Stranger Things season 4 revealed one major difference between Eleven's powers and those of Vecna. For years now, Eleven and her friends have fought to prevent Hawkins being overwhelmed by the forces of the Upside-Down. Season 4 finally introduced the true mastermind of the Upside-Down's invasion, the being at the heart of the Mind-Flayer's hive mind. Vecna is a dark mirror of Eleven herself, sharing all her powers, and potentially others as well.
A series of flashbacks revealed Vecna was originally Henry Creel, a boy who grew up possessing strange psychic powers. He chose to use these abilities against his own family, but pushed himself too far, collapsing into a coma. When he awoke, he had become Dr. Brenner's first test subject, as the scientist attempted to weaponize Creel's powers. It didn't take long for Brenner to realize the ruthless and powerful Henry Creel could not be tamed, and so he instead began to try to recreate these tremendous powers. He was successful, and Eleven was the greatest of his creations, the only one able to match Creel in psychic battle. It was Eleven who unwittingly freed Creel from Brenner's control, and then banished him into the Upside-Down, where he became Vecna.
Stranger Things has always drawn inspiration from superhero comics, with several episodes openly acknowledging their debt to the X-Men in particular. The idea of a mirror image villain, a twisted version of the hero, is a traditional one. Stranger Things' approach is slightly different, though, because there is a sense in which Eleven - with all her goodness and purity - is the true mirror image of Vecna, not the other way round. In this case, the evil came first, and the good came later. However, for all their similarities, it is the source of their power that really emphasizes the differences between the pair – specifically, Eleven's connection to love and Vecna's to anger.
Eleven Was Taught To Access Her Powers Using Lessons Learned From Vecna
Eleven was raised at Hawkins Lab, one of several children granted powers as a result of Dr. Brenner's twisted experiments. Dr. Brenner had used Creel as a sort of prototype, identifying the parts of his brain that activated his powers, and he'd realized certain drugs such as LSD had similar effects. This led Brenner to subject pregnant women to heavy doses of drugs, aiming to mutate the fetuses within their wombs. It was a cold strategy, one that belied his profession to care about them as a father figure, but it was nonetheless effective. Dr. Brenner could not control Henry Creel, but he could raise these new children to be controlled.
The problem, though, is that Dr. Brenner had learned too much from his precious Number One. He modeled all his training on techniques that had amplified Henry Creel's powers, deliberately distancing his children from one another and carefully monitoring their socialization. It's no coincidence so many of Eleven's "siblings" were aggressive and dominant in character; they had been raised that way, raised to share the character traits of Henry Creel that Brenner believed key to tapping into their powers. Eleven seems to have been Brenner's most concerning test subject, because he sensed her repressed anger and rage. Henry Creel sensed this as well; allowed to continue working at Hawkins Lab as an orderly, he manipulated Eleven to encourage her to give in to her rage.
Years later, in the Stranger Things season 2 episode "The Lost Sister," Eleven's only surviving sibling attempted to teach her the same lesson. Kali had developed different powers to the rest of the Hawkins children, and she was determined to use them to avenge herself on everybody involved in Brenner's experiments. Anger, hatred, and bitterness served as the fuel to Kali's fire, and she encouraged Eleven to use these dark emotions in the same way. But, though viewers did not realize it at the time, Stranger Things season 2 saw Eleven transcend this - and she continues to do so in Stranger Things season 4.
Eleven's Powers Are Tied To Her Love & Compassion
The Duffer brothers modeled Eleven's arc in Stranger Things season 2 on Luke Skywalker's in The Empire Strikes Back - but Kali was no Yoda. Like Luke, Eleven ultimately decided she cared more about her friends than continuing to grow in power and skill, and she left her would-be mentor to save the day and close the Hawkins Gate. This was one of Eleven's greatest feats to date, and it's notable she did not accomplish it by adhering to Kali's teaching. Rather, she was acting in defiance of Kali, fighting on behalf of her friends. Stranger Things season 2 hinted Eleven's powers flowed not from anger and rage, but instead from her connection to others.
The point is reinforced in Stranger Things season 4. When Eleven confronts Vecna in a "mind-fight," she is initially overwhelmed. It is only when Mike reassures her, speaking words of love to her, reminding her how important she is to him, that Eleven is able to fight back. Even more remarkably, Eleven was then able to resurrect Max by remembering all their moments of friendship, by drawing on the deep well of her love for her friend. Eleven literally raised the dead, an accomplishment beyond anything Vecna has ever achieved, a power beyond even Dr. Brenner's wildest dreams. And it was only possible because she allowed her love to serve as the fuel for her powers.
Dr. Brenner was mistaken when he attempted to train his children to tap into their powers after the pattern of Henry Creel. Kali was wrong when she encouraged Eleven to tap into her anger and hatred as though they were wellsprings of power. Eleven really is the mirror to Vecna, with her powers working in a totally different way. She is not at her greatest when she stands alone, but rather when she has her friends standing alongside her. And that means Stranger Things season 4's dramatic conclusion saw Eleven become more powerful than ever before, with her friends and family gathered around her, her loved ones fighting at her side. Vecna, who knows nothing of love, has absolutely no idea what he is about to face in Stranger Things season 5.