The Dungeon Master's Guide to predicting Season 2 of 'Stranger Things'
There have been plenty of Dungeons & Dragons references on TV shows in the past, including on the series finale of Freaks and Geeks and the D&D-themed episode of Community.
But few have embraced the role-playing game as strongly as Netflix's Stranger Things.
In 1983, when the show is set, D&D gained national notoriety after a concerned mother started Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons (BADD), saying it caused her son to commit suicide. Fears over the game's nefarious influence over children even prompted a 60 Minutes episode two years later.
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In Stranger Things, Dungeons & Dragons acts as the social glue that bonds the group of adorable misfits together, and provides a convenient way to explain major plot points.
Beware the Demogorgon
"Don’t be a p**sy, fireball him!" cries Lucas in the one of the first scenes of the series.
Will, paralyzed by fear, is panicking as the Demogorgon comes near. Dustin is screaming at him to cast a less risky protection spell instead.
Finally, Will rolls the dice, hoping to get 13 or higher for a successful fireball. He fails -- foreshadowing his abduction by the terrifying monster who the kids will also refer to as the Demogorgon.
So what exactly is the Demogorgon?
In D&D lore, this powerful character is also known as the "Prince of Demons," a lesser deity who loves the water and hypnotizing his evil minions. He is also very ugly. Unlike the Guillermo del Toro-esque creature from the Upside Down, the Demogorgon is described by Dungeons & Dragons as a beast with two baboon heads, scaly skin, and tentacles instead of arms.
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The demon's two heads were at war with each other -- leading to a very elaborate fan theory that Eleven and the Demogorgon are part of the same monster, and that if she comes back in Season 2, the Demogorgon could be not far behind.
Binders full of demons
Even the Demogorgon is no match for a totally rad homemade binder. Behold, the power of markers:
Inside is this little treasure, the Dungeon & Dragons Expert Set rulebook from 1983, complete with epic fantasy cover art by Larry Elmore.
There isn't just a store-bought rulebook in that binder, though. Mike has stashed all kinds of stuff in there, including magazine articles and photocopied versions of D&D materials -- pretty normal procedure for 12-year-olds in the 1980s trying to get by on meager allowances.
This is also where we see an article on "The Vale of Shadows."
While it might not have existed in the Expert Set from 1983, there was a reference to the Vale of Shadows in Icewind Dale, a Dungeons & Dragons video game released in 2000. The Forgotten Realms Wiki describes it like this:
"The Vale was an area of high bluffs and deep chasms with small pathways, with tombs lying through it. It remained shadowed even in the middle of a bright day at highsun. Some of these were undead shadows bearing hunger and hate. All were warned away from this place."
Definitely sounds like a place a creepy, faceless monster might hang out.
Coming next: the Thessalhydra?
At the end of the series, the group faces off against a new enemy: the Thessalhydra.
This time, the fireball is successful, and the beast appears to die. Mike describes how the Lucas cuts off the creature's seven heads and how Dustin puts them in his bag.
It's a triumphant moment, except, as several Redditors have pointed out, the Thessalhydra of D&D lore has eight heads.
(Those heads circle a large, gaping mouth filled with sharp teeth, attached to a reptilian body. Cute!)
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Why does any of this matter? Because the Demogorgon served as foreshadowing for the monster that would attack them in the first season.
The Thessalhydra showdown could be foreshadowing for Season 2. They think they're done with the evil -- but they left one head intact, and the Thessalhydra's heads tend to grow back.
This could correspond with several loose ends at the end of Season 1, including the slug that comes out of Will's mouth and the food the sheriff leaves out for Eleven.
On Wednesday, Netflix announced that Stranger Things was officially coming back -- hopefully with an expansion pack's worth of new D&D references.
Topics Netflix Stranger Things
Keith Wagstaff is an assistant editor at Mashable and a terrible Settlers of Catan player. He has written for TIME, The Wall Street Journal Magazine, NBC News, The Village Voice, VICE, GQ and New York Magazine, among many other reputable and not-so-reputable publications. After nearly a decade in New York City, he now lives in his native Los Angeles.
