#Atlesian military

[rwby-redux]

What is the Atlas Military like in Redux?

I mean, technically speaking, it’s not actually the “Atlesian military.” People often call it that since the general is the headmaster of Atlas Academy, but it’s not all that accurate. The correct name for it is the “global” or “world military,” since it’s a joint peacekeeping operation dictated by Remnant’s 17 world leaders.

Some historical context:

After the Mistrali-Mantic Alliance officially surrendered in 10 IB, the leaders of Remnant’s four great powers convened at the Island of Vytal. This meeting, later called the Vytal Summit, was to discuss reparations, concessions, government restructuring, and international laws that all countries would abide by.

One of the main talking points was, “What do we do with our armed forces?”

Understandably, people were reluctant to fully disband their militaries, since international tensions were still a bit high. No one wanted to create a scenario where one country complied, only to then be left vulnerable and at the mercy of its neighbors. And even if that weren’t the case, Grimm remained an active threat—perhaps now more than ever, since their global activity dramatically spiked over the last ten years. Many settlements fell to them during the Great War—Periit, Kuebiko, Amervaile, the Yrrose cities.

It was an all-around unpleasant situation.

King Ozark, Vale’s last reigning monarch, was the one who suggested a specialized Grimm-killing task force. After all, most of the countries in attendance already had something like it back home: Vale’s knights, Mistral’s rangers, Vacuo’s outriders. Huntsmen, as they were later called, would be the world’s answer to the Grimm: specialized fighters, jointly educated and trained to protect people, regardless of national borders. Huntsmen would be a preemptive measure, a way to routinely deal with Grimm and keep their numbers low.

But here's the thing: Huntsmen are by default meant to fight Grimm, not people. And the Great War wasn’t caused by monsters—it was caused by man.

It’s worth pointing out that the formation of the academies did help significantly decrease international tension, by rallying people against a common enemy. But Huntsmen couldn’t fully dispel generations’ worth of imperialism, nationalism, and genocide. There was the lingering fear that groups of people might try to kickstart another war.

That’s where the world military comes in.

Repurposed from the ranks of Mantle’s armed forces, the world military was created as a final, last-ditch measure to deal with disputes manufactured by people. Its purpose is to intervene in conflicts too large or aggressive to be handled domestically.

In order for the global military to be mobilized, it requires a unanimous vote from all 17 world leaders—the four councilors of each kingdom, and the leader of Menagerie. There’s an exception to this rule, which states that if a country is violating international law, then the military can be deployed with a unanimous vote sans that of the country at fault.

Hypothetically, let’s say Mistral tried to reinstate slavery within its borders, and word got out. The World Council is obligated to hold a meeting with Mistral’s council and try to find a peaceful solution. If Mistral’s government refuses and continues to violate international law, then the other world leaders can vote to mobilize the military. In a case like this, only a 13/17 vote is needed, since Mistral’s council has forfeited their right to vote. It’s never gotten to this point in the last eighty years, thankfully. International relations have been pretty stable, all things considered. There have been a few smaller conflicts where the military did get deployed, but they weren’t on the scale of wars. But that’s a topic for another day.

The head of the military, as mentioned earlier, is the headmaster of Atlas Academy. Academy headmasters are unique in that their council positions aren’t democratically elected, unlike the other three council seats. Instead, headmasters are chosen from amongst their peers. This means that James’ position was only solidified once Ozpin, the Haven headmaster, and the Shade headmaster voted him into power. It’s a quirk which has its share of detractors. That being said, there is a reason why this “design flaw” exists, and it was very much deliberate on Ozark’s part.

The “main” base of operations for the military is the Island of Vytal, where the eponymous Fort Vytal was built. There are also a handful of other outposts located across Remnant, like Fort Nubuck (which is situated on Bycast Island, within Argus). Resources for these outposts are supplied by all five countries.

Nowadays, the military’s more or less in perpetual standby mode. It hasn’t seen a lot of action in a long time—which means that it’s doing its job correctly.

[bestworstcase]

last few eps of V7 and all of V8 make it really. really obvious that not only has the atlas military never won a war, its entire command structure is oriented around individual power and technology to the extreme detriment of strategy and tactics; the salem wins primarily because she delivers a siege to a general who has not the slightest idea how to mount a proper defense and a city that would have been shockingly ill-equipped to withstand siege even if ironwood did know what he was doing. (dialogue early in V8 suggests that atlesian warships are sallying against the grimm flock and being shot down repeatedly—this strongly suggests that atlas does not have any kind of ground-based or even long-distance ranged weaponry with which to fire on the grimm from within the hard-light fortifications, which is in line with the arrogant presumption of untouchability that pervades the culture but utterly gobsmacking from a tactical standpoint, particularly in light of the fact that defenses of this general nature have been adopted to good effect by other states ie the turrets on the argus express which are in fact a great idea.) (further the nearly absolute reliance on the hard-light shields as a singular line of defense is breathtaking; the ace-ops mention proximity alarms that have been taken offline in V7 but there is noticeably no reference to defensive outposts or anything of that nature, suggesting that once watts disabled the sensors salem was able to fly her army east from the coast to atlas itself completely uncontested—granted it is unclear how much defensive depth would have mattered given that the nature of salem’s army made logistics virtually a non-issue and she is effectively able to respawn any forces lost to engagements while she advanced, but they could have at least slowed her down.)

[phishcaek]

After decades of hard work, Schnee Tech is happy to announce its latest breakthrough in robotics and safety! Collaborating with the Atlesian Military, we've developed PENN:1, a public safety security droid! Their values are to Protect Enforce Navigate and Neutralize!

Their AI is so advanced that they're almost lifelike and their weaponry is well adept to handle any danger that comes their way, making them the perfect public servants to secure your neighborhoods from dangerous criminals and gangs!

We are currently still in the testing phase with our first v1 model, but we hope to further this technology in the future to bring mankind into a new age where public safety is ensured and justice prevails!

[lwde-encrusted-sideblog]

Winter: Arc. Are you busy at this moment?

Jaune: No, What do you need?

Winter: Excellent. Please grab my chest.

Jaune: What?

Winter: Grab my chest, Arc.

Jaune: *Cautiously Places hands beneath each Armpit* Like this?

Winter: You misunderstand. *Grabbing Jaune's wrists, placing his hands on her boobs* Now squeeze.

Jaune: Excuse me?

Winter: Squeeze my Breasts Mr. Arc. I am becoming impatient.

Jaune: *Squeeze*

Winter: How do they feel?

Jaune: Um ... Firm? Not very heavy and they fit in my hands well?

Winter: Do they feel pleasant?

Jaune: Yes?

Winter: *releases Jaune* Excellent. You may go about your day. If you feel the desire for a greater understanding, please come to my Quarters fifteen minutes before Curfew begins. You will not need to bring any Condoms.

Jaune: What- Why would I need to bring condoms?

Winter: I just said you would not need any condoms. Higher Members of the Atlesian Military are required to have Reversable and/or temporary birth control procedures, such as a vasectomy or Nesplanon implant, to allow Morale Boosting Sexual activities without risk of Pregnancy.

Jaune: ... I didn't get a vasectomy?

Winter: You are technically not a member of the Atlesian Military. You are a huntsman contracted by us. I hope to see you this evening. Have a pleasant afternoon.

Jaune: ...

Jaune: I'm gonna get laid~

[notmaplemable]

Ironwood: This is the newest advancement in Atlesian military technology. The Tactical Augmented Reality Device.

Winter: ...General, we can't call it that.

Ironwood: Why not?

Winter: We just can't.

[spahhzy]

Weiss: Hey sweetie, can I help you with something?

The little girl pointed to Jaune, her boyfriend.

Lil-girl: Who's that next to you?

Weiss smiles warmly at Jaune.

Weiss: That's my boyfriend.

Lil-girl: He's really cute...

That warm smile on Weiss face turned into a cold frown, and Jaune just inwardly grimaced.

Jaune: Weiss, babe, she just gave me a compliment.

Weiss held up a finger to him silencing him.

Weiss: Kotzbrocken...

Jaune: Oh no, she is speaking in Atlesian..

Jaune: Babe, calm down she just a kid...

Weiss: I'm afraid, although I respect your bravery, I can not take this offense lightly and shall give you full capital punishment under the schnee domain!

Jaune: Weiss, hun, you're not gonna battle a child!

Weiss: THIS IS A MILITARY AGED AGENT!

Lil-girl: uhm, miss, I'm seven years old...

Weiss: Seven years to train, clearly a worthy opponent, miss assassin! Draw thy sword! I challenge you to a duel to the death!

Jaune: Put down the stuffed animal, babe! What are you, Darth Vader, killing younglings? You're not about to do this.

Weiss: as they say, "If they can crawl, they can brawl!"

Jaune: N-no one says that...

Weiss: Silence! I draw upon the laws of chilvary where I defend your honor! Your dignity...

Lil girl: I'm sorry ma'am, I didn't mean to make you mad...

Weiss: hmph I expect a two hundred thousand word apology too, and it shall be due no less than by the end of the week. Come Jaune, I demand Uppies on the Jackalope ride!

Weiss with a Jaune in tow left but not before Jaune gave her some tokens for the games and a stuffed bear before leaving.

[howi99]

Jaune: My father once said the height of Atlas is only equaled by its ego, it's pride and the number of military blunders they made during the war.

Weiss: ... Not inaccurate.

Jaune: He also said that Atlesian food tastes like its people: it looks nice, but it tastes bland.

Weiss: Hey! I'm not bland!

Jaune: But you agree with the taste?

Weiss: Oh absolutely, the strength of Atlas DOESN'T lie in its gastronomy.

[patriot2525]

Disciplined

At the Beacons Courtyard, people were gathering around the commotion that was the fight between the drunk dusty old Crow versus the ice cold specialist from Atlas.

All this commotion started when a drunk Qrow Branwen has appeared and destroyed two of the Atlesian Knight, before starting annoying specialist Winter Schnee with his witty remarks. Which caused the initial brawl, With specialist Schnee gave first attack.

As the two were fighting, James Ironwood, general of the Atlas military, was about to intervene and stop this fight. But before he could after a word there was a loud...

BOOM!!!

Commissar Arc: *holding a smoking Bolt Pistol, that he recently shot from it* Cease this nonsense immediately! *starts approaching the two fighters, while giving his famous commissar glare at the two them*

Winter: Excuse me! who do y-smack! *Got slapped in the face, by the commissar*

Commissar Arc: I didn't give you permission to speak, guardswoman. *intensify his glare at the specialist, which made her shut up and listen to his words* your behavior isn't unfitting of a Soldier! Not only you caused a scene by fighting this drunk. *points at the still drunk Qrow, who was confused at what the hell was going on* You acted as incompetent child That was easily played by this drunk, what do you have to say to your defence. guardswoman!?

Winter: *Still being stand from The sudden Slap.* I-

Commissar Arc: And what Is it with this outfit! *points at Winter’s uniform* is this supposed to be a uniform, guardswoman. You look more like a brothel whore than a protector of humanity!

Winter: *Shocked at his work, while slightly embarrassingly flushed at the remark* Wha-

Commissar Arc: You have five minutes to change to a proper uniform. before I assign you to the cleanup crew, where you will clean the entirety of the men’s bathrooms for a month! am I understood, guardswoman!

Winter: *her Soldier instincts kicking in, As she instinctually saluted the commissar, as if he was her old drill sergeant* YES SIR! RIGHT AWAY SIR! *runs off to fulfill the commissar's orders. with her worried little sister Weiss, running after her from behind while calling her name*

Commissar Arc: Now You! *Turns his head towards the drunk old Qrow, to which Qrow slightly uncomfortable due to the glare that he was receiving from the commissar, which put Goodwitch glare to shame* Not only your came here completely drunk, but also destroyed precious military equipment and started a fight in your drunken stupidity! *points his Bolt Pistol at the drunk Qrow* How do you plead?

Qrow: Uh-oh *starts running away towards headmasters tower. with his excited niece Ruby, Runs behind him while shouting for his name.*

Commissar Arc: Get back here You drunk dog! and face your punishment! *runs after the drunk Qrow, while swinging his chainsword that roared to life*

Meanwhile Ozpin alongside with Glynda and James, who saw all the events that happened here, Stood in total silence, At what they just saw.

With General Ironwood bring in shock and awe, at the Commissar's actions. from how easily managed to subdue his specialist and making her obey his orders. Deputy headmistress Glynda Goodwitch was simply tired of this, as she pitched the bridge of her nose in annoyance. As for the Headmaster Ozpin himself, He simply took another sip from his coffee mug.

Ozpin: Well, this was interesting to see. *takes another soup from his coffee*

(A/N: this is for one of the readers who wanted to see the interaction of Winter with one of the Jaune's so I hope he like it, as I hope the rest of you like it too. please tell me your thoughts and opinions about it, Any constructive criticism is welcome.)

[dragonking10]

Jaune The Black Knight

An AU where Jaune and Ruby decided to say Fuck the world, got married after going rogue (they left Beacon after being betrayed by their friends) and had a daughter together named Olivia.

Salem was watching everything through her Grimm and decided to personally invite them to join her faction in turn they will get their revenge. With nowhere else to go they accepted now Ruby leads a battalion of Grimm with Jaune as her Second in Command.

And yes Salem cares about these two adorkable couple and vowed to never let anyone hurt them ever again.

I have baffled long enough, let's get this show on the road.

This particular day Salem ordered for Ruby to get some needed rest after capturing a few villages in her name, Jaune got up from bed and got ready for another day of spreading fear around the world

He showered, brushed his teeth, puts on his black armor, his wife changed Crocea Mor's color scheme, instead of a white shield it's now black with a gold outline and their combined family symbol, instead of a blue hilt it's now blood red, instead of a silver blade it's now a black sword (like the one Sokka made from Avatar the Last Airbender)(As for Jaune's armor, it's the Rusted Knight armor but it's polished and the color is black and gold, helmet included)

Jaune walks into the kitchen where his wife made him some food to go, he grabbed the bag, kissed his wife and turned to leave when suddenly his wife stopped him

Ruby: Wait Jaune, do you know what day it is?

Jaune: Uh... Wednesday?

Ruby: No dummy it's take your daughter to work day!

Jaune: Uh I don't think it's a good idea to bring our daughter to our kind of work, at least not yet.

Ruby: I know, but she has been wanting to come with us for a while and since it's take your daughter to work day I figured now is the best time, plus she'd have my big strong dark knight as her protector~.

Jaune: Well yeah but-

Ruby caressed his face: Jaune you RoseArc-promised.

Jaune sighed: I did didn't I?

3 Hours Later

The scene shows a metal door to one of Atlesian's military bases exploded with Jaune rushes in while holding his daughter's hand but hit his head on the top of the door-way

Jaune holds his head for a second before activating his shield protecting his daughter amd himself from the bullets from the AK's

Jaune: Keep your head down Olvia!

Olivia holding a stuffed Ursa toy: Okay daddy-Whoa!

Jaune quickly dragged Olivia to cover but Olivia lost grip of her best friend.

Olivia: MR. CUZZYBOTTOM!!!

Olivia was about to run out to grab her friend but her father stopped her

Jaune looked down to his daughter and saw her pointing at her stuffed animal which is laying on the ground near the Atlesian Knights

Jaune sighs and looks at Olivia: I'll get him, you stay here where it's safe.

Jaune rushes out of cover, raised his shield and charged at the robot knights

Jaune quckly cut and sliced through the knights, grabbed the toy and rushed back to his daughter

Jaune out of breath and his daughter her toy: Here you go baby.

Salem: Who's the little girl?

Jaune nervous: Oh Lord Salem! Uh... it's bring your daughter to work day and uh I'm sorry for bringing, but my wife says we barely had time to spend together and let's be honest she's right, okay she's right!

Salem:...

Jaune even more nervous laughs a bit: Do you have kids? Cause heh I mean they change your world.

Salem:...

Jaune facepalms and mutters: Ugh I'm probably gonna get either fired or killed for this but... Fuck it.

Jaune grabs his daughter's hand: I love my daughter!

Salem brought her fist to her chest and smiles a bit: That really hits me where I'd live.

Salem noticed a survivor and used her powers to grab his neck

Salem: What have you done with those plans!? Jaune here never gets time to spend with his daughter because of PEOPLE LIKE YOU!!!

Salem snaps the survivor's neck and quickly realized there was a child present

Salem raised her other hand to her mouth: I'm so sorry you had to see that.

Salem drops the body

Salem kneels down to Olivia's eye level: Are you having fun being at work with your father?

Olivia gets nervous because she doesn't like talking to strangers and hides her face behind her father's leg

Salem chuckles: I know I'm pretty scary.

LATER IN MENAGERIE

Jaune was holding his daughter's hand as he and a White Fang goon was patroling a town looking for their targets when suddenly they come across an old man (Ozpin) wearing a hood with Weiss, Blake and Yang behind him also wearing hoods

Jaune stops them: Hold up you all seem familiar.

Ozpin uses his magic: These are not the students you're looking for.

Jaune: These are not the students we're looking for.

Olivia: Yes they are.

Ozpin: Move along

Jaune: Move along!

Ozpin and the three bitche- uh I mean students moved along going into the tavern for intel

Olivia: Daddy, You're not even trying!

Jaune: Honey, It's 110 DEGREES IN THIS CONTINENT!!! I CAN'T HEAR IN THIS THING!!! *points at his helmet* I WAS JUST REPEATING WHAT I THOUGHT THE GUY WAS SAYING! IT'S NOT LIKE IT'S MY OWN MOTHER FUCKING THOUGHT IN THE MATTER, OKAY!?

Olivia runs off crying and Jaune realized what he had done

Jaune feeling guilty and runs after his daughter: HONEY!!!

White Fang Goon: See? That's why I don't take my daugher to Jack Shit!

FEEL FREE TO ADD MORE IF YOU WANT

[rainbow-zebra-art]

Full color drawings commissioned by CodyMacArthurFett for Scipio Smith's fanfic SAPR . As you see, in his story Blake is transferring to Atlas, and Penny is transferring to Beacon.

"I can believe that I can do more in the Atlesian military than I ever could as a huntress."

— Blake

She had found Freedom, in every single way.

— describing Penny's Semblance and her journey

Should I even mention that I absolutely loved drawing these two? The first three Volumes of RWBY have such a special place in my heart, so I enjoyed going back to the old designs. And if Penny in Beacon uniform is not a new idea (after all, she expressed her wish to stay at Beacon), Blake going to Altas is a pretty fresh and unexpected take, at least for me. If you're interested in how it comes to this, go on and check the story!

SAPR sources:

ArchiveOfOurOwn

Fimfiction

Spacebattles

SufficientVelocity

Fanfiction

Tvtropes

[dragon-razor-writings]

Atlesian Engineer: "Alright, general. What exactly do you want for the first military chassis?"

Atlesian General: "More armor than Joy and more bullets than Sorrow."

Atlesian Engineer: "...What-."

[rwby-encrusted-blog]

Jaune: Damn, there's a lot of dust under my be-

Ironwood: *Breaking his door down, surrounded by soldiers* Congrantulations! You're home is being liberated by the Atlesian Military!

Ironwood: This is for your own good. Get Out.

[bestworstcase]

Suddenly reminded of your remark in one of your essays about Lionheart being the token Faunus headmaster in the academy system, and something about… idk the irony of him being in Mistral, which you indicate is one of the most racist places for Faunus aside from Atlas. Just amusing cuz I never saw that take before.

not just irony, imo, i think it does a lot of thematic work for the faunus subplot

regarding the question of whether atlas or mistral is worse for faunus: while faunus are systemically disadvantaged in all four human kingdoms (and menagerie is politically marginalized on the international stage)…

in atlas/mantle:

jacques schnee, a virulent bigot behind closed doors, is at pains to present himself as a tolerant benefactor to the faunus in public; one of his conversational partners during the charity party in v4 is another businessman who pushes back on jacques’ covertly bigoted rhetoric by specifically citing class disparities between atlas and mantle and the reality that faunus in particular face a lack of opportunity that can’t be overcome by just being employed. this bit character isn’t an activist—he’s a businessman. that means these are mainstream, normative viewpoints in atlas.

mantle news media and law enforcement are apathetic to the disappearance of several faunus in arrowfell, but when it turns out that the man responsible is a political figure beloved by mantle’s human working class, his support evaporates. (there’s further nuance in that he acted under duress, but even his most enthusiastic supporters react to the news that he hurt faunus miners with horror)

robyn—also a beloved political figure to the mantelian working class—explicitly includes faunus and this does not diminish her support with humans in mantle whatsoever.

when racist grandma goes off in v8, her daughter tries anxiously to get her to stop and, importantly, nobody else in the crowd of scared / stressed out / angry people in mantle speak up in agreement with her.

when weiss slams a drunk guy into a dumpster for making a racist remark to blake, the drunk guy’s buddy more or less just goes “woah!” and then double-takes because is that weiss schnee—what he doesn’t do is react like he thinks weiss or blake was the one out of line.

in the CFVY novels, it’s revealed that velvet’s dad works for the atlas military and she’s spent at least some time in atlas with him, but she doesn’t feel any particular wariness toward people from atlas or assume that they’ll be racist to her until they prove otherwise.

ilia remembers her classmates at an atlesian prep school being very openly racist, which tracks with how weiss is when she arrives at beacon; these were, in all likelihood, largely the children of covert bigots like jacques—kids who picked up rancid attitudes at home and lived in a sheltered bubble where these attitudes were allowed.

SDC operates globally, so we don’t know where adam suffered that hate crime or what happened to the perpetrator

so, while atlas/mantle do have systemic racism against faunus and some individuals are quite bigoted on an interpersonal level, it plainly isn’t socially acceptable in atlas or mantle to be openly racist, because a strong majority of the populace in both cities seems to fall somewhere between neutral to supportive of faunus rights. given the “no faunus” sign the madame had in her swanky hotel a decade ago, this may be a fairly recent swing in public opinion.

in mistral:

the white fang is headquartered in mistral and the bulk of its operations seem to be focused there, suggesting that this is where the pain is sharpest; sun, who attended haven academy and isn’t exactly a deep thinker, scorns the group as a “cult” and “a bunch of creeps who use force to get whatever they want,” which is less an objective statement of fact than it is an expression of what the dominant cultural narrative in mistral probably is

mistral has sundown towns.

qrow is from mistral; his narration of the world of remnant faunus episode is laced with very clear unexamined biases even though his stance is generally pro-faunus—very much what you’d expect from a guy who grew up in a very racist environment (there are no faunus in the branwen tribe) and then learned better but never really did the work to unpack his subconscious aversion to faunus

lionheart is politically marginalized to such an extent that he’s able to plausibly use his impotence with the council as cover for his deliberate sabotage

during mistral’s prewar occupation of vacuo, faunus were enslaved in mistrali dust mines in vacuo as per the CFVY novels

in stark contrast to velvet’s indifference to atlas, she is terrified of mistralis and associates the kingdom with, specifically, sexually charged racist harassment; so while in atlas she undoubtedly dealt with microaggressions and the occasional open racist, her experience with people from mistral has led her to presume “virulent bigot” as the default.

at least some businesses are segregated even in the present. (and at least one of qrow’s informants is a regular at a segregated noodle shop, underscoring the previous point about his attitudes)

now obviously there are mistralis who aren’t aggressively racist and others who support faunus rights, the kingdom isn’t a monolith, but the details were given suggest that open bigotry is normative and socially acceptable; there are certain places in mistral where faunus risk being murdered just for setting foot there. mistrali faunus may not face such quite sharp economic pain as in atlas (because the systemic issues mantelian faunus deal with intersects with the rampant classism which harms everyone in mantle), although mistral also has steep class divides that would likewise fall harder on faunus than on humans; but it seems to me that mistral is, culturally, a lot more hostile to faunus than atlas/mistral with bigotry allowed to flourish out in the open.

and, a pit stop before bringing this around to lionheart: ozpin offers lukewarm vocal support to the cause of faunus rights and vague platitudes about “taking strides” to close the divide (which blake calls him on in remarkably sharp terms given the sheer amount of power he holds over her as her headmaster), but… he shames blake for hiding her cat ears rather than do anything about the racist bullying that goes on at his school; he singles out blake, clearly suspects her of being salem’s spy and makes implicit threats when she doesn’t cooperate; he jumps to the worst possible conclusion about lionheart but trusted ironwood without hesitation in v5 despite ironwood’s objectively much more alarming behavior; he gifted lionheart salem’s old tea-set. so ozpin is not… especially a good ally to the faunus even though he notionally is on their side.

which brings us to lionheart. why did salem choose HIM, out of all the headmasters or teachers she could have tried to convert into a spy?

she picked the one faunus—not just headmaster, lionheart is the only faunus faculty-member we’ve met so far. the faunus appointed by the ruling council of a notoriously racist council to be the headmaster of the school where a faunus student absorbed the message that the faunus civil rights movement is a violent cult.

in other words, the most vulnerable member of the inner circle, someone who would have been walking a precarious political tightrope under extreme pressure to be absolutely beyond reproach because anything less would have gotten him torn to shreds, figuratively speaking, by a hostile public; and as if that isn’t bad enough, ozpin didn’t trust him either. ozpin is extremely quick to jump to the conclusion that lionheart is a traitor, in contrast to his blithe certainty that taking the lamp to atlas after ironwood closed the borders and withdrew his troops from mistral right before salem attacked haven!!

raven asks lionheart what salem has on him. it’s this. it’s him being the token faunus headmaster with his hands tied by the council in front of a racist public that he knows will rip him apart if he screws up even a little, and allies he can’t count on to have his back because ozpin is weird about faunus too.

is it any wonder that he folded like wet cardboard when salem threatened him. ozpin thinks she was just so scary that she sank her claws into lionheart and deleted his courage but the reality is the man was working under enough pressure to turn anyone into a nervous wreck with or without salem putting her thumb on the scales, and she just… recognized that and took advantage.

[abyranss]

I read a Hound Ruby fic recently called I can almost hear the Hounds that I really enjoyed and it got me thinking about these two again.

Something that's been on my mind since I last drew them was that I wanted to find ways to distinguish Penny's look more from her usual appearance; she has the red lights and the twisted ahoge and she was scraped up a bit but I wanted to go further.

So I'm leaning more into the cyberpunk nightmare that is Penny's existence. While with Salem she probably looks as I drew her previously but once they leave they lack the resources to keep her in top shape in the absence of Watts' or military funding.

So wear and tear take its toll and they end up needing to use less than optimal parts as replacements; maybe they can scavenge parts from the Atlesian Knights on occasion too. The result is: she ends up looking more obviously mechanical.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Lil' Miss Malachite was also the FIRST character to be introduced in a spin-off before debuting in the main series proper.

She was introduced as a boss in the game RWBY: Combat Ready (leading the "generic criminals" enemy faction), before she was brought in to forward Cinder's plotline in Volume 6, and then managed to be part of Roman Holiday's Big Bad Ensemble (which is chronologically set BEFORE Volume 6, but greatly expanded on Mistral's and Lil' Miss Malachite's worldbuilding).

Also, she's canonically robbed the Atlesian Military, which puts her on at least the same competence level as the Vale Chapter of the White Fang and Roman Torchwick. Unlike them, however, she did so WITHOUT any help or direction from Salem.

oh dope!

[rwbyuser24]

The kingdoms should have been stronger

What I'm talking is that for example these have better defenses and strong Huntsmen. What about city guards? For example.

Since most militaries were abolished, imagine city guards to defend the settlements of the kingdoms and beyond from the Grimm.

And also have a stronger armed force.

This could be something good for the story, let me explain. 1. Could serve to maintain the idea that the Grimm are strong

Think about it, the fact that despite their strength the militaries were unable to defeat the Grimm, could sell the idea that the Grimm are a serious deal.

2.Could justify why the White fang served Salem's faction.

While it makes sense that Adam doesn't care about the faunus civilian victims, what about the other members of the White fang? Their actions provoke the faunus to be vulnerable at the hands of the Grimm. They were conspiring agains the Huntsmen and the Huntsmen academies, despite the fact that the Huntsmen protect everyone from the Grimm.

Imagine if the kingdoms had proper defenses, the White fang would not have to worry about the Grimm for a time. They could think "The kingdoms could focus their efforts defending their territory from the Grimm, protecting everyone. The faunus will be safe for a time. At least, till the kingdoms run out of resources and men. But by that time, we would have conquered Remnant and used its resources to protect the faunus from the Grimm".

3. Help maintain tension during Atlas Arc with Ironwood as a villain

Ironwood was a villain during Volume 8. With a strong military, they would be a strong threat. In canon, it seemed like its Huntsmen (That weren't many) and the Dust bomb were the only threat to our heroes. If their weaponry was stronger and had more Atlesian Knights and Paladins, we would really fear for our heroes.

Think the times were the Atlesian Huntsmen were the only enemy to our heroes. When the team RWBY fought the Ace ops. When Qrow fought Clover. When Ironwood fought alone against team JNOR and Winter. When Robyn, Qrow and Marrow fought Vine, Harriet and Elm.

Well, that is. Thank you for reading my ted talk.