NOTE: Some will have tags such as #conformitygate or #lovewinsgate. Those were added several months after I made these, but they fit the tag nonetheless (indicated as being added 'post-mortem'). I also have separate post highlighting several of the essays below.
Lead-Up to Volume 1 (S5)
Idea - Will is a Horcrux and what that means for ST5 (plot speculation)
Henry Hates Himself (Part 1 of 3) - Character Analysis
Henry Hates Himself (Part 2 of 3) - Comparison of similar Characters and Themes in Media
Henry Hates Himself (Part 3 of 3) - Plot Speculation
Lead-Up to Volume 2 (S5)
A Theory of Everything - Wrinkles, Wormholes, and the Upside Down
We Need to Talk About Dustin
Jancy is Bones and Jancy's Newspaper Juxtaposition in S4
The Seven Identities of Henry Creel
Kali, What are You Doing Here?
Parallels between Stranger Things and A Wrinkle in Time
Lead-Up to Volume 3 (S5)
How to defeat Vecna (Step-By-Step Guide): The Good Ending
How to Defeat Vecna (Step-By-Step Guide): The True Ending
Post-Volume 3 (S5)
A Comparative Analysis of Camazotz in Stranger Things and A Wrinkle in Time (1/3): Presentation
A Comparative Analysis of Camazotz in Stranger Things and A Wrinkle in Time (2/3): Motivation [REVISED]
A Comparative Analysis of Camazotz in Stranger Things and A Wrinkle in Time (3/3): The Hive Mind [REVISED]
A Comparative Analysis of Camazotz in Stranger Things and A Wrinkle in Time (4/3): Gods
I‘m telling you guys Steve and Mike have more things in common…
This show is about freaks and outcasts, about people who don’t fit into society or their standards and norms.
We have :
Will - a gay kid in the 80s plus living in the poor family with his «crazy» mother plus being a freak, a «Zombie boy». ( my son😭)
El - a girl with superpowers who constantly feels like she’s a monster, who doesn’t fit into society or their norms and she is even not familiar with them.
Max - a girl who doesn’t fit into gender roles in the 80s since she likes all «the boy stuff» such as skateboarding, arcade games and she prefers wearing pants instead of dresses or skirts. Plus living in a trailer park.
Lucas - black kid in a small town in the 80s. Do I have to explain further? We could only imagine what he has been gone trough. There is a reason he joined in that basketball team in s4. ( I hope we get more exploration of his character and that arc in new content)
Dustin - a kid with rare genetic condition called Cleidocranial dysplasia getting bullied for that and being a freak because of that.
Robin - lesbian in small town in the 80s. I guess that’s very telling.
Nancy - a woman who doesn’t want to and she doesn’t fit in gender roles that’s been put in their society. She knows how to use a gun, she has a voice, a leadership role.
Jonathan - a guy who already had an outcast position because of his family due to poorness and «crazy mother».
And now we have Steve and Mike…
And what do we have here?
Well they are both white, straight dudes, who were born in rich families. They are privileged on that level that they couldn’t understand struggles or what their friends been through.
I know that Mike‘s been bullied too but only because of his appearance and let’s be honest Mike is very attractive man ( thank you Finn) .
That’s all of course if we don’t look into subtext.
But if we look we see Mike as a very complex and well written character with his own struggles, bottled up feelings and urge to be saviour, to be useful, to be needed. We see him being in love with his male best friend and thinking his feelings could never be reciprocated because that said male best friend is definitely straight and keeps on insisting that they are best friends. We see him performing heterosexuality, we see him being afraid of who he is, we see a saviour guilt complex.
And what about Steve? So…what if I tell you that we could describe Steve in that way too. Performing his heterosexuality.
Being an asshole to the people who matter to us.
We don‘t know much about Steve honestly. We don’t know under what circumstances he‘s been raised, his true and honest feelings. And come on this love triangle is very trivial so that’s exactly why I think this «love triangle » is not exactly what we think it is.
So as Steve was performing in the first picture, so does Mike in the second one.
The Unrealized Characterization of Dustin Henderson (LONG Post)
🎂 Happy bday, my fictional dude! 🎂 Hope the cake is more thoroughly baked than your arc! 🎂 PSA: Henderhop sub-analysis lies within 🎂 DNI if it ain't your jam 🎂
This is not a Dustin hit piece! It's my long-winded, fully unnecessary dissertation on how my favorite character could've been even better developed. I intend for it to be a sort of master reference doc for my fic WIPs. Sharing since others expressed interest :)
BUILDING A DUSTIN: CHARACTER SET-UP
As early as midway through S1, we get an initial glimpse at Dustin's character beyond that of one-dimensional nerd. Curiously, I would say he and Lucas get the most nuanced depth out of the Party in these formative chapters, whereas Mike, Will, and El aren't as compelling in and of themselves until S2. And of course Lucas and Dustin get even more to work within their dynamic via Max. (I'm a frothing S2 truther, it's the criminally underrated season, fight me.)
Back to those establishing moments, though: Early on, of his own accord, Dustin explicitly self-assigns and accepts being the least important, least prioritized Party member. Even when Mike rejects the idea. He verbalizes it almost nonchalantly in S1E6 as he's already deduced it to be true, conceding, but not very convincingly when Mike argues back. And notably, this statement comes after another pivotal one where he's thrown himself into peacemaking mode, calling out Mike and Lucas for both acting recklessly and breaking up the unit.
But we see the passive acceptance begin to wane gradually.
Obviously in S2 there's direct interpersonal conflict with Lucas that enforces and magnifies these characteristics. If nothing else, love subplots are good for that. With regard to Max, Dustin abandons his pursuit when the "facts" become clear. He voluntarily recedes into a conciliatory social position again, going so far as to offer to remove himself from the Party entirely. Lucas doesn't even address this, instead refuting weakly the idea that Max could be called his "girlfriend". The scene ends with Dustin again showcasing his keen observation skills only to emphasize that even he picked up on the chemistry that Lucas himself didn't notice. Oof.
At the close of the season, he powers through with little bursts of projected confidence, but the multiple Snow Ball rejections are truly the kiss on the brick, my god. It's Steve having added some wind beneath his wings and Nancy's compassion acting as life preservers that prevent his struggles from being completely soul-crushing.
His pairing with Steve was brilliant for a lot of reasons, sure, but one of the most important functional aspects of the duo aside from insulating Dustin socially (unintentionally at first) in S2 specifically, is his presence propelling a larger internal and external perspective shift:
External: Providing Dustin with actionable advice/new social tactics that he can employ (albeit often questionable) + creating more "accountability" for him in plot and interpersonal conflicts.
Internal: Absolutely critical to the rest of the story, Dustin feels newly important and prioritized in a time of emotional need and without something being asked of him.
One bit of S2 discourse I find odd is people saying that Dustin keeping Dart was an out of character low-IQ moment. I could not disagree more. To me, that 100% tracked for a nerdy-to-a-fault-plus-lovesick kid who's main method of feeling worthy of friendship and attention up to that point is relying on his perceived book smarts.
It carries through to early S3 as well. In one of the opening scenes he's convinced— within about 5 seconds of being home and without a whole lot of evidence— that everyone's forgotten he's returned from camp. He's despondent about being left on the hill unable to prove Suzie's existence.
ABANDONED SCAFFOLDING
All told, we have the makings of some good, complex shit here, but as we trudge through the end of S3 and through to S4, it's like the parts got fumbled and dropped on the floor, then left for the ants because there were 8,000 other cast ensemble arcs and side plots being ferried around in chaos. There's little time for characterization amidst point A > point B hijinks and the government mandated quip quota.
My biggest frustration in a nutshell: There's a direct, unexplored Dustin throughline to be had across all his defining attributes, present within nearly every season:
His established flimsy sense of social standing and self-esteem
His aggressive tendency toward know-it-all-isms; clearly what self-esteem he does have comes from his big-braininess + satisfaction in being academically/technically correct about things, so this is a notably obnoxious, yet understandable reflex that he defaults to often to compensate for point 1
His heightened emotional intelligence and observational strengths
His perceived (and somewhat confirmed!) expendability to the Party beyond his intellectual usefulness
His propensity to latch on to older role models
The show had all the pieces there next to each other but didn't sufficiently connect them.
"But 'dett," you say, "that's all they do in S3 onward— pair up Dustin with Steve, Eddie, and older characters!" Well, yeah, and for all that time they spend forcing him out of his own friend group, they don't actually do anything with that contrast textually. Dustin doesn't have an astute realization connecting these attributes in himself, nor do events compel him to have a true reckoning where he confronts the Party or they confront him. @stranger-things-yapper has a similar and great (much more concise lol) text post on this with a little breakdown summarizing how such a dialogue could go. I agree that it could have seamlessly been folded into S3/S4.
S4 had the most potential with the mixed groupings, but most of it was still spent zoomed into Eddie, winding up to maximum damage for when his demise came due. They harp on "fun", quirky odd couple proximity, give Dustin some more instances to yell smart things at people, just to give the audience delicious blood a single heart-wrenching, however important death scene. (Maybe an unpopular opinion? It should've been Steve for narrative efficiency, or Eddie should've been introduced in S2/3)
Even leaving the comic relief complaint on the table, the dynamic simply overstayed its purpose. There was plenty of time to have Dustin get what he needed out of the teen sidequests without effectively exiling him. He ultimately became fused to this uncomplicated, crowd-pleasing fixture, primarily serving a logistical writing convenience while juicing every last drop of charm from Gaten and Joe's natural rapport. Which, you know, good for them. I genuinely hope those guys keep catching hockey games together.
So you set up Dustin early on to have increasing anxiety and insecurity about his place in the Party, his once-steady passivity to that fact is being tested, we're building tension, just to ultimately...keep him even more removed as time goes on except at the very end with no acknowledgement? Hm. Ok. Compare it to Robin and Will. Although a lot of other issues surround that plot line, their sidebar had clear, concise narrative purpose and lasted only as long as it needed to for Will's propulsion.
DARK DUSTIN AND THE NOT SO GREAT, ONLY SLIGHTLY HORRIBLE, NO GOOD VERY BAD GRIEVING PROCESS (SORRY)
Perhaps it's redundant at this point, but let's take stock. It's made clear enough why Dustin would get a tad obsessed with Eddie and Steve and why they feature in his story:
They're self-assured, each cool in their own way, and represent two sides of certain attributes he wants/admires
They provide older male mentorship that he doesn't have by blood
They MAKE HIM FEEL WORTHWHILE for who he is as a person (can't stress this enough), however with different approaches
Steve makes him a priority numerous times in numerous ways
Eddie tells him to never change, let his freak flag fly
These affirmations are lacking from his core friend group
It all tracks with his S5 shift. And in this, I cannot possibly find fault even if I tried. Dustin's big brooding character swing was undoubtedly one of the best and realest decisions made in S5.
♡ Shoutout to that one dude on YT who did a S5 rewrite that explicitly erased Dustin's grief because he didn't like him being sad. My guy, please go watch peppa pig or something instead jesus christ ♡
Eddie is dead, Steve can’t get through to him, he’s back to feeling disregarded in every way except insofar as his material value and engineering know-how, and external happenings do kind of confirm it for him: he’s being told to get over his bereavement and abandon his sense of what’s right so that he can function in service to others. He snaps at Steve for bugging him with a radio issue as if that’s the only thing he’s good for.
It plays great for angst. But...the text again never actually seeks to draw contrasts. And at this point, some of these disparities have never been more pronounced:
The very real, and not imagined friction between feeling uncared for as a friend, up against being relied upon for utility. He hits his breaking point with Steve on this in the lab fight, but not with the Party, who essentially treat him the same
Specifically the lack of mourning on Mike's part??
The emotional alienation between Dustin and the Party even without the grief component is at a multi-season apex, wider than ever (at least on-screen)
Despite Dustin having one of, if not, the best arc in s5, it still only deals with the direct trauma of Eddie's death and not any tougher, long-standing character flaws brought to a head such as his tendencies toward self-sabotage, habitual arrogance and recklessness, or unhealthy attachments. I will die on the hill that he needed a resolution with the Party way more than he needed another one with Steve in the penultimate scenes. The stairwell hug, final planning scenes, and college flash forward sufficed fine.
DUST IN THE WIND | HENDERHOP AND WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN
There is and was a ton to work with Dustin as far as a character unaware of their own less quantifiable inner strengths. As stated, he flaunts his intelligence constantly. He leans on it, really as if to inwardly enforce and maybe even reassure himself, "This. This is the one thing I'm good at." But the audience can see he's got a lot more going for him, and wouldn't it be interesting if he eventually came to that realization? As a vehicle for a romance sub-plot or otherwise?
Or even MORE interestingly, if some sort of revelation occurred with Nancy or Eddie— the two people who verbally, though vaguely in canon, alluded to 'seeing him' more deeply. That's not to say Steve doesn't value Dustin or 'see him' similarly, but I think he'd be less than adept in articulating those feelings. In a climatic moment, Nancy or Eddie could catalyze this realization for him by elaborating on either of their previous affirmations. There's plenty to get specific with. Aside from the first half of S5, he has a charisma that goes unappreciated by peers his own age. He's a got a ferocious sense of justice even to his own detriment. He's got discerning taste in music, clothes, and hats. Hey, couldn't this also factor into a hypothetical Dustin x Party resolution as described? Heck, one of them or all of them would fit as characters to deliver these sentiments. Then voilà, you have your Party healing sesh and your fully platonically realized Dustin!
But this section is pairing/romance-focused, so yes, there's one primarily relevant, glaring "inner strength" factoid that gets under my skin like none other: all throughout the dang show, he's emotionally intelligent without really realizing it but it's only ever used to the benefit of the people around him rather than furthering his own development.
I think that's the special sauce for Henderhop in particular. Because at his core Dustin can be rabidly, sometimes stupidly compassionate in how he cares for others— especially his friends even if it's not reciprocated, especially people he perceives as receiving unfair treatment— He typically doesn’t take connection for granted unlike SOME characters 👀
Side note, but that’s also why I think Eddie’s Lost Sheep bit was so impactful for him on a personal level. He receives it as an ordained "responsibility" and it sort of breaks his emotional load.
Think of the potential laid out in early canon: he feels he's been thrust into a kind of observer role his whole life. He's conceptualized and accepted an outer orbit disposition for himself. So while he’s an insufferable nerd in matters of smarts because it's the realm of hard facts where he can endlessly flex, in purely social settings, barring the rare states where we see him in anger or emotional expenditure, he’s naturally able to step back and make room for others. Which is what El unquestionably needs in spades. It’s one area where he has a deep capacity for patience. Of the Party, second to Will, he's the most capable of seeing her for the person she is and grows into.
A lot of their interaction is at its best (both in fic and the crumbs in canon) when it explores friendship dynamics in romance and their unconditional care for each other as people. For Dustin especially, the culmination of the ship would be transformative in surmounting his own imposed expectation of never being a “first choice,” as well as finally deploying his own emotional perceptiveness for personal development. And yes, I am making the case that being with Mike was never an active choice for El.
In turn, without context for social hierarchies or the desire/ability to exploit people’s skills, El is able to see Dustin innately and foremost as a person rather than as a resource, or useful tech geek, or walking encyclopedia, etc. (and vice versa e.g., "Mike, look at her" S1E8)
Long story long, they'd easily repair each other’s core insecurity through the gradual characterization the canon subtext weaves for each of them over time. While everyone else objectifies them, they have always effortlessly seen the humanity in each other.
Part of the reason I don’t like his pairing with Suzie all that much (and I’d like to think I’m not biased. I wasn’t big on it even in the S3 heyday, long before I was brainwashed by henderhopaganda) is that he does to her what others do him— he holds affection for her primarily as a useful genius and a social merit badge, at least in what the show decides to communicate to us. Chalk it up to yet another thing that could've used more flesh on its bones. I find it unlikely that this was even intended in the writing, but with nothing else to show for the relationship in the text of the narrative, it's all utility, "humor" at Dustin's expense, and more character flattening. Big eh from me dawg.
edit: Wouldn't you know it, in this lack of substance lies yet another missed opportunity. As @gerardwaygirlmoments pointed out on the original version of this post, Suzie's presence could've been spun into something actually meaningful with barely an extra few seconds of screen time. Consider the introspection it would force if Suzie flipped the script on him and initiated the break up due to her own sense of ick from the grade change scheme. Then, a pivotal inward-looking moment for Dustin is assured. In this scenario, he has to have character growth and acknowledge his flaws, though maybe not without some reactionary denial or more complex hurt at first? It'd flow well with the fact that he often engages in varying forms of self-destructiveness.
This fix would potentially solve FOUR problems— 1. Give actual purpose and emotional momentum to the relationship. 2. Trigger huge character strides for Dustin (arrogance on display at first, dissolving into inner turmoil that'd come with realizing he's mistreated someone in the same way that fundamentally wounds him). 3. Narratively funnel into a conversation with the Party where we might get some tasty conflict. Maybe he vents to them seeking validation, but they call him out on being wrong? Maybe he lies about the relationship continuing because he can't face the social shame, then one of them finds out? Some way to ultimately unearth his oft-buried insecurities as well as build him back up through his unsung strengths, giving them their reunification scene (oh hey, ANOTHER mechanism by which to bring Dustin back to the Party!) and 4. Obviously, explain Suzie's absence in S5.
PLATONIC COULDA WOULDA SHOULDA
Overall, henderhop aside, it's just so disappointing that we didn’t see more full circle platonic explorations with him amongst his core friends. One throwaway tidbit I can't get out of my head is Will mentioning that he and Dustin built the telemetry tracker together Pre-S5. Presumably while Dustin was in some stage of mourning??? I want to SEE that scene ffs!! Can you imagine?
Think of all the possibilities between all the character combos we never saw play out:
Will and Dustin being collaboratively creative, smart, in tune with their vulnerabilities, and grappling with being seen as reviled and/or pitiable.
Lucas and Dustin sharing in grief and frustrations around the concept of fairness + conflict surrounding clique hierarchies. Wowza, then the grad speech would've made a tiny lick of sense!
Max and Dustin volleying snippy and sarcastic jabs, both possessing keen powers of observation, and THE PARALLEL SURVIVOR’S GUILT?? He should've been at the hospital at least once
El and Dustin getting closer with the above mentioned emotional momentum, but add to it the S5 feelings of pushing oneself to the point of breakage, the angst of discarding whimsy, joy, curiosity, happiness, hope etc. for something bigger than yourself (!!!)
Mike and Dustin linked in notions of disconnect (ironically, yes and the irony would be addressed!), longing, self-worth, identity, anything about Eddie, hitting bigger conflicts around their gap in emotional intelligence skills and so on and so on and...
The ingredients were all there. All the “told not shown” morsels were enormous, actively damaging missed opportunities.
Meditate on what S5 in general could’ve accomplished if all those insipid, repetitive flashbacks weren’t the same ones we had seen a thousand times, but were instead exposition scenes of the the unseen time after S4. All throughout S1 for example, we learn about El’s trauma through small blips that trigger her memory (the closet, the cat, etc). As she relives the recollection, the audience is let into her backstory. They could have had their SeASon oNE cALLbAckS by way of expository delivery style rather than straight up reheating their own plot nachos. This kind of storytelling device would have made even more sense within the context of a time skip gap.
And well, despite all this, Dustin is still the character ever. I'm off to cry into my unfinished fics
RANDOM HEADCANONS AND (MOSTLY) FUN SHIT
El has time on her own somewhere, for some length of time before any henderhop scenario. Whether in Iceland, Uruguay, Hawkins, wherever. Let my girl chill and know herself for a sec!
She relishes pestering Dustin with useless facts that she's learned that he doesn't know. He's usually a good sport about it.
As soon as he can drive, Dustin annoyingly corrals the Party to go to any and all ren faires within a 150 mile radius. He continues this well into college breaks and beyond. Costumes are mandatory.
Dustin retains some of his alt flavoring post S5. If the story wanted to be a love letter to outcasts, elements of this evolution should have stuck around and been re-framed in a healthy way. Same goes for all Party characters to differing extents (punk Mike, avant garde/soft goth Will, etc). He's got some piercings, a handful of tattoos, and goes to metal shows, especially getting into fantasy-inspired bands like Blind Guardian and Cirith Ungol.
He's an absolute fiend for Terry Prachett books.
She's an absolute fiend for magical girl anime and early Studio Ghibli films (she's ahead of her time 💅)
El experiments with her look and style often and is always learning a new kind of craft, never becoming an expert at any one hobby before moving on to the next thing that piques her interest.
They love watching documentaries and are both total snobs about them— the cinematography, voiceover quality, etc.
!Sad: Some event happened with Dustin between S4 and S5 that pushes him into the state we see him in. I find it unrealistic that he'd be able to keep up that front for the full timeskip, especially considering the Party talks about his behavior as if it's new. My HC is that Eddie's body was recovered from the UD by the military around summer/early fall '87, they cover it up as some kind of satanic self-infliction, further entrenching the lies about him in the town and that's what sends Dustin spiraling.
More to come potentially!
*Lastly, a disclaimer: All this is not to say that the other characters were any less atrophied or better realized. Honestly the argument for underdeveloped arcs goes for pretty much all of them sadly, with maybe the one exception of...Steve? If we're reaching. Out of the Party, Max got closest to "full potential" imo but still left a lot to be desired. I can just pontificate easiest about Dustin in particular 🤓
And shoutout to @starofthesea37 for posting the original prompt and to the henderhopaganda community for all the engagement on my original comments!
honestly, there’s something about the duffers’ narrative that byler was never in the cards that just doesn’t sit right with me.
because i only see two options here, and neither of them makes them look good.
the first one: it’s not true. it was considered at some point, and for whatever reason (pressure, fear, a change of direction, whatever), they backed out. because otherwise, the way they’ve written mike and will’s relationship across seasons simply doesn’t make sense.
if you want to tell a story about unrequited love, that’s fine. it exists, we’ve seen it a thousand times in fiction, and it works. but then why make it SO ambiguous? why write mike in a way that constantly leaves room for doubt? why all the scenes, the looks, the parallels, the narrative choices that never fully close the door?
that’s not “clearly one-sided love.” that’s deliberate ambiguity.
so no, i’m sorry, but this whole “it was never planned” version… i don’t buy it.
and then there’s the second option: that it is true. that they never intended to make it canon.
but then you’re basically admitting it was queerbaiting.
because you chose to play with that ambiguity. you built mike in a way that makes it feel like maybe yes, but you never confirm anything. you keep the audience in that constant “what if…?” limbo.
and why? because it brings in an audience. it pulls in people who get invested in that possibility, who analyze, who wait, who stay. but at the same time, you never commit, so you don’t “alienate” the more traditional audience either.
it’s literally playing both sides.
and honestly… i don’t know which is worse.
being told something now that doesn’t match what we’ve seen on screen,
or accepting that it does match, and that it means they’ve been consciously exploiting that ambiguity all along.
How media - and the Stranger Things fandom - conditioned us to view self-sacrifice as the absolute pinnacle of love and heroism. Because if you actually look at the psychology of it, an unilateral decision to die "for the greater good" or "to save someone" is often one of the most devastatingly selfish things a character can do.There’s a line from Death Note where Light confronts his father about being willing to sacrifice his life, asking: "That might be fine for you, but did you ever stop to think about the pain it would cause the people you leave behind?" That is exactly the blind spot both Eleven and Henry Creel are walking into. Let’s break down why this trope works in some cases, but completely fails them.
A sacrifice works narratively when it is driven by an objective, universal necessity, not personal guilt or a martyr complex. Look at Bob Newby. He didn't choose to die because he wanted to punish himself or because he made a lone-wolf decision. There was a literal lock-down, someone had to reset the computers, and he did it to ensure the immediate physical survival of the group. His death was a tragedy, but it was a clean, heroic act. When we look at El and Henry in Season 5, however, things get messy.
When looking at other major sacrifices in Stranger Things, like Billy in Season 3, Hopper in the Starcourt finale, or Eddie in Season 4, the narrative didn't feel cheap or frustrating. Why? Because their situations were fundamentally different from El’s and Henry’s. They didn’t choose death out of a martyr complex; they chose it out of immediate, tactical necessity.
Billy’s sacrifice at the ends of Season 3 was the ultimate act of reclaiming his own agency. Billy wasn’t running away from life; he was actively breaking free from the Mind Flayer’s control. In that split second, Eleven’s reminder of his mother gave him his humanity back. His sacrifice was a direct shield for El—if he hadn't stood up to the Meat Monster in that exact moment, El would have died right there. It was a rapid-fire, reactive choice to save a life, not a premeditated decision to abandon his loved ones.
Hopper’s "death" at the end of Season 3 is the perfect example of a sacrificial choice based on sheer logic and love. The Russian machine was tearing open the Gate, the Mind Flayer was killing everyone, and Joyce was at the switches. Hopper knew that if Joyce didn't turn those keys, the world would end—including El. He looked at Joyce, gave her the nod, and accepted his fate. He didn’t want to leave El or Joyce; he was making the ultimate tactical bet to buy them a future. It worked because it was rooted in the primal instinct of a protector who had no other cards left to play.
Eddie’s tragic end in the Upside Down is one of the most heartbreaking moments in the show, but it fulfilled his entire character arc. Eddie spent his whole life running away—from society, from confrontation, and earlier in the season, from Chrissy's trailer. When the Demobats were about to breach the trailer and hunt down Dustin and the others, Eddie realized that if he ran again, Dustin would die. His sacrifice wasn't a punishment for his past; it was a refusal to be a coward anymore. He bought precious time for Nancy, Steve, and Robin to finish Vecna. It was a definitive, active choice of bravery.
In the Season 5, Eleven decides to stay behind in the explosion, sacrificing herself because she believes it's the only way to shield Mike and the others. It sounds noble on paper, but it’s not. By deciding her fate alone, El completely strips Mike of his agency and partnership. It’s the ultimate "I’m the powerful one, so I will handle this" mentality. El might find peace or closure in her sacrifice, but what does she leave Mike with? A physical life stripped of its soul. For Mike, survival without El isn't a victory; it's an empty, lifelong sentence of grief and "what ifs." As Edward famously told Bella in Breaking Dawn Part 1: "You’ve given me no choice... 'Cause it's me who'll lose you. And I don't choose that."
If Henry’s final arc ends with him simply choosing permanent physical death because "he deserves it" for his horrific past crimes, it’s not a satisfying redemption. It's an easy way out. For Henry, dying is a full stop. It silences the voices, the Mind Flayer's echo, and his own crushing guilt. He gets to close his eyes and be done. Who pays the price for Henry's "righteous" punishment? Patty. She spent forty years holding onto his humanity, refusing to let him go. If Henry just lets himself fade away to balance the moral scoreboard, he is ignoring the one person who loved him unconditionally. He leaves her completely isolated in a world that will never understand her.
It proves that true love isn't about choosing to leave someone behind to keep them safe. It’s about fighting to stay connected, even when the physical world crumbles around you.
The fundamental line between a "good" and a "bad" narrative sacrifice comes down to this: Is there an alternative?
Eddie, Billy, and Hopper had their backs against the wall in a literal war zone. If they didn't act in that exact second, the people they loved would have been physically slaughtered. Their deaths directly resulted in the immediate survival of others.
Eleven and Henry, however, are making decisions based on emotional projection and guilt. El chooses to isolate herself and stay behind in the explosion because she believes she is a "monster" or a "target" that puts Mike in danger. Henry wants to fade away because he cannot face the weight of his sins.
While I know the Duffer brothers had a different vision for Henry in Season 5, as we know, I don't think it would have worked if they had redeemed him in a similar way. I say this because I’ve seen this kind of 'self-sacrifice' trope mentioned by a lot of fans.
I used to think about this self-sacrifice idea too, but after thinking it over many times and reading several fanfictions, I realized that it just doesn't work somehow. For me, at least. I felt like something was missing, and I didn't find this kind of storyline fulfilling. Even if his death itself is logical, I felt like something was lacking.
Unlike Hopper or Eddie, El and Henry do have another choice: they have the Quiet Guest / Void mind-fusion option. They have a way to survive and stay connected to Mike and Patty. Choosing physical death when a psychological, higher-dimensional path to survival exists isn't heroic anymore—it becomes emotional abandonment.
Also while it’s on my mind, I wanted to write down stuff from a really interesting panel I went to at the con, run by a guy who does anime market research and marketing strategy, about the data behind anime viewership and revenue. I think it’s especially interesting coming on the heels of the Crunchyroll Anime Awards and the discussions I've seen around it (mostly around not being happy with the winners).
I wasn’t taking notes during it, but this is what I remember to the best of my ability; apologies if there are any inaccuracies:
At this point there is more money coming into animanga from overseas markets than from domestic (i.e., Japanese) markets. Companies are aware that for something to get really financially successful, it has to appeal to international audiences.
And most of that overseas money comes from subscriptions to streaming services. Merch / purchase of physical copies / etc make up only a small % of revenue.
Shonen and isekai outperform everything else to a huge extent. So there continue to be lots of these produced.
About half of all recent/current anime views are going to just a few (like, a single digit # of) series. I believe it was: Solo Leveling, Sakamoto Days, Dan Da Dan, Gachiakuta, MHA, and (I think) JJK. Also Solo Leveling by itself gets far more than any other series.
Quote: "Statistically, if your favorite anime from the last year wasn’t one of these, then no one watched your favorite anime"
Note that these are all shonen (except technically Solo Leveling since the original material is manhwa, not manga, but close enough)
Don’t be surprised that these are the series winning awards, even if you don’t think they hold a candle to [insert your favorite anime here] — there’s just so many more people watching these that it’s virtually impossible for any other series to win.
The only series in the recent top 20 that wasn’t shonen demographic or isekai genre was Apothecary Diaries.
Quote: "Thank god for Apothecary Diaries." lol
Crunchyroll has by far the biggest market share of overseas anime viewership, followed by Netflix to a lesser extent. No other providers come close.
The perception among production companies is that Netflix is where people are getting converted from non-anime viewers into anime viewers, and CR is where established anime viewers go.
Average anime watch time among anime viewers on Netflix is 1.5 hours per month, whereas on CR it’s 1.5 hours per day (?!)
Discovery on Netflix is heavily determined by what the Netflix promotes / actively surfaces to users, and that tends to skew towards particular series — likely reinforces that views are going to already-popular series and that new anime viewers are getting funnelled into certain genres.
Netflix doesn't license all that much anime compared to what they could be licensing, so that further skews things. Also, even if a series is licensed to Netflix, if the Netflix algorithm doesn't actively push it to users, no one on Netflix will watch it.
Rating sites such as MyAnimeList tend to be skewed towards a particular type of fan that is not representative of the actual market, and these ratings are meaningless when it comes to actual success metrics. IIRC he said only a few% of very frequent anime watchers actually rate/review things.
He phrased it as "rating things on MAL is not normal behavior" which made me lol
Anime adapted from light novels tends to perform the best compared to anime adapted from other sources (manga, webcomic, games) and original anime. Adaptations from manga is #2; everything else is wayy behind.
Solo Leveling seems like quite an outlier in this regard since anime adaptations from webcomics tend to be among the least popular
The single feature most correlated with success of an isekai was whether the main female character has big breasts and that’s not a joke.
Quote: "If the main female character has big breasts your anime will likely overperform, and if the main female character is a monster girl your anime will likely underperform. Because things aren’t fair."
At one point he was like yes I really do have to go into serious business meetings and present this anime breast data to client companies.
There’s a perception among audiences that pirating animanga that isn’t legally available in your country will prove there’s a demand for it, and lead to it getting licensed in your country, but this isn’t true. Pirating stats don’t actually have much effect on whether stuff gets licensed — because there’s no reliable conversion from people who pirate -> people who will pay to view legally.
Studios get booked for projects 3-4 years out, so stuff for 2029-2030 is getting booked now. There are a lot of reboots/sequels/franchises/reusing-IPs type projects getting booked, just like what western media studios have been doing, because (as with western media) companies want the reliability of IP that is known to be successful rather than the risk of something new.
He concluded that the quality of storytelling in animanga is completely unrelated to whether it is popular, and that, at the current time, the popularity of a series essentially just comes down to 1. is it a shonen, 2. sheer luck. rip
So, as it’s roughly explained, the state alchemist program is a kind of “recruit potential human sacrifices” mechanism, with a side-order of “brute strength for the army”. But basically, the state alchemist title is mostly about being a researcher–given people like Shou Tucker exist, and given that the only requirement to stay a state alchemist is to submit a yearly report of your research that says “look I’m still being a useful scientist”.
So far, so far this is sensible, yeah? Father and the delightful children from down the lane are running a recruitment program for potential human sacrifices. So sure–butter them up! Give them lots of money, get them buddy-buddy with the government, and give them endless resources for research. It’s be pretty easy to trick a state alchemist in that position to open the portal if Sugar DaddyBradley is nudging them to do it.
And I’m still willing to go with this logic for the whole “draft the state alchemists into war” move. They make it pretty clear that was something of a last-ditch effort. And the blood transmutation circle around Amestris was an absolute necessity for Father’s plan. So the risk of a few state alchemists dying or resigning from your Potential Sacrifice Pool is worth it for the completion of the circle.
Now. To get to my fucking thought.
Edward fucking Elric. This fucking fight-me 12 year old troglodyte shows up to the exam and performs circle-less transmutation in front of mother fucking Bradley, demonstrating to one of the seven Actual Fucking Homunculi that he’d already opened the portal. Ed was literally prepped as a human sacrifice before he showed up to Central. A fully set human sacrifice showed up at the homunculi’s door, said “hey look what I can do!”, proved he’d opened the mother fucking portal already, and said “hey yeah hire me”. Human sacrifice, free shipping, no assembly required, handcuffs not included!
They could have just tossed Ed into a shoebox and kept him there until the Promised Day. They wouldn’t even need to make up an excuse he attacked the f u c k i n g president. That’s fucking treason babey. He’s 12, he’s an orphan, he’s from a rural town in buttfuck nowhere, he’s literally the easiest person alive to disappear. They could have arrested him for assassination crimes, kept him in gay baby jail, and just popped him out for the Promised Day
What do they do instead?! “Oh lmao this kid’s great. Let’s give him infinite money, no supervision, no governmental responsibilities, access to all our secret resources, and toss him on a train to who-the-fuck-knows-where-land”
They fucking did that
And like? They then had the audacity to be concerned when Edward “Fight Me” Elric almost got himself killed about 293 times. Just an endless game of “I thought u were watching him” from one homunculus to another when Ed fucking absconds half-way across the globe to go entice some other hostile entity into murdering him to death. That’s the whole series. Every arc is Ed baiting death while the homunculi are in the background like “:/ wish he wouldn’t do that”
This only gets worse when you consider they later learned Al opened the portal too because really?? These two stab-happy globe-trotting public menaces are 40% of your final evil plan for godhood. 40%. Almost half. You couldn’t fucking set aside a cardboard box to keep these idiots in?
We all knew Father was terrible at planning when we learned his thousands-of-years-in-the-making-plan involved him procrastinating until the last five minutes to get his last sacrifice, while he was?? playing chess in his fucking basement, I guess. But it’s like every time I think about it like really think about it I find 7 more reasons Father was a fucking shit idiot moron, king of the stupid fucking idiot club, flesh and blood founder of seven other established dumbasses, all living in their idiot hovel under central, just giving random dumbass 12 year olds infinite money, j u s t b e c a u s e.
People in the replies trying to explain Father’s actions fall into one of three categories
Father didn’t baby-gate Ed because humans are like ants to him and he had no concept of how thoroughly Ed and co. could fuck his shit up
Father and the Hot Topic Brigade didn’t lock Ed up because they recognized the unbridled chaotic 12-year-old energy compressed into such a small vessel and they understood no jail cell on earth would reliably hold this thing
Father and his sin-sonas didn’t put Ed in a box because locking Ed away in their lair would mean dealing with Edward Elric day-in and day-out in their own home for the next four years and frankly even godhood isn’t worth certain flavors of hell.
Fuhrer Eye Patch saw Edward “Catch these Hands” Elric and thought oh. He’s gonna cause problems.
But. You can’t look me in the eyes and tell me that Brad the Pissed Off didn’t also anticipate Roy “Don’t Mind Me Just a Manwhore Passing Through” Mustang causing problems at some point.
The solution? Give Elric to Mustang. The Human Blowtorch is going to spend so much time chasing and corraling the 6th grader who can turn his arm into a sword at will that it will be impossible for him to cause problems for CopyofHohenheim.exe.
What King Grumpy Pants didn’t anticipate was the two youngest state alchemists in history going hey, we cause a lot of problems separately, but imagine the chaos we could wreak if we joined forces!
The dead guards in S4 represent Mike's emotional guard dropping
Mike starts the season off like this:
Will's silence is so loud... they're so out of sync!
But then, Mike and El have "a fight they can't come back from" and Will reveals he missed Mike all this time.
Suddenly, Mike is flirting with Will and making confessions about how he's missed him this whole time and home isn't home without him and he regrets losing him over El...
They're in sync now: they both want to be a team, friends, best frien--
GUNSHOT! Mike's first line of defense against his feelings for Will (i.e. performing his "boyfriend" role while pushing Will away) is shot dead.
Yeah that was fast, Mike...
His moment of gay panic afterwards:
Can't pray the gay away!
Mike tries to "keep on a normal path" at the start of S4, but he soon gets off that road...
Hello foreshadowing!
The next time this happens is when Will makes his heart melt with that painting and his veiled love confession...
They're in sync in a new way: in the sense that... they're both in love with each other, but both think it's unrequited bc the other is (supposedly) straight and/or in love with someone else.
This is where I think Mike falls completely in love with Will.
They have their own private language during their heart-to-hearts when they're in sync. The connection is almost unspoken, present between them even when Will was unable to speak:
They even breathe in sync in the final scene of S4! The van scene is not an exception of the synchronization of their feelings!
And after that, Mike is reunited with El, and we get this unexaplained shot of his face falling when he sees Will and glances between him and El:
As Will and El hug, Mike stares...
And internally, he's going...
There are dead guards everywhere, all of Mike's defenses are down... everything's on fire... uh oh!!!!
i have a soft spot for the "el is a representation of mike's love for will" interpretation of st. if you know which article on substack i'm talking about, this one is for you
short note before i show you something
in the beginning of s4 el is struggling. she's miserable, isolated and lonely. she has lost her powers. read: mike's love for will is suffering while mike and will are apart and not talking.
rink-o-mania happens and el hides in the closet, she's desperately hurt and ashamed. read: when mike arrives to lenora and he and will have a fight, mike's love for will is hidden and shamed upon by mike.
el leaves to get her powers back. she's working on it step-by-step and shows progress. her powers surface in bursts, uncontrolled, still vulnerable and very much repressed. but they are there. read: in jane's absence mike and will reconnect, become closer and mike can't stop himself from showing his love to will. he gives in to his feelings in outbursts and flirts with will. we see that the feelings are still there. they are flickering, if you will. but they are still in a very vulnerable state.
el finally gets full access to her repressed (!) memories and the powers are back. and oh aren't they the strongest they have ever been? she's calm, she's in control, and nobody can stop her. read: after mike received will's painting, his love is clearer than it's ever been. mike knows he's in love and he is determined to do something about it. nobody can stop him. right?
well this is just a re-tell. i don't claim any of these ideas, they are not mine, but i just love to think about them. what i noticed, though, is this...
el's powers need a spark. spark of electricity. electricity in the show is a metaphor for attraction/feelings. el needs electricity to bring her powers back. she needs her powers so she can protect herself and finally stop hiding. read: mike's love for will needs electricity outburst of feelings to stop hiding.
so you see here el's powers are the strongest they've ever been and she's wearing the electric collar. i don't know about you, but when i was watching this scene, i was expecting this collar to spark up any moment. read: while el is fighting with her collar on, mike's feeling it all in the van. he's this 🤏 close to bursting out and confessing.
but as soon as mike reconnects with jane, the girl,
el loses her electric collar.
read: mike's suppressing his love for will, when jane, the girl, is around. as soon as jane's back, mike's love loses its spark.
he can only contain his love when jane's near. my good friend will byers is helping me win my case here
Another thing to note is that El channels her powers mainly through hate, fear, and anger. All the negative stuff. That's what Kali demonstrated to her in 2x07, and from Henry in S4 flashbacks. That being said, if the above correlation is true, where El's powers act as 'meter' of Mike's love/acceptance of himself, then it closely aligns with him being ashamed of himself (and him being aware of it). This does make her powers stronger.
Before Henry and Kali, there was Brenner. Brenner in S1 and S4 tries to make El as calm and composed as possible, not relying on any emotion. It is all kept within. Contained. Which can read a lot like avoidance/suppression/denial I guess.
There have been few circumstances where El actually used Love: Love for her friends in S1, and Love for her mother in S4 flashbacks. This was when she was actually at her strongest! If El represents Queerness, then it makes sense! S1 Mike was the most devoted to Will, and I guess something happened in S4 in 1979-1980-ish (pre S1, firmly in miwi-land).
With that in mind, this suggests that El having full control of her powers correlates/aligns with Mike's full acceptance of himself.
