my stranger things deep thoughts

For me, the whole series is a metaphor: a metaphor of capitalism/Western society and what it does to children and, by extension, all of us. In a sense, Jonathan was talking about this at the end - with his movie - you have to keep feeding her.

The mind flayer is the system. The propaganda. It takes innocent children and begins to tell them of their fears, their insecurities, and what they need to live a "happy" life while it's, in fact, using them to live.

These children grow into adults (Henry) and eventually teach and use children in the same way, thus propagating the system and the culture. The military is a part of this system, of course, after its power for itself but it usually takes the kids who are the freaks, the weirdos, the athletes (who can see the freaks for what they are) to battle the system, to fight against it, because they don't fit in anyway.

Dustin's whole graduation speech was its time to rebel. To fight the system - kudos to Eddie - but still... a metaphor for fighting the system.

Will's coming out was, of course, part of this. Vecna sought to find people's fears, their insecurities, their inner critic and play on it - as the system always does from the time we are young. As it had done to him and as he couldn't resist and believed he was better off a part of, despite Will telling him otherwise. Whether it's our sexuality, our traumas, our fears, it always plays on them and it's only together that we can actually fight it, and, in some sense, find happiness. It's only together that we defeat this thing trying to tell us we need it for happiness when it's using us.

It's why we needed the ending to be the way it was. Yes kill the monster but also tell us what the monster always truly was.

Of course, I'm sure I'm reading way too much into it, but that's what a good story allows people to do in my opinion.