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Billy's death in season 3 very much felt like a "WHOOPS we made this character very hatable how do we redeem him quickly? DEATH"

Like billy was a very interesting character (dont get me wrong he was racist, had anger isssues that he took out on those around him and among other things. he was not a great person but he was interesting) he made a good anatagonist for season 2 and his connection to the mind flayer in season 3 was hella interesting especially the parts where his conciousness broke through and showed how helpless a puppet he was.

I get what hey were going for with killing him off like that but i cant help but think of the possibilities that billy could have had as a character in season 4. Max could still have her guilt as the one who brought billy into it and caused his injuries and such. Getting flayed would be bound to shake him up similarly how steve was in season one. I dont know how much but probabaly to the point that billy might reach out to the only other people who know what the hells going on. Which could lead to a confrontation with Lucas and Max (replacing the tension from max greiving)

Even if he never fully redeemed himself it would be so fun to have him as a antihero character with a similar connection to the upside down as will and if the "department of electricity" looks into his connection too?

I dunno just wondering how his character would have played out if he lived longer

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P.s i cant remember if billy would still be in school or not so obvs all this would need to adjust a bit either way. Lol

1, I actually don't remember, I recall considering him Steve's age for ages but for some reason I also remember someone saying he was in the same year as Nancy. So I'm not sure. 2, YES I absolutely think that if he was more of an antihero (in the au where he never died) that'd be SO interesting and it'd give some interesting moral spectrum to the cast too imo. Also in general I'd love to see him have less intense interactions with the cast (and apologize to Lucas at some point) But yeah no I'd love to see this, this is awesome. Plus having another living person who was formerly flayed would have GREAT opportunities to explore more about how being flayed affects someone's psyche- not to mention any possible powers that could result since he'd still be connected too, but yeah overall there could be some great parallels here

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What would you fix about the Soviet Plotline in Season 3?

I'm halfway on s3 but I can kinda see why some people hate the 'Soviets in Hawkins' storyline. idk how you are going to rewrite but for me, based on my limited knowledge, if they planned on having Starcourt mall be a front for the Soviet's experiment to open another gate in American Soil they could have at least have them dressed up with American clothes and the guards carrying American weapons instead of their signature Ak's to make it more convincing.

what do you think?

(Okay so first off, a quick clarification— I answered the last ask (the one about the mindflayer) in a way that clarified how I would change that design in season 3 because at one point, I rather boldly declared I would— generally speaking you guys are meant to send me YOUR rewrite ideas, and I send them out along with some personal commentary!)

I think I get why some people hate the “Soviets on American Soil” plotline. I’ve heard people complain that the “Russian Villain” is a cliche, I’ve heard people say that it feels strange and underdeveloped.

Personally, the plotline makes sense to me from a historical standpoint because… this show takes place right in the middle of the Cold War. Tensions are high, the arms race is at full throttle. Of course the Soviets are gonna find out about the portal and figure out some way to open. It could be useful for PLENTY of reasons. Another version of the Space Race— “first man stepping into an alternate dimension”— Or there could be something that could be used as a weapon.

Starcourt mall works for me because it’s a good choice (on the Russians’ part) for use of a metaphor for invasion of ALL of America since. They’re doing this thing under a mall, the new face of American capitalism.

I didn’t have much of a problem with the lack of American clothes or weapons at all. Mainly because from a showmaking perspective you kind of have to find a way for the CHARACTERS to identify what’s happening.

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Hi!, so a while back you said you would want to change the season 3 finale fight with the flesh monster? I would really like to know how you would change it? Because i also have beef with the design.

The hospital monster moved like something not meant to be that shape and it could fall apart and kinda slurp under doorways which was fun and creepy!!! But the mindflayer monster at the end moved with no problem?

In season 2 the mind flayer moved like a bunch of smoke and particles just sticking close together. So it wouldn't be used to flesh. Feels like a missed opportunity for the same jerky scrambling movement shown in the hospital.

Id love to know how you would redesign the flesh monsters❤️

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OKAY SO. I’m SO SO SORRY IT TOOK ME THIS LONG OH MY GOD DUDE.

But. I finally have it.

The idea here is that the flesh puppet was made of… People. A whole load of people. It sure doesn’t look like a whole load of PEOPLE there in the official design for that season. Frankly it doesn’t look like anything but wet red sinew.

So. I made it VERY clear that it was people, very clear it was none! By just making a whole lot of HANDS!

Proportion wise, this is a much smaller monster, though it wasn’t totally meant to be (just ended up like that.) so this is more like a 10-foot-tall very small version of that final kaiju-esque product— this one having tons of hands and bending arms and hands and dripping fat and just SO much exposed muscle.

This thing kinda looks like something you’d fight in a resident evil game (<- guy who has never played resident evil) but I really like the outcome! I decided not to color it. I like how it is.

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jamie campbell bower must not write on and act in films or series where there is vile, abhorrent, repulsive, loathsome, heinous, death penalty punishment worthy necrophilia, incest, rape, pedophilia (NO to alice in wonderland, lewis carroll), zoophilia (NO to furries, fursonas)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! answering is not mandatory. remembering is.

The specificity of this ask made me wonder if he was cast in anything weird but like. The weirdest thing I can find is Sweeney Todd. I am. A bit confused as to why you asked me this in a stranger things rewrite takes blog. Or what this actually means. Thanks anon

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So, Vecna is a weird wrinkly amalgamation of coiling tendon like things that kinda look like the upside down vines. And he survived there for YEARS. There was very little water in the upside down. If there's any at all, it's scarce, and the life within the upside down has adapted to be able to go long periods of time without water. He was wasting away for sure and the only living things that vaguey imply there's something to sustain life with (not really since the democreatures prefer earth animals to eat) are demogorgon creatues who have adapted. I like the idea that Vecna has sustained himself off of demogorgon blood, like actually cracking open these badboys and eating em like a boar in a horror movie. Feeding himself in a way that has allowed him to completely and utterly abandon his humanity (in his own way, ascend to godhood, devouring his followers in the way a twisted king might. But he still withered. Humans-- Which is what he must eventually fall to the limitations of-- Cannot live like that for very long. He will still lose weight, still hunger, still yearn for something better, as his flesh retracts in on itself. His flesh was slowly being replaced-- Ship of theseus style-- with flesh and plant life from the upside down, kept together by his own telekinesis. Eventually, his limbs moved at his own whim. His blood almost entirely not his own. His stomach heaved and concaved. But he was a god. And gods do not die. Gods do not starve and gods do not fall just because the flesh they were cursed to bear was too WEAK for his will. So he kept his body alive. By force. By WILL. By his ever so gracious gifts. He has kept every part of him. Moving. Vines wrapping around every organ. As he wills them to pump and contract in JUST the right way.

Even if he had to think in order to do it. To make each part of his body that used to run unconsciously... An active thought. Heart. Lungs. Liver. nerves. Heart. Lungs. Liver. Nerves.

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Alright! I am! So sorry for being gone for ages, had a serious mental health funk! I'm going to get into that *singular inbox thing* this week for sure, working slowly. In the meantime I'm going to give a particular headcanon about why Vecna Looks Like That

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Okay so I do in fact have one message in my inbox (it's the mind flayer redesign one) and I promise I WILL get to it. I seriously apologize for the delay!

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Hey, I wanted to bring this blog back into circulation!

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Favorite plot element and least favorite plot element go

My favorite plot element has got to be Jason’s side plot and slow descent into madness in season 4, hence the pfp. I love him to pieces. He’s the protagonist of his own old theatre tragedy (a la the Odyssey or a Shakespeare work. More Shakespeare ngl). I can elaborate on that btw if asked.

My least favorite plot element has got to be the tweens’ plotline in season 3 (honestly pick any of them it’s all forgettable). This is entirely out of personal taste but the first half of season 3 had most of the stuff that had to do with the tweens was just,,, relationship drama. Which is GREAT for the target audience of young teenagers who love young teenage drama but at the same time. I am too aromantic for this I simply do not care.

None of it was actually STUPID, however- a lot of the show can range from great to merely mid, hence the need for this blog as something that’s merely for the whole ‘it’s okay but it COULD be sick as hell’ gripe.

But, honorable mentions:

(Negative)

1. I don’t like how Steve has lost almost all of his interesting morally questionable stuff from season 1 and has kind of been reduced to a much less interesting knightly himbo. His arc of becoming a better person happened way too long ago and now he feels like fandom bait.

2. I don’t like how Jason died. Idk if I mentioned it but it just seemed almost… TOO cruel, like it was designed for the audience to cheer as this guy met a comically gruesome death. Left a bad taste in my mouth.

(Positive)

1. I really loved the Will plot in season 2. The parts where he’s dealing with the mind Flayer are… so. So good.

2. I really liked the scene where Nancy and Jonathan show the scars on their hands. It felt really nice and intimate and I actually felt like they knew each other well enough to have a really nice romance.

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Okay say you get to change exactly one scene from Stranger Things. What scene would it be

OKAY. Phew. Uhh.

Okay it’s not exactly a scene but. I’d fix the stupid big monster fight in the season 3 finale by making the mind Flayer flesh avatar actually scary. Duffer brothers you should put me on the design team I know my way around flesh and bone and this thing looks fucking stupid.

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for season 5 im really hoping that they dont just do 'oh there are creatures now and theyre attacking humans oh no!!!!!!!!!' like i want them to have the upside down merging with the human world to *affect* the characters, like it did with 001/vecna. i think that would create a sense of 'oh fuck we need to do something to this or everything we've ever known/loved will be destroyed and/or mutilated and so will we succumb to this', it creates urgency for the characters to do something. and also if they were to team up with the russians in someway, i think that would be cool, because i dont think either americans or russians want to perish from this 'apocalypse'. but thats just me lol

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I think I answered something similar to this, but I agree. I want this to actually feel like it can INFECT the world, rather than just being “ooooo the demons from hell have been released ooooooo”. Even if they do go that route… I think that there’s something that could be done with that monster release thing, they could at least do something COOL.

the sun should have been blocked out. Endless night. More hospitable for spooky cold monsters!

Or make the night terrifying. Make people FEAR the night. Curfews are iron-fist and they don’t even HAVE to be because the fading sun is a warning in of itself.

Or finally DO SOMETHING WITH THE SPORES IN THE AIR!! WHAT ARE THEY! WHAT DO THEY DO AND WHH DO THEY LOOK LIKE DANDRUFF! God please anyone do something with it. Even if there’s the vines wrapping around the buildings and such then it doesn’t feel like it’s super urgent. Idk the duffers have got to do something cool I swear to god

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YESS LOVE YOUR BRAIN! Respatory issues would be so easy to add in too! Like give Will needing an inhaler now and have him use it in the background once or twice. WILL BEING MUTE!😃😃😃😃 or having a raspy voice from his vocal cords being shredded from the mind flayer. It would have been cool if Will kept losing time/seeing the upside down too since he was still tied to it.

It would also be really cool if Steve got a side affect from the demobat bites. Maybe got some black veins around the area and craved cold more than he should. (Demo rabies lol)

Dustin should also have upside down fuckery. He got blasted in the face with spores in the tunnels i beleive and handled dart bare handedly multiple times (thinking of how you can get salmonella from holding frogs then eating)

El's limp being from her leg getting partially eaten is *chefs kiss*

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YESSSSS ALL OF THESE ARE GREAT! I love all of these!! Ooooouuuuughhhhhh demobat rabies. That’s so cool. Yes. YES. Your brain. Your brain…

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where is the yuri in this show. i mean we had eleven and max, nancy and robin, but it isnt enough. I NEED MY YURIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII (eagle screech)

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YURRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

okay but yeah fair, sapphic romance deserves more of a spotlight in general. Eden should have gotten an even gothier girlfriend

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They should have written in the side affects of dealing with the upside down. We get Will diagnosed with PTSD in season 2 but they kinda push it aside as it instead being his link to the upside down (could be wrong with that i just cant think of them mentioning PTSD again after)

I get that its plot armor but it would have been great to see physical evidence of whats happened. Like el having a slight limp or something from having to rip that tentacle out of her leg in season 3. Steve needing a hearing aid or glasses from the amount of head injuries he's gotten. Max, if she wakes up, should absolutely be blind.

The only instance that comes to mind of a character getting a scar is johnathan and nancy from distracting the demogorgon and asking eachother if they still have it in season 2. Theres so much to work with and i wish they did more with it

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Yes! And respiratory issues! The air is canonically toxic in the upside down, and there’s particulates in the air— lots of them. Will especially should have lasting respiratory issues (he doesn’t have to like… cough that much, in this case they can just say it).

Maybe the upside down can affect them in other ways, too- but in my suggestions it’s much more “I think this series should have more horror/better body horror” rather than completely legitimate health effects. (Ex: I think El should have a limp because the thing in her leg had devoured a part of her flesh in order to grow to its current size. I think that Will should be mute or have scarring around his throat from the horrible tentacle thing from season 1. I think that he should have horrible nightmares that leave him terrified to go to sleep and something strange happens him, according to others; while he sleeps.)

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I can't stand the backslide in fandom analysis capabilities. I had hope back when the byler film analysis renaissance hit in 2022, but that just fizzled out into "uuuu :( it's too complex". the show isn't even all that complicated, either. so far, it's been very straightforward. compare it to x-files or dr. who, and people will see how not convoluted the plot is. hell, compare it to lord of the rings lore.

like 001 for example. if you start the show with 011, you're gonna have to explain 001. that was always coming. that was easily predictable as a point that was eventually going to come up. el was always going to have to meet her source. the only plot twist in that is that he's tied to the upside down. or another example, people are saying time travel is too complex. meanwhile they've been spoon-feeding us time travel references since the very first episode of the show. it was coming. they've been very blatant about it. same with the new stage play thing. henry's full backstory was always coming. it was going to have its big exposition. unless they had gone the route of "001 was a test tube baby", there was always going to have to be an explanation for him.

it's basic storytelling, and honestly the easter eggs have been really fun/clear for all three of the points i mentioned, but people want a mushy, digestible plot. heaven forbid they have to think about the plot for longer than 2 seconds in a row.

tl;dr: my hot take is that the show has been fairly well done, people are just brainrotted by spoonfed media and would rather have the show be told at heartstopper levels of media comprehension.

Okay yeah no I definitely get this. I’m kind of going back on something I said earlier about the convoluted-ness of the plot but it’s less that it actually IS convoluted (it’s not actually, you’re right, the lore can be summarized as “guy gets powers, guy can’t be contained well so the lab tried to replicate him, guy gets sent to alternate world where monsters roam. This world collides with ours, plot happens.”) and more just that it’s executed in a way where I think a plot twist was preferred over incomprehensible horror that the show appears to constantly WANT to do but doesn’t have the guts to stick with it in a meaningful way.

I VERY much appreciated the heaps of analysis when it came to Byler stuff back in 2022- it was a gold mine for good old fashioned in depth analysis. Got me to ship the two, anyway.

The time travel is not complex at all lol it’s been set up for ages with little nods here and there at least- and straight up in your face “TIME IS IMPORTANT” in others. I can’t remember all the instances off the top of my head but I can do a deep dive at some point (if inclined) about how time travel has been set up as a point in the show.

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trans nancy

Yknow what, sure, I’m not entirely sure how it could enhance the plot or her character (granted a good portion of Nancy’s non romance plotlines do directly involve her facing sexism so sure, her being transgender could change that context), but sure.

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personally if I was in that writing room I wouldn't have written that stupid plot twist stuff with vecna. it felt so forced to me, like the writers felt like they NEEDED to have a plot twist thrown in there to make things interesting when there was already so much going on. It just felt like...uneeded. I think I just don't like the fact that he was once human and it feels like he was sort of motivated to get revenge on eleven rather than just being a monster? if that makes sense? Like I just prefer the fact that we don't KNOW the true motivations of the mind flayer or whatever, it's incomprehensible and that makes is much scarier than vecna and more interesting imo. Rather than someone with a sad boy backstory.

on a more positive note I like how the Demogorgons became less of a threat throughout the seasons because they learned how to deal with them. It's nice to see them struggle in s1 only for them to be able to take them out easier in s4. I think that's cool.

Wholeheartedly agree, tulip anon, it’s one of my personal biggest gripes with the series! It makes Vecna into some lame ass 35-y/o guy who has beef with a teenager instead of the ACTUAL horrifying incomprehensible eldritch threat that the mind flayer posed. It hinders the story a LOT and overall makes me care quite a bit less. Plot twists like that are rarely fruitful and it just… Did not elaborate on it enough, I guess.

Like that one meme said, the guy was monologuing to a 10 year old who doesn’t know what the word friend means.