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| “ | He can't hear you. You shouldn't have looked for me. Because now, I see you. Now we can all see you. You let us in. And now, you, are going to have to let us stay. Don't you see? All this time, we've been building it. We've been building it… for you. All that work, all that pain, all of it. For you. And now it's time. Time to end it. And we are going to end you, and when you are gone, we are going to end your friends. And then, we are going to end… everyone. | „ |
| ~ The Mind Flayer to Eleven while possessing Billy Hargrove. |
The Mind Flayer, also known as the Shadow Monster, is the main antagonist of the Stranger Things franchise.
It is a colossal, mysterious, and malevolent shadow-like entity that rules two supernatural alternate dimensions existing in a parallel world to the human world, Dimension X and the Upside Down.
It acts as the hive mind for its residential creatures, such as the Demogorgons and Demobats, as well as being the master of Vecna. Setting its sights on Earth, the Mind Flayer orchestrates numerous schemes to open interdimensional gates across the town of Hawkins, Indiana in order to wipe out humanity and conquer Earth, alongside with, eventually, the universe. It is the arch-nemesis of the Party (particularly Eleven, Mike Wheeler and Will Byers).
While impersonating Will Byers and Billy Hargrove, he was portrayed by Noah Schnapp and Dacre Montgomery, while as Shadow Brenner, he was portrayed by Matthew Modine, respectively.
Personality[]
The Mind Flayer is an extremely malevolent and intelligent entity. His intelligence is proven when he uses the mindless Demogorgons to his own ends and by luring the soldiers who wounded it into a trap of its Demodog minions. After his first visit to Earth, he is able to plan for taking over the planet by trapping and flaying Billy Hargrove due to him being Max Mayfield's step-brother, but keeping his mind intact to increase the entity's reach. After flaying Tom Holloway, he is able to manipulate both Nancy and Jonathan to stop investigating Doris Driscoll and while trying to kill the Party, the Flayer is able to recognize a walkie-talkie and scream to Dustin to shut up.
This creature is also enigmatic, as his personality are theorized by Dustin, for the most part. According to him, the Mind Flayer is a narcissist who thinks of himself as superior to all other races. His mind works differently than humans' minds; his only goal is to spread his malevolent influence everywhere he can, as he views things that aid him in his goals as good, whereas the things that withhold him from doing so as bad. This is why he wishes to exterminate humanity completely and merge Earth with his own dimension.
The Mind Flayer is immensely sadistic, as he sees no problem with inflicting psychological torture on humans. His sadism even extends to children to which he seems to hate, and taking his time to slowly kill Billy for his defiance. He is also prone to wrath and anger when events deviate from his plans, as he randomly destroyed his surroundings when such a situation occurred. He has also a taste for revenge, seen when it put its plan on destroying mankind aside and instead, focusing on killing the Party.
Ironically, despite being sadistic, the Mind Flayer has little if any tolerance to pain, reacting to even small portions of himself scorched with screaming and agony. This is one of his weaknesses. In light of this information, the Mind Flayer is a purely evil entity of pure and utter darkness with no redeeming qualities whatsoever unlike Vecna who genuinely loves Patty. It is also shown to not care about its five star general Vecna/Henry taking the shadowy form of Virginia and Brenner to mentally torment him.
Appearance[]
The Mind Flayer is an amorphous mass of chthonic darkness of the most diabolical caliber. When he met Henry Creel, the latter changed his appearance to resemble a colossal arachnid-like beast to make him look even more fearsome and demonic than he did before. When he melted down hundreds of undeserving rats and dozens of innocent people, he resembled the form Henry gave him, but encapsulated in flesh and capable of extending tendrils to attack the heroes.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Hive Mind: The most striking ability of the mind flayer is the common consciousness between his shadow particles. The Mind Flayer can possessed every living organism by putting his particle fragments inside them. as an result every creature full to his possession share mind with every other members in the hive mind. Due to the nature of the common consciousness of the particles the Mind Flayer and his hosts have almost full know knowledge of each other, with all obey to him as the centre of hive mind.
- Size alteration: Being made up of countless dust particles, the Mind Flayer can change its size and shape at any time. The Mind flayer seems to maintain its central mass amount as the dominant and main shape.
- Immense speed: The nature of shadow allow the entity to transport itself from places fast, being particles of dust, the fragments of the Mind Flayer can fly at high speed in a matter of seconds, like the particle that came out of Will after it was banished form his body by Nancy wheeler and Jonathan and Joyce Byers.
- Power bestowal: The Mind Flayer was prove to have the ability to empower his hosts in his hive mind. All the Flayed of 1985 was got strengthening physical strength and superhuman endurance follow their connection to the Mind Flayer. The main flayed, Billy Hargrove was empower by the Mind Flayer during his first fight against eleven. When was Flayed, Billy was strong enough to face eleven psychic powers and for a moment overpower her. He also was strong to withstand a collision with concrete walls and still continue to run afterwards
- Power negation: Following his control over the bodies and minds of his hosts, the Mind Flayer can use his psychic powers to disrupt and steal psychic powers from various creatures that have a connection to his hive mind. In 1985, the Mind Player's proxy body left a piece of itself in Eleven's leg and although it was later removed it was able to temporarily cut off her access to her powers (until they were restored in March, 1986), and was able give Vecna access to her powers.
- Weather manipulation: throughout the show, the Mind Flayer has been prove to have an connection and control of the weather in the upside down at will. The entity was accompanied at will by clouds and lightnings storms at different times, and could summon lightnings in the sky throughout the dimension. It is also been seem that the Mind Flayer is influence on the temperature state of his location, due to the Upside Down cold environment tie to the natural repulsion of the dust particles to fire and heat.
- Assimilation: To be added
- Regeneration: To be added
- Perception manipulation: To be added
- Biokinesis: The Mind Flayer has been shown to have the ability to chemically manipulate the bodies of its hosts. All the members of the hive mind was prove to have lower and colder temperature. The blood of the Flayed was change to black and their biological system was changed to be more similar to the biology of the Upside Down creatures. The Mind Flayer was also able to melting his hosts bodies and move their remain flesh in order to create new monsters under his control. However, that specific ability only been seem with the flayed who ate toxic chemicals, so the nature and limits of this ability are unknown.
- Chlorokinesis: To be added
Abilities[]
- Genius-level intelligence: To be added
- Master tactician: To be added
- Intimidation: To be added
Weaknesses[]
- Heat: Quite ironically for a being of darkness, the Mind Flayer has a pronounced preference for cold temperatures and cannot stand the heat, preferring autumn breezes over even room-temperature (70-degree) environments. Hence, he was extremely agitated by being near a fireplace or a sauna and later being pelted with fireworks, to the point of relinquishing Will and almost relinquishing Billy the first time and weakening enough to unwillingly let Billy go during and after the firework incident.
- Ignorance: The Mind Flayer, as a purely evil creature, cannot understand righteousness. Hence, he underestimated Will's closeness with his friends as well as his mother and also underestimated Billy's capacity for self-reflection and the entire Party's capacity for nobility and self-sacrifice. If he could comprehend virtue at all, he would doubtlessly have won all four times.
Flayed victims[]
- Henry Creel (host and first human victim)
- Will Byers (former host; Mind Flayer exorcised out of his body by his family via heaters)
- Billy Hargrove (former host; killed by the Mind Flayer via stabbing through the heart)
- Heather Holloway (dissolved to flesh)
- Doris Driscoll (dissolved to flesh)
- Tom Holloway (dissolved to flesh)
- Janet Holloway (dissolved to flesh)
- Bruce Lowe (dissolved to flesh)
- Adam (dissolved to flesh)
- David (dissolved to flesh)
- Dozens of Hawkins citizens (possibly dissolved to flesh)
Relationships[]
Friends/Allies[]
- Vecna (Stranger Things) (servant)
- Billy Hargrove (formerly)
- Hawkins Demogorgon (thrall)
- Russian Demogorgon (thrall)
- D'Artagnan (formerly)
- Demogorgons (thrall)
- Demobats (thrall)
- Will Byers (formerly)
Other Media[]
Smite[]
In Smite, it appears as a skin for Sylvanus as part of the Stranger Things-themed battle pass.
Far Cry 6[]
It is a minor antagonist in Far Cry 6, being the main antagonist of the crossover DLC mission "The Vanishing". Here, it is nicknamed Chernobog, and appears in its huge shadowy form. It tries to stop Dani Rojas from rescuing Chorizo, and also sends the Demogorgon/"El Devorador" to kill him and then cross the real world in order to kill all of Yara's people, but it ultimately fails. It can summon Kukly who are people from Yara controlled by its hive mind.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles X Stranger Things[]
- Main article: Mind Flayer (TMNT/Stranger Things)
The Mind Flayer appears as the main antagonist of this crossover comic, where it invades and attempts to conquer New York City.
Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross[]
In Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross, it appears as a crossover boss.
Trivia[]
A Mind Flayer from Dungeons & Dragons, its namesake.
- Similar to the Demogorgon, the Mind Flayer is named after a Dungeons and Dragons monster, the Illithids.
- An ongoing theory is that Borys from Dungeons and Dragons (who is a dragon, like seen in Will's drawing, and the only creature ranked higher than Vecna in power), is the true identity of the Mind Flayer and the Fog is possibly just a fragment of it's power.
- In Episode 9 of Season 4, Vecna's monologue stated that the Mind Flayer had simply been a mindless entity he had discovered upon his arrival in The Upside Down that he had been using as his personal vessel the entire time throughout the events of the show which had temporarily made Vecna perceived as the main villain of the franchise. This however was retconned in the First Shadow stage play in which the Mind Flayer is revealed to have in actuality been influencing the unaware Henry all along and posing as the latter's avatar thus making the Mind Flayer the main antagonist once more.
External Links[]
- Mind Flayer on the Stranger Things Wiki
[]
 Villains
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Upside Down Hawkins National Laboratory Hawkins High Tigers Hargrove Family Soviet Union Others | ||
