While Stranger Things‘ ending proved controversial, it could have been way worse. Stranger Things came to an end after nearly ten years, closing the book on a story that began with a group of kids on bikes and grew alongside them into a global phenomenon. Audiences watched the Hawkins crew age in real time and face increasingly bigger threats.

Expectations for the final season were enormous. However, Stranger Things‘ action-packed ending divided audiences. Action took center stage, with an all-stakes battle between the kids and Vecna, which made the ending more of a sci-fi action movie in the style of Constantine or Independence Day than Stranger Things‘ own first season. The result is an ending that’s simultaneously too action-focused and not action-driven enough. However, it could have been way worse.

Stranger Things’ Biggest Finale Theory Would Have Never Worked

Fortunately, The Kids’ Dungeons & Dragons Game Remained A Game

One of the most persistent fan theories surrounding Stranger Things’ finale claimed that the entire series was nothing more than a long-running Dungeons & Dragons campaign imagined by the kids back in Season 1. According to this theory, the Upside Down, Vecna, the Mind Flayer, and later-season developments were fictional in-universe. On paper, it sounds clever, especially given the show’s heavy reliance on D&D terminology, but clever doesn’t mean coherent.

The D&D theory collapses the moment it’s tested against the show’s actual events. Large portions of Stranger Things unfold entirely away from the kids’ perspective, from Hopper’s imprisonment in a Soviet gulag to Joyce and Murray’s international rescue mission to Eleven’s training in secret government facilities. Many of the adult characters’ interactions occur without their knowledge. Expecting a group of suburban middle-schoolers to imagine complex Cold War geopolitics and nuanced adult psychology stretches plausibility far beyond breaking point.

More importantly, reducing Stranger Things to a fictional D&D campaign would retroactively invalidate everything the show spent years building. Character arcs like Eleven’s struggle for identity, Max’s confrontation with grief, Steve’s growth into reluctant heroism, or Hopper’s reckoning with loss would be rendered meaningless. Nothing would have happened. No one would have changed. This is the same flaw that makes “it was all a dream” endings so risky. They’re shocking, but they hollow out the story.

Stranger Things’ Best Finale Was Always Under Our Noses

Stranger Things Never Needed A Bombastic, Shocking Ending

Stranger Things’ greatest strength has always been its slow-burn dread; the sense that something was wrong long before it revealed itself, and the intimate focus on characters reacting to the unknown. Season 1 remains the gold standard because its stakes felt personal and terrifying, more like a suspense and horror series than an action blockbuster. Stranger Things season 5 leaned too hard into action spectacle and turned the finale into a full-scale war between the kids and Vecna.

Stranger Things‘ highly acclaimed season 1 set the stage for a more effective ending, hiding in plain sight. Season 1’s suspense-driven, character-driven tension would have made season 5’s final Vecna encounter far more frightening. Keeping things contained would have allowed the main characters’ arcs to shine and Vecna’s threat to feel more real, similarly to how the It movies and the Welcome to Derry show keep Pennywise’s threat looming over permanently before he inevitably strikes again.

Created by

Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer

Cast

Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Sadie Sink, Maya Hawke, Joe Keery, Jamie Campbell Bower

First Episode Air Date

July 15, 2016

First TV Show

Stranger Things

Latest TV Show

Stranger Things

Upcoming TV Shows

Stranger Things, Stranger Things Animated Series