Vecna needing exactly 12 kids in Stranger Things 5 ties back to a creepy detail from season four

Stranger Things 5 doesn’t exactly spell everything out until the very end, and one detail in volume two, which seems very small but actually carries a lot of meaning, is Vecna’s oddly specific plan to take exactly 12 kids.

We know he’s targeting kids like Holly Wheeler and others, but the big question is: Why 12? Why not more, or fewer?

As it turns out, that number is very deliberate.

Vecna isn’t just kidnapping kids for no reason

via Netflix

In season five, episode four, the show confirms that Vecna is using children as “vessels”. According to him, kids are easier to manipulate, easier to control, and more open to influence than adults.

In other words, they’re perfect for what he’s trying to do.

But while that explains why he wants kids, it doesn’t explain why he needs exactly 12 of them.

It all links back to Vecna’s obsession with time

via Netflix

If you remember season four, Vecna had a very strange relationship with clocks. He hated time, routines, and what he called the “rules” of the human world. He even used a grandfather clock as a warning sign before killing his victims.

So, when season five revealed that Vecna needs 12 kids, a lot of viewers made the connection straight away.

There are 12 hours on a clock face. That doesn’t feel like a coincidence.

The kids act as anchor points

via Netflix

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Season five also reveals that the Upside Down isn’t actually a separate world. Instead, it’s a kind of bridge between different points in time and space. The real place Vecna comes from is a darker dimension called the Abyss.

Vecna’s plan is to merge the Abyss with Earth and reshape reality entirely. But doing that takes an enormous amount of energy.

That’s where the 12 kids come in.

Each child acts as an “anchor point”, helping Vecna draw the two worlds together. Dustin even explains that Vecna uses other people to amplify his powers, while Max points out that the kids are needed to move entire worlds.

So, Vecna can’t do this alone. He needs help.

Why exactly 12 still matters

via Netflix

Some viewers believe Vecna isn’t just merging worlds, he’s also trying to reset time itself. By using 12 children, one for each number on a clock, he may be trying to break the cycle of time he hates so much and rebuild the world on his own terms.

We’ll have to wait till New Year’s to find out whether that theory turns out to be true or not. But the number 12 isn’t random, that’s for sure. It fits perfectly with Vecna’s obsession with patterns, cycles, and control.

Classic Vecna.

Stranger Things 5 is available to watch on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news and drops, like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.