‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 Theory Reveals the Secret to Defeating Vecna

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Warning: Includes MASSIVE SPOILERS for Stranger Things, Season 5, Part 1!

After a three-year wait, the first part of Stranger Things Season 5 is finally here. Netflix is releasing the final season in three parts to build anticipation and maximize viewership. The first four episodes were released just before Thanksgiving, with the next three coming out at Christmas 2025, and the last episodes, which will conclude the series, scheduled for New Year’s Eve.

The first four episodes of Season 5 were full of surprising reveals, shedding light on characters’ backstories and reintroducing faces and storylines from Season 2. These returns and new details could be crucial to how the characters will finally overcome Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), the main villain. Hints about all of this may have been present as early as 2017, and it all seems to tie into the world of Dungeons & Dragons.

11+8+1=20 Theory Explained


Image via Netflix

I’m a huge fan of Eleven from Stranger Things! She’s this incredible girl with telekinetic powers, and I’ve noticed she reminds me a lot of characters like Carrie from Stephen King’s novel and Jean Grey from the X-Men. It’s pretty wild to learn that she wasn’t the only one with powers – she was actually part of a whole group of kids being experimented on at Hawkins National Laboratory. It makes her story even more compelling knowing she was just one of many.

Eleven wasn’t the only child experimented on. Kali Prasad, known as Eight, was another test subject Eleven encountered in Season 2. Eight has the power to make people see things that aren’t real. She first appeared in the Season 2 episode “Chapter Seven: The Lost Sister,” which is often considered one of the weakest episodes of Stranger Things. As a result, her character and storyline seemed to be dropped. However, eight years after her initial appearance, the creators, the Duffer Brothers, have brought Kali back, suggesting she may play a significant role in the show’s final season.

As a total film and TV geek, I’ve been diving deep into Stranger Things theories, and one really caught my eye. It’s fascinating to think about what would happen if Eleven and Eight teamed up – their powers combined would be seriously incredible. And get this: their numbers add up to 19, which is just one away from 20, the number of sides on a D20 die! For those who don’t know, a D20 is a staple of Dungeons & Dragons. It’s wild to think how much the show draws from that world. I actually first stumbled across this ‘D20 theory’ back on July 15th, 2022, when a Reddit user named CremeDeLeCrem420 posted about it, and it’s been stuck in my head ever since.

I’m really convinced we’re going to see Eleven, Kali, and Henry Creel working together in Season 5 to finally take down the Mind Flayer, or whatever’s really in charge of the Upside Down. The Duffer Brothers actually hinted at this way back in the first volume of Season 4, during that Dungeons & Dragons game! Remember when Dustin rolled an 11 and failed, but then Erica rolled a natural 20? I think that was a major clue! I haven’t seen anyone else talking about this, so I’m curious to hear your thoughts.

Rolling a 20 on the dice—often called a ‘natural 20’—automatically means the action succeeds. It’s the best possible roll in the game and usually signifies a win, whether it’s for a simple task or a crucial event.

Henry Creel is revealed to be Vecna, the main villain of Stranger Things, and the one who’s been pulling the strings since the very beginning. This raises a new question: if Henry is no longer around, who will fulfill the role of the missing number ‘1’ in the popular D20 theory? The answer appears to be Will Byers (played by Noah Schnapp), who has demonstrated telekinetic abilities.

How Will Byers Completes the Theory


Netflix

In the fourth episode of Stranger Things Season 5, titled “Chapter Four: Sorcerer,” it was revealed that Will Byers has powers. He demonstrated this by taking control of a Demogorgon. These powers originated when Will was first possessed by Vecna in Season 1, essentially giving him a piece of Vecna’s abilities. However, unlike characters like Eleven and Eight, Will’s powers aren’t natural to him and depend on his proximity to the ‘hive mind’ – the collective consciousness connecting creatures from the Upside Down. According to the Duffer brothers, the creators of the show, Will can only use his powers when he’s close to this hive mind. This also means he can only control things directly connected to it, like the Demogorgon, and can’t perform feats like telekinesis or create illusions.

Now that Will has been revealed as Vecna’s first victim, fans are revisiting the theory that Eleven, Eight, and Will (as the original ‘One’) are all connected. The idea is that combining their powers – represented by the numbers 11, 8, and 1 – totals 20, which could be the key to defeating Vecna. Some speculate this ’20’ refers to a ‘Nat 20’ – a perfect roll – in Dungeons & Dragons, the game that started the entire story in Stranger Things back in 2016. Whether it’s a simple 20 or a modified one, the number creates a neat link back to the show’s origins.

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2025-11-29 23:04