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#rwby the greatest kingdom
epic-arc · 1 month
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Last Survivor Au
Well, I came here to comment on more headcanons about the ''sole survivor'' au and that I can help @howlingday with the plot or ideas, I hope you like it guys. I'm going to start with history and events for characters and to finish psychologically, so look at the sky and welcome to this infinite tsukuyomi
History and Events:
Well for the death of the rwby and (j)npr teams and I believe that cardin's team died, that would count as 11 deaths in something that was just to present the school and test the qualities of the students. With this death count, Beacon and Ozpin would gain a bad reputation from other kingdoms and give themselves to the people of Vale, thereby potentially accelerating certain events that take place in volumes 1 to 3.
With Blake's death in this universe, many events that happen with White Fang that are explored in this volume and in the 4th would be faster, but in a bad sense, with Blake's death, Adam could use her as an example to gain more trust between the faunus.
Ironwood looking at this death count could end up giving Ozpin a slight scolding but it would help him with more protection in the kingdom and speeding up the introduction of penny. Coming back in the white fang trope because of this the introduction of sun would also be faster than in canon.
Characters:
Jaune would probably take practical classes or be forced to spend some time because of his psychology. Maybe he would gain a slight fame among the other students but nothing exaggerated, It's maybe because of the events I mentioned ozpin could try to form a team between Jaune Sun and Penny, Probably at first Jaune might think it's a bad idea but I'll do that leave it with @howlingday .
Characters that appear in future volumes like Oscar I can only see them in the future, because following the canon Oscar wouldn't have a reason to enter Beancon other than Ozpin, but maybe we can change that in this universe like Ozpin launching more opportunities for kingdoms for people who want to be hunters to join beacon.
I commented about Jaune gaining fame, He would have a fan of being the only survivor but it would be something like a curse, Everywhere he goes people recognize him as the only survivor, Newspapers try to interview him to discuss more about the case of the 11 deaths but he always refuses
Psychologically:
We know that Jaune is one of the characters with a bad psychology but there are two characters who butt heads, Winter and Tai. Winter being the older sister who believed that her younger sister was strong for the world to respond with the news of her death, Tai is a former hunter who lost his wife and was abandoned by another, having to take care of his daughters alone with his teammate, He trusted that the two were strong and then heard the tragic news of their death,
Ozpin gained another weight on his back because in his vision because of his trust and irresponsibility he caused the death of potential hunters and one of the people who contained a power that could help in his greatest objective, And perhaps he killed one of the last people who had silver eyes.
Jaune after the incident would get a call from his family and they would talk and probably in free time Jaune would travel to visit them to help with his psychological issue, And I believe that Penny and Sun could be a company that would help Jaune to improve.
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rocknroll7575 · 6 months
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Cinder Mk ending
*Cinder setting human Salem ablaze*
Cinder: Once those brats made Salem human again and took her Grimm magic away, I did what I had to do! And took my place as the new Queen of the Grimm!
*Cinder being surrounded by RWBY, ARSON, Mercury, Qrow, and Winter*
Cinder: But just as took what was mine, those fools wanted to stop me... so I made them a deal
*Cinder and Ruby reluctantly shake hands while Jaune looks pissed*
Cinder: In exchange for controlling the most powerful Grimm and not attacking the Kingdoms directly, I was allowed to rule over the Grimm lands while the Huntsmen and Huntress of the world got to keep playing hero... but Nikos' partner didn't seem happy about that
*Everyone leaves while Jaune stays behind and watches over Cinder*
Cinder: The blonde knight stayed behind to keep an eye on me, which annoyed me but I would my end of the deal, after all... I'm the Queen of humanity's greatest enemy, I have more power than they'll ever know...
XXX
Now this makes me want to see a Fanfic where CInder becomes the Queen of the Grimm and Ruby lets her as long as she doesn't attack the kingdoms directly but Jaune not believing her, stays behind to keep an eye on her, and she's annoyed by that and the two try to live together, and they have a few Verbal and small physical fights before hate fucking.
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ficretus · 3 months
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Theory: Cinder will capture Jaune in Vacuo portion of the story
It's me, back again with another theory based on Joan of Arc story. This time, trying to figure out how her capture by Burgundians will be realized in RWBY story.... if we ever get to that part of the story. If it were to happen, it will most likely be in Volume 11 (I might make Volume 10 Joan of Arc theory one day).
I'd suggest reading my theory below to get better understanding of who do I read as what character and how do events that already happened figure out in their respective story timelines. If not, I'll still make quick tl;dr whenever something from that theory pops up.
First of all, let's start with why. Why would Jaune be captured at any point of the story? Jaune is one of the rare characters in the story who's primary inspiration gets captured in their story (other being Ruby), and no, I don't think Jaune being captured by Ace Ops will suffice for this. Joan of Arc' time in captivity was comparable to her time serving as a soldier (both being roughly one year), so I'd find it pretty weird if Jaune never gets captured as major plot point.
Timeline wise, it also matches. Volumes 4-5 match Loire campaign (pursuing the enemy, enemy fails to ambush them and suffers major defeat), Volume 6 is Rheims coronation (usage of Lantern/King is granted wisdom by Ampulla, both being oil containers), Volumes 7-8 are siege of Paris (both being greatest cities of their respective regions, Joan/Jaune suffers major defeat and retreats last over the bridge). I go over this in more detail in the timeline theory I linked above. Volume 9 is the only one I cannot connect to major event of Joan of Arc story, although that could be because Jaune becomes Rusted Knight during that portion of the story, temporarily ceasing to be Joan of Arc. This would make Vacuo portion of the story, theoretical Volumes 10-11, Joan of Arc' campaign against Perrinet Gressart, battle of Lagny and siege of Compiegne. Compiegne was the last battle Joan of Arc participated in, leading to her capture. So based on this, if Jaune ever gets captured, Vacuo portion of the story is the safest bet.
Cool, but why Cinder as his captor? Joan of Arc is captured by Burgundian army and Cinder matches Burgundian role in Joan of Arc story. Both side with enemy to achieve their goals (Burgundy sides with England, Cinder sides with Salem) ,both are power hungry with the goal of eventual freedom (Burgundy wanted to separate itself from France and become independent Kingdom), both have personal vendetta against enemy leader (Ruby reads as king Charles VII). On top of that, soldier that captured Joan of Arc was archer and Cinder is one of the rare characters in the series to use bow and arrow instead of firearms. Additionally, Joan of Arc was under shared jurisdiction of two enemy commanders, Lionel Bastard of Vendome and John of Luxembourg. Former had lame hand, latter had missing eye. If you overlay their injuries, you get Cinder again.
Why would Cinder capture him is different question who's answer will vary depending on interpretation of the events.
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Now that I explained why do I think it's incredibly plausible thing to happen, let's get to the interpretations.
First let me start with interpretation I strongly reject.
Theory 1: Cinder won't capture Jaune, she will kill him on the spot. This is one of those obvious interpretations dating back all the way back to early Volumes, ever since Cinder was revealed to be the fire user. She is fire, he is Joan of Arc, bam, perfect match (I guess Cinder will give Jaune and Pyrrha matching sweaters). There are couple of reasons I reject this interpretation.
I am sceptical about Jaune having tragic ending to his story. While it does make sense on paper considering Joan of Arc is his literary influence, it doesn't quite work with Jaune's story. Joan of Arc has series of triumphs before losing some battles at the end and getting captured. Jaune basically gets none of that, or at least scraps of successes Joan had. On top of that, he gets significantly more failures and suffering compared to Joan. Killing him like this would be like kicking the man while he is already down.
Story seems to reject Jaune's martyrdom, ironically in his battle with Cinder back in Volume 5. He goes in admitting he doesn't care about his own life as long as others succeed. Issue Jaune has is lack of self worth due to his perceived uselessness. For him, character development would be learning to value his own life and not throwing it away for what he thinks is greater good. Having him die in combat basically invalidates that. Him throwing away his life wouldn't be an issue in that case, it's the fact he tried to throw it away at the wrong point of the story.
Having Cinder kill him would feel pretty weird. Common aspect of their encounters is that she can kill him at almost any point but for some reason chooses not to (be it arrogance, sadism or something else entirely), even when she logically really should (there is no reason to not go for a kill when Jaune denied her Maiden power). Having Cinder kill him would feel like she at some arbitrary point decided to flip metaphorical kill switch and finally do it.
Now to interpretations I find more likely
Theory 2: Jaune will be captured and then turned into Grimm. This is taking Joan of Arc story pretty straight forward with some twists. In this version of the events, Cinder will capture Jaune, but not kill him, most likely sadism or because of something Salem ordered her to do. Burgundians ransomed Joan of Arc to the English, which will be mirrored with Cinder giving Jaune to Salem. She will turn him into Grimm akin to the Hound and force him to fight his friends. This will represent Joan's death as heretic. Joan of Arc was re-trialed years later at the orders of king Charles VII, who is Ruby in this version of the story. Duke of Alencon (who I read as Weiss) was one of the witnesses during rehabilitation trial, so I guess she'll help out as well. Ruby will purify Jaune and save his life, symbolizing Joan's rehabilitation.
Next thing is not Joan of Arc related, but what the hell, when will I ever get an opportunity to mention this. There is a another Grimm fairy tale about Snow White, in which she has sister Rose Red. This always bothered me, since it works so well with Ruby and Weiss but story seemingly has no relevance in RWBY plot. They meet a talking bear they take care of. Then they meet evil dwarf several time, always helping him, but he is always ungrateful. In the end, bear kills dwarf, revealing himself to be cursed prince dwarf turned into a bear so he can steal his treasure. Snow White then marries cursed prince and Rose Red marries his brother, the end. So, what does this has to do with anything I said paragraph before? Well, if Jaune does become Grimm and he becomes let's say, Ursa like Grimm, then things get more interesting. He becomes cursed prince from the story that ends up marrying Snow White, making this effectively Whiteknight (Cinder can be then read as evil dwarf since she'd be one responsible for his curse and she stole his treasure, Pyrrha). This would also imply Rosegarden since Rose Red marries prince's brother (Oscar being another cursed prince).
This interpretation does rob Jaune of lot of agency post capture since he'd be esentially mind controlled, but it does hit enough Joan of Arc story beats for me to consider it plausible. This would also shift Cinder to being primarily Weiss' rival since Jaune would be out of commission.
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Theory 3: This is step 1 in Cinder's redemption arc. Time to get back to that particular rabbit hole, this time with 100% more Stockholm syndrome. This one will have whole lot speculative canon, but I'll try to reinforce each point with Joan of Arc parallel.
Ok, how the hell does that work? Well first, we need to get back to that double timeline theory I linked at the beginning. To sum it up, timeline 1 goes from Joan's arrival at Chinon to her heresy trial, timeline 2 goes from Joan's childhood to her victory at Orleans. These 2 timelines overlap creating complete narrative (V5 is both Joan's Loire campaign and trip to Vaucouleurs, V8 is both siege of Paris and Joan's village being sacked, etc). I go into reasons why I use this method in that theory.
Anyways, last event I traced to 2nd timeline is Joan's village being sacked. She spends her time in city of Neufchateau before departing for Vaucoleurs to meet Robert de Baudricourt for the third time. Quick tl;dr, Cinder is Baudricourt in this timeline since both dynamic and timeline placements of her meetings with Jaune match Baudricourt's meetings with Joan. Both times, Baudricourt dissmisses Joan (first time borderline publically humiliating her), but third time he relents (motivated by his desperate circumstances and Joan's correct prediction of king losing key battle near Orleans) and sends her to king Charles' castle in Chinon. Sidenote, Cinder also plays the role of Charles VII in timeline 2 (backstories match, both have a crown that they cannot reach, both were raised by powerful queen dowager after running away from their home) which I don't feel is contradictory for the reasons I go more in my timeline theory. Additionally, Joan gained favor of two of Baudricourt's soldiers, Jean of Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy. This surprised Baudricourt considering both were notorious troublemakers. I translate those two into Emerald and Mercury in my timeline theory.
Cool, but what does this has to do with Joan's capture? Well, we overlay this portion of timeline 2 onto Compiegne portion of timeline 1 to get the full story.
First to get back to Compiegne: Burgundian duke Philipp broke the peace treaty with king Charles VII and attacked Compiegne. Joan went there with relatively small army and in some sources, against king's orders. She rallied out to fight Burgundians, holding well, but ultimately getting captured. Burgundians were unable to take Compiegne (or they did but it was quickly recaptured, I've seen both).
So full translation to RWBY would be: Cinder manages to outsmart Ruby and gets into position where it's likely she'll take Maiden power and Relic. Jaune shows up as the last line of defense, likely fighting her together side by side with Emerald and Mercury (I believe Mercury will be redeemed in Volume 10, partially due to Joan of Arc story). This can be interesting callback to either Cinder, Emerald and Mercury taking on Amber or Jaune confronting Cinder with Emerald and Mercury by her side like in Volume 5 (their roles now being reversed). Similar to Volume 5, Jaune will likely hit several sour spots for Cinder (this is reference to Joan telling Baudricourt her visions and them turning out to be true). They lose after putting up a good fight but buy enough time for others to reinforce and prevent Cinder from obtaining the Maiden power and Relic (or Cinder takes too much damage in the fight). Cinder makes spur of the moment desperate decision and captures Jaune while running away (this matches Compiegne, Jaune gets captured but enemy doesn't achieve their objective). Capture kind of works with timeline 2: if Cinder is both Baudricourt and King, then she is effectively sending Jaune to herself, that to me reads like capture.
Several of her comrades try to free Joan, but by the time they reach the place where she is held as prisoner, she is already moved to different castle. This can also happen in the show, breaking the trend of main cast successfully rescuing their captured friend from previous volumes. Jaune would then be taken to Salem with Cinder (who'll likely get punished for her failures) arguing she can exchange Jaune for location of Relic of Choice (maintaining the part of the story Joan is held for ransom). Similar to theory 2, I'd expect Jaune's capture to last at least one full volume.
Ok, that's cool and all, but what does this have to do with Cinder's redemption in any shape or form:
They are forced together for extended period of time. Additionally, there will be nobody else for them to interact with. Eventually, they'll have to interact in some shape or form. I would expect lot of initial setbacks considering Joan of Arc attempted to escape twice. But still, it would be pretty weird if they just grumbled at each other whole time and then go back to fighting. Come on man, they are foils that don't know they are foils, do something with that.
Neither can hurt each other. Jaune cannot hurt her since he is her prisoner, she cannot hurt him without risking the prospect of deal falling off (and as shown when threatened by Neo, Cinder considers her death plausible outcome if she screws up the Relic). That means Jaune can meaningfully verbally challenge Cinder without the risk of dying (hello Watts). This also wouldn't be reach to happen, considering he does similar thing in Volume 5. Basically, Cinder will be stuck with Jaune as voice of consciousness entire volume without being able to get rid off it.
This transitions relatively well into Indecisive King story. In that story, Widow (basically Jaune) spends time in King's castle before eventually confronting him over Relic of Choice. Joan of Arc similarly spends time in King's castle at Chinon. In both stories Jaune coded character spends time with Cinder coded character before eventually changing them for better.
As usual, I decided to make Cinder portion needlessly long and complicated. Anyways, what are your thoughts? Did I miss any plausible interpretations?
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kyraxyrespace · 1 year
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Evolution of White Knight in RWBY (Volume 7)
Episode 7.1 “The Greatest Kingdom” has a brief, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment. While the group is at Pietro’s pharmacy, Pietro identifies Weiss, which surprises her since she’s never met him before (though she is a bit of a public figure as the Schnee heiress, so it shouldn’t have been that big a surprise). She takes a step back, an action that is mimicked by Jaune, who she is standing nearby.
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Episode 7.4 “Pomp and Circumstance” has another brief moment for the two. While Qrow has a talk with Ruby, Weiss can be seen having a conversation with Jaune and Ren. She’s seen standing next to him when the newly minted Hunters and Huntresses are shown the mission board, showing that she’s more comfortable in his presence.
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Episode 7.6 “A Night Off” has a callback to Volume 2. Blake and Yang are going clubbing with FNKI and Ruby, Ren and Nora go to Robyn’s victory party, leaving Weiss with one of three options: go with Blake and Yang, go with Ruby, Ren, and Nora, or stay at the academy. None of the options are appealing to her. She has a dislike of Robyn Hill, so she doesn’t want to go to the party and even expresses annoyance that the three are going. She also doesn’t want to go clubbing. Aside from the fact night clubs might not be Weiss’ scene, she’s also annoyed by Blake and Yang’s antics. Jaune and Oscar appear at the doorway, and Jaune asks if anyone wants to go see a movie with him and Oscar. Jaune hasn’t even finished his question before Weiss replies with a “yup!” and goes with them, not even hesitating. This is a callback to Volume 2 when Jaune asked Weiss to the movies, which she turned him down for. While it could be seen as Weiss having no other options, she is still willing to go to the movies with him (and Oscar).
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Episode 7.8 “Cordially Invited” has the group along with Ironwood, Winter, Penny, and the Ace Ops at the Schnee Mansion. While Weiss is being held up by her brother Whitley, Jaune comes up with a plan to get Whitley’s attention off of Weiss so that she could do some snooping. It’s interesting to note that it’s Jaune who comes up with this and not Ruby.
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dragynkeep · 9 months
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You know what’s confusing:
Salem had a greatest chance to finally win.
Atlas and ironwood are gone.
She has two relics
Everyone in the desert kingdom is in disarray and distrust.
Grimm swarming the land etc
So why the heck did she wait around and do nothing until they (unrealistic) repaired amity and banded together?
Why even wait seriously???
same reason she waited for like 30+ years between maria & summer, then a further 10+ between summer's disappearance & the attack on beacon with ruby — the writers don't know what to do with her.
salem's motivation is still so unclear: does she want to die, does she want her & ozma to die together, does she want to rule over this new humanity. what about the silver eyes? & the maidens, the relics? without knowing this motivation concretely — which even the writers don't seem to know — then not only can none of her actions make sense, but there's nothing for the protagonists to fight against.
we don't know what actions rwby should be taking to stop salem besides "stop her from getting the relics", which they've failed at twice now. ruby acts so brave saying they're going to stop salem but stop her from doing what? we don't know, rwby doesn't know, the writers don't even know!
salem suffers so much from a lack of consistency in her writing, poor management of her scenes so she's barely in the goddamn show she's meant to be the main villain of & most of all, from just not being a good villain. i don't feel scared for our protagonists or the world when she begins her plans finally because we know there's going to be some way for them to win in the game we don't even know the rules of, or how to win. it makes it incredibly easy for the showrunners to bullshit whatever they need & incredibly frustrating for the audience to watch it unfold.
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howlingday · 4 months
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Godzilla in Remnant: What are the odds when Atlas tests their new Anti-Kaiju weapon or when the Kingdoms digging out space for an Anti-Kaiju bunker that a new Kaiju is discovered?
So I've been talking with a buddy of mine at work, who is also a RWBY fan. And he brought up some really good points and ideas for the Godzilla in Remnant story.
First, he said he liked the idea of a pure white beam for his "atomic breath". He also suggested having Godzilla breathe dust crystal, which I thought would be pretty cool, too. However, he also mentioned that RWBY already has so much going on, with magic, semblances, Grimm, aura, alternate dimensions, that throwing Godzilla into the mix would be tricky.
He said it would be a tricky subject, too, since Argus is now flattened and the Grimm are going to start swarming over the area due to the DEVASTATING amount of negativity Godzilla brought. Also, the fact that Salem's biggest Grimm was destroyed so easily is going to set off a chain reaction across Remnant, especially since it's WAY bigger than what Huntsmen are normally equipped for.
As we were walking and talking on the subject, an idea came to me. The Relics. Specifically, The Relic of Knowledge. Every one hundred years, the Relic of Knowledge permits three questions to be asked and answered. So I thought, "Hey, what if Ozma asked about Remnants greatest threat and it turned out it wasn't Salem?" Then I learned that 1. You can't ask about the future. And B. Ozma spent them all in The Lost Fable.
So I thought, dang. What now? Because there was an idea I had that would've given humanity an edge. Something that would make them able to protect themselves from Godzilla and any other Kaiju that comes their way. And that's when I found the loophole... The gap.
See, RWBY's events are so greatly spaced between whenever The Brothers gifted humanity and when the Relic was last used that we could find our questions before Ozma asked. Among these questions, one of them could have been "How can we protect humanity?" And Jinn shows them an image of a human as tall as a tower, stepping on Grimm and striking even larger Grimm. Which leads us to my idea... The Guardians (name is a work in progress).
The Guardians are essentially giant magic mechs designed to protect humanity from enormous threats. However, such power would be too dangerous in human hands, so humanity locked them away and sealed them like they did the Relics, and to ensure that they could not be used in tandem, the Relic Vaults were hidden in one location, with the Guardian Vaults hidden in another, maybe even requiring high-level magic to unlock, instead of a maiden. I don't know. I'm just brainstorming at this point.
What do you guys think? Should there be Guardians? Should there be other Kaiju tossed in? Should I start designing Grimm to fight Godzilla? Please let me know! I'm having a lot of fun with your questions, suggestions, and feedback!
Until then, keep up the good work!
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invincibleweasel · 2 months
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thebunnyremix · 2 years
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RWBY Volume 7
Chapter 1: The Greatest Kingdom
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strykingback · 8 months
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Fuck it! Lets Make a RWBY Character!
Underneath a Readmore due to length.
Alright I just have this sneaking suspicion that some RWBY stans might be telling me that if I hate RWBY try making a RWBY series myself... which does make a lot of sense... except theres one teensy problem.
ITS SO FUCKING EASY
Now for example, most the characters in RWBY are either based around actual fairytales such as Ruby being Red Riding Hood, Adam being the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, and Cinder being Cinderella.
Historical or Mythological like Pyrrha, Salem, and Djinn.
Or just simply using a RANDOM color and then finding something that would fit their last name.
Now.. for me I prefer creating characters from Mythology or History. So today I want to create a character from the annals of history itself. Now comes maybe the medium to difficult part.
In what point in time are they from in RWBY
The Ancient past of Remnant? The Present Time? Or the Future?
Now this part can be easy if you just simply choose the Present but if you're choosing the Past then expect some difficulty as the levels there are basically with error. Such as: How would they be able to get to the present? We're they made immortal by the God of Light and Darkness at one point.
Now there are some workarounds to this (Once again RT does not want to expand their lore sometimes.)
Usually the good ol': They were made Immortal Sealed Away by some mages to rest or Cryogenically Frozen and even Sent Forward Through Time.
If you are aiming for the future you might as well be careful as this can be a bit tricky and usually the big question is this
Are they a child from the main cast? If so what is their relation to them? So enough of me rambling about that. So I want to create a character during the Present Time! Now how do I go about this and its usually the namimg part that is the hardest. So now its time to start researching!.
For example, I want a character that manages to perform some amazing tricks of magic.(Even though they are in no means a Mage!)
Simply do one thing look up: Great Magicians Throughout History, etc.
Now I usually want to tell people this one thing to be VERY careful especially looking up famous individuals, because while the name could fit with the character you are looking for, you need to think about how that person was throughout history. Such as Coco Chanel....which CRWBY failed to do their RESEARCH ON the dumbasses.
Plus it does NOT hurt to look through their history and come to a conclusion if it would fit your character well enough. So I have decided that our magicians character will be called.
Harlequin Houdini.
Since Harlequin is a brighter variant of a Green Tint and the Houdini part comes from the famed magician Harry Houdini.
Now comes the bio. Now this part can be a Very most tricky part since you wnat to be original, but sometimes originality can be born from tropes as well. Now dont get TOO tropey with it cause one or two tropes don't hurt at all.
So lets say Harlequin Houdini was born in the lands of Vale as part of a circus family that travels around the four great kingdoms of Remnant. However, little did he know that he had a great affinity for the magical being able to use his semblance "Showman" which he can put on a pompous act for his foes to focus on him as a means of distraction while his hat can act as a hammerspace for allied weapons to stick through to claim a shot
Yet, his Circus was beginning to run out of money and to save his beloved circus family, he would travel to Signal to study and then joining the ranks of Beacon Academy and passing the entrance exam with flying colors. thus he would gain his Hunters License and wuickly rose through the ranks of the Hunters gaining the title of: "The Greatest Showman on Remnant."
As for his semblance I think I explained how it works in the bio. But to further detail it. Show man allows our magical master to open hammerspace portals from our heroe to put their weapon through in order to get a quick shot, or throughout the fight Harlequin would use his semblance for his opponents to knock themselves out.
Lastly weapons.....
Simple he's a magician.
Top Hat and Wand. Thats it.
Well thats that for this.. and well I'm getting tired as of writing this its 3:42 and I gotta hit the hay. See you around.
Bonus Note- Will do revisions on this!
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supersaiyanjedi14 · 1 year
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RWBY COMBAT ANALYSIS: PENNY POLENDINA
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“Now that I'm the official protector of Mantle, I don't really have a team anymore. General Ironwood says I don't have time for friends. […] I feel like I wish I could do both the things I need to do and the things I want to do. Is that normal?”
My analysis of Penny Polendina will be based exclusively of her appearances prior to Volume 8 Episode 11, “Creation”, and her transformation into a human girl by the Relic of Creation.  The strengths and limitations of robot Penny are simply more interesting to discuss, and the narrative framing makes it abundantly clear that Penny’s humanization had a drastic effect on her combative capabilities.  It’s the same reason why Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader are treated as separate entities despite being the same person; they have been, for all intents and purposes, been given a new body and therefore cannot fight in the same way they used to. With all of that out of the way, let us begin.
PHYSICAL
The brainchild of the Atlas military’s greatest scientific minds, the P.E.N.N.Y. Project was another step among countless in James Ironwood’s perpetual mission to strengthen the kingdom’s defenses.  In this case, Dr. Pietro Polendina used some of his own Aura to infuse a high-grade android with his own soul, creating an artificial intelligence more advanced than any at the time.  Taking the form and mannerisims of a young girl, the android was dubbed “Penny” and raised by Polendina as his own daughter.  As much as Pietro wished for the girl to experience her own life to the fullest, military protocol took precedent, and Penny was outfitted with the programming and equipment needed to serve the defense of Atlas and Mantle.  However, Ironwood’s designs would take an unexpected turn when Penny was brought to Vale to participate in the 40th Vytal Festival.  Wandering off on her own, Penny encountered the rising stars of Team RWBY and played a critical role in disrupting Roman Torchwick’s operations.  Despite Ironwood’s attempts to rein in his asset, the bonds she forged with these girls, especially Ruby Rose, and the influence they would have on her would set the stage for Penny’s eventual transformation from a simple machine to a real girl in every sense of the word.
Despite her overly happy and friendly personality, Penny was first and foremost a piece of military hardware designed for the rigors of battle in the world of Remnant, from swarms of Grimm to the deadly agents of Salem.  Essentially a combat drone in the shape of a human girl, Penny stood at 5’5” and was made of a heavy-duty metal chassis concealed by fair synthetic skin and a mop of auburn hair.  Her green eyes housed military grade sensors and scanning equipment that allowed for night, infrared, and telescopic vision, her hands contained interface terminals that allowed her to access computers and other technology, rocket thrusters built into her feet allowed for sustained flight at extreme speeds, and a heads-up display built into her eyes allowed for regular monitoring of her systems and “vitals”.  Befitting her intended role, Penny’s athletic performance levels were specifically designed to match and surpass the greatest Huntsmen of her day, making her a surprisingly devastating physical combatant.  Possessing monstrous physical strength, she has manhandled and overpowered giant Grimm, deformed metal with her bare hands, and has casually lifted and thrown objects weighing hundreds of pounds.  Penny has stopped a speeding van with only her outstretched palms, hefted around a severed Megoliath tusk before impaling the creature on it, and in easily her greatest feat of physical might, aided in pushing the gargantuan Amity Tower satellite into the upper atmosphere following her duel with Cinder Fall.  Even without her rockets, Penny was quick on her feet, covering ground with powerful leaps and running charges, while evading attacks with quick sidesteps and nimble dodges.  Compared to her contemporaries, Penny has matched the swiftness of high caliber opponents like Pyrrha Nikos, Cinder Fall and all four surviving Ace-Ops simultaneously, with Harriet Bree being the only member of the group to come close to outpacing her.  Though her weapon set left her hands free, negating the actual need for developed dexterity, Penny still demonstrated incredible reflexes and precision in her core fighting style, manipulating her blades to do everything from deflecting projectiles to outfencing opponents to slicing cakes.  In virtually all of her fights, she has spun and thrown her blades to land critical hits at weak flanks, and she has even caught a thrown sword with only her hands while in midair
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While Penny’s Aura meant that she had a natural defense against minor wounds, her nature as a designed-and-built combat drone made that part somewhat redundant.  Pietro Polendina claimed that his daughter could withstand anything so long as her core was left intact, and as such, she has taken an inconceivable amount of punishment.  She has shrugged off incoming strikes without even acknowledging them, suffered only cosmetic damage when struck by a speeding delivery van, endured a heavy crash to the ground from a Goliath in Mantle, was slammed through the walls of the Atlas medical facility during her initial confrontation with Cinder, and later walked casually through Fria’s magic blizzard when the Maiden unleashed her power.  Furthermore, Penny’s limbs and extremities were little more than add-ons, and while amputations would certainly impede her overall performance, it would not be nearly as detrimental as it would to a flesh-and-blood person.  Stamina wise… well, it’s kind of moot considering she literally has no way of producing fatigue toxins.  In what is easily her greatest show of durability, after she was hacked by Arthur Watts, Penny endured a fall of several thousand feet from the Amity tower base before crashing into the Schnee manor driveway, and despite suffering severe blunt force trauma that caused lubricants and other fluids to leak from her chassis, she remained alive and was still able to walk after only minor “medical” attention from Klein Sieben.  Even accounting for Watts’ virus taking over when she grappled with the Hound, the simple fact she could maintain combat performance without any noticeable difficulty despite what she went through is awe-inspiring.  However, as tough as she was, there were limits to Penny’s resiliency.  While she was naturally resistant to blades and gunfire and could technically fight indefinitely so long as her systems were functioning, she could still feel pain, seen when Cinder tried to forcibly steal the Winter Maidenhood from her at Amity.  Furthermore, her joints were vulnerable to focused cuts, her original body being destroyed when Pyrrha Nikos repelled her weapon and got her limbs tangled in the wires, dismembering her.  But considering how she’s almost literally built like a tank, effectively exploiting these vulnerabilities would take nothing less than a miracle.
Given that she was a robot, armor was relatively redundant for Penny, as her body was already durable enough to protect her from all but the most severe of injuries.  Furthermore, as she was typically masquerading as a normal girl, such combat-related gear would have been far too conspicuous for her liking as well as clashing with her own preferences.  Instead, Penny dressed in casual civilian clothing that was as far removed from her military affiliation as possible.  When she was rebuilt by her father following the Fall of Beacon, Penny wore a white blouse with frilled sleeves and a green overall skirt, with a black ascot tied around her neck.  She further accessorized with lacy black gloves, black shoes, and a large pink metallic bow atop her head, exemplifying her innocence in spite of the weapon she was designed to be.
RANKING: Tier 1, Baseline Superhuman
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Penny Polendina possessing the highest physical ranking is obvious and inarguable by the simple fact that, at least on a physical level, she ISN’T human.  Her body was specifically designed and built, not just out of metal, but for hard combat.  Her strength, speed, and durability are naturally far beyond human limits, her foot rockets provide her with unlimited mobility, and worst-case scenario, she can even shrug off amputations.  While her original destruction and the circumstances of her hacking prove that there are limits to Penny’s resiliency, reaching that point is such a high bar that most conceivable opponents cannot hope to reliably exploit them.  As warm as she is, Penny Polendina is nonetheless one of the most terrifying physical threats in the RWBY setting, a true killing machine.
MARTIAL
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Penny Polendina was armed with the Floating Array, ten single-edged short swords that could be converted into energy pistols.  These weapons were attached to near-invisible wires that extended from a compartment built into Penny’s back, connected to her central processing unit to allow for coordination without physically holding them.  Each blade was collapsible, appearing to be about two feet long when fully extended, and featured a concave bend in the center similar to an ancient Mediterranean kopis or falcata.  The swords featured a simple black handgrip with a circular handguard which housed the electronics compartments.  As firearms, the swords kicked back the blades and bent the handles, capable of firing small beams of green energy for swarming volleys and precision shots. Furthermore, these beams could be combined, forming a single powerful blast of energy that has been shown to destroy bullheads with ease and stop a charging Goliath in Mantle.
Specifically designed to be the pinnacle of Atlesian military defense, Penny’s programming featured a heavy focus on combat, essentially turning her into a war droid in the shape of a young girl.  While Pietro Polendina raised her to be a kind, amicable and noble individual, traits elevated by her friendships with Team RWBY, Penny remained a committed and highly capable martial combatant, cutting her teeth in the months leading up to the Vytal Festival by stomping a contingent of White Fang operatives at the Vale docks.  Despite a serious lack of combat experience and little formal training, Penny made up for it with programming, her brain functioning as a combat computer that allowed for the skillful coordination of her multiple blades.  To put it mildly, Penny’s physical moveset was a multi-angled circular saw and flachete launcher all rolled into one.  By manipulating the wires connected to her back, Penny swung her swords as a devastating swarm of blades, favoring wide cleaving slashes, rotary spinning cuts, launching stabs, and windmill deflection parries.  However, despite this heavy offensive focus, Penny was not a single-minded machine, and in her battles, she clearly emphasized technique over brute force.  Though she was perfectly capable of unleashing a singular rapid-fire slashing onslaught, she preferred attacks form multiple vectors simultaneously, coordinating multiple weapons for different purposes to subvert and undermine to opponent’s defenses.  Extremely fast and agile, she supported her defensive component with nimble evasions both against projectiles and close quarters, even seen using her blades as grappling hooks to influence her environment, ranging from manhandling vehicles and Grimm to allowing for greater maneuverability.  Her use of her firearms function shared this emphasis, usually resorting to multiple guns firing at different places to box the opponent into a corner and cut off escapes, reserving the massive beam cannon to concentrate her power onto higher-grade targets.  Though she overwhelmingly favored the use of her weapons, Penny was perfectly capable of resorting to unarmed combat as well, supporting her bladework with punches, sweeping kicks, and arm sweeps.  Furthermore, upon becoming the Winter Maiden, Penny expertly leveraged her new magical powers into her overall fighting method, typically gusts of wind to off balance large groups of enemies.
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In her tactics and conduct, Penny typically operated as a polished machine of war, deftly executing her style with calm efficiency and advancing with determination and fearlessness.  However, the influence of her father and friends, as well as the nature of her technique, meant that Penny was not a straightforward dervish reliant on simply overwhelming her enemies.  Instead, Penny worked towards the path of least resistance, using her range of techniques to control the flow of the engagement.  She demonstrated an emphasis on targeting weak flanks and subverting defenses, working around her opponents’ guard rather than just beating into it like a sledgehammer.  This approach was enabled by her use of multiple weapons, often drawing the opponent’s attention with one form of attack before blindsiding them with several more.  On the battlefield, she deftly unleashed her blades to overwhelm targets quickly and efficiently, quickly recovering her guard and keeping her might in reserve.  In single combat, Penny applies this same mentality to attack at multiple angles simultaneously, tying up the opponent’s weapon and attention to prevent them from bringing their full might to bear against any one attack.  She supported this offensive stance with a retaliatory defensive component, blocking incoming attacks before instantly countering.  The volume and variety of her offensive output combined with her speed, precision, and mechanical focus made Penny an extraordinarily adaptable and lethal combatant.  Against the White Fang, Penny tore through the mooks with ease before moving on to the Bullheads, using two blades to anchor herself to the ground before sending the others to tear one out of the sky.  She followed this up by opening up distance and firing her energy beam to dismantle the remaining ships.  However, though quite proactive and decisive, Penny had difficulty adapting to abrupt style shifts, and her approach could be undercut if she is distracted or blindsided.  Arguably the greatest demonstration of Penny’s tactics in single combat was her duel with Pyrrha Nikos during the Vytal Festival Singles Bracket, during which her multangular offensive was able to strike at all of Pyrrha’s flanks simultaneously and pressure her defenses, while her own defensive component was strong enough to fend off all of Pyrrha’s counters before quickly retaliating.  The fight functionally ended when Penny disarmed Pyrrha, though this victory was rendered hollow when Pyrrha, under the influence of one of Emerald Sustrai’s illusions, lashed out with her Semblance, entangling Penny in her own wires and dismembering her.
After her reconstruction, Penny continued to operate as the protector of Mantle, killing Grimm infestations that threatened the city while Ironwood continued his Amity project.  The activity in Atlas proved to be the greatest demands made of Penny, both martially and emotionally, as Salem’s machinations and Ironwood’s oversights came to a head.  During the Battle of Mantle, Penny aided the defense by cutting through Grimm hordes, later coordinating with Ruby and Harriet Bree to take down a rampaging Alpha Megoliath.  When Cinder Fall infiltrated the Atlas compound, Penny and Winter Schnee were dispatched to secure the venerable Winter Maiden Fria, though Penny actively voiced her dissatisfaction with this turn of events despite Winter’s reassurances.  However, this debate was aborted when Cinder followed them to the medical center, the pair joining forces to defend Fria.  Though they kept her on her toes and matched her power where and when it counted, Penny’s rapid-fire attacks proving a good foil for the Fall Maiden’s dual-wielding style, Cinder’s ferocity was too great, and Penny was forced to abort the fight to save Winter after her Aura broke.  Fortunately, Cinder’s assassination attempt was foiled when Fria cut loose, giving Penny the opportunity to comfort the old woman and inherit the power herself.  Defecting from Ironwood as he prepared to abandon Mantle, Penny assisted Ruby, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Nora Valkyrie, and May Marigold in infiltrating the compound themselves to obtain the launch codes for Amity Tower.  Intercepted by the surviving Ace-Ops, Penny refused to give in to Harriet’s manipulations and engaged the quartet after being forcibly separated.  Though she was blindsided by Bree’s speed and Vine Zeki’s Aura Vines, Penny still acquitted herself extremely well, leveraging both her versatile weapon set and her new Maiden powers to keep them off their game and respond in kind.  Penny was only subdued when Marrow Amin froze her with his Semblance, though Nora’s destruction of the office door provided an opportunity to escape. Ultimately, the fight was rendered inconclusive when Penny received reinforcements and Ironwood ordered Bree to simply steal one of Penny’s swords for Arthur Watts.  This confrontation would soon be followed by her rematch with Cinder Fall at Amity.  Here, Cinder initially gained some ground by using Penny’s own tactics against her while also leveraging her ferocity and power to bully through her interference and attempt to steal her powers.  Luckily, Penny managed to break free and continue fighting, ultimately besting Cinder when she saw through Emerald’s illusions and blasted Cinder with a sustained energy barrage.  Only Emerald’s threat to continue damaging the tower stopped Penny from killing Cinder outright.  After crashing at Schnee Manor, Penny was hacked by Watts’ virus and attempted to mindlessly leave for the Relic Vault, though she was intercepted by the Hound, who used his extra limbs to manhandle her and subdue her.
RANKING: Tier 2, Advanced Mastery
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Penny Polendina’s advanced skill level makes her one of the most dangerous martial artists in the RWBY setting despite lacking the dedicated training and experience of more established Huntsmen.  She possesses an incredibly versatile and flexible fighting technique that shows emphasis on leveraging power, precision, and control to control the flow of the engagement, going for the throat by creating a path of least resistance.  However, while she has proven her mettle against many of the premier warriors of her day, she is not without her limits.  Penny’s initial death and her stumbles with the Ace-Ops prove that she can be subverted in turn, her encounters with Cinder and the Hound show that she can have difficulty contending with overwhelming force, and she simply lacks the experience to deal with the unorthodox.  Furthermore, her style is based on programmed attack sequences rather than developed techniques, so her performance level is capped somewhat.  Fortunately, these issues are only really relevant when she is faces with opponents at or around her own level, and Penny never repeated her mistakes, learning from experience and adjusting her pattern accordingly.
SPECIAL
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Penny’s Semblance, if she has one at all, is unconfirmed, nor is there any parallel to be made with her father.  As a scientist and academic, Pietro’s Aura was likely developed solely for practicality rather than combative application, so any Semblance he may have is unlikely to have been discovered.  However, the Aura that Pietro sacrificed to create Penny was clearly more than enough to provide her with all the benefits of a flesh-and-blood person’s, her Aura being just as strong as anyone else’s.  Even without a supernatural superpower, Penny’s body was built with various gadgets and tools that provided her with special abilities.  Though most of these were covered in the Physical breakdown, Penny’s varied visual processors, computer interface, and propulsion systems still provided extranormal traits and abilities that furthered her combative viability.  Specifically, her vision provided her with unparalleled capabilities for rooting out infiltrators, seeing through Emerald Sustrai’s illusions by targeting Cinder Fall’s heat signature and revealing Tyrian Callows during his massacre in Mantle, though the chaos created prevented her from apprehending him.  Furthermore, the heads-up-display in Penny’s eyes allowed her to regularly keep track of her own systems, and could be updated with blueprint data to support navigation, seen when she casually calculated the fastest route to the control center at the Atlas base.  Practically speaking, the concentrated energy beam created by the Floating Array was her most readily available and commonly used combative ability, generating massive blasts capable of destroying heavy machinery and incapacitating high-caliber Grimm.
During the upheaval caused by Cinder Fall following the Battle of Mantle, the Winter Maiden Fria passed away, leaving Penny to inherit the power.  Like her contemporaries Cinder, Amber, and Raven Branwen, Penny possessed tremendous elemental powers and control over the weather, these abilities stemming from a source independent of her own Aura.  Among the various abilities offered by the Maiden powers, Penny appeared to favor wind manipulation, using powerful gales to throw the Ace-Ops around during their battle and keep them from regularly closing the distance.  During this same encounter, Penny created a contained thunderstorm as an anti-personnel attack, releasing hail on the Ace-Ops, and she was likely capable of using lightning in a similar fashion.  During her subsequent duel with Cinder at Amity, Penny demonstrated her proficiency in utilizing ice when she halted Cinder’s attempts to melt the support beams, using freezing streams to stabilize them.  Though this gave Cinder an opportunity to close in with her claws, Penny broke free and attacked her with an ice replica of the Floating Array.  While she was fighting Arthur Watts’ computer virus at Schnee Manor, Penny lost control of her powers, unleashing storms of magical energy that struck out in all directions and would have likely caused significant damage to the surrounding area had Nora not snapped her out of it.  Given this storm was visually similar to the blizzard Fria conjured in her last moments, it is entirely possible that this was a glimpse into Penny as a “fully realized” Maiden, indicating what she may have been had she been allowed to continue training with her powers.  However, I do not believe that this feat is something Penny can consistently use on her own, instead being a circumstantial loss of control on her part.
Penny’s use of her special abilities were similar to her martial skills in that they had the mechanics of direct, robotic application of power, yet her programming and ingenuity allowed her to wield them as a fluid array of multitools.  Penny’s displays against the Ace-Ops are a perfect demonstration of her continued emphasis on undermining and subverting her opponents rather than just overwhelming them with almighty displays of god-like power.  Instead of ripping into them with tornados, fire storms and lightning, she used calculated bursts of power to escape their traps, keep them off their game, and whittle away at their defenses, the incident with the hail is easily the best specific example.  Against Cinder Fall, Penny negated her counterpart’s overwhelming onslaught by evading her attacks and used her own powers to strike at Cinder’s weak points when she was exposed.  However, while Penny’s programming allowed her to compensate for her inexperience using the Winter Maiden’s power, she seemed to display a lack of confidence in directly leveraging her might in battle, instead relying heavily on martial might wherever possible.  The incidents with the virus offer a glimpse into the destructive juggernaut Penny might have become had she lost these inhibitions, though they also demonstrate the limits of her skill.  As it stands, her inventive and tactically oriented use of her powers were typically enough to make up for this hesitation, and Penny was never truly defeated upon receiving Fria’s power.
RANKING: Tier 1, Dominating Combat
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Despite her gross inexperience, Penny Polendina’s fast learning allowed her to develop into a tremendously powerful Maiden in a very short span of time.  Her proficiency was likely another outgrowth of her combat computer, funneling the same programming that allowed her to subvert and overwhelm her enemies in swordplay into her use of her elemental powers.  In fact, I would argue that no other Maiden, except possibly Raven, has mastered the kind of skill-based applications of their powers to the same degree as Penny.  She combines subtle and creative uses of her various abilities with overwhelming power in all areas, channeling the might of nature itself through the precision and focus of a military-grade computer.  While this means her effectiveness is based on programed skill rather than developed skill, the sheer magnitude of her abilities guarantees that any attempt to combat her is going to have to be top tier at minimum.
OVERALL RANKING: TIER 1, SUPER HUNTRESS
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Penny Polendina’s strengths and weaknesses are tied to the fact that she is a designed and built combat module implanted with the soul of a young girl, making her a Super Huntress despite her unusual circumstances.  Her body is specifically built for hard combat, providing an athletic performance level that the overwhelming majority of combatants cannot replicate by the simple fact that their biology prevents it.  She is armed with an incredibly versatile and powerful weapon set that she uses to both overpower and subvert her opponents with deadly precision and devastating volume.  And she combines military grade gadgets and software with the powers of the Winter Maiden, mixing elemental destruction with technological focus.  Everything about Penny in a practical sense provides her with a varied approach to combat that she can use to bypass her enemies’ defenses and hit them right where it hurts in turn, elevated above and beyond by military-grade cybernetic enhancements and god-like magic powers.  However, Penny is still limited to the conflicting nature of her living and mechanical components.  Her skill is based on programming rather than training, meaning that she very much sticks to her own patterns and is not experienced at evaluating her opponents in the way truly developed masters can.  She is, essentially, a prodigy who took shortcuts, getting around the need for dedicated training by way of a superhuman body, magically inherited superpowers, and a combat database in place of a living brain.
While I do not hold anything I just said against Penny on a personal level, she does have her limitations that tie into her own unbalanced sense of identity.  Penny is a real girl, that is not up for debate.  But at the same time, she is conflicted over the developing feelings and understanding of real life and how they mesh with what she is programmed to do.  Everything that makes Penny one of the most powerful and dangerous combatants in the RWBY setting also, at least to her, alienates her from the joys of life she loves so much.  She is a caring, compassionate, and noble young woman who values her friends and family more than just about anybody, and a dedicated Huntress driven by a desire to protect the world and her kingdom from the threats of the world of Remnant, all the while being constructed as a living weapon to be used and abused as her superiors, James Ironwood in particular, saw fit.  Penny Polendina’s greatest strength in battle and greatest weakness in her personal life was that she was a true, and literal, killing machine. And yet, she chose to fight for every life.
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*originally posted on RoosterTeeth Community page on 03-27-21*
* all images taken from RWBY Wiki *
RWBY Combat Analysis
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bestworstcase · 2 years
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So, as an apparent Salem supporter (I've think you've even suggested the idea of her becoming a hero), how do you interpret her relationship with Cinder.
oh my god
okay
um
the salem-cinder dynamic occupies like, fully half of my rwby thoughts and i have been marinating on it virtually 24/7 for months so like: bear with me my brain is so noisy
(sidebar it’s SO funny to me that in both my fandoms my reputation is “immortal evil sorceress apologist-in-chief” mfgfndh)
anyway. cinder and salem. speaking broadly my feeling is that volume 8 telegraphed imminent villain-to-hero arcs for both of them pretty hard and—
actually. pause. um, i say villain-to-hero arc here in the very general sense of evil -> not evil, a character who is a villain undergoing development in some form that brings them out of the villainous role. what i do NOT mean is a redemption arc, which is a specific kind of villain-to-hero arc that i would define as oriented around Forgiveness By The Heroes and thoroughly embedded in, like, the moral hegemony of western christianity; this is a staunchly anti-redemption arc space and i think that there are promising signs of rwby being a narrative that is… critical of redemption as a concept, so i am pretty optimistic as to the likelihood of neither salem nor cinder undergoing redemption arcs specifically. rectangles and squares etc.
—so, i think volume 8 telegraphed pretty hard that both salem and cinder are on a trajectory away from being, you know. monsters—i’d argue that it’s been pretty evident for both of them since volume 6, but i’m hedging a bit here because up until v8 i had steep reservations vis a vis whether the narrative would swerve to validate the essential rightness of the gods’ position.
there’s—a lot of things v7-8 do which i will… try to sum up concisely:
salem is removed from the structural role of Main Antagonist within the first few episodes of volume 7, and at no point in 7 or 8 does she return to that role. this is a narrative choice that really doesn’t make sense to do at the point when your hitherto big bad literally turns up to lay siege to the kingdom in person unless you are setting up for her to very shortly NOT BE THE BIG BAD.
the show, in volumes 1 and 3, established a narrative convention that when the two narrators—salem and ozma—are speaking in voice over, they are speaking To Each Other; there is no real reason to think that the fear monologue used to frame salem’s arrival at the end of volume 7 doesn’t follow this convention (and a handful of things to suggest quite strongly that it DOES). ergo the narrative sort of raises the question of what salem is afraid of and who she becomes in her fear, thus countering ironwood’s earlier misconception that salem’s greatest advantage is an inhuman lack of fear and by extension raising at least the possibility of change, if she chooses.
similarly, cinder herself is enclosed within the bracket of the fear monologue, underscoring that she, too, is driven by unspoken fears—not a monster but a person who has gone to a very dark place because terror of something drove her there—and, of course, volume 8 subsequently reveals to us precisely what cinder is terrified of. (we already knew what salem fears; isolation, abandonment, the gods. lost fable made that clear.)
rhodes/ozma jumping to conclusions based on incomplete information with disastrous consequences parallel i lie awake at night thinking about this
the interpersonal dynamic between cinder and salem is also destabilized in… pretty dramatic fashion in volume 8, and the way it’s destabilized involves the narrative essentially putting salem into the role, in cinder’s life, that the gods occupied in salem’s; and while salem initially repeats the cruelties of (specifically) the god of light, she then walks that back and instead, literally, takes responsibility for cinder’s disobedience and later very uncharacteristically does not fly off the handle when she clocks that cinder is lying to her. both of these things are, of course, manipulative ploys—but i think significant nonetheless in that it’s also salem making two conscious choices, in quick succession, to not do to cinder what the gods did to her when she disobeyed one and lied to the other.
there is also, somewhat more tangentially, the open question of what precisely salem intends to do with the four relics—summon the gods obviously but ozpin’s assumption that she’s attempting suicide-by-apocalypse is merely an assumption, and volume 8 makes a deliberate point of dangling the possibility an omniscient spirit answering the question of what salem is trying to accomplish in front of our noses and then yanking it away by not actually asking the question.
moreover volume 8 makes it quite emphatically clear that both salem and cinder are, in their own ways, deeply preoccupied with feelings of helplessness in their situations and grasping for anything to rectify a perceived lack of choice: this is the volume wherein we learn that cinder was a literal child slave and she equates power with freedom, and even on the doorstep of atlas with the staff of creation mere inches from her fingertips salem puts the vast majority of her effort toward discovering the location of the crown of choice.
so we have two characters with very closely mirrored arcs, driven into monstrosity by their fears of powerlessness and isolation, desperate craving for freedom twisted into absolute ruthlessness in pursuit of that goal; one of them is the literal maiden of choice and the other the architect of human rebellion against divine tyranny. in volume 8 they also become the instigators of change in each other—salem’s cruelty is the direct cause of cinder’s bucking against salem’s commands, and… the unique importance salem puts on cinder for whatever reason incites her changed tactics after that rebellion begins. the arc of the volume ends with them alone together, the remainder of salem’s forces either having defected or departed for vacuo; i think there is at least a 50/50 chance the two of them are headed to vale, not vacuo, given salem’s singular focus on the crown. this is all very tantalizing, in terms of where we go from here.
what makes all of this especially interesting is the question of what it would take for either of them to make a meaningful change in course.
most rampant speculation in cinder-liking circles seems to be that she will, at some point, have her basic worldview shaken by being shown a kindness by one of the heroes; i say that wouldn’t work at all because cinder wouldn’t see anything but sanctimonious huntsmen doing what they always do. she needs to be shown what she can’t fathom now, which is the possibility of a world where people more powerful than she is do not wield that power to force her under their control. the heroes would, i think, be hard-pressed to do that, because my feeling is that cinder would interpret any display of mercy or compassion as having strings attached, an expectation that she fall in line and help serve them, and naturally if she lashed out and they defended themselves she would perceive it as proving her right. salem is—ironically given that she’s more or less madame 2.0—i think the character best positioned to give cinder that kind of shock to her fundamental understanding of the world: all it would take really is for the conciliatory song and dance of “it’s all my fault/you deserve so much more than i’ve given you” to become genuine. (if the cornerstone of your worldview is that freedom is power and power is stomping on people weaker than you, how do you reconcile someone almost more powerful than you can comprehend going i’m sorry and truly meaning it?)
salem is a… tougher nut to crack because the woman is walls stacked on top of more walls, but. if i’m right that what she meant by “replace them” was “replace the gods”—that her final statement in the lost fable was not a damning confession of some latent desire to do genocide but rather a poorly-worded reiteration of her extremely long-standing and deeply-entrenched desire to overthrow the gods once and for all—then i think what it probably comes down to is needing someone—anyone—to understand. she has, for millennia, wholly and completely surrendered control of the narrative to ozma, allowed him to erase her from history and conceal her existence from the entire world; she plays her cards so close to her chest that even her own inner circle are kind of just playing an evil rorschach game of guess the motive; yang spits her trauma back in her face and her response is to emotionally shut down. she’s… resigned, i think, to being seen as a monster, and that resignation is chiefly responsible for her being a monster; why bother trying to be good if no one will ever help her, if no one will ever believe in her, if no matter what she’ll never be able to prove that she isn’t just grimm?—and then we’ve got… cinder, who clearly admires and wants to emulate salem and equally clearly holds her in contempt for her restraint and who also exits volume 8 thinking of salem as a rival, not a leader. if anyone in this story, as it stands now, is going to be the one who finally just flat out fucking ask salem what she wants, cinder’s the likeliest candidate by a pretty wide margin.
[waves vaguely] furthermore—and this is something that has been haunting me for MONTHS—consider that:
cinder, in salem’s words, “holds the key to our victory”
one of the central themes of the story is the profound power of fear and hope
salem has said quite a lot about hope, and in contrast to ozpin’s preoccupation with fear as the stronger of the two qualities, explicitly describes hope as humanity’s greatest strength
every time salem talks about hope, she describes it figuratively as a fire. “even the smallest spark of hope can ignite change, breathe fire into the hearts of the weary,” etc.
a cinder is LITERALLY a spark.
😐
the funniest possible way for this to play out would be for cinder and salem to, like, power of friendship each other into a joint turnaround in the time it takes rwbyjn to make it back from void island with the bad news that the gods are en route because LMAO CAN YOU IMAGINE, but realistically i think it’ll be a much slower burn than that. i do think one way or another a premature divine return throwing a wrench in things is… probable, if only because it’s the obvious way to handle the slump in narrative tension that would ordinarily result from, you know, all of this happening.
FURTHER THOUGHTS:
i oscillate a lot on whether i think either of them will be… like de-grimmified at any point; in the one hand the narrative has thus far been pretty consistent on the grimm being a corruptive influence but on the other, destruction is also an essential part of human nature and with salem in particular the perception that she’s an unfeeling grimm—even though she has been shown quite clearly to be a very emotionally-driven person—is one of the biggest obstacles to resolving this conflict between her and… everyone. so i think there’s some thematic stickiness involved in bringing that conflict to a resolution by removing the grimmness from her; with cinder likewise the grimm arm has this thorny duality of being at once a symbol of salem’s control + abuse but also, like literally a part of her body, and any arc that involves removing it will need to reckon with that. i think i lean more on the side of no, they won’t be ‘purified’ or anything, but that also feels like wishful thinking a little bit.
on balance i think salem is likelier by orders of magnitude to be the kind of person who upon deciding to be better makes an earnest effort to atone for past wrongdoings than cinder is—she’s got that beat of palpable regret and sadness in 6.4 and manipulation or no she says “i’ve realized it’s all my fault” with her whole chest, without flinching, in front of her whole inner circle; whereas cinder sounds like she wants to fucking die every time she has to force the words “i’m sorry” out of her mouth, so, you know—and i just think this is INCREDIBLY FUCKING FUNNY as a potential former villain dynamic from like, the perspective of the heroes
my feeling is that salem sees… a lot of herself in cinder, and that this—for better or worse—plays a pretty significant role in how she treats cinder; both the preferential treatment and the emotional viciousness that comes out when cinder disappoints her. one of the things i’m very curious about is precisely how much salem knows about cinder’s past, because i think there’s a good chance that the answer is not very much, except insofar as she’s been able to read between the lines of whatever cinder told her. (as an aside, i think both the characters and the fandom at large wildly overestimate how much salem knows about what goes on in the world beyond her immediate, very small realm of influence: she didn’t have a clue who neopolitan was—neo, who played an instrumental role in the fall of beacon!—when cinder brought her home.)
i feel some type of way about how cinder tries, in volumes 6 and 7, SO HARD to rise to the expectations salem has for her by applying the lessons she learned from her failure at haven, shelving her own rage and desire for revenge against ruby in favor of single-minded focus on recovering the lamp and getting her hands on the staff, spends months keeping her head down and ever so slowly and carefully preparing to strike, only for salem to show up herself months ahead of schedule, force her to make a hasty and reckless grab for the relics, and then effectively punish cinder for almost pulling the thing off anyway. like no wonder cinder spends volume 8 just fucking seething. it’s very lucky for the heroes of course but also i want to grab both of them and shake them and go STOP SABOTAGING EACH OTHER, YOU DUM DUMS. lmao
we love a dysfunctional fucked up surrogate mother-daughter dynamic
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agayprince · 2 years
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A Little About Me
Interests:
Books/Reading
Writing
Mythology/Fantasy
Superheroes
Psychology
Book Genres:
Gay YA Romance, YA Fantasy, YA Dystopian, YA Contemporary, Gay Romance/Erotica
Fandoms:
Anime:
All Saints Street, Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!, Delicious in Dungeons (Dungeon Meshi), Digimon, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Given, K Project, Kemono Michi: Rise Up, My Hero Academia, One Punch Man, Princess Jellyfish, RWBY, Sailor Moon, Seraph of the End, Seven Deadly Sins, Sirius the Jaeger, Spy x Family, The God of Highschool, The Rising of the Shield Hero, Tiger & Bunny, Yuri on Ice
Books:
Adventures of Sik Aziz, Alex Rider, Arc of a Scythe, Carry On, Chronicles of Nick, Chronicles of the Avatar, Circe, Creekwood Series, Dragon's Reign, Fablehaven, Gentleman's Club, Good Omens, Grishaverse, In Deeper Waters, In the Lives of Puppets, Iron Widow, London Calling, Lord of the Rings, Lorien Legacies, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, Outlaw Saints, Pandava Series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Portrait of a Thief, Red Rising, Red White & Royal Blue, Skandar, So This is Ever After, Spell Bound, The Extraordinaries, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice & Virtue, The Heir Chronicles, The Heroes of Olympus, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The House in the Cerulean Sea, The Kane Chronicles, The Paper Magician, The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, The Seven Realms, The Shattered Realms, The Song of Achilles, The Storm Runner, The Sunbearer Trials, The Trials of Apollo, Tristan Strong, Under the Whispering Door, Zachary Ying
Cartoons:
Adventure Time, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Ben 10, Ben 10: Alien Force, Captain Planet, Carmen Sandiego, Code Lyoki, Codename: Kids Next Door, Danny Phantom, Fionna & Cake, Gargoyles, Infinity Train, Jackie Chan Adventures, Johnny Quest, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, King of the Hill, Krypto the Superdog, Legend of the Dragon, Legion of Superheroes, Loonatics Unleashed, Martin Mystery, Maya and the Three, Milo Murphy's Law, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir, My Adventures with Superman, Over the Garden Wall, Owl House, Phineas and Ferb, Q-Force, Scooby-Doo, She-Ra and The Princesses of Power, Teen Titans, The Dragon Prince, Thundercats, Tiny Toon Adventures, Totally Spies, W.I.T.C.H., Winx Club, Wolverine and the X-Men, X-Men: Evolution, X-Men: The Animated Series, Xiaolin Showdown, Young Justice, Yu-Gi-Oh!
Comics/Graphic Novels:
Check Please, Chef's Kiss, DC, Heartstopper, Kill 6 Billion Demons, Marvel
Movies:
Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker, Alex Strangelove, Barbie, Charlie's Angels, Disney, Dreamworks, Edge of Tomorrow, Ghibli, Hoot, I Am Number Four, Inception, Night at the Museum, Nimona, Pixar, Promare, Sherlock Holmes (2009 & 2011), Love Simon, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Sky High, Star Wars, The Greatest Showman, The Way He Looks
Podcasts
Dragon's Reign, Ologies, The Adventure Zone, The Two Princes
TV Shows:
BBC's Merlin BBC's Sherlock, Good Witch, Julie and the Phantoms, Leverage ,Leverage: Redemption, Lost Girl, Love Victor, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Monk, Power Rangers, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, SKAM, SKAM: France, Star Trek, Supergirl, The Mandolorian, The Office, Umbrella Academy, Wonder Woman
Video Games:
Among Us, Coming Out On Top, Deep Rock Galactic, Dream Daddy, Hades, Human Fall Flat, It Takes Two, Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Mario Kart, Minecraft, MTG Arena, Orcs Must Die! 2, Overcooked! 1& 2, SCP: Secret Laboratory, Smash Bros., Stardew Valley, Tabletop Simulator, Team Fortress 2, The Sims
Webcomics:
Boyfriends, Just us Fairies, Out of the Blue, The Legend of Genji
Webseries:
Dimension 20, Game Changers, Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss, SCP Confinement
Music Artists:
Big Time Rush, Clean Bandit, Lindsey Stirling, Little Mix, Miike Snow, Pentatonix, Qveen Herby, Todrick Hall, Years & Years
Superheroes :
Wonder Woman, Blue Beetle, Raven, Shazam, Captain America, Storm, Phoenix, Scarlet Witch, Iceman, Wiccan, Hulkling, Gambit
Favorites:
Boyfriend: NakedJustice
Colors: Black & Purple
Mammal: Bear & Meerkat
Bird: Peacock & Hummingbird
Mythological Creature: Phoenix
Season: Fall & Spring
Holiday: Christmas
Candy: Chocolate
Dessert: Cookies and Cake
Ice Cream: Mint Chocolate-Chip
Drink: Cream Soda, Sangria Soda, Horchata
Writeblr: @the-writings-of-art
Goodreads: Find me here
Tags: asks, me, mine, agayprince, agayprince reads, on main (nsfw/18+ only)
Updated On: 03/14/2024
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gorgeousgalatea · 2 years
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"After" for the ask meme! :D Also, I don't think I'd heard of Bungou Stray Dogs before, but as a big fan of detective fiction and supernatural stuff, I'm intrigued... 👀 ~ Clyde
Thank youuuu <3
I'm gonna talk about Bungou Stray Dogs first because it's easier and I admit it took time to grow on me, I started out groupwatching the anime with some friends and the pacing's a bit clunky in the beginning (although better in the manga; the anime adapted some side material and its first integration was not elegant) plus some "anime, why?" tropes, but overall it's fun and unhinged in ways I jive with very hard. It is on the surface about Hot Troubled Superpowered Detectives vs Hot Troubled Superpowered Mafia but the extra zest to the premise is that most of the major characters and their respective powers are based on famous literary authors and their works. And I admit I didn't have enough familiarity with Japanese literature to have taken too much note at first, but naturally the Hot Troubled Superpowered Detectives and Hot Troubled Superpowered Mafia need to have desperation team ups, so enter the antagonistic American Guild. At which point if you want to see Herman Melville summon a giant flying whale ship and F. Scott Fitzgerald punch people with the power of money...you can.
Anyway, After! This is going to date me because I know for a fact I came up with it in late 2012, early 2013 and it explains everything about why I keep circling back to it and why I haven't managed to get it to work yet. I've always been a fan of fairy tales, especially fractured fairy tales, and in 2012 I was *deep* into MCU fandom and still riding the high of the first Avengers movie when this deeply cool animated action trailer came out for a new fairy tale inspired show called RWBY. So y'know, naturally this resulted in a plotbunny for my own dark, action heavy, overambitious would-be saga featuring reinterpretations of all those greatest hits destined to collapse under its own weight. But at the very least I'd like to do the beginning of the story justice and hopefully trim the fat from there; every child in the kingdom is taught to fear the fae and keep their true name hidden, but bastard daughter Cinder has only ghosts for company and is desperate to do whatever it takes to escape her abusive household, no matter the cost. (Excerpt under the readmore since I yelled about bsd too long lmao)
Talia had taught Cinder the spell, the most beloved of her dead. 
Radiant, lovely Talia, with her fair skin and gold curls–Cinder had always felt so ugly beside her, although Talia had always insisted it was not so. Talia, who’d laughed when Cinder had protested the danger.
“How strange the world has become,” she’d said, hands cool and insubstantial as she guided Cinder through the motions. “You hide your names, call the Fae monstrous–perhaps you’ve simply confused the good with the bad! The Queen That Fell cursed me at my birth, it’s true, but three of the court offered me blessings to take its teeth. I fear I will find this world a stranger when I wake, to hear it so.”
How are you so certain you sleep when I have only ever seen the dead, Cinder tried to ask, but Talia had laughed and waved it off.
Your rose-tinted world must be nearly a century old.
I have never heard of your kingdom.
But Talia had simply shook her head and pressed her hands back to her. “Hold it close,” she had said. “It is the only comfort I can give you till I wake.”
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scattered-winter · 2 years
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what kyle rayner thoughts????!!!!
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@queenofalpaca
OK SO! I don't know how familiar y'all are with RWBY, so I'll give a short overview here:
basically there are these monsters called Creatures of Grimm (basically shadow and nightmares if they had a physical form) that run rampant through the world. they are attracted to negative emotions such as fear, anger, hate, etc. (so if one Grimm breaks into a village and starts attacking people, panic spreads which attracts even more Grimm; and the more Grimm show up, the more panicked everyone is, which in turn leads to even more Grimm. there's a reason why they're so dangerous, because they're like zombie mobs except 10000x more terrifying.)
to combat the Creatures of Grimm, warriors called Hunstmen stepped forward to protect the kingdoms. they're highly trained badass professionals with a very personalized weapon that they use to battle Grimm. the weapons are very high-tech, and have several different forms with lots of uses. generally each weapon has 3 "forms" plus the inactive mode, when it's not in use (most weapons fold up into a more convenient shape/size for storage). in general, each weapon has a range form (bows, guns), a grappling hook of some kind, and a melee form (blades, hammers, etc.) ofc there are exceptions, but that's the most common weapon layout
every living thing with a soul (everything except Grimm) has something called an Aura. it's basically the manifestation of their soul, and can be used to boost their strength/energy during a battle, or as a force field. the more damage the Aura takes, the weaker it gets, and it will eventually run out after taking enough damage (think video game health bars here. it's the same concept.) each Aura is a different color, according to the person, and it is a very personalized thing since it's literally their soul. because of that, Auras can manifest into a superpower called a Semblance. each Semblance is unique to the person, although in rare cases a Semblance is hereditary and can be passed down from parent to child (as is the case with the al Ghuls in this AU.) Semblances are generally not super OP, but they can give a Hunstman an edge in a fight since Grimm obviously don't have Semblances (no soul = no Aura = no Semblance). some of the Semblances in the RWBY universe include Aura Masking (being able to dampen their own/other people's Auras to make them undetectable by Grimm) and Shadow Clones (leaving a shadow afterimage when moving quickly to distract opponents). so they're maybe not the first thing you think of when you hear the word "superpower," but they're useful nonetheless!
the greatest weapon used against the Grimm is something called Dust. it's a natural resource that is usually mined into crystals, powder, or bullet cartridges, and it is extremely powerful and volatile. there are different types of Dust, and each type has a different property. Fire Dust can explode on impact or create sparks, Ice Dust can create giant spikes of ice, Gravity Dust can alter gravity around a person or object, etc. Dust is usually used by being loaded into a weapon (most commonly guns, because the Dust cartridges are very easy to use that way, but any kind of weapon can use any form of Dust) and then activated to use in the fight.
using Dust, their Auras/Semblances, and their advanced multi-faceted weaponry, Hunstman are able to go head-to-head with Grimm and protect their own little areas of the planet. some Hunstmen are sorted into teams that train and live together, and others travel alone. some Hunstmen station themselves in a specific town or city, or ally themselves with a certain kingdom, but others prefer to wander and battle any Grimm they come across. there are academies where Hunstmen can train and form teams, which, in this AU, is the most socially accepted way of becoming a Hunstman, but some forego the schools completely and train on their own (which is what Batman and Co. did). technically they're still legal Hunstmen, but some people don't trust Hunstmen who never had official training.
(that's a lot of information in a small amount of time but there's a lot to fit in, so sorry lol)
I can go more in-depth with the specifics of the AU later, but for now, here are the weapon and outfit concepts for the batfam that I've already mapped out. every DC character is a Huntsman, and some have teams while others don't. I haven't really figured out who goes where yet though lol
for Kyle, his Semblance is something involving Glyphs like this one:
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this is a Glyph used in the show, but the concepts are the same as in the AU: they have gravity/momentum properties, and can be used to propel someone through the air or slow an object down. really, the applications are endless, but what really makes it stand out for Kyle is the Summoning aspect. the more powerful Glyphs can summon constructs (a lá Green Lantern Ring) but more specifically, constructs of powerful foes that have previously been defeated. that means that any Grimm (or other enemy) that Kyle has defeated (specifically the enemies that pushed him to his limits and beyond) can now be summoned as a construct that helps Kyle fight!
I'm currently in the process of designing Kyle's Glyphs, and so far I've come up with this one:
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the color of the Glyph will determine how powerful it is! most of his Glyphs are green, and the lighter the shade gets, the more powerful they are. his Summoning Glyphs are white!
I currently don't know what weapon he uses, but that's next on the agenda! (if anyone has any ideas or suggestions I'd love to see what y'all come up with!)
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delugedecade · 7 days
Text
What's left to lose?
TW: Suicide
[First Posted: 12/13/18] [Context: 2018 was... God RWBY Vol 6? So this was before the Atlas Arc. I first wrote this in high school and guess where I posted this? The RWBY Amino! Lol remember that shitshow app? Anyway, this is something for you guys in the mean time while I do my placement.]
Whitley stands atop the roof of the Schnee Mansion, clasping his hands together and exhaling into the pocket of his palm. Whitley watched the blood orange sunset, adorning the coat of General Ironwood. He was much more of a fatherly role model than his Father. All Jacques left was a kingdom of lies and a miserable pile of secrets. Of course, he left at the fall of the legacy, leaving Whitley to salvage the scraps. Well, he wouldn't be alone on the roof if the salvage operation was successful.
Weiss had abandoned him once again, back to saving the world again, with her teammates, her friends. She could've stayed a while longer, maybe for a fine Earl Grey from Klien, but Klien had left much before Weiss returned. Mother was relocated to a hospital, Father deemed it necessary for a woman in her condition. What a farce. At least she could finally get some help from someone better than him. Winter was last seen lost in the snows of the Atlas Mainland. Winter's hardy and determined, she'll push through the cold. They say she's finds companionship with a dusty old crow.
Darkness set in, but the sunset's glow did not, nor did the Atleasean cold blanket the mansion. Wisps of ash rose from the tempest below. Soft crackles grew. Loud arguing reached his ear, just like how it had been for many years with Jacques, and whomever remained in his personal circle. Whatever security that the Schnee family owned, lost in the flames. All riches returned to Weiss, Whitley believed she would have greater use for it. Thankfully clean from Jacques muddy hands.
Roaring flames crept up the estate, with the White Fang ravaging the rooms below. If they took him, it would mean Weiss would be at their mercy just to get him back. He had been too much a burden already. Whitley could feel the blaze beneath him. It was time, to end a dirty legacy, and let his sisters rise from its ashes. His scroll opens. One final message.
"Good evening. I am the first son, of the dishonorable Jacques Schnee. My name is Whitley Schnee. I send this as the White Fang burn my home to the ground. This is the truth."
"Jacques is dead, a corpse eaten in the snow. General James Ironwood is dead, assassinated for Jacques to claim his power. My mother is broken, abused by the man she married, but now in safe hands."
"I will die, so there shall be no burden, and that The White Fang earn a pitiful victory, in a battle of their war. To my sisters, like me you may not, but I cherish our memories together."
"To the Faunus, I apologize for the pain that my Father induced. And a reply I don't need, as you will not accept, I am sure."
"Lastly, to the Fox Faunus named Laeva Tein, You deserve more than a broken man with a dirty legacy and his world of trouble. I die here in my fallen kingdom"
"There he is! Surround him!"
The fierce cry of a White Fang member, pointing gun for his prey's head.
Sent. For the world to see the truth. Open closet, open book, the chamber is open. Once it was completed, it fell into the flames. Hands in pockets, coat flapping against the rising heat.
"A fine evening gentlemen, a brilliant blaze to mark the victory against one of your greatest oppressors. But this is no victory in your war, nor your battle. No victory is strength. Your leader has long forgotten, that even a minute action can move mountains, like a train coming late. Something finer. All you have is a simple soul left to claim, and I will take this victory, by taking your prized soul."
Whitley runs forward to the edge.
And leaps.
Rustling winds became snapping flames.
White burns black.
Red burns gold.
The fiery snake consumes its prey. Leaving but the ashen skeleton.
[===============================]
She was too late. The black smoke against the horizon of dawn. A crow circles over. She knelt down in the char, afraid his remains would crumble in her hands. The crow stands behind her, cursing their luck.
"Do not mistake your misfortune as the cause. This was the last of my brother's wishes. What's left to lose?"
[===============================]
She should have stayed. The screen turns black and his face appears again. She sat down, and a black cat sits at her side, rubbing her shoulder, allowing her to lean against each other.
"Do not mistake my past as the cause. It was that man's wishes, and your brother's attempt to clean your past for a better future. We must move onward, not there yet to the peace we fight for. We cannot afford to lose anymore."
[===============================]
Heels echo the halls. Adorned in white, off centre hair now unraveled.
Heels echo the halls. Adorned in black, a gown over her frame, tail drooped low.
"Miss Schnee, I cannot thank you enough for your hospitality."
"You are family now. You belong in this house as much as me."
The grand doors open. And another head of white hair appears.
"Miss Tein, I finally got her into the dress. But she's stubborn to take off those squeaking shoes."
"It's something you'll have to deal with, Mrs Schnee. Don't push yourself. That black bird of yours will be back soon, and you'll have the rest of the day with us."
"What was he like? In, both regards of love?"
"Mrs Schnee, asking about my experience? I don't think you'd believe me."
"Well, I remember our first time meeting. Whitley sheltered me as I was escaping from some Anti Faunusists. To think he'd do such a thing for me. But perhaps loneliness breeds desire for warmth. He would often visit the cafe, expresso, three sugars and cream. He stayed late, and left before I closed up shop. He stayed even if it meant his favourite window side table had glass shards on it or was dented by the brick that caused it, even if his view was ruined by eggs or graffiti. It was a long while until he took the first step and ask me for my shift times. Soon, it was small talk across a table, he would complain about family."
"Then one day, he broke. I never saw him anymore venerable, having bid farewell to the mother he barely knew. And then... I realised my love. Two souls curled in their world of loneliness and melancholy. Escape in the confinement of our arms. The little things made the most memories, how he would stroke my tail as he slept, and how nipping his nape would burn his ears. But, then Jacques abandoned him. We had only one night together in his year of struggle. And then..."
Squeaks echo the hall. Adorned in blue, a loose ribbon around the stub of her tail.
Laeva picked up the little girl, nuzzling her nose.
"Whitney won't know what her father is like. But she'll know that her father was a great man, my hero. After all, she's all I have left of him."
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ammy246 · 8 months
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"This will be the day" analysis but for the entire series
"They see you as small and helpless, they see you as just a child. Surprised when they find out that a warrior will run wild."
Ruby was viewed as a child for being younger than the rest of the class. However, they quickly learned not to underestimate her ability as a huntress and a leader.
Prepare for your greatest moment; prepare for your finest hour. The dreamed that you've longed for is suddenly about to flower."
This may apply to Ozma. He wanted to see Salem's defeat for so long and thought it impossible, but has seen victories he once thought impossible against Salem's henchmen, and will eventually witness the end of the war and their curse.
"We are lightning straying from the thunder, miracles of ancient wonder."
This refers to both the Maidens and Silver-eyed Warriors. The Maidens can literally manipulate lighting, and the silver-eyes have been referred to as a miracle in the actual show. Both are also ancient.
"This will be the day we've waited for. This will be the day we open up the door."
The Relics are all hidden behind doors, and opening said doors is always a crucial moment to the series.
"I don't want to hear your absolution; hope you're ready for a revolution."
There's multiple interpretations for this line; the obvious being Ruby resisting Salem, but it could also be about Blake/Yang denying Adam's reign, Weiss rebelling against her father, and RWBY turning against Ironwood.
"Welcome to a world of new solutions. Welcome to a world of bloody evolution."
In order to save Remnant, the heroes have to do things that the old generations have never thought of before. They reunited humanity against Salem, which is a new solution, because the entirety of the world never knew of her existence before now. Ruby's escape plan in Volume 8 was also entirely heard of, but it saved many lives who would've perished if Ironwood's plan succeeded.
The Maiden powers transfer when the wielder dies hence a blood evolution. Multiple heroes and villains have died throughout the series which effected Remnant at large.
"In time, your heart will open minds, a story will be told, and victory is in a simple soul!"
The heroes managed to sway multiple people into doing the right thing who were previously afraid to (The White Fang, Ozma, Emerald) to name a few.
As for the story being told, you can consider Alyx's adventure the story. Ruby eventually emerged victorious in the Ever After despite the challenges before her and made her fairy tale have a hopeful ending.
"Your world needs a great defender. Your world's in the way of harm. You want a romantic life; a fairy tale full of charm."
Ruby was willing to rise up to the challenge even after knowing Salem was impossible to kill. She said in volume 1 she just wanted life to be like a fairy tale, but being a hero has proven to be much more difficult than she ever imagined. The actual fairy tale she ended up within couldn't be further away from what she once dreamed of.
'Charm' also makes me think of Qrow since his whole arc has been about learning how to view things in a different perspective, leading to him eventually learning how to control his semblance.
"Beware that the light is fading; beware if the dark returns. The world is unforgiving; even brilliant lights will cease to burn."
This was meant to hint at how the villains are not to be underestimated, and foreshadow the character deaths of Volume 3. We were so naive back then, and did not believe the show would ever get this dark, but CRWBY tried to warn us.
"Legends scatter. Day and night will server. Hope and peace are lost forever."
Despite the heroes best efforts, multiple kingdoms were lost. At the ends of both Volume 3 and Volume 8, it was hard to retain hope for the future when no good was in sight.
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