Ronancing out

I mean I sort of wrote my answer to this into Silent Six, False Nine in one way.

Though obviously it all happens differently, because in the show the specific circumstances of her death are the catalyst of the cannibalism to begin with. I think they’d still have to have someone else die of natural causes and be pushed to the brink by starvation to consider it. Like it rly depends on the circumstances but if they’re all starving, if Shauna’s starving, then Jackie at least thinks about it imo. Not for herself though. I think she’d have to be kind of forced/begged because she just doesn’t care about her own survival enough to do that. One issue comes in that I think it’s arguable she wouldn’t let Shauna butcher the body. Shauna’s her focus, she cares about her more than the others and more than her own life, and if she won’t let Shauna do it then is anyone else capable? I’m not sure they are tbh.

These conversations always seem to omit stuff to paint a certain picture. To imply Jackie's total innocence and goodness, because shes been unfairly reinvented in death by Shauna and the others (and she has! but that doesn't change the reality that she wasnt all good and kind).

Jackie was kind, she cared about the team. She was hard-working. She wanted the best for people. She gave Shauna the last of her food. She was kind to Misty where others weren't. They didn't tell her about the Allie plan, because they knew she wouldn't allow it. But she also let her insecurities make her cruel at times. She targets Nat in her jealousy, when Nats done nothing to her. She's dismissive of Shauna and lies to her, even if its not malicious. Her treatment of Travis is also pretty questionable.

Likewise, Shauna is kind. She's the first to offer comfort to those she believe needs it. Javi, Jackie, Tai, Lottie, Mari, etc. Its a long list. But there's also cruelty, because, whatever her reasons, she did something that she knew could deeply hurt the person she cared about most. She prioritised whatever it was sleeping with Jeff offered, over Jackie. Not just once, but multiple times.

You don't have to percieve Jackie as all good, just because she in some way stands in opposition to what Shauna's become. Jackie wasn't perfect, thats the point. The facade of perfection was a lie, and (as we see in the pilot) maintaining it weighed heavily on her. She was equal parts good and bad, like they all were in the beginning, and frankly i question the need to pretend she was more innately good than any of the rest of them. That was not what made Jackie singular. What made her different, was her not being afraid to stand in opposition to the new status quo. To openly reject the wilderness. To question it.

(Inspired by an ask sent by beloved moot @crimsonprose about some misunderstandings people often have about Nat's character)

We all love Nat as the moral compass and the closest thing we have to a "hero" in this story. She's kind-hearted and compassionate. She tries her best to do the "right thing." But, in the same way many people get caught up in the two-dimensional view of Shauna as an "evil villain," I think some people get caught up in portraying Nat as a purely well-intentioned and innocent saint, which doesn't feel like a holistic view of her character and is challenged even in canon by other characters (thinking of Travis and Shauna's lines about Natalie's "saint" act). There are two contradictory motivations for almost every one of Nat's actions on the show: the compassionate need to do what's right and protect the people she loves, and the wounded instinct to shield herself and tend to her own unmet needs. These motivations coexist simultaneously, causing Nat to constantly be at war with herself, which in turn increases her lifelong guilt.

Natalie fakes Javi's death to provide Travis with the closure he needs to grieve (which is well-intentioned, even if her method of doing so was questionable), but she's also doing it because she's lonely and misses her connection with him, which has been disrupted by his desperation to find Javi. It's no coincidence that Nat grabs Javi's pants and stuffs them in her backpack the moment after she watches that intimate moment between Lottie and Travis from the cabin window. She's worried about the danger of Travis's growing connection to Lottie (and Travis's connection to Lottie is clearly not healthy or safe for him). But she's also jealous. She's human, she's a teenage girl. Travis's withdrawal from Nat is due to her telling him his brother is dead, while his gravitation towards Lottie is due her offering him the hope of assuring him his brother is alive. So Nat’s choice to fake Javi's death is both a selfless and selfish act, to care for Travis but also to pull him back into her orbit.

This duality is also shown when Natalie challenges Lottie's leadership in Season 2 both because she knows the direction Lottie is taking the group in is dangerous and deadly and because she is envious of the validation, appreciation, and connection Lottie is receiving from the group (which Coach Ben calls her out on in 2x08). Nat is the hunter of the group; she busts her ass every day hiking for miles through several feet of snow in subzero temperatures to provide for the group. The group would quite literally die without her. And yet, Lottie is being heralded as the savior of the group. Lottie is being given all of the credit for the group's survival, while Nat is criticized for not doing enough and is outright blamed for the group's lack of food (by Mari). So she suggests a competition with Lottie, which is a selfish act done purely to fuel her own ego and prove herself to the group (which ends up nearly killing them both).

And when Nat is coronated as leader, we see a lot of what was underneath her resentment towards Lottie. She breaks down into happy tears as she's showered with the praise, devotion, and appreciation she has been watching Lottie receive all this time. Nat has been ostracized and unloved for her entire life, and while she pretends to be apathetic about it, she actually longs for validation and connection. So Nat's behavior towards Lottie in Season 2 stems from both a selfless care for the well-being of the group, as well as a selfish resentment towards her for receiving the praise she secretly yearns for.

Even her choice to be a hunter in the first place is both because she wants to provide for the group/feels her worth lies in what she gives to others and because she enjoys the accolades it initially gets her (look at her smile listening to the group's cheers when she wins the can-shooting competition and when she brings back a deer for the first time, and everyone is clapping for her). This is something she never received in her childhood finally being granted to her; proof that she's not useless like her father told her.

Nat allows Javi to die for her because she wants to live and has a very sudden change of heart about her belief in the Wilderness, as she tells Travis "the Wilderness chose" Javi as a sacrifice. This very abrupt change of heart is tied to her resolve and sanity finally cracking at the major trauma she just endured, but it's also a coping mechanism to relieve herself of the immense guilt of allowing this young boy to die in her place (the same coping mechanism the rest of the group has been using to justify their actions in the wilderness).

In Season 3, Nat helps capture Coach Ben, turns away when the group moves to execute him (after suggesting the method herself), allows them to maim him, and participates in keeping him imprisoned despite how deeply this violates her own values and her bond with him. Every part of this is rooted in self-preservation. Nat is profoundly conflict-avoidant, and she stays silent because she knows that speaking up could get her hurt or killed. Her passivity during these moments mirrors her broader pattern throughout the series of positioning herself as a bystander to the group’s violence in order to sidestep both the danger and the crushing guilt that comes with these actions. She lets others carry the moral weight and the responsibility, even as she benefits from the violence that ultimately protects her survival.

After the rescue, Nat spends her life conning and manipulating people for her own financial and personal gain. Identity fraud, blackmail, it's clear that her Porsche and designer clothing has been obtained through morally questionable methods. She manipulates Kevyn's feelings for her to get answers and she manipulates Misty's idolization of her to get her to help bury Adam's body.

Nat is dead-set on solving Travis's death both because she wants justice for him and because she feels betrayed by him breaking their pact and desperately needs to prove that he didn't do so, as her own will to live hangs in the balance.

STRANGER THINGS LADIES APPRECIATION WEEK ↳ Day 4: Favorite Headcanon

I feel like Robin would be self-conscious of them but Nancy would absolutely adore them. She’s gnawing at the bars of her enclosure everytime she sees Robin.

​I need a full length fic of Nancy staring at how Robin puts on her makeup with her fingers and smudges her eyeliner instead of trying to make it perfect.

Or her losing her mind over how Robin’s baggy jeans fit her tighter in the hips, or how she keeps getting little peeks at her curves under an oversized shirt.

She just keeps thinking about the difference in how Robin speaks to Steve, all loud and confident, and how she speaks to Holly, all soft and comforting.

I need Nancy struggling to stay still while she looks at Robin, wrapped up in Steve’s hoodie and sleeping on Nancy’s chest.

Imagine Robin wears a baggy button-up with chains and funky, dangly earrings and heeled boots and fishnets under her ripped jeans when they go out one night. And Nancy starts panicking because she hasn’t written her last will and testament yet but she’s pretty sure she’s about to pass away.

I just think they deserve to live together in an apartment in Boston in peace, in my head they have minimum of 2 cats I dont make the rules.