lais-a-ramos

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Lottie and Laura Lee + Merkabah mysticism

(Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle; II Kings 2:9-12; Michael D. Swartz's Mystical Prayer in Ancient Judaism; Genesis 5:24; Gershom Scholem's Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism; Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha Nachmani's Sefet Hekhalot; Jalal ad-Din al-Suyuti quoted in S.R. Burge's Angels in Islam)

#this is simply mindblowing #yellowjackets #lottie matthews #laura lee #lottielee #web weaving #yellowjackets web weaving

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Had my ninety millionth rewatch of Yellowjackets because I wanted to work on drawing the girls. Been thinking about Jackie's butterfly shirt and how Shauna later on wears it. Not to mention to Shauna wears other butterfly shirts. any thoughts on if the butterfly symbolism was intentional? -💀

HI YES. i had like. so many thoughts on this all at once. i reasearched a lot of butterfly shit for a personal project before and it all just clicked in yj context. a warning that this is going to be rambley its going to be messy and some of it might be a stretch. yippee!

SOO first off its def like. butterflies are a very common just design for shirts in the 90s so its def just like part of the period wardrobe. HOWEVER. jackie and shauna, as far as i know, are the only characters seen wearing butterfly shirts (and i could be wrong but even so theyre the only characters with repeated obvious butterfly shirts including in the adult timeline). which is very interesting.

so heres shaunas butterfly shirt (note the words)

jackie's butterfly shirt and.. shauna wearing it (note the scene)

adult shauna also wears a butterfly shirt im 99% sure it was like black with a white butterfly design. i need to find a pic rgh

SO LETS START

first off - what is butterfly symbolism?

butterfly symbolism is literally anything you want it to be. its such a common symbol if you look it up theres millions of websites on weird slightly not so slightly appropriating spirit bs and a shitton of vague statements. so lets narrow the question.

what is butterfly symbolism in the context of yellowjackets?

much better. my personal view on it is this - butterflies, in a multitude of cultures, are a symbol of hope. theyre pretty theyre flappy theyre whatever. but butterflies are also a symbol of change, of transformation. but what i think is so interesting about butterflies as change is when we look at how butterflies change.

butterfly transformation is inherently something of horror. its a gorey, bloody transformation where the caterpillar literally dissolves in a chamber of its own making and reforms into something completely different. but the thing i find so fascinating is that its not a whole new thing - its literally a restructuring of the caterpillar. its something that was always there.

and this exact thing is imo one of the central themes of yellowjackets - they were always these people. What the wilderness did is amplified it, twisted it, made it louder and more obvious and definitely more bloody. but the violence and the competitiveness and the drama? was always there. look at allie, look at shauna and jeff. what the wilderness did was give them a stage (a chrysalis, if you will) to transform.

What about the specific shirt designs?

Lets start with shauna. Its a basic design with 6 butterflies of various kinds, but the most notable thing for me is the text. "Lueur d'espoir

yeah i used google translate whatever its not like ive been taking french classes for years. or something. let me live.

so. as you can see its "glimmer of hope" which goes hand in hand with the common butterfly symbolism. but actions overpower words because with a lot of shauna's actions, (ie 2.07 massive girl on girl violence) shes pretty much the opposite of hope. shes giving into the brutal violence that the wilderness is bringing out in all of them and hell she even relishes it. its an almost comedic grasp at imitating jackie when really shes the opposite side of the butterfly symbolism coin - transformation. but specifically metamorphasis. this side of her was always there.

now its number time!!

shaunas shirt has 6 butterflies and jackies has 3. jackie is literally half of what makes up shauna - without jackie she loses a significant piece of herself. i might throw up.

after jackies death shauna does everything she can to get her back. not only does she talk to jackies corpse for months, she literally EATS her. but theres also more subtle attempts to get that part of herself back - like wearing her "missing half" - the butterfly shirt. its all in vain really because its with that grasping at anything she has left of jackie and order and everything she used to know, with that shirt, that she commits one of the most brutal acts of violence in the entire show. also shauna wears it while beating up lottie after wilderness baby dies and wb was basically the last living (rip) thing she has of jackie. ough.

back to shaunas original shirt, the one with six butterflies. 6 is a number commonly associated with nurturing energy, and sometimes maternal. sound familiar?

similarly, jackie(shauna)'s 3 butterfly shirt - 3 in general is a very powerful number symbolically. the birth-life-death cycle, the mind-body-soul connection, things coming in threes. jackieshauna and whatever they connect to be that wilderness baby, jeff, callie, the wilderness in general maybe lottie. who knows!! the toxic homoerotic bestfriendship spares no one.

ALSO the butterflies on jackies 3 shirt are monarchs which are commonly associated with the dead and more specifically remembrance of the dead. throws up.

so overall!

the butterfly shirts could very much be just be time period wardrobing but i do think there is at least some significance given jackie and shauna are the only characters (as far as i know) who repeatedly wear butterfly shirts.

butterflies in jackie's context are almost a satire of the hope theyre supposed to represent - jackie has lost all hope by clinging to a past she can never get back to. in most cases she would be a hopeful character - take akilahs clinging to wiskayok, doing SAT prep and talking about her family. but the difference with jackie is that she clings to it as if it were already dead. she has this passive suicidality because she knows that shes never going back to what was and she REFUSES to transform. a catterpillar who doesnt pupate and dies never changing.

butterflies in shauna's context i think point to the gorey, transformative yet revealing nature of the wilderness. similar to metamorphosis, through a complete restrucuring of what was already there in the optimal conditions for change, we see this violent, bloody, version of Shauna emerge in the wilderness. Similarly to the twisting of butterfly metaphors, shauna also represents a twisted kind of hope through her pregancy. Inherently a birth is supposed to be a symbol of new life, of hope and joy. And for a while the baby is a symbol of hope! you have the babyshower raising spirits etc. but everyone knows it was doomed from the start. in the wilderness a birth is not a thing of hope but a thing of horror - its seeing your teammates mouths covered with blood and its burying your son when you too are still a child.

soo yeah. butterflies. dont know how much of this is gonna make sense but it definately made me think about things

#BRILLIANT. this is brilliant #yellowjackets #shauna shipman #jackie taylor #jackieshauna #yellowjackets meta

[lais-a-ramos]

^^^^^EXACTLY

a ship this badass is anything but boring bfr

also, i hope op gets to write this meta one day, bc the performative support is a huge problem in yellowjackets fandom, whether is it towards ppl of color, towards trans and non-binary ppl, towards ppl with mental illnesses etc

someone called taivan boring.... id write a paragraph or two about fandom and performative support and the inability to comprehend a piece of media but alas i am too eepy

#yellowjackets #taivan #fandom problems

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these are so stupidly fun to make

#LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO #this is amazing #yellowjackets #jackieshauna #jackie taylor #shauna shipman #yellowjackets meme

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worst yj character poll except i fixed it

#the only correct poll tbh #it's hard to pick between a groomer (mustache aka saracusa) and complicit in grooming (no mustache aka kevyn) tho #ended up picking mustache #yellowjackets #yellowjackets poll

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every now and then i leave my media literate bubble and see people saying taivan is boring.

#^^^^^LITERALLY ALL OF THIS #i understand not being a fan of their dynamic or the characters #and i also understand when ppl criticize the writing on the show #but the way some ppl claim that taivan has nothing appealing about them is wild #and seems to involve some prejudices towards black women and masc lesbians tbh #yellowjackets #taivan #taissa turner #van palmer

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oh poo i meant a doodle 😭 fatter round belly baby deer and lawtie :3

just a doodle bc i’m kinda art blocked :(

#HER!!!!!! #yellowjackets #lottie yellowjackets #lottie matthews

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ok what’s your florence + the machine song. mine is rabbit heart (raise it up)<3

#i think it's a tie between “mother” and heartlines“ and ”shake it out“ and ”dream girl evil“ #florence + the machine

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Daily Reminder to Click for Palestine!

#palestine #UNRWA #daily reminder #free palestine #support palestine #ceasefire now #free gaza #gaza genocide

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LOTTIE HELPING SHAUNA DELIVER HER BABY AND BEING OBSESSED W HER BABY AS A DOG ASKDSJKCNDJCNDJK

those eyes could never do any wrong tbh

#borzoi! lottie has done nothing wrong ever tbh #she's just a silly little guy #yj airbud au #yellowjackets #yellowjackets au #lottie matthews #shauna shipman #taissa turner #airbud #borzoi

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"Is Jackie a yandere?" most epic thread in the history of YJ fandom, locked by a moderator after 12,235 pages of heated debate,

#obviously she's not like. a conventional one. but overwhelming love expressed as an unhealthy need for control? this too is shaunajackie. #< prev tags #this is so real #jackieshauna really is like that lmao #yellowjackets #shauna shipman #jackie taylor #jackieshauna

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Your airbud au... What does post-crash look like? I'm just imagining a dog running a compound somehow

-💀

oh have you ever seen those dogs on youtube that talk with buttons. she does that

she gets a cult like following who heard her story and the rumors. they break her out of wherever the government keeps magical talking dogs. she gets the buttons to talk. cult ensues 💕

#it's notadult lottie if tax evasion isn't involved lmaoooo #i love her #yj airbud au #yellowjackets #lottie matthews #air bud #yellowjackets au #yellowjackets meme

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AKSJJAJANDHSJJ RETURNING STUFF TO TJ MAXX AS A DOG

i’m losing it this is what tv show hiatus does to someone

#fdlkhaglhlsfghlkfkahg #airbud AU my beloved #this is so funny help #yj airbud au #yellowjackets #lottie matthews #air bud

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c'mon yellowjackers mutuals and followers, let's help lottielee turn this around ‼️

Propaganda

Lottie and Laura Lee:

Lottie is reserved and harmonious and connected to the darkness of the wilderness, and Laura Lee is outgoing and stubborn and connected to a giant, fiery, explosive light...

Ballister Boldheart and Ambrosius Goldenloin: No Propaganda Submitted

#sun and moon duo tournament #yellowjackets #lottielee #lottie matthews #laura lee #laura lee yellowjackets #lottie lee

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thoughts on mistynat (not necessarily as a ship but im mainly still thinking about how misty clearly believes herself to be a good friend) in the antler queen scene where misty fucking bows and looks up at nat with reverence after she pretty much orchestrated the death of javi

oh mistynat is SUCH an interesting dynamic. i really wanna pay attention to them more in the future like i don’t ship it but they’re so fucking interesting just as a character pair.

i really liked their silly back and forth in the adult timeline but if we’re talking teen specific

i think something interesting about the two of them is that they’re both outcasts socially - but nat is regarded as a “cool” (using that lightly) outcast while misty is just. everyone thinks she’s fucking weird.

so i think it’s definitely some of the draw to nat from misty’s pov - how can someone who’s also not “cool” garner this kind of respect from the others? what’s so different about nat from misty that she eventually has a sort of leadership position over the others? misty can try to be needed - breaking the black box, all that possessive controlling shit with ben, positioning herself as the medic because she took babysitting classes. but it’s never enough for her to be truly respected no matter how hard she tries.

then you have nat - also an outcast, but all she has to do is hunt and immediately she gets a a huge boost in respect from the others (again i say this lightly - we’re comparing to MISTY). then the peak - lottie declaring nat the new leader. i think the pure like reverence in misty’s gaze was like, pure admiration and honestly? partially hope that someone (who misty views as like her) could rise in the ranks at get that power and respect that misty craves so badly.

overall i think a huge part of it is misty’s desire to be respected and needed - something nat, who also wasn’t in the best social situation, managed to get without even really trying. misty has been seen literally using other people’s words to get this kind of power (ex saying lottie wanted them to do the whole thing that ended up w javis death) but with nat she sees someone who doesn’t have to do that and she’s very drawn to it.

overall i don’t like. i haven’t thought about them that much or at least as much as other characters but that’s really just bc there’s so many interesting dynamics to explore that it’s hard to hit them all. mistynat is so so interesting though i might write more on them this is just off the top of my head :p

#another amazing analysis by shep #i don't really ship misty and nat but their dynamic is so fascinating #and this post sums up pretty well why i think they are so interesting #yellowjackets #misty quigley #natalie scatorccio #mistynat

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sponsored by the Wilderness

#the way i cackled #this is hilarious #and excellent art as usual 💖 #yellowjackets #lottie matthews #laura lee #shauna shipman #natalie scatorccio #lottielee #lottieshauna #lottienat #yellowjackets meme #yellowjackets shitpost #blood

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Yellowjackets // Le Temps by Wojtek Siudmak

#yellowjackets #antler queen