Will Feels Some of Vecna's Pain in 'Stranger Things,' but Not His Actual Death (SPOILERS)

Spoiler Alert! This article contains spoilers for the end of Stranger Things.

A lot of Stranger Things fans were sure there would be some major deaths in the series finale. To be fair, beloved characters like Eddie, Bob, and even Barb paved the way for fans to think the Duffer brothers were not opposed to killing people off. Somehow, though, the entire party (including Eleven, if you believe Mike's story) survives. But why didn't Will die when Vecna died?

Will is linked to Vecna at different times in Season 5 using the hive mind. Although Will is no longer hooked up to the Mindflayer like the kids are in the final season of the Netflix show, he is still part of that connection. It's how he controls Vecna at one point to save Max and Holly, and how he kills multiple demogorgons. Given that connection, some Stranger Things fans were sure it meant Will would die when Vecna did.

When Vecna is killed, Will is no longer connected to him. Will does get into Vecna’s head to try to make him see that he can change things, that he was once a kid like the rest of them, but Henry/Vecna was completely overtaken by the Mindflayer as a kid, and its influence over him is irreversible. Because Will uses the hive mind to connect to Vecna, when Henry's hand is shot, Will feels it. But he doesn't feel it as strongly as if he were actually shot.

And even before then, when Will uses the hive mind to stop Vecna at one point, he doesn't feel the pain when he, in Vecna's body, breaks some of Vecna's limbs. Prior to that, Will controls the demogorgons, but he isn't hurt when he kills them, even while inside the mind of one. Even though having Will sacrifice himself to kill Vecna would have been a powerful move for the finale, viewers should have already guessed that he wouldn't be killed when Vecna was, just because of the hive mind.

After Will kills several demogorgons psychically and then Karen blows up a gaggle of demodogs at the hospital in another episode, that's the end of the demons from the Abyss that have hurt or killed characters for the duration of the season. At least, that seems to be the case when literally none of them show up to help Vecna or the Mindflayer in the final battle of the series.

In a Reddit thread from a fan who had lots of thoughts about the way things ended, they wrote, "We saw zero demogorgons, demodogs, or demobats in the finale. Weird from a show that started with the demogorgon."

In another Reddit thread about the lack of demogorgons in the Stranger Things finale, other fans agreed that these sorts of monsters should have had at least a small part in the final battle. Someone commented, "There should have been at least a 10-15 minute sequence when Vecna/Mindflayer throws everything at the group."