#couldve stayed drafted

[zedfishdeadfish]

[c-kiddo]

looking at all the comparisons of the oldest to newest tmn arts again and honestly so sad that fjords nose got so straightened out like 😐 who gave him a nose job ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[azira7]

@mango-mya LATE BIRTHDAY GIFT WOOO

[tweedfrog]

Just spitballing here but i think it'd be interesting if in an AU where Rhaenys lived instead of going in the opposite direction as Tywin she was like yk what atrocities are fine actually when you commit them against Lannisters. If anything i feel it'd be more realistic. How many people do you know who are subject to incredible violence who become pacifists.

Like im SICK of female characters being forced to have the mildest most kumbaya reactions to being mistreated. I still remember the arguments people made around Dany's "the Usurper's Dogs" comment you'd think she was hand writing and mailing death threats to each of the stark kids individually instead of pointing out that yeah theres some shared culpability between the rebels for what happened to Elia and her children (even if Dany arrived at the right conclusion with incorrect reasoning)

[connormoving]

im so tired

[bulletproofbandits]

Cock my gun? Wait til i gun my co-- uhm.

[jackiietaylor]

Now that it’s over thoughts on season 3? I feel disappointed but I’m not surprised since I felt like this since 3x01. If we get a s4 I don’t know if I’ll watch it or I’ll casually watch it and like… not get invested

id say disappointing is pretty accurate to how i feel about the season. i honestly wasnt even gonna watch despite loving the first two seasons because i thought skipping past the aftermath of the cabin burning down was a really boring decision, and i do kinda wish i had just not bothered with it at all. as of now i probably won't watch s4, assuming it gets renewed, which makes me sad because at one point this was my favorite show and i really did love it, but it just feels so far away from the show it was in s1 that im just not really interested in anything that may happen. maybe if i do watch it ill wait until the full seasons out, or maybe ill change my mind and just casually watch, but right now im not really invested in what happens

more detailed thoughts below:

season overview:

i think overall the season just felt… contrived? so much of the plot felt like it was happening because the writers needed it to happen and not because it was a natural continuation of what had happened prior. the group staying in the wilderness after one comment from shauna is my biggest example of this. we know theyre not allowed to leave the wilderness until winter, so they don’t leave. thats it. so much just felt so forced

a big complaint i had in s2 was that they skip over the aftermath of every single major event, at least in the wilderness. they did it with jackies death and the beginning of the first winter, they did it with shaunas baby dying, and then they did it with the cabin burning. i just think it’s poor writing to not explore the results of these moments. even half an episode spent watching the cabin burn, trying to find whatever remains, and the start of them building new shelters couldve helped, because what they did do felt so unrealistic. the first two seasons they cant find any food and then in s3 suddenly they have a bunch of farm animals? not a fan.

adult timeline (mostly taissa):

i think the adult timeline is ruining the show, and at this point im really not sure theres a way back. they clearly have no clue what theyre doing with it. i have like 10 posts in my drafts about this but completely throwing away the most interesting adult plot (taissas senate career and her relationship with her family post sacrificing their dog to win the election) just to bring in van only to give van no reason to exist outside of taissa and then just killing her is a really bad sign for the direction of the plot.

on a positive note i will say that i liked the finale ending with tai and misty meeting up to blame shauna for everything that's happened. i think that direction feels right to me. after this season it has made no sense to me why any of them speak to shauna in the present day. so much of it is her fault it doesn’t add up that theyre just fine with her as adults, so hopefully going forward that’ll maybe be addressed? or maybe not who knows

however, i really dont buy the whole “we forgot what we did out there” thing they were going for. obviously thats true in reality that trauma survivors often forget part or all of their experience, but in a tv show that just… doesnt really work for me the way theyre doing it. it reads to me like they didnt anticipate the direction the plot would turn when the show started, so they used that to explain why none of this has ever been addressed until now. i mean shauna had all those journals detailing their experience but she didn't remember that she loved being a violent dictator until right now? again it just feels so forced

lottie:

i think everything with adult lottie after s1’s reveal has also been poorly planned. going from “who the fuck is lottie matthews” to killing her off in a murder mystery plot that even the other characters didnt care about is so sad, because after finishing s1 adult lottie was the character i was most interested in, and they just didn’t do anything compelling with her at all. and then they killed before they even had the opportunity to develop her!

i think her and callies dynamic couldve been sooo good especially with the idea that lottie saw callie as the baby shauna lost in the wilderness. i think if they had spent the season working toward that and developing their relationship and then ended it with callie accidentally killing lottie, that wouldve maybe worked better than what we got. i don't think she should've been killed at all, at least not yet, but if it had to be done it should've been after she was given more development. i completely understand simones frustration with the way lottie was written, because the lottie promised in s1 and the one we actually got aren’t the same character, and killing her off so soon was just such a waste.

shauna:

the biggest problem of the entire season. to me. they’re writing shauna like a cartoon character at this point. i know this is unpopular but i don’t find her to be particularly complex at this point lmao i think her beating up lottie after losing her baby in s2 was a better example of complexity, but at this point she’s just comically evil. its not enjoyable to watch for an entire season. also im so sick of every criticism toward how Shauna has been written this season being met with "you can't handle evil women" or whatever like my issue isn't what she's doing is how being written as she does it. there's no nuance to it she's like a cartoon supervillain out of nowhere

and i just dont find adult shauna that interesting in comparison to the other adult plots. i think giving her, jeff, and callie so much screentime is a huge mistake because its being given at the expense of characters that are just more compelling than any of them. callies plot should've been given to sammy somehow and jeffs screentime should've been given to lottie. her little speech at the end of the finale just felt embarrassing to listen to like none of the girls in the wilderness even liked her and now its 25 years later and she's calling herself a queen when they only indulged her to buy nat time

ultimately, i think the biggest issue is making shauna the unquestionable main character. she was never the main character before, no matter how much people try to convince themselves that she was. it was an ensemble show. if i had to pick a main character in the teen timeline, it would've been jackie in s1 and maybe nat in s2. shauna was probably the main in the adult timeline in s1 and s2, but s1 was about equal between shauna, tai, and nat in my opinion. since then everything been about adult shauna, and the show has suffered for it. if anything, i think making shauna and nat dual leads would've been better, since they're the most opposite, but adult nat is dead and teen nat was pushed to the side. i dont know if there's a way to divest attention from shauna at this point, but if the show wants to succeed ever again they need to figure it out

melissa:

completely unnecessary character. i was against another survivor being added long before hilary swank was cast and everything about how they handled that proves me right, at least in my opinion. it makes no sense for her to have survived, and no one will ever convince me that it was planned. the adult timeline revolved around forcing her into the plot, and the teen timeline suffered from shauna and melissas out of nowhere relationship taking up time that shouldve been spent on other characters. her killing van and then just disappearing to ridiculous

im not necessarily opposed to her in the teen timeline, especially after the finale. i think all of the “background” yellowjackets need to be given personalities or backstories or something to make us care about them, but i dont know if i love the way they did it. it started out strong but i still feel like she was just shaunas accessory and not really her own character, which is bad for a character thats now in two timelines

pit girl:

i think it was obviously that it was always going to be mari, as much as i still wish it wasnt. i liked that they orchestrated the circumstances of the hunt so nat could try to get them rescued. i liked the detail that shauna realized van was rigging the cards and stepped in to throw them off. i do kinda wish they had killed hannah instead just because i don’t care about her and wish she wasnt there lol. i did really love the moment gen said that maris her friend and she wanted to give her a better chance :(

however. i dont think the pit girl scene we were given makes sense with the scene in the pilot. like at all? i guess I always figured that they'd try to subvert expectations somehow but making it so that none of them were actually participating in the hunt feels like such a waste. in a way im glad that I have to watch them brutally hunt mari down and that other than shauna none of them really wanted her dead, but that just made shauna brutalizing her corpse feel really gross. that scene of them dragging her dead body through the snow just felt really unnecessary. it was one thing when i thought it was a ritual that they had done more than once but shauna forcing them to specifically do it to mari is just bad.

and again it just all feels so forced. none of them wanted to do the hunt, shauna was really the only one trying to kill her. the rest of them were just kinda there. the pit of spikes was just conveniently made the episode before and then forgotten about??? its like they realized they were about to get to pit girl but they didnt have anything set up so they had travis randomly put some spikes in the pit because they needed someone to fall into it

nat:

this is kinda the writers fault and kinda juliette lewis’s fault which still makes it the writers fault because she wanted off the show because she didnt like how nat was written, but nats absence is the adult timeline is so prevalent. ive seen other people say this and i agree but it really feels like it shouldve been shauna vs nat in the present. shauna reverting back to the wilderness vs nat who has always wanted to leave. shauna trying to drag her back in and nat being determined to get out. killing off adult nat the season before we find out how devoted nat was to rescuing them and not being able to see any connection to the present in that way sucks

this is less nat specific and more generally but it felt like there was a constant back and forth for who the girls supported and whether they wanted to go home based on absolutely nothing.

misty:

i dont have much to say here other than i would like her scenes so much more if walter disappeared from them entirely. its been two seasons and i still have no clue why hes here other than elijah wood wanted to join the show. loved her scene with shauna in the finale though

general:

the acting in this season is significantly worse than previous seasons and i have to assume its because of the script. the biggest exception to this is sophie thatcher i think she’s been so great in every scene she’s had

similarly the editing in the finale was… interesting. it would’ve been a lot better without the flashbacks, i didn’t think any of them were necessary and it definitely took me out of the show a little each time they were shown. maybe im being too harsh at this point but it was just weird. i get why they added the pit girl flashbacks, even though i dont think they were really needed, but all the other ones were unnecessary

one of my other biggest issues is that it feels like once a character dies in the present, their role in the past dwindles. we had so much less of nat than i wouldve liked this season, and lottie also kinda went away once her adult counterpart died. they (in my opinion) should’ve been two of the main focuses, if not the main focus, of the teen timeline because nats the most desperate to leave (and started the season as the leader) and lotties the most desperate to stay.

anyway in conclusion i think this is by far the weakest season of the show. so many things would happen but then would be immediately contradicted or forgotten. nats dead, lotties dead, vans dead, bens dead, maris dead but for some reason walter is still on my screen. they don’t seem to know what theyre doing or where theyre going, and at this point im just not really interested in finding out

things i liked:

i know this is a lot of complaining so let me list out some of the things I actually liked

ghost jackie. specifically the grocery store scene.

nat and coach bens relationship has always been a highlight, but even though i had some issues with the trial i think the ending to their dynamic was ultimately well done.

more mari. i really liked the attention she was given at the beginning of the season. im sad we've seen the last of her

travis and akilah. i really really loved the dynamic between these two

callie wearing jackies necklace

the teen and adult van joint scenes

[elliesglock]

anon who said the hotel from azzis tt looks like paiges:

its a different one further downtown (i recognise the one) and paiges is the one for draft invitees (ik where it is but obvi not gonna expose it)

altho the one from azzis tt couldve been where she was w her parents and now they are gone she stays w paige like i assume faith with stay w shy and it looked like suggs is staying w hvl

yes, i assume they have the same hotel room. especially because they got ready in the same one last year

[theosconfessions]

The Miscellaneous questions for River and his man/child, i mean husband.

i actually loled haha!! thank you for asking, love.

MISCELLANEOUS: Is money a problem? River: its not. i think we're lucky that blake got drafted and makes a good amount of money playing football. we literally got married while we were still in high school and a good majority of kids that do that are NOT in the same position we're in right now.

How many cars do they own?

Blake: we own two. one for riv to take the kids around when im not home and one for me to take to practice/games all that stuff.

Do they own their home or do they rent?

Blake: DUDEEEE if my apartment couldve magically grown with every kid we had ..then i would still be renting. good memories in that place

River: better memories in a place where we actually have room for kids..and me.

Do they live near the coast or deep in the countryside?

Blake: we're balls deep in suburbia right now. his parents live out in the country and FUCK I WANT IT SO BAD.

Do they live in the city or in the country?

River: suburbs ..for now.

Do they enjoy their surroundings? River: i was fucking DYING in that apartment. i think having the house kinda gives me space so i dont really necessarily feel like im suffocating.

Blake: you feel like your suffocating?

River: in your man cave apartment i did yeah.

What’s their song? Blake: i gotta do it' so high school'-taylor swift

What do they do when they’re away from each other? River: we dont constantly text eachother but little pics through the day i think. gives us time to be you know separate people and lets us enjoy whatever we're doing at the moment without being glued to our phone all the time.

Blake: i demand sexy riv pics every night im away [smirks]

River: demands a strong word.

Blake: you know what i mean. i APPRECIATE sexy riv pics every night.

River: dude. looking like a douchebag.

Where did they first meet? Blake: we went to school together [smirks] friends first.

How did they first meet? Blake: we were in the same gym class and he fucking PELTED me with a dodgeball man. love at first sight. for me.

Who spends the most money when out shopping? Blake : *points to riv*

River: treats.

Who’s more likely to flash their assets? River: oh my god blake. he does it during games. FINED ALL OF THE TIME.

Blake: worth it [smirks]

Who finds it amusing when the other trips over? River: me. hes not coordinated at all. youd think he would be but....

Any mental issues? Blake: oh god yeah. i mean...

River: i have depression. the past years been kinda.. i dont know. but i am doing better. im getting better

Blake: my boy.

Who’s terrified of bugs? River: i think both of us? fuck that shit.

Who kills the spiders around the house? Blake: Nellie

River: definitely Nellie.

Their favourite place? Blake: [smirks] theres this little ranch up in chestnut ridge. i love taking him there. just me him. no kids.

River:thats a good place [smirks]

Who pays the bills? Blake [raises hand] and proud of that shit

Do they have any fears for their future? River: i think that...we went through a lot of rough stuff in our separation and i just..do not want to go through that again. i think we're on a good path right now and i want to stay on that path

Blake: i think what riv said yeah. the last thing we both wanted when we were having problems was a divorce. and its something i do not want. i guess thats my fear for my future. i just wanna be good for him. i know i wasnt in the past.im trying to be now.

Who’s more likely to surprise the other with a fancy dinner? Blake: me for SURE.

Who uses up all of the hot water? Blake: again me for SURE. but he can crash the shower whenever

River: me time,babe.

Who’s the tallest? Blake: me. rivers a short shit.

Who’s more likely to just randomly hop into the shower with the other? River:thats definitely blake. i LOVE showering alone but hey.

Blake: wont turn down that DICK.

River: gross.

Who wanders around in their underwear? River: [points to blake] he hasnt learned.

Who sings the loudest when singing along to the radio? Blake: River for sure.he has a pretty voice though. love to hear that shit.

What do they tease each other about? River: i like to tease him over how much of a pussy he was for me back in our first starting dating days

Blake: i cried after we fucked for the first time. for real. and id do it again.

Who is more likely to cringe at the other’s fashion sense at times? River: me. blakes taste is .....

Do they have mutual friends? River: not anymore.

Who crushed first? Blake: oh me for sure. unless riv is about to say something i didnt know

River: i never really considered that AT ALL until you kissed me that one day. you werent on my radar at all i was so into my girlfriend at the time

Blake:until ....

Any alcohol or substance related problems? River: no we both quit that stuff when teddie came along.

Who is more likely to stumble home, drunk, at 3am? Blake: we are good boys [smirks]

Who swears the most?

River: i think me and its purely because of my dads influence i swear to god.

[bluntforcefem]

drafted a rough idea of what the end of the neku-swallow one week train adventure looks like. bc they are plaguing me again

i love them a lot. the car that is a lot more solid in my mind is the cat cafe car though (day 2 or 3, they go to the mall car after bc they start talking clothes and swallow thinks nekus look sooooo outdated, and also because shoka shows up at the entrance 40mins into the 50 minute "stay in the cat zone" timer and swallow is like OK WE NEED TO LEAVE . NOW)

my endgame for them in my head is that swallow does eventually accept nekus offer to leave the train for a bit but the circumstances and timing of that is nebulous in my brain. there's something very Something to me abt swallow being able to leave and shoka practically dooming herself to stay that makes me :] something something, shoka needed someone to reach past her claws and help her and it couldve been al but the timing was all fucked, and in some kind of funhouse reflection (ha) swallow got that right timing instead. i don't think swallow would leave the train permanently for a lot of reasons but i think she'd like getting to see shibuya again. shiki WOULD love to dress her up

[yomiurinikei]

hibiki for the ask meme (annie)

I TYPED ALL THIS UP FOREVER AGO THEN. never uploaded it. it’s just been in my drafts.

cw for mentions of the god awful ship (not /pos and it’s not brought up by name) + brief mentions of her canon trauma and my desire for it to be handled differently (not in depth/explicit)

everything after this read more was written forever ago i don’t even really recall what’s there i just skimmed it for cws

hi annie!!!!! we have the same brain huh (both asked for biki..)

my identity hc for them

just a little girl. uhhhh ya okay. obligatory 'this is an au where things were. not good but Better' disclaimer, im gonna handle this whole post under the context of. i do what i want and what i want is for hibiki to be okay. she's still a system just because of abuse at the hands of her parents which was exacerbated by kanade being toxic. not uh. yeah.

aaaanyways. she's very nonbinary to me!!! i think she likes like.. all the labels. nonbinary trans genderqueer and one hundred million thousand microlabels. she prolly rbs a ton of incoherent "i am like if a bead rolled underneath a industrial refrigerator before eventually being sucked up into a vacuum, slipped out of the garbage onto the ground where it slowly sunk into the earth was a girl but also not a girl" posts.

also i think she's questioning her sexuality/how she experiences attraction but she like. loves loves having qpps. to her its like... a great sign of friendship but also she wants to signify that shes very close with a lot of people. its a high honor but not a rare one to receive. her relationship with it is just like. i have someone who is very dear to me but without any sort of romantic or familial connotations how lovely and cool this is, how happy it makes me <3. she's just chilling!!!

Thoughts on their home life/family

ooogh. okay. actually i never included this in the ask meme. mm,,, how do i want to handle this. hm. i thiiink.. hibiki and kanade deserve some time to be estranged from each other. obvi this is again, within how i choose to write them. so i dont think this will be a relatable take. buuuut yeah. sometimes the best thing for siblings is to not be siblings for a bit. if anyone asks they just share a last name but have no relation. i think that would be good

i have a very normal relationship with my siblings (<- only child who used to be a younger sibling. that is what i am choosing.)

How i feel about their canonical writing/handling

mmmm,, she is so so so fucking system and i really wish she belonged to anyone but linuj. do u guys remember when i said hm maybe the otono twins were abused by their parents and thats why kanade took control of the situation by hurting the one person she could who would always have to be around her? and then a few months later linuj was like oh kanade is just born evil shes inherently bad because i think thats fun and cool^^ ? i remember. i remember very well.

i think,, hibiki was just ultimately underused. and like. it sucks and was bullshit what happened but also i Understand it within what it did narratively. even if i think linuj kinda dicked up the way it couldve affected the tone of the game. buuut. really the largest disservice that happened was like. the way she ultimately had no agency. according to linuj, no matter what, kanade would be Like That, and hibiki would get hurt, and the end. im not saying what happened to her was her fault, thats not what i mean when i say she has no agency, i mean. there was no in universe reason for what happened, not at the end of the day. she was doomed from conception in and out of universe and it just sucks and makes her feel flat because u cant even go what if not without completely ignoring the way linuj writes a wholeass character. hoping that all makes sense?

buuut yeah. tldr. she couldve been vv well written and handled well, even with her ultimate fate staying the same. but by admitting there's absolutely no way hibiki could have made it out okay, not even a "well, the cards would never line up like this, but if x had happened, and then y, then kanade would've fucked off", but making it that no matter what, kanade is gonna do what she did. it just kinda leaves a bad taste about things

The one thing i’d want to make canon about them

she actually is a person who exists outside of what kanade did <3. yes she has that puppet state sure whatever but also she's part of a system and has alters and one of them is "puppet state" but the others have hopes and desires and likes and etc etc.

My number one favorite ship for them

going off earlier, just assume all these ships are qpps <3! her and setsuka have a really fun relationship. cop out answer but ya know

…Now everyone else i ship with them

i like sora and hibiki!

The thing i will NEVER ship

ignoring the Obvi. i can’t think of anyone? again using ships here to mean like. hibiki having bestie-isms, i think she’s p shippable. she’s fun and friend shaped!

a dynamic/relationship i wish was explored more (in canon, or in fandom)

uhhh i agree w/you she and nikei would be silly. they deserve to be character who is like :D but is then like D:< together.

thoughts on their design (appearance-wise)

hair so pretty eyes so pretty. kinda weird colors

A music-related thought- a song that reminds me of them, or what their music taste is, etc

dreamin chuchu always makes me think of her i cannot explain why

[wanderrlust0]

(this was in my drafts and i forgot to post)

6.27.23 / spent the weekend with friends in pennsylvania for a friends bday trip. it was my first time staying in an airbnb and i felt like this was a good first experience. the place had a nice cabin and woodsy feel to it and although some things couldve been better, it was still a cool place. we did a dark, fairycore themed party bc it seemed fitting since we were surrounded by forests. we cooked, did some crafts, played games, watched movies, made smores.. didnt fully put out the fire so it lit up again so much that a cop had to pull up & let us know so we can put it out.. had a lot of smoke sessions, punched a pinata and ate way too many snacks and alcohol. overall, it was a fun and pretty chill time. we checked out monday morning and stopped at cracker barrel for breakfast. it was my first time there and it was pretty much close to how i expected it to be. (i was not expecting their gift shop to be that big tho.) even tho i was only gone for two nights and part of monday, it feels good to be back home and in my own bed. i would like to do more small trips like this but to other nearby states with them. i would also like to do one with my boyfriend and go on a cute roadtrip to someplace nice

[xamaxenta]

Ace asks after the first design session, because Sabo doesnt exactly know what he wants tattooed yet they decided to collaborate together where Ace will draft up some stuff and theyll piece it against his body with the transfer paper to see if they like it or not, Marco encourages them to take their time with this as at the end of the day its all experience and will help Ace get used to preparing sheets and designs and body placements

Sabo doesnt mind giving them the time because he will pay them for it and the more time he gets to stay out of the house the better

Anyway Ace asks how old he is and Sabo says eighteen without hesitation and Ace glances at him with an expression that says he doesnt really believe him

Sabo caves like okay im seventeen, but ill be eighteen in march. Which is like three months away.

Ace grins lopsidedly like huh, I thought you were my age

Sabo frowns like what? How old are you then and Ace glances at him from where hes been printing cutting transfer paper down to size, im twenty

Which, Sabo also hadnt expected but also hes like dude you saw my school blazer, you really think id be twenty and still in a high school jacket???

Ace shrugs like i dunno you couldve been in those cram schools that take nerds like you in pre college freshman or whatever, its a logical conclusion and Sabo remembers that not everybody cares about his prestigious schooling like his parents do, which was the whole point of this get a tattoo spite the fuck out of them thing

They have a comfortable silence thereafter, until Ace tosses him a pile of designs and some scissors like hey help me out this shit is boring af

Preppy valedictorian Sabo going to get a tattoo just to rebel against his obsessively strict helicopter parents

Walks into the shop and freezes up like a deer before wolves wants to bolt because thats way too many guys with ink and piercings glancing over at him

He knows logically theyre just reacting to a customer but

He cant help but feel hes being judged

Its then one of the free artists approaches him with a warm smile flicking their ponytail over their shoulder with a wave like hey sweetheart can I help you?

Sabo sits down with Izou for the free consultation, they have several portfolios of the artists on the desk for him to page through, Izou pointing out the certain strengths and weaknesses or preferences of their team like Thatch is great at plants, Marco does classic, neo trad and biomech stuff, Haruta is currently booked until the end of the year so if Sabo wants realism theyre gonna have to go on the waiting list

Sabo is captured by another portfolio though, bold geometric pattern work and symbology, points it out like what about this person?

Izou hmms and hawws like thats Ace’s work, thing is he’s still finishing up his apprenticeship, Marco doesnt want him working on people just yet but we still wanna build his file regardless

Sabo really likes the patterns though, would this Marco have the heart to give Ace a chance ?

Izou thinks over it some more like ill talk to him about it, heres our business card, but ill take your details down—

Sabo hesitates like wait no i cant give you my information… my parents will kill me— can i come back in a couple days?

Izou satisfied with this is like sure hun, Ace will be in on Friday so we can discuss it all together

[theartofmining]

it was actually my un restrained sexiness as i opened tumblr that made it lag for you

you could have sent this on anon so that I wouldnt always associate it with your blog but you didnt. okay

[ccthybennett]

you want to party but babe you’re posting shit publicly that maybe couldve stayed in the drafts. i don’t go kissing besties c, we don’t kiss like that. back in love with? ���.dom?

@ccthykelley kat i g0ta tell u somethuing!!!

[lareinaa007]

People really out here shipping Rafael with Sienna...