Now I must know your ideas for a “you die, I die” scene for Steve and Dustin in the finale!
So like you, I definitely thought that the mindflayer was defeated too easily AND i thought that the third part of their plan - destroy the upside down with the bomb - would also run into problems and it, just didn't. back when volume 2 dropped, i assumed that steve and dustin would be involved in setting the bomb because dustin came up with that part of the plan. I thought visually they'd been set up as a duo in front of the rest of the crew and then, of course, u die, i die had been established. So I really wanted to see Steve and Dustin setting the bomb or taking care of whatever problem arose with it. I assumed the remote detonator wasn't going to trigger properly and someone(s) would need to reset it. I actually wrote a fic with this premise before the finale dropped.
God, I think i had a bunch of ideas spinning around in the week between vol 2 and the finale including Dustin getting vecna'ed (that was a common idea for a lot of people i think), stuff with the bomb, parallels with El and Kali being jointly suicidal, and an attempt at sacrificing themselves for the group.
I guess I will limit it to one or two ideas for this ask though and keep it tied closely to the finale rather than going too far off the plot we got. I would have skipped the tower scene we got. instead, the tower is weakened as its top scrapes the abyss floor, loosening its base so that its much more unstable, but El is able to stop the worlds in time. This will be a set up for later.
Then, in the abyss, I would have loved to see in the fight with Vecna a real "all hope is lost" moment where Vecna starts winning. There should have been demos everywhere, including bats, and thats what the group should have been fighting, not one giant mindflayer. the scale was too out of wack in my opinion. So will is trying to both halt the mindflayer AND stop the demo army but its too much for him. El hasn't arrived yet. The rest of the group surrounds will, trying to give him space to do his psychic shit.
Give Steve and Dustin a parallel of fighting back to back like Eddie and Dustin in s4! I really expected to see that given the supposed significance of using the spears. They're getting overwhelmed though, and even getting attacked, bit and scratched and we fear that they will get overrun. they're knocked to the ground, and crouch together to hold their shields up instead, trying to cover each other as much as possible and thinking they are both going to die together in this moment.
that's when Jonathan can use his flamethrower to take out swarms of them (a much more effective weapon imo) and saving their lives. Then we still get a moment for stonathan resolution in keeping with the finale. El shows up a moment later and the tide turns.
I also would have loved to see a way for the fight to continue as a chase back into the upside down. As in, somehow the group manages to get the kids out of the mindflayer and are trying to get back to the rift to the UD while being chased by vecna/mindflayer/demo army.
Lucas, Mike and Robin take the charge of getting the kids to safety (reversing how they were unable to protect them in ep 4) and Steve and Dustin hold the final defenses maybe literally at the top of the tower! they're trying to kill all the creatures by funneling them through the rift, giving time for the kids to get down the tower and to the truck. the others radio to Steve and Dustin to get the hell down the tower once everyone else is down and then they make their descent, but the tower has been destabilized at this point and Dustin slips as he heads down, losing his grip on the ladder. Steve is terrified, shouting for him in horror, but Dustin manages to catch himself or falls heavily onto the platform below and lies there unmoving. Steve scrambles to get down as fast as possible, terrified that he's passed out or worse. cue steve calling dustin's name out desperately (like in s4 when he hears him in the wheeler house while in the upside down) pulling dustin into his arms or turning him over. Dustin groans in agony but is alive and relatively unharmed (idk give him a broken arm or leg or something). steve is desperately relieved and they can have a similar moment to the "i thought you were toast moment" that dustin has with steve in the actual finale. steve says something like, "don't do that to me, henderson! i thought it was you die, I die" they hug, its emotional, steve helps get him all the way down and into the truck.
umm i also had a crazy idea at one point that steve commandeers a military jeep and the two of them are on a mad dash to get out of the upside as the bomb countdown is happening so music is playing over their scramble to get out in time and then the bomb goes off right before they make it to the gate and sends the jeep crashing. one of them is crawling toward the other who's unconscious as the walls of the UD collapse and start sucking them into the void. this was an idea that made more sense with an actual attempt by the group to SAVE THE PREGNANT WOMEN at the military facility, which would have been led by Nancy and El. I digress heavily at this point.
anyways sorry for this long and rambling answer bu thanks for the ask @spinteresting! honestly my best idea is still them fixing the bomb like wrote in my fic. dustin says "silver lining. if [the plan] fails, we both go down." BOTH, not ALL. I really thought they were going to have their own separate part of the plan to accomplish.
