#writing a literal abuse storyline with the blakes

[invested-in-your-future]

What do you think the mistakes with White Fang story were?

The biggest mistake was not having that plotline at all beyond lipservice.

I think the "no no, any sort of actual resistance instantly makes you bad guys" is such a flawed and stupid position for a show to take.

The show's failure is highlighting WF motivations and WHY would anyone feasibly go down that route - HOW do Mistral, Atlas, etc treat Faunus or even Vale.

JFK once said - "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

If he existed in MilesWBY the quote would be "Only peaceful revolution is possible and anything else is evil"

We never see WHAT the Faunus have to deal with or how the society changed, (and if it did) since the Great War. We never see HOW Blake becomes the person she is (and if anything, have her regress by making her a runaway princess of tropic paradise)

The result is honestly quite racist - the show silently suggests (through the combined force of Blake's awful monologue and how Ilia's storyline ends) that the problem with The Faunus is their own "destructive" tendencies and their "unwillingness" to compromise or "wait for things to get better by being model minorities" - if only they waited a bit longer all the bigots would recognize how wrong they were!

With what the show presents, it's literally impossible to delve into the intricacies of the nature of extremism or why Adam's approach is flawed - because the show posits that the only right way forward is via complete no-exceptions peaceful resistance of… being nice and docile even when threatened with death?

We are straight up EXPECTED to see Ilia beating up bigots who laughed at people dying in the mines as BAD - the narrative EXPECTS the viewer to be horrified at her revelation rather than feel catharsis for her doing the right thing. The writing wants us to "feel like Blake" by being horrified at how violent and unhinged her friend is while completely ignoring the context - because any resistance beyond non-violent slogans is instantly a slippery slope into blowing up schools.

And where does that argument end up? In Twitter posts about how all those people shot by the cops "deserved" it by "doing something to aggravate them" - that's where.

Adam IS abusive, and Adam IS in the wrong and it's pretty clear that he has long since been addicted to power, BUT there's no possibility to even begin discussing what's right or wrong with the way the show handles the WF plotline as a whole.

We don't know what position Blake can take nor what position she had on the matter before because we don't get a sense of how WF could function beyond the two completely absurd strawman extremes of whatever sunken place nonsense Ghira's WF was in and whatever slippery slope cult-like strawman his successor created (nor how that progression happened).

What is his "vision"? What does he hope to achieve? How did he, according to Blake, "change"? We know nothing about White Fang beyond "Ghira's Non-Resistance White Man's Strawman of MLK" WF being good and his successor's WF being a slippery slope argument.

No wonder the show defaults to the most rudimentary aspect of Adam's flaws in the final confrontation, refusing to give both Yang and Blake a chance to refute him thematically while also refusing to give them proper character arcs that would lead to that confrontation - because the narrative never thought things through beyond that.

The show jumps around random and nonsensical gods subplots and religious imagery being all daring about what needs to change, but the moment actual themes of discrimination and human nature are at play, the narrative instantly becomes just so in love with status quo.

The WF began as "angry redshirts to be beaten up" and when the show decided to move on to all the "exciting"(it's really not) Brother Gods nonsense, the subplot got thrown away in the most racist way possible.

#rwby #rwde #blake belladonna #rwby asks #rwby meta stuff mine #rwby meta #rwby critique #rwby analysis

[yiangchen]

Jroth needs to watch Avatar the Last Airbender and take notes on how to portray/condemn abusive relationships in the narrative (of the 100).

#seriously though #atla handles abuse so fucking well #zuko stands up to both his father and azula #both of his abusers #and azula is condemned for being abusive while simultaneously being a really compelling villain #its just incredible writing #and then you have jroth over here #writing a literal abuse storyline with the blakes #where bellamy as to earn octagons forgiveness after she beat him #and told him he was dead to her #and that the only reason she hasn't killed him is because he's her brother #like?? #what the fuck #anti jroth #the 100 #endless list of things i love about atla

[kitkatopinions]

Obviously I don't support canon Adam in anyway, either as a power fantasy or whatever. I'm betting that 99% of Adam fans are angry over what he could've been, not what he turned into by crappy writing. Think about it. If Adam was written with nuance, the White Fang plot could've stayed relevant and he'd be a compelling character. The simple matter is the writers were just lazy and chose the easy way out. They didn't care so they used Adam to push a ship before killing him AND the racism subplot.

Yep. There's a lot of conversation surrounding Adam right now.

There are questions over whether or not he was originally intended to be a full villain before his Fall of Beacon appearance, questions over whether or not he was originally intended to be an abusive ex or an abuser at all before the Fall of Beacon appearance, questions over whether or not he was retconned in volume six, etc.

Personally, I think the question of what he was originally intended to be is less important than the question of what he should've been.

NOTE: I'm not an Adam stan, I don't even like the dude. I binged the first five seasons during my first watch through of RWBY within the span of around three days I think, and I didn't watch the Black Trailer until after the fact. This means that I had almost no time between people talking about Adam in the show without really getting into any details past 'delving into violence' and watching him in volume five post the murder of Sienna Kahn and trying to get Blake shipped to him to be personally murdered. I thought his design sucked, his voice acting was some of the worst in the show and never got better, his dialogue was forced, and he had very little going for him past the vague idea that he might've maybe originally been intended to be something of a Zuko figure gone bad even before I saw his eye scar. I'll admit, what was it for me was post volume five, watching the end of RWBY volume six when I'd had time to re-watch the first five seasons and really think about it. Watching RWBY volume six was when I started going "what the fuck are they doing with this character" despite the fact that I did not care about him at all at that point past serving as a backstory for Blake. Adam killed tons of White Fang members despite having no intention of doing anything with the White Fang anymore, stalked Blake despite the fact that he had repeatedly let Blake go in the past (including during the Fall of Beacon) and got waaaay more heavy handed than ever in the abuse in a way that wasn't even that believable, and then had his branding mark revealed before being brutally murdered and that never really got talked about. Coming into RWBY late, I was told that the White Fang plot was messed up, but that the writers said they'd messed up and were gonna try to do better. I had no attachment to Adam and I didn't have any headcanons of what I'd wanted him to be because I didn't really want him to exist at all, but Volume Six was enough that I immediately was like "okay, so they're turning him into a hate sink in the same season that they're exposing that he was literally branded like cattle? They're not even gonna talk about that? What the fuck?" I only started thinking of Adam in more depth when I watched some YouTube videos about how messed up his storyline really was and why it was so important. So... Yeah. Anyone who wants to accuse me of being an Adam fan, I'm really not.

So! Let's talk about the bare minimum when writing for a 'fantasy version of real life racism issues.'

1. Don't make only one activist group and then make that activist group horribly evil terrorists where the only leader that we see for more than five minutes on the show is a horribly evil terrorist who doesn't even care about the cause and is only using the cause and the position to gain power and abuse a former significant other. 2. Don't make the only leader of a minority run only in-universe activist group that we see for more than five minutes into a rampant violent selfish abuser in the first place. 3. Don't make some characters (Blake, the Belladonnas,) symbolize peaceful protest while others (Adam,) symbolize non-peaceful protest, only to ignore all nuance in the discussion and present a white comfort based narrative of 'peaceful protest is the only good way to do anything and non-peaceful protest is a road to terrorism and selfishness and only horrible, mean terrorists who are okay with abuse would be involved with something like that.' Especially don't do that if you're going to blatantly state that peaceful protest doesn't work, thus implying that the writers think minority groups have to just take abuse and oppression because fighting back and fighting for your rights is a slippery slope to terrorism. 4. Don't make a new character who is very similar to the character you made into a rampant abuser - who shares traits up to being in love with Blake and trying to murder her loved ones - only to make her completely change her mind and conform to the exact moral code that Blake has, rejecting all form of non-peaceful protest in the process, thus again implying that there's this black and white narrative that only peaceful protest is moral despite the fact that in show canon, peaceful protest doesn't work. 5. When you get called out for writing an Fake Racism arc that's actually racist and fundamentally rooted in a white comfort narrative, don't just decide to drop the entire plot without doing anything to make things right or correct some of your horribly done narrative into something better. This point is especially important if you decide to not fully drop the Fake Racism and want to keep it in your back pocket whenever you want a quick 'this person is good' moment or a quick 'this person is bad' moment. 6. If you are going to drop the entire Fake Racism arc because you clearly can't fucking do it right and have been offensive and racist while you wrote the damn plot and had to apologize for it... Don't keep including the leader to the only Faunus rights activism group, and DON'T drain him of whatever justice-driven anti-oppression freedom fighting characteristics he did previously have in order to pretend that his entire character and motivation was only ever being a creepy power hungry stalker. 7. While you're trying to drop the Fake Racism plot and throwing the only leader that matters of the only pro-rights activist group under the bus to do so, don't reveal that he's been branded like cattle as part of a horrific backstory that shows just how deeply he's been affected, right before having him brutally killed without fully delving into that storyline. 8. Don't then dismiss the abusive head of the horrible company that has a long history of oppressing Faunus as 'just a nuisance' and more of a comical villain than a serious one, without ever addressing that either he was the head of the company during the time in which a child working for slave wages was branded like cattle by one of his workers or the grandfather we're constantly told is actually a good guy that Weiss looks up to and wants to reclaim the good legacy of that he started that she needs to get back from the mean bad apple was the one who was in charge during that time. 9. Don't make the number one 'bad' Faunus be the one who's arguably suffered the most at the hands of oppressors, especially if you're going to have them explicitly forced into the worst act they’ve done, and especially if you’re going to make your number one ‘good’ Faunus be one of the Faunus in the story who has suffered arguably the least of any of the main Faunus we see (this is no shade on Blake, I’m not invalidating what she has been through.)

I’m not a professional, and I know these things. I’m only around two years younger than Miles Luna was when RWBY volume 5 came out, and I’m around one year younger than Kerry Shawcross was. This isn’t rocket science, and if they were too stupid and ignorant to know this shit even five volumes in and didn’t bother to freaking educate themselves, then they have no business involving themselves into this and they should’ve completely removed and dropped every ounce of the fake-racism element in the show even five seasons in, because it’s better than them continuing to mess it up, but keeping it out of focus the way they have it so that they have Blake not even care about attending a political rally for the person running against Jacques freaking Schnee and goes dancing instead, but they still have a non-Faunus throw Faunus rights in Marrow’s face after calling after “Wags” because... We’re supposed to like her?

Do I think there are people out here who are just thirsty Adam stans who liked him because they thought he was hot and are just mad that he wasn’t good because they like their hot boys to also be good boys and will blindly defend anything he does no matter how heinous? Sure, I can buy that. I’ve never encountered one of those in the wild, but they must exist. People thirst over Voldemort, and people idolize the Joker, and people stan and show blind devotion to the Fire Lord Ozai. So like, Adam stans are kinda the least of my concerns. But from what I’ve seen, most of the people who like Adam like what he could’ve been, what he should’ve been if the writers were willing to write their meant-to-reflect-real-life-oppression arc with a bit of nuance. They like him in re-writes and re-imaginings where he’s different.

And some people are like me, and they literally don’t like Adam at all, but still recognize the way that Adam was wildly mishandled.

#rwde #anti rwby #rwby bashing #rwby hate #anti mkek #rwby criticism #canoncrit adam taurus #once again I don't feel like this is pro OR anti

[dragynkeep]

What sucks about RWBY for me is that there is are points in the show where I started to hate the girls as individuals. For Ruby, it was during her “adults suck and kids rule” speech. She just came across as so arrogant and ungrateful. For Blake it was when she slapped Sun. It wasn’t nessacary or justified. For Weiss, it was when she pulled her sword onto her own brother. It was completely uncalled for and her just using her power and influence to push him around, like her father. For Yang, it was during the fight with Adam when she said ,”Did she make that promise to you? Or to the person you were pretending to be?” to Adam. Yang has never spoken to Adam before, and only really interacted with during the fight at Beacon. Whenever Blake talked about Adam, she ALWAYS made sure to say that he wasn’t always like that. That his change was gradual. How would SHE know anything about Adam’s personality or life???And that fact that she says that with so much confidence irks me. I actually said facepalmed and said, “Oh my God, Yang. Just shut up.”The moment I started disliking them as a group was when they forced Ozpin to relive his memories. Even though Ruby didn’t explicitly demand to his memories, the second they realized it was getting personal, they should’ve at least tried to stop Jinn from showing anymore. Especially since they all (except MAYBE Ruby and Oscar) have been a victim of abuse (whether it’s physical, mental, emotional or verbal). As a team they all share one broken, unempathetic brain cell. And NONE of this is called out for what it is or treated as wrong in canon. It’s all just swept under the rug. RWBY is literally the only show I’ve watch where I actually hate the “heroes” and that sucks since I used to love them.

the sad thing is that these can all be character flaws & still be in these characters while they’re likeable, but it’s exactly what you said at the end that makes them not; these issues aren’t treated like flaws.

when ruby, who is barely a proper student & has spent most of her time causing more problems than she fixed, says that the kids don’t need the adults; all we’re left to do is look at all the times the adults saved them while the kids made things worse. it reeks of arrogance from her, not a potential leader who has the humility to recognize when she’s made mistakes & work on those to keep her & her loved ones safe. we’ve had a journey of ruby learning where she is in the world & then becoming a pillar of strength, kind of like naruto  —  but unlike it happening in naruto’s 700 chapters, we get ruby’s journey in like ... 2 volumes. now the show treats her like she’s infallible & when she does mess up, it’s either excused or the show makes us feel like we’re supposed to coddle her, as if she was forced into this role when the exact opposite happened.

blake abusing sun in v4 could’ve been such a good way to show how abuse survivors can become abusers  /  react in abusive ways & how we have to unlearn toxic mentalities; but instead we get arryn only admitting she’s abusive in a roundabout way while still making blake the victim, mk blaming the animators & blake’s stans blaming sun & reacting just like the unhinged adam fans they hate. what could’ve been a real learning moment for blake & actually made her abuse storyline realistic was instead just brushed under the rug.

i think a lot of weiss’s flaws are too ignored because she’s designated “best girl” by the fndm & in comparison to her teammates, does have the best characterization but damn if all the flaws of her character & writing didn’t come through like a bulldozer when we returned to atlas. the white guilt scene, the schnee abuse arc ending with all the grace of a wet fart, weiss white saviouring for mantle + blake, & then much like blake, going from abused to abuser in mirroring jacques disregard for whitley’s wellbeing by shoving a loaded weapon in his face. the most depressing part is they absolutely won’t resolve this in any decent way because of weiss’s martyr status & the writers are allergic to criticism of any of the girls.

yang is ... sigh. she had no reason to be in the white fang plotline & i will forever maintain they only shoved her in it because she & blake were partners; even before any romantic intentions for them. which just shows how shortsighted they were in the writing, even if it was “planned from the beginning!!1!” because there was a better character to put in this storyline right on the same team & who was literally introduced as a counterpart to blake  —  weiss. instead we have yang fumbling around in a storyline she has no business being in, being borderline racist & then pretending like she has any standing to comment on a faunus child slave’s life when she barely knows blake also. then it’s all thrown away for lesbian fatherless behaviour. yay.

the ozpin scene pretty much sums up my issue with the girls that hasn’t really been resolved; even with the break up of teams in v8  —  they're like the goddamn borg. there’s no individuality between them anymore & whatever ruby thinks, the other three girls follow despite their own personalities & history. ruby decides ozpin can’t be trusted? then blake & weiss, despite being abuse survivors & having just seen him break down in the snow with his trauma exposed against his consent, will follow that. yang barely disagrees with ruby? weiss, who has also disagreed with ruby multiple times !!, will act like yang just spit in ruby’s face & called her a slur.

the individuality of these characters & their personalities are gone. & that’s the saddest part because it’s what drew a lot of fans to the show in the first place.

#rwby #rwde #ruby rose #weiss schnee #yang xiao long #blake belladonna #owl.txt #answered #q

[itsclydebitches]

After reading the Roman Holiday preview... *long sigh*. Why is domestic abuse the go-to tragic backstory for rwby villains? And why is it always more than what our heroes have to deal with? Weiss was abused by her father but was able to escape to Beacon. Meanwhile, Cinder was a literal slave and was alone after killing her abusive family and Rhodes. What is going on!?

My guess is it's the subconscious belief that good people are born of good circumstances and bad people are born of bad circumstances. There are obviously some exceptions like Weiss and Qrow, but notably both of them had significant figures in their life who helped lead them down better paths: Winter and Ozpin. And, as you say, they both had the opportunity to go to Beacon, an escape from their living situations and the chance to be surrounded by more people/opportunities. There's potentially a message here about people flourishing when given external support (hey there, Good Place), but RWBY makes it far more about immediate circumstances than it does working to change over time:

Ruby has an adoring father and a mother who, while dead, also greatly loved her. Ruby is good.

Yang has a mother who abandoned her, but an adoring father and a an adoptive "Super Mom." Yang is good.

Blake was in an abusive relationship, but also has two parents who adore her and, despite the fandom's frustration with storytelling logistics like, "Why didn't they go find her after she left?" (because they weren't a part of the story then), they're presented as good people. Blake too is good.

Weiss has an abusive father and an alcoholic mother, but crucially an older sister who acts like a mother figure. Weiss is good.

Weiss becomes that good figure for Whitley. Whitley is now good.

Winter started this movement, so who was her good, supportive figure? Ironwood. Ironwood who welcomed her into the military, seems to have acted as a father figure, and became a respected peer. By the time Ironwood is made bad, Winter is already considered a hero by the narrative (despite the moral inconsistencies there), so it's fine.

Ren has a loving mother and father who die for him. Ren is good.

Nora is an orphan, but at a very young age gets Ren. Nora is good.

Jaune presumably has loving parents and seven sisters, one of whom we say doting on him with his extended family. Jaune is good.

Pyrrha presumably had a loving mother who visits her statue. Pyrrha is good.

Penny is a literal military weapon, but has a loving father. Penny is good.

Salem was locked in a tower by her father. Salem is bad (even before the grimm pool).

Cinder was a child slave and though she had Rhodes similar to how Weiss had Winter, her backstory arrives eight years late, after we know she becomes a villain. So Cinder is bad.

Adam was also a slave and, regardless of whether it was truly an accident or not, was branded with the logo of his abusers. Adam is bad.

Mercury seems to have just had an abusive father. Mercury is bad.

Emerald's family either died with her having no one to turn to (unlike Nora), or they abandoned her. Emerald is bad. Until the plot shuffles her into the heroic group. Then she's good. Emerald doesn't do something to become a part of that group, she's moved to the group first and then is seen as good.

Neo seems to have had abusive parents. Neo is bad.

Tyrian we don't know much about, but we do know he was already a killer before Salem. What little we've got of his backstory doesn't seem good. So Tyrian is bad.

We're given no information about Ironwood's backstory. Ironwood is good and then quickly becomes bad.

And Ozpin's stuff is such a mess it's unclear what the story even thinks of him at this point. That's a whole other post lol.

As said, there's some nugget of decent writing here in the form of unpacking the idea that people are more likely to make good decisions when given the opportunity and encouragement to do so, as well as the emotional support need to develop that moral compass and believe in yourself enough to follow it... but it's buried under RWBY's black and white worldview, the same worldview that's hurting the other, morally driven aspects of the story. We're not really shown instances in which characters who had everything still do terrible things, nor do we see characters who go through comparatively horrific circumstances and still do the right thing. The good people, while still going through horrible things, have benefits that the villains don't — Weiss' loving sister and wealth compared to Cinder's slavery and part-time visitor, for example — and the villains' experiences overall tend to be, well, more shocking in some respects. Lost legs, a shock collar, a brand, literal slavery, all happening at that formative young age... compare that to the heroes' struggles that, as said, are mitigated by some other good, or happen later in life after they're already established as good people. Blake is already trying to help the faunus when she enters a relationship with Adam (and is said to be mislead. Unlike villains Adam, Sianna, and Iilia, heroes Blake and Sun perform the "correct" kind of activism). Yang is already training to be a huntress when she loses her arm. Oscar is already fighting Salem when he's tortured, etc. We could include Ironwood's turn here too, regarding the shock value. Yeah, everyone is going through horrible stuff in Volume 7 and 8, but only Ironwood had the skin and muscle of his arm stripped off, resulting in a complete loss of the limb. And unlike Yang who was taken home, supported, and given months to recuperate, Ironwood is tossed back into a war with 8+ of his former allies now fighting against him. So RT literally says, "Of course he's bad now," except the argument is this ableist (and, given Yang, contradictory) idea that losing the arm made him bad, rather than the idea that abandoning someone during the worst moment of their life is going to leave them floundering — because that would put at least some of the blame on the heroes. And, as said, the morality is so black and white that there's no room for that nuance. It's not a matter of excusing the villains' actions, but rather examining how they came about and, if we're meant to feel sympathy, tying that to their good traits. Emerald's supposedly "kind" comment comes when she's helping Cinder destroy Beacon. Raven cries while she's deliberately allowing her daughter to be Salem's target instead of herself. Cinder cries because she hasn't successfully killed our heroes and gotten the amount of power she's after. Hazel mourns his sister while trying to kill a 14yo. These are all the WORST times to try and get the audience to feel for the bad guy. The story doesn't acknowledge that horrific circumstances can lead to bad decisions, but that people who commit bad - even truly horrific - acts can still do good in the future, or even do some good alongside the bad, the story says that these circumstances automatically lead to bad people and that you should feel bad for them despite what they've done. If Cinder cried because being in Atlas had triggered the worst memories of her life, that's an avenue towards seeing your villain as a complex human. Having Cinder cry because Watts points out what a shit job she's done at being The Worst Person Ever and expecting the audience to feel bad that Cinder has failed to, idk, take over the world or whatever is... stupid.

Honestly, it feels like another example of how RWBY is very much a simplistic fairy tale, no matter how much the characters insist its not. If you're good, you're good and if you're bad, you're bad. There's no middle ground, leaving characters like Ozpin and Ironwood to be abandoned and Ilia, Hazel, and Emerald forgiven the moment they switch from one side to the other. Now toss in the question of how people become good or bad and, well, surely good people lead good lives and bad people lead bad lives, right? So all you need to do is give your bad characters horrific, abusive, shockingly violent backstories while your good characters have, if not completely stable homes or perfect lives, at least a lot more than what the villains seem to have gotten. And the story isn't interested in acknowledging that motivation and morality aren't that simplistic. It can be offensive on its own, this theme of abused children becoming crazed murderers, but even when you try to follow that logic with something like, "Hey, Weiss our abused hero is threatening a defenseless minor to get what she wants, along with everything else the group as a whole has done. Is that something the story is going to unpack if you honestly believe these circumstances produce bad people?" the answer is always no. Because Weiss is Good™ and there's no interest in grappling with any storyline that might undermine that.

#rwby #mymetas #rwde

[kittyprincessofcats]

I finished RWBY Volume 5!!

Loved it!! After volume 4 was (understandably) a bit slower-paced, I didn’t expect things to get intense and serious this quickly, but I’m glad they did! I have so many thoughts I wanted to write down, so here we go:

[There will be spoilers for RWBY up to Volume 5 in this post (duh). Please don’t leave spoilers for anything after Volume 5 on this post, otherwise I will block you.]

- I have to say, I definitely liked Cinder more when she wasn’t talking. During Volume 4, I kind of started feeling bad for her on some level, but then she got better and started being her old condescending, power-hungry self and I was like… nevermind, I hate you again.

- Qrow being super drunk when he first brings Oscar home was absolutely hilarious.

- Yang is SO COOL. Have I mentioned that she’s so cool? Like wow, I wish I was that cool! The bike, the new (amazing) outfit, the way she just punched that creepy guy and walked right up to her mom’s bandit camp making demands of her – she’s so cool and I’m here for it.

- Yang and Weiss’ reunion was so sweet! 😭 I was waiting for literally any of Team RWBY’s members to reunite and that got me right in the feels! (Also, I loved the whole “Wait, your mom kidnapped me?” “Wait, you kidnapped her?” exchange - brilliant 😂.)

- Ruby’s reunion with Yang and Weiss was so sweet, too! 😭 Tears were definitely shed over reunions in this volume! And it was so nice to finally have most of Team RWBY and what’s left of Team JNPR back together and see them bond and catch up with each other 😭. Found family back together! It’s what they deserve!

- Yang being so angry at Blake for leaving makes perfect sense, imo, especially considering her own abandonment issues. And even more so considering that she lost that arm while protecting Blake. Also, I don’t think it’s reading too much into it to say that Yang and Blake’s interactions and their storyline together have had romantic undertones since volume 2. (And no, I’m not just saying that because I ship Bumbleby; it’s the other way around – I ship Bumbleby because those romantic undertones were there in the first place.) So yeah, Yang always tried to help and support Blake, lost an arm protecting her from her abusive ex, and then Blake just left – I get why Yang’s hurt and angry. And that moment where she goes from complaining about how she just wants to be there for Blake, before finally admitting “What if I needed her there for me?” - that’s a really good moment for Yang, even beyond the romantic subtext. It’s nice to see Yang admit that she also wants someone else to be there for her, that she wants to receive that same love and care in return.

- I also want to point out that it’s nice to see how far Weiss has come since volume one. She really took a level in kindness and became a lot more mature, to the point where she’s now giving Yang relationship advice. It’s really nice to see.

- Ruby’s talk with Oscar about Penny and Pyrrha really got me teary eyed.

- I wasn’t that fond of Sun at first, but he had some really great moments in this volume, so he’s starting to grow on me now. I still don’t ship him with Blake, but their friendship is sweet.

- And now, let’s talk about THE standout character of the whole volume for me: ILIA!! Holy hell, I love everything about her! You know how some characters grow on you over time, and then there are those characters that you see one episode with and they just become instant favourites? That second one was Ilia for me. I watched Blake’s character short before Volume 5 and the moment I heard her backstory she jumped right to the top of my favourite character list without question AND I started shipping her and Blake right away. (Yes, I love Bumbleby and all, but I’m a multishipper. I’m perfectly capable of equally loving two ships that contradict each other.)

- It’s just – Ilia and Blake’s dynamic got me hooked! Not to compare everything to my OTP (Catra and Adora from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power), but let me quickly make this comparison: Two girls who grew up together, were both members of a certain evil organization until one of them left it and the other didn’t, now they’re on opposing sides and have to fight each other, but they still clearly care about each other. Plus, there are confirmed romantic feelings from at least one side there. I know many people (including myself) have compared Bumbleby to Catradora before – because you’ve got one blonde jock and one catgirl – but when it comes to the dynamic and the backstory, Blake and Ilia (what’s that ship called? Catmeleon, I think?) resemble Catradora even more. And it’s just the kind of dynamic I’m weak for.

(Honestly, it’s kind of funny how predictable I am both when it comes to favourite characters and favourite ships. My sister, who got me into both She-Ra and RWBY, took one look at Catra years ago and immediately predicted that I would love her. And when she first saw Ilia, she also immediately knew she’d be one of my favourites. Basically, my sister once described my “type” of favourite characters as “troubled, cute and gay” and that pretty much sums it up.)

- Speaking of troubled, cute, and gay: I’m glad RWBY finally has some CANON LGBT representation! Hell yes for that! Honestly, I interpreted Ilia’s feelings for Blake as romantic right away, but I wondered if it was just bait or my usual tendency to see romantic undertones in any interaction between two girls. But then that “I wanted you to look at me that way” line happened and… WOW. Yes. Amazing, talented, brilliant, never been done before, showstopping, incredible. I’m 100% sold on both the ship and Ilia as a character.

(One more thing before I change topics: I try to keep these posts positive and not get into discourse too much (since I’ve heard there was (is?) a lot of discourse in the RWBY fandom – but I took just one look into the tag for Volume 5 and immediately saw people arguing that Ilia’s not good representation because she’s a villain. And I just want to quickly address why that’s nonsense, in my opinion (and before you ask, yes I am a lesbian myself): First of all, she’s not even a full-blown villain. She’s clearly shown as confused and misguided from the beginning. And her feelings for Blake are never portrayed as a negative thing. She also has a redemption literally two episodes after being revealed to be queer. And in general, I don’t think queer villains are necessarily a bad thing and I’m tired of queer characters not being allowed to be flawed. How come straight characters get to just exist, but any queer character better be a shining beacon of morality or else they’re bad representation? I agree that RWBY should introduce more queer characters to balance things out a bit, but I wouldn’t say Ilia was bad representation by herself, since she’s a character I think we’re meant to have sympathy for.

- Now I just hope that future volumes of RWBY don’t pull a Bury Your Gays and kill Ilia off... I’d really hate that. (No spoilers on this post, please!)

- The entire fight at the Belladonnas’ house had me so on edge the whole time. I thought someone (most likely one or both of Blake’s parents) was going to die any second. Basically, the ending of volume 3 burned me and now I constantly expect characters to die. I’m glad it all (mostly) turned out well!

- Blake’s speech to the Faunus might have made me a bit emotional. That was a really great moment for her.

- And then there were those final episodes… WOW. Like I said, I really didn’t expect everything to go down so quickly (or for the ending to be that happy – like I said, volume 3 burned me.)

- Jaune unlocking his semblance was nice! And I’m proud of myself for having correctly predicted that he’d have some sort of healing powers. (I was waiting for him to unlock some healing semblance back when Qrow got injured in Volume 4 – I’m glad it finally happened!)

- I was worried about Weiss for a second, then I realized there’s no way she can die since I’ve already seen pictures of her outfit in later volumes. (Plus, I’m pretty sure if a main character had died, I’d have been unable to completely avoid spoilers about it. So those 4 are pretty much the only ones I’m not that worried about.)

- Raven is a really cool and interesting character, but an awful person. (I got so angry at her when she blasted Ruby after Ruby was just so nice to her*. How dare you, lady?) I love her design, though!

[*EDIT: I just rewatched it and realized that it was Cinder who blasted Ruby, Raven just created the portal. Point still stands, tough.]

- The plot twist of who the Spring Maiden really is was EPIC. Really loved that reveal! (And I honestly didn’t see it coming.) Though I have to say, I feel really bad for Vernal, and for the previous Spring Maiden.

- The Cinder VS Raven fight was absolutely epic and just stunning to watch visually. I was wondering if we’d ever get a maiden vs maiden battle, and that scene more than delivered! And while I don’t particularly like either of them, I was definitely rooting for Raven in that fight.

- I’m not sure if Cinder really died there. If so, I’m honestly not too sad about it, but I would be disappointed because I kind of expected her to become a more interesting character later on. After Volume 4, I expected at least a bit of growth there or something that would make her more interesting. And I’m not talking about a redemption, just to be clear! I just think the potential to make her more interesting as a villain was there, and if they just killed her off it’s kind of wasted now and she stayed a very flat character until the end. But I guess we’ll see.

- Raven and Yang’s confrontation was pretty intense. I liked that Raven finally had to admit that she’s afraid and doing all of this just to protect herself, and the contrast to Yang, who is also scared but still does what she thinks is right. And the fact that Raven was willing to let Yang have the relic despite the danger that would put her in – mom of the year indeed 🙄.

- Blake and the other Faunus are the real MVPs of the battle, tbh. The fact that they just completely stopped Adam and the White Fang by sheer numbers and didn’t even give them the chance to attack anyone? God tier stuff. And when Blake’s mom came in with the police? 10/10, we stan.

- Also, Blake telling Adam she’s not there for him? Hell yes, girl! I love how she’s taking power away from her abuser by showing she isn’t doing any of this for him. Really nice.

- Yang and Blake’s reunion in the last episode was super nice. I like how there was so much attention on that reunion in particular. And while I’m glad Yang wasn’t too angry at Blake and it makes for a nice happy ending, I still hope there’s a scene next volume where Blake properly apologizes to Yang for leaving and explains her side of things. And then, they should get together and live happily ever after and have lots of kittens. I mean, what?

- And finally, all of Team RWBY is back together! And they’ll have a lot to catch each other up on. Blake doesn’t even know about the maidens, the relics and Salem yet, while the rest didn’t even know about the White Fang attack. Also, I want Blake to introduce the others to Ilia and to her parents.

I really loved this volume. Lots of action, lots of really sweet moments, lots of epic fights and cool plot twists. I find it hard to rank them, but this might have been my favourite volume yet (volume 3 was also really good, though).

#RWBY #RWBY v5 #RWBY Volume 5 #RWBY vol 5 #Ilia Amitola #Yang Xiao Long #Blake Belladonna #Weiss Schnee #Ruby Rose #Catmeleon #Bumbleby #Cinder Fall #Qrow Branwen #Raven Branwen #Oscar Pine #Sun Wokung #Jaune Arc #Vernal #RWBY v5 spoilers #long post #wow this really got long #I started rambling about my new favourite chameleon girl and just couldn't stop

[powerbottomblake]

RWBY and Masculinity

I love RT’s, and specifically RWBY’s take on masculinity so much. The show subverts all expectations wrt their male characters and their development, which is why the male viewers experience major cognitive dissonance between what they expect and what story is actually being told (and then have the gall to call it bad writing). Under cut because this has gotten so long so fast.

The two main male characters - Sun and Jaune - are subvertions of genre/medium staples.

Jaune specifically hits all the beats of the typical male self-insert in a harem anime: he’s catapulted into a world he knows nothing of, instantly establishes 3 different dynamics with 3 different female characters/archetypes - Cheery, Ice Princess and Hot Tall and Earnest - one of whom he immediately sets his eyes on, he’s surrounded by women that are a whole lot more powerful than he is (and arguably THE most powerful one is instantly drawn to him), he’s essentially powerless and dealing with self-esteem issues and is nondescript enough to be a vehicle for any male viewer to project themselves onto. Which is why you have a good chunk of Jaune’s fandom from V1 being the embodiment of the Venn diagram intersection bewteen weebs and incels like That, and why there’s so much harem fanfic revolving around Jaune. 

CRWBY have heavily drawn from anime when making rwby so I don’t think this was coincidental; they laid out the groundworks to subvert a specific trope. Male fans, however, bought into the facade and kept waiting for Jaune to essentially steal the spotlight, be the focal point of several love interests and get a power up that’ll let him be their own power fantasy to boot, but CRWBY took his character in the very opposite direction. 

Jaune makes a lot of mistakes but what defines him is how earnestly he learns from them and redeems himself. He apologizes for lashing out at Pyrrha as a result of his own feelings of inadequacy and powerlessness when bullied by Cardin and then accepts her offer to teach him, sincerely taking instruction from her and then taking inspiration from her strength. Once he realizes his seduction skit with Weiss is not only ridiculous but wrong, he instantly changes his approach and prioritizes Weiss’s wants and needs over his, giving her space and knocking sense into Neptune so that Weiss can have her “ideal” date. Jaune doesn’t get embittered about being essentially rejected and most importantly he doesn’t let it affect his relationship with Weiss. Both of them become actual friends from that point on, and we get to see Jaune develop a certain measure of emotional intelligence starting that moment, which becomes part of his skillset and is shown to be part of what makes him a good leader. One of the best examples is how he and Ruby team up in V6E1 to get the hunter on the train to turn the turrets off. Jaune heals the hunter’s wounded arm and gently assuages his fear, in clear contrast with Qrow abrasively manhalding an injured and panicked man and expecting him to comply. The writing essentially puts down the show of arms and props up Ruby and Jaune’s approach; Jaune specifically is the example of masculine leadership the writing looks favorably on.  

And that’s the kicker here: Jaune’s strength comes from his set of soft skills as opposed to traditionally portrayed masculine strength, which usually careens into toxic power fantasy land. His whole arc in V1-3 is about learning to shed any distorted notions of chivalry and strength and knowing that his end goal shouldn’t be to become a hero for the sake of it or to live up to societal expectations, but to do what he can and as good as he can for the sake of everyone. Jaune is a good strategist and he knows how to make the best out of everyone’s powers. He’s there to enhance how people use their semblances together. His big power-up, his semblance reveal is basically him getting confirmed for a cross between a cleric and a paladdin (DnD players amongst us please correct me if I’m wrong): he is the ultimate support, acting as a healer and an amplifier to everyone around him, and that’s why he’s a good leader. His power on his own loses its entire meaning: Jaune takes strength from the people he loves and endlessly, earnestly gives back to them, never once stealing the spotlight in combat because that’s not his role and that’s okay.

And as for Jaune’s romantic prospects, think Forever Fall established once and for all that Jaune’s already found the One and I don’t think we’ll see him get any other love interest, especially now that arkos parallels oz/salem and with how vehement CRWBY are about lancaster being platonic. 

Now Sun. I want to tackle a specific expectation I’ve seen from male fans and that’s about him becoming more significant to the plot by coleading/leading the new White Fang movement...which would be hijacking Blake’s storyline. Blake is the one with drive and a cause, she was literally born inside the movement and has since seen it get derailed AND was the one to reclaim it from Adam and give it a new vision, as opposed to Sun who apparently wasn’t even aware of the systematic oppression Faunus had to deal with on a daily basis outside of Vacuo. So why is Sun, who has exactly 0 qualifications for this job and no interest in it, still expected to get it by a good chunk of his fans? Aside from the pervasive misogyny permeating fandom culture, there’s a specific trope media has served to us for decades now and that’s of a Semi-Competent Male Hero with his Hyper-Competent Female Side-kick (Vox published an article about it a few years ago and I really recommend checking it out), where a male character who’s semi good at best and not nearly as well-versed into whatever field he shares with his infinitely more competent female sidekick somehow walks in and saves the day and most of the time the female sidekick also, unsurprisingly doubles as a love interest. Time and again, male characters get rewarded for being half as good as their female counterpart at best AND they get the girl most often than not. 

But Sun’s whole character is, again, the very opposite of this. Sun never outweighs Blake on her own narrative (as is literal common sense) and shouldn’t be expected to. Sun actually gets schooled into the Faunus cause by his more competent female counterpart, Blake acting as his mentor and introducing him to the fight and why it matters. Blake and Sun basically reenact the plotline of Journey to the West (Sun quite literally references it by calling it a “Journey to the East”) a story whose main character is the legendary monkey king Sun Wukong, who’s the mythical figure Sun’s based on. Sun’s arc about finally knowing the cause and fighting for the right reasons happens thanks to Blake’s guidance - which Sun earnestly complies with and never questions because he knows she’s the expert and he doesn’t usurp that spot from her - and never overshadows her own narrative. Quite the opposite, it builds up to her own arc as a future leading figure of the WF and face of the Faunus cause by having her politicize someone who has no real stakes in this fight even though they should have.  

And then even his endeavor with Blake as a love interest falls through, with their relationship getting entirely recontextualized in V4-5 where their dynamic gets rebuilt as a friendship. Incidentally, that’s when it finally starts actually developing, instead of being stuck in the V1-3 limbo of mutual fleeting attraction where they’re constantly missing each other’s cues because they literally do not understand each other on a fundamental level. V4-5 is when Blake understands Sun isn’t what she needs in a romantic partner, but she does need him as a friend and ally. And Sun, whose premise falls in line with the Nice Guy trope, actually subverts it: he never makes Blake’s emotional journey about him, never expects anything in return and gracefully bows out of the narrative (for the time being) without ever pressuring Blake into acknowledging or returning his feelings. He doesn’t agonize over the initial attraction not going anywhere and doesn’t expect to be rewarded for being a decent person; again Blake’s feelings and well-being are his priority because that’s what good friends do. Their relationship developing into a steady friendship is never a point of conflict between them, and it’s actually lived as a positive event for both. 

And then, to top it off, CRWBY parsed together every bit of toxic masculinity and wrapped it into a power fantasy package and named the end result Adam Taurus, who’s the absolute worst abusive piece of shit. Adam is every single thing bad about men as a power structure: abrasive, entitled, controlling, takes violence as an indication of power and doesn’t take kindly to his leadership/vision being questionned. It’s not really coincidental that he steals the power seat from a woman and acts like he deserves it in any way. But male fans were so starved for their power fantasy fix and traditionally masculine cool calm collected and complicated male character that they were ready to minimize/outright ignore the abuse he’s put Blake through and just how awful a human being he was just to be able to hard project onto him. And CRWBY’s answer to that is basically this:

TL;DR: RT says if your masculinity isn’t humble, nurturing, supportive, compassionate, selfless and earnest then we don’t want it.

#rwby #my posts #jaune arc #sun wukong #me holding myself at gunpoint: why can't you say what you want in 5 sentences or less #my meta #@ incels watching rwby you've been bamboozled

[bellemorte180]

Twilight Rant

You know what makes me so annoyed about the Twilight saga...is its potential. I mean, seriously. The lore and character backgrounds of the side characters are actually really interesting. The Volturi are very old vampires that probably, if done right, could make a very amazing show if HBO or Showtime picked it up. Like, Jane and Alec’s storyline of how they became vampires who can literally torture people with their minds is damn fascinating. 

However, there are two main things that always really bothered me about the Twilight Saga that kind of ruined it for me once I got older.

I'll do the easy one first. 

The Edward/Bella relationship. 

It’s. Just. Bad. 

I shipped it when I was like fifteen and now I look back and shake my head. Edward is so controlling of Bella that it is honestly scary. Bella is just so obsessed with Edward that she literally drops her friends. Reading/watching their relationship reminds of abusive relationships I’ve come across when working with domestic abuse survivors. If Bella grew a backbone and left that relationship, I think I would have liked it much more. 

But enough about something that has been talked about a hundred times over. I want to move onto something that I personally feel ruined the potential the Twilight Saga had.

The vampires. 

I. Love. Vampires. As a small child I watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer and devoured the Anita Blake Novels. So, naturally when Twilight came out, I read them. 

However, I do not like how the vampires have little to no weaknesses. They are practically indestructible and are almost impossible to kill unless it is by another vampire/werewolf. I like it when vampires have weaknesses and can be killed by a human (if that said human knows what they are doing). I do not want God-Like characters who do not have a fatal weakness. THATS BORING. 

And they sparkle......like, what the fuck. Just no.

So imagine for a second that we take the more interesting characters, like the Volturi or Rosalie or anyone else in the series and put them in a world where vampires are actually vampires; like The Vampire Diaries or Buffy. 

They can’t go out into the sunlight because they will burn to death.

A stake through the heart will kill them. 

I’ll give them their psychic abilities because that is the only part of the Twilight Vampires I like. 

Imagine the stories we could have gotten. Like Aro for example or his weird psychic twins Jane and Alec. Give me Rosalie’s revenge story in the 1920s or Carlisle’s hatred of what he became. 

There are so many side characters in the Twilight Saga that have potential. Yet, we got stuck with an abusive teenage relationship that was glorified. 

So, my point is, I want the lore and backstories of the side characters in Twilight BUT in a universe similar to TVD or Buffy...

And written by anyone other than Stephanie Meyer’s because I’m sorry, I really hate first person POV and her writing isn’t that great.

Anyway, that is my rant for today. 

#twilight #why it could have been so much better #but fell flat #the vampires suck

[sometimesrosy]

I agree with you on most things, but where we differ is our opinion of O/the Blakes. B made the decision to bring O back into his life on his own terms & I love the Pike scene where O faced her actions, but imo the writers leaving out O's abuse of B in s3/4 was a mistake. O's first response to grieving Lincoln was to beat her brother bloody & I don't think it's honest to the story to not address that, especially since O went on to tell B she'd kill him if they weren't related. 1/2

I mean, the abuse was so bad that B thought he was pathetic for still going back to O even when she hated him, & I think it's really harmful for the writers to never address that. I guess what I'm wondering is if you think that's a bad message to send because I don't understand how it could possibly not be. 2/2

I have to say that I don’t interpret that scene quite the way you do. I see it as an assault. But I don’t believe O had enough power to be an abuser there. In that assault scene.

I read O as a character in crisis who was in danger of becoming an abuser, but to me, abuse is characterized by repeated behavior and an abuse of power, which I don’t believe she had. I do consider their relationship to be dysfunctional, but at that point, she wasn’t an abuser yet. And she wasn’t an abuser in s4 either. 

I consider her abuse to have begun in the bunker. 

She always had the tendency to turn to violence, but violence alone doesn’t make an abuser. She always had the tendency to blame others, but that alone doesn’t make an abuser. Bellamy and Octavia’s relationship was not a normal relationship, and it was not healthy for either of them, and he spent too much time taking responsibility for her actions and she never had to face her own responsibilities.... for very good reasons. And he was literally her jailer. He kept her captive. And he had a hard time letting her go when she was free, but he learned.

But you’ve got an interpretation that you think, for some reason, I should accept, even though I don’t agree with your interpretation. You state that it is abuse without examining it at all, and from then on, you only declare the abuse to be more severe and basically unforgivable. But it all hinges on the interpretation that Octavia was an abuser in season 4. And I understand why people would think that and I’ve never argued with people about it because I think there’s a case to be made for the interpretation and it could CERTAINLY trigger people who have experienced physical abuse INCLUDING the power issues and duration of domestic abuse, so that to them it would represent their own trauma. And that’s a completely fair way to engage.

But you haven’t made the case to me for me to agree with your basic interpretation. I don’t think that’s the message they’re sending, and you know we don’t agree on this topic, but you’re still saying that’s what’s happening even though we don’t agree, and I don’t really understand why you want me to respond to a message you think they’re sending as BAD, when I don’t think they’re sending that message.

You’ve also declared the story to be incorrect and wrong for not addressing your interpretation and I think that’s a mistake. What if you’re wrong about your interpretation, and that wasn’t the story they were telling, but you’re now holding them responsible for the story you think they should be telling and didn’t? That seems like an impossible ask. 

And I think maybe they didn’t address what you say because they didn’t really write it with Octavia as “abusive.” Or maybe they did. 

Maybe they’re not LOOKING to write a story where they write everything so it’s not harmful. I always saw CL as emotional and psychological abuse. But at least one writer said it wasn’t, although JR said that the world was abusive so the relationships reflected that.

Did I think they did WRONG by not making it explicit that CL was abusive and therefore bad and unhealthy. I do not. That was the story they were telling and as the audience I am not looking for my fiction to moralize for me. And if I’ll be honest, I got more out of facing my discomfort with watching CL and facing my triggers, and dealing with my OWN issues than I would have if the story were tied up with a neat bow saying ABUSE BAD!!!!

Do you think that’s what stories are FOR? To represent only the best of the world and always make it so it makes sense and good guys get good things and bad people are never forgiven because that’s “not healthy?”

I have to tell you, when season 3 happened and I saw Octavia’s behavior, I think i had a very different perspective than a lot of the audience, because I am a mandated child abuse reporter, and I was a teacher and an advocate for teenagers, and when I saw that story line, I saw a young woman in crisis. I saw an abused girl lashing out at the only person she felt safe with. Not saying it was right, but I saw the storyline not just from Bellamy’s perspective, but also from Octavia’s. I understand the cycle of abuse and how the abused can become the abuser and I saw a girl who was heading down that path because of the trauma she had been through.

So when you reframe the story and cast Octavia in the villain role, before she was actually a villain in the story, I’m just not with you.

And I don’t know why you think I should answer your charges as if you are right when I don’t think you’re right. 

Your interpretation is not mine.  I think you’re wrong in saying what the writers SHOULD do with their story.

If you told me “this is how I feel and this is what I don’t like,” I’d totally be sympathetic.

But instead you’re saying, ‘This is wrong, that is wrong, and that’s a bad message to send so what do you say to that?”

I think commentary where you interpret and discuss and express your feelings and what you like and what you didn’t like and what you think the meaning is? I think those are all good commentaries.

I think commentary where you say that the story is wrong because it doesn’t conform to your idea of what they SHOULD be saying and your view of the world? That is bad commentary.

Don’t like a story? Ditch it. Stop watching. Decide how the story should go and that you have the authority and power to DECLARE what is right and wrong for someone else’s story? And how everyone else should interpret it? That’s not right.

I know people say I think my interpretations are always right and that makes me arrogant but I don’t think i’m always right. I’m trying to UNDERSTAND the story being told, not decide what should be told and complaining when it doesn’t go there. If i’m off, i back track and figure out where. if something happens i don’t like, i try to figure out what it means. if a story doesn’t follow it’s own story, okay then fair enough. narrative flaw. if it DOES follow its own story and you’re pissed that it didn’t do enough on the particular scene you hated? nope. 

If you don’t like the message of the story, you should stop watching. If you like some of the story but not other parts of the story, fair enough. But recognize that you just don’t like it all. I was literally triggered by 3.03, do you see me saying it shouldn’t be in the show because it sends a bad message for an abused partner to stay with the abuser? No you do not. Because I recognize that my reaction to the story is mine and mine alone and I am not going to put my emotional response onto the author or the rest of the audience. This is a TRAUMA FILLED story, and if you are offended that there is trauma and violence then you should stop watching and if you don’t, that is your choice and it is not a the fault of the writers that they are writing the show they TOLD YOU they were writing.

I don’t think they SHOULD address what you think they should address.  I think they addressed the dysfunctional relationship. I think they addressed the way she treated him and I REALLY liked him standing up to her and saying she was responsible for what happened. As an abuse victim (though not physical) that made me feel good and made me feel like he had transformed himself, regardless of what she did. When he cut her out of his life because she refused to change? That resonated with my experience. 

I do not believe that in this world, with Bellamy and Octavia SPECIFICALLY, that the beating she gave him felt like abuse to either of them. They were both known to get into physical fights and sacrifice their own well being in order to...well do various things, pay penance, let off steam, stall for time, entertain themselves etc.  I think you’re looking at the story through your personal experience and understanding and have a difficulty understanding the story from the point of view of a person who is different from you. They aren’t like you. Their world isn’t like your world. They don’t look at violence he way you do, and so, when the story dealt with Octavia and Bellamy’s relationship, it didn’t pay the attention to the physical assault  that you wanted it to. 

Rather than deciding that made the story wrong, why didn’t you ever stop and look at it and wonder what it was they WERE trying to say? What it was they WERE trying to transform instead of just deciding that it failed to address your personal feelings and interpretation. You do know that authors are not inside your head, right? However, you are essentially inside THEIR heads because that’s where the story comes from. 

DO I think abusers should be forgiven? If they work for it and prove that they have changed. It hasn’t worked for me IRL but I tried. I think that’s what we’re seeing with the blakes. I think the message they’re sending is different from the message you’re picking up, and I don’t know why, because I don’t know your experience. And because I need to know your experience to understand where you get your interpretation, it doesn’t work for me as an interpretation of the canon. 

To be honest. You know I hate doing this anti stuff and I don’t know why you’re bringing your anti-octavia concerns to my blog. I know we’re all bored, but come on. 

Why don’t you do nanowrimo and write it out the way you think it should be done. I know people would be interested in it. I personally have another 800 nano words to write today and I shouldn’t even have done this. Maybe I’m bored too. It has been really slow. I also don’t have a problem with you generally so you know I’m answering your respectful question. I just wish I didn’t have to argue with you. I avoid that part of the fandom because whenever I say I don’t agree with you guys someone calls me a racist or an abuse apologist or argues for eugenics or says I’m a misogynist or calls me arrogant. The more I try to explain my position the more names I get called. Oh wait. iT’s the PRO octavia part of the fandom who calls me a misogynist. And arrogant. Frankly both sides are the same. 

Like, go ahead and hate octavia. Think they did it wrong. Fine. Leave me out of it. 

[gossipgirls]

Serena is not morally the worst character in the show but she was the worst in terms of writing along with Nate. I honestly could not find anything interesting about her and her storylines were repetitive until she became a hot mess in s5. I don’t like to hate on female characters at all, but for a character who was supposed to be the lead, she was poorly written and acted in comparison to literally everyone else. It’s not even Blake’s fault, it’s just her writing is so bland.

this made me think of a lot of things about the show and serena that i haven’t yet said on this blog, and my response is SO long that i’m slightly embarrassed, so i am putting it under a “read more,” good luck hahaha.

/ tw alcohol, drugs and eating disorder mention

i agree that the writers definitely didn’t put even a tenth as much time into her as they did blair, chuck, etc. imo, they should have dealt a lot more directly with her clear substance abuse issues, like they did talk about it in that we knew she had a bad past with it, we knew that njbc were very much accustomed to taking care of a drunk/high serena (1x09 even though it was unfortunately mostly written as cute and humorous rather than sad and concerning, big time in 1x17, and the episode in season 4 where she was drugged but everyone thinks she overdosed on her own and when dan says it doesn’t sound like serena to him, blair says something along the lines of “i always forget how new you are, this sounds exactly like the serena i knew”), but they never REALLY delved into it in a satisfactory way that would more explicitly reveal her complexities. same with her abandonment issues as a result of her father leaving. which i think is mostly just a result of her trying to reform and be “good” for the whole show, rather than them writing in a longer period of time where she’s really struggling with sobriety, etc.

gg was great at introducing very interesting, complicated pasts and frameworks for their characters but they rarely fully dived in and explored the complexities of their characters (except for maybe with chuck, but even then it frequently remained quite superficial, like we’d see drugs on the table whenever he was spiralling, but they never… talked about it in a real way or the fact that he has a drink in hand about 90% of the time. even with blair, they dropped her eating disorder so fast that it was straight up unrealistic). for serena’s sake, i’m obviously glad that it wasn’t depicted as that serious, like i don’t wanna see these chars struggle per se haha, but i do think that if these things had been explored in a realer way (as i think they probably intended at the beginning of s1 given how the show was advertised), she would be way more appreciated by the fanbase as a complicated character. so i do fully see your point.

that being said, because it’s in my nature to read deeply into media that i love, i do see so many inklings and i do think that there are lots of scenes that could make her a really interesting character for all of the reasons that i mentioned above. she is a kind, bright person who is constantly fighting her demons, trying her best to keep her head above water and running from the culture that won’t let her grow and move on from her past. she is a woman who is so idealized and put on a pedestal by the men in her life that it’s no wonder she experiences so many identity crises. to so many people she’s never more than a fantasy, a myth of the it-girl or the trainwreck socialite, or a pretty piece of arm candy, but never her own person. she’s a glimmering party girl, living life so fast and so hard that people are constantly expecting her to drop, and tabloids relish in it whenever she does. she’s the sensational beauty who can’t help but wonder what will happen when her skin starts to wrinkle and clothes don’t fit the same - will the people who love her now still love her, do they all actually see the real her, or is this whole world as superficial as she fears? probably a big reason why her favourite book is the beautiful and the damned. also why i’m obsessed with ldr’s song “young and beautiful” for her. i think those fears become really clear as the show goes on, like in 5x04 when she reads her character in the inside and asks dan “do you even remember the girl that you fell in love with?” again, these could very well just be more my observations and analyses, but i do see them here and there in the show.

ultimately, your opinion is totally valid and NONE of this is to say that it’s not because i totally get it. she was definitely paid dust and i think the writers totally could have done more with the above issues in order to fully flesh out her character and reveal all of her complexities in a more explicit and interesting way. the writing often made her seem quite vapid and naive, which i really do not believe she was at all, and she deserved way better than that. i hope that someday there’s a surge of serena love in the fandom, but if there’s not, i get why. i just think it’s a shame, as was the writing, because there’s certainly a lot of potential!

#drugs tw #alcohol tw #eating disorder tw #serena van der woodsen #answered #Anonymous

[scxrred-crxmscn-blog]

Wasted potential and stupid plot lines.

I might lose a few followers over this, but FUCK IT. Long post. Very long, actually. Some ramblings of a tired mun.

You know, I was just rewatching Volume 1 and 2 and I am just...laughing about how much Adam’s direction seemed to change between then and now within Rooster Teeth. Like. Look at her description of him in volume 2 episode 10. 

It’s just fantastic how Blake seemed to refer to Adam as her teacher and partner. Speaking in the calmest voice. Not once she mentioned her being in love with him. Or that he was her lover. He was her teacher. Partner, someone she trusted. You know what this conversation leads to? The fact that she left him because of ideological reasons. Then this conversation follows right before he is interrupted by Cinder in Volume 3 chapter 7

You know what that tells me? This script? He does not give a shit. Blake abandoned him, he is clearly angry. But does he run after her, stalk her or try to murder her friends? Fuck no. He wants to go away, actually. Back to Mistral. My guess is that he wants to reorganize with Sienna and actually speak to her about the Cinder incident not too long ago. The only fucking reason he went to Beacon because Cinder threatened to kill all his men and also offered dust reserves. I have absolutely no doubts that he could have escaped this, but his men would have died. And so he is forced to comply. 

And then. Suddenly, without any prior indication of that what so ever. this happens. 

Mind you, it happens literally THREE CHAPTERS after Adam is shown to be ready to abandon Blake to pursue what actually matters to him. White Fang cause.

And so, I am left with one question. Why? Wasn’t his goal for coming here is to save his people, being blackmailed by someone who clearly had powers to kill them all? Why would he give a shit about Blake? Why does he act like he expected her to come here and he came here specifically for her? Is this where the change in direction occurred? 

Of course, there is an argument that an abuse victim sees everything through pink glasses. And that was the intention all along. To show a romanticized version of Adam and he was always like this and we just been watching a very carefully view on him from Blake’s perspective. 

There are two flaws in that logic. In my opinion. 

First. The flashback where he clearly wanted to abandon Blake and go away into a different kingdom was not from BLAKE’s perspective. Second one. All the abuse victims I know, and this is just my experience, either do not talk about their abuser at all, because they don’t WANT TO or decide to shower them with spite and anger they RIGHTFULLY deserve. Blake had enough strength to run away from him. If she ran away from him because he was a violent abuser then what pink goggles are we even talking about? If she ran away because she realized how bad he is to her, then what reason does she have to speak of him in that sort of positive-ish light? If he was a lover, then why not address him as such? It’s not like she does not talk about him, might as well call him what he really was. But she does not. So that means she didn’t run from him because of the abuse. Or even from the lovers turned bad situation. She ran because the white gang violence was not something she wanted for the Faunus anymore. And now the Abuse plotline feels...tacked on, unnecessary even, right? 

Well. My working theory is that Adam’s character was changed because of the direction, that the writers wanted to take Blake and Yang. They wanted something that would bring them closer. Spread these seeds of LUV. And here is where Adam comes into play. Abusive ex-boyfriend formula is actually pretty effective when it comes down to separating any possible romantic connection one can have. Actually, it effectively erased any opportunity for redemption for a character. It’s a very clever thing to do when you want to establish a character’s personal connection to one of the villains without the need to bother to write a cohesive storyline for the said villain. He exists there to pursue Blake, be the boogie-man and follow her no matter how illogical it is for his character of how stupid that makes him look in the process. And in the end, he DIED to bring Blake and Yang closer. An ultimate moment of victory that results in a very nearly confirmed ship and crowds cheering for the monster’s death. And that is smart. 

The only, really, disappointing thing about the entire ordeal, is that entire White Fang plotline was, quite literally, thrown under the bus. Adam Killed the charismatic leader of White fang after her being on screen for a whole lot of five minutes!!! Adam, then, proceeded to go even more ape-shit and decided that he wants everyone to die from Grimm invasions so he will go destroy all the schools real quick. He was stopped in the most hilarious and stupid way possible, ran away like a pussy and everyone lived happily ever after. Adam is the reason White fang turned into a grey-morality force that fought for Faunus using faulty methods into a bunch of racist bumbling idiots who all band together to go after a single Faunus girl because of their Plot Device leader. A shame, really. And so we come to a conclusion here. 

You have successfully changed everyone’s perspective of Adam’s character, RT. You achieved your goal of bringing Yang and Blake as close together as possible. Without a doubt, a romantic relationship between these two would be absolutely logical. But please, for the love of god, do not bullshit anyone about how this was Adam’s character from the very start. It was not. Never was. You changed him. And drastically so. Is that change bad or good? Well, that depends on completely subjective reasons. But The only thing I can personally say is that Adam is not a well-written character. Todoroki Enji aka Endeavor is a well-written abusive character, I can name you all kinds of abusers in anime and other forms of entertainment that are written LEAGUES better than this. 

But that was not your goal, to begin with. It was never your GOAL to write him as a character. He was and still is a tool. Just like Salem. Just like any other villain in the series. And that is okay. Heck, Marvel movies are, most of the time, using their villains just to further the plot and never gave him any sort of personality or good backstory or any logic to their action (with rare exceptions such as Killmonger, Thanos and some other ones.). But I will never stop being sad about wasted potentials and stupid plot lines. That’s it. 

#Out of rage(ooc) #Writing notes(mun speaks) #RWBY spoilers #RWBY volume 6 spoilers #Adam taurus #long-post #Very long post #It's just a ramble of someone who likes to over-analyze shit. #ignore this #or don't. #this is my point of view on the situation #I am a writer myself so I might offer a bit of a different perspective #if you wish to listen to it #of course. #It's okay to reblog btw

[dominicvail]

thjslove replied to your post

“do you think this could be end in one of them getting killed and...”

omg what CM receipts? ��

@thjslove cm is one of the most convoluted behind the scenes messes i have ever witnessed and i am just Astounded till this day like, i’ll bullet point for you because i Genuinely will be here writing this for 3 hours if i do details;

think of all the female cast members that have ever been on cm?? yeah?? a lot! well, the only ones who left in non suspicious circumstances? Lola Glaudini (elle) and Jennifer Love Hewitt (kate). Literally. The only ones. 

one time (between seasons 8 and 9) they almost cancelled the show because aj cook and kirsten vangsness decided they didn’t like that their male costars were making $70,000 more PER EPISODE than they were (this was back when they did 24 eps a season so like... i’m not gonna do the math but that is A Lot Of Money). (they renewed it last day of renewals, it was the same year cote de pablo walked from ncis because of the same reason, legit the only reason they got anywhere was b/c they said ‘we both get raises or we both walk’. 

btw while this was happening, minus Moore, the rest of the male cast was holding up negotiations so they got perks on top of being paid over 50% more than the women. 

this sequence is the kicker

u know season six, the jj and prentiss absences??? 

it was because they both got fired, listed as ‘creative decisions’ (that’s important later), which basically seemed to amount to ‘we want both less women and for her to be younger than both of you’. 

they fired aj cook flat out as her contract had expired that year, in the middle of a 2 parter, and didn’t even want to let her do an exit???? they legit had to fight for the right to have her to film an exit episode (they negotiatied 3 episodes, one for finishing the 2 parter, one exit, and one for when prentiss exited). 

brewster’s contract had Not expired (also important later), they just only decided she should be in 8 episodes. 

it’s important to the sequence of events that i mention outside influences, b/c the cm fans were PISSED. There was a straight up public outcry, i have Never seen a response like it in my many years of obsessive TV watching. People were Very fond of Prentiss and JJ and were Not impressed they were being booted as unnecessary to the narrative, those pesky creative decisions!!! the petitions and public support towards them were pretty incredible actually. 

by that point there wasn’t much that could be done about Cook, but seeing the response CBS kept making Brewster film Way more than those 8 episodes she got slotted for actively dragging her along, Still fired but p much unable to find other work realistically??? b/c they kept calling her back in???

public support was still Overwhelmingly on the actresses side. 

To the point that CBS started ardently claiming the actresses were fired for Monetary reasons. Yeah, they straight up lied, and still lie about it today. I have seen cbs affiliate websites print said lie bluntly in their articles (i no longer read cbs affiliate anything). 

I listed the pay scandal first for perspective on the money lie. At that point i think the men on the cast were wearing about $110,000 an episode, and it got out Cook was earning about £50,000 an ep, and we never heard about Brewster’s salary But when i say she made a Big Deal over finally getting paid as much as the men in the past couple of years i mean it, so we can assume she was also being paid a lot less. My point being, if they needed to save money, it would have been more profitable for them to fire One man on the show than two women. They pay gap was that much. 

so they lied, still lie, about why they fired them and it wasn’t even a good lie. 

ANYWAY

i know the show’s writing isn’t really applicable but Prentiss and Seaver  were never meant to be main characters on the show together, where they dragged out prentiss’ exit, they overlapped and Rachel Nichols had very little to do. 

Anyway, by the time the late eps of the season were airing (and i assume they looked at how many viewers cut loose when brewster left) cbs straight up rang up aj cook and asked her to sign back on (why she was in the last ep despite only being hired for 3 eps that season). She said she hated them but she had a young kid at the time and regular work that was local was helpful (plus, u know, i bet it was a great ego boost).

the season finishes airing, it goes on hiatus with the cast listed 4 season 7 as the men, garcia, jj and seaver. 

u know how i mentioned paget had a contract for s6 still but they cut her episodes down??? Well, CBS used the fact that they wouldn’t let her work on the show anymore despite being signed on as evidence that she was breaching contract if she didn’t go back as a regular for season 7. They threatened to sue her for breach of contract. The only reason prentiss was in s7 was because they used what they did against her that she had no power over to threaten her. So, u know, super nice. 

meanwhile, they fire rachel nichols, don’t bother to actually tell her they’d done it!!! and she found out on fucking twitter (and rachel is such a nice person, and she was absolutely vilified and abused by every idiot on the internet too thick to realise none of the above was her fault jeez). 

so s7 happens w/ the same cast as before, but brewster will Only work to contract and refuses to sign on again for s8. Understandable, tbh. 

they hire jeanne tripplehorn, fandom is disgusting as usual, like, absolutely vile, not surprised just disappointed. 

at the end of season 9 (they have 2 year contracts so like.. it was the end of her contract), despite everything in the  storyline process indicating otherwise and how much of a farce for her character what went down was... Blake left???? No more Jeanne???

Not one peep from bts over what happened.

if that sounds suspicious to you, it is, one of the crew members let slip they’d all been gagged and were not allowed to talk about it. So cbs learnt it’s lessons in as such that they learnt to hide their shitty actions rather than not do anything shitty.

p sure there was another pay scandal in here somewhere too??? 

in terms of The Gay(tm), Reid was like, conceptualised as bi from the get go but that thing in season one with Lila happened so the execs said he could not possibly be bisexual. Yeah. Yeah u read that right. Most ppl laugh at that one and say uhm do you not know what bi is??? but honestly it was just an excuse they knew full well what they were doing imo

why? they did it again! the writers, producers and Brewster all agreed on a scene where an episode opens w/ prentiss waking up in bed with another woman, guess who nixed it!!!! cbs. They also put a gag order on That little fact too! Kirsten Vangsness, bless her, did a podcast a few years ago on afterellen (before it got fuckawful and was with it’s original owners) and, i’d say ‘let slip’ but she knowingly dropped that truth bomb knowing full well she shouldn’t have. I love her. 

lately they’ve made brewster do “interviews” with some of those cbs affiliates where they try and get points??? for saying prentiss was gonna be gay??? like they’re not the ones removing the rep from the show??? and expecting a pat on the back for... refusing to have any kind of gay rep in a show that is by this point conspicuously straight (not that LA isn’t, but it’s not nearly as bad as cm). 

the whole mess with Gibson is... Wild b/c as much as i Loathe the dude he supposedly attacked cbs would not just fire their white guy show lead for no reason and i didn’t see any above the level sites claim any funny business there, but he got fired and cbs rang up Brewster and asked her to be the show lead which, honestly, after being fired for being old and irrelevant must have been AMAZING.

she also takes the time to point out to anybody who asks about her and aj being fired for money reasons that no, it was not about money at all. She basically calls her bosses out for being liars in public interviews frequently and it’s Amazing. 

i’m sure there’s more crap but i’m not recalling it rn

honestly cm bts drama is Wild and this doesn’t even get into the Patinkin drama (which while drama, is not actually anything to do with cbs). 

Interestingly enough, it’s super hard to find out all this stuff unless u were in the fandom the whole time because they’ve bloody lied So Much it’s all everyone even believes anymore. It’s disgusting. 

Still can’t believe  ncis:la’s female cast has done this well for so long???? These are just CM’s reciepts, they have a history of doing this stuff over and over on multiple shows, i know of it as far back as when trek tng was airing in the 80′s and can name more in between. 

#thjslove #not ncis la #sorry i just wrote this much about cm on this blog l o l

[yiangchen]

You know what would make me actually respect Jroth? 

If you have to give me Octagon somehow coming back from all this, fine. If you have to give me Bellamy working with Octagon to save their friends, fine. If you have to bring the Blakes together one last time, fine. 

But if he would just let Bellamy say when it’s all over, “I’m happy you’ve turned things around. It’s like I said, I’m always going to love you, but I still can’t do this anymore, O. Too much has happened. We can’t go back, and I don’t want to.” If he could just let them peacefully part ways, if he could just let Bellamy move on and not force him back into a relationship with his abuser, if he could fully separate Octagon’s “I’m gonna actually try to be a good person now after s6 seasons” storyline from Bellamy, I’d be a-okay with it. Truly.

But Jroth won’t do this. He didn’t have the balls to address the beating. He didn’t have the balls to address Octagon gaslighting Bellamy and unfairly blaming him for Lincoln’s death consistently. He didn’t have the balls to address her telling him she’d kill him if he wasn’t blood. He didn’t have the balls to call out any of the blatant abuse. 

“She hates me, but I keep coming for more,” are so clearly the words of an abuse victim. It makes me physically sick that Jroth could write an entire storyline of Octagon abusing him and it greatly influencing his character and hers and then never address it. Forcing him to fight in the pits pales in comparison to all the other abuse she put him through in s3 and 4. That was the culmination of all the abuse. Not the start of it.

I mean seriously. Jroth literally had the makeup people go through the effort of giving Bellamy cuts on his face from his sister’s beating for seven fucking episodes, from 3x10 until 3x16, and maybe even more than that. If I remember correctly, the cuts were still healing in 4x01 as well. That’s eight fucking episodes. That’s the second half of one season and into the next. It’s insane that he can do that and somehow not address where those cuts came from, but I digress... 

The point is that I know he’ll never address it. I’m not an idiot. 6x09 was the perfect opportunity to do it, and he didn’t have the fucking balls to. So, when it’s all said and done, he’s not gonna have the balls to let Bellamy be free of her either, and that’s just so fucking frustrating I could actually scream right now. 

I love this show, but sometimes I swear to god, the messages it sends are so harmful, and Jroth is just so fucking clueless. He’s essentially saying, “Hey, abuse victims. Forgive your abusers. Let them back in. They’ve changed for the better.” He’s essentially saying, “It’s okay if you can’t properly process your pain. Just take it out on your loved ones. Make them as miserable as you! They’ll forgive you later, so who cares if you treat them like shit now?” Literally what the fuck. Go to fucking hell, Jroth.

#sorry #but i'll never shut up this #words fucking matter #media matters #its not just a tv show #tv shows shape how we view our world #and to ignore that makes you really fucking ignorant #bellamy blake #octagon #anti jroth #s3 #s4 #s6 #the 100 #the 100 spoilers

[kitkatopinions]

I think the difference between why Blake killing her abuser is "good" while Cinder is "bad", is because Blake was literally forced to kill Adam and it was followed by her trying to rationalise with him and letting him escape the authorities. Being sympathetic towards your abuser and not wanting justice like Blake is "good", while taking matters into your own hands and not letting them kick you around like Cinder is "bad".

This is why it's so important to think through everything when you portray something sensitive in media. Gonna be honest, there's nothing I like about Cinder's backstory.

However, I do think it's a little weird to say that Blake didn't want justice for Adam. Just because she didn't chase him at the end of volume 5? I mean, I thought that was a bit weird as a writing choice because he was surrounded by police and the Faunus militia that had come there specifically to stop him, so should never have been able to just split easy peasy. But there were a heck ton of people there who had more responsibility to capture Adam than Blake, and tons of other people who had less trauma than Blake and could've tried to capture him themselves. Like, I love Sun, but isn't he just as responsible for Adam as Blake? Isn't he the one who was never emotionally, physically, and verbally abused by him? Also there's nothing wrong with feeling bad for the circumstances that led to your abuser being the person they are, that's perfectly natural and shouldn't be looked down on.

But I do agree that the problem here is that one abuse victim is portrayed as 'more palatable' and more 'appealing' than the abuse victim who we're meant to see as angry, bitter, and insane. We don't even know exactly what happened with Cinder before she had already killed her 'stepsisters' and was choking the Madame when Rhodes found her. The problem is that Blake is considered in the right one hundred percent no discussion and is treated with lots of sympathy, and Cinder - despite being younger, despite her situation being totally different, despite being forced to wear a shock collar - is treated like she fell from grace and did a horrible thing and we're now meant to understand completely why she's such an abusive, heartless, murderous, obnoxious whiner baby in the present. It's flawed, very flawed.

Blake the character shouldn't be treated like she did something wrong for the way she handled interactions with her abuser, but the point is that the show itself is doing that with Cinder and vilifying abuse victims to do it.

Abuse victims who show the affects of that through things like high temper, bitterness, and psychological problems are not lesser or crazier or less deserving of sympathy than abuse victims who are 'nicer' and who don't show the affects as much, or who fawn instead of fight or prefer to avoid confrontation.

Also just as a side note, I am talking about young Cinder when I talk about the lack of sympathy shown to her by the storyline, adult Cinder is the pits and I'm actually literally upset that they chose to give her this backstory eight seasons in, because how in the hell am I supposed to feel good about this character at all now? Like, I hate her and want her to die, because she never grows her character and is obnoxious in a not fun way, so I would never root for her, but I just know if she dies now, there's going to be nothing satisfying about watching someone who suffered major childhood abuse who then wound up serving someone who just continued to abuse her just... die, or lose everything.

#rwde #anti cinder fall #anti rwby #rwby hate #rwby bashing

[dragynkeep]

The Adam abuse storyline is really not helped when all of the violent stuff happens after Blake abandons Adam and the cause, joins a group that may be compliant with the oppression, becomes best friends with someone whose logo is burnt on his face, and is actually fighting against/killing members of the WF. Obviously what he did isn’t a measured response, but as we see more of RWBY it feels less like an exploration of abuse and more creating justification for our heroes to do whatever they want.

it very much shows the flaws in their storytelling that not only when they retroactively add things — like adam's scar being a fucking sdc brand — that blake's actions seem worse. she's all but tame to a racist girl who's initials were branded on her ex boyfriend's face, but then she does absolutely nothing when in the city that holds the man who caused all this trauma to her people.

the writing of blake, adam, the white fang — it all reeks of white comfort where racism can be solved by the end of the episode & that the good guys have saved the day, they've made everything right again. ignore the fact that an ex slave was killed by a human, however justifiable, & she feels little to no guilt. ignore the fact that the sdc never faced any retribution, that their crimes were never exposed, before it was submerged under water. ignore the fact that the white fang literally has no reason not to go through this all over again because we see no evidence of the humans or ghira's limp wristed pacifistic leadership being willing to change.

ignore that one of our mains has been reduced from a strong willed freedom fighter who cared about her people & spoke her mind, to an arm piece for a human while she literally can't do anything but sit & wait for her to return.

#flawartist #rwby #rwde #blake belladonna #adam taurus #yang xiao long #bees critical #bumbleby critical #faunus racism #white fang #owl.txt #answered #q

[ryoshan-a]

ok. listen i know i havent been here in ages and this isn’t an original idea but hear me out:

RWBY as a live action tv series, and our characters as the actors, actresses, and crew.  

set in our world modern verse. featuring a small production company, employing and casting crew and actors from all over the world. not convinced yet? here’s why y’all should indulge me: 

your muse canonically dead or afk? not anymore!! they produce the show now. or write it. or just hang out on the set when they’re free. 

your muse a villain and hard to rp with other folk? not anymore!!! let them be pals with the most unlikely of other people. see how they deal with fndm hating their character. (or loving their char too much)

your char an oc? nOT ANYMORE. theyre canon chars now. maybe they write the show. direct. tell qrow off when he almost posts spoilers on twitter. ANYTHING

whats a crossover? the ocs you rp with are now actors/crew in their own universe’s movie/game/tv show. the chars from other fandoms are actors/crew in their source’s show/movie/game. 

your ship a rarepair u jump through hoops to put together? not anymore!! their actors are shacking up. 

lbr we’re all suffering the hiatus. who needs canon material for this!! they’re in shooting for the eps that’ll air in october. 

seriously, how easy would it be to get,, literally the entire community involved in something like this. TAG ME IF YOU DO!!! i wanna see what folk come up with!!

still not convinced? here’s some ideas i came up with, with the help of @iruzurru and @rosescattered. obv if i mention your muse and you wanna get in on this dont feel like you have to follow these!! these are just meant to inspire™

under the cut, cause lONG: 

taiyang and summer club together every year to fund a holiday for the entire cast and crew to celebrate the end of a season. they buy out an entire plane for the journeys and instigate travelling songs 

taiyang is a writer for the show who played ruby and yang’s dad more as a cameo, but got given more scenes when the character proved rlly popular 

summer is a writer too. noone, not even tai knows she’s gonna be playing summer when she shows up later in the show >:3c 

emerald and cinder being best friends who play up icly for the fans. emerald throws down on twitter with anyone who harrasses cinder for playing a baddie 

winter wasn’t an actor originally. she writes novels, but she was on set one day waiting for weiss to finish shooting so they could go to lunch. 

she was given first dibs on an audition to play weiss’ ic sister and nails it. weiss insists she’s not even acting, she’s just Really Like This 

winter writes fanfic of emerald/cinder on ao3 for shits and giggles dont @ me. noone knows its her bc she uses winter’s ic callsign as a username and ppl just assume its a winter fan

this is yang’s first big acting job, but she’s Known in celebrity circles because her mom is the Very Famous Raven Branwen.raven’s a household name 

raven subsequently gets cast as her real mom because it just makes sense and would boost the series’ popularity following her guest appearance at the end of volume 2 

qrow is very vocal about his character’s storylines and supports charities relating to substance abuse. he frequently finds himself in twitter discourse with fans because he loudly discourages romanticising his character 

this gets him accused of hating his character, which he doesn’t. fandom either loves him or hates him 

qrow and raven arent siblings but they might as well be because they’re so fking close and roast each other on twitter all the time 

neo’s actress is actually a really famous opera singer who’s breaking into acting. this gives rise to the popular fanon that neo actually can talk and has a bitchin’ voice but chooses not to. 

emerald’s an orphan. she bounced around kids homes and developed a great talent for lying in the process. hearing a drama teacher describe acting as ‘lying really well’ sealed the deal for her career choice. she’s had bit parts and lives in a shitty apartment until rwby becomes her first big break. 

coco was a big actress in france. she came to america seeking to break into hollywood, and found it pretty difficult. she’s emerald’s roommate, and it’s emerald who tells her about the opening for a member of team cfvy and pushes her to audition. 

ilia has to wear one of those green screen suits all the time so they can animate her scales. yang gets a selfie with her every time she’s wearing it. takes upon takes have been ruined by blake and sun laughing at her. 

it annoys ilia at first. then, she starts to find it funny. then, she gets her own back by purposefully making people laugh. she does the yoshi mlem every time she cracks her whip. 

pyrrha’s actress routinely gets bit parts and cameos in future volumes bc the cast and crew love her so much they want her around all the time. she’s like 50% of the reason a comedy mini-series where nothing bad happens exists alongside the main series. 

the entire cast and crew rallying around cinder after v3 when the fan backlash comes from pyrrha’s onscreen death. they throw a party after to celebrate pyrrha and cinders great performances. its a greek theme

team rwby, smartasses that they are, all come dressed as achilles with little papier mache arrows stuck in their heels

weiss is a Career Showman. she started off in ballet, then moved to broadway, then onto the bigscreen. she’s had a huge amount of success despite how young she is, and was continually pushed to land greater and greater roles. she suffered a very publicised breakdown because of the stress. 

she ‘disappeared’ in the showbiz scene when she went to live with winter in her remote little writing shack in the middle of assfuck nowhere to recharge. 

rwby is her first acting job since then. she was hesitant to start back at all, but finds herself extremely supported and refreshed by the small, close-knit production. 

blake’s had to work twice as hard for every role she’s ever landed due to being an ethnic minority. her professionalism makes her seem closed off and cold, so she hasn’t made many friends. she has a small, devoted fanbase, though.

summer is one of those fans, and has always wanted to cast blake in something. her character was written with her in mind, and summer was elated when blake accepted the proffered audition and subsequent role in rwby. 

ruby is summer and tai’s daughter!! they are not shy at all about saying that her part was written For Her. they don’t apologise for it either fuck u they created this show they cast who they want. 

the red trailer only initially existed for ruby to do a screentest of her character. it was so well produced and nailed so hard they made it promotional material and wrote the white, black and yellow ones to go with it. 

ruby grew up reading her parents’ stuff and writing her own, too. in school, she wrote, directed and produced an entire play for her classmates, but never thought of acting until her parents suggested she play the lead in this new show they’ve been thinking about. 

ruby and yang met on set. they’ve been thick as thieves ever since. 

...AND SO ON I COULD DO THIS ALL DAY GUYS 

#PHEW I SPENT HOURS ON THIS #seriously though i'd love it if we could revive the comm a little bit mid hiatus #and this seems like such a cool way to do it #as such FEEL FREE TO REBLOG #this isnt like a closed au or anything it's just an idea i'd love to see people play with!!! #PLS..... IM SO INTO THIS..... SUPPORT MY BRAND........