Why did vecna start killing again

Spoiler Warning! This article or section reveals details from the fourth season. Read at your own discretion... Table of Contents Show Birth and early life 1959 - 1979 1979 - 1986 Personality Powers, Abilities and Mindscape Mindscape Creation Mental Manipulation and Illusion Inducement Psychic Projection Pain Inducement Psionic Connection Psionic Resistance Telekinesis Regenerative Healing Factor Description Appearances Family tree As Henry Creel Behind the scenes Conception and design

Vecna[2] is the main antagonist from the fourth season of Stranger Things. He is portrayed by Jamie Campbell Bower as an adult and by Raphael Luce as a child.

A fearsome sentient creature aligned with the Upside Down, Vecna had humble origins as the human Henry Creel. After moving to a new home in Hawkins in March 1959, the young Henry discovered he had remarkable psychokinetic abilities, and could alter the perception of others. Motivated by a nihilistic and misanthropic philosophy, Henry used his powers to psychologically torture his family, eventually killing his mother and sister, and then framing his father for these crimes, which drove him to madness.

These events would draw the interest of Dr. Martin Brenner, who took him to Hawkins National Laboratory to be studied; Henry was designated 001, becoming the laboratory's first test subject. Brenner implanted Soteria into Henry's neck, a miniature device that suppressed his powers and tracked his every movement; in Henry's own words, he had become a 'prisoner'. In time, Henry became one of several orderlies who assisted Brenner and attended to the lab. Brenner would go on to replicate Henry's powers in a number of child test subjects, who also had their movements and lives restricted to the lab's confines.

In 1979, Henry tricked test subject Eleven into removing the Soteria chip with her powers. In a fit of rage, Henry used his restored powers to brutally murder the other test subjects, and attempted to do the same to Eleven. However, Eleven stood her ground and ultimately overpowered him, sending him through a gate to the Upside Down; there, he gradually transformed into the being known as Vecna. He became an explorer of the realm, discovering an exotic, storm-like mass of particles, and used his powers to reconstitute it into a giant, spider-like entity: a being that would come to be known as “the Mind Flayer”.

In 1983, Eleven accidentally opened a second, non-temporary gate at Hawkins Lab, and Vecna, acting through the Mind Flayer, attempted to eradicate humanity, both in 1984 and 1985. In both instances, Eleven and her allies ultimately thwarted Vecna’s plans.

In 1986, Vecna resurfaced, taking a more direct approach in his attempts to destroy humanity. He began murdering a host of Hawkins residents, tormenting his victims with his curse power and using their deaths to open a series of new gates. Dustin, Nancy, Max and others began investigating the murders, nicknaming the murderer 'Vecna' after a character from Dungeons & Dragons. The group’s efforts to defeat Vecna culminated in a dual assault; Eleven used psychic projection to confront Vecna within his own mind, while Nancy, Steve and Robin traveled to the Upside Down version of the Creel House to attack his real body. Despite heavily wounding him, the group could not stop Vecna from furthering his plans to annihilate both Hawkins and the wider world.

History

Birth and early life

Henry Creel was born in 1947 to Victor and Virginia Creel, and had an older sister by three years named Alice. He did not fit in with his peers; his father described him as a "sensitive" boy. According to Henry, his teachers and doctors said he was "broken".

1959

A fresh start

In the spring of 1959, Virginia's great-uncle passed away, leaving her a small fortune that was used to buy a large house in the small town of Hawkins, Indiana. Victor and Virginia hoped the move could mark a fresh start for Henry and Alice, but Henry was pessimistic: he didn’t see how Hawkins would be different to any other place he had lived.

But to his surprise, Henry found solace when he discovered a nest of black widows living inside the new house's bathroom vent. Henry was both fascinated and comforted by the spiders; he related to how “misunderstood” they were, deeming them to be "most important of the predators" for how they provided structure for the weak. Henry was inspired to make illustrations of a fantastical super-predator, which he envisioned as a gigantic spider-like beast.

Henry grew to loathe human civilization, most specifically its artificial structuring of days, weeks, months and years. Henry did not want to be part of society’s "mindless play" of eating, sleeping, working, reproducing, and dying, but he realized he didn’t have to. Henry discovered he possessed, or had somehow developed, remarkable psychokinetic abilities, finding he could manipulate the grandfather clock downstairs with the power of his mind alone.

Henry began testing the scope of his abilities by mutilating various animals. The dead animals throughout the neighborhood were believed to be the attacks of a wildcat, which made Victor paranoid for his family's safety. Henry also had the power to view the memories of his victims and use them against them in form of involuntary hallucinations and visions. Henry made Victor hallucinate his own experiences fighting in World War II, including an incident where he inadvertently set fire to a baby in a cradle. Victor's paranoia drove him to believe that a demon lived inside their home, but Virginia slowly began to suspect these happenings were somehow the doing of her son, and despised him for it. Virginia wanted to send Henry to a psychiatrist, which Henry believed to be ridiculous, since in his view, he “wasn't the one who was broken". She got in contact with Dr. Martin Brenner, hoping for him to take Henry away.

Tragedy strikes

One night, as the Creels sat around the dinner table, Henry used his powers to set off the radio, distracting his father. The lights began to flicker; suddenly, Virginia was launched into the air and mutilated, her bones cracked and her eyes gouged out, before lifelessly crashing back to the floor. Victor attempted to escape through the front door with the children, but Henry used his powers to jam the lock, while making Victor hallucinate back to the war. While Victor was hypnotized, Henry killed Alice the same way as their mother.

Henry intended to kill Victor in the same manner, but he had inadvertently ruined his plans to do so by turning on the radio. The music playing on the radio provided Victor with an anchor to reality; he thought he heard "the voice of an angel", allowing him to break free of his son's control. Upon snapping out of the trance, Victor collapsed. Henry also collapsed and passed out, as he had greatly overexerted his powers, and entered a coma.

Some time later, Victor awoke as the sole family member left relatively unscathed from the massacre. Victor was arrested for the murder of Virginia and Alice and sent to Pennhurst Mental Hospital. There, Victor’s mental health deteriorated; he attempted suicide by gouging his eyes out, but he was prevented from ending his life.

1959 - 1979

Papa's intervention

Victor was told that Henry died a week later due to shock, but in truth, his death was a hoax orchestrated by Dr. Brenner. Henry awoke from his coma to discover he had been transported to Hawkins National Laboratory, under the watchful eye of Brenner.

Brenner intended to both study and closely supervise the boy. He inserted Soteria into Henry's neck, a miniature device that suppressed his powers and tracked his every movement; in Henry's own words, he had become a 'prisoner'. Henry was designated Hawkins Lab's first test subject, with Brenner tattooing "001" on his forearm to mark the occasion. In time, Henry became one of several orderlies who assisted Brenner and attended to the lab. Brenner deeply distrusted Henry, however, and would occasionally order the other orderlies to torture him as a means of intimidation.

Hoping to recreate Henry’s powers in other individuals, Brenner commenced a series of new experiments and programs. In Project MKUltra, Brenner gave volunteer test subjects experimental drugs and placed them inside sensory deprivation tanks. Some of these volunteers, such as Terry Ives, were pregnant, and had their newborn children abducted by Brenner. These children were raised at Hawkins Lab, and would prove to have similar psychokinetic abilities to Henry.

During Henry's time as an orderly at Hawkins Lab, he took a particular liking to one of Brenner's test subjects, Eleven. After witnessing her being bullied by the other test subjects, he believed both of them were similarly misunderstood, and also believed Eleven to be the most powerful of the test subjects. Henry helped Eleven during times when her peers ridiculed her, offering encouraging words and advice.

1979

The massacre at Hawkins Lab

On September 8, 1979, Henry offered Eleven a chance to escape from the lab, giving her a key card and telling her to meet him in the basement. He showed her an escape route through a drain pipe, before convincing her to use her powers to remove the “Soteria” suppressant chip from his neck, restoring Henry’s long-dormant abilities. Shortly after this, security guards stormed the basement; the two reached a corridor but were surrounded by the guards. Henry used his restored powers to maim and kill the guards; he took Eleven to a storage cupboard and told her to wait there, revealing his ‘001’ tattoo before leaving.

Henry proceeded to go on a murderous rampage throughout the laboratory, killing all the other test subjects and various Hawkins Lab personnel, and indirectly knocked Dr. Brenner unconscious. Eleven entered the Rainbow Room and watched in horror as Henry finished killing Two. Henry explained himself to Eleven, telling her of his origins and philosophy; he asked her to join him in his goal to eradicate humanity.

But Eleven refused. She used her powers to fling Henry into the wall; angered and disappointed, Henry stood back up and outreached his hand, with Eleven doing the same. The two test subjects engaged in a psychokinetic duel, with Henry initially overwhelming and almost killing Eleven. However, Eleven, finding strength in a distant memory, ultimately overpowered Henry, pinning him against the wall of the Rainbow Room. She began disintegrating his body, but somehow, she opened an interdimensional gate in the wall, through which Henry was transported.

The gate began to seal up, and just after the membrane separating the worlds finished healing, Brenner, having recovered consciousness, entered the Rainbow Room. Though he initially believed Eleven was responsible for the massacre, he later learned Henry was to blame after reviewing surveillance footage. Brenner was bewildered by Henry's disappearance, and wondered if he was still out there somewhere, "hiding in the darkness".

1979 - 1986

A discovery in purgatory

After Eleven sent Henry through the gate, he was transported to a mysterious alien realm. This was an alternate dimension defined by mountainous terrain, floating rocks and electrical storms; this realm would later transform in appearance to become the place known as "The Upside Down".

Henry fell through the dimension for a lengthy period, during which he was horrifically burned and mutilated by lightning strikes. This was only the beginning of a gradual bodily transformation; he would become totally unrecognizable, and when he would later re-emerge, he would be initially known to "The Party" as a monster nicknamed "Vecna".

At first, Henry believed the dimension to be a kind of ‘purgatory’, but he changed his mind, coming to view it instead as “a realm unspoiled by mankind”. Henry began to traverse the alien terrain, encountering “so many things”, including a species of faceless humanoid predators. Eventually, Henry discovered “the most extraordinary thing of all”: a swirling, storm-like mass of shadowy particles; it is not known if the mist possessed its own independent will, or consciousness. Henry used his powers to reconstitute the mist into a form that satisfied him: a giant, spider-like entity with a flame-shaped head, not unlike the giant spider-like creature he had fantasized about and illustrated as a child. In time, this entity would come to be known as the Mind Flayer.

With the Mind Flayer at his side, Vecna’s powers greatly expanded. The Mind Flayer’s body could split into smaller pieces while sharing a collective consciousness. These smaller pieces could possess other creatures and beings, tying them to the same core consciousness; through the Mind Flayer, Vecna could connect various lifeforms to a shared hive mind, with Vecna's will at the top of the chain.

On November 6, 1983, Brenner ordered Eleven to make psychic contact with a Demogorgon she unwittingly encountered while immersed in an altered state of consciousness. This action accidentally opened a second, non-temporary gate to the Upside Down at Hawkins Lab, and somehow also led to a shift in the fundamental nature of the Upside Down itself.[3][4]

This new gate, dubbed the "Mothergate", allowed the Upside Down to begin to spread through. Will Byers, a child resident of Hawkins, was captured by the aforementioned Demogorgon and brought to the Upside Down's version of the town's public library. Although he was safely recovered by friends and family, Will began to have visions of the Upside Down; a psychic connection between Will, the other world and the creatures that lived there had been established.

In 1984, Vecna first tried to take over the world by exploiting the psychic connection to Will. Vecna had the Mind Flayer possess Will and an army of adolescent Demogorgons, or "Demodogs". Eleven interfered by closing the Mothergate, severing the psychic link between the worlds and killing the Demodogs in the process. As Eleven closed the Gate, Will's friends and family worked to force a piece of the Mind Flayer out of his body, which in turn became dormant after the Gate's closure.

The isolated piece of the Mind Flayer remained dormant at Brimborn Steel Works until 1985, when a newly opened Gate reestablished the psychic link to the Mind Flayer. Via this piece, The Mind Flayer began kidnapping and possessing multiple humans and rats, feeding them chemicals and melting their bodies into puddles of biomass. This biomass was then combined to create a proxy form, through which the Mind Flayer could directly act in the human world; like the Mind Flayer, this proxy form also resembled a spider, and had the same flame-shaped head. However, this proxy form was rendered useless and inanimate after the new Gate was shut, and the psychic link disabled once again.

1986

Vecna’s curse

In March 1986, Vecna took a more direct approach in his attempts to destroy humanity. By this time, he had figured out a way to open gates from within the Upside Down; in the same way that the “powerful psychic connection” between Eleven and the Demogorgon of 1983 triggered the opening of the Mothergate, Vecna could form similar psychic connections with human beings in the regular world, exercising these connections to open new gates. Vecna possibly gained the ability to influence minds from across dimensions after a piece of the Mind Flayer “Spider Monster” proxy form bit Eleven in July 1985, a being that the possessed Billy Hargrove said was “made” for her.

When attempting to open gates through this method, Vecna would strategically prey on teenagers with trauma, or experiencing mental health issues. He would go out of his way to psychologically torture his victims, making them experience disturbing and disorienting hallucinations, before ultimately killing them. The victim’s suffering, panic and even death seemed to be key to Vecna’s ability to open gates, likely maximizing the strength of the psychic connection. Vecna’s ultimate goal was to open four gates.

On March 14, 1986, Chrissy Cunningham had told Ms. Kelly that she was having severe headaches that wouldn't go away. She also told her that she was having nosebleeds out of nowhere and waking up out of her sleep in a cold sweat due to nightmares. Chrissy was targeted by Vecna due to her mother's emotional abuse because of Chrissy's weight and eventually succumbed to Vecna's Curse and died on March 21.[5] The following morning, after Chrissy's initial report, Fred Benson also went to Ms. Kelly with the same concerns. Fred was targeted by Vecna due to him crashing a car and leaving his friend to die and eventually succumbed to Vecna's Curse and died on March 22.[6]

Later on March 23, Patrick McKinney's headache got worse, causing his nose to bleed in the back of Jason's jeep. Patrick was targeted by Vecna due to his parents fighting all the time. On that same day, Vecna also targeted Max Mayfield when she and her friends were looking at Chrissy and Fred's files in Ms. Kelly's office, Max revealed that Chrissy's issues started a week ago, Fred's six days ago and her's started five days ago. He briefly possessed Max, where she found herself wandering through a version of the school's hallways, eventually finding a grandfather clock before Vecna released her. A day later, on March 24, Vecna went after Max again, possessing her after she left letters to her family in the case of her death. Showing her an illusion of her mother, Max told "Susan" that something bad was going to happen to her. "Susan" hugged Max responded that nothing would happen to her, and Vecna, using his real voice, continued, "Nothing you don't deserve." Max looked up to find herself hugging Vecna in his true form, and pushed herself away. As she fell to the ground, Vecna released her. That same day, while she was at Billy's grave, Vecna possessed and attempted to murder Max. He showed himself as Billy and blamed Max for Billy's death, saying Max "wanted him to die." She told him that he's wrong and when Venca revealed himself, she ran off and found a cloud of red smoke. She entered Vecna's mindscape and when her friends played her favorite song, a portal back to reality opened. Max was able to brace herself and attacked Vecna, then ran toward her friends as Vecna tried to drop pieces of the Creel house onto her. She dodged his attacks and eventually attached herself back to reality, clutching Lucas after falling to the ground.[7]

On March 25, Vecna went after Patrick again while he was chasing Eddie Munson, and the latter succumbed to Vecna's curse.[8]

On March 26, when the teens entered Watergate and defeated some of the Demobats, they arrived at the Upside Down-version of the Wheeler house to look for Nancy's guns. They soon realized that the Upside Down was stuck on the day that Will disappeared. Once Dustin and the gang realized that the teens were stuck in the Upside Down, Dustin took Holly's Lite Brite and communicated with Nancy and the others. They all devised a plan to go to Eddie's trailer so that the teens could return to Hawkins. As the four teens rode off into the Upside Down, a Demobat spotted them and alerted Vecna. As soon as he became aware of the teens attempting to leave the Upside Down using another portal, he targeted Nancy, due to her feeling guilty about Barbara Holland's death, and entered her mind, sending her to the pool where Barb died. After climbing out, Nancy found herself in Vecna's mindscape. He taunted Nancy, saying that she had been so close to finding out the truth. Vecna then showed Nancy his upbringing, his discovery of his powers, the truth behind his family's death, and how he became subject 001 in Brenner's experience.[3] While Nancy witnessed the last memory, Brenner suddenly turned to her and addressed her by name. Nancy realized that it was actually Vecna speaking to her, so she ran away, but found herself stopped by a barricaded door. While she worked to remove the wooden planks, Vecna slowly approached, saying that he would now like to show her the future. Nancy continued to run, but found herself stopped by "Brenner," who asked Nancy to sit down. Suddenly, Nancy found herself bound to a chair with vines, and Vecna standing before her. However, instead of hurting Nancy, Vecna ordered her to tell Eleven what she sees, sent her with several glimpses into the future in utter horror, and released her from the trance.[9]

The battle of minds

After letting Nancy go, Vecna ​​continued to stalk Max to be his last victim, when Max decided to confront him, he began to chase her in the mental world. Max temporarily escaped into her memory of the winter dance, since this was a positive memory. However, Vecna was able to follow her, even here. When he was about to kill her, Eleven appeared in the memory as well. After realizing it was her, Eleven threw Vecna ​​against the stairs, then he and Eleven began to fight, telekinetically throwing objects at each other. Finally, Vecna ​​managed to incapacitate Eleven, and he began to kill Max, breaking her arms and legs, but Eleven, full of anger and inspired by Mike's words, released all her power, pushing Vecna ​​to a column just before he could kill Max. Vecna ​​told her that she had lost but she mockingly told him that it was he who had lost. In the Upside Down, Nancy, Steve and Robin got to where Vecna's body was and Steve threw a Molotov cocktails at him, setting him ablaze. At the same time in Russia, Murray Bauman set several demodogs and demogorgons on fire, and due to the hive mind, Vecna felt this as well. The combination of these attacks caused him ​​to be forced out of Max's mind and return to the physical world. Robin threw another Molotov, and Nancy shot at him with a shotgun, giving Vecna no time to fight back. Nancy's last shot sent Vecna flying out the window, falling hard to the concrete, destroying his physical form, giving the teens the impression that he had been killed.

Although he had not killed Max, she eventually died as a result of her injuries, unleashing the future he had shown Nancy. All four gates opened and intersected with each other. Before any further damage could be done, though, Eleven brought Max back to life. However, Max fell into a coma. Two days later, Eleven, Mike, Will, Jonathan, and Argyle arrived in Hawkins. Eleven reached into Max's mind in the hospital, but could not find her consciousness. Later that day, Will sensed that Vecna was actually alive, but badly hurt, suffering from the pain. Will realized that Vecna's plan was coming to fruition as spores from the Upside Down began to emerge from the gate and spread throughout Hawkins.

Personality

Henry Creel was motivated by a nihilistic, misanthropic and egocentric philosophy; he desired to reshape the world to his own design, considering humanity a species of corrupted and power-hungry parasites, a unique type of pest, who have no regard of the world and the other living beings. As a consequence, he doesn't have mercy or empathy for other humans, and find himself gratified by tormenting, torturing and killing people, massacring almost all of his family and all the other test subjects. In general, he is sadistic, cruel and viscid with every human that he encounters, at the point that he is ready to do everything possible to eradicate all of humanity and re-create the world. However, his sadistic and predatory nature go beyond every of his convictions: he tortures and torments emotionally unstable teenagers, making them revive their traumas and obscure past, all for his own enjoyment, before slowly massacring them by breaking their bones and gauging their eyes out.

Henry would prove to be highly manipulative and intelligent when he convinced Eleven to remove the 'Soteria' neck chip suppressing his powers. Although his kind demeanor proved to be a facade, he seemed to show genuine interest in furthering his friendship with Eleven; however, Eleven had no interest in helping Henry execute his plans and turned against him.

After Henry transforms into the being known as Vecna, he becomes even more malevolent, delighting in the torment that he brings to those that he curses. In his mindscape, corpses of his victims are displayed in a horrific fashion, showing that Vecna is proud of the unspeakable crimes that he has committed.

Powers, Abilities and Mindscape

Telepathy

As one of the most powerful psychics introduced thus far, Henry Creel is able to see into the minds of others and search their memories as a means to obtain personal and private information that he might later use to terrorize his victims. It appears that Henry has recently learned to connect himself to the Mind Flayer, which seems to enhance his abilities so greatly that he is now able to telepathically reach across time and space in order to haunt the residents of Hawkins, Indiana, in spite of existing within a completely separate dimension.

Mindscape Creation

Vecna's mindscape

At some point, Vecna gained the ability to conjure vivid imaginary locations, and through his curse power, could make his victims hallucinate themselves inhabiting these locations. The most distinctive of these locations was a representation of Vecna's own mind; this realm was enveloped in crimson fog, and littered with organic black structures with a spire-like appearance. Most notably, a deconstructed and fragmented version of Henry's childhood home lay at the realm's center.

Mental Manipulation and Illusion Inducement

Henry has demonstrated a limited variation of mind control. Whilst he does not appear to exhibit any influence over the actions or behaviors of his victims, he is perfectly capable of manipulating their perceptions and causing them to hallucinate. Furthermore, once he has frightened his victims to the point of complete vulnerability, he is able to entrance them within their own minds which physically manifests as the victim being paralyzed with their eyes glazed over and retreated towards the back of their heads. Mentally, the victim will experience the most vivid and powerful nightmare that is often set in a place of terror that personally holds much pain and trauma for the individual.

Henry has the psychic ability to induce mental hallucinations that cause his victim(s) to sense and experience nonexistent phenomena that are not actually playing out in the physical world. Whilst his ability to manipulate one's perception of reality appears to be strongest in the "dream world", even in their waking state, Henry can create realistic daydreams that are completely believable to those he chooses to experience. Whilst he often creates scenarios that are unique and personal to his target (i.e. Chrissy's abusive mother banging on the restroom stall or Max's mother hanging laundry in the backyard), his signature illusion is causing his victims to see and hear the loud chime of an antique grandfather clock.

Psychic Projection

Vecna while connected to vines in the Upside Down Creel House

Henry is able to cast his consciousness from outside of his physical body to explore the private lives of the people living in Hawkins. It is currently unknown if Henry can project his consciousness beyond the borders of this one city, however, it is more than likely that he can given the numerous times that Jane Hopper has astral projected across state lines and Henry is believed to be equally as powerful, if not more so, than his "sister" Eleven.

Pain Inducement

Henry is able to inflict minor forms of physical injuries on his victims such as nosebleeds and severe headaches. Whether he is inflicting this pain intentionally or if this is merely a side effect of linking his mind to another remains unknown. However, because Henry seems to require a certain level of vulnerability from his victims in order to fully possess them, it is possible that this pain inducement is the first step to weakening his target in order to gain more and more power over them.

Psionic Connection

Henry has the ability to develop a deep and powerful psychic connection with his victims. It is through this connection that Henry is able to open multiple wormholes between the Upside Down and Hawkins, Indiana due to the powerful expulsion of energy that is released through the ritualistic murders of his victims.

Psionic Resistance

As demonstrated in Jane Hopper's memories, psychics can resist each other's influence if their will is powerful enough. However, this resistance can be overwhelmed by whichever psychic has the stronger willpower.

Telekinesis

Henry has the ability to control and manipulate solid matter with his mind. At first, this power was limited to lightweight materials, such as small animals and the hands on a grandfather clock, but through practice and training, Henry is now powerful enough to influence objects as heavy as fully grown adults and solid steel doors. Henry famously uses this power to levitate his victims in midair before breaking all of the bones in their body and crushing their eyes into the back of their skull.

Regenerative Healing Factor

It appears that since his banishment to the Upside Down, Henry has developed the ability to rapidly regenerate his cells at will. This enables him to quickly heal from any and all non-fatal injuries as proven when his tentacles were shown to fully recover mere seconds after Max slashed him. Therefore, minor damages like cuts and flesh wounds will rejuvenate almost immediately, whilst greater injuries like broken bones or gunshot wounds will presumably take longer to heal but will still recover significantly faster than it does most humans. Even more so, his healing powers have apparently made him immune to most, if not all, forms of toxins and disease due to the fact that he has survived several years in the Upside Down in spite of the atmosphere becoming toxic to humans after prolonged exposure.

Weaknesses

• Soteria: A miniature device of unknown technology that neutralizes a person's psychokinetic abilities when implanted.
• Exhaustion: Similar to the physical muscles that are found within the human body, excessive use of his physic abilities without proper rest or treatment will result in deadly levels of fatigue and weariness. Henry explained to Eleven how he almost died after using too much of his power as a child which surrendered him into a coma for two to three weeks.
• Music: Music can reach sensitive areas of the human brain that words alone cannot. If Vecna's victim is exposed to music from the real world, it will likely disrupt or influence their hallucinations; by gaining 'an anchor to reality', a victim may find the emotional strength to survive and escape Vecna's wrath, and return to reality. Victims Victor Creel and Max Mayfield were exposed to music, and thus found the strength to escape their deaths.
• Willpower: Psychics with a stronger force of will can overpower Henry and attack him with their own abilities.
• Physical Attacks: While invading other people's minds, Vecna's physical body is left helpless, and thus vulnerable to attack.
• Hive Mind Connection: One drawback of being connected to everything in the Upside Down is that any pain felt by them will also be felt by Vecna.

Description

Vecna was a human being who has been transformed by The Upside Down in an unknown manner. He retains the psychic abilities that Henry Creel once possessed; the ability to reach into the minds and memories of others, as well as the power of telekinesis.

When connected to tendrils in The Upside Down, Vecna is able to see into the minds of people living in Hawkins. His victims are, so far, teenagers with vulnerable minds. His choice of victims appears to be random, but it is likely that they are chosen primarily due to one trait shared among them all; they reject and hide from a part of themselves (Chrissy; Bulimia, Fred; Murder, Patrick; Alcoholism, Max; Losing Billy), which is a habit that Henry Creel despised about human beings.

Victims

Deceased

Sufferers of Vecna's curse

Other

• Alice Creel - Bones snapped/eyes gouged out on March 25, 1959.
• Unnamed Hawkins National Laboratory guard - Neck snapped on September 8, 1979.
• Selee - Attacked on September 8, 1979.
• Miller - Attacked on September 8, 1979.
• Six - Attacked on September 8, 1979.
• Dr. Ellis - Attacked on September 8, 1979.
• Alec - Attacked on September 8, 1979.
• Ten - Injuries apparently sustained from being hit by a door on September 8, 1979.
• Four unnamed Hawkins National Laboratory guards - Killed on September 8, 1979.
• Two unnamed Hawkins National Laboratory orderlies - Killed on September 8, 1979.
• Two - Bones snapped and eyes gouged out on September 8, 1979.

Survived

Sufferers of Vecna's curse

• Victor Creel — Targeted on March 25, 1959, attempted suicide after witnessing the attack.
• Max Mayfield — Targeted twice:
• Nancy Wheeler — Targeted on March 26, 1986[13]. Subjected to a vision involving Vecna's Mind Lair, the corpse of her deceased friend Barb, and the secret origins of Henry Creel.

Other

Appearances

Family tree

note: family trees are only visible on desktop.

Victor Creel

Virginia Creel †

Henry Creel

Alice Creel †

Quotes

As Henry Creel

To Eleven:

• "You see, humans are a unique type of pest, multiplying and poisoning our world, all while enforcing a structure of their own. A deeply unnatural structure. Where others saw order, I saw a straitjacket. A cruel, oppressive world, dictated by made-up rules. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, each life a faded, lesser copy of the one before, wake up, eat, work, sleep, reproduce, and die. Everyone is just waiting. Waiting, for it all to be over. All while performing in a silly, terrible play, day after day. But I could not do that. I could not close off my mind and join in the madness, I could not… pretend. And I realized… I didn't have to."
• "The truth is just the opposite. You are better than they are. Superior. It is why you frighten them."
• "He found his strength in a memory from his past. Something that made him sad. But also, angry."
• "Well, well, look who decided to join us. Someone's a sleepyhead this morning."

As Vecna

To Chrissy:

• "It’s time... for your suffering to end."

To Max:

• “Nothing will happen to you... Nothing that you don’t deserve!”
• "You are brave, Maxine, much braver than your brother, but in the end, you are weak and fragile, just like him, like all the rest of them, and you… will… break."

To Fred:

Behind the scenes

The human version of the character was first revealed on November 20, 2020 via the show's official social media accounts along with several other new characters.[14] In the announcement, the character was named Peter Ballard. This was later revealed to be an alias most likely used not to give away important story elements. Henry was originally described as, "a caring man who works as an orderly at a psychiatric hospital. Tired of the brutality he witnesses day after day, will Peter finally take a stand?".

In January of 2021, Jamie Campbell Bower was first spotted filming at the studio alongside other cast members.[15]

The transformed version of the character was officially revealed on April 12, 2022 via the show's official trailer.[16]

Conception and design

The Duffers have named classic horror antagonists Freddy Kruger, Pennywise, and Pinhead as the primary inspirations for Vecna. Concept artist Michael Maher worked with the Duffers to develop Vecna’s design.[2]

Production

Wanting to pay homage to the first season and return to practical effects, the effects for Vecna were 90% practical. Makeup artist Barrie Gower, who has previously worked on Game of Thrones and Chernobyl, created the prosthetic items for Vecna. The vines protruding from Vecna’s back are CGI.[2]

Gallery

For this subject's gallery, see Vecna/Gallery.

Trivia

References