#laura made a thing

[lucy-moderatz]

"Asparagus for dinner again. I hate asparagus. Does this mean I'll never grow up?"

[missmouse43]

On behalf of my spn family, I sincerely apologize for the cataclysmic storm that is now headed in your direction 🫡

Bonus:

[justbackgroundnoise]

Poulin & Stacey on the cover of the ninth edition of lez spread the word.

[genderbinaryisforlosers]

Logan and I, we've had our rough spots. That's probably an understatement. We've both done terrible @#%$ to each other is more accurate. Things were okay on Krakoa, but something about that place-- I don't know-- it felt like forcing a hug. Right now's different. Right now, we actually need each other.

Logan, Laura, Akihiro, & Gabby in Wolverine (2020) #41-50: Sabretooth War by Benjamin Percy & Victor LaValle (writers) Cory Smith (penciller), Oren Junior (inker) and Alex Sinclair (colorist)

[nataliescatorccioapologist]

A Lottie Matthews Deep Dive/Character Analysis

Let’s talk about an enigmatic, other-worldly, lonely weird girl who may or may not be the leader of a cult.

General Information

Charlotte (Lottie) Matthews is played by Courtney Eaton and Simone Kessel on Yellowjackets. Lottie is 17 years-old at the start of the series in the teen timeline and approximately 43 years-old in the adult timeline. She grew up in the (fictional) town of Wiskayok, New Jersey.

She is described in the script as a “tightly wound, statuesque, lonely rich girl.” Lottie is gentle and soft-spoken until she finds her voice through her spirituality and leadership. She is deeply empathetic with a natural gift for guiding and helping others, but there is a darkness under the surface that she has been struggling to keep from taking over for her entire life.

Childhood and Relationship with Parents

Lottie is the only child of Malcolm and Emilia Matthews. Due to her father’s success in business, Lottie grew up in a very wealthy home (wealthy enough to have maids and to be able to afford a private plane). However this wealth came at a cost, as Lottie’s father’s busy work schedule resulted in him rarely being around. Lottie stated that her father buying the team a private plane was “basically his only form of parenting.” When Malcolm was around, it seems like he was cold, distant, and critical of Lottie.

We see that, as a child, Lottie often had strange “visions,” including a time in which she prevented her and her family from getting into a potentially fatal car crash.

The aftermath of this incident allows us to see how Lottie’s unusual behavior was handled by each of her parents when she was growing up. While Emilia seemed to believe that Lottie was had a “gift” and was connected to something greater, Malcolm was adamant that Lottie was “sick” and needed psychiatric help. Due to Malcolm’s influence and control in the family, it is clear that his mentality is the one that prevailed, and Lottie grew up believing that there was something wrong with her.

From what we have seen of Malcolm so far, it is clear that he was very controlling of Lottie and hyper focused on maintaining the family’s image. He is happy to take the reigns and make major life decisions for Lottie (including checking her into a psychiatric facility and agreeing to have her go through electroshock therapy) in order to maintain this spotless, prim and proper family picture. His insistence that Lottie needs to be “fixed” after she’s rescued says a lot about how he views Lottie and her trauma.

I believe Malcolm’s criticism and control of Lottie is to blame for her quiet, “tightly wound” and “statuesque” demeanor described in the script. She has learned to make herself presentable and acceptable, which means not using her voice and being rigid as she attempts to push down her natural thoughts and behaviors. I think it says a lot that Lottie regularly steals from TJ Maxx even though she definitely has the funds to afford pretty much anything she wants. It’s her subtle way of rebelling against her father’s control. Lottie has a strict set of standards she must live by, and stealing is her way of feeling free and unrestricted.

Mental Illness and Struggle to Appear ‘Normal’

Likely due to Malcolm’s insistence that something is wrong with Lottie, we see her taking Loxapine (an antipsychotic often prescribed to people diagnosed with schizophrenia) in the Pilot episode. Over the years, it does seem like Lottie deeply internalized her father’s beliefs about her mental state. We can see how fearful she appears when she’s counting how many pills she has left after the crash. She’s learned that the pills allow her to appear “acceptable,” and she’s ashamed of who she is without them due to her father’s emphasis that she is “sick.” I think that some part of Lottie is afraid of herself; she knows there is something in her, deep down, that is dangerous.

We can see this bubbling under the surface in the Pilot episode, as Lottie tries her best to appear normal and fit in with her classmates. I feel like her fashion sense in the first few episodes perfectly exemplifies this. In the Pilot episode, we see Lottie in cute little pigtails and, in the party scene, a cropped pink fuzzy sweater with a plaid mini skirt that looks like something Cher would wear in Clueless.

This is a popular style for a teenage girl in the 90s, but something about it feels inauthentic and slightly off when Lottie wears it. It looks more like a performance of what Lottie thinks a girl her age should be wearing rather than an actual representation of who she is. After the plane crash, Lottie initially clings to this look, but as she discovers her connection to spirituality, her clothing gradually evolves. She transitions from cropped brightly colored baby tees and preppy sweaters—notably echoing Jackie’s fashion sense—to long, flowing dresses. As an adult, she embraces bohemian kaftans and shawls. In these more eccentric and ethereal outfits, she appears much more relaxed and natural, contrasting with the rigidity she exhibits when trying to fit in.

We can see this in the way she talks, as well. She’s quiet and soft-spoken, at first, afraid what might happen if she expresses who she truly is, but we can see a hint of something a little more bold underneath (thinking of that amazing Danny Mears cousin comeback Lottie threw at Mari). As Lottie starts to believe in herself and her abilities, she starts to speak up more.

Laura Lee, The Wilderness, and Finding a Voice

Laura Lee is instrumental in Lottie’s development from quiet weird girl into the influential leader we see in the adult timeline. After the plane crash (and as Lottie’s meds run out), Lottie starts to have strange visions/hallucinations (including seeing a deer with shredded antlers, a red river, and smoke). At first, Lottie hides these visions as she likely has been doing her whole life due to her father’s insistence. But, once she confides in Laura Lee and Laura Lee actually believes her, we see Lottie’s view of herself begin to shift. Laura Lee is the first person to stand by her and insist that Lottie has a gift, and that her eccentricities are something to be proud of rather than ashamed of.

The baptism scene marks a major shift in Lottie’s character, as it is the beginning of Lottie’s connection to spirituality and “The Wilderness.” The mental illness rhetoric that her father has been feeding her her whole life is finally shattered, and a new image of herself is developing. This is only strengthened as Lottie’s visions begin to come true (Nat and Travis brining back the deer with the shredded antlers, Tai’s expedition group stumbling across a red river, the smoke from the flare gun Tai uses to scare off the wolves). As more people begin to believe in Lottie, we see her leading prayer circles, giving directions, and even standing up to Natalie when she challenges her. The Wilderness has finally allowed her to be her authentic self, which is why we see her so devastated when they are rescued.

Lottie’s selective mutism after they are rescued is representative of how important the Wilderness was to Lottie finding her voice. Now that The Wilderness is gone and Lottie is back to the real world (and back under her father’s thumb), her voice is gone with it. She went from being worshipped and being a leader to being strapped down, electrocuted, and held against her will in a psych ward.

Thankfully, Lottie finds her voice again as an adult, when she starts her wellness center (cult?).

Influence and Intentions

Lottie’s influence over others is undeniable. In the teen timeline, she managed to get an entire group of people who previously thought she was crazy to follow her every direction and worship her as a spiritual figure (including even the most extreme skeptics, Tai and Nat). In the adult timeline, she manages to get hundreds (possibly thousands) of people to devote their lives to her teachings and guidance. We can see just how magnetic Lottie is in the scene where the survivors reunite for the first time, the look of pure awe on Van’s face says it all:

Lottie has a lot of power, and, as the overused saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. Lottie’s intentions are usually good. She wants to help and protect others, but her power and influence always ends up spiraling into something darker, resulting in disastrous consequences for her and those around her. She believes the Wilderness is protecting them, so she follows its lead in order to ensure the survival of her teammates. This results in cannibalistic rituals and a descent into complete primacy. She wants to help Shauna release her rage, so she lets her nearly beat her to death. This causes the group to do the card draw to save her life, which results in Javi’s death. She wants to help Travis reconnect with the Wilderness so that he can put an end to the visions that are tormenting him, which results in his death. She wants to save Nat’s life, so she kidnaps her and keeps her against her will at her compound. She wants to have one more hunt to appease the Wilderness and end the suffering she and the rest of the survivors are experiencing, which results in Nat’s death.

Lottie even has good intentions in crowning Nat as the new Antler Queen. Lottie sees how much her power has become warped and misguided after the group kills Javi to save her, so she chooses the most grounded and skeptical person of the group, Nat, as the new leader in an attempt to lead the group away from the dark path they are following. However, she doesn’t realize the burden she is placing on Nat, crowning her the leader right as the group has descended into something more evil and primal. She has taken the weight of the groups sins and placed it onto Nat, whose sanity is already clearly beginning to deteriorate. I imagine that Lottie’s well-intentioned decision to crown Nat as the new leader will spiral just as the rest of her intentions do, and more people will die and/or suffer as a result.

The Dark Side of Lottie

While Lottie is generally a gentle person, we’ve seen hints of a much darker version of herself come to the surface. The first time we really see this shift is Doomcoming, when Lottie locks Jackie in the pantry and hunts Travis down with the intention to kill him. Lottie’s laughter when Nat pushes her to the ground is definitely chilling and shows us that there is an unhinged side of Lottie that is capable of hurting people.

We see this again when Lottie insists on reinstating the hunt in the adult timeline, as she becomes insistent that she or one of the other survivors must die to appease the Wilderness. It’s definitely unsettling to see the crazed look in her eyes as she’s shuffling the cards for the hunt and after Callie shoots her in the adult timeline.

The circumstances around Travis’ death are still suspicious, as well. Was Lottie telling Nat the truth? Or did the dark side of her take over and intentionally sacrifice Travis to the Wilderness? And why did she drain his bank account after his death? And there are certainly some ethical concerns surrounding Lottie’s wellness center. Is Lottie preying on the trauma and vulnerability of her patients at the wellness center? Cutting them off from the outside world and their families and having them devote their lives to her is kind of creepy manipulative cult-leader behavior. And is there some part of Lottie that enjoys the power she holds over her patients at the compound? Was there some part of her that enjoyed having power over the group in the wilderness?

Lottie has been trying to push down and hide this unhinged side of herself for her whole life. While adult Lottie is more sure of herself and confident than we have ever known her before, she is still struggling with the same battle she was before the plane crash. Lottie is still confining a part of herself that she feels is dangerous. She still worries about her impact on others and her ability to hurt people. We see that Lottie has been in therapy for years. She’s back on the meds, and she’s pushing down the side of herself that believes in the Wilderness. She insists that the visions and feelings she is having are not real. We can see how afraid she is of that primal side of herself reemerging during the hypnosis scene with Nat.

The fear on her face when she realizes she's stepping back into that Antler Queen role is palpable. She doesn't want to step back into that role, but feels like it is out of her control. When the other survivors arrive at her compound, she initially wants them to leave, fearing her own reaction if she is around them for too long. However, her fear isn't enough to stop her from returning to her old ways, and, unfortunately, her allegiance to the Wilderness has fatal consequences in the Season 2 finale.

Season 3

In the aftermath of Nat's death in the adult timeline and Lottie usurping her leadership to Nat in the teen timeline, I think Season 3 will see some major shifts in Lottie. In the wilderness, she will have to grapple with no longer being the leader of the group, and the potential loss of purpose and direction that goes along with that. How will she feel watching Nat lead the group that used to worship her? Will she agree with Nat's decisions? Will the group still have allegiance to her over Nat? What is Lottie's relationship with the Wilderness like now that, according to her, she can't "hear it" anymore? Is Lottie the one under the Antler Queen hood after all?

In the adult timeline, Lottie will have to come to terms with the fact that she is partially responsible for Nat's death and the guilt and regret that may come along with that. There is also a high likelihood that she will be sent to a psychiatric hospital after the events of Season 2, so we may see her trying to once again reconcile the part of herself that wants to accept that she is mentally ill and the part of herself that truly believes in the Wilderness entity. We have also seen a casting for "Mr. Matthews" in Season 3, which likely means we will see the return of Lottie's father. Seeing her dynamic with her father as an adult will be very interesting. Will she fall back under his control? Or will she speak up and fight back against him this time? What will Lottie's relationships with the other Yellowjackets look like now?

Anyways, Lottie is a tragic, tormented character and I absolutely love her and all of her weirdness. I can't wait to see what Season 3 has in store for her.

[sheryllee]

"Be safe," you say Whatever the mess you are, you're mine, okay If that is the custom I'm down ♫

[fictionadventurer]

I think I underestimated how cool it is that Little House books are a "woman remembers her childhood" children's classic by an author from a working-class and rural background. Most working-class books of the genre have urban settings, and most rural girlhood classics come from a family that's in a fairly stable community--maybe not rich, but comfortable enough that they don't have to worry about whether they'll make it through a winter.

Laura Ingalls grew up dirt poor in a family that knew how to grow or build or hunt or make everything that they needed, because they had to. Yet when she grew up, she got into a position where she could publish about it. Which is pretty astounding, because people in her situation are usually too busy doing the farmwork to write about it--they don't have connections to the publishing industry. Yet she did, so we get to hear from someone who knows that farm and small-town setting intimately, and not because she grew up and and ran off to the city as soon as she could escape, but because she still lives it and loves it and advocates for it.

She knows the details of that life and loves it. Like, she genuinely cares about raising the chickens, not as a housewife's hobby, but as an important source of meat, eggs and money for the family. It's grounded, earthy, sensible, but also romantic, because she while she's doing farm work or house work she's noticing the little moments of beauty or thinking about the big issues of life. But it took a long series of coincidences to get this ordinary farm wife into a position of wanting to write, being able to write, and having a national audience for her writing, so I just want to appreciate how amazing it is that it happened.

[taohun]

alive is a little present i give myself once a day. baby, don’t think I won’t doll up & look myself fresh in the eyes, in the vermilion pincurl of my still heart & say: it's happening again.

laura palmer graduates by amy woolard.

[bentannin]

Weird in-character reaction maybe?

SPOILERS BELOW!!

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OKAY SO I'm really bad at writing these but after rewatching the bit where Bell's Hells are crashing at the lab, I noticed a bit of a weird reaction from Braius.

It's starts around 4:10:57 on the twitch vod, right after the conversation with Fearne, and he (braius) notices the dick drawings on the walls:

He then proceeds to just stare at them for a bit, tilting his head from side to side (almost like he's having a silent convo with himself?), before saying "nah" under his breath, shaking his head and moving on:

It's nothing big and happens rather quickly, but it definitely caught my eye on a second viewing. So maybe potential tie ins with Braius' (new) backstory??? Idk I just wanted to point it out since it seemed interesting to me.

[pinkeoni]

"Neither one of us is going to start eating until Laura washes her hands!" "He's washing his hands?"

[essektheylyss]

"You're going to have to make a lot of babies..." -> "You're like his dad!"

[inkedmyths]

Various Cold Steel ship stuff bc why not

[hello-eeveev]

I’m sorry I’m confused; every so often, for like the last year at least, I see it treated as fact that Laudna is hated by the gods for being a Hollow One or that somehow her existence is defying them? and I do not understand where this has come from.

First off, if we are looking strictly at the events of c3, Laudna was brought back to life by a cleric and champion of the Everlight. And she still remained very much a Hollow One. Why would the Everlight do that if the gods as a group did not want Laudna to exist as she was?

Now iirc, Laudna has expressed fear that the Matron of Ravens would not be happy about her existence, and that’s fair, given that this is one of her edicts:

Undeath is an atrocity. Death is too good a punishment for those who pervert the rightful transition of the soul.

However: yes, the Matron doesn’t seem to be fond of undeath, but her vitriol pretty clearly lies with those who create undead (e.g. Delilah), moreso than those who live in it. So I think the Raven Queen would not be angry with Laudna herself, more angry for the suffering put upon her by the state of undeath. I don’t think she would smite Laudna down for literally just waking up one (very very bad) day as a Hollow One. It’s not like Laudna was trying to become undead or to unnaturally extend her life or cast off fate; she was murdered. But still, it’s fair that Laudna worries about that! She’s a fictional character with a limited scope of view and emotions that may not be informed by fact! I don’t want her to know everything and to be perfectly reasonable at all times. If that were the case, she wouldn’t be a good character, and she wouldn’t be Laudna.

But even if the RQ did hate Laudna for being a Hollow One, she’s just one deity. She doesn’t speak for the rest of the gods, so why would they have an issue with Laudna when they don’t seem to have a particular problem with undead (see: the base cleric spell list having both Animate and Create Undead).

So I don’t see where this rhetoric of “the gods hate laudna” comes from? She has not been personally victimized by the gods. She has been on the opposite side of a conflict to one, but she was revived by another. As far as I can tell, in all the text and supplementary materials, there is only one major deity who might be prejudiced towards her.

so yeah, I’m just confused where this came from and i’d like to know. if it seemed like it was a headcanon or a thought people were toying with, I wouldn’t care, but I’m seeing it being treated as a given and I don’t think that’s the case.

[kashilascorner]

Out of the three main villains, I think Fernando is the least bad because he does have one redeeming quality: he does loves his wife and child (literally) with all his life. Rather than a terribly bad individual, he is a profoundly misguided person. From his obsessive love to Mercedes to how he was convinced into condemning Edmond to how he betrayed Ali Tebelen. His seemingly violent character does not help. A testament of his genuine love is the fact that, despite everything, Mercedes and him do seem to have had a rather happy marital life and Albert had a good upbringing and became a good man. Also, he is not obscenely rich. Dumas goes out of his way more than once to assess that the Morcerfs, while privileged and no doubt well off, have a relatively modest fortune compared to their other peers in the novel. This, in my opinion, shows that even if he was unscrupulous in building his fortune and station in the beginning (when he was poor and had nothing to give Mercedes the life she deserved), he did not necessarily continue on that path --whether because he was not interested or because he was not clever enough or because he was more prudent but not actually less unscrupulous we could debate. Lastly, he's not entirely without remorse. When confronted by Haydée he feels some of that. In the end, understanding of the shame he has brought upon his family and how he betrayed their trust, seeing that they will never forgive him, he kills himself. Perhaps one last act of love to them as much as an act of desperation and selfishness for losing all he cared about in life.

Then you have Villefort, who is a far darker grey, a man who's obsessed with status, with himself and his name, but who ultimately had moments of "weakness": seeing Valentine's death, being moved by his past lover Hermine. To protect the status and name that's the most precious thing in his life he's willing to go to terrible extremes, even if they weigh on his conscience later. It's obvious he's capable of certain warm feelings and that he is a man who's constantly repressing himself into the image he wishes to project. He's a man who defines himself by his job and station, a man rather obsessed with work though, by his own admission, he works because that allows him to forget. That doesn't sound like someone with a clean conscience at all. He's justice, but he bends it to convenience and that is his downfall.

Lastly: Danglars. This guy is the most irredeemable of all three. Not only is he selfish and greedy and does not show a single warm feeling towards anyone in the entire novel, not even his daughter and wife. Everything he does is always under an utilitarian light. He does not even have good taste. And this whole thing started, his so terrible hatred to Edmond goes down to two things: 1 he caught him stealing (they settled that up) 2, and in my opinion most telling, he was envious. He really does not have a single redeeming quality, so in some ways he's the worst of all three main villains however I must point out that he's the only of the three who doesn't seem to have murdered anyone directly lol

[meiloorunsmoothie]

hello hello hello

happy anniversary to me yelling in @tofangirlonly's tags and then shoving my way into her life like a weird creepy internet person.

great decision. do not try this at home kids. i got very lucky 😘.

[fictionadventurer]

If Laura Ingalls Wilder had written The Wizard of Oz.

Kansas would be portrayed as a wondrous, beautiful place at least as good as--or better than--Oz.

Dorothy would come from a very devoted loving household.

Her father would be in the house with her when the tornado hit and would be her guide and protector through all their adventures.

Dorothy would absolutely still have a devoted dog.

Dorothy would not go to the Wizard to ask for help. The "kill the Witch" requirement (or some other quest) would be presented early on as the condition she had to fulfill to earn her way home.

Instead of giving life and backstories to inanimate objects (like the land of the porcelain figurines), the people and creatures Dorothy would meet would provide explanations for things that happen in nature (like, explain where the colors of sunset come from).