#also by the fact that making yang and weiss annoyed with each other at all times is gods work actually

[iwillwalk500miles]

it’s here again

[bees-shitposting]

The Beethis

Volume 1-3 Characterization

Starting from the original trailers, the characters of Blake and yang have been linked, as well their foils being set up. We first see the Red trailer, and though the trailer only features Ruby and also doesn’t really have much in the way of character development, we do get the main lyrics to the song playing in the background that sets up how we are meant to view the characters 

“Red like roses fills my dreams/and brings me to the place you rest/White is cold and always yearning/burdened by a royal test/Black the beast defends from shadows/Yellow beauty burns/Gold”

These lyrics both exemplify all four of the girls in one line, but draw parallels to their stories. Ruby always coming back to and comparing herself to Summer, Weiss taking on the burdens of her family name and trying to make it better for herself. Each of these lines take up two phrases, creating one motif  for each Character, however, Blake and Yang’s line are each one phrase, linking them together and making their two characters stitched together on one musical thread. 

There is also the use of fairy tails throughout all of RWBY, and an important distinction to be made between Blake and Yang and their origins. Blake is based on Belle, from “Beauty and the Beast”, however she is not just Belle, but also the Beast. Yang is based on Goldilocks, though its not quite as pertinent to the story. This thread in the song sets up their dynamic though, Blake being the beast, how she most likely views herself throughout the first parts of the story, and Yang being set up as Belle as well. 

Going into the Black trailer, we see the other part of the Beast though, Adam, symbolized through his wilting rose emblem, he is also a part of the fairytale, Adam being the name of the Beast and the rose being the symbol of the curse. Adam is the angry part of the Beast, the curse, for the sake of the original story, he represents all the bad things about the Beast, and therefore all the bad things Blake sees in herself. In the beginning volumes, she is constantly caught up in how she views herself, how she comes off. She want’s things to be easier, but she can’t let go of what she cares about. 

The parallel between Blake and Adam, with Adam representing what Blake sees to be the worst in herself, is backed up with Negative Blake in “RWBY: Ice Queendom” with Negative Blake being costumed almost exactly how Adam is in the first volumes. Along with the visual similarity, Blake is similarly aggressive toward the SDC and has similar ideas about how to handle it. 

Blake from the beginning is set up as a complex, shy, and closed off character. She’s seen being slow to trust. Yang in the beginning isn’t set up to be quite as complex, but she’s shown as an expressive, quick-tempered, and brash character. She knows her goals and what she wants, her style of fighting is personal, and she’s probably the most confident fighter on team RWBY. 

Neither of them change very much through the first three volumes, both opening up and showing themselves to have more depth, but neither showing much of a difference in overall attributes. Blake, still recently traumatized from Adam, is still quiet and closed off, she still has a lot she doesn’t want to talk about. Yang had opened up about her mother and her own goals, but she hadn’t done anything with them quite yet. In the first three volumes, they’re set on a track to parallel each other constantly, but not yet to collide. 

Vol. 1-3 Scenes 

Their first introduction to each other isn’t sparks flying, in fact Blake seems to be annoyed at Yang and Ruby’s approach, her voice being flat and her attention always falling back to her book. Yang is chipper and, and starts out complimenting her bow, and when she doesn’t get much of a response, awkwardly continues to her pajamas. She doesn’t seem to be very used to such a muted reception, she brings up a stereotypical awkward conversational beat, being the weather, and Blake says her iconic line of “Yes, its lovely. Almost as lovely as this book. That I will continue to read. As soon as you leave” 

Yang says this girls a lost cause, but Ruby continues to talk to her about the book. There’s not a whole lot going into this first scene, they talk briefly, even seeming a little distant from each other, as even towards the end of the conversation, it’s Ruby who’s talking to Blake, but whatever the interaction was was enough to get Blake’s attention, which brings us to our next scene. 

The Emerald Forest is the next place they interact, when Yang lands, she calls for Ruby, trying to look for her sister so she won’t be alone on a team, but Blake seems to follow Yang. She took an interest in her and is seen as a shadow following her before she fights the Ursa and likely watching her fight the Ursa before coming to help her with the second. 

Blake doesn’t say anything on their first meeting in the woods, she kills the Ursa and looks up deliberately, she chose Yang, and at this point I’m not sure if even she knows why. Yang didn’t really chose Blake, but she smiles and jokes that she could’ve taken the Ursa. Despite her comment the day before, she didn’t seem to have much of a complaint with her new partner. 

Starting at Blakes Faunus arc, Yang is seen always giving her the benefit of the doubt, she doesn’t ever accuse Blake of anything or take Weiss’ criticism of her, she defends her every time she’s brought up and clearly cares about finding her, even going as far as to accuse Weiss of not caring. To me, it seems like she’s take Weiss’ distrust of Blake personally.

Going into the start of V2, our first shot of Blake is preceded by a drawing of Adam, it almost looks like a doodle alongside some notes, but she seems to be thinking about it when Yang butts in. This sets up their link for the first time, showing that Adam, Blake, and Yang are three parts of the same story. At this point in the show, its almost a spectrum from how Blake views it.

On the far end we have Adam, who has such powerful anger and feels justified in any and all actions to get what he wants, to Blake, he’s seen as a strong character, someone who will do anything and is scared of nothing, when really he is ruled by fear. 

Then we have Blake, she’s scared at this point, and she knows it. She’s angry and similarly determined, however she differs by seeing the flaw in what Adam is doing. She see’s that some of the things she had done and the things that he had done were wrong, and she’s willing to do anything in order to fix it. She knows what she wants but she doesn’t know how to keep it from controlling her. 

Yang is different from both of these, she’s just as determined and goal oriented, but isn’t scared, at least not yet. She knows the importance of balance and she tries to show Blake that. Yang is everything Blake wants to be, strong, confident, unafraid. 

This leads to one of every bee’s favorite scene, Burning the Candle. This sets up our second foil, Raven. In the beginning of the episode, where every other character expressed doubt in being able to get Blake to come to the dance, Yang is confident she can. She thinks she knows Blake and will know what to say to get her to come, and she does. 

This is also some of the first characterization that Yang gets in the series, she reveals that she’s been taking care of Ruby most of her life, that she views herself as responsible for her. She opens up to Blake, about her insecurities about her mom leaving, about her search for her and about how it almost caused her to get killed, she ends by showing her that its the same kind of situation as Blake is in right now, that she doesn’t need to stop looking for Roman, that she doesn’t have to stop fighting the White Fang. But that not taking a minute and resting could be dangerous. 

She ends the conversation asking if Blake could take Roman if he walked in then, Blake tries to say she could but she couldn’t even stand up to Yang. Yang gets angry, trying to get through to her. Yang was saved by her uncle, she wasn’t alone, but if she was she likely would have been killed, and when Blake says “I’m the only one that can do this” it drives in the point for yang, she can’t do this alone and Yang knows that.

At the end of the interaction, she ultimately leaves it up to Blake, saying “If you feel like coming out tomorrow, I’ll save you a dance” She’s confident that Blake will come, but she’s not making her. The choice is still hers and she can do whatever she wants with it, but she choses to listen to Yang and come to the dance. 

There are two things worth mentioning about this scene before we move forward, the first is the lighting of this scene. It parallels the line from “Red like Roses”, with Blake consistently being scene in the shadows, her model being darker even when closer to the light, while Yang is almost glowing consistently. The light behind her making her almost resemble the sun. 

The second thing to mention, and the less important one, is that the barn in Yang’s story is the same barn that Blake is seen hiding out in at the beginning of Ice Queendom. This isn’t incredibly important, but it is another thing linking her, Yang, and Raven together. That being where Yang was told that Raven would be and later it being where Blake is, connecting them all together in a small way 

Briefly, though Blake goes to the dance with Sun, she says “technically, though my first dance is spoken for.” Traditionally, the first dance of a ball is the most important one, and though Yang didn’t ask for the first dance Blake saved it for her. 

In Mountain Glenn, the have more of a conversation about their goals, why they want to become huntresses. This is the first time that Blake says Adams name, she seems to be unsure of his role in her life at that point, saying that he was a partner, like how Yang is now, then saying a more of a mentor. This sets up the power imbalance between them, Blake clearly seeing him as much more powerful than her, almost as a teacher. She expresses how she realizes how his way of thinking and his way of doing thing was wrong, and how she wanted to help make it right and that’s why she joined the Academy. Her only goal is to fix what she perceives that she broke, “how to undo so many years of hate,” she says. She wants redemption. 

Yang goes on to reassure her, that she’ll figure it out and she’s not one to back down from a challenge. Blake gets irritated at this, she sees herself as a coward, as someone who runs away when things get hard, who is afraid of everything, that even her semblance shows that, leaving behind a copy to take the hit so she can run. 

Yang then talks about why she wants to be a huntress, that she’s always gone with the flow and this is where it took her, but she isn’t satisfied with that. She feels like she doesn’t quite have a purpose, she doesn’t want to be noble or a hero, she wants to live in a world where she doesn’t know what will happen tomorrow. In a way, its the same kind of running away as Blake. She doesn’t want security, she doesn’t want to settle, she may even be scared of what would happen if she just sat down for a minute and thought about everything. She looks up to her sister, even though she’s younger. 

Now a lot happens in V3, starting with Yang’s fight with Mercury in Amity. The conversation that happens between her and the rest of Team RWBY is an interesting one, after she tells her side of the story, however unbelievable, Ruby and Weiss are quick to believe her, but Blake is unsure, she says that she wants to believe her, but it reminded her of Adam. The situation felt too familiar to her, Yang did something awful, and she’s making an excuse for it. No matter how valid the excuse is, to Blake it’s an opening for her to keep doing this, to keep making excuses and doing worse and worse things because that’s exactly what happened before. 

Yang is hurt by Blake’s doubt, but expresses shame, she’s understanding of the expression but clearly upset about the whole situation. All it takes for Blake to give her trust is for Yang to look her in the eyes and to say it. This is important, as Adam never did that. He constantly wears a mask over his eyes, deflects, and never takes responsibly. Yang however can, and does, ensuring that she makes eye contact through other important scenes later. 

When the Fall of Beacon starts, Blake’s first reaction is to call Yang, even though the pervious interaction had just happened the same day. She calls to make sure that Yang is safe, and yang expresses that to her as well. 

When Blake splits off from Weiss to go after the White Fang and some Grimm, She finds Adam. This is the first time we see that Adam may have also been a romantic partner, his first line being “Hello, my darling.” In a moment calling her “My love,” showing his possessiveness. He always qualifies whatever pet name he choses with my, asserting his ownership over Blake. This becomes especially troubling later, when we see that Adam was likely a slave of the SDC, knowing what it feels like to be owned and then enforcing that feeling onto a younger Blake.

Adam’s attacks towards Blake tend to avoid his usual slashing and more towards a personal, physical attack. He keeps her safe from the Grimm attacking her, and then continues to threaten her, saying that she will run, after she suffers. Adam continues to express his anger, he says it could’ve been our day, refusing to acknowledge that Blake’s view has changed from his. He states that the equality and peace that Blake wants, that Blake has been fighting for, is impossible, and continues to slap her. He compares her “impossible” goals to his, of wanting her. He’s decided that if he can’t have her, she will have to suffer. 

When Yang comes running by, yelling for Blake, Adam realizes just by the look on her face that this person, whoever she is, is important to her. The look of fear on Blakes face being enough to let him know that’s someone she cares about. This is the first time that Adam uses his sword in a non-physical attack on Blake. He stabs her, but he only does so with the goal to get her to yell so that Yang would be drawn over to them. 

Yang’s first reaction is anger, she wants to defend this person she cares about, but doesn’t know enough to thing through the situation. Blake knows that and quietly begs her not to, unable to be louder or to stop either her or Adam, she watches as Yang charges in. She jumps into her signature attack, semblance activated and no doubt draining her aura that’s running low after the day of fighting.

Adam uses his semblance and the frame goes red, he has taken over the frame, over the screen. The only other color left is the yellow of Yang’s hair and gauntlets, highlighting her arm as it separates from her body in an otherwise still frame. She’s sent over Blake, who is no doubt watching her the whole way. 

This is the moment the story changes. This is where Adam, Blake, and Yang are now mixed to the point they can’t come out of it anymore. This is where Yang’s confidence and emboldened personality falls apart, this is where Blake regresses intoner fears, where she resolves that she has to run away again. This is where Adam gets the power over Blake he boasts until volume 5 and over Yang until 6. Everything came crashing together in one short moment, and Blake wants nothing more than to separate it. She wants to remove herself, and so she thinks she’s removing Adam. 

The last thing that Blake does for Yang is to jump between her and Adam, to create a decoy, for the first time also creating a decoy of another person as well, and to run away with her, carrying, almost dragging her, out of the hall. For her, this is the best thing that she can do. This is her fault and she has to fix it. The way she thinks is best to fix it is to leave. 

The last shot of them in these volumes is of Blake apologizing to an unconscious Yang. She doesn’t even consider that this was a choice for Yang, it was all her fault and she wouldn’t hear anything else. Despite her own injury, she  rolls to her side and holds Yang’s hand. Clinging to her and pleading that she’s sorry. 

We next see Yang sitting up in what appears to be her room, she’s quiet, despondent. She’s slow to talk to even her sister. When Ruby asks about Blake, Yang gets angry, saying that she ran. Something that seems to contradict what she previously thought of her. In Mountain Glenn, she expressed that she thought Blake was never one to back down from a fight, but she did. She left her, just like her mom did years ago. When Ruby asks why, Yang says “I don’t know,” she sounds sad, almost desperate. She wants to know she wants to understand, to her the person she thinks so highly of just did the worst thing a person could do to her; leave. 

She continues, now in a much angrier tone, “And I don’t care.” She does, but she wants to convince herself that she doesn’t care why, doesn’t care that she even left in the first place. This person who meant so much to her left, and she doesn’t want to process that when she hasn’t even processed the first person who left. For the first time in the series, it seems like Yang has given up, asking Ruby to just leave her alone. 

Adam and Yang as Literary Foils 

For those of you who don’t know what a Literary Foil is, it’s a character who is a direct contrast of another character, used to point out specific qualities that are better or worse in one or the other. 

Adam is a direct foil to Yang, being characterized as similarly brash and headstrong. As the characters develop, this aspect of them grows apart, while Adam becomes angrier and more impulsive and single-minded, Yang becomes less. She grows an understanding of a bigger picture, she learns to think through her problems more and gains the ability to be introspective and thoughtful. This even extends to combat, most notably at the end of V5, where Adam charges at Blake, allowing himself to be taken down simply by not thinking his attack through. Yang, however, realizes that she can avoid a fight to get to her goal quicker, briefly activating her semblance before realizing that she can just let go of her arm to get where she needs to go. 

Both Adam and Yang are physically mutilated, and presumably have lasting trauma about the events leading to it. But they both take different things away from it, Yang is able to grow from her injury, she’s able to train to fight differently, become more intelligent and doesn’t let anything hold her back or make her weaker. She acknowledges her pain and takes time to process it, but she is able to come to terms with her new life and her new arm. She doesn’t hide her injury like Adam does, she even paints her new arm a bright yellow to match her gauntlet. Through this, she makes that injury a part of who she is, and she builds off of that experience to become better. 

Adam doesn’t take this path, we have a lot less information about his journey to where he is, but we have enough to understand a few things. He’s the one who started the tradition among the white ring to hide their faces, donning a Grimm mask to hide his injury. He internalizes his experience and allows it to cloud his thoughts, becoming angry and resentful not just to the people who did this to him but to all humans. He blames all of them for what happened. He hides his scar behind the face of a monster, and therefore becomes a monster himself. Even after he is outcast from the White Fang he hides his eyes, still removing his humanity from himself. 

Their most material similarity is Blake, and most notably their reaction to her running away. They have opposite reactions, with Adam becoming obsessed and willing to do anything to either get her back or get back at her. He stalks her across a continent and sends people after her just to hurt her, he puts so much energy into trying to make a point to her that his original purpose is lost, becoming enraged that Blake is doing anything, much less stopping the White Fang in Haven for a reason other than him. 

Yang however accepts it relatively quickly, though also not in a healthy way. She tells herself that Blake left and isn’t coming back, so there’s no use to care about it. She never allows herself to confront her feelings, allowing them to back up into her and boil over. Any time she’s reminded of Blake she tries to distract herself, when she sees the books she turns on the TV, when Ruby and Weiss bring her up she leaves. She doesn’t want to entertain the idea of Blake being there because it hurts and it would have to make her confront the fact of why did she leave and though Blake had noble reasons, Yang didn’t think that. It’s only when Weiss talks to her that she’s even able to acknowledge that she does care that Blake left, that she wants to help her, and that she feels like she needed Blake there for her too. 

The last thing I want to touch on is their semblances, they’re both very similar. They take in kinetic energy and are able to control a release of that to an enemy, but how they take that initial hit is where they differ and where I think the base of their characters lie. 

Adam uses Wilt and Blush to take the hits, he absorbs gunshots and hits into his blade to deflect them. He never comes into contact with this force if he can help it, his fighting style is designed to get as much energy into his sword as he can before unleashing it to his opponent, all without feeling a thing. His way of fighting is for the most part impersonal. He’s able to be removed from everything and benefit from pain he never felt. 

Yang on the other hand has to feel everything in order to use her semblance, attacks stick to her body and though she is smart about taking that damage, its still damage that she has to take. Therefore, every use of her semblance is personal, her attacks are close and kinetic, and her use of her semblance depends on her understanding the initial impact. She feels everything that she dishes out, even if she dishes it out ten-fold, she felt all of it. 

While Adam lets something else take a hit for him and reaps the benefits, Yang is always the first to step up to defend. Just like she defends Mantle through the Atlas Arc, and how she defends her sister and the rest of her team. She’s always willing to put others first, where Adam never is. 

Raven and Blake as Literary Foils 

This section is going to be quite a bit shorter, not because it’s less important but because it only really centers on one thing, and that’s how they both left. 

Raven is very similar to Yang, she’s just as strong and stubborn, protective of who she views as her family, but she isn’t nearly as aware. When they first meet again, she says “After all this time, you finally decided to visit me.” She made Yang come to her, she didn’t ever tell her where she was or how to find her, yet she seemed to expect Yang to “visit” sooner. She left Yang and Tai for herself, she left because she wanted to join the Bandits again and she didn’t want the life that she’d made on accident. 

Raven tries to make it admirable that Yang spent so much time looking for her, and when yang does find her, she acts entitled to her time and to her trust despite never being around to earn it. Raven is self righteous, she thinks that she’s done what’s right and what’s best, but refuses to see that what she thought was best wasn’t the best for Yang. She spends so much time lauding her strength that she doesn’t realize that the base of all of her actions are fear. 

Blake on the other hand, is the one to come back to Yang, though she’s not directly seeking it out, she’s the one who shows up, and she’s the one who promises never to leave again. She knows that she left because she was scared, and though she thought it was the best thing to do at the time, she now knows that it wasn’t. In addition to that, she doesn’t expect Yang to trust her right away. She knows that she needs to earn that back and she’s determined to do just that. 

Volume 6

Blake is initially unsure of how to approach Yang, she wants to do everything that she can to help, to gain that trust back, but she goes about it in the wrong way. She misunderstands why Yang is upset and accidentally says and does some things that do the opposite of what they wanted. 

Yang is clearly open to trusting Blake again, but she doesn’t know how to express what she wants from her. They continue to have the same chemistry battling as they did before and they get along well enough, but it seems like there a gap between them that wasn’t there before. 

The first major scene they get this volume is the one in the barn at Brunswick, the Apathy seems to already be affecting Yang, who already seems annoyed at Blake wanting to go with her to find something to transport them, she doesn’t laugh at Blakes joke and asked what she thought happened there. When asked if she’s okay, she’s able to open up enough to say that she isn’t, but immediately attributes it to being tired, not bringing up any real issue that they need to talk about. 

It's then, when she’s probably thinking about what really is bothering her, that she has that flash to Adam and Blake and Yang talk, if only for a bit. Yang opens up to Blake, realizing that this is shared trauma. They’re the only two people that went through this, so Blake is the only one that could understand, except she doesn’t. Blake expresses her own experiences with him, reassures her that she’s not leaving and that if they see him again she’ll be there. This is what Yang wanted to hear, but Blake continued, “and I’ll protect you”

That’s probably the last thing that Yang wanted from her, that’s what happened to them in the first place and why everything got so messed up from there. Blake saying that she’ll protect Yang is saying that she sees her as in need of protecting. Maybe Yang saw it as Blake saying she’s weak, maybe she saw it as Blake taking all the burden for herself. Either way, she’s not happy with the response that she got. 

Though at this point she’s still upset with Blake, she still makes sure to get Blake, who was the most effected by the Apathy, out of the house, grabbing her hand before leaving. 

Throughout the volume, they warm up more, allowing themselves to be more comfortable with each other, mostly Yang being more comfortable, as Blake was the one who was trying the most to make up for leaving. Towards the end, they’re even confident enough for Blake to poke a little fun at her. 

Now for the big one this volume, the Blake and Yang V.S Adam fight. This shows the build up of everything we’ve talked about until now. Adam has become even more obsessive after losing the one other thing he had, Blake and Yang are both desperate to come to terms with what happened and how to go forward. 

Adam continues his trend of using more aggressive physical attacks with Blake, notably hitting her with the butt of his sword, choking her, and kicking her. Throughout the first part of the fight, Adam mocks her for running, but she can hear Yang’s motorcycle and is running towards that. She knows she’s coming and so she’s able to wait for her. 

One important line I want to point out from the first part of the fight is “I wouldn’t have to be doing this if you just behaved.” Its a jarring and aggressive line, painting how Adam sees the situation perfectly. He thinks that its Blakes fault, that she should have just listened to him, that everything would have been easier, simpler if she had just listened to him. Nothing can be his fault, he can’t be responsible for his actions, so he puts all the blame on Blake. 

He says all of the negative things that Blake had thought about herself. She’s selfish, she’s a coward. And she stands up to it, she defies what he says and also him. She listens to what he has to say, to his shifting of blame and his excuses, his accusation that her leaving him was just as bad as the people who gave him his scar. And when he asks how it feels to be alone, just in time Yang shows up. 

Throughout their fight, Adam becomes increasingly irrational. He sees the care that they have for each other and despises it. Yang shows her development in fighting the most here as well, being able to adapt to the situation as Blake tells her about his semblance. 

The last sequence of the fight frames the whole thing, Adam, so confident that he had won, that he was more powerful, taunts Yang. He plays all his cards, yelling at her to hit him, and finally calls her a coward, to him, the worst thing a person can be. Yang outsmarts him, baits him into an all out attack and takes his sword. 

I know in some circles the ending of this fight was seen as unnecessary, I personally don’t think so. They both needed to face this demon, and they needed each other to do it. I do think its worth noting the way each of them stabbed him though. 

Blake used the base of her weapon, the broken edge that was much more dull, and no doubt much harder to force through. She had to face him head on, take the weapon that he was reaching for. Her relationship with Adam was much more personal. She had much deeper seated trauma with him that occurred over years and years of abuse. This was once some one that she, in a way, loved, and though that feeling was gone, the memory lingered. 

Yang used the broken piece of the sword, she couldn’t see what was going on in front or who got the other piece first, all she knew is that she had to get to Adam before he got to Blake. Her piece was sharper, easier to stab him but harder to hold. Yang stabbed his back, her part wasn’t quite as personal, but she was only able to even do that because of him. She was only able to hold and use that part of Blake’s weapon because of her prosthetic arm. 

After this is done, Blakes first thought is to make sure that Yang knows what Adam said isn’t true, that she won’t leave. And yang makes sure that Blake looks her in the eye again when she tells her that she knows she won’t. 

Volumes 7&8

Now I don’t want to go on forever, so this section is gonna be kind of short, both for your time and mine, both these volumes are far lighter on the bee content and much more recent so I feel less of a need to summarize. 

What I find most important about these volumes is the amount of comfort that grows between them. While in V6 yang was much more apprehensive, after the fight with Adam and the realization that they finally understood each other and what they wanted they both relaxed. They let themselves joke and have fun, flirt even. 

One of the more serious interactions shows again the difference between Yang and Adam, when they disagree about telling Ironwood the truth and about Robin, they talk about it and they come to an agreement. When Blake expresses doubts about if they should really do this, Yang actually listens to her and takes her side, rather than plowing over what Blake thinks to what she wants to do. 

When they disagree later at the start of V8, it doesn’t come across as if they’re angry with each other for choosing the other path, Yang is even worried about what Blake thinks of her. And when they come back together, they’re more relieved than anything else. Allowing themselves a moment together. 

In the last fight of the volume, pretty quickly Yang ends up falling off the edge, protecting her sister. In the scene as they all watch her fall, you can see Blake running in the back ground, when she throws her weapon to her partner, who never failed to catch it, its in desperation. There’s nothing else she can do but watch as it falls just short of Yang, who likely couldn’t catch it anyways.

Blake watches over the edge, horrified that this person who meant so much to her, who had gone through so much with her was gone. She screams for her, unsure of anything else to do. Reaching for Yang, though she already isn’t there. She has to be pulled away from the edge of the platform by Weiss, immediately breaking down into tears, and then anger. 

Its the same kind of anger that Neo has towards Ruby, the need for retribution clouding her judgement. She recklessly goes after Neo, until she realizes everything else that’s happening around her. She has to chose between getting the revenge she feels she needs, and protecting the greater cause. Unlike Neo, she is able to separate these feelings and do what she needs to. 

Volume 9

When they all wake up in the Ever After, they’re separated. Blake is relieved that Yang must still be alive, and after they find her, she finally allows herself to be as open with Yang as she can, from her perspective, she almost lost Yang forever. She wasted so much time with small actions, with being closed off and nervous, and all for what. 

This time around, its Blake who jokes around, who flirts and is the most open. She is determined to get everything she can out of this relationship because she will never take it for granted again. 

When they get caught up in the Punder-Storm, (Ponder-storm? Idk I couldn’t get captions), they were separated from the group and basically strong-armed into confessing to each other. 

Yang is a lot more hesitant, a lot more initially lighthearted. She’s the one who initially questions how to take the first step, and she’s the one who expresses fear the most in her expressions. Her first steps come from almost an accident, she’s not good at planning what she’s going to say and this first part comes out of nowhere for her, she sees that Blake got a step and expresses her confidence in her, that she’s smart. 

When Yang gestures for Blake to continue, she is smiling, expecting an equally light hearted compliment from Blake, but she’s surprised with what Blake says. Her face says a lot, showing how surprised she was, that she didn’t expect Blake to think so highly of her. Blake sees this and tries to lighten it for her, joking with the “try to keep up” its Blakes emotional awareness of yang that allows her to guide Yang into exploring how she felt, Yang is a character that spends so much time caring for other people, that Blake wanted her to get the opportunity to express what she felt herself. 

When Yang says to make this quicker, she isn’t thinking I love you yet, its only as she lets the words settle that she realizes, and for once, while Blake is self assured and confident, giving Yang a smile, it’s Yang who is unsure and insecure. She realizes what she’s thinking, but doesn’t let herself think that Blake could feel the same way, her emotions are so apparent on her face, and though the weather has cleared and light shines behind both of them, the fear of what comes after this pulls them back apart. 

Yangs thoughts so clearly express how she see this, its like a cliff, and she’s scared of falling. She’s scared that once she does this, it can’t be undone, and she’s right, but she isn’t quite sure yet if its a good thing. She doesn't know how Blake feels, she’s not as emotionally in tune with Blake as Blake is to her, but Blake says it best, they’re already falling. They both already love each other, they’ve just been to scared, to busy, to caught up in everything going on around them to talk about it. 

Blake lets Yang say it first, lets her think through it and say what she wants to say. She knows that Yang loves her, but Yang herself hasn’t quite allowed those emotions to process. Blake wants Yang to have this autonomy, to be able to initiate this without being pressured. 

When Yang says “I love you” she qualifies it with an “I think” it expresses her insecurity, by saying “I think” first she can feel safe, the uncertainty being something she can fall back on. 

But Blake is confident, she’s straight forward and eager, almost interrupting Yang. She wanted to give Yang the first chance but she was so excited to be able to finally say it out loud. 

In an instant, the space between them disappears, both literally and metaphorically. The air is clear and their trademark colors mix into a beautiful pink that surrounds them. They both still hesitate only for a moment, to ensure they’re on the same track before finally coming together. 

For only a moment, nothing else has to be important, they can be together, they can be alone, they can be whatever they want to be, and what they want to be is together. There are no pressures or conflicts, there’s no life or death situation, and there’s no one else to think anything of them. There’s just them. 

Brief Bit on Color Theory because its 4AM

Colors are very important in RWBY, they show who someone is, they show their Aura, the manifestation of their souls, and Blake and Yang’s compliment each other perfectly. 

The colors yellow and purple are opposite of each other on a conventional color wheel, otherwise called complimentary colors. They’re colors that are generally known to look good together. In Blake and Yang’s case, they’re shown to represent the Yin and Yang, light and dark. 

Along with these colors being complimentary, their eyes hold the color of the other’s Aura, and with a person’s aura representing their soul, each of them hold a bit of each other in their eyes. 

Anyways that’s just about all I have in me, if you have any questions or want any clarification id be more than happy to answer anything you have, otherwise, Happy Bee Day Y’all!

[rwby-encrusted-blog]

This has probably been asked before, but what’s your favourite RWBY ship and why? I’m curious

You're forcing a bisexual to make a choice! this is a warcrime!

...

In all seriousness, I can't quite say. My favorite waxes and wanes, ebbs and flows. Obviously I have my favourites but no one ship takes the cake for me, but if I had to give to whiteknight, which I can really only explain why I like by comparing and contrasting it to my inarguable second favorite ship, Bumbleby.

Bumbleby is generally well crafted. Yang and Blake are opposites of each other, not reflections of each other.

Yang and Adam using their anger and pain to bring others down, but one of them learned to handle their negative emotions while the other was swallowed by them.

Blake and Raven ran from people that cared for them, to go back to familiar haunts, but one found her way back to her team, while the other stole herself away, forever.

But I have a few issues with it.

Most of Yang and Blake's growth seemed to be more for each other than anyone else. Mostly Blake,but that's because CRWBY handled most of the faunus stuff poorly. So I suppose it's less a problem with either Blake or Yang, but the fact that the biggest problem for blake (Before she learned about Salem) was the rights of faunus.

The confession scene, looking at it in hindsight, kinda feels like it forced them to confess, but it feels good to watchm and listen too.

But whiteknight?

It's two kids with the weight of their family legacies on their back.

Weiss, lonely and self-centered, who is used to having nothing but perfect expectations put on them, and to hold, and both have it met and to meet those expectations, who can't trust others, learns to be kind, let people make mistakes, and to be supportive, and to learn to trust others, and be genuinely trusted in return.

Jaune, with nothing but perseverance and friendliness, who presumably had low expectations put on him, who wanted nothing more than to be a hero and to be celebrated for it (He also really did want to help people. Truly.) was taught how to be that hero, and with that lesson also learned the truth behind being a hero.

Weiss gained the family she never had, and Jaune gained the life he always wanted.

And in the beginning they were horrible for each other. Jaune was annoying and pretty dumb, Weiss was far too stuck up.

But now? Weiss learned to be herself because of and For team RWBY. Jaune learned to be smart and stopped caring about getting recognized.

Weiss has seen Jaune at his lowest and Supported him. Jaune has saved Weiss, and protected her, and She's done her best to protect him in turn.

They're both utility on their teams, they both work best in supportive roles, and they both wield swords.

Plus I headcanon that Jaune's Dad took Mama Arc's name when they got married, because he loved her so much he didn't want her to change for him, which I only just realized as I wrote this, makes for a damn good parallel with Jacques and Willow.

[infoglitch]

RWBY: FATE

(VOLUME 1 IS DONE MOTHAFUCKERS! HIP HIP HOORAY I FINALLY GOT SOMETHING DONE! enjoy everyone)

(Hub to the rest of the pages.)

Ruby could barely stand still as she leaped up and down with joy as her, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Jaune, Nora, pyrrha, and Ren were lined up next to each aswell as everyone else that had seemingly passed the test. Ozpin walked infront of them before stopping with hazel right behind him as everyone stood on a stage with the crowd of hundreds of others standing beneath them.

"Greetings students, due to my lack of foresight I had sent you all out without you receiving a flare gun so this test will be redone tomorrow. That is for those who have not passed. As for the ones who did I'm going to announce them." Ozpin spoke plainly into the mic infront of him, as hazel just grumbled something.

"To begin I'd like to announce the first team that had completed the test, the new team CRDL. Lead by Cardin Winchester. If the team may step up and say a few words. Please." Ozpin continued as a group of men walked up as one brunette wearing chainmail and metal-plate armor lead the group as what looked like the insignia of a cardinal flapping its wings was plastered on his chest plate. The group stopped in front of the mic as Ozpin stepped aside for them. The one in the armor grabbed the mic and began speaking.

"Howdy folks, pleasure to meet y'all. I'm cardin obviously, and Just know that me and my team are going to do our best so.. don't fall behind us." Cardin spoke as he and his team left with jaune raising an eyebrow as the message seemed too friendly for some reason.

Ozpin walked back to his mic. As he began listing off the different teams, team RZER, team BRKR, team BRZE untill he said something that caught Ruby's attention.

"Team RWBY, lead by ruby rose." Ozpin spoke as Ruby, Weiss, blake, and yang all felt their scrolls vibrate as they pulled them out and saw the word "RWBY" was typed in as Ruby's eyes sparkled as Ruby shot towards the mic before yelling to the top of her lungs with joy. "HELLO EVERYONE!", to which everyone including her teammates covered their ears as Weiss grumbled, so THIS was her leader. Well Atleast she wasn't annoying and so far seemed... Nice.

And so the rest of the teams were announced as turns out jaune was also a leader and he leads team JNPR consisting of him, Nora, Pyrrha- to weiss' annoyance- and Ren.

We see Ruby marching along with Weiss, Blake, and yang following behind her as ruby had a huge dopey grin on her face. "Ooh this is SOOO great! I get to lead my own team!" Ruby spoke with glee as yang chuckled softly as she pat her sister on the back. "Don't get over your head rubes, being the leader of your team is probably gonna be a tough job." Yang added before hugging ruby as Ruby hugged back as Blake narrowed her eyes. This was going to be a LOOONG year.

Soon they arrived at their door and opened it as Ruby and yangs face immediately contorted to disgust as Weiss and Blake looked inside and saw four neatly cleaned beds set up in a horizontal line. Weiss raised an eyebrow "I don't see the problem here" Weiss spoke as she looked at yang and ruby.

"The beds... T-their... Their not-" "BUNK BEDS!" Yang interrupted her sister as they immediately shot forward as Blake and Weiss were left confused.

"Why is the fact that their not bunk beds such a big deal?" Blake questioned as yang and ruby looked at them as their faces were covered in Shadows. and to make things quick their made their beds into bunk beds... somehow.

Then our vision changes to Roman sitting in his cell as he sees a female guard walking by before stopping right in front of his cell.

"... Well what is it? Am I needed for something?" There was only silence before something dawned on Roman as he grinned. "That's my girl, you got the key?" Roman asked as the guard nodded before she took out a key before putting it in the lock as we hear a click as we fade to black.

"Thanks neo, I can always rely on ya"

[End of volume 1 "the race"]

/////

Annnd DONE WITH V1! whoo I'm glad I'm done for now. So what do y'all think of rwby fate so far? Any criticisms, any part you feel I should have done? Let me know by commenting.

Regardless enjoy everyone because WHO-BOY I'm out of gas.

Rock on till ya drop tata mothafuckers 🤘.

🟥⬜⬛🟨

🌹❄️🐈🐉

RWBY: fate will be continued in Volume 2. (Also in some rwby: minis)

[shallitickleyournerdbutton]

After the heartache of the Volume 8 finale, I would like to return to a happier point in the show and suggest some memes/jokes that I like to think the students at Beacon would have had. More closely inline with the RWBY Chibi-verse, than the actual show - where Nothing Bad Ever Happened.

"Who's child is this?" being used to refer to Ruby - the youngest student at Beacon - when she's left unsupervised and/or doing something odd.

"I'd let Glynda punish/whip me for one corn chip."

Every now and again "Missing - Have you seen this person?" posters for Professor Peach will pop up around campus. No one knows who it is that keeps making them.

Vomit Boy candids being taken and shared any time Jaune is Suffering™️ on some form of transport.

The Great One plush of Pyrrha exists in-universe... and becomes the go-to prize for any stupid competition between the students. There's at least a dozen of these dolls on campus now, owned by various people and won as "spoils of war."

There's a dedicated chalkboard in the combat room for tallying how many times Nora has launched someone into the stratosphere. Notable mentions are listed on the board alongside her of other people who have achieved this feat - including Yang, Yatsuhashi, and Glynda.

(She launched both Port and Oobleck one day when they kept annoying her. Sometimes, their screams can still be heard if you listen closely enough.)

"There's that old guy again..." "Oh, shopkeep? Yea, he's everywhere. Don't think too much about it."

This leads to "Don't think too much about it." becoming something of a slogan for every time anything unusual happens.

"Candy canes, kids! One for Sun Wukong, one for Yang Xiao-Long, ooh four for Coco Adel, you go Coco!"

"I--"

"Andnoneforweissschneebye~"

Team STRQ having something akin to legend status at Beacon, whispered in hushed voices for fear and reverence of their names. There's a war between the students regarding team JNPR as their successors vs. the students who insist JNPR are not anywhere near worthy of such a title.

"How many team CRDLs does it take to beat Pyrrha?"

Blurry fancam-style videos of the Qrow vs. Winter fight out in the courtyard being traded around like baseball cards with other students. Some try and manufacture a "rematch" of this with the materials they've got - trying to get Ruby and Weiss to fight each other. 

That weird sing-song "HellOooOo~" that Yang sometimes does being mimicked by everyone. And I mean everyone.

Any time there's a significant lull in conversations or classes, someone often asks "Why are we here?" which never fails to make everyone in the vicinity groan.

"Ozpin is compensating for something" jokes about his office chair - including at least one popular response being "it's the war crimes", without them knowing just how accurate they actually are.

"On a scale of Ren-Nora, how excited do you want me to be?"

"Ladies Love Lavender" referring to Lisa Lavender having her own in-universe fandom mostly comprised of women. (Lavender being associated with lesbians irl, and I just think this would be funny.)

The sight of Ren just picking up and carrying Nora away from something is so commonplace that other people start doing it to their friends when they Need To Stop.

"Why is Blake's bow so big?" "Because it's full of secrets."

Blake being a closet faunus being such a poorly hidden secret that by the time she finally takes off the bow no one actually even notices. 

The betting pool surrounding exactly what it is in Ozpin's cup - coffee being one of the least popular options, and souls being the top choice.

Using Yatsuhasi as a unit of measurement. 

Photoshopping adorable images of Velvet onto various "cute" animal memes.

Everyone wanting to be spanked by Coco Adel. 

"I'd let Fox blow me up too."

"Why is Weiss' hair so long?" "To reflect the length of her father's crimes."

Everyone mimicking Pyrrha's memetic "I'm sorry!" anytime they apologise for anything. Even going as far to do it while apologising to things that don't require apologies - like inanimate objects.

"Are Port and Oobleck, you know... 💅?"

In fact, just that 💅 being used to refer to a large number of people at Beacon. Actual LGBT students picking this up and using it towards grimm when they're attacked to question the sexuality/homophobia of the grimm targeting them over their peers.

Threatening Neptune with water anytime he flirts with a girl who is clearly Not Interested in him.

No one knowing who, exactly, the other two members of team SSSN are - with wild theories abounding about who they may be. Popular choices include Shopkeep, Zwei, and Professor Peach.

This persists even after their tournament fights where they're shown. Scarlet and Sage are perfectly content with this, and participate.

"Arslan's/Pyrrha's back must be aching from constantly carrying her entire team."

And the respective responses of, "Reese/Nora are alright."

Similar jokes about Glynda also carrying the entire faculty/academy on her back.

"Salutations!"

The war between the "Irondaddy" fanbase, and his haters - who refer to him with various derogatory versions of his name. "Metalpenis", "Coppercock", "Chromeshaft", etc.

Anytime someone is doing something ~questionable~ donning a pair of glasses and/or imitating Oz or Oobleck pushing them back up their nose with accompanying menacing body language. (Kubrick Stare optional.)

Mercury having a foot fetish, courtesy of the people who caught him sniffing shoes at the festival.

"Did <character> just die?" "You know, it was really unclear." any time someone takes some insane damage in a fight and isn't seen for some time afterwards.

Everyone trying to locate and get a pic of the ~mysterious~ fourth member of team CMSN, who has only ever been spotted once - her tournament fight in the first round. Beacon's version of "Where's Wally?"

The Sympathy Fund for Emerald and her one-sided crush on Cinder. "She could honestly do so much better."

People offering themselves up as tribute to spar with Pyrrha/Yang/Coco/Sun just so they can be beaten up by the hottest people on campus.

"I drink milk!" being used as a defensive argument in wildly inappropriate contexts.

Naming grimm really boring names and attempting to keep them as pets. 

The innumerous times Port has allowed a "zoo-break" to happen under his watch and everyone having to assist in recovering his prized subjects.

"Where the fuck are all the fourth years?" "Ozpin's soul collection."

Candid shots of Glynda Suffering™️ being shared similarly to the ones of Vomit Boy.

Ranking people based on their Patience Levels - Pyrrha, Ren, Glynda, Emerald, and Fox being frequent top markers based on the bullshit they put up with from their respective teams.

"Saint Pyrrha" being a common nickname for her, and her neverending niceness towards people who absolutely do not not deserve it.

Weiss' "Hey!" being replicated amongst the student body and slowly growing more and more high-pitched in its replication until it eventually just becomes a shrill noise. Even so, everyone still knows what it means - and Weiss is absolutely unamused by all of this.

In fact, a lot of early!Weiss' comments being mercilessly mocked by everyone - "I'm a victim!" being one of them.

Renowned fear permitting amongst the student body regarding Yang's red eyes meaning Serious Business. Morphs into references of "going full Yang" to mean having rage-fuelled temper tantrums.

"Never miss a beat, never miss a beat" becoming a mantra for focusing on a task. This inspires several remixes of Neon saying it, and again with no one knowing who it is making them.

By all means, feel free to add any more that you all think of! I could use a laugh!

Also, check the notes for additions!

[itsclydebitches]

To add on to the whole found family post, am I the only one who thought Rwby slowly becoming like the Aceops and separating would be a plot point? Right after Harriet said her line, "we're not friends, we're co-workers", Ruby goes to her team and asks them if they want to hang out together and they all refuse. And this happens again when they get their break. They feel more like the Aceops than the Aceops. They're there for each other for plot moments but are off doing their own thing in their free times.

That's a really good scene to point to because yeah, it occurs immediately after Harriet's announcement that the Ace Ops are professionals first, friends second. Ruby's desire to do something fun is framed as a reaction to what Harriet has said. The group looks stunned by the idea that they're not BFFs with everyone they work with, Ruby in particular clearly doesn't like that, so she reaches for confirmation that they remain Best Friends Forever and aren't anything like the Ace Ops. Let's go exploring! Let's see the sights! What amazing, cool, fun, friendship things are we going to do, the four of us together, to prove that it's normal for a team to spend every waking moment together, both on and off the job?

But unanimously everyone says, 'Nothing.' They're depicted as exactly like the Ace Ops in that they did their job and now they want to go off and live their own lives for a bit. Blake announces that the only place she's going to is her bed. Weiss appears legitimately annoyed with Ruby's travel plans after they just flew in by airship and were running around on foot all night.

(For the record, all my screenshots this post are weird banner sizes because RT won't let me watch the episode without a giant login ad anymore? That's annoying.)

Yang goes one step further by reminding Ruby that they nearly died, also looking a little fed up with the exuberance.

And when everyone is done — literally and symbolically walking away from her — Ruby is left looking dejected.

This should have been the beginnings of them all, but particularly Ruby, learning that it's okay to approach being a huntress with professionalism, not just friendship. We literally have all the pieces here: callbacks to that Volume 2 conversation where they realize that their desires have to come second to the job, the theme in Volume 6 that they're no longer kids at a boarding school and are developing their own lives, the Ace Ops positioned as mentors in this episode that they should be learning from, hints at Ruby's fear of abandonment: the way she instantly jumps on activities to reassure herself here, later panicking at the idea of splitting up to accomplish two tasks, her breakdown when she's reunited with Yang, making foolish decisions in battle because she's afraid Qrow is going to die facing Tyrian, much of this stemming from actually watching Penny and Pyrrha die... I'd argue that there's a lot to support Ruby having as many, if not more abandonment issues as Yang, the story just doesn't grapple with it like it did with Raven. Regardless, here's this chance to have the group grow into adulthood, focusing on a very common worry that young adults go through. Namely, am I losing my friends now that we're no longer spending every moment in school together? Does their need for time alone mean they actually just hate me, specifically? None of us can coordinate a get-together because we have much more complex lives now and that's scary. We could have gotten a story where the girls learned from the Ace Ops and came to terms with the fact that yes, of course they're friends, but that doesn't mean they need to be joined at the hip 24/7. They have a job to do and individual lives to lead outside of their team. Tie it to Nora wanting an identity outside of Ren. Tie it to Blake and Yang first refusing to separate and then being terrified that the other will hate them when they're forced to. Tie it to Ren's announcement that yeah, they're still incredibly inexperienced and good god they've made things worse. This team has so many internal problems to work through, the story often sets up an excellent arc in which they can do just that... and then we swerve at the last second into something nonsensical.

Never-mind, the Ace Ops are simply evil cops, codependency equals the Power of Love, Ren is 100% wrong, and no one cares that Ruby equates a strategic split with Salem's desire to divide humanity. Nothing worrisome about that mindset at all.

In cataloguing those "We were so close" examples, I think it's notable that IRONWOOD is the one who finds the compromise. Meaning, everyone is ready to head off, leaving Ruby dejected, until Penny prematurely reveals that there's a surprise party planned for them, specifically one that exists to give them their licenses. It's a work party. The best of both worlds. They're functioning as professionals AND friends in this space, technically there out of duty and responsibility, but in actuality being given the chance to wind down and spend time together — the exact thing Ruby was looking for. This is a moment that should show her that leaning into huntressing as a job rather than a BFF pastime doesn't mean she's actually losing her friends.

Yet instead of following the thread of Ruby finding reassurance in the presence of her team through professional expectations, she's sitting alone in the bleachers. Not because the story is about to grapple with those worries paradoxically isolating her, but because... Ruby needs to be alone so Qrow can tell her she's nothing like Ozpin? So he can discuss Summer while Yang is taking selfies? Volume 7 is arguably a lot better than 8, but there are still a ton of plot threads that fizzle out by the next episode, if not the next scene.

(Side-note: my Volume 8 frustration that Penny immediately ditched Ironwood without any real difficulty was rekindled as I watched her praising him for improving his exit speeches.

She was born in his military and has served as a member of his inner circle since the Fall of Beacon, but nah, why would she have split loyalties? Penny is going go make a generic claim that Ironwood doesn't let her have friends after he leaves her at a party solely so she can hang with her friends. My nonexistent kingdom for some consistency 😭)

[aspoonofsugar]

Jaune: Zero to Hero

Pyrrha: It's not about why; it's about knowing. Understanding dark and light helps us manifest our Aura. Everyone has some of both.

Knowledge, Creation and Destruction all lead up to Aura. This is just another way to say that they lead up to individuality, which is something Grimms lack:

Pyrrha: They are creatures of Grimm, the manifestation of anonymity.

Individuality is conveyed through Choice. This is why Choice is the most important and final gift. It is symbolic of self-actualization, which is what our characters are pursuing in their coming of age story.

Jaune’s personal arc comments the group’s collective journey and marks each stage very clearly.

In which way does it happen? And what do these stages mean for Jaune’s growth as an individual?

THE IGNORANT WARRIOR

Pyrrha: Jaune, do you... know what Aura is?

Jaune: Psch! Of course I do! Do you know what Aura is?

Jaune is introduced as inexperienced and ignorant. He lacks combat experience and knows nothing about key concepts like Aura, Landing Strategy or Semblances.

His journey starts because Pyrrha shares her knowledge with him:

She awakens his aura, his very soul and later on trains him, so she helps his body get stronger:

In other words, Pyrrha is the one who puts Jaune on the right path to become a true “hero” and a “warrior”.

This is Jaune’s objective since the beginning, but he initially pursues it in the wrong way:

Jaune: I don't want help! I don't want to be the damsel in distress! I want to be the hero!

He is fixated on an idea of hero which is outdated and has its root in toxic masculinity:

Jaune: Cause this is always what I've wanted to be! My father, my grandfather, and his father before him were all warriors! They were all heroes! I wanted to be one, too. I was just never good enough.

This is why symbolically Jaune wants to be like his male ancestors. He wants to grow into “a real man”:

Cardin: Let's see how much of a man you really are...

And this is conveyed also through his Weapon:

Jaune: It's a hand-me-down. My great-great-grandfather used it to fight in the war.

Jaune did not forge his own Weapon, but he inherited it. Crocea Mors initially represents the legacy he wants to live up to. However, this legacy, instead of driving him, slows him down because he can’t grow until he remains in his ancestors’ shadow. Jaune needs to develop his own individuality instead.

In order to do so, he needs to grow not only as a figther, but as a person too.

As a matter of fact, Jaune’s ignorance is not only limited to the world he has stepped into, but also to the people around him:

Jaune: That's easy for you to say. You've probably got guys clamoring over each other just to ask you out.

Pyrrha: You'd be surprised.

He is so self-focused that he does not notice others’ feelings and hurts them unintentionally.

However, Pyrrha teaches him once again:

Pyrrha:Tell her exactly what you said. No ridiculous schemes, no pick-up lines. Just... be honest.

 It is thanks to her that Jaune manages to become a better man:

He is even able to call Neptune out the way Pyrrha did with him:

Jaune: Then just go talk to her. No pickup lines, no suave moves, just be yourself. I've heard that's the way to go.

And as a result, even Jaune’s relationship with Weiss gets better:

Weiss: You said you were embarrassed at first. What made you come talk to me?

Neptune: You're looking at him.  You got some good friends looking out for ya.

Because the girl realizes Jaune is not only after her money or her romantic attention:

Weiss: All my life, boys have only cared about the perks of my last name.

But wants to genuinely be a good friend to her.

In short, Jaune starts the story as immature both as a fighter and as a person to the point that he is considered unfit and annoying by other characters:

Glynda: I don't care what his transcripts say. That Jaune fellow is not ready for this level of combat.

However, thanks to Pyrrha, he is given the chance to mature.

Not only that, but while other characters see a weakness and a nuisance in Jaune’s ignorance and inexperience, Pyrrha sees it as a possibility:

Weiss: Jaune, is it? Do you have any idea who you're talking to?

Jaune: Not in the slightest, snow angel.

Weiss: This is Pyrrha.

It is specifically because Jaune is new to Pyrrha’s world that he is free from bias:

Pyrrha:  That's what I like about you. When we met, you didn't even know my name. You treated me just like anyone else. And thanks to you, I've made friendships that will last a lifetime. I guess, you're the kind of guy I wish I was here with. Someone who just saw me for me.

This is why Pyrrha feels she can forge a genuine bond with Jaune. What is more, the girl has faith in his potential:

Pyrrha: It's all right. I used my Aura to unlock yours, but the energy that protects you now is your own. You have a lot of it.

She sees in him what others do not and helps him develop both as a man and as a warrior.

This is well highlighted by the metal motif the two characters share.

As @hamliet explains here Rwby has several characters linked to the seven metals of alchemy.

The goal of alchemy is to create gold thanks to a process of refiniment that purifies the metal and has it go through several transformations. 

The seven metals are nothing, but a scale that goes from the heaviest and most raw metal (lead) to the most purified (gold) passing through the others (tin, iron, copper, mercury, silver).

For a story, it simply means that a character goes through a process of change that leads to self-actualization.

In Rwby this idea is conveyed through specific characters embodying a metal (Ironwood, Penny, Mercury) or even thanks to metal motifs commenting a specific part of a character arc.

For example, Yang is associated with gold:

I am the golden one Who burns just like the sun

But Adam takes her arm away and has her regress in the scale of metals to iron. This regression is not simply physical, but psychological as well:

However, Yang re-affirms herself and moves forward. The first step of this process is to symbolically make her new arm “gold” again:

When it comes to Jaune, I think that he may be the character associated with lead aka the “prima materia” that needs to be molded into gold. Even if this is not true, metal is at least definately still a motif in his arc, as it is in Pyrrha’s. This is why both characters wear metal armors, differently from others.

Pyrrha is already close to her self-actualization and she reaches it in the climax of the Vale arc, where she completes her (tragic) arc and dies a Maiden.

This is why her armor is gold, while Jaune’s is white and gray. Pyrrha is at the top of the metal scale and close to the end of her journey, while Jaune is respectively at the very bottom and at the very beginning.

He is the embodyment of the prima materia that has potential for greatness, but only if he is rightly guided and if he himself works hard.

Pyrrha takes over herself the duty to help Jaune mold himself.

This is underlined also by Pyrrha’s semblance:

Pyrrha: Well, Ruby has her speed, you have your glyphs. My Semblance is polarity.

Pyrrha can control and bend metals and she shows her power for the first time when she helps Jaune against the Ursa, so that he can overcome his self-issues.

So, Jaune starts the story as the lead and is going through a path of self-refinement which will lead him to become gold, so more similar to Pyrrha herself.

Pyrrha offers him the basic knowledge to start this journey, but unluckily leaves him too soon and now Jaune has to move forward on his own.

THE CREATIVE AVENGER

Pyrrha: I want you to know that I'm just happy to be a part of your life. I'll always be here for you, Jaune.

Even after Pyrrha’s death, this stays true:

Blacksmith: That was some fine metal you brought me. Accents the white nicely. Where'd you get it from?

Pyrrha has become a part of Jaune.

This is a recurring motif in Rwby:

Penny: I won’t be gone, I’ll be part of you.

It is the idea that grieving is a process that leads to acceptance, but also to integration with a lost one. It is a way to have the deceased keep on living through the survivors.

In Jaune and Pyrrha’s case, this is conveyed through Pyrrha’s metal being used to enrich Jaune’s Weapon.

As stated by Ruby:

Ruby: Just weapons? They're an extension of ourselves! They're a part of us! Oh, they're so cool.

Weapons are symbolic of the self, just like Semblances.

What is more, Weapons and Semblances are also a declination of the dychotomy of body and soul, presented by the series.

Weapons are wielded by bodies, while Semblances are a materialization of the soul.

In other words, Pyrrha’s gold becoming a part of Jaune’s Weapon is symbolic of Jaune’s first step in a painful process that will lead him to overcome his partner’s death and to inherit Pyrrha’s legacy.

Jaune must keep on learning from Pyrrha and become more like her. As noted by @hamliet​, this is symbolized also by Jaune’s design aquiring more golden details as he goes on in his journey:

Jaune: Guess I was going to grow out of it eventually.

Ren: A sign of progress.

Jaune: Progress.

That said, grieving is not easy and Jaune must struggle with much pain and negative feelings.

This is why the changes he makes to Crocea Mors are finalized to increase its attack power:

It is because Jaune feels anger over Pyrrha’s death and wants revenge.

In the Battle of Haven he gives in to his fury and tries to kill Cinder. He is trying to superficially imitate Pyrrha’s sacrifice:

Jaune: If I die buying them time, then it's worth it. They're the ones that matter.

However, he is not doing it out of bravery or necessity, but out of recklessness and self-hate. This is why his actions lead to this:

Once again, Jaune risks to lose another loved one:

Jaune: No, no, no, no, not again! Weiss, c'mon, please!!

However, this time he is able to save Weiss thanks to his Semblance:

Jaune: My Semblance?

Nora: How else do you think you're healing her, dummy?

Jaune gives up on using his Weapon to fight and chooses to use his Semblance to cure. He chooses soul over body and Creation over Destruction.

At the same time, Jaune’s activation of his Semblance is meaningful on two levels:

Jaune: No. I don't think I'm healing her. Our Aura heals our bodies. It feels... it feels more like I'm using my Aura to amplify hers!

Nora: Wait, aren't you worried about running out?

Jaune: Pyrrha once told me I've got a lot of it. I still believe her.

First of all, Jaune’s Semblance is rooted in the idea that people heal themselves. His power is not to cure others, but to amplify others’ auras, so that they can become stronger and can heal. It is about bringing out the best in others. It is a power fit for a leader, but also an ability symbolic of Jaune’s own process of healing. He can heal himself through helping others to heal.

Secondly, Jaune’s Semblance is in itself a nod to Pyrrha. Pyrrha used her own aura to awake his and Aura Amp is simply an evolution of this idea. It is not about activating others’ auras, but it is a power that lets Jaune share his. It also makes good use of something Pyrrha noticed immediately aka Jaune’s huge quantity of aura.

In other words, Jaune ends up acting like Pyrrha in the Battle of Haven, but not because he fights Cinder, but because he shares his gift with others, just like Pyrrha did with hers.

Pyrrha is a part of Jaune both in body (Crocea Mors) and soul (Aura Amp), but Jaune must still truly understand what this means.

He makes progress in Lost:

Red-Haired Woman: She understood that she had a responsibility... to try. I don't think she would regret her choice, because a Huntress would understand that there really wasn't a choice to make. And a Huntress is what she always wanted to be.

This is the essence of Pyrrha’s sacrifice. Jaune comes to understand it and chooses to make a similar choice together with his team:

Jaune: I think... I think she knew she wasn't going to win. That she might not come out alive. But... she also knew she was the only one that could try.

Ren: So she did.

Nora: Maybe we should too.

Jaune: Yeah, we should.

In this way, it will be as if Pyrrha were fighting together with them:

Nora: Pyrrha may not be by our side anymore, but we can fight like she is.

Jaune: And in a way... she will be.

Jaune tries to overcome his anger and his sadness for Pyrrha’s death in order to keep fighting like she did.

So, once again he chooses this:

Ruby: I wanted to protect my friends.

Maria: Precisely! It is the desire to preserve life which fuels the light inside you. And to make no mistake, it is light. Preservation is an extension of creation, or, at the very least, an enemy of destruction. The Creatures of Grimm were made by the God of Darkness, but your light comes from his brother.

He chooses to protect life and this is the essence of Creation.

Once he confirms this choice, he is free to explore Creation’s potential and he does so in the land of Creation itself, Atlas.

He strengthens his shield instead of his sword:

And he trains his Semblance:

Oscar: Nice, your recovery is getting faster.

This all leads him to become stronger psychologically:

Ren: Him on the other hand... There's no fear at all. I can see it, he believes we're going to get this done.

That said, Jaune starts meeting limits to his new found strength rooted in Creation:

Jaune: Ah, sorry. No matter how much I boost you, they won’t go away.

Jaune: Did... I stop the virus?

Penny: No. It’s still there.

Jaune’s way to move forward is to heal himself through healing others. Still, what to do when this is not possible?

THE DESTRUCTIVE HEALER

Penny: No… there’s not enough time to heal me…

Penny: But there is something you can do…

What happens in Atlas is an inversion of Haven.

Penny pushes Jaune’s Semblance away and touches Crocea Mors.

Jaune is asked to give up on healing her and to speed up her death instead. He is asked to choose his Weapon (body) over his Semblance (soul) and Destruction over Creation.

This marks the characters entering the Destruction phase:

Leaving Creation (Penny) behind.

For Jaune, this means that his own self image that he has worked so much to build and to make his own:

And that has been enriched in Anima thanks to Pyrrha...is shattered:

At the same time, he is once again put in a similar spot as Pyrrha:

They both become unwilling agents of Penny’s death because of Cinder (and Emerald and Mercury in the first case):

Pyrrha: Ruby, I... I'm so sorry.

Ruby: Me too. But it wasn't your fault.

Jaune: She's right. Whoever was on that microphone... they're the ones that did this. And we have to make sure they don't take anyone else.

So Jaune’s journey to integrate with Pyrrha, to understand her and her struggle continues.

What now?

It is too soon to say because we have yet to properly start our journey through Destruction and what it is about.

That said, there are two things that are worth highlighting. The first is a motif Rwby is following, while the second is a general theme found in many stories.

1) As @hamliet​ has stated in many metas and as I have written here, Rwby is an alchemical story. Alchemical stories are usually marked by three important deaths. Each death is symbolically linked to a color. They are usually black, white and red. However, sometimes there can be yellow instead of the white or the red. This is the case here, where a resonant death is the yellow death aka Penny’s.

It is a death that happens while the characters are surrounded by yellow:

And it happens through a weapon called “Yellow Death” (Crocea Mors’s meaning). So, it is really not subtle. Penny’s death is meant to mark an important passage for our protagonists, just like Pyrrha’s one (the black death).

2) It is common in stories that deal with healers to explore the concept of death as well.

The basic idea is that a healer is a person meant to cure. That said, they will meet people impossible to cure and that will die on their watch. This is an unescapable truth a true healer must live with.

Let’s highlight this theme is found in works very different for genre and culture.

Let’s have two examples.

Scrubs aka an American comedy about doctors deals with this theme multiple times. In many episodes the characters must simply accept they can’t save a life, but must still not lose hope and keep on living themselves.

Yosano from the manga BSD says so:

Her backstory explores the link bewteen life and death further since it is shown that a power that cures fatal wounds can be used to cheapen life itself:

It is too soon to say if Rwby will explore a similar theme, but the fact that Jaune, (the healer) is the one that has to speed up Penny’s death might be a very powerful and poignant choice. This is true especially because Rwby does not refuse Destruction (and so does not refuse death), but presents it as a principle equal to Creation (so as a part of life).

THE CHOOSING HERO

Jaune’s arc is about living Pyrrha’s death over and over again with different scenarios and outcomes. This happens so that in the end he can finally overcome it.

So far, it has happened three times and each time has been in the climax of an important battle.

The Battle of Beacon has him witness powerlessly to Pyrrha’s death (lack of knowledge and passivity).

The Battle of Haven has him saving Weiss (creation).

The Battle of Atlas has him killing Penny (destruction).

What is more, every time Jaune becomes more proactive and conscious of what he is doing.

In Beacon he has no idea of what is happening. He works with little information and things happen to him without him being able to do anything.

In Haven his actions lead to Weiss being in danger, but he manages to save her. That said, he does not do it consciously. He unlocks his Semblance because of emotional stress. It is an unconscious choice and not a conscious one.

In Atlas he makes a specific conscious choice, but it is a choice that is forced on him because of external circumstances. It is also a choice that is meant to challenge and temporally break him.

In other words, he is slowly and painfully approaching Choice aka self-actualization. Right now, he has to face the consequences of Penny’s death, but this will probably lead him to finally enter the Choice stage and to complete his arc by becoming a “hero” aka gold (probably).

At the same time, this final choice will also be about healing and overcoming grief. It will be the final integration with Pyrrha and him being able to honor her legacy.

After all, we have been told from the beginning what Pyrrha’s fate would have been. We’ve just failed to notice:

Pyrrha: For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee.

June and Pyrrha’s bond is eternal and she is meant to be the key character in Jaune’s arc. It is only through confronting and finally overcoming her loss that Jaune can finally self actualize and become the person Pyrrha has always known he could be. Pyrrha will symbolically be with him in this struggle. Her memory will protect and inspire him. 

[womenofwonder]

Option on RWBY ships:

Btw, I don’t usually ship characters. Romance is usually the least interesting part of the story for me so expect a lot of meh.

Arkos: obviously I love this, it’s perfect

Blacksun: ehh, it’s cute. I started out feeling kinda meh, it was sweet but not really interesting, but now it’s growing on me. Ironically the same thing is happening with Bumblebee, although I still like Blake and Yang better platonically

Bunanas: so this is a ship between Velvet and Sun, and it’s honestly really cute to imagine even if it is completely random. I like it better then Blacksun…I think?

Candy Cane: this is just weird. I can’t imagine Nora being anything but a older sister to Oscar. The age gap makes it creepy too, not the four years is much of a gap, but when your teenagers it’s a big gap.

Chocolate Arc: this is hilarious to imagine but obviously yeah, Coco isn’t going to fall for someone like Jaune

Cinnabun: I barely know anything about Yatsuhashi but he and Velvet are cute, I guess? Still like her better with Sun

ClockRose: heck no!

Coconuts: again, can’t see Sun doing anything but annoying Coco. I really don’t like the whole ‘badass jerk of a girl falls for goof ball trope.’ It always ends up feeling sexist in several ways

Combat Boots: honestly outside of an AU I can’t see Yang ever forgiving Mercury much less falling in love with him. Also Mercury just doesn’t deserve her

Combat goggles: I feel like Yang and Neptune would have fun causally dating each other and slowly realizing they actually like (Blake/Sun/Jaune/whoever) and become each other’s wingmen. That fanfic better be lying around somewhere

Crimson Lotus: okay, if I didn’t love Renora and Rosegarden so much I’d probably ship this. It’s really cute

Crimson Sun: this feels like an excuse to write lemons of the two hottest characters

Crimson wings: look I understand most of the shipping heroes with villains because they’re both hot and the villain/hero dynamic is always fun. But Cardin…he’s not even hot. He’s not even interesting. And yet people ship him with Ruby? Why?

Daddie Issues: you know I see where this is coming from but they would just end up murdering each other.

Dairy Farm: obviously this is downright creepy in cannon, but in an au where Neo isn’t evil and both are closer in age, this would be adorable. I feel like Neo’s main problem is she’s incredibly lonely—other then Roman no one bothers to understand or talk to her. If Oscar reached out to her, and she began to protect him…it would be perfect. In way even better then Rosegarden because I think Neo would still be a bit of pycho even when good, and it would be fun to see her lose it when Salem hurts him.

Ilia/Adam: I just want to say I am forever grateful the show went out of its way to avoid this obnoxious, cliche ship from being canon

Dragon slayer: I see why people ship Jaune and Yang, I really do. They’re both the team mom/dad of their team, they’ve got the whole goofball/badass thing going (which is a trope I do like when the badass isn’t a jerk), they both have a good sense of humor, etc. But I just can’t see them as romantic. It feels really weird. I can’t even explain why. I understand shipping them but I really can’t ship them myself.

Emercury: I really love this ship, but I also don’t mind at all if the show decides to make them platonic. I enjoy their relationship in general and it works either way.

Oscar/Emerald: again, feel creepy. I love the idea of a sibling relationship and can’t see them possibly being romantic even without the age gape.

Cinder/Qrow: yeah again. Both are sexy and good for angsty lemons. I’m not into that stuff so I don’t ship them

Fall Stinger: I just don’t know why anyone would ship Tyrian with anyone. Unless it was Salem and even that is super creepy

Firerobber: I like villain relationships but Roman already has Neo and Cinder is a hot mess. Literally

Firewall: I don’t know why anyone would ship Watts with anyone. He’s even worst less ship-able then Tyrian

Footloose: I don’t actually ship it but just imagine Mercury and Melanie bonding over weaponized feet.

Freckles: Yeah this is just painful. The two most adorable characters (Penny and Oscar), who go through the worst things imaginable. It’s endless fluff, angst, and whump, and I love cute romance and tragic romances, so this is definitely something I ship.

Frostbite: seriously, this is so weird and toxic. Having Adam fall for Weiss or vice versa. Maybe it would work in an AU or something but it’s just too creepy

Funky Beats: it’s cute, I ship it.

Gelato: yeah I love healthy villainous relationships! Neo and Roman are freaking adorable, and I’m sad that we didn’t see more of them together.

Grandmasters: I obviously don’t ship Salem and Ozpin because that’s just creepy, but I do like their romance. I like tragic romances, and this probably the most tragic one in existence

Greek Lotus: I don’t see the chemistry and crashes two of my favorite ships so…

Green Knight: well, she kinda helped kill his last girlfriend so…unless it’s AU this isn’t going to work. Even if it is an AU. This feels like another ship made solely for lemons

Velvet/Cardin: yeah, a bigot changing his mind when he falls in love with a minority isn’t cute. Isn’t sweet. It isn’t romantic. I don’t even excuse lemons that use this trope. Even porn ought to be above that

Weiss/Cardin: WOULD EVERYONE STOP SHIPPING CARDIN WITH PEOPLE

Hummingbird: it’s hard to ship something when you only know one character, but I was interested in the theory that Qrow was actually Ruby’s father. But then in season 7 Qrow’s description of Summer made me rethink it, and it didn’t sound anything like how you’d describe a romantic relationship. So I don’t really like that theory anymore

Iceberg: this is just cliche and boring. I get them dating but it wouldn’t last that long

Flynt/Weiss: I really love this one, it’s my favorite ship with Weiss. I don’t want it to actually happened in cannon because that would be random, but I feel like it would be fun for both their characters. And they both share an interest in music. I’m imagining an AU where he gets her into jazz and she starts singing it at all her concerts to the horror of Jaques.

Iron Maiden: honestly what. Why. Gross

Iron witch: well I definitely see why people like it. I actually wouldn’t mind it being cannon, It’d be a good combination of funny/tragic and I’d like to see Glynda mentoring Winter

Jailbirds: this just feels forced and also Qrow is probably too old for her. I like their relationship and don’t want it to be romantic

Knight fall: lemon ship. Moving on

Knight Life: I feel like Jaune just gets shipped with everyone but this is cute I guess

Lancaster: it’s cute, but I can’t ship it because it feels cliche. I was worried that Jaune was going to be her love interest when they first met and was relieved to see him with Pyrrha instead. It just feels forced and boring to have him end up with Ruby

Pyrrha/Mercury: this really popular for some unfathomable reason. I like Mercury but Pyrrha deserves better

Marrowgold (May/Marrow): I just don’t see it

Nikong: Pyrrha and Sun would be cute together, but I don’t really love this ship. It’s kinda meh.

Nora’s Arc: no. Just no. It technically would work but their platonic relationship is way too good to lose

Old Silver: this is Maria/Pietro, and I think it’s adorable. They both strike me as really flirty for their ages and both are very good mentors. They can be the crazy grandparents of the team

Ozglyn: just don’t see it

Phoenix: yeah Raven was a horrible girlfriend/wife. I don’t ship her Taiyang

QuickSilver: Ruby deserves better than Mercury.

Rehab (Qrow/Glynda): the fact that this is called rehab explains why I don’t ship it

ReNora: yeah, this is probably my favorite ship. I don’t think I have to explain why.

Robotic Knight: I briefly shipped this but now disagree

Rosegarden: I really love Rosegarden, they’re just too adorable together, though the whole Ozpin does make it a little awkward

Rosewick: I can’t see this happening, even in an AU

Coco/Fox: I don’t know enough about Fox to really ship them, but the fact that Coco canonically slaps his butt during battle definitely makes me want to

Mercury/Neo: I could see this working. It would be pretty cute

Silent Knight: again, it would have to be an AU and even then I don’t see it working

Snowbird: so at first I really liked the idea of Qrow and Winter being ex’s, but now that I think about it he has to be at least twenty years older then her. Also, I have to say that while they have chemistry I think they would just end up killing each other

Speakeasy (Flynt/Coco): I got to say I like this ship and could see them having a lot of chemistry together

Strawbanna: I just can’t see Ruby and Sun together. It feels weird

Sunflakes: Can’t see it working

Sunflowyr (Ren/Yang): don’t see any chemistry. Again this just seems random

Tauradonna: this is obviously as toxic as you get.

The Hunt (Cardin/Blake): stop shipping Cardin with anyone!

Mercury/Cinder: Mercury is way too young, and even if he wasn’t this would be really weird. Also Cinder makes him look like a stable, peaceful person, so also no.

Toxic Petals: I swear I’m done with this. No more Cardin, Tyrian, or Watts ships. They too gross

Velveteen Knight: Aw, they’d be cute together

White Knight: I really hate this ship. It’s so obnoxious and boring, and nearly falls into the jerky badass/goofball trope I hate

Winter Soldier: ew, no, Ironwood is like her dad

Wise Dragon: anyone care to explain why this is so popular? Sage barely has any character to him, I can’t ship him with anyone

Yellow rose: Yeah, I kinda ship this, but again, it’s difficult when you barely know one character

IronQrow: I understand why you would ship this but I just don’t see it. Guys can hug without being gay you know

Martial arts: why?

Noah’s Arc: why?

Sea Monkeys: again I understand why you could ship it but I don’t. They’re obviously just friends to me

Shovel Knight: like most Oscar ships it feels weird. Jaune is obviously a big brother to him

TaiQrow: As funny as it is for Tai to sleep with every member of his team, I don’t ship it.

Fair game: I really can’t stand Clover so again, don’t ship it

Achilles heel: Cinder literally kills Pyrrha, why would you ship them?

Baked Alaska: lemon ship

Black glass: annnd, another lemon ship.

Blood Mint: yeah I don’t see Emerald and Ruby ever being a couple

Catmelon: I found Ilia’s crush on Blake kinda cringy and I can’t see them being a couple

ColdMurder (Weiss/Cinder): even in an au I don’t see it working

Cold Steel (Penny/Winter) eeewww, they’re practically sisters

Cream Machine (Neo/Penny): I mean…if she wasn’t evil…and wasn’t so much older…it might work? Maybe?

Crosshares: cute but I feel like Velvet is too much of a doormat for Coco

Digital Clock: Ciel obviously didn’t care much for Penny, and she was barely a character at all. I don’t see it

Pyrrha/Nora: don’t see it, and also can’t stand the idea of breaking up the two best ships

Falling Petals: I get that Cinder is hot, but can we stop shipping her with the kids she’s trying to murder? Because I can see several things wrong with that

Freezerburn: again, for no reason that I can think of this ship just doesn’t work for me. Much like Dragonslayer it just feels weird

Gingersnaps (Penny/Nora): that would be chaotic. I can’t really see them romantically though like most Penny ships it would be cute

Guilty Conscience (Bree/Winter): oh please no. They really don’t have any reason to be together

Ladybug: I just can’t see Blake with Ruby at all. Blake feels way to old even though she’s only older by two years.

Milk and Cereal (Ruby and Pyrrha): I guess it would work but I just don’t any chemistry

Mint chocolate (Emerald/Coco): if Coco managed to forgive her for everything that happened at Beacon I could maybe see this happening. There is some chemistry

Mommy issues: Nah, can’t see this working out.

Monochrome: Blake and Weiss have never had any romance chemistry despite plenty of opportunity to have it, so again, I see them as strictly platonic and shipping them feels almost like incest. I know that doesn’t make sense

Nordic Winter: I can’t see Weiss handling Penny, but again, any Penny ship is pretty cute

Nuts and Dolts: I would ship, but I like them together platonically too well. Definitely understand the ship, though I find it funny that Ruby, who insist she likes weapons better then people, would fall in love with a personified weapon. I know that’s probably racist against robots

Overheating (Penny/Cinder): I take back what I said about every Penny ship being cute

PennyWeiss: but this one is pretty cute

Pink Lemonade: can you imagine the chaos of Yang and Nora dating each other? They both need someone with a cooler head to keep them in check

Scheenoks: with Weiss’s fangirling I can definitely see were this is coming from, but Weiss is too mean for Pyrrha

Steadfast: I really don’t ship any of the ace-ops with anyone. I found them all boring and annoying except for Marrow

Strawberry Shortcake (Neo/Ruby): not seeing it

Sugar Rush (Ruby/Nora): Again, too much chaos. They both need chill partners. And I love Rosegarden and ReNora too much

Thunder cat (Blake/Nora): don’t see any chemistry between them

WhiteRose: I can see why this is shipped and I don’t dislike WhiteRose shippers. I just prefer Rosegarden, and find Weiss and Ruby working better together romantically

Bumblebee: again, I see this working better platonically, not romantically. It kind of annoyed me at first, but it is growing on me, much like Blacksun. I still like Blacksun better though

Enabler: No.

[kitkatopinions]

While other people have pointed this out before, I think what gets me the most about RWBY is the way having a differing opinion is portrayed? I grew up in a household where…yeah, generally you had to agree, and it’s not healthy. I don’t know why the writers seem to think that has to be a thing? It’s just pushing toxic behavior and it’s made like…even viewing RWBY to make fun of the flaws with friends unbearable. I don’t know how I didn’t notice it earlier, if anything.

This is absolutely one of the most frustrating things about the RWBY group.

Qrow doesn't agree with Ruby and Jaune about stealing a plane. That is framed as absolutely wrong and he is point blank told to either fall in line with what they want, or leave. Before this, Yang, Blake, and Weiss all are very quick to draw their weapons on him when they want to summon Jinn and think he might protest. The idea here is that they only are willing to have Qrow even in their team when he agrees with everything they say, and will even get ready to fight him the moment he really protests. Yang, Ren, and May all protest the actions of the general group or challenge them, only for that to be treated as wrong and surprising and they're treated as problematic at the least, terrible friends at the worst. Falling back in line and deciding that the team is totally right and that Ruby doesn't have to change made May and Yang totally fine. And as for Ren, he doesn't become 'fine' until he not only gives in and decides that Ruby and her team were one hundred percent right, but totally gives in with Nora too in their relationship and decides Nora is one hundred percent right. Emerald, Winter, and Whitley were all considered various levels of bad until they switched to Ruby's side, and on top of that, the writers specifically had Winter give tons of horrible dialogue in her fight with Ironwood that basically says "actually I never believed any of the stuff that I said and acted like I believed in the last volume, now I agree with Team RWBY on literally everything we disagreed about." Ozpin must beg forgiveness for having not trusted Team RWBY with everything within months of knowing them (despite the narrative of the story proving his hesitance well founded over and over and them having Ruby just as free with lies and hesitant with trust herself.)

There's more even than that I'm sure, but the point is that the mentality of everyone agreeing is uncomfortable to say the least. If I'm being generous, I might consider this writing a reflection of their inability to write fleshed out character dynamics and their struggle to write Ruby as a convincing or good protagonist. It's also reflective of their struggles with follow through and pay off. They have people challenge Ruby, but they don't have Ruby actually grow or change and they have her friends instead realize they're wrong. There's no pay off to Ruby being challenged because the end result is still "Ruby is right, Ruby is good, Ruby doesn't have to change how she acts." So instead it just looks like everyone is forced to follow the group mind frame, think and act the way they do.

The mentality of people being bad if they don't agree with or like the protagonist is prevalent in the treatment of Ozpin, Whitley, and Emerald. Ozpin's crime was keeping secrets from Team RWBY. Whitley's crime was wanting Weiss's position as heir and being snide. And yet both of them actually put in more work towards 'redemption' than Emerald, literal murderer who willingly tried to help Cinder kill Penny again mere episodes before her 'redemption.' Because the crimes didn't actually matter all that much. It just mattered that they proved they were on RWBY's side, and Emerald's actions weren't as personally against Team RWBY directly. Whitley made Weiss mad, so he had to prove himself at least as much as Emerald the murderous terrorist. Ozpin acted against Team RWBY, so he has to ask forgiveness and explicitly state that he was wrong and he has to bow to Ruby's will, let her make the standards, let the others make the choices, despite the fact that he has every right to dismiss Ruby as an inexperienced and ineffectual leader doing more harm than good. Emerald didn't even have to apologize, and she didn't even have to admit she was wrong, in order to be accepted.

Just look at the differences in the reactions when Emerald says she 'switches sides' and says 'you've been getting your asses kicked, some of that... by me,' which is as close as she's come to admitting she was wrong or apologizing, versus how they respond to Ozpin starting to admit he was wrong to not trust them.

Reactions to Emerald

Reactions to Ozpin

It doesn't matter that Emerald's actions were much worse, more serious, more deadly, and done with horrible intentions. It matters that Ozpin's actions made Team RWBY mad and sad, and it's treated much more seriously than Emerald's literal murder because of the mind frame carried out in the narrative of the show.

The show acts like disagreeing with Ruby and her goals is literally morally wrong, and anyone who doesn't fall in line with her all the time is in the wrong and needs to either change or apologize or get lost. You're right that it's full on unhealthy. Imagine how much better RWBY would be if people were allowed to disagree, if Blake was allowed to consider it wrong to steal a plane or if she stood up for Ozpin after they all see his memories that are eerily similar to her own past situation. If Yang didn't draw her weapon on Qrow in the snowstorm and instead got angry at Weiss and Blake for doing so, if she'd been allowed as a character to be on Ironwood's side, and then actually see through her concerns about Ruby as a leader. If Winter had been allowed to turn on Ironwood without throwing everything she'd believed in away so there could be later tension between her and Team RWBY or they could get across the message that disagreeing with some things doesn't make you evil. If Qrow had been allowed to be on Ozpin's side, or insist that Team RWBY shouldn't steal a plane unnecessarily (maybe causing the team to go behind his back or something,) or could be on Ironwood's side in V7. If Ironwood was allowed to have a 'save the many over the few' mentality instead of their 'risk the deaths of everyone on the off chance we'll be able to save everyone' mentality without being turned into a puppy kicking dictator. If Ren was allowed to be angry at Nora and to still disagree with the way the group was running even if he felt like he had no choice but to follow them and maybe took to looking to Ozpin as a mentor. If May was allowed to be committed to her demands that Team RWB actually choose something and try to help, and didn't throw it away later to comfort Ruby, instead letting her face hard truths. If Whitley and Weiss made up, but there was still tension and he still was acting resentful of his mother. If Blake and Yang were allowed to actually fight and argue and come out the other side stronger and still committed to each other. If Ozpin was allowed to come back angry at Team RWBY and not apologizing and instead being hurt by their actions and even more hesitant with them and feeling like the world is crashing down around him and expressing all that.

Idk, I just feel like the very worst thing you can do for your cast of characters is have this 'assimilate to our way of thinking or you're wrong,' mentality. Some of the characters don't feel like they have room to breathe and actually be full characters, other characters feel like they're hurting in-show and just acquiescing out of fear of abandonment or repercussions, and meanwhile it's hurting other characters in the originality and development department because the dialogue they have and their mentalities feel so copy and pasted that you can interchange a lot of lines and have it still feel the same.

In short, this is one of the most annoying writing flaws in RWBY.

[marciego]

I don't know if this is cheating but can I throw the ask you sent me back at you?? What are your top 5 ships of all times? It was a good question and now I'm curious 😅

omg yes gladly!!

5. freezerburn

i'm not really into rwby anymore because the show took a turn i simply do not like, but i will always, always, always care for my girls. they bring me so much comfort because they were there for each other at a time they both needed it so so much, and one of the things that annoy me the most about rwby is how yang is always supporting everyone, always handling everything alone, always holding everyone together even at the cost of her mental health, but with weiss she just...didn't have to anymore. that scene in volume 5 where yang is hurting and lonely and feels like things will never get better and weiss comes to find her and actually talk to her, and for once yang gets to express that pain she's feeling and it's just....they bring out the best in each other and it makes me lose my mind, i love my lesbians so much you have no idea

4. leonetta

and i think this is a surprise to no one but i am SO in love with them, leonetta are one of these ships i'll always go back to, it's been years since i started shipping them and my love keeps growing and growing and growing because they're just....so good. at this point i honestly don't even care about their bad moments or all the times i get annoyed with them while watching because they can be so dumb, because the comfort they bring me is just unmatched. they're one of my first ships, like first actual ships, and nowadays i don't care about my ships being canon or not (and thank god because somehow i NEVER fall for the canon pairings), but i'm so glad i won with leonetta back then because the love i have for them is very special and being able to see one of my biggest ships being canonically in love is pretty nice actually

3. rinharu

not obvious on this blog i agree but i am, in fact, very into anime and free! was something i was SO into when i was younger. rinharu left such a long lasting impression on me that even now, when the last time i rewatched the anime was years ago, i can say with almost no doubt that i never felt as strongly as i did watching their scenes. i don't even know how to describe this feeling, but their connection is so damn strong it's just...seeing how their relationship evolved, and seeing all their friends around them knowing how unique their bond is, the respect they have for each other, the pure love it's just breathtaking i think. i love every single one of their scenes but that scene in australia when "there was only one bed" and they're lying in the dark talking about their feelings for each other always fills me with an emotion i can't even describe. i think that, more than i do with any other pairing in this top, what drives me to them so much is that i feel like i'm watching love, the concept of love, in its purest essence. no matter if it's romantic or platonic (even tho, let's be real here, nothing about them is platonic) it's just....such a caring and loving relationship, i adore them. also rivals to lovers is MY shit

2. bokuroo

sports anime again, this time rivals to lovers AND best friends to lovers at the same time? sign me up right now. bokuroo is actually a much more recent pairing than every other one in this top (i did watch haikyuu when it was airing, but back then i didn't think much about ships), so i feel like they might reflect my current taste in ships a tiny bit more than these other pairings (except freezerburn who kind of falls into recent ships too). this might not be obvious because on this blog i mostly talk about leonetta, and i love everything about them don't get me wrong, but generally speaking i absolutely despise the concept of soulmates. it seems weird to say but i like romantic relationships that are....normal, and somehow it's what punches me in the gut every time with bokuroo. because to them love is natural, to them love is the norm. they love and they love and they love, and they were best friends telling the other how much they loved them, and they were rivals telling everyone how much they respected the other, and ultimately when they become lovers nothing changes, because love is such an integral part of their relationship from the begining that there is no reason to change that. when i think about bokuroo i don't think about lovers, i think about best friends who happen to be in love, i think about idiots who laugh together until they can't breathe but still kiss afterwards like it's the most normal thing in the world, because it is, because loving the world is part of who they are, and they chose to love this world together, and they chose to love each other. they make me feel...so many things honestly

1. zutara

and now this is it, my oldest ship, my very first love, THE ship that shaped my taste about everything else, and the only ship i'll forever be salty wasn't canon (even tho my opinion changed a bit on that, but i at least wish they'd have ended up single because they deserve so much better than what the writers gave them). i talked about best friends to lovers with bokuroo, but zutara hits the enemies to friends to best friends to lovers case and it makes my heart beat really fast. zuko and katara are both huge comfort characters to me, and some of my favorite characters of all times, and it's just unbelievable how GOOD they are to each other. zutara have so much in common, and the parallels the show made for them (either intentionally or not) are just too much not to see it. i know i said that bokuroo might represent my current taste better than everyone else here, but now that i'm writing about them it's just...false, because zuko and katara have exactly the same essence that makes me lose my mind. because there's this girl, who everyone has always expected to be something, she had to be mature, she had to be a mentor and a teacher, she had to be a mother to her own brother, she had to be this perfect version of herself all the time. and then there's this boy who comes into her life, and for the first time in forever someone looks at her and doesn't see a perfect girl, he sees katara, a girl his age who's hurting, he sees her anger and he sees all these ugly feelings she's been holding inside for years, and he says "i still love you" and it's just so beautiful to me. zuko is the only character in this show who actually, like genuinely listens to katara, and katara is the only one zuko is comfortable enough to confide in knowing she will never belittle his feelings. they see the other for who they are, not who they want them to be. they see each other, and somehow, that makes all the difference. they are everything to me

i could write essays about them all (and i already have), but i think i'll stop myself before i start crying out of love. it was so hard to rank them honestly and i've changed the order so many times while answering, but thank you SO MUCH for this ask, i had so much fun answering!! <33

[hadesisqueer]

I'm bored and I don't care and you most probably don't care too but I don't care about that either, so here it comes: my Blake analysis.

People tend to think Yang is my favorite character. And, although they're not entirely wrong, because she's the character I relate the most to, my actual favorite character is Blake. I just find her so inspiring, and such an interesting character yet flawed character. CRWBY did a great job showing her traits as both the Beauty and the Beast, and I just love it.

Leaving the White Fang and Beacon times

Honestly, one of the things I admire the most about Blake is just how freaking brave she is. Because it takes an incredible amount of courage to be able to realize about your mistakes and seek a way to redeem yourself by learning to help people. And it takes a lot of strength to be able to leave your abuser behind.

Blake leaves the White Fang and gets into Beacon hoping for two things: redemption and a new life. She starts off as the typical quiet, kind of cynical (yet still idealistic), emo and mysterious girl who we knew basically nothing about her. We had basic information about the other three, but nothing from her except that she wore a bow and liked books.

I really liked how she seemed to not want to get close to anyone, but then the interactions with Ruby and Yang came. She, although kind of annoyed because they wouldn't let her read (mood), seemed amused by them, and even awkwardly tried to tell them that it was a pleasure to meet them as they fought and before Weiss came and she gave up reading (mood).

Which is one of the reasons I think she chose Yang as her partner. She was probably looking for a partner who she knew she could work well with. And having being partners with Adam, who was just as much of an offensive fighter as Yang, she knew she could work with that. That and the fact that she also seemed to like her and Ruby the night before, so Blake probably recognised her and followed her around to check if Yang could fight too (also because she was hot okay this is just me shipping). And when she saw she could, she was probably like “Okay, I'm keeping this one”. Which is fun, because Blake was the quiet girl and then she went and chose the most extrovert partner (besides Nora) there was. And actually liked having her around, as anyone could see when she smiled when Yang said something.

And that's the thing: she didn't want to get really close to anyone, but she was really eager to start a new life. Even though she wasn't really sure about Weiss, she had good teammates and genuinely liked them. She joined Ruby and Yang in their idiocy (love those two) from the start and showed to be as much as a dork as them if she wanted. She was relaxed with them and liked team JNPR too (we never really saw her having conversations with them alone but if she sat with Pyrrha in class it meant she was cool with them too) and, if you read the books, she was really good friends with team CFVY as well.

Still, she was afraid to open up about her past, or even tell them about being a faunus to the point that when she slipped and told them when she was mad at Weiss being an ignorant, she ran away. Because after all, she doesn't think they would like her true self. I mean, we're talking about a girl who ran away from the White Fang because she realized it had turned into basically a terrorist organisation -one she took part of, and left her family behind for. A girl who's suffered from abuse, making her feel like she doesn't deserve anything good. It's crystal clear in the comics (though they're vol 4 content), Blake thinks she is poison and ruins everything good around her. And she felt like she'd just ruined it again. Which is why when she sees that they don't care, and that Weiss has decided she doesn't care either (and to me, that's the beginning of her arc of being an ignorant and daddy's girl to “when I see a racist a floor him and fucky you, dad), Blake almost cries.

Then in vol 2 she is literally obsessed with Torchwick and the White Fang. It's understandable: she used to be part of that organisation (goddammit, her own father created it) and she's had to see how it went from believing in peace and equality to becoming more violent to start working with human crime lords in a way that doesn't seem to benefit the faunus at all? She knew there was something big going on, and even if she had to fight her own past, she was willing to if that's what it took to find out what it was. It's funny because I felt like she was the main protagonist in that volume instead of Ruby and it's true: she was the one calling the shots.

The thing is that she took it too far and led her to basically become obsessed with the White Fang, as I said. To the point that Yang had to almost literally slap some sense into her and tell her to chill and go to sleep. And well, it worked. She took Yang's advice and didn't forget her goals, but took her time instead of destroying herself in the process.

In vol 3, she seems more relaxed than we'd ever seen. She doesn't have to hide who she is to the people she cares about, because she's slowly opening up more and they are understanding. They succesfully stopped a Grimm attack in Vale and got Torchwick in jail, so she felt more confident and hopeful. And they were killing it at the Vytal Festival. So yeah, she deserved to chill a little, enjoy herself, to be a little goofy and eat some tuna with her friends. The girl had earned it.

... but it's volume 3, and if it fucked everyone up, it wasn't going to be any different with Blake. Like, for fuck's sake, give the poor girl a break.

It starts with Yang breaking Mercury's leg and Blake not knowing what to think. Because as she said, the whole situation was so familiar. She'd had a passionate and aggressive yet “kind” partner before, one she thought she loved and trusted, and he slowly became more and more violent, and more abusive, and for a long time, she was blind to it. And then Yang does that. Her passionate and kind of aggressive yet sweet new partner, who she may already had romantic feelings for (even if she hadn't realized yet), who even had the same semblance as Adam. Was it all happening again?

Yang and Adam are, after all, foils of each other in a way. They're really similar. The main difference is how they deal with their suffering: Adam used it as an excuse for hurting others and never really got over it, and Yang took meaning from it instead and found the way to move on. Her heart was never driven by hate; she used her pain to become a better, stronger person. After all, just as Blake said, Adam was Spite, and Yang was Strength.

Blake's reaction was understandable. She was a victim of abuse and the situation reminded her of it. And as I said, it didn't help that Adam and Yang were so similar. But deep down, she knew that Yang wasn't Adam, that there was an explanation, which is why she gave Yang that chance to tell her. And she knew Yang wasn't lying.

And then everything gets REALLY fucked up for everyone. The situation couldn't be worse. Penny has died, Ruby is at Amity Arena, Yang is still at the dorms. Blake and Weiss are fighting together at Beacon against the White Fang and Grimm- and also the robots. And getting separated was honestly the worst thing they could have done, but Blake went after that Beowolf. And then she found Adam.

I don't think I have to even explain how I think she felt at that moment, when she saw her abuser right there in front of her eyes, for the first time since she left him. I think the look in her eyes are enough to express how terrified and conflicted she was. And yet, she is brave enough to fight him. And she loses. And then the guy uses “summon love interest” card and Yang appears, and he sees right through Blake. And the thing she feared the most happens. She's ruined it. She's really ruined it.

Vol 4 & 5 or the Belladonnas, Sun and Ilia.

Volume 4 is, without any doubt, Blake's lowest point, and again, thank God for having her parents and Sun around, because the girl was almost suicidal (most of all, when you read the comics). As I said, she feels like she's poison who ruins everything good around her, and this once, the universe has proved her right. Yang, her lovable partner who had been nothing but sweet, funny and understanding since she'd met her, had lost an arm trying to save her. And she knew that Adam wasn't kidding when he said that he'd kill her. So she left because she'd rather have Yang, Ruby and Weiss hating her than risking their lives. And because she couldn't stand the guilt she felt. The poor girl hated herself for what happened.

It took her while to decide to go back to Menagerie, but she did, and I was honestly thrilled to find out about her family. Like, we knew about Ruby and Yang being sisters and later we also find out more about their family life. We knew about Weiss being the heiress of the SDC, that she came from an important family, and later we know that she has siblings and it's implied that her father is a dickhead. But we didn't know anything about Blake's family life. We didn't know if she had any family at all or if she was an orphan, or if she had been abandoned, or if she was poor or rich. I think a lot of people had those headcannons before vol 4. But nope. Those ideas were obliterated.

Her father had created the White Fang, which explained why Blake always took the whole matter so personal: it was her legacy, and it had been taken from her and became corrupted. Not only wasn't she poor: she was some sort of fucking princess and owned a mansion. And not only wasn't she an orphan or an abandoned kid: out of team RWBY, she was the only one with two functional, loving parents. She clearly felt guilty about leaving them as well but both of her parents forgave her without any doubts, and showed her unconditional love. Kali and Ghira were two understanding and forgiving people who loved their daughter more than anything, and really, it was such a relief.

And I have my issues with the whole Sun thing, most of all after reading Before the Dawn. He followed her without permission, didn't respect her boundaries and she got too aggressive with him sometimes because of that (first slap I get it, the other two no). And I don't think he was completely necessary for the whole Battle of Haven thing. But at the same time, I really think having him around actually helped Blake a lot. Because yes, he didn't understand her many times, but I do think that having him around helped her as much as her parents. He had a big crush on her, and Blake did like him back, but never at the same level. After the time-skip, he still liked her but her crush on him had faded. And he took his time, but he realized. Blake didn't need a boyfriend, she needed a partner, a good friend who opened her eyes and made her understand that not everything that happens is her fault. That pushing people away with the excuse of protecting them wasn't helping anyone: she was just hurting herself and others more. And that's what he became. And I love the fact that he never for a second thought that she owed him anything: he helped her because he wanted, not because he expected anything from Blake. He would literally be disgusted with people who think she did owe him. Sun has his issues but he is an amazing friend and a perfect example of a guy without one bit of toxic masculinity, and his friendship with Blake is just great (can't wait to see more of them. Brotp).

Blake got love, forgiveness, support and friendship from her parents and Sun, but honestly, I think that what finally pushed her to stop running away and put an end to this whole bullshit was Ilia's appearance. Her former best friend up until she left the White Fang (who was, by the way, the person who indirectly gave her the idea of using a bow to pass for human).

She had already seen someone she cared about lose his way and turn into a monster. Blake herself had lost her way for a good while, found it back and then lost it again, and was working to find it once more. Seeing Ilia in that situation too made her brain go like “Okay, there's no way I'm letting you end up like Adam”. Blake knew Ilia wasn't like Adam, she knew it wasn't too late for Ilia yet, just like it hadn't been too late for Blake herself. So she gave Ilia the same things her parents and Sun had given her, the same things team RWBY gave her once too: love, forgiveness and friendship. And by helping Ilia, Blake also helped herself. I've done this before in another post, but I'll do it again; as uncle Iroh said once: sometimes the best way to solve your own problems is to help someone else.

(I'm not going to get too deep about the White Fang; most of all, because I'd need an entire post just about it. I'll just say that even though I thought I liked most of it, I still have a lot of issues with the White Fang thing and I found the end to be a bit disappointing and rushed).

Back with team RWBY, rebuilding relationships and Adam's end.

I'll never stop thinking that the fact that she didn't know what the fuck was going on at Haven but still joined the fight was hilarious, but still, it really made sense. She's done running away from her fears and her past, and one of her fears was that: confronting her team (mostly, Yang, because of the whole Adam thing) after leaving them. And then they all appear right in front of her eyes.

Past Blake would run away again to avoid the consequences. But she'd grown from that. Instead, she dealt with her own problems with Adam and the White Fang, and as soon as she was done, she went right back into the building and start fighting by Weiss and Ruby's side. And after the fight, while she was talking to her family and Ilia, Sun gave her the final push: he encouraged her to go and actually talk to the team, and she did. She went and told them that if they gave her a second chance, she wouldn't leave them again. Because she knows that leaving them had been one of the biggest mistakes of her life, if not the biggest one. She didn't know if they'd forgive her (a part of her probably still thought they wouldn't, and that she probably didn't deserve it anyway) but she still tried. And Ruby and Weiss accept her without questions. And honestly, the face Blake makes when she sees that Yang is also accepting her back and then they all invite her to the group hug still gets me every time.

She was obviously really happy that they'd forgiven her and that they gave her another chance that it's clear she was really trying to make the most of it. She clearly wanted to make up for lost time, and really make up for leaving, showing Ruby a bunch of times that she was always ready to follow her lead, reassuring Weiss after finding the bodies and... the whole thing with Yang. Because she felt guilty. But don't think Blake was feeling guilty because of the arm thing; at least, not anymore. She had reached a point where she understood that Adam's actions weren't her fault. No, she felt guilty because she left.

Yang had told her about Raven, and Blake knew that the poor girl had some serious abandonment issues (actually, Blake and Raven are kind of similar as well but with many differences, like the fact that they both tend to run away when they're scared, but for different reasons; one leaves by putting people in harm's way to protect herself, and the other because she wants to protect people in the wrong way. Eventually both get called out on that behaviour, and one responds with running away again, and the other with learning to not to run and face her fears. Both are foils of each other in Yang's eyes just like Yang and Adam in Blake's. Okay I'll continue). And Blake knew that when she left Yang, she most likely made said issues worse. Which is why she was trying so hard to make sure that Yang knew she wasn't leaving her again. She even actually tells her over and over again. “I'm not leaving”, “I'll hurry back”, “I'm not gonna break my promise, I swear”. Even during the Bees vs Adam fight, she says “I have people who actually care about me and I promised I'd never leave them again, so I'm not dying now”. That states two things:

1) She wants to fucking live, of course.

2) Blake is telling Yang that she is not going to die, not only because, as I said, she is a normal person who wants to live. But because she knows that, even if she would totally do it given the case, Yang doesn't want her to sacrifice herself for her, because then, she'd be leaving her again. She is telling Yang that she's not going to do that, and that they'd leave that place together.

But the thing is, Blake was trying SO hard to be there for her that she made things awkward, making Yang think Blake believed she was fragile and needed protection, which wasn't the case (I already talked about all this and Yang hating people taking care of her she thinks it makes her weak in the Yang analysis). And which is why Blake corrected herself and said “protecting each other”, as equals.

(Before people complain about how I'm talking too much about Yang in here, let's be clear: you can't make an Yang analysis without talking about Blake. Just like you can't make a Jaune analysis without talking about Pyrrha. You can't make a Salem analysis without talking a lot about Ozma. Or a Weiss one and not mention her entire family. Because that's what happens when you write a complex character with varied relationships with different characters - the relationships shape the character into what they are-. And Blake and Yang's arcs is so intertwined with the others' since the Fall of Beacon that you can't make an analysis of one without talking a lot about the other. Thus, I'm analyzing their relationship too, just like I'm talking about Sun, Adam and more. And yes, I'm doing this from the romantic perspective. Because, in case you hadn't noticed, the relationship stopped being platonic since Heroes and Monsters, and has been showing to be more and more romantic as the show goes on. It's been even confirmed to be romantic. So please, anon, I'm talking to you: if you don't like it stop reading lmao).

Now for the Adam part. Man, I can't even talk about this.

People complain that it didn't make sense that Blake seemed full of confidence at Haven when facing him, and then at Argus, she was terrified. Well, let me clear one thing up: the situation was totally different, dude.

At Haven, she was surrounded by people she knew they would help her: Sun, her parents, damn, even team RWBY. She had a whole army supporting her (and even with Sun's help, she wasn't dumb and she knew better than trying to follow him, because she knew him and knew that that's what he wanted). So of course she was going to feel safer then than being totally alone with that guy who had been stalking her across the world like a total creep. Like, thank God Yang appeared and helped her.

Once again, these three are all together again since the Fall of Beacon. This guy, who maimed and traumatized Yang in a way she will most likely never completely get over (as a person with PTSD, I know it gets better, but it will never entirely go away). Blake's ex boyfriend. A person she trusted and loved, and turned out to be completely different than he made her believe.

Blake's done with running away from him. And she's done with being afraid, because she is. But even though she's afraid, I love how during the entire fight, he tried to get in her head but Blake didn't let him. Because she was done with that. He had abused her, tried to kill her and the people she loved, took her innocence and confidence, even stole her own legacy. And she's not letting him do that again. Not now, and nevermore.

Sorry, I had to.

Blake and Yang give him multiple opportunities to leave. He didn't. We know how that ended for him. And even after that, Blake feels terrible about having to take his life, and feels guilty about it, or felt like she'd ruined the whole “let's steal an airship” plan. But luckily, she had all of her friends reassuring her and being completely understanding and loving, and honestly, I'll say it a million times: that scene between Ruby, Blake and Yang is one of my favorites.

Volume 7

We don't see much Blake during volume 7, to be honest. Yes, we get that great moment with Weiss and Jacques (fuck you). We get to see how she really hasn't forgotten about the whole Adam thing, and how killing him was haunting her in a way. We got to see her and Yang being the ones who reached out for Robyn (people with brains who don't try to take her out and try to make her and the HH allies instead. THANK YOU). We got to see her and Yang kicking some ass in the RWBY vs Ace Ops fight. And of course, we get confirmation (we already knew, but some people are blind and needed more. Some people won't understand until they kiss) of Bumbleby going the romantic way. And I liked that.

But neither Blake nor Yang had much of an individual arc or important stuff to do last volume (and I really hope that changes in volume 8). That annoyed me. But at the same time, I remember that they hadn't had a break since vol 3; Blake had never had one, actually, because every volume found the way to emotionally fuck her up in some way. And after losing limbs, being stabbed, having to deal with terrorists, with bandits, with terrible moms, with abandonment issues, with PTSD and depression, with an abusive exboyfriend they even had to end up killing to survive... I was kind of fine with both of them getting an “easy” volume where they didn't have to deal with big emotional arcs like that, and were just chilling and enjoying themselves for a little while. Still, I want them to be more important, both as a couple and individually, next volume.

Conclussion

As I said, Blake is my favorite character. She is a very flawed person who learns about her flaws and works hard to be better. She is incredibly brave, by far, the bravest character in the series, who overcomes her fears and her abuse and moves forward. Blake's arc, besides taking back her legacy and fighting for equality, is about her finally understanding that she's not to blame for others' actions, that she isn't poison. She learns to finally stop running from her fears and her guilt, to stop pushing others away, and realize that she deserves a second chance, that deserves forgiveness and love and friendship, and to be happy. Blake's entire personal journey is about her finding her path, about overcoming her abuse and trauma, and about learning to love herself. And I love it. I love her.

[wu-sisyphus-gang]

Motion Sickness 40

pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq

Damn Jaune.

I thought.

And damn myself for getting comfortable.

It was a sad thought. One of valedictions rather than of true cursing.

But I started to like him…

It was a thought of denial, one born of protest.

I was saying goodbye to Ren and Nora. We cremated them and had a short ceremony. Long funerals were mostly frowned upon across Remnant for the negativity such things tended to gather.

It hurt, more than saying goodbye to my father ever had. These were my family. These were my friends and I'd never hear their voices again. Ren and Nora had no family for us to send messages too, though we would have. They had no ancestral homes to be buried at. They were orphans. All they had were Jaune and Pyrrha and they were gone now too.

I missed Nora's bubbly personality and Ren's stoicism. I missed sitting with them for meals. I missed watching them dance around the others' feelings. So obvious to the rest of us, they never had time to explore one another.

"Our time is fleeting," Ozpin officiated. "Time always seems short. Even to me." He gave an empty laugh. None of us echoed it.

He opened the cremation jar and emptied it into the wind. Jaune should have been here for it. Instead he was bringing the relic to Salem. He should be here to collect their weapons. Instead it was Ruby who held onto them during the ceremony.

Titania wasn't heavy but those weapons sure were. I didn't envy Ruby who seemed to want to carry them. Nora's hammer which Yang seemed content to hold on to for our travels was neatly folded up. She attached it to her belt and put it behind her. As the bruisers of our teams, Yang and Nora had been fairly close.

I received one half of Stormflower from Ruby. I wasn't sure what to do with it. I didn't need a gun but it felt wrong that they should never see use again.

It was wrong.

Jaune should be here to take it. He would know what to do with the weapons. Even if it was just to have them buried.

Amongst the mayhem and chaos Mistral represented Jaune had been like a rock. Sturdy and absolute. In every situation he'd known what to do. Real confidence had been in his heart rather than the false stuff he'd tried to show off freshman year. It was little wonder then, why Ruby lashed herself to him. And now it seemed Ruby was sinking and there was nothing I could do about it.

She was in love with Jaune, our problem child. As little as we knew what to do about Nora and Ren, we knew even less what to do about Jaune.

Ozpin was convinced Jaune was some kind of sleeper agent and not a full blown traitor which only seemed to make things more complicated. If he was a traitor I'd at least know how to classify him. Instead it didn't even seem to be his fault. Well it was and it wasn't. Ruby was fully in his camp but that was always going to be the case, dating or not. She believed in her friends. It was hard to find a fault in her for that.

So I didn't.

Instead I admired it. Arguably she should have been hurt the most, instead she seemed almost ready. Ready for what I wasn't sure. She was adamant that we'd run into Jaune again. It was hard to fault her instincts either. Not when they'd led her so far.

She also didn't want to be felt sorry for. I respected that, too. Lords only know that if it had been me, I'd be in pieces.

I packed Stormflower in my briefcase, carefully wrapping it in cloth. I clicked the briefcase shut over it and tried not to think about it.

"Hard to believe they're all gone." Blake leaned by the door of Yang and my room.  

"JNPR is over. Felt just like that." Yang snapped her fingers. "Could have been us."

I shivered. "It basically was us. But for a chess piece at initiation."

"I don't want to think about that," Blake confessed. "RWBY is still whole."

"The girl or the team 'cause my sister hasn't handled this the best."

"Right. Our team, I suppose," Blake elaborated. "But she traveled with them, right? She was close to them all. Not even counting Jaune."

"They called it Team RNJR or JNRR," I said.

"Sounds painful."

"Like when our team was fractured," Yang said pointedly.

"Right." Blake sounded sheepish. "Except we came back together."

"Did we?" Yang asked. Her eyes red, and not just from tears. There beat a rage filled drum in her voice and it showed in her eyes.

"Well…" Blake trailed off.

"Really? You want to do this now?" I asked.

"Why not now? Should I let the cuts heal only to peel off the scab again?"

"I suppose." I granted. I didn't particularly like it, though. Our friends were barely in the ground, so to speak.

"You left us Blake. You left me. I was as partner-less as Jaune! I thought I'd never see you again. And the worst part was it was your decision. You didn't want to be around me."

"I-"

"You didn't even ask me if I'd go with you!"

I felt like an intruder. On the outside looking in as I knelt by my bed. I wasn't of course. And I could almost feel both of them expecting me to take their side. Yang's aura flared, a bright light in the room where Blake's seemed to cowl in on itself. A darkness that layered over again.

"I needed space. I needed time! Sun-"

"So what? Sun's good enough and I'm not?!"

"For your information he followed me. He didn't ask for my permission, he just came with me. I almost stabbed him over it." Blake anxiously pushed some hair behind her ear. Her human ear. "What happened to you was my fault. Adam came for me."

"Your crazy ex you never told me about? I thought we were past not telling each other things."

"I was trying to keep you safe! To protect you!"

"It didn't work!" Yang waved her prosthesis in Blake's face. "Ignorance may be bliss but it's not safe."

Point Yang. I was in her camp for that one. I was certainly tired of other people deciding what was best for me. I was way past that. It's why I supported her when she demanded that Ozpin be open with us.

"I'm sorry! I just couldn't bear the thought of you looking at me with hatred in your heart." Blake was crying. "Over this or over anything."

"Blake…" Yang protested. "I'd never do that to you. I just thought we were at a point where we'd struggle together. Even through the Whitefang stuff. Your problems are my problems. The way Jaune and my sister did. The way Ruby and Weiss are."

"I thought you'd hate me."

"I'd never hate you, Blake. I couldn't pull it off." Yang's aura looked distinctly cooler. Blake rubbed one arm with the other and wouldn't meet Yang's eyes. Couldn't.

"Is everything alright in here?" It was Ruby at the door. She already had her duffle bag in hand. Aside from that she was wearing Jaune's old hoodie. I guess she's gone through his things now that he was gone and found something she liked.

"We were just talking about when Blake left us," Yang answered.

"Ah," Ruby mumbled. "And is it…"

"We're getting somewhere," Blake said. "Thank you Ruby."

Ruby hovered at the door a moment longer before she said, "well I should…"

"Of course." Blake murmured. "Whatever you need."

I watched her go before I picked up my things. "Weiss?" Yang asked.

"You fools," I muttered. I followed Ruby. She didn't want to be excluded. It was the opposite of what she needed right now.

"They didn't mean anything by it." I caught up to Ruby and took her by the hand.

"I know."

"With everything else that's going on they just don't want to bother you with it."

"I know."

"It wasn't anything besides that."

"I know." I didn't feel anything from Ruby other than a quiet patience. I didn't get the sense that she was annoyed or flustered. In fact, her aura seemed reserved too. I could still taste the cinnamon and roses.

"We're all just worried about you."

She nodded. "I know. I…" She was masking and I hated to see it. I missed her energy. Her aura barely extended beyond her skin. If I wasn't touching her I doubt I'd have been able to feel it. It was a silenced, withdrawn thing.

"Are you feeling better today?" I asked.

"Not really I'm -um…" she trailed off.

"You just miss them. I know," I breathed.

She nodded. "We all do."

"But you feel so much more than most. Don't be afraid to talk to me. Ever. Please," I begged.

She wiped her hand across her face and took some silvery tears. "Everyone's treating me like I'm made of glass. And I am… and I am, but…"

I nodded and waited for her to get a head on her emotions.

"I'm not any more than anyone else should be." She finished at length. "And they're fighting."

"Yang felt like she had to," I said.

"Maybe she did. She's a fighter. She…" Ruby trailed off again and wiped some more of her tears away. "I want to go to sleep. I just want to sleep this away." She mumbled miserably.

I kissed her forehead. The kiss was not quick but held no passion.

"That's depression."

"Is it?" She asked.

"Yes. Little energy. It can be a symptom."

"I guess if you look at it like a sickness…"

"It is a sickness."

"That's very Weiss of you." She gave me a giggle and I felt a tidal wave of relief. The noise was quiet and simple.

"Well thank you." I managed. She traced her hand over the skin of one of my arms and I shivered.

"You've got goosebumps," she murmured.

"Well-I…" I cleared my throat and mastered myself. "Have you finished packing?"

She nodded. "I'm all set."

"Then we're just waiting on Yang and Blake now."

"They'll be ready before it's time to leave." She mumbled again. "Weiss, about the plan..."

"Me going on ahead, you mean."

"Yeah. I really don't like it."

"Me neither," I whispered. "But it might be the only way to get through to Ironwood. And it's only assuming Ozpin can't pass a message on to him using code."

"But if communication was up and running, they could do it from here. You'll be the message bearer Weiss. And I don't want to be split up from you."

"I know. I know. I'll miss you too Ruby."

"I wish Jaune were here," she confessed. "He'd come up with a plan."

"I'm sure you do. I bet he would, too. He was cunning like that."

"Is. He's not dead."

"Of course, I only meant…"

"I know," She muttered again. I found myself touching her face. The tips of my fingers grazing her cheeks and I watched in a sort of sick fascination as she leaned into the touch. Eyes closed. "I'm worried about you, Weiss."

"I'll be with the greatest military force on Remnant."

"That doesn't make you safe."

"What does safety even mean? Salem has a long reach. We thought Jaune was safe. I promise I'll be as safe as I can be." She reached up and pressed my hand against her face at that.

"And you'll stay away from your father."

"And… yes. I'll avoid him at all costs."

"Your sister… is she nice to you?" Ruby asked. "I only saw a little back at Beacon. I wasn't sure what to make of it."

A difficult question. Winter was always distant but that didn't put her in the same category as my father or brother. Or even my mother.

"Yes, I think so."

"Stay with her, then."

"What if Ironwood only lets Oscar through, though?" I let an unbidden fear out into the wild. I wanted it to be dissuaded. "What if he keeps you all back?"

"He won't. He works with Qrow too. At which point…"

"Right. That makes sense." I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Plus if you talk about knowing about the relics..." She sighed into my touch. She let out a little humming sound and smiled for what felt like the first time in years, though it had only been days. "Everything will be okay."

I nodded. "Everything will be fine."

"Ladies." Qrow came in on mechanical legs. "I'm not interrupting something, am I?" His gait was too smooth, his strides too even. It belied his mechanical nature.

He seemed to be genuinely asking and I took a step away from Ruby as though caught in some act. "We were just…" I trailed off.

"We were just talking about the mission," Ruby said.

"Ah, the mission." It was Oscar. Or maybe Ozpin. Probably Ozpin. "There's always more to discuss, and if I may, more to discuss about Jaune."

"He has the relic," Ruby went on.

"That he does. And he is a cunning mind second to none. I'm sure, given enough time, he will learn to use the relic. Which, I confess, is a little terrifying. And he only seemed to be growing stronger from my perspective."

"When he was at Beacon he was so weak, by the time he turned he was the strongest of us. And you're right, it was like with each day he was getting better," I muttered. "Limit Breaker… it was aptly named. It seemed like he was pushing himself every single day."

"Yes. I'm afraid of what he will be in Salem's hands. You knew him best Ruby. I'd like a moment of your time to talk it over with you."

"The kid's smart but his options are limited. We weren't sure what his next move will be. Whether we should report him to the police or not." Qrow said.

"I'm… I'm not sure. I never thought he'd turn on us. Turn on me."

"Well, now that he did, we need to come up with a plan." Qrow grumbled. He took a swig of his flask. "Whether that's keeping a watch out for him ourselves or reporting him."

"Yes… the relic may already be in Salem's hands. You may be happy to hear the Malachite reported seeing him, acting and walking about. She gave up this information freely to us. She seemed afraid of him."

Ruby did seem happy to hear that. "Then we've confirmed he's alive? And Malachite is watching out for him?"

"Only smart of her. The kid was strong, and fast." Qrow muttered as an afterthought.

"Is. You all keep talking about him in the past tense." Ruby said with some heat.

"Of course, Ms. Rose. You still believe in his innocence, then?"

"You were the one who came up with the theory of him being a sleeper agent, weren't you?"

"Only as a plausible. It may be that he saw now with the relic as the opportune moment to strike at us." Ozpin said. "We had an interesting conversation before he left. On why I let him into my school. He claimed that I only let him in because I thought he was Salem's agent. It could merely have been mind games, but it was enough to make me doubt that he was acting of his own volition when he took the relic. His possible status as a victim in all this remains only that, a possibility. More importantly, however, if he were a sleeper agent that still makes him a threat to us. He is still allied against us."

"Jaune'll lay low. If he doesn't want us to find him then we won't. He's too smart for that," Ruby managed. I rubbed her back with one hand. Actually talking and being involved seemed to be doing her some real good. Who was I to shut it down? This was more energy than I'd seen from her in days.

"Then the relic is truly lost to us. We put out feelers just in case but…" Ozpin shrugged. "We'll have to manage to keep the remaining relics out of her hands. And an ear to the ground where Jaune is concerned. In the longest term, however, the relic of knowledge is perhaps the most dangerous relic she could have acquired first. And Jaune is very dangerous. As dangerous as any of Salem's other agents."

Ruby's fists tightened by her sides.

"A question, Ms. Rose?"

"I have questions for Jaune, not for you."

"My apologies, then."

"You need to face the facts kido. He killed two of his so-called friends."

"Qrow, now may not be the time…" Ozpin began.

"What is it you think you know about him that I don't?" Ruby demanded. "Why wasn't the opportune moment all the times we were alone together?"

"That's easy. He didn't have his hands on a relic, then." Qrow grunted. He seemed as angry as Ruby was. That he didn't catch Jaune before. That he was weaker now than he used to be.

Ruby bristled at her uncle. Fists clenching and unclenching by her sides.

"You think he saw he shot and just took it?" I asked. "That's what you think of him?"

"It's as I said, a plausibility. And being forgiving on him for it will do us no favors." Ozpin said. "Jaune is brutal."

"Jaune is kind!" Ruby almost shouted. "He is sweet!"

"You have another explanation for what happened then?" Ozpin asked.

"We don't. Not yet." I said. I was backing Ruby. Nobody deserved it quite like my partner did. She would have my back. She had Jaune's back even when the odds seemed stacked against him.

"Then I'm afraid we will have to operate as though he is our enemy. We can't afford the risk."

"I'll show you. I'll find what I need to to prove you wrong!"

"Ms. Rose I very much hope that you do."

pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq

-WG

[tanakavox]

Look into the mutiverse chapter 4

Thanks again to ExiledDarkness for writing the charcters reaction for this chapter. Please go check out his stuff. And if your wondering where Qrow came from, We forgot to add a scene for Qrow and didn't feel like going back.

This chapter is based of the Youtuber SomecallmeJohnny and his review of Super Mario 64. I had to cut it short because my laptod was acting up again and google docs was acting wonky, parts of the fic getting erased. Rest assure for the Somecallmejohnny fans, I won't just do his reviews. I have plans to do Super gaming bros reaction as well. And for those who don't know Johnny, go check him! Enjoy the reaction.

The screen lights up again and shows Jaune wearing a cap and hoodie and sitting on a bright red couch. He had a bit of stubble on his face and he was currently holding a controller in his hand as he turned on a device known as the N64.

"Oh? Jaune looks good with stubble." Blake comments. Everyone looks at Jaune and then back to the one on the screen. They all nodded in agreement.

"It's a go time! Super Mario 64!" He said in a high pitched voice with a bad accent.

The Jaune on the screen sighed seemingly tired. "Lady and Gents welcome back to the Super Mario marathon, And just like with Ocarina of time, this is a game that haunted me during the N64 lifetime. Jaune looked the the N64 sitting on his dresser and continued. "It was like the console itself was actively mocking me like: "Hey Jauney? How about you ditch that playstation and try me out instead?" The blonde's eyes lit up in anger. "Well I didn't have a job in 1996 you sensitive prick!" Jaune snapped at the console.

Everyone blinked at the sudden anger. Ruby turned towards JNPR and asked, "Are you okay Jaune?"

Jaune, still frozen from the sudden burst of anger from his other self, snaps back to reality and nods at the question. "Yeah, I think I understand what's happening here. But I'll stay quiet until I know for sure."

Jaune turned toward the screen and went on like nothing happened. "Last time I gave Mario attention, I was focused on what made the Italian "Plumber—"" He said with quotation marks. "—the video game icon he is today. Now we're gonna do it again only in 3d."

Jaune turned to his audience and smiled. "You guys ready for another Super Mario marathon?"

"Aha!" Jaune says as he slammed his closed fist on his hand. "This is me doing video games!"

Ren paused at hearing this information. "Then that explains the sudden burst of anger then." Nora and Jaune nod while the rest of the audience looks on confusedly.

RWBY look at each other before Yang hesitantly asks, "So why did he get so angry?"

Jaune laughs before scratching the back of his head. "I like video games but I hate it when I can't progress further into the game. Sometimes I get really into it, I guess."

"Here we go, Super Mario 64, the 64 being figureded to the console and not the 64 game in the series, Mario's first 3d game, and a launch title for the N64. It was highly praised and hailed as the 3d version of what Super Mario bros on the NES did for platemors at the time, Mario 64 did the same. But I came into the 64 train late, So I don't have what you call: Super Mario 64 memories. In fact my first 3d Mario game was the next game we'll be looking at: Super Mario Sunshine on the GameCube. Jaune's expression darkened as he smiled hurmlousy. "But that can wait. Oh it can wait." The tone of his voice was bitter and venomous.

Everyone laughed now knowing the context of Jaune's anger towards video games.

"Alright booting the game up and the first thing you see is Mario's head. You know to really hammer in that this is Mario's first 3d adventure. You can even fuck around with the face a bit but it doesn't really effect the game it's just there for fun.

We're also greeted by Mario's new voice, provided by Charles Margent. Shockingly this isn't his debut as the Jumpman, that was in Mario Fundamental, a Pc game released a year before. Pretty sure no one heard of it before someone did a document on it.

"This idea of a floating Mario head, perhaps more infamously in Mario teaches typing two. A floating deformed head pop on the screen.

"Hey? Are you ready for Mario type?" It asked.

"Mother of God." Jaune deadpan in horror.

"Despite the new voice, Mario doesn't speak much. It's mostly hiyas woohoos throughout the game. And he only speaks a full phase when he completes a goal or he falls asleep on the job. It shows the red clad mario on the ground sleeping.

"Ha spatgai, Ha ravioli." The plumber mutters in his sleep.

Nora drools over the names of food. They sound pretty good right now.

"Charles as Mario is so absorbed into my head I can't imagine anyone else doing the role. It's not like the acting is amazing or anything, he's been voicing Mario for nearly 20 years at this point. If Charles stepped out of the role for any reason, the next guy would just try to simulate Charles' voice.

"It's weird that way," Ren piped up, "No matter what happens people are going to remember the original no matter how much the new one tries to be the old one.

"Hear hear ninja boy" Qrow cheered a bit and took a swig of his beer.

"Okay nearly forgot that I was looking at a video game, Sorry about that. Well let's look at that plot shall we?"

"I'm curious to hear about the kind of story this game might have," Ozpin said as he crosses his legs.

"Boswer kidnaps Princess Peach, Mario must go save her, now that didn't take long now did it?"

Ozpin blinked and sat back in his seat, a bit disappointed.

"I'll let it slide this time since they probably wanted to keep it safe for the first game in 3d. Hell, the menu theme is the main theme for the series."

Qrow snorts. "Fair enough. I guess you can't expect these guys to be that ballsy."

The entire game is set in Peach's castle. Boswer has taken the power star, which I believe gives the castle power? Jaune shrugged. I dunno what they do, it's not really explain and getting more powerstar allows you to get into more levels, and that's the name of the game here. Bowser had set up routine courses in painting.

"The courses tend to varies but nothing here gets too crazy like other Mario games. It's not until late game you go to more odd place like in a clocktower or riding rainbow.

"The game's openness is the first thing you'll take note of in Mario 64. You can start a mission with a hint on what to do,but there is nothing stopping you from just doing a different mission and grabbing the star despite not being the mission you clicked on.

There are a handful of expectations like racing against against Koopa the quick who not gonna show up unless you chose his mission, but most of the time you can go at it on your own pace. Eh, I didn't wanna fight King Bo-mb yet, I want free the chain chomp and get the star there. I could take down King twop, or I could do a well place jump and get this unrelated power star. And that's where a lot of Mario's replay value comes in, not just getting the power star but how you get them.

"Oh, this game sounds fun! I should get it if we ever get out of here." Nora exclaimed.

"With what money Nora?" Jaune asked. Nora looked at Jaune with a wide smile. "No." Jaune deadpan. Nora pouted at his response and turned to Ren with a wide smile.

"No Nora. And do not ask Weiss either." Ren said with his eyes still on the screen and Nora pouted again.

Peach's castle acts as a hub world, the place you're exploring and using to get to other stages to get more power stars. But in order to duke it out with Bowser, you need to get a certain amount of power stars to access the level. As a guy who doesn't care for hub worlds I don't mind Peach's castle. The levels aren't too far apart and there are things you can do in the castle that can help you increase your star count. Like a secret race track that gives you two stars if you're fast enough, or an underwater level that contains an easy to get star. It challenges you in a way that makes it still feel like a Mario game.

"It sounds pretty easy at first glance, but I can understand how annoying it can become if you mess up at least once or twice." Jaune says. Ruby, Nora, and even Ren nod in agreement.

The biggest change to the formula was the jump to 3d, like with Ocarina of Time. He still has to break boxes, stomp on enemies, the works but this game gave the man a few extra moves to go along with the change to 3d. The analog stick is used to move Mario, the further you tilled it the faster he moves, instead of the run button we knew from the past game. Mario still has the jumps he's famous for, but pressing the jump button can allow Mario to reach the heights he's never seen until this game without a power up. He can crouch and crawl but I've only used this a total of once. But you standstill and jump you can do a backflip, and if you crouch and run you can do a long jump which I love using so much and because you can do some real fancy shit with it, and it makes Mario move faster to boot. If you snap the anlong back and jump he can do a somersault and if you jump towards a wall, Mario can wall jump as well.

Nora makes a face at the detailed review. "All these moves and stuff sound annoying. Why can't games be as simple like they are now?!"

Ren sighs and begins to explain but Qrow cuts in. "It's because of games like these were like test models that you get to play the good quality games you have now. I remember playing Soaring Ninja back when he was literally unplayable and useless. Now look at him!"

Ruby and Yang gasp, Soaring Ninja was unplayable?

"I wouldn't be surprised if this move came from the gameboy version of Donkey kong. That remake has a fucklord of levels and a handstand jump for Mario. He still takes damage if he falls too far, so he's just a pale imitation. Jaune had Mario wall jump a wall to prove a point. "The Mario I know could fall from any height and take no dam-" Jaune cut himself off his eyes widening when he heard Mario grunt in pain and his health go down a bit. "WHAT THE FUCK! He took damage from a large height! Mario! What's the meaning of this?" He asked in bewilderment, looking at the floating Mario head from earlier."

"Oh nice computer you have here. Can I have it?" the Mario head asked

"No!" Jaune exclaimed.

Everyone's eyes widened at the scene. Ozpin checked his mug with scrutiny to see if he was still drinking the right drink. Looked normal enough.

"Peach's castle has 120 power stars in the castle, but you only need 70 of them to beat the game." Jaune had a strained smile on his face as he continued. But where the fun in just getting 70 power star and beating the game that way, it not like getting all the star is that time com- for fuck sakes yes it is!"

"Let's just get one thing clear, I fucking depise the 100 coin misson. It's as simple as it sounds, grab 100 coins and then grab the star that appears over your head. Lather rinse repeat, for all 15 courses. In a game that usually has you go to once place and grab the star, collecting these coins brings the game to grueling crawl. Mario 64 doesn't have a checkpoint system. It doesn't bother me much. The levels are usually small and with Mario's new moves getting the Power star is not only comartable, it's also pretty fucking fun. And then their these." That venomous tone from before came back. The screen showcased the blue coins that have appeared throughout most of the video so far.

"Aw it's one of those games! The type that needs you to waste your time actually going through all of what the game has planned for you before you get to the final boss! What a rip off!" Qrow exclaims, tossing his hands in the air. Jaune agrees, crossing his arms and trying not to join in on the rage.

"No amount of looking of cute puppies. can cotain the amount of rage i have when I fuck up these mission with a impeferct jump or when a enemey hits me from behind. It's not always a painful process, but sucks so hard cause the coins are either place so far part or because they're so goddamn scarce! "Gotta kill those enemies before the coins blink away and scatter when they spawn. These blue coins are 5 regular coin a piece but you gotta get them before they blink away and you only got one shot! Was there area I didnt search, an enemy I skipped, I did I fuck up somewhere since I only have 64 coins after look around what feels like for fucking ever?!

"And try not get the last coin in a dangerous area or impossible to backtrack to. The star will always appear right above Mario's head, so make sure it's a safe locati-GODDAMN!"

The star had appeared in a caged area that Mario couldn't reach.

Everyone laughed at the other Jaune's misery. The Arf viewing the screen feels relieved that he himself isn't on the receiving end. Or was he?

"Couldn't just tell the star to come to you Mario?" Jaune asked the Mario head on his computer.

"When a moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, that's amore!" Mario began to sing and Jaune facepalm when he didn't get answered. "When an eel lunges out…

"UNGAI?!" Jaune jumping up. A eel appeared and let out a roar and Jaune wasn't in his chair anymore, It being left spinning by how fast he booked it.

"That's amore!" Mario finished singing and chuckled. Get it? Amore eel? I said funny.

"Fuck you!" Jaune said from somewhere in the house.

All the immature audience members fell out of their seats in laughter while the more mature chuckled at the scene.

At the end of the day, I really shouldn't be going for all the Power star, and that's more of a technical issue, but I'm gonna bitch anyway. But despite the age, this game is still a treat to play even today. This has been Somecallmejohnny, and you guys have a Good Day.

Nora stretches and yawns. "Well, that was a nice one. Funny too! I wonder what's next?"

The end

[itsclydebitches]

I’m wlw. While, I’m not going to shame WLW members of the FNDM, bumblby pisses me off. V6 skipped development for both characters for the sake of “confirming” it, but I thought there scenes in V7 were cute. At first. Then it felt like RT dangling gay keys in front of my face. Now they’re attached to the hip while giving the het. ship (Renora) independence. Yang doesn’t care what Ruby thinks and only Blake was upset by her fall. What are your thoughts?

I’ve touched on their relationship quit a bit over the years, on and off, so I’ll try to summarize those big thoughts here: 

I like the ship. I’ve always liked the ship. I’ve never been a die-hard fan like some, but as soon as I entered the fandom and realized they were a thing I went, “Oh yeah, I can see that. I’m on board!” 

Which isn’t to say I’m always a fan of how people engage with them. It’s a fact that every major ship in any fandom is going to have its annoying, dramatic, and toxic elements. It’s also a fact that RWBY has developed a reputation for being particularly vitriolic. I think a lot of the hate towards Blake/Yang stems less from what we actually got in the canon and more from bad experiences from a small subset of fans. Not everyone. Not even the majority. But enough that casual fans, Blake/Sun fans, those who dislike the ship, etc. have reached a point where bmblb is a) so incredibly prominent and b) at times so heated that even a fellow shipper can grow frustrated at the state of the “RWBY” tag. This then bleeds into our reading of the canon material. After all, if you’re frustrated about seeing this pairing so often in fandom spaces and/or you’ve had a bad run-in with someone who ships them, seeing even more of them on Saturday will exacerbate those feelings. 

This is a frustration that’s increased as the show still refuses to make the relationship canon. Crafting scenes each week where something semi-romantic occurs, but isn’t enough to confirm a relationship (like the forehead touch) creates a branching number of annoyances, from “Oh my god how is this still not canon” to “Here’s another week of the whole fandom claiming it is canon.” Those “dangling gay keys” are a problem both for those desperate to see the relationship confirmed because they love it and those desperate to see the relationship confirmed so the characters can begin focusing on other aspects of their identities. “Attached at the hip” feels too close to queer baiting for comfort while simultaneously too narrow a depiction of Blake and Yang. Surely they have concerns and relationships outside of each other. 

I agree entirely that the relationship was rushed in some respects. However, there’s a post somewhere in the depths of my blog where I argue strongly that queer relationships should be allowed to be rushed, simply because so many het ships are too. I stand by that. I understand the frustration of moving from the two interacting primarily as teammates to suddenly holding hands, but that’s a gap that appears in many, many non-queer pairings. Jaune is a great example. Though we introduced Pyrrha’s interest in him from the get-go, he was running after Weiss for his whole time at Beacon, got a little closer to Pyrrha, she suddenly kissed him, and then... we’re meant to believe they were madly in love? His grief is certainly written in a way to imply as much. The cultural expectation of the guy losing the girl just fills in the rest, we didn’t actually see it on screen. So I both agree and disagree. I always want RWBY to be better written, but I also don’t want to hold our queer pairings to standards we don’t demand of the het ones. That way lies a lot of excuses for why it “can’t” ever happen. I’d rather have poorly written and rushed representation than no representation at all. 

Agree entirely about there being a problem with Yang’s fall. Blake’s reaction was fine. The lack of reaction from everyone else was not. As I said in my recap, you can’t prove their love by taking love away from these other relationships. Making Ruby seemingly care less about her sister will not convince me that Blake cares a great deal. Though this is a problem RT has across the whole cast, tying into that “attached at the hip”ness. Characters tend to have one (1) relationship and that’s it. RT really struggles to write a cohesive group, instead creating a collection of duos that happen to inhabit the same space. I can see places where they’ve been trying to correct that this volume  — Yang speaking to Ruby about Summer, Nora talking to the girls about Ren  — but moments like Blake’s talk with Ruby really struggle. In that, these characters haven’t spoken in seven seasons, so all Blake has to say is a generic, ‘I believe in you’ that comes across as stilted and unpersuasive  — we can see the writers trying to convince us that Ruby is The Best and that these girls have a relationship when they... don’t. And scenes like Yang’s fall show us that these underlying struggles are still at work. RT doesn’t know how to craft a scene where everyone reacts because Yang is a well-rounded person sporting a deep and unique relationship with three other teammates. They know how to craft a scene where the one (1) relationship takes centerstage and everyone else becomes cardboard cutouts. 

As for renora’s independence, I need to side with RWBY on this one. The entire point of this arc is that Nora realized she is also attached at the hip and wants to do something about it. That’s a good thing! Whether or not RT actually manages to write a relationship where they’re together without being entirely co-dependent remains to be seen, but splitting them in this last episode was a good start. Similarly, the show did separate Blake and Yang for the majority of this volume and now may have separated Yang from the group for a significant length of time. That’s not the same thing as the girls realizing they need space like Nora did... but then, they aren’t in an acknowledged relationship like Nora is. I don’t think it’s fair to compare them when Yang and Blake haven’t even reached the point where they’re talking about their relationship, let alone what that looks like going forward, and therein lies my real criticism. In order to see the depth RT is trying to give to renora, they have to actually make bmblb canon first. It all comes back to that. The question of queerbaiting, how they find healthy boundaries, how they compare to other relationships in the show... there’s no real groundwork to discuss any of that until we can say, 100%, that they are, in fact, a couple. 

[coweggomelet]

volume 6 lads

from what i remember this one is similar to 4 in that it gives us a bit of an emotional break

don’t get me wrong i know there’s some stuff but i think overall it’s a little less intense

- ahhhh they’re all fighting together againnn it feels so right

- hey. hey yang and blake. i’m gonna need you to stop. cause my little heart can’t take it

- this dude really was challenged once and had a full blown murder tantrum. that’s fragility my guy

- ruby is SO CUTE look at her little happy face

- oh yeah. take a train. you guys have a great track record with trains

- i also keep getting like three versions of the same ad about getting vaccinated and it’s got all these workers from tv & movie sets and it’s so awkward this one guy looks so annoyed during his whole part

- it’s not just the turrets y’all oz is withholding shit once again

- don’t fuckin shove my boy!!

- i love that qrow immediately steps back when ruby comes forward. like he 100% respects not only her authority as a team leader but also her ability to solve situations and talk to people. he knows man. he knows his niece is something else

- MARIAAAAA MY GIRLL YES

- uh oh the train crashed. who could’ve seen that coming

- cinder really is just too angry and spite filled to die isn’t she

- hehe maria you’re funny

- it’s so funny that oz is still refusing to tell them everything knowing that everything is revealed in the next episode

- oh oz. i know he was your friend. but all these kids saw was the insane amount of harm and death he caused. trying to defend him to them is not gonna go well

- oscaarrr i love you!! you’re so good!!

- oooo chills

- uuugghh i love jinn she’s so cool

- oz. my dude. the ship has sailed. you can’t stop this anymore

- this, my friends, is what we call a lore episode

- this whole sequence gives me chills it’s so gooood

- eurgh i hate how the god of darkness moves like i get it it’s part of the aesthetic but you really don’t need to do that it’s creepy

- salem was so smart to use a super powerful sibling rivalry to get what she wanted

- she really didn’t deserve to watch the love of her live just get revived and killed over and over again

- jeez the gods are assholes. they’re all oooohh maintain balance and then they torture a woman who just wanted her husband back by making her live forever. for what??? for daring to be smart?? ugh

- c’mon gods you gotta respect the hustle

- you think that making someone immortal will make them realize the importance of life and death?? idiots

- god her face

- she’s so smart what the FUCK

- “the hearts of men are easily swayed” really reminds me of galadriel’s “the hearts of men are easily corrupted” in lotr

- a couple hundred humans attack them and the god of darkness decides “you know what? i’m gonna eliminate all of humanity. that feels like the right choice. yeah. i feel good about this.”

- the fact that salem wasn’t even like… a real villain until she tried to kill herself in order to escape her torture and suffering and the grimm juice made her Big Mad

- like it wasn’t even her, it was the grimm juice. i really do believe that without that she wouldn’t have become salem the Villain

- i’m sorry i don’t know a ‘deathly hallows’ i only know the relics

- ohhh fuck i forgot about this!!! oh rwby’s totally gonna end with the gods judging humanity when the relics are brought together. maybe not end end but it’s definitely gonna be close to the end and it’ll be a Big Thing where they strategize about how to convince the gods that humanity is good

- obviously the first maidens weren’t their kids but boy is there a theme going on here. and maybe even something plot relevant cause their kids could do magic

- all the main characters being able to witness this and us seeing their reactions is such a good touch like god, the impact of this reality is so much heavier because we get to see the characters actually affected by it react to watching it unfold before them

- ohhh my boy. you didn’t deserve this burden before but now that you know fully what it means you really don’t deserve it. i mean look at him!!!

- oh qrow!!! you are doing good! i mean i get it, your whole world’s been shattered and the man you gave your life to lied to you about a lot of important shit but you are doing good i promise!!

- fuck yeah maria use your sassy wise old lady authority

- oh god emerald you poor thing you’re just a babey— oh god i felt salem’s hand on emerald’s shoulder fuck dude this show is so effective

- truly, this is a master class in manipulation

- uh oh salem your ex is back

- UH OH ITS THE FARM RUN YALL

- i like that weiss is wearing what looks like very thin tights, a strapless dress, a lil jacket thing, and the animators said “here she’s got a scarf she’s warm now”

- ruby didn’t kill torchwood y’all, he got chomped. like a lil bitch

- oh god this episode

- yaaaayyy

- before this episode my friend went “you ready for some horror?” and was grinning

- oh yeeeaaah the corpses. lovely

- god as soon as they opened the door to where the cellar entrance is it immediately started affecting weiss

- oh the DOOR nope no thank you get the fuck OUT

- watching this show with my friend was also the origin of me being sad cause this shit is sad and her going “oh i’m having a great time” and this episode in particular she was enjoying herself WAY TOO MUCH if you ask me

- little jump scares kept getting me and she LAUGHED and said “that got you?!?” YES it DID i’m a WUSS

- oh the journals!!! the way they incorporated that was so interesting and added SUCH good creepiness and suspense without giving it all away or ramping it up too fast

- ruby’s so good i love her!!

- uuugghh it’s getting them already how haven’t they noticed???

- the eyes got me good the first time

- their weird fuckin attitudes were the creepiest part of this episode

- ruby said not my friends you bitches

- mariaaaa i love you you’re so smart

- god when they’re reading from the journal at the very end…

- neo’s so tiny!!

- talk about some girlbosses 

- MARIAAAAA YOURE SUCH A BADASS i love her backstory

- love her outfit too

- OOOO THE FUCKIN CROCODILE CLOCK LADY ooooo this is so cooooool

- the ticking!!!!

- oh maria you poor thing. but also you’re so smart like that was such a good move

- aww haha qrow’s a fan. awww he based his weapon off hers!! we love a fanboy

- “i wanted to be as good as the grimm reaper.” “well, im nothing but a disappointment, so you’re well on your way” DAMN MARIA SAVAGE

- oh nice they made to argus! NOW SHOW ME THE BABY

- “CUTE BOY OZ” me too nora

- THE BAAAABBYYYY

- and jaune’s sister and her wife!! I LOVE THEIR GAY LIL FAMILY

- yang is good with kids. marry me

- YOURE GODDAMN RIGHT THATS A BABY AND I LOVE HIM

- HUN!! god i love saph and terra

- “shut up there’s food!” heh me too ruby

- aahhh cordo

- she and maria are totally exes who had a bad breakup and now they hate each other. a tenzin/lin situation if you will

- jaune… my boy… i know you’re angry but oscar is really trying his best

- “i don’t know anything” me neither ruby

- wait cinder didn’t have her grimm arm yet so how did ruby’s ability trigger?

- uh oh my boy’s missing

- remember when you were having fun being the bad guy emerald. remember that. it’s almost like… it was only fun for you cause cinder was there

- it makes me so sad that not only did emerald actually believe that cinder cared about her, but she actually considered cinder family and her emotional health was so connected to cinder being there

- “all you ever learned was pain and violence and now you’re too afraid to leave it” tyrian excuse me i’m the one with the commentary and analysis that’s rude stay in your lane

- oh god oh fuck. the pyrrha statue is comin up isn’t it

- AH FUCK THE LEAF

- oh there she is. my love

- i still wanna know who this lady is. like she’s even the same voice actor as pyrrha. and she’s got red hair. i don’t think pyrrha ever talked about family members, but my money’s on her mom

- this moment fuckin got me dude. i was doing the full tearing up, lil sniffles, choked up thing. uuuuggghh

- god they love each other so much

- i am NOT gonna cry again

- oh qrow. you poor thing

- THE BABYYYY HI ADRIAN DO YOU KNOW I LOVE YOU

- young man!! you scared us half to death! do you know what time it is??

- his lil outfit i i looovveee hiiimm

- oscarrr!! you’re so sweet!!

- THE CASSEROLE

- FUCK YEAH RUBY TELL HIM

- qrow’s like… damn. ruby’s right

- here we goooo infiltration time

- oh FUCK yeah they kill adam soon

- adrian what a smart babyyyy i love youu

- hehehehehe maria is luggage

- honestly this is such a good plan it just goes to shit cause these kids can’t catch a fuckin break

- y’all need. to stop. looking. at each other. like that.

- qrow stop being emo

- mariaaaa i love youuuu you’re such a great old lady

- uh ohhhh problems with blake

- i would love it if they used qrow’s semblance strategically. like in some sort of heist/infiltration situation, sending him behind enemy lines to fuck up their luck

- ruby’s so good at speeches

- depressed? feeling bad about yourself? feeling emo and riddled with guilt? just get a Ruby Speech(TM) and you'll be cured!

- qrow’s face

- oh yeaaaahhh big metal guy

- cordo

- hey cordo

- are you uh

- maybe takin it a lil too far

- why are so many atlas military people so fuckin intense with maintaining order and big shows of power and controlling other people???

- ADAM YOU BITCH YOURE GONNA DIE

- yeah you’re a source of trauma for her but GUESS WHAT SHE HAS A SUPPORT SYSTEM

- at this point dude it’s real pathetic how obsessed with blake you are

- thank god for auras or falling damage would be a much bigger problem

- cordo can you maybe chill

- weiss earthbended!!

- jaune you’re so smart

- ren said things may be complicated but boy oh boy do i care about that strong lightning lady

- “rightfully in charge??” shut up cordo and go be gay with maria

- noooo her fun coat!!

- oooo Dramatic waterfalls

- YES BITCH IM SO PROUD OF YOU YOUVE LEARNED SO MUCH

- adam i’ll kill you

- YEEEAHHHH WHAT AN ENTRANCE YANG MARRY MEEEE

- aaaaggghh the music holy shit

- i love how the fight scenes progress through the volumes it’s so cool

- the parallels between yang and adam are also really interesting. like their semblances, their tendency to lead with strong emotions. interesting

- ooooo he doesn’t like when they look at each other hehehehehe SHE HAS A GIRLFRIEND NOW BITCH HAHA

- HOLDING HAANDSSS THEYRE SO GAY

- he’s so basic too. like he looks like a frat boy.

- y’all do your jobs. there’s a big water boy coming but you don’t know cause you’re too busy being goddamn bootlickers

- oscar is so smart and ruby is so brave i love themmm

- uh oh cordo it’s a ruby speech watch out

- ya she is nuts

- THEYRE GONNA WIN CAUSE THEYRE IN LOVE

- ya but you’re a bitch adam and yang is fuckin amazing

- I LOVE THIS FIGHTTTT

- yeet the blake

- FUCK YEAH YANG GET HIM

- i fucking love that they killl him with the pieces of blake’s weapon. like there’s something to that. they kill him with the pieces of a thing he destroyed

- if he wasn’t dead enough he got crunched too

- I LOVE THEM

- hahahahaaaaa cordo they got you

- yeah cordo!!! argus is danger cause you were more worried about fucking “proving the might of atlas” or whatever against some teenagers you fool

- ohhhh shiiiittt cinder’s atlas outfit!! they’re going to a super cold snowy place and cinder said you know what i should wear short shorts and a sleeveless top with super tall boots and a lil cape. that’ll work. and she’s right. it does. have i mentioned i love cinder?

- uh oh big boy swims watch out

- cordo shut up this your own fuckin hubris

- god cordo’s desperation is so heartbreaking

- when are people gonna learn to trust ruby and her friends man

- their willingness to keep fighting and risk their lives and also a Ruby Speech(TM) made cordo believe in them which i love

- i love jinn she likes lil ruby and her friends

- hi summerrrr

- cordoooo i’m so proud of you. she gave up part of this insane symbol of atlas’s power to help ruby and her friends. like she put aside her own ego and i’m so proud of her

- fuck yeah!!!

- awww such a good uncle

- damnnn atlas is gorgeous

- even mercury is terrified by salem’s weird grimm shit

- the fuckin wicked witch with her flying gorillas

[bloodraven55]

“But Bumbleby was rushed/forced to pander to the gays—”

There are a number of glaring flaws in this argument, most of all the fact that no straight relationship is ever called “forced” or “pandering” even if people don’t like it, let alone “rushed” when it’s only on the verge of officially happening seven seasons into the show, but I want to break down all of the many levels on which it’s wrong in order to hopefully kill it once and for all.

“It came out of nowhere—”

Jaune was crushing on Weiss the second he saw her, Sun was crushing on Blake the moment he saw her, Pyrrha developed feelings for Jaune in just one Volume and showed some interest from the moment she saw him, and Blake goes from being consistently annoyed at Sun throughout Volumes 1 and 2 to suddenly having a crush on him in Volume 3.

If Bumbleby supposedly “came out of nowhere,” then so did W/hite Knight, A/rkos, and B/lacksun. But no one ever has an issue with the speed at which those characters started having romantic interest in each other. And I’m not even saying they should—they’re all very valid ships and whether they came out of nowhere or not isn’t the point of this—but there’s a clear double standard applied to same sex ships as opposed to heterosexual ships here and it invalidates this point right out of the gate.

“It was rushed—”

Blake and Yang are only just now close to becoming an official couple after more than six whole Volumes of knowing each other. There is no possible universe where this would qualify as “rushed.” Again, W/hite Knight and B/lacksun albeit both one-sided at least to begin with both became obvious things within literal episodes of the characters meeting, and Jaune and Pyrrha were showing blatant romantic interest in each other by Volume 2 before kissing in Volume 3.

In the last case you can argue that it went at a faster pace because Pyrrha was going to die, but that doesn't change the fact that no one complained that it went too quickly—or about the other two ships I mentioned which were both initially based solely on one (1) instance of a guy showing interest in a girl—and yet people say it’s too soon for Blake and Yang to get together when they’ve had over twice as long for their relationship to develop.

“The shippers forced it into the show—”

I don’t think I even need to add any more here when the words of CRWBY speak for themselves.

“Toxic shippers think everything is gay—”

I mean, I’m gay and I only truly ship a handful of the possible same sex pairings in the show—certainly far from the majority of them—and I also ship a number of straight ships, but go off I guess.

I already made a post on this here, but it’s insanely dismissive and ridiculous for heterosexual people i.e. the ones who usually use this “argument” to assume that they know better than actual LGBT+ people what is or isn’t good LGBT+ representation, and for them to assume that just because they missed build up that it therefore isn’t there.

I can’t take someone seriously when they go into a discussion determined to believe that they’re already right and don’t listen to a word you say to prove otherwise, especially when they’re debating on a topic which doesn’t directly affect them and which they don’t have the same level of firsthand knowledge of.

“The wasps only care about Blake and Yang getting in each other’s pants—”

Actually, it’s the people who are most aggressively against Blake and Yang being a couple that tend to reduce their relationship to being entirely about sex even though they haven’t had a single remotely sexual interaction in the show, but if this were true then surely Bumbleby shippers would be very unhappy with the show because Blake and Yang have still not “got in each other’s pants,” or “swapped clit juice” as I once saw someone tastefully describe it?

But that isn’t right. Because in general us Bee shippers are currently exceedingly happy with everything that’s happening in the show to do with Blake and Yang’s relationship. So how can that be if all we care about is whether they fuck or not?

The answer is of course that we don’t only care about whether they fuck or not—in fact most of us couldn’t care less whether it’s ever so much as hinted that they have sex, both because the show almost certainly won’t ever go there and because that isn’t our priority—we’re just enjoying watching them fall in love.

Honestly this argument is one of the most lazy because one look at RWBY will tell you that none of the romances are at all sexual thus far so any shippers who truly only care about that aspect wouldn’t stick around very long when they’ll just end up disappointed. And of course the way that these people inherently view same sex relationships as sexual is homophobic and disgusting too.

“CRWBY rushed it to give the rabid shippers what they want—”

Like the last two points, this is a “criticism” that I’ve only ever seen levelled at same sex ships and never straight ships, so it’s yet another example of double standards and hypocrisy, but that’s only the start of what’s wrong with it.

The most galling thing about this is that these people insist that all LGBT+ people because as I’ve already mentioned that is always the group which statements like this are aimed at just want to see two characters of the same gender make out as soon as possible, which is simply not true.

No one would ever claim that straight people just want to see a man and a woman get it on as soon as possible and dismiss the worth of a straight relationship because of it. So it’s ridiculous to try and force that logic onto shippers of same sex ships, who are primarily LGBT+ people themselves.

If anything, we care even more about the quality of our ships—how healthy they are, whether they’re well built up or not, etc.—because we hardly have any to begin with in comparison. If one straight ship is rushed or poorly written, then there are plenty of well-handled ones to choose from instead, but the same isn’t the case for same sex ships.

We want to be represented well, which means that we want healthy relationships with plenty of development where the characters actually have chemistry and complement each other. We might still support rushed or badly-written same sex ships sometimes because it’s still representation which we are overall sorely lacking, but we don’t want them.

“But they ship baited with Blake and Sun—”

First off, straight ships can’t be baited the same way that same sex ships can. It’s simply not a comparable situation. But of course B/lacksun shippers are entitled to feel disappointed that their ship didn’t become canon. That’s utterly valid and understandable. However, that doesn’t mean that the writers or the show in any way misled viewers regarding what was happening.

“But Sun winked at Blake—”

And Yang also winked at Blake in Volume 2 while asking her to the dance, just like Sun winked at Blake in Volume 1 and then asked Blake to the dance. And Blake turned Sun down when he asked initially, specifically told him that they were only “technically” going together when she ran into him outside, and told him definitively that she had chosen to give her first dance to Yang.

“But Blake blushed at Sun—”

And now she’s also blushed at Yang, in a far more intimate scene at that. Next point.

“But Sun met Blake’s parents—”

And? Simply meeting someone’s parents doesn’t on any level automatically imply romance. Ghira didn’t even like Sun, and while a lot of people like to claim that Kali “ships it” which would be extremely flimsy evidence to base the canonicity of a ship on anyway, she’s someone who would do the same with anyone Blake brought home so it means nothing. If Blake had actually chosen to take Sun home with her herself then this would be a valid point, but she didn’t, so it has no weight whatsoever overall.

“But Blake kissed Sun on the cheek—”

And I kiss my mother on the cheek the exact same way every time I say goodbye to her. If you think that type of kiss on the cheek has to be romantic then quite frankly I’m not sure what world you’re living in. If the camera had been close up, if there had been any shots at all of their reactions, any blushing or lingering looks, a more private setting— literally anything to give it some actual weight and make it feel significant, then this might mean something, but it’s framed as a totally platonic goodbye with zero romantic coding.

And that’s without even mentioning the fact that right after that moment Sun flat out states that his time with Blake was “never about [romance],” which sort of kills the idea that anything about that scene was supposed to be taken as romantic. There was no reason to include that line except to make it clear to the audience that Sun and Blake parted ways as friends who now have no intention of ever becoming anything more.

Seriously, if they wanted us to think that there was still something there, then Blake would have been shown to be thinking about or missing Sun even one since they separated, but he hasn’t been brought up for even a second. If they wanted to set up a continuation of anything romantic for them when the group reach Vacuo, say, then they would have started doing it by now.

Plus the reverse argument that Blake and Sun have never hugged or held hands—both of which Blake and Yang have done multiple times—works just as well, perhaps even better since handholding is a well-established romantic cue in the show already thanks to A/rkos, R/enora, and O/zma and Salem.

“But why was Sun even there in Volumes 4 and 5 then—”

Because Blake needed a friend who she could exposition to about her thought processes and personal problems so that the audience could understand what she was going through, and she wasn’t as likely to open up to her parents about that stuff right away when she was convinced they’d hate her for leaving.

Sun was there to support Blake as she developed and to tell her that running away hurt the very people she was trying to protect. That was his narrative role in that arc. There was nothing to indicate that a romance was being built in those more than twenty episodes they spent together and if it was going to happen that would have been the time to do it.

On the other hand Blake and Yang’s shared arc together is built on the fact that Blake’s romantic ex, who Blake had already directly contrasted with Yang and whose Semblance was already a foil to Yang’s, maimed Yang specifically because Blake loves her. The basis of that arc has romantic weight, which is what makes the difference here. Though the scene at the end of Volume 3 where Adam takes Yang’s arm isn’t romantic in and of itself, I should clarify, it just has romantic significance in that it makes it clear that Blake and Yang’s feelings go beyond mere friendship.

In short, the summary of this whole section pretty much boils down to: two characters spending time together doesn't inherently equal romantic development, and it isn’t in any way “baiting” if those two characters don’t then get together.

The characters’ feelings follow a fairly logical progression over the course of the show, with Blake showing interest in both Sun and Yang in V1-V3, then ceasing to show interest in Sun after that as their relationship becomes totally platonic by Volume 5/the beginning of Volume 6 at the very latest, while the events of the Fall of Beacon only solidified how strong her feelings for Yang were and once she reunites with Yang their relationship begins to head towards romance.

It’s a pretty realistic depiction of how human feelings work, and a far less messy situation than in a lot of other shows where there isn’t the same massive level of hatred and vitriol towards the “victorious” pairing, because this was never even really presented as a love triangle or rivalry.

To conclude, I just want to list some of the contradictions that I’ve seen within the arguments made against Bumbleby, because I think it’s very telling that the people who are against it can’t even settle on one coherent narrative on why it’s bad.

“Bumbleby has no development, but also the show focusses too much on Bumbleby.”

“Monty wouldn’t have wanted Bumbleby—it goes against his vision—even though I didn’t know him and have no idea what his vision actually was, and he explicitly stated that he wanted LGBT+ characters in the show who might already be in the main cast and that he wanted Blake and Yang to have a shared arc together, as well as being responsible for the set up of that arc with Blake and Yang being introduced as Beauty and the Beast while Adam canonically represents Gaston.”

“The Bumbleby shippers have so much influence that they forced the writers to make the ship canon, but they’re also just a vocal minority who don’t matter.”

“Blake and Yang hardly interact—they’re barely even friends—but they also interact too much and it’s making Bumbleby take over the show.”

“Arryn is a victim of the toxic wasps who harrassed her and sent her death threats for saying that the song Bmblb doesn't automatically make the ship canon, which there is zero evidence of,  but Arryn is also an unprofessional cunt for expressing her support of Bumbleby.”

“None of Blake and Yang’s scenes together are romantic so Bumbleby is forced, but even when they have undeniably romantic interactions I’ll ignore them or deny that they mean anything so I can still pretend it has no build up.”

“Bumbleby is bad because Team RWBY are a sisterhood, but all of the other straight relationships within teams—even those who’ve flat out called each other ”family”—are fine, and I’ll just pretend that there aren’t other definitions of the word sisterhood which have nothing to do with actual sisters and are the ones that actually apply in this case.”

“Blake and Yang’s relationship could be seen as romantic or platonic, but I personally think they’re just friends so Bumbleby is bad and came out of nowhere.”

I’ve seen all of these countless times with my own two eyes and it’s absolutely hilarious to be honest. Anyway that’s it. I have yet to see a single logical argument as to why Bumbleby is bad that isn’t made in bad faith, fallacious, or just doesn’t hold up when you actually look at the show. It’s about to be canon, and at this point to be honest anyone who doesn't like that can simply accept it or go and watch something else that will pander to their specific tastes instead.