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dextixer · 11 months

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There is no WBY in team RWBY - Volume 9

With Volume 9, our main protagonists, team RWBY got sent down to the Ever After, a fairy tale world based on the real life story of 'Alice in Wonderland". This was done very much heavily in part because RWBY has had problems with developing its main plot together with the characters and their personal journeys for a long time now, in no small part due to having a way too large cast.

And yet... Watching Volume 9 i could never get rid of one question. What exactly was the point of WBY parts of team RWBY being in the ever after, considering that their presence was wholly superfluous to the Volume?

Introspection

Sure, WBY parts of team RWBY did help facilitate Rubys eventual breakdown, but her breakdown could have easily happened without them. In fact, i would argue that the Volume focusing mainly on Rubys introspection would have been better. Or better yet. A volume dedicated wholly to both Ruby and Jaune.

People have complained about Jaunes inclusion in the Ever After, i was one of them. But in the end, he and Ruby have the most comprehensive character arcs in the entire Volume. Yes, the arcs end up resetting in the end. But they were still pretty good on their own merits.

We could have had a return to V4, with Jaune and Ruby leading the charge in the entire Volume. Both dealing with their own problems, supporting each other, and yet also confronting each other at points. Through both conflict and reconciliation both of their characters could have grown together.

We could see parts of it in the current V9. After all, it is mainly the conflict between Jaune and Ruby that is the final nail in Ruby running away. In the story, both of them have also experienced simmilar pains. Both of them lost important people in Beacon. Both of them have an antagonistic relationship with Cinder. Both of them are leaders of sister teams. Both of them have encouraged and supported each other.

And yes, i know that many people are not a fan of Jaune, but we kinda have to acknowledge at this point that the Banana haired boy is not going away. So its best to think about how he could be included in the story rather than how to remove him.

Especially since the WBY parts of team RWBY were pretty much... Unneeded this entire volume.

The Clown

Let us first cover the clown of the team. Weiss. It pains me to call her that, but there is no other way i can describe her with how CRWBY chose to portray her this very volume. In Volume 7-8, she has to confront her dysfunctional family. Almost loses them. Loses her (admittedly shit) father. And loses her home, the kingdom where she was born and raised.

It is true that there are moments in the Volume when we are shown that she is unhappy with the situation. But as far as i remember, at best, Weiss had 2-3 moments engaging with what happened. Most of her screentime in V9 however was spent with her being the slapstick comedic relief. Constantly getting harassed by the magical physics of the Ever After.

And quite frankly. At that point. What is the point of her character? Because quite frankly i do not believe that RWBY has any need, nor any time to spend on the prettier version of Jar Jar Binks. The Ever After already should be rife with wacky characters and various weird occurrences. Why make Weiss into one? A character that just lost her home?

Imagine that in Volume 4 Jaune did nothing but be comedic relief. He grieves for Pyrrha in 1-2 scenes and the rest of the time he is a joke. Would that have been good? Or worse, imagine YANG in Volume 4 being in the same acting position as Weiss. It would just be tone deaf...

And yet here we are. One of the best written protagonists in the show, turned into a clown.

Marriage

Blake and Yang... Im sorry, but at this point i cant even refer to them as separate characters. They arent. Not anymore. Does anyone remember Blake back in V1-V3? Blake the rebel? The troublemaker who wants to make the world better, a determined girl who wanted to atone for her being a part of the WF? Does anyone remember that strong willed woman? I do. And regardless of what one things of the writing of V4-5. For the most part, Blake still had a lot of signs of that rebel. It takes large amounts of bravery to stand in front of your house on fire and tell your countrymen to gear up to stop a terrorist organization.

And then from V6 onward. None of that is there. She is just there to be Yangs girlfriend and nothing more. For crying out loud, NORA, NORA of all characters cared more about equality and social justice in Volumes 7-8 than Blake. NORA! If that alone does not show how Blake was done dirty, nothing will.

So, Blake and Yang end up in the Ever After...

And they are the same as they have always been. Together but not together. The entire "arc" of Blake and Yang this volume was them eventually becoming Official. I have no problem with that but... If that was their entire contribution to the volume... It just further reinforces the point that these characters literally have nothing else but themselves. They are not even characters anymore.

There is no Yang, there is no Blake.

There is only Marriage.

And Marriage contributes nothing to this Volume in regards to having actual character progression. In fact, them almost completely ignoring Rubys mental state and then just going "whatevs" after seeing Ruby commit suic*de just made them look WORSE. And as i stated before, the Volume could have still had Ruby break-down without them.

Congratulations to people for Marriage confirmation. But i personally dont think it makes them valuable to the volume, or needed here.

Point?

So i have to end with simply saying that there is no point in the WBY portions of team RWBY being in Volume 9. All they do is take up screentime and do nothing of note. The roles that they play in Rubys eventual descent into her lowest point could have been just easily done through other means like hallucinations or more metaphorical journey through the ever after, or simply done by Neo and Jaune as it was mostly done in the show.

#rwby #rwde #rwby volume 9 #rwby critical

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itsclydebitches · 2 years

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@thewhitehairedwitchgirl many ramblings below feel free to ignore hard agree with everything you’ve said in that thread (I’m snagging a portion in a new post for brevity’s sake). I also think it’s worth acknowledging that of course Jacques needed a PR team to manage his own slavery. Not because that’s the only way to cover up any kind of abuse, but because he was running a slavery operation. As in, thousands of faunus workers mistreated across Remnant with major tragedies like the cave-in that killed Ilia’s parents to try and cover up. But one hotel owner? The Madame doesn’t need all that to hide her abuse. Hers is much smaller (in the sense of the number of people involved, not the emotional damage) and therefore much easier to keep out of the public eye. Jacques required PR damage control because of his status and the scale he was working on, not because every abuse case requires that level of power, funds, and manipulation.

As you point out, The Madame is legally Cinder’s mother. We as the audience know there’s no love there and that she pulled Cinder from a dubious hovel whose paperwork probably isn’t up to snuff, but on the surface they’re legally a Happy Family™. If we’re bringing Jacques into the mix, this is far more comparable to his public relationship with Weiss than it is his treatment of the faunus. And, just like Weiss, Cinder was conditioned to present an “Everything is totally fine!” front to the rest of the world.

Compare how Cinder looks in the hotel to when she first arrives. She’s clean, hair tied neatly back, wearing a spotless white uniform, and if you don’t know that the necklace is a shock collar (which, given that she’s only shocked in the privacy of the kitchen, no one does) you’d think that her mother gave her a very nice piece of jewelry to wear. It even matches her eyes! Aww, how sweet. She works, yes, but so do the two stepsisters (we see them carrying cakes and such out), so clearly these are sisters learning the family trade together, and if you’re only visiting infrequently - like, say, short-term at a hotel - you’d never notice that she’s doing the bulk of that work. Cinder smiles while delivering food to each door and when she trips Madame looks furious for a moment... but then very swiftly covers that anger up. Because she’s playing a part. She can’t afford to yell or shock Cinder here because people are watching. Out here, they’re a family. You know, just how out in public, Weiss is the perfect heir to a stern, but ultimately loving father. We likewise see her practicing smiling before she calls home. She knows how to work to keep things looking normal.

Despite the major issues with the episode as a whole, I think RWBY did a good job here of demonstrating how insidious abuse is; how easily you can hide it behind convenient excuses and a clean set of clothes. As a useful exercise, it’s worth going back through episodes and asking what do we as the audience know vs. what do other characters know? Because in Cinder’s flashback, I guarantee that what most other characters know, even Rhodes, is minuscule compared to our own knowledge that’s informing our outrage (shock torture sessions, soundtrack detailing her misery, obvious fact that Cinder is a villain and most likely didn’t have a happy childhood...) and the rest is just suspicion and speculation that people are going to have a hard time acting on. That’s one reason why abusers get away with it. When people see the Madame briefly get angry they don’t think, “She’s an abuser about to shock her daughter once they’re alone” they think, “She’s a frustrated mother who almost lost her temper over an accident that broke a ton of dishes, but then didn’t. Good for her.”

I agree wholeheartedly that Rhodes could have told someone, but I question whether that would have done any good in this world (I question if it might have made things worse) and, by extension, if his choice to go a different route that he thought would benefit Cinder (training her) is automatically irredeemable in the way most of the fandom has described. This isn’t a man who wrote an abused child off, this is a man who decided to help her in a way others don’t agree with... and those are two very separate things. Because yes, there’s this disconnect between how fans view the worldbuilding and I’ll always be on the detailed, practical side of, “What exactly do you want done?” Just saying he should have told someone sounds wonderful on the surface... until you require specifics and either someone can’t offer up an answer, or that answer is easily undercut by canon. Who’s he meant to tell? The CPS which doesn’t seem to exist? The police which, uh... has a whole host of other problems attached? The robots that got hacked and made out as symbols of oppression? (And that’s a whole other can of worms in the, “You shouldn’t have children fight” conversation.) Other huntsmen? Part of the shoddiness of the worldbuilding is not knowing what parties have what power and whether they’re trustworthy enough to send a child to. We have no idea if Rhodes or another huntsmen could have arrested the Madame with the evidence he’d gathered because Volume 7 treated Weiss’ arrest of her father as a joke, not a moment of clarification. We have no idea if someone official were to turn up, how easy it would be for the Madame to play everything off as just having a troublesome teenager. But given all those other details (how Cinder looks, how she’s been taught to smile, how careful the Madame is to do everything behind closed doors, the other girls being given ‘equal’ work, how common it is for kids to have weapons and how stealing a sword probably isn’t going to come across as a red flag in Remanent like it would here, etc.) I’d say it would probably be pretty damn easy. And, if we’re really going to treat this fantasy show ‘realistically,’ Rhodes had better be damn sure he can get Cinder out of there before he starts making accusations, otherwise she’ll be the one bearing the punishment for his actions. Like, that’s the entire point. It’s easy for abusers like the Madame to get away with their domestic abuse in a way it’s not easy for a billionaire to get away with large-scale slavery of an entire race. It’s so much harder to prove and as a result, it’s very likely that Rhodes telling the Yet Unestablished Safe Party Who Might Totally Save Cinder leads to him being banned from the hotel, Cinder shouldering the Madame’s fury, and now she’s out of any huntsmen training that could free her later.

Which brings me back to Weiss because again, we’ve got another domestic abuse case right there. In the interest of fairness across characters, I have to wonder if we’re going to condemn Rhodes for not doing enough, what does that say about every character who has come into contact with Weiss across her life? She has an older sister who - shock, shock, surprise, surprise - in true Remnant fashion, chose to train Weiss in an effort to allow her to escape Jacques herself, rather than just sweeping her away to safety (and she seems to have forgotten Whitley entirely because he can’t be trained). There was an entire party where people watched Weiss get manhandled by her father and become upset enough that she instinctively summoned a grimm to defend herself. Based on the trailers people have listened to her sing songs about trying to regain her own autonomy and break free. Her friends (who, going back to the original conversation, are on the cusp of adulthood) at the very least have a strong suspicion about her home life... but no one does anything.

All of which I say not to drag those characters, but to point out that Rhodes, in turn, is not solely responsible for solving the deliberately secretive abuse of a stranger because even friends and family have been unable or unwilling to do anything. That’s not an excuse, just a really sad fact about the state of this broken system. Accusations require authority to follow up on, which RWBY hasn’t shown us exists in Remnant, let alone is established enough to be relied upon. We have no idea how much characters can actually do and, by extension, when they haven’t done enough. If Winter who has first-hand knowledge of her father’s abuse towards her, and her sister, and her brother, and her mother, and is a huntress, and in a really powerful position in the military, and has the ear of Atlas’ primary leader, and despite all that she still decides that the best course of action is to train Weiss in the dead of night so she can escape to Beacon and someday get out from under her father’s thumb on her own... I can’t personally fault Rhodes for doing the same? I mean, I could from that ‘realistic’ perspective, but not within RWBY’s canon. Like yeah, we as the audience in the real world are rightly going, “What the fuck you need to CALL someone and get that child OUT OF THERE” in the same way we’d hopefully go, “WHAT THE FUCK YOU CAN’T GIVE A 13 YEAR OLD A GIANT SCYTHE” but this is a fantasy story and I find it weird to continually judge characters by our real-life standards that, time and time again, RWBY says do not exist. If RWBY had told us that there was a Remnant 911 that Rhodes could have called to safely pry Cinder from the Madame’s hands then yeah, he’s the Fucking Worst for not doing that. But all RWBY has done is heavily imply that every problem is solved by giving kids weapons... which is what he did. Go figure.

#rwde #rwby #abuse tw #mymetas

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nalanzu · 1 year

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Weiss Kreuz Episode 12: Abschied

We ended the last episode on Omi finding and assassinating his biological brother, after said brother unrepentantly insisted that hunting humans for sport was justified if it achieved a desirable end, namely the election of their father to public office. There's been a lot of heavy drama in the last several episodes, and we're about due for a breather. We're not going to get it.

We open on Weiss in the flowershop, as Ouka is beginning to worry about Omi and all the weird shit that happens around him. Given that they were just kidnapped and shot at before the shenanigans at the party happened, one cannot blame her. The peanut gallery, AKA Yohji and Ken, think this is a security breach and also not fun to watch. Aya is uncharacteristically lenient and tells his teammates to leave them alone.

Not only is Ouka hanging around the flowershop, she's also joining Omi on deliveries. They're very cute, talking about Takatori as if he's a decent human being. Ouka invites Omi to dinner, and tells him that her father is very excited to meet him. She keeps squeezing Omi's broken ribs, which I should not be amused by, but here we are. She has a date at the movies planned. She is once again not taking a no for an answer.

Omi mutters to himself out loud that she's very pushy, as he walks back to the bike, and Schuldig gives him some shit for it. Schuldig also ostentatiously reads Omi's mind, and tells him he's a hypocrite because he's killed his brothers. Schuldig really gets under Omi's skin, by calling him a bloodthirsty murderer who isn't fit to touch Ouka and then laughing at him. Omi reacts like an adolescent, namely by threatening Schuldig with a dart. Schuldig finds this hilarious.

The rest of Weiss finds it a bit weird that Omi came home and locked himself in his room. There are comments about Young Men In Love and the conversation does not go to the dirty place it should when they're making those comments. Omi, however, is having nightmares about killing his biological relatives. Not sure why this is worse than killing anyone else, as he didn't grow up with them, but it's bothering Omi a lot.

Oh my god Ouka has an adorable poodle. She gets accosted by Schuldig while walking said dog, and recognizes him as the one who kidnapped Omi. Schuldig introduces himself as a bodyguard, and Ouka calls bullshit. Schuldig tells her Omi's original name and that Omi is actually her brother. Ouka reasonably tells him he's a liar, but Schuldig demonstrates his telepathy and tells her to ask her parents for the truth. He just likes throwing wrenches in things, doesn't he.

Ouka asks her mother about her father's hypothetical third son, and her mother responds just as Schuldig said she would by denying all knowledge of such a person. Ouka says she'll ask Takatori, and her mother caves. She pulls out an undamaged version of the picture Omi found in the burning house, in which she's holding a baby Omi, and confirms that Omi is Mamoru is Ouka's brother, and then says she was so surprised when Ouka showed up with him. Was she not going to tell her daughter that she was related to her new boyfriend? What the actual fuck.

Ouka runs off to talk to Omi, who isn't in the front of the shop, and then tells Yohji that she doesn't want to talk to him after all. Yohji decides he needs to meddle, and sends Omi chasing after Ouka. They're trying very hard to set up a tragic love affair, what with Omi falling hard for Ouka and his guilt about the fact that he has signed up to be a murderer, but the fact that they're using the secret siblings trope to do it means it isn't landing for me.

I'm also not convinced I should find it funny that Omi's worst fear is that Ouka finds out he's a member of Weiss, a group of prettyboy assassins who have been killing people for years, but that the actual truth of the matter is that they are allegedly half-siblings. There are a lot of things I keep finding funny that I think are supposed to be poignant or dramatic or tragic, though it's not limited to this show. I'm fairly sure the writers are aiming for a sense of noble tragedy here. I'm also fairly sure they've missed.

In any case, Omi has gone to talk to Persia about his love life. He wants to know why Persia hid his past and why he was sent to kill his brothers. Persia tells him that Takatori has been using the position he already has to enact control over Japan with the help of a secret organization, Estset. There are apparently MANY secret organizations in his version of Japan. (Were the 90s the decade of conspiracy theories? Or was it just Weiss Kreuz and X-Files?) Persia opines that Takatori forced his sons to help him, and tells Omi that even though it's difficult, sometimes you just have to kill people you're related to for the greater good.

Omi pulls the absolute most teenage line anyone has ever pulled and shouts that Persia doesn't understand how he feels. This is also a glorious set-up for the next dramatic reveal, in which Persia's identity is finally shared with Omi and the audience. "I do understand how you feel, because I'm Takatori Reiji's younger brother."

I mean, that is definitely a great Gotcha line.

Omi rallies pretty quickly and demands to know why Persia isn't out there doing the murdering himself, then. Oh, Omi. This is how the world works. Powerful and rich men get other people to do their shit for them. Omi isn't having it, either, as Persia explains that he doesn't have the strength to to what Omi does, and Omi spits back that Persia just doesn't want the blood on his hands. He also wants to know why Takatori didn't pay the ransom for him when he was kidnapped, which, hey, that's a reasonable question that's been bothering him for several episodes now. Persia is a lying liar and says he doesn't know.

Back to Takatori's assassins, Nagi is psychically typing and researching on the internet. Schuldig, oddly, is apparently able to share his gift. He also says minds taste like honey, which is weird AF. We're not sure what they're up to at this point, but it's probably not great.

Back to Omi and the date, into the theater he goes looking for Ouka. She stares at him from behind, as Schuldig pops up behind her. Back at the flowershop, someone has sent the rest of Weiss a message that Omi is a spy and to meet them at a specific place to learn more. They wonder who could have hacked their systems, demonstrating that they have no fucking clue how email works. To be fair, they're all GenX, so it does track. (Omi, the baby Millennial, is the one who knows tech. Which also tracks.) Ken, just stop talking.

Aya decides they don't have enough time to clear the meeting with Manx. Yohji jokes that if Omi was a spy, he's doing a great job, but they're trying to reach Omi to tell him about the shenanigans before said meeting. Back at the theater, Schuldig tells Ouka about Omi's murdery other job. He exaggerates just slightly, telling her that Omi was there to kill her father. She is skeptical, as she should be. Schuldig says he'll prove it.

Because they play right into his hands, the rest of Weiss is on their way. Schuldig says Weiss is trying to assassinate Ouka. She is, of course, tied up in his back seat. He sends Omi to the meeting place that was given to Weiss.

It's foggy and dark when they all arrive. Ouka, tied to a tree, screams for help. Weiss goes to help her. Omi immediately assumes they're there to kill her. I really feel this speaks as to a fundamental lack of trust between these people; Omi was ready at the drop of a hat to threaten his teammates when he found out his biological brother was their target, and he is absolutely willing to believe right now that his teammates and friends are going to murder his girlfriend because she found out their secret. Schuldig is fanning these flames, to be fair, and there's always the possibility that he's affecting Omi's judgment.

Aya hears Schuldig, though, and goes after him. Farfarello launches himself at Ken, and Yohji drags Omi into the dubious shelter of a tinfoil umbrella when Schuldig starts shooting at him. How the gun does not end the fight immediately I have no idea, but Weiss distracts Farfarello and Schuldig while Omi goes for Ouka and gets her away from the tree. She's upset, and tells him that they're siblings. Poor Omi. Her father is Takatori Reiji, he realizes.

While Omi and Ouka fall apart, Schuldig and Farfarello keep fighting Weiss. Omi decides that he and Ouka can still love each other and ease each other's loneliness, just as siblings. And not lovers. I don't think that's how feelings work, generally, but hey. It's pretty cute. He then says they'll be together forever, sealing her death warrant as Schuldig shoots her in the back literally the second he finishes speaking. She dies dramatically in his arms after he desperately kisses her. What was that about siblings, Omi? What was it?

The requisite rain required to punctuate such a Tragic Moment begins to fall. Weiss looks hot and brooding in their assassin outfits. Omi screams, clutching the body of his sister/lover. End episode.

I know there are definitely worse things I've seen and enjoyed. This one really revels in its melodrama; there are highs and lows - mostly lows - as it tries to pulverize the hearts of its viewers into dust with how Painful And Tragic the events are for the four very pretty male protagonists. Sometimes this lands better than other times, but now that we've gotten halfway through the show, it's beginning to feel a touch repetitive.

One might make an argument for Ouka being an entry for the Women In Refrigerators column, and it's hard to dispute that she dies specifically and only to cause Omi grief and pain. With pitch-perfect comedic - I mean tragic - timing, even. The point at which she differs slightly is that we do see a little more of her as a character. She is, to be fair, entirely focused on Omi. We don't get a lot of her internal emotional journey or her motivations, although there's a glimpse of that when we hear about her growing up without a stable paternal presence in her life, but the emotional development we've seen for her is roughly on par with what we get from the show's protagonists. She does have a clearly defined personality. She's not quite a woman-shaped cutout who does nothing more than die for male angst.

On her own, Ouka is a perfectly reasonable entry in the Weiss canon of characters. Taken alongside Schreient, Asuka, Maki, and sister!Aya (Yuriko escaped to a presumably happy life in Australia, so she doesn't make this list), the women of Weiss paint a rather bleak picture of female representation. There are very few positive outcomes for women, in this show, though most of the early one-off characters involved in the case of the week ended up with dead boyfriends rather than stuffed into the fridge themselves.

As far as Omi goes, it's A Lot. The reveal that he's related to Persia who is related to Aya's nemesis is A Lot, and it's not necessarily handled badly (aside from the well-timed rain, and the well-timed gunshot, and the absolutely cringe-inducing foreshadowing) but it's not really handled well, either. All the subtlety of a ton of bricks, this show, as I am once again struck by how thoughtful many fanworks were in comparison. (I said many. Not all. Not even most. I know what this fandom was like.)

As far as vanity projects go, though, hey. I'm still having a lot of fun revisiting it.

#weiss kreuz #meta commentary #episode summary

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rainy-knight · 4 years

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The Birth of Spite.

(Strong language)

Salem: "Hmmm?"

Hazel: "Mistress, what seems to bother you?"

Salem: "That hovercraft over there. Has a strong, pure emotion."

She pointed a finger at a aircraft leaving Atlas.

Hazel: "Is it fear, helplessness or maybe sorrow?"

Salem: "I had expected much from my arrival but no, its...spite?"

* * *

Jaune: "HOLD HER DOWN!"

Ren: "I'm trying Jaune but shes kicking. And in case your forgot shes wearing heels!"

Ruby: Weiss, Weiss please you need to calm down!"

Yang: "Yeah snow queen! Chill out"

Weiss: "HOW CAN I CALM DOWN!! DONT TELL ME TO CALM DOWN! IRONWOOD HAS DUBBED ME MORE DANGEROUS AND WANTED THEN MY SHITTY FATHER!"

Ren: "My semblance isn't working! Shes only getting more fierce!"

Blake: "How is it not working? It's always worked?"

Ren: "I'm dealing with over ten years of pent up emotions, it's a bit more complicated than a spur of the moment emotions! Jaune! More juice!"

Jaune: "I'm giving it all I got!"

Ren: "Well nows the time to go beyond your limit! NORA, HELP!"

Nora reared her fist back, immediately smashing it into a summoned Beowulfs nose, shoving it back into the glyph.

Nora: "I'M! BUSY!"

Ruby: "Weiss you have to calm down, Salem is here and-"

Weiss: "I DONT CARE ABOUT HER! I'LL FIND AND TAKE THAT MANS ROBOTIC ARM AND SHOVE IT UP HIS ASS!"

Yang immediately covered her rear in fear.

Jaune poured as much aura as he could feeling the strain. He glanced at her hair.

Jaune: "uh! UUUUH! REN? Is her hair suppost to be turning black??"

Ren: "I dont KNOW Jaune! I've never used my semblance on someone so harshly and forcibly before!"

Weiss: "I'LL HANG THEM! I'LL HANG THEM ALL BY THEIR FUCKING STUPID FANCY TIES! IM TIRED OF COMING OUT ON BOTTOM! HATE! HATE! FUCKING HATE IT!"

Pietro: "Now Penny, you must not use these harsh words, good girls never use such mean words."

Penny: "Yes father."

Nora dodged a bite from the summoned Beowolf, only to lean in and chomp on its face earning a whimper.

Maria: "Yeah girl! Pop off! Tell us how you really feel!"

Ruby: "Youre not helping!"

Maria: "Theres no helping this, this has been a long time coming. Cmon girlie let it all out!"

Weiss hand escaped Jaunes grip, her fingernails latching like a hook, digging into his face as she pulled him in close.

Electric blue met blood red.

Weiss: "Jaune, be a sweetheart and get them to turn us around. I must find Ironwood and my father for my FINGERNAILS must be DYED in their blood!"

Penny: "Friend Jaunes hormones have increased."

Jaune: "Penny!"

Maria: "You heard the girl! Back to Atlas!"

Pietro: "You can't be serious!"

Maria: "Dead serious. Sides, I finally meet that paisty bitch that put that hit on me. All I need is one good swing hahaha!"

Blake: "We're all going to die..."

Weiss got up with the help of ren and Jaune now that she was calmed down. If you could call it that. Her harsh gaze latch onto Nora. She easily broke from the boys grips.

Weiss: "Oh there will be death but not any of us. The only ones who are allowed to die are Ironwood and my father."

Weiss walked up and pushed nora to the side, letting the Beowulf come out fully. She hopped onto it and petted its white fur lovingly. Her now ruby red eyes glance down at Atlas.

Weiss: "So what are we waiting for, let's hunt them down."

#weiss schnee #jaune arc #ren lie #salem #rwby #rwby volume 7 #yang xiao long #blake bellodona #penny polendina #pietro polendina #maria #nora valkyrie #so...about that fact that weiss is worse than her father #and having it finally sink in #yeah #not pretty #like trying to contain a granade in a cardboard box.#Also been a huge fan of Bliess #just another fun writing session

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palaceofpassion · 3 years

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Figured I'd take my shot with a second one, Ruby's suprised when Penny brings Jaune home to have him play the role of the happy couples stud. After all it's only logical that they birth strong child and who better.

"Ahhhn~ Yes yes!"

Ruby stared awkwardly at her ceiling as she bit down the bile forming in her chest. Her eyes closed tight as she rocked back and forth on her shifting bed, hoping to ignore the sounds of delightful pleasure happening behind her. "More! More! I'm breeding ready!" Her fingers grasped tightly onto her bedding, her teeth gritting as she tried to ignore the sounds of her wife... being fucked... being rutted... being mated by one of her closest friends. The sticky squelching sounds of bodily fluids exchanging with one another, quickly threw off her concentration. And yet, she knew she had to fight back the tears.

When Penny had come to her, talking about how she'd wanted a child. Ruby had, incorrectly, assumed that she wanted to go to a donation center. She HAD NOT expected for Penny to want to be bred, and creampied. She hadn't expected her loving wife to be stuffed by a big fat cock, or having her being dicked down. She hadn't expected Penny to bring her best friend over. So when she found Jaune at her door, a bashful look on his face as he asked the question.

"Hey Ruby, Penny called me, do you know why?"

Something had been wrong... something had been VERY wrong. And she could feel it in the pit of her stomach.

So when Penny came prancing over... wearing... wearing a sheer silk nightgown... one that didn't hide ANY of her lady bits... Ruby felt her heart drop. "Friend Jaune! I'm glad you could make it!"

"Hey Penny."

Jaune's smile didn't make her feel any better.

"Penny?" Ruby turned towards her wife, "What's going on?"

"Oh! I had mentioned wanting to have a child, remember?"

Ruby of course nodded, "Well friend Jaune is here to help!" Then when Penny turned towards Jaune... a twisted smile on her face... one that exuded sexual desire... one Ruby herself had never seen before. She felt her heart crack.

"Okay but... why?"

"Oh... didn't you discuss this?" Jaune turned back to Penny. "Penny, if Ruby is uncomfortable with this I don't think I want to go through with it."

"What? What are you talking about?"

“Well Ruby!” Penny quickly turned towards her, grabbing onto her hands and pulling them towards her heart. “I was hoping that we’d have friend Jaune here to be the father of our children.” Ruby blinked, confused at first.

“But… and I’m sorry no offense Jaune.”

“None taken.”

“Why Jaune?” She didn’t mean any offense by it… in fact… well Jaune had been a long time crush of hers. She’d only never made a move on him because of how anxious she’d felt about the entire ordeal. He had been one of the first people, if not the first person other than her family to accept her for who she was. He’d always been there when she needed him, and she’d always felt safe.

She had never been sure if those feelings were that of love… or of something else. But she’d held back, especially as Weiss had ended up falling for him. And now they were married, speaking of, “Wait, what about Weiss?” Maybe she could pull the plug here and now?

“I’m right here.”

Ruby nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden entrance of her childhood friend. “What?! Don’t suddenly do that! What are you Blake?!” She was so flustered by the sudden arrival that she didn’t even notice the dry look Weiss had bestowed upon her.

“No. But I’m already aware of the situation.”

Oh… maybe she was here to say no. “So… you’re not okay with it right?”

Weiss simply shook her head, “No, I’m not okay with it.”

“Oh thank go-”

“I love it.”

“What?”

Weiss beamed brightly as she placed her hand upon Jaune’s shoulder, ushering the taller man down so she could pull him into a deep kiss. Ruby felt her face flush hot, the public display of affection proving to be a little too much for her still naive mind. “You see Ruby.” Pulling away Weiss brought her attention back to her, “I love the idea of my Jaune here breeding other women.”

She didn’t miss the little shudder that ran through her old best friend. “Just… it's so enticing, watching him push them down, breeding them like the dirty sows they are. Filling their needy wombs with his rich virile Arc seed. Oh, you’ll both love it, I assure you.” The woman stroking her rounded belly, proof of their 8th child.

Honestly, Ruby wasn’t so sure she WOULD love it. But, she wasn’t even sure she could say no anymore, not with Weiss' sudden intervention. “Uh… Weiss what’s that?” She’d suddenly noticed the strap attached to Jaune’s shoulder, now that Weiss had brought attention to it.

“Oh, it’s a camera darling. To commemorate the event.”

Her brow crinkled in as she frowned at the sudden realization dawning on her. This… this wasn’t going to end well for her and she didn’t like it one bit.

“Now then, a few questions.” Weiss hurried them in the door, tugging Jaune along with her, who gave Ruby one last sorrowful glance.

“Have either of you ever been with a man before?”

“I have not friend Weiss!”

Penny raised her hand, a pleasant smile that would have normally caused her heart to race flashed across her face. Though now it only proved to make her feel… ill inside.

“Excellent!” Weiss clapped her hands together, “It’ll be an interesting experience.” Ruby felt her heart sink when Weiss turned her attention back towards her. “I assume you’re both alright with this then? I don’t want you to be uncomfortable after all. And I know Jaune doesn’t want you to either.”

“Yeah.” Jaune nodded, “I want this to be a fun experience for everyone involved… oh uhm… you’re not both lesbians right? I’d honestly feel bad if you were.”

Ruby WASN’T a lesbian persay. She wasn’t even sure what she was, she just liked who she liked. And at one time it HAD been Jaune, but now she loved Penny.

“No. Both Ruby and I are fine with both sexes.”

Ruby nodded meekly in response.

“Okay perfect, well I promise that Jaune will make this an experience that neither of you are going to forget.”

“Yeah.” She felt a hand press down on her shoulder, “Ruby, again, if you don’t want this please say something.”

She felt her heart swoon just a tad at Jaune’s concern. Her chest rose and fell and her face grew just a tad bit warm. Turning her attention towards Penny, she knew she COULD say yes. But seeing how happy and excited her wife was, how into this Weiss appeared to be… and… this could be her chance to get with Jaune for once… well it couldn’t be all bad?

No! It WAS FAR WORSE than she could have ever imagined.

“Oh yes! More please! More!”

Ruby sat there, silently sobbing to herself as her wife, her precious wife with whom she exchanged vows of solidarity with, was now on her back. Her hands tightly grabbing their bedding sheets as her best friend, and childhood crush, pounded her like she belonged to him.

She dared not look, the sounds of slapping flesh already being far too much for her to handle. Her lips trembled as she tried to silence out the sound, and she may have succeeded or at least she would have if Weiss hadn’t shifted closer.

“You know Ruby~” Her tone sent a terrified shiver down her spine, “I was the one that got Penny interested in this whole ordeal.”

“Wha?”

She looked up trying to say something, but found a single finger pressed against her lips. “Isn’t it amazing?” Weiss turned her attention towards Jaune and Penny, forcing Ruby to follow her line of sight.

Ruby’s heart dropped, tears began to trickle downwards as she SAW… no she could smell it, hear it, FEEL it… her beloved wife was on her back, her face… oh gods her face… it was contorted into the most twisted of pleased slutshammed faces she’d EVER seen before. “It was pretty easy getting the idea in her head, I told her it’d be easier to have a child if someone ACTUALLY bred her.” She heard, but did not see Weiss chuckle, too enraptured with the terrible scene in front of her. “It really was easy, your wife is suuuch a slut. She’s just so naive~” When she felt Weiss’ icey could fingers wrap around her shoulders she tried not to flinch. “It really didn’t have to be Jaune, I could have SO easily convinced her to sleep with ANY man.”

“B...bu...but why?” Why then? Why was this happening, why her? Why Jaune?

“Its simple~ I just LOVE seeing my husband fuck little stupid sluts silly. I mean just look at how happy Penny is.”

Ruby HATED how right Weiss was, Penny was… she was FAR happier than she’d EVER been when they had sex. “A silly little toy could never match up to the real thing… look at it… look at her stomach.”

Ruby could see it, she didn’t NEED Weiss telling her. She could see her wife’s belly inflate as Jaune’s… his cock pounded inside of her. Her stomach ballooning as he penetrated her over and over and over and over. The big meaty head of his cock skewering her so much smaller body, the thick bulb protruding through the other side.

“Penny Darling.”

“Y..yesh!?”

“Ruby wants to hear what's happening. She wants to know how much you love having my husband’s COCK inside of you.”

“Oh! OoOooKaaY!”

Ruby KNEW Penny didn’t mean anything by it, but she was just so excited. “Look Ruby! Jaune’s… oOooH hiiiiis hiiiis BIIIiIiIGG! CooOoCCCK! Itssssssszzzz! Its Puuuushiiing against MmyyyYy Ceervviviiix!”

Ruby could see it from here, the shape of her uterus forming on the outside of her skin. “HeeeEesssss hiiiiittttting mmmeeeeee soooo Sooosososooo deeeeep!”

“You want deeper though right?”

“YYyyyEeesssh pleeeeaassee!”

“Darling, can you please put her into a mating press for me?”

“Yeah!”

Jaune’s voice came out exasperated, his focus solely pushed upon her wife. Ruby was FORCED to watch as Jaune pulled on her wife’s legs, pinning them back and showing the extreme flexibility that came with the once gynoid. “WhoaooOh!” He’d pulled her legs practically behind her head, forcing his cock even deeper as he rose her lower body.

“Look at it, look at how DEEP his cock is going inside of her!” Weiss simply smiled, “You’d never be able to do that Ruby, but it’s okay.”

SMACK SMACK SMACK

His pace grew faster and faster, the bed underneath them started to shake as he unleashed sound defeaning thrust after sound defeaning thrust.

Ruby couldn’t believe it, she couldn’t take the emotional damage that she was feeling as her best friend pushed her wife into ecstasy. “Gods it feels SO good to have him inside of you. Its so amazing, I don’t think Penny will be able to have it any other way now.”

THUD THUD THUD

The bed jolted up and and down as he practically pinned her wife into her own bed. Thick juicy fluids squelched from their connected bodies. Beads of sweat staining their sheets as he practically pushed his entire body on her. Ruby could hardly see her wife anymore, but she could hear her squeals of pleasure. She could only watch as a man took her from her. She could only silently regret her decisions. And still why did it have to be this way, for Weiss’ sick pleasures?

“You know.” She flinched as Weiss’ hand fell upon the pit of her belly, rubbing gentle circles above her womb. “It doesn’t have to be this way.” Ruby gave her a betrayed look, scrunching her face together. “We really DID come here to help you two have fun~ And… well I’m sure Penny would LOVE if you both got pregnant together~”

Ruby meant to open her mouth, “After all, it’s not fair, now is it? Just letting Penny have all the fun?”

Ruby bit her lip, turning her attention as Jaune pulled up onto his legs, squating down on her wife and slamming his cock one last time into her depths. She could SEE his balls inflating, she could SEE the pulsing of her stomach as the bulge of his cock quite literally throbbed. She could see her wife’s belly inflating in front of her, “See?”

Weiss turned her attention back to Penny.

“Penny describe what’s happening.

“MmmNnn~♥ Fri...Fri… Ma...Mate…Br...bree...breeder J...Jaaauuune iiiisss filling My… my wooomb, with Prec...precious life giiiving seed! I can FEEL my ovaries drinking the… the preciiious fluiiids! I… I’m… I’m breeding ready!”

Ruby felt Weiss release her, shifting over towards Penny. “Oh Darling, you’re going to be JUST the most gorgeous pregnant woman.” Ruby watched Weiss run her finger over the outline of her wife’s uterus, tracing the very shape with a single soft touch. “Mmmn~ I can’t WAIT to see you nice and full. I bet you’ll have twins AT LEAST.” Weiss of course turned her attention back towards her husband, “I bet you can’t wait right? You LOVE it when women get pregnant with your children, you’re just raring to go again, right?”

Ruby turned her attention to Jaune, who had been mostly quiet this entire time. Surely he wouldn’t betray her? He’d been hesitant from the start after all! “Yeah… it’s REALLY hot... and…” No. “We should go again, I can dump a few more loads inside of her, just to make sure she’s nice and knocked up.”

“Yes please!”

“Perfect.”

Time seemed to still as Ruby did something she truly didn’t expect of herself, “STOP!”

All eyes turned to her as she flushed red, one that ran down the length of her unclothed body. “I… I…” She grit her teeth, “I’m next!”

“Perfect~”

Little did Ruby know, but she’d fallen into Weiss’ Trap, one she’d never be able to escape from.

#Ruby Rose #Weiss Schnee #Penny Polendina #Jaune Arc

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bobo-archive · 2 years

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Penny Polendina - A Tragic Character With an Even More Tragic End

Now before I start this, this is in no way me saying Penny was written poorly. The title may be misleading. So before you grab pitchforks, know this is nothing more than a character analysis on the true trope of tragedy. Penny is one of my favorite characters and I absolutely adore how she was written.

Penny is one of my favorite characters to reference when it comes to tragedy. Tragedy, is, as Dictionary.com defines, “a lamentable, dreadful, or fatal event or affair; calamity; disaster … a dramatic composition, often in verse, dealing with a serious or somber theme, typically involving a great person destined to experience downfall or utter destruction, as through a character flaw or conflict with some overpowering force, as fate or an unyielding society.” The second definition I listed is the one that better explains how this ties into Penny, and proves a point a lot of people are missing.

Penny is written to be tragic.

It sounds weird when it first comes to mind, Penny, one of the sweetest, happiest, bundles in joy of all of RWBY is tragic?! Really?! That’s absurd!

But this is what makes her tragic arc amazing.

Penny is introduced in volume 1 chapter 15. Weiss bumps into her and she’s introduced to be weird, off putting even. Ruby calls her friend and suddenly Penny is all over her. While Penny is a bit overwhelming then, Ruby does seem to value the friendship even if they’ve known each other for a short amount of time.

It’s in volume 2 episode 3 when it’s revealed that Penny Polendina is a robot. The next episode explains that she’s the first synthetic person who’s capable of generating an aura. We later learn in volume 7 chapter 7 that Penny is able to exist due to her father/creator’s sacrifice. Pietro gave Penny part of his aura so she could exist. This sets up an interesting arc. If she were to die, would, if she could, come back?

When volume 3 came around and Penny was the victim of a 2nd degree homicide by Pyrrha Nikos it’s possible this may be the end. But, in this case, it’s not. There’s no resolution to her freedom, no resolution to her humanity as a robot.

Penny then returns 4 volumes later, in the premiere of volume 7. She’s rebuilt, her memories still there because her core was able to be recovered, meaning she had a memory bank of sorts in it.

We get to see her true character arc. Penny’s not allowed to spend time with friends or even make friends, as she reveals to Ruby in chapter 5 of the volume. She’s told she doesn’t have time for them. Things only get worse in the next chapter when she’s framed over a massacre that was perfectly set up to put her in the spotlight. Her humanity once again is questioned by everyone. They know for sure she’s a robot, this is now a known fact. People disregard her humanity and demand she’s shut down and possibly destroyed.

The downfall of addressing Penny’s humanity is quite directly questioned in the following episodes. During the Schnee Manor dinner party, Jacques Schnee asks why Penny is even allowed to be attending. She’s not given food, or shown to even be offered it (though this technically makes sense in some ways.) Ironwood says that she’s under his control.

Control and choices. Aside from humanity, Penny’s other struggle is not being able to make her own choices. This is shown in many ways. She’s told not to wander in Vale during the Vytal Festival (See Volume 1 and 2 scenes with Penny.) Ciel has a strict schedule to keep with Penny (Volume 3 Episode 5.) Penny isn’t allowed to have friends outside of Atlas Military/Academy as she ‘doesn’t have time for them anymore’ (Volume 7 Episode 5.) This is directly stated, as I’m pointing out again, by General Ironwood when he says “Penny is completely under my control.” (Volume 7 Episode 8.)

Penny, while a person, is not free to do what she wants. She’s told constantly what to do. Even by the people who do care about her. Penny is never allowed to make a decision. Volume 8 Episode 3, she's told it’s best she goes to Amity and stays there. Volume 8 Episode 1, she’s advised against helping launch Amity.

She’s told to go through the portal to Vacuo by her friends while they stay and fight in Volume 8 Episode 13.

To her end, she’s constantly told what and what not to do. She’s gaslighted on screen multiple times, mostly by the Ace Ops and Ironwood. Penny, while one of the sweetest characters, has a lot of things in her life that write her as tragic.

While Penny’s humanity is constantly reaffirmed to us as viewers, like when she receives the Maiden Powers, and when Penny tries expressing empathy to Winter, and when she tells Cinder that the idea of her dying gives her personal feelings. We know Penny is just a girl. Maybe not fully huma-

Oh wait.

Volume 8 Episode 12. Creation.

After a virus had been implanted in her basically Bluetooth swords in Episode 5 of the same volume, it’s seen there’s a resolution. And if there’s a resolution to that, surely now. Now that she's human. Things are looking good! She’ll be able to escape! She can go and live her life, like she’s wanted, without people questioning her humanity! Things are looking up for her! For everyone!

This is how tragedy is written.

Two episodes later, Penny is murdered by Jaune Arc.

Was Penny given a decision even in her approximately 20 minutes of being human?

Yes.

And that one decision she was given, was how she was going to die.

The only thing in life she chose for herself, was her own death.

She told Jaune to kill her.

To some it may be read as a horrible depiction of humanity. To others it may seem like they did this as another fake out. That she may come back.

Penny’s death is, really, one of the best ways to end her arc. Why? Well.

We wanted her to be happy, the show makes you root for her, it really does. We’re reaffirmed of her humanity countless times to the point the shows actual fake out is when she gains bodily humanity.

That was their goal.

Penny’s tragedy, in a single sentence.

Penny was given one choice in her life and it was only in how she died.

And after she died, who it was her powers went to.

Humanity was a short fraction of it, but she was glad. Glad she was given that single decision.

This was written for three reasons.

The first being, Penny isn’t coming back. I’m tired of seeing this optimistic desire for Penny's return again. Trust me, I’m a fan, I love her character and I love her. The bitter truth is that, if she were to return, it’d be a pointless decision. There’s no reason to bring her back, she had an arc, her humanity was established to us and then the actual cast, and she got to make that one decision for herself. That’s simply how a character arc works.

The second being, to the people who say she was written poorly. I don’t know what your idea of poor writing is, but Penny’s arc is well written. It’s not constantly repetitive in the same way but it’s repetitive nature drives in what her character’s about. Humanity and choices.

The third was just for myself. I love Penny, and I didn’t love her for the tragic arc originally, but I’ve come to love that aspect especially. She’s my favorite, and even though I feel like it’s misread considering I have an AU where Penny lives, I like her writing, and I think it was done well.

That wraps this up, if you read this far I’m willing to discuss more on this. Feel free to add your own input, this was written on a whim after all, it’s far from perfect. Hopefully my point got across.

#this formatting is gonna kill me #rwby #penny polendina #rwby penny #character analysis #this isnt rwde luckily #but the amount of people adamant on penny coming back infuriates me

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schnees-and-schnugs · 2 years

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major vent post incoming. if you dislike rwby negativity then do not click read more. Just my opinions, feel free to disagree- its just therapeutic for me to write it out.

Perhaps this is a hot take but I wish it had taken longer for whitley to accept weiss back. I wish he hasn't hugged her back, not until later. At least have weiss earn that. I really dislike how all it took was whitley proving to weiss that he wasn't a bad person, but not the other way around. I know Whitley didn't do it for her, but it was the act in and of itself that weiss needed. Whitley proved himself to weiss that he wasn't like their father, but what did Weiss do to prove *directly* to whitley that he could trust her not to hurt him again? In fact, everything she did up until the Schnug (tm) point only would make it worse (and I'm sorry I don't accept the writers saying she was "standing up to whitley" truly they can fuck off with their abuser logic bs. I really shouldn't expect anything from them but I'm still disappointed).

But instead, weiss gets everything she wants while never acknowledging whitley's valid anger towards her. Hell, whitley never acknowledged his own issues with weiss in a constructive way. It was solely between willow (his abuser) and weiss (the person he's mad at). They don't talk about their problems, whitley's anger is just hugged away because weiss realizes that he's a good person. And it just really funny when Weiss says "I didn't forget about you" when you realize that whitley wasn't even in on it. He never knew that willow asked her weiss not to forget him. Because. They. Never. Talked. About. It.

Take willow's "you left him here alone with us" line out of v7, and what would have changed? Would Weiss have *not* tried to argue with may that you shouldn't leave you family to die? Would weiss have not saved saved whitley from being mauled to death? Would she have continued to be mad even after he called klein? How did that line at all affect weiss in a direct way? I'm not talking about some obscure asspull from one line she says. Because what weiss says to anyone who isn't whitley doesn matter more than what she should have said to him.

I just don't like it, I'm sorry. Weiss and winter get so many great scenes together to develop their relationship, but we can't even get Weiss to acknowledge she hurt Whitley and to be held to it in any meaningful way. I'm not asking that Weiss flog herself, but my god the bare minimum acknowledgement is required to whitley himself. Not willow. Not her friends. To whitley. Because he is the one she hurt. They can't even have a conversation.

And it's because Whitley just isn't allowed to be angry. He isn't allowed to be upset at his sisters because when he is it's brushed aside as him being a "mini Jacques" and "upholding what the schnee name used to mean" by the fandom and the writers themselves. We can't let Weiss look bad! One good line isn't enough to flesh out a character's issues, especially when it's not built on top of later in any meaningful way and resolved in a completely one-sided way. (Which reminds me why I am so not excited for whatever they have in store for winter and whitley. I dont have any faith anymore. Not really).

And while I'm on this, "trust is risk"... No, just no Weiss. You don't get to say that. Not as it relates to Whitley. Not when she never risked a single thing in ""trusting"" Whitley because she never did until he came to her first. Whitley was the one who took a risk. Weiss did everything she could to make Whitley feel even more alone and scared. It was Whitley who came forward and did something good for her friend, making him vulnerable on front of everyone, on the risk that Weiss might just abandon him anyways again. It was Whitley who decided trust is risk, not both of them. Weiss doesn't get to be a part of that like she risked anything by her actions. Everything surrounding weiss and whitley is just so unintentionally manipulative, I don't know how anyone edited that script and greenlit it.

*sigh*

And I really don't want to be told to "wait for it". I've waited for it since v4. And what I've gotten thus far has shown me that it's not of good quality and thats all I'm really going to get.

And some will try to argue that it's too much to expect from Weiss. As if her being a good person and not a the smug bastardization of the character I love is 'too much'. "She shouldn't apologize!" Because apparently being a mean little sibling is somehow more of a grevious sin than being abandoned and never given a second thought by your family.

And don't even get me fucking started on willow. No, her "even I'm above drinking in the dark" joke wasn't funny. Not when she had been criminally neglecting whitley. Not when she left him completely alone during an apocalypse, never once checking him on his emotional or physical well-being. Not when the lights going out is somehow more important to her than being there for her son. And they just don't... Acknowledge it. It's insane to me that whitley just continually gets treated like crap by his entire family and it's swept under the rug because they just don't let him die that one time. And also because theyre woman and sad :(

Seriously, if I was whitley I would go completely no-contact with willow, weiss and winter the first moment I get. Jesus. Especially after v8.

And I don't want every excuse to be made for winter in v9 or V10 or whatever the fuck. I don't want whitley to have to prove himself to her. I don't want her abandonment of whitley to just be excused and made light of. Because she really doesn't care about him and it shows! I don't want him to be winter's little emotional support sibling so she can feel better about herself because she lost weiss and realized that she can somehow make up for it by finally giving a fuck about her little brother. I want there to be tension between the two of them. I want them to hurt each other. I just don't want it to be completely one sided. I want them to have something between them that is unique to their relationship, not making weiss into a martyr and browbeating both of them with it.

But idk why I'm even worked up about this, because at this point I'm pretty sure I won't even be watching v9. Not because I'm dropping RWBY (I'll still be active on this blog and I will know what's going through rwby mutuals), but frankly I just don't care about the protags. V8 was just. Bad. Now that I look back at it. I find that I'm just completely uninterested in half the things I'm supposed to care about. Ruby emotional breakdown? Maybe. Bmblb? Absolutely not. Jaune manpain? Neo?? No. Its fine if you like those things, I don't want to alienate anyone or say that the thing they look forward to is Bad, that's just my opinion.

I like vacuo. I want to learn more about that kingdom. I want to learn about professor Theodore, I want to learn about the socioeconomic state of that kingdom. I want to learn about their 'royal family', I want to see the tensions between the atlesian refugees and vacuoans. I want to see how the refugees are going to settle. Thats what I look forward too. I don't know if I have high hopes, but as you can tell I'm really out of excuses.

I don't even look forward too any more schnee moments, thats how much I'm broken by this show lmao. If they couldn't write racism in a sensitive way why the fuck did they think they could handle abuse?

Sorry I just needed to get this off my chest. It's just very therapeutic for me. Feel free to finish this and think I'm an idiot who's wrong about everything if that's how you feel- I just needed to vent.

#vent post #idk if i should tag this as rwde since ppl have it blacklisted for a reason

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dragynkeep · 2 years

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Been wondering how things would be different if Summer had been a faunus and Ruby was half-faunus... Could it make the story better? What do you guys think?

i think it would've changed a lot in the show from the offset because there's so many ways to go with ruby being a half faunus / summer being a faunus. would ruby present as wholly human or wholly faunus, despite being mixed because that's the way the showrunners said the genetics worked? would this make her feel more distanced from her father & yang considering not only does she not have much in common with them in looks, but also who she is fundamentally in her race?

there's also ideological elements to this; does ruby know about the white fang? does she consider herself as a faunus if she presents as wholly human; does she face discrimination for faunus traits despite only being half? would she be able to go to menagerie without facing resistance from the faunus there?

then that feeds into her interactions with both blake & weiss; how does she handle weiss's racism or blake's reveal? the white fang's attack on beacon? tyrian, leo, etc?

while i think it could change the story in some fundamental ways, i also don't think it could be implemented well by mkek who have already shown that they fall into some serious pitfalls in their depiction of racial elements in the show via the faunus. the fact that half faunus, per their lore, are wholly human or faunus depending is already super uncomfortable & harmful to misconceptions mixed people have to face.

ruby already showed in the show that she fell to prejudice against the faunus; assuming that tyrian as a faunus must automatically be associated with the white fang & endearing weiss to blake, not on blake's personhood or that she deserves to be respected as their friend & as a person, but that "blake's ears are cute." i don't trust mkek to deal with this writing element with any sensitivity or without making ruby worse than she already is. the last thing we need is a self hating or ignorant mixed person who barely acknowledges the marginalized facet of their identity.

#rwby #ruby rose #summer rose #ais.txt #answered #q

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kitkatopinions · 3 years

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*deep breath* you ever think about how yang’s yellow trailer hints at her losing her arm by addressing asymmetry and how weiss ALSO uses asymmetry in her ponytail to rebel against her abusive father and how weiss knows yang’s struggle with loneliness as the self-proclaimed “loneliest of them all” and how she knows yang’s struggle with her mom leaving her because weiss’s own mom was distant too.

but anyways 🐝🐝 BUZZ BUZZ GARDEN OF ECSTASY THE ONE THING I CAN COUNT ON IS I CAN’T COUNT ON YOU 🐝🐝

so romantic of blake to compare yang to her abusive ex-bf adam in v3 right??

Gonna be honest, I don't fully get the asymmetry thing being like, an early indication of Freezerburn, but boy howdy, Weiss and Yang were a great potential ship and I cannot and will not understand how the writers went with Blake and Yang as a ship when it was right there outside of doing what they thought was popular because they wanted fan clicks.

Like, I've talked before at length about how I think Blake and Yang could have worked, but that doesn't mean that's the ship I think would've been best for either of them, and partially because freezerburn was such a good potential ship. Admittedly, it suffers from a lot of the same things as early bumblebee in that any moments they have can easily be read as only friendship driven and it's not explored as much as it should be (you know, to convince us that these four are super tight best friends who love each other very much.) But I would almost argue that their casual interactions, challenging each other, showing interest in the same things (like party planning and board games) while also having these huge differences... All of that makes them way more appealing as a ship than Blake and Yang, to me. All of this comes into play when Yang and Weiss reunite in volume five and have all these cute small moments.

I've talked about how Blake and Yang seem like they could be better together after season five because the journeys they take make them better people who were working through their toxic traits, but that's true of Freezerburn too, only we see a natural shift from 'casual friends' to 'good friends,' instead of 'friends with contention' to 'friends with contention and romantic tension.'

The fact that Yang literally canonly reminded Blake of Adam at least to some extent doesn't mean their relationship couldn't have ever been, but it was a wedge and a roadblock that the writers didn't treat with much importance when they actually started writing the romance in volume six when Yang acted like Blake promising to never leave her again is good and affirming to Blake that it's what she wants "I know you won't," while they wrote Yang to be just as impulsive and anger driven in V7 and V8 as she was back when Blake was rightfully acting hesitant to even befriend her (remember Yang exploding and going red eyed because Marrow suggested they should take missions with other people every now and again.) And not to mention, I never like shipping Blake with anyone who's been anti Faunus or done anything anti Faunus, but especially if it goes by without apology or even getting called out. Yang using a laser pointer to get Blake's attention is casual anti Faunus behavior that's just dismissed as a joke, and that's a major roadblock that makes their ship just feel a little worse to me. Weiss and Yang are superior just in the fact that one of them isn't (totally validly) reminded of their abuser by the other, and one of them hasn't been discriminatory to the other.

But also you bring up their songs and like ??? I also have no idea how both of those songs are heralded as super romantic blake and yang exclusive amazing songs and proof of the ship's supremacy.

First off, we have the BMBLB song, which had pretty much nothing to do with Blake and Yang other than referencing bumblebees, which is what Yang and Blake's team attack is called. When you look at Boop, it's clearly about Nora's feelings for Ren, referencing having known him for a long time now, referencing Nora's weapon, using her 'queen of the castle' lines as inspiration, and making the whole thing about her booping Ren on the nose. That song is clearly about Nora and Ren and Nora's feelings for Ren. Shine, which isn't officially about Pyrrha, but seems to be about her, references "I've been watching you, helping you, wishing that you could see, that the girl you've been waiting so long for could be me." And "I think that you're the one who'll rescue me this time," and "When I needed a hero you knew it and you were there." Those are things which at least indicate that they're talking about Pyrrha, things that feel like they're referencing her dynamic with Jaune - the one who frequently rescues Jaune, pining after him while watching him go after Weiss - Most of which is echoed in Dream Come True. Even Not Fall in Love With You, which is really, really vague and easily read as not about Blake and Sun still is about pining after someone and wanting them to feel the same way, while being unable to hide your feelings, which is at least in line with the volume three interactions of Blake and Sun.

Why - what - When have Blake or Yang ever been in a garden? When have Yang and Blake ever had a secret relationship? Unless it was so freaking secret that it was a secret from Blake and the audience as well. Outside of initiation and their conversation about Raven, were Blake and Yang ever even alone together on screen? That's an honest question. And assuming this song is supposed to be from Yang's POV (since she's the only one who I can even see having had romantic feelings for the other prior to V6,) then why is she saying Blake chased away her darkness and gloom? Like yeah, Yang had darkness and gloom, but... Blake sure wasn't helping with that. And the release of the song as an addition to the volume four soundtrack, when Yang was in a depression, partially because Blake had left her with no explanation after her arm was cut off by Blake's abusive ex... And it's like, this boppy up beat love song... I one hundred percent buy that this was just some peppy love song that Jeff Williams made that wasn't actually about Blake and Yang (although I don't buy that MKEK had no idea the song would be read that way and were just so innocent in it and didn't intend to queerbait.)

Now let's talk about All That Matters, or as I like to call it Fans Dismissing Yang's Pain and Ignoring Her Struggles! People really heard a song about Yang's inner thoughts surrounding her abandonment issues and how Blake - intentionally or otherwise - played right into that and how Yang felt like she couldn't depend on Blake and how it was breaking her down and exhausting her but she was pushing it down just to be happy Blake was with her right at that moment... And the main take away was 'Yang really likes Blake.' I do get how this song is read as romantic, because it reads that way to me too, but I feel like the romantic undertones point to toxicity, and just make it harder for me to see this ship as good and stable and healthy. So if I'm supposed to see this song as canon or at the very least canon compliant, I'm meant to think that Yang in V5 was with Blake again and her thought process was "Whelp, here's the girl who ditches me and has proved that she doesn't seem to care about me as much as I care about her, who I can't fix but who doesn't even see the pain and struggle that I go through, but I'm just glad to see her now in this moment so even though I can't trust or count on her, she's still here now and that's good enough." And then... What, that completely vanishes by the end of V6 without Yang's feelings ever having been addressed and all of a sudden it's "Blake's never ever going to leave me and I know that and now I'm going to get super angry if anyone suggests we do anything apart because her independence doesn't matter and she should stay with me." Like, I don't understand how people don't get that both of those things are problematic. I actually think All That Matters is a very pretty song that's great for Yang even with all its unhealthy vibes, because I do think that's what she was doing - pushing down her own feelings to try to just be happy Blake was there in the moment even though she was hurting and demoralized and felt like she couldn't count on Blake to be there for her, especially because I think she clearly was putting more effort into her relationship with Blake than Blake was and could have had feelings for Blake when Blake didn't seem to reciprocate. But that should've been addressed in the show, it should've been part of the plot instead of being brushed aside! And seeing fans presenting that song as basically 'proof of feelings' without recognizing how it reflects on their relationship is just bonkers crazy. If the problems between Blake and Yang had gotten addressed and worked through, their relationship could be stronger.

I mean tbh I myself love the concept of Yang pining and then not winding up with Blake and instead winding up with Weiss, which could've been hinted at as a possibility in the earlier seasons, but if they were going to do Bumblebee, they should've done it better, and All That Matters and BMBLB are both songs that seem very misrepresented in this fandom in general. Man, making this post makes me want to listen to All That Matters for the first time in awhile for that sweet Yang angst, and writing this post also makes me want to work on my RWBY rewrite. If I ever get around to writing and publishing that thing, it'll for sure contain Yang pining after Blake, but then her and Weiss being end game.

#rwde #anti rwby #rwby hate #rwby criticism #canoncrit bumbleby #anti bmblb #anti bumbleby #anti bumblebee #anti bb #anti blake x yang #anti blake yang #anti yang x blake #freezerburn #weiss x yang #anti bees #I tagged this eight ways to sunday so #bees please have these tags filtered and please don't get mad

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bridgyrose · 2 years

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Since I've been seeing a lot of posts regarding Weiss and Whitley's actions in vol 8, I think the fandom is due for quite the talk regarding the Schneeblings and the fact that they're dynamic is... well... dysfunctional as far as a family goes.

This will be a long post, so all of this is going to go under the read more.

To start, the biggest complaint I usually see is the fact that Weiss did put a rapier to Whitley's face instead of talking to him. The biggest issue to that: Whitley wasnt exactly going to talk either for it. His immediate response to seeing Weiss and co show up was to ask why he should allow for fugitives to be in the manor. And frankly, while Weiss putting her rapier in his face wasnt the best option, it was the quickest to get Nora somewhere they could start caring for her. And honestly, the two are not as close as everyone would like to think they were.

Back in vol 7, Weiss tells her mother that Whitley never wanted anything to do with her. Which tracks from Vol 4 when he did seem to know more about what their father had planned than he let on, and the way he did torment her. And this may be going into some slight headcanons, but frankly, Jacques more than likely kept the Schneeblings apart as much as he could. Especially since in vol 4 it was noted that Whitley never liked Winter to begin with.

Now, a lot of that dislike between Weiss and Winter from Whitley very well can be from the fact that the two of them ended up leaving. But even then, I dont think that's the full reason. Especially since age wise, the schneeblings really arent all that close either. Weiss and Whitley are definitely the closest in age, somewhere between 4-6 years apart, probably closer to 5 years. And Weiss and Winter have a 5-7 year difference since Winter is graduated from Atlas, and is probably closer to 7 years all things considered. And while Weiss and Whitley are closer in age, everything seemed to have changed for Weiss at around 10 years old. Winter would've gone off to Atlas, she found out about her father only marrying into the family for the name, and that would've been around the time Weiss decided to be a huntress to try to fix her family name. And Whitley... Whitley would've been 5 years old when all of that went down. And with Weiss being the heiress to the SDC, her schooling and training, the singing she would've done... that would've kept the two apart quite a bit.

And that's not taking in all the physical and emotional abuse Jacques would've put the Schneeblings through. We know Jacques has no qualms about hitting Weiss and using her position as the heiress to the SDC to help manipulate her, it wouldnt surprise me if he did the same thing to Whitley. Maybe even fed him lies while training him with everything he was being taught about the SDC and how to run it. Which would add more fuel to the fire. Especially after Jacques was arrested in vol 7 since that would've been Whitley's last piece of comfort.

Another complaint I see is that a lot of people see Weiss as unreliable to Whitley, but... that brings up the question: what exactly is she supposed to do to make herself reliable? Because, frankly, there isnt anything she's done to make herself unreliable to him. She wasnt aware of the abuse or trauma he's been through until Willow gave her a slight hint as to why he's upset with her, she couldnt just take him away from Schnee manor because she's not in a position to just like Winter wasnt and still isnt in a place to take Weiss or Whitley away, and once Jacques was arrested and Mantle was under siege from the grimm, what exactly was she supposed to do? She still had a job to do to protect Mantle, sticking around for Whitley wasnt exactly on her to-do list all things considered that happened between them. And even if she did take him away at that point... where was she supposed to take him? With Mantle under siege and no where else really to go in Atlas, Whitley would've been worse off sticking to her side than staying in the manor at that time. And once things started kicking off in vol 8, between needing a place to be to check Nora over, not wanting to deal with aggression from her family (because, lets face it, Whitley would've had her arrested if he had his way at that point), and the fact that the rest of her friends needed some place to rest since getting off Atlas wasnt exactly something they could do right at the moment once Ironwood found out they were there... its understandable why she didnt want Whitley around and why he didnt want to deal with him and his attitude at the time, especially since at that point, he really was the last piece of Jacques' influence on the Schnee family remaining. Asking her to try to process everything Whitley is going through while she hadnt had time to process her own issues, the trauma and abuse she was put through along with everything going to shit with Ironwood, is honestly insane.

TL:DR: The shcneeblings just arent as close as everyone wants to believe and they're part of an extremely dysfunctional family that has no idea what healthy communication is between all the abuse, trauma, and the years of isolation they would've dealt with. As well, there's years of issues between the schneeblings that has built up to the point of any "right" way to solve a problem is just... not going to end up working the correct way without causing more problems. But that doesnt make Weiss abusive or unreliable to Whitley for doing what she found as the easiest and quickest way to get what she needed when the other options could potentially cause her more issues, such as getting arrested by Ironwood for daring to try to help save Mantle.

#just tired of all the hate on Weiss from vol 8 #seriously #the schneeblings arent as close as anyone would like to think even if those headcanons are prevalent #and then there's the issue that Whitley really is a spoiled teenage brat and acts like it #it still doesnt make what Weiss did right #but it makes it understandable once you piece everything together #there was no right way that was going to go correctly like everyone wants it to #vol 8 showed that the heroes had to takes risks #and one of Weiss's risks was the fact that Whitley was probably going to hate her more than he already did #but as well for her #it was her chance to stand up to the last bit of Jacques' influence #that did end up opening his eyes afterwards #and I think that's something else that people overlook is that it was important for Whitley to be the one to make the first move #to try to repair the relationship #because as much as people wanted Weiss to the first one #Whitley would never have accepted it #and would've needed to do things on his own terms first #which is why him calling for Klein to help Nora meant so much to Weiss #and why she was willing to start playing nicer to Whitley at that point #especially since it meant that she could finally see that he does want to be there for her #he just has his own issues that makes him think she doesnt care for him.

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skye-huntress · 3 years

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RWBY Panel 2021 Reaction

I figured why not. I was up at three in the morning to watch the panel just for even the smallest sneak peak or news of Volume 9 so I might as well throw out my reactions and thoughts into the void of the internet.

Let me start off with the biggest non-news, the lack of date for Volume 9. In the back of my mind, this was something I feared to expect. Between the pandemic, the blackouts, and probably a lot of other disrupting forces I am not aware about, it’s not reasonable to expect CRWBY to be at the same place with every upcoming volume every year. Similar for the Volume 8 Soundtrack, though for that I wasn’t expecting to hear any new updates on.

I am interested in the new game, Arrowfell, though I will admit that side-scrollers are not a style of game I’ve ever found compelling. It’s RWBY though, so of course I am going to check it out. They never said anything about what platforms it would be on though.

Now for the sneaky peak:

I’ll admit, that first half of it was intense. It really brought everything back, the anxiety, the near-panic, the anticipation of what would happen. It felt fresh seeing it from Ruby’s perspective.

Maybe seeing Yang’s fall happen in realtime will get people to lighten up on Ruby and realise that she couldn’t have really done anything, but I doubt it.

It is interesting to see how the edges of Ruby’s vision light up when she’s trying to call on her silver eye powers. I’d wager she experiences other sensations as well when its working and not just the sudden fatigue we see her go through after the fact.

So Neo is still attacking Ruby on sight despite the fact this path may have already sealed both their fates. I feel I should say this, I don’t think there is any reasoning with Neo. If she’s half as smart as she thinks she is, there’s no way she genuinely believes Ruby is responsible for Roman’s death. She went after Cinder first for a reason. She’s angry and in pain, and she needs someone a little easier to stab than a rogue maiden to take out her frustrations on. Ruby’s just a convenient scapegoat for Neo. One way or another, it will end this volume.

Oscar, Yang, Penny. These are all people Ruby has failed recently. Oscar was captured and tortured and Ruby didn’t even hear of it until afterwards. Yang took the blow meant for her and was the first to fall. Penny is the Maiden and it was Ruby’s job to protect her but now she is at Cinder’s mercy and that bitch doesn’t even have the word in her vocabulary. I feel this is the volume where Ruby has to confront her failures and increasing doubts about her leadership. We’ve been building up to it for a while

All alone and unarmed on a shore, in a strange place in another world. Nothing to do but keep moving forward.

At the very least, that she landed in the same realm we saw Crescent Rose suggests all or at least some of the Fallen have ended up in the same place.

Predictions

For Ruby, I think this will be a critical volume for her. All sorts of negativity has been building up with her for a while now and with her current situation, the fate of her friends, and when the news of Penny’s death inevitably reaches her, something is going to give. This might be a break from the plot but it is also a break for Ruby to reevaluate her leadership, her choices and how she’s been handling basically everything. How this changes her will likely determine the direction of the show and how the protagonists confront Salem going forward.

For Weiss, this could also be a big volume for her. For one, she’s gained and lost a lot this volume. Atlas, for all its faults which caused her to leave it twice, was her home, and now it is rubble and those of her people that survived are now refugees in a Kingdom they are not necessarily welcome. She confronted her father, and was working on her relationship with the rest of her family, but is now separated from them. She wasn’t as close with Penny as Ruby, but she lost her, too, and now her sister has the same target on her back and is probably doomed to suffer the same fate sooner or later. She also thought she lost her other family and it will be bittersweet to find herself stranded with them if when she can find them again. It’s been a rollercoaster for her.

While on this note, I think we are due for a heart-to-heart between Ruby and Weiss. Ruby recently had a talk with both Blake and Yang about her leadership, but I think Weiss has the best chance of actually reaching her. After all, Weiss was the first one to openly express doubts about Ruby being a leader, and it was also a position she once coveted for herself. Weiss is the sceptic turned believer, and she’s not afraid to call things as they are, so I think she is and always was the best one to talk to Ruby about this, which is why I think they never had this conversation before. Now that Ruby is in this critical stage, of course this is the perfect time for her once reluctant and now devoted partner to put in her two cents.

Since everything went down with Adam and her relationship with Yang improved, I haven’t been quite sure where Blake’s character arc will go from there. When Yang fell, she nearly completely lost and it clouded her judgment. After her talk with Nora, I wonder if Blake herself needs to reevaluate if perhaps there are parts about her own life and wellbeing that she has neglected since she and Yang have gotten closer. Perhaps it’s a time for her to reevaluate her priorities, which doesn’t necessarily mean distancing herself from Yang but it could still mean she puts more effort into herself and her other relationships, especially with Ruby, Weiss and Jaune.

Yang was the first to fall and everything went to shit after the fact. She stopped a sneak attack on Ruby but she couldn’t stop Neo or Cinder, and she was not there for her team or Penny. That moment is probably also too familiar to what happened with Adam at Beacon for Yang’s comfort, not that I think there was anything she could do better in either situation besides simply being faster. I don’t know what Yang’s response to everything will be, what effect this will have on her. Plus I can’t forget that she’s probably suffering a concussion right now.

As for the Bees, despite all they’ve been through and even with the split that happened last volume, they were still closer than ever. There’s a mutual respect there for each other’s decisions. If one is going through something, the other will be there to talk them through it or even simply be a shoulder to cry on. If this is a situation that they’ll be stuck on for the foreseeable future, at least they have each other and there are worse places they could be stranded in. Despite everything that happened or maybe even because of it, it might seem the perfect setting and timing for some confessions and more.

Now to Jaune. He certainly hasn’t had it easy. From the start, he was the furthest behind among his peers, and now he’s been licensed earlier than most of them. Pyrrha helped him a lot with that, and was the first to believe in him and she was taken from him, and it seems he came to terms with that since Argus. He didn’t let his grief blind him and he stayed on task with the evacuation, and he wasn’t reckless when he did confront Cinder. He did everything right, but it wasn’t enough to save Penny and in the end he had little choice but to respect her dying wish. It had to be done, I don’t blame him for being put in that position, but it’s still got to hurt. It’s also so appropriate that his weapon, one of his most important tools as a Huntsman, was broken after spilling innocent blood, almost like a punishment(?) for his “betrayal” to what a Huntsman is suppose to be. He’s going to carry this until the day he dies, and now he has to face his friends, especially his best friend whom was the closest of all of them to Penny.

Finally Neo. Like I said, I don’t think she can be reasoned with. She abandoned any sort of rationale a long time ago, and it will take more than words to shake her out of it, if it’s even possible anymore. I doubt there will be a peaceful solution to this conflict, it feels too similar to what went down with Adam towards his end. He also refused to back down, he too insisted on making Blake his scapegoat, and despite being given every chance to walk away, he persisted until his death. Time will tell if Neo can avoid that fate, but my doubts about that have only strengthened since the sneak peak.

As for Oscar and the others, I already had my doubts about whether we’d see them at all. The way CRWBY talked about this volume, it seems clear that this is our break from the main narrative so I doubt we will be seeing much of Vacuo yet. I am more than okay with that, it’d be good to take a break from the main plot and focus and our main girls again and we’ll get more of that with a significantly reduced cast.

#rwby #rwby8 #rwby8 spoilers #rwby9 #rwby9 spoilers

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itsclydebitches · 3 years

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Rewatching RWBY there's this chilling lack of empathy through the volumes that I used to just wave off. Yang has no empathy for Tai, Blake is just entirely about what Blake needs, Weiss almost kills a woman at a party and her takeaway is 'my dad is mean so I'm going to run away'. Qrow sinks hard into depression in vol. 6 and Ruby's reaction is to yell she's never needed him. No one has EVER helped a civilian. It's so prevelant. Knowing how 7&8 go really changes the earlier writing.

I think there was a great deal of well-written empathy in the early volumes — after all, this cast was designed as the kind, well-meaning heroes — but that care was expressed almost solely within the group itself. Ruby sits by Jaune in the hallway and says "Nope!" to his self doubt. Weiss offers Ruby a hand up after she fails to kill the death stalker. Yang seeks out Blake and gets her to open up about what's bothering her. Now, I want to emphasize that there's nothing inherently wrong with this. It actually makes perfect sense. These are our main characters and they're written as peers co-habiting the same space. Of course whatever emotional growth we get, which automatically includes moments of compassion, would be directed towards each other. Similarly, the dynamics originally introduced — that of teachers and parents — likewise (rightly) puts the burden on the adults to provide the comfort, not the other way around. Port snaps Weiss out of her arrogant mindset. Ozpin reassures Ruby about her leadership worries. Tai is there to support his daughter when she's recovering from a lost limb. That's the natural order of things, so to speak.

The problem, to my mind, begins to occur when the group exits those dynamics. They're no longer students, they're licensed huntsmen. They're no longer kids, but equals who never needed adults in the first place. They're no longer doing things for themselves and their friends on personal downtime, they're doing them for the community at large as a profession (to say nothing of the world-altering war they've insisted on shouldering responsibility for). That's what a huntsmen is meant to be, a defender of the people, not someone who uses that power for personal interests alone. All of this is a huge change from where we started out: cutesy kids going off on comparatively low-stakes adventures because one or more of their teammates are invested, only just beginning to realize that they're signing up for a job where their desires come second (that fireside conversation at Mountain Glenn).

This change invites — demands, really — that the audience read them differently too. Qrow's spiral in Volume 6 is a good example of this. If Ruby is demanding to be treated not just as an equal in terms of maturity and experience, but also as the primary leader of this group, then the viewer expects her to treat her uncle as an equal too, not dismiss his hardship. I've seen numerous fans defend that arc with some version of, "He's her uncle. He's supposed to take care of her. He's failing" but that, according to the show, is no longer the dynamic. Qrow is now just a member of Ruby's team, someone she's responsible for as their leader. It's easiest to see the problem if we switch out Qrow for any of the other members. If Blake developed a drinking problem, do we think Ruby would just shout at her until she magically got over it? If Jaune endangered the group, do we think they'd all be angry about it, rather than trying to figure out the source of what caused the mistake? We don't even need to think hypothetically for that one because we saw it on screen. Jaune attacked Oscar and drove him off, not just threatening him, but arguably endangering the whole team by requiring a search party. Fans have long insisted they had to steal that airship right then because being in Argus was too much of a risk, but if we buy that reading (which I personally don't, but), then that means Jaune made things exponentially worse by forcing them out into that super dangerous city, rather than allowing everyone to stay hidden inside. He made a massive mistake which, according to the logic of Qrow's arc, should be met with frustration, disdain, and eventual demands to get over his anger at Ozpin or ship out. But, of course, he received nothing but concern. Yang was worried about him, not Oscar. The search becomes about his grief for Pyrrha and his team's willingness (as well as Pyrrha's family member) to provide more comfort. Suddenly, the tendency to express care solely towards those within the group becomes a flaw the story won't acknowledge.

And then it spirals. The thing to remember is that no single act here is bad on its own, especially when we consider that yes, we want flawed characters. Rather, it's about the pattern. Ruby is allowed to get mad at Qrow for his behavior and chuck her scroll in frustration. She's human. I'd be crazy frustrated too. However, if Ruby is meant to be written as a caring, sympathetic character, she should not only respond to the situation with frustration, yelling, a refusal to listen, and demands that he follow her lead, no questions asked. We can, and should, acknowledge that Weiss was the victim during that party. Her father was hurting her, the woman was beyond insensitive, Weiss was triggered in regards to a horrific event, and her power acted on its own. However, if we want to write Weiss as a compassionate, mature huntress to-be, she should acknowledge that she nearly killed someone — even an asshole someone — and vow to work on her control because she's not willing to put someone in danger like that ever again. Both of these moments have a "They could have been handled better" response attached to them — the former more-so than the latter imo — but these moments are made far, far worse due to later events in the show, events where the characters are cruel without any justification attached. Weiss didn't mean to attack that woman, but she did mean to ignore Whitely and threaten him with her weapon. So once we see that, it informs our understanding of what came before it. "Oh. The fact that Weiss never reacted to nearly killing someone isn't just a bit of missed potential, it's an early indicator that she... doesn't seem to care. If she endangers people, threatens people... that's fine with her." The group has a right to be frustrated with Qrow. The group did not have the right to magically steal Ozpin's entire life story, assault him, and blame him for the world's problems until he felt his only course of action was to run from them. So when we see that it becomes, "Oh. The fact that the group treated Qrow so poorly isn't just a one-time mistake born of a stressful situation and young adults being out of their depth in regards to alcoholism. They really will just abandon anyone the moment they start making mistakes." Anyone outside of their group, that is.

To say nothing of how all of these moments interconnect. Yang's recovery isn't just about getting used to not having an arm, it's about getting used to having a new one. Weiss' party isn't just about nearly killing someone, it's about not committing manslaughter because someone else stepped in. The Volume 6 arc isn't just about trying to escape with the Relic, it's about trying to get it somewhere safe. Fans frustrated with Ironwood's treatment don't harp on these details out of some desperate attempt to make him look good post-murder spree, rather, they recognize that he's a character that's been around since nearly the beginning, originally written as a good guy, and thus has accumulated a number of key connections with the cast. So when none of those connections are acknowledged during an arc about trust... that makes the group look very uncaring. Yang doesn't care that he gave her the arm, Weiss doesn't care that he saved her from hurting/potentially killing someone, Qrow doesn't care that he's trusted Ironwood for years (in a rival-bros way) and that they've been heading towards him this whole time. And when Ironwood begins to spiral, they don't do anything to try and help him, let alone acknowledge that their own choices, that lack of trust and empathy, had a hand in getting them here. "But it's not their responsibility to fix him!" Isn't it? Even a little? Just as human beings seeing an ally struggling under horrific decisions and circumstances? Sure, they don't have to try... but that doesn't make them look very heroic to my mind. And we can't even shrug that off by simplifying things with, "Well, Ironwood is evil now so who cares about him." They simultaneously don't care about finding Qrow who is missing, then captured. They don't do anything to try and find their missing teammates, with the exception of sending May to do it instead. They don't help the army fight off the grimm. Don't try to make sure Pietro and Maria had portals to escape through. Barely hesitate when the newly resurrected characters goes, "Kill me. That's the easiest thing for everyone." And these are just a few of the big ticket moments. It doesn't even begin to cover all the details we get that paint a picture of, "Wow okay. They just really don't care about people outside the group, huh? I mean, they say they do, in a life-or-death way, but they're not putting forth effort to show it on a daily basis."

And if you pick up on all that, if you acknowledge how much the group has changed based on where they started out, you might wonder when in the world that started. Surely we didn't just flip a switch around Volume 6. So you re-watch early stuff and, sure enough, there are moments that feel like setup for what's to come later. Not intentional setup (quite obviously), but a lack of care towards details across the series that, once the dynamic changed, became far, far more pronounced. Characters should be at least somewhat recognizable from start to finish, especially characters who have only experienced about two years of in-world time, so if we now get to see Ruby blandly commenting on all the people who are dying, or Weiss using her weapon as a means of coercing her little brother into doing what she wants, or Yang and Jaune dismissing Ren until he gives in to their point of view... we're going to look for the beginnings of that behavior early on. As you say, we were able to wave all those little details off due to a number of important factors. Now though? Now they feel like they hold a lot more weight, simply by virtue of that early material proceeding what we have now.

#rwby #rwde #mymetas

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theseerasures · 3 years

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For the meta thing, how about big sisters with absent mothers: Winter and Yang? Like, how they dealt with things differently and what a friendship between them would look like

anon i just want you to know that as soon as received this ask i barged into my girlfriend’s room to be like “is this you???” because this ask is so EXQUISITELY tailored to my personal interests that i was like “literally who else would cater to me like this” and it was not her, apparently!!! so thank you very much for this ask.

of course i have SO MANY thoughts about this topic that it took me a complete month to marshal them into something faintly coherent, if staggeringly long, so. i hope it’s worth the wait.

S(chnee)-side: how to lose brothers and alienate sisters

let’s start from some well-trodden ground: the season 5 character shorts, and their subsequent caricaturization via Chibi, which posit the Yang vs. Winter dichotomy as something like “Yang loves Ruby by diving into a monster’s mouth for her, and telling her she always has her back, and Winter does the same for Weiss by...siccing monsters on her, and telling her that she won’t always be around to save her from them.” much hay has already been made about the reasons why the two of them would act in the ways they did, so for the purposes of my own meta i’m going to skip over those, and concentrate on how content since season 5 has updated these conceptions.

and on Winter’s end of things, these conceptions have been updated by showing that she’s, uh.

...full of shit.

we’ve now had TWO instances of Winter going above and beyond to protect someone vulnerable. the first time was for Penny, with whom she has a sisterly bond, and the second time was for Ren, with whom she has...exchanged a few lines of dialogue. if she’s so ready and willing to hurl herself bodily into the path of an aggressor for someone who is basically a stranger, then why all the pageantry with Weiss about how she can’t (or won’t) save her? did she carve some kind of blood relative exemption into her saving people thing? does it only apply to people who wear a lot of green?¹

to properly address this question--and to bring in the Willow of it all--i think we should step back and ask: how does Winter actually feel about the Schnee name?

not Jacques’ name, mind. nor anything he did to besmirch it. Willow’s name, and Winter’s birthright.

because what has always been interesting to me is that while Weiss has talked about reclaiming or rehabilitating the Schnee name from their father’s meddling and still clearly wants to reconcile herself with it, even after being disinherited, Winter has only ever talked about distancing. it’s entirely possible that she had similar aspirations when she was around Weiss’ age and was just more thoroughly disabused of them, but my point stands: Winter shows a discomfort with the Schnee name overall in a way that Weiss has yet to. you don’t have to look any further than Winter’s combat style to see how this discomfort is telegraphed, as she barely uses any Dust, or Glyphs, and the one aspect of her Semblance that she does use and tout are Summons, which just so happens to be the part that emphasizes her own individual ability to conquer foes. something about the Schnee name feels irreconcilably tainted for Winter,² and while i’m sure a large part of it has to do with her father, who can make her explode into emotion confetti by just being in the same room as her for thirty seconds, a not-insignificant part can probably be chalked up to the fact that...

Willow Schnee was probably never all that good a mother.

granted: we’ve have exactly one scene (two if you count the 8.2 sneak peek) with her, so i’m fully ready to be called Boo Boo the Fool if we get a flashback and Willow was some kind of crusading super-mom prior to her descent into alcoholism, but. the idea that she hasn’t ALWAYS had to compromise herself and her children just to get by feels facile. this is not to victim blame, but to say that Willow is an imperfect person (in that she is. a person) placed into a horrific situation, which means that she could not always deal with the situation perfectly. it’s important to remember her agency--both before and after she became an alcoholic--but it’s just as important not to idealize it into something it’s not. Willow was by no means a co-abuser to her children, but she was probably always inconsistent, because living with your abuser for years on end does that to you. personally, i’ve always envisioned pre-alcoholism Willow as...well-meaning and much more perceptive and intelligent than people give her credit for, but beset with her own flaws that grew in proportion to her hurt and bitterness. she was capable of shielding her children from her husband’s worst excesses, and often did; but she was just as capable of retreating when she might have fought, of excusing Jacques’ actions to try to keep the peace, even of lashing out at those who shouldn’t have to handle her negative emotions.

her descent into alcoholism exacerbated these tendencies, but Willow has always been a complicated woman, and the idea that there was a prelapsarian time when Willow was an unmitigated good, before...idk, her Good battery ran out and she became Drunk Victim Non-Mom, is...well, it’s definitely something that a ten-year-old who had an ENORMOUSLY traumatic birthday would believe (and blame herself for), but Winter might disagree. i don’t think her view would be any more objective, if only because the day Winter Schnee has an un-myopic thought is the day i pass gracefully into the West, but her view is probably more complicated and less flattering, because Winter knew her mother more as a person, and that’s something we’re gonna talk about more with Yang and Ruby, later.

the point i want to make now, with Winter, is that her determined inconstancy, where she’ll readily jump into the jaws of a monster for her siblings in one breath and berate them and caution them against needing her in the next--that comes from her experience with Willow. the lesson she wants her siblings to learn is not just “the people who are supposed to love you are cruel, so get a helmet,” but “the people who are supposed to love you disappoint you, which is worse, so it’s better to not rely on them at all.”³ better for them to learn it from her than firsthand, but also--better for herself, because when she does disappoint them (and she did. she left.) at least she can take comfort in the fact that surely it doesn’t hurt as much; she warned them, after all.

in Winter’s mind, this kind of disappointment is an inevitability, so what’s paramount is to make sure that when it does happen her siblings are at least prepared for it. in the face of that the fact that she would actually risk life and limb to help them if they ever need it falls to the wayside; i don’t think it was a mindful decision that Winter consciously made--like, i don’t think she ever thought “i’m going to withhold the fact that i would die for them because that would contradict the whole social Darwinism thing i’m trying to drill into their heads,” because Winter’s just...not that kind of deliberate rational actor, in any arena. rather--and maybe even more damning--i think she just assumes that Weiss and Whitley already KNOW, that it’s a given for them the sacrifices she’d make for them in the same way it’s a given for her. but they don’t! because you have to say these things, and Winter has been force-feeding them the precise opposite.

ultimately all of these contradictory impulses stem from Winter’s deep-seated need for control--both of herself, and of the environments around her, and those in turn come from the fact that she was a) repeatedly wounded as a child and b) had to shoulder responsibilities far beyond her own ability as that same child, which...continues to this day. from this perspective, what matters is less keeping her siblings safe, and more her own ability to save them. she knows that’s imperfect, so she compensates by enforcing what worked for her onto them, and also by keeping them away from anything that could harm them, without their input. i never thought much of the contrast in environments for the character shorts--like of course Weiss would spar with Winter’s Summons at home like the untested shut-in she was--but what did take me aback was that in season 7, after Weiss has waltzed across an entire continent and been promoted to a full Huntress, Winter...still exclusively trains Weiss with her Summons up in Atlas, while Ruby and Yang are traipsing across Mantle killing ACTUAL Grimm. i have no doubt that this was for foreshadowing reasons, but still: it points to the fact that for all Winter loves Weiss and would fight giant monsters for her, there’s a part of her that...doesn’t trust Weiss, and wants to maintain control over her.⁴

this, i think, is part of the reason why Whitley treats her basically like an un-person: it’s not just that she left when he was too young and Jacques filled in all the gaps with lies and slander, it’s also that even when Winter was around the bigger age gap made it much easier for her to reconcile keeping him out of the loop, for his own good. she can’t ever be vulnerable around either of her siblings, but especially not Whitley, because he’s too young; he might let something slip when they’re around Jacques, and she shouldn’t be putting that kind of burden on him anyway. if he resents her when she’s just trying to protect him--except you said that you wouldn’t, Winter you absolute moron--then that’s his prerogative. it doesn’t change her own responsibilities. they can be miserable and Byronic in their own separate cubby holes and it’s fine.

(it’s not fine.)

R(ose)⁵-side: tonight, the role of Replacement Goldfish will be played by...everyone

let’s get one thing out of the way: Yang is a GOOD big sister, and some of the ways that she is good can be chalked up to the fact that she had a better home life, but only some. her character short ends with her promising Ruby that she’ll always have her back after spending the short proving it, and she has--until recently, and we’ll get to that--lived up to it. people get caught up on how much time Yang spends with Blake nowadays, but it’s important to remember that the entire impetus for Yang reuniting with anyone during the Mistral arc was about Ruby. so is the thing that separates a Yang from a Winter is that a Yang preaches what she practices, and isn’t firing a million zillion mixed signals at all times?

well--yeah, basically, but we’re gonna make a big thing out of it anyway.

what made Yang and Ruby different from the Schnees--even before the character shorts--was a sense of parity. in contrast to Winter insisting on maintaining a) the most unapproachable facade in the world, and b) a death-grip on every situation at all times, Yang was characterized from the outset as...chill (ironically). despite her Semblance being LITERALLY hotheadedness, Yang’s passionate energy never manifested in any real desire to take charge. the fact that she was fine (even happy!) with Ruby being bumped up to her year and then becoming leader speaks volumes to how much Yang trusts and respects Ruby’s judgement. rather than try to mask her flaws, she exudes this kind of...radiant fallibility and lets Ruby take care of her, or keep her in line. they complement each other: Yang takes care of more grounded concerns like individual fights and making friends, while Ruby--again, until recently--set more abstract goals and gave them moral direction.

a lot of this can be attributed to the smaller age gap, but i think it also comes from growing up as two motherless free-range children on an island--and the motherlessness is obviously a huge deal for both of them. when i started writing this i honestly thought i’d talk more about Raven, since she’s the mom who’s actually a character already, and her absence plays a huge role in how Yang deals with her abandonment issues in the present, but to be honest: the loss that cut the deepest for Ruby AND Yang is Summer, because Summer was actually around enough to be lost. despite the show frequently dividing custody of Team STRQ right down the middle between Ruby and Yang, where Ruby “gets” Summer and Qrow and Yang “gets” Tai and Raven, it’s the admixture of Rose and Branwen that makes the two of them who they are.⁶ Yang spent more time with Summer, but Ruby spends more time with Qrow, who is Yang’s blood uncle, so the dichotomy between nature and nurture is fascinatingly blurred.

i know this is an unpopular opinion, but i hope Summer really is dead, because the ways that her daughters interpellate their own identities from her absence drives so much of the story. that SUMMER was the first mother Yang lost--not Raven, because Yang didn’t even know about Raven until Summer died--is what shapes her relationship with Ruby, but also her relationship with Raven. what’s always simmering just below the surface of any Yang-Raven confrontation is that the person Yang actually wanted to find the whole time she was looking for Raven was Summer, because she wanted a mom, and a mom looked like Summer. Raven’s not stupid--it might be her one redeeming quality--so it’s likely that she’s always known and resented this. it’s not an accident that the moment Yang stopped looking for Raven for Raven and started looking for her for an easy conduit to her real family was the moment she actually found Raven.⁷ it was the first step to Yang outgrowing her old habits, of waiting for a mother to return--a classic “she needed a hero so that’s what she hurdy blah”

in a way that’s what she’s been doing this whole time. in contrast to Winter, who compensated for her mother’s flaws by ratifying them into universal law, Yang did the same by defying their supposed truth: people might leave her, but she won’t leave Ruby, and Ruby won’t leave her. it’s telling that whenever Yang leaves--even as a literal child--she always took Ruby with her, even if she planned on coming back. (it’s just as telling that when Winter left she didn’t.) she’ll always be there for Ruby, to give her the boost she needs to become the Summer they all want her to be, which means being a little of Summer herself--the part of Summer that baked cookies and slew monsters. and in return Ruby gave her...a sense of certainty, i think: that Ruby needs her and therefore won’t leave, but also that Ruby has the parts of Summer that Yang can’t muster herself--the grand heroic ideal, the moral certitude, etc.

...and now we’re finally gonna talk about the Schism, which i honestly think is the best thing that has happened to their relationship, development-wise. by the end of the Mistral arc Yang has arrived at a healthier perspective with respect to her relationships with everyone: now it’s not about indiscriminately giving herself away to people in the hopes that they might not leave her, but about choosing to give herself away to the people she loves and trusts. on one level this should not conflict with her relationship with Ruby at all, because Yang loves Ruby, but on another...the fact that Yang no longer feels obligated to perform unending support, to be the grounded complement, to fill in the parts of Summer that Ruby can’t--of COURSE that’s going to bring about conflict. because it turns out Yang never needed Ruby to give her direction or discipline. she’s now had time to think of the things she herself values, and those...don’t exactly match up with Ruby’s--or Summer’s.⁸ Yang, having known Summer as a mother, having been confronted repeatedly with the fallibility of mothers, is starting to outgrow Summer, and grow separately from Ruby.

but growing separately doesn’t have to mean growing apart, and i think Yang, at least, knows this. she clearly feels Some Kinda Way about their disagreement (and Blake’s implicit alignment with Ruby), but she’s also confident enough in her own beliefs by this point to commit to them. Yang’s taking charge instead of deferring to Ruby, and it turns out that...she’s actually not a bad leader herself, since she and Jaune have pretty much split a lot of those responsibilities. for her it’s not a question of losing faith or love in Ruby as a person, but about discovering what she herself fights for.

Ruby...sees it differently, because Ruby sees Summer differently. if Yang has always defined herself against Summer by deciding that she can NEVER fully be Summer, so she’ll make do with what she can, then Ruby’s always defined herself against Summer by marking Summer as the endpoint of her personal trajectory. what Ruby knows of Summer--that she was a person who enjoyed life and did not believe in original sin, that had a magical special destiny that was totally fine and awesome and didn’t drive her to her death, that she was a baker of cookies and slayer of monsters--is what Tai and Qrow--and Yang--told her about Summer, because Ruby was too young to remember the real Summer. so Summer for her is this abstract paragon to live up to, and no more. she can’t possibly exceed Summer, because the Summer Ruby knows encompasses literally all that is good.

when Yang tells Ruby “i’ve always got your back” in the short, a lot of it is about Yang, and the ways Yang needed to be there for other people so they’ll be there for her in return. but it’s also something Ruby really needed to hear, because Ruby needed the security and comfort of knowing that even if she screws up there are people around her who can help shoulder the burden. that security already took a serious hit after Yang lost her arm, but Ruby, kind and generous person that she is, was able to reconcile with that, because YANG HAD JUST LOST HER ARM. it would be ridiculous to expect Yang to have her back the way she used to, and besides--it was time she grew up, and growing up means becoming more like Summer, all of Summer, by herself.

and...she gets pretty far, is the thing, because Ruby IS a lot like Summer, and is incredible and amazing all by herself to boot, but the point is that no one should feel this much pressure to be All That Is Good, especially when you’re a teen. Ruby’s not ready to recognize that, partly because at this point so many people are looking to her for leadership, but also because being Summer’s heir is the only real link she has to her mom.⁹ so she hunkers down and does the best she can, in a situation that has far spiraled beyond anybody’s control...and then Yang tells her that it’s not working out, that this time it’s not that she can’t have Ruby’s back, but that she won’t. in Ruby’s mind, this could only mean one of two things: either Yang no longer believes what Ruby believes--what Summer believed, or...Yang no longer believes in Ruby, because she wasn’t good enough.

and well. it’s Ruby. it’s not hard to guess which reason she’s picking right now, especially since she pretty conspicuously refused to call the shots during the Amity heist.

but this is of course a false dichotomy. it’s not about which one of them is right, or even more right, and the show does a very good job with the framing to show that both of them have a point. similarly, what Ruby needs right now is neither confirmation that her long-held beliefs are objectively the best ones, nor that she is good enough to become Summer after all. no; what she needs instead is the knowledge that she’s allowed to fuck up, to deviate from what people have told her about Summer, to become what Summer never was. that’s something Yang can--and will--help her work out.

oh no this analogy is breaking apart: how they’d get along

...oi.

look, even beyond the fact that Winter doesn’t get along with ANYONE over much, i don’t think there’s any universe where she wouldn’t immediately rub Yang the wrong way. not only because Winter’d initially treat Ruby with the same cold tyranny that she (up until very recently) treats Weiss, but also because Yang’s partner is Blake, and--to say nothing of Atlas/Schnee-on-Faunus oppression--she was personally made collateral during the fallout with Blake’s abuser.¹⁰ i myself wouldn’t say that Winter abused Weiss, but to Yang’s protective and skewed view...

well, can you imagine Weiss trying to explain the way Winter ~~~trained her to the Bees? “oh, she sent a pack of Beowolves to hunt me! it was a meant-to-lose fight and when i started doing well she just moved the goalposts. one of her wolves almost ate me before i begged her to stop but it...probably...wouldn’t have...it was fine! my Aura didn’t dip THAT much. Winter’s the best!!” Yang’s hair would have been on fire after the first sentence, is all i’m saying. this coupled with the fact that Yang would very likely view Winter leaving Weiss and Whitley through the lens of Raven doing the same thing to her, and i think it would take a pretty long time for the two of them to see eye to eye on anything.

which is not to say that they have nowhere to go but antagonism, because at their cores Winter and Yang both have a) no hesitation whatsoever when it comes to protecting the people they care about and b) a tendency to define protection literally, often bodily. the difference is that Yang’s Semblance weaponizes these protective instincts for her, and she learned the limits of taking that too far. Winter...doesn’t, and hasn’t.¹¹ that COULD lead to some interesting conversations, but i don’t think Yang has quite the emotional clarity and generosity to reckon with that yet, and they’re not about to talk about it inside the Giant Whale.

a necessary part of Winter’s development is learning to respect the people around her instead of instantly categorizing them into boxes labeled “to fight” and “to protect and order around.” her friction with Yang could be an intriguing way to explore that; i have no doubt, for example, that Winter would have hurled herself between Elm and Yang just as readily as she had between Elm and Ren. similarly, i think if Winter ever were in the same room with both Raven and Yang she’d last about ten seconds before trying to rip Raven’s hair out with her teeth, because Raven is neglectful and casually demeaning in ways that are instantly recognizable to Winter (in the same way they were to Weiss).¹² the issue is that her doing any of these things for Yang--y’know, the same Yang who IMMEDIATELY gave Blake the cold shoulder when she tried to pull the whole “i’ll protect you” crap--is that she would only find it confusing and frustrating, and likely wouldn’t mince words expressing that.

Yang’s a big sister herself, and therefore knows all the big sister tricks, and Yang has a consistent pattern of not wanting to rely on other people, particularly people she sees as adults. so the best path toward a Winter and Yang friendship is probably not the head-on approach, but obliquely through someone else. that someone else can’t be Weiss, because Yang would be already hypervigilant about the way Winter treats Weiss--but it could be Ruby. even putting aside the fact that she is now one of the most important people in the world for BOTH her sisters, Ruby herself is very easy to love, and Winter loves very easily, despite herself. what they have in common--idealism and a martyr complex--would also engender some cool interactions, and Ruby would let Winter take care of her, if only to make Winter feel better.

i could see that being the impetus for Yang tentatively, grudgingly forming her own friendship with Winter, because there ARE things that Winter can give Yang, even if Yang can’t (or won’t) admit she wants them. it’s nice to try out being the kid sister, once in a while.

still, even if they get that far: i can’t imagine their relationship as anything friendlier than this.

¹ tbh neither would actually surprise me; what Winter does and doesn’t let herself do is only knowable to the Gods Who Have Forsaken This Land, and they’re certainly unknowable to Winter herself.

² maybe she knows that the whole “the Schnees were up-from-bootstraps-good-capitalists until that guy Jacques came along” thing is stupid!! i don’t care that he’s Santa Nicholas Schnee ain’t shit

³ this i think is why the current thing with Ironwood is such a bitter pill to swallow, because...she thought she’d been so careful. not in thinking that she’d chosen a man who couldn’t disappoint her, but in caring so deeply about him and investing so much of herself into him, despite the fact she’s only ever let herself call him “sir,” or “General.”

⁴ though i will say, to give Winter some credit: she actually accepts the fact that her sister is totally her own person now with a lot more aplomb than i’d expected, both in the “you stole an airship” scene and during all of Sparks. i wouldn’t be so generous as to read subtle treason into her disclosure of Ironwood’s Winter Maiden plans, but it does point to Winter’s desire for control being much more easily unlearned than that of her boss.

⁵ geddit? it’s a joke about handed-ness because now they both have the Hand Tremor

⁶ Tai is, as always and on purpose, the stabilizing agent. “appropriately underwhelming,” as Winter might put it, but absolutely essential.

⁷ of course then Raven had the gall to resent THAT too, because she’s the worst, and...see above, about Winter Schnee’s self-unknowing.

⁸ curiously, the values that Yang most espouses now--the importance of knowing what you’re getting into, protecting what is tangible, what is within your ability--are a) hard-won from years of taking care of Ruby and b) ones that she shares with Raven. the only difference is that Yang’s circle of protection extends far beyond Raven’s, which only includes herself.

⁹ weirdly enough the best person to talk to Ruby about this might be Raven, who has a very skewed perception of Summer herself (because Raven’s perception of EVERYONE is generally fucked up), but probably won’t hold back when talking about Summer’s flaws. Ruby won’t want to hear any of it, but i think she needs to.

¹⁰ i do think Blake and Winter would have some interesting conversations, if Blake ever...was generous enough to deal with *gestures at all of Winter.* it’s easier to compare Blake to Willow given the shared nature of their interpersonal abuse, but Winter on the other hand knows what it’s like to be hand-picked and groomed by a charismatic man with a singular vision who ended up wholly compromising that vision for the sake of their personal ego. that the White Fang are a good force perverted while the Atlesian Military is rotten to the core would...make the conversation more lively? it’s probably fine?

¹¹ “i’m Winter Schnee and i have maladaptive coping mechanisms that i am currently clinging to, as a maladaptive coping mechanism”

¹² though there...probably IS a world where Raven and Winter end up getting along after the initial skirmish, and it disturbs Yang and Qrow to no end

#Anonymous #yang xiao long #winter schnee #rwby #tl;dr they both play vanguard when they play mass effect #helen writes meta

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jammatown919 · 3 years

Text

Ginger Locks

For @amozon28, who requested a Nuts n Dolts hair brushing fic. Requests are still open!

Penny had never been the type of girl that took forever to get ready for a date. In fact, she was always the one waiting for ten minutes while Ruby tried to get her eyeliner just right. This considered, Ruby didn't mind waiting a couple hours while Penny took care of a last minute mission she'd been assigned, nor did she mind waiting an extra five minutes for Penny to brush her hair once she'd returned.

When five minutes turned into twenty, she began to mind just a little. When twenty became thirty five, she felt the need to say something.

"Hey, Penny?" Ruby called in the direction of the bathroom door. "Are you still brushing your hair?" Penny's hair had admittedly looked a little rough, but it certainly hadn't been bad enough to warrant half an hour of brushing.

"I don't know what I'm doing wrong." Penny called back miserably.

"What?" Ruby sat up in her bunk, discarding the comic she'd been reading to pass the time. "Are you okay?"

"I made it worse." Penny replied, sounding dangerously close to tears.

"I'm sure it's not that bad." Ruby slid down from her bunk and crossed the dorm to stand outside the bathroom door. "Why don't you come out and let me see?"

"Do you promise that you will not laugh at me?" Penny asked meekly.

"Of course." Ruby promised. "Why would I laugh at you?"

Instead of answering, Penny slowly opened the door, and Ruby damn near broke her promise right then and there. Somehow, what had once been a ruffled and slightly tangled mane had turned into a frizzy, puffed out mess, into which Penny's massive curls had completely disappeared.

"Oh, Penny..." She said sympathetically, wondering how in the world her girlfriend had even managed to do that to herself. "Do you want me to comb through that for you?"

Penny hesitated, not unlike a small child determined to do something independently, before slowly nodding. Ruby took her hands and gently led her over to Weiss's bunk so they could sit without having to climb.

"I'm sorry to make you do this." Penny murmured as Ruby turned to her team's shared dresser and began searching for Weiss's dry conditioner. "Usually my father helps me to do my hair, and I suppose I just never learned how to do it on my own."

"Hey, it's okay." Ruby replied gently. She spotted the bottle and snatched it up, along with Weiss's comb. "I know long hair can be a pain to manage, and those curls are definitely not a one person job. Seriously, how do you even get them to stay like that?"

"Bobby pins." Penny offered. "And hairspray."

"Well, I'm not sure how much help I'll be with that," Ruby said as she took a seat beside Penny. "But I can at least deal with the tangles and frizz. Turn around for me?"

Penny quietly obliged, turning her back toward Ruby and pulling her legs up onto the bed. Ruby pulled the cap off the bottle of conditioner and pumped some of its contents into her hand so she could begin gently massaging it into Penny's hair.

"This stuff will make your hair really silky." Ruby promised, smiling slightly as Penny leaned into her touch. "It even works on Yang, and she almost never brushes her hair."

Once she was finished massaging in the conditioner, Ruby got to work on the tangles. Most of them weren't ridiculous, but there was one monster right in the middle of Penny's mane that Ruby had to start on with her fingers just to avoid hurting her girlfriend.

"Let me know if this hurts at all." Ruby instructed, gently pulling the knot into two smaller, more manageable knots.

"I have turned off the pain receptors in my scalp to make this process easier." Penny replied nonchalantly.

"You can do that?!" Ruby paused what she was doing to stare incredulously at Penny.

"Pain only exists to let someone know when they've been damaged. Once the message is received, pain becomes a hinderance. I have to be able to turn it off to continue functioning efficiently." Penny explained as if it was the most casual thing in the world.

"I wish I could do that." Ruby murmured. Out of pure curiosity, she gave some of Penny's hair an experimental tug. "So, you can't feel this?"

"I can feel the tugging, but it's completely painless." Penny replied.

"My girlfriend is so cool." Ruby cooed, moving some of Penny's hair aside so she could press a quick kiss to her neck. Penny let out a tiny squeak of delight, and Ruby grinned in response.

"I think that my girlfriend is cooler." Penny said with a soft laugh.

"You're only saying that because I'm doing your hair." Ruby teased as she picked up the comb and began pulling it through Penny's mane.

"I am not!" Penny's voice rose indignantly, and she turned her head to give Ruby an incredulous look. "I really do think that you're cool!"

"I know, baby. It was just a joke." Ruby chuckled, trying to keep a grip on the comb as Penny moved. "Hold still."

Penny settled down and returned to her original position, allowing Ruby to continue tugging the comb through her hair. With a grunt of effort, she managed to pull it all the way through.

"We might be here for a while." Ruby remarked, focusing her efforts on one of the larger tangles near Penny's tips. With a quick glance at the clock above the desk that no one ever used, she realized that the movie theatre they'd been planning to go to would probably be closed by the time they were done. "I think we might be better off staying in tonight."

"But you were so excited to go out!" Penny objected, turning slightly toward the clock. "The last showing of our movie is in twenty minutes. If we leave now, we could still make it."

"If we go out, you're just going to be uncomfortable about your hair the whole time," Ruby pointed out gently. "And if one of us isn't having fun, there's no point in going."

"I'm sorry, Ruby." Penny hung her head remorsefully. "I didn't mean to ruin our date."

"Hey, you didn't ruin anything." Ruby carefully tilted Penny's head upward so she could continue combing. "We can go another night. Besides, there are still plenty of things we can do. If the lounge is free, we could have a movie night in there. You can even pick the movie."

Penny didn't respond, and even though Ruby couldn't see her face, she could tell her girlfriend was pulling that downhearted expression she always had when she felt as though she'd disappointed someone.

"C'mon, Penny, don't be like that." Ruby set the comb down and wrapped her arms around Penny from behind, gently resting her chin on her girlfriend's shoulder. "I promise it's okay."

"You are not upset with me?" Penny asked quietly.

"Of course not." Ruby assured her. "You being comfortable is way more important than going to see some movie. Cheer up, okay? Or am I gonna have to do the thing?"

Penny stifled a chuckle at the thought of the aforementioned 'thing', and Ruby smirked mischievously. She turned her head and pressed her lips to Penny's neck, blowing a raspberry against her skin. Penny squealed at the sudden tickling sensation and broke into a fit of giggles.

"Feeling better?" Ruby inquired softly as Penny fell against her, still laughing.

"Yes." Penny replied once she'd managed to calm herself a bit.

"Good," Ruby gave her girlfriend one more peck before picking the comb back up so she could resume working on Penny's hair. "Now let's finish this up so we can have our movie night."

"Thank you, Ruby." Penny said as she straightened up. "You're very kind to me."

"I'm your girlfriend, Firefly." Ruby pointed out warmly. "It's my job to make sure you feel as loved as possible."

"You're very good at it." Penny remarked. Gently, Ruby wound an arm around Penny's waist, smiling softly as the other girl brought a hand up and laid it over hers.

This, in Ruby's humble opinion, was the best job on Remnant.

(If you enjoyed this piece, please consider reblogging to share it with others! Likes unfortunately don’t do much to help a post gain traction, so reblogs are the only way content creators on this site can get any recognition for their hard work. If you do decide to reblog, know that I really appreciate you and think that you’re the coolest!)

#rwby #penny polendina #ruby rose #nuts n dolts #nuts and dolts #nuts & dolts #my writing #seriously please reblog if you liked it

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