Villains, Vulnerability & Verbal Diarrhoea: How Stranger Things Rewired My Favourites
Fandom loyalty is supposed to be unwavering. You pick your favourites, defend them like a medieval knight, and never—never—switch sides. And yet, here I am, committing the ultimate fan sin: a full-blown change of heart. The latest season of Stranger Things didn’t just move the plot forward; it cracked open its characters and let entirely new dimensions spill out. As a result, my top three now look very different from the list I’d sworn by earlier.
So here they are—ranked, reasoned, and slightly romanticised.
- Vecna — When Evil Is an Art Form
Let’s get this out of the Upside Down first: Vecna isn’t just terrifying; he’s theatrical. And that’s largely because of Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays him like a masterclass in controlled menace.
What floored me wasn’t just the prosthetics or the bone-chilling presence—it was the voice. Jamie’s original voice, unfiltered and unprocessed, carries a cold, deliberate cruelty that feels intimate and invasive. It’s not loud evil; it’s confident evil. The kind that doesn’t need to raise its voice because it knows you’re already listening.
Now contrast that with Jamie off-screen—laughing, animated, almost disarmingly warm in interviews—and the gap becomes staggering. Watching him switch between a life-loving human and a heartless antagonist feels like witnessing method acting on expert mode. He doesn’t just play the villain; he advances the franchise by making evil fascinating again. That kind of performance doesn’t scream for attention—it earns it.
- Will Byers — From Annoyance to Awe
I’ll admit it: for years, I found Will Byers exhausting. Perpetually vulnerable, eternally haunted, always one emotional breakdown away from another group hug. But this season? Oh, the glow-up—internal and external.
Played by Noah Schnapp, Will finally stepped into a quieter, more assured strength. Yes, the bowl cut is gone (thank the Hawkins hairstyling gods), but more importantly, his presence has changed. There’s clarity now. Intent. A sense that his powers—literal or emotional—are finally aligning with who he is.
What really got me, though, was his dialogue delivery. Noah uses pauses like punctuation marks—measured, intentional, and deeply felt. Every line sounds like it’s travelled through thought, emotion, and memory before reaching us. While the ensemble is undeniably strong, Will stands out because he doesn’t perform vulnerability anymore—he inhabits it. And that shift? That’s acting maturity.
- Robin Buckley — Chaos, Charm & Cognitive Relatability
Ah, yes, Robin Buckley—played by the endlessly magnetic Maya Hawke. Robin isn’t just pretty; she’s gloriously unfiltered. Her rapid-fire jabbering, especially when nervous, feels less like a character quirk and more like a personal attack on my own personality.
Beyond the obvious charm, here are three less-talked-about reasons she won me over:
She weaponises intelligence without arrogance. Robin knows things—and lets that knowledge flow naturally, not competitively.
Her emotional honesty is chaotic but sincere. No polished speeches, no dramatic monologues—just truth tumbling out mid-sentence.
She disrupts tension without dissolving it. Comic relief is easy; emotional balance is hard. Robin nails the latter.
She’s not just there to lighten the mood—she deepens it by being unapologetically herself.
Why the Shift Matters?
What this season did brilliantly was remind us that characters don’t stay static—and neither should our loyalties. These weren’t new faces; they were familiar ones finally allowed to evolve. And somewhere between villains with depth, boys finding their voice, and women talking faster than their thoughts, my favourites quietly rearranged themselves.
Growth, it turns out, is contagious—even for viewers.
And honestly? I wouldn’t have it any other way.
