#rwby fables by squiggles

[littlemisssquiggles]

RWBY Fables by Squiggles: ”The Most Beautiful Rose”

Squiggly Disclaimer: 

...Ooookay. You guys remember this, right? This was originally an incomplete RWBY Squiggle Script that I polished up back in June  in the hopes of turning it into my own little project to contribute to the Rose-gardening Rosebuds community. 

...Unfortunately; due to school and other responsibilities that came up, I wasn’t exactly able to really do what I wanted to with this story, sadly to say:/. But since Rosegarden Week II is in season alongwith today being the canonical birthday of a certain lovely rose, this squiggle meister decided to just simply post what I had managed to pull together for this short story.

It’s not exactly what I’d call a finished but...it sells what I wanted to convey with it. Apologies to those who were looking forward to seeing this become something.  I still really, really, REALLY wanted to share this short story especially with my fellow Rosegardeners because it’s based on one of my favourite Rosegarden fan theories---well several of them actually.

So…in the end, I just decided to post this story anyways, as is.  I hope my fellow Rosegardeners will like it maybe if they happen to read the whole thing. 

Happy Rosegarden Week 2.0 and a happy birthday to the most beautiful rose who inspired this short tale of mine. Enjoy! 

“…It is only with the heart that one can see rightfully. What is essential is invisible to the eye”

- The Little Prince

I was once just a boy. Another simple farm boy from Mistral in a continent full of them. Nothing special and I used to believe that that was all I was destined to be for the rest of my life. Then my life changed. Suddenly I went from being another farm boy from Mistral to one in a culmination of valiant men who gave their lives to protect humanity from the forces of evil time and time again. You would think that then this would grant me some semblance of individuality. But no. Once again I was made just another in a different category. Nothing special and for a second time, I convinced myself that this was all I was meant to be for the remainder of whatever life I have left. But then I got to know you.

Since we met, you’ve always treated me differently. You’ve always treated me like I was my own person. Like I’m still me. Because that’s who you see when you look at me, right? You don't see him. You don't see them. You see me. To you, I'm not just another life in a lifetime of other lives. To you, I'm unique and I've always appreciated that about you. You always saw me for who I was rather than who I was meant to become. You see me. This is why I want you to know that I see you too.

It's kind of hard not to. Hair red like roses. Silver eyes as radiant as the moon. Endearing. Enchanting. Unforgettable. Beautiful. But that's not all I see when I look at you. I see your honest soul. Your courageous heart. Your indomitable will. Your warmth and genuine kindness to those you believe need help. Your dedication to the people you love. Your unquantifiable spark that drives you. That drives all of us. You are such an extraordinary person destined for greatness. You are the one I look to the most.

So don't think for one second that I would never notice if you were hurting. That I wouldn't be quick to help if someone hurt you. That I wouldn't give anything; do everything in my power to protect that spark of yours and keep that flame burning bright from those who dare try snuffing it out. I may not be the strongest. Or the bravest. I am not that special. But you make me feel that way to you. You have given me the strength to believe in myself. In a legacy of lives, you make me feel unique. So please understand just how much I want you to know how unique you are to me too.

“Whitley Schnee may be rich and smart but...he's not the only rich or smart person in this world. He's not even the only guy in this world,” Oscar said slowly, “I guess what I’m trying to say is…Remnant is a pretty big world as Jinn showed us. But it doesn’t matter if you are one person in a world of a hundred thousand billion more people. Find that special someone who only has eyes for you. The person who thinks that you’re the most unique to them in all the world.”

Oscar flashed Ruby his most reassuring smile. His hand was resting comfortingly on top hers and at the sight of her disgruntled expression; Oscar gave it a light squeeze in hopes that it would increase his chances of ridding the silver-eyed girl of her melancholy. However much to the former farm boy’s disappointment, Ruby only frowned further in her seat across from him as she gazed idly at the running water of the statuesque fountain before them. Oscar felt his heart sink at the anguish written on Ruby’s face; cheeks red and tear-stained from her previous cry. When she finally spoke, her voice was a whisper.

“Do you really mean what you said?” Ruby said solemnly, “do you think there is someone like that out there… even for me?

The insecurity emphasized in her words was enough to make Oscar grimace. He was so used to seeing Ruby be a beacon of unbridled confidence that it was heartbreakingly difficult seeing her this torn up over herself. So Oscar wasted no time in taking Ruby’s hand again; positioning himself closer to her so that his other hand was now rubbing her opposite shoulder.

“Of course!” Oscar answered confidently, “You have your people who love you, remember? I don't have to tell you that.”

“I know but...that's not what I meant,” Ruby uttered sheepishly, “I meant like...”

She trailed off abruptly. At first Oscar was confused by this, but eventually his eyes widened in realization of what she was trying to imply and he blushed despite himself.

“...Oh! Y---You mean...like a boyfriend?” Oscar said.

His question was only answered by the deepened frown on Ruby’s face. Suddenly her own cheeks turned an embarrassed shade of pink and she avoided Oscar’s inquisitive gaze in embarrassment. “You know what forget I said anything!” Ruby griped stubbornly.  

“No! No! It's okay I get it.” Oscar blurted awkwardly. He then cleared his throat regaining his calm demeanour as he pressed on with his earlier comment. “And yes; of course there's a guy waiting for you,” Oscar assured, “look, I know you were probably hoping for Whitley to be that guy and…it's terrible what he said to you. But...it doesn't mean he'll be the only guy.”

“You sure about that?” Ruby said.

“Of course,” Oscar countered honestly, “You're Ruby Rose. You're amazing.” .

This earned Oscar a smile from Ruby. A small one but genuine at best. Lovely as the twinkle of a star in the night’s sky. But it was unceremoniously short-lived; extinguished yet again as the melancholy returned.

“Oh Oscar, you are so sweet. You’re a sweet guy and it's pretty clear why girls would fall for you,” Ruby said humbly, “and right now I couldn't have asked for a better friend to say such nice things to me. But… I also know you're just saying that as my friend and not a guy who...”

For a second time, Ruby trailed off, suddenly withdrawing herself to hug her arms miserably. As if fighting back tears. Oscar did his best to reach out to her again but Ruby only brushed him off, turning away to hide her face.

“I know…it's dumb of me to get upset over something silly like this,” Ruby said softly, “and normally I wouldn't. I've always prided myself on being the type of girl who didn't care about this kind of stuff.”

“Stuff like what?” Oscar asked.

“My looks. The attention of boys. I mean who cares, right?”  Ruby scoffed dryly, “I never had to care. I'm a huntress. I fight villains and monsters ten…no, hundred times my size everyday not for the fame and glory of the title but because it’s the right thing to do. Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve always wanted to be like the heroes in the stories Yang and my mom would read to me. I wanted to be the kind of person that gives people hope because when the chips are down, even the tiniest bit of hope can be enough to bind us. I thought that way of thinking was honourable. Admirable even.”

“It is…” Oscar tried to say but Ruby cut him off.

“So then why should I care if some handsome rich boy tells me that my way of thinking is naïve and pointless,” Ruby said, voice rising angrily, “that my goals and ambitions are ridiculous because a single huntress like me is worthless when an army can do my job and more.”

“ …Ruby…”

“WHY SHOULD I CARE IF SOME GUY I LIKED TELLS ME THAT I’M NOTHING SPECIAL!” Ruby cried.

At this point, the tears had returned to her face and Oscar’s heart sank.

“…That….that the only reason he even considered pursuing me was because of my silver eyes?” Ruby sobbed, “that if it wasn’t for that, he’d probably ask one of the many other girls who are far superior than me. That’s the word he used. As if to make fun of my intelligence too. Because…what? It’s not like I have anything else going for me. According to Whitley, I’m no special flower. Why consider myself the prettiest most unique rose when there are plenty others far prettier than I’ll ever be. I mean I didn’t really need him to tell me that. I’ve known that all along…”

“ …Weiss, Blake, Yang, Nora, Neon--- Of course guys would find them desirable. They’re all so very beautiful.

But me…I…”

An aching sob.

“…I’m…”

Tears stained her face, her trembling, tasting her bitterness of her own emotions.

“…I’m not...”

It was evident what she was about to say and at this point, Oscar had had enough.

She was breaking. Literally falling apart before his eyes.

Slowly but surely, Oscar touched Ruby’s cheek. She needed her to hear him. He willed her to listen to him as he ran his thumb gently across her skin, wiping away any stray tears that fell.

“Ruby, look at me.” Oscar said softly.

She ignored him. “Look at me, please.” Oscar implored.

With another whimper, Ruby met the farm boy’s gaze.

“Okay. This is the part where you stop and you listen to me very carefully, okay?” Oscar said determinedly.

Ruby said nothing. So Oscar continued.

“ Y’know when we first met Whitley, I thought he was a pretty smart guy,” Oscar admitted,  “It’s…one of the reasons why I thought you liked him so much. But I’ve misjudged him just as much as he’s misjudged you. I can withhold my tongue about a lot of things but I will not stand here and watch you cry in front of me while saying you’re not beautiful. That is ridiculous and don’t you dare think otherwise.”

Gently, Oscar wiped away the tears that streaked down Ruby’s cheek, his tender gaze never leaving her. He was rewarded for a second time with a small smile from Ruby who couldn’t resist the light-hearted laugh that escaped her lips. “How do you do that?” she managed to blubber out, “Know exactly what to say to help me feel better?”

“Well, you always know what to say to inspire others. Let’s just say I learned from the best.” Oscar replied warmly.

“You’re just saying that.” Ruby said coyly.

“ I mean it, though,” Oscar said honestly, “you're an extraordinary girl  Ruby Rose. So Whitley Schnee wasn’t the perfect date. That’s fine. Clearly he didn’t deserve you to begin with if he’s willing to look pass even the minor details of what makes you so great. Besides there’ll be other guys.”

Ruby’s face fell and at this; Oscar lifted her chin so she was looking directly at him as he emphasized his next words.

“There will be other guys,” Oscar said firmly, “any guy who gets to fall in love with you or just be with you … is...the luckiest guy in the world.” 

“You really think there’s a guy like that out there for me?” Ruby asked.

“Of course!” Oscar answered, “Out there...” He then cupped Ruby’s face, touching his forehead to hers. “…R---Right here. Right...in front to you.” Oscar added softly; voice practically a whisper.

“…What?” Ruby asked.                                                            

Oscar’s cheeked turned pink at Ruby’s reaction but still he kept his gaze determined. “I'm saying...I'm that guy,” Oscar said, gentle yet confident, “I mean...I want to be that guy. I want to be the guy who gets to stand by your side. I want to be the guy who does everything he can to make you happy. I want to be the guy who feels like the luckiest person in the world because he gets to be with you. I’m saying…I love you , Ruby…”

Ruby’s eyes widened. Her heartbeat quickened. She couldn’t believe her ears.

Oscar loves her.

He loves her.

Did she hear him correctly?

The heat rose in Ruby’s face extending to her ears which were practically ringing at that point.

Oscar loves her. The thought alone dissolved Ruby’s inner mind into a tidal wave of emotions.

Surprise. Disbelief. Confusion. Nervousness. More confusion. All mixed in with a strange feeling that Ruby never realized was there before. It was…a lighter kind of sensation that the silver-eyed huntress couldn’t quite pinpoint yet she found herself grasping and holding onto it as desperately as she could while riding the high of the sensation.

But before Ruby could be consumed further by her own spiralling thoughts, Oscar brought her a welcomed distraction. To Ruby’s surprise, the boy’s previously confident demeanour broke. No more was he the charming prince who boldly professed his love for her.  He became an awkward teenage farm boy again. An awkward country pumpkin as Oscar let go of Ruby’s face; looking away to cover his own freckled face which was now redder than Ruby had ever seen it. “I---I'm sorry.” Oscar practically squeaked.

Ruby only waved her hands wildly; equally flustered. “No, no it's fine! It’s totally fine!” she managed to say, “I…I…I just…I just never… thought that you were---”

“ … Interested?” Oscar interrupted; peeping through his fingers curiously.

“Interested in... me?” Ruby corrected embarrassedly, “Y’know, like that.  I mean…why would you---”

“Are you kidding me? Why wouldn't I?” Oscar interjected; now uncovering his face with a look of disbelief.

The two then stared at each other for a beat before eventually; looking away; both blushing like crazy. An awkward silence fell between them with nothing but the rush of the fountain providing the perfect disruption. Until finally; after a while, Oscar cleared his throat to speak again. His tone resolute.

“Let me put it another way,” Oscar said, “to give credit where it’s due, Whitley was right about one thing. There are…other beautiful flowers. The world is full of them. My Aunt Em used to say that flowers are a part of what gives the world its beauty. It’s part of their purpose and people are no different. It’s like what I said earlier. If someone is truly important to you and means the world to you, then it wouldn't matter if there are others because that one person will always be the most special to you.

That's how I see you. When you're with your team or…even if there is a room full of other pretty girls, I'm not looking at them. I'm looking at you. You're the one I look to the most. All the time. I look to you when I'm happiest because most of the time, you’re the reason. I look to you when I feel…overwhelmed because your courage gives me strength when I need it most. I look to you for guidance because your leadership keeps us moving forward. Keeps me moving forward.

Oz once described you as someone with an unquantifiable spark that can inspire anyone even in the darkest of times and I’m grateful I’ve been blessed enough to see the truth in that. I meant what I said when I said you are an extraordinary huntress and you’re an even more amazing person.”

“You…really think that way about me?” Ruby asked.

“I’ve thought this way about you since day one,” Oscar confessed, “the day I first looked at you and since then I’ve always looked to you for many things. And the more times I did, the more I saw your beauty shine through. Please don’t sell yourself short just because one ignorant person told you differently.”

Oscar then stared off at something behind Ruby. Following his gaze, Ruby realized he was looking at a small rose bush not too far from where the two sat by the fountain. Smiling Oscar got up and walked over to the bush. Ruby watched quietly as the former farm boy plucked one of the roses off its stem. As Oscar returned, Ruby got a closer look at the small flower in his hand. At first glance, it appeared to be a yellow rose, its petals a shimmering gold in the evening light. But upon further inspection, Ruby noticed the reddened tips. It was a circus rose. At least that was the name Ruby recalled Oscar expertly telling her during one of their past conversations. Oscar twirled the rose between his fingers, caressing its flushed yellow petals.

“Yes, this world is full of many beautiful flowers. Even other lovely roses,” Oscar continued thoughtfully, “but that doesn’t matter to me because in my eyes, you’re the most beautiful one, Ruby.”

The smile on Oscar’s face widened into a grin; bright and handsome, as he held the rose out to Ruby. At first Ruby just stared blankly at the flower, unsure what to do. But when she noticed the soft look on Oscar’s face and the way the sunset just happened to make his hazel eyes shine, she felt a sudden pang in his chest.

She didn’t know how to describe this sudden feeling. It felt strange. Entirely new to her. All Ruby knew was that it was making Oscar appear differently in her eyes. Ruby couldn’t tell if it was the setting or just her active imagination the way Oscar practically glowed before her eyes. The wind kissing his face. His eyes forever locked with hers. His lips etched in a smile that sung affection. It was a sight that made Ruby’s heart thunder and her face warmer than a summer breeze.

‘What is this feeling all of sudden?’ Ruby thought as she slowly accepted the rose from Oscar; her face a perfect pretty canvas of pink.

“…W—W--Wow I...I… don’t know what to say,” Ruby said blushingly, “I mean… I should say…thank you ? No wait, I shouldn’t say thank you. I mean thank you for the rose. Just not…y’know…thank you for the other thing…you said before. I---I don't think that's what you'd want to hear, right? It's not something you say right after a guy tells you he loves----It’s definitely not something you should say.”

Oscar tilted his head in an expression that unintentionally made Ruby’s heart sing its second chorus.

“Why shouldn’t it be?” Oscar said inquisitively, “If your gratitude is you being honest then nothing bad about that.”

“Yeah but… it's not what I'm supposed to say,” Ruby groaned awkwardly, “I'm supposed to say it back. I’m supposed to tell you how I feel about you.”

“Well how do you feel about me?” Oscar asked calmly.

“I… don’t know...” Ruby said unsurely. A playful grin then toyed at her lips as a mischievous thought came to mind. “I mean… if we’re being completely honest here, you are a little young for me,” Ruby commented sarcastically with an innocent shrug, “you’re also way too old for me. Then there’s the whole bit about you sharing a body with my old headmaster. A little weird but… there was that other Ozpin who had a family when Ozma was around. So I guess we wouldn’t have to worry about Ozpin interrupting us if we went on a date or something. So not entirely a deal breaker for me.”

“Ruby…”

“Hey I’m confessing here,” Ruby grumbled, sticking out her tongue childishly. She had only meant for it to be a casual joke; as a means of lightening the air between them. But instead, Oscar said this:

“I know and I’m asking you to be serious,” the farm boy remarked sincerely, “I’m not asking you how you feel about Ozpin or…Ozma. How do you feel about me?”

This took Ruby off guard and it must’ve shown on her face for Oscar’s expression softened; reflecting almost a silent need for Ruby for confirm something that he almost needed her to say. Something that seemed to almost transcend a requited love confession. Upon realizing this, Ruby felt bad for her previous conduct.

“I know I really like you,” Ruby finally admitted with a smile, “A lot actually. Sometimes a bit too much but that’s only because I care very, very much.”

“Of course, mother hen.” Oscar teased knowingly. Ruby shot him a quick unamused pout; making Oscar chuckled, but otherwise she continued her speech.

“You see that right there. You don’t get annoyed when I say crazy stuff. You’re patient. Brave. Kind. Smart. You could be a bit stubborn sometimes but that’s fine cause I’m stubborn too,” Ruby said, “you’re one of my closest friends. Sure we’ve only known each other a few months but…I feel like I’ve known you longer and I want to know you longer. I don’t want what we have to stop.”

“Ruby Rose is a companion to Oscar Pine for all of his lifetimes. That’s what you promised me, right?” Oscar said.

“I did,” Ruby reassured with a gentle smile, “and I still plan on keeping that promise no matter what because I really do like you a lot Oscar.”

“…But, you don’t love me?” Oscar interjected, expectantly.

However Ruby shook her head. “That’s the weird part. I don’t know,” she admitted, “all I know is that I really like you. But the way I like you is different. It’s not the same as how I like Weiss or Jaune or Blake or Ren or Nora or anyone else. It’s not even how I liked Whitley. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before but yet I can’t say what it is.

I’m mostly just confused . I’m not really saying yes because I don’t want to lie to you and… I’m definitely not saying thank you because even that doesn’t feel right. But…I’m not saying no either…”

“I…don’t really have an answer,” Ruby finally finished, “I'm sorry.”

To Ruby’s surprise, Oscar only offered her another kind smile; as he took her free hand in his. Even through the pair of red gloves he wore, Ruby’s skin felt like hot iron from their contact.

“Ruby, it's okay,” Oscar said understandingly, “You don’t have to give me an answer. I'm not really asking you to.”

Ruby blinked in surprise. “You're...not?”

Oscar smiled. “No,” he said sincerely, “I wanted to know how you feel about me but… that doesn’t mean I wanted to force you to answer my confession. My feelings are my own that I just wanted to share with you. Not because I expect you to return them but mostly just cause I wanted you to know how I feel about you. How I really feel about you,”

‘…While I still have a chance to say it to your face,’ Oscar added as a thought. And though his heart went blue for a brief moment, he still smiled brightly against his inner sadness. He couldn’t afford to stop smiling. Not when he was sitting in the presence of the girl her loved. For her, he would brave anything. Even his own strife.

“But…more than that,” Oscar pressed on, “I just wanted to see you smile again. Whitley’s true feelings made you cry. I was hoping mine would make you smile. I love you most when you're smiling. Your smile is one of the most beautiful things about you. I guess the only real answer I want to know is if I cheered you up.”

Now it was Ruby’s turn to smile. Despite herself, a few tears trickled down her cheek but they weren’t tears of sadness. They were from the sheer amount of happiness that swelled in Ruby’s chest for the young boy seated before her. The boys whose radiance and kind words quelled the heartache she’d once felt. Ruby felt beyond touched. “You did,” she managed to say through her soft sobbing, “You most definitely did.”

Ruby then closed the gap between her and Oscar, nudging close enough to rest her head on his shoulder. “Thank you, Oscar.” She whispered gratefully. With a sigh of contentment, her mind and her heart were finally at ease.

Seeing the silver-eyed huntress so calm made Oscar’s own smile grow into a proud grin. Draping his arm around Ruby’s shoulder, he pulled her closer to him to allow his head to against hers. “For you. Always.” The former farm boy whispered warmly. Though his voice was soft Ruby heard his words. She felt her heart crescendo and she was appreciative that Oscar couldn’t see her face in that moment as the prominent blush that was practically burned into her face from before deepened.

“Okay...now I see it.” Ruby giggled bashfully.

“See what?” Oscar asked.

“Why everyone keeps calling you little prince,” Ruby answered, “you’re kinda like the ones from my favourite old fairy-tales.”

“The ones who save the princess?” Oscar asked.

“The ones who they fall in love with,” Ruby said, looking up at Oscar’s face as she said it. His eyes widened in surprise making Ruby looking away coyly. Seriously, if her face got any redder, she’d give her own signature cape steady competition.

“But y’know…they’re just stories.” Ruby added quickly with an awkward laugh that was louder than she intended.

Fortunately her awkwardness only appeared to amuse Oscar. “You planning on living happily ever after with me now, Ms Rose?” Oscar teased with a wink. This earned him a playful shove courtesy of Ruby. ‘Okay, when did he get this cheeky and why is it so cute?’ She thought, ‘…wait cute?’  

“I’m just saying you can be charming when you need to be, Mr. Pine,” Ruby retorted wryly.

Oscar only nudged Ruby’s shoulder; laughing.

“Y’know I should probably start calling you something like that too. I never really liked the little prince nickname. Maybe sweet prince suits you better,” Ruby remarked lightly. She had meant it as a small joke but upon seeing Oscar’s smirk; eyebrows quirked, Ruby regretted everything. Now her face and cape were a perfectly set.

“I---I---I mean…” Ruby tried to correct herself but her words failed her and instead she settled on her humiliation. “I didn't...say that out loud, did I?” she stuttered.

“Yep you did,” Oscar said chuckling lightly, “but it's alright. If it's you, I don't mind.” “And I don’t mind the new nickname either so long as I get to be just your sweet prince.” He then added boldly.

“You’re not going to let me forget that one, aren’t you?” Ruby groaned.

“Never.” Oscar chuckled.

The two friends then shared a laugh.

For a moment, Oscar met Ruby’s gaze, beaming charmingly.  Ruby returned the smile, the warmth in her cheeks returning as the two sat smiling at each other.

“So, what do we do now?” Oscar asked after some time.

“Whatever we like, I suppose,” Ruby replied casually.

“Ready to head back inside?” Oscar asked.

“ …I dunno.” Ruby said with a frown.

“What Whitley said still bugging you?” Oscar asked glumly.

Ruby nodded miserably. “A little bit.” She said.

Oscar then poked Ruby’s cheek lightly, prompting her to look at him.

“Hey. Beautiful flowers are meant to be admired by everyone, not kept in the dark,” Oscar assured, “besides what would a rich boy know about caring for flowers?”

“What do you mean?” Ruby asked.

“Well it's like something my Aunt Em used to say about gardening,” Oscar said wisely, “rich folk may have all the money in the world but they don’t know a darn thing about gardening. They're so used to buying that the only green they every learnt to care for is their giant bags of money. Therefore, rich folks don’t make good gardeners. That's why the Gods made farmers because farmers know how to care better for crops and flowers of all kinds.”

“Okay but… what's that have to do with me?” Ruby asked.

Oscar smirked. “Well my lovely rose, sounds like you could use a farm boy. Not a rich boy.” He said with a wink.

Ruby couldn’t resist the laugh that escaped her lips. “Seriously? You did not just say that.” She giggled.

“I made you laugh, didn’t I? That counts,” Oscar quipped with a light chuckle, “I mean we can stay out here all night if that’s what you really want or…you can let this farm boy show Whitley Schnee and all of Atlas how truly beautiful you are. What do you say to that?”

Oscar offered Ruby his hand.

“I say…”

Ruby’s gaze fell to her circus rose; still in her hand from when Oscar had given it to her earlier. With a bright grin, Ruby tucked the rose in her hair as she accepted Oscar’s hand.

She then leaned in and kissed Oscar on the cheek---a gesture which pleasantly surprised him.

“Lead the way, my sweet prince.” Ruby said.

Oscar only beamed; leading Ruby back inside as the two rosebuds re-entered the festivities together.

Squiggly Commentary:

 You can almost say that this story is a continuation; drawing reference to other scripts I’ve done before such as ‘A-Dork-You!’, ‘A Sister’s Blessing’ and ‘As You Go’. I made this story under the impression and headcanon that as their friendship grows, so does Ruby and Oscar’s overall trust in each other to the point that they are perfectly comfortable initiating physical contact with one another especially if it was meant to console the other. 

Usually Ruby is the one to always initiate contact between her and Oscar, according to the canon. My hunch is that at some point, Oscar will start reciprocating the same gentle touches Ruby would at times give him to the point that the two Rosebuds are completely at ease with committing to gestures such as cupping the other’s face, holding hands, resting their head against the other’s shoulder and breathing in the consolation that comes with their company. Y’know that sort of jazz. So that’s what I used in this story.

Sorry if this also wasn’t the kind of love confession story where feelings are reciprocated in the moment and the two lovers kiss. I wanted this short story to mostly emphasize on Oscar finally being open to Ruby about his feelings for her. Once it was brought up, Oscar had no choice but to bit the bullet and he made that choice.

For me, this is the most realistic I can envision the RoseGarden confession. At least the side where Oscar confesses first and Ruby moves forward knowing how Oscar feels about her.

Whitley is a little shit in this. Sorry to my fellow Whits. Although my feelings toward Whitley as a character have lightened a lot since V5, I based this script purely on my original RWBY Musing #24 where Whitley showcased just how much his father had influenced his behaviour particularly his treatment of women.

I even took it a step further with this concept by having Ruby being enamoured with Whit after their first encounter, believing him to be a pleasant gentlemen and love interest despite Weiss’ warnings about her brother’s true colours.

Ruby expressing genuine interest in a person she considers a crush is a side of her we have yet to explore in the main series. So for this script, I wanted to toy with the notion of what if…Ruby genuinely had feelings for Whitley and thought he felt the same way about her only to be greatly disappointed when it is later revealed that Whitley saw Ruby no different than how Jacques saw his own wife.

I’ve mentioned Whitley asking Ruby to be his date to the Atlas Ball many times over and it’s a headcanon I’m still holding onto; albeit I’ve shared different versions of this hunch. I’ve mostly talked about Ruby only agreeing to be Whitley’s date as a favour to Weiss to help with her investigation into her family affairs.

This is the first instance where I’ve actually entertained the thought of Ruby going to the dance with Whitley because she actually liked him. As you could probably tell by some of my past musings and headcanons, seeing Ruby behave like an average teenaged girl, gushing over boys especially one she might have a crush on is something I think would be cute to see.

I’m probably the cheese that stands alone with this thought but if I may further entertain this theory, imagine Ruby being the type of romantic who falls hard whenever she develops an interest in someone. She already does so much for her family and friends. Can you imagine a hopelessly in love Ruby Rose? I can picture that just as vividly as I can depict a close Rosegardening rosebud friendship and potential romance.

I can definitely see Ruby being the type of girl to gush over someone she likes to her friends. So imagine how it would be for Oscar, being the guy who secretly likes Ruby, to also be the close friend she feels comfortable enough talking about her crush to. I figured Ruby would talk to Oscar about this kind of stuff because unlike her sister and teammates, she wouldn’t be judged or teased about it especially if her crush was Whitley (which Weiss greatly disapproves of for obvious reasons).

This script is a culmination of theories that I wanted to touch base on and it basically spawned into a story that I’m proud of. I know I say that almost most of my writing but it’s hard to not feel giddy when you put a theory to paper and turn it into a story. If I had to picture how Oscar would first confess his feelings for Ruby and her reaction to hearing it, this would be it.

It’s not the typical confession moment nor is it the traditional unrequited love moment idea. I genuinely think if Oscar were to confess to Ruby, he would outwardly admit he loves her. Just tell that he wants to be the guy that gets to fall in love with her. Just as much as I wouldn’t expect Ruby to refuse Oscar’s feelings. In a way she would accept them. Just not have an answer for him. But she wouldn’t keep him waiting either. Just as how Oscar wouldn’t hold it to her to give him an answer because that’s not what’s most important.

This plays into another ancient RoseGarden headcanon I have where Oscar would confess and the two will move forward knowing how Oscar truly feels about Ruby but it wouldn’t affect their friendship as awkwardly. But it would provide an opening for Ruby to ponder on how she feels for Oscar. She understands he’s not holding her to return his love. However at the same time, there is that curious side of Ruby that wonders what it would be like if she were to fall in love with Oscar. Could she see herself doing that? And if she did, how would it affect her? How it would affect their entire relationship? Their friendship. Would she even wish to return those feelings knowing the truth of the Merge and the lingering mystery of the fate that spells for Oscar?

This is why I like this concept a lot. It lays everything out on the table while leaving room for more growth and opportunities to explore bonds and the meanings behind them. I’m not saying this is how I perfectly envision the Rosegarden romance taking root in the canon. I’m just saying it’s an idea.

All in all, I hope you guys have enjoyed this short story of mine and if you can, please let me know if you did enjoy it. I’d mighty appreciate it if you do.

Not sure if this counts as a worthy contribution to @rwbyrosegardenweek​ but I hope it does :D 

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

[littlemisssquiggles]

The Fall of RWBY

“Let’s try the quick version…can you make a bunch of doorways in Atlas that open at a single spot in Vacuo?”

“Sure. I’ll just need coordinates and specs for each door, an explanation for bending space and time to account for much greater traffic on one side and a single point of exit on the other.”

“Okay. That’s about what we expected. So we need to funnel everybody through a central location first.”

“You’re gonna have to tell me more about this central location. For starters, uh…where is it?”

“Here. A place like these vaults. Wherever they are, they’re not a part of Remnant. Only accessible if you know the right way in. Seems like a safe enough place for thousands of refugees.”

“You kids are either smart or much more foolish than you realize…”

  “... A place like these vaults. Wherever they are, they’re not a part of Remnant. Only accessible if you know the right way in...”

I have a curious question or rather…a curious thought. If the worlds inside of the vaults do not exist anywhere in Remnant, as affirmed by Yang in today’s episode then where exactly does this Other World inside the vault exists?

We know from the Lost Fable episode that Remnant was merely an experiment by the Brother Gods before they “left” Remnant. We also know from the Lost Fable that the Relics when brought together are the key to summoning the Gods back to Remnant for humanity to face Judgement Day.

My question is…summoning the Gods from where exactly? Where exactly did the Brother Gods go after they left Remnant? I know in the RWBY Fairytales from Remnant novel, it was hinted in the Two Brothers tale that the Gods never truly left Remnant and have actually been sleeping in wait until the day they would be awakened to rise up and judge the world they created and left to itself in their absence.

An exert from the Two Brother fairytale:

Finally, the God of Light call a truce. “Look around, Brother. We are tearing the world apart.”

“Let it burn,” the God of Darkness said.

“We are making people miserable and interfering in Humanity’s divine destiny,” the God of Light said. “Perhaps it is time we leave the world in their hands and see what they make of it.”

“Yes. Let us leave and go our separate ways at last,” the God of Darkness agreed.

But just as the two brothers were closely linked to each other, they were also closely tied to the world and their creations, most of all Humanity. In the act of creation, they had become less than they had been. They had given too much of themselves to be able to leave.

“We must take back our gifts,” the God of Darkness said. “Reclaim our power and wipe this experiment from existence.”

“I disagree,” the God of Light said. “And we promised to share in the fate of our joint creation.” He gave a might yawn. “Let us rest, and when the time comes, we will see what Humanity has become in our absence. 

…The two brothers agreed. But even in rest, they needed some distance from each other. Each dragon transformed himself into a new continent at one end of their world. And there, the dragons still sleep, until the day that the gods will waken, rise and judge…”

Keeping that thought in mind, I think it might be a safe assumption to say that the Gods are still on Remnant. I’d like to believe that the allusion of the Gods transforming themselves into continents at the opposites ends of Remnant is true since anyone who has ever peaked at a map of Remnant can clearly see the two dragons on the map.

One of the two dragons---which is I believe to be the God of Light---is represented by the continent of Anima where the Kingdom of Mistral and the City of Argus are located. While the second continent is the unknown one that has no name but exists opposite from Anima while Sanus (where the Kingdoms of Vale and Vacuo are located) rests between them.

I guess, in a nutshell, the point I’m trying to make here is a theory I have for the finale of V8. I can’t shake Ambrosius’ warning to RWBY and Penny in the Vault of the Winter Maiden.

“People enter from Atlas and Mantle on one side and leave on the other side with one way ticket to Vacuo.”

“Well everything seems to be in order. You were quite thorough. Disappointingly so.”

“So…it’s done.”

“Yeah.”

“Oh and one last point of clarification about this central location of yours. Do not fall. Okay and with that dire warning.”

He told them not to fall within the central zone and as we know, the central zone is an unknown world that, much like the worlds within the vaults, does not exist anywhere in Remnant but is connected to Remnant courtesy of Relics.

So my hunch is that at some point during finale, either RWBY will end up trapped in the Other World or rather…it will just be Ruby Rose who ends up falling and becoming trapped in the Other World and the only way to save her rests on ALPN and the discovery of the remaining two relics and vaults.

As we saw back in V6, as soon as the Relic of Knowledge was removed from its respective vault, the world that existed around it disappeared thus rendering the vault null and void. Thus, I think the same will happen with the Vault of the Winter Maiden. Now that RWBY_P have retrieved the Staff, the world within the vault will collapse and no longer exist thus tethering the vault’s connection to Remnant.

This will leave the vaults of the Summer and Fall Maidens remaining. However, since during V8, Tyrian and Mercury Black were seen heading toward Vacuo with an army of Grimm, my assumption is that Vacuo’s vault will become compromised by Salem’s forces.

Not to mention that we still don’t the true whereabouts of the Relic of Choice since according to Salem, that is the only vault that has yet to be found by her forces and not even Oscar knows about that one since that secret is one that Ozma would hold onto longer according to Salem. Not to mention that it was also stated by Oz back in V5 that he made it difficult for the Vault of the Fall Maiden to be found.

Nevertheless, I do believe that something major will happen to either one or all of Team RWBY. I think our heroes will end up trapped in the same world that housed the Relics and thus, their only way out is to traverse this mysterious Other World and find the location of the vaults on its end while their comrades look for a way to open the remaining vaults to bring their comrades back to Remnant on the other side.

Meaning that if someone were to become trapped in such world, they’d probably have to travel to wherever another vault is located and try to get out from that door way, granted that the Relic within that vault isn’t removed since it may seem that the Relics and the vaults are the only thing connecting Remnant to whatever mysterious world is inside of the vaults.

This is why I’m questioning what the world within the vault is. I was always of the opinion that the environments the relics were found in were just a construct of magic after the King of Vale originally built the vaults and the huntsmen academies. Now I’m starting to wonder if the Vaults probably existed long before the King of Vale and he just built the academies around the original doorways to the Other World the Relics were housed in; if that makes any sense.

Either way, I’m not taking Ambrosius’ warning too lightly. Something big is going to happen to one or more of our core heroes. I have a feeling that it’s going to be Team RWBY who end up falling inside of the central zone and becoming trapped in the Unknown World.

At the end of today’s episode, when Penny asked “What now?”; Ruby’s response was “We go to Vacuo. All of us and hope that we thought of everything.”

Obviously this is not going to be the case since our heroes didn’t account for Cinder Fall arriving to foil their plans. So naturally I’m expecting Cinder to finally make her play as the final big boss of this season and do something drastic to prevent all of our heroes from making it to Vacuo.

Given the allusions in today’s episode, my guess is Team RWBY will not make it Vacuo. They will all end up falling and ending up trapped in the Unknown World with no way out and no real way of returning to Remnant…or so it may seem. That’s my assumption.

Whether I’m correct or not, I’ll have to wait and see from the show.

~ LittleMissSquiggles (2021)

[littlemisssquiggles]

I'm not sure about other but I was wondering what do you thing about team RWBY going to another world caz I'm not for it

Hello anon-chan. Whelp, sorry to disappoint you m’fam since this squiggle meister is feeling the opposite.

For me I’m actually all for RWBY going into the Other World since I strongly believe this venture could potentially open up avenues to expand the World of RWBY as a franchise beyond just Remnant and our current main plot revolving around the adventures of our four main RWBY girls and their peers.

In the Lost Fable episode back in V6, the God of Light mentioned that Remnant was only an experiment.

“…This planet was a beautiful experiment but… it is merely a remnant of what it once was. We will learn from this failure. I hope that you will learn from yours…”

And as of the ending of V8, it was revealed that there is a second Other World that exists beyond Remnant, thus hinting at the probability of there being many more worlds besides Remnant that the Brother Gods probably created during their time after they left Remnant which was their first world.

This also calls back to what the God of Light told Ozma about him and Darkness returning to Remnant and making humanity whole again should Ozma succeed in his mission.

“…Creation, Destruction, Choice and Knowledge were the ideals upon which humanity was made. Now I leave them behind with the hope that you will learn to remake yourselves. If brought together, these four relics will summon my brother and I back to your world and humanity will be judged. If your kind has learned to live in harmony with one another and set aside their differences, then we shall once again live among you and humanity will be made whole again…”

With that in mind, this got me thinking.

In the event of the Brother Gods learning from their failures with Remnant and attempting to create many other worlds in its place, this would mean that should our heroes of the Gods’ First World---Remnant--succeed in uniting humanity and bringing about the Gods’ return to make humanity whole again, imagine if…along with the Gods, they also brought other worlds that the Gods made thus merging them all together with Remnant to forge an entirely new world.

Picture it like a puzzle with Remnant being only one piece while the other worlds the Gods made represent the remaining pieces and once humanity is saved, all of these worlds will come together to create one whole new world under a new name.

So not only will we still have the Remnant we know with its respective remaining kingdoms but there will be other uncharted territories unforeseen to man to be later explored. New civilizations to be built and possibility new species of sentient beings beyond man and the Faunus to encounter.

Thus leading to new adventures, new characters and completely new stories, not necessarily following the same story of RWBY but existing in the same universe as RWBY. You understand what I mean?

It’s like I said, it’s a chance to preserve RWBY or Remnant as an ongoing franchise and keep the series alive BEYOND RWBY.

I’m not saying that’s the intention the CRWBY Writers have right but seeing as we're probably nearing the conclusion to the Salem Story, it certainly opens up the door for it and in that regard, I’m interested.

~ LittleMissSquiggles (2021)

[littlemisssquiggles]

Pinehead Headcanons: Oscar and the New World

“…I thought the idea of falling through Remnant and into a new world was exciting…”

Guys, I’m curious about something. I’ve been thinking about the Remnant fairytale that Oscar mentioned back in the tenth episode. The one about the girl who fell through the world.

As us fans are aware, some Remnant Fairytales are actually relevant to the World of Remnant and may actually be variants of completely different stories that were true to its history as we saw with the Lost Fable tying back into the Girl in the Lonely Tower and the Tale of the Brother Gods fairytales, for example.

Keeping that in mind,  now I’m wondering something---How true is the Girl Who Fell Through the World fairy tale? True in the sense of…could there possibly be another world below Remnant that no one has ever traversed before? Not even Ozma? Or what if…this will be an adventure for our gaggle of heroes to venture ultimately?

Here me out on this one. As we’re well aware from the canon of RWBY, it was only the God of Darkness’ Grimm Pools of Darkness that seemed to have survived the test of time, right? However the question still remains of what ultimately became of the God of Light’s Fountain of Life of Creation that was last seen in the Lost Fable episode.

Here’s this squiggle meister’s hunch:

What if…what we know to be the continent of Solitas in Remnant is actually the remnants of the Land of Light that formerly belonged to the God of Light in the Lost Fable?

Have you guys ever wondered that there might be a narrative coincidence as to why Atlas was the kingdom of technological innovation that secretly housed the Relic of Creation?

What if…the remnants of the Land of Light and the Fountain of Life and Creation may be below the Kingdom of Atlas; deep below what we know to be Mantle’s crater?

Imagine if…the fragments of the God of Light’s Fountain of Life and Creation fell deep into Remnant’s core following the meteor shower from the Lost Fable and thus created a whole new world within Remnant but below its surface? A whole new world right below Atlas and Mantle that has never been discovered or explored by anyone.

I know this concept sounds like a stretch but…I can’t help but shake this feeling about there might be a connection to the Atlas/Mantle and the Land of Light outside of the Relic of Creation. My reason for bringing this curious thought to light stems from some imagery from the V8 opening:

During the opening visuals, nearing the end, we’re shown a shot of our heroes all standing together before the ground gives way underneath Team RWBY with all four girls plummeting into what appears to be a pool.

I’ve seen some theories where other RWBY theorists speculated that this may be Ruby falling into the Grimm Pool of Darkness---a sign of her ultimate transformation into a Grimm-Human hybrid as we saw with the Hound. However, upon further review of the screenshot, I don’t think that may be the case at all.

Here I have this shot of when Salem first dropped into the Grimm Pool during the Lost Fable.

As you can see, there is a reddish-purple glow to her. Compare that to this screenshot of Ruby from the V8 opening.

For Ruby, her sheen isn’t red. It’s actually kind of golden-white. The same type of golden-white sheen that was around Salem when she first fell into the Fountain of Light and Creation.

Again, keeping that all in mind, this brings me back to Oscar. What if…Oscar bringing up the Girl Who Fell Through the World fairytale wasn’t a coincidence? 

What if…it was an intentional foreshadow to a possible event to happen later in the story? An event that would either greatly impact him or him and Ruby [as our two, smaller more honest souls] or perhaps the whole core hero team meaning RWBY_ALPN?

Like I said, the V8 opening had the ground collapsing underneath our heroes with them falling through the ground. In V8CH10, Oscar mentioned a tale about someone falling through Remnant and into a completely new world.

So maybe…this is a sign for events to happen and how this volume might end?

Now pegs the important questions.

What would happen if our young heroes weren’t around anymore upon Salem’s resurrection?

What would become of Remnant if we didn’t have main young hero team working towards helping the people and stopping Salem from gathering the relics and bringing about Remnant’s destruction?

What would happen to Remnant if our heroes disappeared off the face of the earth and fell into a whole new world far from the one they knew?

What would become of Remnant if our heroes fell to a new world, leaving the old one behind at the mercy of Salem during a time when they are needed the most?

This is the theory that I’m trying to make:

As stated in the recent episode, Oscar mentioned that the Long Memory possesses a tremendous amount of kinetic energy which Ozma and his lineage have stored and been farming for many lifetimes. We witnessed just how destructive that raw power can be. We also know that, according to Oscar, there is still good bit of that energy left in the cane; only to be used when necessary.

So here’s my thought. What if…at some point, Oscar is forced to use the last bit of kinetic energy. As a result of this, what if… the Long Memory is destroyed in the process and the crater of Mantle completely collapses, creating a massive deep hole in the earth that pulls any and everything surrounding it into its crevice like a massive black hole.

 Let’s say…for whatever reason, Oscar becomes trapped in the destruction of the hole created by his weapon.

Let’s say…it was some kind of heroic sacrifice moment for the little prince where he knew the risks of unleashing the last bit of the cane’s power and made it anyway since it correlated with the promise he made to his friends and team back in Argus.

Back in V6, Oscar told the team that he would do everything in his power to help with the “limited time” he had left as himself. With all that’s happened to him for this season, it wouldn’t surprise me if that promise is brought back somehow.

Resuming my theory, Oscar sacrifices himself and much like the heroine of one of his childhood fairytales, he ends up falling through the world. He falls deep into Remnant to a world unknown; possibly to be presumed dead or something.

Since this volume has highlighted the importance of Oscar being a part of the team---what if…the other heroes end up trying to save Oscar but this results in them falling into the hole with him; thus trapping all of them deep within whatever “new world” lies in the depths of Remnant’s core.

I know this all sounds like some big weird crackerjack of a theory in concept but with all the talk about “Happy? Never Again”, it makes me wonder if something terrible will happen to all of our heroes in the end.

Like they all end up being presumed dead by the end of the season, leaving the rest of the world forced to deal with Salem’s return without their advice or intervention any longer.

I mean I could be very much wrong in my hunches here. But nevertheless, I still wished to put it out there just in case anyone else might be having similar ideas.

All I can say is that I definitely think something big will happen for the team nearing this volume’s climax. I do think Oscar will end up using the last of the cane’s power. I also think the cane will be destroyed somehow since it was mentioned that Oscar using magic accelerates the merging process between him and Oz. Therefore, I’m definitely expecting something to happen to force Oscar to have to use magic from now on since the Merge is definitely something he will have to come to terms with in the end for the next stage of his arc.

So the Long Memory being destroyed, forcing Oscar to use his magic without it---which we’ve seen he can do already back when he zapped Salem in V8CH9---and thus finally come to peace to being ready to merge with Oz is something I can see happening next for him. I also think something major will happen for Ruby.

At least I’d love it if something major would happen for Ruby. What I’m not sure what that may be, either way I definitely feel something major happening for the team and I definitely think the Girl Who Fell Through the World might’ve been a foreshadow of some kind. Then again, this is just me speculating. We’ll know for sure as the story progresses and the PLOT for RWBY V8 thickens.

~ LittleMissSquiggles (2021)

[littlemisssquiggles]

…Sooo…about what Hazel said about Salem in RWBY V8CH7…

Something that Hazel to Oz really stood out to me.

“Stop lying! Salem can’t be killed. When she came for me, I killed her over and over again. The longest she was gone was only a few hours. Before she put herself back together…”

Huh.

When Salem tried to kill herself back in the Lost Memory episode---y’know when she stabbed herself with the knife---she came back instantly.

 When Ozma killed Salem in the Lost Fable during his lifetime as Diggs, he reincarnated within a matter of minutes.

But when Hazel killed her over and over again, the longest she was gone was a few hours.  

From instantly to a few minutes to a matter of hours…? I understand that Salem can’t be killed but is it just me or does the time it takes for Salem to reincarnate herself getting longer and longer with each death?

So even if Salem can’t be stopped, it is noticeable that the amount of time she takes to come back is getting longer. 

So…imagine if…Salem is attacked repeatedly by multiple people and they just keep killing her over and over again, not really giving her a chance to come back especially if it takes her longer to revive each time?

This also ties into something Oscar said in RWBY V8CH6:

“...Salem knows she can’t take on the whole world at once. So she doesn’t....”

I dunno. I could be wrong in my assumption here but I found it very interesting that Hazel mentioned how long it took for Salem to be revived. And if I know these showrunners, why mention that small detail if it wasn’t going to become relevant?

Salem can’t be killed but…perhaps…there may be a way to stop her if…she is stopped somewhere between time it takes for her to reincarnate?

I was talking to @jealouscartoonist​ and JC brought up a very interesting point about…what if…Ruby petrified Salem with her Silver Eyes. 

Not necessarily killing her but…imagine if…Ruby turned Salem to stone at the point of her putting herself back together? Thus Salem is never allowed the time to piece herself back together since Ruby would’ve frozen her in place at that particular point. Therefore trapping Salem in stone forever?

If it DOES take her longer to put herself back together before being fully revived, then maybe…there IS a way for Salem to be stopped. Not KILLED but at least stopped?

Salem can’t fight or be a problem to society if she’s encased in stone, right? And who knows? Perhaps...a couple of years trapped in stone with nothing but her own thoughts might force Salem to finally come to terms with the error of her ways finally. 

I dunno. Just something I observed from this episode. Again, I could be wrong in my assumption. it’s just that point that Hazel made REALLY stuck out to me.

 ~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)

[littlemisssquiggles]

Pinehead Headcanons: Oscar’s Sacrifice For His Rose

Guys, I’ve been thinking. And y’know what happens when this squiggle meister muses about something; especially if it’s related to RWBY.

For most of V8’s promotion, the showrunners and the CRWBY kept hinting at how much “darker” this new season to be. And as daunting as that may sound to me as an audience member, the obvious question I ask from this is:

 “…Exactly how dark are we talking?”

After all, RWBY has done dark before. I mean look at V3 and the events of the Fall of Beacon. V3 is still considered to be RWBY’s darkest season to date. Beacon fell leaving Vale Kingdom broken and vulnerable without the protection of its main huntsmen academy and a handful of important lead characters from that arc---heroes and villains alike---died. So keeping that in mind, how really dark can V8 be compared to that? What can the showrunners do for this season that they didn’t already do season prior? And here in lies, my hunch.

Well…not real a hunch. Just a thought. An idea. For me, V8 being darker wouldn’t just represent the Fall of Atlas and the death of lead characters important to this volume arc such as General Ironwood or Winter Schnee or even another member of Team JNPR like Ren or Nora.

Nah son. To me, that’d be way too simple for my taste since, as I mentioned earlier, it’s already been done before so fans are already going to expect that, right? For V8 to be dark for me, the showrunners would have to do something incredibly ballsy. Something that’ll really catch their viewers off guard.

I’m not talking about Ruby Rose losing an eye. As much as I’m not really a fan of that popular fan theory, even that seems too light. Not to mention that Ruby’s development as a Silver Eyed Warrior has been quite inconsistent over the past few seasons and is the aspect of her character that’s been the least challenged.

So I’m going to just toss this one out there because it’s been on my mind since I saw this particular shot from V8 opening visuals. It’s the shot of RWBY falling into an abyss of darkness with Ruby reaching out to grasp what appears to be the Relic of Creation while Grimm hands---the same ones conjured by Salem back in V6 to apprehend Hazel as punishment for his failures---restrain her to drag her further and further away from the light.

Imagine if…Ruby dies?

And I’m not just talking teasing her death like how they did it with Weiss back in V5 with Cinder Fall or with Blake in V3 and V6 with Adam or even Yang back in V3 with Adam.

I’m talking, straight up having Ruby Rose be killed instantly by Salem and her corpse is just left behind for her allies to find her dead. An unquantifiable spark snuffed out after the villains had won yet again. And on this grim tone, V8 just ends like THAT.

Mantle Kingdom is no more; just another graveyard for the Grimm like the former Beacon Academy.

The People of Mantle are all dead; tragic victims of a failed attempt at saving them.

Atlas Kingdom has fallen with its own people about to meet the same horrible end as their former Mantlese brethren.

Salem has succeeded in claiming the Relic of Creation and relishes in her triumph by the restored communications to broadcast a cryptic message to the rest of the world. A message unveiling the Fall of the formerly powerful Kingdom of Atlas at the mercy of her Grimm army; letting the leaders of Vale and Vacuo---the last two remaining kingdoms standing in her way of claiming all the Relics; know that they were next in her conquest.

Our heroes have sustained yet another heavy loss. And what’s worse this time is that now no longer had the guidance of their leader. Ruby Rose is dead. Made to be the martyr this time. And on that note, the volume just fades to black on the echoing cries of our heroes and the victims of Atlas as everything falls to ruin.

It’ll be just like the opening foreshadowed. Happy? Never Again…because the simple soul who was meant to be our hero in the end to rise above everything else and vanquish the forces of evil was now gone. Died another failure to a cause like so many others who died in vain throughout Remnant’s history; just as Roman Torchwick predicted that she would.  And such a tragedy this is since this girl. This single rose---this true rose--- was meant to be unique. She was supposed to change everything, right? But alas, her fate was no different than the ones that came before her.

I’m bringing this up because I have this rather farfetched idea involving the Rosegarden pair that I really wanted to share. It’s not exactly a theory per say. It’s definitely not something I expect the canon to do. Shoot, I highly doubt the showrunners would actually pack the chops to kill off their main protagonist.

However the RWBY V8 opening really got me thinking.

“…We said goodbye to all the things we loved. Gave up our lives just to find that it was not enough…”

In a discussion regarding the ending of the Little Prince story, an anon-ninja informed me about there being an alternative interpretation of the conclusion to the prince’s story wherein, instead of perishing from the snake’s venomous snake bite, the prince succeeded in returning home to his beloved rose on their planet...only to discover that his rose had died in his absence with his care and love.

Putting that together with the V8 opening visuals, it made recall a show I used to watch on Lifetime called Witches of East End. I quite liked it. It's a shame it got cancelled after only two seasons though.

Anyways, why I remember this series in particular is that; spoilers but…at some point during the show’s main PLOT, it did the unexpected and had a series villain kill two of our three main characters. And what made the visual even more horrifying to the audience was that the corpses of these characters were left on display for the surviving third main character to find. It doesn’t help that the two characters were also the beloved children of our third lead who she has watched die countless of times since the head witch---Johanna (I believe her name was) was cursed by her father so that each time her daughters died---she would be forced to give birth to them again and watch their life and death happen again and again. And it doesn’t matter what she did or how hard she tried---even when she attempted to hide her family’s identity as witches from her girls---her daughters STILL never lived past the age of 30.

They always died somehow and it didn’t matter if only one of the daughters died either. When either died, the other one would surely follow. So Johanna would give birth. Raise her two girls into fine young women and…watch them die. Living the same vicious cycle.

This is why the V8 opening visuals  made me think of the prospect of Ruby dying. That shot that I showed of Ruby being dragged down into the dark abyss by the Grimm far away from the light made me wonder.

At first I figured this was a sign that we going to see some mental machinations at the hands of Salem. Basically Salem trapping Ruby and her friends in this cryptic illusion where she tortures them with surreal images of their worst fears incarnated in order to break our heroes down both emotionally and psychologically. So that’s one idea.

But then I thought, …what if…instead that moment is meant to be symbolic. Like the Staff of Creation symbolised life while the Grimm and the void represented death and at some point, Ruby will straddle the fine line between the two for this season.

So with all that in mind, this is what I thought. This is the scenario I concocted from this interpretation.

Let's say...

It is the inevitable Fall of Atlas and Salem kills Ruby Rose.

Instead of the wicked witch being dead, it’s our little red rose and because of this, our heroes are left distraught (Yang in particular, not just because Ruby was her baby sister but also given her doubts over her sister’s judgement and all that jazz). However our remaining heroes aren’t given time to really process Ruby's death. All they could do is take her corpse and attempt to flee since Atlas was falling and our remaining hero team needed to leave if they were going to make it out alive.

Since the show hinted at this bit back in V6, my assumption is that at some point, Vacuo Kingdom will answer the call and come to aid the People of Atlas. While they're unable to salvage the kingdom, the least their forces are able to do with the aid they could provide was evacuate the Atlesians to safety in Vacuo.

So ultimately our heroes are rescued by their allies from Vacuo and reunite with teams CFVY and SSSN respectively. However there is no real time to celebrate their reunion since...well...Ruby is dead. Salem is on her way to Vacuo to claim the Sword of Destruction next and, the group are at a loss on what to do next. Not to mention that certain characters---like WBY (mainly Yang) and Oscar---aren’t taking Ruby’s death too well.

Since the usual gimmick for when a main character dies is for their allies to somehow figure out a way to bring them back from the dead, in respect to Ruby,  I had this idea of...perhaps…while staying in Vacuo at Shade Academy, Oscar discovers a way for him to somehow bring Ruby back from the dead?

Let’s say…it has something to do with his semblance or magic. The thought process I had behind this was that considering that Ozma is technically the only living soul to have ever traversed the line between life and death as an immortal being, imagine if...this somehow made Oscar some kind of human life line or spiritual anchor---A being who is connected to the Realm of Life and Death via his rather unique predicament as a member of Ozma's lineage. 

And thus, using magic (or his semblance or whatever---I dunno) Oscar is easily able to travel the Realm Between Life and Death. Y'know sorta like the Avatar. Maybe?

Basically the notion I had was that

Oscar would go to the Realm Between Realms.

Y’know the same white void where we originally saw Ozma meet the God of Light for the first time in the Lost Fable.

Picture it, Oscar mirroring his predecessor in the Lost Fable, awakening in the Realm Between Realms. In this vacant world, let's say…we get another call-back to the Lost Fable where for the first time since his lifetime as Ozma, a Wizard of Light is reunited with a God.

Imagine if...as a nice parallel, Oscar encounters the God of Darkness in the Realm Between Realms. Much like Light to Ozma, Darkness chose to appear before Oscar since the all-knowing God was already fully aware of what the little prince’s intentions were daring to come to such a world. He knew he was coming to find his rose. 

Let's say...to entertain his own amusement, Darkness agrees to give Oscar a helping hand with his quest for Ruby. The God informs that Ruby’s soul was located in the After Life and even takes Oscar to her so that he may reunite with her. However being the cunning God that he was, what Darkness failed to inform Oscar of was that even if he succeeded in finding Ruby amongst the sea of souls in the After, that didn’t necessarily mean that the boy would be permitted to just bring Ruby just like that.

And since Darkness had dominion over Death (as Light had Life), even with his title as his brother’s cherry picked “champion of humanity”, Darkness wasn’t going to give Oscar that respect in the slightest. For in Darkness’ eyes, this foolish boy lost that mercy the instant he dared to defy the order of the world he and his brother fashioned together to step foot into what he described as his domain.  

After all, there are rules to this game; naturally. Life and death go hand in hand---always in perfect balance.

In a nutshell, to Oscar's detriment, Darkness informs the little prince that the only way that he would be allowed to revive Ruby is if he gave up something equivalent in exchange for her salvation.

An eye for an eye. A soul for a soul. So this presents Oscar with a predicament where in order to save Ruby, he had to sacrifice himself in the process. There was no other way. Ruby will be allowed to return to the Realm of the Living to reunite with their friends waiting for her but this also meant that Oscar would be forced to part ways with everything he and everyone he had grown to love.

This included Ruby despite defying the odds just to find her. He wouldn't even be able to be with Ruby as they once were. Not as teammates. Not as friends or anything more. His life would be gone…and Darkness informs the young boy of all of this; expecting him to fold.

But despite the God's warnings, Oscar agrees to the terms. Without question. Out of his devotion to his rose, the little prince was willing to make this great sacrifice for her. And even when questioned by Darkness of why Oscar would dare to commit himself to such a foolish feat especially for a single girl when there were probably a thousand more exactly like her back on Remnant, it is here where we can get the Fox’s lesson to the Prince, in Oscar’s own words.

Yes Ruby was no different from any other rose. Just as Oz once told him, Ruby had her faults and her quirks just like any other person. She’s remarkable yes. Strong. Brave and Kind. But she’s not perfect. Oscar had experienced the consequences of her flaws and learnt that lesson for himself.

But this wasn’t what truly mattered. What made Ruby important to Oscar was that…she was his. His teammate. His friend. His rose. The girl he…loves. The love and respect that Oscar had for this one girl due to the bond they shared together was enough to make Ruby more special to Oscar than any other girl in Remnant.

His love for her was what made her unique to him. A proclamation which genuinely stunned Darkness as he recounted a time when another poor unfortunate soul, blinded by love just as Oscar was now, came before him for the same reasons as Oscar was doing for Ruby.

Only this other helpless soul didn't make the same bold choice as Oscar did. Unlike Oscar, this soul didn’t understand the value of the life they claimed to love. Essentially a comparison between Salem and Oscar. 

So for the meat and potatoes of this post, Oscar sacrifices his soul to restore Ruby to the Land of Living, bolding choosing to take her place in the Afterlife. As Ruby's soul returns home safe, Oscar's descends slowly into the Void of Death.

But despite this, the little prince bears no remorse. No regrets. He wears nothing but a smile on his fate; perfectly content with his sacrifice as he reached a hand to the light to bid one last tearful goodbye to his rose.

His one true love as he slowly closed his eyes and awaited death's embrace.

And…that’s it. That’s the idea. Obviously me being me, there is definitely more to this concept that I had in mind however this post is already getting a bit too lengthy so I’ll just stop right here. (If anyone is curious about the rest of this headcanon, feel free to ask me in my inbox if you’d like).

But for now, yeah, this is the idea I had. Now as I said, this is only a thought. A mere musing. As I’ll repeat again, I don’t actually expect the show to really kill off Ruby for V8. In another different story, this could’ve happened but I’m not expecting this at all from RWBY even it would’ve made for a very interesting twist.

Regardless, I do still love the concept of Oscar Pine---as our titular little prince, declaring his love for his rose by giving his life to bring her back from the dead should she perish in battle. It feels like such a poetic thing to do. But like I said. It’s just another idea I wanted to toss out to the Rosegardening Pinehead and Rosegarden community.

Take it as you will and maybe you all might like it. Who knows? X3

~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)

[littlemisssquiggles]

…So…about Salem in this week’s episode…

I noticed something that I found peculiar yet interesting to note in today’s new episode---RWBY V8CH9.

[SPOILERS AHEAD. NUFF SAID]

 When the JOYR were battling her, Salem seemed to morph and constrict her body similar to how the Grimm move.

This is because Salem’s body seemed to be made of ooze---the same ooze from the God of Darkness’ Grimm Pool of Darkness. 

However this detail, while cool is strange to me since…during the Lost Fable episode, when Ozma killed her the first time…her body glowed gold as a result of her being dipped previously in the God of Light’s Fountain of Life.

And this glow was AFTER Salem dove into the Grimm Pool for the first time since she reunited with Ozma and had a life with him after he was reborn the first time and after she was corrupted by the Grimm Pool. 

Does this mean that Salem is becoming more and more like a Grimm with each time she dies and reincarnates, losing more and more of her own humanity with each rebirth?

Since I found it very interesting how before she glowed gold when she revived herself to signify her being brought back as a result of the God of Light’s power. 

However now she’s all ooze. She’s all Grimm now. Her humanity seems  to be gone completely now and she seems to just be a walking Grimm in human form rather than the woman made immortal she used to be?

Either that’s the impression the CRWBY were going for or…the Salem we’ve been fighting for this whole season isn’t the REAL Salem and is actually a very good Grimm doppelganger that she deployed to destroy Atlas while the real one is still back in the Dark Domain or...is probably on her way to Vacuo with Tyrian and Merc?

Wait a second...I remember Mercury Black carrying a duffle bag when he left with Tyrian. Last season, Watts was shown carrying a bag that ultimately had a Seer Grimm that projected Salem’s form to our heroes in V7CH12.

If Salem is able to make ethereal copies of herself to project through her Grimm creations then...what’s stopping her from making physical copies of herself made entirely of Grimm ooze much like her Grimm creations to deploy to claim the relics and destroy Remnant on her behalf?

For all we know, the Salem in Atlas could very well be a Grimm clone of the real Salem while the real one is back in her domain watching all of this happen while another is on its way to Vacuo with Tyrian and Merc. Y’know never know.

But as always these are all just hunches based on this small observation I made. Not sure if it’s the case but still worth mentioning in my opinion. Just wanted to throw this one out.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2021)

[littlemisssquiggles]

…So…about  Cinder Fall…

I really don’t like Salem at all right now given how she treated my poor little prince last episode, however if there is one thing I have to appreciate about her for this season is her mother-daughter relationship dynamic with Cinder Fall. 

In respect to her young apprentice, Salem is treating Cinder no differently than a strict parent who had just grounded their disobedient child for their insolent behaviour. Just as much as Cinder is behaving like the overbearing hot-headed spoiled child of that parent who won’t learn their lesson no matter how many times said parent has warned or tried to discipline them.

It really wouldn’t surprise me too much if Salem genuinely does see Cinder (and in her twisted own way, love) as like a daughter to her. The daughter she never got to raise. 

She’s strict with her yes and will raise her voice at her firmly when she acts defiant but...unlike other pawns, Salem has never laid a finger on Cinder.

Even when she’s probably well aware of the girl’s capabilities and tendencies, Salem seems perfectly compliant with Cinder...that’s interesting to observe from a story and character building perspective.

Salem was a mother once upon a time and it is safe to say that she did love her daughters back then---despite what happened to them in the end (probably blamed Ozma for that instead of herself as always even though she attacked first despite Ozma pleading with her to not fight especially infront of the children).

God I love the Lost Fable episode. Anyways, let’s discuss Cinder now. 

I’m not really one to root for the villains however…you would think that Cinder would’ve learnt a thing or two about patience herself given her previous separation from Salem. As a matter of fact, you would think she would learn at all. Seriously, what happened to Cinder?

Was all that cunning and tactful calmness she used to exert from previous seasons a mere by-product of her simply following Salem’s orders because her sudden shift in behaviour now feels almost uncharacteristic for her when compared to how she was in the past. She really is behaving like a petulant child. She gets want one little spoonful of power thanks to mommy’s help and now she thinks she knows better than mommy?

Again, not trying to knock Cinder but I thought she was supposed to be cunning. Salem told you to stay put and NOT interfere with her schemes until you are told. She literally told you this like twice, sis and instead of y’know…not daring to cross your mentor again even after she almost sicked Grimmy- Doo on you for daring to talk back to her, what’s the first thing you do afterwards?

You go off on your own to leave the whale after Mommy Dearest told you not to? What?

Cinder…you literally have not one but TWO loyal pawns that you can easily deploy to do your bidding. Emerald straight up offered her assistance to you. How foolish is Cinder acting right now?

You want to go after the Winter Maiden powers yourself despite Salem forbidding you from doing so? Fine. But at least have the clever tactics to send your minions to do so while you yourself remain at home like a good little girl careful not to upset mommy again but still doing whatever you want under mommy’s nose (or so you’re being led to believe because there is no way in shit Salem isn’t already onto Cinder…unless y’know PLOT).

I hope this is what happens next episode.  That Cinder simply sent Emerald and Neo to Amity while she remained back at the whale and guided them from afar. I doubt the showrunners would actually have Cinder go off on her own like that when it is that EXACT behaviour that got her in trouble in the first place with Salem. 

It’s like…they’re intentionally making her act insubordinate for the sake of the narrative as an OBVIOUS very ON THE NOSE SETUP for something later in the story. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind a rebellious Cinder Fall daring to defy Salem since it could ultimately lead into her potentially overthrowing her at some point and becoming the Red Queen alternate to her Black Queen. 

But…not like this. Not in such a tactless way that it feels uncharacteristic even for the character in question.

While I understand that Cinder is power-hungry but is the Grimm attached to her arm making her lose brain cells and all sense of well…common sense?

Don’t leave the whale Cinder. Stay behind and let Pistachio Ice-cream handle the job for you. That’s what the “real” Cinder Fall would do. Then again, the real Cinder or at least the old one from the Beacon Trilogy would actually listen to Salem and not act so defiant.

Hopefully this is the case in the next episode otherwise…

Salem, watch ya kid or knowing you, you probably are through one of your of many Grimm including Monstra since it has been shown that Salem can see and communicate through her Grimm creations. Seriously, if Salem can manifest a cloud from inside of Monstra that can show her Atlas Kingdom then how much you wanna bet she already saw and overheard Cinder’s conversation with Pistachio Ice-cream from within Monstra? She probably has eyes all over the whale.

Again…Cinder should know her own “mother” or rather “godmother” and what she is capable of achieving. Then again, when it comes to the writing in RWBY, my new rule of thumb is---if a writing decision don’t make sense even in the context of the show and it makes certain characters feel out of character, then it’s probably for the PLOT. 

No shade at the CRWBY Writers. It’s just something I’ve come to observe as a clear pattern with them over the series. 

~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)

[littlemisssquiggles]

now that there are portals to multiple different magical locations, do you think that people are going to be seperated again. Like, we have TEAM RWBY falling into the water and Vering off in multiple directions, there’s also Nora saying that she wants to take some time away from Ren AND the Oscar/Ozpin fable about the girl who fell through the world. It seems that everyone is going to separated and the main storyline of volume 9 will be like volume 6–trying to reunite and get to Vacuo from wherever they are.

Magical…locations? I think you’ve misunderstood anon-chan. Ambrosius’ portals doesn’t go to multiple locations. It is providing our heroes and the refugees of Atlas and Mantle with a one way ticket to Vacuo and Vacuo alone, fam.

  “People enter from Atlas and Mantle on one side and leave on the other side with a one way ticket to Vacuo.”

That’s how Weiss described the portal system in today’s episode. But to answer your question, I’m not sure if the showrunners will have our heroes be divided again considering that we already spent most of this volume with the teams split up. Then again…there is also Ambrosius’ warning to RWBY_P and the fact that our heroes---particularly Team RWBY--- falling into an endless abyss of darkness has been eluded since the opening.

I think it is safe to be said that this volume may end with Team RWBY separated from their friends this time; trapped between the mysterious Other World that isn’t a part of Remnant but is connected to it via the vaults containing the Relics.

This is what I’m assuming will be a part of the storyline for V9---Team RWBY disappearing off the face of Remnant and ending up trapped in a mysterious Other World with no way out and no way of communicating with their friends on the other side who are trying desperately to bring them home while simultaneously dealing with defending humanity against the return of Salem.

That’s how I’m thinking things will play out. As for Nora’s side of the story with her “discovering who she is” and Oscar dealing with his own qualms regarding the Merge, I feel like V9 will finally address this topic for these two characters respectively.

But yeah, if I had to share my prediction for the climax of V8---I think this is how the story will end---Team RWBY failing to join their friends in Vacuo because they end up trapped in the Other World with no real way of returning. At least not until V9.

~ LittleMissSquiggles (2021)

[littlemisssquiggles]

What are your throughts on possibility of Oscar dying?

Hello anon-chan. I'll let George answer this one for me.

“...Nooooooo”

...Cause if Oscar dies, my first immediate question would be to ask why did they even bother creating him in the first place as Ozpin’s successor? It’s the same feeling I have towards Oscar being the one to disappear or “die” with Merge. It just...doesn’t make sense to me when I look at Oscar’s character and involvement in the story as a whole.

I'll only accept the possibility of Oscar dying in the event of the following:

a) It leads into him having his own encounter with one of the Brother Gods---possibly Darkness to mirror Ozma meeting Light during the Lost Fable---leading to Oscar being revived by Darkness.

 b) Oscar experiences his own cycle of reincarnation via a contract with the God of Darkness on completely new and different terms compared to Ozma. Instead of being paired with a likeminded soul---Oscar's soul remains intact while only his form is altered with each rebirth. So essentially the Ozma Cycle ends and is restarted with the soul known as Oscar Pine and him alone as Oscar surrenders his own life to commit to becoming the Gods' new champion for humanity; choosing of his own choice to bare the burden of aiding humanity on his own instead of being forced to drag someone innocent into what is essentially his war against "Salem" (or any other like her who stood in his way of fulfilling his duty to the world).

If Oscar happens to die and one of these ideas isn't done then count this squiggle Pinehead completely out of RWBY.

This is one machination of my favourite character that I will not stand for. I mean the showrunners could do it in the canon if they got the chops just...to quote Youtuber MacDoesIt---sis make it make sense, please.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)

[littlemisssquiggles]

i now a lot off ppl n the fndm dont like rg caz they think there a big difference btween a 15 year old an a 17 year old but i think that ppl overlook that oscar smart 4 his age and i wouldn't be shocked if like ruby he got to skip a few grades but i get the feeling other would still see rg as a problem even if oscar was the same age as ruby or even if it was 2 year age gap and it was just a year or a few months

*insert the world’s longest exasperated groan right here* With all due respect anon-chan but…I really don’t want to get into the whole 2 year age difference with Rosegarden topic again since, pardon my language here, but I am honestly fucking tired of seeing it as a legit popular complaint against the ship.

Mind you, this has nothing to do with you, fam. I’m not lashing out at you personally.

It’s just that regarding the topic at hand, I’m just REALLY, REALLY fed up of seeing this dead horse being beaten repeatedly by all the antis who make it their mission to constantly harp on Rosegarden and its shipping community for it.

Oscar and Ruby are two years apart. If Ruby just turned 17 as of V7 then surely Oscar is on the cusp of turning 15 at some point, probably closer to V9 or so. If we’re looking in terms of grades---well I’m from Trinidad and Tobago and our education system actually reflects more of the British school system where instead of grades with pre-school, elementary school, junior high school, high school and then college/university, what we have is pre-school, primary school, secondary school and then university will be our tertiary form of education, more or less.

At their current ages from the show, if Ruby and Oscar were in my country, they will both be in secondary school. At age 14 going on 15, Oscar will be in Form 3 (and entering the stage where he is supposed to be choosing subjects for CXC exams) whereas Ruby will be in Form 5 (getting ready to take the CXC exams).

Either way, Oscar will be in Form 3 and Ruby will be Form 5. Ruby will be two forms higher than Oscar. That still doesn’t erase the fact that they are still only two years apart. Just 2 and ONLY TWO.

Do you want to know why I absolutely despise the two year age gap argument against Rosegarden anon-chan? 

Because it’s all completely hypocritical. It is hypocritical that certain-certain folks take such strong issue with the 2-year age gap when it comes to the Rosegarden pair but are perfectly fine with it when it comes to the more FNDM-favoured pairs such as Whiterose, Lancaster and Nuts and Dolts. Particularly Whiterose since that is the ship that people seem to THINK Rosegarden is fighting a shipping war against when in actuality, as a Rosegardener, I could care fucking less about entertaining any foolish nonsensical shipping war with anyone. 

Again, pardon my use of profanity here. That’s just to express how much I am done with this shit and hearing about it when it comes to my favourite RWBY ship.

While Ruby may be two years older than Oscar, she is also two years younger than Weiss, Jaune and Penny. It’s the same age difference no matter how you spin it. Yet it’s a case where the age gap is only problematic for one ship while being fine for another and that’s the contradiction that irks me.  

And y’know what else? You’re actually right about your last statement. The problem that certain-certain folks have with RG ISN’T even about the age difference. It isn’t the real issue and don’t think for one millisecond that it is. Because regardless of whether or not, Oscar was only one year younger than Ruby or one year older than Ruby or even the same age as Ruby---it wouldn’t really matter to certain-certain folks since the issue isn’t really about the age of the characters.

The REAL issue is that certain-certain folks just don’t want Ruby to end up with OSCAR. These people ship Ruby with someone else particularly a certain-certain snow angel, who according to them, has known Ruby longer than Oscar and therefore is entitled to end up with Ruby over him.

Yes, I shit you not, that is an actual claim that I’ve heard against Rosegarden in favour of another certain-certain ship…despite the show never really portraying that particular relationship to be romantic of any kind.

Bottom-line, certain-certain folks feel threatened by the RG ship since the showrunners seem to kinda, sorta, maybe, most likely want to develop the relationship between Ruby and Oscar beyond a friendship or at least they wish to hone in on pushing Ruby’s connection to this our little freckled farm boy to be a lot deeper than the relationship she has with other character and to those certain-certain folks, that’s a problem for them because in their heads, they want the showrunners to only focus on Ruby hooking up with their favoured partner for her…regardless of the series never really portraying that relationship they like to be romantic of any kind.

And THAT is the TRUE conundering conundrum we are in as Rosegardeners. Dealing with these certain-certain folks and their shit.

I’m sorry anon-chan but for future reference (and that goes for anyone else who might be reading this response post) do you mind not bringing up the so-called age gap issue with Rosegarden to me please ^^);

I’m fine with other topics just not this one since I’ve had enough. In the past, I’ve answered similar questions and inbox messages on this same topic and I’ve honestly reached a point where I no longer wish to discuss it at all on my blog.

It’s nothing against you or anyone else who may still wish to talk about this subject. This squiggle meister and squiggly Rosegardening Pinehead just doesn’t want to anymore since…how many times as a Rosegardener do I have to repeat the same information and set the record straight for the same none-troversey as Red Letter Media would put it.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Rosegarden pair and wanting to  see them be endgame as an adorkable young couple. Certainly not because of their age difference. 

Because if Ruby and Oscar can’t be an “alleged” couple because they are two years apart then neither can Ruby get together with Weiss, Jaune or Penny since the gap is the same.

I don’t even want to hear anyone dare mention the Ozpin issue since that’s been debunked too in the show in the Lost Fable episode from V6. So really there are no real arguments that anyone can make against RG that hasn’t already been debunked by a) the fans who pay more attention to the development of the pair in the story than the antis, b) the showrunners and/or c) the actual story in the series. 

So the people who keep making a hullabaloo about it---making the same ole noise over the same ole things honestly need to stop. They are embarrassing themselves at this point and it sickens me to see their half-hearted arguments and claims against RG pop up on the tags on social media when I’m trying to enjoy my ship.

Or rather, I’d just need to stop listening to anything the antis say which I have. Or at least I’m trying to. This round for V8, I don’t know about other Rosegardeners, but I want to avoid the discourse like Neo in the Matrix.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)

[littlemisssquiggles]

Idea time! Oscar is kidnapped and the group go to rescue him... only to find Salem controlling him with a grimm that amplifies his negative emotions. They try to reach out to him but he throws everything back in their face. "Please, Oscar, fight! We care about you!" "... since when? If I never had Ozpin in my head, would you have paid a moment's notice to me?" "We want to help you!" "Like you helped me after the train? At Argus? At Atlas? I can do without that kind of help."

Ruby takes it the worst and brainwashed!Oscar completely destroys her with a Reason You Such Speech, outlining every single one of her flaws and failures, and it's only more potent because Oscar sees right through her so well already.

-----------------------------

Squiggles Answers: 

Hiya Miki-chan o/ Hmmmmmmm….intriguing. I quite dig this idea. As a matter of fact, mind if this squiggle meister adds to it?

Have you heard of the Tales of Arcadia Trilogy or at least Trollhunters? 

Without spoiling much from the series, just in case you haven’t seen it, let’s just say that at some point during the story, an ancient evil returns. Much like Salem, this ancient evil is an evil sorceress who later in the series possesses one of our main heroes and uses them as a vessel; silently infiltrating the hero group to thwart their plans to conquer the forces of evil.

Since you brought up brainwashed Oscar, imagine if…unbeknownst to our heroes, Oscar gets baptised in the Grimm Pools of Darkness during his imprisonment; corrupting the poor little prince and turning him into the perfect pawn for Salem to rule Remnant beside her much like she had envisioned to do with Ozma long ago.

But here’s the real zinger twist with this concept---as I mentioned, our heroes---lead by Ruby Rose--- are blissfully unaware of Oscar’s corruption and rescue him from Salem, confidently believing that they were successful in rescuing their friend. Only to discover later down the line that Oscar had actually been turned by Salem and had been acting out her diabolical schemes; infiltrating the heroes under the guise of their comrade all the while Salem manipulated his actions from the comforts of her tower, like a puppet on a string.

Basically, it’s a scenario where a corrupted Oscar unwillingly (since he was being controlled) betrays his friends to work with Salem and let’s say…in the midst of all this, Oscar aids Salem in staying one step ahead of our heroes’ actions since she basically used Oscar’s body as her eyes and ears within the team to spy on them and even sabotage some of their plans?

And thus, this all culminates in that very scene you described---where our heroes, particularly Ruby go to confront Salem and rescue Oscar for a second time only this time, Salem pits Oscar against Ruby and the two smaller, more honest souls are forced to fight one another similar to Ozma and Salem’s duel in the Lost Fable.

And to add onto your idea of Oscar chastising Ruby, let’s say…for their dual, Oscar pretends to be himself to lure a naïve Ruby Rose; desperate to save her friend, into a fortress that is actually a new-type of Grimm that forces a person’s fears and insecurities to manifest before them. I hereby dub this Grimm---the Baobab (for obvious reason).

So while Oscar and Ruby are fighting, Oscar uses the Baobab’s power to emotionally and psychologically torture Ruby? So as Corrupted Oscar yells every failure Ruby has ever made in her face, including failing to save him, the Grimm basically repeats Oscar’s words to Ruby forcing to echo all around her and practically down the girl in the burden of her own mistakes. 

And to add an extra kick to Ruby’s chest, let’s say the Baobab also showed Ruby visions of what really happened to Oscar while he was imprisoned---how he was tortured by Salem, broken and beaten into nothing, all the while screaming for her to come save him from his pain only for her to never come when he needed her---thus further tormenting Ruby with the guilt of what her friend had to go through while her and the others fought amongst themselves before coming to cohesive plan of action to help him.

Heck! Why not stop there? Imagine if…the Baobab Grimm shows Ruby all the times when Oscar had been hurt either in her presence or as a result of her and the other’s actions while Ruby was either never around or practically stood there and, in from Corrupted Oscar’s pointed of view, allowed it to happen?

Like when Qrow punched Oz into a tree and Ruby did nothing to stop her uncle from hurting him. Or when Qrow basically told Oscar that he wasn’t his own person, all the while Ruby just stood there and said nothing else to comfort him. Or how Ruby and the others practically abandoned Oscar all alone and never checked in on him while on Brunswick Farm after Oz had left. Everyone was there for each other, but not him. The same thing also happened in Argus.

Even after Jaune hurt Oscar right in front of their faces, no one cared to see if he was alright afterwards. No one care. The only time they cared about him was when he disappeared. So, in Corrupted Oscar’s, him going away for good is the only way the others, including Ruby, will actually give a damn about him. You get the gist, right?

What do you think of that? 

I know it deviates a little from your idea but I definitely do like your idea of a Corrupted Oscar turned into a pawn and vessel for Salem. It basically mimics our  Black Rose Ruby Little Red headcanon only the corrupted is Oscar.

For the longest time, the series has omitted showing how Oscar truly felt about all that has happened to him. The show always portrayed him as being perfectly complacent even in the face of what is basically abuse by his so-called peers. 

I love Oscar. I mean I really REALLY do since he’s my favourite character but as sad as it is for to admit as a Pinehead, Oscar is unfortunately the RWBY equivalent of a human pin cushion. No matter how many times he is pricked by the PLOT, his reaction in the aftermath is always neglecting of  his own emotional pain to an annoying degree.

I get that Oscar seems to be the selfless type who places others over himself which is very noble for kid of his age and upbringing (and part of the reason why I like his character so much) and gives the little prince something in common with his rose Ruby...but...in all seriousness...

How much more does this poor boy have to go through before the PLOT can let him be an actual human being with feelings who shouldn’t have to be okay with everything?

This is yet another instance where Oscar’s character is reminding me of Steven Universe. Steven went through so much during his own story so I personally liked how Steven Universe: Future tackled how much Steven had been suppressing over the years in terms of his own trauma and emotional fears; culminating in what happened to him in the finale.

I’m not saying I want Oscar to turn into a giant monster needing all of his friends to finally come together for him in order to help him after all the times he’s helped them…I don’t need RWBY to go to that extent (since I highly doubt it’ll happen canonically given the awkward way the show does handle its characters; particularly Oscar).

…Hoooooooooweverrrrr….I will say it would be nice if we did have a confrontation where Ruby and our heroes are forced to finally see the extent of their past actions, poor decisions and downright mistakes through their treatment of Oscar since…in an odd way, he is a casualty of it.

Oscar Pine is, in an odd sense for me to say, a victim of our hero’s mistakes---first Ozpin’s (by extension of Ozma) and now JNR_RWBY’s.

But then again, this is just my views on it. I hope this answers you Miki-chan. If you can, let me know your thoughts on my thoughts here.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)

[littlemisssquiggles]

Okay. Since that Bloodhound looking Grimm is set to take Oscar, all I'm hoping for is to see him at least try and fight it off himself. The kid was shot by Ironwood already. Plus, he's finally able to tap into Oz's magic powers. Having him get kidnapped a volume after that just seems too soon and far fetched to me. But that's just me.

No I understand where you’re coming from Black and it’s perfectly fine. I’m not sure if you read my response post to @piningforoscar but I pretty much had the same thought. For me, I’m hoping that what we saw in the trailer was actually Salem’s first attempt at capturing Oscar that ends up failing her since a) Yang, Ren and Jaune were in pursuit of the Bloodhound that captured Oscar and b) given the ending of V7, I feel as if Oscar could easily escape the Bloodhound on his own especially if Oz hits him with another memory surge.

Last season, we witnessed Oscar awaken the Lost Memory and his magical abilities to save himself (and Oz) from his plummet toward Mantle. We also saw that Oscar is able to project his magic from his body without the need for the cane as he used it to create a magical bubble shield that softened his landing.

If Oscar is able to project magic from his body like an energy wave then it wouldn’t surprise me if he uses this kind of strategy to escape the Bloodhound---producing just enough magic to startle the Bloodhound enough for it to let him go and allow him to fall to the ground below where all he’ll have to do is manifest the bubble shield to help him land.

A part of me would really love to see Oscar in his first one on one fight against a massive Grimm; one where he wouldn’t need to rely on Ruby to rescue or shield him this time since he’ll be able to take it down on his own thanks to Oz guiding him with Ozma’s memories.

I’d actually love to see Oscar defeat the Bloodhound just in time for Yang, Ren and Jaune to arrive and take him back home. However at this point, Oscar has already been marked as a target for Salem which means she will likely come for him again during the season.

For me personally, I want V8 to end on Salem overpowering our heroes despite their combined forces and efforts, claiming the Relic of Creation for herself and thus forcing Oscar to surrender himself over to Salem as a means of negotiating with the wicked witch to spare the lives of his friends.

What would actually be really, really good is if V8 does a neat nod to the RWBY Fairy Tales of Remnant book with Oscar. I’m not sure if you’ve read the book as yet Black but…there is one particular fable in that book titled “Infinite Man”.

I don’t want to spoil the story in case you haven’t read it as yet but…something happens in that story that makes me think it would be an excellent parallel to happen with Oscar. I really would like to see Oscar try to negotiate with with Salem to spare his friends’ lives if he gave himself up, much like the Infinite Man.

I really think it would be a noble thing for Oscar to do---to show how much his friends and teammates mean to him in spite of all that he’s been through with them.

I know you think Oscar being napped might be too premature, but in all honestly Black, the series hasn’t really done much with Oscar, at least in my opinion. Or rather, it’s a weird case where they present really great opportunities where Oscar’s character could be developed further only for them to either squander it off on an unrelated character or not do it at all despite setting it up.

Tilt his day; it still bothers me how V8 will open with Oscar finding the group despite how V7 ended. But for me, the Writers can make up for the missed chance to have Oscar go on a journey with Oz by having him become Salem’s captive.

Having Salem imprison Oscar and essentially Oz in the same manner her father once imprisoned her lifetimes ago is a wonderful parallel. To have Salem being the one to imprison the very incarnation of the man who once saved her---to turn the prisoner into the very person she once dared to escape---not only will this provide great development for Oscar in the realm of him potentially connecting with Oz while in captivity and isolation; but it’s also an intriguing way to connect to Salem and shed more light on her and her former relationship with Ozma.

I mean…I’m not saying this will be the case for the canon; I’m more saying it as my rationale for why I’m onboard with Oscar being kidnapped by Salem. This is a Pinehead headcanon  that this squiggle meister has been advocating for since V5 and it’d be interesting to see how the showrunners handle this thing for Oscar.

I’m curious to see how they’ll do it…..unless it turns out to be yet another Oscar development cop-out for the sake of advancing the PLOT. I really hope it isn’t. I’m honestly tired of those.

But…who knows? I guess we’ll see for V8. For now, that’s how I’m looking at it, fam.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)

[littlemisssquiggles]

✨Sorry if you've been asked this or have talked about this be for, but when it comes to oscar using magic I know he doesn't have a lot of it but i like to see him do magic outside of the elements,like crushing grim,teleporting,flying,turning things to stone or crystal,reading people's minds,blocking people from using aura,and making light magic,or maybe enchantment magic to

Hmm…to be honest with you anon-chan, I’m not quite sure of what exactly the limitations of the magic system within the RWBY universe is since my understanding of it is that it seems to comprise of a combination of the elements of nature and the powers of creation and destruction. That’s as much of what I noted from the Lost Fable episode.

That being said, I don’t know if Oscar will be able to achieve most of what you’d like to see accomplished from his use of his magical abilities. However speaking for myself, I’d like to at least see Oscar achieve the feats related to magic that have already been demonstrated in the show by previous magic users such as Salem, the other Wizards in Ozma’s lineage and also the Maidens of Magic.

Considering that the maidens all possess the capability of flight and control of the elements without the use of dust, I’m expecting Oscar to do the same or something similar with the bit of magic he gained from Ozpin. While I’m uncertain of him reading minds with his magic (since that trick hasn’t been shown in the canon), I do expect Oscar to be able to protect himself and others via the use of a magical barrier conjured by the Long Memory as evidenced by Ozpin back during his duel with Cinder.

Not to mention that there’s still the part of me that wants to see Oscar use his magic to create his own magical creations. While I’m not saying we should be seeing Oscar forge his own Grimm species using the Grimm Pools of Darkness like what we’ve seen from Salem---what I’m mainly saying is that I’d least like to see Oscar create something similar to the Grimm but instead of being creations of darkness that spread nothing but fear, Oscar’s creations would be the living embodiment of dreams to spread light and hope to the world.

This is mainly referring to my Oscar’s Creatures of Luxx Pinehead headcanon which I still really like. Not saying this kind of concept will appear in the canon. I’m mostly saying it’s an idea that I made before that I still love like till now.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)

[littlemisssquiggles]

Do you think ,oscar wilde ok fine nal get an episode to him self in v8 caz I love to see him m out for ng something by him self in maybe episode 1 or 2 than meet back up with the other ,we never get to see Oscar do anything it's really starting to up set me

“…Do you think Oscar Pine will finally get an episode to himself for V8?”

 …Uhmm…well given the sneak peek footage that was shown prior to the trailer and given the fact that we know that Oscar will meet up with Ren, Yang and Jaune down in Mantle, my assumption is we probably might only see Oscar on his own briefly during the start of the first episode before he reunites with his peers. That’s my best guess here.

“…We never get to see Oscar do anything. It’s really starting to upset me…”

…Well……I can’t really say that Oscar doesn’t get to do much, anon-chan.  

Personally I was hoping that us Pineheads would’ve gotten to see Oscar go on his own journey back to Atlas, during which he and Oz reconcile and learn to live in harmony with one another before reuniting with the others. Unfortunately, the CRWBY Writers felt it best to have Oscar reunite the others immediately despite where last volume left him off out in far Mantle without the slightest clue where he was or where the others will be for that matter.

…Look, I’m going to be frank with you here anon-chan. This squiggle meister can’t really speak for the CRWBY Writers and their writing decisions regarding particular characters. I don’t wish to knock you for your own issues with the show in respect to Oscar’s treatment. I don’t want to sound like one of those RWBY fans who like to kiss up to the CRWBY Writers and think that everything they do is absolutely perfect while ignoring the legit glaring issues with the writing of the show and roping anyone who says anything negative about the series in with the HTDM; even if it’s constructive.

Despite having my own grievances with the writing of RWBY, I will give the writers credit where it’s due. While I haven’t enjoyed everything they’ve done with Oscar over the course of the show, I will admit that they have done things with him. Some actually really good. Like for example, I still hold the Dojo scene from V5 as one of my favourite Oscar-worthy moments since, apart from helping Ruby to confess her true feelings regarding her repressed pains from the Fall of Beacon, that scene also did a lot to reveal more about Oscar as a person, at least for me.

Like I said, Oscar does get to do some things but… only things that I realized either services the PLOT and/or the development of other characters while his own growth is quite sparing ^^);

Needless to say, all I can do as fan of Oscar Pine is hope that the story uses him less as a plot device and do more to develop him as a character; particularly his supposed shared story with Oz.

Oscar represents one half of the Man with Two Souls archetype. Based on what we learnt in the Lost Fable, part of Oscar’s development is supposed to be him learning to coexist with Oz as a part of him since it will help in the ole soul’s transition to merging with Oscar completely in the end.

However, the show hasn’t done much to really develop Oscar and Oz’s relationship with each other. As a matter of fact, Oz was absent for nearly two whole volumes, during which we barely heard Oscar even mention Oz unless encouraged by another character who was closest to Oz before; like Ironwood.

I was honestly hoping that V8 would’ve involved Oscar bonding with Oz during their separation from the team. It really would’ve been the best time for the two souls to truly connect with one another while allowing the audience to see the development of this relationship. I don’t know how much of Oscar reconciling with Oz we’ll get to see next season if he re-joins the group so soon. However, I’m willing to give the Writers a shot at seeing what they actually do with Oscar for next season before giving my opinions on his development.

One thing I’m actually hoping for is that Salem will be successful in taking Oscar prisoner leading to the poor little prince being locked away inside his own lonely tower similar to how Salem was in First Remnant. I really like this concept since, as I said, the solitude would definitely provide a great avenue to bond Oscar to Oz as all they would have is each other while in captivity.

Seeing that the V8 Trailer teased Oscar becoming a target for Salem, I want Salem to succeed and for V8 to conclude with Oscar becoming Salem’s prisoner while our heroes are left to lick their wounds from a humiliating defeat that costed them the life of one of their comrades.

In the Wizard of Oz story, Dorothy Gale was captured and taken to the Wicked Witch’s Castle by her flying monkeys. During her imprisonment, Dorothy Gale was made into an unwilling slave to the Wicked Witch of the West while she plotted to steal her ruby/silver slippers.

Since it has been said before that Oscar bares inspiration from Dorothy Gale of Oz as well as Princess Ozma (who also had a book where she was captured leading to Dorothy leading the charge to rescue her), I’m hoping this is paralleled in RWBY. As strange as this may sound, this squiggle meister WANTS Oscar to become Salem’s prisoner. I WANT our heroes to lose Oscar to Salem. Perhaps then Oscar will finally get to grow from his experience as Salem’s slave. 

This is yet another opportunity for the CRWBY Writers to develop Oscar; both as his own character and as the successor to Ozpin in the Ozma Lineage. Whether or not they will actually do it this time, I don’t know. Not going to lie to you anon-chan. As a fellow Pinehead, I’m also getting fed up of the Writers setting up chances for Oscar to receive great character development only to do absolutely nothing with it.

V8 will mark the fifth season where Oscar has been in the series as part of the main cast. And it honestly hurts my heart as a fan of his character when other RWBY fans still comment that Oscar isn’t really a character after all these seasons based on how the showrunners continue to treat him and his writing.

What’s even sadder is that Oscar isn’t even the only RWBY character who suffers from their writing! I would go as far as to say that our four main girls---Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang also suffered their own fair share of shortcomings when it came down to how the CRWBY Writers progressed their respective storylines and developments. Yet they’re still considered to be ‘characters’ compared to Oscar.

Basically what I’m trying to say here bottom-line anon-chan is that I feel your pain on wanting the show to do more for Oscar. But as of now, we can’t really know what’s in store for sure. All we can do is wait and hope that the show does better for our boy. While I doubt Oscar will get his own focus episode (since the showrunners don’t really like to give those out), what we can at least hope for is that Oscar has more great Oscar-worthy moments next season.

Since Ozpin is back and there is still tension between him and the group, I’m hoping this will be Oscar’s chance to step up and be the mediator within his team. I want to see Oscar mend the broken bonds within the heroes. Since he showed a willingness to do so last season I hope to see more of that next season; hopefully.

I’m also hoping that since the show highlighted Oscar using magic at the end of V7, this means we’ll FINALLY get to see Oscar in a real fight where he gets to showcase everything he’s learnt over the seasons in respect to combat. He might even get his own battle team finally.

A part of me is eager to see if that scene where Oscar is taken by a Grimm leads into him making a daring escape and then defeating the Grimm on his own with his newly awakened powers.

That’s what I want to see. But who knows? We’ll see how things go when V8 drops next month.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)

[littlemisssquiggles]

Now that Oscar is officially Kidnapped by Salem, I cant wait for the inevitable conversation both Oscar, Ozpin and Salem are going to have regarding what actually happened during the lost fable and what had happened to their daughters during their "divorce" (aka their castle fight) Like the thought of Salem angerly lashing out and tormenting Oscar just to get through to Ozpin is *chefs kiss* so good. Thoughts?

Hiya Sparrow o/ …Ehhhh I wouldn’t get your hopes up on that fam. We’re only on the second episode and I personally think it’s too early in the PLOT for our heroes to lose Oscar. I’d like to think what we’re more likely to see is George the Hound being defeated by Oscar leading to YJR possibly learning that Ozpin is back after witnessing Oscar in action.

Speaking for myself mainly here, I’d like to see George defeated by Oscar and forced to retreat leading to an inevitable rematch and second attempt for the midseason finale---RWBY V8CH7---so that our heroes will have another main motive for taking the battle to Salem up in Monstra after one of their own is taken from them (yet again but by the villains this time though).

I like this concept since back in V6, we saw Salem creating her army of Winged Beringels yet those fearsome flying monkeys haven’t appeared as yet. That being said, why I want George to lose is so that he can return later in the PLOT leading a full on army of Winged Beringels that just end up completely overpowering our heroes---maybe even leading to a forced surrender from Oscar as a means of protecting everyone. That’s what I’m hoping to see…maybe.

As for Salem talking to Oz through Oscar…even tormenting the poor child just to get to Oz…I dunno how I feel about that to be honest. Technically Oscar will be the first life that Salem has encountered her “beloved Ozma” since the Lost Fable. While I doubt she harbours any grievances towards the ole soul in the form of blaming him for their children’s death, for the most part I just know that Salem wants Ozma and his predecessors dead since they’ve been a thorn in her side for centuries.

So if Salem has to torture Oscar, it’ll be for that. However…I don’t think Salem will kill or even harm Oscar just yet (at least not physically anyways) since she basically outright stated that she needed him in order to use the Lamp of Knowledge. So Salem will probably keep Oscar alive until she can get whatever information she needed out of him---whether he does it willingly or by force.

Like I said, she may not torture Oscar physically but…she may do it mentally as hinted in the opening. I also like the concept of Salem using someone that Oscar deeply cares about as a means of getting him to sway to her will. Like I’ve always dug the idea of Salem using Ruby to get to Oscar after realizing just how much this Silver Eyed rose means to the little prince.

Not quite sure if this will happen in the canon. But I think it’d be cool to see. Then again this is probably the starved Rosegardener in me speaking here XD

~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)