Eleven Stranger Things Character Synopsis

Eleven, Stranger Things, talking about the protagonist, aka El, aka Jane, played brilliantly by Millie Bobby Brown, the character showed significant development from the beginning. The superhero, who wanted to live a regular life like a child, also understood the implications of losing her powers.

Stranger Things is currently in the top ten most watched shows on Netflix. Viewers get glued to their screens, wanting to know more about what happens next. The thrill, suspense, horror, and comedy of all the masalas are perfect. The Stranger Things writers have done a fantastic job. Brilliant writing.

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Eleven’s Childhood

Experiments were carried out on her by a scientist whom every subject called papa. Papa was a complex character. To be concise, papa made her life hell in the facility. Also, she still looked at him as a father figure, hoping he would help her and end her ordeal.

Although having a difficult childhood, El was lucky to find a fantastic group of friends who stood by her in her time of need. And same can be said for her as well. She, too, always returned to them whenever they needed her, even when they never called for her help.

She learned to speak, read, and write and started living like an average child. Her foster father, Jim Hopper, played by David Harbour, or the better word, would be the guardian who cared, loved and was overprotective, like a guardian angel. So much so that he made sure that the door was kept open for three inches when she was with her boyfriend, Mike Wheeler.

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Finding true love in Mike, played by Finn Wolfhard, was another blessing to the innocent character. The character seemed to evolve as she interacted with other children of her age group. Especially when she dumped Mike’s ass for a short period when he lied to her.

People told her that was her new home, every new place she visited. At least three to four times, if not wrong.

Eleven’s Family

There is nothing much to say about Eleven’s biological family. Papa was not the father but a name given to the head of a scientific facility at Hawkins. He forcibly took her away from her mother to carry out experiments on her. Her mother suffered the trauma, and papa gave her electric shocks, making her mentally disabled. Mainly her family story revolved around papa, whom she fought.

She was delighted when he was attacked by a Demogorgon and thought he had died. His end meant her freedom from all torment. She was shocked to learn that he lived.

When papa met her for the second time in the fourth season, she was not pleased to see him. Instead, she ran and tried to escape. Though he helped her regain and enhance her powers. He pushed her to her limits, and she willingly accepted the dangers and faced the challenges. No matter how difficult and painful those challenges were.

One thing to note is that he sought her forgiveness by saying she understood why he experimented on her before his death. Though she sat next to him near his end and showed remorse — tears came out of her eyes — and said goodbye to him, she did not forgive him because of what he did to her and her mother.

Eleven’s Friends

Talking about her friends, she made a lot of friends, as said earlier. Besides Mike, who loved her, Will Byers cared for her. Though it is unclear what Will thought about El, it can be confidently said that he cared for her, probably because he too faced similar horrors by the Mind Flayer. Will could feel the creatures of another dimension Upside Down as goosebumps behind his neck. That could be some sort of psychological or psychic connection he had with El.

Will was the one who witnessed and felt sorry for El when she was bullied by her classmates. By the end of season four, his feelings for El are unclear. He probably did not come out of his younger self and still wanted to play with fictional characters. El and Mike’s relationship made him feel lonely, as he was attached to them and felt lonely. His brother, Jonathan Byers, consoled him and told him that he would always be there for him whenever he needed him.

But still, there seems to be some suspense angle between Will and El, which might be evident in the next and final season. Probably, Will might be subconsciously connected with El, just like Vecna.

The interesting fact about the group was that no matter where they were, what they did, and what kind of differences the group had, they always united and fought coordinately against evil. A collective, coordinated attack on the monsters from all sides. And El was their lead warrior. The Commander, the Captain, leads from the front and Mike her heart.

Revolt by Eleven

Like most children and teenagers, El revolted against her father, Hopper, when the latter forgot to keep his promise. “Friends don’t lie” was the first thing she learned from her friends, which was hardwired in her brain. She mistook Hopper’s unintentional mistake as a lie and rebelled against him.

She left her home to search for her mother during this time. As a matter of fact, it was only after one of the fights she had with Hopper that she ruckus his house, and then Hopper asked her to clean it. She found the evidence that her mother was still alive and Hopper and Joyce Byers had visited her.

During her visit to her mother, she came across many bitter truths. Truths about her past, her mother, and her papa.

Her anger towards Hopper was not permanent. She came back to him and eventually forgave him.

Eleven’s Dressing Sense

A beautiful girl with absurd dressing sense. No, sir, not her fault; before any reader starts swearing at the writer. The reason was that she never had exposure to the world like a regular child. She would wear whatever she had access to, whether it was Mike’s clothes or Hopper’s.

In the first season, either she can be seen in a shabby old white frock — turned cream and dirty off-white — of Mike’s sister, with a blue jacket or in the white dotted gown — uniform the test subjects — she wore during her bad days at the experimental facility.

Hopper, a single father, had no idea how to raise a girl child. After the death of his child, he isolated himself. But El gave him reason to live. However, limited to his understanding of raising a girl child, he gave the best he could, oversized full-sleeved male shirts and jeans.

Hopper was utterly shocked when she returned to him in season two in a punk outfit. She had run away from Hopper’s care to find her mother’s whereabouts. It leads her to another part of the world. She knew she was not the only one with superpowers in the world. She had a sister who could play with people’s minds by hallucinating them.

Max Mayfield, played by American actor Sadie Sink, helped El to develop her girly fashion sense. She learned there was more to life than just stupid boys during this period. With her, she experienced friendship other than love. El understood that Max had no love interest in Mike. That relieved her a lot. Most importantly, Max and El together purchased a few fashionable clothes, an exposure that she needed for her own healthy growth.

Though she returns to her old style in season four. In one of the episodes, Hopper purchased a shirt until he made clear that he bought it for himself; most viewers had an impression that he had purchased it for El.

Eleven’s Young Adulthood

Most of the students in college sometimes or the other get bullied. Unfortunately, it was in the core. From a psychological perspective, children who were dominated, abused or assaulted tend to release anger on their weak mates. The same was in the case of Billy Hargrove. Since the blog was on the character development of El, we will analyse Billy’s character in a different blog. But he was an example of a troubled child. And El, too, faced bullies when she joined her college.

Disrespecting the hero who saved not just Hawkins but the country and the world, El’s father Hopper was insulted by the bullies of her class. Though she wanted to punish them by using the powers but could not as she lost those. In the real world, people don’t have superpowers. They cannot make the problems disappear telepathically. As or matter of fact, problems disappear by themselves. We, the people, need to face it. And so does the character.

The mature part of the character can be seen when she chooses not to disclose her problems at college to her boyfriend, Mike. In her letters, she tells him that she has made many friends, and they seem to like her a lot.

Facing bullies in college and fighting them without her superpowers was another significant development in her character. Getting violent and assaulting her bully was something none of her friends appreciated, though they stood by her.

Reuniting with papa was another big event in her life. Not only from the perspective of getting her powers back but also facing the man responsible for her ill-treatment. Knowing him better. And the actual person responsible for complete chaos.

Eleven’s Superpowers

Telekinetic and telepathy were her powers. To reach any person anywhere, in any dimension. The only time she failed, other than the ones when she was forced as a child to find one, was to see Max when the latter went into a coma.

She opened the gate of another dimension. Though she opened it unintentionally, it was the dimension of the world that had demons and monsters. The world that was opposite to theirs. Opening the gate required immense power and strength.

Not only did she open the gate, but she closed it as well, multiple times.

Move objects, read and manipulate the minds of anyone. Apart from finding friends, El entered Max’s subconsciousness to fight Vecna. She had done this earlier when she entered Billy’s brain and looked at his disturbing childhood. She got sympathetically connected to Billy.

In one of the episodes, with her powers, El pulled a locomotive. In another episode, she picked and calmly kept thousand tons of metal telepathically. That showed the intensity of strength she possessed.

Her strength can also be seen in an episode where she destroys a military chopper.

The burst of massive energy was another power she had. Viewers witnessed that when she used it to throw the MPs off her during her second-time captivity by papa.

Speaking of powers, one should not forget that she was the only one among the other special children Vecna could not kill. Though they were proving out to be better than her. She threw Vecna like a small toy, not once but many times. First time when she was not even half his age and threw him into the other dimension. The second time when she fought with him was in Max’s dream. She tossed him into the air just like he did to his victims.

Eleven’s Fight with Demons

In Stranger Things, demons were creatures from the parallel world. A world in different dimensions was opposite to our natural world. Supernatural demons need supernatural heroes. Though many other children have superpowers, El was the only one papa could control.

The creepy flower-head creature Demogorgon with teeth inside the petals, tore flesh from its victim’s body in a flash. El killed the beast with absolute ease.

Her powers grew with time, other than the short period when she lost these. She defeated the creatures in all seasons. Of course, she is the protagonist, after all.

The final fights, especially in seasons two and four, were brilliant. Other than fighting incarnated demons like the papa, Lt Colonel Sullivan, the soldiers and the MPs who tortured her, El fought the actual ones, Mind Flayer, Demogorgon and Vecna. She closes the door to the other dimension in season two.

Conclusion

Actually, it is difficult to predict what the future holds for El. What kind of fate have writers decided for her? But it certainly will be exciting.

Will will probably sacrifice himself to protect El and Mike; El might get killed, or Mike might get killed, Max might, or somebody else like Steve, Lucas, Dustin, or even Hopper.

Or writers might be generous and will not kill any other lead character. Eddie’s death in season four was something that many viewers did not like. Though there is a love triangle between Steve, Jonathan, and Nancy. Writers might end it with the death of Steve or Jonathan or simply might kill Nancy.

It is currently difficult to say what impact any of the character’s death will have on El. She had been sensitive to her friends.

The writers have released a teaser showing a whiteboard with a grid with column titles Episodes one, two, three up to eight, with a double line after episode four, probably meaning that there might be two parts of the finale like the Ozark series.

If you want to read about the Ozark series, click here.

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