#emerald sustrai critical

[the-path-to-redemption]

Just read you answered post about Cinder treatment when compared with Salem's fraction.

And you mentioned about Emerald weird redemption. Do you think that redemption was necessary? If not how would you view it?

Speaking of Emerald we never understood what did she and Mercury saw back in vol 4. It could be Salem making grim but that feels like they would've already seen it by now. So my best bet is the transformation of people with silver eyes turning into Grimm

Just to preface, when I express displeasure over Emerald's redemption, I'm not saying that it shouldn't happen at all. I'm mad about how it was done.

I never saw her or Mercury as people who are irredeemable; they're orphans, abused by parental figures who should have been protecting them and all they were doing was to survive. They're meant to be the narrative foils to our protagonists, a mirror for them to see what their lives could have been had the circumstances been different. So I always expected them to have a redemption arc, or at least have them no longer be on Salem or Cinder's team.

However, I do not like that Emerald's redemption was done so hastily; the main casts just works with her and forgoes the atrocities that she had put them through (especially with Penny, who she assisted in murdering in Beacon), she didn't even consider Mercury yet before running off to join the good guys (something I really hope will be remedied someway somehow), and none of the complexity that comes with her confronting her life under Cinder leading to and post switching was portrayed. It was just, "whoops we're friends now I'm not even going to work towards your forgiveness or even try to show myself as trying to be better", and they just took her on. Like, huh??

And bro, I WISH that what they saw was Salem making SEWs into Grimm. That would've made so much sense to their hesitation to fully commit to her and leading up the them bolting out of there. But I doubt that it was what the writers were going for.

[invested-in-your-future]

I just realized that, for some reason, RWBY doesn't really care about giving their villains a proper backstory.

Adam has a one-sentence backstory that does literally nothing for him and is delivered in the last second of his screen time.

Cinder's backstory comes way too late and is inconsequential to anything she has done until now. It doesn't explain her motivations or worldview, and it doesn't show us why she became the person she is.

Jacques is just sort of this vague rich person who doesn't even get to be a villain because the show throws away the build-up in favor of something completely random that has nothing to do with him.

Hazel's backstory exists solely to place him in Ozpin's path, rather than giving him logic and reasoning to justify it (because let's be frank, EVERYTHING about his reasoning falls apart the moment you think about it)—maybe because he was never supposed to exist.

Mercury and Emerald's backstories don't really do much for their characters, don't come into play in their decision-making or characterization, and are barely there.

Raven has one of the dumbest, most barebones motivations for her betrayal.

Sienna exists to get fridged so she doesn't even get the bare minimum.

Watts's backstory is there solely to give him a reason to do The Thing but doesn't really give him a worldview to explain WHY—maybe because he was never supposed to exist.

The only one with a backstory is Salem, and it's more of an Ozpin backstory than anything else. The whole origin story—presented as 110% truth and not some sort of unreliable narrator—basically just lays the guilt of her decisions solely on her rather than two manipulative omniscient beings randomly retconned into the story.

It's like the show genuinely believes people are either born evil or born good and nothing they do in their lives will change that, hence the V9 ridiculousness of decrying self-reflection or acceptance of one's flaws as evil.

It would be fine if only half the show's songs, including the best OP songs (the first three), weren't about how "we" should improve and overcome our pasts and learn from our mistakes, how everyone is imperfect, and how one can't rely on the childish naivety of good and evil growing up, because there's more to the world than stories.

Almost as if that simplistic worldview of good and evil wasn't the original intention before V4.

[northforwinter]

Emerald: I’m trying to be nice. This is as painful for me as it is for you. Just give me five seconds

[professorspork]

I hope this doesn't come off as an invasive question, I'm just curious how you came up with which fetishes to depict in each chapter of SDAU.

not invasive at all, if only insofar as the short answer is of course a) because i thought it was in-character and b) if I didn't at least find it at least nominally appealing myself i wouldn't have had any interest in writing it now would i so that's a bit of a tell

but short answers are no fun, of course, so let's break it down shall we?

Chapter 1: Thursday

This chapter was always intended to go hot and heavy, both as a genuine Watsonian introduction to Blake's world and as a sort of Doylist vibe-check for readers of "if you can't stomach this you're probably not going to enjoy the rest of this story, you can click the back button no harm no foul." but it's interesting to me that you specified fetishes rather than sex acts, because generally speaking that was a lot clearer to me in the conception of each scene. i knew what i was *going* for, even if I didn't always know from the outset how I would get there. so!

in this instance, I knew the vibe I wanted to nail (har har) was the degradation and humiliation aspect of Sun's kink. partially because I think that that's what canon Blacksun would have to be like-- if Sun didn't get something out of Blake being a dismissive and controlling sardonic shit to him they would never have stayed friends, jfc look at how she TALKS to him (and slaps him, twice!!!)-- but also because I really wanted to explore what that would be like for Blake, who doesn't *share* the kink (and in fact has some trauma around it) but still earnestly desires to indulge it, and gets something out of Sun's satisfaction in it.

I know I can write some Dora-the-Explorer-ass "seatbelts everyone!" sex scenes, but my goal is always verisimilitude that encompasses that-- never to break immersion. (I also find the sort of call-and-response ritual of verbal consent to be deeply erotic when actually portrayed like the act of intimacy it is rather than a chore or a checklist, so there's that.) i think i probably went a little more overboard than i had to in terms of in-prose justifications of the spicier moments, adding mental "because she knows he likes it so much" or "as they'd responsibly negotiated previously" caveats instead of letting things ride, but I also think that I got away with it because this Blake, like all Blakes, is deeply anxious and would feasibly have those self-soothing measures on the brain.

this (and what comes later in Dungeon Master) was also my avenue to explore just how "into character" Blake could get, because she goes full Domme performance here in a way she doesn't-- and in fact can't, constitutionally-- with Yang later on. she'll tease Yang, and isn't shy about being direct or even forceful, but I think she's hypersensitive to sounding *critical*-- due to a combination of a) her cognizance of her own responsibility as a sex partner of a trans woman generally and b) what being in love does to her and makes her feel specifically.

less under the umbrella of "fetish" and more in terms of erotica writ large and the broader goals of the fic, it was also very important to me to write a sex scene featuring (and glorifying in) bottom growth because THERE SHOULD BE MORE OF THEM OUT THERE.

Interstice: Sun

I saw an opportunity to put Blake in cat ears and I took it.

Chapter 2: Dungeon Master

listen, it is not my fault that Emerald Sustrai very obviously has a mommy kink situation that can be seen from space. that is in some ways the MOST obvious example of "I'm just depicting the character as I honestly see them, no agenda" in the whole fic. (well. tied for first place with Yang and the gag, but more on that later.)

the wax play with Russel was just a kind of scene I'd never written before that I thought would be fun and hot (lololol literally), and the come-on scene with Neon and Flynt was always intended to be more about Blake's social standing, experience, and inherent comfort at the club rather than the actual kinks involved.

Emerald, on the other hand, was supposed to be about the sort of... I'm not quite sure how to put it. the perils of unrestrained Id? a cautionary tale? Emerald *doesn't know herself,* that's part of her whole off-screen journey that gets paid off in in the end. she just knows that she Wants, but not what she wants, which makes the fact that she can only get what she wants by asking for it an immense frustration to her. she HATES that. so she tries to skirt by entirely on innuendo and provocation to force other people to make the decisions for her so she can just take whatever is given and deal with it, for good or ill.

and for Blake, that's a nightmare situation because she's basically used a sex club instead of therapy for the last several years of her life precisely because it's SUPPOSED to have these guardrails and people are supposed to know what they're looking for so nothing can cross lines. emerald basically shows her that that's a convenient lie she's been telling herself (one of many). emerald simultaneously shows Blake just how far she's come from where she's started-- which is quite far!!-- but also shows her she's gotten as much out of this particular coping strategy as she's ever gonna get. if Blake wants to grow more or get healthier, she cannot just keep doing what she's been doing. it's been clear to her friends for a while, but this is the moment it becomes clear to her. and if it hadn't already been, she could never have actually accepted it when Neptune says it at the end of this chapter.

Chapter 3: Beacon

no fetishes here. really the headline here is what i very much did NOT want to come off as a fetish, which is the way Blake becomes more attracted to Yang after she clocks her.

threading that needle and exploring that line-- the difference between "you are even more beautiful to me now because I see who you are and the fortitude it took to become that person, and the things I already found attractive before stand out even more to me now, and also Trans Women Are Hot We Don't Have To Make A Thing Of It" versus, like... getting weirdly prescriptive and flirting with straight-up physiognomy and ABSOLUTELY making a thing of it is not always an easy one to strike! honestly bless @alexkablob for being so patient with me because i had her read minutely different versions of that moment over and over and over again so the scene came across the way i intended it to: not being cutesy, not trying to obscure the fact that Blake is attracted to Yang BECAUSE she's trans, rather than in spite of or ignoring it.

i think-- or at least, i'd like to think-- that more cis writers want to be braver about writing trans-inclusive romance but don't for fear of sounding chaser-y. and this scene was always About That, in every way it's possible to be about that, for Blake AND for me

Chapter 4: Dirty Laundry

the fetishes depicted here-- electroplay and vampire roleplay-- don't have any significance unto themselves but instead are meant to be wider examples of Blake's true kink, which is indulging the kinks of others. Blake is GAME, not because she thinks she has to be or because it's an expectation Adam put on her, but because she's down for a challenge and likes to be the reason people get off.

Blake's just, embarrassingly, really into improv. that yes-and instinct gets her into weird sexy situations at the club, and also makes her very fun to play DND with.

Chapter 5: Proper Socialization

this is where we first start to see the signs of Blake's next self-inflicted mental health crisis, which is "i am somehow diminishing Yang by having sexy thoughts about her being submissive because obviously she'd never agree to that" blake. BLAKE what are yoU TALKING ABOUT

YOU COULD TRY. ASKING.

like Blake knows damn well that it's not degrading or insulting to sub, and a lot of this is just her being embarrassed about having lustful thoughts about Yang at all, but there IS that edge there of "if she knew that's how i see the world she'd never forgive me" that is... the self-obsession and fretting is in some ways a fetish, if that makes sense? like Blake's so far down the rabbit hole on this it's a fetish in the most clinical way, it's a fixation.

Prelude (1): Adam | Prelude (2) Adam Blake

... and once I got that far, it was obviously the right time in the story for me to dig the origin of that thought out at the root

this chapter is in many ways the other side of the coin from Thursday. just as it was important to me to show Blake owning her identity as a Domme with Sun, it was equally important for me to show her owning her identity as a sub with Adam. not as his victim, but as her own person. there was never a chance of this relationship being healthy because Adam's a manipulative groomer shitstain, but Blake *could* have had *a* healthy relationship as the submissive partner and truly enjoyed it, if she'd found a worthier person to crush on. that ability to trust and let go-- to surrender-- to submit, in the most basic meaning of the word-- is not something Adam forced upon her, but rather something he took from her. it was hers, and he ruined it.

I've also talked about this a lot in the author's notes and elsewhere, but it was also important to me to show that Blake chose this and wanted him. I think diminishing her agency in the development of their romance is a misread of the character that does a disservice to who she is and what she's overcome. what she has to accept here is not that she missed the signs, but that she SAW the signs and WELCOMED them. his being dangerous, edgy, and forbidden was a major part of the thrill and appeal to her; she'd gotten off on that. which: that's also a reason i could only ever explore this in an AU and not canon, because it's very different to put that on a precocious but ultimately consenting college student than a twelve-year-old but we don't have time to unpack all that

and... maybe it's very obvious to say it, but the other fetish that comes up here (and did previously in Sun's interlude) is just like Blake's fundamental awakening to the possibilities of polyamory and ethical non-monogamy. which isn't a fetish in and of itself, but is the mechanism by which every other fetish gets explored. it's a permission structure that lets Blake live her life in a way that feels natural to her without shame-- or would, if Blake were capable of not feeling shame lmao-- and that's the engine that makes everything else in this fic go.

Chapter 6: Four Questions

No real fetishes present other than Blake's fixation on Yang's bruise, which: see what I said about Proper Socialization.

Chapter 7: Body & Recovery

see above, again, more and harder (heyo). this is the first time Yang literally TELLS Blake "I like when you get toppy and particular" and Blake like... believes her but also decides this can somehow only apply to the most vanilla of instances and couldn't possibly translate into a larger dynamic because that would be Deciding For Yang somehow

also, dry humping is hot. the simulacrum of control vs the obvious and overt loss of control, the way it has an innocence to it despite being (literally, in terms of necessary cleanup) filthy... fun times. we see this come up again several times, the "I like getting messy," and that's just a thing I have about sex scenes generally that I think is deeply important. you have to want the bodily fluids around or why are we doing this.

Chapter 8: Balance

There was no way I was gonna get though a fic like this without a breathplay scene. there couldn't BE a more on-the-nose depiction of Blake's need for control-- but also, to her credit, the way she's thoughtful and responsible with the power she's given. it's a way of showing how her pathological mistrust of herself is unearned. like, people literally put their lives in her hands and homegirl doesn't even notice.

(see also, related: Blake promising Yang "I love when you say no to me" and meaning it like GIRL JUST LISTEN TO YOURSELF)

and going back to the polyamory point, it was important to me structurally to show Blake continuing to have encounters at Anesidora, and to tease out how they don't bother her or seem like cheating to her until she, as she always does, creates a mind prison about it.

Chapter 9: Power

well this one's a fun one for fetishes, eh?

this chapter is the first hint at Blake's fantasies regarding Yang's mirror, which will come up a LOT from here on out. I could (and honestly probably should) write a whole other essay about what I did with mirrors in this fic, and what their presence throughout signifies, but in terms of kink and fantasy I imagine it's pretty damn clear even here at jump: she sees Yang for exactly the woman she is and wants Yang to see it, too.

then we've got the juxtaposition of Yang In Panties and the rimming scene, and like... I don't think I'm being subtle here, you know? Yang is deeply vulnerable about her relationship with her own femininity, her desirability, her acceptability on like a basic level, and Blake... wants to devour her. Blake sees all of it, loves all of it, wants all of it. the things Yang sees as potential dealbreakers because they're shameful or subpar or ~gross, Blake just sees a goddamn sexy dreamboat. which Yang, like a hero, actually REALIZES at the end, while Blake then spirals out like a moron

this is another one where this is also just an act I don't see very often and had never attempted myself, and both were worth remedying.

Chapter 10: The Ropes

and-- see title-- the complete lack of subtlety continues.

Yang literally says this in her POV section in the next chapter, but the collar and leash was also a very deliberate and very linear, obvious choice. Yang WANTS to be bound to Blake, wants to be kept close and to have physical, tangible proof of their intimacy, and she picks the objects that tell Blake so. Collaring scenes are also A Big Deal in D/s stories and putting my (/their) spin on it-- having Blake present it to Yang to do it to herself, to put that agency in her hands-- was important to me. Blake's terrified of taking too much, of being this greedy conqueror, and Yang's trying so hard to say "you can't take what's already yours."

and of course just when Blake finally hears and accepts it, she misses that she's been so up her own ass about HER shit she hasn't at all been paying attention to the rest of Yang's or she'd have picked up the prior signs Yang dropped re: the ways her abandonment issues do and don't manifest

which brings me to the other major thing here, which is Yang's flirtation with cucking and depersonalization fetish and her own relationship to polyamory. Yang does genuinely find the idea of Blake with other people hot. and you can chalk that up to her always sublimating her needs to others, or you could see it as something she inherited FROM her parents rather than developed due to her proximity to their bullshit, or any number of other interpretations. but the way Blake's reveal to Yang goes-- with Yang wanting to be walked through the process of Anesidora and being turned on by it in this slightly-removed proxy way-- was one of the earliest things in my outline for this story. yang is stressed out about it Happening To Her and having to Do It Right in a way she isn't when she can just enjoy the idea of it as a voyeur without having to Perform.

Insterstice: Yang

So. The gag.

I have been on the record for years about my belief in this being a kink Yang would have, and I think I was fairly explicit about it in the fic itself. Yang is desperate to have her Class Clown instinct suppressed. she has gone out of her way to make herself likeable so she will not be abandoned again, and being explicitly shown that she does not need to do or say anything and will still be adored is deeply healing for her. this is why a lot of dommy or toppy takes on Yang leave me cold-- not because of the caretaker aspect, which I think she'd excel in and enjoy, but because it feeds into exactly that same charismatic (yet inherently performative) part of her that like, beats up on Junior and the show is clear FROM THE VERY OPENING TEXT is not truly who she is. it's a front she puts up.

and the thing about the mirror, which gets its first big culmination here, is that there is NO front Yang can put up. all she is faced with is her own actual reality, and the inarguable truth of it. it also plays into the voyeur thing I was talking about before, where there's this sort of pleasure at the idea of seeing Blake work and getting to see it on HERSELF, where she is simultaneously some other girl but also cannot escape the fact of "that girl is me." does that make sense? it's like the two circles finally converge into a venn diagram and then align.

Chapter 11: Play

This being its own chapter didn't exist in my original outlines. it was only when i got to this moment as I was writing linearly that I realized the audience both needed and deserved a chance to bask in the new normal before i started wrapping things up

actually rewarding everything I'd set up in terms of how they would approach Anesidora *together* seemed the obvious thing, and then going a few steps further to take it to the shibari and chastity cage place, well

*polite cough*

i have it on some authority that there is a hunger for that among my target audience

but seriously, it's all just more of what i've said. yang's desires revolve around being tethered and contained because she's had a lifetime of being gregarious and on her own. but she's also intrepid and COMPETITIVE, so blake making up rules she can WIN at stokes that fire in her to explore the unknown and also make it her bitch

and blake sees all of that, and wants desperately to indulge it

Chapter 12: Home

not really sure if the shower scene here rises to "fetish" level but to touch on it briefly

--or NOT touch, as is sort of what happens here--

i... hmm. i think in a way this is sort of my thesis statement about where blake's coming from with domination. which isn't touching, or being serviced, but is literally just talking Yang off and guiding her to her own pleasure.

Blake wants to be RESPONSIBLE for that, likes knowing she's a force for good, and the control she exerts is about learning to trust herself just as much as it is thriving at the evidence that her partners trust HER

blake obviously enjoys sex tremendously, but that's not what makes it erotic for her. her own pleasure is really the smallest part of it....

Epilogue: Surrender

... which sort of brings us full circle, to Blake's inevitable realization that her pleasure DOES matter and her desires CAN be identified and sated. even despite all she's been through; even if those desires don't seem coherent or consistent to her

the what of this, the improvised rock climbing bondage, was the very last thing to come together for this story. i knew i wanted Blake to experience full body restraint in an unconventional way, but I didn't have a solid plan on how to achieve it. which, because you asked about the fetish and not the act, I suppose is really entirely incidental

and like, as far as How I Chose To Decide Blake Wants To Be Tied Up, that did not feel like a choice at all. the excessive ribbon wrapping up the arms of her beacon-era outfit made that call for me. gambol shroud's existence AT ALL made that decision for me. Blake getting captured by Yuma and Trifa, Blake getting caught in the vines in the Ever After... you'll have to ask CRWBY about this one, not me, because that's just literally lifted wholesale from the show as Blake's obvious and inevitable Thing lmao

... and apparently this post is 3.5k so you know what i'm gonna cut it off there

THANK YOU FOR ASKING THIS WAS FUN

[ao3feed-blakeyang]

RNJR Volume 4

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/u7X29jc by ReaverArklight001 RNJR enters it's 4th Volume and it's Original Starting Point! Remnant Hangs by a Knife's Edge, the Kingdom of Atlas is poised to War with its own Sister City, Whitecliffe over matters of Ideology and Power Struggle. Ozpin has fallen, Beacon has collapsed and Team RNJR has been missing for Two Years. Lost within the SDC occupied Sayuna Valley. Cinder Fall, once a Menace has had seeds of doubt planted deep within her Psyche and must now report that she has failed to Acquire the Vale Relic at a most Critical Time in the War. Blake's Black Fang Rebellion is in full swing in collaboration with Weiss Schnee whom together they waged a Successful but protracted two Year Campaign against the SDC. Finally, The Kingdom of Mistral itself is bordering disaster, with City State Seceding the Failing Kingdom, Haven losing most of it's Fighting force and the Kingdom's very own, Mistral Guard Struggling to pick up the Pace. A desperate Covert Mission must be conducted by Team RNJR, to Pass hundreds of miles of Hostile Territory, Riddled with Horrors, Bandits and Private Armies in the hopes of Reaching Haven before Disaster can strike. Find out the Fate of Haven, and The Kingdom of Mistral, Within RNJR's Volume 4 Words: 62922, Chapters: 20/21, Language: English Series: Part 1 of RNJR: RWBY Plus (Alternate) Fandoms: RWBY Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Categories: Multi Characters: Ruby Rose (RWBY), Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren, Nolan Porfirio, Cinder Fall, Neopolitan (RWBY), Pyrrha Nikos, Adam Taurus, Qrow Branwen, Raven Branwen, Yang Xiao Long, James Ironwood, Salem (RWBY), Tyrian Callows, Original Characters, Arthur Watts, Leonardo Lionheart, Ozpin (RWBY), Mercury Black, Emerald Sustrai, Brawnz Ni Relationships: Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee, Penny Polendina/Ruby Rose, Jaune Arc/Ruby Rose, Jaune Arc/Blake Belladonna, Blake Belladonna/Ruby Rose, Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Jaune Arc/Pyrrha Nikos, Pyrrha Nikos/Ruby Rose, Brawnz Ni/Nolan Porfirio, Adam - Relationship Additional Tags: Trans Ruby Rose (RWBY), Anti-Faunus Racism (RWBY), Ruby Rose (RWBY) Needs a Hug, Volume 4 (RWBY), Fall Maiden Pyrrha Nikos, Good Cinder Fall, Cinder Fall Redemption, Cinder Fall Backstory, Ozpin (RWBY) Needs a Hug, Oscar Pine Needs a Hug, James Ironwood Being an Asshole, War, Horror, Psychological Horror, Alternate Universe - Horror, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe, Violence, Gun Violence, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Minor Character Death, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Death, Temporary Character Death, Past Character Death, Original Character Death(s), Sad with a Happy Ending, Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Dystopia, Disasters, Angst with a Happy Ending, Heavy Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Tragedy, Semblance (RWBY), Alternate Universe - Military, Implied/Referenced Terrorism, Terrorism, Night Terrors read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/u7X29jc

[asexxxualerotica]

Asexxxual Erotica's Open RPs

Below is a list of the RPs that I have posted and opened for interaction, in reverse-chronological order—from most recent to most aged. They are perpetually open, so you are free to respond to any as you wish, but older ones are less likely to be returned.

Breaking in the Belladonna featuring Blake Belladonna (Rewilding AU)

Dark Chocolate Delights featuring Emerald Sustrai and Sienna Khan (Rewilding AU)

A Sparkling New Year featuring Yoruichi from Bleach

A Very Jaerik Christmas featuring Jaerik Aldraeyds (OC Muse)

Going Down...? featuring Neo from RWBY

Bunny Bathtime featuring Rumi Usagiyama from My Hero Academia

The Mystery of Staying Cool featuring Mabel Pines from Gravity Falls

Desperate Times featuring Ahsoka Tano from Star Wars

Shrike’s Spooktober Surprise featuring Shrike Zirconia-Branwen (OC Muse)

Jaerik’s Halloween Special featuring Jaerik Aldraeyds (OC Muse)

Ice Cream on the Beach featuring Neo from RWBY

A Freak on the Streets featuring Rias Gremory from High School DxD

Keyleth’s Hellish Fate featuring Keyleth from Critical Role

Paranormal Activities featuring Maddie Fenton from Danny Phantom

Beating the Heat featuring Tsunade Senju from Naruto

A Brush With Temptation featuring Rogue/Anna-Marie from X-Men

Wrong Door featuring Neo from RWBY

Hidden in the Mist featuring Wisp Whiteshadow (D&D OC)

Gothicc Sounds to Study To featuring Rachel Roth/Raven from DC Comics

A Delicious Distraction featuring Jaerik Aldraeyds (D&D OC)

Punching Bag featuring Ikumi Midoriya (fem!Izuku) from My Hero Academia

The Art of Seduction featuring Samus Aran from Metroid

All That Glitters featuring Galatea the Golden-Scaled (D&D OC)

A Heavenly Respite featuring Aphrodite from Hades

Seeing Double featuring Shrike Zirconia-Branwen (RWBY OC)

The Bad-Witch’s Bikini Bod featuring Cinder Fall from RWBY

A Schnee-cret Agenda featuring Weiss Schnee from RWBY

A Champion’s Rights featuring Cynthia from Pok��mon

A Fork in the River featuring Lara Croft from Tomb Raider

Bound and Sold featuring Ahsoka Tano from Star Wars

A Spring Break featuring Fearne Calloway from Critical Role

Free Ride to Nimbasa featuring Hilda from Pokémon

Critical Fail featuring Jaerik Aldraeyds (D&D OC)

Be Careful What You Wish For featuring Princess Jasmine from Disney

Extra Credit in Herbology featuring Mirabel Garlick from Hogwarts Legacy

Trouble in Paradise featuring Rio Morales from Spider-Verse

Caught in Her Own Web featuring Gwen Stacy/Spider-Gwen from Marvel

Where No One Can Hear You Scream featuring Rachel Roth/Raven from DC Comics

Bound to Serve featuring Rey Palpatine from Star Wars

Dragon Slaying featuring dragon!RWBY from RWBY

A Possible Switch-Up featuring Ann Possible from Kim Possible

Quarterly Reviews featuring office!Neo from RWBY

Going in Blind featuring Toph Beifong from Avatar: The Last Airbender

All Bets Off featuring Rachel Roth/Raven from DC Comics

A Taste of Blueberries featuring Natsuhaze Shirosaki from Bleach

A Restful Resort featuring Katara of Avatar: The Last Airbender

Booty Dysmorphia Distraction featuring Helen Parr/Elastigirl of The Incredibles

Operation Rich Bitch featuring Pacifica Northwest of Gravity Falls

A Late-Night Stroll featuring Pyra of the Xenoblade Series

What Bad Girls Deserve featuring Cherrybomb Alistair (RWBY OC)

[but-a-humble-goon]

Okay but for real do you actually want to hear my best pitch as to how to do a RWBY/Terminator story? Do it the way they did the first Justice League crossover comics, basically an AU. Robots and time travel are already things that exist in RWBY so just do a story wherein a terrifying basically indestructible killer android gets sent back in time from a dark potential future to assassinate someone and our intrepid heroes must protect said person and find a way to stop it somehow. Here's a pitch: a dark future timeline version of Pietro Polendina from a dead world where everybody lost the Salem war builds a murderbot that makes Penny look like ASIMO and uses the staff of creation to outfit it with time travel technology by showing Ambrosius the Stopwatch Fruit from the Ever After. He dispatches it back in time to kill the person he sees as most directly responsible for the events of his timeline; Emerald Sustrai, who in a critical moment of weakness stopped them from killing Cinder and because of it the whole world died. Naturally regardless of how they feel about her RWBY & co aren't about to just let a homicidal robot get its hands on Emerald so then a Terminator plot happens.

[ultraericthered]

I assumed the “after getting the lecture/criticism from Watts” we saw go down was further pointing towards Cinder not being redeemable. 

Excuse me Citadel. I was looking over the most recent "ask."

I noticed , and you may disagree in which case I value your input.

The bad guys getting redemption is only applied to the men.

Raven is stripped of her now biological daughter and her sexually harassing husband and her tribe. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that not only did Shay D. Man, an attempted sexual molester in both the show and the fanfic, not only was he "fixed" by making him a father and husband, but now also a tribe leader. I don't understand how a character that was portrayed as a coward worse than Raven was given so much importance and status.

Then we have Adam. They're trying to make him morally grey, or at least "Redeem" him.

Then we have Ilia, who was already redeemed in the show. Their idea of "Redeeming" her involves handcuffing to Sun Wukong, who was anti-rules in the show, now is basically a cop, and having Ilia express self-loathing repeatedly, as if we're supposed to be hating her.

If FRWBY does "redemption" what it basically seems to be , to me at least, is making women suffer at the hands of men and then making them say that they are bad people and deserve to suffer. Raven and Ilia both. And don't get me started on Nora. She and Pyrrha were great friends. They wrote Nora as having an extreme inferiority complex and Pyrrha as having a superiority complex, and then forced Nora to repeatedly hate herself over Pyrrha's death.

Their idea of "Redeeming women" involves making them suffer and then making them vocally hate themselves.

This was all done to the "heroic women side".... So no, I don't believe Cinder will actually get a "redemption" in this fanfic that seems so eager to make fictional women suffer for the sake of men.

I don't think that ask was about the *ugh* "fixing" fic.

I think it was about the show proper but yes, you make very valid points about said fic.

Their idea of redemption is all about uplifting shitty, reviled men at the expense of the ACTUAL heroes.

There's a word for that..it's right on the tip of my tongue...

[dragynkeep]

its always the same racist white weirdos who play up yang & blake's "thematic names" while being disparaging & straight up racist about sun's despite him being clearly more chinese coded lmao.

"omg yangs name is this in chinese & sun's is a pun so blacksun was never meant to be!!" the white cum crickets writing this literally butchered the hawaiian language, made up complete bullshit about emerald's last name & used a baby name website for ilia's that is also completely wrong, while using japan & china interchangeably for their sole main Asian™ character.

something tells me they actually don't care about marginalized / ethnic cultures & youse are just weird.

[the-path-to-redemption]

Pyrrha x Emerald for the ship meme

ask meme

DON'T SHIP IT

Why don’t you ship it? - Usually, I'm all in for Enemies to Lovers ships, but unfortunately both Pyrrha and Emerald suffer too much from "writer's misogyny" for me to actually ship them with anyone, let alone with each other. Besides, I actually came to greatly dislike Emerald after V8, because her progression into redemption felt like a slap to the face and made me lose interest in any future progress of her character completely.

What would have made you like it? - Honestly, if both of them actually get to have character and are allowed to interact more before Pyrrha dies. Did Emerald envy Pyrrha like Cinder did? What about Pyrrha trying to be kind to her and having them have actual conflict because of their differences? Would Emerald slowly warm up to Pyrrha and question her abusive relationship with Cinder, now that she met someone who publicly shows her care without asking anything in return? Would Pyrrha feel betrayed during the Fall? Would Emerald feel guilty when Pyrrha dies? We will never have that outcome, sadly.

Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it? - I do like their color palette together. Red and green contrasts are a classic, and I like the tall gf x smol gf dynamic. But sadly, I really do not have much to root for them.

[i-dont-believe-in-mountains]

[kitkatopinions]

Emerald is one of my favourite characters in the series and I wanted her to get away from Cinder, but her joining the heroes and becoming another generic Ruby stan is some thing I HATE. Let her, Mercury and Neo fuck off to Mistral and live their best lives ( with Adam turning out to have survived so Team MEAN can become a reality).

Can we add survived!Roman to that group and make their name MEANR?

Tbh I don’t write Adam very much in my fanfictions and don’t like him much, so I personally prefer just Roman, Neo, Emerald, and Mercury, but that’s besides the point because guys... There are so many better ways to write a redemption arc for Emerald than what we were given.

I know that holding all redemption arcs up to Zuko is a very high bar to set, but Emerald’s arc didn’t have to be on par with Zuko to still be good. Let me go through a quick barebones explanation of what I needed from an Emerald redemption.

1. Recognizing her own mistreatment and Mercury’s mistreatment at the hands of Cinder and Salem 2. Recognizing and acknowledging that Salem and Cinder’s plans were not okay and hurt innocent people who didn’t deserve it. 3. Recognizing and growing to clearly regret her own role in those plans and enacting that hurt. With her change in morals made explicit. 4. Resolving to do what she can to make up for it and apologizing to the people she’s wronged the most. 5. The narrative validates the hesitance and hurt feelings of those she’s affected, while she earns her place eventually and proves herself and her good intentions over a period of time even if they’ve been working with her out of necessity before that.

You might have noticed, but... RWBY doesn’t manage any of these things. They get really close with the first one to be fair, but Emerald recognizing that Salem is trying to kill everyone including her is not fully recognizing that she’s been treated very badly, and - this is important - despite Emerald’s seasons long commitment to and belief in Cinder, we don’t see Emerald acknowledge Cinder’s mistreatment of herself, let alone recognizing Cinder’s mistreatment of others.

Her own role in harming others was brushed over (”Sure you’ve also been getting your asses kicked, some of that... By me,”) and never apologized for. Despite the fact that I had thought that Mercury should’ve been the one defecting and leaving with Oscar while Emerald stayed back to talk to Cinder, but clearly agreed with Mercury and wanted to leave herself (setting her up for defecting in Vacuo,) I actually don’t have a real problem with Emerald defecting this season after learning what she learned about Salem and joining the people fighting her. But this by all rights should be the start of her redemption arc, rather than the entirety of it, which is what I think the CRWBY writers are missing. Zuko didn’t rescue Aang as the Blue Spirit in volume one of Avatar and then join their group and immediately get the ‘everyone is joking and teasing him and happy to have him’ treatment right away. Even after going through several of the above steps of redemption (plus more such as ‘relapse’ that I think are great, but not required for a proper redemption,) Zuko still had to apologize, prove himself, and be forgiven organically and through his organic relationship growth with the gaang. Emerald leaving the whale and joining the group wasn’t the problem, that could’ve easily been part of the start of her arc in the same way that Zuko being made a fugitive and having to hide his identity was arguably the start of his arc.

But the way the narrative started insisting that she’s done the work already and ought to be accepted into the group is annoying because she hasn’t been redeemed! She’s barely even started.

I love a good villain/antagonist turned good, and I loved Emerald and wanted her to get redeemed. But the way that RWBY did it really just makes me wonder at their writing choices. We don’t need one more person who will sometimes be sassy, but follows along behind Ruby, that everyone is just going to pretend they have an established close relationship with. If RWBY was written better, I’d be wholly on board with Emerald’s redemption. But, with what it is, I do really wish she and Mercury and Neo would just ditch to Mistral, just like I really hope that we don’t see a lot of Sun and Neptune in Vacuo. I still love these characters and I don’t want them ruined or (in the case of Neo and Emerald) even more ruined than they already are.

[shitlinguistssay]

New emercury ship name proposal

Em & M

[northforwinter]

Yang: Would you agree that the previous leadership of this group has probably failed you on some level?

Emerald: Erm... Ya know... I would say so, yeah.

Weiss: Look where you are right now.

Emerald: I know, Cinder's turned to Ice!

Mercury: It was a bad decision!

Emerald: It was very bad *crying* she was a very bad person.

Yang: Perhaps you should rethink your line of work.

[hinduthatrecallsallincarnations]

Emerald, Nott the Brave

Emerald: "I had a lovely rock collection. And a stick collection. But they were all taken from me at the last prison Merc and I were thrown into."

Jaune: leans in "Wait, wait, wait, I'm not sure you should be thrown into prison for having sticky fingers for, well, sticks."

Yang: nodding absentmindedly in mostly-approval

Blake: secretly agrees with the helplessness of burglary

Weiss: raises her brow

Ruby: confused but smiling encouragingly

Pyrrha: apprehensive but supportive

Ren: silent

Nora: chaotic agreement

Emerald: "Yeah, but...but they were, like, people's canes and stuff."

RBYJNP: laughing super hard

Weiss: holding in a few chuckles professionally "W-Wait. I need clarification. If...If sticks means valuable canes, then what are rocks?"

Emerald: "Oh, you mean the rocks people wear on their fingers and on their necks."

RBYJNP: laughing harder

Weiss: breathes in deeply and sucks lips in, exhales sharply "Thank you for the clarification, Emerald." shaking with internal laughter

Ren: an empathetic stone

[not-your-sacrifice]

Mercury: Has anyone ever stopped to wonder why we're still alive?

Neo, holds up sign: 'Oh, yeah.'

Emerald: All the time.

Adam: By all likelihood, we shouldn't be.