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majoringinsarcasm · 1 year

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The fact that Blake Yang and Weiss are all walking forwards / moving up in the intro from V1 to V9, but Ruby in V1 STARTS closest to the front / the viewer and regresses backwards. Thinking about her being there for Jaune, hyping up her team in volume two and their second semester of school. Comforting Penny and being her first friend. She’s there for Oscar always the first in his corner, she helps give Qrow his huge wake up call and her “I’m not leaving without the lamp!” which I loved in V6.

She started out on an 11 in terms of that upbeat / determined protagonist but she’s not Unaware. She’s never been Unaware. After V3 we do see her somber expressions and looking worried but it’s usually if not always when nobody can see her face. Again V4 when she and Jaune are carrying Qrow and she says that Ren and Nora will be fine after they split up. Jaune expresses doubts and it’s only when she turns her head forward again that worry fills her face. She has always put on that brave face even as she grew from naive clumsy new leader of RWBY to kings leading RNJR, friends who are putting their faith in her and Jaune who was meant to be the leader letting her take center stage. Her mother was the leader of STRQ, she has silver eyes and was trusted with so much. She learned so much. Lies unraveled and she had to make up plans and they failed but she kept going. She kept trying.

And then V8 happened. She saw the Hound. We don’t know for certain that Summer was / is now a Hound but if she went off to fight Salem and never came back then that’s what happened to her right? If the best of the best couldn’t do it when she was the proper age to enter Beacon and not some kid who cheated her way in then what makes her think She can do it. She can’t even fight without her weapon and that has gotten her and others into trouble time and time again.

With each big transition (and outfit change for the visuals) the girls have gotten stronger. They have found some part of themselves they have grown in some way. They had lost some insecurity or fear. And while of course this is not the end of their journey, and Yang I am looking at specifically because poor girl thought she was Dead and was pushed into leaving Patch maybe sooner than she was truly ready for, Ruby’s V4–6 self being behind her V1-3 self is so. That’s when she was making the most leader like decisions. Outside of the school setting with adults and vulnerable citizens now needing to be saved or convinced she and her other band of teenagers can save the day. And then the most recent version who Does have a legal huntress license and Did go on actual missions with other trained huntsmen, is the one farthest back and the most lost and scared and miserable.

Up until now Ruby has had the least amount of big character moments compared to her team, but I do not see her as stagnant so much as…. Her cheerful optimism and drive to keep moving forward was once her sincere true ideology and has now become a mask. She has growth as a fighter and a leader but she was not prepared for the gods and Salem. And in a perfect world she would not have to fight this. But she does, and she has not allowed herself to be seen how she truly feels because there’s no room for a little girl to cry and fret and prove those old hurtful true. She cannot Change from the cheerful go getter she started as because the people around her Need that now.

But that hasn’t been who she really was since the fall of Beacon and it’s catching up to her fast. She pushes the bolder up the hill farther than anyone but now it’s fast in its race to flatten her and she is Tired

#rwby 9 spoilers #Ruby Rose #and her quest to remain the bright eyed girl who wanted nothing more than to go to that combat school #who has had the perfect inspiring image of Summer Rose crushed by the woman who might’ve killed her #the way I look at media is usually In Universe first and Writing Room second #and I know rwby has pacing that is good and bad #but I’ve seen Ruby changing not so much externally like Weiss and Blake #but more kind of like Yang in V5 #she changes externally bc she was attacked by Adam but her actions and demeanor are internal changes like #the way she seems to hold back and calculate her hits when fighting the bandits #she was not reckless before but it feels more one on one deliberate vs fighting eveyone all at once like maybe in her trailer #so Ruby is cheerful on purpose hs that not being how she really feels if that makes sense

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bestworstcase · 2 months

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Something I've been chewing on that I do wonder if you have any thoughts on. What is the intended characterization/symbolism of Yang's semblance. Jaune is a healer/support. Ren learned to control his emotions and then grew empathetic. Qrow has his bad luck which is probably a defense mechanism with consequences from the bandits that raised him and Raven. Taiyang's description of Yang's semblance is the closest to an analysis the audience has gotten and that is - "basically a Temper Tantrum". Very interestingly the narrative has so far let that description stand uncontested. And I believe you were the one that did the analysis that Yang's problem was overly depending upon her semblance as a finisher. Also fun to consider how one of the ways that Yang has her parallel with Cinder is with the fire association... which for Yang is just actually her preferred ammunition and the go to imagery for her songs that I can recall off the top of my head except for temper metaphors.

that was me yeah

a core theme of yang’s character is that she’s made of contradictions and cannot be easily defined or fit into a single box. this is true of every character in rwby—there’s always more than meets the eye, complexity beneath the surface—but yang as a character is subject to other characters’ struggle to parse who she is. tai sees a temper tantrum, ruby sees invulnerability, blake has been on an emotional journey spanning six volumes of just learning to see and love yang’s whole, complete self. yang is raven’s daughter, after all—but she’s also summer’s daughter so much that the resemblance screams itself out of the screen.

so. her semblance.

in the story, it’s been described three different times by three different characters:

ruby: “every hit makes her stronger, and she uses that to fight back. that’s what makes her special”

tai: “basically a temper tantrum, great in a bind, but it won’t always save you”

blake: “his semblance is like yours, he absorbs energy through his sword, stores it up and sends it back when he’s ready” (+ yang feeling it’s “cheap” that he “gets to dish out damage without feeling it”)

<- three bears.

in goldilocks terms, yang’s semblance is “too strong” (ruby sees her as invulnerable), “too weak” (tai sees the power it grants her as essentially hollow, false) and “just right” (yang is neither invulnerable nor fragile and her semblance is just a part of her). i also think that what yang says of adam’s semblance is more revealing of her own self-perception than necessarily being meant as an objective critique of adam—it’s not “cheap” to parry/riposte and in fact yang’s growth as a combatant post-beacon looks like learning to fight more defensively and evasively, less reliant on soaking up damage/power for explosive finishers.

insofar as there’s a meaningful difference between adam needing to block hits vs yang not it’s that yang’s semblance gives her a bit of a cushion—she can still riposte even if she misses the parry—and in all honesty i think probably comes down to their kit. yang is a hand-to-hand fighter. she’s blocking hits with her forearms and, gauntlets or not, she’s going to feel that. the specific damage-absorption mechanics of their semblances cater to their fighting styles.

but, yang feels that it’s “cheap” for adam to absorb energy through his sword rather than his own body, because yang takes a certain pride in being able to get back up after being knocked down. her idea that she must take damage before she can deal it back twice as hard is probably not a real, immutable characteristic of her semblance but something that developed in response to how yang herself copes with trauma—it’s a way of, i think, regaining a sense of control and security by telling herself that it’s okay if bad things happen because it will just make her stronger in the end.

the narrative challenges this way of thinking post-beacon—losing her arm and being left behind did not make yang stronger, receiving support from trusted adults like oobleck and port and reuniting with her friends/family is what made her stronger. learning to accept help and treat herself with more compassion is making her stronger. exploring who she is apart from ruby is making her stronger. this is the direction she’s growing in emotionally—that being hurt doesn’t make her strong, healing makes her strong—and her use of her semblance is shifting in tandem with that (still pops it as a finisher quite often but it is pretty rare since v6 that yang uses it to gain the upper hand in fights she’s at risk of losing, bc these days she’s more focused on evasion/outmaneuvering opponents to create openings for her semblance to end the fight)

and then it’s connected to yang’s anger (and fear, as when she gets between neo and ruby) because both the feelings and the semblance are in essence a self-protective response—yang gets angry when she or someone she cares about is hurt and uses that anger to protect herself and/or the person she loves. her semblance is about taking painful things that happen to her and transmuting that into the power to defend herself. same thing.

i don’t actually think that her semblance is hooked into her anger in the, like, mechanical sense (we’ve definitely seen her pop the semblance in context where she’s having a GREAT time, for one)—the correlation arises from yang’s anger being motivated by protectiveness and a desire to not be hurt, which is also what manifests in her semblance.

i would argue that “basically a temper tantrum” is meant to be read in context with ruby’s “that’s what makes her special” and then both those extremes are brought to a resolution by blake’s neutral description of what burn is, mechanically; in that sense i don’t think that tai’s analysis has been left uncontested except insofar as yang didn’t argue with him—but conversely, tai more or less tells her to think of her semblance as a risky weapon of last resort and yang went “k” and started using her semblance more, so i think it’s less that yang takes his advice at face value than it is yang recognizing that tai raises a generally good point [being creative and flexible is valuable] and thinking okay, i can probably get more out of my semblance if i try new things.

her position is that burn is normal (“how is me using my semblance different from someone else using theirs?”), and the way she takes this advice on board reflects that—if someone else relied on their semblance for just one specific tactic and nothing else, what advice would they be getting from their instructors? push yourself further, test the limits of what you think you can do, get out of your comfort zone. that’s what winter tells weiss when she’s struggling! that’s how RNJR are taught in v5! tai views burn as fundamentally different from other semblances, and his advice really comes down to “don’t rely on it, you don’t need it.” but yang disregards that part of what he tells her entirely. she quietly sorts through what tai tells her and only keeps what she thinks will actually help her improve—which is, in itself, of a piece with her semblance. she takes the ‘hit’—the harsh and rather unfair criticism—and then filters/converts it into something more constructive.

(there is also some interesting subtext here with the protective/self-protective drive behind both yang’s anger and her semblance and tai’s perception that the semblance is a “temper tantrum”—which aside from framing burn itself as abnormal also casts yang’s anger as irrational, childish, out-of-control. given the dynamic of yang’s childhood situation, the parentification and leaving yang and ruby alone at home for extended periods of time and over-identification of yang with raven plus favoritism toward ruby… and factoring in tai referring to yang’s anxiety and post-traumatic depression as “moping” well. across the board he seems either unwilling or unable to seriously/genuinely engage with yang’s feelings so how much of his perception that yang has “temper tantrums” follows from outbursts she had when overwhelmed as a child or young teen that tai didn’t take seriously or chose to ignore rather than deal with the root cause of neglect/trauma?)

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citadelofmythoughts · 1 month

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RWBY is literally a show where it keeps telling everyone to pay closer attention to the details beyond the initial aesthetic, but everyone keeps on ignoring it and getting mad when they inevitably run into a brick wall that RWBY is explicitly telling them is in their way.

Like, I'm expected to believe that they're deep "critical" thinkers who just see RWBY as bad, when they struggle to understand anything beyond the most surface level thoughts?

On a side note, it's also part of the reason I'm just thoroughly annoyed with their fixation on Monty. Because the irony is that for all of their outward adulation, their understanding of the man is so...shallow.

Constantly whining about the series being "woke", when one of his major hallmark videos that introduced us to him involved two women finding love in each other after spending years of their lives fighting to survive and protect others (Haloid)?

Basically treating Miles and Kerry like coattail riding hanger ons who stole RWBY from him for their own greed and agenda, despite the likelihood that if he were still alive, HE'D be getting lumped in with them and treated like the (derogatory) George Lucas of Web Animation because his own ideas probably weren't that dramatically different from theirs? And let's not forget their absolute disdain and disregard for his brother's opinion on the matter...

It's all so performative and resoundingly missing the point of his legacy that I'm frankly surprised they haven't popped their heads off from the sheer amount of logical twisting they have to do.

I've said this before but it bears repeating. There are no wasted moments in RWBY. I'm still shocked how many people miss things like the V4 time difference between Blake in Menagerie and the rest of the girls in Haven or even the Blake/Yang vs Adam fight taking place several minutes in the past compared to the fight against Cordovin.

I respect Monty, without him there would be no RWBY but without Kerry and Miles the RWBY we know wouldn't exist. This show has always been a collaborative effort from writers to artists to animators to musicians.

The HTDM can be summed up in one image:

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itsclydebitches · 3 months

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The amount of times RWBY wants us to feel scared for the safety of characters while conveniently forgetting Aura exists is staggering. Neo attacks Ruby with the intent to kill but her Aura is still active. James almost shoots Marrow with the intent to kill but his Aura is still active. Watts hacks an Atlesian Knight to run towards Qrow, Robyn and the Ace Ops with the intent to explode but their Auras are still all active. Sure the attacks would hurt like hell but they're not gonna kill, why should I fear for their safety?

If we're being generous (I'm having a good night lol) I suppose we could read moments like James vs. Marrow as shocking not because it would be a one-shot death sentence, but because he's threatening - in general - to take Marrow down. Sort of the equivalent of an IRL person raising their fists. Is that an immediate threat to the person's life? No. Are you making it clear that you're willing to fight over this while also ambiguously leaving it open how far you're willing to take things? Yeah.

You're right though, too often RWBY relies on average action threats (a pistol, an explosion, etc.) to raise the stakes without taking into account that none of that should be very scary to our protagonists. Not until their aura breaks (and we have no sense of when that will happen, despite them all supposedly carrying Scrolls to tell them. Which I get because if RWBY introduced clear thresholds of when aura breaks they'd have to actually abide by that rule). I feel the same way about characters about to fall: Ruby hanging off the airship with Neo, Ruby hanging off the cliff while fighting Cordovin, Ruby and Oscar both going down in an airship. The very first technique we're shown is a landing strategy, so how is falling from a massive height - even while taking into account other factors like, say, snagging the farm boy who never went to Huntsmen school and might need to use you as a personal parachute - meant to be taken as a serious threat?

In this regard the void of Volume 8 is actually a GREAT idea. Suddenly your landing strategy doesn't mean a thing if you have nowhere to land. Suddenly a single hit can be a threat. Not because the hit itself would seriously hurt you, but because it might knock you off the edge. I actually love the concept of Yang falling at the start of that fight, RWBY just did such a horrific job of executing it that there's nothing left for me to enjoy. Why does Yang panic like that when, as established, a single hit from Neo is not going to kill Ruby, or even seriously hurt her? Why is she jumping in front of her sister at all when the entire POINT (supposedly) of her Volume 3+ arc was to learn fight smarter, rather than relying on emotional impulsivity? (I will seriously never be over how that moment is an exact repeat of Yang trying to save Blake and yet the show doesn't seem to realize that.) Why does only Blake have a reaction to Yang "dying"? Why didn't the whole team of talented fighters with various ranged weaponry/magic/speed make a serious attempt to catch her?

All of this isn't even taking into account how Yang, as someone who powers up via taking hits, should consistently be standing her ground like she did against the mech, knowing her aura will not only save her, but give her an advantage. She's the tank. If Yang had gotten in front of Ruby with a confident, calm expression that conveyed her understanding that Neo can't one-shot her aura like Adam once did, taking the hit both to spare Ruby's aura and power her semblance as a strategic decision (give her a smirk and a taunting line like, "Thanks for the boost" before knocking Neo back), then later falls some other way after her team tries and fails to save her... that would have been so much better imo.

Yang's lack of engagement with her semblance has been especially frustrating for me after her line about how Adam "cheats." If Yang thinks it sucks that she has to take a beating to gain an edge... show her actually taking a beating to gain an edge. You know, like the show once did. It would be so badass to watch Yang getting in the way of all the attacks against her team, toeing the line between safety and breaking her own aura, before finally EXPLODING with a massive attack she's been saving up for, making that sacrifice worth it.

(Also potentially devastating if she's taking those hits with turning the tide in mind... but then she falls before she can see her plan through.)

#rwde #rwby #mymetas

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iamafanofcartoons · 1 year

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RWBY is a good show, and I’m tired of people pretending its not!

I’m sorry, I’m just so tired of all these random claims that RWBY is “boring anime cliche” or “racist white male writing”, So...let’s go over them in segments

Female characters:

Aren’t walking fanservice shots and aren’t sexualized

Aren’t degraded in their field (combat, tactics, dust usage, etc) to boost up male characters (cause seemingly female characters being too skilled at something is emasculating to incels)

When a woman says no to a man, the man takes no for an answer and doesn’t keep trying. (So dear Hbomberguy, stop claiming that Weiss x Jaune was ever a thing)

Women don’t require a man to “Defend their honor” (This is in response to the dude who harassed me in anonymous about V5 who was upset that Yang punched a creep)

Aren’t woobified or emotionally weakened, instead having reactions to things like normal human beings. (Sorry Shonen anime which loves to make women woobified or emotionally weakened vs men) Being capable of emotions but also doing things effectively.

Aren’t made into waifu for male characters. Nora is still a badass and even being allowed to explore who she is outside of Ren, which runs against the usual anime/manga bs. Weiss didn’t get with Jaune after finding out he helped w/ Neptune. Blake actually defended her boundaries when Sun crossed certain lines (even though they’re brotp not romantic, he’s a male character that could’ve been put as a pseudo-love interest). Yang is also shown to be more than just Blake’s GF as we see in Ruby Yang interactions, Yang vs Salem, Yang ageeing to talk with Robyn. They’re all their own characters not trying to be the perfect wife for a male character.

LGBT+ characters:

aren’t in a world of “everyone is gay or straight”, so for me at least coming across as more impactful

have Ilia (lesbian); Coco (lesbian); Terra (wlw) and Saphron (wlw) also married and w/ kid that aren’t treated different to any other couple; Scarlet (gay-male); Nolan (implied, I think its at this point and not confirmed, mlm); May (non-deadnamed, voiced by and helped crafted with the help of a trans VA, and not having her trans status be the central element of her character trans character); Blake (bi) and Yang (wlw) that are a main pair that are being allowed to build to a relationship at the same pacing as the hetero alt. pairing. BB being naturally built up and not rushed into a relationship, though still soft-canon locked in via Nora.

Are ALL ALIVE (funny how the straight white male characters get killed off?)

PoC characters:

Includes Marrow, Pietro, Joanna, Flynt, Yatsuhashi, Lie Ren, and Robyn as default heroes side

Includes Emerald having switched to the heroes side after having it foreshadowed in v3. Also possibly Elm and Harriet, depending on where they go in the future.

includes Sienna, who was admittedly actual wasted potential, being contrasted against Adam as the morally better version of violence in activism. A controlled violence actually giving a shit rights activist leader vs. a co-opting murderous abusive bloodthirsty psychopathic terrorist.

are easily the lesser in villain count vs. Caucasian villains.

So can the RWDE please stop trying to claim how RWBY isn’t better than anime/manga at least, but overall “isn’t progressive” in these areas.

Adam Taurus represents a very real element in real life regarding “Radical civil rights movements” ; extremism and co-opters; While the actual faunus rights aspect on its own is given a sympathetic light repeatedly. We also have Ilia Amitola, the female POC lesbian, get a redemption. While Adam Taurus, the cis white male edgelord? Is Evil and gets his death by double penetration at the hands of two lesbians. (Edit: yes, I know Blake is Bi, as is her VA. It was an expression explaining how cis white male “authority” individuals get emasculated)

The WF has a lot of references, not specifically the Black Panther one. Also the WF on its own is fine, its the version that gets corrupted by Adam’s psychotic co-opting terrorist ass that is the problem.

Reflective of reality where if any group for any cause crosses into violence that involves innocent bystanders; then they lose any credibility and are nothing more than terrorists. I don’t care what the cause is. Which is exactly what the WF under Adam presents; but is just 1 vein of it with Sienna’s vein existing, Ghira’s, and even Blake’s. Was it handled perfectly? No, you could have easily have shaved time from Adam to give to Sienna and had her live to continue. Personally I found Sienna to be the actual wasted potential, but EruptionFang naturally loves cis white male evil men as his favorite Meow Meows. Don’t even try to recommend a gay or bisexual dude to rwby critics, they’ll flip and call it pandering.

The MC’s aren’t remotely “paper thin”, nor secondaries. Heck the only ones that fit that bill are characters in the tertiary vein that are supposed to be that way. The “two traits” falls apart if one actually pays attention to the characters.

And most fixit fanfics not only sexualize the characters in a show with no fanservice...

Sadly they also overfocus on male characters and have their favorite male characters talk down the female main characters.

Robyn Hill represents the people standing up NOT against the military, but against fascism/totalitarianism. We see that for all the “good intentions” that Ironwood MAY have? It is always sabotaged by him. Ironwood backstabs Ozpin, brings an Army as a show of force, does multiple projects behind people’s backs, and yet displays more than few acts of hypocrisy. Volume 7 literally showed him acting as a dictator because he believed that only he knew the answer to everyone’s problems. Yet the consequences of HIS actions are what led to Atlas Downfall. Yang and Blake even tried to get Robyn to work with Ironwood and Robyn was literally willing to do so. Which of course pissed off Ironwood stans that anyone, especially a POC hero of the people, would stand against a Cis White Male Authority figure. The elections in V7 meant that anyone’s authority could be challenged by the people. Of COURSE Ironwood stans REFUSE to acknowledge the election part was good.

The attempt to balance idealism with realism is pretty interesting. What do you do against an enemy with an unlimited army, immortality, and agents who seek to turn everyone against each other? Do you submit to the “inevitable?” Or do you keep fighting to the end, instead prolonging the end?

You can think of this as having borrowed a theme or two from dark souls!

RWBY is at the very least leaps and bounds beyond most anime it's close in genre with. I remember seeing, partially in jest, the idea that RWBY has half the fanbase it does for being an action anime with a female case and no fanservice and I think it might almost literally be true.

It is depressingly hard to find a decent action show with a female cast that doesn't sexualize them in gross ways. Even shows I like on the whole end up doing that.

Of course, the points regarding love are helped by the fact that a good chunk of the female cast is front and center in the story. They’re largely in the driver seat and aren’t secondary to any male titular protagonist. Thus you don’t get cases where a girl on the main cast is there to be… the girl.

In any other story, Oscar and/or Jaune would be front and center. Heck, the three creators of RWBY are guys before their team grew so you’d think they’d “write what they know.” Yet they stick to their guns on having girls get shit done.

One Anime a person I know felt came close to this was, if you can believe it, Fairy Tail where Natsu might’ve been the prominent ass kicker but Erza is the one effectively leader the team, Wendy goes on an arc of learning to love herself and Lucy grows into the wizard that leads the charge against Acnologia.

Yet it sent mixed signals with how the girls (those of age) had designs that left little to the imagination. I can appreciate an artist honest in his horniness… but the Anime did something right when it came to Erza’s torture in Tartaros that helped sell the gravitas of the traumatic experience.

RWBY feels like the above but far more refined in execution. There’s a time and place for schlocky cheesecake but not when it clashes with the narrative and themes overall.

So tell me...without using Hbomberguys’ repeated false information about the “love triangle” or “self-insert” slander...how would YOU respectfully criticize RWBY? How would you claim to be “a critic” yet still encourage people to watch RWBY?

If you try to bring up Hbomb’s 2.5 hour hate video, then anyone who tries to claim that a video from 2 years ago no longer is relevant is just being hypocritical. (Looking at you, RWDE Apologist, you know who you are)

Oh, one more thing. RWBY seasons 1-3 were the weakest in terms of writing and animation. But even so, the fact of the matter is that anything that happened in those seasons are ignored by critics, theorists, and straight shippers.

Material Inspired from https://www.tumblr.com/crimsonxe/691425946111295488/since-i-ran-across-a-dumbass-earlier-that-tried-to

#rwby #ruby rose #yang xiao long #monty oum #rooster teeth #rwby is enjoyable #rwby is a good show #Blake Belladonna #weiss schnee #adam taurus #sienna khan #fairy tail #erza #erza scarlet #team rwby #Oscar Pine #james ironwood #ironwood

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dummybirdnero · 8 months

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Imagining the goofy Blake and Yang vs goofy Adam fight and I realize it is just Yang flicking Adam away like a flea.

Or it can also end with him being squashed like a bug

#rwby #yang xiao long #my art #dummybirdnero #ask

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deadbeatbirdmom · 4 months

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Idk if I’ve asked you this but favorite yang moment

Narrowing this down to a single thing is hard! More like impossible, so here's a top 5:

The kiss that first drew my attention to and then got me into RWBY. A gif of the Bees kissing literally crossed my tumblr dash and that was what hooked me.

Yang and Blake vs Adam.

Yang drawing Salem's attention away from Oscar.

Confronting Raven and persuading her to let Yang take the relic.

Yang vs the bandits.

#Ask #starlightsaphron #Yang Xiao Long #Bumbleby

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hadesisqueer · 10 months

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#rwby #best rwby fight poll #yang xiao long #blake belladonna #bumbleby #adam taurus #qrow branwen #winter schnee

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short-wooloo · 3 months

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Blake & Yang vs. Adam | RWBY Volume 6

youtube

#rwby #rwby volume 6 #rwby vol 6 #rwby6 #five years #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #bumbleby #rwby bumbleby #bumbleby rwby #Youtube

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blue-cheeseinmyoffwhites · 10 months

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These fights have been regarded as the most investing/satisfying/memorable of their volumes by the majority of the FNDM. My question is which is the BEST of the best??

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aspoonofsugar · 9 months

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Worthy

I love the new RWBY soundtrack! So, before delving into longer metas on volume 9, I want to share a quick analysis of Bumbleby's new song.

BUMBLEBY VS CINDER

As many have highlighted, the song shares its title with episode 8X13.

This episode is interesting for 2 reasons:

It is a Cinder's centric episode

It is when Yang falls leaving Blake behind

Our Maiden of Choice is one of the strongest foils to our protagonists. In particular, she ties into all the MCs's allusions as an antagonistic force. This is particularly clear in Ruby and Weiss's stories, as she plays Ruby's Big Bad Wolf and Weiss's Evil Queen.

What about Bumbleby?

Cinder is a personification of Blake's Beast

The Beast is the Jungian Shadow, which represents everything hidden and repressed. Blake integrates her shadows and brings them to light. Cinder is instead consumed by her darkest parts, as her Shadow Hand shows.

Cinder embodies Yang's too hot

The too hot is a metaphor for asymmetry and anger, which are core traits of both Yang and Cinder. It is just Yang accepts her own asymmetry and faces the feelings of vulnerability she masks with rage. Cinder instead doesn't aknowledge her emotions and her hurt.

In other words, Cinder embodies Blake and Yang's flaws and represents an obstacle in Bumbleby's fairy tales. This is why in the finale of volume 8 she re-enacts the 2 girls' traumas.

She manipulates things, so that Yang has no choice, but to go too hot:

And Yang's fall has Blake go feral:

The whole scene is a repetition of Blake and Yang's two fights with Adam. Yang protects a loved one and loses her arm as a consequence (Jinxy steals it in the Ever After). Blake sees Yang get hurt and has her weapon damaged (only the ribbon this time).

This happens so that Blake and Yang can prove they are now stronger than before. They are worthy:

And now I know I'm worthy of you

In the end, both Cinder and Bumbleby have to show their worth. Still, this word gains different meanings for the bees and for our Cinderella. Let's see why by analyzing the Worthy song's lyrics.

BLAKE'S PART - FALLING

Why did Why did I come here? Was I always meant to take this shape? Never was given a love like this A parachute falling with no fear of hitting the ground Hitting the ground You fell And suddenly I did too While the world was dying Didn't know how to not lose you again

Blake's lines tie her and Yang's romantic dynamic to their fall in the Ever After.

You fell:

And suddenly I did too:

While the world was dying, (I) didn't know how to not lose you again:

The metaphor is rather clear. Yang falls for Blake first, while our Cat Girl struggles with her feelings for Adam and her attraction to Sun. Still, Blake finally falls too and the two bees find themselves in (Happily) Ever After, where they get together:

The falling imagery is mentioned in the confession scene, as well:

Yang: (in thought) It's like a cliff. And if I do it, I'm just going to fall. Blake: (in thought) I think we're already falling. (turns to Yang) Just, say it, Yang.

Never was given a love like this A parachute falling with no fear of hitting the ground Hitting the ground

As the song states, Blake was "never given a love like this". The comparison is clearly with Adam's passion, which was violent and abusive. Blake feels the bond between her and Yang is different. This is why she is not scared of falling, as if she is wearing a parachude. She knows Yang is there to catch her.

YANG'S PART - CATCHING

Hands down Heart wide I've only ever known the fight But I'll catch you This time I'll never let you out of my sight Unguarded I Surrender to a softer side I loved you, I'll love you Till the end of time Kiss me Hold tight I'll never let you out of my sight

Yang symbolically catches Blake in the song, so that the falling metaphor is completed. The meaning is clear.

Falling is a risk, but risks are necessary to truly live:

Yang: You were being optimistic. Look, blind optimism isn’t great, but no optimism means we already lost. We need hope. We need to take risks.

So, Yang herself takes a risk and makes a leap of faith:

Yang: I think I love you.

And she is promptly caught by Blake:

Blake: I love you, too.

By this point the two hold thight and kiss each other:

Yang taking this step is important because she is scared of vulnerability and intimacy.

She only knows the fight:

And yet, she faces Blake with her hand(s) down and her heart wide:

She surrenders to a softer side:

She trusts Blake not to leave and is determined not to let her out of sight. It is great development when compared to this:

You're lost You're found You're hard to pin down I never know if you'll come through Then you appear Together we're here And that's all that matters somehow

The scene happening on a bridge over the void strengthens the implication. If Yang and Blake's feelings were not mutual, they would have crashed down. Still, they love each other, so they embrace in a beautiful garden.

TO EACH OTHER - BMBLB

Voice 1: And now I know I'm worthy of you Voice 2: (Oh can't you see, you could be with me) Voice 1: With every smile you told me, "I love you" Voice 2: (I am your dream, I love you)

Baby can't you see? You could be with me We could live inside a garden of ecstasy You could be my queen I could be your dream Our lives like a fantasy Maybe set me free? Let me be your bumblebee

Bumbleby's kiss fits the scenery described by the Bmblb song.

Blake and Yang are in a garden and their confession "chases away the darkness and gloom" by making "the clouds run from the sky":

They are metaphorically making honey:

Like a Purdie* beat You are oh so sweet Every day is sunny, tastes like honey Feel so alive take me back to the hive

Which is why the flowers surrounding them bloom magically. Fitting for bees, right?

TOGETHER - SEEING AND STAYING

See me for everything I am You don't run away No matter the mistakes I made It's here, you'll stay

This stanza is the climax of the song and it conveys its most important message.

Why are Blake and Yang finally able to be togehter? In which way have they grown?

Yang sees Blake for everything she is:

Yang: Well, Blake, I'm Yang, Ruby's older sister! I like your bow!

Yang: You have cat ears! (…) I think your cat ears are cute.

The juxtaposition between these two lines sums up our Yellow Beauty's development.

Yang has always been attracted to Blake, but she is initially unable to see her as a whole. This is what the bow line alludes too. As a matter of fact Blake's bow is symbolic of the girl's shadow, as she initially uses this cloth to hide who she is (her beats part). So, Yang's first interaction with Blake shows she is drawn even to Blake's darkest parts. However, she is not mature enough to understand them completely.

It is only through her personal arc that Yang becomes able to see Blake for the person she truly is. Beautiful and ugly parts alike:

Weiss: You're right though. I don't know loneliness like you do. I have my own version. And, I'll bet Blake has her own version too.

This is why she can now openly praise Blake's animal trait.

Blake too has grown, of course. She gets irritated by Yang's bow compliment because, at the time, it hits a little close to home. Right now, she displays her ears openly and is flustered and happy by Yang's words. She doesn't hide herself anymore.

Blake is ready to stay:

Never thought that you would stay forever / Never asked you to commit your life

Blake: I have people who actually care about me, and I promised I'd never leave them again. So I'm not dying now.

Blake leaves Yang when our Golden Beauty is at her most vulnerable. This hurts Yang deeply, but Blake works through her flaw, grows and comes back. Once she does, she is ready to do what Yang never asked her to. She commits her life:

Blake: I… I am not going to break my promise, I swear.

Blake's vow to Yang is in fact a wedding vow, symbolically. It means Blake is determined to stand beside Yang no matter what. And Yang knows Blake means it:

Yang: I know you won't.

In conclusion, Blake and Yang's growth has them see the other's flaws and accept them. This is where their worth comes from.

TO BE WORTHY

You can't just be strong, you have to be smart! You can't just be deserving, you have to be worthy!

Blake and Yang are worthy of each other not because they are perfect. Rather, they know they aren't, but accept their own shortcomings. They forgive themselves and the other, so that they can grow better together. They become more balanced inside and this results in a new found harmony between each other.

Cinder's self worth instead comes from superficial validation by people only interested in using her. She doesn't face her inner demons, but rather chooses to push them down, so that she can keep wearing the mask of a powerful woman.

This is why Blake and Yang find real self-worth, while Cinder has set up an unreachable standard for herself.

#rwby #rwby meta #rwby soundtrack #bumbleby #cinder fall #blake belladonna #yang xiaolong #greenlightvolume10 #my meta

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pilot-boi · 8 months

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LET ADD MORE TRAUMA TO CAT VS DOG cause I thought this and so you must suffer with me after getting back Jaune due to CC trauma spilled something on his shirt and takes it off and what does everyone see? A bunch of claw scars all over his body and RWBY sees it was not just psychologically abusive but also very much physically.

Been looking for an excuse to post this for a while, so hope y’all like ;)

———

The Punderstorm is a bad time all around

Jaune tells RW about Alyx and Lewis while not mentioning a thing about CC. Even less than they’re mentioned in the original. To the point where it’s obvious CC was there during the events, Jaune is just deliberately avoiding talking about them

Weiss was already suspicious after the cat said “You didn’t tell your friends about us?” Because what is THAT supposed to mean?! But she gets even more sus after CC appears in the Punderstorm and Juane seems torn between standing between CC and RW, and hiding behind his friends.

Especially when the timeline diverges slightly, with CC still leaving but promising to be back to see their Sunshine.

And when Jaune flinches, Weiss sees. Because it’s the same way her mom would flinch every time Jacques moved too quickly.

They exit the storm, and Jaune is too shaken to even tease Blake and Yang about getting together. He doesn’t even notice when Weiss pulls Blake aside to talk, shooting him NOT subtle glances the whole time. All he can hear is CC’s voice, laughing in his mind.

While Jaune retreats into his mind to have his breakdown in peace, Weiss talks to the newly smitten bees about everything she saw. And they might be smitten, but BOTH of them are alert immediately when Weiss describes how Jaune acted around CC.

Personal experience is a bitch.

CC is a different flavor of toxic, sure. Less angry, more saccharine, but dangerous all the same.

When Weiss brings up that he flinched like her mother does, Yang’s mind drifts unbidden to the streaks of white in Jaune’s hair and the gray in his once-blue eyes. Blake was only with Adam for a few years. What could’ve happened to her if she was with him for DECADES with no hope of truly escaping?

Unfortunately they don’t have to imagine, because it seems like Jaune is a living specimen.

He takes them to his village, his home ever since getting poisoned by Alyx. And Jaune, shaken to his core and seconds from a panic attack, pulls a classic Jaune move and puts his fracturing psyche aside because Ruby Needs Crescent Rose.

Let it never be said that he has healthy coping mechanisms.

Weiss is more concerned because the Punderstorm clearly put them in situations that they needed to confront. It sped up what were inevitable meetings. It brought Yang and Blake together, and for some reason it brought Jaune and the cat together.

They have to talk to him. Ruby is getting some well earned sleep, so she’s not going to be any help. Yang and Blake share an unspoken conversation in that way that never fails to get on Weiss’s nerves, and Yang reluctantly agrees to let the two of them handle it.

When they step through the doorway, the first thing they see is his armor, rusted and corroding in a neat pile by the wall. Jaune is just sitting on his bed, on top of the paper covers, stock still and staring at his hands that are white-knuckling his knees. His hair is short, cropped even closer to his skull than it was before and streaked with so much white that there’s barely any blonde left.

Not for the first time BLake wonders if he’s been here long enough for age to do that to him, or if the stress of this fairy tale land was enough.

With the armor removed, they can see thick bands of white scarring up and down his arms, across his neck, curling away under the sleeves of his tattered Pumpkin Pete hoodie. The logo is all but gone. The scars look like claw marks, too narrow to be from the Jabberwalker.

Possessive.

Claiming.

A cat’s scratching post turned human.

Weiss wants to scream, but more than anything she wants to take Myrtenaster and give that fucking cat a taste of their own medicine. But Blake just walks forward, being careful to keep her movements clear and her footsteps loud. She sits on the bed and Jaune still doesn’t move, doesn’t even look at her.

Weiss thinks it would’ve been better if he’d flinched. This still, small, silent Jaune is worse than any Grimm. That’s not her friend.

Blake is rubbing circles into Jaune’s back, and Weiss feels like an idiot because she’s just STANDING there. She’s never been good at gentle comfort, hard truths are more her go to. But Jaune looks like if he heard a hard truth right now he might shatter like so much glass. A broken children’s doll with scars as cracks in the porcelain of his goosebump-covered skin.

Eventually Blake catches her eyes and her gaze softens. She nods her head to Jaune’s other side, and that’s all the invitation Weiss needs. All the while Blake keeps rubbing slow circles into Jaune’s back.

Now that she’s closer, Weiss can see that he isn’t frozen still, he’s trembling. Trembling in a way she hasn’t seen since nearly carrying her to the portal exit, shattered sword in one hand. Since charging at a Maiden with a death wish in his heart. Since stumbling back to the docks in Glynda’s wake, tear tracks making silverly lines through the dirt on his face and too-familiar lipstick smeared on his mouth.

“You know, Adam used to call me Darling,” Blake says quietly.

Weiss’s breath catches at the forbidden name, but Blake’s voice is steady. Even keeping vigil with their near comatose friend, she can’t help the curl of pride at how far her teammate has come.

“It’s such a simple thing, but I still can’t bear to be called that,” Blake continues, voice quiet and steady. “It’s a terrible thing to be trapped like that. Nobody deserves to be trapped with… with someone you hate and love and fear all at the same time.”

And finally Jaune’s shell cracks, a sob like a desperate gasp for air escaping his lips.

The trembling turns to tremors which turn to shaking sobs which turn to all out wails as Jaune crumbles like he’s as fragile as the paper covers they all sit on.

#rwby #jaune arc #curious cat #blake belladonna #weiss schnee #catsvdogs #mine #asks #my writing #cameron56357

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bestworstcase · 7 months

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This is probably outside of your purview, but do you think the fights in RWBY have gotten worse, or just different from what came before?

i think there has been a shift away from tightly-choreographed showcase fights toward a more naturalistic approach prioritizing setting and character over rhythm and composition. whether or not this is aesthetically preferable is a matter of taste, but it is absolutely to the benefit of the narrative as a whole.

there’s this beat during the group fight vs tyrian in volume four where tyrian kicks ruby and her aura ripples out from the point of impact in such a way to create the illusion of deeper motion: it looks like her ribs buckling as that force moves through her body, it feels like we’re seeing this formidable new adversary break her fucking ribs after throwing JNR around like ragdolls. it isn’t shot with any particular artistry or stylistic finesse; the shot is instead lined up to emphasize the violence.

that serves a more important narrative purpose than aesthetics: it makes it believable that ruby just cowers in dread after taking this hit, it viscerally drives home how dangerous tyrian is, building tension, setting the stakes for the upcoming fight with qrow, and thus it also underscores the contrast between tyrian’s wild brutality and qrow’s discipline when they fight and qrow tips the scales not because he’s stronger but because he doesn’t let tyrian rattle him… it’s doing quite a lot of work for a mere handful of frames.

compare, say, the nevermore fight, which is beautifully shot and choreographed but doesn’t have a lot to say: ruby can plan elaborate tactics on the fly and communicate them to her team well enough to execute the whole thing flawlessly, and… that’s kind of it. RLR2 does all the narrative heavy lifting. and that’s fine, to be clear, because this is a point where the story is still setting up the board and introducing us to these characters.

but the nature of rwby as a story is that the fight scenes cannot stay that way. and this isn’t even a “monty/not monty” thing, you can see the experimentation with using fights as a medium to develop character and theme starting early in volume two: ruby calling out team attacks and narrating yang’s semblance during the mech fight, splitting up the team on the train so wby can each duel an opponent who represents their personal struggle*, doing the battle in breach as a sequence of character moments, etc.

(*weiss feels disgusted by what the SDC has become and wants to reclaim the schnee name -> she faces a white fang officer who loathes her for being a schnee; blake is torn up about not knowing how to solve all these big social problems and reeling with the emotional fallout of leaving adam’s white fang -> torchwick tries to push those buttons; yang feels rootless and hollow and worried her current outlook is unsustainable -> she has to fight somebody she literally cannot touch and her increasingly frustrated attempts to punch through get turned against her the instant she overextends.)

in early volume two it all feels a bit clunky and uncoordinated in part because the mech fight is still so stylized. the fights on the train and the battle in vale are less so; you still get those tightly-choreographed sequences, but balanced out with moments that are more raw and real—the fake-out “slow-motion killshot” that turns out to be just weiss’s time dilation catching up, followed by the lieutenant grabbing her face and yanking her out of the air, is a particularly effective example with the grapple being shot with the same intention as tyrian kicking ruby in the chest—and also just more grounded in who the characters are (weiss gets in trouble trying to be fancy, yang’s frustrated determination is both a strength and a weakness, blake takes torchwick down with brutal efficiency because she’s used to fighting people but she also lets him say his piece before knocking him out because that matters to her).

so like—waves hands—volume two sets the course that is followed in the latter volumes where the fights become increasingly less about style and more about substance. the style is very much still there, it’s just not The Main Event anymore. it’s garnish on fight scenes you can write robust character analysis about.

#it’s also like #rwby is not a story about how fighting is awesome #rwby is a story about increasingly traumatized teenagers fighting an apocalyptic war that got dumped in their laps #so there is a fine line here that has to be walked #between the style and spectacle of the fight scenes #and the story being told. i think they’re handling that remarkably well esp in V7-9 #and they manage it chiefly by sacrificing style when it’s inappropriate to the tone #which is a good thing. that is good writing 101.

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