#i feel like qrow need to be there idk

[courtclover]

having a kombucha girl reaction to seeing clovie x scorpion killer in the tags  

#( ☘ ooc — when do i stop crying about clover? ). #it's not even bad not even spicy just a kissy but #i wish you could talk to artists #''how did you get here? show me the steps?'" #i don't know what to feel #it's such pretty art too #hmmmmm #*adds it to my queue* #i feel like qrow need to be there idk #WHY LMAO #ot3 maybe im #i'm having crisis #ADKJHDKJGFG

[lovingdabeessss]

You think Taiyang has a favorite child?

💖If it isn’t my favorite tagger back again💖

Thank you for asking this, this is actually something I’ve been desperately wishing for an excuse to talk about because my defense for it isn’t great

Anyway back to the question sorry

Yes I do 100% believe he has a favorite

There’s no doubt in my mind it’s ruby

I think he loves them both of course obviously but he FOR SURE favors Ruby

We know from his interactions with Yang he tends to project onto her things about Raven that aren’t necessarily true for her the way he talks when they spar like her whole thing is anger and strength and that focusing on that is her biggest weakness, which is true for Raven, however yangs problem is her self sacrificing nature and obviously he sees Raven in her even more cause they look similar and it’s just.. she’s not someone tai has purely positive feelings for considering all the betrayal and abandonment not that he doesn’t still love her at all but you know

He definitely projects things about himself onto her as well and considering NONE of the fucking STQR family likes themselves ESPECIALLY not taiyang “11 year long depression nap” xiao long and so he’s got that against her and then she got herself abandoned putting more fuel to that particular fire

And I think while they were dealing with the death of summer when Yang started taking on roles she was too young to take he just… let her… and then eventually those things were just her job as the oldest and a lot of things became her job and he kinda slipped into seeing her as more help with Ruby then someone he was supposed to be raising

And like even when he recovers he had to get back into parenting which is hard so he probably started out just doing stuff that were already needed, and Ruby was her own problem cause she needed stuff but only really accepted getting help from Yang at least emotionally depending on how bad you believe tai’s shut down to be and otherwise she’d get things from qrow whenever he wasn’t on missions from Oz so she was just hard to get to accept anything from him

Yang despite being very supportive of the idea of him recovering and finally someone helping her out a lot and having a parent at all again… she is incredibly independent and doesn’t really seem to need anything that he knows how to give and she also genuinely probably just doesn’t know how to have a parent anymore, she’s so used to being the parent and she doesn’t remember getting to really be the kid

So she’s just kinda reduced to third parent

There’s also the fact that Ruby looks exactly like summer who he did leave off with good positive feelings for and then she’s all that’s left of her

AND Ruby’s the youngest speaks for itself possibly got that “guest in the house” treatment youngest sometimes get where they aren’t treated as much as part of the family and more of a guest which is nice but isolating even if she tried to help Yang with chores Yang would get in trouble for having her do it kinda thing

However I do think that tai would’ve wanted Yang to back off of raising Ruby so much so he could be her dad and she would maybe accept him as that more hence like the Ruby queendom things of how she won’t be there for her forever but Ruby doesn’t want him to and Yang doesn’t fully trust him to

IDK THO just messy unorganised family dynamic thoughts

IN SUMMARY!!!:

I think Ruby’s his favorite I think he loves them both but is struggling to parent in wake of the lose of his wife and struggling to relearn how to do it after his recovery and Yang struggles to even be parented and they speak NONE of these emotions to each other cause they’re allergic to talking about their feelings ever

#rwby #yang xiao long #ruby rose #STRQ #Team STRQ #STRQ family #STRQ-RY #rwby taiyang #taiyang xiao long #summer rose #qrow branwen #raven branwen

[strqyr]

Qrow building a complex compact weapon with many forms but the scythe form was teased all of volume three and has only been shown again in volume 6

Raven who seems to have a regular sword but also many Disposable swords. Uses them until she’s done and then they break and are discarded.

They went to Beacon together but even if they had their weapons before then they must’ve. They must’ve created their weapons together surely. Raven is smiling in that One Picture

Qrow spoke fondly of their team before “Raven broke them up” heavy quotes on that

Idk twin relationships are always special and seeing them in media and like. I KNOW they were once close they had to be. What happens between ages 22 and now like. Did Raven stick up for him as kids or did she teach him how to hide his weakness. Was he the distraction while she slipped in behind. Did they laugh together after pulling pranks. If one got punished were they punished together or did they volunteer to stay with their sibling

They make me crazy

they had to be close. even if there was a distance between them—e.g. qrow spent more time away from the camp compared to raven, qrow feeling guilty over his semblance, etc—i still feel like... they'd kill for each other, ya know? despite everything, qrow still asks her to come back. despite everything, raven checks up on him after he gets poisoned by tyrian (it's not like she'd expect to actually spy on him to get information she didn't get from him directly; she makes her presence known).

i just. there's so much past to them, what they've been together. maybe they lost that understanding between them at some point, but i don't think either of them really gave up on one another? they're—or, well. were—still trying, in their own weird ways that didn't really take into account what the other was saying, but it's the thought that counts. to me.

they're just so—branwens!!! i would literally gobble up any backstory for them, but more than anything i need them to have been partners i will ignore canon for this that's how important this is to me. i need the eventual growing distance to hurt even more. like, your honor. they're twins. fuck me up.

#anon #ask.strqyr

[todds-rwby-liveblog]

I NEED TO DISSECT THAT SEQUENCE UNDER A MICROSCOPEOREN S NADJSDLKS:DS I love just. I already mentioned the voice acting and the model comparisons before but OH MY GOHOHOHOHOOD. The Atlas designs really do feel like matured versions of their Beacon counterparts I am SHOOKETH that was so fucking GOOD I VLOE UP Also I'm just now noticing the shot contrast between the Beacon girls posing the offers and the Atlas girls rejecting them. The focuses on their mouths and the deceptiveness of what they're offering at first contrasted with the eye closeups and the determination/soul that comes with them. It makes me so god-damned EMO

And also Can I just

BLAKE PULLING OUT GAMBOL SHROUD'S KATANA RIGHT AS SHE SAYS "MY LIFE." THIS WEAPON HAS BEEN WITH HER THROUGH EVERYTHING. THE WHITE FANG THROUGH ADAM THROUGH HER STRUGGLES WITH HER PARENTS THROUGH TO THE HEALING SHE GOT THROUGH MEETING RWY AND YANG. FRAMING THE GOLDEN MEND RIGHT IN THE CENTRE OF THE FRAME/LIGHT. AND BC EVERYTHING ELSE IS PURPLE LIKE THAT IT JUST STANDS OUT SO MUCH EVEN THOUGH IT'S SO TINY. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THAT MEND ON THAT BLADE IS SO FUCKING KEY TO BLAKE AS A CHARACTER. OH MY FUCKING GOD. EXCUSE ME WHILE I GO BERSERK OVER THIS. FUCKING HELL THIS WAS GORGEOUSLY DONE.

The way Yang doesn't lash out or gets aggressive but just. She's being firm but also tries to be a guide to her younger self. She knows that the way she was normally taught would be either through rushing into it and finding out the hard way or from... Tai! And that method is not ideal to say the least. He tries but pushes her in the wrong way, with a lot of insults involved in some form (lost a brain cell along with that arm, your semblance is a temper tantrum, groaning at her hesitance at wearing her arm for the first time, I wanted a better goodbye than a letter etc.). I feel like she's using this opportunity to be the type of guide she's always wanted to be for others (namely Ruby) but also the kind she wishes she had for herself in life. Her life's always set her up to be a risk-taker and rush into things head on (all the way down to her semblance) and I'm realy happy that, in a way, she's finally taking the time to tell herself that what she really needed was to slow the fuck down. It's so fucking sad but also so good I'm OUGHHGHGH. The difference between Yang and Tai is empathy and it means the world.

Weiss' section oh god Weiss' section. Her speech has been sung about to death by now but it's just so iconic of her tbh. But can I just say I freaking LOVE the way she just has so much SASS. Honestly the best way to shut down pre-Beacon Weiss is with her own poison. But a detail I spotted that I really enjoy that's kinda hard to focus on at first cus big camera movement is her head movements when she say "I am" that was peak sass. I love that so fuckin much here it is timestamped: https://youtu.be/8eoazsK1n8k?t=103

But fr tho, I love the way she points her sword right at younger Weiss' nose like that.

Also the differences in the two's silhouettes and colours is some of my favourites, I love the contrast between the white laced with that tiny bit of red for rebellion and really faded Blue, only to over time gradually gain much bolder, more vibrant colours and a bigger form. Her v1 design is my favourite shape-wise still but if this isn't a massive parallel to how Blake's designs have evolved over the years idk what is.

Also I love the way she looks so confident when she plants Myrtenaster in the ground. Reminds me of Arma Gigas planting its sword to the ground in this context. She really reclaimed it so fucking hard in this scene I am going to blow up

Like look at them and tell me which one is the stronger individual here. Bro

Framing Ruby like this

FOUL. VILE. EVIL EVIL EVIL.

Single spotlight of silver light. With the Indomitable scene, the track Miracle, the talk with Maria, her mom... from her eyes, everything rests on her and it all starts with those fuckass iris pigments. Qrow told her she was destined for the life of a warrior but oh god why did it have to be like this. She's completely overtaken by her failure to her legacy as a continuation of a literal fucking myth in so many different ways I'm gonna snap

#riin rewatches v9 #SORRY FOR THE LONG RAMBLE #I'm very passionate abt this scene #it's so fucking good #9x4

[lee-rambles-about-rwby]

So I DID watch the epilogue animatic yesterday and my first thought "Nora pls, it's been like 30 seconds don't make me cry."

No but really just off the top of my head: I love that it gives us a snippet into the individual mindsets of the Vacuo group. I saw someone point out that they're all a different stage of grief and I LOVE that.

Oscar and Ozpin both fighting the merge? Ren's semblance letting him pick up on everyone's emotional state while also dealing with his own? Nora's clearly doing her best to hold herself together despite definitely struggling to do so? Whitely refusing to hide his identity? Qrow shifting from being the most pessimistic of them all to the most optimistic?

Idk I feel like i need to rewatch it if i really want to ramble my thoughts about it but the tl;dr is I really hope volume 10 happens someday so I can see it animated

#lee speaks #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 9 spoilers #rwby epilogue

[papihomo]

RWBY Ethnicity headcanons because why not!

Tyrian Callows - Lebanese, I mean his name comes from the Lebanese city of Tyre and that makes sense.

Coco Adel - Belgian, I mean she just gives me Belgian energy idk why

Weiss Schnee + The Entire Schnee Family - Swiss-German, it makes sense, okay like Jacques has a French name and in Switzerland the main languages are French, German & Italian.

Nora Valkyrie - Norwegian, its basically canon

Oscar Pine - Moroccan & Bedouin + Scottish & Irish, I totally think he's Maghrebi like YOU CANNOT CHANGE MY MIND OKAY.

Professor Port - Hate that man, literally identical to my Bio Teacher, probably German because my Bio Teacher was German.

Mercury Black - Scottish-American, he just is.

Trivia "Neopolitan" Vanille - Neapolitan & Corsican

Roman Torchwick - Sicilian

The Belladonnas - Its of course canon that they are Indigenous, Ghira is on Chief & Council, need I say more? Anyways I have a feeling they would be from the Pacific Northwest, more specifically they would be Gitxsan.

Hazel Rainart - German + Assyrian, he kinda reminds me of the Sumerian folk hero Gilgamesh who stems from what is now Modern day Iraq.

Emerald Sustrai - Basque + Sudanese & Arab, her surname is basque, her allusion is Ali Baba/Aladdin and she seems to be of african descent as well so honestly she could be Basque, Sudanese and Arab.

Elm Ederne - Afro-Dominican + Mongolian, need I say more.

Vine Zeki - Tibetan + Japanese, Need I say more.

Harriet Bree, Afro-Jamaican + Cambodian, its my headcanon.

Marrow Amin - Paternally Ethiopian & Ugandan, Maternally Indigenous Australian & Greenlandic, his surname "Amin" is of Arabic origin but is prevalent in Uganda as a couple of my Ugandan friends from 9th grade had that exact surname, also his weapon being a boomerang could point to him being Indigenous Australian {Also the Faunus being very clearly Indigenous} & Greenlandic.

Clover Ebi - Turkish, that man is Turkish, okay? HES TURKISH TO ME.

Qrow & Raven Branwen - Welsh & Breton, need I say more.

Sage Ayana - Yoruba, one of my Nigerian friends presented me with this headcanon and now I hold onto it dearly.

#rwby #rwby headcanons #tyrian callows #coco adel #weiss schnee #willow schnee #winter schnee #whitley schnee #jacques schnee #nora valkyrie #oscar pine #professor port #mercury black #neo #neo rwby #roman torchwick #blake belladonna #kali belladonna #ghira belladonna #hazel rainart #emerald sustrai #ace ops #elm ederne #vine zeki #harriet bree #marrow amin #Clover ebi #qrow branwen #raven branwen #sage ayana

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: "Rude, Red, and Royal"

Hello, everyone! Thank you all for your patience in waiting for this <3.

Time’s ‘a wastin’, so let’s dive right in. We open on the girls being escorted by the royal guards up to the palace which, as I said in my last recap, is in no way dependent on Ruby giving up Penny’s sword. They could have simply been ‘captured’ for the crime of denying His Highness a new birthday present and then, as Ruby does in a few minutes, weasel out a game by asking to cheer him up in recompense. The sword is superfluous to the plot, it doesn’t track that it exists in the Ever After, is only shakily compelling in its emotional impact on Ruby and, very soon, will literally be discarded. Though we had some genuinely good emotion last episode, what this could have been - should have been - is still far out of reach.

So they’re marching along and we get a shot of the palace as well as the... pieces? Monuments? Decorations? Embedded in the earth around them. I like the subtle nod towards a potential battle having taken place and the red stains against the white look - whether intentionally or not - like blood. It begs the question of what exactly occurred when Alyx visited. 

Yang: “Are we sure we should do this?”

Ruby: “Well, the Red King helped Alyx”

Weiss: “We’re not Alyx”

Real talk: I'm sick of team conversations consisting of the girls vaguely disagreeing with Ruby and then immediately bowing to her whim. This is, structurally, the same exchange we got in Volume 7 when Ruby decided to lie to Ironwood. Yang and Oscar go, ‘I'm not really happy with this :/’ Ruby reiterates her position, and then that’s it, everyone drops the subject. Why? Because Ruby is their leader? That doesn’t hold water anymore since Volume 8 gave us a Yang who’s upset with Ruby’s decisions and actively challenges her role as leader... at least until she’s suddenly, randomly worried about Blake instead. Now, we’re back to where we were in Volume 7 with Yang (and the others) only making token disagreements for Ruby to ignore. Why is everyone moving backwards in this show?

Never-mind that I actually agree with Ruby here. The girls have been shown plenty of evidence that they’re broadly repeating Alyx’s story, the fairy tale next depicts a King helping human girls lost in this world, and Weiss already tried - and failed - to just bypass all that and walk her way to the tree. Plus, it’s not like any of these guards pose a threat to the girls. You’re telling me they can beat the Ace Ops immediately after a major grimm battle, but we’re simultaneously supposed to believe that a bunch of foolish goons made of wood could take them out? So I legitimately don’t understand what Weiss and Yang’s hesitation is when all signs point to needing to do this, those signs imply a good outcome, they’ve failed to do anything else, and they are not - for them - in any real danger.

It honestly feels like RT is continually tossing in ‘disagreements’ so that they can claim the team still has diverse and rich relationships, but that only works if you ignore the realities of the situation and the fact that nothing ever comes of this division.

As they make their way the camera shows a bright blue butterfly following them. Given that this isn’t the last time we’ll see them, I can’t help but assume that the butterfly is another character (Alyx? Lewis?), or else is foreshadowing for someone with an association with butterflies. You know, like how we saw a crow a bunch of times when Qrow first showed up to fight Winter. Originally, I thought the butterfly was our Cat, but then the Cat just chases butterflies and tends to disappear rather than transform... so idk. We’ll see.

They arrive at the entrance to the palace and the guards start a big ta-do for His Majesty’s arrival. I'm not sure why the girls are freaking out? They’re supposedly oh so knowledgeable about fairy tales, this one in particular, they're going to see the King, but they don't realize that this is how the King is introduced? I can only assume this is an excuse to give us more absurd Weiss animations.

His Majesty arrives and, to the girls’ shock, he’s definitely not a King. He’s the Red Prince and the best thing I can say about him is that I really like the sound design. As a puppet, he clinks with every step and that consistency helps sell that this isn’t a human child. Other than that though? 

Oh my god he’s annoying. Like, he’s obviously supposed to be, but he’s annoying to the point where he’s not enjoyable to watch. I saw someone else compare him to Cordovin - an antagonist whose position and beliefs are immediately undermined because the narrative doesn't treat them seriously - but at least Cordovin was capable of holding a conversation without shrieking. Also, note that once again the girls’ conflict boils down to a joke. Why present them with a legitimately intimidating Prince they have to outwit when you can just give them a temper-tantruming child for the audience to laugh at, complete with snot bubbles?

The Prince doesn’t take kindly to them thinking he’s the King. “Well, I never! Coming to someone’s castle without even know who they are - and on my birthday!”

Eh, he’s kinda got a point lol.

As the Prince goes through his repertoire of screaming and jumping around, one of the guards angrily points out that “if it hadn’t been for your kind the King would still be here!” and everyone quickly shushes him.

Okay wait, so the girls are clearly recognizable as human then, right? I ask because that’s going to come as a huge shock to the Prince later in the episode, but here it’s treated as an obvious fact. How dare you be questioning the King’s disappearance when “your kind” are the ones who did away with him in the first place. So what are we supposed to take away from this? That this one guard is the only one to realize what the girls are and none of his buddies pick up on what he’s implied because they’re too busy keeping talk of the King quiet? That all these very obedient, desperate-to-please guards realize the girls are human and didn’t bother mentioning that to their Prince? 

That RT forgot this was supposed to be a Big Secret until the end of the episode and gave us a minor plot hole?

Regardless, Ruby curtseys to introduce herself and it’s cute enough to distract me. That's a nice shot.

The Prince continues to be annoying, to the point where I want to fast-forward through this scene, and Weiss whispers to Blake: “Ew. Did I use to be this unbearably pompous?” Weiss, I wish you were still unbearably pompous instead of unbearably ridiculous. Give me the Ice Queen over this goofy idiot any day. Still, I’m glad that she’s at least acknowledging her bad attitude from years ago, especially to Blake. It’s something... but not much. Again, this is primarily functioning as a moment of humor for the audience. We’re supposed to laugh at the Prince’s antics and Weiss’ unfounded worry - she was never that bad! Plus, the story doesn’t provide the time for an actual conversation. Like, say, Blake responding that no, you weren’t this annoying... you were just horrifically racist, which is worse.

I want everyone to remember that Weiss lost her inheritance and then deliberately escaped her abusive father. She returned to her Kingdom and was active in its destruction, leaving her without a home, without a title, and (to my ever-lasting frustration), no idea what happened to her own former ‘King,’ Jacques. She’s a princess without a throne, without a Kingdom, having spent years struggling with whether she’ll try to lead from that position of power and if so, how. What does it mean to rehabilitate the Schnee name? How does being a huntress and rejecting the 'crown' offered by her father (AKA being head of the company) accomplish that? Now she comes face-to-face with another entitled, bratty ruler who, on some level reminds her of her younger self...

... and we get a single, joke-y line about it.

If this Volume is meant to develop the characters, then actually let them develop. Next episode the girls will go through a literal seconds-long 'journey' that makes me go, "What was the point?" Each of these areas should have something that clearly ties into one of the girls' lifelong goals, acting as a sub-plot to Ruby's Volume-long depression. Visiting a palace with an annoying, abusive Prince is the PERFECT opportunity to let Weiss reflect on her own choices. Yet RWBY, as expected, has squandered it for more humor.

The guards take credit for finding Penny’s sword, despite Weiss’ protest, and present it to the eager, greedy Prince. However, he immediately kicks it away into the hedges because it’s green, not red. 

Okay, two things. One, as mentioned at the start of the recap I think this is a terrible way to (presumably) end Ruby’s journey with the sword - with the reminder that her 'journey' happened at the tail end of last episode and into the first five minutes of this one. To reiterate: what was the point of any of that? To show us that Ruby is sad about Penny? Yeah, we know that already. It’s bad enough that the story is trying to give her a grieving arc that should have happened at the end of Volume 3, but the best the story can do is tossing in a sword that shouldn't exist anymore, have Ruby immediately give it up to her enemies, and then leave it behind in the hedges somewhere, forever lost? I’m not saying the sword won’t show back up - I obviously have no idea what will occur throughout the rest of this Volume - but for now that’s a real bummer of an ending. Ruby runs to try and grab the sword and the guards block her way, so all she does is whisper, “How could you?” I don’t know, Ruby, maybe he did that because he’s a bratty, literal toy who has no idea why that hunk of aura is emotionally significant to you? The audience knows though, so how about you use that semblance of yours to fly around the guards and grab the sword? Or stay behind to snag it? Or endanger everyone by refusing to leave the palace grounds until you’ve found it because fuck everything that's a part of your friend!! Give us something to show that this last piece of Penny means something to you and that you’re willing to fight for it.

I mean, if I had lost a dear friend - twice! - and their weapon was the last reminder I had of them, and the only tether I currently had to my home, and the only means by which I had to defend myself with my scythe missing, I’d try a little harder to hold onto it. RIP to Ruby but I’m built different.

I actually really like that the Prince kicked the sword away because yeah, why would he want something green? And as established, he's a brat. But Ruby failed to do anything with that action and that remains oh so disappointing.

Also, second, why isn’t Ruby’s presence helping their cause? After all, Ruby is Little RED Riding Hood. The Prince might be mad that the sword is green, but shouldn’t he be pleased that one of the girls delivering it is dressed all in red? Take a look at this shot and how perfectly Ruby fits into the aesthetic of his Kingdom:

I kept expecting Ruby’s polite attitude and her overall look to be their key into securing a game. Or, more interestingly, for the Prince to decide that she will be his present instead: the sweet, young, ruby red girl who can play games with him forever and ever (maybe even with a Ruby who'd be tempted to stay because yes, that would be so much simpler...). Yet her coloring - a staple of RWBY's advertising, an in-world symbol of peace - has no influence whatsoever. It’s moments like that really undermine the arguments that such-and-such had to happen because this is the character’s inspiration. It clearly doesn’t have an impact the other 99% of the time, so why is that suddenly relevant? These girls are in a fairy tale, yet their own fairy tales have no bearing on how they navigate it.

For the crime of trying to present him with a green present, the two guards are taken out into the hedges and beheaded by their fellow soldiers. Now, at this point in the story it's unclear whether they've been killed (because they're clearly sentient beings), or if they're just, uh... disabled? (Because they're wooden toys that can probably lose their heads without actually dying.) Though now that I've written it like that, Option #2 doesn't sound much better, especially in a story that's supposedly exploring disability through one of our main characters. Regardless, the point is that even though the second half of our episode will clarify the guards' fate a bit - more on that later - for now the girls have a reaction like they've been killed. Or at least, they recognize that something truly awful has occurred.

So my question is this: why aren't they doing anything about it? Look, I realize that's a loaded question in the fandom given how often people want to run to the girls' defense - they're too tired, it's too dangerous, you can't possibly expect them to fix the whole world, etc. - but the fact remains that we are watching a story about heroes. So how can they just stand by and watch that happen? Or at least, given that they may not have been able to stop it, why aren't they trying to do something after the fact? Try to make a change? Ruby is grappling with the death of a friend and her own feelings of inadequacy. Weiss is, supposedly, worried about her own position as the heir to an abusive hierarchy. Yet neither of them is interested in doing something about the Prince, only playing nice so that he will help get them home. Is that the standard now? Our heroes will ignore the injustices they come across provided that this ignorance benefits them? That sounds a whole lot like Ironwood overlooking Mantle for his own greater good, something the girls went, 'We condemn wholeheartedly!' about. Toss in the fact that both Weiss and Yang just admitted that they didn't want to ask the Prince for help and you've got a recipe for them working to leave the Ever After in a better place than they arrived, rather than just playing by the harmful rules of Alyx's story in order to get what they want/need. 

Yes, you can make that 'greater good' claim given that they're trying to get back to fight Salem (and I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't weigh that given my own understanding of Ironwood's actions), but then at the very least give us a conversation where the girls debate the merits of risking a later/nonexistent return to help this world vs. ignoring injustice to help theirs. As it stands, I'm continually underwhelmed - if not outright appalled - by how the girls are depicted. What have they done since Volume 5 to actually help people? The most we've gotten is them trying to clean up messes they'd already made. Toss in the fact that there's no sense of urgency for them to get home - they're just meandering along, taking it slow, dodging the question of what they'll do about Salem when they get there, having cute romance moments on the side - and I simply can't buy that they're ignoring helping others out of a greater good necessity.

'Huntresses are heroes who help people who can't help themselves!' Blake will declare next episode and I'm like, okay, agreed... but when was the last time you helped someone? Was it when you ignored the Prince's horrible domain? Sat drinking tea while Atlas was besieged by grimm? Started a fight until you drew a Leviathan to an unsuspecting city? You've gotta put your actions behind those words, Blake.

And yeah, I get it. This is a small moment. It, like the vast majority of this Volume so far, is not meant to 100% be taken seriously. There's implied humor in the way the guards dig their nails into the path and beg for the Prince to reconsider. But at the end of the day, the story has given us a group of girls who, for the most part, already hate this Prince, watch him 'kill' two subjects due to a subpar birthday present, have a teammate who wants to be better than the caricature in front of her, and then... they do nothing with this. 

Hey, if Yang is going to be angry all the time, how about she be angry about this? Where's the fire they had back during the Mountain Glenn arc to fix the broken pieces of the world and help those who were most vulnerable? Where's the realization that this is a job and what they want - or even need - will always have to come second to the people they exist to protect?

Given some of the nice beats last episode, I was really hoping that I'd have more to praise in this one.

So Ruby watches this guy kick Penny's precious sword away and 'kill' two subjects. How does she react to that? By politely asking if they can cheer him up, of course. As said, I think Ruby is right that following in Alyx's footsteps is the best chance they've got of getting out of here (according to the information they currently have), but the writing really should have bypassed Yang and Weiss disagreeing if they wanted readers to ignore the moral implications of this. I mean, the Prince outright responds that "Beheading people does cheer me up" and Ruby's got this expression going as she suggests they play a game: 

We once again see the blue butterfly as it travels down through a tall tower of horns, straight into the chamber where the Prince's game is held. Oh, and we saw it before when the guard is distracted by it flying by and forgets to wish the Prince a happy birthday.

The Prince asks what Ruby will demand of him if she manages to win his game. "There's always a catch," he says. Actually, that's not true. Later the Prince will say, "If you win I will help you with what you ask," but initially his question is, "What exactly do you desire from me in exchange for playing my game?" As someone who loves fairy tales and constantly hopes RWBY is going to be more smartly written than it actually is, I jumped on that with an, "Ah ha! Rookie move, Prince! It doesn't matter now if you cheat to win the game, your original offer was to gift the girls something simply for playing, regardless of who comes out on top." Of course, RT didn't realize they'd written that loophole, this isn't even a cool world where loopholes matter, so absolutely nothing comes of this.

Still playing at the polite little subject, Ruby curtsey's again and tries a compliment: "Your Majesty, you are as wise as you are..." and then she stumbles, unsure of how to praise someone who's such an asshole. Little comes to the rescue - sort of - by whispering in Ruby's ear. She blurts "small" before she can think better of it.

To everyone's shock it goes over well with the Prince. I'm unsure if this is meant to imply that Little actually knew what the Prince would like to hear, or if they just chose a descriptor they were familiar with and ran with it. The latter seems a lot more likely to me, given the ongoing joke that Little is far less useful than they continually claim they are and the fact that, by their own admission, they’re an incredibly young mouse who has never traveled past their own acre. How in the world would they know about royal customs? 

Now in a better mood, the Prince agrees to take the girls to the tree if they win the game (not merely play with him). Ruby settles in and asks how they play, which sets off over-the-top laughter from the Prince and guards alike. I suppose this is just supposed to be off-putting or something? There’s no comment along the lines of, “You don’t know how to play [insert fantasy game here]? Everyone knows it! I play it with every subject who passes my way!” The Prince just starts explaining the rules, easy as you please. I can only chalk this moment up to the writers trying to get a, “They’re so weird and vaguely scary” reaction from the audience.

The actual rules are, frankly, unimportant. To the story, I mean. They have absolutely no bearing on who wins. Not just because the Prince is cheating from the get-go, but because the function of the game is to send all your pieces forward during the same turn and whichever piece wins their battle against the opposing side get to stay there. You could finish the game in two turns, tops--which is precisely what happens. Fool that I was, I had hoped that RT would put more thought into the game-battle that takes up the majority of the episode. You know, maybe hampering the girls’ combat abilities through a set of difficult rules they’re forced to follow, necessitating that Ruby step up as the team’s strategist for the first time in years and find a way to win through means other than brute force, even if the end result is still a technical loss due to cheating. I thought this might amount to something other than throwing 3/4ths of the team onto a battlefield with weak goons and letting them go to town, the trappings of rules and a game board and a puppet(tier) existing as more than just a distracting backdrop. Functionally, this is no different from the Prince angrily sending all his guards against Team RWBY, hoping to behead them for the crime of bringing him a green birthday present. We could have gotten this exact battle outside of the game, which makes the game itself superfluous. Which, you know, sucks when the girls are traversing a Wonderland-esque world where their ignorance should be their biggest weakness. But it turns out they’ve always been familiar with this fairy tale, Blake’s worry that they’re repeating Alxy’s mistakes is dismissed, and the girls don’t actually have to play the games they’re forced into. They can just punch things! 

Am I glad that we actually got some combat in the combat show this week? Absolutely. However, this has been one of the problems with Ever After from the start: designing a world governed by fairy tale logic, knowledge of stories, nonsense rules, contradictions... and then dropping a group of protagonists there who, as Yang herself says, would prefer to just solve everything with a punch. Suddenly, a core expectation of the series - that the girls will fight stuff - undermines the expectations of this specific Volume, made worse by the post-Volume 3 message that the war they fight isn’t winnable by brute force, yet, six years in, that’s all the girls have tried. As I believe I mentioned elsewhere, I think there’s a simple solution here in divvying up those expectations: force the girls to solve Ever After problems with Ever After tools, let them fight the Jabberwalker and Neo, and let them finally start the conversation about what they can do with Salem other than fight her head on... but unfortunately, none of this has occurred. Blake will later shut down Ruby’s Salem thoughts before they can begin, there’s no adherence to what Ever After is asking of them, and the girls won’t encounter the Jabberwalker again for another two episodes.

So we’re left with... this. Yang, Blake, and Weiss getting shrunk down when, narratively, that’s entirely unnecessary and the journey to get them unshrunk will take a fifth of the Volume’s entire runtime. I know we’ve already acknowledged that this Volume is filler, but given how much important stuff actually resides within that filler - discussing what happened in Volume 8, figuring out Salem, helping Ruby recover, mourning Penny, finding Crescent Rose, finding Jaune, dealing with Neo, etc. - it seems like a waste to be taking these detours when they’re so thematically unsatisfactory. Obviously in a story it’s about the journey, not the destination... but if the journey is badly written, how about we at least stop wandering from the main path so often?

Alright, enough of all that. I will say that I’m was quite pleased when the Prince revealed his ability to shrink the girls, displaying some pretty formidable magic. My first thought during the beheading scene was why the guards were obeying the Prince when, to all appearances at the time, he was just a bratty child with no way of enforcing his authority. I was afraid that this was just a case of, “They’re loyal because they’re guards and that’s just the way things are!” or that RT really hadn’t given this any thought; why hundreds of men-like beings with weapons were obeying a vulnerable child when, clearly, that wasn’t working out so well for them. Here though we see that the Prince is not vulnerable, he’s quite powerful, and that really helps to sell the fear we see permeating his Kingdom. 

Ruby is obviously concerned when her teammates are shrunk down to Little’s size, but honestly I can’t take her, “No one’s going to get hurt... right?” very seriously. Ruby is WAY past this kind of naive innocence. Girl, your friends are positioned alongside a bunch of beat-up warriors, facing a Prince who just beheaded two of his subjects. What do you think is going to happen here? More importantly, why are you worried? I’ve seen a couple of fans praise this moment because it highlights Ruby’s perspective post-Penny’s death: none of her friends are safe, anyone could die at any moment, etc. But Penny was facing off against a freaking Maiden, not a bunch of itty-bitty chess pieces with toothpick swords. (Here I point out their relative size because even if they’re now equal to WBY, Ruby is still large and could just flatten them all with one good stomp.) The point is that I’m continually unconvinced by this “So horror, much danger” characterization of the Ever After when we’ve spent the last three Volumes emphasizing how powerful, brilliant, strategic, and all-around perfect the girls supposedly are. We’re really supposed to believe that these literal pawns are worrisome to Ruby after they’ve faced down the likes of the Hound, the Ace Ops, Ironwood, Neo, Cinder, and their like? Imagine if Ruby saw a couple of Beowulfs 2/3rds of her team was about to fight, which to her were the size of mice, and she was all, “You won’t get hurt, right?” Ruby, those are literal MONSTERS out to EAT them, but that doesn’t matter because you’ve been taking out this kind of monster fodder since you were TWELVE. The show continually has it backwards, making the characters smug against legitimately powerful enemies and biting their nails over stuff they could squash in their sleep.

Which, you know, is precisely what happens. The girls have absolutely no difficulty taking out the chess pieces, further undermining Ruby’s worry.

Before that though she asks - very politely - for one of the pawns to move ahead a space, facing down the bigger, badder, meaner looking piece across from him. At first it looks like they’re pretty well-matched, but with a pointed look from the Prince, Ruby’s piece pretends to succumb to his wounds, collapsing until a magical stretcher appears to carry him away. He kicks back with a yawn, happy to be off the battlefield and, presumably, off His Majesty’s shit list.

Three other pieces meet the same end until Ruby gets to Weiss.

Ruby: “Weiss, do you think you could take that space?”

Weiss: “Have some faith!”

Again, I feel like the Volume is going for a total decimation of Ruby’s confidence, to the point where she’s entirely disengaged from reality (AKA, obviously Weiss can take out these talent-less pieces). Ruby can no longer summon up enough hope to fill a jar, she’s oh so worried that her elite team will fall to these grunts... but she’s also constantly telling people that yeah, they can handle this, and of course they’ll get back, and look now she’s acting like she always does with smiles and jokes - a part of the endless gags. There’s also no relief when Weiss does win her fight. I think Ruby’s smile is super cute there

but it doesn’t piggyback off of that worry at all. There’s no sigh and maybe a comment whispered to bring herself back to reality, “Come on, Ruby, of course Weiss was gonna win” - something to alert the viewer that Ruby is actually struggling with this kind of irrational anxiety and attempting to fight against it. As it stands, we keep seeing Ruby’s depression introduced and then it slips away again, unacknowledged until it randomly pops back up. “Have some faith!” Weiss says, which is clearly a callback to Ruby’s lack of it last episode, but nothing that happens either confirms or denies Ruby’s struggle. That shot of her smiling, while adorable, could have been taken from any moment where Weiss is being a badass. It’s entirely disconnected from the extreme of, “Omg can a full-fledged Huntress take out a toy in a fight what if another one of my teammates DIE?” Ruby has two completely separate personalities going this Volume and they don’t mesh at all.

The pawns are also super impressed with Weiss’ victory, same with Yang’s, and that feels... wrong to me? I mean, I’ve got nothing against a team that’s been beaten for who knows how long re-discovering faith (like Ruby) and rising to the occasion. (C'mon. I’m a Ted Lasso fan. I eat that shit up.) However, that’s not the conflict here. The conflict the white pieces are facing is not that they think they can’t win, it’s that they’re being told they can’t win. By the Prince. That was the entire point of the Look™ the white piece bowed to: Either you pretend to fall and deliberately lose this game, or I’ll ensure you suffer something so much worse.

Why then would the pieces suddenly rise to the occasion and try to help Team RWBY win? What have the girls done that convinces them to go against the Prince, risking who knows what - beheading, probably - in the process? Now, if I were writing Volume 9 I’d have had the girls trying and failing to save the guards, or at least arguing forcefully about whether they can risk losing a route to the tree in order to help others. Then, during the game, let Ruby realize not only that her pieces are deliberately losing, but that they’re doing so out of fear. Weiss and Yang’s success can be used as a rallying cry and a promise of safety. You help us win this game, securing our necessary prize, and we’ll use our incredible power to protect you from the Prince. The game dissolves into an actual battle, Team RWBY wins, the Cat arrives with an escape route, Ruby gathers up all the pieces using her semblance, and she sets them free once they escape the castle. Maybe they return at the end of the Volume to help in some final battle.

The point of this is not to do an actual re-write in 30 seconds, but rather to acknowledge that there’s no development here. We know the pieces’ initial motivation, but not what makes them change their minds. Really, this micro plot is representative of the entire show, with characters just suddenly doing things that make the audience go, “Wait, what? Where did that come from?” 

“Hey, hey, what about us?” The white chess pieces cry, suddenly eager to try and beat the Prince. “What do you want us to do?” This question shouldn’t even be on the table because you all are clearly terrified of what will happen if you fight for real and Team RWBY has done nothing to persuade you to their side. Indeed, once it’s revealed that the girls are human the red and white pieces start attacking them, the entire board eager to defend their Prince. This feels like a round robin Volume where every episode - every scene - has different characterizations.

As said though, Weiss, Blake, and Yang all take out their pieces easy-peasy and that produces some super cute interactions between the girls. My fluff-obsessed ass if kicking my feet and twirling my hair at those screenshots. At the time of this writing, I’m a couple episodes behind in Recaps (RIP I tried), which means that I’ve already experienced the less than stellar support Ruby receives in "The Parfait Predicament.” So I was pleased to return here and see strong moments of companionship - and romance. Yang works the crowd while Blake politely claps for her. In return, Yang cheers exuberantly while Blake blushes beet red. Putting aside that this is our bumblebee moment for the episode, I legitimately love that they’re supporting each other in this way, even during - perhaps especially during - such a comparatively easy fight. Combined with Weiss’ bow, it feels like they’re actually friends in this moment, playfully showing off for one another and providing unconditional support. This feels like old school RWBY, back when Ruby would cheer for Weiss during class, or Yang would bask in the Vacuo crowd. It was nice to see this dynamic again.

The Prince gets more and more frustrated as his pieces fall while simultaneously becoming suspicious of Ruby. Wanting to get to the tree is weird enough - especially to creatures who, as far as we’ve seen, never leave the safety of their own acres. Little who does not yet possess a purpose is the exception - so when Ruby reveals that they know someone who also used the tree to leave this world, the Prince really starts to lose it. He leaves the game table and... well...

Opinions about his character aside, are non-RWDE folks starting to see why we labeled Volume 8 Ironwood a “cartoon villain”? No, he doesn’t strike such an overblown pose like the Prince, but that kind of spotlight is (usually) used to showcase a drama worthy of ridicule - as we’re seeing here. RT obviously recognizes this, so the fact that Ironwood is given a similar spotlight to reveal his totally rational plan of bombing civilians heavily implies that the writers wanted him to look ridiculous; exaggerated to the point of dismissive humor. By the end of Volume 8 Ironwood was not a complex, fallen hero whose journey showcases RT’s writing chops, he was very close to another Prince: nonsensical, over-the-top, unworthy of respect not because of his actions, but because the environment is going out of its way to say, “Look how ridiculous this guy is.”

So in the grand scheme of RWBY the spotlight is a #choice. Within just this scene it’s fine, simply another way to show us how spoiled the Prince is and, potentially, that this world doesn’t follow the rules of Remnant (though it is harder to argue that the spotlight is real-real in a Volume making use of markers like sweatdrops, angry speech bubbles, etc.) The Prince finally asks the right question: “What type of creatures did you say you are again?”

Now, I get why some fans are upset with Ruby differentiating among humans, mice, and faunus. The line leaves a sour taste in my mouth too, if only because it severely undermines the allegory Blake represents in a Volume where she will (so far) compare herself to a literal cat three times. The point of giving the faunus animal traits and having others discriminate against them on the basis of that is to mirror the Civil Rights movement and, to a lesser extent, other minorities with visible differences. They’re all “human” in the sense of being bipedal primates with intelligence - emotional and logical - equal to others around them... they just happen to have an extra set of ears, or a tail, or the ability to change colors. It’s obvious why RT meant to equate that with the real life social issue of, “They’re human, they just happen to have dark skin,” or were born without a leg (disability), or can curl their tongue (a biological “talent” that not everyone shares). The point is that the faunus have been going, “We are your equals! We’re not a different, lesser species just because we have minor, biological and cultural differences!” the same way social justice movements have said the same about skin color. There’s such a variety within the definition of “humanity” as to make separate categories not just horrifically dangerous, but ultimately meaningless too.

However... RT doesn’t know how to write a racial allegory, which means that the faunus have been treated as a separate species from the get-go, in direct opposition to what their story is meant to represent. They’ve always been separated verbally like Ruby is doing now - “Humans and faunus” - and if you’ve engaged with RWBY’s supplemental content at all you’ll know that the faunus have a separate origin story, though one that does include humanity as a common ancestor.

It’s a mess of contradictions, but that means that Ruby canonically does have the wiggle room to make such statements. According to the rules of her world - generously helped along by being sci-fi fantasy - she is not in the wrong to describe Blake as a separate “creature” from the rest of her team... but that doesn’t erase the discomfort for the viewer as we go, ‘Wait? What happened to Blake being treated as an equal, not a literal animal and all that represents within her allegory?’

Of course, all this culminates in Ruby ignorantly admitting that the rest of them are human. I LOVE the first shot of the Cat’s eyes. They’re just like, ‘Oh, girl... you didn’t smh.’

Legit, there are so many fantastic shots this episode. The animators are working so hard, god bless.

As I mentioned earlier though, it’s weird to me that this moment is treated as a huge revelation for the Prince, especially since his entire guard seems to realize that they’re human from the get-go. Given what we learn later about Ascension, it makes sense that the Prince wouldn’t remember what humans look like, but none of his super loyal subjects were going to bring him up to date? Especially after what happened when Alyx visited?

So much of RWBY just feels unnecessarily contrived. Characters don’t react to the information they have, or work under their motivations, or remain consistent in their personalities. Things just #happen to move the plot along, regardless of how that sits within the story as a whole. At least it's all pretty this season.

But that’s hardly news to anyone reading this. Regardless, the revelation shocks the Prince and in his fury his face literally cracks down the middle. Frankly, I would have liked if this moment heralded a turn in the Prince’s attitude, moving from bratty and mostly harmless to terrifyingly cold... but that’s just me. I like characters that appear embarrassingly incompetent on the surface, only to reveal how dangerous they truly are when push comes to shove.

Weiss remembers that she can use her glyphs to steady herself - yay! - and a jazz-y soundtrack starts up that I really dig. All in all, I think this fight is solid. Nothing to write home about, but not a failure by any means, either. Though I fully expect the combat to get backloaded to the end of the Volume, it is notable that this is our only true battle so far. There’s a brief skirmish against the Jabberwalker in “The Parfait Predicament,” but to my mind it’s so short and easily won as to not really “count” - not in a combat-focused show, anyway. So this is the highlight battle of the first half of this Volume and though, as said, it’s by no means bad... it’s not exactly carrying the weight of those expectations either.

First, I stand by what I said earlier that it’s downright weird how Team RWBY treats these toys as a legitimate threat, especially after they just demonstrated how easily they are to beat. And again, Ruby could say screw the rules and help out by flattening them with her comparatively giant size. Blake gets thrown into the side of the game board and Ruby acts like she’s been stabbed--“You’re going to hurt them!” Ruby... honey... they have aura. You literally slammed your friends against a wall for FUNSIES during a food fight. The show (and the fandom) has always been weirdly unclear about which attacks are emotionally significant and which are not. These little nobodies shoving Blake is cause for great concern, but everyone should shrug off Qrow punching Oscar because duh, any huntsmen can take a hit. (Never mind that he wasn’t a huntsmen.) Yang losing her arm is a multi-Volume tragedy, but Weiss nearly dying from a stab wound isn’t worth a second mention. I feel like every scene I’m trying to find my bearings again - is this supposed to be a moment when the girls are legitimately scared? Confidently smug in their skills? Why is there not an obvious difference between when we get one over the other?

I’m not buying into the stakes here, is my point, which means that Ruby’s moment of doubt really fails to land. Yeah, I get that she lacks hope right now and is likely working under a very warped perception of their strength post-Fall of Atlas, but why not have her briefly crumble against something that truly tests her, either in skills or via trauma: the Prince’s magic, the Jabberwalker, Neo? A mere three episodes into the Volume, against a collection of low level grunts, does not feel like the time to put Ruby in this state:

Plus, it doesn’t last. Volume 9 continually proves to be very good at introducing Ruby’s hopelessness, but not doing anything with it. What’s the point if, literal seconds after she’s given up, she rediscovers her faith - WITHOUT EXTERNAL HELP! - and yells that they’re going to “Kick their wooden butts!!” Ruby doesn’t lack the hope to fill a jar, her hope supply is just fluctuating radically, depending on when the show is sick of her being a downer. This doesn’t feel like Ruby on an arc, it feels like Ruby continually edging into one and them immediately getting yanked backwards.

That aside, there are definitely some high points to the fight. It has a good flow to it, especially in the second half. It makes complete sense that the whole board would turn against the girls once they learn that they’re human, red teaming up with white, and I suppose that helps sell the danger a little more. I enjoyed how happy Yang was at the start, using Blake’s ribbon to plough through the crowd like one of the old-school team fights, even if she’s unexpectedly angry just a second later.

I’ve come across a lot of criticism of Weiss’ wing shot and... yeah, I can see where that’s coming from. It’s in pretty bad taste to keep giving the racist billionaire’s daughter angel imagery, especially during a Volume when she’s supposedly grappling with the guilt of destroying a Kingdom. RWBY has never been any good at picking up on the implications of its “cool” style. That being said, it is an awesome shot and I love the Yang was able to make use of the Knight’s sword. I mean, it would have been even cooler if we had scenes devoted to the girls’ training/character development and they’d discovered that this was even possible before enacting it with full confidence during a fight... but again, still cool. It’s another nice not provided you don’t think about it too much.

Also, I had to laugh at that epic image transitioning to Ruby, showing us just how tiny Yang actually is...

Yeah, that undermines the awesomeness a bit lol.

We’re given the shot from our trailer as the Prince looses his temper and does what I wanted Ruby to do the moment she was supposedly frantic over the safety of her team: upset the game board. Blake, Weiss, and Yang are thrown across the room and Ruby activates her semblance, catching them right before they go over the ledge.

...

.......

OH, SO YOU CAN INSTANTLY KICK-START THAT ABILITY AND SNAG SOMEONE MOMENTS BEFORE THEY PLUNGE TO THEIR DEATH. FUNNY, THAT.

Okay, obviously there are differences between Yang’s fall and this one, including that a) Little helps Ruby out and b) on the bridge Ruby would have been trying to snag a fully grown woman. But I’m not here to debate the details. I’m not here to quibble over whether Ruby would have been able to save Yang. I only care that she (and the others) didn’t try. The fandom has bent over backwards to explain that moment, how all these fighters with various forms of flight and well-honed instincts just stood there, leaving only Blake to make the attempt. Fans are so desperate to praise RWBY that they’re consistently overlooking the simple explanation of bad writing: RT made the characters stupid so that Yang could “die” and there could be a bees moment as a result. That’s it. Now that there’s nothing attached to the outcome, Ruby is free to remember that she has super-speed and grabs her friends like she always should have.

Man, what a detail to include just a few episodes later...

The Curious Cat finally reveals themselves, distracting the Prince with some ambiguously authentic sympathy. It’s just so sad that he’s failing to do “the one thing you were put on this acre to do.” AKA, win games. They warn the Prince that beheading Team RWBY would be a far more permanent consequence than taking the heads of his soldiers - implying that the guards are “fine” but, again, Team RWBY couldn’t have known that when they were being “killed” - and they slip a little bit of themselves into the Prince’s chest, helping him to calm down.

The Prince dissolves into crying instead of screaming and... weeps jeweled tears? I don’t understand how that fits his aesthetic - what does that have to do with being a wooden toy? - but far more importantly, Yukina did it better:

Ruby takes the Cat’s advice and high-tails it out of there, getting chased by the guards all the while. The castle is a bit labyrinth-like, so she has no choice but to trust the Cat’s directions - which turn out to be sound. That’s potentially an important thing to keep in mind as the Volume continues and we learn more about the Cat’s personality and motivations.

“I don’t know how that went so wrong,” Ruby says when they finally have a moment to breathe. Really? You met a temper-tanruming toy that beheaded his guards and threw Penny’s sword away without a second thought, but you’re surprised that he wasn’t eager to help you after you beat him at this own game? I get that they’re going for a ‘Ruby is vulnerable and tentative in her depression’ vibe, but these moments read so strangely after her hubris of Volumes 6-8, to say nothing of her experience in the wider, morally gray world. Ruby doesn’t trust established allies, but is surprised when an asshole who owes her nothing doesn’t come through? Consistency, consistency, my kingdom for some consistency.

I do like that Ruby thanks the Cat for their assistance though. This episode is the most polite we’ve seen Ruby in years, even if part of it is a manipulation tactic to get on the Prince’s good side, and honestly I’m digging it. This feels like a kindhearted huntress who understands the importance of unifying to succeed. Not, you know, the Ruby we saw with Cordovin, Qrow, Ozpin, Ironwood, and the Ace Ops.

As a minor point, I’d like to note that throughout this whole escape Little has been completely quiet about the Cat’s appearance. They were awake to help catch the girls and the Cat showed up just seconds later. They then flee through the castle and have a conversation in the hallways, yet not once does Little react to a Cat getting up in their face.

This is notable only because at the very end of the episode we’re going to get another, “Cat? What cat??” joke, because heaven forbid we let Ruby sit with their failure for a moment without interrupting it with a bit of humor that doesn’t even track.

Finally outside, the girls realize that getting a Prince instead of a King and his lack of help means that they’re not really following Alyx’s story. Weiss complains that they’re in the “stupid sequel” instead. Despite this revelation, the next thing Blake notes is that Alyx met the Curious Cat... so they should get their help!

So which is it? Are you following the story or not? I’ve got nothing against the girls still heading for the tree because that’s the only lead they’ve got, but we just established that an assumed ally is actually quite dangerous, so why would the Cat be any different? Again, not saying they shouldn't ask for their help given that the only other option is wandering aimlessly towards the tree (and that's if the world let's them go any farther), but maybe at least acknowledge the problem here?

I'd chalk it up to a "Wonderland-esque worlds are inherently contradictory" vibe if I actually thought RT was deliberately going for that.

We end this episode with the return of the Jabberwalker. It runs across an ~evil~ looking acre--kinda similar to Salem's continent, actually. Will we establish a historical tether between Remnant and Ever After?--and it leaves a trail of blood on a group of razor-sharp leaves, which is a cool detail. It comes across Neo, presumably having just arrived, cycling through various illusions in her fury. As the Jabberwalker closes in Neo's semblance...

*Sigh*

It evolves.

Look, outside of RWBY's larger context having Neo power up post-Fall of Atlas is a good choice. She's certainly at her lowest here, not just lost in a new world, but having just been betrayed by Cinder (again). Plus, it raises the stakes for when our heroes next meet her. No, my issue is that RWBY's semblance upgrades as a whole are fairly random and we've long lost the ability to distinguish a true evolution from incremental change due to growth. Harriet simply announced in Volume 7 that Ruby's semblance has hidden depths, but is splitting into three red blurs the upgrade? Is Nora handling that level of charge meant to be indicative of a change, or did she simply push herself to an already known limit? On the surface it seems obvious that an evolution is when the actual function of the semblance changes - Ren can now mask emotions and track them - but we've still got wrinkles like Weiss' semblance where, apparently, learning to summon instead of just producing glyphs isn't a distinct, evolved ability, it's just the standard end-goal. (And don't get me started on how she remains the only one with an inherited semblance, but no one seems interested in that.) Are we supposed to understand that Qrow's semblance changed on the airship when the bomb didn't drop? How do we measure Blake's abilities when she's stopped using them? I can't help but continually compare RWBY to other shows with power ups, ones where the characters have to work hard to unlock them, train anew to control them, deal with significant downsides that come with this power, or go through horrific emotional arcs in order to unlock them. RWBY- with the small exception of Neo for the last one- has none of this. Evolution simply happens, unprompted, the character can immediately use this new skill perfectly, and unfortunately it's rarely a strong reflection of their growth.

Ren can magically track his friend smack dab in the arc where he's supposedly being the worst friend ever? Right.

So Neo's semblance evolves, make of that what you will. Rather than simply changing herself or something she's touched with illusions, she can now create a large number of copies with (as we'll see later) their own morphing abilities. Wow, wow, wow, that's super op!!! I can't wait to see Neo fall to some generic Team RWBY attack.

I'm kidding. Actually I'm not, but I do hope I'm wrong 🤦‍♀️

For now though there's only the Jabberwalker in her way. Neo's clones close in as the Jabberwalker screams "No!" in true fear. Kudos to the voice acting there. This creature remains one of the few things I'm legitimately interested in this Volume.

And thus ends episode three! In lieu of flowers, please send prayers that I can eventually catch up on this project :3

#rwde #rwby #RWBY Recaps #mymetas

[thornsofrosesdumps]

(Vauco Tai AU, Headcannoning Vauco has spicy food and qrow has like zero spice tolerance)

Theo walking into a kitchen/Common room idk: Something Smells good.

Tai: Thank you, I’m making Chilli

Theo passing tai spices and eyeing the pot: smells pretty spicy.

tai currently going through some form of depression Beacsue his kids are dead: I need to feel alive Theo, if it isn’t spicy enough to kill me it isn’t spicy enough.

Theo spooning the chili into bowls: Dramatic bastard.

Qrow walking in, face red and holding a bag of chips: Theo why the fuck are these so fucking spicy.

Theo and tai look at each other

Tai feeling devious: Qrow if you’re still hungry you can have some of this?

(they end up being chased by Qrow across the entirety of shade academy later)

#rwby #save rwby #taiyang xiao long #rwby taiyang #tai yang xiao long #vauco #vaucotaiyang #qrow branwen #theodore rwby

[chittychittyyangyang]

I just recently got caught up with RWBY and one of your posts made me realize something. You talked about showing not just healthy coping. ever since I saw Ruby start lashing out it made me feel uncomfortable and heartbroken. But it’s also weirdly cathartic to see her being angry and frustrated? Idk if you’ve seen Miraculous Ladybug but it reminds me of Marinette self destructing because to her, she is directly responsible for all the bad things that happen. Ruby also has that kind of mentality. It’s her fault Penny is gone, her fault Atlas fell, her fault Salem has the relics. Maria even mentioned it earlier “you really don’t give yourself enough credit”. Sorry this was really rambley, I was just feeling a lot of feels haha

Okay but why are there seemingly no mental heath workers in Remnant?

Anyway, it's something I feel like has been missing about the talks about what is or isn't healthy or what people should do. Because the thing about the trauma that everyone keeps talking about, is when it gets compounded and not addressed you get Jaune and Ruby. You don't always get PTSD from a traumatic event, but if you are unable to cope and deal that that stress? It greatly increases the chance. Something bad happening doesn't mean you will get trauama, we all go through bad things, the lack of or inadequate aid after does. The one fairing best out of the whole team right now is the only one after Beacon fell to have any good intervention for her metal health (it's Blake and the love and support from Ghira and Kali and eventually Sun).

When you don't know how to manage your emotions, when you have been trying to live up to an impossible standard, and when you feel like the whole world is on your shoulders you are gonna have a breaking point. More so at 17! Ruby has only had three caregivers to model after growing up: Tai who shut down, Qrow who was distant and an alcoholic, and Yang who tried her best to be the light Ruby needed but was never going to be enough because he was a child herself. She had them and her idolized version of Summer she wanted to live up to, all influenced by people's grief. And it's not like you're going to tell a child anything bad about her mother. You're probably only going to tell the me good positive things "Slayer of monsters and baker of cookies".

I care less about how "healthy" it is for her to have the outburst than what it means moving forward and how she handles whatever fallout there is (which let's be real, WBY have been more worried than upset with her, even if Weiss make's it seem like she is). When you are in such a heightened emotional state it's not okay to hurt people, but sometimes you will. Sometimes you might not have much control when your brain gets to a point where you can't even see the world around you anymore. Ruby is so blinded by her depression and the expectations she has put on herself she can't see that everyone around her is worried for her and loves her.

As a friend of mine is fond of saying about me "Depression is fundamentally a selfish thing". It doesn't matter Ruby knows her sister and friends love her, they don't know the position she's in because she's gotta be the one with the answer and has to do this. It's not an uncommon feeling since Yang told Weiss she wouldn't know what loneliness is like (which is still funny to me as a viewer). Ruby hasn't had that same kind of heart to heart with anyone with that same understanding, and I will admit to not knowing who would be best to reach her.

Speaking of rambely, this answer did. But seeing her go off was both uncomfortable and cathartic, and we know this is the start of her breaking, and I hope the start of her getting to a place where she can heal and grow stronger.

#rwby9 #ccyy answers #ruby

[vanadisvalentine]

RWBY Volume 9 Episode 10: Of Solitude and Self

i have thoughts. here are some of those thoughts.

I am going...to try and keep this in chronological order, but it's midnight, and I tend to ramble the longer I've been awake. So bear with me.

First off, okay, so we're definitely going to get details of exactly what happened with Summer later down the line. Presumably, she, Raven, and Qrow ('cause who else would Raven have portaled too yanno), along with maybe some others who knows, went on the offensive vs Mommy Salami and things didn't work out. If that's the case, boy does that color Qrow's character even further. It's no wonder he used to stay far away from the people he cares about. Also wow Raven nice to see you again, been a couple of volumes.

I'm glad that Rubes got to have a sort of posthumous pep-talk from her mother, even if it's something as simple as "I love you the way you are". I appreciate that she didn't need to be talk-no-jutsu'd into getting the theme of the volume, but rather it's a conclusion she came to herself. After a whole volume of seeing her all morose and depressed, it put the biggest smile on my face to see her finally accept that she is Ruby Rose, and that's all she's ever needed to be.

On a less profound note

WHOOOO RED LIKE ROSES PART III FUCK YEAH BABY THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN WAITIN FOR THIS IS WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT. Whoever animated that first little sequence of Ruby going ham on the cat with Crescent Rose? I want to kiss you. You deserve the world. Brings me right back to volume 1. (Was it Arryn? I feel like it was Arryn considering how much they love Soul Eater but I can't remember if they've done any combat sequences aaaah)

The Cat got the shit kicked out of them in a great team fight. Doing a whole ass 5 v 1, even with someone as formidable as the CC in the fray, couldn't have been easy to choreograph, so props to the whole team on that one for making it feel sick. The Cat is a bit of a more tragic character in retrospect with the tale the Blacksmith told (also--the Ever After is the primordial world? The Brothers didn't make it? Shit, color me surprised), but at the same time...yeah RIP Bozo.

'Twas curiosity that killed the cat or something like that idk

The fuckin piano reprise of This Will Be the Day oh my GOOOOOD. Chills. The music in this volume has been absolutely phenomenal. Of course there are the vocal tracks, but the score??? Martin Gonzalez you beautiful man. Bless your heart, bless your body, bless your soul.

Neo. Neo Neo Neo. Neopolitan, baby girl...I'm gonna miss you, as I'm sure a lot of people will. Even the people who hate this show like you because you're just so much fun. I remember back in the day when I was a kid and unironically used the word waifu to describe female characters I was fixated on, you were my precious little Ice Cream Wife and I would burn the world for you. It's so weird thinking about your origins as a character (Inspired by a genderbent Torchwick cosplay, Monty threw you in at the last second in order to not have to animate Torchwick escaping...though I'm sure there's more to it than that), to how you've progressed, to where you are now. This is the last we're gonna get of you for now, I'm sure. But at the same time, I can totally see you showing up for the final fight vs Salem or Cinder or whoever to get your licks in. You were a welcome addition this volume, even if you DID drive Ruby to drink the Bad Tea. It's hard to hate you when you're so fucking cute.

I am...not going to pretend to not be a little disappointed that Boomer Jaune was but a temporary thing. When The Blacksmith was talking about Alyx fixing what she'd broken, I was expecting like, idk, his sword to be repaired, but I quickly realized that she wasn't even the one who did that, and then I was like "oh no" and before I knew it, BAM back at it again with the yee-yee ass haircut. At least next volume comes with new designs so we won't have to deal with that any longer. I appreciate the streaks of grey, symbolizing that it's not like he's regressed in any way, but...Jauney Boy, get that wolf's tail back. You rocked that shit.

That's all I can bring myself to write down for now. I'm sure I'll be talking about this episode--and this whole volume--for a WHILE. I'm gonna sit on it for a bit, but I think it might take volume 6's spot for my favorite of the bunch, which is impressive because volume 6 is hella good y'all. Thank you so much to the crew (GOD I hope certain people who worked on this volume return for the next one, I could feel the love they have for the craft and for this show and I've adored getting to see their thoughts on each episode as it aired these past few weeks) and everyone involved in bringing to us. It's been rough lately, that's for sure, but I mean it when I say that RWBY is one of my favorite shows out there, and I wish nothing but the best for its future and the future of everyone who brought it to life.

now I wait probably about a year or so to see Nora/Ren/Sun's reaction to Blake and Yang finally getting together. Until then, I will drown myself in fanfiction.

#rwby9 #rwby #rwby spoilers #I didn't cry! #but I did tear up a little bit #listen to Ok Goodnight btw their music is a bop 'cause Casey learned from the best

[waheelawhisperer]

13, 17, 19, and 20 for the violence ask game

You didn't specify a fandom so I'm going to hit you with several. This is your own fault.

13) worst blorboficiation

I'm not 100% sure what this means but for Arknights I'm gonna go with Amiya. It feels like people forget that she's actually a competent warrior and capable leader instead of just an uwu cute daughteru character.

For RWBY, it's Blake. The fucking writers blorbofied her, idk how you top that.

Mass Effect: Garrus Vakarian. I love Garrus too, but people love to ignore the way the first half of his character arc was "cop that thinks cops have to obey too many rules" -> "vigilante who regularly kills people"

Every remotely villainous or antagonistic character in Fate Grand Order has been shoved into the blorbo box by the fanbase by the end of whatever storyline they appear in and by the writers by the end of their next appearance.

Every person attracted to men who watches The Boys wants to fuck Soldier Boy and the Homelander far more than anyone should ever want to. I cannot enter the tag without running into Reader x fanfiction featuring one of those two.

17) there should be more of this type of fic/art

Arknights: Mlynar getting bred. Also, I would kill to see more people remember Indra exists.

RWBY: More Freezerburn, more Ladybug, more Qrowin, more Dragonslayer, more Jailbirds, more Ironqrow, more Schneewood Forest.

Ted Lasso: I am begging someone to provide me with a gifset featuring every instance wherein Roy Kent says "fuck", "fuck you", "get fucked", or any variation on this theme. I need them for reasons.

19) you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like...

I've never been ashamed of anything in my life (my ego is too big for that), but I'm getting somewhat frustrated that my relationship with RWBY is starting to remind me of an ex-girlfriend who threw a coffee mug at my head. I can't drop the show until I finish Volume 9, but I don't want to finish Volume 9 because all 3 episodes I've watched so far sucked.

Also I like Ch'alter unironically despite sharing all the very valid complaints about her and what she represents for Arknights.

20) part of canon you found tedious or boring

Arknights: Pretty much everything at this point because absolutely no one on the writing team knows how to condense a narrative and wouldn't be concise about anything if you held a gun to your head. Like I'm sorry but you do not need to write a Lord of the Rings-length novel and then decide that's not enough and write a second novel between the lines of the first one just to tell a story about a horsegirl fighting capitalism in a DBZ tournament arc. You can just trim the fat and convey the information effectively. It won't kill you.

Every Arknights event or main story chapter feels like a chore to read at this point, honestly, but the worst for me so far have been the Sui events. I love the siblings, but if they never release another event designed around Being Inscrutable it will be too soon.

RWBY: Every part of Volume 4 that didn't have Yang in it except for the Qrow vs. Tyrian fight, every part of Volume 5 that didn't have Yang or Raven in it, every part of Volume 9 I have experienced so far, and Jaune's stupid fucking 4-episode bullying arc.

Bloodborne: I have replayed this game multiple times and I have never cleared a single Chalice Dungeon more than once because they all suck.

Elden Ring: I hate the insistence on reusing all the worst bosses instead of the ones that are actually fun to fight, physically traveling across the world map feels tedious at times (I wish Torrent could move just a bit faster), mounted combat sucks ass, the Mountaintops of the Giants feels like they ran out of development time because it's honestly kinda barren, fuck the Consecrated Snowfield, and a lot of the dungeons feel same-y after a while.

#ask game #arknights #rwby #mass effect #bloodborne #elden ring #the boys

[etincelleart]

So when exsacly do you think penny will come back?

So I had two main ideas and moments for her to come back, but I still need to think more about it cause those are just first ideas :

Considering the fact that it was a long time between Volume 4 and Volume 7, Pietro had time to recover her core and rebuild her. So it took most likely 1 or 2 years to make her again. At the end of Volume 9, we see this shot of Vacuo with Amity Collosseum and a lot of ships from every kingdom in Remnant, implying a time skip, but we don't know how many months or even year have passed on Remnant. It surely must need time to take Amity, bring it to Vacuo and repair it, as well for the other Kingdoms to probably go to Atlas, see what happened and go to Vacuo with everyone else (unless somehow they learned about everyone being saved in Vacuo so they went there directly, idk).

I imagine this time skip would be of a few months, I'd say between 6 months and 1 year. Time is different in the Ever After and for the reunion for everyone to be emotional, I guess time must have passed for a bit so it's also impactful for Ren and Nora to reunite with Jaune, for Qrow to reunite with team RWBY, for Winter and the Schnee family to reunite with Weiss, etc. It's also probably be impactful for Ruby to see Winter with the Winter Maiden, and I imagine she won't be able to think about Penny if she sees her using her powers, anyway I digress-

Pietro is probably grieving and mourning Penny since the last time we saw him in Volume 8, and once settled in Vacuo he most likely at least tried to remake Penny. Considering that he needed 1 or 2 years for him to rebuild her, and with the time skip of let's say 1 year, he would be in the middle of the process if he's still trying to create another robot body. Sooo with all of that said, she could definitely come back during the Vacuo arc, I don't know if that would be in V10 cause narratively this would be a big deal, a big climax, and I don't know if that's too soon or too big for the first volume of the Vacuo arc (I mean, if we follow the rules established so far for each arc : 3 volumes per kingdom). Penny could then maybe come back at the end of Volume 12, to parallel the finale of V8, and also it's the same amont of time between V8 finale and V12 than the end of V3 and V7, 4 entiere volumes. I mean I just thought of it when writing it but it would make sense to me. I'm trying to keep a writer state of mind to be logical so my arguments seem valid aha (even if I'm not a pro writer krkr).

My second idea is that she would come back at the end of the RWBY story, at the end of the series. Not necessarily at THE END end, but during the final arc or the final moments of the story. Why that, because I believe V9 plot wasn't just to explain cute little origins for the two Brothers and for Ruby's development, but of course to set up things for later and probably the big finale. Everything's still up in the air and the two Brothers will definitely be involved, as well as maybe the Blacksmith and the Ever After. I don't know how or when because this is big deal and obviously I'm not in the writers mind and I imagine they have ideas for this big end for a long time now, even if this is not precise of course. The most important thing is that the Blacksmith had Penny's sword (yeah I know that some say that it was just an illusion, but I still think it's odd, and again this weird "nothing, no one is ever truly lost" and then poof Penny appears on the sword, idk it just makes me feel like the Blacksmith knows something and might be involved later. The spirits from the Relic could also be involved too as they were created by the the two Brothers. Ambrosius could even meet Pietro at some point too :]

Anyway those are my main ideas, but I would be curious if anyone had other ideas !

(I love the Blacksmith)

#rwby #rwby discussion #discussion #theory #rwby theory #penny #penny polendina #penny revival #blacksmith #gods #god #tree #ever after #the two brothers #remnant #rwby v12 #rwby volume 12 #rwby finale #finale #i need this girl to be back before rwby ends

[strqyr]

i was going through the various AMAs crwby has done on reddit, and this particular answer from eddy when asked about cinder's backstory, if there's more to it or if midnight is all there is, is a lot more intriguing now than it was then:

I think there's definitely other areas that could be explored, but the trick with when and how to reveal backstory is generally when it's most relevant for what's currently happening in the show right now. One writing philosophy I try to stick to pretty strongly is that you should only give that kind of information when the audience absolutely needs it to understand what is about to happen next -- and to hold on to it until almost that moment. Naturally there's some wiggle room there, but that's my philosophy on backstories and exposition. [source]

so, instead of saying that midnight is everything we need to know about cinder's backstory, like that's it there's not going to be more, there's definitely other areas that could be explored, but also. is it relevant to what's happening currently in the show?

is there someone other than salem involved in finding cinder that would ruin the surprise?

i wish to take on an apprentice -> by the time the situation at the glass unicorn imploded, summer would have been about 30 years old; right around where the cutoff point to becoming a maiden is. (was cinder mimicking summer?)

idk, but i'd find it hilarious if it was summer who found cinder, actually. like imagine: there's cinder, on the run, understandably wary of any huntsmen and huntresses coming her way... and she's found by summer, The Huntress, the 'best of us', eyes straight from legends—not that cinder knows all that—, and she, what? offers her hand? "follow me, and you'll never be hungry again"? hey, wanna pet a grimm? get stronger, be feared (like vernal was feared by the other bandits. like winter is feared in vacuo), more powerful?

if cinder looks up to summer enough to mimic her (like ruby looks up to qrow, mimicking him), i feel like any pedestal cinder might have summer on is very different to the pedestals others have her on.

#cinder out here trying to steal ruby's mom #but all summer can give her is an aunt 😔

[bestworstcase]

I think one thing the fandom needs to realize is that, if Theodore was right about Jax just being too lazy to "try", then it's the WRITERS who are being ableist.

Either Theodore is wrong, or the writers are terrible people, there is no middle ground.

mhm. and while the writing team isn’t perfect, it’s clear that they are making a genuine effort to portray disability respectfully and naturalistically. there are characters with prosthetics across the whole spectrum from villain to hero, none of them are defined by their status as amputees, and one of them is a main character whose recovery arc is complex and still ongoing as she continues to heal emotionally. neo is mute and her backstory novel depicts her father as abusive for demanding that she speak—and not just that, other characters who refuse to engage with her unless she communicates “properly” with a TTS app she hates are also portrayed as cruel, no better than her father. qrow’s and willow’s alcoholism is treated with appropriate seriousness and the narrative never condemns them for struggling, even when exploring the harm their drinking causes to the people closest to them. etc.

and in the CFVY novels, the way theodore and finn talk about jax is juxtaposed against how fox was treated by his tribe—a blind orphan who received love and support instead of scorn. fox’s confidence in himself and his easy comfort with asking for help when he needs it is explicitly connected to his childhood, and the contrast between his healthy self-image and the boiling hatred and shame jax feels toward himself lines up the dots for the reader to connect. (and in case that isn’t enough, it’s implied that finn branded his infant daughter because he didn’t want the sickly twin to be the “true” heir to the mythical family legacy, which… really how much more obvious can a narrative GET about signaling that the father who says “my poor sickly weakling child’s frail little mind was WARPED by his fragility” is, um, not an objective source.)

idk like… it makes no sense to me to read before the dawn as narratively agreeing with theodore’s/finn’s/rumpole’s attitude that jax was just, like, a Bad Seed because being sickly twisted him? that’s wildly incongruent with the way rwby handles disability in general and before the dawn is really not subtle about positioning fox and jax as narrative foils with inverse childhoods. is it so difficult to pick up what the narrative is putting down vis-a-vis jax being a product of his culture and “chronic illness poisoned his mind, so sad” and “he’s just a scared little boy” and “he didn’t belong here, he only held his sister back” and so forth as depictions of that culture’s deep-rooted ableism and not, like, things the narrative intends for us to take at face value.

#but yeah the ‘jax is bad bc he let his disability make him bitter’ reading is. hm #especially when it’s presented like a rebuttal to ‘theodore and finn are ableist’ mfhfjc #ok but that’s worse dot jpg

[marshmelonfluff]

i am incapable of not thinking about team strq right now. i need to see the fallout of ruby telling yang, tai, and qrow that RAVEN was the last person to see summer alive. like if tai and qrow knew that raven knew what summer was up to, they surely would have gotten it out of her right??? or at the very least i feel like qrow would have mentioned that at some point if he knew. maybe they were trying to protect yang?? but raven and qrow have had some form of contact with each other since raven dipped and i can't imagine qrow would have been chill with her just not telling him anything, he clearly cares deeply for summer and tai. idk i have SO many questions like where did rosebird go, what was summer's plan and how much did raven know, why did summer and raven have SUCH divorced energy, and most importantly WHAT HAPPENED TO SUMMER ROSE my questions are endless

#rwby #rwby spoilers #also before v10 finale i would have said tai/raven/summer was believable but totally fanon but like NOW #like. thats a pretty good argument. like damn

[qrowings]

💘 for your policy on shipping with your muse(s) 

🔍 for something you look for on other’s blogs

💘 - Typically I ship with in canon chemistry, like James & Qrow, or Clover & Qrow, but occasionally if I like a canon character enough and have reason to enjoy a ship, I'll ship it, i.e Qrow & Summer, this is also very strongly reliant on how people portray their muses, if I don't enjoy how you portray your (canon) character, it's likely I won't ship with you

With OC's it's different, not only do I need to personally enjoy and find your OC portrayal good, I also need to feel like theyre a good fit for Qrow, if I adore your oc and your portrayal of OC, there is a HIGH chance I will ship with you

🔍 - Accessibility. I have bad eyesight, dyscalculia, and generally my eyes skip over words / my brain doesn't process them immediately (thanks autism) if you have too small of a font, or too "fancy" of a font (i.e strong cursive) there's a high chance I won't follow back / roleplay with you, esp if you write all your replies in tiny / fancy / cursive text, I simply cannot read it!

That said, I know my blog isn't....the most accessible right now, as soon as I can reach a laptop I plan to fix this, I hadn't checked it to realize that some of the features made it a bit inaccessible (for me personally idk about others)

#ooc: out of feathers #messenger bird: asks