Spoiler Warning: The following contains spoilers for Season 4 of Stranger Things.
If a group of teenagers can face monsters from an upside-down world, something like The Hunger Games should be a snap, right? Not necessarily. In Stranger Things, the teens at the center of the story find themselves having to survive against supernatural creatures and outsmart secret government agents, but they don't have to fight their own peers.
While some of them would definitely be up to the task, others would not be able to undergo the difficulties of the games without crumbling under the pressure. The games would require very different kinds of strategy and fighting than the teens are used to.
Updated on May 30th, 2022 by Amanda Bruce: With Stranger Things Season 4, there are new teenagers introduced to the series. Though Eleven, Mike, and the rest of their Party are adept at fighting for their lives against supernatural threats, not all of the other teens in Hawkins have the same experiences. Surprisingly, some of those teens who don't have the same experiences would make it pretty far in the games.
Billy
Billy has a lot of issues regarding anger and self-esteem when he's introduced in Stranger Things. Those issues wouldn't go away in the world of The Hunger Games. He would be the kind of tribute with something to prove right out of the gate.
Billy is the type of person who would do exactly what Katniss is cautioned against in the first Hunger Games installment: getting caught in the opening cornucopia. He would be preoccupied with getting supplies first and would think himself strong enough to beat plenty of opponents to do it. His overconfidence and impulsivity would likely see him as an early casualty in the games.
Chrissy
The audience doesn't get to spend a lot of time with Chrissy in Stranger Things Season 4. What they learn about her is that she's well-liked by her peers, under enormous pressure from her mother, and attempting to outrun her problems.
Chrissy would crumble under the pressure of the arena. Sure, she would begin well enough with a well-crafted image for the audience to love. She would even be able to easily make allies. Chrissy wouldn't, however, be able to handle the constant threat of violence, and no amount of hiding would save her.
Eddie
Like Chrissy, Eddie is a Season 4 addition. While he's a great storyteller in Dungeons and Dragons games, he's not the best strategist. The biggest skill the audience sees from him is that he's great at finding places to hide when people are after him.
That skill would allow him to outlast the initial bloodbath of the opening of the Games. There is a certain charm to Eddie as well once he allows people to get to know him, which might help him last even longer if he let the audience see the real Eddie. It would gain him a few sponsors as the underdog in the arena. That wouldn't be enough to save him though as "career" competitors would be gunning for him.
Will
In Stranger Things, Will has some sort of power, though the audience might not know just what it is. He's able to survive in the Upside Down when seemingly no one else can. He's also able to call out to his mom between dimensions, something that only Eleven initially appears able to do. He's smart and he knows how to adapt.
His smarts might not be enough to save him in the arena though. Physically, he's one of the weakest of his friends, and unless he made himself some powerful allies, someone stronger and faster would put an end to his time in the games pretty quickly.
Argyle
Argyle is creative and definitely likable. He also, however, isn't someone who is able to compartmentalize his emotions or take a logical and strategic stance when violence is involved. When Jonathan, Will, and Mike lean on Argyle for help, as loyal of a friend as he is, he isn't the best in a crisis.
He would likely want to use his favorite substance to escape the pressures of the Hunger Games arena, but wouldn't be able to. Argyle would have to stand up and fight, and more methodical tributes would get the better of him.
Lucas
Lucas has some creative ideas in his friends' battle against the Mind Flayer, like using fireworks as a weapon. Those creative ideas would go a long way in helping him survive in the arena.
Lucas, however, isn't always the best team player, and can be pretty combative when he doesn't get his way in a group setting. That won't earn him any allies. He would likely find himself betrayed by someone he thought he could trust after an argument about strategy.
Mike
Like Lucas, Mike can be pretty combative when his peers don't see things his way. He lashes out at people with the most hurtful things he can before he realizes the error of his ways. That would definitely hurt him when he attempted to make allies.
On the other hand, Mike is a natural leader, as the audience sees with how he handles his friends when Eleven joins their group. He would likely not find it difficult to draw people to him in the arena, but he would find it difficult to outright betray people he made friends with, and that would be his downfall in the games.
Max
Max isn't quite as experienced with dealing with supernatural creatures or deadly situations as most of her friends. She adapts quickly though, realizing that outrunning someone can be just as important as fighting.
In the arena, Max would likely try her best to stay one step ahead of everyone, avoiding the conflict for as long as possible. Eventually, she wouldn't be able to hide or outrun the remaining tributes though, and when it came down to a one-on-one confrontation, she'd be done.
Angela
When Eleven officially becomes Jane Hopper and moves to California, she has trouble adjusting to her new life. She's targeted by bullies, specifically by Angela. Angela is someone who is able to get a lot of people on her side despite her clear cruelty toward others.
As a queen bee, Angela would definitely go far in the games. She'd have quite a few people allied with her simply because they were afraid of getting on her bad side. Angela, however, wouldn't be someone who would do her own dirty work. Just as Eleven got the better of her with a roller skate in the show, other tributes would definitely get the better of Angela eventually.
Jason
Jason is a natural-born leader. He helps lead the Hawkins High basketball team to their first championship in two decades. There's something about him that allows him to draw people in, and it's that natural ability to charm and convince people of his own righteousness that would get people to ally with him in the arena.
Despite the nature of the games - that there can be only one person standing in the end - he would have no shortage of people who wanted to ally with him. As Stranger Things Season 4 demonstrates, he'd also be able to summon enough anger and violence to take out a lot of the competition with those allies. Eventually, however, he'd have to stand on his own, and he'd likely be outsmarted by another tribute.
Dustin
Dustin isn't necessarily the best fighter out of his friends. He is, however, one of the most intelligent characters in Stranger Things. His scientific knowledge and his creativity combined could help him get around the physical conflicts in the arena at first.
Dustin is someone who would use the existing setup of the arena to his advantage, figuring out how to make his environment do the dirty work for him. That could allow him to get pretty far in the games, but if he had to take out another tribute himself, he might not make it to the end.
Steve
Steve, like Dustin, isn't the best fighter. Unlike Dustin, however, Steve also isn't the best strategist either. That's okay though because he's incredibly committed to whatever fight is in front of him.
Steve is definitely the kind of tribute who would present themselves as cocky and able to do everything but would secretly ally with the underdogs in the arena, not unlike Finnick in the Catching Fire installment of the franchise. He doesn't have Finnick's abilities though, so his team would survive as long as they were able to work together, but once they started clashing, all bets are off.
Jonathan
Jonathan, like Max, would likely be able to avoid a lot of the conflict at first. He's used to blending in and not getting involved with his peers. The arena isn't a place where that works forever though.
Jonathan has learned to hold his own in a fight as a result of all of the situations his little brother's friends have been involved in, but he doesn't particularly like it. He would likely fight when forced, but he wouldn't exactly see the games as a point of honor like career tributes. He would definitely do his best to survive, and he would make it pretty far before someone got the better of him.
Eleven
With her supernatural abilities, there's no question Eleven, or El, could eliminate anyone in her path. The end of Season 3, however, demonstrates that she doesn't always have those abilities, so she could potentially get by without them in the arena.
She's resourceful, and an incredibly fast learner, as seen in the early seasons of the show when she first bonds with Mike and his friends. El would probably be the tribute that benefited most from the training sessions right before the tributes enter the arena. She would catalog weaknesses and strengths of her opponents and remember exactly how to make use of that knowledge in the game. The issue would be if anyone else was as quick a study as her. If they were, she'd make it close to the end, but she wouldn't finish.
Erica
Erica is the youngest of the most often recurring characters in Stranger Things. Age isn't what makes a teenager last in the Hunger Games though. Erica is smarter than most of her peers, adapts to supernatural situations quickly, and is adept at making sure adults trust her.
Not only would Erica be able to come up with a strategy in the arena itself, but she would also be able to show the audience exactly who she wanted them to see. Erica isn't afraid to pick up a weapon to defend herself either. She would hate the games, and she would want to find a way to bring them down, but Erica would definitely excel in them.
Robin
Robin is one of the smartest teenagers in the series, as is evident by her being the only one to crack the code overheard on the radio in the third season. She's also an incredibly focused and hard-working person; she lets nothing stand in the way of her cracking the code or helping Steve and his friends.
The trouble is that Robin is so focused that she might actually miss a surprise attack while she's planning her own. Robin, like El, would make it incredibly far in the games, but winning would only happen if she wasn't taken by surprise.
Nancy
If there's any Stranger Things character who could win the Hunger Games, it's Nancy. She wouldn't initially be seen as a threat, and there would probably be quite a few tributes who would attempt to make friends and ally with her, thinking they could use her to their advantage during training.
Nancy would surprise them all by quickly learning how to utilize different weapons, something she wouldn't demonstrate until well into the games themselves when she had to use them. Nancy would likely have the audience on her side as well when they realized the skills she was hiding, giving her an advantage as she received sponsored gifts. She would go on to win.