u/Spinosaurus0714

I binge-watched Stranger Things over the past few days, and now I feel so empty.

I honestly wish I had started watching it 10 years ago. I really wish I could have experienced watching these characters grow up, both on-screen and off-screen, over the years, and then finally reaching that last episode and saying goodbye to them.

The story started in a basement, with the kids playing D&D. And in the end, we see them putting the game away and leaving the basement one by one, almost as if they're leaving their childhood behind.

And then there’s Mike, watching his sister and her friends start a new story of their own. He finally leaves his own childhood and adolescence behind and starts moving forward.

The older teens are growing up too, gradually becoming more mature and moving toward adulthood. They make a promise to meet once every January, and honestly, that sounds incredibly difficult to keep. But at the same time, in that era, staying connected wasn't nearly as easy as it is today. I feel like if you really cared about your friends, you would make the effort to actually go see them.

Even though I watched the entire show in just a few days, the ending still gave me this strange feeling of saying goodbye to my own childhood and youth.

I genuinely don't know how much more emotional this would have been if I had spent 10 years watching these characters grow up alongside me.

Especially because the characters' journey from high school to adulthood is happening at the same time as my own transition from high school to working life. I think that would have hit me so much harder.

I only spent a few days with them, and somehow I still feel like I've lost something.

Now I finally understand that empty feeling people get after finishing Stranger Things.

I finally had some free time recently and finished Stranger Things, so I wanted to write down some thoughts about one of my favorite parts of the show.

My favorite ship is still Jonathan and Nancy, without a doubt.

I actually got spoiled pretty early on that they wouldn’t end up together, and I also knew about the “un-proposal.” Even knowing that, I still cried my eyes out when I actually watched it.

If I hadn’t been spoiled, though, I think I would have been SO happy when Jonathan started preparing the ring… and then probably furious when he put it away XD

So because I knew how it would end, the sweeter their scenes were, the sadder I felt. I ended up cherishing every little interaction between them.

Honestly, I think this is one of the best and most realistic portrayals of a relationship I’ve seen. Stranger Things is a show that combines sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and so many other things, yet it puts this much thought into the emotional details of these two people’s relationship.

Jonathan and Nancy were brought together partly because of their shared trauma. Without Murray’s interference, I think Nancy probably already liked Jonathan anyway. In Season 2, when they were at the motel, Nancy mentioned that she had waited for him for a month the previous year, and then after Murray said a few simple things, they finally got together.

They fell in love because they had shared trauma and experiences.

But what happens when you take the trauma away?

The seemingly insignificant everyday things are actually what make a relationship feel real.

“I hate X.”

That little conversation about music says so much about them. Their interests are different, and they tolerate those differences for each other. But sometimes love is slowly worn down by all those tiny things you keep swallowing for the sake of the other person.

Their personalities are different too. Nancy is driven and ambitious, while Jonathan is much more cautious and reserved. You can see that contrast in the newspaper storyline and again in Season 5.

Jonathan wants to stay close to his family. Nancy has a dream of becoming a journalist.

And Jonathan’s line in Season 5, “Why did you choose to go up there?” feels like it might have been foreshadowing this difference between them.

Their trauma and shared experiences brought them together, and those same things also gave their relationship a sense of security. Because of everything they had been through together, it felt like no one else could ever replace that bond.

But that same bond also trapped them.

They loved each other, but they weren’t necessarily right for each other anymore. And yet they both seemed to believe that, because of everything they had been through together, they were somehow destined to stay together.

That’s why Jonathan felt guilty about not going to Emerson with Nancy.

Maybe avoiding the conversation was Jonathan’s mistake. But considering the time period, being separated like that may have felt almost equivalent to the end of a relationship. And that’s probably why he couldn’t bring himself to tell her.

When Jonathan asked Murray to get the ring for him, I think part of him wanted to use marriage as a way to stabilize their relationship.

But at the same time, he knew it might make things even worse.

After all, back in Season 1, both of them had already recognized the kind of future they didn’t want after seeing their parents’ relationships.

I also think the writers used this moment to finally close the love triangle. (Although personally, I still think the whole love triangle storyline in Season 4 was unnecessary.)

Nancy didn’t choose Steve.

But she knew that Steve understood what he wanted from love.

She didn’t.

And that meant Nancy needed time and space to figure out where her relationship with Jonathan was actually going.

Jonathan understood that.

And for someone as cautious and conservative as Jonathan, he made an incredibly difficult decision and proposed an “un-proposal” to Nancy.

I think if Nancy had rejected it, Jonathan probably would have continued walking alongside her anyway. That’s just who Jonathan is. He has always been someone who takes care of the people who matter most to him.

But Nancy accepted.

She was willing to not marry him.

And through that, Jonathan gave her back her freedom.

“I loved you.”

“I love you.”

It’s not that he stopped loving her.

It’s precisely because he loved her so much that he chose to let her go.

He chose to give both of them the freedom to move forward.

Their feelings didn’t simply disappear. They transformed the bond that had been created through trauma into something else.

Love doesn’t only have one definition.

They did love each other romantically. And starting in Season 4, they had already told each other what they loved about one another.

Now that love simply had to take a different form.

I also saw someone describe the liquid state of the environment during that scene as a metaphor for their relationship, and I really liked that interpretation.

When Nancy chose to go upward, the crisis began.

When she chose to shoot, Jonathan was initially hesitant too.

Their different personalities are reflected in those moments.

And when Nancy accepted his un-proposal, everything finally became stable.

Their love was like a liquid turning into a solid.

It became something more grounded and stable: letting go, while still remaining deeply important to each other as best friends.

What I especially love about the scene is that Jonathan didn’t ask, “Do you want to break up?”

He asked whether she was willing not to marry him.

Breaking up carries a sense of finality, like the relationship has reached its end.

But choosing not to marry leaves room for something else.

And more importantly, Jonathan gave Nancy the choice.

He let the girl he loved decide what was best for herself.

That, to me, is Jonathan being incredibly considerate and romantic.

And Nancy made the choice that was best for both of them.

They loved each other enough to let go.

In the end, Jonathan and Nancy still loved each other.

I think that’s why I cried even though I already knew what was going to happen.

It’s heartbreaking to watch two people who genuinely love each other realize that, because of all the little frictions and differences that accumulated over time, they might not be able to make the relationship last.

I started feeling especially sad when Nancy admitted that she didn’t like that music.

Because it’s such a small, ordinary thing.

And yet even those little everyday differences could create so much friction between them.

It made me realize that maybe they really couldn’t stay together forever.

Still…

A small part of me hopes that years from now, when they’re both older and more mature, they might somehow find their way back to each other.

And please, please let the rumors about them breaking up in real life be just rumors 😭

I’m already sad enough about the fictional relationship. I don’t think I can handle the actors’ breakup too 😭