#fallen maidens rwby

[bridgyrose]

Heres a fallen Petals prompt for you:

V9 but, only Ruby fell, taking Cinder with her, into the Ever After. And for added longevity, Cinder's maiden powers dont seem to work in Ever After.

Have fun~

Ruby coughed as she pulled herself out of the water and onto the sandy beach, still a bit disoriented from her fall. Last she had remembered was grabbing onto Cinder and pulling her down with her in hopes that her teammates and her friends would be able to survive and help get others to safety, and yet, she still felt like all she had done was fail. Failed to keep Atlas safe, failed to keep Salem away from the lamp. 

She finally rolled over to look up at the sky, taking a deep breath to try to relax. It wasnt the first, nor would it be the last, time that she had been separated from everyone, but it was certainly the first time that she had no idea where she was or even if her teammates were okay. She pulled out her scroll on instinct to check her teammates’ aura, only to groan when she saw the “No Signal” message. 

Without further delay, Ruby picked herself up and started to make her way deeper into the forest by the beach, almost dragging with each step. Nothing had gone to plan, but at least no one got hurt because of her. At least, not that she was aware of. Neo was still left up there with her teammates and while she knew they could handle her, it was still a worry in the back of her mind. 

“Stupid vines!” 

Ruby paused as she heard Cinder’s voice, looking around to find her. She heard her call out again and followed the sounds of her grunting as she tried to free herself from a mass of vines that seemed to curl around her. 

“Get off of me!” Cinder tried to cut through the vines using her grimm claws, only to watch the vines start to grow back and wrap around her wrists. “I’ll tear through you if I have to!” 

Ruby sighed and shook her head as she made her way to the vines. “You might as well quit struggling, you only seem to be making it worse.” 

Cinder glared, but stopped trying to move. “And what do you know? You’re the reason we’re here in the first place!” 

Ruby winced and took a breath to try to push that thought out of her mind. “And if we want to get back, we’ll have to work together to figure out where we are and how to get home.”

“And why should I trust you?” 

“Because you dont have a choice.” 

“I could kill you here and be done with you.” 

“And if you do that, then you’ll have to traverse this place on your own.” Ruby looked around for a sharp stick to help cut Cinder out of the vines. “And if you kill me now, then you’ll be alone. And you’ll never make it back to Remnant.” 

Cinder frowned. “And what makes you think I cant get to Remnant without you?” 

Ruby picked up a branch from the ground and snapped it to give it a point. “For one, you’re still struggling to get yourself out of those vines, which means you cant use your maiden powers to help. And two-” she stabbed at one of the vines and paused as it recoiled and then wrapped around the stick. “-I think this might be a trap.” 

“You think?” 

Ruby took a step back as the vines started to make their way to her and wrapped around her legs, pulling her into the tangled mess with Cinder. She struggled to free herself until she heard shouting coming closer. She tried to ready herself as best she could, only to pause when she saw a few mice come out from the brush. 

“Our trap worked!” one of the mice called out. “We can finally fight back against our predators!” 

“Your predators?” Cinder let out a growl as she asked. “So let me get this straight: we fell into a trap that was set up to protect mice?!” 

“Hunter mice!”

“Hunter mice…” 

Ruby sighed and started to struggle a bit. “Can you let us out? We didnt realize this was your trap and we uh… we’re not actually here to hurt you.”

The hunter mice looked the two over before finally relenting to cut the girls out of the vines. 

Cinder rubbed her wrists and glared at Ruby, then started to walk off. “I’ll find my way back.” 

“We dont even know where we are!” Ruby looked between the hunter mice and Cinder before finally groaning and following after Cinder. “Where are you going?” 

“To the tree,” Cinder said as she pointed to the tree that seemed to loom over everything. “Its at least tall enough to give me an idea on how to get out of here.” 

“And you’re planning on going alone? What if there’s something out there that tries to kill you?”

“Why do you care?” 

“I…” Ruby paused as she tried to find an answer, but couldnt. Why did she care if Cinder ended up killed wherever this place was? Without Cinder, she and her team could finally stand a chance to stop Salem since she’d never be able to get the Beacon relic without her. Though, that did mean if she died… She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Because… of the maiden powers.” 

Cinder frowned. “That’s why you care?” 

“Yes… no…” Ruby lightly punched a nearby tree. “Why does this have to be so complicated?” 

“The only thing that’s going to be complicated is getting back home-” Cinder paused and sighed when she pushed away a bit of grass and found herself overlooking what she could only describe as a child’s imagination. “-because we’re dead, arent we?” 

Ruby walked over next to her and looked over what she could find. Nothing seemed to make sense anymore as she started to recount everything. “The hunter mice, the tree…” she paused and started to look for anything else familiar. “We’re in the Ever After.” 

“The Ever After?” 

“Yeah. This is all like the story from the *Girl Who Fell Through the World*. All we have to do is follow the story-” 

“Follow the story?” Cinder scoffed. “And how do you know that’ll work?” 

“I dont, but Alyx made it out through the tree and its our best shot on getting out of here together. I… I dont have Crescent Rose, and you dont seem to have your maiden powers. So either we work together and get out of here, or we run into the Jabberwalker and run into further trouble because neither of us can fight it.” 

“I’ll take my chances.” 

Ruby hesitated. “And where are you going?” 

“To find my way to the tree. Alone.” 

Ruby sighed and dropped to the ground, starting to feel lost. She still had no idea how to get to the tree and even if she could, she still didnt even know how to get home from it. She wiped a tear from her eyes and paused as rain started to fall around her. 

“Dont cry,” a small voice called out to her. “I can help you get to the tree.” 

“You… can?” Ruby asked as she watched a small mouse make its way to her. “What’s your name?” 

“Name?” The mouse paused and sat down. “I… dont actually have a name. I’m still looking for my purpose.” 

“Then would it be alright if I give you one?” 

The mouse nodded. 

“What about… Little?” Ruby asked as she held her palm out. “Do you like that?” 

“I do,” Little said as they made their way onto Ruby’s hand. “And what do I call you?” 

“Ruby.” Ruby sighed and put Little on her shoulder. “And you’re sure you’re okay with taking me to the tree? It looks like its a long way.” 

“I dont mind at all. And maybe I’ll be able to find my purpose along the way.”

[bestworstcase]

Something I can't help but think of is the Great War in RWBY. How Ozpin in one of his past selves had to basically wipe out entire armies of soldiers and people with a single attack from what was likely the Sword of Destruction.

I have to wonder just how many generations of men and women were wiped out. How many settlements of people basically lost their breadwinners or no longer had anyone to protect them from Grimm.

How many years of battle experience and wisdom about the follies of war, just annihilated in an instant. How many lessons that could have been taught to a new generation made lost forever, ensuring that many of the newer generations could not learn from the past except only through a distorted, flawed lens.

I wonder if this loss might have contributed to Atlas' lackluster military capabilities, because anyone from Mantle who could have held the jackasses at the top to account with hardened experience and wisdom JUST. WEREN'T. THERE.

anon i am grabbing u gently by the shoulders

you have fallen for ozma’s propaganda that he is the Main Character of history. and also activated one of my many trap cards (sorry)

the institution of huntsmen is – overtly, albeit not couched in exactly these terms – predicated on the Great Man, the idea that the course of human history is predominately a product of the decisive choices and actions of Heroes, of individuals whose superior intellect and fortitude and so forth elevated them above the common people. this is the fundamental idea undergirding ozpin’s whole thing – his guardians, the maidens, silver-eyed warriors, his “smaller, more honest soul,” the greatness he promises oscar, the way he describes ruby as possessing “something unquantifiable: a spark, that can inspire others even in the darkest of times” – these are his Great Men. the practical short term purpose of the huntsmen academies is to mold children into warriors in order to guard his fortresses, but in the longer term the point of them is to create Great Men.

narratively, this is an idea that rwby does not agree with; the thematic critique leveled against this view of history begins with the inherent contradiction between ozpin’s soaring rhetoric – the stated ideal of everyone standing together as one – and his actual behavior, which (as salem points out, correctly, in her v3 soliloquy) betrays the hollowness and lack of conviction in his professed “faith” in humanity. to believe in Great Men is fundamentally cynical; it is anti-humanistic; it is self-defeating.

we don’t really have time to outline everything in the CFVY novels that leads me to believe that this narrative critique is building inexorably toward bringing the common people into sharp focus as the true engine of history in vacuo – suffice it to say that there are passages in both books which elevate and emphasize the importance of ordinary people working together to achieve greater things than huntsmen can – but the atlas arc already offers a tangible shift in this direction with civilian politics dawning as a central narrative concern in contrast to the insularity of the beacon and mistral arcs.

the point being that the story structure itself is dismantling ozpin’s view of history; civilians are distant, abstracted set dressing within the hermetically sealed artificial reality of beacon academy, and irrelevant in mistral until the instant the lost fable shatters ozpin’s grip on the narrative and then – bam. brunswick farm is a horror-tragedy about subsistence farmers. the kids stay with the cotta-arcs in argus, and it is this connection with ordinary people that gets the kids to atlas, where class tensions between mantle and atlas and a contested council election dominate the plot and ozpin’s Great Man crumbles because he’s still hermetically sealed inside that artificial reality where the common people don’t really matter or exist in any meaningful way.

you see?

(and of course, professor oobleck, the exception who proves the rule: there is no one still living in the hollowed out ruins of mountain glenn, but that mini-arc is the one time in the beacon arc where the existence of ordinary people feels real and tangible and important, and it is because the history teacher says when i look at these ruins i see lives that were lost. i see a failure that must never be repeated. i see lives, past and future, and this is why i am a teacher, because history is more important than heroism.)

ok. so

the great war.

in qrow’s account of the great war, ozma – the king of vale – is the Great Man. the story of this sprawling, worldwide conflict is that the king of vale tried and failed to avert it, and for ten years the war raged on without an end in sight, until at last the king of vale took to the field of battle himself and single-handedly ended it by the sword; everyone bowed to him in surrender, but he lifted up the world by the hand and established a new world order.

no one else – not a single other participant in this conflict aside from the king of vale and (qrow hints ominously, and completely without evidence) salem – has a drop of agency or even a meaningful presence in the great war as qrow, received from ozpin, would tell it. and i do not think that is supposed to be taken at face value whatsoever; none of the other WOR spots are objective. these are character studies as much as they are worldbuilding shorts.

rwby is a narrative that has rejected this kind of simplicity over and over and over again. the great war was more complicated than that. some big chickens will be coming home to roost in the vacuo arc.

so with all that being said.

the historical exemplar that rwby’s great war seems to be modeled after is the first world war. (in brief: fought 80-90 years ago; the conflict was preceded by decades of increasing tensions driven by imperialist expansion and economic competition between rapidly-industrializing great powers; the war itself famously exploded from a single gunshot – although rwby eschews the political assassination angle perhaps because there were only three extant states in the world; the ending of the war resulted in massive redistribution of imperial territories and the formation of multiple new states. i know the usamerican tendency is to forget WWI happened and that ozma ‘nuking’ the battlefield with the sword to decisively end the war is likely to evoke the atomic bomb in the mind of the average viewer, but here i will remind everyone that the united states massacred nearly a quarter of a million civilians and that figure does not include deaths from cancer or long-term radiation exposure. because we dropped those bombs on cities. in contrast WWI was decided on the battlefield with the hundred days offensive.)

the real great war lasted from the summer of 1914 to the autumn of 1918. four years, three months. do you know how many people died?

an estimated 9 to 11 million military deaths, and 23 million more wounded. 7-8 million of those deaths were combat-related. upwards of 6 million civilians died. one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and aside from WWII (in which as many as two thirds of fatalities were civilians and genocide and war-related famine killed millions and millions of people, so many of these deaths were not combat-related), the only two conflicts in history that killed more people than WWI lasted 14 years, and 47. again, WWI lasted just four years.

ok. the reason WWI was so deadly, and the reason almost all of those military fatalities were combat-related is because of when and how this conflict was fought. in 1914 when the war began, the world was just coming out of the second industrial revolution. that was a period when railroads really began to proliferate, mass-manufacture of steel became possible, rise of production lines, automobiles, the telegraph, that kind of thing.

cannons, and things, had existed for a relatively long time at this point, but the second industrial revolution heralded the dawn of modern artillery weapons, and warfare, cultural conceptions of how wars are fought, had not caught up yet to the sheer scale of destruction that were now possible because of this new technology. which meant that WWI was the last conflict where war meant lining up troops on the battlefield and smashing the armies together, except everyone had things like rapid-firing heavy artillery, and explosive shells, and machine guns, and barbed wire, and chlorine gas.

this is what led to horrible, bloody stalemate of trench warfare and the unprecedented scale of casualties and the idea of “no man’s land” – it’s why the cultural image of what a battlefield looks like in the popular conscious for decades and decades after this war has been and often still is just a barren, muddy, completely obliterated wasteland strewn with debris. WWI was the transition between pre-industrial and modern warfare where industrialization had led to the development of military technology that rendered the old way of doing war obsolete. suicidal.

in the WOR spot, those are exactly the the conditions surrounding the great war except more lopsided because one side has a massive technological advantage. vacuo wasn’t even a state, it had no formal government of its own and it was under mistrali occupation when the vacuans rebelled. not an industrialized nation. vale was had probably industrialized to some degree (the artwork in the WOR spot doesn’t reflect this, but “no one knows who shot first” and vale/vacuan forces were reliant on dust munitions – everyone had guns) but mantle was significantly ahead of the curve.

so.

you have ten years of trench warfare – more than double the length of our own great war. you have the grimm, who are drawn to all negative feelings but especially to violence. you have huge swaths of territory that are just annihilated and never reclaimed. qrow mentions food rationing, so there were probably widespread famines caused by the loss and destruction of farmland. and this was happening all over the world, on every continent, including the unnamed continent that is now literally uninhabited – it wasn’t always, there used to be settlements there, they’re shown in i think WOR: vale – for a decade. right

ozma brought the sword of destruction onto the battlefield to break what was either a brutal stalemate or a slow grind of brutal attrition depending how lopsided the technological advantage was – after ten years of what had to be every military commander and every leader trying everything they could think of to force a surrender because nobody wants this – in the single bloodiest battle of the war, which, yes, means he personally killed an unfathomable number of people because trench warfare is a uniquely deadly form of warfare –

but the vast, vast vast majority of people who died in the great war were not killed in that one battle. remnant’s population is a lot smaller than ours – millions, not billions – so it’s unlikely that millions of people died. but proportionally this war probably killed hundreds of thousands of people and i would not be surprised if at some point a character drops a figure like “almost a million” or even “over a million” – like just. in raw terms, thinking about this as remnant’s great war – the historical exemplar is really not. subtle – that lasted for a decade, this is a conflict that wiped out a significant percentage of the global population.

all that said,

the military tacticians and strategists largely would have survived and military historians would have been all over this conflict. lessons learned. the infantry poured into the trenches were not gaining any battle experience other than “this is actual, literal hell” while they endured hours of artillery barrage. the only wisdom that can be imparted by trench warfare is that it must be avoided at any cost because the only way to win is for the other side to run out of men or ammunition or popular resolve first. pure attrition. that’s the only takeaway. never let this happen again.

i think this is why the atlas military immediately pivoted to, like, robotic soldiers and armored mechs and the warships. that is “we cannot do trench warfare again. we cannot do trench warfare again.”

(in combination with radically changing the way you deploy troops, tanks and aircraft is indeed how you never do trench warfare again – there were tanks and light aircraft during WWI but none of them were good enough to break the stalemate.)

the problem, largely, for the atlas military – in terms of tactical innovation – is that in the eighty years since the great war, there’s only been one large-scale conflict and the faunus revolution was an insurgency, which – had to have been a protracted war waged by some phenomenally tactically ingenious faunus because the insurgents won – and that is a completely different kind of ballgame.

strategic doctrine and military tactics are developed and tested through practice. we did not jump from WWI straight to modern warfare, there have been many many regional wars and smaller conflicts between then and now. after a war, win or lose, you can theorize all you want but until there’s another war that puts your new technology or new tactics to the test, there’s not really a way to know if you’ve learned the right lessons and corrected successfully from whatever errors you made in the previous war.

in a world like remnant, where there are only five states in the entire world and there is so much pressure against open warfare, military innovation is going to be really slow. glacial even. stagnant. the horrifying scale of the great war is not something anyone wanted to ever repeat, and you can see that in the development of atlas’ military technology since then. but, as we can see when salem begins her assault on atlas:

the doctrine has not changed significantly. we have unmanned robotic light infantry arrayed in formation support the atlesian equivalent of tanks, with heavy artillery mounted on the warships in formation above. and, in the back, trenches for the human shock infantry and huntsmen. this is still very much warfare in the pre-industrial mode.

the calculation that the atlas military made here is quite clear – pursue aerial superiority to control the skies so you can eliminate ground-based enemy artillery, mass-manufacture lightweight disposable robotic infantry to feed into the meat grinder, deploy soldiers in heavily-armored mechs supported by those disposable infantry bots into the no man’s land to lead the advance and clear a path for the human rear infantry (<- those mechs would be excellent for cutting rapidly through barbed wire, a major advantage over tanks in another WWI-style conflict).

this is a military that reacted to trench warfare by investing in armored ground vehicles and heavy aircraft (✅ tanks and bombers), and by substituting disposable drones for human shock infantry instead of the shift toward evasive maneuvering and detection avoidance that undergirds modern warfare. which is not unreasonable! if in 1918 it had seemed remotely possible to anyone to replace human troops with little war machines, people would have tried! and in a world where a) the technology to do that proves viable and b) the great war is followed by an 80-year period in which the only major conflict is an insurgency, it’s inevitable that the doctrine stagnates there because it’s untested.

no matter how many drills and VR scenarios and war games you do, you can’t know how this new approach works in a real war until you fight another war. the iterative process of improvement is stalled.

and the terrifying thing about salem is she knows what the fuck she’s doing. it is clear that one of the lessons ozpin took away from the great war is that the general public cannot be entrusted to know that war is on the horizon – he’s furious with ironwood for bringing warships to vale because (aside from risking a bona fide diplomatic incident that could inflame tensions between vale and atlas should the vale council take issue with the uninvited presence of a foreign state’s air force in their kingdom!) he’s concerned that it will make people tense.

you know, like how people were tense when mistral occupied eastern vale and ozma tried to avert war by appeasement, and then there was a deadly riot that exploded into a decade of trench warfare. like how things were probably pretty goddamned tense before the faunus revolution broke out in response to humans being – as oobleck very delicately put it – “quite, quite adamant about centralizing the faunus population in menagerie.”

(that’s code for, at best, systematic persecution intended to make living outside menagerie so untenable that faunus would leave en masse; mass deportations and genocide at worst. in case that isn’t clear.)

i doubt ozma was remotely as obsessed with absolute secrecy such that the common people don’t even know there’s anything unusual happening prior to the great war and the faunus revolution. ozpin is a trauma reaction to those conflicts, deeply and profoundly shaped by them and terrified to the point of irrationality of allowing the “energy” that preceded the outbreak of those wars to happen again.

salem hits beacon with three separate and extremely public terroristic attacks all on the same night – she planned for four, but one fired early – all of which were broadcast internationally, live. she spent eighty years observing how oz reacted to the great war and then struck at him in a manner he would never be able to conceal, and (if he’d survived) would have gotten him stripped of power and cast out of his fortress in disgrace. i think her calculation here is that ozpin would either be dead for at least a few years or self-immolate out of panic.

haven, of course, she had lionheart in her pocket and planned a covert operation. low risk, quick and quiet.

but then, when her plans shuffled and brought her to atlas – a military power that has spent eighty years preparing for war between industrialized states, trying to claw its way ahead of the curve so it won’t be trapped in a trench stalemate again – salem made an inexhaustible force of grimm and delivered a an old-school siege, because a post-industrial military that has focused for eight decades on the problem of avoiding trench stalemate is not prepared to handle an enemy force that is effectively immune to artillery fire.

i think the atlas military would have done a lot better in a round two of the great war. but that’s not the war it got. it got a premodern siege by the eldritch roman legion with instant and infinite respawns so artillery barrages just don’t matter. it’s not about overpowering the enemy! it’s about taking away what power they have!

(this, plus the atlesian military’s development of devices that provoke massive grimm swarms as per arrowfell, makes it emphatically clear that the atlas military does not exist for the purpose of grimm extirpation. it’s an institution that has been built from the ground up for open warfare with other states.)

[lintuwaterfall]

I am sorry folks, but she is dead.

Penny died. Please let her rest. "I'll be a part of you." That is Penny making a callback to V7's finale after Fria passed the power to Penny and Winter said something similar. It is not Penny she is literally part of Winter. Neither Raven nor Cinder show signs of having a previous Maiden in them. This is not the Oz Soul situation. And if there was a way to seperate a conscience from a body, don't you think it would be more important to use such a trick on Oz/Oscar at this point? Look, I get it. We all loved the adorkable ginger Pinnochio, but she gave her life much like Pyrrha did. "It will be just like Beacon again!" She said in Volume 7. And the Atlas Arc did end up like the Beacon Arc. The area is attacked by Salem's forces, Team RWBY fails to stop The Fall but manages to prevent things from being even worse, and someone close to them dies fighting Cinder (Pyrrha/Penny), but Cinder is prevented from fully basking in victory (Ruby awakening her eyes for the first time/Jaune mercy killing Penny to keep the Winter Maiden powers from going to Cinder). In the end one of the main things about RWBY is coming to terms with Death. Destruction is as much a part of Life as Creation is. Clear away the old so something new can grow. It hurts, but that's life, as unfair as it may seem. Pretty much every major death, every major loss, that the show has had has had some kind of purpose, be it negative or positive, and that comes down to how characters handle and process it. Be it the death of a lover, the death of an abuser, a mother's promise, or a promise to a fallen friend and mentor, each has driven the characters we have followed all these years. Penny is another death on the list, and if/when RWBY continues one thing I am sure we will cover is how those close to Penny act. Do they remain in the quagmire of their grief and sorrow (as we see Winter seemingly doing in the epilogue animatic and how Jaune was during the journey to Haven) or do we see people move forward (like Team JRN made a choice to do in front of Pyrrha's Statue) for the sake of the world and people that Penny loved and gave her life to protect.

[problematic-rwby-shipping-poll]

RWBY ABUSE BRACKET ROUND ONE

(Click for better quality) Welcome to Round One of the RWBY Abuse Bracket! For those participating, you will be voting for the ship you prefer. The matchups for round one and links to the polls are below the cut and will be added as they are posted.

Fallen Petals (Ruby/Cinder) vs Irondeath (James/Salem) Holybun (Cardin/Velvet) vs Emerald Lair (Emerald/Salem) Tauradonna (Blake/Adam) vs Pennywatts (Penny/Arthur) Fallkos (Pyrrha/Cinder) vs Stingfisher (Clover/Tyrian) Neorose (Ruby/Neo) vs Silver Stinger (Mercury/Tyrian) Frostbite (Weiss/Adam) vs Queen's Maiden (Cinder/Salem) Roselem (Ruby/Salem) vs Sunwick (Sun/Roman) Cinwin (Cinder/Winter) vs Raging Bull (Yang/Adam) Emberald (Cinder/Emerald) vs Tyriqrow (Qrow/Tyrian) Knightfall (Jaune/Cinder) vs Mindless Worship (Salem/Tyrian) Rosewick (Ruby/Roman) vs Fallendina (Penny/Cinder) Hellbirds (Raven/Cinder) vs Shackled Ambition (Sienna/Adam) Bellawick (Blake/Roman) vs Bad Harvest (Oscar/Salem) Branweiss (Weiss/Raven) vs Ozlem (Salem/Ozma) Toxic Petals (Ruby/Tyrian) vs Hellfyre (Yang/Salem) Baked Alaska (Yang/Neo) vs White Ash (Weiss/Cinder)

[divinecomedyproductions]

RWBY: Saints of Remnant notes: Spectulative Theology

WARNING: CONTAINS TOPICS OF RELIGION, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

Now anyone who has been following my blog is well aware I am a Catholic and my reimagined RWBY AU, RWBY: Saints of Remnant, is set in the Narnia Multiverse.

Why I did this was because I felt the best way to incorporate my faith into RWBY was to turn to the likes of CS Lewis and learn to think like him.Not that I consider myself on par with him or the rest of the Inklings.

Supposed Remnant was another world created by God in the same multiverse as Narnia/The Space Trilogy, and The Triune God(The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit) revealed himself there, what would that look like? How would it change the nature of Remnant?

Which I came to several conclusions

Humans and Faunus, like Humans in Narnia, are descended from Humans from Earth's past who had stumbled into it by God's will

Things like Aura, Semblance, the existence of Faunus, Dust, are a configuration of Deep Magic of this world

Christ and The Holy Spirit appear in this world by different appearances and different names and The Father created Remnant through Christ as he is the creator(Colossians 1:16)

The Grimm given their nature must exist as some kind of Satanic force within this world and are connected to the fallen nature of Humans and Faunus

So I will go into each one briefly so let's start with the first one

This one is plainly obvious given the setting Im implying its set in, humans and faunus are descended from Humans from Earth. To be exact humans around the world dating from the days of the Roman Empire up to the late Victorian Era/Gilded Age during times of war, exploration, and persecution.

Remnant itself, formerly known as Omnibus, is older than Narnia but younger than Charn. And it's also set after The Last Battle so Narnia is long gone by the start of the story. But it should be noted the Ragnarok War which shattered the world takes place at the same time as The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

Second. Deep Magic

As I understand it, Deep Magic in Narnia is basically the Supernatural Law of each universe which is in different configurations in each world and thus have different results.

For Remnant's case, Deep Magic would probably be responsible for the odd hair colors of people, it would transform some humans into faunus(thus making them Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve, an offshoot race of humans), and giving both the potential of semblance and aura. And the Maidens and Wizard(who are among a total pantheon of 13 individuals in this AU) are of a deeper magic.

3. How God(The Father,The Son, and Holy Spirit) reveals himself in Remnant

This is obvious, I tried to do what CS Lewis did and come up with a supposed incarnation of Christ/Aslan in Remnant, and borrowing ideas from @vitamaeternum

I present The Storyteller(art done by @magiesheartlove)

sent by the mysterious Author Allfather to "tell" Omnibus into existence and proceeding from The Author Allfather through The Storyteller an entity known as The Ink of Life which works a lot like Aslan's Breath.

4.The Nature of Grimm and the connection to Original Sin and the nature of evil

We all know Grimm are drawn to negativity and how they are soulless abominations.

What if the Grimm are a manifestation of original sin that Satan and his horde of demons use to ravage and corrupt Remnant?

St. Augustine of Hippo describes Evil as privatio boni, evil exists as a corruption, negation, or absence of Good for Good is substantial while evil is not. It exists only as some kind of sickness, a cavity in your tooth, the hunger of an empty stomach, a festering wound, a black hole.

And I will go into this when I explore grimmified humans and faunus, The Grimmborne.

But basically Remnant is a wounded world, the Grimm exist as a corruption/negation of creation that festers in said wounded world and has increased after the Ragnarok, and the negativity from sin, corruption of the four kingdoms, and the tragedy of the increasing death rate of hunters exacerbates it("Always Winter, and never Christmas!")

I don't want to reveal too much, but I wanted to give you all a taste of what I have in mind.

[scham-wcan]

Prompt: V10 or V11 after Cinder is surrenders and Winter has to be the main guard on duty to watch her. One of the first moments you can tell Cinder is switching sides to be one of the good guys.

Still one of my favourite potential scenes which in my head I’ve written 100s of times, hope this one is half way decent!

It got very too much long sorry!

It had been weeks at this point since Cinder had, well for lack of better terminology, come into Team Remnant’s possession. She had been cast out by Salem following some sort of internal schism, they had no real way of telling the specifics of it but they knew Cinder was on the losing side.

Her Grimm arm had burned itself and a fair amount of tissue it touched on Cinder away. Deepening scars and chasms in the woman’s skin which already laid thick with recovering fibre. When RWBY had brought her back to Vacuo, Winter cursed at the Fallen Maiden first; though quietly gasped at the imagined pain such a severance package would entail.

It was easily decided that while others could assist her, Winter was to be the primary warden for the Maiden. Without her Grimm form they were worried Ruby’s silver eyes would no longer hurt her, so the only way they could counter a Maiden was with another Maiden. Winter quickly stole herself to the task, expecting long hours of cat and mouse, venomous barbs and snarling at the bars as it were.

But that was so far from the truth.

The first week Winter spent watching over a sleeping, well she imagined that’s what it was, and recovering Cinder. Her body lined with gauze and films of medical tape, all of her form made Winter’s mind take flight. She knew she should be spitefully proud, this was one of the people responsible for her home’s destruction, Cinder had so much pain caused in her file that it could fill a leger. But all Winter could hear was the lengthened wheeze-like breathing Cinder had for those long dark nights, no fires or ash or glass, just pained huffs and wheezes.

“Come on.” Winter remembered vividly on their second week of Cinder being properly awake. One hand held a bowl of brown stew while the other had a spoon. “You need to eat.” Her tone sharp and aggressive, biting through her teeth as she pressed the bowl forward. Forward onto the huddled form of Cinder, black clothing tattered, one arm clutching around her knees as she sat against a stone wall.

Silence replied to the Schnee, far from the burning hisses the Maiden had hurled at her in their last dual. Even her golden eye refused to meet Winter’s, staring downward at the floor where Winter crouched instead.

“I’m not hungry.” Cinder’s voice cracked. Blinking long and slow.

It only made Winter sigh, lowering the bowl and utensil with a clutter. “You’re just being a brat now you know that?” Winter scowled, not quite caring if she was being too hostile. Grabbing at the empty cup beside them both now, with a pointed finger she sprayed a gust of icy wind into its form, filling it with cold water fast.

“You haven’t eaten in four days, and even then all you ate last was a chunk of meat.” Winter admonished, placing the water cup down beside Cinder’s right side. Sighing lengthy through her nose then, Winter inspected the battle damaged Cinder. “If you intend to martyr yourself in a hole for your god you have to know we’re quicker to sedate you, right?”

“You won’t.” Cinder smirked for the first time in a long while. A cracking chuckle lowly flicking from her as her eye turned upward to the Schnee. “Then you won’t have your little victory parade with me daily, Specialist~.”

Winter’s scowl deepened as she pressed herself from her haunches, dusting herself off calmly before her hands folded behind her back.

“You don’t think I don’t know why you’re here everyday? Aww it’s cute, I admit.” Cinder lulled quietly still. “Though if you want to truly savour a win, distance makes the heart grow fonder, Schnee Scum.”

Winter rolled her eyes, grand, now the things she had been hearing beyond this cell from the other survivors were inching their way into it as well.

“I do not find any glory in this, Clod.” Cinder looked taken aback by the comment, if only for a moment. Then the Maiden watched as Winter wandered around her to her right side and fell down against the wall as well.

Letting her white hair ease against the wall behind her, Winter swallowed evenly. “Honestly, if anything I thought you’d put up more of a fight.” She feigned to glance at Cinder, though she could guess by the shifting sounds her vision turned from her. “Especially when you’re probably more interested in getting back to your kind of villains than sitting out the end of days in a hole.”

A growling snarl parted from Cinder, Winter supposed some of it was intended to be something like a spit. “I have no interest being with that traitorous, lying, machiavellian witch.” Cinder dragged her form tighter with her one arm, the action seemed to only steepen that anger more. “There is nothing for me there anymore…” A moment took hold where Winter momentarily glanced at the Fall Maiden. “Now, I’m just your toy captive. I suppose.”

“What an ugly title.” Winter sighed out, letting some military wit needle its way through, as she leaned her head back on the wall. “Well, actually, you did call me an Atlas Elite which was hurtful plenty.”

“And Ironwood’s lapdog.” Cinder heaved.

Winter’s expression soured. “Well we both served ungrateful bastards, didn’t we?” Pausing for a moment. “At least I got to finish mine off.” Her eyes flicked for a moment, watching as Cinder uncoiled herself from her knees. It looked painful, but the Fall Maiden slowly leaned backward into the wall like the Winter Maiden. Staring up into the ceiling as Winter had.

Sighing for a long while, Cinder eventually nodded. “I want to kill my bastard too.” Her golden eye flicking with the first remembrance of full fiery gold for the first time in a long while, glancing over to Winter.

“I think we can start getting you on that track.” Winter nodded, then pointed between the pair of them. “But you should eat the soup, I think I made it correctly this time.”

“I fucking doubt it.”

[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

[eternalstarlightmakeup]

When you fallen down the RWBY rabbit hole again and you just start writing a fanfic just have new content.

Bringing back my OCs and I want maiden Pyrrah (fight me)

[collective-remnants-rwby]

RWBY Domain Expansions, pt. 2

Part 1.

Touching on some of the villains this time.

And to makes things clear, Domain Expansion here requires a Semblance, so sorry, but Mercury, Watts, and Salem don't have Domains.

Cinder Fall: Hellfire and Brimstone

Cinder's Domain is aptly named, a burning red skyed landscape that quite simply sets every target within on fire, boils them alive with superheated air, and chokes them with superheated ash. And with each fallen victim she gets a small aura boost, leaving her able to use her Semblance that much earlier.

Notes:

An extremely simple Lethal Domain capable of overwhelming power.

There's an AU version of this that's basically a survival tent/campfire, maintaining a comfortable temperature of everyone inside with an offensive ability based off of solidifying ash.

Adam Taurus: Seeing Red

Adam's Domain bathes the world in the same harsh, blinding crimson light of Moonslice, hiding the single slice that cuts through anything, including the barrier of the Domain, rupturing it and making it a true last resort maneuver.

Another extremely simple Domain, basically the red screen effect we see in the Black Trailer made real, blinding the target. It's basically the opposite to the Path of Isolation with his Semblance acting kinda like Sukuna's Domain, with the caveat that unleashing it essentially harms him by stripping him of his Domain and Semblance.

Also, the joke is intentional, and I can imagine a version of this episode ehere Adam attempts to unleash it only for Yang to unleash Full Burn and turn all of his gathered energy back on him and blow him up.

Hazel Rainhart: Painless

I don't have the appearance down, but the sure hit effect disrupts the target's nervous system, blinding them, eliminating their sense of pain and ability to coordinate. He also gains an almost Maiden-like ability to manipulate elemental Dust, without the need to channel it via his rudimentary injections.

Tyrian Callows

Tyrian is an interesting case, as he wouldn't have a Domain, but instead a Domain Disruption, having developed what was essentially an advanced version of whatever Anti-Domain Technique that would exist in this world, in conjunction with his Semblance. When activated inside a Domain, it turns the sure hit effect against the Domain User, essentially poisoning the Domain until it falters and shatters, this "poison" spreading faster the more the sure hit effect is focused on him.

I'm having a little trouble with Emerald and Neo, as I want to make them unique, but if you have ideas feel free to leave them in the comments!

[crimsonxe]

You know you've fallen as a content creator for RWBY stuff when you're referencing Judgemental's garbage shit-takes. Like the idea that RWBY haven't been treated as the main characters in the last few volumes, because y'know there's goddamn Maidens in play and that they're dealing with their own foils setup by the narrative. The main focus is always gravitated around RWBY in some capacity and they don't need to be directly in the damn mix of it to have it count.

Same person also tosses in that RWBY need to be more "proactive" and its like HOW? They don't know the location of Salem's crew or even their identities (outside of the ones that they run into) and didn't even know about the Relics till v5. Not to mention when they are proactive then THAT is bitched about, like with stealing an airship in v5. Y'know where the shitbag crowd tries their hardest to get on a moral soapbox made of balsa wood over them daring to steal said airship after being pushed into it by an obnoxious up-her-own-ass asshole.

The one bit of credit I can give that'd make one hell of an idea for an AU is the story with Salem as the headmistress of Beacon that guides RWBY & Co. against the forces of Oz. Not because I hate Oz, but because there's so much intrigue in Salem. Also I'll be real she has legit reason to hate the Brothers after what they did, especially with the reveal in v9 in them pushing in traditional death not it being a normal thing from the start.

Though this person who I won't name, has been sleeping next to flea-ridden dogs so not shocking when they start spouting the same garbage as them including references to them.

[dokidokitsuna]

Hey, I'm new here, and I really like your comics and animated series. But, I was reading through some of your posts, and it seems like you got a lot of AU's and I was wondering if you could give brief explanation on them.

Thank you! ^^ I've really been looking forward to answering this ask, because I just love making lists of stuff I've done~

(RWBY) NeverFell: An alternate universe where the Battle of Beacon ended in victory instead of defeat, and the story remains as the action-dramedy everyone knew and loved~. The Midnight mini-series is under the umbrella of this AU.

(RWBY) Familyverse: An alternate universe where the RWBY girls' parents have a larger influence on their lives, and their appearances are changed accordingly. This AU comprises the backstories I created for my first set of RWBY redesign videos ('Family Resemblance'), which can be found here. I only add it to this list because I did mention it on Tumblr once or twice.

(RWBY) Maiden Hunters: An alternate universe where the members of Team WTCH are all young women who can gain the Maiden powers featured in the later volumes of the series. This is another AU mostly covered in videos, although I did answer a few asks about it here.

(Kirby) Dream Alliance: A gijinka alternate universe covering the story of Kirby Star Allies, where Kirby has been killed by Void Termina, leaving his friends and the rest of the world to figure out how to defeat a god without him. The story follows a version of Magolor who was raised by Hyness in the Jambastion cult, and is now working to become a mech pilot in the Dream Alliance fleet.

(Kirby) Wish Library: A gijinka alternate universe where Marx and Galacta Knight spend their days trying to protect the Galactic Nova they live in from being captured by 'Star Hunters'.

(Kirby) Super Star Sentai: A gijinka alternate universe where Kirby is the main antagonist, whose ideas of 'having fun' result in apocalyptic consequences. Meta Knight, Dark Meta Knight, Galacta Knight, Morpho Knight, and Susie form a team of heroes to help protect what remains of humanity from total annihilation.

(Kirby) Knights Errant: A gijinka alternate universe where a valiant knight (Meta Knight) and a demon of destruction (Dark Matter Swordsman) gradually learn the reasons why the Dream Lands have fallen into darkness, and how their king (Dedede) plans to restore the light.

(Kirby) Mapop Magical: A gijinka alternate universe where Francisca, Flamberge, and Zan Partizanne are magical girls in a reversal of the story of Kirby Star Allies. Together they protect their town from the fairy monsters brought to their world by the evil Princess Kirby.

(Kirby) GONE: A gijinka alternate universe where the Master Crown succeeded in taking over Magolor's body and destroying Pop Star. Eons later, as it enters a brutal losing conflict with other dimension-scale rulers, it begins to wonder if its former host is truly 'gone'.

(Kirby) Magical Friends: I don't really talk about this like it's an AU, but technically it is, and I think I take it for granted that everyone knows what it is, so I wanted to correct that here. ^^; Anyway, Magical Friends is an alternate universe animation series chronicling Gryll's tumultuous developing friendship with Magolor, Marx and Adeleine. The companion 'comic dub' series operates under the assumption that they're already friends, allowing for even more lighthearted cartoon hijinks.

[lilmissbacon]

What fairytales make up the Schnee family? (Theory/Thoughts)

I'm bored and can't mentally finish any of my other projects right now, so I think talking about something less complicated would be a nice way to try and loosen the mental gate that's refusing to open right now.

Now it's strange that most of Weiss's family don't have fairytale origins when everyone else's families do. Even throwaway characters you see one time will have a fable origin. So I've taken the time to actually come up with 2 groups theories for what I think the Schnee family's fairytale equivalents could be. I believe it's basically been confirmed that their grandfather was Santa, I know that. And I do understand that it's apparently been confirmed that Jacques is meant to be Jack Frost, but considering his character hasn't done anything directly connecting him with that character yet, along with how I think RT is willing to retcon origins (Oscar seemed to be based on Dorothy but then retconed to be Tip from the Oz book (not confirmed, just speculation)), I'm not really a big fan of Jacques being Jack Frost and I don't see why we can't just change his fairytale.

Theory group #1: Winter characters

Jacques = Krampas

I think instead of Jacques being based on a character that's usually categorized as just pretty mischievous, have him based on a fable that's actually more outwardly evil. Granted there are different takes on the Krampus tale, including him and Santa actually being in cahoots, Santa rewording good children and Krampus punishing bad children. It's been a while since I really watched RWBY or the Remnants series, but I do believe Nicholas Schnee and Jacques were work partners for a minute before Nicholas died. As well as the connection of Jacques's abuse toward his kids and Krampus being known for beating children.

Willow = Jack Frost

While I did say Jack Frost is mostly just known for being mischievous, he is a pretty flexible myth, given that no one truly knows the origins of it. He's portrayed as evil sometimes, sure, but the actual myth itself is just an obscure being who spreads frost during the fall season to let humans know winter is coming. Willow was also an obscure character for the long time she was never on screen, and you could see this 'spreading frost' aspect as an allegory for Willow giving Weiss the security footage to warn her that danger is coming (ba-dum-cshhhh). Not to mention it is theorized that the Jack Frost myth originates from the Norse deity of winter, Jokul Frosti. Who is also known as old man winter, which is also another title that's associated with Santa Claus himself. Further connecting Willow to her dad. And it would mean Willow is the third person connected to the Schnee's who is based on Norse myth (Nora being Weiss's friend and Fria being based on Freya). Maybe Willow used to be much more mischievous and playful as a kid/teen before Jacques came along; as a way to really allude to her being Jack Frost as well as show just how far she's fallen from grace.

Winter = the Snow Queen

Pretty sure most people have theorized this and it just makes the most sense. Especially now that she's the winter maiden and actively has snow/ice powers (yes all the maidens control in the elements in RWBY, but Winter and Fria clearly favor snow). It would be cool if this meant that Weiss and Whitley doubled as the two main kids, Gerta and Kay, from the Snow Queen tale. Which could also make sense because Kay was a nice boy before a piece of the queen's cursed mirror got lodged into his heart and turned him cruel. Only for Gerta to come back and heal his heart. Winter having left the Schnee manor (leading Weiss to do the same) and leave Whitley behind, would definitely be that glass shard here; as it is most likely the first step into how Whitley became as jaded as he was. And as much as Whitley's 'redemption arc' was not done well, Weiss being the cause of him becoming better was what the writers were aiming for.

Whitley = Rudolph the red nosed Reindeer

Look I'm not very well-versed in old or not-well-known fairytales, and considering their grandfather being Santa, there is some connection here 🤣🤣🤣 And yeah, Rudolph is a more modern tale... but team FNKI are literally based on memes. I could also just keep the idea of him being Kay from the Snow Queen but I like thinking too much and Weiss already doubles with Snow White + Gerta so I'm doubling him too.

Hear me out: a young boy who is isolated for being different, not allowed to join the other kids because of this difference, only to use his uniqueness and skills to help save the day. We don't really know how Jacques treated each of his kids when they were younger, but Whitley was left behind by his sisters and he had no way of joining them in their reindeer games because he had no semblance. Only for Whitley to come around, saving the day by sending Schnee airships to save civilians when the grimm were attacking. They could even take it a step further if there ever is a volume 10. Have it start where volume 8 left off; with Winter killing grimm in the sandstorm. Have this intense life or death situation be what causes Whitley to finally unlock his semblance. And the reason he couldn't before was because his semblance is not the Schnee glyphs. Thus him protecting people in this sandstorm with energy shields that look like bubbles of bright red light. Harkening to how Rudolph led his way through the snowstorm with his red nose. This all may kinda sound ridiculous but I think it's fun.

Theory Group #2: Snow White characters

Family members in RWBY don't have a trend of being connected fairytale-wise as well. After all, Ruby and Yang themselves are based on Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks, tales that have basically nothing connecting them. And from what I understand, Blake's parents are Jungle Book characters, despite her and Adam being Beauty and the Beast. So it's not like Weiss's family needs to be Snow White characters. However, if their fairytales are not my first pics as above, I think it would be really cool if they were. And we've already seen their butler, Klein, fall into the category of being the seven dwarves to compliment Weiss as Snow White. I clearly don't have nearly as much to say or explain here so let's just get through them.

Jacques = Evil Queen

Just makes more sense as the villainess parent who keeps trying to stop his daughter from being happy.

Willow = Poison apple

Considering she wasn't seen for the longest time, it's easy for an off screen character to just be a reference to something rather than a character (I.e. Summer Rose being based on a poem). And even now that she's had screen time, her main character trait is that she poisons herself through alcohol.

Winter = The huntsmen

The one who has a profession in huntsmen-ship and ultimately protects Snow White from the Evil Queen.

Whitley = Magic mirror

From what we've seen from Whitley, he's definitely the kid in the family who adapts to who he's surrounded by. He was left alone by his sisters with their father and by proxy, started becoming more like Jacques. Not really because he wanted to be, but as a means of survival. And then in volumes 8/9 he's shown to became more sympathetic and even heroic to an extent (I.e. calling a doctor for Nora, using Schnee resources to help civilians, and he + Willow crushing the grimm). Aka; the more time the "heroes" were around him, the more he became heroic. His character probably wouldn't keep bouncing around like this depending on his companions, but it comes to show that on screen thus far, he's a character who is reflective of the people around him. And it's not to say that he can't just act certain ways to manipulate the villains in the future, in order to keep this reflective aspect of his character. After all, he just acted more like Jacques as a defense mechanism and to become the favorite child. He was only annoying towards Weiss because she and Winter had left him behind, we never got the chance to see what he was like towards anyone else.

These are just my thoughts/theory for now, let me know what you think.

[itsclydebitches]

Idk why but Ruby's whole break down is reminding me of the Apathy arc in season 6. Post-Cinder fight with the fate of a kingdom in the balance, post-ally getting stabbed (although Penny did die), something goes totally wrong and so their fight against Salem seems so much harder (Jinn's revelations for s6, for s9, um, many parts of s8 to choose from but I'm going to say Penny's death) so therefore the girl(s) spirals.

And it also reminds me of the Apathy because there are some absolutely stellar concepts here, in isolation I love the judgement of the dead as a moment but.... but it just doesn't quite work because of the larger context around that scene.

Okay, I sorta veered off into a weird direction with this, but comparing the two arcs really helps emphasize (for me anyway) how RWBY keeps escalating without even a gesture towards victory:

Enemies are plotting and planning, but the heroes are equally prepared, including training the next generation and controlling the Fall Maiden powers

Never-mind, Beacon has fallen and the powers are lost

Relics are introduced and now the sub-goal is to keep them safe, but the group also comes to the realization that Salem is immortal

Instead of making headway towards defeating her and/or keeping the Relics permanently out of her reach, two are now lost, a Kingdom has fallen, and the heroes are trapped in the Ever After

Summarized like that it doesn't sound much - maybe even just a season or two of the characters going through expected, necessary conflict - but for RWBY this was seven volumes, the vast majority of its whole run. With Volume 10 not yet greenlit and the vague expectation that it won't last for too many seasons more, I worry about how this is all going to get resolved when we've had this much escalation across this time much with zero work done to inch the heroes towards better prospects. Ruby just committed suicide! The heroes have been at their 'lowest' (from a destroyed school/lost arm to the protagonist fully giving up in the most shocking way possible) for almost the entire show. What are we supposed to do with that? Especially with RWBY's tendency to 'solve' things in a single scene. I can't help but worry that the show as a whole is going to become a version of the Ambrosius conversation. Instead of naturally introducing the Staff, its powers, its limitations, the quirks of its soul, and the building blocks of a creative idea that will eventually save the day, RWBY speed-runs that like whoa, all in a single scene. Here's what the Staff does, the problems you have to circumvent, oh look they figured out how to do that off screen and now they're implementing it! A two Volume conflict (the buildup to this entire trolly problem) is solved in, literally, a single conversation.

Given the expectation (hope?) that the Ever After will be at least a little plot relevant, I'm waiting for the inevitable moment when the show hands Ruby a Get Out of Jail Free card. Like, for example, some handy-dandy device to take back to Remnant (like a leaf) that will deal with Salem (through Ascension), so all they have to do is hop over to Vacuo, spend a Volume engaging in minor fights as they put off the final confrontation, and then magic Salem into being a Good Person through the power of suicide allegory, therefore freeing Remnant from her clutches, lifting Ozpin's curse, ignoring the Gods' involvement in all this, dodging the heroes actually needing to do anything to earn victory, and bringing forth the Happily Ever After for the not-fairy tale.

Okay, obviously we don't know if any of that is going to happen, but I'm afraid that something like it will, largely because yeah, we're getting these repeated cycles of Awful Things Happening, each worse than the one from before. The show, given that it's already in season nine, can only continue doing that for so long before the writers go, "Shit, we're ending. Quick! Hand the heroes a simple solution to wrap it all up."

[problematic-rwby-shipping-poll]

RWBY ABUSE BRACKET ROUND TWO

(Click for better quality)

Welcome to Round Two of the RWBY Abuse Bracket! For those participating, you will be voting for the ship you prefer. The matchups for round two and links to the polls are below the cut and will be added as they are posted.

Fallen Petals (Ruby/Cinder) vs Emerald Lair (Salem/Emerald)

Tauradonna (Blake/Adam) vs Fallkos (Pyrrha/Cinder)

Neorose (Ruby/Neo) vs Queen's Maiden (Cinder/Salem)

Roselem (Ruby/Salem) vs Cinwin (Winter/Cinder)

Emberald (Cinder/Emerald) vs Knightfall (Jaune/Cinder)

Rosewick (Ruby/Roman) vs Hellbirds (Raven/Cinder)

Bad Harvest (Oscar/Salem) vs Ozlem (Salem/Ozma)

Hellfyre (Yang/Salem) vs Baked Alaska (Yang/Neo)

[offdacabsav2]

Requiem

He ripped his sword from her chest. Blood trickled from the blade’s scorched edge. Crimson leaked out of a long cut across his forehead. White and gold tainted by charred black and liquid red.

The Maiden’s final expression had been one of horror. Dried tears remain dormant. A red sash tied around her throat, incarcerating her to a jutting piece of metal.

Even now, she infuriated him. He wanted to stab her again and again and again and again until she was an unrecognizable mound of flesh.

Her cowardly, childlike terror made him shake in rage.

But… it didn’t matter.

Nothing mattered anymore.

Raggedly, he clawed at oxygen, trying to force it into his lungs. The knight stumbled backwards and fell to his knees.

His mind should be racing, should be panicking, but he wasn’t. No, only two voices reached his bleeding ears.

Everyone’s gone.

We won.

The longer his eyes lingered on the growing puddle of blood reaching for him, the closer he slipped.

It didn’t matter.

His scream built deep in his soul. A guttural, shaky cry of torment. It shaped into sobs. His chest heaved violently, surrounded by his friends.

Burying them was torture. Pure hell.

It hurt.

God, it hurt.

It hurt so bad that his physical wounds went numb and all that remained was the crushing emptiness.

His final straw… Weiss.

Her cold, beautiful face… pale. He thought if he cried hard enough the universe would pity him and somehow, someway… bring them back.

Each excruciating toss of the shovel, each layer slowly sealing her body forever.

And he prayed he went with them, that he could join her in eternity.

He shut her eyes permanently with gentle hands.

Their graves were marked. In order. By team.

‘Heroes of Remnant.’ That’s what the carving in the oak read.

It cradled them, sheltered their souls. Large and full of life.

The sun soaked him in warmth. It’s counterpart fell below the horizon, making way for a new day.

He sat alone by the cliff, watching a miracle color the sky in cool yellow. If one studied him, they could tell no difference between his gaze and a corpses gaze.

Wind caressed the field of plush, emerald grass, weaving in between blades and branches, tenderly dancing with nature.

Below him, crystal blue waves washed over sand, overtaking the shore as it the tide came in.

He closed his eyes and felt…

Alone.

“Cleanup efforts continue as more injured and deceased are unearthed from debris. The death toll climbs every day, now reaching 200 with 500 more missing. But, today, a discovery was made. Nine named graves and a message: ‘Heroes of Remnant’. These heroes were the members of huntsman teams RWBY and RENO. Heroes… valiant and courageous… All of us, everyone; we should be thankful brave souls such as those men and women gave up their years, so we could live out ours. There is a missing marker, however. Jaune Arc is noticeably absent. Authorities mark him MIA and plan to begin searching in two weeks.”

Two years later.

A cloaked, bearded figure stands atop a hill overlooking Vale. Cranes and maintenance crews rebuild the city brick-by-brick. Wooden structures towering like skyscrapers, fields of rubble cleared in one fell swoop. Past the new buildings and heavy machinery, proudly displayed for passing travelers paying their respects… murals.

Decorated in ornate designs. Flowers cloaking the courtyard around their dirt beds. A rainbow assortment.

Pictures of the fallen behind their tombs.

The figure bent down to removed topsoil and placed his remembrances. A blooming memory for each. He looked on with a hard gaze and straight mouth.

In his hand, an edelweiss. Full of life and compassion. Strong, regal, beautiful.

Pale as the winter landscape.

His eyes glistened as the sun set. He placed her gently, curling his finger around a petal for the last time.

The figure allowed himself a solemn, ghostly smile.

And he left.

[666silco]

okay okay entirely out of self indulgence, i am going to do an in depth, unscripted lyric analysis of Trapdoor and how i relate it to Oz so YIPEE let’s go thank you if you read (it’s 4 am this is going to be very rough but i may elaborate again)

also want to disclose once again i don’t want to take away the fact that this is a Ruby Rose song in the Ruby Rose Volume, but music is subjective and all and this is just an alternate take i have 💚

- “A beat, a step, is all you need to walk away.”

The many moments in Oz’s lifetime where he considers quitting, and ultimately does so for the first time in who knows how many years in v6 when he vanishes into the depths of Oscar’s mind

- “A beat, a step, is all you need to find the urge to stay!”

Only deciding at the very last moment that he needs to finish what he (accidentally) started, help Oscar, and finally try once again to stop Salem.

- “You don’t need me anymore, no you don’t see me anymore, I try my best to leave the floor, but I can’t get past the door.”

During Ozpin’s era, Oz mainly operated in the shadows, seemingly as peaceful as possible, yet really he was plotting the entire time. Also perhaps the moment that he realised that RWBY&Co knows what they are doing, enough so to take the reigns, despite the fact that for all these years he has specifically tried to not share his burden (even though he has done so before, in ‘The Infinite Man’ which ended pretty terribly) [I actually have many thoughts about this part, I may come back later]

- “I am alone in this war, I am a trapdoor!”

In his past, possibly the majority of it, Oz has tried to keep the situation to himself as much as he possibly could. Some exceptions like The Infinite Man and The Four Maidens, but it wasn’t until he reincarnated into Ozpin that he truly started to include his friends in the mission (Glynda, Qrow, Ironwood)

- “The pain, it keeps invading, it’s showing all over my face, though I try to keep the hope alive; after all the things I’ve said and done, I don’t feel like the chosen one. How would they see me if I lose my faith?”

After finally blowing up at QRWBY, everything comes crashing down. Venting about the fact that no one has ever been truly loyal, it is revealed that he has not had hope for the situation in a very long time, and he really has no plan at all. The curtain has fallen and the lie has been revealed. Not to forget, Ozma created this situation entirely by accident. The only intention was to selflessly save Salem from her cruel father, but it has now turned him into a false prophet with a practically impossible mission.

- “Watch it all unfold as I cascade, frozen in the darkest moment, I can’t bear the weight I hold.”

Another example of the moment he finally decided to step back into play as Oscar plummeted from Atlas to Mantle. Regardless of the fact that he is so tired of this fight, his exhaustion does not put Salem’s wrath on hold.