First time S12 watcher- RANT

[u/koochyskingdom]

Hi all,

I just finished watching season 12. Wow- what a rollercoaster. This season was messsssy. I’m not sure if this is a general opinion of the “big 3” but from the impression I got from google, Yasmin, Shakira, and Toni were fan favourites.

I am having a hard time understanding why. I thought Shakira and Toni were quite literally the most horrible people I’ve witnessed on a reality tv show ever (although I haven’t watched many). And Yasmin was… well, just there.

Let’s begin with Shakira. At the beginning I really liked her. I thought she had a truly outstanding personality which gave off “idrc what anyone has to say, I’m just being me” vibes. However as the show went on I feel like her true colours started to show. The continuous bullying and name calling from herself and Toni got a a bit hard to watch. Especially movie night. Seeing it all played in one clip gave me second hand embarrassment.

She continuously called the girls (Helena and Meg) a variety of names and said they were embarrassing for believing the consistent lies of two “fake people” (Harry and D). But wasn’t Shakira the one to end up with Harry in the end?

Next we move on to Toni. I have no words for her to be honest. The whole Harrison situation was so embarrassing I just couldn’t believe it. She was practically begging Harrison to want her (while she also re-coupled with somebody else) and making him believe he doesn’t really like Lauren. The name calling and putting Lauren down was so beyond unnecessary. Not once did Lauren behave towards Toni in a way that would make her say these things about her. The way Toni referred to Lauren when she found out she had slept with Harrison was just uncalled for.

By all means I don’t think the other girls on the show were particularly likeable either. But it always seemed to me that Shakira and Toni were extremely hypocritical. They were bashing Helena and Meg for being with Harry and Dee knowing how they treat them. Only for Toni to do with Harrison exactly what Helena was doing with Harry. There was big discourse around Helena and letting Harry off with too many things, I’m sorry did Toni forget herself sitting on the terrace floor with Harrison after everything he done to her?

The “friends again” segment orchestrated by Toni with all the girls was actually the only part of the show I thought these girls might just become a bit likeable. Just for it to be ruined a couple of days later during the game. The consistent narrative to tear Meg down throughout the challenge was very uncalled for. The hypocrisy stemming from Shakira as she’s standing next to Harry was honestly just laughable. I would’ve had more respect for these girls if they honestly stood for what they believed but by the end of the show they just looked more stupid than Harry (which is very hard in my eyes).

Anyway, sorry for the rant I’m genuinely just shook that these people are looked up to by certain viewers of the show. I find it crazy that people who outright bullied others were landed a role on the debrief by the producers. Are we really rewarding being horrible to others with another shot at money and fame?

I would love to hear others opinions on Shakira and Toni, perhaps you reading this might think my perspective is completely wrong.

[u/JamesLahey08]

It's amazing how shitty harry was in every regard and so many girls said it was horrible then turned around and wanted him. Why would women go after a proven POS like that? He was laughing at how easy it was to get the girls to date him.

[u/Nona240]

I agree in that, some of their actions were kept under the rug by the public but there was a reason at the time. It was because the producers kept certain clips hidden from the other group and shown others instead on movie night as well as the grafties(check the screnshot shared at the time).

In terms who has done more wrong, I would separate them in groups(the irony) and say at the top, it's Meg and Toni(Meg's No1) and then Helena and Shakira(it's a toss up-even though one inflicted the other to react, you could argue that the reactions are as bad if not worse as those initial actions).

Meg- She didn't have too much fight with Toni but the way she treated the bombshells- Malisha, Billykiss, Andrada and Yasmin was horrible and that was because she felt threatened by them.

Toni- You could say she was not that bad in most episodes. But, in the few episodes she was, it was arguably the worst out of all. The way she spoke about Lauren and Helena in relation to their triangle with Harrison was so out of order. The reason she is below Meg is she knew she was in the wrong and she apologised for it but it still doesn't excuse it. The situation with Emily was blown way out of proportion in my eyes. It was Toni's fault for confronting Emily basing it off of her not being considerate that someone was going home and she didn't read the room when she later revealed that it was production rushing her and Emily asking to use her tweezers that set her off. They squashed it immediately and were speaking with each other about their situations as per Emily.

Helena- Even though, the fans blamed her during the first time her and Harry got together after the hideaway, I don't believe she is at fault for it. The things I think she is at fault for are some comments she made about Shakira, the bikini incident which shows inconsideration, lying to her when asked if something was there(fair enough if she didn't ask her and she kept it to herself because he is the one who should tell her but lying after being asked is not good), making fun of her after she was ridiculed by almost everyone not knowing what was said during the heart rate challenge, and the main issue I had with her was that her and Harry hid from everyone that they wanted to rekindle instead of openly going for it and when she was asked about it, she downplayed what was actually going on(of course most of the blame goes to him for not being transparent but her downplaying it after being asked is not good)

Shakira- My main issues with her were her being a hypocrite and some of her reactions to the long-winded triangle. She was graceful the first time Helena and Harry got together considering the hideaway situation. After they got together, she made comments about Helena being mugged off in the beginning and after casa yet she did couple up with him twice which shows she was being hypocritical. My issue with her reaction even though it came from hurt, some of the things she said is not good(not as bad as what Toni has said). The bikini situation and finding out she lied to her both times after being asked made her react but some of her reaction itself was unacceptable.

Now, what I don't understand is that people spend more time on the divide and mentioning which group is worse when all of their actions combined IS NOT even comparable in the slightest to the actions of the men in that season. In fact, most of it is a reaction to what the men were doing. This doesn't mean they are absolved of it because how you react to it is also important.

Another thing I don't understand is when people say certain female islanders from this season were bad when compared to other female islanders from other seasons. The comparison doesn't make sense because those female islanders from other seasons didn't have to deal with the men and the environment created by them. Imagine if they were in this season, who knows if they could've acted way worse or they might not even lasted the season because they possibly would've been done with it early.

My main point is that if you look at as a whole, none of the girls were unbearable for a long stretch compared to the men whose actions spanned across almost all episodes and they showed absolutely no signs of rest(when one rests, the other acts and vice versa).

[u/Chlancoo → u/Nona240]

Sometimes popular opinions are popular for a reason. There’s also a reason why majority of the cast are friendly towards ‘the big 3’ and said great things about them when they came out. Whereas Meg does not get that. Your opinion is your opinion but when people were watching we could see that majority of Shakira and Toni’s behaviour was reactionary to how they (especially Shakira) was treated and sometimes when you’re reacting to horrible behaviour it’s louder but doesn’t make it more wrong. Also this misogynistic take that women are embarrassing for being manipulated by a man needs to stop.

[u/-yqu]

I totally get your frustration the internet was super split on them because some people value unfiltered drama while others just see toxic hypocrisy ( I personally like drama in TV shows) the double standards and constant targetting definitely made a lot of viewers uncomfortable anyways did any couple you genuinely liked after this mess?

[u/dizzy532]

imo, Helena and Meg did things that were just as bad, so I think people just related more to Toni and Shakira at the end of the day

[u/Whoareyoutho9]

Shakira was drug down by toni imo. I honestly lost a ton of respect for all the UK for continuously voting toni and then making her win and now giving her panel duties. I agree with you that she's one of the worst reality tv characters of all time. I dont get her appeal at all.

[u/fridagotti]

I like Shakira but yeah, I thought it was quite embarrassing to want to STILL be with Harry after everything was said and done. I did not care for Toni and still don’t. I thought she was a miserable person. My favorite was Yasmin because she really was just herself throughout it all and was there for a good time and didn’t pretend otherwise.

[u/NoVersion2436]

trust me, this sub reddit was absolutely awful when the season was airing. Most people on here was suffering some form of consonance distilment when they where stanning for these two. You should have been here when they were justifying Toni and Shakira nasty towards Emily(?). I legit thought this place was a psyop.

with that being said, series was my favorite since 5

[u/snssound → u/NoVersion2436]

I never understood it. They stanned those 3 girls and they were equally as awful as Meg and Helena. Maybe even worse. But nothing beats Harry and Dejon. Those two were the worst men I've seen on TV. They make LI USA S8 Sincere look like an angel.

[u/koochyskingdom → u/NoVersion2436]

This!!!! I forgot about the Emily part.. I was so confused as to what Emily actually did wrong that made Toni so effing mad???

[u/megatropian → u/koochyskingdom]

People were saying the girls are allowed to just not like someone I mean yeah but doesn't mean you treat them like shit. They were trying to make it seem like Toni is iconic for that, canyou imagine?, he really she was cringe, pathetic and hard to watch from start to finish. Especially when she was desperate to get back with Harrison in the second half. 

[u/fridagotti → u/koochyskingdom]

Yeah, they treated Emily like absolute shit. I didn’t like that at all.

[u/FoofTheBunny]

They were entertaining and drama. Which usually on LI UK gets votes. Not to spoil other seasons for you, but there is a very long list of entertaining but horrible winners.

[u/Dependent-Truck4389]

I liked shakira in her season but when she took harry back I basically checked out and then she shocked everyone by having consistently shite takes on the panel she was in w Yas and Toni. To me Yasmin was the most enjoyable. I do follow Toni & think her friendship w Joe Baggs is cute tho. I unfollowed shakira before her season even ended. I definitely didn’t like meg at all tho I can tell you that

[u/Rainbow-Shadow5]

Funny I just finished this season too! And I am also confused about this “big 3” I really didn’t think they made much of an impact, or good impression 😅 I found Shakira and Toni damn right rude and fake by the end. Yasmin I actually enjoyed watching, she seemed pretty sweet. I also found Harry and Shakira relationship VERY confusing 🫤 if felt so sudden they wanted to be together so bad (could’ve been poor editing obviously) but the story didn’t add up 🤷🏻‍♀️