#rwby meta stuff mine

[invested-in-your-future]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[lara-prisma-avm-ask-blog]

Well if you want to gain followers, give them a reason to follow you. Its that simple. No one will follow you because you are complaining that you dont many followers.

right now all you do is complaining and give bad vibes in general. All you will gain is probably petty followers at best and most likely from your closest friends only.

also your blogs are confusing. this is supposed to be an ava/avm ask blog but you also talk about other fandoms as well as if it was your main blog. if i was an ava fan, i wouldn't follow you.

and you seem to do the same thing with your henry blog. i dont understand how your organisation work at all.

like it is often said, those are your blogs, you do whatever you want with them. but dont be surprised if they dont attract as many people as you wish they do.

personal blogs like your prisma project are even harder to get followers because no one will follow you just because you have pretty OCs or decent concept for ideas. everyone have those. Only your friends and closest mutual will follow you for your personal project. thats how it works.

you want more followers? then go make more actual arts and complain less.

good luck.

ok, thanks for the constructive criticism.

It's just that my other blog is more focused on a variety of topics, but I don't talk about them much due to lack of ideas of what to talk about T-T

But I already have plans of what to do! I want to talk about games like fnaf, undertale, hollow knight, danganronpa, phoenix wright , etc. Shows like the owl house, arcane, tales of arcadia, ninjago, Monkie kid, rwby, Miraculos, winxs club, Meta Runner, Murder Drones, etc. And several projects like one of magical girls, learning to make my own games, fanfics, comics, who knows even animations! I just want to be able to expand my horizons of what I can do! And this other blog of mine, Projeto Prisma is the beginning!

I don't like to complain, I know it's really annoying. I just feel frustrated ;-;

I'll try to stop anyway, I just want to say that I have a lot of plans ahead!

Once again, i really appreciate everyone's support for what i do, i love you guys and i really want to show you what i want to do for the future of my blogs! I still have a ways to go, so wish me luck. the images above are related to future projects that try to which will be more elaborate on my other blog, Comic projects, AU's, and other stuff. I appreciate your feedback on everything I've ever done, and thanks for your critique anon.

[multi-muse-transect]

RWBY/Justice League Rewrite.

So basically I imagined an AU years ago where the RWBY characters are reimagined as DC characters. So here’s sort of a rewrite of mine, the RWBY/Justice League movie is an anthology series that focuses on RWBY characters as DC superheroes with them building up to teaming up with their canon counterparts. 

Woman Of Steel: Focuses on Yang/Superwoman and establishes that the world is recovering from an event called the Apokolips War where every hero perished as it gives rise to violent anti-heroes that cause collateral damage. Mild reporter Yang Xiao Long aka Nyssa-El is sent cover the opening of a new shelter for metahumans by Lex-Corp-Remnant’s new CEO Salem. A meta human hate group attacks the place coupled with an anti-heroic Livewire fight as Yang intervenes as Superwoman and stops the two (her outfit resembles Sasha Calle Supergirl but with red boots). Basically the usual Superman stuff and feels light hearted.

Rose Speedster: Ruby Rose is a normal cosplayer on social media and systems engineer of STAR Labs but also the new Flash. She is given an objective to deliver a package which contains a new organ for the Princess Of Markovia who has days to live which she tries to but fights Count Vertigo. A mix between serious and funny.

Beware The Knight: Blake Belladonna is a heiress to the Belladonna-Wayne Enterprises but at night-she’s the Batwoman-a seemingly mythical being in Gotham’s urban legend. Batwoman intercepts a package shipment heading to one Roman Torchwick aka Black Mask and another package to Neopolitan aka The Penguin. Goes more on the line of horror and thriller as it centers on how the people of Gotham view Blake as to them-a monster.

Sorceress Of Atlantis: Weiss Schnee is an underwater researcher and also the protege of King Arthur Curry and Mera who is skilled with magic as she takes on a gang of pirates that raid an oil rig. 

[sillytorch]

To be honest, I think Cinder isn’t going to last as long as we think she is. As in, I DON’T think she’s as endgame material as we think she is.

But she’s one of the primary antagonists of the show!

Yes, but Salem is taking the reigns right now. You’ve seen her getting her Beringel army ready by the V6 stinger. And Hazel said so himself, “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” Yes she has Watts and Tyrian going to Atlas too but now we’re actually going to be seeing Salem in action.

But Cinder has Neo as her partner.

It’s heavily implied that even after their truce, Neo is not very fond of Cinder. From the how she rolls her eyes at her to her fake smile right after getting tired from showing her ability to cloak an entire ship with her semblance (she MIGHT even be pulling an act on Cinder). I doubt she’ll be the one to kill Cinder, but I’m sure she’s going to backstab her both figuratively and literally. ALSO, remember Cinder’s words to Neo right before Neo agreed:

“Help me get to Atlas. Help me FIND HER. And the rest... is up to you...”

So she basically told Neo that after they FIND Ruby, Neo can do what she wants.

Other than that... Cinder won’t have anyone else. WT_H is not fond of her, Salem, despite knowing that Cinder’s alive, left her out, and Emerald and Mercury are starting to get doubts. And since Cinder went to find a loophole to get Neo to kill Ruby even though Salem told Cinder NOT to kill Ruby, where and how do you think Salem knows about Cinder’s whereabouts and status? 

Maybe... it might be her GRIMM ARM... And if Salem knows about this team up... she’s NOT going to be happy

So all in all, I don’t know what the writers have in mind for Cinder, but from what I’m seeing so far, things are NOT going to be pretty for her in the Atlas arc.

[itsclydebitches]

How long does it take you to write a rwby meta? I'm thinking of doing a similar thing for miraculous ladybug but I'm not sure I'd have the time. Any tips?

Miraculous Ladybug! I started you and then... lost track of it, as usual lol. I should pick that up again. 

To answer your question though, each kind of meta takes a different length of time. If we’re talking recaps, each generally takes me around eight continuous hours to complete. I watch the episode, take notes as I go, frequently stop for screenshots, write the meta, browse the main tags for clarification about anything I’m confused about/general reaction to the episode, read through to edit/try to catch typos, format it into a tumblr post, add screenshots, add links and such as needed... post. If I have any tips, it would be to not do all that over the course of one Saturday afternoon and night lol. The only reason I subject myself to that stupidity is because 1. I like to ride the episode’s wave and post when people are engaging with it (or at least the First viewers are) and 2. If I let myself post whenever, there’s a good chance they’d never get done (as my poor Before the Dawn recaps attest). If you establish any sort of routine though you’re good. If, for example, you want to write a meta about each week’s episode but don’t think you’ll have time to do that in a single day, space it out. Tell readers you always post the day before a new episode airs, helping to remind everyone of what happened last week and giving yourself six days to write. Something like that. 

Other, very general tips: 

Like with any analysis, work to prove any claims you make. Point to where you saw this on screen, mention the dialogue where this occurs, provide screenshots as evidence, etc. 

Accept the fact that you’ll probably be wrong about things. Obviously a great deal of meta-ing is subjective, but there are plenty of times you just misread a scene. Example: when I was confused about how Weiss got her boar to Whitley in time, not immediately realizing that Willow had summoned it. It happens (but it also happens less when you’re not writing on a self-imposed deadline lol) 

Edit your work to the best of your ability and try to break up long paragraphs (oof I’m dragging myself today) and/or break things up with images 

If you’ve discussed a point elsewhere and your blog is organized enough to know where it is, link it so new readers easily know what you’re talking about without you having to rehash the whole thing 

Speaking of organization, have a page on your blog where people can easily access all the stuff you’ve written 

I usually work chronologically through episodes, but don’t be afraid to jump around, especially if you have a singular point to make about multiple, connected scenes 

Pick your battles, whether we’re talking about criticism or praise. Chances are you’ll have far more to say about an episode than you can work into a single meta (mine usually clock in at about 4-7k, which is already pretty long). Save the smaller stuff for side metas or, like me, start half your posts with, “I was also thinking about this thing I didn’t put in the recap...” 

Don’t be afraid to reblog your metas on different days/at different times to catch new readers. Tumblr has developed a strange “You can’t reblog your own stuff” mentality which I’m personally not here for. It’s your blog. Do what you like! 

And, as said, have fun with it! 😊

[anneapocalypse]

RvB Rec Day: Multimedia!

Happy May, friends! As most of you know, I tend to do fic recs most of the time, because well, I’m a writer and I love to read fic as much as I love to write it. But I want to give a shout this month to some amazing creators of other kinds!

@notjustsharksfanart is a longtime favorite artist of mine and has so much wonderful RvB art out there that like, if you haven’t gone through her archives you are just cheating yourself, seriously. Jess is a comic artist so a lot of her art is in comic form with an expressive and dynamic style, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you might do both. (She also makes some original webcomics and if you are into space future with canon lgbta+ characters, please love yourself and go read Closer to Home.)

@falling-towards-the-sky is behind some of the most beautiful gifsets and edits out there in the fandom, especially from the Chorus trilogy (and some for RWBY and Halo as well). Go appreciate the crispness, the clarity, the Carolina! Dster is also responsible for giving me a whole new appreciation and perspective for Carolina and Epsilon’s relationship on Chorus, both through meta and simply by the way their gifs have highlighted that relationship. Great stuff.

@omgplushies (sideblog of @agenttexsflippedshit) makes adorable, beautifully-crafted plushes. Oh my goodness, go and take a look through their RvB tag. If you haven’t seen these beautiful and huggable works of art then you’re in for a treat. Roni makes plushes for other fandoms too, and is sometimes open for commissions or trades. Go check them out, you will love them.

@texelations is known especially for her longfic, Keystone, which I’ve recced before, but she also has an extensive collection of excellent fanmixes for RvB. If you know Marti, you know she has a song for everything--and if she doesn’t, she’ll find one! (If you’re ever stuck for writing inspiration, go ask her for a song, seriously, you will not be disappointed.)

Previous Rec Days

[kandrakelsier]

Fandom Fic Rec

Alrighty, so this is apparently a thing, and I’ve been meaning to do recs for a while so... here’s a long list of my favorite fanfiction works, with links to each of them. I recommend all of them.

Hanover Chronicles-Katriona_Subasa (@agronadb​)

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka No Ken, Fire Emblem 6- Fuuin No Tsurugi

A series of four fics, spanning just over a thousand years of history in the Fire Emblem world of Elibe. This series is one of my favorites; the characters are well developed, there are little tie-ins and easter eggs between fics, the writing style (particularly the dialogue) feels super realistic, and the pacing is excellent. Also would like to point out that the series is approaching 1 million words, so if you start, you’ll have plenty of material to keep you going, particularly since the last fic is still in progress.

Reprise-Elfpen

Fandom: Star Wars

A series of time-travel fix-it fics where Obi-Wan is sent back in time after his duel with Darth Vader on the Death Star. The humor is great; imagine Qui-Gon trying to deal with two Obi-Wans at once. There’s also cameos from characters in the True EU, which was fun to see, and some great philosophizing about the nature of the Force. Lots of good meta, and overall just very well written.

Messenger-HundredHanded (@hundred-handed​)

Fandom: Overwatch

An Ancient Greek AU. Angela travels with Reinhardt as he tries to take down Talon, and Fareeha is a bodyguard. Very clean writing; you can tell a lot of research went into this one. No character feels out of place, even if the entire thing takes place in Greece, and the names are absolutely brilliant. Good fic, good pairing.

Beneath the Stars-StarlightWalking 

Fandom: LOTR

A finished fic covering the travels and life of Tauriel after the Hobbit and through the War of the Ring. Really fleshes out the brief relationship between Tauriel and Kili. Provides a lovely conclusion to her story, which was more or less left hanging at the end of the movie. Shout out to TolkienGuardians for always posting updates on this so I could go read new chapters. 

Knight-Errant-Zinjadu 

Fandom: Star Wars

A canon divergent fic covering the Clone Wars, where Ahsoka wasn’t expelled from the Jedi Order and instead was promoted to a unique position. Proceeding relatively slowly, but has a lot of material, and each one is well done. Covers battle, politics, and slices of life, which very few other sources do. Contains a whole bunch of fics, so pick your poison.

Love, Life, and Peril-LiamReyes

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka No Ken

A unique take on the story of FE7, involving a tactician with a checkered past. This is an older fic that is progressing slowly, but is well written, with enough AU tossed in to keep the story fresh. The background adds a nice twist to the story, and some character deaths are left out, which I think makes the fic much better,

A Fresh Cup of Coffee-Lydia_Rogue (@marykay91​)

Fandom: RWBY

Hoo boy. Another favorite fic of mine, involving the formation and adventures of Team CFVY (You know, the ones that got maybe ten minutes of screen time?). Super well done, and covers some serious issues within the show that the actual series does not (Racism, Ableism, etc). Bonus points for having the team be in a super cute poly relationship, and for fully fleshing out the most badass team on the show.

Overwatch Emergency Communication Channel-ArcaneAdagio 

Fandom: Overwatch

This is... a legendary crackfic. Just, imaging the entire Overwatch team on a chat server during day to day life. Absolutely hilarious, and the format is great. Lots of pairings, lots of shenanigans. 

It's Basically Discord-Hanzo Shimada (Ubercharge)

Fandom: Overwatch

Same as the last one, another crack chatlog fic. This one starts in the days of Overwatch before the fall, so you get to see some of the interactions between the old soldiers when they were still young and snarky.

Reaping Dragons-MegsBlackFire 

Fandom: Overwatch

A series featuring genderbent Reyes and Hanzo, and covering their recruitment into Overwatch before the fall. McHanzo and Reaper76 feature prominently, and there’s plenty of OC characters to help flesh out the story. Well written, and ongoing through the current storyline of Overwatch (Whatever that is Blizzard’s timeline is so messed up)

The Young Never Sleep-CerealMilk (@cerealwatch​)

Fandom: Overwatch

A much, much darker fic, but one that I thoroughly enjoyed. Details D.Va’s life and current status in Overwatch, and explores how being a child soldier who’s been fighting omnics for years might fuck you up a bit. Lots of triggers, read the description before you start. Goes a lot into recovery and in how D.Va deals with life and death, and doesn’t treat her like a child. Basically the anti-gremlin D.Va; Hana Song and D.Va are very much not the same person here. 

Sorrowful and Immaculate Hearts-Unpretty (@unpretty​)

Fandom: DC

Ah yes, another legendary series of fics. You’ve probably seen at least one of these floating around. Covers a wide range of topics, mostly Batman related, but all of them are well written, and most are hilarious. Hard to sum up this one since there’s so many fics, but all of them are worth a read.

The Stars Our Destination-CommanderRoastedWolf 

Fandom: Overwatch

A fantasy AU centering around Pharmercy, with Pharah as knight and Mercy as priest. Gorgeous worldbuilding and character development, and I love how other characters are portrayed. Ongoing, updates fairly slowly.

Imagine the Ocean-Damkianna

Fandom: AtLA

An Avatar AU where Katara is the Avatar, instead of Aang. Supremely well written, and adds touches of details to the original that improve the already incredible story. A few OCs provide some nice contrasting points of view.

Kingdom of Rust-Colms (@kelsiers​)

Fandom: Cosmere

Ah yes, this was a fun one. Wayne and Marasi go do shooty-shooty stabby-stabby detective work. I love this one because the writing style is so similar to Sanderson’s; the dialogue is spot on, and the plot fits right in with canon. Love the characterization of Marasi, who I at least feel is slightly underdeveloped in canon. 

Equilibrium-Caesurae 

Fandom: Overwatch/Pacific Rim

A crossover fic with Angela as a Jaeger pilot. Has both Pharmercy and Gency, and most of the other characters make appearances at one point or another. This one is plenty long, and the style/viewpoint of the writing is unique and makes for an interesting read.

Once There Was-Peradi 

Fandom: Star Wars

A series that examines the fall of the First Order from within, inspired by the actions of Finn when he dared to break off and become a traitor. Written almost like poetry, this one strikes deep and is a good read for fans of Star Wars from any era; it applied regardless.

In Loco Pirates-IzzyTheHutt 

Fandom: Star Wars

So what if Hondo (Yes, that Weequay pirate with impeccable business sense and a great sense of humor) ran into Luke Skywalker and then sold helped him reconnect with his father? Good stuff. Definitely AU, but so far everything is believable. Does some great character analysis of Darth Vader and Palpatine as well.

MaftWaft-Oddport

Fandom: TF2

A TF2 fandom? In 2017? Yep. An AU where the fem!mercs end up in the canon universe, and the two teams join forces to take down Grey Mann. A fun read, with all the characters behaving about as you’d expect them to when confronted with themselves. Lots of adorable couples too.

Wayward Son-Gunlord500 

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka No Ken

Hoo boy. This fic. Over a million words across (I believe) six years and almost eighty chapters. In universe, it covers a few hundred years, following the story of a single enigmatic man as he lives, fights, loves, and dies. Very interesting backstory on one of the most mysterious characters in the canon, and contains loads upon loads of philosophy and religion that I, at least, found very useful.

The Last Red Shoulder-Gunlord500

Fandom: Fire Emblem 6-Fuuin No Tsurugi

In the same universe as the above, covering a side story about corruption and a horrifyingly evil artifact. Same praise as the above, basically, and well worth the read. Would recommend reading Wayward Son at least to about chapter 50ish first though, as there is some backstory that you’ll be better off knowing.

Six Shots to Go-CourierNinetyTwo 

Fandom: RWBY

Another CFVY fic, covering all six possible pairings in the team. Each one is explored in detail, and seems true to the characters from what we know of them. Overall, a cute fic (I think there might be some NSFW in this one, careful)

Silly: In Defense of Parvati Patil-DirgeWithoutMusic 

Fandom: Harry Potter

A look into life after the books, focusing on Pavarti and how she deals with the trauma of going through a full blown war before the age of eighteen. Fills in the gaps that JK Rowling left behind, and offers a much more realistic view of what life would be like after seeing your friends die.

Sealed In Silence-MorriganFearn 

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka no Ken

A look into the life of the Eight Heroes, focused around Bramimond, the Dark Druid. It’s told as a series of small interactions between Bramimond and the other heroes. An older fic, but it has aged well.

The Dusk of Our Revolution-LittleGreenBudgie 

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka no Ken

An AU where Matthew is trying to escape the Black Fang gang; a well written side fic that covers one of my rarepairs from this ancient fandom. Each of the Four Fangs makes an appearance as well, as do other characters, and the whole thing fits neatly into the new setting.

Clandestine-LittleGreenBudgie 

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka no Ken

A quick meeting between Matthew and Leila. This is the rarepair I mentioned above, but it’s cute, and this little fic covers their interaction very well, I think.

End of An Era: Unholy Alliance-LordHippoman 

Fandom: League of Legends

The League falls to a combined assault from the Void, Noxus, and the Shadow Isles. An older fic that I read back when I played League super regularly, but it’s a good read overall.

Another Hope-Rose of the Nile

Fandom: Assassin’s Creed IV

This beautiful fic is another time travel fic, where Edward is sent back in time after the events of AC4. Knowing what he does, he tries to fix his mistakes. This one made me happy mainly because of the pairing and improved character development, and is a great read for anyone who loved Kiddway as much as I did.

Deep Breaths-CrimsonNoble

Fandom: League of Legends

An AU fic with Riven and Irelia. Basic Cop and Gang fic, with each of the major factions being a different gang member. Older fic, but done well, with interesting perspective shifts and descriptions.

More Than Words-Kitten Kisses 

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka no Ken

Sadly, this fic was taken down, but you should be able to email the author for a copy. A post game fic where Hector and Farina get back together. Very fluffy and angsty; poor Farina doesn’t catch a break in this one, but it all turns out lovely.

The Ice Girl-Meelu the Bold

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka no Ken

Linus and Lloyd save Nino when she’s abducted by faeries; bit of a strange premise, but it leads to some classic puzzling and hack and slash action. Very old fic, but a good read.

[invested-in-your-future]

It just doesn't make sense for racism to exist when monsters threaten the world.

Our world is threatened by deadly diseases, pandemics, climate change, and the destructive use of technological advances to cause irreversible damage to our planet, and it still has time for racism, discrimination, bigotry, and hate—centuries of it.

If anything, it's expected that Remnant would be imperfect like that since it's still a society modeled after our own—one with nobles and the rich and wars and the class divide. Discrimination would draw allusions between the creatures of Grimm and the Faunus, as I have written about before in one of the answers.

If anything, the clash between the polar opposite aspects of human nature was always the most promising material within the show.

You can't have a story about fighting eldritch abominations attracted to hate—a reactive force mirroring the state of humanity, conveying its destructive capability—and not explore the said hate.

The fact that the show just gives up on focusing on human nature just as it sets up a major change in the status quo with the Fall of Beacon, instead retconning itself into Brother Gods and magic and facing the NotSatan nonsense, is outright ridiculous.

[invested-in-your-future]

One of many things I have been figuring out is how different Kingdoms might handle their legends about monsters, since Grimm would be intrinsically linked to concepts like folklore and fairytales of this land, having been there for as long as humanity remembers.

Would creatures of Grimm replace the traditional monsters in the stories? Would there be cryptid creatures of Grimm whose existence hasn't been confirmed but lone Huntsmen would swear they exist?

One thing I've decided is that this version of Remnant would contain many sightings and stories of Grimm that could be considered apocryphal—types of creatures never scientifically confirmed to even exist. Over the years, Huntsmen and civilians alike would have shared rumors, written entire books, etc, about the experiences that nobody can confirm having happened.

The important aspect, however, is how contradictory and ambiguous legends and rumors can be.

For example, one such piece of literature is "Die Wilde Jagd" (The Wild Hunt)—an autobiographical book by one of Vale's Huntsmen centuries ago, where he chronicles his journeys chasing after a folk legend, gathering tales, as well as chronicling encounters that he claims have happened. As the book is old old, it's impossible to confirm or deny the authenticity of what the author wrote about—he could have actually faced those creatures, he could have embellished confrontations with "usual" Grimm, or he could have thought all of the stories up while drunk in some wayside tavern.

Let's say characters come upon something they do not understand—more literature-focused ones would know the stories they would have read or at least heard about, but how do they know any of that information is "useful" or fit? They can only guess.

One of my pet peeves with the show will always be how MilesWBY era handled one of its better ideas, The Apathy—it's just too neat of a conclusion that takes away any mystique of this creepy and unique and weird type of creature of Grimm—they are built up as a threat, and then Ruby plot-eyes them, and it's all solved without any doubt. Meanwhile, for me, that threat was always something that felt like it shouldn't have neatly "concluded"—a threat where the characters should have been left guessing if they had defeated the Apathy or if these things are still out there and that maybe there's no real way to "defeat" them, that some things in this world just are and should be avoided at all costs. And then the show doubled down on that by having Ruby randomly be able to defeat one of the Goliaths.

Neatly concluding creatures of Grimm as a threat doesn't work. Some of the STRONGEST moments of the early RWBY that are stuck in my mind are when Ruby first sees the Goliaths and then in V3 when that thing bursts out of the mountain. The show pulls back a curtain and shows just how much unknown there is in the world and how out of their depth humanity might be.

It's important to leave ambiguity AND uncertainty in the concept behind The Creatures of Grimm. It's supposed to be an endless, eternal, ever-changing, ever-evolving threat that has always been there and will likely always be there.

And tying that into the bigger theme of how ambiguous, twisted, and incomplete myths and legends of the world are just makes sense. Even in the show, it would have made more sense to do that if Salem's very existence was supposed to be this big secret that would have thrown the population into chaos when revealed.

[invested-in-your-future]

In your rewrite, is Raven the type of person who has the "suffering makes you stronger" mindset and would enable her daughter get traumatized as a punishment for turning down her warning (during the fall of beacon), so she would learn from it?

I'd say Raven is very willing to have people go through specific experiences, but there are limits to what she'd allow people she cares about to go through.

I do not think Raven wanted Yang to get traumatized. It's why I had inserted Yang and Raven's V2 end scene into having happened just before Yang found Blake and Adam during the Fall. If anything, Raven could have taken Yang away right then—had Yang not chosen to chase after Blake instead.

But! At the same time, for Raven, Yang's survival of that experience is what matters—she sees potential in Yang, but she also thinks of Yang's mindset till now as weak/disgusting, and whether Yang can bounce back defines her worth as a person for Raven.

There are multiple angles on why Raven decided to contact her, but Raven is clearly willing to provide Yang with what she thinks are the means to improve—Raven has waited a while to see whether the alternative (staying home) is helpful or not.

However, a lot of that help also seems two-sided. Raven, to me, feels like a multitasker, juggling multiple agendas at once. So while she has provided tools for Yang to rebuild herself after a tragedy, there's also an aspect to that help that benefits her.

At the same time, I think Raven can empathize with where Yang is in her life right now—not knowing who to trust, not knowing what to do with her life, or which path to take as she feels like everything has been pointless and led her nowhere. Raven has been there, done that—and if her daughter can stand back up, then she's worthy of her attention.

That said, Raven does seem willing to push Yang through dangerous experiences, as indicated by what we know of portal side effects in the rewrite—meaning she is willing to test Yang in ways that could have been extremely harmful to her and would make her allies like Clair frown.

[invested-in-your-future]

My personal problem isn't Racism existing in Remnant, but the fact it isn't quelled or kept to one location when negative emotions attract angry monsters.

That would be fine, honestly—it's a great plot point to use for the future.

If I were an evil being wanting to sow discord, I would absolutely make use of discrimination and fuel discrimination (not that I'd need to) to worsen the situation globally, thus making the fact that discrimination wasn't dealt with properly an actual foundational plot point.

The issue is that the show just...ignores it going forward after Blake delivers that monologue about "how minorities are to blame because of violence," and Ilia Amitola becomes "one of the good ones."

Sure, the discrimination would vary wildly in each location, but beyond Yang (a human) telling off that one woman (who instantly learns she's wrong because sure that's how racism works), we barely get any actual story beats where we are supposed to root for Faunus rather than "be appalled that they didn't turn the other cheek.".

Because talking animals from Candy Dimension, magic gods, world-ending relics, Scorned Wife Villain plotting with Council Of Evil, reviving and killing characters for shock value and clickbait, mishandling and queerbaiting a prominent pairing till the last season when you rush it, and vilifying mental wellness is what it's all about.

And not, you know, the clash of different aspects within human nature and how it connects to the literal eldritch manifestations attracted to hate.

[invested-in-your-future]

I have got a few asks regarding the Crown and whether I would use them in the rewrite. I answered a few before, but since I don't want to keep doing that, I thought I would put out an answer that I can sort of link to any time it comes up.

Short answer: I am not going to use the Crown. I don't like the concept; I don't like what I've seen of the novel it comes from, and it clashes with the set-up for Vacuo I am using.

Long answer: I am not going to use the Crown, specifically.

It doesn't mean that the concept of something similar won't be there in the story where it makes sense.

Since I'm not doing anything like the brother gods nonsense, what fills that space is the dynamics between the Kingdoms and the clashing viewpoints of various characters and groups. There won't be a clean break point to place characters into groups of "The Good Guys" and "The Salem Team," because Salem's motivations differ too.

One of the bigger inspirations for the rewrite for me has been the Divide song, which I always felt perfectly lays out Salem's motivations and MO, which the show never quite made use of.

So one of the questions I asked myself when starting putting together world-building for this years ago was—how would Fall of Beacon affect the Kingdoms, and how would various forces standing together fracture, now that the unifying force that kept the world order together (Ozpin) is out of the picture and what happened at Vale serves as an inciting incident for so many things?

Figuring out the conflicts that could flare up because of what happened was the first step to take.

Long story short: it doesn't make sense to use the Crown when there's already factions and interests that feel akin to that.

There's already some of the setup for that with Mistral's writing focus in the Rewrite being the lingering contempt for post-Great-War times and nostalgia for the monarchy.

But even beyond Mistral, the way I see Fall of Beacon is as sort of a green light for all powers that be to move towards their goals—the kind of mentality where various people in power might go, "Maybe the old order doesn't work?" and begin to act.

And in turn that works as a vehicle to tell the story about humanity's nature and how it ties to the debate that's going on between Ozpin and Salem.

[itsclydebitches]

Could you rec any good Ozpin whump (or hurt/comfort) fanfics? Ive been trying to find like, aNY, but its been no luck and ur the #1 ozpin source (and legit just my fav meta person)

Answering these two together but ahhh thank you, anon! Oh man, I don’t know if I have many though? At least not gen Oz and Qrow stuff. Most of the reading I do in the RWBY fandom is for ozqrow, so that’s my primary tag on AO3. If either of you are okay with the ship I’d recommend checking out TigerMoon’s stuff (Queen of Angst!), FandomLastsForever, and CocksandClocks. Tiger has a lot of deliciously emotional oneshots and all three keep up with massive AUs covering the whole range of human emotion. I stand in awe.

Also @valasania-the-pale has been writing Volume 6 fic recently, a lot of it centered on Ozpin, team dynamics, fixing the damn writing this volume, etc. It’s good shit, especially if you have a preference for in-canon stuff. @miki-chan13 is writing a fantastic reconciliation fic atm following the events of vol 6. And @edelblume‘s stuff for this whole season has just been A++

Honestly I know there is more gen stuff out there for these characters, but I’m very bad at collecting and remembering recs (gotta start updating that tag of mine...) If people have recs of their own chuck them into the tags!

[invested-in-your-future]

Following up on my post about narrative and the tendency stories have to make evil petty because it's on my mind rn:

I think there's quite a difference between characters within the narrative diminishing a villain as petty and the narrative doing it.

There's nothing wrong with taking away power from an antagonist by highlighting their insecurities and how awful of a human being they are. It's a known quantity within stories that villains' dominion over others often is in the power they project.

Thee issue is when narrative buys into that.

Just because you write a moment where a character belittles a villain, robbing them of a fraction of their power, doesn't mean they have no danger within the narrative.

It's still the same character with the same personality traits that, by design, narrative would have used to make them dangerous.

Robbing a villain if ideological hold is a thematic act, robbing a villain of physical power they have is, well, a physical and tangible one.

This is why quite often narrative would have a thematic victory followed by a physical tangible one(or subverts it by having the villain do something terrible). There are so many stories where you have heroes cornering a villain and delivering a monologue about how the villain failed, only to grow complacent and let a cornered antagonist do something terrifying(or at least attempt to).

I think the prime example of that mistake within MilesRWBY is Adam situation - with how Blake handles him during Haven stuff(where he basically gets humiliated, which is written as a character moment for Blake) and how that character moment suddenly translates into the narrative decision of him no longer having power or being threatening leading into the final confrontation way later where he is basically treated as a padding obstacle to the "volume story", rather than a culmination of Blake and Yang's (offscreen, lol) character arcs.

That shouldn't happen.

Just because a character makes a character choice to reject the grasp an antagonist holds over them, shouldn't make that antagonist any less dangerous. It's only a part of the larger story.

Doing so only makes the ending of the narrative thread suffer and suffer it did.

[invested-in-your-future]

Years back there was still this prevalent idea that you can make your villain too evil. Now, this wasn't just something new nor came with the rush of YA novel adaptations - this has been going on for decades - many people, audiences, and authors alike, seemed to overestimate the value and capacity of things like public conscience and the like.

The idea that some characters might be evil "just because" was frowned upon as outdated or "inconvenient because others would realize they are evil.".

From that would stem the wave of ideas that would essentially whitewash and flufferize concepts like discrimination, fascism, class warfare, and so on, leading to what I like to call "comfortable discrimination" - where the audience can consume the media without feeling like they have been called out on things or made to think about the nature of their world.

Racism would be subtle or misguided with the focus being on "proving the racists wrong" rather than acknowledging that sometimes you can't - that it's more complex than "lack of understanding" and those perpetuating it don't need to be "idiots who simply don't know any better" - that some profit off it, while others might be true believers.

In fact, anyone who was overt in their evil would BE portrayed as incompetent sniveling idiots who would get foiled by their own personality traits.

Evil is pitiful, you see - it is too busy trying to hurt others to be efficient and ends up hurting itself.

The only "evil" that can be overt and successful is something inhuman.

And, on the flip side, using overt methods would be vilified for good guys too. After all, if discrimination is merely "something you can beat by proving them wrong" and the extremes lead to villains foiling themselves, then your heroes should absolutely be unwilling to be anything but centrist.

If good guys were to do something that could be seen as flawed, a narrative like that would have to work over-time to show how it actually wasn't flawed and they were in the right.

Looking back, I think there are very few fictional works that epitomize that issue the way RWBY's Atlas story arc's writing did.

They had a Kingdom with a well-built-up set of issues, a set of heroes that just went through life-changing experiences that should have left them conflicted and divided, and a setting ripe for drama and personal conflict years in the making - they had been setting up something with Atlas since the show's first season after all.

Somehow it all had ended up as it always did - with a pointless giant monster, maiden hot potato, lack of characterization for leads(and one of them is FROM THERE?!), some character assassination, and nothing of value being said.

It was truly an achievement in sterilizing discrimination and then placing exclamation points on all the wrong things - warping what could have been an engaging story with interesting villains into, honestly, I have no idea what.

What could have been an interesting arc about human nature, evil within human hearts, and personal conflicts (and being freed from them) ended up a messy, weird thing with lots of padding and not much mattering in the long-run.

Leaving the whole show worse-off in the end.

[invested-in-your-future]

I think the worst thing about WF and Faunus storyline in the show overall is that the writers seem to fundamentally misunderstand what racism and discrimination are.

It's not always about "fearing" minorities or viewing them as a "threat" - it's not always something that can be "proved wrong" or "debated over". It can't be solved by "everyone being nice and showing how wrong they are".

What angles could prejudice against Faunus take?

"They're animals" - the most obvious choice that even show uses. But this lives off the idea that the Faunus are LESS than humans by default, and the show does NOTHING with that. Prejudice like this wouldn't be built upon "proving someone you are good" - those who use animal stereotypes and comparison inherently believe that Faunus are BORN lesser - it's not about what they do or don't do. It's about them not being "human enough" - an idea especially plausible as prevalent because of the implied slavery before the war. To some people, Faunus would ALWAYS be something "lower" - no matter how good or brilliant they'd be. After all, even a good and obedient pet would still be a pet.

"They are like Grimm/similar to Grimm" - another obvious one that the show doesn't really explore, but let's be honest - it would absolutely happen. Prejudice is built upon demonizing the other - whether it's people of color being associated with the devil or women being burned as "witches". The "Other" by nature has to be "Evil" or at least on the side other than the mainstream. Remnant has been dealing with Grimm for centuries if not thousands of years so the animal features would not just tie to animals for most - wolf ears would just as likely elicit an idea of Beowulf and it's oh so easy to slander and imply that Faunus are somehow "impure" or "tainted by evil" or "bring misfortune".

"They aren't animals or Grimm but they are different and thus want to replace humans/hurt humans" - this is honestly the angle of prejudice I can see people take too via just inherent fear of The Other, in part fueled by the other types - because it's the one that's easiest to sell to the masses. Fall of Beacon involved WF members assaulting the school - with people from all Kingdoms present. People would talk when back home only empowering this narrative further.

All those are possible and different people would absolutely take different approaches to their discrimination and in the end, the result would be the same - Faunus being blamed for injustices and woes of people. Grimm attack? Oh of course those Faunus attracted them there. Drought ruined crops? Faunus brought the misfortune. And so on.

Just like in the real world you can't just "model minority" out of discrimination and bigotry - because bigots aren't dealing with "real people" - all they see are stereotypes that confirm their beliefs.