I have known Stranger Things was misogynistic since the pilot episode when Nancy wanted to have sex with her boyfriend that she really liked and Barb was like “This isn’t you🥺” and we as the audience were supposed to agree with Barb. And then Nancy was narratively punished for this via Barb’s death
For years, I told myself that the Duffers knew what they were doing when they decided to scrap the idea that Steve would rape Nancy, thereby avoiding the "surviving assault makes you stronger" trope.
I thought they'd avoid making her the new Sansa Stark.
Of course, I was wrong.
In the Duffers' eyes, Nancy being a strong female character meant stripping her of her emotional complexity and humanity.
I still think Barb dying is an interesting inversion of teen horror movie tropes, but the Duffers really didn't know what to do with strong female characters.
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I just saw the clip of David Harbour saying that he believes El is dead.
The "You can't have a girl with superpowers running around" bullshit aside, it was super clear to me that he didn't want to be asked that question or talk about it at all.
Continues to go with my theory that the actors who were over the show by Season 5 say she's dead, while those who were still happy to be there say she's alive.
Everyone makes fun of the millennial overpriced burger restaurants but the worst part is that they got you hooked on some bullshit and promptly shut down because their polycule broke up or whatever. You’ll never get to eat the caramelized onion apple parmesan sex bomb burger again. And it was $23 and good.
Euphoria, Stranger Things, and the Bigger Conversation About Female Suffering
This isn't really a rambling about Euphoria. At least, not the quality of the show.
Full disclosure: I've never watched a full episode of it. There are a lot of reasons behind that decision, most of which boil down to the fact that I just get an ick from Sam Levinson. However, I know a lot about it through osmosis, clips, etc.
So after what is presumably the Euphoria series finale aired last night, I heard a lot of discourse. I heard what Sam Levinson had to say about his writing decisions. And I have some thoughts: not necessarily about the story itself, but the greater implications of how media treats traumatized and abused women and girls.
Many of the clips I've watched involve protagonist Rue and her ongoing battle with addiction, and they're gut-wrenching to watch. Zendaya, as expected, gives a powerhouse performance; for anyone who's either experienced addiction or had a loved one who has, it cuts close to the bone.
In the final episode, Rue succumbs to her addiction, dying after taking fentanyl-laced opioids.
In the behind the scenes feature for the episode, Sam Levinson said, "The honest ending is people like Rue don't make it."
As an admitted non-watcher, I can at least say that I've known multiple people who fatally overdosed. I've also known multiple people who are in active recovery and have been sober for years. Levinson himself has been candid about his own journey with addiction. The point I'm trying to make here is that there isn't a single path for someone struggling with addiction to go down.
That's why his insistence that "people like Rue don't make it" is especially troubling. What differentiates a Rue from a Sam Levinson? The answer here should be obvious, even if Levinson himself didn't consciously think about it while making the show.
It's not too different from how, when talking about the ending of Stranger Things, Ross Duffer claimed that Eleven narratively "had to go away" so that the other characters could move on, since she represented "childhood magic". It bears repeating: What differentiates El from Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Will, Max, et al?
I've noticed the general backlash against El's ending get louder in the months since the Stranger Things finale aired. The silver lining is that her ending is ambiguous. If Netflix decides to act like a corporation and milk the IP dry, as well as pay Millie Bobby Brown and a few others enough money, El may one day get justice.
Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Rue.
It's part of a much bigger problem. Back in January, I wrote the following: "Eleven is obviously far from the first female character whose male writers grossly mishandled her arc. Unfortunately for audiences, she's also not going to be the last female character who becomes a casualty. And unfortunately for me, general audiences don't question how female characters often exist to aid their male counterparts' development, meaning they tend to accept badly written endings."
There needs to be a bigger conversation, not just among women, but among the general public, about how writers insist on giving women tragic endings for the sake of it, or to aide male characters' development. There also needs to be a bigger conversation about why we, the viewers, so readily accept these endings.
We know better is possible. We know better is deserved. Why don't we insist on it?
Say what you want about shows like Euphoria and Stranger Things, but the reality is that they're successful. With success comes influence, and other creators will take notes from these shows.
If we want to see real change, then we need to speak out.
At some point, people really need to accept "bad writing" as an answer for plot holes or why they're generally upset with nonsensical progression of a story.
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Yes, I have read the leaked series finale script. I have a lot of thoughts, but I'll just say this: Millie and Finn understood the assignment and their characters far better than the Duffers did, especially by the end.
The Duffers have this issue where they put a lot of their thoughts into the script but not the dialogue, which means that it might not always come through in the final product. It's clear in the script that Hop is also grieving, but in the final product? Hop is happy as a clam.
The show beats us over the head with the fact that Mike struggles to verbalize his love for El because he's afraid of losing her forever, and the script says it. Somehow, a certain group STILL doesn't get it. Maybe it's willful ignorance, but I don't know anymore.
The final kiss isn't in the script, which means that Finn and Millie likely improvised it, which is heartbreaking. I understand how some people feel like the chemistry wasn't there in the end, but I felt it in the void scene.
Hopper is scripted as running after El as she's in the gate. Why the fuck did they leave that out?
I'm even more convinced that they intended El to be alive.
I also find it very funny that Robin was initially written to be a groupie/nomad, but the final product has her enrolled at Smith, AKA SapphicU. It's like the show had to remember, oh yeah, the two things consistent about Robin are that she's smart and gay.
If a sequel ever happens, Netflix needs to hire us to write it.
Yes, I have read the leaked series finale script. I have a lot of thoughts, but I'll just say this: Millie and Finn understood the assignment and their characters far better than the Duffers did, especially by the end.
4.) What was your first ship/OTP?, 5.) What was the first fanfic you read?, 12.) What is your favorite drink?
Ooh, love these
4.) Not even sure, but there was a fanfic I dictated to my mom back in '99 that was Daphne/Fred. I guess them?
5.) I first learned of FF.Net back in 2006 through HSM and Troypay YouTube edits, but I can't remember what it was.
I also wrote some really awful fix-it fics for Bridge to Terabithia under a fake name/life (I pretended I was a glam adult) and really got into fanfic through that, so I guess that counts for both 4 and 5.
12.) I will one day probably be a wine mom, but I also love an Aperol Spritz!
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I couldn't get past S1 of The Boys given how caustic it is. In the aftermath of the series finale, the general sentiment I'm getting is that it has a lot of the same problems as the ending of Stranger Things, though not necessarily the moral implications.
I think for me, I can’t really see Jonathan taking the initiative with El like that. I can see him doing it with Will because they have the history and the bond. And I just don’t really think he had that connection with El canonically. I personally could actually see Nancy having that talk with El. Not because she’s particularly close to El, but I think she’d feel more comfortable because she’s also teenage girl in the 80’s who knows how limited information can be. She’s also more forward than Jonathan and, because of Mike, I think she would be much more wary of something happening.
BUT just because I don’t see it happening doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t write it. After all, part of why fanfic exists is to explore relationships and dynamics that weren’t explored in the source material.
I've been chewing on this response for a bit, and I ultimately agree with it.
First off, thank you for the nuance. We don't always see it in fandom, even when it's within our ships!
Second, but more importantly, I think the point about Nancy is spot on. I'd already considered it and was hesitant only because I know that angle has been done in fanfic already, but I also know that I have the opportunity to put my own spin on it.
I still really want to see more JonEl fanfic, but I'll keep rummaging through my brain to find a more appropriate opportunity.
You're genuinely so fucking odd why the hell would JONATHAN be telling her about ts.
I'm going into this with the mindeset that this is in good faith.
Jonathan was her adoptive/stepbrother in the show. They did a poor job depicting that bond, telling us that it was there rather than showing us, but canonically, it's there. (One of my favorite Jonathan moments is actually in Season 3, where he's about to cut the tentacle out of El's leg, and he's soothing her before he does so.)
Joyce would have absolutely given El a safe sex talk by the time she moved in with the family, but it would have likely been framed as "You don't need to do anything before you're ready."
By the end of Season 4, I believe that Jonathan would absolutely see that El is in a serious relationship and would want her to be safe. It doesn't mean she's going to have sex right then, or even in the next few months, but he's making sure she's empowered to protect herself.
I mean, if it's really that weird for you, fine. I asked for a reason, and you gave your opinion.
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OTP Meme: Looks → Heart Eyes (They're the personification of the quote 'When a girl is in love, you can see it in her smile. When a guy is in love, you can see it in his eyes.')
