#i added the bonus clouds background because uh

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Divide”

Hello, everyone, and welcome back! It feels good to be doing some normal RWBY-ing in this strange world of ours. First, some supplementary materials.

Number One: In response to any (valid) questions along the lines of, “Hey Clyde, it’s now been a full year since Volume 7 was airing and you still haven’t answered my ask about it. Or the ones about Volume 6… what’s up with that?” I’ve created what I hope is an informative video detailing the problem:

(I assure you, the Earth, Wind & Fire was a happy accident during the screen recording.)

Needless to say, there’s a lot and I’ve known for some time now that I will LITERALLY never get through all my asks. Which doesn’t mean I don’t want you to send future thoughts in! Just know that as we head into Volume 8 territory I’ll most likely prioritize those, as well as any Volume 7 asks that aren’t woefully out of date. But I do want everyone to know that I read all the asks I receive, appreciate them immensely, and think too much about hypothetical answers, even if I don’t have time to actually write them out 💜

Number Two: There’s a bingo board this year!

Jury’s out on whether I’ll remember to update it, but at the very least this serves as a decent glimpse into my — and others’ — expectations going into this volume.

Number Three: I’ve collected a list of things I’ve heard about Volume 8 from what seem to be reputable sources. I did this because RT is developing a tendency to talk up certain points and then fail to deliver, either because something was taken out of a volume/moved to another, or because RT apparently has radically different ideas about what including something means. So this might be handy to keep on file and ask ourselves two months from now, “Did RT actually deliver on what they promised?”

Emphasis on Ruby’s leadership and how Summer’s death has impacted her

Insight into Ren and Nora’s flaws

May Merigold will supposedly have a larger part

More information about The Long Memory (Ozpin’s cane)

Theme of the volume is that you can respect someone but that doesn’t necessarily mean you agree with them

Very short timeline (supposedly just two days)

Yang in particular is very suspicious and distrustful

I was also going to include a list of all the threads that need to be continued/wrapped up, but honestly that would have taken too large a chunk off my life. Let’s just throw out the highlights:

Are we really going to have Qrow gunning for Ironwood?

Clover is dead regardless. Press ‘F’ to pay respects

Oscar bb you got shot please acknowledge this

Ozpin bb you got done dirty please acknowledge this

Penny is a Maiden now. I feel like the fandom has been sleeping on this (myself included)

Queer baiting, queer baiting… you’re on thin ice at this point, RWBY. Just skate on over to the queer snack bar before you fall straight into the lake.  

Ren spill your deep dark secret already and it had better be something more than just ‘Oh no Nora might someday die :( ’

Salem is here so how the actual fuck is the cast surviving this?

Will Ironwood likewise survive his descent into antagonism? Yes or please yes no?

I think that’s all the biggies. I strive to keep lists like this in mind while analyzing, but honestly RWBY has a hundred moving parts that are abandoned or changed or simply retconned at the drop of a hat. So an attempt will be made.

Number Four (last one I promise!): Normal disclaimers and reminders for Recaps apply:

Please don’t fill up the already full inbox with flames. It’s still 2020. No one has time for that nonsense.

There will absolutely be typos and wonky parts because I try to get these out the same day an episode premieres. I have now been working on this for ten hours, nearly straight, and have no more energy for edits. Apologies in advance and RIP to my Saturdays.

I reserve the right to use stupid GIFs and memes at my discretion.

I strive to keep my focus on recapping/analyzing but salt tends to worm its way in… If you’re a die-hard RWBY fan with little patience for criticism, let alone (at times) snarky criticism, please proceed with caution.

No wait I lied, this is the last thing:

Okay, got that out of my system LET’S DO THIS!

We start not with the episode itself but rather Rooster Teeth’s (RT’s) strange non-promotion of it. If you follow my blog you may have caught the post where I pointed out that there was nothing on RT’s website to suggest that one of their most popular shows—if not the most popular show—was premiering today. Nothing on the main page. Nothing on the RWBY page either, not unless you count the Volume 8 poster background (easily mistaken for the Volume 7 poster) and the trailer buried all the way down past Episodes, past Merch, in the Bonus Features section along with videos like Live From Remnant and the volume intros. RT… the promotion of your feature show is not a bonus. This should be front and center! Honest to god, five minutes before the episode dropped I was checking the website for a Volume 8 section, a countdown, anything that would tell me the episode was imminent without relying on fans on tumblr to keep me in the loop. We got nada, zilch. I’m not sure whether that speaks more to RT’s iffy management of the series or simply the website’s horrible design—RIP losing RWBY on Youtube—but I was surprised when I saw the episode a few minutes after 11:00am. At that point I honestly expected to hear about a dely.

So that’s the mood I entered the premiere in, but truly? We start off strong. Things take a pretty severe nosedive later on, we’ll get to that, but I was impressed with our beginning and that probably has a lot to do with the fact that we start with our villains.

We open on a Cinderella character, Cinder, and thus I’m immediately pleased that we’re getting something about her backstory after all this time. Seven years! She appeared in episode one, folks! To say we’re overdue is an understatement. There isn’t a whole lot to go on, just a younger Cinder sadly scrubbing the floor, poised under a spotlight. What we learn, or potentially learn, is based far more in cultural knowledge than this scene. We know Cinderella’s story, which includes the abusive family, the longing for more, the eventual escape, and thus we’re able to read all of that in this image, despite the image itself not telling us any of this overtly. That means we could be wrong in our interpretation, but if we’re not it’s an easy shorthand in an already packed story.

What I’m really impressed with is the sound bridge between the scrubbing and her nails on the back of Neo’s chair. Fantastic way to confirm that this is Cinder as well as showcasing just how far she’s come. The sound of her labor has been replaced with the sound of her power and given that Cinder’s power is stolen, tied to a grimm arm, the property of a genocidal maniac… that’s messed up. It’s a Cinderella story gone wrong.

So yeah, Cinder tells Neo to head straight into the creepy, grimm infested blood cloud to see Salem and Neo is like, ‘Uh… no thank you?’ lol.

RT does a good job this episode with her expressions, ensuring we know exactly what she’s thinking despite an unwillingness/inability to speak.

Poor Neo might be in too deep, but I quite like the overall atmosphere of this opening. Say what we will about Salem’s awful characterization, at least she has style. This woman knows how to make an entrance and, piggybacking off of the Apathy, RT knows how to infuse horror elements into their fantasy. The red and purple coloring of the clouds, spiked whale teeth peeking through, bright orange in the background looking like explosions… that’s all 👌 Including the intro card.

The only thing I want to gripe about is this:

I’m sorry, why does the whale grimm have landing pads? Or something like it?? The whale otherwise works because it’s poised between the natural and the fantasy synthetic. It looks like a real grimm whale on the outside, but is sporting a throne room, a control panel, and other unnatural elements on the inside. It’s a visual indicator of Salem’s ability to control and change grimm. Now though, the additions are wrong, infringing on the line between organic and tech, the line between what helps the grimm individually (giving monkeys wings) and what just helps Salem. Every other aspect of the whale straddles that line wonderfully, adding to the creep factor, like a grimm version of the Uncanny Valley: it’s not quite a whale anymore… but landing pads? That looks ridiculous. Why does Salem even have that? How many ships are her people feasibly using? Why are there five?

Take it away, please.

Cinder waltzes in like this is a normal home visit, but Neo has an appropriate ‘What the actual fuck?’ face going on.

They approach Salem on her throne where Cinder immediately kneels, greeting her with, “My queen.” I mentioned during my trailer breakdown that I think Cinder is lying her ass off here, and I still think that based on a line we’ll get in a minute, but now at least we have a sense of how she can pull this off. A woman who started out as a (presumed) servant is going to know how to mimic subservience, even if her heart isn’t in it. Salem is very good at playing the girl who will still kneel and scrub the floor for you. She will scrub the floor, she’ll do everything you want, she’ll just be plotting her own rise to power while she does it.

There’s quite a bit of interesting cinematography in this episode, not all of it good, and I think one of the mistakes is here when we get a closeup on Salem’s mouth as she greets Cinder. A closeup like that should be reserved for more significant dialogue—“Rosebud”—and yet we get this shot again when Cinder tells Emerald to be quiet. It’s awkward and coupled with the numerous eye closeups we got in the trailer, I think RT is playing a little fast and loose with the camera. Each shot should add something to the scene, not distract from it. If you don’t have a reason for including a technique like that then leave it be.

Back to the actual dialogue though. We knew that Salem knew Cinder was alive and now it seems that she just expected her to come back? I’m slightly lost. It feels like we’re missing something here. Cinder goes off to secure the lamp, fails, nearly dies, wanders on her own for months, and then randomly shows back up on Salem’s whale doorstep, yet Salem isn’t angry at all? Did she have faith that Cinder would return when she has something to offer? Did she just not care about Cinder, considering her return an unnecessary but otherwise welcome surprise? That would make the least sense given that she holds the key to accessing Beacon’s relic… but that circles right back around to why Salem is seemingly indifferent to Cinder’s comings and goings. Surely she can’t actually believe that Cinder is loyal?

“So I trust you wouldn’t return to me empty handed,” she says. Yeah, trust means nothing in this show, Salem, didn’t you watch Volumes 6 and 7? Again, I simply don’t know. I suppose I’ll just chalk it up to confidence, that if Cinder did bail Salem knew she could track her down again. Deciphering her motivations and beliefs is a lost cause when the show continually gives us so little.

The important thing now is that Cinder does indeed have an offering and you can see that Salem is somewhat surprised at being handed the relic.

Cinder, of course, takes credit for the victory and we’re given another wonderful shot of Neo. ‘YOU took it?’

Oh, Neo. Best get out while you still can.

Tyrian appears having obviously made his way to Salem’s ship sometime between her arrival and now. The exchange is pretty standard for this group. He insults Cinder for failing and needing this victory to make amends, talks about how any win against Ironwood says more about his lack of intelligence than her skill, and Cinder… doesn’t have a whole lot of comebacks, actually. I’d say Tyrian won that verbal spar, enhanced by a better use of the camera when we get his tail looming menacingly towards Cinder and Neo.

He goes on to say that Watts was a “necessary sacrifice” so, uh… I’m just going to toss out the ask I answered yesterday. Based on our intro I’d say Watts is still significant to the volume—hacking Penny is my guess—but by the end? He could be in trouble.

(As a side note: I plan to analyze the intro next week. It’s just easier when it comes first.)

Tyrian also calls Neo “little one” which I just found absolutely hilarious. In an on brand creepy manner, that is. Not that Neo couldn’t kick his ass, but there’s something wonderfully chilling about having the serial killer use an endearment towards a potential victim, one that comments on her size while he’s looming.

In contrast, Cinder refers to Neo as a “valuable asset” and we get our third mood of the episode.

Who’s going to start a Neo reaction image collection?

It’s true enough on the surface—who wouldn’t want an ally who can turn into anyone else?—but we’re still bumping up against question of why Salem needs this. She’s immortal! She has an endless army! Magic! This scene works well with a villain who needs a skillset like Neo’s to succeed, but Salem doesn’t. RT is doing a great job writing a story thus far, just not the story we’ve previously been given. This isn’t the story they set up.

This will come back up when we reach the RWBYJNOR group. Just wait.

Before that though, the gang’s all here as Emerald, Mercury, and Hazel show up, all in new outfits.

I think I like everything except for the weird Xs on Emerald’s jacket—it’s way too distracting and frankly makes an otherwise good look ugly—and the fact that she’s showing her midriff in Atlas. Hazel doesn’t have any sleeves! Oh my god, why doesn’t anyone dress for the weather in this show?

Frankly, I found their reunion to be kind of lackluster. I mean, there was nothing wrong with it. Emerald does sound briefly excited, she does run, and it’s in character for Cinder to cut her off… it just didn’t resonate with me emotionally. I thought after two volumes of thinking she’s dead, then working through the knowledge that she’s alive, that I would feel Emerald’s shock and relief more, but I didn’t. And I’m not entirely sure why. I don’t want to level any accusations at the voice acting because frankly I know next to nothing about that skill (and from what I’ve seen it’s usually praised in the fandom), but I will say that throughout the premiere I was noticing it more than I ever have before. The lack of emotion here and some awkward deliveries later, like when Yang goes, “Ruby, there is no way Ironwood will cooperate with us” and I immediately thought, “Wow, that came out stilted.” These observations stick with me because, as said, voice acting usually isn’t on my radar. It’s not something I’ve studied or had practice analyzing. If you’d never told me that Ren or Qrow’s VA changed then after a year hiatus I literally wouldn’t notice… but there’s something about this episode that didn’t sit right. Anyone else get that sense, or was it just me?

Regardless, the arrival of our other three villains really doesn’t amount to much, though I’m happy for all the Emerald and Mercury fans who get to see them in new outfits. The focus is still on Cinder as she delivers a line indicative of her true motivations: “That power will be mine.” Yeah, she’s not loyal to Salem, she’s just power hungry. Of course, Salem immediately takes note of this and raises her hand, in another nice use of the foreground, reminding her that she hasn’t given that order.

Cinder is shocked, angry even, but quickly covers it up with her “Without you I am nothing” line. If I caught it right I think she also calls Salem “Ma’am”? Hilarious. Again, skilled at playing the servant.

Also, before I forget, it’s worth noting that almost everything from our trailer appeared in this episode. Yeah, there are a few details like Nora attacking some tech and the group on their bikes, but on the whole we’ve already seen the majority of our promo material and will likely get most of the rest next week. It makes me both interested and nervous for what another twelve episodes are going to hold.

Salem opens her whale, or opens a portal type view in it, something that gives us a long-distance look at Atlas. I don’t know what exactly is going on here, but it’s pretty so I’ll take it.

She also delivers the frankly badass line, “Just because you’re more valuable to me than a pawn does not make you a player.”

She waves them all away with perfect ‘You mean nothing to me’ attitude and we sadly leave our villains.

Sad not because I don’t love my farm boy, but because things are about to get a whole lot messier.

Oscar has made his way to a camp of civilian survivors… all of whom are just hanging out in the supposedly deadly cold. Yeah, there’s a single fire, but at least four of them aren’t anywhere near it. Three of them also aren’t wearing gloves. What was that survival rate again?

A nice if gruff dude gives Oscar soup—water?—while showing off his… badger claws? I don’t know what kind of faunus he’s supposed to be, but he feels like the sort of two second, minor character who could easily become a meme lol.

Oscar thanks him (my polite son!) and hands the bowl back after a single sip. Which is impressive because I would have assumed the guy was giving me the whole bowl and just taken it. Hell, I’ve done that even when I didn’t assume it’s all for me. A Starbucks barista once approached me with a tray and a plate of samples, I knew I was supposed to take just one, yet for some reason my hand went to take the whole goddamn plate. He had to tell me off, then I was trying to explain that I didn’t actually want or think I should have eight shots of cappuccino all to myself, I don’t even like coffee, he clearly didn’t believe me… it was awkward. So good job, Oscar. You’re less awkward than me (though that’s not saying much).

Now a question, Oscar. Darling. Brilliant boy who has been through too much: why the fuck aren’t you talking to Ozpin? This will be A Thing later when he presents a lack of time to talk as justification for keeping more secrets (we’ll get to that too…) yet here is time! You’re just sitting there for who knows how long, with plenty of privacy to hide a supposedly one-sided conversation so the Mantle citizens don’t get weirded out or suspicious. Talk to Ozpin. Our headmaster gets two lines in this episode, utterly inconsequential lines like his airship scene, lines that feel like they exist to say, “See? He’s still included in the story!” even though he absolutely is not. Two volumes of mostly silence, a perfect setup to start the reconciliation process, but we’re going to put it off again?

Instead Ruby randomly and conveniently appears. I want to know how she found him. Oscar isn’t wearing a tracker. He clearly didn’t call them because he’s surprised when Ruby shows up. He fell alllllllll the way back down to Mantle and then wandered to a random part of the slums. You’re telling me they flew over the entire city—after beginning this search thinking he was in Atlas—and somehow managed to spot him from up in the air? C’mon. I would have rather had a beginning where Oscar makes his way back to the group himself, giving him and Ozpin time to hash things out.

“Need a lift?” Ruby says, eliminating that potential. Sigh.

Oscar immediately starts beating himself up when he gets onboard, saying that he “was stupid to think the General would listen.” Nah, you were stupid to buy into Ruby’s nonsensical confidence and for telling Ironwood he’s as bad as Salem. Sorry, Oscar, but everyone is written badly these days. I will, however, say that I am THRILLED at the group’s reaction to his return. Ruby says that she’s “just glad you’re alright.” Nora has a wonderfully tender moment where she hugs him gently rather than her usual glomp.

That? That added a year to my life. Everyone else seems relieved that he’s okay too, so kudos there. After four years of Oscar being an outsider in the group, this is one of the few moments that feel like he’s 100% accepted. Really glad to see it.

Now let’s see if it sticks after they learn Ozpin is back...

They fly to the Happy Huntresses’ base and I again feel like I’ve missed something crucial. When did they team up? I mean, RWBYJNOR was working directly under Ironwood up until the last hour and Robyn ran off to fight Tyrian/Clover in the last couple episodes. When did she have time to explain her (briefly) changed allegiance and why would the Happy Huntresses trust the group without that? Did Robyn share that Blake and Yang went behind Ironwood’s back for her? Do the Huntresses instinctively trust them because they’re now wanted by the military? How did they even run into each other?

Again, I think we would have been better served to have an episode before all this. Let Oscar make his way back and let the group struggle with the magnitude of their situation on the airship, before they find new allies. Transferring directly to, “They have help and a secret base and a plan in the works!” makes me feel like I missed the real premiere last week. You know, the one where Salem unexpectedly arrived and we left the group like this.

This is where we’ve ended up though. The group is cozy in this hideout, getting info from Joanna, and my only other thought is, “Why is she giving all this exposition?”  

Shouldn’t it be May? I mean, we were told that she was going to play more of a role this volume, a promise that’s pretty important imo given her status as a (so far off screen) trans character, so why not put her in the role of mediator between the Happy Huntresses and RWBYJNR? Giving her that setup as a leader among her people as well as lots of lines would be meaningful. A trans character just existing and being a part of this fight! May could obviously still fill that role—I’m well aware that we’re only one episode in—but it just seems like a missed opportunity to me. Out of all the undeveloped Happy Huntresses, our premiere focuses on the one who has the least importance to the fandom.

As said, Joanna talks a fair bit but what it basically boils down to is trying to get everyone to the crater below Atlas. It’s apparently not safe, but it’s warm, which is what matters right now.

So… let me get this straight. You want to gather everyone into a not safe crater, by leading them through an army of grimm, so that they can wait there in case someone moves the Staff, thus dropping an entire city on top of their heads? That’s the plan? Which admittedly isn’t Joanna’s fault. This is another instance of RWBYJNOR having information that a leader does not and they should really consider speaking up about it. But of course they don’t.

Also, how long does everyone have in regards to the cold? Shouldn’t there be dead civilians by now? The time it would take to find the Happy Huntresses, team up with them, get settled in the base, and find Oscar says that things should be pretty grim right now (pardon the pun), yet every non-aura user in this city seems content to just hang out in the snow. Either the cold is deadly enough to justify moving everyone to the crater, or it’s mild enough to let everyone survive this long, not both.

After hugs are given everyone obviously wants to know what happened to Oscar. His response?

“It’s a… long story. I get the feeling there’s been a few of those tonight.”

That’s a check for the bingo card! We’re halfway through the first episode and we’ve already got another secret. Yes, this is a secret. Oscar actively chooses not to tell anyone that Ozpin is back—something Ozpin himself comments on—and then skillfully draws attention away from himself with “I get the feeling there’s been a few of those tonight.” Indeed, all eyes go to Penny. Oscar’s plight is forgotten, which is what he wanted. His justification?

Ozpin: “You’re not going to tell them?”

Oscar: “You and I aren’t done talking yet.”

Along with this look.

Oscar no. There’s so much wrong with this I don’t even know where to begin. Let’s create a list.

As said, you had plenty of time to talk to Ozpin and chose not to. Miss me with this excuse.

You are now doing to your friends exactly what you and your friends did to Ironwood, which in turn is what Ozpin did to you! I can’t believe we’ve got Oscar critically side-eyeing him when they are still—still—repeating the behavior they drove Ozpin away for.

What is there to even talk about now? Oscar didn’t punch himself/Ozpin (lol) but he did steal Jinn’s name from Ozpin in the first place. You got what you wanted, drove him away, and have been lying and keeping secrets ever since. The only thing they should be talking about involves apologizing. Any further criticism—which is what Oscar’s expression and curt reply suggests—is beyond hypocritical.

Seriously, what needs to be discussed? There’s no reason not to tell the group unless Oscar wants to talk about whether they should tell them. There’s no good ending here...

Don’t you think it would be nice to know that Ozpin is back and you’ve got super magic powers while making plans to save the entire world?

This is all especially stupid given Oscar’s “Salem wants to divide us” reminder to Ruby in a moment. Oscar, you are doing the most to divide the group right now. By not forgiving Ozpin. By refusing to work with him. By keeping him secret from everyone else.

This is bad, friends, I worry for what the rest of the volume will bring…

The story is done with Ozpin for now so I guess I will be too. The group continues filling Oscar in and we get some shots of the base, including a rather prominent poster of what I assume are two Happy Huntresses. Did they die in battle perhaps?

It’s a little strange.

Oscar: “Where’s Qrow?”

Me: “Likely still making bad decisions.”

No one knows so they just drop it. Which I kind of get, only so much you can do to find him if he’s not out on the streets like Oscar, but it still reads as kind of iffy that two nieces look down at the ground for a hot second and then move on with their plans, content to leave Qrow to whatever fate befell him. In a minute we’ll see Yang firmly take Ren’s side regarding helping the people they can in Mantle, which frankly comes out of nowhere for her. I think an easy motivation would have been Qrow. Ruby wants to save the world, Yang wants to find and save their uncle, and that just happens to align with Ren’s desire to save the civilians who need immediate grimm and cold help. Don’t get me wrong, I like that there’s finally some division between the sisters, I just wish it hadn’t come about so abruptly. Ren had setup for standing up to Ruby. Yang did not.

But I’m getting a little ahead of myself. Joanna lists the grimm horde and no heat as the major threats to everyone. The group agrees.

Me: What about Salem?

Joanna says that this is all doubly dangerous because there’s “no more military protection.”

Me: Oh, so now you want the military?

This is all so disjointed. Even more-so when Joanna mentions that Ironwood has stopped all evacuations to Atlas, likely due to the “hard light shields” that are the only thing standing between Salem and the city. Thing is, the show never makes this connection, I just did it myself based on this scene and the one that comes later. The show presents Joanna’s line as a pure condemnation. Ironwood won’t let more evacuees in because… he’s just evil, I guess. Yet there is a justification here, namely that continuing the evacuations even while he’s stuck without Penny leaves him wide open to a Salem attack, the death of everyone currently safe, but that argument is never presented to the viewer. I don’t need people to agree with Ironwood’s perspective, I just wish that perspective was offered as an option. The show is very good about acting like RWBYJNOR’s opinion is the only justified opinion, or simply the only opinion at all.

After everything is laid out Weiss goes, “We’re never going to sleep again, I just know it.”

I could make a crack about the lack of continuity and how the group should be collapsing right now… but that was a funny line. It can stay.

What is far more of a problem is the fact that no one is talking about Salem. Okay, that’s a lie. They do talk about her, but in a roundabout way like her presence isn’t impacting every decision they make. That’s the real issue. They’re acting as if Salem isn’t here right now, like she’s off far away, maybe approaching slowly, and they’re arguing over how best to prep the world for her eventual attack. There’s no emotion here—let alone action—to reflect that the series’ Big Bad has arrived and is poised to murder them all. Literally what is this? Ruby is yelling about warning the world and, ignoring the continued question of why that’s a good thing when the world can do nothing to stop Salem and knowledge of her continually drives people to horrible acts, she has yet to acknowledge that… she’s the world? Ruby is the world in this conflict. She, Mantle, and Atlas. Salem is here for you all. Right now. You are, this instant, in the situation you want to warn others about, so why don’t you try to do something about it? Or at least acknowledge it. Ruby wants to warn the neighborhood about a potential fire while her house is actively ablaze, and the fire could have totally killed her by now but decided not to for… reasons.

“Ruby’s right,” Nora says. They have to tell the world so “they can prepare.” How? How are they supposed to prepare for this? The story cannot continue ignoring Salem’s immortality.

“Ruby’s right,” is all Blake says and I’m starting to thinks that’s why her character exists now, to agree with Ruby. It’s great that she’s getting a little distance from Yang, but man.

As Ruby asks whether Pietro can get Amity up and running despite it not being finished (called it) we start an incredibly odd sequence of flashforwards to their individual missions. I’ve seen a lot of praise for this already and though I agree that, in theory, it’s a good way to save time, I found the actual execution to be jarring. Upon thinking back through our timeline, it became clear they were flashforwards, but while watching I thought they might be flashbacks (especially since that’s more common).

Some of the shots, like Nora’s, just look awkward when you’ve got the exact expression and pose transplanted from one scene to another, like she’s a cardboard cutout behind a green screen. To say nothing of how the flashforwards ruin any suspense (I use that word loosely) in the conversation itself. If the question is, “Will they decide to go to the military compound?” then that question is answered when we see Ruby scoping out the compound, not when the group actually decides on the course of action.

It just made an already muddled scene worse for me, so I hope this trend doesn’t continue.

And of course, Amity can be used despite all the info last volume claiming that it wasn’t finished. Pietro suddenly acts like it is finished and the only thing standing in their way is Ironwood providing access. If that were the case, he would have used Amity weeks or days ago like he wanted to! When was it finished? Not after Watts commented on how incomplete it was. When did they get back the resources they needed from Robyn? It’s as ridiculous and retcon-y as I thought it would be.

Yang points out that Ironwood will never listen to them and Ruby counters that “he doesn’t have to.” They’ll just take the access from him. Because why wouldn’t they in a series where they’ve already stolen two airships? Stealing from the super evil military that Joanna wishes were helping them right now is just the group’s go-to plan nowadays.

Pietro isn’t sold on this plan though. He lists at least three obstacles they’d need to get through “and then… oh boy, I might need to think about this some more.” “And just to clarify,” Oscar says, “This is the easy option?” Um...no it’s not? We also know there’s an access point in Ironwood’s office so… why not go there instead? They really think the Academy is less guarded than the military base? There’s a potential justification here along the lines of, “After Neo and Cinder broke into his office Ironwood will have the place on high alert,” but unless I missed it the group doesn’t assume anything like that. They just listen to Pietro point out all the ways they can’t get into the military base and jump straight to that being the best option. It feels like a transparent way to create conflict for the group. We’ll just have them taking the most dangerous route despite an easy route being offered alongside it. Why bother mentioning his office at all? Just have the access in the military base. Boom, done.

It’s that conflict and the fact that Ruby tends to hear “You can’t” and digs in her heels. You can’t go to Atlas. I’ll just steal a ship then. You can’t defeat Salem. Watch me. You can’t break into this base. Guess what I’m doing! She’s dangerous in her fairy tale, meta-driven insistence that everything will turn out her way because she wants it to.

Speaking of, we finally—FINALLY—get someone challenging Ruby. Sort of. Not actually but it’s the closest we’ve ever gotten:

Yang: “Ruby, when we came here we said we’d follow your lead… but things haven’t exactly worked out.”

Now, there are two things to take away from this moment. The first is how utterly shocked Ruby and the others are. I mean, take a look at these expressions.

Ruby straight up can’t believe what she’s hearing. Weiss put her hand to her mouth like this is the most dramatic thing to ever happen to her. Oscar looks down in a ‘Yeah, I agree but please don’t look at me and make me admit that’ way. And Nora looks indifferent in the screenshot but animated she goes sort of stern, likely pissed that Yang would dare say that given her own agreement with Ruby. This not only reiterates that Yang’s challenge came out of nowhere—seriously, how did we move from following Ruby no matter what to this? Last volume she asked a single question along the lines of, ‘You sure?’ and when Ruby said ‘Yes’ Yang was entirely on board—but also demonstrates that no one has EVER said no to her before. Ruby is amazed that someone would challenge her. The act of challenging Ruby is, in and of itself, shocking. This group has gotten so used to following Ruby blindly that the teensiest little pushback is greeted with this.

Because it is teensy. This is the second takeaway: Yang barely challenges her and that challenge leads nowhere. She doesn’t accuse Ruby of anything, she doesn’t question her continued authority, she just broadly implies that things could be better. We followed you, now things are bad, take from that what you will. It’s incredibly mild as far as criticism goes, making the shock all the more, well, shocking, but it also amounts to—wait for it—nothing! Because Yang didn’t truly challenge Ruby’s leadership. She’s still in charge, she’s still calling the shots, and they’re still listening to her. We might have gotten some change if this division had been allowed to play out, but instead Jaune comes in with a, “Let’s go for both!” solution. It let’s both groups get what they want which, in turn, releases them from the need to grapple with whether they’ll listen to Ruby when she’s advocating for something they don’t agree with. We have now lost the chance to see whether, when push comes to shove, Ren and Yang will cave to Ruby’s will or stick by their own beliefs.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s more conflict than we’ve gotten in years, but that doesn’t mean it’s particularly compelling conflict. It’s good by RWBY’s standards, which doesn’t necessarily make it good. The actual issues at hand—Ruby’s dangerous arrogance, the group’s loyalty, her choices up until now—are just swept under the rug. For all the visuals we get insisting that there’s this great divide in the group… there’s really not. Not in any way that matters.

Also, Ruby is an idiot. Okay, that was mean, but she really is in this scene. She’s actually not an idiot overall because she was written as wonderfully intelligent in the early volumes, but now? Lately? She makes me want to bang my head against a wall.

“But that’s how Salem got this far,” she cries. “By dividing us!”

Ruby… oh my god, Ruby. No one should have to explain to you that dividing people means turning them against each other, not literally dividing your team to complete separate tasks. This girl honestly thought that because there was this teensy disagreement and that half the team would complete Plan A while she and the other half completed Plan B, both of which notably work towards the goal of, “Protect people from Salem,” that this was somehow what Salem wanted. That is was dangerous. Honestly, it’s a scary look at her view of leadership too: If everyone doesn’t 100% agree with me and do what I say, that’s an objectively bad thing that the grimm queen wants, right? Does Ruby think that unification means following a single person (her) without question or variation? That would explain a lot...

The fact that Oscar needs to explain the difference to her is not good. It really doesn’t say great things about this version of Ruby. Though he was comparing Ironwood to Salem last volume, so really they should all be wearing dunce hats.

Penny offers to take the relic directly to Salem in exchange for her leaving the kingdom alone. I honestly didn’t expect that. If anyone took that risk I would have put my money on Ozpin (but of course, during all this talk of the women he knows best, he’s kept quiet). Oscar is again the voice of wisdom, pointing out that they have no reassurance that Salem will keep her word. At least Penny is thinking about Salem as a threat though, so kudos for that. When this plan is shot down she volunteers to get Ruby past the military security instead and, uh, she’s a little intense about it.

I’m not entirely sure what is going on with Penny. She disagreed with Winter but then seemed to come around to her point of view, enough to help anyway. They had another (stupid) disagreement about the value of individual lives, so that helps to explain why she’s teaming up with RWBYJNOR (if you ignore that Ironwood is also trying to save individual lives...). Did watching Fria die shake her up? Is it being the Winter Maiden that’s not sitting right? Does Penny have lingering feelings about the framing that haven’t shown up until now? Her status as a ‘real girl’? We’ve got a lot of reasons that could definitely explain this sudden need to fight, but we’re not told which—if any of these—is the driving force.  

We’re then given a lot of little details. Someone points out that if Salem gets the staff and “create[s] anything else” then Atlas will fall (so yeah, let’s move the people underneath it). We still don’t know what exactly the Staff does because “creation” is kind of broad and “powering a city to float” doesn’t seem to sit within that category at all. Pietro gives Yang the keys to his lab so they can get the bikes. We see the group dividing in the flashforwards, something I do like, especially since the show has gone out of its way to break up most of the usual duos. Nora in particular is pissed at Ren for his choice.

“Oh, I’m saving Mantle because I actually believe we can do this.”

#yikes. Well, I did say I wanted a conflict other than ‘Oh no, one of us might die’ and it looks like I got it. But Nora, the only reason you can do this is because the plot is in your corner: none of you are collapsing from two major fights, you didn’t lose your aura so the cold isn’t a danger, the military is barely a threat all of a sudden, Salem is helpfully hanging out in her whale instead of killing you, and the story decided that Amity can function so long as you all are the ones who get to use it. That’s why you can do this. Ren, who follows in-world logic and doesn’t want to risk a whole kingdom’s worth of lives on a pipe dream, thinks differently, oddly enough.

As they leave though Penny gets a call from Ironwood. I know precisely what the fandom is going to say here: “This evil man is just trying to use Penny to open the vault!” Of course he is. He needs it open to save everyone he can, Penny included. Plus the concept of “using” her is a double-edged sword. What do we think the group is doing right now? Using her to get past the security. Penny’s power is a tool any way you slice it. Granted, Penny volunteers to help the group, but notably here Ruby speaks for her. Penny seems torn and Ruby takes the scroll away with, “She’s not going anywhere until you change your mind about Mantle.”

Sorry, Ruby, but coming from you that sounds less like a reassurance for Penny and more like just an order for Ironwood. Remember Harriet? We’ll stop attacking you provided you do what we want. Ruby has yet to learn about compromises, let alone acknowledge that she might be wrong. How about you let Penny decide where she goes, especially since by all logic she should have a lot of loyalty to Ironwood. She knew him before she ever met you. She’s worked with him since she was rebuild post-Volume 3. Despite what Penny has said, if the story would just let her think about his actions for a hot second—making her the protector of Mantle, sticking up for her after the framing, sending her to the party, teaming her up with Ruby, etc.—she might realize that the ‘He doesn’t want me to have friends’ and ‘He just treats me like a tool’ assumptions are just that, unfounded assumptions. But no, Ruby speaks for them both because Ironwood is evil now.

“If she makes it through our defenses,” Ironwood says, “everything that follows will be on your hands.”

That’s true! Kind of like how it’s own Qrow’s hands that Clover died. When you insist on making a bad situation worse you hold responsibility when the shit hits the fan. You know though that Salem won’t get through their defenses now, somehow, so that there’s no chance RWBYJNOR will be blamed for it. Or, by that point Ironwood will be so crazed that anything coming out of his mouth is dismissed, no matter how accurate it might be.

We then transfer to the Ace Ops who are, despite what the fandom theorized for many months, clearly upset about Clover. Also pissed. Which they have every right to be. Their friend and leader was killed. Imagine for a moment that Ruby had been murdered by Tyrian with an allies’ help. Exactly what do you think the group would do? Swallow it quietly and get over it? Ha.

I’ve already seen some speculation that Clover survived due to details like showing us the bandage and his room being listed as for a “Patient,” but he looks pretty dead to me.

He got gutted through the chest and left out in the snow for who knows how long. We saw him slip away. Qrow screamed over his dead body. He’s not breathing now. If RWBY suddenly claims he survived this, I’m calling BS.

Most of the other visuals we get here were already dropped in the trailer. Winter is pretty injured from her encounter with Cinder, likely permanently based on her new outfit. Ironwood had to replace his arm—and I am calling BS on that “Losing his arm is reflective of him losing his humanity” commentary from RT. Please go read up on a couple decades worth of ableism in media and then get back to me.

We get Ironwood’s line about the light shields and, notably, a whole lot of empathy. Regardless of what he might want Penny for, he still called her with compassion. He’s watching the Ace Ops mourn their friend. He’s talking about protecting his kingdom. The first thing he says to Winter is, “Thank you, Winter. I don’t know what I would do without you.” Ironwood has a heart! It’s always on display, which makes this scene utterly ridiculous.

I literally don’t know how to respond to this. The gunshot made me jump, both because it’s a gunshot and because, again, what the fuck? I know I said that next volume RT might just have Ironwood descend into full villainy, shooting whoever he pleases now that he’s shot Oscar, but I didn’t actually expect them to do it. Because he never should have shot Oscar in the first place! I wanted the story to let Oscar grapple with it a bit and then quietly backtrack, acknowledging it as the mistake it was. The concept that Ironwood, empathetic Ironwood, rational Ironwood, always thinks before he acts Ironwood, let’s kids yell at him Ironwood, tried to team up with Robyn Ironwood, did everything Ruby wanted Ironwood, won’t kill Watts after he destroyed his arm Ironwood would shoot this guy just to shut him up is absurd. It was absurd then, it’s absurd now.

That being said, there’s a possibility he didn’t actually shoot the council member, but rather just (“just”) gave a warning shot down the hallway. I say this because the reactions to this are pretty tame. Everyone looks startled, yeah, but after the initial shot there’s nothing that I would expect if there was now a guy bleeding out on the floor. The council woman doesn’t scream. Winter doesn’t seem overly shocked. No one is running to try and help him. Basically, if Ironwood had just killed a political figure in front of six witnesses, entirely unprovoked, I would expect a bit more of a reaction than this. This feels far more like a, “Damn he’s not joking around, letting off warning shots to get people to leave him alone” not “WOW, our general just killed someone in cold blood!”

What I really hate though—beyond just assassinating his character—is how many fans think my friends and I are delusional for calling it character assassination at all. I hopped onto the RWBY tag for five minutes this morning and was bombarded with posts about how Ironwood needs to be murdered horrifically, anyone who likes him is sick, the Ironwood stans are as bad as Adam stans, you’re an idiot if you want him redeemed… because apparently the concept of a story writing a character badly doesn’t compute. I’m not here to argue that Ironwood didn’t do these awful things (regardless of whether he actually killed the guy or not). I’m not here to argue that they’re not awful. I’m just here to say that we never should have gotten these scenes in the first place, or if we were going to get them, we deserved an actual descent into murder at the drop of a hat territory. I’ve already explained extensively on this blog how early Ironwood was not accurate foreshadowing for this, and Volume 7 certainly wasn’t setup, but it looks like the majority of fans aren’t interested in examining whether any of this adds up. Which makes my job, as someone trying to examine this series somewhat objectively—in as much as that’s possible for any single viewer—as well as simply enjoy it as a show, really hard. It’s bad enough when a story keeps taking the characters you love and villainizing them, and doing that badly, but then when you turn to the community and see them rallying around the idea that you’re awful for being dissatisfied—you’re the bootlicker, you’re the blind stan, you can’t see what’s ‘really’ going on here… that sucks. For those of you happy and satisfied with Ironwood’s arc, that’s great! I’ve also seen a lot of posts hyping up the complexity of his character now. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying what we’ve been given and I’d never want to imply that just because it’s not what I wanted it’s somehow wrong. I’m honestly thrilled that after a year of worry so many people have adored our premiere, including this scene. I just wish that I could say RWBY had given me something I didn’t want in a persuasive manner and that the fandom as a whole was a bit more welcoming of differing criticisms.

Not that I didn’t already know the RWBY fandom had its flaws, but still lol.

That’s basically it for our premiere. Nice note to end on, huh? Our final scene is of Salem using the lamp to set her bloodhound grimm on the city. Why doesn’t she just go herself? What was she planning to do here in Atlas in the first place, considering that getting the relic was a surprise? Who knows. Little about this holds together. But we do end with another awesome shot, so small favors.

It’s always strange concluding a recap, but even more-so when it’s a premiere, during a historical moment in the U.S., amidst all the nonsense that is 2020. So for now I’ll just conclude with three quick things:

The updated bingo board will be listed at the end of each recap, provided I don’t forget about it lol. Today I’m checking off tone (not nearly enough freaking out about Salem), the team keeping secrets (Oscar), and major plot point dropped (Amity is suddenly finished). I could also probably check off the cold not killing civilians and getting Amity up and running, but we’ll see if any changes with those.

I’m including my Ko-Fi link at the end of recaps now. Not with any expectations. Not with anything resembling pressure. I thought long and hard over whether to include it at all—let alone mention it here—because I love doing these and never want anyone to feel like it comes with strings attached. But life is a little harder and weirder than it was last year, so I figure it can’t hurt. Feel free to pass on by and I won’t be bringing it up past this note.

Far more importantly: thank you for reading! :D

(Bonus 4. Editing this was an absolute nightmare — damn you, tumblr!  — so I apologize if anything is super wonky when I finally post.)

See you next week! 💜

[Ko-Fi]

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #mymetas #rwby recaps

[sparklingskz]

first and last | seo changbin

▸ genre: domestic, fluff

▸ description: the first and last time you stayed over at your boyfriend’s apartment.

▸ word count: 1.5k

▸ a/n: some changbin coming at you because i hadn’t written anything for him!! hope you guys like it <3

The first time you stayed over at your boyfriend’s apartment, it had been a day when rain just wouldn’t stop falling.

You both were just sitting down on the sofa, shoulder-to-shoulder, watching a movie Changbin chose on Netflix. It had started raining a few hours ago, and you were waiting for it to stop so you could walk back to your apartment, preferably not drenched from head to toe.

By the look of things, that wasn’t going to happen soon.

It was the moment a loud thunder was heard that you dared to look out the window, your gaze meeting with dark clouds, a strong wind swaying trees back and forth and rain that made it seem like someone was just throwing buckets of water down to the streets. You sighed in defeat, there was no chance in hell you would go out when that was going on outside.

“It doesn’t look like the rain is going to stop anytime soon,” you told Changbin, who headed over next to you and raised his eyebrows in surprise when he noticed the strong weather outside of the window.

“It’ll probably be like that for a few more hours or so,” he said, plopping down on the sofa again.

You sat down after him, staring at the still playing movie but no longer paying attention to it. “Now the question is how on Earth I am going to get home.”

Changbin remained silent for a moment, as if multiple thoughts were running through his head. “You… You can stay over if you want,” he muttered, loud enough to just be heard over the heavy rain.

You turned to look at him, and you felt your heart softening when you noticed the slight pink color that dusted his cheeks.

“Really?” you asked, as this would be a new step in your very new relationship. An important one, in fact. “I don’t have any extra clothes with me, though,” you added, not trying to find an excuse to not stay, but to give the boy an outing if he needed one. You weren’t too sure if anyone would want to deal with your sleepy form in the morning.

“I can lend you some, I have no problem with it.” He shrugged.

“Oh,” you responded. “Then I’ll stay.”

The both of you turned your gazes to the TV to pay attention to the movie again, shy smiles adorning your faces, and you were trying to pretend as if butterflies weren’t going crazy in your stomach. Changbin’s arm swiftly wrapped around you, bringing you closer to him.

As time passed and the movie came to an end, sleep was almost taking over you.

"Should we go to bed?" Changbin asked, and you responded with a drowsy nod of your head.

He stood up and extended his hand for you to take, the both of you heading towards his room. There he opened his closet and grabbed a pair of his sweatpants and a shirt, handing them over to you.

You headed to the bathroom to change and you noticed that, even though you were roughly the same size, Changbin's obsession with oversized shirts made them look huge on you. You weren't complaining, though.

After stealing a bit of toothpaste and brushing your teeth with the pad of your finger (desperate times call for desperate measures), you returned to the bedroom and found your boyfriend laying in bed, scrolling through his phone. He broke his gaze away from the screen once he felt your presence, and your image instantly made him smile.

"You look cute in my clothes."

"Shut up," you retorted playfully, most likely blushing.

He lifted the covers for you to get into bed, which you gladly did. You immediately got close to the boy, placing your head on his chest and his arms wrapping around you.

"Goodnight, y/n," he whispered.

"Goodnight, Changbin." With that you closed your eyes, relaxing into the bed.

The sound of rain falling became background noise, Changbin's heartbeat being the only sound you wanted to focus on. You noticed it was a little fast, which in return made you smile. Not that it was weird, as yours felt the same way.

-

The last time you stayed over at your boyfriend's apartment, you didn’t even plan it, as it was something that happened very often. You would just come over to hang out, and the hours slowly pass until you realize it was probably too late to head home and you ultimately decide it would be best if you stayed over.

That's exactly what had happened that evening, which explained why you were currently laying in bed with Changbin, talking about anything and everything. This was also common, you both not really feeling sleepy enough and turning to talking about random things instead.

It was in that moment that you brought up something that had been stressing you out the last few days. "Hey, do you know anyone who may be looking for a roommate?" you asked the boy, your nonchalant tone hiding a bit of desperation under it.

"Uhm, not that I can think about right now," he answered, thoughtfully. "Why?"

You sighed. "My roommate is moving out and I can't afford rent on my own, so I'm going to have to find somewhere else to live." Changbin stayed silent, so you continued. "The thing is, I don't want to put an ad or anything because uh, I don't want to resort to living with someone who could be a psychopath, thank you. That's why I was asking if you knew anyone."

"Why don't you just move in here, with me?" the boy blurted all of a sudden.

Well, you weren't really expecting that.

"Are you sure?" you asked. It wasn't that you didn't want to move in with him, it was just going to be a new experience. You and Changbin had been dating for around a year and a half, so it still was a pretty big step in your relationship.

"We'd obviously have to discuss a few things, but you spend so much time here it feels like you live with me already. You have clothes here, your toothbrush is in my bathroom and you know where everything is located in the house, the only difference would be that you’d be here permanently," he said, seemingly nonchalant. You could detect a hint of nervousness under all of it, though.

"You know, that actually wouldn't be so bad," you replied, thoughts of actually living together with your boyfriend surfing across your mind.

"Of course it wouldn't, you would have the privilege to see this gorgeous face every day," he said, cupping his face with his hands.

He was cute.

"Oh, what a blessing that would be," you said, half joking and half serious.

He let out a giggle at your response, before speaking again. "So, what do you say?"

You let out a big breath. "I'm in, but we do need to discuss some things." With that, Changbin broke into a smile, and you followed close after.

"We'll discuss them later. Now let me just take in the fact that I'm going to see you every day without you having to leave after we wake up. I'm going to cook breakfast for you every day, watch." Changbin had a determined look on his face.

You raised an eyebrow at this. "Baby, you can't cook."

"That's debatable, just wait and you'll see."

With that you laughed and just rolled your eyes playfully. "Okay, let's sleep now. We'll talk about everything tomorrow."

Changbin nodded and curled up closer to you, wrapping your arms around your figure.

"I love you, goodnight," he muttered.

"Love you too."

That was the last time you stayed over at your boyfriend's apartment, as the next time you did you were able to call it yours.

-

bonus scene

You were monitoring the pancake while it was cooking in the pan, making sure that it didn't burn. You were making breakfast for you and Changbin, as to celebrate your first night living together.

As you were flipping the pancake, you heard the faint sound of footsteps behind you and, a few seconds later, a pair of arms wrapped around your form, a very sleepy Changbin placing his head on your shoulder.

"Didn't I say I was going to make you breakfast every day?" he said quietly, probably not being in a 100% awake state yet.

"Well, I beat you to it as to preserve the integrity of our kitchen," you joked.

He muttered a small "hmph" on your shoulder, and you felt the pout forming on his lips.

"I'll teach you how to cook something other than frozen food and you can start making breakfast. Deal?" you said for him to stop sulking.

With that you could feel the smile on his face when he said "Deal."

You stayed in that position for a while, you trying to continue making pancakes with a cuddly Changbin behind you, having to move slower than usual as to not disturb him.

"You know," he started saying at one moment. "I'm really happy you moved in. I'm the luckiest person ever because I get to see you like this every morning, and during the day too."

You could tell he was just tiredly rambling, but your heart sped up nonetheless. You turned around in his arms to face him, and left a small peck on his nose.

"Nah, I'm the lucky one here," you said.

#stray kids #skz #stray kids imagines #stray kids scenarios #stray kids oneshots #stray kids drabbles #stray kids blurbs #stray kids x reader #stray kids fluff #stray kids fics #seo changbin #changbin #changbin fluff #changbin imagines #changbin scenarios #changbin oneshot #changbin drabbles #changbin reactions

[blurry-fics]

I Could Use a Love Song

Pairing: Tyler Joseph x Reader

Warnings: Angst

Word Count: 1899

Request: Not gonna lie, I dropped what I was doing when I saw your post about requests. Could I maybe see a Tyler x Reader where the reader is having a really bad day and all of her usual methods to feel better aren’t working, so Tyler jumps in with something maybe unconventional to help out? I was listening to I Could Use A Love Song by Maren Morris when thinking about this, if that helps! Thanks :) - @ohprettyweeper

Author’s Note: Good news, I finally managed to get some writing done amidst everything that’s happening! I decided to do this as a little surprise/bonus post since I know a lot of people are invested in Holding On To You right now, but I wanted to start getting people’s requests posted as well! Also, for anyone who hasn’t heard it and because it pertains to the fic, here’s a link to Tyler playing Build Me Up Buttercup (from the Beyond the Video for House of Gold)!

You drummed your fingers along your collarbone as you stared up at the ceiling. Your chest was rising and falling steadily as you carefully measured your breaths, hoping that it would somehow wipe away the cloud that seemed to be hanging over your mind. It had been twenty minutes of this same pattern and you had yet to feel any different.

“That’s it,” you muttered as you pushed yourself up from the couch. “I’m going on a drive.”

Your keys were still sitting in a jumbled heap from where you had tossed them down after arriving home from running errands yesterday. You quickly scooped them up, grabbed a jacket from the hall closet, and walked out the front door.

There was frost on the window as you climbed into the car, only adding another layer to the frustration that you were feeling. Still, you stuck the key in the ignition and turned the air on full blast, hoping that it wouldn’t be long before you could actually see out the windshield.

While the window defrosted, you scrolled through your phone and found some music that might help you feel a little better. You eventually settled on a song that you and Tyler always sang together; it never failed to bring up good memories when you listened to it. The window was finally beginning to clear up, so you pulled out of the driveway and out onto the street. Hopefully Tyler would be home by the time that you returned.

You absentmindedly drummed your fingers along the steering wheel as you drove through the streets of Columbus. The beauty of the city never failed to amaze you, despite the fact that you and Tyler had been living here for close to five years now. Going on the same drive through the city streets never seemed to get old.

Unfortunately, driving didn’t have the same appeal today. The music just seemed like dull background noise as you looked at the same buildings that you drove past almost daily. There was nothing particularly special about this drive that you were on, and you were beginning to wonder why this had ever worked as a way to cheer you up in the first place.

With a sigh, you pulled into a nearby parking lot and turned around. There was no point in wasting gas if it wasn’t going to help you feel any better, right?

You pulled into the driveway and shut the car off. There had to be some other way for you to cheer yourself up; at this point, you were willing to try anything that would cheer you up for even a few minutes. It didn’t help that Tyler had still yet to get home from his meetings, meaning that you would still be stuck trying to cheer yourself up.

You tossed your jacket back into the closet and immediately headed upstairs. There was only one more thing that you could think of that might finally get you out of this slump. If that didn’t work, then you would have to accept your bad mood and wait for it to go away. That, or hopefully Tyler would be home soon with some ideas to make you feel better.

You grabbed the basket of bath bombs from under the sink while the tub filled with warm water. Tyler was always sure to keep plenty of bath soaks and scented candles in the bathroom for you to use whenever you needed them. He knew that it was one of the few things that always seemed you calm you down or cheer you up, especially when he was away on tour and unable to physically be there for you.

You decided on a fruity scented one and tossed it unceremoniously into the tub. It began to fizzle and spread colors throughout the water. You stood frozen for a moment, mesmerized by the patterns, until you realized that the water needed to be shut off before the entire tub overflowed.

The water was warm as you stepped into it, but not too hot that it was unbearable. Your muscles instantly began to relax as they became submerged, and for a moment you forgot about all the thoughts that had been swirling in your head all morning. It wasn’t long before they all came rushing back, once again plaguing your mind.

You ended up spending close to half an hour soaking in the tub, just listening to music and scrolling casually through your phone. The water eventually started to grow cold and you decided it was long past time you get out of the bath. It had been nice to soak in the warm water for awhile, although your mood didn’t seem to have improved at all.

As soon as you dried off, you pulled on one of Tyler’s shirts and headed downstairs. You had just reached the bottom of the stairs when you heard someone unlocking the front door. Panic washed over you for a moment before you realized it was probably only Tyler arriving home from his meetings.

The door swung open, revealing Tyler carrying a multitude of bags on his arms. You quickly rushed over and took some of them from him, which he seemed thankful for.

“Hey,” he smiled.

“What’s all this?” you asked.

He shook his head, “Merch prototypes, paperwork, concert stuff to review. You name it, it’s probably in here.”

You followed Tyler into the office where he began to stack all of the bags into the corner.

“But the meetings were good?” you asked as you handed him a bag.

“Yeah, we got a lot of stuff done. You know me, though. I would have rather spent the morning here with you.”

He turned around and gave you a quick kiss. A smile crossed your face for a moment, but it was quick to fade away. Tyler didn’t seem to notice.

“How has your morning been?” he asked as he walked out of the office. You followed him.

“Um, it’s been ok, I guess.”

Tyler stopped walking and turned to face you. His eyebrows were furrowed.

“You know I don’t believe that for a second.”

You sighed. There was no way Tyler would let you just brush this entire situation off.

“My morning has been awful, and it seems like no matter what I try to do to feel better, I always end up in the same spot.”

“You tried your favorite movie?”

“Yeah.”

“And you went on a drive?”

“Uh huh.”

“Did you take a bath?”

“Ty, trust me, I tried everything.”

He sighed and rubbed a hand along the back of his neck, “There has to be something we can do to help you feel better. Do you want me to grab my uke?”

“I don’t think it’s going to help,” you shrugged. “Nothing else has worked.”

“Then we’ll find a way to make it work.”

“We really don’t have to. I can just ride this out. I’m sure I’ll feel better tomorrow.”

“Absolutely not,” Tyler said, taking hold of your hand. “I don’t want to see you spend the rest of today miserable.”

You allowed Tyler to pull you towards the music room, as reluctant about this entire plan as you were. He sat you down in a chair and then crossed the room to grab his ukulele from its spot. Just being with Tyler had already made you feel a little better, but you were still far from feeling ok.

“Alright, we need to make this special,” Tyler muttered, more to himself than anything.

He was wandering around the room, obviously lost in thought as he tuned his ukulele. You watched him as you absentmindedly swayed from side to side in the chair.

“I’ve got it,” he smiled after a few minutes of contemplation. “Come on.”

You sighed as you got out of the chair and followed Tyler back into the living room. He stopped right in the middle of the room.

“What are we doing?” you asked.

“Put your hands on my shoulders.”

“What?”

“Put your hands on my shoulders. You know, like when we slow dance.”

“Why?”

“It’s all part of the plan.”

“Ok,” you said, although you still weren’t really sure what was going on.

Tyler began to strum on his ukulele and you instantly recognized the opening chords of the song. It was the song that had been playing when you first met and, coincidentally, one of your favorite songs. Tyler began to sway a little as he played his uke, prompting you to do the same.

It was hard not to laugh as you thought of how dorky the two of you must look from an outside perspective. Tyler noticed this, but he just continued to play the song with a smile on his face. You began to loosen up a little and sway a bit more.

“There’s that smile that I love,” Tyler said once he finished the song.

“Who knew that slow dancing in the living room would be so effective?”

“Me,” he grinned before giving you another kiss. “Do you want me to play another song?”

“I would love that.”

“Ty!” you laughed as he went jumping over the back of the couch.

“What?” he grinned as he landed somewhat gracefully.

“Be careful!”

“Sorry, I just got really into it,” he laughed.

You and Tyler had spent the last two hours singing and dancing to any song that you could think of. The worries that had plagued your mind throughout the morning were long gone, now replaced with song lyrics and watching Tyler’s stunts in the living room.

“We should probably make dinner soon,” you said with a glance at the clock. “I’m getting hungry… and tired.”

Tyler stuck out his bottom lip, “Can I play you one more song?”

“One more,” you said, although you would willingly listen to him play music for as long as he would let you.

“Ok, come over here and sit.”

You took a seat on the couch across from Tyler.

“I don’t know if this really qualifies as a love song, but I still want to play it for you,” he said.

You sat and listened intently as Tyler played Build Me Up Buttercup for you. It was impossible to keep the smile off of your face as he smiled like an idiot throughout the entire performance. He bit his lip as he played the final chord and looked up at you.

“I love you, buttercup,” he smiled.

“I love you too, darling,” you giggled.

He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to your lips. You should have known that Tyler would be able to cheer you up in an instant, no matter how bad you had been feeling.

“Let me go put this away and then we can start dinner,” he said.

“Ok.”

“So, are you feeling any better?” Tyler asked as he returned from putting his uke away.

“Much better, thanks to you,” you smiled.

“That’s what I like to hear,” he said.

You stood up and joined Tyler in the kitchen. He immediately wrapped an arm around you and pulled you into his side as some form of a hug.

“Thank you so much, Ty.”

“I would do anything just to see you smile.”

You leaned against his shoulder and smiled, wondering how you had gotten lucky enough to find someone who loved you so much.

#tyler joseph #tyler joseph x reader #tyler joseph imagine #tyler joseph imagines #tyler joseph drabble #tyler joseph drabbles #tyler joseph angst #tyler joseph fluff #tyler joseph fanfiction #twenty one pilots #twenty one pilots x reader #twenty one pilots imagine #twenty one pilots imagines #twenty one pilots drabble #twenty one pilots drabbles #twenty one pilots fluff #twenty one pilots angst #twenty one pilots fanfiction #21 pilots #21 pilots x reader #21 pilots imagine #21 pilots imagines #21 pilots drabble #21 pilots drabbles #21 pilots fluff #21 pilots angst #21 pilots fanfiction #tøp #tøp x reader #tøp imagine

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Kado 11 | Boku no Hero Academia 26 | Hina Logi 1 | Grimoire of Zero 12 (FINAL) | Tsukigakirei 12 (FINAL)

I’ll just leave another reminder for this straw poll here, because I need a tiebreaker vote.

Kado 11

Even anisotropic beings have dreams? Welp, that was unexpected.

Uh, hey. Kado staff. Algerian people don’t all look like Asians, y’know? Google says Algeria is in Africa…

So, staff. Why is Shindo the only man/person/human who can stop zaShunina?

Oh yeah. Shinawa knows a way to stop the fregonics!

Basically how I feel about Kado is how Hanamori feels about the situation + Saraka right now – confused and torn.

(laughs) Thank…(face falls) you, Hanamori, for making me laugh with your mapo tofu comment and remember why I loved this show in the first place. It was fleeting, but good…Wait, but isn’t abduction against the law?

Uhhhh. Kado staff. The fregonics suit has boob space. Meaning a woman will wear it…awkwarddddddd…

Finally, we get back from our “shonen battle” roadtrip to drive to the final battle.

zaShunina’s like an old lady now, LOL. Reading on a rocking chair and enjoying the sunset.

Yeah…please just keep your lips away from each other, guys. I was here for the negotiation, remember?

Oh. That wasn’t a boob plate. I was LOLling at their idea to give that to a woman, because the one woman who needs that plate is Shinawa, whose job is already over. Good thing I was wrong there, then. It’s also interesting to note this suit looks like a gladiator suit…like humanity has reverted itself to medieval times to fight zaShunina, who represents the future. (I’m still laughing though, because I knew Shindo was hot under that shirt, but damn, I did get more than enough eye candy this season just by this one gladiator suit…and zaShunina’s butt.)

Well, I kinda did get what I wanted by having the Hanamori/Shindo ship broken, but even though I got a het ship (which I’m normally more supportive of), I don’t support this het ship at all.

It’s cute to see a floating pink cube act like a phone. Or one of those annoying fairy companions…

Welp, it’s almost over. See you next ep for the final simulcast commentary.

Boku no Hero Academia 26

Apparently BnHA’s on break this week, meaning I’m caught up after this.

There was a thing called work experience that we had to do at one point – that’s how I got the experience needed for One Wish They Never Wanted’s bookstore scenes.

It’s cool to see Eraserhead and Present Mic in the same situation as Deku and everyone else. Aizawa looked kinda bishie then, which is unexpected.

I don’t get the reference involving acid blood…

That’s nice. I already knew the names everyone was going to come up with due to the time I’ve spent on the wiki, but the homage becomes much more significant when you see it in context.

Dangit, Midnight. You stole my explanation thunder.

I always wondered why Shouto never got a better hero name. So he literally just used his own name, huh?

I wanna cry at the Iidas’ plight but I have no tears, dangit!

I don’t get it- what’s the “air chair exercise”?

Gran Torino. I’ve watched the movie that has that name, it’s about a vintage car (Ford Gran Torino), an old guy called Walter (Walt for short) and racism. I always suspected Walt was the reason Gran Torino (hero) was named thusly...but until Horikoshi says something about it, we’ll all have to keep speculating…(By the way, the racism perspective in that movie resonated with me, despite my not being a Hmong person. Maybe I’m not properly acknowledging it, but it might be one of my inspirations for Half-Paid Heroes…?)

Hina Logi 1

I have come here to hate on this magical girl spinoff, because man, Luck and Logic squandered what could have been a very good plot – it was “pretty but no substance”, to quote a past me. Indeed, it’s because magical girls are my passion that I have high expectations of new entrants into the genre…

Okay, what is this? Hogwarts???...Actually, the best match, right down to the white turrets, would be Alfea of Winx Club.

It’s stoic girl, Ojou-sama + companions and Shinawa-lite. See? Stereotypes, although I ribbed the names from ANN (having read it a few weeks before I got here). However, before I read ANN, I’d already predicted this would be a pile of road apples.

I feel like I should know who Nina is (from ANN), but I didn’t get far enough to familiarise myself with Nina in the original Luck and Logic, haha.

This genki glutton girl is basically gender bent shonen cliché, y’know? Serve me something slightly different, and I’ll be a happy camper.

I can’t believe I laughed at Nina going “my teacher told me to”, because I expected it.

The humour isn’t funny in this for the most part…the eyecatch says, “16th May. Fluffy! (Fuwaafuwaa!)” “Fluffy” of course being in reference to the messed-up hair.

Urgh, this fanservice is driving me up the wall and giving me a headache…

Ooh, nice transformation sequence!

Enough with the yuri between Nina and Lion! Gah!

“May 16th. From this point forward,  [Kagura] became very angry.” (I had to Google the teacher’s name. She’s so insignificant this episode, I can’t even remember it…)

Lion’s face is getting more annoying by the second…

“May 16th. Everyone ate heartily.” (I used the word “heartily” because I didn’t have a better substitute for oishii in this case, but *shrugs* I don’t care either way.) The use of itadaku I’m still fairly new to, so hopefully someday I can use the word with confidence…

“…reminds me of my mommy.” – Gah, Lion. Are you a toddler? I imagine you with a toddler’s tone when the subs say that.

“Send your beloved Hina on a journey.” – It’s actually a reference to something. Check this article’s title for what it is. That’s a Japanese proverb which says to not baby your kids too much.

I feel like this is a pretty clean drop. After all, if I rage for all the wrong reasons (and come out with a slight headache in the end), you know that the show is a drop.

Grimoire of Zero 12 (FINAL)

Thirteen’s with the crew at the end of the OP. Huh.

I have the feeling that Holdem will never kill Thirteen, even though that dogface is trying to stab the sorcerer right now.

Intruders,much? It’s an army!

It seems like these animal fights were meant to be a big spectacle but observe the background animals and see how off model they are. That’s how much care was put into what was meant to be the show’s climax this ep.

I would’ve loved to see Mercenary do a Batman backhand. Those are always cool and sometimes funny.

The cloud and white-frame animation look gorgeous in a sakuga way! Now we’re talking!

Having someone die solves nothing. It is only those who need an outlet for blame that require needless death, am I right?

Ohhhhhhhh! One kiss made at least 2 or 3 people jealous, LOL.

I wanted to see Mercenary as a human. He could’ve been real hot…dangit.

The ED song is real cute and iyashikei. I don’t think I’ve properly listened to it until now, so…good on me for doing so, haha.

Tsukigakirei 12 (FINAL)

Tsukigakirei’s been a middle ranker for me most weeks, so to suddenly get better around the time when Kado fell was practically begging for the two to switch places…(Note: I’ve made a personal ranking for each ep in a document I’ve kept all to myself, and I haven’t posted them online. That’s why I’ve had comments that indicate where shows are on that ranking at the start and end of an ep’s simulcast commentary.)

That sparkly shot of the river is in the OP too, so when there was a shot of Kotarou and Akane, I was disappoined I wasn’t seeing the OP (even though I still think the live-action bit is a lil’ weird). It’s cute how those guys are wearing the same jackets, though.

There’s a water thermos in the back of Tachibana’s (glasses guy’s) bookstore.

Kotarou’s dragon background is so cool. I want one.

The thing with the rhino doesn’t translate well. The word for “goodnight” here is oyasuminasai and rhino is sai, so…yeah. I think it would be better to call it “sleep rhight” (including typo) to convey that pun better, but hey. I’m not going to major in Japanese.

When Chinatsu revealed she got into the same school as Kotarou, I verbally went, “Oh no!” Don’t you remember how I was with ep 7???

Even Chinatsu has that black jacket, so it seems to be a school-issued one.

My heart just broke a lil’ bit as Chinatsu hugged Kotarou…I’m not sure what to make of it…

I’ve never seen “graduation” being abbreviated to “grad” unless it’s “grad school” and the “grad” in that stands for “graduate” (noun). It’s a very American term, so I never use it, but…the term translated to “grad” is “graduation ceremony” (sotsugyoushiki). Seriously though, CR. Enough with your Comic Sans translations.

The translation of the prologue misses something. The first sentence has da to omou at the end, meaning “I think…”.

A novel board. Y’know, like Honeyfeed. I’ve got quite a lot of experience with ‘em, because I don’t intend to be a person who gains money from writing…not fulltime, anyway.

There’s a site called Syousteuka ni Narou which is basically Honeyfeed for a Japanese audience, with the added bonus of possibly getting your works into print and then anime. The recently announced Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari, as well as Re:Zero and a lot of its kin, have come from that board. It’s pretty clear that Syousetsuka is being parodied here, that’s all…even though the titles of the websites are completely different phrases.

What’s that bird with the long neck called? The one standing in the water? I wanna know…

Normally with anime tears, it’s like me and CGI - I bash most efforts. However, I think this is the effort that I commend the most so far…this anime season is full of surprises…Well, Kotarou? Can you keep up with a girl that does track?

Everyone cries when someone leaves, so long as that person has made an impact. I know that all too well…

Dangit trash CGI people. Just as I got used to you, you become obvious again! Grah!

I admit I shed a few tears there…I’m not crying, you’re crying! (Also, if you haven’t paid any attention to what I’ve been writing, One Wish They Never Wanted was based on similar experiences to Kotarou and Akane’s graduation, although a lot of it happens outside Takuma’s point of view and so I didn’t write it.)

Oh! Hey, these are the end of ep LINE convos from previous eps, coupled with pics of the ones who typed them! The “seaman” convo would’ve made more sense if the translator would’ve bothered translating the word “semi” (short for “seminar”) as it was, because that makes more sense. I really don’t get the “marr” one though.

Well, any show that makes me cry on its first run is a show I don’t regret. I still feel weird putting Kado below it, because Kado was betted than Tsukigakirei for most of its run (as I’ve said at the start of this commentary). Regardless of what happened though, I guess…I’ll see you all for the next show then! Bye for now!

#simulcast commentary #tsukigakirei #grimoire of zero #seikaisuru kado #hina logi: from luck & logic #boku no hero academia #Chesarka watches Tsukigakirei #Chesarka watches Kado #Chesarka watches Boku no Hero Academia #Chesarka watches Grimoire of Zero #kado the right answer #hina logic