Robin Buckley/Vickie

Pairing
Pairing:	Robin Buckley/Vickie
Alternative name(s):	Rockie
Gender category:	F/F, Sapphic, Femslash
Fandom:	Stranger Things
Canonical?:	Sort of, developing
Prevalence:	Uncommon
Archives:
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Robin Buckley/Vickie (aka Rockie) is a semi-canon (as of 2023) femslash pairing in the Stranger Things fandom. By the end of season four, it was established that Robin was attracted to Vickie, but they had limited interaction throughout the season.

Fans of the pairing were optimistic for significant developments between Robin and Vickie in season five when a cast photo released at the start of filming season five suggested that Vickie was being moved into to the main cast.

Canon

Vickie is introduced as a character in season four and during scenes between Robin and Steve, it is revealed that Robin is attracted to Vickie. However, given the period-typical (and prevalent) homophobia, Robin cannot risk expressing any feelings about Vickie to her until she is sure Vickie either feels the same way or wouldn't out her to the entirety of Hawkins.

There are very few scenes between Robin and Vickie:

• During a band performance and assembly at school, Robin and Vickie stand next to each other in band and have a short exchange.
• Robin sees Vickie in the store just before she, Steve and the others are about to face off against Vecna. Steve encourages Robin to approach Vickie, but before she can, Vickie's boyfriend arrives. Vickie and Robin make eye contact before Robin leaves, but no words are exchanged.
• In the finale of season 4, after Vecna was stopped, Robin and some of the others go to help with the relief effort. Vickie is there making sandwiches and Robin joins her. Robin and the viewers learn that Vickie's boyfriend has left town and Vickie. The pair continue to talk while they work.

Fandom

Some fans expressed frustration at the lack of screen-time and development that Vickie got as a character, while others were concerned that, with the limited time available for character development in season five, either Vickie's character development would come at the expense of Robin's or the relationship would be rushed and poorly written. However, others are optimistic that Vickie's character development will be better in season five and that, by remaining in Hawkins, there will be no way for her to not see the supernatural elements surrounding the town, bringing her closer to Robin.

It isn't uncommon for LGBT+ characters to have their love interest be a supporting character with limited screen-time while most, if not all, the F/M canonical pairings in the same show are between main cast members, so it's not surprising that fans of Robin aren't optimistic about the development of the pairing.

On AO3, Rockie is Robin's second most common romantic pairing with 945 works as of August 2023. Unfortunately, as with many sapphic pairings in the Stranger Things fandom, many of this number are works focused on the achillean fan pairings Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson or Will Byers/Mike Wheeler. F/F is not the largest category tag for works tagged with Robin Buckley/Vickie (having 491 works to M/M's 655) which is usually a strong indication that a lot of background tagging happens with the pairing in question.

Controversies

Rovickie and Ronance Conflict

There has been some tension between a small number of Robin/Vickie and Robin/Nancy fans. Some fanworks on AO3 which have Robin/Nancy as the endgame couple write Vickie as a neglectful or abusive partner to Robin, resulting in their relationship ending.

Some Rovickie fans are upset at the existence of the fics in general, angry that Vickie has been written as an abusive person, while other fans' frustration stems from the way tagging works on AO3. Due to the limitations of tagging and general tagging practices, most of these works are tagged with Robin/Vickie and so end up in inclusive searches for the pairing.

‘vickie doesn’t get villianized by ronancers/ believing that ronancers villianze vickie is so laughable because they don’t’

babe i’ve legit gone into the robin/vickie tag on ao3 and see fics of vickie being abusive to robin and sexually assaulting robin just so that ronance can happen

drunkengodsofslaughter 

Frustrations over discussions of queer representation in the show

Other fans of Rovickie, given the likelihood that Robin/Vickie will become a canonical couple in season five have expressed frustration over how Vickie and Rovickie are both often left out of discussions of queer representation in Stranger Things. In particular, some fans have discussed their annoyance in sentiments from the fanbase that seem to imply that unless one of the achillean fan pairings becomes canonical, the show has no queer rep.

Common Tropes in Fanworks

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Example Fanworks

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Fanfic

• I remember (way back when) by fivecenturiesverse

Fanart

• robin x vickie by katimanki

Fanvids

• I wish you were gay by ilystrangerthings1029

• All Scenes with Robin and VIckie by The Darkness - As a large proportion of this video involves scenes where Robin is talking about Vickie and Vickie is not present, this demonstrates how little screen-time the two characters had together.

Archives and Communities

• Robin Buckley/Vickie tag on AO3

Other Fannish Resources

• Robin Buckley/Vickie otp:true tag on AO3 - Works where Rockie are the only pairing.
• Stranger Things Femslash's curated bookmark collection where Robin/Vickie are the focus