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A new Stranger Things fan theory posits that, while Vecna seems all-powerful and undefeatable, season 5 might just bring us something even worse.
Warning: Spoilers for Stranger Things season 4, volume 2 ahead!
Dungeons & Dragons is used as a self-referential plot device in Stranger Things. The fantasy tabletop roleplay game first debuted in 1974, originally designed and developed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The players create their own characters, and interact with elements and characters of the game's universe by way of problem-solving and battle (it's often seen as one of the best tabletop RPGs ever made). Mike, Will, Lucas, and Dustin play a 1984 edition of the game.
TikTok user Ivan Mars theorized that, if Mike and co. are using the game to predict each new villain they come across – the worst has yet to come.
Season 1 brought us the Demogorgon, with season 2 introducing us to even more terrifying Mind Flayer. Stranger Things season 4 gave us Vecna aka Henry aka 001, a fellow Hawkins Laboratory patient with psychic abilities that managed to harness the Upside Down's power after being trapped there by Eleven. This is not far off from who he is in D&D, with his character being a wizard who turned himself into a frightening undead creature in order to gain immortality.
In the TikTok, Mars says that – despite the chaos and death and destruction he brought into Hawkins – Vecna is not, in fact, the most powerful villain in Dungeon and Dragons. According to Mars (and the D&D Dark Sun Wiki via Fandom) the most powerful villain is a Red Dragon by the name of Borys.
According to the Dark Sun Fandom, Borys has scales that glow red with the heat of magma and clouds gather beneath his wings like a storm of fire. In the final moments of season four, we see dark clouds roll over Hawkins, red lightning, and fire beginning to consume the city. Nancy told the gang that when Vecna showed her his evil plan, she saw "a dark cloud spreading over Hawkins, downtown on fire, dead soldiers, and this giant creature with a gaping mouth." Now that the Upside Down is open, anything is possible. Anything can be unleashed. We'll just have to wait and see.
For more, check out our list of Stranger Things season 4, Volume 2 Easter eggs for cool details and references you might have missed. You can also check out the best Stranger Things merch here, or the best Dungeons and Dragons books overall.
