#I also don't know if I believe lottie about travis but I want to believe her

[danisbrainrot]

yellowjackets as taylor swift albums (I'm bored). this became deeper than I meant for it to go OMG. whoops, anyways, enjoy:

1. tai: reputation. oh my god this girl is soooo in love with van, and at the end of the day, that's what reputation is. a love album. yeah it's got a little revenge in it, but overall, it's about being in love with someone who was there for you at your most vulnerable. and who's always been there for tai, adult AND teen timeline? VAN!

2. van: 1989! it's nostalgic, fun, iconic but still has the emotional rawness that flows throughout all of taylor's albums. everyone thinks 1989 is just heaps of fun, but it has this emotional intensity to it that once you look closer to it, you realise how much of a masterpiece it is. also, it just gives me van vibes tbh.

3. jackie: lover. she's so insecure about being in a relationship with who she thinks is the love of her life (shauna) in case she fucks it up (spoiler alert, she does). taylor also wrote this album as a last hurrah, to prove she had more stories to tell, and I think that ties in nicely to jackie's character. her insecurity forces her to try and prove herself to shauna, and show her best friend how much she loves her.

4. shauna: she's a red girlie. taylor's most emotionally raw album (besides ttpd) and she just gives the vibes. this is taylor's first heartbreak album (like how jackie's death was shauna's first heartbreak), and it's so intense that it takes a few listens to understand, but once you do, you realise it's an album about a girl with big heart learning how to recover from the devastation of losing someone she loves deeply.

5. lottie: folklore!! I love my little baby. this album was written in isolation, and you can definitely hear it in some of taylor's lyrics, and I just feel like that's lottie's character. the isolated girl who's held up to a higher standard than everyone else.

6. nat: ttpd. okay, i was tossing up between giving this to nat or travis, but then I remembered the adult timeline and went with nat. when I first heard this album, it reminded me of her purposeless speech. it's also an album where taylor was going through a manic phase, and if that isn't nat, I don't know what is. she's just lost the love of her life, and then she's kidnapped by lottie's cult and promised so many wonderful things, that she believes it—only for it to end in tragedy.

7. misty: she gives off such speak now vibes. she has so much she wants to prove, and she's reeling from being in love with a man much older than her.

8. travis: evermore. he's such a tragic little guy, that the album suits him. I really just think of happiness, marjorie and right where you left me because he's stuck in the past. he literally kills himself (accidentally I know, I know) because he's so trapped in the wilderness despite being free from it. this album has always given me: depressed sad, compared to its sister albume: folklore, which gives me angry sad. and while he's definitely more angry then lottie, he's got this deep sadness in him that echoes evermore.

9. mari: midnights. okay I don't know how to explain it better than this is how I interpret mari. she's the first to throw herself into believing lottie because she's scared and when I think of midnights, I think of how scared taylor was at losing her relationship and joe that she ignores her feelings. and mari ignores her feelings because if she really thinks about it, I don't think she'd be able to handle herself, i.e. being trapped in the woods, eating jackie.

10. javi: taylor swift (debut). just the innocence and naïvety of the album. it's her first album, she wrote and released at 15/16 so there's a lot of childish beliefs and hopes, which I think javi has—but there's still an underlying feeling of heartbreak. he tries to be a kid, but is still traumatised.

11. laura lee: fearless!! this is purely based on the album title. I mean, learning to fly a plane just to save her friends? this album is probably my least favourite, so you're not going to get a lot of analysis, but the few times I've listened to it, I understand it's about having faith things will work out (this might be wrong, but that's what I'm choosing to believe about it). and her faith makes her believe she can do anything, including save her friends. omg I love her so much <333

#danistalks #surely this isnt too niche #yellowjackets #yellowjackets showtime #taylor swift #taissa turner #vanessa palmer #shauna shipman #jackie taylor #lottie matthews #natalie scatorccio #travis martinez #javi martinez #mari yellowjackets #misty quigley #laura lee #fearless #speak now #red #1989 #reputation #lover #folklore #evermore #midnights #the tortured poets department

[lottieurl]

here's my problem since some people want to ignore genuine criticism and act like anyone who is criticizing the writing or the pacing is "not accepting things we accepted in s1" by comparing this to doomcoming

doomcoming is. i cannot stress it enough. an episode where the characters are drugged and high on shrooms. when they chase travis and when they nearly kill him we are SHOWN they see a stag

now yes you can compare their doomcoming hallucinations to the hallucinations of it chooses but even the framing isn't really on your side here is it? when the show wants you to doubt to what extent they're really even aware of what they're doing or the level of.. delusion present it has absolutely no problem showing you that! we saw them having an ancient greek feast while ripping apart jackie's body and we saw too many near death hallucinations and other hallucinations to even COUNT on one hand

so they're aware of what they're doing when they draw the cards. while they were shown to NOT BE during doomcoming at least while it happened. and now the question is do you think we have reached that point? if you do i'm happy for you genuinely. i wish i agreed. but i just do not. when they agreed to do this they agreed to not only potentially get themselves killed they also agreed to the death of their loved ones if they draw the card. why was van shown doubting everything she believed in (including lottie that goes without saying) in the previous ep and now willing to get herself or taissa killed for a ritual meant to save lottie? and don't Tell me what you think. i am capable of making up an explanation. i can come up with a bunch of theories. but there is No exploration of that in the actual show. why was taissa fine with this? why was nat? do i think those characters are all such lottie believers they'd go to those lengths? no not really cause all they were really doing before was having dbt group therapy with lottie and then lottie proceeded to fail in all her predictions about the baby

there were absolutely ways to make this more believable (like! maybe show nat and travis get injured while trying to hunt and they start thinking it's because lottie isn't blessing them before they leave anymore. show everyone lost without someone to look up to. put more focus on how hungry they are. maybe use some makeup to make them look more malnourished. show taissa's actual sleepwalking come back - and yes i know there was that one other taissa scene but it wasn't quite enough for me to buy that tai would be all for this. unless they're pulling another Other Tai Did This surprise but it's getting a little old imo) but they rushed through it in a way super jarring. and no it shouldn't be! yes it should still be shocking but we START the show with those murder cannibalism rituals. we watch the show to find out how it happened exactly. every single viewer should be watching this feeling overwhelming dread because it FEELS inevitable that they'll decide to do this. we should be quite horrified but we should also be 100% convinced that's the choice all those characters would make. this scene is what all those 18 episodes led to and regardless of whether someone liked it or not the overwhelming majority seemed to be shocked this happened already. which. quite literally means the build up wasn't there

#im cool with people having different opinions on the show but it rly gets on my nerves when people who see no flaws in it ever #are like You Just Don't Get It if you criticize plot point or pacing or characterization #anyways i dont ENJOY being disappointed ok i wish i wasnt but alas #so i need to get it out of my system #the good news is im now open to all kinds of fanfics cause the characterization on the show is so?? that my pet peeves no longer matter #maybe the fic writers came up with a more coherent entire backstory for the adults after s1 i shall see 😌 #yellowjackets spoilers #yellowjackets blogging

[periwinklekryptonite]

hey hi how does travis parallel common feminine tropes? i need to hear from the travis expert

Okay, so the "Problem" is that there's a preface and conclusion that's, like, way longer than just my bit about Travis's funny little parodies and then genuine relationship with femininity. While answering this ask, I realized just how big it is and I don't want to unload all of it here because I am just. Too tired all of the time to have all of it done in one swipe, and my attempt to do so ended up frustrating me more than anything LMAO

I write this with the promise that I'll expand on it and actually get to the meat of your question. I have a lot of it written, already!

The preface is easy: what's up with Travis and his relationship with gender?

Travis is trying to present as a very masculine, powerful character. It's an easy defense mechanism when he's alone in a crowded room. The thing many people fail to consider is that he doesn't know any of these people, and he probably dislikes most (if not all) of them on principal. The girls have a bond that existed in the before times, and Travis doesn't. He's an outsider. He's trying to grasp for some semblance of control by playing a sort of parody of the stoic, macho man... and it doesn't work.

Because of how he does this, a lot of people into the show are not into Travis. He's one of the only characters that are overtly and loudly misogynistic. It makes sense that people don't want to look past that when he acts so nasty. This means many write him off as exactly what Travis wants people to think he is.

Kevin Alves says it best in his Boys by Girls interview. I suggest reading the whole thing, it says a lot of what I'm saying and more.

So, even though he's pushing this masculine agenda when he's in the wreck with all the girls, my assumption in him has always been that he's never been the most big or the most masculine of guys at school. This is him really trying to pretend to be someone that he is not, this is not him.

This dramatized, fictional version of him is how he thinks he'll find a place within the group. The alternative is getting Coach Ben-ed and slowly being ousted from the group. Sitting in the back room and rotting in complete solitude just seems like a downer.

(Here he is looking sad for emphasis)

Travis was never the top dog. The girls do not take him seriously when he acts like this, and he probably wasn't taken very seriously in school. His insecurities lead to a lot of failures in his relationship with Javi and Nat, and no relationship with anyone else. If it continued any further than it did, he would've died for this. Like with Jackie, he'd be frozen out.

What Travis learns, and we learn as well, is that to be part of the in-group, you must also be a part of the dominant culture in the cabin and Wilderness itself. For Travis to be a part of the Yellowjackets, Travis must also be one of the girls.

Travis's story, the link between season 1 and season 2, is one of transition.

Some interpret this as a social transition, but I believe it to be literal.

The surviving group is not "the Yellowjackets and also Travis." By the end of season 2, (actually by the end of Qui,) Travis is indistinguishable from the rest. He's eaten Jackie with them, he's given blood to Shauna, he's taken blood from Lottie, he has led the group in their second act of cannibalism. Travis is a Yellowjacket.

Credit where credit is due:

@monstrousgourmandizingcats really helped me grind out these ideas and has a lot of cool YJ takes in general, and most of the screenies were given to me by @nicothecowboy.

Now, for YJ Fic Writer's Weekend I should hopefully have the part of this that you asked about ready. Until then, I have some interviews, and I cannot recommend the PaleyFest panel more. It has a lot about Travis in S2 and his relationship with Nat and Lottie.

#yellowjackets #travis martinez #the travtag

[invisible-pink-toast]

thinking about how mari is obsessed with heirarchy and making sure she's near the top

early season 1 when jackie is the captain, popular and stepping into a leader role, mari is always trying to get her attention.

trying to be helpful and close and always backing jackie up, wanting to be her no.2 (and stepping in the second there's tension between jackie and shauna)

but after they've been out there for a few weeks, things start to shift. there's no soccer team so jackie being captain doesn't matter. she's not stepping up as a leader because that involves living off the land and jackie has no clue what to do there. and the only popularity is within their group - and jackie not pulling her weight means she's no longer popular.

i don't think at this point mari singles out jackie to make an enemy out of her, they still have some friendly moments. but we all know mari's favourite thing is being a hater and that just comes out. she's treating jackie like they're equals - and in this situation, they now are.

besides, someone else is starting to step up as leader

and when tai leaves on her mission to find help, mari is in the small group that goes. it's worth mentioning that jackie also gave her support in the escape attempt. both leader-figures are in favour, so mari is too.

but tai's stint as leader doesn't exactly go as planned...

their group is attacked in the night when tai was supposed to be on watch. tai fell asleep, the fire went down, and "other tai" slept-walked her up a tree. and while when tai comes to she joins the fight (and kills a wolf with an axe damn), i think that would've broken mari's trust in her as a leader.

the other person who is being set up as a leader, whether she likes it or not, is lottie. before their attempt to leave the woods (after the seance / possession, when everyone is freaked by lottie and only really van is starting to believe her) mari is openly making fun of her.

but after van is more vocal about believing in lottie, and laura lee is advocating for lottie too, there's a shift.

it's not entirely clear whether mari just starts to believe in The Wilderness and lottie's connection to it, or she see's the others starting to believe and agrees to be in the majority. i think it's a combination of the two.

and by doomcoming, lottie is starting to stand out as a leader.

and (especially once the shrooms and booze kicks in) mari is happy to follow along

lottie says they should find jackie and travis, and all the girls follow her into the woods. and guess who's the first one through the door, the first one to go after jackie? mari.

and when they find jackie and travis, they all follow lottie's lead there too - ganging up on jackie, locking her up, and that whatever-orgy-hunt thing with travis. once again, lottie is the one ordering them to go after someone, and they all willingly - eagerly - comply.

and when they have travis on the alter, lottie in her antler queen glory, who's the one standing beside her? who's the one forcing travis' mouth open for lottie to shove the pinecone into? who's grinning like a predator while doing it?

how even after the hunt is over and the shrooms have worn off she's still ready to antagonise jackie, who's setting herself up as an outsider

jackie doesn't believe in the wilderness, or lottie (even after a bear bowed to her and she killed it! metal af! oh and she predicted it!), she didn't eat the stew and go on a non-consensual mindfuck journey like the rest of them. now that lottie is being put on top, and jackie has been alienated from the group, the dynamics have all changed.

jackie orders shauna out, but she doesn't have that power anymore. and while ben and tai try to keep jackie inside, lottie tells ben to stay out of it, and mari is the one who mocks jackie - and further ostracises her from the group.

throughout s2 mari is firmly in team lottie with most of the others. always supporting lottie, going to her morning meetings, participating in the rituals, helping her when she's nearly comatose. so when the starvation and fear and determination to survive wins out, and the group decides to kill one of them in order to save the group, it's agreed it can't be lottie.

but they draw from a deck of cards. whoever gets the queen is the sacrifice. it's random, they're all equals. everyone has to draw a card.

and given that we've seen the first card-drawing-wilderness-choosing session, and the last (so far) in 2021, and they're pretty much the same, we can assume that this is the way it's done all through the rest of those 19 months too.

sure possibly there was cheating, rigging, people trying to save themselves or who they love most. but at this point we don't know.

all we know is that next winter a girl, that is most likely either mari or gen, is hunted down in a ritualistic way before being killed, butchered and eaten.

and as far as mari's character arc goes, it makes so much sense for it to be her.

that she's put all her effort into being in the majority, in being useful and following the leader no matter who they are, so that she can be on top.

only for it not to matter at all. because 'the wilderness chose'

it would be a cruel end for her character (for anyone but specifically) but the show is portraying just how cruel survival and the wild can be. jackie just wants to be loved. she dies alone in the snow. javi wants to help. he dies in nat's place. mari wants to be on top? she dies in a pit.

mari threw jackie aside because she no longer served a purpose for mari, and mari dies wearing jackie's necklace.

it also makes sense because of her constant antagonism of misty - because mari perceives her as being on the bottom, and as long as misty is then mari should be safe. mari is the cook, and after the shrooms incident, she refuses to let misty anywhere near the food

and yet... after pit girl has been turned into food... it's misty that brings the plate forwards. something mari never would have let her do. they all have their roles - for instance, shauna is the butcher, and we know it was her who bled out pit girl (shauna has flashbacks to it when attacking adam). so shauna's role has stayed consistent, if mari was still in the group why would misty be the one bringing the food out? maybe because mari is the food...

and each character has something different going on - lottie has visions, tai sleepwalks, akilah hallucinates a dead mouse as being alive, etc. well mari hears dripping. constant dripping she can't find a source for. until she sees buckets of blood oozing through the walls

"Oh my god! Oh my god! They're dead! They're dead, they're dead, they're dead! They were! No, their blood was dripping on the floor."

Doesn't bode well for her.

#i love mari honestly #but as horrifying as it is it MAKES SENSE for her character #though if she turns out to be the 8th survivor and just shows up to continue being a hater i would be fine with that too sjdflskhflsahf #mari #yellowjackets #pit girl #yellowjackets theory #my meta #my post #tw blood #tw cannibalism

[zeezelweazel]

|Yellowjackets| I'm not crazy|

____________________________________________________

I had this idea at like 1am and I had to write it down

This show is so underated like I'm literally hooked, one of the best tv shows that came out in a long time

Also I tried to do this a bit differently than the others, I hope it worked

Expect more yellowjackets ofc <3

Characters Included : Lottie, Shauna

______________________________________

• Lottie •

[ set between season 1 and season 2 ]

You are stranded in the damn wilderness. You are hungry and scared and lost but at least you have your friends and your girlfriend. You will support eachother. You will help eachother.

Lottie though... she isn't really helping. Now in the beginning you wanted to be understanding because you know about her mental illness. The talking to the trees and listening to the wind was alright but it has now gotten completely out of hand. The others worshiping her is making everything worse. When you saw her try to put her blood to the tea she makes and give it to Travis and Natalie you were done. Someone has to stop this.

You grabbed her wrist before she could do anything and pulled her away. Nat looked at you with a thankful expression. Lottie on the other hand seemed hurt and confused.

"I wasn't done. I need to make sure the wilderness brings them back safe-"

You suppressed the urge to scoff and only sighed, rubbing your temples.

"Do you really believe that Lottie? Like, you actually think that your damn blood and a few leaves are going to guarantee their safety?"

You didn't mean to sound so harsh really, but you were seeing your girlfriend decent into whatever cult bullshit this was and it was frustrating you to no end. You noticed Lottie looking around and nervously playing with her fingers just like she always used to do. The you heard her mumble something as she turned to leave.

"What did you say?"

You didn't expect her to turn around so abruptly but you definitely didn't expect to see tears in her eyes.

"I thought you weren't like the others. But you think I'm crazy don't you?"

"No Lot I don't think you're fucking crazy I just- this is creepy okay? I know that you're ill but you're scaring me."

Lottie took a deep breath and blinked back her tears. Suddenly she looked calm.

"If I'm scaring you so much maybe we shouldn't be together anymore."

You couldn't get another word out before she disappeared, quickly making her escape by going to the attic of the cabin.

• Shauna •

[ set after season 2 episode 7 ]

Your relationship with Sauna had it's ups and downs but after everything that happened out here you've grown closer. So close that you were under the impression that Shauna would want to talk to you about what happened with the baby. Or let you comfort her at least.

It was obvious she was not willing to let herself be comforted by anyone and Tai told you it'd be better to give her space. She would handle this her way.

Well you didn't know that her way consisted of beating the shit out of Lottie. You wanted to pull her of but you, alongside everyone else in the cabin, were frozen in shock and fear.

After Shauna seemed to run out rage she went outside, with you following behind.

"Shauna what the fuck!?"

Shauna only spared you a glance after that she continued looking at the trees in front of her, like she was annoyed by your presence. This didn't help you calm down, it only made things worse.

"You almost beat Lottie to death, are you even sorry? Don't you want to know how she's doing? Help Misty take care of your mess-"

"So what if she dies? We'll have food and then maybe the rest of them will stop thinking that they can talk to the damn pine needles."

You were shocked and hurt. This isn't the sweet girl you had a crush on. This isn't the girl that was so willing to help everyone after the crash. Her eyes are empty now and when you see emotions swirling behind them it's something dark and scary.

"Shauna you're acting off."

She scoffed, getting up to get back inside.

"If you're going to call me crazy at least say it straight up."

She had lost her child and her best friend. She had to do horrible things to survive. But so did you and you've never done something like this. You've never felt this darkness that everyone seems to have let inside. You also thought the same about Shauna, just a few days ago. The thought that she lost her soul so fast scares you because you know that it's not long before you are in her place.

____________________________________________________

#wlw #female reader #yellowjackets x reader #yellowjackets imagine #lottie matthews x reader #shauna shipman x reader #lottie x reader #shauna x reader

[milfbrennan]

yellowjackets main characters sexuality headcanons

because I'm bored, it's 2am and i'm cold, wee! <3

jackie: repressed lesbian. so far in the closet she's reached narnia. in love with shauna but feels the need to be into men because ... heteronormativity

shauna: I DONT KNOW. i used to say bisexual with a preference for women, but now i think she might be a lesbian and is only with jeff because of guilt over jackie. break up so bad you end up marrying this fucking guy and rp-ing about being his customer?... help

I think this one is genuinely up to interpretation bc she fucks adam out of boredom, and it's like... if she's doing it bc she's bored, well... doesn't count as attraction. But maybe she liked adam before stabbing him to death lol idk! it depends

nat: most bisexual bisexual to have ever bisexualed. i don't know how anyone could ever think otherwise. i fear being into travis is a struggle in itself tho <3 poor nat

lottie: you know how sapphics are known to be obsessed with the color purple? yeah... anyway (pan vibes)

misty: lesbian. GIRLKISSER. i'm so serious when i say comphet got this girl bad. like someone needs to link her the lesbian masterdoc asap so she doesn't feel the need to sleep w men for validation (and i say it w love)

tai / van: lesbians. you all know it. van is the poster child for non-binary lesbians (also they believe scully is too good for mulder... like bestie...i know what you are), and taissa is like... that one power hungry, driven lesbian. love that for these two <3

mari: oh, gay for sure. the way she goes "i have the best aim, jackie!!" when they find coach's body... gaygirl wants to impress the team captain (also my name is mari too and i am a lesbian so this tracks..). mad at misty bc she wants nat's attention

akilah: sad bisexual. she's too busy hanging out w a dead rat to think about it

kristen/crystal: unlabeled. is confused by misty's loser lesbian (un)appeal

#yellowjackets #shauna shipman #jackie taylor #lottie matthews #misty quigley #natalie scatorccio #taissa turner #van palmer #mari yellowjackets #akilah yellowjackets #crystal yellowjackets #kristen yellowjackets

[ivebeentotheforest]

Yellowjackets 2x09 Predictions

*2x08 Spoiler Warning!!!*

TLDR: I think Shaunas going to die

Okay, so we know that one of the adult Yellowjackets will die in the season finale. Lottie believes that by letting "it" take one of them "it" will help them with their problems like in the wilderness.

Lets think about how each of their circumstances would be improved.

Tai: "It" could give her more control over or stop her sleepwalking. "It" could also help her wife live. If Tai lives it would be really interesting to see how "it" helps her political career.

Van: She could miraculously recover from her terminal cancer. She was also having some financial issues that could be helped.

Misty: Misty is a lonely person who has always struggled to fit in. This season she met Walter, a man who seems perfect for her. "It" could help her relationship with him. *don't really know how else "it" could help her.

Shauna: oof. Shauna murdered Adam and is under investigation for murder. Additionally her husband, Jeff and daughter, Callie could go down as accomplices. Misty, Natalie, and Tai could also be indicted if it gets out. "It" could help them all get away with it.

Lottie: She is having visions again and wants them to stop.

Nat: She has been wanting to know what happened to Travis. Unclear how much more she wants to know, but will likely find out more in the finale no matter who dies.

Van is the obvious choice. She's already dying and I think will offer to be the one who drinks the poison. Lottie won't let that happen as she believes "It" has to choose. Tai has too much left unexplored. I think we'll see more her political career in S3. Misty doesn't have a ton to gain from "It" considering she and Walter are already doing fine, but that relationship has been set up and is unlikely to be abandoned. Nat almost died in 2x08 until "It" chose Javi. I don't see it being her unless they do more to set that up in 2x09. Lottie is the one who is really connected with "It". I don't think "It" would take her, the one who speaks for it.

Shauna could still benefit from "It" taking her life. She wants her family to be safe. She doesn't want her mistakes to ruin their lives. If she dies all of the blame for Adams murder could be put on her. Jeff, Callie, Tai, Misty, and Nat would all be okay. Also, even though she has been basically the main character it would make sense for the focus to shift. She is no longer pregnant so will not be as focused on or prioritized by the group in the wilderness. With more focus going to other girls it makes sense that their adult counterparts would also be given more attention. What it shows from the past correlates with what is shown from the present. I think Shaunas bit has run its course. We know the show has a 5-season plan, is Shauna's adult life interesting enough to play such a big part of 3 more seasons? Also, the adult yellowjackets now know that it was Jeff who blackmailed them. I'm sure they would be willing to forgive that/not make them pay it back if Shauna is the "sacrifice".

Most likely to least likely:

Shauna

Natalie- they haven't set up anything else for her adult self so that makes me worried

Misty- if its misty then I think Walter will be poking into the yellowjackets business in S3

Van

Tai

Lottie

#yellowjackets #yellowjackets s2 #lottie matthews #shauna shipman #misty quigley #natalie scatorccio #taissa x van #taissa turner #showtime #yellowjackets showtime #yellowjackets theories #yellowjackets predictions #javi martinez #ben scott #coach scott #vanessa palmer #jackie taylor #travis martinez #callie sadecki #jeff sadecki #kevyn tan #yellowjackets 2x09

[happywifehappy1ife]

ben and the magus

on my rewatch of season two, i noticed many new things: travis holding javis toy fox before he eats his heart, natalie's jealousy towards jackie, just how special laura lee was to lottie and how important she was in the making of the wilderness cult, van's treatment of taissa..... but one thing that really stuck out to me was ben reading in the cabin. the book he reads half of and then puts down out of frustration is john fowles' “the magus”. i've never read it, nor had i even heard of it before seeing that episode but it peaked my interest because there are so many little things in yellowjackets that mean so much more than you would think at first glance, and i think that this is one of them. after a quick google search, i found out the basic plot of the book

*spoilers ahead*

it's about a man in his mid twenties that moves to a remote greek island to teach english. he gets caught up in a sort of cult and finds himself questioning his sanity and beliefs. there's obviously way more to the book and i do plan on reading it in the future because it sounds so interesting, but that's the basic outline.

some quotes that stood out to me and how they relate to yellowjackets and ben specifically

“any intelligent person is an atheist or an agnostic”

ben's relationship with faith is complicated. he seems to have had some sort of strict religious upbringing that caused him a lot of issues because of his sexuality and his apparently homophobic family. he can't come out because he knows that he will be shunned for it. during season one he accepts laura lee's catholicism but is ultimately disturbed that it leads to her death and the fact that she lets it cloud her judgement. he, alongside jackie, refuses to pray to the wilderness in episode ten before eating the bear and only quietly holds hands with lottie and frowns. he also doesn't involve himself in the cult in season two partly because he clearly doesn't believe in it and also because he's starving and has little to no energy. i think that ben's strict religious upbringing definitely played a part in how he felt about the cult which which may or may not lead to his murder in season two.

“It’s not about swimming. It’s about knowing in which direction to swim”

surving the crash does not mean surviving the wilderness, as we've seen many times. the three deaths that have happened so far were all, in some way, caused by the victim. laura lee knowingly flies in a potentially unsafe plane, jackie sleeps outside with winter looming and javi's pureness leaves him vulnerable to the extremities he and the rest face. you can live in the wilderness but you have to do it right, you have to abide by the rules. you could be in perfect health, have a steady amount of food and water and you'd still die if you didn't join the cult and fully submit. you have to do what it wants and you have to let it become a part of yourself. yes, ben eating jackie and javi would have made him stronger, but unless he started praying every morning and worshipping lottie or natalie he'd have no chance at survival because you need to be changed. and i don't mean the depression and suicidal ideation sone of tbe girls have, i mean the animalistic behaviour and fully leaving behind who you are and who you were. the yellowjackets haven't gotten to that point yet. they are still very much themselves and we're going to see them lose it more and more throughout the show.

“not only animal species disappear, but also species of feelings”

i still can't figure out what this one means in relation to yellowjackets but i still find it fascinating. if i do figure something out, i'll definitely make sure to edit with my thoughts.

#ben scott #yellowjackets meta #yellowjackets

[silencedrage]

my self indulgent list of ideas/dynamics/plots i want to explore - yj edition

pretty much exactly what the title says - these are mostly basic, half-formed ideas that have rapid cycled through my brain so if anything sounds interesting, come yell at me ty. nothing here is exclusive, meaning if, in the unlikely event that more than one person is interested in the same idea, i'm more than fine to explore it with multiple muns/muses because i believe each version will be unique in their own ways. the list below is also non-exclusive and i might add things to it over time, so just because it's not here doesn't mean i'm not interested!! also ocs/canons from other media are equally welcome, we will figure something out

l.ottie:

literally anything with l.aura lee

the 2 month gap between s1 and s2 in the 96 timeline - exploring a little more how they went from doomcoming to lottie leading the wilderness cult; was there ever a conversation about it with anyone?

lottie and travis over the years - it seems like trav was the only one who semi-stayed in touch with lottie, at least enough to be able to call her when he was in crisis (note: i don't view their relationship as romantic but it is Very Important to lottie)

v.an:

someone please give me natvan childhood besties and all the complexities that come with that (i.e., issues when taivan becomes a thing and tai/nat butt heads, the shit they go through in the trailer park with their parents, was van out to nat before the crash? is that why she was so casual about ben?, more strain when van starts following lottie, why don't they keep in touch post-rescue) - idk i just need it

the push-pull between tai and lottie. idk how this would get explored, i am just obsessed with this dynamic

post-breakup situationships where she gets her "needs met"; the rise of dating apps and how that affects her self-esteem, just mess

t.ai:

post-rescue (and breakup) fuckboi tai and some messy af situationships before she settles down with simone

secret meetings with shauna in the years between the timelines bc shauna had a nokia flip phone in her safe to contact tai like they were illicit lovers having an affair

tai and nat and their many discussions (and arguments) about rehab

s.hauna:

callie and/or jeff (that's it - i just need more of them)

pre-crash stuff that shows her relationship with the others outside of jackie, and also with jackie bc i feel like there's a difference between shauna and shauna when she's with jackie and that distinction comes out swinging in the wilderness

honestly like... anyone around wiskayok? could be a canon character, could be an oc, but i imagine she's almost like an urban legend around the town. other than misty, she's the only one who's stayed local (as far as we know) but on the surface she leads such a very normal, boring life. idk i just think locals would be so weird about her lmfao

n.at:

honestly any of the van/nat or tai/nat stuff that i talked about above

the on again-off again stuff with travis, the interplay with her stints in rehab, etc.

how her addiction affects her relationships with others: did she ever end up on shauna's doorstep, or van's before they lost touch? shauna doesn't trust nat in s1 and makes a lot of quips, and feels like maybe shauna's been burned by her addiction that we don't know about?

anyone she met in rehab, anyone she met in her addict circles, people who were around natalie at her lowest - who try and tempt her back, who want to see her succeed, former sponsors, people she's sponsored, etc.

anything with lisa, pls give me the babs

s.imone:

honestly i added her on a whim because i need to explore every possible permutation of simonetaivan in all of its glorious complexity

i'm trying not to delve too much into post-s2 stuff because i want to leave that for s3 so she's pretty open atm

khalida:

any and all versions of akilah pls

something with adult tai tbh? especially in a reality where akilah is not a survivor, i just think there would be something really fucking interesting to dig into there given what we've seen of akilah and tai's relationship

any of the other adult survivors too - the complexity of resentment that they made it back when Akilah didn't, while also wanting to ask them what happened to her baby sister. wanting to blame them but also seeing the horrors reflected in their eyes and knowing she could never fully judge them for anything they had to do to survive

i think the above would be especially funny/complex/tragic with misty, who probably has all of khalida's info when she kept tabs on everyone else too. misty being someone who knows what khalida will always want to know: what really happened to akilah. and misty knowing she'll never tell the truth but enjoying the power that simply having that knowledge gives her. is that fucked up? maybe, but is it anything more fucked up than what the show has already shown? not really

#[ ch: natalie scatorccio. ] #[ ch: lottie matthews. ] #[ ch: van palmer. ] #[ ch: shauna shipman. ] #[ ch: taissa turner. ] #[ ch: simone abara. ] #[ ch: khalida. ] #my queue is empty so i have no business posting this but #general reminder that i'm always open to plotting new things #i can be slow and sporadic especially while i'm working (which is almost always) #but i'm never not thinking about this show #spinning in my head like a rotisserie chicken

[residentroam]

The fandom calls the horned figure the Antler Queen but such name doesn't exist inside the show, as far as I know. It's either Queen or Leader. The costume designer called the outfit Oracle, if I remember correctly.

Anyways. Lottie was thrust in that position position by Misty (and Mari) without wanting it, she chose Natalie (because "it" doesn't exist, it's just them kids, thank you Shauna) and Nat is happy about this - I don't know why -. There's also the detail that Shauna wants or wanted to be Leader. Why do these teenagers want this position, I wonder? Is it because they think they can actually do something good with it and keep the group alive? Or do they just want the others to do as they say? Was Natalie's expression of happiness genuine when she was appointed Leader and everyone bowed and offered her courtesies? Because after the horrendous events that just happened (because some didn't want to eat Lottie and Travis and Javi wanted to keep Natalie safe) I don't see how being looked up to by these lost and traumatized bunch is any consolation... Is there something I'm missing? Something I'm not seeing? And why does Shauna want the position of Leader? If she wants it because she's been constantly overshadowed by others (Jackie) and now she wants the spotlight, I get it I guess. But still, I don't see how anyone would be happy being Leader of this group. Why would anyone want to be?

After the revelation of Natalie Taissa's line in season 1 about how none of them would be alive if it wasn't for Natalie makes even more sense. Natalie wasn't just the hunter that brought them food in the wilderness, Travis did the same and the adult survivors aren't thanking him. But Natalie was also their first Leader.

Do I believe there's more than one "Antler Queen"? No, for now. It's been Lottie's mystical delirium, materialized with the appointment of Natalie - who is now dead - and there's the question of if Shauna still wants the title. I can believe teen Shauna wants it, but I don't see adult Shauna wanting it tbh.

And why the fuck is Lottie so obsessed with Shauna's children?! First it was the baby boy that couldn't make it. Now she's talking of how powerful Callie is?? I used to have a soft spot for Lottie. But after episode 8 I'm having trouble feeling bad for her. And I don't like to feel this way because Lottie is (or was, I don't know anymore) a good person at heart and is just as broken as everyone else. Yellowjackets has no bad guy, no main villain (although trauma very well could be the villain of this show), but I'm having trouble not blaming Lottie for a lot of things, and Misty, including Natalie's death. Misty executed Natalie, ironically, trying to save her from being shot by Lisa. But Lottie, who is the person I assume Lisa was trying to help, could have stopped Lisa from shooting. Why didn't Lottie stop Lisa? Lisa listens to her. Part of me thinks Lottie did nothing because she just wanted someone to die. They were going to kill Shauna just because, or Lisa would kill someone with the gun. Either way Lottie wanted someone to die. She would also drink the poison herself if she had to. I know there's people who hate the action of sending Lottie to a mental institution. But what else can be done with her? After episode 8 I get the impression she is too far gone in this wilderness delirium. She is a danger to others and to herself. For a moment I thought that Van would come up with the idea of killing Lottie as in an act of mercy or something when she didn't agree with Taissa about calling the Psychiatric squad. But apparently that wasn't the case.

I hope Misty goes to jail next season for Natalie's murder. But I'm guessing Walter won't let that happen. He's been a real one for Misty and I actually like that Misty has someone who, so far, actually likes her for her. She isn't gonna find that anywhere else. I know Misty didn't kill Natalie on purpose, she wanted to help and as always whenever Misty tries to help she ends up making things worse. But Natalie didn't deserve this and I'm being bias because I love Natalie... Damn, it's gonna be so hard to look at Sophie Thatcher from here on out till the show's end.

I know how fucked up it is for an adult to set a cabin full of teenagers on fire. This show is just full to the rim of fucked up shit. But still I can see why Coach did it. He has no control whatsoever over these teenagers, the teens decide to eat each other to survive, the teens let their own die so the rest can eat, the teens do all the crazy stuff but also the teens are the ones who get the slight minimum of food to keep surviving. What is Coach doing? Hallucinating his boyfriend, or ex-boyfriend, and being terrorized at the kids being ok about eating human meat to survive. Maybe he blames himself for having taught them to hunt and bleeding animals to eat? I don't know. I have the feeling season 3 could be Coach Ben's last. Now that there's no shelter maybe Natalie will tell everyone of the place Coach wanted to take her to survive the winter (I thought it was such a dick move to offer just Natalie to go with him, but again I can see why he did that then), they find Coach doing well in the cave and get mad at him for not taking everyone there, then they end up killing and eating him. I also could believe Coach Ben will be the first intentional kill of the Yellowjackets.

There's so much to unpack in this season finale. But one last thing I want to mention. Well, two last things:

I love, love Sophie Thatcher and Juliette Lewis performances as Natalie Scatorccio. Seeing them together in the plane scene got me. I just want Nat to be at peace. I'm greatly missing Juliette Lewis on the show.

The begenning of the episode with Zombie by The Cranberries (a song I listened to frequently in my early teenage years) was incredible. The scene was too powerful. Natalie going ahead on her own to be greeted by Travis at the cabin. The girls carring Javi's body like dead pray back to eat. I was in pain for Nat, Travis, and Javi. A truly heartbreaking episode from start to finish.

#yellowjackets #i didn't check for typos #i'm probably missing a lot of stuff #but i'm exhausted #when is season 3?

[antlerqueer]

I could talk Yellowjackets FOREVER (but if it's too much you can ask me to stop and I will) There are so many theories (like who is Pit Girl? What is the fate of Shauna's baby? What happened to Javi? Who is the Antler Queen? So many questions and theories) And yes I too suffered through PLL so I know your pain. Also I hope that it stays in the "human" world and it doesn't go "supernatural" (the seance scene for example the character is a schizophrenic or so I read and that could explain a lot)

We waited seven years for an absolute sham. Marlene King owes us dues.

Yellowjackets longposting under the cut!

cw for discussions of mental health re: Lottie, just the first paragraph

One thing I'll disagree on is Lottie, I think she's psychic or at least has some sort of premonition and that's been demonized by her father. In many cultures, there are people like her that aren't considered supernatural. I mentioned this in a server I'm in but it's really possible that Lottie's (white, rich) father simply wouldn't believe in anything he couldn't personally explain, where her mother was saying that Lottie could be having psychic visions. Obviously her father is rich and powerful so anything he wants she gets, which very well could include a high dosage anti-psychotic for a daughter who doesn't meet the criteria for schizophrenia. According to my (admittedly bare) research, most women are diagnosed as adults in their later twenties, cases are very rare for 12-18, and in general it's incredibly rare for kids under 12 to be diagnosed - and Lottie looked like 9 or 10 in the car scene imo.

I think, by now, I'm sold on Lottie being the antler queen, I don't think it'll be a rotating title like -A was.

I really fell for the Adam is Javi hints hook line and sinker. Once I read that the writers weren't sure if Adam was gonna be Javi I felt better about seeing it, but whew I was kinda like... WOW he's just some guy, isn't he? But I can't wait for his torso to be discovered and then confirmed to be Adam's torso because of the tattoo. That'll be fun, and I can see it happening specifically because Misty said the torso is not identifiable but he has a back tattoo.

As for Pit Girl, I truly don't have any solid theories! My only vague thought is it could be Mari, but honestly that's just because she's the only one we've seen with straight, dark hair that hasn't been confirmed alive. There are people who think it's Callie and it was a modern day hunt, which is wild to me just because like... c'mon Callie deserves life, or they think it's Shauna's baby grown up.

Speaking of Shauna's baby, she's going to have the baby, but... yeah. I don't know what's going to happen, but I do think the cult is gonna love that baby. The way I've described Lottie's power ascent was Laura Lee dying was the catalyst and Doomcoming was her coronation; her visions were confirmed before but not everyone knew about them (the red water, the sick deer, Laura Lee's death), but at Doomcoming she said "we will eat soon" and then the bear came the next morning, and someone even pointed that out. Van also said she's predicted multiple things at school, like prom queen. So then will the baby become a fixation as the rebirth of Jackie and Laura Lee? I don't know much about Jesus, tbh, but I know rebirth is a thing Christians talk about. The second-coming. Will the baby be considered the second-coming? Will Shauna only be protected because of her pregnancy, and will her giving birth put her in danger with the cult? I have more questions than answers, truly, because there are no hints (that I've uncovered!) about the baby's fate.

Unfortunately I think Javi dies. I think one of the reasons Travis was so anti-cult is because they want to eat Javi's corpse and he won't let them, maybe? Or maybe the cult hunts Javi and killing Travis completes their ritual! Most of my theories are basically out of thin air when it comes to Javi, but there is one thing I think I know for sure: if Javi were alive, he'd have been Adam. (I don't know that for sure.) His death, if it occurs this season, will definitely be a huge thing that divides Travis and Natalie further apart from the cult.

#yellowjackets #long post

[alivegirlmari]

which skamiverse character do you think would fit in best with the Yellowjackets?

OKAY INSANE QUESTION. had to spend all weekend thinking. idk whether you meant who would best fit as in like, who would be friends with the team?? or who would just generally exist in the yj universe?? so i'm doing a bit of everything <3 long as fuck so under a read more.

mailin is, i believe, the only canon girl soccer player, so the most boring superficial answer ofc is that mailin is the best fit. however:

nora m. and lottie would be a bittersweet type of almost, i think, if they were ever in a group project together. one time everyone bails on a meeting so lottie is like let's ditch the library come over to mine my parents are out. at some point they pause for a break and have a drink (lottie offers something alcoholic, nora declines, lottie doesn't question further but Knows something is up and grabs them both sodas). i don't think they'd be completely honest about their respective mental illnesses or family situations, ofc, but there'd be a shared, quiet understanding borne from a few anecdotes and the implications underlining them. it's nice to be able to breathe for a few hours, to admit the depth of your loneliness and momentarily allow yourself to cast it away. at one point, lottie puts on some music. they dance and laugh and let themselves be teen girls before lottie's parents come home. i think they'd say hi to each other in the halls, and nora would cheer when lottie scores a goal (the cashqueens go to mailin's games), but i just can't see them - for multiple, complex reasons - becoming besties. or at least, not publicly? i think it's one of those 'we'll have the magic of that night and i'll always be grateful for it' dynamics. fuck i actually want a fic of this now lmao.

in many ways shauna/jeff/jackie is just a parallel universe eva/jonas/ingrid situation. so i think shauna would be friendly at school with some of the evas (i'm thinking og eva and megan, not an eva but she'd also like liv imo), but they'd never quite click, either. shauna recognizes something in them she doesn't like - or, she can't recognize herself at all bc in her mind her situation is worse. but they'd share notes sometimes.

rip javi you would've LOVED being a tiny big brother to umut inci <3 there's a world where javi, wanting to become closer to his dad (or perhaps forced to go with him? similar to how he and travis go on the nationals trip) goes to mr martinez's games & training sessions and sees the u12 boys team warming up first and talks to the sullen kid kicking balls really hard. tfw you love your elder sibling but things are hard and neither of you really has the language to express it all.

constantin and randy. obviously. they have drinking competitions at parties; constantin eventually hates randy for not being an alpha male like him. unforch it is the 90s and randy does not have the emotional intelligence to recognize constantin is an alcoholic spiraling. (was that plot like...ever addressed?)

zoe m. and mari besties, spiritual sisters, and soulmates every friday and saturday night. berlin slash wiskayok you are NOT ready. but i don't think zoe is as bitchy as mari is. or as smart, tbh? mari would def hate the instas's s5 stunts. it'd be a very intense, fiery, party-focused short-lived friendship. a 24/7 drunk girl in the bathroom vibe. always about to collapse but absolutely beautiful while it lasts. pre-s2 cris would also love both zoe and mari btw.

yara and tai are the resident It girls who run things bts. i'm assuming tai did multiple extracurriculars. she meets yara, class president, overseer of all, at one of them. they immediately just get each other's vibe and have the 'can work in silent tandem and get everything done in ten mins OR will spend an hour giggling' type of friendship. yara faux-casually lets slip that she's bi once. does she already know tai's closeted and wants to make her feel a little less alone, or is she just hoping she is, desperate to know she's not reading too much into it, wanting to feel a little less alone herself? (tai freaks out regardless. they make up, eventually. yara becomes the world's first tai/van shipper. they smile at each other, a little wistfully, across the room and over the crowd at parties.)

tai would think redouane was a bit of a class clown at first, but she'd see him on the other side of the gym sometimes, always working out, playing with the younger students, putting away equipment correctly, and she'd come to respect him. van would LOVE his lil films. he'd be on the yearbook committee and make sure to take really good photos of van for the yj page, and give her the outtakes, and they'd talk Cinema. bilal comes along once and he and van invent the Just A Goofy Little Guy Convention. but i also think they recognize something in the other - a desire for More from life, but a situation beyond their control that may not allow for it - and maybe they wouldn't talk about it, but she'd sneak him movies for zak and he'd sew her something to pin on her jersey.

pre-s6 lola would love pre-crash nat in the sense that they'd both skip classes to smoke behind the school. unforch lola would rather die than exercise so she also thinks she's better than nat bc she's not an athlete. max also likes pre-crash nat for her bisexual smoker swag.

nobody hates this more than me but tiff is v mistycoded like her first response to being rightfully slapped in the face is to fake a broken neck with a brace to make people feel bad for her. they also only have one friend. they'd absolutely HATE each other though. s6 tiff would def bully her. s7-10 tiff doesn't, but keeps a wide berth, and offers no real apology for her past actions. moira's existence is the only thing that stops misty from putting a dead rat in tiff's locker. the second moira's 18 though? oh it's over.

(tiff is also 10000% the allie stevens of the yj universe, btw.)

some of the william remakes, mostly senne & noah, give me jeff vibes. as in the fandom loves to think they're better men than they are but if you think about it for more than two secs you're like, hold on...but didn't they once...? however alejandro IS travis and i mean this in a way complimentary towards both. alejandro & travis: guys who eventually become one of the girls. guys who love their gfs but love isn't always enough. guys and their almosts, their what ifs, etc.

lucas r loves paul's aesthetic, esp. his earring. he also loves mari. but i don't think mari loves him. tragic (misty loves him bc she loves a gay man she can put in a cage. he doesn't love her at all. less tragic.)

lucas vdh would light a cabin of girls on fire no question. he doesn't even need to know about the cannibalism to do it.

crystal is obvs those two theatre/musical kids that approach the evas in every season one. i could not tell you their names if you put a gun to my head. they might not've even been theater kids. but that's her: Very friendly, Very unable to read a room, Very much deserved better. speaking of deserving better: ava and crystal musical duo when???

jackie [handshake emoji] maya: girls who are doomed by the narrative. girls with complicated families. girls who love really hard. girls who are in love with, and have their heartbroken by, their best friend*. i actually don't think maya would like pre-crash jackie tbh. she's too normie for her. but college jackie and maya meet when jackie's roommate drags her to a campus enviro protest, and they'd become friendly, esp. when maya spots jackie hesitantly entering the lgbt students union. jackie helps maya shave her head once. they talk about femininity and gender and lesbianism and something clicks maybe they become roomies. maybe they raise a plant together. (*yes max is maya's canon bestie but s9 took everything from me debshirley are NOT taking my lola/maya besties headcanon too)

anyways um. did not mean 2 write an entire essay here. sorry for taking ages with it. lmk ur thoughts anon <33

#sorry this is mostly the german and french second gens ft. the occasional spanish cameo but like. #i can't pretend i particularly cared about any other remake/gen. tbh. austin you will always be famous tho. #ask #anon

[jollyreginaldrancher]

Yellowjackets S1 E7 thoughts

Oh no, I'm getting attached to them. This is no longer teen slasher vibes.

If Van and Taissa don't get that soft pretzel together I am going to die

I'm sure he's trying to let her down gently so she doesn't stab him but the coach X Misty thing still feels super wrong

She really used Randy as a cover though? I'd sooner tell Jackie it was her dad that knocked me up

Did they really have to make us sit through that whole scene with Travis and Nat though?

Jackie has better timeline awareness than the entire pretty little liars writing team. She is a walking, talking, Shauna historian. She caught her out immediately. I'm not saying it's cause they're in love but...

Are the girls about to get attacked by wild animals?

That Sandra Bullock movie is good btw. It's called "while you were sleeping" and it's about a woman who manifests a relationship with her crush while he's in a comma.

If the reporter is tied up in Misty's basement then either she has a partner or she's not part of the blackmail plot. It could be one of the girls we haven't seen yet. Like maybe adult Lottie or Van...though I still think Lottie dies.

Reporter really overestimated how much Misty actually cares about Travis

Why is Shauna so secretive with that diary? Tell me she wasn't dumb enough to write who her baby's father is in that.

The blackmailer is definitely a guy. At least from the back it looks like a guy. Is it Jeff? It feels like everyone they know is trying to get the truth out of them.

How did they keep going after the red river?

Genuinely asking cause that can't be a good sign.

How did they see a whole red river and think that's not enough of a sign and decide to keep going until maybe they encounter the red smoke?

Is Shauna doing that at home or in some motel room or whatever? Cause I'm worried about her getting caught. Also by not checking if her husband is covered in glitter we can't confirm or deny his involvement, so I'm not convinced he's innocent.

Misty continues to carry the group.

Also considering there's no mention of his brother, and since they didn't immediately go looking for him after he died, I'm gonna assume he died out there too.

He should have hid under the bed. What if her husband wanted to change clothes?

Also Jeff is sooo shady. Like I feel like they want us to believe he's out sleeping around and that's why they showed him rent a hotel room with another woman, so we wouldn't suspect he's in on the blackmailing thing, but if I've learned anything from pretty little liars, itf someone has an alibi; no they don't. He could be in England and still be A somehow.

Do they have another hamper in the bathroom or does Jeff just wear his undies in the shower? Cause he was taking everything else off.. I bet he was hiding glitter in his undies. I bet that's why he left them on. That or some sex thing. He's definitely hiding something.

Natalie is probably self-sabotaging here. I'm guessing it's to show she really does like whatshisname. I'm still rooting for her to get with Misty anyway though so I'm glad if that thing is ending.

TELL ME SHE WAS NOT STUPID ENOUGH TO REVEAL THE BABY'S PATERNITY THROUGH A FUCKING DIARY ENTRY

Those were definitely wolf sounds

IS VAN BEING DRAGGED AWAY BY A WOLF? 😮

HOLLY FUCK IS VAN GONNA DIE?

Oh, I get it. Red smoke = flare

Oh shit oh fuck oh no her face!

Wait, is she fucking dead? Did they just kill her? She can't be! She can't be dead right? Oh god, why isn't she moving? I can't even go to sleep now, I need to watch more

I mean, on the upside: they have some food now. But at what cost?

Misty's there. Misty can save Van. Misty could bring her back from the jaws of death. House has nothing on Misty. In Misty we trust. Please Misty don't let me down.

#yellowjackets #mine #thoughts #speculation

[lesbianlotties]

Okay.

THIS HAS YELLOWJACKETS SPOILERS DONT READ IT ANYBODY IF YOU DONT WANT TO KNOW!

I am very sad about it. BUT. I really felt this whole season like it was building up to this? All of her choices in both timelines. And just the kind of tragic irony of her being The Hunter back then but also being the least okay with all of the violence. The most outwardly fucked up of them (not counting misty who is fucked up in a very different way) but also the person who retains most of her humanity? And she's kind of the anti-Jackie which we sort of saw directly last season with the way they interacted with each other but also just Jackie valuing so much this perception of her own goodness and Natalie being trapped in this perception of her "badness", and the way each of them fall into believing the lie of themselves. I think there's something kind of gorgeous in that contrast. And the ways it plays into everybody else's stories too. Misty killing her best friends. Lottie I think really expecting to die over and over and watching other people die for her. Van actively wanting to let other people die for her (i really want more insight into Van next year she is still so mysterious to me). I dont know man I am extremely sad about it but I also think it was exactly the story they've been telling this whole time and they did it well.

okay first of all i need you to know how much i love you for this. i just knew you would have a good take on it and i'm just so glad you think like this!!!

one of my first thoughts after the episode ended (when i was able to think semicoherent thoughts) was "damn i can already picture hating on the show for this"

and don't get me wrong i'm extremely devastatated and sad and upset and all the synonims for goddammit why would they kill one of their best characters and lose one of their best actresses and there were so many other ppl they could kill...

but... unfortunately it makes sense?? i hate it of course but it was leading up to here. i mean natalie has basically said that the only reason her and travis were alive was because they made a pact and travis died in s1... and the scene in ep 8, one of the most intense scenes of the entire show, it couldn't not doom natalie. if javi was doomed for finding the queen card before, it had to be just a matter of time for natalie unfortunately she did pick that card 😭 and it felt extremely cruel because she was sort of getting better!!! but it's a cruel show so it should be expected i guess. and the parallel of natalie getting chosen as leader on one timeline at the same time that she dies in the other timeline?? absolutely insane in a good way. leading these girls is certain doom and teen lottie already got a taste of it

and Van!!! i'm literally so fascinated by Van. she's changed/developed soooo much more since s1. like almost entirely different but not out of character!! i need to know more about her choices.

#thank you thank you for sending this #and if you feel like sharing extra thoughts about the season in general... #i saw your tags saying it was better than s1 and i fully agree!! #answered #dufrau

[drewsaturday]

some thoughts about [redacted] dying now that i've had some time to process

natalie's death had poetic implications but it did not feel satisfying in the kind of tragedy they were trying to do, at least not to me, and i think that's due to how all over the place her storyline felt this season. it did not feel like it was leading up to this in a clear traceable way... and that's weird to say because i see the pieces--the wilderness initially choosing her but taking javi instead, not wanting lisa to die like javi did, etc--i think her storyline has just been pulling me in so many diff directions no outcome was going to feel right except for a "she's been being drugged by lottie this whole time actually" kinda conclusion.

it's very possible she died (and had such a scattered story) because her actress wanted to leave, but i also don't think that's common knowledge. unless you caught a specific insta story or watched a handful of specific interviews, you'll have no idea about that possibility... and as far as i know it's still just a possibility. if this is the case and the writers knew in advance, then the writing was not very good. if they didn't know until closer to the end, i can see how they tried their best to play off of previously established story pieces with it.

i don't hate that they took a character who was on the road to recovery and finally wanting to live and then made her die. i just hate that they did it in a way that didn't... feel grounded in that flavor of tragedy. it definitely makes sense it had to be her since if she kept recovering and trying to make the other girls do better we probs wouldn't have much of an adult storyline anymore. there were a few poetic things it played off of and it's mind-boggling because it SHOULD be this epic tragedy!! i'm just not feeling it for some reason.

i also appreciate the mirror of javi's death, nat not wanting someone else to die for her and having to live with that. i like that those burdens are now on lisa's shoulders. i like that nat learned to let someone in and want to protect them, even after everything.

however... if her actress was down to stay, i would have loved to see the cycle continue, to see someone else die for nat yet again, and for her to have to deal with that while still trying to come out on the other side. maybe that would just be depressing and redundant, but i think it would've been my preference to the canon thing's execution.

i see a lot of people going "can't believe people are surprised the killing and cannibalism show has killing and cannibalism" in reference to scenes like the original ritual not having much leadup or nat's death. of course i'm devastated nat's gone, and of course some people are particularly upset that the one character who was on a positive course had to be the one to die. my issue isn't that natalie died, or that they didn't spell out the steps to the og ritual. my issue is that i WANT these things, i want these darker elements, but the execution has felt lackluster and unearned and full of missed opportunities.

i like the ongoing cycle of misty killing people she loves. i said earlier i would've loved lisa to die in a cyclical nature to javi, but the cycle does continue with misty's actions. there's something so interesting about nat's sworn protector being the one to bring her down.

however, although i LOVE walter and i'm not in the "ew a man!!!" camp, i do feel a bit odd about killing off a female character just to push misty closer to a man.

there's been pushback about nat dying as a drug addict to the world, and that... in particular is uncomfortable. however i do see an interesting angle there of how only the yj's know each other best. she's nothing more than a drug addict to the rest of the world, but to her team she's a hero. they're nothing more than cannibals to the rest of the world, but to each other they're a team, etc.

the plane scene was confusing. i'm not sure why travis wasn't there and i'm not sure why teen lottie was. however i did see someone say it was javi, teen lottie, and teen nat who had the biggest impact on adult nat's trajectory and that she's finally let go of travis... so i'll take it. however i think they could've mirrored the other death/near death experiences better possibly in the language being used or the imagery. ik nat didn't have much time left compared to jackie or lottie slowly freezing to death tho.

i'm hoping that seeing nat's ascension to leader will give her adult version dying more weight. i'm not sure HOW exactly but i feel like if they had to kill off adult nat, seeing teen nat go down such a path is going to help fill the void quite a bit and possibly flesh out what we've already seen even more.

all in all i didn't hate the season or these choices, and i still want more seasons. i'm just kinda... meh... feeling about it all, and this particular scene felt like a potent one to try figuring out why.

i do want to rewatch the series/season altogether to see the bigger picture and what i may have missed, but for now... that's where we're at.

#yellowjackets tag #yj spoilers

[scatcrccio]

DUE TO TRIGGERING CONTENT, this will be placed under a 'read more' because it is both very dark and very personal to my own life which I'm using in relation to understanding Natalie's character and the reasoning behind a lot of her characteristics as it corresponds to her experiences and relationships with some of the other girls as adults.

I want to start off by saying that I am not an addict myself however, my mother was. Both of my parents actually passed from overdoses, my mother being the most recent. At the age of six I saw my mother almost die from an overdose, but she was thankfully saved in time. The reason I'm mentioning this very personal information is because it correlates to how I view Natalie's life choices; her consistent relapses and having to go to rehab about five times before we're seeing her now in the show and the struggles she's still facing. My parents had a very similar relationship to Natalie and Travis in the sense that they were horrible and toxic influences to each other. Not to digress into my personal life too much but I wanted to point out the fact that it takes more than just sending someone to rehab to help them get better. We know that Taissa helps in a financial way to pay for Natalie's rehab sessions (five times as previously mentioned from what's been stated by Lottie), and not to discredit Tai from using that as a way to express her love and care for Natalie, that simply just isn't enough for someone who is so deep down the rabbit hole. There is a constant need for further love and support without all of the ridicule and shame that Nat consistently feels by those around her. Travis pushes her away and we see on several occasions where Tai and Shauna have shoved Nat's addiction in her face whether it's regarding drugs or alcohol. That kind of behavior is only going to put an addict back on the wrong track because they're not going to feel that need or sense to really get better if it's already expected of them. They won't see the point. Hence why I feel Natalie continues to just relapse again and again. This is why I feel like her relationship with Misty is so crucial, even though it comes with it's own baggage. Misty still has proven herself to really care and love Natalie whether that be platonic or romantic isn't important. She wants to be there for Nat on a deeper level, which we see when she straight up saves her from relapsing again by snorting her coke. Was it an extreme action and fucked up to be spying on her the way she was? Yes, absolutely. But she's also the only person who believes regardless that Natalie can get better without making her feel like a constant failure. This is not me making excuses for Nat's behavior, I am merely saying that from personal experience with addicts, I can understand the characteristic of it when she feels like there is literally no one in her corner. You can send an addicted person into rehab, but if they don't actually feel supported with the love and belief that they can succeed in their sobriety (regardless of how many times they relapse) and keep putting them down every time they do slip, that's not what's going to motivate them to be better.

#this I know (head canon) #drugs tw #alcohol tw #suicide tw #overdose tw