#what also gets me is that who's to say there won't be a V4? V5?

[haldenlith]

I use Clip Studio Paint, and I still lightly recommend it, though those recommendations now come with the caveat of what bugs me right now: the pay model they've switched to.

A lot of the shit they're marketing as featured "updates" you have to have an "update plan" to access. Granted, the subscription could be more egregiously priced (looking at you Adobe), so I'll give them it had fair pricing, but just the concept behind it bugs me. A lot of the tools/features are improvements on tools already in the program. Better mesh tool? Better text? Improved control of the 3D figures? These are all things that really should just be updated to customers who already bought the program.

I'd be more understanding if they didn't have other monetization options, like the Assets store and the subscription they require if you want to use CSP on mobile (or multiple devices). Also: they charge for upgrades to the most recent released version. We're on V2 right now, and they intend to release V3 in 2024. So if you're on V1, and don't want to have the subscription, you have to pay to upgrade... to V2. And then you have to pay again to upgrade to V3.

I don't know, it just feels like a slow, nickel-and-dime march. And that's, by the way, ignoring the stupid requirement of having an internet connection to use the program. I get that it needs to check if my copy of CSP is genuine and not pirated, or whatever, but shit, that really fucks over folks who don't have reliable internet (I'm one of those folks, but on the very mild side).

"Woops! Sorry! I can't check, for the 473rd time, that your program is genuine! Guess you can't use this program you paid for!"

It's so dumb.

[thelastbraincellofthehive]

And we're back for V4! Honestly, I'm making it through more than I thought I would. I was sure I was gonna bail after 2 lol.

Anyways, the new engine was really a breath of fresh air for this volume, and it's impressive how much animation is still getting better every volume<3 RWBY makes me proud in a way no other show or just thing has ever done. I just wish it wouldn't hurt so bad lol.

Anyways, time for random thoughts!

I gotta go ahead and say that V4-6 is my favorite outfit for Blake. The pirate vibes on her are *chef kiss* and I'm just in love with her white coat RIP the coat, another good thing Adam ruined *sighs*

God, the yearning separated bees are so angsty <3 I love it, the payoff will be so great.

God, Sun was so annoying this volume, poor boy has a good heart but definitely is too eager for Blake to match him and things get aaaaaawkward lol I'm happy the managed to get into an understanding by next volume tho, Blake needed him, I can see that now.

It's so interesting to hear all the bits of story we get to learn each volume and how eventually it all falls apart with Jinn's story in v6. I don't blame Qrow for how hard he took it, poor man has been through a lot, and he really believed in Ozpin through it all.

I loooove the tale of the two brother's animation style<3 it's one of my favorite parts of the season.

The ship captain is another favorite part lol I don't know, I just think he's neat. Wouldn't be opposed yo seeing more of him.

Ilia <3 Love of my life, best lesbian Chameleon girl <3 good how I miss you!

Again, when is Ilia coming back so she can finally meet and fall in love with Weiss?? RT is homofobic to keep these two apart! /Jk

But seriously they are fuckin' perfect for eachother I won't get tired of saying it. Schnee x Faunus? Both sides of the Atlas/Mantle coin? Rainbow x white? Trying to live their families legacy without letting it consume them? What's not to like?

Ahem, anyways. The Kuroyuri arc had me biting my freaking nails. Seriously after v3 I was so sure someone was going to die!

Remember that couple days we were all terrified of the nuckelavee and then someone compared it to the wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tubeman and since then we just laugh about him? Lol this Is why I love this fandom.

Maya Zwei <3

I can't imagine how horrible it was for the girls all that time we didn't get to see in between volumes. Weiss being completely alone in Atlas, with no way to know if Yang and Ruby had gotten better, just knowing that Blake had ran into the night. Blake wondering everyday if Yang was thinking about her, so sure that she was hated, heating herself too much to ask for help or just company... Ruby missing the friends she had come to trust so wholeheartedly and seeing her big sister broken and depressed and not knowing what to do because Yang had never been nothing but bright and strong and perfect. Yang looking at books and thinking of Blake and wanting to hate her because it would be so much easier. And that's not even counting all of them mourning Pyrrha and Penny and everything they lost in the blink of an eye.

On that note, Ruby's outfit for this arc paying homage to both Penny and Pyrrha still hurts me so much</3 this is also probably my favorite outfit of her, thought her Atlas outfit is quite good too.

The moment we learn that Blake is practically a Princess lol I love it, I love seeing reactors get to that part.

But honestly my favorite part to see reactors will always be Taiyang's 'lost a couple braincells along with that arm' joke lol honestly I hate that joke, but the sheet shock on everyone's faces is just epic lol.

Honestly I feel I've slept on Yang's v4 outfit btw. Yeah, her final/v5-6 outfit is extremely badass and I love it, but the sweats + orange tanktop looks so good on her??? Honestly this was the first volume I looked at Yang and was atracted to her lol.

So yeah Yang please join the line of women who could step on me and I'd thank them.

Also: *puts Ilia there too*

Specially once she paints her arm yellow <3 I stan by my previous statement that Yang looks so much better with her new arm. It feels like her design is finally complete.

V4 villains really, really make me miss v1-3 villains lol. I'm sorry, but I just think Hazel and Watts are unninteresting (aside from the Emm-Hazel plot but I only like it because Emmerald) and while I find Tyrian kinda funny because he's an obvious theater kid lol it was not enough to put team WTCH in my good graces after getting rid of my two faves from team CRMNE lol. Also, Cinder being too hurt to cause chaos was a negative</3 I loved sassy overconfident world destroyer Cinder.

It is also extremely painful for me to watch Cinder slowly dig her own grave after seeing her backstory. I always had a soft spot for Cinder and that really made it worse.

Baby Nora and Ren<3 good they were cute! And god did the timeskip did them good lol this is also my favorite Nora outfit <3 she looks amazing.

That moment in Kuroyuri when baby Ren gives Nora the hammer while boop play in the background? I tear up every fucking time. It's literally imposible not to love them together, just as It was literally imposible for Nora to not fall for him <3 my babies

Qrow being bandaged over his clothes while injures will never not be funny to me lol oh, the joys of working with 3D models!

Weiss learning to summon <3 also just... Weiss <3 She's the best. This volume wasn't kind on her, but she rose to the challenge and got so far!!

Also, can I just say that I feel Whitley... Is what people thinks Draco Malfoy Is? Like... I always remembered Draco while watching Whitley, but Whitley is an actually cool character as you get to know him, while Draco just... disapointed me. He's also my baby and I demand him to be protected.

Seeing Raven oficially was one of my favorite parts of the volume <3 She's a bitch, she's the worst, I love her so much!!!!

Again with the controversial and refuted headcanon... Qrow getting a song that includes the line 'you don't want the burden of my name', talking to Ruby about how his semblance makes things hard on family... That delirious 'Tai, she's not coming back' while poisoned... Seriously it would've made so much sence if Ruby was his daughter lol. At this point it's just hilarious.

The Jaune - Ruby moment in Kuroyuri </3 seriously give these poor kids therapy, they need it.

This Is the only volume where I actually have a score saved on my Spotify playlist: the first part of The next step where you can hear the music box version of Divide. I would pay for a full of that song <3 I adore creepy music box covers.

The way Blake's voice breaks when she finally says Yang's name? I'm ok, I swear! I'm not.

If you didn't cry during Ruby's letter scene... You're lying!! It's not possible to not cry! Specially with Home in the background. Home is another special song to me, it was one of the first ones I memorised back when my english wasn't great <3

That part when Ruby talks about people who are still lost and people who wants to take advantage of them and it shows Ilia with the Albains? I loved it, that's why I never doubted of my girl<3

And so it became the long journey to have Winter back... I remember how annoyed I was during all of v4-5 that we never got to see her outside of the Weiss trailer lol you don't just introduce a character like Winter for two episodes and then take it away like that RT! I say, as if I didn't knew v5 at all lol

I'm still curious about Tyrian and the fact that he apparently couldn't fight while Qrow didn't have his Sword/Scythe? Did we ever got a reason for that yet?

I think that's all that comes to mind right now lol also, I watched the v5 trailers and I just had to say how much I love them <3 Blake's probably my favorite, but they were all great!

O better keep watching now lol I gotta watch as much as I can before saturday!

[edgeofpanic]

 @yangsbandana​ ranked her top 10 bees moments and then i got in my feelings about them so fuck it!! here's my top 10 after the cut

10. that little eyeroll and smile blake does in v1 when yang picks up the chess piece in the emerald forest and says "how about a cute little pony?" they've only been partners for about for 30 minutes at this point, and blake has spent multiple episodes practically screaming "I DON'T WANT TO GET CLOSE TO ANYONE, I AM A BAD PERSON WHO DOESN’T DESERVE HAPPINESS." and still yang gets the prickly ex-terrorist to smile. gay.

9. yang's reply to blake at mountain glenn. blake is still so torn up about running away from home, her actions while with the white fang, running from adam, her present, her future. and all yang says is that she knows she won't run away from a challenge. that she's strong enough to face it and come out on the other side better than she was. the utter faith of it all!!

8. all of v4 lmao. but i have narrow that down so it's when yang looks at the pile of books in her very first scene in that volume and then turns away with the saddest look on her face. she misses just blake so much even though she left!!! and she doesn't want to because missing someone has never brought back the people she cares about, but she is anyway! bees angst is usually not my favorite but when it hits it hits and v4 and v5 were it

7. the dummied out cherry stem yang ties with her tongue while staring directly at blake in v2. she is extremely gay and she is trying so, so hard to show the girl she likes that she's interested. bless her. crwby, yall are cowards for taking this away from us

6. nora at the rally going "friends? just friends? i think they have more going on". nora is easily one of the most emotionally intelligent characters on the show so when she says two people wanna kiss i believe her. it's also notable that this is the first time anyone in-show has acknowledged blake and yang have something happening, even if they aren't necessarily together. praying that there's a followup to this in v10 where she outright asks what the deal is now that they're back from survivor island in the Time Pit

top 5...god i suffered for ages over this and i still think i forgot something

5. "i'll destroy everything you love...starting with her." cw for this vid: dismemberment, abusive relationships

i'm a relatively new fan having only picked up rwby in late 2019. my friends who were into it kept telling me it was pretty gay and one friend routinely sent bumbleby fanart because she knew it would entice me to start the show faster. and sure i thought they were cute, but i was still unsure if this was for real or not. but this scene. this one right here is the one where i went, "oh. oh, we're actually doing this.” there is no real way to read this as other than romantic. the framing, the timing, like.... man.

i’m also a sucker for devotion in ships and if sacrificing an arm to save the one you love and not even blaming them for running away isn’t devotion, i don’t know what it is.

4. burning the candle.

if number 5 convinced me, burning the candle was the one that got me on the train. here was my reaction from a friend sending gifs of this without too much context

and then i finally watched and got hella emotional. it’s a lot of firsts: yang opening up about her past, disagreement, blake allowing herself comfort. but they still manage to talk, work through how they feel, and leave better than they were. and i think it’s what i love about them the most? regardless of what happens, they have each others backs and always work toward a compromise. ugh. god.

also that stupid flirty wink is fooling no one, just say you’ll meet her under the bleachers

3. "what if I needed her there for me"/"yang was strength"

yes it’s kind of cheating to put two different scenes in one spot but they share real estate in my brain. these are the pinnacle of v5 bees angst, for me. there’s a lot left unsaid and literal continents between them, but they’re both saying the same thing. “i miss her a lot. i really wish she was here.” and at this point they haven’t been in the same room for almost 2 seasons. they have a lot of emotional ground to cover when they see each other and even more healing to do.

regardless of it all, they can’t stop thinking about each other. someway, somehow, they want to make their more-than-friendship work.

speaking of seeing each other again

2. beeunion 2.0

blake walks into the battle at haven at the most bizarre time. weiss has a big giant wasp summon (and it looks like she’s been stabbed???? but she’s fine???????), her friends are here, all the bad guys are also here, there’s some random kid fighting a juiced up dude with a cane. everything is fucking happening at once. and all blake can say is "yang?" In that little scared, hopeful voice

and like. the look on yang’s face as she sees blake for the first time is of utter awe. this person she never thought she’d see again singled her out in a room of utter chaos looking just as amazed to see her.

also there’s this gay little moment after yang comes out of the vault

1. “we’re protecting each other.”

to this day, this is the only scene in rwby that has almost brought me to tears. it really is all about both of them realizing they don’t have to face their ordeals alone ever again. they’ll be each others’ pillar with unwavering faith.

just! fuck me up!!!!!!! JUST FUCK ME UP

quick honorable mentions:

blake's gay little skip in v6

sun saying that yang would never blame blake for what happened with adam

bumblebee the bike ramming into adam at high speed

yangs gay meltdown over the haircut

“do you think...she thinks less of me?”/”you could always try calling yang...”

beeunion 3.0

actually all their moments in v7 (the talk in the truck, the moment in the airship, getting ready for their totally a date but not a date before the election)

[illusory-torrent]

...Already feel like I won't care much for this volume, what with Oscar and worst teac- I mean, Ozpin in the center. Really, Ozpin around, especially in this particular way, was a terrible idea.

i guess you could say that. i viewed it as more like… ruby was in the center in the last volume’s art, right?

she didn’t really do much, though. same logic could apply here. oscar/ozpin might not do too much this volume. m&k already have a lot on their plate. 

1) cinder is apparently still a force to be reckoned with. as is tyrian and his new tail. and possibly the new villain that they mentioned.

2) we still have a new weiss arc based on her going back to atlas. 

3) a possible conflict arc between weiss (sdc) and blake (white fang) reemerging.

4) a possible conflict between blake and yang based on the events of v3 and v4.

5) interactions between weiss and yang (since yang is the only one who knows about weiss and her abusive dad) as well as some possible ladybug interactions. 

6) conflict between oscar and ozpin based on ozpin forcibly taking over oscar’s body in the last fight of v5 (versus hazel).

i really don’t think oscar/ozpin will be the center of this volume. atlas is also where penny hailed from, so it makes sense to have ruby develop more (after getting almost zero development the past two volumes).

of course, i have my limits too, and i agree with you. if rwby v6 fails to impress me, i may drop the show entirely like many others have.