D&D Spotted In ‘Stranger Things’ 4 Sneak Peek
Stranger Things, Season 4 is coming and with it we’ll finally get the answers we’ve been waiting for–how does the gang’s D&D game end?
Stranger Things, if you think about it, is a metaphor for how hard it is to just get to sit down and play a game of Dungeons & Dragons. In season 1, we got a glimpse of a campaign in progress, interrupted by ‘the Demogorgon’ in an 80s-fueled adventure that reminded everyone how cool D&D was.
But what you failed to realize is that the monster could have been a metaphor for puberty or ‘discovering other interests’ or any number of other things that make your game drift apart. Throughout three seasons now, the gang of kids who have become more embroiled than you’d think in events that have serious repercussions for the whole world, have just tried to play their game. Now, maybe, we’ll get to see how it all shakes out, thanks to the hype-fueled trailer of Stranger Things, Season 4.
All jokes aside, 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons is hands down the most popular the game has ever been, for a number of reasons–but one of the big ones is the popularity of Stranger Things. This show came along at the exact right moment, galvanizing a generation that was hungry for a world that didn’t exist, that in many ways never existed, but that represented the care-free youth that nobody’s had since at least 2003.
Which is fitting, because 5th Edition D&D is, in its own way, built on nostalgia for the past while also gazing into the future. Time marches on, so do we. We can’t change that. The only thing we can change is this sort of collective idea about where we’ve come from.
And whether that’s rules that lean heavily on the inspiration of 2nd Edition D&D, or yearning for a simpler, more straightforward time–while also still acknowledging advancements both technological and societal. We sort of remake the past to be something we wish it could have been. Whether that’s a game that feels like the nostalgia of childhood ease while also grappling with modern issues of representation and inclusivity…
Or a past dressed in the 80s but framed through the lens of acceptance and tolerance that defines how far we’ve come. At any rate, Stranger Things, Season 4 will likely be another huge boost for Dungeons & Dragons, which acknowledges how closely the two are related with its own Stranger Things starter set:
Only now we’ll get to see how it all turns out. Look at the image from the trailer once more:
The dice in motion, clearly the damage has already been dealt–all we have to do now is see where they land.
Happy Adventuring!
