#the angles & vibes are so similar... definitely a notable parallel

[apatheticlexicographer]

Star Wars parallels in Stranger Things

Okay so I’ve definitely seen this take at least once before (i don’t remember from who, sorry), but I think it was dated to pre-S4 and there’s a whole lot more evidence to it now. Also, I’m coming from the BNHA fandom so I’m practically conditioned to compare any media to Star Wars lmao. Not all of these are direct matches, but I found the similarities interesting.

Up first is Henry Creel/One/Vecna, who parallels Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. Anakin is born sensitive to the force (the Upside-Down). He begins to train as a Jedi later than most younglings (as far as we know, One was the only number not raised in the lab from birth). As he grows older he becomes jaded to the world around him and spiteful to the people in it. He draws his powers from a place of hatred. After growing increasingly erratic, he completes his transition to the dark side when he slaughters the younglings (the massacre at the lab, where he killed off almost all of the numbers). He also becomes physically deformed after he falls in the lava when another Jedi punishes him for this action, and is unrecognisable until he reveals his identity (One’s transformation into Vecna after Eleven sends him to the Upside-Down). Only a few Jedi survive the massacre (Eleven, Kali, and Will). The largest difference between Henry and Anakin is that Anakin redeems himself in the end, whereas Henry has explicitly rejected redemption.

Next are Eleven and Will, who represent Luke and Leia respectively, and need to be grouped as a package deal. They're siblings! Luke has strong innate abilities with the force, which he doesn’t unlock until he is much older than most Jedi-in-training (Eleven being a late bloomer). He is also the protagonist (Stranger Things might technically be an ensemble show but it isn’t fooling anyone). Leia’s force sensitivity isn’t as focused on or as strong, but it is present (Will’s True Sight and my stubborn belief in the Will Byers Has Powers agenda). The plot of A New Hope is kicked off when Leia is captured by Darth Vader and Luke is the one to receive her distress signal (Will being taken to the Upside-Down, which was confirmed to be for a reason and presumably intentional on Vecna’s part, and El being able to locate him there and listen to him through the radios). Luke struggles between the dark side and the light side, but ultimately the light side wins out and his powers come from a place of love (El’s initial use of her powers being based in anger, as reinforced by Kali). One interesting thing about these two is that Leia is the one with a consistent love interest, while Luke remains happily single. 

these three are the most 1:1 matches. There are other characters with notable similarities, but they aren’t quite as obvious. I’ll list them, but there’s less supporting evidence for them.

Kali is a bit of a wild card. In some aspects, she represents Yoda, one of the few remaining Jedi who teaches Luke how to better control his powers, involving a task where he must move an incredibly heavy object (Kali training Eleven and her moving the- train carriage? container? truck? I forget; that episode sucked). However, running with our current analogy, she would actually be a youngling who happened to escape the massacre. I have quite a lot of thoughts about Kali and her likely connection to One, and while they’re tangential to this post they support this angle. I might make another post about her later. 

Brenner also embodies Yoda a little, as El also went off to train her powers with him. Yoda told Luke he was not ready after his training, and died in front of him. I toyed with the idea of him paralleling Palpatine, but other than their shared Creepy Old Man Vibes they don’t have many strong narrative similarities. Brenner, despite being awful, is not trying to convert Henry to the “dark side”. Henry is doing that by himself. Indeed, Brenner seems to be trying to hinder him.

As Han Solo is Leia’s love interest, the obvious person to tie him to is Mike. Beyond that, though, there isn’t much to go on. My main concern with this parallel is the carbonite incident. If this is foreshadowing a plotline in S5 where Vecna does something terrible to Mike after Will’s confession, and Will is the one to save him, I’ll scream. Not sure if it would be a happy scream or not.

I’m not sure how much stock I put in this observation, but I do find the parallels neat and surprisingly easy to draw. I definitely wouldn’t be surprised to know that Stranger Things was plagiarising Star Wars, at any rate.

If you think of any other Star Wars parallels, please share them with me!!! I’ll add any more that I think of as well.