Stranger Things must finally kill its main characters, otherwise season 5 will be a snore festival

Stranger Things creator Ross Duffer scared fans of his fantasy series. Okay, he tried it during the break of the two-part published season 4: “I would worry about the characters […] There’s this ominous feeling that things aren’t going to turn out well.” Clear message: we should breath of death in the neck of cute, innocent Dustin! Or any other popular character.

Stranger Things fails to kill main characters in season 4 either

The thing is, it doesn’t work anymore. No matter how often the creators promise their series will be darker and more mature – in the end they shy away from the final blow that separates Stranger Things from series competitors like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones. Stranger Things doesn’t kill main characters, So no one from Eleven’s closest circle and certainly no characters from the very beginning.

She just can’t. Or, quite possibly, she doesn’t want it. If you had the choice to kill future father-of-six Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) or not, you would probably choose the clemency. The fans now know about this delicacy in dealing with the core characters and the tension inevitably suffers as a result. Spoilers follow for all episodes of Stranger Things.

Stranger Things fools us with an impressively regular death pattern

The death threats carefully distributed in the trailer for part 2 triggered the desired speculation. Fans wondered who would fall victim to Vecna ​​in the finals. Hardly anyone believed in the death of Will (Noah Schnapp) or Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo). Eddie, who had just been introduced, pushed himself into pole position among the death row inmates. Because it fits perfectly Death pattern from Stranger Things.

The Netflix series consistently spares its main characters or even brings them back from the afterlife, such as Will in Season 1 and Hopper (David Harbour) in Season 4 (and Max, we’ll get to that later). Instead, she regularly sacrifices newly introduced and fresh ones fan favourites built characters. This is really happening. Everyone. individuals. Season (Season 1 naturally excluded).

This is a very clever, but transparent trick. When important figures die nearby, this simulates something like mortal danger for the popular main characters Mike, Eleven or Dustin. Their risk of dying is practically zero by season 5 at the latest. In the dramatic season finale, Eleven presents a new ability that stems directly from the Duffer brothers’ fear of loss.

Eleven’s new superpower cements the main characters’ death protection

We now come to Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink), who has been a part of the Stranger Thingser’s inner circle since Season 2. This text would not exist if the most recent final episode had shown courage and pulled through. Max succumbs to injuries inflicted on her by the villain Vecna. She’s clinically dead in over a minute.

Then Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) uses her powers in a surprising way and gets her back from the afterlife. Apparently, she can focus energy and get a heart beating again, even from a distance. The next time a character Eleven loves (not Eddie, for example) is dying, we know we can count on the telekinetically gifted superhero and her powers of resuscitation. Soothing – and quite boring.

The death allergy becomes a suspense problem in Stranger Things season 5 at the latest. While there was previously a small possibility that the authors would send one of the older characters to the afterlife, Eleven’s new power now works like a safety net.

That makes Fight against monsters and actually overpowering demons increasingly pointless. For example, in Season 5, should a Demobat crush scratch Eleven’s friend Mike (Finn Wolfhard) to death, the heroine could even telekinetically mend him from afar.

It’s funny that the Eleven actress, of all people, is exploited by her showrunners as a lifesaver at the last minute. Because Millie Bobby Brown recently accused the Duffers of being “sensitive Sallies”, that is wimps to be when it comes to consistently dumping characters. Stranger Things needs to be more like Game of Thrones, find them. The Duffers were pretty upset about that and we want to give them some space to defend here.

Stranger Things has to find the middle ground between GoT and TKKG in Season 5

The writers say they’ve avoided incisive character deaths because they would leave an overly tragic lingering impression on the show’s atmosphere. A death like Mike was “depressing”. You have to process such an event for 2 seasons. There is definitely something to it. Stranger Things isn’t as cynical as Game of Thrones, which can just move on after a Red Wedding carnage. On the contrary, this series is characterized by a great sensitivity. She absolutely loves her characters. But a horror fantasy series has to be find a middle ground between Game of Thrones and TKKG.

Because in the long term, a danger vacuum arises in series that send their characters into life-threatening situations without endangering their lives. A life-or-death struggle seems hollow and insipid when viewers can rest assured that the worst outcome is ruled out. The Duffers understood that too: At the end of the series in Season 5, they still want to discuss important character deaths.

Yes, please do. I’m not calling on the Stranger Things creators to kill here… Although, actually, that’s exactly what I want. Dear Duffer brothers, we all love the Stranger Things characters. For real. But death is part of life. Especially in a horror series with bloodthirsty monsters.

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