The true story of Vecna, the fearsome villain of Stranger Things 4 that the world is talking about

The victims of neighbor they rise, remain floating in the air. Their bones begin to bend in opposite directions and their eyes go inward, bursting. Then their bodies fall to the ground. This is how he kills the villain of Stranger Things 4, the Netflix flagship that today shines on the platform.

In the final season of Stranger Things, the Duffer brothers put, as almost every Argentine would say, all the meat on the grill. They pointed to the most terrifying face of their product. They no longer skimp on blood: innocent children die in terrible ways with almost no filters; there are crushed feet to avoid handcuffs; the Russians are capable of killing and torturing using monsters as weapons; Americans can walk into homes and shoot young people like that for no reason.

There are no references either.. In fact, there are a lot of them. Stranger Things 4 is built like no other season from the ideas of dozens of films from decades past being Elementthe saga Nightmare Y hellish the main muses. Even so, the narrative manages to prevail over the homage and – perhaps this is the key to anger – acquires identity.

The other great source of inspiration, the backbone of the story, is Dungeons and Dragons (Dungeons & Dragons), the world’s first RPG. In the initial season, this complex showcase gave us the Demogorgon; in the new it delights us with Vecna.

After facing this character in the board game, Dustin realizes without too much fuss that Hawkins’ new threat has to do with one of the worst villains in his favorite game. He is the Archlich; The chained god, the one-armed god, the lord of the spider throne. The Whisperer, The Dead King, The Lord of the Fallen Tower, The Undead King.

To avoid this article being as dense as it is endless, to understand Vecna’s story we will focus on its highlights.

A little bit of everything

Vecna, to begin with, is a character from Dungeons and Dragons and is not quite the same one that appears in Stranger Things 4. The one created by the Duffers has, in the words of the USA Today showrunners themselves, a little bit of a Freddy Kruegeranother of to a penny and a pinch of pinhead. It goes without saying who is more like the Vecna ​​of the board game.

There are some curious facts surrounding the physical construction of the character. The Duffers were determined to scare the actors using a lot of makeup and a little computer. Vecna ​​exists after eight hours of grooming. The only concession with the CGI: the missing nose.

In turn, to create a special atmosphere on the set, the filmmakers interpreted the Hellraiser theme whenever Vecna ​​was around.

Close, die!

The villain was created by brian blume in the original D&D Eldritch Wizardry supplement, 1976. Protagonist of three adventures in the different editions of the game: “Vecna ​​lives!” (1990), “Vecna ​​Reborn” and “Die, Vecna, die!”. However, the first time he is mentioned in the game’s universe is in a supplement to the original 1976 release. He later appeared in 1979’s Dungeons & Dragons.

His name is an anagram of Jack Vanceauthor who created the magic system known as “Fire and Forget”.

In the storyline of Dungeons and Dragons, Vecna ​​is always in search of power and tries to become a unique god. He has two central characteristics: he has no left hand or eye. Well, three: he doesn’t have allies either, everyone hates him.

To understand “becoming one god” it is necessary to remember that the character was born as a human, then became a master of dark magic and, a millennium after his birth, became a Lich (magic users who use their powers to exist in an undead state) and then in a god.

This “undead state” idea is ideal for a storyline like Stranger Things. Why stay on the other side … is it to be alive?

The Duffers have taken credit for creating the killer’s modus operandi, but their Vecna ​​shares some modalities with that of Dungeons & Dragons.

One of them, the most famous, It is the method of impalement.. In the Netflix series, it is seen how the villain traps his victims (not impales them) as with some kind of creeper. The image, in the series, refers to the way Vecna ​​from the game kills a group of officers who offer him life.

We won’t be referring to the end of Stranger Things Vecna ​​for obvious reasons. Yes, we can tell that of Dungeons and Dragons dies betrayed by his most trusted man, a vampire named Kas. This, likewise, did not prevent the character from reappearing in other editions in various vital and spiritual states.

How will Frankenstein by the Duffer brothers end?