#I JUST WANTED TO DRAW PHYRRA HOW DID WE END UP LIKE THIS

[missmolsa]

Truly the family of all time <3

[dragonotaku-justineverything]

Between Jaune and Phyrra and Blake and Yang, which couple has been caught more often doing the nasty somewhere public?

Yang smiled brightly, fully showing off her pearly whites, and pointed her thumb at herself, actually sinking it right into her cleavage slightly. "Meeee~! Aaaaaand I have proof~!" A closed book made a dull *Bonk* sound as it hit the back of her head. "D'oww!"

The hand holding the book belonged to a very red faced Blake, "That isn't something to be proud of Yang!! We could have gotten into some serious trouble! We're lucky we only got banned from most places!"

Yang pouted and rubbed the back of her head. "Hey they asked! Besides~." Yang smirked flirtatiously at her girlfriend. "You always seemed reeeeally into it whenever we start getting frisky in public~."

That only made Blake's face redder. "T-that doesn't matter!"

"Kiiiinda does Blakey~. I mean, you're kind of the reason we ended up getting caught the last time. Remember how loud you were when I lowered myself down and a-?"

"YANG!"

Jaune and Pyrrha stood off to the side while the two of them began bickering. Pyrrha's cheeks were already red from hearing the question and hearing Yang nonchalantly admit to it.

Jaune's cheeks also had a pink hue to them, but was able to speak. "W-we really don't do that kind of... stuff. Pyrrha has her public image to keep up and I'd never want her to have that thrown down the drain."

Jaune decided to not bring up the fact that they had indeed still rocked each other's worlds several times in a public setting. Although usually in a changing room or some other place with at least a little privacy, Jaune and Pyrrha both thought it counted.

"U-uuummm Yang?"

The blonde bombshell paused in her skirmish with Blake, freezing with Blake's thumb pulling the inside of her mouth and her other hand reaching inside her coat (for some reason) and rest on her right tit. Yang smirked and quickly nibbled down on Blake's thumb, getting the cat faunus to squeak and quickly withdraw away from Yang completely. "Hahahah works every time. What was it, P-Money?"

"Y-you said you had proof... what did you mean by that?"

Yang's smile never dimmed at all as she walked over to her desk. She slid open a draw and pulled out two objects, then closed the draw again. She sauntered back over to the other three of them and held up the objects for them to see. "See?! Proof!"

Pyrrha and Jaune leaned forward to get a better look while Blake was looking like she wanted to fade away with her semblance forever.

In Yang's hands were two framed pieces of paper. The first thing the two of them noticed were some big bold words that read:

"BANNED! REASON FOR BANNING: PUBLIC INDECENCY & PUBLIC LEWD ACTS"

Jaune and Pyrrha quickly skimmed different sections of the papers, and quickly realized why Yang called this "proof".

Pyrrha pulled back and covered her burning cheeks and agape mouth with her hands. "Y-y-you really did that!?! In the middle of the restaurant?!"

Yang lowered the framed papers and laughed. "Yuuup! The trick is to go when the restaurant is super busy so less people will be focusing on your table, and a corner table and some coats help hide it~."

Pyrrha and Jaune were both shocked speechless. Poor Blake was looking like she was ready to kill her girlfriend, though accidentally nodded to agree with her tips.

And Yang? She was smiling wider than ever knowing she was victorious, and remembering the moment that got her and Blake banned from one of the biggest restaurants in Vale.

Aaaaaand just how she easily made the kitty cat ruin their fun within minutes of getting under the table~.

Both couples may actually do it just as much as the other, but Yang and Blake would definitely get caught more often than Jaune and Pyrrha because the Arkos couple would always be seriously cautious about getting freaky in public.

[academicallyappropriateurl]

Bumbleby is Canon, You All Are Just Heteronormative

Why are straight relationships in media allowed to take time to grow naturally, but a queer ship, if not “confirmed” right away, is queer bait? Why is the relationship between Ren (he/him) and Nora (she/her), assumed, while the relationship between Blake (she/her) and Yang (she/her) is “speculation/fanservice,” despite similar routes in their romantic storylines? In this essay I will compare the major storyline points for each ship. 

RWBY is an animated series written and created by the late Monty Oum. The show draws inspiration from themes prevalent in anime, such as the artstyle, dramatic voice acting, and combat skirts. 

As a writer, Oum kept many things secret, and after he passed, long-time fans of the show were concerned for what his passing meant for the series. Would the new staff keep to his original plan? And in relation to this essay, was his original plan for two of the characters, Yang Xiao Long and Blake Belladonna to be romantically involved, or was it the fans who pressed hard enough on the ship the reason Blake/Yang is going to be endgame? In order to explore this questions, an understanding of how the show uses contrast and colors to represent important moments and divisions of characters is important.

RWBY is a show focused around two central teams of characters—team RWBY:

 and team JNPR:

The names of these teams are formed by the names of the characters involved, and each character has a color associated with them: Ruby Rose (red)

 Wiess Schnee (white)

 Blake Belladonna (black)

 and Yang Xiao Long (yellow) 

make up team RWBY. 

JNPR is made up of characters based on genderbent legends and characters in history and mythology. Jaune Arc is based on Joan of Arch

Nora Valkyrie is Thor

 Phyrra Nikos is Achilles

 and Lie Ren is based on Mulan

In this essay, I will be focusing specifically on two ships from these main characters: 

Bumbleby (Blake/Yang) 

and Flower Power (Ren/Nora)

Let’s talk contrasts. Because of the color theme, you can tell a lot about a character by their hair, eyes, and clothes. Yang, with her bright, extroverted personality, and long yellow hair contrasts Blakes calm, taciturn demeanor and black hair. For this reason, their ship name is “Bumbleby.” Yang’s unique power, or “semblance,” is her anger, and when she is overwhelmed by emotions she goes into fight or fight and punches away. Her character is written, in small details, to be viewed as a butch lesbian, seen prominently in the way she asks people to call her “sir.” 

In contrast, Blake likes to hide in the shadows. Her semblance is the power to leave behind a copy of herself while she runs away and hides. This is important when it comes to interpreting the dialogue between Blake and Yang in later seasons once they both learn more about themselves and are able to make more calculated decisions about their strategies. In a recent interview, and member of CRWBY (the crew who works on the show) finally “officially” confirmed Blake to be bisexual.

Now let’s look at Ren and Nora, ship name “Flower Power.” They also seem to be a perfect fit for each other. Nora is wild and always down for a brawl. Ren is more calm, calculated, and silent, much like the contrast between Bumbleby. Ren and Nora’s relationship started years before the beginning of the show, when Ren protected Nora from an enemy that murdered the rest of their village, and from then on they grew up and vowed to be together and protect each other as found family. 

Bumbleby, on the other hand, met at the beginning of the show and their relationship grew from there. 

Right away, the fandom obsessed over Flower Power and Bumbleby. They key difference, and in fact one of the few differences between these two ships, is that Bumbleby is a queer ship. Flower Power was easy to accept as canon because straight relationships happen all the time in media. When a WLW relationship is teased, there is an expectation that if the ship is not confirmed right away, that it is only queer bait, but as a society we allow straight ships the time they need to grow. This is important because though neither of the two ships mentioned became “canon” until volume 7, there was an assumption that Bumbleby was fanservice while Flower Power was confirmed, even though they both took the same amount of time to become canon and displayed the same contrasts in color and personality.

If you observe the specific color themes and language used between Blake and Yang, it becomes clear that the subtext from the first three seasons was setting them up to be in a romantic relationship the way they did with Flower Power. But aside from just the contrast between colors and personalities, there are moments in the show that hint at Blake having feelings for Yang. At the end of season three, Blake faces an enemy from her past, Adam, who threatens to kill those in her life whom she loves. After saying this, Adam points directly at Yang, who is standing outside the building looking frantically for Blake. A few episodes before, Yang asks Blake to a dance hosted by their school, where she tells Blake she will save her a dance if she wants to “come out” to the party. In her tone, she heavily emphasized the “come out” with a wink. 

You can also observe their story through the soundtrack. Jeff and Casey Lee Williams do a wonderful job at using the music and lyrics to convey more about the characters through specific character perspective songs. On the Vol4 soundtrack there is a song called “bmblb,” a song from Yang’s perspective singing to Blake about how she wants to spend the rest of her time in a “garden of ecstasy” with Blake, and telling her, “You could be my queen.” Those lyrics seem pretty gay for a ship that is supposedly just “queerbait.” Later, on the Vol5 soundtrack, Yang has a song expressing her distrust in Blake for abandoning her, even though she continues to harbor romantic feelings for her. The ship Flower Power also features a song on the soundtrack called “Boop,” from the perspective of Nora, telling Ren that when she wants to subtly tell Ren she loves him she will boop his nose. During Vol7, they finally share their first “official” romantic moment—a kiss while they’re at a party to celebrate a recent victory. Bumbleby have yet to have their first “real” romantic moment, one of the major arguing points defending Bumbleby as queerbait. 

As much as most fans of the show look forward to Bumbleby having their first official romantic moment like Flower Power, some still claim the ship to be “queerbait.” This is simply overlooking the way this show utilizes contrast and colors when they pair two characters together, the way the soundtrack can have hidden messages that are important when trying to understand how a character is really feeling, and the dialogue used by other characters when they observe Blake and Yang together. The FNDM is heavily looking forward to more Bumbleby content in the next volume airing later this year.