#anyway my post complaining abt this was more abt how ppl treat travis' character relative to jeffs but yeah. you r right

[siover]

In regards to the notes in your last post about Travis-- yes, while he isn't really my favorite character (just comes off as a bit... boring?) I think he is deeply sympathetic, and obviously just a kid-- a teenage boy grappling with grief and emotions and unfortunately being a bit of a jerk about it.

That said... It really rubs me the wrong way about how he treated Javi in season one. I know the death scare made him do a complete 180 (and I actually think their bond is super sweet and one of the most redeeming things about Travis as a character), but Javi was mourning his father too in the first season, and Travis acted completely distant and cold in a situation where Javi was the youngest one and clearly vulnerable. Also, I think his reasons for being mad at Nat are currently completely justified and understandable (though I see it from Nat's perspective too.)... but the slutshaming in the first season? Yikes. I get that he's a teenage boy, and he was socialized that way and was making up for being insecure about being a virgin, but that doesn't justify his misogyny that she sort of just... put up with? In short-- season 1 travis << season 2 travis, but I still need more from him to be fully won over. he's just kind of a guy? who's a dude?

hi hello i typed out like three paragraphs to this and tumblr deleted them......but the gist was. yr not wrong at all !

i think part of what finding travis unsympathetic about in s1 is how, like w the girls, we get a set up of a character archetype that is then subverted by showing us the unsustainability of the performance that demands it.

travis in s1 is broken w grief and (from the pov of his assigned duties as they fall to his narrative role) he fails his brother. the thing is javi does start forming bonds w the girls but natalie is the only person travis gets close to in s1, and the implosion of that + his misguided misogyny imo serves an equal and opposite function to jackie's loneliness, in that we see how being estranged from society doesn't remove the tensions inherent to these social dynamics but rather warps them. jackie's repression is physically incompatible with surroundings that require your blood in exchange for survival. it's also shown most obviously in how jackie and travis have sex with neither of them really enjoying or wanting it, but the alternative would be to lose whats kept them sane so far.

thats the branching path here, i think. the horrifying scene at the doomcoming with the girls assaulting travis, and jackie not participating but having had sex with him earlier, both serve to display the hunger of the narrative for the dregs of what holds power in "society." its why travis goes from being in love with natalie and too immersed in his grief to look at javi to worshipping lottie and not only making up for his earlier neglect of javi but also going out of his way in the acknowledgement of javi's potential connection to The Thing Out There when he comes back different.

and this is only one (messily-worded) interpretation among what is imo a nesting doll of character motivations and arcs as pertaining to travis alone. obviously there are other factors in this change that coexist with and comment on The Horrors, not all of which i agree with, but i don't want to make this any longer than it already is especially given its been a while since i watched s1 and i'll have to rewatch to fully get into what the show's exploration of themes says in ways im barely scratching the surface of here

all this is like. far more speculative than what youve talked about and its not to say i disagree with anything you've mentioned !! im marginally interested in travis primarily for what his relationship with natalie does for his survival out in the woods but hes very much a tertiary character!

my post was more abt how ppl managing to hate travis and like jeff at the same time is in such poor taste bc like......ive seen the jokeposts ive seen the reasoning for why jeff understands shauna but he really doesnt lol. he does see her, and thats bc he read her diaries w/o her consent. propping up jeff as some pinnacle of spousal support when he cowers from who shauna is at every turn, while failing to understand why travis acts the way he does and disliking him bc his (past) misogyny was more overt than jeff's is, is very shortsighted. caveat that ppl are free to dislike whoever they want, i disliked travis in s1 too, etc etc

ok lastly. im very interested in the seeds of lottie/travis and lottienat in the cadence of prophet/worshipper and prophetskeptic respectively in that they're all performances akin to how they had to play a part outside. and it wasnt any less about desperate survival outside than it is now, its just that the transparency of the stakes has changed. so travis' role has my attention for now