#because she was exposed to these drugs and developed telekinesis

[wickedhawtwexler]

watching fringe has given me sooo much motivation to work on my obnoxious sci-fi novel series

[intelligenceqube-blog]

A look beyond the Stranger Things

A heartfelt show that’s not just about defeating a sci-fi monster

Stranger Things is not only about how people of diverse cultures, backgrounds, and beliefs can work together to solve a common issue, but it’s also about how people should be incorporated in to their goals despite being different from each other.

One particular character, Eleven has the most interesting backstory of the group of character. She is a special person that has psychic abilities such as telepathy and telekinesis. She is however regarded differently compared to the other characters because of this status which alienates her despite being very useful to the characters as she can communicate with Will. One instance is the relationship between her and Lucas. Lucas is a part of the group of kids that are friends with Will which includes Mike and Dustin.

She was originally a child of a mother who gone through different experiments that involved psychotic drugs. She was able to gain supernatural powers through those drugs, but she was taken by Martin Brenner, a scientist, who experimented on her to reveal her psychic powers (Season 1: Episode 6)

This already shows that she lacks social skills because of how she was experimented on and exploited for her own powers. She also feared any confinements because of the punishments that she suffered while in the lab. Through this way, she is a favorite amongst the audience because of her unique backstory as a character and her powers which hold a restraint so that she doesn’t dictate the story.

Her lack of social skills can further be seen if you notice the dialogue that she speaks. She doesn’t speak too much in full sentences. She often also refers the scientists as ‘bad guys’(Episode 2). This affected her developing any relationships with any of the characters because of her limited conversations with them. The only exception being Mike as Mike understand her well enough to know what to do with her. This can be seen in the early episodes where Mike, despite knowing that she’s a stranger still took her in his house because he doesn’t want to leave her alone and even converse with her to learn more about her and her origins.(Episode 2)

For a sci-fi oriented show, the characters are not concerned about Eleven’s powers. This is because she hides it very well or does not allow the public to notice. Eleven can take advantage of her powers in this setting as this setting is more rural. This means that she is less prone to being exposed because less people are aware of her powers. In a more urban setting, there would be more people that would be able to find her. The only people in this series that are willing to search for her are the scientists.

Speaking of scientists, Stranger Things is a reference to many old science fiction movies/ novels which revolve around aliens and such. The movie E.T for example is about an extraterrestrial creature that is being taken care of by a kid but it’s publicity would cause a scene if it were to be discovered by the public. The scientists and government being examples of hostile figures for E.T to be avoided. Eleven in Stranger Things wants to avoid the scientists that has caused many problems in her past which is like E.T..

Lucas was already suspicious of Eleven when they first met and thought that she might be a dangerous person to include in their group. (Episode 1) Their relationship was strained throughout the series as Lucas still denies her and believes that she is no use to the group. This is shown later where their compasses started to fail because of Eleven’s telekinesis. (Episode 6). He also rejected Eleven and forced her out of the group after Eleven attacked him because of her fear. Eventually though, when she saved the group from the agents, Lucas finally trusted her as she proved to be instrumental in rescuing Will. It’s interesting to note that ableism which is the belief that people with disabilities or strange qualities is not directly shown in this series. It is however enforced somewhat briefly in this relationship. Lucas is afraid of Eleven because of her powers. Eleven’s powers can kill people, and this is shown many times in the story.

In the last episode for example. Eleven killed many scientists and agents with her psychic powers being amplified. This is caused by the anger that Eleven is building up as they also killed people that she trusted and they also were the source of her isolation. Lucas despite being rude and disrespectful to Eleven still has a point to consider. If they were to trust Eleven’s powers too much, they might end up being dead or captured.

The government for example kept trying to catch them which Lucas noted is an annoyance and distracting them from their plans in trying to get back Will. Despite that Eleven still proved to be useful in the end as they needed her powers to get rid of the monster and to try to find Will and discover how to get there.

In conclusion, Stranger Things presents a unique story which tells the bonds of people and how a goal can always be fulfilled with different people as they all share that lust to accomplish it. While they may come from diverse backgrounds, or have different goals, these characters show how even differences can be put aside which allows the cast to work efficiently even with all the shortcomings from before. The character Eleven is an interesting case as she is shown differently compared to the other characters. She has a unique backstory that resembles a person being experimented on while also being shunned in society by people such as Lucas because of the fear of her own powers. The show masterfully portrays a character that is different in the society that is depicted.