#There's going to be a LOT that needs to be solved when Salem and the Gods are defeated

[foulfirerebel]

What role do you think ghira, ilia and the new white fnag will play in the vacuo arc? Besides having cute reactions to bumblby being a thing now.

I hope they don’t do a repeat of what happened at haven where the “good Faunus” save the racist humans so all the Atlesians have a “change of heart”. The last thing this show needs is more respectability politics lol.

Put of everyone ilia seems the most likely to tell the Atlesians to their face that they brought this upon themselves for their complacency in atlas many MANY societal injustices without trying to sugarcoat it.

Simply put? Helping to arm and aid Faunus who can fight, while aiding in taking care of those who cannot. Remember: there's not been a gathering of people this big since the olden days of Ozpin and Salem, so there's going to be MASSIVE tensions between every nation.

But of course, that's not all. The New White Fang is going to need to be one of the lines of aid and defense for the combined forces, and people are NEED to accept their help. I can see them telling off some racist asshat Atlesians who complain about how the "animals" are talking back now and threatening to leave them in the desert or something if they don't accept things as they're moving.

Also, just one other thing about Haven. The choice there was either leave the kingdom itself to die, not just the school, or go and help them. It took the Belladonnas nearly being assassinated and Blake's speech to get some Faunus to WAKE UP about the situation.

And if some people STILL want to cause problems? They can do so in the harsh, unforgiving desert sands. There's too much at stake to cater to racists, and since the show itself has shown our protagonists shutting them down and basically that their ideas don't matter or deserve time in the long run? I don't see any respectability politics being used at this point.

Mistral is arguably a work in progress for now, but Vacuo? Shit, the Atlesians and Mistralians are going to be lucky that Vacuoans don't rip them a new one BEFORE or ALONGSIDE the Faunus. I say this because Atlas and Mistral both drained Vacuo dry of resources following The Great War.

So. Calming the tensions or resolving them between nations is going to be...interesting, to say the least. I don't see The New White Fang prioritizing Atlas citizens (unless they're Faunus, were already poor, etc.) that decide to keep their horrible attitudes intact after everything its done to the world and the Faunus.

This isn't saying I'm wanting fights to break out or people killed, just the tensions to be a factor at this point. Old wounds reopening, a lot of social injustices being called out, the imperialism, colonialism, racism, you get the idea.

Any sort of division at this point only aids Salem, so this is going to be interesting to see how it's resolved. I do like that Ruby's message convinced so many to come to Vacuo. The world tensions aren't going to be solved overnight, but at least they can start by helping defend the kingdom.

TLDR: I want the NWF to help Faunus across the nations, and to be helping defend Vacuo alongside others. I'd also like them to be keeping tensions low, shutting down the racists, and proving to Salem how wrong she was to underestimate and discount Faunus.

The citizens of Atlas have lost their kingdom, homes, and livelihoods. I'd like at least one of the NWF to rub salt in the wound by calling them out on things the nation did, but they'd be one of many doing that. People of Vale would want answers for the Fall of Beacon, Vacuo for the colonialism of both Mistral and Atlas, and Mistral for their lack of support following Beacon's fall.

It doesn't mean that I think all citizens of Atlas necessarily deserve to be treated like dirt, but there's a lot the nation needs to answer for when all is said and done. In the meantime, ensuring people are able to defend themselves and taking no shit from the more bigoted of people from there will absolutely be a good start.

[kob131]

https://youtu.be/NfWwEHn4pLo

"Why not use the Staff to seal her in their pocket dimension? There is LITERALLY negative 13 reasons why (reference) this wouldn't work-"

Oscar: We can't just wave it like a magic wand and make our problems go away. And we haven't even told you about… him. Yang: Who? Ozpin: The spirit in the Staff. Like Jinn, but, well, he's a character. He can build you anything, but only if you can explain to him how. Like any craftsman, he'll need blueprints. Some sort of reference. It'll help if we have real world examples to show him.

They literally preemptively addressed this point.

"So you're saying that they don't have schematics for a-"

Pocket dimension, yes. If you were gonna say 'prison' or 'safe' or 'vault': Those would still be physical objects in the real world. The whole extra-dimensional pathway was because they were trying to transport a bunch of people to safety when that wouldn't work if they had to physically transverse the distance. Unless you have someway of proving that there is something like this in RWBY that isn't a Semblance: it doesn't work.

"-If there was no Salem, James would have no reason to bomb Mantle!"

Acting as if James is in a rational state of mind when the entire fucking point of the last Volume is that no one is acting rationally out of fear. James is clearly going through personal issues that wouldn't be solved rationally. He might not try to bomb Mantle...he might also try to STOP Team RWBY from imprisoning Salem in this mythical pocket dimension can be built without examples or even a fucking point of reference. I mean, with everyone evacuating Mantle AND Atlas, he still fought them leaving so despite stopping the plan would just jeopardize everyone so clearly he is NOT above these actions.

"Either Salem gets back to Remnant eons later, after humanity has got it's shit together or Salem will just drink the tea and we'll lose our main villain."

First off-

Humanity has already existed for six million years in the real world. We're barely getting along as is and that's without monsters from the dark coming to rile up fear in a never-ending cycle. For what reason do you think humanity would be getting along later down the line? And why would Salem be gone this long even?

Like, assuming your 'pocket dimension' is the Ever After: why would it take any truly extended period of time for Salem to escape? If Team RWBY can fend off all of the creatures in the Ever After, why wouldn't Salem, who's demonstrated to be FAR stronger, just burn everything in her path then threaten the Blacksmith to escape? Mind you, we are assuming that team RWBY as of Volume 8 knows about the Ever After here. Which...they don't. So even the fuck up is within a fuck up...within another fuck up, because we're assuming that they could even do this when nothing in the show has shown this.

Yes, he's probably just being glib here. But aside from mild phrasing, I'm reciting his points AS IS. If I were to remove the glibness, all that would be left here is 'Team RWBY plan stupid because it not perfect." Me including the glibness is a fucking kindness to him.

"The only issue is Cinder but they can stop any intervention with the help of Jake Steelbark since he'd have no reason to oppose them."

Once again, making a lot of assumptions here. How do you know they could stop Cinder's involvement? They would, once again, need SOMETHING to present to Ambrosius to construct your 'pocket dimension'. Which we haven't seen so they would need to track that info down, possibly go retrieve it if it's not readily available THEN enact the first part of their plan and theoretically get James on their side.

I do mean 'theoretically' because this Jake Steelbark fellow seems awfully accommodating and reasonable. Unlike James Ironwood, who did the equivalent of taking Germany's standing army into England during an event that celebrates the end of WWII and this is BEFORE he went off the deep end. There is nothing to indicate James would listen at this point. In fact, I detailed a reason why he WOULDN'T listen what with trying to stop the plan with Winter despite SAVING HIS PEOPLE.

"This plan would-"

Not fucking work because the original plan and the Ever After fall happened because they had the materials specifically needed for this incident but things went awry and caused actions that they didn't account for.

Because as I have explained: This whole ass plan only works if you IGNORE canon, such as the limitations on the Staff, the materials on hand and the time limit. The very foundation of this argument is already stretching things and the details just break it.

Sure, it could happen. What could have also happened is that James proceeded to rip off his pants to reveal a hula skirt, did a cancan and then the dance would impress the Brothers so much that they create a miniature black hole to suck up Salem and her forces. It only breaks like, two other rules in canon. Your plan would only work because the world of RWBY is fictional and thus technically ANYTHING can happen.

Your argument has no basis. You have failed as a critic.

I'm done. I watch a few minutes in and it's just insults. I don't have the patience for this shit anymore.

[bestworstcase]

Question from someone who's attempting to write rwby fanfiction. Do you have any advice on how avoid portraying team RWBY and their peers (JNPR, Penny, Oscar, etc) as people who are 'just better' or somehow more inherently virtuous than Those Evil Villains Over There Who Must Be Defeated and The Failures Of Generations Past? Because I want to write the girls and their friends bringing an end to a millennia-long conflict and upending the status quo and yeeting the brother gods, but like. I don't want to somehow imply that they have some special holy righteous sacred innate thing that made them succeed where others couldn't. And I feel like I keep accidentally implying that.

step 1. Worry Less.

if you don’t believe that RWBY et al are intrinsically Just Better Somehow you’re probably not going to write your story in a way that inadvertently implies as much even if they’re ultimately the ones who Solve The Problem. they’re just in the right place at the right time to escape this cycle these things happen bfrgk

step 2. remember that everybody does what they think is right

no one is a Bad Person on purpose and even when someone does something they know or believe to be wrong there is always some rationalization going on that makes it okay or makes it something outside of their control. keeping this in mind whenever you write character conflict is really important for portraying conflict in a naturalistic way—even if it isn’t something you put In The Text it’s useful for you as a writer to know what’s Going On in the heads of the characters who are wrong and why they’re doing the things that they do.

(a good exercise if you want to practice is to rewrite a scene from the other side’s point of view; if you have for example an argument between two characters who are both extremely convinced of their own rightness and don’t like each other, can you leap into the antagonist’s perspective and write that argument from their side in a way that paints the protagonist as irrational, stubborn, foolish? if you can switch your writer POV around like that to see things from the Wrong Perspective it becomes a lot easier to handle complex conflicts because you have a really solid grasp on what everyone’s stakes and opinions and reasons are.)

step 3. don’t be afraid to let the Good Guys fuck up & don’t be afraid to let the Bad Guys have a point

rwby does this really really really well. nobody is ever one hundred percent completely right—not in the story and not in real life—so letting the good guys be a little bit wrong and the bad guys be a little bit right creates points of common ground and margins for compromise to be built in between. and obviously if you have protagonists who are able to make mistakes and grow and accept compromise then Innately you have protagonists who are flawed and three dimensional, because if they were Perfect they wouldn’t need to learn or grow.

step 4. think about Why these characters are the ones who solve the problem

this is something that’s just helpful to have in mind as a writer to clarify your own framing; often the answer is a lot more about circumstance than any intrinsic Betterness and in the case of rwby a lot of it just comes down to the fact that salem attacked when she did—team rwby et al weren’t inculcated into the paranoid keeping secrets cult and didn’t have ozpin to lead them, so they figured out their own way of doing things that (because it plays to humanity’s strengths) works a lot better.

y’know how every time someone new is let in on the secret, the first question they ask is “why don’t people know? why not tell everyone?” the story is making the point that the natural, instinctive human response to finding out about a secret war is to go “it shouldn’t be secret!”—ozpin has to work very hard and be extremely careful about Who he initiates into this conspiracy because his methods run contrary to human nature. it takes active effort to quash that reflex to ask for help. what makes team rwby et al "special" isn’t anything unique to them, per se; its that they learnt the truth outside of this coercive environment that trained the old guard to Never Tell Anyone, so they intuitively grasp that telling more people and asking for help is better than not. because Most People put into this situation would intuitively grasp that.

[shibaryu]

DT: Our Timeless Story Jinx and Chilly

The world is changing, new adventures are on the horizon for Clan McDuck, with mysteries waiting to be solved and history waiting to be rewritten they have themselves quite the task in looking for the Lost Collection pieces, but to their surprise it would seem that they aren't the only ones looking for them. Sure there is the new villainous corporation in Void Industries but there are also many start up adventurers seeking to lay claim to these treasures, case and point two magically gifted teens named Jinx and Chilly.

Just like Lena, these two teenagers are gifted with magical prowess from a young age, each one having practiced their vast abilities under the tutelage of a corvid who they found out of the blue, a corvid once believed to be a powerful sorcerer who at one point terrified countless villages with his sister until he lost his mind and body upon being cursed. Having recently regained his sentience he found these two children after they lost everything... (Hmmm I wonder who such a corvid could be?)

Jinx is a witch, a girl who is attuned to the natural flow of magic in the world. Due to a misconception her kind were considered evil and be put to death during the Salem witch trials, but in reality they are merely magically gifted people, caretakers of the world blessed with an affinity for all natural magic. Jinx grew up in a magically gifted family, but after losing her parents to a fire and having her younger brother go missing, Jinx is hoping to one day be reunited with him, so when she met her mentor and her new best friend in Chilly the duo pretty much made a vow to one another.

As for her talents, Jinx despite being a witch never truly got the necessary training in order to master the magic she was blessed with, so she's still relatively a beginner, though that doesn't stop her from being rebellious and using spells she doesn't quite understand. (Think Alex Russo from Wizards of Waverly Place.) Jinx however has a talent for misfortune, being naturally gifted in causing deeds of bad luck upon those she desires. Dump a random bucket of paint on cheerleaders? Sure she can do that. Make someone trip down the stairs? Jinx is your girl! Turn a crack into a devastating break?! Yep Jinx is there!

Jinx is a girl who loves the fine things in life, having used her misfortune causing abilities on others in order to score herself the much needed cash to support both her and Chilly, but even still she tends to spend a lot of that on herself to make sure her comfort is satisfied. Good food, pretty jewelry, clothes, and so much more... But don't let that fool you, Jinx is smarter than she looks as she plans to one day be a detective!

Chilly is a penguin and a wizard, a kind of mage who primarily focus in the art of learnt magic, geared towards those who spent hours researching the arcane just to simply manifest a basic spell. Due to this Chilly was much more easier to teach by his mentor because Chilly can learn magic as though it were basic knowledge, Jinx however is more difficult to teach as her magic draws from the natural source of all things. Chilly sadly grew up in a family of abusive individuals, with his father being physically abusive and his mother more verbally so, so one night he ran away and came across his mentor and Jinx, since then they been inseparable.

You would think Chilly is gifted in ice magic wouldn't you? While true that he primarily utilizes ice as his first and foremost method of combat his natural magic is more geared towards psychometry. As all magic users utilize magic in different ways, Chilly's has to be initiated via physical contact, in doing so he can momentarily see the past of an object and gain knowledge over how it can be used. While Chilly prefers to not utilize his abilities towards people, sometimes he can't help it, this allows him the brief moment to hear one's thoughts the second they make contact, losing that only when they separate.

Thanks to Chilly and his talents he would be the one to have found their new home, which so happens to be Lena's old home underneath the old amphitheater. In comparison to Jinx, Chilly is more frugal with his money only spending it on things he needs, more than his wants, but sometimes he can find himself caving in... Case and point, some new ice skates and some music CDs. (Chilly wishes to be a figure skater.) While Jinx is searching for her missing brother, Chilly is more focused on finding himself a family to call his own, one that wouldn't be like his old one...

Just like Clan McDuck, this pair of magically inclined adventurers are also on the hunt for the Lost Collection, under the premise that by collecting these treasures they may have their wishes granted. To have the families they desperately want... Armed with a journal of their own, the duo and their mentor prepare for this grand adventure. But they can't help but wonder... Who is this Magica DeSpell that their mentor is so desperately trying to find?

And with that a pair of rivals have entered the fray! While villains are a big part of this story so are other adventurous individuals seeking to lay claim to fortune! Wonder how troublesome they may turn out to be for our protagonists?

As always! Asks are open, send an ask if you are wishing to learn more about this story! Take care yall!

[sungam-supo]

A few days late BUT for the characters asks! 1, 12, 19 for Salem, 9 and 10 for Audrey!

Oh heck yeah, I'm about to YAP again!

1: (Salem) The thought that led to Salem's conception was mainly that I needed a fallen angel to diversify the main cast (which consisted of two humans and a demon). I had already figured out what his role could be, but lacked a design and personality. Literally a few nights later, the image of a punk-ish, flirty angel came to me and the rest is history. He still lives in my brain, rent free.

12: (Salem) Can't say I have a playlist for Salem himself. The whole cast of my story share the same "soundtrack", if that makes sense. Jhariah's songs are an obvious pick. Also, for reasons I am unable to explain, tracks by the Hoosiers.

19: (Salem) My fave thing about Salem? Hard to answer, because I love a lot of things about him. I'll go with how genuine and caring he is towards most people. He cares in such a gentle manner, almost to the point of making himself vulnerable in the process, just to show how much he cares. Least fave thing about him (again, a hard pick) would have to be just how much of a coward he can be. There are a few moments where he literally bails when things get very dicey. In some circumstances, it is understandable. Other times... not so much.

9: (Audrey) She's the main protagonist of the story, although she doesn't view herself as a hero. She is hired to investigate a strange murder on top of uncovering other oddities. Overall, she has the biggest role and the most scenes compared to any other character. Makes sense as the audience will be following her every step, picking up clues along the way. I'm actually quite happy with how she's turned out as a character.

10: (Audrey) Aside from solving the main mystery that takes place throughout the story, her main arc involves her memory. You see, upon death, Audrey had forgotten her past life. A very unheard thing in the afterlife. It was presumed that in order to move on, she had to remember everything. Years pass, and not a single memory crops up- until after the murder. It is then she realises that her time could be up, right as her loved ones are at risk. Audrey does not want to move on, as Purgatory is the only home she's ever known. She is now in an uncertain race against time to solve everything, before it is too late.

[eastwindmlk]

“You’re wrong.” A voice came from behind James, taking him by surprise. The point of his pencil was almost going through the newspaper. His head whipped around to see an unfamiliar face peering at him from between the seats behind him. “Uh, thank you? But I am pretty sure about this one.” He muttered, too confused to question the woman. His eyes drifted back to his crossword. “Suit yourself, but you are wrong.” She chirped, disappearing back into her seat without offering what she believed to be the right answer. Which suited James just fine. He did not need help to solve it.

A few minutes went by, and the train halted at the next station. A chilly breeze was going through the car as people bustled in, shaking snow from their heads and shoulders before settling into a spot. Tapping at the next clue that stumped him, his lips rubbing together in thought. Pressing them together, the lady behind him appeared again. “You are thinking of the wrong type of season.”

James turned a quarter so he could see her properly, wondering what type of person would feel the need to meddle in his puzzling time. He was not sure what he was expecting, but it was not a set of brilliant green eyes framed with thick lashes. Red-painted lips, wearing a knowing smile. So, at least she was cute. Not that it made what she was doing less rude.

“What makes you say that?” He asked before having thought over whether he really wanted an answer. “You’re thinking food seasoning, but you’re doing the Times crossword.” James nodded. So far, she was right. Taking off his glasses to polish them, he thought over her words, a smile creeping onto his face. “Fall. It is bloody fall.” He realised, pushing his glasses back up his nose. Looking at the woman for confirmation, he felt oddly proud when she nodded, withdrawing once more.

Another station passed them by; he finished his crossword in peace before turning to stare out of the window. The afternoon skies were already dark grey, and he was watching street lights fly past. “You’re a long way from home; what brings you to Scotland?” James asked, seemingly out of the blue, having the urge to engage the lady behind him in conversation. There was a long pause, thinking that maybe she hadn’t heard him. Or he had assumed he had not been talking to her, which made sense. Turning in his seat, peering along the gap in chairs, he offered her a smile.

The green eyes stared back at him, a little baffled. A paperback copy of Salem’s Lot being lowered. “Huh?” The lady blinked at him, her head cocking slightly. “You’re not from around here, are you? So, why are you heading to Edinburgh?” He tried again, feeling a little less confident than he had moments ago. The smile on his face turned more awkward the longer he persisted. “Am I wrong?”

“No, no, you’re not. South London, born and raised.” She smiled, and the book was now closed on her lap. “I’m here for a conference. Speaking at one, actually.” James watched her hands wring together for a moment before she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “Sorry, I did not mean to make you uncomfortable. I severely underestimated how long a four-hour train ride actually is.” he hoped that being honest would put her at ease a little.

“You’re right! Four hours is forever on a train!” Her laugh reassured him a little, making her seem less nervous. “What about you? Because you don’t sound very northern either.” Now it was James’s turn to laugh and shrug. “Same, actually. But I am recruiting.” She hummed, nodding slowly, before extending her hand. “Lily Evans, pleasure to meet you.” Reaching over the seat to shake her hand, he smiled. “James Potter, pleasure is all mine.”, “Say, there is a very empty seat next to me and about two more hours. I think my masseuse will murder me if I keep sitting like this.”

And like that, she was sitting next to him. The two hours melted away like it was nothing. He learned they were going to the same conference. As well as having similar tastes in music, films, and food. She bought them a drink in the dining car, and he produced an entire roll of chocolate cookies from his bag. When the train pulled into Waverley station, it signalled the end of their journey. Pulling on his gloves, James contemplated asking for her number or her card. Anything.

But Lily beat him to it. “So, second date tonight? Dinner?” A question he did not have to think twice about. Nodding maybe a little too eagerly. “Meet me at the ticket booth at six.” It wasn’t until she was already halfway down the platform that he wondered why she had called it a second date. A question he was sure to ask her that night.

[howlingday]

Oh ok so I'm about lore dump one of the most important for my Rwby world. So

I have seen all of Rwby and don't know everything so I'm gonna step over real Canon lore.

I'm not good with power balancing in stuff.

A lot stuff my be understanding which you might see differently.

Feel free to call anything out you think could be better also I'm not asking to write anything if want to use my ideas I give you permission but I'm asking you to?

Without further ado let's talk about The Keep and it's Keeper.

Long ago when the brothers still wandered the Rement with their creations a women would follow and worship them. The women was mighty curious about the gods. She would flatter them, bring them gifts and talk about how the world was. Inreturn they would sparly talk of a relam they lived before. The women wonder if they were born their or if it was another world they made. As she grew old and Time neared its end she would build a magic mask to keep her memories and a piece of soul so her apprentice would have all the tools he needed.

As time pasted the mask would gather more soul pieces and memories. Soon a women named Salem would gather the armies of Humanity to fight the gods. The current holder of the mask thought she was insane with how much he knew of the gods.

So he gathered a small group of people and ran far away from the battle and prayed for mercy. It is not know if the gods listen or were seemingly so egotistical that they missed the spot. With population they would try to reproduce but it was quickly show 2 generations they would end up inbreeding with how little they were. So the current holder tried to slice human and animal DNA to fix the problem and it worked.

But would one see humans came back so the host now called the Keeper would return and learn of Salem and Ozma using the relics he would learn Salem,Omza, and even the Ever After story and mangne to get a single leaf of the Tree. The next Keeper would become one of Salem's handmaidens. Which would go terribly so as the castle burned the Keeper would shove a child away causing the child to knock out but seen by someone else and saved.(A story for another time)

Salem and Omza were locked in battle so the Keeper would hide away. The Keep would soon develop fully as it's own entity. As magic started to die out the Keep and it's current Keeper were able to grow a small tree from the preserved leaf. Using the tree they were able to make a Potion that would awaken magic in people without magic but kill those unable to handle it. So the Keeper title would be passed down all the way to morden day always staying out of Ozpin and Salem sight even giving people Magic or making Magic tools to keep them of its tail.

I think that's enough for origin. Many of his actions will effect my Rwby world. Feel free to ask any questions or critique anything.

This sounds like a really interesting idea. I'm kinda curious to see where this story goes. Though I do have some questions about the story, too.

First off is the mask the Keeper wore, and how it would store the memories of the previous keeper, as well as their soul. Does the mask still do that? What happens when someone wear the mask? Does it ever come off?

Next is the topic of the inbreeding group who were able to solve their problem thanks to splicing animal DNA. How exactly did they do that, and were there any ramifications to the inbreeding?

Last is the tree growing in Remnant. Is it sentient? How is it decided whether or not a person is worthy? And if these people are granted magic, how are they kept out of sight by the rest of Remnant?

[alyssalikestoreadbooks]

Spells Trouble - P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

"Double double, twins spell trouble…

Hunter and Mercy Goode are twin witches, direct descendants of the founder of their town of Goodeville. As their ancestors have done before them, it is now time for the twins to learn what it means to be Gatekeepers–the protectors of the Gates to different underworlds, ancient portals between their world and realms where mythology rules and nightmares come to life.

When their mother becomes the first victim in a string of murders, the devastated sisters vow to avenge her death. But it will take more than magic to rein in the ancient mythological monsters who’ve infected their peaceful town.

Now Hunter and Mercy must come together and accept their destiny or risk being separated for good."

Read Date - October 26th, 2024

Length - 320 pages

Genre - Mythology, Fantasy, LGBTQ+

Rating - 7/10

Stars - ★★★★☆

Notes - The start of the book showing off that their witches is super cool. This is my first fantasy book i’ve ever read so i’m really new to this all, and i like how it’s introducing it through Salem, and loosely, the Salem witch trials. It’s so cool to me. The dynamic between Hunter and Mercy is so interesting. They’re twins, but they’re having some issues with each other. Nothing major, just small things like not liking each others partners. The party scene was a great introduction to all the people and friends in the twins lives. I liked it. The ritual scene was also a good introduction to the world, and gave us back story to what happened after the prologue. The ritual going wrong was a shock and i liked how it was handled. The death of their mother, abigail, likely by the wolf is such a poignant scene i wasn’t expecting this early on in the book. Their mother being ripped away is a big deal for them, as they’re still young witches who need their mother, and also to be taught. The reveal that Xena can transform into a human to take over this mentorship role is so cool. Human Familiars are such an interesting plot line. It all reminds me of Charmed. The twins friends being there for them turning their time of grief was super sweet, and i liked how they were there for them. The spell they do to remove Mercy’s grief is so cool, and i like how all the friends got involved. Chapter 13 being about the sheriff, and his past life, is also really neat. I love all the murder-mystery elements, and i think it was played out so well. The reveal that the person who died was Emily, the twins friends, dad. The girls helping her grieve in return was nice. The spice between Kirk and Mercy was different, and i wasn’t that into it. It was trauma sex and she needed something to forget about the pain. Kirk being there for her though was nice, it would’ve just been nice if he could understand why it was happening. The twins working to fix the trees is a bit confusing and takes up a lot of time, but i know it’ll come together in the end. It generally shows off the girls and their witchy abilities! Perfect for the halloween season. Mercy having doubts about Hunter’s God is interesting, and a cool plot point that i never considered when first picking up this book. The conversation through the realm is so fucking cool. I like that they get to talk to other people from different realms, like the demigod. There’s so much happening, and I don’t want people to think I’m not following, it’s just very hard to review this one IN the moment the way i do. There’s so many interweaving plot points playing with each other, and i can see how they all end, and i cant choose just one to focus on. The God Instead Of Goddess situation with the twins is going to be a big deal, and it keeps rearing it heads up again and again without being resolved, so i know there’s going to be conflict. The Kirk situation has to be solved eventually, whether she leaves him or not is undecided. The person/thing who’s killing people in goodville is still on the loose, and the girls are obviously NOT safe. If their mom was killed, they can be as well. It’s a big issue. And then there’s the conversation with the Demigod, and the reveal that the girls shouldn’t be the only two guarding FIVE realm doors. It’s all so much happening at once. The twins having to kill the monster is so insane to me. They’re just teenagers! I love that the twins leave behind remembrance to the native americans who helped the witches through the years in their spell. Jax revealing that Kirk is an absolute dick was another shock! I wasn’t expecting him to guilt trip her, and have a “meltdown” only to reveal that he was stringing her along the entire time. The borderline abuse was such a shock. He’s such a piece of shit and i hate him. In the end, Mercy and Hunter are able to convince emily’s parents to let her do the ritual, and she helps them out instead of kirk. Something goes wrong with the ritual, at the end, and Mercy can’t get in contact with Hunter. The fight scene with Polyphemus and Hunter was SO COOL and it gave me anxiety and it was so perfect! I loved it! I bet there’s a sequel to this book because honestly the ending was really flat and kind of left off on a cliffhanger, and I don’t know if i’m interested enough to seek out the sequel myself. 

[mbta-unofficial]

Essay time!

So the main tool that I use to evaluate service priority is an inverse square or gravity model. To calculate, you take the product of the populations and divide them by the distance squared. We'll take the Lowell Commuter rail as our example because it would be the terminus that would extend to Nashua, Manchester, and maybe Concord.

Pop. Lowell: 115k

Pop. Boston: 675k

Distance: 22 Miles*

Gravity Score: 160

We'll use this as our baseline. The units here are gibberish (people^2/sqmi) but we can proportionally compare these numbers to get an approximation of the relative demand. Now, lets add Nashua and Manchester.

Pop. Nashua: 91k

Pop. Boston: 675k

Distance: 34 miles

Gravity Score: 53

Pop. Manchester: 115k

Distance to Boston: 50 miles

Gravity Score: 31 Miles

Now, when we're proportionally comparing these numbers, you can think of them as ratios of estimated trips. For each 160 trips to Lowell, you might reasonably expect 53 to Nashua and 31 to Manchester. That said, we would be potentially looking at a 55% (88/160) increase in riders compared to Lowell.

55% is a lot, but we do have to factor in increased costs. Certain costs are per mile. These per mile costs would increase by 127% (28 new track miles / 22 current track miles) Other costs are fixed or variable in different ways, and I don't have great tools to evaluate them. What I can say is that if this were to be a practical reality, the federal government could also be called on to help as it would be an interstate transportation project to offset some of those costs as well.

But, just with what we have here, lets compare with each other terminal stop on the network.

Needham: 216

Worcester: 86

Providence: 76

Stoughton: 71

Haverhill: 57

Franklin: 38

Scituate: 37

Plymouth: 35

Fall River: 31

New Bedford: 27

Fitchbug/Wachusett: 14**

Rockport & Newburyport: 5&11 ***

The direct comparison here shows in large part why such a service would be consistent with other commuter rail lines. Many of the gravity scores here are lower than what would be expected of a Nashua Connector, and several of these service areas are comparable lengths as well. New Bedford, Worcester, Providence, and Fitchburg all make journeys of close to 50 miles in under two hours on their schedules, matching the distance to Manchester.

There is another thing that the combination of Nashua and Manchester highlights which also is clear in the abnormally low scores for Rockport and Newburyport. On each line, population centers will have mutually reinforcing gravity scores. Beverly, Salem, Swampscott, Lynn and Chelsea all generate trips to Boston but also generate trips to each other, giving the following table.

Now, some of these numbers look a little absurd. How is the 1515 lynn-swampscott score to be read in context? Well, Lynn center and Swampscott center are only a mile away from each other because swampscott is a continuous suburb of Lynn. Therefore, the economic interaction between these two populations is expected to be exponentially higher because of their proximity. A statistically significant number of someones in swampscott aren’t going into boston on a weeknight dinner, but they are going to lynn. When they travel from one to the other, they do it in cars, buses, bikes, and on foot, because the distance is short enough to make all those transit modes viable. Trains realistically make up the smallest part of that 1515 because other modes are more convenient. We don’t need to try to change this. Even setting reductions in driver miles as a goal, buses will solve the problem better than the commuter rail could as a static piece of heavy rail infrastructure. It doesn’t have the dynamic range buses do. The 1515 represents an estimated proportion of economic interactivity that drives and can be used to measure transit demand. So does Rockport’s 5. Even if everyone in rockport leaves rockport on the commuter rail to boston every day, that’s still only 7k people compared to lynn’s 101k and those people are commuting much farther, incentivizing switching to a job with a shorter commute. Nobody likes their 90min commute.

Now, even if we can’t count 100% of those gravity scores as demand for more trains (because more convenient mode shares outweigh trains in practice over small distances), the train still benefits from high trip demand between cities that aren’t the terminus, and many of these city pairs are in fact excellent train connections. Salem-Lynn and Beverly-Lynn score comparably to Boston-Salem and Boston-Beverly, and are in a distance range where walking, biking and buses are less practical, so the train reasonably serves many more people. It’s entirely reasonable to assume that these network effects will also boost ridership for a manchester lowell connection.

When we look at the manchester and Nashua numbers, we get this chart:

These numbers aren’t as high as the north shore, which is to be expected based on the distances, but they’re reasonable compared to the rest of the network shown below.**** The main exception here is Concord. The only score that Concord has above 10 is with Manchester, and it would be the terminus of the line. It’s 20 extra miles of track, almost as long as he initial segment to lowell in the first place. Why would we extend it all that way?

Well, Concord is the capital of New Hampshire. Capital cities drive business traffic in excess of their populations because certain business can only be done there. The gravity model only takes in population and distance, so it can’t reliably assess a variable like that. I like it because it’s fast to calculate and easily comprehensible, but the gravity model is not the best or most sophisticated tool for assessing transit demand. Additionally, if Massachusetts wants to connect population centers in New Hampshire to MA, they would most likely ask New Hamshire to help, and a railroad connecting the capital to its most populous cities would be a project that would mostly benefit New Hampshire. Having them pay for it would be more than reasonable. Then, the actual terminus of the line would be decided by representatives of the actual riders rather than someone in boston. To be clear, I think either terminating in manchester or concord would be reasonable with clear advantages and disadvantages, it just seems like the sort of thing that should be decided democratically by NH itself.

*Geographical distance is substantially shorter than the actual by-car routes, so error in gravity scores should skew actual figures down.

**The abnormally low Gravity score here is partially explained by a large financial contribution from Wachusett mountain resort, which funded an extension of the line to connect to its bus shuttles

***This abnormally low gravity score is because service is extended to Rockport and Newburyport from Salem and the rest of the populous North Shore. Salem alone has a score of 151.

****I’m going to clean up the data because I grabbed numbers fairly sloppily and publish my spreadsheets with consistent population and distance measurements when I get the chance. These are extremely rough numbers with a spur of the moment methodology but the point that they make is worth investigating further. Once I have more consistent numbers I’ll update the numbers in the original post as well.

Why do none of the commuter rail lines extend into New Hampshire? There are two that almost get there but stop short. Don't you care about the people trying to flee the hellhole that is the granite state?

Hey Anon you made me eat my words so hard on this one that I switched to desktop so I could type more

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

Team RWBY as also "bad protagonists" because they apparently don't affect the main plot or at least aren't constantly driving the main storyline forth at a nonstop pace. Yeah that also baffles me because "team RWBY don't affect the main plot" How? They are the main plot!

I think it's partly motivated by a mentality that they "don't do enough" or "don't do it correctly".

The kinds of things that Team RWBY tends to do are more about the value of small and partial victories, the resilience and healing needed to keep going in the face of relentless evil or failures by forming strong bonds with each other, and the willingness to lean on others and trust others to continue the fight when you've fallen down.

A running theme of most views like the original point was making seems to operate on the notion that the only valuable thing a protagonist should do is big, grandiose absolute victories that fix everything perfectly and put them as the big saviors whom all should respect and defer to.

In other words, a lot like how a lot of people seemed to think Adam and Ironwood would be.

But the series actively skewered and dissects this mentality, with those two being highlighted more and more overtime as being intensely self-righteous at best and downright monstrous because all they really care about is their own grandiose fantasies at the expense of others.

Hell, Ozpin, even if his own goals were better-intended, suffered from this issue for millennia, since his belief that he was the only one who could oppose Salem and fixation on the bigger picture meant that he constantly overlooked how his "perfect world order" was cracking and falling apart at the seams because of the numerous small failings and societal issues he considered to be less important than defeating Salem (whom was smart enough to recognize his bad habits and exploited it ruthlessly), and arguably to the point of overlooking the possibility that his entire quest set to him by his God was likely never intended to succeed in the first place, because his goal was fundamentally impossible.

RWBY is a story about the small victories, how they can inspire others to try their best, even if only a little bit, and how the little things can build and improve to truly enacting change, in ways that grandiose gestures and fixation on bigger glories can overlook, or outright actively harm. How much the small things we do to help others can snowball into bigger and more profound impacts because we as people remember to actually care about others, instead of seeing them as a stepping stone for "the main characters".

And more than anything, that justice and a better world is a living and breathing organism that needs to be cultivated and nurtured with care and compassion, acknowledging and addressing the warts and all of society and that the fight never ends no matter how much people might want a guaranteed "happily ever after". Not forced at gunpoint or by "purging the problems until they go away" by those who think everything should be solved by the egomaniacs with the biggest god complexes.

That's exactly it. This isn't a story where we find a giant superweapon or where we have a series of battles where some win and some lose. Salem is immortal, infinitely patient, and the game is rigged against them. The only way to win is to change the fundamental narrative of Remnant itself. It's a story about broadening your understanding, learning to get back up, accepting yourself. Which often leads to cool battles, yes, because the demons of human nature here occasionally have the form of literal demons you can shoot in the face.

[bhu98]

The way my heart broke when these things happened in ep 8 and why i feel its important:

1. Ruby killing Oscar: a bit biased bc I love rosegarden. But honestly speaking it's bc of how similar they are. They're both the youngest of their friend groups with a huge amount of responsibility on their shoulders. I think this was significant bc Ruby does feel some type of way about him, whether it's kinship, responsibility, friendship or romantic. Based on the context, I'm assuming responsible as that's what the whole scene was about.

2. The close up on Yang when Ruby drank the poison: as an older sister who also had to take care of her younger sister and grew up with her, I would be absolutely devastated if my sister did that in front of me. The amount of confusion, guilt and regret I know Yang is going to feel next episode is something I look forward to seeing RT executing.

3. Ruby fucking dying: need I say more?

4. Jaune failing to save another person: Not sure if this is gonna hurt him as much since it was Neo, but this was yet another life that he failed to protect. He was so close and yet, he couldn't succeed. I would also like to see more of his frustration with that concept, but right now I doubt it since there's a lot RT need to go over.

5. The cat going inside Neo: I screamed her name out of concern bc Neo didn't give a fuck about Salem, or the survival of the world, she just wanted her friend back. So yeah, she was out for revenge and once she got it, the sense of emptiness, loss and hopelessness was all that was left. Before she could even think about her next move, if there was one, that damn cat possessed her. This is another biased opinion bc I love Neo, she's that gray character that was pushed too far and was Ruby's worst nightmare bc of it. Like imagine if she had kept blaming Cinder instead? Would she be a good guy? Definitely not. Her problem solving is to get rid of the problem and then there won't be one. Would she be a major inconvenience towards Salem and crew? Of fucking course. And God I just need Neo to be given another chance and be like, fuck those other guys, then be the tank RWBY and everyone never knew they needed. Anyways, that's it for my rant!

[prophctic]

annika sat down, running a hand through her hair. it was a lot to take it, but growing up in the supernatural world, at the very least, meant she and everyone else here was good at rolling with the punches. biting her lip, she tried to make sense of everything jo was telling them.

"it sounds like it was the dread doctors," she agreed, "but jo is right; if sebastian is dead, if the original dread doctors are dead, then...what are they even doing anymore?"

"and who are they? if the original dread doctors are dead, and sebastian is dead..." sam frowned. "you said they were an evolving organism, jo. does that mean that there were always more of them, over the years?"

"you said people thought the beast of gevudan was the original werewolf for a long time," ivy said, eyes focused on the space ahead of her, darting slightly as she thought. despite all she had been through, all they had all been through, in the last day and a half, she felt herself almost relishing in having a new mystery to solve. not that she was happy that they were in more than one form of supernatural peril; rather, if she thought about this, it meant she didn't have to think about salem. not to mention this seemed almost more dangerous; after all, the coven didn't know where they were, at least not yet, but the dread doctors apparently knew exactly where uche and her siblings were. "but they were wrong," she continued, looking up at everyone. "ife was the original werewolf. what if people are wrong about when the dread doctors originated, too?"

"you think they could have been around a lot longer than the 1700s," sam said, looking over at ivy.

"it's possible, isn't it? how long have hunters been around?" she asked. "were the argents the first?"

"i've heard about them going back to the beast of gevudan, but not before. but...their family had to be around since before then, right?" annika inquired.

"and these dread doctors, they're not supernatural, and they're not quite hunters, either, right? some hunters are...well, pretty exclusively that, aren't they? they kill indiscriminately. others, like you guys, and allison, you're trained to know how to defend yourselves against supernatural attacks, but you don't hunt people just for being supernatural. you work with the supernatural, help them; you're helping keep anyone from getting hurt. but the dread doctors sound like they're...i don't know. on their own side." Ivy frowned thoughtfully. "they obviously don't care about keeping people safe if they're kidnapping people, kidnapping kids, and doing experiments on them. how do we know they even really cared about sebastian? i mean, it says he was their friend, but...what if he was another one of their experiments? what if they've been doing things like this for a really long time, longer than people have even known they existed? you said they could make people forget they had even seen them, didn't you? so what if they made people forget they existed before? what if there were always more of them than just the ones from gevudan, and it's always been bigger than sebastian?"

"it would explain why they would be here now, and why they would target uche. or at least, it would start to," sam said. "ivy brings up a good point. in early civilizations, there were already hunters; not hunters of the supernatural, but people who hunted for food, or protected their families from danger."

"that there were," ajani agreed. "and you are right; humans have worked with and against the supernatural since the beginning. some found marvel and mysticism in our existence, some wanted to work alongside us or even join us, still others feared us and because of that fear, wanted to be rid of us. and of course, not all supernaturals have always been kind to humans. much like la bete, some do harm others, and need to be stopped. i would sadly not be at all surprised if these dread doctors sprang up far earlier than texts may state, perhaps in response to fear, or curiosity, or both. they may very well have been around far longer than we realize."

"so the ones allison and her pack killed, those were just...a faction of them?" willow asked faintly.

"it may be so," ajani said sadly.

"how did they attack here in new orleans, though? i thought this was a sanctuary city?" gemma asked nervously, hands wringing together.

"it is, and you are safe here," ajani assured her. "allow me to explain. a sanctuary city means you cannot be extradited elsewhere, though of course, any crimes you commit here you will be held accountable for. not you, of course; i speak broadly for any who visit this place. likewise, you are contained safely here from any who seek to harm you; you cannot be tracked once you are within the confines of new orleans. but people can come here all the same, and though there are laws in place that state they cannot attack, some still do. those who do are dealt with, but attacks do happen. and if i understand what joanna is saying, these dread doctors are traveling along electronic currents, similar to those conducted by the nemeton. if that is the case, they would have had an easy entry into this city."

jo snapped to attention when they addressed her. "right," she said, stepping further into the room. she sank to her knees in front of the coffee table and pulled a few books out of her bag. two of them were clearly journals, worn with use; the last was a novel, titled the dread doctors, with the eerie cover art that one would expect from a late 80s scifi book. "like i said over the phone, they're called the dread doctors."

"someone wrote a book about them?" claire asked, leaning forward to take the book.

"don't open it," jo hurriedly warned. as if burned, claire dropped the book back to the table. jo winced. "sorry, that was abrupt. allow me to explain." she picked up one of the leatherbound journals and held it up for a moment. "back in the mid-1700s, there existed a providence in france called gevaudan and within that province, there was a wolf."

"la bête du gévaudan," damaris muttered. "the first infamous werewolf in recorded history. what about him?"

"in the hour of la bête's reign, there were rumors circulating about who he was and what connections he had. he was eventually taken out by the family that started the legend of silver being harmful to supernaturals: the argents. prior to that, however," she continued, "it was rumored that he had friends. and when marie-jeanne argent killed the wolf, sebastian valet, these friends sought to bring him back to life."

"like eshe did with her siblings," lux pointed out.

jo nodded. "yes. except these friends weren't supernatural; they were strictly human. at the time, however," she said, picking up the second journal, "there was a massive wave of scientific breakthroughs and interests. so where these friends lacked magic, they had science. so they tried bringing him back to life through science, but that didn't work. they were close, though. however, time passed, they grew older and sebastian's body decayed. this was in a time long before humans learned the proper ways to preserve bodies, so there was nothing they could do about it. they faced two problems then: the natural process of decomposition and their own mortality.

"the leader of the doctors, the original, his name was marcel. over decades of time, he managed to master the art of blatant pseudoscience and learned how to manipulate electromagnetic forces."

ife straightened up at that. "the electric residue," she recalled. "julia said there was electric residue left over when they disappeared."

"and i believe that," jo said. "what marcel and his fellow scientists did was figure out a way to exist within those electromagnetic forces, thus outside of the flow of time that we know. so when i say that they're human, they very much are. there is nothing supernatural about them."

dean pursed his lips. "but i don't get it. what does uche have to do with sebastian? and it's the twenty-first century; they haven't given up on bringing him back to life yet?"

"i'm getting there," jo reassured him. "but knowing how they got this way is important to understand how we got here."

dean nodded and gestured for her to continue.

"once they figured out how to keep themselves alive, they returned to their original goal of bringing sebastian back," jo continued. "but so much time had passed that he no longer had a body. so they needed a host. over time, they mastered the art of transferring one person's spirit into another body, but that wasn't easy. sebastian wasn't just another person, he was a wolf; he was the most terrifying beast that had ever existed in france. a lot of people in this day and age think he was the first werewolf in existence. the people of gevaudan certainly thought so. that's where the book comes in," she said, setting down the journals and picking up the book. "it's all but a detailed memoir of their experiments."

uche frowned. "experiments?"

here, jo hesitated. she opened her mouth, then closed it. she set the book down and freed up her hands to gesture as she spoke. "the scientists, dubbed the dread doctors by the author of this book, realized that the only people who could possibly handle a spirit like sebastian's were people like himself: supernaturals. but it was nearly impossible to find werewolves that could be taken down by humans and withstand the strength of sebastian's spirit. so they thought that maybe the answer was in people who had untapped genes, like someone who was born into a werewolf family, but that lycanthropy gene was recessive, so they were functionally human. but those people still turned out to be too fragile for their experiments and all of them died... except for one. jeon haetae was a korean teenager back in the late 1850s, and he was the first person to survive what the doctors were doing. he was human, but his mother came from a line of werewolves, so he did, too." she paused and bit her lower lip. "but haetae's father came from a line of fae."

the revelation came to uche dully, like a soft punch to the chest. she blinked. "he was a hybrid."

"genetically, yes," jo confirmed. "he still died, a few weeks into their experiments, but he survived far longer than anyone had thus far. so the doctors began experimenting on people like him, other hybrids. they found people who came from two lines of supernaturals but were humans themselves."

"is that why they targeted my sister?" ife questioned, holding uche tighter. "because she is a hybrid?"

jo considered the question for a moment. "in theory, i believe that would work. despite not being human, uche is the original hybrid; if anyone could handle sebastian with ease, it's her. but i don't think that's what happened here."

julia frowned. "why not? it makes sense, doesn't it?"

"in theory," jo repeated calmly. "but the dread doctors... after jeon haetae died, they realized that adults only last for so long. since the 1850s, the dread doctors have only ever experimented on young children. most of them still died pretty early, but those who didn't could last a few years; often years that they doctors wouldn't have had with adults."

"christ," dean swore beneath his breath.

claire eyed the book carefully. she wanted to read for herself what had happened, despite how horrifying it all sounded. "why can't we read it?"

"remember when i said that marcel mastered pseudoscience?" jo recalled. "his particular brand was memory science. the dread doctors learned how to manipulate the memory of anyone who came across them. in the past, this was used primarily against parents who'd seen their child being taken, back before the doctors found a different method of kidnapping them. but years ago, a decade, i think, the dread doctors' victims escaped."

harry's eyebrows lifted in surprise. "they escaped? how?"

jo shook her head. "i don't know. there were only a few of them left alive at that point, but they managed to get away. so to protect themselves, the dread doctors erased those kids' memories of them, even from afar. but the thing about lost memories is that their return can be triggered, so..."

claire blinked. "the people who escaped wouldn't know that they'd been held captive and experimented on... until this book forced them to relive it?"

jo smiled, though it looked saddened. "essentially, yes. to my knowledge, some of those escapees remembered what'd happened to them even before they found this book, but for most of them, it was a violent awakening. and once they read it, the doctors found them again."

interest in the book firmly lost, claire shuddered, wrapping her arms around herself and stepping closer to her father.

"how do you know all of this?" dean asked. "you didn't tell us anything about it."

"because i didn't experience any of this for myself," jo said. "my family, the harvelles, are offshoots of the argent family. allison, the current head of the california argents, is my distant cousin. we haven't had much contact over the years, because the argents operate differently than the harvelles, but i did get in contact with her about a year ago. she's a part of a pack out there⎯⎯and according to her, that pack killed the dread doctors almost two years ago."

lux furrowed her eyebrows. "if they killed them, then..."

"the dread doctors are an evolving organism," jo clarified. "there have been multiple variations of them over the years, so it stands to reason that allison might have killed the previous generation and another sprung up. the thing is that there is no reason to. because, as far as allison has told me, the doctors succeeded in bringing back sebastian, and the pack killed him, too, in a way that can't be reversed. so if uche was attacked by the dread doctors, and it really sounds like she was, then they are acting in a way that i can't make sense of. for all intents and purposes, their god is dead and they have no reason to exist anymore."

[nancyd-yeahyouknowme]

It’s me yo girl… jk I don’t think anyone follows me but it’s okay I’m just vibing and typing out my Nancy Drew thoughts bc THE NEW GAME IS COMINGGGGGGG! I’m so exciteeeeeed. They just posted more shit on Instagram/FB, I’m living for it, and I’m p high. So yeah, anyway…I was thinking about how I’m especially looking forward to Nancy Drew and the Mystery of the Seven Keys (sidenote: wonder what the acronym is going to be?!?!? MSK? MYS? KEY?)bc I LOVE the ND storylines in general. Even the games that I really don’t fucks with and play as often (I’m looking especially at you, CRY, RAN, and MED), I still love clicking through most of the conversations, playing out the little side missions/mini games, and just exploring the overall gamescape. So…

Even if KEY (I’m going with that for myself for now) is as horrible to play as MID was, it will (hopefully!!!) still have a good storyline and fun little tasks and random phone calls … all of those classic ND things that make all the difference. Like… even with MID, I really did love the Johnny cake thing or whatever, and it was kinda cool to explore “Salem” and learn some history. I also LOVED the herbs task. But, of course, HATE HATE HATE the non-point-and-click… I can’t even put into words whatever the fuck MID used to move around! I am sure there is a word for it, but frankly, I don’t care to use it. I hated it. 0/10. Still hate it. But, again, I know I’ll go back to it SOMEDAY bc I get in just the right mood… all bc of that storyline and the characters … and the herbs!!!!! But back to KEY…

The Czech Republic?!?!?!? I cannot WAIT to see more of the environment. I am SO EXCITED to find out how/why ND finds herself there. And, of course, I’m looking forward to playing the coffee (I think???) mini-game that HER keeps teasing!!!

I’m also LOVING the clues that HER keeps posting. That energy is really great and so appreciated! And, special shout-out to all of the fucking smart ass mofos out there who keep solving their little hints and clues and puzzles (which are all HARD AF, in my humble opinion) and then posting them for lazy ppl like me!!!! I love a good walkthrough, love all of the helping hands… I do really TRY to solve a lot of puzzles myself, but when it comes to the more difficult ones (especially these clues that HER keeps posting! Like damn!), I usually need some assistance, lol.

Welp… anyway, that’s all she wrote. Peace

[itsclydebitches]

The sad thing…I think Ruby already did “break”. In "Risk". When she snapped at the table. Yeah, it wasn’t much, but knowing RT and the FNDM, I feel that’ll be considered enough.

I think you might be right, anon. I just rewatched those scenes and honestly, the supposed work they did was just as flimsy the second time around.

First, Ruby begins the meeting by generally being pessimistic about their situation. Everyone else is worried, but they're working hard to keep their hope up. Yang asks what they're going to do now and Blake, though she lists all the challenges they have to overcome, doesn't follow it up with any negative conclusions. It's Ruby who says, "So then it's impossible." Their leader is shutting down the conversation, not just failing to come up with the next step, but actively discouraging everyone else from doing that work either. It's Emerald who points out that this is a problem in her own, Emerald way: "Ms. Hero with all the answers" suddenly doesn't have any to offer. Yet instead of helping Ruby to overcome her pessimism and lead their team again, the group succumbs to yelling at Emerald instead for, frankly, speaking a mean but very accurate truth. When Oscar says that they have to stop turning on each other, Ruby reveals she hasn't been listening. Her thoughts are still on the supposed impossibility of their problem. “Then nothing has changed! We’re in the exact same place we were yesterday!" and she runs from the room.

In a vacuum I don't think this scene is bad. It actually has a lot going for it. The floundering leader, the group turning on each other without anyone nurturing Blake and Yang's attempts at optimism, Oscar being the sole voice of reason... there's good stuff here. The problem is everything that comes after it and, admittedly, how our reading of the scene is colored by what came before.

Basically, Yang goes to comfort Ruby and they... don't talk about any of the issues Ruby is displaying in this scene. They mainly talk about Summer which is indeed a issue, but not a relevant one right now. If RT wanted a grimm!Summer subplot I really think they should have put that somewhere other than in the Volume when our Big Bad is attacking and a major ally goes Genocidal General. But even putting aside the amount of the conversation that's devoted to Summer rather than their current problems, Ruby goes on to say:

“I wasted our time getting Amity up, thinking help would come, but it didn’t and Amity fell. I was being childish."

Now, I think Ruby has indeed been very childish since Volume 6, but she wasn't childish here. The problem is she was passive.

Yes, Ruby Did A Thing by sneaking into Atlas HQ and helping to send that message, but she admits fully that this was primarily in an effort to get other people to come and solve this problem. Yang is the one who frames Amity as something that could potentially help people now that they've had a warning. Ruby frames it as a tool to get other people here to fix things. If Ruby's passiveness had been confined solely to trying to call in reinforcements and if calling those reinforcements made any sense, we'd be fine, but this is the arc where:

People need to evacuate due to the threat Salem poses and Ruby keeps a portion of the Kingdom from doing that.

She does this under the firm believe that she and her team will fix things somehow, despite not having any way to achieve that.

So she calls on other people to come and fix the currently not fixable situation. She calls more people to Atlas when the primary goal is to evacuate Atlas. Reinforcements, while generally a great strategy, change rather drastically when your opponent is immortal.

Help doesn't come because of course it doesn't. Ruby knows how few huntsmen any other Kingdom has. Ruby should know how far Atlas is from everyone else and that it's only been about a day. Common sense should tell her how seriously people are going to take a 17yo stranger talking about magic and immortal queens, yet Ruby is mad because "it didn't [come]." She's upset that other people didn't arrive to fix this despite it being staggeringly obvious why that didn't happen.

She sat out the biggest battle to date, explicitly commenting on how sad it was that others were dying while she rested in a mansion.

May told her to choose someone to help and Ruby wouldn't.

Harriet told her that Qrow was in custody, but Ruby made no plans to try and help him (something Blake says is now a lost cause).

She knew the rest of her team was missing, but sent May to find information instead.

When the team finally gets back together and asks, "What next?" Ruby throws up her hands, announces that it's impossible, and runs from the room.

The problem is not with Ruby having a (mini) breakdown, it's that this breakdown was about the supposed impossibility of their situation when Ruby hadn't tried anything yet. Up until this point, she's done nothing except deal with unexpected problems she's forced to tackle (Penny arrives, Hound arrives) and otherwise fosters the war onto others. Ruby doesn't need to come up with a plan after opposing Ironwood, she'll just call on the world to come and fix things instead. She doesn't need to choose someone to help because there are no sides and that magical solution will arrive with the army no Kingdom actually has. Any minute now. She doesn't need to try and find her Uncle, or her team, doesn't need to coordinate with Whitley when he thinks of using the airships, or come up with a way to help Nora, or go down to fight the grimm in Mantle, or speak to the man who has spent generations fighting this exact fight, or make use of her grimm-specific eye weapon... Ruby spends the Volume waiting for others to arrive with a fix that won't test her morals and when they don't, she crumbles. It's impossible. It's hopeless. And I'm like, Ruby, you're throwing in the towel before trying anything and you're doing that on top of seizing control of this moral dilemma in the first place.

There's a lot of character potential there. Frustrating to watch, but potential nonetheless. Problem is, no one forces Ruby to face it. Yang talks about how they had to take the "risk" (what risk?) and that her own "plan for Mantle didn’t work either," but "a lot more that wasn’t in the plan" did (what plan?). Yang acts as if the world truly failed by refusing to magically show up and fix things to her sister's liking, rather than the truth: Ruby failed by opposing Ironwood under the confidence of blind optimism — I'll surely find a better solution than the one that leaves half a Kingdom to potentially die — immediately failed to come up with that, offloaded the problem onto everyone else, staunchly refused to make any hard decisions, and then when others tried to come up with a single idea to improve the situation she announces that the whole thing is impossible. The Ruby in this moment needs a serious wake up call and then a hug.

But no one forces Ruby to confront her passiveness (or rather, May and Ren make an attempt before being told off). No one challenges her (wonderful) instinct to Do The Right Thing in a world that demands practical solutions. Ruby is not shown to owe her teammates any apologies for continually undermining their attempts to do something while she waits for that perfect solution to arrive. There's no growth here, just Ruby stewing in the supposed horror of other people not coming to her rescue, even though the viewer can easily see all the obvious, non-horrifying reasons why that happened. All of Ruby's actual difficulties — turning on her allies despite them all dealing with a terrifying trolley problem, refusing to help in small ways because it won't fix everything at once, ignoring the allies she still has and the civilians in danger to instead watch safely from afar, blaming this bad outcome on others' failure to show up and solve the problem she insisted on taking on, the hypocrisy that made all this worse by eroding the trust Ironwood had in her — are ignored because the writers knew they'd have her go, "Relic!" in a minute and then bam, Ambrosius lets them cheat their way to a solution. Why have your protagonist work through her failures and strive to do better when you can just have her 'remember' that she can do a version of a plan she opposed in the first place?

Sometimes I imagine a Volume 7 finale where Ruby balks at the idea of leaving half the Kingdom behind and, instead of gleefully attacking the Ace Ops, convinces Ironwood to use the Relic in a slightly different way. They can modify this idea to help everyone, she's sure of it, and yes, Ironwood might have more reason to put his faith in her — and the safety of his people — if Ruby hadn't been lying since she stepped foot in the Kingdom. A version of Ruby that owns up to her mistakes and commits herself to regaining Ironwood's trust in the name of unity, establishing herself as Salem's oppostite. Maybe she surrenders herself and we get a cool prison break where Ruby remembers that Qrow exists. Maybe she reaches out to Ozpin in an effort to discover whether they can use the Staff in a way that saves all of Atlas, not just the floating city. Where Ruby defends the people of Mantle with her silver eyes, or confronts Salem in the whale, or is coming up with short-term ideas for how to make things a little bit better. A story where "I don't like it when friends fight" leads to Penny being the bridge between Ruby and Ironwood's group, where Ironwood isn't randomly throw into the villain deep end, where the conflict revolves around all the heroes facing off against established villains as they struggle to evacuate everyone, keep the Relics safe, and keep the grimm from overrunning them all. A version of the story where Ruby can collapse under the weight of all this without me going, "Yeah, but... you demanded this responsibility. And then you didn't do anything with it. Of course this is hard, it would be staggeringly hard for anyone, but I'd feel a bit more sympathetic if this weren't largely a problem of your own making, compounded by you hoping others will solve the problem you explicitly took on."

So yeah :/ I think in RT's mind these scenes do constitutes a "break" that Ruby has now grown from. And yet...

[onewomancitadel]

If Knightfall weren't to materialize in canon, yet Cinder still ends the series redeemed, would you feel it was more of a missed opportunity for a potentially interesting development or a bungle on the part of the writers?

Now this is a good ask, thank you! It's a very interesting question because I essentially predicate my theorising about Cinder's redemption upon Knightfall; if Knightfall weren't to materialise, would that sort of make her redemption arc... accidental? The storytelling less precise? The Ozlem less of a big deal? Would it still be able to precipitate Salem's? When you've got all of these moving parts what as a reader you're trying to divine - you must wonder what it looks like for the storyteller - you really can't read any of these elements separately.

I've mentioned a few times that what I struggle with when it comes to the very little Cinder redemption speculation I've seen - which doesn't necessarily include her living, so her happy ending is not always prioritised but moreso her service to other characters - is that it's sort of just so. It happens because it needs to. It happens because she's sympathetic. It happens because they like her. It happens because Ruby figures out what's going on with Cinder's arm - without asking how Cinder would feel about the purification, of course, particularly if she herself has not put all the parts together yet... how do you get either of them to see each other as more than faceless enemy? What I really like about the Knightfall dynamic is that it is putting a face to an enemy - before even any real empathy emerges or... more complicated relationship.

So that informs how I read her redemption arc because I think Cinder's actually a very, very tough nut to crack, and it's why I find her so interesting. Her redemption arc is meant to be a tough nut to crack - so you either have people not really sure what it's going to look like, people convinced the Power of Friendship has already failed her and anyway Emerald got her shit out so Cinder doesn't matter (what about Mercury...), or people who think the idea of her redemption arc is flagrantly ridiculous, either because they like the idea of a cackling villain who stays evil because that's more interesting or because they hate her.

I'm mostly trying to convey that I don't really ship Knightfall because it's arbitrary. It's the ballerina en pointe on a knife's edge. It's the clincher that holds it together and makes it intelligible.

So if Knightfall didn't materialise I would assume the storytelling is not as thoughtful as it was. That's all. I wouldn't just read it as a missed opportunity, I would read the allusions uninteresting, the Ozlem conflict not fully solved and certainly not fully mythic... and Cinder's redemption arc was never really that special, it just had to be paused until Ruby or Emerald or whomever wizened up or Cinder learnt her lesson. There was no need to write Jaune in any particular way, it would make him accessory - unless they DID involve him with no romance and that wouldn't just be COWARDLY, it would be STUPID and a complete BUNGLE and wouldn't realise the mythic magic of the story or the romance or, you know, character boon on either side. Why the fuck would I settle for platonic love for Cinder? Sorry, friends are great, but this girl grew up desperately unloved and absolutely no one's priority. Heal that or fuck off and die.

I'm not pulling the related character arcs out of thin air - this is already a thing all over the show - and I think that Emerald/Mercury is going to be a romantic redemption arc/enemies-to-lovers - so there's no reason to act like Knightfall is exceptional. if R/WBY is coherent, Knightfall is a thing. If R/WBY is incoherent and less interesting, Knightfall is not a thing. That is pretty much the way I see it. There's a lot more than Emerald/Mercury paralleling it but I wanted a very specific similar archetypical example. You can see the twin pairs related across redemption arcs through the story (which lead them to reconciling/connecting ot others). I use the word coherent as opposed to clever because I'm establishing that this isn't difficult: it simply needs to make sense. It doesn't need to be perfect. It just needs to use intuitive narrative language and basic storytelling tools and that's it. That's what you predicate Knightfall on.

Really no Knightfall wouldn't just be a loss to Cinder's character but Jaune's, because I have no fucking clue what they'd do with him otherwise. I'm being genuine, I sincerely don't know, and I think it's why he doesn't make sense to so many people because they can't read him in response to Cinder and it's just not obvious to them. It certainly depends how they play the Penny angle - but there's no reason to make him do that and connect him to Cinder again unless you have something interesting cooking.

I've encountered this idea with previous pairings before that involved redemption arcs that platonic love between the two characters could be just as interesting. I'm sorry but that's just obtuse. We know it's not the same thing. We know a romance would convey a different message (particularly if it's Ozlem in reverse and fixed) and we know that there are other powerful friendships in the series that this isn't something we're exactly starving for. There is no way you can expect a major relationship between Jaune and Cinder to just be platonic. Of course I'm banking on a happy ending, or something approximating it - tinged with loss but still happy - because otherwise the story should've ended with Salem's loss. I really can't see it as tragic love either as the big transcendent send-off for the story that heals all mythic wounds.

So either R/WBY is coherent and thoughtful or it isn't. Knightfall happens or it doesn't. I'm being completely serious, I genuinely don't think there's any way to otherwise write Cinder's redemption arc as the precipitator to the ultimate narrative resolution or even if he's involved there's almost no way to do it without romance. You either answer the questions posed by the narrative or not. We know what those questions are now, we just don't know what the answer is.

It can always go tits up but I really don't care. I'd rather be invested now and do damage assessment after the fact than wonder if it would've been worth speculating about Knightfall. If Cinder's redemption is tied up in all the ideas I think are interesting about the show and so is Knightfall, then yes, I wouldn't like it if it didn't happen, but I can't be blamed for listening to my storytelling instincts. It's not about being right or wrong, it's about feeling something.

[bookaddict24-7]

REVIEWS OF THE WEEK!

Books I’ve read so far in 2022!

Friend me on Goodreads here to follow my more up to date reading journey for the year!

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251. Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I absolutely devoured this book. Although you can tell that this is a product of the time (mainly by certain derogatory words that King uses), the story feels timeless. I also think that this is the perfect read for October. The artwork, the atmosphere, and that build up of terror is definitely going to keep you up at night.

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252. Just A Bit Obsessed by Alessandra Hazard--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Re-Read in October 2022: This is the one I was most excited to re-read in the early books of this series. I love how certain events in this book happened because the actions of the woman in this felt very petty. Definitely made me feel giddy as I re-read!

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253. Two Truths & A Lie by April Henry--⭐️⭐️⭐️

I usually enjoy YA thrillers because they're fun and there isn't a lot of thought processing behind it because of their predictability (save for a few I've encountered in the past), and this one wasn't any different. While it was fun, it wasn't mind blowing. I had my suspicions over who was the killer and what some of the twists would be, so it wasn't entirely surprising. But with all of that being said, it was still an entertaining read and would make for a great cozy murder mystery by the fireplace as the weather gets colder. I don't have a fireplace, but the image just sounds nice. Will this blow your mind? No. But it might just entertain you!

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254. Nick & Charlie by Alice Oseman--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I LOVE MY BOYS. Even if they sometimes lack communication and let their insecurities get the better of them. I loved that this had Oseman's classic art throughout the book. I love these two so much and like one of the characters said, if there was an example of what soulmates look like, it would be them. Please read Heartstopper before you read this!

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255. Two Degrees by Alan Gratz--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was the second book I've read by this author and I am convinced that I need to read all of his books. I loved this novel and what it could represent, AND that it is aimed for the younger generations (anyone of any generation SHOULD read this). Just like in the last book I read by Gratz, this one tells three separate stories that eventually come together into a great overarching narrative. What I love about this is that it makes me want to connect the dots before the epilogue and try to guess how these characters might know each other. I think each story carries its own important message in regards to the climate change currently happening, how people are reacting (or not reacting) to our changing world, and the aftermath of the consequences of our actions. Gratz doesn't hold back when it comes to giving us the jarring reality of the situations these characters face, including the casualties that occur during these events. I also found it so terrifying how the hurricane story mirrors what just recently happened in Florida. That timing was just...wow. I highly recommend this book and I think it should be taught in schools. Our world is changing and I'm glad to have another book that explores the topic.

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256. Spells for Lost Things by Jenna Evans Welch--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I received a copy via the publisher because I interviewed the author on Indigo's Instagram page. This did not affect my review in any way. Much like the MC of this book, reading her story was like taking a trip into the whimsical world of family and Salem. I enjoyed getting to know more about this witchy family and their cursed history. I also loved how the male MC learned to trust and love those who offer him a home and felt for him as he faced some of the darker realities of his situation. I adored watching the two of them fall for each other as they tried to solve the mystery at the heart of this book, and how they helped each other find themselves. This was just such a sweet read about family and magic and I think if you want a good October read that won't give you nightmares, then this might be perfect for you! The atmosphere and setting is great for those who love realistic fiction with a touch of the otherworldly, and the humour will make you want to wish you were a part of this family. I didn't make this a five star rating because it took me a bit to get into the story but once the mystery started, I was hooked.

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257. Nowhere Girl by Cheryl Diamond--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The moment I heard about this book, I absolutely wanted to read it. This was so heavy, but so good. I couldn't stop listening to it--even through the darker moments. I think that if you're thinking of reading this, definitely check for trigger warnings. Diamond had such an incredibly rough life leading up to this book's publication. I think she put the perspective of the situation (from the POV of an outsider) best herself when she shared the POV of a man in her life: how her childhood is so fascinating, but it's easy to think that when you're not the one living it. She lived with an abusive father, siblings, and a mother who fell more and more into herself. Despite the heartbreak and the moments where my heart dropped for her, I am so glad I read this and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for incredibly hard hitting memoirs that don't shy away from the dark realities of some families.

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258. How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The fact that this book was on my shelves for years hurts my heart because IT WAS SO GOOD. I was so surprised and hooked from the beginning! Gilliland deals with some heavy topics in this, but I love that these topics were explored (especially because we are seeing more and more fatphobia in society). I think this book will help anyone who thinks they are alone in hating their bodies, or thinking that the insults thrown their way makes up who they are. Moon struggles with her self-image and the way others see her because she has always been compared to her "perfect" twin sister. I think exploring these topics will help (even if they can be triggering) because it will hopefully help the reader feel less alone. Don't even get me started on Moon's love interest. I loved how their romance flourished and that this was a classic enemies to lovers romance trope, intermingled with some pretty bugs. Her love interest was such a cinnamon roll and I'm so happy that they found each other. However, you can see their ages in how they react to certain situations (even though Moon is more mature in other situations.) Also, this book is definitely for the older teen (and up). Keep that in mind if you're recommending it to anyone younger than fifteen or sixteen. Please read the trigger warnings for this book!

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259. Every Summer After by Carley Fortune--⭐️⭐️⭐️

I finally read this one after it was so popular during the summer. I can see why, though. This has summer written all over it (especially because of the title and cover.) I enjoyed this and I loved that it was set so close to home (for me). I liked seeing how the relationship between the MC and the brothers was slowly developed through flashbacks. I wasn’t a big fan of one of the big twists and how the love interests acted at various times (although I understand too because they’re so young). Not going to lie though, I’m team older bro. Sorry not sorry. One of the main reasons why this isn’t higher rated for me is because while everyone hyped this up, I just kept thinking of the other romance novels that used this same theme and storyline. I know there’s no true original ideas anymore (for the most part, save for the few instances) but I mean, this was still not as good as other novels I’ve read with a similar storyline. Would I recommend this to others? Of course! It’s a great summer read and if you haven’t read the books I’m thinking of, then I think you will love this.

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260. The Ghosts of Thorwald Place by Helen Power--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was NOT expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did. There was something about it that just kept pulling me in when I wasn’t listening to it. Also, a Toronto setting? Heck yeah. This building made me think of the Ice towers in the city. The mystery was fun and the twist was unexpected. I mainly loved this book for the voyeuristic storyline of this ghost watching these lives continue—no matter how chaotic. It shows that we truly never know what a person is doing behind closed doors. This was also surprisingly terrifying. I wasn’t expecting to feel moments of discomfort (despite the topic and genre of the book). There are various scenes that are definitely nightmare inducing. Perfect for October tbh. If you want a thriller/horror novel with compelling characters and a unique perspective on what it might be like to be a ghost stuck where you were murdered, then you might enjoy this one. But read it with the lights on.

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Have you read any of these books? Would you recommend them?

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Happy reading!