#about the epilogue: i feel you
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I don't know how to thank you. This feels like the end of an era. I can't believe it's been 4yrs since you started posting hiuh and I was instantly hooked. It literally got me through the pandemic. I learned so much from the story and felt I had Neo as a therapist(the best in the world). You must be flooded with asks now but I am really curious how the story formed in your head. It's hard to believe how consistent the story is as you posted chapter by chapter. Did you outline the whole story when you started? did you stick to all the original ideas? if you changed your mind what were they? It really is a master piece - much much better than many published books I read and I hope you will publish someday, if that's what you want.
I'd also offer you my first born to have an epilogue. hopefully lamen with their child(ren) playing on the beach and Nicaise being the doting big brother. they all grew so much and deserve all the happiness. oh and Kastor and Jo and Galen for big family gathering. I'm so proud of all of them.
thank you thank you thank you for all your patience and genius and mostly, generosity.
hello!!!! i'm so happy that my story resonated with you and got you through some tough times. it did the same for me!
It's hard to believe how consistent the story is as you posted chapter by chapter.
thank you!! it will never be as good as it was in my head or as good as I know I could have made it if I had spent more time on it, but for me the most important thing is that it is completed and at least 70% of what I wanted it to be. a win is a win!!!
Did you outline the whole story when you started? did you stick to all the original ideas? if you changed your mind what were they?
i got the idea for a modern au break up fic in 2020 while I was writing and posting wtsioa. i started the story as a 20k one shot and then realized 5k into it or less that it was not going to fit into that word count. the reason was very simple: i did not want a break up fic centered around "miscommunication" in a naive, fluffy way. i did not want to write a fic where the main issue was that one loved the other too much or that they thought the other was cheating when it wasn't true, etc. i wanted to write a break up that felt honest to me, and this meant giving them both issues that felt real, that i saw in myself and in the people around me irl. which meant that it would take them both considerably more than 5k to get over them (if they ever did).
i outlined the fic very roughly. my first drafts . . . they are not it, girl. like, anyone that has read wtsioa knows that. I'm a much better editor than I am a writer, so for hiuh i outlined the main beats (nicaise calls damen after months, damen goes to therapy, nicaise is out of control and some incidents happen, laurent is dating maxime, they get back together). then, i wrote the entire thing in . . . a year? maybe less? then, i made a mistake and got cocky: i edited the first three chapters and started posting on ao3. that's why the fic took so long to post. i had to edit each chapter a lot after the first three were released.
i edited out too many things to count. things you wouldn't believe if I told you now because they make no sense when looking at the finished version. idalia was a pretty big character, and so was jokaste. in the og outline, I debated between claude/heavy drugs for nicaise. i almost named dog NIKANDROS!!!! damen actually punched aktis at the party when he talks shit about laurent . . . which led to him also punching nik. laurent slapping nicaise once. aimeric and damen baking together. then, there were things I wanted to write but couldn't because they didn't feel very real to me, despite being the best self indulgent daydream scenarios ever: damen hunting claude down (yeah, ruth wanted this to happen), dog getting sick, aimeric's EVERYTHING lol, nik and nicaise talking, etc.
thank you for sending this ask and reading the story through all the ups and downs and... lack of updates on my end!!! it has been the best experience ever, knowing that someone out there is reading and cares about what I made. thank you!!!!!!!!
#anon#hiuh#about the epilogue: i feel you#someone asked me what lamen telling nicaise would look like#but I WANNA KNOW WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT OKAY#bc i already know what happens inside my head#some people were pissed about the cut off ending but i think it just gives the story such a hopeful note
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post-canon/epilogues au, in which kankri, through paradox space shenanigans, gets revived and comes into his ultimate self, gathering knowledge from all of his past and future iterations - including the signless. now hes on a one-man mission to stop ult dirks plan to start another session of sburb in the bud
#homestuck#homestuck au#homestuck beyond canon#kankri vantas#dirk strider#ultimate dirk strider#dont ask me how did he get revived or why does he want to stop ult dirk i am as clueless as you are#but feel free to speculate!! i just liked the concept of ult kankri and how would it change him#since now he also has memories of signless#the ask about dirkkri gave me brainrot#i also did not fully read the epilogues or hs:bc im going in blind lmfao#dirkri#dirkkri
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We are SO fuckin back
Original by @/soup-erb
#fooze#soup-erb#rwby#rwby fanart#damn how do I go about tagging everyone…#arslan altan#octavia ember#velvet scarlatina#coco Adel#fox alistair#yatsuhashi daichi#ruby rose#weiss schnee#blake bellodona#penny polendina#jaune arc#nora valkyrie#sun wukong#scarlet david#neptune vasilias#it’s always a great day to celebrate bunbun. especially today with the epilogue~#I wanted to add yang and ren but the space ran out 😔#you can imagine whatever they’re doing to add in on the festivities#why they got a mix n match with their outfits?? idk I didn’t feel like drawing the atlas ones BUT I left in the character development lol
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Whilst overall I prefer the manga to the anime, there's one aspect that I think the anime does better - the very ending.
Compared to the manga's very compactly shown thoughts of the cast, the anime gives each of them a short scene.
But although that change already is great, what matters to me the most, is this added scene of Saiko.
Despite it being so short, it feels so fitting and important to Saiko's character, making its absence in the original seem wrong. (They also added Rifuta, though comparatively, her scene isn't so significant.)
#saiki kusuo#saiko meteori#rifuta imu#saiki k#tdlosk#the disastrous life of saiki k#i'm sure people must've said this before but i always think about this when reading through 281#although i prefer the anime's version i also think the original has its merits#i feel like putting (almost) all of the words/thoughts in one panel puts more focus on kusuo's feelings#and it also nicely shows how recognizable the characters are just by how they talk#but i think showing the characters one last time before the end works better as a send-off#(plus it works better visually for the anime)#and i'm glad the anime remembered about imu and saiko#this scene works well as a 'conclusion/ending' of sorts for saiko (though naturally it'd be better if there was more)#it'd feel more incomplete without it#the anime also added small bits of dialogue here such as toritsuka thinking “ i know you can't hear me” which is also a nice touch#i really like the epilogue and i find the anime's adaptation of it the best part of the anime#the anime rarely adds things; it mostly removes stuff#there are few added scenes in earlier seasons but it's really not as noticeable as the things they cut/shortened#but because the epilogue has a whole episode to itself - the pacing is much better allowing them to add additional stuff#on top of already adapting the manga well#ended up going on a small ramble by accident
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Personal take: One of the weirdest things Veilguard did, outright baffling, in fact, is how it feels like they reset the status quo of the world to Origins - even further back, if anything.
The game avoids (at all costs) meaningfully delving into exploring what these events/lore reveals mean to the world and characters at large. But the entire time I was thinking: holy shit this is bad.
What happens in game has very, very bad implications for the rest of Thedas and how they're going to look at groups like the Elves and Mages. I'm looking at this from the perspective of someone whose played all three previous games, not from the perspective of datv which really brushes over all moral complexity and sociopolitical issues. Of course, it's just my interpretation but its based off what happened in previous games.
Elves
The Elvish Gods of legend came back, blighted, and ended up wiping out the majority of the South - I find it hard to believe that the elves would not be 'roped in' as being responsible somehow.
Elves could sneeze in a previous game and people would blame them for causing a plague and purge the alienage -> life is shit for an elf and the events of datv would have absolutely made life a thousand times worse.
Would there be purges of alienages? Are there groups like the chavaliers or mobs of humans going about an killing elves because 'It's your Gods. It's your fault.'
Obviously, it isn't. But there are plenty of examples in Thedas' history of people acting rashly/cruelly out of terror and anger - and it's the most vulnerable people, like the Elves and Mages, who are targeted.
The Dalish Elves, what remains of them, would likely be perceived as 'Blight/Old God worshipers' - people would chase them off for the 'crime' of living too close to them in the woods in DAO.
Terrified, angry people would not care if the Dalish said they had nothing to do with what's happening - there would be bloodshed.
If anything improved for the elves from the time of Origins -> Mahariel, Tabris, Lavellan, or Briala...it's likely back to ground one as the best possible outcome, and closer to the Exalted March on the Dales at it's worst.
Mages
Mages could, potentially, have been living a life of unprecedented acceptance if Leliana was Divine -> along come the Evanuris, mages, who are allied with the Venatori who are causing devastation in Orlais and the Free Marches specifically.
Missive - Message from the Front -> The Tide Turns "The Venatori and the Orlesian royal armies clash daily in Orlais. Val Royeaux is now under control of the rebels, and from there the Venatori launch attacks as far east as Kirkwall."
The original magisters (evanuris) wielding the Blight and Old Gods 2.0 x2.
Any templars who remained, who had the old mindset and outlook of how mages should be treated, absolutely would be pointing at the venatori and saying "we warned you what would happen without the Order."
Normal people wouldn't give a shit that it's only a 'few' mages -> their entire home is gone, their families are dead, and the people responsible are wielding magic.
Fear of magic would likely be at an all time high - If the Order doesn't exist people would likely be demanding for them to come back.
The mages - whatever goodwill they earned - are likely being faced with suspicion and terror because this is proof of what magic can do in the hands of power-hungry douchebags.
Maybe they help to fight and people don't get so suspicious of them - who knows! This game doesn't want to address the previous games so it's in limbo.
Spirits
Other people have done great posts about how the spirits were completely tossed aside in this game. Three games worth of humanizing spirits, with Justice and Cole, only to go back on it with Solas reinforcing the Veil and...maintaining the status quo?
He so earnestly discussed with us his perspective on spirits and how they're just as 'real' as those on this side of the Veil - we saw it with Cole firsthand. But I guess they can all chill in the Fade till Solas dies or whatever.
I'd argue that the elves and mages are in an even worse position than they were in Origins. It's just not fulfilling, to me at least, to see the World I got so invested in just regress to the status quo after three games of challenging it. For it to not be meaningfully discussed or spoken about in-game, just brushed aside...I may not have liked the decision to do this but it could have been interesting (at least) if they actually discussed it.
Also, people don't just 'band together' because of the Blight - Origins showed us very well that in times of strife and pressure peoples petty/deeply ingrained beliefs, prejudices, and values come to the forefront. Alistair's comment about “You know, one good thing about the Blight is how it brings people together" -> was him being snarky about how everybody as Ostagar was on the verge of throwing hands with each other. They were united in cause not in belief - the cause being to eradicate the darkspawn.
It's just so grim, and with how they handled sociopolitical issues and moral complexity in datv (not at all) I have no hope that they'll be able to address this at all, if they even bother to and don't just...ignore it, I guess.
Maybe this is what the devs meant when they said that the 'tone' was similar to Origins - just straight up erasing whatever strides was made in the previous games and setting it back to square one lmao
#i will never stop thinking about southern thedas bioware - yes i probably am thinking about this too hard#no epilogue - this is not a story of triumph or victory -> this is very very bad and i am not happy >:(#hard to put into words the empty feeling i got in my stomach when the game ended#i'd argue that the elves are worse off than origins - way worse off. like closer to exalted march of the dales quo than origins quo.#not to mention the Crows remaining the same and the Tevinter still slaving away#I guess the wardens get to retire now though - so we got one win? lmao#actually back to the Crows - Zevran being erased and the crows 'winning' means they're actually better off -> thanks game#what a choice to make the game you sold to us a sequel as the 'soft/scorched earth reboot' of the series#once more -> it's my opinion - maybe ur look isn't as fatalistic as mine but this is very grim to me :(#going to be real - i have no expectations that DA5 will ever happen -> bioware as a studio is too messed up and unwilling to reflect#Bioware is literally 'the Studio of Theseus' at this point#datv critical#bioware critical#veilguard critical
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Does croissant and gale get married in your story?
It's certainly something they plan to do!
But not just yet.
🥐 Croissant Adventures Masterpost 🥐
#FINALLY! MORE BREADWEAVE! JUST FOR YOU!#Thank you for asking this - what a good way for me to segue into some post-game stuff! (this is pre-epilogue)#Croissant was never super into marriage so it's something they don't mind waiting on. And they want to make sure ALL their friends are ther#I also feel like Croissant never felt like they had a Purpose - so they've never had a place to direct all their energy#Now that they have this task they're going to go full Gale mode about it lol#Which I think Gale would be happy to oblige - reading a bunch of books to solve a problem seems right up his alley#Bc I'm not sure if I'll draw this - I envision Croissant focusing on figuring out how to magic Karlach's heart back to normal#while Gale works on some magic artifact to allow Astarion to be in the sun again#Both of them will be bad about having a proper sleep schedule#bg3#baldur's gate 3#croissant adventures#gale#gale dekarios#breadweave#asks#comics
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linkedin profile pic energy
#raphael#raphael bg3#bg3#baldur's gate 3#bg3 spoilers#i mean there are no spoilers but it's from the patch 5 epilogue so#i edited professional headshots in the past and i could not stop thinking about it when i watched these scenes#and so here we are#the first one is your standard professional headshot/profile pic fare#the second one feels very law firm “about us” page#and the third one is giving advice column vibes. “ask raphael” “ask the devil you know” kinda shit#mine#my screenshots
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Izutsumi character study
#dungeon meshi#izutsumi#One of my goals for this year was to spend more time doing art studies.#What better way to start than with my favourite danmeshi character (not seen: a whole page of figuring out her features)#I feel like she is by far one of the most poorly understood characters in the series. Partially due to her 'late party member' status.#'She's abrasive and mean' - 'she's a picky eater' - 'she's a catgirl who acts like an asshole cat ' YES and that is the point!#Everyone in dungeon meshi is traumatized and messy about it but izutsumi is just less polite in how she tries to cope.#Izutsumi is a extremely traumatized teenager who has utterly lacked autonomy her entire life.#She is the epitome of a “If I can just have X thing then all my problems will be solved!” character. And the X is 'Freedom'.#Her epilogue was one of the best and wrapped up her character so wonderfully (WARNING: I WILL NOW SPOIL PART OF THE ENDING)#Because she finally gets her freedom! She can go where she wants to and she doesn't need anybody! Yet...it doesn't fix her.#She is so focused on doing only what she wants that she forgets her own needs. Sometimes you have to eat the things you don't want.#And sometimes you have to face the hard truths that you need more than just one thing to make you happy.#Life is not all about only seeking pleasures and avoiding pain. You need to be balanced in order to grow.#Eat your vegetables (including the metaphorical ones: I am eating more art veggies this year by doing art studies!!!)
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i still love you
#orv spoilers#orv#orv fanart#omniscient reader's viewpoint#kim dokja#kdj#kim dokja's company#kimcom#blacked out and here we are#they love each other so much#oh my god#anyways can you tell i have feelings about the epilogue
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I'm obsessed with the concept of Minthara "the funniest person I know" Baenre.
When she's new in the gang, right after Moonrise, and everyone is still getting used to the Scary Serious Drow General of the First House of Menzoberranzan (who also tried to kill us all) hanging around the campside - until she delivers the most deadpan joke imaginable over dinner or impersonates someone they met in a really dry tone and everyone just needs like...10 seconds to compute what happened. Before just bursting out hysterically.
#I feel like it's rare enougn that you don't seen it coming#but also 50/50 between a dad joke ('it was a beautiful webbing') and some comment about poisoning everyone#(hence the 'you think I'm joking' in the epilogue)#but these are probably also dad jokes by Menzoberranzan standards. Or the equivalent there of. I don’t think they let men joke.#minthara baenre#baldur's gate 3#fandom
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I think some people have missed is that we see Yuta's grandkids. Not his children???
I've see some point out the boy looks like Megumi with his hair down, some say he looks like Maki and yeah, grandchildren can look like their grandparents (look at Yuji and Wasuke).
However, it's bothering me that Panda didn't mention Maki. People say that "in Panda's epilogue we get what happened to Yuta and Maki". No, we didn't. From the translations, we got what happened to Yuta. And if Maki had been mentioned, I'm sure any translation would have explicitly stated her name.
He became head to the Gojo family and that he had grandkids. In Panda's epilogue, it's 2080. That's 62 years after the main story. Panda stopped functioning in 2035, 17 years after the main story.
By 2035, Yuta would be 34 years old. That's a reasonable age to have been married, right?
That means Panda could have attended Yuta's wedding and know who he married. Had it been Maki, you would think that Panda who tried to hook them up in JJK 0 would have mentioned her name. Maki, who Panda knew before he knew Yuta.
Given that there is a mutual bond there between Yuta and Maki, you would think it would be written in that they got married, right?
Unless, they actually didn't.
Again, those were Yuta's grandkids. For all we know, the Gojo clan probably arranged a marriage between him and some unknown woman and somewhere down the line Yuta's child (or one of his children) hooked up with someone who happened to share similar features to Maki and Megumi.
"But Kiya, didn't Maki wipe out the Zenin clan?"
Yeah, but again, I said someone with similar features. Not a relative.
Shoot, in that case, what if Maki had a kid of her that Yuta's kid married and they had kids, resulting into the two grandchildren we see.
Maybe not everyone from the Zenin clan got wiped out. Like Toji, someone probably had long left that clan and changed their name, had a family down the line and Yuta or his child may have hooked up with said person.
Look, this is not me hating the ship. I don't actually. I had a thought and it's been bothering me.
As of late, it has came to my attention that people are quick to call anything "canon" and forget that the word "implied" exists. And in turn, show just how much they care about the characters which doesn't seem like a lot.
All people seem to care about is a ship being canon. It does not have to be for it to be enjoyed, you know.
Since Panda's epilogue came out, I have seen people be quick to once more label Maki as "Yuta's girl" and that's it. Like, was that all that mattered to you? "He clapped Maki's cheeks."
I highly doubt it. He may have clapped someone's cheeks but it wasn't said to be Maki's from what I have seen. Heck, Yuta may not have had sex at all to have kids. He could have just gotten a surrogate mother. Maki could have been a surrogate mother.
"But it's canon!" Yuta and Maki being married is as canon as Sukuna's birthday being in the summer.
As in, it's not. Yuta being married is canon, yes. Who he is married to is the mystery.
If, hard if there, it's Maki, okay that's great.
But, Panda not mentioning her leaves other possibilities for me.
With Gege's writing I do feel like there are times that the audience have to fill in the blanks by the characters and their actions and visual cues. However, there are other times that maybe "no, that's actually not the case".
#it just may be on purpose too#gege maybe didn't state maki's name because he didn't want her to be seen as just some wife#nothing wrong with being married#what is wrong is just objectifying the woman in the relationship and congratulating the man for 'getting with her'#that's the problem i have with some shippers#i feel this way with any ship#heck some of you know how i feel about a certain ship's shippers because of how how they see the girl there#like saying it's implied is cool too you know?#not everything has to be canon come on#just kiya's thoughts#jjk#jujutsu kaisen#jjk epilogue#jjk spoilers#jjk manga spoilers#panda#panda jjk#zenin maki#maki zenin#okkotsu yuta#yuta okkotsu
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can you imagine if they left the epilogue as it was without adding hs2. like if they leaned more into the “fanfic parody” aspect of it.
imagine if you read the homestuck epilogues and instead of being forced to contend with fascist jane for the next five years, the epilogues just ended with dirk saying “Oh and this was all a dream. Btw.”
like i think that would have been insanely funny. there would have been so so many memes about the officially licensed homestuck parody where rose and jade cheat on their marriages and dirk makes davekat kiss. i think everyone would have found that to be such a riot
it would have been way more fun to analyze too because instead of being forced to take 40yrold divorced dave seriously everyone could be like “what does it mean when on page 42 dirk described him as a white lanky bitch… what level of irony is this… what does it symbolize”
instead it feels like we got told a joke that we weren’t exactly in on, felt hurt about it, and now we’ve all been sitting around for half a decade waiting for a punchline that might never come
#like now we’re forced to analyze fascist jane and accessory jake and like take their feelings seriously… hussie wasnt it a joke say sike#this is not like a diss against the authors of hs2 at all by the way (not original nor current) im just confused why hs2 even got made#it didnt feel like they needed to go on and make it a whole story really it felt like the epilogues were bizarre enough…#they should have ended it with ‘it was all a dream’ fr#like i think that would have been so funny. and the fandom would have had a lot of fun with it even if some ppl didn’t find it funny#idk. it could have been more obviously a parody is all im saying#since the a lot of it certainly feels like that#and they also didn’t have to try to take the world seriously in the continuation (hs2)#but you know. im just a guy idk 😭#my boyfriend said some of this and it just made me think#homestuck#hs2#op#hsmeta#i literally have no idea what im talking about so please ignore me
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I wish I knew more about music or like how to talk about it in depth because the tsp soundtrack literally makes me feel so many emotions and I don’t even have the words to express why it makes my heart claw out of my chest (major rambling in the tags lol)
#crow thoughts#LIKE. ITS NOT JUST ME RIGHT.#THE MUSIC IN THIS GAME HITS GOOD#like. rn I’ve been nonstop thinking about the epilogue music that plays while you’re traveling to the memory zone#(the video from earlier played a bit of it and it’s been looping in my head)#AND IT JUST. DOES SO WELL AT CONVEYING THE EMPTY LONELY WASTELAND THAT WAS ONCE THE MEMORY ZONE……#like it’s not chipper or upbeat like how it usually is#it’s empty. it’s lonely. it’s looking for something.#<- AND MAYBE ITS A REACH BUT. it sounds eerily close to the freedom ending track#the way it opens at least has that same sort of tone but just the beginning parts#and like. idk if that’s just me feeling that way but. I AM THINKING ABOUT IT.#also a very fun neat one but the bottom of the kind control facility song-#-having a cute simple version of it playing in the background of the bucket version of that ending#idk it’s just so fun I love it. I love it A LOT#(is that a leitmotif? I think so. when a song reuses parts of another song right?)#also I love the way they use the music within the game if that makes sense#such a good navigation between when and when not to play the track#like when you first start up/restart and stand in Stanley’s office it’s got the music playing in the background#and it follows you till you get to the two doors; your first choice and when the music fades out/stops#I know there’s the coward ending as a choice but the two doors is like yknow. the first big choice the game introduces to you directly#<- IDK…….I JUST THINK ITS GOOD……….
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got her a pet :)
#yes I'm still losing my mind about the epilogue#I know this is probably something you can do regardless of who you romance#but it feels especially right with Shadowheart 'loving animals is one of the only parts of my personality I can remember' Hallowleaf#and I really like the idea of the owlbear being one of her first official pets as she starts her new life❤️#bg3#shadowheart
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Hi so me being me I've decided to hyperanalyze the conversation Qrow and Raven had in Higanbana practically line by line bcus I have Many Thoughts and this is the best way I can think of to get them all out. If you can't tell I'm absolutely obsessed with these two. Btw.
Thanks to the RWBY wiki for providing transcripts for every episode, otherwise I definitely would have missed smth despite having just watched this scene recently lol
I put it under the read more for easier scrolling due to how long this post got!
I immediately noticed smth in the very first lines of the interaction:
Raven: "Hello, brother." Qrow: "...Raven."
You'll notice throughout the whole conversation that Raven never calls Qrow by his name, only condescendingly referring to him as "brother" this one time and never calling him anything else. Meanwhile, Qrow directly refers to Raven a total of three times throughout the conversation, and only one doesn't call Raven by her name (which we'll get to shortly)
On the other hand, Qrow doesn't bother with even so much as a greeting beyond simply stating Raven's name
It's different ways of communicating their distance. While Raven holds her relationship with Qrow over his head — never once, even outside of this scene, does she call him "brother" with affection iirc, only derision and condescension — Qrow doesn't seem to rly know how to greet her. He hesitates before saying her name and approaching her, as if trying to assess the situation before acting
Qrow: "So, what do you want?" Raven: "A girl can't just catch up with her family?" Qrow: "She can, but you're not. Now how 'bout we get on with it? Unless you plan on keeping these [drinks] comin'."
Again, Raven seems to bring up her familial ties with Qrow as a tactic to get him to do what she wants — in this case, stick around to talk to her despite him not seeming to rly want to. Frankly, it feels manipulative. We're gonna put a pin in this for now and come back to it in just a moment
Additionally, Qrow already knows that Raven's not just here for a friendly chat between two siblings, and sees right thru her facade that it is. Raven is here bcus she wants smth from him. But interestingly, it is Raven in V5 that says, in an almost frustrated/disappointed tone, "Family. Only coming around when they need something." There's another pin; keep both in mind
Raven: "Does she have it?" Qrow: "...Did you know Yang lost her arm?" Raven: "That's not—" Qrow: "Rhetorical question, I know you know. It's just obnoxious that you'd bring up family and then carry on like your own daughter doesn't exist." Raven: "I saved her." Qrow: "Once. Because that was your rule, right? Real 'Mom of the Year' material, sis."
Qrow dodges Raven's question about the Relic and instead brings up her hypocrisy in how she treats family. And it's a good point. Here she is lording her siblingship with Qrow over his head while simultaneously defending and upholding her rule that she is only obligated to help her own daughter a single time. Another pinpoint on our little conspiracy board
Also, here's the one time in this conversation Qrow refers to Raven as "sis". Like Raven's use of "brother", Qrow's use of "sis" is very pointed and with intent. But it's not to manipulate Raven, it's a snarky jab meant to rly hammer home Qrow's point
Raven: "I told you Beacon would fall, and it did. I told you Ozpin would fail, and he has. Now you tell me. Does. Salem. Have it?" Qrow: "I thought you weren't interested in all of that." Raven: "I just want to know what we are up against." Qrow: "And which 'we' are you referring to?"
A few things of note here. At some point in the past, Raven expressed an outright disinterest in Ozpin's inner circle, at least to Qrow. Qrow also feels excluded in the "we" Raven mentions being against Salem. To me, there seems to be a distinct possibility here that it wasn't that Raven felt personally disinterested in Ozpin's operations, but that she somehow felt excluded and feigned a lack of interest in order to protect herself. An idea that is further supported in my eyes by the following dialogue:
Qrow: "You should come back, Raven. The only way we'd beat her is by working together. All of us." Raven: "You're the one who left. The tribe raised us, and you turned your back on them." Qrow: "They were killers and thieves." Raven: "They were your family." Qrow: "You have a very skewed perception of that word."
And there it is. Raven's problem is laid out here for us, loud and clear: She feels like she was the one abandoned, not the one running away. She says it outright! "You're the one who left." To her, Qrow is the traitor, the one who left their family behind. If you ask Qrow (or, for that matter, Tai, Yang, and even Summer based on the scene in V9), it's the opposite
Bcus they have different definitions of family
Another thing to pin (I promise this will all become clear soon)
Raven: "I lead our people now. And as leader, I will do everything in my power to ensure our survival." Qrow: "I saw. The people of Shion saw, too." Raven: "The weak die. The strong live. Those are the rules." Qrow: "Well, you've certainly got someone strong on your side. I've seen the damage." Raven: "We couldn't have known the Grimm would set in as quickly as they did." Qrow: "I'm not talking about the Grimm. And I'm not talking about you, either."
Notice Raven's shift from "the tribe" to "our people". More of that guilt tripping!
Additionally, Raven is *obsessed* with rules. One save. The weak die, the strong live. Raven lives and breathes rules, even seemingly arbitrary ones. Guess what this is? Another pin!
Raven: "If you don't know where the Relic is, then we have nothing left to talk about." Qrow: "I don't know where the Spring Maiden is, either, but if you do, I need you to tell me." Raven: "And why would I do that?" Qrow: "Because without her, we're all going to die." Raven: "...And which 'we' are you referring to?"
Qrow's "either" here implies that he also doesn't know where the Crown of Choice is, which is... interesting. He's one of Ozpin's closest lieutenants, and is in the dark on where Beacon's Relic is? Wherever it is, it is such a closely kept secret that even Ozpin's best spy doesn't know where it is (maybe so that in the event Qrow gets captured by Salem he can't be forced into giving her the information?)
Meanwhile, Raven's "And why would I [tell you]?" implies that she does know who the Spring Maiden is (obviously. Raven's the Spring Maiden lol) but refuses to disclose to Qrow
A lantern sputters out after Qrow says "Without [Spring] we're all going to die." Now, I genuinely can't remember if this is headcanon or canon, but iirc Misfortune seems to act up when Qrow's upset. He's clearly tired of this little game of dancing around topics that Raven's been playing with him
And once again, Raven indicates a feeling of exclusion from Qrow's life in the iconic final line. She gets the final word in before leaving
We've finally reached the end of the conversation. Now what does all of this tell us?
And here is where all of those pins I wrote down are relevant. As I mentioned, the twins view family very differently
Qrow's view is pretty obvious: he views family as the ppl in his life who matter most to him. Unlike Raven, he does not view the tribe as family despite the fact that they raised him, disgustedly referring to them as "killers and thieves". It's implied that he was, in fact, neglected and/or likely abused by the Branwen tribe, saying in V6C4, "No one wanted me... I was cursed..." further explaining his distaste for them. Furthermore, despite not being related to Ruby by blood, they clearly consider one another family throughout the series, and he even seems closer to her than he seems to his niece who's actually blood related to him (I personally headcanon that he keeps more of a distance from Yang bcus she reminds him too much of Raven, who he feels abandoned and hurt by, but that's neither here nor there). Bloodlines and debts are secondary compared to loyalty, if they're considered at all. He is obviously furious that Raven only insists on saving Yang once and never directly interacting with her beyond that, despite Raven constantly guilting Qrow over abandoning his so-called "family" of the tribe. And yet. And yet. He still offers Raven a place back in his life, even if only to unite against Salem
Raven's view, to me, has been an enigma for a while. But after hyperanalyzing this conversation, after noting down all of those points of interest, I feel like I've finally cracked the code. Raven views family as an obligation, an exchange that always has an ulterior motive behind it. She seeks out Qrow only bcus she desires smth from him despite showing distaste when someone does the same to her; condescendingly calls Qrow "brother" more than his actual name and calls the tribe their "family" to try guilting him into doing what she wants; and feels fierce loyalty to the tribe but barely interacts with her daughter, only seeming to count one of the two as true family. She views the concept of family with cynicism and seems to feel an obligation to the tribe, as if she "owes" them for raising her
I think the two's perceptions of what defines family are all to do with the way the tribe treated both of them. This crosses a bit into headcanon territory, but as you can see by the above quotes and analysis, I rly don't think I'm just making it up entirely
As I already mentioned, I think it's implied that the Branwen tribe neglected/abused Qrow. In fact, we could probably blame their treatment of him for the deep self-loathing he has due to his "cursed" Semblance. But what about Raven?
Well, it's simple: I think she was abused, too, just in a different way. While Qrow was likely shown and told on a consistent basis that he was unwanted, unloved, undeserving of good things, Raven may have been shown and told she was wanted, loved, and deserving of good things... if she did what the tribe told her. If she repaid them for raising her and her brother, for being her "family". The way she uses her familial ties with Qrow as almost blackmail may be exactly the way the tribe treated her. Her obsession with following rules may stem from the fact that she had to follow the rules the tribe set for her in order to be accepted and deemed worth smth
As for her distance from Yang... honestly, I wonder if Raven is aware that Yang deserves better and keeps her distance as her way of doing that. When Summer confronts Raven in the V9 scene, Raven says, "...You're better at that life. Better than I was." She seems to have a fear and insecurity about being a good family member, a good mother, and maybe that's why she fled. Maybe she was scared of being like her abusers due to how she emulates them as a self-preservation tactic in so many other ways. Not entirely sure about this point tho
And I think too this is why the twins don't rly understand one another. They may have been unaware of the different ways in which the other was treated. Qrow, constantly unwanted and loathed, can't understand why Raven sticks around with the tribe; Raven, who obeyed the tribe and, in doing so, garnered enough of their favor to even eventually become leader, can't understand why Qrow can't just be "good", earn respect, and stay
This dissonance between the two experiences may also be completely intentional on the part of the tribe; abusers will often eliminate their targets' support systems in order to make them completely reliant on the abuser, so it's highly likely that the wedge was intentionally driven between the two siblings so that they could not find support in one another. This would also tie into why the twins seem to feel excluded from one another's lives and abandoned by one another: bcus they were made to feel that way by their common abusers, and did nothing to challenge these assumptions bcus they saw no reason to — and only seemed to keep proving one another right if they did
Which rly has some disturbing implications about how the Branwen tribe works. Like, do they just pick orphaned kids up off the street and abuse them into being perfect little bandits, molded to be of the greatest possible use and discarded if they're deemed worthless? Plus Qrow says his Semblance is how he got his name, which implies that the tribe also renames the kids they scoop up (possibly as a form of control or a way to make sure they can't be tracked down by any remaining family)? Plus there's the whole thing where Qrow and Raven were originally sent to Beacon to learn how to kill Huntsmen, which carries with it the implication that the Branwen tribe grooms literal orphan children into becoming stone-hearted murderers? What. The heck.
And if I'm right, if the Branwen tribe is that severely abusive, then like... wow, no wonder Qrow and Raven are Like That. They're both very deeply hurt people expressing it in different ways
I was considering adding their conversation at the Battle of Haven to this post, but I think that would be better as its own thing. Also I haven't gotten there on my rewatch yet so I may miss some details if I try to analyze it rn; it's better to wait overall methinks
But I have reached the point of my rewatch where we see Weiss and Whitley interact, and I think it would be very efficient to sum up what Qrow and Raven's relationship seems to be by using those siblings as a point of reference. Qrow = Weiss, actively trying to break free from and fight back against their abusers in different ways, while Raven = Whitley, continuing to do as their abusers want and have wanted as a method of self-preservation. Only, unlike Weiss and Whitley, Qrow and Raven have yet to come to a point where they can understand one another. I think that's a good way to briefly summarize the uh. Absolutely massive post this is.
In conclusion, I may have cracked the majority of the Branwen twins' pre-Beacon backstory purely by hyperanalyzing a single conversation. Oopsies
#original post#'hey hira why are you so obsessed with these two—' autism. i hope that answers your question!#ok but srsly. i've genuinely worked rly hard on this post for the past like. 3 days?#i didn't think it'd lead to me deducing all of this about the twins' pasts but here we are lol#this'll probably flop due to the length but like. i don't mind tbh! this is mostly to satisfy my own silly brain [affectionate] anyway#i'm genuinely looking forward to seeing them in v10#since the storyboard for the scrapped v9 epilogue had raven in it#i hope they somehow reconcile and come to understand one another like weiss and whitley did#tho. i have a bad feeling that even if they do it will end in one (or both?) of them tragically dying before the other's eyes#but that's not rly relevant lol#anyhow i am not sry for inflicting you all with my branwen twin brainrot. it will happen again#i'm having sooo many thoughts on this rewatch and they just keep on coming#rwby#qrow branwen#raven branwen#branwen twins#rwby9 spoilers#i hope there's no glaring errors here. i read thru this post multiple times to be sure but it's so huge i may have missed smth irjnfbpbne#character of all time tag
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there's no way Omega didn't eventually spend some time with the ghost crew and their assorted family friends during the rebellion, partly bc the second her and Hera found out each other was fighting they would've burned down the galaxy for some gal pal hours and partly bc the second Rex and Omega found out each other was fighting they would kill to catch up with each other's lives
#omega would tease him about being old#(on purpose this time)#and he would be SO happy to hear about her and the batch getting to have their peaceful life on pabu#but also my life is not complete without Hera and omega being hotshot pilots together#they deserve to meet up again and rekindle their friendship I feel#anyway you can't convince me this didn't happen between the end of rebels and the epilogue#star wars#omega#tbb omega#hera syndulla#rex#captain rex#(my beloved)#bad batch#rebels#Star Wars rebels#martianbugsbunny headcanons
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