#thank you miles and kerry for working so hard

[eringobragh420]

ᥫ᭡ DAMIAN PRIEST dating headcanons pt. 2 ᥫ᭡

➔ Pairing — Damian Priest ❤︎ f!Reader ➔ Word Count — 800 ➔ Warnings — NSFW. Mention of oral (f receiving), dirty talk, super mild D/s, mention of overstimulation 18+ ➔ Taglist — If you'd like to be added, please click here! ➔ Shoutout — @caramara3 Thanks for this idea and the encouragement! ➔ MASTERLIST

if you enjoy my writing, please consider donating toward my IVF journey!

°˖➴ Damian has gotten you addicted to tattoos. You’d gone with him for one of his appointments, deciding in the middle of his session that you wanted one of your own. What do you think about getting Damian right across my chest? Damian’s eyes had nearly popped out of his head and all the beautiful bronze color had drained from his face before you collapsed into giggles. And as he listened to you laughing and watching you cry at your own stupid joke, he maybe wished you were getting his name somewhere on your body.

°˖➴ Damian appreciates that you listen when he gushes over his newest combat weapon or superhero bust or creepy Good Guy doll, asking questions you don’t care about the answers to, helping him decide where to place them in the house.

°˖➴  Damian is a munch. Every opportunity to lay you on the nearest flat surface, spread your silky thighs, and lick you until you’re a writhing, sobbing mess, he takes. Your taste, your flavor, your cum is something he craves. He wishes he could put it in a travel mug when he heads for the airport after making you ride his face.

°˖➴  Damian doesn’t post much about the two of you on social media, but he loves when you do. Selfies—I’m his and he’s mine, forever. Dinner dates—now he eats steak, later he eats …  Celebrations—el campeón de mi corazón. Letting the world know you belong to him. And he you.

°˖➴  Damian reads to you. All the classic authors—Jane Austen, Harper Lee, F. Scott Fitzgerald. The books are printed in English, but he reads them in Spanish, and it’s supposed to help with your fluency, but you either spend your time gazing up at him, watching his lips move, or fall asleep to the soft rumble of his words, having learned nothing.

°˖➴  Damian talks during sex. Mostly Spanglish. But the words simply tumble out of his mouth when his cock is buried to the hilt inside the tightest pussy he’s ever had, or the velvetiest throat he’s ever felt. He tells you how pretty you are, how well you take him, and, not to be forgotten: how utterly sexy you'd be round with his child. 

°˖➴  Damian knows it’s not necessary to buy you expensive things, but he can't help it. Every necklace was made for your neck, every ring for your finger, every bag, every lingerie set, and every pair of shoes. All made for you. So what's he supposed to do? Not buy the things that were made for you?

°˖➴  Damian has never been submissive for a woman in his entire life. Until you came along. And it's not that he wants to be dominated every time. But after a particularly bad day at work, miles of rough travel, or simple frustration with life, he loves being able to lay back and let you tell him what to do, what position you want him in, and when to cum. He especially loves when you get physical—hand around his throat, nail scratches down his back and chest, and he hasn't been able to bring himself to tell you that he fucking loves it when you pull his hair. Not just a gentle tug when he's eating you out. His entire ponytail wrapped around your fist and a hard yank—that's his shit.

°˖➴  Damian’s favorite date to take you on is a concert. Your musical tastes tend to gravitate to more modern pop, the stuff that makes his ears bleed, but it warms his heart when you willingly attend the show of a band you’ve never even heard of. He’ll enjoy a few songs before his attention falls on you. You can dance to anything. Even a screeching guitar solo by Kerry King. And you somehow made dancing to Kerry King sexy, so he’s started purchasing VIP suites, because as soon as you start moving your hips, he’s glued to your backside, thrusting his hips against your lower back.

°˖➴  Damian is the overstimulation king. Your thighs clenching around his hand, your own hands fighting against the silk rope attaching them to the headboard, rivers of tears streaming down your cheeks. He’ll never tell you, and he might feel a little ashamed of it, but it makes his cock ache when you cry, weep, beg him to stop because you can’t fucking take anymore. And after he revels in your sobs for several moments, that’s when he talks you through it. That’s when he talks you down, as his fingers slow, and the filthy squelching sounds become softer. See, I told you you could do it. And my sweet angelita taking everything Papí gives her. And I know it makes you cry, querida, but it feels so good, doesn’t it? And he smiles when you sniff and nod, and he unties your hands so you can curl into him until your body stops shaking.

જ⁀➴°⋆ Papi — Daddy જ⁀➴°⋆ Angelita — Little angel જ⁀➴°⋆ Querida — Dearest/Beloved

TAGLIST: @southerngirl41 @femdisa @riverina69 @rollinssection @paramedicnerd004 @mandmilovehim @brianochka @yourmommyagone22 @sweetmoonlove0214 @partypoison00 @missbmc94 @lils2795 @aureliacorvina @magicalbuttertarts @madimcg14 @thealliasylum @lov3rla03 @plaidpajamallama @princesstiti14 @pittieprincess22 @cyberdejos2 @brideofinfamy @rainbowdreams-x @headcaseproductions1 @bearbutlikeprincessbear @terrortwinunicorn @dontcrykeepyourheaduphigh @loki69zowens @fearlesschimera @rockerfairy93 @misslackey @nichole1989 @hc-geralt-23 @miss-kuki-nz @damianpriestfangirl82 @elaineoneill570 @infamousvampcx @rheasfingerpuppet

[thedaveandkimmershow]

Living on Capital Hill wasn't just a change of location it was a change of how our personal and professional lives played out on a daily basis.

Seriously.

It was different life.

So. In no particular order...

The new location was central to our professional lives. In a way, pretty much halfway between all the places we work by car, by bus, by light rail. Ballard. The UW. Madrona. And, of course, the dot at the center of that universe, our apartment that, because of the pandemic, became a location that was also a work place in a way none of our other homes had been. A location from which we would remote in.

Thank you, pandemic. 😑

It really was striking how tight that professional circle was geographically. Which eventually made it hard to imagine leaving it.

Another thing that was different is that there were more places that were regular parts of our days. The QFC on Broadway that I walked passed every day so, for example. During the week, I'd stop in for anything we ran out of or that we forgot to pick up on the weekend. The U.S. Post Office down the street a half block from the Capitol Hill light rail station. I passed by ever day so it was easy to stop in to drop off some mail or buy some stamps. And then of course the Capitol Hill light rail station itself. I chose a lot of different routes to walk there and back from our apartment to keep things interesting.

Early on we'd stop in at Cafe Barjot a half block up the hill from our place to score some lemon crepes with which to breakfast on our glassed in deck Sunday mornings. We also occasional stopped in at the Roy Street Cafe next to that Kinko's on Roy & Broadway. It's gone now (as is Cafe Barjot), but just sitting at a window sipping a hot drink was a super peaceful way to exist. We had dinner sometimes at Deluxe Bar & Grill across from Kinko's. Ordered out from there during the pandemic.

We took the longest regular walks we ever did. We started from the parking lot at the southern tip of Lake Union, walked to the ship canal bridge and back. About a three mile round trip. Along the way, sometimes we'd stop in at the Starbucks at the shore end of Highland Drive. On special occasions we stopped in at Caffe Umbria across the street from that Starbucks.

Speaking of across the street, across the street from where we parked our car prior to these walks is Tapster. This is a tasting room in which you authorize an amount to spend, then you go about to the different taps to sample away. For a while there, there was a food truck selling the tastiest mexican food ever. Speaking of which, we also made more of a habit of going to Cactus restaurant a few blocks south. It was either the first or second restaurant at which we ate during the pandemic. And we ate there outside on the sidewalk under a tarp and a heater. And we loved it.

Maybe the biggest difference living on the Hill is that there were always people around us. Wherever we went. Of course there were. QFC was always hopping, especially during any holiday. Broadway's always busy. South Lake Union too, especially during the summer. It's crazy busy during the summer. Swimming. Boating. Sunning. Enjoying. So we randomly talked to more people during these years. Especially that one year it snowed on Valentine's Day and we went out walking our neighborhood that night and every adult seemed to be reliving their childhoods with sleds and tubes, racing down icy streets (of which there are plenty on the Hill).

I'd actually run across people I knew. One of them was sitting outside The Deluxe having dinner when I crossed the street and wound up right in front of him. I ran into Linzy a few times a block from Kerry Hall near the Roy Street Cafe. Other people too, especially around Top Pot Donut (the original). :-)

It was definitely a different life we led on the Hill. Mostly because of the Hill, mostly because this was urban living... but also the course of events. This is where we were during the Black Lives riots. While cars burned in downtown Seattle and business fronts were smashed. This is where we were, the north end of Capitol Hill, while at the south end a section of town had been taken over and confrontations with police at the east precinct were happening every night.

This is where we were.

For better and for those bits of worse.

This is where we lived when our dear friend, Susan, finally passed away.

Maybe the most significant part of our time there was the fact that we lived about seven blocks from Linzy's apartment. When she lived on the same block as Kerry Hall, we lived about four blocks from Linzy's apartment. This was a period of time during which she began building her career. Performances at The Lookout about two blocks away. And then she connected with SoFarSounds that booked secret gigs all around town. "Secret" because the bands and artists weren't promoted but the dates were and, at the last minute, the venues. The bands and artists themselves were a complete surprise to each audience time after time. It was a unique experience and it was fun. And those were always fantastic audiences whether we were in a brick walled loft in Pioneer Square, the backyard of a home a little north and west of Northgate, office spaces in various downtown Seattle high rises, a winery barely a block south of the Magnolia Bridge, a crafts store a block east of the Ballard Locks, or The Shop, south of the former Kingdome and home to all manner of fancy vehicles and one memorable space in which to feature musicians.

The Hill was sort of central to all those locations so they were easy to attend. Part of the urban vibe of it all.

The biggest deal about living that close, of course, is that we went through the pandemic together. She'd come over to our place. We'd go over to hers. We were even at her place when she graduated Cornish College of the Arts in a virtual ceremony. We were our own little cohort, our tribe that navigated this most catastrophic of unknown circumstance as we ever exerpienced.

And we did that together. From the moment all her gigs went up in smoke (along with the gigs of every other musician in town)... to when live shows came back with a bang and then she was playing gigs with a band.

In the end, our overlapping time living on Capitol Hill isn't only a different personal and professional experience and lifestyle...

It's also a time capsule for us as a family and for Linzy as student, a professional, and a young woman whose personal and professional life is quite in impressive motion.

At the end of this week, the chapter closes. Our Capitol Hill era comes to an end as she bids farewell to her apartment and begins her next chapter:

Off the hill.

:-)

[clemprime13]

Anyone who says that CRWBY isn’t following Monty’s vision is wrong, full stop.

Fight me.

A small reminder that Monty mapped out Volumes 1-9 and the finale of RWBY, and all Miles and Kerry have been doing is following it, filling in the small gaps.

When you play the Monty card, (claiming this isn't what Monty wanted, etc.), you're actually insulting Monty.

When you insult Miles and Kerry's abilities as writers, you're insulting Monty, who hand-picked them to work beside him, and who have worked tirelessly to continue his legacy.

If you want to TRULY judge their writing, wait until Volume 9 is over. After that, Miles and Kerry will be taking the reigns, following only a rough outline, up until the finale anyway, since that's been planned out already.

Just watch what you say next time you feel like calling Miles and Kerry incompetent writers, or you claim that Monty would be disappointed with what RWBY has become.

Or better yet, just don't fucking do it.

[allie1804-fan]

Kerensa

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5 , Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Tresco take 2

By noon, they were walking hand in hand along the New Grimsby beach at Tresco. The sun was warm but the breeze cooler than back in May so they wore light fleeces to protect them from the chill of the wind. They found themselves a comfortable flat-topped rock to sit on.

“I love this place, thank you for bringing me back”

“The pleasure is all mine. We should make it our special place, you know where we���ll always come to reconnect and recharge.”

“Mmmm” Kerry agreed.

“Talking of the future, are you going to share your thoughts - you implied you had some. What else happened in your fantasies after option c came true?”

“Well, gosh, mmmm, I guess I hoped we’d try out errr somehow living together for a while, here or there.” He waved his hand in the direction of the Americas. “Maybe eventually we can split our time somehow, so neither of us has to abandon friends and family altogether - you’d want to see your sister and her family right? And the gang in Sennen, other friends in London? What do you think?”

“Can you do your work from here then? What about, I dunno, casting, schmoozing, auditions, do you even do auditions?”

Keanu laughed

“I try to steer clear of schmoozing and, not to be too big-headed, but I don’t really audition anymore. At a certain point, names are floated alongside projects and meetings are held but we know they can be done virtually now so, yeah I can still work from here. I do have to travel though, obviously for some shoots and some promo work, you know. What about you?”

“Well I can work anywhere too, for the writing – there’s just the cottage stuff I’d need to sort – but I guess I can get a letting agent to deal with the cottage if I’m not around all the time. It would just reduce my income a bit but the publishing deal will help”

“let’s just get one thing completely clear. You don’t have to worry about money, never, not at all. I could live for a few centuries off what I’ve made, it’s ridiculous so, like I said before, I can’t take it with me so any expenses that you need covering, especially if they are related to being with me, well I’ll cover them. OK?”

“I don’t want to be a kept woman”

“It’s not about that, it’s just me caring about you, supporting you, making sure you’re not out of pocket because of me, OK?”

“OK” she acquiesced leaning in to give him a kiss “thank you”

“So where shall we start this try out at living together? Maybe I should stay here a while, give you a chance to sort out the cottage, your publishing deal and then maybe, when it gets really cold”, he smirked remembering how she ribbed him about not liking the cold, “I can take you to LA for a while”

“ha ha – I guessed that was coming! But seriously it does sound like a plan that could work – unless we hate living together and I miss out on a trip to LA coz you dump me” she teased.

“I came back 7000 miles to win you, I’m not giving up that easily” he retorted, laughing. “come on let’s go back and get lunch and then we can go to the abbey”

After a quick bite at the New Inn, they collected the rental push bikes they had decided to use for their stay to make getting around quicker and more fun, then they headed over to the abbey.

Here they strolled round again, but this time arm in arm, no more longing to do so but not daring. At the first lookout point over the bay, he got her to stop and turn and then stood behind her.

“Now this is one of the things I was itching to do back in May” he explained before wrapping his arms around her middle, and resting his chin on her shoulder then nuzzling her neck.

“I knew you’d smell good” he whispered

“Hey that’s a line from one of your films”

He chuckled. “Yeah, a romantic one huh?”

“Poor old Julian, passed over for Harry!”

“How do you know the lines so well anyway?” he probed

“It’s my guilty secret – when you left I tried so hard to avoid anything to do with you”

“Ooh that hurts!”

“I was trying, you know, to deal with the situation!” she protested. “The way we left it, I thought I’d probably never see you again and then when you started messaging, I just gave up pretending to myself. And it’s one of my favourite films anyway so, I just, errr, let us just say, I overindulged in it recently!”

Keanu gave her shoulder a squeeze.

“Come on my lovely rom com fan, let’s head back. We have a little time to kill before the supper boat. Maybe I can try out some more of my lines on you?” Kerry giggled and squeezed his hand, colour rising in her cheeks as she thought about what was to come. Later they’d be taking what was known as a supper boat over to Brhyer Island and the 3 star Hell Bay Hotel Restaurant. The boats were laid on to make it easy for tourists to travel between the many tiny islands and thus enjoy the different pubs, cafes and restaurants they had to offer. But that was a couple of hours away yet, giving them time to follow through with their plan to take their relationship to the next level of intimacy on Tresco island.

@fortheloveoffanfic @omg-imagine @iworshipkeanureeves @toomanystoriessolittletime @ladyreapermc @paperplanesandwallflowers @patric9

[onceuponalegendbg-rwby]

Reaction to RWBY Crew Commentary V8

Alright, finally can get around to this. Got my copy of V8 today so let’s get started.

Kerry. Kiersi.

So, originally some more of the Cinder stuff was gonna be in this episode. Interesting.

I honestly like the big conversation in episode one. Really sets things up for what’s to come and the cutaways are good.

Show and Tell.

God I love this intro.

Kerry. Miles. Paula.

Yang finally gets her hover bike. Long time coming apparently.

Poor Shovel Mom.

I love the headcanon of Weiss as a kid being fascinated by the tubes.

Kerry. Kiersi. Dustin.

Poor Bill.

Striking that perfect balance again.

“Yeah, we’re monsters.” “I was gonna say things worked out, but they didn’t work out.”

Kerry. Eddy. Conner.

First chapter in animation.

This chase is so dope.

Whitley being fronting.

So definitely shadow versions of their kids then.

Kerry. Miles. Paula.

Hard to fit Pietro and Maria in and make them feel important.

Maria just needed to stall.

Oh a little shock collar foreshadowing.

“She got to choose.”

Kerry. Miles. Kiersi.

Cinder backstory was supposed to be in V5 but it just kept getting pushed back.

Almost feel bad for Cinder but not sympathize with her too much. Understand but not forgive.

Rhodes and a broken system share some blame for all this.

Sometimes you just change and become better at being the worst.

Kerry. Kiersi. Miles. Conner.

Conductor Salem.

Kdin is great.

“I outrank you.”

Penny has been fighting her programming and trying to get to the manor.

Kerry. Miles. Dustin.

Justified criticism of Blake and Ruby not getting enough screen time together.

Cenitaur was supposed to show up in V7.

Kerry. Eddy. Paula.

Jinn knew Neo was there.

Ambiguous alarm.

Emerald really pissed Salem off.

Yang’s defiance.

Burn the Witch!!!!

Kerry. Miles. Kiersi. Conner.

Watts giving Cinder a vicious vibe check.

The balance of how people treat Emerald.

God that scene in Ironwood’s office is so good and so tense.

Kerry. Kiersi. Miles. Eddy. Paula.

“Nice mansion by the way.”

Replacement bird sister.

Ugh, the sister talk!

“Weird. He’s talking about that fairytale again. Huh.”

Kerry. Eddy. Dustin.

Yeah, I’d imagine this episode was a doozy.

Merlin Daddy.

Kerry. Miles. Kiersi. Eddy.

So it was Watts that freed James.

The order of who falls.

Core Support Pillar Yang.

Lot of full circles.

The two people that want to fight each other the least.

Kerry. Miles. Kiersi. Eddy.

Qrow and Clover’s semblance is about perspective.

“Are we the baddies? I’m the baddie…”

“Ultimately, all season long Penny has been talking about what she’s willing to do for her friends.”

They don’t even acknowledge him.

Oh geez. How would you get to this point in three seasons?

Thanks Crwby. You guys made an amazing volume in less than ideal circumstances. So thank you. Can’t wait to see what you guys have in store for us in Volume 9.

[pixie88]

Baby Shower

Chapter 7 - Together - Adam & Ellie.

A/N: This chapter is a fast forward. Rereading it seems like a filler but a fluffy filler! I’m loving my new collages!! SO PRETTY!!! I hope you like it!

Comments always welcome good or bad!

I am only tagging those who have asked to be tagged in this new series from now on as I don't want to annoying people with tags. So Let me know if you would like to be tagged and if I missed anyone sorry just let me know!

Find previous chapters HERE under Together - Adam & Ellie.

Word count: 1885

WARNINGS: ⚠️ Fluffy fluff, NSFW & adult language.

Pairings: Adam x Ellie.

Enjoy 😘

I've been home for 4 days now, I'm bored Adam is at work he wanted to stay home but I convince him that I am fine. But now? Now I'm bored! Daytime TV is awful, I decide to go for a walk. I pop into Bridezillas, Jess looks up at me as I walk into the shop "Hey Ellie! How are you feeling?" she has the most fake smile.

"Hi, I'm feeling OK, just bored!"

"I can imagine it must be just staring at 4 walls all day. Have you heard anything about what is happening to the girl that attacked you?"

"Erm, last I heard they were charging her. Adam is dealing with updates. Has it been busy?"

I don't know if it's real or fake but she gives me an apologetic look "Psycho, hopefully she'll get what's coming to her. Today has been pretty steady actually" the shop phone rings Jess smile and answers it.

I hear the shop door open and turn to greet what I thought would be a customer to be face with his 'Why aren't you resting, look' I feel like a kid being caught with her hand in the cookie jar "Ellie, what are you doing here? Why aren't you at home with your feet up?"

I give him my best pouty sad face "I was bored, so I thought I'd go for a walk and just popped in. How did you know I was here?"

He gives me that grin, "I was walking back from the shop, we needed more tea at work and I saw you in here"

Jess interrupts "Ellie, are you OK to keep an eye out here for a minute or two? Amy is on her break and I need to check out back if a customers dress has been altered?"

I look over my shoulder at her "Yeah, that's fine" She smiles before rushing out the back to the stock room.

"Busted then! I was just so bored I was going to go stir crazy just watching TV"

His arms come around me, his cheek bushes mine as he whispers against my ear "I could've kept you company, but you told me to go back to work!"

I laugh, "Adam!!" I playfully swat him.

"Back thanks Ellie!" Jess calls from behind.

"Right, come on I'm taking you to lunch"

"Oooo, can we go to The Grill? I'm really feeling a chicken burger! Oh, and ice! Baby wants ice!"

He laughs, entwines his fingers through mine and pulls me towards the door "Bye Jess!" I call over

"Bye!"

We get outside "I just need to pop these into the office" we walk over to his office, we get out the front then I freeze on the spot.

Adam turns to look at me, then it clicks and his face turns to concern "Ellie, beautiful! I'm sorry! You know what I'll leave these here and tell Rob there outside. Don't worry I won't let anyone hurt you or Charlie! I promise! Let's get you some lunch"

 ~*~*~*~

After lunch Adam drops me home, I'm looking round the spare bedroom we emptied a few weeks ago. We have the paint, furniture, and furnishings. Nina and Al decided to stay another week after my incident with Laura. I give Nina a text, half an hour later, Al and Nina arrive "Ellie, let's get start on this room" Nina rushes me upstairs. She paints not letting me help and Al puts together the furniture.

I hear my phone.

*1 New Message from Hubster*

[Hey yummy mummy, I hope you're at home resting! I will grab you a couple of bags of ice on the way home! x]

[Hi my gorgeous husband, I am! I've just grabbed one of your hoodies while the heating is heating up as I'm cold. I will send a photo as proof haha! You know how to make a girl happy, I just finished the bag we got at lunch :( xx]

I take a kissy-pouty face photo with his white hoodie in my hand to throw him off and hit send.

*1 New Message from Hubster*

[Beautiful! Probably all that ice you've eaten that's made you cold. OK, I'll get 4 bags might last until tomorrow at least. x]

[Haha, it probs is! I might get in bed until I warm up. Not a bad craving to have, can't put on weight eating ice! haha. We will see you later xx]

Later I'm just putting the vacuum round Charlie new bedroom, Nina and Al have, left as they have plans with Elaine.

"Ellie? Gorgeous? Are you here?"

I hear him call out as he comes in for work "I'm up here! Come up!" I call down, I rush out of the room and close the door.

He reaches the top of the stairs and turns to me "There you are!"

"I have a surprise for you!"

He narrow his eyes at me "Would it have anything to do with that paint on, your forehead?"

I touch my head (Crap!) "Ellie, what have you been up to?"

"Come here, cover your eyes and follow me!" I pull him with me as I open the door "You can't open your eyes until say!"

He grins, I pull him further into the room "Open them!"

He opens his eyes and looks round the room "Ellie, Wow! This is amazing!" he has the brightest smile, "Wait, you didn't lift that furniture did you?"

I laugh "No, of course not. I got your mum and dad to help. Your dad put everything together your mum painted the walls, I did offer to help but she would only let me make teas"

He wraps his arms around me "Ellie, it's perfect!" he claims my lips with his "Now, let me make you dinner!"

"No, Adam I'll make it! You've been at work all day"

He cups my face "And you're pregnant and came home only 4 days ago! I'm cooking no arguments" he kisses my lips softly. I know there's not point in protesting.

~*~*~*~

4 Weeks later.

He clutches my hips as I'm bouncing up and down him "Fuck baby! That's it ride me!" he pushes off the bed and sits up as pulls me to his lips.

I grasp his lip between my teeth, he groans and I let go before his lips kiss along my pulse line. He moves his hips up burying himself further into me "Yes! That's it! Oh!!" a wave of pleasure explodes between my legs and I hit my climax.

He drives into me a few more times before he hits his own.

I collapse onto him, he wraps me up into his arms "Do you have to go to work today?" I put on my pouty face.

He chuckles "Not had enough?"

I shook my head, "You will have so much more fun with me" I wink.

"I would but I'm busy at work" he kisses me gently before getting out of bed, he turns "But you can always join me in the shower!" he winks. I jump up, and he pulls me towards the bathroom with him.

After our shower we are in the bedroom getting dressed, I'm sat on the bed when I feel a flutter in my tummy (That's new) I rest a hand against my bump and I feel it "Adam!! He's kicking!" He spins round and rushes over to me, I take his hand and place it where I felt the kick.

*Kick!*

Adam felt it, his face lights up "He kicked!" then another and another. "Oh wow! This is amazing Ellie!" Adam's phone rings and rings and rings "Rob, what's up?...Yeah, of course. OK, I'll be right there!" he hangs up "I've got to go. I love you...the both of you" he kisses my cheek then my bump.

"We'll see you later!" I smile.

I have today off as Amy needed to swap days. Mum has invited me to lunch at the club, I take the train into the city centre.

[Hey husband! <<I don't think I'll ever get bored of calling you that! 5 weeks tomorrow you made me your proud wife! How's work? Not working to hard I hope?! You'll need your energy for later ;) Just on my way to mum's club for lunch. x]

*1 New Message from Hubster*

[Hello my beautiful wife < I won't get bored of calling you that either xx. Wow, feels like yesterday! Yeah, work is fine muddling through. Oh, will I now? Why would that be!? Have fun and think of me stuck here! xx]

[Good because that's my title until I'm 6 feet under! haha. Aww just think we could be in bed sweating, panting and screaming each others names...but you chose work. Because I plan you for you to fuck me all night! haha! x]

*1 New Message from Hubster*

[That won't be for a long time yet! Fuck picturing it now *boxers feeling tight!* I won't make that mistake again. I plan to keep you in bed until you're sore ;) I need to get back to work. I love you both xx]

[I could've helped with that....but I can't now. You better not!!!!!!!! Ooooh looking forward to it. We love you too x]

~*~*~*~

I get to the club and head inside.

*SURPRISE!*

I look around the room is decorated in blue balloons, it's a boy and baby shower banners! Everyone is here my mum, Tom, Amy, Justin, Elaine, Nina, Kerry and Adam. My emotions get the better of me and I burst into tears.

Mum rushes over to me "Oh, El's this was supposed to have the opposite effect"

I smell his aftershave then feel his arms wrap around me "Hey beautiful! No tears!"

I smile through the tears, he cups my face and wipes them away "Sorry, I just wasn't expecting this! It's such a lovely gesture!" I apologize.

I dry my tears and Adam leads me to a table "Was this your doing? I thought you were busy?"

"Hey Ellie, You can cry if your want to 1. it's your party and 2. you're pregnant, you can be emotional and no one can question it" Elaine calls over.

He gives me a smug smile, "I had to make you believe that because I needed to get here to help your mum. Do you really think I would have turned down a day in bed with you for work?"

I laugh, "I'll remember that next time! Your mum is here! She's racking up some air miles"

"When Mel mentioned it to me a few months ago I had a word with mum. I said she didn't need to come down, but she wanted to. I think she likes you more than me," he laughs, "But seriously she wants to be here in her words 'Adam don't be so silly this is my first grandchild I'm going to get on the first plane for everything, the birth, their first steps etc'"

I laugh, "Bless her!"

Later after gifts and food. I'm catching up with Tom "How are you feeling El's?"

"Like an emotional hippo!" He laughs, "So, it looks like you and Justin are over your little spat?"

"Yeah, El's there's something I need to tell you," he gives me a look I can't read.

"What? What is it?"

"El's, come on let's cut the cake!" Mum pulls me away before Tom can answer. (What does he want to tell me?)

Continue reading this story here - Chapter 8.

@lem-20 @khoicesbyk @aussieez @shewillreadyou @txemrn @irisofpurple

[longroadstonowhere]

thinking a lot about rwby and the four seasons and how the narrative ties itself thematically to a season per arc

we’ve had eight volumes thus far, and they split fairly neatly into three arcs - vol 1-3 (beacon/fall), vol 4-6 (mistral/spring), and vol 7-8 (atlas/winter); vol 9 will definitely fit very closely with this arc, even though it will most likely take place entirely within the void dimension - i do think it’ll still hew closely to the theme of winter, though

early on, rwby gives us the story of the seasons, the origin of the maidens, where the four sisters of winter, spring, summer, and fall give the old man gifts to draw him out of his isolation

winter - encouragement to reflect and meditate on what’s important in life

spring - fruits, vegetables, and general revitalization of his gardens

summer - leave the cottage and embrace the world

fall - be thankful for the things that you have

now obviously in its narrative structure, rwby is not following this strict guideline, as we begin with what is, in the story itself, the final season, the final maiden - fall, and the directive to be thankful for what you have

this is one that feels obvious only in retrospect, as in the moment, all the students at beacon don’t realize what they have to be thankful for, aside from small victories (you know, like taking down a nevermore, minor things like that :P)

however, in the wake of the fall of beacon, their halcyon days as beacon students now seem idyllic, a time of innocence when the worst problem was an overbearing bully who couldn’t stand up to an ursa major by himself, and of course, there’s the point that pyrrha, penny, and many others were still alive, and death didn’t even seem to be on the table realistically

on a meta level, there’s also the idea of being thankful for the opportunity of making the show - this was monty’s dream, and he, along with many others, worked hard to make it happen because of what they hoped it would become, and even in the early commentaries there’s this sense of wonder that it’s actually happening

at the end of vol 3, we skip to the end of winter, and by vol 4 we’re in spring, so we skip straight over being reflective and thinking about things, which seems about right for everyone’s headspaces as we move forward

spring is, i think, the most difficult season to generalize out of the original story, since it’s so rooted (heh) in a very physical reality, but it’s probably best to think of it as creating and stocking up resources

it’s easier to look at this in a meta way first - we have the change to a new animation program, the absolute wealth of new characters and locations introduced, and the overarching villain and her group fully shown for the first time, giving the viewers an idea of where the show is to go from here

for the characters, the details of this are a little subtler, but we have weiss finally developing her summoning abilities, we have blake turning the white fang from an antagonistic force into a supporting source of potential back-up for the future, and we have yang getting a new arm and a new handle on her emotions

this arc is also where ruby really grows into a leader of the entire group, not just team rwby - when she’s traveling with team jnpr (or rnjr or jnrr, whatever you wanna call it), she doesn’t put herself forward, but as the group grows and as their mission becomes more and more complicated, she takes a stand and gives everyone a direction to follow

the interesting thing about this arc is how winter bleeds into it, especially in vol 6 - we have ren and jaune facing the ghosts of their pasts and choosing to move forward past them, and there’s the apathy mini-arc where everyone questions what they’re even doing here (influenced by the apathy, of course, but while the scope of their feelings might have been exaggerated, those feelings still existed)

so then we move into atlas, into winter, and into the darkest moments since the end of vol 3

this arc is all about questions, really - what does it mean to be a hunter or huntress? when faced with an insurmountable force of destruction, should you hunker down and protect what you have, or venture forth with a plan that can help achieve your wildest hopes but also could prove disastrous with just one misstep? is it more important to band together under a heartless leader, or to stand against tyranny however it appears? (which is relevant for both the protagonists in regards to ironwood, and the antagonists in regards to salem)

obviously we have no idea what vol 9 is yet, but i can only imagine it will be a continuation of the questions everyone faced in vol 8, only without the pressure of salem’s presence and ironwood’s actions to distract from answering them

(also there’s a joke here about winter being the season of reflection and all of weiss’s mirror imagery and how much of the story was about the schnees these past two volumes)

the only interesting meta note i have is how vols 8 and 9 were produced during the covid pandemic, which i’m sure lead to a great deal of reflection on how the production pipeline worked, and that we introduced new head writers for the series, which perhaps points to miles and kerry doing some reflecting on their abilities (not gonna dive too deep into that, though, because it feels odd to me to analyze real people in the same way i’d analyze fictional characters)

so, when vol 10 rolls around and we head to vacuo, i presume it will be with everyone in the void dimension having a strong conviction to work towards of some kind, and that their victory will come because they embrace what the world brings, good and bad, as opposed to people like salem or cinder who set themselves against the world because of how it’s hurt them

[kob131]

Looks like Hbomberguy's hours long crap is up(publicly).

“Made a legendary animator, his most trusted colleage (shows Shane) and two-”

People he outright went to and he acknowledged were better writers, thanks for admitting that HBomberguy and not be an insulting jackass right?

“RWBY’s failures matter because it could have been something-”

So could Twilight- That means nothing at this point other than ‘I made a bunch of headcanons and the show dared to not follow them.’

‘It’s easy to see why this show has such a devote fanbase because it frequently threatens to become good-”

So did Fairy tail (except for real) and that died out. Also you are really chipping away at my goodwill

‘People say what it promised!”

You mean this?

‘Weaken REAL criticism by being given too much attention-”

Hypocritical much douchebag?

“*insert a bunch of sarcastic bullshit mocking critics of RWBY*”

*rolls eyes* You say as you mimick them down to using the DEAD.

‘It’s separated into two eras with issues that don’t necessarily overlap-”

Bull. Fucking. Shit. Most of RWBY’s problems now ORIGINATED in the early Volumes. 

“If you’re a fan of the show you’re probably gonna dread what I’m about to say and if you’re a fan of the second half then you’ll probably agree with what I’m about to say-”

Considering you’re stupid sarcasm is just a less smug version of what I do, pretty clear ‘agreement’ and ‘actual good point’ are very different here.

“If you love RWBY and are still gonna watch, thank you and I love you for joining me on this journey.”

Less a journey and more a Seven Page Muda but sure.

“My goal isn’t to make people think less of the show-”

Which is why you openly insult it in the beginning.

“-but to think more about it.”

So far you’ve shown about as much understanding of the show as FloofArtist, complete with hypocrisy. And considering what I’ve heard about your video, you’re not getting better.

“I hope to give credit where credit is due-/It’s said failure is the best teacher-”

Which is why you openly insult people.

“’Rooster Teeth is starting game development!’ *insert insulting Steam Statistics*’

Fucking wonderful. Like you haven’t already tested my patience.

“*gushes about the Red Trailer after about eight minutes of recaping*”

Cool, eight minutes wasted on knowledge that EVERY RWBY fan knows. Literally every RWBY fan knows the origins of RT and Monty and the bitch basic knowledge of how they came together. You seem to have targeted this to RWBY fans and yet to blab about shit that you get after looking at the fandom for 2 seconds.

To say nothing of how you prove something was wrong with the Red Trailer. Namely, you never mention a plot, a personal conflict, a display of character or anything other than ‘cool music!’ and ‘animation!’ despite the show being pretty plot dependent.

*Gushes about the White Trailer*

Yet another bitch basic gushing with nothing of substance to it. For a guy who says he wants people to think critically about RWBY, you sure don’t do that for what is considered the basis of the show. It’s just talking about shit you like instead of anything worthwhile.

*Yet more gushing with the Black Trailer.*

... You know, I watch these kinds of videos searching for some kind of intellectual stimulation. Something to make me think and engage with. Right now, I get more stimulation and engagement from RWBY itself than a supposedly critical video that doesn’t even have to bother with anything original.

“The show already has generic monsters who just want to destroy humanity and yet you have written your characters to act exactly the same-”

And within your own bitching, you discovered the counter. The Grimm have nothing really to explore about them outside giving them variations and powers whereas the human characters can have these things called ‘motives’ and ‘reasons’. Not to mention even you would say people act like that in real life *cough* anyone NOT of your political alignment *cough*.

“And the audience is left with one lingering though...he can make that jump.”

How does it feel that Family Guy did a better version of your joke?

“She’s written like two adult men who have never written anything professional before except Red Vs. Blue wrote a Teenage girl-”

.... Monty wrote her based off her voice actress.  You’ve also made me regret ever using this same insult against Miles and Kerry so congrats on that.

*Even more gushing...*

You know, I am legitimately considering rewatching the Persona episode of Game Theory because at least MatPat’s faffing about is short and he has more content in his first eighteen minutes than this.

“More people have gone back to watch the trailers than watch actual episodes of the show!”

The trailers are the first thing people would watch to know about the series- no shit they’d be higher in view count.

“It’s so hard to not be onboard with the trailers!”

It’s actually very easy, especially in their release.

Why? Simple, a lot of the depth in the trailers only exists with context from the show itself. The White Trailer is cool and all but it’s symbolism and deeper meaning comes from Weiss’ backstory and the truth depth of Blake leaving Adam and what it causes is found in the show, the two best trailers while Red is just mindless fun that you can get better from other places and Yellow is just kind of neat.

How the fuck am I the more critical of the two of us so far?

“Then the show actually came out and it was terrible-”

Piece of advice, don’t follow this up with a super janky, uncanny valley 3D animation that makes Volume 1 look appealing.

“RWBY isn’t just a bad show, it’s a bad show that could have been something-”

*cracks neck*

The idea that RWBY or any show ‘had potential’ is most often used when a person once had a fondness for the property in question but has long since lost the goodwill to see it in a positive light, trying to make up for the cognitive dissonance of the conflict between liking what it once was and disliking what it is now. The issue here is that these so called ‘issues’ are born of the original creator who either founded the show or helped found it which means that it was pretty much DESTINED to be this way as the creator’s specific interpretation of their own work is what resonated with you in the first place and was likely built up to in the subtle inner workings of the show, thus making the big changes you want so badly would cause a ripple effect that would have affected your past impression of the show because everything in a show is connected. And in all likelyhood, your impression would have soured no matter what.

Tl;Dr- ‘It had potential!’ is self defeating and stupid.

‘The creators are receptive to criticism!...well, they try to be.-”

Oh boy I can’t wait for Mr. ‘kill half of all babies’ to try and speak about THIS topic.

“You don’t engage with any of the good faith criticism and just reward shitty people with attention. And I hope to show them that as a lifelong fan of RT and Monty Oum, that I’m saying this thinking RWBY could have been good...and still could be.”

Says the man who when referencing Miles for the first time, actively SEPERATED him from being a ‘treasured college’ of his friend and insulted him with Yang even though the fault lied with MONTY. 

All while referencing a tweet where he chews someone out for saying EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE SAYING ( ‘God this is why i hate this fandom. You miss the point. If I critise the show I'm a hater because you worship it. I'M OFFERING CRITISM U IDIOT SO THE SHOW SEES ITS FAULTS AND FIXES THEM. HOW THE FUCK CAN U KEEP MOVING FORWARD IF YOU DON'T IDENTIFY YOUR OWN FAULTS AND LEARN’). Yeah great job there jackass- How exactly are you any different from this fucker?

So that’s my thoughts on the first twenty or so minutes. Can already tell it’s gonna be shit.

[i-want-anne-hathaway]

IT’S HEATHERS TIME, BITCHES.

I am listening to the Off-Broadway version, the West End version is way further down the line.

“White trash,” the students at a school with a population of like one PoC say.

I’m just thinking about EMHS because of Heather M. Once this is over, I should listen to the EMHS playlist that I put together with Robin because it’d be funny. Only problem is that it’s like 8 hours long.

The ranking goes Heathers The Musical, Illegal Heathers, Riverdale Heathers, and Paramount Heathers. I don’t take constructive criticism.

I’m 79.69% sure that in LA Heathers Heather M told Veronica to sleep with her, and I think that should’ve stayed in there.

Is Heather M a bully? Yes. Do I love her regardless? Absolutely.

The fact that it took me weeks to realize that JD and Diggy from Liv and Maddie were the same person. It blew my damn mind.

Also, I love Ryan McCartan. His Tik Toks are top tier.

Freeze Your Brain is a whole mood and a half. Coping Mechanisms! Even though he still killed three people, that’s a minor detail

I’m pretty sure the general agreement is that Big Fun is the worst Heathers song, which is valid. I don’t hate it, I just don’t vibe with it that much.

JD: You don’t need drugs if you have a nice brain freeze

Veronica like an hour later: HEY, IS THAT WEED?! I WANNA HIT!

It took me watching a boot to understand “thanks Heather, but I don’t really have to vomit right now” and when I realized it I was like “:0”

I loathe the “dang dang diggity dang-a dang” part of Big Fun because of how many people say “oh, yeah, that song from Tik Tok” when I play Heathers around them.

Where does Heathers take place? Because my understanding was that it’s in Ohio, but then she said “ride up to Seattle,” which is a bit extreme if you live in Ohio. If she was in like, Oregon or some shit, it would make sense. But you’re going to go 2247 miles to get to Seattle cause some Junior in highschool said you’re dead? Idk Veronica that’s a bit extra.

Also Ryan McCartan’s Dead Girl Walking Pronoun Showdown where you can hear Barrett laughing in the background.

*One kid dies*

Ms. Fleming: Our children are dYING!

On one hand, Me Inside of Me is a very real song. People aren’t always what they seem, and you can never know what another person’s experiences are. On the other hand, this doesn’t really apply to Heather C in the musical. There’s no evidence pointing to much hardship from what I remember. She just fucking sucked, and I love her for that.

I have a friend who likes to take my headphones and listen to whatever I’m listening to, and I was listening to Blue and I think I traumatized her.

I wish that the Blue reprise was on the soundtrack because it’s funny as hell.

Throwback to when Our Love is God was my favorite song from Heathers. It’s like 50% dialogue, but I just jammed to the last part of it on repeat.

My dad finds the “we had to hide our gay forbidden love from a misapproving world” part the funniest thing ever. He heard it once, and he hasn’t let go of it.

“Ram, you’re just unconscious, right.” WELL, IF WE WAS UNCONSCIOUS, HOW THE FUCK IS HE GONNA ANSWER?! I get that it’s a rhetorical question, but it’s a stupid one.

The instrumental at the end of Our Love is God will forever be A Bop™️

“I never cared for homos much until i reared me one” is actually just my parents. Like, literally my parents.

In the video’s of them rehearsing Dead Gay Son, Veronica and JD are confused as fuck the entire time and I love it.

Dead Gay Son 🤝Love Thy Neighbor. They’re the same song, and I still don’t take constructive criticism.

Throwback to the time I sang Seventeen with a girl on my softball team, and then we just sat there staring at each other like “woah.” And if you know anything about my team, you’ll know that we’re all gay.

I feel like it’s a crime that I don’t know all the words to Shine a Light. It’s highkey a bop.

Okay, okay, okay. One time I was playing music with my mom, and I got Killer Instinct. And my mom said “her voice is so soft, why is she not singing about the struggles of peer pressure and anxiety” AND THEN LIFEBOAT CAME ON AND I WAS LAUGHING SO HARD.

Also the way that Heather M hugs Veronica after Life boat makes me soft.

I used to scream Shine a Light (Reprise) when I felt terrible because it used to make me laugh. I pick the worst songs ever as comfort songs, and I will continue to do so.

THE THREE GENDERS: KERRY BUTLER, AARON TVEIT, AND KATIE LADNER.

I hate when people say “I don’t like Kindergarten Boyfriend because it’s so stupid.” YEAH, THAT’S THE POINT. IT’S STILL SAD. IT’S JUST ALSO REALLY DUMB.

I’ve always been confused why JD says “date to the pep rally.” That’s not typically how pep rallies work. You don’t have a date to a pep rally.

I love that in the musical Veronica starts screaming back at her mother, but in the movie, she’s just like “chill out, dude”

Dead Girl Walking: SEX!

Dead Girl Walking (Reprise): DEATH!

Which is basically the entire musical.

I’m pretty sure that there are a couple lyrical differences in the I Am Damaged from the Off-Broadway version to the West End version, and I don’t know which I prefer.

I hated Heather Duke the entire show, but I simultaneously love her. Throughout the entire show, she sucks. But she’s a good character.

I love Seventeen (Reprise) because it makes me happy. Why? Idk, it just makes me smile.

Final Judgement: The line “sleep with me” should’ve been kept in.

Okay, but actually, Heathers is iconic as fuck, I think it’s a really good adaptation of a great movie.

[rwbyconversations]

Calxiyn’s Rooster Teeth production leaks reveal secrets of Gray Haddock’s time as RT Head of Animation

RWBY Youtuber Calxiyn has today put up a Google Doc (and accompanying video) detailing several anonymous complaints from within Rooster Teeth regarding the now-former Head of Animation Gray Haddock and also-now-former Supervising Producer Koen Wooten and the difficult production cycle they administered. Some of the accusations paint a rather harsh view of Haddock’s management style and point to accusations of potential embezzling, a heightened ego and usage of his position as Head of Animation to strike fear in his staff and keep complaints on the down low. I’m gonna do my best to share this around and take screenshots of the more important claims in case of the worst, but please share at the sources when possible. 

Calxiyn makes great pains to stress that all of these accusations are allegations at best but also stresses that everyone they talked to did work or currently work at Rooster Teeth. 

“Gray was shitty & fired people in mass. Was a bit shocked. Genlock’s production caused a lot of the current issues. And Gray had stepped down for a hike after everything came to light before RTX. Things were so bad that most of animation now refuse to work on Genlock”

Gray cared about Gray. He locked himself in his office the whole time or was out galavanting in japan having fun. He'd hold company meetings weekly to brag about the fun stuff he did until he, miles and kerry got in trouble from higher up because so many people complained about it. Probably one of the worst bosses I’ve had. I didn't work on genlock thank god. I was super worried about it as Gray was in charge sounds like all my fears were merited too from what ive heard

C: The anonymous poster also mentioned Keon Wooten but I don’t know anything about them. Like the post basically said he enabled Gray but idk who the dude is so do you know anything about that? Also thank you for responding to me : )

S3: Wooten is an asshole. Koen is the one right below Gray. head producer. He's a hollywood producer (worked for michael bay for 7 years). he gets people to do work by promising them what they want then making excuses or blaming them for not delivering

C:  Other sources are talking about how Gray prevented people from having creative control. Did you hear anything about that from any of the shows? Nomad, RWBY etc

Like that the plan was to do x, but Gray came and forced them to do y instead which was far from what they wanted to do

S3: Well the guy who created Nomad had it basically taken from him

C: How did that go down?

S3: Sadly I wasn't in 2D so i only heard it off-hand

Source 3 goes on to say that Miles and Kerry were fine to work with (”super nice people”) and seemed oblivious as to Gray and Koen’s actions behind their backs. 

C: 2) In the anonymous post from yesterday they discuss gen:LOCK going super over budget. Did things need to be cut or rushed because they were blowing gen:LOCK money?

S2:  Gray supposedly took some of 2Ds money to dip into his own project THAT HE HAD FULL CONTROL ON. Some other shows were rushed.

S2:  Grays personality is either he's completely clueless or knew exactly what he was doing and is a sociopath, it's hard to say, either way not leadership material in my opinion and never took responsibility for ANYTHING. 

S2:  I think Gen:lock was something he pushed through himself and because he was the head he could make the final call to show it to burnie and Matt on his own and push it over the other 3D pitches. Gray was already using company money to make concept art and work for it, without it being greenlit. The whole thing was sketchy. 

S2:  People were afraid of Gray because he was “Gray was judge, jury, and executioner”.  

Cal then goes on to say that Gray’s position as Head of Animation made workers hesitant to go to the HR department due to fears that they would be fired. Eventually someone went to Matt Hullum directly to tell him about the working conditions, after which Hullum stormed into the animation department and crammed everyone into a room. This seems to be where the choice was made to let Gray go. 

Calxiyn’s final source talks more about how Nomad of Nowhere suffered during this timeframe:

S4: gen:Lock and Nomad were greenlit around the same time, but Gray put more time, budget, and resources for preproduction on gen:Lock. Nomad as a result was pushed up in the schedule, only had two months of preproduction before animation had to start. The creator of Nomad wasn’t offered a lead position and was barely consulted on the story or art. That’s all I’m willing to say about that. This is something that almost anyone in the animation department can tell you. I don’t want to talk about Nomad as everything that went into that is way more complicated and there’s no way I have the full story as it feels like all the incompetency that led to the 2D department having to crunch back to back that year goes further and further up.

S4: There’s actually an episode of Off Topic where Geoff jokingly likens Gray to a slave driver when talking about the animation department. Little did he know how apt that comparison actually was.

While the fact remains that at their core these are anonymous accusations and ones that may very well be false, I have a gut feeling that these are legitimate compared to some of the other accounts from supposed “RT insiders.” If even half or just a quarter of the accusations are true it’s a damning picture of Haddock’s management, to say nothing of how taking funds and putting them into Genlock concept art before the show was greenlit and then taking funds from Nomad for Genlock can potentially open Gray up to accusations of embezzling. Which for those who need a reminder:

I’d like to thank Calxiyn for putting all this together. Hopefully now that the worst elements in the higher ups have been removed between Gray and Koen and the supposed managerial improvements being overseen by Margaret M. Dean, RT Animation can solve the issues that seem to have been plaguing it for the past year or so.

[bwayfan25]

For Susan: 7, 10, 24

Thank you for asking!

7- What is their perfume of choice?

Hmmm. I don’t see her as someone who really seeks out perfume per se, but I could definitely see her trying to find a body wash or shampoo in a scent that complements Kerry’s. I’m not exactly what that is, but I feel like she’d know it if she smelled it.

10 - Do they cook from scratch, order takeaway, or eat out?

I feel like Susan knew how to cook some things before she moved in with Weaver-Levinses, but it definitely would have increased afterwards. Between Mildred teaching her how to recreate family recipes and a hint of wanting to compete with Kerry, she really took up cooking more after that.

Nowadays, it’s definitely more takeout because she’s just so tired all the time. She’ll opt to order from DoorDash just because she doesn’t want to have to think too hard about what to eat after working for fifteen hours straight. The downside to that is that Charlie runs ten miles a day and therefore eats a ridiculous amount of food because of her high metabolism. As a result, she is the only child that must contribute money to dinner via Venmo towards dinner (assuming she orders like three entrees).

24 - Last film that made them cry?

Susan doesn’t really strike me as someone who cries a lot at movies, so it would have to be something that really hits close to home to do it. I’d think it’s either a movie about losing a best friend or, more likely, a movie that Mark loved. Maybe something they watched together and quoted back and forth or even just something he mentioned was his favorite and she watched to know what it was. I don’t really know what movie that would be, but I think that’s what would do it.

On a happier note, I’ve decided Susan’s favorite movie is The Princess Bride as an homage to my fiancé, as that’s his favorite movie. She loved it anyways, but it was made better when she learned that Michael Levin had an uncanny Inigo Montoya impression.

[rwby-redux]

Deconstruction

Worldbuilding: Semblances I

Remember in the Worldbuilding: Overview when I called Semblances magical? Technically speaking, that’s not actually true. The fact that I have to even qualify that statement tells you just how much of a headache RWBY’s magic system—excuse me, pseudo-magic system—is in practice. Unlike the last topic (Aura) where I focused on just one critical flaw, today we’re going to cover as many of those flaws as we can. Given the huge number of talking points we’ll be discussing, Semblances is going to be split into two parts.

You might want to get comfortable; we’re going to be here for a while.

Let’s first start by establishing what, according to canon, a Semblance actually is. If Aura is the manifestation of the soul, then a Semblance is the form that manifestation takes. Broadly speaking, a Semblance is a skill or ability that transcends the normal biological limits of what a person is capable of—a superpower that’s uniquely-tailored to its user. Despite taking on a wide array of forms and functions, all Semblances share six basic traits:

A Semblance draws upon Aura as its source of power. When this fuel source is depleted, a person can no longer use their Semblance, and must wait for their Aura to regenerate before it can be used again.

The specific ability or nature of one’s Semblance is alleged to be an expression of the user’s personality/character/soul.

Overuse of a Semblance can adversely affect a person and cause physical side effects, such as fatigue [1], headaches [2], or fainting [3].

Semblances can interact with Dust in such a way that their skills are augmented, resulting in the temporary acquisition of new subskills or secondary characteristics.

Through training and regular usage, Semblances can gradually become stronger or more advanced.

The intensity of certain emotions, such as stress, panic, despair, or rage, can cause a person to subconsciously activate their Semblance.

Your first reaction when reading this list might’ve been, “Oh, you mean like the Quirks in My Hero Academia.” Now, I’ve never personally watched the show or read the manga, but after briefly consulting the Wiki page I can safely confirm that yes, Semblances are very similar to Quirks. However, given my lack of familiarity with My Hero Academia, I’m going to avoid drawing too many comparisons between the two. This is partly because I don’t want to provide incorrect commentary on a franchise I know little about. The other reason? The longer I read the Wiki page on Quirks, the more embittered I become toward Semblances and the wasted potential they have by comparison. I’m already biased; I don’t need any help in that arena, thanks.

I think the best way to discuss all of the various flaws with Semblances is to break this topic into two parts, and deal with the meta and in-lore aspects separately.

Meta, Production, and Development

When I started doing research for this topic I went on the RWBY Wiki to track down sources and dates, as one typically does when preparing to excavate a salt mine. I knew what a Semblance was, but I decided that, for the sake of empirical evidence, that I needed to have a reference for that definition. (And a good line of defense against potential critics. It’s hard to argue with primary sources.) Fans can give a definition when prompted, but I’m willing to bet most of them couldn’t name the episode where we first got that information. That’s all right; I couldn’t either. In fact, the more I thought about it, the weirder it seemed that I couldn’t pinpoint the exact episode, let alone the volume, where Semblances are first explained. So I did some digging.

Here’s what I found:

The first time Aura is explained on-screen is Volume 1, Episode 06: “The Emerald Forest - Part 1.” This exposition is delivered to us by Pyrrha, whose explanation serves as a learning moment for us, the viewers, and Jaune, the audience-surrogate character.

The first time the word Semblance is mentioned (not explained, mentioned) is Volume 1, Episode 14: “Forever Fall - Part 2.” Take a moment to let that sink in: we’re fourteen episodes into the series, and despite seeing multiple characters use their Semblances on-screen, we still haven’t been told what these powers are. I think some viewers were able to extrapolate what our cast was doing based on a sense of genre-savviness, but that’s really bad. As a writer, your job is to find a way to organically explain the core aspects of your story. I know that CRWBY tried to use Jaune to fulfill this role (but why that ultimately failed to work is a discussion for another day), but even then, it shouldn’t take fourteen episodes to start addressing major worldbuilding elements.

At this point you must be wondering, okay, so if Aura didn’t get its first proper introduction until episode six, and Semblances were only namedropped at episode fourteen, then when were they properly explained? At least somewhere in Volume 1, right?

Would you like to know the answer?

The first time Semblances were formally explained was in World of Remnant, Episode 4: “Aura.” The fourth episode of this spin-off series debuted on November 14th, 2014. The fourth World of Remnant episode aired a month after Volume 2 ended. To give you some context, the very first episode of the main series aired on July 18, 2013, and the first episode of Volume 3 was released on October 24, 2015.

It took twenty-eight episodes, a runtime of 04:26:04, and a full year before we finally had an answer. An answer that was delivered in a spin-off series meant exclusively to supplement crucial worldbuilding and lore.

Do you see how fucking insane that is? How badly do you have to fail at writing to not explain to your audience one of the fundamental aspects of your story? Not only does this not make sense from a writing perspective, but it makes no sense from a development or production standpoint, either. At the time, Kerry Shawcross was an editor for Red vs. Blue Season 9, while Miles Luna was the writer for the Red vs. Blue miniseries Where There's a Will, There's a Wall, and co-writer for Red vs. Blue Season 10. While Monty Oum himself wasn’t necessarily a writer, he was part of a three-man team that together did have a background in writing and editing. (Mind you, neither of them are necessarily good writers, but it’s still better than nothing.)

To reiterate: There were three creative leads working on this project. Three. How is it that none of them, at any point during production, noticed this massive flaw with their story?

I don’t work for Rooster Teeth (obviously), and I’m therefore not privy to any of the decisions that were made behind the scenes. Whether the focus was more on animating RWBY than emphasizing the worldbuilding, whether the lighthearted tone made the team think that exposition wasn’t as important as being entertaining, whether there were deadline crunches and budgeting constraints that limited the quality of the final product.

While we can’t decisively say why this is the case, we can see how these choices had major consequences for RWBY’s plot—not just in retrospect, but going forward as well. Next time in Part 2, we’ll cover topics that focus more on the lore of Semblances than the storytelling nitpicks, and discuss how those oversights impacted the series.

-

[1] Volume 3, Episode 12: “End of the Beginning.” During Salem’s monologue, Glynda can be seen using her Semblance to try and reassemble a storefront in Vale’s shopping district. Eventually, she tires from overuse of her Semblance, and the building collapses back into debris while Glynda hunches over gasping.

[2] Volume 3, Episode 7: “Beginning of the End.” Immediately after Yang is framed for attacking Mercury, Emerald complains about a headache from casting her Semblance on two people simultaneously.

[3] Volume 5, Episode 14: “Haven’s Fate.” When Yang claims the Relic of Knowledge and returns from the Vault, Emerald conjures an illusion of Salem. Performing her Semblance on nine different people at the same time consumes what little energy she had left, and causes her to pass out. Hazel has to carry her while he and Mercury flee from the battle.

[otp-bumbleby]

Since some people might not have heard this (or straight up deny it exists): this is the fabled commentary of Burning the Candle that bumbleby shippers go on about - because it’s happening again with Blake’s and Yang’s roles reversed, and Monty said that they should re-use the sequence way back then.

Transcript Key: Monty Oum = [MO] Miles Luna = [ML] Kerry Shawcross = [KS] Gray Haddock = [GH]

Scene - Blake and Yang are shown in the empty classroom.

MO: The lighting in here is great.

ML: Jeffrey [sp? Credits for C6 have Jeff Yohn] did a- a great job with the lighting [technical term??] in this.

MO: I like that- that like, mid-afternoon after school light.

GH: Yeah, Jeff put the sun-streak in and then I just went crazy with it. Went all visual-metaphorical so like Yang is the sun…and hey, surprise, Blake is in shadow…and whatever.

(a gasp and from shadows is briefly sung)

GH: She’s sunnier for having been around Yang.

MO: Yeah.

ML: Wow.

KS: Yeah, great. You’ve done a ton of colour with the season, I think it’s really-

ML: It’s so pretty, dude.

(mumbling over each other about the prettiness)

ML: Dude, this was a hard scene, man. This was a really hard scene.

MO: I LIKE this scene, because it’s like, oh, backstory stuff.

KS : This went through a lot of revisions, both in writing and recording too even.

ML: Mmmhmm, mmhhmm.

MO: And we get like, relationship stuff, too! You know, it’s like, they’re- they’re partners like, within the teams, they were orginally- these two were originally, like originally partners. Like, they won…school.

KS: Yeah, they really fit together, so [indiscernible].

MO: Yeah, these characters, ah- it happened on it’s own. The characters just compliment each other, uh, Blake and Yang. Ruby and Weiss. Uh, and so, like Yang really looks out for her. And she just kinda like- it’s just one of those things where, you know, she doesn’t need to talk about this stuff. If she’s gonna talk to someone- then- it’d probably be Blake.

ML: Yeah, this was one of those things where we kind of talked about in, um, early development with Yang was that, you know, first impressions, she’s a hot blonde party girl, but then uh, we find out she’s actually more of a mother to Ruby- and people around her, and this is when we find out why. She had to step in and be the mom.

MO: Also, there’s stuff about how, um, she has a task…and she doesn’t let it like, control her, essentially.

ML: Mmhmm, that was a big part you wanted us to get in, wow this looks really good.

(they talk about the 2D art & animation of Yang’s story of her taking Ruby in the wagon trying to find Raven)

ML: But uh, yeah man…this took a lot of recording, this took a lot of script revisions. Because yeah we had- you had a list of things that you really wanted us to get across and um-

KS: It was a very different scene than Barbara’s ever done before. It’s so different from her normal character.

ML: Yeah.

KS: Um, I think she did a really great job with it.

MO: Yeah.

(jokes about Yang’s chalk drawing, Monty talking about Qrow’s silhouette he has to design Qrow around]

ML: Oooh, red eyes! Aw, snap.

KS: She’s angry.

?: She’s Yangry.

MO: The shoving match.

ML: Aw, no, Blake.

MO: I fully expected her to like, punch her in the face in this sequence. But I like this more. It’s great, we need to use this again, somewhere, down the line…in a more extreme fashion. Also, just like, the way this worked out, it’s really like, it’s really great for their characters. I think like, especially like, there’s a lot of growth here. And it all happened very quickly.

KS: And I think it’s interesting too, like, it’s not just for Blake, this was for Yang as well.

it literally speaks for itself. thanks, bye

[a-mellowtea]

The Greatest Kingdom | RWBY Volume 7 Chapter 1 Review

Now that my hype has died down a respectable amount, I think I’m clear-headed enough to express my thoughts on the RWBY Volume 7 premiere. I’m going to hold off on posting this until it’s publicly available and everyone comfortably knows what I’m on about, so by the time of reading, this’ll be a week-or-so old.

Going into Volume 7, I have to say, I was extremely excited. Volume 6 was a little bittersweet for me: a solid mix of things I liked and didn’t, where one didn’t really overshadow or completely take away from the other. The hiatus between Volumes 6 and 7 was also particularly exhausting, on both a mental and emotional level, and while that may sound over-dramatic, I’m sure many can attest to how much of a drag it all was. 

However, Volume 7 set us up somewhere I’ve been aching to see more of for a while: since Volume 2, if I’m honest. That being, of course, the Kingdom of Atlas and its defunct partner, Mantle. There’s so much rich potential for story in Atlas and, as “The Greatest Kingdom” revealed, CRWBY was set to dive right in, to some fairly pleasant results.

We open the Chapter with a shot panning down through the night sky, with our typical emphasis on the shattered moon. This is the first Volume, though, wherein we are aware of its true nature: how it got to be that way and, appropriately, the raised stakes now quite literally looming over our heroes’ heads. There is something more immediate to attend to, however, revealed as the shot finishes moving: the Atlesian air fleet.

I’m not certain if this was mentioned anywhere too openly, but Volume 7 Chapter 1 was originally intended to be the finale of Volume 6. I seem to recall Neath Oum, the voice of Ren, making comment on how an important moment was shifted because of this change (which we’ll get to in a bit). Point being, the Volume picks up exactly where Volume 6 left off, with the heroes’ stolen air ship, Manta 5-1, being welcomed home by an Atlesian officer. It doesn’t feel all that much like the premieres of the past; simply a continuation, though I’m hesitant to label that as a good or bad thing.

“But we are here,” Jaune then insists to the group. “We got the lamp to Atlas, so I guess we land and get some answers.” It’s obviously not going to be that simple -- wouldn’t be very interesting if it was -- but that’s something that stuck out to me. The heroes, this little hiccup aside, have accomplished the majority of their mission. They made it to Atlas, which was as far as they presumably intended to go (Yang, V6Ch6: “We can’t stop until the lamp is safe”). They’re our heroes, of course, so something will keep them going, but I am interested to see exactly what does push them to continue a fight they now feel is rather pointless. James has a line in the trailer about how “until now, I believed it was impossible to truly turn the tide against Salem”. I do wonder what that could be, and moreover, whether or not our heroes will inform him of everything they learned in Volume 6.

Back in the Chapter, Weiss warns that if they land in a stolen air ship, there’s no way they’ll be heard out or get a chance to speak with Ironwood. Now, I promise this is the only time I’ll mention further gripes with Volume 6 but honestly: you couldn’t’ve realized that sooner? That should’ve been the first thing on their minds when they decided to take such a risky course of action: is this really going to get us where we need to go when we know that the Kingdom of Atlas has closed its borders? It doesn’t matter that the air fleet is deployed aggressively; they should have accounted for the fact that they wouldn’t just be able to waltz right up Atlas. Yet somehow they seem to have forgotten about that until this rather convenient -- or inconvenient -- moment.

After Weiss perks up and remembers she can contact her sister, we get our first look at Mantle proper, and it’s wonderful. Literally down-to-earth, the dirty streets and brown-grey color palette intermixed with neon signage gives it something of a dystopian feel that is incredibly unique. Here, we get our first look at General James Ironwood since Volume 4 (discounting the Volume 7 trailer), and the presentation is telling. On an enormous neon holographic display, looming over the city of Mantle, and though his words are a promise of safety, he makes them at a distance. I doubt this is intended as screaming ‘dictator’, but merely showing a divide; one that is certainly not good. Yang and Ruby share a remark that he looks tired and Qrow wonders worriedly what he’s been doing (a year is kindly added to my life every time Qrow calls him “James”, and yes I will die in this rarepair hell). Indeed it seems that, in the month and a bit since Weiss left, things have taken a steep turn for the worse, with constant Atlesian patrols and surveillance drones in the streets. It’s certainly looking bleak, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love this set-up. The shot with the children lobbing a pebble at a drone, then hiding from it, in particular does a good job solidifying that this has become a norm, but an unwelcome one.

Weiss continues to insist that Winter can help them, but our first look at the eldest Schnee sibling begs to differ. It appears as though she’s upholding the military law placed over Mantle, and this seems to shock Weiss a good deal. With that off the table, Maria interjects that she knows someone who can help them.

Now would probably be a good moment for a quick aside to mention how wonderful of a job Jason Liebrecht does as the new voice of Qrow. The difference is noticeable, but I found it wasn’t enough to completely throw me off: at least, not for long. It’ll take some getting used to, but the character is no different, and Jason’s performance is solid.

Our heroes head out into the streets of Mantle, and we get a bit of light exposition from Maria about the Kingdom on the walk, after Yang continues to be everyone’s favorite brash blonde and kick subtlety out into the middle of the street where it is summarily smashed by a truck. I don’t have much to say about the encounter with Rupert the Drunk other than it felt perfectly in-place for what we know of Atlas and Mantle, and that Maria’s right: these kids have no concept of keeping a low profile when it counts. Not that I can blame Weiss; I honestly probably would have done the same. Although, given that we do see Rupert’s blue-beanie’d friend in the trailer, and how the shot pans back to show Winter, I’m willing to make a bet that this particular man will let someone in Mantle know the lost ex-Schnee heiress is back.

And then we’re introduced to Pietro. He is wonderful. Please protect.

The scene itself plays out as fairly lighthearted, until Yang and Blake bring the topic back around to the situation in Mantle. From there, we hear what we were basically expecting: James is scared (”paranoid”, as Pietro corrects), and it seems like our heroes aren’t the only ones having a hard time figuring out who to trust. I’d be hard pressed to believe that, given the Volume’s opening and the circumstances, the Queen virus from Volumes 2 and 3 is completely out of the picture. As it was so succinctly put by a fellow Redditor: this Volume is going to break this man.

Weiss steps up to ask about the Council and Winter, but it’s quickly sidetracked by Pietro recognizing her, and then Yang by the arm that he, presumably, built for her. The revelation that Pietro knows Team RWBY isn’t given much time to sink in before the alarms out in the street begin to blare and it becomes time for the premiere’s obligatory -- but honestly, very well done -- fight scene.

And now I will make my own obligatory aside to praise the music. The guitar piece in this fight is not done by Jeff Williams, as many probably expected, but is rather Alex Abraham’s work. I’ve seen a good handful of people I mentioned this to be surprised that he even plays guitar, and yes; yes, he does. And he kicks ass at it, if that wasn’t obvious enough.

While I saw the fight scene a handful of times before the Chapter premiered, thanks to RTX and again about three days before hand when it was released through Entertainment Weekly, I’m still incredibly impressed by it on a technical level. It’s a fight scene mostly for the sake of having a fight scene, but it looks damn good. Qrow, Oscar and Ruby’s sections stood out to me the most as having some solid choreography and camera work.

And then in a somewhat jarring shift in tone (will this show ever decide if the Grimm are a threat or not? Will power levels ever not give us a headache? Find out... sometime! Hopefully!), we get the aforementioned big moment: Penny, our resident robotic ray of sunshine, is alive and well!

And... kinda honestly makes our heroes look like jobbers? I say that fondly, and with a good deal of chuckling, because I do recall that Monty (or perhaps it was one of the boys?) mentioned Miles and Kerry were fairly averse to having a character use lasers specifically because of how powerful they are. In any case, it makes for a spectacular entrance, and I do especially love Penny’s graceful little flair of a pirouette up to the moon before she lands.

I will say perhaps my one gripe with this episode isn’t Penny’s return, but Ruby and the others’ reaction to it. It doesn’t break the episode, but allowing for comedy over what should have honestly been a very emotional moment for our lead didn’t sit right with me, personally. It’s treated as though this was almost expected, or at least a possibility they knew about in-universe, not a “holy crap, we saw her get torn to shreds”. Just because the audience expects it doesn’t mean the characters would, and I think I was simply expecting more from it. Then again, this is only Chapter 1, so we’ll see where they go with it.

After Penny blasts off to go save another quadrant of the city (she is now its official protector, after all), and Maria is brilliantly oblivious, RNJRWBY and QO are, in an unsurprising turn of events, apprehended by Ace Ops (ASOPS, Atlesian Special OPerativeS, would make a lick more sense, but ah well). I’m a bit concerned about the big ensemble this Volume, but I love the no-shits-given Chad vibes off their leader, Clover. It seems as though his Semblance, or character inspiration at least, is good luck (spinning a horseshoe, wearing a rabbit’s foot and has a clover as his emblem), and I cannot wait for him to have some dynamic with Qrow.

And Clover summarily lists off how many rules they’ve violated in the city in the span of about 10 minutes. Maria: hums, nods, fucks off. Basically one big “welp, he’s got ya there kids”. Bless her snarky soul; I hope this isn’t the last time we see her.

And, yes, thank you very much: these are the consequences I was hoping for. It’s likely to just get them where they need to go -- we wouldn’t have a Volume if they were in jail for all of it -- but they did still break the law and that’s that as far as Atlas’ forces were ever going to be concerned. I’m contented with something surface-level on that front.

We end the Chapter with our heroes arrested, in the back of a transport, and looking like they’re reevaluating their life choices. Cue the new OP!

Briefly: visuals of the new intro are solid, the staff of Creation being behind Monty’s name is really damn clever, “Trust Love” is a wonderful pop-y theme, Penny’s a cinnamon roll, someone please save James from all this bullshit.

Overall, a strong continuation off the previous Volume, but again I’d be hesitant to say it felt like a “proper” premiere. It’s very different from the feeling of previous ones, which can be chalked up to the fact that it wasn’t supposed to be a premiere but a finale, so ultimately I cannot fault it for coming out like neither. It was a good introduction to Mantle, the dynamic of the lower Kingdom, and left me in anticipation of what’s to come, which is such a refreshing feeling.

I’m hopeful and excited for the rest of the Volume. Let’s see where this roller coaster ride takes us.

[calliecat93]

Top 5 Things I Disliked About RWBY Volume 4

(Top 5 Likes)

Ah, Volume 4. Our first of many things. First volume to be animated in Maya. First volume to take place outside Beacon/Vale. First part of the Mistral Saga. And the first volume in RWBY’s new direction after how V3 shattered the status quo to the point of no return. It had a lot to live up, maybe too much in all honesty. At this point, V4 is kind of in this middle ground I think. It isn’t as loved as V6, but it isn’t as hated as V5. I guess you can say that it’s just average. Personally? I really like V4! It’s an arc about recovery, and it did that very well in my eyes.

But, of course, it isn’t perfect. So let’s go over the Top 5 Things I Disliked About RWBY Volume 4!

#5. Blake Plotline

Honestly… I remembered hating this storyline back when V4 aired. I felt like Blake had regressed and just could not sympathize with her. I knew why she was acting the way that she was, but it was just… not fun to watch. Especially with how she acted towards Sun, who while I could understand her annoyance at him, her slapping him and such was… really uncalled for. In fairness, some of my negativity might be because of all the shipping arguments going on at the same time, but I remember just not liking Blake at all. It’s Number 5 mainly because of the negative connotations that I had with the storyline.

But… this was the first time that I’ve rewatched it since it aired I think. And… I didn’t have any of those negative feelings. Honestly, I enjoyed it much more than I did back in 2016-17. Maybe it’s just because I know how it gets resolved and that Blake comes back with a vengeance in V5. But still, I w fine with her here. I had a better understanding of why she was acting like he was. Adam came back, hurt her friends, and she ran out of fear and guilt. Of course, she behaved the way that she did. Fortunately, Sun snaps her out of it by the end and she decides to stop running and face her fears. And by golly, does she.

It was a good storyline. We got to see Menagerie. We got to meet Blake’s parents. We got a cool Dragon Grimm fight The captain and his crew were fun. I honestly have no real complaints about Blake’s plot. Not even with Blake herself. It’s only here because I needed a Number 5, and I thought that this was a shoo-in due to how much I disliked it back during the original airing. It doe snot hold true anymore, but still, I disliked it at one point and I couldn’t think of anything else for Number 5. So it is here, but high up since I’ve had my epiphany regarding it.

#4. Oscar/Ozpin Storyline Was Rushed

It’s hard for me to get mad at rushed plotlines in this volume. Multi-plotlined stories like this are incredibly hard to balance out and it’s even harder to give everyone screentime. For example, Ruby’s development was super subtle because she had to share her time with JNR and then Qrow as well as other plotlines going on. It was there, but it just wasn’t able to be as focused on as other things that needed it. For Oscar, I do think that they did it as best as possible. Very least, they got him to where he needed to be by the end, and that’s better than holding it back and stalling.

But even so, Oscar’s… really gotten the short end of the stick since his intro. They’ve had to develop him very quickly, and it just feels like they’re trying to get through it as quickly as possible. Like they’re skimming through their notes and just putting them in there instead of developing it int he scripts naturally. V6 is the worst offender, but V4 was meant to be Oscar’s intro. We know that he’s a kid who lives with his aunt on a farm and… that’s it. We don’t get to know him as a character. We now things about him. We know of his importance in the story. But what o we know about Oscar as a character? What growth has he had? What do we know about Oscar’s farm life? About his dreams? About the process of realizing that he suddenly had voices in his head?

All fo this goes unexplored. Again, it just feels like they wanted to get it over with. With all the plotline, things really were against the writers and they couldn’t hold this one off until there was a better time to do so. So for V4 at least, I don’t hold it against them and they at least made Oscar likable. And like I said, they got him to where he needed to be, which is better than nothing. Nevertheless, especially with how Oscar still has this problem, it’s annoying to see that they still haven’t improved on this. Will they in V7? Hopefully.. But yeah, ti’s a problem with the Volume so at Number 4 it shall remain.

#3. Mute Cinder

This didn’t bother me much when I watched the volume. But now that I think about it? This was a misstep. IDK why they decided to do this. I thought maybe Jessica Nigri wasn’t available, but I think I read an interview where she indicated that this had been intended. Really, I think that V4 should have been when we got the Cinder backstory. Where we got a better understanding of why she’s obsessed with power as well as clarify what happened in V3 that got her so beat up. Yeah, yeah, we know that it was caused by RUby… but it doesn’t really align with what we know about the Silver Eyes. But I’ll get to that here in a bit.

To this day, we know very little about Cinder. While I think that there’s enough that one can figure out what her deal is, it’s become a pretty frequent issue among people. V4 had CInder in her worst state, and it would have been good to hear her express how much she hated it. Let us learn about her history from her. Hear her and Salem interact. I still really don’t get why they decided to mute CInder unless it was to avoid going into any of that because they’re holding it off. Hopefully, they won’t be doing that for much longer, because it’s safe to say that people are getting tired of waiting. It just really bugs me now, and I think was utterly pointless and wasteful to do this. And if it was just to not delve into anything… that was a poor story choice on their part.

#2. Lack of Clarity About What Ruby Did to Cinder

Okay, yes I know that Ruby awakened her Silver Eyes and took down Cinder due to it. But… it doesn’t make sense when you think about it. Ruby’s Eyes only work on Grimm. As far as we know, at that point, Cinder was still 100% human. Or at least if the Spider Grimm she used to get the Maiden powers is inside her, they haven’t really made it clear. But as such, that should mean that RUby’s Eyes did nothing to her aside maybe blind her for a bit. TO be fair, that could just mean that there’s more to the Eyes that we don’t know about. After all, even Maria only knew so much and Ruby awakened it at an emotional moment. So that makes sense.

Really, this kinda correlates into the Mute Cinder thing. I’m still not sure what exactly happened to her. I want some clarity about what happened. Is there more to the Silver Eyes? How will Ruby react to that? Heck, how much is Ruby aware of the damage that she dished out? She’s got no real reason to think that she cost CInder an arm and an eye. I don’t know if she knows, and I guess we won’t until Ruy and Cinder face off and she finds out about the Grimm arm. But you’d think that we’d hear a little bit… but CInder can’t talk and Salem doesn’t go into it. So nope!

This might just be a me thing. But it’s been frustrating me the more that I think over it. I want to now more about what happened. I wnt to hear from CInder about it. I want to see RUby react to it and about her power. Power that she still doesn’t fully understand. Will future volumes do that? Hopefully. But it just irks me since, as I said, we could have gotten some answers here. But we don’t. So yeah, this is a growing annoyance for me, and I hope that they resolve it sooner rather than later.

#1. The Multiple Plotlines

Again, this kind of feels unfair. On the one hand, the multiple plotlines clearly caused problems. Not everyone could get equal attention or screentime. Some parts like Oscar had to be rushed. It was a difficult balancing act and while I think that it could have been worse, it came with consequences. There were pacing problems. Some stories felt more satisfying than others. Some characters felt more developed than others. A lot of this is subjective and in general, RWBY’s plotlines I thought were fine. But the villain stuff was meh and Oscar’s was by far the weakest and both with the writing and in the execution. but needless to say, it’s generally agreed that Mile and Kerry got a little too ambitious here. Even they’ve said it, which is good since it means that they’ve learned from it.

It’s hard for me to say if the split plots was a bad idea. Because it was good for individual character growth. I think that they all made considerable progress, even if some like Yang didn’t get as much screentime as say RNJR. And I do admire Miel and Kerry experimenting and at least trying. Fear holds us back a lot, and that stifles creative growth. In the end, even if the experiment failed in their eyes, I’m glad that they did it. V5 arguably suffered due to it, but again they tried and grew due to it. I can respect that. But still, it did cause problems. Maybe more than they were prepared for. As such, I’m going to put it at Number One.

And there we go. Luckily, the Likes list will be coming out sometime tonight. So thanks for reading, and hope that you’ll check out the next post~!

[sillytorch]

So you telling me because of grey we got 13 eps but it was supposed to be 14

On rwby I mean

Pretty much, Anon.

Basically the state of RT Animation right now... like why their line-up is less compared to last year’s, possibly why we don’t have a season of RWBY Chibi this year (and possibly why Season 3 of Chibi got cut off short when we were supposed to have Coco debut in it), why the crunchtime accusations came to light, etc. was all b/c of Gray literally putting a lot of resources onto Gen:LOCK, going as far as to allegedly take money from the 2D animation shows’ budgets for Gen:LOCK even when Gen:LOCK went over budget.

Excuse me Anon b/c I’m about to go into another rant over this, but as a creative who wants to bring her stories to life, this sickened me both figuratively and literally. I understand wanting to bring your stories to life, but to go as far as to steamroll every pitch just to ensure that your show succeeds? And from what the document I showed you guys said, abusing your power as the head of animation to do so? What the FUCK, Gray???

And in his response to those accusations, he decides to crack a joke about how he plays villains in shows and now he’s being painted as a villain??? Bitch, Miles, Kerry, and Monty literally cast you as Roman b/c they liked your performance so much!! And now b/c of YOUR fuck-ups, there are people drawing in comparisons to you and Roman!!! When people are drawing comparisons to the character and the actor, it makes you feel more disgusted for being attached to a character!! That’s why that other night, I said that about how Gray made me feel shittier for liking Roman!

I know, we should just separate the character from the actor (especially since Gray didn’t even created Roman, he only gave his own interpretation of what Roman would sound like), but when people are making those comparisons, it hurts. Especially as I said, if you adore the character a lot, to the point that said character has brought in so much inspiration for your own works.

To the people who have reassured me that Roman’s most likely gonna get a new VA after this mess, thank you. These past few weeks have been hard on me and this controversy on Gray wrecked my mood even more. I’m feeling a little bit better since I took a small break from this blog yesterday. I still love Roman no matter what, but this is... yeah

Sorry for getting personal on this ask, Anon. I just needed to vent.