#even if they are a zombie a crocodile man and two baby gods

[mkarchin713]

I can just see Brucie trying to explain this in a way that all of Gotham will believe.

Brucie tells the press that he just found out that Cyrus Gold was the illegitimate son of a Wayne, and Bruce simply wanted to bring him into the family.

The babies?

That’s Sunday and Friday, Grundy found the babies abandoned in the sewer and Brucie, well known himbo and bleeding heart, could not turn them away.

Killer Croc? Oh you mean Waylon?

He’s Grundy’s friend who wants to make sure I’m not taking advantage of Grundy, so many villains have tricked Grundy into doing bad things in the past and with all the head trauma he got when he was murdered, well he gets confused at times. Having Waylon is a big help and Grundy is so much calmer with the babies around.

Prompt 107

“Hey uh pal, what you got there…?”

Grundy hummed a rumble, blinking slowly as he turned slightly towards his… what were they… Not an enemy, not a threat… they were… friend! Yes, they were the friend that didn’t mind that whenever he came back he came back different. 

He uncurled his arms slightly, proudly showing his friend what he’d found splashing in the water growling angrily. His friend blinked, mouth opening and closing for a few moments as he waited patiently, careful not to drop the squirming duo. 

“Babies,” he proudly declared as they let out squeaky roars. 

[calliecat93]

RWBY V6 CH7 Review: The Grimm Reaper

(Note: This was orignally posted on my backup blog due to a series of events that was due to this blog being flagged and me unable to post until now. This is a repost from said blog.)

We are at the halfway point! Yay! God, it has been one Hell of a first half so far. Unlocked secrets, evil plotting, a wintry forest, and zombie Grimm. It has been a dark, tense, emotionally breaking journey so far and we’re only halfway through. I can only imagine what the rest of the volume is going to be like. But first, we have to get this chapter out of the way. So lets do this!

Overview

We begin in, of all places, the Haven Vault. I wonder if they ever got Vernal’s body out of there… anyways, Cinder has brought Neo there, having apparently explained to her the Maidens, Relics, and of Salem. IDK how much detail she went into, but hey it sounds like the basics were covered. The door to the dimension where the lamp was is now sealed off completely. Heck it’s not even a door anymore, just a giant stone wall. So why has Cinder told Neo all of this? Well Cinder has been forbidden form killing Ruby via Salem, which makes sense since she also forbade Tyrian form killing her back in V4. Why? No clue, but it’s probably bad. But while Cinder can’t kill our hooded heroine, Neo is under no such obligation. So if Neo helps Cinder get to Atlas so that she can reclaim the Relic and redeem herself to her mistress, then Neo can get her revenge for them both and it can be played off as an unfortunate accident. Neo seems to be on board with this plan as the two villainesses shake hands. This is not going to end well…

Speaking of not ending well, we suddenly cut to a foggy area where a woman in a blue cloak is waking along a rope-bridge. It reminds me of V1, CH8 tbh. This woman, clad in blue and wearing a skeleton mask, is the Grimm Reaper. Or, more relevant to us, a younger Maria Calavera. Yes my friends, we are in a flashback now. And it’s one Hell of an impressive one as Maria is faced with a giant Nevermore, leading to a badass fight sequence. We also get to see Maria’s weapons,  pair of sickles powered by Gravity Dust, allowing her to maneuver them at will. They are awesome! Its really hard to talk about a fight scene, but you know how the girls struggled against one Nevermore back in Volume 1? Maria handles it single-handed here, ending it via a blast of her Silver Eyes. It turns the Grimm to stone and it promptly shatters. This indicates that, when controlled, the Silver Eyes can merely petrify a Grimm and not outright obliterate it, which would explain how Ruby froze the Dragon back in V3, but didn’t kill it.

Maria may have killed the birdie, but she soon is faced with other problems. She gets ambushed by a group of bandits, who are led by a cocky Crocodile Faunus woman named Tock. She is based off the crocodile from Peter Pan, and man her design is freakin’ great. She’s a rather confident woman, already knowing who Maria is and bragging that these next sixty seconds will be the Grimm Reaper’s lasts. As she says this, she turns on a clock as her aura glows. It was revealed by one of the animators on Twitter that Tock’s Semblance is, for sixty seconds, she is completely invincible. This is demonstrated as the fight begins, the seconds ticking in the background, as while Maria can handle the other bandits, Tock gives her quite the challenge. Weapons break when they hit her and not even minor damage can be done. It’s pretty much regular aura, but multiplied by 100.

Maria gives it her all, even combining her weapons in a dual-wielding form. But Tock is able to bite it in half and knock the Grimm Reaper’s mask off. This leaves Maria’s Silver Eyes wide open, and Tock promptly slashes them. Maria is left blinded and outright screaming in pin as Tock’s Aura breaks, a consequence of using her Semblance. She mockingly offers Maria mercy since the whole reason that her ‘master’ wanted her dead was due to her eyes. I am going to assume that the 'master’ is Salem. Maria tosses one of her sickles at Tock and as the Faunus prepares for the killing blow, Maria uses the Gravity  Dust to force the one weapon into Tock’s back. This causes Tock to meet her final fate as she is pulled towards Maria, who proceeds to behead her as the flashback comes to an end.

In present day, the group is surprised by this new information. Qrow is especially stunned, having admired the Grimm Reaper and he even based his weapon off of hers. Everyone assumed that she had died at some point despite her being a legend, but she had never given away her name or shown her face. Qrow had aspired to be as good as the Grimm Reaper… to which Maria says that hes well on his way with how much of a disappointment he’s been so far. Ouch But… yeah after last chapter, Qrow had that blow coming. Maria goes on to explain how despite surgery giving hr back her vision, after the attack she chose to go into hiding and look after herself. Since a Huntress’ duty is to protect and serve others, she feels that she is a failure and not someone that another should aspire to be like. She even points out how some are already stronger than she was, looking at Yang as she does so. But the former Huntress feels guilty for hiding away, unable to help make the world a better place for the next generation.

Ruby, however, points out that Maria CAN still help make things better now. How? She can train Ruby to use the Silver Eyes. That way, Ruby can use the power to help in the fight and therefore help others the way that Maria once aspired to. Maria doesn’t give an answer to if she’ll accept this offer, but it does look like she’s considering the younger girl’s words. But that will have to wait another day as Ruby’s Scroll goes off… an to her shock, it’s Vomit Bo.. ugh, I mean Jaune! This can only mean one thing. Yes my friends, after a train crash, a demoralizing revelation, an abandoned farm, and literally losing their wills to live, our heroes have arrived at Argus safe and sound. Once in the city, they are found by JNR, with Nora giving poor Oscar a glomp for good measure. There are hugs all around, the most emotional being between Jaune and Ruby. Jaune is clearly emotional that his friends made it back safely as Ruby assures him that she had promised, and she kept it. It’s such a beautiful moment signifying that, at least, our heroes are safe and together again. After these past few chapters, it is a VERY welcome sight.

Argus itself seems to be based off San Francisco, and it looks gorgeous. The settings are beautiful, the people are actually animated and not a still frame like with Mistral, and it really feels like a major city. It’s explained that Argus, being the man trading port between Mistral and Atlas, had help from Atlas to settle a firm establishment. SO while Atlas DOES maintain a military presence until recently, the city falls under Mistral domain and is one of the largest locations outside the main kingdom. And now that everyone’s together, there is the matter of living arrangements. As it turns out, Jaune already has this covered as we soon see a young blonde haired, blue eyed woman. This is Saphron Cotta-Arc. That’s right folks, this is one of Jaune’s long-awaited sisters. I believe that Ruby’s reaction speaks for all of us XD

When at the house, Saphron explains that she moved out of the Arc household as soon as she could as she teases her baby brother. It leads to some cute, funny banter as Jaune insists that he’s not a baby, but there IS an actual baby. Saphron’s infant son, Adrian, who pouts at his uncle’s implication. Which… OMG Jaune is an uncle… JAUNE IS AN UNCLE!!! Also Adrian is an absolute cutie patootie and I will let Weiss and Yang’s reactions speak for me. But yeah, it turns out that Jaune was inspired by Saphron setting out on her own to do the same, which she has no problems rubbing in his face. It leads to more cute banter before they are interrupted by the arrival of a young woman named Terra. And she is Saphron’s wife. Yes my friends, you read that right. Wife. IDK if they’re both lesbian or one or both is bi or whatever, but yes my friends, we have a married LGBT couple in the show at long last! I’ll go more into this in the review portion, bUT OMG YES! SO MUCH YES!!!

The lovebirds are more than happy with housing the group due to how Huntsmen and Huntresses give so much to protect people like them that they feel that it’s the least that they can do. Terra does question the use of students though, which Qrow does a.. meh job at passing off. But it’s okay, they have sandwiches! During this, Terra has to answer a call as Saphron explains that Terra works as a technician at the main radar tower. But it’s also where the military’s systems are housed, so things are buggy and poor Terra is getting the blame. Welt hat sucks. Int he meantime, the gang pan their next move. They intend to go to the military the next day and discuss getting transport to Atlas. But… well Jaune explains that they already tried… and the episode ends with the military base doors closing right into Team RWBYs faces. And no one was surprised.

Review

Guys… I can’t believe. We actually got a happy episode! Nothing bad, at least outside the flashback, happened whatsoever! The characters were… happy and laughing and cooing at cute babies! MILES AND KERRY HAVE FINALLY GRANTED US MERCY! HALELLUJAH!!!

Okay in all seriousness, this episode was great. We were in desperate need for a breather episode, and Thank God we got one. It feels kinda like Chapter 7 form last volume when RWY and JNR were catching up. But I feel like this one did a much better job since it both had some nice action, buildup for what’s coming next, and the build-up to this felt much more natural. But yeah… God IDK where to start with this one…

As I said, Argus looks absolutely stunning. It is probably the best-designed location in the series so far. And this time it felt alive and animated, unlike with Mistral where it used stills and then we spent mos to four time in a house. We actually got to explore a little bit this time, and it made the city feel all the more like… well, a city, as a result. The San Francisco vibes with the tram car and the theater were also super well done and made the city feel unique compared to previous settings. Major kudos to the art and compositing team here, they nailed it.

This was an excellent follow-up to the Brunswick Farms storyline. We get to see what Cinder is up to and set up for her and Neo’s next move. Enough to remind us that something is coming our heroes way, but it doesn’t drag or feel forced in. It presented us what we needed to know and look forward to their next move. On the good guys side, after all the Hell that they went through these past six volumes, they FINALLY got to catch a break. They made it to Argus safely, their moods have greatly improved, and they are once more focused on the task at hand. Hard to say if they feel any better about Ozpin yet, and considering we still haven’t seen Jaune man-handle Oscar, I assume that it’s gonna come up soon. But for right now, it’s just good to see our heroes happy and laughing again. Heck I got close to chocking up when Jaune and Ruby hugged and just seeing the pure relief on the paladin’s face. He’s earned it. They all have more than earned it.

The flashback, and in turn the deeper insight into Maria’s character, were also absolutely fantastic. Maria was a pure badass in her younger days and, while I wish that there was more foreshadowing (like mentioning the Grimm Reaper in passing or something), I absolutely can see why she was a legend. Once more CRWBY shows us a fast-paced, badass fight sequence and they all look so good. They’ve been striving much harder with the fights, which makes sense since it was one of the biggest complaints about V5, and it is very much appreciated. They are doing Monty proud. And Tock is such a fun one-time antagonist. Wicked design, awesome Semblance, a cocky but fun personality, her screentime was short but she made sure to own every second of it. And gotta say this, she had one Hell of a death scene!

It also served to help make Maria feel all that well-rounded of a character. I’ve loved her since the moment that she first introduced herself, and I’ve been loving her more and more with each new chapter. She’s sassy and independent, but wise and considering she stowed away on the train as all the chaos was brewing, has a noble spirit. And when you think about it, her stowing away makes sense. She feels guilty for hiding away after losing her eyes and being unable to move forward after it. She doesn’t come off as a weakling or a coward, she comes off as a sympathetic old woman who knows that she’s made missteps, and feels guilty because she failed to do her part to make things better. Hopefully she will agree to train Ruby and be the guiding light that the girl needs to master her powers and continue to help make people’s lives better. But yeah, so far Maria is the best new character in the show, and this episode truly solidified that.

But speaking of new characters, let us talk about the Cotta-Arc’s. First, I love Saphron. She’s bubbly, energetic, and super charming. The way that she teases Jaune is so silly, but you can tell that she loves her little brother and how affectionate she is. Getting to meet one of Jaune’s sisters at long last was a real treat and her and Jaune’s interactions were a major highlight for me. As for Terra, she also seems like a friendly lady, more than happy to house Huntsmen for all the good that they do for others. And Adrian I a total cutie and I still can’t believe that Jaune is a freakin uncle. I love it so much!

But of course, let us talk about the importance of these characters. They r 4our first LGBT couple in the series. We have Ilia, who I adore and she was a good first step, but now we have an actual married couple in the series. This is EXACTLY how you do representation. RT’s had a couple of examples of LGBT at this point (The Millers in Camp Camp, Agent Ohio (lesbian) and Sister (bi) in RvB, Skout in Nomad, Grimmons (RvB) in my own dreamworld) and so far they’ve done a good job. But aside form The Millers, this is the first blatant married couple that they’ve put into the show. And it was done beautifully. Saphron and Terra are portrayed as friendly young women with no stereotypes or cliches attached. They come across as regular people who are in love and just happen to both be women. Terra calls Saphron 'hon’, Saph goes to help her with groceries, they hold hands while sitting together, Saph is understanding when Terra has to answer a work call, it’s super sweet and, well… normal. And no one questions it or even addresses it when Terra comes in. They’re treated like any other couple, ad THIS is how you do proper representation. You portray your characters as people first and foremost, and then just let them be a couple. There’s no need to make a big deal out of it or put it under a spotlight. Let it be normal. Let it not be questioned. It is a VERY positive portrayal of LGBT characters and it made me cry in happiness when I watched it the first time. Thank you CRWBY. Thank you so much for this.

Final Thoughts

What more can I say? This episode was fantastic! A new setting, enjoyable new characters, a badass fight sequence, and plenty of build-up for what’s to come. But most of all, it was a positive episode. The characters got to be happy, and as such I was happy. Of course it makes me worry for what evil Miles and Kerry are going to unleash next, but hey at least they know when to finally let us breathe. This episode was very much welcomed, and I loved every second of it! Th first half of V6 has been a lot of things, but the one thing that it hasn’t been is disappointing. I eagerly await the second half for what is currently a strong contender for the best volume since V3! Great job CRWBY!