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palaceofpassion · 3 years

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MAY I stop Time?

A fic done for a friend! In which May lets her new semblance go to her head.

“Okay… okay I can do this.”

Here May rested, her body hanging above the man of her dreams, one of the many people of her dreams but still the only man. Her eyes gazed upon his delectable form, his toned form gained through months and months of hard work. His boyish face on the threshold of a chiseled deity. Nearly losing herself in his gorgeous blue eyes she felt her heart thump in her chest. Her beloved Jaune rested below her, his body glistening with the sweat of his hard labor.

Even as she lowered herself upon his lap he made no distinct movements, no signs of noticing her attempts. In fact he didn’t move at all, neither did the incredibly gorgeous women around him. Taking the time to handle her nerves she gazed upon the other six figures in the room. Her pulse raced in her veins as she stared at each of them, bare as the day they were born. Their bodies much like Jaunes were coated in a thick layer of sweat. And just like the man below her they made no special attention to her own depravity. None of them moved, not a single person besides herself were even aware, conscious of her actions.

Even as she pressed her virgin lips against the tip of his massive cock she couldn’t help but remember the day this all started. The day that she unlocked her semblance, what felt like so long ago was only a month. In that month she’d learned to control her powers, learned to use them to their best and make the most out of them. And what else would she do with them but enjoy her beloveds to their fullest. And here they all where, here they all sat around her.

Closing her eyes she pushed down, the memories of yonder days returning to her mind as she did so.

It had been any other day, May had been at the shooting range practicing her sniping, she wouldn’t let that Ruby girl show her up! Then out of nowhere one of the punks from Team CRDL decided it was a great idea to scare her, so they decided that they’d take a pot shot at her. In her surprise something happened, before the dust round hit her the world came to a halt, everything slowed till the bullet stopped right in front of her.

“Wha?! What’s going on?!” The normally quiet May couldn’t help but have a minor freak out when she realized the bullet that should have slammed her right in the face had stopped. After a moment it dawned on her, this was her doing! Excitement filled her breast as she stared at the bullet, completely forgetting about those jerks from CRDL. In her excitement she dashed out of the room, not even paying attention to any of the other students as she passed by. She only had a small group of people she wanted to tell, the most important people in her life.

With speed that would drive Ruby to envy she found herself in the Library, where she knew her special friends would be. Spotting them in the distance she made her way forward, the first coming to focus was her most beloved man. Jaune Arc, the only person who would go out of their way to talk to a wallflower like her. He’d gone out of his way to talk to her when no one else would at the beginning of initiation. Being teamed with him had done nothing but cause her near case heart attacks. She’d pretend not to stare when he’d come out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel. She was only so strong though, weak willed as she was, she'd gaze upon his figure over and over. And believe her when she says he’d come a long way. She still held their first conversation dear in her heart, it was because of him that she’d been able to make such precious friends. She wouldn’t admit it, but she’d had many an erotic dream about the young blonde… though speaking of erotic dreams she knew she wasn’t the only one.

To his right, was quite possibly the single most gorgeous woman in existence. A beauty who made lesbians out of even straight women, Pyrrha Nikos. The all Star Champion, the invincible girl, the untouchable unapproachable or at least that’s what May used to think. If it hadn’t been for Jaune she may have never seen the real girl underneath, the one who was just as lonely as her, who only wanted to make friends. They both owed a lot to Jaune, and if she was being honest, Pyrrha was probably her biggest rival for his affection. At least she would have been if not for her also being a target of May’s pining heart. The woman was amazing, strong, powerful, glorious, gorgeous! But more than that she was just a girl, a sweet and loving girl that like herself was just happy spending time with her friends.

Then there was the girl to his left, the dark skinned beauty Ciel Soleil, her own partner. She hadn’t really known what to think of the girls when they first met. But now they were as thick as thieves, even if Ciel rarely ever spoke. She owed much of this to her previous two teammates, they’d taken the time to get everyone to sit and talk with one another. She knew that if they’d been left to their own devices then neither her nor Ciel would have taken the time to become friends. She would have surely regretted that decision. Despite her cold nature, May knew she cared in the end, she herself was an incredibly sweet woman who May couldn’t help but feel an affinity for.

To Ciel’s own left, there was Penny Poledina, her odd but rather fun friend who had come along with her Atlas. The two had originally planned to be partners, but because of Ciel accidentally running into May first those plans had become derailed. Things had worked out surprisingly well as Penny would visit the four of them frequently, becoming fast friends. May herself was surprised at how quickly Jaune had adapted to Penny’s inquisitive nature, he himself admitted to having seven sisters so he had grown to become rather patient. She was incredibly adorable, and May couldn’t help but feel her heart flutter every time the inquisitive girl spoke to ehr.

In front of them were sitting the other three members of their little friend group. One being the second year Velvet Scarlatina, a student who had somehow just kind of drifted into their little group. May couldn’t even remember when she first showed up, but she was now a full part of their group. And honestly she didn’t really mind her, though she saw the way she looked at Jaune, not that May could have blamed her. The girl herself was quite the beauty, her adorable ears expressed a lot of her emotion, and well May would be lying if she said she HADN’T stared at that nice plump rear of hers.

To her right was another odd one to join their friend group, Reese Chloris, she’d apparently been having issues with some of the girls from team NDGO, and Pyrrha happened to walk by. Not one to let things like injustice go unpunished, she stepped in and absolutely humiliated them. It was pretty obvious that Reese had originally joined by the simple virtue of her own lust and admiration towards Pyrrha. But as time went on she became a genuine friend with the group. May really liked her style, her mohawk was incredibly stylish, and her slim figure was one that May envied.

Then there was Weiss, the last member of their little group. Member of team RWBY, Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, she will never let you forget that by the way. Or at least she wouldn’t have in the past. Weiss was honestly the most surprising member of their group, she’d been a pain in her posterior when they’d first met. Mostly because of how Jaune had been stricken by the young Heiress. May hadn’t been the only one bothered by this obviously, as Pyrrha despite giving Jaune the go ahead had come to dislike the attention that she had been given. Then there was the fact that she was quite mean when it came to turning down the young Arc. He’d only asked her out three times and yet she’d gotten terribly upset with him… she wished he’d been more forward with her or at least Pyrrha or Cie. Though things turned around near the dance, he’d realized that it wasn’t going to happen he apologized and even helped push that Neptune guy in the right direction. That ended up not working out, and well they’d become friends along the way.

She wouldn’t say that she was as fond of her as she was all the other girls, but for what it was worth she was very pretty.

Even in her excitement she didn’t yell out to them, she hated drawing attention to herself, she was quite literally a wallflower. Her parents had named her after a mayflower in itself. Though, as she drew closer she noticed something strange, they hadn’t moved even the slightest. That… that wasn’t normal, not even in the slightest. Her confusion grew as she drew closer, finally reaching them. Then she looked around… no one was moving, not a single person! “Wha..what?!” Fear seized her heart as she started to panic, had she done this?! Did she freeze everyone?!

“Please go back, please go back!” Closing her eyes she wished as hard as she could that this was just a dream.

“May?” She nearly jumped out of her large jacket, her one good eye opening wide as the other seven individuals watched her with concern and confusion. “When did you get here?” Jaune’s warm voice assisted in calming her nerves.

“I… uhm… I….” She wanted to tell them about her semblance, this was a big moment! But… but there was a part of her, concentrating once more she felt the world fall to a halt. “I… I did do this…” She’d stopped time! She wasn’t sure exactly how she’d do it, or what had brought this around. But this was amazing! Though… though sinister thoughts fluttered through her mind. Mustering her courage she walked in between her friends, taking a deep breath she leaned over towards Jaune. It was quick and small, but she pressed her lips against his offering him a small peck.

Pulling away she felt her face burn hot, embarrassment flowed through her. “I… I did it!” She couldn’t believe she’d done it, she couldn’t believe that she’d managed to kiss the boy of her dreams. Though one could hardly call it a real kiss, it would suffice for the time. She wasn’t quite brave enough, nor did she want to abuse these powers.

Moving back to her previous position she concentrated, time fell back in. “Uh, I… I just wanted to come by and study with you guys… if that’s okay?”

“Of course it is sweetheart.” Her heart fluttered in her chest as Pyrrha stared at her, her gorgeous emerald orbs peering into her ugly blueish grey. “We’d love to have you… though it is quite strange how you’d gotten here out of seemingly nowhere.”

“Yeah dude! Where did you even come from?” Reese’ question nearly threw her off.

“I uhm… I just walked over, maybe you guys didn’t notice me? I am really hard to notice. ” She didn’t mean to get down on herself, and she sort of prided herself in her unnoticeable status. But there was a part of her that really didn’t like it.

“No… no we would have noticed you. You’re always noticeable to us.” All of the girls nodded along to Jaune’s words, and once more May remembered why she loved these people. All of them, each and every last one of them. “So what brought you over here in a hurry?”

“I uhm I!” In her panic time stopped again, “oh no!” She’d need to get better control of that, still she watched everyone. Their lips puckered in worry for her, and then… then a thought hit her. She could do anything! Anything at all… so she made her move. Stepping to Weiss first she gulped, her heavy chest heaved beneath her thick jacket. Lowering herself she cleared the hair out of her vision.

With courage that can only be found from her new found abilities she pressed her lips against the Heiress. Just like her namesake she had a crisp icey taste to her, one that May would very much like to try again in the future.

Not delaying she pulled away with a small pop, running her tongue around her lips.

Next came Reese, the exotic girl proved to be quite the opposite, her lips had an earthy taste to them, it wasn’t bad, just completely different from Weiss.

Next came Velvet, May couldn’t help but giggle against Velvet’s lips which tasted like Carrot Cake. “Oh Vel~” Pulling away she couldn’t help but run her fingers through Velvet’s ears, running her nails through her thin fur.

Penny was next, copper, it tasted a lot like copper… and silicone? It was an odd combination! But she didn’t hate it, it was pleasant once she grew used to it and she may have dilly dallied a bit more than she meant to. She placed another gentle kiss against her forehead before moving onto Ciel.

She took a moment staring at her partners glossy chocolate covered skin. Oh god she felt her nerves fail as she grew closer. Unlike the other girls she made sure this one lasted, her lips pressed tightly against the timely strict girl and she kept them pressed for a while. She enjoyed her flavor most of all so far, it was a cool minty flavor one that sent chills down her spine. After reluctantly pulling away she moved over to Pyrrha.

Her heart fluttered thoroughly in her chest, like a drum beating rapidly she felt her heart about to explode. Mustering her courage she actually grabbed Pyrrha’s head. Puckering as much as she could she pressed her lips, spice and ginger filled ehr senses as she found herself unable to pull away from the exotically erotic woman in front of her. Running her tongue across her cherry red lips she couldn’t help but enjoy the woman’s plump lips.

Truly reluctantly she pulled away, her heart thumped louder and louder to the point she swore that she could hear it pumping blood in her veins. Turning towards Jaune she just went right in, her moist lips crashed against his. One minute, two minutes, three minutes she continued to kiss him, not even coming up for air her courage turned into a burning fire as she ran her tongue across his teeth. Pressing on she slipped into her mouth, by this points he was basically tongue fucking him. She lost count for how long she’d been doing so but she now knew his taste intimately! Thick ropes of drool rippled down as she pulled away, her tongue slipping out of his mouth last. “So goooood~” She wanted more, needed more! She could always feel the power going to ehr head, but she didn’t care! For now though… she needed to keep things under control.

Pulling back she made sure to take her original spot, giving herself time to calm her beating heart she finally allowed time to return. She’d nearly missed it, but several of the girls, and Jaune, had quickly pressed their fingers across their lips. Velvet herself had slipped her hand across one of her rabbit ears. Once more time stood still, and a sudden realization hit her, “They can feel it… they can’ feel everything…” This should have scared her, should have terrified her, but it didn’t, instead it excited her, it sent powerful urges and lit a strong desire inside of her chest.

Once more taking the time to calm herself, she let time flow again, “I… I just wanted to see you.” Despite her meek tone she felt far more courageous than she’d ever felt. The fire that lit in her soul wouldn’t burn away, not for a long long time. For now though, she’d take the time to practice, to truly get used to her powers.

“Uh… well come and sit down!” It was obvious that Jaune was trying to get over the strange sensation in his mouth, but bless him for still thinking of her.

A small smile crossed her lips as she sat down with the group, this really was the good life and she wouldn’t trade it for anything… but she wanted more… wanted more with all of them. It was small, but she knew what she would do.

The sun hadn’t even risen by the time she’d woken the next morning, the excitement of the previous day had truly gotten to her and in her excitement she’d found sleep hard to come by. Even Pyrrha, Ms. Wakes up before the crack of dawn, was still slumbering, “Mmm~ Jaune not in front of the others~”

A smile slipped past her lips as she listened to their Vice Leader talk in her sleep, it was a good thing that Jaune was such a deep sleeper. Though she’d have to talk to Pyrrha about that one day, the girl’s thirst was unquenchable, not like she could blame her. Jaune was quite the wonderful boy, she’d had quite a few dreams about him as well.

Though… speaking of the boy, her eyes glanced over at his resting figure. The soft silver light of the moon illuminated his lithe figure. As her eyes trailed down from his face, to his chest she felt a knot grow in her throat. Apparently Pyrrha hadn’t been the only one to have an erotic dream that night, with only the moon’s light casting upon him she could still make out his impressive mast standing at full attention.

Once more she had that sickly thick feeling bundle in her chest, her breathing grew heavy. Without thinking she slid off her bed, with light steps she made her way over to him..

Activating her semblance the world grew still. Her core grew slick as she drew closer, trickles of warm juices began to run down her inner thigh. Before she knew it she was already by his side, her hand gingerly pressed against his thick hard member. Even covered by his rather soft onesie she could tell just how massive it was, excitement began to boil in her core.

As her gaze fell to his slumbering face she felt herself awash with shame. Was she about to do this? This was an invasion of privacy! Jaune would never do that to her… but… but this could be her only chance… the only times he’d ever get to actually see it. Then she looked back towards his towering member, she was so very weak. Pushing past her hesitation she slipped her right hand up his surprisingly firm chest. Her fingers slowly pinched upon the zipper, the zipper that held her long desired treasure.

And without even the slightest bit of hesitation or a second thought she slid the metallic key downwards. As she slowly pulled on the last lock to her goal a thought occurred to her, how was she moving something even when time was stopped? How could she still hear the sound of the zipper coming down? She’d have to investigate later, but for now, for now she had a prize to unbox.

Her heart throbbed in her heaving breast as her goal came into sight, finally she’d pulled that darned thing all the way. She wanted to enjoy this, wanted to really let the moment sink in. Bit by bit, she continued. First her gaze fell upon tufts of unsheared golden fur, “Oh!” He was as voluminous in the lower section as he was up top. She’d… she’d love to run her nose across it, take a moment to really enjoy his scent.

As she continued her venture she felt her boxers wedge into her quivering pussy, she would need to change after this. Finally she reached the very tip, and with one last pull she allowed it to spring free. She felt as if she’d used her semblance on herself, her mind went blank as everything stood still. There it was, in all it’s massive glory, “Could… would… would it fit?” She couldn’t help but tremble at the sight, both in awe and fear at the mighty shaft that stood at hopefully full attention in front of her.

She couldn’t help but feel in awe of how mighty it was, but at the same time, the very thought of trying to slide it inside of her frightened her. She would need to practice, need to get ready for when the time came. But! That was not why she was here, no she was here to… to… to help her leader! Yes! That’s why she’d come this far, he must have been in so much pain, so she as his faithful teammate, had to do her duty and help… help relieve his stress… yes… right that’s what she was doing. This was for him, this wasn’t for her… right. At least that’s what she told herself.

Once she’d taken the zipper to the very end she had decided on repositioning herself. Laying herself between his legs, she allowed herself to really get close up and personal with hopefully her future husband’s mighty… p… penis. She felt her face flush hot at the thought of using the word! Still… something was odd, she’d tested it before but she could definitely taste things even with time frozen. But apparently she was also able to smell them, her nose was assaulted by a thick strong musk, one that was mixed with the scent of spice. That in itself had answered a question that was at the back of her mind, did he shampoo his pubic hairs? The answer was apparently a strong yes!

Still… it was impressive, impressive with how even after he’d spent nearly 25 minutes in the shower he still had this strong… powerful… tantalizing… invigorating odor to him! Pressing her nose forward she pressed herself between his thick heavy sack, and his impressive… massive… gorging c...c...cock… yes that’s what this was! She felt his flesh move against her touch, she’d almost jumped back when she realized that it hadn’t been as hard as she thought. Instead she felt warmth, felt his touch against her face. This… this was good… she’d been worried about how well this would turn out. But as she took in deep strong breaths she knew it was going to be amazing. Burying her nose against the base of his penis, she allowed herself the time to take in his scent. She was practically marinating in it, and she loved every last second.

Her instincts took control of her actions, without realizing it she’d already brought the tip of her tongue to the slit at the head of his massive cock. Before she could stop herself she’d already moved in to get a taste, running her pink muscle across his sensitive glands, scooping up bits of frozen precum as she dug into the tiny hole. Once she’d finished she took the moment to savor his thick and natural flavors. She’d read that most women hated the taste, but she found herself becoming addicted to the salty tangy flavor.

Once she’d pulled back she took the time to admire the view in front of her. “I can’t believe I’m doing this… it’s… it’s so wonderful.” She wanted him, wanted to feel so very full, wanted to slide that thick hard cock between her needy pussy. She could feel her womb tighten at the thought, begging for her to mount him and breed herself on her unsuspecting love.

However, she still had enough self restraint, it was too early for that. She couldn’t let herself be carried away… though… though she could help him out a little right? He’d been there for her from the very beginning, it would only be right if she were to… were to help him get off. Just… look how hard… and pent up he must have been. Right, she was just being a good friend… a good… a good follower! Yes that’s what she was doing…

WIth her final bits of self control crumbling before her she took the time to move forward. Once more she placed her nose between his cock and balls allowing his scent to invade her nose. She couldn’t get enough of it! She hadn’t realized just how amazing scents could be till today, but here she was stuffing her face into her beloved man’s balls like a… a… a horny little slut… “Ahhh~” She felt her pussy clench at the thought alone, her body shook with excitement in response. “I… I’m a dirty… I’m a dirty little slut.” That crumbling self control was gone, and now only her desires leaked out.

“I want you to breed me… I want you to breed me! Breed Pyrrha! Breed CIel! Breed Reese! Breed Penny! Breed Velvet! Breed Weiss! Break all the other girls!” Her right hand moved to the base of his cock, she swore that the hot burning member throbbed at her touch, but that wasn’t possible. Her left hand moved between her thighs, slipping between her tight boxers her fingers moved along her plump moist vulva. Unable to control herself any longer, consumed by his thick musk, she moved her hands in tandem.

Her dainty thin fingers ran along her plump lips squeezing and grinding back and forth. She could feel herself growing slicker and slicker. Her nose buried deep between his massive cock and heavy balls she continued to breath in his thick scent. Her right hand continued to run up and down his thick heavy meaty fat cock, pumping him over and over running her fingers across his thick heavy veins. Her brain could only think of breeding, could only think of pleasuring the man before her, even if he wouldn’t feel it. But she did anyways, placing her lips against his thick, full balls she placed several heavy and hearty kisses against them. From time to time she dragged her tongue across his sweaty savoury orbs.

She wanted more and more, when her tongue wasn’t enough she wrapped her lips around one of his impressive sacks. Dragging her tongue against the precious balls of flesh she began to gently suck on them. Her pumping grew faster and faster, while her fingers continued to explore her nether regions. SQUELCH SQUELCH SQUELCH Over and over she ran her thin digits through her plump pussy. Her fingers began to explore her thin hole, finally penetrating her needy little slit. She could feel her pussy suck and clench around her fingers, she needed something bigger! She needed his cock in her, she needed to be bred! She wanted him to do her, to do so to so many others! The thought of all of the girls riding this member, while the others watched invaded her mind! The thought of him putting those nasty girls, those nasty insulting girls that liked to put him down in their place. For him to have them face down ass up, this MIGHTY cock plunging in and out of their holes as they begged for more, begged for him to breed them like the dirty little breeding sows that they were. Those thoughts invaded her mind like never before.

She couldn’t believe herself, couldn’t believe how easily she felt she was being corrupted! But it wasn’t just the breeding! No! NO! That would imply she only wanted his cock in her! She wanted other things, wanted to run her tongue through Pyrrha and Ciel’s pussy, to eat them out and savor their flavors. She wanted to stretch out Weiss and Reese, bend them in positions that only their thin, gorgeous, and lithe bodies could handle. She wanted to grind with Penny, wanted to get tribal with Velvet!

Her inner desires burned through, she’d been a good girl! She was allowed to have these absolutely nasty thoughts! She wanted more and more AND MORE! Her suction grew harder till she felt her jaw grow tired, he was so impressive! So mighty! Even as she continued to invade her own body, with three fingers invading her needy pussy. She found herself gazing upon his manly mane, the tufts of blonde hair that called for her to bury her nose into. Scooting forward she placed her face against his sternum, dragging her nose against his thick fur. He smelled so good! The harsh fragrance from his shampoo hit her nose at the same time as his thick heavy musk, built up from the heat of the night. “Oh god! I’m so bad~ I’m such a bad little girl.”

She couldn’t stop herself, her cervix opened and closed as she continued to attack her own pussy. She couldn’t stop, there was no way she could, her juices flowed freely down her thighs, her boxers were practically drenched in her own fluids by this point. She really couldn’t use them anymore! It would be too embarrassing, and yet, and yet a thought occurred. What if Jaune were to catch her like this? What if she started time up again… oh what would he do to her? Would he push her down, breed her? Use her massive ugly tits like… like handles as his thick hard cocked pumped in and out of her nasty… naughty...needy… pussy? The thought was tempting! She wanted to do it! But she knew she couldn’t, she just couldn’t! She was too scared, absolutely terrified!

Still the thought was there! The thought that was pushed back into the depths of her mind! For now though, she felt herself hit her climax, her body shivered and convulsed, her juices oozed down her thighs, her boxers drenched and unwearable at this point. She fell forward, her chest heaving up and down as she did her best to breath, her nose buried deep against his pelvis.

As her post orgasm clarity hit her, her face began to burn hot, burned so damn hot. Her eyes snapped open as she pulled away, nearly tripping as her drenched underwear clung to her body. Embarrassment consumed her at a realization of what she’d just done. “I… I… no! No! I’m sorry!” Running towards her dresser she grabbed a clean pair of boxers, she couldn’t believe what she’d just done, what she’d just THOUGHT! It was… it was so bad! Burying her face into her clean underwear for a moment she did her best to sling her moist used set down her slick wet thighs. With a wet SCHLOP her boxers hit the ground.

She shivered at the sound, her body growing hot as her embarrassment consumed her once more. Once she’d slipped on a fresh pair, she’d need to make sure that he was fixed as well. As she began to zip him up once more she couldn’t help but give him one last gift. Pressing her lips against the tip of his cock she gave him one last kiss. Once she’d finished setting him up she made sure to hide her… her shameful piece of cloth at the very bottom of her clothing hamper.

Gently she climbed into her sheets and closed her eyes. Her power over the world began to vanish, and she’d been prepared to fall asleep when she heard a loud thrashing sound and… and what sounded like a powerful squirting noise!

“NNNNGH!♥!!” Her eyes snapped open as she stared at the cause of the sound, Jaune was twitching, his upper body jolted upright. Her eyes glanced downwards as his loud moaning filled the otherwise quiet dorm room. SPURT SPURT SPURT SPURT! Her face grew red hot as she realized what was happening! All the feedback from when she'd been stroking him was finally happening. “Ah! AH AH!” Under the silver light of the moon she could clearly see his cock twitching and spurting out thick globs as his onesie became stained in his thick seed.

“I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry!” She hadn’t meant for that to happen! In her own lust she’d forgotten about it! Now the boy of her affection was having quite possibly the strongest orgasm he’d ever had, and it… it was all because of her! A sense of pride filled her chest, but was quickly replaced with shame as she saw the distraught face in front of her. Her instincts screamed to move and comfort him! But… but she couldn’t bring herself to move, she couldn’t let him know she was awake. Instead she watched him, watched as he stared in panic at his own sputtering cock the obvious shame built upon his face… it did things to her... things she didn’t want to admit.

“Hah hah hah…” His panting echoed and sunk into her ears, it was… it was doing things to her. She could feel her core heat up once more. “I… why… I… no….” Despite how terrible she felt, that small tinge of pride still filled her chest. “Why… I… no… I… they can’t see this… they… they’d hate me… I can’t… I cant believe I had a… wet dream about all of them… why…” She nearly flinched when he turned towards her. “I’m sorry May… I can’t… I can’t believe I… to you…”

Had he been having a wet dream?! Was she in it?! Was that why he was apologizing?! “You… I’m… I’m such a bad friend.” Even with her eyes closed shut as they were, she could still make out the sounds of him heading to the bathroom, obviously to get changed and to clean off… off that thick… stain on his onesie… that rich… fresh… and like that the world stopped once more.

Once more she got up, making her way around him she quickly unzipped his onesie, unable to resist the treat in front of her! Once she’d gotten the zipper all the way down she was treated with his cum coated cock. She remembered the previous embarrassment! Remembering how bad she felt! But how could she resist?! Quickly she moved, running her tongue along his still thick hard shaft she lapped up his thick honeyed cum. “Schow good! You taste schow bery good!” She couldn’t stop it, she couldn’t stop till she consumed every last bit. And there was just so much! So very much very much. For what felt like forever she continued to lap away, consuming and gulping down as mucha s she could. Tasting his flavors so directly had nearly lit her fire again, but she needed to control herself.

Once she’d made sure to have consumed as much as she could, even going as far as to lick what she could off of his onesie she went back to bed. Letting time return she heard him nearly fall over, “Wha?!” He’d apparently grown weak kneed with her previous endeavors. “Wha… what is wrong with me?” His voice released a hushed whisper, but she could still hear it, hear the embarrassment in his voice. It… it was so delectable. She… she was awakening tos something new. She wanted more… but for now she’d sleep, close her eyes and rest.

#May Zedong #Jaune Arc #Pyrrha Nikos #Weiss Schnee #Velvet Scarlatina #Penny Polendina #Ciel Soleil #Reese Chloris

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heliosthegriffin · 3 years

Text

He’s channeling his energy productively.

Jaune walked down the halls of Beacon backed to his dorm, it had been a long day so far, not a hard day though, just one of those days that kept going and seemed like they wouldn’t end. Making it back to his room would at least let him spend the rest of day how’d like.

The sounds of laughter followed a group of older girls walked pasted him. It was outside of class time so the students could wear whatever they wanted. They wore clothes that were made to go clubbing.

Jaune’s eyes had a life of their own as they stared at the girls walking past, you’d think having seven sisters would make him more respectful wouldn’t you? But, having a lesbian older sister, and a couple others that were bi, all they did was teach him how to peak without getting caught.

That said he’d doubt his friends would call him out for staring, considering some of the girls here had assets that would give Yang pause.

They didn’t notice him pausing and walked by, a fragrant fruity perfume left behind. Jaune couldn’t help but look behind him, watching those girls go, a sway in their step that cause something in Jaune to rise up.

“Dammit,” Jaune cursed as his pants tightened up.

Jaune look around before he adjusted his pants, so that his zipper wouldn’t fly off by accident again, and tucking his erection down his pant leg so that it’d be less noticeable.

Jaune felt frustration well up in him, this had become a reoccurring problem since he started Beacon. The girls here were just too damn hot! It made walking anywhere a damn hassle and a embarrassment, and he had no way to release any of his damn tension in his dorm, Nora had broken the locks to the bathroom and the door; That had probably been the closest he had ever come to killing somebody.

Letting out an other sigh he resigned himself to shuffling back to the dorm as the blood went flowing elsewhere. He should just thank his lucky stars that he’d never popped a boner anywhere near Ruby, Yang would have found out somehow, probably Nora, and then killed him.

Right as he got close to the dorms, Jaune’s blood-flow was back to normal, but he still felt tense and incredibly worked up.

The sound of weights being lifted, treadmills running, and other exercise equipment sounded from nearby.

The gym was only a short walk away from the dorms. Jaune paused for a moment, Nora and Yang always seemed to go to the gym when they go worked up, maybe he should try it, it’s not like he didn’t go often anyway, so what would it hurt to work out so stress?

---------

Jaune stared at the scroll in his hands, ‘10:03′ where did the time go? He went in at ‘4:26′, went to the weight rack, and then everything seemed to go into a blur, and then the next thing he remembered was a upperclassman telling him the gym was closing in soon.

“Guess, I had more stress to work out than I thought I did.” Jaune said to himself walking to the gym showers, suddenly starting to feel exhausted and wanting to jump into bed at the closest opportunity.

-----------

The next morning was agonizing, his arms felt like they were made of pure, while on fire and being pulled apart! Maybe he went too hard last night.

He was also feeling cavernously hungry. No wonder Nora has an appetite like a black-hole.

------

Jaune’s problem came back in full force during lunch when Yang leaned too far back and the top couple buttons of her shirt decided they wanted a life in the air force.

Leaving Jaune with a delicious view of her cleavage.

Yang looked at her shirt, “Shoot, I actually liked this one.” She then resumed eating.

A hand caressing his leg, brought him out of his vision. “Are you alright, Jaune?” Pyrrha’s warm, gentle voice whispered into his ear

A mildly blush went up his face. “Yeah, just, uh, taking in the view.”

“Oh, ok then, but if your not feeling well, I can take you back to the room.”

“I’m good.” Jaune said a little too fast, as his mind started to fill in the blanks of what his monkey brain wanted to do to Pyrrha.

Pyrrha nodded.

Jaune felt thankful that Yang or Nora hadn’t found a chance to tease him about being alone with Pyrrha.

Lunch came and went, and Jaune made sure he was the last to get up, so that his problem wouldn’t be seen. He couldn’t exactly fiddle with himself under the table without drawing attention. So with all the swiftness he had, he tucked himself into his pant-leg while getting up.

In hindsight, maybe walking behind his developed female friends, and especially Blake, was a bad idea. His other head disagreed with him.

The rest of the day went by in a blur, combat class was a mess, but mostly cause he can’t being drawn to his friend outfits, they showed so much leg.

He went back to the gym again after class, he went to the treadmill and leg exercise machine. The upperclassman had to tell him to leave again.

-------

The rest of the week seemed to follow a similar pattern for Jaune, he’d wake up sore, but a little less so each day, go to class, end up aroused, then pent up, then go to the gym when he had the free time, and only when he had free time, going into those workout trances made him lose anytime for studying, hanging out, or training.

Training with Pyrrha was probably the hardest part of his week, literally and metaphorical, because while he loved Pyrrha like a sister, his body constantly reminded him that they were not siblings! It always made him feel disgusted when ever he looked at Pyrrha that way. No way Pyrrha ever looked at him that way.

After training with Pyrrha though, he still had two hours before the gym closed, and he was pent up again.

The upperclassman had told him to get an alarm or something, cause he wouldn’t always be there to tell him to leave.

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

Hanging out with team RWBY was always a... Experience, they were fun, don’t get him wrong, but it was like chaos in a bottle. The bottle was also cracked, and there was no cork either.

Today he and the rest of his team came over to hangout, and Ruby insisted they play twister.

Jaune was forming a bridge with his arms bending backwards to stay on there spot, while Ruby was draped across him with one leg over his shoulder and the other over his arm, with her front laying across his stomach, and her arms going in between and around his legs. While Nora lay under him her chest pressing into his back. It was also a really small mat.

Everybody else had dropped out, or refused to play, while Blake controlled the game, and Yang video taped everything.

Then Nora sneezed into his neck. That was the straw that broke the camels back. Sneeze both tickled his neck and scared the life out of Jaune, as he somehow managed to jump a foot into the air from his position, carrying Ruby with him. They landed on Nora with a thud.

Jaune’s position with Nora’s chest on his back and Ruby’s legs on his chest, really wasn’t going to help with his tension, as his lower-body decided to achieve liftoff.

That said he had managed to get a grip on himself lately,. So Jaune calmly got off Nora, and picked up Ruby, putting her next to Nora. All while hiding his full mast, then went to the gym again.

“You think he’s alright?” Ruby asked innocently.

“Probably just rubbing one out.” Nora said full of confidence. “These sweater puppy's of mine are of a quality most women can only dream of, yet here I sit, my majesty a reality, I don’t blame Jaune at all.”

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

Jaune was watching with wrapt attention as Ms. Goodwitch strode across the arena pointing out several flaws in recorded fights she had on holographic videos. Tapping them with her wand to enhance the smaller images at time.

RIIIP

Her blouse broke, showing off globes of creamy white flesh barely being contained by a purple bra.

Ms. Goodwitch paused, a light blush on her face. “Well, Students this should teach us to be prepared for anything.”

Jaune then got up, walking out the door.

“Mr. Arc, where do you think your going?” His teacher asked severely, as several laughs broke out of the room, many people pointing at him.

“To the gym. I don’t think I’m going to be able to focus much today.” “Very well, any others who wished to join him?”

The gym was very packed that day.

------

Jaune enjoyed hanging out with Pyrrha, she was probably the best friend he ever had. He just wished she would stop having to bend over so often in front of him, or walking in front of him when she did that he couldn’t help but focus on her swaying hips.

Jaune sighed as he felt a rise tower start to erect. “I’m going to the gym be back later.”

Pyrrha merely looked bewildered. She though she had him for sure this time!

----

The transfer students were interesting people, and he couldn’t take his eyes off of them. They came from all walks of life, all paths, all creeds and kingdoms. From the strictly dressed military like Atlas Academy, to the survival of the fittest types and loosely dressed Shade Academy, or the storied and traditional style of Mistral. They were all interesting, diverse, strong and incredible sexy.

Ever since he ran into that black haired girl and her green haired partner, he somehow kept managing to find them in the most compromising or revealing positions possible.

So, Jaune started hitting the gym harder than ever.

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

1 Year later....

----

With a slight shaking arms Jaune pushed the loaded bar back up, exhaling. Then he took a slow, deep inhale as he lowered it down to his chest, then exhaled rising it up again. Inhale, exhale, till he finished his rep.

He rose up from the bench with a grate moan, feeling the warm soreness across his body. It hurt, but in a good way. In a way he couldn’t have appreciated a year ago.

Grabbing his towel he wiped the sweat off his face, and then cleaned off the bench. Treat the gym right, and it’ll treat you right back.

Jaune paused as he walked toward the shower, he had gotten into a habit of showering here so he didn’t have to make his teammate's rush to clean up, there was wall of mirror he looked himself over finding nothing of note, beside himself sweaty and his hair kinda sticky looking.

The water was cold, but high pressured, helping unwind any knots on his back and wash off grime better. He had started taking cold showers more frequently as in the field your rarely got to wash off in general, and if you did, it’s not likely you’ll get hot water, so it he thought it was probably best to get into the habit now.

Working out felt good, taking a shower afterword was just perfect. The only thing that would make it better was wearing his onesie, he had a right to comfort! But, it had gone mysteriously missing after he met Coco on his walk back from the gym half a year ago. So, for now he was stuck wearing white tank-top, and a pair of cotton shorts back to the dorm.

He waved by to the upperclassman about to close the gym, and left for his dorm. He may not have started going to the gym for the right reason, but over the course of a year, he felt like he had grown from then. In fact... what was the reason he started going to the gym? Something about women? Eh, must have been nothing. Ever since he started taking his training double seriously during the Vytal festival, it was like he just didn’t feel dating anybody till he around to being a huntsman, like that there was more to life than dating or stuff.

Jaune ran a hand through his hair, he had started growing it out at the beginning of the second year and now Pyrrha and everybody else vetoed him getting a hair cut!

“Hahah, jokes on them though, they have to brush the knots out of my hair!”

Walking back to his dorm a fruity perfume pasted his nose, a vaguely familar laughter along with it. Then a slightly familar group of girls were walking in the opposite direction as him. They looked like they came back from a night on the town. He liked the way they dressed, it complimented themselves very well.

As he walked pasted them they paused and stared at him, Jaune paused too, but shrugged, giving them a broad smile and a wave before walking back to his dorm.

Jaune failed to miss the women eyeing fucking him as he walked away, all of them red face and heavy breathing.

“Hmm, why do I feel like I’m in danger?”

----------

Jaune wasn’t sure when, but he had grown into a morning person. It was fun to get up in the morning now, he liked watching the sun rise, seeing the sky change colors on his morning runs.

Being team leader meant having responsibilities, so being a early riser now meant getting up his team, they were going to be third-years in a not small amount of time. So he made sure that they got up at a reasonable time to prepare for the day. Along with the fact on mission they would have to get up before the sun rise on most days.

Also, he especially liked to watch his teammates get up, it was entertaining in different ways from Nora crashing out of bed, to Ren rising from a blanket cocoon, and Pyrrha’s silly little death threats to any man stealing bitches out there.

He tended to wake them up with a gentle approach putting hand on there shoulders and carefully shaking them awake. He had forgotten how strong he was a couple of months ago when he sent Nora flying into a wall by accident, so had tried to be gentle.

The rest of Team Jnpr had learned a couple months ago that they no longer had a choice in waking up early, the only choice was before the sun was up or after.

Jaune put on his uniform for class, he frowned a little bit, as it was tighter than it was yesterday. Maybe it’s new? Guess it needs to be broken in.

Team RWBY met them at breakfast, Ruby refused to let her other bestie get ahead in the leader game by letting just JNPR get up early! Jaune didn’t notice but he often got murderous glances from Blake.

Eating breakfast Jaune felt a crick in his back so he leaned back.

Pop-pop-pop-pop, RIIIIP!

His buttons on his shirt fired off like a machine gun shattering against the walls of the cafeteria, and then his shirt fell to pieces, revealing his sculpted torso, arms and abs.

“Ahh man, I liked that shirt.” Then continued eating, not aware of the stares his friends, other students, and Ms. Goodwitch were giving his body, eyeing him up as much or more than he used to do to them.

AN: If this Jaune was ever put into a situation where couldn’t exercise for like a week, his libido would come back with vengeance and make him a unstoppable sex monster. That said, what are the odds of that happening?

#Jaune Arc #Not quite crack #Slight Himboification #Team JNPR #Team RWBY #Glynda Goodwitch

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waheelawhisperer · 2 years

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on ironwood I recall hearing in a commentary that ironwood did issue out a warrant for robyn but the other counselors invited her while offering protection from arrest ( I might be misremembering it ) oh and one of the criticisms I have for rwby is pacing it would do alot better with a full anime time we could have gotten a more extensive look at mantle among other things )

If that's the case, then it really should have made it into the show because it completely changes the context around Robyn's presence at that meeting, but in the absence of any actual source, I'm gonna go ahead and just work off of the evidence we got on the actual screen.

I definitely agree that RWBY would be better with longer runtime, yeah. I mean, this probably goes without saying, but more time to tell the story typically equals better story. RWBY is in this weird situation where it has a lot of Volumes, but each individual Volume isn't particularly long (the whole thing clocks in around 24-28 hours, last I checked. If you tried really hard, you could binge the series in a weekend), so the show can feel like it's both rushed and taking forever to get anywhere, somehow. I think RWBY's Volumes are much better when binge watched, but the pacing still feels a little odd. I will admit that watching certain Volumes weekly was a real slog.

I do think that RWBY's scope and its resources do not align particularly well. This show is very ambitious, and I love that about it. I have a huge soft spot for media that shoots for the stars, even if it doesn't make it all the way. To put it another way, I respect shows and books and games and so on that have the balls to try, and I respect writers that try to push themselves out of their comfort zones and tackle heavy topics. Do I think RWBY always does a good job of tackling those heavy topics? No, not really. I think the show kind of dropped the ball with the White Fang plotline, for example, and that seems to be a fairly common opinion. Regardless, I respect the willingness to try.

That said, RWBY just... does not have the resources (budget, runtime, etc.) to tell the big, grand story it wants to tell as well as I wish it could. There are a lot of characters and plot threads to follow, and many of them don't get fleshed out as thoroughly as I wish they would. We don't get to explore the Kingdoms as much as I'd like, either, and we get important elements of the setting being explained in the World of Remnant shorts instead of the show proper, at least partly to cover up issues in the production pipeline. I think RWBY would be a better product if whoever's in charge of production found a way to align the scope of the project and the resources available to it more effectively. Either devote more resources to the show or tighten the focus, and I'll most likely be happier with the result.

Any discussion of RWBY's production and resources needs to include the acknowledgement that the show's production history has been... troubled. Pretty much every Volume has had some kind of factor that kept the crew from creating it unhindered, sometimes because the company messed up and sometimes because of unforeseen outside circumstances. I'll go through the list:

Volume 1: The show was really just Monty's pet project that hadn't proven itself commercially viable yet. Rooster Teeth hadn't yet thrown its full support behind the IP and everyone involved was finding their stride. I view Volume 1 as more of extended pilot/proof of concept than anything else, because frankly it isn't very good, but it showed a lot of potential and had just enough cool moments to keep me interested.

Volume 2: The team is still adjusting to working with actual support/resources and getting used to telling a story that's very different from the type of content that Rooster Teeth was used to producing at that point. Still, we see significant improvement over Volume 1. There's still a lot of growing pains,

Volume 3: Monty died. The crew was devastated, we had drama with stuff like Shane Newville dropping his famous letter and Glynda's VA going on a drunken Twitter rant or something, and several episodes barely made it to production on time.

Volume 4: The team switched to new software and was still coping with the aftermath of Monty's death. Some growing pains here are understandable, and while I'm not a particular fan of Volume 4 for several reasons, I'm willing to cut it some slack.

Volume 5: IIRC the head of RT's animation department was stealing resources from other projects to push Gen:Lock and then "left the company" when he got caught, so it's kind of hard to blame the crew for this one. While that doesn't magically get rid of the flaws in Volume 5, I'm a lot more inclined to forgive them when the person who was in overall command of the project was actively screwing CRWBY over.

Volume 6: The legendary crunch. This one is entirely on the company and I'm not excusing it in the slightest, just pointing out that shit working conditions make the end product worse.

Volume 7: I'm not actually aware of any issues with Volume 7's production (maybe the crunch was still a thing? IDK), and I don't think it's a coincidence that this is one of the better Volumes.

Volume 8: Oh, boy. This one was a doozy. CRWBY got hit with the double whammy of the covid-19 pandemic and the failure of the Texas power grid. I was not personally a fan of sitting on my ass in a house with no light or heat or power and using the stove to melt snow so I could flush the fucking toilet, and I can't imagine trying to do anything productive under those conditions. I certainly didn't. I think the adverse conditions had a significant effect on the quality of Volume 8, and I blame most of my issues with the Volume on the disruption caused by the pandemic and the freeze.

I think this is the cause of the very controversial scenes where Ruby, Weiss, and Blake spend time at the Schnee mansion. Apparently, those three were supposed to go inside the whale at one point, but that got cut, and I think it got cut because CRWBY had to adapt to something nobody was really prepped for. I don't personally like the decision to have all the protagonists stay in the Schnee mansion while not fighting the fight they were insistent upon fighting at the end of Volume 7, I get why it was so controversial, but I'm willing to chalk it up to messed-up circumstances. I might elaborate on that at some point, but that should probably be a post on its own.

Anyway, I think CRWBY made the right decision by prioritizing the health and safety of their workers. I'd rather have a worse product than encourage them to force their workers into unsafe working conditions. That said, I can feel that way and still acknowledge the detriments that decision and the circumstances surrounding it had on the final product. I think the crew tried really hard to adapt the story to the sudden paradigm shift caused by covid and my dogshit state's dogshit leadership and infrastructure and didn't succeed particularly well.

On a related note, fuck you, Greg Abbott. Hope my dumbass state government collectively swan dives into a wood chipper.

So... yeah, RWBY's production history is weird and complicated, and I think the quality of the show has fluctuated wildly because of it. I'd love to see what RWBY could be with the type of budget (in terms of both money and other resources like runtime) dedicated to big blockbuster shows. I think that giving the show the resources to match its ambitions would truly take it from good to great. I know it's not as simple as "just giving them a bigger budget", but we're talking hypotheticals here. A guy can dream, can't he?

#rwby #analysis

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ygo5dsmonth2021 · 3 years

Text

Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds Month 2021 Prompts!

Your prompts for 2021! Please note, they are only a suggestion, you can make something else, AND you can always submit something late!

Day 1 (7/7): Yusei Go!

Time to kick off the next Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's month with our shooting star protagonist, Yusei Fudo! Make sure to also wish your favorite star boy happy birthday!

Day 2 (7/8): Well-Oiled Machine

This year's theme is D-Wheels/Duel Runners! Which bike is your favorite? Or what would your own custom bike look like?

Day 3 (7/9): Yin & Yang

The clash of good vs evil, equal and opposite, light and dark, is such a classic! What two sides of the same coin in this dynamic stands out to you?

Day 4 (7/10): Training Wheels

With a blast of pure, raw energy comes Rua/Leo! He might not be the best at what he does, but his determination and love for his sister is the stuff that makes us root for him!

Day 5 (7/11): Synchro Power!

Riding duels wouldn't be complete without the gorgeous, star power of synchro monsters! Which synchro makes you want to accelerate most?!

Day 6 (7/12): Driving Slow on Sunday Mornings

Everybody knows the first rule of driving is to crank up the tunes! Would that be any of the OPs or EDs or did you have another song in mind to drive by?

Day 7 (7/13): Slow & Steady

Say hello to fairy tales with Ruka/Luna's day! She's a bit on the shy side, retreating into fairy tales, but don't let that fool you! Ruka has the skills and the sarcasm to come back swinging!

Day 8 (7/14): Time for an Upgrade

5D's is a unique Yugioh series in that so many characters come chock full of awesome powers! Psychics duelists, Signer powers, and advanced synchro summoning? Which personal power upgrade is your favorite?

Day 9 (7/15): New Suits

All the characters have unique styles and outfits, but maybe you'd love to see Ruka cosplay as a fairy? Maybe Kiryu dressed as a zombie? What outfits or cosplay speak to you?

Day 10 (7/16): Pit Stop 1

Congrats! You made it to Free Day 1! Use this day to introduce yourself, throw up a quick doodle, or take a break and relax. The pit crew will take care of the rest.

Day 11 (7/17): Blackbird

Fly off into the sky with Crow, the Bullet, Hogan! He might seem rough and scrappy, but Crow also has a heart of gold that cares for kids, friends, and family. Show this bird of a feather some love!

Day 12 (7/18): Don't Game and Drive!

Of course, we wouldn't have card games on motorcycles if this were true! What's your favorite Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's video game to play when you're not driving? Legacy? Duel Links? Over the Nexus?

Day 13 (7/19): Across Land and Sea

There are so many different storylines and arcs in 5D's! Was the Fortune Cup your favorite? Maybe Crash Town? What arc speaks to you?

Day 14 (7/20): Wheel of Fortune

All hail the King, Jack Atlas! This man burst onto stage and into our hearts. Jack might be a little selfish and over the top, but he cares deeply for his friends, and, apparently, coffee.

Day 15 (7/21): Decals

Do you have some 5D's merch on hand? Maybe a commission you treasure? A keychain you've had your eye on if only you had the funds? What's some of the best merch you're happy to have out in the world?

Day 16 (7/22): Quantum Realms

In another universe... Would Aki make a great pirate? Perhaps Yusei would be a dashing swordsman? What if Crow switched place with Qrow from the RWBY universe? Whatever you come up with, enjoy AU day!

Day 17 (7/23): Bloody Kiss

Pitch dark flowers unfurl in the name of Aki Izayoi! Never underestimate this dark beauty and her thorns! Have a day to honor this Black Rose.

Day 18 (7/24): Broken Down

Our emotions can flow one way to the other. Some days we're on top of the world, and others we're at the bottom of the ocean. Our favorite characters are no exception. Will you lean into the angst or give your fave a break today?

Day 19: (7/25): You Give Bikers a Bad Name

Here's to the villains! No heroic journey would be complete without the antagonists in the way to challenge our heroes! Which villain is your favorite?

Day 20 (7/26): Pit Stop 2

Phew! Congratulations, you made it to the next Free Day! Take this day to relax, keep things lowkey, and let the pit crew take the steering wheel for a bit.

Day 21 (7/27): Delta Eagle

Obtain Clear Mind today with Bruno! He's a little bit complicated, okay, a lot complicated, but Bruno's role is certainly interesting. What do you love about this dual-life mystery man?

Day 22 (7/28): Workshopping at the Garage

What's your favorite writer, artist, editor, or cosplayer? Take this day to give each of your faves that continues to keep the fandom a live a shout out!

Day 23 (7/29): Team Spirit!

5D's is all about the teams and teamwork to get the job done! What team speaks to you most and why? Is it the snazzy uniforms?

Day 24 (7/30): Giganto L

Depression, thy middle name is Kiryu Kyosuke. This man has seen some sh*t and then some. But Kiryu has also grown through his journey, and it's time to give him the credit he deserves.

Day 25 (7/31): Bonding with Your Biker Gang

It's OC appreciation day! Does your friend have a cool OC? Did you make a self insert to join the characters in their story? Show us where your OCs fit in!

Day 26 (8/1): Life is a Highway

It's travel day! Did you just love some of the locations the characters went to? Did you wish you could have seen Misty in Paris? Or maybe Ruka traveling to Australia could be fun? Take today to make a post card or show us screenshots of the best locations in the show!

Day 27 (8/2): Intersections

Ah, intersections, like crossroads of destiny. Except today is Crossover day! Maybe you wish Team 5D's met Avatar Korra? Or what would the Sk8 anime crew do in the 5D's universe?

Day 28 (8/3): Crewmates

We can't forget the other characters out of the spotlight that make the whole show complete! Show Martha some love, or Rally! It's their turn to shine!

Day 29 (8/4): Planetary Gears

What star-crossed ships just seem to fit perfectly together? Or do you want to show off a crack ship for fun? Maybe you have an OC you ship with a Canon character? Never underestimate the love of friendship either! Today is all about love!

Day 30 (8/5): Pit Stop 3

Be proud of yourself and take a breather! You made it to the last Free Day! Use today to take a breather to make it to the final stretch and finish strong! You can do it!

Day 31 (8/6): Over the Horizon

Our last day is here, such a bittersweet ending but at least there will be next year to look forward to! Take today to look over the horizon, towards the future, hoping for better days and times together.

#ygo5ds-month-2021 #yugioh 5ds #ygo5ds #5ds #yusei fudo #crow hogan #jack atlas #bruno #antinomy #kiryu kyosuke #kalin kessler #aki izayoi #akiza izinski #rua and ruka #leo and luna

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knight-dwx-09 · 2 years

Text

Fate Stay Knight Trailer

(AN=i don’t own fate stay night or rwby)

"when i was a kid, i want to be hero" Jaune narrated

the screen show a young Jaune in bed with star in his eyes. beside him was his grandpa Johnathan telling a fairytale about a hero save the day. the next scene show young Jaune wearing plastic armor and wooden sword play with his little sister

"but not one ever believed in me"

the scene change to young Jaune fighting his dad. the screen change to young jaune crying with his back at the door. next scene show young jaune get bully by human and faunus kid.

"i still try to become a hero"

the screen cut to young jaune training in early morning with wooden sword.

"but it the end i give up"

he was now show looking his wooden sword with teary eyes before let it go. the scene show few memory of Jaune, cooking with his mom, dancing with his sister, get cross dressed by his sister, sewing with his mom, planting plant, and cleaning the house. but few of it show Jaune with fake smile

"but in the darkness, someone give me a hope"

the scene show Jaune now at age 17 talking to johnathan on his death bed with teary eyes.

"a hero isn't a person who is strong, a hero is person where he can stands up and raise his fist to protect other people. not matter what the challenge is"

Johnathan look into Jaune blue eyes with warm smile.

"i believe that you can be a hero too jaune"

Jaune eyes slowly open wide and slowly he cried. not just sadness but joys and happiness. the screen change to jaune hang on the tree with a spear before his hoodie get torn off. he fall on his butt. he hear a rustling leaves, Jaune open his eyes see a girl with red hair.

"and someone who will change my life forever"

that girl have golden-brown eyes and she as tall as Ruby. her bust is little bigger than Ruby. her hair is short and look fluffy. she wear black tight and sleeveless shirt that only covered upper body and her stomach uncovered, simple breastplate, red hood that reach slightly below her shoulders, black short and red open skirt which ended above her shins. she also wears black metal plated shoes. on each of her hand there are two sword, black and white. her golden-brown eyes look into to jaune blue eyes. the screen pulled back show Jaune Arc in sitting position on the ground with his hands planted behind him to prop himself up, looking up to Shina Emiya. a rustling of the trees brought a single ray of sunlight down into the forest, illuminating the girl who stood over him.

"i ask of you, are you my partner?"

NEW FATE COME TO REMNANT

"Jaune Arc, Shina Emiya, Lie Ren, and Nora Valkyrie. The four of you have collected the white knight pieces. Henceforth, you four will now work together as Team AVER (Anvenger) Led by Jaune Arc"

the screen show beacon academy auditorium. Jaune with eyes and mouth open wide. Nora hug Ren and Shina just smile to Jaune, everyone else just cheer Specially team RWBY. Ozpin smile.

"this will be a interesting year"

KNIGHT WHO WILL TRY TO BECOME A HERO

the screen show Jaune and Shina sparing together. jaune charge at Shina but she just counter his attack and knocked him down. jaune close his eyes and heavily breathing. he felt something cool on his forehead. when he open it he see Shina with a smile as she put a cool water bottle on his head. he accept with a smile.

Jaune it show cooking with Shina beside him. she wearing a white apron while jaune wear a yellow one. behind them is Nora talking about her dream about vampire troll while Ren and team RWBY listen to it.

the next scene show Ruby, Blake, and Sun in the dock fighting the white fang while Jaune fighting with Roman and Shina fighting Neo. Roman kept shooting at Jaune and Shina clash blade with Neo. the screen cut of to Shina in front of her friend with purple-pink energy that shape like a flower

the screen change to jaune and Shina fighting Atlesian Paladin-290 on a train. the screen cut to jaune in front of the train by few meter. his body shine with pure white. Shina eyes widen

"Jaune!!!"

after that a calmer scene show Jaune with black suit and red tie dancing with Shina wearing red dress and a red heel. they slow dance under moon light on the roof. they stare into each other eyes with love.

the final scene show Jaune and Shina. part of Jaune right hoodie get burn off to show not just his abs and muscle, but his bruise, cut, and bleeding body. he also bleeding on his head over left eye. while Shina not look better too. her breastplate is gone and some part of red skirt is gone too. her body show bruise, cut, and bleeding too. they are holding hand together. slowly Shina body lit up with cyan circuit like lines across her body. slowly the lines trailed down to her hand and to Jaune body. Jaune body lit up with cyan circuit like lines too. both of them trace Kanshou and Bakuya, Jaune hold the black blade on his left hand while Shina hold the white sword o her right hand. they open their mouth and yell.

"Trace On!!!"

#rwby jaune #rwby #story ideas #jaune arc #fate stay night #trailer #crossover

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rachetmath · 4 years

Text

Ren’s Discovery

Ren: Jaune?

Jaune: Yeah.

Ren: I was on the computer.

Jaune: Okay so-

Ren: I've seen it.

Jaune: *raises an eyebrow* What did you see?

Ren: Us.

Jaune: *relieved* Oh thank brothers, you meant just all age approiate fan-

Ren: On rule 34.

Jaune: Crap it was to good to be true. Okay, what's up?

Ren: I saw Qrow having sex with Nora.

Jaune: Okay. And?

Ren: And!? Jaune she was drawn having sex with Qrow.

Jaune: Yeah. So was Ruby, Gylda and Winter. So what?

Ren: Jaune you don't understand--

Jaune: Ren?

Ren: I mean what if Nora descides-

Jaune: Ren!?

Ren: I mean maybe I should---

Jaune: Ren, calm down, rule 34 does everyone like that!

Ren: Really?

Jaune: YES! Dude, I'm basically screwing Pyrrha, Ruby, Yang, Weiss, Nora, and Blake! Including you and Oscar!

Ren: Me and Oscar? That's kind of-

Jaune: Insane? Crazy? Fucked up? Kind of devinant? Yeah, that's rule34. No character in any series is safe from it.

Ren: No character?

Jaune: No character. Dude, some people drew me doing it with Cinder and Emerald, Pyrrha's mom, my own sister, and even with Cardin.

Ren: But I got-

Jaune: Cucked? Basically cheated on? Yeah join the club pal. People will do that. I been through it. (I also make sure Ruby never finds that out.) And don't blame the artist most of them are doing a job while few are just because! The point is rule34 is literally porn with characters from the show acting like porn stars. Basically don't take it too serious just admire the detail and the work the artist put into their stuff.

Ren: So nothing is true?

Jaune: Non-canon. Imagination. That's it.

Ren: So I can still-

Jaune: Stick your sword in Nora? Yes.

Ren: *relieved* Oh thank you.

Jaune: *sigh* Man. Glad you feel better. But since we're on the subject, be lucky you are not team RWBY.

Ren: Why? I mean they got most drawings.

Jaune: Yeah. Of them being horny, big penis sized fuck girls who would let anyone or anything smash them. Trust me, if they saw what you saw they be going crazy.

Ren: *nervously* Oh. Um... Jaune?

Jaune: What?

Ren: I left the computer on.

Jaune: *exe stopped working and rebooted* OOOHHH SHIT!!

Jaune and Ren run to the computer only to be too late. Team RWBY and Nora saw everything. Every image of them doing sexual things with strangers, eachother and their families. Yang was angry, Weiss was discussitsted, Blake embarassed beyond belief, Nora a bit unphased but Ruby feeling very ashamed of herself.

Jaune: Okay. Girls? Ladies? Mature young women? Listen, I get this looks bad but... I mean... well...

Yang: I'm going to kill them! *trys to walk away only for Jaune to stop her*

Jaune: NO YANG IT'S JUST FICTIONAL PORN.

Yang: SCREW THAT! THEY CRIMATED MY SISTER AS HOOKER!!

Ren: I mean red riding hood did have darker stories with-.

Jaune: REN, YOU ARE NOT HELPING!!!

Ruby: *in tears* Is this what everyone thinks of me? As some girl who can't control her urges. As some kind of slut.

Yang: SEE!? JUST FOR THAT, I'LL MAKE THEIR DEATHS SLOW AND PAINFUL!!

Jaune: *while being hit by Yang* Look Ruby, i-i-it's not that ba-

Weiss: How could people draw me like this?

Nora: I mean you do have an ego the size of that thing.

Jaune: NORA!!

Weiss: HOW DARE YOU!!!?

Blake: Wait didn't we see a few pictures with you and Jaune doing it?

Nora: I mean, if Pyrrha and Ren weren't going to shoot their shot then I'll shoot mines.

Ren: Oh so would sleep with Jaune!?

Jaune: Damn it, come on people, can someone help me!? Yang, is trying to kill somebody. Please, Yang, calm down!

Yang: NEVER!!

Oscar: Hey.

RWBY and JN_R stop what there doing to see Oscar and Penny.

Jaune: *scared* Oh no.

Penny: What's going on here? Why is Jaune holding Yang?

Jaune tells eveyone to play along.

Jaune: I'm just giving Yang a hug. Right, Yang?

Yang: Y-Yeah. Oh Jaune I love you so much.

Oscar: *looks to Ruby* Ruby, why is there tears coming out your eyes?

Ruby: *staring at the computer and Oscar back and forth* Umm just something on the web. You know... a sad video.

Penny: Really, oh Ruby, let's watch it together if you can't handle it.

Weiss: No-no-no just stay right there.

Oscar: But why?

Ren: Oscar, i-it's just-

Oscar sees everyone look at the computer. Penny sees this well and stares Oscar who agrees as he nods his head. Penny rush in and takes the computer only for her and Oscar to be stunned at the results. Oscar then sees his name and was ready to click on the link however-

Jaune: Oscar wait!

Oscar: ...

Jaune: Listen. Buddy there are times when a man or woman will sometimes have to let things go. Trust me, when I say, this, is right now the time to walk away and leave with your inncocence still attached. Oscar, please, don't click the link with your name on it.

Oscar: Oh how bad could it be?

Oscar clicks the link only to regret it in the end. He saw horrible images of himself and then proceeds to lye down on the floor and crys.

Oscar: I've been a good boy haven't I? I don't deserve this, do I? Did I do something horrible to deserve this? Why? Why?

Ruby: *comforts him* It's okay Oscar. We'll get through this together. *starts crying again with Oscar*

Jaune: Damn it.

Penny: *confused* I don't see the problem. I thought sex was a natural process for humans.

Jaune was about to explain only for Yang to wave her head and stopping him, knowing Penny would ask a bunch of questions if he tries to explain.

Nora: But to be clear, I still stand by to what I said, I would bang you Jaune.

Jaune: Okay, Nora, we get it. But like I said it's fiction, no one would do-

Blake: Jaune, let me be honest, I would do you if Pyrrha, Sun, Ilia or Yang weren't around.

Yang: Same here. You are nice guy.

Ren: No denying it.

Nora: *smile* Oh Ren!

Ren: Hey I being honest.

Weiss: Okay, perverts, but I wouldn't-

Jaune: *nervously* Yeah... Weiss... um... how do I put this?

Weiss: Jaune, not you too.

Ruby: *sobbing* Weiss you still have a big ego.

Weiss: Okay but still, I may have hated Jaune but I would never-

Jaune tairs Yang's shirt off, revealing her chest.

Yang: Jaune!

Weiss: *blushes*

Jaune: Guilty as charged.

Weiss: Shut up!

Blake: But would you screw Jaune?

Weiss: Oh gosh n-

Nora tears off Jaune's pants, revealing is sword and butt.

Jaune: Really Nora?

Weiss: *blushes brighter than before* You guys are mean. *walks off*

Yang: *staring at Jaune's 'sword'* Aren't you going to cover up?

Jaune:*staring at Yang's breast* Why haven't you?

Yang: You can look but never touch.

Jaune: Touche.

Ren/Blake: Will you both cover up. Please? I don't want look at Jaune's/Yang's dick/breast all day.

Nora: Admit it, you both like it.

Ren and Blake: Shut up Nora!

#rwby #JNPR #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake bellodona #yang xiao long #Jaune Arc #lie ren #nora valkyrie #pyrrha nikos #cinder fall #emerald sustrai #cardin winchester #Oscar Pine #penny polendina #qrow branwen

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lore-of-the-silvereyes-rwby · 3 years

Text

The Hero that was never meant to be

I’m going to ask you guys a quick question. Think back to the volume 2 season finale in 2014. Or before Salem's debut. Once all of the antagonists are defeated and you're now left asking; Who's going to be the next antagonist for the series?

Before we proceed with this inquiry let's take a look at what exactly distinguishes a hero, from a villain.

Hero/Villain/Anti;who knows?

Below are multiple examples/definitions and meanings of heroes and villains as well as their anti sub groups.

Hero

a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.

the chief character in a book, play, or movie, who is typically identified with good qualities, and with whom the reader is expected to sympathize.

“a person of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his or her brave deeds and noble qualities." Heroes come in many forms in life, ranging from one's family and friends to athletes to movie stars. A person's heroes can change over time.

Villain

(in a film, novel, or play) a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot.

a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel.

a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot.

Anti-Hero

a central character in a story, movie, or drama who lacks conventional heroic attributes.

is 'a central character in a story, film, or drama who lacks conventional heroic attributes'. These missing attributes include idealism, courage, and morality. Anti-heroes can sometimes do the right thing, but it is usually because it serves their interests to do so.

Anti-Villain

is the opposite of an Anti-Hero — a character with heroic goals, personality traits, and/or virtues who is ultimately the villain. Their desired ends are mostly good, but their means of getting there range from evil to undesirable.

Now that we have some measure of clarity about this let's get to the point. Basically Ironwood is a Anti-Villain character

If you think back to the things we have learned throughout the series, all the people we have met, you will find that all of Ironwood’s traits align better with Salem, Cinder, Jacques, and Adam. All of them have this hunger for power and/or control, all of them are trying to protect themselves and increase their control.

All of them use a level of manipulation and none of them really cared about the damage it would do to others. Ironwood might be a little better because, at first, it was something he kind of thought about. Kind of. He had trouble relating to the idea that protecting more was better than protecting less, and it seems that he had been struggling to find his heart since the beginning.

Ironwood is a well intentioned and desperate man who wants to protect Atlas against Salem, but he can reach extreme means to do so. By the end of Volume 7, he's willing to abandon both Mantle to die and throw away humanity's best chance of survival by leaving Amity Tower; he also falls far enough to shoot a teenager for comparing him to Salem.

Going hand in hand with his Never My Fault tendencies. Ironwood hates anyone bringing up how his ways don't work, with extreme annoyance being the best reaction possible. It doesn't matter if someone is simply stating the objective tangible negatives of his actions, he will not hear it. He gets into a shouting match with Nora when she calls him out on how much damage he's doing to Mantle and only stops when she points out his proposed solution to deal with the current unrest (martial law) is just going to cause far worse problems if he goes through with it.

While he demands complete loyalty from others, Ironwood has repeatedly betrayed the trust of others in the name of the greater good. If someone is an obstacle to accomplishing what he believes is necessary, he will use political or even military power to enforce his will.

Ironwood has helped Ozpin fight Salem for years but they disagreed over the best way to defend Vale; Ironwood secretly convenes a meeting of the Vale and Atlesian councils to report Ozpin's behavior, resulting in Vale removing Ozpin from overseeing the Vytal Festival security in favor of Ironwood. Qrow later tells Ironwood that he has a strange idea of showing gratitude if he responds to Ozpin bringing him into the fight against Salem by betraying him. Even after being confronted, Ironwood insists that he had no other choice.

Ironwood spends most of Volume 7 promising that the Kingdom of Atlas is safe and that Mantle can count on him to protect them. However, when he discovers Salem is arriving in person to attack Atlas, he decides to abandon Mantle to the Grimm in favour of raising the floating city of Atlas higher in the atmosphere where the Grimm can't go. When Ruby tries warning her allies about Ironwood's plan, he disables her scroll, and has Teams RWBY, JNR, Oscar and Qrow arrested.

Ironwood's a man with good intentions, but he seems to believe the best way to handle any sort of situation is if he is in full control of it. This is seen as early as Volume 2, where he both brings a large fleet (composed mainly of machines) along with students for security and later has the Vale and Atlas Councils transfer security control of the Vytal Festival from Ozpin to himself.

After the Fall of Beacon, James continues to tighten Atlas' defenses with a Dust embargo and closing of its borders, and by the time the heroes arrive in Mantle, there are broadcasts of the general practically saying that as long as they cooperate with his laws, he can and will keep them safe.

As Salem's forces continue to sow discord and increase his paranoia, and when he discovers that Team RWBY has consistently hidden important information from him, Ironwood decides to invoke martial law and raise Atlas out of Salem's reach, under his control. When Ruby warns the others of his plans, he shuts off her call with his own Scroll.

Ironwood is noted for being a man who never gives up pursuing his vision of how people should be protected. When his attempts to convince Ozpin that they're on the wrong path fail, he convinces the Atlesian and Vale councils to override Ozpin's authority and give him direct control of protecting the Vytal Festival Tournament.

In Volume 7, he is willing to pursue his goal of protecting the Kingdom of Atlas against Salem no matter how bad his public reputation becomes with the citizens.

To be clear Ironwood is an Anti- Villain type character in the RWBY story. He may have good intentions but it is unknown as to their extent of what they are. His methods to achieve those methods have only made things worse.

I couldn’t let you breath, cause I didn’t wanna Die

We all say we would die for something but do we actually mean it?

“I would die without regret I offer up my life”

It is hypothetical but not in the way you suggest. The difference between using would or will is not about whether the speaker is being disingenuous about their offer, it’s about whether the speaker knows if they are ever going to be in a position to fulfil their promise

It is hypothetical because the speaker does not know whether there will ever be a situation where they would be in a position to give their life to save you. If they were to use will, it implies they are anticipating that they will be in a position to give their life to save you

When someone says “I would die for you if you need it,” is it just a hypothesis that's never going to happen, the subject doesn’t want to die at all, otherwise they’ll use “will” instead of “would”?

Kill or be killed

All the weapons in rwby appeal to the audience as they have options when it comes to fighting. Ironwoods does not. His weapon is only designed to kill as a reflection of his inability to see reason. As opposed to other characters that show that when they kill it would be a last resort option.

(Think of the Jedi's preference for lightsabers instead of blasters)

Ironwood has a revolver - reliable, never jams. high attack power, similar to his mentality on robotics in general and how he values them focusing on the characteristics of the revolver is the important part, and you see it in another Atlesian character--Weiss Myrtenaster is a Rapier and a Revolver as well, and revolvers are still used nowadays because of their reliability. They'll never jam, and when it comes to a gun all that really matters is hitting the target on a pragmatic mindset at least, and ultimately in the show the weapons used by characters say a lot about them. For example;

Qrow has a scythe - not a weapon, a farmer's tool, alluding to the scarecrow. The actual weapon would be the sword mode, and is inspired by the grim reaper, who uses a scythe because he reaps souls like one would reap what was sown(or harvest)

Jaunes shield and sword are both offensive and defensive weapons which offers a variety of options as to handle conflict

Ozpin's cane symbolically conveys the message that it's okay to be weak and its normal to accept help and support from others

Yang's gauntlets are basically Bruise but don’t kill type weapon as such they give her more control of the damage that is inflicted on her opponents

As ruby put it the Weapons in the show are an extension of the characters. The extent of Ironwoods weapon is that it conveys his blunt, and cold methods that he can’t or won’t embrace alternatives solutions or anyone else's ideas to problems

This can also be seen with his use of militarized Huntsmen and the use of mindless android soldiers. As I stated in I am power Ironwood’s personnel combat abilities are mediocre to non-existent with his true power stemming from the consent of the people to die for his cause instead of him since it's guaranteed that he will die instantly due to his lack of unique or special combat abilities.

(Pretty self explanatory considering he had to sacrifice an arm to beat a nerd)

Fear of death is basic human instinct

Ironwood believes that he is this chosen savior and can’t die and he believes his life is more important than others and would instead sacrifice everyone else instead of him if it would mean victory

Now you're probably asking why does Ironwood not want to die when he said he would? As stated before he doesn’t trust anyone but himself to do the job right. His narcissism and ego prohibit him from trusting others and having faith that people besides him can win.

This has been hinted as early as his debut in V2 where he asks Ozpin;

“Do you honestly believe that your children can win a war?”

Because of this and his Nihilism for rejecting the truth, he believes that he is the most important piece on the bored and everyone should listen and die for whatever he needs if it would mean victory

Ambitions and desires of a broken kingdom

A character without motivation is a really boring character as opposed to one who does. But to realize what their motivation is or what it is truly is another. Ironwood is no different but what exactly is his personal motivation that is unique to him one must wonder?

That's just it, he has no real personal motivation. Like what does he have to lose? What does he have to gain? What is so important that he is willing to go to such lengths that clash with the ideas of Ozpin and the heroes? To answer Atlas. After all, what is Ironwood without Atlas?

It is important to know the effects of a characters home and origins to better understand a character's personality. Ironwood's plans have always been in line with Atlas, whose intentions are that of Ancient Mantle. Now what exactly are the intentions of the former capital that would live through Ironwood.

Atlas as I stated before is more or less a Technocratic Conservatives society led by Authoritative totalitarians with a focus of becoming an Extreme Militaristic Oligarchy that had originally started out as a Resource driven Empire out of necessity and without restriction

To clarify, Ironwood is a byproduct, and enforcer of Mantle’s(later Atlas) Philosophical Ideology and Culture. The effects of one's origins can have a very lasting impact on one's life. Ironwood’s life has been heavily affected by his homeland to the point that he will die for it, and sacrifice whatever he deems necessary for it.

Because of this Ironwoods alignment is that of Lawful Evil because of his Atlas ideology

A Lawful Evil character is an evil character who either tries to impose or uphold a lawful system on others without regard for their wishes, and/or adheres to a particular code. They believe in order, but mostly because they believe it is the best way of realizing their evil wishes.

In other words Ironwood will always be the loyal son of his Kingdom and will do anything to save it.

Now that clears his main motivation and the scale of what he is willing to do to achieve it but what motivates him personally?

Well that's just it there is none. His primary motivation is pretty shared by most of the heroes and main characters and as is the common clause of save the world stories everybody knows they can’t let that happen as peter quill would say;

“Why do you want to save the Galaxy?”

“Because I'm one of the idiots who lives in it.”

So with that in mind what's in it for him that he can’t lose or let the world be destroyed?

You overstepped your boundaries

To help understand his character it is important to understand what exactly his role in the plot was originally and how he ended up biting off more than he can chew when he broke away from it.

Essentially Ironwood was meant to be the overseer and guardian of the relic of creation as well as the trainer of the next generation of huntsman/huntresses. Meaning the only position of power that he should only have is Headmaster of Atlas academy. As I stated in I am machine Ironwood's heroism stems from a lack of trust and in doing so has burdened him with more responsibility than he can handle.

The catalyst

All of the events and conflicts that plague remnant at the shows present can all be traced to Ironwood. An argument can be made for Salem but to me she seems more of an opportunist instead of an actual evil master mine. Being the opportunist she is she needs ammo for which she is otherwise incapable of making on her own. Thanks to Ironwood she has plenty of it to enact her plans and reach her goals

Below is a list of events and conflicts as well as characters that have been affected by Ironwood

(Whether Directly or Indirectly)

The Schnee Dust Companies Immoral and shady practices

I know Jaques is mostly to blame for all of this but one must ask; Why didn’t anyone stop him before V7?

It's already been established in the show that the S.D.C. and Atlas Military have a corporate alliance to mass produce Weapons and ammunition. The most prominent weapons to come out of this alliance was the paladin assault mechs. Now how important was this alliance to Ironwood?

In short, they are the best choice to provide for his needs for war. As long as he gets weapons and all that he needs to sustain a war he doesn't care what the giver has to do to meet his demand. As such Ironwood had enabled Jaques and allowed him to continue his immoral ways so long as he gets what he needs. On the other hand Jaques seems to be at least a decade older than Ironwood so there is a possibility that the corporate alliance has already been there long before Ironwood ever came to power.

But I ask again why didn’t Ironwood who was aligned with a man like Ozpin didn’t stop him? As the Volume 7 commentary stated Ironwood doesn’t care for Ozpin's rules and sees being efficient is more important than being morally good. Because of this Ironwood had been more focused on starting a war first and caring about people second thus he has only spread misery by enabling Jaques’s greed just to have his war. The crimes of the S.D.C. are also Ironwood’s

The family strain of the Schnee family and Winters abandoning

While we’re still on the subject of the Schnee's let's talk about how essentially Ironwood made Winter the Blake to his Adam

As I stated before in “You had me with your words” we don’t exactly know why Winter would be so loyal to Ironwood to the point of saying that her life doesn’t matter in V7 and why she would be so against her family to the point that she makes no effort to see Weiss, and Whitely included and only bothering to be apart of Weiss’s life only because she seems to be following the same path of defiance against their father. In other words she only chooses to interact with her sister only if she is rebelling against their father. If she is not, then Winter wants nothing to do with her.

Now who or what exactly would cause Winter to have this unhealthy mindset in regards to her own personal existence and relationships?

The answer being Ironwood.

If we were to consider Jaques words being serious than it is more than likely the truth. Ironwood did steal Winter, not just from her father but from the rest of her family. I don’t know what exactly Ironwood said or did to turn winter away from her family but it wasn’t out of the kindness of his heart. He did this just to have a loyal subordinate with incredible power( her hereditary semblance) & status( her grandfather's legacy and accomplishments) just to give his power and status more legitimacy.

By doing so Ironwood made Winter believe that her family as well as herself is beyond redemption due to the actions of her father thus leading her to abandon them and only believing Ironwood can redeem her hence why she values her life so little and is willing to die for whatever Ironwoods says.

I understand that winter joined the military to get away from her dad but she had options besides the military and like weiss she could have went to the other academies to get away from her dad but she didn't which i consider Winters greatest flaw is that she has no idea of an actual healthy relationship

The White Fang

This is also speculative but not unlikely as the show has clearly shown; Faunus and Atlas don’t mix.

Same thing with the S.D.C. this can really be seen as indifference on Ironwood’s part and lack of care but still Ironwood didn’t do anything to settle the racial inequality in Atlas even though he is allied in a secret circle that's supposed to keep the peace.

Especially when that inequality was being used to help legitimize a terrorist organization that can be used as a disposable army for Salem which it did.

Watts’s Defection & the P.E.N.N.Y. Project

Ironwood commissioned 5 scientists including Watts and Pietro to make Weapons for war.

Even though Watts is an egotistical bastard it really makes you wonder how someone as smart as him would work for a literal demon lady hell bent on conquest. The same can also be said about why he chose Penny instead of any other actual and practical projects ideal for war.

One thing to note is the possibility that Ironwood did not tell the 5 about the real reason as to why they’re making these weapons in the first place. For example would Pietro really want Penny the closest thing to an actual child that he may have had to be used as one of Ironwoods militarized assets?

We’ve seen what Pietro is like and that he really cares about Penny and if it were his choice Penny wouldn’t be in the situations that Ironwood would place her in. Ironwood had basically taken and drafted Penny without her or Pietro's consent and made her a tool for war and much more.

In semi canon sources(Amity Arena) the general consensus is that the Paladins were Watts’s idea and project. One of the misconceptions is that it was a contest for whose idea would be made but since we see both the Paladins being used and Penny that's not the case. All 5 projects were going to be used but only 1 would take top priority first before others and that project was Penny.

This might actually explain why the paladins were ugly and incomplete in V2 as opposed to their slicker and finished versions in V3. The Penny project took both praise and priority first before the others. Once penny was finished the other projects would begin that may also explain why the Paladins weren’t first revealed until the events of V2 even though Pietro said that the commissions for the projects including the Paladins were almost a decade ago as of V7 ep 7

To Watts he felt insulted that his (to him) practical project was being postponed for a sad man's personal self indulgent pet project. This and due to not really knowing as to why these projects were going to be used for. Because of this and Ironwood’s lack of concern for people He had essentially driven Watts to Salem and made him one of her most valuable assets that she ever had. Salem herself even states that she should have employed his services years ago that alone tells us how valuable an asset Watts was and Ironwood discarded it. Which led to the fall of Beacon and the civil unrest in Mantle With Watts out of the way let's move to the next question

Why the Penny Project?

We all know at this point that Penny is the Pinochio for Pietro’s jopedo. So why would Ironwood approve a project that seems the least efficient and effective for war? There have been many theories as to why but two of them stand out the most; Potential vessel for the maiden powers and Espionage

It has been made clear that Ironwood has been readying for war against other people Salem specifically but how does one go about that? The first of which can be explained as Ironwood trying to make the ultimate artificial warrior with incredible power. As Ironwood has more faith in machines than people he would see Penny as the ultimate super soldier that he can use in his war

The second theory as to why he chose penny could be for spy and espionage purposes. As stated by cinder in volume 3 where this theory originates from; why would Atlas make a robot look like an innocent little girl? We know why Pietro made Penny look human but why would Ironwood go along with making a T800 complete with realistic skin and hair? Besides Pietro there was no logical reason to make penny look as humanly as possible. Like the Terminators who were designed for infiltration and assassination missions and Ironwood being a paranoid individual who sees the world as one of two things; you’re either an asset or a threat / Penny or similar models would have been used to spy and eliminate potential threats in the other kingdoms. With the possibility as to what Ironwood would use penny for before her reveal in V3 clear let's move on to the last part of this bullet point

Why didn’t Ozpin know about Penny?

Prior to the truth of her origins being revealed via her death by Pyrah the only people who knew she was an android are cinder’s team, Ruby, Pietro, and Ironwood. The villains knew that truth after being fortunate enough to have Ironwoods scroll infected by the virus and Ruby found out by accident from penny.

So officially the only people that were allowed to know the truth about Penny were Pietro and Ironwood. Winter and the Ace-opts don’t count as Volume 7 confirmed that they were brought into the fold after the fall of beacon along with penny so by the time of the fall of beacon they had no idea about salem or that was the sole purpose as to why penny was made.

The same can be said for Watts too since Penny was still an idea being developed along with being assumed dead and not seen in atlas for years. Thus Watts never even knew what penny looked liked. Had he known i'm pretty sure he would’ve revealed that to Salem who would have given it to cinder for use in her mission. But as V3 shows Cinder finds out after getting access to Ironwood's personal scroll. Meaning that Ironwood kept Penny so secret that he never even bothered or considered to tell Ozpin.

By the end of PVP Ironwood sounded like a terrified child who got caught while trying to explain to a pissed off Ozpin about Penny only to be coldly told in a threatening tone to use the army that he brought to clean up his mess or else. That alone is proof enough from Ironwood that he never told Ozpin about Penny and was scared of what Ozpin would do to him for catching him on his secrets and lies.

So why didn’t Ironwood tell Ozpin about Penny? Short answer Ozpin would never approve the use of Penny. It was already established in V3 ep 6 that Atlas has been doing unethical experiments with Aura. Ozpin and most of the inner circle don’t really approve of such practices but can tolerate it and use it if they have to. But most likely not to the extent of using it to make artificial living beings just to be soldiers.

This would be a similar moral dilemma as the clone troopers from star wars who were bred and mass produced at an accelerated rate to fight in a war that they didn’t even understand or have a choice to fight in with the mindset and innocents of a child. The Umbara arc from season 4 of the clone wars series perfectly depicts the unhealthy amount of abuse the clones faced and the length of being taken advantage they were forced to endure

Now apply that to an army of pennies with the same childlike innocence and naivety and sentience being deployed into combat without much preparation and are expected to die just to buy time for the real heroes to win.

Now who is more likely to use a clone army without concern for the morality and ethics about making it let alone not care for the well being of those clones

A key important factor to remember is that until V7’s end Ironwood was pro war as he thought he could win against Salem if he had the largest army at his disposal. Penny was no exception and Ironwood only saw her as a potential part needed for his war machine. Because of the war centric views of Volume 2 & 3 Ironwood and lack of concern for the safety of others Ironwood had set the stage perfectly for volume 3’s finale

The Fall of Beacon

The points above actually help validate and contribute to the Fall of Beacon, but it's true Beginning for its fall started when Ironwood arrived at Beacon in Volume 2. As stated by Oz in Ironwoods first appearance Headmasters don’t usually attend the vytal festival with their students. Given what we now know about the importance of the academies, Ironwood pretty much abandoned his post and risked the safety of the relic under his charge.

All in what appears to be an effort to make a power grab against Ozpin and promote Atlas.(That’s probably speculative but not far off the bat given Ironwoods doubts and actions by the end of V2).Ever since his debut Ironwood has always been a character that contradicts the main characters that are suppose to be the heroes

He seems to only believe the best way to handle any sort of situation is if he is in full control of it. This is seen as early as Volume 2, where he both brings a large fleet (composed mainly of machines) along with students for security. Ironwood has helped Ozpin fight Salem for years but they disagreed over the best way to defend Vale; Ironwood secretly convenes a meeting of the Vale and Atlesian councils to report Ozpin's behavior, resulting in Vale removing Ozpin from overseeing the Vytal Festival security in favor of Ironwood.

Volume 2 also has Ironwood reveal to Glynda that he thinks Ozpin is hiding something from them. Glynda points out that he's part of the inner circle that's hiding things from the rest of the world and that he needs to stop talking about trust and learn how to trust others. Ignoring her advice, he secretly collaborates with the Vale Council to strip Ozpin of his control over the Vytal Festival security, then tells Ozpin to trust him.

This also brought up the possibility that Ozpin would be removed as Headmaster of Beacon academy. Not only was Ironwood willing to depose the leader he was following from his position of power but also remove an important ally from safeguarding one of the most important and crucial places in all of the world that also holds probably the most important relic of all of them(The Crown of Choice)

I already talked about how Penny’s secret had contributed to the fall so I’ll be talking about how Watts contributed to it since I forgot to include in the last bullet point. Its a very small Easter egg but on Cinders scroll as she was rigging the vytal tournament for CVFY’s match and discovering Penny’s android nature there is a small cursive W at the corner of her scroll. The small W that Watts uses as a holographic icon when he calls Leo in V5. RT has said that they had WTCH in their back pocket for years until they were revealed taking that into account it is clear that the virus that infected Beacons CCT Ironwoods scroll and forcing the droid army to commit order 66 was made by Watts.

The virus and the cyber warfare aside the next final contribution on Ironwood’s part was the imprisonment of Roman Torchwick

It's pretty much been clear that Torchwicks' imprisonment was an improvised plan on the villains part to get an inside man aboard a warship. Basically it was like Heath Ledger's joker in the dark knight; he wanted to get caught. Torchwick himself said that he is where he wants to be to Ironwood at the end of V2. As V3 showed Torchwick and Neo took over what can be assumed to be Ironwood’s personal flag ship and used it to destroy the rest of the air naval section that was brought for the Vytal security team.

This could have been avoided had Torchwick not been released into Ironwood's custody or at the very least kept somewhere else that should he escape he couldn’t have done so much damage. The Airships aside it was also possible that Roman had used the onboard artillery on the city as well that means that innocent civilians weren’t just being mowed down by hacked robots but being carpet bombed as well increasing the death toll at the fall of Beacon.

The Dust embargo and closing of borders

Since the fall of Beacon Academy, Ironwood has become increasingly unstable and paranoid, making more and more ethically questionable decisions that he repeatedly justifies as the greater good; by his own admission, he will do anything it takes to stop Salem.

This however does not fare well with the rest of Remnant though.

As Atlas is the primary location for most of Remnants Industry as well as having a monopoly on Dust; Remnant’s most crucial resource that everyone needs in order to survive, the other kingdoms rely heavily on Atlas for technology, resources and weapons. By placing an embargo he has cut off everyone in the world from their most valued resource. Though he did this to stop the enemies chain of supply he is still letting people suffer and die by with-holding the one thing they need to live and survive.

Which brings us to the borders

Though it could have eased tensions after the fall of Beacon it just lasted too long as well as the fact that Ironwood had essentially turned his back on the world and refused to help the other kingdoms in their time of need. In the CFVY book spin-off all of the Beacon students either went to Haven or Shade academy to finish their training. As well as the Vale refugees going to other kingdoms as well. But due to Atlas closing its borders none of the students or the people went to Atlas for help. Basically due to Ironwood’s orders the Kingdom of Atlas was forced to not help the other kingdoms when they needed it the most.

And it has only gotten worse due to the events at Mistral in V5 as not only are the students of both Beacon and Haven going to shade, putting a strain on the academy but leaving the entirety of the worlds largest kingdom unguarded and undefended as it now lacks able huntsmen to protect it due to Ironwood’s refusal to help

It should also be noted that when Ironwood closed the borders he had failed to inform any off his subordinates of who can and can’t enter the kingdom especially in regards to allies like Glynda or Qrow who again are allies against Salem and Ironwood made little to no effort in keeping contact with the other Oz members. This is made evident in V6 when the Argus soldiers refused to believe Qrow about being an ally to Ironwood. you could say that he was waiting on the amity project to make contact with the other members but he had to have realized that they needed to get into atlas at some-point. But did he make it easy for them or any other ally to reach him? No he did not.

The Mistral Huntsmen Genocide and the Battle of Haven

Second verse, same as the first, he had put them in a hearse. Another example of Ironwood’s indifference and hypocrisy that led to the death of allies and innocent people.

Due to the events of the Fall and it being broadcasted the enormous state of panic had spread throughout all of the kingdoms. The negative emotions in mass had attracted the Grimm and caused much havoc and loss throughout all of them and the worst to suffer from this mass hysteria was most likely Mistral due to its larger population and territory.

In V5 Lionheart had confirmed that Mistral losses were heavy and many of the local huntsmen including the Professors from Haven were killed in the initial grimm invasion that plagued Mistral following the fall of Beacon. After the initial panic had settled down the Mistral council had been employing Huntsmen in mass and restricted their activity to crucial and vital missions in high profile areas to ensure the safety and stability of the Kingdom.

Now the real question comes in where was Atlas?

In the world of remnants shorts its confirmed that Mantle and Mistral have an alliance that eventually carried into Atlas. With that being said, where was Mistral’s ally during the fall out and what were they doing. We know in V5 that all Military Assets were recalled within the month prior to the battle of Haven. I know that the kingdoms are weary of Atlas at this point but given the state of the world after the fall, Mistral needed all the help they could get. As such Mistral would have to call upon the old alliance and have them honor their word and offer aid.

Or at the very least transfer some assets over to Mistral to use it as needed. We have the base in Argus sure but that was just a forward border control base that didn’t really help anybody. Prior to the recalling Ironwood had Winter gather intel on potential activity that would lead to a second fall of a huntsmen academy and he chose to do nothing. This is further proof of his hypocrisy and arrogance. Ironwood at this point is reading the military for war and with holding aid and support that was actually needed.

His V4 self is a stark contrast to his V2&3 self as that version of himself was willing to manipulate and intervene in the affairs of other nations under the assumption that the ends justify the means and would see himself above the rules so long as it's for the greater good and stop the threat before it can escalate. That was exactly what Ironwood did at the end of V2 by stealing power from Oz and tried to enforce his own set of rules if it would prevent a disaster.

Now why did Ironwood not do the same thing with Mistral and try to prevent the potential fall of its academy regardless of the bad publicity that it would warrant? It's already been said by Ironwood that he doesn’t trust Leo to handle the situation at Mistral and based his dissection to close the borders on Winters report and decided to prepare for an potential attack on Atlas rather than sending a small task force to handle the threat at Mistral.

Taking into consideration his plan for Amity it's quite possible that he wanted Leo to fail and Mistral to be ready to eat from his palm. In other words unless there is something to gain and benefit from he’s not going to do it.

Ironwood all the way till he was told the truth about Salem in V7 had a War is the Answer mentality and was hoarding everything and anything that would help sustain a long campaign as well as increasing the size of that force with the intent that that the large numbers were enough to intimidate Salem and her faction into surrendering and eventual destruction. The only problem is that the people he needs were born in a time of relative peace.

Because of the 80 year age of peace that followed the Great War the Modern world of Remnant has had zero to no conflicts as large or damaging since that one war. There were small conflicts sure like the faunus war, the White fang terrorist cell, and the criminal underworld but they weren’t that much or a threat or concern to a majority of remnant it wasn’t until the Fall of Beacon that the foundation of this peace was shaken so intensely that the cracks started to show but it was still together if only held by a thread.

With the Peace in mind and the peoples faith still with the huntsman as their distrust for Atlas Military lingers no one in the world of remnant outside of Atlas would have any motivation or desire to mobilize for war let alone a war for a foreign leader of a foreign land that has recently come under suspicion. Ironwood was never going to be able to unite the Kingdoms and mobilize their people for his war after the fall of Beacon with Atlas being painted as the bad guy. Unless the situation went from worst to extreme.

Like if another academy were to fall with the same or greater results like Beacon. Then maybe people all around the world would consider following Ironwood’s lead and wipe out the threat before things can get even worse.

Because of this Ironwood had allowed Mistral and possibly the other Kingdoms to exhaust themselves so much that they would be unprepared for the next major Grimm invasion should they come after the next major hysteria induced panic. Panic like Ironwood’s original plan to unite the world and tell them about Salem causing the kingdoms to fall into further disarray only to be saved by the flying grace of Ironwood and his Military. And the only repayment for his help is that you join his fight.

I know this is all speculative and you can say Lionheart was the one who was responsible for mistrals problems after the fall, but remember Leo was the only Faunus on the council of a racist kingdom and only had one seat over the huntsmen and can only give out and approve mission assignments that would get them killed thus he had no real authority or power in Mistral besides siding with the majority and even if he tried to talk the council into refusing Ironwoods help their racism wouldn’t listen to Leo and they would do the opposite and call for aid.

But again Ironwood prior to the fall was willing to stop the threat at its source regardless of politics. But after the fall he had put all of his focus on preparing for war instead of helping people that needed his help at that moment. This may be due to his semblance(still dumb BTW) but ultimately he was focusing on his own needs first than the needs of others. Because of this he had ignored the issues of Mistral and failed to see the truth of what Lionheart was doing and had allowed Most if not all of the well trained and experienced huntsmen of that kingdom to die leaving the kingdom defenseless and unprepared for any conflict that would come.

Like the Battle for Haven for example. Had Ironwood not recalled everyone back and had Winter and whatever Atlas personal that were with her its quite possible that the battle may never had happen, the truth about leo would have been discovered sooner and the genocide of Mistrals huntsmen wouldn’t have been as bad had Ironwood actually chose to help, Instead he started to fall back and focus on the Amity Project and Atlas instead of spending any resource outside of them, due to a narrow focus to and putting everything on it just so he can have his Victory.

The Civil unrest in Mantle

A loved and respected leader will die by the side of his people: A feared and hated one will die by their hand. Short term closing the borders cloud have helped ease tensions between Atlas and the rest of the world but long term it had made things worse

Due to the fall of Beacon it's quite possible the initial attacks that came after can explain why Mantle's defensive wall was so destroyed and ruined by the time of V7. That means that potentially for almost over a year that wall has had no repairs or maintenance and has had the bare minimum leaving the citizens in a state of constant peril and danger since the fall of beacon

This is further made worse when Ironwood closed off the borders and cut off the chain of supplies and trade not only to Atlas but also to Mantle as well making the kingdom suffer more than it had to. As the original capital, the rise of Atlas reduced Mantle to a shadow of its former self. Streets are run-down, technology is old, security defenses haven't been updated in years, and smog from the mines hangs heavy over the city. People struggle to eke out an existence, depend on dangerous mines for work and experience regular Grimm attacks that the city increasingly struggles to repel. Meanwhile, Atlas hangs in the sky above their heads; a constant reminder of the wealthy elite that is failing to share the wealth that Mantle creates, and a target of Mantle's growing resentment and anger at having been left so far behind.

Ironwood who is again allied with and a member of a secret circle that is supposed to keep the peace and prevent any social unrest that can cause a conflict. Thus he should have tried to ease the tensions and made the conditions of Mantle better in order to maintain peace. Now I know it's not solely Ironwood’s fault for the state that Mantle is in as he hasn’t been in a position of power for long but still he should have focused on the people instead of preparing for a war that may have never come. A stark contrast to Ozpin’s way of preserving peace and handling threats

Because of his narrow focus and indifference he made things worse as he was only focusing on potential threats that have yet to come instead of focusing on the issues and preventing them before they escalated. After the fall, the embargo and closing of Borders Ironwood concerned himself with preparations for an assumed winnable war instead of trying to restore peace and keep the people on his side. Which is ironic as he was doing this to rally a large force and stop the threat but did not consider that he may have been pushing away potential troops and allies that he would have needed. And only stoked the people's frustrations

This is mostly due to Ironwood never giving an estimate of time for how long the embargo and the borders would last as well as not giving a clear and believable reason as to why he was doing all of this in the first place. I know he was going to tell Mantle and the world about Salem eventually and he did in V7 but that was only because he was forced to and used it to take out potential threats by baiting them. This is also added with the fact that he really didn’t have any solid proof that would make the people believe him about Salem as well. Due to the frustration of the people it would just sound like made up propaganda and Ironwood shifting blame onto a fake enemy to drive people's attention onto something else. And yes the people believed it but remember they were being evacuated so i don’t think they were buying Ironwood's statement but were just glad that they were being saved.

And in the end it doesn’t even matter as ultimately Ironwood caved in to fear and decided to leave Mantle for dead. Which could have been avoided had Ironwood focused his attention to the needs of people rather than the needs of war. One of the constant themes of the show is that victory is not in strength or in mass numbers but within the small and willing hearts of those that will fight no matter what.

In conclusion Ironwood had played a pivotal role in contributing to all of the conflicts that plague the world of Remnant at present, even if it were minor role he nonetheless helped set the stage for the villains and Salem

The reason why I say that; as stated in earlier sections: Despite all of his talk about the greater good for the world he really means the greater good of Atlas and by extension himself. He is prioritizing his kingdom above all else at the expense of the other kingdoms and exploits of their people for his kingdom's own personal gain. As well as with holding beneficial technology that could actually benefit and improve the living conditions and way of life of the other kingdoms.

Ironwood’s inability to trust and have faith in people and others to keep the peace ultimately led to him intervening in affairs that he had no right to and with his own belief that his way is what is best had caused the Fall of Beacon and the events and conflicts before and after it.

It was over before it started

Now the Question must be asked what was Ironwood’s plan?

Ironwood throughout the series believed that he could win against Salem, and by the end of volume 7 he still believed that he could win, but in reality he had already lost the moment he tried to start a war.

To quote Ruby as she asked Ozpin: what was Ironwood’s plan to stop Salem if he ever had one to begin with? As far back as Volume 2 to Volume 7 Ironwood’s ideas and plans to handle Salem seemed to be; gather a large force, blitz run her stronghold, and destroy her with WMD’s. Most of his plans stem from an appeal to force and intimidation tactics via large numbers with heavy armament. In any other circumstances this could have worked had it been a different kind of villain that wasn’t immortal. As V6 has revealed Salem can’t die through traditional means such as modern warfare thus making Ironwood’s plans and solutions moot and pointless. Once he is told the truth in V7 he still continues down the same path of thinking that has not only failed but enabled the villains goals as well. So it must be asked why does Ironwood not see that his way is flawed and that he was never going to win if he continues down this path?

Ironwood's numerous conflicts throughout the series occur because he feels he does not need to follow the standards he sets for others; He demands people trust him while showing them none in return. He forces others to sacrifice much for the cause while giving up very little in return. He insists on loyalty when he has turned on others solely because they disagreed with him.

As Volume 7 progresses, he becomes willing to commit increasingly dubious actions in order to oppose Salem. He starts off by imposing a military embargo on Mantle despite the economic hardships said embargo is causing for the civilians on the ground and diverting resources that Mantle needs to rebuild its infrastructure to build a comm tower at Amity Colosseum. By the end of the volume, he's degenerated into declaring full martial law, abandoning Mantle to die, and either attacking or having arrested anyone who opposes him.

Salem and her faction were a tumor that can only be handled with the surgical precision of a scalpel not with the bulk of a fleet or large armies. The Huntsmen were that scalpel and to be specific the Huntsmen that Oz had chosen as they were meant to protect all people and prevent conflicts without personal bias or desire. Ironwood only acted in the self interest of Atlas and the benefits that he would gain from it

Ozpin’s priority had always been the people, no matter where they came from. However, I think he was once in Ironwood’s shoes. I am pretty sure he tried everything, including the same things Ironwood did, and saw it fail horribly. Ozpin or at least the soul, has had centuries to millennia's of experience in fighting Salem and managing the world. The delicacy of the human mind and heart are something he is well acquainted with, and I think he already knew what type of person Ironwood was, or at least was becoming. Near as I can tell, the big reason he kept Ironwood on at this point was because Ironwood had the resources and technology he needed to keep his plan moving forward and wouldn’t relinquish them.

Ozpin worked hard to maintain the peace and goodwill of the people. Ironwood, so far, has not. Having robot sentries on every corner without the concept of morals and stopping trade for a kingdom that can not easily generate its own resources, as well as hoarding those resources and preventing necessary repairs and aid to those people–those actions all show that he is not keeping this important aspect of leadership. He is not making sure that the people are on his side so when he needs them because he does not consider their needs as important unless they are in line with his own

Even with the Knowledge of the truth of Salem’s immortality he is still sacrificing everyone and everything else for nothing just to keep up the illusion that he is the hero and to keep his source of power high in the clouds away from anyone who really needs it

I may have been a little harsh on Ironwood for his actions, especially V7 and I understand the circumstances that led to escalation by the end of the volume. He was making dubious decisions but he was trying to do better, he listened at times and tried to show an extension of trust, the kids with giving them the lamp back, and later with Robyn at the dinner. These were due to the positive influences of Oz. He just fell back to old habits hard and turned to extremes when it became clear he had non control of what was happening by V7 end. He was struggling with old habits and opening up and was doing better that first part of the night a prime example of what the creators meant if Ironwood had been more open and trusting of others but when everything went down he was pushed over the edge in the latter half of the night cementing his fall and decent into an antagonist further making the problem worse as he has always done. This is mostly due to his primary source of influence; Atlas (which we can agree has been the biggest source of conflict in the show so far) and probably his lack of understanding and planning for what comes after all is said and done.

What did you think would happen?

The question must be asked; What happens after Salem? The fandom has pretty much each their own idea of what might happen after Salem is finally defeated. But do the characters know what happens after the war especially Ironwood? As the end of the hero’s journey goes; Nothings the same after you become a hero. And given Ironwood’s behavior and actions before his fall in Gravity, Ironwood seemed to have ambitions and plans in the works for the long run after Salem was no longer a threat. As stated before in I am Machine no one is truly altruistic to the point that they do something that doesn’t benefit them. So what exactly did Ironwood want after Salem was gone to the point that most if not all his actions and decisions were in the effort to reach and make those plans come true?

As stated in Broken Kingdom Ironwood doesn’t really have any personal desires or motivations that aren’t related to Atlas or the Heroes common goal to stop Salem. As far as we can tell Ironwood has no current family members at present and there's very little that tells us that he has anything in mind outside of either Atlas or Salem ,so what does Ironwood have to gain from this conflict?

All hail the conquering Hero

Ironwood’s biggest issue is that he has to be the center of everything, that he has to be in control. First he’s going to try and gain control with his army, while trying to wrangle anyone else back under his control. Then, when it becomes clear that anyone who has a plan that better and could work, he’s going to get competitive, come up with new and crazy superweapons to throw against the enemy in an attempt to prove that he can defeat Salem before the heroes can gather allies from across Remnant. He believes that He is strong, that He is brave, that He doesn’t need to run to anybody for help! He believes that he is the hero and is letting his self entitlement cloud his mind and it has gotten the better of him

An In-Universe example of this false belief comes from RWBY: Amity Arena as it gives bios to every character in the game compiled by the In-Universe developers. While many try to be objective, the ones representative of the Atlas Elite tend to demonstrate a notable bias, most prevalent with the General's. His bio is very defensive of him, calling him the "hero of our time" and that he wears the burden of the world on his shoulders, talking him up as a Hero with Bad Publicity. The bio goes as followed;

General Ironwood. The hero of our time and Atlas' greatest protector. Under the general, we have advanced to incredible heights, discovered new technologies, and created the world's first artificial intelligence. Though horrifyingly revealed at Amity Arena, Penny is our proud foray into sentient AI, and Ada is the culmination of the machine learning we have long developed in our labs.

As reviled as he was for his misguided attempt to protect Vale, how can the world fault our General when the culprits are out there? How can the victims be blamed for the sins of the perpetrators? Is incompetence somehow a greater sin than premeditated evil? Our General may have failed to protect Beacon, but he's not the one that hacked our weapons into hurting the innocent.

Yet... he wears that burden on his shoulders like he is alone in the world...

Ozpin, missing. Lionheart, dead. Theodore, uncertain. We say Atlas is the greatest, the mightiest... the city in the clouds, but what is first place when there is no competition? Yet, our kingdom and our General... we're the best chance that humanity's got... which scares us to death.

Menagerie?

...what about it?

After reading that you can probably see through the propaganda, hypocrisy and ego that are written in the bio. A key factor to note is that this was possibly made after the main heroes arrived in Atlas and before the election night. And since there's been no contact or travel between the kingdoms and Ironwood was aware of Leo's status by worst case scenario it tells us that the heroes have shared everything with Ironwood in regards to those events concerning Haven.

Since Ironwood is looked up to as a god by his subordinates and since he was the one of the only few to have known about them as well as to have the status to make any key choices since the app is made by atlas scientists contracted to the military. Thus Ironwood had used it and the blind loyalty of his loyalists to make propaganda and shift the blame from himself to something else as well as try to emotionally manipulate the people by making them sympathize with him while ignoring the truth.

He is not Remnant's only hope nor is he the best choice.

This is another example of his never my fault montra and he does things right and its further shown in the bio as it not only continues to discredit the other Headmasters(I am well aware of leo) but ignores all the good and actual heroism of other people like the Faunus of Menagerie as they are to the primary reason as to why Haven didn’t become the next Beacon and as stated before in an earlier section the opportunity for the Battle of Haven was in a way created by Ironwood who had chosen to flee and protect his city instead of preventing an attack like he had originally intended with Vale.

It may also show how much Ironwood believes in his own hype as it does paint him as some sort of de facto king of Atlas. Again he views himself as the chosen savior of the chosen people and that it is his destiny to rule and change the world as he sees fit. Or as Watts puts it the Giant that stands above all

I’m the Captain now

I think it's safe to say that almost everything he does is a twisted version of Ozpin's ways as well as to place himself as Remnant's ultimate leader as he believes he is the one that can ensure a safe and secure world. Ever since his debut he has undermined everything that Ozpin has done and stood for because he believes his ways aren’t efficient ( Or beneficial) to him and has been systematically taking power and control away from him and placing himself as the new big good.

He wants to be the New warrior king and change the world as he sees fit as he only sees Ozpin as either a failure or a hindrance to him and his plans. Combine that with his Atlas ideology and a lot of things make sense. I mentioned in the False chosen one that Ironwood may have been influenced and tried to emulate the Warrior king as to better rise and gain power and correct the supposed mistakes of Ozpin. Even though that he has claimed to be doing it for the greater good of all of Remnant but he really means only Atlas and himself

A world Reborn in my image

A major factor to consider is that Ironwood is a by-product of Atlas that was a by-product of Ancient Mantle. Ironwood is essentially a living mouthpiece for Atlas. He pretty much the living embodiment of the kingdom if it were a character. That's the sad truth of Ironwood is that he is simply an extension of this toxic environment and tricked into believing that its this ideal society when in truth it never was. In other words a legacy of tyranny lives on through Ironwood

We’re all aware of the origins of Atlas and its rise to prominent power. It started out as Mantle that began with a handful of people that prospered by adapting to the harsh conditions by making advanced technology faster than the rest of the world. It eventually formed a trade alliance with Mistral trading tech for food. A grimm incident occurs and Mantle thought being cold emotionless robots was a perfect solution. It tried to force its toxic ideology onto other civilizations and was met with mixed results. The Great war happens they lose and all of their resources are spent forcing it to rebuild its economy that eventually gives way to Atlas

Now how does this affect Ironwood?

Well Mantle through its alliance with ancient Mistral possibly adopted their ideals of imperialism and expansion as Mistral was the world's largest territorial economic empire of its time. When it comes to the rise of an empire and the type they are as well as their need for expansion it can be summed up to these 3

Economic empire

Ideological empire

Territorial empire

Due to Mantle's lack of essential resources like food and energy, its early days were more or less focused on establishing a strong economic trade empire in order to get the essential supplies needed to sustain life in solitas. After its great depression period after the War the kingdom's economy began to grow at a rapid rate that by the time the kingdom shifted to Atlas it had Remnants largest economic empire.

This is also an important factor to consider since the sad truth of it all is that as long people can make a stable income and support themselves, they are more than likely to turn a blind eye to any shady or immoral activities so long as there's something to gain. What does this have to do with Ironwood you ask? Well as his bio card said Ironwood has pretty much been proclaimed as the kingdoms benefactor for its prosperity. This may have been due to his Corperate alliance with The Schnee’s since it was Mostly Nicolas and Jaques as far as we know being the most prominent reason as to why Atlas has prospered.

When Ironwood formed that alliance with the SDC it gave him at least half of the power and influence of the company that was truly responsible for the kingdom's wealth and claiming it as his own. Once he had gotten some control over the economy it was time to move onto the next step and increase the empire from economic to Ideological or Political expansion.

Empires change and adapt in order to satisfies their needs now that Ironwood is the de facto head of that empire and given what we know about him and Atlas it is quite possible that he has been indoctrinated to have this desire to create an empire for Atlas as the politics and ideologies of its people have given it a false sense of entitlement and need to have everything under their control.

When looking at it from V1 to V3, it looks as if Ironwood was trying to occupy without resorting to force then you're left asking the real questions like "Why is ironwood selling the people of Vale on Atlas military Technology?" "Why is it that when a breach happens in vale, Atlas Bots rush in?" "Why did Ironwood make a power play to become the security of the Vytal Tournament?" It all seems to point to the same thing, Ironwood wanted control over Vale

A section of Lyrics from the song “When it Falls” may help reveal Ironwoods true intentions since his introduction and to be honest they seem relevant only to him and given his actions this is mostly likely the truth as they go like this;

“They play the part of allies

Claiming peace their only goal

But once the fight for power starts

They'll eat each other whole

Their iron gloves point fingers

They'll wage a war of blame

And mankind will wilt in pain”

As of V7 aren’t those words mostly relevant to Ironwood? After all, what has he done recently? He claims to be an ally with intentions of peace but he’s really trying to control those who buy that lie and escalates the situation to the extreme for no logical reason other than to set the stage for the next part in relation to the lyrics.

After all is said and done the fight for power will start and he wants to win and consume everyone before they can consume him. And as things go wrong he points his metal hands blaming everyone but himself as he tries to gain control and power, the world suffers.

Ever since his debut he has been trying to amass Political power which would lead to a territorial empire under Atlasian control. Playing into the theory that he does want to be a better version of Oz he wouldn’t make the same mistakes that he assumed the king did by letting the kingdoms remain independent instead of being under the control of one.

A king has his reign and then he dies

To continue on with the theory that he is essentially a bastardized version of Oz, Ironwood may have been trying to find ways as to make himself immortal

Another reason as to why he would see Ozpin as inferior is due to the fact that for all his power he can’t stop himself from dying, or at least maintain the same amount of world power and status from his last life. This may have given Ironwood ideas and ambitions to pursue any methods that may yield results that may make him a true immortal version of Oz hence why he most likely authorized the research and development of the aura transfer technology as a means to artificial reincarnate till proper immortality was achieved.

This could also be another reason as to why he may have chosen the Penny project. As it could lead to a way of extending his life as a means of transhumanism; immortality through technology

To reiterate Ironwood doesn’t trust anyone to do things right so he micromanages everyone under his control and makes them dependent on him. This is best seen with Winter and Clover as Winter would side with a madman as opposed to siding with her sister and clover’s inability to think for himself led to his death.

Due to his lack of faith in people Ironwood makes them less independent and make them rely on him as he may believe if everyone is dependent on him then the more control that he will have over them as to better determine who is a threat as the people he controls are more or less robots now without a conscious or sense individuality and are less likely to commit evil acts. Similar to ancient Mantle’s anti life policies before the war.

If he believes that to be the case and since he only trusts himself to see it through he’s going to try and find ways to make him live as long as possible until his methods become autonomous. Because of his lack of faith for others Ironwood doesn’t understand or refuses to understand the fact that he is going to die one day and everything that he has ever accomplished will be undone by the ultimate victor; TIME.

This is sadly the likely outcome as everything changes through the passage of time. As time moves so does the advancement of decay upon the world. Ironwood is already dying by aging and all that he has achieved will be undone or outdone by others that will come after him. The same thing can be said for everyone else in the show as they already lost.

Ruby, Oz, Cinder, even Salem herself have already lost to time. Everything they have or will achieve will be undone as well and one day they will all die. It’s just a matter of how and when.

To better explain let's take a look at Epsilon’s final speech from RVB season 13;

“There are so many stories where some brave hero decides to give their life to save the day, and because of their sacrifice, the good guys win, the survivors all cheer, and everybody lives happily ever after. But the hero... never gets to see that ending. They'll never know if their sacrifice actually made a difference. They'll never know if the day was really saved. In the end, they just have to have faith.”

Does Ironwood have faith in anyone that's not under his control?

People only do wrong when the perceived benefits outweigh the cost in that moment. Ironwood doesn’t just see an opportunity to stop Salem he also sees an opportunity to bring the world under Atlasian control with him at the top. Since he has amassed so much power and authority he sees himself above the rules that everyone respects and follows. Because of this Ironwood tries to hold unto that power because without he is nothing and would become a lesser and weaker being which would be an affront to his perfectionist ideologies

If your nothing without it then you don’t deserve it

Take away Ruby’s Silver eyes and what is she? Someone that will continue to fight no matter what

Take away Atlas from Ironwood and what is he? Nothing but a broken man who had this coming for a long time.

As I stated in I am power Ironwood by himself has nothing to contribute to the fight against Salem. Let's face it the only thing that he had going for him was the fact that he lead the Military and as we later find out that Military isn’t going to be useful against Salem since the key concept of the show since V1 was that there is no victory in strength but in the simpler things in life that start with simple and honest souls.

How does this concern Ironwood?

Well that's just it Ironwood was never going to win with his methods and he was never going to get the benefits that he wanted if he followed someone else with theirs. Again Ironwood had plans and ambitions after Salem that saw him as the ruler of the world instead of her, and controlled it so that a threat like her or any threat to his power would never come again. This is probably what he thought would happen before being told of her immortality.

Now with the knowledge that he can’t destroy her and that she’s coming he decides to cut his losses and settle with ruling the city instead and leave the rest of the world in her mercy instead of accepting the fact that he is wrong and relinquishing power to someone that can handle the situation better. Remnant doesn’t need Ironwood to survive. This is the biggest problem with Ironwood that he thinks he is the hero so long as he is in control of Atlas. Because without it he is truly nothing and has defined his whole existence around it. And will continue to make whatever plans to keep himself in power and is willing to pay the price at the expense of others.

“What if all the plans you made,

Were not worth the price they paid?

Even with the lives you stole,

Still no closer to your...

Goal.”

He never cooled the fire but he still incites the crowd for he can't see what he has become a crown with no kingdom

Ironwood had only played to win and he would laugh at the ones who lose while millions are shouting out for him to stop but he Still lit the fuse

He says he wants to fight but Then he always runs because he doesn't want to die yet he Still shoots the loaded gun escalating things for the worse

His refusal to see the faults in his own actions. Ironwood continually defaults to and relies on methods and actions that have repeatedly been proven to not work because he refuses to see the error in using said methods to begin with.

This isn’t your story James

One of the important aspects to remember is that this isn’t Ironwood’s story. His entire character and story revolves around the main protagonists and how he interacts with them and more importantly what role he played in it. Ironwood started out as a side character that ended up getting a lot of focus because the story of Team RWBY and the show in general is to show how the last generation can fail the next and how that generation has to learn and grow so it can avoid the mistakes of the past.

Before we delve further into Ironwood’s true character in the show let us explore whether or not he was an antagonistic or protagonistic force in the story. Keep in mind these terms are different from hero and villain. Below are several definitions and meanings for the 2 narrative characters types;

Antagonist

a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary.

a person who is opposed to, struggles against, or competes with another; opponent; adversary. the adversary of the hero or protagonist of a drama or other literary work

Protagonist

the leading character or one of the major characters in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text.

an advocate or champion of a particular cause or idea.

In modern literature, the protagonist drives the story forward by pursuing a goal.

The protagonist of a story is sometimes called the main character.

Since this is RWBY’s story and to an extent Oz’s, Ironwood(and Atlas to an extent) was always meant to be an antagonistic force in opposition to the show's true ideals of heroism and saviors.

The antagonist is the principal source of conflict for the protagonist. Often, the antagonist is a bad guy, a villain, but he doesn't necessarily have to be. He may just be someone who has a different agenda. Antagonists might be one person, a group, or even an animal.

Due to the beliefs that his methods are for the best even though they contradict the intentions that were thought to be shared by the heroes Ironwood was always going to become an Antagonist for the series at some point

Volume 7 slowly sees him fall into this, as his paranoia and determination to stop Salem cause him to perform increasingly questionable decisions for the greater good. While Qrow, Oscar, and Teams RWBY and JNPR support Ironwood, they increasingly debate the merit of doing so, given how concerned they're becoming with his behavior. When Cinder breaks into his office and plants a black queen, Ironwood sends Winter to forcefully take the Winter Maiden's powers, and he begins to question every decision he's made and speculate whether he's played right into Salem's hands. His confrontation with Team RWBY over their decision to leak intel to Robyn triggers the appearance of a Seer Grimm, forcing him into a verbal confrontation with Salem. With the discovery that the conflict with Watts and Tyrian distracted them from realizing they'd lost long-range sensors and that Salem is already on her way to Atlas, Ironwood snaps. He orders the arrest of Qrow, Oscar, and Teams RWBY and JNPR, and decides to abandon Mantle to die in an effort to prevent the two Relics and the Winter Maiden from falling into Salem's hands. Volume 7 ends with him and the protagonists actively opposed to each other, as his refusal to acknowledge that his methods are flawed and his opposition towards anyone who might stand in his way solidifies him as an antagonist.

The events of Volume 7 slowly but surely tear away at the positive aspects of his character as he succumbs to fear and paranoia, and questions whether Salem's strength comes from her ability to strip away her humanity. By the end of the volume, he has degenerated into a paranoid tyrant who abandons Mantle in favor of saving Atlas, is willing to kill a dying Winter Maiden to protect the Relics from Salem, and arrests the heroes for disagreeing with him. At the end of the volume, Oscar even points out that Ironwood's actions and current mentality make him no better than Salem.

His character deconstructs the mindset of the Necessary Evil character archetype. He declares his willingness to sacrifice his reputation and humanity for the greater good by forcing others to sacrifice for his cause. Characters constantly question the morality of his choices and his own actions create consequences that later bite him in the ass. His lack of concern over his image and the negativity his actions generate serve only to assist Salem's plans and increasingly alienate him from the heroes. He appoints himself the judge of what counts as the "greater good", he neglects Mantle's security and makes it increasingly vulnerable to attack by viewing it as less important than Atlas. Oscar lampshades the deconstruction by pointing out that being willing to sacrifice all of Remnant just so "a few can live" is making him just as dangerous a threat as Salem.

In a way Salem and Ironwood are also foils to each other as they appear to be dark lords from their respective genres

Ironwood being the syfy equivalent clad in white to convey the false message of order and peace while masking evil intentions and crimes

Salem being the Fantasy equivalent clad in black to emanate a sense of Mystery and fear of the unknown while using it to her advantage

Discussed between Ironwood and Oscar. Ironwood spends Volume 7 utterly haunted by how Leo's fear of Salem destroyed him and endangered Mistral and Haven. He is so determined not to end up like Leo, that he doesn't realize what mistakes his own fear of Salem is causing. While Leo completely submitted to Salem and became her puppet, he has full self-awareness and knows exactly how far he's fallen and why. Ironwood cannot accept that he has any fear of Salem at all and interprets the problem as possessing "humanity". He believes Salem is a threat because she has none and speculates that the solution is to become the same. He becomes increasingly controlling over his kingdom and his allies; regardless of how much suffering his methods cause, he persists in believing it's for "the greater good". While Leo is willing to give up the Relic of Knowledge and his kingdom's Huntsmen, Ironwood is so determined to prevent Salem getting the Relics, his Huntsmen and the Winter Maiden, and thereby avoid Leo's mistakes, that he travels in the opposite direction, becoming a dangerous authoritarian instead of a spineless coward.

Ironwood has made it clear that he will use whatever means necessary to defeat Salem. When Team RWBY calls out his decision to raise Atlas out of Salem's reach, he calmly says he's aware that he is essentially damning Mantle to her wrath. He later tells Oscar that he is done letting others' opinions hold him back from doing what he thinks is right. The boy warns him that he'd become as dangerous as Salem herself like that; the general simply nods to himself but doesn't deny it.

This is who he has always been. The only difference is the more desperate he becomes, the more extremes he goes to to maintain the illusion he is strong and in control of the situation.

During Ozpin's speech, notice how this unique line of dialogue is purposely inserted over Ironwood's last scene of Volume 7.

“Or will the person staring back at you be the very thing you should have feared from the start? I suppose we all find out... sooner or later.”

As the other parts of the speech are relevant to the other characters shown in the montage This specific line cements the Truth of Ironwood's character being a threat that was planned for a very long time. Going with the show's themes of Grey morality and the balance of light and dark, we are to learn of the possibility that with the potential to do great good also comes with the potential to do great evil.

As we were focused on the obvious threats in the show like the grimm, the white fang, Cinder, and Salem we are tricked to neglect the obvious signs of evil intent that are hidden and growing among the heroes. The real monsters of the world aren’t the ones with fangs and red eyes hiding under your bed, No the real monsters of the world look just like you and me. After all if we assume everyone is like us then how can we tell who the real monsters are, that are hiding in plain sight.

Ironwood’s evil nature and antagonism was subtle and growing under the skewed perception that he was the hero and that he was right. But this comes down to the fact that he is only in it for himself and what he has to gain from it.

I understand that James Ironwood was a tragic character even from his introduction, and the seeds for his volume 7 turn were planted in volume 2. I eventually recognized that RT was setting up this pivotal plot point way back in the day and now they are harvesting what they had sown.

Ironwood didn’t snap when he found out RWBY lied to him. He was content, even after he defeated Watts. He snapped as soon as he saw Cinder’s present. The Queen piece. He unraveled immediately and, sure, the discovery of RWBY’s lies didn’t help, but it wasn’t the cause for Ironwood’s descent.

He genuinely means well in opposing Salem and her forces, but his severe paranoia complex, exacerbated by the stress of being one of the only ones in the know about Salem and having to explain his actions to the skeptical populace and council, cause his decisions to degenerate over time. By the end of Volume 7, he becomes willing to abandon everyone in Mantle to die, violently lashes out at anyone who opposes him, and manages to undo all of the hard work he's accomplished by second-guessing his own actions.

James Ironwood is undoubtedly a fascinating character that has this certain appeal to most people. I can understand Ironwood's viewpoint but it is not the same as forgiving or condoning as good. Sure, I thought him intervening in affairs that he had no right to was a skewed perception, but I understood where he was coming from. I thought him ignoring the concerns and advice of people was reckless, but I also kind of understood his limitations and his upbringing. But in all honesty I was neutral about Ironwood ever since he debuted and didn’t think he had much to contribute to the story besides being the guy with an army along with the pride and arrogance that comes with.

Because of that Ironwood was always an antagonistic force in RWBY with ideals and plans that contradict the established ideals and motivations that are already shared with the world of Remnant. He just simply couldn’t fit in and when he tried he didn’t like it. When he tried to change it and take charge he only made things worse. Ironwood had potential to be good and a proper hero due the influence of Oz but his pride and ego that he got from Atlas got the better of him and now the show's true heroes will have to fix the problems that he has caused.

Summary

#rwby #rwby ironwood #james ironwood #general ironwood #Ironwood analysis

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real-jaune-isms · 3 years

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RWBY Volume 8 Chapter 7 Review/Remix

Last episode before the holiday break. The long long long holiday break. And here I am only posting my review the night before we come back... I was having a lot of fun playing my new video games, okay? Let’s just get right into this with the joke everyone has already made. War: What is it good for? Actually a lot, if you can believe it. Only in this specific context though, because the warfare in the American streets these last few days is disgusting and emblematic of what has been wrong with the country for a while. A government leader sending his followers into the nation’s capital on a mission of rage and personal catharsis? Ick. At least in RWBY the tyrant isn’t attacking members of his own population... Oh wait, Mantle. :P

For a moment you might be fooled into thinking we’re starting back in the farmlands of Mistral, maybe getting another look at Oscar’s earlier life or seeing a little more of Nora’s mysteriously tragic past before she and Ren met. But no, these are the wheat farms on the outskirts of Atlas and Sabyrs are charging through like raptors through the tall grass in Lost World. A battalion of Atlesian soldiers, human soldiers I might add, stand armed to meet them. But even if they’re armed they are by no means ready. Monstra keeps coughing up a new wave of Grimm, and I do mean a wave, every minute or two and Atlas is pretty damn whelmed in the face of it. There are some big bots with guns standing in straight lines, but the majority of the defense put up by Remnant’s supreme authority on military power and strength is mortal men with fear in their hearts rather than expendable robot soldiers. And the big bots seem to be lined up in a way that the ones in the front block the ones in the back, so that’s just poor planning too. It’s just a concerning sight all together, and they are not efficiently handling the coming enemy. We cut up to Ironwood in his office, and it seems he is not dealing with this situation well at all. We know he’s under a lot of stress from all the recent events, but they are in fact mostly his own fault due to his poor decision making skills in times of crisis, and his single minded drive he calls a Semblance. Speaking of the eternally expanding list of Ironwood’s bad ideas, he decides to evacuate all the civilians into Atlas’ below ground subway tunnels. Fun fact: There were Apathy among the Grimm Monstra has been spitting out. Second Fun Fact: Apathy were last seen thriving and murdering in an abandoned underground tunnel system beneath a well. If one is familiar with fantasy television pop culture of the last decade, the Crypts of Winterfell might pop into your mind as a similarly poor place to hide all your unarmed women and children. Y’know, cuz in Game of Thrones they were facing a guy who could raise the dead as his minions and crypts are just tunnels full of corpses. Just saying, this could end up being a non-birthday massacre. Whatever captain of lieutenant Ironwood was talking to is hesitant to go along with this idea, but Ironwood puts his foot down by putting his fist down. And so his voice comes on over the city-wide PA system to tell everyone they need to get down into the subway for their own safety. Compared to the organized marching and relative calm of the poor folks down in Mantle, these rich fat cats practically trample each other to run and scream down the stairs. A father is concerned his daughter is going to get snatched up by a swarm of Lancers, but seems even more upset by the squad of airships swooping in to combat them.

Speaking of airships, we cut to the one Marrow and Harriet are flying. The Ace Ops have arrested YRJ, because of course they did, and they all hear radio chatter as pilots are reporting in about how Monstra is too tough for them to pierce from the outside with any of the weapons available to them. Winter checks in over comms to report her team’s limited successes, and Ironwood tells her to stay on jailor duty for a bit. Yang snarks at Winter for continuing to follow orders despite the circumstances, but conversation is stifled by Monstra coming into view for the group. Jaune laments that the beast now serving as Oscar’s confinement is larger than they had imagined from a distance, and Vine continues to be rigid in his assertions as to just what Grimm can and cannot do. “Grimm don’t take prisoners” he says, as if that’s an irrefutable fact. It’s not like any Grimm have done anything new or unheard of recently, like talk or grow wings or exist within a river of evil sludge or shoot up miles into the air as a geyser or have gravity Dust crystals in their underbelly to fly, or as you are witnessing right now belch out ponds worth of sludge from with waves of Grimm are emerging to fight your ground troops. Yep, we definitely know every single thing a Grimm does, especially one brought here by the mistress of the entire Grimm collective who is commanding most of them here. You sure are smart, Vine... Yang continues to be riled up and ask they be let go to help, but Elm and Vine hold her in her seat. Ironwood is heard giving the Manta jets new orders and reveals Command is working on a solution for Monstra. Winter, naturally wanting to be kept in the loop, asks what that might be. He reveals the science team is putting together a bomb that might be able to take the whale out if detonated inside it. That means Winter and the Ace Ops will be delivering it into the literal belly of the beast. I don’t know if he intends for it to be a suicide mission with the bomb going off as soon as they’ve got it inside, or if it’s just incredibly risky to try and get inside Monstra at all, but Winter pales at this news and her eyes go wide before sadly drooping closed again. She composes herself and grows determined again as she accepts the new marching orders. Jaune and Yang are again audibly against these plans due to the risk to Oscar’s safety, but they are subdued as needed, though we see Winter’s act isn’t absolute and her hands are shaking.

Meanwhile, Salem is having the time of her life doing her best Mickey Mouse impression. Classical music plays as she conducts the waves of Grimm sludge out of Monstra’s mouth like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice playing conductor to the stars themselves. Emerald watched from a distance, and seems less than thrilled about the whole thing. She heads down the halls and has to use her Semblance to keep a Seer from noticing her and potentially reporting her going where she doesn’t need to be to Salem. And where she’s going is the door outside Oscar’s torture room. He’s coughing up blood, and Hazel is still insisting he start telling the truth before Salem loses her patience and just kills him despite how futile it’d be. Instead Oz starts asking some questions of his own: Does Hazel know why Salem sought to recruit him in particular? It turns out she approached him with the promise of making a new world order where there won’t be any kingdoms or Huntsman Academies. Oz just has to laugh at that naiveté. When Salem gets the 4 Relics, there won’t be a world at all. She’s been around for so goddamn long, all she wants is for it to end, and she thinks taking the whole world down is the only way to get it anymore. This just frustrates Hazel, and we learn why. He’s pretty damn sure Salem can’t die at all, because when she first approached him about working together he spent the better part of a day killing her over and over and over again. This man, whom we know from the Battle of Haven to have massive reserves of Aura and strength to endure and keep fighting, kept fighting until he was too worn down and exhausted to lift his fists again. And in that time of weakness and awe at her power, Salem made her sales pitch that even if he couldn’t kill the one leading the Grimm he could at least have vengeance on the establishment sending young people to their deaths against her. Oz points out that that’s exactly why she went to him, because she could make him believe this was the right way, that it would bring him closure. It’s what Ozpin deserves, Hazel argues, and Oz does not disagree. But does Oscar deserve it? Do the innocent people who haven’t been affected by Salem or Ozpin yet? No, this isn’t for justice, this is personal. Because Salem said it would help Hazel. Has it?

We don’t get an answer to that, instead going back up to Weiss’ room in Schnee Manor where she’s reapplying Nora’s bandages. Still mostly unconscious, Nora mutters “Now what... am I good for?” I can think of a great many things Nora is useful for outside of her great strength and straightforward approach to combat, but its a damn shame no one has actually bothered to tell her that before now. Before Weiss has a chance to offer any, Blake and Ruby enter the room with cups of tea. I’m not ashamed to admit I initially thought they were hot chocolate cuz I’m not used to tea being that sort of amber color. Weiss admits that she’s done the most her limited medical knowledge can offer, and Nora needs more than that. Blake expresses her concern for the other half of their group, but almost slips up and says... well we’re just not sure, but we like to assume she was gonna say she’s especially worried for someone in particular. The shippers can fill that in how they like. Their moping is interrupted by May entering the room with some less than stellar news from Fiona and the others down in Mantle. They haven’t seen Yang’s team in a while, and with everything going to hell like this a search party is at the bottom of the priority list. She’s about ready to get back on the airship and head back down to Mantle, but Weiss protests and this sparks a debate. May points out that Mantle doesn’t have the luxury of the Atlas military protecting them so Ruby’s group and the Happy Huntresses are the only thing keeping the people safe from the chaos of the invasion, but Weiss argues that there are still people suffering up her and I have to agree. Just because a police force is around doesn’t automatically mean they’re doing the best job of keeping everyone safe. But Weiss pushes the wrong button by asking about May’s family. The Marigold’s were ashamed of the way their “son” acted, wanting to help the suffering down in Mantle. And so May would no longer let herself be called that, she became a woman proudly working as part of the Happy Huntresses for the service of the people. She kicked her Marigold name and reputation to the curb and her cousin Henry stepped up as the socialite snob instead.

This cannot have been an easy scene for Kdin to record, but we all need to give a standing ovation for her performance in it. Powerful words that likely hit very close to home. What a queen.

May is sure Weiss gets where she’s coming from with their families casting them aside in favor of a more obedient heir, her being replaced by Whitley after her outburst at the charity concert. Weiss wants to voice her disagreement, but May questions whose side she’s on in all this. Blake doesn’t like that, they’ve heard this talk about taking sides before and judging by her tone she’s none too happy to be hearing it now. May is about to give her a strongly worded piece of her mind too but Ruby stands between them to remind everyone there are no sides. All of humanity needs to be united, and Salem is the one creating the tension that’s dividing them so their real enemy is her. The only question now is how do they get out of this problem? The solution might be hiding just around the corner, literally. Whitley has been listening from behind the door, and he seems a little inspired.

Meanwhile Oz seems to have just finished telling Salem’s dark cursed backstory to Hazel, and it seems her final plan really is to have the world so divided and ruined that when the gods are brought back to judge it they will deem Remnant a failure and destroy it and hopefully her with it. Hazel seems less than inclined to believe this story though, he still holds a damn hard grudge over his sister. Oz is getting nowhere so Oscar asks to be put back in the lead, and so he is just as Hazel is about to wallop them again. Oz is willing to trust him so he can earn Hazel’s trust in return. So he goes right ahead and tells the big guy Jinn’s name and that it’s how you summon her for one last question. Hazel seems mad that Oscar gave up the info so effortlessly after all that, but Oscar asserts that he’s not telling Salem. He’s telling Hazel, and letting him decide what to do with the knowledge and the chance to gain deeper knowledge still. Pretty rad strategy. Wouldn’t you know it though, Emerald is still listening outside the door and heard everything. She goes to tell Mercury, but he’s busy packing a duffel bag for a trip to Vacuo. Guess Salem doesn’t need him here right now so we’ll get to see him again in Volume 9 or 10. He’s less than convinced that they should try and use this behind the scenes knowledge to go against Salem, cuz if Hazel couldn’t do it then why would he change his tune now? And why would they risk their necks too? It’s not like Oz was telling the truth, right? Salem isn’t really gonna destroy the world! But the teens get another surprise lecture from Uncle Tyrian: Of course Salem plans to destroy Remnant!! You couldn’t tell from the start? Everything about her screams end of the world, and it is beautiful! And if you thought she’d do anything different then you must really be crazy... Bold worlds from a psychotic serial killer, but we already know he’s unhinged. Mercury doesn’t much like getting this rude awakening though, especially since Tyrian will be the one going with him to Vacuo. Merc and Em share one last sad look, but he’s made his bed and now he’s resigned to lie in it. Bye bye Mercury, see you after Emerald has probably switched sides and will have to face you as an enemy...

Speaking of ships soaring through the air, we go back to the Ace Ops and YJR heading for Monstra. Yang is protesting the bombing plan since Oscar is still inside, but Vine insists they can’t afford to wait and risk further death and destruction. Jaune offers a side plan, send the three inside Monstra ahead of the bombing squad to scope things out for them and try to rescue Oscar while they’re doing recon. Marrow is shocked that they’d be willing to go into the literal belly of the beast alone, but Yang asserts he’d do the same for one of his teammates if they were in this position, right? He doesn’t have an answer for that. Elm argues that trading their lives just for one other person is stupid, but amazingly it is Ren who objects. Oscar is their friend, and they will do whatever it takes for someone they care about like that. A real turnaround from his attitude of closing himself off emotionally, but I guess he’s realizing how ridiculous it sounds coming from other people? Harriet gets out of her seat to do what she does best and start talking down to someone as naïve and wrong. Feelings are stupid, the job is what matters. When you lose someone you just replace them and forget about them. We find out that Winter is indeed meant to be the new leader instead of Clover, and before Marrow there was apparently a member of the team named Tortuga, but Ren is not about to let anyone tell him that someone is replaceable. You don’t say that to Team JNPR, and we definitely don’t say that about Ren... Not now. In his outrage, Ren suddenly finds... clarity. He starts seeing the world a little differently. In less cryptic terms, his Semblance seems to have evolved and he now sees people’s emotions swirling around them as colorful bursts of flower petals. Harriet is actually furious about losing Clover, she’s lying to herself and trying to suppress her feelings. She does not like being called out like that, but the rest of the squad needs to be put on blast. As opposed to Hare’s red petals Marrow is surrounded by blue that I guess would mean sadness or depression, Elm has orange and some red, and Vine is clouded with green. The meanings of the last two are a little less clear, but they’re all definitely feeling some strong things that they’re trying to hide under a calm façade. This is the reason the Ace Ops lost to RWBY, they’re all held back by trying not to connect with each other so unity and team bonds never formed. Elm does not like being told she’s a loser because she won’t make friends, but at least it’s a a reaction, which means he’s absolutely right. She’s about to deck Ren in the face but Winter steps in to get everyone calmed down. She looks these three “fugitives” over, and makes a decision. She’s going to trust her sister’s friends. They will get the teens in close and give them a small window of time to try and get in and out before the Ace Ops need to bring in the payload and blow it all away. Harriet is pissed Winter is giving these “traitors” a chance, and questions her decision thusly. But you’re outranked, you boob, and you can’t do a damn thing to stop her from showing human decency. They have a very tight schedule to attempt this rescue, and Jaune accepts that fully. The three get uncuffed and are given their weapons back as the ship lands at the front lines. Ren tries to appeal to the doubt and regret he can see in Marrow to get him to switch sides while the getting’s good. Marrow wants to, but he sticks to the job for now. Yang and Jaune head out first, while Ren lingers to tell Winter he knows she doesn’t want to be a part of all this anymore either, and we see a rainbow of many emotional petals around her head. Either she has a balance of many emotions in check and is the most levelheaded of the Ace Ops, or she has the most emotions repressed and her mind is a tempest of feelings that aren’t being addressed and may spell her end... take your pick.

As this militant Schnee considers her options, we go homeward to see Weiss and the others heading for the front door. May isn’t keen to stay her any longer than needed, and the kids need to make a choice about where she’s dropping them off. Either they go to the front lines here in Atlas or back down to Mantle to help with the chaos there. No other options, and especially no breaking their jailbirds out for an assist. May doesn’t have the optimism and heroic hope that Ruby still holds dear, she won’t entertain the idea that this can become a complete victory all around. This isn’t that kind of world. Either they help one place, or they help another. And even then, that’s no guarantee wherever they go will be successful at stopping the invasion. It’s very depressing, and it’s on these kids to accept the facts and make the hard decisions. If you take a look at the last few Volumes, Ruby does seem to have a bit of a habit of ignoring the dreadful possibilities/facts in favor of pursuing a hopeful and bold plan that could fix everything immediately so she doesn’t have to cope with reality and actually grieve her mistakes and losses... I’m not saying it makes her a bad character or that she’s wholly wrong for trying to see a bright side whenever possible, just that this is an unhealthy strategy for a leader with so much on her shoulders. But before anyone has time to make a decision right now, there’s a hard knock on the front door. Everyone draws their weapons and approaches slowly, before Weiss cautiously opens the door. In a most definitely welcome surprise, she is greeted by Klein!!! She missed him dearly, and apologizes for whatever fault she had in his being fired, but while cycling through personalities he assures her she has nothing to be sorry for since it’s all Jacques’ fault, the bastard. Turns out, Klein is here to use his medical knowledge to treat Nora. What, didn’t you know all butlers to heroic millionaires have field medic training? Alfred Pennyworth set the gold standard, I dare say~ But of course, Weiss didn’t call him and none of her friends know his number so who told him to come?... Would you believe it, Whitley is responsible and we could not be more proud of him! Weiss certainly is, and she gives him what might be his first genuinely loving hug in years. Klein heads upstairs to begin treatment, while the rest of the group share a hopeful moment. But this silence too comes to a crashing halt as there is further ruckus outside. This time Ruby answers the door, to see a smoking crater in the front driveway. RWB rush outside and kneel at the edge of the crater as the smoke clears. Penny has crash landed, and lies there in a pool of what we can only presume to be her green synthetic blood. All she has the strength left to do is apologize before she passes out and the screen darkens with her. There lies the end for the next 6 weeks, and we were left to panic and speculate all the while. Too bad I’m a lazy bugger who only got this review out now and there’s no tension left before the thrilling continuation comes tomorrow morning. So lets all get one last panicked sleep in before the living nightmares come for our girls! Penny is totally gonna be under Watt’s control, the Hound is coming, it’s all gonna be a huge damn mess... Can’t wait, can you?~

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