These are all things that Stranger Things season 4 should be looking to incorporate more of into its storytelling. The status quo for the majority of the kids in Hawkins remained the same, at least until the very end when the Byers family moved, and elements such as the Upside Down or the other children who were experimented on like Eleven weren't touched upon. They're two elements that, for the most part, were left behind in season 3. At various points just about every character is in danger, from Nancy and Jonathan to later everyone in the car, but there's always a final savior from out of nowhere (and just as worryingly, it was almost always Eleven arriving in the knick of time). It's the same in Stranger Things, especially at both the hospital and then Starcourt Mall. This happened a lot in season 8 of the latter, especially at the Battle of Winterfell, while there were instances in season 7 as well. Stranger Things season 3's other big shock value problem is another familiar to fans of Game of Thrones: wanting you to think that a character is going to die, only to save them at the last moment. We learn very little of his plans or background, and instead he's simply dropped in to attack Hopper, or again to kill Alexei, which essentially makes him Stranger Things' version of Euron Greyjoy: a somewhat ridiculous, walking, talking swiss-army-plot-device. It particularly does this with the Mind Flayer/Billy plot, only tending to dip into that side of the story when it wants to deliver a big reveal, often at the end of an episode, and it's in-part the entire purpose of the Terminator-esque Grigori. With Stranger Things season 3's emphasis on shock value, it means that like Game of Thrones before it, the series starts to withhold information, so we only learn of certain plans or events once they're relevant to the surprise, rather than seeing hints of their formation. But again, it at the very least played fair with these twists, rather than deliberately hiding information from the viewer for the sake of a shock. It furthers the surprise because these moments represent such a shift in direction, with the series regularly changing gear and keeping viewers on their toes. The shock comes in part from the fact they actually went through with those things, rather than an attempt at obfuscation. Game of Thrones was always a shocking TV show, but it wasn't one that tried to mislead you. Major events like the execution of Ned Stark and the Red Wedding are surprising, but they also naturally follow where the story has been building to. It isn't just that things were rushed and made less sense, because those things were mostly a problem in the final two seasons of Game of Thrones, but rather a shift from character-driven storytelling to plot-driven, and with that an added emphasis on shock value. It's not an exact science - season 6 is one of the best - but the storytelling did begin to change. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books and those that left the source material behind. A lot has been made of the divide between Game of Thrones seasons 1-4 and 5-8, or in other words, the ones that closely followed George R.R.
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