Yellowjackets - I Didn't Like Natalie In The Beginning

Shauna Shipman - The true evil.

SEASON 3 SPOILERS

Before you keep reading, please do not try and rebuttal this post with, "You just don't understand a complex character."

I can understand the complexity of a character, and still dislike them.

During season 3, I became a Shauna Shipman hater and began wishing on her down fall, and it was genuinely infuriating to me watching her fall from my top 3 down to the very bottom. I went into season 3 loving teen Shauna AND adult Shauna (Melanie Lynskey stan btw).

I understood Shauna's anger and resentment towards the group in the beginning of the season. Shauna has arguably been through the most trauma out in the wilderness, with her going through a teen pregnancy, only for it to result in a stillborn (especially after having such vivid dreams of the baby being alive and her nursing him) and losing her bestfriend who she both loved and resented and having to eat her, with their last words shared with one another being an argument.

So when I found out that the others were literally praying to the spirit of her deceased baby (and Jackie), I was gob smacked. I stayed on the Shauna Ship because if that was me, I would've been pissed too. And Akilah trying to give Shauna a "special crown" because she's the mother was so disrespectful. I love Akilah, but I have to side with Shauna on this one. It was messed up, and I do not blame Shauna for moving the burial site without telling anyone.

But then the beef with Mari happened. I do get it, Mari was being a huge bitch, which wasn't really a huge surprise if you've watched the past two seasons. But literally spitting in Mari's food and then lying about it was crazy disrespectful, especially because food is a rarity for them. And then showing literally no care when Mari went missing. Someone pointed out that they think that Mari and Shauna beef originated in season 1 because Jackie used Mari to make Shauna jealous when they first went to the lake, and I believe it.

At this point in the season, I'm like, "Okay, Shauna's really derailing, but I can understand where her anger is coming from."

But then we have the trial of Coach Benjamin Scott. The way that Shauna resorted to intimidation to get the majority to vote to execute Ben was so frustrating. Everyone was conflicted and the vote was 50/50, UNTIL Shauna scared them. Which to be fair, if I was there, I probably would've voted to kill Ben, not because I believe that he was guilty, but because Shauna is literally terrifying. Especially the Achilles heel scene. Vile. Disgusting and disturbing.

Then Shauna gets crowned as leader, and my first thought was, "That is literally the worst choice you could've ever made, Lottie." Shauna is clearly not all their mentally right now and they've all been a first hand witness to her anger. Shauna is a terrible leader because she doesn't give a shit about the others, she hates all of them, which means she doesn't care about their safety and wellbeing, which is what a leader is supposed to do.

Don't even get me fucking started on Melissa being a devil on her shoulder at the start; "You feel that? That's power." Melissa pissed me off in the beginning, because she was literally throwing a whole forest onto the fire brewing inside of Shauna.

At this point in the show, I'm thinking, "Shauna is the worst, and it sucks that no one is saying anything about it."

But at that point, Shauna hasn't really done anything TOO crazy for anyone to be like, "This bitch is fucking crazy, she has to go."

Then the frog researchers show up. The way Shauna laughed and smiled her ass off when she witnessed the guy getting axed by Lottie, was genuinely pissing me off and disturbing. Also, I do not believe Shauna cared about Melissa's wellbeing when she got shot. The way she was so nonchalant about it did not seem genuine. Keeping Hannah's hair as a little fidget toy was a little weird, but not the weirdest thing they've done, so that gets a little pass.

Shauna choosing to stay infuriated me, but I could understand WHY she didn't want to leave. She's become accustomed to the wilderness. Her whole life revolved around Jackie, so what is her life going to look like without Jackie if she goes back to the real world? I believe her reason to stay was both fear and control. Shauna has all the power now. She's the leader. And she uses that to force the others to stay. And Natalie just letting her take the gun was so frustrating.

But the whole showdown between Shauna and Melissa was actually so fucked. I felt so bad for Melissa, because Shauna verbally berated her in front of everyone, shot at her and then smiled when Melissa wet herself.

At this point, Shauna has become irredeemable. She is thriving on violence and chaos, no matter where it is coming from and who it's directed at. You cannot convince me or tell me anything that could ever excuse that type of behavior, especially towards someone who Shauna is supposed to be in a relationship with (I used the word relationship loosely, btw). It's abuse.

At this point, I'm waiting for someone to humble her ass. Slap her back to reality or something.

And then, the finale happens. Mari gets the Queen, and Shauna shows no remorse or sadness. Mocking her by saying, "Tough break, Mar." and then laughing when Lottie starts counting. And if you notice, Shauna is literally the only person hunting Mari (which I made a whole separate post about). Watching the realisation on Shauna's face that 'Natalie' was actually Hannah, was so satisfying. It's almost as if the iron grip of control Shauna currently holds on the group begins to weaken before her eyes, especially when she turns and sees the others staring at her, fully aware of what has happened.

I loved Shauna Shipman in season 1 and 2, but she become a dictator in season 3. I could see where her anger and resentment towards the group originated from and even supported some of the actions she made BECAUSE of that resentment, but there are a lot of her actions that I cannot see reason to, other than doing malicious things without any real motive behind her actions, besides to enjoy watching people suffer.

(I am also aware of the racial discussion of cutting Mari's hair after her death. Not just that, but also how the show treats their POC characters in general. I've seen a lot of debates about this (Mari) and I do believe that there were some racist implications with choosing to use the hair of an indigenous person. I do think there is a difference between intent and how something is perceived. Just because the writers didn't intend for the scene to be offensive or racist, doesn't mean that it doesn't come off that way to their audience.)

Microscopic Until Dawn Spoiler

I've been actively trying to avoid spoilers, but a tiktok clip was just a little too fast for me and it showed me a few seconds of the changes prologue of Until Dawn and even the smallest changes are making me so fucking happy. They finally changed Beth's robotic; "Where's my sister going?" line into one that actually sounds genuinely normal.

Headcanon where James (season 4) and Alex Fairbanks are brothers. In this au, James is not as pacifistic, only resorting to killing walkers to defend himself and Alex. Alex is 15 in this and James is 20 since this sets scene in season 4 and Alex was 7 in the Michonne game, and it’s been about 8 years since in the final season it says Clementine’s 16-17. James and Alex have been wandering for years, using their skills they learnt from the whisperers to move around herds. Alex doesn’t like using the mask a lot and likes to take breaks every now and then to at least eat. Instead of calling them walkers, Alex refers to them as Wendigos. James wasn’t as close to his Grandmother, so he was never told about Wendigos. Similar to Aasim, Alex has written alot of what has happened through out his life, and how much he looks up to James. When they meet Clementine and Aj, and she offers them to stay, Alex gets the biggest smile he’s had in years. Finally, they don’t have to keep walking, they can settle down, just like James said, with people they can trust. James isn’t that trustworthy, but agrees, to make Alex happy. 

People have been commenting about the Squid Game glass panels game, saying stuff like;

“Why don’t they just jump on the beam?”

“If I was there, I’d use the beam”

Yes, I can see how people can think landing on the beam would be a solution, but theres a few things I don’t think people take into consideration. The bridge was made like this:

l⬜️| |⬜️|

With two beams supporting each side of the bridge, giving a rather medium gap in the middle. I was watching Matpats theory (which alot of it did not make any sense btw) and he said something about landing on the beams of both panels with your feet split. Like this;

/\ <- legs

|⬜️| |⬜️|

Its a pretty shitty way to explain but stick with me here. Now it’s not the size of the bars that we need to consider here, it’s the size of the jump you need to make it to the next two panels. The gap is big, bigger then the distance of the bars. Now jumping that distance, landing with your bare feet on the edge without leaning to heavily on one side when you land is highly unlikely.

Throwing yourself at that distance and landing in a position that will make you lose your off balance is mostly likely going to throw you off your feet, between the glass panels infront of you and to your demise. It’s like jumping on stepping stones in high heels, there’s no way your going to land steadily. There’s also the fact you can’t wear your shoes, which will put pressure on your feet, considering you have to be careful of the weight you put on each side. That will mean you have to land with your feet in the exact same position when you jump the gap.

Which again, highly unlikely. Edit: Also, shuffling is most likely not going to work either. The glass panels are ontop of the beam, meaning you would have to land on the first two glass panels, shuffle across and then crawl your feet back onto the second ones. But you would have to have amazing balancing skills and feet made of steel to do that.

I'm writing Captain Boomerang in my Suicide Squad story and I'm literally struggling with his dialogue.

He's SO Australian.

And that's coming from a literal Australian.

Comparing my two TWD fics featuring Ben Paul as a main character

Basically, I've written 2 fanfictions that feature Ben Paul from twdg as the main protagonist. Both are 100k+ words and I only really consider one complete.

(None of these have been published btw)

Story 1 is about Ben surviving in TWD Game. He survives season 1 and becomes the guardian of Clementine & Duck. It was written in 2021 and has not been touched since. Currently, the last chapter is at the ski lodge cabin w/ Kenny in season 2.

Story 2 is about Ben surviving in TWD Show. He joins Rick going to Atlanta and joins the main group. Several characters fates have been changed. It was started in mid-2023 and I'm still currently writing it to this day. Seasons 1-5 have been written, season 6 has just begun.

Below are comparisons I've noticed while rereading story 1.

First person vs third person

Story 1 is written entirely in 1st person. Older me feels physically sick and confused with younger me because why? I cannot name a single one of my WIPs that are written in first person. Story 2 is written entirely in third-person omniscient, which I find a lot easier to read/write.

2. Ben is OOC for the most part

In both stories Ben is more capable as a survivour and is more confident in his abilities and expressing himself. Both stories show Ben learning how to fight walkers early on, however TWDG Ben is more nervous compared to my TWD Ben. TWD Ben is more confident and humorous compared to TWDG Ben.

3. Skipping scenes?

In story 1, I never skip any scenes from the game. Everything has been written exactly how it plays out in the game besides changing certain things like character fates and such. In story 2 however, I skip a lot of scenes because the scene either;

A. Doesn't have Ben in it nor does it make sense to write him into the scene.

OR

B. I did not feel like writing it so I skipped it entirely.

4. Ben's relationships with other survivours

In story 2, I flesh out a lot of the relationships with Ben and the other survivours. I put a lot more detail and effort into developing relationships, but in story 1, I hardly do that. I would say Ben is the closest with Doug in story 1, besides Clementine and Duck.

5. Quantity and Quality

Both stories currently have a word count of over 100k. Story 2 (TWD) has beaten story 1 (TWDG) in the word count, with 150k words. By comparing both of my stories, it's clear that I've put a lot more effort into story 2. There's a lot more detail dedicated to describing locations and characters compared to story 1.

I'm thinking of rewriting story 1 at some point, by putting more detail and changing it from first person to third-person omniscient.

Do you want more details of my stories?

Is Ben queasy around blood or not?

In Season 1, Episode 2, when Lee, Mark and Kenny encounter David, Travis and Ben in the woods, Lee can cut off David’s leg or Mark shoots Travis by accident. When David loses his leg, Mark and Travis approach to look at him and Travis turns away to puke and then Ben has a look and just looks uncomfortable. But in Episode 4, if Ben is the only one to go with Lee, he’ll faint whilst Lee cuts off his arm.

Which is it?

Watching S10 EP4 of TWD and I love the small interaction between Eugene and Luke at like 33:10. They’re with a small group discussing about the whisperers and that Rachel had called for some backup. And Eugene normally references shit that no one actually knows or pays attention to his extended responses. So I absolutely loved Eugene’s reaction to Luke acknowledging his reference to the “illustrious cockroach family.”

Season 3 TWDG - Kate

I was reading some peoples opinions on reddit about certain characters. Like some people were talking about hating Eleanor, rightfully so and then I found some people hating on Kate.

I absolutely hated the relationship between Kate and Javier and how TellTale attempted to force them together every chance they got. During my playthrough, I avoided any romance between them, because; 1) Kate is David’s wife, bro code, yknow? and 2) I always go the platonic route in games.

Also, I don’t know if I’m remembering this correctly because it’s been like a year since I’ve played season 3, but during the garage scene, Kate will either kiss Javi (if you accept her confession) or go, “Tell him, Javi” (if you reject her). Like, WHAT! Tell him what? That I rejected you because I only see you as a friend? 

Honestly, Kate is a great character, but I find her kind of annoying with all the forced romance shit, like even during her confession she talks about  all these ‘moments’ we had. What moments are you talking about? The one where I I didn’t kiss you? Or the one where I pulled my hand away when you deliberately pulled my hand back when your hot headed husband was literally walking into the room? 

Kate doesn’t deserve a lot of hate she gets, her character’s written fairly well, it’s just how she’s written in game. Her character outside all the forced bs is good.

Idk :)

I'm 1000% convinced they made Jim the one who gave the answer to Tabitha and Jade just so they could make him more likeable.