are u also the lottienat editor on tiktok? also what made you get into lottienat
“the lottienat editor on tiktok” LMAO this is the best thing to be known by thank you. and yes (if ur talking about @/lilsxvsp_)! i have twitter as well (@/deadguysplane)
and (picture me cracking my knuckles with a cigarette in my mouth) what made me like lottienat you ask?
i mean initially i was intrigued by seeing lottie kidnap nat to save her life in one tl and seeing nat drink her blood in another so i was on this ship right off the bat in s2 but the general appeal to me is how they never really manage to escape eachother. like they’re literally tethered beyond the metaphysical plane
they’re pretty much inextricably bound AND this gets a lot better to me when you factor in how they’re pretty much the inverse of the other’s journey in life. they still find eachother in every timeline despite that
i find lottie doing so many things to protect nat so fascinating. and i find nat’s ability to still see and want the good in lottie despite EVERYTHING just. wow. a BIG thing for me is how they’re always nat the person and lottie the person to eachother not nat the symbol and lottie the symbol. everybody else expects something from lottie/nat but nat and lottie don’t!!!!
there are just so many things i can say about nat’s part as a whole and in both tls individually but i think in general nat’s conflicted feelings towards lottie is another big part of why i like it. she wants to trust lottie but she also resents lottie. she wants to understand lottie but also thinks she’s bullshit. she can’t help but feel so much for lottie even though they’re fighting like guys the whole nod before the hunting competition and nat immediately going to help lottie even though she is freezing herself is just wooow 204 alone should get rid of the “nat hates lottie” allegations but i digress
and the bath scene. i don’t even care that “you fucking loser you little bitch” sounds flirty that’s like 5% of it just the vulnerability and the intimacy of it all. them being able to smile and laugh like old times despite them going through the horrors. for a moment it’s just them smiling into eachothers eyes and everything isn’t so bad fuckkkkk
also idc if people think this is fanon THEY WERE FRIENDS BEFORE EVERYTHING!!! i think this is pretty much explicit and it makes it so much sadder i think that’s where a lot of the fondness comes from i’m sorry look at nat’s face at the beginning of the 308 scene after lottie literally axed a man and played in his brain matter that type of fondness does not come out for just some soccer pal
also nat’s reluctance to accept lottie in the adult tl just to fully embrace her beliefs in death is chef’s kiss
they’re also just a big fat narrative meal. two sides of the same coin. the dichotomy of morality vs faith. the faces of spirituality and pragmatism. push and pull yin and yang tui and la they’re just EVERYTHING but despite this they are still soooo similar
i’m rambling but how could i not ramble about this ship? there is so so so so much more and this is mostly just talking nat’s pov in the teen tl if i went into lottie’s pov or the adult tl we would be here all day. they’re truly the ship of all timeeee
realistically half of the team probably picked up soccer in highschool for the sake of it but that doesn’t stop me from making hcs of them in little kids soccer.
lottie kinda just stands there and stares at her opponents. she’s in her own head most of the time but when she isn’t she’s kind of a gangly mess. like her limbs are just flailing everywhere. she’s not even that tall yet but she does not know what to do with all her limbs. now pair her with laura lee—who would probably cry if she tackled someone to the ground—on defence and that d-line isn’t getting shit done.
nat is built for this shit. in the trailer park she would play soccer with the boys (and this did not go without them saying “but you’re a girl!” to which nat rolled her eyes at) and would THRASH them every time. she gets on the pitch and just plays with her throttle wide open and it works. however she has an undeniable attitude and a scowl that’s ingrained into her face. she isn’t physically biting people but she’s definitely doing it verbally.
shauna has concerning anger issues and would probably end up biting someone. she’s kinda just a really fast little ball of anger and she tackles people for the sake of pushing someone and not getting the ball. unfortunately she is too good to sub off.
jackie on the other hand will run to pick up anybody on either team whenever they fall. if shauna falls, she’s immediately screaming her name while sprinting there, and will target the person responsible for the rest of the game. she also is like really enthusiastic about this stuff and regularly hosts team playdates.
van is the most dedicated goalie you will ever see in your life. first of all, she can JUMP. yeah she’s tiny but your honour have you seen her leap? however she absolutely cannot land so she’s basically rolling 24/7 and ends up with a million bruises after every match but it’s okay because she loves it. sometimes her enthusiasm does her no good because she will jump too high or too far to the point where she misses the ball entirely.
tai is genuinely good. not nat good, who’s just kicking shit as hard as she can, and not shauna good, who’s running really fast and kicking people as hard as she can, but has actual skills. and she makes sure to let everybody know. if you look at her at any point during the match she is getting really mad and whisper-shouting “that’s not how you play! what are you guys doing?!”
mari would rather be literally ANYWHERE else but unfortunately her mom insisted that she play soccer and said “tienes que ser una guerrera, mi amor.” (she has a hard no english rule at home, by the way. mama ibarra is NOT having any no sabo children on her watch.) mari trudges her ass onto that field, talks shit about every single opposing player (and some of her own teammates too, let’s be real), curses her mom in her head (with love), then leaves.
the jvjackets are too young to play but sometimes they end up playing against the seniorjackets on the playground and one of them ends up crying every single time. the seniorjackets are fucking ruthless
despite all their flaws this team is GOOD. mainly because their enthusiasm is pretty much unrivalled, and they also scare a lot of other teams, but they’re still winning often.
they end up winning the little league title and have a pizza party at lottie’s house. in a modern context they play just dance and go ham.
bonus: travis tries to play soccer (he sucks) with javi (he’s 2). he kicks the ball to javi and javi just watches it roll to his feet. travis tells him to kick it back and javi ends up stepping on the ball and falls on his ass and he just starts WAILING. safe to say javi never touched a soccer ball again
me when I'm in a "set up the whole groundwork for a plotline and then immediately abandon it once people on reddit clock the plot twist" competition and my opponent is the yellowjackets writing team
there is an infinite amount of hcs i have for the first time lottienat interacted and they’re all so silly to me
like yeah nat decided that lottie was cool in 6th grade and chose to take her to the back of the playground to share a cigarette. van is on the lookout somewhere in the distance. lottie’s face drops when nat pulls out the pack and nat tells her to “relax,” because she just “swiped these from [her] mom and wanted to try one.” they ultimately decide to take a drag on the count of three and…they both instantly start coughing so much they double over. they then swear that they’ll never do this again. (the first time they share a cigarette again in high school, nat recalls this story, and they both giggle like idiots over it.)
in 7th grade nat kicked a soccer ball at lottie’s head, which gave her a concussion, and nat had to take (basically drag) her to the nurses office. she also went home with lottie that day to make sure that “her brain doesn’t explode or some shit.” it takes nat holding an ice pack to lottie’s head for lottie to fall in love tomodachi life style. (cue pen15 song when anna sees alex)
lottie really, really stared at nat one day in 8th grade and ultimately decided that nat reminds her of a raccoon. she then proceeded to list off many facts about raccoons to nat. normally, nat would be annoyed by someone talking her ear off, but she finds lottie’s enthusiasm endearing, and so what if she thinks her voice is nice?
(by the sixth fact, nat asks how lottie knows all this stuff. lottie says that as a kid, she spent her time reading various animal encyclopedias. nat raises an eyebrow and says “your parents didn’t take you to do…normal kid shit?” lottie’s expression falters for a second, but she eventually says, “no, not really.” after a few, painfully awkward seconds, a shit-eating grin spreads onto nat’s face. she extends a fist and says, “me neither, dude.” they fist bump. shit parents club. fuck yeah.)
I love that in the beginning you think Shauna makes herself as small as possible because she's insecure but it's actually because her true self is evil and anytime she unleashes it people die. A role model for all of us
cw: discussions of slutshaming, sexual assault, classism and racism
i've been thinking about how tai's and jackie's slutshaming of nat give insight into the complex influence of classism on their personal relationships and what this reveals about the social hierachy between the yellowjackets.
both tai and jackie use nat as a sort of punching bag to improve their social standing. tai tries to deflect nat's reasonable criticism about the situation with allie by insulting her, while jackie attempts to distract from her own fears and insecurities in the wilderness by going against nat. even though it's pretty unprovoked in both situations, they both choose to not only attack nat, but also bring slutshaming into it, which imo is directly tied to classism (more on this in a moment). i think it's interesting to see how the social hierachy in the team is influenced by classism and how this developes in the wilderness.
your class position can influence your sexual activity in many ways and i think you can see examples of this in nat. @softantlers has made a really good post about nat, poverty and gender a while ago that i think everbody should read. among other things they argue that the misogyny nat experiences often intersects with classism. for example both tai and jackie combine their slutshaming with somewhat classist insults. tai tells nat she "smells like a wino", a term that is specifically associated with homelessness (source) and jackie calls her a "burnout", which is associated with addiction and lazyness (source).
furthermore, nat's sexual experiences themselves might be influenced by her experience with poverty. for example, richer families are more likely to have the capacity to surveil their children's free time, including their sexual encounters. we see nat's dad get specifically mad, because her mom failed to keep an eye on her due to her alcoholism (something obviously not inherent, but connected to poverty). on the other hand, it seems logical that someone with "less to lose" regarding their social standing also cares less about their reputation and is more open to different sexual experiences.
it is also important to note that poor women and girls are far more vulnerable to sexual assault, since poverty increases the risk of getting caught up in dangerous situations and once in that situation, it's more difficult to get out due to lack of social/economic power (source). women in poverty are also less likely to receive help in abuse situations due to the belief that they can take it (more on this here). of course this is really simplified and generalized, but it seems to fit nat's experiences in some ways. while nat generally seems to enjoy sex, she also recounts having a negative (possibly non-consensual) experience with an older guy at a show and jackie hints at nat being mistreated by men. in short, a connection between nat's sexuality and her class status can definitely be assumed and this also shapes the way others see her.
tai and jackie definitely have a different class position than nat, but i'd argue that there's also a clear distinction between tai and jackie themselves. jackie is heavily implied to be upper class, while we don't really see hints at this position for tai. she's definitely well-off, but her living situation reads more like a stable middle class household to me. but of course, this is only speculation. i think the difference becomes more obvious when you look at the way jackie and tai are navigating their class status.
it's often shown that jackie grew up sheltered, making it difficult for her to adapt to living in the wilderness. i think this also goes hand in hand with a kind of classblindness. to me it seems that jackie wasn't really aware of her privileged situation until the crash. she never had to worry about her social standing, naturally having a strong influence on the team and all her needs met. before the crash, she seemed to have a good relationship with nat and i don't think jackie consciously looked down on her. this changes when jackie suddenly loses her influence in the wilderness. her attack on nat seems like an attempt to reinforce the previous social hierachy, clinging to her former privilege of "upper-class girl".
meanwhile, tai seems to be aware of the insecurity of her social status. she's puts in hard (and if necessary ugly) work for her goals and things aren't just given to her the way they are to jackie - even though tai is a better player than jackie, she isn't made captain etc.
due to her sexuality tai's social position is unstable and her attempts to keep it secret mean that she constantly has to watch her words and actions. even though she brushes it off as "just not being interested in the drama" when talking to van, it's clear that she's very aware of the social risks of "being found out" which is also acknowledged by coach ben in the trial and obviously van in the adult timeline.
her Blackness also forces tai to constantly navigate different forms of respectability politics. i'm white so i obviously don't have the best understanding of this, if you're Black and have another/better understanding of this please chime in!! generally, i think these rules she has to follow are pretty obvious in the adult timeline, especially in s1ep4 when she's at that rich people event talking to diane rafelson.
but even in the teen timeline tai often takes on a mediating role (e.g. between jackie & nat, shauna & lottie etc... she pretty much intervenes in every conflict) and i think she constantly feels the need to be in control of the group and herself, only allowing some parts of herself to show.
in this interview (starting 2:15) the interviewer asks jasmin if other tai could be an allegory for codeswitching with "regular" tai being the side of her that has to adhere to respectability politics and other tai representing her repressed Black rage, which i think is a really intriguing way to see other tai. and in this interview (starting 17:20) jasmin says that she believes tai would have pretended to eat jackie if other tai hadn't taken over, so that she wouldn't be ostracized by the group.
tldr, i think taissa is very aware of her instable and vulnerable position in the group and puts in a lot of effort to be accepted by the people around her.
and in that sense i think tai's slutshaming behaviour can not only be read as a deflection from her own mistakes, but also shows tai's deeper understanding of the social hierachy. since she knows her own position is unsteady, she goes against someone whose position is even less secure. her choice to use nat's sexual experience against her is interesting since she has to know that her own sexuality isn't really more socially accepted. moreover, she's also kind of doing the same things she shames nat for doing (smoking and sex), just in private. i wonder if tai's issue with nat partially comes from a bitterness that nat is able to these things so openly, while she can't really afford to do that.
tai's conflict with nat pretty much stops in the wilderness. this obviously has to do with a lot of factors, mainly them having bigger problems (and imo tai has pretty reasonable priorities). but i also think the fact that tai is granted more freedoms regarding her sexuality allows her to be more forgiving towards nat.
meanwhile jackie's conflict with nat starts in the wilderness. jackie can't adapt to the new situation leading to her losing her influence on the group. this prompts her to reflect her position more and i'd argue that she developes some kind of class consciousness. to her, privileges that she didn't have to abuse before, now seem like the only power she has left.
