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The Demogorgons are major antagonists in the Stranger Things franchise.
They are a predatory species from dimensions known as "the Upside Down" and "Dimension X", which are part of the Upside Down hive mind controlled by Mind Flayer and serve as his army. Among the species, there are three significant members; the Hawkins Demogorgon, D'Artagnan and the Russian Demogorgon. Adoscelent Demogorgons who haven't reached adulthood are known as Demodogs, a term coined by Dustin Henderson due to them basically being Demogorgons whose behavior resemble that of dogs.
Biography[]
Background[]
The Demogorgons are a species native to the Upside Down, and were already there when Henry Creel was banished to the realm. It can be presumed they were already controlled as part of a hive mind by a large amount of shadow, alien particles in a stormy cloud; and if they weren't, they most certainly were after Henry transformed the particles into a creature known as the Mind Flayer. It's unknown if the Demogorgons were already hostile before Henry's arrival, given that the Demogorgon that encountered Henry before he entered the Upside Down was rather peaceful and simply ignored him.
1983[]
- Main article: Hawkins Demogorgon
In the first season, an adult Demogorgon kidnapped several people in Hawkins, including Barbara Holland and Will Byers. Their bodies served as hosts for Demogorgon larvae, including Will, who was the only one who survived being attacked by the monster and spit out the slug-like lava in the bathroom sink. Eventually, such slug-like larvae - the first stage of the Demogorgon - begin to metamorphose, and their form is the one of a fluffy tadpole-like creature.
1984[]
Dustin finds one of these creatures in a trash can on Halloween night and takes him home. Feeding him with the 3 Musketeers chocolate, he names the creature D'Artagnan after it, or "Dart" for short. Over the course of a few days, Dart undergoes constant metamorphoses and gets bigger as he eats. One day, he reaches a stage in which he develops both the flower-like mouth and the killing instinct, typical of the Demogorgon. Dustin finds out too late when the creature he took home kills and eats his cat.
At school, while Dustin showed Dart, still a pollywog, to his friends, Will remembered the "slug" he vomited out on Christmas Eve and acknowledged the creature as originating from the Upside Down, realizing that the noises Dart makes are the same ones he heard in the Upside Down.
He manages to lure Dart out of his house and lock him in a cellar, while calling Steve Harrington to help him deal with the creature, only to find out that he managed to escape by breaking the wall and digging a tunnel. When Steve, Dustin, Max and Lucas team up to try to lure him into a trap in the junkyard, Dart resurfaces bigger and in the company of other members of his species, at the same stage as him.
A demodog killing Bob Newby.
The creatures almost kill the group, but suddenly stop attacking and go in a different direction. The teens realize that the Demodogs follow commands from something superior, that entity being the Mind Flayer . The Demodogs finally reach the tunnels under the Hawkins laboratory, where they massacre several soldiers who were sent there because of information given by Will Byers, who in turn was manipulated by the Mind Flayer, who wanted to kill the soldiers as revenge.
After massacring the soldiers, the pack invades Hawkins Laboratory, breaking any barriers and killing anyone they come across, including several scientists and police. When the protagonists were about to leave, Bob Newby is chased and caught by a Demodog, who attacks and kills him. Police chief Jim Hopper tries to scare it away with gunshots, which attracted more Demodogs, forcing him and Joyce Byers to escape and leave Bob to his death.
Later, a Demodog tries to invade Joyce's house, but is attacked and killed by Eleven before it can do it. Its body is then put into a freezer, and is not seen nor mentioned for the rest of the series. The Mind Flayer later sends out the Demodogs to kill Eleven and Hopper when they tried to close the gate that linked Earth to the Upside Down, but they end up killed when Eleven manages to successfully close it, due to them being part of the Mind Flayer's hive mind and thus dying if "disconnected" from it.
1985[]
At an unknown point in time, the Soviet Union manages to capture their own Demogorgon and kept it in the Kamchatka gulag where it feed on prisoners. Accounts varied on how they achieved it:
- Stranger Things: Kamchatka established the gate opened by Dr. Karine and her cohorts stabilized long enough for a baby Demogorgon to pass through before its Key finally destroyed. She then had the Demogorgon raised and experimented until it became strong enough to open a portal as much as its Hawkins kin.
- Another account from Dmitri Antonov himself claimed the creature to be transported from America, specifically the more stable gate beneath Starcourt Mall, Hawkins — the official teleplay for "Chapter Eight: Papa" elaborated the Demogorgon to be one of at least half a dozen in fact. It's also implied his men secured the deceased Demodog within the Byers's fridge by Dustin and Steve as well.
1986[]
When Hopper is imprisoned within Kamchatka, he learns about the Demogorgon kept inside the prison. When Joyce, Murray and Dimitri break into the gulag to save Hopper, they not only discover the Demogorgon by themselves, but also reveal that Russians are keeping several Demodogs. They find a room where there's a Demodog tied and being dissected alive, and Hopper puts it out of its misery with a shot to the head. But later, they realize there's a room full of Demodogs sleeping in tanks, including a large piece of the Mind Flayer's shadow particles encased in another one. When the Demogorgon is released during the heroes' first scape, it rampages across the prison and faces off against several guards. It eventually makes its way to the room with the frozen Demodogs, where it comes across more guards, who accidentally miss while trying to kill it and thus break the tanks. The Mind Flayer particle that was encased breaks free and possesses all the Demodogs, before slaughtering any remaining guards inside the prison.
Joyce, Murray and Hopper eventually find a way to help the kids in Hawkins defeat the "evil" residing in it. Realising it must be a part of the Upside Down, as an extension it must also be part of the hive mind; remembering the Demogorgon, they decide to attack and kill it, which would hurt the rest of the hive mind by extension. When they enter the prison, they find all the guards dead and the tanks storing the Demodogs broken. They eventually form a plan, with them trying to lure the Demodogs to the area where the prisoners were being slaughtered by the Demogorgon. While it took a while, with Hopper almost being killed by one of the creatures, they eventually succeed in their plan. Using a flamethrower, Murray slaughters all the Demodogs and thus also deals heavy damage to Vecna/Henry, the "evil" from Hawkins. The Demogorgon barely survives and proceeds to fight Hopper, who manages to decapitate it.
Gallery[]
.png "Demogorgon (Fornite).png (393 KB)")
Trivia[]
- Demogorgon larvae are fought as enemies when exploring the Upside Down in the season 2 prequel game Stranger Things: The Game, in that game, they split into two smaller larvae when defeated.
External Link[]
- Demogorgons on the Stranger Things Wiki
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 Villains
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Upside Down Hawkins National Laboratory Hawkins High Tigers Hargrove Family Soviet Union Others | ||