Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 2, provided a deep dive into Vecna's plan to abduct 12 kids and reshape the world, and I believe this specific number is tied to his obsession with clocks. The final season of the original Netflix series continued to explore Vecna's plans involving Holly Wheeler (played by franchise newcomer Nell Fisher), Derek, and the other children he had chosen to kidnap for his grand scheme.
Stranger Things Season 5, Episode 4 confirmed why Vecna is taking kids, revealing that he is preying on them because they are the perfect "vessels" to fulfill his plan of reshaping the world. Vecna took advantage of the kids because they are weak-minded and easy to manipulate. While Volume 1's ending unpacked Vecna's plan, many questions remain unanswered, such as how his grand scheme will actually work and why exactly he needs only 12 kids.
Why Vecna Wants 12 Kids In Stranger Things May Tie Back To Season 4's Clock
Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 2 revealed how Vecna plans to reshape the world, and it has something to do with the true origins of the Upside Down and the revelation behind an entirely different dimension, to which Dustin coined the name "The Abyss."
While Holly and Max managed to escape Camazotz in Episode 6, Stranger Things revealed that Vecna is not holding Holly's body (and the other kids) in the Upside Down. Instead, they were being held in The Abyss, a different world where Henry Creel ended up after being banished by Eleven in Hawkins Lab. The Upside Down is not a new dimension. Instead, it is a wormhole that serves as a bridge between two points in time and space.
Despite the shocking revelations between the Upside Down and the Abyss, the real mystery lies in Vecna's choice to abduct 12 kids, and science (alongside the big reveals involving the two different worlds) might hold the key to understanding the villain's motivation.
For the uninitiated, Season 4 revealed that Vecna has a strange obsession and hatred with clocks, patterns, and cycles, telling Eleven in Episode 7 that the world is "dictated by made-up rules" like time. Basically, the villain sees clocks as a symbol of oppressive human order:
"A cruel, oppressive world dictated by made-up rules. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades."
Vecna also used a grandfather clock as his harbinger of death to his victims in Season 4, serving as a countdown timer to signal that they are about to meet their doom.
By tying this clock symbolism to Season 5's big reveal about the Upside Down and the Abyss, Vecna's goal is to merge the Abyss and Earth into one, and he requires 12 anchor points (the 12 kids) to achieve this because it requires a massive amount of energy. Merging the two worlds means that the Upside Down must be destroyed by breaking the flesh wall, but Season 5 proved that it was an insurmountable task.
As a result, Vecna resorted to his plan of kidnapping the kids and using them as anchor points to provide energy and create the world that he has been envisioning. By choosing "weak-minded" kids as vessels, Vecna has the power to build a new world based on his desires, as they are too vulnerable to resist.
If his plan to use the kids as energy anchor points is successful, then Vecna (who undergoes a significant redesign in Season 5) will be successful in eliminating the Upside Down, instantly leading to a clash between the Abyss and Hawkins, merging the two worlds as one.
Some have also claimed that choosing 12 kids was not a coincidence because Vecna might actually be resetting time, using the abducted kids as a match for the numbers in the clock. Aside from using the children as energy anchor points, this part appears to be the second half of Vecna's plan, as he needed these vessels to rewrite reality.
More so, Dustin revealed in Season 5, Episode 7 that Vecna is using the kids to "amplify" his abilities, with Max pointing out that the kids are needed to "draw the worlds together:"
Dustin Henderson: "So he channeled his thoughts and powers through me to amplify his abilities, and he’s gonna do the same with those kids."
Jim Hopper: "Amplify his abilities? To do what?"
Max Mayfield: "Move worlds. Holly, she said, Henry told the kids that they would help him draw the worlds together."
Vecna's plan of abducting 12 kids essentially meant that he couldn't enact his plan alone, meaning that he is still as vulnerable as ever. While Holly was able to escape Camazotz for a short while, she was pulled back to the Abyss. Upon returning to Henry's mind, the other kids appeared to have fully embraced Vecna's (as Mr. Whatsit) manipulation, meaning they were now fully committed to his plan to awaken their dormant powers and create a new world.
How the Mind Flayer Ties Everything Into Vecna's Plan (& Possible Redemption)
When Dustin described Vecna as the Mind Flayer's "five-star general" in Season 4, it had me thinking that there is a part of him that is being controlled by this ominous creature. Based on this revelation, there is a strong chance that Vecna might be the Mind Flayer's ultimate pawn in the grand scheme of things, with the creature using the villain to achieve his goal of invading Earth.
Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1's ending confirmed that Vecna's shenanigans with Will in Season 1 caused him to have powers, and the same thing could happen to the 12 kids he abducted.
While Vecna is doing the Mind Flayer's bidding by destroying the Upside Down and merging the Abyss with Hawkins, some have theorized that the villain might be planning to use the kids (with their powers fully awakened) as a last resort to defeat the Mind Flayer and potentially take over the reins from the creature and be the new world's ruler.
Others have claimed that Vecna might be on a path to redemption, especially after Noah Schnapp almost spoiled this unexpected twist in a past interview. If he does indeed end up trying to redeem himself in the end, he might be intentionally giving these kids powers to build an army against the Mind Flayer and ultimately kill it once and for all, and possibly sacrifice himself during the event of the Upside Down's destruction.
