I've decided I wanted to share something I was talking about on my rp blog recently because I just wanted to write a post something like this anyway so below is copy pasted from a section of headcanon stuff I wrote the other night: Note that a big chunk of this is MY PERSONAL HEADCANONS, like Henry's birthday for example, and not anything I would say with 100% certainty is gonna be an actual thing (though I'm sure I'm pretty damn close with stuff) but since I'm drawing everything from canon I thought it would be fun to share so here we go!:
To start off I'm sure I've mentioned it a million times before but March is a "special" month in Hawkins according to me. Not only is it the month of Henry's birthday, but its the month the Creel's moved to Hawkins. This is how I'm explaining the repeating theme of March in the Stranger things canon. (Including Will's birthday, Billy's birthday, and the entirety of Season 4 beginning in March and, as an update, I think its very interesting that the reveal about the stage play being focused on Henry's childhood was announced in March, right on my birthday actually! (Well it was my birthday for me bc timezones lol) The March theme specifically surrounding Henry continues! I do stay winning.)
I don't know how canon is going to explain any of that, if its not just a coincidence, but since I'm insane and I love creating patterns and symbolism I've already decided to go a little nuts with it and so here are some more thoughts on that: I'm putting the date the Creel's officially moved into the house in Hawkins as March 2nd, because thats my birthday and I'm allowed. Henry's birthday is March 8th, which is also when Henry had his first "encounter" with "The Shadow" (The Mindflayer.)
March 22nd is Will's birthday and also the day Henry discovered his extreme psychic abilities, *(This would be around the time the scene with the rabbit and Henry moving the hands of the clock occured) and March 29th, which is Billy's birthday, is the day Henry killed his mother and sister. Something else I also mentioned in other posts is the fact that Stranger Things, particularly Season 4, drew a lot of inspo from Western / Christian mythology and its my insane provocative to mirror this and this is no different.
March and April tend to be thought of as significant months therein because of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, March being the preparation for Jesus' resurrection and April being the month in which that took place. I'm mirroring this with Henry in March as the period where Henry encounters the MF and develops his powers and April being the month when Brenner kidnaps Henry and he wakes up from his "coma" in Brenner's care.
I also think I mentioned this once before in passing but I wanted to mention it again. In my headcanon, the one and only time Henry was ever actually “diagnosed” with anything despite having a long history of difficulties with school and thus repeated doctor’s consultations, was after moving to Hawkins, fairly late into the month, maybe more around the middle, after Henry's encounter with the MF. They diagnosed him with childhood schizophrenia. Obviously this was a misdiagnosis but it was the 50s and it was common for ASD to be misdiagnosed this way back then.
That being said, one of the big factors in Henry’s diagnosis was his “strange thinking” and “unusual perceptions.” If you’ve read my post here you know I have a running theory that the being known as the Mindflayer by the party ( Who I perceive to be the Stranger Things version of The Serpent from DnD ) was able to “commune” with Henry long before he ever got to the Upside Down thanks to Henry’s latent psychic abilities and this was thus what really woke those abilities and certainly amplified them in a way we haven’t seen with any other psychic character in the series. ( Once again, look up DnD Vecna and “The Serpent” from DnD, I promise it all makes perfect sense)
In my headcanon Henry kind of... Did try to express to his parents what he was “experiencing” but of course this was extremely difficult for him because unlike Will, Henry’s environment wasn’t a loving, open, accepting one. Henry’s mother didn’t believe him or take him seriously on anything and this was a pre-established thing which made it hard for Henry to actually try to communicate anything with his family in the first place. He was seen as suffering delusions and mental illness.
No, He didn’t really know how to explain it but most pressingly the knowing that no one would understand or even want to understand or believe him meant Henry was withdrawn, defensive, deflective and standoffish even if he really did want to talk to his family and be “more cooperative” with them, so to speak. On top of this, Henry found himself frustrated by his family's “superstitions” particularly when his own attempts to explain where thought of with such concern.
Victor was the only one who kind of gave Henry any heed but even then Henry wasn’t taken very seriously by the family at large and again, a lot of the goings on of the house were blamed on a “demon” which Henry had a lot of contempt for given he knew a lot of the things in the house that were upsetting his family were coming more from him and his anger with them, but he couldn’t really explain how or why he suddenly knew the things he did or could do the things he could do, or could see the things he could see. In his retelling in the show, Victor explicitly confirms that he could see “[Henry] knew something was wrong.” And we also know Victor went to the EXTENT of having an exorcist preformed on the house.
When Will is “possessed” by the Mindflayer in season 2, he talks about how he suddenly knows things, things that he didn’t know before but he doesn’t know how he knows them. I imagine Henry encountered a similar phenomenon when he was subconsciously linked to the Mindflayer entity in his childhood. Henry began to know things he couldn’t explain and he did “SEE” the Mindflayer cloud in dreams / visions as well. *( Given I think its clear the MF is a metaphor for the Shadow Self this is another nod to that from me personally, btw)
None the less, Henry's “diagnosis” at the back end of all this was the big factor in his mother getting into contact with Brenner, who at the time was labeled a leading “expert” in the “human mind” as back in the 50s, neurodivergence and mental illness was not well understood and due to the societal and political climate, particularly in the US, Virginia saw institutionalizing Henry as the “best option”.
WHICH brings me to a post I made last night that I'm going over really quick because I think its relevant. From this point on I'm largely talking about explicit canon rather than my own thoughts / headcanons. There is a lot of supernatural repetition in Vecna's "curse" and his behaviors. He often repeats moments on his trauma, projecting them onto this victims who then live them too, and the scene with Max in the Piggy Back episode seems to be an INCREDIBLY interesting instance of this. (Heres a shitty video I made with my phone for emphasis.)
Why ? Because Vecna says this: ❝ Is that… All true? You wanted Billy to die ? You ever have thoughts like that about me? Normal people don't fantasize about killing other people, Max. You realize that, right? I thought you were getting better - but you're not, are you? You are sick. Maybe it is good he takes you. Maybe its for the best. In fact, I'm glad its going to be you. You will be the chosen one. The Fourth. The final sacrifice! Its going to be you that BREAKS THE WORLD.❞
(*Also because I noted it when I originally mentioned it the other night I just wanna say its very interesting that every time Vecna has done this that we know of, ie when he uses an "illusion" of himself speaking through another character, the prime examples being Billy in this scene from s3 and Lucas here, he's, FOR SOME REASON, always shown speaking through tears. Why? If this is a remorseless, emotionless, monstrous psychopath why does he display it this way? Because this isn't Billy Or Lucas in these scenes, this is HIM. This is an illusion he has complete control over. And I wouldn't say hes displaying it that way just to distress the victim, because Eleven didn't really have any emotional attachment to Billy to be particularly hurt by seeing him in tears/hurt. Just something to think about anyway.)
And on the topic of that supernatural repetition, this is displayed CONSTANTLY. For me "Vecna's Curse" is as much about Vecna "being cursed" and the things HE has suffered, (perhaps as a result) as it is about the "curse" he places on others.
This gif from this post for another example. Like the examples of this are absolutely everywhere.
Now let me just direct you all back to the scene with Will and Joyce in season 2 when Will begins to explain the thoughts he's having and the things he can see after being "contacted" by the Mindflayer. He begins to talk about killing people and people dying, and the horrible things he's seeing. Joyce reassures him and protects him, like a good mother would - but you know who has been HEAVILY suggested to have NOT had a good mother, and instead, canonly described his mother as hating him and who seemed to just want to blame him? Who just wanted her son "taken away" by a doctor to be "fixed"? And thus would have ultimately sacrificed him to maintain her ideal of normal, happy family? Henry. Who is the one who has actually been "chosen" to "Break the world"? Henry.
More than that, the way he explicitly called Max a "sacrifice" is interesting, particularly when you put it with the scene in season 3 when flayed Billy, who is widely believed to have been under the control of Vecna at the time, (*Which I do believe) incapacitates Eleven and instead of just killing her he goes to the effort of taking her to the mindflayer's Proxy body and offering her to it, as if an act of propitiation.
And we had a previous scene of Flayed!Billy, talking to Flayed!Heather, in which SOMEHOW Flayed!Heather knows who Eleven is, but Flayed!Billy is furious because this is his first experience with her and Flayed!Heather has to reassure him that "they'll" win. (*Which I actually made a whole post about in the past I'm too lazy to go find it lol) Again... Just some interesting shit to think about here.
