#rwby thoughts and opinions

[sirazaroff]

How do you think Velvet flirts with Coco?

This is one of the funniest asks I ever got and im glad cause this is just gold. Like how does the Bun™️ woo her stupid bozo??
————


I have my biased takes on what Coco and Velvet are like as characters, but to start off I wanna focus on what Vel brings to the table.

I think a lot of people have moe’d her down to a nervous/scaredy bunny girl and…that’s not her at all. She’s a real multilayered character who can and will kick your ass flat. She’s also…

- very very attentive to people

- excellent at memorizing things she sees and hears, and quickly at that

- very emotionally in tune with people, herself included

- insanely kind and helpful

- honest about her feelings and will voice her thoughts when ready

Also she’s a bunny like come on. Is baby. It’s impossible to not find her likable.

I can go on forever, but I think these are enough likable traits to work with.


Time to shift. Now we focus on what I think Coco likes in a person:

- Hot girls

- Complexity

- Someone true to their nature

- Some sense of honor

- Someone striving to learn and to better themselves

Hopefully it’s not lost here, but there’s some compatibility don’t you think? Velvet’s got some of those traits that Coco likes.

————

So where’s the flirting? It’s coming I swear, I just needed the background info to help support the answers.

Bun bun flirts two ways: intentionally and unintentionally. The latter is usually what’s happening most often.

Her intentional flirting is what you would expect. Some cheeky words, being a playful tease in her actions like when she flashed her camera in After the Fall. I think she would 1000% take advantage of her physique and incredibly vast skillsets. She is totally totally showing off during training and sparring. Coco might hide her gaze under her glasses but that dumb bitch is so easy. So so easy…

Now her unintentional flirting is basically that Velvet is just doing her thing. She’s comfortable and loved by her team. With them she’s able to be herself and have fun, and that’s what coco loves most. Seeing Velvet thrive and not feel like she has to hide herself away from the world, and with it comes moments and actions that make Coco, much to her surprise, fall for Velvet.

I guess simply put, Velvet flirts by being her cheeky self around Coco, and her leader falls for her every time.

#fooze #smugm3ss #rwby #rwby fanart #velvet scarlatina #rwby velvet #coco adel #rwby coco #crosshares #rwby crosshares #of course these are just my playful opinions #but yeah I mean these two kiddos are funny and idiot goobers but they’re also so sugary sweet to each other #without any compromise to their personalities either #I just wanted to answer this already but I had a lot more tender moments planned for these two to show #I’m a firm believer that they’re perfectly made for each other. they kinda remind me of bees but just. different you know? #wow Fooze so much stuff to answer a simple question~ SORRY IDK I HAVE THOUGHTS and it takes months to get them out okay?!?! #probably doesn’t even make sense either! #anyways velvets favorite pastime is raising coco’s bp just by looking at her for longer than 5 seconds #sorry if this is also formatted weird I’ll fix it tomorrow if need be

[kienava]

So someone asked me to make a post about Blake’s development so far in order to discuss the question of where Blake’s character can progress at this point in RWBY given that her arc with Adam wrapped up in V6 and she didn’t really carry a plot line in V7-8. I do media and story things for a living, but I’m also an intimate partner abuse survivor - needless to say, Blake’s story is important to me. Hopefully my perspective helps answer concerns about Blake’s story being “over,” because I think it’s very much the opposite.

(Continued below the cut because this turned into an entire essay.)

I want to preface this by saying I understand why it might be difficult to picture what Blake’s story looks like going forward. I largely credit this to the relative dearth of compassionate, healing-oriented narratives about abuse survivors in media. A lot of what we see is either revenge fantasies or stories about facing the abuser and arriving at a point of ultimate catharsis. In some sense, this is a broader fault in the standards of western storytelling, which is oriented around that singular, climactic catharsis, but that’s another essay. In truth, a mostly linear progression towards a pivotal point of recovery isn’t how healing from abuse works. It’s a messy process, and life is rarely as linear as in fiction. I think RWBY incorporates that nonlinearity into Blake’s arc very well.

Speaking of Blake’s arc, let’s look at that.

When we first meet her in volume 1, she’s introduced as an aloof, independent loner who’s very resistant to getting closer to people. Most of her classmates perceive her as mysterious and alluring at best, callous and cold at worst. Once we start to understand more of her history, it’s easier to see her attitude as the defense mechanism it is. She wants to keep people at arm’s length because she doesn’t trust them not to hurt her – but she also believes that she will harm people she gets close to just because of who she is. That whole Beauty and the Beast dichotomy, you know? Adam told her that she ruins things. It doesn’t help that he groomed her into a terrorist organization and thus her surrounding community has also labeled her a threat. She’s got a few overlapping layers of distorted thinking to work through when it comes to her image of herself and others. The way she perceives people is, at first, overwhelmingly informed by her traumatic experiences with Adam and the White Fang.

It’s pretty strongly implied that Blake bent the rules in the forest and intentionally selected Yang as her partner. When we first see Blake dashing around in the shadows, Yang is taking down a Grimm while sassing it to death. Blake talks later about how Adam’s charisma drew her to him initially, so it’s no surprise that when she was choosing her next partner, she gravitated to the same superficial qualities. During the first White Fang arc, after her self-destructive spiral, Blake starts to genuinely trust her teammates for the first time. That trust is tested when Yang fights Mercury. In this moment, Blake is confronted with the possibility that a pattern might be repeating itself: what if she was drawn to Yang for reasons beyond the superficial? What if Yang doesn’t just share Adam’s positive qualities, but his negative ones, too? The impulsiveness, the violence, the abuse – but Blake stops herself. She chooses to trust that Yang isn’t Adam, and she says as much. She’s accepting that Adam is in her past and electing to move forward. How perfectly, neatly linear. 

Then the end of volume 3 happens.

For an abuse survivor, the idea that an abuser you’ve gotten away from might come crashing back into your life is possibly the scariest thing in the entire world. This is exactly what happens when Adam shows up, and Blake’s worst fears come true. He makes a point of hurting someone she cares about simply because he can to prove that he still has power over her. Blake runs because she thinks the only way she can protect the people she cares about is to be away from them. That paradoxical duality of (1) fearing harm will be done to her by others and (2) doing harm to others herself rears its head. 

One specific question I was asked is why Blake talks about Yang so little in volumes 4 and 5. If Blake isn’t talking about the people she left behind, is she even thinking about them? I say, well of course she is. It’s coloring her entire attitude.

When Blake returns to Menagerie, she’s back in the place where she met her abuser. She’s at her parents’ house, a place that has been a symbol of everything she left behind when she ran away the first time. Now she’s run from another home. Menagerie is riddled with traumatic memories for her, both interpersonally and on a structural, systemic level. Everywhere she goes could be a place where Adam said something awful to her, made her obey him in some way, asserted control. She also has to confront him in person again, too.

With Adam around, of course she’s not going to risk mentioning Yang. He got one inkling that Blake cared about someone else and cut their fucking arm off. The one time Blake mentions Yang by name, her voice cracks so obviously it’s like she’s forcing herself to get the word out. Through both of these volumes, Blake has other external goals, but she’s still trying to protect someone she cares about. At this point, she’s constantly struggling with two motivations: hope and fear. She wants to make the world a better place, but she’s terrified of what she’ll have to confront in order to do it because of what she’s already lost. Her choice to reunite with her team and fight shows that ultimately hope wins out.

In Volume 6, Blake and Yang facing Adam is essentially the B plot of the whole volume. He appears in flashes before the major confrontation at the end, but the damage he’s done to both of them is intrinsically tied into Blake and Yang’s relationship throughout.

The end of this volume offers the climactic moment of confronting and overcoming the abuser. Afterwards, Blake collapses and cries. Catharsis! Yay! We’re done now, right? This may be why, to some people, defeating Adam is the obvious “end” of Blake’s character arc. Again, I’d argue that this perception comes from how abuse is often depicted in media, but there’s also a very intense pressure in the real world for survivors not to speak out and share their stories. Even people who are abuse survivors might not publicly claim that label for a multitude of reasons. Namely, it fucking hurts to think about it, and also sometimes people are real weird about it. I don’t blame anyone who doesn’t want to carry that weight around all the time. We can see some inklings of Blake dealing with this challenge over the course of the show, though they’re subtle. Early on, she explicitly avoids talking about Adam until she absolutely has to, and even when she does start to unpack what he did, she often talks about it with visible shame (averting her eyes, etc). Unfortunately, shame is a very common sentiment for abuse survivors to carry, and addressing it is a major part of Blake’s journey as she starts to heal in volume 6.

Another point of interest posed was to look at Blake’s role in volumes 7 and 8. There’s an argument that she doesn’t really do anything or that her role is as a somewhat generic support figure within the group. I wholeheartedly disagree.

While Blake doesn’t carry a plotline herself during the Atlas arc, she and Yang embody polarized attitudes towards the global conflict the group is facing, and that contrast serves the larger narrative very well. Because she was raised by activists in a context where she was constantly thinking about civil rights, Blake wants to address the broader ideological conflict at play. Yang, whose childhood consisted of raising her younger sister, wants to help people in a practical, immediate way. Blake is an abstract, big-picture thinker, and Yang is more focused on what’s right in front of her. This isn’t a dig at either of them; it’s just a difference in prioritites. At first, Yang worries that these differing priorities will be a source of tension between them, but when she and Blake talk things through they’re able to understand each other without judgment. Blake is learning to reconnect with the idealist she used to be in her early youth, someone who fought for a cause purely because she wanted to make the world a better place. She’s able to embrace that side of herself around Yang even though they have different priorities, and they’re still able to support each other’s goals.

Furthermore, on a purely interpersonal level in V7-8, Blake has interactions with other characters that speak specifically to the healing journey she’s been on. Yes, these are significantly quieter moments than a fight to the death on a bridge over a waterfall, but that doesn’t mean they should be written off. Quiet and peace are part of healing, and that doesn’t have to undermine the story’s integrity. Dramatic tension is still possible amidst this, as we saw in Blake’s talks with Yang where they discuss their team’s split strategic approaches. When Blake talks to Nora about the importance of not losing yourself in someone else, that’s her speaking from experience. She’s lost herself in a relationship before, and she knows how hard it is to come back from that, but she survived. She healed. The asserted importance of self-compassion in relationships has a unique gravity coming from Blake. She has a strongly developed ability to balance interpersonal empathy with community- and global-level stakes, which we’re already seeing glimmers of at the beginning of V9 as she steps up to come up with a plan on the island. 

In summary, Blake’s arc isn’t just about that final showdown with Adam. She faces her abuser, runs away, faces him again, and again, finally evicts him from her life for good - and after that, her story continues.

She goes on to find ways to heal from her past. That process involves renewing compassion for her loved ones, her community, and the world as a whole; learning how to love without fear; and reconnecting with who she was before she was forced to become aloof and detached to protect herself. Although the circumstances of abuse convinced her that she was a coward, she is, and has always been, an incredibly brave character. She’s finally recognizing that at the current point in the story. Ultimately, I think this is the thing connects her to Yang and the rest of team RWBY so strongly: they’re brave enough to love and have hope even when forces of adversity tell them they shouldn’t dare to. Blake is a courageous idealist with a heart full of compassion, and ultimately not even Adam could destroy that about her.

My serious answer to the question of where Blake’s character will go now is that I think she’ll be a sort of de facto leader on the island as Ruby spirals into existential depression. Hopefully that arc resolves in a way that’s consistent with the show’s overall message about hope winning out, and past this volume Blake will still carry that optimistic but grounded revolutionary spirit and continue to be a center of compassion and hope.

My catharsis-oriented answer is this: aside from being trapped on a magical fairy tale island, Blake is free for the first time in a very long time, and she can go wherever the fuck she wants.  

#it's time for KIE'S OPINION #blake belladonna #rwby v9 #rwby spoilers #cw: abuse #tw: abuse mention #i have a lot of thoughts about blake. if you couldn't tell. #i went full english lit minor #anyway if anyone starts clowning on this post i will not hesitate to block your ass

[lieutriver]

maybe it's my gay gremlin brain but I'd like to think theres still a possibility of WR after volume 9 bc like, ,,, ruby is growing and maturing in front of our eyes and as much as we (i) got the ick from weiss calling jaune "mAtUre" we know that theres an essence of that she found attractive, so I'm putting my final hopes and dreams on a slow realization post Ever After ruby who has more self confidence and faith in herself and her abilities (and idk muscles or smthin) and weiss is all over that like 😳😳😳😳👉🏻👈🏻

#i picked the palest hands fkr her #anyway when i say hopes in becoming canon i mean like the 1% chance rt actually makes it canon #whiterose #rwby #but thats just my opinion im a lil high #and i just thought about the mature scene like 😬- ya know wait maybe this could be good

[epic-arc]

My thoughts on rwby's epilogue.

Well last night the epilogue of volume 10 was released and in my opinion if I were to give it a rating I would give it 6/10, like my biggest complaints I have are the question of whether it was worth it vale being destroyed off camera, Thus giving the idea that glynda or tai or even zwei died, And my other problem is where Raven appeared like team rwbyj they were already kind of at the entrance to the kingdom but it's ok. So that's my opinion in the epilogue and please respect the opinions of others.

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby epilogue #my opinion #my thoughts #my post

[hollowyve]

every time i'm reminded that h/bomber/guy's rwby video exists i simmer

#rwby #it's just so fuckin frustrating #there aree so many legitimate criticisms you can make about rwby #but so many people- this millions of views asshole included #have based their entier judgment of the show based on the early episodes that they haven't watched in years #and primarily by the rampant hate it's consistently gotten since then #all because it isn't exactly what a bunch of people thought it would be #because it's an imperfect show made by imperfect people #the FIRST show for nearly everybody working on it initially #and it had a rough time transitioning after its creator died #as i said. real reasons to criticize rwby and especially roosterteeth. #but people very rarely ever touch on them #or are willing to admit that maybe they're wrong about something they haven't actually sat down to watch in years #or are just willing to have all of their opininos on a work defined by someone else's opinions #WAH whatever #i'm not making a clean case #people just treat rwby like it's on and funded by the disney channel or something #instead of a relatively small show with a relatively small crew

[captain-morgan]

Here’s my bees playlist, it’s only the start as I will still be adding to it. So here is my playlist of songs that I just think is “them”. Some are cheesy songs I think Yang would sing to Blake. Some are angsty songs Blake would sing about Yang. Some are cute songs that I think during beacon days they’d listen to and think about each other. Some are angsty songs from when Blake ran away. Anyway this is based on my music taste so obviously some fan favorite bee songs aren’t on here just cause I’m kinda meh on them. Just thought I’d share cause why not

#rwby #bumbleby #some may not make sense #I just have different opinions #no one will listen #but I thought I’d share anyway #Spotify

[thewickerking]

NOOOO MY FUCKING GOD. ON GOD IM LAUGHING MY ASS OFF. today i posted a few things, two i would like to highlight. number one. posted about an ex mutual being a cryptoterf. two. answered an ask abt how i dont like hbomberguys shitty rwby video and its fans have stupid opinions. GUESS WHICH ONE CAUSED TWO ANONS TO COME AFTER ME JEKLFKRKKF

#i put a disclaimer that i hadnt seen the video oh my god fuck offfff. i literallt considering watchinf it to answer the ask but i thought #that was a kinda stupid reason to watch a THREEEEEE HOURRRR VIDEOOKO #i think i was too nice and gave the impression that i care about his opinion. let me fix that: i hope he dies #i dont think he morally deserves it i think hes annoying and ruined the rwby fandom for a few months and personally inconveniences me #but i think he should die. does that give u more insight into how much i care? because i fucking hate him and its petty i know idc #.ares

[systemsearcher]

Incredibly minor opinion: Kali Belladonna has these lines under her eyes, normally implying age, and it annoys me that absolutely bloody nobody draws them, because they are an integral part of her design and also look damn good on her >>

#rwby #kali belladonna #rwby kali belladonna #rwby kali #design opinion #design thought #random grumbling

[arc-misadventures]

What are those

Winter " weiss mom wants me to marry jaune

All the girls who do want to marry him hug winter " welcome sister

Weiss 😱

The Dragons Dowery

Weiss: Ughhh… Gods that was a nightmare…

Yang: Yeah, that was… That was a mess…

Ruby: Going to have some words with, Blake. She… she…

Yang: Has no chill?

Ruby: Yeah, that… How did this all happen? I was too busy trying not to get attacked by crazed faunas that I forgot.

Weiss: Jaune said he eats dust, I wanted to test that out, and then he started belching up fire. Apparently, the quality of, Dust made by the, Schnee Dust Company is considered… cheap to his literal taste.

Yang: Cheap? What do you mean by cheap?

Weiss: I… I don’t know. When he started hacking, and belching out fire, and when he had a chance to speak all he said was that my father was a, ‘cheap bastard.’

Ruby: So, he thinks the dust is of poor quality? What does that mean?

: Mr. Arc considers the, Dust made by the, SDC to be of poor quality. As is it unrefined in his opinion. Therefore it… tastes rancid…

Ruby: Huw? Who are you?

Weiss: Winter; You’re here?!

Winter: Hello, Weiss it’s nice to see you again.

Yang: Is this your aunt, Weiss?

Weiss: Aunt? No this is my older sister, Winter Schnee. Why did you think she was my aunt?

Yang: She’s taller, older, has breasts…

Weiss: Hey!

Yang: She’s the complete opposite to you, so I thought you were family, just not siblings.

Winter: That is a fair assessment.

Weiss: Winter?!

Ruby: Hello! I’m Ruby, Ruby Rose leader of, Team RWBY!

Winter: Ruby of, Team RWBY?

Ruby: Yeah… even I get confused at times too…

Yang: Well, I’m Yang Xiao Long! This little gremlins cool hot older sister, nice to meet you!

Winter: Pleasure. There should be four members, where is the fourth member of your team?

Weiss: Our fourth member is, Blake Belladonna, and she is… somewhere…? I don’t know where she is, last time I saw her she was trying to linch me because she thought I tried to kill, Jaune.

Winter: And… why did she try to do that?

Weiss: Blake is a faunas, and she’s part of the more… fanatic devotees towards my friend, Jaune Arc.

Winter: I suppose it has to deal with him being this supposed, ‘Dragon King?’

Weiss: That’s more, or less it.

Ruby: So, what brings you here, Winter?

Winter: Mother, and I came at the request of your summons.

Yang: Summons?

Ruby: Are you talking about the time, Weiss yelled at your dad to get her diamonds checked?

Winter: Yes, Weiss wanted, Mr. Arc to authenticate the authenticity of our family’s family jewels.

Yang: Was that a correct sentence?

Ruby: The auto correct says so.

Weiss: And, how did the grading go?

Winter: Well… two thirds of them are fake…

Weiss: Eh…?

Winter: A fact that, Mr. Arc proved by eating the fakes…

Ruby: He ate them?

Winter: Even mother’s engagement ring was a fake, to which he proved by eating it.

Yang: Ouch.

Winter: But, based upon what, Mr. Arc said, the person father bought these diamonds from was an infamous swindler specializing in fake diamonds.

Weiss: Oh… Well, I guess that’s okay…

Winter: And, Mom offered the, Schnee Diamond as a dowery for, Jaune.

Weiss: Eh…?

Ruby: The what?

Yang: The Schnee Diamond? The hell is that?

Weiss: It’s our family’s heirloom; My grandfather, Nicolas Schnee found it decades ago during a mining expedition when he was founding the SDC. He named it after our family to be a moniker of our family’s legacy. Ha… you know it’s actually funny…

Ruby: What’s funny?

Weiss: All the diamonds my father acquired were fakes, and yet our grandfather’s diamond has more valuable than anything father could ever hope to acquire.

Winter: Fufufu~! That is quite funny.

Weiss: But, wait… Mom offered it as a dowery… F-For whose hand…?

Winter: …

Winter: M-My hand…

Weiss: W-W-What?!

Yang: Seriously?

Ruby: Congratulations!

Weiss: Ruby?!

Ruby: What?

Weiss: No, I… Okay, no… W-What did you say about all of this? No! What did, Jaune say about all of this, because based upon what he said, I will kill him!

Winter: Well… he was inspecting the, Schnee Diamond when, Mother made this offer. And, well… he seemed highly conflicted.

Yang: Was it because of, Jaune’s obsession of precious stones?

Winter: I would believe so. He seemed genuinely interested in accepting mother’s offer, but he eventually put the diamond back into its case, and shook his head. Jaune then told my mother that while he was genuinely tempted to accept her offer, it would remain my decision to accept this marriage proposal. And, that he wouldn’t accept anything until he learned more about me. Considering at most he knew about was that I was, Weiss’s older sister, and that I was more… full bodied than her. Whatever that meant.

Yang: I think he was talking about how, Weiss is flat, and you have booba.

Weiss: I am not flat!

Winter: Oh… that makes sense…

Ruby: So… you want to marry, Jaune?

Winter: …

Winter: Because of my position in the, Atlas Military I never thought about marriage. But, now that it has been presented before me as it has… Well… I am uncertain of how to react to all of this.

Yang: Probably should get to know, Jaune before you think of marriage then.

Winter: That would be an appropriate option to take. Should I ask him on an outing to get to know him then?

Yang: A date?

Winter: Yes, a date. Do you think he’d prefer dining at the, Chatou Chriteline?

Ruby: They serve food there right?

Winter: It’s a restaurant, the most famous high class one in all of, Vale. Have you not heard of it?

Yang: Lady, do we look like high class, hoty toty kind of gals?

Winter: Well…?!

Weiss: Don’t answer that.

Winter: Very well then…

Ruby: You could ask, Jaune’s girlfriends for help.

Winter: G-Girlfriends…? He already has a girlfriend?

Weiss: He has two actually…

Yang: And, if I play my cards right he’ll have three~!

Winter: You want to become a part of his… His…!!

Yang: Harem? Hell yeah I do~!

Winter: But, why?

Yang: I’m in love with the blond goofball. What more needs to be said?

Winter: You’re in love with him…?

Yang: Yeah. I can give you a list of reasons why, but all that matters really is that I love him.

Winter: Is that really all that matters…?

Yang: …

Yang: What are you asking?

Winter: I’m asking if you love him.

Yang: No, you’re not asking me that.

Ruby: What is she asking you, Yang?

: You should ask, ‘Have you ever been in love before?’

: She’s an, Atlasian. I doubt they understand the concept of love.

Winter: What? Who are you?

: Hello~! I’m Pyrrha Nikos, and I am, Jaune’s, First Chosen.

: Hi there pretty lady~! My name is, Coco Adel, his, Second Chosen.

Weiss: What are you two doing here?

Pyrrha: Yang texted me about the dowry. And, we decided to see who actually managed to get, Jaune’s attention.

Coco: And, I must say, Jaune has impeccable taste~!

Winter: Actually my mother put me up for this whole arranged marriage by offering him a dowery he couldn’t deny, well, barely could deny. This whole thing wasn’t my idea.

Pyrrha: Yeah, he’s been dealing with that a lot lately.

Winter: I’m willing to believe that. But, I must ask, what did the two of you mean by, ‘Chosen?’

Pyrrha: Oh it’s just a name we were given by the faunas because we were the… the… the first that…

Coco: The first girls that, Jaune fucked~!

Pyrrha: Yeah, that…

Winter: Y-You’ve slept with him?

Pyrrha: Yes we have.

Coco: Several times.

Pyrrha: We’ve slept with each other actually.

Coco: The future threesome we will have will be legendary~!

Pyrrha: Hopefully we won’t be walking out with a limp next time.

Coco: You kidding? The limp is the best part!

Yang: How good of a limp is it?

Coco: Why spoil the surprise~?

Weiss: Stop it. I don’t want to hear this. You can have your perverted sex lives all you want. I just don’t want to hear you explain it to me. Also, you broke, Ruby.

Yang: What?

Ruby: Bwhaaaaaaaaaaaaa…

(Thud!)

Yang: RUBY?!

Pyrrha: Oops…

Coco: Ha! Blushing virgin.

Pyrrha: So… are you interested in dating, Jaune, Winter?

Winter: Well… to be honest, as you guessed I never dated before… or, be interested in anyone romantically. So, I don’t know…

Pyrrha: That’s fair, I’ve never been in love until I met, Jaune. And, after we first met I fell head over heels for him on the spot.

Winter: You’ve never been in love until after you met him?

Pyrrha: Nope. I’ve had plenty of famous people, and the like come on to me, but they never sparked anything in me. They were all just trying to use me to their advantage in one form, or the other. But, then I met someone who knew nothing about me, relied on me for who I am, and not who appeared to be. I’m more happy now than I have ever been since I met him, and becoming his girlfriend has made me more happy than I could ever imagine.

Winter: But, are you okay with… sharing him?

Pyrrha: I was hesitant at first, but the benefits of being part of a harem are quite… enticing~!

Winter: They are?

Coco: Ignore her, unless you want to hear something juicy~?

Winter: I would rather not.

Weiss: Me as well.

Yang: Well I would!

Coco: Later, hot stuff. So, tell me; are you interested in dating, Jaune, or would you prefer to brush this all aside, and forget this all happened?

Winter: …

Winter: I am willing to… investigate the possibility of a relationship if that is possible…

Weiss: You can’t be serious, Winter?

Winter: Have… have you ever seen a person, and thought, ‘what if?’

Weiss: I have…

Winter: Did you ever try to find out what, ‘what if’ could become?

Weiss: I have, and honestly I regretted trying to.

Winter: Then would you have regretted trying to, or never trying, Weiss?

Weiss: …

Weiss: Haa… I would have regretted never trying… Go… Go, and see if things could work between you two.

Winter: Thank you, Weiss.

Coco: Then come with us beautiful, and let us tell you all about our little dragon~!

Pyrrha: Little? Coco, honey, what part about, Jaune is little?

Coco: Good point.

Winter: I would prefer to learn more about his personality, habits, interests, and the like, before… before learning about those things.

Coco: Probably for the best if we do so.

Pyrrha: We wouldn’t want to scare her away now doubt we?

Coco: You coming along, Yang? Certainly you’ll want to hear this~!

Yang: Hell yeah I do!

Winter: I’ll see you later, Weiss. Shall we have dinner together later?

Weiss: I would love to, Winter. Have fun you… (Pa-Ping~!) Oh, Jaune just sent me a text.

Weiss: …

Weiss: W-What the hell…?

Pyrrha: What’s wrong, Weiss?

Weiss: ‘Weiss! Save me! Your mom is trying to seduce me, and it’s working! Save me before I do something I will (Slightly?) regret! Help!’

Coco: W-What…?

Pyrrha: Your mother is trying to seduce, Jaune… Why?

Yang: And, it’s working…?

Winter: How would I know?

Ruby: …

Ruby: Uhh… aren’t you going to go save, Jaune?

Weiss: Huw?

Winter: Beg pardon?

Ruby: Jaune just called for your help, are you two going to go save him, or are you going to let your mother sleep with your friend, and your, potential, husband?

Weiss: …

Winter: …

Weiss: Well… It’s, Jaune.

Winter: He seems like a pretty nice guy.

Weiss: And, the message he sent shows he doesn’t want to do it.

Winter: But, Mother is trying to seduce him, and succeeding… somehow.

Weiss: Mom sleeping with my friend just sounds wrong.

Winter: Not as bad as the thought of Mother sleeping with Father…

Weiss: I feel like throwing up just thinking about it…

Winter: Is that why she trying to seduce him, to have… to have a good time?

Weiss: Possibly, Pyrrha, and Coco gloat constantly on how good he is in bed. Maybe, Mom wanted to see that for herself.

Ruby: Uhh… Are you two trying to justify, Jaune sleeping with your mother?

Weiss: Uhh…

Yang: Sounds like you’re gonna let him bang your mom.

Winter: Well…

Ruby: Do you want, Jaune to sleep with your mom…?

Weiss: …

Winter: …

WW: Well…

#rwby #jaune arc #yang xiao long #blake belladonna #pyrrha nikos #weiss schnee #ruby rose #winter schnee #willow schnee #jaune x pyrrha #pyrrha x jaune #jaune x coco #coco x jaune #jaune x winter #winter x jaune #willow x jaune #jaune x willow #rwby arkos #rwby winterknight

[hamliet]

Do you have any thoughts on how RWBY handled the white fang storyline?

Unpopular opinion: it's decent?

Now, now, before people come at me with pitchforks: yes, it's overly simplified. The entire story is a fairy tale, though, so that's not out of place. It also complements the rest of the story thematically, and manages to incorporate nuance and complexity in despite the simplification of issues.

I think it's a mistake to look at the White Fang as a 1=1 of the real life struggles of marginalized groups. That said, there obviously are parallels, and so people aren't mistaken to note those. I just think it's not meant to be an instructional manual and shouldn't necessarily be viewed as one, but rather a conversation starter in some ways. And yes, those conversations can and should include critiques.

So I'll go over the points that I think it did well and how those ties into real life, but also specifically how they work for RWBY's overall story. This does not negate criticisms, especially those by marginalized groups.

In contrast to some other fictional depictions, RWBY actually is better as well because it avoids the number one pitfall of such issues: the X-Men fallacy. I've talked about this in terms of Attack on Titan before, but essentially it's the idea that the problem with depicting discrimination against superpowered people is that, well, there is a logical reason for people to be concerned about superpowers; hence, it almost justifies that very discrimination it seeks to condemn. This isn't present in the faunus/human divide. They are both capable of superpowers.

It also doesn't fall into another common pitfall: the idea that people have to be perfect to be victims of discrimination. The White Fang... has senselessly and cruelly murdered people; doesn't mean faunus discrimination isn't also cruel and senseless and doesn't justify it. And this is something that we do see in real life too--people trying to either completely whitewash the actions of radical anti-oppression movements, which can do awful things, or trying to use these awful things as evidence that these people deserve discrimination when really it's a result of rage and desperation at a society that refuses to give them anything. That doesn't justify the pain of the victims of the awful things (see, Weiss) but nor does it negate the righteousness of that anger.

It does portray the faunus as a fairly diverse group too, when fiction often portrays marginalized groups as a monolith. That's not true. People from one group have very different ideas about what liberation looks like, and what they want to achieve. People in marginalized groups are people, and they can be motivated by a variety of selfless principles and egotistical validation, and neither negate the other. See, Sienna vs. Ghira vs. Adam.

Now, of course within RWBY Ghira's more nonviolent principles more or less win out. That's because RWBY is again a fairy tale where you have to fight to live, but that also doesn't endorse violence. If you expected otherwise, wrong genre. Of course the real world is far more complex, but it's not as if there is no real world basis for this either. Peacemakers exist, and nonviolence has accomplished a lot before. Whether or not that's the be-all-end-all of the faunus struggle in RWBY isn't even clear, so I don't think it's intended to be the be-all-end-all preached moral as it applies to the real world either.

Story-wise, the White Fang functions as a Jungian shadow of society. If you do not take charge of your own life, you are letting others decide for you. The faunus who disagree with the White Fang take it back, because they have to acknowledge it to move forward in society. They have to integrate with it, and accept their own humanity: capable of good and what they might rather deny.

This faction--the faunus who don't like the White Fang--are represented in Ghira, who becomes passive and steps back from aspects of the movement. However, when Blake arrives in Menagerie, this changes, because Blake's entire arc is about integration. Ghira then becomes active, working for the rights of the faunus and for the White Fang to be better rather than simply disavowing the White Fang in an attempt to be a good person, because doing nothing isn't exactly good.

On a more character level, the White Fang exists for Blake's arc. Her Jungian archetype is the Shadow. Like, it's literally her semblance's name. Hence, the idea of the shadow is gonna be important. If you want more on this, @aspoonofsugar has written a meta on it here and another here.

So, for Blake, on a personal level the White Fang (especially under Adam) represents the parts of herself she doesn't like. The part that ran from her family. The part that is violent. And yet, she cannot abandon it or simply disavow it. No, the answer is instead:

We’re not going to destroy the White Fang. We’re going to take it back.

She has to integrate with it, take the good--the righteous anger, the focus on justice and equality.

The White Fang also comments on the microcosm/macrocosm of alchemy.

For the unaware, RWBY is an alchemical story, and the principles of alchemy are represented in the symbol for the philosopher's stone, as seen above. Microcosm: the smaller circle enclosing two people in the center who come together (hence chemical weddings). The square is the four elements: water, earth, fire, air. The triangle is body, heart, and mind. The larger circle is the macrocosm.

The Shadows for Blake on a personal level--microcosm--is Adam. The Shadow on a worldwide, big picture scale--the macrocosm--is the White Fang. Integrating with the shadow isn't only an individualistic endeavor, but also one that benefits society as a whole and brings life to the entire world. The main point of alchemy's philosopher's stone, which Blake, along with the rest of RWBY, are symbolically being transformed into.

I think the main issue with the White Fang, by the way, is its handling of Adam. Typically you don't kill the shadow, though I do think Blake kinda had no choice. Still, I don't think the show fully explored him.

Yet what does work with what we have is that Yang has to face Adam, Blake's shadow, to be with Blake. Yang losing her arm to Adam parallels her being upset about losing Blake to fear, because symbolically Blake can hurt her deeply in the way only a lover can. Blake has to stop running from her shadow and allow herself ot be known and seen by Yang to be with her.

#ask hamliet #rwby #rwby meta #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #white fang #adam taurus #bumbleby #sienna khan #ghira belladonna

[howlingday]

Hello Hollowing, my prompt is this: After team RWBY finds themselves in the Ever After, they are met by a small child happily waving and guiding them towards the Tree instead of a certain Cheshire cat. Soon they were guided to the tree, with a mansion carved within. With children that looked like recoloured versions of their guide happily waving toward RWBY. They meet Neo, and Jaune, the small older woman clealry pregnant, along with Mint, and Trivia, and a woman similar to neo called CC... basically I want Jaune to explain why he has a harem of Neos with constant flashbacks of each neo having babymaking sex with him. With CC requires everyone else to overcome her instability. Blame Fatally Obsessed. I do not know why I make statements instead of questions.

Ah, okay.

This is way less terrible than I thought it would be.

---------------------------------------------------

This world is weird. Like, super weird. No, but like, SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPER weird! Like, think of the weirdest thing you could think of, and it wouldn't be half as weird as what this was.

Okay, maybe not THAT weird, but it was weirder than Remnant, at least. Game pieces moved around, walking and talking like all the faunus and humans did back home. Not only that, but there were also talking animals, too! So yeah, this fairy tale world was weird.

But not as weird as what happened next.

"Hey! Over here!"

Team RWBY looked behind them and found a little girl waving at them. She had short, blonde hair, pale skin, and, as they got closer, blue eyes. Her dress was pink with a black sash wrapped around her belly.

"Um, hi?" Ruby awkwardly waved.

"Are you a Huntress?"

The question shocked the group. This was the first person they met in the Ever After, and she KNEW what a huntress is! Who was she?

"Um, ye-"

"Nilly!" A girl with long, brown hair ran up to the other girl and grabbed her wrist. Her dress was white with a pink sash wrapped around her belly, similar to the other girl. "We're not supposed to talk to strangers!"

"It's okay, Gats!" Nilly replied. "They don't look bad!"

"Don't you remember what Dad said?" Gats wagged her finger. "Looks can be decieving!"

"Um," Ruby stuttered, "we're not bad. Uh, y'know, if you wanted our opinion."

"She's right." Weiss added. "We're just trying to get to the tree."

"Oh! That's easy!" Nilly yanked her hand away. "Daddy can take you!"

"Daddy?" Yang asked.

"Mhm!" Nilly nodded. "Daddy is, like the best person to take you to the tree! He was up there before, y'know?"

"Nilly!" Gats chided. "They're bad guys!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yuh-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yuh-huh!"

As the girls bickered, Team RWBY gave each other glances. This was very uncomfortable.

"Were we..." Ruby looked to her sister. "This bad?"

"Eh...." Yang shrugged. "Kinda?"

"Well, none of my siblings were like this." Weiss said with an unamused look.

"Pretty sure you're not as close with your siblings as Ruby and Yang were." Blake added. "It kind of makes me wonder what it's like."

"It's not great."

Suddenly, in the center of Team RWBY, stood a small girl with pink hair done in a ponytail, wearing a black dress with a white sash. She was so quiet, none of them heard her! As she walked to the other girls, they noticed she had a pink tail sway from under her dress.

"Nilla. Gats." She addressed the girls. "Mother's waiting for us." At this, the two girls stopped bickering. The leader looked at Team RWBY. "You come, too."

The little girl in the pink dress then walked forward, followed closely by the other two. Following the trio was Team RWBY. From a distance, a pair of eyes watched the seven girls curiously.

---------------------------------------------------

Neo sipped her tea, enjoying the quiet of the house. Her girls were out playing while her husband had left to run errands. They would all return before supper, as they always did. She looked down, admiring the one change to her otherwise routine life she'd made in the Ever After.

Every morning, she woke up, had breakfast, woke up her daughters, and then spent the rest of the day planning dinner. Tonight's dinner would be stewed vegetables.

"Ugh... Couldn't we have something with more meat?"

Neo cast a glare at the whining voice. The voice belonged to another Neo, though the voice was not quite her own. Instead, an annoying creature had taken residence in her body, wearing it like a coat, doing with it as they pleased.

"Oh, don't give me that look." The being replied with a roll of their neon-blue eyes. "Even Trivia is sick and tired of it!"

The woman in question, hanging clothes to dry outside, flinched. She shivered as Neo quirked a brow at her former self. She hid herself behind a wet sheet.

"Ow!" Mint, a disguise of herself used to infiltrate Beacon during the Vytal Festival with Cinder, flicked the being in Neo's ear. "Oh, I was not being mean to her!"

Neo hefted herself to her feet, hands to her back for support. Soon, it would be her turn to bring life into this world. She couldn't help but wonder what her child would look like. What mother didn't?

"Oh, and before you set the table," the being said, "we're going to have guests tonight. Four of them."

Neo eyed the being, unsure of what they meant. For all their schemes and plots, the creature wasn't a liar and often made use of their ability to see and hear things outside their home. If there were guests coming to visit, then there would be guests coming to visit. Neo would need more vegetables, and hands to pick said vegetables.

"Speak of the Grimm, as you say."

Neo looked to the door, and a tiny knock came from the other side. She opened the door, finding eight familiar faces.

"Mother." Greeted Berry with stoicism.

"Mommy!" Squealed Vanilla joyfully.

"Mom?" Called Gateau in concern.

Neo glared past her daughters to the four huntresses behind them. They swiftly reached for their weapons.

"Neopolitan?!" Litte Red exclaimed in her surprise.

"Of course she'd be here!" The Ice Queen growled.

"Is she pregnant?" The Kitty Cat asked.

"Guess she found someone dumb enough to knock her up." The Blonde Bimbo rudely remarked.

"Now that's just rude." All eyes focused on the timbre voice in the distance. A figure in rusted armor dismounted a large jackalope, named Juniper, and removed his helmet. Beneath was a ruggedly handsome bearded face with tired, blue eyes. He gave a chuckle. "Rude girls don't get dessert."

#rwby #silent knight #jaune arc #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #neopolitan #the curious cat #rwby au

[etincelleart]

Okay so, just so you know: DIllon Goo is friends with one of THE biggest RWDEs on the internet, the one who came up with the "Monty's Vision" creed so many people spout.

If he got his hands on the show, there'd be no Bumbleby, no Nuts and Dolts, nothing like that. It would be COMPLETELY unrecognizeable.

If he doesn't just reboot the show, everyone would hate Team RWBY for "betraying" Ironwood, Robyn Hill and the Happy Huntresses would be treated as irredeemable villains, and Team RWBY's arcs would be based around having to "accept that they were wrong to defy Ironwood" and then "learning to obey authority".

It would not be RWBY anymore.

I appreciate people for telling me because I wasn't aware of this story. I should also say that a lot of people in the fandom should understand that not everyone know about every detail and event that happened in the RWBY history, especially for people like me who discovered the series way later. Just thought I might say it just in case because I saw some people talk about it as if we're supposed to know when that's not the case.

If I can tell my honest opinion it's that at the moment it's too early to confirm anything. This might not happen, this might happen, we don't know, and I don't want to jump to any conclusions or fast opinions with only a few infos I got yesterday and today about that. From what I know this behavior came from Shane, but even if he's friend with Dillon this guy cannot call the shots alone. I think the best thing would be for current CRWBY to be able to finish the story like THEY wanted, like they first imagined it with Monty, and how they imagined it so far. I honestly don't know what good option could be because at the moment it's probably the only interested buyer and the one that fits the best for the show's style. If CRWBY express discomfort and refuse to go for that way for the reasons people told me about, then let respect that because they'll be the one to decide in the end.

I like Dillon Goo and their animations, that's why I supported the idea, but in the end it's for CRWBY to decide and no one else. If they think there might be a problem and they might ruin everything, that's for them to decide.

I should also mention that people's behaviors using events for their arguments is their responsability. On this aspect I'm not aware of everything so I only speak with what I know. But there will always be people who will also distort stuff to be able to use it their favor.

As for the ships, Bumbleby is canon already, undoing that would be really stupid and would sign the end of the story. And Nuts and Dolts isn't canon, it's the fantasy of a lot of people included mine but we don't even think if this was planned to be canon or not at some point, from what I know that's not the case. I understand what you mean because this is not just about ships here, but I'm not gonna jump to conclusions with how little infos I got at the moment

With all of that said, I just hope for a good conclusion for everyone.

#rwby #rooster teeth #dillon goo

[anthurak]

So this is almost certainly going to be an unpopular opinion for some, but for a long time now I’ve been feeling that the RWBY fandom puts just a bit TOO much stock in the various fairytale/mythology/literary allusions of the characters when it comes to theory-crafting. It feels like people find out that a certain character A is an allusion to another character B from an already completed story and go ‘Well that must mean that Character A is going to turn out just like Character B!’

Which of course completely ignores that these are allusions and references. Ruby Rose might have strong parallels and similarities to Little Red Riding Hood, but that does not mean she IS literally Little Red Riding Hood. Just as Weiss Schnee is NOT literally Snow White, Penny Polendina is NOT literally Pinocchio and Oscar Pine is NOT literally the Little Prince. Ultimately, whatever allusion a character might have comes SECOND to who they are as an actual character, NOT the other way around.

Whatever allusions a character has might inform what could happen to them, but that should still be treated as secondary to what we actually see them do in the show.

For example, I see a LOT of ships in the RWBY fandom that people seem to largely use interpretations of the characters’ allusions as ‘evidence’, rather than what the characters actually DO in the actual SHOW. Like has anyone noticed that discussions of ships like Bumbleby, Renora, Nuts and Dolts or White Rose have historically not involved much interpretation (relatively speaking anyway) of the potential ‘complimentary allusions’ of these characters? Because there is no NEED to, because all the evidence for these ships is right fucking there on the screen. Meanwhile we’ve got ships (and I am NOT naming names) that people will swear up and down are TOTALLY going to be canon for really-realsies where most or even all of the ‘evidence’ consists of people effectively playing some kind of matching game with their allusions. Or saying nothing more than ‘Character A kinda-sorta resembles the love-interest of Character B’s allusion’.

And ALL of this doesn’t even take into account the biggest factor which I keep getting the impression that WAY too many RWBY fans still having gotten the memo on:

The fact that RWBY literally NEVER plays its allusions STRAIGHT.

All the way from minute one when we saw an allusion to Little Red Riding Hood cutting down a horde of Big Bad Wolves, RWBY has ALWAYS been subverting, inverting, flipping, twisting and otherwise playing it’s allusions, references and archetypes literally ANY way but actually STRAIGHT.

Little Red Riding Hood hunts the Big Bad Wolf. Snow White is equal parts Princess AND Knight in Shining Armor. Cinderella is a tragic villain origin story. Pinocchio was always a real girl. The Great and Powerful Wizard Oz is far more powerful than anyone thought, but is ALSO far more of a fraud than anyone thought.

So when people use these characters’ allusions as some kind of rigid road-map to theorize what might happen to them, it’s not just that this detracts from their identity as their own characters; the story itself isn’t even using that map!

I mean speaking personally, that’s what has always made RWBY theory-crafting FUN. Trying to guess how the writers might twist and flip the allusions they’re using. But that also means that the allusions of the various characters simply DON’T actually provide ANY kind of accurate ‘road-map’ for where they might be going. Instead, the best we can do is use what the actual show has actually shown us to get any kind of idea where the characters are headed.

Ultimately, I feel like too often I see that when people are making theories about RWBY characters, they are treating them more like the characters they are based on, instead of the characters they actually ARE.

#rwby #rwby theorizing #rwby theory-crafting #rwby allusions #rwby analysis #rwby fandom #fandom criticism #the only way rwby won't play its allusions is STRAIGHT #i'm amazed there are so many people who seem to have NOT gotten that memo yet

[citadelofmythoughts]

RWBY is literally a show where it keeps telling everyone to pay closer attention to the details beyond the initial aesthetic, but everyone keeps on ignoring it and getting mad when they inevitably run into a brick wall that RWBY is explicitly telling them is in their way.

Like, I'm expected to believe that they're deep "critical" thinkers who just see RWBY as bad, when they struggle to understand anything beyond the most surface level thoughts?

On a side note, it's also part of the reason I'm just thoroughly annoyed with their fixation on Monty. Because the irony is that for all of their outward adulation, their understanding of the man is so...shallow.

Constantly whining about the series being "woke", when one of his major hallmark videos that introduced us to him involved two women finding love in each other after spending years of their lives fighting to survive and protect others (Haloid)?

Basically treating Miles and Kerry like coattail riding hanger ons who stole RWBY from him for their own greed and agenda, despite the likelihood that if he were still alive, HE'D be getting lumped in with them and treated like the (derogatory) George Lucas of Web Animation because his own ideas probably weren't that dramatically different from theirs? And let's not forget their absolute disdain and disregard for his brother's opinion on the matter...

It's all so performative and resoundingly missing the point of his legacy that I'm frankly surprised they haven't popped their heads off from the sheer amount of logical twisting they have to do.

I've said this before but it bears repeating. There are no wasted moments in RWBY. I'm still shocked how many people miss things like the V4 time difference between Blake in Menagerie and the rest of the girls in Haven or even the Blake/Yang vs Adam fight taking place several minutes in the past compared to the fight against Cordovin.

I respect Monty, without him there would be no RWBY but without Kerry and Miles the RWBY we know wouldn't exist. This show has always been a collaborative effort from writers to artists to animators to musicians.

The HTDM can be summed up in one image:

[rwby-imagines-and-headcanons]

Team RWBY - Childhood friend Reader goes Missing

(So I tried to respond to the actual ask but Tumblr glitched out. So I'm doing it like this instead, apologies!)

You're so sweet thank you so much!! This prompt hits so well for me, you have no idea. I wasn't sure whether you wanted EVERY girl from the series or just Team RWBY. For this one I'm gonna do just Team RWBY, but if you want me to do the rest of the girls in the series, just send me a message and I'll write those up eventually!

----------

Ruby Rose

You and Ruby were two peas in a pod the moment you met. It was like two puzzle pieces made perfectly for each other. You both were into similar things and your personalities mashed super well. Not only did you have a similar sense of humor, you were one of the few people that actually enjoyed her over the top antics and affections. Ruby would often ambush you with a hug while you walked around campus, sometimes leading to you two falling in a pile of giggles. Every week you guys had plans. On Tuesdays you both liked to have Debate Nights where you both defend your opinion on something (often roping in the rest of your friends to be the jury). There wasn't a dull moment with you two, every day was full of laughter and joy. You were each other's first school friend and that friendship has lasted for years. After the Fall of Beacon, you were split up like most, but found each other fairly quickly. You were a great support for her and would always listen to her issues. She felt connected to you deeply on a different level. Even after the rest of Team RWBY came back, Ruby found herself strangely attached to you more. Being reunited with her sister and friends was one of the best feelings in the world, but the moment you and her found each other again takes the cake in her heart. It became incredibly clear that she was in love with you. Looking back on it, she did have a habit of making excuses just to talk to you in private. Ruby didn't know what to do with this information, but it will come up at the right time

One day at about 5 am, Ruby was awoken by Qrow with a somber look. Apparently during the night you went missing. No one saw or heard a thing. You were there sleeping in your bed and then you were just… gone. The thought of you being missing was terrifying, but Ruby tapped into her abundance of optimism and quickly got dressed and headed towards the town. You couldn't have gone far, right? You probably just went through the city and got lost, no big deal! For the next week her routine remained the same; Wake up early, gather friends to look for you, take break for lunch, keep looking alone, head back, sleep. At the start she was hopeful, but everyday just wore her down until the 7th day when it broke her. You've been missing for a whole week, where were you? Yang held Ruby as she cried, eventually passing her to Qrow when it came time to go to bed. He did the best he could and was as supportive as possible, but he knew Ruby needed space to process it herself, and brought her to her room. With a hair ruffle and weak smile, Qrow wished her a good night and left her to rest

Ruby was awoken the next day early in morning yet again, except this time there was a knock at the door. When she opened it, her heart stopped. You stood on the doorstep, clothes torn and bloody. There were no major external injuries but it was clear you were heavily shaken up. Hobbling in with a limp you entered the house and sighed at the warmth. Ruby was at a loss for words, only able to muster out a vague question of what happened.

Apparently when you were going to sleep last week, you decided to throw out the trash as well beforehand. When you exited the house to take it out, you were suddenly ambushed by multiple Grimm and dragged deep into the forest. Since you were going to sleep, you didn't have your weapons, scroll, or any protection at all. You were completely vulnerable. For the past week you had been both fighting for your life against various Grimm and trying to navigate your way out of the forest labyrinth. Just when you were about to collapse, you finally found the opening into the town and limped all the way back to your home

It hurt like a bitch, but you tried to smile as big as possible. You could tell Ruby was feeling awful about this just looking at you. Before you could say another word, Ruby lunged at you, pushing you both onto the couch behind you. You let out a loud hiss as your leg bent at an odd angle and your hip twisted. Her arms were wrapped tightly around your neck, her head buried into your chest. As you gained the strength to question her, Ruby cut you off

"Oh my god I'm so happy you're okay! I love you so much, I don't know what I'd do without you! I can't lose you!"

Hearing the absolute heartbreak in her voice and the way her breathing staggered between sobs pushed you to shed your own tears. In the forest, all you could think of was getting back to Ruby, the girl you loved. The fact that the whole time she felt the same sent you over the edge. You tightly hugged her back, ignoring the pain you felt from your injuries. Both of you just went back and forth saying how much you love each other over and over again to the point of it becoming unintelligable. Tired from being overworked physically and emotionally, you fell asleep together on the couch in each others arms. When everyone woke up in the morning they helped patch you up, with Ruby holding your hand the whole day

----------

Weiss Schnee

Weiss never expected to like someone so much. She was cold and abrasive, especially at the academy. But for some reason you just… stayed. And it wasn't annoying like it was with Ruby, instead whenever you knocked on her door she could feel her heart skip a beat. She'd still scold you for interrupting her and tell you to leave of course. Every week you pushed a little further, giving her space at the same time as to not overwhelm her. Weiss took notice and appreciated it deeply. She never had someone who took her interests at heart and it was so foreign. Your friendship took awhile to start, but once it got going it veeeery quickly turned into a closeted romance. Maybe it was due to her sheltered upbringing, maybe it was due to you not judging her for her family name, she didn't know. But something about you melted her heart and she fell hard. And it was super obvious, she is not good at lying. It got to the point that basically everyone knew of her crush except you. Ruby and Nora kept trying to get Weiss to confess to you already, but she managed to avert the conversations elsewhere. She'd tell you, but now wasn't the time

Weiss quickly regretted that decision when she came back from a mission to hear you never returned from yours. At first she thought it was a prank and got angry, but when she realised it was true, she started freaking out. She pretty much interrogated everyone who interacted with you that day and started slinging accusations. Emotions got heated and multiple arguments broke out. Ruby and Jaune tried to organize a search party for the next day but that didn't do much. The day ended on a sour note, and Weiss instantly locked herself in her room. She spent the whole night crying, trying to contact you through your scroll

While on a mission, the whole group got a message that you were found alive. Badly hurt, but alive. Weiss basically abandoned whatever she was doing and got to the location marked on her scroll as fast as possible. On the way she went on call with Blake and learned what had happened. Apparently SDC protestors learned of your appearance and relationship with Weiss and grew enraged. A Schnee didn't deserve to find love, and you loving her just made you complicit with her family's crimes! They took their chance while you were alone and approached you, asking for help. When you followed them to the abandoned building, you instantly knew it was a trap, but they bashed you on the head and kidnapped you. They spent the last few days interrogating you about the SDC and Weiss' "secret plans". No matter how many times you said you didn't understand they wouldn't take that as an answer. You got incredibly lucky when Ren saw a shady person enter the building you were kept in and decided to call backup and investigate

The whole travel her anger grew and grew, a flurry of emotions clouding her head. She doesn't even remember traveling to you, she became concious again when she saw your beaten, bloody face. You had a black eye and bruises all over your body, but other than that you were in good shape. The moment your eyes met, Weiss stormed over and began yelling at you. She screamed about how foolish you were to follow strangers, how stupid you were for being so naively kind, it all just fell out of her mouth. Rant lasting awhile, it all accumulated in her confessing what she had been holding for years,

"Why can't you just understand that I love you and don't want you hurt?!"

When she realized what she said she fell quiet and put a hand over her mouth. For the next minute it was pure silence. You could hear a pin drop. It took you a bit to fully process so you just stared wide eyed. Weiss's face dropped as she looked to the ground solemnly. She blunted said you should have just exposed her so you could go free without harm. With that you broke out of your trance and instantly pulled her into a hug, letting out a small hiss at the pressure on your ribcage. You instantly let her know that it was worth protecting her, and when you confessed you felt the same into her ear, Weiss melted into your embrace. As you hugged she just kept calling you an idiot over and over again, threatening you to never get kidnapped again. Meanwhile everyone in the vicinity did a sigh of relief and thanked the gods you were finally a couple

---------

Blake Belladonna

At the start Blake didn't really like people much, that was obvious. But unlike Weiss who was more abrasive and combative, Blake preferred to ignore or dismiss. Even after you became friends with the rest of Team RWBY Blake was the last one to warm up to you. But things changed when you saw her reading a book from your favorite series. Shocked you knew of it, she inquired about your interest and you two spent the whole time talking about the plot and it's history. After that day Blake found herself intrigued by you, and was happy to find someone to enjoy books with her. Everyday she grew warmer. You noticed she would slowly start to approach you herself and actively start conversations. It was cute. Soon she realised that she was falling in love again. Blake tried so hard to fight those feelings off. Her relationships have always been plagued by tragedy and she doesn't want you involved in that. But every time she heard you laugh and saw you do cute little dances, it got nearly impossible to not fall for you

Although your friendship had been pretty steady, you knew Blake was hiding things from you. You tried to pry information from her to no avail, she kept being vague. Tensions just kept rising and rising until tt all came to a head when she finally spoke up. Blake told you everything, all about Adam and the White Fang. She even opened up about what happened with Yang and how she ran away from her team. It was… intense, to say the least. It was so much to process at once you couldn't really wrap your head around it. She was in the White Fang? Yang lost an arm for her? This Adam guy is still out there? The more she tried to explain herself and her history, it just made you more confused and overwhelmed. Your brain became overstimulated with emotions that you just blew up at her. She started silent, but eventually raised her voice as well. It was an intense back and forth argument between you two that ended with you both angrily retreating to your respective rooms. Blake layed in bed awake all night, thinking about your whole argument. It was wrong for you to blame her and yell, but she absolutely understood why you did. This situation is tough and multi-faceted. As she finally drifted to sleep, Blake made up her mind

The next day Blake emerged from her room to confront you and apologize, but found you were gone. Everyone else saw you leave the house in the early morning but haven't heard a thing from you since. Blake's heart instantly dropped. Remembering your last interaction made her imagine the absolute worst and made her heart race. Without a word she ran out and went looking for you. She didn't even have a game plan. Normally she is very levelheaded and able to control her emotions, but this time it was impossible. Adam was still out there watching, waiting. He already went for Yang multiple times, there is no doubt in her mind that he would target you too. Every possibility played in her head of him kidnapping you and hurting you

Blake scanned the streets and forest paths desperately, and after what seemed like hours, she finally found you. No hesitation she called your name, catching your attention. As she dropped in front of you, before you could say anything she grabbed you roughly by your shoulders. Voice quivering, Blake asked you if Adam touched you at all, tears in her eyes. You shook your head confused, gaining a desperate sigh of relief from the Faunus. She explained how you just up and left with no notice and how scared she got considering your fight. But you responded that you left behind a note telling her you were just going for a walk to cool down. You two spent the next couple of minutes clearing up misunderstandings and eventually got the full picture. And awkward silence fell upon you two, which you broke by apologizing for your outburst. Blake was silent at first, but responded in kind,

"I'm… sorry for not being upfront and honest with you. I always try to hide and run, because I'm afraid my past will come back to haunt me. Adam knows when I get close to someone, he knows when I…

I try to rationalize it by saying it's for your sake, but that's not fair to you. I can't do that to someone… someone that I love. I promise from now on there will be no secrets between us."

Her words shook your core, and made your face instantly flush. She was being the most upfront and genuine she's ever been, and you couldn't help but lose your breath. Gulping, you quietly tell her you feel the same, making her ears perk up. On the way back to your home, you both gently locked hands

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Yang Xiao Long

Yo, you didn't become friends, it's more like Yang kidnapped you and you got Stockholm Syndrome. Obviously I'm joking, you were actually a friend of Ruby's and happened to be Yang's age, so everytime you visited Ruby you two would get to talking. After a couple conversations, Yang deemed you to be fucking cool and constantly tried to talk to you and chill. It got to the point that you started hanging out with Yang more than Ruby, causing the latter to pout. Your interactions devolved into playful flirting and teasing. She would always call you "cutie" and make flirty puns at you, gaining a blush and sigh in response. As much as you guys messed around, Yang started to realize that it wasn't just jokes anymore. Over the years you've known each other the atmosphere changed. Subconciously she had been trying to give you hints about how she feels. It took her talking to Blake to really come to terms with her feelings and figure out what was going on with her

The next morning Yang happily slammed your door open and brightly called for you to get up. All of her happiness stopped in it's tracks when she saw your empty bed. With no hesitation she began asking everyone where you were, with varied answers. Nora and Ren ate breakfast with you, Oscar saw you watch tv, Weiss had an argument with you about beverage choices, etc. Blake was the only one with a solid answer, stating you were heading to the out of town store to get groceries. Yang could feel herself getting slightly annoyed, but appreciated the response and happily went to go meet you there. She hopped on Bumblebee and started the drive

While she drove, Yang tried contacting you through your scroll but wasn't getting a response which was odd. You were usually really attentive and always answered, at least sent a text message or something. After a couple more times she was about to put her scroll away, until you picked up. Yang happily spoke into the scroll, playfully scolding you for making her call so many times, but got no response. She listened closely and could hear the faint voices of two men yelling. They were clearly not friendly and were throwing threats all over the place. It was already giving her a bad feeling, but when Yang heard gunshots and the sound of you screaming in fear, she put Bumblebee in overdrive and beelined towards you

When you left the house, all you intended to do was get some bread and pasta for tonights dinner. You even went to the far off store that had the high quality noodles. But about halfway during your shopping the doors slammed open and two men stormed in holding guns. They began threatening the store and it's patrons. The old Shopkeep tried to tell them to leave but quickly backed down when they shot 3 bullets at his feet. One of the men chained the door shut and closed the blinds, while the other went around and gathered customers to the center of the store. Adults and children were herded onto the open floor and promptly restrained as to not intervene. Your scroll, thankfully on silent, kept telling you Yang was calling. You knew you couldn't respond to her, but you accepted the call to let her at least know what as going on. After a couple of gunshots you closed your scroll and shoved it in your pocket. As the other man got closer you looked around and found an opening behind the freezers. Before he approached you quickly slid behind and held your breath. No one noticed your escape, and went along their way. For the next 10 minutes you sat there in horror as you heard the store get ransacked and customers terrorized

The front windows suddenly shattered as a yellow and black bike got thrown through, ramming into one of the men. Yang quickly followed, eyes red and hair burning. She started to tear apart the store trying to find you, breaking shelves and display stands. You name was called but you could barely hear due to the freezers. Upset at the sudden entrance, the men tried to intimidate her, but she didn't even flinch. Knowing you were somewhere in the building, possible hurt, made her go blind with rage. With ease Yang defeated and apprehended the criminals with excessive force. A few extra punches and kicks and head slams are fine, right? Shopkeep thanked her and called the police, leaving Yang to find you. Now that the room was quieter, you could hear her desperate cries and called out for her, crawling out. You were barely off the floor when Yang nearly tackled you and hugged you tighter than before.

"I love you so much, I'll never let this happen again. I'll never let you get hurt."

In that moment Yang didn't even care about the fact she just confessed her true love to you, all she cared about was the fact you were in her arms unharmed. You didn't say it back, but you reciprocated her hug in a way that made her understand. The hug lasted for a couple of minutes, both of you just breathing together and calming yourselves. Once your heartrates dropped and your minds' settled, Yang gently helped you up and lead you to her bike, hopping on herself. Wrapping your arms around her waist, Yang quietly drove you back to the house in comfortable silence. That night Yang slept in your room with you due to anxiety and paranoia of you getting possible hurt. But even after those fears quieted down, you guys kept sleeping and cuddling in the same bed like the lovebirds you were

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This was so long but so fun to write??? I hope these are alright!

#RWBY #RWBY Imagines #RWBY Headcanon #RWBY x Reader #Ruby Rose #Weiss Schnee #Blake Belladonna #Yang Xiao Long

[itsclydebitches]

CLYDE. I was thinking about the RWBY vs Ace Ops fight again because it's one my least favourite moments in the entire show and I realised that Qrow/Clover/Robyn weren't part of the conversation prior, nor were they ever acknowledged. Nothing of the effect that "Hey, maybe we should wait for Qrow/Robyn/Clover's opinion on this plan before moving onwards, considering their experience and leadership skills?" before being shut down that time is of the essence and they can't wait for them. It just feels illogical to have the Ace Ops leader, Mantle's primary representative and the leader of the Happy Huntresses and one of James' closest allies be completely absence from one the most impactful turning points of the Volume. It feels they were either purposely left out arbitrarily for the sake of two poorly conceived fights or the writers just forgot...which wouldn't be the first time. This show is very...frustrating to say the least.

YEAH. The other day I was thinking about RWBY and ludonarrative dissonance in video games. Specifically, the number of action/adventure games I've played that have a, "OMG COMPLETE THIS MISSION IMMEDIATELY TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE SOMEONE IS GONNA DIE!!" narrative paired with a "Look at all these fun side quests populating the map, you should totally spend a month of in-game time leisurely exploring them" gameplay. RWBY feels similar to me (minus the interactive elements, obviously). The narrative continually pushes the urgency of the situation, but what the characters do don't align with that. Waiting in the mansion is the classic, go-to example of this, but it's also seen in questions like, "If the group is so concerned with the safety of the Relic why don't they.... put it in the vault?" and "If Qrow needs to speak to Ironwood so badly, why doesn't he just... go to Ironwood in handcuffs rather than starting a fight that, unforeseen airship crash or not, is gonna SUPER delay him getting there." Importantly, these moments go beyond the characters simply making impulsive, fallible, human decisions. It always feels like the writers haven't thought through the situation, or are so focused on one (badly chosen) outcome that they'll ignore all logic to get there.

So, same idea with this fight. I completely understand Ironwood's position because there is a clear line of logic here. Salem is about to attack, the group has consistently lied/undermined him, ergo he is removing a potential threat by locking them up until this battle/escape is complete. No one has to agree with him, but I think the reasoning makes sense both in general and for his specific character. (Which is also one of the reasons why I think some fans are willing to hear consider his side: his writing, however messy in other places, is leagues beyond the group's, particularly in the first half of the Atlas arc.) The girls though? They're all over the place. They don't want secrets but they're going to keep them from Ironwood. But they're also going to spill them all to Robyn, someone they don't know and shouldn't trust. They want to save everyone but have no idea how and can't/won't troubleshoot an answer. They're determined to unite the people but are simultaneously determined to solve their problems with a fight. They start said fight and then Ruby immediately tries to talk her way out of it again. And, as you say, they ignore that unity/experience/help available to them by not looping the others in because, supposedly, there's just no time... but then we have long scenes where they just sit around the mansion, tearfully bemoaning the fact that they don't know what to do and getting angry that no one has magically shown up to help.

I can EASILY picture a better-if-not-perfect scenario where the girls' decisions in that fight actually follow their proclaimed intentions AND the not-actually-very-critical timeline they have (because remember, even after all this Salem just sits there for an extended time.) What if Ruby ordered the team to let themselves get arrested and then we got a cool break out of jail scene? (I mean... Ruby blasts through Ironwood's steel doors that are meant to keep people in + they sneak into Atlas HQ. Clearly this would not have been difficult for them.) What if they ran into Qrow and Robyn while in their cells? Or what if they escaped, realized they needed their uncle, and started a help Mantle/find Qrow dual mission? What if instead of broadcasting a horrifying and near incomprehensible message to the whole world, they spoke to all their allies in Atlas about the plan they'd come up with, calling them together? Maybe coded so Cinder wouldn't understand. Maybe bluntly honest like a gauntlet throw-down: we know you're here, but we're ready for you this time.

Instead Ruby forgets she exists...

There are just SO many things you can do with that fight/the aftermath that don't completely undermine the themes, the tension, the proclaimed desires, and the narrative expectations. If there has to be a battle of ally vs. ally when Salem is on her way and half our villains are roaming the streets (god I can't emphasize that enough), why is everyone with the wrong person? Why isn't Robyn fighting the Ace Ops, her political enemy long before the girls showed up? Why isn't Qrow fighting Ironwood, the guy he (stupidly) blames for Clover's death? Why isn't Clover with his team? Why isn't Ruby facing Salem? Why the hell would you have Qrow team up with Tyrian?

As a side note, I've seen a resurgence of discussion about Ruby's breakdown in Volume 9 and everything above re-emphasizes for me just how much she HAS demanded this power and responsibility. "Hey, maybe we should wait for Qrow/Robyn/Clover's opinion on this plan before moving onwards, considering their experience and leadership skills?" is one of MANY considerations when weighing the question of whether Ruby has truly been burdened with the unwanted expectations of others... because they've never been unwanted and she has never down a thing to lessen that burden. She doesn't wait. She doesn't ask. She doesn't lean on others' experience and leadership. And this goes all the way back to Ruby responding, "Yes, I want to attend Beacon and take on all the responsibilities of that despite not being old enough," but there is also a LOT in the Atlas arc - right before her Volume 9 breakdown, literal hours in-world - where Ruby stood her ground and said, "No, we're doing this my way and my team, whether they've disagreed with this decision, or suggested this course of action in the first place, will ultimately follow me because I am the leader." She told Qrow to stand down and let her continue fighting Cordovin. She made the decision to lie to Ironwood and talked the others out of coming clean. She made the call to attack the Ace Ops instead of submitting to arrest. Using the Relic and dropping Atlas was a group suggestion, but Ruby sanctioned it. Based on literally 8 Volumes of content, if anyone HAD said no to her Ruby would not have listened to them. That is an overt, consistent characterization of hers.

And then Volume 9 expects me to feel bad because she's going, "Everyone expects me to take the lead"??? Like sure, in a very general, "That's indeed stressful no matter who's at the helm" sense, but Ruby has spent years at this point loudly yelling, "I'M THE PERSON YOU SHOULD LOOK TO AND I'LL FIX IT. IF YOU DON'T LIKE MY PLAN I'LL FIGHT YOU :)" Not roping Qrow and the others in is a part of all that. Not overtly on screen - we don't have a scene where Ruby goes, "We don't need to talk to them" - but the story doesn't think their input is important. We get the closeup on her smiling face when she thinks of using the Relic and then the others just inform Winter of what is happening when she happens to call. Major decisions in RWBY have often been collaborative when it comes to suggestions, but the final call is always Ruby. Whether we're talking about "This is my fight too!" when Qrow warns her to stay back, or using the Lamp's question when Ozpin is begging her not to, or shrugging off Yang's concern that she lied to Ironwood, or telling the whole damn world about Salem when numerous people with more experience than her have said, "That's a terrible idea" for generations, Ruby forcibly takes the lead and will not back down no matter who is asking that of her, or how they're asking. In fact, I'd say that is the most OVERT and CONSISTENT way in which she displays agency in this show (which, ugh).

#rwde #rwby #mymetas