I’ve got to say it, after watching volume 2, I’m disappointed to say the least… but I still haven’t given up hope, I’m anxious, really anxious! But I still have hope.
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR STRANGER THINGS 5 VOL 2
So lets hash out my thoughts:
1) I’m not a big fan of how they handled Will’s coming out. In my opinion, it should’ve been a lot more intimate, like just family maybe add the party, especially Mike though. Also, it definitely wasn’t fully on his own terms, Vecna was showing his fears of what would happen, and he needed confirmation that it wasn’t true, and that makes sense. What’s also important is that I wish they just let him say gay, maybe like:
“I don’t like girls… well I’m mean… I’m, gay” or something like that, I just wanted them to stop dancing around the word “gay” and “queer”, maybe that’s stupid, maybe it isn’t.
2) I feel really weird about Jane’s whole suicide pact with Kali. It just doesn’t really feel that in character for her to accept that, hopefully it doesn’t follow through in volume 3 and Jane shows opposition towards that, because it feels like there could be a different way out. According to the last shadow, Henry’s powers were caused by his interaction with the mindflayer in dimension X causing a mutation in his blood. If they destroy the upside down and the abyss, that would likely mean that the mind flayer is either completely sealed of or destroyed along with those dimensions. That would likely sever any connection, thus causing their mutated blood to become obsolete because there is no longer a connection to the source of these powers.
3) I really need Mike’s emotions to be addressed, because this entire season, they seem to be all bottled up, and he needs to explode (hopefully to result in a confession maybe idk)
4) A major reason I still have hope for Byler in volume 3 is largely because of how much the camera switched to him during Will’s coming out. Not just when he was talking about how “Mike is his Tammy” (which is total bullshit, there are far too many parallels with canon couples for that to be true). But him in general talking about how he is different (as in being gay) and when he told them about his fear of not being accepted or being told to hide who he is, that it’s dangerous for him to be gay.
5) I think we needed more focus on Will or El, or just the main party in general? Idk, I feel like we got way too much on Holly and exposition dumping on the upside down being a worm hole.
6) I really wish that they didn’t just have Max be able to see again, at least have her legally blind, because I feel like this just removes that consequence, that reminder of what happened to her. Let the characters have disabilities Duffers, please.
I think the last and final thing I have to say is, I hope volume 3 is good, I hope Byler is canon, that Jane is able to be a normal(ish) girl after all of this, and that if Byler is canon, it isn’t closing shot type confirmation, like korisami or catdorra, because god we don’t need another reason for the audience to think that it’s “last minute” or “rushed” or “forced”.
That’s all I have to say for now, and like the rest of you guys, I will be nervously anticipating volume 3. Most of all, I hope that all this love and hope I’ve put into the show pays off, I hope that we aren’t queer baited like so many other times
