#vecna won

this was a scene in the documentary. pic creds to @beaulesbian and ty for the inspo.

has anyone done a post on the shadowfell? because i came across this pic of the “abyss” that’s labeled shadowfell and started looking into the dnd lore and wow…lots of resemblance to vecna, mike, the upside down, everything. do keep in mind this is not going to be a full analysis post because i do not have the energy rn and this is all coming from one very thorough reddit post i found. i’m just gonna highlight a few things but i highly encourage you to read that post and if anyone has done a full analysis pls lmk!

first of all in many ways it resembles the upside down or vecna’s mindscape more than the abyss. i found this part especially interesting:

is vecna stuck in his own domain of dread and keeping the party/hawkins trapped with him? forced by the mindflayer to relive his own painful memories and forcing the people of hawkins to do the same? perhaps recycling memories like in tf85? did the party enter through the thick mist at the top of the tower?

then there’s the spire aka the radio tower:

just like everything about this but also these specific things: jet black stone = henry’s stone, spires = will’s barn drawing of the kids in the mindflayer, magical powers drained = the government/lab, no magical surveillance could substantiate the duffers’ ridiculous explanation that vecna couldn’t see them coming.

next we’ve got the raven queen:

i believe el was an elven mage in a dnd campaign? also all the stuff about the queen in tf85? and could this be the mindflayer, whose particles always dissipate and eventually infect something/someone new? or perhaps the “elven queen” is the mindflayer, who merged with the upside down, generating vecna who (except for the one time in the mac-z) only fights people in their heads, his head, or the upside down/abyss rather than in a physical form in the material plane (hawkins). vecna who is obsessed with collecting memories and emotions. and (i forgot to highlight this) maybe vecna tried to perform the same ritual with the children as the mindflayer did to attain “godhood” but failed?

more on the raven queen:

and finally, mike the storyteller?

Here's Will's watch in this pretend future...no time.

But EVEN BEFORE the finale, here's JONATHAN'S watch with NO TIME.

Ok, I'm on the bus, but I think it's more of a greyhound than a city bus. In my opinion, we have a long way to go before they're going to reveal anything.

I agree with others on the bus that there were way too many hints and plot holes to be a coincidence, but I think the Duffers were too chicken to commit. The thing is, I know a lot of people irl who have been watching since the beginning and were satisfied with the ending. I know, it's kind of shocking to me too, but there are tons of devoted viewers who wanted a happy ending, aren't into film analysis, and had no desire to read any further into the details. Honestly, this is probably the majority or at least half of people who watched the show. So for all of those netflix-subscription paying folks, the ending stands. It's the bland shiny ending that they wanted.

But then there's all of us who are more critical, dissatisfied with the ending, on the bus so to speak. I think we also have our ending, and it's a dark one. In my opinion, all evidence points to Vecna having won. Mike and potentially several others have been Vecna'd, and are now trapped in the dreamscape unaware. Others, likely dead.

I don't think there's a 9th episode that will save them. I think that's it. It's a create your own ending. If you're reading into the details, the bad guy won. If you can't handle that, you accept the happy ending.

A couple years from now, they might monopolize on those details that left the door wide open for a sequel. In the spin-off series, Vecna/the mind-flayer will be taking more and more of the world. Meanwhile all those pregnant ladies in the lab will have had new numbered children with powers (the lab didn't explode because none of that ending was real after all). Those kids will be the new heroes of the series that have to try to take back the world from being completely overcome by evil.