#also i only really highlighted my faves because uhhhh i have no reason i just think they're neat

[sevensided]

How do you think Stranger Things will end? How do you want it to end?

OH GOSH. What a question!! It’s a cop out to say that I want everyone to be happy and for their character arcs to come to a satisfying conclusion... but it’s also true. Mainly, I’d like:

Mike and Will to recognise their feelings for each other and subvert the expectations of genre and GET TOGETHER.

Eleven to find inner peace and forgive/reconcile her past with Papa in a way that makes sense to her (which is a plot arc already built up since she met Kali in S2, so it needs to be resolved, basically).

Karen to divorce Ted. Kidding! Or am I... No, really what I’d love is for Karen to become involved alongside Joyce and Hopper. I’ve spoken before about how a running theme in ST is maternal love. It makes sense for Karen to get involved as there’s always been an emphasis on the Wheeler/Byler families, and so far Mike has kept everything (more or less) from his family... so it could be interesting to bring Karen in and parallel this action with Mike opening up to his mum.

For Joyce to find happiness. All she wants is to smoke a cigarette in peace, lol. Whether that’s with Hopper is neither here nor there (although they will be endgame... like, anyone who thinks they won’t clearly doesn’t understand that their love story is a lynchpin of the series). I just really, really want her to feel SAFE. She hasn’t felt safe for so long.

In S1 they clearly showed the Party coming full circle and growing collectively and as individuals. I want that to happen on a bigger scale. They’re all going to grow up -- but they shouldn’t grow apart. Stephen King’s IT is often cited by the Duffers as a central inspiration for ST. One of the major tenets of that book is a group of children growing up but never away from each other, because they have been bound by a deeply unusual experience. That has to happen to the Party. It already has, but... I want more bonding, really.

In terms of general ending... this is so big. I’ve seen so many theories and read so many analyses. I think, for me personally, what I want most of all is closure. I like the idea of ST being a book that Mike writes. I think that gives it a little Hobbit wink that would be really sweet and smart. Actually, I almost definitely want that to be the case. I don’t even especially care if the fates of the Party are established (like some dorky kind of *here’s Dustin building a rocket* *this is Lucas as a quantum physicist* *here’s Mike and Will watering their plants and living a very wholesome gay life in New York*) -- I just want the story to come full circle and feel fulfilling. We can make up what happens next ;)

This is such a good question and this is just ramble! Thank you so much for asking me. I absolutely love thinking about this. Thank you.

[coolmiddlename]

I don't think you ever did your final write up on season 8 Kitty, you gonna get back to that?

aww man, i didnt finish it because i think ive done a pretty great job expressing my thoughts on season 8. it was freaking amazing? but im gonna write up some of what i planned for that post here.

favourite episodes:

two swords is good because it introduces us to the more violent fern and shows finn being a doctor for shits and giggles (foreshadowing?). i get good feelings from this ep. and these days, also sad ones.

high strangeness - tree trunks is pretty entertaining by herself but this episode had a glorious combination of comedy, quiet pain, and…. strangeness. seeing tree trunks be ooo’s greatest activist was nothing short of a golden meme factory. and it was a lttle sad seeing pb explain what it was all about, perhaps even questioning her own sanity here… as for the candy attacking the aliens, if you remember all of pen ward’s previous work, you sure do get a Little Pink Best Buds vibe.

jelly beans have power - yknow when they ended pb’s arc w the whole Being A Pragmatic Coldass back in the Cooler, i wondered if she was going to stay interesting or get boring. well, lets just say the AT crew have exceeded my expectations. not to mention season 8 SURE BRINGS UP A LOT OF COMPETITION in the whole “morally questionable science lady” area. after the whole King of Ooo stuff the princess has been trying to rebuild her relationship with her citizens, and to see her hot-headedness make it crumble apart… well it must have been like looking into your soul and seeing something dreadful.

All of Islands - yes this is cheating. do i give a fuck? no. uhhhh what were my fave eps? hide and seek was the part where i went “this is the best adventure time has ever been”. martin and minnie was not only realistic, making minnie my favourite side character to ever get that little screentime, it also hit all the right emotional notes as well as having a dash of humor. the light cloud kinda highlighted the differences between the humans and the oooish people, it made us all appreciate the wacky land of ooo I feel. finn could have had his life as a human and lived with his parents, but he would have possibly died during the plague, and he’d have never had all the amazing adventures that made him who he is. anyway finn’s kinda my second or third favourite character now which is a significant jump from a few years ago. 

all of elements because i just dont care. highlights: skyhooks was deeply ominous and had marshmalline humming greensleaves which is pretty gay, bespoken for looked like it was gonna be shitposty but ended up making betty of all people a compelling, sympathetic, and unpredictable character… the third one had the ice kingdom which i think is my second-favourite location… cloudy i didnt like on my first rewatch but on our rewatch i learnt to appreciate it for the heart-to-heart bro chat that it was… slime central had funky skating (slime kingdom ftw) and the BEST humor in the miniseries alongside jake fucking dying, happy warrior is my least favourite of the eps but thats because it was setup for the much more magnificient hero heart which is my favourite… the reason for that is because it’s worth the most analysis and has the heaviest atmosphere. from lsp eating marceline’s face to finn holding back his fear to pb going fucking nuts and all those chilling candy zombies, this was the climax of the miniseries for sure. skyhooks II was a cooldown after the climax and a sort of resolution. it could have been better but the way i think of it, we haven’t seen all the resolution yet. highlights? lsp being the hero (lol) and pb and marcy’s kingdom-takeover song. pb’s actions in elements make me think that the power made her exemplify all her negative, controlling traits. she tried to take over the other kingdoms to make people “happy” and they ended up losing all their individuality. remind you of The Thin Yellow Line? the same sorta goes for FP but not really cos FP’s only negative trait is her awful temper.

abstract because i fucking love jake. i know some people found this ep disappointing but i did not.

ketchup for best filler ep because it looked GORGEOUS, it made me SMILE, it had backstory and the tale of what Marceline did in Elements presented in such a charming way, we even saw BMO spin a tale about her mom…  I’m heartbroken that we probably wont be seeing any more guest animated episodes because this is my favourite one yet. 

whispers. I TOO AM DOOM. *thunk thak thunk thank splat*

three buckets is the best episode in the best season of adventure time, and i think it beats out The Lich as my favourite season finale. it’s sad, it’s dark, it’s sweet, it’s hilarious, it’s ominous, theres nothing to dislike about it. my favourite part was the last few minutes starting from when fern left finn alone in the cave. he freaks out for a while which makes us wonder if he might actually die in here, then the robot arm in a surprising twist turns out to have a pb-siri that thanks finn for what hes done which is cute. and finn discovers his salvation in the rock drill and fucking weed whacker. then he fights his clone  fern now COMPLETELY off the deep end, and just when finn is giving up,  well…

“What are you doing?”

“Weed whacking!”

“…What are you?”

“A weed whacker :D”

“It doesn’t have to have this… finnality!”

“F A T A L I T Y”

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

i think the end of this ep is more defined by what isn;t said than what is said. finn is so shocked that he can’t even talk. bmo gives us one final bout of dark humor. then we switch to…. Fern���…. finally free of his shell but a mere ghost of what he was…. his look of pure rage as he gets picked up by who we believe could be a scholar of Golb…. uncle fucking gumbald. 

What a DEVASTATING finale,  and what a fantastic setup for the final arc of Adventure Time!

a comment i had to make about the last few eps is: it’s suspicious that we didnt get a followup for PB after Elements. but even though Peebles wasn’t in these eps, she didn’t feel absent either. especially with Marceline’s story in Ketchup, Fern’s remembering what he did in Whispers, and literally everything in the last 3 minutes of Three Buckets, i feel that there’s something big building up for her. we’ve yet to see the consequences Elements had on PB who was out of everyonne the most dangerous elemental, the one who took her powers to the furthest extreme. considering what happened in Jelly Beans Have Power, iiiii expect this followup to be soon. maybe it’ll be big? maybe it’ll be quiet. either way i look forward. and if i’m disappointed? well it’s happened before.

altogether season 8 is my favourite in the show for obvious reasons. i dont think season 9 has the possibility of topping it but i really cant wait to see what we get next either way, just in case it manages to be even better.  

no matter how adventure time ends, though, i think it’s going to hold a place in my heart for a long time.