| “ | You see… humans… are a unique type of pest. Multiplying… and poisoning our world, all while enforcing a structure of their own. A deeply… unnatural structure. Where others saw order, I saw a straijacket. A cruel, oppressive world dictated by made-up rules. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades! Each life a faded, lesser copy of the one before! WAKE UP, EAT, WORK, SLEEP, REPRODUCE AND DIE! Everyone… is just… waiting. Waiting… for it all… to be… over. All while preforming in a silly, terrible play, day after day. I could not do that. I could not close off my mind and join in the madness, I could not… pretend. Then I realized… I didn’t have to. | „ |
| ~ One explaining his misanthropy and nihilism to Eleven |
| “ | You've… broken… everything. Your time… is almost… at an end. | „ |
| ~ Vecna tormenting Max Mayfield - his most famous quote. |
Henry Creel, also known as One (001), or Vecna is the secondary antagonist of the Stranger Things franchise.
He is the estranged son of Victor and Virginia Creel and the younger brother of Alice Creel, who gained psychic powers after traveling to Dimension X. growing up to be a test subject of Dr. Martin Brenner and become the pawn, an emissary for the Mind Flayer. After being banished to the Upside Down, Vecna goes on a murder spree in the town of Hawkins in order to start release his master from the Upside Down and start a full-blown invasion of Earth. He is also the former friend/mentor turned archenemy of Eleven and is Dr. Martin Brenner’s first subject, as well as Patty Newby’s boyfriend and childhood best friend.
He is portrayed by Jamie Campbell Bower. As a child he was portrayed by Raphael Luce. In the stage play, he is portrayed by Louis McCartney.
His Evil Ranking[]
His Villainous Deeds[]
In General/Background[]
- While many of his actions are under the Mind Flayer's orders, many others are not and he seems to sincerely derive sadistic pleasure from the ones he does willingly commit even when they include the murders of innocent children like Six, Ten, Chrissy Cunningham, and several others who he seemed to enjoy slaughtering.
- After failing to stop the Mind Flayer from taking over, he allows it to take over and kill his mother and sister.
- He framed his mother and sister’s murder on his father Victor (who unlike Virginia was nothing but loving towards Henry).
- He manipulates an 8 year old Eleven to remove the Soteria from his neck which releases his powers despite being rightfully constrained by it. With his leash untied, he incapacitates Hawkins National Laboratory security by throwing them against the ceiling and wall and murdering their leader by crushing his neck and proceeds to horrifically mass-murder all the test subjects and security, doctors and nurse in the lane.
- He brutally kills Two by telekinetically smashing him into a wall and breaking his bones then popping his eyes.
- He attempts to have Eleven join him to reshape the world in their image and use their superpowers to reign over everyone.
- After Eleven’s refusal he attempts to kill his former friend by using the same method that he used on everyone else.
- He calls his father dumb, blind, Old Victor.
- He plans to visit his father in Pennhurst mental asylum and kill him.
Season 4[]
- He chooses the summer break of 1986 to put his master’s plan into action.
- He murders cheerleader Chrissy Cunningham by taking the form of her mother insulting her while threatening to murder her and proceeds to lift her in the air and snap her arm and leg, break her jaw, then crush her brain causing her eyes to pop.
- His actions would cause Chrissy’s boyfriend Jason Carver and his friends to create a violent mob with them suspecting the 100% innocent bystander Eddie Munson which also left Eddie extremely traumatized having witnessed Chrissy’s death.
- He shows Fred the death of his friend before having him fall into a grave tunnel were he put him in a trance, killing him the same graphic way he did to Chrissy.
- He mind-walks numerous people ignoring their trauma going after Patrick McKinney's.
- He takes the form of Billy Hargrove and torments Max about her stepbrother’s death before trying to do to her what he did to the other teenagers. Once she escapes his clutches, he attempts to crush her to death.
- He murders Patrick in front of his best friend Jason Carver and Eddie Munson while Patrick and Jason were chasing Eddie in the lake with Jason having to receive Patrick's body once it fell back into the lake, leaving Jason and Eddie traumatized with the former more traumatized.
- What's worse is that Patrick was still awake and not in a trance meaning he felt his bones breaking.
- He kidnaps Nancy Wheeler, sadistically taunting her with Barb's demise and showing Nancy visions of what the Mind Flayer plans to unleash.
- He attempts to choke out Steve Harrington, Robin Buckley, and Nancy to death with vines.
- He tries to kill Eleven and openly rejects her when she tenderly offers to save him from his never-ending nightmare. And he (for a justified reason) is delighted to learn Dr. Brenner has perished and calls him out for being a mediocre old geezer and nothing more.
- Him temporarily killing Max causes the four gates to open resulting in Hawkins' destruction and killing several people, starting with Jason Carver.
- His actions have put the entire world in danger of the reign of the Mind Flayer to commence through Hawkins.
Why He Doesn’t Stand Out?[]
- He fails the heinous standard to his master and abuser the Mind Flayer, his other boss and tormentor Dr. Brenner and the Russian mass murderer Warden Melnikov with the aforementioned demonic entity murdering thousands to billions of innocent people as well as ruining Henry’s life. Resources don't help because Henry has the same resources as the Mind Flayer and he has a much bigger arsenal than Dr. Brenner and Warden Melnikov by far. Many (though far from all) of his actions are under the Mind Flayer's control anyway, meaning those crimes are not even his own and is a villain by proxy.
- He is too tragic for even Near Pure Evil. As an innocent child, he was taken to Dimension X one day, giving him his power, with the Mind Flayer possessing and grooming him, causing Henry to accidentally murder a young boy. Virginia is extremely abusive and controlling of Henry, making him say “I am Henry Creel, and I am normal”. He is abused by multiple people, including his own mother, his master and his captor, with the latter taking shadowy forms of Virginia and Brenner. Henry never even asked for his powers, even trying to use them for good before being backed into a corner. He was extremely heartbroken, believing he killed Patty Newby.
- He cares for several people:
- First and foremost, he genuinely loves his girlfriend and childhood best friend Patty Newby, wanting to protect her and everyone, with her being the one to inspire him to use his power for good. While he did choke her, it was the Mind Flayer taking control of him. Once Henry regained control, he was extremely remorseful, and despite being locked up in HNL, he still goes in his mind, checking in on Patty, showing he still loves her, as well as him trying to help her find her mother.
- Despite trying to kill him once in the Upside Down, he never goes for his father straight away despite having the chance to it, showing that he still genuinely cares for his father.
- He cares for some animals, as shown having cried when his pet dog that he got on his birthday died, as well as caring for Black Widow Spiders and adoring them.
- He is affable towards Patty, Principal Newby and Joyce Byers in their small encounter when he was still in control.
- He is shown to have standards, being disgusted that Lonnie a 27 year old was dating a 17-year-old Joyce (which is ephebophilia), telling the latter she deserves better then Lonnie. He was disgusted by Brenner’s action of shocking Two (despite Two being an extremely envious psychic who would deserve his subsequent violence). More importantly, all the evidence indicates he does not like the Mind Flayer any more than Eleven does.
- Him eating Demogorgons is justified as he was starving and needed to hunt animals for survival.
- It’s implied he may still actively be fighting the Mind Flayer’s control, as Principal Newby revealed that was the case when he blinded him.
Trivia[]
- Henry Creel was originally proposed and approved as Pure Evil after the release of the fourth season of Stranger Things, which caused the Mind Flayer to lose his Pure Evil status when Henry was believed to be the mastermind, but in side material to the main show which delves more into Henry's backstory, it is proven that the Mind Flayer is the mastermind hellbent on conquering the entire world, causing Henry to massively fail the heinous standards and be removed as Pure Evil. Had this been not the case, Henry wouldn't have been a Villainous Benchmark as he would've still been heinous and lacked redeeming qualities.
- That being said, it is slightly possible his status will still change in the upcoming fifth and final season, where he will no doubt return.
- Creel's performance, appearance and character are inspired by Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street. However, whereas Freddy is Pure Evil, Creel is a Villainous Benchmark due to having various mitigating factors.
External Links[]
- Vecna on the Villains Wiki
- Vecna on the Stranger Things Wiki
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 Villainous Benchmarks
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Vecna | Billy Hargrove | Hawkins Demogorgon | Russian Demogorgon See Also |
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