And that's why I think having Vecna as a representation of [PTSD and] depression can be really helpful for those who do struggle with [these issues] as a way of externalizing [and depersonalizing] them.”
The latest series of Stranger Things is another brilliant blend of horror, sci-fi fantasy and drama. But new villain Vecna is a reflection of something very real: post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and grief.
Vecna's power not only takes a mental toll but also a physical one. Much like depression, Vecna's victims experience physical symptoms such as exhaustion, lack of sleep, headaches, and nosebleeds. Similarly, when dealing with depression and trauma, a person's physical health worsens.
More than a Monster
Vecna represents more than a scary-looking creature from another dimension; he symbolizes the effects Depression, PTSD, and trauma can have on people.
Brenner (Matthew Modine) states in the Stranger Things episode "Papa" that Vecna "consumes" everything about his victims, Vecna targets traumatized victims because it builds for him a well of sad and angry memories to draw from. With each victim, he can become gradually more powerful.
While intending to get his revenge on Eleven and Brenner, Vecna also goes after victims who have dealt with traumatizing experiences in the past (reminiscent of his childhood and his time at the Hawkins lab).
In the game, Vecna seeks power through artefacts, while in the series, he enhances his powers by consuming the essence of his victims, like the other gifted children in the lab, and absorbing their powers. When he took over the Mind Flayer, he gained control over the Demogorgons and other monsters.
Vecna lives in the Upside Down and preys on people's past traumas and guilt.
Once he takes control of the mind, he traumatizes them by showing the visions of their dark past. He takes them to unknown places and gives them a glimpse of himself. The pain of his victims doesn't end here. Every single one of his victims experiences nose bleeding and severe headaches as well.
He is terrifying because he has access to secrets and the guilt that accompanies those secrets. Vecna's use of his victims' guilty conscious to terrorize his prey is an obvious tool in his arsenal.
Vecna got 200 IQ : r/StrangerThings.
Obviously still a sociopath, but now influenced by The Mind Flayer as well, Vecna started killing teenagers, imprisoning their bodies in the Upside Down version of his family home. The key to defeating Vecna most likely lies in his origins, so it's great that the Hawkins teenagers were able to figure it out.
Vecna represents depression and trauma.
In the visions of her trauma induced by Vecna, Chrissy's mother appeared both mentally and emotionally abusive towards her daughter - and it's implied her comments about Chrissy's figure caused her daughter to develop her eating disorder.
"Vecna really is a creature that has mutated in the last however many couple of decades during his time in the Upside Down," prosthetics designer Barrie Gower said. "This is where he has become more overtaken by the Upside Down world and become pretty much possessed and mutated."
"The reason why Vecna only has a single eye and hand is due to a betrayal by Kas", who used the sword against his former master. "In the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons, the Sword of Kas is a +6 unholy keen vorpal longsword that grants a +10 modifier to the Strength score of its wielder".
(All of which have been cited by show creators the Duffer brothers as inspirations for the villain.) But he does have a surprising weakness: music.
Curiously, he also seems obsessed with time, projecting strange visions into his victims' minds—including of the grandfather clock from his home in the Creel House. Vecna's obsession with time appears to be linked to his hatred of humanity.
As Sink put it: “You kind of learn in the season that he targets people that are in a real [bad] place, and Max is obviously one of those people. Just with everything with Billy, so she was kind of like the perfect target.
"Vecna seems to be actually intrigued by Nancy being able to figure him out, to be able to get this close to the truth... I think this is more Vecna's narcissistic traits that pull him to Nancy, why he wants to give her this information."
Despite his Pure Evil status, Vecna's actor, Jamie Campbell Bower, stated that he sympathizes with his character, as he believes he snapped due to feeling disenfranchised by society and that he did have some genuine care for Eleven until she rejected him. However, the show itself doesn't confirm this.
To Sparky. Vecna takes a lot of setup to summon — you need to play both the Hand, the Eye, and the Book of Vile Darkness. So if you, too, want to bring this evil lich god to the battlefield, I hope you draw your removal beforehand.
In his twisted mind, Vecna believes that he his helping the world by wiping out humans, as a "predator, but for good." When Vecna asks for El to join him, it's because he also sees her as a predator, "better" than humans. He offers her his path as a sort of freedom, as they reshaped the world in their image.
One of the most important sequences in this episode featured Vecna showing Nancy the real circumstances of the “eyeball murders” in the 1950s, with flashbacks indicating that young Henry Creel murdered his family when his mother tried to get him psychological help and he intentionally framed his father Victor for the ...
At the same time, Nancy, Steve and Robin reach Vecna's body in the Upside Down and throw multiple Molotov cocktails at him before Nancy shoots him, sending his blazing body flying out the window of the Upside Down's Creel House.