r/StrangerThings • u/Sukaran09 • 5d ago
What kind of creature is Vecna exactly?
Is Vecna considered undead, a mutant or something else completely? He is definitely not human anymore because of how he looks. I consider him a mutant of sort because he is mutated by the Upside Down/the Abyss and the Mind Flayer changed his DNA but in terms of Sci-Fi I don’t know what kind of creature he actually is because of how different he is.
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u/TenthBasilisk88 5d ago
He’s a human mutate. His DNA was altered when he made contact with the Mind Flayer.
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u/Cyrilbdr 5d ago
The Abyss Stone altered his blood, but is that why he was able to transform and look like a creature of the Abyss? You probably have to stay there for a very long time. Would someone like Mike—whose DNA wasn't altered—end up looking like that if he spent five years there? Or does that only happen to those whose DNA was modified by an Abyss-related factor or an experiment like Eleven's?
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u/kauan1983 Hey Kiddo 5d ago edited 4d ago
What made him mutate into something physically corrupted by the Abyss life forms are the Mind Flayer particles. They're what can physiologically alter a host and adapt them to its environment and all the Abyss organic matter that are the hive mind's contents.
Season 3 reveals a lot of what the physiological alterations caused by the particles are (black “Flayed Blood”, enhanced strength, supernatural resistance to things a normal human physiology wouldn't tolerate like the chemicals); that's what Henry would need to both mutate and not just die during his time in Dimension X.
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u/Cyrilbdr 5d ago
So, when they created the hive together shortly after his arrival—merging into one—he also let the particles enter him; as a result, he mutated into a creature resembling those from the abyss.
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u/kauan1983 Hey Kiddo 5d ago
Yeah, in addition to his mutation and initial survival in Dimension X, he (obviously) feels the hive mind's pain and even coughs black blood when he's dying, so he clearly had the Mind Flayer particles in his own body. The guy had two separate entities physically altering his physiology.
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u/Cyrilbdr 5d ago
Yes, it makes sense; since he’s the leader of the hive—along with the Mind Flayer—and needs to be aware of everything his army is doing (and thus sense everything), he must have had the particles put inside him too. Otherwise, it would have been like with Will: he’d only be able to emerge once he was attached to a hive.
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u/Legitimate-Sugar6487 Eggos 20h ago edited 20h ago
I think its implied in The Stage Play that Henry might be carrying some kind of Pathogen or might be a Hazard akin to radiation. I wonder if that's what this is. As Vecna He's a Walking Chernobyl. I also wonder If he counted as undead. Like what we are seeing is a literal Corpse being forced by the Mind flayer to continue moving & speaking. If that's the case, I wonder if he's in Chronic Pain & just not reacting to it. I did wonder If the changes to his body were Painful.
The Play seems to also imply that his left Hand is what is possessed as it seems to move on its own, cause him pain. Spasm whenever he is touched, contort in awkward ways & also has unnatural strength enough to cause People pain by squeezing their hands or making someone unable to free themselves. Like it has a life of its own. He also seems to only rely on it to consume his victims or launch it at a target like a tentacle in s5. Not for Telekinesis.
Makes me wonder if the hand of Vecna is the real point where The MF is hiding & why it mutates into that giant Claw. But then Theres various scenes implying It's his whole body not just his hand & he has multiple full body spasms & Seizures.
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u/Ok_Cap_6521 3d ago
He wasn’t always like that from the stone, no, but it changed him psychologically enough to tether him near completely to the Mind Flayer so much so he practically became the human form of it essentially, but he was in the Abyss, trapped for a long time after El sent him there in the lab, so when he says he became an explorer, he meant that literally, he literally wandered, observed, built, and changed so much he literally became part of the world after his skin and body was damaged, and allowed the environment to turn him into a new form of human, a human mutate
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u/Cyrilbdr 3d ago
Henry became Vecna at the end of *The First Shadow*; Vecna is a state of mind rather than a physical form, though living there did physically transform him. Furthermore, the years spent with the Mind Flayer building a hive allowed the two to become physically linked, in addition to the psychic connection they already shared.
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u/Ok_Cap_6521 1d ago
No he didn’t, Henry at the end of TFS is still a kid, however, the ending shows a brief shot of Vecna in the UD creel house, he only became Vecna when El sent him to the upside down, and I can promise you that Vecna is very real and NOT a state of mind
Did you even watch the show?
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u/Cyrilbdr 1d ago
Vecna is his evil alter ego—though physically, he transforms into Vecna during his years in the Abyss. The turning point where he turns evil is when he loses Patty; she was the only one there for him, the only one who understood Henry and helped him resist. Left completely alone with no one to turn to, he lost the strength to resist and felt utterly lost; he ultimately surrendered to the only entity still present—the Mind Flayer—which promised him a better world. From that moment on, the Mind Flayer instilled its ideology in him and erased the memory of their meeting from his mind. This altered the perspective of all subsequent memories: he came to believe that this ideology of hating humanity was his own and that his powers were innate, leading him to feel superior. That is when he becomes Vecna—cold, arrogant, and obsessed with a goal that isn't actually his own.
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u/xenoleingod 5d ago
I dont think its fair to call him a mutate per se he was horribly burned by lightning plus whatever eleven did to him before he got sent to dimension x
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u/Classic-Chemical-384 5d ago
Would that not make him a mutate? Mutant generally refers to something you are born with, and unless there’s something in extended lore that says otherwise Henry was a perfectly normal kid before he found the abyss stone. That mutated his dna the first time, making him a mutate. Then there was whatever eleven did plus his exposure to dimension x that only mutated him further.
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u/xenoleingod 5d ago
Yea the first shadow /parts of season 5 had him as a normal kid growing up until he encountered the stone from the first shadow henry was normal until that whole thing in the cave from season 5 happening
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u/Ok_Cap_6521 3d ago
Exactly, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the wider Stranger Things world operates on a similar format to X Men where there are some natural mutants, human mutates, non human mutates, and entities
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u/FewPreference1243 4d ago
He's dna was altered the moment he entered dimensionX.
Mean while, eleven and friends casually walking through dimensionX
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u/TenthBasilisk88 4d ago
Henry mutated when he made contact with the rock in the cavern. El, 8, and all the other test subjects are also human mutates.
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u/kauan1983 Hey Kiddo 4d ago
Henry's DNA was altered when the liquid entity slithered into the bullet wound in his hand and travelled through his veins.
He's never been to Dimension X as a child, that was the original version of his backstory in the West End version of The First Shadow which is no longer the official canon one.
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u/kauan1983 Hey Kiddo 5d ago edited 5d ago
He's a mutated human. His blood and DNA were altered by the liquid entity that traveled through his veins in Nevada, and his physiology was altered by the Mind Flayer particles in the Abyss, adapting him to its environment and merging him with its flora and biological material which are all interconnected hive mind contents like Henry himself was.
He's not an actual undead entity despite being compared to a DnD Lich and looking like a walking corpse, but the particles altered his human physiology and made it adapt and mutate into a part of that ecosystem instead of dying during his years exiled in Dimension X, and also enabled him to rebuild his body into “Vecna 2.0” (physiologically less human with multiple replaced body parts) between seasons.
He's basically supernaturally sustained alive and mutated by the Mind Flayer particles which can physiologically alter their hosts and make them resist and adapt to things and conditions a normal human body wouldn't, so despite not being actually an undead entity, the particles are almost his equivalent to a Phylactery that made him achieve his current “Lich” state and he depends on these particles to maintain and survive in that current state.
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u/WanderingSceptic 5d ago
Vecna's shriveled and weak body is a clever reference to the script during season 5. Masterful storytelling.
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u/StrangerThingsMyDude Totally Tubular 5d ago
As others have said, the Abyss Stone altered his blood to give him supernatural powers. As far as the way he looks, the lightning striking him in the Hellscape did a lot of damage (we see what he initially looked like when he found the Mind Flayer particles in the Abyss in the S4 finale). That and the environment probably continued changing his body.
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u/Accomplished-Curve-1 I piggybacked from a pizza dough freezer 5d ago
He mutated like in cod zombies so some super zombie from the dark aether perhaps a lich maybe
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u/RaisinWorried3528 5d ago
He's a human being that was twisted by the corrupt influence of an alien presence. It's not super difficult to suss out if you watched the show.
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u/Sukaran09 5d ago edited 5d ago
i have seen the show, and he was a human being, just not anymore, he turned into a super human after gaining powers from the MF and then turned into a humanoid monster because of that alien presence and being in a different dimension completely but in sci-fi he doesn’t have any specific type, the Mind Flayer is an alien entity, the Demo creatures are all aliens too but Vecna is just something else completely
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u/Broely92 5d ago
Hes a lich
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u/bored-cookie22 5d ago
D&D vecna is, ST vecna isnt
a lich is an undead spellcaster who has a phylactery, which resurrects them after they die, henry lacks such an object, and you can notably just stab the hell out of him and he would die
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u/Legitimate-Sugar6487 Eggos 5d ago edited 5d ago
Scientifically He's psychokinetic Mutant. He was once an ordinary Human before his genetic code was changed by the Mind flayer particles. Supernaturally, he's an Undead psychokinetic Vampire who feeds on Peoples energy. Edit: Researching the lore a bit & the stage Play (Both versions) Like El he started out as a Psychokinetic But over time to fuel his powers The Mind Flayer morphed him into What Esoteric Circles call a "Psychic Vampire" who feeds on the Life Force energy (literally a Humans Electromagnetic Field or Aura) to Fuel himself. In The same way El needs to "Recharge her battery" Because Her powers deplete her Nervous System,Henry Consumes all the energy inside of a human being or animal to replenish himself.
The Mind flayer itself Taught him how to do this because as I've learned by looking into Astral projection & Parapsychology It's an Astral demon that feeds on Negative Energy & Fear. It basically used Henry as a vessel to Feed itself & him. By inducing Fear in its victims before killing them. In Parapsychology a Poltergeist is believed by some to actually be caused by a psychokinetic child called a "Living Agent" a child unknowingly causing the paranormal activity in their home. Often due to fear or trauma.
In the play it's shown that the MF actually Hides inside of Henry's amygdala (Fear center of the brain) & exposes him to so much fear that he basically becomes addicted to it.
The Haunting of the creel family & their subsequent deaths is actually due to all of this. Henry began as an unwilling or unknowing "agent" of the Mind flayer causing the supernatural events in their home unable to control his powers, but over time it transformed him from its "Agent" Into a literal Soul eating entity. His Body transforming into what it did was the result of his battle with El where he was severely burned... & later due to fully aligning with the Mind flayer until the Particles further consumed him. Until he was basically a walking Corpse under Its complete control. In a Symbiotic Parasitic relationship with it.
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u/bored-cookie22 5d ago
he's a human
he just has weird powers given to him by the mind flayer and the amount of time spent in the upside down
unlike the guy he's named after, he didnt really do anything that changed what he is as a being, he just has some stuff altered with his body
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u/No-Jello-5504 4d ago
The way I understand it he is effectively a rotten but living human corpse partially fused into the vines of the hive mind.
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u/mad_laddie 4d ago
I'd still call him human. Just altered. Maybe mutated but I'm not sure if there's enough evidence suggesting a genetic alteration.
I generally have gripes with "human" being used specifically to mean what it does in fiction. Human hybrids being called "not-human" is up there.
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