#yellowjackets asks

[tuiyla]

You are the only one I trust when it comes to Jackie/Shauna. Please share more thoughts about them,talk about the power imbalance/power play that exists in their friendship.

Okay so!

I'm very flattered by this ask and only ignored it for two weeks cause I've ignored everything uwu. But rest assured I'll be foaming at the mouth about Jackie and Shauna for a long while to come.

The power imbalance is fascinating in that it takes the delicacies of female teen friendship and then takes it to the extreme because of the Yellowjackets' circumstances. Left in the real world without the crash and the wilderness, Jackie and Shauna would have still come to blows and fought because Shauna was eventually going to fess up and tell Jackie that she had plans of her own. And given how codependent they already were getting on that plane, that still would have made for a compelling story. But heightened by the insane circumstances of being stranded in the wilderness? Oh boy.

The thing is, it's easy to look at their relationship and say Jackie had all the power until she had none of it and died. But I actually think Shauna had more power than probably anyone gave her credit for when Jackie was still alive and if anything it was in death that she let Jackie take over. At least the way I see it, Jackie's control over Shauna a) doesn't come from a place of malevolence and b) is just as desperate as Shauna is. Shauna falls in line and sometimes reluctantly but overall accepts Jackie's input and control, but it's actually Jackie's desperation that this reveals more. It's Shauna's affection that fuels Jackie and Shauna's betrayal that leads to the events of her demise. Jackie gives Shauna the power to destroy her and that becomes literal in the harsh circumstances of being stranded.

Particularly out in the wilderness, Jackie's actual powerlessness comes to the surface. She's useless at survival and her social skills become less and less useful as the group's desperation grows and they feel more and more distant from civilization. Shauna notices the target this puts on Jackie's back and tries to help her. And this can be read as her once again subduing under Jackie, trying to elevate the Queen Bee. But I think this just proves that Shauna, more than anyone (apart from Nat, arguably) sees Jackie as the painfully flawed human that she is. And she takes control of the situation but in a way that tries to help Jackie because that's what Shauna does. Not always help Jackie, oh no, but center her life around her.

As the drama and particularly the cheating and babygate of it all comes to head, Shauna actually lets go of her power. Her blowing up at Jackie, them blowing up at each other isn't just about Shauna standing up for herself but it's actually about Shauna letting go of the carefully curated control she's had over the situation. By having her affair with Jeff out in the open and by giving Jackie a nasty piece of her mind, Shauna loses the invisible but present power she's had all this time. Because Jackie storms out and Jackie has the last word. And the rest of Shauna's life will be defined by what she did and didn't do that night, what Jackie's life could have been.

And god, the two of them in Jackie's death. The way season 2 has been feeding us so well. And oh my god the pun I just realised that sentence has in a show like this. Jackie doesn't just haunt the narrative but she haunts Shauna in an unshakable way. We haven't had a Jackie scene since The Incident but I bet we will have Ella Purnell back to torture Shauna some more. And that's all because Shauna is giving Jackie that power, giving everything she can to the girl who'll never come back to her. It's not really Jackie because Jackie's last act was storming out and now she's gone. But Shauna keeps imagining being told off by Jackie and does everything she possibly can to alleviate guilt. She consumes Jackie so as to never lose her. She "shares" her with the group, to make them understand, to help ease the burden. She convinces herself this is what Jackie would have wanted. She gives that power back to Jackie over and over again. She marries Jeff and becomes the housewife Jackie would have been and has an annual meal with the Taylors. Shauna's been living in denial for 25 years because every day she wakes up and she gives a long dead Jackie power over her life, hoping for a different outcome.

And don't even get me started on "I don't know where I end and you begin". They're out there redefining the codependent bestie game. Jackie's dead but she's alive, she's always alive in Shauna's head. Because their power play as teens in New Jersey depended on a delicate balance of Jackie seemingly having the most control and once that illusion began fading, once Shauna showed her hand and let it all slip out, that was all it took. And Shauna will never ever stop feeling guilty about that. No amount of talking to the corpse or chasing ghosts or consuming Jackie over and over again will fix that. Shauna has lost all the power to Jackie but Jackie's dead and doesn't actually have anything so that just leaves them with... nothing.

[pynkhues]

what are your yellowjackets character rankings at the end of s2

Ohhh, I don't know if I could rank them, anon! I love them all for such different reasons that they don't really stack for me. I will say I was pretty disappointed with Adult Van this season? I was really excited for her on the show, and I love Lauren Ambrose, but I don't think she added much to the show overall, and I especially didn't like the way it felt like she was used to silo Taissa's storyline, which should've been - to me at least - one of the most sprawling and widest reaching this season.

Taissa is my favourite character on the show at this point, but I do feel like they dropped the ball with her arc at the end of the season. It started off so strong! And then completely forgot everything about her? Her job? Her wife? Her child? Even the dirt eating and other Taissa? I guess you could say the latter was about her finding her way to Lottie and the others, but that doesn't really work on a narrative or thematic level to me, so it kind of bummed me out.

The others all fall somewhere in between, with Shauna and Misty probably ranking higher than Nat and Lottie, but a lot of that again comes down to the writing.

[vanpalmr]

YELLOWJACKETS | 1.01 | 2.02 |

[galatariel]

But you're already dead, so way to make everyone jealous of you one last time. I'm sorry for what we did. Who knows? Eating you could be the reason why we survive the winter, so thanks. Rest in peace, Jackie.

YELLOWJACKETS (2021 —) dir. Ashley Lyle & Bart Nickerson

[lottieshauna]

I guess no one wants breakfast? (for @lovestrucklovesickslut)

[fadeintoyou1993]

tai voice happy wife happy life......

[harundraws]

so there's a fun new art meme going around....... OR what should've happened at that class reunion hotel rendezvous!! i thought drawing our favorite couple for it from the insane but delicious fanfic 'flirting with the line (and then i crossed it)' by @novelconcepts would be a fun thing to do!

👉🏼the link to novelconcepts’ post to the fic ✨

[nataliesscatorccio]

YELLOWJACKETS 1.04 Bear Down

[nataliescatorccioapologist]

I’m convinced that Simone Kessell and Juliette Lewis had a secret LottieNat agenda while filming Season 2 because what the fuck is this. How am I not supposed to see this as homoerotic.

[taiturner]

@yellowjacketsnetwork event 03: foreshadowing

[alihelles2]

Do you hear this voice? We wish for death every day. I ask all the people who have mercy to help us. This is hell. We want to help, even if it is just a little. We thank all the people who helped us and keep them away from evil and harm.

There are no institutions of life, no treatment, no anything, there is no bathroom, there is nothing 😭😭

If we had a life

It's getting narrower little by little😭😭

[tuiyla]

when first watching yellowjackets i was expecting jackie to be on the receiving end of some sort of cool twist. she ends up actually becoming antler queen, she’s still alive in the present day and is actually the one who sent the postcards, whatever. but the way she actually went made so much more sense tbh. they fought, they were both too stubborn to go talk to one another after. what happened afterwards so easily could have been prevented. on any other night out there in the woods jackie would have made it through the night and probably made amends w shauna eventually. neither her nor shauna had any idea it was going to snow 😭 i’m honestly so glad they went that route instead of something else because i think it makes shauna’s character and her relationship w jackie so much more devastating.

I couldn't wait to learn more about Jackie's fate but I always hoped it would end up being... banal, almost. But that's exactly why it feels fresh and novel because it's not some noble sacrifice or grandiose moment and like you I think it makes way more sense.

Because, if you're Shauna, how do you get over that? Even before we consider what later seasons will explore regarding other things that happened in the wilderness. And that's just it because if you're Shauna you don't get over that. You're forever haunted by a stupid argument that deffo did have stakes even outside of typical teen drama because don't get me wrong, that convo was raw as fuck and they threw very real things at each other. But, at the end of the day, even the stakes of that argument paled in comparison to their brutal situation. Because you can't act like you would at home, deciding to stay mad at your best friend even though you're stranded and it's Northern Ontario and Jackie doesn't even have the basic survival skills like making fire. And so she freezes even though she didn't have to, even though there was shelter right there. But nature doesn't give a fuck that the girlies are fighting or that both are too proud to resolve this conflict that same evening. That's the harsh reality of the Yellowjackets and of course Jackie would be the first to go this way. The first to die simply because they refused to adapt to that harsh reality.

I'm obsessed with how Jackie represents their old life, both while in the wilderness and of course 25 years later. Jackie is their team captain but she can't hold them together when she's out of her element. Everyone else finds their Thing but Jackie just can't exist in this new world. Looked at another way, she also represents the good side of what they left behind. I was surprised to see how many people wrote Jackie off as the stereotypical Queen Bee and mean girl when she isn't that archetype at all for me. Maybe a bit, yeah, by nature of being the popular girl and team captain but I'm used to the Santana Lopezes of the world (jk there's only one Her) so Jackie was just a normal teenage girl to me. That's the beauty and tragedy of it, because she is the normal teen girl who refuses to let go of real world norms and give in to nature. She's annoying when that manifests in not doing the chores and getting her hands dirty, sure, but she's pretty much the only sane one when the madness starts and she clings to these societal norms. (Natalie is the other sane one but that's another discussion.)

When Jackie dies, it's much more powerful than any twist could have been. Much more powerful than her living or becoming a driving force in the cult stuff. It's simple. It's nature, it's death. It's the first fall of snow and it's the death of the old world order. It's infuriatingly evitable. But, at the same time, it had to happen because of what it symbolizes. Yeah the girls, any of the girls actually could have just realized that Jackie sleeping outside was stupid af and that nature doesn't care about the girlies fighting it will kill anyone who's unprepared. And Jackie was the embodiment of being unprepared. But that's the rawness and sickness and brilliance of it, that no one did go out for Jackie. And Jackie didn't go in because she still lived in New Jersey and for that, she had to die. For Shauna, her last convo with Jackie will never not be that. The fact that she so easily could have saved Jackie will never not hang over her. She lives in the shell of Jackie Taylor's life and refuses to not do that because Jackie will never not be a part of her - or rather, idk if Shauna will ever view herself as not a part of Jackie.

I'm just obsessed with girls who haunt the narrative, ask anyone who's heard me go on about Twin Peaks or Life Is Strange (Before the Storm). Jackie is such a cool character and her and Shauna's bond so messed up and so delicious. I'm just rambling about all these random thoughts I have om Yellowjackets but basically YES I love how this show just makes so much sense thematically and that should really be a given in storytelling but damn does it feel good to actually have it.

[pynkhues]

Who do you think from Yellowjackets is delivering an emmy worthy performance? Saw a post from you about that a while back...I am really rooting for Sophie Nelise...thoughts on her performance? I hope she gets an Emmy before the show is done...

I've answered similar asks a couple of times now at different points in the season, but I watched the finale last night, so figured I could answer it again, haha. And look! While I definitely think Sophie's a really strong actress, having watched the whole season now, I don't know if I think there are any truly Emmy worthy standout performances in the way that I thought there were in s1? I don't think that's the fault of any of the actresses - it's a really stacked cast with the adults, and I think all of the younger cast is solid - but more that the writing has failed to showcase any of them as performers this season outside of the birthing scene.

I think in that sense I'd love to see the cast nominated in the ensemble category at the SAGs, and I would be delighted if Sophie was nominated at the Emmys, although I think that's a longshot. I think Simone Kessell did a really good job in the finale too - I thought her expression when she realised she was going to be admitted into psychiatric care again at the tail of the ep was really haunting! - so if she snagged a Supporting Actress nom, I wouldn't be mad, but overall I just hope s3 delivers better writing and direction which allows all of the actresses more opportunities to show what they can do.

[erin-gilberts]

I have a firm belief that the only way Yellowjackets can end is with the death of each of the remaining survivors and [redacted] was just the first (second, really) of what will be all of them in time. "The wilderness" will reclaim them one by one because they weren't supposed to leave. But also they will be swallowed up by their own darkness in their refusal to acknowledge it and that will be the great tragedy of it. All of their deaths will be preventable, but inevitable in light of the cycles they keep on repeating.

[sexybread-png]

2 COLLABS W @dykedolly bc shes so cool

and then also just have some doodle dumps of mine :)

also that last one is from thedevilsgarden's fic on ao3

also! my ask box is open, u may ask me anything abt my opinions/hcs/etc abt the show, if ud like:) u can also tell me ur hcs or ideas, mayb ill doodle smth<3 i miss when tumblr was more interactive stop being so shy ppl i dont bite!!

[sarafroot]

have you seen Yellowjackets? If not you definitely should and if so,, fav character? 😋

I LOVEEEE YELLOWJACKETS I can’t believe I haven’t drawn anything for it yet

Lottie is my fav🤞🤞