Netflix is not only home to a variety of licensed content but also to original movies and TV shows, of which many have become some of the best in recent years. Among Netflix’s most popular and successful TV shows are the sci-fi horror drama Stranger Things and the fantasy drama The Witcher, which even though have little in common, had similar storylines in seasons 4 and 2, respectively.
Created by the Duffer Brothers, Stranger Things took the audience to the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, to follow a series of mysteries and supernatural events happening around town, which are connected to another dimension called the “Upside Down”. On the other hand, The Witcher, based on the novels and short stories by Andrzej Sapkowski, explores the stories of the title witcher, a sorceress, and a princess, with a massive political conflict as the background. Both Stranger Things and The Witcher have more than one female lead, but two of them shared very similar storylines in seasons 4 and 2: Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra).
After a long wait for both, Stranger Things season 4 saw Eleven struggling to adapt to a different city while also dealing with the loss of her powers, while The Witcher season 2 saw Yennefer also dealing with the loss of her powers, which led her to make a dangerous deal with the Voleth Meir. Eleven and Yennefer were left powerless, but Stranger Things dealt with this loss a lot better than The Witcher did, as Eleven’s arc was pushed forward, while Yennefer’s was taken in a very different direction.
Why Eleven’s Loss Of Powers Worked Better Than Yennefer’s
At the end of Stranger Things season 3, and as she had done in every season until then, Eleven saved everyone thanks to her powers, but the Mind Flayer was unlike any other threat at the time, and after it cut her leg, Eleven was left powerless. Meanwhile, in the universe of The Witcher, during the Battle of Sodden Hill at the end of season 1, Yennefer channeled her magic to fight the Nilfgaardian army and used fire magic, which is forbidden, and at the beginning of season 2, she was revealed to be powerless. This led both women to find ways to get their powers back, but their motivations, methods, and the impact their journeys had on them were very different. Eleven agreed to be subjected to experiments to get her powers back in order to help her friends and Hawkins, while Yennefer’s reasons were all about her, telling the Voleth Meir that she deserved access to chaos. The Voleth Meir then offered her a deal: she would give Yennefer her powers back if she delivered Ciri to her, to which the sorceress agreed.
Yennefer ended up being an antagonist during a big part of The Witcher season 2, and even though she didn’t hand Ciri to the Voleth Meir, she came close to doing so, and she betrayed Ciri and Geralt’s trust. On the other hand, Eleven didn’t lose her focus and her main goal was keeping her loved ones safe, and while she ended up repeating one of the most criticized elements of Stranger Things (which is Eleven saving everyone at the last minute), she never sacrificed her loved ones for personal gain, and she fought until the end to save them. In the end, Yennefer sacrificed herself to break Ciri free from the Voleth Meir, but she has a lot of damage control to do in The Witcher season 3 as Geralt doesn’t trust her anymore, while Eleven continues the fight against Vecna, the Upside Down, and everything related to them in Stranger Things season 5.
