#Roman Torchwick is king and always has been

[kradsile]

I finished Volume 9 of RWBY today, and man oh fucking BOY... It was great. Isn't it wonderful what you can achieve when you focus on the character(s) the show was meant to be about in the first place?

So many wonderful moments fresh in my mind still. First off, I loved the decision (and this is a small thing, I know) to not just start off from Ruby's POV, but for her to not speak in the first few minutes. Cause CRWBY's real good at characters who don't talk at all. Speaking of, Neo's here too! Hurray! She brought my favorite (and objectively the best) antagonist back! Yippie!

And did y'all see the setting this time around?? RWBY trapped in a fairy tale world?? "Peak Fiction?!" I screamed aloud at the beautiful vista they showed at the end of episode 1. There's a looootttttaaaa potential here. And they delivered.

Time skip! Herbalist. Gods. Herbalist. I love you. The contrast between R and WBY is another fantastic moment that I'll remember. Just hearing Shadow Ruby (that's her name now you can't change my mind) asking "So? You wanna be a huntress?" with that uncanny, exaggerated cheerful disposition. As if it was mocking the Ruby Rose of today.

Which... leads me to my next point. So. We all know that RWBY Vol. 1-3 is simply the pinnacle of everything. We all read the rules in the Grimmoire when joining the Church of Remnant, and it clearly states that RWBY's first three seasons simply cannot be outmatched. Right? Right.

Anyhooo... I am always reminded by that one scene where Ruby and Jaune talk about being team leaders. Basically, Ruby firmly tells Jaune to man up, and to act like a leader should. And I think about that scene a lot. Every time I see Ruby act in the exact opposite way from Vol. 4 and onwards, I have that scene in the back of my head. As I watched, season after season it felt less and less like RWBY. What I mean by that is, of course, no fight scenes that made me shit my pants or whip my nanaes (Yang vs. Neo, Vytal Festival, the classics) but what was the worst part of it was that I felt less and less like I knew Ruby. The... "Supposed". Main character.

So imagine my joy when we got a character arc FOR RUBY. FUCKING. ROSE.

....And imagine my shock when it turned out not to be an arc. But a full circle.

Last thoughts: I may rewrite this or post another one of these a few years from now where I fully debunk my thoughts in a cohesive, coherent manner and show contextually appropriate images and whatnot but right now I MUST get my thoughts out into the aether. I SIMPLY MUST. Anyyyhooo...

Here's a thought. Isn't it a funny coincidence that RWBY goes downhill the moment Torchwick dies? Then 4-5 seasons of constant Salem (more like Soylem, gotem) and Ozpin and Relics bullshit?

And whaddya know, they do a shorter season again. With only 10 episodes. Focusing mainly on Team. RWBY. The new characters are just enough in quantity, and they've been cooked just right. The climax is approaching, and Neo finds Ruby all alone. And then he appears. The antagonist to have started it all. Suddenly, it makes sense why RWBY's good again.

They brought Roman Torchwick back.

Hail to the king, baby.

[howlingday]

When I Grow Up...

Meanwhile, in the Candlestick Club "Meeting Room"...

Lil' Miss: Candlestick has been showing booming profits lately. Soon enough, every academy will want us to join them as our own kingdom. Before we can do that, we'll need to build enough power where no one can threaten us. And to get that, we'll need...

Watts: Overwhelming strength.

Roman: (Bloody, Beaten, Chained, Thinking) This... This isn't what I imagined for my life at all... Where did everything go so wrong? Everyone keeps getting in my way!.

Roman: (Smacks hands to floor) DAMMIT! If you're gonna kill me, then just do it already! But do you idiots really call yourselves genius criminal masterminds?!

Watts: (Scowls)

Lil' Miss: (Snarls)

Roman: You're thinking way too damn small!

Lil' Miss: Shut up, Roman...

Watts: Oh? And brilliant plan have you come up with?

Roman: Didn't you hear?! Silver-Eyes is on the move again, and I KNOW she's planning something! Tell me, did either of you ever have any dreams growing up?! Working next to Summer, I always knew I wasn't ever gonna reach my dream!

Roman: And she's making her move now... BUT WHY?! And because of her, I... I... I WANNA BE THE KING OF THE HUNTSMEN!

Lil' Miss: WILL YOU SHUT UP?! (Kicks him)

Roman: (Winces, Falls over)

Watts: Silver-Eyes, The Fallen Maiden, and The Red Huntress. Are you saying we should fight them all?

Roman: ...Who said anything about fighting?! A treasure hunt is nothing more than a race! (Grabs scroll)

Lil' Miss: Hm?

------------------------------------------------------------

Roman: (Via PA) LISTEN UP!

Thug: Mr. Torchwick?

------------------------------------------------------------

Lil' Miss: (Stomps on him) Shut the hell up, Roman!

Roman: Ngh...

------------------------------------------------------------

Roman: WHY DID YOU JOIN MY GANG?! WHY DID YOU LEAVE YOUR HOMES AND YOUR FAMILIES?! YOU WANTED SOMETHING, DIDN'T YA?! DON'T YOU STILL WANT IT?!

Crook: O-Oh no... He's... He's doing it...

Goon: He's igniting the sparks for adventure in our hearts!

Roman: I'M TIRED OF SITTING AROUND! I'M TIRED OF WAITING FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN! LET'S DO IT!

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Roman: LET'S GO AND GET...

THE FIFTH RELIC~!

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up men and resources and order them to do the work. Make them long for the open, salty air of the sea. - Anonymous

[secret-engima]

Can we see some criminal reactions/meeting with the ringmaster? Possibly some big territory debate thing and some new upstart starts talking shit about this stupid ringmaster and all the rules?

Uhhh okay! Please note this may not be canon for Gremlin verse since atm I don't have any solid criminals-meet-Ringmaster scenes planned out aside from like- one and it's friendly.

-They're a new gang setting up shop near the docks. Imports from Mantle who finally got tired to dodging Atlas's security drones. They're traffickers of just about anything, from expensive but usually legal goods to drugs and people.

-They've been settled for maybe two weeks, just putting out some feelers, and are surprised when the local underworld gives one of two reactions: refusing to so much as speak with them, or nervous chuckling and a warning that if they keep being so obvious about what they do, they'll get the attention of the Ringmaster.

-"The Ringmaster? Who the heck is that?" Mantle's underworld might not be the thriving hub that Mistral's is, but they're not usually out of the loop. If the Ringmaster was a name for one of the local underworld bosses or kings, they should have heard of them before now.

-New blood, they're told by the few groups who will cautiously interact with them. New blood with power and charisma and Rules™. Rules that get enforced, usually after one warning, sometimes after three for the milder breaks. For things like drugs and person trafficking however, there is only ever one warning. If they get caught doing that, even outside the Ringmaster's territory, they will be destroyed. Smuggling in other things like expensive foods, Dust, and hard to get but legal items is tolerated, even permitted within the Ringmaster's territory and weapons are tolerated on a territory basis only, but drugs and people? Hard no. There are consequences, and even those who don't answer to the Ringmaster directly are skittish of touching the stuff. Nobody wants a gang war, it's bad for business. But the locals, even the ones who are known as powerhouses in their own right, seem wary of the war less because of the potential damage and more because they seem to think they'd lose.

-The group from Mantle scoff. They've never heard of this Ringmaster, and who cares what other gangs do so long as they stay in their territory? They've dealt with Atlas security, some uppity new blood with a pesky honor code means nothing to them.

-The other gangs all collectively exchange glances and take a long step back.

-For the first month or so, there's no sign of this Ringmaster. The gang stays close to their tiny territory pocket, sets up some trade rings in their more palatable stock. Then, once the income is trickling in, they move for the big haul.

-Slums are always a good place to lure in marks, and Faunus always sell well, even if humans are more of a premium. It's easier to make Faunus disappear though. Faunus bias runs deep on both sides, both in humans who won't look as hard, and Faunus who believe that humans won't bother looking, so why bother telling? Even though there are actually plenty of officers, human and Faunus, who would risk their skin gladly to rescue anyone, extra ears or no.

-They've snagged about ten marks and are hoping to round that number up to thirty before selling them off to various buyers in Mistral and Mantle when the warning shows up. It's delivered right to their door, and none of them know how they didn't hear the racket of someone hammering a paper notice onto their door.

-"Return the people and cease selling drugs and people or leave entirely. This city does not welcome your kind. -Ringmaster."

-They *laugh*. Really? A note? Big Whoop. Besides, they were careful not to take anyone from inside the Ringmaster's territory, so what business it is of theirs?

-Four nights pass, they snag three more marks, one of which is a particular prize, a young human boy, dark skinned and green eyed. His price will be lowered a little from the limp he seems to have, but his scar like tattoos are intriguing and his face is pretty enough they figure they'll still get quite a bit. The boy is oddly calm as they push him into the warehouse with the others, watching them with almost eerie green-gold eyes as he says calmly that they should let everyone go. It's not right, he says softly, to sell lives. And if they don't stop, they're going to regret it.

-They laugh some more as they shove him into the worried arms of a young Faunus mother who already has a few other children she's been trying to comfort.

-Three hours.

-That's how long it takes for the world to come down around their ears.

-The warehouse is taken first, all the marks gone in what feels like one blink, then it's set on fire, fueled with Dust so there's no hope of recovering the building. Their four backup safehouses are gone by the end of the hour, members of the group either trussed up and knocked out and dumped on the doorstep of the police or killed where they stand if they tried to fight back.

-In three hours, their central base of operation is all that's left, and they learn quickly that there is nowhere left to run.

-Roman Torchwick spins his cane idly as he saunters in, backed by his silent partner. They're both known entities in the underworld and have been for years. The leader spits at Torchwick, mocking the name Ringmaster as pretentious even for a thief and crime lord like him.

-Torchwick smiles, it's not a nice expression, "Oh. I'm not the Ringmaster. That's my boss."

-A flourish and a sidestep and the gang cringes back in disbelief and shock as a massive Grimm shoulders its way through the broken doorway.

-Perched on its back, a dark king on a fallen steed, is the boy. Those eerie green-gold eyes look at them in disappointment, in knowing, and the Dust orbs in his elaborate cane gleam warningly when a few of them inch hands toward hidden knives.

-No way. This is the Ringmaster? This child?

-"You were warned," says the boy in a voice too calm and too mature for his skin, "I'll give you one more chance. Surrender and turn yourselves and all relevant evidence in to the police, and you won't die."

-The leader of the group from Mantle snarls and pulls out a hidden pistol, taking aim at the boy.

-He's dead before the safety of the gun can click off.

-The other child, silver haired and grinning like a wild thing, lowers his foot, the shot from whatever weapon he has hidden in his boots echoing through the house. The Grimm looms large, jaws parting in an echoing snarl of warning, one massive paw rising to show huge claws.

-The child -the Ringmaster- doesn't so much as flinch. He just shifts those eyes to those that remain with a silent question in his eyes.

-Many of them decide that dealing with the law is better than dying at the hands of this- this demon child.

-None of them question anymore why Vale's underworld treats the Ringmaster with respect, even if the factions that do not yet answer to him.

[warsmith-38]

How I would do RWBY pt. 5

Season Five.

Lingering drama amongst teams despite stable exterior.

Everyone’s a little wary of Blake on account of her cutting and running on them a couple seasons ago.

Everyone’s a little wary of Ruby and her insane berserker moment against Cinder.

Everyone’s a little wary of Yang and her being a bit of a dick recently.

Everyone’s a little wary of Weiss being a little emotionally fragile at this whole experience.

JNR is wary in general on the grounds that they didn’t sign up for this level of shit.

Everyone’s a little frazzled in general on account of recent events.

Qrow is giving them the rundown on Salem and Ozpin as far as he’s aware.

Says that they’re ancient demi-gods that have been fighting each other since before history.

He only knows so much because Ozpin is pretty tightlipped about his past and only gives certain individuals certain amounts of information.

Speaking of, Ozpin is there to greet them at Haven.

And teams CFVY and SSSN, leading to a happy reunion.

Haven headmaster is indisposed and can’t be present. (He’s on the phone with Salem)

Ozpin gives the skinny on what they know of Salem’s plan.

The exact plan still eludes them.

What they do know is that she has the remnants of the White Fang that follow Adam with the greater White Fang being uninvolved, a loose cabal of personal agents here and there, and literally countless grimm to bring to bear.

Easy odds, as far as they’re concerned.

They also tell him that Cinder has been beaten.

He doesn’t really care, seeing her as just another dime a dozen assassin.

He happier about Tyrian (Salem’s only truly competent assassin) being dead than anything about Cinder.

Ruby is quick to also say that being dropped down a pit doesn’t necessarily mean Cinder’s dead and if she shows up she gets first dibs.

Speaking of, Cinder is quite alive.

She is quickly found by Emerald and Mercury.

Cinder is wounded, but still powerful enough to kill the both of them should they piss her off.

Brief recovery period.

Discover that Salem isn’t returning her calls.

Salem’s decided that she’s gotten all she can out of Cinder and that she’s not worth further investment.

She can find another urchin, creep, or psycho to mold.

Brief moment of heartbreak is capped off with new plan to regain Salem’s favor.

Emerald and Mercury try to offer other options but eventually agree to come along because they have fuck all for other opportunities.

Get to Mistral and seek help of local crime boss for passage to Atlas to go about evil business there.

Crime boss restrains Emerald and Mercury.

Reveals that Neo already purchased their services.

Neo is angry at Cinder. Blames her for Roman’s death.

Cinder and Neo fight, Cinder wins, and shifts the blame of Roman to Ruby.

Neo acquiesces and teams up with Cinder and co. for revenge on Ruby. (Team CEMN for the win)

First act of new team is to kill local crime boss for trying to dupe 3/4 of them and steal their shit.

Neo just shrugs. No honor among thieves. They overcharged her anyway.

Set off for Atlas to cause problems on purpose to regain Salem’s attention.

RWBY + JNR take a well-earned moment of respite.

Catch up with CFVY and SSSN, fill them in on what’s been happening.

Ruby tries to bridge gaps by returning to being the designated weapon repairwoman.

Grills everyone for not taking better care of their shit.

Because how hard is it to do basic maintenance people?

Given downtime is able to upgrade Jaune’s sword + shield.

Sword has cooler design and shield can produce bubble shield effect now.

Ozpin takes RWBY and JNR aside to ask them to join his inner council.

He would have done it earlier but he was waiting to see if Ruby’s second semblance would ever awaken.

When they agree he elaborates further on Qrow’s earlier explanation.

He’s a great big windbag so he just info dumps everything (that they need to know) on them at once.

Explains that he is opposing demi-god to Salem. A deity of order and building as opposed to destruction and chaos.

Explains that he and Salem were created from on the whims of an ancient god of creation to guide the free peoples of the world and keep them all safe and sound.

Creator god fucked off after making the two of them on the grounds that it is explicitly a creator god not god of anything else.

It made the world. Caring for it is somebody else’s problem.

He and Salem disagreed as to how best to help people.

Salem thought that growth through conflict was the way to go and Ozpin thought that being the guiding hand from behind the scenes would work the best.

It eventually devolved into just trying to kill the other for getting in the way of each other’s plans.

Salem’s goal is to remove Ozpin from the equation and let people build and thrive in the natural way with a disaster, war, or genocide or two every now and then to keep them on their toes.

She’s basically the big evil boogeyman of the world.

Ozpin’s goal is to remove Salem on the grounds that he feels that the best thing he can do to keep order is not to allow said disasters, wars, or genocides and keep people alive for his later plans.

Either can only be killed by direct action of the other.

They keep themselves separate and ideally safe from each other.

Salem has been trying to find workaround for this for ages.

Salem created the grimm as a means of keeping humanity on its toes, fed by negative emotion in an attempt of dissuading such feelings.

They failed both at that and as a means to permanently kill Ozpin, but she now had an army for the rest of her plans.

Ozpin responded by creating and seeding the world with dust, giving the people a means to fight against the darkness surrounding them.

He never puts himself in the direct spotlight of history. Always the vizier, never the king.

Dust also had the side effect of eventually irradiating humanity and giving them aura and, furthermore, semblances.

These newly powered people, when dead and buried, eventually fossilize into more dust.

Most dust mines are ancient burial grounds. Creepy ain’t it?

Ozpin tried to capitalize on his success and tried to create super-soldiers to use said dust, aura, and semblances to protect humanity by combining human and animal traits.

Yep, Ozpin created the ancient faunus.

That and racism is indirectly his fault too.

He made the original faunus to be overseers and guardians to humanity.

In essence, they were designed to be feudal warlords with extra animal abilities that secretly answered only to him and ruled humans with iron fists.

Resulting human rebellions happened and Ozpin used his creations as scapegoats, letting them take all the blame and quietly …quieting anyone who knew the truth.

And that’s where the racism first came from. It has long since changed and muddied, but that was the initial reason.

He words all of this nicer and glides over the parts that make him look bad.

Salem and Ozpin have been picking at each other like that for eons.

Fall of Beacon only happened to try and distract Ozpin long enough for the latest scheme to kill him to be tried.

Destroying his pet project school was just a bonus.

Suffice it to say that that particular plan failed its main objective but still caused everything to fall apart.

Salem is now officially persona non grata, if she wasn’t already, among those present to the explanation.

Adam is trying to get more support from Sienna.

He has a small band of hardliners (psychos) with him but wants more bodies for his plans.

Gives big speech about faunus supremacy and the like.

Sienna tells him to fuck off, points out that he’s just repeating platitudes and doesn’t really care about the cause.

Reiterates his excommunication, citing working with Torchwick and Salem (despite the fact that she was cool with it at the time) as well as getting an unignorably large amount of his own people killed.

Collateral damage only goes so far, even for terrorists.

Adam vs Sienna.

Sienna wins and Adam slinks away, defeated but alive.

Adam’s hardliners get some more members but nowhere near what he wanted.

He’ll have to make do.

Salem wants him to do as terrorists do across Mistral.

Adam suggest that since Fall of Beacon worked fairly well… second verse same as the first?

Salem puts the kibosh on that plan.

She wants people to learn and thrive in a semi-natural way, she doesn’t want to just wipe them all out.

She’s fine with a little culling now and then but too much killing and they’ll never recover right.

Has new plan to try and kill Ozpin.

Has resurrected Tyrian, making a faunus/grimm Frankenstein thingy that she can directly possess at will.

All she needs is an opportunity to infiltrate him into Mistral.

Adam’s job is to provide an exploitable distraction.

He’s okay with that.

Yang has argument with Blake about running off like a punk.

Blake says it won’t happen again.

Yang says once bitten twice shy.

Ruby talks to Blake about Raven and Tai and the abandonment issues Yang has as a result of them both.

Meeting Raven and realizing that she was just a piece of shit this whole time only made things worse.

Says that Blake leaving like she did didn’t help.

Ruby also admits that her own leaving probably wasn’t great either.

Ruby wants her to know that she has faith in her but Yang has always needed a little more than faith.

Weiss airs some grievances to Yang about her dickish behavior.

Yang apologizes for her churlishness and reassures Weiss that the team is still going to be together but she is still mad at Blake.

Weiss tries to help smooth things over further but is interrupted.

Ilia shows up, is met with gun barrels.

Says she was sent by Sienna to take care of Adam, avoiding getting slotted by everyone.

Is kept at arm’s length but if she’s helping then, sure fine whatever, she can help.

Coco, Yatsuhashi, Weiss, and Ren try to talk to Ruby about not going crazy the next time she sees Cinder.

The best they can do is get her to agree that being so out of control insane while fighting her might not be the best way to fight.

They try and say that that’s really not good enough.

Ruby changes the subject via some odd noises she hears.

Haven headmaster (Lionheart? I barely know, or give much of a shit about, canon at this point) is part of The Cabal and is giving regular reports to Salem.

How else could CEMN masquerade as Haven students?

Almost gets walked in on.

Cheeses it but leaves the grimm thing that lets him talk to Salem.

Ruby has brief conversation with Salem.

Salem tries to tempt her, says that Ozpin is an asshole that only wants to control people not help them.

Ruby calls her a bitch.

Cites that Salem ruined her life and got some of her friends killed for this crap, not to mention her fucking mother.

Salem is just listening, still stunned from the audacity of being called a bitch right to her face.

Ruby finishes off by saying that even if Ozpin is an asshole, better the devil you know.

She then kills the grimm.

People now know there’s a turncoat and the only absolute they have is that it’s not Ruby or Ozpin (duh).

Everyone walking on eggshells, not sure who the traitor is.

Accusations are thrown around.

Eventually, after some shouting, everyone comes to the conclusion that it’s also not WBY, JNR, CFVY, or Qrow.

Logic starts to work its magic.

Lionheart tries to calm everyone down, IE: distract everyone from the growingly obvious.

Adam is up to his old tricks.

Blake and Ilia notice and point it out.

Lionheart breathes a sigh of relief as RWBY and JNR mobilize to stop Adam.

Adam is just a distraction.

Tyrian is slipped into the city via some bribes and carefully placed murders.

Adam has placed bombs across the city and broadcasts to the city that they’re doomed.

The civilians start to panic and draw grimm.

Mistral defense force is now busy dealing with said grimm.

Team splits up to stop the bombs.

Tyrian makes his move, attacks Ozpin directly.

Salem assumes direct control, hoping that this will count as her killing Ozpin herself.

SSSN and CFVY pop up and fight Tyrian!Salem.

Start getting their shit kicked in because it’s a fucking demi-goddess in a crazy scorpion demon body.

JNR returns.

Qrow finally does something too.

Ozpin even gets off his lazy ass.

Everyone helps take on Tyrian!Salem and win, killing Tyrian for good and pissing off Salem.

Ozpin got killed again to do it. (He’ll be back)

Blake and Yang find Adam.

Fight him, beat him, he runs away, we know how this song and dance goes.

Blake chases him alone.

Says that she has realized that Adam had been trying to commit suicide by anti-terrorism for a while.

Adam gets enraged and fights Blake again.

Adam final boss fight.

Blake starts winning.

Adam goes beyond the brink of madness.

In his anger he manages to destroy Blake’s weapon.

About to kill Blake but sees a little trinket he gave her when they were kids.

Sees his own reflection and sees a monster where he should be standing.

Realizes his own sense of self-destruction.

“I must already be dead,” –Vlad Dracula Tepes. It applies, says I.

Blake puts Adam down.

Yang arrives, worried that Blake ran off… again.

Blake has completely broken down.

Yang comforts Blake, who just had to kill one of her oldest friends.

Bombs and terrorists are dealt with.

RW see Blake is having troubles and embraces her along with Yang.

Blake, with tears in her eyes, swears to never abandon her team and friends ever again.

RWBY comes together and all vow to be there for each other.

Team RWBY are truly together once again.

Ruby uses parts from Adam’s weapon to repair and upgrade Blake’s.

Ozpin gets back up. (What I tell ya?)

Lionheart is found out as the traitor and calls everyone chicken shit for siding with Ozpin.

Says that Ozpin is a paranoid control freak who would strip them of all free will and thought if he could.

In fact, he says that that exact thing is Ozpin’s plan once Salem is beaten.

Salem at least promised freedom.

Ozpin doesn’t exactly deny these accusations by promptly and rather brutally executing Lionheart.

Reactions are cut short when a news bulletin plays on the TV about problems in Atlas.

WF-SDC war has officially stopped being a shadow war and there is now open combat in the streets.

They catch a very brief shot on the telly of something that looks a lot like a grimm arm on some chick.

Ruby has reacquired target-lock.

RWBY and JNR set off once again, this time for Atlas.

Season five done.

[darksaiyangoku]

RWBY: Alternate Scenarios

What’s one of the most common forms of fanfiction for fandoms? Alternate universes. Also known as “AUs”, these fics remix a lot of the lore from any fandom and present very new, very new very different scenarios from canon.

When it comes to RWBY, there’s no shortage of AUs. Sometimes they can be very major AUs, like a regular high school, high fantasy or sci-fi and sometimes they can just be slight remixes to canon, like having a different friendship dynamic or a different semblance.

This post is going to discuss some alternate scenarios that were on my mind for a while. Some of these are well known in the FNDM, others not so much. Without further ado, let’s talk about the wonderful world of AU RWBY!

What if Ruby didn’t have silver eyes

Aside from her hood and red hair, Ruby’s silver eyes are probably her most defining characteristic. But if that wasn’t case. What if she didn’t have those legendary silver eyes. How different would her life be?

Would Ozpin have still taken an interest and let her in early? Would she have to wait 2 years later? How would it affect the eventual showdown against Cinder? Would she still be able to hold her own?

Jaune Arc Royalty

Jaune is a popular character to write about when it comes to AUs, often remixing his background a LOT. This one is something I’ve seen pop up on Reddit a few times, as well as FanFiction.net: Jaune Arc having secret royal lineage. Many fans suspect that Jaune could be a descendant of the King of Vale, making him and his family royalty.

RWBY’s characters often take inspiration and influence from characters in fairy tales, mythology, folklore and even some historical figures, but some characters can allude to more than one figure. For example, Salem isn’t just the Wicked Witch of the West as her backstory is also similar to Rapunzel’s and Ozpin has been shown to allude Odin as well as the Wizard of Oz. As such, Jaune’s secret royal lineage, as well wielding a legendary sword, could give him an allusion to Arthur Pendragon.

Say if that was the case, how would it affect the plot moving forward? Would he be a key player in the defeat of Salem alongside Ruby and Ozpin? Would he eventually take up the crown of Vale or would he leave it for someone more fit to rule? How would it affect the relationship of his friends? Would he eventually wield Excalibur?

Yang Branwen

This is one which I’ve seen a few times in fanfiction, but never really expanded upon. Say if Raven decided to take Yang with her when she abandons Tai, what Yang’s life be like within the Branwen Tribe? Would Qrow raise her alongside Raven too? Would she grow up to become a killer? Would she ever want to know and reconnect with Tai and Ruby? Would Summer still be alive? Would Yang go to Beacon or would she stay with the tribe?

Team RNJR at Beacon

I think I saw 1 fic about this and that’s it. There could be more, but I don’t know. Anyway, character dynamics being remixed are some of my favourite AUs and I’ve always wondered what would happen if Ruby and Pyrrha switched teams.

Say if Team RNJR was formed at the beginning, how would the dynamic change? Would Ruby and Nora be BFFs? Would Jaune teach Ruby the art of swordfighting? Would they be the ones to go to Mountain Glenn instead? What would Jaune and Ruby’s team attack be called? What would Ren and Ruby’s dynamic be like?

What if Blake never left the White Fang

I don’t know if anyone has actually thought of this AU or not, but Blake still being part of the White Fang is a very interesting scenario. How would life be different if Blake stuck around with the Fang? Would she become a cold-hearted killer, just like Adam? Would she realise the horrors much later? Would she and Illia be partners? Would she infiltrate Beacon? Would she work with Roman Torchwick? How would Sun be involved in all this? Would Blake try to convert him into joining her?

These are just some of the AUs that are in the FNDM and there are MUCH MORE! I love AUs and the variety of changes they can bring to canon. They make for very interesting stories and serve as nice companion pieces, kind of like DC’s Elseworlds stories. I’d like to examine more AUs in more detail in the future, this was just something I had on my mind. Anyway, what do you guys think of these AUs? Like them? Dislike them? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading.

[deadmandairyland]

You know, I never really got to read much of Archie Sonic aside from bits and pieces here and there, but I remember feeling sad about the fact that it got canceled rather unceremoniously because that kind of thing always sucks.

But recently I learned about the existence of the Egg Bosses and now I’m kind of genuinely annoyed. Because just from what little I know about them they all seem like legitimately interesting characters and it looks like they didn’t really get to do much of anything because the comic got canceled like immediately afterwards.

To give you an idea of what kind of wasted potential all these characters had, here are descriptions of some of these characters:

A girl whose sister has a horrible condition that required Eggman to save her with cybernetics, and he basically uses this as leverage to keep her in line. Well, that and the threat of paralyzing her with fancy cybernetic science (which is a threat everyone in the group has to deal with, something to keep in mind). Point is, she’s being forced into being his lackey and she hates his guts, and she just wants her sister to be safe.

An anti-villain who believes that fighting full-force against Eggman is only going to make things worse and instead looks for ways to try to sabotage his operations from the inside--like, for example, allowing as much damage to be caused as possible when someone attacks her station.

A rather camp and dapper-looking gentleman with a metal jaw who believes that Eggman taking over the world will actually save it. His personality is somewhere between Roman Torchwick and Doc Scratch and his superpower is somewhere between Kirby and the fucking teleporters from Stephen King’s “The Jaunt.”

Some crazy-ass Eggman fangirl.

Man, what an interesting and varied cast of characters we have here, and I only listed four of them! I didn’t even mention those two guys that really want to kill each other, because that’s also a thing. Such potential for good storytelling and character interactions! It really makes me want to read the comics and see what happens next! Will Clove and her sister escape Eggman’s clutches? Will Thunderbolt get to stroke that magnificent mustache? And what the fuck is Maw’s deal? Man, I can’t wait for all of these questions to be ans--oh wait, never mind, comic’s canceled. Hope you guys like Riverdale because that’s all we’re going to focus on from now on.

(Though to be fair to Archie Comics, if I was making a ton of money from a CW teen drama cash grab and some video game company was breathing down my neck because some asshole got pissy about me using characters he made for my comic I’d probably can that sumbitch too. I’m just saying it really sucks that had to happen.)

I suppose it could have been worse though. They could have canceled the Sonic comic and made Betty and Veronica straight. Now that would have been a kick in the balls.

[angryfacewritings]

Had to go to my computer to really get into it.

So, as I said before, we can have two specific ways Ozpin and Torchwick are linked.

One, Ozma was a shity person in his younger years. Selfish, egotistical and nillistic. Perhaps he felt this way with his mastery over early magic and combat prowess. But, eventually, he began to change for the better, his moral compass began to point in a different direction when he began to help for the sake of helping rather than for the rewards until it finally reached a head when he was the man he was when he first met Salem.

On the other side, Torchwick could have been a much better person in his youth. Doing his very best in a very hostile and abusive upbringing. Eventually, as he grew, he learned how to survive and thrive in such a world. Lie, cheat, steal and survive. The end justifies the means.

We can see aspects of who both Oz and Torchwick used to be earlier in the lore of the canon, where (assumingly) the Oz incarnation of the King of Vale used (again, assuming) the relic of destruction to lay waste to the Atlas/Mistral army to end the Great War. A single terrible act that brought a greater good. An end that justifies the means. Likewise, we could have seen some of Torchwick’s younger self when he met Neo and helped her (I haven’t read Roman Holiday yet but I do know basiclly what happened) Again, a single terrible act to bring a greater good. (In Torchwick’s case, the greater good to a single person rather than the world, but I understand her parents were assholes so...)

With this in mind, with Oz and Torchwick being what the other started as in their youth, the cosmic comedy of the Gods could have but them together.

As for their interactions with Team RWBY, I think it would be pretty interesting. It would probably have to do some time mixing where Cinder killed Oz during Torchwick’s fight with Ruby on the top of the Atlas Warship. A moment of hesitation or something like that could have changed the fate of Torchwick, making him survive the encounter with the griffin. (Or Oz using magic to break out from the inside of the Grimm, which ever strikes your fancy)

Torchwick and Neo would probably try to escape from Cinder at some point, probably while she was being transported to Salem while she was hurt. Torchwick and Neo would go to Mistral since their faces would be plastered over every flat surface in Vale. (Or Salem would send him and Watts to Mistral to pressure Lionheart or with Tyrian to get Ruby)

Torchwick would obviously be butting heads with Oz inside his head, about what the right thing to do would be vs what they need to do to survive. Through memories melding, Torchwick would defect and search out RNJR or Qrow. From there, there would obviously be high tensions with war criminal Torchwick trying to ‘be a good guy’

Ironiclly, I think Blake would be the first person to try and bridge that gap. The mistakes you made do not define who you want to be if you truely want to change for the better, she is proof of that.

But yeah, That’s my idea of how Oz/Torchwick could actually work. I’m always open to input to help improve my writings if anyone else has ideas to add ontop of this.

This doesn’t apply to RWBY alone. But to fanfics and AUs and rewrites in general for any media.

The problem these days with everyone’s idea of a rewrite is that they have it in their heads that their version is somehow automatically superior to the content its based off of.

A fanfic is a fanfic. Yet Couer Al’Alaran constantly insults the show he makes his living off of while straightwashing every female character and woobifying every male villain.

An AU is an AU, its not the real thing. Yet look at the people who try to “Fix” Adam or Raven or ironwood. Look at the people obsessed with making Qrow into Ruby’s father and claiming that they know the characters better than the writers?

A rewrite? is still a fanfic. Yet people claim that their “Reimagining” of a show makes it superior than the writers who came up with it. This obsession with making straight white male villain characters into poor little meow meows while the (often lgbt) woman who fought said men are now somehow evil or unlikable?

None of their little fan creations could be possible without the original show that these people make their money, clout, and fanbase on.

And yet so many of these people insult the show, and the writers, and everything in between.

Its incredibly disappointing, these people have lost sight of what they are and what they’re doing.

These people think they’re “Saving RWBY”…from what? Its creators? Then they’re not saving RWBY at all. They’re just intellectual property thieves then, who delude themselves into thinking that somebody’s else’s franchise belongs to them.

And they know it! They just don’t care, and they don’t want you to care either.

Remind you of anyone?

Look. You wanna ship Jaune with his “harem” whatever? I’m stopping you. You wanna ship blacksun? ok. 

But the moment people claim that their idea is somehow superior to what the actual creators came up with and that they somehow know these characters and the ships better than the writers?

Then the shippers and fanfic writers who demand the right to an opinion have nobody to blame but themselves when we criticize them with contempt.

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