This is one issue with writing that some people love and most writers will be either hesitant to admit or forthright enough to state. Sometimes a character needs to die in order for the story to progress. It’s a simple fact within writing that not everyone is going to make it to the end of the story, no matter how badly fans want them to and no matter how much fans come to love every last person in the group. Someone’s almost always got to go since that’s how life tends to work. In real life we don’t get to keep everyone we love and cherish, and in the story we tend to find the same correlation when it comes time for someone’s number to be up. Now you can argue that Stranger Things has done this with a couple of characters, but the loss of Jonathan Wheeler would be absolutely devastating in season 3 if it was to happen and there are a few reasons why.
So let’s dig into this idea a little more.
Characters like Barb and Bob are kind of a cheat and a lure to get fans on the side of characters they happen to like simply because they feel easy to relate to and are at times seen as the biggest underdogs. Let’s face it, Barb was the young woman that was tolerated only because her of her friend Nancy, who was liked by the popular kids. She was a piece of bait the writers dangled in front of the main threat in order to get them on board with the idea that she could be important somehow. And she was in a sense, as her death managed to showcase just how oblivious people were to danger when it was all around them. For just a fleeting moment when she woke up in the Upside Down it seemed as though she might be able to get away. But then all hope fled when it was made apparent that she was, as you might have guessed, just a plot device that lured the fans in.
Bob was the same way to be honest, but since Barb had already been taken out so quickly the writers had to be careful about his death in the second season. If you didn’t know that Mikey from the Goonies was going to go out at some point then you weren’t paying close enough attention. He was another plot device, he wasn’t someone that was meant to stick around for a prolonged period of time since Sean Astin is the kind of actor that tends to come and go as he’s needed for a show or movie. But his death was just as brutal as Barb’s to be honest, possibly more so since there was more than a glimmer of hope that he might get away.
https://youtu.be/6IvIq2fCvn4
If you didn’t read that setup then you need to watch more horror flicks. The moment you stop running from danger is when danger tends to catch up. Bob wasn’t meant to last, but he was useful in many ways up until his end.
Jonathan’s end would be highly emotional.
Keep in mind that Jonathan has been the father figure to his brother through seasons 1 and 2. He’s been the rock when his family needed him and has been able to stand up to the Demogorgon and also to others when it was necessary, like Steve. But now that it appears that Hopper and Joyce are getting closer, and Steve is taking on more of a grown-up role with the group, Jonathan’s role might be diminished a bit. His purpose is changing and is no longer the same as it was before. His relationship with Nancy is an obvious plus that pulls the family closer together and makes for a nice and touching story, but while Stranger Things pushes the whole family and bonding angle it also doesn’t tend to let that go uncontested. Keep in mind that Joyce ‘lost’ one son during season 1, and then had to fight from losing him in a different way in season 2. If she had to contend with losing her eldest son in season 3 it would surely destabilize her yet again, and fans have no doubt become used to a very destabilized Joyce rather than a happy and balanced Joyce.
In other words, Stranger Things might be about the positives that are the results of having come through so many difficult trials, but the show is also about the horror and uncertainty of loss. Jonathan is not an extra or supporting character like Barb or Bob, and his death, if it comes, could throw the entire group into an uproar depending on how it happens. For Jonathan though you can imagine that only a great, epic death would do. Something like being dragged into the Upside Down and given the same treatment as Barb or being blindsided like Bob just wouldn’t cut it. In fact, for a character like Jonathan a death such as this would be the product of lazy writing.
That’s right, I said it.
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