The fourth season of Weird things It gave fans a lot to talk about, but introducing Vecna as the big bad guy who moves behind the scenes is something many fans can’t stop thinking about. He is a wonderful and terrifying villain. This is not only because Jimmy Campbell Power Brings a completely evil energy to the table or that Dover Brothers Vicna is seamlessly woven into the fabric of previous seasons.
He is terrifying because he has access to secrets and the guilt that accompanies those secrets. Using the Vecna to convict his victims of terrorizing his prey is an obvious tool in his arsenal. What is more subtle and powerful is that he uses shame to isolate and control. All of his victims, starting with Henry’s father, believed that if people knew the truth about them, they would face rejection. from Max (Sadie SinkCrissy’sGrace Van DenSeemingly perfect, Vicna targets the exterior walls to cover what’s going on inside. Henry Creel doesn’t just prey on people who have done bad things, although some of them have. These characters think that these things make them bad and unlovable people. Vecna uses this belief to keep them bound by it. When Max begins, even for a moment, to believe that she is acceptable, Vecna loses his grip on her, proving that more shame than guilt is the monster’s ultimate weapon.
Shame as a weapon
The first group of Henry’s victims, his family, shows the beginning of this shame dynamic. Victor, who is played by the iconic Robert Englund He moves to Hawkins to get away from the horrific reality of his time as a soldier in World War II. He will start over with a perfect family living a perfect life in a small town. If he could create a good life here, he could transcend the horror of his own mistakes. It could be said that these events will live on in the back of his mind regardless, but here comes his sadistic son with superhuman strength, ready to make sure Victor doesn’t forget his worst moments. He is torturing his father with this guilt, while also torturing his family. He tests his strength on animals and creates disturbances in their homes. When animal deaths are written off as simple attacks by large predators, it only adds to the shame. There is something sinister in their house, but no one believes them and no one can see them. They are cursed and lonely. They refused and actually failed in their attempts to create the perfect family. This finally culminates in the death of Vecna’s sister and mother, and Victor is imprisoned for their murder.
Then there is Chrissy. Her shame stems from her mother’s verbal abuse. She believes her mother’s words that lead to an eating disorder. Chrissy tries to facade perfection. She’s dating the “perfect” guy. She is the “perfect” cheerleader. It starts to get too much and the moment she has the chance to get over this shame and share her true self with Eddie Monson (Joseph Quinn). However, she remains alone in her secrets and is taken by Vecna. Fred Benson (Logan Riley BrunnerHe killed a student in a hit-and-run, something so terrible that he thinks makes him a terrible person. Once again, there’s a potential contact moment before Vecna kills Fred, this time with Nancy (Natalia Dyer). Perhaps this was another moment when acceptance could have weakened the power of Vicna. If only Fred let Nancy see what’s really going on. Patrick McKinney (Miles TruettAsham is facing a similar crisis to Chrissy. His father abuses him, a fact he hides, but Krill uses this secret. Since Patrick’s prolific group of judgment jock friends aren’t the type to be open with, he never shares the hallucinations he sees with anyone. These victims share important commonalities – they have kept their secrets and they have kept their shame.
Nancy is between these two attitudes towards her shame. It’s not a vault of secrets, like previous victims, but it’s not as open to its own shame as Max eventually became. Nancy once shared the burden of Barb’s death with Steve (Joe Kerry), but her relationship with Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) caused a distance between her and Steve. So shame on Barb’s death looms large. Nancy bears the burden alone. On the surface, it may seem that Nancy has changed so dramatically that she no longer feels guilty and realizes that Barb’s death was not her fault. Nonetheless, Vecna still reached for it, using the disgrace she endured for owning it. She isn’t quite able to respond on the level Max was on, but her refusal to keep this shame a secret means unlike other victims, she has enough tact to respond. Shame doesn’t have a complete grip on her. She doesn’t think she deserves to die.
Max fights Vicna by overcoming shame
The Battle for Max is where Vecna’s use of shame becomes even more apparent. Vecna says, “There’s a reason to hide from them. You belong here.” Vecna points out that Max is bad, evil, just like him. This is what shame does. This is what he says to all his victims. They are killers. They must escape their pain. They’re better off calling him in the twisted world of The Upside Down because that’s where they belong. Vecna tells them, “You are what that guilt says you are.” When Max remembers how Lucas kissed her (Caleb McLaughlin), Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and the rest of the gang that power is cut off. Max finds the will to fight the monster. She works from The Upside Down to her friends while playing “Running Up That Hill,” but it’s not just the music that helps her. Accepting her friends gives her the strength to leave and fight the shame. Music plays its part, but the thing that really gives Max the ability to combat Creel’s influence is the realization that she belongs to them, just as she is.
When Max succumbs to shame, she loses to Vicna. Acting as bait, Max slips into trance and sees Lucas reject her after revealing that she wants Billy out of her life. She fully admits that she didn’t know if she wanted Billy to live. This is her biggest shame and the strongest strength for Vecna in her mind. In this scene, Vecna uses an image of Lucas rejecting her as this would cause her the most shame, losing her will to fight, and allowing him to kill her. He cuts her greatest strength against him: her friendships. Eleven’s timely arrival inside Max’s mind doesn’t just work because Eleven is a superhero with powers that rival that of Vecna. It also works because it proves again, that they are acceptable. She doesn’t have to hide.
It can be said that shame is one of the things that Vecna hates in humans. Henry’s hatred of any kind of morality or kindness is fundamental to the evil of a serial killer. He is superior and above all else. He is not ashamed because he is evil. Shame traps, that’s right. He lies to people about whether they can be accepted, loved, or taken care of. Shame is also linked. Most people who read this at some point think “If people knew me, they wouldn’t like me. So I have to hide.” At the same time, shyness is a sign that something is right in people. Fred, Nancy, and Victor’s guilt over the dead is not a sign of something broken in them, as Vecna believes, it’s a sign of something good in them. It comes in dysfunctional or unhealthy ways, but this shame means that they are human and value others. They are not above all, like Vecna. This means that they are not evil. Vecna does not understand shame. It’s something too shattering to feel. But these abusers, like Vecna or Robert and Chrissy’s parents, use this shame to manipulate, control, and abuse. And this is the thing that makes the frenzy of horror in Vicna so frightening. It preys on something almost everyone feels. Vicna It uses a motive that comes from a good place to hide people. There are a lot of ways this can be explored in the final season, especially with regards to Eleven and Will, who both struggle with feeling accepted as they are.. It wouldn’t be surprising to see this theme resurface when these two inevitably encounter Vecna again in the future.
Either way, the presence of shame is Vecna’s biggest and most perverted strength, and one of the reasons he’s such a disguised villain.
