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hamliet · 3 years

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Mercurius and the Emerald Tablet

What did Isaac Newton (yes, that Isaac Newton) spend his time translating?

The Emerald Tablet is a medieval (well, it’s traditionally considered ancient but that can’t be verified and it’s probably not) tablet that contains the secrets to alchemy. It’s the very foundation of western alchemy. The tablet itself is really... cryptic and full of very important-sounding phrases that may not mean much. However, its role in history and the legend behind it are much more important than its gobbledygook.

So, would CRWBY really be aware of this esoteric text? Would they really reference it? Undoubtedly yes; they have directly. One of Volume 7′s episodes is literally called “As Above, So Below” which is a famous paraphrased quote of the Emerald Tablet. The original text reads:

That which is above is like to that which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above.

Basically it means that things that occur in the macrocosm are mirrored in the microcosm, but we don’t have to get in to all of that. I’m just tossing it out there to point out that CRWBY is indeed aware of what they’re doing.

Instead, I’d like to talk about the two characters who are very clear references to the Emerald Tablet: Emerald Sustrai, and Mercury Black.

The legendary author of this tablet (aka mythically its the author but in reality probs not) is Hermes Trismegistus, who is a syncretization of Hermes/Mercury (the Greco-Roman god) and Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom.

Emerald’s name is a clear allusion to the tablet, as is Mercury’s to the author. I'd argue that Emerald’s somewhat Egyptian design also suggests she might be a stand-in for Thoth. Mercurius is portrayed as both a thief and a loyal companion, as fire and water, flighty and steadfast, as opposites in every way, essentially. Lyndy Abraham describes him as a force “both creative and destructive.” Carl Jung writes that:

He is the hermaphrodite that was in the beginning, that splits into the classical brother-sister duality and is reunited in the coniunctio, to appear once again at the end in the radiant form of the lumen novum, the stone.

Don’t read this too literally or predictively--the “hermaphrodite” (please forgive my use of the term) is actually a figure known as Rebis. While, in literature, Rebis is sometimes depicted as a sibling-esque relationship when platonic, it’s more often a romantic couple who take on the characteristics of one another. So, Emerald and Mercury could be platonic and sibling-esque or could end up romantic and the point is still the same: their most important narrative relationship is with each other, and they need to reconcile and take on each others’ characteristics, work together.

They are currently separated, which as Jung comments has to happen as part of the work, and will reunite eventually (and yes, Mercury will be redeemed and work with Emerald again, which quite possibly means working with RWBY JNOR). Their song is literally called “I Am the One” which ties into how they are very much two sides of the same coin. Their unity is the end of both of their arcs.

Jung also writes that:

When the alchemist speaks of Mercurius, on the face of it he means quicksilver (mercury), but inwardly he means the world-creating spirit concealed or imprisoned in matter.

By world-creating spirit he means anima mundi, the concept of a world soul or in eastern traditions, qi, that connects everyone. In RWBY it seems to be linked to a physical concept, which I like because it merges the corporeal and spiritual, in “Dust.”

So why am I rambling about this? Because Emerald and Mercury are symbolic of Dust, of anima mundi, of their world itself.

I wouldn’t so much say they are referencing the Jung quote (I think that’s reading too much into it) but there is an element of basic alchemical thought present here that is reflected in Emerald and Mercury: the dichotomy between physical and spiritual, or of the corporeal and soul. However, on the whole RWBY seems to thwart this by implying the physical and the soul are intrinsically linked: the soul can be used physically in a semblance, and Dust seems like a literal physical embodiment of the concept of a world soul.

Both Mercury and Emerald feel trapped, as Tyrion calls them out on:

Mercury: you may not like it here without Cinder, but I think I’m right where I’m supposed to be!

Tyrion (laughing): Oh yes, ‘the world is mean, and I’m a big bad man now just like the others’

Mercury: How long have you been listening?

Tyrion: All you ever learned was pain and violence and now you’re too afraid to leave it! ... I’m going to tell you both a little secret. Your question is all wrong. What you want from this? Children, please. If you’re not loving what you’re doing then you’re in the wrong field.

Emerald: So what? Are you saying we should just leave?

Tyrion: Oh no, you can’t do that.

Mercury: Then what did you come here for?

Emerald and Mercury are imprisoned by their physical circumstances. Emerald has started to break free, but the binds that remain are more mental and spiritual. Mercury is still very much a physical prisoner.

Mercury and Emerald have done terrible things, surely, but they also never really had much of a chance with how they’ve been raised, or more accurately not raised.

If you can’t reach out and save the lost children, how do you hope to save the world? Almost every character of import is in fact a lost child; it’s a motif for a reason. As nice as it would be able to be (or not) to categorize people as good/bad, evil or not, that’s not the world of RWBY (or our world honestly). But Emerald and Mercury are still alive and have the potential to unlock something that could save the world. How?

There’s a third person who is mentally and physically a prisoner. They have the power to give Cinder life with a confrontation and set her free. I’m not saying it’s their responsibility so please don’t come for me; I’m just saying that’s likely a narrative function their character arcs are going to have.

Mythologically, Thoth/Mercury considered to be the one who kills Argus, which is not only a place name in RWBY’s world, but a reference to silver eyes and perhaps to Cinder’s arc. I’m not intending to give the impression I think Emerald and Mercury will kill Cinder (they will not) because it’s an inspiration not a 1:1 retelling. But I do think Emerald and Mercury’s eventual confrontation with Cinder, which has to happen, will serve for them symbolically the way Yang’s confrontation with Raven served: to metaphorically kill and give a wake-up call so that Cinder can actually progress instead of wallowing in destructiveness.

And frankly, I think it’s highly likely Cinder is majorly important to making the ultimate choice that will save the world in the end.

#rwby meta #alchemy #rwby #rwby theory #emerald sustrai #mercury black #cinder fall #emercury #jung

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kitkatopinions · 3 years

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I feel the need to hear your opinion on this since this is something I've been thinking about recently, and it's how crwby handles complex relationships/abuse in their show... It's infuriating.

I can't tell if they genuinely think they are writing this in a good way or if they know they're half asss-ing it and don't care since the fandom will eat it up anyways. Two big examples that come to mind for me in the last volume are emerald & cinder and whitley & jacques. In both instances the the victim never gets a moment of closure or a moment of breaking away from their abuser, nor are either victims allowed to show any sort of 'hesitance' (for a lack of a better term) related to their abuse.

Emerald (despite being all over cinder before Midnight), just conveniently forgets about her for the finale. Same for whitley. He just completely forgets about jacques (the man who manipulated him from birth) the moment weiss hugs him. On a shallow level, watching a victim pay no mind to their abuser is satisfying, but it being so immediate is just unrealistic and takes away from the pain that we are supposed to think these characters have suffered.

One of the worst things about suffering from abuse is how is affects the victims even when they have left the abusive relationship, but crwby seems to want to erase that completely from characters who should experience that for plot convenience.

It seems like the lesson learned from this is "if you were abused, just get over it and be convenient to our heroes or else!" And it's pretty gross imo.

Thoughts?

I thought that I would put these two asks together and take this opportunity to talk about the abuse victims in RWBY and how they're handled. I've tried to think long and hard about what to say about this, because this is an important topic to me and something that's personal for me. I'm an abuse survivor, but I have a complicated relationship with that part of myself and I'm never really comfortable talking about it much. But despite the fact that I've experienced abuse, I recognize that I'm not a professional sensitivity editor, not a therapist, and not someone who's studied the effects of abuse.

I'm simply writing this based on my own feelings and what I've picked up witnessing other abuse victims discuss their own feelings about abused character. There will be RWBY criticism below the keep reading. Please keep in mind that I'm not speaking for all abuse survivors and am only trying to articulate my own feelings in regards to this issue.

The first thing to note is that there isn't one, correct, right way to write an abuse victim in my opinion. Lots of people have different reactions and responses to abuse, the way they were abused is often also different, causing different reactions.

In the first anon, it's noted that Emerald and Whitley both seem to move on from their abuse quickly and with very little effect on them or their stories. Many abuse victims put their experiences on the back burner or 'in a box' to deal with later, or mask and pretend that they're alright or that their abuse just didn't happen. Some of them let their feelings or their anger simmer over time. There are also abuse victims who do just... Move on with relative ease. I'd imagine that's very rare though. (again, I'm not not an expert or any sort of psychologist.)

In the same way, an abuse victim becoming an abuser in their own interactions is something that one hundred percent happens. Cinder, Salem, Adam, and even Blake and Winter have all acted in abusive ways towards the people around them (though obviously Blake and Winter acted much less abusive than any of the villains mentioned.) It might be very hard for abuse victims to not fall back into those patterns of abuse that they've suffered, especially if they go through it at an early age. I'm not very comfortable talking about my own experiences, but myself and my siblings have all had to fight down toxic, hurtful traits that we picked up either through emulating or through survival. And it's hard to do that. Portraying characters who have been abused that lost that fight and might have abusive tendencies or slip themselves is - to me at least - sometimes even helpful in working through my own feelings.

And there are definitely one hundred percent abuse victims who feel like the way they were treated is deserved, that they 'earned' it, that they must 'make up for it.' Oz is in this category. There's nothing wrong with the concept of a character who feels responsible for their abuser or the hurt their abuser has caused to others, there’s nothing wrong with a character who tends to act as though everything is their fault and who thinks very poorly of themselves.

In theory. But the problem is that in application, there are a lot of pitfalls and struggles that come with writing for abuse victims. Understanding, thoughtfulness, and care are not the RWBY writers’ strength, and any time you portray real life issues that strongly impact the real life people involved in them, you have to be aware and careful with the messages you’re sending. This is obviously very important when someone writes for any minority or oppressed group or the issues that they face, but it’s also important to remember when you write for abuse victims, because they do have stigmas around them and deal with stereotypes and harmful portrayals as well. Let’s look at what I consider some harmful or hurtful pitfalls when it comes to abused characters.

Are the abused characters treated as the victims they are? If the abuse a character faces is treated as comical, treated as unimportant, or treated as deserved, that’s an obvious major flaw. Sad to say, but RWBY does not pass this. On two separate occasions, a character is hit by someone close to them in a way that clearly causes them some pain, with Blake hitting Sun across the face for following her, and Winter hitting Weiss for answering a question incorrectly and again for failing in her training (I tend to be more sympathetic towards Blake’s situation, as it is more gray with her clearly thinking Sun had stalked her which is a clear trigger from her own abuse, but this is an explanation, not an excuse and the fact that it was framed as funny rather than something Blake shouldn’t have done and should apologize for is the problem.) They also do not treat Ozpin like the victim when Qrow punches him in the face, having no one call Qrow out for it and having him never express guilt or try to apologize for it. Yes, I know Ozpin had retreated, but they never showed Qrow even make an effort to get Ozpin to come back so he could apologize. . They also ‘redeem’ Hazel and give him a ‘partially right’ storyline despite his openly beating Ozpin, unfairly blaming him for the death of his sister, and insisting that Ozpin deserved to be tortured. On top of this, despite having been horribly abused by the SDC, Adam isn’t treated with even an ounce of sympathy or understanding and Jacques Schnee and the SDC is treated like a more comical-ish nuisance in season seven and eight. This is greatly flawed. Hitting someone because they lied to you or kept secrets from you is not okay, hitting someone because they said something you don’t like is not okay. This should not be treated as funny and it shouldn’t be treated as the fault of the person who was hit for not being a good enough friend.

Are the abused characters mostly villains, when the heroes have never faced it? The reason for this is obvious, although it’s valid to have a villain be an abuse victim, it’s never alright to villainize abuse victims. Making the majority of your bad guys abuse victims and your good guys have positive relationships is in my opinion, harmful. Point for RWBY, this is not the case for their show. Mercury, Salem, and Cinder on the bad side are all abuse victims with Raven being a possible, but unconfirmed abuse victim as well. While Weiss, Blake, Ozpin, and Whitley are also abuse victims, with Qrow and May both being possible, but unconfirmed abuse victims, and Winter and Emerald are both abuse victims who were on the side of a villain and then turned good.

Is the abuse more severe in the ‘bad’ characters and lighter in the ‘good’ characters? If the abuse that the good guys faced is mostly lighter things and the abuse that the villains suffered is worse and more severe, that might send some bad messages that people who suffer more are automatically worse people, or ‘unsalvageable’ or ‘too broken,’ as opposed to the people that ‘there’s still hope for.’ Unfortunately, I think RWBY is almost a tie? We’ve never seen Weiss or Emerald suffer more than a hit, we don’t know for sure that Whitley or Winter were ever victims of physical abuse. Ozpin and Blake’s abuse is worse, however, as they are hunted down by their abusers who attempt to murder them, make them suffer, and hurt their loved ones. They also were heavily emotionally manipulated and victim blamed by their abusers. And on the villain side, Mercury was beat by his father who hated him and stole his semblance (an extension of your soul, I believe, in canon,) and the abuse led to the loss of his limbs. Cinder was forced to work hard labor by her abusive employer and the ‘stepsisters’ treated her badly, and she was physically electrocuted. We see her abuse extend to Salem using her Grimm arm to hurt her, copying the effects of the necklace. Adam was also a child laborer who worked in terrible conditions who got his face branded by his employer, in the SDC, which had to have been anti-faunus charged due to his bull horns. We don’t see Salem ever physically abused, but know that she was mistreated, isolated, and neglected by her ‘cruel’ father. So it’s not quite a tie, there are more severely abused characters amongst the villains than the heroes, but this is close enough that I don’t consider this much of a strike against them.

In the villains, is the abuse they faced given as ‘reason’ for their villainy? As I said before, villainizing abuse victims isn’t the way to go. A good way to avoid this - I think - is not have abuse be the sole reason for someone’s fall into a life of crime or cruelty. This is something that RWBY... Fails at imo. When showing us Mercury’s backstory, we’re introduced to him through seeing that he had just killed his abuser who cost him his legs, and then gets recruited by Cinder who at the very least likely emotionally and physically abused him the same way she did with Emerald, leading to the conclusion that the only reason he’s there at all is due to abuse. However, he’s just a teen and it’s possible that (like Emerald) he’ll be redeemed. A much more condemning story to talk about is Cinder’s. After people had been clambering for a Cinder backstory since volume three, RWBY finally showed us one. But it doesn’t include Cinder meeting Salem, why she joined her, her proving herself, none of that. Instead, Cinder’s backstory was entirely focused on her abusive situation as a child, entirely focused on her suffering. Cinder killing her abusers and then killing the teacher who decided to arrest her for getting herself out of her abusive situation was portrayed as the only needed backstory, the explanation to why she’s a power hungry, abusive, cruel, selfish, and just plain evil person. ‘She was abused’ is the explanation for why Cinder is where she is and why she is who she is in RWBY. That’s highly problematic to me.

In the heroes, are they “the Perfect, Sanitized Abuse Victims?” As I said before, there is no one type of abuse victim, but if someone has several abuse victims and they’re all either submissive, sad, and self-doubting, but gentle and caring and soft or dropped their abuser like a hotcake and never looked back, never seem affected, never really talk about it after they left... That’s bothersome to me personally. Measuring how RWBY is in this particular subject is... A little harder than I thought it would be. Let’s start by looking at the most prevalent abuse victim, Blake. She’s one of the reasons why this is hard to gauge, because for the first five seasons, Blake was deeply flawed and clearly affected by her abuse in ways that made her ‘unappealing.’ Blake was cynical, stubborn, cold, hard to get to know, she didn’t trust easily, she lashed out at her friends regularly, ran from her problems, made choices for her friends, and had a very negative self image. This didn’t stop her from being a good character and friend with a lot of good sides, too, and she had real, important friendships. This was - to me - a really great portrayal of someone clearly affected by their trauma, with lots to work on, who was still a good person. Some of her faults and problems started to get resolved in a natural way through her journey with Sun in volumes four and five, but when season six came around, many of Blake’s other traits suddenly vanished. No longer stubborn, independent, or cynical, and no longer standing up for herself, or really displaying her temper or hardheadedness or her struggles with getting to know people... Blake became more submissive, sad, self-doubting, but gentle, caring, and soft. Sigh. As the first ask mentioned, Whitley and Emerald both seemed to drop their abusers quickly the second they were removed from their lives again. it’s also worth noting that Whitley was treated with nothing but coldness and contempt by Weiss until he ‘proved himself’ by doing something selfless. Weiss did more or less drop Jacques the moment she left her house in V4, only mentioning him or her experiences when she’s using it to talk about Blake, and when she confronted him again in V7, she did so as someone who is proving she no longer cares. Ozpin seems to be the only one still unable to move on from his abuse and the ‘unappealing’ abuse victim. The first anon is right, there’s something satisfying with seeing an abuse victim move on like their abuser didn’t matter. But when almost all your abuse victims do, and one of the only other ones is turned into a submissive and soft support based / romance based character, and the only really ‘unappealing’ abuse victim is someone we’re supposed to see as ‘gray’... There’s something off there, in my opinion.

Were the abuse victims treated respectfully and thoughtfully by their friends, and if not, were they portrayed as wrong? This probably isn’t something that really even needs an explanation. Abuse victims should be able to set their own boundaries and tell their stories only when they want, when they feel comfortable, Their friends should be understanding of this and not force anything from them. In the case of Blake and Weiss, this is handled really well! Their friends let them talk about their experiences in their own time, and they’re understanding and validate their feelings when it comes up (much more common with Blake than with Weiss, who like I said, seemed to move on from her dad quickly after she left.) However, when it comes to Oz... This is all wrecked. Although unintentional (no one knew how deeply tied up with Salem Ozpin was or how intimate the memories they were going to watch were,) our main characters still forced Ozpin’s deepest and most personal secrets out of him in a fit of upset while he was tearfully begging them not to. He was forced to relive his most traumatic experiences in hi-def with other people watching with him, all his secrets and all his abuse wrenched away from him in what was clearly a very painful way. And then no one showed Ozpin even the slightest bit of sympathy or understanding for what he’d gone through, and no one ever apologized for what they had forced him to relive. In fact, Team RWBY were clearly displayed as in the right, and Oz was displayed as completely wrong for not trusting them implicitly. He had to apologize to them, which they acted begrudgingly accepting of as if they hadn’t shouted at an abuse victim after forcing him to relive all his worst experiences.

Are some abuse victims portrayed as bad for things that other abuse victims aren’t portrayed as bad for? Like the second ask says, in RWBY, Cinder and Mercury are treated as villains for having killed their abusers and Cinder is almost arrested for it, it’s considered a step in the direction of their villainy. But Blake is (rightfully) treated as the victim who was forced, who had no choice, who just wanted the abuse to stop. This is hypocritical and fundamentally flawed. I think this is a reflection of the fact that Cinder and Mercury are meant to be ‘bad’ abuse victim, who had violent tendencies and anger issues, and were already featured as bad guys before their backstory’s dropped, whereas Blake was meant to be a better abuse victim who (by season six) was starting to get written as a soft girl who just wanted to help her friends.

All in all, although there’s some things that I think that RWBY did well enough, I definitely think that I would consider their portrayal of abuse victims to be lacking. This is just my opinion and the way I feel about the writing, but there are a lot of ways to look at it. I think overall, I just really wish that the RWBY writers had been a little more sensitive and spent a little longer focusing on the character arcs involved in abuse recovery. (There’s still a chance for Whitley, Weiss, and Emerald to get more focus in volume ten, though, so long as the writers don’t timeskip!)

#rwde #rwby criticism #rwby critical #rwby hate #rwby bashing #tw; abuse #trigger warning; abuse

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thesassiestcolor · 3 years

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Do you think what Qrow said in the episode makes the Clover situation better?

Uuuuuhhhhhh short answer: no. Definitely not. There's not really anything they can do to make the situation better. Imo they made a cheap writing decision that has major consequences and cannot be undone that I feel will ultimately amount to nothing.

So, no.

Long answer: still no, but I'll give you an explanation that probably is really long winded lol

So, nothing is going to "make it better" because crwby creating a character and making him pretty likeable, in an interesting position, and centered around a big fan favorite character - just to kill him off for shock value, is cheap.

Its my opinion that if crwby wanted to have a cool Qrow vs Clover, there are a million better ways to have that. And if they wanted Clover to die for whatever reason, there are a lot better, more respectful, and thematically appropriate ways to do that too. (And I think his loyalty to Ironwood should have been established much much better and earlier on to start that whole shitshow off to begin with).

Even if crwby somehow thought that what they made wasn’t really really gay; they knew people would latch on to Fairgame no matter what. People ship everything, especially in this fandom. Clover and Qrow could have hated each other (which would also be interesting for characters and plot, and make more sense to how V7 ended) and people still would have shipped them. I was losing my shit at the beginning of V7 because they were adults! That I could ship with Qrow! Crwby literally made a perfect foil to a fan favorite and didn’t think the fandom would go WILD???

Also I think Clover as a character was wasted. There's a lot of potential in a character with a passive semblance in an interesting position within Atlas' military and his relationships and all that stuff I'm that the good fic writers can run wild with (because crwby isn't. Because Clover was wasted).

All in all, they cannot reverse the decision to kill off this character so they cannot fic it.

BUT to get BACK TO THE POINT: the conversation in ep4 shows most of all that Clover's death and character is completely meaningless and just overkill for what we already knew about Qrow/what he thinks of himself. I don’t want to repeat what has been said but this post pretty much explains it.

Qrow already had his “lowest moment / change of life” arc in V6 (and i get, from personal experience, realizing your addiction is hurting you is different from healing from depression/trauma/etc. But it is a BIG factor). Ruby also made a point to show Qrow is his self doubt and guilt is also more harmful than helpful. They both got addressed (which in this show, is a lot lmao, I was ready to accept that)

V7 was set up to show that Qrow was getting better. And the Clover thing just seems like they want to recycle his arc again? I mean, regression is great to show for a well rounded character, but this is literally back to square one. Probably even worse than that. And it’s for Qrow to learn....what he learned in V6? I guess?

And I have to say: I really like the idea of Qrow just going off the fucking rails and causing chaos. Good for him, it’s gonna be fun to see. I like the friendship they’re building with him and Robyn. I think she’s the first female character in this show (besides Ruby) who didn’t Despise Qrow on Sight. That’s fun (and I’m just loving “Robyn is my Sibling now” meme. I can’t help it, dunk on Raven please)

But Christ, again, there are so many other, better ways to get that story going. I would have accepted having James arrest him for no real reason be the cause of animosity. I would have accepted Qrow being furious that James would threaten his kids. Or James attempting to manipulate the maiden power to be under his control. Or the big one, that James is literally leaving million of people to die so “people who are worth it” can live. Plenty of people in this fandom who didn’t give a shit about Clover want James to die, this just proves that Clover was literally nothing but shock value.

#again i really just focus on what i enjoy in the show cuz i have enough to be angry about lmao but: here is my offered rammbling #rwby #rwde #sort of #fair game #qrow branwen #clover ebi #j

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disaster-by-chance · 4 years

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Okay, okay, I think I'm finally going to address Clover's death.

I know a lot of people had mixed feelings towards Clover and that a lot of people had upset feelings about his death, but I just wanna put my own opinions on it out here for all y'all.

Clover Thoughts:

At first, I wasn't too sure what to think about Clover. I wanted to like him and his team, I really did. I always get excited when cool new characters are introduced and these guys were no exception. However, since I didn't know them well and they all seemed really cocky, I couldn't help but think that they were going to be traitors or something. I bought into the Clover is a traitor theories, despite me being really interested in his character.

For me,, when someone like Clover comes along, big, confident, strong, I immediately latch onto them. There's just something so intriguing about those kinds of people that just draws me in. So I couldn't resist him. But I also didn't trust him.

Time went on and slowly I began to trust him. He really hadn't shown any warning signs or hinted at betrayal, so I started to step away from the traitor theories. I did have a nightmare in where Clover did turn and it destroyed some of the trust I had built up,, but we don't talk about that.

Okay, I liked Clover. I genuinely did. I know some fans didn't care too much for him or they just didn't like him at all, but I did. I thought he was an interesting character and I was excited to see how he and Qrow's relationship (not necessarily romantically) would play out. I just wanted luck puns

I think part of me liking Clover is just that he was nice to Qrow. He was different in his actions to him and that kinda helped Qrow with his journey to recovery. If it wasn't obvious, Qrow is my favorite character from RWBY. I'm just naturally drawn to characters who have problems and then just suddenly turn into dad figures.

So since he was nice to Qrow, I liked him. And that's just me, that's how I am. If someone's nice to me,, I just fall for them instantly. You have my never ending loyalty. Clover had my loyalty.

Soon Clover played a bigger part in how I lived life. I started to want to be more like him, more positive, more uplifting, and all that crap. I spent a week giving my siblings compliments and it freaked them out. Clover's character made me want to be better. Hell, we don't know how much Clover knew about Qrow before James paired them up. He was just nice for the sake of being nice. What was he going to get out of it? He just saw that Qrow needed a friend, Qrow needed to get better, and so he helped. And gods,, that really did motivate me.

His clover became a helpful symbol for me. I made a little paper cut out to put in my phone case for some good luck. Then I made a wallpaper of the pin for my digital watch face as a reminder to be better. And last Saturday I made a keychain to have with me at all times. A reminder to be better about things. More positive.

I guess you could say he was something of a role model to me? And I know that's ridiculous after what he did and seeing as he wasn't here for long,, but damn...I really did like him.

I don't know. I just really liked him and wish I knew more about his past and semblance. I wish his story could've been explored more and stuff but...Things didn't quite work out that way.

The Fight:

I was,, disappointed to say the least. And at this point, I don't even know why I expect anything from any creator.

Look, I'm in the Marvel and Star Wars fandoms so I've had my fair (haha) share of bad characterization, bad arcs, and bad writing. But I thought RWBY was different and better than that.

I spent most of the scenes when they were fighting in anger. Tyrian was their target. He was more of a priority. They should've acted like civilized huntsman. But no.

And I get it, Clover had to do his job. They were all under stress and the atmosphere was really tense, I understand. But really?

I'm glad Qrow attempted to talk things out, but then, y'know...That didn't work out well in the end.

After the plane crash, I was devastated. I hated seeing the two fight against each other after seeing them work so well together in capturing Tyrian, and it just sucked.

I kept telling them to just talk it out, and in between the fighting they kinda did, but it just hurt. The hurt in Qrow's voice? Ugh. So good.

The teamup?? I get it. Qrow doesn't want to fight both of them, but why not turn into a bird and fly away? Or would that not work? I don't know..Anything else would've been nice.

Still hated these fight scenes. Even if the choreography was really good.

His Death Thoughts:

If you didn't buy into the traitor theory, then you had the death theory. That either him or someone from the Ace Ops was going to kick the bucket. And if you were like me, you believed both were possible.

When I was unsure about Clover, I also bought into the death theories. I didn't really want him to die, but I knew that it could happen, but I thought it would be later on. Other times I found it very possible that both would happen. And they fucking did.

At this point, I had totally forgotten about the death theories. I loved Clover too much to believe in that kind of shit. So when it happened, it hit me like a bus.

I was in utter shock and I don't think I started crying till later. After the video ended,, I just slammed my laptop shut and sobbed for a good ten minutes.

It was probably the most brutal thing I'd ever seen and just,, it hurt so much. Emotionally and physically. It just sucked..

I was upset because I knew he wasn't coming back from this. It was a huge wound. I was upset because I loved Clover. Stop killing my favorites. I was upset because it could've been avoided. And I was upset because what was the point other than for Qrangst?

I'm going to be honest, the scene did make me a little sick. And for the rest of the day I just had a terrible feeling in my stomach and that night I had a nightmare because of all the stress and pain I was feeling over the death.

So, yeah. It really did affect me and I hated the whole thing a lot. Not from a shipping point of view or anything, but because I liked Clover and because I want just a little more Qrangst, not a lot.

Throughout the week though, my brain has tried to both hurt and try to comfort me over my loss. Constantly the scene of him being stabbed replays in my mind and then everything goes greyscale before a kazoo verison of "Piano Man" starts to play. It's ridiculous and I hate my brain for thinking about it.

But the death did make me feel a lot of things. None that which were positive emotions.

Fan Response:

Okay, I love being in a fandom. I do. But with every fandom comes toxicity and RWBY is no exception. We probably have some of the worst cases of toxic fans, right next to Star Wars and Marvel.

I acknowledge that it feels like queerbaiting and BYGs,, but I just,, I don't know.

I think death threats are terrible. There's no reason for this. It's a fucking ship. Representation is great, I know. I'm a biracial bisexual, I live for representation. Nothing was explicitly said (i.e Clover flat out saying that he was gay or bi or pan,, ect)

Were they flirting? Maybe. Did things happen off screen that we didn't get to see? Likely. Yeah, they had their gay moments but Clover's trying to get Qrow to loosen up. He wants him to crack jokes with him and stuff. Y'all gotta be friends first before any sort of romantic relationships blossom.

Yes, shame on CRWBY for hyping Fairgame up and then literally killing it, but the need for death threats?? Quitting the show?? Ridiculous! They're real life humans who enjoy working on this show! Leave them be!

Look, every fandom has a moment in where their fans are left disappointed. They can't please everyone but they try their best and I think CRWBY is one example.

I'm a multishipper. I don't care who ends up with who, so long as they're happy. And so since one guy is dead and the other is probably broken by it,, you can say I'm upset too.

Am I sending death threats? No. Do I feel for Fairgame shippers. Yes. Will I quit watching the show? Of course fucking not. Am I hoping Clover comes back? 🤡 It's not that complicated.

So yeah. Those are my thoughts on the major controversies that came out of the last episode. Let me know what y'all thought.

And please. Be respectful.

It's what Monty would want.

#rwby #qrow branwen #rwby spoilers #clover ebi #rwby7 #rwby vol7 #rwbyv7 #fair game #rwby discussion #lucky charms #opinions #clown activity

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astoria00 · 4 years

Text

Summer‘s secret mission and Cinder‘s backstory are connected

So...since vol 7 came around there were quite a lot of new theories going around, but what got me the most excited was actually just the mention of Summer and her disappearance which had been and still is a heavily kept mystery.

And what else is just as mysterious and secret?

That‘s right, Cinder‘s backstory.

Now I kinda wanna talk about what made me think that Cinder as a character was more important than most people thought or think. There are many that believe the writers have no plan for her, that she has no character, that she is two dimensional, mostly...because she has no backstory. So of course it must be bad writing, right?

No, actually this is exactly why I think the opposite. We haven’t gotten Cinder’s backstory, because it’s tied to someone else’s. At first I believed it was solely about Salem, seeing as it was pretty clear that she partially raised Cinder at some point in her life and a reveal before vol 3 would have been impossible without spoiling Salem‘s existence. But even after Salem‘s own backstory reveal we haven’t gotten even an inkling for Cinder’s. There are no allusions from someone. Salem and the rest of Team WTCH don‘t talk about her or her past. Of course all of this could be because of the pacing behind the story telling, but Crwby knows about the fans. They are not oblivious to the fact what people talk about them and yet...still no mention of Cinder’s past in any way.

So now, let me propose that Cinder‘s past is actually linked to Summer‘s secret mentioned by Qrow in vol 7 episode 4...I think XD

With Ruby‘s new hair reveal and the confirmation that this is how it naturally looks like, many people suddenly noticed the similarities between Cinder‘s and Ruby‘s look there, which got me thinking that my favorite crack theory might actually not be that farfetched as I first thought.

Now, we don‘t know anything about Cinder‘s family and where she originally came from, but the same can be said for Summer Rose. Did she have siblings? Where they huntsmen or huntresses? Did they have silver eyes as well? What relationship did she have with them? What about her parents? Why aren’t they talking anymore? Why keep them a secret?

The list goes on and on.

I have a few theories on that. Seeing as Summer had silver eyes it is possible that her sibling/parents didn‘t, but we do know from Maria that silver eyes still can be passed on through them.

When Summer was told about the circumstances behind her eyes and that Salem was hunting them there are certain things that could have happened.

Her family wanted to distance themselves from her, because she posed a threat to them, given that she told them about the possible danger they and their children could be in, or, she distanced herself willingly without telling them to protect them.

Now...what would that mean for Cinder?

Well, I propose that Cinder is Summer‘s niece, that they‘re related.

It would explain why Salem sought her out and recruited her, even waiting a few years to set her plan into motion. Because of her bloodline, a bloodline that carried a little bit of magic, that maybe even could be manipulated in her favor.

So what was Summer‘s secret mission then?

To save Cinder.

Summer being Summer would keep track of her family even after cutting contact and seeing that Cinder‘s allusion is Cinderella, tragedy surely stroke and forced Summer...and possibly Salem, into action.

How the clash of their forces ended is wildly speculative on my side, but I like to imagine that Hazel took a part in it.

If Summer came out of it alive is entirely different matter, but for Ruby and Cinder‘s roles and possible conflicts in the story, this would add much.

Cinder’s entitlement of power, but never having been able to access the one she inherited because she didn’t have the right pair of eyes, her affinity to Grimm and the maiden powers in general.

It all would come together.

But as any theory this one could totally be proven false in the next few eps. I still wanted to get it out here, because theories are fun XD

#rwby #rwby volume 7 #rwby theories #cinder fall #salem rwby #summer rose #just my theories

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littlemisssquiggles · 4 years

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how do you feel about the idea that all the oscar as the little prince and ruby as the rose allusions and whatnot are correct, but ruby/oscar aren't reunited as a romantic pairing? i totally agree with all the points about oscar being the little prince, but the idea of him and ruby being together romantically has personally never really made sense to me based on their interactions and it feels a bit icky because of the age gap. just curious about your thoughts, thanks!

“…but theidea of him and ruby being together romantically has personally never reallymade sense to me based on their interactions and it feels a bit icky because ofthe age gap…”

“…and it feels a bit icky because of the age gap…”

…It feelsicky because of the age gap? To quote CRWBY Writer: Miles Luna himself,it’s just two years? As far as theaudience are aware, Ruby Rose is roughlyabout seventeen years old (more or less) while Oscar is fourteen probably goingon fifteen years old (more or less).

Regardless, going off of what Miles once confirmed, no matter how much olderRuby gets, Oscar will always be just two years younger than her. So evenif Ruby is currently 17 years old in the main series, Oscar is probably on thecusp of turning 15 soon since as, confirmed by Miles, the age gap between Rubyand Oscar is 2 and ONLY 2 years. How big of a gap is that really?

Riddle me this anon-chan, what is so weird or to quote your own words, “icky” about a prospective relationshipbetween two kids that are only two years apart?

Because you’re not the first person I’ve hearduse the whole age gap as a means to imply why they don’t favour Rosegarden. Asa matter of fact, the age difference thing is a common argument amongst theAnti-RG shipping community and I’m sorry but I find this reason to be rathersilly to my ears.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to make you oranyone with this type of mind-set feel bad for having this opinion since you’reentitled to have it.

However, since I am giving my own opinion here, thissquiggle meister honestly finds this rationaleto be silly; to put it nicely. It’s even more ludicrous when Ihear people use it in debates against Rosegarden.

Maybe it’s because I was born in the 90s and grewup during the 2000s when times were certainly different than it is nowadays ormaybe it’s because I’m the youngest child of parents with a five year age difference or maybe it’s because I’m from a culturewhere this type of stuff is considered “smallting”---either way, I find it really ridiculous when people make a big dealover something like a measly two year age gap between two fictional characterwho are essentially both teenagers.

Realistically, two years is not that big of anage gap. Even at 17 and 14 respectively, Rubyand Oscar are still the two youngest members within our hero team whichputs them at being closer in age than any of the other characters. Not tomention that, 2 years is a common age gap used within the RWBY series. Ruby andYang are two years apart as far as siblings go. Not to mention that the twoyear age gap is shared not just by Rosegardenbut also with other more commonly known Ruby ships like Lancaster, Whiterose andNuts and Dolts.

That being said, I’m going to safely assume thatyou’re probably someone who feels uncomfortable shipping Ruby with anyone atall anon-chan, Oscar included, since if you take issue with the age gap betweenthe Rosebuds then I’m assuming youprobably don’t favour the rest of the Ruby ships for that same reason, right?

I hope you’re not one of those hypocrites whoonly find the 2 year age gap problematic for Rosegarden but not for Whiterose,Lancaster, Nuts and Dolts, etc.

But to each, their own, I suppose.

Anyways, to answer your main question---as I’ve voiced before, part of the core reason I started shipping Ruby and Oscar together was actuallybecause of their interactions from V5 and how strongly the series placedemphasis on it from the start of that season. Since their first meeting inV5, the CRWBY Writers have delivered well on showing a need to push Ruby andOscar closer together by having them naturally develop a friendship and strongsense of trust and respect in one another. On that part, all things considered,the show has down well on developing the rapport between the Rosebuds.

Oscar’s bond with Ruby gave me a much differentvibe than any of her other connections and vice versa. One thing I’ve talkedabout with Rosegarden is that I always liked how the show portrayed Ruby andOscar as showing a mutual level of interest in each other. Not necessarily inany kind of romantic way. But it has been very evident since the firsttime they met that Oscar and Ruby do like each other.

Despite only being friends for a short space oftime, Ruby and Oscar share a comfort and sense of trust with one another moreakin to people who have known each other for years and I like that element totheir relationship.

From the get-go, the two have shown to get alongreally well and their friendship has only grown over the passing seasons.

I understand that you don’t get romance fromtheir interactions and you’re right about that---nothing regarding the pastRosegarden interactions has been all that romanticallycharged. While it’s been highlighted that Oscar and Ruby definitely care forone another and are willing to go above and beyond to protect each other, as aRosegardener, I’ll admit that nothing truly grounding has been dropped in ourlaps as yet. Like with any ship in RWBY, us Gardeners have gotten a couple ofcute and meaningful moments shared between the Rosebuds that has helped withtheir respective character development and mayeven hint at a possible futureromance between Oscar and Ruby. But nothing to really nip it in the butt asyet.

However, as I said, the potential for a future romance is there. You might not see itthat way anon-chan but for me, I can’t help but feel like the Writers have beenslowly setting something to happenbetween Ruby and Oscar for a while. Since V5. Will it be romance? I can’t really tell you for sure. Hence whyI’ve beem following the pair closely over the seasons, patiently waiting to seewhether or not the Writers will actually make that leap with these two.

As I’ve said in the past, I’m riding the Rosegarden hype train mainly because I really, really likethis ship. It’s the only Ruby and Oscar pairing that I honestly believe has thepotential to become canon and because of that, I genuinely wish to see where itgoes. If a love story is what the CRWBY Writers wish to do in the long runfor the buds then obviously I am all in for that. Oscar and Ruby are my twoall-time favourite characters in RWBY and personally, I think a romance betweenthese two kids can work and will be nothing but adorkable and sweet sincethat’s how the show has always portrayed them together.

However if romance isn’t in the cards for thesetwo then that’s fine as well. While I’d be totally lying to myself if I said Iwasn’t heavily rooting for a romantic endgame between these two smaller, more honest souls, at theend of the day, I just want to see Rubyand Oscar share a strong meaningful bond with one another that’s important tothem as part of their own individual stories and arcs since it would be thefitting payoff to the build-up between them from the past few seasons.

Why draw attention to keymoments and interactions between these two kids if the takeaway wasn’t going tobe something important like the two of them coming to terms with how much theyvalue each other in their lives or something along those lines?

Either way, I’d be happy with any kind of close bondbetween Ruby and Oscar, be it platonic (best friends/most trustedconfidantes much like their Oz counterparts) or romantic (lovers; strongly devoted to one another and responsiblefor each other; much like their Little Prince counterparts). For me, Rosegardencan go either way and still work tremendously well. Heck I’d personally love itif both were done since I’m a sucker for the strangers to close friends to lovers romance trope.

So long as Rosegarden continues to be a goodrelationship that the Writers continue to handle it with the respect that it’streated the two thus far then I’d be cool either way.

Personally I think it would be pretty sweet ifOscar and Ruby end up falling in love with one another and sharing a romancesince I’d imagine it’d be just as adorably awkward yet sweet and wholesome asthe show has always portrayed their relationship up until this point. Itdefinitely makes me excited to see how their relationship blossoms movingforward especially now that they are separated and unaware of each other’sfates, much like their Little Prince counterparts. If romance is in the cardsfor these two kids then the conclusion of V7 going into V8 presents theWriters’ with a golden opportunity to explore it if they so desire. But at theend of the day, it’s their call.

I’m just curious and of course, beyond excited tosee it all play out. To be honest with you anon-chan,I’m not quite sure what kind of answer you’re probably expecting me to givefrom this. If you were expecting me to respond like “If Rosegarden doesn’t become endgame then I will drop RWBY and I willhate the CRWBY Writers forever” then no.You’re not gonna get that type of response with me.

I do strongly believe that there is going to besomething to go down between Ruby and Oscar. I feel like the show has beenslowly building up to something significant to go down for these twokids---something that is unique to only them. A type of bond the two will sharetogether that will differentiate their bond from others within the series.

But as much as I adore Rosegarden as my favouriteRWBY pairing and even as much as I would love to see them end up together inthe end, I also firmly understand and RESPECTthe fact that by the end of the day, these characters belong to RoosterTeethand the story that I’ve been following with them and their allies are being controlledby people who have their own plans for them.

What that plan is, is what I, as the audiencemember, await to see with each passing volume; whether I end up enjoying what Isee or not.

Will it be a love story? Will it be somethingelse? That’s the thing. I really don’t know what it will be and that’s where mycuriosity has mostly been peeked. I REALLY, REALLY want to see where theseWriters take these two.

Hence why I jumped on the bandwagon of the LittlePrince. Through small moments that I can see were inspired by the story, I canget a small sense of where the Writers might be taking the Rosebuds. It’s whyI’m very excited for Oscar’s story for V8.

In the Little Prince story, the Prince had lefthis rose to go on a journey from which he was able to mature further and ultimatelycame to realize the true meaning behind his relationship with his one true rose.This is what I’m hoping for with Ruby and Oscar. I’m expecting this separationbetween them to force to them to see how much they truly value each other.

But it’s not just the Little Prince connectionsthat made me excited for the future of Rosegarden. There’s also the connectionto the God of Light. Right now, outsideof Salem, Ruby and Oscar are the twoother known characters within the series who share in the power of the God ofLight.

With Oscar, it is the God of Light’s power thathas fuelled Ozma’s reincarnation cycle. Not to mention that like many magi duringFirst Remnant, Ozma could wield magic which was known throughout the lands asthe “gift from the Gods”. That poweralong with the knowledge to command it has now been passed down to Oscar as wesubtly saw displayed in the V7 finale.

As for Ruby, she too possesses the power of theGod of Light through her Silver Eyes as hinted back during V6. And as far as weknow, Ruby is currently the only livingSilver Eyed Warrior in existence which makes her a very unique rose.

I would count the Maidens but the Maidens were a creation of Ozma’s magic---amagic that Oscar will ultimately inherit and could potentially take back shouldhe need to challenge Salem on his own again like Ozma once did during his lifeas Diggs.

Basically what I’m trying to say here is thatRuby and Oscar both share a predicament unique to them and only them.

Oscar is Ozma’s current incarnation. Ozma was thechosen champion of humanity, selected by the God of Light himself in the hopesthat he would help repair Remnant by stopping Salem. Ruby is a Silver EyedWarrior with the God-given ability to smite the Grimm whose current master isSalem.

Ozma fought Salem in the past and failed to stopher on his own (he managed to kill her but her immortality curse resurrectedher). Summer Rose, Ruby’s own mother and the last Silver Eyed Warrior toconfront Salem faced her on her own and much like Ozma once did, lost her life.

The only thing that hasn’t been tried is an incarnation of Ozma working togetherwith a Silver Eyed Warrior with the two fighting Salem together.

During his lifetime with Norman, when Ozma first asked Jinn about how he could stop Salem,he was told disappointingly that he couldn’t stop Salem. Perhaps, this was Jinn hinting to Ozma that his role was never tostop Salem. Perhaps ultimately,Ozma’s true purpose was to survive long enough to the lifetime where he wouldbe able to protect or more or less support and fight beside the very person whois destined to stop Salem once and for all.

What would be interesting is if ultimately,maybe…just maybe---Oscar and Rubyworking together; supporting each other as one with the light of God that theyshare; might be what can turn the tides against Salem. Maybe their union will the key in some shapeor form. Then again, this is just me spouting my theories as usual.

Overall, if Rosegarden as a fated pair is a direction that the Writers (particularly Miles andKerry since they are the two seniorwriters who sparked this bond in the first place back during V5) wish totake these two kids then that’s awesome. Brilliant even.

Obviously I’m more in favour of them falling in love andending up together-together. Hand over my kingdom of hearts, this squiggle meister is definitely rootingfor Ruby and Oscar to have their own fairy-tale love story (that would have ahappier ending than the first one) and I am unapologetically biased aboutthat.

I’m not even gonna try and deny my bias. Shoot,my bias has probably been showing since I started typing this response XD Whatcan I say? I love me a good, wholesome, fluffy lovey-dovey romance and I thinka puppy love story or union between our twosmaller, more honest souls would be…well…a match made by the Gods (y’see what I did thar? 8V)

Hoooooooooooowever…, for whatever reason, shoulda romance NOT happen for Rosegarden and in the end, they just end up being two equallygod-tier characters who support each other dearly and share one of the bestestfriendships in the whole series, then… I’d be fine with that too.

Not as flamboyant as “a match made by the Gods” but still sweet because it’s these twobeans.

Disappointing, yes, but not as catastrophically devastating as I’veseen other shippers react to not seeing their favourite pairs come to fruition.

Basically what I’m trying to say here bottom-lineis that I’m not going to lose my shit ifthe CRWBY Writers don’t make Rosegarden endgame.

Yes, my Rosegardening shipping kokoro would bebrokoro buuuuuuuuuuuut….that wouldn’t really stop me from adoring RG orshipping it any less than I always have.

In the end, I’ll respect whatever direction the Writers decide to take thisfavourite ship of mine; platonic, romantic, somewhere in between or otherwise.

I’ve been in enough fandoms to know that canon endgame DOESN’T necessarily mean THEEND OF A SHIP. There are a lot of ships that I’ve seen survive and thriveregardless of the canon (for example: Zutarafrom Avatar the Last Airbender , Sheith from Voltron: Legendary Defender and Kachaako from My HeroAcademia).

So even if Ruby and Oscar doesn’t become a couplein the canon, it won’t really change my feelings toward their ship. The most Ican say is the same that I’ve always said about RG:

I’m here to see where Ruby and Oscar go in their current relationship with each other andI’ll support it regardless of whatever happens.

I hope this answers your question anon-chan.

~LittleMissSquiggles(2020)

#squiggles answers: rwby #oscar pine #ruby rose #oscar and ruby #rwby rosegarden #rwby volume 8 theories #Anon-ninja #squiggles answers

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helihi · 4 years

Text

The Good, The Bad, and The Dirty: RWBY Vol 6 Ep 8

I WAS RIGHT ABOUT BEING WORRIED. PLZ KELIN BE SAFE.

Overall rating: 5/10

Spoilers Ahead

The Good

One thing that the CRWBY had gotten right since day 1 was the family dynamics and the depiction of abuse in the Schnee household. I don’t say this lightly: I personally know what is to grow up in an abusive household. When I heard Weiss be so hard on herself in Forever Fall during those first episodes, I knew she likely had an abusive parent.

When analyzing a show, especially when one touches on very delicate subjects, it’s a huge sign of disrespect not to dive into them and extract everything you can from the themes. In this case, it gets personal.

Tumblr is an odd place: a site where anonymity and honesty blend together in an odd way. For years, I used this username as a way to put myself out there without endangering myself, but as I grew up and started using the internet to find a job, it was hard to separate this personal little hole I dug for myself and the projects I had in mind for the future. Today, I make choice while doing this review, and that choice is sharing with you part of my childhood, and the reason behind it is to state my bias: I don’t feel empathy for Willow, even before she was introduced I felt she was the worse mother in team RWBY. That, in the short future might change, but here are the reasons why:

Jacques Schnee is an awful person. He’s a terrible businessman, an abusive husband, and an abusive father. He left a mark on all of his family members: his wife turned to drinking, his oldest daughter joined the military to escape him and put herself in harm’s way to protect her younger sister, her second daughter hated herself and didn’t trust anyone around her, and his son mirrored his behavior to protect himself.

However, an abusive household can have more relationships than just “an abuser and his victims”, it can also be “an abuser, an enabler, and their victims”. I don’t mean to say the enabler is not a victim themselves, but their secondary role has an important impact in the life of children.

So here’s my truth: my mother is abusive and my father is an enabler. I don’t know how it happened, but my mother’s violent and hurtful behavior was first downplayed by my father, then it was dismissed, and, in odd times, it was mirrored. A while ago, Lindsay Ellis made a video about Guardians of the Galaxy 2. There’s one quote that always resonated with me:

“The dynamic between Gamora and Nebula might read as familiar for people who grew up in households with abusive or addicted parents, and that is the displacement of anger from the abuser (...) to an older sibling or parent that failed to stop the abuser or the addict. (...) It can be even harder for people to forgive a sibling or a parent who failed to stop abuse than it is to forgive the abuser.” - Lindsay Ellis on Gamora and Nebula’s relationship.

That being said, I don’t, in any way shape or form, believe that Willow is worse than Jacques. However, before you’re quick to defend her or “protect her” remember that she allowed her husband to harm their children as much as he could. At no point did she ever stand up, or seek help; maybe it was because of shame or the need to uphold an image to the outside viewer, but the truth remains: she failed her children.

I’m not saying that Willow was in an easy position, due to her dependency on alcohol and her lack of confidence in herself, we all know that she’s a victim herself, but that will never excuse her behavior in my eyes. When my grandfather became dangerous to my mother and aunt, my grandma packed everything and disappeared with her daughters despite her fear. She made a very risky choice: to move to another province with no job offer and without knowing anyone, but she kept herself and her daughters safe.

My father never put a stop to my mother, and if he ever did, he never was there to make my brother and I feel better or to tell us that we weren’t at fault. I never knew my household was toxic until I started spending more time at my friends’ house (something that my mom wasn't a fan of). It was then that I realized my friends were not scared of their mother’s “wrath” as I was with mine. It was after years of learning this that I realized the reason why I suffer from an anxiety disorder and had suffered from several panic attacks.

Now, I want to draw your attention to a very important scene of this episode, the most important for me: Winter breaks and shouts at her father when under pressure. We’ve never seen her like this. Even her petty quarrel with Qrow didn’t have the same weight to it, and I can tell you why because I’ve lived through it myself:

When you can recognize your abuser’s tactics, and see how they try to gaslight/hurt you or the people you care about after being outside of that toxic environment, you go back to the child you were when you had to live through that. It was like time had never passed. You may get scared or, like me and Winter, you explode.

Winter might have found a surrogate father and a plan outside the Schnee name, but in reality, she’s still at Jacques mercy, more so than Weiss, like I said before. Though it feels great to be right, I cannot describe how miserable seeing the Schnees makes me.

With that finished, I want to move on to what Willow said to Weiss about her and Whitley:

She’s able to recognize that’s better for her children not to be at home, but just like time and time again, she’s an observer, not an active player. She likely saw Weiss leave with the help of Klein, but at no point in time was there for her daughter. So, thanks Willow, for nothing.

Willow is right about Whitley, however it is infuriating that she’s putting his life on his sisters’ shoulders. “You left him here with us.” For fUCKS SAKE. I am doing my best not to go on a rant here, but this whole phrase truly angers me. WHITLEY IS NOT WINTER OR WEISS RESPONSIBILITY, IT NEVER WAS.

I always tried to shield my siblings from my parents’ wrath, but this is not a responsibility you should put in a child. I don’t fucking care if Winter and Weiss are adults, they are victims dealing with their trauma, and though we are all sure Weiss is going to help her brother, that’s not her job. It shouldn’t be her fucking job.

For me, if there was any way for Willow to be somewhat “redeemed” in my eyes, it would be by protecting at least 1 of her fucking children. Say what you want about Raven, she’s an asshole, a manipulator, and a coward, but at least she was there to protect Yang when Neo was about to murder her.

Also, Imma add this here: A kind anon informed me that the vodka that Willow drinks is labeled “Six Swans”, which is a fairy tale written by the Grimm brothers in which a Princess (later Queen) works in silence for years to set her family free from a curse.

If that’s true, then Willow’s cameras will bring Jacques down for treason and the Schnees will be free of him.

So, after all of that, I’m fucking delighted that Winter spoke out during the meeting. People pointed out that Robyn was happy at that, which means that she likely now knows that Ironwood doesn’t trust Jacques, and she will trust on the bees word more than she did last episode.

Don’t think I miss the flirting between Qrow and Clover. It’s so good to see Qrow opening up and refusing alcohol.

The Bad

Fancy dinner everyone! Except no one in the gang is dressed for the occasion. It makes sense for Ironwood, Winter, and Clover to go in uniform, but the kids have no freaking excuse. Everyone was wearing dresses/suits, except for them. Was it too expensive to suit the gang up, CRWBY?

I don’t like the exaggerated movements of the whole JN_R operation. They could’ve gone the classy spy way, but I guess we need cheap laughs.

Unfortunately, after having a steady episode duration, the writers pull a move from their old books and cut a possible whole episode/special into two for cheap cliff hangers. There’s no reason this episode had to be only 15 minutes and end in the middle of the dinner party. It’s just stupid. This episode only has buildup, no middle, and no end.

I’ve taken a lot of points off this episode because of that cheap trick, I can’t believe they went back to it after doing so well previously.

The Dirty

A long as table and barely anyone there, the fuck???!!!!!!

Also where the fuck is KLEIN IF HE’S NOT SAFE I FUCKING QUIT.

Overall rating: 5/10

AN: We don’t talk about the Schnees.

#rwby #rwby7 #the good the bad and the dirty #Jacques schnee #Winter schnee #Willow Schnee #me

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thornsnfeathers · 4 years

Text

never been through a rwby hiatus so right now i’m dealing with imagining what next season might entail, so i have to jot down some of my thoughts before i go insane. /after/ the keep reading line, because this will probably get pretty long.

i was wondering... since we know exactly NOTHING at all about clover’s life i do feel like we will have flashbacks with him and ironwood and 3/4 of the ace ops (i think marrow joined the rest recently)

james still is the academy’s headmaster after all, and i do feel like clover, harriet, elm and vine were a team at that school, like rwby and jnpr. aside elm and vine that still work as a pair, clover and harriet would be the other pair because he would be pretty good at setting her up (like we saw in the geist battle scene in v7e03) and, before marrow and his semblance, he’d be a solid counterpart to her style of fighting.

clover said TWO times that he trusts ironwood with his life and you don’t commit that much to someone that is just your boss, you know? so i’m guessing james saved their (the team) lives in one way or the other. maybe clover was like jaune - not supposed to be in the academy but got in anyway because the headmaster saw his potential? or maybe he was in a rough situation and he gave him a way out? thinking about that, i suppose this team would be a parallel to jnpr, even though he'd be pyrrha (”someone had to take the fall”.................. the fall....... fall................................................................ *sighs* goddamn it show, so that’s why he said that very awkward sentence uh). then the very clear parallel between nora & ren and elm & vine, and with harriet being the jaune of the team. i guess i can see a parallel between those last two in how full of rage they get; as of right now i can’t think of something else beside them being paired with the uh, with the dead ones. (please don’t make harriet/clover a thing, i’ll throw the whole show in a garbage can and then put it on fire)

all of this was to make the point of how james will react to clover’s death. the thing is, if he’s less than devastated i’d be surprised. the only people he considers close (?), as of the end of v7, are winter and him and she has basically started slipping away from his grasp just by letting her sister&ruby and penny, the MAIDEN, go and giving them time to run. clover was THE most loyal to him, and that loyalty and trust costed him his life. his death will probably be the breaking point for ironwood (and the rest of the ace ops) next season. because, taking this back to the previous paragraph, clover would also have been a student in his school. he’d have chosen him to BE there and to be a team leader. and then appointed him as the leader of HIS PRIVATE ELITE TEAM. that’s... so many things. i’m not sure how wide the age gap between the two is/was but i’m going to guess that he did consider him... what, a protegé? a younger sibling? who knows. but he’d still care about him and his safety.

the thing about ironwood is... so far, he hasn’t lost someone close to him. glynda is god’s-knows-where in beacon, with ozpin he always had a difficult relationship (and we saw how THAT went when he shot a kid), leonardo seemed like someone that had lost contacts with the world and in general it didn’t sound like they were friends at any point? and him and qrow are also an entire different thing with them being polar opposites, and qrow is still alive. everything that james has sacrificed, so far, has been away from him, emotionally. mantle, robyn, the rest of remnant... none of that affects HIM. but clover? clover was one of few people (i’d add penny too but it doesn’t seem like he considers her like an actual person) he trusted with the info about the relics and the maidens. he only has his mind set on salem and for him to put his trust on someone means the world.

loyalty is EVERYTHING to him. that’s the literal one thing he cares about on a personal level. it’s what is close to him. and he just lost the only one person that actually put the same loyalty he demanded from others and what did that accomplish? nothing at all. tyrian has escaped, he can’t get to the staff, salem is on her way to destroy atlas, rwby+jnor have ran away with the maiden. but he died, following his orders.

edit (10/06th): i changed my mind on several things from this last part but i’m keeping it as a reminder to myself i guess? keep james alive please //so the theory of clover coming back with ironwood sacrifing himself makes a lot of sense. will it happen? only crwby knows. it would be a small way to redeem his character and not have him as a full blown villain.

another thing i’d expect from v8 is fair game related and yet another parallel to bumbleby: we had yang have ptsd related to adam, i’m fairly positive qrow will have nightmares on his last encounter with tyrian as well. i don’t think he fully realizes what clover meant to him. yet. so v8 will probably be about him discovering himself and clearing up what his feelings are and, hopefully, he will be able to have clover back in his life. and so they will have their second chance to make it right.//

#james ironwood #clover ebi #fair game #rwby meta #?? idk #rwby #i spent two hours writing this and trying to make sense of what i've been thinking about these last few days #i hope i managed to make it clear #if you read this then a) i'm sorry b) uuhh thanks for indulging me #anyway i'll try to actually draw fair game later today #fingers crossed

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dragynkeep · 3 years

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defense of whitley schnee.

& weiss you suck, holy shit i cannot believe this is a controversial opinion at all.

with the latest episode of rwby, 8x04, aptly named fault; we were given the scene towards the end of the show where weiss & her entourage consisting of ruby, blake & an unconscious via electrocution nora seek refuge in her former home & find only whitley there. he informs them that the staff have left & willow has locked herself inside her room. when whitley is snarky & combative to his older sister, weiss makes the delightful choice to point her loaded, military grade weapon in his face & then orders him to go to his room.

in short : this scene is disgusting. i have no doubt it’s another of crwby’s “””humourous””” scenes or at least what passes for their attempts at humour nowadays & even so, it is still disgusting. especially when you put it in context of their family dynamics, past interactions, differing power dynamics & levels & the current situation whitley has found himself in.

now to start off, i’ve seen plenty of defense for weiss when people have been faced with the appropriate reaction of what the actual fuck, weiss? ranging from “well if i was dealing with that little shitlord” to “they’re siblings, my siblings & i have done worse to each other” to “well, weiss isn’t his mom !!!1!” all of these excuses are piss poor. they ignore everything i laid out up above about the context of the scene & honestly, about the characters themselves. i understand the need to try & defend a favourite character, weiss has been the only one i could stand for the past few volumes out of the main girls but this scene was incredibly shitty & shows a nasty side of her that the writers probably don’t see anything wrong with. considering this episode was written by eddy ... yeah. so, since we need to defend a 14 year old, unarmed, abused child from a fndm that apparently sees nothing wrong with brutality from what’s basically a cop, let’s go through them.

if i was dealing with that little shitlord / okay but he was mean to her once / he was being a brat.

i simply do not know how to tell people that even if someone is being petty to you, you do not get to point a loaded, military grade weapon in their faces. yes, i understand that they were on the run & nora was severely injured; but jesus christ ruby managed to get through to whitley just by treating him like a human being & not an annoyance. maybe you should try it weiss.

some people hold a grudge against whitley for him “being snarky” to weiss; ignoring the fact that for a majority of his life she has not been there. like willow said last volume, weiss left. not only did she leave, but she left him alone with two abusers. no, it is not weiss’s responsibility to care for whitley & i would never wish that to be put upon her, but she cannot act blind about why he might have just the smallest chip on his shoulder. he was left behind to jacques narcissism & abuse, willow’s neglect & disinterest while miring in her alcoholism & as far as he cared; two sisters who abandoned him. pair this with jacques doing what narcissistic abusers do, applying the roles of golden child & scapegoats, then it makes perfect sense why he acts the way he does. & just to lay it out; whitley did not cause weiss’s disinheritance. she did that, through her own actions. whitley is in no way shape or form to blame for weiss’s brashness getting her disinherited & some of you need to get that into your skulls quick sharp.

even if whitley had done all he was accused of; at the end of the day, he is a fourteen year old child who is unarmed, abandoned, auraless & a civilian. if certain huntsmen can be compared to cops then weiss, who had the power to arrest her abusive father, can also most definitely be considered a cop to. this is not the first instance of her brutality against civilians & whether or not if you think the victims “deserved it”; that doesn’t matter. we don’t get to decide who deserves to be protected from brutality & who doesn’t. pointed a loaded weapon in a child’s face is disgusting. end of story.

they’re siblings, my siblings & i have done worse to each other !!

weiss & whitley are not you & your sibling(s). end of story. not all sibling interactions can be generalized across the board, especially in instances of abuse where narcissistic dynamics of the golden child vs scapegoat are in play. weiss & whitley canonically have a very fraught relationship where they barely know each other, have clashed over weiss’s chosen profession & have had clashes where weiss was disinherited & whitley had wine thrown over him ( which in context of their mutual alcoholic mother is a giant fucking oof & was also never funny, crwby just stop. )

even if they did have that type of relationship like we’ve seen with other siblings in the show; there is a difference between playful roughhousing or fights that escalate to minimal violence vs once again, pointing an armed military grade weapon in your defenseless younger sibling’s face & treating him like he’s beneath you & a hindrance. this is not okay. this is not teehee funny or acceptable on weiss’s part. if your relationship with your sibling ends up in serious or life threatening violence; that is also not okay. that is dangerous, that goes beyond the scope of just “normal” sibling relationship boundaries & should be examined in closer detail before being used to excuse this incident.

well, weiss isn’t his mom !!!1!

the final point & one i actually agree with; weiss isn’t whitley’s mom. & she shouldn’t act like one. like i said, right after the scene where she points her weapon at whitley’s face, she orders him to go to his room. like a mother, only their mother has probably never done that because for a majority of whitley’s life, she’s been a useless drunk & he’s had to rely on the manor staff & his father to have his needs fulfilled.

but right now, he has none of that. the staff are gone, willow has locked herself in her room because of course that stupid drunk can’t step up to the plate & the only adult in his life that ever seemed to give a damn is gone because he was arrested by the sister who is now laying down the law in his home like she owns the place. whitley is far better off without jacques & honestly, willow too, in his life & we know this but he doesn’t. all whitley knows is gone. he has a right to be snarky to the older sister who only ever seems to cause trouble, especially when we don’t know how long it’s been since he’s eaten or hell even talked to someone. imagine being hungry, alone in a giant, lonely mansion with your only guardian actively ignoring you, only for your older sibling to come home & immediately treat you like you’re the dirt on the bottom of her shoe.

it’s kind of disturbing how easily weiss slips into the gaping hole left behind by jacques arrest to play that domineering figure in whitley’s life; just look at how this scene basically paralleled the one of jacques telling whitley to get lost in v7 when arthur showed up. knowingly or not, weiss is mirroring the actions of their mutual abuser & furthering those shitty actions onto whitley because no one has thought that he might need a way out too.

i honestly do think of whitley was whitney; that this scene would’ve played out a lot different in fndm perception. just look at the perception of “abusive winter” because she bopped weiss on the head in v3, mirroring ruby fucking decking yang when they were rough housing in v1. neither of those situations are abusive because there is not a difference in power dynamic, at least not one that drastically affects the ability to speak up or retaliate; but for whitley & weiss there is. not only in age, but in weaponry, training, status in society, etc. in every one of those, weiss ranks higher than whitley & she has an inherent power over him.

& she used it to drive him further away. that’s not something to be excused.

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby 8 #whitley schnee #weiss schnee #weiss schnee critical #pro whitley schnee #owl.txt #btches making me write this at 4am #to combat stupid ass takes #smh

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littlemisssquiggles · 5 years

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Whit-ty Headcanons: Whitley and Weiss Drifted Apart

The Steven Universe Stan Side of My Brain: Still thinking about Spinel and her song ‘Drift Away’ about her abandonment by Pink Diamond who she thought was her friend.

The Whit Side of My Brain: Yeah but like…imagine if Whitley’s relationship with Weiss growing up in Schnee Manor was the same as Spinel and Pink?Imagine if Whitley felt abandoned by Weiss after failing to realize how much the two had drifted apart over the years or that they never truly had a bond at all since Weiss never really loved him? Picture Whitley singing ‘Drift Away’. Don’t you think the lyrics could fit him?

The Headcanoning Side of My Brain: *immediately grabs keyboard and starts vigorously typing*

In the beginning, my main headcanon for Whitley was that once upon a time, he and Weiss actually used to get along when they were much younger until an incident involving their father caused them to drift apart. In more recent times, I’ve started leaning more towards the idea that from the moment he was born, Whitley has had a somewhat strained relationship with Weiss that had very little to do with him and more with Weiss’s perception of him due to how he was treated by their father.

My idea was that since Whitley was the only boy child, he was often given more special treatment by Jacques than his sisters. Yes I know that one of the main theories for Whitley is that he’s secretly being abuse by his father. While I personally am still holding onto that theory too, this is not the topic of my headcanon.

The idea I had in mine is that Whitley was always treated better by Jacques than his sisters. In the sense that Jacques rarely got as angry or as malicious with Whitley as he did with Weiss and Winter. Perhaps Whitley was the spoiled one of the three siblings and since he was always placed on a higher pedestal than his sisters in a sense, this caused Winter and Weiss to look at Whitley differently and have a poor perception of him.

The spoiled apple of the bunch that didn’t fall too far from the tree---rotten to the core.

The idea I had is that since their father always favoured Whitley more than her, this caused Weiss to always think poorly of her brother to the point that any gesture that Whitley made to get close to his sister was always met with coldness and annoyance.

To me I’m picturing a moment where a young Weiss is probably playing with a toy. She looks like she’s having fun and her excitement encourages Whitley to want to play with her. So Whitley wants to play with the toy with Weiss however Weiss isn’t too keen on playing with Whitley. So she tells Whitley she doesn’t want to play with him. This upsets Whitley. He cries and Whitley’s outcries results in Weiss getting in trouble because of Whitley. Weiss is sent to her room on punishment leaving poor Whitley alone with the toy.

Perhaps Klein is there to play with the toy with Whitley. However Whitley is disinterested in playing with toy since his objective wasn’t to play with it alone or even with Klein. He wanted to spend some time with his sister. But as always, she didn’t want anything to do with him.

This is how I pictured Weiss and Whitley’s relationship. Years of Whitley reaching out to grow close to his big sister only to be given the cold shoulder with every attempt. Weiss would always close the door in on Whitley, no matter how many times he tried and no matter how many attempts he made to show her that his kindness is genuine.

My theory is that because Whitley is such a ‘daddy’s boy’, Weiss probably sees him exactly like their father. Manipulative. Cruel and insincere. As I rightfully phrased it, rotten to the core, right?

And because she has this perceived idea of her brother, Weiss has always treated him that way. The only time she let her guard down was in V4 and…admittedly, I still think the events leading up to Weiss thinking Whitley had betrayed her were…odd.

I am a Whit, not just cause I’ve learned to like Whitley due to finding his character mildly fascinating. But in all honestly, I think Whitley doesn’t deserve ANY of the hate he gets from the FNDM since he literally did NOTHING wrong.

He didn’t cause Jacques to punish Weiss yet she accused him of it anyways. And like a fool, Whitley didn’t even attempt to deny the claims against him.

It was…so awkwardly done that I’m sorry. I just don’t think Whitley is a bad person. This is why I’m an advocate for Whitley being the Nebula to Weiss’ Gamora.

He just wants his sisters to love him the same way they love each other. They’re always leaving him behind and for Whitley’s sake, I hope V7 actually spends some time developing him and showing more of his past with Weiss instead of pulling the usual thing of only focusing on Weiss and Winter’s relationship.

I get it. Weiss and Winter are sisters. They looked out for each other. Winter looked out for Weiss and supported her. She’s her closest family member. Yada! Yada! I GET IT!

So much that I’m actually bored with the Weiss and Winter’s dynamic since every material with Weiss focuses on her relationship with her Winter as a plot point.

Is it so bad that I’d love to learn more about what her past was like with Whitley? Is it so bad that I want V7 to focus more on Weiss and Whitley while Winter and Weiss take a backseat for a chang?

As a matter of fact, can I get both sisters learning to care for their little brother? Can I get that CRWBY?

I still believe that the negative impression Weiss has of her brother isn’t true. Whitley is the black sheep of the Schnee Siblings. The one always left behind and in the dark by his sisters.

But I’d love to think that Whitley is no different than his sisters. This is why I dig my headcanon of Whitley awakening his family’s semblance but using it on behalf of his father’s evil deeds.

I like the irony of Whitley believing that being a huntsman is barbaric but using his family power to dish out crime for his father isn’t. I think that could be an interesting twist for Whit and a cool way for Weiss to get invested in his well-being. Just as how Jacques used Weiss before, I like the idea of him using Whitley too. Using him for his power since he’s the only Schnee child with Nick’s amazing semblance that he can control.

I really dig this idea for Whitley’s story and would love to see something like it for V7. But alas…only time will tell.

As for the connection between Whit and Spinel. I just can’t shake this imagined scene in my head where Whit used to be like Spinel in a way. Growing up, all he ever wanted was to be friends with Weiss. He wanted her to love him. Or at least like him. But Weiss would always push him away. So much so that the more Whit tried to be close to her, the further she’d drift away from him.

Till one day, she was gone. She had left him to go to Beacon. To start a whole new life away from him without him. To make new friends and learn to love them in a way she never loved him. And she’d be occasionally watched over by Winter. The other sister who had left Whitley behind.They’d still be together while Whitley is just...left behind as always.

Isn’t that lovely? Isn’t that cool and isn’t that cruel and wouldn’t that make Whitley a fool for happily waiting…happily stayed. Happily watched his sisters drift away and leave him behind in the cold, like always.

I don’t blame Whit for staying close to Jacques. Poor kid probably feels abandoned by all the women in his life. Makes me pray that Whit is close with Klein at least and it’s Klein who spills the beans to Weiss on poor Whit and what Jacques forces him to do with his powers if my headcanon is true. But eyyy…we’ll see I guess.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

#rwby #whitley schnee #weiss schnee #rwby theories #rwby volume 7 theories #winter schnee #whitty headcanons

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littlemisssquiggles · 6 years

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Pinehead Headcanons: Oscar’s Legacy: The Pinerose Children

keyenuta asked “Hey meister squiggle, what do you think oscar and ruby’s kids would look and act like in your opinion. I am really interested in your thoughts. And as a bonus how wiykd oscar and ruby’s future relationship be like? “

Squiggles Answers:

@keyenuta Aah yes, the RoseGarden future kiddos.

Lots of fellow RG-shippers have their own interpretations of Oscar and Ruby’s potential offspring. And funnily enough, so does this squiggle meister so I’m glad you asked me this question, Key. Gives me an opportunity to share my ideas for the RG kids. So let’s get into it:

Alright, so I kind of have an inkling of a story for a Future RWBY AU. I’ll call my version, N.O.V.A because it’s the name of the huntsmen team that one of the RoseGarden children is a part of. If RoosterTeeth and the CRWBY ever decided to expand the RWBY franchise and give us a spin-off series taking place years later that follows the children of Team RWBY and JNPR, then I think that could be another awesome way of growing the RWBY universe. But that’s just me.

In my N.O.V.A universe, Ruby and Oscar got married ten years after the Death of Salem and like most couples, settled down to start a family together under the last name: Pinerose, a combination of their surnames as a symbol of their union.

“What would Ruby and Oscar’s future relationship be like?”

Well, in my interpretation, I’d imagine Ruby and Oscar having a pretty great marriage. I mean I don’t expect them to have the most sugarcoated, cardboard cut-out, dream house perfect marriage. They’ll still have their fair share of trials and triumphs and occasional disagreements like any average couple would. However in my head, Ruby and Oscar share a nice, comfortable and happy marriage that’s built on a strong relationship of trust, honesty and loyalty that started from since they were young huntsmen training and fighting alongside each other as brethren-in-combat. And this bond only strengthened when they became husband and wife.

And of course, there is the unyielding love they share for each other. The kind of love where if one of them suddenly died or disappeared off the face of Remnant, not only will the other be devastated by this loss but they would also become determined to do everything in their power to find their lost companion.

The idea I had for N.O.V.A is that prior to the story, Ruby Rose sacrifices herself during an incident that almost destroyed the Beacon Academy for a second time in Remnant history. She was then never seen again after that night. Though many believed the former Silver Eyed huntress to be dead, since her corpse was never salvaged from the wreckage of Beacon, there is an underlining mystery surrounding her untimely demise that sets the stage for the plot of this future AU of mine.

My concept is that N.O.V.A takes place a year after Ruby’s alleged death. It is told through the eyes of one of the Pinerose children who is our main protagonist and follows their story as they start their first year of huntsmen training at the new Beacon Academy. Beyond this, the narrative also touches on storylines that highlight how Ruby’s family and closest friends (like her former teammates of Team RWBY and JNPR) are coping and moving on with their lives after losing her all wrapped up in a strange enigma that begs the question, what really happened to Ruby Rose.

That’s the idea I had. Speaking of Pinerose family…

“What do you think Oscar and Ruby's kids would look and act like in your opinion?”

Aww yeah, here’s the fun part. So for me, I pictured Oscar and Ruby having four kids: two boys and two girls. In N.O.V.A, the names of Ruby and Oscar kids are Ozma, Scarlett, Oliver and Ivy.

The Pinerose Siblings:

Ozma II

[TBD]

Scarlett

Scarlett Pinerose is the second oldest of the three Pinerose children. She got her name for her most striking feature---her long, wavy scarlet red hair that’s almost as long as she was tall. When I picture Scarlett, I see her having hair so long that it would give Weiss Schnee a run for her money since Weiss has the longest hair of any character I’ve seen in RWBY so far.

As a matter of fact; at some point in Scarlett’s childhood, her aunt (and godmother) Weiss had to intervene in her upbringing when her parents allowed Scarlett’s hair to get so long, the girl was practically tripping over her own hair at some point; insisting she got a haircut, something that Scarlett didn’t like at first. In my head, Scarlett isn’t fond about cutting her hair, a sentiment and understanding she shared with her Aunt Yang. Fortunately, her Aunt Weiss had decent hair styling skills and would often help educate Scarlett on how to care for her long hair since she herself is no stranger to long luxurious locks.

In terms of appearance, I pictured Scarlett more taking after her mother in looks. The only exception is the colour of her skin. I imagined her skin tone being a mix of her parents. As a matter of fact, I pictured both Pinerose girl children sharing a complexion that is closer to their father’s tanned skin tone while the son, Oliver, inherited his mother’s lighter skin tone.

In regards to Scarlett, older Oscar would always joke and say “…At least one of my kids turned out more like me but I’m happy she’s as beautiful as her mother though…”

This is going to sound odd, but another idea I had for Scarlett is that, she was like Pyrhha Nikos reborn as Oscar and Ruby’s first daughter. As a matter of fact, in N.O.V.A, Scarlett’s full name is Scarlett Pyrhha Pinerose with Ruby honouring her former huntress by give her first daughter her name. She had originally wanted to name her Pyrhha but since Jaune wanted to name his first daughter after Pyrhha, as she was his teammate; Ruby decided to make it Scarlett’s middle name instead.

So in N.O.V.A, both Ruby and Jaune have daughters sharing the name Pyrhha. Double the tribute to their former friend.

However, the irony is that Scarlett is more like Pyrhha than Jaune��s own daughter Pyrhha. Personality-wise, Scarlett shares Pyrhha’s selfless and kind-hearted nature making her quite friendly and sociable. She is also an exceptional fighter.

Scarlett is also much like her father, if Oscar inherited some of Ozpin’s personality traits after their fusion into the Wizard. Such as his calm and collected nature and his ability to remain resolute even in the direst of situations

At nineteen years old, Scarlett is a third year huntsmen studying at Shade Academy. In the story I concocted, Scarlett was originally a full-time student of Beacon Academy until the school was destroyed for the second time, rendering half the compound in shambles. It took almost an entire year for the school to be restored and during that time, the students had a choice of whether or not they wished to wait for the school to be repaired or continue their training elsewhere in one of the remaining huntsmen academies.

Scarlett, like many of her fellow third years, decided to temporarily continue her studies elsewhere during the year long hiatus and opted for Shade Academy since Vacuo was the closest kingdom to her family’s home in the Patch near Vale.

Another trait about Scarlett is that she was born ‘mute’ due to a complication during Ruby’s first pregnancy. Despite this, Scarlett never allowed her disability to hold her back. I got the idea to make Scarlett a badass mute after seeing how cool of character General Amaya from the new Netflix series: The Dragon Prince is.

For N.O.V.A, Scarlett is also the leader of her huntsmen team: Team SLVR and one of her teammates, a boy named Victor is also her best friend who acts as her ‘voice’ amongst their group. Despite lacking a voice of her own, that’s never stopped Scarlett from making her presence known. I imagined Scarlett to be fierce, determined but above all else, she is a kind and compassionate young woman who strongly values her friends and family because she considers them her greatest strength.

Speaking of which, Scarlett is especially close to her family. Being the first born child and big sister, she shares close ties with every member of her family household. She is especially close with her siblings, more so Oliver than Ivy since the two are two years apart. Scarlett was also once close to her mother, Ruby, which was why her ‘death’ hurt her just as much as everyone else.

Though she never allowed it to break her down too much especially after seeing the pain the news took on their father. As the oldest, she had the responsibility of being the pillar that kept her household from falling apart.

There was even a point when she considered quitting becoming a huntress in order to care for her family since firstly, her father, Oscar, was a complete mess, spending most of his days in bed following a meltdown over losing Ruby that left him, less of himself.

Secondly, her little sister hadn’t started combat school as yet and still needed to be looked after whereas lastly, Oliver was in his final year of combat school and…wasn’t doing so well himself emotionally since their mother’s passing left him more angry than anything and he would often get himself into reckless trouble while trying to cope with that anger.

So because of this, Scarlet had to become the glue to hold everyone together as best as she could.

But it was eventually the wise words of her Aunt Yang and the encouragement of her grandfather Tai Yang and great-uncle Qrow that convinced Scarlett to resume her training under the implication that it’s what her mother would’ve wanted for her to do. Yang told Scarlett that her sister would’ve wanted her oldest daughter to honour her memory and press on for the greater good of mankind rather than allowing her to be what holds her back.

So Scarlett returned to school with the promise from Yang, Qrow and Tai that they would keep an eye on her family while she focused on her training.

Tai looked after Ivy, Qrow dealt with Oscar and Yang knocked some sense---I mean disciplined Oliver.

Oliver

Oliver Pinerose is the only son of Oscar and Ruby. In appearance, Oliver takes the most after Oscar of all his children. You can almost say that Oliver is the spitting image of his father at seventeen years old but with Ruby’s hair colour. Like his father, Oliver is freckly and shares a face full of freckles.

Oliver is also the only one of the Pinerose children to inherit his mother’s Silver Eyed powers. However the idea I had is that for the longest while, no one believed Oliver was a Silver-Eyed Warrior because technically he doesn’t have silver eyes. On the contrary, Oliver’s eyes are hazel brown with a bit of grey around the iris. But just as how Yang’s eyes used to turn red like her mother’s whenever angry, Oliver’s eyes would turn silver when channelling his Silver Eyed power or…at least that’s the idea I had in my head.

I also figured that, as a tribute to Ozpin, Oscar would give his son Ozpin’s original name. I’ve had this long-standing theory that Ozpin is only an alias that the old wizard carried for himself and shared with his successors. I figured that like his many other forms; Ozpin too had an original name before becoming Ozpin. I figured once Oscar learnt that name, he’d give it to his only son so that a piece of Ozpin’s legacy would carry with his son as well. So Oliver’s full name would be Oliver [Insert Ozpin’s true name here] Pinerose.

At seventeen years old, Oliver is the proclaimed ‘wild child’ of the Pinerose Family. Though he looks the most like his father out of the three siblings, Oliver shares a lot in common with his mother in terms of character. Like picture a gender-bent version of Ruby Rose only more hyperactive, more prone to trouble with a bit of hot temper and tendency to perform daringly crazy stunts when provoked enough.

If I had to surmise my concept for Oliver’s character in one phrase, it would be ‘…A huntsmen eager to be the hero whose heart is always in the right place and while his actions mean well, often times, the way he decides to go about things is what puts him in the most trouble…’

For example: Oliver would be the type of guy who would willingly go out of his way to return a wallet to a person after being stolen. But would also secretly swipe a few hundred lien from said wallet to give to the homeless person he noticed the wallet owner callously refusing to give money to for food earlier on.

But more times than none, the way he chooses to go about helping others and the lengths he’s willing to go to accomplish that---while some might call Oliver heroic. Others, especially the people who care about him the most and acknowledge his rash nature, like his father, might find him dangerous. A lose canon. A hazard to himself and if not to careful, others who might look to him as an ally.

It’s for this reason why Oliver and his father, Oscar, don’t often see eye to eye. In N.O.V.A, Oliver and Oscar have a somewhat strained relationship as father and son. Both Oliver and Oscar share very different ideologies of what it means to be a hero and what needs to be done for the greater good of protecting others.

Don’t get me wrong, Oliver and Oscar are close, as close as any father and son could be but their different ways of thinking often cause them to butt heads. Sounds familiar?

This doesn’t mean Oliver hates his father (though he often acts like he might) nor does it mean Oscar loves his son any less than he does all of his children. Their relationship is just, very complicated and it was only made worse by the events that took Ruby.

Ruby meant a lot to Oliver. To him, she was more than just his loving mother that would bake his favourite chocolate chip cookies whenever he was sad or stay up till way past his bedtime having pretend sword fights with him where she pretended to be the dastardly villain to his valiant hero.

She was more than the woman who trained him to be a scythe wielder just like her and never got angry with him whenever he’d mess up during his training; especially during the two times he accidentally shot Grunkle Qrow trying to use Crescent Rose for practice.

More than the woman who would act out stories of her most daring adventures to him and his sisters when they were children. More than the woman who once shouted from the rooftops of their house in the Patch of how proud she was of her son when he got accepted into combat school when she was still pregnant with his baby sister, nearly giving both his father and his grandfather joint heart attacks. More than the woman who was also his best friend.

She was his hero. The person who inspired him to become a huntsman in the first place and was the most supportive during his years of combat school training. Even during the times he messed up really bad. She was the one that saw past his so-called ‘dangerous’ persona like his father once described him and saw him for what he truly was---someone still worthy of being a great hero in spite of his flaws.

Oliver loved his mother and when she was taken away from him and his family, he was beyond crushed. He was furious. And unfortunately, losing his mother consequentially hurt his relationship with his father even more. In Oliver’s head, he believes his father had abandoned their mother. Even when Oliver disclosed to him his suspicions that Ruby was still alive somewhere and practically begged his father to help him find her, what did he do?

Well first, he lay around in bed all day like a pussy (as Oliver put it) forcing his sister to quit school to do his job as head of their household. But what honestly hurt and angered Oliver the most was that even when he recovered, all Oscar did was return to the title that, according to Oliver, was apparently more important to him than being husband to the best huntress in Remnant and his own father. Being the great and powerful Headmaster of Beacon Academy.

However, being headmaster doesn’t mean that Oscar neglects Oliver. On the contrary, Oscar spends more time worrying over his son (and by extension his huntsmen team) than any other student at Beacon. So much so that his own vice headmistress has to often scold him for his lack of professionalism in differentiating his duties as a headmaster and as a father.

Oliver’s reckless persona coupled together with Oscar’s own misunderstanding of his son’s actions often causes him to be more protective of him. So as a result, Oscar is stricter with Oliver and more prone to keeping a watchful eye on him as opposed to his sisters. This, in turn, results in Oliver misunderstanding his father’s overbearing protectiveness for either not trusting him or not believing in his abilities as a huntsman. And the fact that Oscar happens to be the headmaster of the same huntsmen academy his son attends with all the power and ties in Remnant to put reigns on him doesn’t help either.

As mentioned, in the N.O.V.A universe, Oscar is the current Headmaster of Beacon Academy (because of course he would be), following in the former Ozpin’s footsteps. At Beacon, Oscar even prefers for the staff and students of the school to refer to him as Professor Ozpin reserving his real name: Oscar Pinerose for only his family and most trusted allies.

That doesn’t stop Oliver from referring to him by ‘Oscar’ (or more rudely, ‘Ass-car’) whenever speaking of the headmaster though. He doesn’t even call him ‘dad’ anymore. Just straight cut to his real name or a cruder nickname.

I know I make Oliver out to sound like a real brat but…at his core, he is a great person; I swear. Like I said, he’s a lot like Ruby. It’s just that when it comes to how things are between him and his father coupled together with Oliver’s obsession in finding his alleged missing mother, it brings out a different side of him that could either be interpreted as good or bad. That’s the concept I have for him.

Oh and as a final note, if you haven’t already guessed, Oliver is part of Team N.O.V.A that my RWBY Future AU is based on. He’s not the leader though. Then again Oliver never aspired to be team leader. All he desired was to be a part of an amazing group of huntsmen who would become his most trusted allies both on and off the battlefield, and who would ‘see the good in him when others don’t’ and/or ‘help him to stay on the straight path if he ever wavered’. And fortunately for Oliver, that’s exactly what he got and more.

Ivy

Last but not least, there is Ivy Pinerose. Full name Ivy Summer Pinerose. At thirteen years old, she is the youngest of the Pinerose Siblings---the baby of the bunch.

Appearance-wise, Ivy is a mix of both of her parents. Some days she looks more like Ruby however on most days, she resembles a female version of Oscar. Like her father, she has tanned skin (a little darker shade than her father’s complexion) and short black hair like her father’s that’s the same length as her mother’s hair when she was a teenager.

She also had freckles. Oliver and Ivy are the only two of the Pinerose kids to inherit their father’s trademark freckles though Ivy just has a couple on her nose and shoulders while her brother got the most of the freckle gene.

I also had this idea for the Pinerose kids inheriting their father’s eye colour. Oscar’s signature hazel eyes are on the most striking things about his appearance so I really love the idea of his children gaining that trait from him.

In my head, both Scarlet and Ivy have hazel eyes just like their father’s. The only exception is Oliver who takes after Ruby. Qrow did mention back in the canon series that having silver eyes is a rare trait. So out of the three kids, Oliver is the only one to gain his mother’s ability (despite technically not having silver eyes).

In terms of personality, I picture Ivy being pretty brainy for her age. She loves learning about everything around her. She’s very curious, sometimes to inappropriate levels. Because of her curious nature, growing up she had a habit of breaking things, like her toys (and sometimes her sibling’s things) apart in order to understand them better. Don’t worry. She always puts them back together after she fully learning understanding how they functioned…but only if her folks managed to catch her in time before she tried to ‘upgrade’ said object or use its parts towards an experimental project of hers. Ivy had a lot of those growing up. However her true love is huntsmen weapons.

Ivy loves admiring huntsmen weaponry just as much as she enjoys trying to craft her own as a hobby. Who do you think helped put mom’s Crescent Rose back in one piece after Oliver accidentally broke it when he was her age---an incident that coincidentally also led to Ivy assisting her brother in building his trademark scythe. It’s one of the ways, the two siblings bonded as kids. As an added note to Oliver’s character, he shares in his baby sister’s admiration for huntsmen weaponry but lacks the brains and skill to make his own. At least he can draw. Hence the appreciated sister from his brainiac, weapon-genius younger sister.

Making Oliver’s signature huntsmen scythe was one of the fondest memories Ivy had hanging out and collaborating with her big brother and sister while he was still at combat school. As the younger siblings, Ivy is close with Oliver and the two often keep in contact while he’s at Beacon Academy with Oliver confiding most of his adventures in his little sister.

When it comes to a battle of intelligence, Ivy’s main weapon is her mind…and her sass. But despite being smart, Ivy isn’t the most sociable person in the world. She’s outgoing enough get along very well with the members of her family but immediately becomes uncomfortable when having to interact with others outside of her family.

She isn’t the best at making friends…at least with anyone who wasn’t related to her in some shape or form. However for some strange reason, communicating with animals or animal-like creatures have never been a problem for Ivy.

I say animal-like creatures since animals, though existent, are also quite scarce in Remnant for some unexplained reason. We see more of the Grimm and the Faunus than we do of any actual animals. Makes me wonder if there is a connection to that but…I digress.

Anyways, it’s her introvertedness that made Ivy quite nervous about attending combat school. The story I had for Ivy was that she was supposed to start her first year of combat school while her brother and sister went off to their respective huntsmen academies. But due to anxiety which only worsened following the ‘death of her mother’, she decided to not attend combat school reconsidering to become a huntsman at all.

So for the time being, until she could make up her mind on what she wanted to do, Ivy is staying with her grandfather, Tai Xiao Long while the rest of her family were away from home. At this stage, Tai would be retired, both from being a huntsmen and a teacher over at Signal.

But that doesn’t stop him from wanting to help his youngest granddaughter. When her nose isn’t buried deep in a book or piece of tech, Tai would encourage Ivy to practice her fighting skills. So the two would often spa together like how Tai was with Yang in V4.

Because of this, Ivy is pretty decent at hand to hand combat, courtesy of her grandpa’s training.

Fortunately for Ivy, due to her grandfather being a former teacher of Signal Academy, Tai was able to ‘pull some strings’ to ensure that Ivy didn’t lose her spot at the academy. The current headmaster of Signal Academy was understanding enough of Ivy’s predicament (after hearing of what happened to her mother) to give her one full semester to make up her mind about joining the school. So for the time being, Ivy is with Tai while the retired huntsmen does his best to help her through whatever grief she’s going through while the rest of her family were absent.

The idea I had is that, of the Pinerose Siblings, Ivy is the one who is the least sure about becoming a huntsman. Unlike Scarlett and Oliver who both aspired to become huntsmen from since before they were Ivy’s age, Ivy was never quite sure if the huntsmen lifestyle suited her.

She knew she definitely wanted to help people---well more so animals than people since she got along better with animals than actual persons who weren’t her immediate family. But she wasn’t sure if becoming a huntress in order to achieve that goal was the path best for her.

So that’s the dilemma she has to face in her side of the story in N.O.V.A.

To conclude:

And…that’s all folks!

That is my version of the RWBY RG Future AU. I hope that best answers your questions Key. Thanks again for asking and giving me the opportunity to share my ideas for this. Let me know what you think if you can and the same goes for anyone who reads this.

What do you guys think of this squiggle meister’s version of the RoseGarden kids as well as the crumbs of the N.O.V.A storyline I sprinkled throughout their character notes. I’d like to hear your thoughts on my thoughts.

More Squiggles’ RWBY Content

~LittleMissSquiggles (2018)

#keyenuta #oscar pine #ruby rose #oscar and ruby #rwby rosegarden #rwby #rwby future au #rwby remarks #pinerose children

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littlemisssquiggles · 6 years

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RWBY Musings #28: A Squiggle Meister’s Views on Midnight Dragon (Tai Yang + Raven) and Albino Dragon (Tai Yang and Summer)

After Miles debunked the whole Qrow is Ruby’s real father theory, he confirmed once and for all that Tai Yang is indeed the biological father of both Yang and Ruby. However, despite this, there have been comments buzzing around the FNDM still bringing this into question.

Believe it or not, there are fans that are still raising the probability of this being factual by now questioning how Tai was able to get over his love for Raven in order to fall in love with Summer and then birth a child with her, just after two years since his first born child and previous relationship.

As always, the squiggle meister is here to toss her full $2.50 into this discussion pot and weigh in my thoughts and theories on this ongoing topic.

Disclaimer: In doing my research, I learnt that the FNDM has christened these two Tai Yang ships as Midnight Sun (for Raven) and Summer Loving (for Summer). And while those ship names are fine, truth be told, I wasn’t much in favour of them or any of the other alternatives that I saw. So I went with my own idea for the ship names. Also, sorry folks but this is gonna be another long post. Not as long as the last long musing I made but still long enough to warrant a warning. Just wanted to mention this beforehand. That being said, let us begin:

The Raven, the Sun Dragon and the White Rose.

So Tai Yang takes 2 years to get over Raven and romance Summer enough to give him another kid? When you say it like that, it makes it sound even more ludicrously impossible, am I right?

Well truth be told, sometimes in the real world, there are actually relationships that start off in only a matter of weeks and there are even cases of folks getting married in less than six months or even a month after just dating. I mean I’m no relationship guru myself but it is plausible.

The point I’m trying to make here is following that reveal by the show writers, there are still those one or two fans gently sailing down that pleasant river I’d like to call Denial. Those who imply that two years is far too short of a timeframe for someone to recover from a past relationship. While I get the argument those fans are making, I must courteously disagree.

2 years is actually not too little time.

Again, there are examples of folks who fall off the couple wagon and get right back up in shorter time; sometimes starting a new relationship in only a few short weeks after ending their last one. I don’t know people like that personally but I do know people who know other people that treat their relationships like a claw machine game.

When they lose one relationship, they just immediately go back in and try for another one.

So I know of the type and I wouldn’t be too surprised if some of you readers also might know someone who shares that trait in their love lives.

So when you look at it from that perspective, 2 years really does seem like nothing compared to some exemplars from the real world.

Besides it’s not like Tai and Summer were complete strangers. They were teammates. Friends and to some extent, family even before the kids. Tai and Summer knew each other since they were huntsman attending Beacon Academy.

Since they were teenagers at the tender age of 17; the standard age for all students. The only exception was Ruby Rose who started Beacon when she was only 15.

Makes me wonder now if it was a similar feat for Summer Rose.

What if...

Ozpin allowed her to attend his school despite being two years junior to the average student age. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. With the casual manner Ozpin just invited Ruby to join Beacon back in V1; it’s almost like he’s done that before. But that’s just a hunch.

If I had to take a wild guess at how old Tai Yang is in the series, he’s probably in his early forties; perhaps 42-43 years of age. He’s too young to be in his fifties yet a bit too old to be in his thirties. The youngest age I can see Tai Yang being is 39 but my money is on him being in his early forties. If Tai Yang is in his forties, then that means he could’ve started a family back in his early twenties.

Since Yang, Tai’s eldest child, is 18 currently, my hunch is that Tai Yang and Raven probably had Yang when they were both between 24-25 years old age which surprisingly isn’t an uncommon age for folks to settle down and have a family.

My point here is that the members of Team STQR have all known each other since they were teens. They shared a strong friendship and camaraderie together, one that transcended time. Two of the members even got hitched and ultimately had a child together. Not sure if it was ever indicated that Tai and Raven actually were married.

I think marriage is something that most fans assumed but now that I think about, did the series or the CRWBY ever truly confirmed that Tai Yang was legally married to both Raven and Summer at some point. Were Yang and Ruby born out of wedlock? Are they both bastards?

Not that there’s anything wrong with being a bastard. Heck, the only show I know where being a bastard child is a big deal to the story lore is Game of Thrones (and I don’t even watch GOT). It’s just something I’m now wondering about.

Anyways if Tai and Summer were to get together within the span of two years or more specifically, 24 months (depending on what period you decide to count from) it wouldn’t be much of a problem because they already shared a history together.

Not only were they teammates who fought alongside each other during their years as young huntsmen in training but also long after it. Judging from how recent the photo of Team STQR looked, these guys have been together for years. Heck, I would even go so far to say that Tai and Summer probably knew each other before attending Beacon.

What if

...Tai and Summer were like Ren and Nora ?

School Days with Team STQR

Imagine if...

Tai and Summer were close friends who’ve been together since childhood. Perhaps they both hailed from the same hometown in Vale and knew each other from around the neighbourhood.

I quite like the idea of Tai and Summer knowing each other before Beacon. Just picture Tai Yang Xiao Long being the hyperactive, brash type in his youth with a rather impulsive knack for getting himself into trouble all the time whereas Summer Rose, his neighbour and childhood friend, was the more level-headed and nurturing one always having to take care of him and bail him out of dire situations.

Picture teenage Tai and Summer as a watered down version of Eren Jaeger and Mikasa Ackerman without the revenge and occasional homicidal tendencies. I can definitely see Summer and Tai sharing a sibling-like dynamic in their friendship seeing as the other half of their original team were already related and well attuned to one another.

I can picture Summer developing a crush on Tai during the latter half of their school years at Beacon.

However, when it came time to profess her romantic interest in Tai, Summer instead chose to nobly not tell him her true feelings. She made this mature choice after discovering that Raven was also secretly in love with Tai (and was too much of a mega tsundere to admit her feelings unless pushed) and that Tai himself felt the same way for Raven since he confided this news to Summer, his closest friend at the time who he trusted the most with this information.

I figured telling Qrow that he wants to hook up with his sister would’ve been an awkward thing for Tai to do. So it’d make more sense to me if Tai either told Summer that he was in love with Raven or...she figured it out on her own because Tai’s feelings were obvious to everyone on their team except Raven.

And being the best friend that she was, Summer placed the feelings of her friends before her own and encourages Tai to profess his love to Raven.

Imagine a similar scenario like the episode from V2 when Pyrrha gave Jaune the pep talk that finally convinced him to tell Weiss how he truly felt about her.

Just replace Jaune with Tai Yang, Pyrrha with Summer and Weiss with Raven.

Now that I think about, Team STRQ is literally the ole school equivalent of Team JNPR, being another unisex team in a lead role.

I can even see Qrow, who probably knew of Summer’s true feelings for Tai, making the same comment that Nora made in that scene.

Practice what you preach.

.Raven described Ruby as being just like her mother. So if Summer shares some characteristics with her daughter, then selflessly backing off of a love interest to allow a friend the opportunity to fairly pursue said similar love interest seems like the kind of nice thing Ruby would do. Y’know if she was ever placed in that kind of position.

Hummingbird Chirps

But I’m actually for Qrow having a previous small crush on Summer when they were younger. I can definitely picture teenage Qrow Branwen garnering an instant attraction towards young Summer after they first met. Although my theory is that the crush didn’t last long, for the obvious reason of it being one-sided. Nonetheless it’s still something that I believe definitely happened in the past and was probably what jumpstarted Qrow learning to respect Summer as both a friend and warrior and was what made her such a significant figure in his life.

This actually makes me think of something funny. Back in V3 after he made his official appearance, Qrow was telling Ruby and Yang the story about the innkeeper who quote unquote ‘defeated him with her skirt length’.

If Qrow has a thing for girls in short pleated skirts then him being attracted to Summer would make sense. Judging from the old photo of Team STQR, Summer used to sport a pleated skirt underneath her flowing white cape. So...wouldn’t it be funny if the first thing that sparked love at first sight for Qrow with Summer was indeed her skirt length. She would be his type.

As luck would have it, Raven also wears a short pleated skirt with her outfit. Now I’m picturing Qrow teasing his older twin sister about skirts looking better on other girls as opposed to her. Y’know typical anime sibling banter which in the case of the Branwens, would result in comical moments of the twins breaking into mini sword fights all because Qrow was ballsy enough to provoke his sister.

Also imagine Qrow and Tai bonding over skirt lengths while thinking about their respective crushes. I’m just saying.

Black With Envy

In continuing my point about the old school adventures of Team STQR, here’s a theory about Raven and Summer’s previous relationship.

Though I figured that Tai and Qrow probably got along pretty decently as the boys of the group, I can picture Raven and Summer being public enemies 101 when the team was first formed. Because Summer was such a gifted young huntress (even before unlocking her silver eyed powers); this made her even stronger than Raven and that angered the Branwen girl.

After all, Summer’s name is the first letter in Team STQR which means that she was their leader; appointed by Ozpin himself. I could definitely see it being very difficult for Raven and Summer to work together in the beginning since Raven was always resentful and jealous towards Summer at first even though Summer was always nice to Raven and did her best to befriend her.

I can picture Raven arrogantly believing herself to be the more worthy leader of their team (similar to Weiss’s initial feelings towards Ruby back in V1 after Team RWBY was formed) and it was actually Ozpin who talked to her and convinced her to give Summer a chance as leader (just as how Professor Port spoke to Weiss and convinced her to give Ruby a chance).

There are quite a few opportunities for Team STQR to parallel Team RWBY and this is one of them.

Dat Good Summer Loving

I’ve been musing a lot of about how Summer fell for Tai. Now it’s time to do the opposite. This is how I believe Tai eventually fell for Summer.

My hunch is Tai fell in love with Summer for her kind maternal nature. I picture that Summer has always been the type to take care of those she cared about. Underneath the face of a huntress gifted with an ancient power beyond her wildest imagination, was a compassionate woman with a genuine heart of gold and the cooking skills to match.

After seeing what an excellent surrogate mother she was to Yang, despite her not being her biological child, it was Summer’s benevolence and warmth towards others that made Tai fall for her, in my belief. Yang did point out that Summer loved her as if she were her own. According to Yang, Summer Rose was described as a super mom. Baker of cookies and slayer of giant monsters.

Yang loved Summer and still referred to her as her mother when talking about her to Blake, despite having zero blood ties to her. I’m guessing that Yang probably believed that Summer was her mother for most of her upbringing up until the point when she disappeared. Yang probably didn’t learn the truth about Summer and the identity of her real mother until after Summer had died.

While just a theory, it doesn’t excuse the fact that for most of Yang’s life, Summer was her only mother figure and never gave her any reason to believe that she wasn’t, even after she had long passed away.

What if...something happened to Yang when she was a little girl and it was Summer who saved her.

And following that incident, Tai realized his own growing feelings for Summer and over time, the two bonded further over raising Yang together. Returning to my earlier statement, contrary to what folks may believe, two years or even a year and a half is a lot of time to pass. We’re talking eighteen to twenty-four months here people and a lot can happen within that time span including change.

Lovers could suddenly abandon you for reasons unspoken; leaving you to take care of a young innocent newborn you had initially planned to raise together.

Hearts can be broken rendering you a husk of your former self. Friendships can be tested as loyal allies arrive to help you pick up the pieces to repair your broken self. Struggles can occur tested further by time.

But within those troubling times can surface memories.

Memories, both happy and sad can be made and from those experiences can blossom new feelings.

Some of bewilderment due to the complexity of these sudden sentiments. Some of uncertainty on whether acting out on such emotions would be in good judgement.

But mostly it was love; an emotion that hasn’t been felt in years and was probably never expected to be felt again.

Tai loved Raven. Wouldn’t surprise me if she was his first everything.

First crush. First lover (in the sexual sense) and the first woman he ever truly loved. As a matter of fact, no need for surprise because this was pretty much proven canon by Yang herself back in V2. During her conversation with Blake, Yang told her that Raven was Tai Yang’s first love while Summer was his second.

Tai Yang seems to be the kind of guy that when he falls for someone, he doesn’t just fall for them on a whim. As I shall repeat firmly yet again, two years is a lot of time to pass and many changes can occur within that period. It took Tai a whole two years to get over losing Raven because Ruby was born the following October.

Let’s do some math here. Ruby is approximately two years younger than Yang. That’s their thing. At the series start, Yang is 17 while Ruby is 15 highlighting their two year age difference. Even though we don’t know the exact date Yang was born, the fact is that Ruby was born a whole two years (or approximately twenty four whole months) after Yang.

Now that I think about, the CRWBY never really give us birth years. Any information regarding the characters’ respective ages is presented in the form of their exact ages and their birth dates. That being said, since she’s the only show runner whose birthday has been confirmed, Ruby Rose has always been the margin for me to measure everyone else’s ages by because it doesn’t matter how old other characters are, they will always be whatever age gap they corresponded to Ruby.

So if Ruby aged up by one year, it is safe to assume that everyone else aged up by one year too (which is why I don’t understand why the RWBY Wiki page keeps saying that all other characters are the same age they were at the start of the series and not currently while Ruby is the only one to have been confirmed to have aged up. I don’t get that. If Ruby is 16 now then everyone else should be 18, at least that’s my logic).

Using the above 3-year calendar to help illustrate my hunch, let’s say: Yang’s official birthday is in June, more specifically June 1st. I say this date because it was the day when the RWBY V1 Yellow Trailer first premiered to audiences at A-Kon Dallas back in 2013. You can technically consider that to be a sort of birthday for Yang because it was the first time fans were introduced to her character and got a taste of her in action. Plus Yang being born on the first day of the month (doesn’t necessarily have to be June) can work because it corresponds with how her younger sister was born on the last day of the month. It could work. Not saying that all the RWBY girls’ birthdays correspond with their original character trailers but, like I said it’s just a hunch to help with my explanation.

Ruby’s birthday is October 31st. Since Ruby was born at the end of the tenth month in the year, one can speculate that Ruby must’ve been conceived in the February of her birth year following Yang’s 2nd birthday. To keep things simple, let’s just say that Tai had some pretty good swimmers when he impregnated Summer and she herself was able to have a full healthy labour; not factoring in any circumstantial issues like premature labour or any initial prostate problems during the time of conception.

Now I know what you must be thinking now.

Squiggles, why the fudge are you going through such trouble to justify all this nonsensical information? To further prove my point, of course. The yellow areas in the calendar indicate the total length of time Tai and Summer spent together after Raven’s departure. Look at all that time spent before Yang’s supposed second birthday.

2 years. 24 months. 96 weeks. 730 days. 17,520 hours. 1,051,200 minutes. 63,072,000 seconds.

That is almost three solid years that Tai and Summer spent together after Raven’s departure and that’s without even including that they’ve known each other on an intimate level for much longer.

It took Tai Yang two whole years to get over Raven. Can’t remember if this was confirmed or not but Raven left shortly after Yang was born. After Raven left, Summer stepped up.

As I will mention again, Summer was not a stranger to Tai. The two have known each other since their teens. They were already close to begin with because of their longstanding friendship and camaraderie from Beacon days which lasted even into their adult years working as established huntsman.

Tai is not a two-timer. He didn’t cheat on Raven with Summer or anything ludicrous like that. After 24 months of emotional healing and after being in the presence of a woman who was not only his good friend and teammate, but had also more than proven to be a great companion and even good mother figure to his firstborn child (better than her real mother for sure), Tai did what any person in his position once heartbroken by previous ties would do.

He moved on!

Once Tai realized that there was no way Raven would ever come back to him or Yang, he moved on.

Instead of continuing to wallow in the loss of losing Raven, he picked himself back up. He returned to resume his role as a good father to the then toddler Yang. He found love again in Summer Rose. I’d imagine that Summer might’ve shown a little bit of contempt at first at the probability of her and Tai being together in that way. However, in the long run, she came around and found true love in Tai, reciprocating his feelings. And from their requited love, they settled down to become a family. Not the most conventional family but still one built on the love of two people who loved the child they were raising together and each other.

This is like the perfect plot synopsis for a Hallmark Channel romance flick.

Man loses his first wife after she mysteriously disappears, abandoning him and their newborn child. Man’s best friend and close colleague from work shows up to help him through his loss and steps up as surrogate mother. Shenanigans ensue but in the end, man is able to break out of his slump to be a better father to his child thanks to friend. Man and Friend continue to raise man’s child becoming a little family. During this time, the child grows up and starts calling man’s friend her mother.

This brings the future of man and friend’s relationship into question. After that the man and friend start to notice things about each other they never noticed before; like how much they enjoyed each other’s company and how well they looked together as a family. Cut briefly to one antagonistic friend who shows up to remind man about his wife.

Long story short, man and friend fall in love, come to realize their feelings and then confess those feelings. Man and Friend then get married with the man’s toddler as the flower girl in the wedding; practicing all that good Lifetime Movie shizz. Fast forward some time later when man’s friend who is now his new wife is recalling all the events after their wedding.

She is doing so while coddling her new baby; the newborn child of her and man just as Man enters the room with his toddler daughter who is now your average two-year-old toddler; talking and walking. The toddler daughter runs up to her new mommy and baby sister. Man and Friend who is now his wife then share a kiss as their toddler daughter plays with her new baby sister. The end. Roll credits.

Now gimme my cheque Hallmark cause that is the perfect plot for your next big hit. Then again, there must be at least three Lifetime Channel Original movies with this kind of plot already in existence. Jokes aside, you guys get my drift, right?

Shipping Don’ts for the Dragon Ships

I sincerely hope Tai’s relationship with any of the girls on his team wasn’t like how they butchered the Makorrasami love triangle in the Legend of Korra animated series.

Not to throw any sort of shade but I really pray that it was not a case where Tai was once romantically involved with Summer while at the same time harbouring a conflicting attraction to Raven (who he probably didn’t get along with so there was always this unspoken sexual tension between them).

Like what if...Tai and Summer were once ‘high school sweethearts’ who shared the same passion to become huntsman. So they were already a couple when they joined Beacon and ironically wound up on the same team together with the Branwen Twins.

However Tai’s budding interest in Raven starts to interfere with his commitment to Summer especially when Raven starts flirting with him a bit and obnoxiously accusing him of having feelings for her despite knowing that he already had a girlfriend who was their teammate and team leader.

And of course, Summer is all oblivious to Raven’s advances on Tai, naively glossing it over as them learning to finally get along. Eventually that attraction surfaces and Tai and Raven end up sharing a passionate moment together which causes a temporary rift in Team STQR when Summer discovers that Tai had cheated on her.

But being the good person that she is, Summer decides to forgive both Tai and Raven for their infidelity. Tai and Raven then become a couple. Fast forward years down the line when they are married and already had Yang. Raven then suddenly leaves, dumping Tai. Summer shows up to help and in the midst of everything, she and Tai rekindle their past love for each other and hook up again.

As temptingly juicy as that may sound on paper, I would like none of that nonsense to touch RWBY please. Love triangles in shows can be an engrossing ride if handled well and I put major emphasis on ‘when handled well’. When love triangles or any kind of pairing shape are handled incorrectly with horrible writing, it can mostly lead to one big fat mess and of course, the dissatisfaction of the fans and show viewers.

Hence, my example of the Legend of Korra. It has been a universal statement of the LOK fandom that the romance in the series was just a mess. And while it took me years after the show long concluded to see the true validity of this point, I too can now say that I agree with this remark.

So far, RWBY has done a pretty exceptional job with the way they’ve handled all their romance. When I say this, I’m speaking mostly about in the show itself. I’m not making any reference to the infamous RWBY shipping wars. That’s all external conflict in the FNDM, not the show.

Despite one or two conflicts here or there mostly involving love shapes (y’know triangles, diamonds, hexagons, trapeziums etc, etc) in the earlier seasons, the ships in RWBY never got to a point where it became cringe-y for me to watch.

Even though I made not ship some of them personally, I respect all the canonical pairings that have appeared thus far in the series.

Even the ones that should make me cringe, like in the case of Tauradonna and Blake’s past with the villainous Adam Taurus, are well-justified.

What that means is when I cringe at a ship in RWBY, it’s because that’s the expected reaction I’m supposed to get as a fan after learning the nature of the relationship based on how it’s written.

I’m supposed to dislike Tauradonna because, it’s written as an unlikeable, unhealthy, abusive pairing according to the show canon.

The only time shipping in a show becomes cringe-worthy is when the characters in question aren’t bad but their romance is handled so terribly in the canon of the show that I can’t bring myself to be fully onboard with it, even if I happened to like said characters.

It’s especially worse when I like a ship but their whole relationship custom is written so horribly and irrelevant to the story plot that it just makes me question my own loyalty to said ship.

Thankfully so far, canon RWBY hasn’t gotten to that point with me and hopefully it stays well on the path to creating well-written ships. I’m especially invested to learn more of the Dragon ships according to the show canon.

Some STRQ-y Predictions for RWBY V6

For what it’s worth, I’m hoping the series will take some time to shed light on both the Midnight Dragon and Albino Dragon pairings. Given the teaser clip from the V5 finale, it would be relevant for us to learn the truth of Tai’s past with both of his former lovers: Raven as well as Summer.

The CRWBY writers certainly seem to be setting something like that up for V6. I’ve talked about this in a past musing that V6 will be more about the ‘Journey to Atlas’. That way it can tie up all the loose ends to come from the aftermath of the Haven Battle.

But since they brought up Tai Yang with a hint of Raven, it looks like their story is one of the loose ends that the show plans on defining for V6 or at least I hope so. I want a Team STQR flashback. I want to see what Raven and Tai were like, both during Beacon and after.

I wanna know the whole truth behind why Raven left. We still haven’t gotten a properly defined reason for this yet. While I’m fully aware the show has implied that she did all that she did out of fear of Salem and lack of being able to convince anyone else to distrust Ozpin. Nonetheless that’s still not a full, clear definition.

The CRWBY writers keep tossing us fans breadcrumbs but at this point, I’ve grown tiresome of these tiny morsels of data and desire the whole loaf.

We still need to fully understand why and how Raven came to lose fate in Ozpin in spite of trusting him enough to grant her magical abilities.

Speaking of which, Raven made Ozpin turning her into a bird sound so grim when she first told Yang and Weiss about it. But later Qrow debunked this by mentioning that it was a choice that both twins wanted. The hell?

I want to know more about what Summer Rose was like. I want to know what her rapport with her team was like, both during and following Beacon.

I want to learn more about Ozpin’s interest in Team STQR and foremost, I want all of this plot exposition to lead into a proper account of how Summer died. And if the show can tie that reveal into Ruby Rose learning more about her legacy as a Silver Eyed Warrior and what that actually means for her future and fate then that would be awesome.

There is a silver chance that RWBY V6 will be more Ruby-centric. After all, the past two volumes of the Haven Arc have deviated attention from her as a means of further developing her teammates with their respective character arcs. V4 mostly highlighted Weiss’s story arc whereas V5 helped bring some closure to both Blake and Yang’s side of development.

The time has come to shift direction back to Ruby and I feel like V6 can be her season to literally shine as there’s a strong chance she could finally learn more about the Silver Eyes. They’ve been sitting on this plot device for two seasons now. It’s about time they get on with it.

And if Ruby is going to learn more about the Silver Eyed Warriors, then she can’t do so without bringing up her mother.

And I think hinting at both Tai and Raven’s involvement in the next season is a good sign that we can also get some insight into Summer Rose since they were the ones who knew her best along with Qrow. I wonder if the V5 ending was hinting at Raven possibly visiting Tai to talk and take him to Haven where everybody is.

Maybe my earlier hunch will come true. Perhaps Tai will play a role in the gang travelling to Atlas which means V6 could possibly give us a season where for the first time in RWBY history, Papa Xiao Long joins the party. So it won’t just be Qrow as the adult in charge. He’s gonna need a new protégé in guiding these kids towards Atlas especially if Ozpin is out of commission.

We can finally see Tai in action outside of the Patch and it’d be a terrific way to learn more about his character and his abilities (like his semblance).

Plus Bird Dad and Dragon Dad tag-teaming to babysit all the kids on the journey to Atlas.

Who wouldn’t wanna see a season with that in the plot? I’ll dive further into this for another future musing but think about it guys.

Papa Dragon for V6! Hey CRWBY, c’mon!

So in conclusion:

After Raven left, Summer was there, not only for Tai but also for tot Yang.

Qrow was probably around too but maybe not as much as he wanted to because of one, his semblance and two, his search for his sister.

I wouldn’t be too surprised if part of Qrow’s time away from the Patch was dedicated to him being the first one to go looking for Raven (and their tribe) after her sudden departure.

The lead that Yang found when she was a little girl that led her to go searching for her mom the first time; that was probably given to Tai by Qrow in his search. Or at least that’s my hunch.

Can’t recall if the show confirmed any stuff like this though. Don’t think so. Correct me if I’m wrong here, guys.

Anyways, I know I addressed several points and jumped through a number of personal fan theories and hunches.

Even so, I hope this helps best give you guys the gist of my thoughts on this topic in the FNDM.

To say it one last time: No. I don’t think it was totally impossible for Tai to move on from Raven in the span of two years.

From what we know so far about Tai and can understand about his connections, Tai loved both Raven and Summer when they were his wives.

As the show canon has made mention of, when Raven left, Tai was devastated. Same for Summer.

After five seasons, we still don’t know that much about Tai. However from what I gathered so far, he seems like a genuinely cool and nice guy. The kind of genuinely cool and nice guy with a wicked sense of humour to prank teen Qrow into wearing a skirt in their younger years but...a genuinely cool and nice guy nonetheless.

It is unfortunately tragic that this one man managed to lose both of his lovers one after the other.

They were his former teammates. His best friends and the loves of his life. He cared about them both and also respected them both during and after their time as his significant others.

In spite of her absence, Tai still cherished enough from his past relationship with Raven because unlike some bitter single parents who choose to spend their time painting an ugly picture of their previous spouses to their children, Tai still loved and respected Raven enough to leave a good impression of her on Yang.

I think we can all safely agree that no matter the length of time he took to recover from one relationship, Tai loved and respected both of his leading ladies unconditionally till the bittersweet end and it’s that’s same kind of reverence he gives and teaches to the two badass angels that his world was blessed with because of those two leading ladies.

Not certain if we might see Tai rekindling his romance with Raven anytime soon for V6 or any other future chapters.

I dunno, that one particular Tai Yang skit from RWBY Chibi S3 has got me thinking thangs.

But, I guess we’ll know in due time.

That being said, I think I’m officially done with this musing. As always I hope everyone who took the time to read it through enjoyed it.

♦ More RWBY Musings by Squiggles ~LittleMissSquiggles (2018)

#rwby #rwby volume 6 predictions #team strq #tai yang xiao long #raven branwen #summer rose #tai yang and raven #tai yang and summer #raven and summer #qrow and summer #rwby musings

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littlemisssquiggles · 6 years

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RWBY Musings #16: In honour of the next episode of RWBY Volume 5 taking us back to Raven and the Branwen Tribe, I leave the fandom with this curious question to ponder on.

Do you think it’s possible for the Maiden powers to ever reject a host?

This is something that I’ve been curious about in regards to the Maiden powers. So far, this question has been proven false considering that Cinder did successfully manage to acquire the Fall Maiden powers despite taking it by force from its past user after killing her.

Nevertheless, since not a lot is known about how the succession of the Maiden powers work, this leaves a lot of leeway and opportunities left for speculation. Personally, I wonder if there is a specific trait or rule to one gaining the Maiden powers. I know there’s the one where the power can be passed on to a person who the past Maiden was close to or at least was in their thoughts last before passing on. But is there more to it than that? I ask this cause up until this point, this particular knowledge of the Maiden powers succession has been working in the villain’s favour so far.

The evil baddies want the Magic of the Maidens to attain the relics. Fine. Just hunt them all down one by one, kill them and just make sure that one of your female lackeys are standing ripped and ready to take it.

I found it interesting the way how Cinder used a particular kind of Grimm (one that resembled a spider if my memory serves correctly) to steal the Fall Maiden, Amber’s power or at least some of it. It makes me wonder if it wasn’t for the fact that Cinder had successfully retrieved a portion of Amber’s power forcing the rest of it to go to her, would it have been possible for the power to reject her.

Is it possible for the Maiden’s magic to reject its user, thus destroying or at least physically impairing the unworthy ones in the process?

I ask this because I’m curious to see just how Salem and her forces plan on taking the remaining Maiden powers; not just to see their methods but mostly to see who is going to be the vessel to harbour such a high potency of magic. As shown in the World of Remnant tale about the Old Hermit Wizard and the First Four Maidens, it is possible for one person to harbour all the powers of the maidens or at least it seems like it.

Before blessing the powers to the first maiden candidates, Ozpin hosted most of the magic in his own body. That means it should be possible for one person to carry the Maiden powers, right?

So, is Salem planning on turning Cinder into this Avatar version of the Four Maidens where instead of separate Maidens, it just all of their magic within one body with the individual being the master of them all? If Salem’s ultimate objective is to turn Cinder into the; I’m just gonna refer to it as the Avatar Maiden, Master of all Four Seasons so that she can have someone who can access the power of the relics under her control then that’d actually be a fascinating addition to the story and would certainly add more intimidation to Cinder’s character and role in the series.

However, herein lies one potential underlying flaw. Cinder herself. This is why I ask the question of if the Maiden magic can reject a user. What if...Cinder and the gang attempt to take the Spring Maiden’s power by force, the same way they did with Fall. The interesting countering twist this time is that the power ends up full on rejecting whoever is forced to be its next successor. Amongst the villain ranks, this could be either Emerald or Cinder.

Either way, what if...Team CMEW attempt the steal the Spring Maiden’s power and it fails completely. In order for the Spring Maiden power to be obtained, this would disappointingly mean losing Vernal.

This is sad for me because I quite like Vernal. Don’t know much more about her character as yet but I’d like to. I certainly like her character design and the interest to learn of her story and see her fleshed out is there.

She’d have to get in line behind Oscar Pine but I genuinely want to know more about Vernal beyond her Maiden title. I’m praying this time around viewers do get to actually know the current Spring Maiden before her so-called inevitable fate to die for her powers. I’m definitely hoping it’s not gonna be a running gag where the Maidens are only there to be axed off immediately and since we never got to learn about Amber beyond the fact that Lionheart said she was inexperienced as a Maiden, I hope that we do get to learn a bit more about Vernal.

If she is to survive, let her last for at least another season and even be instrumental in the potential Victory for Haven.

I’d like to see Vernal and Yang somehow bond like sisters too or at least have a friendship or respectful comradery. They both share close relations with Raven that could be presumed as mother-daughter. As I made mention in my ♦last musing, I pegged Vernal to have a somewhat child-parent relationship with Raven.

The concept of her also having a romantic bond to Raven is still on the table though. After all, we don’t know how old Vernal was when she became a Maiden nor how much time she’s been in the Branwen Tribe since she was taken in.

We don’t even know how old Vernal is now. Since the RWBY models for female characters are ambiguous when it comes to guessing a characters true age, I’m going to assume that Vernal could possibly be in her early twenties (19-22).

She definitely strikes me as being over or at least the age of eighteen. Either way, she’s legal...I guess. So if the CRWBY did go in that direction for their relationship, I guess I can see it happening, perhaps.

Y’know like Slade/Deathstroke and Terra from DC Teen Titans: The Judas Contract only less...fucked up messy. Or a better example Batman and Batgirl in some versions of the story where they were actual a couple despite the age difference and the fact that some fans have always mostly viewed Batman as a mentor character to Batgirl (I’m looking at you The Killing Joke).

I’m neither saying that this is true nor am I saying that I ship it (I more favour the mother-daughter relationship for Vernal and Raven better). I’m just saying it’s possible Ruling out all the cards here guys.

There is no doubt in my mind that of all the bandits in the Branwen Tribe, Vernal is closest to Raven. She seems to be one of her most trusted allies. Maybe even her second in command. She certainly has the authority as evidenced in Chapter 3 of Volume 5.

But if Vernal is sadly to be taken down, I hope her sacrifice would not be in vain. As a matter of fact, if the CRWBY writers do intend on not allowing Vernal to last another season, I’d like to see two things happen.

Firstly, let her go out like a badass. If a full-on brawl between Maidens is to occur in the next episode or at any point in the future, I can definitely see Vernal having the upper hand, not just because she has Raven and the entire Branwen Tribe on her side but mostly because she has had way more time and experience mastering the use of her powers than Cinder (which I imagine would be a pleasant shocker to our one-eyed Fall Maiden).

But if for some reason, Cinder does overpower Vernal or use some sneaky underhanded tactic to force her to submit to her powers being stolen, this brings me to my second want.

In a surprising twist of events, let the Spring Maiden power go to Raven. I can see this being a huge possibility because of what Qrow informed Team RNJR back in Volume 4. According to Qrow, the Maiden power will go to whoever was closest to a Maiden or was in their thoughts last upon their deaths. If Raven and Vernal are indeed close, it would make sense that her powers would go to her.

I would very much love to see this happen because not only would it be a great way to integrate Raven into the main cast with the chance to develop her side of the story beyond the title that she’s the proclaimed bad mother to Yang, but it would be a huge metaphorical middle finger to Salem and her forces.

You thought you could just saunter into the Branwen Tribe, kick everyone’s asses, disrespect their leader and steal the Spring Maiden’s power? Well jokes on you. Spring chose a bird to be the next Maiden.

Spring would chose Raven and I would not be shocked if this is something Raven has prepared for beforehand. Unless it’s a twist within a twist that Raven wasn’t expecting for Vernal to die nor for her to become so attached to the young girl.

Making Raven the new Spring Maiden succeeding Vernal would be great because it would mean she’ll have to be protected by the main team. She’ll probably wish to run away but I can imagine Qrow convincing her to stay where she can be protected which would add for some glorious Branwen Siblings conflict and resolution.

It would give Raven and opportunity to grow close to Yang since she’ll have to protect her now; healing that wound with time.

It would also mean a very awkward reunion with Ozpin, finally cracking open that delightful can of worms that is their past history together.

It can also open the door for an example where a Maiden successor did not want her power and responsibility. Yes Vernal ran away but initially she did accept her role as the Spring Maiden.

If Raven is forced to be the new Spring Maiden without knowing that Vernal had already chosen her a long time ago, it would be funny because then Raven would be like Ozpin. Cursed with powers and responsibilities that she was forced to receive (the Spring Maiden powers) because she failed to stop something in the past (the Death of Vernal) and now she’ll have no choice but to live with that curse; the only freedom being in death.

And even then, she can’t bring herself to accept death because if she died, how else was she going to get vengeance and justice for her fallen comrade.

But that’s just a hunch. Who knows what’s to come for the remainder of this volume, much less the rest of RWBY.

I’m not even sure how tomorrow’s episode will play off.

Beyond my continuing aspiration and episodic campaign for Oscar to get more screen-time and development as HIMSELF AND NOT OZCAR (seriously it’s been THREE BLOODY episodes now. COME ON CRWBY! GIVE BEST FARM BOI SOME DEVELOPMENT WHILE THE SEASON IS STILL YOUNG) I don’t know what to expect from Chapter 9 other than it focusing on Raven’s group for most of it. However, I still stand by my hunch from last time that I want Raven to be captured by Cinder and her posse and used as leverage to lure out, not just the Spring Maiden but also the Mistral Team.

I also still stand by my previous hunch that in the event of Raven being abducted, she’d make sure to send Vernal safely to Mistrel into the arms of Qrow. I want a rescue mission to save Raven because this would prompt Yang having to save her mother which would be a lovely parallel to what Raven told Qrow in Volume 4.

Raven told Qrow that her promise was to save and/or protect Yang once. That was her deal. She’d continue to watch over her from afar but would only intervene to protect her life once which she already did way back in Volume 3 against Neo. If Raven needs to be saved, I can definitely see Yang dealing her mother the same hand. She saved her once and now it’s Yang’s turn to save her once, that way they’d be even.

Yang would probably save Raven and then totally revert back to hating or at least not liking her guts afterwards but at least Raven would be safe and might even be proud of and respect her daughter and her strength afterwards.

It’s funny though. Yang probably figures she needed her mom in her life to make her strong, failing to realize the true meaning behind why her mother left. I wonder what kind of person Yang would’ve been if Raven was more present in her life.

I’d imagine it would’ve gone like that one alternate reality episode of Grey’s Anatomy where Meredith dreamt how her life would’ve gone if her mother had been happy and it turned out to be not as great as she expected.

Maybe Yang would’ve been a power-hungry huntress obsessed more with strength than compassion if she was raised by Raven. Tai Yang did say that Yang possessed some of her mother’s qualities so if Raven had decided to take Yang and raise her in the Branwen Tribe rather than leave her behind with her father, not only would Yang have possibly turned out more like Raven but she would’ve never had her close relationship with her sister Ruby.

We’ve seen how great of an influence Yang is on Ruby’s life and how deep their sisterly/family bond goes. We’ve seen how devoted Yang is to her family, particularly her little sister. If Raven had raised her, Yang might not have been who she is now. Maybe it’s for that very reason Raven why left her behind.

She didn’t want to raise another version of herself, thriving on the same things that drove her down a rather grim path. Raven didn’t want Yang to become more susceptible to making the same mistakes Raven made and are still paying the price for.

While Episode 6 of Volume 5 made it seem as if Raven thinks very little of Tai Yang, that doesn’t change the fact that once upon a time, she did believe he possessed certain good qualities.

Good qualities that she not only fell in love with him for but also wished for him to instil in their daughter.

Sure Raven left for her own reasons but, why would she leave Yang with Tai if she didn’t think she would be better off with him? Yes, Yang eventually had to take the reins and help raise Ruby after Summer left and Tai became somewhat distant with work but before all that happened, Yang was admittedly in better hands. She was in a family among people who loved her and cared for her and valued things like trust, empathy and compassion with strength being secondary; values I don’t think are a core aspect of the culture in the Branwen Tribe. Doesn’t seem that way to me. Call her a bad mom as much as you want but, Raven doesn’t strike me as the type to just abandon Yang with her father if she didn’t think he was good enough or trustworthy.

After all, if that’s the case then why is he still one of her very few close bonds even after all these years of separation?

Maybe that was Raven’s intention all along.

But, what do I know? I’m just a fan with some musings. Dunno what’s to come in the story tomorrow but like always, I’m uber excited.

That being said, see you all in RWBY Volume 5: Chapter 9!

~LittleMissSquiggles (2017)

#rwby #rwby volume 5 #cinder fall #rwby vernal #raven branwen #rwby theories #rwby musings #rwby volume 5 chapter 9

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