Bang's Blogs: Laurie Strode vs Steve Harrington

 

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"The protection of our children must be our first priority. They are the future leaders of this world, and we have a responsibility to ensure they have the tools and resources they need to succeed." -Nelson Mandela


Laurie Strode, the Final Girl of the Haddonfield Massacre


Steve Harrington, the Bully turned Protector of Hawkins


They were just living their typical teenage lives, but when the supernatural came knocking, who would've guessed a couple of babysitters would've been the ones to knock back? They’d rather be doing just about anything else, but if anything tries to harm their kids, they got another thing coming. But only one can be left standing tonight. Find out who survives in just the first of three Stranger Things fights on Bang's Blogs!

Before We Start….

Laurie Strode will be handled in a composite. There are several timelines in the Halloween series, so naturally it is hard to only include one and ignore the others. Laurie herself does stay consistent throughout them all however and they all do keep the first Halloween film in their respective canons. Aside from the Rob Zombie duology, though there’s really no reason to exclude it at this point. Halloween gets rebooted every decade or so anyways, so it’s basically impossible to pick one as the main portrayal. So with that said, Laurie will essentially be given all of the movies and any available supplementary material. This will include the “canon adjacent” novels, the comics and we will also include the RetroRealms game to spice things up a bit and leave no stones left unturned. We’ll be ignoring any potential Evil Dead cross scaling however, as the Halloween game can be played as its own standalone experience. 


Steve Harrington will be afforded similar leniency and is a tad more straightforward. While Stranger Things does have a rather solid canon, with the Netflix series and its plethora of canon games, upcoming spin offs and comics (There’s even a canon stage play), there’s really no shortage of extra side media to look at here. So to ensure fairness, we will be looking into the tie-in video games such as the ones based around seasons one and three, as well as the questionably canon novel series and the junior novelisations for the first three seasons. Steve is actually always portrayed as one to one with the show in all of these, so given his competition, we consider these fair game. We will be ignoring crossovers though, so don’t expect the TMNT comic or Smite to come up or anything. We are also including the Tales from ‘85 cartoon series, so spoiler warning for that. 


Special thanks to…

  • Versus Battles Wiki (For Calcs)

  • Rina Antiqua, Kuma and Kaiser (For Calcs)

  • Spycrab’s Michael Myers Character Analysis

  • L.A.D, Yuix, Garf and Cabbage for all the amazing art made for this blog


Connections

Note: These connections will mostly focus on the similarities between Steve and the most current variant of Laurie from the Blumhouse timeline. As they just hold the most similarities but we'll still take note of any comparisons that can be made with other Laurie variants.


  • (Thorn Timeline) Halloween and Stranger Things share some similar themes. Mainly concerning the focus on teenage and law enforcement protagonists who band together against supernatural threats that are connected to organizations dealing in child superpower experimentation. 

  • Both Steve and Laurie are introduced as 1980-ish era high school students who take the role of babysitters for a small group of kids and then become fierce protectors once they are met with their town’s supernatural curse/local legend that turn out to be real.

  • They both start as surrogate sibling figures for Dustin Henderson and Tommy Doyle, who both go on to follow in Steve and Laurie’s footsteps and become headstrong fighters themselves.

  • (H20 Laurie) They become teachers later in their adulthood, starting flings with co-workers that end up unsuccessful.

  • They are both also just well known for having terrible luck in their love lives in general, regardless of Laurie’s timeline.

  • They have become notorious in their communities. Steve was known as the king of his high school and Dustin has spread the word of how much of a badass he is, while Laurie's encounter with Michael spread through Haddonfield. With people even warning others that Laurie will fuck them up if they mess with her.

  • Blumhouse Laurie is also known for her preparation skills and traps, something that Steve has also shown a knack for a few times. H20 Laurie had also dabbled in this too.

  • They have a strong yearning for family, but never fully achieve it. Steve longs for a wife and several children but can never find the right girl, and ultimately becomes a sort of father figure for Dustin, while Laurie was obsessed with protecting hers for most of her life but drives them away, with it concluding with her becoming the guardian of Allyson. 

  • By the end of their stories, after a collaborative effort to rid their town of its curse, they ultimately settle down and go back to having a normal life with their new found family.

  • (Reboot Laurie) You could also say that they both come from broken homes, Steve's parents were largely absent while Laurie's were just… yeah. But this is sort of a stretch for Laurie, as this didn't extend outside of infancy before she was adopted. 

  • Core Theme: Badass babysitters of 1980s Horror that stand up against their town’s local legends to protect those in their care. 

Background

Laurie Strode

“Evil doesn't die. It changes shape.”


It was 1978 and Laurie Strode thought she was in for a typical day. She couldn't have been more wrong. As her day went on, she kept sensing something, seeing glimpses of a man stalking her from afar. The town’s local legend; Michael Myers, had seemingly chosen Laurie for no reason other than chance. And if he got his way, her blood would be on his hands by the end of the night but he would have his fun first. As she was baby sitting her favorite kid: Tommy Doyle, Michael was stealthy going on a killing spree throughout her neighborhood. Brutally killing her friends one by one until he finally made his way to his favorite. As Michael closed in, Laurie fought back and managed to get away, protecting Tommy and telling him to flee in the process to get help. Michael wouldn’t stay down forever though, and got her by surprise. As Michael was closing in for the kill, shots suddenly rang out and Michael’s grip on her fell. Doctor Henry Loomis had been tracking Michael since he escaped and had arrived just in time to save Laurie from the Boogieman. But this monster would disappear into the night, despite his wounds, leaving his survivors with a heightened sense of paranoia. This night would awaken something within Laurie, a fire inside her. She wouldn't allow herself or her future family to feel this helpless ever again, no matter what. 

Steve Harrington

“What do you think, Petey the mall-cop is gonna rappel down here and save the day?”

In the early 80s, few people at Hawkins High were as notorious as Steve Harrington. He had the hair, the looks and he was at the top of his game. But when Nancy Wheeler came into his life, Steve started to see things differently. He was a grade-a asshole and so was his inner circle. It just took a good humbling to make him see that. Steve later that same day would track Nancy down, wanting to make things right. But what he walked in on was more than just unexpected, it was otherworldly. Nancy and her friend Johnathan had set up an elaborate trap for an alien monster; The Demogorgon. Steve stepped in to protect his girlfriend, and pushed the monster back into their trap, sending it fleeing into the darkness. After this, Steve would go on to form a bond with a young boy; Dustin Henderson, someone else who had a run-in with this monster. Becoming a surrogate brother figure and the protector of a small group of kids. Having to take on these creatures more than once, Steve would not only become a trusted friend but he would ensure the safety of Dustin and his friends no matter his odds. He might be a pretty shitty boyfriend, but he’s a damn good babysitter.

Experience

Laurie Strode

Laurie is considered the ultimate final girl for good reason. Even when overcome with immense fear, Laurie does not falter as she has natural survival instincts even as early as the first movie. Like “a computer”, Laurie will assess the possibilities of her current situation and take the most optimal route to ensure her survival. Her instincts make her adept at catching attackers off guard, sometimes using maneuvers considered illogical and has performed sneak attacks on Michael Myers, plus setting up traps for him on the fly. She’s also taken a note out of Michael’s book in the art of disappearing completely in the few seconds someone isn’t looking.

People think she’s “too smart”, as not only did she get into honor society but she became a dean in the H20 timeline. But more importantly, tactically she's pretty clever. When backed into a corner, she’s quite capable in a scrap. She will aim for weak points, like the eyes, neck and…dick and in her 2nd encounter with Michael, she shot him in both eyes, with seemingly no prior training. In the most recent timeline Laurie spent decades preparing herself and her family for Michael’s return, becoming so obsessed with it that she actively drove her own family away. Though she was completely fine with that if it meant they were ready for the horrors to come. In doing this Laurie became a natural with firearms, having her own little shooting range in her own backyard and showcased high accuracy on her training targets. She even considers headshots within a certain range to be a crapshoot. She’s trained her daughter to use guns at the age of eight and even sprinkled in some hand to hand combat training. She’s also no stranger to playing mind games to catch a pursuer off guard.

Steve Harrington

Henderson says he’s a badass in private discussions with other characters, and for plenty of reasons. Steve is a jock and regularly maintains his body’s physical performance, he was his high school’s swim team captain, a life guard for 3 years and was a key player on their basketball team. However, Steve’s true talents are in being a protector, always being one of, if not the first to step up when action needs to be taken. He’s one of the physically most capable people in the cast, allowing him to not only just protect the people he cares about but take part in some of the highest stakes moments in the series. He is outright the only normal human character in the series to have fought against every major antagonist, and has aided in 37 crawl missions, has helped set up elaborate traps for Demogorgons and has prepped a junkyard as one big trap. Which makes sense as he has shown off some mechanical knowhow in a few scenes.

With that, Steve isn’t typically the one doing the thinking in the group but he has had his moments. Helped form an elaborate plan to defeat Vecna and destroy the Upside Down once and for all, with Dustin calling Steve’s part of the plan only something a genius could have thought up. He’s even snuck into and through a Russian underground base without being caught for a pretty good length of time, which Elexei said should be impossible. With him ending up going head to head with Russian soldiers in the show and the video game. It's also worth noting that Steve’s experience with weaponry is pretty lacking, though not necessarily non-existent. He’s never handled an actual firearm before, only BB guns, air rifles and….. Duck Hunt. Although Dustin does remark that he is exceptionally good at Duck Hunt and you could at least compare his aim to Mike’s, who pulled off a decent shot with a flare gun.

Arsenal

Laurie Strode

Various Improvised Weapons

Laurie is a scrapper and will use whatever she can get her hands on to gain an edge. Most ironically, Laurie has used an assortment of knives and once even used Michael's own against him. In video games, this is probably the only thing worth noting from the Atari game but in RetroRealms, Laurie can pick up a kitchen knife to use as a straight forward projectile and she also used an axe in H20. Laurie does carry a pocket knife or a hunting knife on her at all times. She's used knitting needles to jab Michael in the neck and a wire hanger to stab him in the eyes, blinding him. Her main weapon of choice in the RetroRealms game are actually the very same knitting needles she used against Michael in the first movie.

Laurie’s Home Defense System

She’s got this place stocked to the brim with weaponry, a camera system and secret compartments. The house also holds a police radio scanner and a fuse box that activates giant spot lights mounted on her roof. It’s got barred windows and a trap door for every room to ensure nobody can get in or out. She’s got a survival bunker underneath her kitchen that's supplied with canned goods, water ammunition, flares, flashlights, tools and more importantly here…her own entire arsenal of guns. Including: a Winchester Model 1873, Mossberg 500 Cruiser, and she keeps a rack filled with a total of nine shotguns and rifles, as well as a handful of handguns. In Halloween Ends, Laurie also now owns a Ruger LCR revolver kept in her desk and in Halloween H20, she kept a Smith & Wesson Model 36 under her pillow. (She really likes revolvers).


It’s worth noting this place’s entire purpose was to be a trap for Michael. With the 2018 movie ending with Michael trapped in her bunker as Laurie’s daughter set the place up to burn to the ground with Michael in it, along with all of the stuff listed above.

Smith & Wesson Model 66 Revolver

Similar to the one Doctor Samuel Loomis temporarily loaned her in Halloween 2, this is Laurie’s main choice of firearm in the current timeline. While Laurie doesn’t typically carry most of her guns on her person, there are a few scenes where she has this bad boy on hand and ready for an altercation. It has a capacity of 6 rounds and can be used accurately at a range of 25 yards. 

Various Vehicles

Laurie's had a few cars throughout the franchise. In Halloween: H20, she drove a 1996 Ford Aspire and in the current timeline she rolls around in a black pickup truck and a 2010 GMC Yukon XL. 

Cannabis

Laurie always has a seat in the blunt rotation.


In the upcoming Halloween video game, Heroes of Haddonfield can whip out a fat ass blunt and toke up. While it's a stereotype that stoners always die in horror movies, these kids and Laurie clearly have proven otherwise. Just by taking a single hit, their senses become superhumanly tuned, allowing them to pinpoint Michael's pings around the map, giving them a better idea of where the boogeyman is or will be. In real life, there's a reason it's starting to become legal around the world. Marijuana has several medically documented health benefits and helps some people focus, relax and even aids in the healing process of severe wounds as it acts like a natural pain suppressant.

Halloween the Game Items

Gun Inc. is sinking their teeth into a new online multiplayer asymmetrical horror game based off the iconic franchise (Hopefully this one lasts more than 2 years). In this upcoming title, Heroes of Haddonfield must fight against Michael and save their neighbors from his wrath. But obviously they can't get the job done without some gear! Around the maps are scattered multiple tools to aid in survival and each serves a different purpose. 


(Disclaimer: As of this blog's release Laurie has not been revealed as a playable character in the multiplayer mode yet, but just in case and to be thorough, we'll just throw this in here to be safe. It's nothing crazy anyways. Although, Laurie is likely to play a role in the single player mode at least, since it just follows the original movie)


Distractions:

  • Bricks/Rocks

  • Firecrackers

  • Lawn Darts

Weapons:

  • Lead Pipe

  • Axes

  • Monkey Wrench

  • Pitchfork

  • Pickaxe

  • Baseball Bat

  • Sledgehammer

  • Shotgun

  • Hunting Rifle

Supportive:

  • Bolt Cutter

  • Flashlight

  • Bicycle

  • Beer

  • Gasoline Can

  • Health Spray

Miscellaneous Toy Accessories

Being the leading lady of such a large franchise, Laurie Strode has had many action figures of the years for just about every timeline in the series. 

Overlord’s Eye

A useful antique from RetroRealms. Its primary use is to switch between the normal and Nightmare realms. Switching to the Nightmare realms reveals a more grotesque version of the normal realm and reveals hidden paths the player can take to find goodies or secret paths. It could also be used to get the drop on enemies, though the player will lose track of certain enemies when they switch to the Nightmare realm. So it can be a double edged sword. 

RetroRealm Pick-Ups

Of course, side-scrollers have a plethora of power-ups strewn over their levels for players to pick up. Each character in RetroRealms has their own personal selection, so Laurie can’t be given the same pick-ups as Ash or Michael, though that’s not to say she doesn’t have access to some handy gear.

  • Ammo: A box of gun ammo, though it’s in-game use is replenishing the user’s charge attack by increments of ten.

  • Energy Vials: Replenishes the power meter for using the Overlord’s Eye. 

  • Sodas: Replenishes health by small amounts.

  • Popcorn: Replenishes health a good amount.

  • Dagger: A straightforward projectile weapon. 

  • Coat Hanger: Once used to blind Michael, now is a boomerang-like projectile weapon.

  • Disco Ball: Used to slow down time for a few seconds. 

  • Book Toss: An arching projectile that has a spread of three.


Steve Harrington


Various Melee Weapons

Being a jock, Steve is of course pretty fit and quite strong. Leading to him using a plethora of weapons for when things get up close and dangerous. Starting off, naturally is his iconic nail bat. While this wasn't originally his, Steve took it on as his own in the 2nd season and apparently has several of, pputting it to use against monsters to ensure the safety of those little shitheads. That's not all though, he's been shown carrying a couple axes before as well and once even wielded a chainsaw. In season 5, Dustin also gave Eddie Munson's own makeshift spear and shield to Steve in preparation for their final battle against Vecna. The shield is actually pretty decent, with it protecting Eddie from a mass of incoming Demobats. 


The WSQK Hideout

A place located underneath Steve’s place of work. It’s stocked to the brim with weaponry, tools, food and medical supplies. It’s regularly restocked by Murray, who smuggles in whatever the gang asks for (If he can get his mitts on it). It’s where the crew keeps a lot of nifty trinkets and heavy firepower, including flamethrowers, grenades, flashlights, flare guns, C-4, and materials to create bombs. Naturally, the crew keeps this thing packed with a plethora of firearms like seemingly Steve’s preferred choice in the M9 but also selections such as: Colt M16A2, Colt XM177E2, Ithaca 37 Shotgun, AKMS Rifle, Beretta 92FS, M1911A1 Pistol, SIG-Sauer P226, Browning Hi-Power Pistol, Smith & Messon Model 19, Springfield M1A, Ruger Mini-14F, Remington 7400 Rifle, L1A1 Rifle and a Winchester Model 70. Meaning Steve potentially has quite the stock pile to pick from if the occasion arises. 


Molotov Cocktails

Personally made by Steve and Robin, they’d go on to use these against Vecna, barbequing his ass haha. Later in season 5 it would also seem that the WSQK hide out has been stocked with some of these as well, while also having the needs to make them. The Choose Your Own Adventure book states that Steve has a backpack full of these things.


Various Vehicles

Steve’s precious BMW, with a top speed of almost 130 mph. While originally they used a van for this, Steve’s beamer was later suped up by Henderson to be a tracker (Much to Steve’s dismay) but it still punched through an upside down portal. He likes to keep tools and his bat in the back trunk according to the Choose Your Own Adventure book. Steve also drove around in the WSQK Van, which was fitted with a disk panel on the top to aid in tracking a tagged Demogorgon.


Upside Down Traversal Attire

If he was going into an unknown series of underground tunnels, he wasn’t doing it unprepared. Steve wore protective goggles and a bandana over his face to keep him from breathing in any nasty particles. Tying it all together with a pretty rad coat and a backpack to carry stuff like his spiked bat in. 


Satan’s Baby Fireworks

Artillery shells that are said by Lucas that when gathering 5 of them at once would be equivalent to an entire stick of dynamite, with them being wrapped with various other fireworks, they made great weapons against the Meat Flayer for the 4th of July. In the Stranger Things 3 video game, the Star Court Mall also has canons spread around that fires these things. 


Farrah Fawcett Products

Discontinued in 1984, this is Steve’s secret to having such perfect hair. It's established in the S3 novel that the spray Dustin uses to defend himself is Steve’s hair spray and in the video game, this stuff is actually considered highly poisonous. It's even used to destroy things like metal containers (game mechanics? Yes. But fuck it.) Welcome to the 80s.


Scoops Ahoy Ice Cream

Yes…really bitch. In the Stranger Things 3 video game, as his main method of attack Steve hurls scoops of ice cream at enemies, which drastically slows down their movements and if hit enough times, will cause them to freeze and shatter into pieces. With its various unique flavors U.S.S. Butterscotch, Chocolate Pudding, Pineapple Upside Down, The Void, Triple Decker Extravaganza, Mint Flare and Cinnamon Bun-Bytes… Steve has a few choices to pick from (now available at Walmart).


Radioactive Canisters

Used by Steve and the Scoop Troop briefly in Season 3, these are glass canisters of radioactive, highly acidic fuel used by the Russians to power The Key. While this definitely wouldn't be standard just going off the show- Steve’s special ability in the Stranger Things 3 video game is “Corrosion”, which is him just chucking one of these things at enemies, killing them instantly for obvious reasons. When used by Dustin, this shit melted through several floors of an underground base in a short time and made for a good distraction. 


Miscellaneous Toy Accessories

Surprisingly Steve hasn’t gotten many official action figures or toys, but he does have a few (They look like cheap pieces of shit). While these don't particularly add much, we’ll list them out for completionist sake.


Trinkets

In Stranger Things 3 the Game the player can gather up materials like binoculars, duct tape, super glue, magnets or whatever to craft upgrade items for their party, most items are universal for characters, although some only apply to certain members. We will be listing off all of them for completionist sake. The most notable are going to be the stat amplifying items or the armors. Not only are these just useful for dealing more damage or protecting from enemy weaponry, but these can be stacked with each other for even more of a benefit. Although, generally the player can only equip a handful of these at a time. 

  • Medkits: Used to replenish all party members to full health.

  • Hearts: Found scattered around the map, replenishing a little bit of health.

  • New Coke: Fills up a few bars of a character’s super meter.

  • Energy: Found scattered around the map, replenishing a little bit of super meter.

  • Rock ‘Em, Sock ‘Em Robot: Dustin’s robot deals 50% extra shock damage.

  • Child’s Play: Children deal 10 more damage per attack. 

  • Stink Bomb: Lucas’ attacks deal 10% more damage.

  • Protective Gloves: Party gains an additional 100 max hit points. 

  • Evil Eye: Mike’s taunt makes him resist attacks, weakens enemies and forces enemies to attack him.

  • REO Speed Shoe: Increases movement speed by 5%

  • Fist Spikes: Freddy Krueger reference that increases physical damage by 5%

  • Big Britches: Adults deal extra counter damage.

  • Firestarter: Increases fire damage by 15%

  • Arm Pads: Block duration is increased by 1 second. 

  • Coin Purse: Increases money inventory by a small amount. 

  • Lens Flare: Jonathan stuns enemies for longer with his special.

  • Belching Champion: Males deal an additional 5 chem damage per attack.

  • Hot Foot: Max deals an extra 15 fire damage per attack.

  • Tactical Helmet: Party gains an additional 200 max hit points. 

  • Surgical Sheers: Nancy deals extra crit damage.

  • Foot Spikes: Increases physical damage by 15%

  • Thinking Cap: Eleven deals 25% more damage and her special only costs 1 energy.

  • The Gigawatt: Increase shock damage by 20%

  • Wallet: Increases money inventory decently. 

  • Wonder Women: Females gain 10% crit chance and an extra 50% crit damage. 

  • Iron Knuckles: Hopper deals more damage to stunned enemies.

  • Jaws: Joyce deals 20% more damage per attack.

  • Chest Armor: Party gains 350 additional max hit points. 

  • The Zoomer: Increases movement speed by 20%

  • Stun Shield: Party becomes immune to stun attacks. 

  • Battle Gear: Increases physical damage by 20%

  • Wizard Staff: Will’s special ability fires extra rockets. 

  • Prometheum Pelter: Increases chem damage by 20%

  • Counter Punch: Block duration is increased by 2 seconds. 

  • Sharp Shooters: Projectile characters deal an extra 20% damage per attack.

  • Energizer: Energy orbs refill 2 energy bars. 

  • My Lightning Poker: Erica deals 20% more shock damage and her special arcs 3 more times. 

  • Vault: Money inventory gains a large increase.

  • Body Armor: Party gains an additional 500 max hit points. 

  • Brain Freezer: Steve deals 10% more damage and his ice cream slows enemies down even more.

Abilities

Laurie Strode


RetroRealms Powers

Laurie is a DLC character to the… actually pretty decent RetroRealm game and has her own unique set of abilities to set her apart from Michael Myers, Ash Williams and Kelly Maxwell. This small list will include her base kit abilities, ones she can acquire from the in-game shop and powers she showcases throughout the game’s story. 


High Endurance

Like a true heroine of horror, Laurie never lets a mere flesh wound keep her out of the fight. Despite being cut up by Michael and almost breaking her ankle, Laurie continued to push forward and only moments later, she sliced up her hand punching through glass but was so driven by fear and desperation that she didn't care. In Halloween 2, she could power through Anastasia and climbed up a section of pipes despite her stitches tearing open and exposing bone. Even in the current movies, Laurie called a knife to the stomach a “paper cut”, as if it wasn't a biggie at all.


The Madness

In the Halloween comics, it's revealed that at some point, Laurie had been taken over by the same madness as Michael. Suggesting he passed it down to her. This is also somewhat insinuated in the ending of Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2. While we don't get too much information on this, it is likely meant to be similar to what happened with Jamie in the Thorn series. This essentially turned her into a killer for a short time, and one year later she could “see” through Michael’s eyes due to a sort of telekinetic link. Obviously we never really see Laurie actually do anything with this so we can only make educated guesses. While we can’t necessarily argue that Laurie could maybe replicate any powers that the big man himself has shown, it’s probably still worth taking note of. Corey in Halloween Ends goes through something akin to this as well, which gave him immense bloodlust as he was becoming a “Shape” like Michael due to Michael instilling darkness inside Corey, which the novel does somewhat seem to confirm is going on. Though this is a bit different in practice from the stuff in the other timelines, it's pretty weird how consistent this is throughout the series. 


Minor Resistances

Specifically thanks to RetroRealms, Laurie and other characters have shown that they can shrug things that would severely hard or even kill a normal person, these could be chalked up to game mechanics, but we’ll take note of them for completionist sake. 

Steve Harrington


High Endurance

One of Steve's most notable traits is that he's pretty tough. No matter how battered he gets, he'll always get back onto his feet. He's been tortured for extended periods of time and bounced back from a beating that almost killed him. Later in the series, Steve got attacked by Demobats, which proceeded to not only strangle him for several minutes but were tearing into his sides and eating his flesh. He was also hung up and strangled for what was at least twenty or thirty minutes by upside-down tentacles. But as soon as he was released he was completely fine and dove right back into action.


Block Shield

A game mechanic in the Stranger Things 3 video game. When blocking, a protective bubble will form over your selected character and reduce any incoming damage from enemies and make your next attack stronger with a crit. Although, while it can be extended to last around 3 seconds, holding it for too long will stun your character and make them vulnerable.


Minor Resistances

Similarly to his opponent, Steve and the rest of the cast get a bit of mileage from video games in this department. As said before one could fairly say these are due to game mechanics, but for completionist sake, we will list them here. 

Support

Laurie Strode

(None Notable)

Steve Harrington

Dustin Henderson

Steve’s best friend and little nugget. Dustin and Steve ultimately have a bond like no other on the show, and are inseparable as a duo. Steve often carries a Walkman Radio on his person and thanks to Dustin’s own invention named “Cerebro”, Dustin can stay in contact with Steve from states over. His own actor Gatan Matarazzo even sees him as less of a “survivor” and more of the man in the chair for his group according to a Dead by Daylight livestream. Dustin is quite smart and has made dozens of inventions by hand. He's the “Bard” of his little group and is considered their strategist and planner, being extremely knowledgeable in science, mathematics and physics. His Dungeons and Dragons expertise actually comes in clutch in the situations they find themselves in, using it to form coherent plans with his group and using similarities between the game and their opponents to figure out the right course of action. Dustin is without a doubt the smartest character in the regular cast and while he’s a little rough around the edges, he is fiercely loyal to his friends. Making him a huge asset in their crusade against Vecna.

Feats

Laurie Strode

Overall

  • Considered to be Horror's ultimate final girl and has survived Michael Myers on several occasions in several timelines.

  • In the 2018 Timeline, she spent 40 years prepping for Michael’s inevitable return.

  • Became Haddonfield's local badass.

  • In RetroRealms she defeated evil versions of herself and Dr. Loomis, Shadow Myers and The Overlord.

  • Responsible for some of the most busted and annoying perks in Dead by Daylight’s 10 year history.

  • Despite the horrors she faced, she got her life on track and became a Dean at Hillcrest Academy. 

  • Became the personal hero of Tommy Doyle.

  • In the current timeline, Laurie patched things up with her remaining family and with the help of Haddonfield residents, they ended Michael once and for all.

Strength

Speed

Durability

Steve Harrington

Overall

  • In his hayday, he was “King Steve” of his high school. Being on the basketball team, swim team captain and a life guard.

  • Saved Nancy and Jonathan from the Demogorgon

  • Infiltrated a Soviet base underneath Starcourt Mall

  • Canonically a LGBTQ+ Ally.

  • He just looooooooooves KFC. It’s sooooooooooooo goooooooooooood!

  • Became a surrogate brother and father figure of Dustin Henderson.

  • At the end of the series and aiding in Vecna’s end, he chose to dedicate his life to protecting children, becoming a teacher and baseball coach.

  • Is the only character in the series to have fought against every major antagonist. 

Strength

Speed

Durability

Scaling

Laurie Strode


Haddonfield Residents

Laurie Strode is considered Haddonfield's resident badass later into her life and, alongside Doctor Loomis is the only character in the series to have survived Michael's wrath more than once. Laurie is the series protagonist overall, and possesses the best feats at the end of the day thanks to extended media. So scaling her to the rest of the cast should be no problemo.


  • Doctor Samuel Loomis

  • Although this left him heavily scared and required a cane to walk.


  • The Strode Family


  • Danger Entertainment Crew


  • Other


Michael Myers (See Before the Verdict)

The Slasher who started it all. Michael Myers, the Boogeyman and the shape of pure evil itself. Big Mike is the titular villain of the franchise and has stalked Laurie across movies, novels, video games and comics, all spread through several timelines over the decades. Michael is no mortal man and is always a supernatural force of nature, whether he’s drawing power from the Curse of Thorn, is being fueled by fear itself or is just… really pissed off. Hardly anything can keep the Boogeyman down for long. Of course, it is a question of its own if Laurie can be directly scaled to Michael, which we will address before the verdicts but we made it a goal to make this an up to date look at the man himself. So we have listed all of his relevant feats across the entire franchise. We'll also take this chance to highlight other supernatural forces in the series.


  • Cult of Thorn Timeline


  • Novelisation Timeline


  • H20 Timeline


  • Reboot Timeline


  • Blumhouse Timeline


  • Youth Novels Timeline


  • Comics


  • Video Games

  • Atari

  • RetroRealms

  • Halloween 2026


  • Other Minor Supernatural Threats


  • Corey Cunningham

Steve Harrington


Hawkins Residents

Steve is considered to be one of the most physically capable people on the cast, being tasked with a majority of the physical work and is always the first to step up to protect the others. Humans in Stranger Things are not really portrayed to be significantly above each other on average, aside from things like combat skill or weaponry proficiency. So we side with Steve being comparable to most of the cast in terms of physicality. For something more direct, most of the cast, including Steve are also playable in Stranger Things 3 the game and can all fight the same bosses and enemies, so Steve should scale to the top dogs regardless. 


  • Chief Jim Hopper

  • In the video game these blasts can seemingly reduce other humans to ash. (0.05 - 0.06 Tons of TNT)

  • For causing a blackout, since specific power usage data from the 1980s is unavailable, you could generously compare this to modern settlements (0.08 Tons of TNT)


  • Grigori


  • Other Adults


  • Teenagers/Young Adults

  • Eddie Munson


  • Robin Buckley


  • Johnathan Byers


  • Nancy Wheeler 


  • Children

  • Dipshit Derek


  • The Party


  • Miscellaneous


Weaknesses

Laurie Strode

Laurie may have survived Michael, but she did not come out unscathed. In multiple timelines one thing that stays consistent is her suffering from PTSD. In H20, Laurie experienced several hallucinations and her prior experience with Michael left her life in pieces, resulting in it affecting her personal life and scarring her relationship with her family. This is much of the same case in our current timeline, and both take note of Laurie’s heavy reliance on drugs and alcohol to cope with her trauma. And this even got her killed in the H20 timeline, as Michael was able to exploit Laurie’s guilt over killing an innocent man that he disguised as himself, getting her into a position for him to catch her off guard and end her right there. It's also important to keep in mind that while Laurie prepared and trained for 40 years straight, it was all in her tunnel visioned goal to kill Michael specifically and she has little experience against much of really anyone else.

Steve Harrington

Steve may be revered as a hero by his colleagues, but he's definitely not perfect. Obviously, the one thing that comes to mind right out the gate is Steve’s track record in fist fights. Technically having a 1-3 record if you count the Choose Your Own Adventure Book. This is even an inside joke with him and Dustin. Steve for most of the series is also young, impulsive and… well an idiot a lot of the time, usually relying on his more tactical and intelligent teammates to direct him and formulate plans of action, with Steve usually just taking the role as the group's muscle. While Steve does have his moments, these are usually through on the spot clarity or building off of what others have said. And while Steve’s protector mentality is admirable and has come in clutch when things get bad, it has almost gotten him killed a few times over the course of the show.

Before the Verdict

Where does Michael Myers scale?

This is probably the biggest elephant in the room here, so we'll break down some of Michael's more questionable feats and scaling.
  • Corey’s Bullet Dodge: Corey's “bullet dodge” has quite a few problems. For starters, something that's usually overlooked by people is that it strikes Ronald in the head when Corey supposedly dodges. Not only is this scene shot in a way where it's hard to tell when Corey moved (because Ronald's head is blocking our view) but striking Ronald first brings up the issue of loss of trajectory. Obviously coming in contact with something would just slow the bullet down but we also have nothing suggesting it even passed through. No scuff of dirt is thrown up in the background or anything, so it more than likely just stayed lodged in his skull and didn't come at Corey at all. One could try to argue Corey moved in a few frames it took the bullet to travel, but with how the scene is shot, we have no way of proving this.
  • Blitzing Cameras: Another speed feat that has become notorious in Myers discussions is the novel scan of him killing a woman faster than “any eye and camera could capture, even in slow-mo”. The obvious argument against this would be to simply label it as hyperbole and it's quite out of the norm compared to.. well really any speed feat in the series. However, to be completely fair, at the same time one could make the counter arrangement that this is a decently detailed description and doesn't exactly fit the definition of pure hyperbole.
  • Cult Summoning a Storm: Something we felt the need to address as well is the storm feat in the original novelisation. Where a Shaman, while performing a ritual to curse Haddonfield seemingly conjures a storm in the process. There are quite a few problems affording Michael this for scaling. While this curse does act as an origin for the evil that possesses Michael, there are no direct correlations to say Michael would be capable of something similar to storm summoning, nor has he ever showcased this himself. This Cult is also exclusive to the novelisations of Halloween 1, 2 and 4 and is entirely different from the Cult of Thorn from the films, which wasn’t established until the 5th film and said film did not receive a novel counterpart. While Michael does possess the power of Thorn in the movies, there is no reason to compare two different cults from two different canons, as these novels do not entirely follow the events of the films and have a completely different writer. Which should be evident as Michael just has a different origin in them and many scenes play out completely differently.

Overall: Otherwise, Michael is very solidly a building level character. Surface area is not an issue with the church feat like some like to claim (Actually read the comic bud) and things like RetroRealms or the novels just make it undeniable. Speed is a bit more up in the air however. Michael does have a feat of dodging a bullet in Halloween 4, getting within the subsonic range. While there has been some push back with some saying it’s just Loomis hallucinating, which isn’t an unreasonable assumption as we’ve seen this happen to Laurie. Michael was very much there. Like 20 seconds later he jacks a truck and drives it through the garage of that gas station. Though one can reasonably take issue with the hypersonic argument from the novel, as it is vastly exceeding the norm and can be chalked up to hyperbole. Michael should safely be kicking around at 1.5 Tons of TNT and Mach 0.1 all things considered.

Now with that out of the way, this leads us to….

Should Laurie scale to Michael?

Probably not. Quite simply, Michael likes to toy with his victims. This is actually a character trait throughout most interactions of Michael. Hell, Dead by Daylight even has a perk based around this character trait in “Play With Your Food” and Doctor Loomis, the guy who studied Michael since he was a child, has outright stated this in the comics as well. Going on about how Michael enjoys the fear, and that’s the sole reason Laurie wasn’t killed immediately. Saying it’s all just a game for him. Now, people have tried to fight Michael and some have done harm to him, this is always done with piercing weapons or firearms. Which, while obviously do require some strength from the user, are much harder to physically defend against due to their smaller surface area. It's pretty clear that in most cases, when Michael finally gets his hands on someone, they are just dead. Without weapons, people at most have only been able to temporarily stagger him and have never dealt any real damage. No one has ever actually gone toe to toe with Michael without some sort of context around it, let alone match him in strength.

In Laurie’s stand against Michael in H20, Michael is… very clearly toying with her and Laurie is able to use this to her advantage to catch him off guard and the instances in the newer films are accomplished in groups, while Michael is already injured. In the 2018 movie, Laurie has to blow part of his hand off with a shotgun to get free from him and after this it’s a group effort with her family to lure him into a trap then light his ass on fire. With the novelization of Halloween 2018 stating that Mikey was essentially being cooked alive in there which leads us to the next movie. Even despite all of that Michael is still easily killing people in high physical condition, like an entire group of firemen, effortlessly. The only time Mikey is on the backfoot is when a large mob attacks him. While together they do get Michael on the ground, once he locked the fuck in, he kills everyone there in around a minute. It’s even just said in the novelization of Ends that Laurie cannot hope to match Michael’s strength.

TLDR; Scaling fully to Michael should be considered very questionable, at best we believe you can argue significant downscaling, though at that point, you might as well just use the Loomis feat or RetroRealms. It’s also just in the narrative of these movies as well. Laurie is never portrayed as an equal to Michael’s power and she must find ways to beat him, rather than just trying to fight him head-on. Now, scaling to Michael in terms of physicality is one thing, but speed is another. While pointing out that Michael kind of just walks at his victims is funny and we've already established that Michael plays with his victims but his higher end speed arguments can be fairly questioned on top of that. Some would argue the novel feat of being faster than cameras is just purely hyperbole but even if you don't buy into that, this feat is in a moment of Michael just acting faster than his victim can even hope to react. It says “faster than any eye” after all, which would just include Laurie if we were to take it literally. And with Laurie, a character who he consistently toys with in several timelines, it's unlikely we can afford her this scaling reasonably.

Should Steve scale to Demogorgons?

This is a pretty clear cut no, but there are some things worth discussing. Steve’s most iconic moment is probably when he arrives at Johnathan's house and protects Nancy from a Demogorgon. Landing some solid hits with his nail bat. While ballsy, Steve only manages to hold it off temporarily and stagger it. If they hadn't had a trap set up in the house and played things smart, Steve and the others definitely would’ve been mauled to death. This is only made more abundantly true as the series goes on. In Season 4, a singular Demogorgon ripped through an entire group of armed men, flinging them around like rag dolls. Hopper was only then able to kill it with a sword after Murray cooked it alive with a flamethrower and in Season 5, we see Demogorgons just run through an entire military base unopposed until Will Byers is able to tap into Vecna’s powers and kill them on the spot. These were highly trained, armed and armored men… and the Demogorgons tore right through them.

You could reasonably argue for humans to scale to younger variants in the Demogorgon life cycle, specifically Demodogs. With Steve definitely having the best showing against them, dodging around them and knocking them back several feet with just a single swing from his bat. Though even this is still a challenge more times than not for the cast, and we don’t have many cases of characters fighting these things unless they’re backed into a corner with no other option. Another one that needs discussion is The Flayed. They’re a bit easier to argue for than Demogorgons thought still have problems. While definitely being on the backfoot, Nancy and Johnathan do fight a pair of Flayed directly and defeat them, and a couple of the kids technically survive attacks from Flayed Billy as well. But Tom and Bruce are clearly not taking their fight with Nancy and Jonathan seriously, and leave themselves open for their telekinetic link to be exploited. These are boss fight moments in Stranger Things 3 the video game, which quite a few main cast members can aid in, including Steve. Though this is likely as far as you can stretch it when scaling the humans to the supernatural here and should be considered a high end. But one could say these do help support superhuman feats performed by the cast, like Hopper.

TLDR; Scaling human characters to Demogorgons just doesn't check out on multiple fronts. While this show does have characters fight against these things, narratively it is clear they aren't supposed to be on the same level. Think about it like this. You could theoretically take a shovel, hit a kodiak bear over the head with it and actually harm it. But is that realistically ending well for you? Maybe if you’ve taken preemptive measures beforehand, but more than likely you’re just cooked.


Verdict

Chapter I: Survival of the Fittest

Despite being “normal humans” Laurie and Steve have proven time and time again that they’re more than meets the eye. With both themselves and the cast around them showcasing many low tier superhuman feats. However, Steve is kind of just throwing Laurie around in any sort of physical fight.

Obviously, in a direct comparison and without video game shenanigans or vs brainrot, Steve fairing better in a fist fight would just make sense to the casual viewer. He’s younger, physically more fit, has a routinely more active lifestyle and certainly has higher lifting strength. Steve is also just larger and taller than Strode. Getting into the juicy bits though, we can scale Laurie to Doctor Loomis surviving the gas explosion from Halloween 2. But is likely falling short of even the lowest end of Hopper feat from Season 3. While the numbers are similar with both getting 0.0002 tons of TNT, not only was Hopper already heavily battered before that but he shook it off relatively easily. Compare this with Doctor Loomis, who suffered life long injuries as a result of taking that explosion. So while the numbers at the end of the day are similar, Steve could be argued to be slightly higher here. But wait, there’s more! If you’re not convinced by this, the Hopper feat can also be pushed a bit further. With more generous interpretations of the feat, it can be argued up to 0.08 Tons of TNT at absolute best. Dwarfing the Loomis feat considerably. Laurie's best scaling however is from using RetroRealms. It does net her an impressive 0.1 tons of TNT feat, via tanking propane tanks exploding on top of her. While it does encapsulate most feats done by the humans-side of the Stranger Things cast in the show, video games similarly shake this up a bit. Characters can survive Lucas’ cherry bomb explosive, which can shatter several boulders at once, getting around 0.05 Tons of TNT. Not too far off from RetroRealms Laurie, but is certainly slightly weaker. But when you take the game's trinket items into account, Steve should be able to close this gap pretty easily thanks to the various passive stat amplifying items, of which Steve can have multiple active at a time. Although, granting Steve all of them would likely just surpass it, especially if applied to the highest possible end of the Hopper feat. These sorts of feats are also just far more consistent in Stranger Things media as well. Halloween humans over the dozen timelines only showcase a handful of solid wall level feats and most are actually out-done by Steve himself with no scaling. Without Michael, there’s only one small building feat from using RetroRealms, meanwhile Stranger Things has several. So with that all said, physical attack potency and durability are likely either just similar or is decently favoring Steve, both being around the Small Building Level. No matter what media you focus on.

Speed on the other hand, handedly goes to Harrington. Humans in the Halloween franchise have no showcases of bullet timing whatsoever, which honestly is kind of shocking with how long lasting the franchise has been. As discussed prior, Corey's “bullet dodge” doesn't check out on multiple fronts, so the best you have is characters being able to move out of the way of incoming vehicles or thrown knives which, while not bad isn't exactly superhuman by any means. Meanwhile characters in the show and Steve himself in the video game have 120 m/s feats of dodging automatic gunfire. Even if we were generous and scaled Laurie to Michael Myers’ own bullet dodging… that only gets 35 m/s, which means Steve is still over 3 times faster than the most reasonable and generous feat available to Laurie which we've already discussed she likely doesn't even scale to. We would genuinely have to rely on crossovers for Laurie to get this sort of scaling. In RetroRealms: Ash VS. Evil Dead; Ash’s boomstick and Kelly’s assault rifle fire shots that are multiple frames and can technically be moved in tandem with by enemies.. But this would be using very technical in tandem movement and nobody can actually dodge these shots so even using that is highly questionable, especially with nothing legit to back it up. Travel speed should also notably be in Steve’s corner. Not only would this just make sense from a narrative perspective, but characters in stranger things have been able to outrun creatures who can keep up with speeding vehicles and the Stranger Things 3 video game grants ways to buff this even further. So even in a foot race, Laurie probably isn’t keeping up.

All in all, while Laurie certainly wouldn't be helpless against him in fisticuffs, Steve Harrington still solidly takes the overall edge in strength and is too fast for Laurie.

Chapter II: Armed to the Teeth

Of course these two aren't coming into this unarmed however. Considering the Forces they routinely take on, they've accumulated quite the set of gear. All things considered, their arsenals are actually pretty comparable to each other for the most part and even cancel each other out in a few ways. For this section we will consider their arsenals at their absolute best interpretation, including things not necessarily standard anymore.

Steve would likely be at the advantage in terms of melee weaponry. Steve more consistently carries his bat on him than most other weapons between them and obviously a spiked baseball bat would have more leverage and reach over Laurie’s more consistent choice of knives. Meaning he could keep her at bay easier and land a more solid hit. Both have used axes a few times, but the chainsaw that Steve used would likely just cleave through whatever Laurie has and would probably keep her from directly engaging him. Laurie’s not an idiot. Who’s gonna square up to a chainsaw? Laurie’s spicing this up with her use of firearms though. Laurie has decades of experience using them and has a plethora of revolvers, rifles and a shotgun or two. Steve similarly has access to firearms too from his stint doing missions with the WSQK hideout, which actually gives Steve access to a comparable variety of firearms. Though if we just take a gander at what was seemingly Steve’s preferred choice in the M9 and compare it to Laurie’s Model 66 revolver, it’s in Steve’s favor with a range advantage of 50 meters compared to Laurie’s 25 Meters, and Steve also having higher clip capacity of 10 Rounds against Laurie’s 6 Rounds. So in a shoot out scenario, Steve has slightly more wiggle room. So point for Steve right…? Not necessarily. We’ll elaborate on this further in the skill section, but Laurie is by far a better shot than Steve. So a shoot out can be chalked up to quality vs quantity and becomes somewhat of a toss up. Steve all around has access to more guns and better guns overall, though Laurie is better with what she has.

Dipping into video games for a moment, trinkets from the Stranger Things 3 game grant Steve better defense and more potent healing items. Meanwhile, skills and the Overlord’s Eye from RetroRealms would make Laurie more evasive than Steve. You could argue Laurie could be tedious for Steve to tag but at the same time, Steve’s armors and stat boosters would ensure he can be just as much trouble to deal with. They both also get items that can slow each other down for a short time, such as Steve’s ice cream and Laurie’s Disco Ball. Admittedly though, Steve’s is more spammable and more plentiful in supply while Laurie’s has a wider area of effect. So neither can be argued to have a notable advantage off of these alone. Steve definitely has more outright destructive items like molotoves, grenades, acid vials and the Satan's Baby Fireworks. It’s also worth pointing out that while Laurie may have some level of resistance to acidic materials, the radioactive canisters that Steve has are far more potent than any acid attack Laurie has taken in RetroRealms and is obviously radioactive. This means Laurie likely couldn’t just tough out one of those things hitting her and Steve’s other options could throw her off in the case of the fireworks.

Though these would be incredibly hard to land considering Laurie’s options for evasion, from Steve’s perspective, the Overlord Eye essentially allows Laurie to teleport around him, which could give her the chance for the hit she needs. Laurie also has things that Steve doesn’t have direct counters to similarly. Lighting up a doobie and taking a quick puff would key Laurie into any spots Steve may be taking cover behind or trying to layup a sneak attack from. Potentially Laurie could tap into the Madness at some point during the fight, which could make her incredibly bloodlusted and give her an edge over Steve in close quarters but the most surprising thing Laurie has at her disposal is something Steve just has no answer as well. Laurie’s ability to damage and eventually destroy his soul like she did with Judith Myers is nothing that really anyone in Stranger Things has encountered, giving her a solid win condition.

At the end of the day, you can argue their respective kits are similar and both have counters to each other. While each of our heroes has a few things the other doesn’t, it’s nothing that’d be an immense advantage or game changer. So overall, we’re calling this category a Draw.

Chapter III: Experience is the Teacher

You might think this category is a clean sweep for Laurie, but there's more going on here when you actually get into the nitty-gritty. Laurie, obviously, is the only one here with actual training. She's mostly self taught, and has shown proficiency with a decent selection of firearms. There's even some hints of actual hand to hand skill in there if Karen's flashbacks are anything to go off of. Laurie spent most of her adult life in the Blumhouse timeline preparing for Michael's return and ended up becoming Haddonfield's local bad ass, turning her own home into a death trap in the same vein as a Saw/Home Alone mash-up. Steve clearly should not take her lightly. However, there are some glaring issues that need to be addressed here. While yes, Laurie trained for around 40 years continuously it was all for one, singular goal: taking down Michael Myers specifically, to the point Laurie became obsessed with this goal and drove away her own family. Her skill with firearms is impressive, but she has no showings of landing shots on fast and nimble adversaries. Just stagnate targets or the slow, lumbering Michael. Steve isn't a complete idiot and knows to avoid armed enemies. This paired with his athletic talents and higher speed scaling would make him a tedious target to land a successful shot on. Steve's athleticism is shockingly super important here. As he’s conditioned for prolonged highly physically demanding scenarios and his stamina should be considerably higher than Laurie’s. While she's no slouch of course, Steve was renowned for his physical prowess in high school and his peak in the show. So the longer the fight goes on, the more at an advantage Steve is in.

Laurie is definitely academically smarter than Steve as well…which sort of goes without saying to be completely honest. Steve isn’t exactly known for being the brightest guy in the bunch, while Laurie has shown to be exceedingly intelligent, especially in survival scenarios. While Steve definitely isn’t really lacking here, his ace in the hole would arguably be Dustin. Laurie is certainly more tactical than Steve himself and he is hardly ever the thinker of his group, knowing his skills are better suited to ensuring the others are out of harm's way. But Steve staying in communication with Dustin over radio could give him a leg up. Dustin is definitely smarter than Laurie in more ways than one and is arguably just as tactical as her. As he could key Steve into using his more effective weaponry early on and to play into his advantages over Laurie and this sort of support in general is just something Laurie lacks in any capacity. Although, admittedly this would prove to be difficult as Dustin wouldn’t have a way to observe the fight.

Something that is also clear is that Steve has engaged in more fights than any variant of Laurie directly. While it's funny to point out that Steve loses fist fights a lot, it's never due to a lack of skill and Steve has never lost without putting up a fight. Steve is actually pretty good at ducking punches and counter attacking in return, and while Laurie is definitely more directly skilled than him, Steve has definitely handled people more skilled than Laurie. Steve's one canon win is against a Russian soldier in fisticuffs and while you can argue Steve got lucky, he and the others can fight soldiers in the video game. So while this isn't to say Steve is necessarily more skilled, it does lend credibility to the idea that Steve should be able to hang in there with Laurie. Laurie clearly has more overall experience however. Stranger Things over its five seasons doesn't even add up to 10 years, while Laurie was quite literally training since her very first encounter with Michael and went on for over 40 years. Though, it's also worth pointing out that even in Steve’s shorter amount of experience, he aided in much grander scale events and has gone on missions to other dimensions more than once. We're talking literally end of the world shenanigans here. While Michael is pretty dangerous and shouldn't be scoffed at, he's typically just stalking neighborhoods at a time. But at the same time, he's never done this alone. While Laurie has had her fair share of help from time to time, there are a good few cases where Laurie scraps out alive from a mono-e-mono with Big Mike.

Laurie is very clearly the better of the two in a shootout scenario though. While this isn’t to say Steve couldn’t hit a shot if needed, Laurie as brought up in the arsenal section above is just all around better with guns than Steve. He’s probably not absolutely helpless here to be fair. Hell, Mike in season 5 could land shots from meters away with a flare gun, and Steve should certainly be comparable to his younger and less combat experienced friends, especially when granted more precise and accurate firearms themselves. Laurie is clearly on another level though. In the novels she considers head shots within a certain distance a “crap-shoot” and has around 40 years training with them. Easy claps for Laurie.

Surprisingly, Steve can somewhat go bar for bar with Laurie here. Though, Horror's Ultimate Final Girl, Laurie Strode is taking this category thanks to her grander experience and skill set.

Chapter IV: The Final Countdown

This is it. Our final category. Both have similar levels of pain endurance and sheer tenacity. Laurie has been in the game for longer, while Steve has dealt with higher scale threats. Steve is physically superior, while Laurie is more skilled. When we boil this down, this fight is quite honestly a coin toss and we spent many days trying to decide who could actually take this more times than not. This was not an easy decision to make and both hold advantages over each other that could easily tip the fight into their favor, and it’s to the point where the victor will need to be decided by the smallest details. For our final category, we will decide who is more likely to survive the other.

Steve’s physical superiority and Laurie’s dominance in skill weirdly perfectly balance each other out. Laurie is known for handling foes stronger than her all the time, and Michael Myers is certainly stronger than the jock. Meanwhile Steve has taken down people who are much more skilled than Laurie, while she is the ultimate final girl for good reason, Laurie isn’t exactly military level. However, Steve’s speed gives him some more leeway over Laurie. She could be argued to have peak human reactions, as she does showcase physicality over any normal man, but this is still falling short of Steve dodging automatic gunfire. It’s 13 m/s vs 120 m/s, a 9x difference in Steve’s favor. But there’s issues with assuming Steve could just blitz Laurie and shoot her first. Namely with the idea if he should be granted a gun at all. Steve did technically have access to them for months and was going to take a beretta into their final fight with Vecna…. But he never did and the others outright said other means would be a better idea for him. So Steve having a gun in this fight can be fairly questioned. So Laurie could just shoot Steve right? Well, it’s more complicated than that. Steve being that much faster than her would ensure he could play evasively around her. It’s sort of just basic instinct to be careful around someone with a gun and paired with his armors and higher travel speed, Steve would be incredibly hard to get a game ending shot on. Steve’s endurance would also mean he could just push through being shot in a non-vital area if his armor doesn't soften the hit.

Laurie theoretically could actually destroy Steve’s soul as she did with Judith Myers. But this required actually defeating her spirit first in a decently lengthy battle. So this isn’t something she could just whip out on Steve frame one, nor can we assume this ability applies to any of her most effective weaponry, such as her guns. She’d likely need to engage in a close quarters fight with Steve to even attempt this. Which wouldn't be the best idea given Steve’s physical advantages and melee weaponry. Laurie would more likely choose to keep her distance for as long as possible and play into her own strengths. Steve could not afford to mess around though. If he allows Laurie to get one good shot off, it’s likely over for our Scoops Ahoy employee. Keep in mind, while Steve is definitely faster than Laurie herself, a bullet is still faster than Steve. Her model 66 revolver can fire bullets at 518 m/s, around 4x faster than Steve’s reactions.

While you could argue Laurie could use the disco ball from RetroRealms to slow Steve down enough to get him, Steve’s ice cream from the video games accomplishes the same thing and thanks to his immensely greater speed, he would have initiative in capitalizing on this. So you could argue Steve could just hit Laurie with one of these things and slow her down even more. Giving him the chance to run in to either disarm her and just beat the hell out of her. Laurie is incredibly skilled with firearms without a doubt, but she notably has no showcases of hitting fast moving targets, just static practice dummies and the slow moving Michael. So Steve’s athleticism is potentially the key to his success here. If we’re focusing on what’s actually standard here, Laurie’s revolver only has 6 shots and the longer the fight draws out, the better situation Steve is in. His fit lifestyle ensures he’d be able to keep up his performance while Laurie runs out of steam and ammo. Laurie doesn’t typically carry spare ammo on her person as well, but she couldn’t afford to take time to reload against Steve regardless. As that’d only give him ample time to hit her with an acid vial, a molotov or just freeze her on the spot.

Both essentially need to play absolutely perfectly here. Laurie Strode is a fierce fighter, and Steve would not come out of this exchange unharmed. However, Steve just has ever so slightly more room for error than Laurie. He's the only one of the two with any sort of armor, he has more potent and plentiful healing options, his endurance is comparable to Laurie and his greater speed allows him to capitalize on his advantages before Laurie. Keep in mind, Steve still holds a 9x speed gap over Laurie herself, which is more than double what her main firearm has over Steve. So he feasibly should be able to aim dodge her long enough to finally get his chance to close in on her. Ultimately giving him the slight edge he needs to win this fight more times than not.

While both are determined survivors, and would certainly push each other to their very limits… Steve Harrington is the one surviving this fight and is doing it by the skin of his teeth.

Summary



Advantages:

  • Slightly higher attack potency and durability with RetroRealms….

  • Far more talented with firearms.

  • Has the easier win condition on paper….

  • More brutal and vicious in combat. 

  • More experienced in terms of quantity.

  • Smoking dank would counter any attempts at stealth from Steve.

  • More tactical and academically intelligent on average than Steve.

  • Overlord’s Eye and RetroRealm skills would make her more evasive.

  • Has fought physically stronger opponents before.

  • Theoretically could destroy Steve’s soul given enough time. 

  • Similar level of pain tolerance. 

  • Canonically fucks with One Piece.


Disadvantages:

  • …. Steve isn't far behind and can match with amps.

  • …. Steve has many work arounds and counters.

  • Not fast enough to capitalize on win conditions before Steve. 

  • No real defensive gear aside from healing items.

  • Halloween 6 (Goddamn that shit was ass - Grimes)

  • Jamie Lee Curtis kind of sucks lmao.




Advantages:

  • Similar in physical attack potency at worst, slightly stronger at best. 

  • Significantly faster reactions and travel speed. 

  • Physically more fit and conditioned for prolonged scenarios. 

  • Better defensive options and gear.

  • Has definitely engaged in more on the field combat scenarios.

  • Funnily enough, has access to superior firearms…

  • More destructive and deadly weaponry. 

  • Has fought more skilled opponents before.

  • Dustin is far more intelligent than Laurie…

  • Trinkets would further push stats into his favor. 

  • Similar level of pain tolerance.

  • Joe Keery.


Disadvantages:

  • … But Steve's experience with guns is heavily lacking.

  • … Though Dustin probably isn’t going to be too useful.

  • Less skilled and experienced by far.

  • Kind of a dumbass a lot of the time.

  • Netflix is gonna milk ST until the cast is dead. (Then they’ll reboot)


In the end, Steve just barely makes it out alive from this bout. We all agree that this fight is pretty neck and neck with either character being able to be argued to win reasonably. We genuinely spent a couple weeks stuck on this after research wrapped just because we couldn't decide who would win more consistently than the other. However, we think Harrington has just what he needs to see the end of this 6/10 times. His better defense, physicality, surprisingly handy kit and sheer willpower should give him just enough slack to prevail over horror’s ultimate final girl. Laurie’s determination and weaponry would prove to have Steve in for one of the hardest fights of his life but when Halloween Ends… Stranger Things have happened. The winner is Steve Harrington.


Final Tally


Laurie Strode (0) - She probably still mugs Sidney Prescott though. 


Steve Harrington (4) - Bang, door-kun, Thicc Grimes, Yerm


Next Time…

April 27th, Demogorgons vs Death Angels




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