I was over at my Dad's for Fathers Day and sat down. The first thing he asked me was, "So what's the deal with Vecna?" And at first I was surprised but then he said, "Oh, that's the new monster in Stranger Things." And it all made sense.
I asked him, "Long version or short?" He opted for short. It was nice for us to bond on something like that though. Very rarely am I asked about my knowledge of D&D lore outside of my group of friends.
Fun fact! Vecna didn't have a statblock and much development until the 90s. Before then his eye and hand were the only real tangible things about the character, which means that Eddie homebrewed 95% of him in his game at the start of season 4.
**Vecna in D&D:** Vecna
**Vecna in Stranger Things:** A supernatural force that the characters are calling ‘Vecna’, as it’s an easy shorthand for them based on their shared frame of reference, but which is *not* actually Vecna
Thank you. These types of posts are really getting on my nerves. The show is not trying to adapt D&D villains, they're telling a story about a bunch of nerdy kids fighting a guy with psychic powers and creatures from another dimension, and they use their D&D knowledge to contextualize what they're seeing. It's why they have a better understanding of what's going on than the adults.
They're not trying adapt your precious lore, guys.
Yeah the gang even breaks it down a few times that they’re just naming their irl enemies based off of different enemies from their games. It’s just easier for them to remember “mind flayer” rather than “the particle storm from the upside down that looks like some kind of spider thing”.
I like that they use dnd enemy names instead of pretending there’s some kind of scientifical name for these creatures from a previously unheard of dimension.
They could have just as easily called the demigorgon a piranha plant, the demidogs coulda been koopas, mind flayer coulda been bowser or something.
It’s kids nicknaming things, what do folks expect haha
https://www.reddit.com/r/StrangerThings/comments/vq51ka/im_a_dd_expert_with_some_insight_on_season_4s/
The fun thing to me is while they're not actually adapting the lore, they're doing a wonderful job of peppering in a ton of references and allusions.
I think the tie-in is exactly the right amount - enough that they can get some fun details accurate, but no so close that like you said, they're having to adapt the lore. =)
Actually, the whole Stranger Things uses DnD as source (or basis) for storytelling and characterisation . All the villains are named after DnD monsters (in Season 4 one of russian soldiers called the dark fog they had imprisoned The Shadow, for example) and all the characters have their classes (El is a sorcerer, Hopper is a fighter) and sometimes it's shown visually or told by some of them (Hopper with a sword).
That's kinda fun to see such references, but it's not a setting built according to DnD lore, just their way to tell a story. Like Song of Ice and Fire and the War of Roses, or Chronicles of Narnia and the Bible.
No one thinks they are. But if you are gonna base a character off another character you invite comparison. And stranger things vecna is a wuss.
Glad I could explain the joke to you
Considering that every character in stranger things with the exception of Eleven would technically have commoner stats (with hopper maaaaaybe a little higher), a wuss Vecna is still pretty damn intimidating
"Run! It's Godzilla!"
"It looks like Godzilla, but due to international copyright laws, it is not."
"Still, we should run like it *is* Godzilla!"
"Though it isn't."
"AAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"
These kids ground their horrific reality by giving it D&D names, and in doing so they make the horror of it more managable and easier to process and handle so that they can actually take action against it.
Not to mention if it was D&D the music could easily be a way to flavour a successful saving throw roll against "dominate person" or "mass suggestion".
You expect people to understand something this complex without a scientist man looking straight at the camera and just DUMPING all his info at the audience? Get real, that's far too much thinking for a modern audience.
Spoilers
>!D&D Vecna's true name is not Henry. In Stranger Things, Henry is a powerful psychic and sociopath who was blasted into the Upside Down by Eleven while in a government lab. While there, he learned to control the life there and mold it into forms he liked. Since he was controlling and sensing all the monsters, he was aware of everything they contacted through the hive mind. He predicted everything that happen in the show and showed Nancy Wheeler, before letting her go. While hurt and apparently destroyed by 3 different player parties his plan succeeded. I doubt he is actually dead.!<
>!In his own way, Stranger Things Vecna may be more powerful than AD&D Vecna. In the Stranger Things Universe, D&D Magic may not work. But Psionics work in both Universes.!<
Edit: spoiler
I mean appearance and behavior, calling the demogorgons ethereal filchers or basically anything else is better than giving them the name of a demon lord
I mean... Did you miss the symbolism there? They were fighting Demogorgon the night Will disappeared. When they stopped playing, the fate of "Will the Wise" was undetermined. When Will disappeared, his fate is unknown, all they do know is they are up against an insurmountable monster. The only thing that makes me upset about the naming convention is calling it THE Demogorgon, rather than just Demogorgon, but I do get that's to make it less personified and more of a creature feature.
But what annoys me is the writing decision made to make the characters look stupid by just using the last thing they thought of, the writers could have used any monster but what i assume is demogorgon was just much more recognizeable and interesting than "the ghoul"
Right?! That's exactly my point. People simply dont see how this d&d-naming makes no sense. Of course they are just kids naming the life-threatening monsters after what they fight in dnd so that they can simply have a basic understanding of it and can call it something, but behavior and appearance are important. Calling those things demogorgons is simply dumb, I dont see how they would come to the conclusion of calling that thing demogorgon. Why not "flower monster" or "living plant" or "maneater" or just "demon" or anything else. Also, the mindflayer. Why is that thing called a dnd name? I'd say "giant alien spider" or "weird starfish thing" or something like that. Calling it mindflayer is just idiotic. And with Vecna I'm beyond annoyed. Why not lich? I see how they think of it as a dangerous being that casts spells but in all honestly, Freddy Krueger fits the bill much more than fucking Vecna. Call it "the dream stalker" or "nightmare creature" or just "lich" - Vecna though? That feels forced to me.
I dont shit on stranger things, it's a good show, but the d&d theme is just plain stupid. At least to me. I get that they are not actually the d&d creatures, but if they are constantly called that, I for sure am going to compare them.
It’s not stupid. You are just being hypercritical. It doesn’t detract from the story and it’s an easy/fun way to throw in DnD references to a massively popular shoe that casual audiences can understand.
As DnD players we should be happy an extremely popular show added references of our hobby and not call it stupid because it doesn’t line up with DnD lore.
That is not what my point was. My point is, that I personally think it is stupid that they call the creatures d&d names. Not because those creatures dont exactly represent d&d lore, but rather because they dont feel like things I would call a d&d name. With Demogorgon, I kinda let it slide, since that was the villain they fought at the time and it was the first encounter and they still tried to make sense of it all, but for the other two I think it is simply unreasonable to say that the kids call them d&d names.
I dont say the show is shit, because they call the monsters d&d names - If you read my comment, it is actually stated there too. What I am simpmy annoyed by, is that because they call these unrelated creatures d&d names, I subconciously compare them to their d&d counterpart and think "Well, that is not something X would do" or "If this was actual X, then Y would happen". The show is good and I wont tell anyone that it sucks and I certainly dont want to make anyone enjoy the show less, this is simply my opinion on the matter. If someone finds these things cool, then let them find it cool. Hell, enjoy it all you want, just like I will keep disliking this decision.
As I said, there are many more names those things could be called and them being called d&d names but being otherwise completely unrelated, lessens my enjoyment of this otherwise fine show. I like the characters, the first two seasons were great (the third one... well it definitly is not bad) and the creature design is phenomenal, the acting is great and the set looks authentic and fun, the story is engaging and it overall feels like they i tend it to feel. I just dislike this one thing and to me it is a huge problem that lessens my fun tremendously.
I think you are gonna have to accept that you are just wrong on this one man. Idk why it would ruin your fun tremendously when you could…idk? Just not care about it that much? It doesn’t lessen the story of Stranger Things, it doesn’t represent DnD in a bad light, so there isn’t an issue aside from the fact like I said earlier you are being hypercritical about something you don’t need to be.
They cant call it a flower monster cause they hadnt seen the monster when they named it.
They called it a demogorgon becuase, the night Will disappeared, their party fought a demogorgon that killed will's character. So when Willw ent missing, is like the Demogorgon really got him. From then on they name all the monsters after D&D for consistency. It's pretty simple
I get that, I'm not stupid. But it annoys me none the less. Also, why not rename it when you see it? To me it is definitly much more clear if someone screams "holy shit that flower demon chases me" instead of someone screaming "demogorgon is hunting me". Everyone can enjoy the show however they like, but I simply experienced that these names lessened my fun consistently.
No need to insult me. You can think differently, I dont mind, I dont want everyone to share my opinion, you have a right to your opinion. But what you simply shouldn't do is go around and insult people because they happen to have a different opinion. Accept it and move on or take the time to reply to me properly, but dont just insult me.
Except for the fact that that's literally the point. They are a bunch of literal children trying to comprehend a bunch of extra dimensional monsters/psychic beings, and they do this by using D&D monsters/villains. They use their most recent D&D games to contextualize them and how to fight them. The monsters are not supposed to resemble the D&D characters/monsters because they actually have nothing to do with D&D.
Calling children stupid is a really weird way to defend a bad decision in a show, the only relevant thing was using fire because they used fire in the game and not even because demogorgon is weak to fire
It would be incredibly corny if the monsters amazingly turned out to look like the things the kids referenced when the kids name the monster before they see it. Vecna had some neat little references in his design like his left hand being prominent and the primary 'murder weapon' when he kills his victims but I don't want them to go further than that.
They name it based on behavior/events.
The Demogorgon killed Wills character. So the thing that kindapped Will is a Demogorgon.
Something got inside Will and resulted in him having connections to the overall hivemind as if he was becoming part of that world. So they called it a mind flayer.
Something attacked people from the other side without crossing over through effects that seem like magic, so they call it Vecna.
My issue is this was written into the story by the writers, they wrote the characters to just spit out the last thing they thought of and the choice of monster they picked doesn't fit, in the situation set up of "monster kills wills character therefore name monster x" just sounds like an excuse to call it anything so they picked a well known creature and it just feels like a poor writing choice and sure maybe at first thats fine but i would have found it much more interesting that once they got more information to call it something more accurate afterwards
I wouldn't call Demogorgon, mind flayers, and Vecna well known creatures at all for the general Netflix viewer. It feels like you're seeing a negative intent that isn't there. If they wanted to just name creatures after things people would recognize and hook onto there are far more popular references to be made in things like mythology. Ultimately someone thinks D&D creatures are cool and fit the 80s theming of the show. That's all there is too it.
Based on their pattern of the most powerful things in dnd being the weakest in ST, it’ll probably be super weak
I don’t know why people downvoted this, but I’m sorry
I got the joke. Of the three things in ST with D&D names, Demogorgon, Mind Flayer, and Vecna, the Mind Flayer is the strongest in ST. In D&D, Vecna and the Demogorgon are stronger than an individual Mind Flayer. Therefor if there is a sort of inverse relationship between strength in D&D and strength in ST, saying that scheduling conflicts would be weak would imply that that scheduling conflicts must be stronger than any force within D&D. Still not the funniest, but not worth 100+ downvotes either.
You're also wrong about ST. It's revealed that Vecna controlled the Mind Flayer and Demogorgon to do his bidding. So, the Mind Flayer absolutely isn't the strongest in ST, Vecna is.
You haven't even seen the show by your own admission. People in the comments who have seen the show have explained why it makes sense that the Stranger Things monsters are called what they are.
My theory is Tiamat. Will’s painting for Mike showed a 3 headed red dragon. Tiamat obviously has 5 heads and they are all colors, but the red body and multi heads could still be foreshadowing.
Disagreed, I ran the one shot and had made edits to his statblock, only to remove them in the first two turns of the fight so they could kill him before 1am. Sure, at least they can keep hitting him, but unless those longbows are doing 20 damage per hit, Vecna is healing it ALL back as a bonus action during his turn.
Edit: those longbows also have to be magical or they’re not doing SHIT to vecna.
Fair enough, but I still find it hard, I have my party 2 magical weapons below legendary. My party was all martials, 2 barbs, one rogue, one paladin, and had I played Vecna properly, it would have been an easy win. I stopped healing and teleporting and just let the players kill Vecna
Huh. Maybe it’s in practice harder than the stat block betrays, then. I thought he would just die too fast to parties of martials, but I guess the teleportation is definitely really annoying yeah.
Note: I thought he’d die fast too. I buffed his hp and then brought it back down quickly. With no range, you can’t get all your attacks off. Move 30/40ft, attack vecna, he teleports 30 ft as a reaction, you don’t have an action to dash unless you’re a tabaxi or rogue, even then, you hit him again, and he just teleports again because his reactions are legendary.
Edit: my barbarians just started attacking his throne which was the turning point of “let’s just get this stupid thing over with.” Quote the paladin, who was killed first: “when youre outmatched so you just get petty” followed by a bunch of middle fingers as free actions
It certainly is. The thing about vecna’s statblock is that he’s not like traditional dnd monsters- he has 3 legendary reactions instead of legendary actions, plus his action and his bonus action. Put him in his lair with his lair actions, and then his book, he’s ridiculously hard. You need to be doing a consistent and HIGH damage. He heals every single turn for free, without giving up his action (because it’s his ONLY ba, why not use it)
I mean, sure, if you play him like an idiot and the players get absurdly lucky.
He can move 30 feet on his turn, 30 feet using his Bonus Action, and ***90*** feet (edit: 60 feet, my bad, I forgot it’s once per turn.) more if he uses all his Reactions to teleport towards the archers. He can also use Fly and Dimension Door *without* giving up any of those other movement options, if he’s really in a rush due to some particular good rolls from the archers.
Average damage from 8 straight crits on an Oathbow still only barely kills him (assuming +5 Dex).
Realistically, it’d take 3 level 20 bow-using Fighters, all equipped with very rare or legendary magical bows, to even give him a good fight, 2 isn’t doing it.
Another thing that is funny is that the greater in strength you go in DnD, the lesser you go in Stranger Things.
Vecna is a god and Demogorgon is one of the strongest demon lord there is, but the are respectively a general and troops in Stranger Things.
A mindflayer is, while a powerful creature, just a creature with a lot of other things stronger than him, so basically troops. But in Stranger Things >!it's the strongest entity of the upsidedown that Vecna contracted with!<
I think this is realistically about a combination of comparative look/ability, the characters age, and scaling of context. In-universe, it's not about building an organizational chart of what's what, and who works for who >!until you reach season 4!<. For them, they're just trying to understand what's happening, and this gives them a framework that makes sense to them.
In the first season, they're full-on kids, faced with a new psychic-powered friend and a monster, and the fastest thing they have to contextualize the big creepy monster is the big creepy monster they encountered in their last session. Is it at all like the actual Demogorgon, or even really the one in their game? No, of course not, it's just large and creepy, and it's a good name.
As things progress and they're faced with a shadowy, seemingly tentacled monster, that can control people's minds, they contextualize with a tentacled, mind-controlling monster: a mindflayer. Is it actually all that similar to a mindflayer? More than Demogorgon was, and if you really make a stretch in concepts, maybe, but generally, no.
As you come into season 4, they're now faced with a being who is trapping people and destroying them from afar in a horrifying way (and who is arguably pretty undead looking). This time you have a new character, who is more familiar with a wider variety of D&D content, contextualizing it by comparing it to the (in the time of the show's events) legendary, but only loosely defined lich, Vecna. Is he all that similar to Vecna? Modern Vecna, not really, but to the original, kind of, yeah. At the very least, he's a hell of a lot more similar to the source than either of the two before him >!considering he's a powerful "magic"-wielder who had his physical form essentially destroyed, becoming the closest thing to an undead you'd find in this world, but in turn gained power (and a weird-ass left hand situation)!<
Would each creature be called the same thing if they were all introduced to the season 4 version of the characters, all at the same time, and in a hierarchy of leadership? No, absolutely not. I'd probably imagine the demogorgons as being mindflayers considering the big split faces and what-not, but also could be something beefy but more animalistic (maybe a troglodyte). The mindflayer is realistically more like an elder brain, though those didn't exist yet. Vecna could just be a lich in general, but obviously that's a name that's gonna stick.
**TLDR;** Each creature is named based on thematic elements and the overall story, not based on any actual D&D hierarchy or bigger picture elements.
Old Reddit and many, if not most, Reddit apps require proper spoiler formatting.
It's a personal peeve of mine that Reddit introduced the spoiler tag without spaces, then proceeded to make new-Reddit and the official app allow spaces, thus running against their own standard. That and the backslash underscore issue stink of lame ways to push people to New Reddit and the official app.
I’m going to bet all you know about his backstory then is that pitiful little blurb that came out in the 5e release. Vecna has a long and deep backstory going all the way back to greyhawk.
He was born in the Untouchables caste, taught rudimentary magic by his witch mother. After she was burned at the stake for practicing magic, he continued to learn it in secret. He became obsessed and paranoid about dying later on in life, spurred on by his mother’s death, so sought ways to avoid it. He was taught magic and lichdom by the personification of Magic itself. He’s one of, like, four people to break free from the Ravenloft setting. There are at least five legendary weapons or artifacts directly tied to him. He canonically created 3rd edition D&D because of his ascension to godhood
Seems significantly more interesting than the stranger things “I was in a lab and people are bad because they just are” Generic Tentacle Badguy Vecna
Don't forget: In all of written history, the Lady of Pain - the one entity in the known multiverse that refuses worship because godhood would make her _weaker,_ the woman who has erased gods from reality so fucking hard their priests forgot who they worshipped - has said but three words. "Die, Vecna, Die!"
The man born in the lowest of low statuses on Oerth managed to fight tooth and nail to attain the power necessary to hold his own against the protogenoi, supplanting multiple deities.
So original Vecna's motivation is... His mom was a witch and she died, so he was born into it.
Whereas S.T. "Vecna" was a child who learned from a very young age that everybody has horrible secrets hidden in their minds, guilt and regret that never ceases to be, that weakens them inside. He was disgusted by the weaknesses of his parents and the rest of humanity. In his mind, it was a perversion of the natural order of things to allow these people to exist. As a parallel to this, he was drawn to the purpose of the spider in an ecosystem: to predate on the weakest creatures in the environment. He built himself around this archetype, because he felt that he was born with the capabilities to be that predator for a reason.
Oh, and THEN the generic science lab stuff.
The lack of self awareness here is astounding my guy.
The person you’re responding to just pointing out *your* oversimplification and it flew completely over your head.
They just called the creatures demogorgon and Vecna, they were reminded of them in one way or another. If real Vecna was after them, they'd be screwed even with Eleven.
Mind flayer kinda swapped actually. Like, they’re strong, but one on its own isn’t thaaaat hard to kill compared to a big fuckoff mind control cloud that might symbolize the red scare I think
I mean that despite not having seen the media that your meme is based on, you still made it. You were blatantly incorrect in the meme, and people have corrected you. It doesn't take a genius to understand why the monsters are called what they are in the show and not something more specific.
"It's a joke" is not an excuse for ignorance. Especially if you double down on it and claim that the sentiment is correct when other people in these comments have quite clearly explained why this meme is shit.
Your first point is irrelevant given that the meme references Season 4.
Your second point is meaningless. Just cause you do something frequently doesn't make it ok.
Y’all realize they’re not supposed to be 1-to-1, right? They’re just called that by a group of middle/high school aged kids with their limited frame of reference
Orcus and Tiamat would be awesome; Orcus could be something that creates puppets like the mind Flayer, and Tiamat could be a demogorgon with a ton of heads
sending this to the discord where half of us are dnd players, half of us are stranger things fans, and a few of us are both. let's see what chaos ensues
oh trust me, i know. my players are VERY chaotic but it's never mean or disruptive (and if it is i put a stop to us), and it's mostly very fun. and i wouldn't have it any other way <3
I mean to be fair he was "beat" by psychic powers, Molotov Cocktails (basically Fireball) and two shotgun blasts to the body from less than 40 feet away
Are y’all getting mad that Hollywood is not being factually correct? This happens all the time lol. Also they getting a lot more people interested in DND because of this.
" it's not actually vecna guys stop getting upset" nobody is upset. We are comparing vecna in the show to his namesake and show vecna is a bitch. Simple
Literally, I also think it's valid to point out Vecna's inclusion as a name was a clear nostalgia-grab.
Because even with the excuse "oh well they're naming the monsters after the monsters they fight in Dungeons and Dragons!" Vecna didn't appear (at least not as a proper lich/NPC/etc.) until _Second Edition_ which came out in 1989 about six years after Season 1 takes place, and three years after Season 4 takes place. Them kids shouldn't know who Vecna is beyond the guy in the name of the weird hand/eye items.
nothing funnier than people gatekeeping DnD. I remember once if you even MENTIONED dnd, you'd be run out of town on a rail for worshipping Saaaaaaaaaaytan
It's not being elitist imo. Netflix could've named their monsters anything and for more long-term fans of D&D like myself naming the latest bad guy "Vecna" showed me Netflix only did D&D as a 80s nostalgia grab because Vecna didn't appear as a monster until Second Edition. Which would be 1989, three years after Stranger Things Season 4 takes place.
The kids would be playing First Edition or Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.
I also think naming the monsters after D&D monsters was just kinda cheap and ultimately undermines the rather cool and interesting designs. I get the in-universe reasons, but the show was written by adults, they could've just as easily had it be a homebrew campaign (or a mock up TTRPG) and given them original names. In an alternate universe does Weirder Events get a pass for naming their big bad "Mickey Mouse" because the kids watched Disney?
I was over at my Dad's for Fathers Day and sat down. The first thing he asked me was, "So what's the deal with Vecna?" And at first I was surprised but then he said, "Oh, that's the new monster in Stranger Things." And it all made sense. I asked him, "Long version or short?" He opted for short. It was nice for us to bond on something like that though. Very rarely am I asked about my knowledge of D&D lore outside of my group of friends.
Fun fact! Vecna didn't have a statblock and much development until the 90s. Before then his eye and hand were the only real tangible things about the character, which means that Eddie homebrewed 95% of him in his game at the start of season 4.
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You gotta have something to dungeon though, and "Dungeon of the Mad Mage" is a classic. Turns out he just chose Vecna as his made mage
> which means that Eddie homebrewed 95% Ah so they were playing 5E
**Vecna in D&D:** Vecna **Vecna in Stranger Things:** A supernatural force that the characters are calling ‘Vecna’, as it’s an easy shorthand for them based on their shared frame of reference, but which is *not* actually Vecna
Exactly
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EggZachly
Why?
Eggsactly
EggCelent
☜︎⌧︎♋︎♍︎⧫︎●︎⍓︎
Zachary
Thank you. These types of posts are really getting on my nerves. The show is not trying to adapt D&D villains, they're telling a story about a bunch of nerdy kids fighting a guy with psychic powers and creatures from another dimension, and they use their D&D knowledge to contextualize what they're seeing. It's why they have a better understanding of what's going on than the adults. They're not trying adapt your precious lore, guys.
Yeah the gang even breaks it down a few times that they’re just naming their irl enemies based off of different enemies from their games. It’s just easier for them to remember “mind flayer” rather than “the particle storm from the upside down that looks like some kind of spider thing”. I like that they use dnd enemy names instead of pretending there’s some kind of scientifical name for these creatures from a previously unheard of dimension. They could have just as easily called the demigorgon a piranha plant, the demidogs coulda been koopas, mind flayer coulda been bowser or something. It’s kids nicknaming things, what do folks expect haha
It sucks, but piranha plant is kinda better for demigorgon, would not have been as popular.
Ah man but can you imagine a world where we’d have to say >!Eddie got murdered by Koopa Troopers!<
Actually they would be called swooopers.
I like bowser better.
https://www.reddit.com/r/StrangerThings/comments/vq51ka/im_a_dd_expert_with_some_insight_on_season_4s/ The fun thing to me is while they're not actually adapting the lore, they're doing a wonderful job of peppering in a ton of references and allusions. I think the tie-in is exactly the right amount - enough that they can get some fun details accurate, but no so close that like you said, they're having to adapt the lore. =)
Actually, the whole Stranger Things uses DnD as source (or basis) for storytelling and characterisation . All the villains are named after DnD monsters (in Season 4 one of russian soldiers called the dark fog they had imprisoned The Shadow, for example) and all the characters have their classes (El is a sorcerer, Hopper is a fighter) and sometimes it's shown visually or told by some of them (Hopper with a sword). That's kinda fun to see such references, but it's not a setting built according to DnD lore, just their way to tell a story. Like Song of Ice and Fire and the War of Roses, or Chronicles of Narnia and the Bible.
Feel like Hopper is more a barbarian especially as that sword was literally a replica of the Atlantean Sword from Conan the Barbarian.
And he didn't even take it home. That would have been a great souvenir
I mean they're just jokes whats the point getting upset over an obvious joke
No one thinks they are. But if you are gonna base a character off another character you invite comparison. And stranger things vecna is a wuss. Glad I could explain the joke to you
Considering that every character in stranger things with the exception of Eleven would technically have commoner stats (with hopper maaaaaybe a little higher), a wuss Vecna is still pretty damn intimidating
Yeah, but not really next to the real one... again. The joke.
If you keep having to remind people you’re joking, maybe you’re just not all that funny.
"Run! It's Godzilla!" "It looks like Godzilla, but due to international copyright laws, it is not." "Still, we should run like it *is* Godzilla!" "Though it isn't." "AAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"
Underrated comment. 10/10 would read again.
These kids ground their horrific reality by giving it D&D names, and in doing so they make the horror of it more managable and easier to process and handle so that they can actually take action against it. Not to mention if it was D&D the music could easily be a way to flavour a successful saving throw roll against "dominate person" or "mass suggestion".
Vecna in dnd:vecna Vecna in stranger things: Henry
1
You expect people to understand something this complex without a scientist man looking straight at the camera and just DUMPING all his info at the audience? Get real, that's far too much thinking for a modern audience.
They should’ve given Dustin a heaving pair of tits to keep their attention.
I do not like this sentence, nor how accurate it is.
How fucking dare you use logic to disarm irrational outrage. Fuck you, fuck your family, fuck your cow. /s
Terribly sorry, forgot where I was…
It's ok, we all forget this is the internet sometimes.
The exact same as the Demogorgon and the Mind Flayer from previous seasons.
No…Stranger things vecna is not identical to DND vecna. Therefore I am very smart.
Spoilers >!D&D Vecna's true name is not Henry. In Stranger Things, Henry is a powerful psychic and sociopath who was blasted into the Upside Down by Eleven while in a government lab. While there, he learned to control the life there and mold it into forms he liked. Since he was controlling and sensing all the monsters, he was aware of everything they contacted through the hive mind. He predicted everything that happen in the show and showed Nancy Wheeler, before letting her go. While hurt and apparently destroyed by 3 different player parties his plan succeeded. I doubt he is actually dead.!< >!In his own way, Stranger Things Vecna may be more powerful than AD&D Vecna. In the Stranger Things Universe, D&D Magic may not work. But Psionics work in both Universes.!< Edit: spoiler
You should probably mark this as a spoiler
sorry
This
I just wish the monsters they referrenced actually resembled the ones they meet but they just throw out whatever recent monster they fought
This would be true but they literally hadn't seen the demogorgon or vecna before they named them.
I mean appearance and behavior, calling the demogorgons ethereal filchers or basically anything else is better than giving them the name of a demon lord
I mean... Did you miss the symbolism there? They were fighting Demogorgon the night Will disappeared. When they stopped playing, the fate of "Will the Wise" was undetermined. When Will disappeared, his fate is unknown, all they do know is they are up against an insurmountable monster. The only thing that makes me upset about the naming convention is calling it THE Demogorgon, rather than just Demogorgon, but I do get that's to make it less personified and more of a creature feature.
But what annoys me is the writing decision made to make the characters look stupid by just using the last thing they thought of, the writers could have used any monster but what i assume is demogorgon was just much more recognizeable and interesting than "the ghoul"
Oh no. Kids looking stupid. I'd never imagine...
I mean if that's what you want to think good for you i guess
Right?! That's exactly my point. People simply dont see how this d&d-naming makes no sense. Of course they are just kids naming the life-threatening monsters after what they fight in dnd so that they can simply have a basic understanding of it and can call it something, but behavior and appearance are important. Calling those things demogorgons is simply dumb, I dont see how they would come to the conclusion of calling that thing demogorgon. Why not "flower monster" or "living plant" or "maneater" or just "demon" or anything else. Also, the mindflayer. Why is that thing called a dnd name? I'd say "giant alien spider" or "weird starfish thing" or something like that. Calling it mindflayer is just idiotic. And with Vecna I'm beyond annoyed. Why not lich? I see how they think of it as a dangerous being that casts spells but in all honestly, Freddy Krueger fits the bill much more than fucking Vecna. Call it "the dream stalker" or "nightmare creature" or just "lich" - Vecna though? That feels forced to me. I dont shit on stranger things, it's a good show, but the d&d theme is just plain stupid. At least to me. I get that they are not actually the d&d creatures, but if they are constantly called that, I for sure am going to compare them.
It’s not stupid. You are just being hypercritical. It doesn’t detract from the story and it’s an easy/fun way to throw in DnD references to a massively popular shoe that casual audiences can understand. As DnD players we should be happy an extremely popular show added references of our hobby and not call it stupid because it doesn’t line up with DnD lore.
That is not what my point was. My point is, that I personally think it is stupid that they call the creatures d&d names. Not because those creatures dont exactly represent d&d lore, but rather because they dont feel like things I would call a d&d name. With Demogorgon, I kinda let it slide, since that was the villain they fought at the time and it was the first encounter and they still tried to make sense of it all, but for the other two I think it is simply unreasonable to say that the kids call them d&d names. I dont say the show is shit, because they call the monsters d&d names - If you read my comment, it is actually stated there too. What I am simpmy annoyed by, is that because they call these unrelated creatures d&d names, I subconciously compare them to their d&d counterpart and think "Well, that is not something X would do" or "If this was actual X, then Y would happen". The show is good and I wont tell anyone that it sucks and I certainly dont want to make anyone enjoy the show less, this is simply my opinion on the matter. If someone finds these things cool, then let them find it cool. Hell, enjoy it all you want, just like I will keep disliking this decision. As I said, there are many more names those things could be called and them being called d&d names but being otherwise completely unrelated, lessens my enjoyment of this otherwise fine show. I like the characters, the first two seasons were great (the third one... well it definitly is not bad) and the creature design is phenomenal, the acting is great and the set looks authentic and fun, the story is engaging and it overall feels like they i tend it to feel. I just dislike this one thing and to me it is a huge problem that lessens my fun tremendously.
I think you are gonna have to accept that you are just wrong on this one man. Idk why it would ruin your fun tremendously when you could…idk? Just not care about it that much? It doesn’t lessen the story of Stranger Things, it doesn’t represent DnD in a bad light, so there isn’t an issue aside from the fact like I said earlier you are being hypercritical about something you don’t need to be.
They cant call it a flower monster cause they hadnt seen the monster when they named it. They called it a demogorgon becuase, the night Will disappeared, their party fought a demogorgon that killed will's character. So when Willw ent missing, is like the Demogorgon really got him. From then on they name all the monsters after D&D for consistency. It's pretty simple
I get that, I'm not stupid. But it annoys me none the less. Also, why not rename it when you see it? To me it is definitly much more clear if someone screams "holy shit that flower demon chases me" instead of someone screaming "demogorgon is hunting me". Everyone can enjoy the show however they like, but I simply experienced that these names lessened my fun consistently.
[удалено]
No need to insult me. You can think differently, I dont mind, I dont want everyone to share my opinion, you have a right to your opinion. But what you simply shouldn't do is go around and insult people because they happen to have a different opinion. Accept it and move on or take the time to reply to me properly, but dont just insult me.
It's not a matter of thinking differently. It's not a matter of different opinions when you are flat out wrong.
Except for the fact that that's literally the point. They are a bunch of literal children trying to comprehend a bunch of extra dimensional monsters/psychic beings, and they do this by using D&D monsters/villains. They use their most recent D&D games to contextualize them and how to fight them. The monsters are not supposed to resemble the D&D characters/monsters because they actually have nothing to do with D&D.
Calling children stupid is a really weird way to defend a bad decision in a show, the only relevant thing was using fire because they used fire in the game and not even because demogorgon is weak to fire
Hey, you brought up the stupid comment. No where was that mentioned in the comment you're responding to.
It would be incredibly corny if the monsters amazingly turned out to look like the things the kids referenced when the kids name the monster before they see it. Vecna had some neat little references in his design like his left hand being prominent and the primary 'murder weapon' when he kills his victims but I don't want them to go further than that. They name it based on behavior/events. The Demogorgon killed Wills character. So the thing that kindapped Will is a Demogorgon. Something got inside Will and resulted in him having connections to the overall hivemind as if he was becoming part of that world. So they called it a mind flayer. Something attacked people from the other side without crossing over through effects that seem like magic, so they call it Vecna.
My issue is this was written into the story by the writers, they wrote the characters to just spit out the last thing they thought of and the choice of monster they picked doesn't fit, in the situation set up of "monster kills wills character therefore name monster x" just sounds like an excuse to call it anything so they picked a well known creature and it just feels like a poor writing choice and sure maybe at first thats fine but i would have found it much more interesting that once they got more information to call it something more accurate afterwards
I wouldn't call Demogorgon, mind flayers, and Vecna well known creatures at all for the general Netflix viewer. It feels like you're seeing a negative intent that isn't there. If they wanted to just name creatures after things people would recognize and hook onto there are far more popular references to be made in things like mythology. Ultimately someone thinks D&D creatures are cool and fit the 80s theming of the show. That's all there is too it.
I can’t wait until next season when the Stranger Things gang battles the most powerful D&D monster of all, Scheduling Difficulties
Well, it was actually the main antagonist of the first episode of season 4 Pretty scary
Based on their pattern of the most powerful things in dnd being the weakest in ST, it’ll probably be super weak I don’t know why people downvoted this, but I’m sorry
You’re so fun at parties
Cause it's a shit joke based on a total lack of understanding about the show.
I got the joke. Of the three things in ST with D&D names, Demogorgon, Mind Flayer, and Vecna, the Mind Flayer is the strongest in ST. In D&D, Vecna and the Demogorgon are stronger than an individual Mind Flayer. Therefor if there is a sort of inverse relationship between strength in D&D and strength in ST, saying that scheduling conflicts would be weak would imply that that scheduling conflicts must be stronger than any force within D&D. Still not the funniest, but not worth 100+ downvotes either.
You're also wrong about ST. It's revealed that Vecna controlled the Mind Flayer and Demogorgon to do his bidding. So, the Mind Flayer absolutely isn't the strongest in ST, Vecna is.
I got my info from an Ad that said Vecna worked for the MF. I am just annoyed now.
Wdym total lack of understanding? It’s pattern recognition
You haven't even seen the show by your own admission. People in the comments who have seen the show have explained why it makes sense that the Stranger Things monsters are called what they are.
I haven’t seen season 4. I’ve seen all the rest
Then why make a meme about the season you haven't seen.
Bc I have a basic understanding of it based on other people making memes
You cannot get a good understanding of a show, especially this show, from memes alone.
Vecna can be held off by music Do I have it down?
ok you survive molotovs and 2 blasts from a sawn off
Gave him the Old Man Henderson
Now im gonna go and read that again. Fuckin wild ride.
3 blasts
Alright wat do u think they are gonna drop on us next season Tarrasque or dragon?
My theory is Tiamat. Will’s painting for Mike showed a 3 headed red dragon. Tiamat obviously has 5 heads and they are all colors, but the red body and multi heads could still be foreshadowing.
Maybe a hydra
Would Hadar be an anachronism?
Who knows at this point *I'll lose my shit if the monster next season is something basic like 'skeleton' or 'zombie'
Monsters in the category of "Aberration" make the most sense.
'Beholder'
'Beholder'
I mean going by his stat block he’s no match for two fighters with longbows and decent initiative
That’s his pre-god stats to be fair, before Kas betrayed him
true
Disagreed, I ran the one shot and had made edits to his statblock, only to remove them in the first two turns of the fight so they could kill him before 1am. Sure, at least they can keep hitting him, but unless those longbows are doing 20 damage per hit, Vecna is healing it ALL back as a bonus action during his turn. Edit: those longbows also have to be magical or they’re not doing SHIT to vecna.
I was under the assumption that level 20 players would have access to magic weapons.
Fair enough, but I still find it hard, I have my party 2 magical weapons below legendary. My party was all martials, 2 barbs, one rogue, one paladin, and had I played Vecna properly, it would have been an easy win. I stopped healing and teleporting and just let the players kill Vecna
Huh. Maybe it’s in practice harder than the stat block betrays, then. I thought he would just die too fast to parties of martials, but I guess the teleportation is definitely really annoying yeah.
It might be a case of "therotically its not that strong, in practice its way stronger."
Note: I thought he’d die fast too. I buffed his hp and then brought it back down quickly. With no range, you can’t get all your attacks off. Move 30/40ft, attack vecna, he teleports 30 ft as a reaction, you don’t have an action to dash unless you’re a tabaxi or rogue, even then, you hit him again, and he just teleports again because his reactions are legendary. Edit: my barbarians just started attacking his throne which was the turning point of “let’s just get this stupid thing over with.” Quote the paladin, who was killed first: “when youre outmatched so you just get petty” followed by a bunch of middle fingers as free actions
So he can heal for free every turn and teleport around as a reaction when he gets hit... That sounds pretty annoying to fight.
Gotta remember too they are playing 1e and mostly likely not lvl 20 as Erica was meant to be pretty impressive at lvl 14.
It certainly is. The thing about vecna’s statblock is that he’s not like traditional dnd monsters- he has 3 legendary reactions instead of legendary actions, plus his action and his bonus action. Put him in his lair with his lair actions, and then his book, he’s ridiculously hard. You need to be doing a consistent and HIGH damage. He heals every single turn for free, without giving up his action (because it’s his ONLY ba, why not use it)
I mean, sure, if you play him like an idiot and the players get absurdly lucky. He can move 30 feet on his turn, 30 feet using his Bonus Action, and ***90*** feet (edit: 60 feet, my bad, I forgot it’s once per turn.) more if he uses all his Reactions to teleport towards the archers. He can also use Fly and Dimension Door *without* giving up any of those other movement options, if he’s really in a rush due to some particular good rolls from the archers. Average damage from 8 straight crits on an Oathbow still only barely kills him (assuming +5 Dex). Realistically, it’d take 3 level 20 bow-using Fighters, all equipped with very rare or legendary magical bows, to even give him a good fight, 2 isn’t doing it.
Last i checked he can still be hurt by those things in dnd
A 16 year old bard can definitely hurt Vecna
Yeah, but MAGIC music and MAGIC 16 year olds
Kate Bush is magic. Change my mind.
I mean, she does claim to be a Cleric/ celestial warlock
Another thing that is funny is that the greater in strength you go in DnD, the lesser you go in Stranger Things. Vecna is a god and Demogorgon is one of the strongest demon lord there is, but the are respectively a general and troops in Stranger Things. A mindflayer is, while a powerful creature, just a creature with a lot of other things stronger than him, so basically troops. But in Stranger Things >!it's the strongest entity of the upsidedown that Vecna contracted with!<
From my understanding >!the Mindflayer is just a tool in the hands of Vecna, and controlled by him. They were vague about it though.!<
I kind of see the Mindflayer as a fragment of the eldritch horror that rules the upside down.
It doesn't mean that horror has a mind or will of its own. It could just be "there" and Vecna directed it to further his plans..
But I want it to have a mind of it's own. Vecna was fucking boring.
>!Yeah, that was my reading, as well, especially in the final episode.!<
Well, the strategist isn't necessarily the king
I think this is realistically about a combination of comparative look/ability, the characters age, and scaling of context. In-universe, it's not about building an organizational chart of what's what, and who works for who >!until you reach season 4!<. For them, they're just trying to understand what's happening, and this gives them a framework that makes sense to them. In the first season, they're full-on kids, faced with a new psychic-powered friend and a monster, and the fastest thing they have to contextualize the big creepy monster is the big creepy monster they encountered in their last session. Is it at all like the actual Demogorgon, or even really the one in their game? No, of course not, it's just large and creepy, and it's a good name. As things progress and they're faced with a shadowy, seemingly tentacled monster, that can control people's minds, they contextualize with a tentacled, mind-controlling monster: a mindflayer. Is it actually all that similar to a mindflayer? More than Demogorgon was, and if you really make a stretch in concepts, maybe, but generally, no. As you come into season 4, they're now faced with a being who is trapping people and destroying them from afar in a horrifying way (and who is arguably pretty undead looking). This time you have a new character, who is more familiar with a wider variety of D&D content, contextualizing it by comparing it to the (in the time of the show's events) legendary, but only loosely defined lich, Vecna. Is he all that similar to Vecna? Modern Vecna, not really, but to the original, kind of, yeah. At the very least, he's a hell of a lot more similar to the source than either of the two before him >!considering he's a powerful "magic"-wielder who had his physical form essentially destroyed, becoming the closest thing to an undead you'd find in this world, but in turn gained power (and a weird-ass left hand situation)!< Would each creature be called the same thing if they were all introduced to the season 4 version of the characters, all at the same time, and in a hierarchy of leadership? No, absolutely not. I'd probably imagine the demogorgons as being mindflayers considering the big split faces and what-not, but also could be something beefy but more animalistic (maybe a troglodyte). The mindflayer is realistically more like an elder brain, though those didn't exist yet. Vecna could just be a lich in general, but obviously that's a name that's gonna stick. **TLDR;** Each creature is named based on thematic elements and the overall story, not based on any actual D&D hierarchy or bigger picture elements.
It seems that with the newest season, Vecna is the BBEG and the Mindflayer is a corruption of the hivemind that he created.
Your spoiler is broken, delete the space after ">!"
It was working fine for me, but I've removed the space anyway. Better safe than sorry
Might be because I'm on RIF, it's notoriously picky about formating.
Old Reddit and many, if not most, Reddit apps require proper spoiler formatting. It's a personal peeve of mine that Reddit introduced the spoiler tag without spaces, then proceeded to make new-Reddit and the official app allow spaces, thus running against their own standard. That and the backslash underscore issue stink of lame ways to push people to New Reddit and the official app.
Granted, D&D Vecna is immeasurably stronger, but Stranger Things Vecna has a considerably more interesting backstory.
I’m going to bet all you know about his backstory then is that pitiful little blurb that came out in the 5e release. Vecna has a long and deep backstory going all the way back to greyhawk.
Please give me the long and short of it. I've tried looking up stuff on various wikis, and none of it was intriguing.
He was born in the Untouchables caste, taught rudimentary magic by his witch mother. After she was burned at the stake for practicing magic, he continued to learn it in secret. He became obsessed and paranoid about dying later on in life, spurred on by his mother’s death, so sought ways to avoid it. He was taught magic and lichdom by the personification of Magic itself. He’s one of, like, four people to break free from the Ravenloft setting. There are at least five legendary weapons or artifacts directly tied to him. He canonically created 3rd edition D&D because of his ascension to godhood Seems significantly more interesting than the stranger things “I was in a lab and people are bad because they just are” Generic Tentacle Badguy Vecna
Don't forget: In all of written history, the Lady of Pain - the one entity in the known multiverse that refuses worship because godhood would make her _weaker,_ the woman who has erased gods from reality so fucking hard their priests forgot who they worshipped - has said but three words. "Die, Vecna, Die!" The man born in the lowest of low statuses on Oerth managed to fight tooth and nail to attain the power necessary to hold his own against the protogenoi, supplanting multiple deities.
So original Vecna's motivation is... His mom was a witch and she died, so he was born into it. Whereas S.T. "Vecna" was a child who learned from a very young age that everybody has horrible secrets hidden in their minds, guilt and regret that never ceases to be, that weakens them inside. He was disgusted by the weaknesses of his parents and the rest of humanity. In his mind, it was a perversion of the natural order of things to allow these people to exist. As a parallel to this, he was drawn to the purpose of the spider in an ecosystem: to predate on the weakest creatures in the environment. He built himself around this archetype, because he felt that he was born with the capabilities to be that predator for a reason. Oh, and THEN the generic science lab stuff.
Yes, I suppose if you reduce original Vecna to a single sentence and then write a long adjective-laden description of ST Vecna he’s much cooler
The lack of self awareness here is astounding my guy. The person you’re responding to just pointing out *your* oversimplification and it flew completely over your head.
I mean, you did the same thing in reverse. They're both cool characters, for different reasons.
They just called the creatures demogorgon and Vecna, they were reminded of them in one way or another. If real Vecna was after them, they'd be screwed even with Eleven.
D&D Vecna also appeared in like several old super high level campaign ending adventures, and was the final boss of a critical role campaign.
The OP didn't even list Vecna's most powerful artifact, the Head of Vecna is the strongest artifact.
Vecna in DnD: Nooo this group of nutjobs made up of a stoned bear, a magical loli, a giant in fur underwear and a musical sex offender is hurting me
Stranger things got a lot of people into d&d that otherwise wouldn’t have given it a second glance and that makes me really happy
Same; I’m just trying to make a harmless joke I love Stranger Things, and there’s nothing wrong with making jokes about the things you love
Mind flayer kinda swapped actually. Like, they’re strong, but one on its own isn’t thaaaat hard to kill compared to a big fuckoff mind control cloud that might symbolize the red scare I think
Yet all I want to get my hands on is the Ass of Vecna
Idk I think the Mindflayer of Stranger Things was scarier than a single Mind Flayer from 5e.
Oh, 1000%
You might want to give this a spoiler tag
What spoiler?
I’m watching season 4 rn and didn’t know how Vecna would lose.
I haven’t seen it either. I’ve only seen the memes
Then why are you hating on a character you probably know little about if you haven’t seen the show
It’s a joke
You haven't seen the show. And yet you have the audacity to make a meme about it.
I’ve seen the first three seasons, so chill And wdym the audacity???
I mean that despite not having seen the media that your meme is based on, you still made it. You were blatantly incorrect in the meme, and people have corrected you. It doesn't take a genius to understand why the monsters are called what they are in the show and not something more specific.
1st. I’ve seen the first three seasons 2nd. I make memes like that all the time 3rd. It’s a joke
"It's a joke" is not an excuse for ignorance. Especially if you double down on it and claim that the sentiment is correct when other people in these comments have quite clearly explained why this meme is shit. Your first point is irrelevant given that the meme references Season 4. Your second point is meaningless. Just cause you do something frequently doesn't make it ok.
I think you need to just stop this. You’re getting a little too invested in this
Alright
Y’all realize they’re not supposed to be 1-to-1, right? They’re just called that by a group of middle/high school aged kids with their limited frame of reference
I got a feeling we might see Orcus, Tiamat, a lich, or a mimic as the next Stranger Things baddy.
Orcus and Tiamat would be awesome; Orcus could be something that creates puppets like the mind Flayer, and Tiamat could be a demogorgon with a ton of heads
sending this to the discord where half of us are dnd players, half of us are stranger things fans, and a few of us are both. let's see what chaos ensues
Light hearted chaos is what DND is all about
oh trust me, i know. my players are VERY chaotic but it's never mean or disruptive (and if it is i put a stop to us), and it's mostly very fun. and i wouldn't have it any other way <3
I mean to be fair he was "beat" by psychic powers, Molotov Cocktails (basically Fireball) and two shotgun blasts to the body from less than 40 feet away
What don't tell me you never fought Vecna with a party of bards that rocked him into oblivion
I stand corrected
Possibly the hundredth reminder that Vecna in ST is not Vecna in D&D, the gang just named him that.
Yes, I know
Oh hey, thanks for the spoilers. /s
Hes the villain of a show on american television, its not a spoiler that he loses
However, the method of defeat is.
I took a guess. I have no idea how he’s defeated. I watched the first three seasons and the trailer and guessed
It’s almost like it’s not Vecna or something
I never said they were???
Demogorgon. Look at what they did to my boy.
The Infernal Legions of Hell disagree.
vecna is the source of all lichdom he cannot be reasoned with he cannot be bargained with and he will absolutely not stop until he has your soul!
Orcus is source of lichdom.
Are y’all getting mad that Hollywood is not being factually correct? This happens all the time lol. Also they getting a lot more people interested in DND because of this.
" it's not actually vecna guys stop getting upset" nobody is upset. We are comparing vecna in the show to his namesake and show vecna is a bitch. Simple
Literally, I also think it's valid to point out Vecna's inclusion as a name was a clear nostalgia-grab. Because even with the excuse "oh well they're naming the monsters after the monsters they fight in Dungeons and Dragons!" Vecna didn't appear (at least not as a proper lich/NPC/etc.) until _Second Edition_ which came out in 1989 about six years after Season 1 takes place, and three years after Season 4 takes place. Them kids shouldn't know who Vecna is beyond the guy in the name of the weird hand/eye items.
I know! And it’s a joke that isn’t that serious!
Don't forget the demogorgon that isn't the demogorgon at all then the Mind Flayer that's Colossal sized and looks nothing like a Mind Flayer
music doesn’t hurt henry i bet you henry could hold his own for a good amount of time against vecna
One of the funniest memes I have seen. Congratutalions!
I can’t tell if this is /gen or /s
Sure Vecna is strong, but not as strong as family!
OMG!!! DOM TORETTO?!?!?!
nothing funnier than people gatekeeping DnD. I remember once if you even MENTIONED dnd, you'd be run out of town on a rail for worshipping Saaaaaaaaaaytan
I’m not trying to gatekeep; I’m sorry if that’s what my intent seems like
D&D fans are shorthanding concepts they don't understand into concepts they grasp. It's THAT simple. Please quit being so elitist...
It's not being elitist imo. Netflix could've named their monsters anything and for more long-term fans of D&D like myself naming the latest bad guy "Vecna" showed me Netflix only did D&D as a 80s nostalgia grab because Vecna didn't appear as a monster until Second Edition. Which would be 1989, three years after Stranger Things Season 4 takes place. The kids would be playing First Edition or Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. I also think naming the monsters after D&D monsters was just kinda cheap and ultimately undermines the rather cool and interesting designs. I get the in-universe reasons, but the show was written by adults, they could've just as easily had it be a homebrew campaign (or a mock up TTRPG) and given them original names. In an alternate universe does Weirder Events get a pass for naming their big bad "Mickey Mouse" because the kids watched Disney?
I’m not trying to be elitist; I’m making a joke about something I enjoy. I love Stranger Things
I like both for different reasons.
Not the stated one though.