#I think the wiki is going off how Jump labelled arcs

[fullscoreshenanigans]

#Introduction Arc #Escape Arc #<-- I'm still new to all the arcs #(Apparently my brain liked the way the first season/first arc of the manga went and decided to hyperfixate on just that #and maybe I'll start the post-escape arcs later?? #IDK

You, a decent chunk of the fanbase, and TPN Committee with how much of the merchandise focuses on that lmao

A number of things about the TPN Wiki are contested, but I do follow its lead on how it splits up the story into eleven arcs, including the designation between the introduction and escape arcs for my own organizing purposes, though for simplicity the majority of people will refer to it all as the escape arc. With how short the introduction is and how similar it is to the escape arc, the distinction is pretty negligible.

Let it never be said that I hide my biases on this blog.

(And Krone was definitely my least favorite part of the series, she was a good antagonist… and she helped showcase a few other important worldbuilding details, but she got a bit annoying to me?)

With Krone purposely being portrayed to contrast with Isabella and hype her up as the more terrifying foe, I can understand this, though things like the inclusion of her doll in the anime I didn't see as her being annoying so much as "oh great this is going to be a quick cheat to play up fears of mental illness because CrEePy DoLl to converse with since the anime did away with internal monologues 🙃" that came with the added bonus of playing into racial stereotypes of Black women being more masculine and brutish than white women. My mind is unable to separate that aspect of her depiction from the meta conversation around it, but even without getting into the extensive sordid history of poc's portrayal in Western media, it does make me more sympathetic to her. All that internalized rage at the systemic injustice she and countless other children experienced while knowing she as an individual is powerless to end it; a deep self-loathing of buying into said system that we comparatively only see surface briefly during her conversation with the kids in chapter 20/episode 7 and in her final moments in chapter 23/episode 8 but must have always been present in the very back of her mind. An awful, agonizing existence, without excusing the cruelty she perpetrated in the name of it.

AND THE ISABELLA NOVEL??? I DIDN'T KNOW THAT EXISTED!

I don't think most people on the English-speaking side of the fandom do unless they're really in the thick of the brainrot so you're good lol

But yes, there are four light novels for the series! I've talked about the first one here, the second and third ones here (spoilers for post-escape), and have a very brief general overview of most of the stories in all four here (more spoilers). You'd probably get a lot out of Isabella's story in the second one and the stories in the first one.

It lends sooo much to Emma and Isabella's dynamic, which I found just as heartbreaking as Norman's 'death'. Her whole 'you should give up' speech seemed genuine from her, and Isabella attempting to get Emma to conform to the system she couldn't beat>>> amazing character writing.

The dynamic and complicated balance of Isabella wanting to empower her daughter and provide her with the tools she would need to survive while also wanting to squash out her hope of upending the system to both save her from the wretched heartbreak of attempting and failing at a nigh impossible feat, and for petty reaffirmation that the choice she made to survive over a decade ago was the only one she could make; the optimism and stubbornness of her own youth reflected in Emma simultaneously so endearing and so painful. Beautiful stuff, and a large factor in what endeared the series to me so deeply.

AND YES RAY'S LACK OF INFANTILE AMNESIA WAS KIND OF WEIRD. I assumed it was one of those 'suspend your disbelief pretty please' sort of moments. And usually I'm willing to ignore any plot problems if I love the characters (which I do) and yet, Ray's whole reveal was completely off-putting and weird. If I were to try to rework that plot point, where Ray would still know about the farm beforehand, but it wouldn't be soo... 'dues es machina'?

The dmotta3 "ooo I'm Ray I'm not like other boys I remember when I was a fetus" quote lives rent free in my head klfdgjkdsfj

For me the weight of the suffering and sacrifice he endured is commensurate with how incredibly lucky him lacking that was. Combined with the fantastical nature of them inhabiting a world with demons is and how egregious later beats happen toward the end of the series (but especially in the penultimate arc, oof), going back to it doesn't both me too much (and I also just really love the way the anime portrayed the reveal in general), though it could have been strengthened if it had been explicitly emphasized in relation to certain aspects of the ending.

I would do something where Isabella tries to slowly leak the information to Ray, as an almost 'last, fleeting hope'. She might see his high scores and wonder if she could save anyone, it might as well be her biological child. (Not entirely sure about this, it might oppose her characterization of validating her decision to comply with the system. Perhaps a better motivation would be Isabella wanting to love him normally. And thus, she wants him to know. This could create internal conflict, because she would also want to keep him ignorant, for his ~amazing brain~) For example, Isabella could mention to Ray that 'this child would only do x if they died. How silly, you know this child isn't like that' When that child is shipped out, they are forced by Isabella to do x, and Ray pieces it together along with the other clues. It breaks him for a while. He pours over books in the library and stops playing with the others as much, becoming more withdrawn. Isabella fears that Ray might have become ~traumatized~ and his brain might not be good anymore, and this might be a mess- Ray instead offers Isabella a deal. (IDK, something like that)

I'm firmly in the camp that if Isabella had to pick a favorite and prioritize the survival of one child, it would be Emma. Again, seeing so much of herself in her, so much potential, but without the extra reminder of one of the worst horrors visited upon her under this system. Ray's relationship with Isabella receives the most amount of focus within the fandom, and I'd be lying if I said it doesn't grip me too (hence the entire existence of the Isabella and Ray's Incredibly Fraught and Complicated Relationship Tag on this blog lol), but I get very hung-up on her consciously prioritizing his survival on the basis of their biological connection.

To plagiarize myself from this post:

I continue to debate how much of her maintaining her deal with Ray was strictly for pragmatic reasons and how much was due to wanting to keep him close out of some painfully complicated mess of emotions that was constantly oscillating between a tainted affection and spiteful hatred. Any time she would find herself falling into the former, forgetting the circumstances of their relationship, him being the living, breathing reminder of one of the worst things HQ forced her to endure would resurface and how they chose to put him in her plant as if to silently mock her and unknowingly rub in how pitiful the life of a Mom would always be under this system. To openly love him would be one step further in giving in than she’d already done by accepting the Mom position and loving all the other cattle children she raised for slaughter, and she hated to give that much more of herself than she already had when she wasn’t aware of his origins. So she would dutifully do what was tasked of her, but on her terms, as petty as they were. And once Ray was gone, hopefully she could finally put these turbulent feelings to rest.

But that constant oscillation between wanting to know him and wishing he didn't exist factoring into how she would drip feed information to him in your scenario is interesting.

The Promised Neverland Caves In

~ The World Caves In || The Promised Neverland AMV ~

The edit audio I edited into the song:

Emma's screams>>>> everything else /j

(This is the depth of my hyperfixated frenzy, I was supposed to do schoolwork today and instead speedran this in a day)

[thanksjro]

More Than Meets the Eye #11- Soak the Matrix in Lemon Juice and Break Out the Hairdryers

So, small problem.

Prowl realized he was in the wrong comic run and had to split.

But not before yelling at Orion about how stupid he thinks this National Treasure bullshit he’s trying to pull is, and makes a request that Chromedome be left out of this whole mess.

Why the fuck wouldn’t you tell him that?

Bye, Prowl. See you later, I guess.

Chromedome and Roller have brought in some help for the heist from the local college. These students were super gung-ho about stealing the Matrix, not because they’re agents of political chaos, but because the Senator has his name attached to this little project. They feel a certain debt to the Senator, since he’s been doing his best to protect them from the Functionist Council.

Gee, wonder who that truck is.

We get a little rundown of our new friends, while Chromedome has a minor temper tantrum in the background.

Skids is also a member of this group, labelled as a super-learner, enough so that it may not even be a voluntary thing on his part.

In the present day, Swerve’s returned from stealing things from Trailcutter’s room, apparently totally unaware of what’s happened to his roommate. You’d think someone would have gotten in contact with him about that.

I mean, maybe? You did say you liked purple.

Swerve lets it slip that this isn’t the only story time circle Rewind’s hosted in an attempt to get Rung’s brain back up to speed… which makes me wonder just how often the medical staff on board the Lost Light actually check on their patients, if Ratchet had been surprised that this event was happening today.

Swerve makes fun of Tailgate for needing to open up the wiki so he can keep track of what’s going on, then goes over to call Rung the wrong name. Swerve is very lucky Rung is essentially in a coma right now, because that’s probably the only thing keeping him from trying to strangle our resident barkeep.

Whirl helps Rung express himself by playing with his eyebrows, a trait which, now that I think about it, probably only exists for expressive purposes, considering that his eyes are covered by his glasses and we can’t see their shape.

Rewind saves Rung from being played with, perhaps solely because he’s a historical constant.

So you’re saying Rung gets around. Nifty.

Rewind decides that they’ve taken enough of a break and it’s time to get back to the juicy stuff, completely blowing off Ratchet’s professional opinion about what to do with Rung.

Nothing gets in the way of story time.

Nothing.

In the past, Orion Pax is poking Skids in the face, specifically in his mini Matrix tattoo, which is giving him ideas. Skids is a little weirded out, but this isn’t about Skids, now is it? Chromedome goes to pay a visit to a coworker to get things set for the madness that’s about to unfold.

My boy! My beautiful boy!

Yes, Ironfist, before shooting himself in the head and having his spirit broken by the horrors of direct combat, used to be a cop. Everyone’s a cop in IDW, at least for a little while. He’s also missing his faceplate, and isn’t nearly as cute in Milne’s style, but we can’t have it all all the time, now can we?

Chromedome’s feeding into Ironfist’s fanboy nature, pretending to be just as much as a nerd as he is to call in a favor. In exchange for getting Ironfist’s Delta Magnus body pillow back from their boss, Chromedome needs to borrow Ironfist’s one-to-one replica of the Matrix.

I mean, you practically are already, but the sentiment is appreciated. We haven’t gotten to the point where we’re comfortable with thank you kisses yet, and it’ll be a while still.

While the Senator and company gush over Chromedome’s good job, Roller pulls Ratchet and Orion over to the side for a little chat.

Roller doesn’t trust the Senator. He’s done his research, weighed their options, and he really isn’t sure about this guy. Turns out that Orion isn’t the only guy who’s been modified to fit a Matrix without his consent. Honestly, I’m with Roller on this one; that’s mad creepy to be loading the bases like that.

Orion doesn’t really see it that way, though.

Only one of these things was ever a secret, my guy. You worked with Whirl, he was in your precinct for crying out loud! At least he admits to his ignorance.

Back in the present, we check in on Rodimus’ investigation. Looks like we’ve got our answer on who tried to kill Red Alert.

It was Red Alert.

First Aid explains.

Fascinating.

Rodimus fails to see why exactly Red Alert would choose to go this route, because A) he doesn’t know that Red Alert knows about the dirty little secret in the basement, and B) despite probably having depression, may not be the type to have suicidal ideation. It’s true, those types of people exist!

Oh, this is a savior’s complex thing. Nyon really fucked you up, huh Rodimus?

After Ultra Magnus gets Rodimus to stop accosting the doctor, they’re faced with a sort of moral quandary.

IDW’s More Than Meets the Eye! Come for the space adventure, stay for the rumination on whether it’s ethical to allow a mentally ill person the right to self-termination!

After consulting with Drift, because it’s always important to get a second opinion, Rodimus agrees to put Red Alert in cold storage, to remain until their quest is finished and they’re in a place that’s better for his mental health.

Anyway, back to the heist plotline.

Orion breaks down the plan for everybody: the basilica is nearly impossible to break into, but they’re going to do it anyway, because this is the past, and we as the reader already know that things go alright because Chromedome, Ratchet and Skids are still here and Optimus Prime came into being.

Roller will hack the sky spies, make things look all hunky dory, while the rest of the boys magic carpet up to the top of the building.

Looking mighty relaxed there, Glitch.

Glitch is probably sitting down to conserve as much energy as possible, because his job sucks some major chrome- he’s got to keep the detector beams off, using his outlier ability, but it really friggin’ hurts for him to do it. He’s going to have to do it for an extended period of time.

Glitch really got the short end of the stick in all this, didn’t he?

Okay, so I was wrong, Skids uses his grappling hook a fucking shit-ton in MTMTE. Today, he’s going to use it to lower Orion down into the basilica so he can crack open a cold one and steal the Matrix.

Things can never just be simple, can they?

Over on Roller’s end of the workflow, Chromedome’s irritated that he’s got to babysit the Senator. Chromedome spends a good portion of this story arc irritated at stuff, in case you couldn’t tell.

In this case, the Senator agrees that having Chromedome stay back was probably unnecessary. Or at least, he did, until he noticed that the Academy of Advanced Technology is burning to the ground on live TV.

Then the wall explodes.

Things can never just be simple, can they?

Back on the front lines, Orion tags out and Ratchet tags in, because the locks on the Matrix are mad crazy hard to undo and they just don’t have time for pussyfooting around with all that. Ratchet is apparently a master lock pick. Must be those magic medic hands.

Even the Matrix being full of Fiji water is no match for our CMO, as he makes quick work of the bomb and removes it. Hooray! Now we just need to pull him back up and we’ll be all set to leave.

Or at least, we would be, if Glitch wasn’t the dumbest bitch alive.

Ratchet braces for an explosion.

And braces.

And braces.

But it never comes, because Windcharger has magic arms and zero patience for facing his own mortality.

The boys haul up Ratchet and the bomb, fly on out of there, then Orion jumps off the slab they’re floating on because Roller was supposed to call and he hasn’t. I’m going to hazard a guess and say that Roller might be a bit preoccupied at the moment, and it isn’t by the television.

That is a BIG BOY.

“Cleanse and control” was what Trepan’s idiotic tattoo said, so there’s a good chance that our buddy the Senator is about to go the way of Pious Maximus in a minute. Or at least, he would if Orion Pax didn’t embrace is inner monster truck and punch a hole in the big boy holding the Senator like Lennie does a rabbit.

Kroma isn’t one to let the opposite side have all the cards though, as he holds a gun to Roller’s head and suggests that the Senator be given to him, lest we be down a cop in this story that’s simply awash with them. The Senator, being the nice guy that he is, goes willingly to his doom.

Be a lot easier if we knew your name, bud.

The Senator is taken away, but Kroma leaves Orion with the other big boy, and he’s not playing nicely. Orion helps himself by way of domestic terrorism.

But that’s not the end of the story! Oh dear no!

After the explosion, Orion unearths Chromedome, and they make tracks for the Institute. Small issue with that though:

Well, dang.

Thus ends the tale of the Matrix heist, the mysterious Senator, and Chromedome’s awkward relationship with Prowl. Our storytelling session ends with the sound of the alarm, and everyone runs off to see just what the hell’s gone wrong now. Only Skids hangs back to take Rung to the medibay, but not before trying one last thing to help his partner in vent-crawling out.

Man, all they had to do was annoy him and everything would have been fine? Rewind’s going to feel so silly for all that work he put into this.

Back in the past, Orion’s digging through the remains of the Rodion police station, when a robot comes up to him, saying that they have a mutual friend who asked him to find Orion if he ever went missing.

The mutual friend was the Senator.

And the robot is Zeta, who would become Zeta Prima.

The Senator was really playing the field with all these Matrix reformattings.

Speaking of the Senator, he’s just arrived at a The Institute, where they’ve decided to not only shadowplay him, but also empurata his whole deal just to be assholes. He just wanted to be beautiful, on top of conniving, but I guess we won’t be having any of that anymore. Not that it’ll matter.

Because vanity is illogical.

No wonder Whirl’s so goddamn angry all the time.

[natsunoomoi]

Finished Main Story of SVSSS....

So yeah, I did that. I still really liked the story overall. Some parts are a bit problematic in a way, but also in a satisfying way that is complex and I think can refer to some real life relationships and complexities of that because not all relationships fit nicely into the little boxes and labels that we make and that’s my take away from the ending.

-Don’t like the in-story “original author” still, but also don’t dislike him as much as I did when I started the story now that I got more of his perspective. MXTX posted all of this for free not thinking it would go anywhere really, but it’s true that some people do have careers where they make a living off of their webnovels and fans buying chapters, so that pressure is there. I’m sure that because MXTX is also a fan of D. Gray-man, she’s aware of the similar pressures that even mangaka at JUMP face. Like BLEACH basically ended early because it fell out of popularity with the fans just as Airplane mentions happens to some novel works. To be fair, BLEACH also lifted an entire plotline from another popular supernatural manga including carbon copies of the lackeys of the villain for that arc, so some shade was also deserved. Like Yukio is just Amanuma Tsukihito with a PSP instead of an arcade system or Super Famicom. D. Gray-man itself has also been on hiaitus several times due to health concerns and such. Same as Hunter x Hunter and other prolific manga. The pressure is real and some ways the original author is kind of a mood. He’s also still a huge coward and that’s annoying.

-I feel worse for Shen Jiu than when I did when I was just reading his backstory off of the wikis and stuff from just wanting to see Shen Qingqiu’s beautiful face. Like I felt bad before, but after knowing more and witnessing some sentiments that would have been gut punches if Shen Jiu had heard them, I feel so bad for him. I don’t condone what he did, but I also get it and wish I could hug him. Basically about the same level of thought as I put into how much I like Emet-Selch, but I think overall in the end I love Emet-Selch more because the 5.3 patch update for FFXIV broke me. Man, that MSQ. Like I’ve never been opposed to liking villains and always thought some villains were cool. Like my sister worships Sephiroth from FFVII for instance, but like I was never really into Sephiroth’s motivations in that he’s cool, but his identity crisis didn’t quite strike me as like actually 100% believable that torching Nibelheim and trying to rescue Jenova was justified or a natural reaction someone in his position would have. I like him more than Cloud cuz Cloud is a hot fucking mess of a person and he’s overall just cool, but as a villain his motivations didn’t resonate with me.  A lot of people also really liked Kefka because he’s just straight up insane and like chaotic evil, but that kind of evil just isn’t compelling to me. Emet-Selch though straight up broke me and I thought about him for like months after the initial end of Shadowbringers when you do the fight with Hades. His story is ripe with meaning and nuance and the Tales from the Shadows stories adding more nuance and color to his eternal living torture of seeing remnants of people he cared about constantly without a break or a way to really “forget” and heal. That just stuck with me because I’ve lost people in my life too, and I remember what that was like and how hard it was to even live the day after let alone the following few years. I remember it well even today because it fundamentally changed me as a person, but I was able to find some relief and escape from music and entertainment and going out to have new experiences and travel. Emet-Selch could not, so his story really broke me internally. I bring this up just to make a comparison because I love Shen Jiu as well, but for nowhere near as dramatic a reason as I love Emet-Selch.

Spoilers under the cut

Okay, so since I was just talking about Shen Jiu, and maybe it’s partly because I actually find him to be gorgeous as well, but just reading his story did genuinely make me sad. I found his child form to be a little bit jaded already only because he was an older child already by the time he was bought by the Qius. When Yue Qingyuan was parting with him through the door he was being kind of manipulative there for extra sympathy initially, which isn’t really great. How severely the brother beat him though was hard to take. It was so extreme, like wtf? And perhaps the part where Qiu Haitang said that he’d been “freed” and the part where he was engaged seems to be true-ish, but yeah her brother is kind of really fucked up in how he still talks to him even though he is supposed to be his brother-in-law soon? Like what the hell. But like, the summaries of what he did online and even what Haitang had said also made it sound even more cold than it was. Like once he got going yeah, the onslaught was kind of cold. But he still had a moment of shock where like he didn’t really realize what he’d done right away and needed a moment to process. But after that it was like, well, it’s already done and people came to try to help the young master and he had to get out too. So the other people on the way out after that don’t sound nearly as consequential and it was really striking that not only did he not attack Haitang, but he spared all the other women in the house. Like Jesus Christ, were *ALL* the men in the house including the male servants and other slaves they had assholes to him too? Just, wow. But we don’t get a lot into what else happened there, but if the head of the household is bad and hurts him, it’s believable that other people join in just as Ming Fan joined in because Shen Jiu was complicit in allowing Binghe’s suffering. Really key though is the commentary of both the young master and his first evil master about his age. 

That is such a huge chip on his shoulder because everyone keeps bringing it the fuck up. Including Qingge in another memory later on when he’s already Peak Lord. I know they don’t like each other, but that was really mean. I realize Qingge probably doesn’t care and that was the point to throw salt in his wounds because they don’t like each other, but seeing how much it affected him by him breaking his fan with his hands after hearing that. I’ve had people do similar to me where they make an insensitive comment to try to hurt you without understanding the actual circumstances. My sister did that to me once and I reconciled with her for a bit, but decided not to talk to her anymore again because of some other bullshit with her friends being childish. But when she did similar to me, I never really forgave her for it either. My story is not nearly as dramatic, but basically I had quit a job where I was being bullied by coworkers at the start of the recession and I was looking for jobs, but no luck with anything I was qualified for even though I went on a few interviews. There actually weren’t many listings posted around that time, so I would only be able to find a couple to apply to and by the time my sister came home I’d be playing games to pass the time cuz I was bored out of my mind waiting for something to happen. So then we got in an argument for I forget the initial reason anymore, but she brought up how I “wasn’t looking�� for a job and just seemed to be “being lazy” and I just got so pissed and yelled at her that she had no fucking idea what I was doing everyday and that I am looking and there isn’t anything fucking there. I also lost it and threw a stool at her. I’m not proud of it, but I totally get the mood of what it feels like for someone to use something that you are struggling with as a negative to throw in your face even though you are trying *SO* hard to do your best. I especially don’t want to hear that from someone who gave up on their desired career that they were actually good at and making a decent living at for money and also can’t tell when their friends are kissing up to them and crossing a line and won’t stand up to them for being shitty people. Teapot meet kettle, and don’t throw stones if you live in a glass fucking house. I don’t like low blows like that. 

My personal family issue aside though, I felt a lot of empathy for Shen Jiu in that moment. Seeing how he interacted with Binghe on their first meeting after that though, like I was sad for Binghe too, but I can also see where his misunderstanding happened on top of his insecurity. I also kind of wonder if Qingge’s comment also kind of encouraged this situation to happen.  I still like Qingge because he makes up for it a lot later, but yeah that was fucked up.

The gut punch later was when Qingyuan was seemingly dying and tried to apologize to Qingqiu, but all the words and the things Shen Jiu needed to hear. His years of misunderstanding and not knowing and being in pain and thinking he was abandoned. That was painful. Shen Jiu is gone. We don’t know where he is. Maybe he’s dead. No idea, but those are things he can never know. It’s already too late, and that’s crushing.

I still just really want to know more about Shen Jiu and I feel really sad that there wasn’t some kind of redemption for him or anything. Even if it’s like Shen Yuan going into the recesses of his own mind and finds Shen Jiu locked in a box somewhere so actually the both of them share the same body and he’s just watching in a tiny TV what Shen Yuan does with his body. He’d be really frustrated and would probably scream at him a lot with his screams completely unheard, but at least he’d get to see people liking him more and would be able to hear the words that Qingyuan spoke. I mentioned in an earlier post that I saw a theory about OG Qingqiu transmigrating into Shen Yuan when Shen Yuan takes over his body, and I think that’s possible because Shang Qinghua says that when he transmigrated he was born there and was since a baby? I was thinking maybe it’d be more like OG dies when OG Binghe kills him and then becomes Shen Yuan, but who knows.

I mean, also I just crave more information about him. He’s so unfortunate, and I like wish more went right for him so that he wouldn’t be so miserable. Like when you see a character where their life is just shit on, you just wish that you could do something to take away their pain.

And with that sentiment, that’s also why I found the ending to be satisfying but probably a little problematic. Like Shen Yuan is just a good guy and he has that same sentiment for Binghe just because he’s a poor kid with a shitty hand in life, but he’s also like really clearly not gay himself and not actually attracted to Binghe in that way. To be clear, the book does seem to discourage this kind of relationship in that it works in the way the narrative unfolded, but it isn’t one that would work in real life really. That’s part of the depth of it though. Like SY emotionally cares for him and he even remarks that he feels kind of more like his Dad, but the physical side of their relationship is more on Binghe’s side than his, and he acquiesces to it because he feels bad for him because this poor child has no one. And yeah, fine this works in an actual book that we’re all reading and this works within the system within the book where the MC is in a book himself with really screwed up logic rules, but I don’t recommend this method of getting with someone you like in real life. It will not end well. If someone you like is not into you, emotionally manipulating them and crying and also stalking them until they give their body to you out of desperation to console you is not the road to happiness. You also won’t have a pressure timer of life on earth ending by combining with actual hell to push them into bed with you. The fact that SY resorts to this in desperation in order to try to help Binghe to get control of the demon sword is admirable in the narrative of the story in that he’s doing it because he cares so much about this person and that’s fine, but it’s a red flag if anyone did this IRL and put their wishes aside to appease someone else. There will be a breakdown in the future as one person puts aside their needs for the other one completely. Partnerships that work are healthy and equal. That’s not what this is. In the story, the two characters have an understanding though that makes it fine, but I have second-hand anxiety for the idea that anyone would try to replicate this. This is not normally healthy.

But at the same time, the fact that the characters have an understanding to that is unique to their personal choice is also realistic in a sense that life is sometimes complicated and a similar situation could come about, but it is the choice of the people involved. With constant communication there’s a slim chance that maybe it could work out, but it’s hard. The main level of complexity I’m thinking of is that there’s different ways to care about other people or rather to just feel about other people. Like you can have like an intellectual attraction to other people in that you just like talking with them and you’re good friends with them because of that. You can be romantically attracted to someone, but also not feel sexual attraction too. Of course you can also feel physical attraction to someone, but not really care at all about them emotionally or even intellectually. SY has emotional feelings for Binghe, but it’s more on the parental side or even just human in not wanting him to suffer. If this were a points meter, his values for his emotions and just caring about him would be at max, while physical attraction and even romantic attraction are basically zero. Like he also just like cares about him in principle? Like as an all seeing reader you look at everything and are just like, wtf with this shit? How can one person suffer so much? As empthy or even sympathy you feel for them so then if the other person is more not asexual or aromantic that can trigger some feelings which is what happened between these two characters. The reason I say it isn’t necessarily bad, but some shakiness on execution too. But like say like an asexual person is romantically attracted to someone who isn’t asexual, but they still want to be with them. Like the non-ace person has some needs sometimes and even if the ace doesn’t feel it, because they care about their partner they acquiesce to their partner’s requests because they just want them to be happy. This kind of very personal choice situation I think is really similar to basically what ends up happening between SY Qingqiu and Binghe where SY isn’t really interested, but at the same time cares about Binghe’s well-being so much that he actually just wants him to be happy and reluctantly is okay with the situation. IRL though Binghe would be REALLY FRUSTRATING to be so unreasonably needy and like narcissistically abusive in wanting him all to himself an isolating him from his friends and being jealous of them. In comparison, Wangji and Wuxian are a great deal more balanced in comparison, but I also really like this book for the original idea and the complexity of SY’s ultimate choice because I feel like it’s also a bit more real that some people do make that kind of choice. It’s not healthy or guaranteed to be a success or happy experience, but it’s in the realm of possibilities for the kinds of personal choices people can make because the other person’s happiness is worth the minor discomfort.

Ah, I just have a lot of thoughts about this. Part of it stems from myself being ace also and what that means for me. But also getting to the end, I think Qingge is a fellow ace and also similar to me, just serious about his job and loyal to his crew.

I’ve read some of the extras obviously, but I haven’t delved that deeply into the extra materials.

Oh also, I laughed so hard when Mobei-jun just tossed Shang Qinghua over like a chicken. It said like a chicken and it was hilarious. XD Like imagining that panicked sound of hucking chickens in Ocarina of Time.

Oh and ho-shit the alt punishment system came up for SY Qingqiu for screwing up his points. Got to live through half the process of becoming a human stick very painfully.

I guess part of me is still kind of just wondering how Binghe grew to be SO needy. It’s to an unnecessary degree, but I guess without any real emotional or social guidance in the Endless Abyss that could happen?

Zhuzhi-Lang though is a really frustratingly annoying character, but I also like him at the same time. I’m confused by him.

The only other thing I’m like confused a bit about is like, so the 4 sects that are depicted with Cang Qiong Mountain being the top one are like the great four sects, but like...where are they? I’m just asking because of the kind of meta general landscape of what cultivation and Taoism is like some of the events that happen I would think actually would call down some interference from actual Heaven. Like in the classic lit, whenever there’s huge disturbances down in the Human World, like the Heavenly Palace and like the Jade Emperor are like, “WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?” and go send people. I find it really hard to believe that such a disaster as the combining of two realms would be ignored by the armies of Heaven and like Nezha, Erlang Shen, and other notable actual deities up there would come down and be like, “The fuck you guys doing down here with these shenanigans?” Also, Journey to the West is like one of the most like influential books in the canon of Chinese lit and is regarded as literally one of the Four Great Classics. But none of these fools in these “great four sects” know how to stamp a floor and call up the local deity to tell you what the hell is happening in Jinlan City instead of sending your disciples to die? Sun Wukung did that at like every damn city and then also threatened to beat them if they like weren’t doing their job properly. Those minor deities are on the payroll for Heaven, so like...use them? Like I feel like they would know this too because like the ultimate goal for cultivation is to be able to become an immortal and end up on the payroll? I know Qingqiu is supposedly like mid-level or something, but like I think they should like know-ish where they’re going? Like in the future they would become one of those minor gods making records? Are they like not high enough to even talk to them? Maybe not, but I do think like Nezha, Pagoda Bearer Li, or Erlang Shen would definitely come down and be like, “Hey, what’s going on?”

Also like, Shen Jiu isn’t a great character and how he treats his disciples is bad and what he did was bad. But like, also, what is the standard to judge him really? Like Nezha was a dick when he was a child too. When he was 3 he went to a river and was swimming and liked killed all the fish and then a dragon prince came out and was like, “WTF? Why are all the fish dead?” and then Nezha instead of answering him kills him and guts him and then takes his tendon home to turn into a belt. Then like his Dad gets a complaint from the Dragon King like, “Hey, my son is dead! Your son did it. Hand him over so I can kill him or I destroy your town.” So then Nezha’s Dad goes to talk to him and is like, “What’re you doing?” And then Nezha answers him and tells him exactly what he did like it was no big fucking deal that he killed the local Dragon Prince and made him into a belt. Obviously there’s an argument and like Nezha basically rage quits his life and is like, if you’re so concerned about this bullshit I return this body to you and kills himself to cut off his ties to his parents. He was a rude little shit. Then he went into his Mom’s dream and threatened her until she built him a temple so he could get prayer requests until he could be reborn again. His Dad found out and wrecked the temple, so then he went up to go find his master who had him be reborn using lotus flowers. After that after being reborn, Nezha’s first order of business was to go back to his family and try to kill his own father for fucking up his temple and chased him down EVERYWHERE until other powers in Heaven, decided to send down Nezha’s older brothers with a pagoda to give to their Dad that would trap and burn Nezha everytime he tried to murder him. Is this better or worse than what Shen Jiu did? This is an actual god that people worship. A quite prominent and very famous one. Nezha is also one of my favorite deities and I had a huge crush on the Nataku from Fujisaki Ryu’s Houshin Engi manga who has mostly the same backstory as deity Nezha, and I just loved him in high school. He was a good guy. What are the standards here people? I don’t think anyone in any story in China can really judge someone like Shen Jiu doing an understandable level of murder as a response to trauma and severe abuse when they worship a deity that suffered nothing and tried to commit patricide and had a severe disregard for other life. In the cultivation world, potentially, this could be their future boss. I think arguably, he could be worse than Shen Jiu, but he’s a canonical real deity.

The above tirade for me is like a thing I feel like I would have said if I was in the position to be alive in Jinlan City and wanted to defend Shen Qingqiu cuz WTF.

Further, I’m a huge fan of Jigoku Shoujo and Enma Ai did much the same after her cousin saved her from being sacrificed, the villagers found out, buried her a live, made her cousin help bury her alive, and then she came back as a vengeful spirit and set the whole village on fire and killed everyone except maybe her parents who had their souls as prisoners by Enma himself? Can’t 100% remember. But like, on the scale of characters I like that have done terrible things, Shen Jiu is actually relatively low and under some people that are good guys.

[clonerightsagenda]

The epilogues look terrible and I don’t want to spend my time reading them... but I love + trust your judgement and your takes on things. Could you summarize them? (No pressure if you don’t want to)

OK, it’s been a few weeks since i read it, but I will do my best.NOTE: This is probably not comprehensive and definitely not objective. As a supplement, I did some poking around, and the MSPA wiki has some bullet points. I also eventually found another  summary on tumblr, albeit by someone who also didn’t like it, so it is probably biased as well. 

ANOTHER NOTE: Those content warnings weren’t a joke. Below are references to sexual content, assault, suicide, sexism, transphobia, character death, and probably some other stuff.

WHAT HAPPENED:

In the prologue, Rose summons John to inform him that he needs to defeat Lord English right now, or they will all experience terrible consequences. These are mostly meta consequences you can interpret as ‘if we don’t produce new Homestuck content on its 10th anniversary, everyone will give up on this franchise for real, and also canon doesn’t seem stable when the big bad never got beaten’. John goes to visit Roxy and Calliope before he leaves and is given the option to eat either meet or candy. This represents a choice he is supposed to make, and that choice creates two timelines.

In MEAT, John travels back in time and gathers three 16 year old versions of his friends. They confront Caliborn in the battle he represented in his Masterpiece and are sucked into the house juju. Vriska activates it, but not before being pulled into the black hole. Rose and Jade die immediately, with Rose’s body being destroyed and Jade’s falling into the black hole, because why should women get to fight the story’s biggest misogynist. Dave lands a solid hit on English before having his head bitten off Mami from PMMM style. John gets chomped on as well and a gold tooth ends up embedded in his chest. Davepeta appears and drags the wounded LE into the black hole. John finds his father’s wallet, retrieves his car, and slumps inside. Terezi appears, in bad shape after a long time wandering the ring. She seems confused at his state (explained because in CANDY she has been texting that version of him for years). She removes the tooth from his chest and they have sex.

Meanwhile, on Earth, Dave and Karkat have avoided talking about being a relationship for seven years, while Jade harasses them about becoming a threesome. This is explicitly tied to her abandonment issues but also she is referred to as a slut so like. Don’t love that. Jane is running for president, and Dave thinks this is terrible because she’s a woman fascist and doesn’t understand the economy and Karkat should run instead. Other shit is happening but I lost track. Rose is ill because she’s becoming her ‘Ultimate Self’ and seeing all timelines. Dirk claims he’s overcome the same problem and offers to help her but ends up controlling her and revealing he is the one actually writing this narrative.  There is a bit where the narration starts addressing the reader directly and then turns orange which I admit is genuinely cool and might have been interesting if done with characters I didn’t actually care about.

Dirk amps up controlling the narrative, directly forcing people to do and think certain things. (For example, he sequesters Rose away in his workshop and tells Kanaya via narration she believes Rose is better off with him, and she uncomfortably agrees without understanding why she thinks that.) He supports Jane’s bid for the presidency, even though she wants to crack down on trolls because they are naturally violent and reproduce too fast. Everyone tries to get Jake’s endorsement because he’s popular, which includes Jane attempting to seduce him in a very uncomfortable scene.Then Jade slips into a nice coma, because it’s not Homestuck without Jade losing her agency, and alt!Calliope starts using her as an avatar to take control of the narrative away from Dirk. They have some back and forth arguments before he is pushed out which, again, is genuinely clever but would be more enjoyable without all the edgy bullshit. Dirk eventually tricks alt!Callie and sedates Jade, taking back control of the story. Jane wins the presidency. Also at some point Meat!Roxy and Callie ID as nonbinary and start using they/them, and narrator!Dirk freaks out about it and misgenders them a lot, which is character assassination bc everyone knows Dirk is a trans icon. Anyway. Dave and Karkat have an awkward talk about their relationship where they keep dancing around things and Dirk tries to force Dave to kiss him. Dave gets frustrated because he’s aware someone is trying to make him do something (like with the Aimless Renegade), and eventually yells at Dirk to get out of his head before kissing Karkat. Terezi brings John back to Earth, and he begins to fade, since apparently LE’s tooth was poisoned with something more powerful than god tier that makes you irrelevant. Possibly a meta commentary on the hero or story not being needed once the big bad is gone. Terezi is sad about this and listens to him bleed while she smells him die. Then Dirk contacts her via narration and implies he can help her. She gets a text (later revealed to be Vriska). Dirk gets a spaceship from Jake after forcing him via narration to grovel about how much he loves him and then rejecting him and flying away with Rose and Terezi in tow. Jade wakes up long enough to tell everyone Dirk’s gone bad before she gets repossessed and starts pointing in his direction, prompting everyone to give chase. 

There is a final scene that will make more sense later, so I’ll add it later.

CANDY

John decides not to go fight LE. Roxy is delighted, and they began dating. Calliope tells John it is time to let Gamzee out of the fridge. Gamzee pops out and claims he is redeemed in a long speech making fun of sloppy redemption arcs. He then proceeds to be terrible for the rest of the story.Candy essentially satirizes Harry Potter epilogue style fics. Jane marries Jake (it’s implied she essentially roofies him with the trickster lollipop) and has Gamzee on the side. They have a son named Tavros. John and Roxy have a son named Harry. Rose and Kanaya adopt a troll clone of Vriska and name her Vriska. Jade, Karkat, and Dave are all dating, but Dave and Karkat are miserable. Dirk kills himself when he realizes the timeline went off kilter. Jade’s corpse from the Meat timeline crashes to earth, and in the middle of the funeral (which was genuinely a good scene) she sits up, possessed by alt!Calliope. Alt!Callie sequesters herself on the old meteor, now landed, and explains to Aradia and Sollux that this timeline is a dead end and she is protecting it from the influence of the prince. She also, in a parallel to Dirk’s reveal in Meat, talks about how every narrator has an agenda even if the text is formatted to make you not realize that.Jane becomes a fascist dictator and begins oppressing trolls. Karkat eventually get sick of being in a trio and runs off to be a resistance leader, including getting a sick eye patch (reference to Summer Teen Romance). Meenah stole the Ring of Life from Meat John and lands in the session; she and Karkat begin dating. Other ghosts begin falling from the sky as well, and Gamzee converts them to his redemption religion.John feels like something is really off.  His only solace is texting Terezi a lot, and he seems closer to her than he is to his wife. He and Roxy break up for a while and then (non-romantically) reconcile. Jake eventually leaves Jane and takes Tavros with him. Jade and Dave become rebels as well, then Dave meets a hologram of Obama, who helps him attain his ultimate self, putting his soul in a new robot body. 

Oh, also Vriska falls out of the sky, has hatesex with Gamzee, kills him, and then talks with Rose and Kanaya’s Vriska about how she loves Terezi. Then she texts her, as seen in the Meat timeline. Isn’t Vriska 13 and Gamzee an adult at this point? Probably. There’s a lot of questionable age stuff in this.

I’m sure I missed some details. Can you tell I’m losing steam.

Anyway, the two last chapters of each section reference the other storyline. At the end of Meat, Lord English’s body falls out of the sky, and alt!Callie (still in Jade’s body) devours it, becoming powerful enough to battle Dirk. Candy!Davebot arrives and he and Aradia jump into the black hole in pursuit.At the end of Candy, Dirk’s ship nears a new planet where he intends a new game of SBURB to be played. Rose is in a robot body serving as his handmaid essentially, and Terezi’s also on board.  

TAKEAWAYS:

There are a lot of different interpretations of the epilogue. A mockery of the two extremes of fanfic. Andrew Hussie continuing the theme of ‘all authors are tyrants by nature’ and using his self-insert to display how he hates his own story but also can’t stop telling it. Dirk trying to create conflict by making himself a villain because otherwise they’ll lose relevance and disappear. Musing on how being arbitrarily labeled 'grown up’ when you’re not ready (aka handed godhood by a game that doesn’t understand people) can fuck you up, and there is no single winning screen in life. Just a big old meta experiment on unreliable narrators. I can see where some of this is coming from, but frankly, I found it disturbingly sexist (even if it is intended to be so for effect). A lot of the sex and violence felt over the top and graphic just to be #ow the edge rather than serving any narrative purpose. Also, authors can do what they want with their texts, and they’re allowed to write tragedies, but after Hussie’s self-insert informs Caliborn that the most important stories are about friendship and teamwork and the fandom (that I’ve seen anyway) really responding to the bonds between characters, it felt cruel. That’s my feeling. Not everyone shares it. But hey, I’ve got my solution.

[eidetic187]

post 8 facts about your character and tag eight other characters.

I. Spencer is multilingual

Canonly, he knows Spanish, Russian, Korean, and an African Language which escapes me (i tried looking through his wiki to get the name of it, and it’s not on there). In addition to this, I headcanon that he knows Japanese and Chinese, and @hrdisaster’s oc taught him Gaelic.

II. Reid gambled to help pay for his mother’s medical bills

We know he can count cards, and we know he’s banned from several casinos in Las Vegas Laughlin and Pahrump. Well, he has to get banned somehow, yes? And though he did go to college outside of Nevada, his mom was not put into a sanitarium until he was 18, as he had to send her there himself. If we assume he got one of his PhDs first, and had a FULL RIDE considering his intellect (you can’t tell me universities wouldn’t scramble for a student with 187 IQ and eidetic memory), and he started at 12 and a PhD takes 6 years, we can assume he finished his first degree & then moved back to Vegas and had her admitted. Then, if we add that there is no mention of a gambling habit in canon, i can only assume he would count cards to get money for his mother, as i can’t see any other reason for him to be banned. So i like to think that before he decided to join the FBI, he spent a couple years in Vegas, counting cards and saving the money he won to help pay his mom’s bills. I’d also like to add he knows how to get his money’s worth from machines, too; in Memorium, he wins i believe 2k+ from a machine, and when the woman next to him implies the machine is rigged, he answers that it’s all probability & math. So…he definitely knew how to get more than enough money from cards & machines.

III. Spencer likes to fix up old cars

This is a headcanon born from a conversation with a friend. I think it’s implied in canon that reid doesn’t enjoy driving very much (or at least that he’s not very good at it) Yet, his own car is a classic volvo, and he’s shown bonding with rossi over their love of classic cars. This could just be spencer’s weird aversion to anything modern (dude still doesn’t have a smartphone), but I like to headcanon that he has a think for fixing them up. He does have an engineering degree, so I like to think he has at least some interest/love for machines, especially older ones. I mean, if his car breaks down, not many people in the modern era now how to fix up a classic car. plus who doesn’t enjoy the image of mechanic spencer [eyes emoji]

IV. Spencer is agnostic

Doctor Spencer Reid, owner of 6 college degrees, likes to consider himself a man of science. And until he was 27, he was an atheist. As a man of science he had no reason or proof to believe that any god or other higher being was real. But after dying in Tobias’ shed ever so briefly, and experiencing what he did, he can no longer completely dismiss the existence of an afterlife or higher power. And this is a source of great conflict for him; he can’t explain the light he saw away with just ‘hospital lights,’ as he was in a dark & dirty shed when he died. Yet, as a man of science, he has no reason to believe the teachings of any religion. As a result, he settles for being agnostic; he believes there is a higher power but that there is no way for sure to know anything about it.

V. Spencer loves KDramas

In season 3 we learn that Spencer enjoys american soaps. I like to think that when he learn languages, he consumes the media to learn slang & grammar structure and the like. Someone with an eidetic memory can easily memorize a dictionary, but languages need to be learned in practice as well. You can’t just read a dictionary and then be fluent in a language. Considering he learned korean and likes american soaps…yeah, i feel like he would watch kdramas while learning korean and inevitably fall in love with them lmao.

VI.  Not much of a drinker

Spencer’s not real big on consuming alcohol. He’ll drink wine (and maybe a fancy fruity drink) on special occasions, but he likes to drink as little as possible. This is in part due to his past drug addiction; after sobering up and fighting off possible relapses, he likes to stay away from anything addictive. We this especially when he refuses narcotics even in the hospital; no matter the pain he’s in, he refuses any medicine that can spark another addiction. I think this would go for any other type of addictive substance as well; he’s battled addiction once, he doesn’t want to do it again with a different substance. We also see this subtly in canon; in the Tobias episode itself, we see him playing a drinking game with what I assume are friends. However, after the Tobias & drug addiction arc, we rarely see him with alcohol, even when some of the team has alcohol. When he’s in a bar with rossi in season 8/9 (?), he orders an arnold palmer, which CAN be alcoholic, but tends not to be. it’s literally a mixture of lemonade and tea (the alcoholic version tends to be made with vodka so even if this WAS one of the occasions spencer would drink alcohol, i doubt he’d go with vodka so yeah. it was a virgin drink.) In short, spencer will drink on occasion, but he tries to drink as little as possible and he doesn’t drink without reason.

VII. not very sexual

Spencer is, without a doubt. on the asexual spectrum. Considering he hates the unknown, he’d probably search for a label, and he might settle with demisexual – meaning he will experience sexual attraction only after a strong emotional bond has been made. In other words, spencer is not likely to jump in to bed with just anyone, and considering his romantic history, spencer reid is probably still a virgin. The only reason I say probably is because he could have experimented with Ethan in college to try and figure out his sexuality, but i also lean a bit more toward the idea that even if he did experiment, he might not have had full on penetrative sex with someone. And considering the only serious relationship he had in canon was with someone he didn’t mean until the day she died, I think it’s safe for me to assume that spencer is still a virgin and is 100% okay with that fact. Sex is not something he’s dying to have; it’s in the background, a mere possibility if he ever gets into a serious enough relationship with someone to experience sexual attraction.

VIII. eyesight

Spencer has cataracts & wears contacts. The main reason he wears contacts is because of his job; if an unsub were to knock off his glasses in the field, he’d be incredibly vulnerable & find difficulty defending himself. So, he goes for contacts. However, sometimes he can’t be bothered putting them on in the morning, and sometimes they bother his eyes. so he has definitely shown up to work a few times in glasses. He does keep both glasses & contacts in his go bag, and will switch glasses for contacts if he needs to go out in the field.

TAGGED BY: @solucius TAGGING: you do you fam

[rwby-fan-theories]

jaunes secondary allusion is hercules from greek mythology

 jaunes secondary allusion is hercules from greek mythology

(I mean roman torchwick  alludes to Romeo Candlewick from the story Pinocchio.His appearance bears some resemblance to Candlewick’s appearance in Disney’s film adaptation of Pinocchio named Lampwick.The director’s commentary on the RWBY Volume 1 DVD mentions that Roman’s appearance is a “shout-out to A Clockwork Orange” (1971 British film). This is likely because his appearance, in particular the bowler hat, eyeliner and penchant for white clothing, echoes the appearance of the gang (known as the “droogs”) in the film. so he alludes to two characters and possibly another so it shows that a character can have more thna one reference though they will have a character they will mainly allude to)

 I mean hercules was the greatest hero of greek mythology greater than achilles (both hercules/heracles and achilles were trained by chiron ) who is pyrrhas inspiration ( achilles crossdressed as a red haired woman named pyrrha) so jaune representing hercules (He and his friends conquered Troy in a couple of days. 2-3 generations later it took all of Greece sending their badasses at the Trojans (including achilles) and a 10 year siege to beat them. ) could represent jaune  eventually surpassing pyrrha nikos plus it would be interesting if jaunes biological  dads name was jupiter (after the roman. God jupiter who is hercules father and the roman counterpart to zeus i mean there were already two characters whose inspirations were roman gods (neptune and mercury)  ( heck what if the the man who raised jaune along with his  mother wasnt actually his biological father and his biological mother had an affair and sired jaune ( though I would doubt that rt would pull that ) also  Omphale, Queen of Lydia, forced hercules to dress in woman’s clothing and do women’s work so hercules had cross dressed as woman like how jaune cross-dressed in womens clothing and hercules was known for his strength( and he was also pretty smart ) 

and jaune has shown a lot of raw power in terms of physical strength despite having never been trained before the beginning of rwby

Can we talk about how abnormally strong Jaune is?

Like jesus christ, he’s holding up a whole god damn, steroids-induced horse.

What about those times he deflected a serious blow by doing nothing more than flinging his shield up in the vague direction of the strike?

And how he launched Pyrrha (a tall, amazon woman of nearly 6ft in height and solid muscle, wearing, what I can only assume, has to be quite a significant amount of extra weight of her bronze armor and weapons) ridiculously high in the air…on more than one occasion…with just a one-armed shield block.”

http://amrwantonblog.tumblr.com/post/156855700556/sometimesshattered-ask-qrow-mugendram0n

http://thereadingaddic7.tumblr.com/post/156870020196/what-did-you-think-of-the-scene-where-jaune#notes

“

the scene where Jaune stopped a giant Death Stalker claw with his shield and didn’t even sway backwards with the force, let alone get knocked flying off his feet?

What did you of the scene where, after Pyrrha pulled his shield into place, Jaune caught an Ursa Major’s paw while his feet weren’t even properly braced underneath him, and the strike still didn’t force his knee to touch the ground?

Or the moment immediately after that, where Jaune jumped into the air and swung his sword without any leverage with the ground, striking with enough force to cut through layers of unnatural, harden-muscle and the bones of the Ursa Major’s neck in order to take its head clean off? (A feat that Emerald Sustrai could not manage against a smaller Ursa Major during the Breach.)

Or the moment in the Battle of Beacon where Jaune blasts an Ursa off its feet with a shield charge, and quite possibly killed it?

Ever since Pyrrha forcefully awakened Jaune to his Aura, he has never lacked for raw power. The problem is that he lacks the finesse that only years of training could give him. Even assuming that Jaune outclasses Cardin Winchester in terms of striking power, Cardin would still toy with him in dueling class through superior footwork, striking technique, parrying technique, and tactics. So long as Jaune can’t hit Cardin and can’t avoid Cardin’s hits, Cardin wins.

Not to mention the start of the fight with the Ursa, where he managed to intercept the strike intended for Cardin without Pyrrha supporting him.”

http://ofdustandpotions.tumblr.com/post/156860304942/jaune-literally-does-have-a-shit-ton-of-aura-a

“

jaune literally does have a shit ton of aura

a fucking trained huntsman lost his after not too many blows with someone of equal strength but jaune can be bitch-slapped and kicked in the chest by a fifty-ton horse-man, be blown back and still has his aura as well as the strength to stop the same fifty-ton horse man from straight up destroying a fucking building

AND he was literally the only one out of RNJR, Qrow + Tyrian who’s aura didn’t break”

and jaune is pretty smart ( he is a good tactician and this is despite being less experienced than his friends and this was shown in the fight against the death stalker)

https://rwby-fan-theories.tumblr.com/post/151520979338/jaune-is-smart#notes

Ozpin states in Volume 2 that students must pass rigorous entrance exams. Jaune forged his transcripts, but no one said anything about the exams. He likely passed those purely by guesswork but the transcripts had to be faked because he’d never attended a battle school prior to Beacon.

about jaune labeling his shoes  he has “left” and “right” . Miles once said that Jaune was worried that something may happen to him that makes him confuse left and right, such as a concussion and he needs the help

Not to mention, he ends up doing Cardin’s homework (long story). Why would Cardin risk giving him his homework if Jaune had beef with him and could have written a bunch of seemingly correct answers that would have tanked his grade into suspension? And more to the point, if Jaune cheated his way into the Beacon entrance exams due to lack of combat skill AND lack of smarts, why would he trust Jaune with his homework in the first place? Maybe Jaune’s more studious than he seems on camera…”

plus here is heracles/hercules death 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heracles#Death “

Several years later, rumor tells Deianira that she has a rival for the love of Heracles. Deianira, remembering Nessus’ words, gives Heracles the bloodstained shirt. Lichas, the herald, delivers the shirt to Heracles. However, it is still covered in the Hydra’s blood from Heracles’ arrows, and this poisons him, tearing his skin and exposing his bones. Before he dies, Heracles throws Lichas into the sea, thinking he was the one who poisoned him (according to several versions, Lichas turns to stone, becoming a rock standing in the sea, named for him). Heracles then uproots several trees and builds a funeral pyre on Mount Oeta, which Poeas, father of Philoctetes, lights. As his body burns, only his immortal side is left. Through Zeus’ apotheosis, Heracles rises to Olympus as he dies.

No one but Heracles’ friend Philoctetes (Poeas in some versions) would light his funeral pyre (in an alternate version, it is Iolaus who lights the pyre). For this action, Philoctetes or Poeas received Heracles’ bow and arrows, which were later needed by the Greeks to defeat Troy in the Trojan War.”

and heracles was then the  Gatekeeper of Olympus God of strength, heroes, sports, athletes, health, agriculture, fertility, trade, oracles and divine protector of mankind 

heracles was the greatest of greek heroes ( so it would fit jaune with how jaune is going to eventually surpass pyrrha

heracles had died after being poisoned by hydra poison and made a funeral pyre for himself and was burnt when he was still alive and joan of arc who is jaunes main inspiration was killed when she was  burnt at the stake / pyre

so it would fit for jaunes secondary allusion to be hercules plus

heracles had been descended from pereus and was intended to become a high king “On the night the twins Heracles and Iphicles were to be born, Hera, knowing of her husband Zeus’ adultery, persuaded Zeus to swear an oath that the child born that night to a member of the House of Perseus would become High King. Hera did this knowing that while Heracles was to be born a descendant of Perseus, so too was Eurystheus. Once the oath was sworn, Hera hurried to Alcmene’s dwelling and slowed the birth of the twins Heracles and Iphicles by forcing Ilithyia, goddess of childbirth, to sit crosslegged with her clothing tied in knots, thereby causing the twins to be trapped in the womb. Meanwhile, Hera caused Eurystheus to be born prematurely, making him High King in place of Heracles.”

and there is a theory that jaunes ancestor is the king of vale be it from his fathers side or here is another possibility and would be an interesting twist if jaunes was descended from the king of vale on his mothers side since hercules mother was a daughter of a king (  Electryon, the son of Perseus and Andromeda, and king of Tiryns and Mycenae )

heracles had royal blood in his veins which jaune would have if he was descended from the king of vale 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcmene

http://megashadowdragon.tumblr.com/post/155858302717/jaunes-great-grand-father-was-the-king-of-vale-who

rens inspiration is mulan 

http://schnee-dust-co.tumblr.com/post/152509473882

and as @schnee-dust-co post shows Ren has a noticeable reaction to finding Xione in ruins and the dying hunter, and both he and Nora seem like they have some previous experience with this sort of thing. The reaction upon finding this scene is also very reminiscent of a similar scene in Mulan.

so it would show that the writers would have no problem using a scene from the disney versions to reference using a character reference and jaunes desire to be a hero is similar to hercules goal on being a hero  pluss jaunes body type is similar o hercules from the disney films body type when he began and hercules had been told to think with his head in a fight and not go charging in which had been jaunes problem where he ignored defense. and jaune wants to go the distance. plus the fact that joan of arc who jaunes main  inspiration ( I think the writers are just referencing hercules and using it as reference . anyway joan of arcs jaunes main inspiration started off as just a  simple farm girl but then she began to lead the french army etc. and became a figure that many people would now while if she stayed a farm girl no one would know her ame. she went from zero to hero( I am just trying to force a reference to the song in disney movie)  you could say she went from a