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Sorcerer vs. Siphon: On the origins of Will’s powers

We're presented with two different models for Will’s powers in S5:

Sorcerer model: Will’s powers are innate or internally sourced; he is using them independently

Siphon model: Will's powers are externally sourced; he is channelling Vecna’s (wizard) powers

They can't both be true, but they're both given plausible development and evidence.

In this post I look at:

how both power models are presented

what supporting evidence they’re each given

where they remain ambiguous

At the end I consider which model is more supported by the text, and why it matters.

As ever, if we’re not getting new S5 content then this post documents another angle on the writers’ incompetence; if we are getting new S5 content, this post offers some insight into what it might look like.

Introduction to the power models

Sorcerer model

Mike first proposes the sorcerer power model for Will in 5.4:

Mike: “So maybe when you tap into the hive you can pull the strings too. […] I’m just saying that you’re like a wizard, like [Vecna]. […] True. In real life you’re more like a sorcerer, because your powers don’t come from a book of spells. They’re innate.”

The sorcerer model is that Will’s powers are innate.

Innate literally means inherent, or “belonging to the essential nature of something.” One definition specifically refers to something inborn or native: “existing in, belonging to, or determined by factors present in an individual from birth”.

In S5, this power model is deliberately aligned with the (anachronistic, but whatever) D&D definition of a sorcerer:

“Sorcerers carry a magical birthright conferred upon them by an exotic bloodline, some otherworldly influence, or exposure to unknown cosmic forces. […] No one chooses sorcery; the power chooses the sorcerer.”

Under that definition, you might have your powers from birth, or you might gain them later in life.

Either way, under the sorcerer model, Will’s powers are his; they're coming from an internal source.

Siphon model

Will first proposes the siphon model of his powers in 5.5:

Will: “I'm not like a second El. I don’t have powers. I’m just… I’m siphoning. I’m stealing Vecna’s. And to do that I have to be near the hive mind, and Vecna’s not coming back.”

As a noun, a siphon is a tube that uses gravity and atmospheric pressure (usually) to transfer liquids from a higher level container to a lower level container.

As a verb, it just means to “convey [move], draw off [divert], or empty by or as if by a siphon”.

As a metaphor, it means to move some part of something surreptitiously, like “siphoning” funds somewhere they don’t belong—it has a negative connotation and is basically a specific, subtle type of stealing.

Under the siphon model, Will’s powers aren't his; they're coming from an external source, namely Vecna.

Evidence for the sorcerer model

Though Mike is the first one to explicitly propose the sorcerer power model for Will, in 5.5 he’s joined by Lucas and Erica:

Lucas: “Holy shit. You know what this means, right? You’re like Will the Wise, but for real. […] But you get what I’m saying though, right? Like, this totally changes the game. We got our second El.” Erica: “[Will’s] a sorcerer, actually, his powers are—” Mike: “Innate. Yes, thank you.”

I count Lucas's line comparing Will to El because El’s powers are innate in both senses of the term. More on El in a moment.

The sorcerer model fits perfectly with how Will describes his developing powers to Joyce in 5.2:

Will: “I… I must have somehow tapped back into the hive mind.” Joyce: “But we severed the connection.” Will: “I don’t think it was ever… truly severed. Ever since he took me it’s like I… I was… permanently changed.”

Note that the flashbacks tell us they’re talking about Will’s possession in S2, not his kidnapping in S1—the “severing” Joyce is referring to is the Mind Flayer particles being burned out of Will in 2.9.

But Will is saying that despite the fact that the particles are gone, and there is no reason for him to still be connected to the hive mind, he is still connected.

He himself has been altered.

It can’t be fixed.

Which comes back to the point that you cannot intentionally develop the power of a sorcerer, like you can learn how to use magic and become a wizard—however a sorcerer comes by their magic, their abilities are not a matter of study, but of identity.

El’s powers are innate in the strictest sense—she was born with them, following antenatal exposure to Henry’s mutated blood. And a major plot point for El, in both S1 and S4, is her identity as either a monster or a superhero. The answer always seems to be that she is neither, by necessity, but that she chooses to be a hero (unlike Henry, who chose to become a monster). In S4, without her powers for the first time in her life, El goes through an identity crisis.

And we see El do incredible things with her powers in all five seasons… more or less through trial and error, or belief and necessity, like opening the gate in S1 and closing it in S2. Her powers are a product of her will. Although we see El training her powers, we don’t see her study them—she doesn’t need to understand them in order to wield them.

(In fact, when she’s psychically interrogating Akers in 5.3, Hopper explicitly calls out that they don’t really know or care how El’s powers work.)

If we go with the sorcerer model for Will, too, his powers are innate in the broader sense—not inborn, but now an inherent part of him. Even when the hive mind particles were burned out in S2, his connection to the hive mind clearly remained in S3 and S4.

In 5.4, we are told that the primary or most immediate reason Will manifests his powers is in an instinctive reaction to Mike being threatened (Lucas and Robin too, but the editing frames Mike as the immediate trigger, and of the three only Mike appears in Will's 8mm film reel flashback).

Will didn’t intend to develop powers—he intended to save his best friend and love interest.

And on that note, in S5 we see Will, like El in S4, having his own identity crisis… or at least an identity reckoning. More on that in a moment.

We also get those perfectly mirrored shots in 5.4 of El clenching her fists, preparing to break down the door to Kali, and later in the same episode Will unclenching his fists, having just killed the three Demos.

That visual parallel alone suggests that Will’s powers are supposed to be compared to El’s.

In the 5.1 prologue, and scattered throughout S5, we get some other evidence that could be interpreted as supporting the sorcerer model, which is that Vecna:

hunted Will down for almost a week in S1, despite having access to other potential victims

implies that Will is the missing piece he needed for some longstanding plan of his (5.1)

“chose” Will, out of everyone in Hawkins (5.7)

And like, in general, what was that 5.1 prologue scene about?

Vecna (5.1): “At long last, we can begin. You and I, we are going to do such beautiful things together, William.”

I'm hardly the first person to ask, but what are these “beautiful things”? The tunnels?

… If so, okay, and what did the tunnels achieve, exactly?

And, more broadly, why Will? Especially if we’re meant to believe he was chosen. He wasn’t just not-killed like Barb and the others were, he was hunted down to be used.

We’re meant to conclude that Vecna needed Will specifically.

As a slight aside, I went back to 4.7 to listen to what Henry said to little!El, right before she banished him to Dimension X. He talked about how spiders are “the gods of our world”, “the most important of all predators” because they “feed on the weak”, bringing order and balance to the world.

Then he told El she was superior to all the other children, and:

Henry (4.7): “Imagine what we could do together. We could reshape the world, remake it however we see fit. Join me.”

It seems Vecna still despises the weak, and still wants to reshape the world.

… Does he perhaps want Will in 5.1 for the same reason he originally wanted El? With the “feeding tube”, was he attempting to create his own El, just like Dr. Kay?

Now, before we continue, there’s a potentially major problem with adopting the sorcerer power model because (as far as we know) Henry/Vecna’s powers are also innate. He also developed them as a child, due to otherworldly exposure, and they became a part of him… just like Will. In fact, that’s kind of a major character parallel between them.

This is where narrative intent becomes important: because yes, technically speaking Vecna is more like a D&D sorcerer than a D&D wizard. (Henry certainly is, at least.)

But narratively speaking we’re given a firm distinction between Vecna as an evil wizard, and Will, in particular, as a sorcerer.

Some of the evidence for Vecna being a wizard rather than a sorcerer in the narrative comes from S4, where he is literally introduced after his namesake as “a dark wizard”.

El herself is consistently referred to in S2 and S5 as a “mage”, which is a cop-out type of spellcaster more closely aligned with the wizard class than the sorcerer class.

In S5, Mike twice reinforces the distinction between a wizard and a sorcerer, though not involving Will explicitly in one, and not involving Vecna explicitly in either:

Mike (5.1): [“Mike the Brave] goes on adventures called dungeon crawls. […] Basically he explores these underground worlds, where he fights monsters, evil wizards, sorcerers and stuff.” Mike (5.4): “[Will]’s more like a sorcerer than a wizard.”

But in 5.4, he very explicitly drives the distinction home, before Will’s big reveal:

Will: “Except I’m not Vecna.” Mike: “You sorta are.” Will: “Are you trying to say I’m evil and hell-bent on destroying the world?” Mike: “Totally… No! I’m just saying that you’re like a wizard, like him.” Will: “In D&D, Mike. Not in real life!” Mill: “True. In real life you’re more like a sorcerer…”

Aaand the other thing that happens in 5.4, before the big reveal of Will’s powers, is the other major source of evidence for the sorcerer model:

Robin’s speech to Will in the tunnels.

She says:

Robin (5.4): “Because there was always this part of me that kinda scared me, you know? […] And that’s when it hit me. It was never about tone-deaf Tammy. It was always just about me. I was looking for answers in somebody else, but… I had all the answers. I just needed to stop being so goddamn scared. Scared of… who I really was. Once I did that, oh, I felt so free. It’s like I could fly, you know?”

Robin’s speech is fundamentally about self-acceptance.

But more than that, it’s about having all the answers inside of you already.

Even more pointedly, Robin is the source of not only advice on how to embrace your own sexuality and identity, but also on how Will connects to the hive mind—picking up its “radio signal”—and how he might find gay love—picking up romantic “signals”. All three of those ideas are knitted together in the major signals subplot, which I talked about in detail in On "signals": radio, hive mind, and romance.

And it’s Robin’s advice on accepting his sexuality that we see Will act upon in order to take control of the hive mind signal in the MAC-Z:

Robin (5.4 voiceover): “I was looking for the answers in somebody else, but… I had all the answers. I just needed to stop being so goddamn scared. Scared of who I really was. And once I did that, I was so free, it’s like I could fly—”

Will finds his power in his memories of Mike, his mom, and his brother, loving him. In loving them. He stopped being so goddamn scared of who he really was, accepting his own (queer, artistic, dorky) identity, and in doing so unlocked his powers.

By finding the answers inside himself.

That perfectly fits the sorcerer model of innate power.

And that? That’s the subtext—how we, the audience, are shown that Will got his powers—clashing with the text—being repeatedly told, by Vecna and Will, that Will is just siphoning Vecna’s powers.

And on that note…

Evidence for the siphon model

As I just said, the primary evidence for this model is dialogue from Will and Vecna.

Will introduces this model in 5.5, and Vecna reinforces it in 5.6:

Will (5.5): “I’m not like a second El. I don’t have powers. I’m just… I’m siphoning. I’m stealing Vecna’s.” Vecna (5.6): “But remember, I am the one. The one who invited you in. You were my vessel. My spy. My builder. […] There is much power within you. But make no mistake, boy. They are my powers, and they are stronger than ever before. Much stronger.”

In addition, this model is generally backed up by:

the analogy of Will “tapping in” or “jacking in” to the hive mind signal, like a siphon taps into a higher source

the visuals of Will’s clouded eyes in 5.4, 5.5, and 5.8, which suggests he is drawing on Vecna’s powers

the killing mechanism of “Demos floating, limbs snapping… dying…”, which mirrors Vecna’s murderous MO from S4

Before I raise the major issue with this siphon model, it's worth considering why Will says in 5.5 that he is siphoning Vecna's powers.

He went from tacitly buying in to Mike’s sorcerer model—and using Robin’s “inner answers” advice to manifest his powers in the first place—to spouting Vecna’s siphon model.

And it’s most likely because of what Vecna said to him in 5.4: that Will was his first vessel.

That he is weak, easily broken, easily reshaped.

That he is, and always was, a passive entity filled with someone else’s power.

So as of 5.5, when Will explains away his powers using the siphon model, Vecna has already gotten into his head… meaning we can't really trust Will as a source on his own powers at that point.

And is Vecna a trustworthy source of information? Even if we believe him when he (and Will) insist that he is honest (or at least that he doesn’t need to lie), we know from his interactions with the children in Volume 2 that Vecna will lie and absolutely does lie and manipulate when necessary.

But this entire siphon model does raise a big question: If Will is siphoning Vecna’s powers, and Vecna is aware of this…

… why can't Vecna just cut him off?

If Vecna was the one to “invite Will in”, if he is the superior in their relationship… why does he allow Will enough autonomy, enough agency to not only harm his “pets”, but to harm him?

To puppet him, inside his own mind?

To “stab him with his own sword”, breaking his leg so badly in 5.5 that he ends up limping for the rest of the season?

Especially without Vecna (apparently) ever actually using this connection to his own benefit.

If that really is what’s happening, the fact that Vecna demonstrably does not have full control over Will suggests that Will is not nearly as subordinate in that relationship as Vecna wants him to believe—that if they are sharing powers at all, their connection might be more of a two-way street.

And if that really is what’s happening, it makes Vecna look weak. That would, in turn, mean it's in Vecna’s interests to prevent Will from thinking he has too much (or ideally, any!) agency or control over that connection—

—and that explains why Vecna keeps drumming it into Will’s head (both times they talk, in 5.4 and 5.6) that he is weak, that he is a mere vessel, and (counterintuitively) that everything Vecna is able to do is Will’s fault.

It's an intentional, repeated subversion of Will’s strength and agency—one which Will seems to have internalised fully by the time he talks to Joyce in 5.7:

Will: “That’s why, out of everyone in Hawkins, he chose me. Because he knew I was weak and he knew he could control me. […] I was his vessel. A vessel to channel his powers, to spy, and… and to build [the tunnels]. […] So many died because of me. And if I could do all of that, what could he do with 12 more like me? […] You’re wrong. You’re wrong, Mom. It’s my fault.”

In 5.4, Vecna says that Will broke easily, referencing his possession in S2 (according to the flashbacks)…

… but that is demonstrably untrue.

Even when little!Will was fully possessed and seemingly lost in S2, he was still able to retain enough strength of will and agency within the hive mind to:

figure out how to defeat it, and

communicate that to his allies using Morse code

without the hive mind noticing!

And, in doing so, he knowingly condemned himself to death in order to save his loved ones.

That boy was not weak. He was not broken.

(Also, note that then, like in 5.4, Will was drawing strength from the history of his relationships with Mike, Joyce, and Jonathan.)

But from Vecna’s standpoint, if Will is preoccupied and beaten down by his own fear and guilt, he will be less able to take advantage of whatever powers or connection he has to Vecna (if this truly is what is happening).

And we do see in 5.7 that—however poorly it was handled—Will’s way of taking back some agency and control before the final battle is by coming out to everyone, and removing that particular source of shame and fear from Vecna’s arsenal against him.

Ambiguity in power models

Though there are some moments of strong evidence for each model, an awful lot of what we see is ambiguous, in terms of whether it supports the sorcerer or siphon power model.

For example, we get three shots of Vecna stroking Will’s face while commenting in some way on his power or purpose:

in 5.1 after capturing Will “at long last” (before letting him escape)

in 5.4 after capturing Will at the MAC-Z (before letting him escape)

in 5.6 after capturing Will trespassing in his mind (before letting him escape)

The implication of that repeated action is that the three moments are related: that Vecna is talking about the same thing in:

5.1 when he says they are going to do beautiful things together (presumably referencing the particles flowing into Will from the vines); and

in 5.4, when he says that Will was the first to be broken, reshaped, and controlled (visually referencing his S2 possession); and

in 5.6, when he comments on the power within Will (which he says are his powers, not Will’s own).

It’s interesting that this callback extends all the way back to the 5.1 prologue, because most of the flashbacks we get during dialogue in these (and other) scenes in S5 are to Will’s possession in S2, not his original capture. The only other flashback to his original capture I can think of is in 5.4, after Vecna says that Will doesn’t belong in this world, he belongs in Vecna’s—which flashes back to the moment little!Will was hooked up to the “feeding tube”.

It’s somewhat ambiguous which of the sorcerer or siphon models this repeated visual more strongly supports.

The 5.1 reference leans more towards the sorcerer model, in terms of something Vecna wants being innate in Will—but only on the basis that, as I previously proposed, Vecna was hunting Will down specifically in S1. But overall, Vecna’s dialogue in 5.4 and 5.6 both lean heavily towards the siphon model…

… which makes sense, given what I just established about Vecna needing Will to think he is weak.

Hive mind vs. Vecna's mind

In 5.4, does Will actually hold off the Demo in the barn, as Mike later suggests? Presumably, yes: it's true the Demo doesn't actually attack Joyce, and even allows her to drive it back without even hurting it.

This is directly opposed to episode 5.2, where our other fierce mother Karen did hurt the Demo (with her wine), enough to draw blood…

… but it attacked and (near-)fatally wounded her anyway.

The Demo in 5.4 was going for Derek, like the one in 5.2 was going for Holly. Why didn't this one attack Joyce, like the other attacked Karen? Why did it back away without even being injured?

The most plausible answer is that Mike was right in 5.4: Will was holding or driving it back using his burgeoning puppet master powers. We even get several shots of Will cut in with Joyce's axe swings, and him seeing her from the Demo’s perspective.

But in that scene, while Will was almost certainly influencing the Demo, were his eyes Vecna-clouded?

… No, they weren't.

According to the show's own visual shorthand, as established in 5.4 and 5.5, and finally in 5.8, Will's eyes cloud over like Vecna's when he's (allegedly) channelling Vecna's puppeteering powers.

So what was happening in the barn in 5.4?

Will’s use of his powers in 5.5 is also quite ambiguous. We see him actively accessing the hive mind without his eyes clouding over, at first. He’s moving around within the hive mind, physically jerking his head around while we see shots of the kids in the fleshy chamber, before the camera and Will settle on Derek.

Derek’s mind is imprisoned in Vecna’s mind and/or jacked into the hive mind via the “feeding tube”…

… but Vecna doesn’t seem to notice Will’s presence until he connects to Vecna himself, while he’s attacking Max and Holly.

And when Will does find Vecna’s mind, we know it, because his eyes cloud over again, and he seems to gain the puppeting ability.

The ambiguity here and in 5.4 suggests (but doesn’t prove) that Will is using a powerset separate from Vecna’s—at minimum in terms of his connection to the hive mind. Will’s attack sequence in 5.5 in particular seems to create a distinction between Will tapping or jacking in to the hive mind, or Vecna's mindscape or mind prison, and Will tapping or jacking in to Vecna’s mind.

We know from Max and Holly that you can be in Vecna's mindscape, Camazotz, but not under his control or within his awareness. But unlike Will, Vecna brought Max and Holly into his mind intentionally. Will apparently entered under his own power and/or beneath Vecna’s notice.

That could support either power model… but if it is supporting the siphon model, it also supports the conclusion we can draw from Will’s actions in the MAC-Z in 5.4, and from his successful attack on Vecna in the 5.8 battle, and just generally from what I said previously about Vecna not being able to stop him:

If Will is accessing Vecna’s powers, he can do it without Vecna noticing. Which does track with the metaphor of a “siphon”, where the whole point is generally that the rightful owner doesn't know it's happening.

But this further reinforces the idea that Vecna needs to use psychological measures against Will—stoking his guilt, convincing him he is weak and broken—to keep him under control. Otherwise Will might realise, as he does in 5.5, that he can actually go after Vecna or move around in his mind in secret…

… and there's apparently not much Vecna can do to prevent it.

Physicality vs. Couch kills

Will’s powers are also somewhat distinct from Vecna’s on the basis of their physicality. In 5.4 and 5.5 in particular we see Will use his body while attacking—hand and arm motions, physical strain on his face, and the bleeding nose.

Here's Will killing the Demos in 5.4 vs. Vecna killing Max in 4.9:

Vecna kills from the comfort of his sofa, by comparison.

This could just be a skill issue—by S4 Vecna is powerful or practiced enough to attack without needing to use his physical body anymore. Also, two of Will’s kills in 5.4 are remote, as is his attack on Vecna himself in 5.5, which is more in the realm of Vecna’s psychic attacks, as are the clouded-over eyes.

The levitation and bone-snapping could go either way in terms of power models, as Henry also does this pre-Vecna in the flashback in 4.7.

So again, it’s ambiguous whether this physicality is sorcerer model or siphon model powers at play.

(Master of) Puppets

And finally, it’s interesting but not particularly elucidating to note that Will doesn’t seem to feel the pain of the Demos’… everything snapping in 5.4, nor the Demo’s broken corpse being nailed to the roof and electrocuted in 5.5, nor the pain of breaking Vecna’s leg when he's actively jacking into the hive mind.

That’s markedly unlike the other times he’s connected passively to the hive mind, when he’s as crippled by their pain as they are.

Part of being the puppet master, rather than one of the puppets?

Conclusion

My overall conclusion is that things are left deliberately ambiguous, but if I had to pick a side I’d say that the textual and subtextual support for the sorcerer model is stronger:

it’s the first model we’re introduced to, and is espoused by three different reliable characters—the siphon model only comes in after Vecna gets into Will’s head and is espoused by two unreliable characters

it matches Will’s description of his own powers being the result of a permanent change in him (again, before Vecna gets to him in 5.4)

it fits into the wider theme of the series of being true to yourself and, for Will in this season, finding answers within

it resolves and ties together two-thirds of the signals subplot, with Will mastering his (innate) sexual identity and his (innate) connection to the hive mind—also part of his identity, now—in one move

Will’s powers are generally paralleled to El’s, and contrasted with Vecna’s—at minimum, we’re given a clear distinction between sorcerers and wizards, with Will strongly coded as the former and Vecna as the latter

Will seems to have been targeted in S1, and this was reinforced in the 5.1 prologue (and in 5.7, when Will confirms that Vecna “chose” him), implying that there was always something distinctive about Will specifically

In short, this model is supported by dialogue from numerous reliable (if not expert) characters, thematic and narrative structures, character parallels and contrasts, and various plot points (albeit up for some interpretation).

By contrast, most of the solid evidence for the siphon model comes from dialogue from two characters specifically, one of whom is the villain, and the other of whom, Will, is not exactly a paragon of reliability himself (see On unreliable narration: possession, the fourth wall, and you 🫵). It’s also supported by the visual similarities between Will/Vecna’s clouded eyes, the actual killing mechanism Will/Vecna use, and the apparent timing of when Will does or can use his powers.

There is also a potential “middle ground” option: for example, that Vecna first gave Will his powers in an effort to use him as a vessel, but that exposure created a permanent connection or bond. In that sense, Will would be both using his own innate abilities and siphoning Vecna’s abilities. Although that's a very plausible option, it’s not really one we're presented with in the text.

But in the end… does it matter which model is correct?

From a storytelling perspective, it does matter, and for three separate reasons.

Firstly, it matters because it’s important to one of our main characters! Will’s powers are a major plot point, and them being left up to interpretation is a major narrative flaw. It would also cheapen his character work—and some of the show’s thematic work—if it turns out Will’s powers aren’t actually part of his identity.

Secondly, it matters because the two models are pretty much mutually exclusive, both have textual support, and the clash between them is not resolved.

And thirdly, we are told that the distinction matters between the sorcerer model and the siphon model—between Will’s powers being innate or stolen.

We’re told this four times, once explicitly: