#norse mythology allusions

[anthurak]

Ruby’s and Ozpin’s Mythology Allusions and How to Flip the Script on Ragnarok

Ever since Volume 6, I’ve talked quite a bit about how the possible allusions that a number of RWBY characters could have to Norse Mythology. Mostly how I think Ruby Rose herself has surprisingly quite a bit in common with Odin, and particularly how I think Ruby in many respects makes a far BETTER Odin than Ozpin does. Basically, I think the only thing Ruby needs to be a full-blown proper literary allusion to Odin is an eyepatch.

And of course, Ruby’s not the only one: We’ve got the more-well known cases like Nora being an allusion to Thor, Qrow and Raven being Odin’s ravens Huginn and Muninn and Ozpin having a few nods to Odin, even if I think Ruby ultimately has more in common with Odin. Then there is less obvious examples like how Yang’s missing arm and being her team’s most upfront fighter could make her a reference to Tyr. Or how Cinder’s fire powers, use of flaming swords and ties to Salem’s doomsday plot could make her a nod to Surtr. And I think we can all agree Neo could make for a perfect allusion to Loki.

However, there is one prominent Norse deity that has really stumped me for a while now. Not because I feel he HAS to be included somehow, but because one RWBY character has connections to them that throws a lot of theories into question.

Specifically, I am referring to Baldr. And here’s why the absolute golden boy of Norse Mythology has had me so stumped:

You see, Baldr is the son of Odin and is a god of light and beauty and purity and general goodness and is basically beloved by all the Norse gods. He’s also invulnerable to harm from all things except mistletoe, which of course he manages to get killed by. Specifically thanks to Loki being his customary chaotic little shit.

However, Baldr also doesn’t STAY dead. He’s supposed to be resurrected after Ragnarok when all the older gods, giants and monsters (Odin, Thor, Heimdall, Tyr, Loki, etc.) have been slain. From there he leads the other survivors of Ragnarok, mostly the other children of those other gods like Thor’s sons Magni and Modi, as well as surviving humans, into the new world that comes after Ragnarok.

Now, does quite a bit of all that sound a LOT like one RWBY character in particular? Friendly, nurturing, beloved by all their friends and family. Leads the new generation after the previous generation has fallen. Heavily associated with LIGHT?

Yeah, as far as I could tell for a while, the best candidate for a Baldr allusion among RWBY’s main cast is Ruby herself. You know, the one who ALSO happens to have a lot in common with Odin?

Needless to say, this question of whether Ruby is an Odin allusion or a Baldr allusion left me rather stumped for a pretty long time now. After all, it’s just a bit hard for Ruby to be an allusion to BOTH. But recently, I think I may have finally come up with a way of rectifying all this. And it’s definitely one of the weirder theories I’ve come up with…

Because I now think there is another RWBY character that fits a lot of Baldr’s characteristics. Someone who was a very well-liked and respected leader (in his time), was very optimistic, is heavily associated with light, and unlike Ruby, HAS come back to life after being killed. A bunch of times actually.

Yeah, I’m talking about Ozma.

Specifically building off the reverence/respect/loyalty his followers show him (at least at the start of the show), the fact that he’s effectively an agent for the God of Light and how he’s been resurrected.

And you know how RWBY always takes its folklore/fairy tale/literary allusions and turns them around, flips the script or otherwise don’t play the narrative straight?

Well, I now have a feeling that Ruby and Oz represent a role-reversed Odin and Baldr!

Ruby is effectively an Odin in the position of Baldr with many of his positive qualities, specifically a young leader of the next generation after the old guard has failed. And Oz is a Baldr in the position of Odin with many of his negative qualities, specifically an old, weary leader whose obsession with forestalling the end of the world has driven everyone away from him.

With Oz, we basically have a subversive, deconstructionist take on Baldr that shows how his whole destined chosen-one status could crush even the most idealistic heroes. And on the flipside with Ruby, we have a subversive, reconstructionist take on Odin that shows how they can be a genuine heroic figure and leader who can lead their family and friends to save the world.

This also neatly explains why not just Ozpin, but all of the Oz’s seem to be missing a lot of the typically key elements of Odin, like a hooded robe/cape, a tall staff or spear or especially an eyepatch. I mean, the fact that Ruby pulls off the ‘Mysterious Hooded Figure’ look a bunch of times alone makes her a better Odin than Oz.

Going back to Oz, consider how Ozma is revered and remembered as this great, flawless hero in his own time and recounted in ‘The Girl in the Tower’, who also happens to die tragically, a death which sets off a series of domino’s that leads to a great battle that causes the end of the world. And then he is resurrected into the new world that came after in order to fulfill a ‘great purpose’ and lead/save the new humanity.

Really, looking at Oz’s life from the start, his story really starts feeling like some twisted version of Baldr’s, where him dying and being resurrected after Ragnarok is only the START of his story. Where his being some prophesied leader/savoir figure was a role effectively forced upon him, and has now effectively crushed him. Even the way Oz constantly reincarnates could be considered a twisted version of Baldr’s resurrection: No matter what happens, Baldr/Oz just can’t seem to die.

And of course, this would create an all too effective contrast with Ruby being an allusion to Odin and basically flip the whole concept of the Norse Ragnarok narrative on its head: The whole point of Ragnarok is that it can’t be stopped, no matter how much Odin with all his cleverness, guile, trickery and knowledge struggles to prevent it. In that sense, we can consider Odin as representing the futile struggle against one’s Fate, while Baldr represents an acceptance of Fate.

Which means that Ruby representing Odin and Oz representing Baldr completely flips this idea: Oz’s ‘acceptance’ of Fate represents cynical defeatism and assumption that Salem cannot be stopped and that the Gods cannot be allowed to return because they too cannot be stopped. While Ruby’s defiance of Fate represents optimistic determination and a refusal to submit or give up.

If Oz is a deconstruction of Baldr, then Ruby is a reconstruction of Odin.

Consider how many times Ruby has achieved victory through cleverness and outwitting her opponents: Disposing of Neo at the Battle of Beacon, incapacitating Tyrian with a sneak attack, manipulating Cordovin to get a killing shot, exploiting the Lamp’s effect of freezing time to use her Silver Eyes, manipulating Harriet by needling her competitive streak, tricking Ironwood with the help of JNPR and Emerald, disposing of Neo again during the battle in the void, the list goes on.

Also consider how Ruby is both the first to be shown using the Lamp of Knowledge and the Staff of Creation. And how a major aspect of Ruby’s character is the pursuit of answers that her parents, mentors and leaders have either hidden from her or don’t even know themselves. In other words, a quest for Knowledge.

And then of course there are the numerous symbolic references Ruby has to Death just like all Silver Eyed Warriors. Just like Odin is a God of Death.

Odin is a clever trickster who wanders the world in a mysterious hooded cloak with a tall spearstaff often on a quest for knowledge and answers. Mostly in a doggedly determined quest to avert an end of the world that others have called inevitable. A so-called fate that Odin defiantly refuses to accept.

Like I’ve said before; at this point I think the only thing Ruby’s missing is an eyepatch.

#rwby #rwby analysis #rwby theory #norse mythology #norse mythology allusions #Ruby Rose #Ozpin #ozma #odin #baldr #ragnarok #ruby is odin #ozma is baldr #ruby and oz are a role-reversed odin and baldr

[flyingbyyourwire]

-Yggdrasil-

Were I made to walk these forests endlessly

I'd always pick you selfishly

To be like elves among these branches

So that I could never miss those chances

Though you don't share my desire to be eternal

You could be my ravens, black as nocturnal

Be my pair of wolves, my spirit guides

Walking along the rows with me before the great divide

Among the limbs I lay with you

Be my memory as I hang

Be my thoughts as I enucleate

Will I remember you once I elucidate

#odin #poetry #poem #art #norse mythology #allusion #my art #my poems #my writing

[wordsandrobots]

I really need to get around to finishing my Blender model of a Gundam Frame so that I can actually, y’know, do something with it (I’ve gotten stuck trying to work out how to get the torso-to-chest connection to work because the way the MG kit realises it is sub-optimal, aethetically, but the anime version is just . . . confusing, honestly [is it flexible? Where does it even rotate?!]) --

But in the meantime, here are the rough sketches I did for Sköll while writing The Ares Affair. The mission statement is Barbatos crossed with the Grimgerde, and I think I need to lean more into the latter for the final version . . . the head is pretty close to what I wanted though.

Realistically, I’m more likely to finish modelling the partner machine, Hati, first, because that’s based on a Graze frame, which is a heck of a lot more straightforward to build!

#fanart #art #design #my art #Gundam #Gundam Iron-blooded Orphans #gundam ibo #g tekketsu #Tekketsu no Orphans #norse mythology allusions strike again

[sanctus-ingenium]

I’m really inspired by your world building and the creatures you use. I’m trying to kickstart my own world using Celtic, Norse and Scottish myths (it also involves werewolves because they’re cool)

But I’m stumped and a bit overwhelmed. How’d you start your project and what were huge sources of inspiration for you as you worked on The Black Horse?

hi there!!! this will probably get wordy i have a lot of thoughts on this but here's how i built up my inver setting

i had the characters first, and the werewolf establishment was basically the first thing invented about the world. I wrote a decent amount about the characters in the pre-1st draft slush pile just getting a handle on their voices, their history together, etc. the first slush draft was in painstaking chronological order telling of their lives from birth to like age 40 - it wasn't pretty to read but it meant I knew what big moments formed their worldview, their relationships with others, things like that. and then i got to pick and choose which ones would feature in the actual 1st draft, and which i would leave unsaid, in flashback form, or only in the form of vague allusions. the plot and world events changed significantly as i wrote the actual 1st draft so this ended up only being useful for backstory stuff and not book plots, but it was still good to have.

There was an important moment of a character being kidnapped into a faery realm, which is what started me off thinking about fairies in general. they weren't originally a part of this world - it was an undefined space before just for the characters to exist in, because i was (and still am) more interested in the characters than the worldbuilding. but i still like for there to be SOMETHING there in the background, and it gives a lot of opportunities to inform characterisation, so i started to make my setting. I picked the Púca as a pivotal being & major inspiration source to include because of its relatively large presence in the fringes of my childhood in stories told by my older relatives and i like the unusual aspects about it as well, how it has been both heroic and malevolent in different stories. you have to remember i grew up in this culture too, i knew a lot already, and that's what got me thinking of alternate Earth history - as in, the setting of Inver as alternate history, not wholly original fantasy set in a fantasy land.

So then I had to think about the implications of that, and here is where I think a lot of authors adapting extant mythology fall short. A world where faeries/mythological monsters/gods based in real cultures exist and people interact with them is indistinguishable from our own. We already live in a world where people interact with faeries in their own way; I've heard many older relatives recount stories of being trapped in their fields by faeries, how you can only escape by taking off your jumper and putting it back on inside out. There was no question as to whether they believed this was a concrete, meaningful interaction with a supernatural being. We have a motorway that was diverted while it was being built because the builders didn't want to risk cutting down a hawthorn tree. There is a deep stigma against harming hawthorns. Now, tell me how things would be any different if faeries were real irl? ftr I do not believe in the supernatural whatsoever, not even a little bit, but it is impossible to deny that I live in a world deeply shaped by it - I need only look out the window at the stands of whitethorn around my house to know that. because the main expression of that supernatural element is in how the people of that culture react.

you cannot, you cannot pick and choose only the monsters from a legend and leave behind the people who made & propagated that legend. you're only taking a single thread from a rich tapestry. I'm not arguing that other cultures should be untouchable, far from it, I'm just saying that to truly appreciate it, you need context for everything you adapt. you gotta know what you're writing about

in that sense, the people are more important to building Inver than the faeries. a citizen of Inver not immediately affected by the main plotline would likely never see or interact with magic in their lifetime, but their society is still shaped by it. so is mine (though that's more on the catholic church than anything else)

So now that I'd had that realisation, I decided to dump a lot of the traditional fantasy tropes I'd been working with. Think basic fantasy setting stuff, pop culture "The Fae" tropes, even the terminology of 'Fae' at all - that is not something I've ever heard the older generation in my life call them. It's just 'fairies' to them (although I did shift the spelling to match the Yeats poem because I could not handle writing characters making accusations of being A Fairy and have it not come across as a unintentionally homophobic accusation lmao). I did some research; mostly on JSTOR, using my institutional access, because my own university is mostly science and didn't have a big library of anthropological texts. I read An Táin Bó Culainge which is honestly one of the greatest stories of all time PLEASE READ IT if you are at all interested in Irish myth. It is a fantastic story and extremely comedic as well (a canon mmmf foursome lol). In terms of academic sources specific to the Púca, I have a drive folder of pdfs I will share with anyone if they ask.

I decided I was not going to include anything from what people actually think of as pre-christian Irish mythology - no fianna [rangers notwithstanding], no Ulster cycle, no Tuatha Dé, no Irish gods. All the things I include are post-colonial aside from the notion of the Otherworld in general. This decision wasn't necessarily accurate to what might have happened in this alternate history (given that christianity still has no real foothold in Inver) but it is a colonised society after all. It's why I got slightly steamed once when someone filed my Púca art into their irish deities/irish polytheism tag (I have my own issues with iripols/gaelpols for the same reason I dislike people taking myths out cultural context and in this case contemporary cultural context), because the Púca is in fact a postcolonial being - it comes from the UK, and likely the mainland as well

One of the last things I did before starting on my 2nd draft, which is what turned into Said the Black Horse, was decide to always capitalise the word 'Púca'. Because what really clicked from doing my research and remembering what I'd heard as a child was that the Púca is a specific character. Not a species, not a class of monster. A character, one guy. And you'll find this everywhere - the obvious example is the Minotaur being one specific guy, the son of Minos, not just 'a minotaur'. One very funny consequence of speciesifying mythological characters is dnd ppl saying their character is A Firbolg (fir bolg is plural!!). Fantasy bestiary books like Dragonology or Spiderwick Chronicles have done some amount of damage to how people relate to myths and legendary creatures, and I am not immune as someone who loves speculative biology, but in Inver I decided to cut all of that out.

Next once I got that out of the way I had to think about tone, atmosphere, and intended results. I didn't achieve my holy grail of a very atmospheric, undefined, and uncertain story that provides no answers, due to limitations in my own abilities, but I tried. I have given less than 1 second of thought to how magic or faery biology in Inver works because that is not conducive to the atmosphere of a fairytale. Many of these source myths and legends are really about the fear of the unknown. They are rationalisations to explain away something unknown, some mystery of life, and you cannot explain the unexplainable and expect it to carry the same punch as the original myths that you are drawn to adapt. That's also why I try to never actually give facts about fairies, but instead I talk about what people think of them. The word 'considered' does some insanely heavy lifting in that linked post lmao. Is any of what I wrote true with regards to the Red King?? It is for the people who believe it.

I'm saying all of this because these are all points I had to think about before writing that 2nd draft, but also because I think they're worth considering for your own story as well. I'll admit I invented my werewolves from scratch, they have no mythological basis, because they pre-date the faery stuff and also I wanted them to fill a very specific role and appear a little more concrete than the other supernatural elements. It is what it is; I wanted a werewolf element that didn't match myths and legends (and honestly was partially inspired by me rolling my eyes about those posts going around moaning and whining about 'the doggification of werewolves missing the point of werewolf stories'. I thought, well, there's more than one story you can tell with a werewolf - it isn't always 'i fear the beast within', sometimes it's something else! sometimes it's daddy issues! it's okay to make something new)

ok i think that's all i have to say.. modern Inver is a bit different, that worldbuilding is largely the same but with a big dose of actual ecology because the main characters are rangers and in Inver in 2017, rangers mostly do environmental monitoring. and that's a whole different sort of worldbuilding lol

good luck with your story!!

#me about to write literally anything: this will probably get wordy #mvf #setting: inver

[ficretus]

RWBY contains surprising amount of Norse allusions in the story (and funny part is that almost none of them center around Nora, who's primary allusion is Norse god). Everything from Oz being Odin, Beacon being Valhalla, Branwen siblings being Huginn and Muninn, Pyrrha being Baldr, Tree in Ever After being Yggdrasil, and so on.

However, I want to focus on Salem as Loki allusion and her Grimm hybrids.

While relations wise Salem doesn't make much sense as Loki (since Odin's wife was Frigg), Loki does share ancient past with Odin that latter is embarrassed to admit. This of course parallels back to Salem being Ozma's "little" secret he keeps from his allies.

Outside of that, both Loki and Salem seek to overturn order of Gods and cause a Doomsday. Loki also nicely parallels Salem's title of Queen of Grimm by being father (or mother in Sleipnir's case) of monsters that would end up causing Ragnarok. Those children being Fenrir, Jormungandr and Hel.

Hel and Fenrir were already featured in the show, being Cinder and Hound respectively. Cinder has visual similarities with Hel: Mask and Grimm arm (as well as her asymmetrical clothing style) parallel to Hel's half flesh, half blue skinned appearance. Both are also self proclaimed rulers that were cast down at very young age (Cinder symbolically, Hel literally). Hound, just like Fenrir is massive wolf that devoured Odin/Oscar. Their deaths are also relatively similar: Hound was crushed under statue while Fenrir had its jaw crushed by Vidar's heavy boot before being stabbed.

Unlike Salem's other creations, Hound and Cinder are hybrids, which gives them elevated position. If we go by that logic, then third harbinger of Ragnarok, Jormungandr, should also be a hybrid and major threat narratively. Jormungandr appears as either massive serpent or worm depending on the version of story. This, combined with current Vacuo setting makes me believe that we might see Jormungandr in the show as massive Grimm sand worm. While Jormungandr was aquatic being, there is no appropriate setting for that in the show and it would come way too close to Leviathan from Volume 6. So why not bust out a sand worm, after all, desert is sea of sand.

At its core it will likely be another silver eyed warrior, although I don't think this will be Summer. Since potential Grimm Summer would be an allusion to Red Riding Hood's devoured grandma, If they ever make a Norse allusion for Grimm Summer it's more likely she is gonna be a Garmr, ultimate hound of Norse mythology and guardian of Hel's gate (this could be a parallel to implication that Summer was the one guarding conquered Beacon). It's the only opponent at Ragnarok that doesn't seem to be referenced in any way. Garmr's opponent at Ragnarok was Tyr (who parallels with Yang) so it makes sense narratively as well.

#rwby #rwby volume 10 #rwby theory #rwby vacuo

[partikron]

Allmind and the Einherjar - Major Spoilers for Armored Core VI:

I've said before how Allmind is clearly an oblique reference to Odin, but there's one more cool way in which Allmind resembles the Allfather:

During the final stages of the Allmind ending, Walter and Carla are fighting off exact copies of the Vesper ACs as they try to take the Xylem. Many of the Vespers are dead by this point, making their ACs very similar to the Einherjar of Norse mythology.

The Einherjar are the warriors taken to Valhǫll (Valhalla) upon their deaths, and will train and fight endlessly before riding out with Odin during Ragnarök, where Odin and most of the other gods are fated to die. These Allmind-controlled ACs, then, are just like the Einherjar, sallying forth to try and forestall the doom of their patron deity. Similar to their Norse connection, all of Allmind's scheming, raising of fallen warriors and collection of wisdom can do nothing to forestall their ultimate fate.

Tbh, many aspects of the final battle in AC6 could be read as allusions to Ragnarök. Most of the major characters die at the end, the Xylem ship could be a reference to Naglfar, the ship that ferries many enemies of the Aesir gods onto the field of battle, and even the consuming blaze during the Fires of Raven ending could be seen as a reference to the fires Surtr consumes the world in as the final battle of the gods draws to a close.

The best part is that none of these are super overt, but rather bubble calmly under the surface of the narrative.

#armored core #armored core 6 #armored core vi #science fiction #armored core series #scifi #fires of rubicon #mech #mecha #norse mythology

[paxesoterica]

@adracat​ has made some really intriguing observations about allusions to Norse mythology in The Witch from Mercury, but it recently occurred to me there’s some connections to Greco-Roman mythology too, specifically the namesake of Suletta and Prospera’s surname, Mercury, and how mother and daughter are associated with his various attributes:

Traveller & Merchant: The family motto of “Move forward and gain two” is a mercantile mindset, one shared by mother and daughter (though it looks increasingly like Suletta won’t be renewing her subscription), and is further apt with Suletta being an immigrant from literally another planet and Prospera being a CEO.

Trickster: As Miorine and Shaddiq have both observed, Suletta’s too honest for this to apply, but it fits Prospera and her schemes like a glove.

Herdsman: Mercury’s association with farm animals, particularly goats, cattle, and chickens, is practically shouting about Suletta’s bond with Earth House and their animals.

Communicator: Developing communication skills, from what I’ve been told, is a recurring theme for Gundam protagonists in general, and is definitely one for Suletta in particular, and I’m looking forward to the payoff of Suletta learning how to effectively communicate.

Thief: This one might actually apply to Suletta in the future, depending on how she acquires her next mobile suit (Gundamjacking is also apparently a time-honored tradition of Gundam protagonists).

Psychopomp: Oddly enough, Prospera’s an inverse of this, since her goals seem to be the opposite of a psychopomp’s traditional duties. Conversely, depending on how the ending plays out, Suletta may turn out to be a more straightforward example (the only time Suletta will be straight anything, heh).

Also, I can’t help but feel that the open flaps of Suletta’s boots, and the tufts of hair she has sticking off to the side of her head, are meant to invoke the winged footwear and helmet traditionally associated with Mercury.

#text #anime #mythology #mobile suit gundam: the witch from mercury #greco-roman #suletta mercury #mercury

[eviesaurusrex]

omg hi!! Love your writing so much and if I could, can I request something for Stephen? maybe something fluffy/smutty?

ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏʀɴɪɴɢ ᴀꜰᴛᴇʀ | ꜱ. ꜱᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇ

Stephen Strange x Asgardian!Reader

summary: After weeks apart due to back-to-back missions all over the universe, Stephen and YN were finally able to spend some much-needed alone time with one another.

word count: 1.7k

warnings: allusions to smutty smut stuff, plus a bit of smutty smut stuff, fluff, Stephen (because he definitely is a warning himself), more fluff, super fluff, a bit of altered norse mythology (deal with it)

author's note: First of all, thank you so much for your kind words, lovely anon! I really hope you like this short piece. I definitely had fun writing for Stephen again <3 I hope it wasn't the wrong decision to stick to Sorcerer!Stephen instead of Surgeon!Stephen. But if you'd prefer the latter, please just send me another ask, and I will write for him as well! <33 And because I've been strangely drawn to norse mythology lately, I just had to make the reader an Asgardian and had to play with the relationship between the gods and goddesses, so don't hate me for that! Disclaimer: Please don't come for me when you're a mastermind in norse mythology. This is fiction, so please, for the love of this universe, don't kill me for taking liberties while writing my stuff. Thanks!

MDNI first and final warning

;

The sound of a thunderstorm in the far-off distance let Stephen jolt out of his deep slumber, only interrupted by vivid dreams produced by the memories of the last few missions he had to accept, even though he would've much more preferred to stay back in town. But the universe obviously couldn't save itself, so Wong, Lang, and himself had ventured out into space and other systems to exert their duties and responsibilities as Avengers. At last, Stephen had been glad he had accepted those missions because the woman right next to him had been on duty herself, though she had owned the luxury of staying on their home planet.

Well, his home planet, but not hers because she had been born in a place so magical, the sorcerer couldn't quite grasp it. And if he already had turned his mind to this particular topic, he could also start calling his woman his goddess again because, after all, she was nothing but that.

Slowly, the sorcerer turned in their shared bed in the Sanctum Sanctorum, which they always used as their hiding place as soon as they needed some much-longed-for time alone. After some minor incidents within the walls of the compound—things he wished were never seen by anyone outside their relationship—the couple had decided to stay at the Sanctum where no one would interrupt them. Not even Wong. And after weeks apart, Stephen had been thankful for the quietness of home, which had been only disturbed by the desperate sounds leaving their mouths as soon as he had stumbled through a portal and saw this dream of a woman already waiting for him before she had enveloped him with her arms and legs and had shown him that he indeed was home.

A small smile, entirely reserved for her eyes and presence, etched its way onto Stephen's lips as he propped his body up on one arm, watching her as closely as possible. It didn't often happen that he had the pleasure of watching her peacefully sleeping form, observing her radiant face, counting how often her bare chest with the most perfect pair of breasts he had ever seen moved up and down with each intake and outtake of breath. He was mesmerized, starstruck even, by the most mundane things she did, the smallest movements she subconsciously did in her sleep, the tiniest twitch of her features. If he had been born an artist, he would've painted her day and night, Stephen was sure of it. But gladly, others already had done that over the millennia.

Longingly, his slightly shaking hand raised from the soft bed covers, his arm stretching towards the woman of his dreams who had become flesh, blood, and reality. His fingertips touched the warm, almost burning skin on her shoulder, caressing through the thick strand of ever-changing hair covering the soft skin of her neck on which the sorcerer still could see the marks he had left there only hours prior. A pleased smirk made its presence known before Stephen let his fingers brush the hair out of the way and let them wander further, closer to one of the softest parts of her body while he bent his head down, lowering himself closer and closer to her sensitive neck. The moment his lips touched the first of many of his marks and his hand wrapped itself around her heavy breast, his thumb teasing her hardening nipple with featherlike circles, the woman next to him awoke with a gentle moan, her legs tangled in the sheets, slowly moving, and Stephen knew that she pressed her thighs together, desperately searching for release.

She may be Freyja, goddess of love, beauty, fertility, sex, war, and seiðr, she may have worn one too many names to count them all, but here, now, with him, she simply was YN, the woman he loved, and the woman he knew like the back of his hand. Because she wanted to stay with him, she had added another name to the endless-seeming list. Because she loved him, she had decided to stay far longer in one place than she usually did.

He was the luckiest man in the history of humankind.

"Do you mind telling me what you are doing there?" Her voice sounded tired, but somewhere in its depths was the same tone hidden he had heard during the entirety of last night. So all Stephen did was kiss her neck softly and let his thumb torture the peaking cherry he loved to swallow whole. "I don't know what you mean, my love," the sorcerer whispered at her ear, biting into the soft skin of her earlobe, and chuckled huskily at yet another moan which escaped her parted lips. YN bent her head slightly to grant him better access to one of the most sensitive spots on her body, which Stephen knew how to play like a musician, tickling noises out of her that had once been the first sounds of pleasure in her part of the world. "You are... gods... you are insatiable."

And she loved every second of it.

As she opened her eyes, Stephen was once again looming slightly over her, propped up on one arm, his other hand still holding her breast, his thumb still teasing and torturing her. His barely perceptible touch was enough to let her legs move restlessly, her breath quickening, and wetness pooling between her thighs. He was a sorcerer with how good he played her body, how he had managed to enchant her with every fiber of her being. YN always had been sure how love was meant to feel because it was her creation, but she had been a blind fool all her existence long nonetheless. Her heart sang as soon as the woman only thought about the man watching her now, and her entire being danced in joy when they were together again.

The decision whether to stay or to leave again had been easy for her, and since then, not a single moment had passed in which she regretted it.

"YN?"

Stephen's voice pulled her back into reality, back to him, and YN blinked slowly up at him, humming in question. He observed her closely, and suddenly she realized he had removed his warm hand off the skin of her breasts and had cupped her cheek with it. "Where did you wander off in your thoughts?" It was a normal thing for her, and the man next to her had gotten used to her habits over time. So, YN smiled up at him before pushing herself up on one arm, urging him to lay back down on the soft mattress. Almost lazily, the woman started to trace random patterns over his chest, chin propped up in the palm of her hand, her eyes watching his face with mild wonder. "I thought about how lucky I am to have found you," she dared to whisper into the quietness of their bedroom, only interrupted by the tapping sounds of rain against the windows and the growling thunder in the distance of the city. Stephen didn't say a word, didn't dare to speak up, and waited for her to continue if she wanted. And so YN did. "I always thought I would know how love feels, how much joy it actually can bring one. But all this time, I was so blind and foolish. I thought I finally realized it when my brother brought Jane home or at the sight of the first couple I stumbled upon when I went down here. But everything always only granted me glimpses into the thing I should know all about until you had the audacity to tell me how I'm supposed to fight the one being off I know everything about."

The day of their first encounter was so ingrained in her mind that YN could still smell the earth of the forest and the scents enveloping Stephen from within. Even though they both hadn't had the best of starts, she cherished every single moment of it.

The sorcerer laughed softly under his breath and wrapped his arm around her to pull YN closer against his side. Her hand now laid flat on his chest, right above his heart. "We were an excellent team." Stephen grinned and laughed louder as soon as he felt her hitting his chest. "I remember this day a bit differently than you, love," she teased him but pressed a lingering kiss to the still-smiling corner of his mouth. And then, she turned serious again. "Thank you for showing me what love is, Stephen Strange," YN whispered and suddenly had to fight the urge to cry.

The man smiled softly at her and coaxed YN to lay down right next to him before he turned on his side as well, wrapping her in his arms. Instantly, both pairs of legs tangled into each other under the sheets, pulling each other even closer. He cupped her neck, letting his thumb slowly follow the sharp line of her jaw, and kissed her full of tenderness and utmost devotion. "You never have to thank me for that, YNN. It should be the other way around, my love." Stephen fell silent for a moment and sighed deeply before he kissed her soft lips another time. "Thank you for making me realize that I'm worthy. Worthy of experiencing love, worthy of giving love myself, worthy of being loved by the most gorgeous, intelligent, compassionate, and kind woman ever in existence." Blinking rapidly again to not allow a single tear to escape her eyes, YN stared into his mesmerizing eyes, which always reminded her of the lakes and rivers of Asgard and the blue shimmer of the Bifröst. They symbolized home to her because that's exactly what Stephen was to her: home.

"Stephen," YN whispered under her breath and let her fingers comb through his salt-and-pepper hair. He smiled that one particular smile at the sound of his name coming over her lips, only seen by her eyes. "Freyja. Mardöll. Hörn. Gefn. Syr. YN." If she hadn't been sure that death was almost impossible for her, she would've sworn she would die at this very moment—her heart beat as if it tried to escape her ribcage. "YN..."

And with her name on his lips, whispered like a prayer to the gods, Stephen kissed her with everything he had and with everything he was—because that was the only thing suitable for the woman he would love until his last day on earth, until his last dying heartbeat.

;

I'm not sure what I'm thinking about this one, so please leave a comment and let me know! I mean, it's not terrible? I think? At least, I hope so. As usual: comments, reblogs, and likes are much appreciated! Kisses to your pretty faces <33

Taglist: @poor-unfortunate-soul-85 @seasonofthenerd @onecrazydirectioner @meeksmusic83 @nyctophilic0vitnir @lastwandastan @harpywritesfic @strangeions @apple-and-berry @ben-er-ino @multifandomrandomgirl @lucimorningst4r @samisubi @hunterofshadows04 @y-napotat @ohchoices @jyessaminereads

#stephen strange x reader #stephen strange x fem!reader #stephen strange x female!reader #stephen strange x asgardian!reader #stephen strange x you #stephen strange x y/n #doctor strange x reader #doctor strange x female!reader #doctor strange x fem!reader #doctor strange x asgardian!reader #stephen strange fanfiction #stephen strange fanfic #stephen strange fic #doctor strange fanfiction #doctor strange fanfic #doctor strange fic #stephen strange fluff #stephen strange oneshot #doctor strange fluff #doctor strange oneshot #stephen strange drabble #doctor strange drabble #stephen strange smut #doctor strange smut #stephen strange #doctor strange #stephen strange imagine #doctor strange imagine

[dragynkeep]

The rvvby character designer saying that the character who’s allusion is Thor would “look weird with long hair”, bitch tell me you don’t know shit about Thor as a mythological figure without telling me you don’t know shit about Thor as a mythological figure

When the fucking MCU knows about Thor as a character more than an actual character designer is embarrassing

CRWBY/RT YOU ARE ONE OF THE MANY COMPANIES I WANNA DECK IN THE FACE! FUCK OFF!

gawd do they ever stop.

it's not even that nora with short hair is a bad character design, i think it helps her stand out amongst the long haired girls even just in the main & secondary team. we have pyrrha, blake, weiss & yang with various forms of long hair: having ruby & nora with their shorter bobs sets them apart & gives us a momentary glimpse into what type of characters they are.

however, ein lee saying this doesn't surprise me because beyond the hammer that nora wields & the lightning motif, there are no allusions to thor in her original character design. no norse wings, no trees or foliage, goats or anything associated with farming which was part of thor's domain as a god. she is completely devoid of any of these smaller tidbits in any of her designs & it's frustratingly easy to fix.

like, if we're going to have allusions: use them! they're there & begging to be explored in so many interesting ways!

the extra information of monty having a far more sexualized design that ein lee had to "tone down" while nora still ending up in a skirt that we see up no less than three times in the show is just :))) this show doesn't sexualize it's female characters my ass.

#rwby #rwde #nora valkyrie #ais.txt #answered #q

[mask131]

Hello ^^

So just asking, how would you recommend people research about Greek Mythology? Do you recommend they read from the source material or do you suggest any other sources?

Both.

On one side, it is definitively needed to read the source material. How else are you going to understand Greek mythology if you have never read the Odyssey or the Iliad or the Theogony? Mind you, what I usually advise is for people to get good annotated editions, so that they can fully understand the translation nuance, the cultural context and the strange allusions within the various texts and epics. Yes it is nice to just read the text for what it is... But given each text that formed Greek mythology has hundreds of various translations, and each one sparking new debates, it is always very useful to have more "professional" editions, and it is always good to compare various translations.

After that, just reading the basic texts like the Argonautica, Homer's works, Hesiod's works and other epics will leave you a bit lacking, because a good chunk of what we know as "Greek mythology" does not come from these texts, but from archeological research, various scholia and other non-fictional records. As such, it is always needed to go read professional texts about Greek mythology. Essays about the religion and the cultures of Ancient Greece ; encyclopedias and dictionaries of Greek gods and Greek myths ; university-articles about very specific subjects ; art books about the Ancient Greek statues and paintings, books about the mystery cults or about the old Greek symbolism. All of this is needed to fully understand what Greek mythology was about.

So, to answer your question: both. And that is true for all mythologies. It is impossible to get a mythology without reading the texts that preserved the myths (it is like trying to make a paper on a novel you haven't read - it is possible, thanks to second-hand record and Wikipedia recaps, but misinformation or missing elements are sure to pop up) ; but given old mythologies are separate from us by thousands of years of cultural change and historical evolution, it is also needed to read what people who spent their entire life and career studying Ancient Greece have to say. It is through them we actually know what Greek mythology is - it is through them that we can have little children novel rewriting Greek legends, or teenage romances taking inspiration from Greek heroes.

So there is no just one or just the other. Both are needed, else one is going to have an "incomplete" view of Greek mythology.

(Same thing applies to Norse mythology, by the way, especially since the Eddas and other source texts similar to them are from a very particular context and relie heavily on enigmas, riddles, poetic metaphors and inside-jokes, thus a critical literature is needed to fully understand them)

#ask #greek mythology #norse mythology #understanding mythologies

[bestworstcase]

What role do you think Ragnorok and Norse Mythology plays in the story of RWBY?

except insofar as qrow and raven are thought and memory and ozma has spent eons hoarding knowledge and warriors in an effort to circumvent the ending of the world when all the sacrifices he has made in this doomed endeavor finally come due? minimal. rwby nods politely to norse myth but does not leverage it with anything like the depth or extent that the story leverages its core allusions (which are: 1. marvelous land of oz, 2. petrosinella/persinette/rapunzel, 3. the little prince, 4. cinderella, 5. alice’s adventures in wonderland/through the looking glass, and 6. classical greek philosophy plato in particular. in that approximate order of prominence. everything else is largely aesthetic.)

#i do not hold this subset of fanon in especially high esteem. hrgfhk

[anthurak]

The Ravens’ Odin

So one thing I’m particularly happy with that happened during this latest round of ‘theory-crafting about Norse Mythology allusions in RWBY’ is finally realizing a plausible solution to one of bigger conundrums surrounding Ruby being an allusion to Odin.

That being: If Ruby is meant to be an allusion to Odin, then why were Qrow and Raven, who are allusions to Odin’s ravens Huginn and Muninn, effectively ‘created’ (ie; given their powers) by Ozpin? After all, that’s one of the biggest reasons people have considered Oz and allusion to Odin over the years.

But here’s the interesting bit, using RWBY’s trend of twisting or flipping the script on it’s allusions and references: As I discussed in this recent post; I think Ozma/Oz as a whole is actually an allusion to Baldr, with the destruction of old humanity by the gods being Remnant’s equivalent to Ragnarok, and that Ruby and Oz represent a role reversal of Odin and Baldr.

With all that in mind, I think the whole story of Remnant starts feeling like the Norse myth-cycle effectively playing out in reverse. With Ragnarok being the BEGINNING of Remnant’s story instead of the end, and Baldr (Oz) being among the ELDEST of the Aesir while Odin (Ruby) is among the youngest.

So if the lore of RWBY represents a bunch of the beats of Norse mythology playing out backwards, I’d say it only makes sense that in this version of events, it is not Odin who creates/molds Huginn and Muninn, but rather Huginn and Muninn who mold/create ODIN.

And wouldn’t you know it; Qrow is a longtime mentor and father-figure to Ruby.

And as for Raven... well, let’s just say I may have a theory or two on how she ‘created’ Ruby XD

#rwby #rwby analysis #rwby theory #norse mythology allusions #Ruby Rose #ozpin #Qrow Branwen #Raven Branwen #odin #baldr #huginn and muninn #ruby is odin #ozma is baldr #rosebird parents #rosebird parents theory #okay i lied #the thing i'm ACTUALLY most happy about is finally figuring out how 'ruby is odin' ties to 'raven is ruby's dad' XD

[otakween]

Digimon Frontier - Episode 10

Woohoo 10th episode 🥳 This one was okay, at least we got some interesting developments. The animation was noticeably limited but they seemed to over-stylize the shots to compensate for it. It felt...off but passable. If I was a kid I probably wouldn't notice.

Notes:

Koji gets a solo episode because he's a ~lone wolf~ I'd probably have a crush on him in elementary school, embarrassed to admit. As a 31 year old viewer he just seems like a lil shit lol

Really enjoying meeting new, friendly digimon each episode (although I guess there wasn't one last time). The digital world feels more fleshed out and lived in than it did in previous seasons and the digimon act more like people.

Bokomon calling Neemon "Bakamon" and snapping his waistband is really old. It was never really funny to begin with.

I realized that, although everyone is meant to have a beast form and a human form...isn't Chakmon already a beast form? Maybe it has to do with being bipedal? (Altough Grottomon's beast form is bipedal so idk)

It was interesting to see a digimon (Gotsumon) striving to become a legendary warrior. I feel like they could have just recruited him to help with the fighting lol

Izumi loses her spirit which apparently is a thing that can happen. It reminded me of when Juri lost Leomon because her digivice had TV static on the screen. Why do I feel like stealing spirits from people is gonna be a video game mechanic in one of the Frontier-based games?

I noticed that in the sub, they just call the beast spirit digivolution "spirit evolution" but they specify the "beast" thing in the dub. I like it when they're specific! It's a lot less confusing.

Weird naming sense for the new beast spirit evolution. In the Japanese he's Garmmon which is a Norse mythology allusion. But in the English he's KendoGarurumon? First off the design doesn't scream "kendo" to me and second, it feels weird to give him the "Garurumon" name. I mean, I knew this design was a rip-off, but it's weird they're making it explicit!

Naming and derivativeness aside, I do prefer Garmmon to Wolfmon. His little heelys cracked me up though. He feels like a redesign of MetalGarurumon, like an iPhone upgrade lol. Pretty much the same but sleeker.

We got a new insert song which was probably Koji's image song. I look forward to giving a proper listen later.

#digimon frontier #digimon #anime

[uptoolateart]

Fairytales - All of us are our own Prince Charming

A few years ago, I attended this workshop about storytelling and the ancient legends of Great Britain (where I live), and the host said that as a society we are suffering from a ‘crisis of metaphor’. What he meant was that we tend to take things too literally and therefore miss symbolic significance.

An area where I see this happen over and over again is our interpretation of fairytales - namely, this idea of a princess being saved by a prince, and the modern notion that it teaches little girls they need a man to rescue them.

This is valid, but only because we fail to teach little girls (and boys!) the true meaning of such tales. In fact, the most well-known fairytales date back not just centuries but millennia, because they contain elements of older myths. For instance, the three fairy godmothers in Sleeping Beauty are the three fates found in Norse and Greek mythology - who also appear as the three witches in Macbeth. The notion of an apple of temptation in Snow White, too, has its origins in ancient Greek legend - not to speak of its allusion to the Garden of Eden.

The reason such tales have persisted in popular culture for so long is that they speak to something deep inside us, and this goes well beyond just promoting the idea of a girl needing a man to save her. For this reason, there are books out there psychoanalysing classic tales as if they were dreams, from both a Freudian and a Jungian perspective. We also got taught to analyse stories in this manner in my English degree, once upon a time.

As a brief example, I’ll return to Sleeping Beauty. As a little girl, she's hidden away and protected from all eyes, especially men’s eyes, as if trying to keep her young forever. Her parents refuse to allow her to touch that magic spindle, which is a symbol for puberty and awakening sexuality. I mean...a needle, and a bloom of blood?? However, this growth is inevitable. Despite how much they try to keep her from being exposed to the outside world, Aurora finds the spindle anyway and falls into a deep sleep.

This sleep not only affects her but the whole kingdom. Everyone goes unconscious, other than the witch / dragon. The prince then has to fight through thorns to reach the princess and defeat the dragon. A crucial question is: why would he do this? Surely there are easier princesses to win! And if we look at the Disney rendition, he literally just saw Aurora talking to squirrels and owls and immediately fell in love with her, instead of thinking she was a bit odd. All of this tells us we can’t take it literally.

The dragon and thorns are the internal defensive measures to try to keep out the prince, who represents everything that was being repressed - the awakening moment that will bring Aurora into the adult world the parents and fairies were so keen to hold her back from. In this sense, we can say that the witch and the prince are both other aspects of the princess. In other words, there is no girl in need of saving by a man. The man is part of the young woman. She is saving herself. There is no kiss to wake her up magically - this is symbolic of her emotional awakening and transition into adulthood. This is why she is named Aurora, a reference to the dawn.

We can look at every popular fairytale in this way and see that each character is an archetype. Each of us, male or female, holds all these archetypes within us. So, fairytales are not merely stories but ways of symbolically exploring growth experiences and journeys we all go through. In this way, even a little boy hearing one of these tales can relate to the princess. Every boy is the princess and prince - every girl is the princess and prince.

What is key is making sure that the symbolism is strong. Don’t explain all of this to young kids and ruin the magic. But as our children grow and begin to be aware of the symbols, we can explore it with them and teach them that each and every one of them has the power within to be their own Prince Charming and free themselves from any 'evil spell'.

#fairy tales #fairytale analysis #fairytale meta #sleeping beauty #sleeping beauty analysis #jungian #archetypes #Freudian #symbolism #myths #prince charming

[moonlightdancer26]

AYO 💕 I'm bored, so here be me, offering 1: a funny rant for entertainment, and 2: an opinion for reflection (primarily mine).

Rant: did you know that jegulus shippers hc that Snape bullied Regulus with the other "bad" slytherins? And even acted predatory?? Legit read a scene where Mulciber manhandled Regulus and Snape watched cool and composed as you please and chided him for "playing with his food", then he himself slammed Regulus against a wall, got up in his face and threatened him. 😭🤡 Meanwhile Sneep and Regulus were probs CEO and COO respectively of the Sirius Black Haters Club. Even indifference from Regulus' part would be more likely than someone like him with an important and infamous family getting bullied by his own housemates, let alone by Snape who was at the bottom of the social ladder. Cringe. 😬

Opinion, a little more weighted. Though the blatant racism in Rowling's writing and characterizations of certain characters is undeniable, I've personally come across a few sjws who imo see it even where it's not. But there are instances where I'm not sure. Like with Shacklebolt, I always thought that the name was about him putting criminals in shackles, being good at his job, not an allusion to slavery. But I'm white and don't know whether black people actually consider it a good point, and just bc something is said or seen w/o bad intention doesn't mean there aren't implicit racist connotations going unnoticed. It's been going around in my head for a while. I summon your illustrious spouse @halfblood-princes-crown who iirc is poc (also realised I'm not following him which, great oversight), and anyone else who'd like to contribute their thoughts.

Hey sweetie! Sorry for the late-ish answer 😭 I completely forgot this was in my drafts

did you know that jegulus shippers hc that Snape bullied Regulus with the other "bad" slytherins? And even acted predatory??

YES OMG, I can’t even explain how stupid it is. Like these mfs really think some poor greasy bullied half-blood Slytherin could even bully a Black (who’s the opposite of everything I mentioned, aside from Slytherin) 💀 plus they both hated Sirius and would legit kill for the people they love so I have a petty headcanon that they’re besties and Sirius HATED it. You just know Reggie would be there when James and Sirius try to target Snape, and when James gets roasted and Sirius tries to join in Reggie would be like “and why are you talking? Don’t you *spills an embarrassing sibling-secret Sirius still does from when they were kids*?” and they’d stand there like 👬) 🤭 Tbh Marauder stans would go to such drastic lengths just so they make it seem like the Marauders bullying Snape was as mild as possible lmao.

But there are instances where I'm not sure. Like with Shacklebolt, I always thought that the name was about him putting criminals in shackles, being good at his job,

I totally understand that! It could be argued that that’s what it meant, because it really is a reasonable perspective……. that is, if Kingsley wasn’t part of the 4% POC characters in the series. Why would she give one of her only black characters a last name that’s meaning was an item used to chain slaves? It was apparently absolutely impossible for her to name any other white auror (basically every other auror) that was good at their job that name?

Along with all that, she’s named the only other Asian character (aside from the Patil twins) Cho Chang, both of which are last names. And it’s clear Rowling’s one of those authors who really put thought into their characters’ names, for example: Severus Snape (his first name directly translates to “stern” or “harsh”), Voldemort (mort means “death,” and when translating each section of the name in French, “vol de mort” it means “flight from death”), Remus Lupin (…wolf wolf 💀), Dolores Umbridge (Latin origins: “lady of sorrows or pain” (psychological or physical), Greek meaning: “deceitful,” Spanish meaning: “pain”), Fenrir Greyback (in Norse mythology: Fenrir is a gigantic and terrible monster, Greyback sounds similar to silverback, which is known as the dominant male in a band of gorillas), Fleur Delacour (“flower of the court”), and so on. I could literally talk about their name meanings for hours. My fave name meanings are Severus’s, Voldy’s (biggest flex is that I already knew this bc it’s French 🤭), Remus’s (😭 I already knew “Lupin”’s meaning because of the wolf (lupus) in mythology), Umbitch’s, and Fleur’s. Tbf Fleur’s full name is so stereotypically French but French names are almost as stunning as she is so I give it a pass.

Anyway, Rowling definitely isn’t one of those authors who give their characters a name they think “just fits them” and goes on with it, almost all of the characters’ names say something about their personalities to an extent. And she’s already a racist and proved it through making an Asian character’s full name consist of one Korean last name (Cho) and one Chinese last name (Chang). So the fact that she named one of her only black characters THAT name definitely must not have anyyy underlying intentions.

I may be a POC but I’m not black, so I’m sure my opinion won’t hold as much water as a black person’s. I’d be interested to hear what y’all think! @halfblood-princes-crown we’re summoning you babe, I wanna hear what you think.

And thanks for the ask btw, you can yell into my inbox whenever you feel like it ❤️

#kingsley shacklebolt #anti jk rowling #the sheer hatred i feel for that woman is INSANE #anti jkr #anti j. k. rowling #harry potter #hp #ask #asks

[ficretus]

Knightfall, literary references and subversions

In many of my theories I heavily focus on literary references characters are based on. Now, literary references are not be all end all of predictions. They can easily get subverted as we've seen many times before in the show. In this post I'll focus on Knightfall and its literary references, is it relatively straightforward or is it all just subversions.

LITERARY REFERENCES AND CANON CONFIRMED ROMANCES

First thing I wanna focus on is how much do literary references play a role in 2 so far canon confirmed pairings, Renora and Bumbleby. After all, if there is a precedent that they don't matter, then there is no point in predicting anything based on them. And here it's a mixed bag.

Renora has grand total of zero things to do with literary influence of their characters. But here is the thing, Ren and Nora in general have very little to do with their respective characters. Their literary references mostly end up being aesthetic flavor.

Look at Nora for example, on surface level she is indeed Thor: she is heavily reliant on physical strength, her primary weapon is hammer (that is named after Thor's son), her primary element is electricity. But other than that, pretty much nothing. You can go to any famous Thor story and you'll find nothing you can reference back to Nora. At most I thought she might parallel Thor's rivalry with giants (seriously, at the end of pretty much any story where some giant is stirring shit, Thor shows up overjoyed he gets to murder him) since she fought Hazel in Haven, but this is clearly just a coincidence overall. If it was an intentional reference, she'd be pitted against Elm during the Atlas arc which didn't happen.

It actually kind of annoys me how little Nora has to do with Norse mythology. Characters like Pyrrha (Baldr), Ozma (Odin) and Hound (Fenrir) seem to have more to do with Norse mythology than character who's primary influence it is.

My point here is that while yeah, Renora is an example of literary references not mattering, Ren and Nora in general don't abide by the rules of their respective references. Hard to say they have changed the game, because they don't even play it.

____________________________________________________________

Now onto Bumbleby. Here is something that confuses me about it: people tend to say this ship being canon is an example of literary references not mattering, when it's fairly straightforward Beauty and the Beast story. You don't have to complicate it, switch roles or whatever people do. On its own it reads like archetypical Beauty and the Beast story.

I mean, run Yang through some basic traits Beast has in most famous Beauty and the Beast versions:

Is Yang beast? Yes. While not Faunus, Yang's temper and dragon imagery make her beast like. Beast also tends to have some reptilian features in lot of versions which adds to the allusion.

Is Yang overprotective of rose flower? Yes. In this case not being literal rose flower, instead being her sister.

Does Yang get abandoned by Blake? Absolutely. Blake runs away to her family after Volume 3, directly paralleling Beauty leaving the Beast and returning home to her family.

Do they reunite in Beast's moment of need? Yes. Blake joining the main cast during the Battle of Haven, foiling Adam's plan. This is direct parallel to Beauty returning to Beast's side after having visions of his demise.

Is Yang prince? Not literal one, but symbolically yes. It works in two ways, she is daughter of Bandit Queen, making her princess. She is also daughter of Maiden (and as I say every other post, Maidens are symbolically royalty), once again princess. It also works well with Villeneuve version of Beauty and the Beast in which Beast gets abandoned by his mother as she goes to fight in the war (which works no matter which Yang's mother figure you take).

Bumbleby is straightforward Beauty and the Beast with references going back all the way to Volume 1, which is one of the reasons I disagree when people say Bumbleby was retconned into existence and Black Sun was suppose to be the thing originally.

As I said, mixed bag, Renora doesn't play by the rules of literary references, Bumbleby does. Literary references naturally matter more in case character's story is actually influenced by them.

___________________________________________________________

Side note about Bumbleby. I find it kind of funny common argument against it is that members of team RWBY are suppose to be like sisters, therefore pairing is inappropriate. Then you check Villeneuve version of Beauty and the Beast (which is origin of many common tropes in modern versions) and realize Beauty and the Beast there are first cousins. Sorry folks, it appears supposed incest is feature, not a bug.

IS JAUNE'S STORY JOAN OF ARC STORY?

After all, if Jaune is surface level reference to Joan like Nora is surface level reference to Thor, then literary references don't really matter. In this case, I'd say Jaune follows enough Joan of Arc story beats for me to say he is indeed influenced by her.

In first 3 volumes it is mostly surface level with some subversions to the Joan's story. Oh, he has no experience, yet he is given position of team leader, that's like Joan being given military command. Oh, he is crossdressing, that's so Joan. Oh, he is blackmailed by a guy that is on the nose reference to Joan's interrogator Cardinal of Winchester. If it continued going that way I'd probably chuck all Joan of Arc books out the window and returned to the normal life, but alas, that wasn't the case (please greenlight Volume 10 and immediately do Whiteknight so I can return to the normal life).

Following the Fall of Beacon, Jaune's story starts following Joan's story way more closer. Events that happen in following volumes start matching events happening in Joan's story chronologically. Fall of Beacon being both subversion of Joan's victory at Orleans and sack of Joan's village by Anglo-Burgundian forces. I made an entire theory about it and you can check it out below.

Long story short, Jaune's story follows Joan's close enough for me to conclude that it's valid way to read the character. If that's the case, then most logical love interest you can give to Jaune is character based on King Charles VII (Jaune is not straightforward rendition of Joan of Arc so him having a love interest is not out of question) since he was the most important person to Joan. And based on the title of this post you can guess who in my opinion fits that role the most. How that works, you can check in the theory below.

INDECISIVE KING:

RWBY's Indecisive King story is common argument of Knightfall theories. For those uninitiated, it's a story about Relic of Choice. There is a wise King that gives good advice to anyone that approaches him. One day, he is approached by Widow that lost her village and husband to Grimm and subsequently lost her will to live. He advises her to live and she listens to him, staying in his castle. King is given Relic of Choice that makes him see visions of unavoidable doomed future. He becomes Indecisive King, unable to give any advice to his subjects. After chasing away all of his advisors, he is approached by Widow who asks him about his issues. After being told about his visions, Widow puts on a Crown and sees a vision of her future with the King. She tells him to live and puts Relic of Choice away, they end up living happily ever after.

As how does this story relate to Knightfall? Well, Jaune matches the role of Widow, Cinder matches the role of King. Their Volume 5 encounter seems like a reference to the first meeting of King and Widow (dialogue even similar to some quotes from the written version of the story). Story also feels very similar to the meeting between Joan and King Charles VII (theory in link below). And even ignoring all that, story is based around Relic that is connected to Fall Maiden.

Ok, but why do I bring this up? It's simple, it's the story written by RWBY writers, not some centuries old fairy tale. What's the point of writing a story, have characters in the show play roles similar to the ones in the story if it's not gonna mean anything. I guess it adds to the world building. If Jaune ends up killing Cinder, nobody is gonna even flinch. Nobody is gonna go "oh, this subverts Indecisive King, what a twist" since subversion of the story is based on majority expected conclusion. If references to Indecisive King were more direct and story itself more known, I'd consider completely subverting it to be plausible. But as I see it, there is no point in subverting something if nobody knows what are you subverting.

ADAM AND CINDER:

Hold on, am I forgetting about the elephant in the room? Or more accurately, forgetting about edgelord bull in the room. Adam was introduced with lot of Beast references, and yet not only does he not end up with Blake, gets killed by her. And since Cinder and Adam are similar in some regards, and Cinder is nemesis to Jaune, she will meet similar fate and end up subverting her references. I feel like this doesn't work for several reasons.

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First of all, you need to have some expectations for them to be subverted. At the beginning of the story we didn't know much about Adam. What we did know was that he is morally questionable but seemingly fights for the good cause. He was framed as more of a sympathetic villain or anti hero. So when you have him as Beast reference, there is some expectation Blake might return to him and change him for the better. Of course, that didn't happen and it was soon revealed Adam is completely evil and he would have no redemption arc. For better or worse, expectations were subverted. You still have some fans to this day that think Adam was set up for a redemption arc but writers changed their mind and made him complete asshole.

With Cinder, it's the complete opposite. Character was introduced as a villain, seemingly with motivation of being evil for the sake of being evil. She only ever interacted with Jaune as his nemesis. Nobody except weirdos like me have expectations Cinder will even be redeemed, let alone end up with Jaune. Majority of community expects Jaune will avenge Pyrrha and in some way be the cause of Cinder's downfall. Repeating Adam's story with Cinder doesn't work with latter as it does with former. Ironically enough, playing Joan of Arc story mostly straight would be massive subversion of expectations.

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Second of all, consistency and timing of references. Yeah, Adam was initially reference to the Beast. He is Bull Faunus and Beast tends to appear similar to Minotaur. He has rose as an emblem, Beast is afflicted with rose curse. He was abandoned by Blake just like Beauty ran away from the Beast. That's pretty straightforward and easily recognizable for average viewer. However, references stop after he was revealed to be completely evil. His role shifted to more of Disney's Gaston or rose curse, being existential threat to Blake and Yang. So he played his role as the Beast until the big reveal and shifted to appropriate villain role. He also served as a red herring to Yang's Beast.

With Cinder, it once again goes opposite way. Her early role in the story evokes different expectations. Theory as old as time itself is that Cinder would be the one to kill Jaune since he is Joan of Arc and she is fire themed. That combined with her role in Fall of Beacon and her quest for power made her to appear as more of reference to Joan's enemy, Duke of Burgundy. However, as story goes on she becomes more of a reference to King Charles VII (her backstory in Volume 8 especially added lot to the King references). If they were pulling Adam again, why bother adding so many allusions to Joan's King after Cinder was revealed to be Jaune's nemesis. It's not really even a subversion because unlike Adam as Beast, Cinder as King is not as obvious as a reference. It's hard to appreciate subversion if you don't even know what's being subverted.

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And lastly, this one is subjective, but it's boring as shit. While Cinder does share lot of elements with Adam, at the end of the day they are different characters with different motivations. Adam's motivations were deeply connected to Blake. Him going after people close to her and becoming "ship hater" made sense. Turning Cinder into Whiteknight "ship hater" is massive disservice to the character and goes against her established goal. Why the hell would she care if Jaune is with Weiss when her primary goals are taking Maiden powers and killing Ruby.

It ends up being extremely repetitive story with villains getting reduced to just "ship haters". I mean, what is next? Is Salem gonna be Rosegarden "ship hater" and break Oscar's weapon? Which ship is Tyrian hating? Be it villain or redeemed, I doubt Cinder's fate will mirror Adam's (or at least I think it will be boring if they end up going there).

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This is mostly my reasoning why I read literary references to Knightfall relatively straightforward and why I don't think they are playing some 3D chess with subversions. If they are doing Knightfall they are doing it, if not, then it's likely gonna be more about people like me reading too much into random references and seeing patters that don't exist then about them doing some multi layered subversion. Either way, that's all for today, some Knightfall, some Bumbleby, lot of rambling

#jaune arc #rwby jaune arc #cinder fall #rwby cinder fall #knightfall #rwby knightfall