weiss is the only remaining member of team rwby left standing; yang, blake, and ruby have all fallen. her best friends, her family, and the symbolism in this shot shows that she’s not just fighting for them, she’s fighting with them, even if they’re gone.
weapons are an extension of one’s self. weiss has myrtenaster, her own weapon, with red gems on it to symbolize ruby. she has gambol shroud, blake’s weapon, with a yellow stripe on it to honor yang.
by holding both her weapon and blake’s, who both have little details on their weapons to commemorate their teammates, in a way, she has her team with her. she still has a part of them fighting alongside her, even after she’s had to watch all three of them fall.
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Hari Nef is helping to normalize transwomen’s bodies and identities in a really important way that if you’re cisgender you may not have thought about
Nef goes on to explain the difference between her photoshoot with Velencoso, versus how transgender women are typically photographed in fashion editorials. “Images of trans femmes being loved rarely exist outside of pornography,” Nef wrote. “We tend to be hyper-sexualized and objectified within the cisgender gaze. Either that or we’re dehumanized as scum or (just as bad) untouchable goddesses.”
I had a professor in college who used to start solving every problem with the same dialogue.
Proff: What’s the first step to solving any problem?
Class: Don’t panic.
Proff: And why is that?
Class: Because we know more than we think we do.
I think about that a lot tbh. It didn’t occur to me until much later that he meant for us to apply that dialogue outside of the classroom to any problem. Because we always know more than we think we do. We are all an amalgam of random information that ends up being relevant with surprising frequency.