#alchemy meta

[iwasthewind]

Venti and Diona's interaction in the alchemy event is so special to me... because Diona is someone who really hasn't had any reliable parental figures in her life at all. Her father is a drunkard who barely has any time for her. She got her vision because she walked into the pouring rain as a child, all alone, terrified, to look for her drunk father in a forest full of animals and monsters and bring him home. Her father takes better care of Razor than her. She was so lonely she talked to a spring in the hopes that the rumours were true and there really was a fairy inside, listening. And then the voices that used to answer stopped, too. Leaving her with nothing but a curse- any drink she mixed would be divine. She's only twelve at most and she works in a bar. Her employer exploits her skills for profit. There's advertisements around Mondstadt advertising Diona's drinks specifically. Everyone loves them. Diona hates them. Everyone tells her how lovely her drinks are. Diona herself, despite despising alcohol, is proud of her skills. That's so fucked up. That's all so fucked up.

There's so many jokes about "haha child wants to destroy the wine industry but works in a bar" and while I can see why people find it funny they're honestly...so tasteless. Diona is a child who villainizes alcohol because she can't bear the thought of her father being at fault for his actions because she loves him so much. That he could drink less and he could spend more time with her and he could help her with her emotions but never does. That he could spend time with her and immerse himself in her interests but he never does. That he's willing to do all this for other people instead, but not her. That he chooses to do these things for other people, but he almost never chooses to do them for her.

But Venti does. Venti chooses to do all these things with Diona. He calls all residents of Mond his children and that's Diona too. He takes the time to search Dragonspine for an ingredient she might like, he chats with her and accompanies her to the location of the alchemy event, he presumably spends hours with her as she searches for ingredients and mixes her drink, keeping her company and making sure she's safe.

He doesn't have to do this. He doesn't have to patiently endear himself to her because he knows she hates people who drink, he doesn't have to bother going all the way to Dragonspine to find her something unique because he knows she's proud of her creations, he doesn't have to spend hours in the company of a lonely child who he has nothing in common with-but he does.

So many people would think he's doing it for the drink, but they all lack reading comprehension skills because I said so. Diona wants to create a drink which keeps people sober. Venti isn't going to get drunk and he's not doing it for the drink. It isn't pity either, it's affection- he loves his child and he wants to spend time with her and make sure she's safe. That's all. They're so special to me <3

Oh and another thing that I forgot to add- the Spring Fairy Diona talked to, Callirhoe, only found the spring in Springvale thanks to "a gentle breeze guiding her." The person who listened to the cries and rants of a lonely child was also coincidentally someone guided there by Venti. Still girlie why that specific blessing 😔

[linkspooky]

Judai and Yubel's Chemical Wedding

A chemical wedding is central to many alchemy stories.

A chemical wedding is a reconciliation of opposites, often with the most significant character relationship to the protagonist. A relationship which destroys and then remakes them in the better version of themselves.

Jung said that relatioships are chemical reaction. If you have a reaction you can never return to your previous state of being. That's ultimately the role of a chemical wedding in a story. A relationship which is central to a character's development, and changes both parties.

Yubel isn't just important for Judai's character development, they're literally his other half and their union of opposites completes them both in an alchemical sense. Keep on reading below the cut for a lesson in alchemy symbolism.

Peter Pan's Missing Shadow

So, the story goes somewhere in the middle of developing season two the writers recognizing that Judai, would never be able to handle a Marik level antagonist. He lacked maturity compared to the previous series protagonist Atem. The concept of Yubel emerged to make Judai grow, because as he was, he wasn't enough.

Judai fits the archetype of the hot-blooded shonen protagonist almost perfectly in the first two seasons, but even in two seasons where he changes very little as a character the hints are there.

Sho immediately puts Judai on a pedestal, and soon so does everyone else. Judai is praised for his pure heart over, and over. The standards for Judai are set so high you begin to wonder what if Judai wasn't the person everyone sees him as?

At this point is it even Judai that his friends are seeing?

What does that do to a person's identity when everyone around you is love with the idea of you. When you're not seen as a person with flaws.

Judai doesn't grow but how can he, when he's not really allowed to make mistakes. When he's expected to always be cheerful, and always bounce back without help or support.

Judai is pure of heart, but is anybody really pure? The light always casts a shadow.

Jung pioneered a lot of analytical psychology theory. Jung divided the psyche into four parts, the persona which is how we externally engage with the world our public face, the animus and anima masculinity and femininity, and finally the shadow.

Complementary to Jung’s idea of the persona, which is “what oneself as well as others thinks one is” [CW9 para 221], the “shadow is that hidden, repressed, for the most part inferior and guilt-laden personality [...] that is his shadow does not consist only of morally reprehensible tendencies, but also displays a number of good qualities, such as normal instincts, appropriate reactions, realistic insights, creative impulses etc “ 

The shadow isn't made up of bad qualities, just what we are afraid to show others because of judgement. Hidden as it may be, the shadow is a fundamental part of your personality.

Jung had a deep interest in the shadow – its form and content – and in the process of assimilating “the thing a person has no wish to be” [CW16, para 470]. He saw quite clearly that failure to recognize, acknowledge and deal with shadow elements is often the root of problems in relationships.

Is a friendship with someone real if you're afraid to show any of your flaws?

Juda's never allowed to make mistakes around his friends. He's under constant pressure to fight their battles, to fear he might lose them if he loses.

Ryo, a foil and rival Judai suffers a complete breakdown after losing just one duel. Before that he spelled it out for Judai in the graudation duel, the "perfection" everyone expected limited his growth, until he finally fell apart. If one loss makes Ryo fall then how much farther does Judai who's under more pressure have to fall?

Judai hides his shadow from everyone, but the shadow isn't just a part of you. The shadow is you. You are your shadow. Which is why recognizing the shadow is a critical part of growth - and alchemy. As Jung once said, "The gold is in the dark. And one does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” 

Judai's in unable to grow up, because like Peter Pan is missing his shadow. It needs to be retrieved and sewn back to his feet. Until then, he's stunted and missing an important part of himself.

Judai is missing something important without his shadow. I'm not pulling this from thin air, it's directly stated by the text repeatedly.

Here.

Kouji Satou: We have something that you lack. Judai: That I lack? Kouji Satou: Yes the darkness of the heart that slumbers deep within a duelist. The burden that a duelist bears in his heart. Judai, you have none of that.

Here.

Cobra: You are certainly a talented duelist. But you have one fatal flaw. Judai: A fatal flaw? Cobra: Yes, your duels are superficial. Someone who fights with nothing on his shoulders, cannot recover once he loses his enjoyment. What a duelist carries on his shoulders will become the power that supports him when he’s up against the wall! Cobra: But you have nothing like that! Those who go through life without anything like that cannot possibly seize victory. Cobra: But I know that nothing I say will resonate with you… because you have nothing to lose but the match.

Even, by Judai himself.

Judai: They’re all… They’re all gone. There really was something missing in me. But what is it? What was missing? What should a duelist burden themselves with?

I often worry people will misinterpret Judai's ending with Yubel is unhealthy because he's "caving to the demands of a stalker."

Yubel's not a stalker, they're not even a real person. Judai's a character in a story, experiencing an arc about learning to accept and grow path his worst flaws. How could that arc end with throwing away Yubel, who represents the ugliness Judai tries to hide?

Yubel is Judai's shadow, run away from him just like Peter Pan. Yubel's more than just a cast-off shadow though, Yubel is Judai. A good example of two separate characters coded as each other's shadows in other literature is Katherine and Heathcliff, two characters designed specifically to be two halves of a whole. Katherine once said, "I am Heathcliff", or to be specific she said:

 My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff’s miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty strange: I should not seem a part of it [...] Nelly, I am Heathcliff! Katherine - Wuthering Heights

So these are two different topics, shadow as a literary foil, and shadow as an aspect of peresonaity in Jungian psychology, yubel is both.

Yubel is the archetypal shadow character, a character who challenges the main character by being their internalized flaws made external.

In a Jungian text when a character won't look at their shadow, they're often forced to look by being confronted with an externalized version of their shadow.

This is the first line of dialogue Yubel says that's not chanting Judai's name in episode 117 to Amon.

Yubel: My power is not especially great. But those with darkness in their hearts can unleash great power in me. Yubel: The pus welling out of your injured heart forms a second heart. I can see that other heart. The darkness in it. Yubel: That's right. That is the darkness of your heart. it's there, in the depths of your mind. Th scream of your other heart, born from your stagnant blood!

Yubel's go-to strategy with manipulation is to throw in a character's face the secrets they've been hiding to make them more liable to their will. Until Yubel can reconstitute their own body, they're forced to act entirely through others, possessing Cobra, then Martin, and finally Johan.

Yubel, the runaway shadow can't exist in this world without glueing themselves onto someone else. Can't be whole without Judai.

Yubel: You'll formally become king. Yubel: It must be great to have your wishes come true. But then, who's going to be happy for you? Yubel: Living in a way that suits you. The one who'd be most happy for you would be that "echo" woman that you loved, am I right? Yubel: But you went and let her die. You won't even be able to see her celebrate, isn't that a bit weird to you? Amon: Silence... Yubel: I know I couldn't stand it. A world without the one I love. It's because of Judai I can feel pain, angiush, and agony.

They say it over and over again, a world without the person you love, even a perfect one like Amon imagines, isn't worth living in.

Yubel: I wouldn't want to live in such a world! Yubel: The world is a place that you make alongside the one you love! What Judai and I make together... that will be the world!

It seems like a one-sided dependence on Yubel's part, but because Yubel is Judai's shadow, Judai cannot exist without them either.

Yubel was literally introduced into the story to spur Judai's character growth after two seasons of stagnation.

Judai seems better off without Yubel. Judai even suggests as much, that it might have been better for Yubel to die in that crater, than crawl back to Judai in their wounded and hateful state.

It seems that Yubel's reapperance triggered Judai's breakdown, and without it the breakdown never would have happend. However, there's two seasons of foreshadowing that JUdai is "missing something" without Yubel, which is why they can't grow or adapt to new circumstances. Judai needed to go through a death of his old self, a loss of innocence to become someone new, that's how alchemy works, that's how growing up works.

JUdai needed to reintegrate his shadow (Yubel) so he could become aware of his flaws, and while he does hit a low point, in the aftermath he can finally better himself.

The question is what flaws of Judai does Yubel reflect?

At first brush they seem as opposed to each other as hero and villain.

There's a tragic symmetry to the way both of them lived their lives for the past ten years. They began in the same place, Judai's childhood was just the two of them together. Then Yubel drove all of Judai's friends away, and Judai sent Yubel away in return.

Ten years go by and Judai attends Duel Academy and makes friends for the first time. He learns of his destiny was the one to protect Neo-Space and the Neo-Spacians led him their power helping awake within him the power of the gentle darkness. Judai spends almost two years almost always surrounded by people, alone in the center of a crowd.

At the same time Yubel has spent the past ten years alone in space, crying out for help from Judai. When they finally return to earth they ask for help one final time only to be met with silence. In that moment Yubel decides that silence is their answer, that abadoning Yubel, ignoring their screams of pain and forgetting them was all Judai's way of showing love.

Judai awakens his powers of the gentle darkness, whereas Yubel is corrupted by the light of destruction. Judai receives the help of everyone around them, Yubel only survives by manipulating several people to eventually crawl their way back to Judai.

They started at the same point, but by the time they meet again they're completely unrecognizable to each other.

As easy as it is to see them as villain and victim you can flip their roles too. As Judai is responsible for the chain of events that led to Yubel's torture, from Yubel's point of view they are the victim and Judai the villain.

It's unfair to hold a decsion they made when they were five against him. However, abandoning Yubel is a choice Judai continually makes, even after learning Yubel's undergone ten years of torture they were responsible for.

Judai: Yubel didn't come into being by coincidence. I made them who they are.

Judai continually ignores Yubel to search for Johan. However, he's not responsible for Johan. Johan made the choice to sacrifice himself. Wanting to save Johan isn't bad of course, but wanting Johan back is about what Johan represents to Judai not who he is as a person.

Yubel rightfully points out Judai will go so far to save Johan, but won't lift a finger to help them.

In fact Judai's obsession with Johan, is a narrative flaw (one Yubel reflects for the audience). It leads to his destruction.

Sho even calls him out, his willingness to sacrifice anyone, including his friends for Johan's sake. It's selfishness on his part. To quote this post:

The way he goes after both after Johan in season three and O’Brien shows that he actually doesn’t care all that much for them as people. To him, they represent a concept: Victory, or at the very least atonement for his past actions. A convenient way to right what he did wrong.  That is not to say that he doesn’t like them as people - he does. But when the chips are down, what he ultimately wanted was a chance to redeem himself by saving them. 

Yubel's obsessive pursuit of Judai to the destruction of everyone else, reflects Judai's obsessive pursuit of Johan destroying his friends.

To quote the above post again.

Yubel is a deeply selfish person as well. However, it’s a different kind of selfish. Yubel has exactly one priority: Juudai. Anyone or anything that isn’t Juudai doesn’t matter, and Yubel will go after Juudai no matter the situation and no matter the consequences. 

They're both two deeply selfish people and Yubel is needed to cast a light of this selfish side of Judai. When the two of them are compared though the image blurs, Yubel doesn't have the right to take their pain out on Judai's friends, but Judai goes on to later do the same thing.

"But then that's the nature of love, isn't it? I wanted all that torment to convey the depth of my love."

Judai rightfully calls out Yubel's involvement of innocent people, but it's hypocrisy on his part. He doesn't have the moral high ground here. Yubel's suffering doesn't entitle them to take out said suffering on Judai's friends, but Judai also slaughtered innocents as the supreme king.

Judai framing Yubel's reaction as revenge is ignoring his own flaws and role in things. Sharing pain = understanding = empathy for Yubel. Yubel wants to be understood, but Judai wants to ignore his shadow.

Yubel's strategy is a kid of forced empathy - to drag Judai down to their level and make Judai understand the same pain so Judai will understand them.

I'm going to quote another post again, this post here.

In her desperation to grasp why she was being made to suffer if Judai loved her, it makes a certain amount of sense that she would latch on to the suffering itself as being something Judai wanted for her.  (She knows and admits this isn’t true, btw, but it’s the only thing that allows her even a tenuous grip on sanity)  Then, when she was in a position to meet him again, her own views on love would allow her to subconsciously justify making him suffer the same way because her pain had left their life experiences too disparate to form a meaningful connection once more.  And the hilarious thing is that she was ultimately right?  Yanking Judai down to her level is what allowed Judai to understand her in a way that was impossible before he had his own little fit of love-induced murder spree. I think what people sort of miss is that what Judai is reviling her and calling her an unfeeling monster near the beginning of their duel, he’s the one that’s wrong.

This symmetry they eventually reach where they both become perpetrators shows the biggest thing they share in common: trauma, and how they react to it.

Trauma comes to define both Judai and Yubel, but they react in different ways.

Yubel externalizes their trauma, the same trauma Judai hides internally. What Judai conceals, Yubel by acting out their grief on others reveals.

Yubel wears their heart on their sleeve for all intents and purposes. They will act out their pain on others, gleefully, sadistically so. Their entire philosophy of love revolves around the idea that intentionally inflicting pain as a show of love.

However, as stated above that's a coping mechanism. When Yubel says they want to share pain with Judai, it's not revenge, it's a desire for empathy and understanding. Yubel wraps themselves in a blanket of love, to endure years of torture they suffered alone.

Yubel can't just ask for Judai's love though, they demand it.

This too is Yubel shielding themselves, they're coping with their abandonment trauma. Yubel can endure any pain inflicted on them if they convince themselves that Judai still cares, they can crawl out of a crater if it might lead them back to Judai. If Judai rejects them however, they completely fall apart.

Judai too, is protecting himself from fears of abandonment.

Judai's coping method is opposite, he internalizes all his emotions. The pressure of having to constantly rescue his friends, his fears that he can't lose once, or else he'll lose everything. Judai hides it under a smile, and a fun loving attitude.

Judai even states point blank, the reason he always runs forward is because if he stops to think he won't be able to continue. Judai compartmentalizes everything, and it all starts to pile up so high that if he just can't process it.

Judai: I can’t just stay and wait. All this time I’ve run on instinct, never second-guessing myself. If I just stand still now… I’m sure I won’t be able to start running again. And I won’t be able to get to Johan.

Even Judai taking on his friend's burdens, is done out of a fear of being alone. In his backstory Yubel drove all his friends away and it doesn't seem like he made friends until he came to Duel Academia.

Yubel and Judai both spent a significant amount of time alone, and they both fear going back to that time.

When Judai takes on other's burdens, it's a way to protect himself. If he's constantly doing them favors, they have to stick around right? It's still a transactional relationship though, the same way Yubel thinks all of their love entitles them to Judai's love.

Judai's method is to internalize everything. That seems better than Yubel, because Judai's not hurting anybody right? Except Judai's owbmethod of coping turns out to be just as unhealthy as Yubel's.

Judai carries the weight of everyone on his shoulders until he can't.

Judai's fears of being abandoned become a reality.

It's telling that Judai's breaking point isn't Fubuki, Sho, Asuka and Manjoume's apparent deaths. He's deeply upset by it for sure, but what pushes him over the edge is Sho's rejection afterwards.

Judai's friends being taken away in circumstances out of his control is one thing, but the fact that Sho leaves him? That Sho sees the part of Judai's self that he's always been hiding and gives up on him. That rejection sends him spiraling, because all along Judai was driven by the same fear of rejection Yubel was.

When Judai reaches his breaking point, he externalizes all the trauma he held within. He starts sacrificing others for power, because he's convinced himself with his friends gone power is what he has left. Judai acts out that trauma on others, as Yubel does with Judai's friends.

In the end Yubel and Judai react the same way to being abandoned, they share the same flaws and the same fears.

Rejecting Yubel, villainizing them, despising them is an act of self-loathing for Judai. However, empathizing with them, understanding, trying to reach out a had to break the painful cycle between them - is Judai accepting himself.

Chemical Wedding

Judai and Yubel become their worst selves when they are alone, they walk parallel journeys in season 3 dragging down Judai to Yubel's level until at last they finally reunite.

This metaphorical union is a chemical wedding, of two opposites coming together. How Judai and Yubel's relationship changes throughout the narrative is vital to how they develop. Their bond develops each of their characters, until they integrate qualities of each other.

The final stage is called a wedding, it's not necessarily romantic but Yubel's 10,000 love confessions can certainly be interpreted that way.

Once again it's not really about what's healthy in a real life relatioship, it's a symbolic journey two characters take in a story. Yu-Gi-Oh Gx uses chemical weddings to develop the romantic relationship between Judai and Yubel.

(What about Bruno - I'll talk about him later next post. Please be patient, I can't cover everything in one post).

Here's another meta on the concept of chemical wedding's in general for a different show. The chemical wedding between Judai and Yubel is woven into the text in may ways.

The show is rife with direct references to alchemical imagery (references to medieval portraits, the solar king and the lunar queen)

A process of death ad rebirth they both undergo multiple times, until their last union where Judai says he might be destroyed by the attempt to fuse with super-poly but he doesn't mind).

The four elements are referenced in the clash between Judai and Yubel, Judai is fire and air - their favorite monster is flame wingman an air and fire hero combined. Yubel is water and earth, their entire deck has a plant motif).

The two of them literally fuse together into someone new. That act is what purifies Yubel's soul by uniting it with Judai, the process of alchemy is purifying metals until they forge gold.

Yubel is also literally a hermaphrodite, and by incorporating Yubel into themselves the two of them together become a hermaphroditic figure.

So that’s the role and importance of the chemical wedding.  Pretty vague, right? But over the centuries the most common imagery has been a man and woman--often King Sol/Sulphur and Queen Luna/Mercury--1. standing together, 2. conjoined, or 3. combined into a hermaphroditic figure.  -In the Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery, Lyndy Abraham definition of chemical wedding.

The basic formula of a chemical wedding is the union of opposites (Fire and water, air ad earth, sun and moon, light and dark), that union creating a "Rebis", a figure that is both male and female. Judai and Yubel's journey takes them on a path to uniting as one.

It's a violent sometimes dangerous process as in each step dissolve et coagula occurs, in order to forge your better self you have to let your old self dissolved, which is sometimes a violent even painful process.

It's why Chemical Weddings often take the form of violent conflict. A conflict that threatens to destroy both parties.

The first chemical wedding is usually somewhat violent, primitive even, whereas the second one signifies the creation of the stone. However, characters can have more than two weddings (Hamliet).

Yubel and Judai have three violent confrontations in Season 3, before their final union of opposites take place. The three weddings are the three steps in their journey. It's also a process where both experience several metaphorical deaths, before finally their two souls unite into something new (which is why the ship is called Soulshipping).

SOULSHIPPING WEDDINGS - STAGE ONE

Alchemy is a process of continual death and rebirth. Yubel and Judai both go through two symbolic deaths, (the second one they die together to reforge themselves into something new).

Yubel's first death takes place sometime during season 1 and 2. The satellite containing them finally crashes back to earth, and Yubel burns up upon re-entry. Putrefecation, or Nigredo is the first stage of alchemy a process of boiling away all impurities, and it's associated with the element of fire, and associated with the color black. Yubel's spirit form of a black dragon comes out to protect them, and that burns away too. Nigredo is often signified with the death of a dragon.

Yubel comes close to death, but their true death is metaphorical.

What Yubel truly experiences is the death of their old self, as the trauma they've endured makes someone new crawl out of the wreckage.

This is the moment onscreen where Yubel snaps and adopts their new philosophy of love, that love is sharing pain with someone else.

Yubel literally crawls out of earth, out of a crater that could have easily been the sight of their grave. However, their rebirth comes when Yubel reconstitutes themselves in time to meet Judai face to face a second time.

Yubel's true form is revealed then to be that of a rebis.

The head on the left is male, the wing attached to his side is red. The head on the right side is female; the wing attached to her side is white and in her hand she holds an egg. This figure is known as the Hermaphrodite, half man and half woman.

Yubel's design is a Rebis, split male and female down the middle. It's even implied in their backstory they were more masculine, and through an alchemical process to become a dragon altered their body to look as such, giving them several feminine traits.

Yubel as one boob and one pec, speaks in two voices a deep masculine one and a light feminine one, defaults to using masculine "ore", but plays a feminine role to comparison Judai's more straighforward masculinity, they even have their face split one side being drawn with eyelashes. The image above is the hermaphrodite and the dragon, Yubel is both.

Yubel can be a reference to the greek story of the hermaphodite or the concept of the Hindu god "Ardanareshwara" which translates to "Lord wo is half woman." Likely both, they have a third eye on their forehead in the place of a bindi in traditional depictions of that god.

Ardanareshwara is the embodiment of the union of male and female energies in the universe, as well as the sacredness of marriage and copulation. [Mythcrafts]

The Splender Solis pictured above are images from the ripley scroll, a in alchemy text. There are 22 plates total, but plates 5-11 are called the parallels they reference the process of death and rebirth.

The seven parables are:

Plate 5 - Miners excavating a hill

Plate 6 - Philosophers beside a tree

Plate 7 - The drowning king

Plate 8 - Resurrection out of the swamp

Plate 9 - Hermaphrodite with an egg

Plate 10 - Severing the head of the king

Plate 11 - The bath

Season 3 goes through all seven, quickly covering the first two plate 5 is mining the Rainbow Dragon out of the side of a mountain, Philosophers beside a tree is Johan's deck using crystal tree, and also Judai awakens after Austin snaps him from his Haou phase underneath a tree.

Judai and Yubel's parallel journeyes reference plates 7-11, #9 was already pictured above.) They both experience two deaths, two rebirths, before their final third union.

Yubel's second death occurs here, at the hands of another dragon (Rainbow dragon is involved).

The first chemical wedding is usually somewhat violent, as metals need to be melted down and reforged through multiple steps in order to create a purer metal.

Judai definitely doesn't want to unite with Yubel their first encounter, they're at each other's throats, in fact Yubel specifically states they want violence, to share as much pain with Judai as possible.

Yubel ends the first wedding literally dissolving gain right in front of Judai's eyes, only to reforge themselves with Johan's body.

Those are Yubel's two deaths, and Judai's two deaths happen in parallel.

SOULSHIPPING WEDDINGS - STAGE TWO

Yubel is the process of two people breaking down, and mixing until they acquire each other's traits. Yubel pushing Judai down the path of becoming the supreme king, so they can be reunited again is exactly that.

Yubel's plan is to force drag Judai down to their level, so they can be reunited, and at that point Judai having walked a similar path and taken on traits of their can understand them, they tell Judai as much.

So when I solved the riddle you posed I was delighted. ANd that fueled my decision. I would try to fill the entire twelve-dimmension universe with my love towards you, Judai. And once I did, you would have to recognize my loev wouldn't you? That's why I sought to fill all those linked to you, your world, with sadness and anguish. And my line of thinking wasn't wrong!

Judai has to go through a process of two deaths mirroring Yubel's own before he can reunite with them in their second wedding. Yubel even says, the first time they dueled didn't work out, because Judai hadn't awakened his darkness of the heart yet. Judai needed to take on Yubel's traits.

Judai's journey to Yubel is referenced by two Splender Solaris plates.

"The destruction of one thing is the birth of another " - Aristotle.

The plate depicts an old king drowning, and a new king being reborn at the same time.

The text describes to us how the old king was taken under, but then reborn the next day from the earth as the new king; the old king must die before the new king is born.

Judai's first death is his breakdown after Sho's rejection, he quite literally experiences a death or self, while at the same time rising up as the supreme king - but it's not a split personality or anything like that, merely an inversion. Judai once internalized their pain, now they externalize like Yubel. Yubel in acquiring darkness of the heart, Judai then begins to take on Yubel's traits, integrating facets of Yubel into themselves.

Within the stages of physical alchemy there is a set referred to as the drowning king; this is the dissolution step of the Nigredo process. This is when the alchemists would take their chemically calcified ashes and dissolve them into water.

Judai experiences the same Nigredo that Yubel does, as his old self dissolves away. Judai sinks into a mental landscape which is pictured as all black, while a new Judai the supreme king assumes his form out of the shadows. The new king has golden eyes, like the new king in the painting is dressed in gold.

This is where Judai begins taking on parts of Yubel, not only do they lash out at innocent people as Yubel does, don a plate of armor to protect themselves (Judai has black armor, Yubel has impenetrable scales).

It's also a direct parallel to Yubel's experiences. Judai is left alone by the friends who he thought would always take his side and sinks into darkness. Yubel spends years alone in what they call "a capsule of darkness" in space after Judai's abandonment, sinking into denial because Judai couldn't possibly treat them this way when they love them so much.

Judai dies and is replaced by the supreme king, but the supreme king is a just a temporary stage in his development.

In order for Judai to heal he needs to be dismembered first, the Supreme King's head is torn off in a reference to Splendor Solis: Plate 10, severing of the head of the king.

Alchemy is violent; the motto of Solve Et Coagula demands dissolution before rebuilding, tearing apart before putting back together. This idea applies to the material world as well as the spiritual realm; before the psyche can grow, it has to be ripped asunder.

The Supreme King is eventually stopped by Austin, they burn away in in fire, against a duelist with a flame deck, reduced to ash only to rise from the ash reborn like Yubel did out of the crater.

After the end of the duel, Judai's helmet is removed and thrown for all to see to signify the king's dismemberment.

Judai now struggles to become someone new, as he cannot return to his previous state of innocence, but can't keep continuing on as the Supreme King. When Yubel and Judai reunite again Judai has taken on so many of Yubel's traits, they are mirror images of one another.

The second stage of alchemy is albedo, the word is taken from ablutio - the washing away of impurities. When Yubel and Judai meet for a second time, Judai's only priority is to cleanse Johan of Yubel's body, literally through purifying Rainbow Dragon in order to return Johan to his body.

His action in the duel is to destroy the "advanced darkness" field spell which changes Johan's crystal beasts, into darkness crystal beasts. First Nigredo, then Albedo, the prima materia is boiled in a flask where all impurities rise to the surface and make a thick black material, and then those impurities are washed away.

Cleansing Johan's soul doesn't go as intended for Judai however, because the only result is that Yubel reconstitutes themselves for a second time and faces Judai again in their true body.

The cleansing turns from Rainbow Dragon from Black to White and both Yubel and Johan are purified into their true selves.At this point they've both experienced multiple deaths, they've both been torn apart and sewn back together again. However, they still have one stage to go.

The duel ends in a draw and they restart another duel facing each other this time, thus beginning the third and final wedding.

SOULSHIPPING WEDDINGS - STAGE THREE

The final wedding in a chemical wedding forges a philosopher's stone, and I bet you can't guess how this third wedding ends.

Everything so far has made use of the death and rebith imagery. Yubel and Judai grow closer each other through a violent union of opposites (extremely violent in this case ). They experience two metaphorical deaths as a part of their journey to finding each other.

Death and Rebith is a major theme in the last duel, before they both experience their final death together, to become a new being together.

As I said above they've experienced several violent deaths, Yubel is ripped to pieces until they're nothing more than an arm, Judai experiences an ego death and reforms as the supreme king, before the supreme king's armor is torn off him.

In the third duel Yubel's signature monster experiences two deaths, only to be reborn again into stronger forms, yubel terror incarnate, and yubel the ultimate nightmare.

Yubel starts as a one headed dragon, their second form has two heads, their third they fuse with the dragon becoming the third head representing the three stages of alchemy. In the picture above the red, white and blue signify those three stages as well.

Judai and Yubel are also positioned as the Solar King, and Lunar Queen in their duel, just as in the alchemy painting above.

The above image  image is taken from is called Rosarium Philosophorum–which literally means “rose garden philosophy. In this case I believe the anime writers are deliberately reference the "rose garden philosophy" name b/c even Yusei and Aki in 5Ds have a similar duel in a Rose Garden that parallels this duel - representing their union of opposites too.

The final duel between Judai and Yubel takes place in a rose garden, intentionally so. Yubel uses two rose themed cards, and their method of attacking and sharing pain nightmare pain revolves around lashing out with a vine covered in rose thorns.

They're both entangled in the rose garden together, as Yubel says my suffering will become your suffering, Judai. Yubel isn't immune to pain they suffer alongside him, for Judai hurtng Yubel is an act of hurting himself. That's also a reference to the ouroboros, the snake biting it's own tail is a common symbol associated with initiating the alchemical process.

Judai has taken so many traits of Yubel at this point they are inseparably intertwined, there's no telling where Judai ends and Yubel begins so any damage Judai attempts to do is dealt to himself as well.

Standing together in the garden Judai assumes the role of the solar king, and Yubel the lunar queen.

Yubel's machinations were to make Judai ascend into a king, Judai is referred to as being like the sun by Sho drawing everyone in.

Bro... Bro, you're too selfish. Before now, I thought of you as the sun. Someone who gave others energy and made the impossible, possible.

Yubel is the moon which orbits around Judai. There's the time they spent in a literal satellite, floating in space among the stars to signify this. Yubel even drops a reference to the myth of Endymion. A story where Selene, the titan of the moon fell in love with a young boy and asked for them to fall asleep and stay young in their sleep forever so they could gave upon them lovingly as they slept.

I will take you to a distant dimmension, where no one will ever reach you. There I will watch over you as you sleep forever.

Once again Judai is fire, and Yubel is mainly plant themed. Judai assumes a masculine role, Yubel after transforming into a Rebis changed their body to take on feminine traits. Judai is the holder of the gentle darkness, Yubel is corrupted by the light of destruction which is engaged in a battle with the gentle darkness.

Theirs is a violent union of opposites, they are literally trying their best to kill each other.

Yubel frames themself as the selfless protector of Judai like a knight or servant, but their obvious desire is to stand together with Judai and be on the same level with him (hence dragging him down).

They spend a duel against Amon reviling him for how easy Amon could throw Echo away, because ultimately Amon is the king, and therefore Echo is beneath him. In fact Yubel was content to just sacrifice their body like Echo and serve as a protector in a previous life, until prince Judai offered Yubel their eternal love, giving something in return and elevating to them as equals.

So Yubel's primary goal is to be by his side, to be lunar queen to his solar king.

In order to accomplish this the art depicted above has to happen, they both have to dissolve, experience a death and become something new together.

Judai even explicitly tries very hard to kill Yubel, saying they'll use the power of the supreme king to erase them from the universe. Yubel similarly, rejected one too many times responds to violence with violence. Their union is inherently marked by violence. However, it's what brings them to a closer understanding of each other.

However, while violence brings them closer together, it eventually has to transform into a a union.

As they reach the final stages of the duel, Yubel states to Judai they finally understand that Judai has chosen to respond to all of their love with hate (once again union of opposites, love and hate). At the same time a wind begins to blow, elemental symbolism occurs as the wind and clouds appear in a process of "sublimation", and Judai's past is revealed to him, and he realizes his memory of his past life of the Supreme King.

Sublimate appears as a term for a mineral deposit, by analogy to the alchemical process: minerals in a vapor state, thrown up from the interior of the earth.

The introductory of the element of air also signifies Yubel and Judai moving from Citrinatis, the yellowing, signified by earth to Rubedo the final stage where the philosopher's stone is forged. Judai and Yubel's first duel takes place in a desert (earth), their second they climb high into the sky, and their third they climb even higher until they are standing above the clouds fighting in an arena of air.

Sublimation is a whole new experience of self and reality, both being redefined. Judai's reconciliation isn't just Yubel, it's with the three faces of himself Prince Judai, Regular Judai, and Haou / Supreme King. These memories lead to Judai's eventual decision, to propose a union. This union takes place as the last chemical wedding, which is also a real wedding in everything but name.

Their entire duel contains elements from both japanese and jewish weddings (the three phantasms that Yubel utilizes in the duel against amon are based off of three kabbalistic angels so the jewish symbolism has already been used before).

A traditional Jewish wedding starts with drawing up a marriage contract (Spell Chronicle), and the bride paying out a dowry (the five cards Yubel banishes at the start of the duel). The wedding must be observed by a minimum of two witnesses (Shou and Ojama Yellow). During the wedding the bride circles the groom seven times (Yubel makes 7 successful attacks on Judai between their 3 forms, all others were negated in some way). At the end of the ceremony, the groom presents the bride with a ring (Judai giving Yubel Super Fusion), and a glass is broken to the cry of “Mazel tov!” (the glass window breaking in Samejima’s office). Finally the ceremony isn’t considered complete until the bride and groom retire away from everyone to ... consumate the marriage (Judai and Yubel leaving together). Source [HERE]

Judai attempts to use super polymerization card to start the process of alchemy (fusing the 12 dimmensions - there are 12 steps to Alchemy). However, Judai announces that the two of them are going to fuse together.

Judai and Yubel's quite literal fusion into one being is the formation of a hermaphrodite. From the essay of "Get your Gender On, Jaden Yuki and Yubel",

Art historian Arturo Schwarz argues that “the Great Work is but a metaphor” in which alchemists don’t create a Rebis but become a metaphorical Rebis themselves, as Judai does over the course of the series. By joining his soul with Yubel’s through “Super Polymerization,” he arguably becomes nonbinary like them. Even before literally fusing with Yubel, he gains “aurea apprehensio (golden awareness) of this marvelous reality: we are gods, because we all are man and woman at one and the same time.” 

Hermaphordadites are a recurring symbol in a lot of greek mythology, the name comes from Hermaprhoditus a son of Hermes and aprhodite originally born male. A female nymph fell in love swam to him in a pool and wound herself tightly around his body and begged the gods to never tear them apart creating the co-joined male and female figure the hermaphrodite. The parallels to Yubel and Judai are present, especially in them becoming entangled in one another.

One origin story for humanity is also that human beings were originally two headed, four armed, and four legged beings, combination of men and women, men and men, and women and women. However, they were torn apart into two seperate beings, and forever doomed to go searching and be reunited with their second half.

When opposites are finally reconciled, the great hermaphrodite is formed. Judai even refers to this as an act of finally purifying the light's corruption from Yubel's soul by uniting it with the supreme king's soul. The union is a purifying process, and the end of Yubel and Judai's long journey of losing each other and finding each other again.

However, in order to be purified they have to both let their old selves die in order to form something new, the final death but one they experience together. Just like the painting of the dismemberment of the solar king and lunar queen, they need to be torn apart and sewn back together again.

I don't care.

Yubel is finally moved, and all the anger between them is washed away by tears as they're finally allowed to grieve (as death is central to alchemy, so is grief, both are parts of life).

To signify the end of this journey, Judai falls to earth the same way Yubel did at the start of their story. However, while Yubel was suffering, all alone, this time Judai and Yubel are together.

[zeravmeta]

something i massively respect about alchemy stars' writing in regards to illumina is that it would be So SO easy for them to fall into a "military is good/bootlicking is necessary" trap considering they arent fighting other people but literal nightmare monsters, many popular characters including the main heroine of the game are from that military faction and our protag multiple times works with and depends on them, but INSTEAD it's even more critical of militarized structure and armed forces as a concept because of it.

rather than just going "our soldiers are brave for fighting monsters" they go "actually in such a brutal struggle it becomes frighteningly easy to throw out morals in the name of survival, meaning that we can mold people into living weapons all for the sake of said survival" and "so long as the greater humanity survives the powers that be have no issue tossing out as many lives as it takes while they continue to push propaganda of heroism as grand to continue adding more bodies to the front line" and ALL OF THIS IS RIGHTFULLY PRESENTED AS BAD EVEN WHEN SAID ENEMIES ARE NOT OTHER PEOPLE BUT LITERAL NIGHTMARE MONSTERS. even in reinhardt and bartons backstories where we see their rise to glory as some of the biggest players in illumina they are constantly criticizing the system they've been put into and choose to break said rules if it mean saving more lives. and what really makes alchemy stars' war narrative so compelling is that even some of the old guard soldiers in command who constantly argue with them all once held the same kind of hope they did and do, they're just so embittered and numb to watching so many people die that they Had to become cold and calculating about lives on the battlefield in order to ensure the greater survival of aurorians. and in current canon we have reinhardt flat out say that she hates how she understands her old commanders, that shes become the same type of person she once criticized because like them shes had to make unfair decisions that cost people their lives. but EVEN with all that, the actions of the committee and the war crimes perpetuated by them in the name of survival are still fully framed as being wrong.

it could have been so easy to just handwave this war aspect of alchemy stars' plot but they actually explore it in a surprisingly nuanced way i fucking love it

[aspoonofsugar]

Ruby and the Splendor Solis

Here comes a quick alchemy meta! Alchemy is an ancient practice, whose goal is to create the philosopher stone. This stone gives immortality, transmutes lead into gold and creates new life (homunculus). From a philosophical point of view, alchemy's aim is to nurture the spirit and to make it perfect.

As @hamliet has explained in several metas, RWBY is an alchemical story, which metaphorically illustrates the procedure to create the stone (RWBY/Ruby).

Today's post will explore Ruby and Maria's interaction in volume 6 episode 8 (Dead End):

As a matter of fact the scene references the 6th plate of the Splendor Solis.

WHAT IS THE SPLENDOR SOLIS?

The Splendor Solis is an alchemical text, which describes how to make the philosophical stone through 22 illustrated plates:

4 introductory plates present the protagonists of the alchemical journey

7 parables illustrate the alchemical death and rebirth

7 flask plates explore the alchemical process from a practical point of view

4 final plates describe the alchemical process from a spiritual point of view

How does Ruby and Maria's scene reference plate 6?

PLATE 6 AND VOLUME 6

Let's begin with describing what plate 6 is like:

This plate has three philosophers under a tree with golden fruits. The tree is a metaphor for the alchemical process as whole. It is the philosophical tree and if you climb it you reach the golden fruit (perfection/the philosopher stone).

The three people embody the phases of alchemy:

The young man climbing the ladder is nigredo (black)

The man who wears white outside and red inside is albedo (white)

The man who wears red outside and white inside is rubedo (red)

Citrinitas (the yellow stage) is instead symbolized by the yellow flowers and by the golden bough the men are pursuing. The scene as a whole represents a transformation, which is why the birds that fly in the sky have some green shades. Green is, thus, the color of transformation.

How does all of this rely to Ruby and Maria?

First of all, the two silver eyed warriors speak under a tree:

With golden fruits:

Secondly, this scene frames Maria as the teacher and Ruby as the student. Maria is initiating Ruby to very important knowledge, so that our young alchemist can continue her journey.

Ruby: I don't know… I don't know anything… What do I tell Jaune and his team when we don't even have a plan? Qrow's out drinking, Ozpin hasn't come back and even if he did, I don't know if I could trust him. And there's always Jinn, but… we only have one more question we can ask her. I feel like I'm letting everyone down… Maria: If you're tired of not knowing anything, how about we discuss those eyes of yours?

MARIA, THE TEACHER

Maria embodies the archetype of the old wise woman. She is a mature version of Ruby (an older silver-eyed warrior), who comes in our protagonist's life to offer guidance. She is the more expert alchemist:

Maria grabs the golden fruit. Symbolically, this shows that she is far ahead of Ruby in the alchemical quest.

This is made clear by her:

semblance

weapon

Preflexes lets Maria sense everything better than others. Metaphorically, it means she has a better understanding of reality than others. This ties with her having wisdom.

Life and Death is made by two kamas that can be combined in a staff:

They can be separated (solvet) and united (coagula). Solvet and coagula is the mantra of alchemy, as this process aims to create the philosophical stone by separating and uniting the elements. Over and over. Until perfection is obtained. Metaphorically, it means a soul is refined through creation and destruction. Life and Death.

RUBY, THE STUDENT

Ruby is young and ignorant. She doesn't know what to do and she doesn't know about her eyes. She is the alchemist apprentice, who is going through a transformation:

Differently from the Splendor Solis plate, there are no birds in the scene. However, the scenery is full of butterflies, which are another symbol of change. Of death and rebirth:

As far as the nature of Ruby's transformation is concerned, the setting gives us some hints, as Maria and Ruby are speaking in a garden full of white snow. That is because RWBY is approaching albedo (the white phase). In particular, volume 6 climax marks Ruby's passage from nigredo to albedo. This process if metaphorically foreshadowed in Ruby and Maria's conversation thanks to a specific visual cue:

Let's look at Maria's plate:

The grapes are purple/black = nigredo, the black phase

The plate is white = albedo, the white phase

The lemons/oranges are yellow = citrinitas, the yellow phase

The strawberries are red = rubedo, the red phase

The kiwis are green = transformation (plus prima materia, aka the beginning)

In short, the plate and fruits are a metaphor for the alchemical process as a whole. What's interesting is that a little butterfly flies on them:

It pauses for a little while on top of the grapes (nigredo) until Maria gently takes it and has it fly forward (towards albedo). The meaning is clear. Maria acts a mentor, who helps Ruby leave the black phase and enter the white one. She gives Ruby the knowledge she needs to face her "trial of fire":

Maria: The light will only work in the presence of Grimm. Meaning the only practice you'll get will be a trial by fire.

TRIALS BY FIRE

Ruby faces her trial by fire in the climax of volume 6, as she fights the Leviathan:

There she uses Maria's teaching and the relic of Knowledge to defeat her foe through her internal light. This moment is when Ruby and the group leave Mistral and the Black Phase once and for all. They are ready to face Atlas and the White Phase.

Still, this isn't the only trial by fire our Little Red Riding Hood has to go through. She struggles through a second one in volume 9, as she and the group leave the White Stage (Atlas) through the Yellow Stage (the Ever After), so that they can enter the Red Phase (Vacuo). Once again this passage is shown through the Splendor Solis.

There is a giant tree:

A wise woman:

Butterflies:

Once again, Ruby is given guided by an older and wiser woman under a tree. This time she has to make a choice to go through a transformation. A process of death and rebirth:

In volume 6 Ruby learns about her internal light, whereas in volume 9 she discovers her inner shadows. In volume 6 she is given knowledge, while in volume 9 she is offered a choice. At the same time, in volume 6 the Splendor Solis reference is focused on a single meaningful scene, while in volume 9 it is more pervasive and present throughout the entirety of the season. In volume 6 the Splendor Solis comments Ruby's journey (the microchosm). In volume 9 this alchemical texts conveys RWBY's adventure (the macrochosm).

However, this isn't the only difference between the two transformative trials.

IDEAL AND REAL

Volume 6 has Ruby become an ideal:

Volume 9 has Ruby grow into herself:

Similarly, in volume 6 she latches on an idealistic idea of Summer (the Huntress), whereas in volume 9 she accepts Summer as a person (the Mother):

This passage from ideal to real isn't something unique to our heroine's arc, but it ties to everyone's story. Here come two examples.

Jaune's arc

In volume 6 Jaune is inspired by Pyrhha to push forward no matter what:

He wants to become more like Pyrrha, his ideal self.

In volume 9 Jaune is taught by Weiss to stop and accept a loss:

He realizes he is good as he is, despite his flaws.

Chemical weddings

In volume 6, Bumbleby goes through their second chemical wedding, where they kill Adam. The focus of Yang and Blake's relationship is that both girls have to become "worthy" of the other:

And now I know I'm worthy of you (Oh can't you see, you could be with me) With every smile you told me, "I love you" (I am your dream, I love you)

They push each other to grow and to become their ideal selves. Yang has to overcome her anger and abandonement issues to stay with Blake. Blake has to stop running away to be by Yang's side. Their fight with Adam tests their progress on their respective flaws.

In volume 9, White Knight has their second chemical wedding, where Jaune dies and is reborn thanks to Weiss. Their bond is about letting go of childish fantasies (the charming prince and the beautiful princess) and to accept the other for who they are:

Weiss: I think you’re asking too much of yourself. We’ve been telling ourselves that failing means we’re no good. But I can guarantee even the best Huntsmen in history… they’ve all lost. But they were still incredibly brave… and good.

They let go of paragons and come to love their real selves with both strengths and flaws. Their conversation in front of the Genial Gems conveys exactly this.

Interestingly, Bumbleby and White Knight foil each other in another way, when it comes to alchemical symbolism.

Bumbleby focuses on death and separation. They represent the "solvet" part of the process.

White Knight is linked to rebirth and union. They explore the "coagula" part of the process.

To be clear, the solvet and coagula parts are present in both relationships. Yang and Blake go through destruction to come back stronger and more beautiful than ever. Similarly, Weiss and Jaune have to face death, so they can be reborn.

Still, the focus of BB's weddings is on death/destruction:

Adam cuts Yang's arm and impales Blake

Adam dies

Whereas WK's weddings climax in resurrection/creation:

Weiss is reborn

Jaune and Ruby are reborn

This is because the two relationships are complementary and illustrate different sides of the alchemical process. However, there is a third ship meant to embody both parts.

RUBY AND OSCAR = SOLVET AND COAGULA

Ruby and Oscar's wedding is kicked off by their first meeting, when Qrow (a bird) brings Oscar to Ruby and unites the Solar King and the Lunar Queen:

Ruby and Oscar's wedding references the imagery above.

It is a union of opposites. The scenery of their first scene together has Ruby marked as fire and air, whereas Oscar is associated with earth and water. Moreover, both the moon and sun are present.

In general, Ruby is moon, silver, red and air, while Oscar is sun, gold, green and earth. They complement each other and are perfectly balanced. So, they don't need a specific focus on neither death nor rebirth because theis arcs are gonna explore both the solvet and the coagula. They are the whole.

This complementarity shows also in Oscar paralleling Ruby during the trials of fire.

While Ruby is talking with Maria and going through an internal transformation, Oscar goes through an external transformation (he changes clothes). Ruby connects with Summer (coagula), while Oscar is free from Ozpin (solvet). Both their transformations are tested in volume 6 climax, where Ruby grows into a leader (macrochosm), whereas Oscar grows into himself (microchosm).

While Ruby struggles with herself in the Ever After, Oscar struggles with Ozpin in Vacuo. Ruby separates her perception of the self from Summer (solvet), whereas Oscar is merging with Ozpin (coagula). Ruby is in a fantastical world symbolic of the inside (microchosm). Oscar is in the real world, which is going through big changes (macrochosm).

Right now, Ruby and Oscar are bound to meet again through Raven (another bird), which might kick off their second alchemical wedding. Not only that, but Raven herself might play the part of the Nevermore, as she wears a Nevermore mask and her name alludes to The Raven, Poe's famous poem and the inspiration for the Nevermore Grimm. If so, this meeting might be Rosegarden nevermore wedding, which for RWBY ships is about overcoming grief and death through love. Another declination of solvet and coagula.

[thedarkmongoose]

Will Graham: “The fool is presented as an innocent or naïve figure who wouldn’t hurt a fly. They are not interested in laughing at a person but rather with a person or at himself. To laugh at oneself helps to break the ice because it not only removes one’s own persona, but also the audience’s social mask, allowing for genuine behavior. This courageous feat throws one in a vulnerable state which allows others to open up and receive a message more profoundly. Fools represent values which are rejected by the group because they oppose social norms/rules. While the fool has many positive aspects, he can also be so stubborn that he does not take a moment to step back and reflect, to look where he is headed, so he falls off a cliff.”

Hannibal Lecter: “The trickster is intentionally deceptive and seeks to trick others and laugh at them. They love engaging in schadenfreude, in which one obtains pleasure from learning or witnessing the misfortunes, failures, or humiliation of another person. When there is an opportunity to play a trick on another person, the trickster immediately seizes the opportunity. The trickster seeks primarily to entertain himself, even if it is at the expense of others. He plays like a fool in order for people to fall into his trap. The trickster tricks others who never expect to be tricked.”

(The Psychology of The Fool by Eternalised)

[gorbalsvampire]

If you were redesigning Blood Sorcery, what would its central schtick be? What makes it potentially unique and interesting, and not just a swiss army knife? (I'd argue Thinblood Alchemy is maybe a more interesting and balanced fill for that total versatility niche.)

Hm!

So, I actually kinda like the core Discipline as it exists in V5. The art of discovering truths about someone through their Blood, or manipulating the Blood directly, or turning the Blood into a weapon or a message? That shit rips. That is a good time.

I'd move Scour Secrets into Auspex (seriously, what the shit is it doing here?) and I'm turning Koldunic Sorcery over and over in my hands - it's a botch job, but the net effect works, you take that and then your upper levels are things like Visceral Absorbtion and Transitive Bond, there's a Tzimisce-sorcerer route through the Discipline and it does hold together now that i think about it. It's fine.

I think a good Discipline is one where you can cross the streams, but it's also apparent what the streams are. Blood Sorcery is a good Discipline, it has archetypal routes through for your stereotypical Tremere and Banu Haqim and Tzimisce but also space for you to push sideways and create characters who have leant this way or that.

Digression: Oblivion is a bad Discipline, largely because it has four pathways between two clans and is trying to cover two historically separate applications of mysticism and ceremony while also remaining as faithful as it can to every depiction of them that's ever existed, because it's a Dawkins design and he can't not include something that's canon. Great concept, but indulgent execution. Someone needed to say no.

But then we get into Rituals, and that's where the bloat kicks in. Niche protection? What niche protection? Haven't you heard, we're Tremere!

I think each Ritual needs to be interrogated. Ask it what it's for. Why does it exist at the level it exists? What is Clinging of the Insect for? We have Potence and Celerity powers for that. Splash another Discipline, you cowards, this is worth more than 3 XP and some bug juice.

What is Blood Walk for? Why is it not a critical effect on Taste for Blood, the mainline power that's its obvious prerequisite? This is stupid. Merge them.

What is Wake With Evening's Freshness for? Why do Tremere get to do this, for cheap? Get rid of it.

Do that, and pare the Rituals right down to the ones like Enrich the Blood, Herd Ward, Calix Secretus, the ones that are clearly derived from actual Blood manipulation. To be honest, the Oblivion notion of prerequisite powers is a good one, and if you can't think of a good prerequisite power, chances are you don't have a good Ritual - you have an Ars Magicka wizard spell that nobody's had the spine to delete.

I've said before and I'm saying now that I prefer Tremere as alchemists to Tremere as mages from Ars Magicka backformed into mages from Mage. It shucks off a lot of baggage, it makes them a self-contained Vampire concept (this is a problem I also have with the Giovanni, to be entirely fair), and - in the context of this ask - it also creates some cool parallels with the thin-bloods, the Duskborn of the here and now. Tremere looks to Thin-blood: as you are, we once were. As we are, you are not allowed to be. No wonder Tremere invented the practice of branding the little shits.

I do agree that being a hyperflexible little multi-tool, manifesting semi-random powers from Resonances and cultivating specific counterfeits with Alchemy, is a really good niche for Thin-Bloods to occupy. The Revised era version - "vampire from clan, but shittier" - had no appeal outside of specific metaplot-hugging or masochistic playstyles. The V5 version is exciting. People should play them, and want to play them.

That said, I have some beef - specifically, a Thin-Blood who lives long enough and plays with other clans erodes niche protection by being able to counterfeit most Disciplines a PC from another clan can bring to the table, "anything you can do I can do" kind of deal. Level 5 is off the table, but how many PCs are getting level 5 powers at the standard rate of XP gain? Blood Potency is a counterbalance and if you bother to implement its rules all the way across (the rerolls are super important) I do think it works as a balance, but this isn't about what works. It's about the feeling of having your special snowflake power, and yours, and yours, all available to this one character.

I think I'd get rid of Counterfeit Discipline, as a thing: you can curate low level powers from feeding, and you have unique Alchemy effects, and that's enough, actually.

[coline7373]

Alright.

I'm on a streak about the anachronism of condom in Amestris.

Hear me out.

Rubber condom date from the 19th century. They came from rubber cast into cement molds.

It wasn't until around 1920 that latex was invented.

Which was possible due to chemical advances and the industrial revolution first, than industrial progresses in assembly lines second.

*But*.

Amestris don't rely on chemistry.

All its technological advancements rely on **al**chemy.

And yeah, there's automails, but it's done by experts in individual workshops. Not in big factories by machines which can churn them by the dozens.

Look at their reaction in CoS when a plane come through the portal. Total bewilderment.

Due to the "ease" of doing alchemy and how impressive it is, centuries ago, the world of FMA turned their research and technological progress in the direction of alchemy.

Which enable them to do things we weren't capable of, at the same period in time, *but* the reverse is also true!!!!!

The technological progress that allowed for the creation of latex condom and its wide distribution is just not there yet.

Latex condom *could* be made, possibly, like automail. By civilian alchemists in their own private workshops and sold at the front of the shop.

But masse assembly lines that allow the production of materials and goods in nation-worth quantity, at a speed to keep up with national wide demands and cheap enough to beat private contruction/creation by individuals, that absolutely require machines of type that don't seem to exists in Amestris/FMA because their technology hasn't evolved in that direction.

Therefore, latex condoms don't exist yet at the time of Edward's story.

Or, if it does, it's "unique pieces". Like pharmaceutical creations, goods made in the back of the shop by experts for one use only.

Must be wayyy more expensive than the ones we currently enjoy.

Also, you must have variations of quality, since you will have variations of quality of raw materials, alchemical arrays and skills.

They won't be one hundred percent safe everywhere so there wouldn't be as much "faith" in their effectiveness than we currently have.

There was a whole part of the population at the start of the century who thought they made sexual intercourse feel not as good as "bare" intercourses do. And since they aren't 100% sure, why bother, you know?

Of course, it wasn't everyone and the condoms themselves got better and better (in feels and safety) overtime but it didn't happened in a day.

Right until the early 2000, you still have big parts of the population who thought they were more problems then they were worth.

Still some do, today.

So, to write that people of Amestris buy, use and view condoms like we do nowadays is just anachronistic.

And now I want a fic where the people in Team Mustang have a discussion in the office about which shop sell the best ones and at which price and who tried what to "test" them.

And Mustang has so many facts and everybody is just??? "We knew you got around but not This Much" But really these are tips he picked up from Madame Christmas and all the sex workers he has ever known since he was four.

So, like, he is infodumping twenty years worth of Usefull Tips to be a helpfull good boss. And his team is like "you want to talk about it?"

[hollowed-theory-hall]

I adore your harry potter analyses! idk if you've already answered this, but do you have any theories on how the philosopher's stone actually works?

Thank you so much! 😊

So, there are multiple real-life Alchemy recipes to create the Philosohper's Stone. I'm not going to go through all of them since I believe the Philosopher's Stone in the world of Harry Potter isn’t identical to the real-world concept.

The actual Alchemical process of creating the stone itself is also one that transforms the Alchemist. To quote Paracelsus: "Yo will transmute nothing if you have not first transmuted yourself". So the process of making the Philosopher's Stone, in itself transforms the person making it into the perfected version of themselves and humanity. Because that is what the stone is — the most perfect, noble, and pure material there is

Now, let's see what we actually know about the Philosopher's Stone in HP? Because the stone Harry sees in the first book isn't necessarily the real thing, it could just as well be a fake, so I can't really count on it. I mean, if you had a Philosopher's Stone why would you keep it in a vault at Gringoots and not where you'd actually need it (the stone can make gold, so you could buy a vault at home)? And even worse, why would you let it be used for an obstacle course in a school?

The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Sorcerer’s Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal. There have been many reports of the Sorcerer’s Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera lover. Mr. Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight).

(PS, 159-160, from a library book Hermione reads. Also yeah it's the American edition)

So we know the stone should:

turn metal into gold

produce an elixir that makes the drinker immortal

Now, if we look at the immortality part, I want to discuss what kind of immortality. When I think of an Elixir of Life that cures every illness (as in the real-world concept), I expect the immortality caused by it to also keep the user young, essentially like Rapunzel's hair in Tangled. I mean, old age is the result of cells dying and not regenerating, so a cure-all elixir should be able to cure old age and keep you young and healthy. This would also explain why you need to continue drinking the elixir and not just drink it once to become immortal, since you constantly need to heal yourself from aging.

The only problem with that is that it doesn't really seem to be how the Elixir of Life works.

In the Fantastic Beasts movies, Nicolas Flamel is depicted as old, frail, and decrepit. Now, I don't really consider these movies canon, but the intention seemed to be this even in the first book:

“But that means he and his wife will die, won’t they?” “They have enough Elixir stored to set their affairs in order and then, yes, they will die.”

(PS, 213)

And it was stated on JKR's site before Half-Blood Prince came out that Flamel died before the summer of 1996. It means that the Flamels aren't healed of old age by the elixer, since they die the moment they stop drinking it. If it healed them of old age, it'll take them longer to age and die. So the elixir of life probably acts more similarly to unicorn blood, in that it extends your life, forcing you to remain alive, without actually healing you.

(Which makes me think that even if Voldemort got his hands on the Stone it wouldn't have really helped him)

If we assume Flamel didn't fake his death and the stone works similarly to unicorn blood as I illustrated above, we have a stone that can turn metals to gold and create an elixir that keeps you alive without actually healing you. With how similar the elixir is to unicorn blood and the fact unicorns are considered the purest of animals, like the stone for minerals, unicorn fowls are also colored gold... I think unicorn blood is an ingredient of the Philosopher's Stone in the Harry Potter universe.

In the real-world Alchemical recipes, gold, which is considered the purest noblest metal is one of the ingredients to create the Philosopher's Stone in all the recipes I read. The process of creating the stone then releases and amplifies the powers and purity of the gold into the stone created from it. So, I think, in the HP world, the process is similar, starting from the two most noble and pure ingredients — gold and unicorn blood — and then amplifying them in the process of making the stone.

In Alchemy like in the magic of Harry Potter, intent and intention are just as important as the incantation you recite. So blood taken by force from a unicorn wouldn't work, it's tainted, it isn't noble or pure in the way it was received, so it won't work to create a stone. I think the blood needs to be given from a living unicorn willingly, which I don't think is common. Also, it shouldn't be given just to anyone, if you say buy willingly given unicorn blood, you still won't be able to make a stone out of it. Because the blood wasn't given to you to use. It's all about the intention, I think.

Beyond these two ingredients, it would probably follow a similar recipe to one of the real-world ones. Specifically, the recipe written by the real Nicholas Flamel and is actually referred to as "The Flamel way".

(This method is also called "Star Regulus of Antimony")

There are two ways to create a Philosopher's Stone in this method, but I'm choosing the one that fits with unicorn blood best. Basically, the process is to create a purified spirit of antimony (this is the regulus of antimony), said antimony will be united with gold through long digestion in a closed container with an alkahest (an alkahest is a solvent). In the original recipe this solvent is based on urine, in the HP version it'll be an alkahest made from willingly given unicorn blood. This stone would go through the three stages of color that almost all methods to create the Philosopher's Stone illustrate: black to white, and finally to red.

In the original recipe, the alkahest is referred to as "mercury" (spirit), or the "secret fire", both words that refer to life and the concept of life in Alchemy. So unicorn blood fits well as the life-giving alkahest in the process of creating the Philosopher's Stone.

[aetherialpiplup108]

So it's always been a head-canon of mine that after Uk and Yeong finish hunting for relics, it would be Yeong that becomes Gwanju, the protector of the 4 families and Daeho as a whole.

Obviously the natural pick is Jang Uk except...he wants absolutely nothing to do with either of his fathers. Just as he tosses aside the royal medallion that could open a path to the crown, I think Uk would find it difficult to accept a position that's been reserved for him primarily because of the man that ruined his mother's life. Additionally, Go-won needs to urgently increase the damaged trust between Daeho's citizens and authorities. Jang Uk, who is likely still feared by many due to the powers of the ice stone and his general emo-ness (he was pretty vocal in the last three years about not caring if the world burned to ash and he did commit mass murder, even if his victims were all corrupt), is probably not the optimal option for this.

Yeong, however, has no such reputation. Even though she's probably more vicious than her husband, the public only knows her as a sweet, kind, incredibly powerful priestess. She also happens to have a strong connection to the four families, acting as one of the King's closest advisors, a guiding hand for Songrim as she helps Yul find and train his pupils, and is always going to be a sister to Jinyowon's heir Cho-yeon whether or not she reveals that she's not actually Jin Bu-yeon. In effect, she's already fulfilling the role of Gwanju and protecting Daeho, which I think is a great narrative conclusion for her: growing from wanting to destroy in revenge to using her innate sense of justice to protect. In any case, I think Yeong would want to return to Cheonbugwan anyway to carry on her father's craft.

[archivetourguide]

Chewing on my enclosure thinking about how the TMP universe is set up and what the FUCK this world's version of the entities are/when the TMA entities crossed over.

That whole encounter with Newton was obviously a manifestation of greater alchemy, but was it also an olde timey manifestation of the stranger, given how WRONG the statement giver found everything (given all his talk about good reason, and being unnerved about the dog escaping it's place in the godly hierarchy) ?

Oscar Jarrett's tattoos are likewise giving me all sorts of things to think about.

The sun symbol burning a guy alive makes sense on the surface but if you know anything about alchemy you'd know that the symbol of the sun (specifically the one with the dot in the middle) is a symbol of gold, NOT the process of calcination. I'm mostly discounting desolation because despite the burning the iconography just feels wrong.

The ship tattoo is free of obvious alchemical symbols and seems almost...infectious, making the groundworks boss obsessed and reverent just by looking at it, while disappearing the coroner and possibly the government contact aswell. The subject matter is very entity-ish (flip a coin for vast or buried, I'm leaning the latter for how often "closer" is mentioned) but that raises the question of WHEN the TMA entities crossed over into the TMP-verse.

These tattoos are almost like Leitner books, carrying power that threatens to devour most, but empowers those individuals who happen to align with them (the artist and the paintbrush). Difference being that Leitner didn't WRITE anything in his library, and Oscar Jarrett (and now inksoul) seems to be handing out different flavors of horror to each individual.

[hamliet]

Syzygy, or Animus and Anima: Weiss and Jaune

Anima-Animus anon, here is your meta. I genuinely do think Weiss and Jaune are one of the best literary examples I've seen of animus and anima, respectively. This is not inherently a shipping meta, although you could read it that way.

Of note: I did talk about Jaune and anima before here in a larger meta about his arc, and about Weiss and animus here. But I want to talk about their arcs because they are complimentary, and really encapsulate how to write anima and animus pretty perfectly.

So let's go over it. What is anima? What is animus? How is Jaune one of Weiss's animuses? How is Weiss one of Jaune's anima? And what does this mean thematically for their arcs and the work of RWBY as a whole?

Jungian Archetypes

I have a whole meta on Jungian archetypes in RWBY. But I just want to quickly go over some of them because I'll use these terms in the meta.

Persona: the part of ourself we present to the public. It's usually somewhat fake, or at least societally acceptable.

Shadow: the part ourselves we repress because we do not want to acknowledge the parts of us that are selfish, hurting, weak. End goal: integration with the shadow and accepting that these are parts of you. In literature, the shadow is often negative or antagonistic if embodied in a character, because facing it requires facing character flaws. However, only by integrating with the shadow do we start to heal. It's necessary to become a complete person. Associated with the Black stage in alchemy, and with Blake.

Anima/animus: the feminine/masculine within ourselves. This can overlap with the shadow in some ways (for example, men often don't want to admit that they're weak). Anima/animus can be positive and negative. Associated with the White stage in alchemy, and with Weiss and Jaune. You don't have to interpret it as romantic, but it often is.

Self: The Self is the end goal of Jungian psychology: achieving individuation, or the fullness of being who you are and knowing your role in the world. Associated with the Red stage in alchemy, and with Ruby.

Syzygy: the union of anima and animus.

Lastly, I want to disclaimer about the terms "masculine" and "feminine" here. Jung was writing at a time when gender binaries and roles were very much a thing. Of course they apply less today (and RWBY deliberately plays with some of these, as we'll see). But when I use the term "masculine" or "feminine" in this meta I mean in the traditional sense Jung is talking about. Masculine=bravery, physical power, fear of the weak. Feminine=beauty, emotions, kindness, etc. Please note this is clearly oversimplified and I am not endorsing this, just explaining a pattern that Jung pointed out in regards to literature.

Jaune and Anima

Between anima and animus, anima is more likely to be romantic in fiction. That's because Jung associated anima with something he called Eros (Greek for romantic/sexual love). A man's anima is also almost always one person at a time. This is not the case with animus, as we'll see.

Hence, the two women associated with Jaune's anima are Weiss and Pyrrha.

The previous meta I did on Jaune's arc makes a strong argument that Pyrrha firstly embodies his anima. She almost perfectly goes through the first three of four stages of anima in regards to how Jaune views her, which are:

Eve (mother)

Helen (romantic interest)

Mary (religious devotion)

Sophia (wisdom, guide to the inner life)

I would also argue that Pyrrha embodies Sophia too here, but the living Sophia is also Weiss. Sophia is Greek for "wisdom," and both the official RWBY Twitter account and the show itself make the connection explicit for us, with the Curious Cat calling Weiss "wise Huntress."

But it's also deeper than just stages here. Jaune's entire arc is about the rejection of toxic masculinity and the embrace of his own role as maiden. Only through becoming a Maiden (in other words, embracing the feminine within) can he become a Knight (the man he was meant to be).

Jaune As The Maid of Orleans

Jaune's allusion is, of course, Jeanne d'Arc. He has a feminine allusion, which tells us to expect his integration with the inner feminine. Joan of Arc was also know as three things:

A spiritual guide to France in wartime

A soldier/knight

A maiden

In real life, Joan of Arc was dismissed because she was just a girl... until she started actually winning battles and her predictions came true. God or not, there's something really powerful and intriguing and eerie about her story. Joan of Arc referred to herself as "Jeanne la Pucelle," or "Joan the Maiden."

But what is a Maiden? In Joan's time, it literally meant "virginity," because there was a prophecy that France would be restored by a virgin. In other words, her virginity was a strength--spiritually, at the time period, her going to war with men yet maintaining her virginity was seen as a sign of righteousness (yes, it was very anti-sex).

In RWBY, a maiden is also hardly a weakness. No, a Maiden is a specific type of power.

It's also associated with martyrdom.

Jaune has had special relationships with several of the Maidens in the series: firstly, Pyrrha, who chooses to kiss him (a nice pro-sex commentary honestly) before dying as a Maiden even though the power had not been transferred to her. Pyrrha ends up a martyr like Joan of Arc, but her legacy, like Joan's lives on. Pyrrha embodies what Jaune should become.

Penny, of course, dies as a martyr too. She is stabbed by Cinder and there isn't time to save her. Jaune, who defines himself as a healer thanks to his semblance, has no choice but to kill her so that Penny stays in control of her destiny. It's tragic, but like Pyrrha, it isn't empty.

Of course, Cinder has now killed Jaune's first love interest, tried to kill another (Weiss), and then made Jaune into a killer via stabbing Penny. Hence, Jaune and Cinder are also linked, and the message of what a maiden should be, and what destiny is--the message Pyrrha carried, the message of choice embodying destiny that Penny carried--is something I suspect Jaune will give to Cinder before the end.

Still, all of these incidents, the three big alchemical deaths of the series--Black Death, White Death, and Yellow Death (Crocea Mors)--involve Jaune and specifically switch the gender of what you would expect from a hero.

The Knight is supposed to protect the Maiden. Instead, the Maiden kisses Jaune and locks him away to save him while she fights Cinder. Jaune is supposed to protect the Maiden, but she (Weiss) gets impaled precisely because he couldn't get over his previous failure to save Pyrrha. This time, though, he saves Weiss.

The thing is, though, that healing is traditionally a feminine attribute. Hence, Weiss lives and Jaune heals because, symbolically, of his ability to embrace the inner feminine.

Lastly, the Knight is supposed to save the Maiden. But instead, saving the Maiden looks like becoming the monster himself, like becoming his shadow (which Cinder is). It shatters his sense of self, as we've been seeing throughout Volume 9.

If a Knight is also a dragon killing a maiden, who is he?

Jaune As The Rusted Knight

Jaune's sword is broken, and he intensely clings to this persona of "knight who saves" the entire volume. But by intensively insisting on saving the Paper Pleasers, he doesn't realize he's repeating what Ironwood et al did to Penny: refusing to allow them their own right to choose their destiny. He also fails to save Alyx.

Jaune's "knight who saves" persona has been a key part of his character since the first season. He cheats to get into Beacon because he wants to be a hero and carry on his family's legacy. He's embarrassed to be so weak, but the only way to become strong is to rely on women. Team RWBY, Pyrrha, even Nora and Ren (who don't fit gender stereotypes themselves).

Pyrrha literally trains Jaune. Notably, whenever Jaune relies on male advice, he fails. In fact, his knight persona is precisely why Weiss doesn't like him at first (not just romantically; like, at all.)

Weiss: (separating the two) Jaune, is it? Do you have any idea who you're talking to?

Jaune: Not in the slightest, snow angel.

Jaune: I don't understand. My dad said all women look for is confidence! Where did I go wrong? (accepts Ruby's offered hand and uses her to lift himself back up)

Yang: "Snow Angel" probably wasn't the best start.

Jaune's confidence and understanding of women coming from his dad instead of like, actual women, means he's going to make an arse of himself. And he does. At first.

But, Jaune starts to integrate with the feminine through not just Pyrrha training him physically, but also through doing things like dressing up as a princess and going to the dance like that to honor his word to Pyrrha. He gets closer to Weiss by talking to Neptune about feelings rather than by impressing her through feats of strength. He then saves her life via delving into a traditionally feminine power. And in the end of Volume 9, he is restored to his young self via Alyx, the girl he thought he couldn't save.

Weiss and Animus

Oh boy, animus.

Okay, so... Jung did not write nearly as much about animus as he did about anima. Supposedly that's because he's a dude and recognized that he could not actually experience animus. Fortunately, his wife Emma wrote a lot about it, as did some direct colleagues (like Marie-Louise von Franz) who specifically applied animus to its portrayal in fairy tales.

Animus differs from anima in a few key ways. The centrality of the concept--that it's the masculine within a woman--remains the same. However, animus:

is not usually limited to just one person at a time like anima;

doesn't follow stages nearly so neatly (they exist but are a bit... debatable)

is not inherently based on Eros, or a romantic understanding. No, instead animus is based on Logos.

What is Logos? Logos is literally "word" in Greek, but the actual usage is more akin to "mind" or "spirit." Weiss, of course, is a mind character. It can also refer to the principle of the matter. In other words, a woman looks for her masculine traits in a principle she holds dear.

Jung himself said:

The male personification of the unconscious in the woman — the animus — exhibits both good and bad aspects, as does the anima in man. But the animus does not so often appear in the form of an erotic fantasy or mood [as the anima often does to men]…even in a woman who is outwardly very feminine the animus can be an equally hard and inexorable power. One may suddenly find oneself up against something in a woman that is obstinate, cold and completely inaccessible.

Weiss as Princess Snow White

Weiss starts off possessed by her negative animus, the Logos or principle.

What is animus/anima possession? It's specifically a negative manifestation of the animus (or anima) wherein someone behaves overwhelmingly like their masculine side--but in a negative sense. In other words, for Weiss, this looks like a persona of toxic masculinity.

Possession caused by the anima or animus presents a different picture... The animus is obstinate, harping on principles, laying down the law, dogmatic, world-reforming, theoretic, word-mongering, argumentative, and domineering.

I kinda do think this sounds like early-volume Weiss. But it also sounds like... Jacques Schnee.

See, the animus is also often a reflection of a woman's father. Even though Weiss is determined to prove herself without her father's influence by the start of the series, we also see that she is in some ways behaving like him. Of course she's not nearly so ruthless or bigoted, but she does maintain some prejudice about faunus, maintains entitlement (demanding to be leader of RWBY), tells off Ruby for accidents, etc. She's denying her femininity.

But then her development starts, and with this, her animus changes. Who are her animus?

Well, as I said above, animus has multiple presentations, and for Weiss they're specifically unique... because some of them are women. Make of that what you will, shippers and headcanoners. I'm not just going off of nowhere in saying that I think some of Weiss's masculine animuses are women, either; I'm specifically talking about it in regards to Weiss's allusion of Snow White.

You can find numerous fairy tale analyses with animus/anima interpretations. Snow White is one of the most obvious ones. But Weiss's Snow White is genderbent... mostly. Except for her.

See, in the Grimm version of the fairy tale, Snow White's father is alive. He just does absolutely nothing to stop his wife from abusing Snow White. In this story, Willow, Weiss's mother, is the absent one, doing absolutely nothing to stop Jacques from abusing her children. As a result, we have the Shadow develop--in the fairy tale, the Shadow is the Evil Queen. In Weiss's story, it's Jacques. He is who she doesn't want to be, but does have similarities to especially in her persona.

Snow White then meets nine other men. Yes, there are a total of ten male characters, and they are all aspects of animus. In the original Snow White fairy tale (reference this analysis), we can break it down as such:

Absentee dad

Huntsman

Seven Dwarves

Prince

In this, we can see slow progression of Snow White's integration with her masculine side.

Firstly, it's denied to her (she's completely out of balance) because her father refuses to take any action and is never mentioned again.

Secondly, the Huntsman takes action and spares Snow White from the queen, but also doesn't exactly help her. He sends her off into a dangerous forest to fend for herself.

Thirdly, we see reciprocity finally appear. Snow White helps the dwarves, but they also help her. It becomes a mutual relationship in which she learns from all seven of them.

Lastly, Snow White is revived thanks to the prince, who marries her as an equal.

When we compare this to Weiss's arc, we see similarities. Willow is absent, denying her what she needs. Then, Winter play the role of the Huntsman, helping Weiss forge her own way to a degree but still leaving her to rely on herself when she could maybe use a bit more help.

Thirdly, Weiss meets RBYJNPR: her seven dwarves. She learns how to be herself, learns who she is, in great part because of them.

Lastly, this volume we have her developing an attraction to Jaune, whom she knows and who has revived her. She gets to be fully Prince and Princess.

What About Stages?

The stages of animus, when they exist, are loosely defined (as in Jung himself didn't actually say this, but is often attributed as having said it) as:

Tarzan: physical power

Byron: man of action or romance

Lloyd George: man as a professor or orator

Hermes/Mercury: man as a spiritual guide

If we look at this through the lens of Weiss's arc, we do see traces of these. The physical power Weiss is attracted to is embodied in Winter and Pyrrha. I mean Weiss specifically calls out Pyrrha's physical strength when she meets her:

Weiss: So, Pyrrha, have you given any thought to whose team you'd like to be on? I'm sure everyone must be eager to unite with such a strong, well-known individual such as yourself! Weiss: This will be perfect! The smartest girl in class combined with the strongest girl in class! Together we will be unstoppable! I can see it now! We'll be popular! We'll be celebrities! We'll get perfect grades! Nothing can come between us now!

The man of action/romance is embodied in the Rusted Knight persona, and in Neptune, who is notably a giant flirt.

As a professor or orator, I would actually say there are many here. Klein, of course, reminding her who she is. Then there is Robyn, who is probably the most obvious orator in the story. Also Ironwood. Basically, thanks to Robyn having the election stolen from her, Weiss helps take down her dad. As a result, her mother returns to her (the feminine returning) and she is able to get Whitley to help save them all (integrating the masculine).

We also see a little bit of this later on with Jaune, in that Weiss expressly says she admires his maturity.

The technique of coming to terms with the animus is the same in principle as in the case of the anima; only here the woman must learn to criticize and hold her opinions at a distance; not in order to repress them, but, by investigating their origins, to penetrate more deeply into the background, where she will then discover the primordial images, just as the man does in his dealings with the anima.

We're not quite there with Hermes/Mercury, and I would bet that Jaune won't fully become gold or a spiritual guide unless he, well, has something to do with saving Mercury Black. The allusion is too literal not to be used.

Weiss as Knight

Weiss has always been a knight in addition to being Snow White, a maiden princess. Weiss defeats a knight-like creature (Arma Gigas) in the White trailer, and then goes on to be able to summon Arma Gigas as part of her semblance thereafter.

She's exceptionally talented in combat. In fact, the person Jaune calls to save Pyrrha when she's gone to fight Cinder is Weiss. He begs her to save Pyrrha, and Weiss promises him she will.

Sadly, just like Jaune in his attempts to be a knight, she can't, but not for lack of trying.

Later, in Volume 5, we see Weiss receive a power up that comes from her soul (another word for anima). The knight imagery becomes even more part of her semblance, as @aspoonofsugar has written. Notably, she summons Queen Lancer (literally referring to both the maiden-princess and knight archetype) after Jaune heals her in Volume 5. In other words, it's part of her integration with Jaune.

Then, Volume 8 happens, and Jaune again tries to rely on Weiss. He insists to Penny that "Weiss will buy us time" to heal Penny. And she would have tried (and probably died). But Penny tells Jaune that he's the one she needs to do something brave. It's his time to be a knight.

Weiss similarly expresses confidence that Jaune would have done the best he could after she arrives at the Ever After, unaware that he's fallen, too. Even as they go through the Ever After, Weiss affirms her Logos: herself, which is defined by her heroism and her failures.

Weiss: I don't know who you think you are, but let me tell you who I am. I am the granddaughter of a hero and the child of a villain. I am a citizen of a fallen kingdom and an heir to nothing. I will not be defined by my name because I will b e the one to define it. I am Weiss Schnee, and I am a Huntress.

And then we have the finale of Volume 9. Here, Weiss is the one to give Jaune words of wisdom, to encourage him after the Paper Pleasers return as jewels and Jaune realizes that he was not only holding them back, but holding himself back (literally, Jaune, despite being older, has not grown at all emotionally; he's stagnated. He's not a 40 year old in a teen's body; he was a teen in a 40 year old's body). Weiss tells Jaune what she told her younger self:

Jaune: I wanted the rush of rescuing someone, and I got that here.

Weiss: I think you're asking too much of yourself. We've been telling ourselves that failing means we're no good. But I can guarantee even the best Huntsmen in history? They've all lost. But they were still incredibly brave. And good.

In response to this, Jaune starts to cry (a traditionally feminine trait!), and Weiss asserts again what her Logos is: being a knight and a maiden, being brave and good, even when that means you can't save everyone.

So then they fight together, again.

But it's another reversal. The princess, instead of being saved by the knight, almost kills the knight with fire in a scene that comments on what happened with Pyrrha, Jaune saving Weiss, and Penny.

Integration of Knight and Maiden

What's interesting about the Pyrrha-anima-animus connection is that it is Weiss who introduces Jaune to Pyrrha in the first place. Weiss wants to be Pyrrha's partner, actually. She deeply admires Pyrrha, as shown as she says about her and Pyrrha in that first meeting:

Nothing can come between us now!

What immediately comes between them is Jaune. Literally.

But it's not Jaune coming between them in an icky two girls can't get along because of a boy love triangle way. No, instead it's the three of them united because of their relationships with each other.

In that same scene, the very first, we have Weiss literally asking Pyrrha to intervene and get Jaune away from her by throwing her spear... which she does. The symbolism of Weiss asking Pyrrha to throw her spear into Jaune is uh. It's Freudian. Let's leave it there.

In fact, Jaune's feelings for Pyrrha start to develop as a result of her training him physically and encouraging him about his crush on Weiss. Hence, Weiss has been a part of Jaune and Pyrrha's relationship since the start of it; all three of them have an inextricably intertwined relationship.

Then, when Pyrrha says goodbye to Jaune and kisses him, it's right before shoving Jaune into a locker, the same as the ones she met him in front of. This time, when Jaune's in trouble, he calls Weiss--understanding that he needs someone else to save Pyrrha, and trusting that Weiss can do it. Jaune calls Weiss, because she's a knight. Unfortunately, she can't save her.

In Volume 5, Jaune saves Weiss precisely because his grief over Pyrrha contributes to Cinder impaling Weiss. Pyrrha is central to Weiss and Jaune's bond. Pyrrha and Weiss have always been intertwined as Jaune's anima, and if they do end up going with romantic White Knight, they would never have happened if it weren't for Arkos.

While I often see early-volume!Jaune's feelings for Weiss dismissed as shallow, I don't think they actually are. I think they're immature, sure, but look at what he tells Ren about Weiss:

It's Weiss... I'm completely head over heels for her, and she won't even give me a chance. She's cold, but she's also incredible. She's smart, and graceful, and talented-- I mean have you heard her sing? I just wish she take me seriously, y'know? I wish I could tell her how I feel without messing it all up.

Jaune clearly always did see the actual Weiss, not just her beauty, physical strength, or name. Yes, he was initially attracted to her persona, but the undercurrent was always real. Even Snow Angel.

The problem is that Jaune could never be with Weiss if he remained in his Knight persona, expecting her to take the princess role. No, instead, they both have to be knight and princess.

Knight and maiden have never been more clearly integrated than in Volume 9's portrayal of Weiss and Jaune. Jaune is the legendary "Rusted Knight." But, he turns out to still be a Maiden literally waiting around a tower/house for rescue in the form of Team RWBY.

When the Jabberwalker comes, Jaune and Weiss fight together just like Bumbleby fight together; this is explicitly paralleled. (Also, Weiss kind of ignores her fighting partner, Ruby, which contributes to Ruby's feeling lonely; this isn't inherently wrong because they like, needed to stop the Jabberwalker, but it still, well, is, and is also emblematic of Ruby feeling left behind).

During this fight, Jaune tosses his sword to Weiss, who expertly wields it despite it being broken and then gives it back, therefore symbolizing that Weiss can be the knight, that she can be the masculine one, and letting her do so is actually not emasculating for Jaune. Instead, it's realization of his potential in being both knight and maiden.

(And, let's not get into the very very basic Freudian symbolism 101 of a woman using a man's sword.)

The Maiden, instead of being saved by the knight, almost kills the knight with a baptism of fire.

In fact, in Jung's own writing on the philosophical tree (yes, really), he notes this:

The lapis signifies the inner man... the natura abscondita which the alchemists sought to set free. In this sense the Aurora consurgens says that through baptism by fire "man, who before was dead, is made a living soul." ... The genuineness or in-corruptibility of the stone is proved by the torment of fire and cannot be attained without it. This leitmotiv runs all through alchemy.

What is funny here is that Jung uses "lapis" here to mean the philosophical stone, which is most commonly called a ruby. But it can be a sapphire, or apparently a lapis lazuli. Go google the color lapis and tell me that that is not exactly Weiss's dress color.

Like Joan of Arc, Jaune is consumed by the fire. He is coagulated after the dissolution of the Paper Pleasers. But instead of coming forth as ashes, he comes forth as gold... with some growth still ahead and with some white streaks in his hair, symbolizing integration with the feminine (white=feminine in alchemy and Jung).

So where do Weiss and Jaune go from here? Jung provides a clue:

“Just as the anima becomes, through integration, the Eros of consciousness, so the animus becomes a Logos; and in the same way that the anima gives relationship and relatedness to a man’s consciousness, so the animus gives to a woman’s consciousness a capacity for reflection, deliberation and self-knowledge.”

C.W. Vol 9. Part II: Aion. The Syzygy: Anima and Animus

Both Jaune and Weiss have done this for one another thus far, and will continue doing so. Neither Weiss's nor Jaune's arcs are entirely over, either: Jaune still needs to fully embody the spiritual guide, and Weiss needs to embody wisdom and they are both so close but still have a bit more to grow.

[linkspooky]

Hello👋

Do you have an opinion or analysis of Johan from Yu-Gi-Oh GX?

I love his Character💕

My opinion on Johan is I love him lots. The only reason I didn't include him on my previous season 3 posts is that there's so much to talk about with Johan he basically requires his own post. Johan is just as important to Judai's development in season 3 as Yubel, both alchemically and thematically.

So let's embark on another long, long post for Johan and his role in the story.

The Golden Shadow

Before we deep dive into alchemy let's talk about Jung. Jung's theories of analytical psychology is heavily based on Alchemy so this is relevant, I promise. Freud and his contemporary Jung both pioneered the field of psychology together, however Jung went deeper and believed that re-occuring character archetypes and motifs in stories told us something about the human subconscious itself.

For Carl Cung, "the rediscovery of the principles of alchemy came to be an important part of my work as a pioneer of psychology". Jung linked the steps of alchemy several a process of turning lead into gold as a metaphor for individuation.

Individuation is essentially becoming one's self. Jung believed for a person to be whole, they had to integrate all the parts of their personality. His model divided personality into the the persona (the face / exteral world) shadow (the internal / the subcosnscious where everything's hidden), and the anima and animus made of feminine and masculine traits.

In a show like Yu-Gi-Oh GX, individuation is the process of growing up. Jung used alchemy as a metaphor for a developing person's ego maturing, each stage representing a different aspect of his divided conscious. Nigredo is where we become aware of our shadows, Albedo refers to the anima and animus, citrinatis is where sophia the wise old man or women appears, and rubedo is where the self becomes whole.

Johan however, represents two concepts I've left out. Sometimes alchemy is not four stages, but rather five.

The fifth stage is the Peacock's tail, which appears when a person receives a flash of inspiration. Unlike other stages of alchemy associated with color, Peacock's Tail is referred to as the prismatic stage, associated with the colors of the rainbow. The connection to Johan who's signature card is the Rainbow Dragon is obvious.

More on the prismatic phase in the second half of this power however. For now all you need to know that like the star card in Tarot, Johan is a dazzling light of inspiration that helps kickstart Judai's development. The way he does this is by giving Judai someone to aspire to be like.

If the process of aclhemy is to create gold and become your best self then Johan is the golden shadow, to Judai. His role in the story is to help guide Judai into being his best self.

While the shadow is made up of parts of ourselves we hide from others, sometimes these are positive qualities. For example, a character with low self-esteem like Sho Marufuji constantly put himself down and therefore he's never able to see his good qualities because all he ever focuses on is how he's lackluster in comparison to his brother.

If Yubel represents the worst of Judai's flaws that he must learn to accept so he can learn to love himself in spite of those flaws, Johan represents the best in Judai. While Judai has many flaws that are glossed over in the first two parts of the show, I'd also argue he doesn't experience any positive growth. He's entirely stagnant as a character, which is why I say the opening to season 3 and the immediate introduction of Johan is what kickstarts his development.

The banner image I used for this post is where Judai and Johan are doing the Yu-Jo pose, a card in the TCG that is a reference to the friendship between Yugi and Joey in the original series.

However, I would argue that their roles are flipped. In spite of being the main character Judai is Joey, and Johan is Yugi. It's Yugi who makes Judai develop into both a better friend and duelist as a result of their friendship, to the point where Judai almost became too codependent on him and had to learn to separate himself from Yugi and develop on his own in Battle City arc.

(Hint hint, Judai and Johan will follow almost this exact same arc).

Yugi is the light which guides Joey into betterig himself, and Johan is the light that guides Judai.

Judai and Johan from their first meeting, get the vague sense they've already met before. Since this is Yu-Gi-Oh the immediate assumptio would be they had some kind of relationship in a past life, but plot twist it's Yubel.

However, I think this red herring is still important because despite the constant comparisons Johan is more similar to Yubel, then they are to Judai.

Edo refers to them both as Duel-Bakas, Shou gets jealous that Judai and Johan spend constant time together after meeting, in everyone else's even probably Judai's they're the same but if you look at their actions as audience members they're quite different. The comparison between them shows the many ways in which Judai is lacking.

Johan is basically Judai, but better. Judai is put on a pedestal by all his friends and seen as a classic hot-blooded shonen protagonist. Johan however, is the one who has all the classic traits of a real shonen protagonist, including having a dream to aspire to, and also fighting to protect his friends.

These are the two most important traits established from basically the first episode with Johan.

Strong bonds

A reason to fight

Johan's personality is more complicated than that, but these two traits are the most important because they're things Judai is lacking in.

Judai is someone is defined by his friendless background, and had no friends until his first year of Duel Academy. Which is why it makes perfect sense that while Judai is in love with the idea of having friends, he doesn't quite understand what a healthy friendship looks like. Judai is also someone who lacks a reason for dueling and only cites he does it for fun and his own personal satisfaction.

Arguably Judai is forced into duels with greater stakes in seasons 1 and 2, but the key word there is forced. Judai is always pushed into those situations, either because his friends aren't strong enough to duel, or his friends actively expect them to fight their battles in their personal lives for him (cough, cough, Sho). In other words he duels for two reasons, either personal satisfaction, or carrying the burdens of others because that's the way he keeps his friends around him.

Judai is ruthlessly criticized for both of these in season 3, the stakes of dueling become too high and Judai just crumbles under the pressure of having to duel for everyone else. As a result his friendships which were never that stable to begin with fall apart.

Johan on the other hand has a goal on his own, and while he might be a tad overprotective of Judai he's also able to coordinate with the rest of the group. In fact when the whole school is teleported to the other dimmension, it's Johan who steps up to lead, while if you notice Judai's actions he splits off from the group repeatedly. Johan's actions are also the reason they are able to return home, because Judai was unable to do anything substantial to defeat Yubel.

One of Johan's first interactions with Judai is him pointing out how callous Judai can be towards his friend, something which others would usually brush aside.

Sho: Bro… I thought you would have something to say to me. Johan: He seems lost. I think he just wanted you to give him some advice. Judai: Sho will be fine.

More importantly Joha can notice these flaws about Judai and immediately point them out and confront them about him, while still remaining friends with him on the whole.

Johan is Judai's model for a positive friendship. In comparison the friendships he has with other people crumble because of inability for both sides to communicate.

When Judai and his friends travel together to another dimmesion, Judai is selfish in constantly disregarding others feelings and running ahead, and at points even lying to them and going against plans they all made together. However, Judai's friends are unable to confront him about these issues and instead mostly talk and complain among themselves behind his back. Judai might not have listened in his state of mind, but they don't even make the attempt.

In fact the friends who do try to confront Judai about his behavior are August and Jim, characters Judai has known just about as long as Johan in comparison to friends he's had for two years who don't feel comfortable having a basic confrontation with him.

Judai's friendships suffer from the fact that none of them are truly equal. Sho for example is the first person Judai meets on the island and the one who he's known the longest, but one of their first interactions is Judai expressig discomfort for the fact Sho calls him his older brother because he wants duelist to be equals and Sho just ignoring him and continuing to call him that.

Once again I believe there is problems on both ends, Judai is very selfish and has a tendency to be ignorant of other people's feelings. On the other hand, Judai's friends eventually get in the habit of expecting him to solve their problems because they've built up the idea of him in their minds as the group hero.

As I said the friendship crumbles from both ends in season 3, part of it is Judai being selfish and acting like he's the only person that matters, part of it is his friends ruthlessly criticizing him because he's failing to live up to the image they've constructed for themselves.

Judai's friendships are fundamentally unequal but Judai himself isn't aware of this because he has no idea what a healthy friendship looks like - until he meets Johan.

Johan is a character not introduced to us in season 3, and yet it's very understandable to the audience that Judai would become so obsessed with saving someone he's known for about a month, to the point where he risks the lives of friends he's known for two years. Because that month has given Judai his first taste of what true friendship is like, rather than the idea of friendship he's been chasing.

Johan is Judai's better half in a lot of ways. One example we're introduced to immediately upon his introduction is Johan's role as someone able to see duel spirits, and his strong relationship with his cards. Just as an example, all of Johan's cards regularly talk to him and Johan even refers to them as the closest thing he has to family.

Judai until that point had a spirit partner that doesn't talk, and his heroes and neo-spacians are more like allies. For Judai the Neo-Spacians are allies in his fight against the Light of Destructio, for Johan the Crystal Beasts are his family.

Johan is also far more experienced as someone who can see duel spirits, while Judai is actively repressing the memory of the fact he could see spirits much earlier in life, and of Yubel.

Before the characters even travel to another dimmension, Johans duel against the spirit hunter Giesse demonstrates how Judai is lacking in these two traits, strong bonds, and a reason to fight. It also demonstrates the difference between how Judai and Johan regard their spirit partners, and why Johan's relationship with his cards is better.

Shortly before the duel even begins Judai is pushed to the brink by his previous duel against the teacher. A duel that not only exhausted him, but also deeply disturbed him because the teacher called into question his lack of reason for dueling and Judai had no real response. When Judai questions himself he does something we don't often see him do, he goes to someone else for advice. J

udai basically never lets himself appear insecure or lost around friends who aren't named Johan. Judai even apologizes to Johan for asking something out of the blue, he's so unused to relying on others for emotional support of any kind.

Judai: Johan what have you been dueling for? See, it's about fun for me... Well, for the surprise and happiness too. I guess I do do it for the fun. Sorry, I guess I put you on the spot by asking out of nowhere. Johan: What's this about Judai? Judai: It's nothing. Johan: I suppose there is one goal I have. Johan: Even if someone doesn't have the power to see spirits, they can still form a bond with a spirit. That's why I do it for people like him.

Johan wants to be a bridge between humans and spirits. Not only is Johan a character defined by the strong bonds of friendship he forms, but his life's goal is also built around improving the bond between spirits ad humans.

Immediately afterwards, Judai gets up and struggles to duel against their next foe. However, this time Johan steps up to duel in Judai's place, which is also a drastic change from Judai's other friends. Unless they had a strong personal bond like Fubuki and Sho with Ryo, Judai has stepped up to handle all the major duels since Season 2. Judai even experiences anxiety over letting Johan go and duel in his place.

Johan is introduced to Giess the hunter, a spirit hunter who actively found a way to kill spirits. A character like that seems like Johan's obvious narrative foil. Giess even invites the comparison between the two of them, saying that Johan is obsession with getting his hands on Rainbow Dragon is similar to how he hunts spirits.

However, Giess works much better as a negative foil, or shadow of Judai. Which is why it makes sense Johan is the one who duels him, because he represents the best in Judai while Giess represents the worst.

Now the question is how could Giess possibly be compared to Judai? Yes, as I demonstrated above Judai is much more inexperienced with seeing spirits than Johan is but he's never actively malicious towards them the way Giess is.

Except, you know when he slaughters hundreds of duel spirits after turning into Haou the Supreme King.

Giesse has a final monologue upon his defeat, to explain why he does what he does and his cruelty towards spirits. Giesse who has probably been able to see spirits as long as Johan once formed a strong bond with a duel spirit, but he was separated from that spirit. The pain made him close his heart off to forming bonds with any other spirits.

After losing his duel spirit partner he came to conclude it was impossible for humans and duel spirits to get along, because the spirits are too pure hearted to understand humans.

Giesse foreshadows Judai's downfall and his actions as the supreme king. Giesse's start of darkness was being forcibly separated from his spirit partner. The entire conflict from Season 3 happens because Judai made the choice to send his childhood friend / spirit partner Yubel into space.

Ironically, despite Yubel beig corrupted by a force called the Light of Destruction, and having a very twisted, sadomasochistic view of love I think Giesse's words here describe why Judai and Yubel can't understand each other.

Yubel is in a way too pure hearted.

We're never given a reason why Yubel became so overprotective of Judai in childhood before they ever became corrupted by the Light of Destruction but we know one thing for sure.

Yubel has no understanding what they did was wrong. They saw themselves as doing their job of protecting Judai which they sacrificed their body for in the past life. They neither understand why Judai was upset by their actions, or why Judai was upset when people started avoiding him because for Yubel being alone with Judai was enough for them.

It makes sense that Yubel wouldn't understand that Judai wants to have friendships with other children his own age. After all Yubel is a spirit that can only be seen by Judai. For Yubel, there is only Judai, they can't communicate with others, they can't form other friendships. Which is extra tragic if you remember that Yubel wasn't born a duel spirit but a personhood, and gave up their very personhood for Judai.

Yubel is very pure-hearted in a way that's almost insidious, they are so straightforward about their love for Judai, and they exist solely for Judai's sake that they can't understand why Judai has room for other people in his life, because there's no one else for Yubel.

The conflict in season 3 comes from Judai's decision to abandon Yubel. Judai can't come to an understanding with Yubel because Yubel is too pure, being a duel spirit that only exists for Judai's sake.

Judai also follows a similiar path to Giesse, when he loses Johan along with the rest of his friends Judai makes the decision to give up on the notion of love in order to gain power instead.

This is quickly followed by him killing duel spirits en masse, probably more than Giesse managed to kill in order to sacrifice them to forge a powerful card. When Johan is battling with Giesse he's literally battling a reflection of the worst part of Judai. Which sets up Johan's role in the series to guide him to his best self.

In summary Johan's relationships with his spirits are strong and healthy, Judai's relationships with Yubel is weak and unhealthy. In fact, Judai is helping achieve his dream of being the bridge between humans and spirits by essentially teaching Judai what strong bonds looks like.

Johan is also symbolically Judai's complementary half in a lot of ways. Each of the new transfer students plays a deck that embodies one elemental step of the stage of alchemy, August is fire / Nigredo, Amon is Water / Albedo, and James Crocodile Crook is Earth / Citrinitas. Johan is the only exception to this rule, because he plays the crystal beasts which are modeled after the seven colors of the rainbow.

Johan is light which puts him into the contrast with Judai who's both set up as the chosen one of the "gentle darkess" to fight the light of destruction, while at the same time someone corrupted by that very darkness into becoming Haou.

Which sets up Johan to contrast to be a pair with Judai. My friend Kaula or @nini-the-mirror pointed out to me we're shown two types of darkness, the destructive darkness embodied by nightshroud and the gentle darkness. While the light of destruction is set up as a destructive force in the universe, there's also Johan's light based crytal beasts, and rainbow dragon which cleanses away darkness. Fusing Rainbow Dragon with Neos purged Yubel from Johan's body, and when Judai was trapped in darkness illusion in Domino City and believed Johan to be Mr. T, it's Johan and the Crystal Beasts who purify him once again.

Johan's desire to be a bridge between spirits and humans, his northern heritage, and Rainbow Dragon all call to mind the Bifrost, a rainbow bridge which connected heaven ad earth.

The bifrost was a connection between the mortal world, and the realm of the gods, or the physical and the spiritual. Just as Johan is a mortal who can talk to spirits. Yu-Gi-Oh GX is also an anime heavily based off of alchemy concepts, and one of the central ones that's even said by Professor Daitokuji himself is: That which is above is like to that which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above.

It's a phrase written on the Emerald Tablet, often shortened to "As above, so below." It means the mortal world effects the world of the cosmos, and the world of the cosmos effects the mortal world because everything is connected.

By wanting to stregthen the bonds between humans to spirits Johan is basically embodying this phrase. Judai's goal as the alchemist is to be the one to make changes in the mortal world that affect the cosmos. For example, his battles on earth against Saiou has a direct effect on stopping the Light of Destruction, but honestly again Johan serves his role a lot better than Judai.

Johan is in fact a character written around the concepts of bonds itself, the bonds of humans, the bonds between friends. Judai cares about these things too, he wants to be a good friend, but he has lots of flaws that stunts his growth and holds him back. His inability to integrate his shadow also presents him from being his best self (the golden shadow).

To quote my friend Psyche:

"The shadow is basically the storehouse of everything you don’t like about yourself. The things that others are but you could never allow yourself to be. But it’s also the storehouse of the alchemical gold."

Not only is Johan the best parts of Judai by being his golden shadow, he's also essentially Judai's goal. Judai wants to be like Johan.

If Johan gives Judai these things he's lacking, a healthy friendship, and a reason for fighting, then problem solved right? All Judai needs to do is marry Johan.

If you can't tell I was being sarcastic.

The Prismatic Phase

Alchemy is a process of refinement, of breaking down and forging into something stronger. However, when the metal starts out it's full of impurities that need to be hammered out. Alchemy is often used as a metaphor for both character growth and developing relationships in stories, after all if a character starts out perfect there's no story.

I said above multiple times Johan exists to demonstrate to Judai what a healthy friendship is to Judai. However, the attachment that Judai forms with Johan is anything but. Albeit for different reasons than the rest of his friends.

Johan is indeed someone who is set up as Judai's equal, and also strives to be his support rather than constantly relying on him for battles. Johan doesn't just exist to be a good friend to Judai however, he also demonstrates leadership skills Judai doesn't have when faced with a school full of hungry students teleported to another dimensions.

The problem is on Judai's end. Judai definitely needed a friend like Johan, because he's never experienced a friendship between equals before. However Judai as inexperienced as friendship as he is takes this openly supportive friend and starts using him as a crutch.

There's one scene in particular that demonstrates this problem. In the leadup to the cobra duel, Judai confided in Johan twice that he doesn't have any real reason for dueling and he's insecure about that fact. Cobra then criticizes Judai heavily once again for his irresponsible attitude.

Seeing Judai about to crack under the pressure, Johan takes the moment to encourage Judai by reminding him that he has in fact been carrying everyone's responsibilities on his shoulders all along.

Johan: "Why are you so scared Judai? You think there's nothing riding on you? Quit messing around. You've always had everyone's hopes on you. Anyone who's being counted on'll have people putting all their hopes on him. Isn't that what you're always burdened with. What will happen to us all if you lose?"

Well-meaning advice from Johan, but wrong for Judai for two reasons. The first is that Judai's reasons for fighting are something he has to think through for himself. That's how character development happens. Judai can't solve this inner conflict by having Johan just show up and drop the answer in his lap. He still hasn't thought about what he wants to be, he's just accepted Johan's words at face value.

The second is that Judai taking on other people's burdens is precisely the problem. Johan is such a self-reliant person he can give his support to other people without tiring himself out, but Judai can't. Johan wants to protect his friends. Judai duels for his friends because he's absolutely terrified of losing his friends, that's the difference.

Judai's not mature enough to handle other people's burdens and eventually the pressure gets to him and he completely cracks. Judai's just not mature enough to have a healthy relationship with Johan in general.

A relationship where being separated causes one person to have a complete emotional breakdown is not a healthy relationship.

In fact Judai completely ignoring all of his friends after a separating from Judai, and wanting to get him back ad being willing to sacrifice anything for that goal is a parallel to Yubel. Yubel is also someone who was separated from their best friend who they emotionally depended on, and stopped caring about anything but said friend, and was willing to sacrifice everything to reunite with them.

You could liken the disappearance of Johan, and the subsequent rising of Judai as the Supreme King as propelling him through the black phase of alchemy Nigredo, where the soul is brought to its lowest point and the worst flaws are revealed.

In the second sense, "the nigredo of the process of individuation on the other hand is a subjectively experienced process brought about by the subject's painful, growing awareness of his shadow aspects. It could be described as a moment of maximum despair, that is a prerequisite to personal development Here is "the darkest time, the time of despair, disillusionment, envious attacks...Nigredo, the blackening" [Source]

Johan's friendship is important to Judai, but his union with Johan doesn't actually fix any of Judai's problems and aggravates them in some ways. Judai doesn't even start improving as a character until after they seperate.

Johan isn't the rubedo the end result of alchemy, he's the pristmatic phase, the shining light of inspiration.

One metaphor I like to use for the Prismatic phase is the Star in the fool's journey. GX references Tarot and the fool's journey too, and like alchemy it's also a metaphor for personal growth. The fool (Judai) a person brimming with infinite potential, yet one who is also supremely ignorant, walking forward blind has to wise up to the wys of the world.

In the Fool's Journey the Star is a period of brief respite after the disaster of the tower. A beacon of hope and inspiration appears before him.

The Fool is suffused with a serene calm. The beautiful images on the Star (17) attest to this tranquility.Radiant stars shine in a cloudless sky serving as a beacon of hope and inspiration. The Fool is blessed with a trust that completely replaces the negative energies of the Devil. His faith in himself and the future is restored.

Doesn't this just describe Judai and Johan's first meeting to a T? Johan is supposed to be Judai's guiding light in the story ater all. However, the Star is immediately proceeded by the moon the card of illusions and self doubt.

Just like Judai becomes too reliant on Johan to provide him all the answers, the light of the star makes the fool vulnerable to the illusions of the moon.

What effect could spoil this perfect calm? Is there another challenge for the Fool? In fact, it is his bliss that makes him vulnerable to the illusions of the Moon (18). The Fool's joy is a feeling state. His positive emotions are not yet subject to mental clarity. In his dreamy condition, the Fool is susceptible to fantasy, distortion and a false picture of the truth.

Season 4 even invokes star and moon symbolism in regards to Judai and Johan in a negative light. Fujiwara looking into Johan's heart says that Johan's weakness is Judai himself.

He describes Johan's friendship and fixation on Judai as a moon eclipsing the sun. That's not two opposites balancing each other out that's one obscuring the other.

The season 3 version of their relationship is unhealthy and therefore needs to be broken apart and reformed. That's the process of alchemy, even if Yubel didn't kidnap Johan they probably would have broken apart some other way because Judai was too dependent on Johan.

It's also a violent process that includes Judai needing to duel Johan in a way where they are both inflicting pain on each other in order to purify Johan of Yubel's control. Yubel and Fujiwara both comment that underneath it all Johan desires a violent conflict with Judai. Which is probably something that would be explored more if Season 4 was longer. My interpretation however is that Johan being who he is, is kind of forced into the role of caretaker when Judai is involved as Judai is often in need of taking care of. That probably produces darker feelings for a change in their relationship.

The opposite of unions is a violent process that requires dissolving your previous self. The dictionary of Alchemical Imagery defines it as-

one of the central images of the opus alchymicum and a crucial operation in the creation of the philosopher’s stone.  The alchemists were ultimately concerned with the union of substances, the reconciliation of opposites. Through the ‘marriage’ of opposites the goal of the opus, the production of gold and its metaphysical equivalent was obtained. (p. 35)

Judai doesn't marry Johan, but they do have their friendship broken apart and reforged again and it's representative of the prismatic stage.

The Peacock's tail which Johan represents is also like the Star in tarot, a stage where a guiding light suddenly appears. One of the Spector Solis plates , Plate 16 - which depictins a Peacock in a flask is a good representation of this stage.

It is a plate of what else but unity.

The unity that began in plate fifteen is fully realized with the encapsulated animal’s transformation into a single-headed being. The peacock tail is a physical stage in alchemy, a brilliant flash of green which comes to signify that the alchemist is one the right path. It can also be recognized in spiritual/psychological alchemy as a flash of visions that come to the adept as they move through the phases of transformation.

The peacock doesn't just appear to guide the young alchemist through the phases of alchemy however, he also guides them spiritually.

 Plate sixteen embodies that process, the turning point where the adept reaches a new level of consciousness with a flash of the peacock’s tail. Consider the words spirit (i.e., the wine), spiritual, and inspiration. To inspire can mean to breath; it can also mean to transmit fervor. Spirit can be meditative, or evocative.

Who better to provide spiritual guidance to Judai then the person who's goal in life is to become the bridge between humans and spirits.

As the star's dazzling moment of inspiration is just temporary, the plate also emphasizes that the peacock's tail itself isn't the ed of the journey. One of the most significant symbols on the painting is the appearance of three people drinking wine and eating grapes. Three people = three stages of alchemy. As for the rest.

The key to the process of plate sixteen lies in the bottom left-hand corner, with the three people seated at a table, drinking wine and eating grapes. The process of this plate is fermentation. Grapes must be crushed and destroyed to create sweet intoxicating wine. The grapes are perfect as they are, but by destroying them we can make something higher, something that can alter consciousness.

Judai has a nice, comfortable, supportive friedship with Johan but he's the one receiving most of the support. By destroying that relationship, he's able to make a healthier one. Ironically it's the separation from Johan that teaches Judai how to exist apart from him.

In that sense Judai's character development revolves around two figures in season 3, two important relationships, Judai needs toto reunite with Yubel, and he needs to separate from Johan after quickly becoming too codependent.

The three of them together even form an alchemical trio. Often works featuring alchemy symbolism will divide characters into three different roles, the soul (anima), the spirit (spiritus) and the body (corpus). Symbolic of three parts of one whole person. The main characters of a work are often symbolically marked as one of the three.

The classic symbolism of alchemy is the circle, the triangle representing soul spirit and body, the square that repreents the four elements, the small circle, and the man and woman which form the rebis.

The triangle is what we're talking about here, in terms of marking characters to Soul, Spirit and Body. Though, another variation is Mind, Heart, and Body.

Most commonly, authors mark their male protagonist, the Male Principle of the Work, as heart and their female protagonist, the Female Principle of the Work, as mind.  If they have a companion, he or it will be marked as Body.  If you look back at the Mundus Elementaris that I just posted you’ll see that Sun corresponds to Cor (heart) and Moon to Cerebrum (brain).   The characteristics of a “heart” character are pretty much what you’d expect: courage, self-sacrifice, occasional rashness and impulsivity.  The characteristics of a “mind” character are if anything even more obvious.  “Mind” characters are knowledgeable, book-smart, and sometimes overly cautious.  What about the Body character?  There isn’t one in every alchemy story, but when this does appear, the markers are predictable.  Body characters are focused on their bodily needs–they are hungry, thirsty, and, in adult stories, lusty.  And they are often fearful.  [SOURCE]

In this case in a slight difference from the norm, I'd argue that Judai is the heart, Yubel is the mind, and rather than body Johan represents spirit.

The three of them essentially make up the trio of Judai's two most important relationships. Judai is a part of other groups, because GX has a ensemble cast. In seasons 1 and 2 he mainly hangs out in a trio of Sho, Hayato and him, and in season 2 it's Sho, Kenzan and him. Season 4 kinds of marks Judai, Asuka, Sho and Manjoume as the most important students of the graduating class.

However, the characters that influence Judai the most are Yubel and Johan. Johan is the spiritual ispiration, while Yubel is first a challenge for Judai to wise up and grow up, and eventually settles down into a role of advisor like Astral or Yami Yugi.

The main character trio of Season 3 onward are essentially Judai, Johan and Yubel, and each are critical to each other's growth. All three also participate in the final duel against season 3's villain. Judai and Johan tag team darkness possessed Fujiwara, and Judai and Yubel fight nightshroud.

However, as I mentioned above the way these relationships develop Judai are opposites, one of them needs to unite, the other needs to split.

A lot of people draw parallels to Yubel and Ai, the ally turned final villain of Vrains. Ai is also motivated by love and a desire to protect Yusaku the main character and object of their affections. However, the greatest point of comparison is that the option of fusing themselves together, an obvious call back to super polymerization is brought up by Ai in order to be flatly turned down by Yusaku.

And you won't be you.

The parallel to Judai and Johan is not as obvious here, but think about it Judai is his absolute worst self when he's willing to sacrifice anything just for the chance of having Johan back

Okay but just look at how different the two are. Both Johan and Judai, when put in very similar situations (having to save someone), tell us what they’re willing to risk for that goal. They’re both very clear about that. Johan is willing to risk himself. Judai is willing to risk everything else. [Source]

Judai become so destructive in his path to get Johan back, including slaughterig duel spirits en masse, somethig the self appointed protect of duel spirits Johan would absolutely hate that you have to wonder if his desire to have Johan back is even about Johan.

Judai doesn't have much respect for Johan's agency as an individual. It's normal for Judai to be sad, or even to have survivor's guilt when he thinks Johan is dead because he sacrificed his life to save him.

However, Johan didn't sacrifice his life to save just Judai but everyone else. Johan also made the choice to sacrifice himself so Judai would be safe. Judai's response to that choice is to immediately throw not only himself but his friends into repeated danger in order to rescue Johan, and then when all hope is lost start hurting spirits.

Judai doesn't respect fact that Johan wouldn't be happy with Judai hurtig himself or others, especially spirits, because rescuing Johan was never about Johan, but Judai's own feelings of grief.

Juudai is a deeply flawed protagonist. He’s more selfish than any other protagonist this franchise has ever known. The way he goes after both after Johan in season three and O’Brien shows that he actually doesn’t care all that much for them as people. To him, they represent a concept: Victory, or at the very least atonement for his past actions. A convenient way to right what he did wrong.  That is not to say that he doesn’t like them as people - he does. But when the chips are down, what he ultimately wanted was a chance to redeem himself by saving them. [Source]

Yubel and Judai are opposites who need to be united and learn to live with each other. The crux of Judai and Johan's problem is that really they're so similiar that everyone, including Judai sort of sees them as the same perso. However, as stated above just underneath the surface they have a lot of differences that could lead them to an unhealthy relationship. Judai just like Ai needs to learn that Johan is a separate person from him.

Which is why Judai's greatest two character development moments with Johan come not from the moment where he fuses rainbow dragon with Neos for the first time to cleanse Judai's body from Yubel.

It's actually immediately afterwards, when Johan hands Judai his deck to face Yubel. While Judai also makes the decision to face Yubel alone.

The arc theoretically could have ended right there. Judai's objective was to save Johan, and Johan was saved. Except the real conflict of the arc was that Judai needed to learn to take responsibility for himself, instead of leaning on a convenient crutch like Johan.

In Yu-Gi-Oh a duelists deck is often referred to as their soul, so Johan is entrusting Judai with a lot. That simple action really shows Judai that Johan can support him even from a distance and the two don't need to be attached at the hip.

In the tag duel against Fujiwara, Johan makes a similiar decision of sacrificing himself in order to protect Judai. However, to show how much he's changed since season 3, this time Judai does't completely lose his mind over Johan's sacrifice and respects Johan's feelings instead. Johan doesn't want Judai to fall apart, he wants Judai to carry his feelings with him and finish the duel for both of them and that's what he does. Judai has learned now to accept support without completely turning Johan into a crutch.

Citriniatis is also the third stage of alchemy. Each Season of the four seasos Yu-Gi-Oh Gx represents one of the four stages of alchemy.

The third stage is often referred to as the stage where the light which appears in albedo starts to shine.

Seperation from Johan essentially kicked off Judai's blackening stage, waking up his shadow in the form of the supreme king and bringing light to his flaws. This passage in particular describes it as a "rising sun" and "bringing light to consciousness."

 In  most cases Jung himself expressed the work as having three stages. Still, citrinitas seems to fit better into a flow of growth and development, as well as mystical progress as the third stage. In the second stage, albedo, a light appears in the nigredo darkness, the light of an awakened soul which is symbolised as a moon (the feminine) shining in the darkness. The third stage, citrinitas, brings forth the light of the sun (the masculine), a light which magically transforms the shadowy and fearful subconscious into valuable consciousness. From the dark night of rubedo, to the pale morning light of albedo, the sun rises in citrinitas to the culmination of day in rubedo. [Source]

Johan is simulatenously a light which shines on Judai's worst flaws just by being his better self and showing how selfish Judai is in comparison, while at the same time he's also the light that guides Judai on the path of healing.

After all Judai's final action in Season 3 isn't to kill Yubel like the Supreme King, or like a hero would, but rather to reconcile with Yubel. That's a path Johan would have taken considering Johan's whole goal is to help lost spirits like Yubel repair their relationships with humans.

Judai's journey of atonement even takes a similiar path to Johan, and mirrors Johan's dream of becoming the bridge between humans ad spirits. Unlike the duel between Cobra and Judai though, I don't think in this case it's Judai relying on Johan to give him the answers in life.

This is because the two of them have entirely different reasons for wanting to help spirits. Johan wants to help spirits because the strong connections he feels with spirits, and the crystal beasts in particular give him the only sense of family he's ever known. It's also because of an encounter with a little boy who lost his Jerry Beans Man where he came to understand that even people who can't see card spirits still feel a strog bond with them.

Judai however has an entirely different motivation, his journey to help duels spirits is a journey of atonement. It's also one he's taking together with Yubel because they both have a lot to make up for and a lot of healing to do.

Judai also didn't start out Season 4 wantig to become the bridge between humans and spirits. In fact he spent most of season 4 sitting alone in his dorm being depressed and aimless. It's his confrontation with Fujiwara, and his act of helping Honest reunite with his spirit partner Fujiwara that gave Judai the idea that he could help heal other spirits too.

Following the motto of dissolve et coagula, dissolve and coagulate all the troubles and tribulations and even the separation of Season 3 was necessary for the much healthier bond between them in Season 4.

Judai doesn't even say goodbye to Johan at the end of the season, and he leaves without telling Johan where he's going, but essentially they are still walking the same path of uniting spirits and humans and it's a path Judai would have never found without Johan's help.

[zeravmeta]

the reason i would love an arknights collab with alchemy stars and specifically love the idea of doctor and navi being friends doesn't have anything to do with how one has far too much blood on their hands that they don't remember and the other was literally born to be a weapon meant to enslave their friends, it has to do with how doctor is a wily little freak who manages to seduce even the most embittered hard-asses possible with their guile and whimsy and how navi is a small little hater hard-ass who manages to seduce an entire army of wily little freaks chock full of guile and whimsy. if they ever met it would literally be the unstoppable sword vs the unbreakable shield, a quantum singularity of seduction where the overthinking amnesiac would be unable to seduce the oblivious psychic and yet said oblivious psychic would be unable to hold down the overthinking amnesiac

[aspoonofsugar]

Chemical Weddings: White Knight

Here it comes my second short meta on RWBY's chemical weddings. It is White Knight's turn! Feel free to skip the introduction, if you have already read it in my previous post (or if you already know what a chemical wedding is)

WHAT IS A CHEMICAL WEDDING?

A chemical wedding is a motif used in alchemical stories (aka stories, with symbols related to alchemy). It is a metaphorical union between characters and it represents two opposites coming together. Think of it as a motif that comments on a relationship and describes how it changes throughout a narrative. It shows how two characters' bond develops and how they integrate qualities of each other. Even if it is called "wedding", the union doesn't necessarily have to be romantic, but often it is. Like in RWBY's case.

RWBY uses chemical weddings to develop romantic relationships. How does the series do it? This meta by @hamliet explains it perfectly:

It uses some alchemical imagery (like plates from alchemical texts as reference)

It employs elemental motifs (water, fire, air and earth), which are keys to alchemy

It integrates other symbolism, like romantic subtext or fairy tale references

Both hamliet and I have already talked about RWBY ships and chemical weddings, so this short meta is just a quick review of White Knight’s ones, with some integrations.

Here are Whiteknight's posts, that I am going to reference:

Weiss and Jaune's foiling throughout the series

White Knight and Arkos (+ Whiterose)

White Knight's scenes in volume 9

White Knight's chemical wedding 2.0 by hamliet

Now, let's dig into White Knight's two (for now) weddings.

WHITE KNIGHT'S WEDDINGS

White Knight's weddings make use of this imagery:

There is a Mercurius (entity representative of change), who unites a man and a woman through impaling one of the two.

This is what happens to Weiss and Jaune twice:

In Mistral Cinder impales Weiss and in the Ever After the Curious Cat impales Jaune. Not only that, but both Cinder and the Cat make sure Weiss and Jaune indirectly hurt each other.

Cinder takes Jaune's heroic remarks and uses them as an excuse to mortally wound Weiss:

The Cat tricks Weiss into physically hitting Jaune:

These parallelisms lead us to two considerations:

The two weddings are inversions: this isn't any news because in RWBY the second wedding is always an inversion of the first. Still, when it comes to White Knight, this inversion is particularly through and it ties with an important motif of theirs. Weiss and Jaune are strong mirrors of each other.

Cinder and the Cat (our two antagonistic Mercurius) force Jaune and Weiss into specific gender roles. Both mock Jaune (the knight) and use Weiss (the damsel). This isn't by accident and it ties with the archetype explored by White Knight, aka that of the Anima/Animus.

MIRROR MIRROR = ANIMA + ANIMUS

Weiss and Jaune's weddings mirror each other in multiple ways. Let's see how.

Weiss and Jaune's first wedding starts with Cinder impaling Weiss and leaving her to die. Jaune rushes by her side and activates his semblance to save her. The whole scene ties in their respective fairy tale symbolism. As a matter of fact Jaune performs a miracle as Jeanne. Weiss instead gets resurrected by the Prince and crowns herself Queen Snowhite through the Queen Lancer.

Weiss and Jaune's second wedding starts at the end of volume 8, when Cinder defeats them both and reiterates their trauma. She forces Jaune to kill a maiden and targets Weiss to hurt Winter. She is also the reason why Weiss and Jaune end up together in the Ever After, where their wedding reaches its climax. In this magical world, Weiss guides Jaune towards self-realization and metaphorically has him fall, so that he can integrate Alyx and resurrect. Their interaction in volume 9 references another alchemical text, knowns as the Splendor Solis. Specifically, it alludes to this plate:

This plate has:

2 miners excavating a hill (a metaphor for making the stone from the prima materia). It is important that the two characters wear respectively a golden and a silver robe, which call back to the Sun and Moon

The Sun and Moon mirroring each other. The Sun is in the sky (air) and the Moon is in the river (water). They are opposites balancing each other

Eshter's story pictured in the frame of the pedestal. Eshter is a biblical character and the second wife of King Ahasuerus, who is determined to kill the Jews. Still, Eshter (a Jews herself) steps in, touches the King's staff and convinces him to let her people live

The plate's theme is the beginning (prima materia) of a union (sun and moon) through communication (Eshter's parable).

It is referenced here:

The Genial Gems create a giant white hill, which clearly alludes to the philosopher stone. Jaune and Weiss play the Solar King and the Lunar Queen:

Jaune is linked to the sun and masculine (gold), while Weiss to the moon and feminine (silver). They grow closer thanks to empathy.

In particular, their interaction is an inversion of King Ahasuerus and Eshter's. In the biblical episode, the King wants to kill the Jews and Eshter stops him. In RWBY, Jaune doesn't want to let the Paper Pleasers ascend and Weiss tries to get through to him (together with BY):

Weiss: Then why do you care so much about this village?! Jaune: Because I can actually PROTECT these people!!

Just like Esther touches the King's staff, Weiss grabs Jaune's sword:

Eshter's gesture is a symbol of intimacy and connection. Similarly, using another person's weapon in RWBY shows closeness.

In short, both weddings are rich of symbolism, but the first focuses on the fairy tale allusion, whereas the second explores alchemical imagery. This isn't the only difference, though, as the two situations are perfect parallels/inversions of each other:

In Mistral, Cinder kills Weiss to hurt Jaune, whereas in Atlas, she forces Jaune to kill Penny. Moreover, both times she negates Weiss's agency and uses her as a pawn to hurt someone else (Jaune and Winter).

In Mistral, Jaune and Weiss go through a crisis together, but they emerge victorious. In Atlas/Ever After, Jaune and Weiss lose, but grow closer as they come to terms with this defeat.

In Mistral, Jaune hurts Weiss because of his psychological issues, but saves her physically. In the Ever After, Weiss saves Jaune psychologically, but hurts him physically. Both are responsible for the death and resurrection of the other.

In Mistral Jaune unlocks his semblance (changes spiritually), whereas in the Ever After he becomes young again (changes physically). Both in Mistral and in the Ever After Weiss ends the wedding by unlocking a new summon. She conjures the Queen Lancer in Mistral and the Nevermore in the Ever After.

In Mistral, Jaune is led by Pyrrha towards his ideal-self, whereas in the Ever After, he is led by Weiss towards his real-self. Symbolically, he goes through two stages of the anima integration. From Pyrrha/Mary (devotion and idealism) to Weiss/Sophia (understanding and reality).

In Mistral, the resurrected Weiss unlocks her Queen Lancer, which is key to fighting Hazel. In the Ever After, Jaune integrates Alyx and is reborn after a trial of fire. Once he comes back, he is key in defeating Neo and the Cat with his plan to separate them. Both do not "win" the conflict, but are instrumental to its solution (Weiss through heart and Jaune through mind).

In general, both times Jaune and Weiss make important steps to integrate their anima/animus, which their bond represents. The anima/animus is the feminine (anima) and the masculine (animus).

In Mistral:

Weiss integrates her animus and summons a Queen Lancer, an entity which is both queen (feminine) and knight (masculine)

Jaune integrates his anima (feminine) by discovering himself a healer (traditionally feminine quality)

In the Ever After:

Weiss integrates her animus by acting as Jaune's Knight. She summons her Knight while fighting side by side with him. Moreover, throughout the whole volume Weiss looks for someone who can guide her home. It turns out in the climax she herself is the guide, the knight, who leads Jaune and the others to the tree. As a matter of fact she is the one who teaches the others the theme of "acceptance".

Jaune integrates his anima by accepting he is no hero (no Knight) and by realizing Alyx is a part of himself. He faces her and integrates her spiritually (her vision in the smoke) and physically (her knife):

In volume 9, both Weiss and Jaune regress and go back to their stereotypical selves. Weiss is stuck as the damsel and Jaune rusts as the knight. However, they move on thanks to each other. They are reborn.

WHITE KNIGHT= REBIRTH

The focus of White Knight is rebirth (coagula). In Mistral they get a victory and in Atlas they get a loss. Still, both weddings climaxes in resurrections. Weiss is reborn in volume 5 and Jaune is reborn in volume 9. Not only that, but after White Knight's Ever After wedding Ruby herself is reborn:

This renewal of the self is celebrated by a full Nevermore:

This marks White Knight's second wedding as their nevermore wedding, which has them overcome grief through love.

NEVERMORE

Weiss summons her full Nevermore in the finale. This Grimm is tied to both Ruby and Jaune.

It is symbolic of Ruby's rebirth, as it is the first Grimm team RWBY killed together and Ruby landed the final blow. Weiss is able to manifest it because by the end her team is whole again and Ruby is back.

It celebrates Jaune and Weiss's wedding, as our Lunar Queen conjures it after her interaction with Jaune. Their exchange is the pivotal moment for Weiss in volume 9, as she helps herself by helping Jaune. She teaches Jaune to forgive himself and learns to forgive herself at the same time. As a result, she unlocks this summoning, which is symbolic of the self:

Its glyph is in fact a mix of all the other ones, as Weiss is a sum of all her avatars.

Jaune too makes a decisive step towards the self:

Alyx: Maybe it’s time for a change, to be the kind of man you always wanted to be.

He accepts Alyx and gets a second chance to grow up as a result:

His new self has a white streak of hair to show he has successfully integrated with Weiss (white) and has obtained wisdom.

FROM UNCONSCIOUS TO CONSCIOUS

There is one final difference between White Knight's two weddings. The first has Weiss and Jaune's metaphorical union happen unconsciously. The second instead has this process become conscious. Let's consider this:

In Mistral Jaune instinctively activates his semblance and Weiss unconsciously unlocks her summon. Their actions happen because of internal and unconscious changes that are not elaborated on. They are quick transformations and the wedding itself is quick.

In the Ever After Weiss consciously encourages Jaune. By doing so both characters find a catharsis for their unconscious feelings. They make them conscious. Similarly, Jaune can consciously face Alyx and integrate with her. Weiss's own summoning is not quick and raw, but it is the result of a process that starts in volume 8 (when she fails to materialize the Grimm), goes on in the chess fight (she has the wings appear) and is finally complete at the end of volume 9 (the full Nevermore manifests itself). The wedding is also very slow and distributed throughout two volumes.

This choice makes sense, as Weiss and Jaune's dynamic is about them slowly realize who they are and who the other is. They have been each other's mirrors since the beginning and as they better understand themselves, they can better relate to the other and accept them.

[kalena-henden]

One of the things I’m surprisingly lovingly about the amnesia plot is that it has allowed Cho Yeong to be free to love Jang Uk unconditionally and openly. When she was Naksu/Mudeok, Yeong always held back her love. It was only in rare moments that she allowed herself to show or tell him that she loved him back. Now that Jang Uk is bearing the grief and guilt of what happened, this unencumbered Yeong is able to openly love him in a way that is helping him heal from his trauma. Hopefully, Uk will be healed enough by the time Yeong regains her memories that he will be emotionally ready to help her heal from her trauma. If they had reunited memories intact with their guilt at peak levels, I’m not sure they would be able to help each other. They would be happy to be together but torn apart by the guilt from their respective roles in what happened. This way they get to take turns caring for each other when they most need it to make their loving relationship even stronger.

[esevik]

Look. I like Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. It's for the most part a great adaptation but it also makes some (minor) questionable changes that lessens the work. In particular it takes one of the most problematic (ableist+racist) scenes in the manga and makes it even worse.

The scene is when Mustang gets the philosopher's stone to restore his eyes.

First of all Mustang's goal in the entire series is to become the furer/leader of the country so he can turn the country from a military state into a democracy including putting himself and all his former war-friends on trial for war crimes. (I know this can be and has been argued/discussed about but in the series this is suppossed to be his motivation.)

With that in mind let's look at how the manga and Brotherhood chose to portray his scene with the philosopher's stone.

In the manga the scene takes place right after the final battle and there are people running around taking care of the injured. Mustang is sitting with his little group completely depressed because blind people aren't allowed to be in the military so he would have to retire. Meaning he wouldn't be able to gain ranks and become the leader. He's entire goal/plan is down the drain and he does not know what to do. That's when Marco comes in with the philosopher's stone and they do their agreement resulting in Mustang regaining his sight and position within the military.

In Brotherhood this scene takes place 1-2 weeks after the fight and they're sitting in a hospital room. Mustang is relatively chipper, nothing is said about him having to quit the military due to his blindness (so bland people can be part of the military in the Brotherhood verse?). Mustang thinks his blindness is a bit of a setback but he's already come up with a new plan forward and has started working on it. This is where Marco comes in with the stone, they do their agreement and then Mustang goes ahead and heals Havoc's legs first.

So, one thing to notice is the mood of the two scenes. In the manga it's a serious and somber scene where Mustang reluctantly accept Marco's offer since it will help his end goal of bettering the country. And he does not use the stone on Havoc. (Him using the stone on himself is already bad enough but then go ahead and heal up another soldier, you really think any of the Ishvalan lives in that stone would be fine with that?)

In Brotherhood the mood is light and hopeful. It even ends on a funny note as they call Havoc. In fact, Mustang in Brotherhood doesn't need the stone to accomplish his goals.

MUSTNAG IN BROTHERHOOD DOESN'T NEED THE STONE TO ACCOMPLISH HIS GOALS!!! MUSTNAG IN BROTHERHOOD DOESN'T NEED THE STONE TO ACCOMPLISH HIS GOALS!!! MUSTNAG IN BROTHERHOOD DOESN'T NEED THE STONE TO ACCOMPLISH HIS GOALS!!!

The whole scene until he gets the offer is him talking about how, while yes his plans went off the rails a bit, he's already working on finding other ways to reach his goal. He isn't actually in need of the stone except to not be disabled.

So while both the manga and Brotherhood are using the ableist trope of magically curing a disability and sacrificing the souls of an oppressed people to do so the manga depicts it as a serious choice that's done because the characters can't think of another way to reach their goal. In Brotherhood the characters have thought of other ways to achieve their goals but they still do this + bring in another disabled character to be magically healed. And it makes the scene even worse.