It’s safe to say that the world of Stranger Things is far more than meets the eye. There’s portals to parallel dimensions infested with monsters, middle-schoolers with powerful psychic abilities, and people who are still somehow not willing to take Joyce Byers at her word, who knows what else could be out there?
We’re bound to get a few answers sometime after season five, when the Duffers reveal whatever they have cooked up for a spinoff, but how might the Hawkins canon look if just one detail was tweaked? Inspired by Marvel Studios’ What If…?, r/StrangerThings have taken to pitching their situations for a Stranger Things edition of the concept.
Perhaps the most horrifying pitch involved Steve getting recruited by the Mind Flayer instead of Billy during the events of season three. The trauma from that scenario would no doubt spread far and wide; not only is Steve one of the show’s most beloved characters, but watching his relationship with the kids break down like that would be nothing short of heartbreaking.
A less traumatic suggestion involved the question of Eleven somehow regaining her powers when she attempted to use them on Angela earlier in season four. It would have spelled much more trouble for Eleven, no doubt, but we imagine a good many viewers would’ve cheered for any pain suffered by Angela.
And in the near-perfect intersection between chaos, terrifying incomprehension, and gut-busting hilarity, we have this suggestion from redditor Suzy-Creamcheez.
If there is a Stranger Things multiverse, then the Duffers are just a click away from filling their notebooks with plenty of ideas for canon divergence. Personally, we’d jump to watch Australian Vecna in half a heartbeat.
Stranger Things is currently streaming on Netflix.