Stranger Things fans will say goodbye to the beloved supernatural Netflix series at the end of the year. The show created by the Duffer Brothers has had a big impact on pop culture. The series casts a wide demographic net, offering ‘80s nostalgia for Gen X, Millennial, and even Baby Boomer fans alike while also appealing to Gen Z as it centers around a group of teenagers.
Stranger Things also boasts compelling, edge-of-your-seat storytelling. Central to the compelling plot lines are the power dynamics between the show’s main characters, heroes, and villains. However, power in Stranger Things doesn’t just lie in the hands (and minds) of the show’s psychokinetic characters and monsters. As we gear up to return to Hawkins and the Upside Down one last time, here are the seven most powerful Stranger Things characters.
7) Jim Hopper
We’ll start with a character who doesn’t weild supernatural powers, Hawkins’ gruff but compassionate Chief of Police Jim Hopper, played by David Harbour. Jim’s power stems both from personal loss and worldly experience. The death of his daughter Sara due to cancer makes him grizzly bear-protective of Hawkins’s younger characters as well as love interest Joyce Byers. His combat experience as a Vietnam vet and police training go a long way in making him one of the show’s most powerful characters.
6) Joyce Byers
As the mother of one of the main younger characters, Will Byers, and a matriarchal figure in the show, Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder), like Hopper, doesn’t possess supernatural powers, but is powerful nonetheless. Also like Hopper, Joyce has mama bear-like protectiveness, with the will to save her son in Season 1 driving the storyline. It is Joyce’s drive that makes her a powerful character. Her refusal to ever give up makes her dangerous to those who seek to do harm to her son and his friends.
5) The Demogorgon
Speaking of bears, perhaps the Stranger Things’ most iconic monster, the Demogorgon, is the apex predator of the Upside Down. Like a bear, the Demogorgon is a hunter with immense speed and physical strength. While the Demogorgon doesn’t possess mind control abilities, it terrorizes the heroes of Stranger Things throughout the series, abducting Will Byers in Season 1 and taking different forms such as the Demodogs. Joyce and Hopper also have to battle the beast at the beginning of Season 4.
4) Eight (Kali)
Growing up in the Hawkins Lab along with one of the main protagonists, Eleven (Jane Hopper), Eight (Kali), played by Linnea Berthelsen, possesses psychokinetic skills. While Eleven has telekinetic powers, Eight’s illusion-casting abilities are quite different but still very formidable. Kali can essentially alter others’ minds to make them see things that aren’t real. While Kali appears in Season 2, many fans would love to see her return in the final season.
3) The Mind Flayer
A sprawling ancient entity of the Upside Down variety, The Mind Flayer has the power to possess people and creatures across dimensions. It can also command the weather and other elements of the worldly environment. Additionally, The Mind Flayer seems to be the hive mind of the Upside Down. One of the main protagonists in Seasons 2 and 3, The Mind Flayer’s powers and deep connection to the Upside Down mean that it might make a big comeback in the final season.
2) Vecna/Henry Creel/One
The Mind Flayer is deeply connected to the second most powerful character in Stranger Things, who, like any good villain, goes by many monikers. Henry Creel was his human name, but his early days were very inhuman as uses his telepathic powers to kill his sister and mother. He then becomes Subject 001, or One, in the Hawkins Lab.
Eleven banishes One to the Upside Down, which warps him into the monster Vecna and where he takes control through creatures like the Mind Flayer. Season 4 reveals Vecna/Henry Creel/One as the main antagonist in Stranger Things and also sets up an epic showdown in the final season.
1) Eleven (Jane Hopper)
Eleven is the show’s saviour. Her powers are multifaceted and grow exponentially as the series progresses. Also known as Jane Hooper, as she is adopted by Jim, Eleven’s psychokinetic powers include moving objects with her mind, accessing the Upside Down, and shutting interdimensional rifts. She’s defeated the Demogorgon and the Mind Flayer.
A subject of the Hawkins Lab, Eleven is psychologically scarred from her experience, and while she struggles to use her powers at first, viewers know she’s channeling deeply when her nose bleeds. Eleven eventually steps into the role of the most powerful figure in Stranger Things.
As the two most powerful characters, Eleven and Vecna are surely set to clash to conclude Stranger Things. While Eleven had no way of knowing, her banishing of Henry Creel to the Upside Down created all the problems for Hawkins. She will be keen to put an end to the Upside Down and its creatures’ reign of terror in the fifth and final season of Stranger Things.
The first four episodes of the final season premiere on Netflix on November 25th. The next three episodes will debut on December 25th, while the series finale will arrive on December 31st (New Year’s Eve).
Who do you think are the most powerful characters in Stranger Things? Let us know in the comments.
