DnD and Stranger Things
The series begins in a basement with kids playing DnD. And it ends in exactly the same way. Short of putting up neon lights, the Duffer Brothers could not have made it clearer that the series is built around DnD and follows its logic. They did something very simple. They took The Goonies and dropped them into a DnD campaign. The idea is simple and brilliant. When you see it this way, many questions answer themselves.
Point 1: The fight did not last long, the monster died quickly.
Answer: The fight lasted a very long time. Right before it begins, Dustin says they need to take down its HP. HP means hit points, which is the life total of any creature in DnD. If a creature has 200 HP, you need to deal 200 damage to kill it. Why does this matter? Because from the very start of the fight, the script clearly states that this is a DnD battle. Therefore, the heroes make attacks, and each attack deals damage. In DnD, even a very powerful fight rarely lasts more than ten rounds. Ten rounds equal exactly one minute, since each round lasts six seconds. The fight with Vecna and the Mind Flayer lasted more than a minute. It was an extremely long fight. Also, the characters have specific roles. Some heroes make ranged attacks, and others make melee attacks, like Steve and Dustin, under the belly of the monster. This is a classic DnD pattern where each player has a different way of fighting.
Point 2: The monster died easily.
Answer: On the surface, this sounds similar to the previous criticism, but it is very different. The monster did not die easily. If El had not entered the Mind Flayer, the fight would have been over. Right before the battle, it was mentioned that Vecna and the Mind Flayer are a hive mind, another clear DnD reference. This does not only relate to communication and power distribution, but also to a symbiotic relationship between them. This symbiosis gives them strength and weaknesses. In DnD, every creature has both. What is the creature’s weakness? When you hit Vecna or the Mind Flayer, both feel pain. So every blow against one creature distracts and weakens the other. If this were not the case, the fight would have ended very early.
At this point, we also see the traditional Manichaean logic that runs through DnD, which revolves around good and evil. Vecna’s weakness is the Mind Flayer, and vice versa. For the heroes, this is their strength. One complements the other, and their love makes them stronger.
Point 3: Why did he want twelve children and not 11 or 13?
Answer: Because that is how it is. In DnD, you always design adventures where the villain needs to find seven artifacts, or twelve souls, or 22 toilets. Why? Because that is how it works. That is the biology of the Mind Flayer, and that is what it agreed on with Vecna.
Point 4: Where are the Demogorgons, Demobats, and Demo toilets?
Answer: Final episode means final boss. The boss is usually strong enough on its own and does not need company, especially if the DM wants to build a climax. You cannot create such an epic villain and also surround them with minions. However, if we want a narrative justification, there is a perfectly good one. Vecna is channeling all his power to bring an entire plane down into the material plane, meaning Earth. It makes sense that he would not waste energy summoning minions. Also, the heroes have Will, El, and Kali with them, who would logically eat the Demo things for breakfast. So he would be spending energy for something that might bring zero benefit.
Point 5: Why was the Mind Flayer not that powerful if it was Vecna’s leader?
Answer: The Mind Flayer was not Vecna’s leader. They had a symbiotic relationship. Vecna clearly found an extremely powerful creature, like the tarrasque in DnD, with which he could form a symbiosis. This allowed him to tap into far greater powers than he would have had on his own. Essentially, he multiplied his power through the Mind Flayer.
Counterargument: Yes, but the Mind Flayer was telling him that the human world is evil and must be destroyed and made perfect, so it was guiding Vecna.
Answer: That makes sense, because just as we look at the creature’s world and say it is hostile and full of danger, the Mind Flayer sees our world in the same way. Vecna wants to believe in a perfect world because the world he lived in before was not perfect. If that means total destruction, so be it. Vecna is not being guided, but rather convinced by a truth he wants to believe.
PS1: If some people want Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones style battles, those masterpieces already exist. Still, if you want LoTR and GoT, you can find something similar in Stranger Things, because the entire series is about cripples, bastards, and broken things. And I remind you of Aragorn’s line to Legolas and Gimli when they decide to find the two hobbits: “not if we hold true to each other.” All of Stranger Things is the story of people who hold true to each other.
PS2: Fellow DnD players who might say “yes, but there were no sorcerers in 2nd edition,” the answer is “yes, house rules.”
