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RWBY Volume 7 Review

Two weeks out from Volume 8 and I finally cared enough to write this. Go team I guess.

Part of it came down to my feelings on Volume 7. It’s a complicated season that’s made me realize a lot of my overall feelings on RWBY as a series, particularly a lot of the less flattering feelings. Volume 7 is just... frustrating in general, as for all the good that it does have, and it does have a lot of great elements to it, it’s let down by a frustrating script and writing choices that feel distinctly amateurish, especially as the series moves on and gets better and better looking each year. There’s elements and kernals here of great character writing, season-wide arcs that land in a really good way and get me emotionally invested in the characters. But on the other... Ren only has two hundred words the entire season and you can tell!

Volume 7 is a season of dizzying highs, some of the best moments of the entire franchise... and some of the series lows. It’s a season where there’s no production reason for its shortcomings... it just comes down to an awkward script that focuses on the wrong elements far too often. Let’s talk about that. In a very long and drawn out manner.

Thanks to @jamesbranwen, @h-e-m-o-goblin and @retro-riffraff for help with GIFs and consultation on this review.

1) The Good Stuff!

A) Atlas is very pretty!

I cannot stress enough how on a set level, Volume 7 is leaps and bounds above the other seasons in sheer environmental detail and setting dressing. Mantle has a great atmosphere with its New York influences, the smog covered backgrounds and oppressive streets and alleys. Ironwood’s office which is deliberately designed to evoke astronomy themes to represent James’ love for the stars. The cold oppressive atmosphere of the Schnee Manor and how Jacques has begun warping it to glorify him with only lip service paid to Nicholas in public. Penguins!

There’s a lot of great set design work that went into this season and the crew deserve props for it. Genuinely.

B) Ironwood’s arc is the best character arc in the entire franchise

Yeah just wearing my heart on my sleeve there, I fucking love Ironwood and his character arc here in Volume 7 is the best written arc of the show. I simp for the tin man who just wants to do the right thing. This one season of content is better than a lot of the series-wide material being honest. I went back to James’s big volumes in the last month to rewatch the show and it’s interesting to see the early seeds in retrospect for where his arc goes. His need to protect everyone he can and the brutish measures he considers necessary for such an act, his conflicting loyalties towards Ozpin that manifest in both frustration at Oz’s seeming apathy to the growing conflict, but also desperate desire for validation from Ozpin that what’s he doing is the right call. After the Mistral seasons set up James as going off the deep end following Volume 3, having him open the season with an earnest smile, an immediate apology for the team’s arrest and trusting them with his plans for Amity and Salem is a jarring but pleasant surprise. He’s not been slacking off, he’s been trying to keep the world together in the way he thinks is best. He lets his guard down around the heroes and we see the good man underneath, which makes the moments where he raises his walls hurt all the more. While Em and Merc are still probably my favorite characters period, James is absolutely my favorite character in Volume 7 and Top 5 favorite characters series-wide. I’m very eager to see where he goes from here. He also rocks the beard and fixed his T-Rex arms so James came out of the washing machine that is Volume 7′s costume design. He truly is the Best Boi, and I cannot give Jason Rose enough credit for his performance this year. He hit every note of Ironwood’s character perfectly and I wish the fandom would give him more credit for giving James as much life as he does.

Oh, and as the obligatory comment on mlm rep that I am known for getting obsessively weird anon hate over: IronQrow hug nearly had me crying on a convention floor from how goddamn soft it was. Remember conventions? Ah good times.

This just... hits me... ya know? Seeing him lower his guard so much to come in for a hug just shows how isolated he’s let himself become to let himself have this moment of contact... Godamnit James. Also this is the second time after Martial Arcs that two guys hug and I really liked their ship for the following hiatus.

C) Soft Qrow hours are nice

Qrow’s a good guy, he went through a lot of bad stuff in Volume 6 but now he’s on the other side and purged his voice of the demon within. I think Volume 7 was a very good year for Qrow overall. It was great to see him interacting with more characters his age and lowering his own guard. His moments of letting the facade drop around James and Clover especially are great expansion for his character. Jason Liebritch hit the ground running as Qrow and gave him a far more dynamic range than I think Vic could. While I wish Qrow going off alcohol had been given more of a focus as it’s kind of done off-handedly that he’s gone cold turkey and otherwise doesn’t get brought up barring his revulsion at the wine in the Schnee Manor, he overall had a great year. And trust me I’ll get to the fights later, I have a lot more I can say about the bird boi there.

D) I liked the Ace Ops!

I was ambivilent towards the Ace Ops on first watching. They’re kinda underdeveloped in the context of the season at large and most people immediately pegged them as a miniboss squad/fodder for Salem to kill. But in rewatch they do still get to shine, if not as brightly. They’re very enjoyable. Clover especially is just really fun in retrospect, I love cocky fighters in general, and he was infectiously enjoyable (I’ve already covered the FG stuff in the past, not doing it again). Marrow came a close second because... well it’s Marrow, he is The Best Boi. Harriet got points for being a punchgirl which is always cool, I liked how her Semblance was shown and being cocky while being able to back it up is always a win. Elm and Vine are tied for dead last, I like the body diversity Elm introduces with her muscles and Vine... existed... but overall I think with the time they had, they did get to establish themselves well. I wish I could say that about their relationship with Team RWBYORNJ but this is the Nice Section so we’ll leave it there for now.

This is one of the best shots of the entire season. I adore it. God I like the Teryx design.

E) God the villains rocked this year!

I am a villain whore. I own that. I will embrace that monkier. But when they’re as cool as this, I feel validated in this Chilli’s tonight. Watts and Tyrian really make the season shine and don’t have a dud scene all season. They have great chemistry together, shining bright in even the weakest or most mediocre episodes. Watts went from “Oh yeah you exist” tier to “Oh yeah you rule” tier. His vendetta against Ironwood feels so real and pre-established, even though this season is the first time it’s ever come up. Watts just ozzes style in everything he does. The animators bring him to life and make every step, every flick of his twist and even just how he moves his eyes all bleed contempt. He’s such a rat and I love him! Chris Sabat finally gets to stretch his wings after a few years playing Watts as just Evil Scientist Guy, and he makes the most of it.

And Tyrian remains an absolute treat. He didn’t get much in V6 but here he takes center stage with Watts and also gets so much impact because of it. All the little twitches, and tilting of his heads, and dramatic gestures, he’s still just so goddamn cool to watch and we even get a little backstory of him. I know he’s irredeemable. But I just want to watch Tyrian kill people and scream. Like hot damn his line “THE GRIMM SHOULD HAVE DESTROYED OUR ENEMIES, NOT MADE THEM FRIENDS!” is so fucking raw. He’s having fun destablizing a nation with his boyfriend!

“You want more chaos than a Grimm invasion?” “If anyone on Remannt can do it, wouldn’t it be you?” There is no heterosexual explanation for how these two look at each other and yes this is me outing myself as a Nuts and Volts fan.

Watts and Tyrian really do become the absolute highlights of the season alongside James. They have a great dynamic and even during their more slower moments there’s so much care and thought put into their every mannerism. Animators, seriously, great job, I love what you did. And their fights... we’ll get there. But they’re so goddamn good.

Look they even run the same! They’re soulmates!

Honorary mention to Salem by the way. She’s only in two scenes but her presence is felt throughout Ironwood’s arc and his growing fear of her and she damn well delivers when she shows up. That shot of her arriving in person is a killer shot to end on as well.

Oh and I guess Cinder and Neo exist don’t they? Eh, we’ll come back to them.

F) Oscar got a character arc!

Finally! He did it! He got an arc that began, continued and ended all onscreen! It only took four tries!

But yeah Oscar had a really good set of scenes in Volume 7. I like him being the first to confront Ruby on the Ironwood lie, bringing up the hypocrisy after their condemning of Ozpin just last season. I like him having a more forward role (outside of not getting to be part of the celebration in episode 4 what the hell guys), and that he’s the big link between RWBY and Ironwood was a great call. Having Ozpin shelved for one more season so Oscar can take center-stage was an inspired choice. I love his dynamic with Ironwood, and how James closing himself off emotionally gets reflected in how he begins slipping in how he refers to Oscar, starting off as treating him and Oz as separate, ending with him gunning Oscar down as he doesn’t care anymore to differentiate the two.

My big issues with Oscar’s arc are that I’m first of all annoyed at the lack of followup on the Oscar stuff from V6, I’m still waiting for Qrow to apologize for punching Oscar guys! I also really wish Neo’s first attack wasn’t offscreen. CRWBY’s cliffhanger fetish meant I got to break out the Offscreen Pine jokes again. And of course, the Neo hallway punch was a bit bullshit.

G) (Most of) The fights are amazing

There’s no punchline. These fights are great, two of them are in my Top 10 Series Wide fights list and at least the duds aren’t Volume 5 bad.

If you’d told me before Volume 7 that Watts would get an extended firefight with James, I’d have felt that a bit cheap as Watts to me doesn’t feel like a fighter, more a planner who hides behind armies of mechanical soldiers. But damn if they didn’t sell me on Watts “You’ve yeed your last haw” Watts whipping out a Glock just to spite James.

This is another one of my favorite shots in the entire series.

Ironwood vs Watts is potentially my favorite fight in the entire series, and if it’s not, it’s easy Top 3 alongside Yang vs Mercury and Pyrrha vs CRDL/Mercury. It makes great use of Amity in the abandoned gravity biome meant for SSSN vs JNPR, with Ironwood and Watts deftly moving around in a manner that very easily could have been difficult to track with the constantly shifting gravity, but the crew do their best to keep it coherent as to who’s where. The credits showed their dedication also stretched into visual continuity, as James and Arthur’s route throughout the Arena was carefully considered so they’d loop around organically.

This is what I mean when I say the crew went above and beyond to keep things clean.

Ironwood vs Watts could have easily failed to impress, given its lack of choreography on the level the series usually does, but the team’s efforts went instead into showing a situation that lets Watts get a dragged out battle: James wins whenever he closes the distance here, so Arthur’s constantly on the run and being forced to tamper with the arena. Great camerawork, a GOD TIER song from Caleb Hyles that I’m still listening to today, and two characters with a fantastic history coming to blows makes for easily the best fight of the season and a series-wide highlight. Watching it develop from storyboards, to mocap, to animations and the full version is a delight to see. This is what CRWBY can do when everything comes togehter. The orchestra’s all tuned. It’s a goddamn symphony.

THIS is my favorite shot of the season.

Tyrian also gets to shine with his two battles this year. His alley fight with Qrow, Robyn and Clover is short but sweet, the corvid and the scorpion especially trading brutal blows in the cramped space. Qrow goes full Devil May Cry with his style-switching here, Harbinger being swapped between sword, tonfa and gun forms freely alongside Qrow applying The Power of Punching. His 1v1v1 with Clover and Qrow though is the true highlight of the season in terms of choreography. It’s lighting-fast, and has some impeccable shot work. Qrow gets to use his scythe with deliberate nods to the Red Trailer, Clover gets to shut up everyone who doubted his weapon, and Tyrian is just along for the ride and he makes the most of it. It’s frentic, it’s heart-pounding, it’s everything a fight should be.

Honorary mentions as well go to Ace Ops vs the Geist, which is just really fun and has a great backing music choice, the opening battle with Sabre having Ruby’s obligatory ten seconds of fighting that come at the start of every new era of the series, and the Ace Ops vs RWBY fight which has some good choreo in places.

H) Winter and Penny have good chemistry

I don’t have a ton to add here, I just like their dynamic and how they advance each other’s arcs. It’s nice writing. I also like Winter apologizing to Penny when she’s angry at Jacques and takes it out on Penny by accident with the “You wouldn’t understand” line.

Penny as a Maiden is a nice idea, I think her new design is cute. Penny says trans rights.

Those are a lot of my favorite things about Volume 7. It’s a killer season when it’s firing on all cylinders but unfortunately... it often misfires in frustrating ways, many of which are unfortunately due to core emblematic problems with the series that won’t go away.

2) The Bad Stuff

A) The costumes

It’s been a over year. It’s low hanging fruit. I don’t care. Most of them are still not good and they’re ludicrously over-designed.

Blake’s in a fetish suit and I wonder how she even goes to the bathroom. Weiss just looks like an abino Sabre alt, Yang is what a Halloween costume site would describe as “Sexy UPS Driver,” (why does she have a thigh window) Ruby... looks fine, it’s one of her better costumes. Jaune’s hair is silly, Ren’s model has lost some muscle definition and he looks like an e-boy, Nora’s costume really doesn’t fit the Atlas visual design and looks like a rejected Kingdom Hearts costume. Cinder’s is too black and I actually can’t track her in darker scenes because of it (which is kinda bad during... a fight scene... where I need to know where she is...), Neo looks like a Ren Fair cosplayer doing a bit for her OnlyFans, Winter’s is anatomically weird with super skinny arms and legs, and Blake’s hair is a fucking hate crime.

Qrow’s is one I liked at first but in retrospect it does feel like a downgrade. To quote @h-e-m-o-goblin from a Discord chat:

in a show like rwby, where color is such a vital defining aspect of every character, a cohesive colorscheme goes a long way. qrow's original outfit works great in this regard. neutral tones. greys, whites, and blacks, with red accents that pop against the otherwise sparse color. it's good! it's distinctive! it doesn't feel cluttered and it doesn't look like a clown vomited on him! the subdued colors really lend themselves to the grey, cynical energy qrow seems to carry with him. a literal lack of color in his life. the outfit itself feels like something he would wear; a combination of "clearly trying to look cool" and "a little disheveled and laid back." the design breathes, it isn't cluttered. let's contrast this with his vol 7 outfit. a lot of outfits in vol 7 suffer from this problem, but first and foremost it doesn't look like something he would wear. where his old outfit had a casual feel to it, his new look feels like someone dressed him up for a family christmas dinner. it's too... tidy. now of course you could argue this is him "cleaning up his life," but i dont feel like you have to sacrifice his own personal style in order to convey that. if that's really what they were going for, they easily could have just, oh i dont know, given him a cape that isn't tattered???

remember how i said qrow's original outfit really made his colors pop? how less is more when it comes to having a character with a specific color theme? vol 7 butchered that. we suddenly have articles of clothes that are tinted with greenish blue tones, browns, and with gold trim? on TOP of the old colors he already had in his design. it's muddy. it's ugly. the burgundy vest is fine, if they wanted to work more color into his outfit they should have done it that way throughout, shades of grey and different tones of RED. his COLOR. it just feels like they tacked so much on there without a second thought and i really think he deserves better. its just. such a mess.

The ones I did like were Watts’ new coat (I like the puffy hood), Penny’s is fine, the Ace Ops look great, Ironwood’s new outfit is stellar (those last six are great examples of how to do a lot with just primary colors of white and red), Neon’s Jolyne cosplay is cute and Flynt is slick. Otherwise, Volume 7 feels like it’s taken a lot of the wrong lessons from the costume design of the earlier seasons. Less is often more but now it feels like they have a pathological aversion to empty space on the costumes, leading them to feel like... costume vomit for lack of a better word. I didn’t love the Mistral outfits, but their modifications at least were carried by how many of them called back to the Fall of Beacon and emphasized the themes of loss in Volume 4. The new Atlas outfits... don’t have that shared theme. It feels like a hodgepodge of different design influences without trying to find a way to unify them. It’s like putting Baki the Grappler beside My Little Pony, they just fail to mesh.

Also for fuck’s sake already CRWBY just give the girls muscles already.

2) JNR suck and Ren’s arc is glorified character assassination

I don’t love JNR. They’re fine, but the show has arguably not needed them for a while and while I’ve liked them all at different points, it’s never been adoration outside of Ren in Volume 4. I was cool with the idea of them staying in Argus to help cover Mistral after its Huntsmen were wiped out, and Volume 7 has... made me wish they did that.

Jaune is just comic relief, and it kinda blows for later reasons but the big one is that he’s just not very funny. His big role in Volume 7 is basically to crosswalk some kids so we can have a joke scene during the Mantle Battle where Jaune uses his tactical genius to teach people to walk in single file. I feel like at this point Miles is just actively trying to kill Jaune’s fandom out of spite for how badly Jaundice was received. He’s never allowed to be cool or try and redeem himself. His hatedom aren’t going to stop hating Jaune because he gets more comedy guys. They’re going to stop when you write Jaune well. It’s a bummer he got some genuinely great upgrades for his sword and shield and never gets to use them outside of the opening.

Nora exists. She got a surprising amount of focus this season in that she got focus of any kind. I liked her confronting Ironwood over his choking of Mantle because we know she was once the kind of person Ironwood would have been stifling. I like her being the one to realize the loophole in Jinn’s “You can’t” line. I don’t like much else about Nora this year, or at least the Nora the writing team are pushing. She’s not funny like Jaune but Nora just absorbs so much screentime in the first half with her constant shrieking. Sam Ireland has good range but making Nora into Discount Harley Quinn is pushing her out of it. She sounds shrill, making Nora sound like she has no heart outside of the election rally. A shrill voice is one thing. A shrill voice that never lands a single joke? Yeah that character is tainted by association.

And Ren... oh God Ren what happened to you.

The Volume 7 commentary confirmed a suspicion of mine that Ren’s arc was heavily cut down from what was planned. Even watching V7 I could tell his arc was bare-bones at best, and it’s downright character assassination in places. Why is he suddenly so cold to Nora? Why is he now so obsessed with training? Why does he side with Ironwood for all of... one line which is this last between episodes 7 and 11. Ren only has two hundred words of dialoge in Volume 7 and they feel so weird in places. Ren goes from seemingly disliking Nora, to kissing her, to never referencing the kiss, to partaking in the Worst Scene Of The Season, all with no consistency. It’s not even threadbare. Ren’s arc just has no connecting tissue for so much of it! It’s insane how badly Ren was hurt by this, and I shudder to wonder how bad his Volume 8 arc will be because you know that was one of the first plotlines they cut down on when they inevitably overreached again.

I don’t know how they made Renora kissing feel unearned? But by God they found a way with how much of a trainwreck Ren’s writing is in regards to tainting this.

If Ironwood is an example of RWBY doing character writing well, Ren is the mirror image of how badly they can do. JNR really suffered from Volume 7 (also fun fact, Ren has about 200 words of dialogue? Ironwood has 4400). Maybe not to the level of irredeemable dislike? But very close to being on the same tier as Cinder of “Just go away already.” I’m not looking forward to their content in Volume 8.

3) RWBY themselves are poorly handled in Volume 7

It’s unfortunate that the actual title characters of the series are also some of this season’s weaker links. RWBY feel... superfluous to this season in a way they’ve never felt before. It’s baffling how much of the season doesn’t change if you just don’t include them, and apparently Volume 7′s first draft? Was even worse.

The commentary says that many of the RWBY moments were added later in production. Stuff like Ruby and Renora at the rally, Blake and Yang’s talk with Robyn and Ruby and Qrow’s chat were all either added in near the end of the writing or were “low priority” enough that they could have been cut which is... veyr alarming that’s stuff even the main protags have to worry about!

Ruby feels half-baked. I was looking forward to her in V7 after how V6 gave her a more dynamic personality and the focus she got in Brunswick, and having Penny’s return had me interested in seeing Ruby grapple with her emotions about it. She watched Penny die, how would it influence her to see Penny back and OK? Good question, we never get to see it. Ruby’s just OK with Penny’s return, the one time they touch on it Penny immediately glosses over it. Ruby just goes back to her old happy go lucky persona where any and all negative emotions are immediately forced down instead of confronting them and growing from them. I’m getting a little tired of Ruby bottling her grief and being teased about finally getting her snapping like a Twix Bar. We finally got her crying and it lasted all of ten seconds. And it doesn’t help that Ruby’s still getting shafted for fights. Her scythe choreography has no excuse being as flacid as it is now after Qrow vs Clover showed they can do scythe fighting! Why is Ruby being upstaged by (let’s be real) a supporting character! Why is she being limited to ten seconds of good combat then nothing for the rest of the season outside of flimsily swinging it or shooting. It’s disappointing, especially after how good V6 Ruby was.

I swear, Gravity’s not just my favorite episode of the season just because Ruby finally cries in it.

Weiss was kinda just done dirty though. At least Ruby has a good outfit. Weiss confronting her father has been a long standing plot thread for the series, it’s been Weiss’s Big Thing since the White Trailer. And when Jacques finally appears, he’s very... bland. He’s just evil corporate dude who exists less as an obstacle for Weiss and more just a roadblock for the plot through the election. Weiss finally gets a chance to take her father down and work to redeem her family name... but instead of earning said victory and it being treated with the same gravitas and emotional weight as Blake defeating Adam... Weiss has her victory handed to her. And it’s played for comedy by her abusrdly attractive mother.

Listen, I like I Willow Schnee. I think she’s a fascinating character and I like the idea of a person who is aware of the harm they’ve done by accident but is too broken to fix the issues she accidentally left. I love her calling Weiss out on her treatment of Whitley. But she is absolutely a Deus Ex Machina that exists to get Jacques out of the plot as fast as possible. You mean to tell me Hackerman Watts never once made sure Jacques had hidden cameras? Or that none of the staff found Willow’s cameras and reported them under the assumption they were White Fang spies? It’s so... convenient. It’s handing Weiss her victory on an unearned platter. Which sucks. I was really looking forward to Weiss beating Jacques. Instead she just gets given the plot device while JNR engage in the Worst Scene of The Season in that Whitley food stunt.

Me whenever I’m asked to rewatch Cordially Invited

Blake and Yang have much the same problems, in they never separate. I know they’re going to be together. I know CRWBY are making it canon (get it over with already). I still would like Yang and Blake to have individual character scenes. I’d like Blake and Marrow to talk about being a Faunus Huntsman in Atlas (another thing that got cut thanks to Robyn Hill). I want Yang and Ironwood to discuss their PTSD and have Yang thank Ironwood for his trust in her that he commissioned the arm despite Yang attacking Mercury. I want Blake to be well animated in fight scenes so she’s doing more than just jobbing so Yang looks better. I want Yang to stop hogging all the good Team RWBY choeography. I want them to interact with other characters and continue to grow instead of feeling like two halves of one character. And no, making a meta joke of how Blake and Yang don’t talk to other people doesn’t make it OK. It just means you’re self aware about your own faults.

(Also give Yang better merch or quit the favoritism. If you’re gonna milk her, put effort into it beyond crapply overpriced flannel. RT’s merch store is actively making me hate Yang.)

Team RWBY’s biggest contribution to the season is the Ironwood Lie which is... a can of worms. They certainly had a point in withholding some of the bigger truths from James but I feel by Pomp and Cirumstance he’d proven himself truthwrothy enough to warrant being told the truth about Salem. But then when he’s finally told the truth, it’s offscreen’d and the consequence isn’t “Why didn’t you tell me earlier” but “Fucking Ozpin man.” Gravity has it bite them in the ass, but it’s more an accessory to Yang and Blake telling Robyn about the Amity tower. I wish more had been done with the team disagreeing on whether the lie was a good choice or not, maybe have Yang be hardline against it due to her own “No more lies and half truths” policy instead of... having Yang tell more lies and half truths (Commentary confirms she never told Ruby and Weiss about the Robyn stuff BTW). But that’s a wider problem where RWBY aren’t allowed to disagree beyond surface level “I don’t know if this is the right call” dialogue. There’s never a threat of one of them cracking and just spilling the beans to James, everyone just blindly trusts Ruby and Qrow tells the audience “No this is different from when Ozpin lied. Trust us.”

This is the most RWBY get for content in the season finale: Ruby just nuking Cinder with no difficulty after having trouble with the eyes three episodes ago. Kinda lame tbh.

Team RWBY are just disappointing in Volume 7. They’re not given good animation, their story roles are largely insignificant, the impact of their roles on the story is threadbare and... well most of their costumes suck don’t @ me even CRWBY have admitted Blake and Weiss’s haircuts looked bad. It’s a whole barrage of a letdown for the main girls. And it’s really sad that the best scenes of the season... are usually the ones where RWBY are nowhere in sight.

Why the hell didn’t Yang get to keep the sunglasses come on guys. One job.

4) Robyn, the election plot, and the Happy Huntresses

Oh God, Robyn Hill is... not great. I could and likely will write a full meta on her character and how they bungled it but I’ll just be blunt here: I don’t like her design, the colors don’t mesh well, he head’s too small, Christina Vee is sleeping through the role and her weapon’s lame. Introducing her in a scene where she threatens to attack our heroes, and her agents are actively sneaking up on them to do it, is not a great first impression for a hometown hero. And that the commentary thinks she’s meant to be the hero in that scene is... staggering.

RWBY’s greatest threat yet is a wine mom Karen and her Home Owners Association army.

The election plot is less a misfire and more the engine just exploding. There’s so little good content between when it’s introduced and concluded, with it usually being individual scenes that are more good in spite of their connection to the plot (such as Tyrian’s massacre). It drags in pacing, going on for nearly half the season between episodes 5 and 10, and it purely exists as a roadblock to keep RWBY spinning their wheels while Watts and Tyrian keep going with the main plot. I don’t know why CRWBY went for this plot. They could have easily had something else fill the gap that also allowed for a lot of the character beats (such as Marrow and Blake’s talk and Ren’s entire arc) to shine, or at least condensed it to the important elements instead of letting it become bloated. It ends in such an unsatisfying way where Willow just shows up and goes “We have four episode left, here’s the plot device to beat Jacques, get back ot the main plot.” If they wanted to do the election plot, the best route would have been to give Volume 7 more episodes or stretch out its events to two seasons, but neither is realistically possible while RWBY lives off the teat of AT&T.

Jacques and Robyn are just boring. Evil corporate man and a lame adaptation of Robyn Hood who only has fans because of thirst who also like downplaying Robyn making a racist remark at Marrow (to say nothing of that weird subsection of Robyn fans who make her a Fox Faunus who cut her tail off to join Atlas Academy which is... certainly a creative choice especially when Marrow and Neon are punching holes in that angsty BS backstory). They can’t carry this plot and the artifical attempts to make it seem more exciting with the two cliffhaners ending on Mantle under riot or Grimm attack are laughably cut short by the next episode in each case opening the morning after. On binge watch it becomes weirdly funny more than anything and that’s not a good reaction. The dual cliffhangers being cheaply resolved is a short but succint example of V7′s pacing issues, and they almost always loop around to the election plot being too bloated, slow and just boring.

Also the Happy Huntresses are just... lame. I like their Semblances but that’s it. Fiona’s OK because she gets some screentime but May’s just “the surly one” and Joanna doesn’t even get her Semblance or much dialogue (oh wow she really is just a female Sage Ayana isn’t she). Robyn should not have been leading the HH and running for Council. That’s really stupid. And kind of wrong. Having May or Fiona be running instead while Robyn leads the team in relief efforts would have been better and could have split the focus more effeciently instead of leaving May and especially Joanna feelng like roster padding. There’s also some delicious irony in the show trying to frame the HH as the resistance fighting for the people and representing individuality, only for them all to have the same boring outfit and weapons (I think even the exact same model just with different sizes) while the Ace Ops are meant to be the military drones who are “Just following orders,” only for them to be more racially diverse, more diverse body-type-wise, and have more unique weapons. It’s another one of those odd creative dissconnects between what the writers wanted and what the artists/animation teams chose to do.

The election plot is overall toxin for Volume 7, and Robyn in my opinion, has one of the worst introductory scenes of any character in the franchise (and CRWBY have tacitly admitted that V7 had a character they were surprised at how controversial they were, which has to be Robyn). In a year where they were already juggling so much content and characters, adding in this bloated subplot was something I don’t think anyone wanted, especially now that we know we lost so much content on the sacrificial altar for this. It’s a black mark on the season and I don’t really care for the return of the Happy Huntresses or Robyn in Volume 8. None of them are interesting enough to care for outside of meta reasons like “cute.”

Also fuck you Fiona, can’t believe you got a shirt before Ironwood.

5) Cinder and Neo sure exist

To be fair, this is one of Cinder’s best years, easily her best since Volume 3 but that’s more because Cinder in the Mistral era was crap. (And if I wanna be cruel, because Cinder wasn’t in two thirds of the season)Her fans were finally vindicated after years of telling anyone who dunked on Cinder that “nooooo she has a super covert backstory that’s gonna be amazing when it’s revealed! You’ll see!” And well they finally got it. All of one line during a fight about how Cinder “refuses to starve.”

It’s still something so I guess we have to take it. Seriously... how do we still not have Cinder’s backstory.

There’s just not a ton to say about Cinder and Neo in V7 barring I that don’t think they needed to be here. They feel very superfluous and just here to have a big boss fight in Cinder’s case alongside continuing her streak of ending the odd numbered seasons fighting a female side character... which for me became an exercise in tyring to find during Cinder during the damn fight.

And this is why when most people saw Cinder’s V6 outfit they went “It’s gonna be hard to see her in darker environments,” then were vindicated when it became legit difficult to see Cinder in this scene. God if they at least just made the inside of the cape red it’d be easier.

Neo is Neo, which means she makes funny faces and mocks Cinder (I like that), but she doesn’t get a super good fight which uh... we’ll get to. I’m interested to see her finally exploding at Cinder and going for a backstab, but really Neo in V7 was kinda hit hard by the double whammy of the Oscar Hallway Punch and how humiliating ORNJ vs Neo was for ORNJ. Cinder’s definitely had far worse years and after how aimless she was in Mistral this feels like a sep in the right direction, but at this point CRWBY just need to shut up and tell us her deal. It’s been seven years guys. Come on. At least make her interesting if she’s gonna say around. They’ve had worse years, but unfortunately Cinder and Neo’s role in the finale leads into...

6) Some of the fights weren’t good

I wanna be clear, I like most of Volume 7′s fights. It’s just a bummer the worst ones are back and back and make up a chunk of the finale. ORNJ vs Neo is just crap. It’s the worst fight since the Battle of Haven. There’s nothing else I can say, it’s poorly animated, paced, choreographed and written. JNR especially are made to look like complete jokes after they spent all season training, to the point where it looks like V2 Yang could solo V7 JNR after this. Oscar I expect this from because he’s not allowed to have fun stuff onscreen after accidentally stealing the Haven budget for his fight with Hazel, but JNR were just done dirty. There were ways to make the fight work in a way where Neo still won but JNR looked good. They went for the worst possible outcome that just leaves Neo looking like she got fan-wanked and JNR looking like they’re just not allowed to be cool due to Miles’ spite at the Jaune-Self Insert stuff (and that’s not even getting into JNR being forced to run from lame rent a cops who can’t even handle a single Grimm). Cinder vs Winter and Penny isn’t much better, with her dark outfit making it very hard to track the fight because she blends into the background too well. It’s not a great showing for Winter or Penny given their earlier feats but, hey, some random female character had to fight Cinder in this odd numbered volume, carrying on Glynda, Pyrrha and Raven’s tradition. It’s at least better than ORNJ vs Neo, but that’s really not saying anything. At least Cinder’s VA work isn’t too bad this time but this fight commits the cardinal sin of a finale fight: It’s just not super interesting because we know Cinder can’t kill both Winter and Penny and she’s not becoming a Maiden, while Winter’s been too blatantly set up so it has to be Penny.

RWBY vs the Ace Ops also gets a dishonorable mention due to the choreography on display here... and the lack of it for Weiss, Blake and Ruby. Ruby never once swings Crescent Rose the entire fight and is just reduced to getting the tar kicked out of her by Harriet. Weiss barely gets to use her sword and largely just sticks to her summoning and glyphs which makes for a very visually uninteresting fighting style at the best of times. Blake just swings around and gets caught by the bad guys so Yang is motivated to fight stronger. She never dual wields (again) and her best moves are just setting up Yang to do all the hard work while Yang gets to personally KO two of the Ace Ops. There’s a lot that can be said about whether or nor RWBY earn the win, but while the animation team try to sell the Ace Ops landing heavy hits, having only Blake’s Aura even flicker really undercuts the idea from the commentary that this wasn’t meant to be a stomp for RWBY and they had to work together and be in synch to win.

Which is why Yang solos two of the Ace Ops whle Blake plays support, Weiss beats Marrow alone and then kill steals Harriet from Ruby, all while the song playing is an extended diss track from RWBY to the Ace Ops about how badass they are now, and the commentary itself says the Ace Ops are hard carried by Clover’s Semblance (because you gotta love basically saying four POC were only competent because a white guy led them, and then have them lose because said white guy wasn’t around to carry them!). Great job guys, you really sold it.

And talking of Clover, I feel it worth mentioning Qrow vs Clover vs Tyrian. It’s animation wise near perfect, but unfortunately I do feel it would be remiss to not mention that I feel the writing really has to bend over backwards to justify this fight. A lot of it is stuff I would say in that hypothetical Robyn essay, but I feel Robyn, Qrow and Clover all have to become massive idiots for this specific sequence of events to occur, and for Clover especially every retroactive attempt to explain why he prioritized Qrow over Tyrian just sounds more and more desperate. Between the references to MCU Captain America (a person whose entire arc is about learning when it’s OK to defy bad orders) or the attempt in the commentary to say “Oh Clover thought it would be easier to take out Tyrian alone instead of Qrow,” none of them land and just further drive home how much the plot had to stretch and reach to get that moment of Tyrian killing Clover. I like the fight. But I hate the road the show took to get there.

Some of the misc fights are also weak like ORNJ vs FNKI and elements of the Mantle Grimm battle, but those are the big offenders. Otherwise, again, the fights are largely good.

7) The soundtrack wasn’t... great

I mean the vocal songs only, don’t crucify me. Trust Love is just lamer Let’s Just Live/Triumph, Celebrate and Let’s Get Real are so boring I thought they were the same song until the OST dropped, Brand New Day is boringly peppy and Jeff’s vocals are dreadful. I completely forgot Touch the Sky until I was checking the tracklist to make sure I didn’t forget any songs. War has good singers but tries to sell the RWBY-Ace Ops bond as way deeper than it was. The lack of a villain song did really sting though, those are always the highlights.

There are good songs. I really like Fear, I feel it encapsulates the themes of the volume well and serves as a good condemnation of Ironwod’s mentality. Until The End is finally the Ruby song I’ve waited for since Red Like Roses 2 and I enjoy that she got a melancholic song, and Hero is easily, hands down, best track of the record and probably best RWBY track, full stop. Caleb killed it, I loved the second verse, opening opera was strong, guitar riffs were a plenty. Stellar work all around for that one.

The OST has great work from Jeff and Alex as usual, but the Jeff and Casey songs are really starting to lose their appeal. Going for a peppy feel this year didn’t help cover the cracks that are beginning to show with RWBY’s vocal songs (especially Jeff’s vocal range), and while a few standouts remain such as Fear and Hero, they are the slim minority in an otherwise very boring vocal tracklist that barely scrapes above Volume 5 for weakest set yet.

8) It wasn’t as funny as it thought it was

Comedy is subjective but man a lot of these jokes didn’t land. RWBY really needs to realize that does work in traditional 2D does not translate into 3D and just comes off as making official reaction GIFs for your Twitter account. Making characters SUDDENY SCREAM LOUDLY is not good banter. Please stop making Nora into Harley Quinn. Marrow was probably the most consistently funny character but that was it. Also I dunno why CRWBY thought Forrest was funny or what the deal was with that FRWBY crap.

“Honorary” mention to the JNR food scene in Cordially Invited which is genuinely one of the worst scenes in the entire show and I hope whoever animated it has their save files deleted for a game where they were about to beat the final boss. Nothing sums up JNR’s pointlessness in the series more perfectly than this.

C) Conclusion

See what I mean about Volume 7 being frustrating?

It’s weird that I overal think of Volume 7 as a mid-tier volume. There’s so much here I genuinely adore, with some of the best stuff to do with the show coming out of this season (barring lame, overpriced merch that feels like clothing gacha), but simultaneously the whole thing is let down by outside circumstances that unfortunately are ones the show can’t ever really recover from. Put bluntly, Volume 7 is the most technically proficient season of the show with the best lighting, backdrops, (some of the) character models, etc. CRWBY definitely didn’t slack off this year, but the problem isn't with them. It’s with the writing. A wider reaching problem is just that Miles and Kerry can’t really improve to the level that the series now requires. Eddy and Kiersei’s first season could have gone far worse, but it definitely was notable whenever they took over. Volume 7’s core problems are fourfold: The comedy is terrible and none of the jokes really land, the season focuses on the wrong plots and gives them too much effort, too many episodes are spent building up to new plots only for them to be weakly resolved (especially the Mantle Riot/Grimm attacks that are shoved off-screen), and the character bloat strikes hard here and leaves a lot of the cast feeling like dead weight. CRWBY don’t need more writers. They need more editors willing to tell the team what has to go instead of them hemming and hawing themselves on if they if they can include a plotline. The election never should have gotten past its first draft, there was too much already in this season before adding that.

When this is an unironic shot in your series... you’ve got character bloat issues.

At this point, I think JNR need to go. The show had no idea what to do with them throughout the season, leading to Jaune just being comic relief while Ren and Nora became characters I actively dislike. Renora was the easiest ship in the show to land, and they still managed to blow the engines and ram at least three icebergs just to prove that RWBY can’t romance to save its life. Team RWBY themselves are little better, with Ruby’s feelings about Penny’s return being shelved, Weiss’s victory against Jacques feeling un-earned and undercut by comedy, while Yang and Blake are benched for the volume and become a singular entity with how tied at the hip they are. Maria basically yeeted herself out of the show and I didn’t notice, Pietro is just a death flag, and while the Ace Ops had a good intro, it was undercooked by how they had to play the villain role to give RWBY something to do in the final hours. Cinder and Neo didn’t need to be here. Robyn had one of the worst introductions for a character I’ve ever seen, I never enjoyed her moments and it genuinely feels like she only has a fandom because RWBY’s community are in fact that desperate.

On the brighter side, Ironwood’s arc is fucking perfect and Jason Rose deserves all the love. Great fight, great song, great design, love the beard, it was a perfect downfall for Volume 7’s true protagonist. Qrow had a fun volume and I loved his dynamic with Clover (I don’t see the ship stuff but that’s more because I’m an IronQrow main so my blinders were on). Clover was also way cooler than I remembered. His fights stood out but the guy’s just really cool at the end of the day, with Chris doing great work as a VA. Oscar even managed to do stuff this year which was a shock and a half, but a welcome shock and a half. I didn’t mention it, but the Ozpin fear monologue is one of my favorite scenes in the entire show and it and the Ironwood/Oscar confrontation in the vault save the finale. And of course, Watts and Tyrian were the MVPs. I don’t have a bad word about either of them, they fucking nailed their roles and I can’t wait to see them again.

And that’s kind of what I mean when I say Volume 7 flummoxes me. It’s frustrating at times with how it handles seemingly easy tasks and drops the ball. Renora went from “everyone liked that” to wondering how badly Ren’s stuff got butchered for him to be the way he is. RWBY themselves could be almost entirely cut and so little would change, and the fact that the finale basically hinges its entire emotional stakes on Winter, Penny and Oscar is a staggering call. And it really feels like the season was compressed beyond necessity because they decided going in that Volume 7 had to end on Salem’s arrival. There’s two volumes worth of material here, and maybe it would have been best to have broken up these events. Volume 7 does too much in too little time, and RWBY especially suffered from it. But when it works… it’s good. Never close to the highs of Volumes 6 or 3, but there’s genuinely good material here. The fights are mostly getting better with far less missteps than previously, the acting (mostly) continues to improve and it’s obvious that RWBY is a very good looking show at this point. Ironwood’s arc is franchise-wide highs, I loved Clover, and Marrow remains the best boi. But it’s frustrating that despite all the tech advances Volume 7 has made, it still makes such threadbare, rookie writing mistakes in cast management, comedy and character arcs. I’m glad Miles and Kerry finally realized that they needed more writers, but it won’t mean anything if the show just continues to circle the drain on the core mistakes it’s been making since 2013. Volume 7 has good in it. But I can see where it could have been great.

Thanks for reading, stan IronQrow and please get Whitley a therapist.

And for the love of God already make an Ironwood vs Watts shirt!

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rwby-diaries · 4 years

Photo

Fairgame Week 2020

Day 5, hurt/comfort. We have this art piece and a fic to go with it.

Art: line art by @bosiphas, color by @data-plays-viola

Fic: written by @bosiphas and @data-plays-viola, edited by @lameclub

Fic under the cut!

It had been another long day. Another day of not knowing if Qrow was safe. Or at the very least, where he was. The General had told him about the letter Qrow had sent, loosely explaining what had happened in Mistral. General Ironwood had appreciated the update, but all Clover could care about was the news that he was on his way to Atlas. But that had been nearly a month ago. The letter had said they were taking the train to Argus, they would’ve arrived already if that was the case. Clover didn’t want to think about it, but something must’ve happened. And that worry tore him up inside. He could barely pay attention to the angry rambles of the General as they made their way through the halls of Atlas Academy.

“I swear if I have to sit through one more council meeting like that–”

Clover walked behind the General, going through the motions, letting Winter respond to his agitated comments about the council meeting that Clover also hadn’t paid any attention to. But their attention shifted when Penny, who had also been in attendance, gasped.

“Yay! You’re here!” Penny chimed.

Clover turned around to see who Penny had addressed and nearly lost all composure. “Ruby, Yang?” Clover’s attention quickly shifted once more though, as he saw Qrow behind the group of kids accompanying his nieces. “Qrow.” Clover breathed out in relief and anticipation. He was here and in once piece. Thank the gods.

As Clover took a few steps forward to meet his family, he finally processed that they were all tied up in bolo ties. “What -” Clover put it together in his head. His team had been called in response to a disturbance down in Mantle after a stolen airship had been spotted. He’d have to give them trouble for that, they’d met Qrow on several occasions.

“Winter.” Weiss Schnee stepped out from behind Ruby, looking directly at her sister.

“Anyone wanna give us a hand with these?” A red-headed girl popped up beside her with her tied hands raised and wiggling her fingers.

“Who’s idea was it to cuff not only my husband but my nieces too?” Clover glared at the guards menacingly.

“You have 10 seconds to take those off before I start hurting you,” she threatened the two guards who had escorted the group to them. They quickly obeyed and darted to each of the kids taking their bolo ties off from their wrists, apologizing while doing so.

Clover walked to his nieces first, giving them both a quick kiss on the forehead, but wasting no time to continue on to Qrow. As he approached his husband, he could see it in his eyes. Something had happened, something bad. Clover looked down at Qrow’s hands and started to undo the bolo ties. “I’m glad you’re safe,” he spoke under his breath, letting the restraints fall to the floor. With Qrow’s hands free, they instantly entwined and Qrow squeezed Clover’s hand. “Same here.”

“Please, step into my office.” General Ironwood invited the group to follow him.

As everyone hesitantly followed the General with Winter and Penny, Clover and Qrow stayed behind for only a moment.

“We got your letter that you were coming by train 3 weeks ago. What happened?”

Qrow went quiet, a lot had happened. “We can talk later,” he spoke in a subdued tone. He couldn’t start talking about it now, there was too much. And if he was being honest with himself, there were things he wasn’t sure about telling Clover. Like what had happened at that farm, or what they had learned before it. But as much as Qrow didn’t want to, he would. Clover was the one person he’d never keep anything from.

As they headed into the meeting, only shortly behind the rest of the group, Clover went to stand up next to General Ironwood at his desk with Penny and Winter, though wanting to stay next to his family. Clover could still barely focus, only wanting to be alone with Qrow. He started to zone out, simply watching Qrow.

All of a sudden, Winter’s raised voice caught his attention.

“You stole an Atlas airship? What were you thinking?! You might’ve been shot down! How unbelievable irresponsibl–” Weiss interrupted her sisters yelling by hugging her.

Clover turned to Ruby. “You stole an Atlas airship?”

Ruby looked chagrined. “Yeah...”

“I don’t know if I should be appalled or impressed,” Clover smirked. His nieces had grown up since he last saw them. He wasn’t sure if what had made them grow up was a good thing, however.

Ruby started laughing and ran over to hug Clover tight. “I missed you,” she said into his chest.

“I missed you too, Sweetheart.” He exchanged a look with Yang who stayed put but silently expressed that she also missed him. When they parted, Ruby went back to where she had been standing before.

“But I cannot believe–” Winter said in a raised voice, startling Clover– “that you allowed this to happen, Qrow.”

“Try stopping my nieces from doing anything,” Clover said, raising an eyebrow.

“Your sister, too. This whole crew is unstoppable when they set their minds on something,” Qrow chimed in. He then turned to Ironwood. “Speaking of which, we have some important information for you that’s, uh… confidential.” At his last words, Qrow pointedly looked at Winter and Penny.

“Oh, is it about the Relics?” Penny said in an innocently curious voice.

“Or perhaps the Winter Maiden?” Winter followed in a decidedly snide tone.

Qrow’s eyes flitted to Clover before settling back on Ironwood. “You told them?”

Clover wanted to ask him the same question. These kids now knew about Salem, his nieces knew about Salem. His mind wandered again as the General talked about the Relic of Knowledge and his plan for Amity Colosseum, noting the skeptical look Qrow had when the General had brought out the lamp. What had happened since the Fall of Beacon? What had happened for Qrow to tell these kids about Salem. He hadn’t seen Qrow since the Fall, Clover hadn’t even known if he was safe, and now here he was with a group of kids, one who was even younger than Ruby. The few letters Clover had sent, Qrow hadn’t received since in Qrow’s last letter he expressed the same sentiment of hoping Clover was safe and in Atlas. Neither of them had known if the other was okay for such a long time, and Clover, although relieved, was anxious to be alone with him.

After the meeting ended, Qrow and Clover instantly found each other out in the hall.

“Hey, Lucky Charm.” Qrow’s voice right next to him startled him out of his thoughts. “Lien for your thoughts?”

“Just thinking about you,” Clover replied with a smirk as they followed behind the kids. Upon entering the small open space near the Generals office, they were met with the wall of chatter from a voice Clover recognized as Marrow’s.

“So, that was the second time I got banned. Then there was the third time when–”

“Marrow,” Clover called out in an authoritative tone.

Marrow jumped. “Hey!” Marrow turned around sheepishly, knowing they had messed up. “We’re so sorry for the mix up down in Mantle.”

Suddenly, Elm pushed past Marrow and went to shake Ruby’s hand. “I feel so bad, honestly! If we had recognized you sooner, we’d be laughing over a hot meal right now.” She vigorously shook the young girl's hand with a strength she wasn’t aware of.

“I understand,” Ruby replied in a shaky voice, letting her arm go weak as Elm finally stopped shaking it. “It can get pretty heated out in the field, and you were following orders.”

“I mean, you could’ve asked us questions first before cuffing us.” Jaune scratched the back of his neck while shrugging his shoulders.

“And you could have not stolen an Atlas airship,” Marrow snarked back.

“What they’re trying to say–” Clover interrupted before his team could dig themselves too big of a hole– “is that they’re sorry, and they’re excited to work with you.”

“Yeah!” Harriet said. “I’m looking forward to seeing exactly what you kids can do.”

“Not everything is a competition, Hare,” Vine said, exasperated.

Penny came up beside the group, “C’mon! Let me show you around campus,” she offered in a chipper voice.

“Alright, kiddos,” Qrow directed to the group. “Go have fun. Clover and I are going to head to bed.”

“Old man,” Yang teased, sticking her tongue out.

“Love you, Uncle Qrow! You too, Uncle Clover,” Ruby said as she hugged them both.

“Night Ruby, Yang.” Clover waved to Yang as Ruby stepped out of the hug.

“Don’t get into too much trouble,” Qrow said as the kids followed after Penny, all of them giving a wave to him as they left the area.

As Qrow and Clover walked past his office, Ironwood stepped out. “Qrow,” he called to him. Qrow turned to face Ironwood as he continued to speak. “I meant it when I said it was good to see you again.”

“Uh, yeah. You too,” Qrow replied awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck.

Ironwood stepped forward and hugged Qrow, who was confused at first, but then rolled his eyes with a smile and patted Ironwood’s back.

“Especially because now my best operative can be a little less… distracted in the field,” Ironwood said with a smirk, parting from Qrow.

Clover sputtered, a slight blush gracing his cheeks.

“Goodnight you two,” Ironwood said as he walked away from the couple.

“So, distracted, huh?” Qrow teased with a smirk as they started walking towards Clover’s room.

“I didn’t hear from you for weeks after a train ride that should have taken a couple of days, tops,” Clover replied, still blushing. “And… before that, after the fall, I tried sending letters but you never got them so I didn’t get a reply...” Clover paused. “I was worried.”

Qrow dropped the teasing and reached out to take Clover’s hand in his. “I’m sorry. After everything, there was… a lot happening. I wanted to send you something sooner than the one I sent Ironwood, but…”

Clover shook his head. “It’s okay. We were both busy. I had my hands full with the General, and you–” Clover smiled sincerely– “had your hands full with all those kids.”

Qrow returned the smile and they dropped into a comfortable silence, holding hands and occasionally bumping shoulders as they walked to Clover’s room. When they finally reached his door, the pair slipped in.

As the door shut behind them, Clover quickly pounced on Qrow, wrapping him in a tight hug. Qrow immediately wrapped his arms around Clover just as tightly. They stood there for several minutes, unmoving, and enjoyed the other’s warmth. It had been too long since they’d seen each other. Before everything, they did have a long-distance relationship. Qrow was on the missions from Ozpin all the time, and Clover was needed in Atlas, but they’d still be apart for no longer than a few months before they’d see each other again.

Clover squeezed Qrow a little tighter before parting from him slightly, only enough so they could be face to face. “A year is too long to be away from you, Pretty Bird.” He smiled softly.

Qrow leaned forward at the endearing name, resting his forehead on Clover’s shoulder with a heavy sigh.

Clover hugged him back in tighter, his eyebrows arching up in worry. “What happened?” he asked in a whisper.

“A lot.” Qrow pulled away from Clover and walked past him. “The kids know about everything now. I don’t know how I feel about them being a part of this, they’re still kids.” He looked out the window of Clover’s room, a stern look on his face.

Clover watched Qrow intently. “How did they find out?”

“Salem knows about Ruby, about her eyes.” Qrow looked down to the floor, thinking of Summer. “Ruby knows, too.”

Clover stayed silent, but his mind wandered to the same person, Ruby’s mother.

Qrow sighed again. “Ruby was heading to Mistral, with a couple of those kids. I was watching over them while they traveled – I didn’t want my semblance to get in the way of anything…” Qrow turned back towards Clover who still stayed silent but frowned at Qrow distancing himself because of his semblance.

Qrow continued. “But then Salem sent one of her lackeys after them, Ruby specifically.” Qrow paused for a moment, looking at Clover to watch his reaction. “Tyrian Callows, scorpion Faunus. He went after Ruby, so I stepped in. He, uh… lost his tail.”

Clover’s eyes widened. “You cut off his tail?”

“No, Ruby did.”

Clover once again wasn’t sure if he should be impressed or concerned. “Why?” he questioned. His niece was a fierce fighter, but she wasn’t cruel. She’d have a reason why.

Qrow hesitated at answering the question. He knew it would upset him. “He… grazed me with his stinger.”

Clover froze, his entire body tensing up. “...You were poisoned? Where?” He took a couple of steps toward Qrow.

Qrow could see the concern splashed over Clover’s face. “Across my stomach, right under my ribs,” he spoke in a hushed tone as Clover continued forward, closing the short distance between them.

Clover looked down at Qrow’s stomach, seeing the stitching in his shirt where he'd gotten cut through his armour. “Can I… can I see?” Clover looks up at Qrow, his voice shaking slightly.

Qrow frowned knowing that the state of the scar would show Clover just how dire the situation had been. But he showed him anyway, undoing the buttons to open his shirt. As he pulled the shirt open, revealing the scar, Clover sucked in a breath. The scar extended from the center of his abdomen to under his right ribs. The white scar tissue was still raised, and the area around it had small veins of white extending from the scar, most likely from the poison.

Clover clenched his jaw as he raised his hand to Qrow’s stomach. He brushed his thumb across the scar. “It healed poorly… How far were you from Mistral?” Clover looked up from the scar to Qrow who was watching his husband's hand.

“They were passing through Oniyuri when he attacked, but I don’t remember how long it was before we got to Mistral. I… Ruby told me I was really out of it after the poison set in. I barely remember anything.” Qrow pursed his lips together as he met Clover’s worried gaze.

Clover knew what that meant. Qrow had almost died, Ruby was almost kidnapped, and he wasn’t there to protect his family. He looked back down at the gruesome scar. “Qrow, I–”

“Hey, I’m alright. Ruby’s alright.” Qrow placed a gentle hand on Clover’s forearm of the hand that was still touching his scar.

Clover looked back up to Qrow, his eyes fixed onto his husband’s. “I just… I can’t lose you.” Clover raises his hand to Qrows cheek, brushing it slightly, before leaning his forehead onto Qrow’s.

Qrow shut his eyes and squeezed Clover’s arm. “You won’t,” Qrow promised softly, just loud enough for Clover to hear.

As they stood there, Clover started to realize, that was before they’d made it to Mistral, and Ruby had mentioned a train crash earlier. Something else had happened.

“What happened on the train?”

Qrow tensed at the question. The train crash that led to the truth about Ozpin. The truth Ruby isn’t sharing with Ironwood. Qrow wanted to tell Clover everything, secrets weren’t something he liked to keep. Hell, he’d hated the years he kept the Salem secrets from Clover before he threatened Ironwood to tell him the truth about Salem or he would. But this one, Ruby was right to play it close to the chest with Ironwood, considering the state of Mantle when they arrived. He trusted Clover with every inch of his being, but Clover being told the truth would put him in a terrible position. He’d want to tell Ironwood, out of obligation, but he wouldn’t, to protect his family first, and Qrow knew it. He didn’t want to do that to him.

“I… relapsed. Hard.” Qrow clenched his jaw, guilt washing over him remembering what had happened at that farm. Those Grimm had done a number on him, he hadn’t been that bad since Summer had passed, or since his tribe days. And as much as he knew Clover was supportive and understanding, anxiety built up in his chest. He felt like he had let him down like he’d let the kids down. Before Clover could respond, Qrow went on to explain further. “After Beacon, I started again, but then the train crash happened and Oz… disappeared, we got stuck at this farm.” Qrow paused but didn’t look at Clover, who only patiently listened. “It was abandoned, and these Grimm were under the settlement. They… I’d never seen anything like them. They drain your will to live and it was almost too late before we… before the kids realized. If it wasn’t for them, I don’t know what would’ve happened.” Qrow withheld that he knew he wouldn’t be alive if not for the kids.

Clover understood what he’d meant anyway. Yet another time he wished he’d been there to protect them. He could also tell there was something more to the story. He knew Qrow extremely well, he could tell when he wasn’t telling the whole truth. There was a lot of that when it came to Ozpin. Clover was just surprised it was happening again. But he trusted Qrow, and he knew how much he hated keeping secrets, especially from him. He also knew Qrow would refuse to lie, in any situation. So, he wouldn’t push any further. Qrow would tell him when he was ready.

Clover opened his mouth to offer words of comfort, but Qrow interjected before he could say anything. “I-I stopped already, though,” he clarified, wanting to make sure Clover knew that he was already back on recovery.

Clover gave Qrow an endearing smile and pulled him into another tight hug. “I’m sorry you had to deal with all of that on your own. I can’t imagine how difficult that must have been for you,” Clover spoke softly in Qrow’s ear.

Qrow could feel his body relax as Clover spoke to him. Gods what had he done to deserve someone like him? Qrow let himself melt into the hug, burying his face in Clover’s neck and feeling tears well up in his eyes. It had been so long since he was able to just let his guard down, and he could always count on Clover to make him feel safe enough to do so.

“I’m glad you’re safe. The girls too.” Clover squeezed Qrow before releasing Qrow from the hug so he could cradle his face between his palms. “I’m so proud of you, Pretty Bird.”

Qrow’s eyes drifted to the ground, but a small blush washed over his cheeks. His eyes slowly tracked back up as Clover held his position, waiting. “Thank you...” he whispered.

Clover pressed a gentle kiss to Qrow’s cheek. “I’m just glad you’re safe, here with me. I love you, Qrow.”

“I love you too, Clover.”

#fair game #fairgameweek2020 #rwby v7 #clover ebi #qrow branwen #rwby volume 7 #rwby art #rwby fic #rwby fanfiction #rwby rewrite #rwby rewritten #canon #morgan #fairgame #fair game week 2020 #rwby

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coredrill · 3 years

Text

alright here are my rwby8 thoughts now that i’ve had a few days to sit on ‘em!! spoilers for the entire volume under the cut

so if anyone happens to open this and is like “wow this is more words than i’ve seen you use ever” lol yup! it’s probably the most words i’ve written since high school lmao. feel free to read through if ya really want but this is mostly just my own way of organizing my thoughts for this kind of stuff rather than making a million different posts on random parts of it. this way if i want to look back in the future and say “haha wow can’t believe i thought THAT” it’s all in one easy location! i don’t expect anyone else to be reading all this shite lol

thoughts on the volume as a whole:

honestly i loved it!! there’s very little that i would’ve changed and most of that is nit-picking stuff. i’m very impressed that this volume was made in quarantine lmao. the animation in and of itself was STUNNING (shout out to the finale’s water animation...the aura break particle effects...the cinnamon topography of the amity scenes...all of the facial & body expressions...the whale disintegrating...)

i’d honestly say that it’s probably my second favorite volume?? volume 4 is still my beloved but v8 was so good. i’ll probably need to watch it through a few more times but god. i LOVED IT.

honorable mention cause idk where else to put it: some of the scores were breathtaking!!! i tend not to notice background music on my first watch unless it really sticks out to me and there were quite a few scenes where that happened in a good way this volume. the ones where cinder breaks into the atlas control room and the one at the end when atlas is flooding are probably my favs!!! also there was this one part where it was just screeching over ironwood and it worked really really well.

okay so now for individual characters. let’s start with ruby:

i would like to fund her therapy

very surprised that she didn’t “break” this volume! i was sort of expecting it to happen--between ironwood, the amity plan only kind of working, the hound, the virus, and the fact that she was separated from her usual support system (qrow, yang, and jaune), i was definitely expecting her to. i’m glad she didn’t though cause it’s gonna be so much harder when she actually does (probably when she finds out that cinder has the relics and penny’s dead...)

massive shout out to lindsay jones for managing to make squeaky-voiced ruby still sound like ruby even while going through a whole host of emotions we’ve never seen ruby go through before!

god. that scene where crescent rose fell into the drink and ruby scrambled after it. my heart dropped lmao.

also. this is likely because i’ve got an engineering degree (which came with a free stick up my butt when it comes to technology in media) but the line where they say “mass no longer matters” wrt her semblance??? WHAT??? bro splitting mass up into smaller chunks doesn’t change the actual mass of the material itself what is going on here 😭😭😭 (this isn’t a real criticism of any kind i just yelled WHAT after they said that line lmao)

weiss:

i have one single weiss criticism and its that, in the scene where she’s leaving whitley to go fight the hound, she says “we still need to work on your attitude” and for whatever reason, the voice track doesn’t sound like it was quite mixed right? like it sounds like she’s just standing there rolling her eyes but my girl is BOOKING it out of the room lmao

other than that: weiss you are PERFECT. she really spent this entire volume saving and taking care of the people she loves!!! and i loved every second of it!!!

i would’ve liked to see more of her and klein/whitley/willow. i think there’s a lot of great stuff in that dynamic (not me crying when klein showed up at the manor...) and especially between weiss and her mother. i hope we get one big schneeuinon in vacuo once they + winter are all in the same location (but that’s gonna be a while i think lmao)

it’s been said a million times before but weiss?? shaking and crying but using gambol shroud anyway?? even though she thinks her teammates are all dead?? giving ruby the staff and pushing her out of the line of fire and pulling blake back to safety??? fighting cinder, a fucking wholeass maiden, with no aura because she needs to protect penny?? only unable to get up and keep fighting after she watches gambol shroud (the last physical piece she has of her teammates) go over the edge??? bro. BRO. i’m legit tearing up just TYPING THAT. god she’s gonna find her team at that island resort and never let them go. gonna be like v4 jaune all over again huh??

blake/yang:

not as much here since they didn’t get a whole lot of focus this volume, but i enjoyed all their scenes! yang just fuckin going at salem was 1000/10.

i will say...i think blake’s gonna kiss yang when they meet up in tropical paradise. and good for her!! (especially if this volume’s been planned since the beginning, it makes sense that this would be the writers’ idea for where they wanted their first kiss to be)

jaune:

going from ren saying “he has no fear. he believes that we can do this” about jaune to, five chapters later, forcing jaune to deliver a killing blow to penny was just CRUEL

the fucking dissonance of jaune haha!-awkward-renora-moment-exit vomit-boy-through-the-portals hit-in-the-head-with-a-rock arc being the one that penny asks..............bro. don’t hmu.

it’s going to be such a long time until we see him smile again.

also. the moment when crocea mors snaps in half...again, my stomach dropped.

but it’s okay! he’ll be fine without a weapon! he’s the ~strategist~! *breaks the fuck down*

it hurts so much too to think about, like oscar mentioned.....even if/when he does reunite with ren and nora, he’s not gonna be the same person he was when they last saw him. he’s not gonna be their goofy, wholesome, soft, snarky, healer team leader anymore. he just got his shit sorted out, he just stopped being actively suicidal, and tbh i think this might affect him worse than what happened with pyrrha. especially since they were compounding in his brain--what he did gave penny more of a choice than pyrrha ever got, but GEEZ.

pain. just. pain.

nora:

NORA MY BELOVED

okay. OKAY. so like she was passed out for half the volume but what we did get of her was fucking amazing

nora’s mom i am going to find you and have some words. i’ve mentioned this before but this woman has the same energy as the mom from grave of the fireflies who was like “i know we’re actively being bombed right now but i’m going to abandon my children and get myself to safety.” SQUARE UP BITCH. i hope we never see nora’s mom in the show because i will become filled with rage

but nora herself??? flawless. perfection.

i really did love her journey this volume. realizing that she wants to become her own person apart from ren, and then telling him that when he says that he loves her?? nora sweetie that was heartbreaking but i am SO SO PROUD OF YOU.

nora putting herself first for once and being told that people love her WE FREAKING LOVE TO SEE IT

except NOW that’s all gonna go haywire 😭😭😭

like...the moment in the finale where you can see she’s hesitant to leave jaune to to go vacuo but she goes anyway because he’s her leader and he doesn’t like splitting up either and she loves him and she trusts him only for her to get STUCK ON THE OTHER SIDE BANGING ON THE PORTAL. that scene fucking BROKE me. you just KNOW she’s gonna be hating herself for going through and leaving jaune (even though nobody knew it was one way!!!) and when the portal dissolves and he doesn’t come through........

she really thinks that she’s lost TWO teammates now. that’s TWO teammates that she wasn’t able to save. she saved ren from the nuckelavee but pyrrha’s dead and as far as she knows jaune’s dead too

and jaune’s her fucking family!!!!!!!

and like. when we see her on the vacuo side of the portal, we see that she’s got the happy huntresses behind her. she did her job and she gathered them but now she can’t get back through and AHHHHHH. FUCK. when she drops to her knees because she realizes.........that fucking killed me. i’m tearing up now just typing this sdmndbm

and like. the worst part is that she just realized that she wants some time away from ren. but everyone else is gone and just like when they were kids he’s all she’s got and they are gonna lean on each other harder than ever because this time they both lost EVERYTHING. not just jaune, but ruby, who was their teammate for a while too. weiss, who took such great care of nora while she was injured. penny, who nora helped with blake’s advice. yang, who ren had time to bond with this volume. FUCK

it’s gonna hurt so bad to watch but i cannot WAIT to see what nora does next and how she moves forward. god. this is gonna kill her. it’s killing ME and i’m just a viewer lmao

ren:

remember that one week where neath went on twitter and was like “i love renora and i’m gonna make that everyone else’s problem”??? yeah. that was a good week lmao

speaking of neath. MASSIVE PROPS TO HIM FOR HIS WORK. he managed to give ren every single emotion in the book this volume and none of it sounded ooc despite ren being such a repressed character before. he did incredible!!!!

I LOVED REN SO MUCH THIS VOLUME GOD. i mean i love him in every volume BUT HE HAD SO MANY GOOD MOMENTS AND SUCH A GOOD ARC

i’ve already talked about it at length but the scene where his semblance evolves is one of my favorites in the whole show. he’s so fucking full of love that it’s literally tearing him apart and when he finally accepts that fact his ENTIRE SOUL levels up!!! he looks at himself and there are pink petals falling off of him because he can’t contain the love in his body anymore!!! it’s there in a literal, physical manifestation and it’s so. fucking. GOOD. FUCK.

and also my obligatory remark about how he was thinking about oscar and pyrrha and his parents in that moment. people he loved platonically and familially. rwby goes so fucking hard for platonic love and i can’t ever thank them enough. to see ren have this realization because he was thinking about oscar.....god i’m gonna cry again LMAO

and then after that the way that he just. looks at jaune in every scene with the biggest fucking heart eyes. i’m gonna fucking combust he loves his leader SO MUCH. (which. as i mentioned in the nora section. pain now)

and the nora stuff........JUST AS GOOD

another thing i’ve talked about a lot but to see him apologize, be emotionally open, listen to what nora’s saying and what nora needs, TELL HER THAT HE LOVES HER FIRST, not holding a single thing against her, agreeing to wait for her to be ready.........literal perfection holy shit

romance is normally not one of my favorite aspects of any media but i will make an exception for whatever the fuck ren and nora got going on

basically as a ren stan / jnpr stan i was thriving this volume and then that finale hit me and i know i will be in pain until they reunite again

i have a handful of jnr gifs that i was planning to make during the hiatus but now they’re all PAIN aksjhdasjdh

oscar:

deeply worried about the quickly approaching merge. i’m really hoping that oscar and oz stay separate but i also love seeing all the animation/voice acting nuances that indicate that they’re getting closer to the merge.......AH

this volume really hammered home just how strong this kid is. he stands up to SALEM and does the right thing even despite the torture cause he’s so BRAVE and STRONG and when he trusted hazel with the password DESPITE IT ALL. ugh. so good.

i love oscar so much and i’ve loved seeing him grow!!!

penny:

serious stuff coming in the next bullet point but. GOD. her model’s head is so big and i don’t know WHY but this stuck out to me every time she was standing next to someone else. it might be because of the volume of her hair (but yang’s hair also has a lot of volume, and her head is normal sized)??? idk it just threw me off a lot. every time she was like, talking to ruby or something, all i could think about was how her head was bigger than ruby’s ENTIRE TORSO lmao. (also why didn’t they give her human body shoes skdjhaksjh)

that said.........oh, penny 😭😭😭😭😭

i’m surprised that she died but only because i thought her plot armor was pretty thick LMAO. narratively it makes a lot of sense and i’m glad her story ended the way it did.

i’ve seen a lot of people interpreting her actions in the finale as “choosing to die,” but i don’t think that’s the case?? penny’s friends all saved her every single time that she presented her own death as an option. that’s what makes this so tragic, is that they successfully saved her every time she offered that, and that in the end, she still died. she was gonna die anyway. she was impaled by cinder--jaune didn’t have enough time to heal her before cinder defeated weiss (who had no aura!!) and turned on them again. penny made her own choices when 1. she asked to die at the hands of a friend, rather than by cinder’s soul-sucking grimm arm and whatever horrible fate that includes and 2. to choose her successor. and i don’t blame her for making either of those choices! she wanted to die with as much dignity as peace as she could and to choose whose life she would be intertwined with. and while it’s very sad, i’m glad that penny finally got some sense of control over herself and her legacy.

and like...she was so happy when she met up with winter!! she was so happy to have full autonomy for once!!! that scene was both heartwarming and heartbreaking!!!

i also think that penny’s death reinforces the idea that remnant is gonna be very different by the time rwbyjnorqe is done with it. now not one but two kindhearted girls have gotten killed because they got tangled up in the maiden powers—which were originally meant to be a gift!! and i’m very interested to see what the resolution is gonna be!! (i know it’s gonna be in like. volume 52 or something alsjfndnx but still!!)

also, if nothing else, i am very glad that whole “pietro sacrifices the last of his aura to revive her” theory is gone. i hate that theory lmao

i will say, while i enjoyed penny’s role this volume, i do think that maybe some of her screentime could’ve gone elsewhere. i get that there needed to be a lot of focus on her, so that we would be attached when she died, but i think it would’ve been beneficial to spread that screentime elsewhere just a bit, especially since she wasn’t really developing at all. hitting the same point with her like seven times did start to feel a bit repetitive lol. my vote would be for extra time with the schnees, or the jn(o)r reunion at schnee manor, or maybe a scene checking in with pietro and maria!!

emerald:

EMERALD MY BELOVED

YOU DEFECTED!!!! GOOD FOR YOU GIRL!!!!

i hope we get a LOT more time with her in the future. she’s still gotta work out the cinder thing of course but i also think it’s gonna be super interesting to see how she acts now that she (alongside oscar, ren, nora, the hh, and winter) is one of the closest things their group has to a “leader”

also like........good for her for being one of the LEAST traumatized people this volume despite being THREATENED BY SALEM

somebody give emerald a nice long hug

i love her

that is all

winter:

WINTER OH MY GOD

seeing her struggle with her emotions all volume.....only to finally accept them and save marrow’s life.....and because of that choice she realizes how long overdue it was and goes all in on helping the heroes.....and is eventually chosen to become the next winter maiden by the girl who challenged her to accept her emotions in the first place......😭😭😭 chef’s kiss

“you chose nothing. this was a gift.” *demolishes ironwood but doesn’t stick around cause he’s not worth it* *fights cinder* POETIC CINEMA!!!!!

also i cannot wait to see her schneeunion with willow, whitley, and klein.......even if she does have to be the one to tell them what happened to weiss 😭

cinder:

CINDER I HATE YOU BUT ONLY BECAUSE YOU’RE SUCH A GOOD VILLAIN

her backstory was pretty self explanatory but i think this was a good time to spell it out especially while we were in atlas. the culmination of that, her consistent failures to achieve her goals after v3, and watts dragging her really all just came together to make her so much more intimidating and efficient and i loved watching it.

like i know there’s people who don’t like her as a character but she’s always so fun to watch and her va does AMAZING and she’s just. so INTERESTING

also. i cannot wait for her to find out that ruby and neo are both alive (and especially when salem finds out they’re both alive LMAO)

also also her line to ruby about never being born feels.......awfully specific??? i wonder if it’s a hint at some other part of salem/cinder/ruby/summer lore (like her “and i refuse to starve” line from last volume)

also also also CINDER.......lying to salem is gonna backfire on you at one point or another.......HM

salem:

gosh i love salem. she’s such a good villain and i loved all her scenes (especially the fight scene...SO COOL).

very interested in whatever she does next!! since the only remaining lackey she has is cinder (who is now starting to try to manipulate her) and tyrian and mercury, who are in vacuo, i’m curious about her next steps. is she gonna keep recruiting, now that people know who she is?? is she gonna come to vacuo herself?? she could definitely do a WHOLE LOT OF DAMAGE with the refugee situation there, so i’m super excited to see how her next moves play out!!

hazel/tyrian/watts/merc/neo:

rip hazel. glad we were able to get an INSANE fight scene out of him before his death BUT ALSO WHAT’S WITH YOU BEATING THE SNOT OUT OF A 14 YEAR OLD HUH

listen. listen. i know merc-rescues-oscar was never a possibility BUT i still love that idea. it lives in my mind rent free!!!

i feel like mercury’s gonna be so insane after the worst road trip ever in a confined space with tyrian that he’s gonna be immediately redeemed by team sssnn and the power of himbofication upon landing in vacuo LMAO

real talk though, i am VERY interested in what happens when mercury sees emerald again and learns she defected. like, this is his friend, who he’s tried to keep safe the only way he knows how (by keeping his head down and not angering their abuser) and she got out but he didn’t. GOD. AND in the first fight she was in after defecting, she used the move that she learned by watching him!!!! that’s gonna be SO GOOD and i can’t wait to see it!!!

neo is a wildcard and i love watching her fight and i think it’s SO INTERESTING that she went over the side with rwby and jaune and i CAN’T WAIT to see what she does next.

WATTS MY DUDE. what a GOOD volume for him. like the stuff where he yells at cinder was SO COOL to see and it was so funny that he thought that wasn’t gonna come back to bite him LMAO. i think this was super fitting for him and while i like him as a villain, i think this was a good place for his story to end. i had a lot of fun watching his scenes this volume.

qrow/robyn:

I LOVE THEIR SIBLING ENERGY. robyn talking qrow down and them bonding over their semblances together was so great.

i also loved qrow’s semblance...evolving?? changing?? idk what exactly happened yet, but i know that if i too hung out with robyn hill for 48 hours straight my outlook on life would improve dramatically.

i do hope robyn makes it to vacuo soon because she will be invaluable at handling the refugee crisis there.

on the other hand, if qrow gets to vacuo and finds out that ruby and yang (and three more of his adopted kids) never made it........PAIN. oh my god it’s gonna be like summer all over again 😭😭

aceops:

did not expect to get teary-eyed when vine died. and yet i did. that “themes of death” cw on the finale was CERTAINLY SOMETHING HUH

hell yeah marrow!!! what a good boi!!! i loved his defection ofc and him going off on ironwood...chefs kiss

i hope marrow sticks with the main cast. he’s my favorite and he deserves to see his friends again!!!

as for elm and harriet, i’m not sure?? i think harriet still has a lot of work to do before she’s redeemed in my eyes. maybe they can be dropped off at beacon to help glynda fight the grimm/rebuild so that they can be back for the show’s ending but the cast is somewhat trimmed for vacuo lmao

also. i know they’re not aceops. but WHERE ARE FLYNT AND NEON ARE THE MEME KIDS OKAY

happy huntresses:

may marigold is literally perfect in every way

loved them! would’ve loved to see more of them lmao. maybe even just cutting back to them in the crater reacting to some of the stuff going on.

i very much hope we get to see them in the future! i know the vacuans aren’t gonna be happy with the atlas/mantle people showing up unannounced but i feel like if there’s anyone who’s gonna be able to earn their respect, it’s the organized-and-saved-the-lives-of-those-downtrodden-by-atlas-happy-huntresses.

maria & pietro:

okay. SO. my thoughts are either that they made it to vacuo (penny did see where amity would touch down, so it’s possible that a portal was placed in that location and they made it through) or qrow picks them up.

either way, i hope we get to see them again. I LOVE THESE TWO GEEZERS!!!

oh, pietro......... *cries*

ironwood:

not much to say here except that i loved it. i loved how he got more and more paranoid, i loved that he vaporized jacques schnee, i loved that he only went cartoon-villain at the last moment, i loved that he died unceremoniously surrounded by the thing he thought would save them all. i love that cinder got in one final chess reference beforehand. 10/10

the hound:

it feels like a lifetime ago that this guy died but holy shit. holy SHIT.

i want whitley to summon the hound!! it was an enemy that pushed him to grow, i think it would be neat!!

ambrosius:

LOVED THIS DUDE. i LOVE how his powers work!!! like, even though it’s magic, it’s so realistic because that’s how creation works!!! you gotta design the EXACT thing you want or else its gonna be fucked up!!!

like. okay. so (back on my engineering bs again lmao) for example. let’s say i’m writing a program where the user enters a number from 1-10 and it’s displayed on the computer screen. so i write whatever code i need that says “take user input and put on screen.” that’s what ambrosius did when he created the portals and the pathways between them!

and then let’s say i also put a warning to the user that says “only enter numbers from 1-10.” that would be ambrosius saying “do not fall.”

but...the user can still enter whatever they want. what happens if they put in the number 100? what happens if they type a letter? this program only puts numbers from 1-10 on screen, so who knows what’s gonna happen. and that’s what happens when people fall off the railings!!!

“oh, but you told them what numbers to enter” yeah but humans are unpredictable and ya gotta account for the human element when doing stuff like this!! team rwby didn’t account for people falling off--because why would people fall off if they were told not to? but the human element messed that up anyway!!!

anyways i’m a fucking nerd apparently but it was super cool to see that reflected in ambrosius!!! i’m a big fan!!!

like whenever people call him tricky or sneaky...no!!! he was just doing exactly what he was told to do!!!! so good!!!

also i wanna see him hang out with his sister jinn lmao

alright and here’s my thoughts/predictions for v9:

first off i just wanna say that this entire section (this entire post really, but especically this section) is just me spitballing lmao. we literally have ZERO clue what’s happening next or where they are, i’m just throwing out some stuff that’s crossed my mind! whatever crwby gives us is gonna be infinitely better than whatever i come up with lmao

that said, i have two ideas for what could be happening in madagascar.

option one is the one i’ve seen other people toss around, which is the whole wonderland-land-of-the-dead thing. i’m kinda torn on this because i think it could be good for penny’s storyline, but not really anyone else’s?? sure, yang and ruby could see summer, but weiss would see...jacques?? and blake would see...adam?? i’m not sure what weiss and blake would have to say to them/learn from them the same way ruby and yang would.

on that same idea, jaune could definitely see pyrrha, but again, i’m wondering what purpose that would serve? obviously jaune’s actions in the finale were guided by pyrrha (or specifically her mom, and realizing that pyrrha never had a choice either), but it’s clear that that’s the case for all of team jnpr, and it will be probably forever. their scene together at pyrrha’s memorial felt like they were closing the door--specifically--on their grief. on the other hand, those actions are super relevant right now and i will never turn down the chance to see pyrrha!!! it’s just free waterworks babey!!!

neo also has roman, but i can’t really see roman admitting to anyone that he got swallowed by a grimm 😭😭 just seems too embarrassing for him LMAO

for penny, i think this could work nicely. all she ever wanted was to not have her life controlled by others--kind of like alice in wonderland (the disney movie version because i am fairy tale illiterate lmao). if penny gets to exist after death in a land where she gets to choose everything for herself i think she would be very happy!

again, if this ends up being the case, crwby could 100% make it work! (and i am 0% opposed to maya model pyrrha.) i just personally am not as sold on this being the case as some others are.

option two imo is vacuo but in the past. which i know seems kind of weird BUT i have reasons!

so we know a few things about vacuo. one, it used to be an oasis and was considered a paradise until atlas and mistral destroyed it for the dust. two, it has giant motherfucking crabs that people like to eat. yes this is all i have to go off of BUT both of those things are in the end credits scene we got!

also, them landing in past-vacuo makes sense on ambrosius’ level. their “one way ticket” probably didn’t include all four dimensions of coordinates--so i could see them landing in the same x, y, and z as the official doorway, but at a different time. the creation would still do exactly what it was asked to do--drop them in vacuo.

there’s also a couple other things. “vacuo” means “in a vacuum” which i’ve heard v9 is supposed to be. also in before the dawn, sun saw some bigass magic tree that awakened his semblance which this one definitely could qualify as

(okay. side note. when i first saw the tree i thought of the glowy tree from james cameron blue people avatar. IDK WHY, i haven’t seen that movie in years??? i also had to google it to make sure i wasn’t making it up and apparently it’s called the “tree of souls.” which would also make sense if it helped sun awakened his semblance. i don’t think rwby based something off of blue people avatar, it’s probably more likely that blue people avatar is based off of some fairytale/mythology that i don’t know anything about LMAO)

i don’t actually think option two is gonna happen, but it was fun to think about!!

also either option opens the opportunity to time not passing 1:1 in current vacuo & rwby’s island getaway which???????? AHHHHH

alright so now to the actual characters lmao. i mentioned wby earlier. i honestly have no clue what neo’s gonna be up to, she’s such a wild card and i LOVE IT.

ruby and jaune is gonna be...........PAIN. NO MATTER WHAT. i have no idea how ruby is gonna react--she might just be so overwhelmed by everything that she snaps/yells at jaune which. PAIN. but she also might not?? which. ALSO PAIN. i feel like no matter what ruby does, jaune’s gonna blame himself anyway. god. i love their friendship SO MUCH and this is gonna HURTTTT

and on that, he doesn’t have ren and nora this time to pull him back from the ledge. this dude’s guilt complex is gonna go crazy especially since he doesn’t have his team and double especially if ruby/rwby blames him for what happened. god it’s gonna HURT TO WATCH.

on a wildly different note, i hope we do get to see vacuo/qrow throughout volume 9. if i go a whole volume without ren and nora i WILL cry lmao.

also it’s gonna be super interesting to see how their group fares!!! vacuo’s fuckin nuts and i’d love to see winter just destroying the grimm there (3 headed giraffe my beloved) and see how the atlas/mantle refugees handle the climate--and how the vacuans react to all of them LMAO

ALSO!!!! THE SULFER FISH WERE THERE!!! very glad to see that they’re in vacuo too because from the concept art it seems like they have super unique abilities and i’m excited that we may get to properly see them, instead of just cameos!!!

team cfvy pspspspspspsps theodore and rumpole pspspspspsps team sssnn pspspspspsps

and, of course, i gotta mention that any possible jnr reunion WILL tear my heart out and i will probably cry for days. i gotta start emotionally preparing now LMAO

alright and that wraps it up!! if anyone makes it down to the bottom props to you!! i don’t expect anyone to actually read this mess lmao. tldr: INCREDIBLE volume and i’m so hype for v9 already!!!

#f: rwby #t.txt #this took me two whole days to type lmao

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way-to-the-future · 3 years

Text

Solitude

(cw: depression, isolation, implied sexual content under the cut)

I don’t know the last time another Spoken has seen my bare forearms. Perhaps in the somnolent summer, when the heat of the day and the call of the moment made me into a man again instead of a friar, when I swam through tides made amber by sunset and felt the tenuous beating of another heart. A twin fire, the reflection, the smoke, has spread across me this evening like pitch over a tumult of waves.

My forearms are bare again, now in the dreadful, quiet space of the soul alone among company, where all things seeming to remind of the amity of brotherhood are merely the barbs of an excoriating loneliness. I am in a darkened bar, trying to unwind, seeing myself from outside myself among the carousing crowd and feeling pity for a sinner incapable of escape. I have taken off my habit and wear the only set of layman’s clothes I own, dwelling within the shadow of my avowed poverty even as I defy it. There are other vows I would break tonight, for I have not yet realized my error, even if I know that standing here like a lame duck will not heal me of the pains of my weary heart.

I want to be seen again, without being known. There are little seats at little tables all loaded up with people, and what a joy it would be to be one of them, speaking softly and resting with a bottle and companionship. It would be foolish to pity my state, for it is at least half self-inflicted, and my inability to join in the revelry is representative of my own foibles than the crowd’s. Still, the smoke-filled booths have their unreachable allure; still, I hang in place, until the evidence of my deterioration becomes impossible to ignore.

The night and the expanse of the cosmos, the chill wonder of the universe, are ever a balm to a beleaguered spirit. As I walk upon a woodland path with only a little drink in me, I wonder at the figures we draw in the stars – what tales we weave of them without context or clarity, without the slightest knowledge of the truth of those lights or the futures and pasts they portend. I fancy I see a friend in the stars, tonight, and cannot help but wonder if they will still be there when I look again tomorrow.

They step down to greet me in a lush, open field where I stop to pray. They lay their hand upon my cheek and do not retreat when I take its twin in my own calloused fingers, marveling at the luster that shines without. They tell me their name is Solitude, which I know to be allegory, and I like the miller have drifted off within that field ‘ere my journey is finished. I ask them why they have come to visit me, and they tell me that they are always with me, at my back, draped around my shoulders like a shawl. They do not depart because I will not let them, and so they have finally come to ask me what it is that I want.

I can reply only that I wish to dwell within this moment, to be trapped with them forever until I meet my true companions at the end. As the storming wind blows through the grasses that surround us, making a sound like so much water rushing into the dark and sacred places of my soul, they tell me it cannot be so. I cling to them for safety, as I would anyone. As I would you.

Thus is the shape of our communion: we shelter with one another, and we are each of us both the harbor and the ship, giving and receptive, reciprocal in all our comforts. If one were callous, they might say that anyone would do; and while the connotation of this is a harmful, crude thing, it is not far from the truth. For even as we admire all things particular – even as you look into my eyes, even as I mark the rhythm of your breath, these things occur to us as emanations from the unified beauty, singular expressions of a perfect whole. In one another we see all those faces of those we have loved and will love. We are all vessels of the same soul and to truly see one another we witness this shared descent, this ineffable union of our higher selves within the empty body of the cosmic things. May we nourish from the same source, eat of the same fruit, laugh and lift our spirits in the voiceless celebration of our empathy.

There will be no confusion or embarrassment, no slips of the foolish tongue, only the easy reflection of like beings, of hearts distanced from these mortal barriers and dwelling together in a perfect unity, in a moment made eternity. We will remain just long enough to remind one another of the sweet things, of the love we will know and the truths that bind us, and we will part before the bitterness and disunity of passing things can touch us. Will you not abide with me in this? Speak to me softly of things pleasant and just; lay your hand in mine as we look to the hereafter in all of its daunting, welcoming bliss. Open to me the sorrow of your heart and I will help you weather it, for in this place your pain is mine. It will not hurt. I would not frighten you.

And, if you asked it of me, I would comfort you further still. My tranquility is undisturbed; I love my fellow no less with their hair clutched in my fist and their body of gifts stretched before me. What do you need? What would give you the deepest, gentlest delight? Move against me, sink within my sea, practice victimless violence on this flesh that together we might fashion a sacred peace from the illusion of our separation. I would bear any torture or burden of your spirit if you would let me do this for you, with you, in such tender synchronicity. The instant is fleeting as instants are, but I pray you will carry me with you.

I need only all that you would give me freely and gladly, be it wholesome or ill. I need, beg it of you, stranger, friend, self; touch my hand. Rest easy, please, gods, please. If this life is the dread price I must pay to be close to you, to be seen by you, I will live it a thousand times over, until my spirit is scorched and the memory of heaven too far dimmed. I will find Him again in whatever you grant me, as often as you grant it.

Solitude stays with me when the waters recede, chilled to the root of my soul and bereft of the comforts I imagine. I carry them on my back through the deluge, until the weight feels natural, until I forget their name and the things we have survived together. How like the exodus of Mhach it feels, with rain pelting on my back and the quagmire we have left behind. By the time I reach high ground, Gyr Abania again, I am dry, and my companion has spoken not a word.

#thank you for your understanding #ive had teia on the brain lately. go figure #its shit like this that makes me reflect on my characters and also reflect on me. the struggles of your ocs mirror deep psychological tropes #within your own subconscious? wack #anyway this is probably the last of Him for just a lil while #time and tide #narrative

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minbbydoll · 4 years

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Dauntless (003)

⇨ Pairing : Yandere Dauntless born!Jungkook x Divergent!Reader

⇨ Genres : Angst, smut, action, fluff, adventure

⇨ Summary : There are five factions; Abnegation/Selflessness, Erudite/Intelligence, Dauntless/Bravery, Amity/Peacefulness, and Candor/Honesty. These five factions are the way of life, everything you’ve only ever known but what happens when the test fails you and you get caught in a web of lies. Trust the test they say, it’ll be okay they say, what happens when it’s not okay.

⇨ Word count : 3.6k

⇨ Warnings : Crazy Kookoo is back, I’m using DK’s real name so if you don’t know who Seok-min is, it’s DK from seventeen, I just wanna say rip reader (I’m sorry, I love you), use of the r-word it’s only once and I know that doesn’t make it okay but it’s not that bad I promise, bad jokes becasue I’m not funny 👉🏻👈🏻, cursing because it happens so naturally, yandere themes (obviously) that sounds mean I’m sorry, controlling people 👀 *cough* JK *cough*, violence warning (it’s not that bad promise), lemme know if I missed something

⇨ Minnie’s note I : It’s 1 in the morning for me which means this is unedited and I meant to post this I swear but with my computer breaking and everything I just kept pushing it back. I’m going to do another part of dauntless and then I’m continuing So Cold just to those of you wondering why I haven’t posted So Cold, I’m making the parts even and then I’m going to alternate posting each part. So Cold (005) is coming after Dauntless (004) and y’all I cannot express how JUICY Dauntless (004) is going to be anyway, enjoy.

You were still upset about your parents but decided to try your best not to think about their piercing eyes and cold stares. The way they looked so disgusted with you just broke your heart, but you couldn’t focus on it now.

You had to focus on your new family; dauntless and as it just so happens Jungkook, you turned your head to the side to take a look at him and he was already looking at you like he usually does.

You sped up your running a little to tease him and when he tried running faster, he tripped over his own two feet. You stopped, the both of you falling behind the other dauntless teens and laughing enjoying the freedom and happiness you had for now.

“How’d you fall?” You questioned Jungkook as he dusted off his knees, “you have me falling for you all the time.” You stop walking and he follows suit, “that doesn’t even make sense. Oh my god that’s the worst pick up line ever.”

Jungkook tries to stop you as you walk away, “no, no that’s the thing I was looking at you when I fell so you made me fall.” You scoffed and continued walking with him side by side, “Jungkook if you have to explain you know it’s bad.”

Jungkook tried to talk again but you stopped him not seeing any one of the dauntless transfers or anyone at all, “Oh shit, where’d they go?” Jungkook and you ran faster, the both of you were out of breath when you finally came to a stop, “I’ve never done so much running, holy shit are they up top?”

Jungkook looked up to where you were looking and saw everyone, he looked down shaking his head as he continued panting. You looked so excited even though you were tired, he was tired too but offered you a boost because he didn’t trust you to get up there by yourself even though there’s a ladder.

“The things I do for you,” You looked down at the ground to where Jungkook was, “Did you say something?” Jungkook smiled and yelled out, “No!” Before he started tiredly climbing the ladder too, once both of you were on top you started running on the lined roof, even though it was secure and Jungkook was sure nothing was going to happen he couldn’t help but worry.

You’re like a curious child who wants to explore a dangerous machine and he’s your mother who has this instinct to protect you; you’re going to be the death of him. Jungkook ran after you, “Be careful [Name]!”

Jungkook ran faster to try and catch up to you but he was so tired, he was running out of stamina, Jungkook pushed through it and caught up to you only to be scared by the oncoming train he didn’t hear because he was too focused on your safety; even though you were having the time of your life.

It passed by the both of you and you saw the other dauntless jumping into the train, “oh shit… Jungkook come on.” The both of you continued to run with Jungkook constantly worrying about your safety.

You both finally caught up to the train and you grabbed onto a handle to hoist yourself up onto the train and off what Jungkook thought was an unsafe unstable runway. “Jungkook give me your hand,” you were inside of the train now and had your hand out for Jungkook, “No I’m too heavy.”

Jungkook was worried about being too heavy and dragging you down when he was literally about to run out of the runway and have no choice but fall to his death. “Come on Jungkook,” he pushed your hand away and grabbed onto the train.

Jungkook just barely made it, one of his legs hung out of the train before you pulled him further inside, “why didn’t you just let me help you in?” Jungkook shook his head as he panted, “what if I-I pulled you down with me, me getting you hurt, not a chance.”

Jungkook turned his head to the side, “are they jumping?” You looked to the other part of the train and saw some dauntless jumping, others ran to the back and coward in fear, and some that did jump didn’t make it.

You turned your head to your side of the open train door, “there’s an edge we have to jump to.” Jungkook shook his head, “you’re not jumping.” You whipped your head towards Jungkook, “what you mean, if I don’t, I’ll become factionless, I’m doing this Jungkook.”

Jungkook shook his head, “what if you get hurt or don’t make it.” You grabbed Jungkook’s hand, “you should believe in me Jungkook.” You both went to the back of the train and ran before jumping.

You were about to hit the ground when you felt something under you, you saw Jungkook’s dorky smile as he held onto your hips, “Jungkook, fuck, are you okay?” You quickly got up and tried to help him up, “I’m good as long as you are.”

He assured you even though he had a long burning scratch on his arm, “But you-,” he interrupted and pointed towards where all the other dauntless were gathering up. “Come on might be important.”

“Hey, everyone, I’m Hyungwon now let’s find out who’s brave enough to join dauntless, who’s going first?” Hyungwon wore the usual dauntless attire, the color consisting of black, he had a tattoo by his eye that was a small skull and he had small black gauges.

Everyone stayed silent as expected, who would jump into the unknown, “Me.” You said with a straight face and the small man who messed with Youngmin snorted and said, “As if a stiff is really gonna jump.”

Jungkook slammed your raised arm down, “no way in hell are you jumping.” Hyungwon tapped his arm impatiently as he watched you and Jungkook argue, “I’ll jump instead.” Hyungwon raised his eyebrows surprised, “But I wanted to jump.” You pulled your arm out of Jungkook’s grip.

Hyungwon decided to speak, “Why not let ladies go first?” You quickly nodded and made your way towards Hyungwon before Jungkook could hold you back, “fine then I’ll jump with her.” Hyungwon put his hand in Jungkook’s face stopping him from standing next to you, “Why are you so adamant about being with her?”

Jungkook grabbed Hyungwon’s fingers and squished them painfully tight, Hyungwon winced from how tight Jungkook’s hold was, “I’m jumping with her and my reasons why are none of your concern.” Jungkook spoke through his gritted teeth.

Hyungwon tried to pull away from Jungkook’s grip but his fingers were weak, Hyungwon wanting to leave with his dignity and not show weakness even though he felt like his fingers were gonna fall off replied with a simple, “fine that’s not against any rules.”

You were surprised, upset of course, why would he want to jump with you, this is something you’re supposed to do alone. Why can’t he just jump after you? Jungkook held tightly onto your waist, “Are you ready?”

You didn’t respond vocally and just nodded, Jungkook possessively held onto you before jumping with you making sure he was back first. It wasn’t as scary as you thought it’d be especially since Jungkook was with you, your heart was racing wondering how long it would take to get to the bottom or what was at the bottom.

Jungkook being with you defeated the whole purpose of this jump and you didn’t feel brave in fact you felt weak, you weren’t able to jump without someone to hold your hand. “Oof,” Jungkook had some air taken out of him when you both hit the net and you landed on top of him.

You felt unsatisfied, you didn’t get the thrill of wondering if you were going to die, you didn’t get to really go first because Jungkook was mostly hugging you the whole way and shielding you so either way you knew you wouldn’t get hurt. You lifted your hand out to another man in front of you offering to help you out the net.

Jungkook swiftly stuck his hand out faster and smacked the mysterious boy’s hand. Jungkook stepped out of the net first and then helped you out, “don’t pout baby at least you’re safe.” You were too upset to pay attention to the name he called you and looked towards the shocked boy.

“Wow two jumpers is a first, I’m Min-hyun what’re your names?” You wanted to speak but Jungkook lightly pinched your hand just enough to distract you. “Mines Jungkook and her name isn’t your concern now if you would get out of our way.”

Jungkook pushed away Min-hyun and grabbed your hand, when Jungkook wasn’t looking you looked at Min-hyun with a sorrowful look and mouthed an apology and he mouthed back that it was fine.

“Hey stiff, still alive?!” The rude man who messed with Youngmin, yelled before jumping down himself. He hopped out of the net with help since he was quite short and, “guess you are, surprised you made it to the bottom stiff.”

You weren’t even able to speak because Jungkook was pushing you behind him and tightly holding onto his shirt, “If you have a problem speak to me about it.” You could see how wound up Jungkook was, his white knuckles were wrapped onto his shirt so tight it looked like it was a part of him.

“Wow can’t even fight your own battles stiff,” The short man snorted and shook his head while walking away. If he stayed a second longer Jungkook would have surely ripped him to pieces. You couldn’t help but think because of how on guard and ready Jungkook seemed.

You lightly touched his shoulder and watched him flinch and turn his burning glare into something sweeter, something you couldn’t yet decipher.

“Listen up recruits, we’re doing something different this year!” You turned away from Jungkook to look at Min-hyun, “your old faction is now meaningless, you’re either dauntless or factionless.”

The dauntless born cheered, but people from other factions gave a small cheer, they were still kinda iffy and turned off by the fact that it was either dauntless or being factionless but didn’t want to show it.

“I know all you dauntless born think that you’re all that but you’re not.” The room was now silent as Min-hyun continued his speech, “I wasn’t dauntless born either, so all of you who think you are all that, you are not. You are no longer dauntless born you’re all clean slates.”

Min-hyun paused to push his hair out of his face before continuing, “There are probably braver people in the transfers than in actual dauntless born so all of you will fall into the same category, we’ll be your instructors and we’ll pick thirty-three of you by random to go with each of us.”

Min-hyun smirked at you hiding behind Jungkook as he quickly changed his view to the other transfers. “Jungkook, [Name], Yoongi, Mina, Jackson,” Min-hyun continued listing names and the fact that not only you and Jungkook were on his team but the man who messed with Youngmin and now won’t leave you alone seemed like he had a certain motive for this.

“Follow me!” Jungkook pulled you with him behind everyone else when Min-hyun yelled out, when you followed him all of you ended up looking at other dauntless just causally hanging around each other.

“This is the pit,” You weren’t small, but you weren’t big either so being all the way in the back even behind Jungkook you couldn’t see everything you wanted to. You took a chance and pushed your way to the front, “[Name]!”

Jungkook called out after you as he pushed past others too, “wow.” Being in dauntless was your dream and there was no way you were going to let some boy you just met ruin this, you left your family for this, even if you could get lost in his dark brown doey eyes- no, no way, you are dauntless and you’re not letting anyone get in the way of that.

Everyone in dauntless looked so cool, it wasn’t like abnegation; the same mundane thing over and over again.

Jungkook grabbed onto your waist protectively and true you were still mad at him but something about the way he touches you makes you feel love and protected, something you didn’t exactly have in abnegation, to be honest love for a child isn’t something showed often in Korea.

If you’re lucky you get parents who love you because of their kind nature and faction, because they were raised that way, most of the Koreans who survived were cruel and heartless for a reason but then there were the Koreans who were okay and tried to be positive.

One of the main reasons they split into factions was because of that reason, they had disagreements many disapproved of being happy and positive because there was no point and it was just a bother to others.

They found a way to work and the one who got the short end of the stick from each faction had to be the one to mostly communicate with the other, happier factions the rest didn’t want to deal with.

You wanted to feel loved, longed for it so you let yourself indulge for just a moment even if you were mad at him for ruining an exciting moment, being loved is more important, right? Min-hyun tsked as he watched you and Jungkook, “Come on!”

“This is where you’ll sleep.” Jungkook’s body was no longer wrapped around you but he was still very close to you, as if shielding you from everyone else; you paid no attention to it.

“Girls or boys?” You think Seok-min was his name, you don’t exactly remember because of your horrible ability to put name to face or to remember anything at all and because Jungkook was basically covering you the entire time you couldn’t see anyone’s face who jumped down and whose name was called out.

“Both,” you heard Jungkook audibly gasp, a few other dauntless did too and it was understandable but you’ve gotta be brave right and if Jungkook can’t do that is he really dauntless?

The real question is, is Jungkook concerned about exposing himself or you being exposed? “Both.” Min-hyun said again as you looked up and saw everyone in the bathrooms, “you should be in your natural habitat candor.”

Jungkook scowled at the ground, he held his hips and sighed before hearing, “change.” His head quickly shot up as he saw you ready to take off your long skirt, as much as he would like to see your legs, he wouldn’t like to see it in front of everyone else.

“Hey, what’re you doing?!” Jungkook pulled you towards the bathroom where luckily and stupidly no one else was changing. “What’d you do that for, it hurt?”

Jungkook quickly let go of you, “I hurt you, where, how badly?” Jungkook hit his head so hard you could hear it, “God I’m so stupid, I’m sorry [Name].” He was going to hit himself again, but you grabbed his arm stopping him, “Hey it’s good, I’m fine.”

He looked at you like a kicked puppy, “but I hurt you.” You shook your head, “No it was just a quick sting, nothing to bad.” You were against the gray wall and Jungkook was blocking you, “you should hurry and change.”

You looked at him curiously, “with you alone, staring at me, is that why you brought me away from the others.” His eyes widened and he quickly turned around with bright red cheeks, “N-no, I just wanted to give you privacy.”

You laughed as you took off your skirt and let it fall, he would love to turn around, love to kiss you and push you up against the wall and make sure you know who owns you but that’s what the perverts on the other side of the wall want and Jungkook refuses to give them that.

He was glad it was over as soon as it started, and he could get away from the situation, but he wasn’t happy about the big bulge left in his pants.

Jungkook had chosen a table and had you sit with him (more like forced) having you sit on his right side and unluckily Min-hyun was sat on your right side. A couple more people joined your table but Jungkook is just too focused with Min-hyun to care.

Everyone at the table was a little uncomfortable with Jungkook’s tension but there wasn’t really anywhere else to sit so breaking the tension had to be best. “Ahem, hello I’m Jackson Wang.”

Someone from the table replied, “are you Chinese?” You didn’t understand because they said it in Chinese, “yeah are you Chinese too?” The other nodded, “I’m Xu Minghao.”

Jackson looked towards you and you looked at him with your spoon of rice halfway in your mouth, you quickly ate your rice before holding your finger up to him. “Hello, I’m [Last Name] [Name], I’m Korean mixed with [Your Ethnicity].”

Jackson nodded and stuck his hand out for you to shake but Jungkook smacked it, “What the fuck?!” You too looked at Jungkook questioningly and he reached for a fry from Mina’s plate, “hey!”

He smirked at Jackson as he chewed on his fry, “did I say you could have that?” Jungkook may be in trouble with Mina now but at least he has a reason for his actions. “What can I say, I’m dauntless, I take what I want.”

“But you already have fries, dumbass.” Mina growled at Jungkook and you laughed at him as he did a double take to his plate of fries. Min-hyun chewed his food unfocused as he stared off into space. “Hey,” you elbowed him, “you okay?”

Jungkook looked like he was looking at his food while being yelled at by Mina, but he was really listening to your conversation. Min-hyun looked at you with a glare, “did I say you could talk to me?”

Jungkook clenched his fists so tight his nails were making dents in his skin, how dare you, talking to her is an honor! Jungkook couldn’t believe his ears, how could someone be so disrespectful?

“Must be because you’re so approachable.” Min-hyun let out a laugh and continued eating his food. Jungkook was in disbelief, you had the decency to talk to Min-hyun and he completely just brushed you off.

You chuckled too and confusingly tried to eat your food, “Ya, [Name] are you retarded?!” You shot up to look at Mina who was glaring at you, “fucking eat your food properly.” Mina originally from candor, looked like she was going to kill you.

Jackson looked at you all and didn’t like the tension, he reached over and slapped Jungkook on his face, taking the furious boy out of his trance. Jungkook was busy thinking of ways to slice Mina open just so she wouldn’t bleed out fast and he could have time with her.

He thought about smashing her face into her food over and over again until she begged him to stop, he wanted to break her nose by smashing it onto the table so many times and pull her hair so hard it tears right from its roots.

Jackson ended up seeing his deadly glare and was shook to his core, that isn’t normal. Jackson tried to defuse the situation and laughed, “look man, you’re making a mess everywhere, you should stop squeezing your food like that.”

You looked at Jungkook ignoring your situation with Mina and he indeed had his burger all squeezed, “yeah chill Kook, poor burger only wanted to be eaten not destroyed.” Minghao laughed at his own words, “oh come on, no one, really?” He pouted and muttered, “fucking dicks,” under his breath.

That’s when it started, you heard and looked around to see everyone banging their cups onto the table. You were obviously confused and looked to the other initiates, but they seemed just as confused as you.

It stopped when you heard a throat clearing, an old looking middle-aged man came up, “You all have chosen a faction meaning bravery, a faction dedicated to protecting what’s left of Korea and all of its inhabitants.

You will make our faction proud by working hard and being a warrior who protects everyone.” Everyone cheered and clapped as he walked away you were suddenly pulled and hoisted up into the air with hands holding you up.

You saw other initiates being lifted up too and Jungkook looked really angry until he saw your bright smile. You were so happy to finally feel like you belong, everyone seemed so happy and welcoming with your presence, how could you not feel at home?

Jungkook wanted to hurt and slowly, painfully kill the ones who touched you but when he saw your smile that melted away. How could he crush your happiness, you had an amazingly wide smile and it was something he wanted to see all the time; 24/7.

The smile reached your eyes and it was contagious because Jungkook soon enough smiled a smile just as big as yours, his bunny teeth making it even cuter and his nose started to wrinkle.

You really need to enjoy this moment because if only you had foreseen the true horrors held within those cute doey eyes and the hidden consequences for choosing your dream faction would you have really known how much you wanted to stay frozen in this moment.

⇨ Minnie’s note II : also can y’all guess who messed with Youngmin and [Name], if not it will be made clear in (004) but for now if you want you can guess. I also changed arrows because I thought these were cute, I’m still trying to find formats for my fics. @alyxandraz sorry forgot to tag you the first time.

#Jungkook #BTS jungkook #jackson #got7jackson #seventeen #xu minghao #twice #mina #Jungkook x reader #yandere Jungkook #divergent #jungkook series

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five-rivers · 4 years

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Lethean

@ghostpetrol Hello! This is your Winter Truce gift! :)

This is mainly from your ghost king prompt, with a little bit of Skulker and friendly banter thrown in for seasoning. This wound up being much, much longer than I first expected it to be, and I hope it's coherent and enjoyable. Happy holidays!

Read on FFN

Lethean

It was a town hall meeting about the ghost problem, so, of course, the ghosts had to show up. They didn't arrive in the usual way, however, which was swooping down on a crowd from the sky, or phasing through the ceiling. Oh, no. That was too pedestrian for these particular ghosts.

No. Instead, they tore the air open in dozens of great, green rents, and surrounded the assembled citizens of Amity Park in a matter of seconds.

But this was Amity Park. Ghosts were expected, not merely ironic.

There were ghost hunters in attendance. Many ghost hunters. The battle was pitched before the ghosts had fully entered the room.

The ghosts wore robes of black, gold, and white. Their skin was green, their claws long and sharp. Each one had a single, huge eye.

There was one exception, a ghost that looked slightly more human, though few present saw him. One ghost wore a purple robe, and held a long staff topped with a clock. A very few who he passed by later claimed he was crying, weeping, whispering, "I'm sorry," as he floated through the crowd.

As for the other ghosts, all anyone heard them say over the screams, ectoblasts, and ghost rays was "The King!" and "For the King!"

(Although there were a few that claimed the phrase wasn't "for the King," but "find the King.")

Then, as quickly as they had arrived, they were gone.

It took hours for Amity Park to realize that five teenagers had disappeared with them. After all, the five of them were always vanishing during ghost fights.

Danny awoke to the sound of running water. It was a pleasant sound, but not one he thought he should be sleeping near.

Nevertheless, he opened his eyes slowly. He felt languid and oddly heavy, though that might have been because he was wet.

Why was he wet?

He had been laying in the middle of a large, airy, atrium-like room, in a kind of depression with a drain on the bottom. The room itself was quite pleasant, and its numerous water features had provided the noise he was hearing.

He found what was in the room to be less so. There were people laying on the ground, scorch marks on the walls, and splatters of red and green on the floor.

He ran to the nearest person, a human girl with long, red hair. He checked her over. She didn't seem to be injured very much, except that she was unconscious.

On checking the other four, he found they were much the same.

They felt awfully familiar, but he couldn't recall where from. Actually, now that he thought about it, he couldn't remember any 'wheres' for them to be from.

This probably wasn't a good sign.

He looked around himself, trying to find a clue to who he was, or what he was doing here, other than his name. The only thing that really stood out to him was the complicated spigot set on the ceiling above the depression he had woken up in.

Then he saw the ghost.

His first impulse was to interpose himself in between the ghost and the humans, easily calling spectral power to his hands. But the ghost was crying, and he felt familiar in the same way the humans did.

He felt like family.

Danny let the ectoenergy he had gathered fade to nothing. He drifted hesitantly to the alcove the ghost was huddled in. It was on a balcony wrapping around the room, and Danny didn't see any stairs. He would have to fly up there.

"Hello?" he said, his voice echoing in the atrium. "Are you alright?" He floated up a little farther. "Can you help me? I think my- my friends are hurt, and I- I don't know what to do. Or why I'm here," he added more quietly, "or where I am." Or anything else, really, except his name.

"I'm sorry, Daniel," said the ghost, his voice ragged.

The ghost knew his name! That was a good sign, right? The apology... That was less good.

Danny flew the rest of the way up, and peered over the rail. He gasped. The ghost, who wore purple and definitely had a thing for clocks, was chained to the wall.

No longer cautious, Danny flew to the ghost's side. He tugged experimentally on the chains.

"Do you know if there's anything I can do? Is there a key?" He pulled a bit harder. The chain separated from the wall. "Oh. Huh." Abruptly, all the locks on the chains fell open. "Huh."

The ghost straightened, unfolding from the alcove. Danny flinched back at the sudden motion. The ghost was much taller than he had thought. But then, he suddenly wasn't. He was much smaller, younger, a baby. Then he was old.

Danny wilted back in confusion.

The ghost sighed, as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders. "My apologies, Daniel. I am Clockwork, the Ancient Master of Time." He returned to the appearance he'd had when Danny had first seen him. "I serve reality, the Infinite Realms, and the King of All Ghosts."

"Okay," said Danny. That sounded somewhat familiar. Not that he actually remember any of it, but he might have heard it before. But... King of All Ghosts? The term gave him a bad feeling.

The ghost put a hand on Danny's shoulder. "Daniel, what do you remember?"

"I- Nothing. I don't- My friends, I think they're hurt. They're unconscious. Can you help? I don't know what to do."

"There is nothing wrong. They are simply taking longer to recover from the purification ceremony than you."

"The what?"

"The purification ceremony," said Clockwork. "It is required for the King and his court to be purified with the waters of the five rivers, the Lethe, Acheron, Cocytus, Phlegethon and Styx, before the King ascends the throne."

Danny looked around, nervously, as if expecting a king to pop out of the floor.

"Daniel, you are the King."

Danny blinked. Oh. He hadn't expected that.

"Did something go wrong?" asked Danny. "You were chained up, and it looks like there's a fight. And I don't remember anything."

"Not remembering anything is part of the purification. It is to ensure that you are an impartial and fair ruler." Clockwork said the words almost as if they were physically hurting him. "As such, I cannot give you the details of what happened. Suffice it to say, there were some who did not agree with your nomination to the throne."

"Oh," said Danny again. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure you are the King of All Ghosts."

"No. That my friends are alright. They are my friends, right?" It wasn't like he had any evidence to back that up, after all. He could be wrong.

"Yes. They will be awake in just a few minutes, and they are your friends. Your very best friends."

Danny nodded, relieved in more ways than one.

"Shall we go down, and greet them?" asked Clockwork.

"I- Yes," said Danny. "Yes, that's a good idea."

"I don't get it," said the girl who called herself Ellie. She adjusted her ponytail again. She had done so eight times since they had say down. "You're saying he's the King of All Ghosts, but he's definitely human. That doesn't make sense."

Danny frowned. "But I'm not human. Not entirely. I'm half-ghost. Shouldn't I be saying the same thing, anyway? All of you look human."

"None of you are human," said Clockwork. "You are liminal spirits. You may appear human, but you have ghost cores. That is enough for you to be called ghosts."

"Cool!" said the girl who had introduced herself as Sam. "Does that mean we have powers? Dark abilities?"

"Of a sort, yes."

"Nice."

"Hey, Danny," said Tucker, "you don't seem too happy. Are you alright?" His fingers twitched, as if they wanted to touch something that just wasn't there.

"Of course he isn't," said Jazz. "He's just been given a huge responsibility he knows nothing about." Jazz was the first person he had checked on, when he woke up. "So have the rest of us, actually. What does the King's court actually do?"

They had left the atrium, and were sitting outdoors on violet grass under a swirling green sky. A few meters away from them, the ground abruptly ended. Clockwork had told them that they were on one of many floating islands in the Infinite Realms.

"That depends largely on the King," said Clockwork, half-bowing to Danny.

Danny squirmed. "It can't all be up to me. Can it? I mean, why even have a king at all, then? I could just, you know, not do anything."

Clockwork nodded. "You could choose to do nothing. Your mere existence is enough for the Infinite Realms. You inform their shape, their nature, and, to some extent, the nature of their inhabitants. For example, the last King of All Ghosts was a violent man. When he took the thrones, the environment of the realms became more hostile, more dangerous, less hospitable. Many larger islands fractured. Wars became more frequent. People as a whole became more aggressive. But there are other traditional roles, that you may take up, or not, if you so desire."

Wow. That made Danny feel even more apprehensive, if anything. He turned to the last member of the group. "What do you think, Valerie?"

Valerie shrugged, crossing her arms. "I think this whole thing is ridiculous, and I'm going to wake up in bed any minute now. I mean, ghosts, really? And you're in charge of all of them? No offense."

"No, that's fair," said Danny. He didn't feel kingly, that was for sure.

"Perhaps," said Clockwork, "I can bring you to your residence."

Danny looked back at the large building they had come from. "So... We don't live here?"

"No. This building is only used for the purification ritual."

"Wait," said Tucker, "how are we going to get there? Do you have a plane, or something?"

Danny turned to look at him. "You don't remember that we can fly? I mean, you've seen me and Clockwork flying."

"I must've gotten a higher dose of purification, or whatever," said Tucker. "I don't remember that at all. I thought that was a you thing. What about you guys?" he asked, turning to the others.

Ellie levitated up from the grass in response. Valerie clicked her heels together, and what looked like a high-tech surfboard popped out from the soles of her feet. The surfboard (hoverboard?) began to float, with Valerie on top.

Sam and Jazz, meanwhile, looked on with confusion. Then Sam snorted, and shook her head.

"Okay, Tucker, pure of heart, let's see if we can't figure this out."

The Observants arrived at the black castle only a few days after Danny and his friends had settled in. Clockwork ushered Danny to the cavernous throne room, and his friends gathered close around him, ready to fight, if need be. They had seen the Observants enter the castle from an upper window, and they had disliked the one-eyed ghosts on sight. None of them had yet determined why, and Clockwork wouldn't say anything.

Danny especially didn't like how Clockwork seemed to be almost afraid of the Observants. He hoped the little practice they had done with their abilities and powers would be enough, if things got violent.

He settled into the overlarge throne, very aware that he was wearing a t-shirt and pajama bottoms. Valerie, with her armor-summoning abilities, was really the only one dressed for a confrontation.

"Open," he commanded the doors on the far side of the room. They obeyed, swinging inward.

The Observants filed in. Danny pulled his legs up onto the throne. He probably shouldn't have, he knew it made him look younger and less confident. Too late. Putting them down might make him look indecisive, on top of all that.

The Observants stopped before the steps leading up to the throne. One of them raised up an elaborate chest, and eased it open.

"We have brought you your crown, your majesty."

So they had. The Crown of Fire flickered softly in the confines of the chest.

A second Observant raised a smaller box. "We have brought your ring, your majesty."

The Ring of Rage laid, quiescent, on the crushed black velvet lining of the box, the carved skull on its front glaring up at Danny.

Danny pushed up, out of the throne, and hovered a few inches over the ground. He flew down the steps to the Observants, and examined the Crown for several minutes. The Observants seemed to be holding their breaths, waiting for something.

Of course, they were ghosts. They didn't have to breathe. Even Danny didn't have to breathe, when he was in ghost form.

He reached down and picked up the Crown. The fires it was wreathed in immediately changed from a sickly, rotten green to a pale, icy blue-white. The Crown itself expanded and thinned. Danny tilted his head. He hadn't expected that. He lifted the Crown up over his head, where it stayed, floating.

The Observant closed the chest and quickly withdrew. Danny turned his attention to the ring bearer. It occurred to him, then, that they were afraid of him.

Why?

He'd ask Clockwork, but Clockwork probably wouldn't say.

He picked up the ring. It turned a dark, silvery gray, and the skull disappeared. Odd. He put it on the middle finger of his right hand. It fit perfectly. That Observant pulled back as well, disappearing among the others.

"Your majesty," said a third Observant. "It is time for you take up your responsibilities as King of All Ghosts."

Danny retreated in confusion. The Observants wanted a lot of things, most of which didn't really make sense to Danny. Valerie pushed the door firmly closed behind them.

"Alright," said Tucker, pointing at Danny. "If this is going to happen a lot, we need to get you some better threads. Like, something cool."

Danny looked down at his pajamas. "Yeah, probably."

"Also, we should probably look into the laws and precedents of the Infinite Realms, if we're going to be called on for advice."

"And by we, we mean you, mostly," said Sam. "Since you're the King. We'll help you, though." She elbowed Danny, lightly. "As much as we can."

"We can run interference, if nothing else," said Ellie, leaning into Valerie's arm.

"Thanks," said Danny, smiling slightly.

On the inside, he was freaking out. He had felt directionless ever since he had woken up, and that feeling was worse than ever. He didn't know what he was doing, or what he should be doing.

It was awful.

"Hey," said Sam. "Look at me, Danny."

"What?"

"It's going to be fine. Don't worry. According to Clockwork, we don't technically have to do any of this."

"Right," said Danny. It wasn't as much of a relief as it should have been. He felt bad. All his friends were trying so hard to help him, and he was basically useless, no help at all.

There was a knock at the door. "Your majesty, you can't just ignore your responsibilities. We will help you, advise you!"

Clockwork sighed, heavily. "You do not have to do anything, Daniel, least of all whatever they want." His words dripped with venom.

The banging continued. "Clockwork! Open this door!"

Clockwork jerked towards the door.

"Stop!" said Danny.

Clockwork stopped, and seemed to sag in relief.

"Can they make you do things?" asked Danny. "Were they the ones who chained you up before?"

"I cannot tell you."

"Why? Because they told you not to say anything?" asked Danny, suspicious.

Clockwork was silent. He wouldn't look at Danny.

Danny bit his lip, incensed on Clockwork's behalf. He threw open the door. The Observants weren't going to take advantage of him, and they certainly weren't going to take advantage of any of his friends.

He threw open the door.

"Your majesty," started the Observants.

"No," said Danny. "Whatever you're doing to Clockwork, you're going to stop. You can't order him around anymore."

"Your majesty," said what he was taking as the head Observant, "I don't know what he's been telling you-"

"Nothing. Which is the problem," said Danny. "Did you tell him not to? Were you the ones who attacked the purification ceremony?"

"No one attacked the purification ceremony!" protested the Observant. "We were running the ceremony."

Alarm bells started to ring in Danny's head. Big, nasty ones.

"You were running the ceremony." Danny looked between the Observants and Clockwork. "The ceremony where we all lost our memories."

"It was necessary," said the Observant. "All the Kings go through it."

"He's lying," said Jazz, suddenly.

"How do you know," asked Valerie.

"I don't know, I just do. How did you know how to use your suit?"

Danny turned a glare to the Observants. "Stay away from me and my friends. Including Clockwork. Don't you dare order him around anymore. Or else."

"Your majesty-"

"Get out."

"But-"

"Get out of our home. I don't want to ever see you ever again. Ever." He slammed the door.

"So, uh, we didn't have to forget our lives?" asked Ellie. "Is that the takeaway here?"

"No, I think the takeaway is our memories," said Tucker.

"That's one way to put it," said Danny. He rubbed his eye, angrily. "Clockwork, is there any way to get our memories back?"

"I can't say," said Clockwork, miserably. "I'm sorry, Daniel."

"That's the first thing you said to me," said Danny.

"It is."

"Because the Observants made you lie?"

"I can't say."

Danny groaned.

The Observants weren't the last petitioners. Surprisingly, most of them wanted to work in the castle. Cooking, cleaning, guarding, tailoring, doing various... castle-things. They wanted to fulfill their Obsessions in service to the King. Which was Danny.

Honestly, he didn't get it. He wasn't nearly cool enough to deserve that. He especially wasn't cool enough to deserve the praise the big white yetis heaped on him. But they were nice.

Danny was finally becoming more relaxed, too. Somehow, having more people around was helping him. He liked seeing what people were doing. He liked seeing them happy, and they seemed to like him helping them, and explaining various things to him.

Which was very good. Because he didn't really know a lot. Hardly anything, actually. He was pretty ignorant, sadly.

Right now, he was with a pair of tailors who were putting him into a suit vest with long tails and short pants. The vest was probably very nice, but Danny didn't know much about suits. All he knew was that it sort of made him feel sort of elven, or fairy-like.

There was a knock on the door, and Jazz stuck her head in.

"Hey," she said, "we have company. I think you'd better come."

"Is it the Observants again?" asked Danny. The one-eyed ghosts hadn't given up. He, Sam, and Tucker were looking for ways to keep them out of the castle.

"No. They're from the Far Frozen."

"Okay," said Danny. "Sorry guys, but I need to go."

"That's fine, your majesty, we are almost finished." The tailor waved her hand, and the stitching finished itself off. "Do you like it?"

Danny looked in the mirror, and smiled at the star patterns in the embroidery. "Yes, it's very nice. Thank you."

"No, thank you. It has been far too long since my work was worn by someone deserving."

Danny blushed. He didn't know if he was deserving.

"Okay. Well, bye," he said, slipping out the door. He turned to Jazz. "Did they say what they wanted?"

"Just that it was important, and you could help. They were worried," she added.

They entered the room where Jazz had left the yetis to wait. They both bowed immediately. Danny still wasn't used to that.

"Jazz said that you needed my help?" he prompted.

"Yes, Great One," said one of the yetis, rising. "I am Snowfall of the Far Frozen, and I have been sent by Chief Frostbite."

Danny nodded. He'd only met Frostbite the one time, briefly, along with a bunch of other leaders, but he liked him. He was big, soft, and friendly.

"The Far Frozen is in danger. A recent battle has displaced one of the Fire Islands, sending it flying towards the Far Frozen. The temperatures are becoming unbearable, and collision is imminent."

"What can I do?" asked Danny. He wanted to help, but he felt that averting a natural disaster on this scale was beyond him. "Do you need help evacuating? New homes?"

Deep-seated worry passed over Snowfall's face before being hidden again. "One of the powers of the King is redirecting the movements of the floating islands."

"Oh!" said Danny, brightening. Maybe he could avert a natural disaster. "How do I do that?"

The two yetis looked at each other. "We were hoping you knew."

"Oh," said Danny, much less energetically. "I guess I'll... go see if Clockwork knows."

Danny stood barefoot on top of a snow drift in the Far Frozen. The Far Frozen was beautiful and peaceful. The snow felt good on his feet.

Less good was the giant, flaming, erupting volcano floating a few miles above the island. He could taste ash on the wind. The tips of the Far Frozen's great glaciers were melting. He could feel the heat on his face

He reached into himself, into his core. Cold flowed out from him, chilling his surrounding. Snowflakes condensed from the air around him, and fell gently to the ground.

He looked over his shoulder at his friends. "Do you think it's getting farther away yet?"

Sam and Tucker were almost unrecognizable under all their layers. Both of them had relatively warm cores. Valerie was wrapped up in her suit, which was impervious to temperature changes. Jazz was dressed warmly, but not like Sam and Tucker. Ellie, meanwhile, had had much the same reaction to the Far Frozen as Danny, which was to say, she loved it.

"It is not," said Clockwork.

"Has it at least stopped getting closer?"

"No."

"Has it... Slowed down?"

"Yes."

"Well, that's progress, right?" He looked back up at the volcano before he got an answer. "What if I went up there, and just, you know, froze it? It'd still hit, but it wouldn't melt anything any more, right?"

"Daniel, you can do this."

"I know, I just don't feel like I can." The sentence came out as a very un-kingly whine. "It's a giant mountain! It's ridiculous."

"Maybe that's the problem," said Jazz. "Not feeling like you can do it."

Danny groaned.

"We all have weird powers," said Sam, teeth chattering. "Tucker has that electricity thing, I have my plants, you have ice, Jazz has mind powers... Why is this so much weirder."

"I don't know!" Danny threw up his hands, and glared at the approaching island. "Why won't you just go away?" he demanded. "You're hurting people! Go somewhere you aren't. This place is huge! You have plenty of room!"

"Ah, there we go," said Clockwork.

"Wait, what, really?" asked Danny, flabbergasted. "That's what worked?" But even as he said it, he felt a sensation of rightness settle in his core. It was moving away. The Far Frozen was safe. He had done a good thing, today.

"Note," said Tucker. "Talking inanimate objects does work, I'm not crazy."

"You are crazy," said Valerie. "You named that PDF-"

"PDA," interjected Tucker.

"-Janet. Who does that?"

The Far Frozen might be a snowbound wasteland, but Frostbite really knew how to throw a party. There was food, music, dancing, lights, everything.

Danny was maybe just a little intimidated by all the cheering they were doing, but, hey, it was still pretty cool.

After a while, though, the yetis calmed down or were distracted, and he was able to slip away and find a quieter side room to hang out with his friends in. He collapsed gratefully onto an icy couch.

"Wow," said Tucker. "That was a party. Like, the best party ever. I don't think I've ever been to a better party."

"I don't think we've been to any parties, except this one," said Danny.

"Huh?"

"We haven't been to any parties. Not since we lost our memories."

Tucker blinked. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I hadn't really thought about that. Maybe we should throw one when we get back to the castle."

Danny sighed, and was surprised to hear a nearly identical one from Ellie.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I just-" Ellie sighed. "I don't want to go back to the castle."

"You want to stay here?" asked Sam, sounding shocked. "But, it's so cold."

"Well, it's really nice here, and it would be good to learn more about our ice powers, but, I mean..." she trailed off, uncertainly.

"What if we traveled around?" asked Danny. "I've been looking at some history things with Clockwork. Human kings used to do that, travel around and see where they were needed. I think we could help more people that way. The castle is kind of hard to get to."

Ellie sat up from where she had been laying. "That would be nice," she said. "I think I'd like that."

"We'd be able to learn more about the Realms, too," said Sam, thoughtfully. "But we should probably put a limit on how long we stay in any one place, except for the castle. So we don't put too much strain on anyone. Either our hosts, or ourselves." She gestured to herself and Tucker. "We don't all like the same things. Obviously."

Danny nodded. "We'll want to stay if we're in the middle of something, though."

"That's reasonable," said Sam. "Just-" She shivered. "Well, you get it. It's cold here. You two Phantoms probably wouldn't feel great about hanging out in a tropical jungle."

"That's true," said Danny. "What do you guys think? Val? Clockwork?"

"Sounds cool to me," said Valerie, shrugging.

"It will open many opportunities for you," said Clockwork. "It will, however, be wise to return to the black castle periodically."

"Okay, cool! I guess we're decided, then. Tomorrow, we'll have to ask if they have any maps here, and figure out where to go!"

"They don't look dangerous," said Valerie.

"They're really pretty," said Jazz. She sighed. "It's so cool that they're real."

"Are you kidding?" said Danny. "Do you see those horns? Those hooves? Feel that ectosignature? They're dangerous." He narrowed his eyes and peered over the large rock he was hiding behind. "And evil. Very evil. The most evil."

Grazing in the center of the floating island was a herd of unicorns. They were black and hot pink, with long, grey horns, and sharp teeth and hooves. Their manes were made of ghostly flame. On the other side of the island stood the flaming ruins of a once-thriving community.

Removing them was the latest task Danny and his friends had taken on. They'd been traveling and helping people for some time. Months, maybe. But it was hard to tell exactly, because the Infinite Realms didn't have strictly defined days and nights. Some of the individual Realms did, but not all of them together.

"Come on, Danny. They're animals. They don't have the awareness to be evil," said Sam. "They're just acting according to their nature."

"Either way, we still have to chase them off."

"No, no, that's not going to work," said Sam. "They'll either come back, or bother someone else. What we need to do is relocate them."

"What's the difference?" asked Ellie.

Clockwork wasn't with them today. As Master of Time, he did have other responsibilities. He had said something about a complex paradox he needed to untangle before he left.

"The difference is that one is humane, and actually fixes things, and the other just makes the problem repeat later."

"No, I mean, practically. What would we have to do differently?" asked Ellie.

"We'd need to find a place to relocate them to, first," said Sam. "Then we'd have to catch them, somehow, or guide them away."

"Oh yeah! Clockwork gave me a thing like that! Look." He showed them the shiny green and white cylinder.

"I've got something that looks like that, but square," said Valerie, "and redder. Actually, it doesn't look like that at all. Why did I think it did? Anyway, it catches ghosts. Yeah. I'm pretty sure, anyway. I haven't tested it."

"Okay. So, we can't just leave them here while we search for a place to put them. Sorry, Sam. They're just too dangerous. They might attack somewhere else. Once they're all caught, then we can find somewhere to relocate them to."

Sam sighed, but nodded. "You're right. So how should we approach this? Maybe Val and I could go around from behind, and we can kind of pinch them together?"

That was a good idea. "Yeah, I was sort of thinking-"

"Hey, guys?" said Tucker. "They're looking at us."

The unicorns were indeed looking at them, Danny saw. The closest stamped its hoof, and lowered its horn.

Danny swallowed. "Oh, jeez."

A few hours later, Danny and the others laid, out of breath and exhausted, on another, much smaller floating island.

"Okay," said Danny, weakly raising an arm. "That didn't go to plan."

"There was a plan?" asked an unfamiliar voice. "You could have fooled me."

Danny snapped upright, his first instinct being to defend his friends. Of course, their first instinct was to defend him, so all their various weapons and glowing fists wound up pointed at the hapless ghost.

The ghost in question was encased in silver armor modeled (very roughly) on human anatomy. He had rivets, a green, fiery mohawk, and sort of stubby legs. He also looked rather intimidated.

"Uh," said Danny, lowering his fists. "Sorry. Who are you?"

"I am Skulker! The Ghost Zone's greatest hunter!" He puffed out his chest.

"Hunter!?" screeched Sam. "You mean you hunt poor innocent animals?"

Skulker looked sideways at Danny. "What can I say that will make her not attack me?"

"Do you hunt animals?" asked Danny.

"It's not like I kill them! Make your girlfriend stop looking at me like that!"

"She's not my girlfriend!" objected Danny, quickly.

"I'm not his girlfriend!"

"You're back at that? Really?" asked Skulker. "I know your memories got erased, but really?"

"You knew us?" asked Jazz, with interest. "Is there anything you can tell us?" They had met several people who had knew them before, but their accounts of what they had been like were... confused. At best.

"You were the greatest prey I've ever had the pleasure of hunting!" said Skulker. "And also one of the best hunters. Except for me, of course. But that," he pointed back towards where the unicorn horn still was, "that was pathetic. What happened?"

"Well," drawled Danny, "it might have something to do with that whole memory erasing thing you were talking about. By the way, are you, like, really a tiny little ghost inside a robot suit?"

"Oh my gosh!" said Tucker, floating higher. "You're a mecha? That's so cool! How do you work?"

"I am cool," said Skulker, "and- Wait. How did you know that? How did you know about that?"

"I don't know. Your ectosignature is just kind of weird. But, back to you, you're a hunter? Have you hunted, you know, unicorns before?"

"They're actually why I'm here," said Skulker, proudly. "But then I saw what you were doing, and it was just so hilarious that I couldn't stop laughing long enough to properly pilot my suit."

"Cool. But have you ever caught one before?"

"No. Actually, you once saved me from being brutally dismembered by one. But, today, that will change! Today, I capture a unicorn for my collection!"

Danny tilted his head. At this point, no one was threatening Skulker anymore.

"By collection," said Sam, slowly, "what do you mean, exactly?"

"My collection," repeated Skulker, "on my island. I let all my prizes roam free, of course, so I can have the pleasure of hunting them again!"

"Okay. Yeah. That's good enough for the demon horses," said Sam. "We're teaming up and giving them to you."

"I- What? No, that's a terrible idea," said Skulker.

"That's a great idea!" said Danny.

"No."

"Yes!"

"I'm the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter! I don't team up with anyone."

"But shouldn't the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter be able to teach people how to be great hunters?" asked Jazz.

"Ohhhhhhh," groaned Skulker.

Danny smiled.

"Ssooooo," said Danny, sliding in next to Tucker. "You were a pharaoh before. I wonder how that works, what with your tech Obsession?"

"Well," said Tucker, vaguely waving his hands at the tall, shiny pyramids in front of them. "I don't think tech is my only Obsession. Protection isn't your only Obsession. But, I probably fell in here through a portal from Egypt. That happens."

"Speaking of which, do we even know what time period it is out in the human world?" asked Danny. "I've seen people from all over. Like, the farthest back person I've seen is from, like, prehistory, and the farthest along had this raygun thing going on for them. But maybe they were just Obsessed with science fiction."

"Who knows," said Tucker, shrugging. "Hey, I think- I think I need to stay here for a bit longer. I just want to, I don't know. Find out who I am."

"That's cool, dude. Take all the time you need."

"... and he just... gave you a sword?"

"Yep," said Jazz, looking down at the object. "I think he was an Ancient, like Clockwork. Fright Knight."

"So that's... That's Soulshredder," said Danny, pointing. "The sword that will send you to a dimension that contains your worst fears if you get cut by it."

"Yeah," said Jazz.

Danny rubbed his eyes, and sat down on an overstuffed chair. They were staying in a rather nice house in Logres-Prydain, which was a rather nice, large archipelago ruled by certain deceased and imaginary British monarchs.

They hadn't done anything there, except for playing tourist, Logres-Prydain was a very stable realm, apart from its fits of melodrama. Not at all like Albion, the other realm ruled by former British leaders, which had far more than the occasional colonial impulse. Still, it had been a nice, relaxing vacation.

Until now.

"Did he say why?"

Jazz shrugged. "He said that it belonged to the first defender of the King, and he wasn't doing that anymore."

"Oh. Well. I guess that makes sense. You're going to have to get sword lessons, though. I told you that you should have joined the rest of us when Frostbite gave us lessons."

"But the library."

"Yeah," said Danny, remembering. "The library. It was pretty cool." He paused. "Do you think Fright Knight would give you lessons, or should we get, like, the Green Knight, or something?"

"Uh. Since he kind of left right after giving this to me, I'd say the second option."

"Good call."

They stood over the hulking, but defeated form of Undergrowth, former Ancient of Plant Life.

Danny had never seen Sam look so awesome.

"How did you take control of his plants?" he asked, tapping one of Undergrowth's vines with his foot and freezing it. Maybe Undergrowth was tied up by Sam's plants, but Danny didn't want him to root himself again.

Sam shrugged. "I don't know. I think I might have done it before? It felt sort of familiar. You know how it is."

"Yep," agreed Danny. He sighed. "So, what do we do with him?"

"Isn't he wanted?" asked Valerie. "I think I saw a poster or two, back in Logres."

"Mhm. By the Observants, though," said Danny.

"Okay," said Ellie. "So what? Make them work for their keep, or whatever."

"Not a bad idea," said Danny. "I kinda feel like we might regret it eventually, but I don't really care. What do you say, we wear Undergrowth down until he fits in the thermos, take him to the Observants, and then go back around, pick everyone up, and go home?"

Sam stretched. "Sounds good to me. This whole thing," she waved at the ghostly jungle around her, "has given me some ideas about how to Observant-proof the castle."

"This is actually really cool," said Sam. "I thought it would be like a zoo, with all the animals in cages, but it isn't."

"I told you it wasn't," said Skulker, sulkily.

They had stopped by Skulker's island while circling back to Logres-Prydain to pick up Jazz. It wasn't quite on the way, but Sam and Valerie had wanted to see it. Sam because she was still suspicious as to Skulker's treatment of animals, and Valerie because she wanted to learn more about hunting. She really liked hunting. Almost to a disturbing degree.

Danny hoped she wouldn't wind up after his skin like Skulker apparently had been.

His life had been weird before. He wished he knew more about it, wished one of the ghosts he met would tell him something more than, Oh, hey, I used to fight you a lot, but I want to be best friends now.

He wished he knew why none of the ghosts would say anything. It couldn't all be because of the Observants.

Could it?

"Skulker," said Danny, interrupting. "What were our lives like?"

The ghost went quiet. "Complicated," he said, finally. "More than I ever knew about, even if I did hunt you and observe your behavior meticulously!"

"Wow," drawled Ellie. "That's not creepy at all."

"You lived with your parents, and your sister," continued Skulker.

"Ellie?"

"No, the red-haired one. You went to one of those human schools with your girlfriend and her," he pointed at Valerie, "and that tech-y boy."

"You mean Tucker's not from ancient Egypt?" Oh, boy, he hoped that wasn't going to turn into a problem later on.

"No. Why would you think that?"

"Long story. What about me?" asked Ellie.

"Honestly, I don't know where you came from. You're related to him, somehow, though."

"Oh," said Ellie, clearly disappointed.

"But that's really all I know."

"That's it?" asked Danny. "Do you know what happened to our parents?"

"No. It isn't like we were best friends. Oh, yes, that's right. You and the huntress used to be enemies. Once I pitted you against one another on this very island! Good times."

"Okaaaaaaaaaay," said Danny. "This has been fun and all buuuuuuuuuuuut I think it's time to go." He started floating away, awkwardly.

"Sure, whatever," said Skulker, waving. "Visit soon! I have to introduce you to my girlfriend!"

"Clockwork?" asked Danny. "Are you okay?" Ever since they'd gotten back to the castle, Clockwork had been acting nervous and stressed.

"I'm fine, Daniel," said Clockwork, fidgeting with the hem of his robes. "I am simply... anticipating."

"Anticipating what?"

"Certain... Events. That will happen."

"Like, bad events, or good events?"

"Events," repeated Clockwork.

"Give me a hint?" asked Danny, half-playfully. He leaned back in his chair, and played with the toes of his bare feet. He actually quite liked the suits with short pants the tailors kept giving him. He was less certain about the pocket watch, anklets and other decorations they were adding lately, but he did like the ticking sound the pocket watch made, so it was all good.

Clockwork shook his head. "No, Daniel. I can't tell you about the future. I apologize for being distracted. Now, where were we?"

"I think you were talking about the Swan Princesses, and the settlement of White Mountain?"

"Indeed." He waved his hand, and an image appeared in the air, like a holographic projection. "Now, if you will turn your attention here..."

"How do you like it?" asked Sam. She and Tucker had been working on a new barrier for the castle for the past two weeks. The result was floating, interlocking, shifting hedges of black roses grown over a framework of shiny tech. It was a bizarre, but oddly appealing combination.

"It's great!" said Danny. "But it isn't going to keep people who need us out, is it? As in, people who need us who aren't the Observants?" He'd asked the question before, but he felt the need for confirmation.

"It'll let people who ask for help in," said Tucker, proudly. "People who say they need help. My stuff will also give me alerts whenever something unusual comes up."

"So will mine," said Sam, quickly. "Not as quickly, but it'll be good as backup, if Tucker isn't available."

"That's really amazing, you guys. I wish I could have helped."

"Pft. It's no problem," said Tucker, waving his hand. "You've been really busy."

"Still," said Danny.

"No, dude. You were stopping a war, weren't you?"

"And averting a natural disaster," said Sam. "The Lethe flooding could have been a real problem."

"Not to mention rescuing all those guys the ghost hunters caught, and figuring out what to do with the ghost hunters," continued Tucker. "What did you do with them, anyway?"

Danny shrugged. "I just kicked them back out into the human world. I hope they don't come back."

"Anyway," said Sam. "There is something you can do with this, if you want to. We left room for your ice, and-" she took out a papery packet. "Tada! Iceflower seeds. Between the two of us, we should be able to make them grow, and then you can have just as much warning when someone is knocking on our door as we do."

"Cool!" said Danny. Then he grinned. "Literally."

Sam and Tucker groaned in stereo. "Seriously?" said Tucker.

Danny shrugged. "The pun was just sitting there. You couldn't expect me not to take it. But, really, Sam. Where did you get these? I thought Frostbite said they were almost extinct."

"Eh, well, I got help from the Far Frozen, and we all asked around. I'm thinking about starting a seed bank, or a botanical garden. You know, to preserve ecological diversity."

"In her copious free time, you know."

"Shut up, Tucker."

This was Jack and Maddie's fifth trip into the Ghost Zone. Every time they got further in. Every time they improved the Specter Speeder. This time was different, though. Last time, they had seen the Ghost King.

It had only been from a distance, and he had looked very different from when he had dragged Amity Park into the Ghost Zone two years ago, but their instruments didn't lie. He was the only ghost who could possibly have that much power. No other came close.

Maddie wished the encounter had lasted longer, that the Ghost King had stayed still long enough for their instruments to analyze his ectosignature and determine what his powers and weaknesses were. If she and Jack were to defeat him, and get their children back, they needed every advantage possible.

At the same time, Maddie knew they had been lucky. If the portal hadn't opened up before the Ghost King attacked them, they could have been killed. They hadn't been prepared to face him, then. Now they were. The Specter Speeder had been fitted with all of their very best weapons. They were ready. Ready to get their children back, or die trying.

The universe seemed to agree with them. They had yet to have a single ghostly encounter. The Ghost Zone was quiet, quiescent. The sky spun slowly around them, islands passing by in the distance.

"According to the ghosts we questioned," Maddie said, "the Ghost King's castle should be this way, and he should be in residence."

Jack nodded grimly. "I wi-"

"Don't say that word. Don't you remember what happened last month?"

"Sorry, Mads."

Maddie bit her lip. "So am I. I didn't mean to snap at you." She sighed. "I'm stressed. What were you saying?"

"It would have better," said Jack, cautiously, "if any of the ghosts had known why the Ghost King woke up again."

"It would have been nice to know what had woken him up in the first place," said Maddie. "But it doesn't matter. We're not trying to put him to sleep." A flash of odd color caught Maddie's eye, and she leaned forward, looking up through the windshield, to try to see what it was and where it had gone. "Did you see-?"

A bolt of fuchsia energy hit the front of the Speeder and splashed against the shields. Alarms sounded in the cabin as the Speeder was forced down. Maddie cursed, and began activating weapons. Why hadn't the ghost detector gone off?

Oh. Now it activated.

"Big ectosignature, Mads!" shouted Jack over the noise.

"The King?" asked Maddie, as green, then pink, hit the shields.

"Not quite that big, but- What's that?" The Speeder shook under another barrage.

Maddie yanked on the controls. "Two colors! There must be two of them!"

"The engines!"

"What?"

A temperature warning suddenly went off. Were they overheating? No, the engine temperature had dropped. An ice user? Like Phantom had been?

Maddie revved the engine, but it was too late. It had gotten too cold, and they were dead in the water.

Yet another fruitless trip. Maddie hit the steering wheel. They could probably fight their way out of this, with all their weaponry, and rig up a way back, but they'd have to go back to the drawing board as far as their rescue attempt went.

It was probably a good thing. If they were brought so low by these ghosts, they would have been destroyed by the Ghost King. But, still, it was so frustrating.

"Maddie, I can't get a lock!"

Maddie snapped back to the present, and frantically started pressing buttons.

Then the barrage stopped, suddenly and completely.

"Still only one ectosignature?"

"No, I have two, but one is so small, I can't-"

A red figure on a board swooped into view in front of the Specter Speeder. Maddie froze completely. That was Valerie Gray.

Yes, she was wearing that red ghost hunting armor, but Phantom had revealed her, back when the Ghost King had dragged Amity Park into the Ghost Zone. Maddie wasn't likely to forget that, or anything that had happened then.

"Ghost hunters!" shouted Valerie Gray, loudly enough to be heard inside the Speeder. "Disable your weapons, and open the doors of your vehicle."

A ghost girl appeared out of thin air next to Valerie. The board tipped somewhat, and the girl seemed to laugh, gesturing at Valerie with a teasing gesture.

The ghost looked like Phantom, almost like she could be his sister. His twin, even. That would be incredibly rare, among ghosts. But then, Phantom had always been an oddity, right up until he had disappeared entirely.

Maddie wasn't surprised he was involved in this, however tangentially.

She fumbled for the PA microphone. "Valerie Gray?"

The conversation outside stopped, as both girls turned their attention back to the Speeder. Valerie's mask receded from her face.

"How do you know my name?"

"You don't recognize us?"

"Kind of hard to, considering you're in that big thing. All I know is that you're the ones who've been harassing people and causing problems." Valerie crossed her arms. "Why don't you come out, then we can talk about whether or not we know each other."

Maddie lowered the microphone, and turned to Jack. "It's obviously a trap," she said.

"But she might know where Danny and Jazz are," said Jack, "and even if she doesn't, we have a duty to her, as well. She's a victim, too."

"She might be overshadowed," said Maddie, even as she nodded in agreement.

"She's definitely under some kind of control. Otherwise she'd never work with a ghost. But I think we have to risk it. For Jazz and Danny."

"For Jazz and Danny," agreed Maddie.

She pushed open her door and leaned out. The void of the Ghost Zone yawned dizzily beneath her, the ectoplasmic mists spiraling down forever. She waved at Valerie. "Alright, let's tal-"

The ghost girl was abruptly next to Maddie, and there were four of her.

"Gotcha," she (they?) said, grinning, as they grabbed onto her and Jack.

Maddie's vision blurred, and when it came back into focus, she found herself next to Valerie Gray, supported in the air by two copies of the ghost girl. Jack was similarly imprisoned.

"So," said one of the copies. "What should we do with these guys? Any thoughts, Val?"

Valerie Gray regarded them silently. There were streaks of red in her hair, and flecks of gold in her eyes. An affectation, or a side effect of living in the Ghost Zone for so long?

"You say you know me," said Valerie. "How?"

"You mean," gasped Maddie, trying not to think about the endless drop beneath her feet, "you don't know us?"

"No. I don't. What are you even doing in here? You're human."

"So are you!" said Jack.

Valerie shrugged. "Not entirely. I'm going to ask again, what are you doing in the Infinite Realms?"

"We're looking for our children," said Maddie.

"Oh, we can help with that," said the ghost girl. "When did they die?"

"They didn't," snapped Maddie. "They were kidnapped, by your king!"

Valerie snorted. "I highly doubt that. When was this?"

"Almost a year ago," said Maddie. "The same time you disappeared."

"Uh huh," said Valerie. "Well, it wasn't our king. He hasn't been reigning for that long, yet. I doubt it was the last guy, either. Last time I checked, he was still locked up."

"What were your kids' names?" asked the ghost girl.

"Their names are Daniel and Jasmine," said Maddie.

"Okay, cool. Hey, Val, what do you say we have our resident mind reader take a look at them?"

The floating island the ghost girl had set them down on was tiny. Barely large enough to pace on. If the ghost girl or Valerie had been on it with them, it would have been far too crowded. As it was, the two girls had chosen to float some distance above the island while one of the ghost girl's duplicates went to go get the 'mind reader.'

Maddie surreptitiously checked her suit's built-in weapons for the fifth time. Maybe it would be better to attack the ghost now, but then the absent duplicate would still be free to gather reinforcements. If the 'mind reader' was the ghost controlling Valerie, defeating it could free her, and get the Fentons an ally.

If not, then- then-

Maddie didn't know. She had come into the Ghost Zone with so many plans, but they had all depended on having the Specter Speeder, which was now a floating dot in the distance. More than that, she was distracted by Valerie's apparent amnesia.

Would Danny and Jazz remember them? Would they be under the control of ghosts as well? How would they get past that? They had expected them to be imprisoned, yes. They had even expected them to be hurt, or controlled. But amnesiac? That hadn't been something they had planned for.

"Here we come," said the ghost girl, above them.

Maddie looked up, and traced her gaze to two approaching dots. They grew larger and larger, until they resolved into humanoid figures. One was the ghost girl. The other...

The other was Jazz.

She had a blue streak in her hair, and her eyes flashed pale yellow-orange when she looked down at Jack and Maddie, but it was definitely Jazz. It was Jazz, despite her anachronistic clothing, despite the long, thin, and wicked sword strapped to her waist.

It was Jazz, and the blank look on her face when she met Maddie's eyes confirmed her worst fears. Jazz didn't remember them at all.

"They're telling the truth," said Jazz.

"They are? Really? You and Danny are their kids?" asked Ellie.

"That's what they think, anyway," said Jazz. She glanced back down at the couple. "They're also hiding enough weapons to equip an army."

"You should have seen their spaceship thing."

"And what Val said to them when they were in their spaceship thing. She sounded like Walker!"

"I did not."

"Did too!"

"Okay, okay," said Jazz. "But what should we do with them? Send them home? Get Danny? What?"

"Well," said Ellie, "what do you want to do?"

Jazz sighed. "I don't know. I'd just as soon not deal with this. I mean, we've all been curious about our pasts, but our responsibility is to the Realms, and they're, well. A menace."

"You don't feel anything for them?" asked Valerie, sounding surprised.

"I do, but..." Jazz shrugged, unable to explain just what she felt. "Anyway, they think we're being mind controlled or something. I don't think we can just get through to them. But if we just send them back to the human world, they'll come back. At least, that's the vibe I'm getting right now."

"It's like with the unicorns," said Ellie. She paused. "Does that mean we have to relocate them?"

"No, I don't think that would work. Or it might work," Jazz corrected herself, "insofar as getting them out of the way, but not in terms of having a satisfying conclusion. I mean, imagine if we left them on an island somewhere. We'd always be wondering and worrying about them, wouldn't we? And they'd always be trying to escape. But... I think you have a point, comparing them to the unicorns."

"Wow, thanks, Jazz. I was beginning to think that everything I said was wrong."

"Oh, come on. I'm just trying to talk myself through this."

"I get it, I get it. Go on. Tell me how I'm right."

"I think we need to give them what they want, at least partially, then they won't feel the need to come back. It might help us get some closure, too, as far as our former lives go."

"Meaning?" prompted Valerie.

"Meaning, we should take them to Danny."

"I'm getting a signal from the barrier," said Tucker. He was decked out in all his Egyptian gear, but also with a whole lot of tech. It left something of an odd impression.

Danny looked up from a pile of correspondence. "Oh, yeah? Is it the Observants?"

"No, it's Jazz, Val, and Ellie with a couple of humans." Tucker drummed on the table. "I'm going to go check it out."

"With the side effect of leaving us with all of this," said Sam. She gestured at the table full of letters.

"Hey, it's Danny's fan mail," said Tucker, pointing finger guns at the two of them. "Catch you later."

A few minutes later, he came back.

"Hey, guys. Problem. Big problem."

Jazz came in right after him. "I don't know if it's a problem, exactly, but Val and Ellie are outside the barrier with our parents."

"Is this what you were talking about?" Danny asked Clockwork. "That event you were talking about earlier."

Clockwork shrugged, misery evident in his motions.

"Is this the Observant's orders, still? I could smack their eyeballs right out of their heads..."

"What are we going to do?" asked Tucker. "Talk to them? Send them away? What?"

"How about we make them go through our maze?"

"Wh- Why would we do that?" asked Danny.

"I don't know. It sounds like fun. Oh! It might make them reveal their weapons. That would be good, right?" Sam shrugged.

"I guess, but I think that might be, you know, unnecessarily cruel," said Danny.

"Yeah, so?"

"So, that's bad."

"Is it?"

Danny shook his head. "Let's go to the throne room, and let them in. It sounds like a lot of their aggression to ghosts is them thinking that the 'Ghost King' is involved with our kidnapping. Which, I mean, yes, clearly I am involved in my own kidnapping, but, you get it."

"It would be good if they stopped attacking people," said Tucker.

Danny groaned. "Yeah. I can't believe I have to worry about my parents randomly attacking people."

"It isn't all that unbelievable. You're pretty violent."

"And you aren't?"

"Hey, I'm not denying it."

The ghost girl, who was apparently named Ellie, held Jack and Maddie as they and Valerie floated over a castle trapped within a ever-shifting framework of barbed-wire-like roses and ice.

It looked like a prison.

Slowly, the spinning layers came to a halt, revealing a path to the castle at their heart.

"Looks like they want to see you," said Ellie, flying down. She set the two humans down on the edge of the island, and then gestured at a huge pair of doors. "Go ahead," she said. "We're right behind you."

Maddie's lips twitched at the threat, but turned away. Let the ghost think Maddie was afraid of her. She and Jack walked forward, past the ghosts guarding the doors, and into a long, broad hallway.

At the end of the hall was a dais. On that dais was a throne. Jazz stood just beyond the last step of the dais, below the throne, her hand resting on the hilt of her sword. To the throne's left was Tucker Foley, Danny's best friend. He was dressed like something out of a documentary on Egypt. To the throne's right was Samantha Manson, decked out in poisonously bright flowers and a ragged green dress.

In the throne itself sat Danny, wearing a neat suit and a crown that burned with blue fire. The tips of his bare toes fell just short of reaching the floor in front of the throne.

"Jack and Maddie Fenton," he said, in a clear, carrying voice. "Please come forward."

Maddie looked over her shoulder at Valerie and Ellie. Their expressions suggested that Jack and Maddie had better start walking.

As they approached the throne, Danny pushed himself out of the throne and stood. Other than the odd clothing choice, Danny looked the same as he always had. Unlike the others, odd lights didn't shine from his eyes, and his hair wasn't streaked with strange colors.

"Hi," he said, in a more normal tone of voice. "I'm told you want to talk to me. To us." He smiled faintly. "I'm afraid none of us remember anything from more than, hm, call it eleven months ago, though."

Maddie's brain was still trying to process the situation.

"You really don't remember us?"

"I'm sorry," said Danny. "We don't. You seem somewhat familiar, though, if that helps."

It didn't.

"You're the Ghost King!" exclaimed Jack, suddenly.

"I am," said Danny.

"But," said Maddie, as the throne and the crown suddenly clicked into place for her, "how? You're human!"

"Only half," said Danny. He shrugged, and light rippled across his skin. His hair went white, his eyes green, and his skin darkened.

Phantom stood in his place.

Then, before Maddie could blink, he was Danny again.

"That's apparently enough," continued Danny.

"How..." Maddie couldn't get enough air to ask the question.

"I don't know exactly," said Danny. "But from what I've read, it can happen if a portal opens up on you." He tilted his head. "We would like to hear what we were like, though. Not many people will tell us. Are you alright?"

"Breathe, Mom," said Jazz. "Go ahead, breathe. Everything is going to be fine."

The room they were in now was much smaller. Almost cozy, despite all the death symbols and ghostly trappings. Maddie eyed a scythe hung above the fireplace suspiciously.

Jack had taken a ghost detector out of his suit, and was scanning the children. All of them had ectosignatures, but none of them showed up as so much as overshadowed.

"Why don't you remember anything?" asked Maddie as Jazz tucked a quilt around her.

Danny rolled his eyes, and the flames of his crown flickered higher. "A certain group of ghosts thought it appropriate to revive an archaic purification ritual which used the waters of each of the five great rivers, one of which is the Lethe, for my coronation. They have been punished appropriately." He shifted his weight. "But tell us, what were we like? What were our lives like?"

"Come home," said Maddie, her voice hoarse from all the stories she had told. "Come home, all of you. Whatever this is, we can fix this."

Danny shook his head. "We can't." His voice was rough as well. He had told his share of stories.

"You can. We can hide the changes to your appearance."

"No, we physically can't. We bathed in the waters of the Five Rivers of the Infinite Realms, including those of the River Styx. We're bound here. We can't set foot in the human world."

"You can visit, though," said Jazz. "Whenever you like."

"As long as you don't attack any of my subjects," added Danny.

"We can't leave you here," objected Maddie, "as slaves to ghosts."

"We aren't slaves," said Tucker, annoyance clear in his voice.

"But you don't actually have to leave," said Danny. "You could live here. The same prohibition against attacking people would apply, however."

Jack and Maddie exchanged a glance that conveyed thousands of words. "We would like that," said Maddie, returning her gaze to her son.

Danny smiled, and clapped his hands together. "Excellent! I'll see about having some rooms made up for you. Come on," he said, standing, "let me show you what we've got.

Maddie followed him out of the room, her eyes fixed on his crown. She wasn't giving up. This wasn't over yet.

This wasn't over at all.

#danny phantom #winter truce #wintertruce #wintertruce2019 #christmas truce #christmas truce 2019 #gift #ghostpetrol #phanfic #mywriting #my writing

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itsclydebitches · 4 years

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RWBY Recap: “Cordially Invited”

Only a week late, folks! Can’t say I’m surprised, what with the holidays underway and my normal schedule all topsy-turvy. Still, at least now there’s a little something to fill the RWBY-less hole this Saturday. Always a silver lining.

We begin the episode with our group discussing their upcoming dinner---Oscar included! We’re off to a great start. We learn that Jacques supposedly just wants to “break bread and hash things out,” but anyone with two brain cells to function together know that’s a load of BS. What frustrates me is Ruby’s attempts to spin this as a good thing because they supposedly want Ironwood to start “opening up” to “these people.” Yeah... there’s so much wrong with that. Normally Ruby’s optimism is one of the personality traits I love most about her, but lately that optimism has been twisted into naivety at best, that pro-protagonist perspective at worst. We saw this in Volume Six where the optimistic “We’ll find some way into Atlas!” became an attack on Argus. Now, Ruby’s “Maybe this won’t be so bad!” is functionally an attack on Ironwood. The responsibility lies with him to achieve that good outcome: he needs to open up to the horrendously corrupt abuser that Weiss at least suspects might be involved with Salem. Note that Ruby doesn’t extend those same expectations to herself and her team. She doesn’t claim that they all should “open up” to Jacques in the name of crafting better relations. No, she immediately jumps to having Weiss spy on him in order to get ahead in the game. For the record, I don’t give a damn if the group commits “bad” actions against Jacques (more on that below) because again, Jacques is an evil, corrupt abuser. Rather, it’s just that continuing issue of hypocrisy. Ruby expects Ironwood to “open up” to him and make peace over dinner, but only expects herself and her friends to give him what’s for. Insert [Ozpin and Ironwood must never keep secrets or tell lies, but we’re allowed to] here. Same song, different tune.

Oscar at least points out how idiotic that perspective is from a practical perspective. He doesn’t call Ruby out on the expectation that Ironwood make nice with the man they want to keep Weiss five billion feet away from, but he does acknowledge that such expectations can’t be fulfilled at this time in this place. Jacques has tailored this dinner to benefit him and him alone. He will control the conversation, so good luck getting around that.

Weiss: “I think my dad would do whatever it takes to win.”

Ruby: “And we should do the same.”

Granted, “whatever it takes” comes to mean spilling some food which obviously is in no way comparable to Jacques’ entire existence. The viewer doesn’t know that’s coming though. When we first hear them, these lines are another nod to the closing gap between the “heroes” and the “villains”---whether we’re defining a “villain” as someone like Jacques or someone like Ozpin. The theme is there. The group is willfully adopting the same choices as those they oppose. If Ozpin is going to lie to us then we’ll lie to Ironwood. If Jacques is going to do whatever it takes then so will we. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As I’ve mentioned in non-recap metas, RWBY has now created a harsh world where by-the-book heroics will only hurt you in the end. If Ozpin had never kept secrets I don’t believe he would have achieved that extraordinary time of peace. If Blake and Yang hadn’t killed Adam they still would have a murderous abuser stalking them. We clearly have a story where the concept of a lesser evil exists...it’s just that we’re continually turning around to insist that the group is somehow better than everyone else for also doing what they have to to survive.

Which brings me to the fact that if Blake and Yang told everyone else about Robyn, we get not indication of that here. The only nod to last episode’s huge decision was Robyn’s shock that Jacques doesn’t already know what the Amity tower is for, but she’s cut off before she can reveal anything in front of Ironwood. So until proven otherwise... here’s another secret. Not just from an adult in a position of authority, but from the rest of the team as well. Given that Blake hid her faunus status and time in the White Fang, Yang continues to hide her knowledge of the Spring Maiden, both of them are helping to keep at least three major secrets from Ironwood, and are now keeping the Robyn secret from everyone else... no leg to stand on. Not to be dramatic on main, but if either of them ever pulls another, “How dare you keep secrets?!” I’m gonna go absolutely feral lol.

Anyway, back to the plot.

There are no new models of the group in fancy dinner clothes. I in no way had my hopes up for that, but it was fun seeing the posts theorizing about it and I can understand others’ disappointment. That definitely would have been a nice surprise, if an insane amount of work for what amounts to ten minutes of screen time.

Instead everyone just shows up in their normal gear and we get a telling exchange between Ironwood and Winter where she informs him he’d have to pay her to smile. I’m really glad she got a lot of attention this episode, both because we expect as much with her returning to the Schnee manor and because, if she’s going to become the next Winter Maiden, we really need to develop her character some. Even just setting up that she might become a Maiden demands that Winter be more than just Ironwood’s second hand and Wiess’ big sis. Who is she on her own? We start getting a glimpse of that here.

Before her outburst though, the group arrives en masse looking like a small army knocking on Jacques’ door. They’re greeted by Whitley who comments on that, asking Ironwood how large he thinks their dining room table is. Absolutely humongous, obviously. Not really the point though. This is clearly Rooster Teeth poking fun at their own massive cast, which would be more enjoyable if the number of characters didn’t constantly hinder the story. Personally, I’d prefer that they actually tackle underdeveloped or mostly dropped characters (like Maria) rather than just joking about it, but anyone keeping up with these recaps already knows that. If we’re not going to get a better structured story I’ll take some jokes here and there. Laugh about it when you can.

Although, I will say that Rooster Teeth does a good job with a minor character here, namely Klein. Whitley makes a dig at Weiss over how he was let go. Wonder how that could have happened. Klein, to my mind at least, was always meant to be a one shot sort of deal. He was introduced to help Weiss escape and once he’d achieved that was no longer useful to the story. It makes sense that we left him behind, but it’s nevertheless wonderful to get a bit of closure. Sad closure, but closure nonetheless. Now, if Rooster Teeth wants to keep him out of the picture we technically have a complete story. We know who Klein was, what he did, and what happened to him in the aftermath. Yet by keeping him alive and away from the Schnees, there’s always the potential that we’ll run into him again someday. I’m quite satisfied with that balance. It’s much better than what I was expecting, namely for Weiss to return home and conveniently not run into him because that would complicate things. Here we’re given an in-character explanation for his absence. Of course Jacques would fire him.

Finally, in the realm of massive casts and character development, I’ve got to admit that I’m disappointing with Penny being there. Simply because it once and for all shatters the hope that this well-executed frame job will amount to anything. If she’s attending a dinner with Jacques Schnee then things are fine. I said that I wasn’t convinced of this “Penny might be deactivated!” consequence before and I’m definitely not convinced of it now. Theoretically another consequence could have been Ironwood losing his council position, but we don’t see that either. Jacques references Ironwood’s inability to catch whoever hacked them at Beacon and his inability to catch whoever attacked Robyn’s supporters as reasons for being untrustworthy, both of which stand without the frame job. It’s incidental. Tyrian could have just killed everyone as Tyrian and it would have had the exact same effect. All the framing has done is make Penny sad (which hasn’t led to any development yet) and get Pietro to spill the beans about her aura (which could have happened in a thousand other ways). I was so pleased at this setup and the ingenuity of the villains, wondering what sort of impact this framing would have, but now we see the impact is minimal at best. If you frame a character for murder but have no other major character questioning their guilt and they’re out in public two episodes later... what was the point of the framing? Penny’s presence here is disappointing. Not because I don’t love Penny, but simply because of more missed opportunities. At this point I’m wondering why they bothered to bring her back at all. We’re not going to have Ruby grapple with the resurrection of her friend. We’re not going to deal with Penny taking the heat for Tyrian’s murders... Why is she here?

Also, not to distract from these important questions but... that.

That.

Friends, I cannot quite convey how confused I was at first. This is obviously supposed to be akin to the Jaguar ornament but... that’s a raptor, right? Have we seen raptor-type grimm? Am I missing something?? Yes, yes I am. Turns out RWBY Rex is a thing I never knew about and I can now only assume this is another Easter egg. Either that or I’m still missing something. Which is always possible. Either way it made me laugh.

The group heads inside and then splits, Ironwood, Clover, Winter, and Penny going into the dining area. Clover makes a quip about needing luck and Qrow points out that he’s already been invited. I can easily see why so many people are shipping them, but as a hardcore ozqrow shipper myself I’m already biased to view this as friendship. Maybe if we see more of Clover and he doesn’t die like everyone thinks he will I’ll find space in my heart for a dual ship. Either way it’s sweet. As much as I’d like Qrow to acknowledge the best friend he already has two feet away in the body of a kid he hasn’t treated particularly well, I’m nevertheless here for Qrow having healthy and supportive relationships.

We also get to see him refusing a glass of wine. Thank you! Again, it’s pretty late in the game to introduce this and we’re still given no insight into why Qrow is willing to battle his addiction now when he’s succumbed to it for most of his life, but at least they’re maintaining the work needed to stay sober. Qrow politely refuses the offer (from a faunus waiter. No surprise there given Jacques’ racism) and removes himself from temptation by offering to patrol the grounds. Very nicely done. The other Ace Ops join him, warning the newbie huntsmen not to wander off, not to break anything, and make sure you’re available if Ironwood needs you.

To which Yang provides the counter point that they should wander off, they should break things, and all the rest. Jaune later says, “What was that about breaking things?” Admittedly, these lines originally rankled. Because as much as Jacques deserves all the snooping and breaking our team can dish out, I maintain the position that they need to act more responsibly, especially now that they’re officially on the job. We’ve already got Blake and Yang deciding to go behind their bosses’ back. We don’t need them aggravating a situation when they’re the ones who want Ironwood to do that “opening up.” Jacques controlling the situation aside, Ironwood is even less likely to make headway if his guests are off causing trouble.

Which is why I’m so thrilled they didn’t. I’ll be blunt and say straight out that this was a fantastic way to do things. They’re allowed to get food. Nothing wrong with that. We already know Nora is a big eater and tends to be impulsive. If she just happens to pile a plate crazy high, it just happens to hit another guest, and she just happens to douse Whitley in wine? Well... who could have seen that coming? It’s a way of causing mayhem without endangering others or their mission. It achieves the one very specific thing they need: give Weiss an opening to sneak off. No one went overboard. No one else actually snuck off to break things. It was an all around smart plan. Unlike the group attacking Cordovin or Weiss dumping a racist in the trash when they’re supposed to keep a low profile, this is the kind of decision making I can get behind. Something that demonstrates the maturity the group continues to insist they have alongside keeping their playful personalities.

Also, just look at Ren’s smile. That might be the first smile we’ve gotten from him all season. That’s a blessed image, right up there with Oscar stealing hors d'oeuvres the second he walks through the door. Our farm boy is hungry and he’s going to milk Jacques’ wealth for all it’s worth.

The other thing this scene gives us---besides the joyous image of Whitley drenched in wine and Weiss’ amusement over it---is the split screen technique. On the whole I think Rooster Teeth chucks this in too often. There have been many times since the beginning of Volume Six, especially during fight scenes, where the split screen doesn’t feel necessary to me and is even at times quite distracting. Here though? I think it works. The split screen montage used to show the many people involved in, say, a heist is a pretty common technique and it adds another spot of humor to this situation. They’re plotting and executing their food spill with all the sincerity of a bank robbery. I’m here for that.

As Weiss heads upstairs we turn our attention to the meeting with Jacques. It goes about as well as anyone expects. A lot happens in that short span of time though. Robyn sarcastically points out that she should just be happy to have been “invited to the table” and though there’s another black woman across from her, it stands out to me that Robyn, a comparatively dark skinned woman to the rest of the group, says this while the shot poises her between two very white, powerful men. Even the phrase “invited to the table” has gender and racial implications for the audience watching, outside of Robyn’s in-world characterization as a Robin Hood type focused on class. Going off of these themes, we also hear Ironwood reassuring Jacques of their safety by claiming that “Penny is completely under my control.” This, hands down, is the worst thing I’ve seen Ironwood do this volume. Sure, things like the embargo and the supplies have objectively worse consequences, but the story has done a lot to demonstrate the “greater good” justifications behind those choices. We might not agree with Ironwood, but we’re supposed to understand that (until proven otherwise) he has good motivations. Here? That comment is pretty horrible. Ironwood refers to Penny as if she’s a weapon or a tool, a young woman who he believes he literally has control over. It’s a fascinating look into his perspective and a pretty logical one as well. Here’s a man who has put so much faith in his technology, from amassing an army to protect his kingdom to relying on prosthetics to get around. He asked his team to create a new security measure and they did... they just happened to create a person along with it. I’m not sure Ironwood fully understands that yet. He trusts Penny enough to bring her into his own inner circle, but he likewise thinks he can manage her like he would a gun or a vehicle, dictating whether she has friends and announcing that she is under his control. I hope that this is something the writing explores and helps Ironwood work through, rather than just letting it sit as generic evidence that he’s a bad (as opposed to flawed) person. I think Ironwood would realize his mistake and work to correct it if someone pointed out the issue, in the same way we’ve seen him considering, settling, and agreeing with the issues the group has seen fit to yell at him lately.

What interests me most about this whole interaction is (shocking) this continued debate regarding secrets and trust. Overall Rooster Teeth has actually succeeded in creating a decently complex situation here. We know that (again, until proven otherwise) Ironwood has only good intentions and we likewise know that Jacques is now connected to Salem. The information the audience has makes us biased. We know who is supposedly good and supposedly bad. At the same time though, the actual issue appears to be removed from that. Jacques’ side---notably expressed through a new character who acts as a more neutral party---points out that from where they stand there’s no reason for this embargo. We know there’s a reason. Ironwood knows there’s a reason. Because we all know about Salem. But the other council members are making entirely reasonable demands given the information they have: why are you continuing to hurt both the people and our relationship with others? What’s the justification? You can’t give us one? Then why in the world would we let you keep doing this? It puts us in the discomforting position of knowing Jacques is an evil slim ball manipulating the conversation while likewise having to admit that his side has a point. You can’t just announce Salem’s existence because that would make things exponentially worse, but keeping her secret has its definite downsides.

Where Jacques’ party doesn’t have a good position is in his insistence that because Ironwood hasn’t caught these various perpetrators he can’t be trusted, equating trust with results. There’s only so many ideas, resources, and luck that can lead you to catching someone like Tyrian. I understand that knee-jerk reaction, the idea that because someone hasn’t succeeded you should replace them with someone you assume will, but in situations like this you only have so much control over the probability of success. Claiming that Ironwood not catching criminals is indicative of an inability to lead is flimsy, but as we’ve seen, Jacques is a manipulator. He tosses these assertions out as if they’re facts. He and the others continually cut Ironwood off, refusing to let him defend himself. It’s not at all surprising that Winter, someone who suffered under his abuse, eventually explodes with, “You can’t just buy trust like everything else! You have to earn it.” Winter is someone I’m particularly interested in seeing react to the group’s secret keeping because from her perspective, she and Ironwood have earned the group’s trust a hundred times over. Again, provided the story isn’t hiding something from us and Winter is secretly in on some plot with Ironwood, we’re seeing this volume how she’s done the work her father couldn’t and it still wasn’t enough. Her peers, including her baby sister, still decided they weren’t going to trust her with secrets that are intimately tied up in their current work and choices.

Frustrating moral questions aside, something I really loved about this scene was the character setup and the cinematography. Having Jacques with his two allies on one side, Ironwood mirroring that on the opposite end of the table, and Robyn sitting poised between the two, the audience still unsure whose side she’ll fall on. That aerial shot showing off the distance between them all? Excellent visual storytelling.

We get a quick conversation between Winter and Penny which I don’t have too much to say about. Merely that I love Penny for checking up on Winter and I love Winter for correcting her assumption: I’m not saying you wouldn’t understand because you’re a robot, I’m just saying these problems are very specific to me and being in this place. That was particularly reassuring after Ironwood’s comments. Penny ends the scene by saying she doesn’t understand why Winter wouldn’t want to follow her heart. Perhaps an odd comment coming from someone who almost blindly obeys the orders she’s given even when she doesn’t agree---such as not making more friends---but then, it may well be a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ situation. Just because Penny isn’t sure how to always follow her own heart doesn’t mean she can’t encourage others to do the same.

We return to Weiss who, after getting past a curious server, makes it to her father’s office. I feel like this is the scene people are most invested in, considering that I’ve seen a LOT of posts lately trying to demonize Willow for her comment about Whitley. Here’s what people need to remember about Willow moving forward: she’s as much a victim of abuse as Weiss is. She is, presumably, Jacques’ first victim, fully entrenched in his abuse by the time her kids started coming along. As a mother does she have a responsibility to her children? Absolutely, but that doesn’t erase the fact that she’s simultaneously a woman attempting to survive domestic abuse.

(That’s another stunning shot hell yes.)

Initially Weiss takes the side of the posts I’ve seen, painting her mother as someone who made a conscious decision to let the abuse happen---another abuser herself, one out of passiveness. “Some of us are trying to do something about it,” Weiss says, emphasizing that she’s better because she’s doing what her mother never could: fighting back. Ignoring for a moment the highly dubious insistence that abuse victims must simply ‘do something’ about that abuse (it’s not that simple at all), Weiss quickly realizes that she was wrong. Her mother has been doing something, namely setting up hidden cameras around the house for some spying of her own. Why? “For our safety.” To make sure that if Jacques ever goes farther than he already has, Willow will know about it and can take appropriate steps. Is taking precautions against something worse better than leaving a situation that’s already horrific? Of course not, but as said, abuse isn’t just something you can fix. Even if you know it’s happening. This is a woman doing all she can and what someone is capable of in an abusive relationship is based on them and that context, not what others believe is fighting back “enough.”

Willow then reassures everyone, Weiss and the audience alike, that she doesn’t expect Weiss to be the family savior.

Willow: “You haven’t come back to stay, have you?” Weiss: “No.” Willow: “Good.”

That first line potentially reads as a plea. We might have gotten a scene where Willow is disappointed that Weiss isn’t coming back because she doesn’t want to face this family alone. While a very human and understandable desire, it’s likewise not okay to expect another abuse survivor to return to their abuser after they’ve gotten out. In that hypothetical scene the fandom would have a basis for going, “No. That’s... not okay.” But we don’t get that. Willow is thrilled that Weiss both got out and has no intention to return. She wants her daughter safe. That parental instinct outweighs any selfish, human desire to not suffer this situation alone.

Keep the above point in mind when we read the line, “No matter what happens, Weiss, please don’t forget about your brother.” Willow isn’t telling Weiss to return to the house and save him. She’s not even telling her to forgive him. Just don’t forget him. Remember that he’s not a mini Jacques. He’s another young abuse victim. He’s just like you. When we look at the family dynamic it’s clear that in some ways Weiss had a leg up from her brother that helped her get out. Namely, she had Winter. They’re the ones who are close among the siblings and thus Weiss had a role model to follow. Winter, however she managed it, got out and forged her own path. We then see throughout the series how closely Weiss emulates that, from going into combat herself and having Winter train her. The two actions---fighting and escape---are connected in Weiss’ Volume 5 short. Winter tells her that if she wants to get out she has to get better. That’s your route.

In contrast, Whitley has shown no interest in combat and thus doesn’t have that path to emulate. He’s not a girl and is thus automatically treated as the next Jacques, not the next Winter or even Willow. Most importantly, Whitley doesn’t have a close relationship with an older sibling to guide him.

That’s all Willow is asking of Weiss: be for Whitley what Winter was to you. Don’t forget about him. Don’t pretend he doesn’t exist. Don’t fall into the lie Whitley himself believes, that he’s set to be the next Jacques. He’s really an abused 14-15 year old who has suffered through everything we have. So if there ever comes a time where Whitley falters in this belief or you’re given an opening... please treat him like your brother, not your father.

I think that’s a perfectly reasonable thing for a mother to ask and we can easily see via Weiss’ expression that she’s coming to all these realizations too.

“Of course [Whitley doesn’t want anything to do with you.] You left him alone. With us.” That’s not an accusation, it’s a fact. As established, Willow is happy that Weiss got out, but like with so much in RWBY the best decision doesn’t mean it’s a consequence-free decision. In this case the consequence is that Weiss and Winter left their little brother alone with their abuser. They had to for their own mental health and their safety, but they nevertheless did it. So if there ever comes a time when they can help alleviate that consequence, please do.

It likewise doesn’t escape my notice that, again, Whitley is a guy. Just like the fandom was unwilling to accept Ozpin as an abuse victim, people seem hesitant to accept Whitley as an abuse victim either. From what I’ve seen (and there are admittedly always exceptions) Whitley’s shitty behavior hasn’t gotten an a fraction of the sympathy Weiss’ shitty Volume 1-3 behavior got. They’re three years apart at most. If Weiss is a victim then so is her little brother. Don’t let the Jacques’ genetics and learned behavior fool you.

Finally, we end on Watts. The man who continues to be THE most dramatic bitch in this entire series.

We watch as he shuts down the system keeping Mantle warm. Rather than rain, snow starts to fall. Whether this will be just another generic thing going wrong to make the people angry and Ironwood seem incompetent, or whether there’s a more dangerous downside here (we did hear from Weiss about the deadly temperatures...) remains to be seen.

And that’s it. You know, I think that’s the first time in nearly two volumes where I ultimately had more good things to say about an episode than bad. It’s a holiday miracle!

Until next Saturday ;)

#rwby #rwby volume 7 #rwby volume 7 spoilers #mymetas #rwby recaps

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