#she was already losing faith with Ozpin

[rachetmath]

Jaune VS Hazel

Okay, it’s time I talked about it. Let me finally get this out of my chest. Whether you agree with me or not, I don’t care. A Jaune vs Hazel fight should have happened in volume eight. Understand the number one reason is because these characters oppose each other well. This is due to not only their similarities being Salem and Ozpin as well as the Hunting world in general.

First, let’s take a look at Hazel’s character. Hazel had a sister named Gretchen Rainart, who wished to become a huntress. He didn’t approve of her wish, so she left without his regards. She soon died on her training mission causing Hazel to be alone. Hazel was soon visited by Salem who not only told him everything but he killed her many times to no avail. Soon Hazel joined her team despite knowing what she planned to do. He does betray Salem though. Now it’s time to go deeper.

Hazel only mentions his sister. This leads us to assume that their parents are gone. Dead probably, due to being in the same field of Gretchen’s interest. They were hunters hinting why Hazel didn’t want his sister to become one herself. This is similar to how Jaune’s parent with the only difference being Gretchen earning her spot while Jaune didn't. 

Due to their parents' deaths, it was up to Hazel to not only watch after Gretchen but provide for her. Hazel does so with his body by becoming a test subject for dust experimentations due to being able to block out pain. This means Hazel already had a lot to burden and only managed it because of his sister. And after Gretchen’s death and knowing it meant nothing he gave into despair. Eventually, this leads to his hatred towards Ozpin and losing faith in the world he created.

Next, let's discuss Jaune’s character. Only the important details though. Jaune cheated his way into Beacon due to wanting to be a hunter like his father. Jaune soon befriended and was taught by Pyrrha Nikkos, who sadly died in the Fall of Beacon. Pyrrha was Jaune’s friend. She was there for him especially when others didn’t believe in him. However, being chosen to become a maiden and having to choose after the Vytal Festival by Ozpin made her a bit distant. Not to mention the added pressure from her peers. Jaune, tried as he might, sadly wasn’t able to be there for her. After the fall, Jaune may as well once again feel alone. Jaune soon wanted revenge on her murderer, Cinder Fall who works for Salem.

However, on the journey to Heaven, after Qrow suddenly appears and tells him about how the world came to be and how Pyrrha was chosen to burden the maiden’s power by Ozpin no less he grows angry. Because regardless of it being Pyrrha’s decision, she was given a very short time to decide. Not only that Qrow told him this after they were just attacked by one of Salem’s forces. And to spit on Pyrrha’s death even more he finds out that Salem is invisible and Ozpin had no way to stop her. Yet despite all that information he still stands by his friends and doesn’t give in to his sorrows, unlike Hazel.

This is how Jaune and Hazel’s characters are alike. Both the people they cared about were killed. Sadly their deaths meant nothing. Both hated Ozpin and had to learn about Salem’s curse which made their lives even more difficult. However, that’s where similarities end. Despite both being disgusted with how Ozpin operates they took two different paths of going about it. Hazel sides with Salem, killing in both his sister's and Salem’s name because he lost all faith in humanity. Meanwhile, Jaune still fights Salem, along with his friends, keeping his faith in humanity. So if these two were to fight, how would it go down? How would have they encountered each other? Well, let us talk.

Jaune and Hazel's encounter with each other should happen inside the whale. Jaune and his team along with Ace-ops enter with their objectives being; to retrieve Oscar and The Relic Of Knowledge and destroy the whale from the inside. Jaune tells Ren to go with Ace-ops while he and Yang look for Oscar and the relic. Jaune and Yang soon split up as well to cover more ground. Hazel after getting the information he needed, could’ve summoned Jinn and attempted to kill Oscar.

(Okay now let me repeat this, Oscar, realistically, should not have escaped without his friend’s help. I understand he told Hazel the truth. Hazel got mad at him because whether he wanted Salem to win or not, what Oscar did was display himself as a coward. By definition “a person who lacks courage to face danger.” I understand it takes courage to tell the truth but this is not with your parents or your friends This is your enemy. Someone who is hired to hurt you. By telling them the information you not just putting your life in danger but others as well. So Hazel has no reason to let Oscar go nor keep him alive because one he displayed weakness. And sadly, Ozpin, so far has done more harm than good.)

Hazel then encounters Jaune but they don’t fight immediately. Jaune soon asks where Oscar is with Hazel's response to Jaune is why should he care. Hazel expresses how Ozpin so far causes more problems than provides solutions. How the hunters fail to do right for the people. And how Salem may be the best option to fix the world. Only for Jaune to counter him.

Jaune counters Hazel by explaining the people fighting outside in the war. How even though Ozpin may have caused the mess Oscar shouldn’t be the one to pay for. And even though we don’t know much about Salem, Jaune still mentions the many lives Salem has ruined. Hazel doesn’t feel that way as soon brings up Pyrrha, whose death everyone should know about by now, and how she was fooled by the same lies as everyone else. This soon angers Jaune so they brawl. The match would have gone down as Jaune’s first official fight. In this fight, he would have had no teammates to back him up and he would be alone.

The battle between Jaune and Hazel would have been of strength and willpower. Jaune would have to work with what he has at his disposal. Having to adapt, dodge, and maneuver around Hazel’s dust arsenal and attacks. Probably has to maintain a good ranch and close the distance to take advantage of Hazel’s semblance. All while having to take the beating and get back up from it afterwards, due to Hazel being physically stronger than him. But Hazel is not without weakness.

Hazel has a lot of dust at his disposal making him a force to be reckoned with. Also despite not having much screen time, Hazel has shown to have incredible endurance. Being able to insert dust into his body and taking a lot of punishment, due to his rapid healing of his body and his semblance. Proving Hazel seems to always manage to outpace his opponents. Not to mention his experience due to having fought other, probably more experienced hunters like Ozpin and Ironwood. This has been mentioned by Cinder, who said in volume five that he or Tyrian would have been sent to deal with any other remaining hunters. But Hazel’s semblance, though blocks out pain, causes Hazel to be reckless making him more accepting of attacks instead of dodging them. He could have his work cut out for him due to Jaune’s supposed potential (and maybe a bit of plot armor and unknown skill set).

This fight would've had incredible stakes, with Jaune only having a limited amount of time before he and Oscar could both possibly die. They would have been killed by Hazel’s hands or be killed in action by an explosion. Regardless, of whether Jaune could convince Hazel to help or win the fight, we have to admit that Hazel would have pushed Jaune to or above his limits. Proving that Jaune came far from the boy we met at Beacon.

Both men have suffered due to the hunting world. A world that Ozpin had a hand in creating. Whether intentional or not Ozpin was still responsible for the death of their loved ones. However as Hazel is trying to destroy the world and remake it into Salem's image, Jaune on the other hand is trying to save it and probably change it for the better. Hazel wants to kill Oscar if it means getting rid of Ozpin while Jaune wants Oscar alive due to him and Ozpin not being the same. The fight could end with both men understanding one another but one coming out on top.

Jaune might as well have inherited Gretchen's spirit to stop her brother from making a mistake. Restoring Hazel’s faith in mankind and showing him despite the circumstances can still do the right thing. That he can still fight the good fight. And if he still dies, at least he would have passed his will and dreams down to someone. And Jaune being an Arc, wanting to keep his word as well as being in the hunting game longer than a farm hand could be a better choice than most. 

And this is why I think Jaune and Hazel should have fought. Not only because it would have been an incredible end to Jaune’s Arc of missing Pyrrha. As well as possibly giving him a different perspective on the situation. Now proving he can fight on par with his friends, Jaune would be more determined than ever to stop Salem and her forces. Even if he has to work with people he doesn’t like.

Bonus: (Look let me explain. Whether we like it or not Ozpin has done more harm than good. Whether it be due to the amount of people who died or how all of Remnant has suffered due to his existence. Ozpin knows all the relics' names and how they work. With that knowledge, he could’ve used the relics in many ways. However, we need to take account of the different kingdom circumstances.

With Atlas, using creation to make a floating city, the people of Atlas have grown arrogant. Relying on technology and becoming insensitive to other people like Mantle and other kingdoms. Then with destruction, he might as well be the cause of Vacuo becoming the most dry and territorial wasteland it is. And his allies, so far, might as well be his biggest mistake. Leon betrayed him and sold his kingdom out. While Ironwood is willing to leave thousands to die and probably leave Remnant as well to fend for itself.

Understand I don’t favor Salem. However, I can’t deny because she is immortal she has seen all that humanity and Ozpin has done. Whereas she probably has done nothing wrong besides rule the Grimm. But we can’t expect her to fully control them. Especially with a lot of negativity in the world Remnant whether it be due to racism, classism, or ignorance. And whether we like it or not the hunters so far have died and failed to maintain peace. If I were Hazel, I side with her too because I would rather trust the world to an immortal woman than a man who takes a year, a century, or a millennia to come back and help. I’m sorry.

Also if you think Yang should have fought Hazel then let me ask you something. Do you want a Hazel vs Yang fight or a Yang vs Neo round two fight? More importantly, we’re talking about Yang. The same Yang who stopped a Manticore. Took the fist of a mech suit and destroyed it. Hell during her yellow trailer, she punched Junior, who might be the same height as Hazel across the room. Volume three punched three people into a rock. Don’t even me started on her arsenal. The sad truth is Yang would no doubt bury Hazel.)

[bridgyrose]

Sleeper Agent AU. Can we get a background on why Summer joined Salem in the first place?

Summer dropped to her knees as her aura shattered, struggling to keep herself up. She glanced up at Salem, who loomed over her. “I… I wont give-” 

“And you dont have much of a choice.” Salem stretched her hand out, creating glyphs that summoned grimm hands to hold Summer in place, dropping her to the ground. “Everything Ozna had ever told you was a lie.” 

Summer struggled to free herself, glaring at Salem as her eyes started to shine. “I will stop you!” 

“You wont.” 

Summer’s eyes quit glowing as Salem made an illusion of Ruby out of smoke. “Dont you dare-” 

“I wont hurt her.” Salem slowly walked over to Summer. “And I’m going to give you a choice. You see, I’m not going to kill you. I have found… new methods of dealing with your kind. However, I see that you arent like the others. You lack knowledge. Knowledge that I’m willing to provide to you.” 

Summer quit struggling, listening to Salem. “And what kind of knowledge can you provide to me?” 

“The truth about my dear Ozma.The truth on why he’s using you.” 

“He’s not using me!” 

“But he is.” Salem knelt down and lifted Summer’s chin, smirking. “I’m sure he’s told you all about me, hasnt he? But what about himself? How he’s the one who killed our children. That he’s the one who betrayed me.” 

Summer looked away from Salem, not sure how to feel. “I… I dont... “ 

“But you know how to find out. You know where the relic of knowledge is. And you know who holds the password. You can ask the relic yourself what Ozma is hiding.” 

Summer felt the grimm hands letting her go, withdrawing from her. She slowly picked herself up, looking up at Salem curiously. “You’re… going to let me go?” 

“Of course I am. Because I know you’ll make the right choice.” Salem turned away from Summer, smirking a bit. “And I know you wont disappoint me.” 

Summer slowly walked back to the airship, pulling out her scroll and looked at Raven’s name. She knew exactly why Raven left, why she wouldnt tell the others. And as much as she hated trying to get a favor from her, she didnt feel like she had a choice this time.

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“No.” 

“But Rae-” 

“I said no!” Raven’s eyes glowed as she yelled out her answer at her old friend. “You dont understand what you’re asking! I cant just walk right into Haven-” 

“You dont have to.” 

Raven looked at Summer curiously. “I… dont have to?” 

Summer shook her head, pulling out a map of Mistral. “I… I know you know where the vault is. And… there has to be another way besides waltzing right into Haven. O-or, you can shapeshift and hide in my cloak. But I… I have to make my way to the relic. I… I have to ask it-” 

“You know just as well as I do that Ozpin told us the lamp couldnt answer any more questions.” 

“But what if he’s lying.” 

Raven went silent as she looked Summer over, her expression starting to soften a bit as she looked her previous team leader over. “You’re… serious.” 

Summer nodded slowly, sitting back in her chair and looking down into her tea. “I… went after Salem the other day. She… she told me that Ozma… that Ozpin was hiding something from us. I… I dont want to believe her, but…” 

“But after everything with the maidens, you’ve been having doubts?” 

Summer nodded, looking towards her friend. “And… I know you’ve had your own doubts too. And… our child-” 

“Fine, I’ll help you. But only because I dont trust Ozpin.” 

Summer smiled and kissed Raven. “Thank you, my love.” 

Raven got up and sighed. “Do not make me regret it.” 

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Summer walked up to the caste steps, holding Ruby close. After speaking to Jinn, she found out exactly what Ozpin was hiding. Even still, she didnt trust Salem, but after watching what had happened, seeing the lies that Ozpin had told her, everything he hid from her… Summer sighed and paused as she looked up at the doors, hesitating for a moment. “This… this is the only way. Ozpin… Ozpin doesnt have a plan. Salem was willing to offer me knowledge… to tell me the truth… everything we were fighting for… its all… pointless…” 

“I take it you saw the truth then?” 

Summer looked back to the door, finding it open with Salem standing at the doorway, a small child hiding behind her. “Y-yes, I… I know the truth.” 

Salem smirked at Summer, moving a bit so she could walk in. “Then you know the choice you have to make.” 

Summer paused for a moment as she looked in through the doors, gently trying to calm Ruby as she cried. “And… my daughter and I will be safe?” 

“I promise I will not allow either of you to be harmed for making this decision. Although, when your daughter is ready, she will need to join me.” 

Summer nodded, taking a step inside. “Alright, but it has to be her decision.” 

“Of course. I would never force anyone to work with me for my cause.” Salem closed the doors as Summer walked through, keeping close to the huntress. “Now, is there anything else you’d like to know?” 

Summer nodded, continuing to walk down the halls with Salem. “I have many questions to ask.” 

“And I will answer them all.” 

[daggerpawstudios]

The Hero, The Liar, and The Redeemer: The Redeemer Pt. 3

Oscar is a normal farmhand living on the outskirts of Haven. Yes, he wants to be more than a farmhand, but being picked to be the next OZ is too much for him to handle initially. But why was he chosen? At first, the answer is hard to see since he was in the background for most of volume 4 to volume 6. But then, it becomes pretty clear to see why he was chosen. Oscar has the same soul as Ozma.

In Volume 7, Oscar is one of the few people to call out Ruby's decision to lie to Ironwood. Mind you. Ruby lied to him because she felt uneasy about the situation in Atlas, and here is Oscar vouching for Ironwood to know the truth. Even throughout the volume, when Ironwood was teetering on the edge of insanity, Oscar was the voice of reason—reminding him to have faith in others and not shoulder the world's burden alone. A lesson he learned from watching Ozpin's secrets becoming exposed.

Oscar continues to trust James Ironwood to the end. Even as our loveable heroic girl, Ruby Rose, gives up on Ironwood. He still goes to reason with him and sees what we could do together. Oscar's faith in others is a similar trait to Ozma. Seeing the good in others and believing the words of other people even despite everything they have done is a trait a righteous man would have.

Even with Ozpin, Oscar still has faith in Ozpin as they are in the clutches of Salem's hands. So, Oscar rekindles his mentor relationship with Ozpin. Oscar reconnects with the man who withheld information and manipulated him to go on this journey. As Oscar is in Monstra, he talks to Hazel, even despite Hazel beating and abusing him. Oscar sees the good in Hazel despite his nihilistic facade, and he tells Hazel the truth. After learning the truth, Emerald, already unsure of Salem's plan, is swayed by Hazel to leave with Oscar. Everyone distrusts her for a good reason since she is one of the people involved in The Fall of Beacon; However, Oscar welcomes Emerald.

This idea of Ozcarination being tied to someone who has a like-minded soul ties back to the goodness in Ozma's heart and his faith in humanity. Oscar is not the next OZ for no reason. He is restoring the faith in humanity that Ozma himself lost because he lived so many lives. Yes, Ruby is also heroic and believes in the goodness of others, but even her kindness can be shaky.

She deceives Ironwood because, at the time, it seems like the right thing to do.  Ruby bottles up her emotions and doesn't let anything out because she feels she NEEDS to be a leader. Everyone around her is losing faith and she feels she needs to be the one that continues to inspire even in the darkest times.

Even when she talks to Oscar, during the dojo scene. She is talking about her problems, but at the same time she is trying to inspire Oscar to be brave. 

At the start of the series, Ruby’s dream was to be a hero from the fairytale storybooks and make the world a better place. But her faith in that is starting to shake, and only god knows what will happen now after the Fall of Atlas. In a way, Ruby and Oscar are similar but different. Ruby is breaking under pressure, while Oscar is becoming more stronger underneath it.

[itsclydebitches]

What do you think they'll do with Ruby's character now, since the Amity message was already broadcast? It just seems like the biggest character moment related to the "world broken apart" and "message of hope" storyline. It's supposed to be a big, climactic moment, and they can't exactly repeat the same in a lesser scale. The only things left seem to be related to "end of show" stuff, like convincing the Gods and defeating Salem, unless they take the character in a completely new direction.

If the show follows its own history then Ruby will have to deliver another message of hope. We established in Volume 8, on the staircase, that Ruby believes no one chose to come and help them. That’s ridiculous considering she should have realized immediately that no one could get there quick enough and, even if they could, Atlas is the only Kingdom with a military, or a reliable, organized huntsmen force. Nevertheless, she’s lost some faith in the people, a division Ruby helped to forward by also telling the world, “Oh by the way, a major political figure/huntsmen/headmaster is now our enemy” (the very thing Ozpin wanted to avoid with Lionheart).

Before that, in Volume 7, we established that telling the world about Salem would greatly increase grimm attacks, making everything harder, bleaker, and putting a “Me and my family before others” strain on all of Remnant.

Before that, in Volume 6, we established that Ozpin has experienced multiple lifetimes’ worth of betrayals, a claim that was continually backed as we learned more about our villains (and some heroes). Watts was once an Atlesian scientist who went bad. Hazel was the brother of a huntress-in-training who went bad. Cinder was an abused child who, instead of standing up against slavery, went bad. And then we have the Jacques, Ravens, and Tyrians of the world. This show is riddled with people who, when the going gets tough, decide to not do the right thing.

And in Volume 5 we established that even the best of the best—the fully fledged huntsmen, the headmasters, the members of Ozpin’s inner circle and his closest friends—can turn on you too. Lionheart changed the game. Anyone is susceptible to Salem's influence; anyone can fail.

All of this is a long-winded way of saying that Remnant should be a mess right now. There is no reason we should see some great coming together given Ruby’s badly constructed speech, an increase in grimm attacks, the lack of communication between Kingdoms, general human nature as established by the show, and now the destruction of Atlas and its entire civilization turned evacuees. People will be dying. People will be panicking. People will be trying to hide until it all blows over. People will be rushing to get on Salem’s good side because god, what hope do any of them have if they don't join her? Or at least, that’s what we should see: a world broken in numerous, hard to fix ways.

Just because Ruby said they should all rise up together doesn’t mean the logic of the world dictates that’s what should actually happen. I think Ruby needs a second “message of hope” storyline, this one coming off of the complete failure of the first.

Ruby divided herself from all her non-friend allies right when she was telling everyone else to come together.

Ruby gave the horribly worded speech that sent the entirety of Remnant into a panic.

Ruby was in charge of the plan that deliberately and knowingly destroyed the world’s most fortified Kingdom, losing them countless resources and the homes of thousands.

Ruby came up with the idea to turn Penny human and now has to grapple with the fact that Jaune killed her.

Ruby herself just died trying to save the day. On a fundamental level she failed and a part of her has got to realize that if not for the extreme and entirely unexpected luck of that void leading to another world (which, as far as any of us currently know, is the afterlife), she would have just been a tiny blip in this war, dead right as it truly began.

Ruby's insignificant in the grand scheme of things, as prone to making the situation worse as she's capable of making it better. She needs to acknowledge that and decide to keep fighting—keep doing her best—anyway.

I think the show needs to acknowledge how far Ruby has fallen in order to build her back up. Obviously I don’t think this is going to happen given that I’ve wanted the show to acknowledge Ruby’s massive mistakes since Volume 6, but my lack of faith in the storytelling doesn’t erase where I think it needs to go. This is no longer her claiming she never needed adults, or doing to Ironwood precisely what Ozpin did to them (though all of that and their related choices are bad enough), Ruby destroyed a kingdom. She died. She’s got to acknowledge their massive missteps, the failures that led them to this incredible low—both those things they could have avoided and things enacted by the villains that have given them experience—and from there, Ruby and her team can move forward with a far better approach than they’ve demonstrated the last three Volumes. But they have to acknowledge how they got there in order for that to happen.

Yeah, we definitely have a lot of plot stuff like “Get home” and “Find sword” and “Maybe meet the Gods” coming up, but prior to meeting Salem for the final time, I think Ruby should have another moment of uniting the world, one that’s presented as far more epic than a panic-inducing message we only saw half of and that started on a gag. If RWBY follows its own internal logic at all, they should return to a broken Remnant that they have to help fix, not a united people ready to end this war. Give Ruby the character arc of finally, finally growing as a hero and then putting that growth into practice. That way, when she again calls on the world to put aside their differences and terror in the face of overwhelming odds, the moment feels earned to the audience. We’ll believe that Ruby is the kind of person capable of inspiring that hope. Right now, she’s been too foolish at best, too callously indifferent at worst, to be the hero all of Remnant needs. Right now, Remnant doesn’t even know her. She’s a literal nobody kid who randomly appeared on their screens, someone a few others might recognize from a tournament. Why would they trust her? Why would they believe in her?

Let Ruby hit rock bottom in Volume 9. Let her acknowledge the terrible mistakes she made that led her here and lost them so much. Then let her vow to do better. Give her a journey of self-discovery that segues into a literal journey where she helps Remnant in various ways, building a trust in the people she can later draw on. When it comes time to finally face Salem, Ruby will be able to call on everyone to unite without the viewer wondering why she can’t practice what she preaches.

As for what RT will actually do... likely none of that. More of what we've seen the last three years, probably: Ruby does things, makes huge mistakes, is told by everyone around her that she's not at fault, and then the situation magically changes to work in her favor. After nearly a third of our story following this pattern, there's not much reason to think that Volume 9 will be any different.

[theseerasures]

Hey just wanted to know if you had any thoughts on the Ironwood vs Winter solo fight's purpose after the end of the Season and the Penny -> Winter power transfer happening. Also does Salem getting hit with lightning count as an additional increment on Winter's blindspot attacks counter?

sadly i am never WITHOUT thoughts on this topic

i’ve already written quite a bit on Winter vs. Ironwood, both before and after (you can tell i’m an academic bc my blog comes with required reading!!!), so to sum up: what’s neat about the fight is that even though everything except the VERY broad strokes of the outcome (i.e. Winter victory and Winter...sad) came utterly out of left field, it remained perfectly in line with the thematic throughline i laid out beforehand.

in the days after the episode aired i’ve seen a number of not...bad per se, but...ungood? ungood’s probably the word i’m most comfortable with using here--that critique the fight for ultimately coming down to Sword gets beaten by Gun gets beaten by Magic Nuke. i say that these takes aren’t bad because they’re not like. basing everything on bad faith power scaling bullshit that doesn’t exist, but i don’t agree with them because they reduce the show to flat axes of morality where everything in show has to have a Watsonian-plot justification and that in turn has to be translated into a specific didacticism about how our world should work.

here’s the thing: the outcome of Ironwood vs. Winter is a WRITERLY decision, more than a lot of other fights in this show are writerly decisions, because the fight was a life-or-death struggle between two members of the principal cast. it’s about the abused throwing off her abuser a la Blake vs. Adam, it’s about the future throwing off the past a la Cinder vs. Ozpin (a comparison that i made before i was aware of the extent they’d play it to the hilt! hahahaaaaa), and above all it’s about isolation.

*gingerly sidesteps the obvious Elsa joke* Ironwood is all about romanticizing his loneliness: when he talks about sacrifice he’s talking about how no one likes him anymore, how no one is grateful, and Winter is in the process of shaking off his influence over her, particularly in this arena. so every iteration of this fight imaginable HAD to ramp up to a point where Winter is backed into a corner, alone, and Ironwood has her at his mercy, because that is the only satisfying way for it to go from a character/narrative perspective. there had to be a moment where we’d think that Winter would lose, where Winter would think she’d lose, specifically because she was alone--because she reached out to people who could help her, but too late. that was the whole point of the setup in Worthy: that she got so close to reaching her family before Ironwood delayed her.

the consequences of Winter’s self-isolation--however heroic it was, to give everyone a head start--had to reach a crisis point. i had assumed that there were two ways to go from here: either Winter would die (unlikely), or she would be forced to rely on herself to survive, and kill a part of her in the process (a la Cinder vs. Rhodes). the show, as per usual, Took the Third Option, so that when we thought Winter was alone, when WINTER thought Winter was alone...someone came for her. salvation didn’t come on a motorbike this time, but it came anyway. ultimately Winter “lost” her solo fight against Ironwood for the same story reason as when she got knocked out early in the fight against Cinder last season (which i remember there being...similar umbrage over): so Penny would save her, so Winter would know that she could be saved.

(and if you want a thematic reason for why Penny is coming back instead of reasons of plot mechanic...this is the most compelling one for me by far, because it’s an affective strand that deserves closure.)

so like: on paper yes, Winter won that fight because she got a power boost, but on a thematic level that’s not what that resolution hinged on. ultimately, Winter won that fight because she fights for her friends (as opposed to James, who makes it explicitly clear in this fight that he fights for himself), because Penny is part of her. even when Penny is no longer physically present, Winter carries Penny in her, and she always has.

to end on a somewhat...belletristic note: i love making fun of Winter’s blue glitter cloud because i’m me, and i think the most practical reading of it is probably that it’s a snow effect. but--and maybe it’s because we see it right before she gets the Maiden powers--something about it always makes me think of how Aura dissipates from the body, and the particle effects ARE pretty much the same shade as Winter’s Aura. it could be read, then, that Winter, a person who has tried to deny her humanity and self-worth at every turn, is now flying on soul stuff.

Penny gave her that gift.

[flightofaqrow]

YOUR CHARACTER IN FIVE QUOTES!

( repost, do not reblog. ) Tell us your favorite quotes from your character. Give us an idea of who they are by five things they’ve said.

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Alright, buckle up, I’m stealing this meme and repurposing it for my own use. Probably more than five, and including some quotes from others about him, though I’m going to try to keep it in groupings, and also not meant to be exhaustive of qrow’s character, but rather, to point out some very poignant lines that have effected my portrayal and... some possibly in an unpopular way compared to what I’ve seen in the fandom? I think Qrow Branwen is more complex than fitting the broody broken boi trope would give credit for (though he at least fits it as an overall stereotype).

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1) I’m absolutely sure Qrow had a rough start and transition from the tribe to ‘civilized society’, coupled with typical teenage hormones and mood swings, but generally, Beacon was a good time, and he sees himself as a good huntsman, and (though we may joke about it sometimes) he absolutely does not have an active nor passive death wish.

Yeah, yeah, I know he has a song all about how he self depreciates and carries shame, but that’s a theme of his attitude, not backed up to be every single aspect of his life by actual canon. Quite the contrary. 

I don’t know where fndm gets the idea that he constantly lost his battles (especially to Raven) or was perpetually looked down on or stayed an angsty, broody teenager (who could never possibly have ever even breathed a single happy breath on his own without Summer??) all four years. As if school was hell and he never came into his own until STRQ was a graduated unit or something? If ever?

Leo tells Raven she and her brother are evenly matched. Raven herself - who takes pride in being stronger and more clever than others - describes them as a pair: “we were good.”

“you're talking to a member of the coolest team that graduated Beacon! ...we were pretty well known back in the day. ...hey, we looked good! and I have a number of inappropriate stories to back that up!”

“let me tell ya, these kids are way better than we were at their age. ...well, not better than me, specifically...”

“a professional huntsman like myself is expected to get results as soon as possible.”

The way Qrow talks about his past, as well as carrying a memento of team STRQ around with him, it’s very nostalgic for better times. The way he talks about his work, if not himself, can actually be to the point of being self-aggrandizing, instead of depreciating. He’s even able to admit that his dreaded semblance, Misfortune, “comes in handy in a fight.”

“lots of us thought you were just layin' low. eventually, we just came to accept that you were probably dead. but the stories about you, i based my weapon off of yours. i wanted to be as good as the Grimm Reaper.”

Qrow talks about himself as striving to be better. It seems he never really sees himself as reaching that standard, but it certainly implies he knows he’s not at the bottom - he had an ideal he wanted to reach and likely worked towards. Notice the use of “us” and “we” as well - he talks about himself as part of a group of larger huntsfolk circles. Who knows if this refers to students or licensed professionals or both, but this heavily, heavily implies that he was more than just a sad, outside loner, at least for a time; he chatted with others and traded stories about goings-on and missions and idols.

Somewhat related and leading into...

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2)  At least around this blog, Qrow does not have an inferiority complex because of Raven.

Does he have some internalized shame about being soft that he can’t quite shake? A few insecurities about being unwanted compared to her natural leadership and competence? Yes. Does he consciously view himself as lesser than her? No. 

Also... he’s not co-dependent on her. To a degree, for while? Yeah, there was probably an unhealthy reliance going on there. But Qrow and Raven establish themselves with their own identities at some point, they’d have to, to chose different paths so stubbornly. There’s a rift there, eventually, if not always having been at odds in some ways and comfort in others.

“Raven's got an interesting way of looking at the world that I don't particularly agree with. [The weak die, the strong live. Those are the rules.]”

“...they were killers and thieves.”

We are shown that the twins were raised with this weak/strong dichotomy. Raven bought into it, but Qrow explicitly separates himself from that belief. Shown again when he mocks Raven with, “because that was your rule, right?”

He believes in true family, he believes in protecting the weak, he believes in doing good, he believes in standing up for what’s right. He may not like being emotionally vulnerable, but he shows softness and kindness to others, and for as much as he likes his flourish when fighting, he also isn’t afraid to look an absolute fool either.

He is shown de-escalating conflict time and again, even if he also falls back into violent, defensive patterns at times, too. He resents Raven for the choices she made, and as far as I interpret, thinks she’s the lesser one for running away and abandoning her family and her mission. (Meanwhile, she thinks the same of him for turning his back on the tribe.)

He all but spits on the tribe’s way of life, is willing to attack them outright to get the Spring Maiden. Why would he judge himself by those standards any longer? No, he lives by his own code, a huntsman’s code, and even has some pride in that. It’s why he can call Clover out on it. It’s why he folds when Robyn holds him to it.

It’s why it hurts when he finds out what gave him more meaning, aligned more with his own heart, than the tribe’s dogma may not actually have any purpose at all...

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3) There’s so much to unpack here:

“No one wanted me... I was cursed... I gave my life to you because you gave me a place in this world... I thought I was finally doing some good... Meeting you... was the worst luck of my life...”

No one wanted him? I believe this means the tribe, maybe even Raven, maybe trying to make friends, but no one until Oz? Does this include STRQ? I have trouble reconciling that one with everything else we’re shown. I still maintain he was part of bigger circles, but we get confirmation that these were probably fleeting or superficial. He knew people and was known, but no one stuck around.  Also more confirmation of his values. Gave me a place sounds like so much more than refocusing to me. It’s not gave me a direction, not told me what to do, it’s took who i am and gave that person a place to thrive - despite the bad that comes with - to work towards something better. Just like he always wanted.

But then he backtracks. What is it he regrets?  We do know how he likes to go into dramatic hyperbole about these things when he’s upset. [eg. “we’re not family anymore.” “i shouldn’t have come. i shouldn’t have let any of you come.” “we can kill the man who put us here.” “gone. like everybody else.”] (I love that crwby lets their characters do it. we all say things we don’t mean in the moment, give voice to those intrusive thoughts.)

I’ve talked before about how I picture him having flashes of all the lives he could have had instead. Would he have gone back with Raven and at least still had her? Would he just have been a normal huntsman defending people from Grimm without the crushing extra knowledge? Might he have been able to have a relationship or family of his own had he not signed up for the vagabond spy life? Does he just resent losing Summer and Raven because of how things went down? We don’t know, and I think the point is that he probably doesn’t either, but the weight of sacrificing all those alternatives and putting so much faith in Ozpin, stacking so much of his life’s work and identity on being part of the inner circle, comes crashing down on him all at once. 

also quite fitting...

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4) "Nice place to raise a family. ...If you're ...into that sort of thing."

This is from his World of Remnant narration, talking about Patch, but it hits so damn hard. The softness and warmth in the first half of the statement, followed by the harsh need to qualify it in regards to his own outlook... We learn all we need to know about his opinion of the subject. 

We see the conflict right there - the possibility of such a thing brings a wholesome lilt to his voice, yet he implies that it’s not something he personally intends to pursue. Is that because he doesn’t want it or because he thinks he can’t or shouldn’t have it? I don’t think that’s clear, and he may not know either. 

At the very least, I fall into the camp of him believing he doesn’t want it. Combine that with the fact that he does pick up that spy life, which makes keeping his distance a necessity, and makes settling down near impossible, and then he definitely knows it’s not in the cards for him. 

So I think it ultimately falls somewhere between. Why would he make the commitment to being a lone spy if he had dreams of love and a family? ...But then why would he resent making the sacrifice of that possibility later if he didn’t? 

Having his nieces around probably softened him up to the idea, but he’d already made his decision by that point. He’s also solid and generally happy with his choices at the point it would most matter. He’s married to his job. He’s fulfilling his missions well, in well-suited ways for his strengths and flaws. He has his nieces around as a balm on any sort of biological clock. He has his purpose with Oz.  Until he doesn’t.

This is an incredibly long-winded way of restating that one of the headcanon hills I do stand to die on is: Gray-romantic Qrow.

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5) “some people are just born unlucky... my semblance isn't like most - it's not exactly something i... do.”

I am constantly confused by the amount of people trying to do character analysis around Misfortune and Qrow based on standard semblance lore, when he has yet again stated explicitly to the contrary. We all have carte blanche ya’ll. We can do whatever we want with this, because he’s already told us his semblance breaks the rules. 

My full headcanon for it is here and my opinion about the direction I hope it takes is here but tl;dr

Unless we learn otherwise, there are very, very few ways I believe Misfortune is a reflection of Qrow’s soul, if at all. This is from the first headcanon, but it’s worth restating, because it’s important to me, aaand fits the theme of pulling in some quotes from other characters:

Everyone likes to quote Ren and his description of someone’s personality being incorporated into a semblance. I don’t buy it for qrow. Here’s the FULL quote: “A common philosophy is that a warrior’s Semblance is a part of who they are. Some say your personality and character can define your Semblance while some claim that it is the other way around. Of course, there are still many who don’t see a connection at all.”

So unless we find out otherwise I will also die on the hill that qrow is an example of the middle part. Qrow’s personality/soul has nothing to do with why his semblance is what it is, but being forced to grow up and live with Misfortune has defined him tremendously.

OKAY, there are some smaller quick ones, but I’ll stick to my five points like I promised at least, and maybe do a lesser version some other time. :]

[nexyra]

I got an ask for Qrow Branwen so here it comes !

My fav ship(s) for the character

I think my favorite ships for Qrow are Cloqwork and Fair Game ! Cloqwork lacked screentime in terms of canon content of course, but I love the potential here. I also have a things for shipping the sad men together xD There are a lot of REALLY great Cloqwork fanfics out there and I love seeing people write about these two <3 It's in the details but I think there's something interesting here. With Qrow who is convinced to be a curse, who came from such a harsh background... And with Ozpin who is so convinced of humanity's inherent goodness and that anyone deserves a chance. At the same time they're both very complicated people who I think would interact in cool ways. Ozpin is wise but does have a mischievous streak that I think also helped in making them both get along. Qrow is much more perceptive than he appears and that's also good for dealing with someone as secretive as Ozpin.

Fair Game also had a very good start ! The relationship was admittedly a bit tilted toward Qrow's recovery in the show, but they were nice to see together. Clover was perceptive & caring as well as patient. All great qualities for a relationship with Qrow, who has a hard time breaking down his walls and a shot mental health. At the same time, Atlas is very professional, straight-to-the-point and I think Qrow is a real breath of fresh hair in that environment. He brings a different viewpoint to the table, he's very loyal & caring and it's clear that his sass amused Clover greatly. We didn't get to learn enough about him, but Clover's VA hinted that Clover's trust was a fragile thing and he wasn't a fan of showing vulnerability. Qrow, who gives everything he has in all his relationships, would have been a great balm for that uncertainty. So yeah !

My least favorite ship(s) for the character

There are, of course, any & all ships between Qrow & the kids or Qrow & Salem's team. But outside of these obvious "nope", I'll have to go with Jailbirds. This is COMPLETELY personal but I have a really hard time liking Robyn's character as of V7 end/V8 so I'm barely interested in her dynamic with Qrow. I did appreciate her talking down Qrow from revenge because he was only doing it for his own sake but... That's about it. I find her way too abrasive (hidden behind her shiny Robinhood looks). And whereas Clover (imo) was pretty good at getting Qrow to face his issus head-on & building him up, I feel like Robyn relies more on humour & deflection... Which is an art Qrow is already acquainted with, and not the best coping mechanism for him. Aaaand I just feel like she put Clover down several time in order to lift Qrow up. That, plus the queerbaiting controversy, plus her having indirectly participated to Clover's death... The ship makes me a bit uncomfortable.

My fav & least fav platonic relationship(s) for the character

My fav platonic relationship for Qrow is his bond with Ruby ! I really hope they bring it back because these two were GREAT together. Ruby's admiration was adorable. Qrow's nonchalent but clearly protective streak. They care about each other A LOT and I really loved them together. I hope they can have more moments together like back in V3-V4 or V6.

I'm not sure what my least liked platonic relationship would be. Saying Robyn again feels like beating on a dead horse but I don't really have a problem with any other ones. They're all, if not kind & good for him, at least interesting (like Raven)

My favorite thing about the character

The combination of his sassy/cynic personnality and how loyal & caring of a person he actually he is. Qrow is rough around the edges, leans easily into banter but he cares so damn much. He fit so easily next to Ruby's peppy enthusiasm in Vol 1-3, and then he was just an incredible badass and yet so damn vulnerable human in Vol 4-6. I liked that about him. How all the pieces fit together

My biggest criticism for the character

Well I have 2 things to say about that. First : V7C12 With Friends like these. What the fuck was this episode qkfazkfhkgh Qrow's brain was nerfed SO DAMN HARD, I was genuinely pissed while watching the episode. This was just a string of dumb decisions from everyone except Tyrian. But I digress -

In a more general sense, I'd say... putting Qrow in the sidelines. Him falling further into depression was a sound decision. It was interesting and fitting of his character imo. But I feel like they tied "Ruby having enough of his alcooholism" and "Ruby growing away from adults" in a way that kind of.... just put Qrow to the side and doesn't allow him to do much. In V6 finale, Qrow expresses understandable concerns about their plan to steal an airship, but instead of dealing with that Ruby's frustration with his cynicism is aired out and... the timing kind of makes the whole thing weird becaus Qrow isn't allowed to disagree with their plan ("we'll do it with you or without you") and then has to trust Ruby and let her go which AGAIN is a great moment in itself. But all that put together just like... rid Qrow of his function as a parental figure because Ruby is the leader now and he's just... kind of following along.

When was their writing at the peak according to me (ex : best season)

Okay for this one Q, I'll have to go with Vol 4 and Vol 6 for very different reasons. V4 was great because we really got to get to know Qrow. His complicated relationship with Raven. How BADASS his encounter with Tyrian was I freaking loved it. What his semblance and how it shaped his life. And it also let him be vulnerable through the poison & seeing Ruby repay his care was very nice.

Vol 6 for fleshing out, taking his issues & drinking more seriously. Showing more hopelesness and cynicism, and that he had a real drinking problem and he wasn't just a fun drunk. Plus the loss of faith in Oz showed how much Qrow needs stability and secure certainties to orbit around despite his nonchalant personnality. But I like it a bit less because it was the starting point of putting him on the side kind of.

A song I think fits them & why

Ship in a Bottle (Steffan Argus) ➸ A song about being alone in your fight, in the sense that your life is like a sail on the ocean and you are the only captain, the only one who can choose what to do with it. At the same time, there are several mentions of a "captain" as if the singer/Qrow adresses someone else. It's reminiscent of his relation with Ozpin or Clover : speaking of a deal, of being honest and sharing what's on your mind. Qrow thinks too much, he's scared and he sinks more & more as he delves into his cynicism (V6). Qrow cries, things get worse, the mention of the glass echoes his struggle with alcooholism. And the Scarewrow loses his brain, "lose touch with all the things that made [him] feel sane."

+ Problem child (Simple Plan) The Star song (Amanda Palmer) Would anyone care (Citizen Soldier) Wasted (8 Graves)

A headcanon to make up about them

Qrow didn't have the most normal childhood and because of that he had to learn a lot for Ruby & Yang. Notably, Qrow had absolutely 0 notion of what was an appropriate presents for young girls. As a result, he tended to simply bring back from his travels whatever shiny thing might have caught his attention. Could be a weird flower. Could be a pretty knife. Or even junk that his corvid brain latched upon.

Tai designed a look(Tm) that Qrow learned to recognize as "No, not appropriate." After a while, Yang learned to mimick it (but rather at random, she didn't really recognze what was appropriate and what wasn't). Ruby always liked his presents though.

What I would change about them if I was making a re-write

I CLEARLY would rewrite V7C12 so that Qrow & Clover keep their brains kzjhfkqhzk There were ways to reach the same conclusion without like... having a Qrow-Tyran team-up which was REALLY weird

I see 2 main possibilities to stick close to canon content - After the crash, Tyrian gets free but he keeps playing dead for a bit. Since there is no 3rd menace, Clover and Qrow's argument devolve into a fight as seen in canon. At one point, Clover manages to briefly disarm Qrow. They discuss for a bit, you can even put the exact same dialog as in the ep. Then Tyrian takes action, moving out of the shadows to kill Clover with Qrow's discarded weapon. Braincells saved. OR - Instead of having Qrow & Tyrian outright team up, Tyrian just... keeps instillating doubts in their mind. Qrow & Clover are temporarily allies in taking Tyrian down but because of this, they don't TRUST each other which cause missteps and make them less effective. At one point, Qrow tries to attack Tyrian who is behind Clover. But because neither Qrow nor Clover really have faith in the other at that moment (and because Tyrian is poisonning their mind), Clover automatically steps back or aside. He doesn't entirely trust Qrow. Because of this small hesitation, Qrow's attack fails. Tyrian manages to disarm him. Tyrian uses Qrow's weapon to kill Clover. There could even be some message here about the lack of Trust & letting Salem divide friends... something of that caliber in any case 🤔 It can even parallel V3 where Qrow did the same thing with Ironwood & Ironwood refused to stand aside even if he thought Qrow meant to attack him... Could lead somewhere ! Like, in V3 Qrow had faith that Ironwood wasn't to blame. Only Ironwood feared that Qrow blamed him, but Qrow knew & trusted that Ironwood wasn't to blame. In other words, Salem didn't divide them. Here, Qrow & Clover let Tyrian get into their head. And as a result Clover dies. "Together we stand, Divided we fall"

My guess for their MBTI/Enneagram

I'm still mulling on it right now but I think he might be some kind of ISTP 416. He has some weird 7ish behaviour but his need to orbit around someone/a goal, his relationship with Oz, how close he stuck to Tai & Summer sounds closer to 6 fix. He wants people to go home to. Certainty and security. His independance definitely is there but seems emphasized moreso out of necessity.

One aspect that I think would be nice to delve deeper into ? (optional)

I'm not sure mhmmm maybe his relationship with Summer ? It would be both cute & interesting. As well as finally giving us insight into who Summer was

[toooldforfandom-liveblogs]

RWBY V08E01 - Divide

V8 is here!

Sadly, the hype I had for V7 is nowhere to be found this volume. V7 left me cautious. The way it used social injustice as little more than window dressing while doing nothing to address it was enough to leave a bad taste in my mouth, and has ended up being the only season I didn’t immediately rewatch or seek reactions to it. Hell, I still haven’t listened to the soundtrack.

But, weird issues aside, it’s still RWBY and I’m still excited to watch it so here we are! Let’s do this!

Note: I’ve managed to remain mostly unspoiled with the sole exception of hearing this volume is supposed to take place over two days, so yay?

Of all the things I expected this season to start with, Cinder's backstory wasn't one of them. That girl is Cinder, right? Cinderella and all that.

Yyup, Cinder. Wow, seven seasons before giving her a slightly more tangible backstory, maybe to humanize her a bit? Bold strategy, considering everything she's done, let's see how it plays out.

Neo has to be questioning her choices really hard. I know she's on the revenge path but it's one thing to work with Cinder and another to fly directly into a flying Grimm whale.

It's interesting that they chose to have a similar intro as in Volume 4, with someone who doesn't quite know what they got into. Back then it was Emerald and Mercury watching the pools of Grimm, now it's Neo walking into a giant whale.

Neo knows what Cinder is capable of. She's seen her maiden powers first hand. Hell, she knows how charming her personality is. And now she's seeing her kneel before someone. Can't be confidence inspiring.

Tsk, tsk, Neo, I expected she'd know by now her place in Cinder's ranking.

oh god no, please not another failed hug

What's the opposite of a glow up? Because Hazel went through that.

I'm intrigued. The glimpse of Cinder's past where she was completely powerless and now this dressing down. Is she lying through her teeth right now or does she genuinely believe that since Salem presumably rescued her from her previous life?

Interesting choice to not only hide her eyes behind her hair but to also present her Grimm side to the camera while she's saying this, hiding her expression even further.

Salem seems more evil than usual, but maybe she's just on the top of the world after having acquired a relic and having her army on Atlas' doorstep.

I can't quite tell what I'm looking at here. Maybe another angle of Atlas? It looks really weird from the side.

First faunus with animal hands? I guess Ghira had retractable claws.

They are looking quite calm considering there's a giant whale in their sky. Unless they can't see it. They are in a hole surrounded by stone after all. But still, it'd be interesting characterization to have them so used to being screwed over by life that they saw the giant whale and went "Huh. I guess it's Tuesday."

Weiss would definitely know about that.

I'm curious about the coordination that's been happening behind the scenes. How does she know that's a friendly ship?

I guess at least some time has passed, since Yang, Blake and Penny aren't with them.

Very inconspicuous to destroy a droid.

Not a lot of time though, since Ren is still brooding alone. Very intrigued by the picture in the background.

Nothing says that the time for silly shenanigans is gone better than this.

I guess enough people saw Pietro and Maria running around to make them fugitives. On the bright side, it still says "detain," not "kill"

Ironwood literally shot a child, that's pretty important information to keep secret. Even if he is the child who got shot. How long before this bites someone in the ass?

I wonder if the couple in the background are the founders of the happy huntresses. The one with the eyepatch looks a lot like Robyn, enough to maybe be her mom?

Also makes it a lot easier to threaten with overwhelming force to get something from Ironwood but I guess he already gave them up.

Uuh, I like this.

I thought that after V5 the team wouldn't separate again. And if the season is really going to cover just a couple of days, it almost doesn't count. So, it keeps the all the character development from V4 and V5 (that the team is their home) but gives them enough time to breath on their own.

It's also interesting that they seeded this during the last season. RWBY has shown some long term planning but this makes all the in-fighting and arguments from the last season make sense.

If they do split up, I think Blake would go with Ruby. She's always been on the pragmatic side of things. And it adds more drama to split her from Yang, last season was all about how well they work together (and flirting). Hopefully this'd mean that she'd talk with Ruby more than once this season.

It looks like Ren is joining team Yang, which would leave Nora with Ruby if only because they seem to need to do their own thing right now. I'm not sure how it'd fit with Nora's interest in Mantle though.

Everyone else I'm not sure about.

Weiss could go either way. Maybe she feels guilty about Mantle or maybe she feels like she could help infiltrate the military compound. Although that could lead her to meet Winter which I doubt she wants right now. Maybe she's too recognizable to help Ruby.

I think Penny is going to go team Yang. Protector of Mantle after all. And it'd make Ruby's arc more interesting to have less of her usual friends next to her.

I feel Oscar would make more sense in the infiltration side of things and warning the world seems like something Ozpin would try to do.

Jaune I have no idea. Maybe whatever team doesn't get Weiss?

yup

Okay, easy guesses out of the way.

Oh, honey.

Yesss, personal feelings.

Damn, she looks incredibly badass.

Huh.

I guess Weiss is going with Ruby then.

This is tense! I actually had a moment of dread the second everyone noticed it was Penny's scroll.

And Penny just had her remaining faith in Ironwood completely destroyed.

I can already see this season is going to break my heart again.

Harriet is literally pouting. Probably pretty humiliating to have been beaten by some academy dropouts.

Welp, only a human leg left.

Feels pretty on the nose to have him literally lose part of his human body to show how he's been losing his humanity.

Well, that took a turn.

I'm glad they are taking a possible redemption (other than death) completely off the table for Ironwood. I know shooting Oscar was bad but no one knows about that. There's no way to hide this.

Those are not the expressions of people thinking "huh, maybe I'm doing the wrong thing here"

Hm. I guess Oscar is getting kidnapped. By a Grimm?

Is this the first time a RWBY season premiere doesn't have a fight? I think it is, even V5 had Yang punching someone. Not that I'm complaining, I do like talky episodes.

My first thought after the first scene with Salem and company was that there were at least a couple of players not entirely happy with their situation. Cinder is somewhat of a mystery but Neo is way over her head and obviously not happy about being an "asset." Emerald got rebuffed again even after spending two seasons crying for Cinder.

There's a parallel between Salem and Cinder, and Cinder and Emerald I assume is intentional. If Salem rescued Cinder from her Cinderella situation, the similarities would be even more visible, with Cinder giving Emerald a life outside of simple survival. However, while Salem is firm about Cinder's position as a pawn, she does value her. She knows how to play that particular game of emotional give and take. Cinder doesn't. She has never shown Emerald any appreciation. How much further can she push Emerald before she accepts Cinder doesn't care about her?

I'd say Emerald is prime material for turning sides but I wonder... we haven't had a death on the enemies side yet. Even Watts survived. Emerald could be the first. Maybe to show how far gone Cinder is, or as revenge from Neo. And the death of someone who's at least doubting they are in the right place would hit harder that someone who is drinking Salem's kool-aid.

Anyway. I feel this first episode set-up a comparison between all three sides. Salem's forces hate each other, the "good guys" split but they still like and respect each other.

Somehow Salem's downfall (or slowing down?) this volume is going to be tied to the RWBY and JNPR teams working together and trusting each other despite their differences. Which, well, duh, but still.

Ironwood's are a bit more vague, they seem to be solidifying behind him but I'm not sure where it's going yet. Maybe Marrow could defect? Although that still seems like the too-obvious choice. In any case, freeing Qrow and Robyn would be good first step by whoever ends up switching sides.

I'm curious about a lot of things (What's going to be Penny's arc this volume?) but I think that's all for now. Until next time!

[wu-sisyphus-gang]

Motion Sickness Chapter 82

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I woke up to my head feeling split open. Not my best start to a day but considering where I'd left off yesterday it was about as good as I could expect to be doing. I couldn't recall my dreams either which I took as a promising sign. Maybe Mother had laid off for once.

Yeah right. And maybe pigs will fly.

She'd probably attacked me as ferociously as she ever could if she knew I'd met my sisters yesterday. I remembered so much.

Digging up worms with Iris before a fishing trip.

Fake .

A family photo with me surrounded by my energetic sisters. Lily smiling and upside down on the couch for the photo. My eyes rolled for the camera.

Fake.

Playing huntsman in the woods near my home with Saphron. I used a small stick as a small imaginary sword to fight off pretend Grimm.

Fake.

Kolumbine and Juniper teasing me over my first crush. A wispy girl I could hardly remember from back home.

Fake.

Home. Where even was home for me? I remembered it as a lone tall house in a small woods but where had it been? What was the name of the town it had been a part of? I couldn't remember. Had it been anywhere at all? Or was it all fake pressure from my Mother to help me along the way to losing my mind? A gatekeeper to my madness.

I stood from my bed and took my morning medications. I swallowed them down my dry throat without any water. I tried to shake off what I knew were incomplete memories but I couldn't. I remembered so much and so little at the same time. The same few frames replaying over and over in my head, there was nothing I could do to escape my wrathful memories of peaceful times.

I felt like a bug on a leaf. So unsteady. So uncertain. Ready to be swatted down at a moment's notice. I felt like hardly anything at all.

I wanted to kill something. That would make me feel better. Even if it was just Grimm. Slaying monsters would get me warmed up and ready to go. It would put me in the right mindset. Instead I settled down at my desk and pulled out my chair. I pulled out my needle for a moment and I focused on it.

Change.

I demanded of it.

Transform.

I told it.

It did neither. The needle remained a needle. And I performed no magic. I wasn't sure who Ozpin thought he was fooling. My sisters had done no magic and they would have had my Mother to teach them their entire lives. However long that was. They couldn't be older than me chronologically or biologically. They must be younger than me. They must have been grown until they were about as old as they are now give or take three years. How long I'd been alive and out of my tank for.

There came a knock at my door. A polite double tap-rap. It sounded like Weiss from my experience without even opening it. I could be wrong but it sounded like her.

I wasn't sure I wanted to see her. Or anyone. My head still ached and remembered losing my mind a little the night before. I was embarrassed by it. I was embarrassed by my own weakness. And Ruby and Weiss had seen it all unfold.

I got up anyway and left the needle behind. The frustrating fucking thing that it was. Ozpin had transformed it so easily and here I was still struggling two weeks later. I'd made no progress. None.

I opened the door to find Weiss as I suspected I would. Her blue eyes like shimmering ice and her hair not yet done up in her plait. It left it mid-back length long locks of platinum. She was beautiful.

I looked away. I was embarrassed about losing my marbles last night over my sisters.

"How are you feeling, Cloud?" She asked in a low voice. She raised an eyebrow at where I blocked the door. "Are you going to let me in?"

I was because of course I was. I stood to the side of the door frame and held the door open. She stepped inside, slippers making soft noises against the cold floor.

"I'm alright," I told her.

"You always answer that way. Even when you're doing poorly. You can tell us how you're really feeling. We won't hold it against you if you're not your usual self," she murmured. She gave me a soft reassuring smile.

I looked away and sighed. "What is my usual self? I'm feeling fragile today. I want to kill something though. I want to be violent. I feel like that's all I'm good for. Violence. I can barely stave off the memories in my head that I know are fake. I know that they're fake."

"Tell me about them." She brushed her hair back behind her head as she spoke.

"My Mother was always wearing the same white dress in every memory I have of her. And… and I don't remember my father's face. There's other inconsistencies too. Little impossibilities. I remember being teased by my sisters about my first crush when I was a small boy. Something I know is impossible. It couldn't have happened but it feels real to me. I wonder if they remember these things too but from their own perspective. I wonder how twisted Salem has made them."

"You care about them. Your sisters."

"I… I do. My feelings for them are not real, though. I've never met them. Not like I've met and gotten to know the rest of you. You and Ruby. And Blake and Yang. Even my team when they were around. When they were around."

"Your feelings are valid, Cloud."

I scoffed. A low sound. She reached out and touched my face. She had to stand up on her tiptoes to truly manage it. She forced me to look at her. I could hardly stand it. She was gorgeous even with the long scar running over one eye.

"What?" She asked. "They are. Just because Salem has you all twisted and strung out doesn't make what you feel any less true. I remember my own father's emotional manipulation. My feelings were valid then even if they were caused by him."

"Your father… will you tell me about his manipulations?" I asked. I bent low and ran my lips over hers. I threaded and held her bottom lip between my own and she let out a little sigh through her nose. I watched her eyes flutter shut and I reached my long arms around her waist and just held her close to me. She put both her small hands on my chest and let out a hum into the kiss.

"I will if you let me," she whispered when I finally broke off the kiss. "Are you going to let me?"

"Tempted to not…" I groaned.

"He brought up my mother a lot. He liked to imply that I was responsible for her drinking habits. I wasn't. She had only herself to blame for them."

"Your mother was a hard drinker?” I confirmed. I think she’d told me before but it had been a while.

"Yes, she was. Ever since I was very young. My father was sober and in control throughout most of my life. It wasn't a good thing. I wonder sometimes if my mother would have been a better parent even as a drunk. Or perhaps no one at all. At least I had my butler, Klein. He really raised me."

"Well, not to shave off your suffering, but I think you turned out pretty good. Good enough to keep," I informed her.

"You would say that," she said softly. But she had a small smile quirking her lips to let me know I scored at least a few points with her.

"How did the election go last night? I went to bed and didn't pay it any attention."

"I forgot, myself. But when I woke up this morning Robyn won her seat. She's a sitting member of the council now, with Ironwood. But there's some investigation going on into the election. Electronic voter tampering."

"Sounds like bad news for Mantle. But then what isn't in this place?"

"You're so pessimistic, my gods," she laughed at me a little. "Good thing Ruby is around to balance me out or I might join you down there. She keeps me balanced."

"It's my experience. All my recent, which is to say real memories usually involve somebody I care about dying. Or worse."

"We're here for you. So don't be all doom and gloom. You have two beautiful girlfriends."

"Little arrogant of you, don't you think."

"Please," she retorted. Swishing her hair back behind her. "I am beautiful."

"Don't forget narcissistic."

"You don't go down that road. This is the part where you agree with me. Didn't you say boyfriends agree with their smart girlfriends?"

"Hey, of course I think you're beautiful. First real crush, remember? Couldn't believe I thought I had a chance with you. Then it turns out that I did. Still can't really believe it."

"You just needed to change a little. To grow up some, lose the fake confidence and get your hands on something real."

"Change my look, too. That probably helped."

"Now who's being narcissistic."

"Please," I pushed a hand back through my hair. "I am beautiful," I managed a passable imitation of her and she beat my chest with a tiny fist in retaliation but she was giving me a sly smile.

"You don't go down that road either," she cautioned me.

"Fine. Fine. What's Ruby up to?" I asked.

"Still sleeping. I am an early riser, I wasn't sure you'd be up."

"Late to bed and early to rise? Aren't you burning your candle at both ends? And I was just up trying to turn my needle into a feather."

She shrugged. "I can't help it. It's a part of who I am. Did you have any luck?"

"Not really, no. I'm starting to doubt that I have Ozpin's brand of magic. My sisters didn't fight with it either or anything like that."

"Maybe you just need more time or more faith."

"Maybe…" I trailed. I looked down at her and she gave me an odd sort of pleading look her lips pursed out and her eyes closed. She looked scrumptious like that. I figured what she wanted and I bent down and I kissed her again while she hummed in satisfaction.

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"I never even got to drive the bike yesterday. We were attacked by Cloud's sisters," Ruby said.

"What? You were? Why is this the first I'm hearing about this?" Yang asked around the dining hall breakfast table.

"You got in late, remember? You and Blake both. We were already asleep by the time you got back," Ruby responded. "Cloud took it poorly. I thought the experience might have knocked some screws loose for him."

"You mean a few more screws loose. Cloud doesn't scream stability."

"Blake!" Weiss hissed.

"No, no," I said. "Blake's got a point."

"Well you don't have to agree with her," Weiss muttered. She shook her head at me. Plait waving slightly as she did. We'd split up and she'd gone back to her room in the early AM to get it done.

"She does though. I'm not the sanest of individuals."

"That's not your fault," Ruby told me. She reached out and stroked my arm.

"So I have more excuses than your average person. Salem's influence, the way I was grown, probably some other factors I can't think of… the list goes on." I shrugged through a bite of eggs. "Plus I think I did almost lose it yesterday. My head still hurts off of it."

"You sure that's not just because what's her name shot you in the head a couple of times?" Ruby asked.

"Saphron. And not entirely."

"How many times did you get shot exactly yesterday evening?" Blake asked.

"I forget. She was really hitting me in the head a bit. I'm not immune to headshots."

"Then she hit you with that knife…" Ruby reached out and touched my face. "She cut your cheek. You'll have a little scar there, I think."

I reached up and touched where I'd been cut next to Ruby's own fingers. There was a triangular scab on my cheek. Ruby was probably right.

"And there goes my good looks. You will be missed, we hardly knew ye."

"Oh stop it. You'll look fine," Ruby sighed exasperatedly but she smiled up at me.

"They never really got through my aura. A bit like you. You got shot yesterday too."

"I was fine." She waved off. "My aura protected me from everything but a bit of pain. Thanks though."

"A bit late for that kind of worry, isn't it?" Yang asked.

"It's the thought that counts." Ruby returned. "And Cloud was really out of it last night. He was delirious and talking about a family reunion."

I shuddered.

"A family reunion for Cloud. Get me the fuck away. His family is problems," Yang said. "No offense Cloud but your family has issues."

"I'm really the only one with issues. All my sisters seemed fine. The ones I met did at least."

"They tried to kill you," Blake pointed out. Jabbing a fork at me as she did.

"I think I'm the black sheep," I muttered. "They even seem to get along with Mother fine. No, it's just me that has a problem. I am the failure, after all."

"And your sisters are all successes?" Oscar asked. He'd been quiet in his new huntsman outfit. A suit jacket with a white undershirt and orange gloves.

I nodded.

"Well according to who? The people that made you all? Those aren't good people anyways. What would they know about being a failure or a success."

"Yeah. We're not taking a bunch of mad scientists' word on it," Ruby followed. "You're not a failure to us, Cloud."

I took a bite of banana and said nothing. They didn't really get it. I was a failure in a scientific sense. Not a moral one. I was just a prototype for those models which came later.

"Do you know your sisters' names?" Blake asked.

"Iris, Juniper, Kolumbine, Saphron, Violet, Lily, and Lavender," I told her.

"They're all flowers. They have pretty names, at least," Yang said. She took a forkful of her own food.

"I told the others this but they're like car models, the successes."

"That sucks to think about people like cars. And you're what? Jealous of that?" Yang asked.

"I wish I'd been built better. I guess,” I defended my feelings. It sucked to think about myself as the kind of failure I was. “Might as well just end it all, the way I see it.”

"Bad, Cloud. No suicidal thoughts," Ruby scolded. She hit me, harder than flirtatious. "You need to want to live."

"Damn, Ruby, let him alone. He's going through a lot right now," Yang protested. "Just listen to his family problems."

"That still isn't the kind of line of thinking we want to encourage in him," Weiss retorted in Yang's direction. "We want him to be on the bonuses of living. Not thinking about how bad things could be."

"'How bad things could be,'" I quoted. "My fucking family is literally the worst, isn't it?" I asked nobody in particular. I took another bite of banana. "It's just me that's this side of fucked up as opposed to the other side. The other side of fucked up, that is."

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-WG

[dragynkeep]

Qrow & Raven vs Tyrian & Hazel

Tyrian: 

Strengths 

- Speed. He’s one of the fastest fighters perfectly capable of keeping up with Qrow, and since both Qrow and Raven are evenly matched in speed, it’s fair to say Tyrian can keep up with Raven too.  - Acrobatics. Not just in his fighting style, but in the way he can use his environment also. If he’s in a place with various levels, he can use them to gain any advantage he can, though it’s less useful in more open areas.   - Semblance. His Semblance is a pretty useful one, as even his opponents’ Aura can’t protect them if he gets his hands on them. A downside, however, is that he needs to physically touch their body, as Clover managed to avoid getting his Aura spliced by blocking Tyrian’s hands with his weapon, which both Qrow and Raven wield.   - Prehensile Tail. That thing is far more flexible than an actual scorpion tail should be but I’m not here to argue biology in a show with cat people.  - Venom. Fast acting to boot, Qrow was almost on death’s door in just half a day. Add in combination that Tyrian can splice through Aura without breaking it first, he can slice and poison opponents at first chance he gets. - Intelligence. Tyrian knows how to spot and pick at one’s weak points, emotionally crippling them. He managed to get right under the usually chill and cocky Mercury’s skin just by saying something over his abusive father. If he figures out Qrow or Raven’s weakpoints, he could deal some serious blows, but I think Raven has far more control over herself in battle compared to Qrow, who’s been pretty hurt over the loss in his life and the curse he believes he is. 

Weaknesses 

- Mediocre at Long Range. Besides his mounted wrist guns, Tyrian doesn’t have many options for long distance. From his fight with Qrow in V4, his guns don’t seem to have that much range in them, and he barely uses them after, preferring to get up close and personal. Given that Qrow and Raven have the ability to put distance between them and their opponents by turning into birds, this can be a problem for Tyrian.  - Personality. Tyrian has a problem of taking a bit too much pleasure in the kill. Repeatedly over his fights, he tends to stop midway to pontificate or savour something before going for the final strike. This has already bitten him in the ass since his slow ways of taking Ruby out the fight allowed Qrow to reach the scene of the fight and save her, ultimately leaving Ruby fit enough to rejoin the fight and ultimately take Tyrian’s original tail. Raven and Qrow won’t let him have too many breaks in an all out fight. 

Hazel:

Strengths  

- Strength. Hazel’s one of the most physically strongest characters in the show, easily outweighing both Qrow and Raven. While Raven and Qrow are certainly faster and has greater agility, if Hazel managed to land a hit on them, it will hurt. - Durability. It’s noted in the show that Hazel’s Aura regeneration is unlike anyone that the heroes had ever seen. Not only does this protect his body from damage, but it means that he can keep it running faster than Qrow or Raven can wear him down, unless they hit him with some serious force that might be possible with Raven’s Maiden Powers.   - Semblance. Feeling no pain would normally not be so useful, and actively harmful in certain situations, but combined with Hazel’s unnatural Aura amount and regeneration rate, this actually works in his favour. Since a person can still feel the pain despite having Aura to protect from actual damage, they can reasonably be stunned from pain if hit hard enough, but Hazel doesn’t have that weakness. Downside is that he wouldn’t know when his body is straight up starting to give up until the effects become apparent.    - Dust Use. Hazel uses dust outside of the typical bullets by injecting raw crystals into his arms, giving him augmented speed and strength, as well as the ability to use both fire and lightning as seen in his only fight in the show. The use of these projectiles give him the ability to go more long distance than he usually is able to, and has the side effects of burning and electrocuting Raven or Qrow if he manages to hit them.

Weaknesses 

- Speed. Besides the use of lightning dust, Hazel isn’t exactly a very speedy person. Realistically, he wouldn’t, given his large frame meaning he has to sacrifice speed for strength. When against Qrow and Raven, who are both very fast and athletic fighters, Hazel would have difficulty in hitting either of them, especially since the blows he managed to get on Qrow in Haven happened because Qrow also had to worry about protecting Oscar.   - Lacking Without Dust. Ultimately, Dust is what turns Hazel from a extremely durable fighter to a serious threat. Take the Dust away or wait until he runs out of crystals, and he loses not only the long range options listed above, but his augmented speed that gives him more of a chance against fast fighters. - Strategy. Really, Hazel doesn’t really show the initiative for strategy? Granted, we’ve only had one fight that he actively partakes in, but even then he just constantly charges and tries to hit his opponents. Unlike Tyrian, he doesn’t really try using cheap tricks or manipulation to gain an advantage, and when he manages to get any lucky shot, it’s more based on the characters acting outside his influence, e.g. him punching Qrow into space because he was trying to protect Oscar, who Hazel would’ve hit instead if Qrow hadn’t pushed the kid outta the way.

Raven: 

Strengths  

- Speed & Agility. Similar to Qrow, Raven is up there alongside Tyrian and way above Hazel, meaning that however fast Tyrian can zip around and use his surroundings to fight, Raven can match him.  - Versatility. Raven has far more in her arsenal than Tyrian and Hazel. On top of her weapon, Semblance, magic in both the Maiden Powers and her bird form granted by Ozpin, she has shown impressive ability to use them all together during her fight with Qrow and Cinder.   - Her Weapon. Raven’s sword has numerous blades that’re made from various types of Dust, giving her spares to wield in the event that the blade of her sword shatters. However, seen in her fight with Cinder, these blades seem more flimsy than other weapons and shatter way more often, and with Raven only having a finite amount of Dust blades, she runs the risk of running out and losing a valuable part of her arsenal and fighting style.  - Semblance. Normally, Raven’s Semblance wouldn’t be that big of an advantage in a fight, since she can only teleport to those she has formed a bond with. Meaning that while she can escape the fight with Tyrian and Hazel, she’d have no means of returning once she’s gone due to no one being there. However, with the addition of Qrow on the battlefield, someone confirmed to have a bond with Raven and allow her to teleport to him, she can reasonably use her Semblance to teleport herself to Qrow, or Qrow to herself, meaning that separating them would be a difficult task to do. - Maiden Powers. As the Spring Maiden, Raven has access to abilities that outclass normal people in the world of Remnant. She can fly, deflect bullets, have access to the elements, can create storms, and her powers are not connected to her Aura like a Semblance is, meaning that here’s no end to what she can do even if her Aura breaks. However, it’s still connected to Raven’s ability to fight, meaning that if she is too exhausted, there’s nothing she can do, similar to Amber and Cinder. - Bird Form. Similar to her Maiden Powers, Raven’s ability to transform into a bird is not reliant on her Aura and has the same advantage of being a technically infinite ability that doesn’t impact on Raven. In use of fighting, her bird form gives her more agility to outmanoeuvre other opponents, especially larger and slower ones like Hazel, allowing her to move into more prime positions to strike back.  - Intelligence. Similar to Tyrian, Raven is supposedly a clever and sneaky woman, capable of manipulating people into situations that end in her favour. While I don’t think she can easily manipulate Tyrian and Hazel like she did Cinder, her intelligence also means she isn’t as easily ruffled by Tyrian as other characters may be. 

Weaknesses 

- Big Ego. A problem with her complete faith in her cleverness and ability to survive. Raven thinks too highly of it, and it’s shown that this is her downfall with Raven refusing to acknowledge any problems in her plans, e.g. stealing a Relic from an immortal witch who would no doubt hunt Raven down and kill her for it. Since it appears that only Yang can get under Raven’s hardened layer and make her acknowledge her mistakes, with not even Qrow there, Raven is going to have a hard time accepting when she’s just not as smart as she thinks, especially against an equally smart and adaptive player in Tyrian. - Fighting Style. While it’s more than her fighting style, Raven has a tendency to copy Yang in that she tries to fight harder rather than smarter. Since her arrogance in her strength and capabilities, along with having taken the Spring Maiden’s powers, Raven more often than not prefers brute shows of strength and magic as opposed to deflect and evasive tactics. She does take cheap shots, such as freezing Cinder’s feet and using her sword to stop her fall only to kick an approaching Cinder again, she does have a preference.   

Qrow: 

Strengths  

- Versatile Weapon & Fighting. Qrow has one of the most combinations in his weapon compared to the more straight forward weapons in RWBY, similar to Blake’s Gambol Shroud. It can be a giant sword, a shotgun, or a scythe, and all of the various forms give Qrow a new set of pros and cons in his fighting, including range, speed and strength. On top of that, he’s shown to be quick on his feet and use whatever he has to fight, including punches, kicks and even any debris around to hit his opponents for him. Out of the fighters in this ask, this versatility outranks even Raven’s.   - Speed. Similar to Raven, Qrow has the speed to keep up with Tyrian and run circles around Hazel.   - Bird Form. All the pros and cons that are listed up in Raven’s category, save for that Qrow has actually been shown to use his bird form in fighting, while Raven has limited herself to using it for spying and retreating.  - Semblance. Qrow’s Semblance is a double edged sword. While he can amp it up to affect his enemies and trip them up so that he has an opportunity to strike, it can also affect Raven. Since he also has no control over it aside from purposely increasing its influence, and is unable to turn it off, Qrow’s Semblance is both an advantage and disadvantage in a fight since he’s fighting with a partner rather than on his own.  - Observant. Likely because of how his Semblance works, Qrow is shown to be far more observant than even Tyrian on the battlefield, looking for weaknesses in the surrounding environment to use to deal damage against his opponents.    - Strength & Durability. Even with all his other strengths, Qrow has been shown to actually possess some considerable strength and durability, able to take numerous blows from not only Tyrian, but Hazel himself, without his Aura breaking and still being capable of fighting afterwards. His strength comes from wielding his heavy weapon; Harbinger, and is shown to punch and kick hard enough to send Tyrian, another fully grown man, several feet away from him.  

weaknesses 

- Semblance. As noted above, since Raven is also on the battlefield with Qrow, his Semblance would affect her just as much as it would affect Tyrian and Hazel.   - Weak Teamwork. Given that he prefers, or at least forces himself, to work alone because of his Semblance, Qrow doesn’t really have the ability to fight well alongside other people. Given that most of his fights are alone, or 1 v 1 in the situation that other people are fighting around him like the Battle at Haven. The few times he actively fights with partners is with Clover, and it could be argued that Clover’s own Semblance likely calmed Qrow down enough to fight without having worry about his Semblance affecting others.  - Personal Blindness to Tyrian. Now, I’m not here to argue the validity of Qrow somehow managing to manipulate Qrow into teaming up against Clover, but Qrow has repeatedly shown that he has a grudge against Tyrian and that his grudge does affect his judgement. Given what happened in the show, it is feasible that his anger towards Tyrian would impact his abilities and focus.   

Verdict: Mixed. It makes sense how Tyrian and Hazel managed to kill most of Mistral’s Huntsmen, some implied to be Qrow’s friends and likely around his own age, so they would no doubt be a serious threat even to Raven and Qrow. However, the addition of Raven’s Maiden Powers tips the scale more in their favour.

Honestly? I think the Branwen twins would win, if by a scrape. 

[blazingstar24]

The Maidens Are Tied to the Relics

So I’ve been doing a rewatch of RWBY while we wait for v8 to come out and one scene that always used to confuse me was Pyrrha’s final words. I liked the scene and thought her words were powerful, but I never really understood why she asked Cinder “Do you believe in destiny?” But now that we have better explainations of the relics, I’ve come to understand that scene better and have a bit of a theory.

The character who gets the maiden powers will be tied to what the relic represents. Like their character arc or what they are about. This is why I think Pyrrha was meant to become the Fall Maiden and why Cinder has been on a losing streak ever since gaining the powers. Fall is paired with the Crown of Choice. When Pyrrha asks Cinder if she believes in destiny and Cinder says yes, that’s where Cinder makes her mistake. Destiny is the opposite of choice. Destiny is something predeterimined, it’s going to happen no matter what you chose. Since Cinder believes it’s her destiny to be the Fall Maiden, to become powerful, to do whatever it is she wants to do since we still have no idea, this means she is rejecting the very nature of the relic she is tied to. However, Pyrrha was all about choices. Her whole arc was about choices. Choose to live a normal life and stay with Jaune or become the Fall Maiden and try to save the world. Choose to run away or fight Cinder. She doesn’t believe in destiny, she believes in people making choices and that leads to whatever outcome it may give you. This is why Pyrrha was going to become the Fall Maiden if Cinder had not interferred.

Cinder has been losing ever since she got the maiden powers. And I wonder if this is because she rejects what she is meant to represent. She cannot reach her full potential until she stops putting her faith in destiny. She believes that it’s her destiny to win, but that’s why she fails. Because she cannot grasp that destiny isn’t real, it’s her choices that will lead her to the win if she makes the right ones. She’s always in shock when she loses because she can’t fathom the idea that she isn’t destined to win. Once Cinder stops putting her faith in destiny and starts making choices of her own and not guided by Salem, she will start to win. And we have seen a small bit of this already. She technically has a half win as she recovered the lamp with Neo’s help. Something she chose to do on her own. However, she loses when she goes after Fria trying to fight 2 ppl at once and losing to an old lady, because she thinks it’s her destiny to gain all the power. She never thought of Penny or Winter or Fria as a threat because she had already thought she was meant for the Winter maiden powers.

This idea that the maidens are tied to the relics is not only seen in Cinder, but in Raven and Penny. Raven is tied to the Lamp of Knowledge. Raven’s whole thing is about knowing things. She needs to know everything that’s going on. Her whole spiel about getting the truth from Ozpin is part of a desire for knowledge. How she comes to Qrow just to know what’s happening on Oz’s side is to gain knowledge on everyone’s movements in the game Salem is playing. Hell, both Raven and Qrow were given their bird powers to be spies for Oz. And what do spies do? Gather knowledge about the enemy.

Then there’s Penny and the Staff of Creation. Penny literally is a creation. She was built not born. And this is something she thinks about often. She’s been created to protect and save people. Penny’s arc is about dealing with the fact that she’s a robot. She was created. But she has a soul, she feels things, she can die. So what is she? Is she just a creation, doing whatever she’s made to do? Or is she a real person? Although we have no idea what Fria was like as a maiden, we know she liked to paint. Which is creation. She made art. So Fria is also tied to the notion of creation.

Thus all the maidens are connected to their relic, but Cinder is rejecting hers which is why she is almost downgraded by getting the powers. Since she rejects the relic’s purpose, she cannot reach her full potential as a maiden. So potentially, the Summer maiden is going to go to someone tied to destruction.

[mylordshesacactus]

Man, the way Robyn’s position in space has been used the past two episodes is PHENOMENAL.

This uh. This REALLY, REALLY got away from me so I’m gonna put it under a cut.

Like, in Cordially Invited it’s REALLY unsubtle and I’ve talked at length about it before so I won’t go over the whole thing again but like. She starts out in plain sight but a lot of people completely missed her on their first watch--she’s wearing muted colors and standing against a shadow, off to the side, unacknowledged by the characters until she announces herself.

She’s also the only one over by the window, back to the dining room, looking out over Mantle. The only one watching over them. 

And then of course she sits in the exact center between Ironwood and the Council, taking neither side. Coincidentally, because the Council has three people and Ironwood’s end of the table has four, as I’ve said before--the person she’s closest to, though they’re on opposite sides of the table, ends up being Penny....the Protector of Mantle.

She argues with both ends, though she is mostly speaking to Ironwood because that’s the purpose of the meeting--to make him answer for his actions.

This week, in a week of EVENTS and awful revelations and blood-freezing moments, this shot was actually one of the most chilling:

She’s physically turned to align herself with the Council against Ironwood, for the first time. This was the part that had me covering my mouth saying Robyn make good choices MAKE GOOD CHOICES.

And then it gets very interesting because, of course, she crosses over to Ironwood’s end of the table.

Now, this is not a friendly moment. She’s standing over him, she’s pissed to hell, she’s challenging him, yes...

But she still got up and moved to his end of the table. Not at all metaphorically, she’s crossing the aisle. That’s something the Council won’t do--they’ve set themselves up on opposite ends of a long expanse, three against one, forcing him to defend himself at arm’s length.

Whereas Robyn leaves her seat and walks up to him. She’s standing over him and not backing down...but she’s also holding out a hand and asking him to take it. She’s angry, she’s no longer asking nicely with so much on the line--but a handshake is a pretty universal gesture of good faith. She’s angry, but she is not framed as his enemy.

And because of that...

...she’s no longer even slightly aligned with Jacques’ faction, when Weiss bursts through the doors. Even before the really damning part, Robyn is framed well within Ironwood’s supporters the moment that tape starts to play.

(Two interesting things about this shot. It, and the visual confirmation of Robyn’s loyalties at the moment, come directly after the line “I’d lay off every worker in Mantle if I wasn’t trying to get their damn votes”. Robyn knows what kind of man Jacques Schnee is. She was focused on trying to hold Ironwood accountable for his very real failures, when the meeting started--that was all it ever was supposed to be about. But she is solidly against Jacques, and we’re reminded of that when he shows his casual disregard for the lives of her people.)

(The second interesting thing--Winter is framed at James’ right hand, as always. Clover serves as a bracket, tucking Robyn inside the group and not on the fringes. Penny is still back flanking the door, dressed in a gentle, muted green--just like Robyn, who is also well behind Ironwood, matching her. Once again--the protectors of Mantle.)

This is about Robyn but I will also note--as Weiss plays that tape and the Council realizes what’s going on, Ironwood crosses to their end of the table. They’re on the same side, and they’re beginning to understand that. And it’s Ironwood who moves. They don’t back away in horror; he gets up, leaves his entourage, and crosses to stand with them in the face of a threat to the kingdom.

And isn’t THIS shit interesting. Everyone standing around Jacques--Winter, in a form of cosmic mockery, is at his right hand, within arm’s reach to stop him. And the others...are Council members (and Clover). She’s not QUITE being framed as the legitimate fourth member of the Council, because there are periphery positions like head of AceOps and Ironwood’s special operative there. But she’s close and getting closer.

And she and Clover ARE directly mirroring the ACTUAL Council members.

this is ALSO a great shot. It comes right after “I only wanted to win the election” which. “Win” is a hell of a word there, you piece of shit. But framing Robyn between an excuse-making Jacques and a coldly furious Ironwood is a really interesting choice. She’s off to the side here; the main power struggle is between the two men.

But Robyn is, in this part of the conversation--the one about the election tampering specifically--the one who was wronged. Her, and the people of Mantle who had their voices stolen from them. That’s being sidelined in the interests of nailing down the details of Jacques’ betrayal, and it’s right that she makes her presence known.

And then she throws a chair. That’s got very little to do with her framing in space, it’s just very valid of her. She flipped her fucking melon and she’s entirely justified in doing so.

And then we learn that the heading grid has been shut down.

Everyone looks at each other in horror, of course; Ironwood is so overwhelmed he backs up and turns away, leaning against the table.

Robyn alone walks toward the window and presses her hand against it, looking out over Mantle. She’s not a fool; she knows she’s where she needs to be, that it’s important she be in this room to help. But that wasn’t a panicked “wait what let me see” reaction, either. it was slow, almost in a daze but not quite.

She’s where she needs to be, but she is not where every bone in her body wants to be.

They all care. Even the Council that consistently fails to prioritize Mantle is clearly horrified and desperate to help in this situation. But Robyn is different. (Interestingly, Ruby is the one we see noticing where Robyn’s head is and following her line of sight. Ruby’s also the first one to step forward and start galvanizing people.)

The only thing that snaps Robyn out of staring down at her dying home is hearing the word “Amity”. 

That is what turns her back toward the room--again, slowly, and only because trying to keep Ironwood in her line of sight physically pulls her body in a circle and away from the window.

At that point she VERY deliberately turns away from the immediate plight of Mantle--despite its near-gravitational pull on her in previous scenes--and advances into his space again. She’s remembered why they were there in the first place.

And again, yes, she’s getting in his face very literally. She’s advancing on him, which is a threatening, dominant move. And...she’s also moving toward him. Crossing the gulf of trust conveniently represented by Team RWBY And Also Penny Polendina over there, all of whom are already in on the secret.

I mean, look at this framing. She is, again, challenging him. They’re literally chest to chest.

But at the same time? This is the first time she’s spoken to him since her first appearance when she hasn’t been angry. Her body language, her advance, her positioning in space are antagonistic and challenging...but her voice is softer this time. She’s challenging him--but not as an adversary. As an ally, urging him to have courage. She’s verbally affirming that she thinks she was wrong about his motivations before, and that she believes he’s trying to protect people on a large scale.

And then they’re interrupted--but her intentions, just due to her framing in space, are pretty clear. That was a challenge, yes, but a challenge in the form of a clarion call. An offer to meet in the middle--no test this time.

And then I LOWKEY LOSE MY MIND OVER THIS SHOT.

First things first--Robyn and Ironwood standing side by side. Receiving a briefing on the Grimm situation in Mantle together.

And also, the color symbolism. Clover is on Ironwood’s side, in his color palate. Ice tones with scarlet highlights. The Secret Police ([weak rimshot]). And Oscar, who has Ozpin’s memories now, who represents a burning desire for honesty and faith--aligned with Robyn, and again, wearing her colors.

Don’t think I don’t notice that before this, the AceOps canonically were only ever really in Mantle to act in ATLAS’ best interests. They nailed the gang because they were investigating a stolen airship, not in response to the Grimm; Pietro is actually shocked that they’re down there. Don’t think I don’t notice that when Clover runs up to report on the situation down there, he’s accompanied by Oscar wearing lincoln green muted earth tones.

Seriously though is there anyone ELSE who’d like to symbolically mirror Robyn’s colors and their association with truth, good faith, and protecting Mantle?

And, in a moment of despair, Ironwood...walks away from her.

Nothing symbolic here, no sir.

And then, this, this shot I love:

Clover--a military man, the head of the AceOps--of course begins insisting that they need ground support, putting together a plan to get the Grimm under control. And that’s good, that’s what he should be doing! But Robyn--

LITERALLY edges her way into the shot in front of him, FORCING herself into focus to change the priorities of the mission. She reminds everyone of the real priority--keeping the citizens of Mantle safe. And she is NOT playing coy about it.

I just. She literally forces her way into the shot and blocks the camera because she disagrees with Clover and I’m in love with this woman.

And of course, the final shot we see of Robyn--after she’s been explicitly brought into the circle of People Who Know About Salem (because she is, after all, probably legally a councilwoman now even if it’s not official yet).

Alone again. The other two are talking it over and Robyn is almost directly in the middle of them and Ironwood, holding herself, having JUST A LITTLE BIT of processing to do. And looking off toward the closed door, where Ironwood is getting his briefing from Oscar. Unclear exactly what’s going through her head.

But right now, here, in this hallway in the Schnee Manor, she’s going through it alone.

[bridgyrose]

Hey. May I ask for a test request, please? This takes place in the canon universe and after Vol 8. RWBJ get into an argument over the circumstances of Penny's death. When Yang attempts to stop it peacefully, it only gets worse. Ultimately, Summer as a spirit arrives and loses her cool, snapping giving everyone a good scare. (1/2)

Okay. here's the second half then.

After expressing her frustration and anger over that 1: there's probably no way to stop Salem, 2: they were all relying on blind faith, and 3: making their families worry about them and fear for their safety, everyone feels a LOT of guilt...and potentially shame. In the end, Yang manages to calm Summer down, fully apologizing to her for not their actions, but also for worrying her.

“You did what?!” Ruby’s voice carried through the jungle as she stalked to Jaune. “How could you even think about doing that?!” 

“She asked me to trust her-” 

“And you thought assisting her with her own death was the way to go?!” 

Weiss frowned and stepped up to Jaune’s side. “At least he tried to do something! Penny wouldnt have asked him-” 

“She asked me to kill her when she was fighting off the hack!” Ruby glared at her friends, trying to hold back tears. “She was too precious to let die!” 

“And I didnt have enough time to heal her!” Jaune wiped a few tears from his eyes, shaking a bit. “It… it wasnt like what happened with Weiss. She was already bleeding out. I couldnt save her-” 

“And you didnt try hard enough!” 

Blake put a hand on Ruby’s shoulder, trying to hold her back a bit. “Ruby, that’s enough-” 

Ruby pushed herself away from Blake, glaring back at her. “So, what, you agree with Jaune? That we should just accept that she’s gone-” 

“No one is saying that we should just accept Penny’s gone.” Yang stepped up to her sister, trying to separate her from the rest of her friends. “I know you cared a lot about her, but we failed-” 

“And we wouldnt have if we had just made sure Penny made it through the other side!” Ruby wiped a few tears from her eyes, her gaze shifting from Yang, to Blake, then back to Weiss and Jaune. “I cant believe that all of you would just… agree to let her die as if that was a choice!” On instinct, she reached for her weapon and pulled it off her back, readying her recovered scythe. “What was the point of trying to save her if all of you were willing to let her die?!” 

“That’s enough! All of you!” 

The five all went quiet as they heard a woman’s voice echo through the trees. Ruby and Yang were practically paralyzed as they recognized the voice immediately, turning around to face their late mother standing behind them. 

Summer glared at the five kids, walking over to them. “Seriously, you’re all arguing about a single girl? Have you even considered what you’re going to do to stop Salem? Come up with some sort of plan on how to leave this place? All you’ve been doing is following Ozpin in blind faith that some sort of answer will come to you and you still havent even managed to come up with a plan! And dont get me started on how much your parents have been worrying about you all!” Her gaze quickly went between each of them as she continued. Running away from home, galavanting off around the world with no communications, barely writing letters, going off and taking on a war that you are all too young to be part of… What the hell is wrong with all of you?!” 

Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Jaune all looked at each other and sighed, realizing that Summer was right. Each of them had run away from home and worried their parents, throwing themselves into danger that they were not prepared to handle and now that everyone would think they were dead...

Yang hesitated for a moment as she looked down to the ground. “I… I had to keep Ruby safe. Dad… dad understood. I’m… I’m sorry mom.” 

Summer sighed and walked to Yang and Ruby, pulling them into a motherly embrace. “This isnt a war that you kids should be part of. I dont want to see you all go down the same path that I did.” 

Ruby slowly put her arms around Summer, shaking as she hugged her. “I… its… its really you… isnt it?” 

“It is.” Summer pulled away from her daughters, smiling softly as she got a good look at them. “You both have grown up so much.” The smile disappeared as quickly as it came. “And yet you’re acting just like my teammates would! Did you ever really consider what your actions have done to others? Tai and Qrow think you’re both dead!” 

Yang sighed and looked back to her friends. “I… I had to make sure everyone was safe. And I couldnt just let Ruby do this alone. I’m… I’m sorry we worried you.” 

Summer looked over the five kids, slowly starting to calm down. “It seems you all have a lot to figure out yourselves. No wonder you ended up here.” 

Weiss slowly walked over to Ruby, whispering to her. “*This* is your mother?” 

Ruby nodded, staying silent. 

Summer turned around and started walking back into the jungle. “Once you all figure out what you need to, this place will let you leave. Just make sure not to let it consume you.” 

Ruby quickly started following after Summer. “W-wait! Mom! You have to tell me what happened to you! Why did you leave?” 

Summer paused for a moment before putting her hood up. “That… is a story for after you accept that the girl you loved is lost. I’m sorry, but I can't stay any longer. I’m needed elsewhere.” 

Ruby watched as Summer disappeared into the jungle, dropping to her knees and letting everything out. All the pain she felt from Summer leaving, losing Pyrrha, being out of reach to save Penny…

Blake, Weiss and Yang all rushed to Ruby to try to help comfort her, still trying to process their own emotions about everything that was going on. As far as they could tell, Summer was right: running off just blind faith with no real plan wasnt going to work. And for now, they had time to come up with a plan. A real plan.

[megashadowdragon]

itsclydebitches . tumblr . com/post/180244981260/oz-just-fucks-off-into-oscars-head-this-is-proof

??? Do you really mean this, anon? Is that why it’s in quotes with no further comment? Or are you just fucking with me? Alright. *rubs hands together* I’ll play your game.

First of all, we need to look at the whole scene. Ozpin just watched an HD Color highlight reel of his entire past plus probably filled in some gaps that he didn’t even know were there because of no one else in existence being able to refute Salem’s lies to him. He’s on his knees fucking CRYING in front of all of them, but they don’t show a shred of empathy with their anger after watching the most broken man on earth finally start to shatter in front of them. And they just break him further. That’s fucking NOT okay.

And if we’re gonna talk selfish, let’s also talk Raven, shall we?

Raven is a… very unlikeable and complicated woman. She is the epitome of a selfish coward. She lies to get Yang to side with her, lies to the bad guys so she  gets the relic, and so on. And when confronted on her lies and cowardice by Yang, she tries to turn the conversation to how much SHE has suffered and how much SHE has had to go through before Yang cuts her off.

Ozpin has pulled none of this shit.

The guy has made mistakes and some poorly-thought-out decisions, sure, but he’s never done them with any malicious intent or self-service. He lied about Haven? That’s hardly self-serving. He withheld the relic’s Grimm attraction? If that was truly self-serving then why did he reveal it HIMSELF? And withholding Salem’s immortality, well. That is arguably the only self-serving tidbit he’s withheld, and we’ve seen the damage it causes when it’s spread unwisely. Just look at Raven. Look at Lionheart.

And when RWBYQ confront him about his past, they don’t give him a chance to defend himself. Raven was at least allowed to defend herself before it was clear she was spouting total bullshit. RWBYQ just let Ozpin say what they want to hear in their anger and don’t let him give context. That’s NOT confrontation. As itsclydebitches said in their recap of the episode, it’s an emotional witchhunt.

The kicker? Raven is a character who doesn’t face her past, who is confronted with its consequences and can’t handle it. Yang is the very embodiment of the damage Raven does when she runs away. A girl with abandonment issues who had to lose another mother and felt like she had to fill in the role for her sister. And when confronted by all this, Raven does all she can to deflect or turn the conversation in her favor. But in the end, she’s left with a choice. To step the fuck up for once and take the target away from her daughter, or to leave. She chose to leave.

Now, let’s move to Ozpin. This guy, who is apparently ALSO a self-serving coward, hm? He doesn’t run when confronted by Team RWBY and answers their questions with no bullshit coating like Raven tried to do. They also don’t allow him the dignity of defending himself, but apparently, Raven is afforded that. He sits there and TAKES WHAT THEY’RE DISHING OUT DESPITE ALSO REELING FROM JINN’S EXPOSITION DUMP AND BEING IN THE MIDDLE OF A BREAKDOWN. He only retreats when Qrow, really his only friend, basically condemns him and doesn’t allow him to tell Qrow that what they did wasn’t in vain. You sit there and tell me being disowned by your only friend doesn’t hurt like a bitch. I dare you.

Only then does he decide they don’t want him around anymore, and who can blame him? They’re the ones placing all the blame for everything on his shoulders, does ANYONE think that they’re wanted in that situation? And when he does leave, they say (in again, a very loose paraphrasing of @itsclydebitches recap) how dare you. How dare you defend yourself. How dare you leave so we can’t yell at you some more. How dare you not continue to lead us after we undermined your leadership. How. Dare. You.

itsclydebitches: 

I’d also just like to point out that this is precisely what I was talking about in my other post.  (itsclydebitches . tumblr . com/post/180232247775/on-ozpins-humanity)   Everyone is happy to emphasize the mistakes Ozpin makes as a flawed human being, but he’s not allowed to react like a flawed human being. The expectation here - by both the anon and QRWBY, but particularly Yang - is that Ozpin should be able turn off any emotions when it’s convenient for them and turn them back on when they want their nurturing mentor back. You’re going to have a panic attack now? No, no, no, that needs to wait until we’re finished literally and figuratively punching you. Yang says straight out she’s not done with him yet.

Really, just to recap the series of events here:

1. Ozpin explains to a group of children that he’s a reincarnating immortal and explicitly says he’s spent the last couple thousands years trying to face the consequences of his actions. That’s… his whole character. A man who is facing up to mistakes, both those he really made and those he only perceives as his fault. Ffs Ozpin’s most famous line is ALL ABOUT acknowledging mistakes and trying to deal with the fallout. In what world does this man run from consequences??

2. Ozpin immediately offers up the information that the relic attracts grimm when it becomes relevant and is willing to acknowledge/deal with the girls’ anger right then and there. Ruby only stops them because they’re still being attacked

3. Minutes later Ozpin continues to answer Yang’s questions despite the fact they should really get to safety. He understands their frustrations and is trying to be as transparent as possible while also keeping himself (and by extension Humanity) safe. Ozpin provides a lot of personal information on how the last time he shared his secrets someone betrayed him. And the time before that. And implied who knows how many other times before that. It’s not personal, it’s not a condemnation of who you girls are, but Bad Things Happened the last time I shared this info so I’m asking that you have a little faith in me

4. Yang rejects that

5. Oscar confirms that Ozpin is still hiding things from them - something they already know because he literally just acknowledged that - and gives them the means to take it forcibly

6. Ruby does that

7. Ozpin watches a HD play-by-play of his worst memories, quite literally re-living thousands of years of trauma, including shit he didn’t get to see the first time around like the gods toying with the former love of his life. He comes out of that emotionally gutted, weeping, panicking, and the first thing he sees is people who he thought were his friends screaming at him for not having the answer to an impossible problem

8. Despite having just learned his entire life story, the girls have even more questions. Except now they’re just accusations disguised as questions. Ozpin still tries to talk to them though. He is interrupted/assaulted three times during this: when Yang is yelling at him (interrupted), after he admits to Ruby that there’s no plan (punched into a tree), and when he tries to reassure Qrow (interrupted again). He’s trying to face the consequences in front of him and they’re not letting him do that. Because they’re not interested in having him acknowledge responsibility (deserved or otherwise) because that would eventually lead to absolution. No, they just want to use him as an emotional punching bag right now

9. Qrow then confirms Ozpin’s greatest fear: he’s irredeemable. People are incapable of loving him after they learn his life story. All that projection onto Lionheart? It comes full circle. It doesn’t matter the staggering good you’ve managed to accomplish in the face of seemingly impossible odds. Kept humanity alive and flourishing for thousands of years? WHO CARES. You made mistakes alongside that good so we’re done with you. They make it clear that Ozpin currently has no reason to remain with this group except to let them keep abusing him.

10. So he leaves.

Anyone would have left. It’s human to remove yourself from that kind of situation. But oh yeah, Oz isn’t allowed that.

kagome1991 said: Jesus Christ I feel this with every fiber of my being. Raven and Salem are practically worshipped in this fndm but Oz? Seen as the worst character. Fuck outta here with that.

the-kiwi-is-not-a-pewee said: @kagome1991​ If anyone deserves to be Yeeted out, it’s Raven or Salem, not OZ

kagome1991 said: @the-kiwi-is-not-a-pewee Absolutely. With the way this volume is going, I don’t think I wanna watch the rest unless the Oz/Oscar thing is addressed in the story. I just don’t like where Team RWBY and JNR are going in terms of development. They just come off as not having empathy when it comes to Ozpin or Oscar for that matter.

[itsclydebitches]

Idk if you remember an ask about Ruby's agency in relation to the adult characters from a while back but Volume 8 further cements that the adults weren't the cause of the agency problem and without them the plot wouldn't move forward because Ruby is content to do nothing to solve the problems she caused.

Even if we take all of Volume 7 and 8 on extreme good faith and say that Ruby wasn’t responsible for anything that’s gone wrong, she still barely did anything. I didn’t hate the concept of Volume 6, just the execution. Taking the young protagonist and setting them on their own path without the adults’ hand-holding--even setting up a situation where the adults are wrong to showcase that the young protagonist has just as much to offer in terms of ideas and wisdom--is classic. Giving Ruby an agency crisis wherein she comes into her own as a leader is great. The only problem is she did that through cruelty (yelling at Qrow currently trying to work through his alcoholism), lies (we never needed adults), strange contradictions (we don’t need adults but also our oldest member is supporting us), and later threats (either agree with me, or leave). Rather than developing Ruby’s leadership, they just diminished everyone else’s. It’s not that we got to see how great Ruby’s decisions are--she’s stealing airships and throwing herself into cannons!--but rather we’re told that everyone else is so bad that Ruby is the best leader by default. 

It doesn’t inspire confidence in the audience, but Volume 8 was the time for her to prove her worth despite that. Horrific invasions aside, everything is coming up Ruby. She has successfully convinced her uncle to follow her, still leads her combined team (even if there’s a tiny bit of pushback), has successfully secured Ironwood’s ace (Penny), has the loyalty of the other fighters around (Happy Huntresses), and has presented herself as a leader to the entire world. Ruby is in full control here, precisely as she wanted to be in Volume 6. So what does she do with that power? 

Nothing. That’s when she starts sitting around. It speaks volumes that, when Ruby is in control, she immediately looks to others to solve the problem. That’s literally what the Amity call is. She tells the world to look to Theodore and Glynda for answers, then wonders why the world isn’t coming to save her. Ruby is supposed to be saving everyone else! That’s why she didn’t just step up, but outright demanded that everyone give her that responsibility (Qrow), or simply took it (Ironwood). Ruby dodged making a decision about leaving, then refused to make a decision between Mantle and Atlas, she theorizes that maybe now Qrow can fix things for her, or maybe the other kingdoms will rescue us. She says that there’s too much to tackle, she loses it at the dining table, she cries on the staircase, and I’m like Ruby... you asked for this. You demanded it, sometimes with brute force. You attacked a city’s primary defense, knocked out four people, and stole a tower to ensure you were the one in charge here. Now that you can’t handle that, people have a right to be mad (as Yang was for a hot second). But of course, the show doesn’t even acknowledge that she can’t handle it. Everyone--from Blake during the Hound battle to May in the airship to Yang coming back having forgotten her criticisms--insists upon Ruby’s innate leadership qualities. If Ruby says we need to stay her and not do anything, that must be the best thing to do. 

Ruby doesn’t lack agency because the adults kept her from doing anything, Ruby lacks agency because she refuses to do anything. She has that power and she didn’t use it. The only time she acted was when circumstances forced her to: we have an hour time limit, Penny has to go to the vault, and wouldn’t you know, Oscar has already stopped Salem for me and Ozpin provides information about a magic wand we can use. Perfect! The solution drops in Ruby’s lap just as she always hoped it would. 

I miss the old Ruby. The Ruby who was active and compassionate. She made nudge-nudge-wink-wink plans with Ozpin to take out White Fang groups. She picked up Penny’s sword and was ready to take down a Nevermore to protect Pyrrha. She went off after a hijacked airship when it was clear Ironwood couldn’t. The Ruby of Volumes 1-3 didn’t demand leadership and then cry about how she couldn’t fix everything, she worked as a part of a whole and did what she could. That was so inspiring! I adored her back then. And it’s not even that Ruby has hit a snag and just needs to regain her confidence/re-learn some important lessons. I’m all for flawed characters who continue to grow. Rather, the story insists (through those other characters) that Ruby is indeed perfect and doesn’t need to change a single thing. It’s bad enough to see her characterization go downhill from where we started out, but it’s even worse to have the story insisting that this is a better version of Ruby. I don’t think so. I miss the girl who fought beside Oobleck, listened to Ozpin’s advice, gratefully accepted Ironwood’s praise, and adored her Uncle Qrow--all of them fighting this war together. Now, Ruby has rejected all the adults around her (including forgetting that Maria and Pietro exist) and when she’s left to her own devices? She chooses drinking tea at Nora’s bedside over taking out an army of grimm. The Ruby of Volume 3, picking up a weapon she wasn’t familiar with, after witnessing a friend’s death, facing a giant grimm on her own, absolutely everything stacked against her, still never would have done that. 

[ma-lemons]

“he had to go”

@happyhedgehogren had an idea: Ruby finds out Oscar was killed by Ironwood. Angst.

——————————————

Ruby sighed. She shifted towards the right so her head was resting Penny’s shoulder. Penny, the Winter Maiden. Her friend was silent, only turning her hands over and over again, as if she couldn’t believe what had just happened to her. Weiss was lost in thought, presumably because of her sister. The way Winter had looked at Weiss, cold and hard—Ruby could never imagine Yang looking at her like that.

Jaune, Nora and Ren were seated on their benches, all of them with difficult expressions. Jaune wore a face of guilt, and Nora... Ruby had never seen Nora look so distraught. Heartbroken. Ren was turned to the side, his fingers trembling. What they had went through with Neo, no one had any clue. Now Oscar was gone and it was hitting them hard.

It was hitting her hard too. Oscar told JNR he had something he needed to do, and that was the last they heard of him. Ironwood was a tyrant, Oscar was gone, Neo had the lamp and Uncle Qrow—

Ruby shot up. “Uncle Qrow!” She looked around at her friends as their heads perked up. A forlorn Blake glanced around. Yang’s eyes widened in realization.

“Where is he?” Ruby asked quietly.

“Last we heard, he was with Robyn and Clover,” Blake muttered.

Clover.

The arrest warrant had been made for her uncle too. Had Qrow been arrested? If he hadn’t, where was he?

“We can’t leave without him,” Ruby stated.

“Do you want me to land this thing?” Maria asked, exasperated.

The Huntress turned to the door. “No. Turn around and I’ll drop off at the Academy. I’m finding Uncle Qrow.” And Oscar too, she promised to herself.

“I’m coming with you,” Yang resolved, standing up. Blake nodded, and Weiss glanced at Penny before standing up too.

“So will we.”

Ruby turned back, her eyes flashing. “No! Stay here. I’m not losing anyone else.”

Silence echoed through the room as Ruby’s words left her mouth. It was colder in the airship. She had said I’m not losing anyone else, not we.

Her voice was firm and unwavering, her eyes steely, yet her body shook, as if she was on the verge of tears.

Yang wouldn’t take no for an answer. She wasn’t leaving her sister alone with an enemy. “I’m coming with you. We’ll find Qrow, together.”

Ruby’s patience with her sister was running thin, but she wasn’t trying to cause a scene. The ribbons tied around her heart were slowly loosening, and if they all snapped, she’d snap as well. She felt overly warm, her body wasn’t keeping cool like the rest of the ship. She was upset, she knew it. But losing her head wasn’t going to help them find her uncle or Oscar.

Ruby turned back to Yang, her face inscrutable. Willing her hands to stay unclenched, she met her sister’s violet eyes. They held sincerity and they held concern. But right now, she didn’t have time for either of those.

She knew everyone’s eyes were on her as she spoke her next words. Fine.

“Yang...”

“Okay, what if I stay at the entrance? I’ll only come in if you need help,” Yang cut in.

Ruby considered this. Her sister was more than capable of taking care of herself. But Ironwood still had warrants on them, and there were more Atlesian Huntsmen than the AceOps to face out there. She blinked twice.

“... Okay. Let’s go.”

Weiss grasped Ruby’s hand on her way to the door, and Blake told them both to be careful. Ruby immediately regretted sniping at them, and murmured a tight “I’m sorry” in passing.

Maria, who had quickly turned around, didn’t hesitate to press the button for the hatch door to open. The blistering wind filed the room, but Ruby didn’t feel cold. The ship hovered a little ways from the Academy, but she knew depsitw the wind, she’d have little difficulty landing where she wanted. Crescent Rose was attached to her hip, she was fully loaded with Dust... and a new attitude. Enough negotiation. The general had no idea who he was really dealing with.

Ruby eyes her sister, who simply greeted her with a cocky smile.

“Ready when you are, sis.”

Her spirits lifted a little as she turned back to Jaune, Nora, Ren, Maria, Pietro, Penny, Blake, Weiss.

“We’ll be back. That’s a promise,” she declared. Her arms spread open, like a bird through the skies, before she made her exit.

———————————————————————

At the entrance of the Academy, Ruby gave her sister an apologetic smile.

“Hey, I didn’t mean to be get upset with you, I... I’m just ready to leave this place,” Ruby said, holding her shoulder.

“It’s okay for you to be upset. I’m not blaming you,” Yang reassured her. “But if you’re not back in ten minutes, I’m coming after you. And that’s non-negotiable.”

Ruby nodded in affirmation before busting through the doors of Atlas Academy. She was sure that the Academy housed a temporary cell for certain inmates before they were transferred to the actual prison. That’s where her uncle would be.

She rushed passed the entrance, and past the area where the defeated AceOps bodies had disappeared. That was quick. Too quick.

Her eyes darted around the room, checking for any signs for an ambush. The same doors ahead of her were still pried open. Had Ironwood returned to his office? Did he know she would be coming?

Fingers grasping her weapon, Ruby braced herself before squeezing into the hole she made earlier that day.

The room of stars was dimly lit, a stark contrast to what it was hours before. A shadow of a man stood, facing the window. The general.

“There’s still an arrest warrant out for you. I should be apprehending you right now,” Ironwood spoke, his voice devoid of any emotion.

“We already defeated your Ace Operatives. I wouldn’t try that,” she spat out coldly. “I’m here for my uncle. I know you have him in custody.”

The general turned around, and if Ruby weren’t so angered, she would I’ve gasped at the sight of him. Whatever light was previously in his eyes had vanished.

“Your uncle is right where he needs to be. In prison.”

“He’s innocent, he didn’t do—“

“Your uncle killed Clover Ebi, the leader of the AceOps,” he murmured.

Ruby froze, but only for a moment before recovering. “He would never. He wouldn’t kill Clover.”

Ironwood shook his head in disbelief and held up his scroll. There was a picture of her uncle’s bloodied weapon.

“Then why was Clover found dead in the middle of the tundra, Qrow over his lifeless body?” Ironwood roared. “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you!”

“Trust!” Ruby exploded. Her face was a dark shade of red, and her fingers were itching to swing Crescent Rose at his neck. “Trust!”

“You asked for our trust, and you wanted us to put our faith in you! And we did! We helped you, we trained with your soldiers, we were helping your kingdom!”

“You lied about the Relic, you lied about Ozpin—what trust? You defeated my men and killed one too! Who’s to say that you weren’t planning to kill me as well?” the general sneered.

He was off the deep end. Whatever wisdom, sense, compassion the general once had... was gone.

“You can’t speak about trust,” Ruby uttered, “when your men first came after us and then arrested us. We put our faith in you, even when you and Uncle Qrow didn’t see on the same page. Even when we didn’t see on the same page. We thought you were better. But you’re just another Leo.”

At that, Ironwood crushed the scroll in his hands. The thin piece of technology, nothing but a palmful of wires and metal. His body trembled, and he took a deep breath before saying, “Don’t compare me to him. Leo was a coward. Leo was weak. My men arrested you because you stole an airship. We had no reason to trust you. But we did anyway.” Ironwood turned back to his window. “A foolish mistake.”

“And we trusted you, despite you dehumanizing Penny and neglecting Mantle. The things you said, the things you did... everything about you seemed so heartless”, Ruby whispered, shivering. Her anger had subsided momentarily, but now she was very aware of the gun Ironwood had laid on the table. Her aura wasn’t depleted, but she didn’t have as much energy as she thought she did. She would have to be careful.

“Then I guess we cannot trust each other. I certainly couldn’t trust your uncle around my soldier.”

Ruby cringed inwardly; Qrow wouldn’t kill without a reason. Especially Clover. It could have been self-defense or....

“Wasn’t Tyrian on the ship?”

Ironwood stilled, and turned back to meet her stare.

“Wasn’t Tyrian on the ship?” Ruby repeated, her tone growing cold.

“Tyrian had escaped when we found them.”

“Then... couldn’t Tyrian have killed Clover with my uncle’s weapon?”

“That doesn’t matter! The evidence showed that it was Qrow, not Tyrian, who killed Clover!” Ironwood roared, his eyes flashing, his fist slamming on the table.

Ruby swallowed. There was no way to convince the general to let her uncle go. At least he was somewhere with Robyn—and he could take care of himself. She didn’t like the idea of being away from her uncle, especially after he had been with them since their journey began. But he was more than capable of handling himself, and Maria had to get the ship away from Atlas soon, before Ironwood struck it down, or did something equally as drastic.

She wondered if it was cowardly to leave Uncle Qrow behind. Should she have brought Yang and the rest of her team to force the general to give him back?

Oscar. Her mind flew from person to person, and then she remembered Oscar.

She looked back to the general, who was muttering to himself, frantically.

“... Salem’s here, and he’s gone. Finally...”

“Who’s gone?” Ruby asked, eyebrow raised.

Ironwood barely spared her a glance before staring at his gun. “He’s gone. And you won’t find him.”

“Who is gone?” Ruby asked again, her voice laced with venom. Her heartbeat accelerated, and the fear that something sinister had happened in the Academy was growing larger.

“He’s dead. He’s finally dead.”

“Tell me, who are you talking about?” Ruby shouted, her voice unwavering.

Ironwood met her gazeand smiled. Not a warm, inviting smile. But a weary smile. “Ozpin is dead. His soul isn’t in that boy—he’s somewhere else. But he’s not here to get in my mind. Finally, I’ve rid of him.” He seemed unstable, like Tyrian, but not at the same time. No one could quite tell what was on Tyrian’s mind. Ironwood’s intentions, on the other hand, were a bit clearer. He saw everyone who hadn’t been trained under him, who didn’t respond to his every beck and call, as the enemy.

Ruby, however, was focused on something else.

Ozpin was dead.

Ozpin was dead.

Oscar was dead.

Ruby didn’t hesitate, didn’t think, didn’t breathe, as she unleashed Crescent Rose and charged towards the general. Within seconds, her scythe was placed at the base of his throat. His body was pressed up against the window, Ruby’s agitated motions pinning him against it, harder and harder.

Ironwood was seeing the girl, her cheeks flushed, her eyes constricted. It was the expression of a wild, untamed loss. And this was a girl who had been through loss so many times. This loss was not moved by sadness, however. It was propelled by her rage. Never had he seen her look so feral. Ruby Rose, the poster child of innocence, had her weapon held against a top politician’s neck. If the world could only see her now...

Ruby wasn’t sure what to process first, the fact that Oscar was dead, or that the general was the one to kill him. Either way, she couldn’t help but push the top part of her scythe further into his neck. Not enough to draw blood. Not yet.

All her feelings were rising in her throat, threatening to spill out. The thoughts of Oscar, her friend, and so much more being dead... no, no, it couldn’t be.

“What the hell did you do to him?” she growled. Ironwood made no effort to push her off, he only closed his eyes and said, “I shot him. I had to. He had to go.”

“Explain from the beginning, what happened,” Ruby snarled again. Her brain felt as if it was going to explode, and her body was burning up.

“He came down to talk to me,” Ironwood choked out. “I was at my wits end... I had to do it. He went off the edge. He’s gone.”

Ruby, now hearing the truth, could only imagine a sad pair of hazel-ish eyes staring at her. Oscar, a noble soul from the very beginning. She had only known him for a short while, but it felt like much longer. She hiccuped, and bit her lip to keep from crying.

Then regaining her composure, she strengthened her grip on her weapon. The general’s skin cut, and blood bubbled up, spilling onto the silver blade.

“Heh... I’d never imagine you of all people to kill so easily.”

“Shut up,” her harsh voice echoed. The taste of iron filled her mouth. Dammit. She bit too hard. She was still weak, still too small. If only... if only she was strong enough to just end—

“You wouldn’t dare kill me. You don’t have it in you. Unless, you’re more like your uncle than I anticipated?” Ironwood jeered, a sick smile plastered onto his face.

At that moment, Ruby’s limbs fell slack and she released her grip off her weapon. What the general did was like a blow to her stomach. He used that opportunity to actually kick her in the stomach, sending her flying across his office.

Ruby barely had time to register what had happened with she heard the sound of the general cocking his gun.

Flying to her feet, she sucked in a breath and gazed at the man in front of her. His gloved hand wiped the blood off his neck.

“Never... never speak about my uncle that way again. The only murderer here, is you. I’m not letting you get away with this.” Heavy breaths; she was struggling to keep her breathing even.

This is for you, Oscar.

Ruby made her resolve. She wasn’t sure if she could bring herself to kill the headmaster, but she sure as hell wasn’t letting him go unscathed. Part of her felt thrilled seeing the blood bubble from his throat. The panic that flashed across his face. In that moment, it didn’t feel so bad. But to kill Ironwood wouldn’t make her any better than... Watts, Cinder, or Tyrian, for instance. Was she just holding back? If she gave into this craving, this desire for justice and revenge, would she become just like them?

She shivered at the thought, and recovered herself. No. If Oscar were here, he’d tell her that she was more than Cinder. Her sister and friends would tell her she was more. When Tyrian was going after her uncle, she didn’t hesitate and did what she needed to do. She knew her worth. And she knew who she was.

Ironwood picked up his gun and directed it at her. Ruby grit her teeth and held Crescent Rose.

“For Oscar,” she murmured.

Ruby watched Ironwood pull the trigger and bolted to the side, allowing her time to transform her weapon into its gun form and shoot it at him. Flames shot out of the gun, and Ironwood barely missed it.

“You and I both know that Ozpin was nothing but a manipulator. He lied to you, he lied to me, he lied to the world!” Ironwood spat. Ruby didn’t hesitate and fired another shot at him. His aura trembled, and Ruby knew that it had not been fully restored. They were now at opposite sides of the room, Ironwood near the door, and Ruby on his desk.

“You shouldn’t have killed him,” she murmured.

Her mind told her that he was dead, but her heart told her she needed to believe he wasn’t. Ozpin could have returned and saved them. Oscar’s semblance could’ve been activated. Anything could have happened between that ledge and what lay below it. Oscar could be alive.

“I know the boy was fighting alongside his teammates. He’s good as dead. There was no way he survived that fall.”

Ruby’s eyes widened. Without hesitation, her weapon was a scythe again and she flew at the general. “His name, is Oscar,” she bit back, his name almost getting stuck in her throat.

Her weapon shattered his aura and it dissolved. Now would be her chance. The perfect opportunity.

“Ruby!” Her sister’s voice broke her concentration. The Huntress’s eyes flitted to the gap between the door. Ironwood took that opportunity to slam into them and escape. Ruby went after him, swinging her weapon as she went along.

Outside in the main foyer, Ironwood was in the middle of the hall, pointing his gun at her.

Dammit.

“You wouldn’t dare.” His teeth grit, his eyes ferocious.

“I would,” she replied simply.

Yang’s voice echoed throughout the school again, until Ruby spotted her blonde locks from the corner of her eye.

“Ruby, what are you doing?” It was momentary, but Ruby tore her gaze away from Yang, back to the general, who was turned to shoot at her sister—

“No!” And she once again was speed. Despite how fatigued she was, she broke down into the same bloodred petals and funneled herself to the general, tackling him onto the ground. Now she was over his body, his arms pinned down. He could easily overtake her. But he didn’t.

“You will never hurt anyone I love again,” she promised. Her eyes were getting wet again. She dug her fingernails into the general’s coat and wished she could just, just rip off his arms.

Now she was cold. Earlier, her body was warm, was hot, had burned up. Now the Huntress was colder than the evening wind that tore through the school. Her heart was beating, beating, beating, irregularly.

“You-you broke... through my aura... if you want to kill me... go rig-right ahead,” Ironwood coughed. His lips still had that faint smile that she wanted to wipe off ages ago. He was still waiting for whatever came next.

All it would take is one move and he’d be done—

“Ruby, don’t!”

Suddenly, she was held in an embrace. She looked down and saw her sister’s hands wrapped around her shoulders, her chest. Ruby’s eyes widened, and she looked in horror at where her hands were placed. As if they had moved of their own accord, they were placed so close, so close to the general’s neck.

“Ruby...”

The Huntress allowed her sister to pull her off the general. Yang had one fist directed at him, in case he tried anything. And rather than fighting back, he scampered away.

Her bones suddenly felt very weary, her muscles weak. All the tension building up on her, she had to let it go.

Oscar...

The tears pooling up in her eyes brimmed in the corners. She allowed them to fall, to spill, to make streams down her cheeks. One drop after the other until each one was no longer discernible.

Yang held her as the soft tears broke into loud sobs and gasps and hiccups. She shouted Oscar’s name, refusing to quiet down. Her heart was broken. Yang assumed the worst and shed some tears of her own.

The day he had met her, he had noticed her eyes.

She was interested in him, even after finding out Ozpin had reincarnated into him.

She finally told someone, him, how she was feeling about the fall of Beacon.

They had sparred together. They were both horrible at it.

He had came to her defense at Haven.

He had her back in Argus.

He wished her good luck before their last mission with the AceOps.

He was always there, always supporting her. She cared for him, genuinely and truly. And now, there was only a gaping hole in her heart, that his presence had filled.

It was disheartening to think that she didn’t realize how much his friendship meant to her until he was gone. She always thought they would have a lifetime of shy smiles, awkward laughs, and sparring sessions together. She had his back, he had hers. Who had Oscar’s back when Ironwood shot him? Who was there to save him?

Feelings of guilt, heartache, grief—she couldn’t begin to fathom any of it. Never mind that Ozpin had probably found a new host—and could take months to find them, her friend was dead. And all it took was a little bullet to send him over the edge. Right into his heart.

She didn’t want Ozpin to find a new host. She didn’t need another Oscar, another life to get used to. She didn’t want to meet another boy, man, whoever, another person who would help them on their mission. She wanted the boy who had walked into their home with her drunk uncle and had shyly asked for her. She wanted the boy who blushed and turned away every time her gaze lingered on him a little too long. She wanted to hug Oscar and laugh and cry with him. She wanted to think it was all a joke and he would walk into the room right now, and Ruby would thank her lucky stars while threatening to beat Oscar up to a pulp. She wanted one last goodbye, at the very least, a moment to tell him how she really felt. But that chance was gone. Ironwood had made the Academy Oscar’s grave.

Ruby shook and shuddered underneath her sister’s warm cocoon. She was enveloped in love, but it felt so distant in the moment. It felt so dim and dark.

She let out another piercing cry, and Yang frowned. She had not only come into the building to check up on her sister, but to remind her of what lay ahead. But seeing how she was so crushed, so melancholic, she couldn’t bring herself to do so. The dark, thunderous clouds had started to make their way into Atlas’s atmosphere. They swirled with reds and blacks and yellows. The air reeked of Grimm. Salem was here, and the ship was still waiting for them. Though she knew how much of a threat the immortal witch was, seeing her in this condition, Yang couldn’t bear to tell her sister the bigger threat to come.

So even if it was for a moment, the older sister let her younger one bawl in her lap, let her cry a little longer.

————————————————

after.

in this scenario, Salem didn’t actually show up in Atlas, rather, she can project a physical copy of herself if she gathers enough strength. somehow our heroes overcome, and this is after the fact, when atlas is plunged into darkness and mantle is still suffering.

Ruby’s skin was paper thin. She glanced in the dirty mirror, the dim lights barely giving her what she needed to see. Hollow, sunken cheeks looked back at her. Her eyes lacked the shine they once had. Her hair had grown out to her shoulders, but she didn’t care. She didn’t care to trim it, to take care of it, she just let nature take its course.

She didn’t want to call it depression, she refused to call it such. She was still mourning, was all. They had held an impromptu funeral for the boy weeks after the attacks, and Ruby could only stare into the hole where the his body was supposed to be.

“Ruby! Our rations have arrived; come get yours before it gets too cold!” Nora’s voice ripped through her thoughts.

Rations, that’s what they had to rely on. Seemed like what eveyeone had to rely on these days. But she no longer felt like eating.

During Salem’s siege, Blake and Weiss managed to help Qrow and Robyn escape. Robyn pretty much put herself in charge, as Qrow hadn’t gotten over Clover’s death, and got angry whenever someone brought up Oscar’s.

There was questions about their next steps. Salem only sent a replica of herself and in seeing all the havoc she had wreaked, who knew how much more damage could be done when she actually arrived. That was her final threat before retreating.

Mark my words, I will be back. I will be back, just as I know Ozpin will be. And it doesn’t matter who he reincarnates in. I will kill him over and over and over until there’s no hope for humanity left in him. Until he realizes that the fight he thought he was fighting, was never one to begin with. How can there be a fight when I am already the victor?

“Ruby! Come on, Jaune’s threatening to eat your food!” Nora yelled, knocking loudly on the door. At that, Ruby jumped, her heart thudding in her chest.

“I’m coming,” she muttered. Splashing water on her face, she switched the lights off and left the bathroom.

The others were gathered around the table. Robyn, Penny and her father, Maria, JNR, her own team, her uncle. All banned from Atlas, sent down to Mantle to figure out what to do next. Did they wait for Ozpin to reincarnate and hope he would get to Mantle soon? Did they find the Summer Maiden and head to Vacuo? No one was quite sure what to do, and secretly, everyone wished to succumb to the darkness that overlooked the skies, and simply, give up. The others were on the roster of volunteers who passed out rations, occasionally going out to give citizens cans. People were so desperate for food that they didn’t mind that Ironwood hadn’t communicated with Mantle in weeks nor that the wall still wasn’t finished. Atlesian Huntsmen were so preoccupied doing... whatever they were doing up there, that it was up to Ruby’s group to dispense justice and ward off the Grimm. It was cold, it was dark. However, Grimm attacks were the least of anyone’s problems at the moment. Especially Ruby’s. After Salem’s departure, she didn’t touch her weapon, only glanced at it in passing.

Ruby sat on her stool within the cramped dining room of the hovel they were staying in, and scooped a chunk of beans into her mouth. If she forced herself to eat, her sister wouldn’t pester her about it later.

“How are you today?” Weiss asked her. Weiss always asked her this question, just to make sure she hadn’t went too far gone. Ruby appreciated the sentiment, but that question was getting redundant.

No, she didn’t mean that. She loved Weiss; and was grateful she cared.

The yellowish lights buzzed above them. Ruby answered Weiss half-heartedly, chewing her beans and lost in thought. She then remembered a time when Weiss and Oscar tasted her cooking, when she had put lima beans in her rice for “flavor”. Needless to say, it wasn’t very good. The look of disgust he had on his face...

“Heh.”

Yang’s eyes widened. “She laughed,” she murmured. Everyone else seemed to agree, all looking at Ruby in bewilderment.

Ruby, stared back at them, equally confused. “What? What did I do?”

Qrow, who sat next to her, gave her a small smile. “You laughed a bit. Saw that old Ruby spark come out of you.”

Old Ruby spark, huh.

Ruby went back to eating her beans, her eyes wandering over to the sitting room, where Crescent Rose was propped up against the wall.

She hadn’t touched it in weeks. She missed its smooth finish, the feel of the trigger behind her finger. The thrill of fighting. All of those desires called to her, to the more familiar side of herself, the one that had retreated into her heart.

“He would’ve wanted you to keep fighting,” Penny piped up.

Ruby and everyone else turned to Penny, whose dish was empty, since she didn’t get hungry much.

“W-what?” Ruby asked, her voice hushed.

“You look at Crescent Rose with longing. He would’ve wanted you to pick it up and do what you loved doing most. Wouldn’t he?” The girl looked around the table, looking for someone who would disagree with her.

Ruby didn’t reply, but chewed thoughtfully. She missed Oscar terribly, and his death had only been a catalyst of the worst to come. But was Penny right? Would it be better for her to continue fighting, even if she wasn’t sure what for anymore?

No one pressured her to answer, only returned to finish the scraps of the food they had remaining on their plates.

Her eyes flitted back to her weapon, which was in gun form. Maybe, maybe if she held it for even a few seconds, she would be struck with the drive to fight again. The resolve to finish what she had started.

When Ruby had first met Oscar, a single rose bloomed in her heart. Over time, that rose became part of a larger garden, a rose garden. When he had died, the previously red roses hs blackened and shriveled away. But as she looked back at Crescent Rose, she was reminded of something bigger than herself, something worth fighting for.

For Oscar, for my mother, for the dead, for Remnant, for my friends and family, for me.

And with that declaration in mind, a little seed that was planted in her heart began to sprout and take root.

————————————————

Thanks @happyhedgehogren for the beautiful idea! I hope I executed it okay. I just keep thinking about how amazing it would be to see something like this played out in the actual show.

*also, I figured that Ruby might go through something that really breaks her spirit, and I feel like if she goes through that, she be lifted up eventually. Not all protagonists have to be dark and cynical, I like Ruby and her optimism, despite the tramua she’s faced, but seeing her break down (I know it sounds awful, like what we saw in vol7 with salem) was great.

also @remnant-roses posted some angsty Ruby and Oscar art a few days ago... it’s too good.