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Many people seemed to not understand the significance of Will's coming out. One of the reasons I say season 5 was perhaps better than seasons 2, 3 and 4 is because I thought the theme about the importance of finding yourself, and expressing yourself without fear of what others will think is a really important one in a coming of age story and I think the showrunners implemented it really well in the context of finding the courage and power to defeat evil in the world. It shares a nice parallel with the theme in A Never Ending Story where Sebastian (through Atreyu) has to believe in the power of imagination in order to save Fantasia. This theme seems to tie into some of the nods that season 5 makes to some of my favorite stories that I enjoyed growing up, like A Wrinkle In Time, The Never Ending Story (I only watched the movie, but who doesn't love the connection Sebastian has to Atreyu? Or the theme of The Nothing [the loss of imagination and the power of “to believe”] destroying the world?).
I think these themes are very pertinent today and connect very nicely to the theme of finding yourself and the freedom that comes from expressing yourself fully. And I thought the showrunners wove these themes from these stories very deftly into the narrative, and it elevated season 5 above the other seasons, especially since Robin did *such* a good job in her dialogue with Will of describing the freedom she felt when she acknowledged and accepted herself. This scene connects so well with Will's coming out. It's not just about pandering to “woke” agendas; the writers are using the power of finding one's identity as a power our heroes use to fight 001, just the way The Never Ending Story's Sebastian uses the power of imagination and believing to save Fantasia. And as someone who deeply appreciates the themes of A Wrinkle In Time and The Never Ending Story (and LOTR), I thought this was a brilliant way to infuse these types of themes from these great works into Stranger Things. The Lord of The Rings, A Wrinkle In Time and The Never Ending Story all share these types of themes, and, to me, it seems so fitting and right for Stranger Things to come up with its own themes that share in the power that imagination and virtue have in the fantasy literature that clearly influenced the Duffer Brothers.
Every season things go wrong, and in this one, for once, everything doesn't, what many view as lazy writing. But I think it works when you consider Will and the others find their inner power through the incredible growth they've gone through. So, for me, it felt right when they were able to defeat 001 relatively easily using their inner strength they've gained over 5 years of battling this evil. 001's performance in this show, and especially in season 5, really elevated these themes and thus season 5. When we get the realization 001 is just a puppet of the nether stone, and he only need to resist and choose good; that was an extremely powerful and compelling scene. I cannot remember any villain having such a convincing possibility of realizing their innate good within themselves. I honestly thought for a moment he was going to be redeemed. This was one of the most powerful scenes in the entire show.
Now I will have to rewatch episode 8 to contemplate further on El's ending. But another theme I think the great fantasy works that I believe The Duffer Brothers were influenced by is this idea of importance of hope and how belief is tied to it. While I personally do not believe El survived, I think thematically it's very fitting for Mike to create that possibility through the D&D campaign, to create that narrative of hope, because is that not why we have the fantasy genre in the first place? Reality doesn't always go the way we want; we lose the ones we love, things don't work out as we wish, but we can go back and read The Lord of the Rings or A Wrinkle In Time, or The Neverending Story, or we can create a D&D campaign and leave the possibility for the happy outcome we all hope for in life. And we can hope for the ones we lose that they find the happy ending they so deserved somewhere in the great beyond.
Honestly, I cannot wait to rewatch season 5. I think I will enjoy it more the second time around. I feel lucky that the themes I hold most dear in fantasy are shared by the Duffer Brothers, and that they did such a brilliant job, carefully and subtly incorporating them into this final season and finale.
I think these themes are very pertinent today and connect very nicely to the theme of finding yourself and the freedom that comes from expressing yourself fully. And I thought the showrunners wove these themes from these stories very deftly into the narrative, and it elevated season 5 above the other seasons, especially since Robin did *such* a good job in her dialogue with Will of describing the freedom she felt when she acknowledged and accepted herself. This scene connects so well with Will's coming out. It's not just about pandering to “woke” agendas; the writers are using the power of finding one's identity as a power our heroes use to fight 001, just the way The Never Ending Story's Sebastian uses the power of imagination and believing to save Fantasia. And as someone who deeply appreciates the themes of A Wrinkle In Time and The Never Ending Story (and LOTR), I thought this was a brilliant way to infuse these types of themes from these great works into Stranger Things. The Lord of The Rings, A Wrinkle In Time and The Never Ending Story all share these types of themes, and, to me, it seems so fitting and right for Stranger Things to come up with its own themes that share in the power that imagination and virtue have in the fantasy literature that clearly influenced the Duffer Brothers.
Every season things go wrong, and in this one, for once, everything doesn't, what many view as lazy writing. But I think it works when you consider Will and the others find their inner power through the incredible growth they've gone through. So, for me, it felt right when they were able to defeat 001 relatively easily using their inner strength they've gained over 5 years of battling this evil. 001's performance in this show, and especially in season 5, really elevated these themes and thus season 5. When we get the realization 001 is just a puppet of the nether stone, and he only need to resist and choose good; that was an extremely powerful and compelling scene. I cannot remember any villain having such a convincing possibility of realizing their innate good within themselves. I honestly thought for a moment he was going to be redeemed. This was one of the most powerful scenes in the entire show.
Now I will have to rewatch episode 8 to contemplate further on El's ending. But another theme I think the great fantasy works that I believe The Duffer Brothers were influenced by is this idea of importance of hope and how belief is tied to it. While I personally do not believe El survived, I think thematically it's very fitting for Mike to create that possibility through the D&D campaign, to create that narrative of hope, because is that not why we have the fantasy genre in the first place? Reality doesn't always go the way we want; we lose the ones we love, things don't work out as we wish, but we can go back and read The Lord of the Rings or A Wrinkle In Time, or The Neverending Story, or we can create a D&D campaign and leave the possibility for the happy outcome we all hope for in life. And we can hope for the ones we lose that they find the happy ending they so deserved somewhere in the great beyond.
Honestly, I cannot wait to rewatch season 5. I think I will enjoy it more the second time around. I feel lucky that the themes I hold most dear in fantasy are shared by the Duffer Brothers, and that they did such a brilliant job, carefully and subtly incorporating them into this final season and finale.