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(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 immediately 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 their survival, while Nat is criticized for not doing enough and is outright blamed for their 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 have 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 cover up Adam's murder.

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.

the finale is what everyone else believes, that they tried their best to stop it and worked together and it was only shauna hunting, but this also isn't true. they all hold responsibility for mari's death. the hunt wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for akilah, they could have done more to stand up to shauna and they all ate her, even if they didn't want to. this is their way of justifying what happened, by putting it all on shauna (I am not saying that shauna did not cause the brunt of this horror, because she did, but no-one is completely innocent).