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tabithatwo · 1 year

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it's yellowjackets / jennifer's body parallels time!

hi hello keep reading if you would like to hear about shauna/jennifer and jackie/needy, here's my totally noncomprehensive, very much off the cuff thoughts on this very complex and interesting dynamic!!

(i'm not getting into the basic parallels, i'm gonna assume you know the karyn kusama of it all, the heart necklace, the homoerotic female friendship, the death)

yellowjackets is so brilliant because it feeds you stereotypes and absolutely does not deliver on them. there could be an entire paper on each girl and how this is true for them specifically, but walk quickly with me because i want to get into the nitty gritty gory fun stuff! a brief oversimplified example: nat is referred to as a burnout, some would assume she's a loner based on that, but she cares about the team as a unit more than arguably anyone else. (this is common in real life too, our stereotypes often don't hold water in reality and yj reflects that beautifully!)

now to the jackie/shauna of it all. it would be oh so incredibly easy to look at jackie and think she's the jennifer of the duo. we are set up to see her as prettier, more popular, more demanding. but that illusion falls apart QUICKLY if you pay attention to the things that jackie actually says and does. she's not a mean girl. she's actually one of the kindest on the team. she doesn't pick on shauna, she clings. there are plenty of takes on this on tumblr so i won't exhaust it, my adhd loves to digress and meander but i'm forcing myself back onto the trodden path to this point: people look at the first few minutes of the pilot and they immediately decide that they know who these girls are. the audience typecasts jackie as a jennifer and shauna as a needy. the popular, bubbly girl and her shy, bookworm best friend.

a lot of people, especially casual viewers who don't study this show like its their job (god, wonder what that would be like lol) understandably stop here. but to me the BRILLIANCE of yj is that they don't actually make it HARD for you to undo your initial impressions. the material is there. it isn't hidden. it isn't some deeper self of each character that is unraveled throughout seasons. they push, push, push to see just how far they can carry our deeply held stereotypes/expectations. how forward and violent can shauna be, with viewers still clinging to a shy and sweet girl, who was really their own creation? how kind and honestly pathetic kicked-puppy can jackie be, with viewers still clinging to a mean girl, who was really their own creation? how far will we go to warp the characters intentions, so that we can keep them in the box we understand them in? they ask this of the viewer and of other characters, but AGAIN i digress.

so, while this might sit strangely with some, yes i think that jackie is very much aligned with needy if you peel back just one layer. but far above and beyond that, shauna is so very fucking jennifer.

the overall veneer is thinned immediately in yj. there isn't one girl in the stands and one on center stage. jackie and shauna are both on the team. they go to the same parties, they play the same sport, i would argue that shauna isn't even coded as "less pretty" (please note the word coded, because i'm not saying needy is literally less pretty than jennifer, i am simply saying that we have hair, makeup, clothing, glasses trends that we use to stereotype characters, are you with me?)

so now what? now these girls are both and neither. shauna thinks that she is the needy to jackie's jennifer. jackie wears the necklace and the introductory shots frame her as important. but we're already diverting from that set-up.

our absolute clearest common denominator here is one that i rarely see people mention funnily enough: JENNIFER IS A SUCCUBUS. she CONSUMES. she KILLS. she WANTS and she TAKES.

now before you get TOO EXCITED!!! i see some of you getting ready to say i'm a shauna shipman hater, put the pitchforks down!! shauna is one of my favorite characters of all time. i love her crazy ass so deeply that it's alarming. (i don't hate jennifer, either, for the record.) i love her largely for WHAT she is. i think sanitizing or sweetening her is a disservice. she's amazing and complex and wounded and capable of deep love. but she also, quite LITERALLY, consumes.

her character is sex and desire and violence and obsession and consumption. and it's AMAZING. she's POWERFUL. she's our main framing character (in this dynamic), rather than needy. the scripts are switched. jennifer dies and needy lives, and that's one story. that's clearer cut, simpler, made for a horror film. but here, jackie dies and shauna lives, and that story is deep and rich and goes on to include a whole lot more death and destruction and chaos.

shauna tells us herself that it excites her. she likes it. she is this girl. this woman. she reminisces and she recreates and she covets.

jennifer tries to consume needy, shauna literally consumes jackie.

there's more to this story, obviously. you could deep dive and mine for the intricacies of the set up and fall of stereotype and expectation, or collect all of the exact parallels. but i'll stick with a few, because this is a quick outburst of thought.

a huge one, who is taking whose boyfriend?

here's another personal favorite of mine, just for kicks

is it too complex to neatly tuck away? absolutely. they're different stories with different themes. shauna isn't simply a teenager possessed by a demon. it runs far deeper. as is the essence of this show.

but if you want to look at parallels, look at the one who has been holding the knife the whole time.

#can you tell both of these stories make me crazy #i love shauna this is not shauna hate this is shauna LOVE do not misinterpret pls #you guys she EATS people!!#anon who just messaged me about this YES I see you I’m with you here are my thoughts lol #yellowjackets #yellowjackets meta #jennifer's body #shauna shipman #jennifer check #jackie taylor #anita needy lesnicki #karyn kusama #shauna x jackie #jackie x shauna #jackieshauna #shaunajackie

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anxiousnerdwritings · 6 months

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Yandere Jennifer Check and Anita “Needy” Lesnicki Sharing Darling!Reader Headcanons (romantic)

It's obvious right off the bat who the instigator is when it comes to the idea of sharing their obsession in the first place and surprise, surprise its Jennifer. Whether the darling was hers to begin with or Anita's, Jennifer doesn’t mind sharing. At least not too much. And besides, who better to share with other than her bestie? No one, that's who.

There would be quite a few distinctions between Jennifer and Needy sharing a darling before and after Jennifer’s transformation. In the very beginning, Jennifer and Needy can work pretty well together. Sure there’s disagreements about how things should be or what they should do revolving their darling in general but other than that it’s harmless fun for the most part. Things don’t get real intense until after everything happens.

The only big disagreement early on is that Anita wants to be much more lowkey about their obsession while Jennifer wants to show it and their darling off to the whole world. She wants everyone to see what belongs to her and Needy, and only them. Jennifer can certainly takes things too far even before she’s a man eating demon, but she always finds a way to either make up with Anita or get Anita to see her side of it. Jennifer is no stranger to getting what she wants and she’s damn good at it to even begin with. More times then not she gets away with her antics both with Anita and others. And their darling would be no exception to her manipulation and charm either. Whether the darling is susceptible to it or not is another thing.

As much as Needy feels awkward with this whole situation, Jennifer makes it seem like the most normal thing ever. Out of the two, Jennifer is the only one who doesn’t have a second thought about it, meanwhile Anita can’t help her mind racing with pros and cons, right and wrong, what would be acceptable and what would be deemed unacceptable. She can’t help but to worry and worry all the more. The social hierarchy is a real bitch, people talk and things get around, and Needy still can’t quite process everything happening but she knows that she needs you in her life and she wouldn’t want anything to ruin that or take it away from her.

Anita is the more sensible one, not to mention she takes your wants and feelings into account a hell of a lot more than Jennifer can even pretend to. As far as Needy’s concerned she genuinely cares for you. You’re not just some kind of possession or glorified pet like Jennifer makes you out to be, you’re your own person and Needy could never take that away from you. She wouldn’t want to anyway. All she wants is to be by your side, going through the experiences of life with you and just getting to be together but she could live with just keeping a close eye on you from a comfortable distant if that’s what came to be. It wasn’t really until Jennifer was very outwardly and vocally interested in you that Anita would feel overcome with the need to protect you to some degree given the newfound influx of attention sent your way from being even just acquainted with Jennifer, let alone being a romantic interest. And that need would only become all the more intense after Jennifer’s transformation. Needy just had to keep you safe, at all costs.

Jennifer utterly adores you, or rather she adores the idea of you. She likes what she likes and wants what she wants, and you are no exception. It’s one thing if you were her darling to begin with and she picked up on Needy’s interest in you too, but it’s an entirely other thing if you were Needy’s darling from the beginning.

If you were Needy’s darling to begin with than Jennifer would be insufferable to shake off. She would never say she was jealous of Needy or anything, that would be completely ridiculous, but she absolutely felt some type of way about Needy’s interest in you. At first, it started off as a harmless bit of wanting to take something that Needy had but then again how could Jennifer take something that didn’t even belong to Needy in the first place. At least, not yet anyway. Cause that was just so like Needy to not take what she wanted when she wanted, but Jennifer wasn’t like that. When she saw an opportunity she took it without question or she made her own.

Before shit hits the fan Jennifer would be more inclined to share with Anita, cause why not. They can be the best of both worlds, right? Sure there is some pretty heavy competitiveness on both sides that can either be a bit of fun to watch unfold or a pain in the ass to be stuck in the middle of. Either way it starts off pretty tame and slightly petty but still ‘good’ natured in a way. Jennifer and Needy were still very much able to put their competitiveness aside in order to work together for their darling. Especially when it came to one distracting them while the other took care of some unwanted obstacles. But any semblance of teamwork goes out the window after Jennifer’s transformation.

After everything happens, a drift would begin to form between Anita and Jennifer, especially when Jennifer starts full on killing. Particularly people who either gave too much attention to their darling or people who their darling didn’t care too much for, or the people who wronged their darling for any reason, even if it was the smallest thing. Honestly, no one would be safe from becoming a victim of Jennifer when it came to her obsession. And that’s when Anita comes to the realization that this is a whole lot of fucked up going on and she not only doesn’t want to be a part of it but she certainly can’t allow their darling to be involved with Jennifer either anymore. Both for their safety and Anita’s overwhelming anxiety.

It certainly wouldn’t help the situation when Jennifer brings the worst out of Needy’s insecurities as is, especially when it comes to you. But after everything, Jennifer would only be all the more vindictive. She feeds into Needy’s worries and doubts about not being good enough or deserving enough for you in any aspect. She truly is the devil on Needy’s shoulder and only wants to bring Anita to her side of the obsession, the more deplorable side. There are a handful of times that Needy catches herself very nearly giving in to what Jennifer is trying to do. And she feels absolutely ashamed and frustrated. Both with herself and with what Jennifer has become. She can’t just sit by with her thumb up her ass and let Jennifer do what she’s doing. Especially when her darling is stuck right in the middle of it all.

The confrontation would end up being a hell of a lot messier and all the more petty than originally. Anita has every intention of ensuring her darling doesn’t go to prom night, especially not alone with Jennifer. She knows Jennifer wouldn’t kill them, but she could very well still harm them especially when she’s in one of her moods or when she’s told ‘No’ for once. Jennifer isn’t stupid enough to do something as rash as killing their darling, she is extremely selfish after all and she very much wants her darling alive and well for the life she has in mind for the two of them after all of this.

Honestly, with how done Needy is and with what all she has to lose if she continues to let Jennifer go on without doing something she would act a hell of a lot sooner than canonly. Anita is by no means holding back when she comes face to face with Jennifer for the last time. She’s so over the bullshit and only has her darling’s safety in mind for what she intends to do. She doesn’t even hesitate when she finally has her chance, going in for the kill but Needy doesn’t want it to be quick she wants Jennifer to hurt for what she’s done and what she would have continued to do. She also wanted to get some stuff off her chest too and what better time than during Jennifer’s final moments? Needy throws Jennifer’s own insecurities in her face, her own jealousy and envy she very well had eating her up inside too. They weren’t so different in that regard after all. The whole ordeal is a roller-coaster of emotion but Anita doesn’t regret it. If anything she would gladly do it a thousand times over if it meant her darling would be safe.

Anita would still inevitably end up in the asylum after everything, especially after getting bitten by Jennifer. She feels this is where she needs to be to keep her darling safe from herself. And for a while it works, Anita is too overcome with the fear of becoming like Jennifer, she could never live with herself if she ever did. But eventually Needy gets to a point where she becomes restless thinking about you and whether you’re really safe without her around. If she’s away from you then that leaves you vulnerable to god knows who else and the thought alone makes her want to rip everyone apart piece by disgusting piece. Especially knowing that godforsaken band who destroyed Jennifer are still out there only has Anita even more on edge.

But she’ll protect you, she’ll always protect you, and nothing can keep her from doing so. Especially not now. Not even a high security asylum can keep her locked away from her darling. She’ll be out in no time and when she is she’ll come for you. It’ll give her even more of an excuse to take care of some unfinished business, all the more ensuring those creeps can’t get to you too or anyone else for that matter.

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