Spoilers Netflix's New Series Stranger Things

[Asbo Zaprudder]

"El" means "god" in Hebrew. My interpretation is that the shadow world was created by El's troubled mind as a sort of enhanced observer effect. The monster is from El's Id.

"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you." -- Friedrich Nietzsche

 

[Reverend]

I don't think El created anything, she just accidentally tapped into this other world where that creature was living. She's strong, but she ain't that strong.

How do you know how strong she is or isn't? She punched a hole in the universe that would supposedly require the combined energy of several billion stars. That's pretty damn powerful.

And like I said, it may not have been an act of pure creation so much as her subconscious giving shape to the shapeless. Like imagine that world is wet clay and El's mind left an impression of the world in it like a set of foot prints. Just like footprints resemble feet but are only hollow impressions, so if the upside-down an impression of our world.

 

[Mr Light]

<<She punched a hole in the universe that would supposedly require the combined energy of several billion stars.>>
Did they say that on the show????

 

[ancient]

Watched the whole series a few weeks ago, it's pretty rad, definitely feels like Speilberg mixed with Ridley Scott.

I also like that it can apparently get away with whatever they want thanks to Netflix not having to worry about ratings for distribution. Traditional TV can't really compete with that, everything would end up TV-MA.

 

[Reverend]

<<She punched a hole in the universe that would supposedly require the combined energy of several billion stars.>>
Did they say that on the show????

The line about several billion suns came from the teacher when talking to the boys about what it'd take to open a gateway into another universe and it's heavily implied that El did just that. So yeah, pretty much.

 

[Rowan Sjet]

The Demogorgon must be even more powerful than El then, since it can open dimensional portals at will.

 

[Reverend]

Well is that really what's happening? Or is it that what El did fractured the local fabric of space-time, leaving cracks and weak spots that the creature could push through? This is supported by the fact that while her portal seemed to remain permanently open, the others "healed" fairly quickly, that it was at the centre of the magnetic distortion and that the creature was able so scent blood from the other side. Also, the creature didn't start appearing until El caused the breach, so if it could really cross universes at will, then surely it would have done so long before now.

 

[Venardhi]

Who says it never attacked anyone before now? It may just have been drawn to the opportunity of an area where the damage to the fabric of the universe made it so much easier for it to cross over.

 

[Reverend]

The upside-down appears to be a 1-to-1 reflection of our world and we've only ever seen the creature travel on foot, so even if El drew it in it couldn't have been from very far away. Also consider the odds of that being the only such creature in that world and it just so happens to be within walking distance of where all this went down?

Not very likely at all, which means there are probably others out there and if things like that were crossing into our world with any kind or regularity before this incident, it's unlikely it would have gone unnoticed. That means if they ever did cross over before it probably wasn't under their own power but by exploiting any naturally (or unnaturally) occurring weak spots. Which brings us right back to it being here because of El, one way or another.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Hopper was putting Eggo waffles in the box in Mirkwood for El's benefit, wasn't he? As he's not the sort for making votive offerings, I can only assume he believes she's still alive in the upside-down, which should have vanished had she died (IMO).

 

[Mr Light]

Why would the Upside Down vanish if she died? She didn't create it.

 

[Reverend]

Hopper was putting Eggo waffles in the box in Mirkwood for El's benefit, wasn't he? As he's not the sort for making votive offerings, I can only assume he believes she's still alive in the upside-down, which should have vanished had she died (IMO).

A more interesting detail is that he's putting the waffles in an *empty* box. So unless this is the first time he's doing this, someone else is removing them, thus indicating El really is alive.

Why would the Upside Down vanish if she died? She didn't create it.

She may have (see above) but I wouldn't say that the one necessitates the other. If she just created it then it could conceivably continue with or without her. It would only disappear upon her death if she was somehow sustaining it.

 

[Mr Light]

<<A more interesting detail is that he's putting the waffles in an *empty* box. So unless this is the first time he's doing this, someone else is removing them, thus indicating El really is alive.>>

The moment he steps away, the squirrels descend on it

 

[Tom]

another mystery was at the end Hopper gets in a car with the government guys, I thought he was going to 'disappear', but a month later he was around and everything was fine. So I wonder what that car ride was all about.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

"El" means "god" in Hebrew. My interpretation is that the shadow world was created by El's troubled mind as a sort of enhanced observer effect. The monster is from El's Id.

I was wondering myself if that might not be the case (at least with the monster, not sure about the shadow world). Especially with her goodbye scene. It would explain the proximity of everything and how it broke out at the same time she did.

 

[Reverend]

another mystery was at the end Hopper gets in a car with the government guys, I thought he was going to 'disappear', but a month later he was around and everything was fine. So I wonder what that car ride was all about.

I'm assuming he's made some sort of deal with the powers that be. What the terms of that deal are and how it relates to him leaving offerings to Eli are mysteries I expect they'll address in season 2, one way or another.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I assume there were other test subjects in addition to "Eleven". Scope there as well.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I assume there were other test subjects in addition to "Eleven". Scope there as well.

Jason Alexander and "Seven" for season 2?

 

[Kahless the Unforgettable]

I assume there were other test subjects in addition to "Eleven". Scope there as well.

Didn't they address that?

I thought they stated that they had tried other subjects, but Eleven was the first (and presumably only) one to manifest abilities.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Presumably first but can we necessarily assume the last?

It was a good enough effort as a first season but perhaps its internal logic can't survive a second. There is also a limited supply of Spielberg and King tropes.