“Crazy together.”

I don't wanna bring the document that's been going around into this discussion because I don't want to potentially spread misinformation although I do 100% believe there are many cut scenes throughout the season and something has definitely happened because otherwise I've never seen such a miscommunication throughout the entire cast and crew - absolutely nothing they said about Volume 2 actually happened.

Mike Wheeler/Finn Wolfhard - "emotional weight" - doesn't exist.

"Dark Christmas" nope.

The whole going into Will's mind was SO underwhelming it was like a 2 minute scene and then he immediately woke up. It feels like so much should've happened.

The only plotline that seemed to get screentime and go into proper depth was the Holly and Camazotz plotline but even now I don't see where this is going and how it can be wrapped up within 1 hour and 20 minutes (considering the rest of the finale is epilogue.)

Lumax was great but so many things don't make sense with Max - I loved the scenes between her and Will but they seem random as before they never really had scenes together or seemed close meanwhile her and El barely interact or get a reunion - she also had no reaction to Kali or Hopper?

So many character relationships and interactions don't feel real or fall flat cause I feel like barely anyone takes notice of Kali or even questions her. Going off of this, many big moments or character reveals that I would have liked to see other character reactions to such as Will's powers were heavily brushed off and the characters just were immediately cool with it just felt a bit unrealistic to me (although this part could just be me nitpicking in all honesty.) The same can be said with Kali - everyone just ignores her presence apart from Hopper and we don't see anyone's opinion on her. Mr Clarke just gets dragged into everything and witnesses Eleven's powers and after a moment of shock is completely cool with it. Nothing about it feels real unlike other seasons.

Mike and Eleven feel so fucking distant I'll actually still be shocked if the show tries to still present them as endgame in the finale cause whenever they're on screen it feels like they only just met eachother yesterday.

Putting Byler aside, Mike and Will's relationship as childhood best friends is completely gone. Once again doesn't add up with anything Noah or Shawn Levy has been saying about Volume 2.

Did something genuinely happen with Netflix or the Duffers last minute because this has felt like a dream. Volume 2 doesn't feel real or look like anything that the cast described.

At the end of the day, it could genuinely just be awful writing with the cast under NDA to cover it up and lie, and perhaps we'll see this come to light after the finale airs and the cast are free to criticise.

Maybe some of these opinions will change after the finale and it'll clear everything up (doubt.)

But the quality difference between Volume 1 and 2 is genuinely insane. The ending of Sorcerer (which was incredible) and the hype that it created made volume 2 feel super misguided and distant from the first as it didn't live up to what it implied even though I did like episode 5 (honestly I did enjoy watching the whole volume other than episode 7 - I think I'll always love the show which is why I'm so disappointed - there is always gonna be aspects I love even in this bleak Volume 2 but I'm never gonna forget how much better this could've been.)

There are many other aspects that don't add up either - actors who said they'd show up on Volume 2 never did - the only sets that we really saw throughout the volume was the WSQK, Upside-down, Camazotz, etc (felt very trapped and disassociated), many BTS of scenes that never happened.

I really don't know what to think, other than something really suspicious is going on.

I guess we'll wait and see what happens after the finale.

Probably nobody is going to take the time to read all this, but I honestly just wanted to get all of my thoughts out of my head. God knows what the fuck is going on with Mike/El/Will and I mourn what we could've had and I genuinely think some of our theories would've been better than whatever happened.

I genuinely did not hate this volume, but episode 7 is what ruined it, that, and the fact that we all went into it expecting SO much more thanks to what was teased (stuff that never ended up happening) and also expecting stuff that makes much more sense for the story than canon.