I'm currently watching this documentary from 2012 (Wonder Woman) about female superheroes & their role since Wonder Woman was first created in the 40s. Something that they've mentioned is how they killed off a lot of these superwomen. I find that so fascinating as a person who's watched documentaries about how film and television silence and kill off queer people, people of color, and female characters because they somehow threaten the story & integrity of the cis-white male protagonist.
Connecting this to the fifth season of Stranger Things, you can see just how pervasive this is. There was absolutely no need to kill off Kali & Eleven. Their arcs & development were not completed by their deaths-- if anything, they were ruined. The erasure of powerful, independent, confident women (not only those with superpowers) genuinely makes me so disappointed. It is as if their struggles are resolved once they die, which is absolutely evil and untrue. Eleven sacrificing herself isn't even done tastefully; they blatantly tease it throughout the season, yet there isn't that necessary of a reason why. Yes, there is the threat of the government kidnapping Eleven once again & using her to clone children, but she has the ability to escape (and yes, travel to Iceland even if that was just Mike's dumbass hallucination). Her death is executed so poorly, so rushed and anticlimactic, that it was embarrassing to watch. (I am so enraged by the Mike & Eleven kiss and her saying that he knows her best???!! Millie Bobby Brown HERSELF has said otherwise. It's disrespectful and untrue; they are arguably the most incompatible relationship in the whole show.)
Almost two months after watching the shit show that was the finale and S5, my thoughts have stayed consistent. It was a hard, difficult watch. Rewatching scenes of Eleven from previous seasons, I am disheartened; it doesn't make sense why she had to die. She had just started living, and even then, through the constraining nature of the 80s and the men in her life (Mike, Hopper & Brenner), she had so much potential. Not only for her own life but also for the representation to other women and girls. Breaking the cycle of abuse and becoming your own superhero, strong and brave. I am wracked with so much guilt and disappointment over yet another death of a superwoman. I do believe this horrific ending of hers could be in part due to the political state of the world-- and its more conservative tilt-- plus, for sure, the divorce from the amazing director & writer Leigh Janiak, who helped throughout the previous productions of the show. (Go watch Fear Street; it is everything that Stranger Things lacks!) In the end, I don't know; I am really truly sad. Once you notice this pattern of death and humiliation brought to these characters, it is hard to ignore. As women's issues are getting ignored once again, the death of Eleven & Kali has such a poignant impact on me. They die. They never get to live as girls any longer. They no longer can be this idol and mentor for girls, as they both failed. (I'd say they didn't fail--more like they were failed.) It's really disheartening and sad, especially as the Duffer Brothers pose their deaths as necessities: "It just felt like such a courageous and brave thing for her to do. She’s preventing what happened to her" (The Hollywood Reporter). This in theory would make sense; it could be an impactful, triumphant death, but the addition of these pregnant women has no real significance. They are no longer explored or added upon; their abuse is used as a plot tool to further Eleven's own death. It's truly disgusting. In the end all of them die, Kali, Eleven, and all of these women who should've been given more of a story and reasoning. I truly think men should not be able to write women's endings. It is almost never done well.
