some "stranger things" things
Apr. 22nd, 2017 10:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
levoiJust finished watching Stranger Things for the fourth time (crippling pain means more time to vegetate in front of the TV), and there are a few things that I cleared up for myself, and also a few new questions.
On Hopper giving up Eleven: This has been hard for me to deal with, because he sacrifices a child. Even if she's a “science experiment,” she's a child, and he's so callous when he makes the deal that it hurts.
Will is clearly a symbol for Sarah--the cuts between searching for Will and the flashbacks of losing Sarah make that clear. Hop lost one child, and there was nothing he could do to save her; he can do something to save Will Byers, and so he will. He will do anything necessary, because this is his duty--what he owes, maybe. He cannot lose another child, and he cannot let another parent mourn a dead child. (Is this why he trades Will for Eleven, because for all intents and purposes, she is nobody's daughter; her mother already mourns her? Interesting.)
However, in some ways Eleven symbolizes Sarah, too. She's a girl. When she's wearing the wig, she has blonde hair (like Sarah before the chemo.) When she isn't wearing the wig, her head is shaved (like Sarah after chemo.) This, too, could be a factor in why Hopper could so easily trade Eleven for a chance at Will: He's already lost Sarah. He cannot save that girl. He’ll lose her again.
I'm interested in the Eleven/Sarah analogy, and I hope we get more exploration of that.
Another thing I had trouble with after my first run through was Nancy getting back together with Steve, who is pretty much a dick. There are a lot of factors at play here, so let's go through them.
One of the only storytelling missteps Stranger Things makes is Steve's going from hating Nancy and wanting to punish her and returning to liking her and wanting to protect her. We aren't given any impetus for this. Nothing happens to change his mind; just all of a sudden (and when he should be maddest, because Jonathan just kicked the shit out of him) he decides that he is wrong and his friends are awful people and he doesn't need them, doesn't want to be like them. That he wants to be like Nancy, instead. This transition wasn't earned, and it bothers me, but let's forget that for a moment. The narrative wants to redeem Steve. He cleans up the graffiti, which symbolically is literally erasing what he's done (but with real world applications is not even close.) He goes to apologize to Jonathan, and then he literally fights for Nancy. (I have mixed feelings about this, but there is a really beautiful moment, where Steve is frightened of the Demogorgon and runs to his car to drive away; then he looks back at the flashing lights, realizes what's at stake, steels himself and walks back into the house. Joyce played out this exact same scene a few episodes earlier, and while I still don't think Steve has earned his redemption in terms of the narrative, this is a very effective way in which the story tells us how we should feel.)
Earlier, Mike asks Nancy whether she likes Jonathan, and she says no the same way he does when she asks him about Eleven, both of them clearly lying. And she obviously feels very close to him from the moment they begin hunting the Demogorgon. But at the epilogue, she has chosen Steve. At first I was confused, but I believe I have worked out why. In the hospital, Nancy sits with Steve while Jonathan is in with Will. But she's not paying attention to Steve. She's paying attention to Mike. Mike who has just lost Eleven to the Demogorgon, to all this other world insanity. She is afraid of losing what Mike has lost. She is afraid of that uncertainty and that pain, and the risk. So she does the safe thing, the thing Jonathan accused her of that made her so angry. She settles for a life that maybe isn't what she really wants, settles for being a person she doesn't really want to be, because she's scared.
Nancy is, as we've seen, good at facing her fears, so I imagine this living in the safety net versus being the person you want to be thing will be a major plot point next season.
I've also been thinking more about Eleven’s program. Her name is Eleven. 011 is tattooed on her skin, which tells us that there were (are?) at least ten other children Dr. Brenner tried to make into weapons. I am really interested in this, but I had the thought that maybe this would come up in a trite way in Season Two: That another special child (012?) would challenge Eleven Terminator 2 style, and I am so not interested in that.
Thoughts?
Also, I need Season Two to be here nooooooow.
On Hopper giving up Eleven: This has been hard for me to deal with, because he sacrifices a child. Even if she's a “science experiment,” she's a child, and he's so callous when he makes the deal that it hurts.
Will is clearly a symbol for Sarah--the cuts between searching for Will and the flashbacks of losing Sarah make that clear. Hop lost one child, and there was nothing he could do to save her; he can do something to save Will Byers, and so he will. He will do anything necessary, because this is his duty--what he owes, maybe. He cannot lose another child, and he cannot let another parent mourn a dead child. (Is this why he trades Will for Eleven, because for all intents and purposes, she is nobody's daughter; her mother already mourns her? Interesting.)
However, in some ways Eleven symbolizes Sarah, too. She's a girl. When she's wearing the wig, she has blonde hair (like Sarah before the chemo.) When she isn't wearing the wig, her head is shaved (like Sarah after chemo.) This, too, could be a factor in why Hopper could so easily trade Eleven for a chance at Will: He's already lost Sarah. He cannot save that girl. He’ll lose her again.
I'm interested in the Eleven/Sarah analogy, and I hope we get more exploration of that.
Another thing I had trouble with after my first run through was Nancy getting back together with Steve, who is pretty much a dick. There are a lot of factors at play here, so let's go through them.
One of the only storytelling missteps Stranger Things makes is Steve's going from hating Nancy and wanting to punish her and returning to liking her and wanting to protect her. We aren't given any impetus for this. Nothing happens to change his mind; just all of a sudden (and when he should be maddest, because Jonathan just kicked the shit out of him) he decides that he is wrong and his friends are awful people and he doesn't need them, doesn't want to be like them. That he wants to be like Nancy, instead. This transition wasn't earned, and it bothers me, but let's forget that for a moment. The narrative wants to redeem Steve. He cleans up the graffiti, which symbolically is literally erasing what he's done (but with real world applications is not even close.) He goes to apologize to Jonathan, and then he literally fights for Nancy. (I have mixed feelings about this, but there is a really beautiful moment, where Steve is frightened of the Demogorgon and runs to his car to drive away; then he looks back at the flashing lights, realizes what's at stake, steels himself and walks back into the house. Joyce played out this exact same scene a few episodes earlier, and while I still don't think Steve has earned his redemption in terms of the narrative, this is a very effective way in which the story tells us how we should feel.)
Earlier, Mike asks Nancy whether she likes Jonathan, and she says no the same way he does when she asks him about Eleven, both of them clearly lying. And she obviously feels very close to him from the moment they begin hunting the Demogorgon. But at the epilogue, she has chosen Steve. At first I was confused, but I believe I have worked out why. In the hospital, Nancy sits with Steve while Jonathan is in with Will. But she's not paying attention to Steve. She's paying attention to Mike. Mike who has just lost Eleven to the Demogorgon, to all this other world insanity. She is afraid of losing what Mike has lost. She is afraid of that uncertainty and that pain, and the risk. So she does the safe thing, the thing Jonathan accused her of that made her so angry. She settles for a life that maybe isn't what she really wants, settles for being a person she doesn't really want to be, because she's scared.
Nancy is, as we've seen, good at facing her fears, so I imagine this living in the safety net versus being the person you want to be thing will be a major plot point next season.
I've also been thinking more about Eleven’s program. Her name is Eleven. 011 is tattooed on her skin, which tells us that there were (are?) at least ten other children Dr. Brenner tried to make into weapons. I am really interested in this, but I had the thought that maybe this would come up in a trite way in Season Two: That another special child (012?) would challenge Eleven Terminator 2 style, and I am so not interested in that.
Thoughts?
Also, I need Season Two to be here nooooooow.
no subject
Date: 2017-04-24 01:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-04-24 04:13 pm (UTC)