‘Stranger Things’: Who is the real villain of the story, Eleven, Papa or Vecna?

‘Stranger Things’ has had several enemies but, until now, they have always been monsters from the Upside Down World. In season three, in fact, the Mind Flayer seemed to be the brains behind everyone else. However, beyond blaming this dark world and its inhabitants, season 4 of Netflix’s star series has begun to connect the dots from much further back, and always pointing to our world.

Among many other things, the fourth season has been a heated debate between who is the true villain of the series. And the thing, according to the fiction itself, has been divided into three main candidates: Eleven, Henry / Uno / Vecna ​​and Papa / Dr. Brenner. The series itself has been directing our reflection towards them, turning the tables as the episodes progressed. And, the truth, until the last chapter there has been a clear winner. These are the reasons to think which of them is the real bad guy of the series, and also the answers that it has given us. We remind you that, if you have missed any details, we have explained everything that happens in the end of season 4 Pate 2 of ‘Stranger Things’.

Spoilers for the ‘Stranger Things’ season 4 finale below.

Eleven

They say that after ‘Game of Thrones’ television would never be the same. Well, for some time now many theories have suggested that Netflix was going to mark a Daenerys with Eleven, that this was going to end up being the bad one in the series. The fourth season, in fact, begins by pointing directly at her. The first scene seems to tell us that it was she who killed all of her lab mates, that’s why Brenner wanted her imprisoned at all costs and that, well, even without powers, her anger leads her to attack people. After “the incident” at the skating rink, Eleven herself feels like a monster and doesn’t find the comfort she needs in Mike (another similarity to GoT and, in this case, Daenerys and Jon Snow). Without Hopper to back her up, Eleven finds herself back under the orders of a Brenner Doctor who has never brought anything new.

As with Daenerys’s actions in the early seasons, ‘Stranger Things’ could have easily justified confirming Eleven as a villain simply by reminding us of all her murders. In the first season, in fact, she killed several government agents in a very similar way to Vecna, hence the army thinks that she is to blame for the deaths in Hawkins.

But then chapter 7 came along and all our fears were eased. The culprit of the Hawkins laboratory massacre was Uno, who when he was a boy named Henry was already the culprit of the death of his family. One is a psychopath who feeds his power from darkness. Once, however, he overcomes her with the most beautiful, luminous memories of him. In his first fight he does it thanks to his mother’s love, in the last one thanks to Mike’s love. Yes, she may have created the portals to the upside down world, she may have caused the formation of Vecna, but Eleven and her powers are full of light even though the darkest circumstances surround her. There will be no Daenerys Targaryen twist in ‘Stranger Things’.

Pope/ Dr. Brenner

This so-called doctor or scientist is a manipulator, liar and kidnapper of children. We are talking about a person who snatched several youngsters from the clutches of their mothers to confine them and treat them like guinea pigs. He did it in experiments with torture and pain and in his self-centeredness he made them call him Pope. We are talking about a person who left Eleven’s mother a vegetable after she managed to find her…

In season 4 we believed that there could be a small redemption for the character. After all, the season begins with him scared to see how, supposedly, Eleven has killed all the other children. He now seems to be Eleven’s key to getting his powers back and, well, he raised her after all and taught her how to control his abilities. But then comes the eighth episode of the season, which not for nothing bears the name “Papa” as its title, and we see how the Doctor lies to everyone again. We see how he apprehends Owens for wanting to fulfill her promise with Eleven and locks her up, sticking a sedative in her neck treacherously. Come on, back to the old ways, to the sick fixation of wanting to experiment with Eleven and take her to the limit of her qualities. She doesn’t care about the fate of her friends, or of Hawkins, or of the world.

Brenner dies, however, leading Eleven outside and freeing her from the taser collar he intended to control her with. But Eleven does not forgive him, she dies without seeing how her “daughter” agrees with her. Brenner is a heartless, despicable scientist whose madness stems from wanting to fulfill his personal ambitions at all costs through children with powers. He was basically a self-conscious normal person who looks for excellence in others to steal it from them. Without him there would be no One, no Eleven, and all the people who have died would not have died. However, he isn’t the real monster from ‘Stranger Things’ either. He is a villain, without a doubt, but one who also feels and suffers, if we continue the comparison with ‘Game of Thrones’, Brenner is Cersei. We still have The Night King.

Neighbor/Henry/One

The creators of Vecna ​​who worked on making Jamie Campbell Bower the quintessential monster of ‘Stranger Things’ said they came to the production thanks to their work with The Night King. Vecna ​​is nothing more and nothing less than that in ‘Stranger Things’. We know who Vecna ​​was as a child, we know everything that Doctor Brenner did to her, that she hasn’t had an easy life, that she ended up alone and half dead in the Upside Down World… Eleven thinks of all this when, in a desperate attempt to stopping him in the last episode tells him that Papa is dead, that he and his horrible experiments were to blame but that there is still time to change. Honestly, after chapter 8 we think you are very right, after all, a confused child with powers can kill his family at a given moment and, with luck, be redirected to good. Henry, however, got to experience a string of experiments with Doctor Brenner and then be a prisoner and caretaker of his potential younger surrogates…

But no, Henry was a monster even before he killed his family. He knows it as he knew it when he became attached to the spiders in his house and started killing animals with his powers. He himself is in charge of telling Eleven, he feels like a predator and in the Upside Down World he only found happiness, the means to fulfill his objective, to destroy the life of the world. Vecna ​​was the one behind everything and yes, he would not have made it without Papa and neither without Eleven, but in reality it is he and only he who is the great culprit of the disaster that has already, this time, really come to Hawkins, to amaze With everyone. If there isn’t a surprising bad ending, ‘Stranger Things’ will end with Vecna’s defeat, and with his fall, all the bad guys for our beloved protagonist gang will end, this time.