#weiss is like my favourite character

[catraafterthewar]

I think I'm hilarious 👀

[leashybebes]

my favourite thing about any character, about writing them, or thinking about them, or trying to puzzle them out, is figuring out what i believe (ymmv of course, i'm bullshitting outloud, not doing Meaningful Meta or whatever) their baseline beliefs are about themselves and the world. generally, unapologetically, for me, a lot of this comes from The Thing(s) i relate to about the character, and the beliefs i have/have had about those points of recognition. ANYWAY all this is to say:

"I'm not - like it's fine," Buck says. "I'm not complaining, I get it, people have other priorities and I'm - I'm easy to leave, I get that. I'm just…tired." Doctor Weiss glances at the clock. "I'd like to come back to that easy to leave thing next week," she says, and Buck's heart sinks a little. "But we're close to time, so for now, you said tired?" "Yeah. Yeah," Buck admits, surprised when his voice cracks a little, when he realizes how true it is - emotionally, physically, every way he can think of. "I'm so tired."

it's not gonna be a fic, but it helps me write other fics to play with these underlying beliefs and try to figure them out and when i write buck it's from that perspective. everyone leaves is part of it, but the "i _____" belief that comes from that for me, is "i'm easy to leave" and the unhinged shit, whether it's in canon, or in a serious angst fic or in something silly like allying, stems from that for me - from having it reinforced or challenged or questioned

[dragynkeep]

RWBY Design Review - Yang Xiao Long (Atlas)

Overview

Now with the final member of Team RWBY, I've long given up on seeing Yang in actually good fits since Volume 2. She just consistently gets the short end of the stick and her Atlas outfit not only carries on the trend, but gives us one of her worst looks.

Which is very telling of my feelings for her. She was one of my favourites in Beacon going into Volume 4, and her favourite outfit of mine was her Volume 2 Hunter outfit. Only now she is easily one of my least favourite characters and her outfits reflect that in how misfitting and outright bad they are for her.

Let's just get into it.

Pros

Just like Weiss, there is hardly anything I like about Yang's Atlas outfit. Even her previous outfit, which is still a mediocre one to me, has more going for it than this.

But I will say that I like the jacket. The wooly undercoat shows off white in a natural way, not only making it look warm for Atlas but lets Yang wear Weiss' colour also. It also being an almost dark desaturated red, like mulberry, is a good step in having Yang wear Ruby's colour and fits in with the warm, fiery palette that Yang should be associated with.

I also really like her boots. The style of them and the matching colour to the jacket has the colour seem more integral rather than slapped on into Yang's 47 colour palette, and looks suitable for the rough terrain that Yang works in.

It's also always been slapped on, and I do prefer the purple sash in her Hunter outfit, but having Yang keep the bandana on her leg consistently is a neat feature and purple is a good colour to have since it matches her purple eyes, a fun design choice with mixing Taiyang's blue and Raven's red.

On top of that, credits to Ein Lee and Erin, but they colour Yang with a vibrant purple that looks so good and it's a shame that it's constantly desaturated by the show.

Another thing I like about Yang is that, in the arc where everyone and their mother changed up their looks, Yang pretty much stayed the same.

She's characterised by being protective over her hair and while I think her growing comes with her embracing change should it happen, and not blowing up at little things, I do also appreciate the showing of this little characteristic in that Yang never changes her hair.

The only time she did was in Patch, when she was very much not feeling herself and stuck at crossroads, with that shown through putting her hair up in a ponytail. Not an extreme form of change, but still something for someone who does care about how she looks primarily through her hair.

And Atlas could've had Yang change it up with the rest of their team, and there could've been good points for her doing so in writing, but her keeping that is also a positive.

Yes, the massive amount of yellow behind her in the form of her hair has similar problems to Blake's pre-Atlas, but yellow is also a tricky colour since it's so bright and in your face, so you don't want to stick Yang in so much yellow either.

I am also a big fan of ponytail Yang, but her keeping her hair is also a positive for me. Either way, I wouldn't have complained.

A final point is that, I actually think the way her emblem is implemented into her design is a little creative. So many have their emblems slapped somewhere on their outfit, but Yang's is done with her belt buckle, centering it in the middle of her body rather than copying what she did in Beacon and slapping it on her breast again.

It's also a cute mirror to Ruby, who nearly always wore her emblem on her belt.

And that's really it for Yang. Now for the many, many flaws.

Cons

Similar to the others, Yang's gonna be in segments with how much I just don't like her design.

Outfit

Outside of the few outfit pieces that I mentioned in the pros, the rest of Yang's outfit is straight up a downgrade even from her Mistral outfit.

Just like Weiss, Yang's outfit does not look suitable for the Atlas environment at all. Not even just a little cheeky show of breast for fanservice, but she for real has her chest out, her arms in the show since she never has her sleeves down, and one thigh with the stupid half up, half down legs of her overalls.

The overalls themselves don't look great with all the cluttered lines, zippers, and we see with the back that Yang's exposed except for the little bit that's covered by her tube top.

Even with the jacket on top, that exposure of skin with only one layer to protect her isn't doing anything.

I have to preface that I don't particuarly care about fanservice or outfits not being 100% accurate to real life for certain situations. Yang has never been properly dressed for both the job she's meant to be doing and the environment she's in, but that didn't matter as much before because at least the outfits were great (Hunter), alright (Beacon), or at least serviceable (Mistral).

But this doesn't even look good! So the fact that she's in the middle of the tundra in this makes it even more egregious to look at, similar to Weiss since, by admission of the show, we're supposed to take the cold seriously to the point it's used as a tension plotline when Watts turns it off.

Again, I do not care about Aura because the guidelines to Aura is so hazy that the writers just pull whatever to wave away bad design and writing choices.

On top of that, why is one leg unzipped to expose Yang's thigh? Why are these pants now mimicing Vernal who, despite should've having something in writing with Yang, does not interact with her at all, never mind meaningfully?

And those stupid belt flaps. Yang isn't the only one who gets stuck with them, but they really are CRWBY just needing something to put on the belts for some interest. Only they're not interesting, they're ugly and useless, especially when you can easily add pouches or something for extra storage.

The thing anyone on the roat, Huntsman or no, would appreciate to hold their trail mix.

Colour

Yang literally has the worst colour palette out of anyone on her team, maybe even in the whole group.

As said before by many people, including myself, you don't want Yang in too much yellow because, not only will you lose her in the massive mop of yellow behind her, but because too much yellow is overstimulating and just an eyesore.

I also hate the colour yellow so Yang is already on the disadvantage with me.

But canon just takes it the completely opposite way in not letting Yang have any yellow in her design because the miniscule amounts in the zippers of her outfit and the yellow of her prosthetic/gauntlet. Her jacket is reddish-brown, her accents are orange/purple, her tube top is white rather than copying her Beacon look and making it yellow again, and the overalls are grey.

Even if some art pieces try to retroactively change this by making them a yellowish-tan, the concept art, the marketing pieces and the model itself all have it as grey.

So the only splashes of bright colour amongst the dark and shades are orange and purple, leading to Yang's associated colour no longer being yellow but orange.

It doesn't matter that Yang's hair carries most of the yellow because not only is it cut off halfway through the design, stopping the flow of yellow completely, but it's to the back. When you're looking at Yang from the front, as you want with any character, her hair is mostly hidden by all the others.

And this is why people say to stop putting her in so much brown/orange. Brown isn't a neutral shade like black or white, and orange is a bright colour that can easily overpower yellow if used too much.

Nevermind that Yang already has an accent colour in purple. A cool tone that pops against her mostly warm palette, opposite but similar to the warm red popping against Weiss' cold blues and whites.

And since Yang is often characterised as Ruby's overprotective sister and has Ruby as one the most important people in Yang's life, why not have Yang wear red to symbolise that importance in her design?

At the very least the concept art gives her a human skin tone. Yang is often coloured in with a slight tan, which works wonders with her warm palette and helps keep her from appearing washed out.

But this is still way too many colours. Really, a character should have probably five colours maximum that're used throughout the design, but Yang here has 10.

Not only is there three different shades of yellow, but then both orange/purple for the accents, and a different shade of purple for her eyes, and then the grey, then the reddish-brown, then black and white.

It's too much! Yang needs two shades of yellow at most, she doesn't need two accept colours and the purple doesn't need to be a different shade to the purple of her eyes. Shaving this down at least creates a more cohesive look from a colour perspective.

Yang really got hit with the grey scale of the Atlas arc.

Whereas Weiss at least got elevated with the blues, despite that not being her colour, Yang's warm palette is just washed out and grey, especially going into Volume 8.

Redesign

I will be honest with all of you in the chat right now, Yang's colour palette stumped me for like ten minutes.

Since the first redesign had that I couldn't do any wild reworks with the outfit or the palette, I had to look at Yang's colours and figure out not only how to make it not ugly, but also show her colour and combat the massive mop of blonde hair behind her.

So I did this!

Not gonna lie, the colours are still teetering to the too much side, but the use of two different shades of yellow and shades like white and black helped it all.

The only ones to be cut from the group was that greyish tan of her overalls, and the third shade of really dark, ugly gold that was used for the metal on her canon version.

Originally, I was going to close the jacket and have the sweater and overalls underneath, creating a layered look while trying to keep faithful to canon, but then I coloured in the legs the same colour as the jacket.

So it made this into more of a jumpsuit type outfit. I actually had something very similar to this to keep me warm as a kid-

Pretty similar to this! Just black and yellow, it always reminded me of the suit that the Bride wears in Kill Bill. So, I made that for Yang and kept the reddish-brown colour for it though changed the arms to the lighter yellow while keeping bright gold for her hair.

Which I quite like! Dare I say that, if I could tweak the shade of the red, I would like this more than the all black look that I usually advocate Yang to be in.

There was also a poll I made a few days ago to decide between Yang's hankerchief being purple or orange, and orange won out even if I really like the purple. So, I kept her leg bandana but also made the shoelaces purple just to have more of that cool colour for Yang.

Now, her fully redone version.

Me talking about how good Yang's slight tan is for her design and then just not doing it, okay faker /j

So, I actually kept the jumpsuit idea from the mini redesign of before since I really liked the idea. I used both black and a dark grey for different zones to keep it all from blending together, on top of using bright gold for all the metal and details to keep the colour consistently through Yang's outfit.

The yellow sleeves are a lighter, softer shade of yellow with grey cuffs and black gloves, keeping most of her arms from disappearing into her legs, and the black jumpsiot frames her yellow sweater so there's more of Yang's colour situated on her chest.

This helps accent the middle and the limbs of the character, along with using purple in the bandana and shoelaces to show a pop of cool tone against her warm palette.

Speaking of her palette, her colours had been reduced drastically to black/white, two shades of yellow, purple for the accents and now importantly, red for Ruby, finally putting her sister's colour on her.

Her neck scarf was also swapped out for an actual scarf, mimicing Ruby's hood and having some red between Yang's body and her yellow hair behind her, segmenting more of it off.

And while this improves so much on the canon outfit, it's not as impressive to me given how much the other outfit just brings Yang down. I really like the use of black for higher contrast to her yellow, but something about the reddish-brown used before had me almost preferring that one.

Either way, still very much prefer her look now.

Conclusion

Overall, Yang very much ended the team lineup not with a Yang, but a flop. Her incohesive colour palette, lack of signature colour, poorly though out outfit for the environment, and cluttered look really didn't help and, I ahve to say, she's the worst one out of all of them.

Weiss is a close second however, but at least with Weiss, there's some bits that I quite liked and her colour palette, while not good at showing her signature colour, at least was cohesive and nice to look at. Yang's couldn't even do that irregardless of my hatred for yellow.

So, just like Weiss, I gotta give Yang's Atlas outfit an F.

Now that Team RWBY's Atlas designs are done, here's what I'm planning next.

The next round for RWBY is their Beacon outfits, as they won second place in the poll. After them will be Mistral, followed by their Volume 2 outfits. When I'm done with those, I'll likely put up a poll to determine what order I'll be doing Team JNPR's, including hypothetical outfits for Pyrrha if she had lived past the FOB.

But, to make sure I don't get burnt out making so many drawings and redesigns and posts about Team RWBY, I'm gonna put a poll after each RWBY section with 4 random RWBY characters to choose from.

Whoever wins will be the design review between each RWBY set. I've already got the four characters this round, but feel free to comment or send in any characters that you want to see!

Until next time!

[pilot-boi]

I am *begging* on my hands and knees, please give us the reactions of team RWBY to Tree Jaune. I'm an angst fiend and haven't been given a hit in so long.

It can’t be Jaune, it just doesn’t make sense

Weiss was the last to fall, she’s sure of it. Jaune is with his team in Vacuo. He’s holding them together, holding everyone together, like he’s always done. If Ruby is their soul of their little family then Jaune is the heart, and he HAS to be in Vacuo waiting for them

She didn’t see him fall. Winter was still there, she wouldn’t have let him fall. The twin crescents glint mockingly from the shield half embedded in the tree’s trunk. Her hand traces the emblem and doesn’t notice when the mark blurs not from time but from tears.

Blake’s fingers brush the bark of the tree. Gnarled and cracked as an old pine, but with the leaves and coloring of a birch. White and gold, strong and steady. How can it possibly be him?

The Rusted Knight was always her favourite character. The hero she dreamed of living up to. For him to be Jaune is incredible, for the Rusted Knight to come to this is unbelievable. But Jaune to be so hopeless he was forced to this is unthinkable

Yang picks leaves and berries from her hair. Blue as the sea, as tears, as his eyes. A burden so heavy he gave up completely? A loss too great for his spirit to bear? A pain so great he had to flee from sentience to protect himself?

The cat must be lying. And how DARE they. Jaune wouldn’t just give up like that. Her friend is the most stubborn person she knows, sometimes to his own detriment. He never gives up when the going gets tough, he just shoulders it and keeps moving forward. She can feel all too familiar anger bubbling in her at the cat’s audacity

Ruby kneels at the foot of the trunk and her gaze rests on the too-familiar blade. Embedded halfway up the blade and with a pair of roots wrapped around the blue leather hilt. Standing ready for battle even now

A branch of yellow leaves brushes the top of her head. She can almost feel his hand on her shoulder. A burden too heavy to bear and he was elevated to this state of peace.

Why does she feel almost jealous?

[hsslilly-blog]

Blair, untitled, a double record // (YouTube Music)

♪♫♪ some are dead and some are living; in my life, i've loved them all

💿 DISC ONE:

1. child psychology | black box recorder // 2. empty | metric // 3. a dark congregation | the hush sound // 4. eclipse | pink floyd // 5. this fire | franz ferdinand // 6. i will, tonight | the brokebacks // 7. bird song | florence + the machine // 8. i think i'm going to kill myself | elton john // 9. misguided ghosts | paramore // 10. here comes the sun | the beatles // 11. california | joni mitchell // 12. here's where you belong | the west coast pop art experimental band

💿 DISC TWO:

13. i was an island | john-allison weiss // 14. autumn | raíssa azevedo // 15. god must hate me | catie turner // 16. body terror song | aaj // 17. hangar | 8485 // 18. california friends | the regrettes | 19. team | lorde // 20. clusterhug | i dont know how but they found me | 21. backyard // sløtface | 22. different // the academic | 23. in our bedroom after the war | stars // 24. coming of age | mxmtoon // 25. in my life | the beatles

For day two of Blair Week, I decided to explore a bit of Blair's relationship with music! This was the perfect opportunity to share their playlist too, which I hadn't done before. I'm very happy with how this one turned out; there's an entire narrative here. This playlist sounds really nice if you have a crossfade of 3 seconds between songs (on Spotify).

Music is very important to Blair, and it's central to their character. It's connected with how they interact with their friends, and how they see the world too. I think it's one of my favourite aspects about them!

Blair grew up with and around music. Music was a very important cultural factor in their small community in Appin; Blair and Colin, their older brother, were part of a traditional Scottish band for a while, and Blair learnt how to play the fiddle only so they could perform together. It didn't last for very long (they were children), but Blair cherishes those memories a lot, and it started their lifelong love for the violin.

From an early age, musical education was encouraged by their parents (by their father, mostly), and their paternal grandparents. Blair first learnt how to play the piano from their father, and later on they picked up the violin/fiddle like I mentioned. Playing instruments and listening to music was how Blair and Colin spent time with their father in the short periods he used to be at home, when he was not working. So a lot of Blair's musical taste comes from their father (you can trace the Beatles obsession back to him). The three of them were very close.

When Blair was 12, their parents decided to move from their small village of Appin to Glasgow so Blair and Colin could have better opportunities. At the same time, Blair got into St. Mary Margaret's Secondary School through a scholarship; this was a school with an excellent musical programme which would help Blair immensely with their plans of attending a conservatoire in the future. Things seemed to be going really well for them, and even with hardships (which I'll explore in a future post), they were happy to be getting formal musical education. In the first Blair Week post, I mentioned Blair also sings + plays the guitar, and it was at this institution they got this training.

After Colin's death, music stopped making sense to Blair. It just... wasn't as fun anymore to them, and they didn't see the reason in keep playing and performing and doing all that. Problem is, they still had to be involved with music at school since their education hinged on their musical scholarship. Grief attaches itself to many things in many weird ways. Being "forced" to interact with something they weren't ready yet made Blair create an aversion for music. This got worse as Blair's mother kept pressuring and guilting them into performing (and into everything else).

Having this aversion was really troubling to Blair since music was all they had, and now they had nothing. Not only that, but it was all they were. When Blair arrives in the United States in 2013, they're very confused about their identity, in many different ways, and this was one of them. If they couldn't be a musician, then what would they be? If they couldn't introduce themselves by "I'm Blair and I play the piano", then how would you even know them?

This conflict permeates Blair's entire arc in High School Story Prime (together with their other struggles with identity), and making peace with music and the space it has in their life is one of their "plots". I use the band questline to explore this, as it works really well with arc. Payton is a character that helps Blair a lot with their identity, and I love that she's the one who first approaches Blair with the idea of creating a band. The (band) is their baby. Blair agreeing to performing with other people, after so long, is an important step in their trajectory. It's also an opening (to other people, to another life, to other shades).

Another important character in Blair's journey with music is Duda! I've only talked about her once or twice, but she's a virtuoso and her friendship with Blair makes them start reconnecting with music (which, in turn, allows them to start the band with Payton). Duda is the founder of the music club and Blair gets interested in it when they help Duda with their cello.

Since Blair and music is directly related to Blair and grief (as is basically everything with them), this conflict does not see resolution until after high school. A lot happens with Blair in college, but Payton helps them through it once again. Getting the band together again, as a duo this time (since everyone is scattered around the U.S.), feels like a nice ending for a score that begun a long time ago.

Like I said, I plan on returning to Blair and music (and more) in another post in Blair Week, so there's more to say! This is the main musical post, though. I loved creating this playlist for Blair, and I hope you guys like it too! (and I'm open for asks 😈)

[chiliandchocolate]

My favourite RWBY Characters

1. Yang Xiao Long

I love her. She's funny, she's confident, she's strong. I really like her Semblance, too (who doesn't love a good temper tantrum XD). She's a good sister (despite haters saying otherwise 🙄) and I am excited to see more of her being a girlfriend.

2. Weiss Schnee

Okay, she's really a brat in Volume 1. But she's come so far. She is really well written and I love how much she's grown. She's a good friend and she kept her promise: being the best teammate.

3. Nora Valkyrie

I mean, she is queen of the castle :D

She is super fun, but she can also be the voice of reason (as seen in Irowoods office). She speaks her mind and really loves to eat (i can relate to that one XD)

[miloscat]

[Review] Lorelei and the Laser Eyes (PC)

Pew-pew eye-lasers not included.

Sayonara Wild Hearts continues to be one of my favourite games, and after my annual birthday playthrough of it, I decided to check out the Swedish developer Simogo's latest game. Unlike SWH it's not a technopop thrill ride but a moody and atmospheric puzzle adventure, which it turns out is more in their wheelhouse anyway as they have three other games in their catalogue that could be described this way!

In 1963 an eclectic German artist, Lorelei Weiss, is invited to an isolated hotel in central Europe by an eccentric filmmaker. Supposedly, they are going to collaborate on a new art piece, but what you find instead is a series of riddles and locks hiding a mystery that stretches into the past and the future. As you open more doors you uncover the series of occult events that led to a tragedy, and the reasons behind the surreal happenings at the hotel.

You control Lorelei as she strolls around this cramped and obtuse place (or breaks into a light jog if she's had an espresso recently). Helpful menus keep track of documents you've seen, your inventory, and a log of questions and events; referencing these is essential, but I also found it useful to have at least one other external source of note-taking (plus photos of the screen), to cross-check solutions and maps. These menus can be a bit fiddly with the "controller" interface, since it's a one-button game; I played this on my fancy new Steam Deck and it worked well apart from this. I haven't played too many of these deep game-wide puzzle experiences, but I certainly found this easier to get along with than Myst or La Mulana.

While you navigate the hotel, certain recurring themes help to reinforce the puzzle elements: specific years and character names have importance, and there's a maze featured prominently which you explore in a few different ways. There's plenty of spatial reasoning, number, and logic puzzles which are catnip for me, apart from which the game makes sure to have references for any required knowledge like Roman numerals, Greek letters, astrology concepts, etc., so it's all self-contained. Apart from getting hung up on certain puzzles that I didn't yet have the required clues for (I needed a slight nudge every now and then), I felt good about the difficulty and the game consistently made me feel smart when I made a deductive leap or connection.

The sound design is classy and minimalist, while the look of the game is very striking, mostly monochrome except for highlighting certain things in a bright crimson for effect, especially the eponymous laser eyes. The subtly shifting textures add to the heightened mood of this eery, slightly threatening place, but notably important things are easy to spot in the game world. I should note too that the threat rarely becomes overt; outside of specific, telegraphed events there is no risk of a game over, softlock, or point of no return, and the game doesn't jumpscare you or employ disturbing imagery for shock value.

LatLE likes to play with the reality of the story in fun ways too, and not just in anachronistic plot details. At certain points you play an in-game "prototype" of the game itself on a Playstation 1-like console, complete with tank controls, fixed camera angles, and texture warping. There's also sequences that ape early graphic adventures. These diversions are very relevant and mandatory, as all clues build towards a final puzzle in a most satisfying way. Of course, there's also the occasional optional diversion like collecting figurines representing Simogo's prior games, and even Game Boy-like minigames based on them, my favourite being the LatLE action-maze game demake!

I'm glad I gave Lorelei a chance; not being an aficionado of this genre, I nevertheless had a fantastic time puzzling through this intricate mystery. I love how it balanced fantastical elements with the mundane, in an authentically grounded European setting (and a bit of tongue in cheek wryness at times). It never got overwhelming, consistently dripfeeding problems and the necessary clues and tools to solve them, all while looking damn good doing it. Also, there's a cute dog! And maths!! What more do you need?

[anthurak]

Hey, I'm doing a presentation workshop at work and as part of it we each have to give a presentation about something we're passionate about, so I'm doing RWBY and focusing on the subversion of tropes (like how Jaune and Ruby have swapped the traditional male anime protagonist role and the backup role usually for a girl around) and multiple allusions for each character (Norse, LOTR, fairy tale, wizard of Oz etc) and how they're shown.

Do you have any favourite theories or allusions around the main two teams, the Ozluminati or STRQ? Thanks!

Oooh, sounds fun! XD

That's a great question, and honestly when it comes to Team RWBY, I think my favorite allusions are simply how the story flips and twists the core allusions of the main girls:

Ruby is a Little Red Riding Hood who, rather then being menaced and hunted by a monster in the woods, is HERSELF a hunter of monsters. A Red Riding Hood who goes into the woods to hunt the monsters so that others may be safe.

Weiss is a Snow White who is both the 'Disney Princess' AND the 'Knight in Shining Armor'. A girl who probably would have been pushed into a traditional 'princess' role by her controlling, abusive father, but who instead essentially became the 'Knight' to rescue herself, and strives to be a noble figure to help others as well.

And of course, Blake being BOTH the 'Beauty' and 'The Beast' of her allusion. With Yang complimenting said allusion by likewise being both the 'Beast' to Blake's 'Beauty' and the 'Beauty' to Blake's 'Beast'. And how Adam manages to likewise represent both Gaston and the Cursed Rose.

There is also my 'Odin!Ruby' theories, though I will freely admit those are more 'fun headcanons' at the moment, rather then something really held up by the narrative.

There is also something just so damn cool about Salem essentially being 'The Wicked Witch of the West' crossed with SAURON (with a bit of 'Galadrial if she took the Ring' vibes thrown in) XD

And Cinder presenting just this AMAZING dark, tragic twist on Cinderella as a villain origin story. Where Cinderella finally fights back and even KILLS her wicked and cruel step-mother and sisters who so long kept her under their boot, only for the people/person she trusted most to turn on her and side with those very oppressors. Showing just how much the society she lived in was entirely okay with the terrible oppression that was done to her.

The fact that the show manages to give us a Wizard of Oz who really is a powerful wizard, yet also STILL turns out to be a massive fraud who lied to everyone.

Even after all this time, I think some of my favorite allusions in the show are still the ones at the core of the main characters.

[primalinfinity]

Honestly, Jaune is a character I have a lot of feelings about. I love him and dislike him in a tidal dance depending on the volume and where I myself am at mentally at the time I'm rewatching that part. And the love and dislike often come hand in hand.

For example:

Jaune is a very entertaining character who gets to receive lots of worldbuilding exposition in volume 1, due to being a complete dunce who faked his transcripts. But at the same time, I resent the four episodes he got in the first volume when screen time was so precious.

I adore Jaune in the rest of the Beacon arc, post volume 1. I genuinely do. I could rave about the Arkos dynamic and story forever, I adore him with Pyrrha and the tragedy in it.

But, at the same time, his attitude towards his crush on Weiss is uhh...not great. Do I hate him for it? No. But I remember being like that with my first crushes, in my early teens, so I watch a seventeen year old be that way and uncomfortably go "..oof."

Then we have volume's 4, 5 & 6. I love the fact the show truly made Jaune fucking depressed post-Beacon, considering everything that happened. He is brutally traumatised after the agonising final step to his personal Beacon arc. And the scene at Pyrrha's statue in volume 6 is still one of my favourite scenes in the entire damn show.

But at the same time, I still get pissed at how harsh he is to Qrow during A Much Needed Talk (even though it's warranted) and his lashing out in general (even though he's a traumatised teenager).

Jaune takes a heavy backseat during the Atlas arc. Which is completely fair, he had reached the major milestone of his growth by that point. It was time for Ren & Nora to really get their first bits of spotlight since Kuroyuri in volume 4. Jaune's very likeable in 7 & 8, and doesn't really ever overstay his welcome in a single scene or situation he's in. He fits now, which is what Jaune, the character, always wanted.

But then we get to volume 9. Ho boy, volume 9. And I was once again thrown into my paradoxical feelings towards him.

I did not want him to fall into the Ever After, I wanted volume 9 to just by Team RWBY in a vacuum, getting the team moments we kinda...didn't get much of during 7 & 8. But nope, Jaune fell, and was a major part of the second half of the volume.

But I also understand why that happened.

Jaune is just one of those characters I can't just be indifferent about. There are characters in RWBY I am so, so utterly indifferent and uninvested in (I won't name them, because I have no interest in character bashing in this particular post), but Jaune...at any given moment I either love him or am annoyed at him.

I know there are people in the fandom who despise Jaune, or are at least sorta sick of him, but I went through my time of being one of those people and I'm glad I'm out the other side of it.

Instead I just think of him, and I think of Pyrrha and how everything ended up so damn awful and hard. I look back at the Beacon arc where he was just an awkward, bumbling dunce. And even though that early version of him makes me cringe when I rewatch those volumes, when I then get to the context of the later ones I simply wish he'd gotten to remain that boy for just a little while longer.

[misstrashchan]

2, 3, 7, 20, 27, 28, 29, for the rwby ask game? If you don't mind!

2. Rank the soundtracks

From favourite to least:

V1

Not a single track I don't love. Forever iconic, each and every one.

V5

Ignite is my favorite Yang song, as is Path to Isolation for Weiss. Smile is such a tragic song of showing Ilia's parents telling her to cope by smiling, by hiding, to the present where it's twisted into an angry mantra and she's still hiding who she is in a different way. The Triumph feels like such a comeback song with how high energy it is, all our girls heading back to each other, jumping back into the fray. All that Matters is PEAK bumbleby pining angst song. All Things Must Die is glorious, and tbh I think even This Time is pretty underrated as a song for Blake/the White Fang.

V7

I find myself relistening to this one a lot. Trust Love is my favorite OP (and yes that is in part the refrences to the Little Prince I can draw). I also like Touch the Sky and Brand New Day as these kind of recovery songs for all the characters that had been at their lowest or feeling lost finding their hope and confidence, happy in themselves. Let's get Real is a song that DID get me into Renora a little, it's a bop. Was over the moon to have an Oscar song in Fear that encapsulated the theme of the volume and complimented Ozpin's fear speech. Hero makes my brain go AAAAHHHH at how it captures the hubris of Ironwood. Such a great tragic downfall song for his character. Until the End is a great listen and such a lovely surprise to have a Ruby song after so long. War is a certified banger and a great song for the RWBY vs Ace Ops fight.

V9

In fairness I don't think I've listened to this one enough, but the more I do it definitely grows on me. Inside feels like the most unique OP, Checkmate is catchy as hell, Trapdoor makes me INSANE as a Ruby spiralling song. Pleasantly surprised to have a Jaune song in Quiet that's very moving. Worthy is beautiful as a Bumbleby confession/kiss song, truly magical. As a whole I feel the songs lean into being more gentle and introspective as to the usual hardcore rock ballads we know RWBY for, even Checkmate with it's jazziness feels fresh and new. I haven't actually listened to the Edge or Guide my Way enough to have an opinion on them, but I remember liking them, Guide my Way is a nice continuation and evolution of the Red like Roses song trilogy.

V3

When it Falls is SO HARDCORE. Bleeding edge and tragedy for the death and destruction to come. I'm the One is fantastic at laying out Emerald and Mercury's trauma's and subsequently coping mechanisms. Neon is one I like to listen to a lot, it's so fun and upbeat. Divide is brutal and chilling as the song to introduce us to our main villain after seeing her for the first time in all her dark glory at the end of V3. Not Fall in Love with You is... eh. It's my Turn is a good Weiss song, but it's not one if my favorites.

V6

I really like Rising as an OP, it feels the most... magical? fantastical? idk. I like the vibes. Indomitable is what I feel like singing all the time in wake of the recent RWBY news! We really are indomitable! Nevermore as a true triumph over Blake and Yang's trauma at Adam's hands, while acknowledging the tragedy of Adam's own situation. And Big Metal Shoe is a certified banger, love all the fairytale references crammed in there. Miracle is... fine. One Thing is a great song for Neo's return and revenge quest, but I never bought into the Neo hype so I'm kinda mid on it too.

V2. SACRIFICE I LOVE YOU FOREVER AND EVER PLEASE REPRISE IN THE SHOW LATER WITH CINDER PRETTY PLEASE. Now it's Time to Say Goodbye is an incredible banger of an OP, but it felt a little misleading considering it's a song all about losing innocence and leaving behind childhood, which feels more appropriate for V3 and the FoB than V2. Shine, Dream Come True and Boop are all fun and cute but I'm not hugely into Arkos or Renora so I'm kinda neutral on them. I'm also kind of mid on Time to Die as a song.

V8. Honestly this is just the soundtrack I find myself listening to or remembering the least, even though I really like Friend as the perfect Penny song that had me tearing up, and Truth, while short was a great bittersweet song for Cinder. And it was nice to get a Nora song too. The opening for this volume never really grew on me like all the others did (aside from the "some ROSES WILL NEVER BLOOM, SOME HEROES CHOOSE THE WRONG SIDE"). I also just associate this soundtrack with fandom arguing a lot about what song applied to who and it felt exhausting.

3. Favorite Ruby ship?

ROSEGARDEN ALL THE WAY BABY!

7. Favorite lines I already answered for @hoepunkausta

20. What are you looking forward to seeing in Vacuo?

*vibrating at a frequency unknown to man* idk I think a reunion hug between Ruby and Oscar would be neat maybe. Like @aspoonofsugar has pointed out all the set up at the end of the extended epilogue points to these two having a second alchemical wedding and so their relationship having a certain amount of focus/development in Vacuo seems apparent. After so long of not seeing them onscreen together I'm excited for any interactions honestly. I miss my kids.

Wanting to see WBY all trying to support Ruby more and her actively trying but still struggling to open about how she's feeling. More of what see saw with Ruby/Yang in the Boba episode. I'd especially like Ruby and Weiss to have a heart to heart.

Very curious about what Theodore is gonna be like and whoever the hell the Summer maiden. With the Dorothy allusions and those who've lost their homes trying to make one in Vacuo, I'm expecting an exploration of "there's no place like home" to be leant into.

RAVEN. TELL US WHAT HAPPENED ON THAT MISSION WITH YOU AND SUMMER. RUBY AND YANG DESERVE TO KNOW. For real though I'm hoping we see what lead Raven to rejoin the fray too, and how she'll interact with Yang and Qrow and even Ruby, what tension might be there. Delicious family drama....

Speaking of delicious family drama, the Schnees! all reunited! I want Winter and Whitley to tackle hug Weiss to the ground! Also the Schnees appear to be being confronted with all the harm their family and company has done in a kingdom like Vacuo, so I'm curious to see how Weiss handles that. Also Winter is clearly Not Doing Good, so something I'd really like is if Weiss (as her sister) and Ruby (as a friend of Penny and someone she also offered the maiden powers too) and maybe Jaune (who was there with Penny in her final moments) offer comfort to her and they all grieve together.

Emerald. Honestly suprised we didn't get much of a sense of how she was doing in the extended epilogue, not even briefly like Mercury. But I'm super excited for what her arc holds. Seeing her integrate with the group, if Ren, Nora and Oscar are already on friendly terms with her but RWBY are all still a bit wary of her because they've spent less time together. Seeing more of her friendship with Oscar develop (gimme that Little Prince/Fox allusion with their friendship in taming each other pretty please) and like. Mercury. Emerald KNEW Mercury and Tyrian were being sent to Vacuo, she saw him off in the ship, but Ren seems suprised to see him and Tyrian on the cameras in the epilogue. Did Emerald... not tell them? Even though that's incredibly important information that could help her new allies? Because... she wanted to protect Mercury? Because she still feels conflicted? It's incredibly juicy and I can't wait to see how Emerald and Mercury's relationship comes into conflict during the Vacuo arc. Gimme that Emercury angst pretty please.

Vacuo in general. By virtue of the books I think they have the most interesting world building, the food, the culture, the different words for weather phenomenon, the fauna, the nomadic tribes, the history of being a once incredibly beautiful oasis full of everything they needed, then exploited time and again and left with nothing and yet still surviving and carving a home and life for themselves. The world building of Vacuo is one that is inevitably tied to the story because of their fraught history leading to tensions between them and all the refugees from Atlas, Mantle and Vale seeking their aid and shelter in their kingdom, not to mention the Crown seeking to restore the monarchy, it'd be easy for them to be divided and conquered by Salem, and so our heroes have to find a way to overcome that and bring everyone together. So just getting to see the kingdom animated and learn more about its history and culture would be cool. I also like desert punk aesthetic, so I'm hoping whatever new outfits our girls get will have a little of that. (part of me hopes for maybe some Trigun inspiration... we've had Gurren Laggan inspiration in Yang's outfits before!)

I would also say I'm looking forward to seeing my darling cringefail wife Cinder but I don't know if she'll be in Vacuo or with Salem in Vale wrecking shit.

27. Favorite voice performance?

AARON DISMUKE AS OSCAR HANDS DOWN. Him being the VA for Oscar meant I was destined to like him, I usually do with characters he voices. The fact he has to also voice Oscar when controlled by Ozpin, and sometimes Oscar pretending to be Ozpin, and completely nails the subtle differences in all of them is phenomenal. And as the merge progresses he's literally having to mix and merge their voices together too!!! It's crazy!!! The awkward and shy intonation becoming a more sincere and quiet confident voice as Oscar develops, and gaining Oz's mannerisms in speech with a deeper and more serious tone. That is some crazy talent this man has.

Always impressed with how well Linsay Jones and Miles Luna hold up in earlier volumes, they've consistently been the best voice performances from start to present. Also Cherami Leigh as Ilia is absolutely fantastic, it's rare I've heard her get to flex her emotional range like that in her voice work for such a complex character.

28. Fairytale character you'd want to see RWBYfied?

With how character songs are a big thing in the show and semblances that can hypnotize and mind control exist, and instruments sometimes being weapons (gestures to Flynt), I'd love an allusion to The Pied Piper or the Lorelai Siren as a villain of some kind. Bonus if you had a Little Mermaid/Lorelai Siren allusion for that victim/monster/hero duality RWBY likes to play with.

Not technically a traditional fairytale but also very much one, the Last Unicorn, one of my alltime favorite books would be beyond amazing to be alluded to, even a tiny bit. Amalthea the unicorn being the last of her kind, the rest hunted down by a wicked beast at the order of a tyrant. She is associated with silver, the moon, hope and purity constantly. A story that is both a love letter and deconstruction of fairytales, an exploration of the nature of humanity and mortality. Tell me that wouldn't be perfect as an allusion to a Silver Eyed Warrior (also thought to be a myth) trying to find out what happened to the rest of her kind.

29. Favorite opening to sing along too?

TRUST LOOOOOVVVVVEEEE AND OPEN UP YOUR EYESEESSSSS TRUST LOOOOVVVVVEEEE THE TRUTH IS THERE BUT SOMETIMES IN DISGUISE

[old-acc-lesbianswithguns]

I truly believe ladybug and freezerburn make more sense than bumblebee and whiterose. I multiship a lot but these two are my favourite pairings.

Ruby is perfect for Blake because of her unwavering loyalty. Even when Blake leaves or is unsure, Ruby’s overbearing affection can always reassure her. Yang is good at this too, though she’s a little more subtle with it, she can be what Blake needs, but Blake isn’t what Yang needs. Ruby isn’t as bothered by her come and go style. She’s the one who immediately understands Blake and why her books are so important to her. She can help her become less passive, open up and become more determined, all the things Blake said she admires her for.

Weiss is perfect for Yang because she’s so far the only person to get her to open up. She can put aside her stubbornness for Yang, as seen when they’re mysteriously offscreen for a while and after, she’ willing to reconsider her views on a war which has shaped her life and family. She knows how to push Yang and help her out of her comfort zone. Meanwhile Yang and Blake don’t push each other. They don’t talk about Adam much, or any of their problems or separations. It’s hard to believe with Yang’s glaring abandonment issues Blake’s distant nature wouldn’t set that off.

Meanwhile Blake is perfect for Ruby because she’s a calming presence. She can help Ruby to be tactical and cautious, to control her impulsivities. She can remain patient and calm, and won’t get as frustrated as Weiss. Instead, Blake likes her for her insistency and positivity. She’s so gentle with Ruby and trusts her unconditionally, but she can help her see a more nuanced view of the world.

Yang is perfect for Weiss because she can neutralise her intensity. They have that fire and ice dynamic that works so well for them. In volume two (I think) they manage to plan the dance together, which is just impressive. They’re the two most hotheaded and stubborn characters, but they can put that aside for each other. Yang is impulsive like Ruby, but unlike her, she can be incredibly patient with the people she loves. She could wait for Weiss to figure out her feelings about things and support her, where Ruby would likely jump to help without thinking, like she did in Ice Queendom.

Whiterose and bumblebee are two of my favourite ships in anything ever, but I truly think ladybug and freezerburn would provide more stable long term relationships and could help each other improve and grow even more. The silliieeeeees

[hello-galad]

For your favourite FFVII character

1. Canon you outright reject

2. A canon or headcanon hill you will die on

50. A memory they’ve blocked out

HIIII! Thank you so much for the ask!

Ohi have so many favorites but my obvious top 1 is Vincent Valentine so here we go:

Canon you outright reject.

I have picked Dirge of Cerberus apart so many times because there's so many things I disagree with, specifically I think Vincent's crush on Lucretia derived from a promise he made to his dad about protecting her before Grimoire died. Lucretia never reciprocated but had a certain obsession with Vincent because he reminded him so much of Grimoire and in her head, she was responsible for Grimoire's death.

On that note, let Lucretia be unhinged. I refuse to accept she was this submissive, shy woman. She was one of the lead scientists of the Genova project! Let her be brilliant and have a fucked up sense of morality! Let her revive Vincent out of guilt but also because she wanted to see if the research Grimoire and her spend so much time on worked, and it did! Let her experiment on Vincent for the sake of science and her need to prove Grimoire's death was not in vain. Let Vincent's fucked up mind create a strange and not quite right version of her in his head that he faces and has to admit was wrong when he decides to let go. Let Lucretia be a human with objectives and goals that made her do things by herself beyond what the men in her life told her to! AHHHHHH!

Also I hc Vincent never slept with Lucretia, but there's a chance Sephiroth, Weiss and even Nero are his biological kids because Hojo (non-consensually) took his genetic material and threw it around like confetti because Vincent was the first experiment to be successful in 1) processing Jenova cells correctly and 2) Not dying. Although he could never figure out exactly what Lucretia did to achieve that (*cough* Chaos and company *cough*).

2. A canon or headcanon hill you will die on.

Chaos doesn't return to the planet after the events of DoC, but this time they have a better relationship with their host. Same goes with the others. Maybe Vincent is immortal and stays 27 forever and maybe he can or not decide when to die...

50. A memory they’ve blocked out

I think there's a lot of fucked up shit Hojo did to Vincent that his brain blocked out to preserve his psyche. I think Hojo treated him as an object, a test subject, that was his property before he was Shinra's, specially after Lucretia's "death".

For a while he blocked a lot of the things that Lucretia did to him as a test subject, too.

Do I think he remembers those things at some point with AVALANCHE? Yes, and its terrible for him so he sorts of puts it in the "not opening this now or ever" box in the back of his brain for a while but he eventually has to face it when recovering.

I think Cid helps him a lot with that. Sometimes Vincent can't even say out loud what happened to him in that basement but Cid makes sure to reassure him nothing Hojo did to him will make Cid leave or categorize Vincent as less than a human being deserving of happiness and respect.

I think that while Vincent has an almost Eidetic memory, there's a lot of things from his past when he was just Grimoire's son and then when he was Vincent of the Turks that he forgot about because of what he went through. But then one day AVALANCHE finds an antiques shop and Vincent sees a console phonograph and he remembers his mother (I hc she was a geologist) playing her favorite song and picking Vincent up to dance around the living room.

One day Cid gifts Vincent a polaroid camera and Vincent remembers when he would use Shinra equipment to take silly pictures of the other Turks instead of using them for surveillance.

Another day, when visiting the 7th Heaven for a reunion party, he walks to the old piano no-one knows how to play but Tifa used to dream about learning to play and just...starts playing. He plays the equivalent of Beethoven's Moonlight sonata's 3rd movement out of nowhere, claw and all, because he had forgotten besides learning how to shoot, his father was adamant Vincent had to learn to play an instrument perfectly to help his memory and coordination.

How about that time Vincent suddenly remembers his family was kinda nobility and super loaded and he's like "uh I think we used to have a mansion in Junon maybe we can find weapons and amunition in there?". And that is how Vincent finds Cerberus.

[howlingday]

Hello, I'm here to ask about my favourite RWBY au of yours, the Summon mentor au. Specifically, each characters personality change thanks to their mentor, like how different the character's personality from the Canon

Starting from the top...

Ruby Rose - Death

To be perfectly honest, I can't see Ruby being all too different from normal. However, she might be a different, more mature person in the future, considering her mentor is Death himself.

Weiss Schnee - Alucard

When you get to the basics, both Alucard and Weiss have a lot in common. Both of them are children of illustrious and well-known families, and both have a strained relationship, if any at all, with their tyrannical and downright evil fathers. So I think the training Weiss receives will be a mixture of fencing and swordplay sprinkled with a little bit of self-reassurance practices to remind her that she is not her father.

Blake Belladonna - Ezio Auditore da Firenze

I feel like thanks to a much more mature Ezio is teaching Blake, he knows how to bring out the best in her, especially since he's already got plenty of experience teaching students just like her before. As a result, I feel like Blake is going to be much more efficient with her stealth, as well as more versatile in her arsenal and tactics.

Yang Xiao Long - Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka

Considering Yang is already the most destructive member of Team RWBY, having the Ork warboss to end all warbosses as her mentor isn't going to do much to pull her back from her collateral damage. She just might start as many fights as she can just so she can get into the thrill of the fight. And if she loses, then that just means she didn't hit hard enough, right?

Jaune Arc - Po

Unless Po has seriously changed in the upcoming fourth movie, Jaune is pretty much going to be just like him. He's kinda put on a couple pounds (not as much as Po, of course), and has found a way to convert what he eats into fuel for his martial arts. He's also not going to be using his sword for a lot in this version, but he still has it.

Nora Valkyrie - Reinhardt Wilhelm

Looking at Reinhardt's previous student, Brigitte, I can imagine Nora shifting from heavy artillery to focus a little more on her defense. The hammer stays, though. And not only does it stay, it gets an upgrade. One that it's sure to knock Grimm socks off! ...if they wore socks.

Pyrrha Nikos - Kratos

Kratos was a leader of many a military company and has spent much time as a father-figure of sorts, both to his own kids as well as Pandora. These all add up to a mentor who teaches Pyrrha how to wield every weapon she can, but masters the most dangerous and most effective one; herself. So we have a Pyrrha is both sure of herself and acting as a jack-of-all-trades.

Lie Ren - Zaraki Kenpachi

Ren may not look like too different from his original iteration, but this boy has scars from how intense his training can get. In fact, his whole combat routine is simply "fight the biggest one". It sometimes scares Nora with how reckless he can get, especially when she's been the one to provide first aid on more than one occasion.

[dragynkeep]

RWBY Design Review - Weiss Schnee (Atlas)

Overview

Actually comng out with Weiss, and straight off the bat we're gonna be struggling tonight. After Ruby's pretty alright design, the rest of her team really dropped the ball and Weiss is one that I know is gonna be more negative than the previous one.

Pros

I have to give something to Weiss' design so it's not all bad, and there's a few things I at least like the idea of here.

I appreicate the attempt to mimic Snow White's sleeves as a way to allude back to Weiss' allusion, even if I actually don't like how the bulbous sleeves are modelled and feed into her gloves.

On top of that, I do also like her long gloves and the detailing, as well as most of the show design with the wavy style shoecaps.

A final thing was that, while her colour palette is more a con since it's way too many blues and very little white, which is - you know- Weiss' colour, it is still a pretty nice colour palette. Blue is my favourite colour so Weiss does get away with this more than others would.

I will also say that I like the idea of Weiss' bangs being more smooth and preticious compared to the choppy bangs she had before, mostly because loads of characters already have the choppy bangs and it helps to differentiate Weiss from the others.

And that's it for this design.

Cons

Now there is just so much about Weiss' design that I straight up do not like that I gotta do this in designated paragraphs to avoid my thoughts jumping all over the place.

Hair

First up is Weiss' hair.

I won't even blame the modeller solely for this because even in Ein Lee's art, where others at least looked cute at least, Weiss' braid is still not all that great.

This braid is just so obnoxiously thick and top heavy with the addition of the bun that it's on top of. Weiss' hair is clearly thin and her previous ponytail showed that with how thin and flowy it was, but this braid somehow manages to double the volume. If it was way thinner and the bun bit taken off, it wouldn't look half as bad!

I am also just a short haired Weiss truther. Given the storytelling behind her braid that the creators pointed out, Weiss' position of her ponytail correlated with the position in her life under her father. What better way to show her complete freedom from his control than cutting off that control through her hair.

It's a far more drastic and compelling for her character than Blake randomly looking at her hair and deciding a haircut was in order, and I'm somehow who actually likes the idea of Blake having shorter hair to distinguish her hair silhouette from Yang.

It also doesn't help that her braid is just modelled terribly. I try to be understanding for the modellers and such because this time in RWBY was just so bad for crunching and underpaying them, but I will still criticise this work because it's not good.

They tried to improve it between Volume 7 and 8, and they did a good job in mimicing how Ein Lee drew the braid, but it's still a bad looking braid.

Outfit

Going past of the braid itself, the outfit itself is so cluttered and clunky throughout the entire outfit. Weiss is exposing her chest and knees for no reason in the tundra, repeating the same issues as I had with Ruby but even worse, because at least Ruby covered most of her body with something. Weiss didn't even do that!

There's also the four different layers of different shades of blue and white. The navy bolero, the periwinkle dress and the white dress with a darker blue sash. Nevermind Weiss having 3 belts around her waist.

The longer skirt, the shorter dress underneath that needs to flash her legs in the arctic, and the constricting bolero collar and sleeves have taken away from Weiss' established silhouette. She no longer has the wider sleeves, shorter dress and popped collar that would've been suitable for her style of fighting.

Now she looks bogged down and constricted, which coincidedly matches how the writers wanted Ein Lee to design Weiss to be a spellcaster wizard type, which... is not her fighting style and is a problem in all of Weiss' fights because now she mostly stands around and waves her sword around like a fancy wand and spams her summons.

There's also the issue of this outfit being in the wrong style for the position that Weiss is in at this point of the story. The embezzeled jewels and details, the almost princess style of clothing with the jewelled crown, is completely off when compared to Weiss who, at this point, has completely cut off her rich family and is making a name for herself.

This style with the constricting clothing and fancy detailing would've fitted much better for Weiss at the start, who was the ideal heiress to the SDC. Both the clothing and the smoothed out hair could then moved out of this neat and tidy image the further Weiss distanced herself from the Schnee family and name.

Right now, this just looks like the story going backwards on what it's trying to say.

Colour

Now, while I think the colour palette overall is nice 'cause I love blue, it's an issue on this character who's meant to represent white.

Don't get me wrong, putting these characters in mostly their colour is not the right way to go because then it's just boring. Weiss works with white, black, red and an icy shade of blue as an accent. Blue isn't Weiss' colour because A. that doesn't go for any of character, and b. the outfit she wore while trapped at home under her father was a majority of blue.

Nevermind the issue of her associated colour being on the bottom most layer, overpowered by the different shades of blue, the inside of the dress is a dark, desaturated red.

Because the closed collar of her bolero means that Weiss can't have the signature red collar that pops against all the cold colours of her palette, including her pale skin that ends up grey in the Atlas lighting.

But most of the time, you can't even see the red underside of the dress because the white dress covers it, so it's completely unnecessary and just drags the eye down to the bottom of her design whenever she moves.

Similar to Ruby, Weiss' concept at least shows how the bright white and colours of blue compared to the washed out palette of the show, but Weiss does not need four different shades of blue, nevermind that her black gloves and soles are not even black.

They're dark navy. I don't know what it is with some characters in this show and using a darker shade of a colour rather than just using black. It would also add Blake's colour since both Weiss and Blake have consistently used each others colours in their designs and have important relationships with each other in the show.

At least they should but whatever-

I did also draw the dress a bit too short so the underside of the upper dress is showing when it doesn't in the show, but regardless it does highlight just how bad the eye is dragged down to Weiss' legs when you want to be draw to the character's face and whatever body parts they use for fighting.

In Weiss' case you want to pay attention to her arms, but the black dark navy gloves blend more in with the navy blue bolero compared to the warm red contrasting her mostly cool colour palette.

These colour palettes really highlight how grey Weiss is. Grey girl energy, give us nothing Weisssss-

I have to say that, again, if Weiss was blue or if you have a blue themed character, then Atlas lighting at least does well for them. Even Weiss and other white themed characters wouldn't do that bad, but if you're a human with a human complexion, every scene if gonna make you look like an extra of Corpse Bride.

Redesign

I will be absolutely honest with you all, my girls and gays, I tried with the first redesign to try and see if you could at least make the outfit less ugly, but the answer is no. The style and the colour palette just were not helping me.

Using the black dark navy to make the bolero and sash stand out with her white dress, and using the lighter shade of grey blue for the dress underneath. The red underpart of the upper dress was also changed so the dress and shoes stood out from the long skirt, but that also means that what little red Weiss wore was now even less with just the jewels and earrings.

I did change her lips to a red lipstick to add to the Snow White aesthetic. I like that.

But other than that, I just do not like this design and no amount of jiggling around will make me like it.

Onto the actual full redesign.

Short haired Weiss SUPREMACY-

So one of the most drastic changes I made was changing Weiss' hairstyle. She now has a wavy, more choppy bob and a cute little ahoge. I totally didn't stare at Furina's hairstyle from Genshin while drawing Weiss, absolutely not-

That wasn't the only thing I shortened either. Both her jacket dress and the dress underneath are shortened to show more of Weiss' legs from both the front and the back, while keeping the bell shape silhouette. On top of that, she now has her wide sleeves and her popped collar back, meaning that the pop of red in Weiss' design is back and frames her face nicely, keeping the viewer's eyes on the face.

I also ditched the dark navy and made the black of her design actually black, providing more contrast between the jacket and her dress, while also illuminating the white on the upper layer where the colour belongs.

I did keep the style of her shoes, but rather than the frilly fabric of her canon shoes, I changed it to inlaid fur for additional coziness. I did add the details of Weiss' canon gloves onto the shoes for a little extra.

While I took away the Snow White-esque sleeves for the wider sleeves, I did add some other bits for Weiss' allusion; including the red lips and the red apple shaped button on her jacket pocket. It's a shame that Weiss doesn't have black hair like Snow White is described as having, but her white hair also fits for her colours and differentiates her from Blake.

And I forgot to add this to Ruby's design, but I did keep the idea of the friendship bracelets that Ruby was meant to buy for her team back in Volume 6. So each member of the team now has them with Weiss' hanging out of her jacket pocket.

So honestly, I do really like this redesign for Weiss.

Conclusion

Overall, Weiss' design is a severe drop from Ruby's and is easily one of the worst designs out of the team, maybe even the Atlas cast in my opinion.

She managed to lose more of her signatures shapes and styles from her Mistral one, which was already a worser continuation of Weiss' Beacon outfit. The colour palette now completely overpowers the white, it's so clunky and cluttered with unnecessary fabrics and looks like it just bogs Weiss down.

And it was made even worse in the show through the modelling, especially her braid. Just a terrible outfit, I have to put it at the bottom with an F.

Thanks for sticking around! Next one will be Blake's Atlas design, which is only ever so slightly better than Weiss'.

Until next time!

[deadbeatbirdmom]

Yang's eyes

There's a lot I love about Yang. She's my favourite character in RWBY. At some point I'll go into depth about why. But that's not what this post is about. No, this is more to do with shallow appreciation of Yang's eyes. They're very pretty, and an unusual colour: lilac.

But there is something that confuses me.

One of these is not like the others. And I'm not talking about Yang's loss of most of her right arm, which I'm sure is hardly surprising on a post about her eyes.

Behold:

It took me a while to notice it. I'm capable of being observant, at least sometimes, but it took me up until some point in Volume 5.

Yang's pupils aren't black, unlike just about everyone else. I think Weiss's were also a darker shade of blue in the first couple of volumes, but that changed. They're certainly black by Volume 5.

Here's Yang with black pupils, somewhat clumsily changed by yours truly:

I played around a bit more, here's Yang with her usual dark purple pupils and edited black pupils in the moment before the confession in Volume 9, which I call 'gay overload':

It's a fairly subtle difference but I certainly notice it.

And here it is again, with a close up kindly provided by @strawberry-seal77, as I mentioned I was trying to find pics of Yang's eyes to her/him.

More striking close up, at least to me.

CRWBY must have a reason to do Yang's pupils the way they do, considering just about everyone else in RWBY has black pupils. But why? I have no idea. Do black pupils risk making her eyes look a different colour?

Whatever the case, it's not something I hate or even just dislike. It just confuses me.

[ruins-of-tragedy]

Old habits die hard it seems. Not as thorough, but here you have some random thoughts on volume four of RWBY...

- Cinder may be bad, but she is a good villain and shouldn't have to take shite from Watts. Especially when she did get the job done... Misogyny in the workplace. Can never truly escape it.

- Salem is pretty in a creepy fashion. Does she have a dust stone in her?

- How is Jaune still okay? He was hit by rocks. So were his crown jewels, if you catch my drift. And then his face as well. Glad he is somehow still standing though!

- What do you mean his armour and weapon now have Pyrrha's too?! ...I am not crying. Am not!

- Please tell me this butler of the Schnees is Calvin Klein. Such humble origins! 😂

- That whole video with Pyrrha while Jaune and Ruby listen. Why?! Why must you hurt me like this...

- It also shows Beacon in the background. 🥺

- Pyrrha is going to haunt the narrative and I wouldn't have it any other way.

- Ghira and Kali Belladonna are great parents. Kudos to them for trying their best while still not being too over bearing during difficult situations.

- Jacques Schnee should come at me and meet his demise. Whitley is annoying.

- Two things. Why did Professor Ozpin sound like Baymax the first time he scared the living shite out of Oscar? Secondly, I legit thought either this is Ozpin's kid or that he reincarnated again. (Apparently, was closer to the truth than I imagined)

- Cheered every time Zwei was on-screen.

- "I will be there for you." -Tai, F.R.I.E.N.Dly father. 😆

- Well. Qrow is a tragic character. "Bad luck charm." Fucking hell. I love him.

- What traumatic hero hellhole did they make Lie and Nora's backstory in?

- Holy fuck. Ren is going through so much shite mentally. And he still came back. Best boy!!!

- Funny thing, his semblance really confused me at first. He took away the colours when using it and I assumed that meant they go invisible. Had to enlist my friend to help figure it out. Big brain moment. 😅

- Now, here's to friends like Sun who are there for us when we don't want them to! Or allow them to, but still need.

- As someone who adores purple, Salem's lair is my dream house. I just need to get rid of the occupants. And install some warm lights.

- Casey Lee Williams brings it every time she has to sing for RWBY and I love that!!!

- This season felt more like a filler, but a necessary one...

- Yang underwent the using-her-head-full-of-wonderful-gold-locks-first, instead-of-relying-only-on-brute-strength arc. 👊🏻

- Weiss' family is an absolute mess and now we know why she is the way she is. But also that she is better than them too. She has to be. Especially after everything that happened. ❄️

- Blake really needed to realise letting people be there for her is important. Even more so because they want to, since they love her. 💖

- Team RNJR is grieving and getting better and possesses a whole lot of emotional baggage they need to sort out. At least they have each other's backs! And are not named team JNRR. 😆❤️‍🔥

- The plot too is moving forward. Picking up pace. "What's your favourite fairytale?"

- Much respect for the people who watched RWBY as it came out. I could not have waited to learn what happened next without losing my mind.

(You spoil me, I become Yang and punch you into tomorrow. A presto!)