32 Changes "Stranger Things" Fans Wish They Could Make To The Show's Fourth Season
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There are just so...many...spoilers for Stranger Things Season 4 ahead. Proceed with caution, and a cassette tape of your favorite song.
Now that we're facing the long, lonely wait for Season 5 of Stranger Things, us fans have to find a way to divert ourselves until we find out if Max is okay. (She did not look okay. Oh god, I hope Max is okay.)
Netflix / Via giphy.com
After binging and dissecting all nine episodes of Stranger Things Season 4, the fans have moved on to the natural next step: Figuring out how they'd make it even more perfect. So there were plenty of suggestions when Redditor u/thargarens asked r/StrangerThings, "If you could make any changes to Season 4, what would they be?" Here are 32 honorary writers' room pitches.
Suggestions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
1."I'd want them to actually show what happens to Yuri and Enzo. 'Cause they betrayed their own country, so what are they gonna do now?"
2."I would add a real character death and El actually losing to One. I really was hoping for an Empire Strikes Back type of ending. El hurt, a major character death, the armies of evil marching out from hell to victory. Season 5 being the last season, I was hoping that they would leave it on a dark note to pick it back up in Season 5 and wrap it up. The show right now has a tone that means no main character or original cast member is in real danger. I think Steve dying would have been a great (and sad) moment for the show that would have really stuck out to everyone. Eddie, I thought, was a perfect character to kind of replace him in the group dynamic. I don't know, I feel like the last two episodes of Season 4 really just fell flat because they didn't commit to the high stakes danger and tone they set up in Part 1 of the season."
3."Some elaboration on how Hopper’s ankle healed so quick should be the first and foremost issue to bring up."
4."I did not want Mike to be still in love with Eleven. I thought it was harshly realistic that you can be romantically rejected while being that incredibly special girl with superpowers. I found the romantic rejection was a bold choice from the writers, and I was happy to see Eleven experience such pain and make it through, finding her own emotional independence and sense of self-worth again. Maybe it's because I've been through it and I know how hard it is and how much stronger it made me in the end. Mike's speech about being 'just too scared that she wouldn't need him anymore' just did not make sense to me; it was forced and cheesy."
5."The whole jock plot line was completely useless in my opinion."
6."I would have liked the 'Satanic cult' stuff to play a bigger role in Vecna's plan. Like, causing the townspeople to turn on each other was part of furthering his goals. Also, it would have been interesting if Hopper had returned to the US still dealing with his feelings of being 'cursed,' and then having Vecna target him and Max at the same time, leaving Eleven to have to choose who to save. But by the time she saved Hopper and then went to save Max, it was too late (or almost too late, as it actually happened). Not sure how they would have done this, and obviously, a lot of the story would have had to change, but it's an idea."
7."Re-structure the first couple of episodes to significantly reduce the time it takes for Eleven to go back to the facility. Have the diorama destroyed before the painful class presentation, and skip the part where El tries to use her powers to no avail. Straight from 'diorama destroyed' to the roller-rink, without that painful start to the season. I'm not saying that changing that would make the season flawless, but it would definitely make it better."
8."I would’ve had Sullivan and his guys stake out the Surfer Boy's shop the California gang hid in. Seemed like such an obvious way to add stakes to an otherwise stake-less situation. It makes sense, too, because in real life, if a Surfer Boy's pizza van stole away a government test subject, they’d definitely be scouting all of those locations within a certain mile radius."
9."How about explaining how Papa survived the demogorgon attack at the end of Season 1?"
10."Add some more scenes showing the Byers’ family life. I didn’t really feel the connection there. I wanted to see Will and Eleven as siblings, Joyce being a great mom, Jonathan being a big brother. Just some wholesome scenes before everything went to shit."
11."No time jump, and no volunteering scenes. They were like, 'Yay, let’s go volunteer!!!' And one of their friends is in the hospital and might not live, and their other friend is dead. And at the last scene on the hillside, I would have had every character there."
12."Remove the 'Two Days Later' and show us what happened in those two days. I want to see when everyone found Eddie dead, how the Russian gang made it back to Hawkins, the Cali gang’s trip to Hawkins, what happened to Sam Owens and the military guy who was against El. I also want to see how earthquake relief got started. Should also add the events regarding Max. Why was her mother not at the hospital? Was her mother missing because of the 'earthquake'?"
13."Hopper and Eleven have a much more dramatic reunion. Car pulls up, door opens in slow motion, a boot hits the ground. The outside characters' jaws drop, and they look on in shock and excitement. Cuts to Eleven wondering what’s going on outside. Back outside, the camera pans from the faces of the kids outside to behind Hopper's head. From his third person point-of-view, we see Eleven open the door. She hesitates in disbelief for a moment. She can't believe her eyes, then Hopper gives the “Hey, kid” line, and they run to each other and embrace. Rather than Eleven just sitting in her old room, looking up, and saying, 'Oh hey, what’s up Dad, thought you were dead.' Scene was very anticlimactic to me."
14."I would not make Jonathan a stoner. It'd be funnier if he was a straight man to stoner Argyle. I feel like it ruins his man-of-the-house, responsible, and attentive older brother thing. Without that and his photography, what is Jonathan? He was almost totally unrecognizable this season."
15."Will needed a heart-to-heart moment to comfort El like Jonathan did to him."
16."The writing is getting a little predictable with the major season deaths consistently being the new character that was only just introduced. Killing Eddie felt cheap, and his death served no purpose. Why did he have to run outside and fight the swarm of bats when his job was simply to distract them? And they didn't even need to be distracted anymore when he did it! That, and Mike/Will/Jonathan felt like they had very little to do this season."
17."Put Dustin in more imminent danger, a life or death situation in which Eddie sacrificed himself to save him. Eddie's death felt kind of unnecessary. It would’ve been more meaningful if it meant that it saved Dustin’s life."
18."I would add more friendship scenes, like fun ones between Max and El. That was something I really felt was missing from the end of the season."
19."No more new characters. (I love Eddie, not saying he shouldn’t be in Season 4, and I wouldn’t want him to be removed from the show.) But after Season 4, the show cannot hire new people for the cast. The writers can barely keep up with the main cast."
20."Cut down the amount of scenes in Russia. Include a storyline with the Byers family bonding with Eleven. Have all of the characters back in Hawkins for the final two episodes."
21."Max doesn't go blind, and she’s completely fine; her and Lucas get to see their movie on Friday, and everyone lives happily ever after. (This is DEF not because I sobbed for an hour over Max.)"
22."Vecna is nothing but a 5-Star General of the Mind Flayer."
"Vecna wouldn’t be in charge of or have power over the Mind Flayer, and the Mind Flayer wouldn’t be reduced to essentially semi-sentient 'particles.' He would worship the Mind Flayer as an Eldritch spider god."
23."Less pushing Steve and Nancy. More Mommy Steve moments."
24."Hopper kills the demogorgon BEFORE the bats do enough damage to kill Eddie. Eddie lives and is still heroic. That's all I need."
25."Eddie lives and Steve dies. I love both characters, but Steve's arc is finished, and Eddie had SO MUCH ROOM to improve and bond with the cast. Oh well..."
26."That when Eddie and Dustin fight the bats, Dustin brought over the Farrah Fawcett spray and the lighter Steve used throughout the series and then created a fire tornado of bats. It would have been incredible."
27."Give Will something else to do other than touching his neck, saying, 'He’s coming, he’s here' and talking about D&D. I know it makes sense that he keeps talking about D&D because he misses his childhood since he got so much of it taken away from him. But I hope they give Will a bigger part in the final season."
28."I think this is going to be unpopular, but I think the show would have benefited from killing off one of the protagonists that has been around for more than one season. I love all of the main characters and would hate to see them die, but especially by the end of the season, it started to feel like all of our long-standing protagonists were invincible. I feel like there aren't any stakes anymore for the OGs. Seeing someone like Max or Steve die would have hit really, really hard...and as sad as it would have been, I think it would have made the whole thing much more emotional and powerful. I've had this problem with the show for a while, and I was hoping Season 4 would break the mold. The show constantly adds more and more characters to root for while killing off almost nobody. I absolutely loved the season, and it's my favorite since Season 1, but I just wish our entire massive main cast didn't feel invincible."
29."Make Robin babble a little less because she was so calm and collected in the previous season. Really enjoyed her again this season, but it just didn’t seem the same. Give Jonathan and Steve new ladies, and let Nancy go solo! They seemed to not want to address the love triangle this entire season. Show Enzo and Yuri when they got to the US. Have Eddie’s body not disappear in the Upside Down but somehow show that he wasn’t the murderer but a kindhearted hero."
30."Less visual effects. I know a lot of the final two episodes takes place in the Upside Down, but I really miss when it felt more like an homage to the '80s than an MCU film."
31."This is going to be an unpopular opinion, and I love Hopper, too, but now that I saw the fourth season, I think he should've died in Season 3. That 'death scene' of his and his letter to El would've been a perfect ending for his character. I think his story in Season 4 took up way too much screen time and wasn't that interesting or crucial to the main story. Demodogs in Russia could've been written out; in my opinion, it didn't add anything to the plot. And we have a season left, and I'm worried what Hopper is going to do in it and how important he's going to be, because if he isn't, then he had a perfect goodbye in Season 3 and then two seasons after that with not much to do. But that's just my future worry. Also, an adult badass's death would've raised the stakes, because basically, everyone fighting against this thing is a child or freshly out of high school."
32.And finally: "Give Will a decent haircut. The poor kid's been through enough."
