#anti vecna

[stonathandreamer]

My genuine reaction when the main villain was revealed to be a dude named Henry that lived down the street.

[stranger-things-yapper]

people out here keeping El dead in their fanworks when really they should do away with Vecna altogether

[astro-1ce-drag0n]

Imma add a trigger warning for mentions of child abuse and references to trafficking and rape, as well as my aggressive choice of words.

It annoys me how the diploma brothers wanted the audience to hate Kali with every bone in their bodies but then turn around and go "Oh! Dr Brenner is dead waaaWaaaaa" and I'm here thinking: "good fucking riddance to that asshole!" That man was Jane and Kali's abuser and you want me to feel bad for him? What the hell is wrong with you! Kali did nothing other than hold a grudge against the people who hurt her and took her childhood away from her and Jane! Why do you want me to hate this literal child who just wants to live? And why do you want me to cheer when she's brutally killed in front of her sister? That is so fucked up.

Same thing with Billy and Henry too! The dicksucker Brothers wanted the audience to hate him so bad, but then his actor went and did his own thing with the character, and then when Dacre left the show, tweedle dee and tweedle dumb tried to erase the complexity of Billy by having max say "was he even worth saving" when it was established in the previous seasons(3-4) that max did not want Billy to be flayed at all! She was literally saying "please not you, please don't let it be you" in the sauna test! Her whole arc in season four was how one of her deepest regrets was how she didn't even try to save her brother and that she feels guilty about it! Meanwhile Henry only got character development in a fucking spinoff play that retcons a shit ton of lore, and even then the first shadow didn't matter because they didn't do anything with it in season five except for that stupid little memory scene that made Will Byers, Henry's victim, FORGIVE HIM FOR ABUSING WILL! That is not what I call a sympathetic character, that's a fucking predator! And you're making his victim forgive him over one detail about his "SaD tRaUmAtIc PaSt" no, I'm not gonna feel bad for Henry Creel. He doesn't have any substance as a compelling character in the main show, and he's just so boring and flat and he's everything wrong with this show after season three. HE'S ALSO A FUCKING CHILD RAPIST!!!

Kali and Billy were products of their respective hostile environments, Kali with the lab, and Billy with his father, they acted out through violence and grudges because that's all they knew and it was shown that they meant something to their siblings. And now . . . after establishing how much these characters mean to their siblings and how they out of the rest of the more nuanced characters should've lived and healed and be loved, you want me to not feel bad for them when they die, but when it's Henry"child molester"Creel and Dr."child trafficker"Brenner— you want me to feel bad for them? GO FUCK YOURSELVES ASSHOLES!

Rest in fanfic Kali Prasad and Billy Hargrove, the defective brothers will never make me hate you two.

[stonathandreamer]

People who try to excuse Henry or Billy genuinely disgust me. How can you look at a guy who's openly racist to a little kid and who physically, verbally, and emotionally abused his step-sister and think, "oh, poor little guy"?! How can you look at Henry Creel, a guy who says children are "easy target" (!!!), kidnaps them, scar them mentally for life (sounds familiar?), has genocidal intents, murders innocents (INNOCENT CHILDREN AND TEENS) and think, "oh, poor little guy"?!

"Oh, but Billy's dad beat him" yeah? So did John Wayne Gacy's dad. You're gonna excuse the Killer Clown's crimes too? "Oh, but Henry's childhood was unhappy and he was troubled" yeah? So was Gary Ridgway. You're gonna say you feel sorry for the Green River Killer too? I doubt it.

People only defend them because Dacre and Jamie are white, hot, handsome men and they love fantasizing about them. We shouldn't trivialize their crimes (even if they're fictional) just because the characters' actors attractive, because when people in the real world hear someone trying to defend a character who's racist, they'll think this person is one too.

Most criminals in the real world have troubled pasts. That does NOT excuse the atrocities they commited. Watch some crime documentaries, you'll see.

In the end this is obviously the duffers' fault because they tried to make us sympathize for them, but Hell will freeze before I show a racist an OUNCE of my sympathy. As we say here in my country, "A racist's hat is a sledgehammer."

Dacre and Jamie are phenomenal actors who did a good job at portraying horrible people, but if they weren't the stereotypical white men that people love to lust over, we wouldn't be having this conversation in the first place.

And while we're at it, please, let us not ship Steve with a racist. Thank you, have a nice Friday.

[gamma-ghoul]

what do you think about s4?

what's your favorite season of stranger things?

I don't really care for it. I genuinely liked only one arc, the Hawkins one, and the rest was either boring or annoying. (Though I like the addition of Argyle. Rip, my Latino stoner boy.)

It also has a lot to do with the fact that I just don't like Vecna as a villain. Like with the Mindflayer, it's this Eldritch horror that we have little comprehension of. Why does it want to take over Earth? Who cares. It's a simple bad guy, and we don't need to understand its motivation.

Which, to some, may not make for a particularly compelling villain, but to me, it provides an opportunity to free up space in the narrative and explore the characters. For example, the Demogorgon works so well in Season 1 because it's pretty much Jaws on land. An animalistic being that caused the disappearance of a character and created the catalyst for the cast to act. Season one doesn't need an explanation of why the Demogorgon went after Will, because ultimately, it doesn't matter. What matters is what it means to the characters when he does.

The creation of Vecna somewhat undermines all of that. Now we have a character who requires dedication and retconning of narrative pieces to make him fit. And he isn't even a compelling bad guy. Like he's just a poor man's Pennywise. And again, Pennywise works because he just wants to eat kids and scare the shit out of them. We don't need more than that. We just need him to do bad things so we can see what that says about our heroes.

Also, I have an allergic reaction to pathetic, sad little white boys. He was just a kid who really liked spiders and made it his whole personality. I actively cringe at the monologue he gives Nancy because, bro, what are you talking about? Even with the reveal that he was influenced by the mind flayer and then was like jk I'm still evil, it's like, yeah, no, you killed your sister, man, I could've figured that out.

Like, I think less is more sometimes, and you should leave some aspects of a story unanswered so the audience can speculate, but Vecna kind of ruins all of the fun in that.

I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority, though, lmao. It's honestly all about preference. However, based on how Season 5 went, a lot of time was wasted on the villain for minimal payoff, and the Mindflayer, who is the original bad guy of the series, is relegated to the side.

Like, he does nothing for me. And, honestly, I would've preferred to jump more into the cosmic horror vibe the Mindflayer could've brought to the table.

Now onto my favorite season. I will go on record and say season one is for me objectively the best season. I think the blend of realism and wonder is great, and having different groups connect to different genres and still be coherent is a real feat.

That being said, it's not my favorite. It's season 3 lmao

Which, I guess, a lot of people hate? And, yes, I had a lot of critiques about it during my initial watch. It has problems. But I didn't really care about the show at all until Robin's coming-out scene. It's campy, colorful, and entertaining. It's my bias showing. Cause I like campy shows (I mean big fan of Cobra Kai.)

But Season 3 made me actually like the characters more than just existing as pieces within the narrative. It made me want to see more of Robin and Steve hanging out, more of Dustin and Steve's dynamic, and even wish for Jonathan to get a friend. We got to see the characters have fun, and it was like, 'Oh, I actually just want to see them exist when the plot isn't happening because their dynamics and interactions with one another look fun.' They felt more real, I guess, even if the overall vibe was silly.

I think that out of all the endings, Season 3 has the best one. It ends on a bittersweet note, marked by a loss, yet with a hint of hope. It feels like consequences matter, and you can still speculate about the future. And El gets to live a normal life after her childhood was robbed.

[wizardseance]

I genuinely can't believe there was a whole discourse over which couple would get the "I think we're alone now" song and it ended up being for Holly in the mindscape

Henry/Vecna count your days I'm killing you myself.

[hufflepuff-finn]

The way I will actually crash out if Vecna gets a redemption arc

[lost-in-golden-light]

Which is also a massive understatement btw