Stranger Things finale

[sholio]

I enjoyed it! Haters to the left!


Then again I was never here for the shipping - I knew my only real ship (Steve/Nancy/Jonathan) would never happen in canon, and in fact, I think it was about the closest thing I can imagine getting to an actual OT3 ending on screen: none of them are attached, they're all friends and get together regularly because they miss each other. Post-canon OT3 fic would be incredibly easy to write without even half trying. (I was halfway hoping for a Stancy ending, but I think the show made a pretty good case that they want different things, and if I didn't have that, having Jonathan and Nancy as amicable exes was the next best thing for me. I'm genuinely surprised, in a good way, that the show went with that mature an ending for them - they're still figuring out what they want, and sticking with their high school sweetheart(s) may not be that thing.)

There's a lot about the last few episodes that I'm choosing to ignore (not the least of it being the extremely high redshirt body count at the hands of Our Heroes - like they're just going to let everyone walk away after killing like 40 soldiers) but - it was fun! Honestly loved the death fakeout with Steve, and his and Jonathan's reconciliation. The boss fight was fun, and I liked that everyone got a role to play, and so many of the recurring supporting characters ended up in on the Hawkins secret by the end.

And in general I really enjoyed seeing where everyone ended up. The teens (now 20-somethings, I guess) were always my favorite thing about the show, and I genuinely loved their endings: two of them in college, Nancy working at a newspaper, and Steve as a teacher and coach all feels very right for them. And it makes sense that none of them were really each other's HEA; they all want different things, and there's always fic. In retrospect it's kind of funny how many of the show's main ships got torpedoed by the end - I think the only ones who actually ended up together at the end of it all were Lucas/Max and Hopper/Joyce. But again, I'm not in it for the shipping, and most of them were just kids when they met; it makes sense that they aren't all going to be each other's be-all and end-all. (Also, the show deciding to sidestep the main ship wars by going "Well, none of them actually" is honestly the funniest thing it could have done.)

Enjoyed Dustin's "down with the man!" valedictorian speech, and seeing the younger actors finally getting to play closer to the age they really are, lol.

El's (maybe) death ... ehhhhhh. I was thinking throughout the whole sacrifice scene that this was one of those pointless sacrifices where the characters could literally do anything else. It does make more sense as deliberately faking her death, and I like that the show never quite tells you for sure, but heavily implies that a fakeout is what it was. (But I did like that we don't know - it keeps the feeling of sacrifice while still leaving it open to imagine her out there somewhere. The one place in the entire episode where I did tear up was that one shot of El - maybe alive, maybe just Mike's fantasy - standing and looking at the waterfalls.)

It's nice to have things wrapped up and not have to avoid spoilers anymore. Kicking around the idea of writing some kind of OT3-ish (or OT4-ish even) ending tag, but honestly I was pretty happy with the endings and the sense of everyone getting started on their new post-Hawkins, post-Upside-Down lives.

Comments

[sheron]

I feel like this is an ending that could result in a ton of fix it and ship fic, so it's good for fandom!

[sholio]

Ohhhhh yeah. I mean, the fandom is a wanky trash fire, so there will probably be a lot of people ragequitting as well, but it is absolutely MADE for follow-up fic, fixits, reunion fic, and similar. And it definitely didn't feel like an upsetting betrayal in the way that - just to pull something out of the air - White Collar did. xD It just requires fic!

[sovay]

(Also, the show deciding to sidestep the main ship wars by going "Well, none of them actually" is honestly the funniest thing it could have done.)

With zero investment in and almost as little knowledge of canon, I can think of much stupider things that shows have done.

[sholio]

With zero investment in and almost as little knowledge of canon, I can think of much stupider things that shows have done.

This is very accurate. Honestly, I feel like going with breaking up most of the couples (who were all kids when they met anyway!) is a more mature outcome than I was expecting from a show that's leaned pretty heavily into shipping since day 1! It's not unreasonable that one of the teen couples stayed together, but having all of them meet their endgame love interest before the age of 18 stretches credibility a bit.

[sheron]

And it actually makes post-canon fanfic *easier*!

[black_bentley]

(Also, the show deciding to sidestep the main ship wars by going "Well, none of them actually" is honestly the funniest thing it could have done.)

TRULY. Although I've watched ST for years I've never really been In The Fandom, and when I unmuted the tags on Tumblr after watching episode 7 I could not believe what a binfire it was over there...

Dustin's speech was GREAT. And I really liked that not everyone was part of an endgame couple, especially when (as you say) it did all seem to be fairly heavily geared towards shipping from the start. El's death does make more sense as a fakeout, I think, as an actual sacrifice it did seem pointless.

[sholio]

The fandom is THE WORST, I swear. I had unmuted the tag on Tumblr since I no longer had to worry about spoilers, but promptly muted it again because every take is the Worst Take and it just never ends.

And I really liked that not everyone was part of an endgame couple, especially when (as you say) it did all seem to be fairly heavily geared towards shipping from the start.

Yes! This is fairly unusual for a show like that, I feel - especially one so geared towards love triangles and will-they/won't-they pairings. It makes sense that most of the kids didn't find their forever love among the people they dated in high school, and I appreciated that the show was willing to do that.

[black_bentley]

Honestly, I'm glad I've not really been keeping track of any ST fandom stuff because it does appear (on Tumblr, anyway) to be wall to wall ship wars and Terrible Discourse. Although mildly fascinating that "queerbaiting" seems to be treated as synonymous with "my one preferred queer ship wasn't made canon".

It makes sense that most of the kids didn't find their forever love among the people they dated in high school, and I appreciated that the show was willing to do that.

Same! It felt like quite a mature way to end it as far as the canon relationships were concerned, which actually did surprise me a bit. There were a couple of things I'd have like to have seen more of (what happened with Robin and Vickie?!) but overall I think it worked pretty well given how much they had to try and tie together. They definitely haven't done a Game of Thrones on it!

[scintilla10]

I thoroughly enjoyed it too! I thought the main characters each got great little reveals that hinted at their futures, and they all felt pretty right to me. Dustin's speech, aw! <3 I was frustrated by El's sacrifice too, but I really liked how they gave it ambiguity. The ending feels so open and welcoming to whatever ships or futures people want to explore with the characters!

[sholio]

I'm delighted that I'm not the only one who liked it! And yeah, I think the ending is absolute dynamite for fixits, get-together fic, or anything else that people want to write about, in a way that show finales rarely are. I don't think it really closed the door on any of the pairings, without committing itself to the point where you'd have to break up a couple to get the character together with someone else.