Stranger Things fans are divided over season 5's final episode: "Stranger Things finale is a mess… but I’m still happy with it"

Millie Bobbie Brown as Eleven in Stranger Things season 5 — (Image credit: Netflix)

After almost 10 years, Netflix's hit sci-fi series Stranger Things has come to an end. However, the two-hour-long finale has left fans divided, with some very pleased with how the show came to a close, whereas others feel robbed of a major final battle.

Warning: the following article contains spoilers for Stranger Things season 5 episode 8, so make sure you are all caught up before reading on, and check out our Stranger Things season 5 finale review first.

Stranger Things season 5 came to a close this New Year's Eve, seeing our favorite Hawkins heroes go after Vecna one final time, with Joyce Byers being the one to deliver the final blow, killing Vecna with an axe after he was impaled by a spike in the Abyss (you read more on that in our Stranger Things season 5 ending explained). The rest of the episode then focused on what Will, Mike, and the rest of the survivors got up to after the town returned to normality, including a touching epilogue on where the Hawkins AV Club ended up after high school.

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However, although the final episode proved to be an emotional and rather positive end to the action-packed series, fans are certainly divided, with many expecting more from the sci-fi show. "I love when my scary mist monster conveniently becomes a comically weak fleshy Kaiju so that the heroes can defeat it via literal video game logic in 5 minutes after 9 years of buildup," pointed out one fan sarcastically on Twitter.

Others agree, with another writing, "The finale to Stranger Things was one of the most anticlimactic, safest, and unsatisfying endings to any show I’ve ever seen." Many seem to be confused over the sheer amount of plot holes left open, as one points out, "Main villain killed halfway in, nobody important died, no explanation on Henry Creel's origin story, and only an 18-month time jump."

But many fans are happy with how the Duffer brothers decided to close off the series. "I loved the ending to Stranger Things so much, I don’t know what you’re all talking about," said one fan, and another added, "Stranger Things finale is a mess highkey, but I’m still happy with it."

One fan said that despite its flaws, the finale fitted the series. "The Stranger Things finale was amazing and, in my opinion, ended the show in the best way possible. The final fight was intense, Vecna’s death was satisfying, and Eleven’s ending was exactly how I wanted her story to end," said the fan on Twitter. "I understand why some people will be upset that not many characters died, but after seeing how everyone’s stories were wrapped up, it made sense." At the end of the day, no matter how the series ended, not every fan would have been happy with the finale.