Who are your favorite Yellowjackets and why?
I have so much to sayyyyyy! Sorry this took me so long to answer, anon, I was using my laptop to play The Sims and any reply I do longer than a sentence I prefer to do on my laptop.
Shauna & Taissa. My favorite normal women ever!! I love that they are both very selfish in ways that harm their families for the sake of Normal Woman Performance. (Btw, neither of them are getting awards for their performances.) Shauna and Tai both have equal and opposite expressions of their behaviors, with Shauna shrinking herself so much to be invisible and Taissa making herself so visible even to the detriment of herself, her family, and her former teammates. Where Shauna must have felt small coming back from the Wilderness and showed it by truly fitting herself into the life she expected from Jackie, Taissa felt like she had to push forward and fit herself into the life she expected of herself. And after what happened to them... those were tough squeezes. As teens, they also are so similar and lean on each other which I love to see.
They're both dependable, they're both strong, and they both want the best for the people they love. However, they both have very determined inner selves that they're fighting. Shauna's impulses that shift from fucking Jeff to eating slices of Jackie to taking a lover and then whoops killing him, and Taissa's Other Tai situation are gnawing at them. These are turmoils they fear telling anyone about not just because of the wilderness but because they expose their raw nerves.
Adult Misty. I prefer adult!Misty to teen!Misty because I think adult!Misty has honed her skills. teen!Misty cleans up her accidents, adult!Misty isn't leaving any mess behind. She's got a lot more confidence as an adult, and she seems proud of what happened out there. Like when she's talking in their circle "remember that first summer..." and Van's like what is this, fucking summer camp? That's so interesting to me!! teen!Misty we're seeing process everything in real time, which while I understand her motivations/etc and know she's a silly teenager I get frustrated with sometimes. Like part of me is like damn, Crystal/Kristen literally would have forgiven you, but I get your situation.
Teen Natalie. Love to watch her unravel. Love to see it. Love to see her go from being a level-headed person who was already on high alert before the crash so she's operating Par For Course to not being able to handle it anymore. She's so Good, and the wilderness/their situation is truly dragging her for a test run. Ironically, her being so Good is what frustrates me about adult!Natalie. She feels bad when she's supposed to, she's careful when she needs to be, she's saved when she does 3 whole reckless things, and the only thing fighting her is her reputation/people's perception of her. Which, I mean, she could just... not associate with Shauna and Tai who are judgmental of her. Well, that and the trauma, which she was even starting to address and work on as she maintained sobriety. That just wasn't interesting to me.
Van. The unkillable lesbian. The fireproof butch. Lottie's first acolyte. My beloved. Trapped in the 90s, can't wait to see more about adult!Van because we know she had to be some sort of adultified as a teen (we see her having to "parent" her mother in the pilot, so that's one of the things established early on) and now she's stunted due to the plane crash trauma.
Anyway this was probably much longer than necessary but!! ENJOY.