#overlaymemorygate

The VHS tapes are surveillance footage from Hawkins lab, where they are showing us how the story started. The tapes are the real story.

Whenever there is static/glitching, it is showing us when/where the Mindflayer/Vecna have influenced and changed the tapes (addled/changed the memories of the characters/ changed the story and it's narrative).

This happens from S3 onwards when the Mindflayer/Vecna use Cerebro to hack into everyone's memories. The longer Cerebro is up, the more they can change memories and 'hack' into people's subconscious which is why everything from S3 - S5 makes less and less sense.

S1 has the least changed memories/tapes.

S2 has a few changed memories/tapes (1 or 2 max).

S3 has more changed memories/tapes.

S4 has a few more changed memories/tapes than S3.

S5 has the most changed memories/tapes.

The characters aren't actually going to go back in time, they are going to 'rewind the tape' and find inconsistencies to unlock their real memories. Like Max and Holly did in Camazotz but on a larger scale.

I think that the tapes have overlayed their actual memories (kind of like when you paint something and then paint over it in another colour. You can still see the previous paint if you look closely and you know where to look.)

For example (this is a made up example and I'll be astonished if it's actually true 😭):

Mike is wearing a yellow shirt -> the Mindflayer/Vecna overlay his memories to make him remember that he was wearing a blue shirt instead

That's for physical changes but it also works for emotional changes:

Nancy and Jonathan argue about college -> the Mindflayer/Vecna overlay their memories to make them think that they were arguing over Nancy's sweater (or something)

The characters remember the emotions that go with the memories, but because the Mindflayer/Vecna have altered their memories, they don't remember what exactly the memories are about. Does that make sense or did I explain it really badly 😭😔

When we get more and more tapes, we'll be able to notice more and more glitching and inconsistencies which will help us uncover the real narrative.

Once they drop all the tapes for S1 - S5, I think they'll add scenes into the actual show (not the tapes) to mess with us and wait for us to find all the 'missing' memories. Once we have all the missing memories from season 1 - 4, they'll show us that S5 was entirely fabricated by the Mindflayer and Vecna and then release S6 (or its equivalent).

I kinda want to call this overlaymemorygate but it also fits into tapegate if I'm being honest.

Thank you again @gritstartar for giving me this massive brain wave 🥹💛💙

I have some more thoughts about this, but I'll make a separate post about it later <333