#Weiss and Whitley leave Atlas and Ozpin takes them in

[kitkatopinions]

Ooh! New ask game!

Ironwood, obviously. And Qrow too.

Alrighty, these are my boys!

Let's do Ironwood first for the new ask game

1: sexuality headcanon

I headcanon Ironwood to be bisexual with a preference for men.

2: otp

Ironqrow for life. They are just so great as a ship, with all the 'mutual pining, not actually unrequited they're just both idiots, bickering divored-couple-energy that still allows for the spark of new love, the matching color scheme they had in their first looks, the way they look at each other, the freaking hug! It's an amazing ship.

3: brotp

Ironwood and Winter. A lot of people ship them and I can see why, but even though I've long headcanoned them to be the same age, in my head they're just very close friends, close to brother and sister, which makes him accidentally want to favor Weiss and Whitley when he knows them. XD

4: notp

Ironwood and Robyn. Blegh.

5: first headcanon that pops into my head

James uses the training facility at Atlas Academy sometimes and will indulge students that want to spar with him. He's always careful and takes things easy on them, and always lets them get in hits to build their self-confidence.

6: favorite line from this character

"You have two choices: Defend your kingdom and your school, or save yourselves. ...No one will fault you if you leave."

This line is so very James at his best, aggggh! Because it starts out professional and stern, not exactly harsh but more blunt, and then the students all give each other these worried anxious looks, and he softens so clearly in his tone and tells them no one is gonna think less of them, that it isn't their job or their duty or morally right to endanger themselves, and that if they make the choice to leave they can. These kids are seventeen, this might be one of the only times in the first seven seasons that anybody told these kids it's okay to prioritize their own lives.

7: one way in which I relate to this character

I am also kind of socially awkward! Ironwood with his tie adjusting and struggling in conversations and kind of stiff deliveries of things like 'it's good to see you again'... Me too, buddy, I also have no idea how to talk to people. XD

8: thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character

The villain arc, ugh. What a terribly written final arc to have. It's always embarrassing to have to specify that I like Ironwood outside of his stupid badly done rushed villain arc that turned him into a boring two dimensional evil-laughing rando with a giant gun-gun using his two remaining braincells to do pointlessly evil things just to get at teenagers. Like??? Cringe.

9: cinnamon roll or problematic fave?

Problematic fave. Even at IW's very best, he still was flawed in some fun ways, he could do the wrong thing, he could do the right thing but do it in a way that makes you go 'huh.' (Gonna be honest, although I love cinnamon rolls, they're not half as interesting as problematic faves.) XD Aaaand at Ironwood's worst, he was a pointlessly evil stuck up bastard trying to kill and torture people for very little reason, and not in a fun way.

Now for Qrow

1: sexuality headcanon

I headcanon Qrow as bisexual as well, and I also headcanon him as having only realized he was bisexual as a grown adult (partially because Qrow is one of my faves and I project onto my faves, and I only realized I was bi when I was a grown adult. XD)

2: otp

Ironqrow again. XD This ship is just so good that it's my number one fave for both characters.

3: brotp

Qrow and Ozpin. This is a ship that I could see myself enjoying, but what I enjoy even more is them as close friends, with Qrow looking to Oz for guidance and as an authority figure and then the roles reverse when Ozpin gets put into a teenage body and suddenly Qrow is the guide in charge.

4: notp

Funnily enough, this one is also Robyn. Qrow and Robyn started being a ship when she caused a fight and then partially due to her actions, the queercoded Clover was brutally murdered, and then Clover and Qrow spent an entire season doing next to nothing but talking to each other despite their relationship mattering less than any other relationship Qrow had that could've gotten developed, and Robyn compared her problems with her active truth-telling semblance to Qrow's "I hurt everyone around me" problems caused by the passive semblance that makes his life harder despite him not doing anything, and then she was like "don't be sad that your actions helped the Salem worshipper brutally murder your friend, he was probably secretly evil and bad and you're better than that despite the fact that I've known you for like a day." Like, their relationship is nothing but angering for me. XD

5: first headcanon that pops into my head

I have this headcanon that Qrow doesn't realize it, but his bad luck semblance tends to react to large emotions he has. He still absolutely can't control it, but when he's calm and casual and cool, his semblance affects him and the world around him a bit less, and when he's really angry or really sad or even really happy his semblance kicks up and sometimes does really big things like cause unexpected rainstorms and make the electricity in buildings go out and stuff like that.

6: favorite line from this character

Raven: "They were your family." Qrow: "You have a very skewed perception of that word." Maybe it's just because this line fits into my headcanons, but I love it because Qrow's past easily lends itself to him having been abused by the people in the Branwen Camp, and then acquired a found family in Team STRQ and Ozpin, and now he has Yang and Ruby and he was involved in picking up the pieces when Raven left and then again when Summer died, which was probably devastating for him. I also just like Qrow's quippy nature and I like that at least someone was calling out Raven on her BS.

7: one way in which I relate to this character

Despite the fact that I've projected onto Qrow, we actually don't have very many similarities. But I'd say that although it's not nearly to the point of Qrow's own issues, I also struggle with feeling like a burden to the people around me and too much of a mess to deal with. I like writing for Qrow partially because it's a good way to explore those feelings.

8: thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character

"The size of the waitress's skirt length" Ulgh, gag me with a spoon. The at the time all male writers and one with a particularly bad past regarding misogyny on a show concepted by a guy who likes animating a seventeen year old woman character's boobs to bounce around to a jeering laughing cheering crowd... Yeah, no thanks. I much prefer writing my version of Qrow to flirt a lot but know where the line is and not do things like talk about how hot he finds miniskirts on service workers to his two underage nieces.

9: cinnamon roll or problematic fave?

Problematic fave for sure. Even at his best, Qrow is a rough-around-the-ages spy with shady connections blindly following a leader and not seeing much wrong with getting kids involved who also picks fights with people and is drowning in his own emotional problems in ways that have negative effects on the people around him. But Qrow also (especially in the third and in the eighth season) like it or not also suffers from the problems of the writers, whether that's never giving a damn about inequality, objectifying service workers in a funny story to his underage nieces, seeming weak willed and hypocritical due to the writer's misuse or retconnings or making him go along with whatever Ruby says after Argus, or actively aiding a servant of Salem in volume seven and losing all his braincells in the process so the writers can force it to happen. Either way, Qrow is very problematic, in some fun and interesting ways and some not so fun ways.

#rwde #canoncrit james ironwood #canoncrit qrow branwen

[richardsphere]

Rwby Catchup V7E10

Writing this after the fact, so non-chronological order: Weiss mom has a drinking problem, in the same episode that reminds us Qrow is trying to kick the same habit. To indicate exactly how terrible a parent Jaques is, she cries happy tears from hearing her daughter isnt coming back home. Whitley hates his sisters for abandoning him to his father. (great scene, great characterisation. Love it entirely). I dont ship it (yet) or anything, but i do hope they’ll join the same AA group at some point. Imagine the thrill of getting to arrest your own dad. Arthur is still sort of generic, but he’s earned a trait besides Smarm and Science: He’s a half-decent salesperson. Also a bit of a showman with a sense of drama. Innocents are about to freeze, and i’ll admit that i like seeing a businessman turned corrupt politician actually face accountability but i dont know if thats the writing or my frustration with the having access to the internet during the Trump Administration. I hope this’ll be the end of his character, he seems like exactly the type of villain whose presence is better felt in absence. (as in the scar on Weiss’ face is enough presence on its own, we dont actually need his presence that much. I might be wording it badly. Basically im worried they’re gonna stage a breakout scene for him and he’ll overstay his unwelcome as a character.) Neopolitan is back, and she still leaves me feeling as cold about her presence in the narrative as the icecream she is named after, but that’s largely because its hard to characterise a character who does not speak. (but then, her being a one-note character is actually a strength. The same as Wile-E-Coyote being one-note is a good thing).  This brings me to a little segment that I call “Richard struggles to figure out what the deal with Emerald & Neo even is”. Today on RSTFOWTDE&NES: I’ll openly but shamefully admit it took me verry long to realise that neo’s semblance was some kind of pseudo-illusion thing? Though at least some have seemed semi-tangible. In my defense her earliest appearances mostly had her use it to vanish into thin air so i thought she was just a teleporter like Ruby. Then when i finally figured out Neo had illusions, i sort of got confused and thought a lot of Emeralds things in the tournament where actually Neo doing that. I guess what im trying to say is its kind of weird for the villains to have 2 different illusion-based characters, and for one of them to have an “only one target at a time” limitation. like thats sort of weird isnt it? I might be misremembering, but did Maid!Neo talk to Weiss? Or was that a different maid who has been stuffed into a closet off-screen so Neo could take her place afterwards? Its sort of unclear to me. Cinder is also here, God i hope she gets a character besides “generic hunger for power” at some point but if there is i havent seen it yet. But its nice to know that Ozpin isnt the only one whose lieutenants can betray them at least, not much to say she’s still spending most of the plot looking ominously. Whitley crying on the stairs, This family needs more hugs and less alcohol. Robyn, you’re nice. I dont know what more to say. You’re the only character in Atlas i would trust to run a popsiclestand, Not a lot of deep going on with her, but Robin Hood parodies live and thrive by virtue of their simplicity. They finally tell James that Salem cant be killed and that they lied about the relic’s number of questions, i’ll admit i only ever understood one of those two lies. (They could’ve just claimed “ozpin told us she cant be killed/do you really believe that if she could be killed Ozpin wouldnt have succeeded a thousand lifetimes ago). Does this mean the tower is cancelled? Is operation “100 Shions at once” finally cancelled? NO because Oscar said to stop keeping Salem a secret, so that plan is still a go apparently.  The Penny and Winter Dont Understand Eachother scene was great, and i adored the moment Winter thought “oh shit, did i just pull a robo-racism?”. Verry “Pyrrha accidentally implies Jaune should jump off the roof” energy there.

#rwby

[starlightshadowsworld]

Oz adopts Weiss and Whitley, Port telling them stories.

Both of them hang onto his every word with big wide eyes. They love their Uncle Ports story's and he loves to tell them.

Port: And than! I was surrounded by all of these beowolves, at least 30... 50! 50 of them on all sides and I thought I was a goner.

Weiss: gasp how did you get out?

Port: I believed in myself and remembered the promises of my youth and punched it in the face! And charged, yes charged I did through them and I didn't stop till I was free.

Whitley: Your so cool uncle Port.

Port: ruffles both of there heads and one day you will be that cool. Not that you aren't already but let's not give your father any heart attackers shall we?

Both: giggle okay

#peter port #professor port #Oz adopts Weiss and Whitley #Rwby #whitley schnee #Weiss Schnee #Weiss and Whitley leave Atlas and Ozpin takes them in

[dameschnee123]

What your favorite RWBY character says about you - redo

Ruby - You just started the show, or you pick a favourite character in the beginning and you stick with it which I applaud you for

Weiss - Maybe a little bit overrated but still a good one

Blake - You take so much shit for this bit you are correct, stick to your guns ! Also, you’re very involved in queer activism

Yang - Let me guess, Luisa from Encanto is also your favourite and you have parents who should be in therapy ?

Jaune - You are choosing the safest option.

Nora - How’s that undiagnosed ADHD treating you ?

Ren - How’s that undiagnosed anxiety treating you ?

Phyrra - You haven’t finished Volume 3 yet… no one tell them

Coco - If you’re not the stylish person in the room, it’s a crisis

Fox - You watched ATLA and he reminds you of Toph

Velvet - It takes a lot to make you snap but whoever managed to do that is boutta die

Yatsu - You meditate to cope with all the bullshit in your life

Sun - You’re literally always late

Neptune - You’re a golden retriever dyed blue in a human body

Sage - Youd rather die than get involved in drama

Scarlet - You’re that “I will cause problems on purpose” meme

Oscar - You’re either really awesome or you’re RWDE, no middle ground

Penny - You’re trans, and neurodivergent

Emerald - Mommy issues are palpable, also stop enabling toxic people in how they’ll reprocicate your affection, you gotta leave bestie

Mercury - Daddy issues are palpable, and same as above

Cinder - Holy shit you have a lot of willpower

Roman - Stealing one piece of candy doesn’t make you a gangster

Neo - You’re some flavor of trans, most likely gender fluid, she’s a shapeshifter, I dont make the rules

Adam - I want your full name, that way I can get a restraining order against you

Salem - Still not over your ex

Tyrian - You like the Joker

James Ironwood - Don’t talk to me

Ozpin - Asking for help won’t kill you, I know, mind blowing concept

Glynda - Your head must hurt from holding on the one brain cell in your friend group

Port - History nerd

Oobleck - Put that Monster down, you’ve had enough

Qrow - You are genuinely trying to grow as a person after a though spot in life, I respect that

Raven - You’re a lesbian who loves MILFs

Summer - Mommy issues, and the above

Tai - Struggling with mental health doesn’t make you a burden, now read that again

Maria - You want to be this cool when you’re retired, chase your dreams

Robyn - Doesn’t need to be like your favourite of anything but if you don’t like her, I don’t trust you

May - Either she cracked your egg or you screamed happily when you saw her, you deserve this

Fiona - You’re basically a pack mule and your backpack is full of shit your friends forgot

Joanna - You like tall, quiet women whose arms you’d feel very safe in

Clover - You were a hall monitor in school

Marrow - You’re mostly a doormat but you have good intentions

Harriet - You were that annoying kid who reminded the teacher to assign homework

Elm - Thick thighs save lives and you want to be immortal

Vine - …who ?

Willow - Listen, you deal with enough shit so Imma leave your poor souls alone

Winter - You’re cool I like you

Whitley - You’re that “Fluffy is in command of my army of darkness” meme

Kali - Projecting your desire to be loved and nurtured onto fictional characters is cheaper than therapy

Ghira - Same as above

Sienna - No way you actually remember her ? Can we be friends ?

#rwby

[itsclydebitches]

After reading the Roman Holiday preview... *long sigh*. Why is domestic abuse the go-to tragic backstory for rwby villains? And why is it always more than what our heroes have to deal with? Weiss was abused by her father but was able to escape to Beacon. Meanwhile, Cinder was a literal slave and was alone after killing her abusive family and Rhodes. What is going on!?

My guess is it's the subconscious belief that good people are born of good circumstances and bad people are born of bad circumstances. There are obviously some exceptions like Weiss and Qrow, but notably both of them had significant figures in their life who helped lead them down better paths: Winter and Ozpin. And, as you say, they both had the opportunity to go to Beacon, an escape from their living situations and the chance to be surrounded by more people/opportunities. There's potentially a message here about people flourishing when given external support (hey there, Good Place), but RWBY makes it far more about immediate circumstances than it does working to change over time:

Ruby has an adoring father and a mother who, while dead, also greatly loved her. Ruby is good.

Yang has a mother who abandoned her, but an adoring father and a an adoptive "Super Mom." Yang is good.

Blake was in an abusive relationship, but also has two parents who adore her and, despite the fandom's frustration with storytelling logistics like, "Why didn't they go find her after she left?" (because they weren't a part of the story then), they're presented as good people. Blake too is good.

Weiss has an abusive father and an alcoholic mother, but crucially an older sister who acts like a mother figure. Weiss is good.

Weiss becomes that good figure for Whitley. Whitley is now good.

Winter started this movement, so who was her good, supportive figure? Ironwood. Ironwood who welcomed her into the military, seems to have acted as a father figure, and became a respected peer. By the time Ironwood is made bad, Winter is already considered a hero by the narrative (despite the moral inconsistencies there), so it's fine.

Ren has a loving mother and father who die for him. Ren is good.

Nora is an orphan, but at a very young age gets Ren. Nora is good.

Jaune presumably has loving parents and seven sisters, one of whom we say doting on him with his extended family. Jaune is good.

Pyrrha presumably had a loving mother who visits her statue. Pyrrha is good.

Penny is a literal military weapon, but has a loving father. Penny is good.

Salem was locked in a tower by her father. Salem is bad (even before the grimm pool).

Cinder was a child slave and though she had Rhodes similar to how Weiss had Winter, her backstory arrives eight years late, after we know she becomes a villain. So Cinder is bad.

Adam was also a slave and, regardless of whether it was truly an accident or not, was branded with the logo of his abusers. Adam is bad.

Mercury seems to have just had an abusive father. Mercury is bad.

Emerald's family either died with her having no one to turn to (unlike Nora), or they abandoned her. Emerald is bad. Until the plot shuffles her into the heroic group. Then she's good. Emerald doesn't do something to become a part of that group, she's moved to the group first and then is seen as good.

Neo seems to have had abusive parents. Neo is bad.

Tyrian we don't know much about, but we do know he was already a killer before Salem. What little we've got of his backstory doesn't seem good. So Tyrian is bad.

We're given no information about Ironwood's backstory. Ironwood is good and then quickly becomes bad.

And Ozpin's stuff is such a mess it's unclear what the story even thinks of him at this point. That's a whole other post lol.

As said, there's some nugget of decent writing here in the form of unpacking the idea that people are more likely to make good decisions when given the opportunity and encouragement to do so, as well as the emotional support need to develop that moral compass and believe in yourself enough to follow it... but it's buried under RWBY's black and white worldview, the same worldview that's hurting the other, morally driven aspects of the story. We're not really shown instances in which characters who had everything still do terrible things, nor do we see characters who go through comparatively horrific circumstances and still do the right thing. The good people, while still going through horrible things, have benefits that the villains don't — Weiss' loving sister and wealth compared to Cinder's slavery and part-time visitor, for example — and the villains' experiences overall tend to be, well, more shocking in some respects. Lost legs, a shock collar, a brand, literal slavery, all happening at that formative young age... compare that to the heroes' struggles that, as said, are mitigated by some other good, or happen later in life after they're already established as good people. Blake is already trying to help the faunus when she enters a relationship with Adam (and is said to be mislead. Unlike villains Adam, Sianna, and Iilia, heroes Blake and Sun perform the "correct" kind of activism). Yang is already training to be a huntress when she loses her arm. Oscar is already fighting Salem when he's tortured, etc. We could include Ironwood's turn here too, regarding the shock value. Yeah, everyone is going through horrible stuff in Volume 7 and 8, but only Ironwood had the skin and muscle of his arm stripped off, resulting in a complete loss of the limb. And unlike Yang who was taken home, supported, and given months to recuperate, Ironwood is tossed back into a war with 8+ of his former allies now fighting against him. So RT literally says, "Of course he's bad now," except the argument is this ableist (and, given Yang, contradictory) idea that losing the arm made him bad, rather than the idea that abandoning someone during the worst moment of their life is going to leave them floundering — because that would put at least some of the blame on the heroes. And, as said, the morality is so black and white that there's no room for that nuance. It's not a matter of excusing the villains' actions, but rather examining how they came about and, if we're meant to feel sympathy, tying that to their good traits. Emerald's supposedly "kind" comment comes when she's helping Cinder destroy Beacon. Raven cries while she's deliberately allowing her daughter to be Salem's target instead of herself. Cinder cries because she hasn't successfully killed our heroes and gotten the amount of power she's after. Hazel mourns his sister while trying to kill a 14yo. These are all the WORST times to try and get the audience to feel for the bad guy. The story doesn't acknowledge that horrific circumstances can lead to bad decisions, but that people who commit bad - even truly horrific - acts can still do good in the future, or even do some good alongside the bad, the story says that these circumstances automatically lead to bad people and that you should feel bad for them despite what they've done. If Cinder cried because being in Atlas had triggered the worst memories of her life, that's an avenue towards seeing your villain as a complex human. Having Cinder cry because Watts points out what a shit job she's done at being The Worst Person Ever and expecting the audience to feel bad that Cinder has failed to, idk, take over the world or whatever is... stupid.

Honestly, it feels like another example of how RWBY is very much a simplistic fairy tale, no matter how much the characters insist its not. If you're good, you're good and if you're bad, you're bad. There's no middle ground, leaving characters like Ozpin and Ironwood to be abandoned and Ilia, Hazel, and Emerald forgiven the moment they switch from one side to the other. Now toss in the question of how people become good or bad and, well, surely good people lead good lives and bad people lead bad lives, right? So all you need to do is give your bad characters horrific, abusive, shockingly violent backstories while your good characters have, if not completely stable homes or perfect lives, at least a lot more than what the villains seem to have gotten. And the story isn't interested in acknowledging that motivation and morality aren't that simplistic. It can be offensive on its own, this theme of abused children becoming crazed murderers, but even when you try to follow that logic with something like, "Hey, Weiss our abused hero is threatening a defenseless minor to get what she wants, along with everything else the group as a whole has done. Is that something the story is going to unpack if you honestly believe these circumstances produce bad people?" the answer is always no. Because Weiss is Good™ and there's no interest in grappling with any storyline that might undermine that.

#rwby #mymetas #rwde

[remnantoforario]

7 Things I Want to See in RWBY Volume 8

So with Volume 8 being stalled because of the pandemic (though they are still working on it in increments) I thought about doing a post about things I would like to see in the next volume. This is similar to the “Questions I Want Answered in Volume 7″ before that volume came out, but this one will be more centered on the actual story and characters rather than the broader stuff I wanted in 7. These have no real order, just seven random things I want to see. Here we go:

1. More Varied Character Interactions

This is one of the bigger sticking points I’ve had with the show in general rather than a problem I had with V7 itself. It’s no secret that one of the biggest complaints about RWBY from even it’s most hardcore stans is the lack of interpersonal interactions between characters outside of their given pairs. Ruby only talks to Weiss, Blake only talks to Yang, Ren only talks to Nora, and vice versa. 

Yang and Weiss had moments in Volume 5, but when was the last time Ruby and Blake had a conversation? Volume 1? What about Yang and Qrow? A big part of his arc in Volume 5 was his alcoholism and Yang was nowhere near that. Ruby and Yang are also big offenders. Weiss and Blake had one small moment in the mine and then went right back to being perfect strangers. Weiss and Jaune haven’t “talked” since volume 2 (I don’t count their dialogue after she got stabbed in V5) and I can’t recall anytime Ren and Nora have ever had a conversation with Yang and Blake. These kids are supposed to be friends who have been through thick and thin together, but they seem more like strangers outside of their supposed “pairings”.

The preview with Yang interacting with Oscar, Jaune, and Ren gave me some hope. Hopefully the show continues it. 

2. More Information on Summer Rose

Volume 7 dropped the only notable information we’ve had about Summer since Qrow’s talk about the Silver Eyes in Volume 3, that being that Salem was likely responsible for Summer’s death. It’s now time to finally get more information on her. Who was she as a character? What was her semblance? What was her weapon? How did others view her? What is her connection to Ozpin? Why was she so important? How exactly did she die? I think some, if not all, of these questions should be answered in either this volume, or the next. We need a reason to care about her. 

One more important thing I would stress is that it needs to be Ruby actively searching for these answers. She shouldn’t have them handed to her, she should ask Yang and Qrow. Hell, if I wanted to get crazy I would just have a bottle episode with the three trapped in a bunker or something while Salem is attacking and all they do is talk about Summer.  Anything to highlight just why this woman who has been hanging over the show like a specter since the red trailer is so important. 

3. Give Yang Something to Do

Yang has been mostly directionless as a character since Volume 4. Her goal was to find Ruby, and that mostly carried her through V5, but now that they are reunited she’s mostly used to dress up the background or play will they won’t they with Blake (we’ll get to her) for ship bait. Put her on a path of wanting revenge on Salem for killing her mother (Summer), make her more worried about Ruby, or add her to Nora’s “defend Mantle” plotline. Something to make her an active character in the story again. 

4. Put Blake Back on track

Told you we’d get to her. Blake is an interesting character when you sit down and think about. In theory she should be the most compelling character with the deepest story arc, but she’s not. She was usurped by Weiss (who we will also get to in a moment) not long after Volume 5 ran its course. Her original course was to face her past, which morphed into taking back the White Fang from Adam, and then finally devolved into getting rid of Adam. Since then she has had little to no direction as well. 

Atlas is a hotbed for Faunus discrimination (as far as the show has implied) so I would like to see Blake get back to that. There was a slight moment in V7 with the mine, but that was quickly discarded. It would be interesting if she was able to rally the Faunus in Mantle similar to how she did in Menagerie.

Also, fix her hair. Come on, CRWBY. My girl out here looking like a used swiffer duster.

5. More Focus on the Schnee Family

A lot of people expected Volume 7 to be Weiss’ volume and its not hard to see why. The set up was there. She ran away from Atlas at the end of Volume 4 to find Winter, only to find out that her sister had been called back home. Now she was going back and not only would she reunite with her sister, she would also have to face her Father once more. Ultimately, this didn’t pan out and Weiss was mostly window dressing for what should have been the biggest part of her story. 

The other Schnees weren’t much better. Winter got some things to do, but it was more in service to Penny’s character than hers. Jacques remained the same. Whitley STARTED to get a character arc and Willow did little more than drink and a be plot convenience for Weiss. With Jacques now in jail and the company and family in shambles, this is the perfect time to give us something to latch onto with these five individuals. 

6. Character Conflict and Consequences

RWBY has had a nasty habit of late of pushing “protagonist-centered morality”. Meaning that no matter the situation, our main characters are always right and whoever opposes them is wrong (despite the litany of examples illustrating the opposite). This has to stop going forward. It only serves to irritate the audience because it makes it seem like the characters can’t make mistakes. Nothing they do has any lasting consequences or stakes. 

Team RWBY stalled Atlas’ defense plans against Salem by lying and unwitting sabotage, yet the story treated it as if they were in the right despite them offering no alternatives. Any attempts to speak against them were framed as “villainous”, turning once compelling characters into caricatures (Ironwood did nothing wrong). 

When it comes to character conflict, Ruby is always right. No matter what she says or does, her group falls in line no questions asked. That’s not natural. Someone should question her, someone should disagree with her methods and give a different perspective. 

Yang blistered Ozpin for lying about Salem and the Relic, but she was ok with Ruby doing the same thing to Ironwood? It made no sense and made her look like a hypocrite. 

Blake abandoned her friends, yet was welcomed back with open arms with little to no conflict. Even if the audience knew her reasons, her friends didn’t. For all they know she just up and left because she felt like it. Yang talked all this mess about Blake leaving, but didn’t keep that same energy when she came back. 

It’s ok for characters, for friends, to argue and disagree. It’s normal and happens all the time. Let them fight in the beginning of the volume, break up, and come back together in the end. Something. Maybe Ruby has a plan that Blake, Weiss, or sister don’t agree with and their clashing ideas split the group in half for a while. Then you can have the underlying narrative be them coming back together with new ideas to combat Salem when their individual plans don’t work. 

7. Give the Villains A Win

This is probably the most important thing I want to see. Salem and her forces are supposed to be the most evil group of people the planet has ever seen. A force of nature filled with killers, monsters, and madmen who want nothing more than to watch the world burn...but they haven’t posed a real threat since the Fall of Beacon. 

The show TELLS us Salem is a big deal, but until the end of Volume 7 all we’ve seen her do is sit in her tower and yell about Ozpin. She had yet to directly do anything that made our main characters want to stop her other than “she bad person”. Cinder has had more impact on the plot than her, and she hasn’t been useful since Volume 3. 

The villains NEED win this and the next volume. They need it so the writers can reestablish the stakes and make it so we WANT to see these bad guys defeated. Whether that be killing notable character off, taking the relic and Maiden powers, or dropping Atlas out the sky and destroying both it and Mantle completely, SOMETHING needs to happen to assert the villains dominance again in the plot.  

These are just what I personally want to happen in the next volume. I’m expecting them all to happen, but I least hope one or two of them do. We’ll see how it goes. 

#RWBY #RWBY Volume 7 #RWBY Volume 8 #Ruby Rose #Weiss Schnee #Blake Belladonna #Yang Xiao Long #Team RWBY #Jaune Arc #Nora Valkyrie #Lie Ren #Team JNR #Oscar Pine #James Ironwood #Winter Schnee #penny polendina #Summer Rose #Rooster Teeth #Salem

[hopeaterart]

RWBY HPTR AU: Timeline

More of my embarrassingly self-indulgent AU. It tackles the timeline of events happening before the show starts. For those for who it's the first time here: most of the antagonists in the show are students at Beacon here, hence why the 63 A.G.W. point is probably a bit confusing, as well as the presence of many, many OCs. Warning: Very Ozpin-centric, especially at the beginning, because I'm insane and constructed a whole backstory for this man. If you want me to add something to the timeline, or have questions about the AU, just ask. ^^

(REFERENCE: A.G.W. stands for After Great War.)

34 A.G.W.: Ozborn Pinhead is born to con-artists living in the mountains of Vale.

45 A.G.W.: King Ozymandias Valenoa dies. On a side-note, Aura Lycoris is born.

46 A.G.W.: Ozymandias/Ozma reincarnates into Ozborn the moment he hits puberty. A few months later, Ozborn runs away from home to join a Collibet Monastery.

(REFERENCE: Collibet is branch of religion in the world of Remnant. It's followers' main belief is that life is to be enjoyed to it's fullest, and they have to help people enjoy it. Their worship is mainly centered on the God of Light.)

51 A.G.W.: Ozborn decides to enroll in Beacon for multiple reasons. He's placed in Team DSOO with Cadmium Duat, Zephyr Olympia, and Jade Sheng. He will become very close to Jade, almost like siblings. She's the one who coins the Ozpin nickname.

52 A.G.W.: Vytal festival happens in Haven. Ozborn ends up being finalist instead of his teammate through circumstances that went against his will, and ends up befriending fellow finalist from Shade Theodore Yellowstone, as well as a Faunus competitor from Haven called Leonardo Lionheart. Theodore is the winner.

53 A.G.W.: During a training mission that brought them to Solitas, Team DSOO ends up working with James Ironwood. Even if difficult to work with, Ozborn forms a tentative friendship with him, which they'll maintain through CCT communications. Ozborn also accidently ends up mentoring a first year named Glynda Goodwitch.

54 A.G.W.: Team STRQ enrolls in Beacon. Ozborn ends up being their mentor (intentionally this time) through a mentorship program at Beacon. Summer Rose is the winner of the Vytal Festival, having beaten Ironwood. After warning them that the truth isn't pretty, Ozborn comes clean about his cycle of reincarnation to Jade, STRQ, Glynda, Theodore, Lionheart and Ironwood, as well as Salem and her immortality. The only one unwilling to get involved is Taiyang Xiao Long, who can see that Ozborn absolutely does not want to be in this situation, thinks he's in way over his head and probably needs to take some distance from Huntsman business. Qrow and Raven are given their bird powers.

55 A.G.W.: Having taken Taiyang's opinion on the situation to heart, Ozborn decides to take a step back and go back in the Monastery he grew up in in order to become a Priest. Jade joins him in a show of support.

57 A.G.W.: Ozborn gets ordained, and he and Jade promptly go on a pilgrimage together with one very clear objective in mind: fuck Salem over. They find her at the end of the year, successfully lie to Salem about Ozborn's identity and fool her into thinking they want to join her side. On a side note, Gretchen Reinhart, Hazel Reinhart and Winter Schnee are all born.

58 A.G.W.: After getting out of Salem the secret to her immortality and the location of the God of Light's pool/former residence, Ozborn and Jade run away in the night in order for Ozborn to get similar immortality. Salem finds out about the betrayal, successfully kills Jade before Ozborn can go in the pool, and permanently cripples him with a magical attack that destroys his leg in a way that the pool's magic isn't able to completely fix. Ozborn still obtains immortality, permanently changing the game. He also sheds away the identity of Ozborn Pinhead, and renames himself after Jade's nickname for him.

59 A.G.W.: Ozpin comes back, and marries Taiyang, Raven Branwen and Summer Rose together. He also enrolls in Beacon as the Myth & Religion teacher.

60 A.G.W.: Desperate to get back at Ozpin after such an humiliating defeat, Salem takes a teenage Aura Lycoris under her wing.

62 A.G.W.: Aura starts the deep-undercover operation of gaining Ozpin's trust, starting by enrolling into Beacon.

63 A.G.W.: Yang Xiao Long, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladona, Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren, Arthur Watts, Tyrian Callows, Cinder Fall, Mercury Black, Emerald Sustrai, Roman Brunswick, Trivia Vanille, Ochre Wedjat, Raoul Arsenic, Wilhemia Key and Lys Rosenbed are all born. On a side-note, Ozpin and Qrow start a tentative romantic relationship at the end of the year.

65 A.G.W.: Ruby Rose is born.

66 A.G.W.: Aura graduates, and goes on a small pause in her mission in order to clean up some loose ends on Salem's part.

67 A.G.W.: Summer dies on a mission gone wrong (Unless/until we get something specific, Aura's partially responsible in my AU). Overwhelmed and disillusioned by the demise of the woman she loved, Raven abandons the rest of her family and goes back to the Branwen tribe. Both Taiyang and Qrow are left broken by this series of events, and Qrow ends up falling to alcoholism, leaving Ozpin to pick up the broken pieces of the inner circle. On a side note, both Oscar Pine and Whitley Schnee are born.

68 A.G.W.: Following a convoluted series of events that leaves Oscar orphaned for a total of maybe an hour before Ozpin adopts him, the wizard finally starts getting his shit back together, and starts formulating a plan to get back on his feet properly. On a side-note, Marcus Black steals his son's- Mercury- Semblance.

69 A.G.W.: Ozpin successfully becomes Beacon's headmaster, and promptly pulls strings to put Theodore, Lionheart and Ironwood in the same positions in their respective kingdoms. He also makes Glynda into his successor to the position. Meanwhile, Aura joins his staff as the Study Hall teacher/supervisor. Kuroyuri is destroyed by the Nuckelavee, orphaning Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie.

72 A.G.W.: Mountain Glenn is destroyed. Ozpin is able to save a few people at the last minute, including the Reinhart twins, thus inspiring Gretchen to become a Huntress. On a side note, James Ironwood becomes General, and thus Atlas' Chief of Armies, and gains a second seat on the Atlesian Council. The rest of the inner circle has mixed feelings about this, mostly negative.

73 A.G.W.: After a very long time of frustration at the Atlesian Council, Hagatha Greene snaps after a combination of her project being denied in favor of Pietro's, and being forced to work with an actual child (10 years old Arthur Watts). She's approached by Salem via Aura, and fakes her death. On a side note, the Brunswick farm is invaded by Apathy, forcing Roman to run away. He'll later stow himself away to Vale and rename himself Torchwick in order to cut ties with his past.

74 A.G.W.: Lionheart is forced to inform the Spring Maiden about what Salem can do. Overwhelmed, she runs away to the Branwen tribe. Lionheart himself latter approached by Greene, who more-or-less blackmails him into joining Salem. He calls Ozpin to know what he's supposed to do, and ends up becoming a double-agent. On a side-note, Gretchen signs up for Beacon, and Winter for Atlas in her first step to distance herself from her family.

76 A.G.W.: Gretchen is severely wounded on a training mission. Since her body was never found, it was assumed she died. Despite knowing that he'd probably be attacked on sight- and he was- Ozpin is able to provide Hazel with a bit of peace concerning the demise of his sister. Unknown to the both of them, Gretchen was actually found by Salem's circle and brought to her in order to get a new underling. On a side-note, the Spring Maiden dies and passes the power to Raven.

77 A.G.W.: Cinder and Arthur meet off-handedly while running away from Atlas for different reasons (Cinder is running from the Madame, Arthur from the military) due to sneaking on the same cargo ship. They separate after. Cinder ends up staying in Mistral, while Arthur wanders around Anima and ends up meeting Tyrian, who's part of a circus. Tyrian ends up following Arthur, who intends on getting to Vale as fast as possible. The two end up becoming fast friends after some initial frostiness. Trivia also runs away from home and meets Roman, and renames herself Neopolitan after the imaginary friend she had in her childhood.

78 A.G.W.: Cinder meets Emerald in the streets of Mistral, and the two bond over their dreams of becoming Huntresses. After Cinders remembers something Arthur told her about Beacon having a program for students like them, the two girls set off for Beacon.

79 A.G.W.: Marcus is hired to assassinate Ozpin, and fails in this task. Some time after, Cinder and Emerald, who recently got to Vale, cross path with Mercury, who's running away from his abusive father after a savage fight with him due to the man cutting off his legs. Marcus joins Salem after.

(AMBIGUOUS TIME PERIOD: Somewhere in the 70s, Aura found and started forming all the members of Team ORKL. I don't have a precise time period, but for those curious, the order she found them in was: Raoul, Lys, Ochre and Whilemia.)

80 A.G.W.: The story starts.

#rwby #rwby au #hptr au #timeline #worldbuilding #i am not tagging all the characters in this. #my au is basically half 'what if the villains were friends with the heroes' and half #salem: there is nothing ozma can do that I won't see coming #ozpin: VIBE CHECK *becomes immortal*

[kingangelrose]

RWBY Volume 8 Chapter 7 Recap

“War”  -------------

With the shields down above Atlas, the soldiers of the Atlas military were preparing themselves as the Grimm charge towards the now unprotected city, the giant Grimm Whale slowly followed behind the first wave of charging Grimm, as it was drool the black ooze from it mouths, unleashing more and more Grimm from within it, the soldiers fired their weapons at the Grimm, doing what they could to protect Atlas.

Ironwood, looking discouraged and desperate, ordered his soldiers to dispatch to every part of Atlas as he will evacuate all citizens to the subway stations for shelter, the announcement within Atlas to the citizens, but it was too late, there were flying Grimm seen from above, causing the citizens to panic and run to the subway stations for safety from the Grimm.

While all this was going on, Winter and AceOps handcuffed Yang, Jaune and Ren, while flying their airship to Atlas to see the view of the Giant Whale Grimm, along with the others that reeked havoc, Jaune says that the whale took Oscar, Vine denies this and says that Grimm don’t take prisoners, Yang quickly answers by saying that one did. Ironwood then tells Winter and the AceOps their plan to take out the Whale, he plans to take it out from the inside by planting and detonating a bomb inside of it, Winter was surprised by this idea at first, but then without any other choice, agreed with him, saying to Ironwood that she and the AceOps will get it done, however, this shocked Team Yang, as Jaune tells them that Oscar is still inside of the whale, Yang struggles Elm and Vine’s grasp, saying that they can’t do this, Winter knew this was wrong, but she couldn’t do anything but just gripped her fist.

Meanwhile, Salem was orchestrating the attack on Atlas, Emerald look on from afar, then had a determined expression wanting to do something, even using her illusion semblance on herself to get away from Salem’s orbs sight, Emerald then listened in through the door where Hazel was torturing Oscar.

Ozpin, who was still control of Oscar, hanging by the arms, says that he doesn’t get why Salem chose Hazel specifically, Hazel says that him and Salem share a vision, saying that she will create new world order with no kingdoms or huntsman academies, Ozpin laughs a bit at the idea of a “new world” saying that when Salem gathers the relics, there won’t be a world left at all, telling Hazel that Salem has been alive for a long as he can comprehend, and all she craves now is death. Hazel snaps back at Ozpin, punching him in the abdomen, yelling at him to stop lying, saying that Salem can’t be killed. Hazel says when Salem came for him, he has killed her over and over again, saying the longest that she was dead was a few hours before coming back again and again, saying when he couldn’t lift his arms anymore, Salem showed him that through her, he could have the vengeance he needed. Ozpin says that is exactly why she came for him, making him believe that this was he needed, Hazel snaps back and says that this is what Ozpin deserves, Ozpin says that Oscar and the rest of Remnant don’t, saying that Hazel has done all of this for himself, not for justice, because Salem pushed him to think it would help him.

Meanwhile, back at the Schnee manor, Weiss was treating a still unconscious Nora, Ruby and Blake arrive with tea, Weiss says that she’s done all she could to treat Nora’s wounds, but she needs a doctor, Blake says she hopes the others are okay and that May has contacted them, she looks out the window, seeing a dark cloudy sky. Blake says that Salem’s whale is making the Grimm faster than the military can kill them, and unless they stop it, the city of Altas won’t stand a chance, Ruby says this Whale is bigger than the Leviathan, Weiss says that they left out the message when Penny launched Amity, and suggests that maybe they can wait for the other kingdoms to assist them, if they come. “....How did it all get like this...?” - Ruby Rose

May arrives in the room and says that Fiona hasn’t contacted Team Yang in a while, and that they have their ship ready to leave Atlas, Weiss stands up and tells May that they can’t leave Atlas, May tells Weiss that it’s chaos at the crater, saying that Atlas has its army while Mantle only has them, and people are dying in Mantle, Weiss says that people are dying in Atlas too, and asks May if she has family in Atlas, May says that she doesn’t and Mantle needed her, saying to the Marigolds, that meant she wasn’t their son anymore, and she made sure that everyone knew that she wasn’t their daughter, she says that the Marigolds have Henry and Schnees have Whitley. When Weiss tries to say that she doesn’t know about this, May cuts her off and asks which side is Weiss on. 

“We’ve heard that before....” - Blake Belladonna

Ruby says to May that there are no sides and they want to help everyone, saying they’re all facing Salem together, and together is the only way they’ll get out it, May then sighs and asks how will they get out of it, all while Whitley listens on.

Meanwhile, Ozpin tells Hazel the whole story of how Salem came to be and her ultimate goal to break her immortality curse, Hazel said that was a nice, but then says if grudged death has taught him anything, it was never to trust Ozpin, Oscar, inside his mind pleading with Ozpin to switch back to him, saying if he wants Hazel to trust them, then Ozpin should trust Oscar, doing so, Oscar is back into his body and tells Hazel the password to the lamp, which was Jinn, saying that she is good for one question, Hazel then grabs Oscar by the collar asking after everything, Oscar is just giving Salem the password, Oscar then says that he is giving Hazel the password, hoping that he will seek the truth for himself, Hazel lowers Oscar down slowly afterwards. 

Emerald overhears it all and tells Mercury about it, but Mercury says that Oscar will say anything if he thinks it’ll get him out, Emerald asks Mercury, whom was packing his things, if he was still going to Vacuo after everything she told him, he says that’s what Salem ordered him to do and he knows better than to disobey her, he then says that even if what Oscar says is true, they can’t stop Salem, saying that Hazel knew that first hand and failed, and says that Hazel knows he can’t pick a fight he can’t win, and neither should him or Emerald, As Mercury walks out of the room, he says to Emerald that Salem is not ending the world, but just then, Tyrian arrives and says that Salem is going to end the world, saying that she is destruction incarnate and she wishes to see the end of it all, he thinks that the idea is beautiful vision and says to Emerald that she must have lost her mind if she hasn’t known this from the start, then as Mercury and Tyrian walk to the airship to Vacuo, Mercury looks at Emerald one last time before him and Tyrian fly off in the airship.

Back on the AceOps airship, Yang tells Winter that she can’t blow up the Whale with Oscar still in there, Vine says that the creature causes damage every minute and they can’t wait, Jaune pleads with Winter to give them a chance to rescue Oscar first, they can even be Winter’s test run, saying they don’t know what will happen if they go into the Whale, so Team Yang will go in to check it out and rescue Oscar while they’re there. Marrow questions if they would go in  alone, Yang asks Marrow if he would do the same for any of the AceOps, Elm tells Yang that they don’t let feelings get in the way of making the right call, saying that trading three lives for one is stupid, in which Ren disagreed, saying that they will do whatever it takes to find Oscar, because they care about him.

Harriett stands up and says she thought that Ren was level-headed, calling him naive, she goes on to say that feeling don’t matter, the job does, when you lose someone on your team, you move on and replace them, but then Ren cuts her off and stands up saying that no one is replaceable, but just then, Ren sees Harriett’s true emotions, seeing red petals around her, saying that she doesn’t believe that and that she’s furious about losing Clover and she misses him, Harriett gets angry and tells Ren that he doesn’t know anything about her, Ren then sees the rest of the AceOps’ true emotions, saying that the reason they lost to Team RWBY was because they try and fight how they feel about each other, so they’ll never truly work as a team, Elm snaps at Ren, saying he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, she was going to punch him, but Winter stops her, telling everyone to calm down, she then decided to let Team Yang go in the Whale to rescue Oscar, Harriett tells Winter they’re fugitives and traitors, Winter tells Harriett that she outranks her, then tells Team Yang if they don’t make it in time, the payload will be dropped no matter what, Jaune then says that they understand, as they are un-cuffed and the airship is landed almost near the Whale. Ren says to Marrow that he doesn’t want to be apart of any of this at all, but Marrow replies by saying he has a job to do, then before following Yang and Jaune out the ship, Ren says to Winter that she doesn’t want to this either, seeing her true emotions and following them out, leaving Winter with a somewhat sad expression.

Back at the manor, Ruby tries to talk May into saving Qrow and Robyn, but May cuts her off and tells them that they don’t get it, saying this is not a situation where everyone wins, giving them the choice to either help her in Mantle or drop them off to the front lines to help Atlas, saying that Qrow and Robyn can’t save them and they have to choose for themselves on what to do. Just then, there was a knock on the door, as Ruby and Blake prepared to fight, Weiss walked towards the door, opening it and was surprised and happy to see that it was her former butler, Klein Sieben, whom said that he heard there was a patient who needed his help, Weiss then apologizes for what happened to him, saying it was her fault that he was fired by her father, but Klein, who’s eyes change depending on his mood, says to not worry, saying it had nothing to with her and everything to do with Jacques Schnee. As he was now inside the manor, he then sees Whitley, who was coming down stairs, saying that he was glad that he called him, then asks where Nora was, Whitley then says that she’s in Weiss’ room, Whitley was going to tell Klein where it was, but Klein already knew, saying he hasn’t been gone that long and that can find it, as he walks to Weiss’ room. 

Weiss asks Whitley if he called Klein, which he said he did, but not because he did it for Weiss, only because Nora needed a doctor, Weiss, with a smile on her face, she says... “I know, that’s why it means so much to me...” - Weiss Schnee. Weiss walks towards Whitley to give him a big hug, in which Whitley smiled and hugged her back, but then suddenly, there was huge noise outside, Weiss asked Whitley if he called anyone else, Whitley shook his head no, when Ruby opened the door, there was a huge smokey crater across from the front door, Ruby, Weiss and Blake ran to see what was it that crashed there, or rather who, and it was Penny, a severely damaged one at that, reaching out to Ruby to slowly and faintly say... “I-I....am sorry....” - Penny Polendina. ----------- Has Ozpin/Oscar gained Hazel trust? Will Hazel take the lamp relic from Salem? What will Emerald do? Will she warn Cinder about Salem before it’s too late? Will Team Yang save Oscar in time? Will Winter and AceOps takes Ren’s words to heart and embrace their true emotions? Will Watts’ hack force Penny to attack Ruby’s Team against her will? Is she fully hacked into? Find out after the six week hiatus on the next chapter of Volume 8 of RWBY. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone.

#rwby #rwby8 #rwby volume 8 #rwby8 spoilers #yang xiao long #lie ren #marrow amin #harriet bree #elm ederne #vine zeki #winter schnee #salem rwby #emerald sustrai #hazel rainart #oscar pine #rwby ozpin #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #may marigold #tyrian callows #mercury black #klein sieben #penny polendina

[toooldforfandom-liveblogs]

RWBY V8E02 - Refuge

Who needs "refuge" besides our protagonists? Well, besides the entirety of Mantle. I have no idea, so let's do this!

Watching the OP again I just realized what these lights remind me of:

Welp.

Looks like the friendly scene from the opening is not happening any time soon.

ooh, now it makes sense.

It also probably reflects Qrow's state of mind with the camera framing him during that line. Blaming himself and all that.

I wonder. Having Jacques in jail is a perfect excuse for Whitley to transfer the SDC to himself if he wanted.

Other characters wiping Jacques's smirk still is very satisfying.

Well, I didn't expect this scene from the OP to happen so quickly. I guess Ironwood is making recovering Penny a priority. Nothing like working with a former enemy (who made him lose an arm) to keep making it clear he's willing to do anything and everything to defend Atlas, "no matter the cost"

note: there's no exciting music

Would that be Ironwood or Tyrian? Probably the latter, unless he sees Ironwood ordering their arrest as the ultimate cause for Clover's death. Which is a bit of a jump but it's not like it doesn't make sense, especially from the point of view of someone grieving.

Okay, she's awesome.

Not so subtle reminder of their motto(?) with the graffiti behind her.

The previous episode (and the previous scenes of this one) were so serious that Yang's face looks reaaally weird in context.

And so short too. Which I guess is good, but it just makes it feel more out of place.

"Refer to owners manual for diagnostic information"

Can't wait for the bike to explode because no one found the manual.

That's ominous. The grimm hunting for Oscar?

I'm glad someone volunteered to stay as bait.

You know this is fiction because she didn't continue arguing.

This really feels like the set up for something bad to happen. Which is probably unavoidable with Salem being up there.

I really, really hope this pan up to show Atlas doesn't mean they'll end up working together with Ironwood.

big fan of weiss's face

Doesn't help that she left her only "friend" behind.

I think I spent most of last season saying that Penny was trapped in Atlas by her responsibilities. Her being the Winter Maiden means she'll never be free. Which kinda makes me want to try and think of ways for her to escape.

If she dies (again * shakes fist at RT's general direction *), would her powers go away before Pietro revives her soul? I guess it depends on the exact way Pietro's semblance works. Did he give part of his soul to Penny's memory core (so now it's a different soul inhabiting the same body, with the same memories) or did he kickstart Penny's surviving soul in her core? Would the powers look for a successor during that state of limbo?

Interesting expression there for Penny, even if I don't what it's supposed to mean. Maybe she doesn't really believe Ruby yet? With Ironwood being her "boss" all her life, it's probably rather hard for her to go "yeah, he's wrong"

Simply amazing

very capable sheep

but still cute

oof, not very tactful though

Yeah, bad approach there

It feels like the animators/writers really took to heart the complaint of Fiona's semblance not being very clear last season.

And here's the fight scene we didn't get last episode. Is Oscar going to get kidnapped while everyone is distracted?

That was way faster than I expected.

ah

...what scares Grimm?

I like this, good source of tension, because really, what makes Grimm turn the other way? Maybe the Grimm hunting for Oscar?

lol at me saying this Grimm needed a distraction. Couldn't care less about anything

1) that was really fast

2) why does it look like his body is made of play-doh

They learned their lesson with the Nuckelavee: adding some bone cracking sounds really amps up the creepiness

And it's smart too!

It reminds me of the more advanced nomus from My Hero Academia. Grimm are already scary, add some smarts or even sentience and they jump to horrifying. And it's a good way to add some difficulty to beating them. The show just showed us how fast they can beat the normal Grimm after all.

"my baby"

ew

Wow. I really didn't expect Oscar to get kidnapped right away. I guess the season taking place in a couple of days makes it a necessity to move things faster than usual.

I didn't quite pick it up while watching this episode, but thinking about it, the heart of it seems to be Penny's chat with Ruby. Sure, Oscar getting picked up like a fry by a hungry seagull is more exciting but we know where's that's going. Penny though? I'm not so sure.

Was it only me or did it feel like Ruby was talking past Penny?

Penny has never been able to choose what to do. First she was told to participate in the tournament, then after getting revived she was told to protect Mantle and then she had to take the Winter Maiden's powers. Which, sure, she could have chosen to say no but in that situation there was no other acceptable alternative for her. She did choose to leave with Ruby but that doesn't erase the weight of everything else in her back. So now she's finally learned enough about herself and her feelings to realize she doesn't like the roles and responsibilities she has been thrust into. But Ruby completely misunderstood what she was talking about and just reinforced that being The Protector of Mantle is her job.

There's a painful look to the side before Penny thanks Ruby. A look that screams to me "you don't get it." Which, oof. Let the poor girl be happy before she gets hacked, please.

Something interesting is Qrow's new quest for revenge. That usually never works for anyone in fiction, always ending in never-ending cycles, suffering and being consumed by hate, the dark side and all that bad juju. Hopefully Qrow can reign it in and kill Tyrian just enough feel satisfied. Because, really, who can say that Tyrian doesn't deserve to be very dead and buried? Qrow already stopped drinking, let him have a little murder instead.

Unless he meant Ironwood. Which, sure. It could happen. And it has a ton more possibilities for drama since they were "friends" before, but I don't know. While with Tyrian feels more cut and closed, with Ironwood it feels like the show would go for Qrow being stopped or realizing revenge is wrong or something like that.

The last thing I wanted to talk about is Yang's team and storyline. They are having many more problems than Ruby's, their interactions having a lot more friction between them.

They are not really "saving" people, they are preparing for a last stand. We know Salem, we know it's hopeless unless something or someone comes to saves them. I mean, where do you go story wise when your goal is to get everyone inside a crater?

And the show knows it too, making their scenes the most serious of the episode. The few moments of humor are some quips and Yang enjoying her motorbike, and even those feel slightly out of place, probably on purpose, compared to the humor in Ruby's scenes. They are tired, frustrated with their friends, and they have to know they are just delaying the inevitable. Oscar getting kidnapped almost felt like a respite.

I think the episode struggled a bit with all the parallel storylines to the point it didn't feel cohesive but I guess those are the struggles of being an extremely serialized show.

Very happy to see the Happy Huntresses having more of a role this season.

I'm going to stop myself from reading too much into how Ozpin's comment about how they everyone needed to work together seemed to imply they need to work with Ironwood. I think that ship already sailed and to do it now would feel very "we have to compromise, hear all sides" which ugh.

I'm really curious about where this is going, especially Penny's arc, so that's all for now. Until next time!

#rwby #rwby liveblog #rwby v8 #rwby v8e02

[gemtail]

RWBY Character Statuses V8:E6

Team RWBY

Ruby: Oh my god, the news!

Weiss: Oh crap! Atlas is screwed!... why weren’t those big airships useful?!

Blake: *panicked cat noises while watching the news*

Yang: This just in! The river of styx heading for Mantle! And it’s got GRIMM!! Fuck off, Ace Ops! We don’t have Penny!

JNOR

Jaune: Harriet, are you fucking kidding me?! THERE IS A GIANT GRIMM RIVER NEXT TO US!!

Nora: Zzz...

Ren: Too busy to brood over being a huntsman.

Oscar: Hmm... I’m gonna get abused for the duration of my stay but... why not stay and try to get some redemption arcs going?

Ozpin: Great minds do think alike! Yes, let’s trick our enemies into being good guys again!

Qrow and Robyn: Plotting ironwood’s downfall

Ironwood’s angels... I mean, Ace Ops!

Harriet: WHERE’S PENNY?! YOU KIDS ARE SELFISH EVEN THOUGH WE WERE ABOUT TO JUST TAKE THE MAIDEN AND RELICS AND PEACE THE HELL OUT LEAVING OVER HALF OF MANTLE TO DIE WHILE YOU KIDS WANTED TO SAVE EVERYONE *takes breath* AAAAAND IT’S NOT LIKE WE JUST STOOD BY AND WATCHED PENNY GET BEAT UP WHILE GETTING AMITY IN THE AIR INSTEAD OF DO ANYTHING TO HELP!!! AND I’M TOTALLY NOT GOING TO REGRET NEGLECTING TO CHECK WATTS’ HANDS AND POCKETS LATER!!

Marrow: Ma’am, incoming transmission... oh shit, it’s our old friends.

Vine: Seems to be the only chill guy out of the group.

Elm: I’M ANGRY BECAUSE MY COWORKER IS A FREAKING ROBOT! NOW I THINK SHE’S JUNK! THAT GOES TO SHOW WHAT I ALWAYS THOUGHT OF HER! THE FACT THAT ONLY WINTER WAS BOTHERED BY MY OPINION SHOWS WHAT WE ALL THOUGHT OF HER!

Winter: I’m sad I’m about to force my friend into doing something she doesn’t want to do and that we let a creepy old man get into her head and may have killed her. I’m also angry at my coworkers for objectifying her... but I won’t say that out loud because I still love the taste of Irondaddy’s boots.

Ironwood: *waiting for the ace ops to come back and deepthroat his boots*

Schnee family

Jacques: Don’t care. He can stay in jail. He can be eaten by grimm for all we care.

Willow: Don’t know but it’s probably like this: ONE SHOT! TWO SHOT! THREE SHOT! FOUR! TAKE THE BOTTLE TO THE HEAD AND HAVE-

Whitley: Really regretting not taking some fighting lessons like his sisters did at the moment. Protect the precious bean!

All of them after the Griiver of Styx supersoaked Atlas: OH SHIT! OH SHIT! OH SHIT!

Penny: Windows update 15% complete.

Villains

Hazel: I was going easy on ya, kiddo. It was still child abuse but the moment Ozpin comes- OZPIN! BITCH! I’MMA STAB YOU WITH THIS FLOOR TOOTH I FOUND! AND FORGET THAT THE KID I’M ‘MERCIFUL’ TO ISN’T GOING TO FEEL IT AT ALL LATER. I FIGHT WITH SALEM BECAUSE I THINK SHE CAN’T BE STOPPED AND OZPIN IS TRYING TO STOP HER!

Cinder: I’m an awful person. It would be a shame if my backstory suddenly came about and made everyone feel sorry for me... I’m totally not planning Salem’s demise secretly like I did for my stepmother... and I wish Emerald would just STOP being a useless lesbian!

Salem’s lapdog Tyrian: Hey, girl! Watts just gave me a call! He says hi! Also he hacked the maiden so Cinder can download her powers!

Watts: FINALLY! I CAN GIVE MY BOSS A CALL! I need to tell her I just brainwashed an innocent girl by using the power of technology.

Mercury: Screw you, Cinder! I’m one of the cool kids now! See ya later, nerds! I totally didn’t just screw myself out of being under your protection and can now receive full punishment from Salem if I screw up! I work alone because I’m cool!... Emerald, stop being a simp!.. I'm not gonna miss you! ...probably... maybe.

Emerald: How can I make Cinder love me? ...To simp harder or not to simp so hard? That is the question. Also, screw you, Mercury! I simp over whoever I want!

Neo: I hate my job.

Salem: Ah shit. Better abuse Cinder and then promise to lift her up again by letting her have the maiden powers so she stops her vendetta against me for now. Gotta act like I love her so she works for me at the moment... I don’t actually care if she gets the maiden powers, I just want the relics so I can flip the gods off again.

#rwby #funny #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #ace ops #team rwby #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #character status

[kitkatopinions]

[1] I don't what point they're trying to get too, but CRWBY is going too fast. I mean I know the overall point they want to get for the series; stop Salem (and hopefully no further than thag). But the pacing is so off and that really shows in V7 & 8 particularly with Ironwood. They wanted Ironwood to be an evil dictator that would willingly bomb a city, but the thing is they did it in such a quick flip that is jarring.

When you're right, you're right. RWBY has always had a pretty bad pacing problem, whether it's 'fixing' Weiss's problems with Ruby in one episode in V1 or rushing Yang's V4 recovery arc, the show has always struggled to figure out how to prioritize and take its time. But, this problem has gotten a little more obvious in the last two seasons.

Hazel's redemption and Emerald's redemption were absolutely horribly done, partly because they rushed through them at the speed of light, while they contrast the 'fall' of James Ironwood into a villain role that went from zero to a hundred within the span of two to three in-universe days without the show taking the time to put much proper focus on it or give it the emotional depth it deserved. The Hound was in and out too quick, despite being one of the better concepts to come out of the eighth season. And that's the same with the Cinder/Neo/Watts team up of the century that a lot of people were really interested in and were calling it actual character development and a good change, and then had to put on clown paint when it ended an episode later with everything returning to the status quo. I'd say Ozpin's 'make up' with the team was rushed, too, but honestly that's the least of my concerns with him returning to the team. Qrow and Clover was so rushed that I was seriously weirded out and confused when Qrow's reaction to Clover's death was so big, because to me they seemed like they barely knew each other. I've never understood why both the show and a lot of the FNDM decided that Clover was so important to Qrow, and Qrow jumping to 'kill Ironwood' was also really weird, since we'd been given plenty of reason to believe that Ironwood was Qrow's trusted friend, and very little reason to believe that Qrow hated him, until the guy he'd known for like two months and one season died and suddenly Qrow didn't care about Ironwood at all.

On top of this, Blake and Yang's relationship was rushed in V6 and then stagnated, and the writer's attempt to make them 'fight' in volume eight was so stupid and ridiculous that it was comical (and very frustrating.) Them making everyone drop concerns they have with Ruby within a short while is - like you said - another example of everything going too fast. Weiss 'reconciling' with Whitley and Willow was done too fast and with very little depth, leaving it feeling lackluster and leaving Willow's affection for either of her children feeling fake as hell. Robyn Hill's entire character is a product of rushed and badly done 'growth,' and despite her and Qrow spending episodes together in prison with nothing to do, they still charged ahead with "now these two are friends" too fast and it fell totally flat. I liked May Marigold, but the HH were in the same boat as Robyn, not given enough development and feeling forced into important roles they didn't earn, and the same can be said for the Ace Ops. Salem herself, the main villain, came and went in less than a volume and the terrible way they thrust her into the story only to hastily try to find a way to make her not a threat made her seem so unscary that I can't take her seriously at all anymore.

I was literally shocked when I realized that they weren't spending another season in Atlas, and I even theorized that maybe RWBY was getting cancelled soon, and that's why they were rushing everything so fast in V8. But tbh, with the lack of faith I have in these writers, it's very possible that they just failed, that they just suck.

They didn't take the time to develop almost anything in Volumes seven and eight, and what development they did give us in volume seven seemed to fly out the window in volume eight anyway, or didn't matter anymore.

RWBY is a show that has always struggled to develop story beats and character arcs and dynamics and I and a lot of fans have 'filled in the blanks' on a lot of what they left empty or hastily glossed over, but that gets harder and harder to do the more they get sloppy and overconfident. The fanbase shouldn't have to do this. The fanbase shouldn't have to look at characters who are meant to matter to each other and sighingly try to headcanon up most of their relationship and/or dynamic. They shouldn't have to look at a Very Important arc that the writers are so proud of and then go "okay, time to figure out how to force this to make sense."

There's a certain amount of that in every piece of media, fleshing out characters and their pasts or their relationship is a fandom past-time no matter what fandom you're talking about (heck, I've seen it in the LOTR fandom,) but after a certain point, it starts to feel like we're putting way more work into it than the actual show writers, and that's weird and it's also tiring.

I've seen this argument from RWBY simps that RWDE posters are mad we "have to think about things" and that things aren't just handed to us on a silver platter, but I don't think that's true. We're willing to play a little catch up and flesh out dynamics here and there. I've been doing that in fandoms for forever. There's a difference between doing that, and needing to do a lot of work and a lot of re-writing and world building to make most of the show actually make sense or feel emotionally significant.

RWBY wasn't always like this. I was more than happy to fill in the blanks for seasons of it and get by on vibes and concepts to match what meat and substance we did get. But now I feel like almost everything is so rushed, underdeveloped, forced, or badly handled that trying to 'fill in the gaps' has turned into essentially writing a fix-it fic in your head. So I'd rather just put my mental energy into actually writing a fix-it fic instead of trying to force myself to put in the work that the writers don't for the show proper itself.

#rwde #rwby hate #rwby bashing #anti rwby #rwby criticism

[moondrop04]

RWBY VOLUME 8 EPISODE 7 SPECULATION AFTERMATH!!!

SPOILERS!!!

SPOILERS!!!

SPOILERS!!!

Hello Hello Hello!!! XD Another Week........and the last episode of RWBY before the hiatus is out!!!! Sorry I am late AGAIN (busy with work) but let’s dive right in and see what I got RIGHT and what I Definetly got WRONG from my Speculation post!!

-Sigh.........I got everything wrong in my speculation post 😑.......ya know....stuff like this can make someone wonder what is even the point of writing. Like.....you can write whateeeeever you think is going to happen, from theories you have thought about for months or speculations you made after an episode airs....only to find out NONE of them becomes true. Revelations like this can make just about anyone bitter.......angry even, towards the creators who make the things you love just because they didn’t do the things you wanted to happen.....to what “I” wanted to happen. You know what I have to say about that.......I Don’t Give A S*** I Was Wrong, I STILL LOVE RWBY!!! 😤 I can make a million theories and speculations that could be right or wrong but at the end of the day RWBY is still one of the rare few series that can make my imagination go WILD!!! 😆.....(not like that you perverted F***s 🤨) So what I am trying to say is that I was HORRIBLY WRONG AGAIN, but I STILL LOVED THE EPISODE!!!! Here my thoughts about it.......

-(Salem) Ok......i’ll be honest....I was really disappointed with Salem’s small involvement in the episode 😔. I was really hoping we could finally see how she fights on her own but I have to understand that there is more within the plot that needs to be shown then my selfish desire of seeing Salem kicking some ass 😓. The only positive thing I can take away from this small scene is that it confirmed what I always thought.....that Salem is the kind of woman dramatic enough to cause about a catastrophe and play about as if it were her own Orchestra lol XD. Oh! And tremendous work from CRWBY with the set up of the battlefield between the Grimm and Ironwood’s forces. I was amazed by the incredible number of character models that was placed within the episode to showcase the large scale of the battle between two great forces and I can’t wait to see how much more CRWBY could do in the future battles!

-(Oscar/Ozpin & Hazel) I more or less thought that this would be the direction that Ozpin would take to try and reason with Hazel (revealing Salem’s curse origins) but I didn’t expect for Oscar to reveal jinn’s name to him to get him to listen 🤔. Now while I do understand that this may prove beneficial for Oscar and Hazel’s future trust with one another, I still feel like it may not be the right time for Hazel to switch sides just yet story wise. I think Hazel will still be under Salem’s command by the end of the season but there’s no doubt that Oscar will make Hazel begin to question Salem’s plans and agenda for gathering the relics.

-(Emerald, Mercury & Tyrian) Hmmm I have been thinking about it and I also think it would be a good idea if Emerald would be the one to ask the last question to Jinn, considering that the two share a connection with the tale of Aladdin. The question now is......what will be her question 🤔? I am honestly quite surprised that Mercury and Tyrian are going to Vacuo this early in the volume. From Salem’s standpoint it would make sense to send her followers to the next relic, given that she is nearly about to obtain her second relic within the next few hours. I am a bit disappointed that they are leaving though, especially Tyrian, because i was hoping that there would be a conclusion with his and qrow’s fight in Atlas, given what happened with Clover last volume. I kind of want to hope that they will turn around and return to Atlas near the end of the volume due to Vacuo forces heading it’s way towards Atlas and that they would need to warn Salem, but so far we don’t know if Ruby’s message could convince headmaster Theodore to deploy his huntsmen to fight Salem so we’ll just have to wait and see.

-(May Marigold) Clap...Clap...Clap...👏👏👏 that Scene was......GOOD!!! I am glad for the Trans community to be givin more representation for themselves and I hope the trend will continue on in the future in other prominent series and tv shows.

-(Weiss & Whitely) Ok......as much as this scene between the two siblings warmed my heart, I’m gonna have to play devils advocate and say that I still don’t fully trust Whitley just yet. While this may look like a good direction for Whitley’s character, we still have a long way to go between the whole Schnee family to fully see where Whitley wants to do going forward in his life. So for now I’ll trust that he is doing this “kindness” for Weiss and her friends because he wants to help, but I’ll keep an open mind on what he does in the future. Also BEST DAD KLEIN IS BACK!!!! WOOHOO!!! 😆😆😆

-(Ren & The Ace-Ops) Oh Ren.......while I’m glad to see you evolve your semblance and realize your current “faults” for your character arc this volume.....I can’t help but feel terrible for you for this revelation 😥. With Ren’s new Ability he can now see a person’s current feelings and emotions as if they were different colored petals. With this new found power he was quick to realize the inner turmoil of each member of the Ace-Ops and the storm of emotions within Winter Schnee. But I, as an audience member, was also quick to realize that Ren’s new ability could serve another purpose, specifically for the Shipping fandom.....if Ren is now able to see the feelings of anyone he has his vision set upon, he could easily tell who has feelings of “love” for one another!? For example: if he were see Yang talking with or about Blake for any reason, he would be able to see petals of “love” swirling around her and determine Yang has feelings for Blake. And not just them.....but he could foresee what could potentially be future canon ships down the road for other characters as well!!! Now as well you and I know the shipping fandom can be kind of........crazy🤪, and with this sudden realization Lie Ren has just became the Shipping Community’s messiah of canon ships 😭. Good luck Ren!!! You’ll need it!!! Lol

-(Penny) Alright as heart wrenching that this cliffhanger was....I can’t help but feel that it was too “plot convenient” for Penny to just land exactly where Ruby and her group were hiding out after her downfall from Amity in episode 5 🤨. Maybe before she shut downed she could have tried to alter the course of her landing to land near Ruby’s last coordinates but I have some doubts for that theory 🤔. I don’t know it just felt weird to me lol but despite that this does present an interesting situation because we know Cinder, The Hound and Neo were sent to retrieve Watts to find Penny’s location. So could this mean the long awaited confrontation between Ruby and Cinder is about play out? 😮 I guess we’ll see.....

Overall, despite my personal grievances, the episode was excellent XD and now I am left with the realization that I will have to wait several weeks for the next episode to air......ain’t that a B**** 😑

Quick note: I’m sorry this took so long to post but I have been busy with my 12 hour shift job and it has left me exhausted 🥵. Hope everyone has a merry Christmas and a happy new year!!! 🥳.........plz let it be a good year.....

#rwby #rwby ruby #weiss schnee #blake bellodona #yang xiao long #oscar pine #rwby salem #cinder fall #lie ren #nora valkyrie #jaune arc #james ironwood #rwby volume 8 spoilers

[starlightshadowsworld]

Okay but Ozpin just doesn't tell anyone so first day of term begins and the staff find two children in Oz's office... And they just so happen to be the missing Schnee children.

Glynda: Oz?!... What's the meaning of this?!

Ozpin: I know, I told Weiss that fighting in a skirt may be impractical but she's been pulling it off very well. Even with the little heels, it's so cute isn't it?

Glynda:... I mean, why are Jacques Schnees kids here?!

Ozpin: I'd rather you didn't use that kind of language infront of my kids. But to answer your question, Weiss and Whitley left Atlas looking for accompandation. They proposed a deal to share sensitive information... And I adopted them, receiving custody from their mother.

Glynda:... I see..

Oobleck: Splendid, come children let's go examine some ruins.

Port: And let me tell you about the time I fought 7 Ursa with a hand behind my back as pirates pursed me.

Glynda: *facepalm*... I guess someone needs to make sure these kids are cared for.

Weiss and Whitley:... Uncles and Aunty! *cheers*

Love the idea that they end up sitting in classes when their bored (they are home schooled by Oz and Glynda).

Whitley curling up beside Port as the sits and explaining some adventure he went on, the class giggling and taking notes as Whitley asks so many questions (and no one else is brave enough to ask.)

Weiss mimicking a technique that Glynda is teaching with a wooden sword, she goes bright red when Glynda asks if she's okay with showing the class (because some of them are dunderheads.) And Weiss does it, and everyone applauds her.

Though they do make a lot of distractions, like play fighting up on the rafters and whispering to each other in the classes. But no one really minds and if they do...well they'd have to survive the wrath of Ozpin.

Speaking of Ozpin, he gives them little tasks to do and let's them colour beside him while he does paperwork. (He also totally uses them as excuses to leave meetings, all the staff minus Glynda do... But Oz always wins.)

Oz: oh would you look at the time.. I promised the kids I'd read them a bedtime story.. I'm afraid I must go.

Ironwood: Oz... Its 5pm

Oz: *already out*

#rwby #Weiss and Whitley leave Atlas and Ozpin takes them in #AU #Weiss Schnee #Ozpin #whitley schnee #glynda goodwitch #professor oobleck #professor port #james ironwood

[itsclydebitches]

I'm sorry, but as someone who can't stand how Yang acted for 80% of Atlas, saying "her feeling like she had to help raise Ruby is demeaning and unempathetic to Tai" is a HORRIBLE take. If Yang held it against Tai that'd be one thing, but she doesn't, least not as far as we've seen.

And "she decided he's an unfit parent"? That's literally just headcanon. Where is this stated or supported in any way? Literally everything, from the show to the comics to the manga, shows she absolutely values her father and his guidance. Her providing similar guidance to Ruby at some point doesn't change that, she's stated to be Ruby's mother figure, a woman in her life she could seek advice on in regards to things as well.

Like anon I get you're frustrated by how empathy and morality are handled in this show, I am too, but this just ain't it.

I have simillar feelings on the Weiss scene too but that's another story, you already kind of covered it.

Agreed, though I don't want to rag on the other anon. As said, I can very easily see how someone would come to that conclusion, especially given how often we discuss parts of the show without actually re-watching those scenes, leading to iffy interpretations down the line. A fandom pretty heavily focused on a "Tai is a bad dad" reading + Yang's unfair criticisms of others from Volumes 5-8 (notably her most recent characterization. The one fresh in everyone's mind) = an easy opportunity to mistakenly slam the two together. It happens. That's why I try, whenever possible, to re-watch moments, or at the very least re-read transcripts. I'm well aware of how easy it is to get sucked into how the fandom discusses scenes and take that interpretation at face value, when in fact what's canonical has gotten pretty warped across, in this case, six years of content and discussions.

But let's talk about Weiss a bit more! I think it's worth re-emphasizing that, yes, I'm well aware that she was the victim of that dinner party. My own criticism lies less in that specific moment and more the conceptualizing of our heroes as a whole, which leads to some missed opportunities in that moment, some quite important. For example, most classically heroic characters would be horrified at nearly hurting/killing someone, regardless of whether that was intentional or not. That's a crucial part of what makes them heroic: cherishing life and shouldering responsibility for others' safety, even when it's clear from the audience's more objective perspective that they weren't at fault. There's a happy middle ground here between acknowledging Weiss' horrific panic attack and acknowledging Weiss' responsibility moving forward to ensure that her trauma doesn't endanger others—given that her trauma is drawing on literal, combat techniques—highlighting her desire to do right by the people of Remnant, even when they're snobbish, rich assholes. Any reading that boils things down simply to "Weiss is the only victim in this situation and besides, why do we care if a racist Atlesian bites the dust 😒?" is a small representation of the much larger writing problems of Volumes 7 and 8: acting like Mantle is full of only good victims, Atlas only evil perpetrators, and a defense of the latter isn't worth anyone's time—certainly not the heroes who never, ever make mistakes with massive consequences. Weiss' near attack also carries with it the beginnings of a lot of themes that RWBY never capitalized on, but pretended were an important part of the story by the end of that Atlas arc, like Ironwood's supposed propaganda, or Whitley's question of whether power should be solely in the hands of a few, individual huntsmen. Weiss' situation might have been reframed into something that looks intentional: Here's not just a girl, but a Schnee girl, attacking a poor, defenseless civilian with her scary powers. Are we really going to leave the safety of our kingdom—the world—in the hands of people like her? You should be backing the army, people who have your real interests in mind, led by the man who saved that woman's life—General Ironwood! And the audience would rightly be going, Hey now wait a fucking minute. That's not what happened! It was an accident born of trauma and abuse. How can you manipulate the people into thinking otherwise? Into thinking Weiss is the enemy here? Like, if you're going to write Ironwood/Atlas as the awful, propaganda spewing antagonists... actually write that story.

So the party scene could have been the launching point for a lot of important work, both in terms of Weiss' characterization (a hero learning to balance flaws with her people's safety; taking responsibility for her mistakes, no matter the initial intention) and the world building (what does it mean for a Schnee to (mistakenly) attack a civilian when tensions are this high and faith in huntsmen is beginning to fail?) But for the purposes of what we actually got, that lack of reflection on Weiss' part, as said, reads badly when pit against her actions in Volumes 6-8. Because my brain is super focused on Star Wars atm, I think Anakin is a decent comparison to all this. Meaning, we know where he ends up—super scary Sith Lord who is going to do All The Bad Things Ever—and that will, naturally, color our reading of everything that happens in prequal material. When Anakin gets pissed and cuts the limbs off a Separatist, it produces a "Yikes" reaction in the audience because we know that anger, grief, frustration, and fear are going to lead him down an awful path. In contrast, when Obi-Wan is challenged about his no killing unarmed men policy and cheekily looks to Rex to kill him instead, we don't really go "Yikes" because we know Obi-Wan remains true to the Light for his entire run. All their actions have the primary reading of "They were justified that time/they made a mistake/they're allowed to be human/etc." But only Anakin has the secondary reading of, "That action is REALLY BAD—more bad than Obi-Wan's—because we know where it leads. It reads as setup for his inevitable fall." That's basically where the RWBY group is at the moment, provided you're unhappy with their lack of empathy in the later volumes. If the group had remained more compassionate then yeah, we'd continue to shrug off past moments that sorta imply otherwise because we know that's not who they really are. Weiss never grappled with nearly hurting someone only because, hell, RWBY doesn't let her grapple with anything! She didn't even get to respond to getting speared through the gut. But knowing where they end up—knowing that Weiss will be party to Ozpin's treatment, will help betray Ironwood, will accuse Marrow of abandoning her city only to do nothing for it in turn, will threaten her brother, will give the wish to destroy her entire kingdom and displace all its people, etc.—creates that "Yikes" response whenever we see something earlier that even somewhat aligns with her current characterization. It doesn't erase the 100% correct reading that Weiss was the victim and made a totally unintentional mistake in that moment. It doesn't erase the knowledge that RWBY rarely capitalizes on the implications of scenes like this anyway. It only adds another reading in the form of, "Well, knowing where she ends up... I can kinda see that future version in her here too."

#rwby #mymetas

[calliecat93]

So… been a while since I did one of these. Yeah, long story short 2020 just ruined my anxiety and a bunch of other things and I just couldn’t handle doing the reviews after I feel so behind during the first half of V8. Even the six-week break didn’t do anything to reignite the motivation or help the anxiety, so I decided it was best to quit and just wait for the volume to be over. Which with how emotionally draining the volume was which may have very well impaired my judgment at the time, was probably the best decision. But V8 has been over for months now and we’re awaiting V9. So it’s time to finally finish this.

I normally do one chapter per review, but since I now know all that’s coming, I’m going to do two chapters per review. That means four total reviews, then a mass V8 review, and then hopefully things go better when V9 starts. So last I left off, we got Cinder backstory, the Ace-Ops running into YJR, and Salem breaking Atlas’ shields to finally go forward with her invasion. The dark times are upon Atlas and our heroes are running out of time. So… what happens now? Well, let's find out.

Overview

I normally break down everything moment by moment, but we’re gonna keep it brief since there’s a lot to cover.

In War as Salem’s attack marches forward, all of our heroes are in a bind. RWB wants to help Atlas while May wants to return to Mantle and points out that they can’t have both. Nora is still in need of a doctor, which causes Whitley, who overheard, to call in a character that we haven’t seen in quite a while. With JYR, they were captured by the Ace-Ops, who has now been tasked to use a bomb to blow up the whale. Our heroes negotiate with Winter to allow them time to go in and rescue Oscar and causes Ren to make an unexpected discovery. Meanwhile, in the whale, Emerald overhears Oscar/Oz again pleading to Hazel to see reason, even going as far as to give him the password to the Lamp. Not for Salem, for Hazel. This causes Emerald’s doubts to become even more concerning and with Mercury leaving with Tyrian for Vacuo and Cinder focused solely on her quest for power, she is left alone to decide what she wishes to do.

In RWBY’s 100th chapter Dark, we are at the Schnee Manor where the power blows out. But when they recall that they have an emergency generator, Whitley realizes that they can use the SDC to get supplies to the Mantle refugees. Ruby and Blake go to restore the power as Ruby is still struggling to maintain her usual optimism, but they encounter a Grimm in the process. Specifically, The Hound. Meanwhile, Penny, who crash-landed in front of the Manor last episode, tries to maintain control as Watts’ virus goes into effect. During the battle, it ends with Ruby discovering The Hound. One that utterly horrifies her…

Review

Okay, there is a LOT to go over with these two chapters, So let’s break this down event by event.

Monstra

Let’s discuss our villains first since we have some pretty major developments. First, we have Hazel. We had just about everything that I had assumed before confirmed. The reason that Hazel works for Salem isn’t merely just because she claims to want a new world order. Honestly, I think that Hazel just fooled himself to justify his decision to himself. No, as he talks to Ozcar, the truth becomes crystal clear. Hazel has given up. He confronted her once, and all that happened was she kept coming back until he was too exhausted to fight anymore. She broke him. Fighting her was futile and by taking advantage of this, Salem set him on the only path that he had left: getting revenge on Ozpin. Even though he’ll reincarnate, he can still be hurt. He can still be killed. He can still suffer. It was all that Hazel had left, and it consumed him.

As much as I know that some had issues with Hazel’s backstory, losing your sibling to circumstances that weren’t really anyone’s fault but you still feel so angry that you just need to blame something is very understandable. I’ve been in that place. I think that many of us have. And to learn that he did try to fight Salem at first but in the end, gave up due to her immortality… can you imagine how many others likely went down that route? Wanting to fight Salem but when the horrible truth came out were left empty? RWBY went through it in V6 and barely recovered, so it’s easy to see where Hazel is coming from. It’s easy to see why he won’t believe Oz when he tells him what Salem’s true goal, the release of death via summoning the Gods judgment, is. Oscar takes over and reveals the password, trusting Hazel to decide for himself what to do. Not Salem, Hazel. Will it pay off? Only time will tell.

But Hazel isn’t the only one privy to this new information. Emerald overheard all of it. Whatever fears that she had were all confirmed. Mercury is dismissive, both not believing it (until Tyrian confirms it) and even if he did, points out that Hazel failed and fell into line. It’s going to take time for the assassin to change his mind. As far as he’s concerned, he’s on top of the world, or at least in the best place that he can be in. Better than when he was with Marcus at least. Emerald though? She’s been doubtful and scared since at least the end of V3, even earlier if we count the flashbacks in Beginning of the End. The only thing that has kept her around along with the fear of Salem has been her devotion to Cinder. But with how Cinder has been coldly dismissive of her thus far this volume and now knowing that she’s part of something far worse than she imagined, it looks like Emerald may be deciding that it’s not worth it anymore. The question is, will she act before it’s too late? With Mercury off to Vacuo, she’s on her own to make that choice.

The villains’ stuff is mainly setup for Chapter 9 but it’s good stuff. We’re getting everything in place for the many payoffs that we’ve been waiting a long time for. Many of us have been hoping for Emerald to defect. While IDT as many have wanted the same for Hazel, he’s certainly the nobler of his buddies and has shown signs of possible redemption, so I’ve been hoping for it. Oz and Oscar’s efforts seem to be paying off and Oscar taking over and playing a huge gamble is pure excellence. It’s both Oz trusting the boy and working in tandem with him showing how he is genuinely trying to be better and showing Oscar’s growth with his more diplomatic skills here. It failed to work on Ironwood, but perhaps this time he’ll have better luck.

JYR and the Ace-Ops

Like with the villains, their stuff is contained all within War. But boy do we have plenty to go over. With Atlas in utter chaos, to the point of all the citizens having to hide in a subway, Ironwood has decided to have Winter and her team bomb Monstra. Which makes sense… except that Oscar’s in there. Needless to say, JYR isn’t happy about that. But Harriet, Elm, and Vine remain committed to their ‘we have no feelings’ routine. Even though it’s so obvious that they’re lying through their teeth. Ren’s Semblance confirmed it, but it’s not hard to tell. Elm and especially Harriet are hiding their feelings through their anger and doubling down on following orders. Vine does try to remain reasonable, but otherwise retains his emotionless demeanor. Marrow… he just clearly doesn't want to be there anymore. He’s still trying to remain comitted to what he’s doing, but this and Chapter 9 are going to be changing that big time

And WInter? Oh Lord Winter. She wants to do the right thing but is bound to her loyalty and duty to Ironwood and Atlas, and she doesn’t know which one to follow. Her orders? Or her heart? The choice may seem like a no-brainer to us, but to Winter it’s more complicated. She feels that she owes Ironwood so much. Because of him and the military, she escaped her father and his control. I think that she does realize that this point that she’s just exchanged one puppetmaster for another, but she doesn't know how to cut the strings. We see some signs of hope, both in the last volume when she allowed Weiss and the others to escape, and here when she grants JYR’s request to go into the whale to find Oscar before the bomb arrives. She knows that if Ironwood finds out she’ll be in trouble. She remains conflicted, but it’s still a signt hat it’s not too late. It allows her (and Marrow forthat mater) to remain sympathetic while others like Harriet… well, they’re not making it easy, let’s leave it at that.

That brings us to Ren. He’s had it hard thus far, his emotional control slipping, his split-off from Nora, and everything that built up the last volume coming crashing down. He’s been pushing everyone away, but now? He can’t afford to do so. Not with Oscar in danger. When Harriet says that teammates are replaceable, he strongly disagrees. He and Jaune would absolutely know how wrong this is. They’ve never replaced Pyrrha after all. Even if one considers Oscar part of JNR, he’s never been considered the new Pyrrha. He’s just Oscar, their friend. When he finally admitted that to himself, it allowed Ren’s Semblance to evolve. Instead of simply masking emotions, he can now see them via colored flower petals. Yes dear readers, Ren is an empath.

This development is perfect/. It happened at the right time, Ren finally admitting his feelings for those that he cares about instead of internalizing them and pushing those people away as he has been with Nora. It’s a natural evolution of his powers. He can mask emotions to protect others from the Grimm, and now that he can take it off he can see beneatht he masks of others. Harriet and Elm’s rage. Vine’s uncertainty (I’m assuming anyways based on what happens later). Marrow’s sadness. Winter’s collection of so many different colored petals, reflecting the war that she is having with herself. Now that Ren is beginning to open up, he can now help others do the same. Semblances reflect the on using them, and I think this says a lot about what Ren is truly meant to be and will be in the future.

Schnee Manor

Now we get to the meat of this post. Let’s go over the events in War first. While our heroes are safe at Schnee Manor, they’re conflicted on what to do. May wants to, and by Dark does, go back to Mantle since things are just as bad there and they don’t have the military to save them. Weiss however? She wants to help Atlas. Despite everything, Atlas is still Weiss’ home and there are still family and innocent people that she wishes to save. She’s a Huntress, that’s her job. May however? Her family dismissed her when she was their son, and she made it very clear that she is in no way their daughter. Which first, that was a brilliant way to add that representation. Kdin confirmed that May was Transgender last volume, but now we have undeniable proof in the show itself and it was perfectly delivered. She also makes a good point, Mantle has no protection. The whole reason that RWBY went against Ironwood was that he chose to leave Mantle to die. At this point, it does seem like the heroes can have it both ways. It worked in the past, but not here. Not anymore. But even May admits as she leaves that at this point, there might not be anythign left to do for either city. It’s just… bleak. Even moreso than in V3.

This of course hits Ruby. Normally, her optimism and hope carry her through. It was practically what got the heroes through V6 alive and well. But now? No. Even she can’t deny how bad things have gotten. When she and Blake go to turn on the backup generator, it’s clear how conflicted she is. She wants to help everyone. She chose to send the message because it seemed like the best chance to save everyone. But the longer that she waits, the more unlikely it all seems. She’s becoming utterly overwhelmed. Honestly, with how 2020 went, I find this very relatable. You w\see all the suffering caused by COVID and the horror of the police brutality against Black people and so many other awful things we’re still in the midst of. You want to do something. You want to help everyone and want things to just be okay. But when you do, all of it weighs down on you because you simply can’t help everyone. As Klein said, you can only focus on what’s in front of you first. You feel helpless, scared, maybe even angry. But we’re only human. We can only do what we can a step at a time in whatever way we can, even if it’s just being a shoulder to lean on. It’s at least something.

This leads to something that I have practically been begging CRWBY to do for years now, have Blake comfort her. We’ve had very scarce Ruby and Blake interactions, but it’s always been pretty clear that Blake trusts Ruby and has followed her lead faithfully more or less since the team formed. I think it was very fitting for Blake to be the one who reached out to her as it calls back to when they first talked in Volume 1. Back when Ruby expressed her love of books and wanting to make the world better like the heroes that she would read about. How Blake admired her goal but also viewed it as rather childish. Considering everything with the Faunus oppression, the White Fang, and of course Adam, who could blame her? But Ruby gave her hope. Ruby got her to see that they can make the world better. That despite everything, it’s their job to protect everyone and to move forward. Ruby’s been able to push them ahead so much, and they all still need her. It’s what Ruby needed to hear and it shows how far that both girls have come since those early days at Beacon. Which since this happened in the 100th episode, was very fitting.

Now I’m not gonna say too much about The Hound here. The entire fight scene was awesome and the thing stalking through the Schnee Manor? It somehow felt more horrifying than The Apathy did in Volume 6. How do you manage that?! Whitley and Willow ultimately killing it via the armor was also pretty cool and it’s nice to see the civilian characters getting involved, showing that they don’t have to be helpless like with the ship captain and crew back in Volume 4. Then the final revelation, that The Hound was not only human but had Silver Eyes… yeah Ruby’s reaction could not be more justified. I’m gonna go into my thoughts more in the 11-12 review since Ruby goes more into her feelings there. But the revelations that this one scene caused… yeah, it’s added a whole new level of horror to not just Salem, but the Grimm as a whole. It’s kind of a bummer that The Hound was killed off and it just feels so soon, but with how so much is going on at this point… yeah I’m gonna forgive it especially since the death still leaves a lot to think about in the future.

So let’s talk Schnee family! First, Willow. I like how they handled her here. She’s an anxious mess, which makes complete sense. She has to keep forcing herself to not drink, but without that coping mechanism, she’s so anxious that she ends up running out of Weiss’ room in utter panic. Fortunately, she’s still able to get her act together enough to be of help. She uses the security cameras to warn Weiss and keep an eye on The Hound. Which also allows her to see it heading for Whitley. But instead of waiting on Weiss and since Whitley understandably doesn’t want to listen to her, she does the right thing: act like a mother and save her child. Including actually using her Glyphs to summon a Boarbutusk. Yes, Willow. In a jam-packed volume like this, it’s nice to see these bits of character development for even the minor characters and it was done well here.

Then we have Whitley. I’m gonna admit it, it feels like his change is pretty rushed, but again we have about a million other things going on. Plus I guess the worst situations can bring out the best in people. That’s certainly the case here. He over-hears RWB and May talking and decides to call Klein, who is apparently a doctor, not only a butler (the temptation to NOT make an ‘I’m a doctor, not an X’ joke after getting into Star Trek is REALLY hard XD) to treat Nora. Which Weiss’ reaction to seeing him and him not at all blaming her for being fired was just beautiful. But it’s Whitley making a decision. Not due to his father’s influence. Not to get Weiss’ attention. He did it because Nora needed help and it was simply the right thing to do. The fact that he acted independently makes Weiss so happy that she hugs him. It surprises Whitley… but you can tell that he’s happy about it.

I think that really encouraged Whitley. Jaques isn’t there anymore. There’s no one controlling his fate anymore. It doens’t matter if Whitley defies him now, Jaques can’t do a thing about it. It’s Whitley who realizes that they have the resources and ability to send supplies and help to Mantle. It’s him who goes to his father’s office to get the process underway. Even when The Hound comes in, he still makes sure to give the authorization before making a run for it. With the fear of his father gone and Weiss showing more support, Whitley is showing that he’s not a bad person. He was very much like his sister was; someone trapped and forced to succumb to the toxic influences to survive. He didn’t have the support that Weiss did, nor the skills that either of his sisters had that let them escape. But he’s taking those steps now. He has an attitude still, but he’s kind of where Volume 1-3 Wess was; a major brat but one very much on their way to improving. If Whitey ends up taking over whatever remains of the SDC or outright remakes it, I think that he’ll be a fine leader while his sisters continue as Huntresses.

Finally, we come to Penny. I should probably talk about Nora as well, but since Chapter 11 is when she expresses how she feels ike how Ruby does, I’m going to hold off until then As far as Penny goes… God, I… it just hurts. Knowing how this ultimately will end only makes it more painful to go back through. But just as Chapter 5 made it look like Penny would finally be allowed to choose for herself, Watts ruins all of it. This is a girl who is utterly trapped. Ironwood bound her down by isolating her and then forcing the protection of a whole city on her. Pietro, while well-meaning, was over-protective and allowing that to keep Penny held by her strings. He let go… and look at how it ended. The Maiden Powers, while something that Penny accepted, now has her targeted on all sides and she can’t escape them while bound tot he responsibilities that come with it. Now we have Watts’ virus and despite her best efforts, she can’t stop it.

It’s just… heart-wrenching. Especially when Nora wakes up and calms her down by reminding her that whatever is trying to take over is only a part of her, not the whole being. It works… for a few moments. But in the end, all that Penny can do is succumb. This girl truly has no control over anything. Not over her own life. Not over the abilities that she possesses. And now not even over her own mind and body. She keeps having her strings yanked back and forth, wanting to just snap them off but all her limbs are held in place so she can’t. Watching her act utterly robotic, blankly describing how she will open the Vault then self-terminate… it’s just so wrong. Not to mention her coming dangerously close to being carted off to Salem with only Ruby managing a Silver Eyes blast saving her. It was hard to watch back when these premiered but after the finale? It’s just… it’s just so cruel.

Both of these chapters were excellent. War is mainly a setup chapter and ho boy the event that it sets up for… Chapter 9 is gonna be fun to talk about! But it also had plenty of pay-offs, especially for Ren and great moments like May’s scene, Salem conducting the Grimm, and it just captures the bleakness yet determination of our heroes perfectly. Then Dark… boy is that chapter title appropriate. Again great moments like the Ruby and Blake talk, the entire fight sequence, and probably the most horrifying revelation thus far. There’s some minor stuff like the jailbreak as well that made RWBY’s 100th chapter, as well as the chapter to kick off the return after the six-week hiatus, a thrill to watch. That's not even going into Alex Abraham's spectacular score, especially when the big reveal/death of The Hound happens. Just... it's just perfect. It can feel like there’s just so much going on that it gets hard to keep up with at times… but to be fair, that’s how our heroes feel as well, so I supposed that’s appropriate.

Chapter Stats

War

Favorite Character: Lie Ren

Favorite Scene: Ren unlocking his emotion-reading power

Least Favorite Scene: RWB sipping tea. It’s not a bad scene, but them just kind of standing by while the chaos is going on… it just feels a tad out of place.

Favorite Voice Actor: Kdin Jenzen (May Marigold)

Favorite Animation: Salem conducting the Grimm attack.

Rating: 8/10

Dark

Favorite Character: Ruby Rose

Favorite Scene: Ruby and Blake talk

Least Favorite Scene: I got nothing. Everything here was perfect.

Favorite Voice Actor: Arryn Zeck (Blake) and Jason Liebrecht (The Hound)

Favorite Animation: As horrifying as it was, The Hound reveal.

Rating: 10/10

Final Thoughts

When I watched these, all I could really do was stare wide-eyed. Even though I knew that this volume was going to be intense, somehow I wasn’t prepared for any of it. Certainly not for everything in these chapters. But all of it was just so freakin’ good. Does it feel emotionally draining? Yes. It was a big part of why I’m only getting to these several months later. But was it still worth watching? Absolutely. Compare Dark to the first chapter of Volume 1. RWBY has come such a long way. A lot of things both good and bad have happened in between, but it’s still going and I plan to be here until the bitter end. With quality like this, it gives me a good reason to stick around. So six more chapters/three reviews to go.

(Image Sources)

#rwby #rwby8 #rwby reviews #callie reviews

[whitleyschn33]

The Schnees for the live or die meme? Not only whether you’d care if they died (cause it’s kinda obvious, especially whitley lol) but like. Who do you think might actually die this volume?

Okay, I’m going to answer this from most likely (in my eyes) to die to least likely to die.

1. Jacques - I do not care what happens to this man. I don’t like him (obviously) and I have no personal reason to want him to live. I think they made a big misstep with how they handled his arrest, but the fact remains he has been arrested and mostly removed as a personal threat to Weiss and Whitley. There’s not much more he can offer to Weiss’s character growth, and he can still affect Whitley when dead, even if in a different way than he would if he was still alive. I don’t know if that makes sense, but basically, I think Jacques has run his course in terms of what he can give to the plot and character development of others, and killing him off would be cathartic, cut down on character bloat, and provoke some interesting potential character growth for Whitley. So kill him~.

2. Willow - Honestly, these next three spots are interchangeable, because I’m not really sure, but I have to pick an order, so I’m going to say Willow. I don’t think it’s likely she’ll die, but I feel like she has less to offer going forward than the next character. I can’t think of much for her character to do beyond reconciling with Whitley and maybe retaking control of the SDC, but she really isn’t in any condition to do the latter (and Whitley can take that job on), and hasn’t even attempted the former when she had the chance. She just has so little relevance - she was basically considered dead until V4 when we got confirmation she was alive, and I don’t even know if her name was officially revealed until the V7 credits. I just don’t know what use she has, and as cliche as the mom dying is, it is something to add to the death count that this volume so sorely needs.  Personally, I don’t care much either way if she lives or dies - I like her alright, but I think she’s been poorly utilized and doesn’t have much going for her until she makes a conscious effort to try to do better, so her death wouldn’t bother me much.

3. Winter - Winter edges out Whitley for this spot just because of the death flags and the fact that we need some meaningful deaths this volume if they’re going to sell the horror of the invasion. This is a Fall in action, with far more threatening villains and the entire Volume being about this, but unless I’ve just completely blanked, there hasn’t been any deaths of named characters this entire volume - actually, has there been any on screen deaths or bodies outside of Cinder’s flashbacks? Any at all? I remember some implied stuff with personal items being strewn on the ground, but no actual confirmed deaths. I haven’t watched Volume 3 in a long time, but there was quite a bit of destruction in the last couple episodes. Roman, Ozpin, and of course Pyrrha died, we see at least one rando being attacked by Adam (can’t remember if he died), everything was on fire, Yang lost an arm, Blake was stabbed, Ren and Nora are clearly injured, the students are clearly struggling to defeat one mech. You felt the weight of how horrible everything was, seeing Beacon fall. This volume should be the same, especially with Salem herself here to wreck havoc. Even if the heroes can pull out some kind of win (which they shouldn’t), the build-up should be at least as horrifying as Beacon, if not more so, and yet... we’ve got very little. Nora’s been pretty horribly injured, but I doubt she’s going to die, especially with Klein here to play doctor, and that wasn’t a result of Salem, that was the kids’ plans backfiring. Penny’s been badly damaged, but she just got brought back to life - killing her again so soon feels unlikely unless it’s seen as the only way to end whatever virus Watts put in her. Pierto might die giving up the last bit of his aura to her later, but that’s yet to be seen. Oscar’s been beat to hell, but he’s basically immortal now with Oz, so while it’s horrible to watch, it’s not going to have the same impact as Pyrrha or Yang. Point is, for a full-scale invasion by Salem herself piled on top of the Grimm already there and the heat down, there’s seems to have been very few consequences, and that’s a problem when you’re trying to sell the gravity of the situation. So for that reason, I could see Winter being killed to finally lend some weight to the tragedy unfolding before us. That said - I really really don’t want them to kill Winter. She’s my second favorite Schnee, one of my favorite characters in the show now, and one of the bright spots of V7. I think she still has potential character development, and as one of the few military members that the show hasn’t demonized and Ironwood’s second in command, I expect when something inevitably boots Ironwood from his position, Winter will be a prime candidate to take his position and hold down the fort, so to speak, and work at rebuilding and recovering if that is at all possible. I don’t think it should be, I think Atlas and Mantle should be wiped off the face of the planet if the show wants to do the threat of Salem justice and maybe finally give RWBY some consequences for being hypocrites, but who knows. So, for that potential, I place her in the middle.

4. Whitley - You know my feelings on Whitley. I love him to death and I want him to get a fair shake at life, and I am very biased. I don’t know what good killing him would do other than shock value, since very few people in the fandom actually like him, and he’s still useful as the new CEO of the SDC if there’s an SDC left after all of this. Being in the same place as V1 Weiss, there’s obviously plenty of room for development going forward even if I know there’s no reason for them to give Whitley of all people room to grow. I guess I really don’t want them to be like “Look at Weiss’s bratty brother! See what a rich snob he is - oh, wait, he’s resentful of Weiss and Winter for leaving him with their shitty parents. Oh, look at how reluctant he is to let his sister that threatened him with violence and her fugitive friends to stay in the manor - but wait! He called a doctor for Nora! He’s not a bad person, and Weiss can love him again now that he did something useful for her despite how much she’s contributed to pushing him away - that’s a character arc, right? We can kill him now!” That’s not a character arc, CRWBY. That’s Whitley proving that he is a good person, and that he has justified reasons to not be happy with his sisters. This is the start of a character arc - this is Whitley’s chance to truly grow beyond his abuse. Weiss’s approval is not the end of his character arc, it’s the chance for their relationship to open again, to talk and fight and air everything out. Please please please don’t kill him, and don’t put all the blame on him. He’s just as much a victim as his sisters, treat him with as much respect as you treated Weiss.

5. Weiss - Look, they aren’t killing a title character before the last volume. It’s not happening. Weiss is still my favorite member of team RWBY, but honestly, that’s not as big a deal as it once was, and she’s nowhere near the top of my favorite RWBY characters list anymore. What saves her is that a lot of the things I dislike about her character the past couple volumes have been relatively small. There hasn’t been some huge thing or mountains of small things piled up to make me outright be annoyed by or hate her. I’m not as attached as I once was, but she is the member of RWBY I would least want to die.

#weiss schnee #whitley schnee #winter schnee #rwby #rwby8 #willow schnee #jacques schnee #ask reply #live or die meme