#rwby season six

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: Vol3E1 "Round One"

Hello, everyone, and welcome to a new collection of RWBY Recaps!!

This is a unique project in that instead of writing purely for my own entertainment, these recaps are part of the Fandom Trumps Hate auction (you can check them out here if you're interested in learning more). Specifically, these recaps are a gift for the lovely Kae who requested some meta on the earlier Volumes, or work that focused on Ozpin and/or Ironwood. I figured that Volume Three would touch on all those requests and, frankly, it's an era of RWBY that I was already interested in covering. Volume 3 was a turning point for RWBY's tone and overall mythology and I'm eager to see what I think of it in 2024, after six additional seasons and a rather chaotic overhaul.

(If anyone is reading this from the future, one of the reasons why it took me so damn long to get the first recap out is because finding official streams of RWBY has become a fool's errand as it changes ownership. Fun!)

Anyway, the game plan is simple: cover all of Volume Three at an undetermined, though hopefully steady-ish pace from here on out. Technically, the deadline for our FTH fandowrks is at the end of 2024, however, I absolutely plan to continue this series past my 5k promise. As always, this will be a RWDE-focused meta (though I'm eager to see how much nostalgia carries me through the season), so if you Don't Like; Don't Read.

Everyone got that? Great!

Now, indulge me for a moment and cast your mind back. It's October of 2015. Pizza Rat is a tumblr icon, Left Shark still reigns, and everyone is arguing over whether a dress is gold and white, or blue and black (it's the former FYI ;). Amidst such quality memes RWBY begins airing again on the 24th, presumably bringing with it another season of stellar choreography and simple, if entertaining conflict. Team RWBY has just helped contain a massive breach courtesy of Cinder's machinations, Torchewick is in Ironwood's custody, the White Fang is falling under Salem's puppeteering, Penny has revealed her android identity as well as her supposed fate to save the world, the girls are beginning to acknowledge the responsibility of their chosen career path, and the mysterious Raven has been identified as Yang's birth mother. All in all, RWBY has a lot to play with going into its third season.

It's notable then that we open peacefully. The viewer is treated to a number of environmental shots to set the scene, including one of the forest with its iconic falling Fall leaves. Ruby is positioned at the edge of a cliff with her signature rose petals drifting behind her. Stylistically it fits the scene, though from a literal standpoint it also implies that she used her semblance speed to get here. Given the momentary reveal that she's speaking to her mom, that's a rather heartwarming detail.

Sidenote: has anyone given any thought to cliffs in this series? It only occurred to me recently how often they show up, often during character milestones. Here we have Ruby talking to Summer for the first time, her (bodiless) grave situated at the end of a cliff. The Beacon initiation involves chucking the kids off a cliff and seeing how they fare, an action that is the catalyst for the group's introductions/growing dynamics. Shooting Oscar off the edge of Atlas solidifies Ironwood's turn from anti-hero to outright villain. Though I'm far from a fan of this scene, Ruby's (ridiculous) near-fall off the cliff during the fight with Cordovin preludes her (supposed) growth in leadership as she stands up to Qrow. Penny lets herself fall from Amity after sacrificing herself to get it up into the air. Then, of course, we've got the girls falling off of Ambrosius' bridge, taking them to a world where - execution aside - the intention was for them all to go through major developments: Ruby is literally reborn, Jaune experiences a lifetime of struggle, Yang and Blake finally admit their feelings, and Weiss... gets over her whole country being destroyed?

Idk, we'll have to come back to that one.

I clearly don't have a big takeaway here, just the acknowledgement that this is a visual RWBY gravitates towards. Might do a whole side meta on it some day...

Anyway, as said we realize quickly this is Summer's grave with her name carved into the headstone along with "Thus kindly I scatter." Notably, she also has her rose motif there and it's likewise prominent on Ruby's belt in this scene. Looking back, we can see how RWBY did a better job at the start of sprinkling in these significant character details before, you know, dropping them completely and then attempting a rapid-fire resurrection. Meaning, I would have bought into the emotion of Ruby giving her pendant up in Volume 9 if we'd gotten these moments consistently throughout the story's run. It wouldn't take much, just a reminder every couple of episodes to maintain the momentum. Give Ruby a scene where she explains that this rose was left by Summer before she disappeared and she's treasured it ever since. Show a flashback where we learn that it was really left behind for both girls and Yang handed it down to Ruby when she was old enough to keep track of it. Give us a minor conflict where it's lost during battle and Ruby unnecessarily endangers herself in an attempt to retrieve it (perhaps in Volume 8, setting up that the object itself is not as important as the intangible love it represents). Hell, keep it lighthearted where Yang gets Ruby something rose related at the gift shop, Nora tucks a Rose into her hair while wandering the wilderness, Qrow gives the pendant a cheeky flick while talking about how Ruby's as stubborn as her mom. My point is there are a million ways the show could have built towards that scene in Volume 9 - ways like showing us that rose on Summer's gravestone - but the show dropped the ball halfway through.

Here and now though, Ruby begins catching Summer up on everything that's happened to her since she started Beacon, which serves as a useful way to catch the viewer up too - both those who, for whatever reason, may have started RWBY with Volume 3, and those who just need a hiatus refresher.

Ruby is delightfully awkward here, a personality trait that I think becomes more forced as the series goes on. She jokes that she hasn't gotten kicked out of Beacon yet - while doing that cute little rock on her heels thing - and says that she's able to "keep [Yang] in line" by being on the same team. She follows that up with, "...that was a joke" which is just quintessential Ruby to me. Love it.

She recaps that Yang has grown a lot as a fighter since Summer left, the rest of their team is made up of Blake and Weiss, together they form Team RWBY and yes, that's as confusing as it sounds. She's stopped bad guys and met some "odd" teachers, including Ozpin.

(THAT'S MY BOY!!!)

Looking back, this is actually a fascinating couple of lines. At least, I think they have the potential to be fascinating if RT had followed a clear writing path. Ruby wonders again why Ozpin let her into Beacon early, but shrugs it off under the assumption that he'll tell her one day. "You know how he is."

Yeah, I do, Ruby. Do you?

We already knew from their initial interaction that Ruby knew who Ozpin was - she recognizes him on sight - though him posing the question implies that he never visited Patch post-her birth. At least, not recently enough for Ruby to have formed a memory of them meeting. I can only assume then that she's heard enough about him from Tai and Qrow to a) be sure of his identity (any promotional material/news about Beacon would have helped with that too) and b) believes strongly that her impression of him formed since entering Beacon aligns with what her parents presumably said about him: "You know how he is." The fact that this is in reference to Ozpin's secret keeping makes me wonder how often that came up around the dinner table. Did Tai ever express frustration, a la Ironwood, that they're clearly being kept in the dark about things? Did Qrow ever dodge the girls' questions about where he's been because he can't be honest about his spy activities, aligning Ozpin's reputation with secrecy by virtue of working for him? The casualness with which Ruby shrugs off Ozpin's secrets to Summer heavily implies that Ozpin's cagey history is both well known to the family and accepted.

Honestly, I would have loved to see this woven into Ruby's core characterization, perhaps even an extension of her "simple soul." Give me a girl who is intrinsically accepting of people, including their need to keep certain things close to the chest. Teammate deliberately kept her faunus identity under wraps? Friend hides the fact that she's an android from the whole world? Ruby accepts them. Ruby gets it. The fact that Ruby does, canonically, accept their duplicity without so much as a blink is, I think, one of the reasons why I expected her of all people to be more sympathetic towards Ozpin's hidden identity. We can argue about the girls' right to the truth via participating in this war till the cows come home, but at the end of the day Ozpin's secrets are intrinsically tied up in his family, his history, and the trauma surrounding both. Let the others get mad, prioritizing information over personal motivations (that does fit their characterizations well, with Blake perhaps being an exception), but Ruby? The show has never been willing to commit to the kind of dark story that would result in a 180 character growth - endlessly forgiving protagonist becomes jaded and cynical as she experiences The Horrors - and little moments like this one further emphasize to me that Ruby, specifically Ruby, is uniquely suited to helping Ozpin not just fight, but finally finish this war. It should never have been (just) about her talent with a scythe, or even the rarity of Silver Eyes. The Gods wanted Ozpin to unite humanity and here's a young woman who unabashedly loves everyone that the world tends to despise: secret keepers and drunk uncles and faunus and Schnees and scary androids. Ruby should have been the emotional bridge!!

Okay, I swear I'm not going to make this series a rehash of my issues with the later Volumes lol. Inevitably some things are going to crop up though.

Moving on, Ruby mentions that Tai is here too and the viewer gets to see his avatar for the first time, albeit from a distance. In keeping Summer updated on her... husband? Wait, were they married? Well, in keeping her updated on her partner, Ruby says that, "He's, you know... Dad," which, unlike the Ozpin line, is just plain funny. Sure, most of her talk is very exposition-y and absolutely functions as a soft lead-in to new content, but that's not to say a story should ever put absurd dialogue in a character's mouth simply for the sake of the viewer. That is, Ruby should never say, 'Oh, Tai is here! You know, my Dad?' because the person she's talking to, Summer, knows damn well who Tai is. Television has actually gotten better about this as a whole. Once upon a time a medical drama would have the doctor yelling, 'Her skin is turning yellow - she's jaundiced! Her liver is failing!' to ensure that the viewer understood precisely what 'jaundiced' meant, never mind how absurd it was for a professional to be shouting that among their peers. (Granted, medical dramas as a whole are absurd. I say that with love.) Despite RT's general inexperience, RWBY belongs to an era of televised storytelling where leaving certain things unsaid is par for the course.

Here, the unspoken information is what it means for Tai to be, you know, Tai. We don't really know who Tai is yet- personality-wise, I mean - so Ruby's comment functions more as a way to set up our expectations rather than to connect with us in agreement. We now expect Tai to be the kind of guy who does things to make his teenage daughter sigh and go, 'That's Dad...' and we, presumably, look forward to seeing that.

Granted, the three things we do know about Tai at this point in the story consist of:

He's a fellow Huntsmen (which is an insane job)

He let his daughter join Beacon two years early to also become a Huntress (also kinda insane but I support him)

He maintains a relationship with said daughter and daughter Sr by sending them their dog in the mail (do I really need to say it?)

Based on that I suppose we can guess as to what Tai is like lol.

He calls Ruby away so they're not late for the match and she sends a last message to Summer over her shoulder: "It was good to talk." As we transition, a murder of crows flies across the sky. Or is it an unkindness of ravens? I can barely tell in real life, let alone when they're animated blobs, but either option works well enough given the upcoming revelation about the Branwen twins.

Cutting to the arena a little time in the future, the viewer is treated to some establishing shots that, while simple, are honestly pretty cool. I believe this is our first introduction to Atlas' floating environments and showing a bit of Beacon Academy in the background helps give us a sense of scale.

This event is clearly popular, with the stadium absolutely packed with people (even more are trickling in from ferrying ships) and, to RT's credit, they did a bit of work to convey diversity in this world. We see a decent variety of skin tones as well as faunus characteristics, to say nothing of the cool designs many of the competitors will get. Beyond the main cast still being overwhelmingly white, I'd say the biggest issue here is the lack of body diversity, what with everyone having the same, stick-thin figure. Yeah, RT is clearly using the same base model copied a hundred times and I'm very aware of their previous status as a small, independent company, but such visuals nevertheless stand out in a series that's been pushing a minority plotline for three seasons.

The camera swoops down to follow Team RWBY in the midst of a battle which, again, is staged in a way that's clearly meant to catch up/invite in new viewers. It's very trailer-esque as each shot lingers on Weiss, Blake, and Yang for a moment before finishing with Ruby, complete with a twirl of Crescent Rose. This is the show visually reminding you of what it's really about. Sure, we might have started with Ruby speaking peacefully by a grave, but at the end of the day RWBY is the story of a team engaging in combat situations.

Oobleck and Port are announcing the event and Oobleck throws out his standard "Doctor" when his title goes unacknowledged.

You know, I started RWBY nearly a decade ago. Four years ago I secured a PhD, so I feel that now.

Port provides another handy info dump for those "just now joining us." AKA the viewer who has no idea what a Vytal Festival is, but this is as good an excuse as any given that people are still entering the stadium. Simply put, all the Kingdoms' huntsmen schools are competing as teams first, then as duos, then as individuals to determine the final winner who will have achieved "victory for their kingdom!" Age and year are irrelevant, which makes perfect sense given the nature of RWBY's combat. You've got young prodigies like Ruby and people who sneak into Beacon like Jaune, and though the other schools/years probably don't have as much drama going on, the variety of semblances, weapons, dust use, and personal experience really makes this anyone's game. A first year might easily beat a fourth year if they won the genetic lottery with their semblance, or a student from School A might trounce someone their age from School B, depending on how much their school has sent them into real combat situations.

Given all that, I kinda wish the Festival had developed the other Kingdoms more, given that it's the perfect opportunity for the cultures to learn from one another and/or butt heads. In a perfect world, one where RT had some sense of where their story was going, I would have loved to see:

Strong development of Vacuo's citizens, especially given that it will be the focal point of Volume 10 and possibly the end of the series (if we ever get that...).

Though the gag that Weiss excepts strict, militaristic fighters from Atlas only to get Neon is funny, that 'Don't judge a book by its cover' lesson really doesn't align well with what Volume 7 and 8 try to push. Better, perhaps, to set up Atlas' dictatorship tendencies before swinging hard in that direction (and I'll get into how what we do see doesn't make the cut).

How Remnant's racism gets displayed in a highly public competition. Do Blake and the other faunus face more discrimination now that they're in the public eye? Do asshole citizens challenge wins because no way did a faunus beat that human?

How different schools approach training their huntsmen. Specifically, everyone seems to abide by the four-person team structure, so why would this competition eventually highlight duos and individuals? It seems counter to what Beacon, and by extension all the other schools, are trying to promote. This setup would make more sense if we were shown that different schools have radically different curriculum. Maybe it's eventually 1v1 because Vacuo's individualist, survival-based culture teaches huntsmen to fend for themselves; teammates are just another liability. Maybe Atlas, being militaristic, prizes safety in numbers and has students train in groups of six rather than four. Maybe Mistral is incredibly semblance-focused (a way to develop Neptune's phobia rather than just making it a gag; a fighter who can't or won't use their semblance is considered effectively useless) and if you can negate that aspect of their style somehow, you find they're lacking severely in weapon-based combat.

Again, I know that RWBY, particularly early RWBY, only had so much time per episode, but looking back it feels like there are a lot of missed opportunities in this world-watched event. None of this is even taking into account Cinder sneaking into the school, or Penny being outed as an android. If any RWBY rewriters are reading this, the Festival is a potential goldmine of characterization and cultural development. If you're going to write random RWBY books, write some about that!

One moment of cultural significance that is shown though is the Atlas security hovering around the arena. They mostly keep to the background, without any single appearance being obtrusive (yet). This is one of those moments where (some) fans look back and say, "See? Ironwood was always a controlling, military-obsessed bastard," but the reality is that this is incredibly tame by real world standards, to say nothing of the realities of RWBY's fantasy world. Regardless of how you feel about the, uh... motivations behind the security in your country (because that's a whole other conversation), you expect there to be some level of professional oversight when that many people are meeting in one place. That's a reality we have to work with, which includes all the potential pitfalls, biases, manipulations, and accidents that come with any large-scale endeavor. Toss in the fact that RWBY's security is designed to defend against man-eating monsters and I'm honestly surprised it isn't presented as dystopian here. Meaning, we easily could have been given a story where people are comparatively safe from grimm in modern day Remnant and the security functions primarily as outside control and/or a fear-mongering tactic. It's not that security is inherently unnecessary, but those walls have done a damn good job for the last generation or so, so why is James so insistent on populating this festival with his probably not-needed robots? Seems sus 🤔.

As it stands, grimm DO attack people on the regular (that was kind of a big part of last Volume's finale), security IS necessary (according to many other council professionals once James raises the issue), and it's arguably MORE necessary now - during the festival - because there are so many potentially negative emotions just waiting to crop up. Instead of "Seems sus," the reaction to having defensive robots around is more, "No duh." At the very least RWBY might have had the characters react to the security with suspicion/fear, even if that doesn't totally track with the rest of the worldbuilding, or better yet, demonstrate that there are major issues with AI leading the charge (robot mistakes kid in grimm mask for real grimm and fires a shot!). Granted, we get that through the hacking at the very end of the Volume, but here and now the Atlas ships seem to be used primarily for transporting viewers, the crowd is fully at ease with these guys, and — as we'll see later — the prospect of additional security in the form of AI is greeted with enthusiasm, not wariness, simply because it will keep real, breathing people off the front lines. Those are all important things to keep in mind when you consider whether a) The show took a very sharp turn in Volumes 7-8 or b) The show capitalized on a long established, slow burn plotline.

(Psst the answer is 'B')

ANYWAY, Oobleck is yelling about the "Spectacular spectacles on which to speculate on!" and I love him all the more. While he and Port narrate we get some non-animated shots of people viewing the Festival from around the world, though frankly it doesn't do much to help RWBY's worldbuilding. Some people watch the fights from a camper outside, others are in a minimalist apartment, still others are in what's basically a bar... if you're looking for intriguing backgrounds to drum up interest in the world outside of Beacon, you're not going to find it here. The presence of various faunus individuals is really the only thing that distinguishes these settings from a show based in the real world.

Onto the fighting! (It's about time :p) The girls are facing off against Team ABRN (pronounced "Auburn") from Haven and they're decent for a couple of one-off characters. I like the design of the girl with the skateboard - Reese - and how her weapon, the board itself, gives her a lot of flexibility in battle. Since it functions as a hoverboard she has a lot of maneuverability, she can use the board as a shield, a projectile, adapt its abilities via Dust, and - of course - she can pull both sides apart to duel wield the guns. Looking at all that flexibility, it is a little lame that she 'loses' that particular encounter with Blake by slipping on the ice, but then we're not really supposed to care about these characters. They exist solely to get us hyped for the battles to come and give a quick primer on how those battles will work. AKA, now we've learned that the battlefield itself has hazards the girls must circumvent.

Blake is cute here though. She's so concerned and I'm like yeah, girl, that looked like it hurt 😬

This whole exchange has that same vibe: one of casual playfulness, which makes perfect sense given that this is supposed to be a fun competition. They're exhibition matches, not real attempts to take the other team out (which is why Yang's supposed act later in the tournament will be seen as so heinous). The guy with the pink hair (Nadir) full on pouts when Ruby successfully traps him in a block of ice and, of course, we have the classic "Got your back!"/"My BFF!" lines in response. The girls are enjoying themselves and that's so damn wholesome to see after all the tragedies - plot and writing-wise - of the later Volumes.

Team ABRN are able to make a bit of a comeback and - *gasp* - the girls have to actually think creatively/combine techniques in order to get the upper-hand. Blake successfully tricks Reese with a clone and catches her in the midriff with a quickly timed ribbon, cleanly knocking her out of the ring. It's here that we learn a team member can be eliminated via leaving the bounds, or having their aura dip too low (remember when that was a thing?) I know I just said there's teamwork, and there absolutely is here, but it did stand out to me how Blake just like... disappears after this moment? I mean she comes back, but it's clear RT wanted each girl to have her moment in this battle, despite the fact that any member who successfully defeated their opponent would be rushing off to help the others. That should be a near defining win condition - defeat one opponent and suddenly it's a 2 vs 1 situation for someone else - but that expectation falls by the wayside until the fight's final moments.

It's a good fight though. Not the greatest by RWBY standards, but it was no hardship to rewatch for this recap either. Weiss pulls out an epic ice hand that ensnares two of the members, now rolling chaotically across the arena, and clearly she thinks this is the end of the fight. However, Arslan — the monk-type who favors hand-to-hand combat (or the one with the "Eastern martial arts influence" according to the RWBY wiki...)— simply rolls her eyes, plants her feet, and shatters the ball with a single hit. Gotta admit, it's pretty cool.

Of course, Team RWBY still comes out victorious in the end. With all of Team ABRN now in one place, the girls have one of those lovely mind-reading moments and pull off a coordinated attack, allowing Yang to sucker-punch them all out of the ring. Again, it's nice to see that kind of teamwork, as well as the adorable way they all stand there, mildly shocked that they won.

I'll take that over the brazen, cocky confidence they've gained any day.

The only thing I'm kinda iffy about regarding this fight is how Team ABRN feels a little less like a full-fledged team to me, and more like a faint Team RWBY echo. It's most noticeable in the Yang vs. Arslan sections where you've got two yellow-coded, hand-to-hand snarkers facing off. Blake and Reese both feel like the cool, alternative style members of their teams, and then you've got the Weiss-Ruby duo trying to overtake the Bolin-Nadir duo. It's admittedly a subtle familiarity that lessens with each example, but it stood out to me in the re-watch; like Team ABRN only exists to give Team RWBY someone vaguely similar to overcome. Which, granted, they do. These are not characters we're going to follow as the series progresses, so in most respects they've done precisely what they needed to do and in a way that looks cool and feels entertaining. So this isn't a criticism, really. More an acknowledgment that RWBY is a series with limits and if we want to know more about these characters/flesh them out beyond their paralleling characteristics, we'll have to do that ourselves in the fanfic.

As Ruby jumps into the air in a victory celebration, we PowerPoint slide cut to the festival later that day where she nearly collapses, asking if anyone else is starving.

Yeah, child. You just made it through a physically intensive battle in front of an audience while existing as a teenager. Of course you're hungry. Blake's stomach gives a giant, embarrassing growl in response and Weiss sarcastically bemoans the fact that there's nowhere to eat at the food-focused festival. Good times, good times.

Ruby: "It's okay, Weiss. I forget about the fair grounds too."

Before they can grab lunch though Weiss declines a call from her father and an old 'acquaintance' suddenly shows up.

Emerald.

You know, kudos to Katie here because Emerald's laugh and, "Good to see you, Ruby" sounds so fake to me now. It just oozes, 'I secretly hate you but am pulling out all my acting skills to convince you otherwise' energy. Obviously RWBY has a host of villains/antagonists that have done a plethora of heinous things, but there's something particularly skin-crawling to me about seeing Emerald in retrospect. Part of it is the deception. I don't know about anyone else, but I personally would prefer a villain who's upfront about their nature from the get-go, rather than one who pretends to be my friend before stabbing me in the back. The first scenario just lacks the same emotional punch, you know? Though the other part of it is, of course, knowing where everyone ends up. Beacon will fall. Ozpin will "die." Pyrrha will actually die, and our heroes will be sent out into a war they're in no way ready for. Yes, Salem is our ultimate Big Bad, yes Emerald has her sympathetic moments and does a heel-turn into "good guy" territory four Volumes from now... but I think the fandom often forgets that she willingly and actively participated in this horror show. This isn't someone just along for the ride because their crush manipulated them, this is someone with a working brain between their ears who has PLENTY of time to consider the ramifications of this and still went, "Yeah, I'll lie my way into orchestrating a massacre."

All this hindsight angst is interrupted by the joke (and I use that term with great reservation) that Ruby must have dropped her wallet because "Girl pockets are the worst!" Sorry, but that has such cis-guy-trying-to-relate-to-women-and-failing-miserably energy to me. Like yeah, I also hate the super small/outright fake pockets that they often sew into women's clothing and I too have smiled at women promoting pockets as part of their independent brands... but somehow hearing the RWBY writers reference it just doesn't land. It's not #problematic, just cringy.

Emerald butters them up a bit by complimenting their fighting and Weiss notes that they haven't seen Emerald's teammates in action yet. We cut to their battle where they dominate the other team, complete with a disguised Neo showing her real eye color before she knocks the competitor out. "[They did] really well," says Emerald in the fakest humble tone ever heard.

Ruby invites them all to lunch and Emerald - clearly horrified by the prospect - dodges by claiming that her teammates are too socially awkward for a meetup. In her defense, Mercury is in the process of randomly sniffing a boot, so although this is absolutely just an excuse, she's also not wrong. Like, at all lol.

Fishing for more info, Emerald asks who's moving onto the doubles round and it turns out that Team RWBY voted for Weiss and Yang. There are three things that I love about this moment:

They voted. Yes, Ruby cheekily tries to make it sound like this is all coming from her genius as team leader, but at the end of the day they decided as a team who would represent them. It's a small detail, but those stand out so much more now that we have Ruby vocally and angrily calling the shots.

(This is a ridiculous side-note I'm 99.9% sure I've mentioned before, but every time I talk about Ruby's intense form of "leadership" in the latter Volumes, I'm reminded of Rick's, "This is not a democracy!" in The Walking Dead. If you know, you know.)

They chose Weiss and Yang. From both an in-world and meta perspective, it's actually a little surprising that Ruby isn't representing them. As established, she's team leader. The team is named after her. She's the protagonist of the show. She's also, canonically, a prodigy wielding an insanely deadly weapon. Yet it's refreshing as a viewer to have a new duo taking the spotlight and within the story-world this choice reinforces Point #1: They're a team and no matter how individually talented any one member may be - or even what titles they hold - they are, at the end of the day, all on equal footing. Why shouldn't Yang and Weiss represent?

The way they both respond to this reveal is dang cute. Weiss' "I will happily represent Team RWBY" while curtseying to Emerald vs. Yang's "Yeah! We're gonna kick some butt!" while slamming her fists together. It's a great contrast and shows why these two might have been chosen. Though powerful on their own, their styles and personality are different enough to compensate for any flaws.

With all that out of the way Emerald rejoins Mercury and her smile immediately drops. She's disgusted at having to get all buddy-buddy with them, but "Orders are orders." She has this classic villain moment where she expresses shock over how they're just so happy all the time and I'm like oh, honey. Darling. Morally misaligned baby girl. Just give it a few Volumes.

We cut to Team RWBY at lunch and aRE THE BOWLS SUPPOSED TO BE THAT BIG?

I recalled that they were big as a visual gag, but not half the girls' size. Honestly? Great choice. I too want to live in a world where you can get insanely giant noodles a millisecond after you order them.

Deviating from the others, Blake nods at the seller dude and receives an equally giant bowl filled with fish. You know, I really wish RWBY had done something with the faunus' animal traits rather than turning them into an endless joke. The concept of a god merging humans with literal animals and then, generations down the line, cat-people being influenced by cat instincts as well as human instincts (because remember, we're animals too) is actually really interesting to me... but navigating the racial implications of that takes a level of nuance that RWBY was never interested in exploring. So we're just left with a Blake who is fish obsessed and chases laser pointers and hates dogs and we're supposed to laugh at all that, rather than buying into her teachings that many people use these traits to dehumanize the faunus.

Anyway, Weiss shows off a bit and pays for all their food. At least, she tries to. Turns out her card has been declined, which is more than a little confusing to her given that she was "barely into [her] monthly allowance." Hmm, could that possibly have anything to do with her ignoring her father's phone calls? Surely no one knows.

Luckily, Pyrrha shows up and offers to pay instead (it's nice having a famous BFF, huh?), but like... what were the girls' initial plans? None of them were expecting Weiss to pay, yet they act like Pyrrha is saving the day by showing up, implying that they don't have the money to cover their meal. The shop guy even takes Blake's fish away, leaving her despondent. So what? Were they planning to eat and just worry about the bill later? Actually, that sounds exactly like something these chaotic preteens would do lol. Yang especially. She was introduced while "buying" a drink before destroying the whole dang bar.

Speaking of teenagers, they all finish their bowls with the kind of appetite only seen in 14-71yos. Although, it was a near thing for Jaune. He's very close to barfing (callback!) and Nora encourages him to "aim it at the enemy!"

She continues ragging on him for a bit, failing to come up with any compliments while hyping up her team. Pyrrha is a world-renowned fighter, Ren is basically a ninja, she can bench five of herself, and Jaune is... Jaune. Nora also doesn't include him in her secondary list which implies that Jaune a) hasn't trained as much (or, more realistically, hasn't gotten as much out of it) as the others, b) doesn't possess an "awesome" weapon, and c) is still frequently yelled at by Glynda.

Poor Jaune. I don't say that very often anymore, but he's going through it here lol.

All of this leads to Nora spiraling at the possibility of them losing. This includes the oh-so-causal drop that she and Ren "have no parents and no home left to go to" which is a HELL of a thing to throw out in a comedically framed breakdown. I mean, being orphans is sad enough, but "no home left to go to" won't be explained until we learn that their town was basically wiped off the map, so damn.

Team RWBY reassures them that a fight with actual rules is nothing compared to what they've already been through. You know, the murderers, extremists, and sociopaths. "Oh," gushes Ruby, "imagine what it'll be like when we graduate!"

As Port and Oobleck call Team JNPR to the arena for their match we cut to Emerald and Mercury settling in to enjoy the festivities. In retrospect, this right here is a really nicely composed shot:

It tells us that Emerald is serious about going through with this destruction (again, she's no manipulated damsel), but she's not getting the same personal enjoyment out of it like Mercury is, as showcased by the smirk. The focus remains on them with Team RWBY framed in between. This is the villains' Volume. They're going to win. Our eyes follow the soon-to-be champions not of the festival, but the battle, while our heroes are literally and metaphorically trapped between them. Finally, Yang is the only one who looks back. We won't know this for several episodes, but she's at the heart of their plan and has every reason to cast the almost-but-not-quite-worried glance over her shoulder. Subtle foreshadowing, how I love thee.

It's shit like this that makes my brain go, "It used to be good! RWBY used to be fun AND occasionally insightful! Those overworked animators were uplifting a mediocre story and the result was good!!!"

As they take their seats who should show up but Cinder, casually using her semblance to pop a kernel of popcorn (power move). "Even if you know how a story ends," she says, "that doesn't make it any less fun to watch." True that! I mean, she's talking about knowing that Team JNPR will be moving on because they need Pyrrha to murder Penny, but I agree with the sentiment outside of that context.

Actually, do they ever explain how they manipulated the fights? I mean, they obviously entered and are winning their own battles and we know that Mercury will be staging his injury with Yang... but here Cinder makes it sound like she's pulling strings in every match. Toss that onto the list of development I would have liked for this Volume: what precisely are they doing behind the scenes? I'll have to pay careful attention going forward to make sure I don't miss anything because right now all I can recall is them looking at Penny's blueprints (presumably obtained via Watts).

Team JNPR's area is randomized into a forest and mountainous land before the battle commences. We end on that cliffhanger, complete with the superhero-esque freeze shot.

And that concludes the first episode of Volume 3! As well as my first recap in a long while. If you've followed me at all you'll know that work has been my personal Big Bad the last two-ish years. Given the scope of my responsibilities and the energy they extract, I simply don't have the time or means to write the way I used to. However, I feel like if I can muster up the willpower to finish this on tonight of all nights (people reading from the future: check the posting date and you'll understand), then I must be getting a little better at carving out writing time in my hectic schedule. All hail self-improvement!

On that positive note, everyone have a wonderful night. Or at least try to. Seriously. Text a loved one, treat yourself to a favored snack, do something that feels fulfilling. Take some deep breaths and I'll see you for the next one.

~Clyde❤️

[kitkatopinions]

Thinking about RWBY again lately and I think that the fatal flaw of the writing is actually one of the most common things that I see in media, which is that it feels like the writers stopped asking themselves character driven questions.

Yes, it's important for writers to think of what story they want to tell and what they want to happen, especially when they're trying to follow a clear plan. And it’s even important to ask questions like 'what would the audience like' and 'what is the audience expecting,' though being careful not to let fandom control your writing is also very important since that contributes to heartless works and writer resentment directed to characters and story beats. But if you never ask character driven questions, your characters wind up feeling flatter and more lifeless, less connected to each other and to the story, boring, and frustrating for the audience to watch.

RWBY in the later seasons more and more feels like a perfect example of how not asking character driven questions can impact a piece of media. When everyone sees Oz's past, it feels like the writers thought "we want everyone to get angry at Oz" instead of asking themselves "how would they all feel after watching that? Do any of them connect with Oz's past? What is each characters opinion on secret sharing?" When the steal a plane plan happened at the end of V6, it's like the writers thought "we want everyone to be on board with this so Qrow gets put in his place" instead of "which kids have questioned authority so far? How are they all feeling right now? How would each characters' morals so far play into this plot?" Blake letting Adam go in V5, Nora thanking the SDC for their dust, Sun hiding under a cloak around corners in V4, the awkward dialog of Oz's inner circle in V3, the loving and happy relationship Ruby and Yang have with Tai despite him supposedly abandoning them for years, the lack of effort put into Ren and Nora grieving Pyrrha, Neo willingly following and listening to Cinder, Yang pulling Blake out of the room about to fill with Apathy seemingly with no care towards Ruby or Qrow... And then it just builds from there in V7 and V8, with characters that have had next to no connections having heart to heart's, Qrow just believing with no real question that James is an evil monster despite their V3 interactions indicating they're close friends and Qrow did trust him, Ruby in V8 deciding to launch the communications tower and then sit and do nothing despite her professed declarations of fighting Salem in V7, Nora being on Ruby's team in V8 despite her season 7 goal being to help and protect the people of Mantle, everyone easily accepting Winter despite her having been one hundred percent on Ironwood's side for a lot of his evil villain so called 'arc,' Ironwood's own speed of light launch into an evil cartoon villain instead of being a consistent ends-justify-the-means antagonist, Penny's flesh form talking about understanding hugs now, Yang and Blake both acting like they'd gotten in a big fight despite the fact that they WEREN'T in a big fight, Hazel getting to 'teach Oz lessons' as he died despite the fact that the writers never once wrote him to have a point, Salem starting her Grimm attack in the farmlands instead if in the city, Klein randomly knowing how to perform medical care, Emerald switching sides with what appears to be very little dilemma despite still being Cinder's most loyal and desperate for love follower and Cinder clearly seeing it and not caring, Cinder needing to 'learn to work with others from Ruby' as if she didn’t spend six seasons of the show fairly successfully working with others. I really could keep going!

And then it just builds even more from there with V9, where it actually DOES seem that the writers were paying attention to Ruby's character enough to give her some semblance of a grief arc where she'll call out the unfairness of her team. But still there are a million times that it seems character driven questions could've made V9 much better and instead the 'what the writers/audience might want' writing made the season almost entirely unwatchable.

One time, years and years ago, I saw someone say that they didn't think it was possible for characters to be out of character since because they're fictional, technically everything they do is something that character would do, since the character is only a vessel for whatever the writers want. I actually heavily disagree with this concept. The characters in a piece of media are usually incredibly important! Characters are tools that writers use, yes, but those characters need arcs and stories, they need to feel enough like people that the audience can relate to them and their experiences, so we can see the fictional world through their eyes. Even a very badly made piece of media can get away with those flaws if they have well done characters. If writers don't pay attention to their characters enough to make sure they're not acting in ways that they usually wouldn't with no explanation at all, then the whole story feels like a flat jumbled mess that doesn't matter. And that was the real problem with volume 9 of RWBY. Yes, it was weird and bad that they did some qUiRkY Alice in Wonderland nonsense world and it was weird and bad that they chose to do dumb things like turn the Curious Cat into some evil monster or wildly OP Neo's semblance or give Ruby a horribly done suicide arc or make Jaune into an old guy so he could get more unearned screentime... But all of that could've been "bad but whatever" and I could've gotten over it if the characters (sans Ruby who was passable) didn't feel like lifeless pointless husks that the writers just move to and fro in order to try to make the audience post gifs of them online. There's nothing special or important about the majority of the RWBY characters anymore because the writers almost never pay attention to them enough to give them real personality. I feel like whatever vague remnants of who they once were in the earlier seasons left is really just the byproduct of voice actors still doing their level best, but they don't really have much to work with.

That's really the main difference between RWBY V1-3 and even V4-5 and the other later volumes. The thing I think that makes the earlier seasons watchable for me and the later seasons so frustrating is that in the beginning, they'd slip up, but they knew who the characters were for the most part and they did try to keep them in character. Whatever changes happened to characters usually was after at least some attempt to grow said characters (again, for the most part.) But the longer RWBY went on, the less and less the writers have seemed interested in anything but just what they want or what they think the audience wants. "Blake's" journey no longer matters because they never seem to ask themselves how "Blake" would feel about things or what "Blake" would want or how she would act. They only care about "what do fans want." Yang, Weiss, Ren, Nora, Jaune, Winter, Qrow, Oz, Ironwood, Penny, almost every character has been neglected or changed around, and it feels like it's because the writers just do not at all care about asking themselves character driven questions. Maybe it just doesn't matter to the writers because they know it doesn't really matter to most of their fans.

[anthurak]

So I’ve been rewatching Red vs. Blue recently, and an interesting thought occurred to me.

It’s been well known pretty much since the beginning that a number of characters and story points in RWBY have drawn on elements from RvB. Ozpin draws a lot from the Director, we see very similar brutal deconstructions of ‘military hero’ tropes with Atlas, and of course Pyrrha’s similarities and notable contrasts to Carolina have been WELL documented and analyzed.

So with that in mind, given that Taiyang happens to be voiced by Burnie Burnes, I have to wonder if Tai is likewise at least in part meant to represent something of a reinterpretation of Church?

For one, there are already a number of parallels that we can see, both with the Church we know in the show itself, as well as the background of the original Leonard Church who would go on to becoming the Director of Project Freelancer:

A lost love-interest that left him consumed with grief, some very abrasive and assholish behavior that we see with Yang, and being a dysfunctional fuckup of a father.

In fact, if we consider ‘Allison’ and ‘Tex’ (aka, the Beta AI fragment) as separate characters (which frankly they ARE), then we can even find parallels to Tai’s relationships with Summer and Raven respectively:

We can see parallels to the original Leonard Church losing Allison and being consumed by grief in Tai losing Summer. And we can see parallels to the implied heavily abrasive and dysfunctional relationship between Tai and Raven in the dynamic Church has with Tex in the show, particularly in how Tex always seems to leave Church behind.

Not to mention we can see some VERY strong parallels in both Church and Tai being unreliable narrators. Church in the sense that he himself could not remember, while it’s becoming more clear that post-V9, Tai has been withholding a LOT of important information from Ruby and Yang, just like basically EVERY adult in RWBY does with their students/kids.

Now to clarify, I do think that Tai is probably meant to be more of a direct parallel/reinterpretation of the Church we see in the show itself, rather than the Doctor Leonard Church we see in the Freelancer flashbacks*. And specifically the Alpha iteration of Church from the first six seasons of the show, rather than the more character-developed Epsilon from later seasons.

Essentially, I feel like Taiyang could represent a reinterpretation of the original, ‘classic’ Church we see in the Blood Gulch Chronicles, with the additionally fully-fleshed out background of his human-self.

Tai could be in part meant to give us a look at just who Leonard L. Church really may have been as a person, without all the obfuscation of the A.I.s or the outlet to his grief provided by Project Freelancer, or the narrative ‘buffer’ of being in a wacky, irreverent comedy story:

A man broken and consumed by grief who uses abrasive sarcasm as a defense mechanism, but whose abrasiveness puts a wall up to the people he cares about, all of which and more has led to him being a complete dysfunctional fuckup of a father to the daughter(s) who relied on him.

--

*Which is actually quite fitting, given that the Director wasn’t actually voiced by Burnie.

[midnightechoes]

So this week is going to go down as maybe the most sapphic week in animation history. It’s going to have a great case, there are so many sapphic shows or shows with prominent sapphic couples airing this week.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Here’s a quick rundown:

Yuri Is My Job!

Premiering on Crunchyroll on April 6th.

Yuri is My Job! is based on a yuri manga of the same name. It follows high schooler Hime, who cares deeply about her image as sweet and helpful, even though she’s actually selfish. She accidentally injures the manager of a cafe, and agrees to work there to make up for it. But this is no ordinary cafe, it’s like a cafe dinner theater where all the waitresses play characters from a fictional high school and act out skits for the patrons. Hime’s character is supposed to be in love with one of the other waitresses’ character, but she starts actually falling for the girl. Only problem is, behind the scenes the other waitress seems to hate her.

Yeah, that sounds kind of bonkers! I can already see the story now, Hime starting out playing a role, and eventually having to legitimately earn the love of Mitsuki.

Birdie Wing: Golf Girls’ Story

Season 2 premiering on Crunchyroll on Friday, April 7th

Ah Birdie Wing. If you saw season one, you know just how delightful wacky this show is. It follows the stories of Eve, a golfer that plays in illegal underground golf matches for the mob, and Aoi, a golf prodigy and the new sensation of the golf world. Their lives crash into each other and the chemistry is overwhelming and immediate.

Technically Eve and Aoi aren’t canon as of the end of s1, but it’s hard to imagine that the show isn’t heading in that direction. It makes no effort to hide the fact that these two are into each other.

I’m so excited to see what season 2 has in store for these two. Birdie Wing is just a delightfully weird little show.

Princess Principal: Crown Handler Chapter 3

Premieres in theaters in Japan on Friday, April 7th

Alright, so this won’t be useful to a lot of people reading this, as this is only premiering in Japan this weekend. But I wanted to mention it because (a) it’ll come over to the US sometime this year, and (b) Princess Principal is awesome and I want to promote it when I can.

Princess Principal was a 12 episode series that aired in 2017, and Crown Handler is a six-part sequel OVA series.

In a nutshell, Princess Principal is a steampunk spy thriller set in an alternate universe European kingdom that has been divided by a wall, Berlin-style. It follows a team of spies, masquerading as high school girls, as they try to prevent the two sides from going to war.

I know, “why is this on a list of gay shit?” Well, because it is. Two of the main characters, Ange and Princess Charlotte, are big-time into each other and while the original series does the anime thing of “we’re only allowed to go so far with this”, the OG series has a lot of intimate scenes between the two and does end *SPOILERS* with the two of them sitting on the beach together while holding hands.

And perhaps Crown Handler, being made years later, can finally take their relationship farther.

RWBY Volume 9

Volume 9 episode 8 airing on Crunchyroll on Saturday, April 8th

RWBY has been ongoing, and the current volume has been airing since February, but there’ll be another episode this Saturday. Right now RWBY is in the middle of dealing with a lot of trauma, BUT, the bees are canon and dating so every episode of RWBY is now officially gay. So says me.

The Owl House: Watching and Dreaming

 Series finale airing on the Disney Channel on Saturday, April 8th

I’M NOT READY TO LOSE THIS SHOW! 😭

*ahem* The third and final season 3 special airs on Saturday, and promises to be mega emotional and super gay.

I’m grateful that this show had a chance to finish its story, something a lot of sapphic media doesn’t get to do. But I am still pissed about it getting cancelled in the first place simply because it didn’t fit their “brand” (read: this show is too gay for Disney).

But I just know that Dana and her team put together a sensational finale.

Mobile Suit Gundam: the Witch From Mercury

Season 2 premiering on Crunchyroll on Sunday, April 9th.

Affectionately called G-Witch, season 1 of this show was a revelation in the fall. It follows the story of Suletta Mercury, precious cinnamon roll and the most talented mobile suit pilot around, and Miorine Rembran, daughter of the president of the Benerit Group, a mega-corporation that has massive political power.

The show revolves around a school that’s mostly full of the children of powerful people. And then there’s Suletta, a nobody that just wants to be a normal girl and have a normal school life but through a series of events ends up in a mobile suit duel that she easily wins, earning her the title of Holder, which makes her Miroine’s groom.

At first, the two treat the arrangement as a business arrangement, both seeing practical value in this arranged engagement. But it’s obvious that Miorine is actually pretty into Suletta from the start, and we see Suletta slowly falling for Miorine too.

G-Witch is incredible. Part awesome mecha fights, part political intrigue, part romance between two useless girls who’d rather die that admit their actual feelings.

I am SO EXCITED for season 2!

LGBTQ media hasn’t had it great as of late, with a ton of frustrating cancellations and it almost feeling like Hollywood is going backwards in terms of its commitment to giving us space to tell our stories.

But animation, both in the US and in Japan, seems to be making great strides, being our light in the dark.

All five of these shows are airing episodes this week, and Crown Handler will be in theaters this week and on streaming/blu-ray later this year. RWBY has been airing for weeks and its been the gayest volume yet. the Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady just finished airing and was wonderfully sapphic. I’m In Love With the Villainess is scheduled to air sometimes this year. And just maybe we might get Arcane season 2 before the end of the year.

I’m excited for how sapphic and yuri animation is progressing, I hope it keeps going forward.

[ruins-of-tragedy]

Thoughts on season two's episode four to six of RWBY down the line... That Cinder is about to cross. Am scared.

Season 02, Episode 04: Painting the Town...

- "...And a point where you just can't take anymore." The songs are so gooooooood. I am going to start working out to them.

- Penny can generate an aura?! WoWie.

- Awwwwwwwww! Ruby really is handling this so well!

- "I can see why your father would want to protect such a delicate flower..." The crushing hugs will never end for Ruby. 😂

- If Penny's father isn't good... Am not sure what I would do.

- Ironwood is preparing... For no peace. Threats threats everywhere. Which, fair. Cinder and co have already infiltrated Beacon.

- Penny just lifted Ruby up like a kite and threw her in a dumpster... Which has a drawing of Thanos' gauntlet? 🤔

- Ruby really promised Penny not to share her secret. I can already see this causing problems. Hopefully it won't.

- Oh my Gods. Yang is so COOOOOOOOL! Neptune cannot take the speed. His googles are out of it and so is he it seems. 😂

- Wait. Is Yang's friend supposed to be Junior?

- Yup. He is looking well. Unfortunately. But his nightclub isn't. Filled with only his own men. LoLL!

- "Hurry, close the door. She's coming!" 👏🏻😂. I can't. So good.

- Greeted by a barrage of gun barrels. The vinyl record is stuck.. The bear thing the DJ is wearing looks cute. Must have it.

- Junior doesn't want revenge from Yang? And is actually asking his guys to stand down? What.

- Truly Neptune. What a woman. I wanna be like Yang when I grow up. ✨

- Miltia and Melanie don't care for his Sup. 😆

- The White Fang wear Grimm masks?! People wanted to make monsters out of them... Huh. Morbidly fascinating explanation, I will give them that.

- Sun: "Always sunshine and rainbows with you." ���

- Special comrade... Torchwick?! The fuck.

- Fighting against the system. He does have a good angle I guess.

- Roman has a Megazord?! His employer is Cinder, right? Not only is she hot, she is also loaded... WoWie.

- Some White Fang member is just waving his arm around in the crowd like he is at a concert. 😆

- New Southeast operation? Hmmm. Go outside the city, get to play with Megazord... While also getting justice. Huh. Appealing.

- Just as Blake thinks about leaving, new recruits get called forward. The universe truly has such great timing sometimes. So relatable.

- Yang asked questions. Junior doesn't have good answers. Neptune has even worse queries. The rest of the team is having too much of good luck mayhaps...

- Yup. Torchwick sees them. Blake has a good head and dark vision. Lights out! And so are Sun and Blake.

- Megazord too apparently. Jumping like ninjas from one building to another, so cooool, Blake called for backup... Sun screamed for help. 😆

- They both just passed Yang and Neptune. Bike riding! Hopefully Neptune doesn't fall off.

- Fighting on the highway... Cars are being treated like throwaway toys. Shikes. Hopefully there was no one in them.

- Neptune should invest in a helmet. His weapon is a gun and a spear with a blade?! Holy hell. I want it.

- Blade goes in the Megazord. Neptune goes on it. About to be flung off soon. At least he had some practice on Yang's bike! That should help.

- Sun can do the shadow clone jutsu?!

- Neptune and Sun are off the battlefield. Oooof. They were thrown off together so will have one another for company.

- Weiss is here! Did Torchwick just smile at her? Her sword is the Avatar? Master of all elements! 👏🏻❤️‍🔥

- Off the highway now. Thank Gods.

- Megazord vs Team RWBY!!!

- They have names for their moves?!? 🤯👏🏻❤️‍🔥🤌🏻. Freezer burn is happening. Loads of smoke. Magic act where the team disappears.

- Megazord has lasers. Team RWBY has four members.

- Weiss fell but not before giving Blake a magic ability to combat missiles! Teamwork!!!

- And now Ladybug. Ruby came up with the names, didn't she? 😆🫶🏻

- Megazord has lost one arm. Yang is beating the shite out of it. And now it's throwing her around like a ragdoll. Fuck.

- Blake is worried. So am I... She gets stronger with each hit? And can use that energy? To fight back? Good Gods. I love her. That's not the only thing that makes her special though. 💖

- New song!!! Red-eyed Super Saiyyan Yang. One punch, and the Megazord has lost the other arm. AGHHHHHHHHH!

- Did RWBY just say Bumbleby?! Bumbleby is AMAZING!!!!!

- Ice Flower? Weiss and Ruby's special attack!!!!

- Bumbleby and Ice Flower brought the Megazord down!!!!!

- Roman is complaining about getting his clothes dirty. His hands don't matter in the face of such grievances...

- Yang fired something and an umbrella girl stopped it with her umbrella. Huh.

- Roman does know Weiss then? He referred to her seperately as Ice Queen.

- Neo bowed, Yang hit them. And they broke into glass?

- The fuck! Did Torchwick and Neo just teleport?! Is Neo supposed to be from the Matrix?

- Weiss cracked a joke?!?! 😂😭😂. It made Ruby laugh at least. Blake just turned away. She was that disappointed. Yang does not want to be dethroned as their in-house jokester... No likey. 😂

- Sun and Neptune are at a noodle shop that is now run by the keeper of From Dust to Dawn. Did he change professions after that almost accident with Ruby and Penny? 😆😅😆

- This ending song... Really riling me up!

- Sun fanart! 💖

Season 02, Episode 05: Extracurricular

- "There's a point where it tips..."

- Pyrrha's in the locker room. The lights here look so beautiful. The entire setting is actually very nicely done.

- A warrior is getting ready. Bye-bye Cardin! Your loss is guaranteed. Holy hell. She is fighting his entire team?! And winning!!!

- Four vs One. And the one is so gooooooood, all four of them can't take her on... Badass!!!

- Sparring in class. Blake hasn't been participating much? Huh. Wonder what's up.

- Mercury is here as well?! And he wants to fight Pyrrha. I don't know how to feel about this.

- Emerald is in the audience behind Ruby and glances at her excitement with wariness? Should I be worried.

- Pyrrha and Mercury seem evenly matched so far.

- Emerald either cannot take Ruby's cheerful attitude or her compliments for Mercury...

- Mercury deflected Pyrrha's spear and now knows of her semblance... Shite.

- He forfeited. But why does it feel like he got exactly what he wanted... Uh oh.

- Blake was sleeping in class? That does not seem like her. Hope she is okie.

- Is she stressed over the upcoming dance? Or their first mission on Monday?

- Sun asked her to the dance. I guess Blake is actually worried about everything and can't focus on stuff like this now. Ahhh.

- Thank you Team. Blake should go to the dance and have fun! And also dance a lot with Yang. Yes, I am partial. No, I don't care.

- Yang and Weiss are planning the event?! Oh Gods. 😂

- Team CFVY, or Coffee. 😆. Of course they were the ones setting up the dance. Can't sleep on all that caffeine so dressing up a venue it is!

- Who asked Weiss and Yang to do this? I want to meet them and personally thank them for it.

- Wasting time away is exactly what we need here and there. Blake. I hope you get some sleep in the library.

- Someone knocked. Definitely not Blake. It's Jaune with a guitar, a wink, and a song. But he only got to sing her name before th door was shut on his face... Jaune. Please find someone else.

- He is still there. The song wasn't too bad. He said yes to being done with the song. Weiss said no to him. Ooof... Not going to lie, I would probably do this too. Ask a lady out with a guitar. Need to learn to actually play it though.

- Weiss finally learns why she is called the Ice Queen, while Ruby falls because she thought the floor was ice... 😂

- Awww. They won't go if Blake won't. Cute!

- Pyrrha and Jaune having extra classes! Jaune landed on his arse. But he has gotten better! He still hasn't discovered his semblance. Huh.

- Oh my Gods. Pyrrha's face literally fell when Jaune mentioned Weiss. Oh Gods. My good man. Ask her out. She is the best.

- Now I really want Jaune to wear a dress. But I also want Pyrrha to be happy. And apparently that comes from Jaune. But he won't wear a dress if she has a date... UGHHHHHHHHH. This is impossible!

- Cinder and co really are spying on people and their strengths. They are going to attack Beacon, aren't they?

- Not about overpowering but about taking away their power. I am terrified. And a little turned on... But why did they add Pyrrha to the list? Shite.

- Cinder stitches. And then looks down at the needle while menacing music plays... Oh no. She supposed to be Maleficent?

- The music sounds like it's for a metric romance!

- Pyrrha and Jaune fanart! 💖

Season 02, Episode 06: Burning the Candle

- "There's a point where it breaks..."

- Two tableclothes that look the same. To everyone else but Weiss. She irritated that Ruby can't see the difference. 😆

- Yang is carrying a huge ass speaker like it's nothing. 😎

- Blake still isn't going to the dance. Yang is confident she will. Hmmm.

- No doilies, no fog machine. I only understand one of those two.

- Neptune is impressed over the fog machine. Weiss seems glad he is here.

- Sun cannot be bothered to dress up. Yang is extremely confident about Blake being at the dance... Huh. Gal pal powers. 😉😆

- Good Gods. Blake's eyes are still working? The dark circles under them are overworking. Ooof.

- Is Yang actually using the red laser thing?! 😂. It has to be Yang. No one else would dare...

- I was right! And it did work! 👏🏻😂🤌🏻. Blake and Yang need to talk.

- Ren just got out of the washroom in just a towel. Jaune and him need to talk too. Ren uses Samurai Shampoo. 😂

- Jaune doesn't know how to... girls. Ren just wants to put his clothes on.

- Nora is there?! Ren's hands over his crotch make more sense now. And his urgency to get into his clothes too. 😆

- Okie, I noticed this back in volume one. Ruby's headphones have her rose symbol on them. Nora's headphones have her hammer. How? Their tech just automatically learns the symbol they go by?

- Not 'together' together. Do they want to be though? Childhood friends to lovers... Cute!

- Jaune really likes Weiss. Good Gods. Pyrrha is the one who nudges him in the right direction?! Fucking fuckity fuck. This is hurting me. And I am gay. UGHHHHHHHHH.

- Ren and Nora know. Truly, Nora be right. Pyrrha should tell Jaune the truth too. Can never go wrong there. But holy hell. Why would she? Jaune really is head over heels for Weiss. 💔🤧

- They have really improved a lot from last season. The backdrops, the lights, the way it's animated. Already noticeable!

- "I don't want you to stop, I want you to slow down." Yang is my favourite character. I love her so much already.

- She is so calm in the face of Blake's quiet storm.

- Yang and Ruby lore! Summer Rose. Supermom. Awww.

- So, Ruby and Yang's dad, Summer Rose, Qrow and Yang's biological mum were in a team together. Okie.

- I do know Yang's bio mother isn't the best mom. Shikes.

- Little Yang and tiny Ruby! This story is already making me sad.

- Holy hell. Grimm monster encounter at that age. Fucking fuckity fuck.

- The art they are using, charcoal like drawings but not entirely... It's so well done!!! I love it.

- Thank you uncle Qrow for saving them!!! I can see his symbol. Half a wing with a gear within the rounded part and a mini gear in the big gear. Huh.

- He looks like such an anime character, with the way they are situating him in the frame. ❤️‍🔥

- Yang. I love her so much more now. I didn't think that was possible. Blake is being stubborn. Yang is being even more stubborn, yet soft still.

- The hug. The conversation. The wink. 💖

- Listen. Am obviously a little blinded by the fact that Bumbleby is already canon. But how can people not ship them after this?! So far, it's one of the most impactful scenes. For me at least.

- Jaune has a white rose. For Weiss. Awww! This is so bittersweet.

- Oh no. Weiss is asking Neptune. I feel a little bad for Jaune, and the white rose on the floor, but now he can be with Pyrrha! He deserves someone who is as crazy about him as he is about them. We all do.

- The sisters look amazing! Ruby cannot walk on heels. Samesies.

- Sun has buttoned his black shirt. Finally! And has a necktrap. Blake appreciates it. She looks nice! Her first dance is spoken for! Hehe :3

- That's all they show of the Bumbleby dance?!? AGHHHHHHHHH!!!

- Yang has bowed out for Sun to get in. ❤️‍🩹. This hurts me a lot more than any of them. Thank Gods for fanfiction.

- Sun's shoes are in Bumbleby's colours at least! Good on him.

- Blake's having fun I guess. That's what matters. And that Yang was right! ✨

- The dancers in the background are moving in such a synchronised fashion... They must have practiced a lot together! 😆

- Ruby may not be a fancy-pantsy-dancy girl, but I want to be. With the pants. And a girl. 😭

- Ozpin is imparting wisdom about fighting and dancing and lost time. Nights you never forget.

- Enter Emerald and Mercury. Oh no.

- Ooooooh! Nice song. Very appropriate for a dance!

- Team RWBY fanart! 💖

(No spoiling stuff! Or I spoil your future kids with presents before you ever get a chance to! There's a HIMYM reference there. If you get it, you cool! Sayonara!)

[inkperch]

God, RWBY is such a show.

Like. It has its issues, but most of them come straight from it's greatest strength: it's a silly passion project from a few good friends that somehow managed to get the budget and following to be genuinely beautiful on a technical level, without selling itself to any Big Oversight Companies until like. Fairly late on in its run-

Like. Two of the eight main characters were fucking self inserts, quite transparently, of their VAs, and those same two have two of the most complex backstories in the show and are both just. All around excellent characters with compelling arcs. It took six fucking seasons to answer a question set up in episode 1, and three to even mention it again. We're still, nine seasons and a dead creator in, picking up plot threads established in Volume fucking one.

And yeah. It has it's faults. Basically the entire White Fang Arc reads as 'Oh hey wouldn't it be cool if- nope nope nope, that's a sensitive issue, fuck it's too late to backtrack uhhhh-'. You can see where there's been some behind the scenes issues in certain seasons, ie with the weirdness surrounding Maria and Atlas.

But it's good. Despite those faults, it's good. It's map was drawn from a napkin stain, and that world manages to feel genuinely alive.

[deusvervewrites]

I wouldn't really trust HBomberguy as a source for RWBY, given that, as someone who's actually WATCHED the show, HBomberguy makes a lot of shit up.

Not least of which being his claim to being a huge fan of Monty Oum when, back when Monty was alive, HBomberguy regularly tore into everything the man made, no matter what. He only stopped when Monty died because he knew mocking a dead man would ruin his reputation.

Take the self insert accusations, for example:

The only reason that Miles Luna was chosen to voice Jaune because Monty liked his "nerd voice".

Neptune is NOT that big a character in Volume 2. Weiss' crush on him is little more than a gag that comes up every now and then, and even his own voice actor calls him a loser who's nowhere near as cool as Weiss thinks he is. Weiss' short-lived crush on Pyrrha has gotten more focus over the years than her crush on Neptune ever has.

Seriously, it REALLY bugs me that people parrot Hbomberguy's word as gospel when he decided he was going to hate the show before he even watched a single episode.

Oh none of that was what I was talking about. I'm talking about things like the plot shifting direction completely mid-season, weird pacing decisions, problems with the animation, inconsistent and sometimes contradictory exposition, exposition appearing way later than it should have, character details getting lost or forgotten, etc.

I should also note that I have watched the first three volumes of RWBY. In fact I've watched the first six volumes of RWBY. I've also watched the Anime Slushie episode breakdowns of seasons 7 and 8.

If I wanted to make an argument about self-inserts, I wouldn't start with Adrien or Jaune, I'd start with Showrunner Thomas Astruc actually straight up being in the show himself did you think I forgot about that TA? Did you think I missed the entire episode dedicated to you calling people who criticize you losers who hate things without watching them?

Ahem.

[littlemisssquiggles]

In today’s episode, Jaune revealed that Lewis and Alyx were actually residents of Vacuo Kingdom (surprise, surprise) during a time before the Great War. And since we know that Lewis actually returned from the Ever After, it make wonder something curious.

If Lewis was the author of the Girl Who Fell Through the World fairy-tale then it would make perfect sense as to why he omitted himself from the written adventures in the Ever After and chose to make Alyx the protagonist. It makes sense since, unlike Lewis, Alyx never returned home and basically “died” in the Ever After.

So my assumption is that Lewis must’ve maintained his sister’s story through his story about her. That way Alyx’s legacy was able to live on in some shape or form despite the real Alyx practically ceasing to exist after never returning home.

Since Jaune was shown to still be have some qualms over his time in the Ever After, it got me thinking.

What if…Jaune were to (somehow) discover the original journal of Lewis which he had used to record his experience in the Ever After in the Vacuo archives?

What if…Jaune were to meet someone closely connected to Lewis and Alyx while in Vacuo? Like a surviving member of their family bloodline still thriving in modern Remnant.

What if… Headmaster Theodore was that surviving member? I know the main popular theory is that Lewis was one of Ozma’s reincarnations but imagine if Lewis wasn’t an Ozma reincarnation but Theo’s ancestor instead?

I haven’t read either of the RWBY After the Fall books so I’m not familiar with Headmaster Theodore in terms of characterization or like what his backstory is.

That being said, I do, however like the idea of the final maiden being connected to Theo in some shape or form.

For me, I like the prospect of the Summer Maiden being either Theo’s daughter or younger sister or cousin or niece or some important person to him as she’s probably the only family he has left.

Again, I don’t know anything about Theo but thus far, none of the other headmasters of the huntsmen academies have had any reason to be protective of their respective maiden outside of a moral obligation as per Ozpin’s instructions.

To make Theo stand out more, I think it would be a nice change of pace if Theo, the final headmaster, were to share an actual connection to the final  maiden as she is a beloved relative of his.

Why bring this up? Well I like the idea of Jaune forming a close relationship with another Maiden candidate. Maybe he could even fall in love with the Summer Maiden.

Technically, Jaune hasn’t had a legit love interest since Pyrhha and I don’t know about ya’ll but…after six seasons (and half a movie), I’m kind of tired of being reminded of Arkos, ya’ll.

It was the Ship that was meant to be that never got to be because Writers decided to kill it off early.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Arkos. Arkos was a great ship that was gone too soon.

To (finally) close the chapter on Jaune moving on from Pyrhha (since even after all of his growth, I still don't think he's over her as the show keeps constantly bringing up whenever they can)...

I think it actually might be cute if Jaune does end up being romantically involved with the Summer Maiden who he actually succeeds in protecting from Cinder when she comes to steal her powers.

I’ve grown tired of new maidens showing up in the story just to die for the sake of the powers being passed onto a main character.

Since Summer is the last maiden, it would be nice if Summer is the one to stop the cycle of original maiden deaths and she actually gets to live on even after opening the vault.

As much as I like WhiteKnight as a ship, I honestly gave up on it becoming canon after V5 dropped and nothing else was done to further develop Weiss and Jaune’s relationship as a prospective romance.

Yeah sure, V9 tossed us a crumb of Weiss being attracted to Jaune in his more mature Rusted Knight persona.

But after further deliberation, I’ve concluded that that little nugget of hope isn’t enough to get me back on the horse of hoping for a romance between these two.

Do you know what would actually be pretty wild?

If Jaune fell in love with the Summer Maiden who is not only a red-head (like Pyrhha) but is also a descendent of Lewis who is the author of the Girl Who Fell Through the World and thus a relative of Alyx.

And unlike Alyx and Pyrhha who Jaune failed to protect/help/save, Jaune is able to do just that with the Summer Maiden by protecting her from Cinder and thus, the two are able to live happily ever after.

That would actually be wild.

Not saying this would become true in the canon. I'm just tossing it out into the RWBY FNDM ether as a food for thought.

~LMS (2024)

[strykingback]

Jaune Arc. The most HORRENDOUS example of a FUCKING KNIGHT.

Trigger warning for this being a drunk as hell post because I decided to drink after a long day of Valentines BS and wanting to make thi post to make one teensy weensy Jaune Stan mad.

Oh yes Rooster Teeth and CRWBY I'm gonna fuckin' shit all over your useless-ass knight character. Why? Because I fuckin' can. So eat a whole ass fucking dick.

So you know Jaune Arc from RWBY right? Literally the "knight character" of the series right. WELL FUCKIN' WRONG. Cause this knight is the example of "I Wanna Be the Main Character" syndrome and literally betrays everything that a knight is meant to do.

So as we know Jaune is meant to be a reference or referred by his naming convention to the actual JOAN OF ARC

Joan of Arc who is well known as history's most bravest female knight of all time. Who had managed to push back many British soldiers all while she received a vision from God in order to continue her rage against the British invaders during the Hundred Years War. Now if we're talking about the Arthurian Legend then this talk would be hella different.

Now starting things off. What pisses me off the most is why wasnt Jaune a fucking woman to kick things off. Like one of the most influential knights in human history being reduced to a secondary wannabe "I wanna be the MC" head-ass boy. Like not gonna lie it would have been much better if he was one cause it would have made a lot more sense if their semblance was seeing events before they happened which woulda made more sense and would have fit Jaune's historical illusion.

But naw. Make his semblance the generic. "I Need Healing" head-ass.

now this would mean that he would be following the Code of Chivalry which this useless-ass knight has failed in so many levels. Take note that there are two Code's of Chivalry one from the Song of Roland and one from the Arthurian Legend of King Arthur. and the following two state.

Song of Roland’s Code of Chivalry: 

Fear God and His Church Serve the liege lord in valor and faith Protect the weak and defenseless Live by honor and for glory Respect the honor of women

King Arthurs version of the Code of Chivalry: 

Honor Honesty Loyalty Valor

Immediately right off the bat we know for certain that Jaune does not respect the honor of women especially in Vol 9 where Ruby has a whole ass mental break down but Jaune says "Oooh I M THE MAIN CHARACTER! YOUR JUST A FUCKIN' BITCH AND YOU NEED TO LET ME HAVE THE SPOTLIGHT" like tell me that is immediately a massive fail especially when Jaune had respected Pyrrha so much so to the point where this man had multiple different arcs over the course of what. six fucking seasons and still has not gotten over her death. Now yes he did follow through with Penny's Idea.... which was a horrendous idea not gonna lie....

Dude shes fuckin' dead. MOVE ON WITH THE LESSONS SHE HAS TAUGHT YOU. YA FUCKIN' REDDIT MOD LOOKING HEAD-ASS!!!!

Next would have to be Honesty has he literally cheated to get in. Now I count this as a half fail. cause he did prove to have potential in the earlier seasons of RWBY but at the same time. He lied to get into Beacon Academy. which only made me think.... what did Monty cook up for him before Rooster Teeth and CRWBY fucked everything . Another would have to be Loyalty which is a hardcore fail. As he assisted RWBY (aka the four terrorists) into literally destroying an ENTIRE FUCKIING KINGDOM. Actually TWO if you're counting Mantle. Which is just fucking stupid cause this man would warn people and then suddenly everything has to focus around him like once again "Main Character Syndrome." instead of Ruby Rose who IS SUFFERING IN VOLUME NINE!!! Oh Oh Oh. but wait theres more.

but then when Ruby does the Unalive congo and everyone is shocked.. guess what everyone has to hug Jaune cause he is going through shit. When Ruby had it worse!!!

Aka The Four Dumb Fucks who wont realize their Leader just unalived themselves and they just hug the "Main Character Syndrome: Jaune who is going through it instead of mourning Ruby.

What is there in Honor for a man who barely can honor a friends death no less in the "possible afterlife"

Valor- Dude is the example of I'm a fuckin' coward and I need assistance in order to harm the big fuckin' bad.

Loyalty- Jaune " I followed my friends to destroy an entire Kingdom" Arc.

Everybody Jaune Arc. Is Full o' bullshit and he is the worst example of a fuckin' knight who should never get an arc again!

[fullbattleregalia]

WIP Game

Rules: You will be given a word. Share one sentence/excerpt from your wip(s) that start with each letter of that word.

I got tagged by @greentrickster and my word is LIFE. So here are some snippets of Wild Card, a RWBY fic I’ve been working on where Roman Torchwick never got sprung from prison during the season three finale and has joined up with the protagonists in an attempt to find out what has happened to Neo (because things would have had to gone very wrong for her to leave him in Atlesian custody).

L

“Looks more like a coverup to me,” commented Uncle Qrow, taking a shot from his flask.

“Cover up? Covering up what?” Ruby frowned. Didn’t tattoos... already cover up your skin? Wasn’t that the point?

“Another tattoo. It’s not like they come off again if you change your mind a few years down the line. So what was it, Torchwick? Old flame? You lose a bet?”

Torchwick just smirked.

“I’ll just say that you should never bet against Neo when laundry duty is on the line. She hates ironing her own clothes.”

I

It only took Qrow six matches to get the campfire started, and he was counting that as a win.

Qrow had had a lot of bad ideas in his time. A lot of bad ideas. A looooot of-

The point was that taking five teenagers and a known criminal on a hike through the Grimm infested forests of Sanus to the nearest town with an airship that could get them to Mistral wasn’t his worst idea ever, but it was an unfortunately low bar. Tai must never know.

F

“Face it,” Torchwick smirked, “I’m your best bet for stopping Cinder. We both get what we want – I get my revenge, and you get to take that bitch out before any more of your precious ‘innocents’ die. Think about it.”

Uncle Qrow’s expression had gone blank.

“Close the cell door.” Torchwick offered a mocking salute as the door slid shut. Uncle Qrow’s shoulders slumped slightly as the final lock clicked into place. Then he turned to the guards. “I need to talk to General Ironwood.”

E

Evidently, Qrow had been wanting for more theatrical snark in his life. He loved his niece, but naively optimistic teenagers weren’t his first choice for conversation partners. Torchwick was also completely capable of having an entire conversation with himself. The only thing Qrow really had to do once Torchwick got going was exist.

[itsclydebitches]

Apparently people a few very loud people are going around saying that hhbomberguy's RWBY vid are responsible for RWBY needing to be asked to get greenlit.

It's funny, but also kinda disturbing how much people are treating this as a personal attack on Monty and his friends.

Yeah, I’ve seen some of those posts as well as RWDE reactions to the posts. As you say, it’s important to keep in mind that this is a small subset of the fandom that is not only vocal in-and-of-itself but, more significantly, is saying stuff that gets traction. The more wild the take, the more individual blogs want to react to it (myself included right now!), the more you see it, the more prevalent it seems... but in reality it’s just a couple individuals saying it. I’d also hazard a guess that 99% of their support is just that: supporting someone you follow, whose views you generally like, and the vague anti-RWDE stance that the fandom enjoys indulging in. If you took each person out of the Internet Social Pressure Machine of Instant Gratification (aka I press one heart button and instantly I’ve got some social clout. No reason to think about what precisely I’m agreeing with) and asked them if they really believe one video by one guy online has decimated a series sitting within Warner Bros... I’d hope they’d say “No.”

For anyone who does truly believe that, yeah, it’s ridiculous. What amuses me though is how thoroughly the argument disses RWBY. I mean, we know a YouTube video isn’t responsible for #greenlightvol10, but if someone thinks it is that’s probably a popularity perspective. Meaning, the presumed logic is that someone said RWBY is bad, people believed him, stopped watching, and now the show struggles. That’s a chain of events that implies either:

a) RWBY is bad in a number of ways and people have decided they don’t want to give the show their time/money as a result. b) Hbomberguy is lying (the argument most of these posts make) and so many fans took him at his word, with RWBY unable to persuade them otherwise. The show they originally loved wasn’t good enough for them to stick with once an internet stranger said, ‘Thing you like bad.’ The accolades and praise of friends wasn’t enough to convince new viewers to give it a try because one (1) voice said otherwise. The combined total of RWBY - six seasons worth at the time - couldn’t withstand two and a half hours of criticism; it’s combined worth couldn’t weather one guy’s opinion lasting the length of a film.

So if you believe he’s responsible for RWBY’s current struggles then, sorry, but RWBY doesn’t come out looking too good. Either Hbomberguy merely revealed what’s always been there and RWBY is now reaping its writing + production problems, or Hbomberguy lied for two hours and RWBY wasn’t a good enough show to recover from that staggeringly low hurdle.

Or, you know, the greenlighting of new seasons has nothing to do with someone posting one critical video in an age where every fandom of significant size has more critical videos than you can shake a stick at. Engagement shouldn’t be overlooked as a factor, but it’s far from the only factor and, even if it was, one fan does not have the power to sway an entire community like that. Especially if the show is good enough that fans have no reason to question its quality in the first place.

[kitkatopinions]

"Blake's TRUE color is purple, the black was only ever because of Adam" Friend, if that was the case her name wouldn't literally mean black. You guys were watching the color show originally centered around color where the color oriented team rwby who had names with the first initial of their color made by someone who was so particular about color that he almost made all dust red just so he didn’t throw off Weiss's color scheme. You really think that if Blake's TRUE color was always meant to be purple, she'd be named Blake?

Also, people only ever offer Blake 'breaking away from Adam' and 'getting healthy and confident' as reasons why the writers are acting like she's purple now, but like... Blake hasn't been with Adam at all during the course of the main show. She was completely disillusioned with him, she was against the things he did, she was standing up to him, she was calmly articulating the way she felt about him, she was making friends, learning to trust, went on a date for God's sake, all within the first three seasons. And the backsliding that happened because of the fall of beacon was dealt with and left her more confident than ever, reunited with her parents and Ilia, 'reclaiming the White Fang' from him even though that was a badly done mess, etc, all prior to reuniting with Team RWBY by the way. Killing Adam in volume six was completely unnecessary to Blake's journey of healing and actually logically would've made her backslide again, and as I've said before, Blake turning into a meek flinching passive person trying to manage her partner's temper and hiding behind said partner when her seventeen year old teammate raises her voice makes it seem like Blake is actively LESS healthy than ever before.

People literally only say that about "purple is really Blake's color, the black is just Adam" because they're unable to see Blake outside of Bumbleby and use Adam as a fallback hatesink for anything she once was that contradicts it. Also I want these people to stop calling their ship bumbleby and find something purple and yellow to call their ship, like LarryBoy or something. Also Also I want them to stop singing Red Like Roses, because "Black the beast descends from shadow-" Oh ADAM that must mean ADAM because Blake's color isn't black! /s

Also the same can be said for Weiss. "White was the Jacques color, blue is really what Weiss's color really is" A. Her name means white. B. You’re telling me that in V4 at the height of when the writers want you to think Jacques is so cruelly controlling her, she's wearing that dull gray-ish blue dress and absolutely no white, and that wasn’t meant to be symbolic at all? And when she leaves she puts on the wide white belt, and you thought that... What, meant that Jacques still had a hold on her or something? Also, C. I could be wrong, but doesn't Nicholas Schnee who the writers are billionaire simps for and Weiss admires and calls a hero ALSO wear tons of white? If Weiss is shedding Jacques (represented by white) and embracing the True Blueblooded GOOD Billionaire Schnee name (blue) then wouldn't old Nick Schnee be decked out in blue?

And legitimately, the writers might've randomly decided while writing V6 that Weiss's color should be blue and Blake's color should be purple and THEY might have come up with those same dumb excuses, but they're not good excuses and I absolutely DO NOT believe that Blake's color being black and Weiss's color being white was originally meant to 'show us they weren't being their true selves' or that they were 'getting held back' and so on and so forth. Every time I see people say that, I roll my eyes so hard.

[onceuponalegendbg-rwby]

RWBY Retrospective - Volume 2

With Volume 1's success, the team now had proof that there was an audience for this show. They just had to see if they could keep the momentum going.

Volume 2 is in an interesting position because it basically works as a middle chapter of a prologue, meaning it's meant as a connection point for V1 and 3. Not to say nothing happens, quite the contrary, but that it feels even more open ended than V1's finale. Our team even mentions that there's still so many questions and things to solve. However, V2 is a step forward for the series regardless.

From the first shot the show is letting us know that things have improved. The textures for the buildings look better, no longer just flat images. The first real shot we see of Beacon is grand and a far cry from episode 2 of V1's. Same can be said for the NPCs. Gone are the Shadow People and their comedic potential, now we have actual models. The coloring is also so much better, saturation levels seeming to have evened out enough to where characters like Weiss with her mostly white color scheme no longer hurt your eyes to look at.

This volume also does a better job at expanding on characters that didn't get much focus previously - characters like Yang and Pyrrha. It's not flawless in this department but there's an attempt made to give these characters depth past their initial impressions and I'd say that they succeed.

The show still carries over some of it's pacing issues from before, but they don't feel nearly as distracting as V1, most likely due to the episodes all being a more consistent and longer length than V1's four-six minute two parters. There's also just the lingering problem of not having the time to properly explain some mechanics of the world, which is no doubt why the World of Remnant videos that started up in this volume felt necessary to the crew.

Some General and Unfiltered Thoughts

While I know people have some issue with the whole Neptune - Weiss - Jaune part of the season, it doesn't really bother me, personally. It's just kind of there. I mostly just end up feeling bad for Pyrrha the whole time until Jaune gets his head on straight.

I find that the season's humor has improved. There's a few jokes that don't work for me, but over all I found myself laughing more. It feels like they're finding their footing a little better in that department here.

The foreshadowing is through the roof this volume, and given what happens in V3... Well. Let's just say it was warranted. Our trio of baddies take the stage and set us up for the inevitable fall.

While I love the Food Fight and the RWBY vs Roman fight I think the fights during the Mountain Glen arc (before and after the train) are kind of meh? A lot of it is split screen shots, and while CFVY's entrance is cool the rest feels... anticlimatic. Which I understand is a little bit of the point in regards to episode 12 but when viewed in a vacuum it's... not my favorite.

Genuinely the Burning the Candle Bee scene still remains one of my favorite scenes in the entire show. The lighting is gorgeous for early RWBY, Barb and Arryn do a great job, and the music is on point. There's just something so warm (heh) about that entire interaction and I will fight anyone who says this wasn't some of the best stuff in the first three volumes.

Music, as always, fantastic. Though I still cannot stand the rap in Caffeine.

[fandom]

Et tu, Tumblr?

The second season of Shadow and Bone is here, and with it, some brand new ships, so don’t forget to tag and filter your spoilers. Things are getting awfully dark in Trigun Stampede, while the first episode of Ted Lasso’s third season has given everyone a new way to pronounce “POO-peeeh.” Taylor Swift is in her Eras era, and we hope everyone who managed to get concert tickets has a blast. The My Chemical Romance reunion tour is wrapping up with two final concerts in Japan this week. Fanfic authors rejoice—there’s a whole new Hozier EP to pull fic titles from. The Sims 4 has infants now so modders are hard at work. Finally, the Ides of March came and went, and with it, a slew of polls, memes, jokes, and history lessons. This is Tumblr’s Week in Review.

Shadow and Bone

The Ides of March

Taylor Swift

The 95th Academy Awards

The Last of Us

Julius Caesar

Six of Crows

Trigun Stampede

Hozier

The Sims 4

Artists on Tumblr

Ted Lasso

Joel Miller | The Last of Us

Kaz Brekker | Shadow and Bone

Critical Role

My Chemical Romance

Pedro Pascal

Wesper | Wylan Van Eck and Jesper Fahey, Shadow and Bone

Buddy Daddies

RWBY

[seansilv25]

Another six months, another media tier list

Invader Zim; Not sure if I already saw this in my childhood or not, but goddamn did I love this Smiling Friends; Why did I sleep on this so hard? It made me smile so easily (Please let Glep have more screentime in season 3, please and thank you Chris & Zack) X-Men '97; Peak. That's all I can really say RWBY: Ice Queendom Abridged; I knew this would be good because the guy who made Sonic the Abridgehog was doing it, but DAYUM!! Chalkzone; That was just charming. Simply charming Killer Bean Forever; KILLER BEAN SWEEP, BAYBEE!! 10 OUTTA BEANS CLEAN!! Tron: Legacy; Now I see why people like Daft Punk. Also, this was just the first movie if they actually explained things. In other words, just better Encanto; Been holding off on this for a while, but that was still good. Especially Bru- (Gets taken out by the deep state for talking about Bruno) Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire; Anyone else realize how dark of a way to go freezing to death is? Superman: The Movie; Crazy to think this was superhero movies got their start. And thank you Hopesmaxxing for reminding us why we like the Man of Steel Watchmen; Let's face it: the best parts about this were anything about Dr. Manhattan Red vs Blue: Restoration; Huh... so that's why we were here Suicide Squad Abridged 1 / Ticket to Heck; An okay abridged. But I will say, King Shark was in fact, a shark Knuckles; Could've done with less of the bowling plot, but it was alright (But how will episode 4 impact the potential of Silver in the movies? Legitimately asking) The Garfield Movie; Chris Pratt was okay, you guys are just mean Baki Hanma vs Kengan Ashura; Don't know jack about Kengan but that seemed pretty raw Tron; Nostalgia Critic's review of Quest for Camelot. 11 minutes and 9 seconds in. Basically that

[midnightechoes]

2024 REFLECTIONS

I’ll be honest, I spent a good ten minutes trying to figure out a peppy opening for this post. As you can tell, I couldn’t think of one. In many ways, 2024 was a rough year for us all. I’m not going to focus on the precarious state of the world here, even though I would be lying if I didn’t say that it didn’t play a part in how my year went. Instead, I’m going to try to focus on my personal journey through the year. I’ll be reflecting on my year, and what I hope to bring into 2025.

2024 was a year of endings for me. Well, that’s the charitable outlook. You could also say it was the year of things falling apart for me.

Perhaps the biggest was my daily doodle streak. On December 1st 2014, I committed to drawing something every day during that month. And I did it. I was so happy with myself, I decided to try to keep that streak going. I went into 2015 with the ambitious goal of doing a daily doodle every day of the year. And I did that too.

So I kept going. A month streak turned into a whole year streak, which turned into two years, which turned into a little over nine years. Yeah. I drew a daily doodle every day from December 1st 2014 to December 17th 2023. 3,305 days. It is still one of the things that I am most proud of. Sure, some of the doodles were glorified stick figures, or just part of a larger picture that I was working on, but the point is I still drew. Something. Anything. for 3,305 days in a row. I tried to restart it a few times in 2024, but the longest I got was around 60 days.

The streak came to an end over the holiday season because I caught the flu. A bad case of it.

That flu is also the reason I broke my writing streak of over two years. Not as long as my doodle streak, I was over 700 days into writing a little bit every day.

My daily streak of Japanese lessons (on Duolingo and later Busuu) survived the flu, but would also end in the Summer. It also lasted a little over two years, from April 2022 to July 2024.

On a personal level, my diet also fell apart in 2024. I did way too much of “eating my feelings”, and I’ve paid for it.

I told myself that I was okay with the daily doodle streak ending, that it had done what it needed to (get me drawing again), but in hindsight, I miss it. Hell, I think I need it. Since my daily doodle streak ended I’ve struggled to get into a drawing rhythm this year. It almost feels like a chapter has ended for me. One that began with my daily doodles, and kicked into full gear with the arrival of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.

Between SPOP, and then CW’s Supergirl, and then RWBY and Mobile Suit Gundam: the Witch From Mercury, I had entered into this wonderful period of creativity, creating fanart, writing fanfics, just making so much stuff.

But I only drew a handful of pictures in 2024, and only did two tiny fanfics. I stopped posting much here, or on my other social media. All that just kind of stuttered to a stop, even though there were a bunch of ideas of things I wanted to draw and write.

I’m hoping to work on getting that spark of productivity back in 2025. I plan to restart my daily doodle streak on January 1st. Likewise I hope to get better about writing again, as well as start doing Japanese lessons again.

It’s sounded all like doom and gloom so far, but there was one very bright spot in 2024. A comic idea called Void Domain Midnight. It’s a concept involving a few of my favorite OCs that I’ve had around for decades now in previous incarnations, along with a bunch of new characters. It stars my OC Youmi, who’s been the character that’s been in my head for what feels like my entire life at this point.

I’ve been searching for the right story for her for years. I thought I had found it back in 2005 with a couple of friends, but that fizzled out in 2008. And then I spent the next six years trying to rework her story until I had to admit to myself that it just wasn’t working late in 2014.

So she went onto the shelf, and stayed there. I was beginning to think that she’d always just be a case of something I wish I had been able to do, but, in the summer of 2023, a convergence of things came about that got me thinking about Youmi for the first time in years. And, after playing around with stuff for a few months, I think I’ve finally found the story I want to tell with her.

A lot of 2024 has been spent working on and planning her comic, Void Domain Midnight. World building, characters designs, story outlines. I have done quite a bit of work on VDM, and my hope is to begin making VDM in full this winter so that I can actually start releasing stuff this year.

I guess it was wrong to say that my productivity spark was entirely gone. I’ve just been putting it into VDM. But still, even with VDM, I’ve been less motivated to get things done lately than I was in the past. I’m hoping to start building that back up.

Because… I’ve never lost my spark of creativity. That want to make things, that thing inside you that goes “oh I have this cool idea for a fic,” or “wouldn’t this picture look amazing?” That’s still there. I just need to get back to a place where I’m acting on those feelings again.

I think I can do it. Slowly but surely. I need to be patient with myself (admittedly not always something I’m great with), but I think I can get back to making the stuff I love.

So that’s the attitude I choose to bring into 2025. One of optimism. One of hope. Not just for my art, but for everything. I choose to keep working for a better future for myself and for the world. Yeah, my mental health will put obstacles there sometimes, but I know I can work through them, because I have in the past.

I’m going to make fanart of stuff I love in 2025.

I’m going to write the fanfics that I want to in 2025. I may even get back to working on Jackets in 2025.

I’m going to make Void Domain Midnight in 2025. I might even make a few other smaller comics this year.

This is the stuff I want to do. This is what I want to spend my time on. I’m going to do everything I can to make it a reality.

Happy New Year everyone.