Bimyselfhistory

24 | wlw

[tcustodisart]

Happy Pride Month!

Faust is back for the 5th time! If you want to use the flag of your choice as an avatar, they're under the cut. They're free to use as long as it's for personal use only.

[sansa-stark-is-me]

Alicent Hightower pushing for her sons isn’t selfish.

Alicent pushing for her sons isn’t selfish act it’s pretty consistent with how inheritance works. Most mothers “widows” in that world would absolutely prioritize their children’s claims, especially in a system where a rival claimant is also a potential threat to your kids’ lives. Disinheriting a son in a male-preference system isn’t a small thing, it’s a massive slight with real consequences for status and safety. People downplay that way too much.

A) It’s not unusual for women in history to go against their husbands wishes for their sons.

What even counts as “selfish” in a world where survival and family protection are all entangled with political violence and succession crisis?

William the conqueror publicly mocked his eldest son Robert by calling him “Curthose” (“short-stockings”) He favored his younger children. William didn’t trust him, didn’t respect him, and never gave him real authority. And his mother Matilda secretly funded her son’s rebellion against her husband William, risking her marriage, status, and safety. By defying the most powerful man in Western Europe to protect her child, William publicly accused her of using his money to “arm and succour and strengthen [the rebels] to my grave peril.” 

Isabella of France fled to France. she returned with an army and an alliance with her lover, Roger Mortimer. She successfully deposed her husband king Edward II and had him imprisoned (and likely murdered) and helped place her son, Edward III, on the throne.

Eleanor of Aquitaine went against her husband, Henry II, and backed her sons' revolt against him. The rebellion failed, and Henry imprisoned Eleanor for 15 years. However, upon Henry II's death, her son Richard I took the crown, freed her, and she wielded power acting as regent during his crusades. When Richard died, she successfully campaigned for her younger son, John, to succeed him as King.

Margaret Beaufort spent years maneuvering politically to secure her son’s claim. was deeply threatened by the Yorkist kings. She went against them, turning to political intrigue and plotting rebellions against Richard III. She successfully united support for her son, Henry Tudor.

God forbid GRRM writes a historically accurate woman who fights for her son’s position instead of quietly obeying and dying tragically after fulfilling her reproductive function. Queens, queen mothers, regents, noblewomen defending their children’s inheritance is not impossible feminist anomaly invented for fantasy drama. history is FULL of women scheming, ruling, rebelling, or outright going against husbands, councils, and political expectations for their children’s survival or claims but somehow a woman acting politically for her son in a succession crisis becomes “evil ambition” while passive suffering gets instantly romanticized as the more acceptable form of femininity.

If every major house do the same thing advancing their own bloodline and protecting heirs then calling one woman “selfish” for doing it is less about ethics and more about selectively feminism by punishing a female ambition inside a system everyone else is already playing.

The point of the story: This tale isn’t about “one woman the main character being denied power.” No it’s the tale of the princess (rhaenyra) and the queen (Alicent), the Blacks and the Greens. You can see from the title of the story. I can also flip the argument and reduce the whole tale to a second wife who risked her life in childbirth and was denied power through her children, simply bc she was treated as an exception. But It isn’t just a ONE woman denied. It’s TWO women the princess and the queen. It’s not simply “ambitious greedy entitled woman vs. wronged woman.”One woman is treated as an exception to male preference, the other is treated as an exception to the usual power afforded a queen mother. Exceptions are unstable. That’s why the story isn’t just about personal bitterness. It’s about a political order that tried to hold two contradictory ideas at once: A daughter can inherit like a son. A queen consort has no independent claim through her children if it contradicts the king’s will. 

B) Competition for power happens with other women too.

We will see Stark widows women push for their sons’ inheritance. Widows and noble mothers act as political protectors for their children, bc their own status is tied directly to whether their sons inherit. If the line of succession is unclear or threatened, it makes sense that different Stark women would try to secure advantages for their own children behind the scenes.

“The She-Wolves” story and “The Princess & the Queen” being included in an anthology called Dangerous Women already frames them in a specific way.

The anthology introduction emphasizes women with actual political influence and disruptive power inside their societies. Not passive little NPC wives standing prettily in the background. These women matter bc they can alter succession and redirect history itself.

And notice how women become “dangerous” the second they wield power in ways that aren’t purely decorative. Men scheming, conquering, manipulating succession and starting wars, is treated as standard political behavior. But women doing the exact same thing become threatening, manipulative, hysterical, evil, etc. The double standard is baked right into the language.

So…

when Stark widows or Alicent are described as “dangerous,” it’s more about women acting as players in succession struggles and women using limited tools available to them to protect their children’s claims.

They’re not “dangerous” bc they’re uniquely power-hungry. They’re “dangerous” bc they work in spaces usually dominated by MEN, they assert claims (their sons’ & their own position) and they refuse to stay passive when inheritance is at stake. The Stark widows fighting behind the scenes or Alicent another widow pushing for her sons isn’t unusual it’s what happens when women in a restrictive system finally have leverage.

These women aren’t just reacting emotionally they’re engaging in the same logic as everyone else. The only difference is that when women do it, it gets written as something more threatening or “dangerous”, bc it disrupts expectations of what they’re “supposed” to be. There’s a gendered double standard in how agency is interpreted.

And since house like the Starks that has multiple marriages across generations. If Beron Stark is dying, it makes sense that different Stark women would be active behind the scenes, each trying to protect their own children’s position in the line of succession. Women like Serena & Sansa being left out of clear inheritance paths would logically contribute to those underlying disputes, since their children’s status would depend on how that succession gets decided.

Widows in Asoiaf are politically weaker overall, bc their authority is tied to their husband’s status or their sons’ inheritance. If their sons don’t inherit, that weakness can increase even more:

they lose the main source of their long-term influence (their line continuing power)

their position at court becomes more dependent on others’ favor

rival branches of the family may push them aside

they can be politically sidelined if their faction loses the succession struggle

A widow’s stability is closely connected to whether her children secure inheritance. If they don’t, her influence usually declines, bc she no longer has a direct stake being recognized in the power structure.

I am not talking about widows in the sense of whether they are “deserving” of power in a moral or governmental evaluation of what rulers should do for the public. I am talking specifically about widows as political actors inside succession systems, and what kinds of conditions determine whether a highborn widow can actually secure her position or her children’s inheritance without being challenged.

Check this post about marriage contracts.

If Viserys had made it absolutely clear before marrying Alicent that Rhaenyra would not be replaced as heir, then the political situation around that marriage could have been very different. Otto’s decision to push Alicent forward is tied directly to uncertainty about succession, not just personal ambition. It’s common for men without sons to remarry specifically to produce a male heir, and that expectation shapes how other lords interpret a king’s choices. That’s why Corlys offering Laena to Viserys makes sense politically it’s another attempt to secure influence through a potential male line and strengthen alliances at the same time.

Fire&Blood:

The rough prince:

And it wasn’t just Otto and Alicent others in the realm also questioned it, pointing back to the ruling of the Great Council in 101. Viserys’ response, though, is essentially to shut the conversation down instead of clearly reinforcing or revising that precedent in a way everyone can accept. So instead of resolving the uncertainty, he leaves it hanging.

It was EXPECTED and NORMAL for noble women to want their children to inherit.

CATELYN STARK

Catelyn is highly sensitive to anything that threatens her children’s inheritance that’s a big part of why she resented Jon, since she saw him as a potential rival to her children. Within that same framework, it’s very hard to imagine she’d be fine with a stepdaughter inheriting over her own son. Her own blood!

“Precedent,” she said, her voice bitter. “Yes, Aegon the Fourth legitimized all his bastards on his deathbed. And look at all the misery, war, and death that followed. You may trust Jon now. But will you trust his sons? Or their sons after them? The Blackfyre pretenders kept coming back for five generations, until Barristan the Bold finally killed the last of them. If you make Jon legitimate, you can never unmake it. If he marries and has children, any sons you have by Jeyne will never be safe.”

“He is your son, not mine. I will not have him.” — Catelyn Stark, A Game of Thrones.

DAENERYS TARGARYEN

Daenerys herself was already imagining her son as king while Viserys was still alive. There doesn't seem to be much doubt there, and she sounds pretty certain that her son will sit on the iron throne.

“Yet they were bound to Drogo for life and death, so Daenerys had no choice but to accept them. And sometimes she found herself wishing her father had been protected by such men. In the songs, the white knights of the Kingsguard were ever noble, valiant, and true, and yet King Aerys had been murdered by one of them, the handsome boy they now called the Kingslayer, and a second, Ser Barristan the Bold, had gone over to the Usurper. She wondered if all men were as false in the Seven Kingdoms. When her son sat the Iron Throne, she would see that he had bloodriders of his own to protect him against treachery in his Kingsguard.”

VISENYA AND RHAENYS

Even GRRM did confirmed that Visenya and Rhaenys competed for Aegon influence, and authority. There was tension and rivalry in how they related to him and to their positions in the new order.

MARGERY AND OLENNA

Margaery and Olenna absolutely wouldn’t just accept their line being sidelined. Olenna is ruthless, she’s willing to have Joffrey killed when she sees him as an immediate existential problem. Y’all really think Olenna would just sit there and accept her granddaughter Margaery’s son getting passed over for Rhaenyra, the stepdaughter?

RHAENYRA & DRIFTMARK

Check this POST!

Rhaenyra herself acts violently when her children’s position is threatened, which shows she works under the same logic as Alicent. When her line is at risk, she doesn’t respond with restraint or principle she prioritizes her children’s survival above all else.

This isn’t Alicent being uniquely selfish. It’s a system where almost any mother in her position would push the same way. But I know a lot of team black stans being historically illiterate and it’s not shocking when parts of fandom discourse treat a quasi medieval succession crisis like a modern election cycle with HR policies and peaceful transitions of power. You can absolutely support Rhaenyra’s claim and still recognize that queens, queen mothers, noblewomen, and regents historically fought for their sons, feared rival claimants, and did not just politely sit down waiting to see what happened to their children. That’s not “evil woman behavior,” that’s fucking historically accurate woman, the problem is less “which team” and more when people flatten medieval / early modern succession logic into modern discourse and then act shocked that characters behave according to the brutal rules of their world.

And I blame hotd they made the story about “who is morally right in a modern sense” instead of “how does succession politics actually function in this quasi medieval system”

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

reblog if you love ao3 exactly how it is and you don’t want it to “update” or change in any way♡

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

ao3 is not changing anything by the way! some people just want them to change for some reason. my guess is that these people just don't understand how the site works and refuse to actually learn how it works, so they blame the site because it's easier for them that way.

[mckitterick]

[rip-quizilla]

[rickyriddle]

ShaunaHat Scene Analysis: s3ep2, part 2

(for the shaunahat scene analysis masterpost, click here)

Alright, we’ve reached the first “actual” shaunahat scene. The one where the ship officially sailed. And oh boy, there is a lot to say about this scene, so bear with me.

The scene starts with Shauna going to her baby’s grave and discovering that someone left flowers on it. For context, let’s remember that Shauna recently buried her baby there, away from the others so she could mourn him in peace. We know Shauna feels uncomfortable with how the group turned her dead child into an object of worship, preventing her from properly grieving him. The situation was so unbearable for her that she had to dig up her dead baby to rebury him somewhere secret so the others couldn’t have access to his body anymore. So understand, from her perspective, discovering that someone found her dead baby’s grave is her worst nightmare and something she desperately wanted to prevent. This just confirms her worst fear that she will never be allowed to grieve him in peace. Someone putting flowers on her baby’s grave isn’t a sweet gesture for her, it’s a violation, akin to a profanation. It would be an understatement to say this alone put Shauna in the worst possible mood imaginable, and it’s very understandable, given her past trauma and everything she went through.

Now, we also have to acknowledge what it’s like from Melissa’s perspective. I think it’s fair to assume she did not realize that her action came off that way for Shauna. To her, leaving flowers on her baby’s grave was a sweet gesture. There were no ill intentions (at least, consciously). And I think one of the reasons why she decided to do that is because of how Shauna reacted to Akilah’s “gift” (the makeshift crown thingy) earlier in the episode. This was a gift that highlighted Shauna’s motherhood, and given her child died, also a painful reminder of his death. It put the emphasis on her as the mother of this child they are now “worshipping” instead of allowing Shauna to mourn her loss, essentially turning her grief into a spectacle. Melissa might not have fully understood why this “gift” upset Shauna, but she isn’t clueless either. She can probably tell that Shauna is not comfortable with how they treat her baby, and it shouldn’t be hard for her to figure out it’s because they view him as an idol of worship instead of the tragedy he truly is: a dead baby. So it makes sense that Melissa would have wanted to do something that acknowledges that fact. After taking a stand by stepping on Akilah’s gift in front of Shauna, it also makes sense that Melissa would have wanted to give Shauna her own gift instead, something she assumed Shauna would have rather wanted: something acknowledging her grief. And in normal circumstances, leaving flowers on someone’s grave is the appropriate way to pay respect to them. But, unfortunately for her, those are not “normal” circumstances, resulting in her action not being appropriate.

However, despite Melissa’s intention being primarily good, we also have to acknowledge that it wasn’t entirely selfless. Yes, her sympathy for Shauna and her loss is sincere. She does feel bad for her and did this because she thought it would make Shauna feel better. But we also have to realize that, in order for Melissa to be able to leave flowers there, it’s because she was stalking Shauna. She followed her there without Shauna’s knowledge, and discovered something she was not supposed to know. Then used that discovery to her advantage, without Shauna’s permission. And let’s not forget, Melissa didn’t simply leave flowers: she stayed and hid. She wanted to see Shauna’s reaction. So not only did she stalk Shauna, there is something a little bit voyeuristic about what she did. And this does fit with how Jenna Burgess interpreted this scene. She described Melissa’s initial intentions as “pure” and “empathetic”, but accurately points out that the truly empathetic action would have been to leave the flowers and walk away, just to let Shauna know there’s someone who is acknowledging her grief. Melissa decided to stay and watch for a reaction, which Jenna describes as being “audacious”, a “power move" and “self-serving”, which I do agree with. By observing how Shauna reacts to her “gift”, she can more easily learn what works or doesn’t work with Shauna and prepare her next move. It’s important to keep in mind that Melissa didn’t plan that she’d get caught, so even if she wasn’t being purely selfless in her intentions, she wasn’t planning to take advantage of the situation to manipulate Shauna in any way. Everything that happens after getting caught was purely her improvising and trying to turn an unexpected confrontation to her own advantage, while being truthful about her feelings towards Shauna.

Back to Shauna. After discovering the flowers, she panicked because she realized someone managed to find where her baby was buried. Then, she heard someone moving and realized she was being observed. Her first instinct when that happened was to pull out her knife. This shows how frightened she truly was by the situation, and perhaps even expecting to be in danger. Shauna is in a state of panic and in “defense mode”, basically.

But when she sees no one “attacking” her, while still being aware that she isn’t alone, she demands whoever is hiding to come out. And I think it’s likely she could have attacked whoever showed up on the spot if it happened to be someone she wasn’t particularly fond of. For example, if it was Mari or Misty, Shauna might not have let them explain themselves and simply go on the offensive. But, the person who came out from the bushes was Melissa, someone she is mostly indifferent to and with whom she had a relatively “positive” interaction not so long ago. And I do think it could have contributed to Shauna not jumping on her right away, meaning if they didn’t have this interaction in ep1, perhaps Shauna would not have let Melissa attempt to explain herself and just attacked her instead. This would add an extra layer of importance to their first actual interaction this season, by affecting the way this scene ended up playing out.

Melissa could have attempted to run when Shauna caught her. Maybe she considered doing it. But I think she decided not to because if Shauna saw her run away and recognized her, it would not have been a good look for her. That wasn’t a risk she would take given she wants to get on Shauna’s good side. So she did show herself, which again, as Jenna mentioned, demonstrates that she is audacious. But also, Melissa didn’t realize how much her action had negatively affected Shauna’s mind. Once again, she viewed what she did as a nice gesture, while Shauna viewed it as a violation. So I think ultimately, Melissa didn’t run away because she wasn’t scared of Shauna, at least not enough to feel in immediate danger. Or rather, she underestimated Shauna and failed to realize how pissed off she made her. And unfortunately for her, one passively good interaction between them wasn’t enough to minimize Shauna’s anger.

Then, Melissa tries to justify her presence to Shauna. As I said earlier, I don’t think she was scared of Shauna, but she was definitely nervous. Just like anyone would be if they got caught spying, especially by their crush. And we can tell she was nervous by the way she’s rambling. If I’m understanding correctly what Melissa is saying, she is claiming she didn’t follow Shauna “this morning” (so earlier that day), she just couldn’t sleep because she was scared and then she saw Shauna going somewhere and decided to “keep and eye” on her because of how things are “crazy out there” (I assume this is about Mari’s disappearance and the weird screams they heard last night).

So when we saw Shauna go re-bury her kid earlier this episode, this is when Melissa followed her and found out about the grave. So, despite what Melissa claims… yes, she did “follow” Shauna. Maybe she is truthful about saying it was to keep an eye on her out of concern for her due to the recent events, but it’s also very possible she simply has the habit of following Shauna around, like a stalker. We saw Shauna bury her baby at the beginning of the episode, which seems to have been the morning, meaning Melissa was probably spying on her. Then we saw that quick scene between them after the group realized Mari had gone missing and Shauna angrily passed by Gen and Melissa. Given the chronology of events, it means Melissa already knew at that time where Shauna had re-buried her child. And seeing how on edge Shauna looked, might have thought that putting flowers on his grave would “help”. How wrong was she, huh.

While Melissa is rambling, Shauna is staring at her. I doubt she actually cares about whatever justification Melissa is giving. Shauna already made up her mind. They might have had one relatively “positive” interaction the other day, Melissa is still mostly a stranger to Shauna. The fact she only noticed Melissa having a “personality” recently is proof they were never close before. So even if Shauna didn’t attack Melissa right away, she is still unlikely to give her any benefit of the doubt. I wouldn’t be surprised if Shauna did not listen at all to what Melissa said and was too focused instead on her anger about having someone intrude on a place that is sacred to her. Melissa is essentially nothing more than an intruder in her mind, and Shauna had already decided that she was here to “take” her baby. Hence why she didn’t reply to anything Melissa said and instead told her that no one has a right to her baby, emphasizing how he is HER baby. So this really reinforced the crux of what Shauna solely has on her mind at the moment: her baby. And how someone, once again, from her perspective, is appropriating him. And nothing Melissa could have said would have changed her mind. This is the first thing she thought when she found the flowers, and it shaped how she continues to perceive the situation.

Melissa does seem taken aback by Shauna’s reaction, because to her, this was never about taking away her baby. To her, the flowers were something respectful. So I think part of her is confused about why Shauna is telling her this. And we can tell she doesn’t fully get it because she instantly “agrees” with Shauna, as if she just wants to get on her good side, and quickly move on to another topic. She can tell Shauna is on edge, and that trying to justify her presence here didn’t help.

So she moves tactic and instead, first by apologizing to her, for everything that happened to her out here. Actually acknowledging what Shauna had lost and expressing sympathy for her. Which I do believe is sincere. I think a big part of how Melissa’s infatuation with Shauna began was because she felt sympathy for her. Then, she decides to start complimenting Shauna. Telling her how resilient she is and how important it is out there (in the wilderness). Which that too, I believe Melissa is sincere. It comes off as awkward because she’s nervous, and I do think she is scared now. Not scared of Shauna, but scared of leaving a bad impression on Shauna. Once again, Melissa didn’t plan on getting caught, so she had no speech or monologue pre-planned. She didn’t rehearse any of this. I’m mentioning that because this does seem like something she does (as we will see in the next scene), so this really is just her trying to express how she feels on the spot and sounding clumsy.

And just like before, Shauna is simply staring at Melissa as she is basically glazing her. I don’t think Shauna is fully registering what Melissa is saying. She’s still very on edge and in the mindset that someone got too close to her baby. She doesn’t know Melissa very well, so it makes sense she wouldn’t trust her anyway. Shauna feels like the group as a whole doesn’t appreciate her (she was bitter they picked Nat as their queen and not her, despite what she did for them), so she does have reasons to be doubtful when someone she isn’t even close to is suddenly praising her. There’s probably no one who complimented her in a long time so this could also be confusing for her. Especially coming from someone who is essentially no different to a stranger for her. In other words, Shauna is not in the right state of mind to be hearing these kinds of praises, especially since she probably does not feel resilient, given how broken she feels, and neither does she think it’d be “important” out there given how unappreciated she thinks she is by the others.

Then, Melissa told Shauna that the others are “scared of her”, and declared that she is not. That’s a very interesting thing to say because of how wildly different Shauna interpreted that statement. From Melissa’s point of view, what she said was positive. She is letting Shauna know that she isn’t like the others, that she is on her “side”. She is presenting herself as an ally for Shauna. And also, by claiming she is not afraid of her, Melissa is telling Shauna she is someone she can rely on and can “match her freak”, so to speak. When asked about if Melissa was actually not scared of Shauna, Jenna said “yes and no”. So I do think part of Melissa was scared of Shauna, and she claimed otherwise to make herself look good in Shauna’s eyes.

But that’s not how Shauna viewed it. To her, Melissa basically telling her “I’m not scared of you” was a taunt. She was already on edge and not receptive to Melissa’s praises, so hearing that was essentially the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was as if Shauna had been waiting for Melissa to “slip up” so she could finally snap at her and have an excuse to attack her. Shauna was like a bomb just waiting for the right trigger to explode. And as soon as she heard Melissa claim she wasn’t scared of her, this was it. This was a threat to her, and Shauna had to show Melissa she should be scared of her. All that anger she had accumulated burst, and she reacted by pushing Melissa against the tree and putting her knife to her throat. She threatened to kill Melissa if she told anyone about her baby’s grave- because once again, to Shauna, that’s her primary concern and all she had on her mind. Keeping her baby to herself.

Now, Melissa is actually scared. Which yeah, makes sense. She did not expect Shauna to react this way because as I said before, what she said was a positive thing in her mind. She did look confident that it would win Shauna over but instead, she is getting aggressively threatened with a knife under her throat. And not only did Melissa look scared, it seemed like she was panicking, we can hear her hyperventilate as Shauna is telling her that she will “gut her”. I don’t think she can process why Shauna is that angry at her. All she can think of is how she might be killed and had to think fast to find a way out of this situation. And turns out, her way was to kiss Shauna. She was terrified and in a moment of desperation, she kissed her. Yes, she does have a crush on Shauna, and it’s part of why she kissed her. But also, because she had nothing to lose. If Shauna was potentially going to kill her, then that was her last chance to show her how she felt about her. And also, according to Jenna, this was an act of self-preservation. This was Melissa’s only way left to let Shauna know that she meant no harm, and that she actually liked her. Because Shauna was clearly not listening to words.

The first kiss didn’t last long, and it looked mostly like a peck on the lips. It caught Shauna off guard and it looked like it instantly softened her. She doesn’t look angry anymore, just surprised. And for a moment, it looked like Melissa was worried about her reaction. Which is understandable when we take into consideration that it is the 90s, where homosexuality was still a taboo. It is possible that Melissa suspected Shauna wasn’t straight due to her relationship with Jackie, but it’s not like she knew for a fact Shauna was into girls. So she did take a huge risk by kissing her, especially when Shauna was holding her at knife point. When Jenna called Melissa "audacious", she wasn’t kidding. This was a bold move. And thankfully for her, Shauna “reciprocated” by kissing her back. And this time, it was more than a peck. They were full-on making out against that tree, while Shauna kept the knife to Melissa’s throat. And they both seemed into it.

Now, why did Shauna kiss Melissa back? Obviously, it’s not because she reciprocates her feelings. Shauna barely knows her. But the kiss was impactful enough to soften her and get her to calm down. And I think it’s because it awakened something in Shauna that she was never able to fully admit to herself, which is her sexuality. More specifically, her attraction to girls. It is obvious that Shauna had feelings for Jackie that she was never able to admit. And part of Shauna would have wanted to explore those, but unfortunately couldn’t because Jackie died. So Melissa is giving her an opportunity to explore those, in a way. And also, after everything she went through, this is also a way to unwind. The way Shauna is kissing Melissa does show a certain level of desperation, like she’s been craving that kind of physical contact for a long time. The kiss is hungry, passionate and even feral. Shauna is even seemingly "dry humping" Melissa as they make out. She also kept the knife the whole time, as if she still wanted to keep that power over Melissa and feel in control. For Shauna, the kiss isn’t about Melissa at all, but about herself and her desire.

I think it’s important to point out that this kiss, despite the fact Melissa did initiate it first, is very much in the category of “dubious consent”. Not only did Melissa kiss Shauna first without her consent, it was done under duress. As said before, this was partially done out of self-preservation. Melissa’s life was being threatened and she was scared of being killed. Even if she did have a crush on Shauna, even if she kissed Shauna first, she most likely wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for Shauna threatening her life. Then, when Shauna chose to kiss her back, she kept the knife under her throat the entire time. It made it impossible for Melissa to refuse if didn’t want to. And even if it did seem like Melissa was okay with it, it still shows that Shauna didn’t really take Melissa’s consent into consideration. If anything, she might have considered that Melissa kissing her first was her giving her consent, ignoring the fact Melissa did so because she was scared of dying. So the point remains, the kiss was of dubious consent, somewhat on both sides but mostly Shauna since she was the one in control in this situation and had power over Melissa.

Something interesting Jenna mentioned in an interview is that Melissa only “succeeded” in getting with Shauna because of how broken Shauna was. She stated that she played Melissa as if she didn’t have any game. It only worked because Shauna was so broken by everything that happened to her, so she essentially had nothing to lose and all to gain from this. This relationship started due to their circumstances, and it would probably not have happened if it wasn’t for the crash.

Another interesting detail is how this scene is juxtaposed with another one happening in the adult timeline. Adult Shauna has been taunted with a telephone left in the bathroom of the restaurant she was in with Jeff, seemingly for her, given the phone had “Queen of Hearts” as a ringtone and the wilderness as background.

Shauna left the phone at the restaurant and is now calling to see if someone came to pick it up. She learned that a woman did and she asked what she looked like. This is shown at the same time as Shauna and Melissa kissing. A not-so-subtle clue that the person who is seemingly stalking Shauna in the adult timeline is none other than Melissa. To this day, I am still confused about how so many people were in denial about adult Melissa when it was this obvious from the start. Oh well.

Interestingly, some of the dialogues between the two timelines mirror each other, too. Even in the way the two scenes are cut, it's almost as if the dialogues are meant to resemble each other- and it was probably on purpose.

This is the first major shaunahat scene and it does foreshadow the dynamic for their relationship. A big part of this interaction is the miscommunication. Both Shauna and Melissa had completely different perspectives of the situation and they both critically misunderstood each other, and it led to a violent confrontation. It did up “well” this time, showing that under the right circumstances these two can somewhat work, but it also shows how easy it is for their relationship to turn violent. They both aren’t on the same wavelength, they do not have the same desire and expectations. And in the end, this miscommunication is what caused the downfall of their relationship later on. This scene also illustrated the power imbalance, showing how Shauna wants to remain in control and hold power over Melissa, something that is at the center of their relationship, but also contributes to its downfall when Melissa no longer lets Shauna have this control over her.

In conclusion, this scene established not only the foundation of shaunahat, but also foreshadowed its downfall, when they ultimately break up, in similar circumstances as how they got together in the first place.

(If you are interested in more of my commentary on this ship, feel free to check out my extensive shaunahat analysis.)

[justa-personn]

my analysis/cornplating of the famous shauna/lottie scene. 2x07 is such a powerful episode and i have a lot to say about it so buckle up

before shauna even enters the cabin, the main "believers" seem to be holding some kind of prayer circle. there's lottie leading it with travis and akilah on either side of her, possibly foreshadowing their wilderness trio dynamic in season three. then we have van and mari, two of the biggest supporters of lottie and the wilderness religion/cult at this point in time, misty, who most likely does not actually believe in any supernatural entities but sticks with the believers to protect her standing with the group as a whole and find validation/community. then there's tai, who doesn't believe but goes along with it to please van + try to cure her sleepwalking.

something i find especially interesting about this short scene are the people who aren't participating. javi is sitting near travis without being a part of the circle, which makes sense since he is very traumatized and scared at this point and doesn't seem to want anything to do with anyone who isn't travis, nat, or ben. then there's melissa, who is sitting across the room from the prayer circle, and gen who isn't in the frame but is in the main room or near the main room since we see her a moment later.

up until now, both mel and gen have been regularly (i think) attending the prayer circles. other than that, they pretty much keep to themselves this season aside from gen hanging around mari and akilah and mel hanging around shauna and having some interactions with van. in season three, misty makes a comment about gen not having attended all the prayer circles and melissa "going either way" when it comes to believing in the wilderness (which was probably more of a subtle dig at her relationship with shauna/a threat to out her) so we can assume that gen and mel are lukewarm wilderness believers who were just following the group in season two. after the blizzard stops, they both make comments showcasing a newfound hopelessness in the wilderness entity they'd been following (gen: that's the trade? two people dead for a break in the snow? melissa: that sucks.) so it could very well be that shauna's stillbirth + being trapped in the cabin for days + being miserable and starving even more made them both give up on being a part of the believers group.

when shauna comes into the cabin, mel glances up and she and shauna share a quick look. (shaunahat crumb). i think its kind of sad that everyone else takes their sweet time noticing that shauna is back even though she's assumably been gone for half the day. even tai doesn't move, which makes me wonder what lottie was encouraging them to think about that had them all so locked in.

the last time we saw shauna she was hysterically crying in the meat shed, and based on her expression and the marks around her eyes, that was probably within the hour of this scene. it's been a few days since her stillbirth at this point, which means there is a lot that leads up to her breaking point here. she is absolutely still exhausted and in severe physical pain, and she's spent the last few days assumably lying motionless with her baby's corpse pressed to her chest, and she's probably also quite dehydrated as we see her refusing water. as we see in the scene towards the beginning of the episode when they strip the bed she gave birth on, she's still having hallucinations of the team eating her baby. her paranoia and resentment is now incredibly high, and even though she buried her baby a few hours ago, she is now back to completely believing that he was eaten.

shauna's expression before she punches misty is really interesting. we can tell by the position go her eyebrows especially, that this isn't anger, its fear and despair. misty humming the same song that the yellowjackets were humming in shauna's hallucination is proof to her that it really did happen, that misty (and by extension, all of them) are mocking her and purposefully reminding her of what they did to her baby. a note about the song, misty says it's something crystal was singing, which is probably why it was in shauna's subconscious in the first place and wormed it's way into her hallucination. according to reddit, some of the lyrics to the song "qui" that is hummed are: by giving birth to a new well-being, another happiness? who will take over to fulfill your dreams.

nat's reaction here is a good reminder that the other yellowjackets don't know what's going on in shauna's mind. nat is quick to jump in and physically defend misty (a byproduct of growing up in a violent home) and tell shauna that misty did everything she could. it seems like the general assumption here is that shauna is lashing out at misty because misty was the one primarily trying to deliver her baby. after all, while shauna was accusing them of doing something to her baby when she woke up after giving birth, her explanation was frantic and jumbled and she allowed tai to hold her afterwards and didn't lash out at anyone, so at this point none of them have any reason to assume that shauna believes they ritualistically stole and ate her baby. but now her paranoia and rage has been festering and building for days, so when shauna starts screaming and accusing the group of having done this, they're all genuinely shocked, because: where did that come from?

shauna functions like an animal caught in a trap here, with the way she thrashes against van and akilah’s hold on her and uses her teeth to attack the nearest hand. i don’t think this is a malicious bite (not like when she later bites mari and then mel in the adult timeline) this is just pure desperation.

despite how hard she was fighting to be free, shauna freezes up the moment lottie steps in front of her. at this point lottie is enemy number one in shauna’s mind. she’s been overstepping shauna’s boundaries about her baby all season, and this manifested in an especially sinister way in shauna’s hallucination, as lottie was the one to take her baby from her while she was sleeping and possibly lead the group to eat him. shauna also likely feels that lottie has “taken” tai from her as tai began joining the prayer circle and siding with lottie, something shauna barely had time to process because she went into labour immediately after.

on the other hand, lottie has also been validating and supporting shauna. she was the only one to defend her and show understanding when it was revealed to the group what shauna was doing with jackie’s corpse, and she also comforted shauna afterwards and gave her jackie’s necklace to wear, which we know meant a great deal to shauna.

all of these circumstances put together creates very conflicting feelings about lottie to shauna. in her face we see a mixture of mostly fear and despair

which switches to rage a moment later.

lottie is so interesting here. she has basically no reaction to shauna punching her. i think lottie and shauna both become disconnected from their bodies in this scene, shauna losing herself to violence and lottie possibly dissociating.

according to this interview with courtney eaton (teen lottie’s actress) this is a moment of both selflessness and self harm. lottie frequently endures pain (cutting her palm) in order to connect with the wilderness and possibly bear the burden of the messiah role the others have placed on her. she places herself as a punching bag for shauna to protect the group and allow shauna a place to release some of her anger, while simultaneously trying to punish herself.

i am obsessed with how lottie puts her hands behind her back. this is a technique used to soothe frightened (smaller) animals to show them you’re not a threat, but it’s not recommended for wild animal encounters (which is what this scene reminds me of) because it leaves you defenceless. but that’s exactly what lottie wants. she’s showing shauna that she’s submitting to her.

i love the expressions of these three. van is looking to lottie for guidance as we’ve seen her do all season, (and she has her arm around shauna ☹️) shauna is silently preparing herself for what she’s about to do, and akilah looks heartbreakingly young and scared.

i think this is the moment when gen truly appears for the first time in this scene. before this, she was standing by akilah just out of frame. something i like is that while she’s staring at what’s happening, akilah has turned her entire face away. akilah is no stranger to violence and gore; she didn’t turn around when misty hacked ben’s leg off, and she was the one to stitch van’s face back together. but direct violence from one of them towards another is what makes her look away.

i really love this shot. shauna is stalking around lottie’s body like a predator, everyone else is standing with their hands limply at their sides, and the antlers from the mantle almost look like they’re protruding from her head, similar to the famous shot of lottie in front of them in season one.

another thing i love about the group shot is that we can see it’s only the girls who are bearing witness to this. travis takes javi to the bedroom and doesn’t return, and ben is either wandering in the woods or also hiding out in the bedroom (i genuinely don’t remember where he was at this point in the episode). this is one of the moments of the show that frames female adolescence as being a terrifying and monstrous experience.

lottie looks directly up at shauna as she beats her. this reminds me of when adult lottie tells callie that looking into shauna’s eyes is “like looking straight into the earth” which is an intensely weird and almost romantic thing to say. i think that’s what lottie is experiencing here. she sees all the power of ‘it’ in shauna.

van’s expression while lottie is being beaten is so chilling. she starts off looking worried and empathetic and eventually shifts into this colder look of understanding. according to this interview with liv hewson (teen van’s actor) this is the moment when van accepts that violence is the new norm for them and there is no turning back. van has also been incredibly devoted to lottie this season, which i think is a big part of why she doesn’t step in. lottie is allowing this to happen, which, in van’s mind, means that it must happen.

misty is truly terrifying in this clip. we know she is deeply drawn to power and control, and seeing shauna destroy the image of lottie (who misty has also been devoted to) is extremely exciting for her.

nat reacts like she’s watching a train wreck. she doesn’t want to watch, but she can’t look away. we know that this is not the first time nat has experienced something like this. she also stood and watched with a similar expression as her dad beat her mom (and then she pulled out his gun, which didn’t end well). nat has been trying to maintain the group’s humanity and rationality (laying jackie’s bones to rest, hunting and mapping out the area, showing disgust towards the wilderness cult) and witnessing the group’s descent into ritualistic violence horrifies her.

shauna looks so incredibly devastated as she beats lottie. this is not a triumphant moment for her. i feel like at this point she wants to stop but can’t.

like akilah, tai also doesn’t watch, but her covering her eyes seems more like exhaustion and stress. i feel like there is some self blame involved here. tai holds herself to high standards and puts herself under a lot of pressure. i also think she feels responsible for shauna because shauna has been incredibly physically and mentally vulnerable during the last months of her pregnancy, and tai was the main person looking out for her, as well as the main person taking care of her during and after the birth. for shauna to go completely off the rails like this, tai probably feels like she could have and should have done more to prevent this.

i also love how it seems like nat is reaching forward purely on instinct- she doesn’t actually step forward or do anything to stop it, her hands just hover uselessly in the air.

mari has a pattern of orbiting the girls who carry influence over the group (jackie, lottie, then nat) and she has been a devoted follower of the wilderness cult all season. we see her clinging to lottie and treating her like more of a beacon of hope than a person. mari depended on lottie to make her feel safe, and seeing that image of lottie as an untouchable holy figure be shattered has her literally curling in on herself in anguish.

mel has the mildest reaction out of everyone. she has violent and cruel tendencies like the rest of them, but we also know her to be sensitive and kind (why can’t you just be a nice person? and i’m sorry for everything that’s happened to you) so her not really seeming all that upset here is very intriguing. in season two it seems like melissa is already drawn to shauna, and seeing this new, powerful shauna be born strengthens this, according to this interview with jenna burgess (teen melissa’s actress).

once it’s done, lottie has her hand placed on shauna’s shoulder like a silent gesture of reassurance even though she’s barely conscious. also the space between the crook of lottie’s elbow, their heads, and then the bones jutting into the frame kind of makes the shape of a heart. (i’m reaching here).

i love how shauna leans on lottie in order to get off the floor, then keeps her hand on lottie’s arm for longer than necessary. it looks almost like she’s stroking lottie as she slowly removes her hand. there’s something very intimate about this entire moment between them, even amidst the violence.

van is the first person to rush to lottie’s side. everyone else seems momentarily stunned and waiting for shauna to leave before they intervene, but van is already on the floor beside lottie before shauna has even reached the door.

lottie’s position on the floor also mirrors that of jesus on the cross. she’s often presented as a ‘christ-like’ figure, (the others projecting their needs onto her, laura lee baptizing her, stirring her blood into nat and travis’s tea) but rather than a true saviour, she’s a vessel for the group.

[industria1doll]

independent and high achieving girl who wants nothing more than to kneel at your feet and kiss your hands

a girl who's been praised for her strength who really just wants to melt into your arms and look up at you adoringly.

a girl who only felt valued for intelligence and academic success who just wants to let her mind go blank as you touch her all over, looking at you doe-eyed and making pretty gasps as you fuck her stupid

[ahopefulsun]

Wishing all of you a very merry "I suddenly have the motivation and time to write a minimum 10k fic"... please

[festival-of-pudding]

[lemonsharks]

Like to charge reblog to cast

[rafabishopstuff]

saw this and thought this is so jackieshauna codded

[novaursa]

You’re one of the few blogs whose political analysis’ and breakdowns I enjoy. Strictly book based, what do you think about the following four ladies (Alicent Hightower, Myriah Martell, Cersei Lannister, & Margaery Tyrell) and their attempts to gain power & influence in order promote their interests, factions, and families specifically within King’s Landing?

I really love the idea of an outsider coming in and taking over (whether the attempt was successful or not). The four I listed are the ones that came to the top of my mind but if there are any others feel free to include them. I specifically didn’t list any Targaryen or Velaryon consorts because like I said previously it’s more of an outsider marrying into the royal family and the Targaryens were the ruling family up until the Rebellion and the Velaryon’s are so interconnected with the Targaryens that I don’t really count them. For example, I didn’t list Aemma Arryn because while she’s an Arryn she’s also the granddaughter of a King & Queen and her marriage to her cousin brought her back into the Targaryen dynasty and provided Viserys with a Valyrian bride considering he had no sisters and his only female cousin Rhaenys married into the Velaryons. Moreover, her queenship was relatively short due to her death. If you disagree, would love to hear your argument

Please and thank you 😊

Thank you, anon. 🫶 I’m glad you enjoy my political rambling, because apparently my brain has chosen Westerosi court politics as one of its more useless survival skills. 🤣🤣

Strictly book-based, I think all four women are fascinating because they show different models of female power inside King’s Landing. None of them hold power in the clean, direct way a king or lord might, so they have to work through marriage, children, household influence, court alliances, public image, religion, family networks, and emotional manipulation. Which is where King’s Landing politics actually lives.

Alicent Hightower is probably the cleanest example of an outsider becoming central through court placement and marriage. She comes in through proximity first, serving Jaehaerys, then Viserys, then becoming queen. Her power is very courtly, very dynastic, very Hightower. She understands that influence is built before crisis, not during it. By the time Viserys dies, the Greens already have structure, allies, precedent, and a prepared argument. That does not happen by accident. Alicent’s biggest strength is that she knows how to turn her position as queen and mother into a political faction. Her weakness is that once the war starts, power moves out of the controlled courtly space where she is strongest and into the hands of men with armies, dragons, and no patience. She helps build the machine, but she cannot fully control what it becomes.

Myriah Martell is different because her success is quieter and, in many ways, more complete. She enters the Targaryen dynasty through Daeron II, and her power comes through marriage, cultural influence, and the long-term integration of Dorne into the realm. She is not taking over King’s Landing in the loud sense, but she changes the court simply by being there and by bringing Dornish identity into the royal line. The backlash against her and her children tells you how much that mattered. The Blackfyre faction does not just hate Daeron for political reasons, they also weaponize xenophobia against Myriah and her sons. Her influence is successful enough that enemies build propaganda around it. That says a lot. She represents the kind of soft power people underestimate until it has already changed succession, bloodlines, court culture, and alliances.

Cersei Lannister is what happens when someone wants power but keeps confusing fear with control. She absolutely understands the importance of being queen, mother of the king, and a Lannister in King’s Landing, but she lacks the patience and political discipline that someone like Alicent or Margaery has. Cersei is not stupid in the way fandom sometimes tries to make her, but she is arrogant, paranoid, impulsive, and terrible at understanding people who are not useful mirrors for her ego. She wants to rule like Tywin, but she does not have Tywin’s restraint or ability to think past the insult directly in front of her. Her attempt to take over King’s Landing is fascinating because she technically gets what she wants, then immediately starts sawing through the floor beneath herself. She alienates allies, empowers dangerous forces, misreads the Faith, underestimates Margaery, and thinks cruelty is the same thing as competence. Cersei is powerful, but she is also her own worst enemy, which is why her chapters are both brilliant and a slow-motion political car crash.

Margaery Tyrell is probably the most polished version of the “outsider queen candidate” game. She and the Tyrells understand image better than almost anyone. Margaery does not just marry into power, she performs queenship beautifully. Charity, beauty, courtesy, fertility, public affection, perfect clothes, perfect manners, perfect courtly theater. She wins the city in a way Cersei never could because she understands that being loved is also power. That is why Cersei is so threatened by her. Margaery’s influence is not built on brute force. It is built on making herself seem like the answer to everyone’s problem. Hungry smallfolk? She feeds them. Ugly Lannister court? She brings charm. Joffrey’s horror? She softens the image of the crown. Tommen’s youth? She becomes the pleasant, guiding presence beside him. She is dangerous because she makes power look effortless. And because she is backed by House Tyrell, which means flowers in the front, knives somewhere behind the curtains.

If I had to rank their effectiveness in King’s Landing specifically, I would probably say Margaery is the best at public-facing court politics, Alicent is the best at faction-building, Myriah has the most successful long-term dynastic influence, and Cersei has the most raw institutional power but uses it the worst. Cersei gets closer to ruling directly than the others, but she also destroys her own position with almost impressive dedication. Margaery plays the game better socially. Alicent plays it better structurally. Myriah plays the long historical game. Cersei plays like someone set the board on fire and declared herself the winner because everyone else is coughing.

And I agree with you about not counting most Targaryen or Velaryon consorts in the same category. Aemma Arryn technically comes from House Arryn, yes, but she is already deeply tied into the Targaryen royal bloodline. Her marriage is more internal dynastic consolidation than an outsider house entering and reshaping court politics. Same with many Velaryon matches. They are too interwoven with the Targaryens to feel like true outside influence in the same way the Hightowers, Martells, Lannisters, or Tyrells do.

The real pattern with all four is that King’s Landing is never just ruled by kings. It is ruled by wives, mothers, daughters, ladies-in-waiting, septons, servants, singers, rumors, meals, dresses, mourning clothes, marriage beds, nurseries, and who gets access to which room at the right time. The men get statues. The women often get blamed. But half the game happens through them anyway.

[friedobservationdeer]

No, Adam Martin was not innocent, or the infantilization of male characters in media

When we think of Adam Martin, we tend to feel bad for the poor dude. I mean, it must really suck to be him. Having an affair with a hot celebrity, only for the celebrity to tweak out and stab you after she blames you for blackmail?

Must really suck to be a guy sometimes? Am I right boys?

Adam may be innocent of blackmail, but that just makes his actions all the more terrifying. And it reveals a double standard and the societal expectations of babying men who do awful things

I already gave Jeff his whackings, so Adam was next on my chopping list.

Let’s get into this:

Adam is a pretty normal guy, he was probably around his mid-thirties (35-36), and one thing that’s pretty important is that around the time the Yellowjackets are rescued, he is in his early teenage years.

Why is this important? Well I’m glad you asked. In universe, the Yellowjackets return from the wilderness was made National news, and they were celebrities in their own right, and given the nature of the media in the late 90’s and early 2000’s and the fact that Shauna’s wedding announcement is found by a quick search of her name, they probably were the talk of the country for at least a good decade or so

Obviously, Natalie and Tai were probably on the news more often, but you get the picture.

Around that time, and in the years afterwards Adam and other guys his age were probably drooling over the girls. I mean come on? Hot girls who are national celebrities? Holy smokes!

And even if he didn’t know at the time, he sure would find out soon enough.

As we start this, I want to point out something important, when we are trying to understand a character, you need to put yourself in their shoes, so let’s do that

Imagine you are Adam, and you got rear ended by someone. This someone proceeds to insult you, and blame you for causing the accident. You exchange information, and the lady doesn’t show up. You have her name on your arm, and it sounds kinda familiar, so you search it up.

You quickly realize you just got rear ended by a national celebrity. Well, to be fair, she was famous for living in the Canadian Wilderness for nearly two years. And the worst part? Nobody even knows how they survived, or what they ate.

It is popularly assumed they may have resorted to cannibalism

What do you do now? Do you

a) Mind your business?

b) Thank God that she didn’t eat you?

c) Call her up again and ask why she didn’t show up?

If you chose option C, then you are unthinkably screwed

Why he is doing all this is weird given the fact that your first and only impression of this woman is of her insulting you. You are also aware that she has a husband and daughter as well. Every single sign is yelling to not engage further.

But still he does

Next thing you know, she’s at a hotel pretending to be homeland security to get into a hotel room. And he decides to involve himself once again

My brother, let me hold your hands when I say this, but that is none of your business.

Even if you give him the benefit of the doubt and prefer to believe that he ended up here by accident, it’s still weird to involve yourself in a strangers life like this.

And next thing you know, she’s telling him that her husband is cheating on her, now what should you do? Do you:

a) Give your condolences and move on with your life?

b) Fake an excuse and get the hell out?

c) Go upstairs and have sex with her?

I guess we know which one he chose.

This is clearly weird as hell. From his perspective a really hot lady who he has met twice was getting cheated on, and his decision is to become a home wrecker instead.

“But Shauna—“

We’re talking about Adam here, don’t change the subject

Let’s go over what he knows about Shauna, ok?

He knows that,

a) She was a victim of a plane crash that killed her friends back in highschool

b) She is married and has a daughter

c) Her husband has been cheating on her

d) She is hard to get along with

e) She might have eaten human flesh

f) She impersonates homeland security

Does any of this yell let’s have sex?

Any decent person would offer their condolences and advise them against doing something stupid.

Adam isn’t doing any of this for blackmail, he’s doing it because he’s horny.

The way he views Shauna is also important, because it gives us a lot more context. He doesn’t know Shauna at all, he knows a celebrity, a mysterious sexy lady with secrets that she has not revealed to anyone. He is obsessed with having her, learning her secrets.

It’s his way of feeding his ego, believing that he can get Shauna to reveal secrets that she has never told anyone, that he can get her to leave her husband and daughter for him.

The way he acts when Shauna sees Callie says it all

My brother, this is embarrassing 🙈, know your place 😭

The way he’s acting, you’d think they had this affair for ten years or something and Shauna promised to leave her family for him

This is like the 4th date?

“If you guys need a ride” Read the room my dude 😭, stop setting yourself up like this

This also makes this scene look even worse with that context

Firstly, yes Shauna has her issues, but this guy has entirely lost all sense of boundaries in this scene.

Firstly, yes, edging someone isn’t nice, but going to their house, where their daughter and husband live, is clearly an inappropriate move. Secondly, you are the affair partner, and you have been with her, for what two weeks? Know your place 💀.

It’s 4 in the morning, she is tired, and she is busy, show some basic human decency and leave her alone when she says to go

Thirdly, even if he’s right about Shauna’s issues, he has absolutely no right to be doing all this, after she told him to go home, more than once. She has laid a boundary. No means no, “not try again”, not whine about your relationship status. He feels like he is losing control, and he doesn’t like it. Shauna is entirely correct

And then there is this

Manhandling a woman outside her own house 😬. Yeah, not looking good for you buddy. Again, to clarify, we as the audience might know, that Shauna can fight back, but Adam does not know that.

What would’ve happened if Shauna continued to refuse? Would he have insulted her some more? Held her down?

“Let me go”

“If you wanted me to do that, you wouldn’t have texted me”

Slow clap everyone 👏

Instead of showcasing basic human decency and the rules of consent, he tramples them, and shames her, calling her the narcissist

Again, let me remind you, he doesn’t know much about her, but you know what he does know? He knows that she is a victim of a plane crash, has a daughter that she had to take care of, has a life outside of him, and that she was afraid to hurt him during consensual sex.

His pictures of her are not done out of love or genuine affection, they’re done from a much more possessive type of love. He feels entitled to her secrets and her time and her attention to a scary extent

This is every woman’s nightmare come to life, and just because Shauna gave in, doesn’t make it okay, it doesn’t change the fact that this is a violation of her boundaries or that he outright intimidated and insulted her into sex.

Luckily for him, she gave in, instead of fighting, feeding his ego and making him believe that he was in control again. Hell, he even gets to sleep in her bed!

Then she shows up to his house, afraid that he was lying about personal information, you would think that he would have realized that this woman was somewhat unhinged, but he most likely enjoyed this because it meant that she was invested in him, that he was again in control. He got to play supportive boyfriend

Callie was right, he did want to take advantage of her, but he didn’t want to share it with the world, he wanted to keep her all to himself.

He had an inflated sense of importance to the point that he most likely believed that she would leave her husband and daughter for him.

And that leads us to his death. He is finally caught off guard and realizes he is out of his depth. (Idk dude, I think there were a lot of things you might ignored but okay)

I do think he simply saw himself as more powerful than her because she was a woman, a housewife, and he was da man!

His miscalculation costs his life, and Shauna is left with the mess.

The point I was trying to make here is the fandoms reception to his character. He is not the only homewrecker in the series, but he is treated like a poor, innocent victim of crazy Shauna, when he is a grown-ass man who put himself in this situation so he could have a celebrity to himself

And I found it interesting how Shauna who was half his age when she homewrecked a high school relationship on a popsicle stick foundation, and is treated like a demon, while Adam who was twice her age gets to be the innocent blorbo

Again, just like Jeff, he really is just a bad person and an entitled man. His behavior is seen as normal because we are so used to men behaving like this that we have internalized it in the way we think. Adam’s entitlement would probably be seen as normal by other dude bros because “the bitch started it by edging him” “Shauna was the one with the family” but when Shauna’s the homewrecker, Jeff is but a horny teenager, powerless to temptation

Which is honestly aggravating but not surprising, given the situation we face as women nowadays.

It’s funny how Shauna is the crazy one, but Jeff and Adam are the normal ones, even though their actions are more terrifying than Shauna’s.

Yeah Shauna can skin someone, but at least she can tell that she is crazy and can cause harm, but Jeff and Adam genuinely believe that they are normal and completely justified and innocent and the fandom falls for it

[thesexiestselkie]

And, like, they knew to breeze past the fact that Jeff read all ten of Shauna's journals REAL QUICK, because if they dwelled on it for even one more second it would've made his ditzy sitcom dad shenanigans look. Sinister. Very, Very Sinister, actually.

[thesexiestselkie]

Liiiiiiiiiike, ok. Benefit of the doubt. Shauna probably was presenting a very biased version of events and omitting her more. Inexcusable. actions. But. We see some of what she wrote, and its still incredibly fucked up. There's no way, that Jeff couldn't put two and two on the fact that by the second summer, Shauna couldn't stand anyone, and the fact most of the dead/missing girls started disappearing from her writing during and after that summer. And, he can't be that fucking stupid because he took the information from journals, and created an elaborate blackmail scheme. Like. I know that, in theory I'm supposed to view his behavior as goofy, but in practice he just comes of as incredibly ignorant and selfish. And that's without even acknowledging the weird coercion shit with Jackie, his relationship with Callie, and the larger consequences of the blackmailing. It's like. Girl fuck idk.

[friedobservationdeer]

The dehumanization of Shauna Shipman

This is a topic I have always wanted to write about

It started back when I first heard of Yellowjackets, back around the time of the season 3 finale. I have mentioned in another post that the things that I heard about Shauna without the context, made her seem much worse than she truly was.

And as I got into the fandom, lo and behold, it was even worse. It seemed as though a lot of the context for her behavior had flown over their heads. They saw her as a cartoon villain, a monster. The idea of showing empathy seemed impossible.

Everybody assumes that Shauna started the cannibalism because “she was crazy 🤪” while ignoring the fact that she was in her third trimester of pregnancy and having psychotic episodes and starving

And yes, having no food while extremely pregnant will cause more severe symptoms compared to someone who isn’t

So, reducing her eating Jackie’s ear to, Shauna’s evil and crazy is extremely thoughtless and inhumane.

They also happen to ignore Shauna’s guilt and extreme shame about doing so. Jackie asking about her ear is actually Shauna’s guilty conscience. Everyone remembers Tai’s vomiting and Natalie’s apologies, but nobody remembers how Shauna cried to Lottie about how afraid and ashamed she was.

It’s pretty easy to run into posts that treat Shauna like a violent animal, a dog that needs a leash. At first I took it as a joke (as I’m sure a lot of you do as well). But people genuinely believe this.

It got to a point where I saw a post where someone said that Shauna’s refusal to harm innocent things (ie: Bruce the goat) was because she had the mentality of an animal, and had no reason to harm it.

That made me stop for a good while

What do you mean?!

Shauna is incredibly human! She showcases genuine compassion and empathy. She is self sacrificial in a way that no animal can emulate!

Would an animal sacrifice their well being in the way that Shauna would?

Would an animal comfort people in the way Shauna did?

Would an animal tell their friends to go inside so they would not have to witness them chopping up the body of a child? Would an animal care more about their mental wellbeing over their own?!

“bUt AnImaLs TeChNiCalLy-“

I don’t care? Clearly Shauna is incredibly human. And also, the same video of her with the goat was memed as well, which also bothers me.

There are people who genuinely believe that the death of her baby was karma. A punishment that she deserved. There are videos about how she was a wh0re who deserved everything she got.

When someone points out how insensitive and ignorant and borderline abusive people can be to Shauna, it’s justified with:

“She deserved it because _____”

People will write about how Shauna hurt Melissa but ignore how Melissa took advantage of her in ways similar to how Lottie took advantage of Akilah and Travis.

They both

a) Approach someone who is isolated and vulnerable (Travis points out Akilah, and Melissa stalks Shauna)

b) Convince them they are special

c) Continuously repeat these affirmations to the point that the other person internalizes and believes what they are being told

The other person (Shauna and Akilah) are disenchanted and end up feeling abandoned and betrayed. Both attempt to get back at their abuser with violence in anger at being used.

Obviously neither of them are right in their violent actions and are still responsible for them. Like poisoning the animals, or shooting Melissa.

It’s easy to be fooled by Melissa, and I do genuinely believe Melissa loved Shauna, but she still did abuse her as well, by using her mental instability and grief to her advantage.

Melissa and Lottie both repeat these behaviors later on in life, whether it’s with Alex, someone pretty similar to Shauna, except that Alex serves a different purpose, or Lottie’s cult, with Lisa, who also serves a different purpose.

Alex is incredibly vulnerable and has suffered a loss that Melissa is aware of and has watched happen. She feels guilt for her, similar to how she felt with Shauna. She stalks her and inserts herself in her life, like with Shauna. And both Alex and Shauna know little about Melissa, while Melissa knows about their most vulnerable moments.

it’s funny how the fandom will most likely ignore the fact that Melissa was willing to poison their only food source to kill and cannibalize Shauna and will tell you once again

“She deserved it”

You can tell them that it is insane to kill your only source of food to kill one person, after you put them on this pedestal and plan out a murder as well as desecrating and eating their remains, while leaving yourselves to starve for an unspecified amount of time (they do not know rescue is coming, Mari is not a decoy)

They’ll say Shauna’s crazy

When you remind them that they all helped in killing Coach Ben (including Natalie), they’ll jump through hoops to explain why Shauna is definitely the worst and everyone else is really, really scared of big bad Shauna!

They see Shauna the way the characters see Shauna, which is really interesting to me

See, Shauna is not the only character to be dehumanized in the series, but her dehumanization is not just done by the characters but by the people watching the show as well.

In TV shows, we are given the pov of all characters. We are supposed to understand all of the characters, the situation they’re in and how that affects all of them.

Coach Ben is also dehumanized, but people seem to understand that he is being dehumanized and sympathize with him. Travis is dehumanized on Doomcoming and people can understand that. Natalie is dehumanized during the hunt. Lottie is dehumanized and turned into Wilderness Jesus

Shauna is dehumanized just as much, if not even more, but Lord forbid you acknowledge that, and everyone says:

“Nooo! Shauna’s really mean! She’s crazy! Stop glazing her! You’re removing her flaws! Stop babying her! She’s pure evil! She was born a demon! Did you know she slept with her best friends boyfriend!”

Yeah, she’s flawed, but she isn’t pure evil. That’s not the point of the show. And the show has made it pretty clear that she is being dehumanized. And also scapegoated.

How did that happen? Well, let me explain!

The Creation Of A Symbol

Obviously, they didn’t point at Shauna and say,

“Hey, we need a fall guy to handle all of our guilt for us, can you do that for us? Pretty please!”

It happened gradually. It’s clear that Shauna caught her bearings fast after the crash and played an active role in helping the others, and stepping up to do the nasty job that nobody (outside of Misty) wanted to do.

Shauna is someone who is already used to bearing the weight of someone else’s emotional needs and baggage. Whether it was her mother at first is questionable. But Jackie, who had a harsh mother, most likely complained often to Shauna, who would put aside her own needs to be there for Jackie

Like, in the script for that Jackieshauna hug outside the cabin, this is what Shauna is thinking

Even though Jackie ignored and insulted her for making the decision to go to the cabin, she puts Jackie’s mental health and feelings above her own.

“Shauna is scared, but she also knows this is what Jackie wants to hear”

How many times does Shauna put aside her own fear or personal issues aside for someone else?

A lot

It shows when Jackie says in the pilot that Shauna was always there for her. It shows when she tries to teach Jackie how to butcher, and gives her a pep talk. It shows when she is willing to die in an abortion attempt to keep Jackie from finding out. When she attempts to get her to eat on Doomcoming

Chances are, Shauna has been doing this pre-crash, quite often. Shauna and Jackie are used to the status quo. Shauna is used to her role. Everyone gets on her for not leaving, but they ignore how much she cared. Obviously Shauna didn’t have the heart to ignore Jackie when she was sad. She didn’t want to lose her closest friend.

She was probably afraid that Jackie would leave her and find better friends if she complained. And even when she did Jackie laughed it off and mocked her. (“Jesus, what crawled up your ass?”)

She was used to playing the role of caretaker and had the strength to do incredibly hard things without complaint. This kind of affects how the others would perceive her in the situation they were in

It would become the norm to assume that Shauna could handle it and that they could just worry about themselves, after all Shauna was self sufficient.

This self sufficiency turns into worship when Lottie turns her worship of her infant son. Suddenly the child is not just Shauna’s, it’s theirs. Shauna’s agreement to the baby shower suddenly turns into an entire segment of the religion turning her into the Virgin Mary.

The scene before her birth is indicative of this. Shauna complains about Lottie muttering things to her baby. She asks for Tai’s help. Tai takes Lottie’s side, dismissing it as harmless

I saw a Tai fan blame Shauna for making Tai feel bad, and call her a hypocrite for not caring about Tai? That she was a fake friend for not understanding how Tai felt about her sleepwalking and how Lottie was helping her?

Like, are we kidding?

This is exactly what I mean when I say this fandom dehumanizes Shauna.

Shauna is about to give birth in the middle of the wilderness. She is asking Tai to keep Lottie away from her as Lottie is scaring her. This is clearly been happening for a while. Shauna is the one who needs support. I’m not trying to say that Tai’s struggles don’t matter, but Tai has Van, while Shauna’s best friend has died. She isn’t insulting Tai or disregarding her issues. She doesn’t even mention them!

She isn’t yelling, she’s begging Tai to have her back in what she believes could possibly be the last days of her life.

Tai again disregards her issues for the sake of group peace. This is clearly normal behavior at this point

The group sees that Shauna can handle things without falling apart. They decide to let her do it instead of questioning it. Tai is the most resistant to this idea, but even she bends to it when her well being is on the line

Lottie is helping her with her sleepwalking and Van is her #1 acolyte, therefore she chooses Van and Lottie over Shauna. I mean Shauna’s strong enough to deal with it, right?

Like Tai herself says “happy wife, happy life”

Meaning: “Van and Lottie’s wants as well as mine, will always come above yours. It doesn’t matter what you want if Van wants something else.”

This happens over and over again

“Shauna is butchering meat in the freezing cold while pregnant? With her best friends corpse? I mean? She wants to do it? And cutting meat is icky! And outside is freezing! I don’t wanna go outside! Shauna’s super strong! She can handle it! Shauna hurry up, or I’ll eat your food!”

“Shauna’s sleeping on the floor? I mean Coach Ben already has the bed, and he’s a lot more fragile than Shauna! Never mind the fact that he’s a grown man and Shauna’s seventeen years old and pregnant! She cuts meat! She can handle the attic! Hopefully she doesn’t fall! 🤞”

“We need someone to kill whoever is picked! We should pick Shauna! She’s super strong! She cuts meat! Who cares if she buried her dead son the other day! She handled Jackie like a pro! She can handle this as well!”

“We need someone to butcher Javi! Shauna can do it! Even though she is clearly crying and covering her eyes! I mean she did say to leave, and I mean, as we always say, Shauna’s super strong!”

Tai ignores Shauna’s wishes once again, with the birth ceremony, which seems nice and all, but leads them straight into the one place Shauna was afraid they would go.

Lottie assumes that their prayers saved Shauna, at the cost of the baby. The baby is a heroic sacrifice now, instead of a tragedy

The group, once again, put their own well-being above Shauna’s. They cannot handle what they have seen, so they create a story that makes themselves feel better at the cost of Shauna’s mental health and her grief.

Shauna’s pleas mean nothing. Her wishes mean nothing. They have already decided what she should feel, what she is capable of handling. It’s why the group put the knife in Shauna’s hands.

They believe she is stronger than them, feels less than them. She is the image of strength, a godlike creature thanks to Lottie’s delusions and Vans storytelling

She is not like them, she can handle it. She has to handle it. Because she can, after all, she’s handled much worse.

This is the framework for the way they see Shauna in later years.

You can see how we have went from Shauna their teammate to Shauna, the Virgin Mary. Now, we get to Shauna, the antler queen.

After the cabin fire, nobody gives Shauna credit they way they do for Natalie. This is simple, Shauna is expected to be a superhuman creature, she is expected to keep them alive. It’s not something they reward. To them, Shauna saving them from the fire is like going to work, or raising your children, it’s a responsibility you are expected to carry out without reward or acknowledgement.

When Natalie butchers Ben, the group sees it as an awful thing, a hard task that would be incredibly difficult and they send her their apologies and pity

When Shauna butchers Javi, in the freezing cold after burying her infant son. It’s her job, Shauna cuts things, it’s expected for her, it’s like clocking into work. No one bothers to thank her. Only Van, Tai and Natalie go outside with her, and they go inside without question when Shauna says to go.

But when the others do similar things (Natalie surviving death by luck, or Tai making huts) it’s something to reward. Natalie and Tai are teenagers and friends in their eyes, so they can see the effort put in. Also Tai happens to be Van’s girlfriend

Funnily enough there was an argument on TikTok about how Shauna never contributed to their survival and kept them alive the way Natalie did. Which was funny because I’m pretty sure the season 3 Yellowjackets would agree.

Art imitates life, I guess?

This way of thinking isolates Shauna, with only Travis and Coach Ben acknowledging her sacrifices (“What about Shauna?” “I’m so sorry Shauna”). Natalie also acknowledges this years later. Lottie seems to understand and empathize in some ways as well (“You don’t have to kill the goat”)

Which is interesting as they are the only characters dehumanized in similar ways.

In season 3, Shauna had been acting out. This leads to the others isolating her even more and mocking her. Mari constantly eggs her on and the others roll their eyes and grow aggravated with her.

This is because they don’t view her as a grieving mother, they view her as an annoying toddler spilling their food and spitting on the walls.

Shauna is returning their energy and it aggravates them. They can’t seem to comprehend why she can’t get over it. Why she can’t just be grateful for the wilderness’ blessings? For her baby’s sacrifice?

Mari eggs her on, believing that she can handle it, and gets angry when Shauna acts petty in return. Tai warns Natalie and all she says is that Shauna is in a mood.

As well as that, one thing I forgot to mention was Shauna’s violence in all this. When Shauna finally cracks, Lottie takes the beating, telling her to “let it out”

Van tells everyone that there was a darkness in Shauna that Lottie had removed. That Lottie had heroically sacrificed herself to save Shauna. Instead of attempting to self harm or commit suicide using Shauna. This leads to the belief that if Shauna can beat Lottie, she can commit murder and chop up Javi

Melissa seems surprised that Shauna wanted to bring blankets to Lottie. Mari blames her for causing this, ignoring the fact that they could have stopped it

Once again, they create a story to make themselves feel better. Shauna was just too strong, too full of darkness to beat. After all, she beat up Lottie, their prophet, who had killed a bear!

Remind you a little of the fandom?

Shauna’s not only super strong and superhuman, she has a darkness in her, an evil that has corrupted her soul. She needs to return to Jesus (the wilderness) or face eternal damnation.

It makes it easy for the others to dehumanize her, whether it’s Mari constantly egging her on and poking at her, or Lottie spinning tales, and the others worshipping her son and ignoring her delusions of them eating her son.

Akilah putting a crown on her head after she refused to wear it. Having to wear a costume in a play about her son. She is made to do things that harm her for the sake of the others comfort.

“But she didn’t say anything!”

She did! She said it over and over! She wrote in her diary about it! She made it clear how uninterested she was! She was angry all the time!

And the fandom, just like the Yellowjackets call her crazy, and a problem for it. She needs to shut up and stop whining cause other people have it worse

I saw a TikTok about how Shauna needed to stop whining about her baby. I saw skits making fun of her dream of the others eating the baby.

Shauna is expected to know better, to be better. To stop whining and just listen to them. They are never expected to do the same. They can ignore her well being when it benefits them, but Lord forbid Shauna do the same.

The others now realize that Shauna is capable of violence and use it to their advantage. When Misty realizes that Natalie is lying about Coach Ben, she goes to Shauna, knowing that something will happen. When it does, she is nowhere near the scene of the crime.

Until Shauna rats her out, which surprises her. This showcases the hypocrisy in how they expect things from Shauna that they do not have to return. Misty expects Shauna to keep her secrets after ripping her to shreds on the stand and targeting her even when she had no reason to (“Shauna would’ve left Mari to die”)

Because Shauna was supposed to keep Misty’s secrets, and she did not. Therefore she needs to be punished. This happens again in the adult timeline, when Misty is not expected to apologize for attempting to kill her, but seems to expect Shauna to grovel and apologize to her when she insults her and makes her walk home.

The others hold her to the same standard. Mari gets angry when Natalie punishes them both after Mari had started the argument earlier in the day and had egged Shauna on (“I should beat your ass”)

Mari is innocent, Shauna’s the crazy unbalanced one, why should she be punished with her?

Mari gives Coach Ben’s location with barely any pressure, most likely telling herself, with no real evidence to back her statement that Shauna would have hurt her otherwise.

All Shauna did was point out a discrepancy in the story (“if your knee’s so fucked, how did you get out?”) She did not threaten her, and there is no other time that Shauna has beaten someone who hadn’t asked for it, but they had already rewritten the events in their head to make Shauna look dangerous.

When Misty states to the crowd that Shauna would’ve left Mari to die, only Tai defends her, Natalie, whose life was saved by Shauna twice agrees with Misty. This showcases how they view Shauna. Long before she became the antler queen, they treated her like the antler queen.

And their self fulfilling prophecy comes true

Shauna did not actually scare anyone into changing their vote. But Melissa and the others tell themselves that. It’s easier to put it on Shauna, who is the most vocal and angry, then accept that they are as bad as her.

When Melissa seems to understand Shauna, she starts a relationship with her. She assumes that Melissa understands her, and gives her the same advice that she gave her. Melissa tells her that her acts of violence that she has felt guilty about are okay. That she was powerful and special

I find it funny when people switch their roles, Shauna was the vulnerable one, don’t let the resting bitch face fool you. In spite of Shauna’s claims, Melissa had friends who saw her as a human being and would take her side when push came to shove. Shauna had Tai at best.

That is abuse, Melissa is abusing Shauna, she is taking advantage of her mental illness and violent tendencies to get what she wants.

Obviously Shauna does end up abusing Melissa in turn, but it’s aggravating when people say that Melissa tried to fix Shauna, she didn’t! She was trying to make her worse, that was the point!

When Melissa calls Shauna crazy in front of everyone and asks why she can’t be a good person, it sounds like an insult. I don’t think Melissa was trying to manipulate Shauna here, but you can’t tell me that you wouldn’t have felt betrayed and heartbroken if you were Shauna

Melissa had built her up, given her love and affection, had praised her and called her special. She had promised that she was unafraid of her dark side. Only to call her crazy in front of everyone. To deny having feelings for her as an adult, to say “you scared the shit out of me” when she had, in their first meeting said that she was not afraid of her.

That sounds a lot like grooming to me. The behavior continues into adulthood as well with Alex, so it’s not a one-off thing

Again, I like Melissa, I just hate when people infantilize her to make Shauna seem like some sort of demon. They both abused each other.

Shauna might be Melissa’s abuser, but Melissa is Shauna’s abuser as well.

Tai also uses Shauna’s anger as a Hail Mary to win the trial. She reminds Shauna of her birth, knowing it would make Shauna angry, and Shauna can give some good speeches when passionate enough, which is what she was counting on.

Obviously Tai wasn’t trying to cause harm, but it does show how normalized it is amongst the group to rile Shauna up and disregard her feelings for the sake of their own wants and needs.

When Coach Ben is to be maimed, they send Shauna out. Shauna finishes the job and finally seems to be acting in the way they described her. She showcases a lack of guilt, which finally is enough to justify their stories.

Shauna is evil, she is superhuman, she is not one of us, she is something special.

She is the wilderness vessel

There was an interesting discussion about how the wilderness represented Lottie’s abuser, or how Shauna is like Natalie’s father, which was interesting until they called Shauna their abusers. Which is untrue.

I kind of believe that Lottie sees the wilderness as an abuser of sorts, but Shauna was not the wilderness. Shauna is not Natalie’s father. She does not know about Natalie’s father, she is not purposefully attempting to emulate him. Shauna has rejected the wilderness over and over again, Lottie pushes it on her.

Once again Shauna has a title forced on her without her consent and she’s forced to carry the weight of it.

She is now viewed as a monster by the others, the wilderness bogeyman

And once Shauna keeps them from leaving, they turn on her.

It’s been mentioned how Lottie is spoken to kindly while Shauna is yelled at and shamed. But nobody seems too interested in understanding why.

Lottie is their prophet, and responsible for their blessings. She brought them the bear, and Javi and kept Shauna alive. Shauna is the bogeyman, full of darkness. Her reasoning for wanting to stay is not seen with human empathy, it is explained away by the excuse of “the darkness within her”.

Tai and Lottie’s reasoning is understandable to the audience and to the characters, but Shauna, whose reasoning was a mix of the two, could not explain with her words the way they could, and even if she could, she would still be ignored.

Which is why she turned to violence in the first place, because that was the only way anyone paid attention. She could not use her words, so she used the gun.

Both Tai and Lottie want to stay, but only Shauna is blamed.

Tai helps Shauna keep Hannah and Kodiak, she helps to pull Natalie out of her room, she aids in hunting Mari. Yet, she’s seen as the rational one.

When Mari, Gen, Melissa and Akilah make their plan, they are not heroically sacrificing themselves for rescue, they have no idea rescue is even coming.

Natalie has no idea what they’re planning, so it’s obvious that they are not working together.

They make their plan based on who they believe deserves to die, and that’s Shauna. Akilah goes rogue to kill Lottie.

They do not want to capture her peacefully, they do not want to deescalate, they want her dead, and are willing to carry it out

“But she deserves it!”

So does Tai? So does Lottie? But they don’t plan to murder them do they?

Tai is just as crazy, where’s the murder plan for her?

Mari and Akilah also assaulted Travis? Should they be punished?

Mari gave Coach away after promising not too and aided in his torture and death. Akilah told them that they had to get him when they faltered in front of the cave. Shouldn’t they be punished?

Melissa and Gen both voted for Coach’s death and both outright stated that Natalie should be punished when she killed him and ate his meat. Shouldn’t they be punished?

Kodiak’s head has arrows in it, meaning that Mari, or someone who could use it helped in putting him there. I highly doubt they were going to hand their only weapon to Shauna

They played a role in this situation, so by your logic, they should be killed and cannibalized as well right?

Right?

C’mon guys? I thought we agreed, if you do something bad, the reason does not matter, all that matters is that you deserve to be punished in a brutal way?

Or does that only apply to Shauna?

I guess it only applies to Shauna 🤷‍♀️

Anyways, they are so desperate for revenge that they are willing to kill their only ethical food source, dooming the entire group, including themselves to starvation just to have the excuse to kill, desecrate her body and eat her corpse

Yes, Mari would’ve desecrated Shauna’s corpse. The group already viewed her as the bogeyman, they all carried an anger towards her for not living up to their crazy standards and would’ve chased her happily. Based on the way they are more than willing to kill Shauna over two decades later, it isn’t crazy to think that they would’ve stripped her corpse naked and put her head on a spike.

They viewed her as subhuman, and would’ve danced around the fire like how they did with Coach Ben, celebrating their victory over Shauna’s bones. They probably would’ve plucked her eyes out and used her head for target practice. And then Lottie would’ve kept her head for mourning purposes. Or created some myth, with the help of Van, who would probably need a story to cope after Shauna died.

Tai and Van and Natalie would’ve abstained from actively desecrating her corpse, as Shauna was their friend, but they wouldn’t stop the others from doing so.

Travis would also abstain and get high somewhere

They would justify more hunts, now that they had no food supply, and kill each other until rescue arrived.

Afterwards when they would be rescued, they would, just like Shauna, feel awful for what they had done. Without the wilderness, they would have to cope with what they had done, just like Shauna had.

Simply put, Mari suffered the fate she wanted to subject Shauna to. Both of them fought each other, and Shauna won. Because Mari died, her sins are washed away. She is blameless now, an innocent victim of the bogeyman Shauna

Mari died fulfilling her self fulfilling prophecy. Mari had always been fated to die. She had created the situation that led to her own demise. Her death truly came full circle. It was Mari’s belief that Shauna was a monster that created a monster. Believing that Shauna was the villain they needed to beat killed her

It was incredibly childish, as they were children after all. Just a year ago their biggest issues were being grounded after failing a trig test.

It makes their dehumanization of Shauna feel less evil, and more like a child covering their ears when they don’t want to listen to their parents.

At the end of the day though, their dehumanization of Shauna comes back to bite them in the ass. They had created a monster, molded one with their own two hands, and now they had to deal with it.

It reminds me of the twitter post that started this whole thing

Shauna has never known who she was, she has always been molded into what everyone else needed her to be. This leads to an identity crisis, and I don’t think she ever truly understood who she was as a person and what she wanted. She had Callie out of guilt, she married Jeff out of guilt. She became the butcher out of necessity, the antler queen was placed on her. She was expected to constantly bear the weight without complaint. And she does!

For all of the “Shauna is crazy” people, she does make an attempt to hold herself together for over two decades. She tells Natalie not to give in to paranoia. She tries to keep Jeff from going to jail, tries to keep Lottie from killing herself only for Tai, Van, Natalie and Misty to attempt to kill her, knowing that the police were coming and that they would go to jail and have their secrets exposed.

It’s hilarious honestly, how people talk about how Shauna hunted people for fun when:

a) She never called for a hunt, let alone did one for fun

b) They did just attempt to murder her for shits and giggles

And here it comes again

“But Shauna deserved it!”

It’s been 23 years my dude, and if Shauna should be killed for lying, then Tai should also be killed as well. She sent a reporter to kill whoever snitched, sending Travis into a panic that led to his death. She then lied to them about sending the reporter as well, which led to Misty killing her under the belief that she was trying to blackmail them.

But the difference in the reaction showcases who the scapegoat is. Tai is let off the hook, just like in the wilderness, while Shauna is grilled on a hot stove. Shauna is genuinely honest for once and attempts to make things right. Only for Van and Tai to call off the psych team

She pleads with them not to do this, she appeals to their humanity. Only for them to ignore her as usual. She reminds them of the wilderness and how they had all lost their minds, only for the fandom to twist her words entirely

According to them, Shauna did not believe in “it” therefore she was worse than the others. Mind you, they are attempting to kill her, over Lottie’s mentally ill ravings, that they know are caused by schizophrenia

They chase her, and have to be stopped by Shauna’s 17-year old daughter, who is holding a gun

Natalie’s death is their fault. Had they not chased Shauna with masks, Lisa wouldn’t have been afraid of them. Had Misty waited, instead of jumping to murder, maybe Natalie could’ve calmed her down.

Yet Shauna, who played no role in Natalie’s death is handed the blame.

Not at any point afterwards do they apologize to Shauna or Callie. They expect Shauna to get over it, and move on.

And so does the fandom, because apparently Shauna is a hypocrite for questioning why the hell her teammates have lost their minds. I guess she was supposed to lay down and die, orphaning her only child because she did bad things, like everyone else in the circle 25 years ago

I guess the others are innocent because *checks notes*

“Shauna made them do it”

Completely valid excuse 👍

It makes her paranoia in season 3 feel more understandable, Tai, Van and Misty not only refused to apologize, they blame her for Lottie’s murder

Mind you, Shauna is the only one in that car who did not attempt to commit ritual murder

I would’ve crashed the car personally

Everyone remembers how Shauna ditched Van, but ignore how Misty accused her of being the bad friend, and accused her of murdering Lottie, only to villainize her when she, tired of the hypocrisy walked away

Was walking away a bad thing? Yes? But Misty, Tai and Van had not only insisted on coming along, she made her pay for the gas. They attempted to kill her, and accused her of murder.

Mind you, Misty deciding that she was tired of being devalued is hypocritical because it’s not like Tai and Van or even Natalie or Lottie treated her any better 😭💀

Van called her a psycho, Tai doesn’t want to involve her in anything, Natalie used her for her own benefit and insulted her just like Shauna.

The only difference? She expects more from Shauna, that she does not expect from anyone else.

Her anger is based in hypocrisy. Just like at Coach Ben’s trial.

Melissa stalks Shauna, leaves a note at her house, clearly wanting to trigger her so she can ruin her own life.

She sends a tape containing evidence that could send them to prison, right to her house. But the note!

She knew Shauna, she knew that sending this to her was the equivalent of pulling the pin out of a grenade and throwing it.

She could’ve sent it to Tai, who would’ve been rational about it, not the person you know is crazy.

Shauna thinks she is dead, making any contact is going to cause a scene.

And then she has the audacity to lecture Shauna about ruining her own life, while in the process of ruining her own

If she wanted to forget, she wouldn’t have married Alex and she would’ve destroyed the tape.

She is putting her wife and toddler in extreme danger because she was bored and wanted in on the fun.

Say whatever about Shauna, but one thing she hasn’t done is put her family in danger for fun.

When Van dies, Shauna is blamed, in spite of the fact that she attempted to keep them away. She is crucified for failing to support Tai the way she did, ignoring the fact that the situations are different

Tai would slap Shauna off if she tried it, while Shauna was receptive to Tai’s comfort.

Van made the decision to walk back in to save Shauna, Shauna did not ask for that.

Just like Shauna had run into a burning plane for Van 25 years ago.

Tai makes it clear that she does not want Shauna around Van. Shauna offers to help, but Tai refuses. This is similar to when Tai attempts to comfort Shauna over the baby’s death and Shauna shakes her off and buries him alone

If you blame Shauna for not following Tai when she specifically asked to be left alone, then by that logic, you should blame Tai for not following Shauna when she buried her baby

Sometimes, people need space to grieve and all you can do is give them that.

Afterwards, Tai and Misty get together to retcon the entire series, and everyone falls for it

“Shauna is crazy”

“Shauna is the cause of all of our problems”

“Shauna killed Natalie”

“Shauna killed Van”

“If we kill Shauna, all will be well”

What else Big Brother? Did Shauna bring down the plane too? Did Shauna put Simone in a coma? Did Shauna kill Jessica Roberts?

Of course she did! Shauna made them do it of course! They have no free will! Only Shauna has free will! Only Shauna is unaffected by it!

Shauna loved the wilderness! She thrived there! She’s not like the others! She’s strong!

You get it right? It’s easy to create a story, but it’s hard to keep it going. Just like the tale fell apart when they returned, it will fall apart again. Tai has never been able to accept her darkness and with Dark Tai gone, she will finally be forced to reckon with herself

Shauna did bad things, but it has become normalized to view her as subhuman and hold her to higher standards

She is an imperfect victim, which makes it easy to minimize her trauma as something that is deserved.

And it showcases how easily we as human beings fall to propaganda and groupthink that can completely alter the way we see reality

When I first heard of Shauna, based on TikTok edits, and all the nicknames, I assumed the worst, only to realize that it was all a well crafted story spun to give meaning to a story without a clear enemy

In a situation like that, it’s easy to play pin the blame on the donkey, to create stories to make sense of the tragedy that has befallen you, but only when you can acknowledge the truth, will you find peace, because those who do not learn from history will be doomed to repeat it

[soundwave-shipman]

butcherqueen au (with some natshauna and a little lottienat sprinkled in) where after she makes it out of the cave system, shauna begins having visions of the wilderness, which are psychologically painful and terrifying for her.

unlike lottie, where the visions have always seemed to flow through her like a river, they’re a hurricane for shauna; not simply drowning her but tearing her mind apart.

shauna goes to lottie, crying and begging for help, because now she’s completely drowning in misery, confusion, and helplessness. just days before she’d been feeding the pages of her journal all these different things — about how the wilderness was bullshit and that she hated everyone in the camp for believing the deaths of the ones she loved were necessary for such “wonderful things” to happen.

but now shauna’s faith had been solidified in the worst kind of way. she didn’t think the visions would follow her out the door of the cave. but they did. and they weren’t going anywhere. she didn’t wanna worship the force that she now knew had actively taken people away from her to perform “miracles.”

why did it have to be her best friend? her baby? why did it have to be anyone at all?! why couldn’t they have just been left alone?! why didn’t the wilderness just hurry up and take out the one it made suffer the most?! why was she still here, when everyone she loved had died?!

“you’re here,” lottie says, “because it needs you.”

shauna couldn’t believe it. the wilderness needed her? what for? it had lottie already, didn’t it? why was it never satisfied?!

but the prospect of being needed by this entity caused new thoughts to spring in the back of her mind. this thing out here had actively chosen her for… something. something few others had ever been needed for. this made her special. exclusive. valuable. powerful.

nat’s role here would change. instead of merely focusing on rescuing the group, she would also be trying to rescue shauna. she would try and convince her that lottie was wrong and taking advantage of her. as winter approaches, this becomes less and less about fighting shauna and more and more about saving her.

lottie may have transferred power from nat to shauna for the former’s protection, but it wasn’t the only reason. with nat outta power, it opened a vacuum for lottie to bring shauna one step closer to her true destiny — or just what lottie believed to be her true destiny.

nat’s already lost one girl to the wilderness. she can’t lose another.

[inkskinned]

because sometimes there are invisible tests and invisible rules and you're just supposed to ... know the rule. someone you thought of as a friend asks you for book recommendations, so you give her a list of like 30 books, each with a brief blurb and why you like it. later, you find out she screenshotted the list and send it out to a group chat with the note: what an absolute freak can you believe this. you saw the responses: emojis where people are rolling over laughing. too much and obsessive and actually kind of creepy in the comments. you thought you'd been doing the right thing. she'd asked, right? an invisible rule: this is what happens when you get too excited.

you aren't supposed to laugh at your own jokes, so you don't, but then you're too serious. you're not supposed to be too loud, but then people say you're too quiet. you aren't supposed to get passionate about things, but then you're shy, boring. you aren't supposed to talk too much, but then people are mad when you're not good at replying.

you fold yourself into a prettier paper crane. since you never know what is "selfish" and what is "charity," you give yourself over, fully. you'd rather be empty and over-generous - you'd rather eat your own boundaries than have even one person believe that you're mean. since you don't know what the thing is that will make them hate you, you simply scrub yourself clean of any form of roughness. if you are perfect and smiling and funny, they can love you. if you are always there for them and never admit what's happening and never mention your past and never make them uncomfortable - you can make up for it. you can earn it.

don't fuck up. they're all testing you, always. they're tolerating you. whatever secret club happened, over a summer somewhere - during some activity you didn't get to attend - everyone else just... figured it out. like they got some kind of award or examination that allowed them to know how-to-be-normal. how to fit. and for the rest of your life, you've been playing catch-up. you've been trying to prove that - haha! you get it! that the joke they're telling, the people they are, the manual they got- yeah, you've totally read it.

if you can just divide yourself in two - the lovable one, and the one that is you - you can do this. you can walk the line. they can laugh and accept you. if you are always-balanced, never burdensome, a delight to have in class, champagne and glittering and never gawky or florescent or god-forbid cringe: you can get away with it.

you stare at your therapist, whom you can make jokes with, and who laughs at your jokes, because you are so fucking good at people-pleasing. you smile at her, and she asks you how you're doing, and you automatically say i'm good, thanks, how are you? while the answer swims somewhere in your little lizard brain:

how long have you been doing this now? mastering the art of your body and mind like you're piloting a puppet. has it worked? what do you mean that all you feel is... just exhausted. pick yourself up, the tightrope has no net. after all, you're cheating, somehow, but nobody seems to know you actually flunked the test. it's working!

aren't you happy yet?

[bimyselfhistory]

[teaboot]

I’m not Christian, I don’t go to church anymore, and my pastor died, but when he was alive I’d sometimes go to his sermons and I remember one time he said “it feels good to hate, but we know that it isn’t allowed, so when we’re told that we’re allowed to hate someone we get so excited that we forget we’re supposed to love”, and if my humble atheist ass might borrow some church talk I’d like to perhaps submit that

[teaboot]

Anyhow sometimes on the day to day I feel disgust or revulsion and I have to ask myself “is this a danger to anyone at all or am I just looking for something I’m allowed to hate” and a solid 98/100 times it’s the latter so once again thank you pastor D