#they dont appear as often as Blake

[infamous-if]

Chapter 1 Rewrite

Out now for band tier! / April 22nd for fan tier

New additions in Chapter 1:

new choices/dialogue

a new scene(s) where the band throws a farewell party for Jazzy

brief introduction to a new character and British band—the hotshot winners of Season 3 of BOTB, Velvet Novocaine

introduction to the final sub romance^ Luca/Lilith Alvarez. The lead singer of VN

Chapter 1's changes weren't too intense, mostly because the chapter is short + most of the changes in this chapter are an extension of the changes in the prologue. The new scene is quite lengthy though, so I hope that's enjoyable ! :) See you then.

[dextixer]

What Vtuber Ruby and Miles cameos say, matter (kinda).

So, a day or so ago we have had people discuss about Rubys Vtubing appearances and the things she has said on video. People have had mixed opinions on what was said, some people think its not a problem, others think its a problem, some others dont care. So, i wanted to chime in on this entire discussion and why in my opinion this, and the cameos that Miles makes matter and are not "irrelevant".

Disclaimer

Before i start, i will note. I dont really think that these things are HUGE problems and "OH NO, THIS RUINS THE SHOW" or any other nonsense. Some people have seen these things way too negatively. But i also think that people who say that it doesnt matter at all are taking 2 way too extreme positions.

Lore Swiss Cheese

One of the main problems of RWBY has, for a long time, been the very vague concepts of what is canon and the in-show lore. From the very start of the show, it had commentary tracks, the creators talking about the show etc. Despite not being in the show itself, we have had many tidbits of information (such as Rubys favourite food) and the like given to us in outside of canon content. And it has not just been some minor things either. Ironwoods semblance basically does not exist in the show, and yet it seems to exist in lore, and it was shared with us from outside the show.

And later on, after V3, RWBY has received a lot of different media that expands on its lore and are considered canonical, despite sometimes never appearing on the show, or even creating very weird situations where something is conspicuous by absence in the show itself. For example, we have a very often discussed topics of V7-8 of the defense of Mantle/Atlas. One of the discussion points have always been how weirdly weak the defenses of the kingdom are. While one could chalk that up to people having an "inflated" view of Atlas military, but we have been canonically told and shown a lot of Atlas tech that is conspicuous by absence in the show.

Automated turrets, different versions of Atlesian Knights etc, which were said to be canonical in Amity:Arena. Or for example stealth tech. Yea, Atlas has stealth tech, like, genuine stealth. Its in one of the books. And yet nowhere in the show.

We have two canonical games, Grimm Eclipse and Arrowfell, with characters and concepts in them that have never been seen in the show. Has anyone ever seen team BRIR in the show? Heard of them? Maybe the tech from Arrowfell would kinda be useful, even if outdated against the Grimm invasion? What about the outlying Atlesian villages? Are they just dead at this point? Where the heck is Thornmane? He gets captured and hes nowhere in jail even as a cameo? And why does noone talk about Grimm Eclipse? Tech enchanced Grimm seem like a bit of a topic that kinda should be discussed sometime, no!?

We also have the comic books with various questionable canonical decisions including Raven turning into a bird to fuck with child Ruby. Blakes involvement with Adam which is somewhat weird because the comic books try to humanize Adam while the show demonizes him.

And let us not forget the whole "Canon Adjacent" nonsense where RT cant even come out and say that its obviously non-canon stories like Ice Queendom and even crossovers with DC are not canon. They cant even come out and say that!

Oh, and of course, i just remembered, the Grimm DnD campaign which is also apparently canon!

The reason i am listing all of these summarized versions of the multiple lore issues that the show has is that the lore of RWBY, is swiss cheese. It has lore that is given partially in so many different places, including in out of universe that its almost impposible to follow it properly, and if you do try, you are only going to get more confused because the main show feels like completely separate from it all, despite being in the same lore.

Vtubing and Cameos matter

And this brings me to of course the very simple claim, that due to the fact that the lore is already swiss cheese, these statements made in Vtubing and Cameos actually matter. Because even if they are not stated to be directly canonical, the lore is already so incredibly fucked and unclear (To the point that some people cant even decide if DC RWBY comics are even canon or not!) that adding these examples to the mix? Its just bad practice. Because at the end of the day, Vtubing Ruby, IS Ruby. She is played as in-universe Ruby, by the same Voice Actress, hosted by the SAME company.

And it matters especially because these things DO affect the FNDM. People who say that these things should be easily ignored are missing one key aspect. A lot of the FNDM are affected by these. BB being a key example. No, im not going to argue that the FNDM forced RT to make it canon. What i WILL argue is that the toxicity of BB community and its rabidness was intentionally cultivated AND enabled by RT. Does it matter that the BB song is not canon? No, it did not. Its not canon in the show and yet it made pro-BB and anti-BB crowds hysterical. Same for the song that was made for Blacksun. These songs directly contributed to the shipping wars. The various moments of people like Barbara also indulging the shippers just further fueled that entire movement.

Hell, the same can be said for Qrow x Winter shippers. While it was never a big thing one of the main "fuels" it had for a long time was because Vic and the VA for Winter interacted in a single panel. Or lets remember the whole "Vibrator function" which is OBVIOUSLY not canon, yet has become a part of often referenced and established fanon.

RWBY does not have a stable FNDM, i know, im a part of it. It does not matter if something is or is not canonical when not only are the lines of canon/noncanon blurred to barely existing, but the FNDM can often take things very far to fuel their expectations, wishes, and behaviour.

Especially when it can fuel what i will refer to as simply exploitative behaviour.

Cameos. Cameos, in my opinion are a fine way for VA's to make money. Such as many other things like, for example, music producers reviewing songs, voice coaches evaluating singing etc. Such content has cropped up maybe 4-5 years ago now and imo, is a fine thing.

But like any thing, imo, there are good and bad ways to do this kind of content. When for 40 bucks, one can ask one of the main WRITERS of the show questions about the shows world and opinions about things like ships. That is, imo, a bit far. Not only does that give an incentive for people to pay money for extra snippets of lore, but also, a way for people to validate their beliefs of ships and other such things. Because that is what his Cameo is all about. Its not VA work, its his words, in relation to his work as a writer for the show. And considering the earliest cameos and Ironwood discussions, that in my opnion is NOT a good thing.

The BB Onlyfans thing is ALSO an example of that, that i think was bad. Once again, disclaimer. I think that OF is fine, you want to do it? Go ahead, i paid for Markipliers photos, i aint ashamed, hes hot. I think it becomes at least slightly concerning however, when the VA's of a controversial ship decide to do an underwear photoshoot together with the same theme as their character in-show relationship.

Because...

Parasociality

A parasocial relationship is feeling a connection with a persona/thing that does not know of your existance or only humours you. Celebrities, sports teams etc.

RT has, for a long time cultivated a STRONG parasocial relationship with the FNDM. There is a reason why they pretend to be down to earth, why they pretend that they are not a corporation and why even to this day, some RT fans STILL believe that RT is some kind of "indie company". There is nothing inherently wrong with having it. Its kind of even unavoidable.

But what RT does is Cynically abuse that relationship. Just like any other corporation. Overworking animators for example? Part of that has been parasociality, people willing to work for their "loved" company etc.

Things like Miles Cameo, the BB photoshoot? The Vtuber Ruby? They are meant to encourage parasociality. To make it seem like the people, the watchers are "closer" to people performing or related to the show. Its all a cynical ploy to get people to pay money, to watch RWBY etc.

There is a reason why even after the RT expose not too long ago, people just went ahead and forgot about it. There is a reason why RWBYTubers that have previously condemned RT for their BS are now shouting at people to support RWBY, supressing those who criticized V9 and are encouraging people to buy merch.

Its all parasocial BS. BS that leads to extreme behaviours.

Such as, but not limited to - Biphobia, Homophobia, calling people facists for liking characters, calling people abuse apologist, groomers, Stalking. Just to name a few.

Also... On an ending note

Its just shit Vtubing

Consider this an unrelated tangent. I watch Vtubers relatively often, usually clips but sometimes i catch streams. Vtuber lore is usually irrelevant even in corporate settings. What people come to watch are the streamers themselves who usually partially play a character but mostly just act like themselves. Not really being lore accurate is not really of importance.

The thing is, those Vtubers usually dont have really established settings and they stream Multiple hours a day, so it all makes sense.

Why in the fuck is the Vtuber Ruby Rose, not acting like Remnant Ruby Rose!? Im not expecting deep lore drops here. But for crying out loud, why make statements that Rabbits or magic dont exist? Ruby Rose being visiting Earth is an AMAZING roleplaying set-up!

There is no dust, no aura, no Grimm! So many differences between the worlds that Ruby Rose can notice and act out! "Oh anime? We have our own version of that! One of the most watched shows is Sailor Sun! (Because the moon is broken)".

Its just a concept that can pay-off so much! Its an isekai in Vtubing form! As far as im aware Vtuber Ruby Rose doesnt even stream daily so its even easier to stay in character! So why in the bloody hell are we getting Dora of Explorer levels of childishness?

Anyway... Here are my thoughts. Peace out.

[richardsphere]

How the writing accidentally “protag’d” Jaune, and how to prevent a repeat in V10

Look i’ll defend Jaune every day of my life, he’s a necessary grounding force in the story, a well written tragic figure and often an important voice of reason (as a result of being one of the more grounded figures in the show) and just generally a likeable guy. He’s one of my top 5 characters in the show even. But god you can see that even the showrunners are angry at how much he’s the only character they still really “know”how to write. and the worst part is that all of the choices are individually defensible and often even the right choice for the narrative.   This readmore focusses on speculations regarding the doylist reasons behind jaune’s prominence in certain scenes, and how to make adjust their course-correction strategy to be more effective.

Like i made a post before about how S1-3 were light on characterising Team RWBY because there’s gonna be a roadtrip arc and we’ll give them their own arcs to flesh them out then. And Jaune was verry much crucial in the early game (because he’s simultaneously ruby’s foil, an audience exposition receptical and Pyrrha is going to die and as the regular “normal guy” in the show no one else is better at representing the idea of “a regular life of happiness VS a great destiny that ends in tragedy” for our Achilles paralel). Then S4 splits the party up to give us the chance to characterise Blake, Yang and Weiss with their own arcs, so you’d expect those 2 seasons to give them some depth? But now that these characters are spread across 4 seperate continents we need to set up so many new side-characters for them to interact with that we dont have the time for introspection, we need to flesh out the politics of Menagerie, introduce Fake!Spring maiden, introduce Willow and Klein and Whitley and Jaques first(?) on screen appearance, and introduce Salems other lieutenants and set up the mystery of Oscarpin.... and Oopsie thats S4 done, we didnt have the time to flesh out any of WBY. And because its hard to make Ruby mourn something as abstract as a physical location, we’ll substitute it by making her foil mourn an actual person. So S4-5 doesnt flesh out RWBY, (and strangely does little for Team Sloth, who should probably have been shown mourning Pyrrha as well) but does flesh out Jaune a bit more. (which tbh, is justifiable, he’s the OG exposition-hearer and we’re about to enter the part of the plot where none of our protagonists know whats going on. Being “the guy who doesnt know stuff” isnt a schtick they can maintain for the guy anymore so we need to give him a new thing to do and “grief” is a good-enough thing for now). But at least WBY can have their own arcs to flesh themselves out right? only this is where the writers realise, we cant resolve or explore Yangs issues with Raven too deeply, because the Raven issues are inseperable from the “fate of Summer” mystery so they leave that on a half-resolution.

Weiss runs away from home, but that doesnt deepen her because “doesnt want to be with Jaques” was one of her first known traits. but at least we know she’s got a brother (who is in like one scene) a butler and moms alcoholism. Which leaves us in Menagerie, where we get some nice exploration of Blakes loving parents, but this arc doesnt really deepen out what makes her tick because Adam isnt in this arc and it turns out that: No Blake does not actually have some deep-seated reason to join the fang, she was just sort of born into it. which sort of waters her motivations down from “freedomfighter trying to achieve justice in a cruel and unjust world” to “Inherited the family business”. (and while “family legacy” is a big thing in RWBY, what with Ruby, Weiss and Jaune all being motivated by that specific thing, there are no other characters in the Menagerie arc that can contrast/foil/emphasise this part of her character so this new reveal about Blakes core motivations is a bit mellow). So after S5, the showrunners look over their charactersheets and realise “dammit, Jaune is currently the most well-defined character?” and they do the first thing they can think of: They eject Jaune from the plot ASAP. They cut the train in two so we can finally have some time with just RWBY and give them a little arc and some characterisation... And someone in the writers room piped up and said “wait, isnt the traincrash the only part we can really justify making Ozpin drop the lamp” and suddenly the ��reaching Ansel safely”arc becomes the “Salem’s basic motivations and Ozpin cant be trusted” arc. so instead of “characterising RWBY” we get Ozposition and Salem backstory. But at least we get to see the heroes react to the revelation that Ozpin is full of it right? Well sort of, because while we do get a Qrow Lashing Out scene, Maria pipes in and reminds them “we’re allready holding the lamp, dont get emotional right now we cant afford a second grimm-magnet in this undefensible wilderness position”. (which yeah, fair point i guess she’s making a valid point but also, bad for the writing) And while you’d expect “our mentor cant be trusted” to be the perfect inciting incident for some character introspection, our next destination is the Brunswick farm, where the apathy lives. Now i love the apathy as a concept, and its a well written mini-arc. But whichever writer thought it was a good idea to follow the “our heroes are at the perfect moment for some real character-drama” up with a monster with the power to make characters behave in manners they normally would not behave, needs to surrender their christmass bonus. Like i get that you could argue they’re trying to go for “monster as analogy” but if you want to deepen out the characters here you really want the characters to respond to the issue in different, specific ways that flesh them out as individuals. but instead they are all forced into the same emotional state, which serves only to homogonise RWBY and make them less distinctive and identifiable. So the apathy cuts out our first real opportunity for some RWBY together-in-crisis exploration, but we fix the bike and make our way to Jaune’s Sisters Place for a second “ozpins full of shit” reveal, except this time to characters who arent going to be forced into non-response by Maria/Magic Apathy, and OOPS we just gave JNR the characterbeat that RWBY should’ve had. This is also when someone in the writers room (justifiably) pipes up: “wait, this is our last stop before we leave Mistral isnt it, and we’re not coming back to Mistral ever again afterwards right?”, and someone else answers yes, and the first guy responds “why did our 3 seasons in Pyrrha’s home-place never once make us meet her grieving family again?” and the second guy palms their face and said “allright you’ve got a point” and we get the Pyrrha Statue Scene. Which moves Jaune from “actively seeking death” to “Willing to postpone his his Suicinder until there’s no one left to mourn him”  We kill Adam while the plot prevents Weiss from ever seeing the weight of her family’s sins (yet again) as S6 comes to an end, and despite the writers taking active precautions to prevent it from happening, they’ve once again managed to flesh out Jaune without truly exploring the shows namesake team... And we get to S7, and they do the sensible thing and once again write Jaune out of the story by making him a traffic-cop who will not be involved in any plots or sub-plots for a while. But, We also brought back Penny, This is Watts’ only arc as a villain so we need to make him ominous and let him have his screentime, and we want to be interesting and make this arc Villain VS Villain with Ironwood VS Salem so the heroes wont actually get to interact with any of the antagonists for this plotline, allthewhile introducing Clover and the Aceops, setting up the Spear of Damocles and the Huntresses. So the heroes just spend a lot of time doing small fetch-quests that dont connect to anything too significant as the show tries to set the stage for S8. Also, this is our fourth? concecutive story about learning not to follow authorities blindly (Lionheart, Ozpin, Cordovin, Ironwood) so the show really struggles to sell the heroes trust in Ironwood when he introduces “operation world-wide grim-insurgence”. So a lot of this story-arc sort of falls flat as we spend most of S7 figuring out that, yeah the guy wanting to create a worldwide grimm-insurgence is probably not entirely morally right to do so. So S7 doesnt end up fleshing out anyone but perhaps Ren’s taste in bootleather, as it’s too busy setting up and fleshing out the villains to spend time on our heroes. Weiss does get to interact with her family though to flesh her out more. But the “confronting my asshole dad” thing is short and strangely low-stakes. (We havent seen verry much of Weiss’ homelife even during the V4 bit she was at home, and weiss has been largely sheltered from his “corporate crimes”, never getting to be in any scene that hints or adresses those victimised by the SDC. As a result his arrest at her hands lacks an emotional punch) S7 ends with Qrow broken, clovers death and Ironwood’s villain reveal as well as Penny as the Winter Maiden. S7 was so weak on characterisation for the main-cast, and semi-removed lessons learned in the last 3 seasons to a point where Jaune being largely absent ends up largely shielding him from the “did no one learn their lesson” feeling that permeates S7. And then we get to S8. S8 is still largely Villain VS villain, with our heroes forced to fight logistics of food-supplies and evactuations instead of dealing with any antagonistic force until Ironwood threatens the MantleBomb. This is also our last chance to characterise Penny. We get a little bit of “weiss loves her family” and Yang pining for Blake in the snowfields. But all the plotbeats go to Oscar, Emerald, Penny and the villains again until the team decides to use the spear, S8 is also largely a nothingburger for RWBYJNR is what im saying. Until the climax that is, where we dont get much in the form of characterisation beyond “the ones on the bridge grieve the fallen” but then Penny makes the sacrifice play, And Jaune screams. Now i understand why it couldnt be RWBY members to do the stab, (WBY have no real relation to penny and are already established as the sort-of-pragmatic castmembers who, while not happy wouldnt really “struggle” too much and Ruby needs to maintain her “innocence” for marketability purposes) so obviously Jaune was the only real option because as Ruby’s foil and with Penny being a maiden “ladykiller” has a sort-of second-hand connection to her. but goddamn could the show let the main four do SOMETHING important already without cutting away from their responding emotions for once? Then we get S9,   the show realises again that it needs to get rid of jaune because they’ve overused him again, creates a Jaune-free window for the characters to interact in again but wastes it’s chance again as it focusses on setting up new characters and building the setting and mystery for this new story-arc. Again. So according to some basic patern recognition: when we enter V10, expect Jaune to disapear from the story for the first half-season as the writers will, once again try to give the rest of the cast the spotlight back, only for exposition and worldbuilding to steal said spotlight from the cast anyway. Then when the plot kicks off and its “all hands on deck” Jaune will return to the plot because All Hands includes his healing hands, and that means that Jaune gets to once again be absent for the boring logistics of the narrative, and present for the characterisation bits. so now that we have identified root of the shows current problem, how would I fix it? I’d suggest moving the “Jaune free” plot-zone back a bit. Instead of putting it at the start of the vacuo arc, move it back to the early mid-point. Hell make him extremely prominent during the “boring worldbuilding” phase of our Vacuo arc. Then his dissapearence from the plot the inciting incident for the mid-point of the arc. Put him in prison/coma/other state of not-in-the-show for a bit and make Jaune’s Absence one of the things the rest of the cast can react and emote to/about. For example: Tyrian shows up, Tries to stab someone, Jaune interposes himself and turns out oops thats a poison and jaune slips into a coma. (no jaunes aura did not heal him from Alyx’ poison, the paperpleasers did cause they’re literal magic) How does Ruby respond to possibly losing her First Friend, especially now that she’s already lost her second friend (sorry weiss, but you werent a “friend” until after penny, pre penny you were an aquantence at best) How does Yang respond to Ruby’s response, does she go back to Momsis mode? How does Weiss respond to the guy who saved her life at Haven? How do ReNora respond to losing the last thing that seperated Team Sloth from JNPR being gone, possibly forever if they dont get the antidote from [Medical lab] Does Oscar become the new leader of OREN? (pronounced Orange) just, dont only remove Jaune from the setup, remove him from the actual plot next season.

[ruminate88]

Emotional Wounds 7/20/24

I always looked at this “healing journey” as one big scar to heal and I was SO wrong 🥺 it’s not healing from one big thing… it’s the countless words and mistreatment towards me from more than one person I either “loved” or “trusted”. I didn’t understand how deep the wounds even were until I fell at Christmas. I’m a visual learner and I believe I had to fall to see that even when the physical outward appearance of the wounds were no longer evident, if you press on the top of my legs a certain way, it’s still somewhat tender and sore. you can feel the bumps over my skin 😢 I KNOW there is still pain even if no one else can see it.

The emotional wounds are no different. NO ONE can see the pain and sometimes I even think “oh it’s not that bad, you’re just being dramatic and you’re not letting go of what happened.” However, the littlest things can set me off. For example, went to see the movie “Twisters” yesterday and they played the movie trailer for, “This Ends With Us.” Staring the gorgeous “Blake lively” who plays a character that falls in love with an abusive person and the trailer says, “IS IT HARDER TO HOLD ON OR LET GO?” 😭😭😭😭 omg I just sat stunned at this movie trailer feeling soooooo sad and frustrated. My heart and brain felt trapped remembering the pain I felt over Andrew.

I was in such pain and confusion when Andrew would NOT break up with me despite cheating and denying it. Deflecting the blame back on me and acting like I’m crazy…. We were on the phone 3 hours going in circles. Andrew was promising me he didn’t deserve me and I was too good for him and that I deserve more BUT he won’t break up with me cuz he says he wants to make me “happy” and he was only just playing mind games but I was so confused as being gaslit, I was complete torn between “I love him so much” and “he’s hurting me so much” 💔💔😢😢😢

So part of me says “just get over it, stop being so dramatic and why would you love such a liar and a cheater???” But theeeeen, I know I invested my heart and emotions deep into Andrew and that doesn’t just go away. You don’t just unlove a person randomly or love them randomly but Andrew mirrored my love and wore a false face. Idk whooooo he is.

Not just Andrew but Cody too. I tell myself cody also wore a mask that I’ll never know the real him and he also lied and cheated like crazy. They can’t love me back or treat me right for me to accept it and MOVE ON to enjoy my life. (Feels so difficult)

I JUST FEEL I DONT KNOW ME TRULY. Now that I’m officially trying to trust my current relationship and get completely out of survival mode, idk what to do with myself. My current relationship unintentionally “triggers me” often and I get so frustrated and sad. I wanna crawl into a hole and hide from everyone.

I don’t feel I can have an open and honest conversation with my current relationship because he gets defensive himself and I don’t think he’ll be open to understand me and hear me. I would love to be wrong but I’m only protecting myself from more rocks being thrown at me. Don’t believe my new man is throwing rocks but so many has before…

Ultimately I want to forgive cody and Andrew. I want to let them go free and I never reach out to them and I refuse to Google because seeing him will only upset me. The other night I could have sworn Andrew’s car was parked next to me and my heart was racing and my hand shook. I couldn’t stop looking over at it to be sure 🥺😳 (obviously it wasn’t) I feel like people would tell me I’m crazy and over the top and that something is wrong with me for having any feelings for my exes even if it’s the feelings are mixed. ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

[technicolorlove]

6 - "Um no, it doesn't matter if Weiss had grown or not. Adam is still a damn psychopath that'd sooner go for the kill than try to listen to anything that Weiss has to say." good thing I didnt say she should have a convo with him then! I said Blake and Weiss should talk about it. Y'know, the girl she's friends with who was a part of the same revolutionary force that adam was? "Sienna living and getting to talk to Weiss or even Ilia = the letdown not Adam." excellent point! the reason adam was still a let down though was because HE WAS BRANDED like AN ANIMAL?? is this a common fucking practice?? if we go off blake's body language when adam unmasks it clearly isnt that shocking to her. fuck yang doesnt even seem rattled by it? would weiss know that this happens? would she be horrified to find out that her father treated people like this? would that make her even more pissed off at him and make her epic own of his ass even better when she exposes how fucking unethical his work practices are along with his conspiracy against atlas in.. v7 or v8 i cant remember. "They do put in small moments here and there like the v7 scene between Weiss and Blake w/ Weiss seeing the SDC sign" wow.. one moment between them in the whole 5 volumes since weiss was racist. like you dont think that it would come up a little more often especially now in atlas? "On top of that there's a reason that Adam was kept to Blake and Yang, namely that Yang is everything Adam failed to be. Then on top of that is that no matter what they do they get people going after them, so they just set the entire thing to a metaphorical back-burner with some small bits here and there towards it." i dont care if he was kept to them like physically, i just think emotionally they should have discussed that shit with their team more lmao? especially after v6? like i get if they didnt wanna talk about their trauma earlier but like cmon they just killed someone wouldnt they wanna discuss that with their team?? blake seemed pretty fucked up about it afterwards we dont think we could have had a scene of them talking about it maybe at the start of v7? "Some of the problem is that you're forgetting that RWBY isn't that genre of show and again has bigger things happening." okay, so what genre is it then? generic fantasy? mcguffin centered fetch quest simulator? like, lets compare this to... fucking ATLA? a show about a group of kids settled with the weight of the world. THAT fuckin show has time for these kinds of character interactions, not relegated to small moments but whole episodes, they travel all over the globe to try and stop an oncoming apocalypse while collecting things(bending styles for aang) and oh hey zuko what are you doing here in my comparison to weiss schnee? (do not mention emerald and compare her to zuko please dont do that their arcs share superficial similarities but they are not the same, if anything emerald is this version of weiss you're talking about. i dont really care about her and shes sorta just been vaguely a dick riiiiight up until v6 when shes like "ohhh well.. maybe we're the bad guys?" and then does some more cinder worship until shes told off and goes from zero to hero over the span of.. like late v7 to late v8 she just clogging up the already bloated cast, and she barely appears in that fuckin epilogue [god i hope they dont do a fucking colonizer plot they are going to fuck it up just like they fucked up the racism]) Trust me, I love rwby, i love it so much it hurts. and when i bitch about it its because i wish it was so much better than it actually is. Like objectively its not that great writing wise. I lament missed potential and threads i think could have been handled better. I despise people who do "rewrites" that fundamentally change everything about the show except some names. Do I think they should course correct now? fuck no, we're in wayyyyy to deep. I really like v9 and it was tight and honestly weirdly enough the justice league crossover movies had some of my favorite weiss writing to date. Lemme wrap up before i get too rambly.

I wouldn't consider the crazy stalker ex angle a bad one for Adam (some people may disagree with me on this), but what I do wish had happened was building up to it more. And it sorta happened in this volume, where his oversight and cowardice at Haven resulted in him losing power. I just wish we had seen more of that fall yknow? How his desire for adoration and "justice" was fueled by his own ego. And the more power he lost the more the manipulative stalker ex boyfriend thing became prevalent. I also wish that his SDC brand went literally anywhere story wise. The fact that it's never brought up again (especially to WEISS) just sorta puts a big question mark on the end of his character. The fact that we don't even have a canon explanation for how he got it is even worse!! I have a lot of issues with how faunus are are used as a massive bludgeon with the word "RACISM" printed on it despite the writers' seeming unwillingness to actually discuss that topic. It takes Weiss all of two episodes to unlearn her prejudice but then she never uses any of her seemingly substantial power to actually DO anything about her father's business practices or for even make a switch to buying dust from local shops instead of straight from SDC itself. Imagine how much deeper Flint's jab at her would have been if we saw her actually trying to put in effort to undo the harm her family does to small businesses!!

I dunno I feel like they should have picked an angle for Adam and stuck with it. (Also i'm someone who likes Ironwood's fall and thinks it was well built up, so sue me)

[hoochy-coo]

I have a bunch of questions for WS anon since I am interested in other celebs possible pr too!

1. With your job, is it regular for anyone working in the industry to have tea? And do people working in or share what’s real or not?

I would say it gives you the opportunity to hear gossip or rumors that only people in the industry would know. I will say you'd probably need to go out of your way to learn about it. In my case I work with athletes and aside from the people they hookup with, their scandals, vices it's not really a place with tea. But I do make a lot of friends in the industry and we gossip all the time and they share from their respective fields and about the celebs they work with or have a connection to. I guess it's the same as any kind of workplace gossip.

Working in what? You mean working in pr? A celeb's pr team will never tell you what is real/authentic or straight up fake or a mix of both. The most they'll give is what strategies they impose or how they mold things. But not directly, oh this is fake btw. For obvious reasons, they keep a lot of things secret and things only they would know. A lot of friends in pr do like sharing input or teach our gc how things go or look for the signs or the strategies we wouldn't even have figured without their help. A lot of times we also just hear a lot of rumors from inside sources that just outward contradicts what is being presented by the media/pr play of a celeb.

2. Can you tell me your thoughts on often thought pr couples? I am not a harrie at all and I see this from pop culture blogs.

lily/timmy - I don't know if it's pure pr or not but I've at least heard Timmy was also hooking up with other women during all those times he was with Lily. A lot of people have told me it's pure pr/mostly pr though. They did seem like a nice match as future it girl/boy but their reunion it didn't seem as interesting.

seb/ale - I actually don't follow either of those two enough. I thought Seb has always been pretty open about his gfs? At least I thought him and Leighton were pretty public. For his current gf, if it's pr then he hasn't gain a lot of fame imo. The only place I see him relevant or getting talked about is the tumblr/twitter stans which while loud isn't that big. I mean his fans sure let his last film flop hard, I doubt the BO was even enough to pay him.

henry/nat - I feel like I blocked out Henry's love life when he was dating a 19 year old. But I would say this is real. Until I see Natalie suddenly becoming a star I'd say this is pretty standard for Henry. Him and Kaley, yeah none of you can convince me that was real.

chris/jenny - A lot of people will kill me, but since Jessie admitted she also thinks they're pr then I'll admit I do too.

tom/zendaya - I think they're real. Either way I love it. We can probably judge based on how long this will last.

shawn/camila - real, but my friend says they're way more subdued in private at least

bennifer - I already sent an answer to this before

ben/ana - the blueprint

hiddleswift - pr

abelena - pr

If you're asking if I think they're pure pr, I don't know what happens when they're alone together to say it's all fake. I imagine hiddleswift, abelena, ben/ana probably hookup in private but was never as serious or real as they made it appear. If you're asking if they're real and using it for pr, well yeah I would say all of these would qualify as they're using it for pr too which isn't a bad thing. Like Ryan/Blake are obviously real and using their relationship for publicity.

3. Do you think hiddleswift was bad pr for Tom?

Not really. I do think it was meant to be longer with a full better rollout and ended too early with Taylor backing out. As someone who considers herself a self-hating swiftie, Tom gained a lot of loyal fans in the fandom for example and hiddleswift was pretty memorable pop culture moment in general.

4. How do you really feel about the holivia questions and harries in general since you tend to get the most abuse from them?

I'm irritated because of the angry anons and people who can't respect opinion. Other than that, my opinion on holivia still remains the same and it will not physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, or financially hurt either Harry or Olivia. In the first place, I don't remember ever spending money for them. I think as long as Jessie allows pop culture discussion and allows the question, we can all and should respect opinion. I'm not in any way anti or pro holivia. I don't mind a pr relationship cause to me it's a normal and harmless part of their job. I also don't think pr should be equated as bad at all. We're kidding ourselves if we don't think celebs are like this.

5. I’m just basing this from the harry stans in this blog, but how do you see Harry benefit from holivia?

I already said this to my one harrie friend here but I always saw his fans overestimate his fame. Harry is big but he isn't BIG. He hasn't come to the level of Taylor, Drake, Ed, JB, or their counterparts for actors. Every celeb who came at that level went to levels of attention seeking and pr. When you're trying to venture into film, there are separate pr that could also be demanded from you. Being big in one industry doesn't equate to being an instant hit or success in the other. Especially when the film industry does have a lot of hesitation with singers to actors. Especially when with Harry he seems to want to be taken as a serious actor rather than the easy going route many of his contemporaries have done to jump start their acting career. Harry is being talked about a lot by blogs and accounts that used to barely mention him before. He is being discussed as a regular gossip which didn't happen for years. Imo fans just think he's too big for anything or that he is immune to pr or attention seeking. Me and my friends never saw him that way and we also never saw Harry as incredibly relevant or big, rather than he has an incredibly dedicated fanbase

Question for WS anon but I would also like to hear your opinion Jessie? Do you think Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling call the paps . Because I've generanlly heard that he is an extremely private ccelebrity but all those spottinga with his kid don't necessarily seem very organic to me Also are there any celebs that dont really call the paps?

You can be a private celeb and still call the paps. Ryan is a private guy but he has always been pretty open who he's dating and end of day they don't give us a lot of update or info about their relationship. Abel has started calling the paps a lot, but in hindsight he's still very private about himself.

I think the only celebs who don't call the paps are ones who don't have publicist.

- Worcestershire Sauce Anon

!!!

You answered this so thoroughly, thank you! X

[bridgyrose]

Ruby: Are you two done yet? Weiss: *looking at Ruby’s wings* They’re… so beautiful. Ruby: *sighing* Yeah, yeah, beautiful.  Weiss: And you’re sure you’re not a faunus? Blake: *gently touching the wings* They are feathers… Ruby: Yes, I’m sure.  Weiss: How sure- Ruby: *taking off her shirt and furling up the wings* Weiss: *hesitating as the wings disappeared* They’re gone…. Ruby: *putting her shirt back on* They only appear when I need them.Or want them. They arent always there. Blake: Well, that does take away the idea of her being a faunus. Weiss: And you’ve always had them? Ruby: *shrugging* I guess? I first noticed them when I was about six. Dad always said I needed to be careful with showing them, so I dont use them often. But I dont try to hide it. Blake: Does Yang have a pair too? Ruby: *shaking her head* No.  Weiss: But you’re sisters- Ruby: Half sisters. We have different moms. Doesnt change how close we are though. Blake: *getting up and heading to the library* I need to go look a few things up. Want to come with? Ruby: I should go work on Crescent Rose. It’s been awhile since I’ve done maintenance on her. Blake: Suit yourself. Weiss: *following Blake* I’ll come with you! Ruby: *shaking her head as the two left* Now I see why dad wanted me to be careful. Ruby: *calling forth Crescent Rose, the scythe appearing in a flash of light* Maybe they’ll figure out the truth.

[elliot-orion]

63 - 73 :)

YAY thank you!! think i’ll do this for blake from the doll maker, cus why not i love them.

63. How self-disciplined is your oc? Do they often think before they act, or the other way around?

Blake doesn't do anything before thinking about it. There’s a reason that they’ve never been caught before after all. But when it comes to spending money and eating things they like they are crazy undisciplined and will buy and eat whatever they feel like. 

64. Which of the seven deadly sins does your oc fall under most? What about the seven heavenly virtues?

Hmm... Pride and Patience I’d say. Pride bc this kid has an ego and loves to taunt the police, and patience because they can be very patient and plan things out in advance by a lot

65. If you were to give your oc a new superpower, what would you choose and why? If *they* were to be able to choose, what would it be and why?

Blake doesn't actually have any powers or abilities, but if i were to give them one they’d like shapeshifting because it’d make their uh... hobby of murdering people much easier. I’d probably give them superintelligence. they are already incredibly smart, might as well take it to the extreme right? 

66. What sort of advice would people go to your oc for? What sort of advice is your oc actually good at giving?

how to get away with murder... though since no one knows that they are the Puppeteer, then probably tattoo advice since that’s Blake’s day job. They’d be very damn good at murder advice though.

67. How many people does your oc prefer to be around? A crowd, a few friends, or all on their own?

a total of no one. Blake isn’t great at socializing or being around people, they make them uncomfortable and people feel unsafe. they do it bc albis are good, but yea they arent a fan and it really shows. Combined with the PTSD effects, people tend to assume they are autistic bc of it. they aren’t, or at least I’m not writing it as if they are,  its more from their PTSD, trust issues and general distaste for people that makes them so opposed to people, but from how they present its what people think and they are fine letting those assumptions be made. It doesn't help they follow a schedule very strictly, but that’s for alibi purposes again and because they like order and neatness. they think humans are gross for how chaotic and ugly they are.

68. What sorts of things would cheer your oc up when they’re down? Is your oc sad often, or is it more rare?

Ball jointed dolls, complimenting their art or dolls, sweets, mentioning the Puppeteer’s work in a positive light (a rare thing, Blake’s murder art is you know. murdery), stuff like that. Blake’s internal world is very blank and flat, though externally they can come off much different if they want to, so although they can appear sad at appropriate times they don't often get genuinely sad. Blake is full of contradictions and it makes them very hard to write/get a good idea for just because they can be whoever they need in a situation. Why did i decide to write a story that’s 2 MCs are such psychopaths...

69. How energetic is your oc? Are they constantly tired, or constantly bouncing off the walls?

Pretty tame, all in all. very much an introvert and tend to not go to parties or events or anything. I wouldn't say constantly tired but they are very flat. 

70. What about your oc’s lifestyle would they change if they had the ability? Why?

They wouldn’t socialize if they didn't have to for alibis. people are ugly to them, they don’t want to be near them and would rather stay with their dolls and art.

71. What is your oc’s go-to for offense? What weapon, what style of fighting? Or are words more their weapon of choice?

When murdering people, Blake will drug someone somehow, it depends on where they find the person. They ‘disappear’ the person for a while, taking them to the basement of a very old house that 100% has asbestos but they dont care, so that they can get everything set up and usually butcher the body, before disguising themself and taking the person/persons in the back of a hotwired car to the location for their tableau. they make art with their victims, sort of Hannibal style wherein they occasionally copy art, but they prefer to make it their own. Some famous ones were in a church whereone who rose from a coffin with its arms up in application to the body nailed to a cross above it , one in a kids classroom where people made into moveable puppets did a little dance in the puppet theater (which was one of his first and how he got the name Puppeteer), and then one with two people facing in a gazebo, one a girl who was a 16 and one a boy who was 17. Those two were their youngest kills. They’ve killed about 15 people by now and there’s no leads on them. Also fun story most of those people stayed alive for a good chunk of the time, except for the puppet ones, those died a lot earlier than most. If you want an even bigger ick, they castrate anyone with a dick. :) its a horror story bitches what do you want from me

72. What is your oc’s ideal environment like? Urban or natural? Fancy or rustic? What’s the weather like?

Urban, but they dont have much preference beyond that. as long as they can blend in they dont care. their apartment is fairly empty, its got a lot of their art on the wall, but not much furniture, tho there is a lot of dolls, art supplies and random knickknacks from thrift stores around. Blake loves thrift stores.

73. If your oc were to be arrested, what would it most likely be for? Is it justified? Have they actually been arrested before?

Murder, yes, and yes. They got arrested for shoplifting as a kid bc they were hungry and there was no food at home and no school since it was winter break. they’ve since burned off their fingerprints (they are both a sadist and a masochist and found it fun) and since they were 11 at the time they dont particularly care.

Thanks again for the questions!!!!!!!!

[teagansmaron]

Do you think that Blake is making a mistake by having this child since you're being so supportive it seems like you dont?

HONESTY HOUR.

Yes, her cousin’s pregnancy had been unexpected news… but that’s three months ago. Certain things do concern Teagan on if baby, once and for all, will put Blake’s head on straight with her sobriety. If it couldn’t break the habit for herself in the past, it makes sense if the baby alters her cousin’s world. Especially since Blake didn’t get her head straight, it would mean she won’t be apart of the child’s upbringing. However, having these thoughts alone nag in the pit of her stomach as she feels awful. There’s never been a time where Teagan doubted her cousin’s ability to be a mother, let alone get through this pregnancy. Still, the neurosurgeon is someone who wants to see this whole situation turn to be positive for everyone involved and invested instead of any heartache. “No, I don’t think it’s a mistake,” she says dismissively, knowing people can think what they want, but it felt wrong. The shiver that’s slithering down her spine and the discomfort she feels right now is buried deep. The last thing she’ll do is let it sit upon her appearance. Maybe an unexpected pregnancy is a mistake for others, but some people would drop the world for this blessing. From what she knows, Blake has wanted this more than anything, so it’s happening either way. “This will most likely be a wake-up call for her.”

Tough love isn’t something that she often gives ─ especially to Blake or Gisele, but this topic is a sore one. It means she will come off as the bad guy for talking about her cousin’s addiction again but considering her role as an older sister to Blake, if hounding is what she has to do, then so be it. It’s something she has done with Kathryn and Natasha quite a few times in the past. Along with everything that she has stood by, and for how long, this comes with the cost of sacrificing things for the ones you love: family. “I just want her to be happy and to be on a path that feels right.” Adjusting her position, her hand rests underneath her chin as chartreuse hues lay low on the table. “Also my opinion shouldn’t really matter on what she decides on even if I didn’t support it. It’s her life, not mine. I’ll be there whenever she needs me.”

featuring: @blakecastillo

[captain-aralias]

Fanfic year in review - 2019

yeah - i’m going to answer all these questions too. just watch me. 

List of Completed Fics this year:

Keep Calm (Carry On, S/B and ensemble, Teen, 69k)

Sex and Blood (Carry On, S/B, Explicit, 16k)

The Sound of Silence (Carry On, S/B, Teen, 10k)

Coming Up For Air (Carry On, S/B, Explicit, 4k)

Hang the Moon (Carry On, S/B and ensemble, Teen, 30k)

The sky isn’t black anymore (Carry On, S/B, Explicit, 9k)

This is fine (B7, B/A and ensemble, Teen, 4k)

Total: 7 fics, 142k words - making it one of my most prolific years ever in terms of word count! (even though i wrote about 30k of ‘keep calm’ last year, which would take the total down to a more reasonable level). 

i answer some questions about them below the cut... 

Best/worst title?

Keep Calm is the best title, for sure, as it’s a role reversal of ‘Carry On’. The only bad thing about this title is that i love role reversal fics and i can never use it again. also... i guess as i got to the end i started to think... ‘Should i bring out this theme of calmness...? is this even a theme????’ It was a bit distracting, essentially. 

worst title is ‘Sex and Blood’, which does what it says on the tin - can’t deny it. it’s supposed to be about how vampirism links the two things for baz, right? .... but i don’t like it. also - when people comment on it (thank you! please do comment on it! please keep reading it!) this stupid title that i wrote appears on my lock screen of my phone, which i just leave lying around at work. 

but i know - i did it to myself. i should have thought of a better title. 

Best/worst summary?

i don’t know if i already pointed this out on tumblr, but i noticed recently that all my ‘carry on’ fic summaries have a [Clause A - bad or good situation] but/or some other conjunction [Clause B - something happens that causes a fic to exist!] structure, except for ‘The Sound of Silence’. 

Even having realised that, I’ve still written a summary with the same turn for my as yet unnamed bodyswap fic... 

I think the best summary is probably ‘Keep Calm’. 

Worst summary - Coming Up for Air, but I was trying not to give spoilers for Wayward Son. and it’s a PWP.

Best/worst first line?

generally i love my first lines, and hate my last lines. 

i would say all of my 2019 first lines are indeed pretty good. ‘The sky isn’t black anymore’ is straight into being X-rated so i’m not going to quote it here in case that’s not your jam, but i like it a lot. 

i also like: There’s something wrong with Baz. (Sex and Blood). Obvious - but, it works.

i don’t not like any of them, even the really long rambling first line of ‘This is FIne’.

i will call out the first line of ‘Keep Calm’ though, because i spent ages trying to work out how to punctuate it, and i still don’t know what i should have done. it currently reads: The Mage is waiting for me, outside the door to Mummer’s House.

depending on when you read it, though (and i’m sure you didn’t notice) it may have had no comma (The Mage is waiting for me outside the door to Mummer’s House.) or it might have been a dash where the comma was, or even - gasp - a full stop (because rainbow likes to break sentences into fragments so that’s ok).

 i kept changing it. this may seem like a complete waste of time (and i think the right-right answer is that there shouldn’t be a break at all - no comma is correct), but i wanted the first sentence to FEEL like ‘the mage is waiting for me’ - the place is merely corroborative detail. the point is the mage is there, about to take simon away and change the plot. hence ... the punctuation.

Best/worst last line?

as i said - very few of my last lines are what i wanted. i have not mastered them at all. too often it’s just ‘this is where i ran out of story’. the worst is the ending to the ‘Sound of Silence’ where i literally resorted to ‘Carry On’ cliche to get out of it: And he kisses me.

it’s fine, it works - but i could have done better.

the actual ending line of ‘Hang the Moon’ is pretty good i think, but the pacing of that ending is all wrong. i’m much happier now i wrote a whole extra fic so the weight of everything ending isn’t on those final hundred words. 

the BEST last line i wrote... the one that actually really works (for me) is ‘Coming Up For Air’. And I feel like I can breathe again. 

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?

apparently i wrote a lot - which i probably wouldn’t have predicted last year, although by this time last year i’d written ‘the mage’s heir’ and the first half of ‘keep calm’, which did provide much of the wordcount for this year. so - i guess if i’d thought about it, it would have seemed plausible. 

first person helps me write long. and in b7 i learned to write long. 

i guess i’m surprised because it felt like i wasn’t writing that much in comparison to some people in the fandom (and i probably still didn’t in comparison!) and i wrote several long things rather than many short things, so the list is still pretty short despite being MANY words.... 

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

strange though it may be to say - i probably wouldn’t have predicted i’d write blake’s 7 this year. ‘never go back’ - that’s my motto. or rather ‘i can’t go back, my brain doesn’t work that way’. but good to have done it. 

What's your favourite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.

hard to say. it’s a draw between ‘keep calm’, which i love because it did everything i wanted it to. and ‘hang the moon’, which is a collection of all my favourite tropes loosely disguised as a fic. 

they’re also the two longest - and i tend to like the long ones better for reasons i have gone into before.

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

it’s pretty much a tie between ‘keep calm’ and ‘sex and blood’ - and since ‘keep calm’ was many chapters long, is earlier, and much more heavily promoted by self and the big bang, i’m pretty sure that means ‘sex and blood’ is more popular over all. 

thank you fandom, for loving vampire porn as much as i do.

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

we all know (well, those of us who know what it is) that b7 is a tiny fandom, so with that in mind, i think ‘This is Fine’ is well appreciated! <3

the story that is (to me) surprisingly about half as popular as most things that i’ve written for ‘carry on’ is ‘Coming up for air’, which i have now re-linked for you in case you never read it.

it disproves the rule that shorter porny things will be more read (although obviously the vampire porn suggests the opposite). idk, i thought it would catch those who were in the post-wayward son crash, like i was. 

the other thing to say here is that it was still extremely appreciated - i mean, it’s got about 50 times as many kudos as any of my b7 things, and overall i would say it is a thing that is well received. i know i’m fortunate to be friends with people who re-blog my stuff and people who comment, and i (in turn) really appreciate THAT. 

so - it’s not a whine. just an observation

Story that could have been better?

i think i would have written ‘This is fine’ better if i’d written it five years ago. i definitely could have written a blake-travis mindlink to make the gods weep with its perfection ;) what a prompt.

i’ve talked about how i don’t rate the endings of ‘Sound of Silence’ or ‘Hang the Moon’ as well, so i think these could have been better. if only i was better at waiting.., and thinking of an ending. or just - if only i was better at endings. 

Sexiest story?

i think that’s the one that has the word ‘sex’ in the title. because vampires are sexy. and so is informed consent.

Saddest story?

sad?? what is this SAD? 

‘This is fine’ is quite sad given that it’s also about telepathic pornography. because we know everyone’s going to die soon. 

and ‘Sound of Silence’ isn’t sad, at least i don’t think it is - but Baz certainly is sad while it’s happening. 

Most fun?

i think ‘hang the moon’ is the most fun - because it has all the things that i like best happening in it. they fight some merwolves together, they go plate shopping, simon fights lots of people, fiona is there - it’s very fun.

Story with single sweetest moment?

hang the moon, probably. the bit with the moon. 

although i was thinking... surely i should talk about ‘keep calm’ a bit - isn’t it my equal fav? and i was thinking - what is the sweetest moment there... and the answer honestly is that i think the sweetest moment is the bit where the mage and simon are gardening together and simon doesn’t know if their relationship is doomed forever ... AND THEN the mage tells simon they can watch some VHSes of lucy next time simon comes back and they dont hug, but it is ... enough <3

I’M SORRY - I LOVE AWKWARD FATHER-SON RELATIONSHIPS BEING REDEEMED. 

Hardest story to write?

‘keep calm’ took me months and there were moments when i thought - fuck, this is not ending, and i hate not being able to talk to anyone about this because this fest is going on for months. and i was fortunate that i had the idea of emailing sharkmartini who i then did not know at all, and she was enthusiastic and getting that feedback made me think - ok, this is worth doing. i can finish this. 

but also - i started writing ‘sound of silence’ immediately after the ‘mage’s heir’ finished and i eventually published it over a year later. because the device i’d chosen meant that simon couldn’t say or do anything for most of the bloody story. and that meant that nothing happened, baz, thanks for nothing, and it was very hard to write.

and ‘This is fine’ - i must have written it in a few weeks. so it clearly wasn’t that hard. but in comparison to back when i (though i) knew everything that Avon would ever think or say... it was hard.

Easiest/most fun story to write?

Coming up for air was the easiest story. i haven’t written anything else in a day for this fandom, although it is something i’ve done before, back in the day. 

most of the others were also really fun to write, unless i put them in the ‘hardest story to write’ box. so, you know - about half. 

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?

i started to write ‘no’, but that isn’t true. writing ‘The sky isn’t black anymore’ shifted my perception of the way that i’d written Baz in ‘Hang the Moon’ i.e. my own fic (how wanky is that?) 

most of the others are me putting things that i think about characters into words. so i did the thinking before, rather than during. 

Most overdue story?

i wanted to post ‘This is fine’ on Gauda Prime Day and didn’t :( but i know bunnacula said that was ok ;) so i think the most overdue was the one that took me over a year to finally bother finishing. 

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

eeeeeer... 

yes, maybe. i would say writing a happy ending for simon in ‘keep calm’ where the happy ending is that he gets a better relationship with his father (see above) as well as getting to go out with baz (whose happy ending is also not just about simon, but mostly is) is a risk in a fandom where everyone hates the mage so much. 

and then i finally wrote my thing about how i think the mage is actually right about many things, and fiona is classist. what i haven’t ever said explicitly on tumblr, i don’t think (though i said it on LJ) is that another reason it is so much easier for me to be sympathetic towards the mage is that he literally is a version of roj blake (the main character of my old fandom and my personal fav). obviously the mage is a blake who is a bit more autistic and significantly further off the deep end on the ‘greater good’ scale than blake ever was. but blake even also dresses like robin hood and is from wales. i haven’t said this before because i feel like it cheapens my semi-championing off him/might make people who really can’t tolerate the mage think ‘wtf? is aralias mental? why does she like roj blake so much?’ to be fair - lots of people in b7 hated him too. 

ANYWAY. what i learned from that is - these are the stories i want to tell and no one got upset, so that is awesome and i shouldn’t be so worried about what people think before i know what people think. 

i also wrote vampire porn, but i didn’t consider that a risk. because i knew that sharkmartini would love it - and that was one person and that was enough. are we all going to write more vampire porn in 2020? i hope so.

This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it most:

good question but hard to answer. 

i think the theme is ...... possibly influenced by ‘wayward son’..... poor communication is bad; good communication is good. maybe? 

and the fic that most demonstrates this is one that i have the most problems with, and that’s ‘The Sound of Silence’ where simon literally can’t communicate for the first half of the fic. and then baz solves his own problem by saying ‘sorry’ and giving back simon’s voice. 

‘The sky isn’t black anymore’, which i really like but feel i haven’t talked about much (it’s an unproblematic fav!) feels very similar and in fact i struggled to make it less about communication/saying what you want than it kept wanting to be. because i was thinking - this isn’t the problem of the fic! the problem is that it’s all too fast, right? but actually - and here we come back to the learning about the characters - it was both. 

because baz is a character who doesn’t communicate. and, like simon in ‘sound of silence’, he was also shut out from the POV in ‘hang the moon’.

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

write more! i want to get my ‘wayward son’ bodyswap out the door before the end of february..... maybe even january, but february sounds very achievable.

i have to finish my zine fic and then lop about 2000 words out of it, probably. 

i want to write another epic thing that is also about politics and vampires. it’s the one where natasha is alive, as well as other things. the problem with this one is that while i know a lot about it, i dont know exactly what the arc is - and i’m bored of re-writing simon giving up his magic to fix the humdrum (which i did... once... but i guess that was too often). so i have to try and work out what the climax is if it isn’t that - and i like to know the ending before i start...... but. my goal is to figure these things out and then write it. 

vampire porn - obvs. 

aaaand - for all of us: i will run a remix! oh yes, i will run a remix. ‘carry on big bang’ (which i definitely won’t do, it’s too solitary for me and too slow, alas - even though i keep thinking ‘i could do my vampire thing! it’s long’. it’s got to be a no) and the zine are in the first half of the year....... and i’m busy and stuff. so i thought it was going to be in december - but now i’m probably going for sign ups in march, post in may. I LOVE REMIX. i’m excited already.

[moistmailman]

The War

Yang: Hey, I'm sorry but it's true, Rubes.

Ruby, pouting: No, its not! I'm not that socially awkward! You're over exaggerating!

Yang, laughing: I am not! You're the poster child for awkwardness! Just admit it!

Ruby: *Stubbornly crosses her arms and pouts*

Yang: Awww, don't be like that. Wipe that frown off your face. So you aren't good with social interactions. Big deal. Not everyone can be like me.

Ruby: What's that supposed to mean?

Yang: I'm great at socializing. I have what some people call a silver tongue. Hell, I don't even need my charm to make people do things. My looks alone could do the work for me.

Ruby, crossing her arms: Oh please. You're over exaggerating again.

Yang: Am not. I could easily talk anyone to do anything for me, and all I need to do is some harmless flirting! Remember when I made that kid do my homework back at signal? I didn't have to do any homework for an entire month because of my silver tongue. Meanwhile you sometimes get tongue tied when ordering a pizza. So.....yeah, you're as socially awkward as they come.

Ruby, blushing embarrassingly: Why I otta! S-shut up! I could do something like that too!

Yang, ruffling Ruby's hair: Oh of course you can, my sweet naive Ruby.

Ruby, angrily swatting at her hand: I-Im serious! I could do something like that! I'm charming! I'm adorably cute! People love that!

Yang: Yeah, they do. But I'm drop dead gorgeous, which guys find much more attractive, and you also can't forget about my way with words. So sorry Ruby, but you lost this conversation.

Ruby: That's not true! I-I bet i could fine someone who prefers me over you!

Yang: Look Ruby, don't start a war that you can't win. Trust me. Let's just drop this.

Ruby: Why?! You're scared or something? I bet I could fine someone very attractive that prefers my charms over yours. If I can beat you then it'll prove that I'm not that socially awkward!

Yang, playfully sarcastical: Hmm hmm, whatever you say. Tell you what, come back to me when you successfully flirt with the most attractive person at Beacon or something. But until then........*boops Ruby's nose* Socially awkward. Bye now. *Walks away*

Ruby, cutely stomping her foot while pouting: Stupid Yang. What does she know? I'm not that socially awkward. I could easily flirt with someone if I wanted to.

*Suddenly Pyrrha walks by*

Ruby:.........hmm, most attractive person at Beacon, huh?

*2 days later, outside on a cold winter day*

Pyrrha, walking up: Hey Ruby.

Ruby, shivering: H-hey, Pyrrha.

Pyrrha: Cold weather, huh?

Ruby, blowing hot air into one of her hands: Yep, I can hardly feel my hands right now. Dummy me over here lost my gloves, so now my hands feel like popsicles. Silly me, right?

Pyrrha: Oh dear, I'm so sorry to hear that. *Reaches into her jacket* Here, I have a spare pair of gloves that you can use. Here, take them.

Ruby: That's very sweet of you, but unfortunately your hands are larger than mine. So those are useless to me.

Pyrrha: Oh right, sorry. I didn't think about that.

Ruby: Hey, it's okay.

Pyrrha: I just wish I could help.

Ruby, blushing: Well...uh...there's a day that you could help me actually.

Pyrrha: Really? How?

Ruby, awkwardly twirling her hair: Y-you c-could uh......you could always uh......h-hold m-my hands.

Pyrrha, slightly blushing: Eh?

Ruby, blushing: H-hold my h-hands, you know, f-for warmth. S-since body heat c-creates....well, heat and a-all.

Pyrrha: O-oh uh.......well....

Ruby: Y-you dont have to if you dont want to, though.

Pyrrha: N-no, it's alright. I just wasn't expecting that. I don't mind holding your hands.

Ruby: R-really?

Pyrrha: Y-yeah. If it means helping a friend, then I would love to. Here, just let me take off my gloves. *Takes off her gloves* Okay. Here, take my hand.

Ruby, swallowing her nervousness: R-right. On it, friendo. *Awkwardly chuckles before taking Pyrrha's hands*

Pyrrha: So uh.....are your hands getting warm?

Ruby, blushing: Y-yep! It's sure is. T-thanks.

Ruby, internally: Okay Ruby, you two are currently holding hands, so you're currently doing better than you anticipated. Now it's time to flirt.

Ruby, blushing while looking Pyrrha directly in the eye: U-h y-your hands are very soft by the way. I-I like it. You can tell that you take good care of your skin. *Rubs Pyrrha's hands with her thumbs* I'm actually jealous. It's completely flawless, but that's not surprising at all.

Pyrrha, blushing: Oh thanks Ruby. That's very sweet of you.

Ruby, also blushing: A-and you know what I just realized?

Pyrrha: What?

Ruby: M-my hands fits perfectly into yours. I mean, It doesn't feel unnatural or weird whatsoever. In fact, it almost feels natural to me. As if I was meant to do this.

Pyrrha, blushing more: O-oh, you think that? Well I must admit, holding your hand doesn't feel uncomfortable to me either.

Ruby: You got that right.

*5 awkward seconds passed*

Ruby, internally: Okay, you got this. Time to seal the deal! D-dont mess this up. You've been training in the mirror for the past two days. Just do it like how Yang does it!

Ruby, batting her eye lashes flirtatiously: You know Pyr, your hands are very warm. I love holding them. It's intoxicating actually. We should do this more often.

Pyrrha, now fully blushing: R-really? You think t-that? O-o-oh, you're being t-too kind, Ruby. *Awkwardly swallows* I-Is it getting warm out here? C-cause I swear it got hotter.

Ruby, who feels as if she was in a sauna by how hot her own blush was: Nope.

Pyrrha, fanning herself before grabbing Ruby's hand again: Must be me then.

Ruby, internally: YEEEEESSSSSS! IM DOING IT! IM DOING THE FLIRT! IM ACTUALLY DOING THE FLIRT WITH PYRRHA! HA! TAKE THAT YANG! IM UNSTOPPABLE! I DONT CARE HOW SWEATY MY HAND IS RIGHT NOW! THIS IS A WIN FOR ME!

*Meanwhile*

Yang, walking outside: Oh come Blakey, just let me copy your homework.

Blake: No, Yang. I always let you copy my homework and you never learn because of it. So no more.

Yang: Oh don't be like that. Help a friend ou- what the?

Blake: What?

Yang, pointing: Over there. Is that.......Ruby and Pyrrha holding hands?

Blake: Huh?

*Blake looks over at the direction that Yang was pointing at to see Ruby holding hands with blushing Pyrrha*

Blake: Hmm, it appears so. Do your think they're dating or something?

Yang: No clue. Damn, I honestly can't believe that my socially awkward baby sister is holding hands with Pyrrha Nik-

*Suddenly Ruby glances over at Yang and perks up before getting her composure back and starts to smirk and wink at her cockily*

Yang, wide eyed: My god.

Blake: What?

Yang: I....I didn't expect her to actually take my words to heart. She actually did it......or did she? Are they even dating? No......no no no no there's no way they're dating right now........so that means the most attractive person at Beacon is still single.

Blake: What are you-

Yang, chuckling: Does she think she won? Oh hell no. I haven't even started yet. You started a war, Ruby. You better prepare yourself, baby sister because I'm not one to back down so easily.

[tcthinecwnself-a]

If they had a kid for Dipper&Coraline and Varian&Mabel bc future aus

if they had a kid

Coraline & Dipper

Name: Blake

Gender: what is gender?? this child is all of them. genderfluid

General Appearance: Messy brown hair, but dyed it bright green about halfway down, shoulder length. Brown eyes. Lots of freckles like Mom. Found an old star hat in the woods one day & decided to keep it. Has a very old fashioned style, similar to Stan or Ford’s. Will be short like Dipper until they get older.

Personality: Very much their parents’ child. Blake is very adventurous and on the hunt for anything of their interest. Very rebellious and often doesn’t heed the warning of their parents or their many aunts & uncles, which often gets them into a lot of trouble they need to be saved from. Blake is snarky and often has a quick response, but can get very snappy when they get frustrated. 

Special Talents: A quick notetaker. Blake can jot anything down with time to spare for a quick get away. They also seemed to pick up their drawing skills from their Great Grunkle Ford. They can run fast, but not for a long amount of time. 

Who they like better: Dipper

Who they take after more: Coraline

Personal Head canon: Coraline & Uncle Wybie split ownership of the Pink Palace.  Blake took a lot of time in exploring the house whenever they visit. (Think Gravity Falls is the Summer Home & Ashland is the Spring Home or something). They got very frustrated when they couldn’t get the little door behind the bookshelf to open & was going to pry it open when Dad thankfully caught them. That’s when they got the ‘these paranormal things happened’ talk about Bill & The Other Mother, they somehow skip over the ‘and they are very dangerous’ part of the lecture and decide to dedicate their entire existence to finding every paranormal thing they can. Tried to tie a rope around their waste and climb down the Old Well to get the Key. Mom stopped them. 

Face Claim: Liv Hewson

Mabel & Varian

Name: Amalthea ( am-əl-THEE-ə, like the moon )

Gender: female

General Appearance: she was born with one leg shorter than the other, so Varian made her a knee brace with a small block attached to the bottom so that she stands evenly. Long black hair that she usually ties in a messy bun. Round glasses that double as goggles. Ears pierced. Small burn on the bottom of her arm from leaning across one of Varian’s tables. She has a white streak in her hair, she’ll tell you she was born with it, but who knows. Hits her growth spurt at 14, much like her dad. 

Personality: A bit reclusive because of her disability, but she becomes bright and adventurous around people she’s comfortable with. She’s interested in how things work & can often be found taking apart things to see. Amalthea loves the stars & wants nothing more than to sit and chart them all night long. Amalthea tries to learn as much about the night sky as possible. Not very good in large crowds & can get overwhelmed very easily. 

Special Talents: A very good singer & she joins theatre as a hobby. She’s learned how to play the piano. Can knit like her mother & is working on a blanket of constellations. Memorizing comes a bit more easily to her than it does to others.

Who they like better: dont make her choose please, she’ll start crying

Who they take after more: a bit of both, but ask anyone & they’d say Varian

Personal Head canon: Amalthea inherits moon powers from Varian, but they are watered down since she’s not directly the moon drop. They only come out the moon is almost fully visible. So no blue hair during a new or crescent moon. She’s not too sure about her powers, but she doesn’t keep them from her parents.

Face Claim: Kiernan Shipka

[i-am-the-entertainer]

RevieWBY: Volume 6

This has been stated so many times, but Volume 5 was bad. Okay, it wasn’t terrible, like I don’t feel offended by it being bad (unlike certain folks), but looking back on it I don’t have anything to say to really defend it as something Rooster Teeth should have talked up as much as they did at the time. It had some good things going for it, but the amount of problems it had in terms of animation and writing really put a sour taste in everyone’s mouth. So for Volume 6 to deal with all that fallout, it was going to have to do a lot. And to their credit, CRWBY accepted the criticism in stride, and actively worked to make Volume 6 something that people who despised Volume 5 might enjoy.

Still, one had to go into this season with the understanding that some people were never going to be completely satisfied with whatever CRWBY did. Because at the end of the day, the RWBY that Rooster Teeth currently makes is not Monty Oum’s show anymore. No, this isn’t saying CRWBY is in any way disrespecting his legacy, it’s just Monty Oum had a certain method to running the show that only he could really get away with: epic fight scenes, suddenly throwing giant curveballs into the series’ mythology, taking vital time away from storytelling so the fights looked cool. I mean, there are people who criticize the show for doing that now when they didn’t give two shits when Monty did it, because Monty did it in a manner that somehow worked. I don’t know how he did it, but he did, and, well, he’s not here to do it, and there’s no way even a huge animation team can collectively do things like him. And they shouldn’t: if they can use a better industry standard animation engine than Poser, than the fact that Monty Oum didn’t like animating with Maya shouldn’t stop them.

Blah blah blah...this is all about FNDM reception. What did I think of Volume 6?

Well...

Focus

In my mid-volume review I cited this as Volume 6′s strongest aspect, and as far as I can tell this remains the case. By focusing our hero storyline on one group and for the most part the villain storylines on only a few characters who were paired off, Volume 6 effectively told a story that didn’t force the viewers to juggle multiple things and find some semblance of a continuing story. Everything happened linearly and the whole thing made for a more enjoyable watch overall.

Tone

Building off of that renewed focus, this volume felt like it had more of a consistent tone that lasted from beginning to end. RWBY markets itself as an anime show and uses a lot of that anime-style of humor (slapstick and comedically exaggerated emotions), but honestly it’s always played fast and loose with using that humor in a way that doesn’t feel out of place. In this volume it was more consistently used, and that’s largely thanks to the nailed down focus that allowed character interactions to utilize the humor in a natural way. Ruby and Maria Calavera were especially good sources for humor.

Now, things did get a little more screwball when Cordovin came into the mix, but it was interesting seeing CRWBY take that humor to a logical extreme for the first time in a while (not since the Beacon years). It interrupted the tone for a bit, but not in a manner that overall changed the genre this show is going for.

Animation

Beautiful. The improved production pipeline that we’ve heard about really came through. These episodes were the best they’ve ever looked, minus a few errors here and there, showing just how amazing RWBY can look when you give the animators time to add their own touches. There was some really great fight animation to boot: none of the fights this volume felt awkward, and you could tell the animators had a lot of fun.

Worldbuilding/Storytelling

It feels weird saying that Volume 6 did a better job with worldbuilding than Volume 4, which took place on four different continents and traveled across one, and Volume 5, which took place on two different continents and featured the second major skirmish between the villains and the heroes. I think this has to do with just how well it was integrated into the story: insight into the world came at points where the story needed it and when the viewers wanted it. Nothing ever felt like a massive info dump better suited World of Remnant; where there was just too much information delivered that wasn’t relevant to what was happening in the show. Volumes 4 and 5 had this same problem with establishing the world, often telling us too much in a way that just didn’t feel natural to the story. With Volume 6, almost every chapter up until the final Argus arc included some form of that insight:

Chapter 1 showed us how ordinary civilians deal with traveling through Grimm territory––the steps they take to protect themselves

Chapter 2 showed us some aspects of the Mistral criminal underground, not telling us too much about it but suggesting it was much larger than what Cinder encountered.

Chapter 3 showed us...so many things.

Chapter 4 offered a sense of the stakes RWBY faced in relation to all of Remnant.

Chapter 5 and 6 gave us a glimpse at another form of non-city life in Remnant.

Chapter 7 introduced us to Argus, my favorite of all the Remnant cities we’ve seen; plus a glimpse into the life of the silver-eyed warriors; and a more representative depiction of what domestic life is like in Remnant

Chapter 8 told us what Atlas personnel who aren’t Ironwood or Winter are like, plus the long-awaited insight into how the silver eyes work.

Chapter 9 shows something of the effect the Battle of Beacon, and by extension Pyrrha’s death, had outside of our core group.

Things kind of teeter off with the finale arc, but that’s because worldbuilding became a little less important to what was going on. This is kind of a stretch, but the mech fight and the arrival of the Grimm in Argus give us an idea of how large non-capital cities defend themselves without just spelling everything out.

All in all, this volume delivered on some impressive worldbuilding, probably the best the series has had in a while. It wasn’t massive info dumps unless it needed to be (e.g. Chapter 3), and it offered just enough for other important things like the storytelling and the action to still be in the forefront.

Characters

Volume 5, despite the fact it involved the major reunion of Team RWBY after two volumes, felt like it was simply putting the main characters through situations without those situations really doing anything to develop them or define them as anything beyond what we already knew. Some characters fared better on the development front, namely Yang, but others, especially Ruby, just seemed to be along for the ride without us getting any insight into them. This is where the writing issue that came from separating everyone starting with Volume 4 really came to a head: too many different characters with their own story to cover, and sometimes those stories just didn’t do much for the character beyond existing as a situation they were in.

Volume 6 feels like the refutal of that, and that mostly has to do with the fact that we’re not juggling so many storylines anymore. When a major event happens to the heroes, everyone gets affected at the same time. The train crashes? DEVELOPMENT! Jinn’s story? DEVELOPMENT AND INSIGHT! Snowstorm? INSIGHT! The Apathy? DEVELOPMENT! Telling team JNR about Jinn’s story? DEVELOPMENT! Adam ambushes Blake and Yang for the first time since Volume 3? DEVELOPMENT! WITH A HEALTHY DOSAGE OF ANGST!

Surprisingly, the same thing is happening to two of our favorite villains, Mercury and Emerald: even though they only really appeared in three chapters this Volume, we actually got a surprising chance to see how their defeat at the Battle of Haven affected them, and their increasingly strong misgivings about working for Salem. We get more of an idea of them as people rather than Cinder’s blind followers, understanding why they stuck with such an evil person for so long. It’s the most we’ve learned about them since Volume 3, and we didn’t even need lengthy flashbacks.

Even Adam got some more insight. RWBY has been following the path that Adam was an abusive ex-boyfriend for quite a while now, but there was always this underlying thought that he got into the White Fang business for a seemingly noble cause. The problem was the show hadn’t depicted how he got from Point A to Point B. The Adam Character Short offered us some of that much needed insight, putting some of his actions up to this point in a new context, even if it was set-up for clearing up some things so they could get rid of him.

Of course, there are still exceptions to characters getting character development, and honestly they’re kind of glaring ones. Oscar’s development arc, where he came to accept he was his own person, completely happened offscreen (for reasons that I’ve brought up before and will reiterate in the final section), robbing us of really witnessing his growth as a person. I enjoyed some of the stuff Cinder did this volume, especially her escape from the vault and her fight with Neo. But honestly she continues to be a pretty bland villain with little hints at her motivations for being such a terrible person: the Battle of Haven was such an utter defeat for her there needed to be some form of consequence that would’ve affected her character while also telling us more about her. Maybe it would’ve been her strategizing her revenge, which would’ve gotten more insight into how she thinks as a master planner. Instead, we get her leaving the vault, more or less going back to what she used to do but in a more low-key setting, fighting with Neo, plotting with Neo, and leaving with Neo. It felt more like “Hey, she’s alive, and here’s what she’s doing,” which while I appreciate it feels kind of a waste of time if you’re not doing anything with her beyond that. Honestly, a post-credits reveal that she was alive and then a pre-Volume 7 character short detailing how she made it to Atlas that covered her and Neo’s entire storyline this volume would’ve been more helpful.

Before I go on to my most major critique of this volume, I need to address the two Goliaths in the room.

Adam

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: they needed to get rid of Adam. The way things have been going, there was only so much more you could do with his character before he became a nuisance that was overstaying his welcome. I understand people wanted some deeper insight into him, but the fact was he was never introduced to be a major villain to anyone beyond Blake and later Yang. They could’ve had him have a thing against Weiss, but they didn’t, they focused the time that would’ve made him a major villain for everyone else on making people like Roman and Cinder and Salem the big villains. They decided on the path of abusive ex-boyfriend a very long time ago, and if you hadn’t figured that out after the Adam Character Short I honestly think you were being willfully ignorant to what’s been building up.

The best I can say is that Adam and his history is a missed opportunity for some pretty interesting storytelling and worldbuilding, but the fact remains: it is not his story that they want to tell, it is not his show. It may make something interesting to think about, but Adam’s story is supplementary, and works better in supplementary material, a la character shorts and maybe mangas.

Jaune

Y’all need to quit it with the “Hrrr drr Jaune took up time again moan moan Miles Luna is self indulgent” talk, he barely did anything this volume beyond Chapter 9 and having a sister that the whole fandom loved.

Pacing

This...this is where Volume 6 ran into trouble.

Overall, from the season premiere to the finale arc, this was probably the best-paced season of RWBY we’ve ever had. Major story events happened right when we needed them, and for the most part they didn’t drag out story arcs for any longer than they needed to be.

Well...until they reached Argus, that is.

At face value, a lot happened in the final couple of chapters. Chapter 8 gave us Maria explaining the silver eyes, Chapter 9 had the scene with Pyrrha’s statue and the mysterious Red-Haired Woman (I’ll headcanon whatever I want about who she is, Jen Brown) Chapter 10 started the Cordovin fight, Chapter 11 reinforced Blake and Yang’s partnership, Chapter 12 killed Adam, and Chapter 13 had Ruby finally use her silver eye powers to defeat a Grimm and they made it to Atlas. Yeah, it was a pretty eventful set of episodes.

So then why did it feel like it dragged? Here are a couple reasons that I’ve identified.

1. The Cordovin Battle sidelined story arcs for too long

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: the finale arc should not have been split up like that over so many episodes. It afforded us some pretty well-animated fights, some of the best the series has ever had, but the volume hadn’t been relying on that action to keep up the forward momentum, but on actually telling the stories of these characters. I get the need for CRWBY to prove that they can do well-animated fights, but as I’ve come to accept action should never take precedence over storytelling (I know, that’s hard to swallow when parts of the fndm spends hours complaining about how Monty’s not animating the fights anymore). And it’s clear to me in this final arc put emphasis on the action over the momentum of the story, bringing the actually pretty good storytelling the volume had had up to that point to a grinding halt.

Now, historically RWBY fights have delayed telling stories, but it’s never been for too long, at most maybe two chapters? But if you spend three chapters on a single fight, thereby devoting three weeks of your viewers’ time to high-octane action, people are gonna notice that the story is basically going nowhere.

What could’ve made this less of a problem? Well, perhaps establishing Cordovin earlier and making her less of a buffoon would’ve eased my hatred of this arc. Volume 6 lacks a clear antagonist for the story, but the way Cordovin was treated as a big deal in this final battle made it seem like she was taking up that role, except we didn’t even see her until the final half of the volume, and in her debut we couldn’t take her seriously as a villain, much less an antagonist, because of the pure comedy they used in her intro. There needed to be something about her at least a few episodes early––take this with a grain of salt because I think following JNR in Argus would’ve killed the balanced pacing of the first half of the volume (and just made the Jaune haters apoplectic), but maybe a few quick scenes of JNR arriving in Argus and getting rejected by her would’ve been helpful. Or honestly easing off on the comedy of her intro. Such a one-note character who we are primed to not take seriously isn’t interesting as a major force, so identifying her as a more threatening roadblock for the heroes would’ve made the stakes of the final fight a little more...present.

2. Important storylines got trimmed for time’s sake and weren’t addressed properly.

@hypeathon (whose excellent production analyses for this Volume are well worth a read) identified a tweet Miles made back in October, prior to the premiere and most likely when they were finishing storyboards, about “killing your darlings.” For those unaware and who may have severely misinterpreted that comment, “killing your darlings” is when writers have to sacrifice something they love or want to do so that the story works better. The timeliness of this tweet (after they would’ve finished the script but before they’d wrapped on storyboards and voice acting for the final episodes) suggests the writers’ room had to cut a lot of material from Volume 6 (what Miles called a massacre of darlings), most likely due to production limits or not having enough time to cover them.

Think about it: the story from Chapters 1-7 was really good: everything was properly spaced out, the scripts felt polished, there was a balance of action and comedy and legit storytelling, the good pacing lasted longer than it ever has within a single volume.

Then we hit Chapter 8 and suddenly it all changes: storylines don’t get the proper time devoted to them, arcs come to a screeching halt due to the big fight. Unlike previous volumes, where the imbalance was pretty much the entire volume, there’s actually a clear point right in the middle of this volume where things suddenly took a turn for the worse. And the fact is, some of the problems with the story in the final arc suddenly make more sense if you accept that time that would’ve been devoted to it got sidelined in this “purge”: Qrow’s alcoholism suddenly getting brushed aside after Chapter 9 hopefully to be addressed next volume, Oscar disappearing and all his development happening offscreen, Adam’s completely unsubtle return after only a vague hint in Chapter 1 that would’ve been stronger if he’d kept popping up in Argus. I’d even go so far to say the odd pacing of the final few chapters could easily have been the result of the writing team not being able to devote a single chapter to such a grand fight, so they needed to stretch it out so CRWBY could actually animate it within reasonable deadlines, which meant sacrificing time for those arcs that so desperately needed development.

So what overall is gonna fix RWBY’s pacing in the future? Well, I think at the moment the show is too ambitious. If it wants to keep to a reasonable production schedule, they need to control the scale of their finales so that it can be completed without needing to sacrifice other storylines. If it wants to hold onto that ambition and make the finales as grand as they want it to be to do their boy Monty proud, then they absolutely need to delay the actual release of the volume so they can put in the proper amount of time to both the story and animation. And I don’t think anyone would mind waiting a little longer for Volume 7 if it meant this show got the care and attention it needs to tell the story it clearly wants to tell.

Conclusions

Evaluating Volume 6 is impossible without evaluating what came before it. RWBY was never a perfect show, but when you lose someone who was responsible for the show’s popularity in the first place and have to change how it’s made to make up for his absence, there’s going to be backlash. Backlash from the fans, and, uh, backlash from inside the company. The fact is, people are never going to be satisfied with the RWBY that Rooster Teeth makes today, and Rooster Teeth is never going to push out a RWBY that will make everyone happy. All they can really do is keep moving forward.

And move forward they did. Despite my problems with the finale, Volume 6 was good. I’ve always been sort of ambivalent about the show (I was drawn to it by my brother shortly before Monty’s death and have been watching it out of respect for him and the company as creative artists), and even if I thought some of RWBY’s critics were being too harsh (or seriously needed to find something better to do), I didn’t find Volumes 4 and 5 enjoyable enough that I felt like defending them. But guys, Volume 6 did something amazing: it made RWBY fun to watch again. Focused, consistent, and compelling storytelling plus gradually eased-in worldbuilding made for a story that I could follow along without having to juggle so many different plots. Improvements in the overall animation made things nice to look at and when fights happened they were always entertaining, never making me cringe or grimace, always making me think “Hell yeah, beat the shit out of them!” Just like I felt back in the old days of the show.

I feel as though what’s holding RWBY back at this point, however, is adhering to the production schedule that its old vision called for in making its current vision. And it honestly cannot keep doing that. RWBY is a show trying to reach grand heights, and its rushed production timelines and lost story arcs are keeping it tethered to the ground. Yet I can’t help but say: Volume 6 is RWBY at its finest so far. It can’t fix the problems that previous volumes have had, but it builds on the void those problems left to build a story that makes this show feel like something worth following once more.

So, I can safely say I’ll be following along when RWBY returns for Volume 7...hopefully later rather than sooner (again, it needs a better production schedule).

[mcntydcluca]

task #1

BASIC INFORMATION

FULL NAME: montgomery ‘ monty ‘ blake de luca PRONUNCIATION: mon - tee , blae - k , dey luke - uh MEANING: hill of the powerful one REASONING: his father’s life was saved by a man named monty when he was 24 and vowed to name his first born son the same, in honor of the kind man brave enough to pull him out of the way of a moving bus NICKNAME(S): monty, mon - man, tee, mons PREFERRED NAME(S): monty BIRTH DATE: august 12th, 2000 AGE: 18 ZODIAC: leo GENDER: cismale PRONOUNS: he/him ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: heteroromantic SEXUAL ORIENTATION: heterosexual NATIONALITY: american ETHNICITY: white

BACKGROUND

BIRTH PLACE:  HOMETOWN: east hampton, new york SOCIAL CLASS: upper FATHER: julian de luca MOTHER: gabrielle james SIBLING(S): teresa ‘tess’ de luca (adopted), two younger twin brothers BIRTH ORDER: monty, tess, twins PET(S): a green tree python (murphy), and two albino rats (marc & mike) OTHER IMPORTANT RELATIVES: n/a PREVIOUS RELATIONSHIPS: one ex, that was a kicker ARRESTS?: none PRISON TIME?: none

OCCUPATION & INCOME

SOURCE OF INCOME: my job as an intern at the local law firm, and my parents CONTENT WITH THEIR JOB (OR LACK THERE OF)?: eh PAST JOB(S): none SPENDING HABITS: eh, i can splurge a bit MOST VALUABLE POSSESSION: my lucky lacrosse stick

SKILLS & ABILITIES

TALENTS: lacrosse, piano, guitar, track SHORTCOMINGS: too long to list LANGUAGE(S) SPOKEN: english and italian DRIVE?: yes JUMP-STAR A CAR?: maybe CHANGE A FLAT TIRE?: yes RIDE A BICYCLE?: yes SWIM?: yes PLAY AN INSTRUMENT?:  piano and guitar PLAY CHESS?: yes BRAID HAIR?: yes, unfortunately because of tess TIE A TIE?: yes PICK A LOCK?: no

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE & CHARACTERISTICS

FACE CLAIM: adam dimarco EYE COLOR: brown HAIR COLOR: dark brown HAIR TYPE/STYLE: short and curly  GLASSES/CONTACTS?: yes DOMINANT HAND: right HEIGHT: 6′2 WEIGHT: 154 BUILD: slim and muscular? EXERCISE HABITS: i work out about 4 times a week, more if possible SKIN TONE: slightly tan TATTOOS: none PEIRCINGS: none MARKS/SCARS: some on my legs from lacrosse and track but nothing bad NOTABLE FEATURES: hair, probably USUAL EXPRESSION: smile CLOTHING STYLE: random graphic tees and blue jeans JEWELRY: a watch from my dad ALLERGIES: wasps and bees BODY TEMPERATURE: normal DIET: vegetarian PHYSICAL AILMENTS: none

PSYCHOLOGY

MORAL ALIGNMENT: neutral good TEMPERAMENT: extrovert ELEMENT: earth MENTAL CONDITIONS/DISORDERS: adhd and anxiety SOCIABILITY: im pretty social but i cant keep much conversation on one topic EMOTIONAL STABILITY: little low since the incident but im fine PHOBIA(S): death, wasps, bees, goldfish ADDICTION(S): none DRUG USE: i take my perscribed adderall ALCOHOL USE: none PRONE TO VIOLENCE?: only on the field

MANNERISMS

QUIRKS: um... none? HOBBIES: lacrosse, skateboaring, reading, video games HABITS: i tend to leave the cabinets open everywhere i go NERVOUS TICKS: i bounce my leg a lot DRIVES/MOTIVATIONS: my family, my sister, my best friend FEARS: once again death wasps bees goldfish POSITIVE TRAITS: im outgoing, athletic, kind (i think) NEGATIVE TRAITS: im a little inattentive i guess SENSE OF HUMOR: pretty light DO THEY CURSE OFTEN?: nope CATCHPHRASE(S): none

FAVORITES

ACTIVITY: lacrosse ANIMAL: snakes BEVERAGE: blue powerade BOOK: lord of the rings CELEBRITY: emma stone COLOR: red DESIGNER: adidas FOOD: pizza if i can get my hands on it FLOWER: rose GEM: ruby HOLIDAY: christmas MODE OF TRANSPORTATION: my jeep MOVIE: zombieland MUSICAL ARTIST: the neighborhood QUOTE/SAYING: “don’t give up.” SCENERY: outdoors SCENT: rosemary (dont judge) SPORT: lacrosse SPORTS TEAM: grayhounds lacrosse TELEVISION SHOW: stranger things WEATHER: sunny VACATION DESTINATION: hawaii

ATTITUDES

GREATEST DREAM: to become a famous athlete GREATEST FEAR: losing my sister MOST AT EASE WHEN: im with my team LEAST AT EASE WHEN: im alone BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT: making it into rochester BIGGEST REGRET: letting my mom do it MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT: moving here, first day, the ‘cake’ incident BIGGEST SECRET: like i would say TOP PRIORITIES: my family

[thmovanoutec1978-blog]

That partly my point. Context. His son, by walking out, refuses to listen to context. I won a duo game for similar reasons. Last guy waited too long and got killed by the storm while trying to come down off a mountain. It wasn exactly an intentional pacifist win, we didn even drop anywhere weird. It one of my biggest issue with trans people. If you want to say you always felt like and identified as a man, fine. That your story and you have the right to tell it honestly. But I also think it somewhat foolish to take a salary for $32k in 2018, unless it one of those situations where you could be making six figures within a few years. My entry level jobs both paid $40k in the Midwest, with full benefits (marketing industry, so nothing particularly exclusive). We paid our interns only slightly less than your salary; we paid our receptionist more. I am talkin about annual crops only but most important factors to me are my personal prefrences. I plant plants that I like and I plant them where ever is the most convinient. I dont even think about pairings or anything like that. Only a human being (if astrologers are comfortable with that definition), is able to. This is also why the output of astrological software often seems to be contradictory. One influence may appear as the opposite of another, whereas in reality their effect might be a balancing of energies.. $15.Arthur DantoIn 1808, William Blake scathingly scribbled what today would be "Bullshit!" in the margins of his edition of Sir Joshua Reynolds' Discourses on Art: "This man was Hired to Depress Art. Sir Joshua and his Gang of 고양출장안마 Cunning Hired Knaves.." Blake's exasperated and emphatically post Enlightenment annotations testify to the 고양출장안마 continuing influence (if only as an irritant) of the Discourses, which were originally a series of fifteen addresses delivered before the Royal Academy from 1769 to 1790. You'd be surprised how much water you can safely divert from the sewer to your garden. One great source is the drainage from your roof. Many houses are already outfitted with gutters that can easily be retrofitted to funnel rainwater into barrels. Tl;dr Cameron called the vote and quit when he lost he did right by his role as Prime Minister. Nigel Farage forced the vote then quit when he won he textboox example of a traitor. Theresa May had the misfortune of being the only one brave enough to take the reigns The brexiteers in her party have since stabbed her in the back repeatedly.. Keloid scars are also raised and red, but they grow past the site of the wound, overtaking normal healthy tissue. Researchers haven't yet been able to determine what causes these abnormal scars to form, but one theory is that they may be caused by changes to the signals sent by cells at the wound site. It seems these cells continue to direct the body to produce more fibrous tissue even after the wound has closed [source: Rockoff]. If you liked music, she sang beautifully; and few professed musicians had such a touch on the piano as hers. If you preferred talking, I never yet met with the man (or even the woman, which is saying a great deal more) whom her conversation could not charm. To say that such a wife as this could be first cruelly neglected, and then barbarously murdered, by the man no! by the martyr who stands there, is to tell me that the sun never shines at noonday, or that the heaven is not above the earth.

[absolutelyxosmittenxo]

If you're still doing matchups, may I have one? Im 5'3 and have brown eyes and brown hair. I actually have hearing loss, which affects my every day life and I get annoyed when people wont repeat what i dont hear. I'm a total bookworm and my parents often call me Belle! I'm very introverted and a giant nerd. I'm really clingy but I've also never had a relationship before so I'm inexperienced. Im loyal to a fault, stubborn and opinionated. Im really insecure and sensitive. Im attracted to girls!

－ ＢＬＡＫＥ ＢＥＬＬＡＤＯＮＮＡ ⭐

⭐ You, my blithesome bookworm, are fortunate enough to have your fate intertwine with the mistress of the shadows, Blake Belladonna, and declare her as your significant other.

⭐ Loyalty hasn’t been the strongest trait for the runaway to hold, glancing at the prior bonds experienced. Although Blake is charmed, she cannot repress cowardice when others draw too close, in fear of bringing harm in their direction. But she deems your need to stay by her side in spite of any course of action preventing that very admirable. In fact, she begins her practice it herself after what you’ve shown her.

⭐ The Belladonna hasn’t received the healthiest of relationships, so she herself can be seen fairly inexperienced. Though clingy, she approaches that aspect maturely, seeing as you aren’t entirely experienced yourself. As time goes on, you two will learn the values of a stable commitment, how to manage it, and how to love yourselves before loving one another. 

⭐ Imagine someone exposing your cracks and ripping them more and more apart than before. Adam used his original partner as a test subject for those experiments - the end result was a girl afraid of contact. She knows where you are coming from when you mention your sensitivity. Here, you shall patch up your wounds, as Blake comforts you as she wished somebody would do for her in the past. 

⭐ She doesn’t show shame in her cat ears, but as shown prior, conceals their presence for the sake of blending in. The insecurity lingers on for a good while, yet you persevere, and beckon for the bow to be removed. Once convinced, kiss that beautiful characteristic of hers, sprinkle it in compliments; do as she would for you. 

⭐ As she draws inspiration from the princess of Beauty and the Beast, too, she actually finds the nickname you were given positively precious. Now let us hope no Gaston dares to interfere with what you have. 

⭐ An open mind was earned under the circumstances of disdain, dislike and a whirlwind of discrimination. The huntress can respect someone who vocalizes their opinions without shooting others down in the process. You won’t tolerate nonsense when it appears, however, and don’t hesitate to speak your mind at those who are delusional critiques. 

⭐ It isn’t often the feline can freely express her nerdy side; literature especially displaces her timid atmosphere. If the dormitory shared by much more higher volume characters is vacant, exempting her and yourself, be prepared for an onslaught of the geekiest moments ever shared. Believe it or not, she is an absolute dork and is the cutest little kitty when she obsesses over her favorite books with you.