Vol 2 and 3 was shit on purpose — a theory
Jumping off my last post, this has got me thinking that the duffers are geniuses, or they're so fucking awful that they've got ideas bouncing around that it was on purpose to be greedy and shitty lmfao
Anywho, s1 and s2 were the best, we can probably all agree on that. It gave us an eerie, horror supernatural plot with outcasts, weirdos and freaks, showing their friendships, the complexity to the characters and depth to all. Though it sort of went downhill from there. S3 was silly and playful but still kept the supernatural, eerie plot everyone loved from season 1 and 2, although those two season were more horror-esk compared to the rest. s3 also gave us more on different friendships, familial bonds, angst and a rotted main character relationship.
S4 was also a little more playful, but sort of bland and odd. It gave us more angst, new characters and different villans, this is also when they practically confirmed 2 queer characters into the plot, one being a main character. I think everyone remembers june 2022 scriptgate. If i remember right a lot of people originally didn't like a part of s4, including myself. Yet we started theorizing and became okay with it after a bit of processing and recuperation. Being hopeful for more, more results and questions answered.
Then came season 5, vol 1. it was beautiful, it was golden. It added more to the plot and gave a twist, mwah lovely. there were some more questions added though, which added onto the anticipation of vol 2. It came out and the crashing of stranger things began. plotholes out the ass and having people genuinely think we're all being vecna'ed, that that was the plot twist for the finale. We all rejoiced and had hope for questions answered, for an insane plot twist and for happy endings in the finale. Even though we didn't like vol 2, still had to watch vol 3, for the possibility of better.
The finale came out. the bomb went off, exploded everything. More goddamn questions and horrific ambiguous endings, even more so now. so much so that people think the finale is a fakeout, that it's not real. netflix advertisements and the duffers vague answers leave more hope and curiosity for more.
not to mention the last shadow had us all thinking it was gonna be relevant in s5, that it was gonna showcase some good shit but nope, just a few showing of memories, hardly even important to the plot. While it did add a bit to jamie's performance in s5 (which was beyond amazing btw) it really only insisted on a bit of empathy for vecna which to hell with that bullshit.
Istg this is the whole point. the entire show is built on theorizing, THE ENTIRE SHOW. Which is how they're gonna keep it alive and relevant. the entire fandom theorizes to the high heavens and they gave us enough plotholes, details and ambiguity for this very reason. this is genuinely the most sane reasoning in my opinion. there's nothing else that could adequately explain it
while i'm eating up the conformitygate, playgate and fakeout finale theories it's what they want i fear 😭 but it's just so good to pass up lmfao
i'm saying all this as i'm MAKING A FUCKING THEORY FOR WHY IT WAS SO BAD god help me i've officially lost it
