Vecna's powers allow him to form psychic connections with people in reality, especially teenagers dealing with trauma and mental health issues. Vecna develops these connections with young and vulnerable teens so that he can get out of the Upside Down and gain access to the real world by opening four gates or portals.
Vecna's curse refers to Vecna's predominant method of murder and torture. Using his supernatural psychokinetic abilities, Vecna can probe and influence the minds of others. Motivated by a cruel and misanthropic philosophy, Vecna targets particularly traumatized, mentally ill or insecure individuals.
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, an evil spellcaster named after the Dungeons & Dragons character, is killing and feeding off the trauma of his victims in order to emerge from the Upside Down into the real world at full power.
Chrissy's trauma is the verbal abuse experienced at the hands of her mother, while other victims are targeted due to accidental car crashes and parental abuse. Max herself is targeted due to the trauma of watching her brother Billy be possessed by and ultimately killed by the Mind Flayer in Season 3.
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 ...
"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."
Clocks represent a passing of time, which can represent the fact that Vecna's victims' time has nearly run out — it is no coincidence that many of the clocks are set to midnight. Throughout the series, we learn that Vecna is a human who found himself trapped in the Upside Down for years thanks to our girl, Eleven.
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.
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.
(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.
While falling into the dark dimension, One/Henry is struck by lightning, disfiguring him.
Netflix Vecna has plans for world domination. Essentially, Vecna hates humanity, and wants to take over their world. He had hoped that Eleven would help him achieve this goal. But when he realised she wouldn't, Vecna instead used her.
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.
3) Around 15 children from Hawkins Lab
Due to his involvement in Dr. Brenner's experiments, Henry did not kill anyone else until Eleven removed his Soteria implant in 1979. As soon as he was free, he killed all the remaining lab children (excluding Eleven and Eight/Kali, who previously escaped).
A 1959 flashback in the mid-season 4 finale reveals a 12-year-old One (Jamie Campbell Bower). That puts One, a.k.a. Vecna, as 24 when Eleven was born. "The theory is that Brenner knew that none of the kids, numbers Two through Ten, were as strong as number One," one of the podcast hosts said in the TikTok clip.
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.
Whenever victims become entranced or possessed by Vecna, their eyes form a milky glaze, until they meet their demise as Vecna plucks their eyeballs out. Also, when Vecna's victims hallucinate — an early indicator they've been targeted by Vecna — the people in their hallucinations have milky eyes.
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.
In a fit of rage, Henry used his restored powers to brutally murder the other test subjects and workers, 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.
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.
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).
While caught in Vecna's grip, a tear in the dark dimension reveals her friends on the other side, desperately trying to save her from Vecna's curse. Of course, it's "Running Up That Hill," blasted into Max's headphones that breaks Vecna's hold on her.
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.