birder-of-remnant

[birder-of-remnant]

But socializing is scary. But yeah, I need to do my part as well

I think there's something that needs to be said about encouraging readers to leave feedback.

For me it's not about "tell me my writing is amazing and stroke my ego"

It's more about "please engage with me so that I can experience your joy secondhand and foster a connection with you"

I understand that not everyone wants this in their reading experience, some people are shy and a million other reasons why maybe someone wouldn't want to engage and that's perfectly fine!

But what I'm trying to steer away from is being a passive content creator with passive consumers. What I want to steer toward is fostering a community that is essential to fandom. I want to see your reactions because it makes me feel like I'm a part of something.

On encouraging reblogs —

I understand that not everyone is comfortable reblogging, especially explicit content. This is ok!

But just consider that the only reason you were able to enjoy a fic or fanart is because someone else shared it, and by not sharing it yourself you are potentially robbing someone else of the opportunity to enjoy it as much as you did.

As OPs our reach only goes so far and this website relies on reblogs in order for anything to truly get seen by a wider audience.

So that's really it! That's why I encourage these two things at the end of every story I post. Not because I'm trying to be demanding and "make people feel bad" if they don't do it.

I know most other social media sites encourage mindless content consumption and that's just the way of the world nowadays, but I am from a time when community was at the heart of fandom and I just don't want to lose that.

[birder-of-remnant]

Truth

One of the reasons I like RWBY so much is that it's basically the only major positive export / cultural contribution my homeland (Texas) has had since I've been alive, and possibly for over 30 years.

A near-mainstream unapologetically queer, proudly unique, multiculturally-influenced show, that survived the tragic death of its creator, the death of the company that originally produced it, and a sustained and ongoing hate campaign spurred by dudebro chauvinists and pseudoprogressive MediaCrits alike. A veritable miracle, in an era of increasing repression and division, coming out of the American South's AnCap dystopia.

Also, it's really good. If you haven't, go watch it. And if you have, let's look forward to future RWBY under Viz Media.

[birder-of-remnant]

Sapphics & Their Promises

"Hey, I'm not leaving. And if we ever see him again, I promise I'll be there."

"I'm not going to break my promise. I swear."

"I know you won't."

"It doesn't matter what they do to us, you know? You look out for me, and I look out for you. Nothing really bad can happen as long as we have each other."

"You promise?"

"I promise."

"I'm going to take you home."

"Promise?"

"I promise!"

"I'm gonna take you out when this is all over, Amity, I promise. No monsters, no mysteries, no deadly duels, it's going to be the most mundane, slice-of-life date ever. And it'll be awesome."

"I know!"

"I'll keep a look out for tonight. I will watch the heck out of this pumpkin patch. Come on."

"Okay. Maybe for a bit. Don't let me sleep too long. Promise to wake me up in fifteen minutes."

"I promise."

"I think I can trust you. However...promise me. When I reveal my secret to everyone, promise me. Take your old name and live."

"I'm so sorry about your mother. I'm sorry I can't bring her back but please just....everyone in my life has changed promise me you won't change."

[birder-of-remnant]

Agreed. Even though I work for the Navy (and the air force, and the army...), I believe the military is grossly over funded (>$800 billion per year). Their funding increases every year even as critical social services are under threat. Sure, my funding and job may be the first to go with big budget cuts. But I would prefer that over kids starving in school or people dying from preventable diseases. I think the US could do with fewer weapons of death anyways.

[birder-of-remnant]

I had not come across Fionapollo before but she did an excellent dive into the subject. It was a well-suggested analysis. And don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of speculation and fan theories, especially when they transform themselves into full fanon AUs. I delight in my own predictions and personal AUs regarding the RWBY Vacuo Arc. Fanon and speculation is a beautiful part of fandom and I have no problem with people choosing to accept their own fanon over the canon.

It is more of an issue with dog piling, as Fionapollo put it. Whether it is RWBY or Arcane, there are millions of permutations for how characters and storyline elements can evolve. Writers can make everyone happy some of the time and they can make some fans happy all of the time, but they cannot make everyone happy all of the time. Not to mention that it is still their own vision. As Fionapollo put it, it is only 1 to 5% of fans who try to bully their opinions across. But as what she described happened to Dream Daddy, this small subset of people can have major impacts and can sour the opinions of potential fans.

So I think you are 100% correct, the fandom provides a far greater diversity of storytelling than what a singular canonical storyline can tell and this is an amazing facet of community and culture. I just get upset when this begins spinning out of control to the point where it impacts the financial and mental well-being of writers. Or even death threats, like Jeff Williams received when he released BMLB (albiet, the songs are not technically canon).

Arcane getting backlash because the story doesn’t match up with the headcanons and expectations calcified during the hiatus. Happened to my good friend, RWBY.

[birder-of-remnant]

[birder-of-remnant]

It's the curse of a good, complex show. The more ambitious the storyline and dynamic the characters, the more passionate people get. Unfortunately, there is good passion and toxic passion, I'm sorry Arcane is getting the latter.

Happened to Korra. Happened to RWBY. Probably happened to Witch from Mercury (I came into that fandom late, well after season 2 finished).

Arcane getting backlash because the story doesn’t match up with the headcanons and expectations calcified during the hiatus. Happened to my good friend, RWBY.

[birder-of-remnant]

Woooooooo!!! I've seen individual pieces of this work. But I've never seen them all in sequence before!

The biggest #RWBY fanart I have ever draw Thank you so much for an awesome volume #CRWBY Original post w/ video: https://twitter.com/Mikururun/status/1094116125229674496

[birder-of-remnant]

Traditional boiling iles maidenly dress is a bit awkward when you're also trying to haul a slop beast

[birder-of-remnant]

🐶💗🐱!

[birder-of-remnant]

Every fandom's worst nightmare

And then the vid has millions of views with everyone agreeing with it

[birder-of-remnant]

How do some even think that RWBY has male characters “hijack the narrative?” It’s like they project what their grievances with past stories on what looks like the same but not really.

Like Jaundice in Volume 1 flies right by marathoning the season. No bigger than a single episode of TV at 20+ minutes.

So the answer to that questions ranges from what you said to several things like:

Not watching un years & misremembering what was watched, being misinformed & not having watched at all, lying and such. But, I think I hit on another major reason for this problem and its kind of hilariously twisted so please hear me out.

Every arc I've noticed that a certain strain of "Fans" get very attached to one or two male characters and start projecting the idea that they are the real MCs & then get offended when it turns out they aren't.

In V1 to 3, it was Jaune & Adam. Then in volumes 3 to 6 it was Qrow & then Ozpin, Followed by Ironwood in volumes 4 & 7.

All these guys are introduced either in a typical shounen hero or antagonist or mentor and ally role.

Then have the layers people back to show what exists beneath the archetype and what they either have to overcome to remain on the actual main characters side. IE, Jaune, Qrow & Ozpin.

Or what it is that they long since failed or will fail to overcome and grow from that makes them into villains, IE, Adam and Ironwood.

The reason this keeps happening is because that particular strain of "fan" has such a "Men as default" head-space that they cannot, genuinely cannot grasp that they are watching a story about women. Thus they keep expected ay given guy who shows up to be the "real" main character.

Aside:

You may also notice Ren, Oscar & Marrow never gets on the above list. The closest they get is being someone else's cheerleader or not mentioned at all. Meanwhile the white (Or perceived as white in Qrow's case) cis and overtly straight men do get said treatment. I wonder why that could be? Such a mystery :/

But I digress, this is important because it reflects a deep subconscious bias in those "fans" & I think said bias also exists in the people making claims like this.

IE, because they treat men as the default & the protagonists in a given scene, while subconsciously placing women below them and more as accessories, their focus on any given scene is always on the men.

Kind of like those tumblr posts that are explicitly about women & have a bunch of people with piss poor reading comprehension tagging it with dudes or even going so far as to say "Just say gay men". & rather similar to that observation that a lot of fandom treats men, any man from a piece of media, as an inherently deep and complicated character with so much to analyze or so much freedom to expand on. Meanwhile dismissing women out of hand as awful & or boring.

Thus, when they see a group conversation scene, they instinctively assume that the one leading the conversation, with the most to gain from the conversation, with the most narrative weight in the conversation is a man.

Even if he barely said anything and all the lot relevant, interesting character stuff and such was being done by women.

This head-space persists consistently and inflames any given scene, story beat or exchange.

But, here's the twist, these "critics" know o a conscious level that RWBY is about women and that, that is a selling point. But then they look back over their memories, subconsciously blurring out the women and think, "Wow, the girls didn't do anything, it was all about the guys!" Even though its actually just cos they refused to pay any attention to a character that wasn't a man.

Then they get mad because "Clearly the writers are doing this wrong" and ten they get madder when these men fail, or are villains or have to learn lessons, because in their eyes, those guys are the righteous protagonists, and super complicated, "Can't these blank slate girls realize that? Can't the writers!?" But again, its just because they weren't paying attention, rather tan it being a problem in the writing.

Its very similar to that trend of, "There was no queer foreshadowing, they were both obviously straight!" & then their evidence is like, she looked at a man once, & so therefore every interaction with women she has is platonic by default and therefore does not contain foreshadowing.

Damn, could have just led with that, its male bias, rather than straight bias, but the end result is the same. They don't perceive the women on the screen, they don't see the queer signals.

Then, when the story develops around those women, when queer characters & events set up across years happens it slaps them across the face & they insist it must have come out of nowhere.

Sadly, nothing you can say is liable to change their minds, because in a way, they really are watching an entirely different show.

It'd be like if I went into Naruto thinking Rock Lee was the main character & then never adjusted from that perspective.

Not an identical situation, but one that conveys my point regarding why they claim so much nonsense with such confidence.

[birder-of-remnant]

A key facet in the subtle brilliance of RWBY's storyline. It resonates with the pervasive themes of fear, trauma, and defiant hope.

My favroite reoccurring theme in RWBY is victory. I think about it constantly. (By the way I'm typing out most of these quotes from memory)

"Take heed there will be no victory in strength" is said by Salem in the opening monologue of the show and it practically begs the audience to ponder the question. If victory will not be achieved through strength then what will bring victory? Every character that has tried to achieve victory through strength fail. Cinder is always defeated when she relys on her strength and not on her cunning. Ironwood failed because he was a very Might is Right type of person.

Ozpin in that same opening monologue says this "Perhaps victory is in the things that we have long forgotten, things that require a smaller more honest soul" which clues the audience to look for victory in things that aren't grand or overly complicated. That even the simpliest of things or people can achieve something special. Something that Salem agrees with in the last episode of volume 3.

This theme is also present in the songs.

"Victory is in a simple soul" - This Will Be The Day

"Strength will not bring victory" - Divide

And my personal favorite one "Victory's in trust and kindness" - This Time.

I'm sure there are other examples of this but these were just the ones I remembered. While yes this theme of Victory not being achieved through strength was the writers way of foreshadowing the fact that Salem can't be killed. Therefore traditional displays of strength are useless against her. However it is also a really good way of exploring how humanity can reach its goals and what that even means.

[birder-of-remnant]

really into rwby lately :D

[birder-of-remnant]

It used to feel like a fairy tale

Now it seems we were just pretending

We'd fix our world

Then on our way to a happy ending

Then it turned out life

Was far less like a bedtime story

Than a tragedy

With no big reveal of the hero's glory

And it seems we weren't prepared

For a game that wasn't fair

Do we just go home?

Can we follow through?

When all hope is gone,

There is one thing we can do

Let's just live!

Day by day and not be conquered by our sorrows

The past can't hold us down

We must break free

Inside we're torn apart

But time will mend our hearts

Move onward not there yet

So let's just live!

-Jeff Williams, Casey Williams

[birder-of-remnant]

[birder-of-remnant]

Happy birthday to my favorite girl in the whole wide world!!

I hope to see you again soon