#if you hate Shauna why are you even watching the show for real……

[juniperhillpatient]

I’m so shocked & confused to see people hating Shauna/Melissa & also hating on the individual characters. There’s been a lot I’m not a fan of this season & I feel like there’s a definite shift in tone particularly in the adult timeline that started a while ago & has gotten significantly worse.

But if anything Shauna Shipman’s development into a worse / more violent person in the teen timeline is the BEST part of the season. It’s a natural progression after all the pain & trauma she’s gone through & how angry & jealous of Natalie she was by the end of last season.

And Melissa??? HOW can you hate her? She’s literally just a simp for a violent woman. Girly sees the way the wind is blowing - & that Natalie doesn’t actually have as much power as it looks like just cause she’s got the title - & she’s choosing which side she’s on while also going for that evil woman. It’s hot it’s fun it makes perfect sense & it’s great drama.

I also love the commentary I saw somewhere that Shauna has always been the moon to Jackie’s sun & now it’s her turn to be the one someone worships.

Typically I role my eyes at posts like “you people say you want a violent woman / toxic yuri but can’t even handle x” because I think 90% of the time it’s just identifying two different groups of people within a fandom & equating them into one. But this time it’s not that because why the HELL were you watching the evil lesbian cannibalism show if you don’t want to see girls making out while holding each other at knife point & maiming people then going to have sex covered in blood 😭 fake ass fans got me wanting to gatekeep so bad fr 😭

[returnofeternity]

https://www.tumblr.com/returnofeternity/778777323976704000/thinking-about-coming-to-lottie-cuz-youre-getting

Hi! I loved your fic and was wondering if I could request a continuation?

Maybe after that moment with Lottie, the energy between you two is off but also, something feels off around you specifically. Like there’s a constant sense of dread following you. Almost like It is upset with you. Lottie notices, maybe Akilah too, and even Travis (though he doesn’t want to admit it). But since you said you didn’t want to believe, no one really brings it up.

Then the next card draw happens, and you already kind of know it’s coming and felt it building, so when you pull the Queen card, you don’t run—you just accept it. Some of the others are a little frustrated (they like the chase), but also kind of sad. Lottie stays quiet, but it’s clear she saw it coming and is heartbroken.

You head outside alone and Lottie follows you with a knife, offering to do it gently. She’s crying. You apologize—to her and to It—and just as she’s about to go through with it, maybe a large animal sacrifices itself again. It’s a sign that you’ve been forgiven. Lottie is relieved, and you return to camp alive, to everyone’s surprise.

· · 𐂂 · ·

god thinking about dealing with the fact that lottie broke up with you PLUS it's winter and you can't snuggle with her while she's wearing her 5 billion coats </3 it almost makes you wanna believe in the wilderness just so she'll take you back.

but on a real note. at first, the feeling that keeps following you feels like dread. which is normal because your girlfriend just broke up with you, but it's heavy and you can sense Something following you, not just the dread that comes with a break up. it gets to the point where you cant sleep anymore because it makes you feel so sick and weird, and you start getting these visions, maybe, of dead animals and just blood. blood everywhere. hallucinating it on the snowy ground, looking up at the girls to see if anyone else is seeing this shit, and ofc lottie's the only one who looks at you. she gives you a smug smile almost as if to say, "see? i told you It's real." and walks away.

maybe you feel worse when lottie's around because she's the most devoted to It. and even though she loves you, she hated the way you spoke of It—spoke of her—about how she's unwell. she knows you don't mean it though. you're just scared of It's power. you just have to let It in. she can sense whenever you see something It shows you via hallucination, smiling when you actually see it, but frowning when you push it away. maybe the wilderness tells her that you're not the one, that it's your time.

even though you don't believe in It, you just feel the worst anxiety come on when lottie suggests a hunt. you know It's going to choose you. part of you wants to just cry. part of you just wants to scream at her, "why don't you sacrifice yourself then?" but you know she'd happily take up that offer (she was so disappointed when she didn't pick the queen card 😭). the wilderness wants a real sacrifice. a hunt.

you almost raise your hand when shauna asks if there are anymore objections. almost.

when you wake up the morning of the card pull, you hear lottie's voice whisper your name from outside your hut, but when you get up to look outside, you're the only one out there. you almost feel yourself black out when getting in the circle, watching van shuffle the cards. the pressure and dread just builds and builds, and you can almost hear the shuffle of cards and the fall of snow like it's right next to your ear. everythings so loud.

you dont even look at the card you pulled before you show it to everyone. you already know. and if it wasn't obvious by the way you heard all the girls gasp, it was from the way van's shaky voice tells you she's sorry.

you peer up at lottie, feeling small. the dread in your stomach is too much now, and you wobble slightly as shauna approaches to put jackie's necklace around you.

"i don't want a hunt." you mumble, loud enough for her and the others to make out what you said. "you can just do it here."

shauna scoffs immediately and shakes her head. she wants this hunt—needs it. she looks to lottie for guidance, since she was the one who suggested the hunt in the first place. "you heard what she said. It wants a hunt."

"i'm not gonna run." you raise your voice and you push shauna's shoulders to get her away. it felt good. wrong move though, because she takes her knife from her sheath and brings it up to your throat, her eyes full of rage.

the mediator is of course lottie, who pulls shauna away and gets in between to protect you. you feel a rush of something as her hand lightly touches your arm as she talks to shauna.

"i can do it. the wilderness will still be pleased without a proper hunt." her voice is calm and steady. "they just have to give themselves to It."

when she looks back at you, there are tears in her eyes. it makes you feel even worse than the thought of dying.

much to shauna's (and some of the others) disappointment, you get off without a hunt. she slams her spear on the ground as she watches lottie lead you out into the forest, telling nat, "be ready to prepare the feast." before heading into her hut to cool down.

it's awkward as lottie leads you to your death. what are you supposed to say when your ex-girlfriend is taking you to a spot to kill you? you don't know, so you just say quiet while relishing the feeling of her hand in yours again, even despite the circumstances. when lottie thinks she's gone far enough, she turns to you, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"i promise i'll be gentle." her once steady voice is now a bit shaky. she doesn't know if it's because she's about to kill the one true love of her life, or because she's giving the wilderness what It wants.

the second you feel the knife pause against your chest, you break. everything comes pouring out at once. you try to calm yourself, furiously wiping at your face full of tears as you choke on your sobs, but you can't.

you drop to your knees before lottie. "i'm sorry, lottie. i'm sorry i didn't believe in It. i just didn't understand It. i want to, please, i'm sorry, for everything."

you hear lottie's breath hitch for just a second, and when you lift your head to look at her, her arm is raised, about to strike. but then, something emerges in the bushes in front of you. a bear.

she looks back at the sound and feels a heavy weight lift off her chest. another sacrifice.

you scramble to get up, pulling weakly at lottie's coat to get her away from the animal. she looks back at you and shakes her head, a soft smile on her lips, before she walks forward.

it's a scene similar to the aftermath of doomcoming as you watch the bear bow its head to lottie, offering itself to her. instead of you. you feel a calm wash of the forest air run over your body.

"It forgives you." is what lottie tells you on the walk back to camp. "it took courage to admit you don't understand It. you have to prove yourself to It now."

"how do i do that?" you ask her, standing awkwardly in her hut, but feeling good to be back in it. to be back with her. or, at least you think you're back together.

she smiles at you.

[antlerqueensab]

modern bsf!travis would be best friends with instagram.

not for any stupid reason, obviously. none of that performative fake bullshit from everyone else. in fact, travis’s account would be empty, a few followers and zero pictures up, never post stories, all that.

if it wasn’t for you.

no, you - being his best friend and all, always made sure that you took pictures of the two of you hanging out, you’d send them to him and then the next time you two hung out, you’d take his phone and post them. you liked him having a presence online (even if he hated it), to be able to see how people reacted to the two of you because, if we’re being honest, you were the popular one in the friendship.

travis genuinely hated instagram at first. he couldn’t stand the way everyone else on your friends list posted so often, so performative and planned, just… fake. he never opened the app except when you sent him something or asked him to check out what you posted. except he only liked you on there, how he knew what you posted was real, that you posted anything later because you liked the pictures and wanted to share your life. it was okay when you did it.

then, out of a moment of pure embarrassment, travis got desperate one night.

it was the summer, already annoyingly hot in his stuffy room and for some reason, he was just so hard in his pajama pants. maybe it was because his face was already flushed, that he hadn’t jerked off for a bit, something. he also remembered that earlier that day you’d asked him to check instagram, most likely something on your story or a few pictures you’d posted - travis figured the latter.

honestly, he was half tempted to open twitter instead (another app he hated. except for the fact watching porn on there was a lot less embarrassing than looking up a website). it was right next to instagram on his phone and he knew he needed to just get rid of the ache in his cock. but, he loved you too much to ignore you for that long, so he found himself hitting the stupid pink and colorful icon instead.

it would just be two seconds, he told himself, like whatever she posted without checking and go to twitter after.

except it wasn’t. because just his luck, you had gone to jackie’s house earlier that day because she had a pool in her backyard, ended up hanging out with her and shauna all day. which also meant, you were in a bikini.

travis vaguely remembers a facetime call a month ago where you showed him that you bought a few bikini’s. he didn’t pay much attention, now he wish he had.

he wasn’t an idiot. he knew his best friend was hot, insanely so actually. which is also why he felt so guilty for the feeling in his gut that happened as soon as he went to your account.

jesus christ, she was trying to kill him.

because with all the love in his heart for his best friend, travis could really only describe the bikini you were wearing as slutty and a terrible choice.

it was cute, yeah, but also insanely small. your tits were practically spilling out of the top, the bottoms were literal strings on your hips, tied together in a flimsy bow that looked like it could be undone with one tug.

his free hand automatically slipped down to his pants. he knew he should probably feel guilty, that you was his best friend since you two were kids, but he was also an overly hormonal high school guy and you were hot as fuck.

he found himself in a routine after that, actually. hence, his newfound love for instagram. it flipped pretty quick for him, once he got over his guilt of the fact he quite literally stopped watching porn to jack off to his best friend’s instagram pictures, he found his hand automatically making its way to your account whenever he felt that same ache in his gut.

from then, he’d find himself with his phone propped up, his face smushed against his pillow to muffle himself as his hand worked over his aching cock. he’d be half rutting against his blankets, half fucking into his hand, just anything that worked. his eyes would be trained onto you the entire time, just hoping that at some point, it’d be your hand, mouth, pussy, just anything of you, he’d take the opportunity.

then, he’d make a mess when he came, his orgasm lasting far longer than they usually used to, smearing cum all over his bare stomach, hand, and blanket. which, he’d feel embarrassed about almost immediately after, red in the face when he grabs a shirt from his hamper to wipe himself off, then trying to clean off his blanket the best he could.

that was the last time, he’d tell himself while cleaning up, she doesn’t know i’m doing this and it’s pervy. i need to quit.

except, he never did. he’d take this secret to his grave if it meant he could keep having orgasms like he did. because shamelessly, they got miles better after he started using your pictures. they felt longer, easier, better, just… more like they were supposed to.

[qvigleys]

yet again i find myself crying over misty quigley!

(rant incoming because her character means so so very much to me)

i actually cannot tolerate misty slander sorry not sorry. i can recognize some of her moral flaws, of course. but no character in this show is perfect, just like how no human in general is perfect. my love for her is mostly based in how much of myself i see in her, so a lot of this is definitely very biased, and is all just opinions.

the very first scene we see her in is her loudly cheering for a team she’s barely apart of. she is quite literally on the sidelines, yet she shows no jealously or resentment towards those that are fully involved. she’s just genuinely happy to be there, and have some resemblance of closeness to girls her age. don’t even get me started on the phone call scene??? (i will get myself started actually) she is so outwardly bullied, and it is so incredibly sad. bullying is unfortunately just the reality for so many people - myself included, which just makes it all the more real and raw. something that really stood out to me especially was the line about misty wishing someone would do anal to her, and then proceeding to call her “too ugly to find a victim”. SO HEARTBREAKING AND SO REAL. the pure look of defeat on her face actually makes my soul shatter into a billion pieces, because i know that feeling all too well. and the fact that she latches onto crystal so quickly is likely a direct product of not having very many - if any - friends. or at least that’s how i’ve found myself functioning. someone shows her the smallest bit of affection, care, and attention, and she grasps onto it so incredibly hard. to the point where she finds herself sharing her most personal and serious secrets, that she very clearly did not plan on sharing. it was almost automatic for her. she spilled her guts to the first person who would genuinely listen.

her canon backstory so far is very minimal, so a lot of this is just speculation and my own personal thoughts, but i do truly believe misty has very deep familial trauma. shauna’s line in one of the recent episodes about someone or something having warped her (misty) really stuck out to me. specifically the way she starts it with “your parents”, and proceeds to say that someone must have done something really bad to her. this could very well explain so many of her character traits and actions throughout the show.

whenever anyone brings up the rat scene, or her destroying the black box, all i can think about is the fact that we have no context behind either of those!!! the rat scene, while off-putting, could have a much deeper meaning and history behind it that we just don’t know yet. which is why i find it so unfair that people see that one scene and form a negative opinion about her. they’ll see that and call misty a horrible psycho, but then watch taissa be directly responsible for allie breaking her leg and showing next to no remorse, and draw no conclusions from that. (this is not taissa hate - i love tai dearly) as for misty destroying the black box, do you realize the things she must have gone through/must have been feeling in order to even feel the need to do that?? and it’s not like she would have known everything that would proceed to happen over the next nineteen months. it’s not like she wanted people to die, and get eaten, and for them all to descend into madness. i believe she finally thought she could be useful in the wilderness. she would finally have a role to fill, and have something to be good at. something people would praise her for. an environment where people would finally appreciate her, and what she had to offer.

i don’t think it’s fair to judge misty so harshly, while praising other characters (and ignoring/defending their obvious flaws) who have literally done equally as heinous things. after all, this is a show that is literally rooted in cannibalism and forest cults!!!! pick your favourite character that has most definitely done atrocious things, and move on. let’s all hold hands and be nice to each other please and thank you!!!

okay rant over!!! (if you actually read this whole thing you seriously deserve a medal. this is all gibberish, and incoherent nonsense that has been brought on by my insane hyperfixation on misty quigley. there was probably nothing of substance in that whole rant. anyways thank you :-))

[before-it-felt-like-a-sin]

Ima need me some more vampire Natalie head cannons. The first one is so good 🫶✨️

-❄️

Vampire Nat HCs pt. 2

A/n: Ty anon 🩷 hope u enjoy these as well

Pairing: Nat x reader

--------------------------------------------------------

When she first met your parents and your mom said "she was welcome over anytime" it meant she no longer had to ask permission to come inside, so she started showing up unannounced and waiting for you to get home

Absolutely devastated when she realized that she couldn't wear real silver jewelry after you tried to gift her an expensive silver ring and it burned her

It is a bit of a superpower, though, because when you go to the thrift store she knows what pieces are real silver

She started needing a lot more of any substance to get her drunk/high unless she drank the blood of someone who was drunk/high

Letting her drink from you when you're intoxicated so it hits her a little harder

Nat gets even more reckless when she's turned, since she has very few, very specific weaknesses

Worrying more about her even though she can't really hurt herself/die again. She does realize you're getting anxious over her and tries to be a bit more careful

Wilderness vamp Nat has to secretly hide blood from the animals Shauna butchers

Wilderness Vamp Nat who in the early days would go hunting early in the morning without Travis so that she can use her vampire senses better (she wakes you up every morning on accident, but she thinks you don't know)

Wilderness vamp Nat who when everyone else is starving seems pretty much fine because she's been feeding from you

Wilderness vamp Nat who gives both you and Shauna her portion of the meat (you because she drinks from you, Shauna because pregnant)

Vampire Nat who can change her body temperature at will so that during the winter she's your personal furnace (both in and out of the wilderness

Nat who when your family invites her on a trip to the beach literally stays inside all day, and your family has no idea why

Her Instagram is almost all candids of you (+ nature shots and such) because she can't be photographed

You had to concoct a lie about how she hates having her photo taken because people were starting to think you were ashamed to post pictures of her

She only ever drinks from either animals or you. She doesn't like drinking from other people anyways, but you at one point mentioned how you'd probably be upset, since it's so intimate.

You've talked about her feeding and came to the conclusion that she can feed on others when she's starving, but that's it

By then she'd come to you anyway though

She can eat but doesn't need to, so when you or your family invite her to dinner she goes

Has a mild garlic intolerance (the Italian cancels out most of the vampire on that one) so she doesn't even try to avoid it most of the time. Which means you can take her to shitty Italian places for dates

Sometimes when she wants to impress you, she'll use her vampire abilities during soccer games. It's not cheating.

If you want to go outside she has to put on insane amounts of sunscreen, so she always smells weirdly like coconuts

When she sleeps over she never really sleeps, just lying there watching as you're asleep. Sometimes she reads or like paints her nails, but most of the time she literally just lies next to you and watches you as you sleep. Sometimes you wake up and she her staring at you, and she always immediately looks away

Occasionally she'll force herself to sleep because she gets so bored without you

You, on the other hand, try to stay up as late as possible so that she has someone to entertain her. You always fall asleep somewhere between four and five a.m., but by then she's mostly ready to leave anyways

Always kisses you goodnight before she goes

[age-re-side]

Scary Movie!

Mari and Shauna join forces to watch Nat's new scary movie, scream 2, but things don't go as planned and start to feel a little too real.. !!! does talk about murdering and screams ghostface, so yeah, just in case that might bother you! !!!!

Mari had never noticed how many shadows could look like monsters. Not the under-the-bed monsters that she had Gen secretly check for at bed time, but real monsters that were lurking outside the windows. Peering in at her and waiting to snatch her down to a dark pit full of something horrible, like spikes or murderers. 

Watching Nat's new super scary video that they were under no circumstances to see seemed such a good idea that she didn’t even mind joining forces with Shauna, but now she was really regretting it. 

Neither of them were saying anything, but they were shuffling closer by the minute. Shauna had pressed up against Mari’s side a while back, and they were both gripping each other's hands, despite their sweaty palms. That only made her feel worse, because if Shauna was afraid, maybe there really was something to be scared of?

The killer in the film kept popping up and stabbing with his sharp knife. Mari couldn't figure out how he kept getting them. Didn’t anyone in scary movies look around? 

“I don’t like this”

Shauna didn’t reply, but she pressed even further -had they ever been so close without fists flying?- and Mari knew that she didn’t like this either. Then the music tensed and Mari knew something bad was about to happen. The distorted mask showed up again and someone screamed, which made Mari jolt and send the remote falling to the floor with a loud clack. 

And then there were footsteps that creaked on the stairs. Not movie footsteps, but real footsteps. Footsteps that were only one room over.

“Mari” Shauna whispered “Ghostface is here! He’s in the house!”

Mari didn’t waste time and threw the blanket over their head, like it was armor. She squeezed her eyes shut and whispered an apology to Nat for stealing her video. She was about to be murdered, and next to Shauna of all people!

The footsteps creaked closer and Shauna let out a sharp squeal. Mari hid her face in her knees and wailed. She didn’t want to die! The footsteps were louder now, pounding as they made a direct beeline for the living room. The blanket was snatched from over their heads and Shauna began to flail her arms, which meant Mari had to move away from her and even closer to the killer with the big sharp knives, which meant that she would get got first and she was going to die cold and alone and-

“Shauna? Mari?”

Tai. That was Tai’s voice. Tai who was most certainly not going to get them with sharp knives. Tai was standing in front of them, and that thought made Mari finally feel brave enough to look around. Shauna was still on the sofa, snot and tears covering her blotchy face, and Tai was putting down a glass of water and calling for Nat, although that seemed unnecessary since Mari could hear commotion upstairs already. 

Lottie was definitely howling and Mari thought she could hear Jackie yelling too. More chaos was coming from the stairs. Nat was rushing down in her boxers and band shirt and Misty was close on her tail. Nat skidded in and took one look at the television and muttered a swear.

“Are you kidding me?” She hissed, snatching the remote from the floor and stabbing the off button. “Why would you two want to watch that?” 

Mari shrank back down and wished that she had someone to cuddle her like Tai was doing to Shauna. Why was she always left on the outer? 

“C’mere Marzi.” 

Mari clambered into Natalie's waiting arms and breathed in her comforting scent. Maybe Nat didn’t hate her after all.

“Of all the videos you two could have chosen, why did you choose that one? Why not sneak out of bed and watch Casper?” Tai asked them. 

Shauna let out a sob that hurt Mari’s ears. “It wasn't our fault! Nat said that we couldn’t watch it ‘cause it's for big girls, but we’re big girls.”

“I never said you couldn’t watch it like.. ever. Just not while you were little, and not just I’m-feeling-a-bit-older big, but properly and fully big. Okay?” 

Mari nodded at Nat's words and nuzzled further in her shirt. “Are we in trouble?” Maybe if she and Shauna looked sad enough they might get off the hook. Mari felt Nat sigh into her hair and rubbed her hands up and down Mari's arms.

 “Not tonight kiddo. We’re gonna talk tomorrow though, when everyone's had more rest. Tai, are you alright taking Shauna? I’ll take you, Marzi. And who’s hiding in the doorway, huh?”

Mari turned and saw Jackie trail in, looking spooked. Had they really woken the entire house?

[shaunamilfman]

Where the Lovelight Gleams

pairing: Shauna Shipman x reader summary: Christmas drabble Christmas Masterlist

You hold Shauna's hand tightly against yours, stuffed in the pocket of her jacket in a pointless search for warmth. Shauna has insisted that you had to go out to see the light tonight, even though you would be there for the rest of the week. Why it has to be the coldest night in your entire stay, you aren't sure, but she was so insistent on it. 

It would be one thing if the town square was anything particularly impressive, but like everything else in her hometown, it seems to be disappointingly small. The worst part is that Shauna herself doesn't even seem to be impressed by the whole thing, which leads you to question why she wanted to come so badly in the first place. 

It's not that she's having a bad time, not with how eager she is to drag you from place to place with an adorable skip in her step. Every so often she stops in front of something utterly inconspicuous–a lit storefront or a lamp with an uninspiring wreath on it.

She'd gotten you to take no less than four different pictures with her in front of the big Christmas tree, even resorting to bribing you with paying for the hot chocolate in order to get the last one. You decided to be the bigger person and not point out that she was always going to be the one paying, if only to watch the way her face lit up as she handed it to you. 

Her cheeks were flushed, either from the cold or sheer excitement. It wasn’t like your girlfriend to be so interested in a place like this. Truthfully, she had never seemed all that interested in holiday events, so it had really caught you by surprise.

Shauna rolls her eyes as she catches you eyeing her hot chocolate, glancing away to pretend to look at the lights above you until she wordlessly lifts the cup up to your lips. You had your own cup, of course. But the keyword was had. That cup has long since made its way to a trash can. 

Besides, Shauna's tasted better anyway. 

You grin over at her as you take a sip, enjoying the way the twinkling lights look reflected in her eyes.

“It’s kind of lame, isn’t it?” She asks, bumping her hip playfully against yours.

“...I wouldn’t say that,” you say slowly, wondering if she’s trying to lead you into a trap.

“I would. I always thought so.” She looks around slowly, dragging you back toward the tree. You laugh joyfully, breath coming out in white puffs of air as she brings you to a stop. Shauna rests her head against your shoulder as she looks up at the tree.

“Then why…?” You ask, trailing off as you rest your head against hers.

“Jackie always used to drag me here with Jeff. Always insisted on not doing stuff like this without me, since we used to go together as kids. It just sucked, having to follow them around with the camera this whole time while he was all over her.” 

Shauna pauses, squeezing your hand tightly in hers with a bitter smile on her face. “They’d be laughing together, and I’d just also be here. I kept thinking about how much I hated it the whole time and how much I wanted to come here with someone who wanted to be here with me one day.”

You can almost see it: a teenaged Shauna getting dragged around the square by an equally teenaged Jackie, her gloomy expression matched by Jackie's enthusiasm as she directed the show. The thought of Shauna's broody expression behind the camera as she glares at Jeff almost brings a smile to your lips, but you brush the thought away in favor of imagining how lonely it must have felt. 

Despite how close she and Jackie obviously were, a lot of Shauna's stories from high school seem to have a common theme. The more you hear about it, the more you start to suspect that Shauna was the only one making herself feel that way, but it still felt real to her. Having an unhappy girlfriend this close to Christmas simply won't do. 

Shauna breathes out a sigh. “Well, it’s not that Jackie didn’t want to be here with me, but it just wasn’t–”

“The same?” You finish. Shauna nods slowly, pressing a kiss against your shoulder.

You want to kiss her right now more than anything, but the two of you are getting enough suspicious looks as it is that you don't dare to risk it. 

“I guess you got your wish, then.” 

Shauna laughs softly. “I guess I did.”

“It still sucks, though,” she admits in a low whisper as she looks around. “I don't think they even try.”

“How about we get some more hot chocolate–” 

“Highlight of the night,” she agrees. 

“And then we'll drive around to go look at lights instead,” you finish. 

“And maybe while we're in my car…” Shauna trails off expectantly, a hopeful note re-entering her voice. You could always count on her for one thing. 

“Ask again when the heater’s on.” 

Her laugh is quieter this time, but it feels lighter than before as she drags you back toward the coffee shop.

[antlrrqueen]

finale thoughts

s3ep10 yj spoilers below

(i originally wrote this the morning after i watched it, but added more today.)

i have a LOT to say.

first of all. I PREDICTED SO MUCH. TAI EATING VAN'S HEART. CALLIE ACCIDENTALLY(ish) KILLING LOTTIE. AN ACTUAL LOTTIE DEATH SCENE. SHAUNA ANTLER QUEEN.

yall were so mad about so much that happened this season, only to be proven wrong and/or given what you wanted later on. that's the thing about this show, about tv, about WEEKLY EPISODES. you need to wait. the story needs to unfold! although it hasn't been perfect, you CANNOT call it bad writing and swear the show off just because your favorite character died. or because you don't learn everything right away. lottie's death was supposed to be a mystery, and we got EVERYTHING we wanted in her scene in the finale. it was explained, of course it was!! i'm not saying that lottie's fate and story this season was perfect, it had flaws, but also - this is the show where everybody dies, and they can die any way. you can be upset about it, but at a certain point, maybe don't be super surprised.

a theme this season was things getting blown out of proportion, and that directly leads into misleading the fans and causing them to wonder and think and theorize.

i think it's really interesting to think about which adult survivors got the plane scene. nat and van had the plane scene because of the way they died and the POV, but i also believe that the plane was shuttling them back to the wilderness. they tried to leave, to escape it, but they never could.

i think that lottie didn't get a plane scene because 1. we don't see her death in real time and from her perspective, so it would be difficult to execute and wouldn't make sense. 2. lottie never left the wilderness. she didn't need to be shuttled back. up to her LAST MOMENT she was fully in it, fully attached to it.

also, it's so so fucking cool to see the pit girl scene finally, actually unfold. because at first, it seems like it's a misdirect! but no, everything falls into place. things go where they need to, mari takes her clothes off to blend in, giving it even more of a ritualistic appearance. we don't see all of the dialogue and conflict that's actually happening in this scene, because it's meant to set the show up, AND because in the pilot, it's fully from mari's POV!

(and it's meant to mislead us)

and also, at least for me, something that i always always wondered about was the logistics of the pit. it was assumed that the pit was something that was planned by the group for this exact reason. and i always wondered: why didn't pit girl know about the pit if she was one of the girls?

especially after learning from s2 that the draw was random, how did she not know??! and/or how much prep time did they have before the hunt??

but the answer is: almost none of them knew about the pit! if anything, a/THE reason that mari fell into the pit was because she was taking the same route that she took running away from camp at the beginning of the season.

+ on the topic of writing and the writers, it pisses me off like CRAZY how everyone's attacking the writers. yes, it hasn't always been good! but ALSO! don't fucking say you hate the writers and want to kill them or whatever because they killed lottie or van or mari or made shauna AQ. they are writing the fucking show. your favorite character isn't always going to stay alive. you cannot be a brat. please, bring up valid arguments! but don't just swear off the writers because van didn't survive the entire fucking show.

A DEATH HAPPENS IN THE SHOW IF IT NEEDS TO HAPPEN. THERE ARE REASONS THAT DEATHS HAPPEN.

mari has been dead from the start, she's been pit girl from the start, and she had amazing time on the show! (character-wise). and did so fucking well! fuck, i mean mari's one of my favorites, and i'm honestly glad she was pit girl. her death had meaning, it was one of the deaths with the MOST meaning in the show. you're allowed to be upset. but be upset for valid reasons, or just because you're sad your favorite is dead.

it does not always need to be this serious. calm down, you guys.

and i keep saying this, but i feel like i need to keep saying this so i'm not ripped to shreds; you can still have criticisms of the show! there are things that this show, this season, hasn't done right. but you also need to let things play out, you need to look at the bigger picture and think for a second before blowing up. things take time, and characters are put on the show to create the show, move the plot forward, and for us to watch. sometimes that means that they have to die. sometimes it even makes a character more interesting, more tragic!

the show cannot go exactly how you want it to. you need to accept that.

[definitelysapphic]

not to be a mari but i hate the “they’re hallucinating the camp” theory. given the internal logic of this show, i really don’t think it’s stretch that they could manage to build shelter (especially with handy lesbian tai tyvm) and catch some ducks. we know everyone who survived the crash are at least passable at survival skills (except jackie, whose incompetence at survival is why we know the rest are competent at it). we’ve seen them create things from materials in nature on multiple occasions (doomcoming decorations, gifts for shauna’s baby, a pyre for jackie’s body, winter clothing) and anything they didn’t get from the wilderness is very clearly repurposed from the plane (seats, leather hoods). it makes sense that ducks would migrate back to their area after the winter ends, which based on shauna’s pregnancy timeline we know must’ve been shortly after the cabin burned down. just because we don’t see those weeks of transition doesn’t mean it’s not real. it doesn’t require that much suspension of disbelief for this show considering not a single one of them have died of infection (vans facial wounds, lottie getting the shit beat out of her, shauna’s birth) or something similarly realistic like parasites from eating the bear. and if they were all collectively hallucinating, wouldn’t shauna, jaded as she is, see right through it? she’s calling out van’s survival narrative as bullshit. she clearly doesn’t need to buy into delusion to keep herself going. and also if a collective hallucination were the case, how do we explain the cave? group hallucination inception? they’re having an unrealistic hallucination on top of their realistic hallucination? i don’t buy it. whenever the girls have been out of touch with reality the things they see aren’t naturally possible (the bacchanal, lottie at the mall with dead laura lee, jackie also seeing dead laura lee, shauna akilah and van seeing dead jackie in class, shauna seeing her baby as a living toddler, van getting attacked by the undead, an actual llama taking to akilah, and even the more ‘realistic’ ones like shauna trying to get her baby to latch or ben and his boyfriend had a healthy dose of out of character moments from the girls and bens bf to show it wasn’t real). as for the tone shift, damn do none of y’all compartmentalize? as for the emotional shift, damn do none of y’all experience seasonal depression? that’s why van as a storyteller is important for group morale. and speaking of morale, from a writing standpoint why would they open the season with the girls who went through so much devastation in the finale with even more suffering? there have to be highs and lows. do you want to watch them gathering sticks for a hut in the cold? bc i don’t. depressing and boring. new season, new beginning makes perfect sense to me. not to mention there’s only so many characters left to be eaten and we still have a whole other winter to go lol. if im wrong i’ll eat my words but this theory seems like a big stretch to me

[emometalhead]

i implore you to yell about yellowjackets it would make me happy

Hi Syd!! Thank you thank you thank you for this ask!! I have become so consumingly obsessed with this show, and I am very excited to yell about it!! Also thank you for your patience since it took me a full week to actually get around to this.

Okay this is pretty much just going to be a ramble about my overall thoughts.

I had being seeing posts about the show for years, but I never paid too much attention to them. I knew since the show came out that I wanted to watch it eventually. It was just a matter of actually getting around to it. (Which I'm notorious for saying.) I knew it had cannibalism and lesbianism, and obviously both of those things appealed to me.

I did make sure I wasn't seeing any posts about the show while actively watching. I wanted to avoid all spoilers, and that definitely made the experience a very personal one. I wasn't subjected to any outside opinions or theories until after I caught up with the most recent episode. I thoroughly enjoyed being in my own bubble in terms of opinions. I am grateful for the wealth of fan content for the show, but I don't really care to get too involved with how other people are interpreting things. (Besides Ella. Hi Ella if you see this. I love everything you ponder and comment about the show.)

The thing that shocked me most when first seeing online fan opinions was that people seem very divided on Shauna. I want to make this very clear. I LOVE HER. Gaslight gatekeep girlboss. I support women's rights and women's wrongs. Bloody, murderous Melanie Lynskey is an actual goddess. So damn hot. Melanie and Sophie Nélisse are incredibly talented actresses, and it is an honor to have them grace my screen.

I really enjoy all of the characters. Everyone is layered and complex. They all have very full, distinct personalities. It is too rare to see a cast of developed female characters, and I am so happy to see them here. I feel so much sympathy for all of these characters, but I also love that they're not purely sympathetic. They've done bad things. They've had negative intentions and selfish motivations. They're full of rage and grief and passion. They went through this incredibly traumatic thing together, but they all have different ways of coping that make sense for their unique personalities.

I'm so happy that there's canon lesbians in the show!!!!!!! I'm so used to crumbs and subtext. Seeing women kiss, engage in actual relationships, and be intimate on-screen is so beautiful. Van and Tai make my heart soar!!!!!!! 🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷 The fact that the actors who play the teen versions of the characters (and the actress who is adult Tai) are openly queer in real life makes it even more wonderful. I love queer people playing queer characters. Representation on and off screen is so important and meaningful to me.

Also the cast is extremely attractive. Like omg why are all of them so hot??!?!?!?! I'm in love with Sophie Thatcher. And Courtney Eaton. And Liv Hewson. And honestly literally all of the cast. They're also just all such good actors.

I will now briefly talk about the men. As a person who loves and hates and loves Pretty Little Liars, it is so fun that Coach Ben is played by the actor who was Emily's ex boyfriend Ben on PLL. I don't like his PLL character, but it's still funny that Steven Krueger plays guys named Ben in both of the things I've seen him in. (Spoiler) I'm really sad Coach Ben died. I felt really sad for him. It was clear he completely didn't know how to deal with the situation they were in. He was depressed about losing his leg. He didn't have any authority over the girls anymore, and he was an outsider to them in a few ways. Also he was justified in being freaked out by the cult behavior and cannibalism. Even though it is understandable why the girls turned to that stuff, I don't think it was wrong of him to be worried about his safety. Everyone on the show is tragic, but I do feel really bad about him. Also rip to another gay character.

I also have so many feelings about Travis. I am devastated about how he died. I really wish we got to see more (or really any) of him in the adult timeline. His relationship to the girls is unique due to him also being an outsider but working to fit in. He's a guy and not a member of the team, but he finds his role, eventually joins in on the cult religion, and becomes one of them in a way the coach never did. My heart really broke for him when Javi died. Sibling tragedies in media always get to me. Travis' relationship with the cult religion also fascinates me. He clearly believes it to an extent, but he isn't fully committed. (He indulged Lottie for a time, but then pawned off his visionary role to Akilah and tried to kill Lottie.) The fact that he tried to return to self harm as a means of interacting with the religion again as an adult becomes more upsetting as his teen character develops in the show. When his death happened, I was distraught for Natalie. I didn't really mourn Travis at that point. Now, I think it's so sad watching his teen self fight for survival knowing the fate that will befall him. He will never truly escape the wilderness. None of them will. Also Kevin Alves is great in No Good Deed! It took me a while to realize where I recognized him from, but he's a good actor and that's another good show!

Oh god I feel like I should do a paragraph about my thoughts and feelings on all the women too, but this is going to be essay length if I do that 😭😭. I have so much to say on all of them 😭😭. I'm so curious to see what truly happened to Lottie. I need Shauna to either kill Melissa or have an intense, passionate, toxic makeout session. (Or both. Teen Melissa kissing Shauna when she had a knife against her throat was so hot.) I'm proud of Misty for standing up for herself against Shauna, but also omg I can't have them fighting right now. 😭 Everyone is dying off. I need the alive people to be okay with each other. I already know I'm not going to handle Taissa's reaction to Van's death well. I am beyond upset about Van's death.

Okay I don't have time to talk about each woman individually, so maybe another time. I'm going to talk about a few scenes. The music on the show is great! I love the vibes, and I love how they time the musical moments. Jeff playing Last Resort after finding out about Shauna's affair was priceless. Him playing F*** Tha Police outside the police station was perfect. Nookie playing while Shauna lost control of her car and nearly drove over people in a park was hilarious. The show is quite stressful and emotional, but there's some great comedy woven throughout. That being said, the scenes around Shauna's labor were some of the toughest things I've ever had to watch on television. Sophie Nélisse deserves all of the awards. I was balling my eyes out and had to stop to collect myself. I still tear up thinking about how haunting it was to hear her ask why they couldn't hear the baby crying. Even without all of the other traumas she faced (I don't even know how to begin talking about Jackie's death), that instance alone makes me forgive her for any behavior afterwards. I can't even fathom. She can have a little insanity, rage, and murder as a treat. It's fine. It's all fine.

I think I need to find like a set of questions from a fandom ask game or something so I can have structure to what I'm talking about lol. I feel like I have one million things to say, and even after this ramble there's still so much to say. I might add onto this later and go character by character lol. I need to go have dinner now 😭.

Thank you again for asking, Syd!!!!! I am grateful for you. I truly have not stopped thinking about this show all week. I can't believe it took me so long to get around to it, but binging it in three days was such an amazing experience. I already feel the need to rewatch it so I can catch every detail I might have missed.

[persevereforahappyending]

i think the majority of the fandom agrees with your thoughts. the only people who might disagree are the shauna lovers. you can see the quality dropping with each season, and that’s sad because this series has so much potential. season 1 was so good, they felt like real characters with actual dynamics, shauna and tai’s friendship, tai and ahkila, etc. even the adults had interesting plots going on, like tai with her political career and family, lottie as a cult leader and then they just decided to drop everything. it pisses me off that they pushed the characters into these little boxes, the adults don’t even interact organically anymore. and then they gave way too much screen time to side characters who definitely didn’t need it (randy, melissa, jeff)

lottie is my fav, so i might be biased, but the way they set up her storyline in season one and two felt like she’d done something terrible to them only to scrap that idea entirely. it doesn’t make sense why everyone hates her in the adult timeline if she didn’t even do anything terrible in the teen one, especially nat. why does nat hate her more than shauna??? it doesn’t make sense, even the card draw thing wasn’t lottie’s idea, and then in the end of season 3, the characters are like “omg it was all shauna’s fault” and shauna says they had fun, and tai says she “forgot” what shauna did??? that’s textbook bad writing

about the adults dying, i don’t think it was planned, at least not the way it happened. but nat’s actress decided she didn’t want to do the show anymore, so they killed her off. i still wish they’d just recast her. then they killed lottie to make space for melissa, and even the actress was pissed about it because there was so much to explore with lottie’s character. and van was supposed to die in the teen timeline, either during the wolf attack or she was going to kill herself, icr, but they liked the actress for teen van, so they decided to keep her alive. they probably killed her off later because they never really had a plan for her character in the adult timeline. now they’re definitely going with the “they’re all going to die” trope, and i wouldn’t put it past them to have the final scene be all the characters together in the plane, like some LOST bullshit

i really love ghost jackie, maybe i just really like ella purnell 🤷‍♀️, but she said she would keep playing jackie so i don’t think ghostie jackie is going away anytime soon

Putting this under a cut because it got long and I started to ramble. It's been a while since I've gotten to discuss a show like this and it's truly one of my favorite things to do so I just had so much to say.

Well, I'm glad my opinions aren't completely out there. I definitely already knew where my biggest disagreement would be coming from. Yeah, season 1 you can really tell they had a plan. Then come season 2 it seemed like they really shifted their plans for everything. I keep seeing everyone talk about how this show is meant to be 5 seasons. And I can totally get that, and I would love that if that was what was said and planned since season 1 but whatever happened after season 1 really seemed to change things. I don't know what the original plan was but they're very clearly not following the original intended plan because there's such a drastic shift in characters and relationships and not in a way that makes sense or will make sense but in the we've changed our minds sense.

I will say I did have some issues with season 1 in the adult timeline, but it was still the best plotted of the seasons. My issues mainly come from the blackmail part, it was interesting, but at least from what I can remember when watching (it's been a month so forgive me) was that no one was being proactive enough. They would meet up and talk or this and that and eventually they decided to try setting up the blackmailer, but it felt like there was a lot of just waiting and talking. Which is why the Misty/Nat plot of investigating what happened to Travis was more interesting to me because every episode they were actively doing something to further that plot along. It's also probably one of the reasons I like adult Misty so much because she's always proactive and actively investigating or taking action.

But they dropped so much they set up in season 1 like you said. Nothing was completely forgotten about (off the top of my head) but they quickly explained everything away. Like, at the end of season 1 Tai wins the senate race and they touch it a bit in season 2 but it's quickly dropped and she's stepping down before every actually taking office. Same with her family, they introduce them, they leave her (rightfully so might I say) and occasionally they're mentioned but when she's with Van almost completely forgotten about. I can see a logic as to why Tai is no longer with her family, I can see why she'd step down in her political career, but it's all so sudden. Kind of like they started these storylines then decided they didn't want to continue with them so found the best/quickest way to kill them.

The ending of season 1 was very dark and ominous with Lottie standing there all creepy and Van and Misty behind her. If they continued with that vibe I can totally see why everyone would hate, her in the adult timeline. But they didn't. Was Lottie still weird and doing questionable things? Yes. Very much. But in season 1 she was a lot darker and more intense with the whole "wilderness" stuff. Season 2 & 3 it kind of became she didn't really care if you believed or not. Lottie is more a victim of everyone else. There were so many moments in season 2 where Lottie didn't say a single word but others like Mari, or Misty, or Van talked for her basically. Like, with the hunting competition with Nat. Lottie isn't the one who said anything about being better at providing food than Nat, she was literally just sitting in the corner and once they said that stuff and agreed to a competition, she kind of had a "what the fuck" look on her face.

I think the anger at Lottie is very missed placed. Sure, Lottie said and did things but at the end of the day Lottie wouldn't have had an ounce of power if no one followed her. Van, Misty, Mari, Akilah, Travis, some of those other people whose name I don't know, they basically gave her power and just believed everything she said. And the ones that questioned it, Jackie, Natalie, Ben, were easily cast out and pushed aside. Nat learned to play into it and just go with it because the group was for this and going against the group is what was dangerous. But also no one forced them to believe Lottie or her visions or anything, they willingly believed all that. So, in the adult timeline I think it's easier for them to blame Lottie. Like you said, Lottie didn't start the hunt. She didn't even want that! She said to eat her if she were to die. No one wanted that but her "followers" were the ones strictly against Lottie dying because they saw her as more important. As a group they decided to hunt each other and draw cards. And then it was Misty who basically told Lottie to keep her mouth shut because Lottie was very against the idea of them hunting each other. Paraphrasing here but Lottie learned the truth and was basically like "what the fuck, this isn't what I wanted." and Misty told her not to make the others feel guilty. Then Misty went and told them Lottie approved so unless something is revealed later then the group never knew Lottie was never for hunting each other.

I can definitely understand how they can "forget" what happened. It was traumatic. The brain blocks things that are traumatic to protect you. That is a real thing. 100% believable. I could even see Tai not fully remembering out of everyone since she already blacks out and doesn't remember when "other Tai" takes over. However, I don't see them blocking out so much that they completely forget what Shauna did. I could see Tai not wanting to remember and that playing a part as to why she still talks to Shauna because in the wilderness they were practically besties. Especially in season 3. That's one of the reasons I started to not like Tai. Tai had always been logical, and she still has that, but she was a little too on Shauna's side in season 3 and not questioning anything. Part of me thinks that's because she didn't like Natalie being in charge which we gathered from her convo with Van and that she would be a better leader. I think Tai knew she would never lead the group, but they could rally around Shauna, and she'd have more say with Shauna as a leader. That was one of my theories in season 3.

If they had to change their plans so much all because 1 actress left, then they really should have just recast. I didn't like Nat's death and not just because Nat is my favorite character. That whole scene felt so off like it wasn't supposed to play out that way. I don't know when the actress told them she was leaving so maybe it was poor planning and grasping because they needed to write the season, but it felt very sudden and not planned out. It came off as very last minute like it wasn't supposed to go that way and then they had to change it and that was the easiest way to do it. I know many people don't like recasts (I don't usually) but if you need to recast so you don't compromise your story then that's the best thing to do. Shows always seem to go downhill when the compromise their story because an actor left and they tried not to recast or because of audience influence. There's a fine line between listening to your audience and not compromising your story but that's a different discussion. But if they had a plan and that plan got changed so drastically because of 1 character then that character was too important. The character was too important for the overall story and clearly needed to stay around because getting rid of them changes too much. It can change everything. It changes everything set up. It changes so much that the show no longer flows like it should have. And if that's how important a character is then recasting is the best solution.

Lottie was so interesting! They could have done so much with her! Look, I think I said, I'm for everyone dying. Like, one of the only times I kind of want that to be the ending now. But they should have at least waited. I think killing off Lottie and Van in the same season was a mistake. Now it's only Tai, Shauna, Misty, and Melissa left. So, if this show is going for 5 seasons still then they're either not going to have a big death in season 4 or we're going to go into season 5 with only 3 of them at most. Of course, that's if there isn't another secret survivor out there for them to introduce.

I can see why they like teen Van. I also really liked adult Van. However, if they didn't have an actual plan for her then this would fall under my don't compromise your story opinion. I've seen shows do this too many times where they like an actor (because they're amazing obviously) so they keep them around just to keep the actor around and it always just ends up dragging things out. Now, there's been times when they liked an actor so much and changed their plans and it worked out, but it usually doesn't change the story. Now, I don't think adult Van changed the story at all, but it also didn't really add anything. Besides being with Tai, she didn't really have much of a plot.

Side note: Bringing up the wolf attack reminds me. First off, I think they should have killed off more characters that way, it would have really expressed the dangers of the wilderness. But that's not the point. Van was attacked and then they just decide to burn her body! My first thought was, they're not even checking for a pulse? And then well, she's alive! And it still bothers me. The fact that they didn't even check to see if she was still breathing.

Anyway. I totally think they're on the "they're all going to die" route now. I could totally see the final scene being them all on the plane again. The only ones to get plane scenes are the adults. Except for Lottie but she was still heavily "connected" to the wilderness. One scene I think I fully believe will happen is in the series finale Shauna gets killed and her plane scene will have young Shauna (obviously) and Jackie. I think that will be the next time we actually see Jackie and not Shauna's subconscious manifesting itself as a version of Jackie. But if Javi was in Nat's plane scene, then Jackie has to be in Shauna's. I didn't like Lost at the end. I also don't remember a thing about it, but I remember not like it. But I think I'd be okay with this in killing everyone off and them ending on "going back" to the wilderness. Kind of like they all "died" out there. Or they were meant to die out there type of thing. Because the version of them that returned is definitely not the same kids that got on the plane that version of them died.

And before I forget. If they never intended to kill off the adults and that all changed when Juliette Lewis left, then that makes total sense as to why every single adult death hasn't felt right. The deaths in the teen timeline seem more thought out and planned but in the adult timeline not as much.

Oh I 100% just like Ella Purnell. I will admit that. I am bias for wanting more ghost, Jackie. I've seen people complain about too much ghost Jackie and I was honestly disappointed because there really isn't that much of her. Season 2 & 3 she's only in 3 episodes and it's for like 1 scene. That's really not a lot.

[wheeein]

I don't usually complain about bad takes but I have seen soooo many terrible Yellowjackets takes on tumblr.com.....

Listen, I never thought Yellowjaclets was a good show. It's definitely not bad! But it's not good either. But so many people are dissapointed with the finale not really because they would think it didn't make sense but because THEY wanted a different story (people complaining we didn't see the characters who have done unspeakable things do unspeakable things one more time). Idk about you but I have seen with my eyes something important happen between last time they had a hunt and now...they saw real hope of being rescued. How could that NOT have affected their thoughts and actions?

I saw similar takes with Arcane s02 actually. It's not that there wasn't anything to critique, it's that people felt entitled to a story and politics they wanted the show to have. Which, I don't understand... If you want an exact replica of your ideas why even watch anything?

Again, to me there is a difference between this and a critique! It's just hard to explain where the line is.

Also, I do not enjoy the adult YJ timeline much but I also saw takes that Jeff must know everything they have done (are we sure? When was the last time we saw Shauna write? Was she really super detailed about the plot or did she at one point just continuously complain about how she's not respected?) And the memory thing being added on to explain past adult timeline and people not hating Shauna (yes adult timeline definitely has far less direction than the wilderness but saying the writers NEVER thought that their characters forgot things before s03 is a bit silly to me.)

[kinetic-elaboration]

April 13: Yellowjackets 3x09

You wouldn't know it from the state of my apartment but I did quite a bit of cleaning today and then rewarded myself, sorta, with Yellowjackets. Only one more episode left.

Biggest thing to say is RIP adult!Van my beloved soft butch. Like, I have some real mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I'd rather her die like this than of cancer, and it was fairly clear that she wasn't doing anything in this season in general, like what was there to cut short? Nothing.

On the other hand, the actors are a huge part of what makes this show so fun to watch, especially the adult timeline, and I have a Thing about Lauren Ambrose. I really didn't care if she wasn't doing anything. She could have been reading the phone book. She could have continued treading narrative water for another two seasons (just eating and fucking lol--that's her S3 story with Tai) and that's fine. The adult timeline is kind of all over the place anyway so why not.

And also--even though this is a problem with Van's story and not Van's death, I'm just really, really frustrated that Van was made a survivor and Ambrose was cast just for like.... nothing to happen with her, really. So now that it's over, I just feel kind of let down overall. I was thinking about those comments Ambrose made about what the show could have done with its adult queer women who find each other again and like.... yeah, there is so much more to be done with Tai and Van than whatever that was. Dare I suggest that this was written by straight people? (And yet--3/4 of the people playing Tai and Van are queer so it's not like there's not a resource there...)

Like it just seems so central to me that Tai and Van could only be open in their relationship in 1996/97 after they totally abandoned society. For a wilderness hellscape, but still. The show sort of points to this aspect when Tai talks about not being able to be together back there, but then she mostly focuses on wanting to clean up loose ends and not have her Perfect Future destroyed by being a known cannibal, etc. But then they DO break up, because of the homophobia, and then Tai comes out anyway and makes her queerness, like, part of her whole political campaign! Like there's honestly so much to mine there! Without going into how Tai is straight up still married in S3 and has a kid.

And then there's Shauna, now canonically queer, and somehow this has also never come up. Like.... I'm sorry but this is also screaming Straight Writers to me because my experience with queer people is we love talking about our queerness. Are her teammates the only people who know she's bi? Have she and Tai ever bonded over this specifically? Is being closeted yet another aspect of her suburban repression? I think the adult timeline falls too much into this trap of 'oh homophobia is over actually and no one cares about anyone's sexuality anymore.' Pure hetero speak and objectively untrue.

Also, I don't know how I feel about the specific mechanism of her death. I mean, again, better than cancer, and overall thematically makes sense, but in the exact moment of it, the minutiae of it... there was meaning in Van choosing not to kill Melissa but not in Melissa killing her. They really have no relationship or history at all (unless M is still mad about that side-eye of the M/S hookups? lol). Melissa has no particular history of Wilderness Cult Worship. It just... felt shoe-horned, honestly.

I also don't think Melissa should have been a survivor or have the size of a role that she's had though... she feels very blah to me. Like she IS the basic bitch in a whole landscape of weirdos, and her weirdest stuff (that kink for whatever Shauna is) still pales in comparison to what everyone else has going on lol.

I'm still supporting Shauna and her wrongs and I'm especially supporting Fuckboi Boyfriend Wilderness Shauna in that outfit and with that attitude. This is her truest self, I hate to say.

[tabithatwo]

Can I ask why you don’t like this new season of yj? No hate or anything, I’m just genuinely curious

I’m so tired and probably won’t be very coherent but that’s okay there’s like six more of these in my asks if I want a second more thorough answer tomorrow lol but a lot of how I feel is in posts on my blog and I’ll just talk mostly 2x08 here. I’ve been hanging on tight until this episode but it has BROKEN me. Like I’m in mourning lol. To anyone who likes it I’m so happy for you I’m not coming for you at all.

But to me the main issue I’ve had is how they have constantly had opportunities to go DARK and SHOW the devolution but they played it very fucking safe (the makeup being the catalyst, Shauna’s birth being truly the safest option possible, like an episode of call the midwife except a fucked up dream happens, etc) and there was no actual build to the level of violence and depravity (or even RELIGION BUILDING) that the card draw sacrifice calls for. The ate Jackie because she was already dead and the wilderness slow cooked her, they were all mourning the baby last episode, they showed us Misty feeling potentially genuine remorse and guilt for Crystal? The “cult stuff” up until now has been mostly fucking dbt techniques and self harm. Yes the shauna lottie last episode was intense but we got absolutely zero follow up on it in any real characterization way for shauna this episode.

Then they kicked us out of the room when the decision was being made and I PROMISE people who think that was a shit move are largely not thinking they needed to explain the card game. It’s about showing your characters in pivotal huge moments. Yellowjackets is advertised and set up in s1 as a psychological horror. I want to see the characters GRAPPLE with things in a psychological horror. Seeing how they got from point a to point b isn’t about understanding the rules of their game, it’s about seeing developed characters reactions to crazy fucking shit.

Instead we get a jump straight into everyone drawing a card and the group deciding to kill one of their two hunters. Would some be on board with no questions asked? sure, but to ask the audience to believe that it just Makes Sense that they landed here after being very fucking relatively TAME all season until that one fight (I was so scared after that scene and no one reacting that this is the jump they were making, based on one moment alone and I was so sad to see it happen lol) is a big ask.

Now add on top of that the way they’re cutting us out of the actual character driven moments. That wasn’t psychological horror, that wasn’t delving into characters psyches like we’ve been promised. It was a thriller moment, change on a dime, maybe for shock value I guess. To me that interim would’ve been a very hard scene to write, a glimpse even of them deciding and reckoning with this belief and darkness in themselves. It’s a large group with a lot to juggle and big messy dynamics. And the easy way out of that is to just not show it at all.

People keep saying “they don’t have time to develop things this season because of side plots.” But they CHOSE to have those side plots in the first place. They’re filling shit in because they don’t WANT to get into the nitty gritty. We watched musical theater and cops and whatever the hell else and whatever. Fine. Sure. But it isn’t that those plots magically overtook some extra brilliant deep moments that they planned on showing with these characters to actually WITNESS their devolution, like s1 set us up to expect. They added them to fill empty space.

I GET that they become brutal. I GET that they devolve. I UNDERSTAND that from moment fucking one. The draw of the show to me is not watching them chase someone. We got that in the first scene. It’s seeing HOW they get there. What has to happen to get them to that place AND how does it impact each main character. Don’t just list the bad things for me. Show me their reasoning and their religion building and their arguing and their giving in. That’s what the real story is to me. Because we just saw them do their first ritual kill, but we didn’t see much more DEPTH to it, with these characters that we’ve now spent 18 episode getting to know, than the pilot already showed us.

1 am ramblings please forgive confusing turns of phrase or typos lol

[angelofverdum]

Yellowjackets s02e03

If Sophie Nelisse secured her Emmy nomination last episode, Melany Linskey did it in this one.

I was so nervous but so into it. I was like Shauna, look at me, don't do it. I just love when talented people get to show their talent

Tai saying "Something ate Jackie" poor girl didn't even know what she was doing. She is going to hate herself for that. However, the others, or just Nat probably, hate themselves because they were conscious when they did it.

Love Van saying "You ate her face" Like, girl get your shit together we are tired. It reminded me of this scene in Class of '07

The teens keep spilling blood without noticing.

Except for Ben, who probably is going to die from starvation and is next on the menu, all of them ate Jackie. All of them are part of it, except maybe for Taissa, but we know she is alive, so how are they going to choose who is next.

Why are they hunting pit girl? What this girl did to not be part of the team? Shauna said she had peeled human flesh, so we know they did it consciously and not possessed by the wilderness.

I want to watch them give in into the wilderness so much.

Theories that I've read that got me thinking:

Lottie has her cult in the wilderness, and that's where she took Nat. Now, we have seen in the trailer that Misty found Nat in there. Maybe Walter and his boat are going to help her with that.

Lisa is Shauna's baby, and Lottie took her in when she went back from Switzerland. Lottie said Shauna is having a boy and Lisa's actress is transgender, so maybe it's possible.

I disagree that they are eating the baby. In the case that it's not Lisa, ofc, I think they would sacrifice the baby so the wilderness gave them something to survive. Like Natalie spilled blood, and it gave them Jackie, then Shauna spilled blood, so it gave them the birds.

Randoms thought about the episode:

I strongly believe that Moose wasn't real because It disappeared with no noise, and those things are gigantic. Nat needs to take Lottie's beverage before leaving.

Strawberry lube is for bisexual and goths. Ok, show me bisexual Shauna, perhaps.

Adult Shauna gets excited about the unknown, while Teen Shauna is scared of it.

Adult Nat needs to change her clothes. Please, I'm begging.

Love how Adult Tai just left her wife in a hospital, her kid stranded at school, and her dog alone at her house. She just needs to find Van.

[before-it-felt-like-a-sin]

The yearning is too relatable. The every hot butch lesbian being 23 hurts me as well. I have no game and have messed up taking to girl by accidentally talking in an accent that was not my own (it was Southern, I didn't even know until my friend told me it happened).

The Wilds post was slightly unexpected, as much as I loved the show, it was in no way a blueprint. That person had some very strong feelings of The Wilds and interesting take on Yellowjackets to say the least. I do agree with imsosolesbian. He stated things very well, and honestly I couldn't have explained it better

Ok let me explain the season two thing because my only gripe is with the detectives' story line. There are several things I enjoyed with season two outside of it, Misty and Walter being sociopathic was hilarious to me, Shauna being terrible at lying - comedy gold. The way Saracusa handled the case angered me because why the hell wasn't Kevyn Tan stopping this man to abide by the law? Saracusa in general angers me.

I have no idea what she has done as a person, but unfortunately a person once forced me to be there as they read a chapter from one of her books aloud. Never do that to yourself it is torture.

Don't watch Despicable Me in Spanish, I beg of you. That wasn't a dare, it's like watching Phineas and Ferb or Scooby Doo in Spanish. It's terrible if you have watched in another language.

No you're so real. I also have no game (idk if that was clear or not from running a tumblr blog and also never having dated anyone), so I get you. I was supposed to find the loml at college but that isn't panning out right now 💔

Seeeeee that's what I'm saying. The wilds and Yellowjackets are honestly two completely different TV shows imo. I liked what I watched of the wilds but it just is NOT the same.

Okay, I see what you're saying about the cop timeline. I also saw someone on TikTok say there were too many plot lines in the adult timeline s2, which I get. Honestly I quite enjoyed but I often don't have many criticisms of medias I like.

I'd never let someone read Colleen Hoover to me don't worry 🩷 I hate her too much.

No now you've challenged me. I have to watch it in Spanish. I'm sorry, it's what I've gotta do.