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| “ | This man does not deserve the peace of death. So I have sent him... to Hell. | „ |
| ~ Warden Melnikov about his decisions to "spare" Jim Hopper. |
| “ | I enjoy this part... when they still believe there is hope. | „ |
| ~ Warden Melnikov to a disguised Murray Bauman. |
Warden Melnikov (Russian: Охранник Мельников) is a supporting antagonist in Stranger Things, serving as an unseen antagonist in Season 3 and a major antagonist in Season 4.
He is the ruthless Warden of the Kamchatka labor camp, a Russian gulag of the Soviet Union that houses any traitors or enemies of Russia. At an unknown point in time, Melnikov somehow acquired a Demogorgon from the Upside Down and keeps it locked in his gulag, feeding it with his prisoners, whom he sends to futilely fight the Demogorgon in gladiatorial fights.
He was portrayed by Vaidotas Martinaitis.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- He runs a brutal labor camp in Kamchatka, Russia, on the Soviet Union's behalf, torturing and overworking any enemies or traitors of Russia. As Melnikov puts it, his labor camp is a literal "hell".
- Sometime before 1984, he somehow captured a Demogorgon from the Upside Down, likely obtained from Dr. Karine's research, locking it up in the Kamchatka labor camp and feeding it with his prisoners from time to time so the Soviets could train it to fight for them in the battlefield, taking great sadism orchestrating gladiator death games which all end with the prisoners' futile attempts fighting the Demogorgon getting them butchered, making it a grand spectacle for him.
- He sends an unnamed prisoner, who claims to be innocent of whatever he was accused of, to the Demogorgon, who devours him offscreen.
- He sends six prisoners to fight the Demogorgon one week before the events of the fourth season, resulting in all of them being killed as well.
- He tortures Sheriff Jim Hopper after he ruins the Soviet Union's scheme under General Ozerov's supervision to open a gate to the Upside Down beneath the Starcourt Mall in Hawkins, Indiana by having a guard punch him and later trying to suffocate him with "The Elephant" due to Hopper's refusal to rat out Joyce Byers.
- It's implied that he is infamous among the Russian guards for his mercilessness, as a Russian doctor stated that he never knew him to be generous.
- He arranges Hopper to be sent to his labor camp, sparing him after he nearly dies from "The Elephant", only because he thinks his strength could be useful for them and to deny him the "peace of death".
- He orders Dmitri "Enzo" Antonov, one of his guards, to be locked up and treated like one more prisoner after he tries to help Hopper escape thanks to Yuri Ismaylov, Antonov's contact, ratting him out to Melnikov.
- He tortures Hopper again after recapturing him.
- While he feeds Hopper, Antonov, and six of their fellow prisoners a big feast before they go to fight the Demogorgon, he does this out of pragmatic reasons, specifically to fatten them up to ensure that the Demogorgon doesn't starve, with a prisoner confirming that Melnikov did the same thing with the six victims of one week ago.
- He sends Hopper and Antonov to solitary confinement after they start a brawl.
- Although he lets Hopper, Antonov, and their fellow prisoners take different medieval weapons to defend themselves from the Demogorgon, this doesn't make him honorable because, as Hopper pointed out, the only thing that could hurt the Demogorgon was fire and even Melnikov acknowledges that by remarking that he enjoys how his prisoners still hope to defeat the Demogorgon.
- He unleashes the Demogorgon against his prisoners, ending with all of them dead minus Hopper and Antonov, who later succeed at killing the beast.
- He refuses to order his men to save Hopper when Murray Bauman and Joyce Byers come to rescue him, fully knowing that if he does so, he will be branded a traitor, showing that it's not out of loyalty to his country but out of cowardliness.
- He threatens one of his own guards by pointing out that if he opens the door to the Demogorgon's arena it will kill them all in a desperate attempt to save himself, convincing his soldier to not open it. While the soldier refuses to do this out of care for his fellow comrades, Melnikov doesn't express any concern, suggesting that he only talked his guard out of opening the door to save himself.
- He leads experiments on the Demodogs his men somehow captured - possibly the adult Demogorgon's children - as shown when one Demodog is shown with his chest open, and others are kept inside boxes. He even found some of the Mind Flayer's particles. Even the heroes, who have been frequently attacked by them and fear them with their lives, show pity for the tortured Demodog, with Hopper even shooting it to end its misery.
- While the Mind Flayer and Vecna do worse than him, it's worth pointing out that Melnikov lacks any supernatural powers and does the worst he can with his few resources, being just simply a warden of a prison with only a handful of screen time. Even with the presence of other heinous human villains like Martin Brenner and Lt. Colonel Sullivan, Melnikov establishes himself to be one of the vilest, if not the vilest human in the series (as while Vecna used to be human, you can hardly call him one anymore) due to how uniquely sadistic his actions are.
External Links[]
- Warden Melnikov on the Villains Wiki
- Warden Melnikov on the Stranger Things Wiki
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 Pure Evils
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