absolutely no one asked, but if steve were a tarot card, he would be the chariot.
vii. the chariot is one of the major arcana in a standard tarot deck. the typical image is that of a person in a chariot drawn by two creatures ( sphinxes in the original rider-waite deck ), which are often pictured as a dark & light color variant of each other.
the chariot is said to symbolize action, progress, willpower, self-mastery, victory, & sometimes literal travel or transportation. the color inverted creatures which pull the chariot are a visualization of the driver's opposing impulses — the conflicting parts of one's motivations — which herein are given equalized power & pull in the same direction. thus, the "good" & "bad" that exists within us all being balanced so they might work together toward a common goal, moving the driver who commands them forward.
i think this is all quite relevant to steve's arc. just on the surface level, we know that steve is a doer. he acts, & he does not consider too deeply before acting, especially if he knows that he is acting in alignment with what he feels is right — ie; protecting others.
but to think about it more symbolically, his character arc is quite literally all about forward progress, choosing to change for the better, & channeling negative impulses or emotions into positive action. steve was a bad person. he saw that his actions were wrong & chose to change himself through sheer force of will. he became committed to the effort of becoming a better person, even when it was scary or hard. he did not give up this goal when it ceased to have a direct benefit him — for example, when nancy broke up with him & he was left with no friends outside of dustin. he maintained his progress not out of a superficial desire to fool others, or the belief that he would get something out of it, but out of true genuine intrinsic striving to improve himself. his personal desire to grapple with the bad traits he recognizes within himself is his main character motivation throughout the series. steve's motivation to change his behavior is rooted in a desire for real, lasting self-improvement. it is defined by a consistent push towards personal growth. all of these are themes which seem resonant against interpretations of the chariot.
of course, there is also the very obvious & literal manifestation of the chariot onscreen in the form of steve as the driver. of course, there is his bmw, which is a main method of transportation for a huge chunk of the series. but even when the bmw is not present, steve is nearly always the one who drives. he very notably drives the white cadillac in the mindflayer scene, the stolen rv in s4, the van on the crawls, even one of the army trucks out of the upside down in the finale. steve is the one who literally gets the group where they need to go. steve is the one who is most often trusted with maintaining the forward motion of the group when some kind of transportation is necessary.
steve is the chariot. he has both good & bad inside him, & his main story arc is to master them both in service of forward progress & personal improvement. thank you for coming to my ted talk.
