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Notes -
Woke Trappings versus Woke Story
I thought Stranger Things wrapped up nicely and the finale was great. The pre-final episode received the lowest ratings and reception in the entire series, with a lot of commentators claiming the entire series was ruined, but the finale was great television. It's true the pre-final episode was not great due to the fact it was dedicated to setting up the 2 hour finale, but the overreaction to that episode is mostly driven by one of the characters named Will coming out as gay, and making that central to his personal story and character growth needed to win the entire conflict. The surface-level criticisms are true, the scene was terrible, it was LGBT propaganda, sure. And my woke radar is as fine-tuned as anyone, but I find anti-woke observers become too hung up on woke trappings rather than critically analyzing the story itself.
The Stranger Things story itself is not necessarily woke, it's 1980s nostalgia blended with fish-out-of-water, heroes journey, coming-of-age, revenge, fantasy, and all the elements that audiences tend to like and that is carried through the end. I would contrast that with IT: Welcome to Derry in which the story itself is Woke and it ruins the series.
But I think those complaining about Woke elements in Stranger Things - this never would have happened in the 1980s!, the multiple LGBT characters and their acceptance by everyone in the story, the feminism, etc. They miss the point that 1980s culture did lead to these things. Sure, the transition was slower than is symbolically represented in the show; in the show the transition happens rapidly, without resistance, and faster among the characters in the story than it did in American culture. But the fact is American culture did follow the cultural trajectory depicted in Stranger Things which warps up 1989. So the show depicts an accelerated cultural trajectory going out of the 80s into the 90s and 2000s, which are cultural changes that actually happened.
Although I do like a lot of parts of 1980s American culture, the vapidness in that culture which triggers our nostalgia reaction did lead to these things the anti-woke commentators are complaining about being featured in the show. 1980s culture led to 90s culture, and so on until we are right here. The lesson isn't "Great Hollywood will just wokify everything" the lesson is that 1980s nostalgia is not a good source of inspiration for those who oppose the cultural forces that came out of the 80s and further developed since then. Of course that insight can be backpropagated, is a 1960s muscle car a symbol of a pre-woke culture we must retvrn to, or is it a symbol of cultural decay representing vapid status games, siphoning masculine energy into meaningless pursuits, and materialistic national identity that led exactly where we are?
I'm sorry, but Season 5 was garbage. Okay, maybe that is too strong. it's the Big Mac of television. It felt okay watching while watching it but is ultimately empty, devoid of meaning. They did the same trick as Episode 9 of Star Wars, except better. Think about any aspect of the plot and it all collapses into a pile of questions and contradictions.
Also, no one said shared trauma in the 1980s, which they explicitly did in Vol 2. In Season 1 the kids acted like kids, teenagers like teenagers all from 80s movies. In this season, they don't act like 80s people.
Will being gay is because the actor is gay and wanted Will to be gay. This was their Emmy scene that they thought would get them recognition. It took them too long and the wheel has turned. It's 2025, nobody needs a fucking coming out scene anymore. People are sick of gay shit and diversity being shoved into everything. It didn't add anything to the show, the character, or the scene. Would the season have been any worse if that scene was cut? No!. It's purely there for pandering. Thats what woke bullshit is pandering.
I think the bigger thing is how anti-woke the show actually is. Is Vecna as a metaphor for pedophilla? He grooms the kids. Convinces them he is their friend, before Shoving tubes and fluids into their mouths. Traumatising him. Leading to the obvious question, was this trauma what made Will gay? This has long been an argument levelled at gays, that their debouched nature lead to them grooming kids to become gay. This season is the literal embodiment of that.
I don't believe this at all. Him being gay has been hinted at since the start of the show. In the very first episode Joyce mentions that her ex-husband used to call Will queer.
No she didn't. She said he was a sensitive child. Some of the bullies said he was a fairy, and that he was off with the fairies. That was the extent of it.
Bullies calling someone gay <> someone being gay. A sensitive kid, who is into art <> gay.
Yes she did. Trivial to look up Season 1, ep. 1 ~18 minute mark:
Joy (to Hopper): Look, he's... he's a sensitive kid. Lonnie (sigh), Lonnie used to say he was queer. Called him a fag.
Hopper: Is he?
Joy: He's missing, is what he is!
That doesn't prove anything. But you're wrong to say she didn't/
When I was about Will's age my dad once told me he hoped I was gay because I'd never be strong enough to attract a woman. We were working on some home project and I kept fucking it up and he kept yelling at me and finally he snapped and really gave it to me. And my dad is pretty nice and loving and not at all like Lonnie!
Being called queer != Being queer. Especially not before 2010 or so.
Like yeah it's in the "text" that someone called him queer but it's not conclusive that he is queer.
Grandparent said they joy said wills dad called him queer. parent post said no she don’t, I showed that she in fact did say that. That is all. I did not comment on the implications. Just that the parent refuted an exchange that did in fact happen
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