#RWBY Underground

[magicianrabbidsupremacy]

Oh god what have I done

[turbomnstr]

[bobauthorman]

Ruby Rose’s future opponent on Death Battle

[lipeg]

Bad Jaune had left Ever Alter. He had barely taken the first step in Remmant. He was old again.

Jaune: I should have killed that girl

Weiss was jumping for joy in her mind.

Yang: Look on the bright side—

Yang's sentence was interrupted as Jaune armor crumbled to dust.

Underneath the armor.

Jaune was wearing a black shirt that seemed to be clinging to his body, showing off his muscle very good work.

His arms were strong and huge, full of scars.

Jaune looked at team RWBY.

Weiss had her mouth open and was drooling as blood spurted from her nose.

Blake's face turned red.

Ruby just blinked.

Yang: You are now Dilf! A, your sword shining

Yang pointed to Jaune's sword that had fallen to the ground.

Jaune turned to see that his weapon was indeed emitting a strong glow.

His eyes widened for an instant.

He grabbed his weapon and said something very low.

Jaune: Calm down

All except Blake, who was confused by what Jaune had said.

His weapon stopped glowing, Jaune sighed.

Jaune stood, holding the weapon in his left hand. He wasn't holding his weapon by the hilt, he was holding it by the sheath.

Because he didn't have the accessory to hold his weapon.

Ruby: What happened to your armor?

Jaune: Ruby, that armor should have been destroyed a long time ago

Ruby: ?

Jaune: That armor was rubbish, I wish I had gotten rid of it long ago and replaced it with a new one.

Yang: So.... Why didn't you do it?

Jaune: I was cursed

Ruby: By whom?

Jaune: A cursed creature that I should have killed at the first opportunity. That thing still laughs! Just remembering it makes me angry

His eyes began to glow for a moment.

Weiss: What was the curse

Jaune calmed down.

Jaune: I could never take off my armor. If my armor was destroyed, I would die instantly. Also, the armor would lose its resistance with every hit I took

Blake: But your armor is still quite good

Jaune: It's because of my aura

RWBY: What?

Jaune: It is serious? I was in that place for years, do you think I had no training?

RWBY:.... 😶

Jaune: I spent most of my youth training to improve my fighting skills. This allowed me to develop my skills and to evolve my Semblante

Yang: Then why were you so easy to defeat?

Jaune: Curses also diminish my skills a little

Weiss: Wait a minute. You said your armor didn't break because of your aura right?

Jaune: Yeah

Weiss: But that should be impossible. And who was this creature that cursed you, and why did he or she do it?

Jaune: Why didn't I sleep with her

...

...

Yang: She was sexy?

Blake: YANG!

Yang: There must be a reason he doesn't want to have sex

Weiss: Let's get back to the main topic. Who is this woman

Jaune: None of you know her, her name is not found in any fairy tale

Ruby: So who is she, where did you find her

Jaune: She called herself Merlin. I found her while exploring the underground of that place

Weiss: Does that place have a underground?

Jaune: Yes, I would say or I could say that the underground is better than the surface. I had a good time down there and discovered and learned some really interesting things there.

Yang: Come on, does it really matter if she was sexy or not?

Blake: YANG!

Yang: THAT!?

Jaune: *sigh* Yes, Yang, she was sexy

Yang: So why didn't you sleep with her?

Jaune: Why didn't I want

Yang: You are a shame

Jaune: Have you ever looked in the mirror?

Yang: It is clear! I am wonderful, there is no one like me

Jaune started laughing.

Yang: I told the funny guy

Jaune: Yes, in that one I saw the most beautiful women there are

Yang: I doubt

Jaune pulled his scroll out of his pocket.

Jaune: So see

Team RWBY was impressed.

Blake looked at Yang.

Yang looked at Blake.

The two of them were nothing compared to this woman.

Jaune put his scroll in his pocket.

Jaune: Let's go before we get caught in a sandstorm

Ruby and Yang were crying in their uncle's arms.

Weiss was reunited with her family.

Jaune...

Ren:...

Nora:...

Ren:...

Nora:...

Ren:...

Nora:...

Ren:...

Nora:...

Jaune: You're not going to say anything?

Nora: What do you want us to say!?

Ren: Nora is right, we…… We don't expect you like this

Jaune: Like this?

Nora: You look taller!

Jaune: I'm still 180

Nora: You've become a wall of muscles!

Jaune: I'm not even that muscular

Nora: That beard and that ponytail and... That's Pyrrha's

Nora pointed to the piece of cloth in his hair.

Jaune: * Sigh * Yes, that's what was left of her, I couldn't save the rest. I went through hell on earth

Nora and Ren looked at their former leader and saw a man breaking.

Nora: Jaune, can I take a picture of you?

Jaune: Can

When Jaune crossed his arms, Nora ran very quickly and lifted his shirt.

Jaune had a well-defined six-pack and a few scars, but there was one that stood out.

Four horizontal claw marks on the abdomen.

Nora took the photo very quickly before Jaune could do anything.

Jaune looked at Ren.

Ren raised his shoulders and then lowered them because he didn't understand anything.

Jaune: Nora who did you send this photo to?

With a smile on her face, Nora showed her scroll.

His eyes widened a little.

Saphron Cotta-Arc

Single mothers of Atlas

[bestworstcase]

thoughts cooking.

mountain glenn, grimm overwhelmed the city and the people took shelter in caves, building an entire underground city after the destruction above. an explosion later opens a breach into a grimm nest, grimm flood the city again, and vale seals off the tunnels, implicitly without attempting rescue or evacuation, sacrificing the people to protect the core city.

<- same choice ironwood made.

“i see lives that could have been saved,” and all. vale created the world’s largest tomb.

fast forward a few decades. a single transport ship approaches vacuo with the news that salem came to vale and “there’s nothing left.” the huntsmen aboard “led the civilian retreat, brought as many people as we could…”

that turn of phrase—‘led the civilian retreat’—doesn’t evoke a panicked, disorganized scramble to get away from vale. it calls to mind the orderly evacuation procedures we saw during the battle for beacon, where people were loaded efficiently into transports to move them from beacon into a safe zone established in vale. port and oobleck were in charge of that retreat too. (and it demonstrated generally that emergency evacuation is something vale has on a lock—the assault on beacon blindsided everyone but the kingdom’s crisis response plan sprang into action like a well-oiled machine.)

only one ship, though.

when cinder attacked beacon, they retreated to a safe zone in vale. when salem hit vale, the immediately obvious place to establish a safe zone is patch—it’s close by but separated by a body of water, and it’s relatively defensible (an island). unlike vale, patch probably doesn’t have the room or resources to support a large urban population indefinitely, but you can use it as a relatively secure staging area for a subsequent evacuation to somewhere else. what you probably can’t do is squeeze anything like the majority of vale’s population onto patch island. (i mean, you could if it’s as huge as it appears to be on the map, but the map is NOT to scale and i get the impression that patch is supposed to be quite small.)

mountain glenn. “i see lives that could have been saved.” vale’s greatest failure, standing abandoned as a dark reminder. and “if you can’t learn from [history], you’re destined to repeat it.” did vale learn from its failure in abandoning mountain glenn to die?

in this fractal spiral of a story. ironwood didn’t get his way, but what if he had? “we are saving who we can” -> “brought as many people with us as we could,” with the history teacher whose chosen purpose is to prevent another mountain glenn from happening hunched over, haunted, in the background. is this a fucking counterfactual.

also if there were people left behind in vale, the mountain glenn undercity is the obvious place for them to flee. it’s not safe, but you can get there from vale through the tunnels (less exposed than driving or flying above ground) and if you can barricade the points of ingress to the cavern, it’s at least a more defensible place to set up an encampment than anywhere out in the open.

and i mean it might be that salem massacred the city and let one ship escape to maximize the damage to morale and provoke as much outrage as possible for the sake of getting the sword out of that vault. but mountain glenn is such a crucial narrative cornerstone, and vale has a history of making the kind of sacrifices ironwood tried to make with mantle, and the specific phrasing used here is interesting (“nothing left” vs “no one left,” “civilian retreat” implying an orderly process a la the evacuation from beacon).

i think it’s also the more narratively interesting and dynamic choice for there to have been a judgment call to leave a large number of people behind—it’s a counterfactual vehicle for unpacking team rwby’s conflicted feelings about their decision-making in atlas through comparison to what vale’s leadership did in the same situation, and there being some ambiguity as to whether anyone else survived allows for a thin ray of hope (maybe there are some people still alive) to galvanize the coalition into a counteroffensive (if there’s even the smallest possibility of survivors, we need to help them. we have to try.) and you draw the tension in salem’s character between her extremism and her effort to chart what she believes is the minimally destructive course to the surface by putting a survivor’s encampment within her immediate reach.

[midnightechoes]

So this week is going to go down as maybe the most sapphic week in animation history. It’s going to have a great case, there are so many sapphic shows or shows with prominent sapphic couples airing this week.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Here’s a quick rundown:

Yuri Is My Job!

Premiering on Crunchyroll on April 6th.

Yuri is My Job! is based on a yuri manga of the same name. It follows high schooler Hime, who cares deeply about her image as sweet and helpful, even though she’s actually selfish. She accidentally injures the manager of a cafe, and agrees to work there to make up for it. But this is no ordinary cafe, it’s like a cafe dinner theater where all the waitresses play characters from a fictional high school and act out skits for the patrons. Hime’s character is supposed to be in love with one of the other waitresses’ character, but she starts actually falling for the girl. Only problem is, behind the scenes the other waitress seems to hate her.

Yeah, that sounds kind of bonkers! I can already see the story now, Hime starting out playing a role, and eventually having to legitimately earn the love of Mitsuki.

Birdie Wing: Golf Girls’ Story

Season 2 premiering on Crunchyroll on Friday, April 7th

Ah Birdie Wing. If you saw season one, you know just how delightful wacky this show is. It follows the stories of Eve, a golfer that plays in illegal underground golf matches for the mob, and Aoi, a golf prodigy and the new sensation of the golf world. Their lives crash into each other and the chemistry is overwhelming and immediate.

Technically Eve and Aoi aren’t canon as of the end of s1, but it’s hard to imagine that the show isn’t heading in that direction. It makes no effort to hide the fact that these two are into each other.

I’m so excited to see what season 2 has in store for these two. Birdie Wing is just a delightfully weird little show.

Princess Principal: Crown Handler Chapter 3

Premieres in theaters in Japan on Friday, April 7th

Alright, so this won’t be useful to a lot of people reading this, as this is only premiering in Japan this weekend. But I wanted to mention it because (a) it’ll come over to the US sometime this year, and (b) Princess Principal is awesome and I want to promote it when I can.

Princess Principal was a 12 episode series that aired in 2017, and Crown Handler is a six-part sequel OVA series.

In a nutshell, Princess Principal is a steampunk spy thriller set in an alternate universe European kingdom that has been divided by a wall, Berlin-style. It follows a team of spies, masquerading as high school girls, as they try to prevent the two sides from going to war.

I know, “why is this on a list of gay shit?” Well, because it is. Two of the main characters, Ange and Princess Charlotte, are big-time into each other and while the original series does the anime thing of “we’re only allowed to go so far with this”, the OG series has a lot of intimate scenes between the two and does end *SPOILERS* with the two of them sitting on the beach together while holding hands.

And perhaps Crown Handler, being made years later, can finally take their relationship farther.

RWBY Volume 9

Volume 9 episode 8 airing on Crunchyroll on Saturday, April 8th

RWBY has been ongoing, and the current volume has been airing since February, but there’ll be another episode this Saturday. Right now RWBY is in the middle of dealing with a lot of trauma, BUT, the bees are canon and dating so every episode of RWBY is now officially gay. So says me.

The Owl House: Watching and Dreaming

 Series finale airing on the Disney Channel on Saturday, April 8th

I’M NOT READY TO LOSE THIS SHOW! 😭

*ahem* The third and final season 3 special airs on Saturday, and promises to be mega emotional and super gay.

I’m grateful that this show had a chance to finish its story, something a lot of sapphic media doesn’t get to do. But I am still pissed about it getting cancelled in the first place simply because it didn’t fit their “brand” (read: this show is too gay for Disney).

But I just know that Dana and her team put together a sensational finale.

Mobile Suit Gundam: the Witch From Mercury

Season 2 premiering on Crunchyroll on Sunday, April 9th.

Affectionately called G-Witch, season 1 of this show was a revelation in the fall. It follows the story of Suletta Mercury, precious cinnamon roll and the most talented mobile suit pilot around, and Miorine Rembran, daughter of the president of the Benerit Group, a mega-corporation that has massive political power.

The show revolves around a school that’s mostly full of the children of powerful people. And then there’s Suletta, a nobody that just wants to be a normal girl and have a normal school life but through a series of events ends up in a mobile suit duel that she easily wins, earning her the title of Holder, which makes her Miroine’s groom.

At first, the two treat the arrangement as a business arrangement, both seeing practical value in this arranged engagement. But it’s obvious that Miorine is actually pretty into Suletta from the start, and we see Suletta slowly falling for Miorine too.

G-Witch is incredible. Part awesome mecha fights, part political intrigue, part romance between two useless girls who’d rather die that admit their actual feelings.

I am SO EXCITED for season 2!

LGBTQ media hasn’t had it great as of late, with a ton of frustrating cancellations and it almost feeling like Hollywood is going backwards in terms of its commitment to giving us space to tell our stories.

But animation, both in the US and in Japan, seems to be making great strides, being our light in the dark.

All five of these shows are airing episodes this week, and Crown Handler will be in theaters this week and on streaming/blu-ray later this year. RWBY has been airing for weeks and its been the gayest volume yet. the Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady just finished airing and was wonderfully sapphic. I’m In Love With the Villainess is scheduled to air sometimes this year. And just maybe we might get Arcane season 2 before the end of the year.

I’m excited for how sapphic and yuri animation is progressing, I hope it keeps going forward.

[elmushterri]

I have a question or two 1. Do tye knights like have their own world or is it like just part of the real Earth like underground or a castle palace thing or is it like another planet or world? 2. I know someone asked this kinda but what limit do the powers have like if my OC were to have lunar powers connected to the moon and stars or no is that Jules' thing 3. What is the limit to the weapons they can like have can they have any kind of weapon or does it have to be midevil weapons (thanks ia)

1. The Knights have their own world. Sort of like how Spiderverse has the Spider society place (I forget what it’s called) but that’s one building, whereas Knights have a slightly abstract world (so it’s not 100% a city just like Earth’s, but does have hangout areas and armouries and such! And notably, the palace where the Queen resides.) You get there using your Handbook.

(It’s all still in development buuut I think the idea is that, in the same way that you can “text” other people by writing in the handbook (probably by drawing their symbol), you can probably draw a specific symbol into your book and open up a portal to the Knight Realm)

2. It’s sort of like I said, abilities can be like RWBY semblances. Like how Ruby has super speed (I know it’s technically not that but you get it 🤣), Blake can make shadow clones of herself, Emerald can make illusions (but only directed into one person’s mind), Neo can shapeshift, Nora can turn electricity into physical power when electrocuted. Not insane stuff like manipulating the whole moon and such. Your ability does get boosted in True Knight Form (basically going extreme super saiyan/titan form/calamity form for Owl House and Amphibia fans!). Queens have the most power because they’re “biologically Queens” not just “in their hearts” or something, it’s a physical thing. (Like how Queen bees aren’t just random bees, they’re fed Royal Jelly when they’re larvae and therefore are physically Queen Bees.)

2. As for Jules’ ability, I’m not fully sure what it is yet, but there can be duplicate/similar abilities so don’t worry about the moon thing! You can go for it as long as it’s not like, vague such as “Moon manipulation”, it’s gotta be something specific like RWBY abilities with healthy limitations.

3. Weapons can be anything save for like.. tanks or something 😭. Guns also go but ideally they wouldn’t be grey coloured and mechanical like IRL but fancy and colourful. Instead of physical bullets or arrows in the case of bows, a Knight uses their energy as the shots, this can run out because it makes them more tired if they try to go further than a “real gun/real arrow quiver could carry”. Like a health bar that regenerates with rest, using too many magic bullets will deplete your health bar bit by bit. That’s not a terrific analogy but!

I promise to make actual art posts relating to this later!

[felix-mateo]

BEAST AU

Jaune arc is 15 years old when he is all alone training to be a huntsman. He is alone and deep in the forest due to his father stopping him from training. One night, as he is heading back home. He is kidnaped by a cult. This cult worships the beast god. The god in the fairy tale story of rwby.

This cult is angry with humanity as they have treated the Faunus like shit for BS reasons. So, they decide to teach humanity a lesson. One of the leaders is a genetic scientist. The scientist uses his studies to turn humans into SPLICERS.

WHAT IS A SPLICERS

Splicing: is the act of mixing and crossing DNA from two or more different species. This produces hybrid/chimera organisms. Commonly, it was done by mixing human DNA with animal genes so as to enhance the recipient's genetic material. However, there were other forms of splicing that left humans... mindless and savage...just like the grimm.

Jaune arc kidnaped at 15 is experimented on as his animal trate was a bunny as he now has bunny ears, a tail, and bunny feet. After he is studied and altered he is forced into a very large cage with others who have been spliced like him. Now forced to fight each other like a savage animal to live jaune had to live for 2 years trapped in that crazy place fighting, killing, and eating others just to survive. Until a faithful day came.

The huntsmen and huntresses came to arrest and shut down the cult. But they faught back. Releasing the spliced blood was shed on both sides. Jaune arc now alone and mutated he runs for his life away from the battle wanting to live. His animal instincts take over to run away from that terrible place. He soon learns the cult was taking refuge in MANTEL.

All alone and no way to get home jaune arc walks around aimless as his animal instincts lead the way until he runs into an underground pit fight arena hiden underground. Jaune escaped one Hell hole only to enter another.

Forced to fight for cash, food, clothing, and housing a spliced jaune fights for 1 year and shoots up the ranks. Now at the age of 18 he can't even remember the faces of hi family as he entered the arena seeing his potent covered in a dark cloak on and had orange hair.

[oceandirtcountry]

here’s a few thoughts I’ve had drifting around my head on @destiny-in-the-universe’s Project:Zero

Smack dab in the centre of every hero district is the Main hub (Zero Hub?), a place where everyone can go. It’s usually where evacuations happen, where troops are mobilised to handle threats the heroes are a tad bit lazy to go handle, and others, because god knows those residents need a respite from whatever our heroes are gonna pull.

Resident guides in the hub:

- Miko Kubota and Hector Nieves, AKA Miko and Five. Zero hub’s amazing (not really) tech support, they’re well-versed in all tech from many districts, and help their boss (Phil) to run the VR simulations system that allows troops to train, although its a bit…glitchy (eh? Eh?)

-Phineas Flynn and Ferb Fletcher. Child prodigies who have built tons of useful stuff for the hub, although some of their ideas tend to be…comically overblown.

Zero agents, tasked with enforcing law and keeping peace, also ensuring that the heroes don’t go rogue, basically replace the Plumbers, Providence, Huntsmen, whatever super military that the show in question has. The most well-known is the high-ranking unit known as Kim Possible, who has pulled off some crazy missions in her time. She’s crowned as the resident “hero” of the Hub.

Resident hero of district 4, AKA Danville: Agent P, or as he’s more well known…PERRY THE PLATYPUS?! Perry is a literal platypus, but that takes away nothing from his heroics. He’s saved countless citizens in danger due to his ability to pull off disguise missions and infiltrations that other heroes would be too afraid (or too loud and screamy) to pull off. Probably the most little-known as he’s often parading around as a normal old platypus.

Resident hero of district 3, AKA the Providence science headquarters: Rex Salazar, or his other name, Generator Rex. Rex’s district is relatively tame and more of a science facility, but when shit goes down in that canyon, shit goes down. Rex is adaptable, quick on his feet, and has a far less privileged life than the other heroes…and tends to be a little spiteful towards them for it.

After a little team-up with the hero of district 10, the two become much closer together and begin helping to form the Zero squadron.

Resident hero of district 10 (he called dibs on that district) AKA Bellwood: Benjamin Kirby Tennyson, famously known as Ben 10. Ben takes great pride in protecting his own district, although he does end up with the most collateral damage at the end of the day. Bellwood is also a hotspot for alien invasions and the like, which may be partly because of their hero.

Resident hero(es) of district 9, AKA Vale: Ruby Rose, leader of team RWBY. Vale is far more technologically advanced than most of the other districts, and they do flaunt it to everyone. Every single person here boasts hyper-technologically advanced weaponry, save for that funny little blonde lady with kaboom gauntlets that make her punch hard. Being a relatively large district, it’s often plagued by dark, murderous creatures known as Grimm, seeming to be controlled by an underground source.

(For Randy and Danny, I figure I’ll let others take the lead on those, because while I’ve watched them, I’m not entirely super well-versed [ive watched little Danny Phantom, a ton Randy Cunningham] so it’s up to you guys. It’s just some ideas on how it works, but it’s pretty exciting!)

[un-pearable]

going back and watching older hbomb videos and thinking about the rwby one in particular bc half their story issues stem from the inexperienced writers having to build the show around fight scenes animated by their much more talented and uncompromising director (and doing so badly) . which is incredibly funny as a ninjago fan considering the entire show is a series of toy ads for the lego sets that release with each season and they worked those into the narrative so well no one even questioned why they built a rotojet underground to escape a noodle factory

[rubykgrant]

Imagine RvB characters with superpowers. But just one each, like in RWBY or My Hero Academia. Could totally see Sarge being an unstoppable force, or Tucker being the center of attention, or Caboose being able to make things not work properly. Church splitting off parts of his psyche as clones. Maine having permanent copies of powers. Wash making a memory fog. Kimball having a speed buff for herself & others. Jax making videos of his memory. Just so many possibilities!

There are a handful of RVB Super Power AUs out there that are all very interesting (the two I'm more familiar with are the "Villain AU" by @smilysstuff , and "We Didn't Even Kiss Until Issue 26" by @cinaed . I've also seen some cool Spider-Man/Spider-Verse concepts from @leonardalphachurch and @donut-entendre ~)

You've got some cool super power ideas for them too! The characters are all so weird, it is easy to take the various talents or certain personality traits and turn them into super abilities, either ones that fit easily with them, or perhaps ones that seem like the "opposite" of what is typical.

If I was going to put them into a Super Hero setting, but maybe try to make it a little different from some of the others I've seen... I might put them in a Batman scenario! Except it doesn't totally follow the same formula... because NONE of these dudes are a billionaire playboy who is also a scientist and expert martial artist. So instead...

"Blood Gulch" is actually the name for a small area of the city (basically, Crime Alley), and through some random (or perhaps connected) events, a lot of people have had an unpleasant experience there... Church woke up with no memory besides his name and a few vague bits of info of his life. Tucker was attacked, and his child was kid-napped. Caboose lost his penny (everybody thinks this is stupid, but you don't understand; it was the GIANT penny!). Donut got nailed with a grenade. Grif got ran-over by a tank (followed by Simmons agreeing to give up some organs to try and save his life at a hospital, but when doctors insisted Grif wouldn't survive the surgery, Simmons followed a very shady tip that somebody from that area could help them both... and so Simmons got a back-alley operation, then woke up a Cyborg. Grif is OK). Sarge got shot in the head. Tex "died" for the first time, and discovered she doesn't STAY dead. A strange villainous voice seems to "haunt" the area, but is only ever heard when Doc is around. Nothing bad happened to Kai, but she got busted for throwing a rave in an old warehouse there once.

Not all of this happened on the same day or anything, but it sure is a COINCIDENCE that all these people hurt somehow in this general area, isn't it!? Anyway, Church meets Tucker after Junior got kidnapped, and despite seeming so unfriendly, he's the only guy that listens to Tucker's weird story (because the group that took Junior didn't seem... human). The cops won't help, and Tucker doesn't want to leave the city unless he has a lead, so... Church takes him to where he's been crashing.

Which turns out to be a HUGE mansion, that has sat abandoned for years. Church may be a hobo, but he's a hobo with standards (also, he seems to know all the combinations for the locks. wonder why). Eventually, they run into Caboose out on the streets, sobbing over his penny. He follows them around all night, and Church finally agrees to let him com back to their mansion. Once inside, Caboose's clumsiness and nonsensical luck allows them to discover SECRET PASSAGEWAYS! There is a whole underground lair below the mansion! With some very interesting (and suspicious) technology. Oh, and it seems to be OCCUPIED as well?

So, while all that was going on, Sarge has been running around Blood Gulch at night, being a weird vigilante about it (he still has his own shotgun, but after it got damaged, the thing doesn't actually fire anymore. instead, he carries it around for the AESTHETIC, and a lot of people in the city start rumors about a guy who has a gun he doesn't shoot for some "metaphorical" reasons, but it really isn't that deep; it broke, he doesn't want to throw it away, he can't afford to get it fixed, and he's too stubborn to just get a new one. on the plus side, various bad guys have gotten the idea that if they don't use guns, the vigilante won't shoot them, so everybody has gotten less lethal in general). Sarge also collects weirdos who have gone through their own odd incidents...

He likes the idea of having a cyborg on his team, and Grif seems to be good at... not dying? That comes in handy. Donut just kinda invited himself and stuck around. Sarge finds an abandoned robot one night, so now they have a robot! His speech functions are stuck on Spanish, but Lopez is very capable at just about any task (he will still complain the whole time). Sarge decides to call their group... The Red Hood Gang! He still wears the red hoodie he had on when he got shot when doing vigilante stuff (plus a mask, and other gear). They move into what they THOUGHT was an old cave system outside the city... and find it has LOTS of interesting tech inside!

When Church's group finds out the Reds are basically living in their basement and hoarding all the cool junk, and the Reds realize these guys have an upstairs with actual bathrooms and a kitchen, they proceed to have a whole war over who gets to keep everything. As they fight and claim certain things for themselves, one of the big computers comes online... and a strange, high-pitched voice who introduces himself as Vic starts giving them info and "advice" on how to find the people that have caused their problems. Begrudgingly, the two groups decide to work together (Church's team calls themselves Blue Birds, since the gear they get is blue, and themed after birds; also, they get a cool vehicle! Sheila is their Batmobile~).

So, now the Reds and Blues are all doing vigilante stuff. They still bicker with each other, but no longer enemies. Other people in the city do not know how to deal with these chaotic weirdos. They eventually meet up with Tex, and Grif's sister figures out what her brother is up to. Doc has a brief time being "kid-napped" by the :evil voice" as O'Malley tries to be a full-on villain like the Joker, but eventually he settles down, accepts that he's really part of Doc, and they other accept Doc is part of their group too. Tucker even gets Junior back, and Caboose finds his GIANT PENNY! Things seem to being well... but THEN-

A corrupt police force doesn't like all these vigilantes exposing their own criminal activity, and hire outside help of a special agent; Washington. He initially tries to very seriously solve some of the problems in the city, and when he gets framed for even BIGGER problems, he just has his own villain-moment, taking it out on the Reds and Blues... but they win him over. New vigilante hero! He moves into the mansion with the rest of them, but one night when they return, the place has a new guest; Carolina, who informs them that this is HER FAMILY'S HOME. She's been away, doing all kinds of cool secret martial arts training around the world (that's right, she's the REAL Batman~), and comes back to to find a whole circus moved in while she was gone?

She also explained that the underground caves were where he father once had a whole secret project going on, with people being part of several experiments that claimed to make them "super heroes", but those running the show had ulterior motives (some of them were selling tech to other groups, thus creating lots of criminals with a huge advantage). Wash had been part of this program, but like the Reds, he never knew about the mansion above ground or the connection to Carolina's family. Tex was part of it too, but she kind of forgot some of it. Church... well, it seems that one the plans of Carolina's father was to try and bring her mother back to life, and one attempt involved a sample from a supernatural pool of energy, which he tested on himself first. The result was Church (this is a bit like all the R'as al Ghul/Jason Todd stuff).

More Batman-tastic shenanigans ensue... meanwhile, over in Metropolis, all the Chorus problems are happening! Instead of a surviving child of Krypton coming to Earth, a ship containing the collective history and technology landed on the planet. In secret, a group has been slowly using the advanced tech for personal gain, and some people are also stealing it for themselves. Two sides of a "war" break out, each being manipulated into fighting because once they're all gone, nothing will stop a certain rich business man from taking everything for himself (Hargrove is basically Lex Luthor. Felix and Locus use lots of Krypton tech, and also have access to the temporary Super Serum that gives them small doses of powers).

Sorry, that was a LOT for a basic "Batman/Superman" AU haha

[turbomnstr]

[kitkatopinions]

Nitpick for Day #25

The fact that Jaune's sisters aren't Hunters is a big loss for the writers and it makes some of the early dialogue in RWBY feel weird.

Iirc, in like V1, Jaune says that his whole family have been Hunters. It's already weird enough that he supposedly comes from a long line of Hunters but he doesn't know what aura is and he has no real ability to fight and nobody acts like they've heard his family name 'Arc' before in their lives. That's already weird and badly done, because if Jaune's family is populated by Hunters, then the teachers (Oz implied to have been a teacher during STRQ era and Port having been a TA during STRQ era especially) should have probably known his parents? Oz should've known several generations of his family actually? Ruby who idolizes the Hunters should have some knowledge of them? Jaune should know more about Hunters and the Grimm and fighting himself just even by pure happenstance!

But also when I say "my whole family" I usually mean my sisters???? If I say "my family is full of media critics lol" I'm very much so including my sisters within that summary. If I say "my family were all raised in church" I don't just mean my parents and grandparents, I mean my sisters too. If it doesn't apply to my sisters, I'm not gonna say "my family" I'm just gonna say "my parents and grandparents and great grandparents." There was at least an implication that Jaune's whole family including any siblings were Hunters. And yet it doesn't seem like his sisters were Hunters at all. Why? Not one of them went into the family business? Not one of them went to Haven or Beacon? And before anyone says "well some of them probably did off screen" please do not, off screen means nothing, and there's zero indication that I remember that any of Jaune's sisters were hunters. But it's so easy to slip into the show in a way that makes sense!

"Your name is Arc?" Weiss asks when she and Jaune are first introduced. "As in Topaz Arc, who just dispatched the Goliath Grimm rampaging near Argus?" Jaune, with a sigh "Uh, yeah, good ol' big sis... Anyway-"

"Didn't your sister win the Vytal Tournament?" Ruby asks Jaune. "Don't remind me," Jaune says back. "I have a lot to live up to."

"Where are your sisters in all this?" Ren asks as they're on the road in V4. "Oh well, most of them are in Vale," Jaune would respond. "They're still helping with the repairs and protecting citizens, you know, like the heroes they are." "And they just let you leave?" Nora asks. "No way. Let me tell you, running away from five overprotective big sisters who are trained to hunt is no small feat!"

Qrow, when they're in Argus with Safron and Terra: "Hey, aren't you the one that took down that underground crime ring in (city name) a few years back?" Safron: "Well, that was a long time ago. I did the whole Huntress thing for a bit, but it wasn't for me. I met Terra and we wanted to settle down. And lucky we did, since it means I could be there to help this little guy." *Ruffles Jaune's hair.* Jaune: "Saff! This is a pit stop, I'm on the field too, you know." Safron: "Fine, fine. I worry about you out there with none of us to protect you." Jaune: "I have Nora for that."

It feels like it should be easy!

[lipeg]

The RWBY team and Jaune were in Nevermore made by the Glyphs of Weiss.

Thanks to the Semblante Jaune, Weiss's Nevermore was twice as big to support the weight of the five.

They were approaching the walls of the city of Vacuo.

Ruby was more excited than ever to see Atlas's ships.

But when she got closer, she saw far fewer ships than she had in Atlas' kingdom.

Weiss: It looks like we have a reception waiting for us

Jaune: I'm not so sure

Nevermore dived.

In front of the city gates stood Qrow, Winter, Robyn, Oscar where most of his hair was white, Theodore was also present.

Nevermore landed on the ground, Ruby ran off in the direction of her dear uncle.

Ruby: UNCLE QROW!

Like a bullet, she ran out to hug her uncle. Qrow opened his arms to welcome his niece, tears falling from his eyes with happiness.

Yang ran to his dear uncle, Weiss ran to hug his dear sister.

Blake thought something was wrong, she looked back and saw Jaune with his hands in his pockets looking back.

Her cat ears heard a noise.

They were surrounding, Vacuo soldiers had their guns pointed at Team RWBY and Jaune.

Blake: Why are they pointing guns at us?

Blake and Yang and Weiss and Ruby drew their weapons.

Weiss: Winter tells them to put down their guns!

Winter: I'm not in command, Weiss

Weiss was surprised.

???: So those responsible for the destruction of Atlas are here in my kingdom

Weiss: YOU!!!

Weiss pointed Myrtenaster at the woman who had just arrived.

Winter: Weiss put down his weapon

Weiss: You've forgotten who she is, sister! Killer number Atlas is in front of us

???: Young lady, you don't have any authority, I'm the authority

Ruby: Who is she?

Weiss: Eula Lawrence, she's the biggest murderer and traitor in Atlas!

Eula: And current ruler of Vacuo

Weiss: WHAT!!!!

Eula: Arrest them and throw them in jail, we'll hold the tribunal to convict those responsible for the fall of Atlas in a week's time

Ruby: We save Atlas...

Eula: Being "saved" means destroying an inner kingdom and losing a small percentage of its population. So, you saved a lot of people! So much so that we have several Atlas scientists and engineers missing or lost

Jaune: They're all dead Eula

Everyone looked at Jaune, who had his head down.

Eula: Are you sure

Jaune pulled his scroll out of his trouser pocket and threw it to Eula.

Jaune: Here's a list of the names of almost all the missing people, some of whom I couldn't find.

Ruby: Jaune what are you talking about

Jaune: The water in that place was acidic Ruby

Everyone kept quiet.

Ruby: what?

Jaune: The sea water there was acidic. For anyone without an awakened aura or with little aura is asking to die. You certainly don't explore that place much, do you?

Blake: No

Jaune: So you were unaware of the many dangers that this place holds. I don't think you've all been underground in that place

Jaune took his left hand out of his pocket and stared at it with a sad expression, then he closed his hand tightly.

Jaune: I tried to save people from Atlas but I didn't succeed either time Eula, I'm sorry

Eula: No need Jaune, I know very well what happened in Atlas was your idea

Weiss: Did you two know each other?

Jaune: Of course, after all, she's my girlfriend

Everyone's mouth dropped. Everyone was shocked.

Weiss's soul left his body.

Yang: WHEN! HOW! You caught a big fish

Jaune: On that mission, it was just me and a few other soldiers who ended up dying in the storm.

Eula: For the first time, someone in Atlas gave me a real duel. He's worthy of being my man

Jaune: Ruby surrenders

Ruby: BUT!

Jaune: There's nothing you can do to stop it, Atlas was destroyed as a result of your plan, the idea of evacuating Atlas using the staff was also your idea. You indirectly have blood on your hands

Ruby was frustrated.

Jaune: Eula is very honorable, she will let you have a fair trial so you don't have to worry

Ruby accepted, even though she didn't want to. The RWBY team was arrested, Qrow and the others followed the guards.

X

Jaune and Eula were in her office.

Eula: So Jaune, I don't know what you've been through but I know you're much older, so do you have anything important to share?

Jaune: Yeah, I have many important things

His eyes were shining.

Jaune: Very important

I like this meme. I really like it.

But RWBY was in such a difficult situation after V9 that I wanted to finish Jaune without anyone. That he didn't stay with Ruby or Weiss.

[bestworstcase]

general question that is not ... That ... deep (i think). do you think it matters where characters or their families are from in terms of cultural differences or like world events, like cinder's backstory reveal making the atlas arc more personal for her but also stuff like "sun's from vacuo, so of course he's going to show up in vacuo during that arc of the show" (i must admit i'm asking this because i have a pet theory that summer is from either mistral or atlas and that this informs her role as a paragon and also because when you start counting so many people are from mistral and it adds to the worldbuilding for me)

character origin is absolutely something that narratively matters and in rwby’s case these decisions are being made with imo a lot of intention. for example,

argus was founded prior to the great war as a client city of mistral, having been conquered with help from mantle’s military—thus sealing the alliance between these two powers. this political arrangement persists into the present day with argus still being a mistrali territory but under the protection of the atlas military.

one of the key sources of international tension leading into the great war was vale’s criticism of the mistrali-mantelian reliance on slave labor. from this we may infer that argus was probably built on slave labor and, because it served as a hub for trade between pre-war mantle and mistral, with mistral “providing goods [that were] unavailable in the frozen tundra,” argus was a central hub of the mistrali-mantelian slave trade. the vytal accords ratified by the four kingdoms after the great war abolished slavery worldwide, one of ozma’s greatest achievements; decades later, ozpin lifted atlas into the sky to serve as a shining example of his ideals to the rest of the world.

cinder fall is trafficked into slavery from an orphanage on the outskirts of what appears to be argus, based on the terrain. what does this tell us about cinder and the world she grew up in? slavery was abolished on paper, but mantle (now atlas) and mistral never enforced these new laws in any meaningful way—the industry went underground, likely mutating into new forms (indentured servitude, prison labor, child trafficking fronting as legitimate orphanages), and argus is still the central hub of the international slave trade. this reveals the weaknesses in ozma’s approach to social change (doing and saying things that look and sound right, but failing to actually stand for his notional commitments and allowing problems to fester out of sight rather than risk confrontation / unrest / division) and the rot behind the façade that salem alludes to when she calls this his “so-called free world.”

and so, cinder is in many ways the crowning achievement of ozma’s efforts since the great war—his gilded idealistic utopia, atlas, could only exist through the societal choice to accept the enslavement and torture of a child (and cinder is certainly not the only one, so in this narrative she symbolically represents a multitude of other victims).

<- this is why rewrites / “fixes” that either have her originating in mantle or being enslaved in mistral for all her life tend to lose thematic punch; the underground continuation of the pre-war order is fundamental to what the story is doing with cinder.

similarly, sun is not just from vacuo, he’s a vacuan faunus who went to school in haven, which is in mistral, which is notoriously the most overtly racist kingdom out of the four—token faunus headmaster or not. (mistral has anti-faunus sundown towns and in the CFVY books velvet is terrified specifically of people from mistral because in her experience all of them are virulently bigoted—this is a girl who spent a lot of her childhood in atlas, so her lack of aversion to atlesians says a lot about how bad it is in mistral). so when sun in v1 says stuff like the white fang are a bunch of cultish freaks who use force to get whatever they want, that’s an opinion he formed while living in the racism capital of the world and should be taken with several handfuls of salt, in the same way that blake’s view of the white fang in earlier volumes is clearly colored by her experiences with adam.

<- but at the same time sun functions narratively as a herald for the repair of this cultural problem and healing of the divide between mistral and vacuo, because he’s a vacuan faunus who went to school in mistral, unlearned that bullshit, and went home to vacuo to strive toward a better future.

personally my money is on summer being from either

vacuo (malik the sunderer -> sundered rose, sword of destruction + summer maiden -> summer rose being vacuan), or

mountain glenn (yang and ruby are well-informed on the tragedy, v9 called back to v2’s mountain glenn arc, and signs look pretty strong for the vacuo arc to confront the history with mountain glenn via the destruction of vale)

…both of which follow a similar principle to cinder’s backstory being reserved until v8, when it emerged to inform our understanding of the narrative events happening in atlas. (i know it was originally planned for v5 and time/budget considerations factored into the decision to delay, but narratively it ended up being the stronger choice to wait anyway). basically summer enters the story properly in the arc when her history carries the most weight.

[howlingday]

So people say that Roman should have lived during the fall because he's such a great villian but what would he do? Like I don't get why his skills would be useful anywhere after the fall? What do you think? What am I missing?

I mean, are you asking for how I would write Roman if he survived or are you being rhetorical? To be honest, I think part of the reason people wanted Roman to survive, along with everyone else who died during the Fall of Beacon is because right out the gate of Volume 4 we're hit with so many new characters that are so... boring.

Honestly, most interesting character in Volume 4 on introduction was Tyrian and that was just because we all knew he was the crazy guy. And after Roman Holiday, yeah, I wish we got more of Roman after the Fall of Beacon. Maybe he managed to survive and is running the Vale underground in secret while Neo still thinks he's dead. But then we wouldn't "One Thing" and I don't know if I want that RWBY timeline...

Credit to @mammothrider, one of my favorite RWBY abridged makers (technically).