Stranger Things 3 Spoiler discussion thread

[Nemesis]

And I did not say Billy was pure evil

I didn’t mean to say that YOU necessarily called him “pure evil”, but I can see where my quotation marks might have implied that, so I apologize for any misunderstanding. I meant more that regardless of however many terrible things Billy (or anyone, real or fictional) has on their rap sheet, they are still human and not beyond sympathy. Having sympathy for someone does not mean condoning their actions. Sometimes it means feeling compassion for someone in spite of them.

Until now, I had no idea he was a popular character. I never liked him personally, and I certainly never knew any of the fan theories or whatnot. I’m definitely glad they decided to include a positive gay character rather than go with that particular fan speculation about Billy (I’m bi myself, and representation is very important to me). ...Though I admit I found Robin a bit boring.

But anyway, I honestly didn’t think there were that many scenes designed to make Billy sympathetic. There was the bullying from his father in one episode of S2, and the beach flashback in S3. That’s about it. He didn’t really do anything heroic or lovable until the very, very end, so it’s hard for me to see that as over-the-top pandering to Billy fans. I suppose his heavy presence in S3 could be called that, but he was an effective villain and far, far from likable 95% of that time.

I thought there were rumors about Will being gay? I know he had a date for the Snowball that was a girl but... that doesn't mean much after Mike saying flat-out "sorry you don't like girls"

I think that’s more about Will not wanting to let go of his childhood. This is shown when he smashes the play-fort and tears up his old drawings. He and his friends are growing up. Will just wants to play D&D and hang out like they used to, but his friends are losing interest in those things and becoming obsessed with girls and relationship problems. A lot of kids go through that, sadly... I certainly did with my own friends.

[Sunset]

Ok,  don’t know why I torture myself by ready YouTube comments.  The number of people who make a comment “If Suzie hadn’t insisted on that song then Hopper wouldn’t have died!”     Uhm no.   Hopper “died” because the writers wanted him to.  I don’t get the number of people who can’t grasp that concept.

*rant over*

[Icey]

You know, without them ever really stating it, that Billy has a problem with Lucas because he is black. It does not make it right, but I grew up in that time in a small town and I can tell you that was pretty common place. I guess that is why I did not fixate on it, I knew it that era there was some backwards thinking about mixed race couples.

This is going to be a VERY unpopular post, but I hope they do not make Will OR ANYONE gay just for the sake of 'inclusion.' I really hate that word. In theory it is an amazing word, but it has been appropriated and typically means anything but. At least in my personal experiences. People need to stop focusing on checking off boxes and tell a good story worth watching.

I have stopped watching 99.9% of my shows I used to watch because of this whole need to shoe horn gay characters into everything. I am 100% an ally, but it all seems VERY forced and fake and pandering. Most of my gay family and friends hate it. Whatever happened to telling a good story? When writing your focus should be on THAT and not forced 'diversity.'

When Mike said that to Will I figured it was their attempt to make Will gay, but I do not see Will as interested in ANYONE. I think he just wants to be a kid. I know I was the same way at his age. I didn't want to make out with anyone or go to dances, I wanted to play with my toys on our patio. I got made fun of for it a lot, but when girls my age were getting pregnant at 13 I was still playing Barbie.

So I know some people will think I am a jerk for this post, but my point is this: Everyone wants content creators to force characters into stories so they can be represented or so they can see themselves in a character (which is pretty narcissistic). I grew up reading comics and watching 'boy' TV shows and movies and never once did I think to myself 'Oh, I cannot get into this story or these characters because I do not see myself in them.'

Entertainment, especially fantasy, is supposed to take us OUT of the boring doldrums of reality and present us with a fantastical journey to lose ourselves in. People want to ruin that with agendas and quotas and check marks. That is when entertainment ceases to be entertaining. You can see it is already taking a toll on the entertainment industry.







Post Merge: July 08, 2019, 07:24:08 AM

I was thinking about this topic a bit more while doing dishes and I have to say that I really like how they approached Robin's sexuality. It did not feel forced or shoe horned, it felt natural. I like how they sort of deflected and made you think she was crushing on Steve (poor Steve, he cannot catch a break) when she was really crushing on someone else. How many of us can relate to that? Gay or straight, that is a pretty common phenomenon.

[BlackCurtains]

Well, I can certainly relate to Will either being reluctant to grow up and being gay... so...

[BubbleTea]

So do y’all think that Dustin is a secret pony fan? Or is it his new girlfriend that introduced him to mlp?

I feel like he's secretly a fan 

totally 

[gemini_pony]

Can we all take a moment to talk about how precious Alexei was? He deserved better....*cries*. I will think of him everytime I drink a cherry slurpee (my favorite).

[Shileah]

I've finally finished the season last night too, and I loved it! Now I finally know what scene I want to create once my STAJ arrives, hehe 

Dustin is a King Geek so of course he is well versed in the MLP universe. I'm really glad that Suzie is real, their interaction was the cutest! I loved pretty much everything about the season, the only thing that left me a bit "meh" was that it feels as if Will basically had the same two lines the whole season (kind of Jon Snow 'I dun wun it' vibe), and that no one cared that he obviously still has a bit of the mind flayer in him, at least he always touched his neck - what about that, really? Is he like a sleeper agent now?

As for Hopper, I'm 100% team 'Hopper is the American'. What striked me as odd was when we saw the US military entering the Russian base, there were NO Russians there anymore at all. None! They were all gone! Sure, yeah, those around the machine seemed to have been pulverized, but where were all those other Russian military dudes? The place was swarming with them when the gang infiltrated it, but no one was left. So I think they must have had some kind of secret escape way, and they took Hopper with them. I guess we will find out in the last season!

I also enjoyed how well acted everything was. Billy always stayed Billy... in his eyes. Joyce was just perfect, so very, very believable. El is always leaving me in awe, such a young actress can play such a unique character so well! And the actor of Jonathan does a great job portraying how broken and hurt he is, you just need to take one look at him and you can see it. Last season, they had an extra show called Beyond Stranger Things that had interviews with the actors and it was surreal to see the actor out of character (AND with a broad British accent lol). Erica was doing an amazing job, too - I usually don't like children that are so know-it-all, but she is know-it-all in a nice way One of my alltime favourites is, and will always be, Steve. I hated him with a passion first in S1, so mission accomplished, but his development was so awesome! I really hope the poor guy will win a fight and get the girl next season, haha!

Will probably start a rewatch soon. Not that I didn't already rewatch S1+2 before S3 aired, lol Love love love the show!

[Nemesis]

Can we all take a moment to talk about how precious Alexei was? He deserved better....*cries*. I will think of him everytime I drink a cherry slurpee (my favorite).

Yes! I was so sad to see him go... even if I did kind of see it coming.

I got my ST 1 and 2 Blu-Ray sets the other day (which I bought largely for the epic jewel cases), so I will be rewatching the earlier seasons as well.

[gemini_pony]

Can we all take a moment to talk about how precious Alexei was? He deserved better....*cries*. I will think of him everytime I drink a cherry slurpee (my favorite).

Yes! I was so sad to see him go... even if I did kind of see it coming.

I got my ST 1 and 2 Blu-Ray sets the other day (which I bought largely for the epic jewel cases), so I will be rewatching the earlier seasons as well.

I actually had just thought I'm sure he's going to die because my favorite characters always die in shows .

[Sunset]

Yes, Alexi’s death was sad.

I don’t think Will has any of the Mindflayer in him, per say.  He is just super sensitive to its presence.  The touching his neck was to illustrate the proverbial goosebumps and “hairs on his neck stood on end.” 

[Shileah]

Maybe, yeah. They definitely showed him getting goosebumps when he touched his neck! I'll have to rewatch the end of S2 again, I thought they showed a shot of his neck showing the black mindflayer "spores" (for a lack of better words), but that could have been in S1, too - my mind has a tendency to mix such things up

[Nemesis]

The fact that Will is sensitive to the Mindflayer makes me think there must still be something of it inside him, though... Like how you develop an immunity to a virus after you’ve had it once, or even a horizontal gene transfer kind of thing. I feel like he’s not a “normal” human anymore. I almost wonder if they will have him develop powers or something down the road?

[Sunset]

The fact that Will is sensitive to the Mindflayer makes me think there must still be something of it inside him, though... Like how you develop an immunity to a virus after you’ve had it once, or even a horizontal gene transfer kind of thing. I feel like he’s not a “normal” human anymore. I almost wonder if they will have him develop powers or something down the road?

Will having some kind of powers would at least give him more to do in the show.  I can get behind that.

[Koudoawaia]

My husband binge watched it. He loves this show. I stuck around for a little bit because I love the 80s throwbacks but I started not being able to be in the room while it was on because it was way too gruesome for me. Horror isn't really my thing <<

[Sunset]

https://youtu.be/KRG3QCfo8Z8

This is most interesting....