#honestly I feel like that’s so much that the RWBY fandom keeps missing like the show ya know ENITRE WRITING STYLE
Text
And we're back for V4! Honestly, I'm making it through more than I thought I would. I was sure I was gonna bail after 2 lol.
Anyways, the new engine was really a breath of fresh air for this volume, and it's impressive how much animation is still getting better every volume<3 RWBY makes me proud in a way no other show or just thing has ever done. I just wish it wouldn't hurt so bad lol.
Anyways, time for random thoughts!
I gotta go ahead and say that V4-6 is my favorite outfit for Blake. The pirate vibes on her are *chef kiss* and I'm just in love with her white coat RIP the coat, another good thing Adam ruined *sighs*
God, the yearning separated bees are so angsty <3 I love it, the payoff will be so great.
God, Sun was so annoying this volume, poor boy has a good heart but definitely is too eager for Blake to match him and things get aaaaaawkward lol I'm happy the managed to get into an understanding by next volume tho, Blake needed him, I can see that now.
It's so interesting to hear all the bits of story we get to learn each volume and how eventually it all falls apart with Jinn's story in v6. I don't blame Qrow for how hard he took it, poor man has been through a lot, and he really believed in Ozpin through it all.
I loooove the tale of the two brother's animation style<3 it's one of my favorite parts of the season.
The ship captain is another favorite part lol I don't know, I just think he's neat. Wouldn't be opposed yo seeing more of him.
Ilia <3 Love of my life, best lesbian Chameleon girl <3 good how I miss you!
Again, when is Ilia coming back so she can finally meet and fall in love with Weiss?? RT is homofobic to keep these two apart! /Jk
But seriously they are fuckin' perfect for eachother I won't get tired of saying it. Schnee x Faunus? Both sides of the Atlas/Mantle coin? Rainbow x white? Trying to live their families legacy without letting it consume them? What's not to like?
Ahem, anyways. The Kuroyuri arc had me biting my freaking nails. Seriously after v3 I was so sure someone was going to die!
Remember that couple days we were all terrified of the nuckelavee and then someone compared it to the wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tubeman and since then we just laugh about him? Lol this Is why I love this fandom.
Maya Zwei <3
I can't imagine how horrible it was for the girls all that time we didn't get to see in between volumes. Weiss being completely alone in Atlas, with no way to know if Yang and Ruby had gotten better, just knowing that Blake had ran into the night. Blake wondering everyday if Yang was thinking about her, so sure that she was hated, heating herself too much to ask for help or just company... Ruby missing the friends she had come to trust so wholeheartedly and seeing her big sister broken and depressed and not knowing what to do because Yang had never been nothing but bright and strong and perfect. Yang looking at books and thinking of Blake and wanting to hate her because it would be so much easier. And that's not even counting all of them mourning Pyrrha and Penny and everything they lost in the blink of an eye.
On that note, Ruby's outfit for this arc paying homage to both Penny and Pyrrha still hurts me so much</3 this is also probably my favorite outfit of her, thought her Atlas outfit is quite good too.
The moment we learn that Blake is practically a Princess lol I love it, I love seeing reactors get to that part.
But honestly my favorite part to see reactors will always be Taiyang's 'lost a couple braincells along with that arm' joke lol honestly I hate that joke, but the sheet shock on everyone's faces is just epic lol.
Honestly I feel I've slept on Yang's v4 outfit btw. Yeah, her final/v5-6 outfit is extremely badass and I love it, but the sweats + orange tanktop looks so good on her??? Honestly this was the first volume I looked at Yang and was atracted to her lol.
So yeah Yang please join the line of women who could step on me and I'd thank them.
Also: *puts Ilia there too*
Specially once she paints her arm yellow <3 I stan by my previous statement that Yang looks so much better with her new arm. It feels like her design is finally complete.
V4 villains really, really make me miss v1-3 villains lol. I'm sorry, but I just think Hazel and Watts are unninteresting (aside from the Emm-Hazel plot but I only like it because Emmerald) and while I find Tyrian kinda funny because he's an obvious theater kid lol it was not enough to put team WTCH in my good graces after getting rid of my two faves from team CRMNE lol. Also, Cinder being too hurt to cause chaos was a negative</3 I loved sassy overconfident world destroyer Cinder.
It is also extremely painful for me to watch Cinder slowly dig her own grave after seeing her backstory. I always had a soft spot for Cinder and that really made it worse.
Baby Nora and Ren<3 good they were cute! And god did the timeskip did them good lol this is also my favorite Nora outfit <3 she looks amazing.
That moment in Kuroyuri when baby Ren gives Nora the hammer while boop play in the background? I tear up every fucking time. It's literally imposible not to love them together, just as It was literally imposible for Nora to not fall for him <3 my babies
Qrow being bandaged over his clothes while injures will never not be funny to me lol oh, the joys of working with 3D models!
Weiss learning to summon <3 also just... Weiss <3 She's the best. This volume wasn't kind on her, but she rose to the challenge and got so far!!
Also, can I just say that I feel Whitley... Is what people thinks Draco Malfoy Is? Like... I always remembered Draco while watching Whitley, but Whitley is an actually cool character as you get to know him, while Draco just... disapointed me. He's also my baby and I demand him to be protected.
Seeing Raven oficially was one of my favorite parts of the volume <3 She's a bitch, she's the worst, I love her so much!!!!
Again with the controversial and refuted headcanon... Qrow getting a song that includes the line 'you don't want the burden of my name', talking to Ruby about how his semblance makes things hard on family... That delirious 'Tai, she's not coming back' while poisoned... Seriously it would've made so much sence if Ruby was his daughter lol. At this point it's just hilarious.
The Jaune - Ruby moment in Kuroyuri </3 seriously give these poor kids therapy, they need it.
This Is the only volume where I actually have a score saved on my Spotify playlist: the first part of The next step where you can hear the music box version of Divide. I would pay for a full of that song <3 I adore creepy music box covers.
The way Blake's voice breaks when she finally says Yang's name? I'm ok, I swear! I'm not.
If you didn't cry during Ruby's letter scene... You're lying!! It's not possible to not cry! Specially with Home in the background. Home is another special song to me, it was one of the first ones I memorised back when my english wasn't great <3
That part when Ruby talks about people who are still lost and people who wants to take advantage of them and it shows Ilia with the Albains? I loved it, that's why I never doubted of my girl<3
And so it became the long journey to have Winter back... I remember how annoyed I was during all of v4-5 that we never got to see her outside of the Weiss trailer lol you don't just introduce a character like Winter for two episodes and then take it away like that RT! I say, as if I didn't knew v5 at all lol
I'm still curious about Tyrian and the fact that he apparently couldn't fight while Qrow didn't have his Sword/Scythe? Did we ever got a reason for that yet?
I think that's all that comes to mind right now lol also, I watched the v5 trailers and I just had to say how much I love them <3 Blake's probably my favorite, but they were all great!
O better keep watching now lol I gotta watch as much as I can before saturday!
20 notes
·
View notes
Text
So Yeah I wanted to discuss next the biggest can of Worms
I Adore Shipping
Blacksun & Bumbleby
Blacksun- The ship between Blake and Sun
And
Bumbleby-The ship between Yang and Blake
Keep in mind this won't be a super analytical analysis but rather my thoughts of the ships
And why I don't like how the Fandom alienates fans of either one
Naturally the Appeal of both pairings is The Light paired with the Darkness,Loner and Positive thinker etc.
■ With of course Yang and Sun having a big impact on Black's Development, allowing her to go after what is bothering her instead of falling into the Ocean of her Cowardlyness and Fear. ■ Sun Himself also decides to better himself as a result of their bond, by going back to deal with his Team during the Events of Vol 6
● Yang on the Other hand, finally gathered a new outlook on what strength is and with the help of Blake came to the conclusion that we always have eachother to protect one another as seen through Vol 6-8
Blake and Yang was a tale of two people who had the world spiral around them but found their truth selves in One Another
Blake and Sun was Tale of two people with similar backgrounds but different beliefs bringing out the best in one another
I'm honestly sick and tired of people fighting between the two
Especially the Toxic sides for both ships that make people generalize all fans of them to be awful people
"If you don't like Blacksun, I guess your just forcing your lgbt rep
Or
If you don't like Bumbleby, your Anti LGBT/Bigoted"
(It's just too much
And sure maybe some people are that way
But not everyone sees through the same glasses as they are, They are people of both sides who are respectful and ship the other because they prefer their chemistry)
Like Yang and Sun clearly know that they both like Blake and they ain't acting like Petty Love rivals(And Regardless of who "won", The other would still support them for the sake of Blake's happiness)
My thoughts:
Imma be honest to say I am 100% a blacksun shipper and during by first viewing I was kinda Salty about Bumbleby cuz I was blind as hell to the implications
But as the Volumes went on, Vol 6-8 I began to see Bumbleby In a better light and enjoyed their ever evolving friendship turning into a slow burn romance(Shipping them alongside Aforementioned Blacksun equally)
And while I'm a little sad Blake and Sun didn't get together, I'm happy that Miss Belladonna has a strong Emotional support of a friend to speak with aside from her family of Team RWBY
Sun was also really Mature during the Volume 6 Chapter 1, Deciding to let Blake go off with Yang and her team instead of just taking this opportunity to confess his feelings but instead prioritized her feelings instead
In The END
Both parties wanted to see Blake Smile and shine in the very end
Hope yall enjoy
"You showed me that sometimes you need to be there for a friend even when they don't want you to be. I was drowning in guilt and fear. I tried to push you away, but you didn't give up on me."
"She's not protecting me, Adam. And I'm not protecting her. We're protecting each other"
A Love Triangle Trope that was respectful to all parties and painting them in a reasonable manner in comparison to other Love triangles in Fiction
64 notes
·
View notes
Text
I think out of all the things that the RWBY Fandom has just missed that the show was trying to say, the way RWBY deals with morality and making it more like it is in the real world is the thing that bugs me the most. Like the show tries so hard to prove that people don’t just fall into boxes it ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’, and that no one says at a one certain moral point their entire live. People can ahd do change, for better or worse. Also, mortality is all a matter of perspective. There are no set rules for what good and bad and everyone, everyone will see it differently. DnD deals with nicely with its Alignment system, having Good mean doing things for others sake and Bad for only your own. Overly Sarcastic Productions video on Anti-Heroes also explains this idea about morality very well.
RWBY is one of those stories that shows morality as it is, as least that I have seen. Morality is fluid, and weird, and complex, and different for everyone. People’s moral codes and how they act can change. People aren’t just good and bad, you can rarely ever but then in those boxes. And best of all RWBY shows that it’s characters think in this way (that you can) and shows that it can have consequences and can make you seem like a hypocrite at times. Trying to fit people into that (wrong) world view is not going to work out well for you 90% of the time. People make mistakes, people have mindsets that are different, sometimes in a way that hurts other but sometimes not, and paragons and Disney evil don’t come up in the real world. There aren’t going to be any infallible mentors here.
And yet, with all of this the fandom still tries to fit characters into easy little boxes of Good and Bad (or worse Morality Gray which you would think would be a broader category that it is), and doesn’t realize that people will make mistakes, or be less then perfect, and that in some cases opposite view can both be valid while being opposite and co-exist.
It just gets on my nerves at times.
#okay but can we talk about the bullshit that is fandoms (no just RWBY’s this is a larger problem) concept of Morality Gray?#because it feels like that is something that should be very open and many characters would fall in it. you know someone that’s not perfectly#good or bad or you know most people. but no it’s strangely specific and means in between good abs bad but heading towards good and is rarly#going to be in any form of antagonistic light#RWBY#yes im a bit salty deal with it#I probably missed a point somewhere in there but honestly I don’t care at this point#I just wanted this off my chest#honestly I feel like that’s so much that the RWBY fandom keeps missing like the show ya know ENITRE WRITING STYLE#but this annoys me more because of the god damn wars that come out of it
17 notes
·
View notes
Text
After the heartache of the Volume 8 finale, I would like to return to a happier point in the show and suggest some memes/jokes that I like to think the students at Beacon would have had. More closely inline with the RWBY Chibi-verse, than the actual show - where Nothing Bad Ever Happened.
"Who's child is this?" being used to refer to Ruby - the youngest student at Beacon - when she's left unsupervised and/or doing something odd.
"I'd let Glynda punish/whip me for one corn chip."
Every now and again "Missing - Have you seen this person?" posters for Professor Peach will pop up around campus. No one knows who it is that keeps making them.
Vomit Boy candids being taken and shared any time Jaune is Suffering™️ on some form of transport.
The Great One plush of Pyrrha exists in-universe... and becomes the go-to prize for any stupid competition between the students. There's at least a dozen of these dolls on campus now, owned by various people and won as "spoils of war."
There's a dedicated chalkboard in the combat room for tallying how many times Nora has launched someone into the stratosphere. Notable mentions are listed on the board alongside her of other people who have achieved this feat - including Yang, Yatsuhashi, and Glynda.
(She launched both Port and Oobleck one day when they kept annoying her. Sometimes, their screams can still be heard if you listen closely enough.)
"There's that old guy again..." "Oh, shopkeep? Yea, he's everywhere. Don't think too much about it."
This leads to "Don't think too much about it." becoming something of a slogan for every time anything unusual happens.
"Candy canes, kids! One for Sun Wukong, one for Yang Xiao-Long, ooh four for Coco Adel, you go Coco!"
"I--"
"Andnoneforweissschneebye~"
Team STRQ having something akin to legend status at Beacon, whispered in hushed voices for fear and reverence of their names. There's a war between the students regarding team JNPR as their successors vs. the students who insist JNPR are not anywhere near worthy of such a title.
"How many team CRDLs does it take to beat Pyrrha?"
Blurry fancam-style videos of the Qrow vs. Winter fight out in the courtyard being traded around like baseball cards with other students. Some try and manufacture a "rematch" of this with the materials they've got - trying to get Ruby and Weiss to fight each other.
That weird sing-song "HellOooOo~" that Yang sometimes does being mimicked by everyone. And I mean everyone.
Any time there's a significant lull in conversations or classes, someone often asks "Why are we here?" which never fails to make everyone in the vicinity groan.
"Ozpin is compensating for something" jokes about his office chair - including at least one popular response being "it's the war crimes", without them knowing just how accurate they actually are.
"On a scale of Ren-Nora, how excited do you want me to be?"
"Ladies Love Lavender" referring to Lisa Lavender having her own in-universe fandom mostly comprised of women. (Lavender being associated with lesbians irl, and I just think this would be funny.)
The sight of Ren just picking up and carrying Nora away from something is so commonplace that other people start doing it to their friends when they Need To Stop.
"Why is Blake's bow so big?" "Because it's full of secrets."
Blake being a closet faunus being such a poorly hidden secret that by the time she finally takes off the bow no one actually even notices.
The betting pool surrounding exactly what it is in Ozpin's cup - coffee being one of the least popular options, and souls being the top choice.
Using Yatsuhasi as a unit of measurement.
Photoshopping adorable images of Velvet onto various "cute" animal memes.
Everyone wanting to be spanked by Coco Adel.
"I'd let Fox blow me up too."
"Why is Weiss' hair so long?" "To reflect the length of her father's crimes."
Everyone mimicking Pyrrha's memetic "I'm sorry!" anytime they apologise for anything. Even going as far to do it while apologising to things that don't require apologies - like inanimate objects.
"Are Port and Oobleck, you know... 💅?"
In fact, just that 💅 being used to refer to a large number of people at Beacon. Actual LGBT students picking this up and using it towards grimm when they're attacked to question the sexuality/homophobia of the grimm targeting them over their peers.
Threatening Neptune with water anytime he flirts with a girl who is clearly Not Interested in him.
No one knowing who, exactly, the other two members of team SSSN are - with wild theories abounding about who they may be. Popular choices include Shopkeep, Zwei, and Professor Peach.
This persists even after their tournament fights where they're shown. Scarlet and Sage are perfectly content with this, and participate.
"Arslan's/Pyrrha's back must be aching from constantly carrying her entire team."
And the respective responses of, "Reese/Nora are alright."
Similar jokes about Glynda also carrying the entire faculty/academy on her back.
"Salutations!"
The war between the "Irondaddy" fanbase, and his haters - who refer to him with various derogatory versions of his name. "Metalpenis", "Coppercock", "Chromeshaft", etc.
Anytime someone is doing something ~questionable~ donning a pair of glasses and/or imitating Oz or Oobleck pushing them back up their nose with accompanying menacing body language. (Kubrick Stare optional.)
Mercury having a foot fetish, courtesy of the people who caught him sniffing shoes at the festival.
"Did <character> just die?" "You know, it was really unclear." any time someone takes some insane damage in a fight and isn't seen for some time afterwards.
Everyone trying to locate and get a pic of the ~mysterious~ fourth member of team CMSN, who has only ever been spotted once - her tournament fight in the first round. Beacon's version of "Where's Wally?"
The Sympathy Fund for Emerald and her one-sided crush on Cinder. "She could honestly do so much better."
People offering themselves up as tribute to spar with Pyrrha/Yang/Coco/Sun just so they can be beaten up by the hottest people on campus.
"I drink milk!" being used as a defensive argument in wildly inappropriate contexts.
Naming grimm really boring names and attempting to keep them as pets.
The innumerous times Port has allowed a "zoo-break" to happen under his watch and everyone having to assist in recovering his prized subjects.
"Where the fuck are all the fourth years?" "Ozpin's soul collection."
Candid shots of Glynda Suffering™️ being shared similarly to the ones of Vomit Boy.
Ranking people based on their Patience Levels - Pyrrha, Ren, Glynda, Emerald, and Fox being frequent top markers based on the bullshit they put up with from their respective teams.
"Saint Pyrrha" being a common nickname for her, and her neverending niceness towards people who absolutely do not not deserve it.
Weiss' "Hey!" being replicated amongst the student body and slowly growing more and more high-pitched in its replication until it eventually just becomes a shrill noise. Even so, everyone still knows what it means - and Weiss is absolutely unamused by all of this.
In fact, a lot of early!Weiss' comments being mercilessly mocked by everyone - "I'm a victim!" being one of them.
Renowned fear permitting amongst the student body regarding Yang's red eyes meaning Serious Business. Morphs into references of "going full Yang" to mean having rage-fuelled temper tantrums.
"Never miss a beat, never miss a beat" becoming a mantra for focusing on a task. This inspires several remixes of Neon saying it, and again with no one knowing who it is making them.
By all means, feel free to add any more that you all think of! I could use a laugh!
Also, check the notes for additions!
#rwby#rwby vol 8#ruby rose#weiss schnee#penny polendina#blake belladonna#yang xiao long#jaune arc#pyrrha nikos#lie ren#nora valkyrie#coco adel#velvet scarlatina#cinder fall#emerald sustrai#glynda goodwitch#ozpin#oobleck#professor port#sun wukong#neptune vasilias#professor oobleck#winter schnee#qrow branwen#professor Ozpin#james ironwood
1K notes
·
View notes
Note
idk, i feel like a lotta people are unnecessarily hard on rwby for a lot of writing mistakes that some popular anime i've seen have had as well. i'm not saying the fndm shouldn't call it out, i'm just saying that they shouldn't have double standards. i'll use a popular anime example here, jojo's bizarre adventure.
a jojo character forgets a cool ability he had at the start of the series and it's treated as if it never existed? oh well haha araki forgot i guess haha
weiss forgets about her time dilation glyphs? the writers are so stupid why can't they keep track of their own characters' abilities!?
a jojo character "dies" and the audience and one of the characters is made to believe he's dead but it turns out he's actually alive, then he gets killed again for good this time? awww i miss the guy he was my fav
penny dies and is brought back only to be killed again? the writers are so stupid they should have just never brought her back!!
like, i get that rwby has its major writing problems, but if you're (not you specifically, just some parts of the fndm) gonna call it out, at least hold the same standard for other shows
honestly i think the major difference is, & this is going to sound mean, is that those other shows have good writing. rwby has had good writing moments but overall, the show is very haphazardly put together, the writers are consistently throwing in new things or forgetting what they've written as the writer's commentary track has exposed over & over, & people are more likely to forgive mistakes if the general show is good. if you stop fucking up on major plot elements, which rwby has done time & time again even to this latest volume, then they're not going to nitpick the little things; even though i think a lot of the things people point out aren't "nitpicks" about the little things because a lot of them are very major issues in the story itself.
especially when the two issues you pointed out highlight so much of how rwby's story structure & worldbuilding is a. boring & b. built on goddamn spaghetti string. weiss literally does nothing but summon anymore & doesn't seem to have learned from the time it almost got her killed. penny came back only to invalidate the arc they wrote her with where her humanity was validated & then sent her off with another death arc that now glorifies assisted suicide. these are not issues to trifle with & yet mkek, in all their ignorant glory, do so time & time again while they're coddled by the fndm.
the main issue with rwby is a lack of accountability, both in show & out. the writers can do whatever they feel like because they'll have an army of deranged stans ready to defend them & attack other people with even the barest criticism even if they enjoy the show — just look at the recent calxyin drama on twitter — & honestly i'm very tired of the self victimizing attitude from the fndm. you're not oppressed in the fandom space for liking rwby when people make fun of it. maybe if the show had a good base, people would be kinder. or if they had decent writers. but it's a nil on both ends & honestly, that's on mkek. no one else. honestly i don't think people are hard enough on rwby & it's writers, & probably aren't because there's a very decent chunk of this fndm that will tell them to go die, k/ys, use slurs, & so much worse.
25 notes
·
View notes
Note
You know what i miss in the rwby fandom? (Or a lot of modern fandoms) That you cant have different opinions on things without being called names. Its so fucking wild to me because if you talk about a show/media in real life you will 100% meet someone who hasnt the same opinion as you. Do you insult the person right on the spot? No, you just say "ok i saw that differently" or something like that and move on. And if you cant find commin ground you just change the topic but you dont insult real people because of fiction? Why cant we keep that up on the internet...
Hey anon! This is definitely a major frustration I have with fandoms at large but even when talking in person some of this shit is popping up. My older sister when I talk about issues in Marvel? She’ll throw a fit and storm off because she likes it and how dare I not love something she does. My coworker when I mentioned in passing I didn’t like “of mice and men” because it had a sad ending and I prefer happy endings said I was boring and became very hostile because of my preference towards happy endings. The same coworker will not let subjects drop er don’t agree on and will fight and fight and demand I have essays ready to go on every subject we disagree on and my gosh it is mentally exhausting. So while it is much much worse on the internet where people feel they can send death threats (even reaching a point they don’t feel the need to even be on anon anymore) real conversation are starting to turn more and more hostile over simple disagreements.
I’m not allowed to dislike Marvel and not want to watch it because everyone loves it what’s wrong with me? Happy endings are boring and it’s not fair to writers to force them to make happy endings despite me never saying that and only mentioning it’s what I prefer. So while yes I’m person conversations tend to be less hostile and have an easier time moving away from disagreements it’s still slowly becoming more common place and honestly? I’m so tired of it. I do mess when “agree to disagree” on fictional stories was allowed but it’s just not anymore.
8 notes
·
View notes
Note
The thing that feels disingenuous about Miles answer about Ironwood is that he was part of the writing staff that framed the general as a cool character to start with. I do think that the signs about Ironwood's evil were clear since V2 and in V7 he was an outright dictator from episode 1. Nonetheless, he was still consistently framed as a cool character, someone you can trust and rely. You don't get to blame the fans for liking a genocide if you was the one framed him as cool in the first place.
I actually don’t think being cool is the problem. If we’re satirizing and/or making a statement about the toxic masculinity that leads to something like a dictatorship, then being “cool” is a crucial part of that. People don’t leverage the power they have by looking lame, they do so by appearing desirable, enviable, awesome. Being in the military is supposedly “cool.” Being a white guy with a giant gun is supposedly “cool.” Having power over an entire nation is supposedly “cool,” etc. If you only make such characters look revolting — even when they are — then you miss one of the main recruitment tools for this kind of rhetoric. Any version of Ironwood that’s meant to make a point about the dangers of following someone like him needs to make him look “cool” and then deconstruct that, pointing out the ways in which this cool veneer is a lie meant to pull you in. To do otherwise is to claim that evil people are always easy to spot. Making your villains “uncool” implies that the people who do appear cool in real life must be fine then. That good looking, charismatic leader is great. Why would I look critically at his actions? He’s too cool to be evil.
My personal problem is not that “They made the dictator look cool and we can’t possibly expect the audience to tell the difference between someone who is truly good and someone who is just using various Cool Points to skate by” because that would be the point of such a character — the work the show needs to do. My problem is that RWBY didn’t do that work. At least, not to the extent they needed to. Rather than making Ironwood a truly heinous character (prior to Volume 7 ‘s shooting, I mean) and allowing the audience to learn how appearing cool can’t hide that, they just made him good person. Straight up. Flawed, absolutely, but no worse than any of the other character on screen, particularly post Volume 6 when our heroes are frequently putting people in danger, seizing power, telling lies, keeping secrets, and generally acting in the ways we’re supposedly meant to condemn Ironwood for. Since talk of Miles’ vid last night I’ve seen three separate “Ironwood was always bad, idk how people can miss the signs” posts and those people are half right. There 100% were signs we were meant to pick up on. The problem is RWBY then went and deconstructed those signs. Ironwood didn’t just bring an army to a peace festival, he brought an army to an event he had good reason to believe wasn’t peaceful — and he was right. Ironwood didn’t wrest control from Ozpin (using a series of checks and balances that exist for this very purpose...) because he has an obsession with being in control, he did so because he honestly believed Ozpin was putting people in danger — and he was right. Ironwood didn’t step up post-Fall because he arrogantly believes he’s the only one capable of saving Remnant, he did so because he’s actually the most qualified: a fully trained huntsmen leading an Academy (like Ozpin) with an army and knowledge of this secret war. What, was Ironwood supposed to read the script and wait for the group of dropout teenagers to arrive and save the world instead? To say nothing of how his power and responsibility are framed as sacrifices, not something he sought out. Ironwood doesn’t want to be the sole ruler here. His desperate relief at having allies again proves it. Good setup for the rise of a dictator would have been Ironwood being cagey with his information and exerting control over the group... not telling them everything, not giving them more power, not letting them keep the Lamp, not taking arrest off the table so as to keep them in line, and generally doing the opposite of everything he did do to share that responsibility and power. RWBY got very good at giving us the first half of these red flags — he has an army, he’s stubborn, he’s hurting Mantle, etc. — but then time and time again introduced a context that changed that flag dramatically: they are fighting literal monsters, he’s no more stubborn than our title character, hurting Mantle is a consequence of a plan he thinks will help the whole world and our heroes back this. Those who insist that Ironwood was 100% a villain in the making (or a villain already) prior to shooting Oscar are working from their assumption of what his archetype represents, not what RT actually put on screen. Because RT is just really bad at writing a dictator character. They didn’t have the skill to manage someone who only appeared good on the surface, let alone a character with the complex nuance of wielding “coolness” to their advantage, which is why in Volume 8 they had to resort to cartoon villainy with literal, evil spotlights. It’s not that the audience is too dumb to pick up on those red flags, it’s that RT couldn’t manage to plant them without continually introducing valid justifications. You can’t say, “Bringing an army is a bad thing. Look at this dictator coding!” without me going, “Yeah, except in the fictional world you created an army does not represent the problems it does in our real life societies. This isn’t a guy amassing soldiers to go after oil, he’s trying to protect people from monsters. Not even metaphoric monsters acting as stand-ins for a minority group. Literal, evil monsters!” RWBY ignores its own context and a good chunk of the fandom ignored it too.
The problem with that (besides the general frustration of someone ignoring parts of canon to forward a particular reading) is that the fandom’s go-to claim is that everything is meaningful — and it’s a reading the writers very much support. Fans do not, as the above attests, push for a simple reading of, “Don’t think too hard about it. Just take the surface reading and run with it” which, while still frustrating, would have at least been a valid stance. Rather, they insist very strongly that nuance and depth are what drive the show. From the song lyrics to a tiny detail in the opening, everything is important and if you don’t accept that then you can’t appreciate RWBY’s complexity.
“Okay,” I said. “Then in that case Ironwood coming around to Ozpin’s position is meaningful too? Glynda — one of our best and most faultless characters — supporting him is meaningful? Flipping his gun, defending Weiss, Qrow writing to him, the group working with him for months on end... all of it is meaningful to his characterization? You said so yourself.”
“No, no, no,” comes the reply. “He’s just bad. But he’s also nuanced. He’s tricked you into thinking he’s a good person by acting kind sometimes, by getting support sometimes, but none of that is true. His actions are what matter and his actions are simplistically bad.”
“Ohhhh. So then does that mean this story is really about the creation of a villain?”
“Huh?”
“Well, Ruby. She’s ‘nuanced’ in the same way. She acts kind sometimes and gets support, but her actions are terrible. She endangered an entire city because she couldn’t wait to see if Ironwood got his letter. She condemned Ozpin for keeping secrets about Salem and then kept those same secrets just two days later. When the kingdom was under attack she sat around drinking tea, crying on a staircase, just hoping someone would come fix things for her — all while actively sabotaging the one person who was trying to save people, even if that action seems silly to us (let’s fly really high). So if we’re looking at the impact of someone’s actions outside of their intent, as we just did with Ironwood, then she’s a bad guy too, yeah?”
“No! She’s the hero!”
“... these characters don’t know she’s the hero from a meta perspective. If we’re supposed to judge the meaning of RWBY based on these details — ”
“But it’s not just the details. It’s also the allusions. Everyone in RWBY is based on another person or character. It’s very complex and that inspiration drives their story, so if you don’t have that information it’s no surprise you’re confused. For example, this is why Penny had to get a human body. That’s what happened to Pinocchio!”
“Oh! So then Ironwood is destined to be a good guy!”
“What?”
“Well, you just said the allusions drive their stories, right? The whole point of the Tin Man is that he always had a heart and just needed to realize that. So clearly — “
“No! He’s supposed to be a classic dictator, he’s only bad!”
And ‘round and ‘round we go. RWBY’s writing is atrocious yet the fandom pushes this narrative that it’s all a complex, multi-layered story that requires taking every part into account to understand the “real” message... but when you try to do that with certain characters like Ozpin and Ironwood it’s, “No, actually, they’re just simple archetypes of Bad Men.” Nuance exists for the bees, but not other ships. It exists for the characters fans like, but not the ones they don’t. And RWBY’s inspirations have to predict the ending for this character... but not that other character. It’s a nonsense grab bag!
Fans are right that Ironwood had a lot of red flags to set up this downfall. Fans are also right that those red flags were severely undercut, thus reversing their impact. Fans are right that Ironwood becomes a 100% bad guy who kills because he can and threatens to bomb a city. Fans are also right that this characterization feels absurd for Ironwood, both in terms of his morality and his intelligence (how does bombing Mantle help you now??) Ironwood is badly written. He was badly written in 7 and 8, if he was always meant to be a dictator in the making then he was badly written in 2-6, and he’s conclusively badly written when it comes to lacking a backstory and a canonical semblance — two things are are supposedly driving all of this characterization. That’s the answer: not that he’s good, or bad, but that RWBY can’t write a consistent character, let alone a nuanced one, so it’s no surprise the fandom can’t decide on anything. What’s there to decide on? It’s that nonsense grab bag. In a different show I think making the dictator appear cool would be a crucial bit of commentary, but RWBY doesn’t have the skill to pull that off.
68 notes
·
View notes
Text
So, I’m just gonna go through the Reddit AMA that happened today (December 2nd 2020), and compile the answered questions that I personally find interesting
Taking part in this AMA was Eddy Rivas, RWBY co-writer; Eugene C. Myers, write of After the Fall, Before the Dawn and Fairy Tales of Remnant; and Violet Tobacco, illustrator on Fairy Tales of Remnant.
(Not all questions and answers are repeated here verbatim, if you want to check the exact wording, please use the link above.)
This is gonna be long, so I’ll place a cut here:
Eddy Answers:
JNPR Birthdays: Someday. They’d rather reserve that information for the show or other materials, but they felt it was well past due to learn RWBY’s birthday.
Who is the girl in the photo in Theodore’s office?: “That’s something we’ll come back to later.”
Mercury Thoughts: He’s reserving them for later in the Volume, though he does find some people’s takes on his character “interesting”, but can’t say why just yet.
Thoughts on the Em/Merc/Hazel dynamic: “As for the Merc/Em/Hazel dynamic, moooooore to come. I've always enjoyed that little trio in the midst of these bananas villains.”
Are we ever gonna get an origin for Dust, even a biased one?: “Yes, more than likely.”
Are Ghira and Kali’s bands in each other’s colours “wedding bands”, and is this a faunus/huntsman tradition? (The asker also notes that Tai has a red armband): “Different cultures/kingdoms have different ways of expressing their bonds to other people, and there's not even really a set standard for that across the board. Most often it comes to incorporating it on their clothes/person in some way, usually through color.”
Do the Gods have actual names, or are they only known by their titles as God of Light and God of Darkness?: “Certainly the Two Brothers might have other things that they are known by!”
Does the women who first followed the Infinite Man have a name as well? “Ozpin was choosing in the re-telling of that story to keep those things pretty general/vague -- more than likely to keep it from being perceived by the audience as truth.”
Things created by the Staff of Creation have no ontological inertia: a created object will disappear once the Staff is used again.
The Grimm in Before The Dawn were attracted to the amped Auras because “large flare-ups of Aura (the soul, which goes hand in hand with emotions) would read similarly to the emotions that Grimm are naturally drawn to.”
Remnant Holidays: “There are certainly different holidays in Remnant, many of them similar to our own. This is the kind of thing we always want to save for the screen or other materials if we can help it!”
Semblance Rules: “Semblances can basically be anything, we just make sure there is some kind of check on it -- take Tock, for instance, who could become invulnerable but it's going to lead to her Aura breaking. I wouldn't say there's a hard and fast rule against a Semblance being transformative, but it certainly would be uncommon.”
It seems Ironwood did issue an arrest warrant for Robyn, but the Council offered her safe passage to Atlas and Schnee Manor, in order to put Ironwood off-balance.
Is Nicholas Schnee dead or is he still alive?: “Yes.”
Production of the 2D shorts on various Fairy Tales has been impacted by the pandemic, but more details are “hopefully coming soon”.
Sage is not connected to the AceOps, despite being based on an Aesop. There are more characters based on Aesops besides them.
Beacon’s Academic Year: “It's fairly similar to our own semesters.”
The events of the books will impact the main series, but they want to fit them in in such a way that non-readers won’t feel like they’re missing out.
Will we ever find out more about Summer/how she died?: “It certainly seems like a pretty important thing for the show to touch on :)”
RWBY’s favourite fairytales: “We'll get to this.”
Eddy says we will learn more characters’ sexualities.
Will We Ever See Roman Again?: “I will say that Roman is a very fun character who has obviously made an impact on everybody. There will always be a desire to go back to that well.”
Aura would block a Lightsaber.
Cinder did not get any of the Spring Maiden’s power when she used her arm on Raven.
Is there is a link between semblance and magic?: “Yes.”
Are the Gods All-Powerful?: “This is a tough question to answer, but a very good one. I think it's something we'll actually learn more about... later.”
THE GOD OF LIGHT ALONE MADE ALL FOUR RELICS.
Eugene Answers:
At one point, Eugene, not knowing the ships of the fandom, named a location “Arkos”. His editor had to tell him why he couldn’t use it.
What inspired you to choose memory erasing and telepathy for Yatsu and Fox respectively?: “For Fox, it came about honestly because he had never spoken on the show, and I wanted to provide a canon reason for it, and then it just opened up so many interesting possibilities. For Yatsu, it probably started as I thought about Edward and Augustus and what might fit in thematically; and again, it fits in with Yatsu's more meditative nature, and I like the fact that his Semblance isn't based on physical strength.”
“”From my perspective, it was very important to me to not contradict anything in the series past or future, help expand on things that haven't been covered in the show yet, and help lay the foundation for things that may appear in later volumes. The RWBY writing team is terrific to collaborate with, answering all the questions I had as much as they could, and of course they review, approve, and correct anything needed to fit the show's continuity and its tone.”
Does the Chill have a physical form?: “I envisioned the Chill as being incorporeal, living in the shadows.”
Can you save someone from the Chill?: “You could save someone from possession, if you acted quickly.“
The books tell us Coco has an older brother, Toma; and a younger brother, Mate; as well as a third brother, Van. Eugene confirms Van to be younger than Coco.
He wishes he could have spent more time on Scarlet and Sage.
Favourite OC: Rumpole. Favourite Show Character: Penny
Fox’s Personality: “People often compare him a bit to Toph, who is my favorite Avatar character, so I think that influenced his character. Plus, the voice in your head would have to be the one that says things you shouldn't say aloud. That's Fox.”
If he gets to make a third novel, it would be SSSN-focused.
“I believe it took SSSN several months to reach Vacuo from Haven, partially because they weren't in any hurry, and it's a long way. And then the main events of BtD take place a month or so after AtF.”
Before the Dawn takes place before Volume 8.
Violet Answers:
What are some of your artistic inspirations?: “Arthur Rackham was the biggest inspiration throughout. The grungy, rough nature of his work was very helpful in merging my style with something more traditional to match the fairytale feel needed for this book.“
139 notes
·
View notes
Text
RWBY Vol8 Review ep10 pt2
I like this scene because it reminds people that there are just regular people who were just living their lives in Atlas. Between the show focusing on Mantle so much and the fandom thinking Atlas sucks so bad that it should fall out of the sky, I’m happy about this existing. Ironwood has gone pretty crazy at this point but if I’m ever going to give him one single point, it’s that he’s still trying to protect citizens. It sucks that now he’s actively harming other citizens now to do it.
I wish we could’ve seen the emotional petals right here. Also I still really like Harriet as a character and how petty she can be. Winter made one remark about out ranking her and now Harriet is now spilling on the tea about what Winter did.
How did she take that photo if both hands are in the frame?
These two look kinda cool together when they’re not arguing with each other. Honestly if everyone in this show could just have 10% more unification then things might be different. Plans might work. Everyone in this show is kinda bad shooting straight with each other and compromising.
This is the only hug I care about. The other two hugs I’m sure will be posted 1000 times for shipping. I do have a bit of mixed feelings because even though characters said Ruby and Yang were fighting, it didn’t feel much like a fight. I do wish we had at least one scene where they actually yelled at each other and both played the blame game a little about how things got so bad back in episode 1. Just to make the scene nicer. It’s also a little weird because outside of ep 1, Yang didn’t seem to care to even think about how her choices made Ruby feel. They had her think about Blake instead. Ruby didn’t directly think about Yang after that argument, but she started doubting her choices and herself as a leader after what Yang said, which still makes a lot more sense.
Gotham City had 24 hours before I poison the water- oh wait, wrong universe. Honestly at the point, everyplace is doomed. I wouldn’t be surprised if the heroes fighting each other is enough time for Salem to come back and finish things off. Also, someone might have to explain this to me because I may be missing something, but is there any reason why they didn’t come up with the solution to let Ironwood use the relic to leave, but RWBY gets to keep Penny? Ironwood has been leaving Mantle to die since the end of V7 and has done nothing to help them. Now he’s actively hurting them. Wouldn’t letting him leave be the best thing just so you don’t have to deal with him anymore? Also I’m kinda not surprised Ironwood decided to be 100% cruel and unrelenting now. Even if Salem gets pushed back and the kingdoms survive, Ruby sent out a message to the world that had her saying Ironwood couldn’t be trusted, so that definitely burned any bridges that may have been left. Not sure how I feel about all of this because now that the show has done this it harshly paints a black and white side of who you’re supposed to see as the good guys; while before this it felt way more gray because both RWBY and Ironwood’s side were being very problematic and doing things that would civilians.
Edit:Oh yeah, when Ren asked for Nora I actually gasped because I forgot he doesn’t know what happened.
45 notes
·
View notes
Note
For the RWBY character prompt thing: you gotta tell me about Ironwood for sure! And if somebody already asked, how's about Qrow? :)
OH BABEY A DOUBLE (I’m gunna put Qrow in a separate post to avoid making this too long) thank you so much!
Warning: This is a PRO IRONWOOD POST. I also go into team RWBY taking responsibility for their abuse towards Ozpin. Don’t read this if you don’t like it. You’ve been warned
My top three two ships for Ironwood
1) Ironqrow (Ironwood x Qrow) {Volumes 3-7}
I have loved the idea of these two since the fall of beacon. When they first interacted, I wasn’t too sure about them because it seemed like they didn’t really like each other.. but that scene where all the robots were turning on beacon and Qrow spotted ironwood, ran at him with his scythe, only to jump over him and save him from a Grimm, sold the ship to me. It was clear that they didn’t actually despise each other. Qrow wasn’t quick to point fingers; he knew that what was going on wasn’t James’ fault, and he even tried to add a little bit of comic relief to the scene. (When ironwood’s ship fell, and Qrow smirked “well, it won’t be much of a walk”)
My love for the ship was reinforced in v6 (yeah I know it was the fan service volume but I’m rolling with it anyway). Qrow knew that they HAD to get to ironwood in order to complete their goal. He trusted James, and he knew that he was a smart and capable leader who would know what to do (ah,, the good old days ;;)
And then in the early episodes of v7, their bickering that we once saw in v3 was non existent. They were happy to see each other, and James even initiated a hug. He was just so relieved to see him ;; it made my heart melt, I remember posting about this moment so much, all over instagram and tumblr. I loved them so dearly.
2) Ironwood x Glynda (idk if they have a ship name)
God,, I always loved them. that scene in v2 with Ironwood and Glynda standing together in the dead of night looking over the city of vale was so special to me. I love Glynda and her character, she is so dynamic. that scene with her and ironwood showed to us that she truly respected and cared for him and his well-being. She was worried for him as well. I just wish they had more interactions before his death. they would have been very sweet and POWERFUL together.
My three least favourite ships for Ironwood
1) Ironqrow {Volumes 7-8}
Oh boy. RT really knows how to take something good and just, ruin it huh.
I feel as though I don’t need to dive too deep into this (as I’ll be covering Ironwood’s fall from grace later) but yeah... The fight with Qrow and Clover was.. unfortunate. Everyone seemed to lose their braincells in that scene, and the moment it was over, Qrow was dead set on killing Ironwood for some reason even though he was the one who decided to side with a literal murderer, but go off MKEK you really did something there...
Yepp this absolutely killed the ship for me in canon (though I stilln love thinking about them out of the canon setting), I was an absolute wreck after this scene. they deserved better.
2) Ironwood x Winter
don’t worry I’m not about to pull the “IRONWOOD WAS AN ABUSIVE FATHER FIGURE AND GROOMED HER CAREERRHYUGGHR” no.
I always saw Ironwood as a POSITIVE father figure to winter, even before v7. We knew that winter was one of his best soldiers, and was most likely one of his students before then. I believe that Ironwood gave winter a chance at something great, to leave her actual abusive father and hone her skills as a soldier instead of becoming the heiress to a company that she did not want to be tied to. I believe Ironwood was a stellar father figure and role model to her, and that is the reason why I do not ship them. their relationship was so much deeper than that. it was found family.
3) Ironwood x Salem
What the fuck. Like actually what? This was a thing? What is it with this fandom and glorifying abusive relationships... I remember seeing a lot of people trying to justify it like “awh salem was so sweet with him she just wanted him to stop fighting. She would leave him alone after!!” Thats manipulation honey, we don’t fuck with that here. no. Absolutely not
My biggest criticism for Ironwood
See: the reason I made this side blog
It’s no secret to us in the RWDE community that his fall into the role of the villain was POORLY WRITTEN AND WE ALL HATE IT SO FUCKING MUCH. where the hell did this even come from? oh I know! TEAM RWBY LYING TO HIS FACE AFTER HE WAS NOTHING BUT KIND AND GENEROUS TO THEM. god I’m heated already.
I’ve talked about his stupid semblance before but it doesn’t even matter because his semblance wasn’t the cause of his descent anyway. We were all HOPING that it was but nope! it was him “losing his humanity” because he lost his other arm. How fucked up is that.
Shitty writing aside, I know James had flaws even before the shitshow that was v7-8, but honestly there was nothing he did that I can criticize harshly. He was a good and honest man with good intentions and a pure, big heart made of gold. Of course he made mistakes and of course he wasn’t perfect, but he was always trying to do the right thing to protect the people. He was a good man until MKEK decided they needed a reason to kill off another headmaster.
My favourite thing about Ironwood
his MUSCLES
His willingness to sacrifice himself to save others. During the fall of beacon he told the students that they didn’t have to stay, even though he could have used the help greatly. But he KNEW that they weren’t ready to handle a crisis like this, and he didn’t want to force them into a responsibility that could have left them emotionally/physically damaged, or worse.
During the Ironwood and Watts fight, IRONWOOD MANGLED HIS OWN ARM TO CAPTURE WATTS. He was so headstrong and brave and he wanted to do everything he could to prevent Salem, even if that meant hurting himself and losing another part of himself. God I miss him so much ;; I’m tearing up a little writing all of this...
A head canon I have for Ironwood
I love creating head canons for characters, it always makes them feel more real to me. one of my biggest head canons is that, in a peaceful world setting, he would enjoy sleeping in on the weekends. ;;. He is a headmaster AND a general which means he has to follow a strict schedule all the time. Maybe this is coming from my desire to take care of him and make sure he is happy and healthy and not stressed out.. But yeah, lazy Sundays, sleeping in late. pls let him sleep he needs so much sleep.
What I would change about Ironwood if I were making a rewrite
Strap in kiddos I’ve been thinking about this for a very long time. I’m sure that someone has come up with a similar concept, but I will share my ideas anyway (: I am going to preface this by saying that for this rewrite to work, we need to have Winter receive the Winter maiden powers from Freya in V7.
To start, we will have to go back all the way to v2 when Ironwood was first introduced. I would have Ozpin and Glynda share their concerns to each other about Ironwood bringing all of his ships to look over the festival, but I would take that time to thoroughly explain his semblance. His semblance is stupid, so I would make some changes. To start off, I wouldn’t make it passive. The way it is now is just,, a weird way to give him a mental illness without actually giving him a mental illness. Activating it would have to be a decision that he made if he knew that he had to make decisions that would be hard for him. This way if his semblance caused him to do something actually horrible, he would be directly accountable for it, instead of blaming him for something that he couldn’t control. Semblances are a representation of the user, so with time and with more stress put onto Ironwood, I could see him falling victim to his own semblance if he were to abuse it too much. This will help as we lead into a better way to write his fall from grace.
From there, I would keep pretty much everything the same until we get to v7. Team RWBY arrives in Atlas and gets arrested and brought to Ironwood just as they do in canon. This time, however, we have Oscar explain EVERYTHING. No lying. Salem cannot be killed. Oscar explains that Ozpin shut himself off after team RWBY forced the truth out of him, and while the truth is a lot for Ironwood to handle, he understands why Ozpin kept it a secret. He shuns team RWBY for their methods and explains why their actions were unnecessary and abusive, but agrees to help them anyway since he knows that they all need to come together if this is going to work. Hence, his arc kind of goes backwards. Instead of team RWBY having his trust from the beginning, they will need to work to gain it back.
He takes Oscar under his wing to try and draw Ozpin back out. He greets Qrow, they fall in love, he also formally introduces the team to the Ace Ops. The Ace Ops take an IMMEDIATE backseat in the story. We don’t need more characters. For the sake of this rewrite specifically, they are barely around. We are focusing on Ironwood and his growth/relationships. I would explore more times to show the deep connection between him and Winter. As I said earlier, I see him as a healthy father figure for her, so I would definitely focus on that for a bit. At this point, Winter would not have received the maidens power yet, so we could have a scene of him assuring her that she is a perfect fit for the role, and encouraging her and just,, you know, solidifying that he wasn’t pressuring her into doing it.
Carrying on with the main plot, instead of being left in the dark for the whole season, Ironwood is already aware that Salem cannot be killed. This gives him and the rest of the team a lot of time to work on a new plan to defeat her. They spend lots of time training, Ironwood takes care of them, offering his resources to them. Overtime the team do start to gain his trust little by little again, but this will all kinda fall apart when Salem arrives.
With stress levels higher than ever, he activates his semblance. Team RWBY and friends KNOW about his semblance and they understand why he is acting irrationally. Maybe they have different ideas than him, but they would not directly oppose him. This completely fixes him from becoming a cartoon villain. Team RWBY and friends would work WITH Ironwood at a distance to fix amity and get global communications back up safely. From there, Ironwood could deliver a message to the world about Salem. Since people know who he is, it will make the message more impactful. Just like he did with his message to Mantle.
Qrow and Winter are positives in his life. They keep trying to ground him and bring him back to reality, but he will not deactivate his semblance. He is too scared of what’s to come with Salem. They support him in this, and do not turn their back on him.
Winter receives the maiden’s power, and is told to open the vault to obtain the staff and raise atlas further into the sky to save his people. Winter agrees, why wouldn’t she? They have already evacuated most of mantle to atlas anyway. In situations like this it’s impossible to save everyone. RWBY could whine and bitch if they wanted to, but there is nothing they could do in this situation because, for the sake of this rewrite, they wouldn’t be as stupid as they are in the canon proper.
The vault is open and the staff is vulnerable. It is in this moment that the ACTUAL VILLIAN comes into play. Watts took advantage of the security from behind the scenes, giving Salem the exact time that the vault was open. And thanks to him overhearing everything, he knows that all she needs to do is use the staff, and Atlas will fall. Salem appears in the room, and the big finale battle would occur. They weren’t ready yet. They hadn’t finalized the plan to stop her without killing her. Team RWBY Oscar and Qrow would do their best to keep Salem distracted while Winter and Ironwood speak to the staff. Meanwhile, Neo could breach Ironwood’s office and retrieve the relic of knowledge for Salem.
The battle plays out, she keeps coming back, the team gets tired, Salem loses her patience and just PLOWS through them to get to the staff. She enters the realm and the mystical world around them begins to shatter and break. With that much concentrated evil in this place coming up out of nowhere, it would be sure to shift the balance.
She goes head to head against Winter and Ironwood for the staff. She knows that using the staff will cause Atlas to come crashing down, so that is exactly what she does. Since he is already out, she just gives him a command. It doesn’t matter what it is. Atlas starts to fall. She strikes a lethal blow to Ironwood (Keeping the theme of her killing headmasters) and flees with the staff. Qrow runs to his side, he and winter are crying, Team RWBY is upset, OZPIN IS UPSET. With his aura broken and his semblance down, he smiles at them all, says that he is proud of them for their work and he knows that they will find a way to defeat her. He tells them to get out and save themselves, save as many people as they can. They do that, but for further angst, Qrow stays with him, holding him and crying against him as Atlas falls. Team RWBY use the gravity dust keeping Atlas falling slowly to their advantage. They get as many people as they can into airships and send them to mistral. They then make their own way to Vacuo... Since global communications are back up, the world would know about this. This would give Shade academy a good chance to prepare. (damn I could write a fic)
What I think of Ironwood’s allusion and what I would change.
It’s dumb the way that CRWBY has portrayed it. In the story of the Wizard of Oz, the tin man doesn’t have a heart, but learns to love overtime. I used THIS aspect for helping my rewrite of Ironwood. He was hardened at the beginning, but managed to trust again and eventually smiled and said that he was proud of team RWBY and friends in his dying moments. It’s just more impactful that way I think.
23 notes
·
View notes
Link
Chapters: 7/?
Fandom: RWBY
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie, Jaune Arc/Lie Ren, Jaune Arc & Lie Ren & Nora Valkyrie, Jaune Arc/Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie
Characters: Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie, Jaune Arc, Saphron Cotta-Arc, Terra Cotta-Arc, Original RWBY Character(s)
Additional Tags: Gap Filler, Team as Family, Missing Scenes, Friendship/Love, Canon Universe, Feels, Friends to Lovers, Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Summary:
Team JNR arrives in Argus and waits for everyone else to show up.
****************
“How’s our Auras holding up?” Jaune shifted next to him, easing himself a bit, hand still resting heavily on his shoulder.
Nora was frowning down at her scroll. “Yours is at 68 but Ren’s is at 28.” She glanced up. “You’re definitely slowing down how fast his is depleting but it’s not replenishing his at all.”
Jaune’s hand slid over to wrap itself around his neck, fingers stroking at it slowly. His breath caught but he immediately regulated it. “I don’t even know if I can replenish it.”
“Isn’t that what you did with Weiss?” Focus, Lie. Focus on the task at hand.
“Honestly, I’m still not sure what I did with Weiss. I’m not even sure what I’m doing right now.”
Nora pursed her lips and tapped at her scroll. “Ren’s just dropped two percent.” She squinted up at Jaune. “Well what does it feel like you’re doing?”
Jaune blew out a noisy sigh. “Like I’m using it? I don’t know! I haven’t been doing this very long, you know.” He took his hand away and Ren felt its immediate loss. “How does it feel when you use your Semblance, then?”
Nora grinned. “Like I’m going to kick some ass.”
Jaune rolled his eyes. “Why did I even ask? What about you, Ren?”
He thought about it for a few moments. “I want to protect people with it.” He met Jaune’s eyes. “That’s always what I’m thinking when I use it. What I’m feeling. That I am keeping people safe. I’m not sure I could use it otherwise.” He watched the gears move in Jaune’s head. This was one of his favorite things about Jaune; the way his mind worked, quickly, making connections that other people never saw.
“So there has to be intent involved, yeah?” Jaune’s mouth twisted.
He nodded. “Even the first time. I wanted to be safe and then I wanted Nora to be safe, so I just -” he spread his hands open, pushing them forward “-extended that safety to her as well.”
Jaune started to pace, brow furrowed in concentration, automatically ducking under a low hanging branch laden with lemons. The lemons had surprised him. He would have expected them to bloom in the summer, not when it was this cold. Not that he was any kind of expert on citrus. “And Nora wants to kick some ass.”
“And kick it hard.” Nora snorted, glancing down again. “Ren, you’d better rest up for a bit.”
“Yeah, take a break.” Jaune said, and he obediently sat crosslegged next to Nora, seated on one of the patio chairs. She rested her hand on the same place that Jaune had. “So it’s about feeling, too?”
“For me it is. Although in my experience relying too much on feelings leads to a loss of precision and control.”
13 notes
·
View notes
Text
If I Rewrote RWBY
First of all, I hate that most of the Faunus characters we see, especially the ones with the most screen time, are all white/white passing. I get that Remnant isn’t meant to have the same views and systems of race as real life but I still think it wouldn’t hurt to add more characters of color
I also think it sucks that Faunus can only have one animal trait. That’s more of me thinking that character design can be way more creative and fun than anything else though if I’m being honest
So on those two notes, I’d make both Blake and Velvet brown skinned and also give Blake a cat tail.
I’d love for Neon to be dark-skinned for honestly no other reason other than bright, neon colors looking absolutely fantastic on dark skinned women
Sun I’d prefer to stay on the lighter side since his Faunus trait is literally a monkey tail but I still think it wouldn’t hurt to give him a little bit of melanin instead of them being so pale
I think Marrow should also have wolf ears instead of just a tail.
Plus, it may be a bit on the nose, but I don’t understand how they literally named a character Fox and didn’t make him a fox Faunus. I’m not sure if I prefer him having a fox tail or ears or both but I just think he should be a Faunus in general
I personally really like the theory of Tyrian having bad eyesight just as scorpions in real life do so I think that should be his second Faunus trait
Moving away from the Faunus for now, I wanna talk about the Ace Ops and how CRWBY went wrong with them
Don’t get me wrong, their turning against Mantle was very well written and logical. My one and only problem is that the antagonistic, classist cops/military soldiers are basically all characters of color.
For a storyline like that, they should all be white since that only goes to further prove their ignorance and inherent bias against the impoverished and dispriveleged people of Mantle.
Sorta keeping the topic but also moving on to a new point, I feel like it was a missed opportunity to have none of the Ace Ops defect and decide to aid RWBY+ORNJ+Qrow in their mission
That being said, I think both Clover and Marrow should have been the ones to go against Ironwood and the Ace Ops.
Clover, aside from obvious reasons concerning CRWBY’s horrible treatment of mlm characters, was written with very clear foreshadowing of turning against Ironwood in favor of Qrow and the kids. I don’t feel the need to go into detail since many others have already (and much better then I ever could) but if you’d like to read meta posts about it I’d direct you to @lady-byleth or @fairgame-is-canon .
Marrow was also pretty widely speculated as being the one to leave the Ace Ops as far as I’ve seen in the fandom. As much as I love him, I was very displeased with how he was written. I won’t lie and say there aren’t “pick me” model minorities who would rather defend their oppressors than fight alongside their community but I don’t feel that was the best characterization they could’ve given Marrow. I’d have much preferred his story to be about a dark skinned Faunus growing up in a heavily racist society who very earnestly wants to help make change happen. Maybe they could’ve written him as still being naive and thinking his acceptance into the Ace Ops is making much more of a difference than it really is, but as whole, he shouldn’t have been as against Robyn and pro Ironwood and Atlas’ legal system as he was. I think Ironwood declaring martial law could have been the perfect moment for Marrow to decide that he had to get more directly involved if he really wanted to see change happen
Moving further on and going more into relationships because I won’t lie to you, I am in love with so many RWBY ships it’s not even funny.
Just as a forewarning in case y’all wanna just skip any of this but I’m gonna be talking specifically about: Bumbleby, Renora, Emercury, Fair Game, and Taiyang’s relationships with both Raven and Summer.
Now I love everything about Bumbleby and the way it’s written, I just want them to be more upfront with it. I want them to showcase it as obviously as they do with Ren and Nora. I understand that narratively speaking, Blake and Yang aren’t 100% ready to be together yet, and they probably won’t be until the tail end of the series unfortunately. But I don’t see why they can’t add more moments into the show. Yeah I love their deep moments that are meant to be analyzed but I also want cheesy gays flirting and blushing all over each other. Again, I won’t disagree or say I don’t like the pacing of Blake and Yang’s relationship development but at this point, it’s starting to feel like queer baiting. They’re just gonna keep reeling us in with “Oh next volume, they’ll be an official thing for sure!!” and then we get little more than small moments that aren’t explicitly romantic unless you take the time to analyze it
I honestly have very few complaints about how Ren and Nora’s relationship is shown and how it’s progressed thus far. The only things I’d change are 1) Nora is a trans woman and 2) Their disagreements in volume 7 are brought up and addressed more seriously. I mean, I feel like they showed them disagreeing once or twice and then dropped it as if their stances on Ironwood’s wasn’t a serious issue that they were arguing over. I wouldn’t take out the kiss scene or the Neo disguising herself as Nora scene but I think there should have been more content of Ren and Nora not getting along in volume 7 so both moments are much more impactful as reminders that Nora and Ren do love each other in spite of everything that’s going on
Now I’ll be honest, I know there’s been absolutely zero evidence from the series to suggest that Emerald and Mercury are meant to have some sort of romantic relationship but I am not immune to the villains being in love and working to be redeemed together trope. I don’t have any serious changes I’d make to their writing thus far since I think it’s a bit too early to really talk about their possible redemption arcs and relationship dynamic, but I would include more scenes where they are able to sit down and talk. I mean they are both still very young adults who were abused as children so it’s a pretty big miss for there to be little to no canon scenes of them showing how well they understand each other or how they look out for one another in small ways as they stumble into unknown and dangerous territory the further they get pulled into Salem’s inner circle
I’ll start off with the obvious for Fair Game, Clover’s death was absolutely terrible writing and blatant queer baiting/bury your gay’s. As I already said, I feel that Clover should have defected from Ironwood and gone on to help Qrow and fight alongside the kids (along with Marrow). It just makes no sense to include all the buildup and potential for development only to knock it straight down the way that they did. I honestly don’t even know how they expect to have Qrow come back from this and ever be a well functioning person again after that. If it were up to me, Clover never would have tried to arrest Qrow and would have instead almost immediately disobeyed Ironwood upon hearing him plan to declare martial law. He would have gone with Qrow to find all the kids and help them escape without being arrested
Now as for Taiyang and his relationships with Summer and Raven. First off I think it’s shitty of CRWBY to craft such an intricate background and then almost never give the character at the center of it any screen time or exploration. I mean we know that Taiyang lost his two wives and is sad about it and that’s about it. They never talk about what his relationship with either of the women were like or specifics on how they each ended. I mean what was Raven and Tai’s relationship actually like before everything went to shit, how/when did it start, when did it start to deteriorate, how did she really feel about Yang and starting a family with Tai? Why do none of these questions have so much as a fraction of an answer? And as for Summer, how much time went between Raven’s abandonment and Summer and Tai getting together? Was it a serious relationship or just a hookup that went wrong and then they decided to just roll with it (I ask this with all seriousness because once again, we don’t have a clear cut answer for this). We don’t even know exactly at what age Yang and Ruby were when Summer disappeared and if you ask me, that’s bad writing, especially if two of the titular characters are largely driven by their strained relationships with their parents
There’s definitely more stuff I can think of later but I’m tired right now and this post feels long enough already so I’m leaving it here for now.
Also, if there’s specific things y’all want me to talk about in RWBY and how/whether I’d change it or not, then feel free to send asks and I’ll answer them asap
75 notes
·
View notes
Text
Tagged by @pidgeonpostal! And not tagging anyone else because I have SOILED the original template (soiled it!!) in deference to my [brushes off skirt] mostly clean public-facing appearance.
...I’ve been making a lot of Spongebob memes lately for someone who has not seen Spongebob.
How many works do you have on AO3?
71!
What’s your total AO3 wordcount?
...306,834. Jesus.
How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?
Uh. Many! I do a lot of one-offs (and/or start long things I never finish) in many different places. My top three fandoms by fics written are RWBY (29), Undertale (25), Gravity Falls/Transcendence AU (4).
Bet you can’t tell where my hyperfixations have fallen.
I’ve also got some Pokémon and Sonic the Hedgehog fics back on my ff.net account, or I think I still do, anyway, but let’s never go back there pls
What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
1. Sweeter Than Honey (Undertale): Taking a Completely unsurprising first place, with over 600 more kudos than the runner-up, the haphazard Underswap fic featuring a post-college self-insert I wrote just after high school! I shake my head some at how overblown and ridiculous the gap between this and all my other stuff is (c’mon, guys, I’ve written way better fics), but this is also the fic which prompted me (and at least one other person!) to start using they/them pronouns. I’ve gotten a lot of really sweet comments about how seen and appreciated it’s made people feel, so I can’t get down too far about it.
2. To Be A Hero (BNHA): I don’t count myself as part of the BNHA fandom, for a number of reasons, but for something that’s arguably the main motivation for the entire plot, Midoriya’s quirklessness is something I’ve never thought has been handled well. This fic marked the first time I (somewhat tentatively) claimed the disability label (thanks again to Sweeter Than for prompting that realization) to hold that lens over canon. It also really shot up my chart, dang! It’s the only thing here I’d consider “recent.”
3. Three-Sentence Shipping (Undertale): Self-explanatory.
4. Brothers Beyond Bonedaries (Undertale): Ah, the way-overcomplicated AU³ I got nowhere close to finishing. One of the things I really like about Undertale is the interface screw, how Toby Fox uses the medium of the video game to pull off crazy things and enhance his game, but most of the fic written for the fandom seems dedicated to explaining it away, grounding it, rather than taking it to the next step and messing with the medium of fanfiction when you keep the story going. I tried to do something cool like that here, playing with questions like narrator and authorship and breaking the fourth wall, even taking the “final boss” fight to a “totally separate” fic reached through the first by link – but, well, then I never finished it, which probably didn’t make anything less confusing for the poor folks who missed the intent.
5. Spirit and Such (Gravity Falls: Transcendence AU): A whole fic written to line out a particular image I had, which, naturally, never made it to the page. I consider it a bit of a cautionary tale for myself when it comes to writing (near-)original content; there’s a lot I look back on and cringe. I still love the characters, though – well, the important ones – and I think just stepping away from the tried-and-true Mizar formula nets it a star sticker here.
Do you respond to comments, why or why not?
>w>; I try, but a lot of the time I just don’t have anything to say? Like, oh, you liked it? Neat. There’s not much to respond to in comments like that, and then I’m weighing falling down on an ~obligation~ to respond to every message in my inbox vs annoying people with copy-paste fluff responses all down the page. Plus I know I make more of an effort to comment on things that didn’t get the attention I feel they deserve, so if I’m driving up my own comment count with nonsense, am I preventing myself from being in a position to receive more comments later? And then if I do comment, am I being too effusive or running people’s ears off explaining things they don’t actually need to know? Sometimes people just want to express interest or admiration and don’t necessarily want a whole peek and guided tour behind the curtain.
Can you tell I have anxiety? x3;
Anyway, I do respond when I can. And I keep most of the comments I’ve gotten to go back and reread.
What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?
Hm, hmm. Lots of stuff in the TQ Nonsense series would probably qualify! I’m thinking of Unfixable, Wolfsong, and Ethanol. And there’s Bursting Through A Blood-Red Sky (I Can Live, I Can Breathe), of course, but that was always intended to have a fix-it epilogue. It’s just that I wrote it in a couple of hours day-of, stared at it, and decided I didn’t wanna just then. But now that’s As Long As You’re Still Burning Bright (I’m Still Awake), and that’s probably the best romance I’ve written, so that one worked out.
Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve ever written?
Now and then! When the urge strikes. Uhhh, I’ve got a series of Doctor Who x Undertale crossovers I actually made a whole dang verse for that never made it to print. Get a couple great comments on that every few months or so. I think the World Trigger x Undertale crossover is probably weirder, though, by virtue of WT being a very small fandom. My enthusiasm kinda sputtered out on that one.
Mostly I just daydream crossovers with whatever happens to catch my eye at any given moment. I have a lot!!!! Though odds are out on whether I manage to remember any of them once the initial thought’s passed, lol.
Have you ever received hate on a fic?
Gotten a couple eyebrow-raising comments, but I think mostly I’m just too small a writer to draw that kind of attention.
Have you ever had a fic stolen?
I don’t? think so? Think my tastes are a little niche for most people to bother ^^;
Have you ever had a fic translated?
I had someone apologize once for any language mistakes in their comment cause they had to run it through a translator! That’s not what you asked (the answer is no), but it’s very flattering to think that someone liked my fic enough to read and comment despite the language barrier.
Have you ever co-written a fic before?
Yes! :D @pidgeonpostal was gracious enough to agree to co-write Five Nights at Denny’s with me off an idea about shoes. This has fulfilled a long-held dream of mine (collabing with someone, not the shoes) and also introduced me to some lovely people.
What’s your all time favorite ship?
Who has time for just one? ;3c Honestly, I care more about the characters and how the relationship – any relationship – between them changes them than I do about ~A Ship~ as a solid, bounded noun-object. I’ve got characters I like more and less and feelings about who does and doesn’t have chemistry in which directions with whom, but finding anything that agrees with those preferences is hard, harder when you take alloromanticism into account. I’ll play in any sandbox with cool toys, especially if other folks have already built sick sandcastles there.
What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?
[kicks every single unfinished fic further under the bed] What nooo no WIPs here, everything on my account is either finished or does not exist
I’ve got a couple extra chapters of Sweeter Than floating around unposted, but 1. that fic’s a mess 2. high school Twixt and post-college Twixt are different people and trying to contort myself into three other me-shapes just cause people Like this fic is not something I’m super interested in 3. it’s headed for an emotional dip and I’d rather leave it where it is than post two chapters, stall out again, and leave folks with a bad end.
As for other fics... it’s looking more and more likely that v7 of my Yellow Brick Road AU will never actually make it out. >w>; I’ve got some really great ideas, but not enough to make me feel like I know what I’m doing, and that’s a big roadblock. Plus trying to engage with RT’s Atlas-Mantle worldbuilding in any serious capacity is... a headache. I can’t recommend the Happy Huntress Cinematic Universe enough, but it leaves some pretty big shoes to follow! And I’ve got small feet. <w<;
What are your writing strengths?
Dialogue’s fun, probably as an extension of characterization. I love tearing into what makes people tick, especially against the backdrop of their environment, the story they’re in, and the people they’re up against. Voice is a double-edged sword; I’ve been told my writing is really recognizable and individual, but on the other hand, I’ve been growing frustrated with with the limits of my narrative ability. There’s a strong rhythm I keep when I write (you might notice it here, even) but that leaves me feeling predictable and stale. I’m not sure I’m great at setting as a matter of course, but I’m pretty good at describing setpieces where the need comes up; that comes from my background in poetry, as does the fun I have with sublimating and abstracting complex imagery. And I think I bring some needed nuance to the universal. For good or ill, I don’t do what “everyone else” is doing.
What are your writing weaknesses?
Well, writing, for one thing. If I don’t know how something’s going to go and don’t have the urge to write it, it isn’t getting done, which means there’s a billion things that will never see the page and a few hundred more that are never getting finished. I lose momentum easily and have a hard time getting started, and I put way too much standing on finding a foothold with other people; as critical as I am of my work, I have high expectations for the stuff that passes muster, and it never seems to measure up. I’m also really uncreative. Yeah, I can mix up elements and extrapolate events, but coming up with things wholesale is really hard, which is why I avoid it wherever possible and steal/reskin stuff from other places instead.
What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?
Something along the lines of “Hoo boy, I am Not qualified for this but hopefully it’s decent anyway.” Maria’s Spanish lines haven’t been a big deal – I’ve used it sparingly and, as a Latin language, it should be easy for English-speaking audiences to pick up on the gist – but I’ve had a harder time with Tai’s Chinese, both because I have Even Less background there and because it is, of course, an entirely different language system. If I write it out in English or Romanized italics, am I colonizing it or changing the meaning? If I write it out in the presumed-original characters (presumed because it’s Google Translate and who knows if I’m even barking in the right forest), am I confusing or alienating my presumed-majority-English-speaking audience? Where should I put the translations? Should I put the translations? And for Frisk’s sign language, thinking back, are the brackets I used instead of quotes alienating/infantilizing? I like that different characters give the text between a different feel, but I’m not an ASL speaker – and I’m pretty sure the word is “speaker,” which would only reinforce that that demographic would rather I didn’t do that. It’s important for all these characters, I think, that they use non-English language where it makes sense; it’s part of who they are. But as a white monolingual English-speaker, I don’t think I can really weigh in.
What was the first fandom you ever wrote for?
Thaaaat’d be Pokémon, followed closely with Sonic the Hedgehog. Whether those fics are still on my ff.net account or not (pretty sure I’ve purged them, but you never know) I’ve still got a couple saved to a folder on my current laptop, ostensibly so I can look back and see how far I’ve come and more practically to allow for the possibility of furthering group cohesion through public shaming.
What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?
I still like the idea behind The Man Who Is Atlas, and Burning Bright (Still Awake) gets props for being my current fic, though it’s currently in that spot where I’m excited to get new chapters posted but also quietly marking everything up in red pen. I think Harbinger gets the crown here, at least for now.
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
Sarah’s Soundtrack Corner | RWBY Volume 8
Today: Episode 1 // Divide
22/11/2020: Episode 2 // Refuge
Hello everyone!
This year, I’ve decided to do something new. Rather than waiting for the Volume to end or the soundtrack to drop to talk about RWBY’s music, I’m starting this little side project: cataloguing and somewhat analyzing the show’s score and songs as they’re released.
This is also a way for me to keep myself engaged in something other than academics (’cause quarantine be gettin’ to me), as well as pointing out some details folks might overlook: there’s always a lot to talk about with the music, and it plays a pivotal role in the series.
A mini-disclaimer beforehand: I am in no way well-versed in music theory. I can’t really tell you how things are composed so much as how they more generally sound, and what the intentions behind certain choices might have been.
So, without further ado, let’s begin!
The first cue of the Volume, coming in gently against the slow fade-in from black of a young Cinder scrubbing the floor, is on piano and sparse strings. I’m hesitant to label this as anything in particular with any degree of confidence, but the progression of notes makes me believe it could be an abstract variation on Cinder’s core “theme” - specifically, the haunting choir we tend to hear around her. It would make sense: bridging the visuals with something just familiar enough to catch the ear, but also distinct.
There’s a brief pause as Cinder and Neo approach the storm, with only a small bit of ambient, tense strings; then it’s into a development of the new melody we got accompanying Salem’s arrival in Volume 7 under the usual first-episode credits. This section has a wonderful female choral element added: I’m actually half-convinced that it’s a specific “theme” for Monstra (the whale Grimm; apparently that’s her official name), rather than Salem herself. The bass percussion makes the cue feel almost literally alive, giving it a slow, steady heartbeat.
The piece crescendos as Neo catches sight of Salem, then fades away into more tense strings when Cinder kneels. A small quote of what I believe is “One Thing” kicks in when Cinder takes Neo’s credit for stealing the Relic of Knowledge.
The next quote is equally small, coming and going in the span of about 5 seconds between the 03:25 and 03:30 timestamps, and references the strings from “Party Crashers”/the Volume 7 Mantle massacre.
I can’t quite peg the following string melody - under Cinder’s declaration that she’ll return to Atlas and take the Maiden’s power from Penny - as anything specific, though it sounds similar to the opening piano.
What I’ll tentatively label as Monstra’s “theme” takes over again as Salem communicates with her, and the cue ends on a tense crescendo along with the scene.
On our heroes’ end, this is quite the episode for abstract little melodies, because I can’t seem to nail down what plays under Oscar’s respite in the slums either. What I do recognize, however, is a small section of Mantle’s melody at around 05:42, continuing until 05:52 where it’s briefly interrupted by a vague handful of notes from the Grimm “theme”.
Everything in Mantle is quite bleak, including the instrumentation: it’s soft and somber, even the gentler moments. Oscar’s melody kicks in at 07:06 on slow strings after Weiss asks how he ended up in the crater, which transitions into a despairing little quote of Penny’s established “theme” from Volume 7. This “theme” is of particular note this time around - Alex Abraham (composer) switched up the sound of her melody to a more subdued, lost quality, and it’s quite something whenever it pops up.
“Bad Luck Charm” makes a brief appearance at 07:30, and it’s interesting to me just how darkly the quote drifts off - the final note sounds almost distorted, lending it not only an air of uncertainty, but also danger (totally not hinting at things to come - no way).
Mantle’s theme makes a reappearance at 09:03, following a lead-in on strings as Yang argues that they need to help the people. The “theme” for Amity follows at 9:18 when Pietro begins talking about the titular colisseum, then drifts into Ironwood’s once he’s brought up, and then into one of the “Atlas tension” motifs from Volume 7. The orchestration of this entire section is notably quiet; almost not there, and all with a sense of unease. As the idea for the plan begins to come together, the Atlas Military “theme” (introduced at the end of Volume 6) plays, but fades out largely unresolved with Pietro’s uncertainty about it.
Once the small argument begins in earnest and the group divides, what sounds like a gentle quote of the as-yet untitled opening plays, easing into simple strings once Jaune interjects.
A sneeze-and-you’ll-miss-it soft interruption of Penny’s melody plays again, almost lost in the strings, then a third time when she volunteers to go with Ruby’s group.
And now for the fun part.
I’m not horrendously biased, I swear.
The tense silence of this scene once Penny’s Scroll begins to ring is perfect; as are the dark, sparse, ambient strings and the fourth instance of Penny’s “theme” - played on piano, with an almost music-box-like quality. The juxtaposition is horribly fitting for the moment - James is playing on Penny’s role as a guardian, her desire to protect people, her uncertainty about a situation in which she has had very little control, and that’s all beautifully reinforced in the music.
Speaking of juxtaposition.
Upstairs, we get a gorgeous rendition of “Hero” on brass; played slow, full and in earnest, with a small bit of Winter’s melody thrown in the middle once the camera briefly shifts focus to her. The way this section is orchestrated piques my interest as well - it’s not dark, it’s not particularly somber. It’s gentle. It still has that, for lack of a better term, heroic quality to it.
And that becomes such a twisted thing by the end of the scene.
Before that, however, there’s an instance of the Grimm “theme” clearly at 14:56, and it continues to be a personal favorite.
Another intriguing little reference hits at about 15:12, when the Council members show up - if you have an ear for it, you might pick up on it as coming from the scene in the office from Volume 7 Chapter 11 “Gravity”, complete with Ironwood’s “theme” at 15:33 (this cue might actually be directly taken from “Are You With Me?”) and to say it’s appropriate for a moment where James slips even further would be putting it mildly.
Closing out the episode proper is a freaky new melody for the Grimm hound that I can honestly say I cannot wait to hear more of.
Overall, the score for the premiere isn’t quite as bombastic as the last two years, but that’s fitting - it’s largely understated, with lots of tension and somber takes on the leitmotifs that crop up. This is actually one of the things about the episode that left me feeling like it was more of a firm and simple continuation from last year than the start of a brand new chapter, and that’s certainly not bad.
And now you stand alone, opening!
I don’t think it needs saying that every RWBY OP will split the fandom to some degree, and this one has a very different style. It doesn’t have a name yet - I personally labelled it as “The End” on YouTube, unfortunately confusing a few people - which is odd, but Jeff professed that he just couldn’t settle on one yet.
The standard guitar and heavy percussion are present, kicking off in the usual instrument-focused intro, and are mixed with layers of different instruments, synth and backing vocals throughout the song once Casey’s vocals start. Speaking of, our leading lady delivers with her usual grace, and her matured voice lends a lot to the tone of the song (the growl on “Some roses will never bloom” is amazing). Almost every line on the verse and pre-chorus has an echo behind it - either as an effect or as part of the backing - giving it a forlorn yet powerful quality.
In the lyrics department, it reminds me quite a bit of the second opening - “Time To Say Goodbye” - save with a darker undertone. I’d be hardpressed to believe that the line “We said goodbye / To all the things we loved” isn’t, in fact, a direct reference to “Now it’s time to say goodbye / To the things we loved and the innocence of youth”. In a Volume where a lot of people were clamboring for a “When It Falls 2.0″ - yours truly included - this was a surprise, but a welcome one.
Second opening is the best opening. That is a hill I will die on.
Come to think of it, this might become a trend. If I remember correctly, several lyrics in “Trust Love” harkened back to “This Will Be The Day”; what springs to mind immediately is the contrast of “When the day you waited for won’t come” with “This will be the day we waited for”, and “Always hoping that a lightning bolt / Is going to save you from this gravity” with “We are lightning / Straying from the thunder”.
If this is the case and Volume 8 goes as I believe it will - setting up for another Volume in Atlas where the huge fight happens as everyone struggles to hold the line until help arrives - then we could be due for some “When It Falls” references then.
I’ve heard some say that this opening sounds a little too crowded, that it doesn’t hit quite as hard as they expected/compared to “When It Falls”, that the darker tone relies on the lyrics rather than anything in the instrumentation, and those are valid critiques. Personally, this one’s an ear-worm - I love the sound of it; Jeff made a lot of interesting choices - but the melody itself isn’t as discernable as previous years and is going to take a while to grow on me.
I’m not going to rank these or anything because that feels a little arbitrary, but I really enjoyed what we got this first Chapter. Knowing the team, they find ways to step it up every year, so I’m seriously looking forward to what’s in store.
Until next week!
#rwby#rwby volume 8#rwby music#alex abraham#jeff williams#casey lee williams#and yes#predictably that 'hero' quote is stuck in my head too#gimme an ironqrow fight and a back and forth between 'hero' and 'blc' and i will die a happy woman
14 notes
·
View notes
Text
Well, hello there fellers.
You can ignore this text post if you want, it comes straight from me, completely outside of Drawings or Proyect updates.
I just really felt as though I needed to take the time to write up my thoughts into a, very possibly, LOOOOOOOOOOOONG post, since I have a LOT on my head right about now.
So, my melancholy, rather depressing, but perhaps amusing, musings, under the cut.
Right, so my whole string of thought was sort of just... proppeled out of me reminiscing about the past... 2 years, maybe year and a half.
I got thinking hard about She-Ra again, LMAO. and I know, I KNOW, why am I even thinking about that damned show again.
BUT, I was really thinking hard about how much I went through, positively I mean, how much growth I had (Around my art and my vocation obviously) with She-Ra.
And really, if you were to scour through my blog, if you went back all the way to... maybe it was late 2018, early 2019, when I posted my first fanarts around She-Ra, you’ll see how far back I was, skill-wise. I mean I wasn’t exactly a beginner, but I weren’t no Grade A artist neither.
And PRIOR to all of that I had more or less drawn fanart intermitently.
Anyone who followed me back when I made RWBY stuff, specifically Whiterose fanart could attest to that. I wasn’t consistent at all, and I experimented more often than not with every single drawing I was making. And don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed drawing stuff for RWBY, I sort of miss it now LMAO.
But I can certainly see just HOW POWERFULLY drawn I was to She-Ra, because my output of content and the growth of my skill as an artist was EXPONENTIAL. I suppose in a way I owe it really to MY sudden... obsession? Fixation? on that show.
VERY HONESTLY, at this point in time, I feel like I could REALLY speak on what things drew me to She-Ra, and precisely what things KEPT me there. IDK I think it used to be a very special little show.
On one hand? I really had just decided to watch it because I was starting to fall out of love with RWBY.
RWBY WAS a show I’d also loved, and which also meant a lot to me, but the things that MEANT a lot to me, were just not given the story I would’ve been interested in. That AND the small fandom space I’d carved out for myself was getting even smaller. Smaller AND very... toxic? Uncomfortable? I felt as though... my efforts and my involvement in that fandom were neither welcome nor appreciated at one point, let alone the fact that on the SHIPPING side of things, it stopped being fun.
So there I was, starting She-Ra up. I’d known about it for some time before, and I’d *Heard* that it was a fun good show, and most specially... *With an active, HUNGRY fandom, raging about a very popular Ship*. So I thought to myself, YAY, I’ll watch this show and I’m REALLY gonna do my best to go for everything popular.
I was tired of unwelcoming fandoms, tired of enjoying the very little measly, *Unpopular* things about shows, this was all about having a GOOD time. And maybe finally getting my works out, really finding a motivation to create stuff.
I mean in hindsight, now I know I fucked myself over MANY times.
You see because, as soon as I started watching She-Ra, I TRIED to do something different about the way I consumed shows.
In the past I used to be VERY ship-centered about my show experiences, to the point were FANON-Ship-centric relationships with shows would make the stories I was watching really boring and bleak in comparison. I had been afraid at the time, that THIS would also ruin She-Ra for me. So I really thought about... NOT tainting my vision and perception of the show with... Fandom stuff, Fanon or Ship-centric views, NOT EVEN CREATOR INTERACTIONS. I really tried to watch it blind and enjoy it for what it was.
Fool I was, I should’ve done the opposite.
It’s a tired old story, and a really redundant thing for ME to talk about. But I really felt a DEEP disappointment with She-Ra. Akin to LOSS almost.
Cuz you see, for a year and a half I ended up CENTERING myself on She-Ra, on more than one level.
On one hand, I TRULY believed She-Ra was a show with a story that I loved, there were plenty of characters that REALLY spoke to me. Characters like Glimmer? for example? And her storyline? for me are *one in a million*.
Of course I’m... REALLY compacting my She-Ra experience. I had come to appreciate MANY things about it. It’s world, it’s story, the characters, the comedy, the animation, the people who loved it and grew because of it, etc.
Furthermore, once my initial *doubt* about the show had passed, I really immersed myself in the fandom side of things. And I gotta say, I really enjoyed it for as long as it lasted. I think I experienced a new level of feeling like I *belonged* in a community, and a feeling that people LIKED what I did for it, and that people wanted MORE of ME in it.
Alongside that, and going back to animation. Geez, She-Ra came at the best *or worst* (depends on how you wanna look at it in hindsight now, LMAO), time of my life.
Literally on the verge of me finishing up with Prepschool and having to chose a career for University.
Prior to She-Ra, I really was trying to pinpoint my vocation, and animation had been in my mind for a LONG time, since Steven Universe really.
AND... Idk, AGAIN, THERE WAS SOMETHING ABOUT SHE-RA... which told me... “This is important”. Animation is important, being able to tell tales for people is important. Telling tales for people who need it, or people who don’t often get to tell tales is important. This medium is BEAUTIFUL, I MEAN, LOOK AT EVERYTHING IT CAN SPAWN OUT OF PEOPLE.
So it helped me make THAT decision.
Also alongside these things well... I go back to all of that about “Belonging”, and “community”.
Boy I met some of the most amazing friends I ever have in my life. People whom I respect, people who I admire, people who thought like me, liked ME, enjoyed this show, etc.
OF COURSE, at the time, and I really should’ve known better. We met out of our mutual LOVE for Glimmadora, LMAO.
ME? FALLING IN LOVE WITH AN UNPOPULAR SHIP? Who’da thought.
AND I DID SO, *DAMN NEAR DIVORCED FROM FANDOM* LMAOOOOO, you can see how my “I’ll learn to love whichever aspects of this show I’m *gonna* love, outside of fandom influence” policy really just fucked me in the ass.
AND GOD, DID I *LET IT* BE A PART OF ME.
That comunity, those friends, that ship, that show, those creators. It was all I thought about, and it DROVE me. so much so I put up with so much shit from my University. I put up with so many bad things in my life that were going on because of that show.
And I see now that many of those friends I mentioned did too. GOD, how I wish... we just hadn’t.
I think... for most of us things had already been pretty shit, not gonna lie.
There was the pandemic, for a start. Prior to May the 15th I had an uncle of mine die of COVID, which shook me to *my* core, but dear old She-Ra and the Glimmadora fandom gang were there to cheer me on. (This was around the time really horrid people in the She-Ra fandom, whom LOATHED Glimmadora with a passion were making “Glimmadora shippers must have Covid, since a symptom of Covid is a lack of taste” Jokes btw.)
And I think of my friends also, who have always spoken to me about their problems and their lives. For all accounts I think, they’d always had it harder than me, and they found themselves a WILL and a DRIVE to go on... through this, through She-Ra, and our friendship.
Then May the 15th came and it’s all been going downhill from there HSEBRGJKSEHRBGKJSERHGBJK.
I mean... I understand NOW, just how DAMAGING for myself it was to... cling so much to that show, to all of it. NEVER should’ve connected the drive of my vocation to it.
Cuz yanno... even if I HAVE continued to grow and get better the past few months, some things haven’t changed for the better.
For instance, I basically LOST my entire space here, in fandoms, in ejoying shows. I LITERALLY ONLY CREATE NOW... Either out of spite, or for my friends.
There is a VERY DEEP loathing now within me about stuff like... Catradora for example. I hate it, it makes me feel disgusting, simple as that. And THAT kind of feeling isn’t welcome here, also simple as that. So I’m out of a space and that hurts.
PFFT, basically all the pieces I produce now, which I still do with a She-Ra theme. Nobody’s gonna wanna consume MY content anymore, and they don’t. I made sure they couldn’t because I knew, I wasn’t going to be able to stomache this She-Ra fandom anymore.
That’s been another thing too. I don’t like being a contrarian, I don’t like being the guy who thinks the thing everybody loves is bad or wrong, and if I could SO HELP ME GOD, I’d change my entire view of it all. I don’t really care about being right or wrong anymore, I just want that peace of mind back.
HELL, there were people I knew since 2016 almost, who kinda just told me...
Shut the fuck up or leave.
On some cases I shut my mouth, on others I just left.
And yanno... I do feel miserable about it. But it also makes it all the harder when I think of my friends?
GOD DAMN, EVERYTHING THAT *COULD* GO WRONG, WENT WRONG FOR THEM.
ALWAYS, for all of my friends. And even through the hurt, I sit here and think, well I think I still have hope! I think I still have a drive to go on and persue animation and tell good stories.
But I understand now... that *I* have a priviledge over my friends. The priviledge of support. I’m not REALLY alone, there’s people helping ME.
My friends don’t have that, and I can’t give them that, how I wish I could.
And it does just HURT only being able to tell my friends, “HEY! Have hope things’ll be better!” And then we all turn to the only beacons of hope we shared, and seeing them all dull and out of light. No Glimmer of hope.
Like, how do you tell people to hold out, to keep fighting, to keep trying to STILL CHASE THEIR DREAMS... When you can’t even help them keep their heads high when they’re trying yo get a damned job. When no matter how much THEY try they keep getting knocked down.
When there’s no longer a space were they feel confortable sharing their creations, because everyone they had ONCE tried to please with them? suddenly decided they were of no value.
So here we are.
I’m starting up a new semester in a couple of days, hopefully building myself up more to chase MY dreams... whilst all my friends suffer and can’t chase theirs.
Shit’s fucked. I wish I could do more.
PFFT, I guess, long story short:
Life unfair, Me Sad.
Me Angery, Me Bitter
Me Lost, They Won
Boohoo I guess.
SO ANYWAYS... I really just... needed to put these thoughts out in words. Scream to the void as it were.
I can’t wait to go back into discord or twitter or tumblr and see how my friends can’t catch a fucking break.
And how things will continue to get worse before they get better.
God I hope they get better, for all of us, if not atleast for them. They’ve already gone through enough.
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
Stealing Moments (White Rose Week #6)
Fandom: RWBY
Pairing: White Rose
Word Count: 2170
Rating: G
Synopsis: Ruby and Weiss try to find a moment together admist all the chaos.
Prompt: Moments
Links: FFN | AO3
————————————————————————————---------------
Being busy had its perks. There was always something to do, and it led them on many adventures: ones they would remember for the rest of their lives. However, it also had its negatives. Ruby and Weiss had known that being huntresses during a time of great upheaval wouldn't leave them a lot of moments to spend together. That hadn't stopped them from confessing their love for each other, though. It also didn't stop them from wishing they could just have a few moments to themselves.
Lately, things had gotten worse in terms of how busy they all were. Grimm sightings were being reported constantly, and the four of them were always out fighting them and saving lives. As always, it was rewarding, but it was getting steadily more exhausting. By the time they would be able to get to their rooms, they would be too tired to do anything else. As much as Ruby and Weiss wanted to spend their downtime together, their sore muscles demanded either a warm bath or shower, then to flop into bed and conk out immediately. The best they could get in those moments was holding hands while sleeping, but they'd always lose grip with each other sometime in the night.
They would eat together, and they would train together, but it wasn't the same sort of time spent together that they wanted. There was always something they needed to talk about, or something they needed to do. Never did they have a moment where it was just the two of them, not having to worry about anything else in the world. There was too much to worry about to even consider not worrying.
They had just gone through another day of grimm killing and populace saving, followed by a strategy meeting with Team JNPR. It was no surprise that the four of them turned in early. Even Yang, who tended to stay up later than all of them, looked visibly drained. She fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow. The rest of them were out like lights soon afterwards, bringing the room into silence.
However, a full night's rest didn't reach all of them. Weiss woke up in the middle of the night, staring bleary-eyed at her alarm clock. Normally she was able to sleep through the night, but it seemed that wasn't in the cards that night. She was stuck between wanting to drop back down onto the pillow and being just enough awake to need more time to fall back asleep. Sighing to herself, she decided to get out of bed and take a walk.
The air outside was nice and cool on her skin as she stood there in her white nightgown, looking every bit like the wistful former rich girl that she was. She stared up at the moon, looking big and bright against the night sky. With her eyes, she traced the patterns of the broken pieces that had shattered from the celestial body long ago. Her chest gently rose and fell as she breathed, thinking about what a nice night it was. Everything was calm, as if there were no problems in the world. At least not in that moment. If only she could share that moment with Ruby.
"Weiss?" Speak of the devil. Turning around, she saw Ruby walking over to her in her pajamas, stifling a big yawn. She looked exhausted, and it was honestly surprising that she was awake at all. Between her and Yang, the two of them could sleep through a stampede of beowulf. "It's the middle of the night. What are you doing up?"
"I woke up randomly," she admitted, eyeing her partner in the pale moonlight. She was irrepressibly adorable in her pajamas, even after all these years. Though she had grown into a lovely young woman right before her eyes, she would still hold that innocence that Weiss had seen the first time they met at Beacon. Fighting had changed them all, but some things even the dogged destruction of battle couldn't erase. She was thankful for that. "What about you?"
"It felt like you weren't in bed anymore, which woke me up." Ah, of course. Ruby seemed to have a sixth sense for disturbances in the bedroom. She shouldn't have been surprised by that. "Is everything alright? You don't usually stand outside in the middle of the night like this." She didn't bother covering her next yawn as she ambled over to Weiss, wrapping her arms around Weiss and snuggling up to her.
"I'm fine, don't worry. I just needed a moment." Hearing those words leave her mouth made her pause. A moment, huh? It made her remember that she and Ruby hadn't had any of these moments to themselves lately. They'd been so busy that there was no time to relax together. Now they were, and it didn't seem like either of them had realized it. "Ruby?"
"Mm?" Ruby mumbled against her shoulder, sounding like she was about to fall asleep standing up. That would be impressive, but she wanted to keep her up for a little bit longer. She gently lifted Ruby's head off of her shoulder, holding her upright with a soft smile on her face.
"Will you stay here with me for a little bit? I know it's late, but I just want to have a moment with you." She gently wrapped her arms around Ruby and embraced her. It didn't feel all that long ago where she felt uncomfortable with physical contact. Hugs, even from her partner, were a no go no matter the circumstances. Now she was the one initiating hugs. If only her past self could see her now. "I need a moment with you where nothing's going to pull us apart."
"Okay." Ruby smiled and nodded, returning the hug. It had taken a lot of effort to get Weiss to the point where she felt comfortable receiving hugs. Knowing that they were close enough that Weiss would give her hugs unprompted made her feel like she would never stop smiling. She was exhausted, but this was more important than going back to bed. Weiss was right: they hadn't gotten many moments to just be together in each other's arms, pretending the rest of the world didn't exist. Just for a little bit, it could be the two of them: nothing and nobody else.
For a couple of minutes, neither of them spoke. They were just enjoying each other's company, not wanting to break the silent harmony that had enveloped them. The weather was nice, the company was nice: everything was just that --- nice. This was what they had been missing through all the hectic weeks. All of their stress seemed to melt away the longer they held onto each other.
"This is nice," Ruby whispered, sighing contently on Weiss's shoulder. "It feels like we haven't gotten to do this in forever."
"Yeah..." She honestly couldn't remember the last time they'd had time to themselves. They were both liable to fall asleep right where they stood, but they forced themselves awake to make sure they had as much time together as possible. In the morning, they would probably beat themselves up for not going right back to bed and resting for another hard day's work. In the moment, however, neither of them regretted what they were doing.
"Is it selfish of me to wish that the world could take care of itself for one day?" Ruby spoke out shyly, guilt tainting her words. "I know how important it is for us to continue fighting to save everyone, but sometimes I just want to be able to spend time with you. I mean, we're always together, but we're fighting grimm and stuff. That isn't how I wanna spend our time together."
"I understand. It isn't how I want to spend my time either." She felt the same way Ruby did. It seemed selfish to want things to not involve them for even a day, but sometimes even a huntress needed a break. They were no different. It felt selfish, but that didn't mean either of them felt any different. "Maybe it is selfish, but is it so wrong to want to spend time with your girlfriend? Don't we deserve a day for just ourselves?"
"Yeah..." Ruby murmured, unsure, yet agreeing a hundred percent. Life would be a lot less stressful if she got a day to lay in bed with Weiss and talk about nothing in particular every once in a while. Doing that used to seem like the most boring thing in the world at one point. The thought of lying in bed all day, not moving at all, would have driven her crazy. Now, however, she wanted that more than anything, as long as it was with Weiss. "I wish we could have those again."
"Me too. At least we have right now, though." Weiss pressed herself closer to Ruby, trying to leave no space in between their bodies. "We have this moment to ourselves, and I don't want to let it go." Both of them were tired, but neither of them were willing to go back to bed yet. As long as they could keep their eyes open, they could stay in each other's arms, enjoying the calming weather that accompanied the midnight moon.
"I wish we could sleep out here." Of course, Ruby knew that would never work. Weiss would never deign to sleep outside if she could help it, and they had beds inside. Still, it would at least mean they could spend as much time together as possible until sleep inevitably took them over. "I know we can't, but..." A couple stray tears trickled down her cheeks, which she didn't bother trying to wipe away. "I wish we could just stay like this forever."
"Let's enjoy it while we can, then." Being the realist of the two, sometimes she wished she could be as much of a dreamer as her partner. Ruby usually seemed happy, talking about all the things that might happen and the things that could likely never happen. She was a dreamer, and Weiss loved her for that. It just wasn't her way of living. Lately, however, she had found her mind wandering to more fanciful thoughts. Ones where she and Ruby lived somewhere far from civilization -- - far from the travesties life constantly threw their way. There would be nothing to bother them, and they could spend the rest of their days together in peaceful bliss. It wasn't realistic, but she could have her dreams sometimes.
"I'd like that." Smiling, Ruby held onto Weiss as tight as she could, enjoying their moment together for as long as she could. She soaked in everything: every detail of her girlfriend, the way the weather felt, how the moon shined above them. It was important to her to remember everything about that night, because both of them knew they wouldn't have many nights like this one for awhile. They would need the memories for the days and weeks to come.
Eventually, the two of them knew that they needed to go back inside. Sleep was desperately trying to overtake both of them, and though neither had the time on them, they knew just how late it was. They were going to reach a point where they would be even more exhausted upon waking up. It had been worth it for both of them, though. This was exactly the kind of moment they had been looking for, and getting to spend it together was a breath of fresh air.
"We should get back to bed." Weiss, ever the realist, had to be the first to break the silence that had fallen over them. As much as she didn't want to, she knew that it was important someone bring it up. It had always been likely that she would be the one to do it. Ruby didn't argue the point, instead just nodding with a slight pout on her face. She was so cute that Weiss couldn't help but to kiss her. "Come on, you dolt. You can sleep in my bed again, okay?"
"Yay!" Her pout immediately turned into a smile, which warmed Weiss's heart considerably. She grabbed Weiss's hand, and the two of them headed back inside, holding hands the entire time. It would be the last moment the two of them would have to themselves for a while, but they held it close to their hearts every day.
When they returned to bed, they both fell asleep almost immediately. However, it was a peaceful sleep, with the two of them spooning beneath the covers. Even while they were asleep, they could feel each other's presence. Perhaps that was why, when they woke up together the next morning, they felt rested and ready to take on the day. Of course, both of them would keep their eyes open for another moment that they could steal together. It would be worth it in the end.
21 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
