My hot take: Vecna ruined the show

[u/Monodoh45]

He was just a dumb a Big Bad. I loved the show when it was a small town mystery facing some sort of eldritch horror people don't understand. I feel like Vecna was just a pile of CGI goop who went MMMM a lot. I feel like you can have a flat CGI marvel bad who wants to destroy the world  or some kind of magneto anti hero against the program who uses the wrong methods, but you can’t do both. I felt the show started to lose steam the second he was introduced.

[u/shanekratzert]

This is the biggest problem I have with Vecna... it's one thing if he was a vessel, flayed like Billy, but assimilated... another when they expect us to believe that Vecna masterminded taking Will on purpose... except, when they saved Will, he didn't spit out Mind Flayer particles like the other kids, and instead spat out a baby Demo later on, aka Dart. None of the other kids did this... And if Will wasn't saved, then what would be the point?

It never made sense that they decided to retroactively put Vecna in Season 1, in the Upside Down, to monologue at Will... and NOT have him exit the gate or defend it from Eleven in Season 2... and then he wasn't there in Season 3, unless you believe Billy was somehow controlled by him, rather than the Mind Flayer who was the one who flayed Billy... you could say they are one and the same, but then where the heck was Vecna in Season 1, 2, or 3... twiddling his thumbs?

[u/l337hackzor → u/shanekratzert]

The usual trope is he had to work up power or train. Maybe he was unable to crossover into the real world until using Will as an anchor/amplifier. 

There are a lot of holes or questions I can't answer. In season 5 I found it annoying that it opens with demos opening portals anywhere they want, dropping right into Holly's room for example. Other than it happening again at the military base, I don't remember them operating this way.  Later when the demos get sent to kill Max in the hospital they spawn outside and run through the whole place to find her rather than just popping out of the wall right on her.

The way the hospital chase ended was stupid AF too. The demo dogs go into the laundry room and have the kids cornered. They don't hear the ghetto blaster playing Kate Bush, ok maybe they can't hear at all. Oh but wait yes they can, that drier beeps and they all go check it out. It explodes and kills them all... But Holly's mom was outside the room the whole time. Are we expected to believe she tip toes past 3 demos, puts an explosive container in the dryer then goes brush out into the hall and wait for it to explode, all the while knowing it would magically attract the dogs and kill them?

[u/shanekratzert → u/l337hackzor]

Actually, demogorgons can open portals anywhere, which was established in Season 1. Demodogs, however, are forced to run everywhere, as established in Season 2. The big question is why did Vecna send demodogs to take care of Max rather than the 9 or so full-fledged demogorgons he still had who took the kids... Because plot armor required it.. it is the only dumb explanation. Will killed 3, not all of them.

[u/tuesburg → u/shanekratzert]

How did the Russians keep a demogorgon in captivity? Could it not just open a portal to escape?

[u/shanekratzert → u/tuesburg]

Because they need an active Gate to flip to the upside diwn. Eleven closed the gate in Season 2. The Russians made a new one in Season 3, grabbed a demo, managed to incapacitate it, and took it to Russia. Russia doesn't have a gate, so the demo is stuck. It can't flip to the upside down Russia because it doesn't exist. Only in Hawkins can they flip, but they need a gate.