alex

hey so I just watched episode 9 of yellowjackets and I just want to know what the fuck was that

I feel like there's a lot of people in the Yellowjackets fandom (especially on tiktok) that don't understand the girls' trauma. I've seen so many people say the girls are 'bad people' and to me that's insane because a big part of the show is their fear of people finding out what they did in the woods because they would've been ostracized, yet that's exactly what some people do.

I feel like it goes without saying that, yes, plenty of the things they do out there in the wilderness are wrong, but that doesn't necessarily make any of them bad people, you know why? Because they were in extreme circumstances. They were teenage girls, left to their own devices, in very extreme circumstances, and I feel people don't realize that enough.

For example, Lottie is not only in a extreme situation because, well, she's stranded in the middle of nowhere, but she's also an schizophrenic child without her meds. And what people don't consider about this is that the girls are very young, but Lottie had been medicated for a while by the point their plane crashed, so perhaps she wasn't even used to having her symptoms anymore.

Another character I hate when people act like she's the devil is Shauna, because, yes, Shauna does cause a lot of her own problem but she's a TEEN, not only that, she's a TROUBLED TEEN. Like, people act as if fucking her best friend's boyfriend is just as bad as eating Jackie when the first is stupid and immoral at most and the other is a fucking crime.

So, yes, her fallout with Jackie IS her fault, but people think she doesn't know that?? Even if it deep down??? And do you know what that can do to a person?????? Knowing you not only were the reason you're best friend die but also that you betrayed them in the worst way possible and they found out right before they died. Like, if that happened to me, while also being stranded in the middle of fucking nowhere, I would've also gone berserk

Also, I don't think people take into consideration the trauma caused by losing a child and especially after hallucinating said child was alive. Like, I've had dreams that I wake up from and doubt if they're real or not, now imagine those kind of dreams while starving and with all of the stress of, then again, BEING STRANDED IN THE MIDDLE OF FUCKING NOWHERE.

Now, I also don't think people even remember the freaking bear when they talk about the cult and why everyone believed Lottie. First of all, whether there IS some supernatural entity or not, I strongly believe all of the girls were experiencing a collective psychosis, so that plays into the reason everyone decides to trust Lottie. But other than that, they all have a very valid reason—a freaking bear collapsed in front of her like it was offering itself to her.

If I'd seen that, I would've also been praying and talking to the trees with her, man.

And when it comes to the actual crazy things the do—eating Jackie, hunting Nat, letting Javi die, eating Javi, kidnapping Coach Scott, killing Coach Scott, eating Coach Scott. I think that if you really think about it, many of those things are somewhat reasonable within their context.

When they're cremating Jackie and she essentially turns into a make-shift human barbecue, they're hungry and had been for a while, they were also sleeping and most of them probably didn't even think the consequences of what they were doing until it was too late. But even then, they were starving and in the middle of the woods, completely lost and with no way to go back to civilization, so I can look past Jackie.

Then there's the Hunt with Nat, which I personally think is sadistic, but if you really think about it, they were once again hungry and probably hallucinating or at the very least in a terrible psychosis, so I can also look past that.

When it comes to Javi, I think so people might think Nat was wrong, but I want anybody who might think that to imagine you're a teenager, surrounded by other wild, feral teenagers willing to kill and eat you and then tell if you comply if they were letting other person die in your place. Because I, personally, don't think I would have the strength to be selfless enough to save Javi and put myself in danger.

The only thing I truly find disturbing about the Javi situation (once again, when I look at it with the whole context and through the lens of what they were living) is Travis biting his brother's heart. BUT. BUT. BUT, then again, if I was him and I'd seen what they did to Javi, I don't think I would've told them I wasn't going to bite my brother's heart either.

Then, there's Coach Scott, and now, this is a truly complicated situation where several people can and ARE wrong and right at the same time.

On one hand, there's Coach Scott, who makes a shit ton of mistakes from the start and loses any authority he might've had. And don't get me wrong, I'll be a Coach Scott defender till the day I die, because he was just a young man who was in the same scary situation the girls were and had just lost a leg, but did leave the girls to do as they pleased and they eventually got out of control.

Then, there's two girls I find the most relevant when it comes to Coach Scott and those are Shauna and Nat. Firstly, there's Nat, who had an idea of where Coach Scott was and decided not to tell because the other were going to want him dead, which shows that, yes, you can still your humanity out there, but I don't think that means the others were necessarily wrong for feeling angered by the thought he burned their cabin down.

Nat does everything she can to protect Ben until the end, but inevitably realizes the human thing to do is to kill him. I think she didn't want to kill him sooner is for two main reasons: to protect him and to protect the girls, because Nat knew that if she killed him, the girls would've taken the position of leader from her and that would probably cause chaos which is what inevitably ends up happening.

On the other hand, there's Shauna, and, honestly, I don't think she's evil for wanting Ben dead—she's wrong, but she's not evil. She's traumatized, and she's hurt, and she's angry, and she needs to take it out on something or someone. Is that correct? No, it isn't. Can I blame her? Nope, again, middle of the woods, a bunch of trauma, killed and ate her best friend.

Again, I am not under any circumstances saying that they were correct, just that nothing they did out there makes them bad people. And even their adult versions have solid defenses for a lot of the things they do.

Anything Shauna does can be explained on the base that she hasn't got the proper treatment for her trauma and she's basically an adult teen.

Taissa leaving Simone and Sammy is partly caused by her double personality.

Melissa faking her death, creating a new personality, and marrying the daughter of one of the victims of the cult is a whole flavor of trauma in itself.

Lottie creating a new cult was a desperate attempt to recreate the freedom yet safety she felt out there.

Travis accidentally killing himself was a desperate cry for help.

Surprisingly enough I think Misty, Van and Nat were the only one who actually don't do crazy thing for their trauma's sake. Because, I mean, yeah, Misty killed that woman in season one but I think that unrelated to her trauman.

Actually, notice how I didn't defend Misty in this post? That's because she IS insane from the get-go, and I love her for it, but I can't defend her.

So, my point is—yes, they are insane, yes they do things that are wrong. But that DOES NOT make them bad people, because they were and are in extreme situations or severely traumatized. And I don't think any of the characters get enough credit for that.

WAIT A DAMN MINUTE. I JUST LEARNED PROSERPINA IS THE ROMAN EQUIVALENT OF PERSEPHONE (thanks substack)

yk I'm not really that annoyed about adult Melissa cast, but what if I say adult Melissa should've been Elizabeth Debicki huh? what then?

WAT. HEAR ME OUT. I JUST HAD A CRAZY IDEA

So, I have this really old 5sos fanfiction that I wrote when I was about 13, it's really bad, but it had some potential, so a few years back, I rewrote the plot but never actually wrote any chapters because I cringe anytime I think about having to narrate the actual members of 5sos.

BUT. BUT. BUT

I think I found the solution, so I pose the question, if I wrote and AU fanfic where Dick, Wally, Roy, Artemis (and possibly Kon) had a rock band and there was an original character involved and a lot of crazy shit happened, would anyone read it?

I finally finished watching episode 8 of Yellowjackets, and I've been able to pinpoint the reason I would hate if there was some supernatural deity guiding them.

Let me preface this by saying, this is a very, very, very personal opinion and in no way I am saying anyone who thinks there is something supernatural is wrong or that if they confirmed there is something supernatural it would make the show bad, it's just a personal preference of mine.

That being said—I have a personal opinion or belief when it comes to shows with supernatural stuff and it's that once there's supernatural things involved, things that are bad in the real life don't have to be so bad anymore.

Let me put The Vampire Diaries and Hannibal as an example.

To me, most of the things the vampires do on The Vampire Diaries aren't wrong or morally unacceptable based on the fact they're a fucking different species AND magical. So, I don't really care about them killing people or even manipulating and stuff, because while this things are TERRIBLE in the real world, this is a fictional world with fictional characters that are supernatural.

On the other hand, I would never try to defend Hannibal, even if I like his character, because the show is supposed to be based on the real world (from what I know, I haven't watched it entirely, but if it is on the real world my point stands), so Hannibal crimes are still crimes, not the acts of a supernatural creature beyond our human comprehension.

So, what I'm trying to say, is that, to me, Yellowjackets is a very serious show about trauma and the nuances of humanity in extreme situations, but if there was an "It", I wouldn't be able to take it a seriously anymore. Because, oh, they ate Jackie? Sure, but "It" prompted to. They let Javi die and made Travis bite his heart? Of course, but it's the wilderness choosing.

Perhaps even with coach Scott and that Edwin guy. Yes, they made Nat cut him and they ate him, but it was probably the wilderness guiding Shauna. And that frog scientist? Well, "It" wanted Lottie to kill him, so, whatever.

Even in the adult timeline. Misty killed Nat? Well, you could say she was just burrowing time, and It always intended her to die. No, Tai doesn't have a double personality, she has a deeper connection to It. Shauna went after Hannah's daughter and bit off part of Melissa's arm? Then, again, the wilderness guides her.

Once again, this is a personal opinion of mine, but if there is something other than them hallucinating and having a collective psychosis, it would really ruin the show for me particularly, because I would feel the need to sit down and reflect how theses girls are actually traumatized and some od the things they went through could've been avoided but also couldn't because psychosis and fear and whatnot.