u/RhiaStark

From the span it took me to finish all 29 episodes, you may guess I'm somewhat obsessed with this show (and I just got in the bandwagon in time for season 4, yay!). I also have a bunch of stuff I'd like to talk about, but since I haven't yet convinced my friends to join the Church of Lottie-Day Saints watch it, I figured this was the right place ^^

- For starters, Misty. I like how the show kinda turned my opinion on her almost upside down, from thinking her the freakiest of the girls back in S1 to a rather complex and almost normal by Yellowjackets standards in S3. She's flawed, but outside of undermining their rescue chances, most of her questionable actions seem motivated by a genuine desire to protect her friends. Also, I hadn't watched Christina Ricci since her 90s works, and she's awesome ❤️

- Then, Shauna. Throughout the first 2 seasons, I mostly sympathised with her... but then, as S3 revealed just how far she spiralled, I was reminded that she had a dark side from the very start; the wilderness simply allowed her to thrive on it. Now I utterly despise her - and I say that as a compliment. The writers, Melanie Lynskey and especially Sophie Nelisse are doing an amazing job at making her a character I love to hate. Last such character, for me, was Cersei effin' Lannister.

- Jeff has been a very positive surprise, and so has Callie. At first, I thought Jeff would be the stereotypical useless, selfish husband; how refreshing it was, then, to watch him actually own up to his mess and even take the fall for Shauna. That alone (as well as his defence of Shauna against Jackie's parents) made him one of my most liked characters in the show; but his increasing exasperation at the Yellowjackets' antics brings a nice hilarity to the story.

And on that vein, Callie started out seemingly as the stereotypical uncontrollable teen who's always on the rebel path and clashing with her parents for no reason. It was pretty surprising, then, and interesting, to watch her become almost a voice of sanity as she watched her parents reveal themselves increasingly problematic. Then her proximity with her dad made them both extra endearing to me.

- Speaking of relatively "normal" characters, poor Coach Scott T.T Being a teacher myself, that scene where he opens up to the Yellowjackets was so sweet (and it mostly made up for him being such a nothing-burger character for so long). Students can be such little pests sometimes, but we still do what we can for them. And on the subject of Coach Scott, f*ck Shauna (and Mel).

- And poor Travis too, though it's a shame his character has become increasingly uninteresting to me. He could've been the source of some pretty cool plots and discussions, being the sole guy among this all-girls group, and S1 did seem to be going that way with his "Sokka at the Kyoshi Warriors village" arc.

- Oh and poor Mari. She could be insufferable, but usually in a funny way. Her rendition of I'm Too Sexy, followed by the worst-ever attempt at seduction, legit made me cackle. And deep inside, she still had a moral core - unlike many of the Yellowjackets by S3, might I add.

- Not much to say about TaiVan other than I loved them, and was broken-hearted at what happened. Seriously, f*ck Mel (and Shauna).

- Speaking of, it's kinda scary how good Tawny Cypress (adult Taissa) is at alternating between TaiJekyll and TaiHyde. I'm a bit proud of myself for realising TaiHyde had taken over a lot earlier than revealed, simply by paying attention to her expressions.

- On the narrative overall, I really liked how S1 takes its time to build the Yellowjackets as this group of friends who, despite being stranded in the middle of nowhere, still were pretty normal teens, who liked normal teenager stuff and mostly cared for each other. It makes their descent into cannibalism and darkness that much more of a gut punch. I also appreciate that, even as they go full cannibalistic Bacchantes, they don't entirely change their personality (most of them, I suppose); watching them still indulge in fun and games at the start of S3 was a pleasant surprise. Throughout S1, I expected the show to become much more grimdark by S3; I'm glad it didn't (even if S3 felt a bit too light-hearted at times).

Like I said earlier, I'm glad I got into this series at this point in time, so I won't have to wait a whole year for the final season. Really curious about how they'll conclude this story ❤️

Ele não era nenhum craque, mas eu gostava dele. Achei fofo ele ter lembranças tão boas da gente (e mais fofo ainda as filhas dele terem virado flamenguistas ❤️🖤)

As I opened my eyes in the beyond, I found myself in a vast hall filled with the sounds of battle, overlooked by a grim one-eyed man - and the genocidal soldier who'd ended my life right in front of me, weapons in hand, ready to continue our fight...

Perhaps because of the cost of SFX, and the time it takes for non-human makeup (as well as how cumbersome it must be, for actors, to walk around with, say, a pair of gigantic lekku dangling from their head), but non-human characters in prominent roles have always been scarce.

Sure, we've had Yoda, Chewbacca and Jabba in the OT; Yoda, Maul and Grievous in the PT; Chewbacca and Maz Kanata in the ST; and both Threepio and Artoo throughout the whole series; but none of them is a leading character. Ahsoka is the exception, as it has two very prominent non-human characters in addition to a non-human protagonist (Ahsoka herself, Hera and Thrawn), but it's a show centred on characters originally from animation. Still, the most important characters, with the most screentime (with Threepio and Artoo's exceptions, I suppose), have always been predominantly human: Luke, Han, Leia, Lando, Tarkin, Mon Mothma; Anakin, Padmé, Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, Dooku, Palpatine; Rey, Finn, Poe, Kylo; the Rogue One crew; the kids from Skeleton Crew (Neel being the one exception)...

Andor is perhaps the "worst" in that regard. Much as I love that show, it feels weird in how "human-centric" it is, even compared to other SW works. With imperial oppression being a core theme, with a whole episode being entirely set in an imperial prison, it would've been interesting to see a non-human's experience under the empire.

But if SFX and makeup are concerns for a live action production, animation makes it so that non-human characters are not much harder to include than human ones - and, not coincidentally, it's in animated shows that we're gifted the highest number of prominent non-human characters: Ahsoka, Maul (originally from live action, but shines the most in animation), Hera, Asajj Ventress, Zeb, Cad Bane, the Grand Inquisitor, Barris Offee, a whole cast of jedi masters (many of whom, though introduced in live action, only get some respectable screen time in Clone Wars), and now Devon and Daki.

Videogames too tend to have lots of prominent non-human characters (though iirc only Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy allows the possibility of non-human protagonists. Seriously, I'd kill for an RPG with a Baldur's Gate 3-like character creator that allowed me to play as multiple races, each with its own unique traits).

The only criticism I have is that, for all the diversity in animated shows, non-human characters... let's say, unique biology rarely plays any role beyond the aesthetical, which makes their "alienness" a bit shallow. I read somewhere that Twi'lek uses their lekku to convey signs and gestures, and that Togruta's montrals give them greater spatial awareness; but we don't actually see that onscreen. For a comparison: in the Mass Effect series, our alien companions' unique biologies occasionally come up in conversation, sometimes as concerns those companions must be mindful of (like Tali having to be careful of direct contact with the protagonist because her race is immunodeficient).

Even so, it's nice to see people other than humans play prominent roles in Star Wars stories, and animation seems to be the medium where they can thrive more freely. With Maul: Shadow Lord (and, I'd argue, the Tales series) establishing a new standard of quality, I really hope more animated shows are made where non-human characters continue to shine (and, hopefully, get more fleshed out).