How to save a show by loving it: on #Conformity gate being the best thing to happen to Stranger Things
“Season 5 of Stranger Things…”
Yes and no, thank you, I can assure you that everyone is very, very much aware of that… whatever you were going to say, that is.
“Ehm…’kay. Rude”
Except it’s true! Even if you have never seen a single episode of Stranger Things in your life, you must have heard the complaints about this final season. Everyone is mad…like, extremely mad. But hear me out: this has been one of the most incredible things that has happened to a fandom in a long, long time.
So, for anyone who is confused, what is (very briefly) #Conformitygate? Started by user @67gate on Twitter, it is the idea that the finale that was released was a fake one. While watching the epilogue, fans had indeed the feeling that every character had turned into a conformed, toned-down version of themselves. Connecting plot hole after plot hole, fans started theorizing that Vecna (the villain) had won and that everyone (including the audience) was under his curse. Kinda like The Truman Show (which was said to be one of the main inspirations for this season, mind you), characters were collectively trapped in a mind-game without being aware of it.
The theory made so much sense that everyone, with their own area of expertise (be it DND lore, media analysis, music history, costuming or color theory) helped the idea get more and more coherent, interesting and creative: video-edits, fanarts and new “proofs” helped the whole internet get on board, creating a general excitement about how this was going to go down. Between characters and extras breaking the 4th wall, the writers exhorting to “pay attention” to every little detail this final season, no answers being given to fans about this or that character even after all the episodes had (supposedly) come out, everything was slowly and excitingly adding up for the façade to fall.
Connecting plot hole after plot hole, fans started theorizing that Vecna (the villain) had won and that everyone (including the audience) was under his curse.
Then, because of a series of coincidences, people expected a new final episode (where this curse would be revealed and everyone would break-free) to come out on the 7th of January. It did not. But, by then, the theory had gained a life of its own. On that day, Netflix crashed under the sheer weight of millions of people logging in all at once, checking if this ninth, final episode had, at last, come out. (And no, Netflix did not crash even when the show finale, the “fake ending”, was first released on the 1st of January… after years of waiting, Netflix’s most-watched show ever… do with this info what you want).
“Mass psychosis” and “schizophrenia” are just two of the hyperbolic terms that have been used and thrown around to describe the toll that the fandom had taken over all social media. Memes flooded the internet comparing fans to Joyce Byers in season 1, believing her son was still alive despite his dead body before her eyes (to which the fandom, never missing a beat: “but she was right!”) and…
Wait…why are we still talking about this if no other episode came out? Because while a secret finale would have been the most legendary, iconic move the Duffer Brothers could have made, that, turns out, was never the point to begin with.
While a secret finale would have been the most legendary, iconic move the Duffer Brothers could have made, that, turns out, was never the point to begin with.
Firstly, the theory did not die with the ninth episode not coming out. Fans now choose to believe that this is how the series ended, with the villain winning and everyone trapped (yes, this was better than whatever that finale was). It became the de facto ending. Everyone logging into Netflix was a leap of faith, of profound, desperate hope for the story to make sense again. Built on the backs of outcasts and “weirdoes”, concluded with those same characters forced into a traditional, watered-down version of themselves, the audience felt betrayed: Vecna winning was somehow more respectful to the story’ stakes than a finale that felt like it had stained and scrubbed off the very soul of the show. And so, the lame reality fans got, became the deliberate villain curse. It was never a collective hallucination, just a caring audience hunting for the depth that the other seasons used to have, for what this final one neglected to provide.
Secondly, because it gave people a way to cope. The grief of the fandom – for seeing their so-loved characters treated so poorly, for the story being so empty; for the misogyny and the sidelining of the main character; for the awful dialogues and mischaracterization, for the value of friendship being basically forgotten – yes this list is long, yes it is telling, yes I could continue for a long time… whatever (sigh), this grief, this madness, this collective sadness turned into creativity. It turned into hope.
Fans now choose to believe that this is how the series ended, with the villain winning and everyone trapped (yes, this was better than whatever that finale was).
The point of fandoms is to love and care about characters, to know them to their core, to feel them and feel for them. And this time the Stranger Things fandom showed us exactly that! That stories are not of those who write them, but of those who love them. That empathy and love and care can transcend screens and book pages; that the story is still ours to tell, even when the credits roll. The #Conformitygate theory held the fandom together, helped people grieve the end of an era on their own terms, gave fans the closure the finale was not able to give.
And what does this all mean on a deeper level? That people want shows to be fun again! We want movies and tv-series to be intellectually engaging; we want media literacy to not be so dead. Yes, the attention-span is lower than ever but dumbing down the shows just increases our desire to tune out! If while watching a show, the characters explain their plan to me 35 times, I am going to look at my phone. Why watch if they are telling and not showing?
If there was ever proof that audiences are starving for stories worth caring about, this was it. #Conformitygate proved that when a story is complex (or believed to be) we will spend weeks analyzing why a color of an object suddenly changes, why a graduation board was empty, why were they all sitting like Henry at the ceremony (I scream as they drag me away). We are begging for subtext to analyze (hehe, follow our blog c’mon).
#Conformitygate was not merely about disliking an ending, but about making the ending make sense in the show’s own logic; it was the reclamation of a story that fans love and care about more than the authors themselves.
Please give us shows that actually make sense. This is a cry for help. In the meantime, we fans are going to care about characters (someone has to).
