How to Draw a Mind Flayer From Stranger Things TUTORIAL

"	Yous let united states of america in. And now yous are going to have to let us stay. Don't you see? All this time. nosotros've been building it. Nosotros've been building it... for you. All that piece of work, all that pain, all of it for yous. And now it'south time. Time to end it. And we are going to end you. And when you are gone, we are going to terminate your friends. And then nosotros are going to end... everyone.	"
–The Mind Flayer through Billy to Eleven

The Mind Flayer, likewise known as the Shadow Monster ^[1], is one of the 2 master antagonists (aslope Martin Brenner) of the 2016 original Netflix sci-fi Telly series Stranger Things, serving as the unseen overarching adversary of Season ane and the main antagonist of the second and third seasons.

He is a malevolent entity that rules the parallel dimension known as the Upside Down. The Mind Flayer is a massively powerful being of unknown origin. He wields supreme control of the Upside Down, as well as the Demogorgons, tendrils, and the Flayed. With murderous intent, he repeatedly attempts to corrupt both Hawkins and the rest of the world.

The Mind Flayer first began his conquest to take over the world in 1984 when he used the Gate to spread the Upside Downwards's toxic biological growth underneath Hawkins, as well as possessing Will Byers and an regular army of Demodogs to take down Hawkins Lab. Eleven ended his plan by closing the Gate and severing the connexion between the two worlds and removing The Mind Flayer from Will's body.

The part of the Mind Flayer remained dormant until it was reawakened in 1985 by the Hawkins Key. It then began flaying multiple humans and rats, feeding them chemicals, and melting their bodies into puddles of biomass that would be used to create a new torso for itself to have over the world. The Heed Flayer nearly succeeded in his program merely his physical incarnation was killed when Joyce and Hopper snuck into the secret Russian laboratory and closed the new gate, severing the connection once over again.

Contents

• ane History
  • 1.1 Background
  • 1.2 1983
  • 1.three 1984
  • 1.4 1985
• 2 Advent
• iii Incarnations
  • 3.1 The Isolated Particulate
  • 3.ii The Spider Monster
  • three.three The Infirmary Monster
• iv Nature
• 5 Powers
• six Relationships
• 7 Appearances
  • vii.1 Comics
• 8 Behind the scenes
  • viii.1 Concept and blueprint
  • 8.two Name
• 9 Memorable Quotes
• 10 Trivia
• 11 Gallery
• 12 References

History

Background

The history of the Mind Flayer prior to Oct 1984 remains a mystery. Exactly how long he had existed for, and how and why he came to inhabit the Upside Down, is unknown. The Listen Flayer's ultimate goal and why he constantly tries to enter our globe is also unclear.

1983

In November 1983, an inter-dimensional gate was opened at Hawkins Lab, allowing the Upside Downward to begin to spread through. It is non known if the Mind Flayer was present within the Upside Down at this fourth dimension, or if it was decision-making the Demogorgon.

Will Byers, a young resident of Hawkins, was captured by a Demogorgon and brought to the Upside Down'south corrupted version of the town'south public library. Although he was safely recovered past friends and family, Will began to have visions of the Upside Downwards.

It is possible that the Mind Flayer was elsewhere during these events, and made its way toward Hawkins due to them.

1984

Will continued to have visions of the Upside Down for a twelvemonth following his rescue. These visions were examined by Dr. Sam Owens at Hawkins Lab, who believed Will was experiencing mail service-traumatic stress disorder.

On October 29, 1984, Will and his friends went to play at the Palace Arcade. While his friends argued with the arcade'due south employee, Will became distracted past another vision. He walked out of the Upside Down version of the arcade. To his horror, he witnessed a blood-red storm raging in the heaven to a higher place, before hearing an unearthly howl. Notwithstanding, Volition's friend Mike snapped Volition out of the vision.

A drawing of the Mind Flayer, drawn by Will Byers.

Will had some other vision the following evening. He went to take a bathroom break in the center of the night and was returning to his sleeping accommodation. Yet, he saw a crimson light illuminating the walls of his firm. The front door swung open, revealing the Upside Down across it, where the reddish storm violently raged once again. Volition walked out into the Upside Down and witnessed the obscured but distinctive silhouette of the Mind Flayer amidst the clouds.

On Halloween night, Will experienced however some other vision while trick-or-treating in Loch Nora, a wealthy neighborhood in Hawkins. He found himself in the Upside Down version of the neighborhood. At commencement, Will heard a strange chittering audio coming from multiple directions. And then, he watched in horror as the Mind Flayer rose loftier into the air before pursuing him through Loch Nora. Will hid backside a wall, unaware that the creature was shut backside him. Yet, Mike found Will and snapped him out of the vision before the Listen Flayer could touch him.

Volition'southward next vision took identify at school, shortly after he encountered Sprint in the bathroom. Will found himself in the Upside Down once more than, continuing in the school corridor. Suddenly, the Mind Flayer'due south dark mist began to overflowing into the corridor before chasing afterwards Will. Later on running exterior and onto the field, Will stopped and turned to see the Heed Flayer looming high above the schoolhouse. Remembering what Bob had told him as they collection to school, Will attempted to face the Mind Flayer, yelling at him to "go away!" The Listen Flayer ignored Will, continuing to pursue him before entrapping him within one of its tornado-like appendages. From that point on, the Mind Flayer began to slowly have over Volition'southward mind and torso.

As time passed, Will's connection with the Heed Flayer deepened, making him frightened and distraught. Fortunately, information technology led Will, Joyce, Bob, and Mike to find the location of Hopper and rescuing him at the tunnels. Even so, due to his beingness a part of the hive listen, he experienced severe desperation following the burning of the tendrils. It enraged the Listen Flayer as referred by an bilious Will and as retaliation, the Mind Flayer deceived Will into revealing a location that it was agape of and exploited their connectedness to apply him to massacre the scientists at the Hawkins Lab.

In the fallout of the Hawkins Lab massacre, the Mind Flayer escalated his conflict with the human world. Unleashing countless Demodogs into the hush-hush tunnels, the Listen Flayer seemed hell-aptitude on destroying his enemies.

Meanwhile, the assembled allies retreated to the Byers house. They isolated the compromised Will in a dark room to stop the Mind Flayer from spying whatever further. The allies discussed the nature of the Mind Flayer and the Upside Down in a desperate bid to defeat him. As with the Demogorgon, the kids used a Dungeons & Dragons-based analogy to theorize virtually the Heed Flayer's nature; and thus, the nickname "Mind Flayer" was born.

The first wave of Demodogs arrived at the business firm, but as they did, so did Eleven. El fended off the Dogs, and subsequently reuniting with her friends, the allies developed a iii-fold plan of action against the Mind Flayer. All three of the post-obit events unfolded more or less simultaneously, but all collectively contributed to the Mind Flayer's defeat:

The allies attempted to complimentary Will from the Mind Flayer's influence, and thus render him to his former state. Although these attempts largely failed, Will mentally fought dorsum confronting his captor and regained control of his left manus. He began to tap the side of his chair in Morse Code, which, when translated, revealed the message "CLOSE GATE". The allies realized what had to be done, sending Eleven and Hopper on a mission to close the doorway betwixt worlds.

Joyce, Jonathan, and Nancy attempted to "exorcise" the Mind Flayer from Will'south heed and body. They did this by exposing Will to extreme heat, even burning his arm with a burn down poker. The possessed Will initially resisted, writhing and shrieking in hurting, just somewhen, the fragmented Flayer could no longer stand up the heat. He fled the torso and flew far, far away into the night sky.

Hopper and Xi arrived at the now-abandoned laboratory, and as they descended through the vast depths below, the Mind Flayer's huge silhouette loomed behind the other side of the Gate. The Mind Flayer sent one of his many coils through the barrier in an effort to end her while simultaneously commanding Demodogs to attack them.

At the last minute, Dustin, Lucas, Max, Mike, and Steve made a plan to distract the Mind Flayer, and thus diverting his attention from the events involving Xi and Will. They headed to the subterranean tunnels, soaking "The Hub" with gasoline and setting it aglow. This further weakened the Listen Flayer's grip on Will, equally well as drawing some of the Demo-Dogs away from the Gate and Eleven.

Nevertheless, Hopper managed to fend off the Dogs, while El used her powers to neutralize the coil. Finally, Eleven channeled her anger and airtight the Gate, sealing the Mind Flayer's main course dorsum within the Upside Down. Sealing the Gate also cut off the Demodogs' connection to the Listen Flayer, killing them all about instantly; even Dart could non survive.

An enraged Mind Flayer.

With the Demodogs eradicated and the Gate sealed, the human world unknowingly enjoyed a quiet victory. With the telepathic link to his main form in the Upside Downwards severed, the ethereal fragment of the Heed Flayer that left Volition's body became isolated and dis-empowered. This fragment course would lay dormant at Brimborn Steel Works for over seven months, until the events of July 1985. In December, during the Snow Ball at Hawkins Eye School, the Mind Flayer loomed over the version of the school in the Upside Downwards, seemingly spying on the Party from across dimensions.

1985

Main Article: The Spider Monster

The fragment of the Mind Flayer awakening.

In the summertime of 1985, a underground Russian operation located below Hawkins' newly-built Starcourt Mall successfully opened another Gate into the Upside Down. Unlike the first Gate, the new alienation was too small to allow through creatures and vines; all the same, information technology was nonetheless wide enough for the Mind Flayer to renew his telepathic link with the isolated piece of himself that detached from Volition at the end of Season 2 and landed in Brimborn Steel Works. He used this fragmented form to "infect" the rats inhabiting the Steel Works and other surreptitious areas around Hawkins, causing them to eat fertilizer, gather in swarms within the Steel Works, and and then explode into blobs of biomass. The biomass fused together with the fragment grade into a animate being with the guess shape and proportions of the Mind Flayer'south chief class. This monstrous creature served every bit a proxy body, through which the Mind Flayer could in one case over again influence events in Hawkins.

The Mind Flayer enraged.

Later, the Mind Flayer acquired Billy to crash his car, which got him to investigate the Steelworks, only to get captured and become his main host. He uses Billy to capture Heather and make her become 1 of the Flayed. They both later capture Heather'south parents Janet and Tom. Doris Driscoll also became part of the Flayed, likely from the rat she captured. Others become part of the Flayed, including Bruce (likely from Tom, other members of the Hawkins Post may take been Flayed as well). Too, other men, women, and children became part of the Flayed at an unknown time. Will after mentions that the Mind Flayer is back, and it is eventually discovered he is controlling multiple people.

When Eleven tries to find the Mind Flayer's location through Baton, the Listen Flayer ends upwardly talking to her through Baton's body in a Mindscape version of Hopper'southward Cabin. Knowing her location, the Heed Flayer melts the Flayed (except for Baton) and absorbs them to become stronger. He then goes after Xi and her friends and attacks the motel, managing to knock Jonathan against a wall where some of his tentacles are snapped by Eleven. Even so, the Listen Flayer manages to take hold of 11 by her leg. As Mike, Max, Will, and Jonathan grab concord of Eleven, Nancy tries shooting at the Mind Flayer to no avail until Lucas chops off the tentacle with an ax but the Mind Flayer had managed to bite Eleven. She responds by angrily fierce the Heed Flayer'southward head in half, forcing him to regenerate which leaves him temporarily unable to pursue them. Eleven feels the effects of the bite but removes the slice of the Heed Flayer that was within her leg.

The Mind Flayer's proxy body lying dead due to the Gate being closed once over again.

Despite 11 removing the piece of the Mind Flayer, Eleven's telekinesis is weakened and the Mind Flayer manages to notice the Party afterward Billy tracked them due to the piece of the Heed Flayer that was in El's wound. After Billy manages to trap the Party by damaging their car, the Mind Flayer arrives at Starcourt Mall and starts hunting them down. The Mind Flayer nearly found Mike, El, and Max, but was distracted and started pursuing Nancy, Jonathan, Will, Lucas, Steve, and Robin. Even so, the Mind Flayer stopped his pursuit when the Flayed Billy spotted Mike, El, and Max escaping the mall through the back go out, causing the Mind Flayer to head back to the mall.

The Flayed Billy managed to trap Mike, El, and Max at a dead end before knocking all three of them unconscious and taking El hostage. Baton delivers El to the Mind Flayer who is almost to kill her until the timely inflow of Nancy, Jonathan, Will, Lucas, Steve, and Robin stop him by bombarding his avatar with fireworks. As the kids fought the Listen Flayer, El managed to free Billy from the Mind Flayer'southward control by reminding him of a retentivity he had of his mother while Mike and Max regain consciousness, rushing to join the battle. When the Party runs out of ammo, the Mind Flayer tries to kill El again, but he is stopped by Billy. Enraged at Billy for resisting his command over him, the Mind Flayer proceeds to attack and impale Billy, much to the horror of Billy's stepsister, Max. Afterwards the Mind Flayer kills Billy, he of a sudden loses control of his proxy body due to Joyce Byers closing the Gate underneath the mall. As the Mind Flayer loses control of his avatar, he tries to attack the Party, but fails when the Gate completely closes itself, allowing the Mind Flayer's proxy trunk to be killed.

Appearance

The Mind Flayer is a gargantuan entity, being at least 50 stories alpine. His torso appears to be entirely composed of minuscule particles, giving him a misty appearance alike to a shadow. It is unknown if the Mind Flayer is entirely made of smoke, or if there is any physical beefcake to the creature. The beast has multiple limbs, some of which co-operative into several smaller appendages; these limbs visually resemble the tendrils and vines present in the Upside Down. He seems to have an elongated, flame-shaped head that sprouts from the central body that bears no visible facial features. His presence is ofttimes accompanied by unnatural cherry lightning, which Will describes as a "storm".

Incarnations

Through his telepathic link, the Mind Flayer could directly control boosted entities and beings:

The Isolated Particulate

Pockets of the silver-blackness mist could move independently while remaining under the control of the Mind Flayer. 1 of these pockets left the main body and latched itself onto Will Byers, assuasive the Mind Flayer to possess him. Will's friends and family eventually forced the creature to carelessness Will, with the mist fragment flying away into the sky. The mist fragment eventually re-awakened at Brimborn Steel Works when the Starcourt Primal was activated in the Summertime of 1985, renewing the mist fragment's telepathic link to the main body. The Mind Flayer, via the mist creature, immediately summoned hordes of rats to the Steel Works, melting downward their bodies and creating the Proxy Body.

The Spider Monster

The Spider Monster, the Mind Flayer's 1985 proxy torso, resembled a gargantuan, monstrous spider. This incarnation of the Listen Flayer closely matches its Upside Down counterpart in terms of its shape and proportions. However, unlike the Flayer's main trunk, the Spider Monster is non shrouded in silver-black mist, nor is it as large (though it still stands tall at over 20 feet in its fully-formed state). The Spider Monster is nigh on indestructible but remains vulnerable to estrus.

The Spider Monster is composed of the bodies of the Flayed: dozens of congealed organisms, both human and animate being, who were converted to serve the Heed Flayer's will. The Spider Monster was originally relatively small, being composed purely out of Flayed rodent bodies; all the same, he rapidly grew into his fully-fledged state after finally consuming the converted humans.

The Hospital Monster

Essentially, the Hospital Monster was a smaller version of the Spider Monster, composed of the Flayed humans Tom Holloway and Bruce Lowe. Unlike the Spider Monster, the Hospital Monster did not resemble the Heed Flayer but rather had a more asymmetrical advent. The brute was ultimately absorbed into the Spider Monster.

Nature

The Heed Flayer is a sentient entity that possesses intelligence equal or superior to that of a human being. This sets him apart from the Demogorgons, which appear to behave purely animalistic when he is not exercising his control over them. The animate being was highly hostile toward anyone and anything that threatened his plans; using his most almighty intelligence and rule over the Upside Down to his advantage, he would develop ways to thwart and outsmart his adversaries. Such as, using his possession over Will as a way to spy on Hawkins Lab and luring a team of soldiers into a trap. The Listen Flayer has also been shown to be highly vindictive, such as when he centered his entire plan on personally destroying the Party, and directly threatening Eleven through Baton inside her own psyche.

While much of the Heed Flayer is currently shrouded in mystery, through Will's connexion to the entity, it is known that the Mind Flayer wishes to eradicate humanity and merge Earth with the Upside Down. While its truthful motivations for doing and so are yet to be determined, through comparison the entity to the synonymously named animal from Dungeons & Dragons, Dustin theorized that the Listen Flayer viewed himself equally superior to all other life. Exactly how authentic this theory remains to be seen.

While a massively powerful beingness, the Heed Flayer was not without his weaknesses. Most notably, he has a low tolerance to heat, specially burn. All hosts inside his hive heed share this weakness, resulting in him feeling pain whenever a host is exposed to heat or burned.

Fundamentally, The Mind Flayer seems to exist nothing but a pure evil monstrosity that seeks goose egg but full domination and does non value any course of sentient life other than himself.

Powers

• Hive Listen: The Mind Flayer'south most distinctive feature is the ability to take control and command of the creatures from the Upside Down and later Will. Upon having its feeding area burned, he sent multiple Demodogs to the tunnels in club to deal with the problem. He as well had them try and stop 11 from closing the Gate. The downside of this mental connection was that the burning of tendrils would touch the Demodogs and Will, and most likely the Listen Flayer itself. Will was too able to learn instinctive knowledge of its goals, the tunnels, and its weakness. Despite the hive mind's attain, when Eleven sealed the rift between worlds, the connection was severed and led to the death of its subjugates.

• Possession: By imbuing a portion of its essence on an afflicted discipline (despite both the Heed Flayer and Will being in separate worlds), the Mind Flayer is able to link the infected to the rest of its regular army. Information technology appears to exercise this by forcing it's essence into information technology's desired host and slowly spreading throughout their body over a period of fourth dimension. An instance of his ability was how he tricked Will into sending numerous soldiers to their death by having Will tell them its weakness was within the feeding area in the tunnels. The possession can be severed by subjecting the infected to farthermost heat, which burns the essence out of its trunk by making it uninhabitable due to a weakness to heat and light. Even so, when a host is under threat of being discovered or severed from the Listen Flayer's possession, its influence tin can force the host to fight back; it gave Will inhuman levels of strength, allowing him to remove its restraints and throttle Joyce effortlessly with one hand while she attempted to free Will from the fauna'due south possession. When the Mind Flayer later possessed Baton Hargrove, the Heed Flayer gave Billy enough strength to bust down the door of the sauna room he was trapped in, fifty-fifty temporarily resisting Eleven's telekinesis and throwing a barbell at her. The affected subjects likewise seem to accept impairment that would otherwise kill a man, such as eating chemicals. Billy, under the Mind Flayer's command, was stiff enough to survive getting thrown through a brick wall at a high speed, and fifty-fifty survive getting hit from the side by a machine. One farther aspect of possession is that the Listen Flayer learns from the memories of those it possesses, as proven by its controlling of Tom Holloway ,once possessed, to prevarication about the family of Doris Driscoll "threatening litigation" to Nancy and Jonathan, a very specific human terminology that the Mind Flayer would not take learned anywhere in the Upside Downward. This is particularly concerning if the Listen Flayer is able to return to the world once over again having learned near human vehicles and technical weaponry; despite their abilities all of its "troops" then far have been, strictly speaking, hand-to-hand fighters that travel on foot, which are two extreme tactical disadvantages against modern weaponry and vehicles. In some occasions, every bit shown with Heather Holloway, the host may feel changes in its appearance such as larger muscles, prominent neck bones and larger heads and shoulders. A host's optics can also become very dilated and the iris will get surrounded past dark blue veins.
• Biological Alter: Hosts of The Mind Flayer are shown to become through abnormal and otherwise fatal adjustments to their trunk. Flavour 2 reveals that Volition's encephalon had been invaded by an unknown anomaly soon after he was flayed, and information technology can be assumed that the rest of the flayed suffered the same consequence. This potentially allows The Mind Flayer to control what its host thinks, feels, and senses. Human Hosts are also shown to have their circulatory system compromised by the essence of The Heed Flayer, allowing easy spread and command of the host, besides as giving their veins and skin a dark appearance.

• Flayed Harm: Under the influence of the Mind Flayer, Billy's body is shown to be unable to repair injuries that it has sustained. This is shown after the Sauna incident, where Billy'due south arm and face are abraised; these injuries remain throughout the rest of his role in the show. It is unknown if this applies to whatsoever other aspects of the body, or if this is the case with all of the Mind Flayer's subjects, as it could explain why the Demogorgon/Demodogs have a sickly appearance.

• Biokinesis: Through sheer force of will it tin can cook host bodies and maintain a proxy body, and even create smaller monsters under its control that tin can after exist re-absorbed into the main proxy body. This is theorized to only be possibly later the consumption of fatal chemicals and/or dioxide.

• Weather condition Manipulation: When Will Byers witnesses the Mind Flayer in the Upside Down, the creature is ofttimes surrounded past a large tempest consisting of red lighting and thick black clouds. While the nature of these storms is non entirely clear, it is possible the Mind Flayer is responsible for their creation. The storm is possibly based on the Mind Flayer'southward emotions, the Mind Flayer was seen looming over Hawkins Middle School, seething with anger.

• Power Negation: After biting her with one of its tentacles, the Mind Flayer'south proxy left a piece of itself within 11, severely weakening her telekinesis subsequently that evening. Fifty-fifty three months subsequently defeating the brute, Xi's powers were non back to full force. How the Heed Flayer's proxy gained this power is unclear, just information technology is possible that the chemicals the Flayed ingested played a part.
• Bio Engineering science Manipulation: The Heed Flayer has proven very, very adept at genetic analysis and manipulation. When it was effectively defeated by Xi at the first Gate, within the bridge of roughly one year it fully developed the concept for the proxy trunk, a make-new being created from melted animals, humans and chemicals, specifically designed to combat Eleven. The entire Demogorgon species was likely either conquered and modified by the Mind Flayer long ago or its directly custom creation, with both possibilities involving all-encompassing genetic manipulation and pattern. The all-encompassing vine networks are likely the aforementioned.

Relationships

Always since Xi closed the gate in front of it in 1984, the Mind Flayer held a deep-seated grudge against her, viewing her as a threat to its plans and creating an army for the sole purpose of destroying her.

When Will was trapped in the Upside Down and captured by a Demogorgon, the Mind Flayer became interested in Will and decided to employ him for his own purposes, showing no intendance for him. Later Volition'due south rescue, the Listen Flayer started spreading the Upside Downwards through Hawkins where Will was given visions of the Upside Down. The Listen Flayer eventually confronted Will and started to seek him as a vessel in order to use him to pave into the existent earth. The Mind Flayer was thwarted two times by Will'southward friend, Mike, only when Will finally decided to confront the Listen Flayer, he became possessed by a piece of the Listen Flayer. The Mind Flayer slowly took over Volition's body and mind, allowing to see and feel everything the Heed Flayer was doing. After Will took advantage of his possession to rescue Jim Hopper where the tunnels were burned by the government soldiers, the Listen Flayer used his possession of Will, forcing him to play a trick on the soldiers into going a trap, as revenge for pain him through the burning of the tunnels. The Mind Flayer tried to proceed his control over Will intact but was stopped by Volition'south family and Nancy Wheeler equally they burned the Mind Flayer out of Will.

A yr later, in 1985, despite existence freed from the Mind Flayer, he left a huge affect on Volition as he could still sense the Mind Flayer's presence whenever he was shut. Nonetheless, The Mind Flayer did not seem to remember Volition, or harbor whatsoever resentment toward him. Notwithstanding, the piece of the Mind Flayer that possessed Will synthetic a torso for himself out of rats and the Flayed so he could kill Will and his friends every bit revenge for the events in 1984. However, his plans were thwarted when Joyce Byers airtight the Gate, killing the Mind Flayer's proxy body.

Upon its return to Earth in 1985, the Mind Flayer lured Billy into its new lair, converting him into the first Flayed and using him to plough other residents of Hawkins, every bit well. Unlike the rest of the Flayed whom the Mind Flayer had killed to build his proxy trunk, he kept Billy alive possibly due to him beingness his chief human being host, as well as his fortunate concrete vitrify and being the stepbrother of Max Mayfield, a fellow member of the Party. The Mind Flayer did not seem to care for Billy as a person and chop-chop killed him subsequently Baton bankrupt free from its command through the memory of his mother.

Appearances

Season Ii appearances
MADMAX	Play a joke on or Treat, Freak	The Pollywog
Will the Wise	Dig Dug	The Spy*
The Lost Sister	The Mind Flayer	The Gate

*The Listen Flayer appears during a flashback in The Spy.

Flavour Three appearances
Suzie, Do You Copy?	The Mall Rats	The Case of the Missing Lifeguard	The Sauna Test
The Flayed	Eastward Pluribus Unum	The Bite	The Battle of Starcourt

Comics

Volume 1 appearances
Effect i	Issue 2	Issue 3	Outcome 4

Behind the scenes

Concept and design

Matt Duffer told Entertainment Weekly that the shadow monster was inspired past horror classics: "At that place'southward an H.P. Lovecraft sort of approach, this inter-dimensional beingness that is sort of across human comprehension."^[ii]

Concept art of Will confronting the Mind Flayer on the field.

Visual-furnishings producers Paul and Christina Graff were tasked with designing the beast. Because the first season incorporated several electrical interferences, they knew the 2d season would involve storms. Once it was decided that the monster was going to be "storm-like", the Graffs began looking to references of storms and tornadoes. Steve Messing, a matte painter who was also consulted on the designs of several other Stranger Things elements, created concept art of the creature based on tornadoes, volcanoes, and other natural forces. In addition, they were inspired by volcanic eruptions with lightning storms in S America.^[iii]

Name

While the entity had been referred to as the Shadow Monster throughout production, the Duffers eventually decided to give him a name. Looking through the Dungeons & Dragons manual, they decided to name the creature after the Mind Flayer due to how similar information technology was to their concept for the Shadow Monster.^[four]

Memorable Quotes

"He tin't hear you. You shouldn't have looked for me. Considering now I see you lot. At present we tin can all come across you lot. Y'all... allow usa in. And at present, you are going to have to let us stay. Don't you see? All this time, nosotros've been building information technology! Nosotros've been edifice it... for you. All that work. All that pain. All of it for yous. And now it'south time. Fourth dimension to terminate it. And we're going to end you. And when you are gone, we are going to cease your friends. And and then we are going to end... everyone."

"To build. I desire you to build. What you see."

Trivia

• It'southward possible that to be infected, 1 needs to take a tendril similar to the Library Tendril attached to them start, or have been in the Upside Downwards for a significant amount of time; the exact nature of the infection has not yet been confirmed.
• Possessed humans are colder to the bear upon than average, to the point where the temperature around possessed humans significantly decreases.
• Heat and light are some of its weaknesses. Extreme heat causes the human being extreme hurting but is able to cure them with enough exposure and rut. Bob Newby also noted that the Mind Flayer's vines below Hawkins deliberately avoided contact with bodies of water, meaning it is also probable hydrophobic with an allergy/aversion to water.
• Dart, Volition, and Billy showed the ability to fight or ignore the Mind Flayer's influence. Dart was able to remember Dustin, Will was able to communicate in Morse Code while existence reached emotionally by his family and Billy was able to fight the Listen Flayer, even though he died. A common feature among these moments is the infected being reminded of positive or happy memories(Dart remembering Dustin feeding him nougat, Will being reminded of happy memories involving his friends and family, Billy being reminded of his mother) these moments, forth with how the Listen Flayer storm in Billy'due south mind was filled with traumatic memories from Billy'southward childhood, seem to advise that the Listen Flayer feeds on negative emotions and memories.
• In Dungeons and Dragons, Mind Flayers are a race of psychic humanoids with tentacles on their faces who eat brains.  They primarily use their powerful psychic abilities to mentally enslave other beings. More recent editions have given the Mind Flayers the proper name "Illithids".
• The scene in which the Shadow Monster infects or enters Will bears resemblance to similar possession sequences in horror films, well-nigh notably in 1973'southward The Exorcist.
• A possessed Billy uses "nosotros" pronouns to refer to itself, suggesting that the Flayed may maintain vestigial traits of individuality even while office of the Mind Flayer's hive mind.
• The Mind Flayer seems to have such vast psychic power that it is able to detect Eleven spying on him through the void even though Eleven didn't make whatever contact or make the Mind Flayer aware of her presence. He is also able to hibernate himself and his hosts from Eleven's spying, and can even trap Eleven inside the void.
• The Mind Flayer'due south abilities at genetic control and rapid manipulation, combined with its extensive psychic abilities, are very, very similar to the Zerg Overmind from the Starcraft videogame serial, and it is very likely just every bit dangerous.
• Despite having an episode named afterward it, the beast itself is not nowadays in said episode
• The Mind flayer is very similar to the Elderberry gods of H.P. Lovecraft, with his piece of work actually tying into the stranger things universe, with lisa [1]from the novel "darkness at the edge of boondocks", being a graduate of the infamous lovecraftian college "Miskatonic university"

Gallery

References

1. ↑ "Stranger Things two: Behind the sequel's big, bad 'shadow monster'" Entertainment Weekly. September 28, 2017.
2. ↑ "Stranger Things two: Behind the sequel'southward big, bad 'shadow monster'" Entertainment Weekly. September 28, 2017.
3. ↑ "How Stranger Things 2 Transformed Hawkins Into the Upside Down" Vulture. November 8, 2017.
4. ↑ "The Duffer Brothers Epitomize Stranger Things 2, 'Chapter Eight: The Listen Flayer'" Vulture. Nov 8, 2017

The Upside Down
Locations	The Upside Downward • The Gate • Hawkins • Hawkins National Laboratory • Public Library • Portals • Hawkins Middle School • Hawkins Tunnel System
Entities	D'Artagnan • The Demogorgon • Demogorgon (species) • The Flayed • Hospital Monster • The Mind Flayer • Russian Demogorgon • The Spider Monster • Hawkins Tunnel Organization • Vines
The Flayed	Baton Hargrove • Heather Holloway • Bruce Lowe • Tom Holloway • Janet Holloway • Doris Driscoll
Visitors	Joyce Byers • Volition Byers • Eleven • Steve Harrington • Dustin Henderson • Barbara Holland • Jim Hopper • Max Mayfield • Bob Newby • Shepard • Lucas Sinclair • Mike Wheeler • Nancy Wheeler
Miscellaneous	Upside Down Egg • Dungeons & Dragons • The Void • The Keys
Articles may incorporate spoilers.

DOWNLOAD HERE

How to Draw a Mind Flayer From Stranger Things TUTORIAL

Posted by: edithplent1976.blogspot.com