Karen Wheeler and Joyce Byers- the mamas of Stranger Things who came through at the last hour!

While we love Eleven and her gang doing their best to save Hawkins, the moms of Stranger Things feel like the true unsung heroes of season 5!

The highly anticipated final season of Stranger Things is finally over. All the theories, speculations, the eagerness to see which character makes it through and so many other questions got their conclusion with the final episode which was released on New Years Day! The Duffer brothers built the world of Stranger Things in a way that each and every character gets their moment to shine. Right from the main protagonist, to the villain, to even characters like Delightful Derek who have a small role but get to make a huge impact on-screen. But two characters in particular not only steal the show for me but also play out some of the most iconic scenes season 5 has given us!

Both Karen Wheeler and Joyce Byers are two women with such different personalities and yet they have so much in common! Both of them were put in situations where they had little to no information about what they were dealing with. While Joyce in season 1 had such a hard time figuring out what was happening with her son, Karen on the other hand had zero time to process what a demogorgon even is. But both of them dived in head first to save their babies from life threatening monsters. Instead of decoding everything and making sense of it, they let their reflexes and strong maternal instincts take over and bring out a side of themselves even they didn’t know existed. 

Also Read: Stranger Things 5 Finale review: Not the ending we expected but the one we needed!

In the first volume of season 5, in the very first episode itself we see Karen fighting demogorgons. The shot of her and Holly holding their breath under the bathtub water will be imprinted in my mind for years to come. But what sealed it for me and for all of social media was Karen Wheeler taking down a demogorgon with a broken wine bottle, screaming the words “not my daughter”. As a fan of both Stranger Things and Harry Potter, I was instantly taken back to the iconic scene between Mrs Weasley and Bellatrix where she says “not my daughter, you bit*h”. Both scenes give off the same energy and the internet was quick to pick up on it and add Karen to the hall of fame for badass women we’ve loved on-screen!

If that wasn’t enough, she fought demogorgons yet again, and this time while being severely injured in the hospital. She plays a huge role in Max making it back to the Right Side Up. Even though her own daughter was missing and her  two kids were in danger, trying to save the world, she had zero hesitation in saving Lucas, Max, Robin and Vickie by thinking on her feet and destroying the demogorgons with a mere washing machine move and walking out of the smoke in slow motion like a true hero! In season 1, we see Karen constantly worried for her kids. She wants to be their confidante, she wants them to open up. To her kids and to us, it just felt like something any mother would say. But little did we know that she actually meant when she said she wanted to support her kids, if only they told her the truth. And when the moment of truth does come in front of her, she becomes an absolute superwoman and wore her battle scars like a badge of honour!

Coming to Joyce, we have seen her deeply suffer throughout the show for all the bad things that happen to her son, Will. She constantly feels helpless and her heart aches as she has no idea how to help ease his pain or make his life go back to normal. She channels all of that pent up aggression and takes it all out in season 5! We see a more confident version of her who is ready to let Will have a grounding of his own. For the first time in forever, instead of keeping him away from danger, she pushes him to channel his weaknesses into fighting Vecna. 

When he does take control over Vecna and help Eleven defeat him, he gives his mother the moment she has been waiting for since forever! As we see Joyce’s anger pent up and it turns into her delivering her final iconic line saying, “You f*cked with the wrong family!" Itwas the best conclusion we could ask for from her character and the closure we deserved as fans. As she decapitates Vecna, we see a montage of all the characters grieving everything that they have lost because of him. All of us thought Eleven would be the one to take the final breath out of Vecna, but it was an absolute full circle moment to see Joyce be the one to do that! 

So to Karen and Joyce, I’d say take a bow, ladies! Your courage, resilience and fierceness will not be forgotten by the Stranger Things fandom; y'all truly are one for the books!

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