One of the lingering questions Stranger Things fans having coming out of the Season 5 finale relates to the series’ famous monsters, the demogorgons. Or, perhaps put more accurately, the lack of them.
In the final battle (Season 5 Episode 8, The Rightside Up), which Stranger Things has built up to for nine years and five seasons, our heroes battle against Vecna and the Mind Flayer, but not the demogorgons, the demodogs, or the bats we’ve seen previously. Where were they? Surely Vecna and the Mind Flayer would have had a better time of things if they’d had their pals help them out against Eleven, Steve, and the others. Were they sleeping on the job? A revolt, perhaps?
In an interview with TheWrap, Stranger Things co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer offered a detailed explanation, which involves a few factors. One, Vecna was caught unawares. He did not expect a sneak attack in The Abyss, so was not prepared for what was coming. Related, he had the Mind Flayer helping him out, so why would he need any more help? (This was, obviously, a bad decision.)
Meanwhile, all those demo monsters aren’t just hanging around Vecna at any given moment, the Duffer brothers said. There are not a lot of them in The Abyss.
And then we get to what I think is probably the most important reason, which has to do with what Stranger Things had done earlier in the season. The Duffers were mindful of what they called “demo fatigue,” having had a dramatic fight against the demogorgons at the end of Season 5, Volume 1, when Will’s powers awaken and he kills a handful of the things with his mind.
“Mainly it’s just that Vecna was not expecting this sneak attack on his home turf,” Matt Duffer explained. “Never in a million years could he even imagine that. They’re there somewhere. We obviously discussed having a demo battle on top of the Mind Flayer battle, but it felt more right to us that why does he need the demos when the Mind Flayer is this giant thing and can attack them? He doesn’t need his little ant army to attack, he’s going to take care of this himself.
“It’s a giant, desolate planet. If you recall, you see Henry wandering the planet back in Season 4 and at some point in his journey, he does see a demo far in the distance, but it’s not like they’re hanging out in little huts. There’s not like a giant civilization of demos up there.”
Matt Duffer continued: “one of the other things we talked about was just demo fatigue. I felt like we did everything we wanted to do with them in Sorcerer, and wanting to keep the focus on Vecna and the Mind Flayer, who’s been absent this season.”
So there you have it. Vecna’s confidence was his undoing, it seems — and a touch of “demo fatigue.”
According to Matt Duffer, there was an idea to have the heroes encounter a giant field of demo eggs in The Abyss in a scene reminiscent of Aliens, “but you can’t get all your ideas in there.” Apparently the demos were going to come out of the eggs and everything.
Some fans have suggested the fight against the Mind Flayer would have been made all the more epic by the addition of demogorgons. Having Will control them and turn them against the Mind Flayer and Vecna is a popular fan suggestion, too. But there’s no going back now. With the Upside Down destroyed, the demogorgons are stranded in The Abyss — hopefully forever.
We’ve got plenty more on Stranger Things, including the Duffer brothers explaining what they were going for with the Season 5 finale and Eleven’s ending, and first details on the live-action spinoff.
Image credit: Netflix.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
