#rg!moon

[ayyy-imma-ninja]

it is pride month so i am obligated to draw as much gayness of these two as i possibly can-

yeets

also the top right bit is how i imagine them appearing in their headspace

[ayyy-imma-ninja]

d'awwww the sweethearts lovin' on each other!!! ^^

this is so cute!!!

The Royal Guard

This au belongs to @ayyy-imma-ninja

I wanted to show much I love this au and her artwork. She is awesome.

[whoishotteranimepolls]

"Who's Hotter?" Some Old School White-Haired Anime Men

[berrymoos]

hello BEAMS MARC SPECTOR THOUGHTS INTO UR BRAIN !!!!!!!

[🌙] ,, rg!marc spector moodboard!

HIIIIIIIIIII HIHIHI HELLO I AM RECEIVING THESE THOUGHTS OF MARC SPECTOR HELLOOOOOOO!!!!!! he is my babyyyy i luv him sooo soso much EEEKKK BAM moodboard 4 u !! (๑˃̵　ᴗ　˂̵)و u can think of it as a remake of dis one && i have some headcanons i wrote a few years ago 4 u too !! <3 (*´▽｀)ﾉﾉ marc spector the little one u are

[backscale-pivot-queen]

Team Uzbekistan’s iconic Sailor Moon performance

[kazumikikuchi000]

I replaced Yasha and Ashura with Sailor Cosmos and Mamoru.

[rwbyrg]

Ohhhhh yes. Yes yes yesssss. But if we're talking Fairytales of Remnant in regards to parallels with these four, we can't only mention The Man Who Stared at the Sun without also talking about The Gift of the Moon.

The story starts with a sun who - much like the one in the farmer's tale - adjusts its behaviour at the whim of humans and causes an imbalance. It tries slowing down but gets off schedule and rushes to catch up, takes a break in place which scorches the earth in som spots and leave the other half in darkness, then to try and please everyone, the sun decides to move faster and faster around the world to light all of it at once... before crashing to the ground and shattering.

This story isn't just about the sun though. It's a creation myth about how the moon came to be... and it's the most aggressive Ruby Rose metaphor I've ever heard in my life.

(this got long so i'm putting it behind a read more lol)

She wants to save everyone, but she can't. She wants to do the right thing in order to achieve that goal, but there is no right thing. So she just ends up causing more harm than good. And when the weight and exhaustion from trying so hard catches up to her, she falls. Like the sun that fell and became the moon, Ruby fell and lost a lot of her light.

This story isn't just about the moon either though. It's also about the Sun and Moon working together. It starts by talking about the imbalance between sun and the dark of night...

In a very distant past, much longer ago than anyone can remember, people wondered why nights were so dark. In those days, there was only the sun to illuminate the whole world, going around and around the sky. But the sun could only do so much, and half of the time, half of the world was brightly lit while the other half was cast into darkness.

But the story ends with the light that the shattered sun spills out being used to help create a new, artificial sun that is raised into the sky. The new sun and shattered moon tied together by a string so that the world can always have some amount of light. Be it a story about Oz being the only one fighting Salem until Ruby takes over to help, or the God of Light and Dark fighting with one another, or a Ruby allusion, or a foreshadowed metaphor for how Oscar and Ruby will work together at the end of the world to chase away the night... many different ways the story can be read, but they all work really well thematically.

As for your points about Penny, I am in big agreement over her being the Sun to BB equivalent for RG. However, she also does actually fit the celestial symbolism!!! Just not as a sun or moon. She's the shooting star.

We see it with her "goodbye" in V8E4, when she falls from Amity as a comet and lands in a crater outside Schnee manor, there's a star charm on the jar of hope Ruby is asked to fill up in exchange for Penny's sword at the market in the Ever After. There's also Penny's associations with Pinocchio and wishing on a fallen star, especially in the lyrics to her song Friend from the V8 soundtrack.

Aaaaaand last but not least, much like how Oscar's emblem is two suns (or clock gears (something something artificial sun), or water wheels (that's a different post)), and Ruby's is a blazing rose that, when turned sideways, looks like a shattered moon, Penny's looks like her sword as well as a shooting/falling star.

I'll end off on the quote you brought up from The Man who Stared at the Sun. "We are both proud of our jobs and too stubborn to change our ways" does apply perfectly to Oz and Salem. They're unstoppable force meet immovable object in the worlds longest and messiest divorce. But with Oscar and Ruby being the ones to fix what Oz and Salem broke, we see that they too are stubborn. However, instead of just white-knuckling through and throwing the same solutions at the same problems hoping for different results, they stop and try to do it differently. One of Ruby's biggest insecurities is that she just has to "keep fighting forever and ever against an unstoppable monster that took (her) mother away" while Oscar's is that he's "just going to be another one of (Oz's) lives". In slowing down, in resting, and in relying on each other for help through the curses and burdens they've been shouldered with, they'll come out the other side of it in ways Salem and Oz never could.

Thinking about how Salem sparking an uprising against the Gods and uniting humanity under one goal is eerily familiar to Ozpins view on Ruby being a simpler more honest soul that can spark the hopes of man.

Both reading stories and being inspired to lead their lives off it. Putting their message out to the world and the people answering back. Their actions are the same but in different fonts.

Their imagery is even eerily familiar, most notable in mind being consumed by water, the cliffside/memorials, and both having parts of one of the Brothers powers within, moon symbolism, etc.

Ruby and Salem are building up to be foils of light and dark.

"Likeminded souls indeed"

Like of course Oscar is heavily implied to have a crush on Ruby. They're two characters who are a version of Oz and Salem without their history.

DING DING DING DING DING!!!! EXACTLY!!! This show is one about parallels, rhymes, and mirrors and these four are at the heart of all of it.

I also think it's really interesting that the task the GoL gives to Ozpin is to unite humanity when that's... kind of exactly what Salem did, only she was punished for it? smh. god forbid women do anything.

But anyway, I love that Ruby has taken over Oz's role in that regard. One of my favourite shots in the show that pushes this is this one from The Lost Fable. Where the line right before it says something like: "In time, (Salem) would find her adversary."

The story Jinn tells to cast is one of Ozma being setup to stop Salem, but the story the show is telling us, the audience, is that Ozma walks off screen revealing Ruby as Salem's actual adversary.

There's also some interesting allusion stuff that pushes this even further with Salem being the witch from the Two Brother's fairy tale that is killed by a silver bullet, and Ruby is a "girl who is also a gun" with silver eyes. But to talk more about the SEW stuff, I have to address the celestial symbolism you pointed out.

What you say about "foils of light and dark" is also right on the money. The way these four interact as symbols within the central plot is so poetic. We have Salem as the darkness of night, and then Ruby as the moon. Silver eyes, as Maria explains in V6, "shine like mirrors, reflecting the light of the world onto darkness". But silver eyes don't just reflect the light of the world, they reflect the desire to preserve life onto that which threatens to take it away. Just as the moon reflects the light of the sun.

Isn't it just. So. Interesting. That the person the story is telling us Ruby is most afraid to lose... is Oscar Pine... a sun coded character? So!!! Interesting!!! I'm so!!! Normal about it!!!!!!!!

By extension of this, I do think Oz is generally symbolized by Daytime. A lot of the songs seem to use "days" as a placeholder for each lifetime (or generation) as a "new day" to try again. It also works in the sense that daytime bring sunshine and his curse is what brings Oscar, this generations "sun", into the fray. Additionally, works as a perfect contrast to Salem's night and her frustration that he keeps coming back over and over again.

or tl;dr you know it's bad when i start making diagrams ooh boy

Anyway, yeah, it makes complete and utter sense why Ruby and Oscar are setup as they are with just how central they are to the main plot. This story is one about breaking cycles, so having those two have a successful version of the Ozma and Salem situation is just the most natural way for this to go.

[duckprintspress]

Requested Rec List: Manga with Bisexual Main Characters

Making rec lists by a request is not our usual thing (though we’d love to make it more our thing! feel free to drop us an ask with a request), but we recently got an ask the-bi-library (@the-bi-library ) on Tumblr we could not refuse: “do you have any recommendations for mangas with bisexual main characters for me, please?” And boy, do we have some! Contributors to the list are Nina Waters, Rhosyn Goodfellow, and an anonymous contributor.

10 Dance by Inouesatoh

Blue Flag by Kaito

Given by Natsuki Kizu

Fake by Sanami Matoh

Rg Veda by CLAMP

xxxHolic by CLAMP

Until the Full Moon by Sanami Matoh

The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All by Sumiko Arai

Maybe Akira-kun, Maybe Akira-chan by Yasuko

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! by Satoru Yamaguchi & Nami Hidaka

Devilman by Go Nagai

Saiyuki by Kazuya Minekura

What manga with bisexual protagonists are your favorite?

Find these manga, and lots of other books with bisexual characters, on our bi-or-pan-characters shelf on Goodreads!

Do these sound fun? You can buy them through the Duck Prints Press Bookshop.org affiliate shop (though sadly, some are out of print currently).

Join our Book Lover’s Discord server to chat with us about YOUR favorite manga!

[luperpla]

Finally took some nice pictures of my RG Hi-Nu Gundam :)

This kit is special to me because it's the last gunpla I finished before my kiddo was born. I actually wrapped it up over a year ago but I haven't had the time/energy/drive to take DSLR pictures of it til now.

The paintjob is based on an old Moon Gundam commission I did back in 2020 and the Unicorn Gundam. The pink/red accents are meant to invoke the Unicorn's psychoframe :) I used grey in place of blue on this because I wanted to use the polygonal decals that the RG line uses but since some of those decals are white I had to make my color choices based on that.

Overall very happy with this little guy. The kit itself is wonderful and this paintjob is really striking, if'n you ask me. I have the HMBL for this too and that parts are all prepped, they just need to be painted. Dunno when I'll get around to that but it'll probably be before the year is out.

[ayyy-imma-ninja]

*minor spoilers for Royal Guard!AU*

-wanted to make something a little indulgent with the gays-

You jeeringly order your new guards to kiss your hand every morning and every night. To get back at you, they take that order very seriously.

And of course they don't limit the gesture to just you~

(and friendly reminder Sun and Moon are NOT brothers in this AU)

[mystifiedmoon]

YASSSSSS!!!!!

[chaikachi]

Sun & Moon: A Rosegarden Comic

Back when I first got bit by the RG bug a few years ago, I sketched out 90% of this comic and then ran out of steam. Some friends recently encouraged me to finish off the last couple pages and share it, so here it is!

I hope you enjoy! 💕🌹🌲

[3seven-gambler]

#⌁꒰RG!Ken fɑlling foɾ γou꒱

⋆ word count: 303 ⋆ genre: fluff, SFW ⋆ a/n: not proofread. Short but sweet. I should be doing my university hw but I really wanted to write somthing.

Ken falling for you is something that isn't surprising.

Not only are you beautiful but you are also so... caring with him. You are the one who notices him always, the one asking him how he is feeling, the one choosing to give him company because you enjoy being around him.

You laugh at his goofy jokes, you encourage him when he's trying to show off (even when you told him is not necessary, but he sometimes insists), you listen to him !!! for once he's the one that gets to talk and you just listen to him while watching him with such attention and care, showing that you are really enjoying just being sitting next to him while he talks.

You get him gifts. He was over the moon the first time you got him something all for himself. He never thought he would get a gift from someone. Just thinking that you spent your precious time choosing and wrapping it just for him makes him feel important.

The first time that you hugged him was when he was about to cry because not feeling enough for anything; he froze, not very sure of what to do. He felt so warm, cherished, loved; he then, slowly, put his arms around your figure as well (crushing you a bit) just wanting to feel more and wishing that moment never ended.

Eventually, after knowing each other for a while, he confessed !! The poor boy was so nervous; what if you weren't interested in him? Did he make enough to impress you? What if you liked someone else? All of his worries melted away when he saw that pretty big smile of yours and your eyes lighting up, as you grabbed his hands carefully and just said -“yes”.

Yes... He indeed fell for you.

❥ 𝖱𝖾𝖻𝗅𝗈𝗀𝗌 𝖺𝗋𝖾 𝖺𝗅𝗐𝖺𝗒𝗌 𝖺𝗉𝗉𝗋𝖾𝖼𝗂𝖺𝗍𝖾𝖽. || 𝖣𝖮 𝖭𝖮𝖳 𝖱𝖤𝖯𝖮𝖲𝖳/𝖳𝖱𝖠𝖭𝖲𝖫𝖠𝖳𝖤.

[dedalvs]

Hey mr sir I was wondering if you had any idea how to understand syntax. I am in a class and I am SUFFERING and the only resources I was given was the teachers notes. And they don't make sense. I am so close to failing and no one knows what the hell they're doing (not even the instructor)

Syntax is analysis. Always remember that. It is, at best, tangentially related to language. It is a representation of a theory (and there are multiple such theories) about why the words in a language are arranged in the order they are in order to produce a meaning. It is an attempt. It's not necessarily true. It is not a representation of something real. It is a representation of something that IF it were real, wouldn't that be cool? It doesn't actually say anything about language.

The important thing to remember about studying syntax at the university level is that you are not studying syntax: You are studying a specific theory of syntax. Your job is to learn that theory and how it works. You are NOT learning how a language works: You're learning how that theory works. It doesn't matter if anything you're doing makes linguistic sense: It matters if it makes sense within the context of the theory. That's it.

I say this because based on the way you've worded your question, it's pretty clear that this is a point you've missed. If you hadn't, you wouldn't be saying "I was wondering if you had any idea how to understand syntax", you'd be saying "I was wondering if you had any idea how to understand XXX theory of syntax". Because that is what you are doing.

If you are studying an older X-bar theory of syntax (for example, Principles and Parameters, or Government and Binding), I can help you with that. If you're studying a modern generative theory like the Minimalist Program, I can't help you with that, as I never learned it. I also can't really help with Head Phrase Structure Grammar or Construction Grammar, because I never studied it; I just have some exposure to it. I do understand Relational Grammar, because I had to learn it to go through some older Austronesian papers, but I find it unlikely that you'd be learning RG, as it's been mostly abandoned.

If it helps you, though, everything you're learning is, to put this in the most controversial way possible, the equivalent of learning astrological star charts. It's like, you tell your friend, "Dude, I went to work today, and my coworker was sick, so I had to cover her bathroom shift, but as a thank you my boss said I could have Friday off!" and your friend is like, "And that makes total sense, because Virgo is in ascension, and the moon is in its third phase, with Libra in retrograde!" and you're like, "Uhhhh..." *headpat* In linguistics, that's, "Wow, in Finnish most indefinite objects take the partitive, but you can also have a partitive subject with a paucal reading!", and then, "That's probably because of object to subject raising required in order to check features generated in D-structure when…" etc. Thus, if you think of it like some sort of game, it might help to put it in its proper context.

If you do have some transformational grammar questions, though, I'm happy to try to help explain.

[completeoveranalysis]

[2]

NEW FAVOURITE COVER?

NEW FAVOURITE COVER!

Chapitre 201 - The Truth from within the Ruins

Oh this is just beyond gorgeous. Who can stand against the pure concentrated adorable that is Tsubasa Babies Family Photo? Now with all four of them!

I’m in love with all the tiny details that they clearly spent so long on - all the lovely folds of Sakura’s dress, the intricate detailing on Fai’s robe and staff. Lava Lamp is in his ceremonial garb, and tiny Kurogane IN HIS FANCY LITTLE OUTFIT. (AND HIS POSTURE? GET OUT. Incredible)

 Kurogane doesn’t have Ginryuu yet (since this is Happy Childhood AU, so his father will still have it. Still has the moon though!) but Lava Lamp has the Syaoran Family Sword all ready to go. His outfit would be incomplete without it - they’re all wearing clothing from their home worlds, or maybe their families? I’m technically not sure which world Lava Lamp comes from, but his outfit is Family Legacy all the way down. I’m dying to know if Fai’s outfit is in the style of Seresu or Valeria - I don’t think they’re all that different, but I think I would put my money on Valeria based on the position of the fur and the curl motif. In which case it’s fun for me that his Happy Family AU is in Valeria instead of with Ashura. (sorry not sorry Ashura get fucked)

I suppose in this version he never had reason to leave Valeria in the first place, so it’s a very nice touch that the outfit doesn’t immediately resemble the clothing he wore in his backstory, since that’s all so closely linked to the death of his twin, who would be alive here. Very nice visual choices all around, especially with each of them in their own unique colour pallette. Oh, and even with the colour differences they all have bits of yellow somewhere on them, showing their connection.

The left/right split between them is really fun too - sword wielders on one side, phenomenally powerful magic users on the other, cats vs dogs, unique child/parent pairings, etc. It’s very funny to me that they found a super fancy chair for Sakura and a cushion for Kurogane, but nothing for the other two. But Fai draping himself over the chair is such an incredible piece of character flair, which I am in love with, but also, the TOUCH? The little touch of tiny hands? Sakura reaching back to put her hand on the back of Fai’s? Tiny Lava Lamp’s little grip on Kurogane’s arm? OH it’s so touching. 

And behind them all? THAT WINDOW. Such a clear symbol positioned directly in the centre frame. At first I thought it might be an eye, but this is Happy Family AU so there should be no Evil Wolverine to spy on them. What I’m voting on instead is CLAMP playing with Tarot symbols again and this being the Wheel of Fortune, or a similar idea of a wheel of destiny. They use the latter idea a lot in their earlier works (RG Veda and X/1999 say hi), but I think the tarot symbol in particular really shines through with the ideas they’re playing with in Tsubasa/xxxHolic, and has a very strong parallel to the idea of hitsuzen. 

After some much safer googling it looks like the “Wheel of Fortune” in Tarot can mean change or cycles or inevitable fate, but on the flipside could also be lacking control. I think the reversed meaning of the card really speaks to me the most about their situation in general, as it describes bad luck and misfortunes thrust upon you from external forces, that you are fighting to take control back from an unwinnable situation. That fighting it is impossible, that continuing to fight it can only bring more suffering, and that the only option is to let it go. To stop blaming yourself for the thing you did wrong, or the thing that you think was your fault. To forgive yourself, to accept it all, to let yourself move on, to accept that change is inevitable, and to finally be able to move forward and just let everything happen. 

Because if that’s not exactly the whole situation we are in I don’t know what is. It’s a mirror for the things that Fai and Kurogane have already been through, and for what Lava Lamp Guy is still currently fighting, and CLAMP love to do drop these symbols all the time. 

And this is a bit of a tangent but who’s gonna stop me? Clamp LOVE their tragic destiny pairs, especially in their early works - the couples deeply love but also cursed by fate, like Kendappa and Souma, Ashura and Yasha (flavoured differently in RG Veda, but still fitting this cycle again in Tsubasa), Subaru and Seishirou, Sorata and Arashi (unfinished), Kamui and Fuuma, etc. The characters who are so different from each other, so diametrically opposed, but in love still, and it burns so strong that they either have to kill each other or let the world burn around them - or both! They’re always fighting destiny, just like the reversed wheel of fortune, and they fight it to the point of obliteration. 

AND THEN we have Tsubasa, and I think it’s so endlessly interesting that they took the same pattern and turned it around. Syaoran and Sakura definitely fit the theme (and wild that they took the Cardcaptor Sakura happy couple deliberately to make the most universe shattering tragedy out of it, but I still haven’t seen how their story ends, whether one will have to tragically die to save everything or whether they’ll get out somehow). But what I mostly want to talk about (surprise surprise) Kurogane and Fai, who fit the pattern exactly. Complete opposites, diametrically opposed, set up as antagonists and destined to kill each other but fall in love instead. That they both fight against the tragic pasts that defined them and eventually change their mind. Eventually, slowly, they accept love again and realise that they can actually live with themselves and each other if they let it all go. 

And I think what really gets me is that if this was an earlier Clamp work they absolutely would have tragically died - they would have killed each other in the climax of Seresu and it would have been beautiful and terrible and no-one ever would have ever emotionally recovered from the complete and utter devastation. 

BUT THEY DIDN’T. 

CLAMP spend all of Tsubasa revisiting all their old works, taking us through a parade of the various tragedies they’ve sung across the years, all leading up to them ultimately breaking their own pattern and letting Fai and Kurogane save each other from the same Clamp fate that claimed every tragic pair before them. They choose each other and get out alive. They stop blaming themselves for the unchangeable parts of destiny and finally forgive themselves. And it’s just very emotional to me that it’s these two that make it, these two that get to recover and choose each other and live their lives inseparable from this point on. The two that had arguably the most tragic backstories also get to face their trauma, survive, and live. 

And it’s just so beautiful to see how the CLAMP storytelling method has changed over the years, and to find out that after all these years, the big destiny story they really wanted to tell in their longest and most detailed work was about the two men who fell in love, against all odds and saved each other. Despite absolutely everything saying that it should be impossible, it’s Kurogane and Fai that finally flip the tarot card back around and live. 

And I’m extremely interested in what this means for Lava Lamp and Not!Sakura.

[rwbyrg]

Hello!

I would like to ask if there's already a post a long the lines of "Why Rosegarden is a good ship" or reasons to ship RG? If none would it be alright to ask for your insights?

It's my first time being interested in them but I just can't wrap it around my head for now. I would love to read about them!

Thank you in advance ^^

Hi Anon!

I have not yet made any posts specifically with these questions in mind, no. Just a small, unfinished, series about why I believe the ship is likely to be canon. I am happy to offer some insight, but I don't know that I'm going to give you the answers you're looking for. 😅

First and foremost, the questions you're asking aren't really ones that can be answered objectively. What makes a ship "good" or "bad" is largely subjective, as there are as many ways to view a ship as there are people viewing it. I could make an argument about how I think it is - objectively speaking - a well written pairing that follows the typical beats and tropes (with delightful subversions) of a good romance arc, that also parallels how other canon ships within RWBY have been established... but at the end of the day, if you're not a fan of what RG is about, then there's not much I can say to change your mind.

Which brings me to your second question. The best reasons to ship RG are going to be the same reasons for why anyone should ship anything: ship it if you want to, ship it if it resonates with you, and ship it if you enjoy it.

If their characters, interactions, themes, parallels, allusions, tropes, symbolisms, foils, designs, messages, etc., aren't your cup of tea, it's completely okay if you pick something else on the menu! So long as you don't like. verbally harass people that do like it or fill the tag w the same discourse that we are all very tired of seeing.

I don't know if that is a sufficient answer to your question, so I'll take a chance and also provide some of my personal reasons as to why I think it's "good" and why I ship it. While there are many reasons I can't all include, the main things are just how much they mirror each other:

From their complementary character designs (red vs. green, silver vs. gold, moon vs. sun, etc.),

To shared fairytale allusions (Little Prince and the Rose, Dorothy and Princess Ozma/Tip, Warrior in the Woods, etc.),

To the narrative parallels (both being the youngest of the group when they joined respectively; how both of their attachments to each other keep being put into focus; to their shared themes around choice and identity: Ruby having chosen adventure but feeling as if she has no choice but to keep moving forward, while Oscar was chosen by adventure but chooses to do what he can despite his circumstances; Oscar not knowing who he is because of the merge and asking: "I'm just going to be another one of his lives, aren't I?", versus Ruby not wanting to be who she is after chasing the the ghost of an unachievable ideal, but being asked "what if you could be anyone?"; how they're both just kids thrown into war and unfair responsibility before they even have a chance to figure out the kinds of people they want to be, etc.),

to perhaps, most importantly, the show of mutual support between the two of them.

Ruby supports everyone as best she can. She is always giving to and supporting others as a show companionship and leadership. But thanks to V9 and also E4 of RWBY Beyond, we know this was not sustainable or sufficiently reciprocated.

She was let down by Weiss who constantly managed to hit her right in her insecurities; let down by Blake who - even while trying to uplift her - just ended up adding more pressure by treating Ruby like a role model; to Yang and Qrow who both tried to support her as best they could, but kept comparing her to Summer in the process; to Penny having so much of her own lack of experience, stressors, and very immediate worries going on that she couldn't offer Ruby the support she needed even if she wanted to; to Jaune flipping his lid at her and pointing the blame even when he himself was guilty and knew he was out of line; to Ozpin, Qrow, Maria, Tai, Summer, Cordovin, Ironwood, etc., all being adults who could have taken responsibility or done the right thing, but fumbled or failed leaving her to pick up the pieces in their wake. But Oscar? We see it from Oscar's introduction that he - like their shared fairytale allusions - is in awe from the moment he meets her. But after one conversation about the weight of her grief, trauma, and the responsibilities she is carrying - a conversation she has not had with anyone else up to this point - he immediately sees how heavy Ruby's burdens are. Saying, as early as V5: "This must be really hard on her too". And while it is subtle, he never stops looking after her as best he can as the volumes go onward ("Looks like you're needed elsewhere."/"You're sure?"/"Yeah, I've got it."). However, it's only in V9 that her sister Yang is asking "why didn't she just talk to us?". It is only in V9 when her partner Weiss admits: "Maybe it's because she didn't feel like she could". It is only V9 when Ruby finally lays her burdens out to someone else again, this time to the Blacksmith, after almost having given up completely.

For a character who's 116 episode long arc has been about carrying the weight of responsibility far beyond her limits, never asking for anything in return no matter how difficult it gets... to meet another character that instantly notices her struggles and makes a conscious effort to help where all others have failed? To have one conversation and say "that looks heavy, let me help you carry that" without her asking or waiting for an answer? It's just one of the most beautiful acts of care I can think of. The themes and the parallels all resonate very strongly with me on a personal level, making it - in my humble opinion - a brilliant, and very stable foundation for a relationship, and for a story.

Thank you for your question, I hope I was able to offer some of the insight you were looking for. 💕