#and Jackie was the leader and then the outsider

[nataliescatorccioapologist]

Each Yellowjackets character’s role in the wilderness and how these roles overlap into the adult timeline

Natalie - The Hunter

Nat’s role as The Hunter aligns with her independent spirit and her familiarity with hardship, stemming from her difficult childhood. Natalie’s hunting skills give her a sense of purpose and power that she never experienced before. Living under her father’s thumb for most of her childhood, she was repeatedly told she was useless and was forced to comply with her father’s abusive control and humiliation of her. At school, she was frequently slut-shamed and referred to as a “burnout,” reinforcing her sense of worthlessness and lack of direction. Wielding the gun gives her power, protection, motivation, and appreciation from others that she never received before. Nat’s ability to provide for the group and keep them alive proves her father’s words about her wrong, and you can see her relishing in that.

Nat’s role as The Hunter also reflects her propensity for isolation. Nat has always been a bit of an outsider, trusting very few people and outcasting herself intentionally through the abrasive front she puts on. Nat’s hunting mirrors this as it isolates her from the rest of the group. She spends most of each day trekking through the wilderness looking for game while the rest of the group stays back at the cabin. This isolation creates an even stronger codependency with Travis, as he is the only person she interacts with and relies on for most of the day.

As an adult, Natalie still embodies The Hunter role, though her objectives have transformed from hunting for food to hunting for answers, truth, and meaning in her life. She relentlessly pursues elusive leads on the postcards, the blackmailers, and the circumstances of Travis’ death (all with a gun in her hand). Her role as a hunter ties into her need for control in the midst of chaos. In the wilderness, her hunting skills provided a measure of stability; as an adult, this manifests in her obsessive pursuit of answers and in her determination to confront the past head-on

Natalie also maintains the isolation and outsider status she had in the wilderness. Just as she was apart from the other girls in the wilderness, hunting alone, her adulthood is marked by pushing people away before they can get close to her and living a transient lifestyle similar to her treks through the woods on hunting trips.

Shauna - The Butcher

Shauna’s willingness to step into arguably the most emotionally taxing and gruesome role in the wilderness speaks to both her toughness and her aggressive, adrenaline-seeking tendencies. Shauna’s role as The Butcher gives her a sense of importance, contrasting how invisible she felt before the crash living in Jackie’s shadow. It also evokes a sense of intensity, thrill, and heightened emotions; something very absent from the mundanity of her life before and after the wilderness.

Shauna’s capacity to take on such a role reveals her ability to detach and perform the task with a cool-headedness that hints at a unique adaptability. However, it also hints at something deeper, a capability for darkness and violence that she suppresses. She doesn't panic under pressure but rather appears oddly at home in these extreme moments.

Like the others, this role follows Shauna into the adult timeline. In a more obvious sense, she kills rabbits in her backyard and butchers them to feed to her family, and she cuts up Adam’s body after she murders him. But in a more subtle sense, Shauna is clearly still seeking the adrenaline that butchering in the wilderness provided her. She enters a risky affair with Adam, jumps off of bridges, sleeps with Adam in her home when Jeff could come in at any moment, tracks down the people who stole her minivan and clearly has to hold herself back from killing them, and she stabs Adam. Her (terrifying) monologue to the minivan thief about peeling human skin shows the rush that Shauna gets from these moments that remind her of the raw survival instincts she experienced in the wilderness.

Just as she was sick of being invisible behind Jackie as a teen, she is sick of the normalcy of being a suburban mom as an adult and craves what she had in the wilderness. In many ways, Shauna’s life is shaped by a tension between her past and present, where The Butcher’s ferocity lurks beneath her gentle, unassuming exterior. Her role in the wilderness forever alters her ability to experience life without craving intensity; it’s almost as if the ordinary doesn’t fulfill her, leaving her compelled to seek out higher stakes and indulge in morally dubious behavior.

Misty - The Caretaker

Misty’s role as a medic in the wilderness is an obvious sign of her need for validation and worship from others. Misty needs to be needed, and she manifests this by making people rely on her to survive in the wilderness. Her medical knowledge grants her the role of The Caretaker, a role that is especially important in the aftermath of an injurious plane crash and during Shauna’s pregnancy. Before the plane crash, Misty was ridiculed and ignored. But after the crash, she realizes she’s in a situation where the unique skills she was previously mocked and outcasted for are suddenly indispensable and praised. Misty delights in the fact that the group relies on her, and she ensures they will continue to value her by breaking the flight recorder, tripping and poisoning Coach Ben, and emphasizing her ability to deliver Shauna’s baby when the time comes. Her desire for power over others stems from a deep insecurity, and she will do anything to maintain this power.

As an adult, Misty still holds her role as The Caretaker. She works as a nurse for the elderly, a position that allows her to remain needed and in control over vulnerable people. We see Misty looking far too satisfied when she withholds pain medications from one of her patients after she disrespects Misty. We also see Misty relishing in her control over Jessica Roberts after she kidnaps her. She makes Jessica need by literally keeping her captive and at her mercy, chaining her to a bed and caring for her. In these scenes, she thrives on her (forced) emotional connection to Jessica.

Her obsessive need to be valued is also seen in her relationship with Nat. She desperately wants Nat to admit she needs her help and support. She goes to great lengths to make Nat rely on her (tampering with Nat’s car so she has to hitch a ride with Misty, spying on her so that she can leap into action and rescue her when needed, snorting Nat’s coke before she can, investigating Nat’s disappearance and infiltrating Lottie’s compound to “save” her).

Similar to Nat and Shauna, Misty is attempting to recreate the feelings of importance and purpose she had in the wilderness, and she does so by obsessively providing care to those around her, even if they don’t want it and even if it eventually ends up harming the very people she’s attempting to help.

Lottie - The Prophet

Lottie's role as The Prophet reveals her complex and often contradictory psyche. She’s modest but confident, empathetic but manipulative, gentle but dangerous, afraid of her power but also inclined to wield it. Lottie is trapped in her own mental health struggles and the pressure of others’ expectations. She is highly intuitive, both emotionally and psychologically, and her visions and interpretations suggest she has an acute awareness of others’ fears and needs, even if filtered through her delusions. This makes her a natural figure for people to gravitate toward in times of uncertainty. Her peers’ reliance on her prophecies builds her confidence and identity as a leader, though it also places her in a role where she becomes responsible for the group’s downward spiral. Her authority in the wilderness often vacillates between comforting her teammates and manipulating them, blurring her true intentions and leaving room for her power to turn darker.

Lottie’s role as The Prophet remains with her long after the rescue. We see her spiritually guiding other patients during her time in the psychiatric ward. And after she gets out of the hospital, we know that she eventually starts a full-on cult (wellness community). The wellness center is a modern extension of the community she led in the woods, blending healing practices with a lingering undercurrent of fear and control as she continues to influence others while grappling with the guilt of the disastrous consequences her influence has caused in the past. When the rest of the survivors arrive at the compound, Lottie slips right back into that familiar Prophet role. Within the span of a few hours, Lottie has the group engaging in her spiritual treatments and making a ritualistic sacrifice to the Wilderness. It remains unclear whether Lottie's prophetic abilities are rooted in genuine intuition, trauma-induced delusions, or supernatural forces, but her impact on those around her is still as powerful and dangerous as it was in the wilderness.

Travis - The Gatherer/Follower

Travis’s role is often more supportive, as he frequently follows Natalie’s lead in hunting and survival tasks and Lottie’s lead regarding spiritual beliefs and the welfare of the group. He’s not the one holding the gun on most hunting trips, but he’ll be the one behind Nat coaching her through it and reminding her to breathe. He’s devoted to Lottie’s leadership and contributes to her prayer circles in his own small ways. This role reflects his position in the group as someone searching for acceptance and stability, still grappling with the trauma of his father’s death. His willingness to contribute in more secondary ways showcases his loyalty and his struggle to find his own identity amidst the group’s chaos.

We don’t get to see a lot of adult Travis, but echoes of his role in the wilderness are still evident. He desperately seeks out Lottie’s guidance and direction, even though it leads to his death. He also continues to fall into his old patterns with Nat, following her around and supporting her through her addiction, making her promise not to commit suicide, and saving her life when she overdoses.

Van - The Storyteller

Even before the crash, Van is a cinephile and pop culture obsessive. Her proclivity towards fiction and narratives translates to the wilderness as she becomes the group’s storyteller. During Tai’s expedition, she lightens the group’s mood with her iconic “our girl Sandy” retelling. She recaps Wiskayok High's gossip during the attic seance. In a darker moment, she begins to tell the story of the cabin and the Wilderness after the group eats Javi. Van's storytelling is her way of coping with the dark reality she has been presented with, as well as making sense of her trauma through the narrative format she is comfortable with. She begins by retelling the fictional stories she loved before the crash, and then shifts to fictionalizing the world she is actually living in. Van's stories and her happy-go-lucky, humorous demeanor serve as a distraction from the traumas of the wilderness for both the group and herself.

Van’s storytelling role continues after she is rescued from the wilderness as she opens her own video store, collecting stories and sharing them with her customers. She becomes a curator of nostalgia. Van is obsessed with the pop culture of the past, which shows her strong connection to stories and narratives, albeit in a way that allows her to maintain distance from her own. As an adult, Van appears to cope by living in the past, immersing herself in a realm of curated stories that are not her own, which speaks to her avoidance of the unresolved trauma of the wilderness. Her humor, a key part of her storytelling as a teenager, becomes a defense mechanism, masking her pain and reluctance to fully engage with what she did in the wilderness.

Taissa - The Protector/Warrior

Taissa's strength and endurance cast her in the role of The Warrior and Protector. She is ambitious, decisive, and often takes charge when the group needs direction. She leads the charge on leaving the crash site and hiking to the lake, a decision which likely ended up saving many of their lives. Tai is also the first to decide to seek out civilization, forming an expedition to find help for the rest of the group. When Van is gravely injured, Tai risks her own life to stay behind and care for her, refusing to leave her side. Similarly, when Shauna goes into labor during a blizzard, Tai supports her, physically and emotionally, leading them back to safety. Beneath her tough exterior lies a deep well of care and selflessness; Tai will go to great lengths to protect the people she loves.

However, her role also highlights her internal conflict and her propensity for self-destruction as she wrestles with a dual nature that makes her both a protector and a potential threat to the group. The dark side of Tai goes against everything she stands for; it puts Van and other members of the group in danger, and it presents a complete lack of control that she is unaccustomed to. The wilderness brings out her survival instincts but also forces her to confront her more dangerous side.

As an adult, Taissa is still a fierce, protective force for her family and the remaining survivors. She pays for Nat’s multiple stints in rehab, chases down and fully tackles the blackmailer, helps Shauna cover up Adam's murder to save her from incarceration, and runs a cutthroat political campaign hoping to create change. Her pursuit of becoming a state senator symbolizes her fight to protect and improve her community. This can be seen as an extension of her drive to ensure survival in the wilderness—fighting for stability, control, and order in a chaotic world. Her willingness to do whatever it takes to succeed, even resorting to morally gray actions (e.g., sabotaging her own family to protect her political image), reflects her wilderness-era ruthlessness. When the “Other Tai” emerges again, Taissa is determined to protect her family by distancing herself from them. The Other Tai’s actions can be seen as an extreme form of her protectiveness, as well, as she kills Biscuit as a sacrifice to the Wilderness to ensure her and her family's safety and power.

[soapyellas]

the people who don’t understand jackienat’s dynamic make me so MADDDD like do yall watch the show with your eyes closed or???

“nat mocked jackie in early season three!” “she literally ate jackie!”

nat literally DIDN’T mock jackie in early season three when she and tai were talking about lining the girls up and making them say one nice thing about each other — it was supposed to be a reference to jackie as a leader and show how natalie tries her best to mimic the way she would lead.

people always seem to forget that it’s literally CANON that jackie and nat had an underlying respect and admiration for each other outside of their spats (which mean nothing, they’re both teenage girls, and obviously teenage girls are gonna be bitchy).

jackie literally tells nat TO HER FACE that she admired how she’s always completely herself, and in return nat lays jackie’s bones to rest and eulogizes her.

people say that nat isn’t the only person who still has some semblance of respect for jackie, when she was the only one who wrapped up jackie’s bones, stowed them away on the plane, and apologized during her eulogy for her.

not even shauna, jackie’s supposed BEST FRIEND, did that.

outside of shauna, nat is the one we see grieve jackie the most. outside of shauna, nat is the one who brings her up the most.

nat is the only one who still sees jackie as their leader after almost an entire year (and two seasons for us viewers) after jackie died, while all of the other girls have moved on and have tried to fill jackie’s role.

so no, jackie and nat don’t hate each other. not really, anyway. they were just two teenage girls who got into bitchy, petty spats that truly didn’t mean anything.

if jackie was still alive, she and nat would’ve had the most interesting dynamic in the show, because even in jackie’s death, they do now.

[novelconcepts]

One of the most fundamentally interesting things to me about YJ and writing fic, specifically, is how the blame changes hands depending on the story. On whose perspective you're writing from. On whose story it is at a given moment. The very thing I dislike about viewers missing the point becomes so fascinating to me from within the narrative. Who are these characters when seen through the eyes of their peers?

Who does Jackie become? If you're Shauna, she's the love of your life, and your greatest rival, and the other half of your soul, and the person you blame for your dead dreams. If you're Van, she's the respected captain who earns none of your respect in the woods, the one who left you to die without blinking, the easiest target for teenage malice. If you're Natalie, she's competition for affection, the blabbermouth who can't leave well enough alone, the hands putting themselves to no good use. If you're Jackie? You're just a girl. You're so tired. You're so scared. You're losing face a little more every day, and you're made of despair, and you can't even trust your best friend. It's not your fault. It's not your fault. It's not your fault.

Who does Lottie become? If you're Natalie, she's your direct foil, the splinter under the edge of your thumbnail, the smart mouth to match your own, the confusing amalgamation of normal friend and mad ritual. If you're Misty, she's the first shred of obvious power in months, a leader who might need to be nudged back into line, a fascinating exercise in hitching your wagon to the right star early on. If you're Taissa, she's flat-nuts and endlessly frustrating, she's got your girlfriend's full attention, she's incredibly dangerous. If you're Lottie? You're just a girl. You're so tired. You're so scared. You've built a pedestal you can't keep your balance on, and you're not sure if you're right or going crazy, and you didn't want this. It's not your fault. It's not your fault. It's not your fault.

From outside the narrative, there is no bad guy. There is no blame. It is no one's fault. It is Man v. Nature, they are doing the best they can with an impossible situation. They're all trying to contribute what they can to the story, for better or worse.

From inside the narrative, you are a teenager trapped in a society constructed entirely of bare-bones-survival with the wildest assortment of girls. From inside the narrative, to stay human, you have to love and fight, respect and judge. Every story changes the game. Every story shifts the blame. A hero in one has the bloodiest hands in the next. And that, to me, is such a thrilling sandbox to play in.

[artbyblastweave]

As a person that knows a lot more about capeshit than me, what’s the meta-textual significance of the Superpowers in The Power Fantasy abstaining from establishing secret identities?

Principally it's to signal that the characters, while informed by the traditional superhero paradigm, exist largely outside of it.

Contemporary superhero fiction has a complicated relationship with the concept of The Secret Identity. When you come at the premise fresh without years of ossified genre convention, you get hit with the double whammy that a civilian identity is increasingly difficult to keep secret and that even if you buy into the idea of doing vigilante shit in secret to avoid going to jail, it's still going to take some extra work to get to the finish line of grown men calling themselves "Batman" or "Ant Man" and expecting to be taken seriously.

So, retellings will often go out of their way justify how these characters could develop these public identities semi-organically. "Superman" is usually not Clark Kent's idea in modern retellings- the media names him that, Lois names him that, and he runs with it. The Batman has the fantastic recurring gag that Bruce appears to actually self-identify as the comically overwrought "Vengeance," but the bat motif led to everyone just calling him Batman instead. The X-Men have advanced the idea, in a couple different forms, that "Mutant names" are a sub-cultural thing brushing up against a cult thing, a ceremonial way of setting yourself above and apart from baseline humanity. And you've got military callsigns, obviously. I think that's where "Ant-Man" and "Hawkeye" come from in the MCU.

In The Power Fantasy, none of the superpowers have a dual identity because they've all got extremely specific political (or artistic) projects that don't mesh well with that. To a degree I think this is playing in the same space as X-Men, where a lot of the cast have shifted over the years from being public ciphers to being public activists whose real names are on the news alongside their code names when they blow something up. But even if they don't have dual identities, the superpowers do have identities, personas, nicknames; there's a mix of deliberate image-building and outside-designation-by-society occurring. "Heavy" Harris is a thing an activist or cult leader who controls gravity could plausibly come to be called in the course of Moving and Shaking. Masumi is mentioned, in passing, to also go by the name of "Deconstructa," which reads like either a pretentious artist thing or a common-parlance nickname she picked up after the Kaiju thing. Eliza Hellbound is clearly not that woman's real name, but also, it is- and it's descriptive, and she's certainly powerful enough that that's what she gets to be called if she wants. "Jacky Magus" is really really really obviously not what's on that guys birth certificate, but it's also the only name he has that actually matters. Ettiene gets a whole monologue about the necessity of constructing himself as a figurehead that human governments can work with. He wears bright yellow, he gives interviews, and I will eat my hat if his actual last name is Lux. These people are similar to traditional superheroes in that they are constructing larger-than-life identities, they're playing a game, they're selling the world on specific narratives about themselves. But the truth that they're covering for is never that they've got some kind of secret civilian life waiting for them when they clock out. By choice or otherwise, all six of them are simply well past that.

[9151967]

Hey, don't cry. 5 Della Van Hise fics in PDF form, saved by the WayBack, all available for download ♡

DVH notoriously had her fics pulled from AO3 and she never uploaded them again. Outside of purchasing the zines she wrote for and created—and given her 14 confirmed pseuds, good luck tracking down everything—finding the odd scan of a zine online or the occasional working archived link from her AO3 is not easy.

(All of these works are linked on Fanlore on the fic's individual pages, but as it always goes with Fanlore, organization is not the best and DVH's main page links to an older version of her site before she offered these stories for free; this is to just get the awareness out and ramble on my blog about it, tiny though it is. As my friend put it went I sent these to her, "This is like Christmas in May!")

For those of us who can't afford to drop $40+ on a zine (average cost; we've all seen higher), lack the space for keeping old zines, or are afraid of opening the door of Buying All The Zines, may this find you well ♡

Front and back cover artwork from Hise's zine Styx and Stones. Left image by Marilyn Cole, served as the inspiration for the fic Styx and Stones; Right image by Jackie Zoost

On Wings of Ice (1987)

"Stranded on a frozen planet when their shuttlecraft is sabotaged, Kirk and Spock share love as they wait for death." [More on Fanlore]; originally published in KSX #1 My 2 cents: I cried with this one and it was worth it. There's phrasing in this one that has me rending my garments.

Collaboration (1987)

"When Kirk points out that their relationship may have become complacent, he and Spock put their heads together to see what can be done to breathe life back into the bedroom. But of course, nothing is ever as straightforward as it seems… A twisted little K/S tale." [More on Fanlore]; originally published in Styx and Stones My 2 cents: One part fic, one part meta about K/S and why fans create (yes, really! She pulled it off beautifully), all fluffy feelings.

Styx and Stones (1987)

"Spock awakens in a new land after dying and waits for Jim, who is in a coma following a shuttle crash." [More on Fanlore]; originally published in Styx and Stones My 2 cents: I wish I knew what it was like to read this before On Wings of Ice. I'm not saying this was bad or boring - far from it! Hise used a lot of poetic creativity in her depictions - but my brain kept thinking back to On Wings of Ice and that does this story a disservice.

Someone to Watch Over Thee (1988)

"Spock, Kirk, and an ambassador are given aphrodisiacs by the leader of a hedonistic society and itʼs up to the security men to make sure they get who and what they need." [More on Fanlore]; originally published in Naked Times #18 CW: rape/noncon elements (your mileage my vary on this, however, I'm noting it out of an abundance of caution) My 2 cents: it's Aliens Made Them Do It but told from the perspective of a Redshirt.

The Gol Letters (1988)

"Apart, Kirk and Spock each write letters to each other, each believing that the other will never read them." [More on Fanlore]; originally published in Naked Times #18 My 2 cents: I personally felt like a pumpkin with its innards scooped out but then became a ball of fluff. Heed that as you will.

More about DVH:

She's both a pillar of the fandom for her prolific work as the publisher and editor for the Pon Farr Press (and its many zines) and for her many works of poetry and fanfic, be they short stories, novellas, or novels. In the professional realm, Hise is perhaps best known for the (in)famous Killing Time. (Really, read the link for (in)famous. DVH certainly got screwed over by that contract, although highlight the text here and she's banking on the reputation of it, lol. DVH, I can never hate you. And peep the other link too for a surprise ♡)

She passed away on March 3, 2021 and is survived by her partner Natasha Solten. (Her AO3 for anyone who wants that directly. The bulk of her Star Trek fics are locked to registered users-only.)

[yllwjktscult]

this is a very very VERY long rant, but it needs to be said, so:

This a friendly reminder that THESE girls are 17-18 (probably some even 19 due to being stranded here for year and half and not being clarified when they were born), they are JUST kids (i feel like most people are forgetting about this fact that these girls are just teenagers who were so excited to play soccer at nationals and didnt know, that they will be stuck in the wilderness for 19 months, go thru hell and do things in order to survive).

Ofc they will do questionable things that would make you hate them/dislike them, they are just kids. they didnt even thought they would or could get rescued anymore. They had to adapt to their new life out there.

so heres a friendly reminder that:

!!! Spoilers for S3 in here so dont read if you havent seen it yet !!!

THIS is a 17-18 (probably 19 at this time) year old lottie without her meds who just killed a guy because she wanted to protect her friends (mind you shes schizophrenic and she probably thought they wanted to harm them. First human contact in months, that werent her friends. she thinks what she she did was right :( )

she saw the hikers as a thread to the way they live now. Lottie probably doesnt want to go home because back home, she was 'punished' for her visions, but here in the wilderness, they were appreciated and seen as truth (which some of them were). She was appreciated and be finally herself.

THIS is a 17 year old nat who just killed her coach, who begged her for weeks to kill him. The only father figure she had, butchered him and got under a lot pressure of her friends for several things for months (she feels guilty for javis death, jackies death and now bens death. and as well the pressure of being a leader and before that, being the ones together with travis to be responsible for food)

THIS is a 17 year old misty who HAD to fight for ben in trial, who she talked out of a suicide attempt before. Killed her best friend. Helped to give BIRTH as a teenager (and took a place as a 'nurse')

THIS is a 18 year old Mari trying to redo whats done. The one shauna took her anger the most at. Knowing their way to back to society was just ruined because someone who she looked up to before just killed their ticket to home.

shes was a scared teenager who followed the one who leaded/was in "charge" because she was scared teenager girl who just wanted to survive and wanted to have someone to 'lean on' in this tough times, so ofc she will switch up when a new "leader" happens. She just want to live..

she didnt want to rat Ben out, she couldnt find a believable lie they would believe (and was intimidated by shauna). She voted him innocent the whole time. She saw him suffering and thats why she was glad Nat did what she did. She loved ben esp after spending time with him in the cave. She was glad he didnt have to suffer anymore.

THIS is a 17-18 year old Shauna who was butchering for months, not only animals, but also a kid, a kid she was close with. Shauna who gave birth as a teenager in the middle of nowhere without medical help and lost her baby, lost her best friend forever due to an argument all in just matter of months.

Her hate and actions this season are very valid actually

THIS is a 17-18 (also like Lottie, probably 19) year old Taissa who saw her soulmate (almost) die in front of her. Who developed probably DID due to the trauma and the evil Tai took over her to 'protect' her from it.

THIS is a 17-18 year old van who got attacked by a wolf who almost killed her (in fact she did die for a while and almost got burned in a plane) who just wants to go home even if its her mother whos neglecting and abusing her.

THIS is a 16-17 year old travis who got sa'd, lost his father AND a brother, had a pressure of being a hunter and provider of food together with Nat. Who got pressured doing shrooms as a form of therapy (and connecting to wilderness) and started his addiction here. He was an outsider, he didnt knew these girls as they knew eachtoher. He was all alone when his brother died.

they were just kids. ofc they will act like how they did out there. Ofc they would start a 'cult'/their own society in here. They didnt thought they could get rescued anymore. They gave up hope on that months ago.

the concept of wilderness or it is the girls coping mechanism to deal with the fact, that they are stranded somewhere they have no idea where they are and the fact they might have never been back to society again.

They accepted that this is their life, so ofc they would react how they did when there was a possible change of that.

In fact, Ben indeed was their bridge to home. If Nat didnt kill him, didnt 'celebrate' his death and if they didnt sing, the hikers wouldnt find them.

So at some point, he indeed did save them, not right away, but eventually. Because the hikers will get missing and a rescue will come look for them (because they know where they went) and instead of the frog hikers, they will find the girls.

You can dislike the character but keep in mind, those girls are just teenager girls trying to survive what life throwed at them, aka, being in the middle of wilderness.

Hating a character in this show is too much imo. All of the characters are beautifully written and portrayed by the actors. If you hate the character i assume you dont understand them (which is fine!!) but i feel like the hate is actually so forced and people are forgetting THAT THEY ARE JUST KIDS who didnt even in their worse nightmares thought they will be stuck in the wilderness when the plane crashed.

yes, each girl did some questionable things that might have make you dislike them, each one of them has their pros and cons but THEY ARE JUST TRAUMATISED KIDS TRYING TO SURVIVE.

me personally i am not a big fan of shauna and taissa, both adult and teen timeline, however thats what makes them so interesting to me. I wanna learn more why they act the way the do so i can understand them more. And i know, over time i will.

Lottie, nat, mari and misty are my favourite since season 1 for multiple reasons, but mostly because i see myself in them, not completely but i see myself in them.

so over all, this is just a friendly reminder that these girls, the ones you are hating on, are just traumatised teenagers who tried their best to survive somewhere in the middle of nowhere without knowing they will get rescued one day.

it probably does not make sense, but my point was just to point out that they are just kids and the hate im seeing everywhere on each mentioned girl (and travis) is making me sad.

Like, are we all watching the same show? This incredibly amazing show, that shows how trauma and ptsd makes you act/develops you into a different person?

[fandomnerd9602]

Shelter

Natalie x Male Reader x Jackie

For @lifespectator

You and Natalie were lovers long before the plane crashed. You helped Natalie curb her habits a little. And now the two of you wandered the forest, hunting for food just hoping to stave off the calls for blood.

You hoped that the years your father spent training you as an off the grid survivalist would be a wasted endeavor and yet here you were - the de facto leader of the Yellowjackets and carrying the carcass of an adult Buck. Dad would’ve been thrilled.

Natalie stole a glance at you, her eyes giving you the once over.

“What?” You asked, shivering as the two of you trudged thru the snow back to camp.

“The beard’s coming in nicely” Natalie smirks, “makes you look like a rugged, sexy mountain man.”

“Nat” you said with a little whine as a bit of red made its way across your face. You were sure if you were blushing or if it was the cold air.

As the two of you approached camp you saw her laying in the snow. Jackie.

“What the hell?!” Natalie shouted as she ran and tried to shake Jackie

“Jackie! Jackie! Dammit! wake up!” You girlfriend tried to rouse the girl. “She’s ice cold”

You banged on the nearby cabin door. Locked and not a soul was answering. You approached another of the cabins. It was abandoned so it would have to do.

“Bring her here!” You ordered Natalie before slicing open the deer carcass.

“Oh shit” natalie practically gagged as the innards spilled out a little.

You grabbed Jackie and shoved her in. “The heat of the deer should keep her warm a little.”

“I’ll start a fire in the cabin” Natalie grabbed a match from you and went inside. You pulled the carcass inside. You glanced over at the other cabin. You could practically see Lottie looking thru the curtain.

Within minutes the cabin you and Natalie went in was brimming with heat. You could only hope you weren’t too late.

Natalie shut the door and kicked over a chair. “Dammit. We’re gone two hours and they descend into this!”

“Jackie is great at many things but surviving here in the wilderness isn’t one of them” you muttered as your eyes stayed fixed on the young soccer player currently still in the carcass of tomorrow’s rations.

Jackie woke up an hour or so later. Covered in deer guts and innards. The girl practically gagged.

“What the-?!” She found herself scrambling to escape the deer carcass.

“You were practically freezing” Natalie gently explained.

“To preserve your body temp, I shoved you inside our freshly killed dinner” you finished your girlfriend’s thought.

“You Empire Strikes Back’d me?!” Jackie tried to formulate.

“Never heard it explained that way but…yeah” you shrugged before helping Jackie out of the carcass, immediately wrapping your deerskin cloak around her.

“We’re sorry,” Natalie apologized as she wrapped Jackie in a hug. “It was the best we could think of while getting this shelter up and running.”

The three of you settled next to the stovetop fire pit, just trying to stay bundled against the harsh winter outside.

“Thank you,” Jackie muttered softly. “I shouldn’t have—“

“It’s alright” you gave Jackie a quick jostle. “Out here we all gotta look out for each other”

Jackie gave you a weak laugh.

“All for one and one for all” Natalie joked as she nuzzles you and Jackie.

[themothwhisperer]

Here’s the thing that’s bugging me a bit about the finale: How Lottie and Shauna were handled.

The entire group has two things in common. First; they lost all societal structure. The set of norms, rules and values they’ve been raised with is progressively disintegrating. Inevitably and perhaps inadvertently, this process is happening inside every single one of them. The wilderness is the new real world. They are forcefully disconnected from what their past life once was. And second thing; they are teenagers. Which means they are at higher risk of being influenced by any outside factor. Literally any factor can alter them in some way (and obviously landing in the middle of a gigantic forest is a monumental shock). Their mental stability and psyche are inevitably fragile. This is the essence of what it means to be a teen. They all had their issues and weaknesses and messes before the crash. It only makes sense for all this to persist. We could even say that the logical conclusion is for it all to get worse. Much worse.

And we sort of have those glimpses that make us believe that. But yet, here we are with this not-so crazy hunt considering the only people actively approving were Lottie and Shauna.

To me, the message it passes is the following: the one and only villain in this story is Shauna Shipman. She is your ultimate cruel, cold and rotten-to-the-core bad person.

Because here’s the thing, the one and only other person standing beside her, soaked in this insanity, blood and madness, is Lottie. But Lottie isn’t even intrinsically bad! Lottie is sick and has been off her medication for an incredibly long period. Mental illness is backing and explaining her behaviour. Her coping mechanism is the wilderness and everything it entails.

That takes us to our last one standing: Shauna. Our true evil outcast. She’s completely alone, everyone against her. Nobody understands her anymore. Only Jackie ever did. So what does that mean? Only Shauna was deeply affected by the events and was wholly absorbed in them? She completely lost her way? Became an animal? Yeah, sure. But why is she the only one? How does that make sense. They are on survival mode 24/7. Witnessing terrible things. This doesn’t mean I was hoping/expecting every character to be unhinged. Simply more characters. Feeling ambivalent at least. And not just out of fear for their leader. But by pure and effective influence and severe shared trauma. Teenagers are mimics, echoes of each other. They copy and learn from each other. On the other hand, I like the idea that some of them are holding on strongly to their convictions regardless, such as Van and Nat. But the fact that it’s one person versus the rest of the group feels a tiny bit odd.

Why is Shauna so isolated?

Why is she the only one salivating from the thrill and excitement of a hunt?

In a way, they were all mocking her. Pretending to chase while covering tracks. There’s some massive dissonance. They’re all different people on an individual level, yes, but Shauna is not the only one who committed horrible acts beforehand. They all (or almost) had their moment in which they reveled into something brutal. And what else can we expect really? They lost all guides in this world, they have nothing to hold on to. But ultimately, they find the light at the end of the tunnel and reach the surface of sanity once more. There is also something very beautiful about this concept also however. But the endgame remains. It’s everyone except Shauna, of course. She simply cannot see the light anymore.

Perhaps this is a subject that would be delved into more during a potential fourth season (which I sincerely hope will happen). But as for now, I feel like Shauna is becoming a weapon. Like she was responsible for all their misery, to the smallest of detail. She’s extremely villainized. As if all the darkness was contained in her body, tightly sealed, not leaking a drop on any other Yellowjacket. There would be room for so much more nuances when it comes to the characters if only this rage was shared.

[alicentflorent]

Thinking about how Nat was already struggling with addiction as a teen before the wilderness, how she was seen as an outsider and trouble maker who was even shaded by her own teammates sometimes but in the wilderness? Nat had a purpose, her team needed her and she could handle the situation better than some of her more sheltered and privileged teammates. Then she became the Hunter, she had the responsibility of providing them with food and she kept them fed until winter and then during winter she still tried, every single day to find something to hunt, she helped coach map out the areas and even stayed out longer to help Travis find (presumed dead) Javi. When she failed to find anything to hunt and she was blamed for it by the group who spent their days in a warm cabin when she was out in the cold but she never stopped trying. She took Jackie and Ben’s remains back to the plane alone and humanised them, talked to them as if they were still people. She tried to give them some dignity in death even after they’d been eaten. After the trauma of being hunted and the guilt of letting a child die in her place, it would have been so easy to fall back into old patterns, drink and drugs were easily available come spring but she had been named leader, a role she never wanted but took on anyway. Her group needed her so she couldn’t fall apart, she got everyone working together to keep the fire going and build a literal village. She taught Gen how to hunt, helped akilah keep a little animal farm. She had everyone using their skills in different areas to thrive. She tried to keep the peace, because that’s probably all she’s ever wanted isn’t it? To live peacefully and she wants that for her community too. Then Ben is found and she has to face the groups anger and need for violent justice head on. Despite her efforts he’s found guilty, almost executed and kept prisoner until she has to kill him out of mercy. Once again she was put in another situation of having to choose what’s best for herself and the democracy of the group at someone else expense. This time I think she was ready to give up, she knew when she killed Ben she’d be either exiled or dead and maybe part of her wanted that, over facing another harsh winter and living with more blood on her hands. Then just as her purpose is taken away she’s given another purpose before she can self destruct. Now they have a chance at rescue, she can lead the group home and even when Shauna disarms her and forces everyone to stay Nat still tries to form a plan to get out, then the person who could get them out is killed and it breaks her she fully loses hope of going home. Then she finds out that there is another way, Van has a phone and Misty has the parts to fix it. So Nat tries to fix the phone secret with the help of Van and Misty. Meanwhile, Shauna is throwing her out of bed in the middle of the so Nat can’t risk escape to get to higher ground but shes not going to give up. Then there’s going to be a hunt, more violence is the last thing Nat wants but she has no choice but to comply but then she realises the hunt can provide a distraction she plans to escape with phone and she makes it. She gets to higher ground and she does it! She makes contact with the outside world! Nat tried so hard to get everyone home and she saved them but she doesn’t feel like a hero, more people were killed after Nat left and before rescue finally came. She tried so hard but she probably felt like it was never enough. When she got home she was just a fucked up kid again, now that no one needs her and she lacks a purpose. She can’t just compartmentalise and move on so she goes back to drinking and doing drugs just to get through the day. She’s stuck in this cycle until the last few weeks of her life when she finally starts to heal and had decided to start living she wouldn’t want her survival to be at the expense of another innocent life. So she makes that final sacrifice, her life for Lisa’s. Natalie’s story is a tragedy. It always was long before the crash.

[nataliescatorccioapologist]

My Season 3 Wishlist:

💕Ghost Jackie haunting Shauna some more and Ghost Natalie haunting Lottie and Misty

💕No. more. Adam. Martin. I don’t want to hear about him anymore please I do not give a fuck‼️

💕Let Lottie be a little evil! I want her to spiral a little bit and go feral like I know they intended for her in Season 1

💕Nat thriving as the leader of the group, realizing that she has a true knack for leadership and survival. She finds purpose in that and it’s so sad and tragically ironic because we know that purpose will one day be ripped away from her and she’ll be lost and directionless again for most of her life until right before her death. I will eat that shit UP

💕Lottie being Nat’s cute little spiritual advisor in the Wilderness (and more sexual tension please, maybe a little smooch?)

💕Let Travis have connections and plot lines outside of Nat (and vise versa!) But also don’t just ignore TravNat just to please the fans that are upset with the way their relationship was written, fix it!

💕Please remember that Taissa has a son lol, like where is he??? Who’s taking care of him? Is he okay? One of his moms is in the hospital on the verge of death and the other just took off with her ex-butch to join a cult. CPS please take this poor child away!

💕Adult TaiVan

💕Pre-crash and post-rescue scenes!!!!!!!!!

💕Cabin Daughter is revealed to be alive and she was Javi’s “friend,” she’s the one who moved Crystal’s body, stole some of the bear meat, and she was the one who pooped in the pee bucket! (That last one isn’t necessary it would just make me chuckle)

💕Coach Ben dies! Not because I hate him just because I want to see the girlies go feral and kill him

💕Shauna VS Nat in the teen timeline

💕They find those underground tunnels from Lottie’s vision

💕Nat funeral😔😔😔

[juniperhillpatient]

This conversation between Shauna & Jeff in Digestif is SO interesting as a precursor to season 3. I wanted to rewatch some season 2 episodes because I said season 3 totally reframed season 2’s writing in a positive way for me & gosh I really do stand by that.

Shauna’s worst fear truly is being boring! And it ALL boils back down to that tragic unresolved tension between her & Jackie. Jackie made Shauna feel small. Jackie had charisma. Jackie was a natural leader. And it made Shauna feel so worthless - forever afraid of her feelings for Jackie & intimidated by her & jealous of her. Shauna loved Jackie but she also wanted to be her & she also hated her for the way she made her feel.

I unfortunately can’t find any screenshots of Shauna bagging the packaged meat containing human remains in her dream interaction with ghost Jackie while she’s sleeping outside Melissa’s house (god there really will never be another show like this.) But it’s such an interesting scene because Shauna is horrified that “this” is her life. She’s bagging groceries. It’s human meat but it’s packaged, it’s put away. She did all those horrific things for nothing. Just to have this basic life & the worst part of it all is that Jackie is STILL mocking her.

The real Jackie loved Shauna. She could be a little bitchy, but it was never intentionally malicious. That insecurity that Shauna feels deep in her bones is just like the unwell ness that Lottie talks about. I want to write a whole meta on the girls who can’t go home sometime but for now let’s focus on Shaunas insecurity. She projects it on everyone around her because SHE can’t be allowed to be boring.

I’ve seen it said that the thesis of Jackie & Shaunas relationship is “why didn’t you ever say anything?” And I would agree! To an extent! I do think that Shauna’s insecurity ran so deep that the relationship had a high potential to be toxic even if they both opened up. But I also think that if there’s NO version where the story has a happy ending then there’s no tragedy & also that there genuinely IS a world where these two could’ve healed if the circumstances were a little different. If it’s true that there were slumber party make outs before that makes it even more likely. They’re halfway there. They just needed to admit that it was real & talk about it & reaffirm what they meant to each other!

I was put off at first by the talk of “two realities” in season 3. I didn’t want another Lost. but I think I understand where it’s going now.

There was a tiny chance at a happy ending & positive growth somewhere for Shauna, in another life. But it crashed & burned with the plane. She destroyed it & consumed it along with Jackie’s flesh & her entire identity. And then there was Melissa!

I don’t want this to get any more excessively long then it already has but the entire reason I started talking about Shauna’s fear of being boring is her suicidal ideation in the finale.

The wilderness has twisted Shaunas perception of everything including normalcy vs “boring.” Way back in the pilot she “just wanted to win” hence her standing back & letting the plan to injure Allie go through. So yes, she was always a little twisted. But now? She’s lost Jackie. She held her dead baby in her arms. She butchered her pseudo little brother after everyone left him to die including her because they were starving to death. At this point, she doesn’t know how to exist except in chaos. That’s what trauma does. Shauna CANT deal with things being safe & normal.

Shauna would rather DIE than have Melissa be “boring” because she’s projecting her own insecurities onto Melissa. Shauna tried to play the role she PERCEIVED Jackie to have in her life by emotionally manipulating & degrading Melissa to the last. And Shauna has been making impossible choices & doing horrible things for months. For Melissa to make the merciful choice when Shauna never did? That’s worse to Shauna than Melissa killing her.

Shauna has always sought excitement & risk. Cheating with Jeff is the first glimpse we get of it. Cheating on Jeff with Adam is the first biggie in the adult timeline. She can’t sit still & that’s amplified in the wilderness.

Shauna is homicidal but she’s also suicidal. She seeks risk like it’s an addiction. Adult Melissa accuses Shauna of wanting to blow up her life & she’s not wrong. (Of course Melisa ALSO specifically sought out her ex who once shot a gun inches from her & made her piss herself publicly then smirked about it & jumped Shaunas bones when Shauna held a knife to her throat & later after she & Shauna crippled a man together sooo… okay this is already too long we don’t have time to do an in depth on this crazy bitch too)

Anyway in conclusion Shauna will NEVER be satisfied. The most excited she ever was by Melissa was when Melissa almost killed her & she was disappointed when that failed. Then she turned her rage about it into sadism with Mari. Anyway never forget that Shauna Shipman might be destructive to everyone else around her but she is also destructive to herself & completely broken & twisted inside & THAT is why she is my poor little pookie meow meow forever. Thank you for coming to my TED talk 🫡

[gremloblin]

Thinking about how the frog guy that Lottie killed was the first active murder in the group. Jackie and Laura Lee and Crystal were accidents, Javi was too even if they could’ve helped him they didn’t actively kill him. Even Ben was a mercy kill, he wanted Natalie to kill him, he actively begged her to to do and was relieved when she did. In ep6, when Taissa is chosen to kill Ben she tells Van it’s not the same as killing an animal, but I think I’m the back of her mind she’s thinking about what happened to Javi. Javi was the closest they’ve come to murder until Ben, Tai was there, and like the rest she didn’t step in to help him, but shooting Ben while he’s tied up is very different, which is why she wants to distance herself from it.

Honestly idk if anyone told Lottie the precise nature of Javi’s death. Obviously she was told that it was supposed to be Nat, and the wilderness chose, that’s why she crowned Nat, but I’m not sure if she got the context of how accidental it was and how no one stepped in. I imagine she was told that Javi fell through the ice, but I think she equates it with an active murder, bc if you’re not looking through the guilt-justifying lens that the other girls are, it is murder. Lottie is horrified when Misty tells her what they’ve done. Maybe in Lottie’s eyes, it doesn’t really matter whether Javi fell through the ice or took a bullet meant for Nat; either way the wilderness chose, and either way it’s murder. I think in Lottie’s eyes, it’s as deliberate as facing someone and shooting them point blank. But, then, it doesn’t really matter who pulls the trigger bc it’s the will of the wilderness, whether stillbirth or drowning or freezing or getting an axe to the skull, it’s the will of the wilderness. When Misty killed Nat in the adult timeline she was aiming for Lisa, but now Nat is dead and the blood is on her hands and Lottie says the wilderness is pleased.

I say this bc if Lottie chose to believe that Javi’s death was ACTIVE murder, something the other girls seem to avoid facing, then it’s not so far a bridge to kill Edgar. The group murdered Javi, Nat murdered Ben, is it such an unbelievable stretch for Lottie to murder Edgar? This is what they are now. Aside from her justifications of WHY she had to do it, this group is accustomed to death and killing and she thinks they know that(they don’t) because she’s been facing what they’ve done head on: Lottie hasn’t had a vision since Shauna beat her up. She no longer has the blanket of active psychosis to shield her from what they’ve done. She is the one who would’ve objected, and did object to that first hunt, too late. Lottie KNOWS they’ve become monsters, that society cannot and will not understand them and thus they cannot return to it, she’s left her visions behind and sees clearly that they’ve been changed irrevocably. They watched a young boy die and ate his corpse, they tortured a man and ate him, they are past the point of no return. Lottie is the one who sees clearly what has happened to them now that the visions have left her, while the others justify and compartmentalize and avoid what they’ve done, she sees it. That’s what she picks Shauna, bc Shauna is the only other person who will face what they’ve become, and in fact will embrace it. The outsiders have to die. Shauna’s the leader now. Winter approaches. There’s no going back, there’s only violence.

[itssnackietaylor]

i will forever be obsessed with how jackie haunts the narrative in yellowjackets, even outside of a jackieshauna context (but i have A LOT to say about that after the first episodes of s3). there's a reason jackie was one of the only characters we knew was going to die before we saw her death and it all links back to classical tragedies.

in aristotle's poetics, tragedy is hinged on the idea of inevitability, which was mostly brought about due to stories of the time majorly featuring the gods, as most theatre depicted religious stories to the public (which is also the reason for the existence of deus ex machina).

jackie and her depiction on the show mirror this (especially if you believe there is a supernatural aspect to it); we see the prevalence of the necklace, the symbolism of jackie and bunnies, and the deterioration of her relationship with shauna - who is completely integrated into the group as the butcher while jackie is being pushed out. all of this just adds to the growing feeling of inevitability throughout season 1 as it grows nearer to jackie's death. this is even clearer when you take into account that classical tragic heroes (like achilles or heracles) specifically fall from a place of high status, power and morals. for jackie, the first episode emphasises her "perfect" life and her position as the undisputed leader of the team, which is shown through her scene with coach martinez and the scene at the party where she tells everyone to say something nice to each other.

jackie being kicked out the cabin and her death act as the moment of catharsis at the end of season 1 that solidifies her as the ultimate tragic figure of the show so far, explaining (through looking at her as a neo-classical character) why she so effectively haunts the entire narrative of the show, not just shauna's.

[eldritch-allan-poe]

One thing better analysts than me have talked about is how every significant Yellowjackets character who died in the teen timeline represents something. Laura Lee is conventional religion, Jackie is social norms, Javi is innocence, etc.

(I don't remember if a consensus was reached on what Coach Ben represented - personally I'd say trust but I'm not sure about that.)

With Mari's death, I think she represents loyalty, specifically conventional loyalty to a single leader figure. This post by @r0setyler does a fantastic job of explaining how Mari is loyal to whoever is in power at the moment, a loyalty Shauna craved but never received. And we've seen how the girls are rejecting Shauna's authority more and more by half-assing the hunt and helping Nat escape to call for help. That trend will continue in the coming season, especially since Mari was their friend who they directly killed on Shauna's orders, rather than indirectly (like Jackie) or an outsider to their in-group (Like Javi and Ben). Any loyalty Shauna commands dies with Mari.

[planecrashjesus]

Nat has soooo much empathy for Jackie I love how consistently she’s the one to sympathize with her despite being pitted against each other the last few days of Jackie’s life. Nat apologizing to her bones. Nat who would never have let her sleep outside. Nat who became the leader not to cannibalize Jackie’s roll like Shauna but who still held respect for her.

“She’s not the captain.”

“Neither are you.”

“Yeah cause she’s fucking dead.”

[jaystrun]

Arcane x CYBERPUNK AU

Zaun is Pacifica and Dogtown

Vander led the Lanes peacefully, only keeping up a low-stakes protection racket (his old gang "the Hounds" turned into a kind of lower-tier peacekeeping force) and for the most part things were peaceful. The kids, as they grew up, would do gigs for Vander and some of the Fixers: trying to make something of the nothing that was Zaun.

Streetkid Jinx x Streetkid Ekko

Jinx is Silco's top Solo and she's fucking scary, like Adam Smasher scary---but way less borg'd out

I had the idea she's almost completely chrome, just has RealSkin implants; meanwhile Ekko is mostly 'ganic but with some upgrades.

Think of chrome (cybernetic implants) as a shimmer allegory.

Ekko has a few but they're small: he has a Sandevistan and his eyes are Kiroshi optics. Later after my AU's version of the bridge scene he's given a Second Heart and Biomonitor implants.

Ekko over time forms the Firelights gang on his own to fight against Silco and his gang, the Chembarons.

Ekko is the leader and the Ripperdoc for the Firelights.

Ekko regularly seeks to improve DIY prosthetics and invent some of his own tech to minimize any reliance on Corpo tech.

He sets up small street-side clinics to offer whatever aid he can, though he can't stick around long as Silco's goons are always on the lookout for Firelight activity.

The Firelight Base in Cyberpunk AU

It's the are called "the Stacks" in-game, just outside "The Moth" diner/bar. In this AU, the layout and look of the place is the exact same, and the bar exists there also.

To me, the Firelights operate more like a Nomad clan than a street gang: they're a close-knit family looking out for each other above all.

Gang Leader Vi

Vi actually doesn't go to prison fully---the night of the cannery is given a bit of an overhaul in this AU. Vi takes the fall but escapes during the trial and becomes a pretty major fugitive. She forms the Animals, essentially.

(Credit to FoxPurple on NexusMods for the INCREDIBLE Vi tattoo I'm using here.)

Vi as a gang leader is fun because she doesn't know what she wants to get out of it. She just wants what's left of her family to get along.

Ekko and Vi both turn their gangs into bike-based gangs (think of the Firelight hoverboards as Yaiba Kusanagis and Archer Nazares)

Vander's gang---the Hounds---was also a biker gang, so his children honor him in a way by keeping the tradition alive.

(Vi names her gang "the Animals" in honor of him and Ekko adopts the animal masks of the Firelights for a similar reason)

Season 1 Episode 3 in this AU:

Powder and Ekko are teenagers (between 16 and 18) when this event happens.

Powder and Ekko have been doing small jobs for Vander and the Hounds and the local Zaun fixers. They're small-time, barely more than "deliver this here," or, "gather intel on this person." Then Ekko hears word of a high-ranking Chembaron, Silco, getting some new bit of tech. And the plan is to steal it.

It's their first big job and they're both fucking hyped about it. Ajuna, Ekko's younger brother figure, goes with them.

Powder and Ekko and Ajuna, doing a big job for Vander and the Hounds.

The job is to steal that advanced bit of tech from Silco's personal apartment. Powder insists her techie devices will work, and all the way into the penthouse they do. Her li'l drones, her hacking bots, her Optical Camo implants they had to install sub-dermally, it all performs flawlessly like Ekko knew it would. 

Ajuna is quippy and not taking anything seriously but that's to be expected, really. Exactly like Jackie in Konpeki Plaza. Powder, Ajuna and Ekko witness Silco ruthlessly killing the current Kingpin and assuming power. Vi's radio sig goes dark and it's assumed she's been captured.

In the escape, Powder's gadgets backfire and Ajuna is killed in the explosion as they jump out of the window. He dies in Ekko's arms, and it's Ekko carrying his body out while Powder does most of the fighting. 

In the escape they had planned, Powder's improved EMPs (meant to disable Chembaron drones and cars and the like) backfire and impact the car carrying Vander and Mylo and Claggor. They die and it's Powder's fault, too. It's all her fault.

They arrive at their safehouse to meet with the Fixer, and you can imagine Ekko and Powder arguing and shouting and saying shit they shouldn't say, but Ekko's fed the fuck up and at his limit. Powder slaps him and he goes beyond the limit. 

He screams at her "JINX!" and she runs off and Ekko takes a bullet from the Fixer who was in league with Silco from the start.

It's Voodoo Boy (VDB) scavengers that find Ekko's body, barely-alive (the Fixer's aim was shit and Ekko is mainly just concussed), and he becomes indebted to them. 

The Hounds were dismantled in the two months Ekko spends recovering. He's indoctrinated into the VDBs and goes through all their initiation rituals. A year-and-a-half passes: the Chembarons take full control and Powder is never seen again until she comes back as Jinx, about seven years later. 

As stated, Vi doesn't go to prison. The blame and fault for the heist was pinned on her by Silco but she managed to escape and goes on the run.

She tracks down Ekko and is PISSED that he chased Powder off, and that she's gone missing, and this is the reason she doesn't join the Firelights. She stews in her anger at Ekko and her overall helplessness in the entire situation, doing her own thing for a few years while the two barely keep contact.

Ekko, he's like a younger brother to her and she wants to be there for him, but he's reluctant to share the full details of the heist and the aftermath which also upsets her. After a couple years of mutual distance and cold relations, they have a tearful heart-to-heart and mend the bridge.

(and realize Silco needs to be taken down, and working together would be the best way to honor Vander and Benzo's memories)