How I would've written season 5 of stranger things
( ALL of this based purely on show material - idk about the theatre pieces)
We all know that stranger things wasnt exactly super satisfactory - so this is how I wouldve changed certain parts to make it a better season in my opinion.
Case A : Give the grandfather clock an actual meaning
The grandfather clock in my opinion was one of the best visual intrigues that this season had. Its connection to vecna and the killings made it so sinister and terrifying. The grandfather clock also felt so timeless and thus terrifying, like all the mistakes from the past had come back to haunt you.
My idea is instead of 12 random children, I would make vecna go after the heroes - he needs to capture 12 of them, and thus he starts with the weakest physical link - holly.
My explanation of his connection to the grandfather clock would be a backstory - something like his father being excessively controlling to 'fix' his son once discovering Henry's pschyopathetic tendencies. This causes Henry to want to destroy the clock because it reminds him of sterility, of control, of punishment. But after many failed attempts - he decides to own his fear and make it his signature, to make others feel the pain, of having to face the music, of fear. I know that family trauma might be a cheap shot but it explains why he would kill his family but leave his father alive. Not saying all killers were abused children but it would explain his motives and actions. So his idea to reign the world could come from there, from a heavily projected trauma.
Main motive - destroy time once and for all - he should be controllling everything
So the story would go on that he tracks each one of the heroes one by one and kidnaps them. I would go for this order:
Holly, Max, Dustin, Johnathan, Joyce, Harper, Ms Wheeler, Nancy, Steve, Mike, Eleven and Will.
Im basically going by most physically weak / mentally unstable to more strong. The reason will is last is because vecna uses him to spy. I basically want will to have the harry potter/voldemort battle of trying to seperate himself from the trauma - who is he? without all this pain - who is the person that he is trying to seem as.
I do get that maybe after dustin, you would be a little confused by the order but its based on feelings of the person. Imagine holly, max and dustin are gone - johnathan is lured and kidnapped using his own insecurities - the stress of not being able to get with nancy, his own shortcomings - which would feel especially painful when he just lost 3 of his brother's friends. We could also show will and johnathan's connection here, vecna could lure johnathan in by promising to keep will safe, to rid him of his pain.
Once johnathan is gone,
imagine joyce's state.
Then subsequently harper.
Ms wheeler and nancy finally succumb to vecna after the grief of holly.
And so on.
This is vecna's plan. He chooses the heroes because they are proximally the closest to the upside down and the biggest threats that he has. vecna acknowledges them as opponents.
Episode 1 :
The way the heroes handle this is by firstly, going through trauma. Their step would be to honestly ignore the problem. Imagine you just realised the world i going to end - your like 16 and you have to save everybody, against a celestial beast - it makes sense for them to shut down and just want to live. I would want the first episode to just be harper and maybe nancy running around begging everybody to focus and fix this mess. Until at the end - holly goes missing with a grandfather clock covered in blood.
Episode 2 :
the whole group finally wakes up and hunts for holly praying that maybe this was a prank or something. They are finally forced to acknowledge that they have to stop this monster. They finally start planning, but their plans are meagre, their rusty, their fighting against each other. Some characters are closer than others and fight over their tensions. Then Max goes missing.
Episode 3 :
However, this time they discover two things - 1) max is dead 2) max forced vecna to slip up through his mind as one final act of definance to save the crew by making him slip up and reveal that this a pattern, vecna is not killing them out of fun or fear, its for a larger course, meaning holly is STILL ALIVE. This gives the heroes motivation and hope - sure max is dead and gone but holly is there. So they finally get their work together and start planning - reverting back to dnd to help them tag different concepts and use them to think of plans
Episode 4:
This is gonna be a blood bath of a episode where the heroes constantly plan and try to predict who is gonna die next and constantly come up with the wrong answers - leading to the wrong people being taken/lured away. I would also add that some of them fight demogorgons. ( we lose dustin, joyce and harper)
But 3 kind of good things happen.
A) since vecna is expanding so much energy - we find out more of his backstory
B) we see where the kidnapped are going through dustin's eyes
C) we realise that vecna hasnt been outsmarting them - but rather understanding them, someone in the room is in kahoots with vecna.
Episode 5:
The entire gang is pointing fingers at each other. The people who lost their loved ones are especially distressed, wanting to kill others. This is when vecna attacks from many sides - breaking down places - forcing the heroes to have to work as unlikely alliances. Vecna thinks this will break them further apart. All the heroes fight with many blaming each other - with will in fit of anger revealing that he's gay AND getting shamed for it ( im sorry but its the 1990s - no way in hell is gonna be immediately accepted ). This leads to even more conflict as the person in kahoots is infact will - even if he is doing it unwillingly. However, this is the episode where he sees his family struggle with his sexuality and actually choosing love above all and accepting him with all his flaws. The episode where he realises he wasnt just pitied but loved, even mike accepting his feelings and apologising for not being the kind of person he couldve talked to. This love and care makes will realise that there more to him that being a monster. He accepts the trauma and finds himself - controlling the hive mind from that moment on.
The people in the kidnapping are tormented endlessly mentally.
Episode 6:
The heroes are now protected from vecna's mind and have insights on him thanks to will. Vecna is furious and doesnt understand how Will managed to flip the connection on its head. He slips up due to hastily trying to secure nancy - accidentally revealling info that allows will to have some inkling on where they are.
The whole episode is just them trying to get a message to the people kidnapped - you have to save yourself.
Okay I kinda got tired here - but the rest of the story is that the heroes basically escape from vecna's world by setting the timelines right and for this they essentially use the mindflayer to kill vecna to self destroy. I know this sounds crazy - but vecna is too big to be defeated by the heroes - the only way out is convincing him to kill himself.