Vecna draws power from sad and angry memories and that is the main reason he targets traumatized teens. Those teens are a well of power just there to be absorbed. This is not just a theory, Vecna himself told Eleven about the power that angry and sad memories hold.
Ultimately, it is revealed in Stranger Things season 4's finale that the reason why Vecna was killing Hawkins teenagers was to create a massive gate that merges the Right Side Up with the Upside Down - and he specifically needed four bodies to do so.
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 simple words, Vecna needs a total of four gates to take over Hawkins and rule it. Now, you must be thinking, why is Vecna killing people if he can take over the complete Hawkins? Well, in one of the previous episodes, it was revealed that with each person Vecna kills, he creates an opening to the real world.
Brenner. The episode culminates in Eleven unknowingly freeing One from Brenner's control, allowing him to unleash his true power on the staff and children in the lab, killing everyone except for Eleven and Dr. Brenner, who is only knocked unconscious.
What was Chrissy's Trauma? Chrissy's life appears to be free from flaws on the surface, but in reality, she is struggling terribly to conceal her depression and self-image stemming. She was struggling with these issues, which resulted in her developing an eating disorder due to her mother's verbally abusive comments.
Realizing he had tremendous psychic power, he haunted his family with visions before ultimately killing most of them. His father was framed for the murders and locked away in a mental hospital as a disturbed serial killer. Henry then found himself in the care of Brenner, who decided he wanted more kids like the boy.
Vecna's obsession with time appears to be linked to his hatred of humanity. He views time as a human imposition on the natural world; an attempt to impose order on nature.
As Vecna, he uses these mental abilities as a way to psychologically weaken and lure in his victims – much in a way that Pennywise, Freddie Kruger, and Pinhead do. (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.
Vecna feeds off his victims' trauma and haunts them with their own darkest thoughts.
She breaks free, momentarily incapacitates Vecna, and runs with the determination to live toward her friends, dodging debris that Vecna throws in her path. Max hurls herself through the portal, awakes from the trance, and is held by Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin).
When One massacres the rest of the children in Hawkins Lab, Eleven banishes him to the Upside Down in the same way she banishes the Demogorgon from season one. One is sent hurtling through the Mind Flayer's lightning and is horribly disfigured, transforming into Vecna.
The episode then cuts to Vecna in 1980s Upside Down, zooming in on his arm, where a tentacle slides away to uncover 001 tattooed on his wrist. So Vecna is 001, who is also Victor Creel's son.
After taunting her with incessant chiming from a grandfather clock and appearing before her in hallucinations, Vecna eventually kills her in an incredibly gruesome way. First, she went into a trance with her eyes rolling into her head, then she began to levitate before her eyes were removed and bones were snapped.
They manage to destroy Vecna's body but not before he claims his fourth and final victim, Max, which then opens the gates to the monster dimension. Earthquakes rip into Hawkins, cutting the town into ribbons.
Played by Jamie Campbell Bower, each prosthetic was glued to his skin with medical adhesive by prosthetics designer Barrie Gower and his team. For the finishing touch, Vecna was covered in "glossy slime to make him really, really glossy and wet looking," according to Gower.
This is because his trusted accomplice, Kas the Bloody-Handed, betrayed him and used the sword Vecna created himself to chop off his left hand and remove his left eye. This ultimately destroyed Vecna. Though they're clouded with cataracts, Vecna in Stranger Things has both of his eyes.
And he saw the possibility for escape when he realized the extent of Eleven's untapped potential. One manipulated Eleven into plotting her own escape, which also involved getting her to remove the device in his neck. (Henry, however, did not tell Eleven the truth when he said Brenner wanted her dead.
His first victim was Chrissy Cunningham. Vecna targeted Chrissy by using her depression and eating disorder against her in his visions. Chrissy was killed in Eddie Munson's trailer, and the first gate was opened on the ceiling.
The 'curse' begins with the victim having severe headaches, nosebleeds and nightmares regarding any traumatic event in their past. Eventually, the cursed will have waking hallucinations, often of other people taunting them about their secrets.
Joe Manganiello's character Arkhan fought against Vecna with the adventuring party Vox Machina in the web series Critical Role. He then stole the Hand of Vecna and replaced his own hand with the artifact.
In one scene, Max (Sadie Sink) can hear her throwing up in the bathroom, and it's later revealed that she struggles with her mother's emotional abuse over her weight. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
In episode 7, Vecna is revealed to be Henry Creel (played as a youngster by Raphael Luce), the son of Victor Creel (Robert Englund) and his wife Virginia (Tyner Rushing) shown in the 1950s flashbacks.