When you get invested in a TV show, naturally, you become emotionally invested in the characters. Although they may not be real, watching them each episode, you just get attached. So when your fave character gets killed off a show, well that just makes things that much more heartbreaking for viewers.

One show so many people love that sees its fair share of death scenes is Stranger Things. And while the Netflix series is hearing up for its third season, there was once a time when two faves weren’t going to make it beyond Season 1. In a new book called Stranger Things: Worlds Turned Upside Down, the creators of the sci-fi series, the Duffer brothers, explained that originally Millie Bobby Brown’s character Eleven and Joe Keery’s character, Steve Harrington, were both meant to die in the first season.

“Eleven was going to sacrifice herself to save the day. That was always the end game,” Ross Duffer said. “But once we realized that the show was potentially going to go on longer than one season, we needed to leave it more up in the air, because deep down we knew the show just wouldn’t really work without Eleven. And at that point, we knew how special Millie was. If there was going to be more Stranger Things, Eleven had to come back. This Steve character, he was just supposed to be this giant d—–bag,” saying it was Joe and all the fan love his the character got that kept Steve on the series.

Okay, not it’s just wild to picture the show without either of these characters, so we’re sure there are plenty of fans out there who are happy the writers didn’t stick with this plan. And while they were spared, there have been plenty of characters from other shows whose deaths straight-up shocked fans.

Check out the gallery below for more beloved TV characters’ deaths who left fans truly shook and frankly, don’t think anyone will ever get over.

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