Vecna's first season 4 victim is Chrissy Cunningham (Grace Van Dien), who is targeted based on the trauma she carries due to her body-shaming mother.
Why Did Vecna Go After Chrissy? Vecna's powers allow him to form psychic connections with people in reality, especially teenagers dealing with trauma and mental health issues.
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.
Vecna's first known target was Chrissy Cunningham, a popular student and head cheerleader at Hawkins High School. Despite Chrissy's popularity and outward cheerfulness, she was secretly suffering at home; Chrissy's mother would frequently verbally abuse her and make hurtful comments about her weight.
Kind-hearted cheerleader Chrissy Cunningham (Grace Van Dien) is the first character to be cursed by Vecna, and she dies in season 4, episode 1, "Chapter One: The Hellfire Club." After feeling ill, Chrissy sees the clock and begins picturing her mother, who has always been cruel, saying harsh things about her physical ...
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.
Stranger Things Star Millie Bobby Brown Cried the First Time She Saw Vecna. One of the side effects of using practical creature effects?
"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."
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.
It's probably safer to say that Billy was chosen as the Mind Flayer's first victim because of his fragile state of mind. He was constantly angry, overwhelmed by his abusive father, and became abusive himself in return.
Hawkins has suffered a lot of trauma over the years - not all of which is connected to Hawkins Lab and the Upside Down - and Vecna's curse takes advantage of that. Vecna appears to carefully choose people who feel a strong sense of guilt or shame, particularly if those emotions are repressed.
Max's past experience with trauma — namely, watching the Mind Flayer brutally kill her stepbrother Billy (Dacre Montgomery) in Season 3 — makes her a target for Vecna's manipulation.
(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.
This is compounded by Vecna torturing her and making her life a living hell until he declares, “It's time for your suffering to end,” only to then kill her in the most horrific and gristly fashion imaginable—breaking all of her bones and crushing her eyes.
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.
If he couldn't physically leave the Upside Down, Vecna needed to use the Mind Flayer to attack Hawkins. He also needed to figure out how strong Eleven's power had gotten since their last face-off. Through Demogorgons and The Mind Flayer, Vecna began to slowly break down the barriers between the two worlds.
Originally appearing in the Greyhawk campaign setting, Vecna was described as a powerful wizard who became a lich. He was eventually destroyed, and his left hand and left eye were the only parts of his body to survive.
Vecna was inspired by mould
But according to Gower, they also “looked at a lot of sea life, moulds and animals to create the look, feel and consistency of his skin”. Gower says the Duffer Brothers were also “very adamant that Vecna be glossy and shiny, that he looked as moist and wet as the rest of the Upside Down”.
Vecna's Hand
This is a reference to the D&D character Vecna, for whom this Vecna is named; the D&D Vecna has a monstrous hand infused with dark magic. The design of Vecna's hand is also a nod to Freddy Krueger, the Nightmare on Elm Street villain who had a huge influence on this season in general.
The theory predicts that Vecna wants to regain his human form, and he will use Will to do so in Season 5. Knowing that Vecna singled out Will in Season 1, it's a reasonable theory, but it might go too far. After all, Vecna already has a human form, and he has vowed to eliminate humanity.
However, either she didn't have a great aim or she was trying to play it safe because she didn't hit him in the face even once, and that may be the reason why Vecna is still alive. Obviously, Nancy was trying to play it safe. She even cut off the muzzle of her shotgun so she could have the best odds.
The group believed an entity from the Upside Down - dubbed "Vecna" - was using the killings for some grander purpose. Following Nancy, Steve, Robin and Eddie Munson's brief misadventure in the Upside Down, Vecna psychically revealed his identity to Nancy, and shared his plans for the future.
While in this trance, Vecna will stalk his victim, chasing them through his mind, the victim's mind, and whatever strange psychic realms lie in-between. If Vecna can overwhelm their victim with fear, and keep them from resisting, their fate is almost certainly sealed.
He didn't name himself Vecna, the kids did. They named him after a DnD character who's a wizard, since Vecna's curse sounds like something a dark wizard would do.
However, Bower found Brown's fear of Vecna somewhat amusing and mentioned that he was talking to her inside his mind saying, “No, Jamie's dead. It's just Vecna.” Brown ends it by saying the fear was genuine and that she didn't have to act because she was actually terrified.