#warrior cats reference is hopefully obvious

[jaydenknight]

Tom: Oh no. Mackenzie.

Mackenzie, withdrawn into her sweater: Mackenzie’s not here… she’s Redstar, in SweaterClan…

Tom: Is Redstar going to come out of SweaterClan?

Mackenzie: *sad noise while shaking her head*

[bird--egg]

LOOMING SUNLIGHT Chapter Four

Link to the chapter in AO3 here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30351717/chapters/76379411

When Cedar woke up the next morning, Sunflowerclaw was pacing around camp, ordering cat’s around left and right. Cedar faintly remembered being told that Sunflowerclaw was the deputy, but the she-cat was so self-involved and lazy that she hadn’t fully conceptualized it. It was a particularly hot morning and Cedar had not fallen asleep easily the night before, and the last thing she wanted to do was figure out why anyone made Sunflowerclaw deputy. Windclan was crazier than a fox, as was obvious by almost every leadership decision she’d been privy to.

Cloverpaw happened to exit the apprentice den around the same time that Cedar had the Elder’s den. The two she-cat’s exchanged awkward glances before Sunflowerclaw stepped in front of the apprentice. Cloverpaw’s ears bent unhappily as Sunflowerclaw bent down to lick her in between the ears.

“You! This is the first time I’ve seen you in days, you haven’t come to visit me since you were made apprentice!” The molly grumped, stepping back to glare at the blue and green eyed apprentice. Cloverpaw seemed unmoved, tail flicking in irritation.

“Where’s Larkkit?” She asked, instead of replying to Sunflowercall’s earlier accusations. Sunflowerclaw waved her yellow tail as if shaking off flies, looking unconcerned.

“He’s just sleeping in, no need to get huffy about it. I’m deputy, I can’t be in the nursery all the time.” Cedar thought that the clan had been existing just fine with her in the nursery, but wisely didn’t comment. Cloverpaw seemed likely to be thinking the same thing, looking at her foster mother critically.

“Anywho” Sunflowerclaw continued “I have your tasks for today. You and Cedarpaw can go and do some fighting training. Just because Shadowclan’s not around anymore doesn’t mean we can relax you know!” Cedar was reeling from the casual mention of her destroyed clan, and even more so shocked that Sunflowerclaw had referred to her by the ‘paw’ suffix. Cloverpaw also seemed startled, eyes flicking briefly to Cedar before veering away.

“U-uh, she’s not supposed to be training to fight?” Cloverpaw started, more typically hesitant than she would in front of the deputy. Sunflowerclaw scoffed.

“Oh, just ignore that, such an odd little decree. We need all paws on the ground, no time for some silly made up rank! Rooty can be so strange sometimes.” She laughed at that and turned to send Marigoldfur on a patrol that went over territory Windclan didn’t own, completely ignoring the two shell-shocked apprentices behind her. Rooty?? Cedar blinked, wondering if she was supposed to ignore the leaders decree if the deputy directly ordered her to?

“Well, you heard her, kids.” Mothscar purred from behind her, apparently unperturbed by this behavior. Cloverpaw looked distastefully back at the older white tom before scampering off to find Pigeonflight.

Cedar wasn’t sure this was a good thing. A part of her did feel good to be treated like an apprentice, but she also worried how Rootstar would react. Would Sunflowerclaw get in trouble? Hesitantly, she followed her mentor as they went to wait at the entrance of camp. They heard Pigeonflight before they saw them, the young warrior was complaining bitterly to their apprentice, who couldn’t have looked less enthused.

“Where does Sunflowerclaw come off, thinking she can order a mentor how to train their apprentice? What if I wanted to take you hunting today!” they hissed, tail lashing. Cedar couldn’t help but agree to that point, it seemed odd that a deputy would intervene with a mentors training regimen. Cloverpaw mutter a vague agreement, coming to stop by Mothscar.

“Not to mention we have to work with the spy.” They gritted out between clenched teeth, glaring down at the grey helper. Mothscar moved slightly, drawing Pigeonflight’s attention.

“Let’s not waste daylight.” Mothscar meowed pleasantly “why don’t you lead us to the training ridge?”

Pigeonflight did not seem pleased to have all their complaints ignored, but with a lash of their grey striped tail the group was off. Cedar would have liked to follow closely behind Mothscar (as far from Pigeonflight as she could possibly be) but the white elder chose to walk beside them instead, leaving Cedar trailing behind the two older cats.

This left her with Cloverpaw, who was glaring fiercely at the ground as if it had offended her. The silence between them stretched on until Cloverpaw asked:

“Are you a Shadowclan cat, or a Windclan cat?”

Cedar didn’t particularly feel like getting into that pile of maggots when she’d barely had a polite conversation with the grey tabby, but the look in Cloverpaw’s blue and green eyes was nakedly confused. Sighing, Cedar looked away.

“There’s no Shadowclan to be loyal to.” She muttered quietly, the brutal truth of that statement hitting her violently. There was no going back to Shadowclan once ‘this’ was over. It was Windclan or nothing. She wasn’t loyal to Windclan, but did that make her not Windclan? Cloverpaw seemed to accept that answer, and the two she-cats didn’t speak further until they arrived at the training ridge behind their mentors.

“Alright, we’re here.”  Pigeonflight announced grumpily. Glaring at Mothscar he added “As the one who actually has an apprentice, I think it should be up to me to choose what skill they work on.” Mothscar flicked his ear at Pigeonflight, looking more amused than bothered. Like they were being ridiculous. Pigeonflight growled but moved on, taking the white cats silence as agreement

“you two should do a practice round. No training, let’s just see where your natural skills are at.” They seemed to grin at this, but Cloverpaw looked slightly uncomfortable.

“Cloverpaw has already learned some fighting moves.” Mothscar disagreed, voice more tense than Cedar had heard it before. “That doesn’t seem even, or a challenge to young Cloverpaw.”

“Nonsense.” Pigeonflight spat out, teeth glinting in the hot sun “Shadowclan cats are naturally fierce, aren’t they?” At this, Mothscar stepped closer to Pigeonflight, his much larger form casting a shadow on the younger warrior.

“Stop.” Cedar meowed, pelt prickling with tension. “I’ll do it. It’s just practice.” Mothscar turned back to her with wide eyes, but she was already stepping onto the hard ground of the practice ridge. Cloverpaw stepped in front of her, moving to stand on the other side of the clearing. Cedar wondered why she would choose the spot closer to the ridge that she could fall off of.

Cedar was fully aware that with no training she stood little chance against Cloverpaw. Still, she’d rather try and avoid a confrontation between the two mentors.

At the sound of Pigeonsflight’s sudden “GO!” Cloverpaw snarled viciously at Cedar, who flinched back from the intensity of the noise. She tried to get a good view of the other apprentice’s position so she could pounce and hopefully push her off the edge, but the sun was in her eyes as soon as she looked that way.

She had a moment to think That’s why she chose that spot before the grey tabby slammed into her.

Cedar’s back hit the ground hard as the other she cat pinned her, hissing violently in her face. Pushing up with her legs, Cedar attempted to kick her off wildly. Cloverpaw winced at the sudden attack but leaned down to grab Cedar’s scruff and hauled her half along the dirt as the smaller grey she cat yelped in shock. Cloverpaw was strong!

Cloverpaw shook her vigorously until Cedar caught her across the face with a slap, which dislodged the helper from her jaws. Panting on the ground, Cedar scrambled backwards, watching her enemy with wide eyes. Cloverpaw seemed barely out of breath and uninjured, looking at her with something strangely pitying in her mismatched eyes. Still, she didn’t hesitate to close the distance, pressing a paw sharply against Cedar’s stomach and forcing the air out of her lungs.

“That’s enough.” Mothscar announced, stepping closer to the dueling apprentices with a distressed expression on his face. Cloverpaw immediately let up, backing away from the downed helper. The white elder sniffed Cedar’s head as if checking for wounds, allowing Cedar to drag herself onto her four paws. She knew what Willowpaw meant when he complained about being beaten by his sister whenever they fought. Humiliation ran through her, but mostly she felt battered and ready to lie down.

“I guess Shadowclan cats aren’t so scary after all.” Pigeonflight sneered, before inspecting their apprentice with satisfied eyes. Cloverpaw looked down at her paws.

Mothscar’s fur was raised, but he ignored the other warrior in favor of allowing Cedar to lean on him as she went to the edge of the training ridge.

“Are you two done already? Didn’t you want to train her like a real apprentice?” They yelled from behind the two. Mothscar shook his head angrily.

“That was hardly training.” And seemed ready to add something biting but shook his head and continued forward with Cedar in tow.

 --

 The rest of the day had been spent with Larkkit. Cedar didn’t feel too badly injured as time went on, more bruised than anything, but Mothscar seemed to insist she take it easy for the day.

Taking care of Larkkit was easy, too. Larkkit was the most well behaved kit Cedar had ever met, mostly completely silent but very polite. The little gold tabby liked to play burr tag, where one cat held a sticky burr in their paw and tried to tag the other, who would struggle to get it off their pelt by trying to knock into the other player and transfer the burr. It was amusing game since Larkkit was much shorter than Cedar, but Larkkit didn’t seem to mind the extra effort he had to expand to tackle her.

Sunflowerclaw was sleeping nearby, seemingly abandoning her deputy duties for a nap. Mothscar had played for a little, before using his ‘old bones’ as an excuse to leave. He was now grooming Newtpool, whose black pelt had gotten dirty somehow and seemed too stressed sorting plants to complain about the elder cleaning him. It was the most peaceful moment Cedar had experienced in Windclan so far, and she couldn’t help but wish cat’s like Rootstar and Pigeonflight didn’t exist. Would it be so bad, to be loyal to a clan full of Mothscars, Willowpaws and Newtpools?

The peace was broken when Pigeonflight trudged into camp with Cloverpaw behind them, apparently done training. The sun was beginning to dip in the sky, and Cedar couldn’t help but be a little sympathetic to Cloverpaw, who looked hot and exhausted.

Pigeonflight glared at Sunflowerclaws sleeping form and stomped into Rootstar’s den with a huff. Cedar hoped that didn’t spell trouble for her or the deputy; Sunflowerclaw might have been incompetent, but she didn’t hate her.

Cloverpaw passed Larkkit and Cedar without looking at them, sliding into the apprentice den without a word.

[gvnbreaker]

CHARACTER SURVEY || Aja Hyskaris

@yascaret​ edited/removed some of the questions to make this more FFXIV-friendly. I made a few of my own changes as well.

RULES.  Repost, don’t reblog! Tag 10! Good luck!

TAGGED BY.  @yascaret​ and @wood-warder​

TAGGING. If you’re reading this, you’re tagged!

BASICS. FULL  NAME :   Aja Hyskaris

NICKNAME :  None (yet?)

AGE :  Appears around late 20s/30 by hyur standards

BIRTHDAY :   Midsummer

GENDER : Non-binary; she/they

ETHNIC  GROUP : Viera (Rava)

NATIONALITY :  Ivalician (?)

LANGUAGE / S : Common

SEXUAL  ORIENTATION :  Homosexual

ROMANTIC  ORIENTATION : Homoromantic

RELATIONSHIP  STATUS :  In a relationship with Lofn Yascaret & Pjel Qoet

HOME  TOWN / AREA :  The Hyskarian Deepwood, Golmore

CURRENT  HOME :  A small house in Shirogane.

PROFESSION : Mercenary. Bounty/monster hunter & occasional bodyguard.

PHYSICAL. HAIR : Vibrant red, wild, curly, falling to mid-back; undercut. Sideburns and widow’s peak.

EYES :  Amber.

FACE :   Square with a sharp jawline. High cheekbones, thick, arched eyebrows, and a prominent, aquiline nose. Often smirking insufferably or flirtatiously, prone to great expressiveness and wide smiles but just as easily brooding. Sharp teeth.

LIPS :  Full. Her smiles are crooked to begin with and deadened nerves on the left side of her mouth add to the effect.

COMPLEXION : Deep brown with warm undertones, lighter palms and soles of her feet, a lighter smudge underneath her nose and around her nostrils. Freckling around her shoulders, arm, the tops of her thighs and her lower back.

BLEMISHES : None of note.

SCARS :  Covered in scattered scars of varying age, depth, and severity, particularly on her left side and near her prosthetic arm. Ceruleum burns on torso; old, ringed scar around throat; vertical scar on left corner of mouth; small scar across nose; edge of left eyebrow; three scars beneath right eye.

TATTOOS & PIERCINGS :  Blackwork tattoos around forearm and legs, among others (design with art to come); white tattoos (curve, three dots) beneath eyes; Several gold rings along outer shells of ears; gold septum ring

HEIGHT :   Just under six fulms, not counting her ears.

WEIGHT :   Average.

BUILD :   Muscular and stocky, with broad shoulders tapering to a strong waist and thighs. [body type reference]

FEATURES :  Her left arm, from the start of the bicep, is a mechanical prosthetic, appearing to be of magitek-or-close make.

ALLERGIES :   None that she knows of.

USUAL  HAIR  STYLE :  Worn loose and wild, not so much a style as a thick mane.

USUAL  FACE  LOOK :  Bare-faced, wearing tinted red pince nez. Smirking, grinning, flirting--generally looking like a complete asshole.

USUAL  CLOTHING :  Loose, open shirts, trousers, long coats, heavy, knee-high boots, leather jackets.

PSYCHOLOGY. FEAR / S : Imprisonment, isolation, drowning, Garlean war machina.

ASPIRATION / S :  Stability, helping others, belonging. In her younger years, she had romantic visions of knighthood, but those have since quieted with the years.

POSITIVE  TRAITS :  Adventurous, Passionate, Brave, Charismatic, Strong, Empathic

NEGATIVE  TRAITS :  Cocky, Bull-headed, Self-destructive, Reckless, Impulsive

MBTI : ESFP

ZODIAC :  Leo

TEMPERAMENT :  Sanguine

SOUL  TYPE / S :   Warrior

ANIMALS :   Wolf

VICE HABIT / S :   Brooding, drinking to excess, recklessness, impulsive decisions, using sex as validation.

FAITH :  She spares it little thought.

GHOSTS ? :  Yes.

AFTERLIFE ? :  Maybe.

REINCARNATION ? : Hopefully.

ALIENS ? :   When she met her first hyur man, she knew aliens were real.

POLITICAL ALIGNMENT : Garlemald bad, fuck cops.

EDUCATION  LEVEL :  Average for a viera of her village. She's taught herself to read between the lines better after being conned out of a full hunt reward once or twice in her early days in Rabanastre.

FAMILY. FATHER :   Fleeting contact a lifetime ago.

MOTHERS :  Still in the Wood.

SIBLINGS :   Several, no contact. She was close with one, but has made peace with never seeing any of them again.

EXTENDED  FAMILY :  Still in the Wood--as far as she knows.

NAME MEANING / S :  Aja, from the Hyskarian Deepwood

HISTORICAL  CONNECTION ? : She was born in Golmore, but as far as she knows her name has little meaning.

FAVORITES. BOOK :  Adventure stories and romance novels. She’d never admit it, but they can be found hidden in her satchel or underneath or inside other things.

DEITY :  She tries not to think about them.

HOLIDAY :  Moonfire Faire, ????

MONTH :  Summer

SEASON :  Summer & Fall

PLACE :  A grassy field. The back of a cycle. On top of someone or between someone's legs.

WEATHER :  Thunderstorms, rain showers, clear skies and bright sun overhead.

SOUND / S:  Rain, thunder in the distance, the soft breathing of a woman asleep.

SCENT / S :  Metal, cedar, rain, leather, girlfriend ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

TASTE / S :  Meat, whiskey, curry, girlfriend ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

FEEL / S :  Furs, leather, grass, rain, girlfriend ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

ANIMAL / S :  Cats, coeurls, dogs.

NUMBER :  7

COLORS :  Red, browns, black, gunmetal

EXTRA. TALENTS :  She's a blunt instrument, so beating the shit out of things. Flirting. Fixing things, usually the mechanical variety. Making friends. Diffusing social conflicts as often as she creates them. She's a good cook, but it's suitable really nowhere else but over a fire with a beast's flank in one hand and a metal spit in the other.

BAD  AT :  Love. Understanding and accepting her feelings. Has a chronic case of Foot-in-Mouth Disease. Has a long fuse, but her temper can spin out of control when pressed. Terrible at restraint and not being reckless and impulsive.

TURN  ONS :  Stockings, especially with the seam up the back. The nape of a woman's neck. Banter. Compliments. Smiles. Give her a smile and a coquettish eyelash flutter or make her feel strong and she's useless putty in your hands.

TURN  OFFS : Flirtatious men, cowards, cruelty, Garleans.

HOBBIES : Fishing, tinkering, gambling, trying new foods, sparring and training, exercise.

TROPES :  You Can’t Go Home Again, Badass Longcoat, Dark-Skinned Readhead, Cannot Spit It Out, Hot-Blooded, Scars Are Forever, Everyone Can See It, Artificial Limbs, Berserk Button, Unusual Eyebrows, Dark and Troubled Past, Rage Breaking Point, Cool Bike, Hot-Blooded Sideburns, Fiery Redhead, Red Oni Blue Oni, Gun Blade, La Résistance, Spell Blade, Love Epiphany, Bruiser with a Soft Center, Didn’t Think This Through (Gonna stop now or I’ll be here all night)

QUOTES : “Ah, fuck.”

MUN QUESTIONS. Q1 :   If you could write your character your way in their own movie,  what would it be called,  what style would it be filmed in, and what would it be about?          

A1 :  John Wick mixed with Final Fantasy VIII mixed with Drive but with Garlean soldiers, turncoats, gay bro content, a sorceress, and also heaps of gay in general.

Q2 :   What would their soundtrack/score sound like?          

A2 :  Chromatic rock, Nightrun, hair metal, a lot of Deftones, Tool, the Weeknd, indie and acoustic rock for angst.

Q3 :   Why did you start writing this character?          

A3 :   When viera were teased at Fanfest, I lost my mind and have been unable to concentrate on any other character since. Aja was actually going to be a hrothgar, but when they genderlocked them and the model and general design didn’t fit her body type, well… plans changed.

Q4 :   What first attracted you to this character?          

A4 :   Much like @yascaret’s answer, getting my gay hands on viera in FFTA and being obsessed since then. I wanted to write a warrior, a little battered but unbroken despite everything. She came out differently than originally planned, but in a good way. She’s just an even bigger himbo now.

Q5 :   Describe the biggest thing you dislike about your muse.

A5 :   I worry about Flanderizing her too hard, because while she is a big flirtatious himbo idiot I also want it to come across that she has depth.

Q6 :   What do you have in common with your muse?          

A6 :   Not a lot. I guess we're both stubborn idiots with very long fuses that nonetheless eventually explode and/or destroy whatever is on the receiving end. Also what's gender precious

Q7 :   How does your muse feel about  you?          

A7 :   She probably wouldn’t acknowledge me at all, but we might bond over spicy noodles.

Q8 :   What characters does your muse have interesting interactions with ?        

A8 :   Lofn and Pjel are the obvious choice, but… Lofn and Pjel. I really love writing her alongside and against them because their personality traits both complement and chafe against one another, often in the same scene. Also I love their chemistry and look forward to how that plays out.  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Q9 :   What gives  you inspiration  to write  your muse ?        

A9 :    B u n y  d e a t h  s q u a d. Just in general seeing my RP partners and roleplayers I haven’t interacted with yet writing and posting content for their characters really inspires me. As far as writing Aja, I take a handful of aesthetics, design elements, and themes and smash them together until something clicks. Listening to music and rolling through a prompt generator usually kick starts me into writing a drabble or developing something, and the FFXIV Write challenge has been great for that this month.

Q10 :  How long did this take you to complete ?          

A10 :  About an afternoon and part of an evening. I fell into TV Tropes a little too hard near the end.

[terato-dolly]

Could I make a rook? Any tips for making one? Thank you for being a part of my art experience btw. Sometimes I use your characters as reference if that's ok. It helps me so much. I even bought an anatomy textbook this morning to use so I could pay you back in art eventually! 🦊 anon

🦊 Foxy anon, you absolutely can! But it’s super important to me to be CREDITED, at least with the species name!

As for tips! Rooks are pretty flexible in terms of design.

BODY TYPES are endless and not just in terms of weight or height (Rooks can be absolutely massive or miniscule if you want them to be), they can have as many legs (or no legs) as you want, as many arms (or no arms) as you want, though I really like to base their body type on the animal they’re base off of. It’s not necessary at all, for example, you can definitely make a chubby cheetah if you want to, I just usually keep it to where you can recognize the species they’re based off of!

But!!! Rooks should at least have a set of arms. As in, a Rook shouldn’t wall on all fours, or all sixes, or all eights. So if you were going to create a quadruped Rooks, they’d look like a centaur-esque version of that animal. Example of that would ofc be Count:

They can definitely still use those arms as leggies, like Doll can run like a cat if he wants to get somewhere fast, but he’s still a bipedal creature. 

FACES are also very diverse! I don’t usually draw mouths on my Rooks (i think they look a bit better that way), but they’re there! Here’s Doll for example!

But also, some Rooks just so happen to look more animal than others do! Take Doll vs Ace vs Hunk:

Doll is obviously more humanioid, two symmetrical eyes, his face shape his very human, but he has no nose or mouth, and obvious kitty ears and whiskers. Other examples of this would be Honey, Punk and Pawn.

But then you look at Ace and he still has somewhat of a humanoid shape, but he has countless protrusions, starting with his nose, the shielding/armor along his temples and jaw, and his crests along his forehead and occipital. So he’s got quite a lot more animal based qualities than Doll does. So there’s more characteristics of that based animal in this character, but not completely basing the face on such. Other examples of this would be Count and Looker.

And finally we get to Hunk! Hunk’s face is almost completely animal! He’s got a lil nose and mouth that make up a snout, as to where Doll’s face in profile is completely flat. Other examples of this would be @terato-imagines Jasper. 

So you can make your Rook look as humanoid or animal as you’d like! For me it just depends on my day and aesthetic for that certain animal/character.

WOUNDS:

Wounds can be just about anything, from complete cut-throughs or half cuts, to bullet looking holes, to scars and scratches, missing limbs, etc.

BUT!!! I’ve changed my mind on this! Rooks don’t have to have wounds if you don’t want them to ;v;But another thing about Rooks WITH wounds are, when they’re tiny itty bitty babies, their wounds aren’t separated just yet:

So bby Peaches (left) would have her abdomen cut through, but it won’t separate for a long time, until she’s reached what I guess would be puberty. Tiny foxy bby would have a gouge on their shoulder, but for now, only has a spot to indicate so.

And sometimes it’s a guessing game, trying to tell the difference from what would be markings or a biolight (their bioluminescent glowing spots/lines) and what would be a wound cause they both glow. 

RINGS: And sometimes Rooks either have or don’t have rings around their wounds:

First, they’re a bit difficult to draw, and even more difficult to fit into a drawing when they’re in certain poses lol

REMEMBER THAT FELINES ARE THE ONLY ONES WITH BANDAGES!!! Bandages represent missing limbs, if another Rook had a missing limb in a past life, they’d not have that limb at all. 

PLATING/ARMOR:

Armor/Plating/Shielding/any harder material on a Rooks body is indicative that their past life was a warrior of some kind! 

FLOATS: Floats are bioluminescent shapes found floating around a Rook’s body, usually along their temples or at the end of their tails. Not all Rooks have them, but they start to appear when they’re very young. The come in all shapes and colors, and are just decorative characteristics of a rook ;v; 

TAILS: Are shaped in terms of the animal they are based off of, usually simplified, like Honey’s round bunny tail, some are exactly as their animal counterpart’s is, but others are further based off of the Rooks’ design, such as Punk, Doll and Stud’s ribbon like design in place of a opposum, cat and dog’s tail. Where as Hunk and Jock’s tail is exactly as a tiger/panther’s tail looks like. 

GODDD I might have missed some things, but I’m done for now pfff ////// If you’d like to know more, please ask! This one is just getting a bit long, and I think I’m limited on pictures omg but anyway /// 💨

I’m so happy to help you sweet 🦊anon! and you absolutely may! I’m not the best, I’m still learning myself, but yes! Keep practicing, keep studying that book, I’m sure it’s a lot of help, I’m sure you’ll do great! Thank you for this ask, it’s a bit more than I planned to write lmao, but hopefully it’s thorough 💦

Any questions, as always, please ask me!! Thank you thank you ///

- Dolly ❤

[antr-and-the-babies]

Top 10 RWBY Characters That Didn’t Appear in V4 (Some Spoilers)

Hello all my wandering ants of the colony. My name is Hunter the Ant, AKA Antr here to talk about an amazing show: RWBY!!!! That's right, we're going to be taking a short look at one of Rooster Teeth's shining works and talk about the possibilities of character appearances for Volume 5 and on. But before I begin, let me put a BIG spoiler alert for those of you who might want to get into it. For those of you who haven't watched the show and didn't heed my spoiler alert, allow me give a brief summary of the show: RWBY follows the growing chronicles of Ruby Rose, a teenage girl who wields a mechanical sythe training to one day become a trained warrior called huntsman/huntress. These warriors have the duty of protecting people from any threat that may come into being. Their primary enemy are monsters known as the creatures of Grimm; black and red, nightmarish beasts whose only function is to destroy life. These beings are attracted mainly to the negativity of mankind. Disrupt the peace, and Grimm will follow. Ruby plans on following in her family's footsteps and becoming a trained protector. Along side her is the rest of team Ruby: Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company and the groups typical "spoiled" rich girl; Blake Belladonna, former White Fang member, cat faunus, and the groups dark and brooding girl; and Yang Xiao Long, the cheerful but hot headed strong woman of the group, and Ruby's paternal half-sister. Together they form the title group: RWBY. Throughout the series, Team RWBY come in contact with both friends and enemies that propel the story; such as their close allies Team JNPR, or their enemies for the first three seasons who are (unofficially) know as Team CRME (or just  Cinder's Faction if you want to include the character Neopolitan). These characters play a crucial role in the development of our main female leads, helping them grow as people, huntresses, and as team mates.   With Volume 4 having just ended and Volume 5 announced to premier sometime in Autumn, there are certainly a hand-full of characters that people want to return or know more about. Some, obviously, are more popular than others. Today, we're going to be looking through the characters that either played an important supporting role in Volumes 1-3 and didn't appear in Volume 4, or characters that were mentioned/hinted at in one of the previous volumes that could have an impact in the story for Volume 5. These are in no particular order of importance. I'm just jotting them down as I go. Let's do it! ____________________________________________ 1. Leo Lionheart Its's no secret now that pretty much every major headmaster in the series is a reference to a major character from "The Wizard of Oz." Ozpin/Oscar is The Wizard, Glenda is The Good Witch, and Ironwood is The Tinman. Now, at the end of volume 4 we are introduced to the new headmaster of Haven Academy; the man we will be following and who will be helping our heroes for the duration of volume 5, Leo Lionheart. If his name isn't an obvious enough tip-off on who he's based off of, the fact that he's un-courageously sold out his school and the people of Mistral to Salem's lacky Watts should give you a clue (He's the cowardly lion guys). Ruby fans have been wondering about the other headmasters ever since the introduction to Ironwood back in Volume 2. Leo was actually first mentioned by name by Ironwood himself, however that wasn't until Chapter 11 of Volume 4. He was briefly mention by Qrow in "A Much Needed Talk," saying that they hadn't heard from him in a while; even before the attack on Beacon. While what we know on him is slim, what we do know doesn't paint him off as a very trustworthy ally. As stated before he has connection with Salem, and most likely will sellout information to save his own skin. BUUUT, knowing how the Cowardly Lion is in "The Wizard of Oz," hopefully he'll have a turning point in his character arc and gain the much needed bravery people expect from him. 2. Winter Schnee Winter Schnee is the elder sibling to both Shitley and Weiss, and the first born child to Jacques Schnee, owner of the Schnee  Dust Company. To date, Winter has appeared in only two episodes, had a cameo appearance in a family picture, and was mention once towards the end of Volume 4. Along with this, she's also one of the few characters we had no prior lead up too before she was introduced. Hell, before she turned up we didn't even know Weiss had any family other than her father. All we know about Winter's position  is that she works somewhere right under Ironwood in the Atlas military defenses. She's sort of on the same boat as Weiss, feeling as though it is her duty to protect and serve the people of Remnant in order to make up for her father's misdoings and reclaim the good Schnee name.  However, while Weiss decided to become a huntress,  Winter went for a more strict/ firm position of protection. At the end of Volume 4 Weiss and Ironwood mention that Winter is stationed in Haven, so it's a definite conclusion that we'll be seeing more interactions between her, Weiss, and possibly the rest of Team RWBY and RNJR. It'll be interesting to get a bit more info on her. What kind of authority she holds in the ranks. Not to mention, what kind of classified missions she's been up too since the fall of Beacon. Has Ironwood informed her of the growing situation? Only time will tell. 3. Neptune Vasilias (and the rest of Team SSSN Neptune was introduced in the first episode of Volume 2. He's a close friend to Sun Wukong, and was the first love interest to Weiss Schnee (still possibly is). Right from the start Neptune presented himself as a smooth intellectual who loves the ladies. And while we haven't seen him fight that much, the assumption could be made that he's one of the more unique huntsmen out there given his weapon of choice: An energy-shot gun that transforms into an energy guandao, which Then can be transformed into an electric-based trident. We got a lot of Neptune in Volume 2, a little in Volume 3, and then only a mention in Volume 4 with Sun saying he (and the rest of Team SSSN) are back in Mistral. Aside from his suave personality and crippling fear, we don't really know much about Neptune's background. In fact, he's one of the few characters who hasn't shown his semblance (others being Jaune, Taiyang, Mercury, Ironwood; just to name a few). Maybe in Volume 5 we'll get to see Neptune more in action AND get his semblance. I mean, if it can take Rooster Teeth four volumes to get to Ren's semblance, I think we can get Nepune's. Plus, it would be interesting to see how his interactions with Weiss would go after her time of self-empowerment back home. Will she still be interested in his type? Unlike Atlas folk, he was there on the ground with her after-all. Who know? 4. Penny Polendina Yes, I know Penny is "dead," but the big argument against that is that...she's a robot. Not human in any sense. And I know what all of you are going to be throwing in my face: "Well, she was able to generate an Aura. That obviously makes her unique." And yes, you would be right in the sense that all beings with an Aura have their own individual and unique Auras (excluding the Schnee's) and essentially have a soul, but remember the information we got in Volume 3, Chapter 6. Atlas had been experiment with Auras and all sorts of tech to manipulate and transfer things of that essence. We don't know under what circumstances Penny was created. We don't know how she's generating her Aura, or who created her in the first place. All we knew was that she was a robot who was under protection of Ironwood and sent to Vale to enter the Vytal Festival in order to see if she was ready. I can't be the only one to think this, but...wouldn't Penny's creator or Ironwood have kept the original schematics and blueprints on how to make another robot. Or better yet, REPAIR the broken robot. Like I said, we don't know how Penny is generating her Aura. Just because her robot body got damaged doesn't mean her Aura was. If it was implanted in her the first time, It could again. We never saw what happened to her body after everything that happened during the fall of Beacon. You really don't think that the government wouldn't go and collect the pieces? This is just a personal wish, but I really hope that some how they take Penny's dwindling Aura and put it in a new body. She reactivates, but doesn't remember everything fully. She's sent to Ironwood to continue being watched and slowly her memories start to come back of what happened. She then escapes from Atlas (which is currently under lock-down and having it's own travel ban) and goes to find her friends. She learns what happened to Pyrrha, and offers to become part of Team JNPR. It's only a wish though. It'll probably never happen....... 5. Neopolitan Oh Neo. To date, Neo is one of RWBY's most mysterious characters; that title formally belonging to Yang's mom Raven, but now Neo is pretty much on the same level as Summer Rose. We know literally NOTHING about her. All we know is that she works for Cinder (formerly Torchwick), and possibly Salem. Other than that she's pretty much a mystery. I mean, how are you supposed to learn anything about a character who has no voice? Yeah. To non-RWBY fans who don't know, Neopolitan is a mute. Probably because her concept from Monty Oum was so sudden into the universe, that they didn't have time to find an appropriate voice actor. And by then, she'd already made a name for herself as the silent, cocky wing-woman to Torchwick. At the end of Volume 3, the last we saw of Neo was her floating off of Ironwood's stolen ship into the sky of crowded griffins and nevermores. Presumably she landed far off from where all the action was happening, and seeing how everything was going down south she made her escape. Now, whether or not she returned to Cinder after all this is unknown. Neo's loyalty seemed to be more towards Torchwick then anyone else, but she still has connections. Maybe she took over Torchwicks crime organization after his death. Or maybe she's laying low. Hiding from Cinder so she won't be dragged any further than she already is. I know at this point in the series things had to be written out to make way for newer challenges. Obviously, the need for an underground crime network isn't as important now that our heroes have an actual threat, but Neo felt like more than just a common criminal. I mean, she was able to take out Yang with ease in Volume 2. And she had no problem dealing with Ruby...up 'til the point she blew her off the ship. I'm just saying that Neo seemed to be more skilled than most of the other villains we got at the time. Plus, considering how popular she, I don't think they'd just write her off as "missing in action" I think she'll make her return. And we won't even hear her coming. 6. Glynda Goodwitch Glynda was the first official huntress we saw in the show (Ruby herself doesn't count). As we've seen on multiple occasions, she one of the more powerful huntresses. Her abilities (and possibly her semblance) gives her almost magical abilities beyond any other normal huntress we've seen. She's not using dust, and she's not a maiden. She's just a strict, kick-ass lady with an awesome cape and zero tolerance for tomfoolery. Yet, we didn't get any of her for Volume 4. We saw a reused clip of her broadcast on  TV of her trying to rebuild Vale and reclaim Beacon, but nothing else. As the woman who was pretty much Ozpin's second in command you'd think they give her at least one line of dialogue in the new volume. Hell, Port and Oobleck had more time on screen than she did.   Well, Oscar has now emerged from Ozpin's dust, and now has to help with all the madness that's going on. Considering Glynda is one of the few people who was informed on everything, chances are that when she hears Ozpin has come back and is in the body of a child, her reaction will be about the same as Qrow's. She knows all this craziness. She probably knows more then Qrow and Ironwood considering how she's literally at Ozpin's side majority of the time. She probably knew this was going to happen and is now waiting for any word to get to her about it. She has a duty in Vale to regulate and control the Grimm outbreak, but any chance she gets she'll be on a one way trip to find Oscar and Qrow and help in any way possible.  It would be awesome if Qrow and Glynda became Oscar's mentors, helping him become the new Ozpin. Qrow would teach the basics, and Glynda would perfect them. Seems like a good combo to me. 7. Adam Taurus The Volume 4 opening deceived us! We thought we were going to get a Blake vs. Adam fight, and the most we get from Adam in the entire volume is a mention from Salem and Yang's Nightmare. Though, all that means is that we'll be getting that fight in Volume 5. Though, that makes me a bit worried. Not for him, but for everyone else. Adam was first introduced in the "Black Trailer." He didn't make his series debut until the end of Volume 2. He's the leader of the faunus terrorist group "The White Fang," a once peaceful but now violent organization that wants to destroy mankind so that the faunus species can be the dominant ones. Blake also used to serve right under him and be part of his villainous schemes. As of right now, we don't know how Adam came into power, why he's so bitter and extreme, or really anything about his past. All we know is that he had a thing for Blake and he cut off Yang's arm...what a resume. And now that she's rejected him, he's going berserk and vowing to kill everyone she loves to prove...to prove...I don't what it's meant to prove, but it does show how evil he is! Obviously, Adam has eyes EVERYWHERE. Thanks to Ilia, Adam now knows that Blake took a stop back home in Menagerie. That's probably not a good thing for her parents. And now with Blake leaving for Haven, Adam's probably going to get word of that and meet her there to continue his destructive rein over her. Aside from Blake, Yang would also be facing her anxiety towards him and getting back at him for cutting her arm off. It would be a scary, yet awesome scene to have the two fighting it out. Though, I think in the end Adam would still win, and it would be up to Blake to try and save her again. The point is, Adam will be coming back. He's too bad to let go. 8. Summer Rose Unlike Penny, I know Summer isn't going to return. Obviously, a character who died before the story even began can't magically show up five seasons later, however there's still a ton of story they could do with her. Literally since Volume 2 and 3 people have been begging for a Team STRQ flashback episode. We'd finally be able to see a living Summer Rose, and possibly see where things went so very very wrong in their team history. Maybe get a little info into Her and Tai's relationship after Raven ditched him. Who knows!?! I can only hope they give us this much needed flashback. 9. Unknown Scientist The assumption can be made that this unknown scientist might indeed be Penny's "father." Considering he was watching the tournament, and his reaction to her sudden death, it is likely to be true. But what I'm surprised about, is the lack of discussion about him, and the lore that comes from knowing who he is and how Penny came into being. I came into the show a bit late, I must admit, but still the amount of talk that goes into him is staggeringly low from what I expected. Penny is based on the tale of Pinocchio; no secret about that. She's a robot who's only partially "alive" and used mechanical swords attached to puppet-like strings. Since Penny was made around this fairytale that means that this man can only be one person: Geppetto. He's the one who built her, so obviously he's the "puppeteer" who created a false being to act like the child he never had. And that's all well and good, but there's two more major characters to the Pinocchio tale ): The Blue Fairy and The Talking Cricket (I know his name is Jimmeny, but I don't know if she's based of the fairytale, or the Disney interpretation). The woman who gave Pinocchio life in the first place and the person who gave him moral advice.. Who are they, and what connection do they have with our unknown scientist? Is she the source of Penny's Aura? Was she once a living being who had her Aura sucked out of her and placed in the body of a robot? Di Penny have another person who looked out for her? Was that who her partner Ciel Soleil was from Volume 3, episode 5? I'm hoping we get some hints in Volume 5, but knowing how Rooster Teeth and Monty setup character reveals, it's probably going to be another volume-and-a-half before we even get mention of him again. A man can only dream, and wish upon a star.   10. Weiss' Mother I'm going to make a wild claim here and say that maybe, just maybe, Weiss' mother is the Winter Maiden. I know, I know, it seems TOO obvious to be true, but there are tons of signs that could lead anyone to believe that she might be the Winter Maiden. First, her location. The Schnee's reside in Atlas. As we learned from Qrow, Atlas (formerly Mantel) is basically a frozen tundra of a continent. It's equivalent to our Antarctica. Given the Maidens abilities, wouldn't it make since for them to reside in areas that correspond to the season they represent? I mean, take Amber for example. If you look past the fog (and the awesome fight going on in the foreground), what do you see? While we don't know where exactly she was when she was attacked by Cinder, the setting indicates it was an area of changing natural colors. Almost as if it were Autumn in the area she was. It corresponded perfectly with her because she was the Fall Maiden. And now our heroes are in Haven, an area that has fresh green flora and fauna everywhere. And the next Maiden we know Salem is looking for is Spring. Seems pretty likely that maybe we'll get our next Maiden in Haven. Just like how it seems pretty likely that our Summer Maiden would reside somewhere hot, like Vacuo, and our Winter Maiden somewhere cold, like Atlas. Next, the daughter's power choice and names. Ever since Volume one, Weiss has been referred too as something icy; most notably her nickname "Ice Queen" which Qrow also calls Winter. In the beginning we all assumed they were just called that because of their cold personalities and where they came from, but with the introduction of the Maidens, perhaps this is a hints for something else. Their powers may also be a hint of their mother's Maiden prestige. Of all the types of dust Weiss has been shown using, the one she uses the most is ice. Wouldn't it make some sense that the reason she uses ice more often then fire, wind, electricity, etc. is because she took after and is copying her mother's abilities? Weiss never said she hated her mother. She never even mentioned her. There's something here. Lastly, she didn't appear in Volume 4 at all. Volume 4 was the basically the volume of FAMILY. We had Yang with her father, Blake meeting up with her parents, Ruby traveling with Qrow, Qrow interacting with Raven, and then Weiss with ONLY her Father. Why? Weiss' mother is the only living parent of Team RWBY to not show up on screen. I don't think she's unimportant. Literally all the parents have had an impacting role in their children's lives and in the setting. Weiss' mother IS important, but her time hasn't come yet. They're saving her for when the hunt for the Winter Maiden begins. When will such a hunt begin? Probably not for a good 2-3 volumes at least; 5-6 if they decide to go for the Summer Maiden before her. All we can do is wait. ____________________________________________ Well, that's all the characters I can muster up for now. What do you think? Do you think any of these characters will contribute a bigger role in Volume 5? Leave a comment below and tell me what you think. Until next time, this is Hunter the Ant signing off!

[duhragonball]

Battle Tendency Liveblog: JJBA Ch. 88-93

Hey, guess what this post is all about?   Here’s a hint:

In St. Moriz, Switzerland, the gang have tracked down the address to which Esidisi had tried to mail the Red Stone of Aja.   Turns out it’s some spooky abandoned mansion with all the windows boarded up.    It’s the perfect hideout for a supervillain who doesn’t want to be bothered by nosy neighbors or pesky sunlight. 

Actually, now that I think about it, I’m not sure why Esidisi expected the mailman to deliver his package to an empty building.    Maybe he figured Kars could just barge into the St. Moriz post office and find it.  

Another weird thing: Joseph opens this chapter with a monologue about the setting, then teases a cat, then provides exposition about the poison ring on his heart, and then Lisa Lisa calls him over to check out the mansion they’ve found.   It seems kind of strange that he was just monologueing the whole time, unless that’s supposed to be the joke.

Anyway, now they have to figure out their next move.   Caesar wants to go to the manion at once to attack Kars before sundown.   They know he’s in there, and he’s alone, because he said Wammu was away during their last encounter.  So it’ll be four on one, and they’ll have the advantage because the sun’s out.   But Joseph disagrees.   Kars has lived like this for thousands of years.   He would be expecting his enemies to attack him during the day, and it’s a safe bet that he’s laid all sorts of traps and precautions to protect himself.    So why play into his hands?   Joseph wants to wait, although I’m not sure attacking at night would be any easier.  Maybe he wants the Pillar Men to come to them?

Actually, that makes a lot of sense.   Joseph has to fight Wammu in about five days, in order to get the antidote to the poison ring.   They have the Aja Stone, so maybe it makes sense to play keep-away until the big Joseph/Wammu fight.   Joseph can kill Wammu (hopefully), and that leaves Kars isolated.   From there on, they can stick together, and wait for Kars to come to them, confident that their combined power can defeat him.    There’s a lot that could go wrong with such a strategy, but it minimizes the risks.  

But Caesar is adamant about going after Kars immediately.   They know where he is, so how can they wait another moment?   He speaks of the curse of the Stone Mask, that got their grandfathers killed, but Joseph finds that talk dumb.   Family legacies don’t mean anything against your own life in the here and now.   It’s stupid to get killed over something like that, he says, and that pisses Caesar off.

He fights with Joseph, then angrily goes off to storm Kars’ lair alone.   I could show the part where he fights Joseph, but I think this panel is a lot more powerful, because Lisa Lisa orders him to stay, and he defies her.    Caesar’s always held Lisa Lisa in such high regard, but this time, he just can’t respect her wishes.   She orders Messina to follow him and stop him before he can go inside the mansion, then explains to Joseph why this is so important to Caesar.

Okay, to this whole Caesar Fights Alone arc is extremely full of “rhymes” with other JoJo parts.   Let me just get a couple out of the way before we get down to business.   The Part 1 references in Battle Tendency should be obvious, but in this case, Will Zeppeli has everything to do with Caesar’s determination to kill Kars.    Also, when discussing an attack on the mansion, Joseph likens a daylight assault to “a butterly landing on a spider’s web”, which is Jolyne Kujo’s entire wardrobe in prose.   So that’s Part 6.  

But, more importantly, this flashback of Caesar’s origin story might as well be the blueprint for all of the flashback origins we see in Part 5.   The story of Caesar doesn’t exactly line up with any of the Vento Aureo cast, but it has an extremely similar feel.   A young boy loses his family, goes down a dark path, and then has a revelatory experience.   And Caesar’s from Naples, just like Giorno Giovanna and most of Bruno’s team.  

The story is this: Caesar’s father, Mario Zeppeli, was a widower and a good parent, until one day he just ghosted all his kids.    He left them plenty of money, but a wicked cousin swindled it away.   Neighbors and friends took care of the Zeppeli kids, but Caesar himself became embittered and eventually ended up in an orphanage, and then later he became a street tough in Rome, not unlike a young Speedwagon in London.  Caesar resented his father for abandoning the family, and assumed that Mario had left them to pursue some pleasurable life with a woman.   He resolved to hunt down Mario and kill him for this, sort of like “A Boy Named Sue”, but when he finally found Mario Zeppeli, he saw him going down into the basement of the Roman Colosseum instead of some brothel.

And we already know what’s down under the Colesseum: The three Pillar Men.   While following Mario, Caesar discovered the Pillar Men in the wall, and noticed a diamond in Kars’ hand.    This was a trap, though, and Mario had to shove Caesar out of the way and get pulled in himself.    As Mario explained, the Pillar Men use those precious objects to get humans to take a closer look, and then all these hooks come out to pull them in to be absorbed.   This is how the Pillar Men feed during their “hibernation” in the stone. 

As he died, Mario pleaded with Caesar to inform a woman named Lisa Lisa in Venice, and to warn her that the Pillar Men would awaken soon.    But Mario had no idea that he was speaking to his own son, and it finally dawned on Caesar that Mario had left the family because he knew how dangerous this whole business was, and he had wanted to keep his kids out of it.   Awestruck, Caesar suddenly gained a new appreciation for his father, and ended up taking up Mario’s cause.  

Which is... a whole lot like the dynamic between Jotaro and Jolyne in Stone Ocean.   So there’s some more Part 6 for you.   And Mario’s sacrifice resembles Joseph Joestar’s rescue of the Invisible Baby in Part 4.  Josuke observed that no one would go so far to save someone they didn’t even know, but Mario Zeppeli did.

The flashback ends with Mario’s death, but it’s not hard to work out the rest of Caesar’s backstory.   He went to Venice as instructed, but he must have also told Lisa Lisa that he was Mario’s son, and she must have recognized his nascent Ripple abilities.   Eager for help against the Pillar Men threat, she took him on as her student, and trained him through the late 1930′s.    And she must have filled him in on how Mario became a Ripple warrior, following in the footsteps of Caesar’s grandfather, Will.

Then Speedwagon and Joseph came to Italy to join forces with Caesar, and it makes some sense why Caesar didn’t respect Joseph very much.    The Caesar we see in the flashback looks a lot like Joseph in the early chapters of Part 2: A tough guy, with natural Hamon talents, but no formal training, and no understanding of all the lore surrounding it.    Caesar saw Joseph as a reflection of himself at 16, and he must not have liked it at all.    Also, this must have made Caesar resentful, because he knew his grandfather died to save Jonathan Joestar, but seeing Joseph probably made him question if that sacrifice was justified.  

What confuses me is how all of this European lore gels with the North American lore we saw at the beginning of Part 2.   I mean, Speedwagon discovered a Pillar Man in Mexico, and the first thing he did was to call in Straizo.   Meanwhile, Lisa Lisa and the Zeppelis had been aware of the other Pillar Men in Rome this whole time.    It just seems a bit weird, although Straizo’s sudden betrayal might explain the communication breakdown.  

Oh, I should probably also mention something I forgot to bring up earlier: The Pillar Men can’t be destroyed by the Ripple while they’re in their stone forms.    Caesar told Speedwagon that he had tried it before, and I’m sure Mario must have done the same. 

Anyway, now that Joseph knows the whole story of Caesar, he changes his tune and wants to join Caesar on this daring daylight raid on the mansion.   He figures that a man like Caesar must have a solid plan to deal with any traps inside the building.   And maybe he does, except Caesar can’t even get to the door, because someone’s attacking him in the front yard.   Turns out it’s Wammu, not Kars, and his “Wind Mode” allows him to refract sunlight around himself for a short time, making him nearly invisible and also letting him land a surprise attack on the good guys.    When Messina catches up to Caesar, Wammu manages to lop off one of his arms.

So the situation is a lot more perilous than anyone expected.   If Caesar even had a plan, it didn’t involve fighting Wammu outdoors.    Undaunted, he releases a volley of soap bubbles charged with Hamon energy.    This is a jacked-up variation of his Bubble Launcher technique, but this time the bubbles won’t burst because of all the Ripple power he put into them, and they also spin rapidly like little blades.   Wammu’s “wind suit” works against him in this case, because the air currents just drag the “soap cutters” even closer to his body.

So yeah, shades of Part 7 and 8 here.   I mean, Gyro Zeppeli’s real name is “Julius Caesar Zeppeli”, so it’s not hard to imagine anything Caesar says and does in Part 2 as a foreshadowing of Steel Ball Run.    But he’s even using centrifugal force to strengthen his attacks, a precursor to the “Spin” techniques used by the Zeppelis in the SBR-verse.  

I think the soap bubble thing speaks for itself.   The “Soft and Wet” Stand in JoJolion uses soap bubbles too.   But more than that, I think the Pillar Men have a great resemblance to the villain group in JoJolion.   It’s like Araki was trying to come up with ideas for Part 8, and he looked at the Caesar/Wammu fight and decided he wanted More of That.   Which is kind of amazing to me, because I always saw Battle Tendency as this “orphaned” JoJo arc, kind of isolated from the rest of the series, but now I’m starting to see that it’s more like a miniature model of the later parts.   

Needless to say, this “Soap Cutter vs. Wind Mode” battle looks a lot like the Stand Battles featured in Part 3 and onward.   Caesar expected to get to the mansion, only to find an “impossible” scenario: a warrior ambushing him outside.   How can this be, when the Pillar Men can’t go out in the daylight?   It’s because Wammu’s power lets him do this for short times, but until Caesar figures that out, it gives Wammu the advantage.    Then Caesar responds with his own special ability, and uses Wammu’s own technique against him.  

Speaking of Part 3, here’s a shot of Caesar following Wammu into the mansion, and confronting him at the bottom of a flight of stairs.  Is Polnareff a secret Zeppeli?  Who knows?

Wammu had to withdraw into the mansion to escape Caesar’s Soap Cutters, and he figures he has a chance to respond with his own big move, but Caesar’s not done coming after him.    To get into the mansion, Wammu had to smash a hole in the wall, so Caesar uses the light coming in from that hole to his advantage.   He surrounds Wammu with more soap bubbles, but this time they refract and reflect and focus the sunlight onto Wammu’s body.  

To be honest, I forgot how much this fight kicks ass.   The Pillar Men started out like big bad news, but Joseph crushed Esidisi, and now Caesar is really eating Wammu’s lunch here.  Imagine how well the boys would have done if they had ganged up on a Pillar Man.

So Caesar’s got Wammu cornered, so he leaps in to finish him off with a Hamon attack...

And that turns out to be a huge mistake, because Caesar’s body provides just enough of a shadow for Wammu to recover and fire back with his own windstorm move.  This is kind of like how Wammu first appeared.   He made that hole, and when the German guy leaned in for a better look, he impaled him with his horn, then spun the horn around to spray blood on all the UV lamps.

Which says a lot about Wammu.   Everyone talked about Kars setting up traps in this mansion to foil any daytime attacks, but we never actually saw any traps.   Wammu is the trap.   All he needs is a shadow and a moment to capitalize on it.  

And that’s the fight.    Caesar survived the Wind Storm, but he’s too badly hurt to continue.   Wammu praises him for giving him the best fight he’s had in millennia, and he even worries about what might have happened if Kars had faced Caesar instead.    Wammu thinks Kars still would have won, but he would have gotten hurt worse in the process.   That’s saying something, because Wammu got pretty badly hurt himself, so how badly would Kars have fared against Caesar?  

One thing that occurred to me while reading the manga for this is that Kars might actually be the weakest Pillar Man in the trio.   He’s far above Santana, of course, but it seems pretty clear that Wammu’s the best fighter, and Esidisi’s death was a huge blow to Kars.   As soon as he found out, he immediately resolved to kill Joseph because he was too dangerous a threat.   This isn’t like when Vegeta loses a subordinate.   If you beat Nappa, he’s only mildly impressed, because he’s so much stronger than Nappa that he still doesn’t see you as a threat.  

I’d say the Pillar Men are much closer together in terms of power, but it feels like the pecking order is Wammu, then Esidisi, then Kars.  Those blades of his are pretty cool-looking, but Wammu’s Wind Mode is much more versatile in a fight.   Wammu practically said as much here, but his devotion to Kars prevents him from admitting that Kars would have gotten his ass kicked against Caesar.  

So why is Kars in charge?   Because he’s the brains of the outfit, naturally.   Kars is the one who does all the R&D on these Stone Masks, and Esidisi basically admitted that he has no idea how the Red Stone of Aja will improve the Masks further.    Kars understands the Stone Mask technology in ways they can’t even fathom, and his research promises to give them ultimate power, so they’ve been following his orders ever since. 

Anyway, Caesar’s beaten, but he still won’t give up.    He climbs up the stairs again to keep attacking Wammu, who just sort of stands there looking confused.  Then Caesar grabs the piercing from Wammu’s lip, the one that contains the antidote Joseph needs.    Wammu doesn’t understand this gesture either, so he just stands there and lets it happen.  

This is kind of like when Joseph managed to land a decent blow on Wammu back in Rome, and then he started punching Wammu, only for Wammu to reveal that he allowed himself to be punched to punish himself for taking the hit earlier.   I’m wondering if Caesar was counting on Wammu to do the same thing here.   

Wammu asks why he would bother with this, and Caesar explains that this is his family’s true heritage.   All along, Caesar has been planning to defeat the Pillar Men himself, to avenge his father and grandfather, and to break the curse on their family line.   But now he realizes that he’s going to die too, just like they did.    His fate is not to succeed where they failed, but instead it’s to carry on their tradition of rescuing others to carry on where they fell.   Just as Will Zeppeli passed on his Hamon to Jonathan, Caesar uses the last of his own Ripple to deliver the antidote to Joseph.

So Caesar makes another soap bubble with his own blood, and puts his headband and the ring inside of it.    Wammu considers interfering with this final gesture, but decides against it, because he respects Caesar as a warrior.   So he just turns and leaves.  

Then Joseph and Lisa Lisa show up.  There’s no sign of Caesar or Wammu, but the blood bubble tells the whole story.   Joseph is all emotional over this, but Lisa orders him to stay focused.   They’re deep in enemy territory, and they can’t afford to grieve.    Joseph is upset at first, but then he coolly observes that Lisa’s cigarette is backwards, a sign that she’s not as dispassionate about this as she would like to be.    I love this scene.    The wiggly lines on Lisa’s hands make the comic version better than the anime.

Then they finally notice blood trickling out from beneath a cross-shaped piece of wall.    Well, I guess it’s from the wall, but it’s kind of hard to tell what this place looked like before.  It fell on Caesar as he died, and now that Joseph and Lisa realize where he is, they both break down in tears.   

I’m not a big fan of Caesar.    He’s kind of a dick, and most of his more admirable qualities end up getting overshadowed by Joseph’s personal growth.    For example, Joseph realizes in this part of the arc that he’s learned to read and empathize with Lisa’s feelings, something Caesar thought he couldn’t do earlier on.   On the other hand, this fight marked the end of Caesar’s character arc, and it only happened because he brazenly wandered into a trap.    Joseph might regret calling Caesar an idiot, but I think he had the right idea.   It didn’t have to go down like this.    They could have taken Wammu’s antidote ring some other time.   As it is, Joseph still has to fight Wammu anyway, because Caesar’s no longer available to to do it.   

However, I think of Caesar when I think about Part 3, because I see Stardust Crusaders as this final chapter of the curse of the Stone Masks, with Joseph coming back to wrap up the last loose end of that whole terrible business.   Dio and the Pillar Men killed a lot of people, but Caesar’s the one Joseph actually knew personally.    So when I see the Stardust Crusaders heading off to Egypt to wreck Dio’s shit, I tend to think of Caesar as one of the people Joseph is fighting for.    I mean, his daughter’s life is on the line in Part 3, so that’s got to be much more important to him, but Caesar was the first friend he lost over these stupid masks, and that’s probably in the back of his mind throughout Part 3.   All this trouble, because buttholes like Dio and Kars want to be bigger than everyone else.    But their dreams are pathetic compared to the noble sacrifices made by men like Caesar Zeppeli.  

Anyway, play the slow, sad part of Roundabout for Caesar.