#there was a post that was like. what if emerald became a maiden and killed cinder and if there is a v10 please let that happen so help me | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

femininetea · 3 years

Text

RWBY Parallels:

Qrow and Winter

Spoilers for RWBY Volume 8 Finale

Now with V8Ch14, I finally have most puzzle pieces to make a post about these two. This post is up to interpretation so whether you view this in a shipping way or from a character plot perspective is all up to you. Stay kind. <3

Some parallels are obvious and don't need further explanation, for others I will go more into depth. I'm not sure if RWBY is doing this on purpose but I do hope that these parallels will matter at some point for character growth.

Both are the right hand to their head masters, trusting their judgement with their life

They were trained and put into their positions by their head masters themselves. Qrow who was a student at Beacon and became part of Ozpins inner circle. And Winter who was a student at Atlas, has the 2nd highest rank in the military and is Ironwoods right hand

-> note that we met Lionheart and he did not have anyone close in that position who'd be his 'Qrow' or 'Winter'

Both grew up in emotionally unstable environments with no proper image of family and were expected to become independent early in their childhood. Qrow who grew up with the bandits and Winter who grew up in the abusive Schnee household

They're related to the main cast and are their mentors (Qrow - Ruby/Winter - Weiss)

Qrow is like a 2nd father figure to Ruby and Winter like a mother figure to Weiss

They take their roles as mentors, caretakers and family figures and apply it to people around them. Qrow who took care of the main cast from V4 - V6 and Winter who acts like a big sister to Penny and is overprotective of people who are younger than her (like Marrow)

They're both emotionally distant and only get warm around their younger family members but also hide their true personal feelings in order to protect them

Both dealt with alcoholism, Qrow who is a former alcoholic and Winter who grew up with an alcoholic mother

They're cut of from their team. STRQ fell apart and Winter was in a former team since it's the norm for the academy. Penny told us in V7 that' she's not part of a team anymore since she works for the military and that the general told her "that she doesn't have time for friends", the same probably applies to Winter

They both are connected to magic (Qrow-> can turn into a bird, Winter - > Winter Maiden)

Ozpin and Ironwood both manipulated them. Ozpin didn't trust Qrow enough and sent him off to deadly missions and kept him in the dark. While Ironwood didn't keep secrets from Winter, her position in the military and Ironwoods knowledge of her past family life put her into a state where she is selfless and doesn't care about her life or doesn't let her personal feelings get in the way. She gets shut up by Ironwood when speaking her mind in certain situations (V3 Ozpins office, V7 Jacques Dining Table, V8 before Emerald disguised as Penny arrives)

They got both sent to deadly missions (for Winter it was in Mistral from V4-v5 and the planned bomb for the whale)

They're almost emotionally dependent on their guardians. Qrow felt like Ozpin finally gave him a purpose and a place to be. Similar to Winter where she found a father figure and a place where she felt like she could do some real good for the world.

After Qrow building up walls to not open up to people because of his semblance and Winter who was taught to keep her emotions shut her whole life, they lost their first and only friend (not counting former team members) tragically

Both also carry something that reminds them of their friends. Qrow has Clovers Pin and Winter holds the Maiden Powers

Their friends "died" in their arms/saw them before they faded

They both left (abusive) family members behind (Qrow - Raven / Winter - Parents)

They were both pretty skilled for their age (Qrow who got into the academy without going to a school beforehand and Winter's high rank for her mid-20's age)

Qrow and Winter were lied to/betrayed/dissapointed by their guardians. Ozpin hiding everything from everyone and then leaving, Ironwood giving into his paranoia and becoming controlling and threatening towards Winter (shooting people in front of her, pressuring her into staying with him, shutting her off and not listening to her, leaving his morals behind that she admired him for aka attempting to blow up Mantle, basically V8)

Manipulated and groomed into getting power to carry out dangerous jobs for them (Qrow getting turned into a bird, Winter getting the Maiden Powers)

Seeing their former home fall (Fall of Atlas and Beacon Academy)

Breaking down upon realization of what was done to them

(Qrow getting deeper into his alcoholism, Winter having an emotional breakdown and yes I don't think that Weiss was the only trigger for her to cry out. Her father figure got pushed into destructive paranoia who attempted to kill her , her best and only friend got murdered and her sister pushed into the void by the same person who again is responsible for everything that happened to her by influencing her most important guardian - and all of that within a few moments "You are going to pay - for everything that you've done" )

losing their younger family members

blaming themselves for what happens to their surroundings (Qrow with his bad luck and Winter not being able to save Weiss/anyone in the void)

Almost died (while protecting people they care about)

They have a pretty low self image and don't see themselves as deserving of anything. Winter told Penny that she doesn't deserve the powers and was just a machine. Qrow often deflects compliments and Clover even called him out on that.

If I missed any, feel free to add! So what do I think about this? Well at first there is more to them that was established but not continued. It was shown in V3 that they knew each other personally (on a 1st name basis) and had some kind of history but it didn't get addressed again after that.

Them barely interacting in V7 made me question if their build up was forgotten but on the other hand I think a lot of character interactions got the short end in V7 especially with the story. But what V7 and V8 gave us was more insight on Winter and with the fall of Ironwood and Atlas, these parallels became even clearer.

Now with Weiss and Ruby gone, I think there is the chance for the character's, especially Winter who also lost Penny and Ironwood, to step out of their character box. Winter was shown to be more than just an older sister and soldier. Now with her destiny in her hand but, at a painful cost, where does that lead her?

I think everyone knows already that V9 is going to be a detour and I don't think that it's going to be a split up like V4 but I think it could be similar to V8. It could be that Winter takes over the caretaker role like Qrow did in V4-V6. I hope it doesn't take long for him, Robyn and the Ace Ops to arrive. They still don't know what happened and I think they should work together with the Happy Huntresses in Vacuo and could perfectly function as minor characters and somewhat ending their (Happy Huntresses and Ace Ops) arc for now.

Overall I hope that we get to see Qrow and Winter grieve. They deserve it and Winter who's never been this emotional within one episode deserves to not hide it anymore. She'll have to struggle with her family and I just want her to have somebody to talk to who can relate. And after seeing all these parallels I think Qrow would be perfect for that matter and that build up from V3 would go somewhere.

Thank you for reading 💞 what do you think?💞

211 notes · View notes

kitkatopinions · 3 years

Note

Leave it to RT to make me hate plot points I wanted. I wanted Winter to be the Winter Maiden, I wanted Salem to win, I wanted Whitley to not be treated like the worst person ever, I wanted Emerald to be a redeemable character. All that just flopped.

Hard agree on... Literally all of that. XD

I also wanted Winter to be the Winter Maiden (and before volume seven, I’d theorized that maybe she already was one,) but having the powers go to Penny, then get pulled away due to CRWBY making a contrived story and forcing her totally unnecessary death, making her give the powers to Winter, in order to drive home the message that Ironwood is one hundred percent bad and now that Winter isn’t following his orders, she can have the powers... I’d have rather Winter didn’t get the powers at all. They could’ve kept Penny alive and had Cinder steal half the powers like she had with Amber. They could’ve had Jaune or Pietro accidentally be the last thing Penny thinks of, and therefore the powers go who knows where. Winter looks great as the Winter Maiden, but because CRWBY chose to make everything needlessly complicated, the whole situation was more or less pointless, and now I wish Winter hadn’t ever been slotted to receive the powers in the first place.

I wanted the villains to have a win, but I wanted the protagonists to be present in the real world long enough to start feeling the effects and face consequences, and I wanted it to be because of Cinder learning and changing too. I was actually impressed and excited because they were finally doing something somewhat interesting with Cinder and displaying that when the villains learn and work together, they actually outmatch the heroes, and Ruby and the others need to learn and grow to compensate. But then, they took back any growth with Cinder and they successfully separated all our main characters (and Jaune, for some reason) from the world of Remnant, possibly for a whole volume so they can’t feel the effects. And not only that, but now Salem is in a much worse position and... Really doesn’t seem like a threat, currently. She has only three people left who seem like they’re even on her side, and one of them has proven herself a brat who always puts her own agenda first, but never gets killed for her actions because I guess Salem plays favorites, and one of the other ones (Mercury) might just leave her too. It makes her seem non-threatening, it makes Salem seem weak, like her people are just self-destructing themselves and the heroes happen to get caught in the crossfires here and there. I barely even consider it a win for the villains since Cinder took out Watts, the best villain on Salem’s side, and then betrayed Neo. Also, can I point out that out of the four deaths we got (which I literally said I wanted at least four deaths omg,) only one of them was a hero. One was more or less Ironwood’s henchman who then had a ‘we’re friends, sacrifice himself for his friends’ ending that felt like it didn’t matter because he was the most non-character member of an underdeveloped group. Another was Watts - who became one of the most enjoyable characters of season seven and eight only to be murdered by Cinder in his prime. Bad choice imo. Another was Ironwood, presumably, after his character was destroyed, he still managed to have a sympathetic death, but it’s wholly unsatisfying for me because I’m still sitting here going “What was the point?” And they forced him into a villain role too. And then, counting earlier deaths, Hazel, another villain. Only Penny was someone I feel like we were supposed to even care about enough to be sad about her death.

I wanted Whitley to be treated like he wasn’t the worst person ever and made this big post about how I’d be happy with anything so long as he got a bigger role. And to be fair, Whitley was one of my favorite parts of the season. I didn’t mind his interactions with Weiss. What I minded was how quickly they acted like things were completely resolved, how they never really addressed Weiss’s own problems and her flaws in their relationship, having Willow act like a caring, doting mother out of nowhere with Whitley just smilingly accepting it, having Winter never express an ounce of care or much recognition of Whitley, having Whitley and Weiss now separated, so there isn’t a chance for them having more interactions at least for now and maybe the next whole volume. It’s not that I wish Whitley hadn’t been involved, though, so... I guess there’s that. Whitley’s plot was severely lacking, but not enough for me to wish they’d left him out of things.

And then, as for Emerald, you’re right, I really wanted a redemption arc for her. But I’m entirely unsatisfied with how rushed it is, with how everyone can just laugh with her and trust her, with how they thought a little bit of groundwork was just enough to convince everyone she’s a good guy now and that the heroes should just... believe in her. They let it go without consequence like her former, terrible actions didn’t even matter and didn’t really need to be worked through or addressed. Our good guys have stupid little teasing moments and laugh about Emerald saying something about being on their side when she’d been attacking Penny with Cinder mere episodes ago...It’s so weird. CRWBY’s lack of real growth and evidence of change in Emerald makes her seem like a weak character and make our heroes look really stupid and reckless. I almost expect Emerald to drop them with no warning and go run off to find Mercury after maybe severely wounding one of the heroes because there’s no way she suddenly changed that much, except that CRWBY has such a bad track record when it comes to making jumps with their characters and their dynamics without providing real growth. It’s so unsatisfying that it’s making me dread what they’re going to do with her in Vacuo. I totally wish she was still a villain, if only so they could give her organic growth and a more convincing arc.

But yeah, RWBY volume 8 really is just the season of really good concepts that just aren’t executed very well, or walked back on, or too caught up in plot points I already didn’t like. Some of it’s my own personal likes and dislikes, some of it I feel I can safely deem just kind of poorly done. That’s not to say there’s nothing to like about Volume 8 - Like I said, some of the Whitley stuff was good, and there were other good things too - but on the general whole, Volume 8 was just a disappointment to me.

#rwde #rwby bashing #rwby hate #anti rwby #anti-rwby #anti crwby #crwby bashing #rwby criticism

36 notes · View notes

sssn-neptune-vasilias · 2 years

Text

I posted 1,273 times in 2021

501 posts created (39%)

772 posts reblogged (61%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 1.5 posts.

I added 1,909 tags in 2021

#rwby - 676 posts

#yang xiao long - 204 posts

#blake belladonna - 169 posts

#rwby spoilers - 168 posts

#rwby8 - 168 posts

#ruby rose - 152 posts

#penny polendina - 109 posts

#bumbleby - 93 posts

#jnpr - 87 posts

#weiss schnee - 83 posts

Longest Tag: 75 characters

#you see how this is a less interesting story after this revelation right???

My Top Posts in 2021

The scars are permanent and I honestly couldn’t be happier about it. She should keep those scars. She deserves to keep those scars. She earned them. She did something so ridiculously valiant and courageous without even stopping to think how it could affect her. No need to erase that sacrifice.

800 notes • Posted 2021-03-06 17:04:58 GMT

Arthur Watts was grabbed by the throat and dangled over the edge of a building he couldn’t hope to survive the fall from, and when Cinder threatened to kill him, he LAUGHED and seasoned the best roast of 2021 so far. He cooked Cinder Fall to such a degree she PULLED HIM BACK over the edge, SAT DOWN and CRIED.

Watts hasn’t really said much of note in the series so far, but HOLY SHIT was watching him roast Cinder not fucking PHENOMENAL

896 notes • Posted 2021-02-27 16:31:49 GMT

“No more Gretchen’s” was such a badass line to defect on. Because even I was like “wait does he mean he’s double crossing or defecting” for a hot second until he handed Oscar Ozpin’s cane. “No more Gretchens” ends his- considerably short- character arc. He’s done. He’s tired. He’s finally gonna do what he should’ve done to begin with. He lost his sister- I think anyone can empathize with that- and he started down a spiral that Salem dragged him out of. Gave him purpose. Gave him an enemy to fight. And throughout it all, Hazel was never an overly bad guy. He helped Oscar when they first met. He took the fall for Emerald and Mercury with no hesitation. He was against what Adam did to Sienna. Yeah, obviously he’s a Bad Guy™ with no compunction about torturing a kid if it means he can get back at the man who he believes got his sister killed, but he’s never been a bad guy.

This is him finally deciding to put a stop to all the bullshit. He beat Salem down with his bare fucking hands. If Salem wasn’t literally immortal he would’ve killed her himself! “No more Gretchens.” He’s done sitting by and watching people get hurt and killed. He’s doing something about it. He’s turning the tide. He’s fighting the witch. It’s “what Gretchen would’ve done.”

What a badass line to defect on

962 notes • Posted 2021-02-13 16:56:31 GMT

When Nora says “all I do is make dumb jokes and smash things with a hammer” Ren immediately gets up from his spot at the foot of the bed and joins her closer. He literally can’t even believe what she’s saying

And Nora responds with an exasperated sigh and throws her head back because she just expects him to tell her the usual “no, you’re not like that Nora.”

She doesn’t open her eyes until he says “love.” She was going to discount everything he said because she’s so wrapped up in her own self-hatred that she can’t even listen to Ren praise her. It isn’t until Ren slips that he loves her that shocks her out of her bubble.

I’m deadass crying y’all, I can’t take these two

972 notes • Posted 2021-03-06 17:22:29 GMT

“Oh! Of course you are! Because that's just what you do, isn't it? And how has that worked out for you? You stormed into Fria's room thinking you could take on Ironwood's top fighter and war machine, but you couldn't! And that machine became the Winter Maiden! Oh, and let's not forget your deal with Raven Branwen! Get all your enemies in one place so you'd have a shot at revenge. If only someone could've warned you against such a miserable idea... Oh, wait, I DID! But you pushed ahead and you lost it when all you had to do was your job! You think you're entitled to everything just because you've suffered, but suffering isn't enough. You can't just be strong you have to be smart! You can't just be deserving you have to be worthy! But all you have ever been is a bloody migraine!”

-Dr. Arthur Watts seasoning the spiciest roast of 2021 while dangling by his throat off the edge of a building

1314 notes • Posted 2021-02-27 16:58:07 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

2 notes · View notes

kittyprincessofcats · 3 years

Text

RWBY Volume 8, Episodes 8-12

All caught up with RWBY now! (Except for the premium only episode.)

So, two things first: 1. From now on, my blog will no longer be spoiler free for RWBY! I don’t have premium access, so no spoilers for that, but beyond that, I might now reblog spoilers for everything that’s been released to the public. Blacklist “#RWBY spoilers” if you don’t want to see them.

2. I was going to ask what the spoiler policy in this fandom in general is when it comes to premium access. From what I’ve seen, Youtubers usually wait a week before uploading their reaction videos, which I appreciate – but here on tumblr almost no one seems to hold back. I saw a spoiler for “Creation” before it was released publicly. The day episode 13 was released for premium access, I had to unfollow people for posting untagged spoilers for it. And when I went into a RWBY-related tag for one second, I saw a really big spoiler that put me in a very sour mood because it also happened to be very aggressively worded against fans of a certain character (basically, along the lines of “I’m glad X bad thing happened to Y character because I hate them and their fans”). So, that scared the shit out of me and I ended up looking up more specific spoilers about what exactly happened because I wouldn’t have been able to sleep otherwise. So, from what I’ve seen, this fandom’s spoiler policy is just “fuck anyone who doesn’t have premium access” 😒. Always nice to see people being so considerate.

With that said, let’s get into my thoughts on episodes 8-12. Under the cut, because unlike some people, I try to be considerate of others who might want to avoid spoilers.

- So, the Hound really was a person. Specifically, a person with silver eyes and that’s probably what happened to Summer. THANKS, I HATE IT. This is exactly what I feared it would be and what I didn’t want it to be. (I don’t want Ruby and Yang to have to fight and kill their grimm-ified mom, that’s too sad, okay?)

- I love that Whitley really came through and came up with a plan for evacuating everyone! He’s a good bean after all! And that he managed to press that button on the computer before running from the Hound? Amazing.

- Willow Schnee being one hell of a mama bear and summoning a thing to protect Whitley was epic. She was so close to breaking down before that, but then her child was in danger and she just jumped into action right away. Protective mom instincts ftw!

- Blake’s talk about how she looks up to Ruby and how she herself lost the youthful optimism Ruby still has was SO sweet! (Also, Ladybug is an underrated ship/friendship and I really don’t get why people say they never interact? Have you all just forgotten volume 1 and how Bumbleby’s first meeting happened because Yang was trying to wingman Ruby who was trying to befriend Blake??)

- Penny fighting the virus from the inside was amazing, she did so well! I also loved seeing Nora encourage her (and echo Blake’s earlier words back to her).

- Unrelated to these episodes specifically, but I tried to think about who my favourite RWBY charactes even are right now, and I find it super hard to narrow down because I love so many of them, but if I tried to somewhat narrow it down, then (in no specific order because don’t ask me to also come up with an order): all of Team RWBY (though Blake is a personal favourite), Ilia, Penny, Salem, Cinder. (But then again, I also love Winter and Qrow and Robyn and... you get it, it’s hard to narrow down. Oh, and of course Pyrrha, but... you know.)

- “Witch” was honestly my favourite episode of the bunch. That one was just so full of epic stuff. (And now I’m wondering if Salem being one of my favourite characters has anything to do with my love for witches. I used to be obsessed with witches as a kid. In every story I read that had a witch, the witch was always my favourite character.)

- Yang and her team sure found a way inside that whale fast! Also, really handy that Ren’s semblance evolved just in time for when they needed it. But hey, I don’t want to complain about convenient plot stuff too much. Sometimes the heroes are allowed to have a little bit of good luck.

- Hazel listening to Oscar and deciding to get both him AND Emerald out of there was amazing! He really does have a soft spot for kids and wasn’t kidding about not wanting more kids to die – we love to see it! I also think it makes for an interesting parallel that Hazel decided to do this right as Ironwood was sending students to fight on the front lines and Marrow was calling it out.

- I really liked Ren telling Yang she doesn’t have to hide her fear behind jokes. Ren being able to see emotions is going to bring about so many more good moments, I just know it!

- Emerald and “Hazel’s” talk with Salem gets so much better when you know “Hazel” is actually Oscar – Emerald has gotten so much better at illusions and fooled Salem herself! That’s impressive!

- It’s really practical that Ren could sense Emerald’s fear. But also, the group really didn’t have the time to discuss if Emerald was trustworthy – they needed to get out of there asap.

- The way Salem spits out the word “semblance” when she talks to Emerald shows again that she not only underestimates these “new humans” and their powers, but also considers them inferior. It’s a nice little detail how just her tone when she says that word says so much about her worldview.

- Yang straight-up running up to Salem and blowing her up was epic. It didn’t last of course, but it was still a super bold and epic move. I’ve talked before about how cool Yang is and she just keeps getting cooler.

- Yang calling Salem out was amazing and epic, too! And when she referred to Summer Rose as “my mom” that made me tear up just a bit 😢. (I really don’t like Salem’s smile when she says “her again”, though. I don’t want grimm-ified Summer, I really don’t want it, okay? keep it far away from me where I won’t have to see it.)

- I’m a bit sad about Hazel’s death, but it was a really fitting end for his character and a really cool way to go out. The way he looked at all of those kids in danger (proving again that that’s what it’s about for him), whispered “No more Gretchens” to Oscar, punched Salem in the face as she was about to hurt Emerald, injected all of those crystals into his skin (which looked epic, by the way), told Emerald to go, fought an epic fight against Salem and then grabbed her and set himself and her on fire, burning her like a witch – it was epic stuff! RIP Hazel, you died as a hero and went out in an incredibly epic way!

- Hazel’s sacrifice must have been super tough on Emerald. He died protecting her (and JOYR) and it worked. She got away from Salem, but only because someone else, a friend, died for her. Not only must it be awful for her to lose Hazel, she probably also blames herself. (And, as I’ve seen others point out, it was probably the first time in her life an adult did something to protect her. Wow. Someone get this girl therapy, please.)

- The whale getting blown up was an absolutely epic moment. From the music to the cinematography, I loved everything about it. (That said, I will miss the whale. RIP coolest villain lair ever.)

- I loved Watts’ speech to Cinder – and I’m saying this as someone who became a huge fan of Cinder this volume. I love her, but I also love roasting her, and a lot of what Watts said was stuff she desperately needed to hear. I honestly didn’t even like Watts before that moment, but that speech might have made me like him just a tiny bit. The way he just laughed when she dangled him from a building, the way he spelled it out for her that her methods haven’t been working and threw her failures in her face, the ending with calling her “a bloody migraine” – Like I said, I’m a fan of Cinder, but that was glorious and cathartic and beautiful to witness. But what makes it really perfect is Cinder’s reaction: The fact that you’d expect her to kill him or at least scream at him, but instead she spares him and just sits down and cries. I really love what they’ve been doing with Cinder this volume and that they’re finally showing her as someone way deeper than just a power-hungry villain.

- In general, let me quickly talk about Cinder, because even without having seen the last two episodes I can already tell you that she’s my standout character / favourite character of the season. (It was Ilia for Volume 5, Salem for Volume 6, Penny for Volume 7 – and now it’s Cinder.) I said back in my post about Volume 5 that I wish they’d do more with her because after becoming rather interesting in Volume 4 they just went back to making her a pretty flat villain – and I officially have to eat my words and apologize to RoosterTeeth right now! This volume proved to me that they know what they’re doing with Cinder and explained so much about her. I’m sorry for ever doubting the writing. I now want to go back and rewatch the whole show while paying more attention to Cinder and I can’t wait to see where her arc goes from here (yes, I want an eventual redemption, and what about it?). This volume is obviously setting up something big for her – I just have no idea what it is. And at the end of the day, she’s still the Maiden of Choice. She’s the key to the Beacon relic, and that’s going to become important eventually.

- Oh, and can I mention, just by the way, that I think Cinder looks amazing? I don’t understand all the people who say they miss her red outfits when this is clearly her best look yet. The black eyepatch, the cape, the earrings, the short hair, the high boots, the shorts instead of a dress, all the black – this is her absolute best look, period.

- I’ve also noticed that the scene between her and Watts is the first time Cinder has referred to Penny by name. She’s always referred to her with phrases like “some toy” or “Polendina’s creation” before, but this time she just called her “Penny Polendina”, then “Penny” again, and asked Watts how she’s supposed to take Penny’s power “if she’s dead” (not “destroyed”, which is what Watts said, but “dead” – something you say about a person, not a machine). I think somewhere down the line, Cinder has started to see Penny as a person and respect her as the Winter Maiden. Maybe it’s because of how Penny won the fight at Amity, or maybe (though this might be wishful thinking on my part) it’s because Penny questioned why Cinder serves Salem and showed her and Emerald mercy.

- Also, side-note: While I loved Watts’ speech, it sure is bold of him to call Cinder entitled when his own villain origin story is getting overlooked for a science project.

- Neo is an amazing little troll and I love her. From stealing the lamp and skipping along the ruins of the whale happily to those texts to Cinder, all of her moments were brilliant and hilarious.

- Some characters not just forgiving Emerald is totally fair and realistic. But, as I said before (and as Oscar also points out), they don’t have to. People think a “redemption” – or let’s just call it switching sides instead of using such a loaded term – has to include everyone’s forgiveness, but it doesn’t. If Yang and Jaune never want to personally forgive Emerald, that’s okay. They don’t need to forgive her to recognize that she’s changed and work with her. And, as Oscar and Ren point out, Emerald’s abilities would be very useful to have on their side. So, personal feelings are fine and all, but right now they don’t have the luxury to dismiss a potentially very useful ally. (And same for Oz, by the way. It’s fine if they’re still mad at him, but they also need his help.)

- Also, have I already said that I’m very happy for Emerald? Because I’m very happy for Emerald for getting out of there! (Mercury’s and then Cinder’s redemption next, please!)

- F*ck Harriet for trying to get Winter in trouble for letting JYR go. I’m hating her more every second. And then she seriously said “Who cares?” about Ironwood’s plan to nuke Mantle? She’s the most unlikable of them all.

- Everyone’s reunions were so sweet! I loved Ruby and Yang hugging 😭. And Yang cupping Blake’s cheek and their forehead touch had me all 🥰 🥰 🥰.

- After he threatened to nuke Mantle, I hope we can all agree that Ironwood is a straight-up villain now. The most infuriating part is that he didn’t even have to do anything! Whitley and Weiss had figured out a way to save everyone in Mantle and the SDC ships to evacuate people were already there. All Ironwood had to do was let them evacuate everyone to Atlas, and then Penny would have opened the vault willingly and Ironwood could have used the staff to raise Atlas as planned. Problem solved! He should have just sat there and ate his food – but he was so pissed about things not going his way (or maybe he just genuinely hates Mantle that much) that he thought sabotaging the rescue plan and threatening genocide was a better option.

- I loved Marrow’s arc in these episodes and how you could tell more and more that his conscience was making him turn against Ironwood. First he questioned Winter when she was going to nuke the whale before JOYR were back, then he seemed shocked when he thought they were dead, then he tried to talk sense into the other Ace Ops after Ironwood’s ultimatum, and then he straight-up called out Ironwood himself. That last one was dangerous though, and he was lucky Winter was quick enough to jump in and pretend to arrest him, because Ironwood was going to just shoot him in the back.

- Speaking of, I wonder how long Winter has been planning to double-cross Ironwood. How long was she already disagreeing with him, but waiting for the right moment to make a move? Either way, I’m glad she was there to save Marrow.

- The Renora confession scene was so sweet and got me a little choked up 😢. I’m glad they sorted out their issues and told each other how they feel. But like I said before, I think Nora’s arc of trying to find out who she is without Ren is really good and important and Ren respecting that was really good and important as well. It was just a very wholesome scene. Also, I like that we got a little bit more backstory for Nora (her mom abandoned her? that’s awful), and Jaune awkwardly leaving the room was hilarious.

- Robyn telling Qrow he’s a better Huntsman than Clover because he chose to do the right thing was a really important moment for Qrow, imo. (And just a side-note: I’m sure most Fair Game shippers are pretty chill – and I’m a strong believer in ‘ship and let ship’ – but a certain subset of them is starting to get on my nerves with how they ignore Clover’s canon character and story (acting like he would have rebelled against Ironwood if he were alive as if the whole reason he’s dead wasn’t precisely because he cared more about Ironwood’s orders than doing the right thing) and how they make every new plot point about their ship somehow (Oscar’s semblance? Better be a time-travel thing so Clover can come back. Staff of Creation? Better be able to bring people back from the dead so Clover can come back.) It’s so annoying.)

- Yang and Ruby’s talk about their mom was really intense. Ruby’s been holding all of these feelings in for so long, so seeing her say out loud what we’re all fearing (that Summer was turned into a Grimm) and seeing both her and Yang break down over it – that was a lot. I loved seeing Yang comfort Ruby and tell her that her plan for Amity wasn’t useless. Their sisterly bond is so sweet.

- Penny asking Ruby to kill her was another really intense moment. The look on Ruby’s face in that moment really said it all. Ruby has been through so much, has lost Penny before, so hearing that request – even though they fortunately didn’t have to go through with it – must have still been a lot for her.

- I really loved Emerald’s cute “newly reformed villain” moments. (“You guys have been getting your asses kicked… some of that my fault” & “I’m just going to be super pissed if you all finally decide to give up the moment I switch sides.”) I’ve said before (in my She-Ra posts) that my favourite part of any redemption arc is the “former enemies, now awkward around each other” stuff, so this was right up my alley!

- “The girl who fell through the world” was referenced twice now. Between that, the image of everyone falling in the opening, and the lyrics “sometimes it’s worth it all to risk the fall”, I’m going to predict that someone – most likely all of Team RWBY – will fall into that void and potentially end up in a different world.

- The group’s plan to defeat Ironwood, stop the bomb, and get to the vault was amazing all-around. I love the parts Emerald and Winter got to play in it, I love how we saw the plan’s execution before seeing how they came up with it and I love how everyone got to help, even the Schnees and Klein. I also love that the hole Oscar blasted through the ground of Atlas became relevant again.

- The design of the vault and the door are really nice and now I wonder what the other two are going to look like.

- Saving Penny like that was super risky, but they really were out of options. Just the fact that Ruby had to be quick enough to use her semblance and get to the staff before the virus kills Penny… jeesh, that was close.

- Ambrosius is a super fun character! I love that he looked at Penny and said “I’d love to meet whoever did this.” Also, the staff seems more useful than the lamp. The lamp only lets you ask three questions per century, while the staff can be used as often as you want – as long as you’re okay with whatever it previously created disappearing.

- I honestly still don’t completely understand what Penny is now. Is she meant to be human now? Or is she just a being made up of pure aura? How does this work? Ambrosius only created the copy that destroyed herself, so what’s left is Penny’s aura – but she somehow also has a body now? I guess we’ll find out more about what exactly this means later.

- Also, while I wasn’t sure how I feel about this decision re:Penny at first, now that I’ve thought about it for a bit, I think it works. It fits with the Pinocchio story, and I like that they didn’t phrase it as “she’s a real girl now”, but as “this is the girl who’s been in there all along”. Also, Penny saying “wow” after hugging Ruby and then going on a hugging spree was adorable.

- Watching “herself” self-terminate must have been really traumatic, though. Even if that copy was just a robot, it was still a disturbing scene.

- Who shut down communications in the middle of Jaune’s broadcast? I’m assuming it was Cinder, Watts and Neo.

- The whole dimension with the doorways that Ambrosius created looks amazing. (A while before watching this episode, I wondered if Raven could theoretically save Atlas by getting everyone to safety with her portals. It might not have been Raven, but I’m glad I was at least onto something.)

- “Do not fall.” So, about that… they’re all falling in the opening, (and we referenced “the girl who fell through the world” twice now), so I don’t have a good feeling about that. Also, Watts has been dangled from somewhere high twice now, so the third time has to be when he actually falls down.

- And Cinder is there to ruin the plan because of course she is.

13 notes · View notes

starlightshadowsworld · 3 years

Text

Give me... (Cinder Fall edition)

Been writing these on RWBY Amino (ShadowQueenAnime) , basically me saying what I'd like to have seen in Canon from different characters. And thought why not post them here 2?

This is my Cinder one (felt appropriate) based on my own headcannons.

Give me Cinder, who did odd jobs to help her family. Who's first strive for power wasn't out of greed, but because the strong are untouchable and if Cinder wanted anything it was for all of them to be safe.

Give me Cinder, who's mother kissed her head and wiped the dirt from her cheeks. A widowed housekeeper for a rich family living in their grimey basement. She takes Cinder to a shrine and tells stories of a woman, their saviour she tells her young girl. A woman locked away who reached ultimate power. It's Cinder's favourite story and that makes her mother smile.

Give me Cinder, who bites her toungue and bowed her head to the Atlas huntsman who laughed and taunted her. One day she promises she'll be the one laughing, her mother chuckles and brushes her hair but doesn't object. She's always had high hopes for her little girl.

Give me Cinder, who grabs a boys hand from where it reached into her pocket and tosses him to the ground. He screams for mercy and she let's him go, he's an orphan as is the younger girl clinging to his leg. Roman and Neo, something about them make Cinder smile.

Give me Cinder, who becomes friends with both of them. Who laughs and pickpockets rich folk and scoffs when Roman calls her a professional. That's what he's gonna be, no doubt about it and Neo will stick by him but Cinder's not sure what she wants to be. She wants to be more than a petty theif.

Give me Cinder, who gifts Roman his trademark hat. Her mother sewed it and she sighed her name inside, the stitching isn't the best but it's shiny and new. Every good theif needs a cool hat and Roman says he'll never take it off. He tackles her into a hug and she pushes him off.

Give me Cinder, who gets into an argument with with the duo. It escalates to the point none of them remember the reason, insults are thrown that sting like ice and they part ways. Cinder feels terrible and wants to apologise, beg for forgiveness but a nasty part of her shuts her up, she'll only apologise if they do first.

Give me Cinder, who spends her days cleaning, selling glass when her mother falls ill. She saves up for medicine and takes care of her, doing anything and everything but it's not enough. Cinder's never felt more powerless in her life, she's scared alone crying by the shrine and begging the saviour for help.

Give me Cinder, who promises to do anything the woman wants to save her mother and doesn't see the smirk underneath. She hugs her mother who's sickness is treated and thanks the woman over and over. But the woman had a price and Cinder has little choice, her mother hugs her tight and kisses her head as her daughter vanishes.

Give me Cinder, who joins Salem out of protecting her mother. Who Salem entices and makes sure to grow her lust for power. She'll be worthy one day, she thinks as tells Cinder a new story. The story of the maidens.

Give me Cinder, who continues to grow under Salem's care and the darkness inside her grows as well. She gets sent out on tasks to test her loyalty and follow Salem's orders and if she fails well Cinder's seen Salem's magic first hand.

Give me Cinder, who goes to the mob to get them to help her get dust and is reunited with Roman and Neo. Neo tackles her to the ground before rapidly signing what they've been up too and Roman laughs, no malice is in the air as if their past encounter never happened. They've all grown up and their paths are once again intertwined. "I see your still wearing the hat, surprised it can fit your giant head."

Give me Cinder, who's found some light in her life but is still under Salem's thumb. She always had a quick temper but she's more darker than before, and there's bruising and scars covering her body. Roman and Neo can never get through to her than maybe being with Salem isn't the best choice but Cinder's in too deep.

Give me Cinder, who looks Amber on the eye as she takes the rest of her power. How the exhilaration of her new power wears off in seconds when the situation hits her. She's killed someone... Without remorse and for what... Salem brands her name Cinder Fall and she hates and loves how it fits. Roman is at her side, Neo not far behind as she sobs the loss of life into their arms.

Give me Cinder, who murdered Ozpin out of fear more than anything else. How she whispered an apology that would never be heard and ran away, because as strong as he was she was never afraid of him. Knowing he'd come back comforts her a bit but she pushes the thought aside.

Give me Cinder, who does care for Mercury and Emerald but she doesn't love them. She cares when they get hurt, applauds them for their achievements but that's all. She hates how Emerald looks at her with adoration, it doesn't make her happy to know she simply picked them up as tools for her goals. She hasn't realised yet that those goals aren't her's.

Give me Cinder, who watches Beacon fall apart and knows its her doing. A nasty part of her is laughing and she's starting to get afraid of it, she wonders what her mother thinks... If she even saw all this. She hears a different voice to her own and thinks she's losing it Salem chuckles and ruffles her hair in a way that once felt find but now it puts her on edge.

Give me Cinder, who argues with Roman who tells her she should get away Salem. She's changed, she's hurting and she's his friend and all he wants is to help her. But she's afraid, she's in too deep and that turns into rage... Until he gets swallowed by a grimm that's promptly destroyed. There's nothing of him that remains, and nothing hurts more. It's all her fault.

Give me Cinder, who's arm and eye are destroyed and she's repaired with grimm. She's strong, makes her arm respect her and tries not to think about how it feels so wrong. Roman's gone, the last thing she ever said was that she hated him and that makes her arm coil around her neck. She forces herself to push down the feelings so she's let go but the tears keep coming. Pyrrha is the voice in her head helping her calm down and she appreciates it but Cinder remarks that she wished the other hated her.

Give me, Cinder who buries her grief and directs all her negative feelings at Ruby. She can't feel pain, can't feel sadness or her grimm arm will attack her for her weakness. She ignores Pyrrha who reprimands her for calling her pain a weakness. She can't handle it, slowly losing her grip on reality and almost snaps back at Salem... Almost.

Give me, Cinder at Heavan who taunts Jaune and makes him attack her. Because she's starting to see just how much of a monster she is, Salem will never let her go...that she's certain. But if she were to fall in battle... And if not it'll get Pyrrha to stop being so kind. She throws a spear at Weiss, but something inside her makes her aim hit her side rather than her chest. Cinder blames Pyrrha but it wasn't her, her grimm arm twitches but stays still for now.

Give me Cinder, who pulls herself up from the icy depths of the water, cursing her existence and crumbling to the ground. Not even her power works and she really wishes that she had just drowned. She's stopped ignoring Pyrrha, she's stuck with her and it's her fault anyway... That and a selfish part of her craves the comfort, the other sets her back onto her feet and Cinder smiles sadly as she steals some clothes from a nearby market...she did afterall learn from the best.

Give me Cinder, who drinks at a nearby bar and hears news about team RWBY. She wonders if there's any point in hunting them, but she knows Salem well enough to know the other knows she isn't gone. Finding them, getting the relic might get her back in her good graces... The idea doesn't tempt her anymore, she sought power and it got her here... Lost in grief with a grimm arm and a missing eye , a run away with no home and sat hiding in a shady bar.

Give me Cinder, who reunites with Neo and freezes at the sight of her hat... His hat. Somehow Neo doesn't blame her and that makes her mad, she taunts her with every insult under the sun because she has to be mad... She has to fight her... Neo simply holds her as she breaks down. Everything feels too much and she just wants to be alone but Neo gives a look that says she ain't going anyway.

Give me Cinder, who makes a half hearted plan to get the relic because if she finds out how to defeat Salem... The thought makes her tingle, afraid but determined and Neo holds back a chuckle, somehow Cinder looks years younger when the trio first met.

Give me Cinder Fall who was moulded into a tool and is falling apart from all the pain.

Give me Cinder Fall who has a backstory that explains how she became this way. Give her motivation, how she wanted to help her mother and a cunning witch answered the call.

Give me Cinder Fall who is worth being a villian (not saying she isn't I just gotta end this dramatically) , tragic or otherwise.

This our Cinder Fall.

#Cinder fall #Give me... Rwby edition #Random #Dumb #Headcannon #Rwby #Cinder #Writing

9 notes · View notes

galattea · 3 years

Text

‘Til it Gets to Me

Ingrid Brandl Galatea; a character analysis or - the things to cross her mind as the world goes dark

Primary Pairing; Ingrid/Sylvain Words: 3,029 Ao3

I suppose "character analysis" is a bit of a loose term. I had initially intended to be much more direct about the deeper intricacies to Ingrid's personality and feelings, but it ended up becoming a lot more plot driven. I haven't written much (if anything at all) for FE3H and I haven't publicly posted a work in what is almost two years now, so forgive any formatting errors along the way.

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

Broken voices compete with the sounds of metal tearing into metal. They harmonize in a way that makes Ingrid’s spine grow rigid. She’s high above it all, hot wind nipping at her knuckles as she loops her stallion’s reins over them once more. She raises her left arm and then levels it horizontally. A cacophony of battle cries and beating pegasus wings is the response as her fleet scatters to their assigned directions before she herself leans forward and feels the weight of her mount follow her. In one practiced movement, Ingrid draws Lúin from her back and shifts her grip.

They’re nearing the ground now — Ingrid can feel her hair slick itself back against the wind as she raises her lance toward the group of archers she’s taken to targeting. She catches one through the shoulder before her pegasus has even met the ground, and is directing her full momentum towards the smaller one a few feet away when she feels the air around her spark with electricity.

Fuck.

Of course she had expected defensive measures to be put in place the first time she’d lead her fleet to pick off the empire’s ranged soldiers while those on the true battlefield dealt with their familiar swords and spears. But they’d caught her off guard by waiting.

Ingrid tugs her reins sharply to the left and meets eyes with a mage twice her size. She knows better than to try and take him out alone with two bowmen still standing behind her, and before she can fling herself into more danger than necessary she presses her heel to the base of her mount’s wing and is airborne before the crack of lightning hits where she had just been. She prays to the goddess that she didn’t just kill off the rest of her air support by overusing a strategy and watches the ground beneath her grow smaller.

She scans the battlefield as quickly as she can before deciding her next move. Deciding it best to continue her attacks behind enemy lines, Ingrid targets her next dive toward a more isolated corner of the fight.

Her heart thrums in her chest, emerald eyes locked on the dark head of hair she is heading straight towards. She can feel the determination to right her errors by pulling as much weight as she possibly can bubble up in her throat as a battle cry.

But it fizzles out in the air as the wind is knocked directly from her.

The shrill cry of her pegasus brings her eyes to its neck. Three arrows are buried there, blood staining the silver coat in which they found their mark. Ingrid is acutely aware now that she is falling backwards, the beating of her mount’s wings stilled. She knows exactly what this means for her.

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

Ingrid had never been ashamed of her home in Galatea. It was a noble house, after all, and it had been maintained as well as possible since her county’s golden days. That didn’t change the fact that it was fairly small, or the way that its age was ever present in the now lackluster walls and furnishings.

That was, until she had begun spending time in the homes of her friends.

She knew she was a much lower name on the list of Faerghus’ nobles, but as a child what that really meant had never quite crossed her mind. It was on her first visit with her father to Fraldarius that she realized just how quaint her lifestyle truly was.

But it was in there that she felt the most comfortable - where most of her childhood leisure was spent. It was in Fraldarius that she fell face first in love for the first time.

(She would later realize that love wasn’t the word for what she had felt for Glenn, but rather a naive childhood admiration.)

The elder Fraldarius had made a brash first impression on Ingrid when she was freshly eight. She had seen him train many times from afar by then, but never had they spoken. It wasn’t until she all but slammed face first into him as she chased Felix through the long hallways that Ingrid heard his voice for the first time.

“A knight is worth nothing with his head in his arse.”

Ingrid knew not why he spoke such a phrase to her, but something about the annoyed look on his face made her recoil back in shame.

After that Ingrid found herself enraptured by Glenn. She spent the next year lingering longer than she ever had in front of the training area in which he spent his time. He was so young and so gifted -- his body flowing effortlessly with each swing of his sword and the concentration on his face never faltering. She was awestruck. She wanted to watch him forever.

Ingrid’s designation soon changed from her “Glenn’s betrothed” to “underpaid babysitter.” With her fiancé’s training becoming more and more serious, her ability to spectate became less and less frequent. Instead, she found herself chasing the bright red hair of Sylvain Gautier through the courtyard of Dimitri’s summer home in Fhirdiad, an enraged Felix at her side. Sylvain’s laughter had rang through the well manicured trees like a bell. -- And then Ingrid is thirteen and her whole world comes crashing down. The news of the tragedy reaches her bedroom in Galatea well into the night and she finds her mouth agape and heartbeat stopped. She feels a pang she had never known could exist in anything but books. It is in the same hour that she swears her life upon becoming a knight.

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

The monastery fills Ingrid with dread, but her attitude changes the moment her gaze passes the stables. It is there that her passion for riding is sparked. Of course she had spent years alongside noble horses, but never before a creature so magnificent as those that were housed at Garreg Mach. Her spare time is quickly invested in offering her aid in whatever way possible. Between her studies and time caring for the pegasi, Ingrid finds herself enjoying the company of new friends in a way she had not expected. Ashe is quick to grow on her; he is soft and kind and lingers around the stables some evenings to watch her work and discuss old stories of knights. Annette and Mercedes take much more time to acquire her fondness -- she never dislikes them, only struggles to warm up to their constant begging for her to indulge them and their games of dress up. It is through them that Ingrid realizes she has a much repressed fondness for skirts, and she finds herself looking forward to their interactions more and more. Her childhood friends, however, offer a much different company. She spends many lunches conversing with Felix and Dimitri over their studies and many more evenings sparring with Felix as he aids in her swordsmanship. It is Sylvain that she finds the most troublesome. Since they were little he had always been a man after any woman’s heart, but with the introduction of freedom he had become quite the serial flirt. She knows deep down that he is doing it to rebel against the version of himself that his father projects upon him, that he harbors no true malintent towards the hearts he breaks, and it is for that reason that she continues to clean up after him despite her complaints. She does not acknowledge the strange twist she feels in her gut every time he leaves the room early to go entertain some maiden. -- Luin’s arrival to the monastery is something Ingrid does not expect. Her father was never a fan of the way his daughter had turned from a princess with her hand belonging to a fine noble into a knight with no care for romance alongside his sons, and she takes the offering of House Galatea’s relic as acknowledgment and approval of her choices. She feels honored.

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

A soft knock upon her door startles Ingrid awake and she hoists herself from her bed. It’s well after midnight, she notes, lighting the oil lamp beside her bed and opening the door. On the other side she sees the back of Sylvain’s head as he turns down the hall. She clears her throat and he halts, a sheepish look on his face as he turns back to face her. There’s a cut on his upper lip, and dried blood caked in his hair. She blanches. “Where in hell-” She is already scolding as she ushers the taller boy into her room, “How? Sylvain, what in the name of Seiros are you doing here instead of an infirmary.” “If you wanted me in an infirmary so bad you wouldn’t have just brought me into your room,” he points out. It takes everything in her not to slap him. He perches on the edge of her bed as Ingrid digs furiously through the drawers of her vanity meant to store powders and makeup. Instead, she withdraws a glass bottle and a cloth. Her footsteps are silent as she pads back towards her bed and seats herself on her knees beside him. There is something about seeing Sylvain hurt that twists her stomach. She watches her hand intently as she raises the now damp piece of fabric to the side of his head, pretending not to notice the way he leans into her touch. There is no grimace or complaint as she gently rubs the alcohol over what appears to be an impact wound, presumably from another man’s armor. “You’re not seeing double, are you?” “No ma’am,” Sylvain responds, and Ingrid is once again overcome with the urge to backhand him. The cut takes a good moment to clean, with delicate fingers struggling to part bloodied hair without causing any unnecessary pain. When it is nothing more than a bright pink and angry line in his scalp, Ingrid sits back on her haunches. She folds the cloth, spending far too much time finding a clean spot before gently raising it to the bottle of alcohol again. She sets the glass back upon her bedside table before placing her hand on Sylvain’s cheek. Butterflies erupt in her stomach as their eyes meet. She can’t fight the urges -- can’t stop herself from leaning forward. He watches her, confusion written in his expression. They flicker to her lips. She closes her eyes. His lips are soft, terribly so, she notes as they meld together. Ingrid swears they stay like that for hours, lips moving softly against one another, before she realizes what she’s doing and draws back. Sylvain’s eyes are wide, but he hadn’t stopped her. He had even returned the kiss. “Ing-” “Out of my room,” she feels the harshness in her voice and the blood rushing to her cheeks but she refuses to look at him. He stalls for a moment, gaze boring holes into every inch of her skin, and then retreats. Ingrid is left in candlelit silence. Tears stream down her face as the alcohol from the cloth soaks into her clenched fist. She doesn’t meet his gaze again for a week.

There is some sort of silent agreement in place as Ingrid sets her books down on the table and seats herself right beside Felix. Her head falls to his shoulder and he doesn’t flinch or tense or shove her away. Instead, he rests his cheek on her forehead. A vigil is held in the cathedral, in which candles are lit and silence hangs heavy over students who never knew the fallen. To Ingrid it feels wrong and disgusting to put her grief on display in front of her peers. She assumes Felix feels much the same. There are no words for how they feel. The past four years they had spent in a wordless pact to protect one another where they couldn’t protect Glenn. Ingrid laces her fingers through his and feels warmth trickle down her face. There is no ceremony that can aid the ache she feels. So they sit in their own silence, pressed against each other as though the world depends on it.

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

In all of her years spent there, Ingrid had never recalled Galatea being so suffocating. She doesn’t know how to feel. In one beat she wishes to be fighting in defense of her prince like she had always sworn herself to, but in the next she feels herself seethe at the mere idea of enabling Dimitri’s rampage. It feels like she’s fighting an uphill battle with her own ideals. But it is her father that brings her to a decision. Count Galatea had never truly enjoyed his daughter’s sudden desire to fight on the frontlines. Ingrid knew this much, and saw it evidenced in the way she found herself followed by suitors at least once a week. She tries to remind herself that it is because he cares about her. “It’s nice to have you home,” he is seated behind his desk, arms folded on the heavy oak. “It is nice to be home,” Ingrid smiles. “I’m glad to finally have my daughter off the battlefield.” Ingrid’s smile falters. She says nothing as she leaves his office. Her fingers wind through her hair and suddenly it is far too long for her taste. Without a second thought, she pulls an old pair of scissors from her desk. That night, she leaves for Garreg Mach.

She doesn’t miss the expression on Felix’s face as her mount trots toward the courtyard. Sylvain is poised at his side, a grin plastered upon his face. They both look so much different, although she supposes the same could be said for herself. “You’re late,” Sylvain calls. Something in Ingrid’s chest reacts to his voice. “Goddess forbid,” she laughs, swinging off her stallion as she reaches the two of them. “Nice hair,” Felix’s expression doesn’t change as he speaks, but she supposes she’ll take it as a compliment. Her old dorm is exactly as it had been left. Ingrid doesn’t let her mind linger on that for too long as she unclasps her breastplate and places the heavy armor on her old bed. Sylvain clears his throat from the doorway and she jumps. “So what made Galatea change its mind?” She shrugs at him, not meeting his eyes as she works to take off the rest of her armor. She can feel him roll his eyes. “Did you finally get sick of your father?” “Possibly.” He laughs at this, closing the door behind him and seating himself in her old desk chair. He looks a mess now that she sees him up close; the circles under his eyes are deep and his voice is hoarse. “He's still trying to send you off?” “Trying to keep me off the battlefield, more like,” Ingrid smooths out her blouse. “Not many suitors to be called upon when the majority are out here.” “I suppose,” he agrees, and she hopes she isn’t imagining the relief that flickers across his face. “And yourself?” the question leaves her mouth before she can think twice about it. “No ma’am,” he chuckles, leaning against the back of his chair. She lets out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

Ingrid’s fingers search frantically for leverage in the thin linen of Sylvain’s shirt as he kisses her. It isn’t the same as it was when she had kissed him all those years ago. It’s hot and it’s fast and there’s the weight of their own lives on their shoulders that presses them closer together. The mat on the floor of the makeshift tent isn’t the most comfortable thing Ingrid has ever been kissed on, but she doesn’t object as calloused hands lay her down. The fire outside is dim now, but its light pokes through the fabric that covers them and bounces off of Sylvain’s features like artwork. His eyes are heavy and his breathing is ragged as he strains against the bandage wrapped taut around his shoulder to lean over her. In the middle of this war, Ingrid is in heaven. They fall into each other, desperate to communicate words they don’t have time for in heated touches until they’re holding each other as though they’ll never see each other again once they’ve let go. It is there that Ingrid decides it. She is in love with Sylvain. She has been, since they were teenagers. It feels like a shot to the chest as she acknowledges this -- allowing herself to admit love for someone who was not Glenn after so many years. She doesn’t say it, but Sylvain knows. There is no way he doesn’t. He doesn’t return it, though, that much she is aware of. He holds her to his chest and breathes in her hair, and Ingrid allows herself to believe that, just for that moment, he is hers. That night she falls asleep to the sound of his breathing. —

Someone is screaming her name from a distance but she doesn’t turn to investigate. Her right is crushed under the weight of her long dead pegasus and her head is swimming.

“Ingrid -” she can make out a dark head of hair approaching her, can feel arms pulling her from beneath the horse. The aching has long stopped alongside the thudding of hooves and cries of soldiers. The battle is over.

She’s slung over someone’s back and he smells so familiar.

“We did it,” he’s saying in a voice she recognizes but with a strain she doesn’t. “We won, Ing. You did it.”

She coughs, something wet dripping from her lips.

“Glenn,” her voice is hardly a whisper. The person holding her stills. “I did it, Glenn.”

“You did,” the voice breaks.

“Don’t cry,” she’s smiling but she doesn’t register it, “I love you.”

“I love you too, Ing,” he replies, followed by a choked sob.

Her eyes are suddenly too heavy to bear. Her breathing stalls.

It is to the sound of Felix’s cries to a goddess that won’t answer that lull her to rest.

#fire emblem #fire emblem three houses #fe3h #sylvain jose gautier #sylvgrid #ingrid brandl galatea #fanfiction #im really sorry #she loves him and it sucks

4 notes · View notes

danurso · 5 years

Text

(Im not the hugest fan of rule 63 characters like leia ren, carla winchester or sunny wukong, but for some reason mercuria hit me in a soft spot {no, not that soft spot you pervs (≖_≖ )} and i really liked some stuff between her and jaune, and so she's from now on a part of jaune's massive harem here in my blog, and this will be her first appearance, although i want to make something later just for her)

*CEM(N), JNPR and RWBY are out in a forest for a field mission*

Emerald: ugh...i can’t believe it's finally over. If i ever see those kids again i’ll either kill myself or kill them.

Mercuria: then you better let your testament ready, we still have to take a trip back to beacon with them, have you forgot?

Emerald: *head falls in depression*

Cinder: focus, we can’t let anyone notice us before our plan is complete, and if that means that we’ll need to be friendly with those eight then we’ll have to bear it for now.

Emerald: i know, it's just...how can they be so happy all the time?

Mercuria: *with a grin* dunno, how can you be so annoying all the time?

Emerald: shut up mercuria! I'm not in the mood for that!

Mercuria: come and make me.

Emerald: you...

Cinder: if you two don’t stop right now, i’ll get rid of both. *flares the flame in her right eye*

Emerald: r-right, im sorry.

Mercuria: sorry.

Cinder: *sighs* forget about it, just stop bickering.

Emerald: y-yes ma’am.

Cinder: it won’t take long until we reach the meeting point, don’t drop your facade, no matter how unbearable they are.

Emerald: *sighs* yes ma’am.

Mercuria: well...not all of them are unbearable, that blondie is kinda cute.

Emerald: arc? Of course you would like him.

Mercuria: i don't like him, he’s too much of a spineless coward for my liking, we all studied he and his team, we know how innocent and pure he is, i just think i could have some fun teasing him.

Emerald: *rolling her eyes* it had to be.

Mercuria: come on, you saw how he blushed when i showed a little bit of cleavage back on the ship, i wonder what other faces he can do.

Emerald: you’re not going to start are you?

Mercuria: for real now emmy, are you going to say that he doesn’t interest you in any way?

Emerald: physically speaking, he seems decent enough, everything else is just uninteresting, he’s too much of a goody two shoes for me, if he had at least one evil bone in his body i could have some interest, but since he doesn’t i’m not interested.

Mercuria: what about you boss? What do you think about arc?

Cinder: just like emerald said, he’s physically decent enough, but everything else about him is just uninteresting. he’s stupid, coward, weak and sickeningly kind, i could never have interest in someone like him.

Mercuria: thought so.

Emerald: you’re not really planning to get involved with arc are you? You know we have our own plans to focus right?

Mercuria: nah, i was just thinking it could be fun to tease him. If i ever get interested in a boy he would need to be cruel, dominant, sadistic and merciless, he would basically need to be arc’s direct opposite.

Emerald: that does sounds more like your kind of man.

Mercuria: not only my kind, i know you two have the same taste for men as i do.

Emerald: mens like this don’t exist. They are either corrupted cowards or completely insane psychos, a man who can be both good looking, strong and cruel to the right degree is probably rarer than a maiden.

Cinder: and that's why you should stop talking about mens and start thinking more about our plans, it's not like any of us will ever find someone like this.

Mercuria: well, i can dream can’t i?

Emerald: dream later, we arrived. *walks inside a clearing to see all members of team RWBY injured on the ground*

Cinder: *with a fake concerned tone* what happened? Are you okay?

Yang: *coughs weakly* a group of five mercenaries showed up out of nowhere and sent a barrage of explosives in our direction.

Pyrrha: we heard the explosions and found them like this.

Ren: apparently they were fighting the mercenaries before we got there.

Nora: we managed to pick them up and run away, but jaune stayed back to hold them.

Emerald: where is he now?

Pyrrha: we don’t know exactly, somewhere towards north.

Cinder: we’re going after him, don’t worry. *bolts away*

*a few minutes later*

Mercuria: you think he’s still alive?

Emerald: he’s facing five mercenaries on his own, he’s for sure dead right now.

Cinder: still, if we bring arc back alive they will trust us more easily, and that can help in our plans.

Mercuria: so we kick some asses and save the blondie, sounds good to me.

???: AAAHHHHH!!!

Emerald: over there!

Mercuria: bye bye arc, it was good while it lasted.

Cinder: even if arc is dead, let's at least capture the mercenaries so- *freezes*

Mercuria: .........i think we won’t be able to capture them. *starting at the three corpses on the ground, the first one with a large gash on the stomach and guts spilling out, the second with the head split in half and the third was cut in half by the torso.*

???: i’ll ask you one last time. Who. sent. you?

CEM: *looks ahead to see jaune without his chestplate, with ragged clothes and covered in blood while two mercenaries backed away fearfully from him*

Mercenary 1: *holding the bleeding stump that was once his right arm* n-no one sent us, p-please just let us g- *sword pierces his mouth and through the back of his head*

Emerald: is that really jaune arc?

Mercuria: i don’t know.

Jaune: *kicks the now dead body and pulls out his sword, glaring at the last mercenary*

Mercenary 2: *backing up on the ground with a terrified expression* w-wha- he was telling the truth! W-we don’t work for anyone! We just bait huntsmans here to steal them!

Jaune: *slowly walking towards him* ohh but i know he was talking the truth.

Mercenary 2: *panicked* t-then why did you killed him!?

Jaune: *grabs him by the throat and slams him against a tree* do you know who i am?

Mercenary 2: w-what? O-o-of course not.

Jaune: my name is jaune arc, son of alexander arc and grandson of john arc.

Mercenary 2: arc? B-but they are a family of heroes.

Jaune: i know...

Mercenary 2: how can someone like you be part of that fami-AAARGGH!!

Jaune: *with his sword through the mercenary’s left shoulder and twisting it slowly* don’t interrupt me when i'm talking, okay?

Mercuria: *blushes* w-when did he got so...

Emerald: dominant? *also blushing* cruel? I have no idea.

Mercenary 2: *nods frantically*

Jaune: yes the arcs are most known as a family of kind hearted heroes, but i’ll let you know a little secret about us. *smirks darkly* once you hurt someone dear to us, we set the honor, the kindness and the mercy aside and turn into vengeful blood-thirsty monsters. *starts to twist his sword again with an unsettling smirk*

Mercenary 2: AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!

Cinder: something is wrong, when did arc became so *blushes* attractive?

Jaune: do you understand now? Why did i killed your friends and why i’m doing this to you? *tightens the grip on his neck*

Mercenary 2: YES!! I UNDERSTAND!! PLEASE JUST LET ME GO!!

Jaune: ............okay. *let go him*

Mercenary 2: *falls on the ground coughing before looking back at him surprised*

Jaune: what?

Mercenary 2: y-you’re not going to kill me?

Jaune: no. *sheathes sword*

Mercenary 2: *confused* r-really?

Jaune: i already said that no, i won’t kill you. and an arc never goes back on his word.

Mercuria: *sighs* i knew it was too good to be true.

Mercenary 2: t-thank you. *gets up and tries to run but gets yanked back falling on the ground* wha-AAHHHH!!

Jaune: *stomping his legs, breaking both of them*

CEM: *eyes widen in surprise*

Mercenary 2: AAARRGHH!! I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU WOULDN’T KILL ME!?!?

Jaune: and i won’t kill you *smirks pointing at a ursa coming towards them* but i can’t say the same for him.

Mercenary 2: w-wait! Nononono! Please-

Jaune: *grabs him by the hem of his shirt* fun fact, ursas have a extremely painful bite, and they chew a lot too. *smirk gets wider* Hope you two have fun. *throws him at the ursa*

Mercenary 2: NOOO!! PLEASE!! *gets bitten in the shoulder* AAAHHHH!! *gets dragged back into the forest*

Jaune: *still smirking* bye-bye you fucker. *turns around* now i need to get back to- *freezes*

CEM: *staring at his ragged post-battle form covered in blood*

Jaune: d-did you...just saw that?

CEM: *nods*

Jaune: oh god, l-look, i know what you’re thinking but please don’t panic. I-it's just that-

Cinder: *grabs him by what's left of his hoodie and pulls him into a heated kiss*

Jaune: *blushes*

Cinder: *breaks the kiss and stares at him with hungry amber eyes* You and Me. Bed. Now!

Jaune: w-what!? C-cinder i-

Mercuria: hey! You’re not planning to let us out are you? *hugs jaune’s arm between her breasts* i also want a piece of him. *licks her lips and opens a perverted grin*

Jaune: *blushing deeply* w-what!?

Emerald: *hugging his other arm between her breasts* i want a piece of him as well. *with a sultry look*

Cinder: of course, you can have a piece once i get mine’s

Jaune: *blushing to a atomic degree* w-what!? What do you mean with that!?

Mercuria: we mean that all of us have been pretty naughty latelly, and you look like you know a lot about punishing other peoples, mind showing us how would you punish some bad girls?

Jaune: *blushing to a solar level* WHAT!?

Emerald: we’re just curious to see how rough you can be, think you can show us?

Jaune: l-look, as flattered as i am feeling right now, we just know each other for about a month and-

Cinder: it doesn’t matter. Let's make a deal, you give us what we want and we won’t tell anyone what just happened, deal?

Jaune: i...... *sighs* i guess i have no choice right?

Emerald: no.

Mercuria: nope.

Cinder: i don’t think so.

Jaune: *sighs again* your funeral. *wraps hands around theirs waits and pins them on the ground* and don’t blame for what happens next *smirks sultrily* once i start i won’t stop, okay?

CEM: *blushes and shudders* okay.

*two hours later*

Pyrrha: they’re taking too long, shouldn’t we search for them?

Ren: but we can leave them like this.

Ruby: we’re already better, our aura healed most of the damage.

Weiss: go search them, we’ll be fine.

Pyrrha: okay *gets up* we’ll be right ba-

Jaune/CEM: we’re back.

Pyrrha: thank god, are you oka- *stares at jaune covered in bruises, blood and hickeys and CEM in a similar state while smiling brightly*

Ruby: err...what happened?

Cinder: the mercenaries were tougher than we expected, it took us a while to take them down.

Blake: and where are they?

Emerald: they escaped, unfortunately.

Yang: oookaay...but why are you all covered in hickeys?

Mercuria: they had some kind of gun that was really powerful, our aura protected us from the real damage but the bullets still marked us wherever they hit.

Weiss: really? Because none of us saw any guns with them when they attacked us.

Mercuria: i know right? Those guns came out of nowhere. we tried to take the mercenaries down quickly but they kept coming back, we put them down several times but they just kept coming and coming *drooling with a perverted smile a blush* and coming and coming and coming *shivers* until we couldn’t take anymore.

RWBY/NPR: *raises eyebrow*

Cinder: *hugging jaune’s arm* but thanks to jaune we managed to win them, he was just like one of those heroes we see in the movies.

Emerald: *hugging his other arm* yeah, he really was.

Weiss: *sighs* whatever, we don’t have time to deal with this, we’re all dirty and tired so can we just take the bullhead and go back to beacon?

RBY: *groans and nods*

Pyrrha: let's go then, the extraction point is nearby. *walks away*

RWBY/NR: *nods and starts to walk away as well*

Jaune: *sighs in relief* looks like they didn’t suspect anything, thanks for keeping my secret girls.

Emerald: no problem but... *blushing a bit* do you think we deserve a reward for that?

Jaune: *raises eyebrow* you want a reward?

CEM: *nods*

Jaune: well...you did kept my secret like you promise, and you also did a great job answering their questions, you made more than enough to deserve a reward, so don’t worry *smirks* once we get back to beacon i will make sure to give you three loads of reward, is that okay to you?

CEM: *blushes and shudders* yes daddy.

#rwby #jaune arc #cinder fall #emerald sustrai #mercuria black #jaune x cinder #jaune x emerald #jaune x mercuria #arcfall #topaz #knightfall

505 notes · View notes

calliecat93 · 5 years

Text

Should Cinder Be Redeemed?

Ever since I posted this, I’ve been seeing a TON of people commenting and replying on wanting Cinder backstory and redemption. The former is understandable, and I do think that we’ll get something eventually. There are reasons why we don’t get backstories, immediately guys. Be patient, it’ll come when the time is right. But that is a topic for another day. For now, let's talk about redemption.

For the record, this is only my opinion so take naything that I saw with a grain of salt. But on the topic of if Cinder deserves to be redeemed... no. I really, really do not think so. Cinder’s actions so far have been incredibly cruel and callous. Her murder of Pyrrha one could argue made sense since Pyrrha was an opponent in her way. It’s still terrible, but there is some logic there. But... what about Penny? Who she orchestrated the murder of just to make her whole ‘who do you think that you can trust?’ speech with no remorse? What about spearing Weiss just to spite Jaune because he dared to land a scratch on her? What about killing that nameless Mistral girl seemingly in cold blood just to steal her clothes and life savings? Or killing Vernal just to have more Maiden powers? Or using Emerald and mercury? let alone being emotionally abusive towards Emerald. Or how she wants to kill Ruby and has screwed over plans that cost her and her allies just to get payback on her?

For all of those things, Cinder had no remorse. She only cared about getting power and being in control. The people who suffer due to her be damned. She is a selfish, arrogant, vindictive woman who has made it clear under no certain terms that she enjoys making people suffer. No matter how it is, if they either did something to her or have something that she wants, they will either suffer or die. Either way is fine, as long as she gets what she wants. This has been demonstrated since at least her full intro in Volume 2, and so far thee have been zero signs of it changing. After all, she learned nothing form V5 and is still gunning or Ruby and now trying to manipulate Neo into doing her dirty work since Emerald and Mercury aren't around. Which, BTW, funny how she has shown zero worry about them or wondered about them while Emerald was very much concerned for Cinder. Funny, huh?

But what about her backstory? We don’t know it, but as I myself argued, it was probably not a happy one. And what about Salem? Someone who has clearly been using her and instilling fear into her? Clearly, those affected Cinder and drove her to be who she is, right? Well... yes. Likely a lot of Conder’s character is fueled by her history and by Salem herself. If her backstory is like Cinderella, she started as nothing and was treated as nothing until she ended up with Salem. She got promised power, got told that it was rightfully her’s, and so begins her power quest. One that she sank into more and more until any morality that she may have had was gone.

Hmm... a character that is driven to spite and power by a higher authority figure who ends up doing terrible things and feeling no remorse. That sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Yeah, it is very similar to Adam. They’re both powerful. They’re both spiteful. They’re both arrogant and enjoy watching their enemies suffer. They both even have emotionally abused another person, Adam with Blake and Cinder with Emerald. Mind you Emerald hasn't left Cinder yet, unlike Blake, but still. And both were essentially enabled by their superior, Adam had Sienna and Cinder had Salem. As we know though, Adam’s story ended with him too far gone to be redeemed and thus, Blake and Yang killed him to defend themselves. Which even though we didn’t get a full Adma backstory, the brand told us pretty much all that we neede dot know. It explained why Adam became how he is... but it did NOT justify this.

This is the common issue that I see when it comes to people wanting redemption stories. They think that a backstory will be enough to give them one. Which... no. It isn’t. A backstory is meant to explain a character's history and their actions. It’s supposed to help us realize things about a character and puts things into a new light. But a backstory, in and of itself, cannot redeem a character. For a redemption to happen, a character has to realize that they were wrong and want to change. Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender worked because he realized what he did was wrong, wanted to be better had to prove that he meant it, and faced consequences for his past actions. We understood via his backstory why he was how he was, but it didn’t excuse it. It was only when Zuko decided that he wanted to change that his redemption worked. Whereas Azula wasn't redeemed despite her similar issues because she didn’t regret anything and didn’t want to change, hence her psychotic breakdown at the end.

But I’m not talking about that show. I’m talking about RWBY. But here is my point. You know why people want Emerald redeemed? It isn’t just because we know that she had a rough life prior to Cinder. It’s because she’s expressed at least some regret in the past, we see that she is clearly in over her head and scared, and out of all the cast the chance of her realizing this and turning on Cinder are the highest. Of course, right now, she’s still clinging to Cinder, but the build-up is there. Adam couldn’t be redeemed because he didn’t want to change, just wanting revenge on humanity for his torment and on Blake for daring to leave him because of what he had become.

It’s been six volumes, and Cinder has displayed no remorse. No desire to change. No change in her actions. She began as a smug power seeker, and she is still a smug power-seeker. Even if there are things that lead to her becoming that way, it doesn't mean shit unless Cinder wants to change. Which at this point, something big and unexpected is going to have to happen to make that happen. And even if she does turn on Salem, I don’t see her becoming good. It is unlikely that any of the heroes are going to forgive her. Maybe RUby, but there is no way that JNR ever will. And she wouldn’t care. She’d only help them if she can get revenge. She is self-serving, and she is likely always going to be. So at most, she could become an anti-villain. But again, considering the callousness of her previous actions, her lack of remorse, and how even now she’s trying to use her old tricks to make Neo kill Ruby for her, the path to redemption looks very sealed off for her.

Could it happen? Maybe. But form how it looks, it is very unlikely. Right now it looks like she’s on the same path as Adam, allowing her desire for power and spite to consume her until it all catches up to her and she ends up dead. Only time will tell though.

#rwby

30 notes · View notes

yurireview · 5 years

Text

Cinder and Neo an unlikely friendship

Hello dear followers, here is a new review about RWBY but this time we will talk about the hated Cinder and how the structure of her character took her next to the beloved Neo and how this dynamic is unique to the character of Cinder.

As you know, in this volume we have had great dynamics.

The development of the Bumbleby The companionship between Mercury and Emerald The closing of the JRN team with Phyrra

but I think the fandom ignores the duo of Cinder-Neo and it's understandable...in the long time I've been in this fandom there are 2 things that always stand out:

-The hatred of Cinder and the love of Neo Although the coolest thing about this is that Cinder and Neo are apparently the most opposite villains of the show.

If this is true, how could this be the perfect team? ... although many do not believe it, just like other great RWBY dynamics, the very opposite character of both leads to that point.

That is why I will explain the fundamental characteristic of the character of Cinder

Cinder has no companions

Many believe that their "ambition" for power is their main characteristic ... but I do not think so...being honest the Cinder of the first volumes is very good villain (conspires very well, kills without mercy, manipulates, subordinates) besides that 90% of their plans were successful

-Engaging everyone in the School -Reclude to those of the White Fang and Mercury-Emerald -It made the people distrust the established order and cut communications in the world -Destroy Ozpin -Consided the powers of the Maiden

But even with these achievements and his power, I must say that she would have had total success if she had friends ... but of course that at that time was not possible.

In the first 3 volumes Cinder was authoritarian, not only did She not have respect for his subordinates, but she made them know ... let's just look at how he treated Emerald and Mercury (especially Emerald who was like a lapdog) and scenes not missing.

Even Roman who does not treat him as a dog but as an ally but who is also subject to her and has control over him ... it was interesting as from the first chapter this was clear

Each event is moved according to its threads and that makes it feel very good ... but at the same time you can notice that lack of true companions.

In the final stage of the operation she could easily have said that her subordinates escorted her ... but she was so confident in her own power and wanting to take away the glory that that became her only mistake in her entire plan, since Mercury and Emerald could have stopped Ruby or any other intruder...the story would be different, but she never saw them as "peers" they were just her pawns.

the duel between Cinder and Phyraa is epic ... but the first clue to Cinder's belief base is when our beloved champion says "You believe in destiny"

The phrase that Phyrra told her before his death makes a lot of sense in Cinder narrative, but that will be discussed later.

After his defeat at the last moment we see her at her worst moment in Volume...but the first action we see of Cinder is that she continues to treat her subordinates in the same way.

The members of the Salem council are not even close to real comrades, in fact they bothered her a lot because of her condition ... especially Tyrion that is a reminder of what would happen to her if she did not kill her power and that attitude so " unpleasant "that we know.

Her relationship with Salem is interesting ... it is obvious that Cinder is very afraid of her, but at the same time the Dark Lady treats her differently than the other members of the council ... although the mistakes are not allowed even for her.

it is clear that this is the relationship that defines it and made who it is now, in fact there are many parallels between the two but that is for another post

The times she appeared in that volume we can see clearly why she always has to emit an intimidating and clear presence to be as she is ... because they would literally eat her alive if she did not, her fear is quite genuine.

In the Volume 5 to recover Salem gives his orders and just responds to the stupid criticism of "Cinder forgot his hatred for Ruby and was the same again" when this is a lie, Salem ordered Cinder keep her alive.

Ruby why did not I pay attention?" When she made the deal she did not want to kill Ruby, since she has a mortal fear of Salem is obvious. ..but that does not mean that she could not "hurt her”. It means killing her uncle, her friends and leaving her hopeless ... just for that reason she accepted those conditions

In fact, it stands out in the end of chapter 12 again. Why does the fandom want it to do things that have no logic? ... Volume 4 showed us what would happen to Cinder if it "lost its usefulness" and, of course, if did not have the attitude that she possesses could not survive in the Salem council

Now Cinder defeat in the end. Why was it? It could be said that the same as in Vol 3 but there is a slight difference ... in this case the Narrative focuses on how important it is to have real friends (Something that Cinder does not have).

In fact the song of All Must Die describes its cycle of self-destruction and does not justify it but transmits its errors...The Cinder we met died

How does Neo enter the narrative of the new Cinder? How does Neo enter the narrative of the new Cinder? ... to understand the best quality of Neo.

Neo and Roman

I think they were duo of Villains par excellence were Neo and Roman ... neither of them had a toxic dynamic and best represent the dynamics of equals that many partners do not have ... From the beginning she is a villain who has what Cinder never had.

In fact since the first appearance of Neo is also established that she is stronger than him and even so is his partner without being the boss.

I still remember the beating she gave on the train to Yang and as always Roman never gives him "orders" besides that of the 3 duels on the train she was the only one to win with an overwhelming advantage.

In fact the capture of Roman was because he was very weak against Blake...Neo unlike Cinder does not ambition the "Power" in fact he looks well satisfied in his adventures with Roman

Again in volume 3 our beloved Neo saves his boss, without orders from Cinder or from Roman himself and in fact the sentence that Roman says in his release tells us that they have passed this situation many times and Neo was simply going to save his friend

The team of Neo and Roman was very lethal ... in fact it is the second best combo I saw in the series, they beat Ruby ... but we know how the battle ended (Death of Roman) Neo lost his boss and dear friend, now the only thing she wanted was to take revenge on those she considers responsible for Roman's death.

This series of events would be those that would take Neo to his predestined meeting with Cinder

Cinder and Neo Vol 6

In this Volume the new Cinder comes into action, unlike before it is not the same. Why do I say it? Even in her weakened state she was still next to Salem, she still had subordinates, she was still part of Salem's plans ... but in this volume it is very different.

-It does not have subordinates -Salem abandonment -It has no more allies -It has no room - Now seek to eliminate it.

With that in mind, she only has two motivations (Revenge and Survival), she searches for the information and meets Neo that in a certain way has not changed anything, the only thing that she lacks now is her great companion... in fact she honors a lot Roman memory.

What I like about this scene other than the great fight ... is that unlike the way Cinder recruits Emerald-Roman-Mercury here Neo not only does not see her "Fascinated" with Cinder but they have an agreement in base to a common goal...even the small scene where she points out that she is mute is a small advancement that her dynamic of both will be very informal

At the moment they seal their alliance they do it as "Equals" unlike their other alliances, many said "Look at a parallel with what happened with Raven ... I bet she going to betray her" ... but here the circumstance is the opposite.

In this case Cinder has no allies, has no subordinates, has no place to return...instead with Raven had Allies, the Base of Salem, her Subordinates she made that alliance not in a committed way, in the chapter Raven itself she talks about betraying her ... so that alliance does not even remotely follow her.

In this alliance not only Cinder lost almost everything that makes her feel "powerful" but really has no reason to betray Neo ...in fact unlike the situation with Raven ... here Cinder spends time with Neo because ( she has no one else) It is ironic that his whole life led him to spend time with someone who tried to kill her weeks ago ...but thanks to that, she is already forming what could be Cinder first Friend.

this is the character development that many were waiting for

In fact, something that many forget is that the first time that Cinder and Neo interact, both praise each other without underestimating each other while Emerald and Mercury are back as subordinates and they are together as equals is a well done scene.

I liked the scene where Neo stops Cinder without fear of being "reprimanded" (Cinder surprised face is great) in fact that scene suggests that she got the transport without orders from Cinder because she does not order , but I also like it when Cinder makes a sarcastic comment about that Neo lacks boots and this one rolls his eyes without fear or anything because she is not faking anything in front of her

But at the same time she shows her happy side without problems and unlike Cinder's subordinates, Neo is informal with her and I love it.

But at the same time we also have Cinder showing expressions that in other volumes she did not show, without arrogance just enjoying time with his partner

I think the cherry on the cake was when Cinder tells Neo without reason the phrase of "Destiny" whichs she did not do with anyone, in fact she never talked anything trivial with anyone, it's great because despite all the events she is satisfied with what happened and that both are united in the goal of killing Ruby

It is an irony that as with Cinder and Neo ... the subordinates of Cinder (Emerald and Mercury) even in the midst of their hostility are forging a fellowship due to the circumstances, in addition to discussing something that all the fandom knew (Cinder not cares about his subordinates) Is not it ironic that right in this volume we see a new facet of Cinder that she did not have with them?

Conclusion

I know that many assume the worst of Cinder because of the hatred that fandom has ... but I think many have lost perspective of their character and the same happens with Neo but in reverse...She is not "calculating" all her actions, but the dynamics she has with Cinder came naturally and it's great because is happy now to have his first partner and we will see how they will develop their dynamics in the future and I think that Neo will be the one that makes Cinder learn the meaning of companionship and having a friend even though they are both villains

Many wonder: What is Neo past? What is Cinder past? well now that we have them together, this will be answered in the next volume.

#cinder fall #neopolitan #neopolitian (rwby)#rwby #mercury #emerald #phyrra nikos #bumbleby #rwby volume 6

228 notes · View notes

biggreenneatbox · 5 years

Text

RWBY Sexuality Headcanons

Fuck it; 2018 is rounding off, I’m a lottle drunk and I remembered saying something on @ladyvallhalla‘s Twiiter post. Let’s expand, shall we?

These are my personal headcanons for characters’ sexualities in RWBY, and the ones I often drift to. I’m branching a little bit from the main four but point’s the same throughout

Fisrt, a disclaimer - I really enjoy | OmegaInfinity |’s story “Linked in Life and Love” on Fanfiction.net. In it, the use of Mate Marks is explored, where Faunus can mark their partner(s) and various things occur. Ever since then, I see ALL Faunus as Bisexual (I know what you’re thinking, and I’ll explore and explain that in a bit). Some prefer one gender over another, but most would happily join in a polyship if their partner so wanted. There are some exceptions, like Adam because fuck Adam with everything sharp, poisonous and deadly in this world and the next! So, all Faunus will have an * next to their name, to denote that all of them are Bisexual to an extent, and that this is what I HC them as displaying most of the time.

Ruby Rose

Asexual

Our Silver Eyed Cinnamon Bun doesn’t really care for anything like that. She loves weapons, and she wants to protect her friends. As time progresses, that doesn’t change and that’s just who she is.

If I was forced to put her with anyone, I’d say Oscar due to their similar-ish ages (ignoring one huge outlier in the boy’s head). But honestly, Ruby saw someone younger tagging along. This is the first time since attending Beacon that she has actually had a chance to lead someone who hasn’t had as much world experience as her. She jumped at that chance, took him under his wing and gave him the Rose / Xiao Long Hospitality and Big Sis Role that she had grown up experiencing with Yang.

Weiss Schnee

SO tough to decide!

Like, seriously. I put down “Confused” on the original tweet, but with it being a tweet I couldn’t expand on that.

Weiss has lived a life of luxury, getting what she wants a lot of the time, not being given it if she doesn’t want it. There were a few smaller things she had to do on her Father’s request when she was younger, and she didn’t particularly enjoy that, but she stomached it as best she could to please him.

When she became of age to date, he forced her into it, and she was not happy at all. For a long time, it was shitty suitor after shitty suitor, so she outright denied a lot of people a chance at getting close to her, because they were just what Jacques wanted.

Neptune comes along, and suddenly there’s someone she finds attractive, but that goes nowhere and she’s at a loss.

It’s only when she has to deal with Shitty Neptune Henry Marigold does she really find that type of person repulsive.

Similarly, when RWBY reunites, she feels love like she has only really felt before in Klein, who loves her like a daughter and because it is his job. This is true, unconditional love, and she doesn’t know what to do. So, she does nothing, and accepts it as what it is.

Blake Belladonna*

Bisexual / Homosexual

Dated Adam (regrets for rest of life) = Likes Guys In love with Yang = Like Girls Put ‘em together = Bisexual

Though, as mentioned, I’d have to say she leans more towards Homosexual in my mind as tome progresses. Maybe that’s just how much she and Yang seem to gravitate towards each other recently, but I think that there’s really no one else for Blake.

Yang Xiao Long

Punsexual / Homosexual

Sexually attracted to the greatest pun in the room. … Providing it was a girl said the pun.

I see Yang as once having aboyfriend at Signal when she was much younger. This was as she was just *ahem* developing, and she soon learnt that boys are idiots who only wanted one thing, especially aat that age. She would have said something and tried to move on, if not for the fact he said things about Ruby. She got detention that day for breaking his noes with a single punch. Tai was secretly pruod.

That was Yang’s first boyfriend, and one of the soul reasons she hasn’t had a second. Non eof the girls said things to Ruby.

Speaking of, at Beacon with tht one scene EVERYONE seemingly sites as th reason for Yang being bi, yknow “I know I do~”, that’s sisterly banter; it’s a big sister trying to get her younger sibling to interact with others. Plus, Yanf assumed Ruby would be into that. Yang was wrong.

Jaune Arc

Straight

Stupid and blind, but straight. Took after his big sister saphron in that regard - chasing after the girls ;)

She was better atit though.

Nora Valkyrie

Rensexual

NOUN: Capable of romantic and sexual feelings towards people of the name “Lie Ren” exclusively.

Seriously, they wewr made for each other. Nora just persues it more, especially in the Poser / Beacon Era of the show.

Though, outside of that, I say she’s actually Pan(cake)sexual. She seems like someone who doesn’t care at all who she’s with, long as they’re both happy.

Pyrrha Nikos

Straight

Same scenarios as Weiss in her childhood and young tennagey ears, though less confused by the end of it.

Pyrrha had a lot going for her with her skill in the arena. As she made tours and attended various promotional events, people tried to woo her. It didn’t work, and she apologised for it. She wasn't in the wrong, she didn’t like disappointing anyone (it became an automatic response as time went on)

Her mother and father weren’t rich like Schnees were, but they had enough. Pyrrha honestly mad e more than them in three tournament wins than they did in the same time, and that’s not including the fourth win under her belt. So people just wanted to be with Pyrrha for the sake of dating a celebrity, rather than dating and marrying Weiss for the position of near uncontested power.

Then Jaune came along, someone who saw Pyrrha Nikos for her, not “Pyrrha ‘The Golden Girl’ Nikos”, or “Four Time Champion, Pyrrha Nikos”, or “the next teenager whose life I’m going to completely tear asunder and condemn to a life of solitude and pain.”

She loved being around him because he was genuine, if a bit slow on noticing. And for those brief final minutes of her life, she was happy to have found him.

Lie Ren

Straight

Nora wont let him be anything else.

Nah, he’s had Nora with him for a very long time, longer than his own parents. They’d technically been dating since they were old enough to know about it.

Another HC I have about Ren was that he had an endgoal in mind when attending Beacon. The Grimm that killed his parents needed to die. So he became stronger to join Beacon, then deal with it upon graduation. It’s why he held Nora’s hand after Kuroyuri and not vice versa - the thing he’d been after was gone, and a weight was off his shoulders. He didn’t need to worry, and he could live a life again.

Oscar Pine

Straight, BUUUUUUUUUUUUT...

He’s a young child with a man born in the First Age of Humanity locked inside his head.

Ignoring Ozpin’s presence, I’d pair him with Ruby.

Otherwise, no.

Sun Wukong* / Neptune Vasilias

Straight

I adore Sea Monkeys. It’s a guilty ship of mine. But they’re straight. Sun followed his boner after Blake, and Neptune is a serial flirter. Even with...

Ilia Amitola*

Homosexual

She needed mentioning, for obvious reasons.

Personallu, even with my Faubus HC of them all being Bi still holding fast, Ilia is one of the other canon exceptions to the rule. She really wouldn’t want to be with anyone other than another girl. If push came to shove and she had to be in a poly, lest lose her girlfriend to a man, she would let her date him whilst she herself still dated her, but she would not date him personally.

“I’m Ilia. This is my girlfriend Gretta. And this is Gretta’s boyfriend, David.” This, she’d allow. She wouldn’t enjoy it, but she’d allow it.

Emerald Sustrai

Straight, yet Bi-Curious

I see it as Emerald not knowing what she is to anyone. She has only let one person really close, and that was Cinder. Cinder treated her like a kid, sure. But growing up without that parental figure made her look up to the Maiden to Be as that sort of figure. As time moved on, Emerald was wondering if these feeling were growing more into something romantic.

She never acted on those feelings in case things went south and that was Cinder gone from her ife forever or her own life gone forever. Still, she is unsure. Even now, as SPOILERS HERE, CANNOT WRITE

Cinder Fall

Sorry, I just love this GIF, I had to use it.

Whatever she needed to be

It always seemed to me that Cinder would do whatever she wanted or needed to get information. It never seemed below her to use her looks and charm to work her way into where she needed to be. Some dude wanted to turn on the charm? Sure, let’s see what he’ll spill. A woman flirting with her at a bar? Well, if she’s got something of use to her - physical possession or pertinent knowledge - then might as well flirt back.

Honestly, I couldn’t classify her if I tried. I’m sure there’s something that would describe how I think she is. Drunk me doesn't knoe shit.

No romantic connection to anyone, but will seek a sexual partner of either gender if the need arises.

Aaand, that’s everyone I care about writing this for.

Have a happy new Year y’all!

#rwby #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #Team RWBY #jaune arc #nora valkyrie #pyrrha nikos #lie ren #Team JNPR #oscar pine #sun wukong #neptune vasilias #ilia amitola #emerald sustrai #cinder fall

46 notes · View notes

yanagi-uxinta · 5 years

Text

Adam Taurus, fandom, and redemption.

Okay this is my first proper RWBY analysis post because after several weeks of having mine and several other fans’ opinions misconstrued and shit on just because we like a *problematic character* I’m fed up. So if you don’t like Adam, you’re sick of all the RWBY bickering on your dash, or you just want to look at cat pictures and chill, best give this post a miss.

For all my annoyed tone, I’m going to try and bring this down and do an actual examination of Adam in general, why his fans are frequently said to want his character to be redeemed (whether we do or not), and what we mean by ‘redemption’ in the first place. I will not use this post to shit on people’s ships or anything like that, and honestly Bumblebee probably won’t have much or anything to do with this analysis at all.

Disclaimer: I am only speaking for myself. I know several other Adam fans who will likely agree with me, in the broad strokes of my argument if not the fine detail, but there are going to be those who disagree completely with what I say. This is just my take on what the hell has happened to the reaction to Adam’s character and the fandom since the end of volume 6. Of course there will be spoilers so if you’ve not seen the last few episodes of volume 6 yet, don’t continue reading! The rest will be under the cut with spoilers from the outset.

So since Adam’s death in the show, a lot of discussion has centred around how his writing was handled, both for his character and for the larger Faunus discrimination plot that his character tied into. While I may not personally have enjoyed the turn his character took, I will not be berating the writers for that or shouting about Monty, as that isn’t fair to anyone, is disrespectful to Monty himself, and we’ve always got fanfiction for our ‘I would have preferred this’ scenarios.

Looking at the writing alone, let’s have a recap of what we’ve got, focusing first on what we see of him, then what other characters say about him. This is going to get long, fair warning, as quite a few of the complaints I’ve seen on Adam reviews so far have been how people have left certain scenes and information out to support their story. I’m trying not to do that, but given I’m also summarising and trying not to quote every scene and mention, I might miss a few things. Apologies if I do.

- Adam was introduced as a high-ranking member of the White Fang.

- He was older than Blake, cast estimates say by about 5 years.

- He was a skilled swordsman with an extremely powerful semblance, and is used to leading raids for the White Fang. He started back when Ghira was in charge; this is also when he first killed in order to save Ghira’s life during a fight against humans. While he initially accepted Ghira’s admonishment, Sienna’s claim that he was a hero and the other WF members cheering him seemed to facilitate his later ruthless nature. He showed particular enjoyment when attacking SDC locations and staff, where his killing was not encouraged, but it also wasn’t punished.

- He initially believed in better rights for the Faunus, and that the White Fang would bring about a revolution.

- He shows no compassion for humans, and a willingness to kill them if they get in his way.

- He rejected Cinder’s first recruitment attempt because she was a human advocating for a ‘human cause’, despite her claiming they would both benefit.

- Cinder chose to ambush a Maiden rather than push the issue with Adam, and only returned to press-gang him into service after she had acquired half of the Fall Maiden’s power.

- Blake left between Cinder’s two visits. Adam’s lieutenant was shown swearing to bring her back, only for Adam to tell him to ‘forget it – it’s time I returned to Mistral and-’ here he is cut off by Cinder’s return.

- Adam worked with Cinder after his people were either injured or murdered by her, Emerald and Mercury, since the only options given to him were to work with her for lien and dust, or die – implied to be by immolation. Cinder had to demonstrate her Maiden powers to get him to agree since until she did, he seemed willing to fight.

- Adam had enough sway with the White Fang that even after their numerous casualties during ‘Breach’, that they continued to follow his orders.

- He participated in the Battle of Beacon, where he provided the ships in which the Grimm were smuggled in, and was seen fighting and presumably murdering Atlas soldiers and Academy students.

- This is where his anger and the first signs of abuse of Blake became apparent. He saw Beacon as an opportunity to strike back at humanity en masse; to destroy their communications and one of their main signs of strength – the Academy, despite Beacon accepting multiple Faunus students. He sees peace and equality as impossible, and undesirable. He equates Blake’s ‘impossible’ desire for an equal society with his desire for her; and rather than try to get her back, he decides to destroy everything she loves as he sets out to impose his version of justice on humankind. At this point, his two goals are balanced. He starts by amputating Yang’s arm when she, a human, comes to Blake’s defence, and would have killed her had Blake not intervened.

- After Beacon Falls, Adam is pursued by authorities, and meets all attempts to bring him into custody with ‘brutal force’.

- He returns to Sienna Khan in Mistral. Here he is ‘punished’ for his participation in the Battle of Beacon, but we get no details on what that is, only that it wasn’t as severe as it could have been. Adam does not seem affected by the punishment at all, and pressures Sienna to agree to the attack on Haven. It is implied he has explained his deal with Cinder to Sienna, but we do not know to what extent or if he mentioned how he was recruited. All Sienna seems to know is that these ‘humans’ are an unknown quantity who have given Adam empty promises, and that Adam’s agreement to fight at Beacon demonstrates his talents being wasted by short-sightedness.

- Adam calls in Hazel to explain more. Here we learn that the White Fang practices execution for treasonous acts – something already covered briefly with Tuckson.

- Sienna believes the Faunus cannot win a war against humans, which seems to be her leading motivation behind not starting one as opposed to any moral reasoning. Adam disagrees, and Sienna takes the chance to listen. Adam’s argument is that the Faunus are superior, and they have the help of Hazel’s ‘master’, which would swing the war in their favour. He believes humans should serve the Faunus. Sienna does not directly rebuke him, but seems frustrated as she says she’s ‘had enough of this conversation for tonight’, and orders the guards to escort them out.

- This is when Adam’s ambitions are revealed. He performs a coup against Sienna, saying he is doing what’s best for the Faunus. He murders Sienna, pinning the death on an anonymous human huntsman, and makes her a martyr. When Hazel objects, Adam’s reasoning is that Salem was dubious about Sienna’s willingness to cooperate – with him in charge, that issue is removed.

- As High Leader, he orders the Albain brothers to slaughter Blake’s family in Menagerie, but to bring Blake to him alive after they made a stand against his leadership. Here his composure is shown to be slipping, and the Albain’s imply they will replace him if his sanity suffers too much. This is the first time we see him close to losing control; he was angry at Beacon but still completely in control of his reactions. The attack fails thanks to the Belladonnas refusing to go down easy, Blake working with Sun, and being able to convert Ilia mid-fight. The Albains are killed or imprisoned, Menagerie rallies behind Blake against Adam.

- At the attack on Haven, Adam oversees the setting of the bombs on the CCT and the Academy, and orders the small team back to ‘perimeter watch’. Before they can, Hazel is thrown out of the building, distracting the group long enough for Blake to arrive and demand they stand down. Adam’s obsession is brought back up again; he’s amused that after the attack in Menagerie failed, Blake ‘delivered herself to him’ anyway. He is taken aback when Blake’s back-up arrives, called the ‘brothers and sisters’ of the White Fang members. In one case, this is literal. Adam insists they are enemies, but is interrupted by the arrival of the Mistral Police Force with Kali. His emotions get out of hand again; backed into a corner he tries to detonate the bombs in a mass murder-suicide attempt, which fails thanks to Ilia disarming all of the bombs. His own people start to doubt him, even as Adam justifies his actions as making humanity pay for what they’ve done – even though the vast majority of the people present are Faunus, not humans.

- When Hazel refuses to offer aid, Adam attempts to murder Blake. This is the infamous ‘dodges into the sword slash, cracks him on the back of the head’ move. This initiates a battle between the eight White Fang members, Sun, Ilia, and the Menagerie army.

- This is where Volume 5’s poor writing, pacing, and placement make things awkward (please, no arguments. While 5 had it’s enjoyable moments, even the writers have flat out said it was rushed and there is a 2 hour long video on all the placement issues of the Ruby vs Cinder team fight alone. You can like it by all means, I’m not saying don’t like it, but from a technical standpoint it’s bad). Adam is still on the ground after ordering the start of the fight, despite a battle around him, Blake running a quarter of the way around the courtyard following Hazel getting dragged back indoors by Weiss’ lancer, seeing her team, watching Yang chase Raven into the Vault, silently communing with Ruby, and running back outside around a quarter of the courtyard again... only to be standing in front of him, still kneeling on the ground, at the opening of the next episode. And when we see Blake running, she’s not doing her super-fast run from the Black trailer and choosing to be Yang’s partner back in Volume 1, it’s a normal jog. So Adam just... stayed kneeling on the ground until plot plonked Blake back in front of him rather than diving into the battle around him. I digress.

- The White Fang are overwhelmed/disarmed. Adam gets back up, says he will make Blake regret ever coming back (on her own terms, I assume he means...). More police are inbound, as are huntsmen... despite Qrow not being able to find any earlier in the season... and Blake claims she is here for Haven, not Adam – even though her sole reason for being on the continent is stopping Adam. Discrepancies aside, Adam continues to paint Blake as a coward who cannot face him without back up, claims he has powerful friends – something refuted by Sun. The White Fang are being arrested, Hazel is... offscreen pissing off everybody else with his semblance, and Blake says she has ‘more important thing to deal with’ than Adam making her regret coming to Haven. Adam gets pissed, attacks Blake and Sun for a few seconds, then makes a run for it since the police airships have a spotlight trained on him, and as Blake speculates, he wants to lure the two of them away and pick them off.

- Adam observes Hazel fleeing with Emerald and Mercury, and chooses not to make contact.

- This is where the short confuses the timeline slightly. I’ll go with what I think makes the most sense/is implied by the narrative.

- Adam returns to the WF throne room, only to hear the remaining free WF members complaining about his abandonment at Haven. Considering Ilia said only Adam escaped Haven, it’s unclear how the rest of the Mistral WF members knew what happened since this scene is implied to have happened as soon as Adam returned from Haven. Either these were a part of the ‘perimeter watch’ and weren’t accounted for by the police, Ilia was wrong about the success of the police (unlikely as we see all eight of the WF Haven group being apprehended), or this is a continuity error. Either way, Adam demands they step away from his throne, implying the group were considering a coup. Whether they were or not, Adam initially explains his demand as ‘we have work to do’. When they refuse, citing his abandonment of the WF at Haven, he repeats his demand. They refuse: ‘We’re not taking orders from you anymore. We heard you folded the moment you got sass from the Belladonna girl. I guess she’s got more control over you than you-’ It is at this point – specifically on the word ‘control’ – that Adam draws Wilt and slaughters everyone in the room. He retakes his throne seeming completely calm and not even out of breath, muses on ‘the Belladonna girl. Blake,’ stands, and slashes his throne apart and screams.

- I assume this is where the scene from the end of his short fits in, where he drops his mask in the forest and staggers as if exhausted. It seems to me that Adam has massacred every White Fang member left in the headquarters, explaining his fatigue, and in dropping the mask he is abandoning the White Fang and thus the Faunus – choosing to focus solely on Blake.

- Two weeks later, Blake sees him blindfolded and hooded on the train headed for Argus. This implies, with his admission of stalking her later, that in those two weeks he tracked her down and followed the group to the station, sneaked onto the train through the open door Qrow points out to Dee and Dudley, and was intending to take the train to Argus with the group and was waiting for a chance to get Blake alone. With the grimm attack derailing the train, Adam is taken to Argus with JNR, and presumably waits there for Blake to arrive. It is possible he is the reason for the technical issues Terra Cotta-Arc is being blamed for, but that is pure speculation and he could have been lying low for the day and a half it takes RWBY, Qrow, Oscar and Maria to arrive.

- Adam somehow becomes aware of the plan to steal an airship, or possibly follows the group to the cliffside, shadows Blake and Yang long enough to figure out where they are headed, and beats them there. Either way when Blake tries to disrupt the comms tower, she finds all the staff murdered and Adam waiting for her. Adam admits he’s followed her, waiting for her to separate from the group. In this conversation/fight, he swings between bitterness that she ever entered his life at all, and swearing he’ll never let her go again. He is inconsistent with whether he wants Blake dead, or as a trophy.

- We get to see a wider scope of Adam’s fighting abilities in his battle against Blake and later Yang. He attempts to psychologically manipulate and intimidate both as well as physically fighting them. He refuses their attempts to defuse the situation, turning the scenario into life-or-death. When he is disarmed by Yang, rather than shoot one of them with the gun still on his belt, he instead dives for the broken Gambol Shroud, racing Blake. Blake and Yang prove faster – though there are a few minor placement issues here as well, with how far Adam is from the sword after catching his foot on it and taking two steps away, as well as how close his hand was to it in the shot before Blake seizes it – and is killed when both girls stab him with the broken pieces through the chest and back. He staggers to the cliff edge and falls, his body hitting the rocks before falling into the river below.

We hear about Adam via Blake more than we see him on screen. In order:

- Blake calls him a partner or mentor, who changed, and whose ideal world wasn’t perfect for everyone – i.e. humans. Given her descriptions of the White Fang to Weiss and her sketching Adam in her notebook as if she misses him, at this point in time it seems like Blake still thought Adam was misguided like the WF, forced to take drastic measures in the face of the racism espoused by humans like Weiss and Cardin, who called the White Fang pure evil and the Faunus animals respectively. However she still called him a monster for the actions he took, which made her run away. She later calls him someone very dear to her, and describes how he changed – gradually. Little choices that built up that he told her not to worry about; starting as accidents, then self defence, until even Blake was convinced he was right. We see one of these conversations in the short, where Adam has recently killed on a mission and Blake is calling him on it. Adam very quickly and easily turns the conversation around – placing the death as an unavoidable casualty of fighting, himself as the person willing to do what has to be done for the cause, and implying Blake wants him to abandon the Fang, ‘like her parents’. This changes the argument on Blake, leaving her to refute a claim she never made, give him support when he professes his fear she doesn’t believe in him anymore, and does not address the actual issue she brought up. Talking to Sun, Blake goes through her own changing perception of him – how he was justice, then passion, but she later saw him not as hatred or rage, but spite. ‘He won't accept equality, only suffering for what he feels the world did to him, and his way of thinking is dangerously contagious.’ The word ‘feels’ here is complicated, since we now know what the world did to him and it was genuinely horrific, but ‘feels’ implies that it is an imagined slight; something Adam has blown out of proportion. Blake later tells Yang that ‘he never really liked people telling him what to do.’ She says that he’s strong, but his real power comes from control – he would get into her head and make her feel small, which she now says was him pulling her down to his size (I mean he’s six foot four, so how tall was Blake to start off with?).

So that’s Adam in a recap. While the slow change Blake talks about isn’t shown much, we do see his continuing changes in the show – he does go from someone whose focus was Faunus revolution, to revenge against humanity and Blake, to believing only he can lead the Faunus – ironically echoing Blake, who thought she was the only one who could figure out the White Fang’s plans back in volume 2 – and murdering his mentor to do so, to abandoning the Faunus cause entirely when it becomes apparent that he is no longer in control of the White Fang, because Blake tarnished his reputation, and thus deciding to hunt her down to the exclusion of all else. We see his ambitions rise as his emotions spiral out of control, and it is emotions – so well contained in his first appearances – that get him killed when in his anger he forgets he has a gun on his belt and instead goes for a broken sword.

Adam is proven to be a horrible, violent person, even if he started out differently – something we don’t see directly as an audience; the closest we get is his silent moment of regret after his first murder. So how come so many people were invested in his character, when what we’ve seen of him has been so consistently bad and cruel?

Some people just like a good villain – which Adam was, when he had the complexity of both Faunus rights and going after Blake. A lot of people didn’t like the reveal he was an abuser in volume 3, preferring the revolutionary character who felt betrayed by a partner in a freedom fighting army, compared to the ex-boyfriend angry at the girl who left him and put that personal insult on an equal level with fighting for the rights of his entire species. Personally I didn’t mind the twist, though I do think they should have built it up a bit more prior to the reveal – Blake only expresses her discomfort at his treatment of humans and how violent he became in the White Fang raids before Beacon, and never implies he was abusive towards her. This of course could be her needing the distance and time to realise it, and the Fall of Beacon being the biggest wake-up call possible, but we don’t get any confirmation of that. Either way, I liked the volume 3 Adam. He not only thought he was fighting for his people, he had a personal stake in Blake’s story, and it was the level of threat he presented to Blake and the rest of the main cast that made him intriguing and something to look forward to, even though his actions were despicable. It was the conflict he offered that made him a character I liked. He presented not only a physical threat, but a philosophical one as well – because his methods got results. Blake’s didn’t – her parents already proved that.

But what about those who didn’t like that, who just wanted the revolutionary, and the student-mentor relationship between him and Blake? Or those who lost interest in Adam after volume 5, and only gained it back in 6 after his face reveal? From what I can see, a lot of it has to do with that reveal of the SDC scar on his face.

The SDC is well known for its atrocious working conditions and reliance on Faunus labour. As we discover in volume 6, they brand Faunus. This explains Adam’s ruthlessness in the SDC portions of his short and the Black trailer; he is striking back at the place that abused and marked him, even if the individuals he’s attacking had nothing to do with his personal trauma.

Now for all our speculation, we don’t know how or when Adam was branded. What we do know is the SDC branded a Faunus not only on his face, but over his eye, permanently disfiguring and blinding him on that side. Whether they practice slavery or not is not yet confirmed, though given the connotations of branding – like ranchers do to cattle – it is highly likely.

I’ve seen a few references to how in different parts of history, known criminals were often branded or permanently marked in some way or other so they’d be recognised, raising the possibility that Adam was branded after a botched raid on the company. However, in these historical instances where the marking was a part of the law, there was a set designation for the brand – for example, in ancient Rome marked robbers with ‘F’, and in Britain in the mid-1500s brawlers were branded with an ‘F’ for ‘fraymaker’. If Remnant’s punishment of criminals involves branding – something that has been largely abolished since the 1800s in our world – then they would not brand them with a company name.

Given Remnant is meant to be (very approximately) socially analogous to our so-called first world civilisations depending on what aspect you’re looking at, I highly doubt branding is an accepted legal punishment. That places the convention and the blame solely on the SDC – and if that is the case, then they have some very worrying analogues to branding in American slavery practices. Some would have a set logo they would use, others would use a basic hot iron and try to make a particular symbol or letter, as is the case of a Micajah Ricks, who when describing a runaway slave he was looking for, ‘burnt her with a hot iron, on the left side of her face, I tried to make the letter M’. Now we know that Remnant as a whole outlawed slavery back when the Vytal Treaty was signed 80 years before the show began, but that hasn’t stopped effective slavery continuing today in prisons and it still occurs in certain parts of the diamond trade today, so the SDC practicing slavery dressed up as employment - or hidden entirely - is not outside the realm of possibility.

If my speculation here is accurate, then what Adam’s face reveal tells us is that he was a slave, and was branded either to mark him as property, or for attempting to escape. We know the branding was done a long time ago as it seems fully healed, but we do not know how old Adam was when it occurred – if he was a child or not. We don’t have an official age for him, but if I recall Arryn and Barb estimated his age to be around 23 when volume 3 was airing or just finished, making him approximately 25 in volume 6. According to the NHS website entry on burns, ‘more severe and deeper burns can take months or even years to fully heal, and usually leave some visible scarring.’ Given the extent of Adam’s scarring, we know his was a deep burn, at least a third degree – and with how dark some of the discolouration is, it’s possible the deepest sections were fourth degree, which indicates tissue death. The site says that burns can be sensitive to direct sunlight for up to three years, though to take care to use factor 50 sunscreen on the burn and avoid direct midday sun as much as possible after this period as well. Even if Adam was branded after a failed raid with the White Fang, we seem him first don the mask in his character short back when Ghira was leader – five years or more before the show. If Adam was 23 during 3, he was either 23 or 22 at the start of Volume 1, not counting the trailers where he was likely 22. Five years before volume 1 would make him 18. Assuming the Adam short opening was after the burn had fully healed – I’m taking three years healing period here as a ballpark – he would have been 15 at the oldest when he was branded.

Now this speculation is based off assumptions, since all we know about Adam’s backstory is that he was branded by the SDC. That’s it. But I hope that this speculation is at least reasonable and rational, and backed up with enough evidence to at least be plausible. So if you’re still with me this far, we have either a child or a teenager being branded on his face for either criminal activity – and given Ghira was peaceful and did not condone Sienna’s later tactics, it’s doubtful Adam was working for the White Fang if this brand was because of a crime – or because he was a slave, who may have tried to escape.

And people wonder why anyone has even a shred of sympathy for the character.

Seriously though, the scar reveal makes all of Adam’s actions against humanity understandable, if not justifiable. The revolutionary people liked at the start received more backing and rationale for his actions, and even some of Adam’s more ambitious and villainous actions started to make sense – his coup against Sienna, for example. Adam had become so twisted by his hatred of humanity that a partnership he was initially forced into at fire-point became, in his mind, the best chance he had to get revenge on humanity – and Sienna wasn’t on board with that alliance or their actions, so he justified her murder as the Faunus needing him instead of her, because only he could bring them the justice they deserved.

The scar was also when a lot of people started raising the possibility of a redemption arc. Now the desire had been there before, since the very beginning in fact. But this was when it started looking like a genuine possibility, with the knowledge that the team were heading to Atlas, the source of Adam’s abuse, next. I know when I saw the reveal, my fears they were going to kill him off this season were eased a bit – surely this was setting up a future plot point? Why make the brand SDC if it wasn’t; any other brand – simple numbers even – would have conveyed the same story and had the same impact, without making it look like Adam would be a part of the future story.

And yes, I said ‘this season’. Adam I feel was always going to die, and a lot of his fans were fine with that. What we have issue with is the execution (no pun intended) of his death – something lots of people have already covered. What I want to focus on is the reason ‘redemption’ was bandied about as a possibility.

Now, let me clarify what I mean by redemption. I think when people see the word they think what we wanted was Adam to become good, to have his sins forgiven and to become a hero in reality and not just in his mind, to team up with RWBY and go up against Salem, potentially going down saving Blake as a last act of goodwill, or surviving to lead the White Fang and Faunus properly.

That’s not what I wanted. That’s not what most of us wanted.

When a lot of the Adam fans I’ve talked to mentioned ‘redemption’, there were two things we wanted. One was for the writers to redeem their bad handling of him (and everything else) in volume 5. Of particular note is how sudden the change is in his character between 3 and his first ‘live’ appearance after becoming High Leader as the holo-message to the Albains. The only scene between the two is his coup against Sienna, where his ambitions and ruthless rationale become clear, along with how content he is with his deal with Salem, but where - like in 3 - he is overwhelmingly in control. Sienna was already overthrown before that scene even starts, she (and the audience) just doesn’t realise it. Yet the next scene we have of Adam, he’s screaming in fury - and this isn’t the raised voice of Heroes and Monsters, where he tells Blake ‘what you want is impossible’. This is an uncontrolled emotion that he visibly has to fight to rein in - compounded by Fennec’s comment that ‘he seems unwell’. With that one line, Adam’s character is changed - he is now unstable when prior to this scene, he was one of the most collected characters on the show, even in the face of defiance from both Blake and Sienna. A lot of people see this scene as the beginning of the end, if not the outright death, of Adam’s character.

By and large the writers managed to claw back Adam’s respectability in 6, with the exception of how he died - it being that instability and emotional lack of control that got him killed. The other thing Adam fans wanted when discussing redemption was for Adam to find balance again as a villain. Let him be a threat. Let him be terrifying. But don’t let his existence revolve around Blake, especially now we’ve seen his face and know what his original motivations were. If she gets in his way in his pursuit of justice, great. He’ll go after her and her loved ones. But he won’t go out of his way to do so. His desire to elevate the Faunus should have stayed strong. Yes, some people wanted Adam to forget Blake entirely and just focus on helping the Faunus, but I feel that would have been too big a reversal for his character. Adam is a villain, and the vast majority of us don’t mind that. We like that; it’s one of his selling points. He’s one of the most effective ones in the show (again, ignoring volume 5 where everyone became an idiot, hero and villain alike).

We all know Cinder is evil and is totally remorseless about the Fall of Beacon and the lives lost, same as Adam. We know she has a personal grudge against one of the main characters, and wants to kill or severely harm them, again, same as Adam. We know both want power. And when they divert from their original purpose, it is to get revenge on a member of the main cast. The difference? Adam succeeds. He helps destroy Beacon. He provides a direct threat to two of the main cast. Even in the weakest volume, he becomes the leader of the White Fang and would have succeeded in blowing up Haven had Blake not had prior warning of his plan and turned up to stop him – Team RWBY had no idea he was there or what his plan was; if Cinder and co’s plan had gone as they thought it would (so Vernal was actually the Spring Maiden) I imagine after killing Ruby and Qrow and securing the relic, their plan would have been to use Raven to teleport out before Adam detonated the bombs. When Adam abandons the White Fang, he finds Blake within a few days to two weeks and stalks her until he gets the chance to confront her. Cinder is responsible for the Fall of Beacon, but when presented with the chance to get revenge on Ruby, the character she’s been murdering illusions of since Beacon, she goes after Jaune instead (and fails to kill anyone except Vernal). Cinder gains the full Maiden powers, yes, but almost immediately loses her social power amongst Salem’s group when she’s maimed by a fifteen year old and does not gain that power or influence back. She is ostracised from Salem’s group because of her failure at Haven, leaving her a vagabond having to murder and steal for money and clothes to try and buy information – on Ruby. Yet Cinder never comes into contact with Ruby all season.

This is one of the reasons why Adam is more compelling – though I won’t say likable – than Cinder. The other is we actually have a glimpse of his backstory supporting his goals, unlike Cinder who could have popped up fully formed watching Emerald steal and we’d be none the wiser.

It is also why most of us were fine with Adam dying. He’s a villain, and villains tend to die and deserve it. It’s the way he died, and the timing, that annoyed us and sparked this whole month-long debate. A lot of our complaints could probably have been averted if a) the scar had said anything other than SDC, b) if he’d not forgotten about his gun OR he’d forgotten about it earlier in the match to foreshadow his lapse in concentration later, and c) Yang’s line about who he was pretending to be. It’s a good line, don’t get me wrong, but it does not make sense for Yang to say it. If Blake had said it, it would have worked and given us more insight into Adam – that he’d changed far earlier than we first though, and kept the facade going to keep Blake sweet. But Yang doesn’t know him. She knows very little about him, and she and Blake have had one very short conversation about him since Beacon, during which Blake never implies that Adam was pretending to be better than he was. If the line had been ‘the person you used to be’, then fine, great, that works perfectly because it’s consistent with the knowledge Yang has of him.

There’s also the group that say Blake and Yang murdered him, and it wasn’t self-defence. I’ll be honest, I’m on the fence. Did they have other options, once he was disarmed? Yeah, probably. His aura was broken and Yang, a hand-to-hand fighter, was behind him. She could have sucker punched him and knocked him out rather than slowing down to pick up a broken sword to stab him with. Did they feel like they had those options, in the moment, after giving him several chances to walk away and he was diving for a weapon? Probably not. Would I have preferred to see a scene where (if they had to kill him now) there was zero ambiguity? Yes. However the writers made their choice, and we’ll have to see what they do moving forward. I won’t be dropping the show or boycotting or anything like that, but I am disappointed in their handling of it, especially when the finale was so lacklustre. They should have saved the Adam fight for the final episode, if only to give us the emotional stakes completely lacking in the Cordovin fight.

Speaking of moving forward, I would like to see the death have an impact in the next volume. There wasn’t much time in the finale for an in-depth look at Blake and Yang’s emotional state, but this is something that should be explored in volume 7. Killing a human is different to killing Grimm, and while team RWBY have been guilty of endangering or ending lives before (hi nameless White Fang goons on the exploding train!) the narrative has never addressed it, and I feel this is a good place to. Adam wasn’t just a faceless, nameless enemy who you didn’t directly kill, even if you left them to the Grimm or they got caught in an explosion you survived. He was Blake’s mentor, partner, lover, and nightmare, and she killed him with her own hands. He was only ever a monster to Yang, one who changed her life forever and haunted her ever since, but he was a person and she killed him and saw how devastated Blake was afterwards. Blake had an emotional breakdown in the immediate aftermath, but this was used to reinforce her relationship with Yang instead of explore her complex relationship with Adam in its final moments, and I feel like one scene where only one of the two characters is upset over what they did is not enough to cover a subject that should be quite deep and managed tactfully.

All we can do is hope that the writers do well next volume, and given how strong the majority of volume 6 was I think they will. They’ve shown their willingness to take feedback on board, and while nothing else can be done with Adam’s character (unless as Kerry says they decide to pull a Darth Maul), I hope they do the impact he’s had on the characters justice and we get to see a more in-depth look at the conditions that made him who he was: a warped, broken man who was a victim, a survivor, but who took the wrong path and became a villain.

Edits: Included a couple of points thanks to a friend on Discord and @blek-is-a-cat, thanks to you both!

#rwby #adam taurus #rwby spoilers #rwby 6 spoilers #seeing red spoilers #seeing red #rwby analysis

9 notes · View notes

kitkatopinions · 3 years

Note

Sending you a character: Penny

Penny, my poor baby girl. I have a lot of thoughts about Penny, so let’s go!

My top three ships for the character

Penny/Whitley has the potential to be very cute, I think, and they could really wind up looking good together, and they would validate and help each other. Penny/Ren is also surprisingly something that I had suggested to me that I really enjoy! They could have such good dynamic and such a natural, warm relationship (I need to look up art of that!) Also Penny/Ciel. Did we only see her for one scene? Yes. Did she only have three lines? Yes. Did Penny say Ciel was forced to spend time with her? Yes. Are they adorable, and could they be an incredibly cute, well balanced, friend-based, Atlas BFFs turned girlfriends ship? Abso-fricking-lutely. (I almost put Nuts and Dolts on here because it used to be my favorite Penny ship, and I still kind of ship it for their V3 selves, but it got soured for me in canon.)

My three least favorite ships for the character

Penny/Jaune is over and done with. Outside of being a direct abuser, the quickest way to make a ship unshippable for me is to have one of them kill the other, even if they do it on request. Emerald/Penny, same as Emerald and Jaune, only her killing Penny was ill intent and Penny didn’t ask for that death, so... Yeah. I could never ship them. Also Nora/Penny is probably my third least favorite ship. They are both very similar, but I think Nora is too pushy and bossy for Penny, and Penny isn’t willful enough to challenge Nora.

My biggest criticism for the character

They never should’ve turned her into a flesh human. I know I’ve talked about this a lot before in other posts, but it was pointless, it didn’t affect her at all, it came with problematic messages and every part of it up to and including the animation and framing was badly done. And also, it ruined her allusion. More on that below!

My favorite thing about the character

Her sincerity and emotional depth made her a great character. In the first three seasons, that made her become fast friends with Ruby and made her good for hinting at a bigger picture through her naivety and trusting nature, and her love for people and clear pure heart made it gut wrenching when she killed and only in the best ways. In the seventh and eighth season, she was one of the only characters that I actually felt for emotionally, because it was clear how torn she was, how much she was despairing, how hard she was trying to do everything she could. And despite the fact that she didn’t do much more than Ruby to actually help people in V8, she had some really valid excuses, including the fact that she was getting manipulated on both sides, from Ruby and Ironwood, from both of their teams. She was a bright light in V8 when there weren’t a lot of characters I was cheering for, and that was largely due to how clear and well depicted her emotions were.

A headcanon I have about them

Penny sees Ironwood as a beloved uncle. Is this canon? No, but I will not stop writing it into fan fictions. When I write for RWBY, I write Ironwood to have been heavily involved in the creation of Penny, and that he was actually completely on board when the idea changed from ‘it’s going to be a weapon’ to ‘she’s going to be my daughter’ (and side note, I think the design was then altered from what was going to be a young adult to a mid-range teenager.) Ironwood was heavily involved in Penny’s training and her day to day life, and Penny was so fond of him and was always eager to tell him anything new she learned. Ironwood was protective of her in Vale because he didn’t want anything to happen to her while she was clearly still young enough to be incredibly naïve, and he wanted to keep her safe since he knew there were infiltrators in Vale. He started funding and helping with the reconstruction of Penny as soon as he got her back to Atlas, and he was one of the first people she saw when she woke back up. But Penny didn’t really think ‘uncle’ until she talked to Ruby later about Qrow, and while Ruby was describing ‘protector/care taker/provider/loves you/but not always there/can leave, she was like O.O “That’s just like General Ironwood! Is he like my uncle? I’m going to call him ‘Uncle General Ironwood the next time I see him!” I don’t care if this isn’t canon. XD

What I would change about them if I was making a re-write

I do think I would resurrect her again. I think she was a great addition to V7 and 8 and I’m a big fan of Penny, but I would keep her a robot and I would keep her alive! Penny is very OP and making her become a Maiden makes her even more OP, so it’d be hard to keep her with Team RWBY throughout everything. I enjoy splitting teams every now and again, so in my version (which would not include evil Ironwood and instead ‘just needs to do some adjusting, which Team RWBY have to do too,) I’d have Penny be torn, hesitant, saddened... But then she stays on Ironwood’s side! And then I might have her left behind in Atlas too, to maybe have a side plot with Qrow and not-dead James.

What I I think of their character allusion and what (if anything) I would change about it

Like with James, I think that Penny’s character allusion was really strong before season eight and then it all goes to hell. Although she’s much more connected to the Disney version than the original tale (in which Pinocchio is a scheming, frustrating, hard headed person always getting into mischief and straight up murdered the cricket giving him advice) Penny is a person made by an older crafter, who does break the rules and restrictions she’s given, but only in an effort to have fun and make friends, and she has connections to a blue themed magical girl, and a lying tell in her hiccups, she doesn’t want to be held down, but is often swayed by the opinions of others due to her naïve mindset and the fact that she wears her heart on her sleeve. The clever subversion of her character in the first seven seasons comes from the fact that Penny never needed to ‘become a real girl,’ because she already was one. Her journey instead involved getting that affirmed and Penny breaking away from the swaying of other people and the metaphorical strings that held her back from being the person she wanted to be (well intentioned strings or otherwise.) Although I would want Penny to join James’ side based on her own moral compass, the show did manage to have her breaking away from what others wanted from her and wanted her to be by leaving the life she was trained and kind of born into, and they had her personhood affirmed by having her become a Maiden, given that ‘exclusive to women’ power by the aforementioned blue themed magical maiden. But like with James, this clever and interesting subversion gets chucked out the window in the eighth season, when they threw out the affirmation of her as a real person and real girl in the robotic body she learned to value by having it stripped away from her and die in front of her while she became a flesh human. And they stripped away her ‘breaking away from the strings of the people trying to tell her who to be’ qualities, and they replaced that with ‘doing whatever Ruby wants and letting Ruby talk for her’ and then they just had her die while claiming it’s the only choice she’s ever made - despite that being totally false! So... Boo. Having her not have her lose her robotic body and having her not die, plus having her decide to stay with James through her own moral compass (and then trying to convince him to let Team RWBY help) would I think be plenty enough to make her a really good, interesting, even clever subversion of Pinocchio even if she is mostly based on the Disney version.

13 notes · View notes

itsclydebitches · 5 years

Text

RWBY Recaps: Vol. 5 A Perfect Storm

This is a re-posting from January 20th, 2018 in an effort to get all my recaps fully on tumblr. Thanks!

It might not seem like it given that it's already late January, but one of my New Year's resolutions is to post more consistently on this blog, starting with the RWBY recaps I've been severely neglecting. Today was Volume Five's finale, so I'm desperately behind, but I figure everyone could use a refresher, right?

"A Perfect Storm" picks up with Cinder, Watts, Emerald, and Mercury invading Raven's camp. Raven herself is sitting all alone while sharpening her weapon—an isolated, depressing shot that rises up to show us the space and splendor of her tent, making Raven appear rather small in comparison—though honestly I've got no sympathy for her at this point in the series. When Vernal arrives and relays the situation, Raven's only response is, "Salem... okay,” and a comment that they’ve prepared for this moment. As she mentioned to Yang, Raven is thoroughly convinced that Salem is both impossible to beat or outrun—at least for forever. Unlike our heroes she's resigned herself to the supposed impossibility of victory and isn't even willing to put up a fight beyond what it takes to keep herself and her tribe safe from day by day.

Raven tells Vernal to grab her helmet, an order I originally read just as an intimidation tactic given that Raven has no intention of fighting Cinder now. After the events of “Vault of the Spring Maiden” though… boy was I fooled.

More on that in the twelfth recap though.

Now I can't recall if I've mentioned this in previous posts, but I think it’s worth pointing out that Raven reminds me of Roman a great deal. Both of them abide by the old saying of, 'If you can't beat them, join them,' though Raven is more concerned with the lives of family and friends than Roman ever was, with the exception of Neo. Still, RWBY isn't a show that has much in the way of middle ground: the good guys are thoroughly good and the bad guys are thoroughly bad. Even if some characters (like Ozpin) make choices that we see as cruel or self-serving, the narrative itself usually doesn't present them as such. We've seen hints of ambiguity elsewhere--in Sienna, Emerald, Iilia, and Hazel--but Sienna was (presumably) killed off, Emerald's shock over the Grimm's creation quickly turned back to devotion for Cinder, Iilia turned 'good' in the span of two episodes (more on that in the next recap), and Hazel's non-violent approach is really just a smokescreen; as we see later, he's very willing to fight and kill provided that it's in his interest. So really, the characters that can't be neatly slotted into black or white moral categories are few and far between, so despite my own dislike of Raven I'm very glad she's on the show.

She's RWBY's Snape: you're a terrible person, but a terrific character.

Raven reams out her followers for not attacking the intruders and Cinder plays the role of a humble guest, claiming that Raven shouldn't be too hard on them, they simply "recognize the power of a Maiden when they see it." Ha. Another fantastic line after Episode twelve's reveal. Still, can't blame the camp for holding back on attacking four of Salem's finest when, you know, they recently got their asses kicked by a teenager.

You gotta love Yang.

After giving an order to pack up camp, Watts comments that it's a little late to be running. Raven has been on "their master's list" for some time. I really enjoy the titles associated with Salem. She's the arrogant Watts' "master," Tyrian's "queen" and "goddess." Language has always been a powerful tool and by positioning herself as their superior not just in displays of overt strength, but in smaller ways like how they address her even outside of her presence, Salem helps to cultivate the kind of fear that has paralyzed Raven. She can still roast the underlings though.

"Two children you've tricked into following you, a disgraced Atlesian scientist, and a Fall Maiden with a surname so appropriate she probably picked it herself."

They literally can't come back from that.

Speaking of egomania, Watts feels the need to point out that he was also a doctor, which is... a rather fascinating comment. Now granted, we don't have any actual evidence for this yet, but a lot of people are theorizing that he may have been the one to perform surgery on Ironwood. We already know that Watts is creating a new tail for Tyrian. And though plenty of characters have lost limbs in RWBY, Ironwood is the first person we've seen with half his body just gone. Dust and technical advances aside, I can only assume that a surgery like this comes with a huge amount of risk, and a doctor/scientist with a willingness to play fast and loose with morals would be the perfect guy to attempt such a staggering feat. If this comment is a nod towards Ironwood's past, it has a lot of great implications: was Watts once respected enough to perform surgery on a general? Does Ironwood feel indebted to him? Or, perhaps, did Watts achieve something that Ironwood may not have wanted?

Whether any of this is true--or has anything to do with how Watts became "disgraced"--remains to be seen.

There's some more threats thrown about until Raven calls out Vernal.

Cinder: "So this is the long lost Spring Maiden."

(What was that about recognizing Maidens? And I'm sorry, but they JUST got done admitting that Cinder most likely chose her last name herself--Ozpin's magic isn't choosing Maidens based on whether their names appropriately synch up with the power they're given. So isn't she just a little bit suspicious that the Spring Maiden is named Vernal?)

(Apparently not.)

(Cinder isn't nearly as smart as she thinks she is.)

Of course, Raven has Vernal display a bit of her power and I have to be frank here, I was pretty disappointed. Yes, this was just a demonstration--proof more than anything else--but after all the cool stuff we've seen Amber and Cinder do (and after the lack of battles so far this Volume) the most we get is Vernal summoning some clouds and wind? I found it rather underwhelming. Although I did appreciate the separate reactions: Watts, Mercury, and Emerald all bear down when the wind picks up, hiding their faces from what's supposed to come across as extreme power. Cinder, meanwhile, can't take her eyes off Vernal, a rather hungry smirk on her face. Regardless of how her story turns out, there's little doubt that Cinder's lust for power will ultimately play a part in her downfall.

"Vernal has done well under my guidance." That has a rather different meaning post-episode twelve. This episode is chock-full of twists and turns. This also becomes a rather significant line post-finale...

For now though Raven makes it clear that if they want a fight they're not going to go down easy, and Cinder makes it clear that her little threats aren't scary and Salem is all powerful, blah blah blah. Each insists that the other shouldn't underestimate her and yet each continues to do so. They're both rather arrogant, huh?

Cinder says they've come with an "olive branch." What, there are Greeks in Remnant? A community where olives are such an influential part of the economy and culture that the branches of their trees became symbols of peace? I’m joking of course, though I do find it rather fascinating where we draw the line at fantasy. Can you have déjà vu in Remnant if there’s not a France to derive the term from? A faux pas, an hours d’oeuvre, lingerie, or even cafes?

(We’ve borrowed a lot from the French, obviously.)

Anyway, Cinder's olive branch is a flimsy offering at best. If Raven uses Vernal to help them steal the relic in Haven--their true goal, rather than getting the Maidens themselves--she'll let her and her tribe go on their merry way, left alone from here on out.

Yeah right.

Raven doesn't believe it for a second either. Notice her, "Backed me into a corner, huh?" and how Raven actually steps back, as if scared. Please. Raven is not the type to show fear, ever, which means that this little display is all for show. She wants Cinder to think she really is backed into a corner, that she's desperate, scrambling, all to hide the fact that Raven has a trick of her own up her sleeve...

She says that pacts like this are built on trust and since she doesn't trust them she'll need a bit more incentive. Raven announces that she wants her brother dead and this is the most unintentionally funny moment in all of RWBY for me. Just look at them.

Yes, Qrow is a fearsome Huntsmen. Yes, he's proven time and time again that both his skill and his tenacity are not to be underestimated. But still, the fact that we have two extremely powerful fighters, an egotistical scientist, and a Maiden all freaking out at the prospect of fighting what's essentially a drunk birb is pretty hilarious to me. It gets even better when Emerald points out that it won't just be the four of them against Qrow, "The students will be with him--he has Ruby!"

You know your evil league needs a bit of work when you get this nervous over a handful of kids and the two years younger half-pint with a sunny disposition.

Team RWBY/JNR are making a name for themselves and it's excellent.

The solution to Watts' worry about this drawing too much attention is to "wait until the full moon" when the White Fang attacks. This implies that 1. they were indeed originally planning to just slip into Haven one random day, securing the relic before the fight for the school even begins--which is smart considering that after the fact, when Ozpin realizes that the relic has gone missing, he would have assumed it happened during the White Fang's attack. But 2. ... why the full moon? We already know that there's something up with that poor, astronomical body, but could a full moon provide some sort of advantage? A power boost? Or is Salem just a glutton for drama and fancy aesthetics?

I mean she obviously is, I just don't know if the moon has other implications.

Surely there must be something to the "I May Fall" lyrics:

When the moon is gone / And we've reached our ends / I may fall...

Watts believes firmly that this isn't about securing Raven's help or even causing general chaos among the side of the light: Cinder just wants the chance to fight Ruby again, given her "grudge against the child." I'm inclined to disagree a bit based on what we see in later episodes. Cinder seems to have moved beyond a specific vendetta and into the realm of a generalized, 'let the whole world burn so long as I have power' mentality. Either that, or she's far better at hiding her emotions than I'm giving her credit for, but we'll dive into that later.

She literally burns Watts for talking back to her though lol - "Fly back home and tinker with your machines." This is a wonderful little moment that reminds us of the hierarchy at work here. Cinder has no problem ordering Watts around in the same manner she would Emerald or Mercury, despite the difference in age and expertise.

As a handshake solidifies the supposed trust between Cinder and Raven, we cut back to Iilia's attack on the Belladonna household. A shot of the palace with muffled gunfire inside... never a good way to open a scene.

We finally get to see Ghira in action and I have to say, I'm a big fan of his fighting style. It's an excellent blend of a tank's technique and an animal's instincts, moving between throwing a spear with precision to literally climbing the walls. We've already seen that the Faunus do possess traits intrinsic to the animal they represent--Blake is obsessed with fish, is easily distracted by a laser pointer, etc.--so this 'wild' style isn't coming out of left field. The Faunus are certainly discriminated against for not being human, yet it's their non-human characteristics that remain one of their best assets.

In short, Ghira kicks the brothers' asses, even if his aura does take some hits along the way.

Not that he can do it alone. Yes, Sun shows up just in time to keep the random White Fang member from shooting Ghira while hidden behind a pillar. Doesn't mean I suddenly like him in this arc. Ghira himself says that Blake keeps "reassuring him that your friend [Sun] isn't a complete waste of space. Let's see him prove it" and honestly that line reads as a direct address to the audience. Yes, please prove that the side-character you shoe-horned into the main plot isn't as useless as he's appeared for two Volumes running. Please.

"I won't let you down, sir!"

"Shut up."

"You got it."

Well, at least he listens to Ghira's requests if not Blake's...

As the two charge full-speed at the brothers we cut back to Raven in her tent, a parallel to the opening scene, here the imagery is tight--claustrophobic--and Raven herself is bent with head in hand. It's also notable that beyond the artifacts near the foot of her bed we have a large, empty bottle of alcohol right by the pillow. You can see four more bottles a few cuts later. Looks like Qrow isn't the only one in the family with a drinking problem.

Vernal comes back from following Cinder and the others--an example of talent I wish the show had a chance to explore more. Raven confirms that of course Salem isn't going to leave them be once she has the relic in hand, "Once our purpose has come and gone we'll be discarded." Either Raven is just paranoid, or this says a lot about Salem's motivations. She doesn't kill people because they're a threat, she kills them because they're useless and she can.

They plan to steal the relic for themselves as it's their best defense at this point. Why is a little unclear. Certainly possessing the relic will force Salem to come after her with more vigor than she would if Raven was just another discarded pawn, but perhaps possessing it has some offensive power? There's certainly been much speculation that Ozpin in one of his previous reincarnations won the war through the use of a relic.

Vernal is warned that this won't be an easy path and she says that she'll do whatever it takes. Famous last words, folks. Raven remains a hypocrite here, satisfied at the unwavering courage yet refusing to take a true stand herself.

We get a shot of Raven in her bird form flying over the camp, the familiar sound of her portal, and then she's in Mistral, her flight taking us to a shot of Qrow drinking alone at the house. He perks up at the sound of a raven's caw. Wouldn't you?

Our adorable farm boy pops in just long enough to say that Ozpin needs to speak with him and Qrow sighs like much of the fandom sighs. As much as I’m enjoying the characterization, this really is the Volume for long-winded discussions.

Luckily we end on a more energetic note. I have a lot to say about Iilia's upcoming redemption, but I'll admit that the details here are well done: she's hanging in the library away from the battle against Ghira or Kali, implying that she might be willing to lead the attack, but she's not willing to get her own hands dirty. Yet. She also resists drawing her weapon until Blake draws hers. In short, she's conflicted.

Iilia's arc is messy though and ultimately I think it's one of the weakest aspects of this Volume, if not the whole show, but we'll delve into that in the next recap.

Until then <3

Other Details of Note

"Oh yeah, tell that to--" I’m curious as to who Mercury was going to list as evidence for why Raven should fear him. His dad? Yang? Ozpin or any of the others who fell at Beacon? Getting that full sentence would have given us a clearer look into the roll Mercury thinks he's playing in all this.

Given Raven's hatred of Ozpin, specifically for how he recruits kids to fight a war she thinks is impossible to win, I wonder if Raven has any sympathy for Emerald and Mercury, the two kids that were "tricked" into following Cinder. Maybe she and Hazel will get the chance to chat sometime.

Raven says she doesn't want any part in helping Salem or Oz, but "that ship sailed when you decided to harbor a Maiden." Ooooh. Another loaded sentence in retrospect...

We obviously know by now that eye color in RWBY is incredibly important, be it in connection to lineage, magic, or semblances. It wasn't until this episode that I noticed what a peculiar green Watts' eyes are. At this point I don't think it means anything, just a notable detail.

I love Blake's use of ice dust in this fight, letting the brothers attack her while planning to get them stuck in her shadow-clone. We rarely get to see Blake's technique beyond using Gambol Shroud to launch Yang at the nearest target, so a bit of creative strategy is great to see. And the picture of her shadow crumbling with a smile on its face... nice touch

Oscar is calling Ozpin 'Oz' now, aww. Nothing like the friendship achieved through forcing two souls to inhabit one body!

#rwby #mymetas #RWBY Recaps

6 notes · View notes

littlemisssquiggles · 6 years

Note

okay but, what if after all the "RUBY GET AWAY FROM OSCAR" thing, Yang and Oscar talk and become close friends ? like, I can Imagine at least a conversation about Yang telling how her mother left her, and oscar being like "it was probably for the best.. since I did the same.." idk XD what do u think ?

Yang having her own private talk with Oscaractually needs to happen to be honest. As I said in my last musing post,Yang is the one who I think will oppose Ozpin/Oscar the most this season influencedby what her mother told her and Weiss during V5 concerning Oz. While I'm unsureof how the story will handle Yang learning to trust Ozpin again, I would liketo see Yang learn to differentiate betweenOzpin and Oscar. With the exception of Ruby, most of heroesonly look to Oscar as Ozpin. I'm praying that V6 will actually featureeveryone, well mostly the RWBY girls coming to separate the two.

I want Yang to see Oscar for who he is and learn tocare about him genuinely for the same reasons as Ruby, that he's just a youngkid who has no business being a part of this fight against Salem and her forcesyet here is, thanks to Ozpin and not exactly of the old wizard’s own accordeither. That being said, Oscar currently needs more allies and guidance than enemies and animosity.

No pun intended but I would like to see Yang extendher hand to Oscar in friendship. Would be even funnier if she gives him themechanical one that pops off for a joke that the two can awkwardly laugh at.

Plus I can see Yang mentioning to Oscar of how muchher sister means to her. That while Ruby has been the most innocent andchildish of the two due to her youth and open-mindedness about the world, it’sher compassion for others that has always made her a better judge of characterthan Yang hence the reason why the older huntress trusts heropinion so much. Ruby has always had a better outlook on things than Yang.Always the one to see the diamond in the rut while everyone else saw plainrocks. So if Ruby has so much cause to believe that Oscar is good person thatshe'd willingly oppose her and her team for then Yang will trusts her for it.

So I think Yang will give Oscar a chance. She isn’tsure about Ozpin but in time I think she could forgive Ozpin too. After allYang knew two people in her life who tried running away from their fears and mistakes; evendenying them. At least Oz is trying to fix his. Sure the old wizard probably has committed a lot of misguided deeds inhis lifetimes but it’s all been to correct one huge mistake that will destroyall of mankind if he didn’t step up. So the fact Ozpin still continues to fightin spite of all of his past failures is both commendable and honourable of himespecially when others might’ve given up quicker than he did.

Ozpin has failed more times than most people yet he’snever allowed that to impair him. In spite of living countless of lives, Oz isstill trying which is the least others in his position have done; particularly relatingto Yang.

Think about it. When Adam returned at the Fall ofBeacon, Blake abandoned her friends in Vale and ran back home because she didn’twant to risk putting her loved ones in danger because of her. When Raven becamethe Spring Maiden after killing the previous one, assuming that this allhappened prior to Yang being born, I’m going to assume that Raven left herfamily upon becoming a Maiden and giving birth to her daughter out of fear ofSalem pursuing her; possibly even going after her loved ones if she didn’t getas far away from them as possible…even if it meant never telling them the truthof her departure.

And when she, Yang herself, was claimed a victim ofAdam’s fury and lost her arm in the process. What did she do? She also ranaway. Despite being a character praised for her aptitude to always tackle everyobstacle that stands in her way, Adam Taurus was one that Yang allowed to beather down. And because of it, she let her own beloved sister whose back she'dswore she would have always go off on an adventure without her.

The laughable satire of all ofthis is that Yang is being influenced by the words of someone who ran away fromher mistakes, allowing them to twist her perception of a man who hasn’t givenup on trying to fix his mistakes. Especially when Yang herself can been accusedof doing to exact same thing. How ironic is that?

So if Ruby was able to forgive Yang and Yang inturn was able to forgive her mother for leaving and Blake enough to trust her againthen...she could give Ozpin another chance, right?

I hope this comes up during V6. I was talking with @thatkaitodan on Twitter and he brought up a valid point about Yang’s keymotivator being her drive to protect her loved ones. This makes perfect sense. ThoughYang has described herself as a ‘thrill seeker’, the aspect of her personalitythat always stood out to me the most about her character is her knack for goingabove and beyond for her loved ones like her sister Ruby and her friends.

Yang cherishes the well-being of her loved ones so muchthat she's willing to do anything for them; even if it means laying her life onthe line to protect them. Perhaps this willbe a way where she and Oscar can bond on some level. My theory is that love will become Oscar's driving force. As I said in mymusing post, right now Oscar doesn’t honestly have something that fuels him towant to fight against Salem.

But I think love can be it for him. It’s why I would loveto see V6 highlight the loved ones in Oscar’s life.

Before Ozpin swooped in and whisked him off theEmerald City of Mistral, who did Oscar have to motivate him before? His family. Imean it’s not to say that the kid’s an orphan. Oscar has his aunt. He had a family before the call to adventure. I’d really like to learn more about whatOscar’s dynamic with his family was like. He certainly doesn’t strike me as akid that came from a broken home. On the contrary, Oscar pegs me as someone whocame from a household built on a lot of love.

After all, getting back home was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz’s reason for going to see the Wizard. I’m on the side of the FNDM who believe that Oscar was based off of Dorothy. Perhaps his inspiration was a combination of both Dorothy and Princess Ozma and it’s his connection to Dorothy that ties him to Ruby in reference since fans also say that Dorothy influenced Ruby’s character.

Anyways, I’d like to believe that a loving home and family are two themes that are important to Oscar as a character.

And, even if Oscar’s real parents aren’tcanonically alive, I’d like to think that it’s their love for him that he remembers andcherishes most about them. The same for his aunt who willingly took him in andeven gave him a small job on her farm to keep him active and give him apurpose til he figured out his own passion in life.

Love will be Oscar’s fuel. He'll do anything toprotect the people he loves the most in the world and I think Yang can respecthim on that because she understands how that kind of drive feels.

Now I'm starting to wonder that Yang Xiao Long mightbe a Leo-born.Of all the horoscopes, I think her personality best matches up with the Leo sign in my opinion. Plus if Yang is a Leo and Oscar is a Taurus then a friendship between themcould be great---one of mutual respect and enjoyment of each other's company.

Plus Leos get along pretty great with Scorpios and sinceRubes is a confirmed Scorpio, it fits. Don’t know how this jumped intohoroscope talk but you get the gist of what I mean XD

I just wanna see Yang turn into a big sister figure to Oscar---fighting to protect him on thebattlefield while teasingly ruffling his hair off the battlefield, nicknaminghim her 'futurebrother-in-law' .

Those are my thoughts on that X3 Hope that answers you Lethie!

~LittleMissSquiggles (2018)

#squiggles answers; rwby #oscar pine #yang xiao long #rwby theories #ruby rose #lethiepie

21 notes · View notes