{"id":392146,"date":"2026-01-05T01:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T01:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/392146\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T01:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T01:20:08","slug":"stranger-things-character-death-problem-ruined-season-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/392146\/","title":{"rendered":"Stranger Things\u2019 Character Death Problem Ruined Season 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stranger Things<\/a> Season 5 has finally wrapped up the Netflix show\u2019s story, but its biggest recurring problem ruined any chance of a truly satisfying ending. Set in Hawkins, Indiana, in the 1980s, Stranger Things first captured the hearts and minds of TV audiences nearly 10 years ago, following a group of young outcasts who become embroiled in supernatural danger after their friend goes missing. Throughout its five seasons, the sci-fi horror series added to its lineup of lovable characters as it fleshed out the arcs of Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown)<\/a>, Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin), and so many more. By the time Stranger Things premiered its final season, its cultural impact wasn\u2019t in doubt. However, the show\u2019s mishandling of its characters\u2019 fates made Season 5 a total letdown.<\/p>\n

Not a single main character died in the first four seasons of Stranger Things, and the trend persisted in Season 5. The series\u2019s refusal to ever kill off a core player in its central friend group or one of their family members had been criticized before the final season. Even so, the decision of creators Matt and Ross Duffer<\/a> to keep all of their main characters alive or potentially alive at the end of the narrative was the wrong call. Stranger Things never had to slaughter characters left and right like Game of Thrones did. Still, the show\u2019s constant plot armor for its most prominent figures from the beginning undermined the enormous stakes of the story and the danger its characters were constantly placed in.<\/p>\n

Stranger Things Season 5 Suffers from Its Lack of Major Character Deaths<\/p>\n

\"\"Image Courtesy of Netflix<\/p>\n

To no surprise, Stranger Things Season 5 sees the heroes defeat the human-turned-otherworldly-monster Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) and his possessor, the Mind Flayer. The sole non-villain to die is Eleven\u2019s fellow child test subject Kali (Linnea Berthelsen), who had only appeared in two episodes of Stranger Things Season 2 before returning as a minor character in Season 5. The series finale<\/a> couldn\u2019t even commit to Eleven\u2019s sacrificial death, as Mike later theorizes that Kali created an illusion to help her escape Hawkins. Cheapened by the ambiguity, Eleven\u2019s ending epitomizes Stranger Things\u2018 reluctance to take risks that might upset its audience.<\/p>\n

Bafflingly, the final battle against Vecna and the Mind Flayer ends up extremely underwhelming because the supposedly high-powered villains don\u2019t even manage to hurt anyone. Sporadically blasting the Mind Flayer with flamethrowers and guns apparently is too much for the giant beast to handle. Meanwhile, Eleven hardly struggles to kill Vecna, who never once in Season 5 appeared as threatening as he was in Season 4. Earlier in Stranger Things Season 5, the once-daunting demogorgons<\/a> are unable to land a scratch on teenagers untrained in combat, yet can seamlessly slash through any number of military soldiers. At least one major character death had to happen for Season 5 to live up to the dire stakes the series had set up. Instead, the main characters\u2019 endless plot armor diminished all suspense.<\/p>\n

Stranger Things Season 5\u2019s countless death fake-outs got more frustrating as they piled up. Jim Hopper (David Harbour) nearly met his demise for what felt like the millionth time, and fans were once again treated to a Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) almost-death. The emotional confession and breakup between Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton) and Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer), who find themselves trapped in a room ominously filling up with thick goop, could have prevailed as one of Stranger Things\u2018 most memorable sequences if it had represented the characters\u2019 final moments. But Jonathan and Nancy\u2019s miraculous survival renders their heart-to-heart all but pointless. Without definitive and permanent consequences, all of the peril and terror the main characters of Stranger Things endure meant nothing.<\/p>\n

Beyond an absence of tension and stakes, Stranger Things Season 5 also suffered from an overabundance of characters. Some previously indispensable characters, such as Eleven and Mike, were sidelined in seven of the eight episodes. At the same time, Season 5 separated its main group for way too long, only bringing everyone back together in the penultimate episode. Hardly anyone outside of Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) and Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) received enough screen time conclude their arcs. As a result, the many poignant moments between characters in the finale ring hollow. This issue is worsened by the three-and-a-half year gap between the releases of Seasons 4 and 5<\/a>. If Stranger Things had killed off a few main characters in past seasons, its final season might have been able to deliver a fulfilling ending for everyone.<\/p>\n

Stranger Things Never Had the Courage to Kill Off a Main Character<\/p>\n

\"\"Image Courtesy of Netflix<\/p>\n

Even before Season 5, Stranger Things never took one of its key figures off the board. The deaths of Barb Holland (Shannon Purser) in Season 1, Bob Newby (Sean Astin) in Season 2, Billy Hargrove (Dacre Montgomery) in Season 3, and Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn)<\/a> in Season 4 didn\u2019t carry the emotional impact a main character\u2019s death would have. After Season 5, it\u2019s clear that Stranger Things needed to give both fans and the show\u2019s other characters someone significant to grieve.<\/p>\n

If Hopper\u2019s apparent sacrificial death in the Season 3 finale or Max\u2019s coma at the end of Season 4 were permanent, Stranger Things would have left a much bigger mark on viewers. Over the course of the show\u2019s entire run, there was rarely a moment to feel genuine concern for a central character\u2019s survival. This tendency to always take the safe route damages Stranger Things\u2018 legacy, as the series\u2019s stale formula of invincibility for its main characters turned out to be Season 5\u2019s downfall. <\/p>\n

What are your thoughts on Stranger Things Season 5? Leave a comment below and\u00a0join the conversation now in the\u00a0ComicBook Forum<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stranger Things Season 5 has finally wrapped up the Netflix show\u2019s story, but its biggest recurring problem ruined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,435,115239,24362,427],"class_list":["post-392146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-netflix","tag-regular-feature","tag-stranger-things","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}