ok but what would a fancomic of yours have?

God where do I even begin...

More streamline ghost lore, mix of popular fanon and personal interpretations. Most hated part of canon DP for me is how they quickly drop concepts as soon as theyre introduced or really explain establish concepts much at all, which is funny when the fandom later became 75% speculating worldbuilding

Developing characters more. Mix of characters who didn't get a proper arc in canon (similar to what the graphic novels are doing), and characters who should be given at least a bit more depth

Character relationships, ie strengthening pre-existing relationships (platonic, romantic, rivalry, etc) and exploring relationships with characters who are never/barely seen interacting in canon (again, all of the 'tics)

Episode rewrites, theres only a handful of episodes I have a grudge with so this wont be too common...I already wanna redo the entirety of "Splitting Images" since its a mid episode and they fumbled the lesson in my opinion. Others may be more minor, such as changing Dark Dan's backstory to be less comedically cruel? (I get its a butterfly effect thing but, jesus christ. Of course a fast food chain has explosive sauce that goes off when its HEATED?)

More rep, DP was surprisingly pretty diverse for a Butch Hartman show, but it was also 2004 so things can always improve- esp with the inclusion of queer rep which will hopefully make Butch age an extra 30 years

A slightly edgier tone, not TOO adult mind you...maybe at the same level as Fionna and Cake which had some minor swearing and darker subjects that didn't feel too much like a tonal whiplash- oh and blood <3

A focus on solution outside of violence, which is a funny thing to type after discussing blood and dark themes, but I wanna match what AGIT established with pushing Danny more towards friendships and peaceful resolves as an alternative to fighting in certain situations.

This list is long enough but if I get any more ideas (or someone with a bigger brain than me throws me a bone) I might add to this...again none of this is set in stone and who knows if I'll end up going through with this but! Shrugs

Stranger Things had a great first season, but the 2nd and 3rd have arguably gotten worse over time. The reason for this is that the sense of mystery that made the show originally great has eroded over time because of how much has been revealed to us about the particular mysteries of Hawkins, Indiana, making them no longer mysteries. There's also been a sense of repetition, with the show repeating its arcs every season, and anything new feels shoehorned in there. The horror vibe they were going for has faded with the introduction of more and more lore and content, and a lot of what made the first season good is now gone. Obviously, this is because the Duffer Brothers like money, and nothing will bring in more of that than slapping beloved faces on new products. Now, hear me out. What if Stranger Things was a connected anthology series? Season 1 would remain the same, but the following seasons would have similar, yet unique and different qualities to it than the first, with a new cast of characters, new locations, and new supernatural threats.

*sigh* seasons 2 and 3 are best of times and the worst of times lol the things the show gets RIGHT are so *chef's kiss* that the careless parts stand out in a bad way.

I do agree that there is too much repetition. I've ranted about it in my tags before but a parallel isn't enough. It has to mean something, or else they're just recycling scenes.

I'm not sure I agree about the mystery component. I think s4 did very well with the horror genre (but I also RARELY consume horror content. Like the last scary movies I watched were Saw 1 and Se7en lol long time ago).

The issue is that they wrote the seasons one at a time, and then wrote 4&5 at the same time (or so I read somewhere; this might not be accurate). There's no planning and it shows. The Duffers also revealed that they had a script for S3 featuring a Billy/Steve plot, but that script got thrown into the trash in favor of weird Billy fan service and CocaCola product placement.

As a writer, I'm actually inclined to try and understand what the writers are doing, and a lot of people forget that the show is not the writers' choice. It's the executives/producers. If they wallet-holders don't like something, the writers have to change it. That being said, everyone involved seems to just be riding on S1's success and not carrying about plot holes in the slightest.

Anthologies aren't usually my cup of tea, only because I lack the emotional bandwidth to invest in new characters all the time lol like i watch 2 shows a year, and 2022 was Our Flag Means Death and Stranger Things. That's my quota haha

Supposedly Netflix wants to do spin offs, though? They know Netflix is failing and that Stranger Things is holding it up, so they're desperately holding onto their life raft.