Ray On The Sidelines

Yep. I'm one of those unpopular YJ fans who likes them all..

[thatweirdacebookworm]

natalie's funeral makes me want to chew glass. her eulogy barely being a minute long. her mother only remembering her as a small child, not as the teenager she was or the woman she became. her mother's only positive memory of her being a night on the swings when she was little. the memory conveying not the joy the two once managed to share together, or how simple things used to be, but about how much nat took, how demanding she was. shaming her, criticizing her, even in death. how no one, not even van, the storyteller---who made a face at how abrupt nat's eulogy was---stood up to share something nice about her after her mom left the stand. how the two yellowjackets closest to her before she died didn't make it to the reception---misty, because it would solidify the fact that nat was "really gone"*; lottie, because she was locked away. how the later toast in her supposed honor was quickly mutated into a toast centering shauna and tai's guilt and self-pity. how nat was used and discarded again, her role as leader and guide twisted into something impersonal and consumable. how everyone (except misty!) denies responsibility for her death. how nat's story was warped into a cautionary tale, rather than remembered as the tragedy it is. how she is now permanently confined to the role of provider and caretaker. she might not be physically consumed as jackie was, but she is similarly denied her personhood, valued only by what her death can provide, and crowned as a martyr for a sacrifice she never even made

[there-1s-still-time]

like wdym she woke up every morning before sunlight to hunt/look for javi despite the girls constantly hating on her, put jackie's bones to rest even though jackie was nothing but rude to her, tried her best to help with shauna's birth, got out of the tub even though she still couldve had hypothermia just so lottie could get warm, made javi gloves when he wouldn't talk to anyone, helped them out of the fire, taught gen how to hunt, and so much more but she's STILL just forgotten about in 5 minutes by everyone but misty. all she ever wanted was the best for people but none of them cared.

[nataliescatorccioapologist]

This is the root of Shauna's anger toward Ben. In her eyes, he is yet another reason why she had to hold her dead baby in her arms. I know it may feel easy to vilify Shauna this season but underneath everything she does is so much pain. She blames herself for the death of her baby (even though, of course, it was not at all her fault). That guilt is too heavy to bear alone. She has to push it outward, to find someone else to blame, to redirect that grief into rage, because the alternative is drowning in it.

[rayonthesidelines]

I wish viewers would put themselves in the shoes of the characters instead of forming their opinions based on their own knowledge of the situation. Shauna believes Ben set their only source of shelter on fire with them asleep inside of it. With motivation like this, why would you expect a different response from her? Shauna is shown to be paranoid and suspicious of other people's motivations. Example (A) Young Shauna was convinced the girls ate her baby. Example (B) Adult Shauna thought Misty cut her breaks and locked her in a freezer. She has deluded herself into thinking the world is out to get her. This was most likely brought on by Hypervigilance from trauma. She survives by denying reality, or else she wouldn't be able to live with the things she's done. Shauna thinks she influenced every change of vote, but she only actually intimidated Gen into agreeing. Melissa influenced her vote as well. Gen feels indebted to Melissa as her best friend. Lottie changed her vote because the wind blew, which she took as a sign from the wilderness. Travis changed his mind because he believes in Lottie. Akilah changed her mind because she trusts both Travis and Lottie. The three of them have been interacting with the wilderness together. I would also like to point out that Lottie changing her mind because the wind blew is very similar to Travis saying he heard the trees screaming.

[rayonthesidelines]

Lottie being killed off is the worst decision the Yellowjackets writing room has ever made. She was in the middle of a plot development. Lottie is an integral part of what makes Yellowjackets a force of energy. Who is going to speak for the wilderness now? What would have become of the girls if they hadn't turned to Lottie as a guide? What really is *it* without the image she painted? We never got answers on whether Lottie is actually schizophrenic or not. And to make matters worse, she ended up alone. I hate how vilified Lottie is when her intentions have always been to help. She didn't ask to be chosen. She might seem like she doesn't care about the other girls by encouraging them to interact with *it* again, but it's only because she believes *it* is on their side. Her near-death encounter was peaceful and loving. That's what she knows of death. She wasn't encouraging the worst for them; she was encouraging the best because, to Lottie, death is the kindest way to lose a person. That's why we see her teaching that philosophy on the whiteboard in the dream sequence. I can understand disagreeing with her point of view, but I think her perspective should still be respected because it's coming from an honest and heartfelt place. She fully believes in the wilderness. It doesn't matter if the girls or certain audience members think she's crazy; the wilderness is still real for her. It's not that I'm against Lottie dying in general. There was a level of foreshadowing through things like Lottie seeing her place of death in a vision, and Travis seeing Lottie as an angel with a glowing light around her. I'm almost certain every adult will die before the show is over. What I'm actually against is the timing of her death. She was only introduced a season ago. She and Callie's relationship was really intriguing and full of potential. It's not good writing to sacrifice future storytelling opportunities. The group needs to be large for a while before cutting it down. There are only so many survivors left to build a cohesive and interesting narrative.