Stranger Things

I will state, that there will be spoilers in this article. So read at your own risk.

I was born in the 80s. Stranger Things holds many nostalgia-producing memories that allow us older Millennials to connect with a show. I am also a massive fan of Stephen King and anything supernatural or paranormal. So Stranger Things was something that piqued my interest. With that emotional connection and the homage that the Duffer Brothers have created to all things the 80s, I became a fan of the show and was obsessed.

With that in mind, how do the Duffer Brothers drive the emotional connection with the characters of the show? Let's start with Eddie Munson, a new character that was introduced to the show in Season 4 played by Joseph Quinn. We are introduced to Eddie in the first episode as the metalhead, but nerdy enough to play Dungeons and Dragons, eccentric and chaotic character.

The Duffer Brothers do nothing by accident. Eddie looks like he was constructed in the exact duplication of Eddie Van Halen. Eddie plays the guitar, and has a similar haircut to the popular guitarist, and a similar facial structure. This alone will connect the audience that loves all things Van Halen. There's more to Eddie, he's also based on Damion Echols one of the three teenagers called the West Memphis Three, who were wrongfully accused of murder during the era of Satanic Panic. Those factors aren't the reason that we fully connected to Eddie. He was a beautifully written character. In the first episode, Mike and Dustin speak about Eddie as if they are scared of him but then in the same episode, we are introduced to the extremely charming guy when he is speaking to Chrissy about how they knew each other.

From there, Eddie became beloved but he was thrown into the frying pan when Chrissy is killed by the invisible force of Vecna. Eddie was now the wrongfully accused teen and is a proposed satan worshipper that murdered the beautiful Chrissy. As the season rolls on, we are given more backstory about Eddie, who proclaims he is no hero and always "turns heel and runs the other direction" but here he is working with Steve, Nancy, and Robin trying to save the world.

He has so many moments that show his charming qualities, one of which is the moment between him and Dustin in the field where he tells Dustin to never change. That was the moment I knew Eddie's fate. So after one of the most awesome scenes where he is playing Master of Puppets to distract the demo bats and heroically trying to distract them away when their plan fails, he meets his fate.

I never, never cried for a character like I did for Eddie. His character arch spoke to millions and influenced a lot of social media posts about his death. People were emotional about his passing and wanted something better for Eddie, like for him to finally graduate because it was his year.

Then there is Max. We were introduced to her in Season 2 as the embodiment of the "tomboy" who plays video games and skateboards. Her character development was also very well done. As she had the step-brother bad boy turned into a hive mind of the upside-down bad guy. Her regret of Billy's passing in season 3 by the mind-flayer makes her isolated from everything she has known and breaks up with Lucas. This regret makes her a good candidate for Venca to infiltrate her mind as he feeds on teenagers filled with regret from the past.

She narrowly escapes Vecna's grasp which brings her back to the group to save her friends and the town of Hawkins. As we have watched Max grow up and have seen her become a wonderful character, we are also emotionally connected to her because she really embodies the kid we all were growing up, especially me. So her final moments seem to be met and her fear of dying tugs at the heartstrings.

But as shown from the third season to the fourth, the Duffer Brothers have used the trope of the death fake-out. Fans are hoping Max will wake up and that Eddie really isn't dead. We won't find out until 2024. They made us wait to be sure that Hopper survived and we will surely wait to see if our fan favorites are truly gone or if they will be alive after another death fake-out. Until then, the fans will dissect every teaser, interview, and news release about season 5 trying to find hope.