#Jackie analysis

[zenmasterlover]

A reminder that Jackie truly never had anyone. Her parents? Neglectful. Cheerleading squad? Fake. Basement gang? Close, but she always had to proceed with caution when it came to them. She really was just a lost and lonely girl, so desperate to find her safe space.

Her bitchiness being her go to defense mechanism speaks so many volumes about how lost inside she truly is. She’s scared and has her guard up because the people that were supposed to protect her, failed her.

Cut her slack. She’s a perfect example of a young woman trying to navigate with many odds against her.

[nataliesscatorccio]

Shauna and the baby were probably both going to die. depending on your interpretation of the dream realm, maybe for a time Shauna did die. something brought her back, or kept her from staying there. but it wasn't Mari's "wilderness, I hope Shauna doesn't die" or Travis' well intended but useless blood magic (recall Lottie "can't this just be enough? please?" it was never enough) or even the baby's death covering the symbol on the blanket in blood. those are futile hopes and bargains. the baby was already doomed. and the wilderness doesn't trade, we know this. it chooses. someone has to die. it took Crystal and spared Shauna. Shauna thinks she's been snubbed by the group and by extension the wilderness when it takes Javi and Nat is crowned, but what she fails to see is that she was chosen first. she keeps being chosen! not to die, to live. Coach Martinez dying to put her oxygen mask on. Jackie dying to later feed her. the wilderness taking Crystal (where is her body? it belongs to the wilderness now) to get Shauna through a dangerous labor. Nat dying in her place as the queen of hearts twenty-five years later. maybe it always did like Nat best, but it killed for Shauna first. and it kept killing for her. for girls like Shauna (and for girls like the Wilderness) isn't that just the shape love makes? a knife wound.

[kittyvolvox]

thinking of the potential of callie sadecki turning out to like women. imagine shauna watching her daughter, the daughter who was borne from her being so obsessed with jackie that she took her boyfriend, accepting herself in a way shauna never did. i think shauna would be so unbelievably jealous and heartbroken. like the only thing worse than callie ending up like shauna or jackie or some mix of them with kyle is callie living the life shauna and jackie never had together, coming home with a girlfriend, going out to pride events. bc ultimately THAT would be callie becoming like shauna and jackie, but in the way neither of them dared to acknowledge. it could actually drive shauna more crazy than she already is.

[jackiesnecklace]

i love the foreshadowing in yellowjackets, i love how mundane things or simple dialogues can have a heavy weight. i rewatched a few weeks ago and found this:

so on ep 7 s1 we follow taissa’s group and their adventure to find help and get out of the woods and we have this conversation

then, in episode 10 jackie refuses to thank the wilderness for the dead bear. it didn’t mean that she was going against shauna or any of the girls, she was skeptical at first and the seance session was a joke to jackie

this always gets me into thinking, what if the wilderness does choose and the only way to find forgiveness and get a chance to survive is by believing in it. because we know what happens if we go against it

and when they see the consequences, the skeptical ones turn into praying, thanking and asking for the help.

whether you feel like it saves you from the infinite torment

ep 5 s2

or because it shows you just how powerful and loyal it can be

ep 9 s2

i don’t know if anyone has mention this before but i wanted to write about it and give my take on it. if you have any theories about it im all ears eyes

[jfk555]

Alright I know we love to make fun of Jackie for quoting a movie during their breakup scene and then denying it immediately after because yeah that’s fucking loser behavior (affectionate) but I want to talk about how Jackie just. Can’t come up with an insult so she has to take it from Beaches because she can’t find any cruelty in her own subconscious.

It’s simultaneously so sweet and heartbreaking because Jackie loves Shauna so much she can’t really conjure negative things to say about her but also Shauna says cruel things to her so easily that that must sting even more. And Shauna obviously didn’t mean it but STILL. Jackie doesn’t know that and she died thinking Shauna hated her when that’s not even close to the case-

[n0-eyedtaissa]

thinking about how taissa’s best friend is clearly shauna, who’s best friend is jackie. it’s one of the subtle, more relatable cruelties shown on yellowjackets: the thin line between competition and alienation that comes with three-girl friendships. in every three-girl friendship, there are the two girls who walk side by side on the sidewalk, then there's the girl who's a few steps behind them. one’s always the leader, one’s the follower, one’s always the scapegoat. “jackie’s not gonna like it…” “well then we probably shouldn't tell her". shauna goes along with the plan, yet condems taissa as soon as the Allie Thing goes awry.

girl #3 defends #2 from the 'best friend' that overshadows her, but now that she's not the furthest in the shadows, girl #2 finally has someone to be cruel to. “i admire your resilience, tai. cant be easy knowing you fucking crippled someone today” when the traits that made jackie powerful at home aid in her resistance to the wilderness, shauna leans into the qualities that taissa has that are useful now but previously lead to the general understanding that she’s (to quote akilah here) “not THAT much of a bitch”: her directness, her decisiveness, the way she snaps to action and can take control.

girl #3 relishes in the power because she knows it’s slipping from girl #1. “thanks for having my back during the vote” “i didn’t have you back it was just what i thought…” taissa knows this. its what shauna thought herself, not what she mindlessly agreed to because of jackie’s influence. girl #2 and girl #3 bond over #1’s shortcomings. taissa and shauna get upset with jackie for not pitching in, for attempting to raid Dead Cabin Guy’s pantry for food and for how she recoils at shauna’s attempts to teach her how to butcher the deer.

when the girls have their seance, jackie wants to deny that they had any responsibility in conjuring the darkness: she called for it and shauna was the conduit, so she feels that guilt for the both of them and chooses to appease the darkness by not letting taissa be alone in the attic that night.

that moment jumpstarts the brewing rift between jackie and shauna, because it shows how shauna can and will choose somebody else over jackie. “what’re you doing?” “i was just gonna keep you company, if that’s okay…” it’s here when taissa revealed that she knew shauna was pregnant (because girl #3 is never in the spotlight so she pays extra close attention to those around her). when taissa finds out that not only is shauna pregnant, but she’s pregnant with her best friend’s boyfriend’s baby, she reserves her judgment because she knows that for shauna, that same fear of judgment is why she would rather die in the wilderness than tell jackie how and why she slept with her boyfriend.

when taissa figures out that shauna is trying to terminate her pregnancy (because katie lindstrom did it with the underwire of her bra last year), taissa tears through the woods trying to find her so that shauna wouldn't have to do something so risky by herself. “you’re not gonna do this alone, okay? i’m gonna help you, if you let me”. she realizes that she’s Not Jackie, she's not girl #1 with her power and her influence. she’s not who shauna would normally turn to...and that's the whole point.

girl #1 always panics when her second-in-command starts attracting more attention to herself: jackie can feel the space between herself and shauna growing larger and she knows that tai has been filling that space... the Best Friend space. but despite what shauna seems to think, jackie knows her too and can recognize the lies that even shauna herself believes. jackie knows that things aren't normal and nothing about what they're going through is remotely okay.

"i see you sneaking around and whispering with taissa, not to mention you acting all distant and weird for weeks." jackie isnt concerned with the fact that they survive a plane crash, or that she and her team are starving, all she's worried about is shauna. when jackie asks "when did you stop wanting me to be your best friend?", it seems like what she really means is 'when did you start wanting taissa as your best friend instead of me?'.

shauna may have started confiding in taissa more because she had a secret to keep from jackie and she needed anyone to be there for her...but from the very first episode (at least to ME), it's clear that taissa has been there for shauna before the plane crash, through her pregnancy, eighteen months in the wilderness, and even twenty-five years later. in no way am i insinuating that taissa's friendship with shauna is one-sided, either! shauna exhibits a very different kind of softness and affection with taissa than she ever was shown to do with jackie. it's very innocent, there's no envy, they have nothing to withhold from one another when they're hiding away in Dead Cabin Guy's attic.

shauna and taissa slept side by side up there, away from their team and the expectations that were unfairly placed on each of them and suddenly they both can breathe easier. they shared secrets and their fears and it brings them closer together, though it drives jackie and shauna further apart. with girl #1 further out of the picture, #'s 2 and 3 realize just how nice it feels to be understood. when taissa expresses the immense amount of guilt she feels about being the reason that van went on the ill-fated expedition, shauna reassures her that it's not her fault that van got hurt. that if taissa was too scared to sleep, shauna would stay awake. that she wouldn't let her go anywhere.

despite everything, though, taissa seems to understand that shauna would pick jackie over her any day. and she respects that, defends jackie's resistance to the wilderness and its offerings. when shauna (then mari and the rest of the team) start to gang up on jackie, taissa STILL defends her because she's girl #1...shauna's best friend. "c'mon jackie, don't go outside..." "don't pretend like this isn't what you wanted the entire fucking time." because jackie knows that taissa likes to win and isn't afraid to play dirty in order to get what she wants: the role of being shauna's New Best Friend.

once jackie is exiled from the cabin and shauna is watching her struggle from the window, it's STILL taissa who's saying "just go talk to her" ... just bring her inside, go and make up with her because she;s your best friend and you love her and i'll still be there for you. and taissa always is. in the morning when the find jackie, all alone and frozen in time, taissa's there to hold shauna as she cries and screams and curses the world and realizes her own capacity for cruelty. taissa's there for shauna. she's not letting go and she's not going anywhere.

[bugisawesomeasf]

you fuckers are really hating on travis when hes literally a he/him lesbian, also the wilderness is literally a metaphor for girlhood do you really think it wouldve let him survive if he wasnt at least a little girl coded ?

[khruschevshoe]

OFMD Critique: Izzy Hands, "Burying Your Cripples," and That Fucking Finale

(Note: this is a cleaned-up/expanded version of a post I made earlier regarding disability rep in this show bc I was chatting with @itswhatyougive and @notthewriteryourelookingfor about "Burying Your Gays" and the parallels with the "Burying Your Cripples" trope in media, which is often more insidious because people are less primed to notice it and call it out.

Also, although I am analyzing a trope in media in the most unbiased way I can, I am going to get angry. Because this is a show that did its job at making us care about its characters and their portrayals and you can't get mad at me that I did just that.)

On a fourth note when it comes to the problems with the writing in this season of ofmd...the handling of disability. Because good God.

To preface this before anyone jumps down my throat about getting upset: I am disabled myself, both physically and mentally. I carry a small laundry list of mild to moderate conditions that impair my daily functions. I understand what it is like to desire to see characters that carry disabilities similar and dissimilar to my own onscreen. I also understand that there ARE multiple disabled characters in OFMD (ex. Jackie with her wooden hand, Ed with his knee brace, Pete with his cleft palate, Lucius with his mentioned bad back/wooden finger). I UNDERSTAND that these were all generally handled decently well, incorporated without drawing attention to them (although the disappearance of Ed's knee brace was strange to me in season 2, even that I could get with bc personally I only need to use my cane when my knee flares bad and can walk perfectly normally the rest of the time without an aid).

Which is all to say: the way that Izzy's death was written is insidiously (likely unconsciously, but still) ableist. His entire arc this season revolves around community and recovering from trauma and accepting himself both in a queer sense and a DISTINCTLY DISABLED sense. The way he remarks upon his own disability and his acceptance of himself and the way that the show is written to have his crew member ACCOMODATE him joyfully as an EXPLICIT SYMBOL OF LOVE was a breath of fresh air when it comes to disabled characters. I also enjoyed the way that he pokes fun at it occasionally in the same way that I do with my coworkers/friends (joking "oh really, you're going to ask an invalid to do that?" *gestures at my cane*).

But that ending. God, that fucking ending. *vehemently taps table* The fact that this character who opens up, who is accepted for both sides of his identity after dragging himself through the fucking pits over them, is killed. BECAUSE HIS MOBILITY AID COULD BE SEEN BY THE ENEMY. BECAUSE HE WAS SEEN AS UNIQUELY VULNERABLE. And then they FUCKING PULL HIS MOBILITY AID, the very symbol of his acceptance, from his FUCKING BODY SO HE CANNOT BE BURIED WHOLE?

I'm sorry. I really am. I don't mean to get furious about this. But as a disabled person who saw such hope in this character, who saw a storyline about a part of myself that is rarely displayed onscreen (that slow acceptance of the part of yourself you considered broken + the acknowledgement of love by your family/community in the form of loving accommodation without complaint), this hurt me at a very primal level that I didn't know I could be hurt at.

Bringing this back around to the "Burying Your Cripples" trope: the reason why an ending like this is so horrifying is because it is very much telling you that you can have a healing arc, that you can finally find yourself accommodation and acceptance, and it doesn't matter. Your disability will be the thing that kills you.

To people who say that this ending is justified because sometimes death is just random like that, that saying that death makes healing not worth it, I get what you're saying. In real life, of course you're right.

But this is a CLOSED NARRATIVE. It is a story with BEATS that MATTER, made of decisions by writers who had to purposefully decide to put scenes together. There's a reason they're called "arcs"- they're supposed to aim at a specific point. IF YOU LET EVERY CHARACTER IN A SHOW LIVE THROUGH THINGS THAT SHOULD HAVE KILLED THEM EXCEPT FOR THE DISABLED CHARACTER, YOU ARE MAKING A FUCKING POINT WHETHER YOU REALIZE IT OR NOT. Izzy's death is not showing "random chance" or "the risks of piracy"- HE DIED BECAUSE HIS MOBILITY AID WAS VISIBLE.

Lemme repeat that: costume concepts showed that the original design of Izzy's naval outfit covered his wooden hoof. It was a conscious decision to have the shot of the naval officer looking down at Izzy's leg, at his exposed leg, and pinpointing him as the weak one despite there being entire scenes dedicated to showing that he was still as strong as the rest of them. In a show where the budget and runtime was restricted, not a single shot or costume decision was on accident. They had to pay more to green screen in that leg.

If Castiel went to superhell because of his gay confession for Dean, then I cannot think of a clearer way to Bury Your Cripples than having Izzy die because someone saw his mobility aid.

Do I think they did this on purpose? Well, no more on purpose than David Jenkins looking at Izzy's Hayes-Code-era gay coding/arc and saying that he knew that Izzy would have to die because that's what characters like that do. No more on purpose than saying that the mentor character had to die because that's what characters like that do.

Izzy's disability was visible, was the cause of his death, because "that's what happens" to pirates who gain disabilities. They are weaker. They are more at risk.

I'm sorry, but fuck that.

Fuck the idea that in a show that created a careful space in its narrative (for a season and a half at least) for queerness to be treated ahistorically kindly, that often disregarded geographic, historical, and medical accuracy to tell a compelling story, and that purposefully provided racial and body diversity while calling out racism, that the disabled character getting offed is a "kind ending." It's not. It never has been. And I'm tired of accepting that sort of thing.

I am SO GLAD that fanfic exists with better depictions of disabled arcs/endings in OFMD bc I don't know if I could recover otherwise. Hope my fellow disabled folk out there are recovering as well, and that they understand that there is positivity to be made out of poison- it just wasn't what the finale gave us.

[f444keitflowers]

“I don’t even like soccer!”

Episode 1x10 Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

My personal take on this scene is that Shauna is trying to express to Jackie, regardless of if Shauna realizes shes doing it ,

that Jackie is so consumed by her own feelings to ever recognize everything that Shauna has done for her and how much she truly has sacrificed,

while also simultaneously saying “you can’t see how in love with you I am, let alone the true reason why I would ever sleep with Jeff”.

( sleeping with Jeff to be as close to jackie as possible )

Immediately after Jackie claims that she knows Shauna does not have feelings for Jeff, And Shauna replied, “How would you know?” Shauna goes on to say;

“You tell me what to wear, who to hook up with, I don’t even like soccer!”

… As if to say “you tell me who to hook up with, and I don’t even like boys, I like you.”

Another thing, Shauna only plays soccer because of Jackie? Meaning Shauna would have never been in that plane crash, never would have ended up stranded in the wilderness, and would have never been the reason jackie died.

Jackie is too caught up in her own shit to realize that Shauna does not even like soccer, she likes Jackie.

Shauna has sacrificed herself time and time again for jackie, just to be close to her in any way possible, without ruining their friendship.

And yet even if she hadn’t been on the soccer team, and she hadn’t done everything jackie said at all, she probably would have rather been in the plane crash with her.

Thats how much she loves jackie.

[m4rdb]

An insight into the characters based on their approach to the “Allie problem”

If good writing means that every scene has the potential to say something about a character at their core, then the girls' attitude towards the "Allie problem" is an interesting example.

Taissa

The one who comes up with the very plan. This establishes her as ambitious and extremely rational, but it’s the type of rationality that without grounded moral principles could degenerate into violence and cruelty at any time. It’s what we see with adult Misty and Walter, who are both so practical-minded that resorting to murder is nothing more than a smart option to choose to them.

Like Jackie says, Taissa has so much fight in her. The way she handles the Allie situation shows that if she has a goal, she’ll do whatever she finds necessary to obtain it.

How does that translate into their time in the wilderness?

Taissa’s the first to make the call that they should leave the plane and find water. She’s the one who sleeps in the attic when everyone else wouldn’t, she’s the only one who tries to tell Jackie she shouldn’t leave. And in season two, she’s the one who says, “We need to find a way to stay alive, and it can’t be her [: Lottie]”.

Then we see them drawing cards. We’re not shown how they get to that very decision exactly, but it’s important that we know that the two things are tied. The hunt that follows, their first conscious hunt (let’s not forget about Travis), wasn’t supposed to happen—it’s rather the consequence of the designed sacrifice refusing to take on the role.

Though there’s an obvious religious aspect to it, drawing cards isn’t just letting fate/the wilderness decide in their place so that they don’t blame themselves. It’s also the girls’ attempt to give the ritual some semblance of logic and structure—on a normal day, they would draw cards to decide who gets which task. They’re using the same mechanism, except that they’re now deciding who should die and get eaten. And it starts with Taissa’s very rational and straightforward remark about needing to survive.

Natalie

She openly and passionately goes against Taissa’s plan. Despite being presented as the outsider who doesn’t really engage with the team and disregards rules by smoking and doing drugs, she’s the one who fights to play fairly. She most likely doesn’t care about Allie personally, but she’s a teammate, and they should treat her as such.

While Tai’s ultimate goal is winning at Nationals, Natalie doesn’t want to win more than she wants to be a team (T: What’s your plan, then? / N: I dunno, play like a fucking team and win? It’s worked so far.).

It’s quite ironic—yet not that surprising—how, despite being opposites, Natalie and Jackie share a similar mindset about this.

The scene establishes Natalie as a sympathetic character with grounded and noble moral principles, no matter the adversities. In the wilderness, she’s the first and possibly the only one who acknowledges Travis’ grief and sees through his unsufferable attitude and understands that, as much as questionable his methods are, he’s trying to make sure Javi gets over their father’s death and wants to live on.

It's also meaningful that Natalie’s not there when Jackie and Shauna fight and Jackie ends up leaving the cabin. The night earlier, Natalie was the one who let her out when Lottie and the others locked her in and went to hunt Travis down. Natalie basically saves the girl who just had sex with Travis being perfectly aware that it would hurt her, and she doesn’t even know. Viewers do know, though, and we’re instinctively led to think of her as even more noble and deserving of empathy.

Jackie’s death certainly comes from an irrational choice, but the deepest reason is the others’ lack of sympathy towards her at the end of the season. It could be delusional, but I can’t see Natalie turning a blind eye on the whole thing, had she been there.

Jackie was their captain when they had a normal life. Natalie becomes their leader thanks to the constant effort she’s put into the group ever since they landed there—and possibly, as the matter with Allie shows, even before that.

Lottie

Lottie’s phrasing for her refusal is telling. She says, “It doesn’t feel right.” It’s not that she thinks it is, or that it seems like it is. She feels like they’re not meant to go through with it. A simple yet fitting choice of words foreshadows Lottie’s spiritual nature and her connection to the wilderness as well as her role of prophet/messiah.

It’s also important that she’s not shown as particularly proactive. She does express her opinion, but she’s not as passionate as Natalie about it, who instead actively tries to convince them what a terrible idea it is and interferes with Taissa’s plan on the field. This shows how Lottie never cared be a leader, but rather follows where her feelings lead her.

Van

We’re not really shown Van’s reaction until they’re in the locker room after the scrimmage. We just learn that she’s impressionable, as she almost throws up at Nat’s mention of Allie’s bone being visible, and that she’s so devoted to Tai that she won’t let Shauna talk shit about her at the party.

Laura Lee

Of course, nobody would even dream of telling Laura Lee about an act of such misconduct. She would never go along with Taissa’s plan, she wouldn’t even fathom doing something like this. She’s more clueless than Jackie, because Jackie at least did notice something was off on the field. Even at the party, Laura Lee is the only one who still has no idea there were such tensions.

Her blissful ignorance keeps her kind and pure, apart from the ruthless tendencies of the team. It doesn’t change once they’re in the wilderness—Laura Lee dies trying to help her friends, and she fortunately never gets to witness their worst moments.

Shauna

Unsurprisingly, Shauna’s a tough one. Her attitude towards the Allie situation is as ambivalent as it will be for the rest of the story towards everything else.

Shauna keeps her thoughts for herself until Nat and Lottie leave and it’s just her and Tai, and even then, the first thing she says is, “Jackie’s not gonna like it.” The moment she’s asked to make a personal decision, she talks about what Jackie would think, and it’s not because she herself doesn’t know what to think, it’s just what she chooses to say outright. If anything, Shauna isn’t against Taissa’s plan entirely, and bringing up Jackie rather sounds like an excuse so that she doesn’t dwell on her own dark thoughts.

When Taissa says, “Then we probably shouldn’t tell her,” we expect that to upset Shauna—she wouldn’t keep things from Jackie, right? They’re best friends. While it does upset her, it still doesn’t stop her. We understand why later in the episode, when we discover that she’s no stranger to keeping secrets from Jackie, between her affair with Jeff and the admission letter to Brown (it also recontextualizes their first scene together in Shauna’s car, where Jackie addressed literally both).

On the field, when Taissa plays aggressive and forces Allie to play under pressure, Shauna tells her, “It’s not helping,” and once Allie’s on the ground, she’s one of the girls who runs to her first and tries to comfort her. Even though she didn’t openly disagree with Taissa’s plan, she didn’t want or expect things to escalate the way they did. She’ll make the same mistake when Jackie leaves the cabin, Taissa tells her to go talk to her, and Shauna just goes to sleep, underestimating the consequences of it.

Her ambivalence—if not hypocrisy—is shown later that night at the party, when she tries to pick a fight with Taissa while drunk. I think some part of her felt guilty to an extent, so she tries to fight with Tai out of remorse and because she wants to make her look like the only culprit, since she hates that she was so close to being complicit in it. Who calls her out when she defends Nat from Taissa’s slut-shaming at the party? Natalie herself slams in Shauna’s face that she is complicit.

If Shauna had told Jackie, she would’ve put a stop to it for sure. In the 2019 script for the pilot, Jackie says, “You should have told me about Taissa and Allie.” Shauna’s choice to keep the secret directly anticipates their falling out towards the end of the season. Shauna’s continuous lying drives Jackie mad until she explodes and they have that fatal fight.

Shauna’s the one who tries to act as a person who has it together but really doesn’t. She has the potential to be a good person, friend and mother, but she ends up flunking everything and she barely understands why.

Finally, she tells Tai that she’s “a fucking sociopath”, which, considering everything that happens later in the series, is sort of rich.

Jackie

Like Laura Lee, Jackie has no clue the whole “freeze Allie out” strategy is even happening. Shauna didn’t tell her, she was left out, and she doesn’t find out until Allie’s already hurt and there’s nothing she can do about it.

She watches the others as they rush to help and comfort her and handle the situation, but she doesn’t partake in it because she’s too shocked to move. After the scrimmage, she tries very hard to do as Coach Martinez told her—as captain, she’s meant to glue them together (“When it gets tough out there, these girls are going to be looking for someone to guide them. Can you handle that?”). It’s more than that, though—the way Coach put it, if Jackie can’t do that, then she isn’t really anything special. She’s not as fast as Shauna and her footwork isn’t as good as Lottie’s, and there’s something else that Taissa’s better at, too, though Jackie stops Coach before he can tell her that bit. But nobody seems to care about what she’s saying, and Natalie storms off.

Jackie’s inability to handle the Allie situation and lift the others’ spirits foreshadows her incompetence as well as her progressive loss of influence in the wilderness—in Lottie’s words, “You don’t matter anymore.”

Allie’s accident marks the beginning of Jackie’s downfall even before the plane crashes.

[sanasanakun]

The tragedy that is Corpo!V and Jackie's relationship lies in Jackie's consistency for saving V, while V's big onscreen attempt to save Jackie falls short. Jackie rescues V on three distinct occasions: during the mysterious Mexico job, when he offers his home after V's expulsion from Arasaka, and by using his last bit of strength to slot the relic into V's head. From a purely headcanon perspective too, you could speculate that Jackie's influence prevented Arasaka from “corrupting” V, keeping them from turning into just another soulless corpo that we see populate Night City.

Jackie remains a steadfast presence in V's life, reliably coming to their aid whenever needed, even unknowingly (like by slotting in the relic). However, when Jackie desperately needs V's support, V fails. Despite V’s impressive strength and training from Arasaka, the heist claims Jackie’s life. Now burdened with an impending death sentence due to the relic in their head, V is left without that shoulder to lean on. The man who consistently "saved" them is gone, leaving V to grapple with their fate.

I even kind of view Jackie's final act of saving V with the chip as a symbol that if Jackie dies, V's own destiny is sealed. But that’s a little pessimistic for the games overall narrative (imo). I just think it's interesting how Jackie always offers an out to V, while V fails to do the same. It’s extremely bittersweet and definitely adds to the tragedy of their stories.

[hugosarchives]

there’s one aspect of love lies bleeding that i can’t stop thinking about.

it’s the fact that in all of their marketing they never touched on the absolute Freakish aspect of this move (which of course is intentional). the fact that there are these little pockets of supernatural moments when the entire rest of the movie is grounded in some type of reality.

the more i think about it, the more i realize these grotesque visuals (jackie throwing up lou and slightly deforming as she does so) (and then at the end of the movie growing absolutely Massive in size when she senses lou getting hurt) could be interpreted as an allegory for how queer people were viewed during this time period, and still are.

when you couple the idea of queerness being viewed as freakish and unnatural with the fact these are two women who are non-conforming in some way—jackie being a bodybuilder and lou being a butch lesbian ALL while living in a very isolated town—you get the overlap of gender and sexuality-based prejudice.

the way jackie deforms and has these outbursts, and then confesses to lou she “doesn’t know what’s wrong with her” reminds me of nightmare on elm street II. just this character viscerally feeling that something is eating away at them from the inside.

we are outsiders viewing lou and jackie’s experiences. maybe we also bear witness and are active participants of how Their world views them, too.

[kittyvolvox]

obsessed with the wording of jackie saying "i should have said it [i love you] back"/ "i shouldn't have kept him waiting". she doesn't say i wish, it's should. should like an obligation, like what society and her parents tell her to do. this is jackie putting jeff's feelings before her own, her thoughts are on jeff waiting for a reply, his feelings rather than hers. it reeks so much of this patriarchal mindset of jackie putting men's feelings before her own. it's so indicative of jackie's place in the narrative as a whole, how her own mother says she would have been happy for jeff and shauna's marriage, because it's more convenient to believe that. it would be convenient if jackie had told jeff she loved him too, but she just can't. like the comphet of it all. and simultaneously the narrative insists that jackie is this super selfish person. like she can't win.

[tabithatwo]

Ella Purnell as Anita “Needy” Lesnicki

4.11.23 / live read directed by Karyn Kusama

[oursoundmeansdeath]

I wanna talk about Stede's muse. Specifically, I want to talk about how Stede's muse is Izzy.

This scene in episode 6 opens with Stede asking for his muse, and who answers?

It's Izzy. Izzy who introduces himself by asking Stede how the fuckery is going, trying to encourage Stede's endeavor.

Stede at this point is ready to give up. He thinks he's been forsaken by his muse, and declares to Izzy that "the fuckery is canceled!"

But Izzy, for reasons, cannot let Stede cancel the fuckery. So he tells Stede to do it in the most Izzy way possible: "You can't cancel it, I went out on a limb for you, you little shit." Very convincing 10/10.

It is Izzy's intention to get Stede to go through with the fuckery, but he manages to do so, not through his pathetic attempt at a pep talk, he inspires Stede completely unintentionally by doing this:

But boy howdy does it inspire Stede, look at his fucking face as Izzy leaves:

And the fuckery is back on, Stede goes back to the crew and tells them he "may have something," and what do we see in the fuckery?

A shadow scene behind a curtain.

The scene is literally Stede asking for his muse and Izzy entering the scene and inspiring Stede, much like a muse.

But this is not an isolated incident, this is simply the moment that made me realize that Izzy is the driving inspiration behind Stede's whole pirate persona.

In the second episode, Stede is having a bit of a crisis of self. He's wracked with the guilt of "killing" Nigel (but moreso he's feeling the guilt of abandoning his family.) And before Stede's encounter with Izzy, he's asked:

In the previous episode, it became quite clear to Stede that he wasn't fit for being a pirate, he is feeling inadequate at this point. He manages to drum up enough confidence to take on Izzy and Fang and Ivan, which led to this:

Stede getting the upper hand in a confrontation with a badass pirate. We know how much Stede admires piracy, and how cool he finds them, and so to take on and win against another pirate was enough for Stede to get over his guilt and to build up his confidence.

This confidence carries over into the next episode where Stede is excited to make his big debut in the Republic of Pirates

and then there's the way Stede interacts with Izzy and only with Izzy. Stede likes to act nice, even when he's not actually being nice, he has an air of politeness about him, even when he's trying to be threatening

But with Izzy Stede has genuine, occasionally unprompted aggression towards the man

Izzy is bringing out the pirate in Stede. Around Izzy, Stede is inspired to be the pirate he's wanted to be from the beginning.

Izzy is Stede's muse.

[shaunamilfman]

ok ok imagine dating both jackie and shauna… the chaos. but i’d love it!! shauna’s possessiveness def comes out sometimes (especially if you dated her first) and she’ll hog you like a blanket when you all cuddle together and jackie’s like 😑

"imagine dating both Jackie and Shauna" i do that every night to fall asleep but continue lmao. i actually don't think it would be that chaotic, funnily enough.

so i think shauna would def be a little more possessive if yall dated first, but i dont think it would last super super long. at least, not the possessiveness against jackie. i think the first time shauna and jackie had to close ranks because someone else was flirting with you shauna would remember there are bigger problems lmao.

I've always HC'd that shauna and jackie have been friends since like kindergarten so I think they've definitely learned how to share with each other lmao. "i don't even know where you end and I begin" type shit. jackie didn't get new clothes jackie-and-shauna got new clothes, shauna didn't get a car jackie-and-shauna got a car, etc. I don't think it would be that weird once shauna got over her initial issues with it.

she would def hog the hell out of you whenever yall are cuddling though. jackie's watching shauna with absolute disbelief as yall practically merge into one person and shaunas just like 😁. less possessive and more competitive though, I think. they're both extremely competitive athletes which translates a lot into your relationship. they'd definitely compete over who got you the most thoughtful/biggest gift, who kisses you more that day, etc.

the addition of a third person would make their relationship a lot less toxic as well I think. shauna's main issue is that she doesn't communicate to jackie at all, and expects her to know what she's thinking because they've been jackie-and-shauna since they were children. shauna just assumes jackie knows she's upset and just doesn't care, while jackie in reality doesn't realize she's upset. a third person there to play mediator as well as soften both of their edges would do a lot towards the relationship in general.