Mind Flayer

The Mind Flayer, also known as the Shadow Monster, is a malevolent entity inhabiting 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 wider world.

## Appearance

The Mind Flayer is gargantuan and spider-like, being at least 50 stories tall. The precise details of his anatomy remain unknown, due to the thick, black cloud-like substance which envelops him. It is unclear whether he is entirely composed of this substance, or if his body contains any solid elements.

However, the creature does appear to have multiple limbs, some of which branch into several appendages; these limbs visually resemble the tendrils and vines present in the Upside Down. He seems to have an elongated, almost match flame shaped head which sprouts from the central body. His presence is often accompanied by dramatic red lightning.

## Personality

The Mind Flayer is a sentient entity that possesses intelligence equal or superior to that of a human. This sets him apart from the Demogorgons, which appear to behave purely animalistic when he is not exercising his control over them.

The creature was highly hostile toward anyone and anything that threatened his plans; using his almost omnipotent intelligence and dominion over the Upside Down to his advantage, he would develop ways to thwart and outsmart his adversaries. Such as, using his possession over Dipper as a way to spy on Hawkins Lab and luring a team of soldiers into a trap. The Mind Flayer has also been shown to be highly vindictive, such as when he centered his entire plan on personally destroying Eleven and her friends, and directly threatening her through Billy inside her own psyche.

Its intelligence is also potent to the point where it is able to identify which human is considered to be a threat to it the most, a prime example is when it commanded its army of Demodogs to attack Ford and Rick given their background in dimensional science.

Fundamentally, The Mind Flayer seems to be nothing but a pure evil monstrosity that seeks nothing but total domination and does not value any form of sentient life other than himself.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Hive Mind**: The Mind Flayer's most distinctive feature is the ability to take control and command of the creatures from the Upside Down and later Will and Dipper. Upon having its feeding area burned, he sent multiple Demodogs to the tunnels in order to deal with the problem. He also had them try and stop Eleven from closing the Gate. The downside of this mental connection was that the burning of tendrils would affect the Demodogs and his possessions, and most likely the Mind Flayer itself. Dipper was also able to learn instinctive knowledge of its goals, the tunnels, and its weakness. Despite the hive mind's reach, 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 affected subject, the Mind Flayer is able to link the infected to the rest of its army. The possession can be severed by subjecting the infected to extreme heat, which burns the essence out of its body by making it uninhabitable due to a weakness to heat and light. However, when a host is under threat of being discovered or severed from the Mind Flayer's possession, its influence 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 creature's possession. When the Mind Flayer later possessed Stanley Pines, the Mind Flayer gave Stan enough strength to bust down the door of the sauna room he was trapped in, even temporarily resisting Eleven's telekinesis and throwing a barbell at her. The affected subjects also seem to take damage that would otherwise kill a human, such as eating chemicals. Stan, under the Mind Flayer's control, was strong enough to survive getting thrown through a brick wall at a high speed, and even survive getting hit from the side by a car despite his aged state.
* **Biokinesis:** Through sheer force of will it can melt host bodies and maintain a proxy body, and even create smaller monsters under its control that can later be re-absorbed into the main proxy body, though this ability appears to be fairly limited as the Flayed need to be in close range to its main proxy.

* **Weather Manipulation:** When Raz witnesses the Mind Flayer in the Upside Down, the creature is often surrounded by a large storm consisting of red lighting and thick black clouds. While the nature of these storms is not entirely clear, it is possible the Mind Flayer is responsible for their creation. The storm is possibly based on the Mind Flayer's emotions, as at the end of The Gate, 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's proxy left a piece of itself inside Eleven, severely weakening her telekinesis later that evening. Even three months after defeating the creature, Eleven's powers were not back to full strength. How the Mind Flayer's proxy gained this ability is unclear, but it is possible that the chemicals the Flayed ingested played a part.