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starryeyeddowner · 2 years

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Merciful Intervention

I was inspired by @idrawtoomuch-gw2's prompt after I finished EoD, so I wrote some emotional EoD fanfiction!

Taimi calls Caithe with concerns about the Commander, and Caithe intervenes in her own distinctive way. (2k words, female charr Commander, END OF DRAGONS SPOILERS YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED)

“Hey Caithe, do you have a moment?”

Caithe’s communicator crackled to life, Taimi’s voice coming through clear despite the long distance the signal needed to travel from New Kaineng City all the way to The Eye of the North.

“Of course, Taimi. It’s good to speak with you,” she glanced down at the tiny readout, “It looks like this isn’t the usual channel; did you want another interview regarding dragon magic?”

“Oh you would? It would be super incredible to get your perspective on how things have changed now that the–” She stopped herself, “Maybe soon. Definitely soon! Actually I, uh, wanted to know if you’ve seen the Commander recently.”

“Ah yes, every few days she stops by here. She’s been helping oversee the trainees and install these new devices to gather readings on magic here.” She laughed gently, “Honestly, it’s about the only time I can get Trainee Saba out of my hair.” She craned her head to peer outside Aurene’s chamber, “I don’t believe she’s here right now.”

Taimi’s voice came through quietly, as if she was talking to herself, “Oh no, not there too…”

“If you like, I can let her know you’re searching for her next time she’s here. Although I can’t imagine she’d ignore her communicator if you needed to speak with her.”

“What? Oh! Sorry, that wasn’t about her not being there. Actually, it was more about her being there.”

Caithe paused. “I’m not sure I understand what you mean, Taimi.”

“It… Well…” Taimi stammered, before launching herself into her next sentence, “The Commander’s been REALLY busy here in New Kaineng City working with Joon and me on researching alternatives to dragon magic for the jade batteries, and she’s been trying to smooth things over diplomatically between Cantha and Tyria too.”

“Ah, so that’s where she’s been traveling to and from.”

Taimi pressed on, worry evident in her voice, “Yeah, well, a week ago she made a weird offhand comment about having to work hard to not mix up Canthan and Charr diplomatic techniques.”

“Politics in Cantha does seem very different than in the legions.”

“That’s… not what bothered me. I had a hypothesis, but it wasn’t until I reached out to Rytlock that I was able to confirm it. Caithe, she’s been working with Crecia and Rytlock in the Black Citadel on dealing with the fallout of the Dominion!”

Taimi paused, as if for dramatic effect. The line was quiet for several seconds before Caithe responded.

“Taimi, the Commander is a charr. It makes sense she would be interested in the future of the charr legions.”

Taimi let out an exasperated cry of frustration, “Gahhh, I KNOW that! That’s not what I mean! I talked with Kasmeer too and she told me how the Commander’s been ‘the busiest little bee’ helping out with Canthan-Tyrian diplomacy AND working with Logan to figure out what to do with the Pact.”

Caithe let out a noise of understanding, “I’m beginning to see the problem here.”

“And Kas talked with Marjory and guess what? Apparently the Commander’s been helping her, Gorrik, and Detective Rama with their new detective agency. I don’t even know WHAT she could possibly help with there. I did some calculations on what her travel schedule must be like and even my most generous estimates of her sleep schedule is appalling! To think she could even consider that acceptable after our conversation in Arborstone about me taking time to rest properly and–” Taimi’s voice caught in her throat.

Caithe gave her a few seconds before responding, “Taimi?”

“Caithe, I’m really worried about her. The last– the last few times we’ve worked together I could see her hands shaking when she was working on our prototypes. She’s thankfully smart enough that she lets the technicians do the heavy lifting when it comes to operating the machinery, but I’m worried that she’s going to hurt herself,” Taimi paused, before saying quietly, “or… that she’s already hurting herself.”

Taimi’s words wavered as she continued, “Alchemy, I thought of anyone I would be the one she’d listen to about this sort of thing, but every time I try to bring it up she brushes it off and gets really distant. And the more insistent I get the less serious she seems to take me! She’s even lied to my face about how much she’s been working! I wanted to tell her that I figured out what she’s been up to but I just know that it’s not going to get through to her and–” Taimi swallowed, collecting herself, “I’m sorry, Caithe, I didn’t mean for this call to end up like this. You can– I need to–”

“It’s alright Taimi,” Caithe interrupted. “I understand.” She looked out across the chamber, her eyes lingering on the flowers growing along the edge of the scrying pool. “Thank you for telling me about this. I think I have a solution.”

Taimi sniffed, “You– you do?”

“I believe so. Let me make a call first, then I’ll talk with the Commander.” Caithe smiled warmly, hoping it came through in her voice, “We’ll chat later about that interview. When you have the time.”

“When I have the time,” Taimi repeated. “I– thanks, Caithe.”

----------

The sun shone bright over Southsun as a skiff cut through the water along the south coast. Caithe directed the rudder, but her eyes were focused on the Commander staring out at the beach passing by. The charr was fully dressed in her usual battle gear. Caithe hadn’t seen any shaking in the Commander’s confident movements, but she had noticed the dark spots underneath her eyes and tense angle of her ears. What had struck Caithe upon making those observations wasn’t that she looked different, but rather how much like her usual self she appeared, standing there in the front of the boat. Caithe wondered if the signs had always been there, or if the changes had been too subtle to notice in their seemingly never-ending battles against the Elder Dragons.

The Commander cut through the silence, turning her head to look back at Caithe, “So… a secret mission, huh? Would have thought we’d have had more time to rest before something new came up.”

“Indeed,” was all Caithe responded with.

“Care to give me the details?” the Commander prodded lightly, clearly in good spirits to be out in the field.

“I’ll fill you in once we arrive.”

“Of course,” The Commander turned back to stare at the beach, “Southsun, eh? Didn’t expect to be back here of all places. Did you hear that Logan apparently bought a beach house here?”

“Did he now?”

“According to him,” she chuckled. “Hard to imagine a guy like Logan taking a vacation. Hard to imagine any of us taking one.” She breathed in deeply, taking in the smell of saltwater and seaweed. “I’m glad you asked me to come along for this mission. It’s a good excuse to get off my rear and stop sitting around doing nothing.” She gave a relaxed sigh, stretching her arm and testing the heft of her mace. “Everyone else would always talk about what they’d do once things calmed down. In the moment it was nice to imagine, but– well, you understand me, right?”

“I do, Commander,” she replied. “We’re here.”

The Commander gave a short nod before turning to study the coast while Caithe pulled in as close as she could to the shore. A small cabin stood on stilts halfway between the water and the cliffs further inland, stairs leading from where the sand met earth up to a door.

The Commander disembarked the boat as Caithe dropped anchor. She started up the beach without Caithe, scanning first the cliff tops and then the house for any signs of trouble.

“Shouldn’t be many karka this side of Southsun,” she remarked as Caithe caught up, “Not that I’m complaining. Are you expecting a fight?”

Caithe thought for a second before replying, “If there is, it’s nothing the two of us can’t handle.”

The Commander bared her fangs as she grinned, “Excellent. Have any intel on this shack? Someone or something that we’re looking for?”

“I’ve got some idea. Why don’t we take a look inside?”

“You don’t even need to ask,” the Commander replied, taking the stairs two at a time as she climbed up to the cabin. Her grip tightened on her mace as she swung open the door and strode inside, moving quickly and quietly despite her size. Caithe stopped at the entrance as the Commander finished her sweep of the cabin, before beginning to examine the items inside.

“Hmm, lots of supplies in here,” the Commander thought out loud. “It looks like someone’s stocked up for the long haul. No signs of recent habitation though.” Caithe watched as she knelt down to examine some crates. “That’s strange… These boxes are the same ones the Pact uses for transporting supplies. And these here–” she stepped over to some more crates, “These are from Kryta. Look, there's the Krytan Seal there.” Caithe saw the Commander’s brow furrow as she furiously put the dots together.

“Caithe,” she said finally, turning back to the door, “Remember how I said Logan bought a beach house? I think this is his beach house.” They looked at each other, Caithe watching the Commander’s mind working overtime as the Commander stared at Caithe’s calm expression.

“Caithe, speak to me,” the Commander said finally, “What’s going on here? Is there trouble?”

“That depends on you,” Caithe said simply, before vanishing.

The Commander froze for a second before bolting to the door, eyes darting wildly around looking for danger. Her gaze locked on the skiff where she saw a small blue figure pulling up the anchor. She heard her communicator crackle, then Caithe’s voice.

“I do understand you, Commander,” Caithe told her, and the Commander saw the distant skiff power up and begin to move. “I understand you enough to know that if it was your choice you would put all of Tyria before yourself every single time. And maybe we needed that spirit then. But not now. So I’m making that decision for you. I’ll be back in three weeks to pick you up. Logan assures me there’s plenty of food and water to last until then, and Gorrik has kindly donated some reading material. Except for his and Taimi’s research on dragon magic. Wouldn’t want you finding a way to worm in some work now would we?”

The Commander shook her head in bemusement, laughing, “And what’s stopping me from just walking back to the Consortium outpost and catching a portal back to Lion’s Arch? Certainly not you?”

“No,” Caithe admitted, “But if you did that, I might have to ask Aurene to bring you back here herself. And maybe put up some crystal walls around the area for good measure. I’m sure she would happily agree to that.”

The Commander made a low whistle, “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Do I seem like the kind of sylvari to make idle threats, Commander? I’ll be back soon. Enjoy your vacation.”

The Commander watched the skiff as it sailed back the way it came, disappearing behind a rocky outcropping. She stood there for a while before shaking her head again and turning back into the cabin.

Setting her mace down against the wall, she picked up a fishing rod, turning it in her claws as she examined it idly. She imagined Caithe tattling on her to Aurene, and Aurene, the little dragon that she and Caithe had raised, carrying her in her claws all the way back here. Or perhaps she would just give an exasperated sigh and dump her back on this beach with a portal, along with a few words of admonishment.

The Commander smiled at the thought and, still holding the fishing rod, began to search among the supplies for bait and tackle.

#gw2 #guild wars 2 #eod spoiler #eod spoilers #gw2 eod spoiler #gw2 eod spoilers #guild wars 2 spoilers #gw2 fan submission #tried really hard to get their voices sounding right but it's been the first time I've written in a long while #hopefully I did them justice

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itsclydebitches · 2 years

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I found out today that Watts is supposed to be John Watson, but if he was partnered with Moriarty instead of sherlock. for his fairy tale inspiration thing most RWBY characters have. that's all. Just know that's a thought someone had and considered a actually good idea.

As a massive Sherlock Holmes fan THIS is my ultimate nitpick for Nitpick November. No, it doesn’t hurt the show in any meaningful way, but boy does it grind my gears.

In what possible way is Watts an allusion to Watson? There’s literally nothing. From what we’ve seen he’s more mad scientist doctor than a medical doctor (building new defense technologies, hacking systems, the closest he gets to anything in the biological sphere is Tyrian’s tail), which a while back is basically what I assumed his reference was: some generic, mad scientist dude. Especially since they shortened “Watson” down to “Watts” which is just a plural unit of power—so evil James Watt?? I never gave it enough thought to form a concrete theory. But you could have thrown me in a room, locked the door, told me I could only come out when I hit on Watts’ inspiration, and I absolutely would have starved to death in there. There’s nothing (to my recollection anyway) that clues us in like, “Young girl in red hood fights wolf-like monsters,” or “Girl literally named after a pyrrhic victory is shot through her Achille’s tendon.” Watts isn’t a writer. He’s not Salem’s sole or primary subordinate. We’ve got no background on him to say whether or not he was involved in any major battles, but he definitely doesn’t have any distinguishing wounds. Actually, in that regard Ironwood makes for a better Watson.

Someone: “So in this war against the grimm/Salem were you injured in your shoulder, or your leg? We’ve been hearing conflicting things…”

Ironwood: “Both.” [uniform dramatically rips to reveal half his body is metal]

Watson is very much the heart to Holmes’ logic, whereas Watts is the logic to everyone else’s high emotions: Tyrian’s obsession, Hazel’s rage, Cinder’s lust for power. It’s not even a good “What if?” scenario considering that Watson never even met Moriarty. Holmes just announces one day that there’s this Napoleon of Crime who has been working behind the scenes (Salem only wishes she could be half as effective), they’re immediately on the run, Holmes “dies,” Watson is sad for about three years, and then Holmes shows up again having dealt with everyone but Moran. Holmes literally does all the work in that one, quite deliberately. I love Watson and will rail against any adaptation that writes him as dumb, but my man is not out there bringing cities to their knees through insane hacking skills. RWBY’s allusions are meaningless at this point, but why not at least give him an identifiable quirk? Watts as Watson should want to write Salem’s biography because she’s going to be Queen of Remnant someday, the people deserve to know of your evil deeds other than through Tyrian’s insane preaching.

(I would unironically watch that version of Watts.)

Wait. I cracked the code.

They both have mustaches. And carry guns. But:

“I have always held, too, that pistol practice should be distinctly an open-air pastime”

Couldn't even get that right. Watts is pulling a Holmes here, shooting indoors 😔

The silver lining to all this: someone give me the fic where Watts and Salem are sharing rooms in the castle and hilarity ensues.

#rwde #rwby #nitpick november #mymetas #my salt more like it lmfao

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yamaoni · 3 years

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The Second Great War of Remnant has begun. Once more, Vale and Mantle are embroiled in a massive conflict, only this time, they are on the same side against Atlas.

I don't think it was a coincidence that so many people drew parallels with the last episode and WWI. We've never seen people fight that way in RWBY. Grimm don't use projectile weapons the way humans do, so the benefits of the trench are diminished; especially if you compare it to the drawbacks.

Now, I understand not everyone in the Atlas military has their aura unlocked and the squishy soldiers need some cover, but if The Long Memory didn't nuke every grimm on Atlas, the lines would have been overrun and then there would have been nowhere for them to retreat to.

You think the very real hand to hand struggles in the trenches of WWI were bad, imagine being trapped in a narrow trench with a bear. Or having this thing explode out of the ground under you.

I refuse to believe no-one in Atlas ever thought, "if we put the dirt from the trench in a box, no only can we give our soldiers cover, we can also give them an elevated position to fire from."

The top of a wall has been the primary defensive position for the people of Remnant for a long time. You can see them in the establishing shots of most settled places the team has visited. So why are we seeing a trench now?

Simple.

Show, don't tell.

RWBY has done a pretty great job, especially in the last few seasons, of showing the audience what it is trying to convey without explicitly telling them. They especially like drawing from well known folk lore to give insight into the future of the show.

Only difference here, instead of drawing the parallel between characters, they're drawing parallels between worlds.

Remnant's first Great War started with Mantle suppressing freedom of expression, the destruction of Art and Color. Ironwood always has little in the way of color, but in his first broadcast since everything started hitting the fan, he has none.

That broadcast also included evacuation ships being blown up by fighter-bombers, Dunkirk. It threatend to level a city if they didn't surrender, Battle of Brittan. All delivered by a dictator trying to scare his opponents into submission through careful use of film.

Theories

If the rest of the season is WWII, I have several theories on plot direction. Considering how well they did keeping up with both ends of the battlefield it wouldn't surprise me if they followed all of them at the same time.

Operation Dunkirk

Or, the evacuation of Mantle.

Players: Penny, Nora, Ren, Happy Huntresses

The Happy Huntresses involvement is a given. Not only has saving Mantle been their goal the whole time, they're also stuck in the middle of it right now.

Penny is the Protector of Mantle. It would be a shining moment for her character to fully throw off the virus Watts implanted and overcome Ironwood's threats to do so. Just crossing my fingers that it doesn't end like the Iron Giant.

Nora is currently Penny's tether to sanity, so she has to go with, and I doubt they would separate Ren from her for the next arc so he's going too.

Surprise twist for this plot I'm betting will be the Starwars "they aren't warships, just people" scene everyone loves to rag on. After all, the broadcast went out that they needed help and, at least at Dunkirk, it was fishing boats and pleasure crafts that retrieved the 338,000 surrounded on all sides.

Why We Fight

Or, countering Ironwoods propaganda.

Players: Robyn and Qrow

For one, these two are unaccounted for and in the heart of Atlas' military machine. If anyone has means to do so, it's them.

The film, Why We Fight, also countered the dramatic cinematography of Goebbels propaganda by painting it as ridiculous and making a folksy call to action much like Robyn has done in the past.

Operation Fortitude

Or, the deception of Ironwood.

Players: Emerald, Jaune, Oscar

This is the mission to make Ironwood think the team is going after the relic. This theory is why I actually thought of and wrote out this whole thing. Thanks @maxiemumdamage, I had things I was supposed to do tonight.

https://maxiemumdamage.tumblr.com/post/644291955872890880/willing-to-bet-my-own-soul-that-emerald-uses-her

Only difference in my theory and their's, is Jaune is going to be playing the part of Penny.

I say this for two reasons. One, Joan of Arc pretended to be a man. While we've gotten both Jaune pretending to be something he's not and him in a dress, this would pose the first time in the story he could do both. Two, it would put him on a direct collision path with Cinder. It needs to happen at some point to bring his arc to a conclusion, but man I hope we're not about to watch him burn.

With Ozpin active again, Oscar has to go along to direct them to the vault. He's also one of two backing the idea of Emerald joining the team and Jaune wouldn't be willing to work with her without him.

Operation Overlord

Or, busting down the doors of Atlas Acadamy.

Players: Ruby, Blake, Weiss, Yang

Where Operation Fortitude was the faint, Operation Overlord was the real deal. For those that aren't history buffs, this is D-Day.

I think this is the reason we've only seen the main team fighting together once since their split from Beacon. And even then, that fight was at most pairs of fighters and not all four of them supporting one another.

RWBY tricked us into thinking season 4 was the post-timeskip level up we come to expect from anime when really we ended up watching the training flashbacks as they happened instead.

We've seen hints of it with the various team ups and combinations, but are we really ready for how much ass kicking they are about to do?

I'm hoping for a One Piece level of badass entrance that can give me shivers whenever I go to watch it again like the walk to Arlong Park still does to this day.

(Aside: if you try telling me RWBY isn't anime, I'm just going to ignore you. Anime is an art movement. If you don't understand what that means, watch this video. https://youtu.be/uFtfDK39ZhI)

youtube

Now last and certainly not least

Operation Valkyrie

Or, the death of Ironwood.

Players: Winter and Marrow

The long awaited defection. Plenty of speculation has already floated around about if and when these two where going to cave to their morals and jump ship. I don't know how many of us were expecting the straw to break the camel's back to be a nuke held over Mantle, but I certainly wasn't.

What worries me, is Operation Valkyrie failed and all its conspirators were executed. As if there weren't enough death flags for Winter before.

Even if it's not Winter that kills him. I don't see Ironwood surviving this season. Even if it means he goes out like another hated dictator. It's not like it would be the first time RT had a fallen hero chose to use his own sword.

Wildcards

Or, Murphy will have his due.

Players: Cinder, Watts, Neo, Tyrian, Mercury, Clover

These players can go any which way. Three we know for sure are going to be active in the coming episodes and I wouldn't be surprised if the other three play a part as well.

Oscar made a hell of a light show for Tyrian and Mercury to see behind them. Not to mention, Salem will still need a ride home when she pulls herself back together.

Clover keeps getting mentioned even though he's hospitalized. If he was truly out of commission for the rest of the season, they would have made us think he's dead before bringing him back like they did with Penny.

Up to now, what we've seen is a three way conflict. But one of the hallmarks of Remnant's First Great War, was making temporary alliances to fight off grimm.

The grimm might be gone, but the wild cards can't complete their own objectives if they are dead. The question is who's goals better align with their own.

Two surprise twists I can see here. One, Mercury stabbing Tyrian on his way to defection. He was raised by an assassin and has not going to get a better chance than that. Two, Clover joining Operation Valkyrie. He might have accepted that sacrifice is a necessary evil to ensure Atlas' survival, but might go Schindler's List on us and find horror in what Ironwood plans to do.

TLDR

I spent way too long writing this out. All the WWI imagery means we're getting a WWII movie with RWBY characters. Major death flags for Penny, Jaune, and Winter.

Also I finally figured out how to do a readmore. Apparently it's just been a long time since I updated.

Note: kept seeing things talking about clovers death and I kind of went ???? Isn't he barely alive in medical? Went back and watched that scene and though I am 90% sure he is dead still kind of weird that they have him in his own room instead of a morgue and the initial framing made my mind instantly think he was propped up on a hospital bed. I mean, I guess we needed to have all the ACEOPs there for their reaction to Ironwood... but it definitely made me think he was alive. That and they have a bandage on his chest wound... when he's supposedly dead. Also have a phantom memory of Harriet saying something about him being in critical but I think that's my memory playing tricks on me.

Having his face exposed instead of covered by the sheet and seeing him in the same frame as Winter being treated also didn't help my gut reaction of "Oh Shit! He's alive? How?!" If I'd followed up more on the "how" might not have made the blunder of writing his return as the final twist in my theory. Oops

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kali-writes-meta · 3 years

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Old Habits Die Hard With a Vengeance: Faulty Behavior Patterns in "Fault"

Just as the first two episodes were all about setting plans in motion,

"Fault" was all about people's old behavior patterns failing them under the increasingly desperate circumstances. In just under 20 minutes most of the characters were shown needing to rethink their typical way of doing things and level up.

We start with Qrow, in jail as a result of a fiasco that ended with Tyrian murdering Clover with Qrow's weapon. He's processed what happened enough to realize that this failure had many fathers, including both Clover and himself.

Qrow confesses to exploiting Clover, using his Semblance to neutralize Qrow's Semblance. He's once again convinced that his Semblance makes him a social pariah. Robyn points out that her Semblance doesn't make other people comfortable around her either. (Can confirm. Being really good at spotting lies is not exactly a popular party trick.) Qrow starts to realize that something has to change.

(I hope he will work on truly mastering his Semblance. All he's ever done with it is try to suppress it or push it in a certain direction. If he can learn to flip the probability at will and direct it with pinpoint accuracy he would possess a formidable advantage.)

Harriet and Marrow deposit Watts back in the cellblock, and Harriet has a face-off with Robyn. Robyn points out that if Harriet wants the truth Robyn will provide it, but Harriet rejects the opportunity, in essence rejecting the truth. Both Harriet and Marrow seem shaken by Harriet's rejection of the truth, and with good reason. The Ace-Ops are a highly honored unit. Once Truth leaves the building, Honor follows not long after. If obeying Ironwood leads them to reject Truth, Honor won't be theirs for much longer. Like it or not, something is going to change.

Then we go to Yang, Jaune, and Ren trying to rescue Oscar from the Hound. Unfortunately for them the Hound keeps changing it's behavior. They can't keep up with the changes and lose. The Hound has changed the rules for what to expect from the Grimm. If they are ever going to beat the Hound, they must change their strategy.

Back on Atlas Ruby's team arrives at Schnee Manor with a severely injured Nora, who coincidentally in the last episode passed on the opportunity to try something new and instead doubled down on what she's done before, with disastrous effects to her health. (Not judging, just pointing out.) They are met by a decidedly out of sorts Whitley, who tells them the only other person there is Willow.

Of all the characters whose lives have been turned upside down in the last 24 hours, probably no one was less prepared for it than Whitley. Sure, having to deal with Jacques has made him used to instability, but as long as he could cling to and fawn over Jacques, he had a greater measure of safety than the others in the family. (Not judging, just pointing out.). Now that one stabilizer is gone and he is truly alone. Things have changed.

Whitley tries the supercilious behavior that Jacques approved of, but it cuts no ice with this crowd. He falls back on the passive-agressive behavior he's previously used with ice. It works just as badly.

"Fine. (dramatic sigh) What do you expect ME to do then?"

Some people thought that meant he was asking how he could help. Nope. That is passive-agressive sibling-speak for, "How are you going to inconvenience me THIS time?"

Weiss pulls out her inner Jacques. "Go to your room!"

Where did that come from? Well, Jacques. Weiss was under enormous stress and back where she had been abused for years. She reverted to acting like her abuser.

This is a GOOD thing in the long run. The myth is that simply getting away from a child abuser ends the abuse, when in real life the victim has to root out the tendency to act like their former abuser under stress. But victims also have a tendency to deny that they would ever do such a horrible thing -- until they do it. Weiss has done it in front of witnesses. That's the first step to rooting out the behavior in her psyche and truly ending the cycle of abuse.

Whitley acting like Jacques' flunky is probably not going to work for him anymore. Weiss acting like Jacques is probably not something she wants to repeat. Both of them are due for a change.

Meanwhile back on the tundra Ren is having the breakdown he's been repressing ever since learning Salem is immortal. I'll post more on Ren in a separate post, but right now it's enough to say that what he's been doing to cope isn't working. Jaune tries to tell him he needs to change his outlook, but Ren prefers to sulk. He knows something needs to change, but he is too depressed to see any change for the better happening.

Oscar is brought before Salem. Ozpin tries to reassure Oscar by repeating the line Salem told Ozma when he's reborn in the realm of Darkness, "It's going to be okay." Now I cut Ozpin a lot of slack, but not this time. It would be convenient for Salem to have Oscar alive and relatively sane, but that's an inexcusably low bar for "okay". Ozpin needs to change how he works with Oscar.

Salem interrogates Oscar. Oscar tries to act first like Ozpin, then like Ruby. Neither act cuts any ice with Salem, who leaves Hazel to beat a change of attitude into Oscar.

Upon leaving Salem runs into Cinder, who wants to chase after Penny. Salem, brings up Cinder's previous fiasco and orders her to stay her and do nothing without orders. Cinder acquiesces, repeating the line from the first episode, "Without you I am nothing."

Where did that line come from? None of the rest of Salem's Lot say it, so it probably comes from Cinder's earlier life. In all likelihood what Cinder does next probably comes from the same time and place -- sneak out behind the back of her boss to do what Cinder wants to do. That behavior may have worked in her last life, but I doubt it will work this time.

Neo clearly wants several changes, starting with a change of continent. Emerald is eager to regain Cinder's favor and go back to the way things used to be with Cinder. In her first appearance she was willing to break Cinder's rules and kill an informant to win Cinder's respect. Now she's willing to break Salem's rules for Cinder's regard. I doubt the second attempt is going to end any better than the first one did. The only question is, when will Emerald realize she needs to change her ways?

#rwby #qrow branwen #robyn hill #marrow amin #Harriet bree #nora valkyrie #weiss schnee #Whitley Schnee #lie ren #oscar pine #salem #ozpin #hazel Reinhart #cinder fall #neo politan #emerald sustrai

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rwbyconversations · 4 years

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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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tumblingxelian · 3 years

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Dissing the Villains?

OK so I think I have finally organized my thoughts enough on why I get so irked when I see people (In my eyes) dismissing Watts & Tyrian as villains.

A lot of it is rooted in the fact when they were first introduced people on a forum I was on were still ‘coping’ with Roman’s death & so rejected them out of hand.

This irked me cos they weren’t even giving the writers a chance and I was already used to defending Cinder so they just got slotted into that rotation.

I was right to do so as well cos while Tyrian annoyed me at first the moment he met RNJR & was spouting flowery language & flinging himself through walls for the dramatics he was great!

Watts was similarly engaging once we got to V7, he’s such a delightful bastard who co clearly loves being a supervillains, its great XD

And Cinder, well we all know Cinder is great.

But that’s kinda my thing, is I think they are all great villains so I do get a bit vexed when I feel they are being dismissed as check points rather than characters.

Or have their plans, efforts and skills dismissed and framed as pathetic compared to anyone save Salem (Cos she’s kind of meant to be above them that’s her whole deal).

Both because I feel it undersells the characters, but also the narrative weight to the villains schemes.

And like... None of them are perfect (Which makes sense) and frankly none of them are ideal on their own, which ties in thematically for RWBY as well but like, here’s some examples:

Tyirian, Watts & Cinder have been fouled up by decisions to screw around with their prey & or simple arrogance. Tyrian played long enough for Qrow to show up and he lost his tail.

Cinder screwed around at Haven & got scorched; one could also argue her decision to upload the virus so openly (Alerting Ruby) over having Neo sneak in and do it was a mistake but (waves hand) I can ignore that for the drama.

Meanwhile Watts didn’t even bother to check the Schnee household for anything that could catch wind of him cos he dismissed everyone there as a stooge at best.

But a separate and more pertinent thing I take issue with is stuff like their plans being totally ignored or dismissed like, again, RWBY’s whole thing is working together and the villains always do better when hey do that.

Cinder’s plan for Beacon would have either not been possible or would have been much smaller scale and much harder to pull off without Watts’s virus, she needed his help whether you like it or not.

Similarly, Watts and Tyrian’s plan got fowled up by the heroes and it was only Cinder’s intervention that saved it, they needed her for things to go as planed.

Plus I find comparing the plans kinda meh to begin with.

Like, Salem is their boss, and “Lure in Grimm” is both practical when you’re not going to be targeted by them and suits their needs. I don’t know if she explicitly told them to build their plans on luring in Grimm.

But even if she didn’t, it doesn’t make Watts worse at this than Cinder for him doing a similar scheme, anymore than it made Cinder predictable for planning the same kind of disaster at Haven. The details are actually different but the end goal is the same, cos its an end goal that serves their interests, it would be stupid to do something else just to be different.

Long story short, none of the villains, I feel, are easily replaceable or stupid stooges, they have flaws, be it their arrogance, or penchant for grudges clouding their judgement, but I think underselling them to boost up another does all of them a disservice and the show a disservice as a whole.

#RWBY #Cinder Fall #Arthur Watts #Tyrian Callows #I'd do something about Neo but that may have to wait for the end of V8

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horrorhare · 4 years

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I think it’s about time I collect myself and put in my own 2 cents on the RWBY V7 E12 situation.

I started watching RWBY when I was in like, 7th grade. I’ve been here since the Red Trailer. I’ve gone through this show and watched it evolve and devolve, take turns and twists and upset people over and over again. It is not the perfect show and it never was.

But there’s a huge difference between that and what happened today. This wasn’t just a little flaw, but a colossal mistake on CRWBY’s part. Very rarely do I come across media that have solid MLM rep. Sometimes it’s just “subtle”, never worked upon even if there’s obvious romance within the show. Other times it’s fetishy, stereotypical, and unrealistic. So much media treats being a gay man like it’s a problem, a sin, a mistake, a secret. I thought finally, FINALLY, a show that I really enjoy that I’ve been following since the very beginning of my own journey towards figuring out who I am, would have that representation.

I’d also like to mention that I am a storyteller, I’m majoring in Animation so I’m able to tell stories, write and design characters, develop a world and it’s people. As someone who’s studying film and media and cartoons, picking things apart to figure out what’s right and what doesn’t work, it’s incredibly frustrating to see something with so much potential be put to waste.

Why go through the trouble to design a character who’s obvious purpose was to compliment, bring up, and develop another character and then throw that all away for something “dramatic”? Stuff like in E12 isn’t “showing your true colors”, it’s blatantly written out of character. To make something like that work, you have to signal and clarify that not all is as it seems. Working up towards that “big moment” felt wasted because it never had buildup in the first place. So many people today have said it felt wrong, it felt out of place, like it wasn’t real. Well? It’s because it didn’t work.

Why did Penny’s death work? Because Metal vs Polarity was an obvious set up, Cinder could be seen insinuating she was planning something with Penny, there was obvious build up.

Why did Pyrrha’s death work? Simple, Achilles heel. Who she was based upon made it clear something was up, such a strong chadacyer had to have a weakness. From the start with the crushes and romance, team building, to the maidens and destiny to her final moments, it all made sense. Yes, it hurt, it hurt a lot to watch Pyrrha die, but it didn’t make me want to stop watching the show because it worked.

So what exactly made Clover’s death not work? Well, for one, you shoe horned him into one damn volume. Yes, Lionheart was in one volume, but he was set up to be weak and hated, he was a traitor who was hurting the cast rather than helping. Clover was set up as a perfect foil to Qrow, expected to have great character interactions with him since it was constantly teased at.

As someone who writes, who develops characters, and knows their way around animation, I saw things that I expected were going to be built upon. A professor of mine taught us to have every frame, every composition, every set up to mean something. From the way they smile, to the way they look at a character, to the dialogue, down to even the smallest bit of body language. CRWBY seemingly wrote Qrow, a broken character who was recovering, to have an intentionally complimentary queer-coded foil, only to lose all that great development and buildup to one poorly written episode.

There’s one crucial thing I’ve been taught by multiple professors, and that is the writing technique of establish and resolve.

What CRWBY established was a clearly deep connection between Qrow and Clover, a connection built upon flirtatious gestures and phrases, along with clear and exciting growth.

What CRWBY didn’t do was resolve. They did the flip opposite of resolve. Instead of taking the time to develop on an interesting conflict between characters, they took the cop out route and killed off one of them swift in order to give it “angst”. I mean, for real, it played out like I was reading something fan made, like the people who wrote it didn’t know the characters.

Why would Qrow team up with Tyrian, a serial killer whom he does not trust who has fought him, attempted to kill him, and attempted to kidnap his niece? Why would Clover, a man “loyal to his kingdom”, suddenly blindly follow Ironwood’s actions to abandon his kingdom, after being paired up with a character clearly close linked with rebellion? I’m not blind, people. The utter potential to write interesting scenes between these two is near limitless and instead they go for something completely out of no where.

Specifically, like I mentioned before, Pyrrha’s death hurt me. But I continued to watch. I wanted to keep watching because after lying down her life to protect Beacon, her friends moved forward in order to continue spreading peace to Remnant. They kept moving forward.

Why is Clover’s death so upsetting? Because after moving so far forward for so long, Qrow is going to start moving back. This show, since day one, no matter the conflict, was about pushing through and moving forward. And from what I’m seeing, Qrow has been set up to relapse. Something incredibly horrid to see after a character has made such progress.

It’s not enjoyable to watch, it’s not exciting, it’s not alluring. It’s agonizing and hurtful.

And yes, the big red cherry on top is the fact that out of all I just said, they took away the chance to have an amazing badass MLM couple that wasn’t just “a secret”, that wasn’t just “a fetish”, but something that had weight. Something that had meaning. Something that made people feel happy and represented.

This was never about our ship not becoming canon, this was about poor writing, poor development, and yet another queerbaiting scenario after decades of other shows doing the same exact thing.

All I have to say at this point, after taking a whole Saturday to grieve over this damn episode, is that I’m extremely disappointed. Volume 7 from episodes 1 to 11 have been my favorite, but it hurts to watch all that progress be completely done in by one poorly written episode.

#lu yells #fair game #rwby7 #sorry fellas but i jusf had to get it all out #this shit is still so frustrating i dont undersfand how they could fuck it up so badly

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spahhzy · 3 years

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"Oh if your here then that must have meant...you failed, oh well I guess we can just start again"

"I can fill you in on the details I guess while we wait for the rest of the group"

"no no! sit down! We are going to be here for awhile! Look I even have it book marked! Now sit, grab a cup of coffee or whatever it is your kind drinks and relax"

"How are they doing?" Asked qrow as he took a swig from his flask. The question given to the eldest schnee, Winter.

"If by 'They' you mean the team of Oscar, Nora, Ren and your niece Ruby physically they are all healed...no long lasting damage after the mission but mentally..." Winter trailed off not looking up from her paperwork.

Qrow sighed before taking another sip from his flask, this was all one big fucked up headache.

"If you insist on drinking could you please do so away from here..." Winter said to him to which qrow just looked at her before capping the flask and walking out of the office without so much a rebuttal.

Once the door closed, Winter let out a frustrated sigh before slamming her fist onto her desk.

-WBY- Vacuo general Hospital.

The room was quiet. all three girls laid on their respective beds both thinking and reflecting on the days that had passed.

It wasn't long until Blake spoke out.

"So...now what do we do?"

Ah yes what do they do indeed.

"I...I don't know" came Weiss as she too didn't know the answer to that question.

"We can't just sit here and do nothing!" Came the frustrated voice of Yang.

"In case you forgot Yang...we got outclassed and outmatched by Salem I'm not sure their is anything we can do right now" Spoke Weiss to which Yang just grabbed her pillow in frustration.

Silence fell over them again.

"How...how is Ruby?" Weiss asked to the older sister.

Yang just looked at Weiss and Blake and just shook her head.

"She's asleep; she was taking it pretty badly"

The fall of Atlas, Ironwood's desperate actions (some would disagree), and now this...

Ruby's hospital room.

Ren, Nora and Oscar all looked like a mess.

All three were sitting in chairs bandaged and bruised but all staring at the sleeping form of one Ruby Rose.

"What changed for things to be like this?" Spoke Ren while voicing his thoughts the question was mainly for Ozpin.

Oscar remained silent.

"He started acting differently back at the Schnee manor when we rescued yiu from the whale" Ren said calmly eyes still on the sleeping Rose.

"Things came to a head in the desert after Cinders defeat" he stopped trying to relive that horrible memory.

"he was ready to carve her up and in his words 'slice her apart so he could expose her rotten innards so she can be judged for what she had become' that's not him, that's would never be him" Ren stated as Nora agreed.

Oscar remained quiet.

"Things blew apart more when I stopped him...I could feel his anger Ozpin, that hatred and when he told me to 'stand aside' that gaze he sent me..sent us?" Ren shivered at the memory.

"We got into a fight, as in fight-fight headmaster but he seemed to stop and freak out a bit before healing us and apologizing profusely" Nora said allowing Ren to follow up

"All that hate and anger...gone. as if it was never there and I realized we had our brother back"

"So if there is anything you need to say tell us now...please"

Oscar remained silent. Just staring at Ruby sleeping.

"Is that all you can do? Be silent!?"

Ren just clutched at the arm rest in anger.

"Ren please calm down maybe even headmaster doesn't know why she did what she did!"

Ren scoffed. A trait not usually found within the young man. He turned his head to face the boy.

"You know something... I can see the gears turning up their but you don't wanna say anything"

Oscar still remains silent.

"Damnit Ozpin tell us something, anything!" Ren all but pleaded to which Oscar said nothing.

Ren sighed before getting up and with Nora in tow left Ruby's room without another word.

Before leaving Nora turned and spoke "he was right not to trust you" and closed the door.

Leaving Oscar to just stare at the still form of Ruby as she slept before shifting his eyes to one object that was laying on her bed with her.

A broken Crocea Mors.

Ren punched the wall in frustration outside of the hospital leaving small cracks.

"Ren!"

" I'm fine Nora just.."

"Your mad...I know I am too, I really...really wanted to break his legs but it's Oscar legs too" Nora said before hugging him from behind.

"We'll get him back Ren" she said as Ren sighed.

"I know Nora...I just can't help-" he was interrupted by a sudden rumble in his scroll and a beep signifying a new message.

Oddly enough Nora's scroll beep as well.

With a sigh he and Nora pulled out their scrolls.

"Did you get a message as well?" Nora asked

Ren nodded.

It was a video from an unknown number.

The video being titled 'Have you heard the good news?'.

"Did you guys get a video message too?" Came the voice of Qrow as he walked towards them with his scroll out as well.

" Yes which if you got it...then I wonder if Weiss, Yang and Blake got it as well" Ren asked and Qrow rubbed his chin thinking.

"If they did then this couldn't be by random coincidence let's go to their room and find out" Qrow said to which Ren and Nora agreed.

The trio headed out to find the other three.

As the footsteps faded from the room Oscar, still looking at the sleeping form of Ruby, sighed.

'Why couldn't you tell Ren anything?'

'What would you want me to say?'

'Something just...something'

'Somethings are better left unsaid'

Oscar rolled his eyes, Ozpin was hiding something that much was clear.

His scroll went off.

He had received a video message from an unknown number.

Oscar opened the message and pressed play.

"Today....today is a wonderful day!" Oscar eyes widened at the voice it was...

"Yes its me Tyrian the ever faithful servant to our goddess!" He said dramatically hands spread out wide in stage like fashion.

"How is all of you by the way...and by you I mean those receiving this video hmm?" He asked tilting his head.

"Ah you must be fine physical wounds heal and such" Oscar just glared at the mad scorpion on the screen mocking him.

"How is Miss Rose? Hopefully not taking it too bad?" Again more mockery. What is the damn point of this video?

"Ahaha, enough I can guess your all pretty upset but why? Why be upset?...haven't you heard the good news?"

What good news can come from a psychopath who blindy follows the devil herself?

"Well before I can give the good news allow me to give you some bad news!" Suddenly a crude drawing of stick figures graced the right side of screen while one gracefully drawn person was on the left. The one on the left was undeniably Salem.

"My goddess has deemed you all , and by that I mean humanity and faunus alike,as disgusting bacteria; a bacteria that only infects and destroys!" Some of the stick figures Oscar noticed had some distinguishing features, 3 had capes, 1 had a yellow arm , 1 had a big gun, alot had animal traits and some had white hair and surrounded by money.

"So it with a heavy heart that I must tell you that you all will be released from this level of existence by the mercy of my mistress!" He said as he put a hand over his heart as if paying respects.

That was before a large crazed grin etched onto his face.

"Now with the bad news gone! It's time for the good news!" He all but squealed as he then held up another two pictures.

The one on the left was again a portrait of Salem her arms spread open, while the picture on the right was of four stick figures.

One figure with blonde hair in front of three others. The other three were on the ground defeated almost. One had black and a pink line in its hair, the other had a hammer and orange hair and the last the one closest to the blonde had a red cape.

"I knew their was a reason I found him so...interesting!" He said which made Oscar shudder.

"But did YOU know this Ozpin hmm?"

Did Ozpin know what?

" is that why you accepted him into Beacon and not the whole 'untapped potential' jargon you preached?" Tyrian question before long his face cam back to the screen.

" I've learned some very crucial information...information that makes me wonder who really is the good side in all of this" Tyrian said acting as if he was putting on his thinking cap before snapping his fingers.

"You really tried to keep him from her...and how far did you go to achieve that I wonder..."

Tyrian was rambling trying to rile Ozpin up, because Oscar could feel a slight tugging on his consciousness.

"But fate works in strange ways...you of all people should have learned that" he said before motioning to a big portrait of Salem.

"She dances and sings in the light, she lurks in the shadows and she always gets her way" the scene changes this time.

"I've berated you enough...I think I'd like a quick chat with those three closest to him"

Oscar looked away from the screen too the sleeping form of Ruby. Then back to the screen. If he got this video then possibly everyone did too.

"Too the Valkyrie, the Calm One, and to Miss Rose especially..." a dark grin marred his face.

"Your words mean nothing to him now!" He stated sinisterly before a series of pictures flashed on screen.

It was of a blonde haired man with striking deep blue eyes , his armour worn out and cracked and his shield discarded as he held a broken sword.

Another photo but this time it was a photo with a women banged up , bruised her cape in tatters and her eyes reflecting despair. She was in the background, on the ground arm outstretched trying to reach the blonde haired man in vain.

"Now he only hears...her truth"

Before finally one more photo appears and this time it makes Oscar's and in extension Ozpin's blood run cold.

It was a photo of the blonde man and a pale woman who had red eyes and black veins.

"No it can't be" this time it was Ozpin who spoke.

It was of Jaune Arc and Salem embracing.

"Now...he's home"

The video ended and remained on that image.

"This isn't right that's too far ahead! No this won't do! Stupid bookmark ugh"

"Well just have to start from the beginning my bad buddy!"

[Here we go, off to a bad start.]

#jaune arc #rwby salem #lie ren #nora valkyrie #ruby rose #oh no

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drysaladandketchup · 4 years

Text

Okay i’m still reeling from ch.12 but I’ve had time to think, and I feel like I need to say some things with regards to Clover, Qrow, and Fair Game. Buckle up, this got long.

First I’d like to preface this by saying that I know I’m not the writers, and they’re not my characters, so of course everything I say is going to come from a place of subjectivity and personal interpretation. I have never and would never attack the creators over their work. I love this show, and in fact much of the episode was fantastic!

That being said, the emotions this has elicited are very real and very painful and it’s fair for people to be upset. People are going to vent and that’s fine and probably healthy, as long as they do it maturely (meaning no attacking the creators or others please, we’re all people). Just acknowledge that this has impacted people differently; we all engage with fiction in different ways and at different levels, especially based on personal experiences, connections we’ve made, and interpretations of storytelling.

I’m not going to argue about the ‘bury your gays’ trope or calls of ‘queer baiting’ either, because as I said, people will see it differently, and I’m not really the right person to ask in this particular case. My point is simply that emotional responses can be uncontrollable and very intense even if it’s “just fiction”, so please just let folks mourn.

With that said, let’s get into this.

More than a few people have pointed out the way the whole clover v. qrow v. tyrian (v. robyn) fight went down felt... kind of contrived. It certainly felt counterpoint to what we saw happening with Clover and Qrow throughout the season.

The whole thing seemed like it was set up with little regard for characterization, but rather for the purposes of creating a dramatic ending.

Regardless of whether or not Clover and Qrow were moving towards romantic territory (and I fully admit I believed they could have been), their relationship at least on a platonic level was growing in the background of the story, and it was decently paced and satisfying. I feel like they established a good bond even in the small amount of time we got to see them. Especially with some underlying themes of the show, and techniques we know CRWBY uses to emphasize story points, characters, and relationships.

Qrow hit rock bottom last volume. His climb upwards this volume has been so heartwarming, and Clover, whether people like it or not, has had a hand in that. Qrow needed a friend closer to his own age who he could really trust and confide in, and to meet someone who is basically your opposite, your equalizer, and who seems to really care about you (outside of his nieces, of course), well that’s got to be a hell of a feeling. Clover didn’t fix Qrow (because people don’t fix each other like that), he simply helped Qrow take another step in helping himself, and in seeing the world through a less tinted lens. He still carries those burdens from his past of course, but he really seemed to be starting to move forwards.

Now Clover, through small moments here and there, felt as if he was falling comfortably into the trope of a loyal man who, on his own and/or through his bonding with the main characters, may start to silently or subtly question his leader’s judgments, only to eventually stand against said leader when they turn extreme. It’s a common enough trope. We didn’t get any real backstory for him, I know, but within the current events of the story we were given the inclination that he had more of a heart and mind for the kingdom as a whole than Ironwood did, and he genuinely valued the people, and his own relationships. He wanted things to work out without violence and without loss, based on his actions in Mantle and his regard for Robyn. His constant isolation from the Ace-Ops also gave the impression that maybe his frame of mind would ultimately split from theirs.

There was a lot of what seemed like subtle nods to some big changes, as RWBY has always been good at.

Cut to chapter 12. I’m not surprised Clover wanted to go with Ironwood. It’s blind loyalty at that point, him making a bad decision, something I was expecting to see, at least initially. But I was also expecting that (possibly with Qrow’s help) he’d come to fully recognize that Ironwood’s interests were no longer for the benefit of the kingdom as a whole, and that many lives were at stake. It would be a hard decision, but as I said, Clover felt very much like a typical case of a character learning loyalties shouldn’t blind your morals.

Except... that lesson never came. He didn’t seem super thrilled with the outcome, but he kept pushing for Ironwood’s side nevertheless. When he got the order to arrest Qrow, someone he’s clearly developed a strong connection to, I was heartbroken to see Clover move to enact it so readily. Again, clearly wishing it weren’t so and not wanting a fight, but he still did it.

People keep saying we didn’t know enough about Clover to say this is out of character, and they’re right in a sense, but again, with regards to character arcs and the subtle nuances in character writing that RWBY has always been good at, it seemed obvious he wouldn’t stay stagnant in his ideals. But he did.

The whole fight ends up feeling wrong. Everyone is acting irrationally, and yes the stress of the situation can be blamed for that, but it only leads me back to my point that the story just seemed desperate for a fight but didn’t think as hard as it should have about how to get there. Robyn’s frustration I can at least understand, and Qrow does initially try and subdue the situation, but overall it was just drawing lines where they didn’t need to be.

And Clover’s death seemed, at least to me, like shock value more than anything. Choices have consequences, yes, but from a narrative standpoint this felt like it served no real purpose other than to provide more emotional incentive for Qrow. I don’t want to see Qrow go down this rabbit hole of guilt and pain again. I don’t want to lose Clover and the very real positive outlook he provided for Qrow. I don’t want to lose their relationship, their partnership, their dynamic.

And one of the things that irks me the most is that Clover and Qrow seem so... cold towards each other as soon as shit hits the fan.

For one, Qrow doesn’t try all that hard to convince Clover of anything. I know he’s still easily falling back into his old fears of betrayal, but this would have been a perfect moment of growth for him to instill some trust and push Clover to see reason, instead of just giving up and falling back into his assumption that he can’t trust anyone.

And Clover sort of just closes down and goes full on ‘military police’, something we haven’t really seen of him since his initial introduction. Some of his lines to Qrow during the fight come off harsh, almost vindictive; completely countering a lot of his previous actions, as well as his statements about or towards Qrow.

Then we have Clover declaring that he “trusts James with his life”. The show does show us that he seems to trust Ironwood implicitly, but ultimately we are never actually given any reasoning as to why (this goes for all the Ace-Ops, really). I would think it has to be something more than just the job, given how extreme Clover reacts, but the show reneges on any backstory that could give us more context, making it even easier to be left confused by his stubbornness. Especially since there’s some small moments (looks, dialogue, and the like) that suggest that Clover maybe, in fact, does not necessarily agree with every one of Ironwood’s plans as a whole, nor is he mindless in his loyalty.

Regardless, we don’t know enough to say what Ironwood did to earn this deep-seated trust, we’re simply told it’s there. But if this immovable loyalty is going to directly play into the conflict of ideals between Clover and Qrow, then we need to fully understand where it comes from, otherwise it just feels cheap, even senseless.

Anyways, while I know the fandom hyped itself up about the potential interactions in this scene, I still think based on what the show does actually gives us of their relationship build-up that their attitudes during the fight are suddenly too horribly impersonal.

It was painfully clear as the fight progressed that there was going to be no real resolution, no real arc for Clover, no recovering the bond for Qrow. Any impact they could have had on each other was swept aside.

I don’t want to get too into the ins and outs of Tyrian’s involvement in the fight. I admit I’m also of the mind that Clover prioritizing Qrow’s arrest over capturing Tyrian was weird; the constant interference in Qrow’s attempts to finish off Tyrian were frustrating, to say the least. As was Qrow working (albeit reluctantly and rather unintentionally) with him. Tyrian’s involvement in this fight at all just makes things worse.

This whole situation, to put it simply, leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

But this whole long winded thing brings me around to what I guess is my overall point, and the reason I initially wanted to make this monster of a post.

I still see some people saying we played ourselves, that there’s no reason to see Clover and Qrow’s relationship as anything that deep, or to think they really cared about each other. And while my above bitterness exists, I still have to say those people are wrong. Unfortunately to do so I have to point to those final moments.

Neither of them is fighting to kill the other. Nor even seriously injure. Tyrian obviously is looking for a killing blow, but it’s clear Clover and Qrow don’t want that. Qrow abandons his weapon to break Clover’s aura in as non-lethal a way as possible. And their words to each other in those last moments felt genuine enough in their emotion that under different circumstances they could have finally led to the turn-around we were all desperately begging for. Clover clearly had more to say.

Well... we know what happened next.

But Qrow’s reaction, his heart-wrenching scream when Tyrian stabs Clover-with Harbinger, no less-is proof enough that though Qrow was angry, he still didn’t want to lose Clover. The desperation in his declaration to kill Tyrian, now that’s a real vendetta. That’s a real threat he now has all the more incentive to follow through with.

And of course he forgoes chasing Tyrian to be by Clover’s side as he dies. And Clover smiles at him, tells him “someone had to take the fall”. Clover, as far as I can tell through all this insanity, never blamed Qrow. For anything. He didn’t want to fight, he didn’t want to lose anyone. He made mistakes he couldn’t take back, and now he’ll never have the chance to try. All he could do is smile, look towards the sunrise, and wish Qrow good luck. He still cares about Qrow in the end, still wants him to be happy.

We haven’t seen Qrow cry in four volumes. Clover dying is what finally breaks the dam, and boy does it burst. Qrow just breaks down then and there over Clover’s body. It’s gut-wrenching, it’s anguish.

So let me ask the people who think they weren’t important to each other; would Qrow cry like that over someone he didn’t genuinely care for?

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Qrow keep that four leaf clover badge. I wouldn’t be surprised if he even hesitates to touch his weapon with Clover’s blood all over it. I wouldn’t be surprised if he went right up to Ironwood and decked him. And I for sure would be surprised if he didn’t finally put Tyrian six feet under.

I love Qrow; I have pretty much since his introduction. Clover grew on me quickly, too, because believe it or not people can get attached to side characters too (what a concept, I know). And again, by full admission, I fell in love with Fair Game. I wanted that bond to grow and develop in whatever time they were given. But in the end what hurt most wasn’t the loss of a ship, but rather the loss of a character, and a loss of characterization, at least to my eyes. I was so utterly baffled by most of what went down.

It’s clear CRWBY wanted us to like Clover, and wanted us to like how his and Qrow’s relationship was developing so when they pulled the rug out from under us, it would actually hurt. I’m not accusing CRWBY of anything here, I just... can’t help but feel a little emotionally manipulated, despite my best efforts. A small part of me feels like they only wanted us to care about all this for the sake of wringing an emotional moment. I don’t like that I have that bit of bitterness in me, but I’m not going to lie and pretend that it hasn’t crossed my mind.

So I’m upset, yes. I’m upset over the loss of the potential for Clover. I’m upset over the loss of their relationship, platonic or otherwise. I’m upset that it feels like we’re knocking Qrow down again. I’m upset over the seeming upheaval of the uplifting themes of this volume.

However, with all that said, I still love RWBY. I love the girls, I love the story, I love the world. I will continue to watch.

I know Clover was a side character, and their relationship was only a tiny part of a much bigger plot. I know we are all responsible for our own viewing experiences; I’m not accusing or blaming anyone of anything outright. But I’d be lying if I said this chapter didn’t hurt me in ways I wasn’t prepared for. Clover and Fair Game can still live on through the fan base, and I hope we can all come together and keep them alive, and heal.

But I’ll also understand if this chapter turns some people away completely. No one is obligated to engage with a work of fiction wholeheartedly if it doesn’t engage you wholeheartedly. There’s no wholesome, correct way to enjoy something.

I guess, through all this frustration, I just wanted to say this:

Regardless of how you see Clover and Qrow’s relationship, it mattered. That’s about all I can offer all our broken hearts at this stage; look at that ending and know that their relationship fucking meant something. To both of them.

I just wish it had meant something throughout the episode, not just in those final moments.

#rwby #rwby7 #rwby spoilers #qrow branwen #clover ebi #fair game #luckybirds #god i'm emotionally exhausted #i just needed to get this all out #i'm sure i've failed to elaborate on a bunch of stuff #and i haven't been able to rewatch the ep so i may very well have missed something #my rational brain is at war with my emotions #ramblings

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