#ViceGate: Family Video & Palace Arcade.
the "Family Video" store where Robin & Steve work is meant to:
(1) be an ironic, mocking quip/remark about the common innacurate notion that Stranger Things is a "family show" & how it's going to completely subvert that label in s5;
(2) deliver subtext for bychance, #temptationgate, #vicegate, #sigate, #traffickgate and a bunch of other clustered related gates (see below).
notice:
the neon red 'ADULT' film section in the background (i couldn't find a screenshot) while s4 Steve flirts with a girl as he rents her a movie (Doctor Zhivago: “It’s a double VHS. It’s long. But that’s because it’s filled with action and romance …”), only to find out she already has a 'boyfriend' to watch romantic movies with (loser Mike foreshadowing);
the red car (#cargate), already associated to Chance & secret flings (check @offsidetracked posts); also the music band The Cars that's been so heavily featured in Stranger Things (song 'Moving in Stereo' playing during the Karen-Billy pool scene) and Finn Wolfhard's sus STurn playlist;
the Palace Arcade (entertainment, pleasure, vice; also the shady s2 direct allusions to prostitution/trafficking while Keith tries to bribe Mike into getting him a date with Nancy + Dustin warning that's gonna give a disease to Mike's entire family (AIDS subtext) + Keith tricking Max into entering a small enclosed space with Lucas while saying 'keep it PG');
also the 'Firestarter' poster, a 1984 sci-fi thriller horror film based on a Stephen King novel.
while the movie is described as "A couple who participated in a potent medical experiment gain telepathic ability and then have a child who is pyrokinetic"--obvious references to "Fireball!", Eleven's telekinesis & Will's possible latent powers...
...there HAS been an effort by the show to associate the concept of "fire" to "passion/arousal/sexuality" as well. in this sense, a 'firestarter' is someone who 'starts a fire', in other words 'ignites a fire' and therefore 'ignites a passion' (#temptationgate).
fires can be hypnotizing, unstable, quick and destructive; exactly what we've been predicting about bychance.
also included in this #ViceGate theory cluster are:
Rink-o-Mania;
the Hawkins' Pool;
the Billy-Karen side fling;
the Billy & Max sibling duo;
Starcourt Mall & the Russian tunnels below;
Hawkins Lab (HNL) itself;
the entire Russian plotline, starting with that Yuri Ismaylov peanut butter-smuggling nut;
Lonnie Byers and his shady buddies, connections & sources of income;
Al Munson (Eddie's father) and his insane Lonnie-coding in the Flight of Icarus book;
a bunch of other plotlines i'm probably not recalling right now;
and the "Vegas" mention by Will in the pizza van.
and trust me, these are absolutely riddled to their CORE with all kinds of subtextual foreshadowing for the s5 Bychance + ViceGate plotline. I'll make a post about those as soon as I'm able to.
"How far is Nina from Vegas? [...] once we save her — El — we should stop on the way back. El* could make us, like, super RICH, and we’d never have to work. We could just play D&D and Nintendo** for the rest of our lives...."
*El = "He" (in spanish) = Chance = men = homosexuality = trauma... **D&D and Nintendo = games, fun, entertainment, chance, vice, risk
-- sly, crafty, streetwise, mischievous, fun-seeking, risk-taking, cheeky, material gworl Will Byers you are SO unironically real and canon. #materialgirlgate #girlsjustwannahavefungate #mikeyouaresocooked #toolameforwill
mike is officially entering his simpy cuck era, i fear. nevertheless he will still have to step in as a white knight and save will from his dangerous hot girl summer
@ven0moir @offsidetracked @o11yradio @eeriesilkworm