Everyone else: Who is Vecna? This therapist: How is Vecna?

Fun fact: While Jaime is giving the speech as 001, he doesn’t blink at all (Or if he does it’s super subtle) which adds to his unnerving and intimidating nature, especially since he’s all about truly ‘seeing’ people for who they are.

Jamie was amazing at playing Vecna, I got chills during every single one of his scenes, even before his true identity was revealed. There's no way that you'd cast an actor of such high caliber, and have him play a seemingly minor role.

I get you saying we need to trust therapists but also mental health treatments back in the 60s and 70s were pretty bad and a survivor of institutionalization back then would be pretty messed up. I really want to see a therapist go over the history of mental healthcare and the way ableism and eugenics shaped hospitals and institutions.

I felt ashamed identifying with Vecna for at least a third of his speech. The disgust with the world: with all its dishonesty and hypocrisy. Then the killing began and I was like... "ok, not me! Creepy guy... find my happy place!".. Love this show. Love you analysis videos.

This was the first time I realised that this is likely the first time anyone has described typical life to El. The thing he's so contemptuous of is the thing she's been deprived of by Brenner.

Whenever Vecna was toying with his victims, taunting them with their sources of guilt and telling them that was why he was targeting them, it really did come across more like rationalization than reason. I always felt like the only reason he picked victims with things they felt guilty about is by preying on that guilt and asserting that insert-trauma-here was their own fault, it let him maintain that superior attitude he asserts over them. And also probably made them lower their mental defenses so it was easier to finish them off.

It seems to me like Vecna sees guilt as a big source of what he calls "weakness". His father feels guilt over the civilians he killed in the war. Chrissy is bulimic, which involves guilt for overeating. Larry feels guilt for the car crash he was involved in. Vecna keeps harping on Max's guilt over Billy. He thinks it is a strength to be able to do horrible things without regretting it.

Knowing his dad’s side of the story and then seeing Vecna’s it was interesting to compare them . So the red flag was Venca killing animals in a twisted way 🚩🚩🚩

I've known some of the anti-social people who, while not murderous, had some of the Vecna traits. I hope that I became friends with them and brought them into groups it helped them. Tried to keep them out of the spiral. No, you're human, you're one of us and that is OK. Then there is the difference between El and Vecna. She had the Hawkins group to keep her tethered.

I felt like his speech was one of the best parts of the season so far

What made him dangerous to me was, he was a little bit right with that she was going through. She was a prisoner, a test subject, an outsider even in her peer group, he did save her from the guards. But the important thing to remember is the context, her actual envirnment and abuse. Doesnt make him good, or right, just sircumstantually(cant spell for the life of me) correct.

I have to say that this Vecna has some similarities or easter eggs to original, D&D Vecna. So, I'll just leave some nerdy fun facts that link to ST version of Vecna ;) He was a wizard, a mortal, who became a lesser diety. One of his titles is Master of the Spider Throne - nod to the spiders in the show. He was banished to Cavitius, which is described as "cold with clouds of drifting flakes of ash" Vecna using his left hand, which is one of the two relics that remained of him in the mortal realm The eyes "removal" - eye is a second thing that he left in the mortal plane He and his cult was always extremely secretive, which I think is referenced by his obsession with showing secrets of his victims This version though is much less of a 'typical' evil villain. I love this portrayal.

It would be cool to do one on Eddie. Accused of something that he didn't do and yet he managed to stay sane through the panic. But also the psychology surrounding "Satanic Panic" would be really interesting!

Georgia don't try to make me feel bad for the villain! But I totally agree with you that media is too often portraying anti-social or otherwise people with mental disorders as violent when in reality those people are the most likely to be on the receiving end of violence.

Vecna is such a terrifying villain, in that he preys on your past trauma and insecurity. Hopefully, Nancy will be able to be rescued in time, like Max.

ngl, I really love the props, the veins on the wall, the "snakes" that are attached onto Georgia's chair, Georgia's "sausage" ribbons, and the knitted sweater that is modified into Vecna's cosplay... I love it all 😍😍

Love the Vecna room cosplay! And really enjoyed the video too!

Stranger Thing's Vecna always made me think about that poem from E.A. Poe, "Alone". In some ways it seems written for him a couple of centuries ago.

Before that final episode in this part of the season I was struggling to grasp Vecna’s motive, his logic, but as soon as we got the full backstory it started to make a bit of sense. Your breakdown is helping make infinitely more sense in my brain

The song selection of 'Running Up That Hill'... notice when Kate B. sings 'w/No Problems' the camera shot goes to him while he puts his feet on a rock, like an affirmation. This song is much much more to 001-Vecna and his desire to swap places w/011 or any of his victims to experience life that they do, instead of the 'hell' he's going through.

Sorry if I’m skipping to another universe entirely, but the argument about using power for good is exactly what’s behind the siths in the star wars universe. People usually think that in that universe, jedis are good and siths are evil, while instead it is much more complicated than that. Jedis try to do good, while also trying not to disrupture the balance between all things. This leads them many many time to let injustice happen, which is evil. Siths on the other hand, want to use their power to do what jedis do not, which is not let injustice be. However by doing this, by taking into their own hands the decision of who’s right and who’s not, and what the punishment should be, they end up craving that power ever more, causing even more injustice. This is all very well explained in “the philosophy of Kreia” video dissertation here on youtube. Anyway, this is what I think has happened, at least very closely, to Vecna, who was Vecna well before the monstrous deformation of his body (which was nothing but a physical manifestation of his true self, or the one he had become)

The one bit of sympathy I had for Vecna was him seeing his dads memory of the shelled home and the baby. Victor was clearly still haunted by his mistake as an adult. I can't even imagine seeing that as a child and knowing that your own father was responsible for it.

I've always been fascinated with the psychology of "good" and "evil", especially in movies. In other words, why does one bad event make one person take vengeance on the world, while another person decides to protect the world? I would love to see videos explaining the psychology of villains and heroes.

Ahhh it just hit me! Ell is the Black Widow. He worships and studies the Widows but he does not consider himself one or see himself as one because he actually finds them intriguing - he doesn't find himself intriguing. He sees himself as simply existing and impossible of being understood because he feels that far beyond those around him. With Elle and the Widows he sees a potential equal or as equal as something could get to him - which is what he desires.

I would love to see Georgia interview David Harbour! He’s struggled with mental health as a youth. He’s spoken against mental health used as a scapegoat for mass shootings.

I’m curious what you would do as a therapist when faced with a patient who is both telepathic and telekinetic? I’m mostly wondering whether you’d be either terrified or genuinely curious by how their mind works.

The entire storyline of stranger things could have not existed if vecna had her as a therapist lol

I had an interesting talk with a criminology PHD not long ago and we both agreed that evil is mostly learned and made, not born.

Bullies are said to have some personal trauma right? They seek out the outcast to take their stress out on. 11 attacking her bully in a violent way had negative repercussions. In a twisted way Vecna is like a superhuman bully, murdering kids who have some inner turmoil. I wonder if 11 is gonna take Vecna down in a way that doesn’t involve brute force.

I'm trying to keep my boys in therapy, they've been through a lot. They actively resist it. My oldest (10) fears they are "stealing his secrets" which I don't entirely understand. I just want them to have good copping skills to deal with life better than I have.

Damn, i would really like a session with you. My older theory of vecna was that at the start, he knew why he makes mistakes, mistakes that hurt others and when he got into people's minds he saw their mistakes without the psychological reasons for them, so he catastrophises there acts while from his prespective he when he makes a mistake it is for a reason, BUT this could be also wrong, his rage his rebellion against the idea of being broken may make him biased and too biased after committing those acts, because maybe if these acts are wrong then he is (in his eyes) broken and deserving of death and of low self esteem, so that biases him from the truth..

Very insightful! Always interesting delving into the mindset of a villain or antagonist, especially in light of how we perceive "broken" people.

You. Are. Brilliant. I just realized Will and Vecna are an exploration of what a person is capable of when they feel isolated for being different. Vecna chose to kill. Will feels isolated, feeling like a mistake (presumably for being queer), and he chose the opposite path. His painting is an expression of this. Possibly in love with Mike, he still chose to push Mike into professing his love for Eleven and healing that relationship. He chose the love for his friends, whereas Vecna chose to kill people. I'm also realizing how lucky Will is for having people that love him; I mean, friends are the family you choose. That's sacred. And that scene with Jonathan letting Will know he's loved no matter what? I saw nothing like that for Henry Creel. He wasn't abused or anything horrible, but he still seemed so alone.

Absolute off-topic, but I find it strangely fascinating how Jamie Campbell Bower barely ever moves his jaw while speaking. 😲It is ... menacing, I suppose.

Perfect Friday morning gift this guy gives me big time Freddy Krueger vibes. Plus your analysis is spot on as always and the music playing while he is telling his origin story is Dr.Manhattan’s theme from the watchmen movie.

I think the character of Vecna is one of the most incisive (and chilling) takes we’ve seen on the modern-day mass shooter phenomenon, barely disguised as an ‘80s pop culture nostalgia story. His character is then contrasted against all the innocent weirdos who gets caught up in society’s suspicions, as shown with the D&D nerds; and crucially compared to Eleven, the weirdo who hears the suspicions so much they even start to falsely believe it, and then are made to feel horribly afraid of themselves.

A rando observation, the organ music connected to Vecna scenes sounds similar to that of the origin sequence of Dr Manhattan in the "Watchmen". Who was a lonely god as well. Nice atmospheric cosplay.

I just wanted to give a huge shoutout to you Georgia for these videos, not only is there a lot of production that goes into them (costumes, set designing, editing), but also these breakdowns by a psychotherapist have not only been eye opening in how we as humans function, but also have had an impact on my writing to make character motivations and interactions feel more real, especially when writing characters that they themselves are therapists.

It's disturbing that Vecna is not able to put himself in other people's clothes not even for a moment. That's what serial killers do

So, as someone who hasn't got around to watching any stranger things yet, it's definitely interesting to see how they've applied the name of Vecna to this character. In traditional dungeons and dragons, Vecna was a man who became a lich for power, and then a god. Based purely on your video, it's really interesting to see this character parallel that as a "powerful man who views himself as a god"

THE TENDRILS! Your casual cosplay looks are absolutely insane!

This scene gave me chills and your analysis was spot on! I'd love to see your opinion on the aspect of El's struggle with her morality that was touched upon this season. Maybe also her relationship with papa. Oh, and Lucas! I'm so done w ppl hating on him because he didn't wanna be bullied anymore. So many more topics to be touched here! Mike, Will, Hopper's "curse". Sorry for the request dumb. Love your channel!

I always love your analysis, nice you added some therapeuthic strategies. 001 is such a spider in some of his predatory behaviors, setting a web and letting his preys hang themselves (with guilt etc.). I'm quite sure he rationalises his manipulaion of El by thinking: I just proposed the tools and gave her some infos, she choosed her path so 🙅‍not my responsability!

As far as Vecna is concerned I really enjoy your theories on this, but I would love to see a breakdown of his behavior as compared to real life serial killers such as Ted Bundy or Jeffery Dahmer. My reasoning for this is he feels like a traditional serial killer but with a unique method of killing. I know that they borrowed a lot of the fictional Freddy Kruger for him, but he feels far more grounded in reality than Freddy ever did. (and yes I know that is strange to say about a killer with supernatural powers).

ngl, Eleven's CGI at 0:01 never fails to make me laugh lmao

The gasp I made when I found out Jamie not only played 001 but Vecna the whole time. Wig snatched, head scalped.😱

I seriously found this genuinely interesting and insightful. The way you approached it, although not a way I had previously thought, was very well done and eye opening. Like an “oh yeah, that makes sense” without the distasteful kind of “what are you trying to get at” feeling. You’re seriously professional in the best way possible. I’m sure clients were or are…idk your current situation as I’m new to your channel…they’re very lucky to have you. You’re doing an amazing job of listening, analyzing, understanding to the best of your ability, and explaining in a way that is relatable.

I think he’s a psychopath not a sociopath because he hasn’t seem to experience some sort of trauma before the events at Hawkins. So the empathy centre of the brain would be severely under developed and this is shown when he kills animals. He can’t understand other people.

The soft cosplays are slowly getting less and less soft, and I am all here for it!

The source of Henry’s psychotic mind and behavior is that from his mental powers, he immediately perceived the darkest secrets and worst acts that any person ever did. Where society saw in his father a respectable family man and veteran of World War II, he saw the man who’d bombed an innocent family and burned a baby alive. And then from each new person’s dark secret (he alludes to something bad his mother had done, whatever it was, and on and on from there) he concluded that all of human existence was utterly pointless and a lie. Of course, human life is a mixture of beauty and darkness. But in Henry’s view of the world, the darkness was all that mattered, and anything seemingly bright and noble was just a hypocritical cover story.

Man if Henry just got a good therapist, Stranger things wouldn't even need to exist.

they aren’t suggested a lot because they are underrated and deserve more appreciation Georgia Also you would love ultra violet and the black scorpion

Man that décor is on point, love what you did with the tendrils and wires in the back.

God it’s so relieving to hear u give a sympathetic view of ASPD- ppl in the cluster b personality disorder group tend to get the short end of the stick and they’re so often vilified and scapegoated. Especially people with NPD and ASPD, especially by therapists misusing the terminology and referring to abusers as psychopaths or sociopaths or narcissists when so often those people are victims of abuse and their mindsets and behaviours are shaped by the traumas they experienced. I’m someone with a massive interest in psychology, and who was afraid to step into the field because of how poorly people with these personality disorders are treated. But you’ve given me hope and I feel much more drive to try and enter this line of work. Thank you so much, you have no idea how important this is to me

god i love seeing the amount of effort you put into these videos!! great commentary and i LOVE seeing your cosplays every episode :) keep up the good work! truly an incredibly educational and entertaining series

Glad i had already binged it. The fist seconds of this video that autoplays in the youtube feed is a major spoiler for the first half of s4. I suggest having a longer leadup before spoiling so people has a heads up.

It’s so interesting seeing your view of things, love watching your videos.

i always love the background and clothes your wearing for certain shows or characters lol. The vecna tentacles are awesome

Omg, this is exactly what I needed and love! I love psychology and I love films & TV series. I love diving deep into the characters from a film/series I'm into and analysing their actions, motives, personality, relationships with other characters, etc. I have no training in psychology, though, so what you're doing is incredibly interesting for me to hear! Can't wait to watch your other videos. I hope your channel grows!

Thank you for your amazing work, i really enjoy watching your insights into motivations of others. Also one thing that genuine iterests me, did you train your voice intonation to be so soothing, Or is it a gift you happen to have ? I believe i could calm down listening to your voice even if you were reading a phone book. I am always happy whenever i get popup with notification about new content from you (only other channel that does this for me is the primitive technology guy)

Amazing work Georgia 😊 thank you

I can't imagine how much work goes into your videos, Georgia. Honestly, it must be a colossal amount. So much information, and teaching but also so damned enjoyable. Thank you!

LOVE the set you built. Great video as always!

I just wanna say I really appreciate how much effort your put in the costumes for these videos! I notice all of them and love all of them! And this one was so so good and creative too ♥️♥️ looking forward to more! I’d love a video on Will throughout the seasons!

“I can fix him” but it might actually work

i just love your voice its so calming! please make more of these 🤗

Love how you work your outfits for the videos!!!

Great video and analysis!!

Your analysis on people's psychology is very well thought out. And your insight on Vecna is something that very fascinating to listen to. Love your reviews keep up the great work. 🙂👍🏼

Seeing your take on this is really cool! I find it really interesting seeing a real therapists take on fictional characters! Awesome video I’d love to see more of it

Your Mind Lair Chair is epic. I wouldn't have even noticed if it didn't move around a bit when you moved in your chair. Love your content. Half my family are therapists so it is really interesting seeing someone with a good mix of humility, curiosity, wisdom, maturity, and empathy address these topics. You're clearly very talented and caring and anyone would do well to find you as their therapist!

thank you for making this video 🙂

As someone who can REALLY relate to vecna for some unknown reason My theory is more on focuses on his rage against hypocrisy, the fact that he's being alienated by people, and the stress that people are giving to each other. I forgot if this was said in the video, but for him, he is above it. He is above the "eat sleep reproduce" cycle and what he sees as unnecessary human desires as these desires create unnecessary stress from people who do not have the right amount of empathy or respect for others. He might see everything on sort of a base value and see people causing harm to others over something that he sees as pointless things. Which is why that's why he sees humans as pest. Maybe for him, he sees himself doing a lesser evil to end a greater one which is how he can excuse what he has done and maybe, just maybe, he sees that his beliefs trump other beliefs just because those beliefs are more flawed. Idk if this is just self projection or if I got it atleast a wee bit right but that's just my 2 cents.

I really love your channel!

I don't know if you have done it yet, but could you please do the characters from "The Boys"? I would loved to see videos of Homelander, Mr. Edgars, Hughie, Butcher, and Starlight in particular, but all of the major characters really.

Great talk! Also, lol, love the foam tentacles behind you - nice touch. ;)

Villains like Vecna make me question how much nature and nurture can make people who they really are. What makes one have really different beliefs if not nurtured into it. I struggle with the nature aspect because I have everything happens for a reason mindset

Amazing vid :)

You are our therapist without even knowing it, You're video's are beautiful and meaningful and you see the bigger picture of characters and I love that

What I loved about this character is that we seen his human side as almost a red herring. He was the savor of El. He was the one in the facility that seemed good and did not want to bring harm to everyone. We only see glimpses in to El’s memory and when we find out he is Venca, it shows how manipulative and evil he was. It is incredible how much work he did behind the scenes. We are used to seeing his other form and how he uses his power. The writers already made him a formidable opponent l, but we only knew the half of it until we saw who he started out as. He is also compelling because there is sympathy there, at first. The facility was cruel and taught everyone to be cruel. Venca thought the people he killed were just as bad as the adults who taught them to be cruel in the first place. We don’t approve of his actions, but his reasons are justifiable. It is also the classic story of what would happen if you followed this person’s path. Just like Venca, we can see El is a foil to him. We see what she could have been if she chose to hold onto her anger and let power go to her head.

Thank you so much for helping our mental health be healthy I have rlly bad disorders anxiety autism and I feel really guilty hope you will help stay updated!💞

Veca just seemed like an irredeemingly evil person. One of those sterotypical villains that have no good in them whatsoever, and the kind of "psychopath" media portrays villains as.

Super off topic but I love how u did the vecna make up on ur arms and set up behind you

i think it's interesting how El blocked out all of this stuff with the other kids and 001.

Awsome background Georgia 😍🥰

Very Great Video Again.

i have Antisocial Personality Disorder, was diagnosed back in 2011. red flags were present from the beginning: i hurt the family cat, had fits of destructive rage, no guilt or remorse, unable to feel empathy, shallow fleeting emotions (besides anger, disgust and hatred - those have always been the most intense and legitimate), preferred solitary activities etc. it worsened to me becoming violent as a teenager towards others. my parents noticed what was going on and i was put into therapy early - before age 5 early. i was heavily medicated to the point of zombie like sedation, hospitalized against my will almost a dozen times, evaluated and examined by every doctor and specialist under the sun (in my area). i was aggressive and violent towards the staff and other patients in the units; all of my paperwork from every psych unit throughout the years contained the same sentence: “patient is uncooperative, hostile, and combative.” my parents aren’t good people either. i relate so much to Vecna; especially his anger and seething hatred for humanity. i used to tell the psychologists and psychiatrists i saw how much i despised this world and wanted to watch it burn to ash. i even wanted to set it on fire myself. it took over 18 years and extreme intensive therapy to realize that even though having this disorder wasn’t within my control (my father has Narcissistic Personality Disorder with Antisocial traits, and studies have shown that a biological child of a parent with a Cluster B disorder is 50-55% more likely to develop the same disorder or another Cluster B disorder), what IS in my control is my actions. i CHOSE to do the morally right thing by not hurting others. i haven’t always succeeded but i’ve never done permanent damage, and the fits of rage have become less frequent as i got older. the things you mentioned: being the scapegoat in a family of hypocrites, being treated like a wild animal, seeing the world for what it is, feeling like a prisoner when i was hospitalized and forced to go to therapy, feeling like a lab rat / failed experiment, etc are all things i’ve experienced. i’ve also seen the visceral reaction others have had (usually neurotypical people, but some ND people too) towards me. i scare people, intimidate them, make them nervous. it’s not something i do purposely - i can’t pretend to be something i’m not, and masking is annoying. i also think neurotypical people have a sort of “sense” when someone like me is in their general vicinity (the feeling of danger nearby) - as an evolved response to predator animals. i’m not calling myself that; it’s more of the feeling of “an other” or different type of person / animal being around. it’s a concept that has been described to me by someone i asked. i found that fascinating since i don’t feel fear and can’t be intimidated. additionally, i won’t make excuses for the terrible things i’ve done in the past but i’ve made steps to improve (and mitigate the risk of violence occurring, which hasn’t in a while thankfully). i own up and take accountability; i feel no guilt or remorse but i know i must live within society’s rules in order to keep my freedom - and i value that about all else. it’s selfish but i’m a selfish person 🤷🏻‍♀️ i’m a cold, detached person and always have been; but thankfully the anger has calmed down and i’m more robotic (or “in robot mode” as i nicknamed it) these days. thank you for proving such an insightful analysis, Georgia. my analytical brain appreciates your candidness and ability to explain such complex things in a way everyone can understand, in a non-judgmental way. i also really appreciate you taking time to de-stigmatize people like me who have ASPD… we’re not all Ted Bundy or Michael Myers, and there are more of us out here than most people realize. you’re awesome.

Interestingly his backstory here is a direct reference to Dr Manhattan from Watchmen when he's talking about how he's grown tired of humanity. The music is either the same or heavily inspired by the same used in the movie adaptation (Pruit Igoe by Philip Glass), not to mention the clock motif. You can see the scene I'm referring to here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rbWApc6T3tfPaKc.html

Great stuff! I was speculating with a friend that it seems more like BPD/Narcissism versus APD. Usually when you meet sociopaths in real like they don't have much of a philosophy, except "I wanna get mine" and won't go very far to justify themselves when getting caught. What do you think?

i like how your outfit matches the person you are talking about 👍👍👍👍your doing really good keep it up!!!

Thanks…I enjoyed your thoughts. Blessings on your day.

His likening of “order” to a straightjacket actually made a lot of sense. He talks about how all of humanity does is grow, produce, and die. That the “order” of society is actually our pacification

I was watching max new video for wake up video and I was like wow now I want vecna vid and here we are thank youuuuu

Georgia, this is a whole Look. Great job.

Even in the early episodes when Henry was acting "nice," there was a part of me that felt he was secretly bad. Like subtle acting cues I was picking up on that I couldn't fully describe. I couldn't shake that feeling, and finding out who he was in the end made that feeling make sense.

I'm sorry but I love the cosplays,the voice ,the content and just everything thing about this channel

Thank you.♡

And I really love your customs every time!

Great deconstruction of Vecna. Therapist should be a natural part of any film/tv/stage production team. Seriously, a therapist can help everyone involved understand the characters/motivations/and environmental impacts and how they work together. A director has to shake that all out and communicate it to the creative team but a therapist can help spot things that maybe even the seasoned story teller missed.