Soulmates.
I was in a discord server earlier, and we got to talking about the Yellowjackets as soulmates, and I thought I'd share those thoughts here, just a nice little put together catalogue of all those thoughts put together. I might add to this, too, as more pairings and relationships come to me.
For the record, I want to point out that I think that all of these characters are soulmates, far beyond ship dynamics, far beyond romance. What makes up the insides of one makes up the insides of the others because they are all the same: teenage girls trapped in either growing or decaying bodies. Their souls are all mated to the others in some way or another.
Tai and Van are a pair. Two separate souls that are a part of a matched set, like socks. They can be worn mismatched, certainly, but they really are at their best together. Tai gives Van a purpose. Van calms Tai's "demons." They can exist without each other, live without each other, love without each other, but they just are at their best together.
Lottie and Nat are that sort of star-crossed soulmates, doomed soulmates. There's a red string of fate but its severed somewhere in the middle. They can be good for each other, laugh and smile and hold each other close. They can be the worst of each other, holding knives to each other's throats, laughing in the face of it. They're the epitome of a missed chance. What kind of missed chance? That's up for you to decide.
Misty and Nat are the kind of soulmates that don't seem like they'd match, but they work so good together. The believer and the skeptic (though who is who changes with the circumstance, the belief, the skepticism). Orange and blue. Salt and sweet. Chaotic good and lawful evil. They're diametrically opposed but in a way that makes sense, in a way that works together. They each feed off of what makes the other their opposite. One is running, the other is chasing. Of course one would die at the hand of the other.
Lottie and Laura Lee are the kind of soulmates where each thinks they are the worshipper while the other is the god. A prophet, a believer, a worship under the sun. Souls that just burn brighter around each other (and that pun was unintentional the first time but very intentional with the emphasis). Both want to help the other. Both want to hold the other. They are belief without boundaries personified. Each is Icarus. Each is the sun.
Tai and Shauna are soulmates in a way that recognizes "That is my person." Two people that have so much in common, who understand each other, who both recognize the want in the other. They have an understanding and a care for each other that's fierce. I see you, you see me, ad it might not be pretty, but we will be honest with each other. Especially as the two of them have aged; time has not erased their understanding of one another.
Jackie and Nat are soulmates in a way that isn't explored a lot in the show but has been discussed, from what I've seen, really well. Foils. Two sides of the same coin. Opposites. Rich girl, poor girl. Prude, slut. There are certain stereotypes around both of them that, from a glance, seem to play out. One only needs to look deeper to really see it. Unfortunately, from the show, we never really see the two of them see past their expectations of each other.
Jackie and Shauna. Two heads, one heart. I don't know where you end and I begin and all that. We've been there, we've done that. We know it by heart. They're not a pair because a pair implies separation, and there is none. You can cut out your heart, and you can even replace it, but it's never the same. They're two shattered halves of the same fucked up whole. When one piece is gone, the hole cannot be filled properly ever again. There are some species of worms that, when worm cut in half, can keep living as two separate entities. That does not negate the fact that it was once one whole creature. They're unhealthy together. They're unnatural apart. One did not live long enough to remedy either of these facts.
(If Jackie's heart was still beating, I know it would beat in time with Shauna's. I hope Shauna ate it to feel it beat with hers one last time.)
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I’ve been reading your tlgbf tlgbl fic, and am absolutely obsessed!! Where did you get the inspirations for dyke Jackie? I love how you’ve written her and her queerness
So, I prescribe to the theory that Jackie had some inclinations about her homosexuality out there in the wild and that's why she's parading around in sweater vests and limp wrists. That the high femme presentation we see in the pilot is more of a gender and social performance than who she is. And, I explored the people pleaser elements that lingered behind in that.
She compliments Nat in the Pilot that she admires how true to herself Natalie is which means that Jackie is not true to herself. She feels the pressure of expectation and lives within that expectation instead of her truth. We are never given a "truth that could crash an airplane" from Jackie. What she says is that she used to sneak downstairs and watch The Color of Night so she could pause it at Bruce Willis's wang.
For research for the fic, I watched Color of Night (the shit I do for art...). Bruce Willis's flaccid dong is there for like, five frames. And, it's not impressive like she claims it to be. You know what that movie actually has a lot of? Naked women and lesbian sex. Jackie's gay.
I know a lot of butch/futch/even high femme dykes who began their journeys presenting heterofemme realness and rejected it when they made their way down the rainbow brick road. Jackie very much gives me those vibes. Like, she has gay energy, but also a very "useless gay man" energy.
I think that finding out "x amount" of her teammates are some kind of queer and that the Very Hetero Sport she's been shielding herself with is uhhhhh Not That is part of what leads her down the path of self-discovery.
She's also shredded. Jackie canonically has an 8-pack and that's interesting because in the 90's, muscle tone was seen as something undesirable for women. (Now, I know that the show is made Now, where the aesthetic ideals are different, but if it's in the text it counts.)
Anyway, this has all been said before in other tumblr posts about Jackie being gay. I'm sure you're asking about why I wrote her as a futch service top instead of say, a femme pillow princess?
It has to do with her character arc. In S1 of Yellowjackets, Jackie's arc is one of nihilism and regression. The only thing that is keeping her alive in this survival situation is her love for Shauna, and when she learns of Shauna's resentment, she loses the will to live. Literally. Dies of a broken heart.
Jackie cannot survive in an environment without love. And, she struggles with survival instincts in general. Which is what makes her a great foil to Nat, who cannot help but survive, and, ironically, dies in S2 of too much love. The moment Nat stopped being cynical and nihilistic she doomed herself.
Two characters in direct opposition cannot exist so therefore they must either kill one or the other other--or change each other to live in harmony. I chose the latter. Jackie softens Nat and Nat hardens Jackie. They meet in the middle. If Jackie becomes hard, and becomes someone who can survive, what does that look like? What's the funniest possible way to get to this point?
Make Jackie the one who builds the shelter. Take this ineffectual, limp wristed twink and show her the way towards self-sufficiency through trades. Her home was broken beyond repair, so she learns how to fix it on her own. The literal is metaphorical and the metaphorical is literal.
So, now that I've explained:
Why Jackie is gay
Why Jackie fixes houses
Now, "why a service top"?
I touch on it in the text, but I don't think she's solely that. I do think that even after coming out, if she was experimenting with people who weren't Shauna she wouldn't allow herself to be physically vulnerable with them. It would cause a panic attack. She has a very Protestant energy and receiving pleasure as a part of sex would probably give her like 5 different mental breaks.
Jackie doesn't enjoy sex with Jeff (oral and hand stuff count as sex) not just because she's gay, but because she's too self-aware of how she's being perceived to enjoy her body.
On the other hand, she is a chronic people pleaser--though Lazy, so I knew she couldn't jump into this with both feet. If Jackie had slept with the girl in chapter 1 it wouldn't have gone well, and it would have been super awkward and unsatisfying for both parties. It's the envy at seeing Nat enjoying herself, and finally being in a safe space to relax a little that allows her to explore sensuality. Still, I don't think she'd let herself be touched in the same way.
If she had, as planned, shared a room with Shauna at Rutgers, I could see her being in a much more comfortable sexual role. Because Shauna was her safe space. But, I could also see her bringing a lot of her own baggage into that situation, and it quickly becoming toxic. I don't think they'd work romantically out of their "platonic" relationship in school, because it had already broken and festered by the Pilot.
Anyway! That's the impetus for Jackie's dykery. I hope that clarified some things. There are other folks out there who have come away with other, valid, and cool conclusions, but these are the ones I came to with my own research and experience. Thanks again for asking!
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Yellowjackets s2e6 thoughts and guesses
Misty does not get paid enough for this
Bet they all wished they paid more attention during that class
God it's nice to see them at school living normal lives
And Van was just as funny back then. If anything ever happens to her I will die.
Honestly kind of excited to see Misty meet Lottie. I didn't care much about this plotline between Lottie and Nat or Misty and William but now that Misty and Nat and Lottie are intersecting I am very interested.
But I wanna get back to the baby that probably won't be.
Lottie saw Misty and shat herself. That is canon. She poooed all over her pants.
Misty is here to get her girl-nay, wife- back.
Lottie asking Misty to stay and Sleep!Tai sweeping definitely-not-dying Van towards some mystery location...are the yellowjackets gonna gather at Lottie's compound?
Shauna Shipman is not gonna get that mother of the year award anytime soon
Poor Misty. You amputate one leg and all of a sudden you're assigned group medic. Poor girl is suffering so much right now. Shauna too, yes, but also Misty.
The good news is that the baby's coming. The bad news is it could be coming for a WHILE... And we're giving birth mediaeval style... In a blizzard...
I feel like Shauna talking shit about how she's gonna have to have her baby delivered by Misty is gonna bite her in the ass. Karma is gonna get all of them for being shitty to Misty, I suspect. I feel like in a life or death scenario you really ought to put more respect on someone who can prevent your death, like Misty or Nat. If this show has shown anything it's that it's brutal and that shit always hits the fan, so I just know this is going to be traumatic as fuck.
I'm all for Taissa telling Lottie to fuck off. Shauna is clearly disturbed by her antics and she's the last thing she needs right now. I'm still sure they're going to be all culty, but I question whether it's Lottie that will be the leader of their cult. Tai has power and command of the girls but not faith. They acknowledge her intelligence and strategic superiority but nobody believes in her. She hasn't proven herself in the wild. And she's more of a wildcard than Lottie with the sleepwalking. Van is definitely the one with the most influence. She was the one that sort of started the Lottie cult. She was the first believer and the one that spread the gospel so to speak. But she's more of a behind the scenes influence than a cult leader. She doesn't take charge, she leads by following.
There's Shauna but she's too disconnected and she doesn't really have a clear aim. She serves as a mirror and a foil for Jackie and Jackie represented their old life and it could be Shauna representing the wild but again, so far while she hasn't been a follower she also hasn't been a leader either. And like while she doesn't abide by Lottie's terms she's not actively trying to thwart her like Nat or Tai either. She's a more subdued nonbeliever.
This leaves Nat I guess. I could see her taking power. She is stronger than she gives herself credit for and she has had a few successes. For example she has successfully hunted and kept them alive for so long. The pelts and antlers and all those things they use in their rituals all come from Natalie. She stood up to Lottie and stopped the drunken near-sacrifice of Travis. And there was something else that slipped my mind. She did have that vision of Misty before they crashed and shows Lottie is not the only one who sees these things so maybe it's not all Lottie's schizophrenia. And Nat is constantly challenging Lottie's authority. While she didn't win that showdown, she didn't lose it either so maybe Lottie isn't as all powerful or maybe Nat is on her way up or maybe they'll face off again. Future Nat doesn't seem to trust Lot either so I'm guessing she never bent the knee for her, and it was someone else that was their leader. Maybe even Misty. Or maybe Nat.
Did Nat really lose her shooting mojo or is she drunk? Or maybe it's the emotions.
That girl has a point though, Nat didn't kill Travis.
Nat's self loathing is real though. God I hope she doesn't try to kill herself again.
My babies!
I thought they would have left already.
Interesting Van doesn't admit she let Tai kiss her. 🥺 I'm guessing because she doesn't want to guilt Tai. She did it because she thought it was the real Tai and they would get back together and she finally came for her but when she realised it was her she was hurt, and now she's lashing out because she knows Taissa has a family and she knows she shouldn't have dreamed of this but she wants it so bad 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 and that's why she can't go with her. Because she can't handle another rejection like that. But it's Taissa so she HAS to go and she can never say no to her and she hates that she has no choice because she knew when Taissa walked in she wouldn't be able to stop her from taking whatever it is she wanted because she's still so deeply in love with her that it makes her mad that she's so weak and I know I'm writing fanfiction at this point but I can't help it.
Taissa saw the bills
Taissa knows something is up with Van too
I am dying from the suspense
Also I love how Taissa was this entire scene. So needy and apologetic. All the fight has been knocked out of her and she's just rolling with whatever Van wants right now. She's just vibing. "Sure I'll stock those shelves babe, whatever you want." 🥺
Aside: I took a picture and flipped it and those weren't just normal bills, they were medical bills 😭 this unfortunately confirms my suspicion that Van is sick. If they kill her off I will die. I'm gonna start believing in Lottie's gods of the wilderness if that's what it takes to keep my baby Van alive 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Misty is traumatised and I can't blame her.
Ben is like a fish out of water here guys, I don't think he can help much either.
Was it Akilah who mentioned having a sister who gave birth? That's probably your best bet right now.
Akilah just got promoted 😅
For real though that blood does not look good. I am not an expert but even I know that's not a good sign.
Yeah women have been giving birth for eons but they've also been dying while giving birth for eons and the main reason they're not dying so much anymore is because we now have hospitals and healthcare and did Akilah really just pet her pet rat for courage? Fuck, Shauna is gonna get infected as fuck and I don't see the baby surviving either.
If I didn't know Shauna survived this I would think she was a goner.
Van looks shocked. Like "I've never seen one open that much 😶🌫️"
Travis now is not the time to redecorate
Oh no, nevermind, they're not redecorating, they're doing arts and crafts
I still don't know if Lottie's therapist sessions are real or a hallucination. The things she says scream hallucination.
Lottie's going off the deep end here. She's spiralling. She's using all these coincidences (although they're not coincidences, they're just a pattern of other people spiralling as well due to their shared trauma) as evidence to support her biases and basically whatever happens she's just got her mind made up to worship the old gods of the woods and stuff.
If they heal Van though maybe she should. Like at this point I'd be willing to pray to everyone I could think of as well. I can see why she might be able to convince Van to join in. And with Taissas's sleepwalking I can see her influencing her also. Shauna is just a pile of trauma and guilt and resentment. They're all really easy to manipulate at this point. Misty would go along with anything to feel accepted and Nat...well future Nat was suicidal and easy to brainwash too.
Ma'am that's not an entity, that's trauma.
Ben's maladaptive daydreaming is honestly lowkey relatable. But I'd never admit it.
Are their clothes way too clean or am I just so slovenly that their clothes look relatively too clean for this scenario?
Yeah newborn babies look all kinds of fucked up, don't read into the fact that this one's head is purple. And the placenta IS supposed to come after isn't it?
Is no one gonna check in on Misty?
Spoke too soon.
Am I now going to ship Lottie with Misty? Probably not. But would I welcome the idea of Lottie joining Misty and Nat? Also still probably not. But maybe..
Oh thank the woods, Misty is checking back in. I didn't have much faith in Akilah if I am being honest. Not after she turned into this gif
Honestly I would probably trust Misty with my life at this point. My anxiety went down 30% my skin is clean, my crops are watered, we've got this!
Shauna I love you but adult Shauna is getting in the way from young Shauna giving birth and honestly I know they're setting up other stuff but I couldn't care less about adult Shauna right now.
Van and Tai can cut in at any point they want though and I would simply thank them.
Van is too proud to ask Tai for help even when she's doing exactly the thing she needs help with 😭😭😭😭😭
It makes Tai dolling out for Nat's rehab stays even sadder cause she's willing to pay to help them but Van is just so adamant on going alone and not having to feel like she owes Tai anything -especially Tai but also anyone else- that's she's willing to crash and burn before she asks again.
Like how badly did Tai hurt her? How bad did she let her down that she's learned that not only can she not depend on her but she can't even think of asking her for help? 😭😭😭😭😭
For a second I thought Misty called Van's landline and I was like "omg she knew Tai was gonna head straight there" but then I realised it was Tai's mobile.
Anyway Taissa literally just covered up a murder with Misty so that whole "I don't have time for you now" line felt like a joke.
Van's reactions are everything
And so is Misty
Even teen Tai's starting to cave into the cult stuff. This goes beyond plausible deniability.
Is it over? Did it happen?
Oh god is this a dream?
Is she dead? 😭
Wait, no, is the baby dead?
This has to be a dream right? The show is too horrible for this to be real 😭
Is the baby dead? Did they eat the baby?
It's trying to make this seem like a happy thing, with everybody smiling and Shauna looking content but I am so terrified, I feel like I aged twenty years just now because I am positive that baby doesn't make it and she gave birth to it, only to watch it die and I am suffering right now seeing those smiles on their faces because I know this shit is NOT going to last.
Van drove Taissa ☺️
The adult TaiVan vibes are immaculate.
Van acting like she didn't have a choice as if she couldn't just let Tai uber there or just lend her her car or do one of like a dozen possible scenarios that don't involve her sitting in a hunk of metal with the love of her life and going away for the weekend while her business and the rest of her life is spinning out of control 😭
Van's really calling Lottie a diagnosed schizophrenic right now and deriding her like she wasn't the first to think she was psychic back in the woods. Oh how the turn tables.
Tai calling her out for also living in the past like she didn't run so far from it she looped the fuck back to her shadow self pressing against Van in the night and smooching the crap out of her.
Oh wait she doesn't know she did that. She doesn't even know Van kissed her back. Honestly don't blame Can for being cranky either. If my ex girlfriend's shadow self felt me up the other night and now I had to chill with her I'd be pretty volatile too.
"I get my needs met"
Van reads sexy fanfiction. That's the only thing that can mean. That's the only interpretation. If she's too proud to ask Taissa for a hand she is too proud to ask strangers on the internet for a handy is my theory, so I'm doubling down on the porn/fanfiction theory. The only apps she's on are chrome, where she can google sexy Willow X Tara fanfiction and sometimes even look at fanart of Xena and Gabriella getting it on.
Van don't lie, you didn't stop believing in love, you just don't want it with anybody else but Taissa 😭😭😭😭😭
Also way to keep things chill and casual Tai.
Like, her wife is lying in a hospital bed while she is making uwu faces at her ex and asking if she still believes in love and unicorns and stuff and she is so fucking whipped by Van it's not even funny.
Like does she even remember she has a kid? Cause I barely do. Sam who?
WHY DID SHE LOOK SADDER WHEN VAN SAID SHE MIGHT HAVE GIVEN UP ON LOVE THAN WHEN HER ENTIRE WIFE WAS IN HOSPITAL? I CAN'T DEAL WITH THIS! WHY IS SHE EVEN MARRIED? WHY DID SHE BREAK UP WITH VAN? THEY ARE CLEARLY STILL IN LOVE WITH ONE ANOTHER! WHY IS THIS SHOW DOING THIS TO ME? WHY IS IT BREAKING MY WHOLE HEART? WHY ROES VAN HAVE TO MAYBE BE SICK?
If Lottie's cult doesn't fix Van's illness I'm gonna take those antlers and shove them all the way up her ass
Nat doesn't want fish, she wants Misty's cat.
Watch them release the fish into the wild and see it become the final boss
I can't even focus anymore between the lesbians and the baby. How are they even gonna feed it? That poor girl is starving! She can't make milk.
Oh god. Poor Shauna. Going through all this alone.
Words cannot express how little I wanted to see Jeff right now.
At least we get to see Tai and Van again.
Not Misty talking Nat up to Lottie's cultists 😅
This feels like character development on Nat's part but I haven't been paying much attention because I've been getting distracted by the baby and Tai and Van.
Like I'm watching but my brain is loudly talking over Nat and stuff. Like was she jealous of the guy Misty was with or was she deflecting? Is Shauna's baby going to starve? Is Nat having a rare moment of self-awareness with Misty? Is Tai going to just kiss Van for realsies and admit she never got over her?
Shauna's teen mom bits are genuinely heartbreaking. I feel genuinely bad for the real life baby they cast as Shauna's baby cause of all that crying they're making it do.
I feel so bad for this poor girl.
Adult Shauna I can do without right now. I love Melanie Lynskey but again, there's just too much other stuff going on right now for me to care when I know that nothing will probably come of this investigation cause tv shows like to maintain the statues quo. I can maybe focus on 2-3 things at most and adult Shauna's police investigation debacle is very low on my list of priorities.
I just want to slap the rapey moustache off that cop's face.
God I love Shauna. And Melanie Lynskey.
Like you go into a scene like 'here we go again' and you're just waiting for the next scene but damnit they really get you immersed in this show, even with the bits you didn't want to pay attention to or the bits you thought would be filler.
Honestly, credit to the showrunners.
Callie really got her mother's genes. Not the physical appearance ones, but the genius manipulation ones.
I'm pretty saw this was a Reddit post... Did Lottie manage to feed the baby though?
I'm actually starting to like Callie now?! Maybe?
I guess I was right about them all converging at Lottie's compound. Shauna just got the go ahead from Jeff.
Nat continues to be the softest, squishiest marshmallow.
The baby stuff is harrowing.
Both Nats are the softest squishiest marshmallows.
Poor Tai really thinks this is a resolution but I know they got picked up for another season so this is definitely not going to be the fix she thinks it is.
It's cute that Van is acting like she's not gonna follow Tai to hell and back, let alone a wellness centre reunion.
Did Shauna really beat them there?
Also Van has exactly the car I should have expected she would have.
That reunion was so freaking cute.
Nat and Shauna hugging. All their facial expressions. Van's joke about Nikes that went over my head. Misty and Tai hugging (even though they make all those jokes about her they still have love in their hearts for little guy Misty). And my daughter Misty was so happy to see Tai and Van together 🥹 that's my girl right there
Why was Van looking at Lottie that way though. That better be about cultish activities and not lesbian ones.
Shauna smiling in her sleep though 😭
The baby was the one good thing keeping her afloat after Jackie's death 😭😭
Wait, tell me Nat didn't drug her.
They ATE the baby? Tell me it's another dream.
Oh no, it was worse than I thought. Or kind of exactly what I guessed but sadder. Cause we got that vision of her succeeding, having the baby and managing to feed it and then seeing everybody eat the baby and then we get to flash back to reality and the baby was never alive to begin with 😭😭😭
My heart is absolutely shattered. I dont even know how they can top this in the finale. I genuinely can't see this ending with them all alive and intact. Their facades are all cracking. Even Van's who hasn't been in the first season but has clearly been contending with her own demons. I'm guessing/hoping we will get some flashbacks of her to make up for the episodes she was missing later on though.
Anyways what an episode. And what a way to end the episode. I'm pretty speechless right now.
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