterness or awkwardness⊠and at least open the door to a reunion.
But no. Why build Jonathan and Nancy up as individuals when you can drag them down (along with Babysitter) and regress/majorly stall their character development?? Why carry out soooo many terrible writing decisions that would only be justifiable if they were desperately trying to avoid a breakupâŠif theyâre going to break up?? Even if itâs just until the epilogue?
Like, theyâre seriously going to frame this as âJonathan and Nancy need to learn how to be independentâ when all theyâve done the past two seasons is show how much worse off J and N are when theyâre apart/out of sync?
Me, thinking about how Nancyâs family would be a little less scandalized by the idea of her moving to a big city with Jonathan if they were at least engaged.
Stranger Things AU where Ted and Karen have been clued in, so Ted has to fight every overtired dad instinct to tell Holly to run and turn the thermostat up as high as it will go, making the demogorgon slow and weak enough for him and Karen to shove into the oven.
I was having a perfectly near tolerable day and then I thought about Dustin waking up early every Saturday to see Uncle Wayne, the same way Nancy had weekly dinners with Barbâs family.
File this one under âstill hate this website since the garbage search system but this blog is the archive of my obsessions and this needs to be here.â Anyway.
Overall thoughts: First several pages were painful.  Like, I couldnât help but picture an SNL skit where Jennifer Lawrence makes fun of Woody from Cheers.Â
But then the first chapter ended on a plot twist/cliffhanger and it REALLY picked up from there. It had its issues but overall,  I loved it.
True reaction with all the spoilers under the cut:
The GoodÂ
No bullshit love triangles. Hallelujah. đ„č
Haymitch chugging all the milk just so that he could tell Snow there wasnât any. Absolute legend.Â
This made a decent effort to help bridge The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and the original trilogy. A few elements in Ballad felt weird and disconnectedâespecially the Covey who seemed like they were abducted from an entirely different book that Collins couldnât ever get around to writingâ so it was nice to get hints at how certain things evolved over the decades.Â
Ballad was basically anti-fan service. And while it was bold as hell, and I have a lot of respect for it⊠I just⊠couldnât really care about Snow and Lucy G that much. I had fun reading the book, but I doubt Iâll ever pick it up again. Didnât even bother with the movie.Â
Meanwhile, Sunrise is fan service galore and honestly, I donât even care. I absolutely love these characters and I was thrilled to see them again⊠for the most part. For some reason, I did think Effie was a little too far.  Maybe because she felt slightly more Elizabeth Banks than Suzanne Collins to me. But oh well. This book appealed to my heart in a way that Ballad didnât/couldnât/wouldnât and itâs something Iâve needed for a very long time.
So much nostalgia. I was nineteen when I first read the original series. Iâm almost 34 now! Holy crap. It truly took me back to when books were more likely to be magical instead of a mediocre chore.Â
Collins continues to deliver high quality snark and deadpan sarcastic comments.
She also continues to find new ways to horrify me and destroy my emotions. Dang.
I truly am impressed with how fast paced and suspenseful it was, especially considering we largely knew how it ended. I thought Haymitch being illegally picked for the games was especially great. The stuff with Louella McCoy and Lou Lou broke both my brain and my heart.
Ugh, the other tributes. I loved them so much, even though I tried not to because I knew they were doomed. Maysilee is my queen. 𫥠I canât talk about the others yet. đđ Except I will say that I am totally that Charlie Day conspiracy meme trying to make it so that Ampert was smuggled out alive.
The Bad
Like The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Sunrise on the Reaping feels like a massive retcon.  Itâs downright insulting to ask us to believe no one even vaguely referenced any of this to Katniss. Okay, most of them are traumatized to hell and would not want to ever speak about it. But what about Plutarch?? Effie?? Nothing about Haymitch EVER from Burdock or Asterid before he died and she shut down? Or even Katniss seeing some weird looks between Mom and Mentor? No comment from Caesar on Beetee having to be in the 3rd Quarter Quell when his son was in the second?? Katniss and Peeta watched all that old footage and never noticed? Justice for Ampert!
I also donât believe for one second that Snow would have tolerated that level of fuckery from Haymitch. In Catching Fire, it felt like barely more than luck that Haymitch was able to turn a bug into a feature (Sunrise reinforced that), and Snow going on such a rampage about something borderline innocent is what made it so terrifying⊠the idea that Haymitch was secretly scheming with Beetee and Plutarch and trying to blow shit up (well, drown it) completely wrecked that.
âŠit also felt like Collins was trying too hard to recreate the vibe of Catching Fire/the 3rd Quarter Quell and it just wasnât needed.
Beyond annoyed at Plutarch being a rebel from the start. Maybe itâd be too much like (movie) Effie if he managed a friendship with Haymitch and slowly had his eyes opened but it would have been way more believable. And interesting.
I canât help but think this was a missed opportunity to be more of a grownup book, mostly focused on adult Haymitch dealing with Mentor life. It would have made the Quell less focal and minimized the retcon. Also, being able to space stuff out in flashbacks might have made deaths more impactful. Like, I pretty much got numbed to the horror, so the loss of his family and LD didnât hit that hard. Probably wouldnât have hit at all if their deaths werenât so fucked up.Â
The Ugly
I absolutely hated most of the new names from Ballad, and these werenât much better. At least in the original, some unfortunate first names still paired well with their last names and had a nice ring to them. Covey names in particular are just cruel. I love the symbolism and all, but their names are so incredibly awkward to say and sound ridiculously, hilariously awful. I canât take them seriously.Â
I also kept misreading Ampert as Armpit đ„ŽÂ  and Magno as Magneto. đ€Ł
Oh, great. Another teenage couple going on about how they donât want to live without each other. Barf. She was a blah character (points for being less fan fic-y and way less cringy than LG) and their relationship was meh.
 I can appreciate Collins wanting LD to be more than just âa girlfriendâ but it came at the expense of Haymitchâs character and itâs not like we didnât have Mags, Wiress, Maysilee, Wellie, etc.
The Mixed Feelings
Katnissâ parents finally have names. Which is awesome, but Iâve imagined Arum (plant with arrow shaped leaves) and Rosemary (a symbol of remembrance and mourning) for so long, itâs hard to let go.
I am⊠equally impressed and annoyed by how loudly Collins said, âfuck your Haymitch shipsâ and set them on fire. As thrilled as I was to be free of terrible love triangles, it still seemed unnecessary and forced. I mean, I mostly like Haysilee in an AU way and I probably wouldnât be Hayffie trash if it werenât for the movies⊠but seriously? Haymitch calling Maysilee âSisâ and Effie being a full on adult and spending time with Haymitch when heâs only sixteen? Sure, I think the original series implied that sixteen is âage of consentâ in Panem but stillâŠ
I can appreciate standing up to shippers, but it felt almost spiteful considering how much fan service there was.I might just be sensitive because Ballad felt like it took several shots at Everthrone just for funsies.
Okay, I wouldnât have minded the âfake outsâ if they didnât do this shit.Â
Their lives paralleled/connected from literally day one, despite being born on different continents. You canât do that to those of us obsessed with names and etymology, okay? đ«
Quick note: Iâm not back; Iâve got too much to deal with but I figured itâs only fair I post my thoughts about Stranger Things 4 volume II since I shared part one. I also might have a couple of jokes/shit posts to make if I can summon the energy in the next few days.Â
Anywayâ
Whew đ What a ride. Overall, an incredibly epic finale for a mostly spectacular season. But. WellâŠÂ shit happens, doesnât it? And crappy, forced love triangles are the worst. Spoilers, obviously.
The Good
First of all: Eddie. Eddie. EDDIE. Â
 I originally thought he was going to play a song to save Nancy from Vecna. But when the longer volume ii trailer made it clear that Nancyâs capture was only temporary, I thought for sure heâd play Master of Puppets aka the original title of episode nine. I was soo hyped. Then when the episode dropped and they changed the title, I thought there must have been a last minute issue with the rights or something and I was bummed. When it started playing, I nearly levitated with excitement. âThis is for you, Chrissy.â đ„ș I also love that he and Dustin got to have a moment afterwards to just fanboy together.Â
When he cut the sheets down and stayed in the Upside Down after Dustin was safe, I had Finnick flashbacks from The Hunger Games. Glad he got to have a proper fight scene and final words. I really would have lost it if he just got engulfed by monsters and vanished.
I knew he was gonna die but honestly, I thought theyâd try to soften the blow/make it a little lighter by having Eddie sacrifice himself for Steve and crack a few self deprecating jokes along the way. But when he told Dustin to ânever changeâ I said, âOh, noâ out loud. I knew then they werenât going to show mercy so I did my best to prepare myself. It was beautifully done and I got teary eyed, especially when When Itâs Cold Iâd Like to Die started playing. But Dustin talking to Eddieâs uncle made me sob. I was not expecting any of that. Ugliest of ugly cries, okay?
Bonus points for a truly heartfelt, non-joking exchange of platonic âI love yousâ between two young men.Â
I definitely understand why some are angry that Eddieâs name wasnât cleared but tragedy is part of his character⊠And thereâs also a really powerful messageâ Eddie did things his way and he did them for himself and the people he loved. He found what made him happy and didnât care what anyone else thought. He never once succumbed to âmight as well be bad since everyone already assumes it anyway.â He never stopped reaching out to lost sheep. Not to get all evangelical or anything, but Eddie was a true shepherd of the Lord; despite being branded as a devil, Eddie was more righteous than his âgodlyâ neighbors, many of whom were more concerned about appearances than actual good. Eddie saved Dustin, did what he could to avenge Chrissy, and was metal AF until the end. Thatâs what was important to him, not what a bunch of strangers thought. I know that he and Chrissy are at their picnic table in the sky, living their best afterlives while they wait for Uncle Wayne and the rest of Hellfire. Thatâs what matters.
The world would be a better place if we were all a little more like Eddie Munson. And music would be better.
And if Hawkins is really getting introduced to Upside Down monsters and whatnot, thereâs still hope for Eddie to get the recognition he deserves⊠fingers crossed.Â
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I was expecting the body count to be higher⊠thought Argyle might have to go to give Jonathan and Nancy some more shared trauma. Or Dmitri would die with his son thinking he was a traitor or maybe Murray would volunteer to be a decoy or something. But Iâm glad they kept it lower. I thinkâ especially in this showâ itâs more effective to have only one really heartbreaking death at a time rather than a slew of moderately sad ones.Â
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Once again: Max. Lucas. Lumax. đ Iâve been trash for these two since day one but this season went above and beyond a billion times over.Â
Lucas asking Max if he was in her happiest memory. And the season two throwback. âPresumptuous.â
Widdle Max at the skate park was too cute for words!
Maxâs selfless bravery while Lucas tried so hard to come up with an alternative.
Passing notes. The movie date drawing.Â
The scene. You know what Iâm talking about. All the awards for Sadie and Caleb. All. Of. Them.
The parallel to season 1 with Sarah dying and Hopper reviving Will with Eddie dying and El reviving Max while When Itâs Cold played. BRB once I salvage my heart after it went through this cheese grater.
Like with Joyce and Hopper, Lucas and Max have a date they need to get to. Surely a good sign.
â-â-
Music in general was especially great in these last two episodes. Separate Ways! Erica, Lucas, and Max stepping off the RV with each âyouâ in the song was so good. The versions of Dream a Little Dream of Me at the Snow Ball will haunt me forever. Running Up That Hill was incredible once again. I love that it was originally Max centered but it extended to the rest of the characters.Â
Itâs a perfect foil to Vecnaâ his army is all one because theyâre his puppets, while our heroes are one unit because they love each other and care about others. Â
ââ
SteveÂ
Him wanting a big family to go on road trips with. đ„č Heâs really the only one without any siblings besides Dustin (who has a very loving mother plus several pets). Iâve long headcanoned Steve as a lonely-ish latchkey kid and finding out that he grew up wanting a bunch of little ones someday hit me right in the feels.Â
His friendship with Robin has somehow reached new heights of adorable. The way he was just so happy for her and Vickie... Precious.Â
Glad heâs rabies/infection free and his face was spared for once.
ââ
Robinâs character was a little wobbly for me this season but at the end of the day, I was happy. I loved her talk with Steve; Iâd been missing their friendship after 4x02. Her hand on his back after Jonathan and Nancy reunited was subtle but so sweet. Robin and Vickie were very cute together. Plus, their ship name is Rockie (edited, eff you autocorrect). How awesome is that??Â
â-
A proper Will/Jonathan/Joyce hug. I always felt like thereâs a rule somewhere that only two Byers are allowed to be emotional together at a time and itâs been a huge pet peeve of mine.
â-
Will!! I thought I heard somewhere that he filmed a scene with a harness so I was worried Vecna would try something. Glad he got a (at least supernatural) break this season.
His speech to Mike and the painting. Maybe a little cheesy but in a good, very â80s movie way.Â
His love for El. That hug was exactly what I needed between the two of them.Â
I know how badly this situation hurts him and Iâm so proud of him for how heâs handling it. Plenty of grown-ass adults could learn a thing or two from Will.Â
âââ
Jonathan back in Big Bro mode. That scene was so sweet. I really like that Jonathan didnât push Will to share or try to pry. Just said exactly what Will needed to hear.Â
âââ
Speaking of siblings, Erica and Lucas were so adorable. The spear scene. The way she tried to save him from Jason even though sheâs tiny and middle schooly. How she wonât leave his side at the hospital.Â
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Mike and El. My emotions. The pizza box goggles/ âtry before you deny bitâ was so cute. I had high expectations for his first âI love youâ and damn, did they deliver.Â
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El and Hopper reuniting. It really got to me. But my grandfather passed away almost a year ago, so when I watched it again with my mom, we both lost it ( but in a really good way)
âââ
Murray with that flamethrower was badass as fuck and kinda hilarious at the same time. I loved it.
âââ-
I think they did a great job balancing the darker stuff with comic relief in these last two episodes. Some of it felt forced earlier in the season to me.Â
ââ
Joyce and Hopper finally kissed! đÂ
Breadsticks and lasagna!Â
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It wasnât quite what I wanted, but overall, Iâd say I like what they did with Brenner. They humanized him enough to make him interesting but they didnât try to brush all his shit under the rug. It was a good mix of El caring about himâ and in a way that said more about El than himâ but not forgiving him or excusing him either.Â
âââ-
Dmitri and Yuriâs scene was unexpected and really nice. I saw a few people saying it was too easy but câmon. This wasnât âhey, you remember what itâs like to be good. So stop being a dick.â It was âholy shit, literal monsters are going to literally EAT! US! ALL! This so not the time to be a douche.â
âââ-
Jason was⊠interesting. I guess I like that that he didnât totally fall into the usual tropes. He was neither entirely âwell meaning but misguidedâ or purely âhe who hunts monsters...â When he went full asshole on Nancy, I thought he was totally over the edge. But then he seemed genuinely concerned for Max. I liked seeing that bit of humanity still there, even though he ultimately couldnât reach into it enough to see the light. While horrific, I like the way his death symbolized the way heâd been torn apart by Upside Down-ness. Â
His death made me realize I have an inner momma bear. I had felt very bad for himâ his girlfriend and one of his besties died in such horrible, unholy ways. Thatâd mess anyone up. But once I got over the shock of how he died, I was just kinda like, âYeah, let that be a lesson to anyone who lays a hand on my babies.âÂ
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I really liked having a brief break between episodes. I think Eddie struck more of a chord with me than Barb, Bob, and Alexei because I got to know him for longer than a day or two.Â
âââ-
Doctor Owens. First of all: What a BAMF. Standing up to Brenner for El, trying to protect her from Sullivan. I really like that he strives to balance his teleological, âgreater goodâ mindset with sensitivity and consideration. He wants El to be his teammate rather than a mere means to an endâ a lab rat or a weapon.
âââ
The Mind Flayer. Yessss. I got chills and said holy shit out loud when young Henry drew it.
Sometimes, you gotta wholeheartedly embrace the tropes outright. And Hopper literally slaying the monster with a sword was fantastic.
âââ-
Karen telling Mike he couldnât have any more vacations or go to college. Haha.
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Jonathan and Nancyâs reunion. Still not happy about all the messiness but âkiss on the foreheadâ is my favorite. đ„°
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Mike and Hopper being on good terms again.Â
âââ
Are Hopper and Joyce and the kids just gonna live off the grid at the cabin? Iâm super excited if that means they stay in Hawkins again.Â
âââ
Shout out to Jamie Campbell Bower to his commitment to Vecna; spending hours getting covered in prosthetics and locating whatever depths of hell he pulled his Vecna voice out of. It adds so much to the character that we can see Henry/One in Vecnaâs eyes and body language.
âââ
I donât usually like when âall hell breaks looseâ and the secret stuff gets out in the open. However, I think this show can pull it offâŠÂ
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I feel a little more confident that this show isnât actually going to hurl itself down the fan service cliff. đ
The Bad
This really isnât anyoneâs fault but one reason why I love Steve so much is because he reminds me sooo much of my brother. However, in the last couple of years, Joe Keery at certain angles (especially his eyes) has started to remind me of my husband. Steveâs battle clothes were a lot closer to my husbandâs style than Steveâs usual outfits which REALLY amplified it. So yeah, shit got distractingly weird for me a few times and I definitely could have lived the rest of my life without knowing what itâd look like if my husband and brother had a Freaky Friday thing. Haha.
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I REALLY wanna know what the hell exactly has Mike told his parents about El. Is it some version of the âofficialâ story? That Hopper had an affair when he was married and El is his daughter and she was visiting him in secret when Mike stumbled on her in the woods and fell hopelessly in love with her? Something else? Have his parents met El? Why is this curiosity door to potential comedic gold still closed? Picture El and Ted having a blank faced staring contest.
That reminds me⊠No cameo from Mr. Clark. đ
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Is Doctor Owens okay??? Is he still handcuffed to a pole in the desert?
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Um, I donât like how blatantly cliffhangery the ending is. There has always been an unsettling element to the endings but there was enough peace/closure that the hiatuses were more bearable. Weâre looking at fall of â23 at the most outrageously optimistic earliest and I dunno⊠just feels a bit shitty. Itâs not like they needed to fish for renewalâŠ
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Definitely sad we didnât see a Hopper/Byers family group hug. I also wanted El to call Hopper âdad.â
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Eddieâs death did feel a little stand-in-ish for Steve. I donât know if they were just piggybacking (see what I did there?) on his bond with Dustin or if they were just trolling, or if itâs a hint that maybe they did wanna kill him off and Netflix said no. Well, just in case, Iâd like to thank all the millions of people whoâve canceled their Netflix subscriptions in the last couple of years. You might have saved Steve.
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I have a lot of feelings about the state Max is left in. I mean, I really, really donât want this show to get too dark and given the way her journey has been a metaphor for depression, I feel like itâs extremely fucked upâ borderline irresponsibleâ if she doesnât come back from this. And I am fairly confident that she and Lucas will have their movie night. But I also feel like if theyâre going to prolong the ambiguity of her fate in this way, there should be some kind of long term consequences? Â
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It felt kinda lazy not to have more downtime between the earthquake and the shit storm. A convenient way to avoid Nancy and Jonathan having a good talk and Maxâs prognosis for sure.Â
The Ugly The Absolute Shit-Hideous
Same song as part one but different verse:
Why, oh, why are they prolonging this bullshit love triangle? Yes, there was a recurring theme of mirroring season one and it could have been decent-ish. But this was just crap. Incredibly lazy, contrived crap. Iâm torn between thinking they really do need to fix it next season and hoping that the (from what I can tell) generally negative reception will make them drop it.
Having Steve confess his feelings started to tip me into despairâ he hadnât really done anything âwrongâ this season in that regard until that moment. But then just as quickly, I started seeing light at the end of the tunnel:
Robin interrupted S/N having a moment with âlooks like we werenât going the wrong way after allâÂ
Nancy donating yet more old things from her pre-Upside Down life⊠including Mr. Rabbit whoâll âbe more loved in a new home.â My mom and I affectionately call Steve âharebrainâ sometimes (both for âhairâ and because Hare-rington) so that rabbity connection jumped out at us.
Then the way she looked at Jonathan when he reappeared. Like Steve didnât even exist anymore. Which Steve definitely noticed and was pretty damn brutal. Are we really supposed to pretend that anyone thinks that kinda thing is shippable? Â
**Or that Nancy could be happy with a small army of children and most likely no career??? Or how clearly Steve wants someone to laugh at dumb muppet jokes with him (and Robin and Vickie.) I donât see Nancy completing that adorkable foursome any more than I see her signing up for more than one or two babies.Â
After Robin and Vickie had their moment, I kept waiting for one of Vickieâs friends to appear next to Steve and throw out there that sheâs glad Vickie and Dan broke up because he always reminded her of Big Bird or something but nooo. Then they had to have Jonathan and Nancy once again avoid their problems.
All three of them traumatized as hell, plus we really only see them in life or death situations and that is the only reason I can give them a pass. In normal circumstances, theyâd be kinda assholey.
I get that writing established couples sucks but there are so many more original paths to take. I also get that executive meddling is a thing and maybe theyâre the ones pushing this crap. But in that case, you take pride in your work and respect your audience and your characters and you at least strive to make it understandable/believable. You do not do⊠this.Â
The worst part about this whole storyline is that it doesnât feel like they even care enough about it to waste even the slightest bit of brain power on it.
Like, why couldnât Jonathan and Nancy have agreed at Christmas to âhit pauseâ and then reevaluate when they reunited at spring break? It would have made way more sense that Jonathan going MIA freaked her out so much.Â
Or at the very least, couldnât Steve and Nancy have a scene together before the trailer park so this shit didnât feel so out of left field? She could have run into him while he was picking Robin up from school. Steve could have asked about Jonathan and Nancy could have admitted that things were rocky and Steve coulda told her how if she can help him learn to âcrawl forward,â she can surely help Jonathan fly. Or she could have opened up about how afraid she is to leave home next year.
Something.
Instead, they just took advantage of the fact that Jonathanâs life was really painful even before/without monsters and hell dimensions, Nancy has a history of bottling things up until she bursts, and Steve has a fantastic âpuppy thatâs just been kickedâ expression.
It also seemed like they knew it was kinda icky for Nancy to have all these moments with Steve so they tried too hard to make her perfect in every other way, and it frequently came at the expense of other characters (especially Robin becoming a âsuper klutzâ after an entire season of playing it cool).
 Ah, fuck it, Iâll just come right out with it: Lucas should have been the one Vecna chose to deliver the message to El. For multiple reasons: revenge for taking Max back from the curse, heâs not only closer to El than Nancy is, it highlights how much their friendship has grown since the initial strained days in season one; itâs so fitting with Running Up that Hill and asking God to trade places with someone else in order to better understand them. đđÂ
TL;DR
I mostly loved it. This is by far the most emotional experience Iâve had with Stranger Things, and in fact, any show in a good two or three years. There were a few surprises and most of them were pleasant ones. Theyâve continued with their trend of taking familiar tropes and adding unique twists. But I dislike how much they left unresolved before a very long hiatus. Also, love triangles are still garbage, especially when they crap all over multiple characters and eat up screen time that could have gone to more interesting possibilities.
I was so sure the show was littered with subtext-y stuff about how Kevin and Madison where Miguel and Rebecca 2.0 while Randall and Beth were Jack and Rebecca 2.0.
And that Kevin and his ex-wife were too much of a horrible, toxic dumpster fire to ever have a shot at anything remotely happy or healthy.
And well⊠Thatâs not how it ended up. Haha. I havenât been that taken aback by anything in well over a decade.
Keep in mind, Iâm someone who watched Game of Thrones season 8 and while everyone was foaming at the mouth in rage, I was like, âWow, this is actually kind of awesome. Theyâre handling, like, 75% of this waaaaay better than I thought they would.â đ€Ł
Same anon, all about Steve, no shame. What do you think was in Maxâs letter to him?
Haha, nothing wrong with that.
Congrats. Youâve inspired me! đ
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Steve,
Just taking a few of my last minutes in this world to tell you thanks for all those times you snuck us into the movie theater last summer. I got to see a couple of R-rated movies and save some money so that was pretty cool.
Oh. Is it still too soon to joke?
In all seriousness, I do want to thank you. Thank you for standing up for us, which made me brave enough to stand up for myself. Sorry your face had to get pounded first, though.Â
Thank you for coming to our rescue from creepy vines, demodogs, and giant human meat spiders. And I guess for being a pretty good getaway driver yesterday.
Thank you for letting me hide at Family Video when Mom and Neil fought. For letting me watch movies in peace there without ever bugging me about Sharing My Feelings. And thanks for driving me back from the arcade (when I still bothered going) when my mom forgot me or she couldnât drive.
Thank you for going to Lucasâ games. I just canât face it and I know what it means to him to have someone there who actually gives a shit about basketball.
And⊠I know it was you who started mowing the lawn and other stuff like that for us after I broke up with Lucas. I know it was you who helped my mom with all the heavy furniture when we moved. All of that, even though it meant you had to tell her it was because you were friends with Billy. Which⊠really must have sucked.
I wonât insult you by asking you to look after the boys. And El, if the Byers ever come back somehow. I know you will. But I was wondering⊠would you mind checking up on my mom from time to time? If she doesnât flee this shithole, that is. I know itâs a lot to ask but Iâm sure you get why Lucas, Dustin, or Mike arenât an option. Even if it wasnât too far on their bikes, I donât want them to see my mom like that and she wouldnât want them to see her, either.Â
Iâm not saying you still have to do yard work or have afternoon tea with her every Sunday. You can even just call a couple times a month to make sure she answers the phone or that Vecna isnât after her next.
Just before my mom married Neil and I actually got to know Billy, I used to imagine what having a big brother would be like.  Iâm sure you can guess that reality didnât exactly match my expectations. At least, not until I met you.Â
Youâre a really good guy, Steve. Iâm sorry I wasnât ever able to say any of this to your face. But I really suck at this kind of thing. If I tried, I probably would have just ended up calling you an idiot or something. But I donât think youâre an idiot. I actually think youâre a lot smarter than we tend to give you credit for.Â
I know things have been weird for you for awhile, but I know youâre going to find your way.
âMax
PS: Iâm counting on you to step up and fill the sarcastic void I will leave behind. Donât let me down. I. Will. Be watching.  đ»Â
Thank you for giving me hope that my future might not include either Steve dying or st-ncy. Lol. I canât stand either one.
Youâre welcome. And same. After a second watch, I feel either one is even more unlikely.
However, Iâll admit I was recently spectacularly wrong about something in This is Us. Which is so, so rare for me that Iâm still reeling. Haha. So my confidence is a bit shaken, which is the only reason I even have any doubt at all. But still.
The Duffers always say how they wanted all this super dark stuff to happen but then they changed their minds or whatever. Which either means they donât actually have the heart to put their characters/audience through anything too fucked up or Netflix wonât allow it. When it comes down to it, this is a show thatâs preteen friendly, albeit following the Don Bluth âjust make sure thereâs a happy endingâ way. Plus, it doubles as a comfort show for their Gen X parents. It seems weird to change the formula now. This show is expensive as hell; I doubt they wanna gamble too much. I could see them having more freedom with the final season but even then, Netflix wouldnât want too much risk to potential spin-offs/sequels, etc.
Plus, if Steve was gonna die, itâs more likely heâd be doing great in the Right Side Upâ practically engaged to someone as adorable as Chrissy, about to get a job he really loved, like teaching kidsâ swim classes or something. Thatâs how you pour salt in a wound and grind it in. They know that. See how happy Bob and Alexei were before they met their demises. đ
2. This showâs best aspect is how much it makes you care about the characters and their relationshipsâ romantic, platonic, or familial.
Itâs why we love their âred shirtsâ like Barb, Bob, Alexei, and even one offs like Benny and Chrissy. And theyâre a good trade to avoid having to kill off mains.Â
Theyâve done too good a job on romance in general on this show for me to buy S/N.
Theyâve highlighted multiple times, multiple ways why Jancy>S/N. Not even getting into Nancyâs interaction with either guy⊠in season 2, Steveâs advice to Dustin backfired by alienating him from Max and then Stacy shot him down. Nancy, now with Jonathan aka finally accepting True Love, is the one who makes Dustin feel better. Plus, they used the first episode of this season to reiterate that even when theyâre apart, Jonathan and Nancy are in sync.Â
The âworstâ (still far cry from outright bad) relationship on this show to me was Robin and Steve. As a romance, it felt very âwe must tick this box for the fansâ with too much tell and not enough show. However, on paper, Robin was perfect for himâ someone weird/dorky that he wouldnât have talked to a few years ago; a sort of offbeat type of pretty; more anchored than him but way more chill than Nancy, which would let him find his way at his own pace. Then, from a writing standpoint, having them turn out to just be friends was so blatantly pulled out of their asses it shouldâve been embarrassing⊠but it played out so sweet and pure, even the Grinch woulda thought it was cute.Â
The show sometimes fumbles intellectually and romantic Steve/Robin was one of the few times it missed the mark emotionally⊠but it has never, ever totally failed BOTH my brain and my heart the way S/N does.
I see people saying âitâs to make it sadder when Steve sacrifices himself to save her!â but why the hell would they chose her for that? Dustin is obviously where it would hurt the most. Theyâve spent three seasons on the two of them over the course of half a decadeâŠ
If I were the betting type, Iâd put my money on that theyâre setting up
Eddie to learn the Power of Friendship/ True Love Isnât Always Romantic and sacrifice himself for Steve. All the stuff about how heâd never save Steveâs ass and whatnot. I can already hear him saying, âLook, Iâm a falsely accused serial killer, dude. Iâm gonna spend my life banished⊠or imprisoned. You graduated high school the first time. You got a job that wouldnât horrify Nancy Reagan. Henderson needs you. Youâve got true love (gag). And I canNOT let Robin walk through Mordor only to come back to the Shire to work at Family Video⊠alone. Canât do it, man. Itâs just too shitty. Thereâs more for you to live for and Iâm tired of running.â I will say though, if anyone is metal enough to survive for a year in the Upside Down Jumanji style, itâd be Eddie.Â
Eddie has been a nice foil to Billy so far:
Similar taste in music and style but Billy kept it toned down and Eddie dialed it up to eleven (see what I did there?).
Similar hair but Billyâs was golden and Eddieâs is dark.
Billy was charming and manipulative and his pain made him a dick. Eddie is well meaning if off putting but itâs clear that his tough go of things has made him kinder.
Billy âlooked outâ for Max because his dad made him and possibly with a dash of some weird narcissistic type of loyalty. Eddie reached out to Dustin and Mike because he empathized with them. Â
Billy basically needed superpowered intervention to find his humanity. So maybe Eddie will embrace selfless on his own.Â
Plus thereâs that thing Robin said about her and Steve needing to âcombineâ which I hope means heâll talk to Vicki to see how she reacts to himâ a guyâthen try to see how she feels about Robin. âWhat if the three of us go to the movies and I stand you two up? Would that⊠be weird? đâ Â
2. Steve and Nancy need final confirmation that they do not want to settle/play it safe. Getting back with Nancy means Steve gets the responsible but soul crushing job with his dad and Nancy freelances a few fluffy articles about âlady thingsâ (if sheâs lucky) for the local paper before becoming a stay at home mom.
Nancy needs to leave Hawkins/her family because her life is too comfortable, while Jonathan needs to leave because his home is strangling him. And yet, staying will ensure neither of them will ever reach their full potential. Theyâre two sides of the same coin. Theyâve got the important things in common and their differences balance out. Leaving home together made it less scary. So I guess now they need to figure out that they must be at least willing to fly solo.
Steve could/will probably lead the comfy, unassuming suburban life, but heâs gotta go about it his way.Â
Steve and Nancy reuniting is comforting on some level because they at least know what that future looks like and parts of it are even really nice. When combined with a big dose of âwouldnât it be great to go back to the life where none of this crap existed?â, itâs not.. unreasonable⊠that these feelings are there.Â
But the show just reminded us that Nancy has a super fucking traumatic thing associated with dating Steve. Hell, that diary entry from â83 proves that even if Barb lived, her dislike of Steve and the way Nancy acted around him was always going to be a shadow over their relationship. Feels very poisoning the well-ish.Â
Even though their ~attraction~ (ew) is stemming from a similar place, itâs manifesting in each of them for polar opposite reasons. Nancy likes that Steve is physically present and can help her with things. But heâs not her partner in crime the way Jonathan is. And for Steve, he and Nancy have an emotional connectionâ they get along well plus the idea of kissing him doesnât squick her out. But heâs not comfortable truly being himself around her the way he is with Robin. Nancy knows what a proper, fulling relationship is and Steve has at least finally had a really good preview. How could they be content when they know what itâs like to have something so much better?
Theyâve implied a couple of times that Steve would be quite happy to be dating Robin. So I donât think theyâve forgotten that sheâs closer than Nancy to the type of girl who would be good for him. Iâm guessing they just donât wanna have to figure out how to write âhappy Steveâ or juggle another another established romance.
3. There might be an attempt at some allusion/subversion to King Kong? Ruth Rose (Nancyâs and Robinâs Pennhurst aliases) rewrote the messy draft of King Kong written by a dude named James Ashmore CREELman into the classic that it became. Thatâs one hell of a coincidence if it was not intentional. So maybe theyâll do the whole âAction Hero Man saves Beautiful Girl from a monsterâ thing and then add, â⊠but wait, that doesnât automatically mean theyâd actually be a good couple!â Or the famous line in that movie is âit was beauty that killed the beastâ so maybe it turns out Nancy ultimately somehow saves herself? Then again, it could have just been a little joke about Nancy finding sense in Creelâs nonsense⊠I donât know.
TL;DR: This show doesnât kill off lovable, long time main characters but if they were gonna kill Steve, I think itâd look very different: Heâd have finally gotten his life on track and if heâs taking a monster bite for anyone, it would be Dustin. And I cannot believe that the team that has brought us absolute perfection this season with Lumax is gonna offer up S/N in the same breath. Especially in such a spectacularly poorly written shit show. Nope.