The Stranger Things series finale will be the biggest TV event since Game of Thrones ended, but Stranger Things season 5 won't repeat its mistakes.
Stranger Things Game of Thrones finale
While Stranger Things and Game of Thrones are very different shows, their finales are similarly huge cultural moments—but the Netflix hit can avoid the fate of HBO’s infamously divisive adaptation. Stranger Things is a genuine worldwide TV phenomenon.
Since the series debuted in 2016, Stranger Things has spawned merchandise, tie-in novels and comics, future spinoffs, and a string of rip-offs. The young cast members of Stranger Things have become A-list stars since appearing on the series, and the show has also reignited the careers of its older actors. However, this doesn’t mean that the Stranger Things series finale is guaranteed to be a success.
Like Stranger Things, Game of Thrones inspired numerous rip-offs after its initial success. Like Stranger Things, Game of Thrones had spinoffs green-lit before the original show had even ended. While Stranger Things is the biggest
TV show finale since Game of Thrones, this puts some pressure on the show’s creators to avoid repeating the same mistakes from that divisive ending. Luckily, Stranger Things season 4 already took a big step toward this.
The Game of Thrones series finale suffered partly because plots that were designed to spread across several seasons were squeezed into one short final season. In contrast, Stranger Things’ Vecna storyline and Eleven flashbacks answered some major questions.
Where Game of Thrones received a makeshift finale that even defenders admitted felt rushed, Stranger Things season 4 already answered many mysteries before the final season even began. The origins of the Upside-Down and the Demogorgons have been explained and Vecna’s backstory has effectively tied together the story of the series so far.
This will be invaluable in Stranger Things season 5 since it means that the final outing of the series can dive right into the battle for Hawkins. If Stranger Things season 4 had left Vecna unexplained, the groups of characters separated, and Dr. Brenner alive, season 5 have needed to rush through way too much story.
Stranger Things also has another major advantage on Game of Thrones. Where Game of Thrones was an immersive, ambitiously vast series with an entire world’s worth of characters, Stranger Things has a more manageable cast.
While supporting star Maya Hawke was right to note thatStranger Things has almost too many characters, this is nowhere near as big a problem for the Netflix series as it was for Game of Thrones. Even the most modest estimates put the number of Game of Thrones characters between the hundreds and thousands, whereas Stranger Things has only a few dozen characters to contend with.
Stranger Things Game of Thrones Comparison
Since Stranger Things season 5 has a limited number of characters and a storyline that already revealed a few major twists, the outing is likely to feel more like a natural ending than Game of Thrones season 8 did.
The biggest issue with Game of Thrones season 8 was how much of its story felt rushed and underdeveloped, which left viewers feeling short-changed by a series they invested years in. By drop-feeding answers to the show’s main mysteries instead of leaving them all until the final episodes, Stranger Things avoided this issue. Even if it ruined potential Stranger Things spinoffs, answering major questions earlier gave viewers more reason to stay invested.
Daenerys looks at King's Landing burning
While Stranger Things season 5 might have already dodged one big mistake that the creators of Game of Thrones made in season 8, they still need to steer clear of another big pitfall. Turning Daenerys into the surprise villain of Game of Thrones season 8 was a divisive decision (to say the least), but it was one supported by years of foreshadowing.
While Daenerys’ villainous turn may have felt rushed or abrupt for some viewers, there was no denying that it fits with the cynical worldview of Game Of Thrones and had been subtly hinted at earlier in the series. The same is not true for Eleven.
Stranger Things heroine Eleven is a sweeter, purer character than Daenerys, and turning her into a surprise villain in season 5 would make no sense. From Vecna to Billy, the best Stranger Things villains are flawed characters who lose their humanity to become part of a larger supernatural threat. However, Eleven should not succumb to this fate.
Eleven is widely beloved among the show’s fandom and her character does not need a villainous arc to make her more compelling. As such, the biggest Game of Thrones series finale mistake that Stranger Things season 5 must avoid is turning Eleven into the show’s unlikely antagonist.
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