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dispetal · 6 years ago

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every even number :^)

Boy oh boy – here we go! Under cut, ‘cause it gets LONG.

PHYSICAL PRESENCE AND GESTURE.2. How much physical space do they use, active and at rest?

Oh, Ruby usually uses all the space around her. She’s very sporadic and will use up all the space around her because it’s hard for her to stand still (it’s the good good ADHD). At rest she’ll still tend to use up her space in small ways, she has to constantly be moving and doing things with her hands.

4. What is their size and build? How does it influence how they use their body, if it does?

She’s relatively small - 5′2″ - and I headcanon her as a little rounder than the series portrays her as? Like, she’s toned but still has chubby cheeks and chubby upper arms and a little bit of tummy. She’s round. Because she’s not nearly as good at hand to hand combat as, say, Yang, she’s a little softer and a little more weak, especially in her core. ( She’s not entirely dependent on her weapon, but she’s mostly dependent on it! )

6. What are they like in motion–in different environments, and in different activities? What causes the differences between these?

Fast. She’s speedy quick, like, all the time. As mentioned earlier, she has to be moving constantly or doing something to keep her mind stimulated. The only times she really isn’t moving a lot is when she’s over exerted herself, so say, after battles and stuff.

8. Where and when do they seem most and least at ease? Why? How can you tell?

Ooh! This is easy! This comes in two parts. For one: she’s most at ease around the people she loves, normally when relaxing. Like, if she’s playing video games with Yang and Qrow, or if she’s hanging out with RNJR or RWBY just chilling. Alternatively, she’s most at ease when she knows she’s got a battle or fight. When she’s fighting, she’s in her element. Oddly enough, she’s also least at ease when she’s fighting a fight she doesn’t know how to win – or if she’s doing something she doesn’t know how to do. She’s not exactly comfortable in social situations, especially ones that have a lot of sarcasm.

10. What energizes and drains them most?

Motivation and lack of motivation. That good ol Hyperfixation™ feeling. She grapples with executive dysfunction quite often when it’s something she doesn’t particularly care about. ( Classes at Beacon were particularly hard because of this, it wasn’t that she didn’t want to learn, it’s that sometimes her brain wouldn’t let her learn ).

12. How are they bodily expressive? How do they use nonverbal cues such as their posture, stance, eyes, eyebrows, mouths, and hands?

As mentioned before, she’s Everywhere. Her hands are always fiddling with something or playing with the hem of her “combat skirt” and she’s also prone to looking around. Her mind wonders so it takes her a while to really focus in unless it’s something she’s hyperfixated on.

DISPOSITION AND TEMPERAMENT.14. What do they care deeply about? What kind of loyalties, commitments, moral codes, life philosophies, passions, callings, or spirituality and faith do they have? How do these tend to be expressed?

She has a strong sense of morality and she cares deeply about helping the people who can’t be helped. She’s got an almost romanticized view of being a huntress – at least at the beginning – and would do anything to become one and serve justice in a way she sees fit. She grew up with all of the fairy tales and stories told to her by her family and that imbued a sense of almost childlike wonder in her. She is willing to lend a hand and gives second chances because she believes in the inherent good in people and that it can be accessed even if tedious. That, however, also makes her hard to deal with because she’s stubborn. She’s optimistic ( read more about that here ) but that also goes to her detriment as well. As far as passions and callings go, easily – EASILY her biggest passion / calling is being a huntress. Spirituality works a bit different for her, the beliefs that she holds are more in people than incorporeal beings. In this, though, her love of fairy tales can also be considered a belief of some kind or a spirituality / faith at its core. The fairy tales and legends she grew up on had become a sort of faith to her. She revered the heroes in the stories and wanted to lead by their example – ergo, a following.

16. Do they dream? What are those dreams like?

She does dream, but the dreams vary. Lately she’s had more nightmares than real dreams but rarely addresses them, they’re all of her friends dying or the worst possible scenario. When she was a kid she used to have dreams about her mother or her family reuniting or her becoming a huntress as an older girl. Now, her dreams are less dreams and more nightmares, her past and passed friends all in shambling corpses, telling her how little she did to save them – that she could’ve done more. That’s why she wakes early. That’s why she likes being awake. Not because she doesn’t get tired – it’s because she doesn’t want to dream. Not anymore. She’d much prefer to be awake.

18. What kind of person could they become in the future? What are some developmental paths that they could take, (best, worst, most likely?) what would cause them to come to pass, and what consequences might they have? What paths would you especially like to see, and why?

Ooh, interesting question! I think the most likely path is for her to realize the err of her coping mechanisms and get help with the help of her team. Bad end though, is something I’d want to see. Bad end Ruby would probably break ( because of the loss of another party member – more than likely Qrow or anyone from RWBY though at this point it could be ANY one of her friends ) and the silver eyes would end up doing more harm than good. Salem could brainwash her and use her as a minion. There are millions of ways she could get corrupted and I’m interested in exploring them, but I’m also interested in exploring one where she admits to her faults and gets help. I’d like to see Ruby put herself first for once.

CONNECTIONS WITH OTHERS.20. What kind of individual relationships do they have with others, and how do they behave in them? How are they different between intimate relationships like friends, family, and lovers versus more impersonal relationships?

Oh boy, that’d have to be a post for another time, because I could go into every single interaction she has. I’ll keep this one broad though and say she’s pretty easy to get along with and pretty easy to make friends with. She’s always looking for new friends and new opportunities to talk to people. She’s very curious and invested in the people she likes! More intimate relationships will see different sides of her but most see her as the cheery girl she presents as – the girl who wants to help others out. She also forms personal relationships but they’re all based from a very real and pure heart that loves to make friends.

22. How do people respond to them, and why might these responses differ?

There are people who think Ruby’s Too Much All Of The Time because of her bouncy / plucky / optimistic nature. She’s also very loud – it’s hard for her to control her volume and sometimes more difficult to read social cues which can kind of put people off. But, most of the time, they see her as an open, cheery girl who loves people, and sometimes that pisses people off. She’s a good person though, at heart, and that draws people in.

24. How do they present themselves socially? What distinguishes their “persona” from their “true self”, and what causes that difference?

Oof. This is a good one. She presents herself, as mentioned above, as a bubbly, optimistic, loud, fun-loving person. In actuality, she’s very sad. She’s very sad and developed several unhealthy coping mechanisms that from the outside look totally healthy. Whereas Qrow depends on cynicism and alcoholism as his way to deal with grief, Ruby does the opposite. She relies on optimism and hope in an unhealthy way. ( Sidenote: she also eats a lot out of a way to deal with her grief: fun fact ). Not many people – if anyone – have seen the really sad part of her because she’s repressed it so far. What she doesn’t realize is sadness when repressed often leads to anger unprompted. She’s repressed enough at this point to get very, very angry at another, and that’s horrifying to think about.

26. How do they view and feel about relationships, and how might this manifest in how they handle them, if it does?

She’s “open” with relationships. In that she’s totally okay with the other person being open and she’s very warm and welcoming and excitable, but she puts most of if not all of her focus into that other person and how they feel in the relationship. Romantically, she isn’t actively looking for a partner, though she wouldn’t mind one. ( I will say, I doubt that her having a partner at this time is healthy. ) It’s hard for her to read people so the person who has the crush would have to straight up say “hey, let’s date” because otherwise it’s a lost cause. Usually she’s very flattered even if the feelings aren’t returned! Someone having a crush never ruins a friendship for her.

ACTIVITIES AND PREFERENCES.28. What are they likely to do if they have the opportunity, resources, and time to accomplish it? Why?

Anything, if she really wants to. She’s a determined person.

30. What is their preferred level of activity and stimulation? How do they cope if they get either too little or too much?

Ooh! She’s got a lot of activity needed but if it’s unprompted and sudden it can trigger a sensory overload. Large crowds make her uncomfortable for that reason. She can be around people but only really when she’s prepared herself to do so. Even then, it can be hard for her. Stimming helps with that! Her most common stims are spreading her hands out, hands flapping, or playing with something in her hands! Tapping also helps.

32. Do they have any “props” that are a significant part of their life, identity, activities, or self-presentation somehow? What are they, how are they used, and why are they so significant? How would these props’ absence impact them, how would they compensate, and why?

Other than the obvious being crescent rose, her cape is symbolic as hell. I’m gonna get into that in a separate post.

THINKING AND LEARNING.34. How do they understand the world–what kind of worldview and thought processes do they have? Why?

I think I’ve pretty much already answered this one? Check 14 again. ( I will go into her opinion on Faunus rights -- spoiler, she’s completely for them -- later. )

36. How much do they rely on their minds and intellect, versus other approaches like relying on instinct, intuition, faith and spirituality, or emotions? What is their opinion on this?

Emotions, emotions, emotions. She is lead by her heart almost completely. Sometimes she’s prone to thinking things out rationally but most of the time? She’s all heart bapey. She doesn’t mind people thinking logically but sometimes she wonders why people don’t listen to their hearts more, unaware that it can be as harmful as it can be good.

38. Is there anything they wish they could change about their worldview or thought processes? What, and why?

I think if she totally snapped that could all change but it’d take quite a lot of time to get that way.

40. What do they wonder about? What sparks their curiosity and imagination, and why? How is this expressed, if it is?

Everything! She’s a very curious girl and asks a lot of questions! It’s not because she’s completely unaware but more that she’s totally interested in the things around her. It doesn’t take much to spark curiosity and imagination but things like semblances or fighting styles are things that pique her curiosity.

#soultimed #hc.

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aliteraryprincess · 7 years ago

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Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George

Warning: May contain spoilers

Welcome back to Fairy Tale Friday! Princess of Glass is another book I originally read in high school and have reread a few times since. And I loved the story of “Cinderella” as a kid, so taking another look at this book was lots of fun. This is the second book in The Princesses of Westfalin trilogy. You can find my post on the first book here.

On a side note, how funny is it that the dress on the cover matches the dress Cinderella is wearing in my childhood fairy tale collection?

As a Retelling:

In Princess of Glass, George draws almost exclusively from the French version of “Cinderella” by Charles Perrault. However, it is much less of a straight retelling of the tale than Princess of the Midnight Ball is of “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.” This is necessary since “Cinderella” is probably the most well-known fairy tale and has been retold countless times. If an author is going to differentiate their version, they need to put a twist on it. Most of the major elements are still included; we have a girl of noble birth reduced to working as a maid, a magical godmother, three balls, and glass slippers. However, the main protagonist is not the Cinderella character, Ellen/Eleanora. Instead it is Princess Poppy, whose role is equivalent to one of the stepsisters in the original story.

Let’s start with the major difference: the villain of the story. In most versions of the tale Cinderella’s stepmother and stepsisters are the villains, though in some variants it is her blood relatives. They mistreat Cinderella, mock her, and will not allow her to attend the ball with them. But this obviously doesn’t work if the main protagonist is in the role of the stepsister. Instead of a stepfamily, George has Lord Richard and Lady Margaret Seadown, their daughter Marianne, and Princess Poppy, who is their cousin and guest. Ellen is of noble birth, but her family lost their fortune, forcing her to work as a maid after her parents’ deaths. She is employed by the Seadowns after she is dismissed from several other positions due to her inability to do the work. Lord Richard and Lady Margaret are kind to Ellen, even offering her a dress to attend the balls. Poppy and Marianne aren’t unkind, just increasingly frustrated with her bad attitude and horrible work.

This leaves an opening for the villain role, and George chooses to fill it with the fairy godmother, who she calls the Corley. The fairy godmother is actually a creation of Perrault’s; versions of the tale prior to this more often utilize the spirit of Cinderella’s dead mother or an animal helper. Using the godmother as the villain, in my opinion, is a stroke of creative genius that brings up some questions regarding Perrault’s tale. In other variants, Cinderella has a relationship with her helper that is built up through the story. In Perrault’s, the godmother doesn’t appear until Cinderella is crying about not attending the ball. Where on earth did she come from? And if she’s really so nice, why hasn’t she stepped in sooner to save this child from abuse? The Corley, like the villain of the first book in the series, is a formerly human sorceress who makes bargains with people to fulfill her own aims. Ellen’s whole situation, from the ruin of her father to her incapability at housework, is orchestrated by the Corley.

As in Princess of the Midnight Ball, George provides explanations for things in the original tale that otherwise don’t hold up. In this case it is everyone’s inability to recognize Cinderella when she is at the balls and the prince’s immediate infatuation with her. This occurs in every version of the tale; in many of them, the stepsisters even interact with Cinderella without recognizing her! In Princess of Glass, the Corley casts a glamour over Ellen so no one will recognize her. It also causes all the men to fall immediately in love with her and all the women to instantly hate her. Poppy and Roger Thwaite, a childhood friend of Ellen’s and the brother of Marianne’s sweetheart, are unaffected because they are wearing protective charms. They start investigating what Ellen is up to and try to find ways to free their friends from the spell.

If we’re going to talk about “Cinderella,” we of course have to mention the shoes. The famous glass slippers are also a Perrault original; several prior versions, including the German and Chinese tales, involve golden slippers, some are just described as beautiful, and an Irish variant has multicolored shoes. George uses Perrault’s glass slippers and makes them as horrifying as can be imagined. The Corley pours molten glass on Ellen’s feet to form the shoes, and they cause her a lot of pain. Even worse, after wearing them, her feet start turning into glass! It’s the perfect contrast to the pretty and delicate shoes given by the good fairy godmother in the original.

George also puts a twist on the shoe fitting, another aspect of the original story that seems ridiculous outside of a fairy tale. The only way the prince can recognize Cinderella is by her putting on the slipper despite the fact that they have spent three nights dancing and presumably talking together. Apparently he can’t recognize her face! Some retellings get around this by using a masked ball. The final ball in George’s book is a masquerade, but the real challenge is caused by the Corley. After the second ball, Ellen is unable to walk and realizes what a monster her supposed godmother is. Poppy and the others come to her aid and come up with a plan for Poppy to impersonate her at the third ball. After this, the Corley traps her and Ellen in the glass realm, and Prince Christian and the rest of their group go to save them. Upon entering, everyone’s memories are confused; Christian can only remember that the slipper he has belongs to his true love. The Corley presents him with Poppy and Ellen, dressed identically, and says the shoe will fit his true love. But he doesn’t find out by trying the shoe on. When he looks into Poppy’s eyes, he realizes it’s her, puts the shoe on her, and has his memories restored.

This brings me to the last big difference I want to discuss: Cinderella does not marry the prince in this book. Ellen does set her sights on Prince Christian because the Corley wants her to marry him and she wants to get away from her life as a maid. However, Christian is actually Poppy’s love interest and Ellen’s is Roger Thwaite. This avoids the insta-love of the original story. While Christian becomes infatuated with Ellen, it is only because of a spell; he doesn’t really know her at all. His relationship with Poppy, on the other hand, builds through the whole book while they are visiting in Breton. They start as friends and slowly fall in love. And Ellen has a long-standing relationship with Roger due to growing up together. The two couples become engaged at the end, as do Marianne and her sweetheart, Dickon. This is an interesting variation of Perrault’s tale; his story ends with Cinderella marrying the prince and the forgiven stepsisters marrying great lords. George’s ends with a stepsister character marrying the prince and Cinderella and the other stepsister marrying other noblemen.

My Thoughts:

I’m just as fond of this book as I am of the first in the series. I love the twists George puts on the original story. In some ways, she does a bit of deconstructing the fairy tale, such as when she points out how sketchy the godmother is. Despite bringing attention to these problems, the story still ends with a happily ever after, which is really what I want most of all from a fairy tale retelling.

George continues with her record of creating likable protagonists. Poppy is plucky and not quite proper; she swears, plays cards, and absolutely refuses to dance. Yet she is kind and extremely brave. Prince Christian is another actually nice male protagonist, and most of the humor comes from his chapters in the book. I couldn’t help but laugh at his bewilderment over the king of Breton trying to marry him off “to the highest bidder,” as he puts it in his letter to his parents. I also like the relationship between the two and that they save each other. Poppy frees Christian from the love spell and Christian forces his way into the Corley’s realm to rescue Poppy. It’s a very equal relationship, which I appreciate.

George also continues to show the effects of the first book on both a personal and political scale. Poppy suffers from nightmares about the King Under Stone’s realm, and she refuses to dance due to her time spent there. We are also reminded of the deaths caused by the mystery of the worn out shoes. At one ball, a noblewoman asks Poppy why she isn’t dancing. When Poppy replies that she just doesn’t like dancing, the woman becomes offended since her godson was one of the suitors who died. On the larger scale, the entire reason Poppy and Christian are in Breton is the strained relationships between all the countries of Ionia. The rulers come up with a plan to send their children off to other countries to foster international relationships. Most are hoping to form marriage alliances as well. We find out that there are still rumors of witchcraft surrounding the Westfalin princesses, and several characters, including the king of Breton and Christian’s father, are wary of them because of it.

The one problem I have with Princess of Glass is the climax. It is extremely rushed, and I’m not even entirely sure how they defeated the Corley. She attacks the group by throwing molten glass to the floor, which begins to melt. Poppy then smashes her way through several glass walls until they are back in the Seadowns’ manor, where Rose and Galen have arrived to help. Somehow all the bargains made with the Corley are void, and Ellen’s feet are healed. Galen has a line about consulting with Bretoner mages to seal the Corley in her realm, and then it’s happily ever after. The whole thing only takes a few pages. I wish it had been drawn out longer and more detailed so I knew exactly what happened. It would have made for a more satisfying conclusion to an otherwise excellent book.

My rating: 4 stars