A new season of Stranger Things brings a new terrifying creature that a bunch of kids must defeat to save the world… again. Vecna is unlike anything the group has ever faced before.
Let’s take a deep dive into the character, his past, present and how he is able to get into the minds of his victims.
The introduction
In the very first episode of season 4, Vecna proceeds with its first target, Chrissy. He has the ability to show his victims illusions of trauma from the past and when he deems the victim’s time to have ended, he uses his psychic powers to break their bones and destroy their eyes.
Vecna shows the same pattern when he kills Fred and Patrick, flinging them up in the air and doing exactly what he did to Chrissy.
While his real name isn’t revealed at this point, he is given the name ‘Vecna’ by Dustin and others who play Dungeons & Dragons due to his similarity in powers with a character in the game with the same name, who is a spell caster. The even believed his attacks to be ‘Vecna’s Curse‘ initially.
Vecna’s role in the war
While the Demogorgons are The Mind Flayer’s soldiers, Vecna is a ‘five-star general’, and has the ability to open up portals to the Upside Down using powerful psychic connections with his victims, similar to how Eleven made a portal through a connection with a Demogorgon.
Vecna’s victims are not just random killings. He intentionally targets those that he believes have suffered trauma and struggling to move forward. He believes he is justified in punishing them, as they have sinned according to him.
Vecna’s real identity
Vecna is actually 001, a test subject of Dr. Brenner just like Eleven. In fact, he was the inspiration for all others that came after him.
When Victor Kreel moved with his family to Hawkins, he did not realise the evil he was bringing along. 001 is his son, who decided that his parents were bad people and decided to punish them by murdering them in the exact same way he does to his victims in the present day. Kreel survived, and 001 went into a coma as he was not powerful enough at the time.
Kreel was led to believe that his son died later, and he kept assuming that the devil killed his entire family. 001 was captured by Brenner, who tried controlling him. When that didn’t work, he started recreating him, leading to Eleven and the others getting their powers.
After Eleven freed him, he killed everybody at the facility. He has the upper hand against Eleven as well, but she manages to remember her mother and gains enough power from the memory to defeat him and inadvertently send him to the Upside Down.
Here, he is hit by mysterious lightning and slowly starts to transform into the creature he is today, explaining his psychic abilities.
This incident poises the battle between Eleven and Vecna as they are actually familiar with each other and have faced off against each other.
But it is still uncertain how much more powerful Vecna is now compared to when he was beaten by Eleven at the facility.
Also Read: Stranger Things season 4 volume 1 review: An epic saga that transcends previous seasons