While everyone is talking about the Vecna/Henry/001 twist this season, fans have also caught on to the “overly descriptive” subtitles in this season of Stranger Things as well. Those who didn’t put the subtitles on missed out on all the fun. The amusing subtitles like Tentacles undulating moistly, wet squelching clearly left a mark. And now the subtitles team involving author Jeff T and QA editor Karli WatWitkowska have shared their reason behind such choice of words. 

The Stranger Things team uses descriptive language to create an “immersive experience” for all viewers

Jeff and Karli explained that the subtitles are not meant for casual viewers. They are meant for deaf or hard-of-hearing viewers. Their choice of words is simply to evoke the emotions of the viewers to the events happening on screen. 

They explained, “It’s our job that the deaf community can still understand that complete switch of atmosphere and tone. If we aren’t doing that, we aren’t doing our jobs correctly.

It’s important to strike a balance of creating descriptors that describe the sounds but also evoke the emotion, so they can relate to these shows too.” 

Apparently, the team has complete creative freedom and follows the Netflix English Timed Text Style Guide (subtitlers rulebook) which is ever-changing. 

Jeff T admitted that he was “trolling a bit” with the subtitles

Jeff is a longtime fan of  D&D. So he sheepishly admitted that he did get a little nerdy and added a lot of direct references to D&D. For example he used dissonant gibbering when Vecna is creating the Mind Flayer and used Eldritch to describe Eleven’s powers. Moreover, he indeed was trolling with tentacles undulating mostly! The team very much tried to stick to the genre and the tone of the show while subtitling it. 

Hilarious reaction from Redditors 

Redditors had a field day with the descriptive subtitles ever since Stranger Things season 4 dropped. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/vvt2xs/comment/ifm2f4l/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

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by u/coffeewillsaveme from discussion Stranger Things subtitle guy admits he was “trolling a little bit” with [tentacles undulating moistly].
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by u/cr0ikee from discussion Stranger Things subtitle guy admits he was “trolling a little bit” with [tentacles undulating moistly].
in television

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by u/ladyem8 from discussion Stranger Things subtitle guy admits he was “trolling a little bit” with [tentacles undulating moistly].
in television

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by u/sdemat from discussion Stranger Things subtitle guy admits he was “trolling a little bit” with [tentacles undulating moistly].
in television

Did you think the subtitles were amusing too?