Stranger things theory. It’s just a bunch of kids playing a giant DND game (possible spoilers?)

Here is my theory. Stranger Things is not a supernatural story. It is the most committed DnD campaign ever played by a group of friends. Every season is part of one long game and the kids are acting out their characters inside the story world that their Dungeon Master built.

Henry Creel is not the villain in real life. He is one of their friends and he is the DM. He created the world, the rules, the creatures, and all the threats. He also decided to make himself the final villain inside the story. The players do not know this at the beginning. They think they are fighting the Mind Flayer, Demogorgons, Russian labs, scientists, and everything else. As the game goes on they start realizing the real mastermind is Vecna. Henry revealing that he created Vecna as his own alter ego becomes the major twist of the campaign.

This explains a lot of odd details in the show. Eleven starts out with strong powers which is something DMs sometimes let players do when the story calls for it. Will suddenly showing new abilities fits the leveling up process during long campaigns. The shifting rules of the Upside Down make sense when you think of it as homebrew world building. Eddie dying makes sense as a character sacrifice but the real Eddie would still be alive and just sitting out that session. Barb leaving and nobody looking for her fits a player who got bored and quit early.

The entire story becomes a long game where the DM is slowly moving the group toward his big reveal. The Mind Flayer is not the final enemy. It is just a mid campaign boss. The real villain is the storyteller who has been controlling the world from the start.

That is my theory. It ties up several loose ends and makes sense of some of the show’s stranger moments. It also fits the theme that imagination and friendship are at the heart of everything in Stranger Things.