#bluesky.talks

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Art by @treycain03

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My first Nitpick November

Ok so I wanted to participate in this annual rwde thing this time so here I am!

My first nitpick from Rwby specifically has to do with Qrow's volume 7 outfit.

So first off let me start with this

His necklace and his rings. In vol 7 when Qrow got his outfit change, he gets different rings and his necklace disappears.

Like, why? Genuinely I got really upset by this. Some would think "Why is this a big deal to you?" and they would be right in thinking that. But again, this is a personal nitpick of mine, so I'm allowed to be upset by this insignificant change this month >:[

Now the overall outfit, I hate the color pallet. Why brown? And why is he wearing two different vests? And the white undershirt? Wack! The layering of this outfit just does not look right to me. Also, compared to Qrow's vol 3-6 model and his vol 7-present model, did they make his neck shorter???

I might be crazy, but I swear Qrow's neck got shorter. And it looks so uncanny to me.

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More nitpicks yay!!

My nitpick of the day is Penny's hair! (and something extra)

Despite liking Penny's vol 7-8 look, I never really liked the curls on the side of her head. While I got used to it, it still looks pretty goofy to me.

May I also bring up this

Penny's bust size. Why did it increase?

Why did you increase her bust size MKEK? Please give me an explanation without sounding like a coomer.

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Random person: Oh you have an english degree? Are you going to be a teacher? Me: *shows them this post*

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I find it funny how now Yang is openly expressing her abandonment issues with Ruby acting reckless in the JL x Rwby movie when she had no issues not noticing Ruby's mental state in the Ever After because tapping the Bellabooty was her top priority. Then when Ruby has her breakdown, she gets in an aggressive stance to protect her precious kitten, treating her like a threat. Then she watches her sister end her subscription to life and can only muster a blank expression that barely conveyed shock.

Then she's all smiles with her team and comforting Jaune when not just an episode earlier she watched her sister off herself! Then! On top of all that, when Yang was allowed to feel a hint of grief over Ruby ascending and becoming a whole different person, Weiss says "we did all we can" (which was nothing) and they have to respect Ruby's "choice" in wanting her identity and memories to be wiped clean. Yang goes to Blake for comfort, then Blake reiterates that "its not their choice to make" and to embrace her sister's ego death (what a catch, Yang)

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Crwby: Yang is finally acting like a sister to Ruby are you happy now?

Fans: But its only in the stupid crossover movie

Crwby: Yeah, so we can prioritize putting more bumbleby scenes in vol 10 w/o you guys bitching about Yang's "sisterly relationship." #greenlightvol10forthebees

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they delayed v9, put unnecessary strain on their animation team (which consists of 5 people, a shoelace and a broom) for a shitty crossover that did NOT needed to be developed in house alongside v9.... bro rt is such an incompetents company like its impressive how badly they run their company

and then there's Ar*yn Tr*che acting as defense speaking for everyone that the budget for vol 9 and the JL x rwby movies were separate. Just ignore the other animators who worked themselves to death on those two projects practically for FREE.

Its so unreal and unbelievable seeing in real time the mental gymnastics of rwby stans trying so hard to twist themselves into pretzels defending this garbage show and the people behind it. Because they don't want to feel bad for wanting vol 10 just so they can see the bees nuzzle their foreheads together and buy whatever brand new bee merch made from gum and cardboard from the RT store. Again, the higher ups of crwby are part of RT. Your besties are selfish egotistical people

Edit: I don't hate this show. I hate how it never got better throughout the years and MKEK keep repeating the same mistakes over and over because the stans blow smoke up their asses praising them for spray painting gold on a pile of horse shit. Rwby could have been good despite some flaws, but its not. And I'm tired of keeping my mouth shut about it

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Abuse is so cute when a girl is doing it to a guy uwu

You know how in a lot of books the female protagonist has a male love interest who is a complete asshole to her but it's framed as quirky uwu and the narrative keeps insisting they're soulmates?That's Percabeth but with the genders switched

Yeah, pretty much. I think it speaks a lot about Riordan's view on gender because this is a pattern in his books. Which is also why I think it's valid for shippers to look past it. Like, I can't pretend I don't ship anything that doesn't have problematic aspects in the writing. My issue is just with shippers who like and encourage that part of the dynamic.

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V9 commentary: We had to make some cuts on the second half of vol 9 because of budget.

Rwby stans: omg fuck Warner and DC! How dare they pile on such a workload on our besties in crwby!

*video of a con panel from a few months back resurfaces*

Kerry: I talked with some people at RT and Warner if we can make a DC x Rwby crossover movie and we were given the green light!

Rwby stans:

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hi hi, posting an ask to clarify a few things: apparently the budgets for v9 and the JL league were separate and the real reason for v9's delay was the transition to working at home at covid. i dont like spreading misinformation (good lord the rwby fanbase has enough of it already) so i think this was fair to bring up. while i dont doubt the validity of the animators who worked on v9 and the JL cross over, i can't help but to feel weary due to the fact that this is freaking roosterteeth. a company notorious for their abuse of animators to the point of disability, how their shows are produced on slave labour, how they abuse their starry eye fans for cheap labour, how the higher ups of the company are very much either incompetent or rotten to the core. how can i in good conscious give this company the benefit of the doubt that the JL crossover didnt went through the same crunch or workplace issues? sure the animators got more worked, but were you guys properly paid for it? arianna fillipini's twitlonger details the MASSIVE amount of crunch (50 hr/weeks), how the pay was still below industry standard, how the leadership in v9 didnt help the animators, how everyone got laid off cus RT taking away full time employment, and this was all during VOLUME 9. something produced in 2020-2021, not 5 years ago. im glad the animators got a year of work, im glad they had an opportunity to network with other artists. im not upset that the JL happened, im worried that the same crunch and workplace abuse from v9 was carried over as a consequences of these crossovers being developed in house. while its really dumb to knowingly spread misinformation of RWBY's budget and production, i cant help feel this uneasiness towards every rwby fan on twitter just taking their word that the JL was 'totally a good thing!!!' and anyone upset by how they assumed that the JL took away resources for v9 (because it happened to v6 with gray smuggling money for gen:lock) are 'stupid little haters who use the poor animators at cudgels to flame roosterteeth!!!' am i supposed to trust the notion that suddenly all of the decades workplace abuse and mistreatment that persisted to it's latest season all went away? that suddenly the animators were given enough time and compensation for their work? that suddenly management became leagues better? suddenly all of our concerns towards the production of RT's shows and RT as a company are nonsensical? idk, the entire thing is really weird and the uneasiness i have towards CRWBY's production isnt exactly alleviated by the fact that the JL had a seperate budget :P at least we got to see the beacon designs again 🥃

@unovaslankiite your concerns are completely valid and you're not wrong feeling this way. Even if the budgets for vol 9 and JL were separate, that doesn't make what the animators revelaed just last year what they've been through all go away. Ar*yn Tr*che (who I personally belive is an RT shill so they can keep their job) should not be treated as the only source of info. Their words mean nothing to me. Like, ok, the JL and vol 9 budgets were separate. That doesn't excuse the animation department having to work double time during covid. Yeah you want to ensure they got work, and yet they were snubbed of their overtime pay.

And you're right, why should any of us believe Rooster Teeth? They've been proven over and over again to be liars, and it really isn't hard to notice the patterns of behavior over the years. They said crunch issues in production have been resolved and that was a fucking lie. The cuts to vol 9 and the production of the JL movie sound very similar to what happened to vol 5 when Gen Lock was being made. So people are right to assume the crossover movie affected vol 9.

Pointing all of this out doesn't make you "a bad faith rwby critic" or "wanting to pin blame on crwby" as some stans like to accuse others of. People like you and I are not content with just taking Ar*yn and K*rry's words at face value so they can continue to bury the truth. The stans who try to convince themselves that MKEK and the vas of crwby are separate from RT just want to ease their guilty conscious in wanting to continue to consume rwby content.

That's why they spam #greenlightvol10 on every rwby related post they make. It's a sign of sheer copium.

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One of us. One of us

Oh no. I found the percico crowd.

Oh no. They're active.

Oh no. I am indulging.

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My patience has been worn very thin about Rwby, RT, Crwby, and the fandom at large for like the past year. I thought I was done with vol 8. But then MKEK thought hitting rock bottom wasn't enough and grabbed a shovel when making vol 9. My thoughts become jumbled and angry when I think about the issues with vol 9 (and with Rwby overall), so I just draw memes making fun of it instead of trying to write down my incoherent screams of frustration.

Like from my last post, I don't hate Rwby. Even though it may come across that way. I'm angry with how horrible the story and characters have been handled and it seems to get worse and worse as the years go by. And if you say anything about it, people will descend upon you in a rage, "how dare you say such heresy."

There are certain aspects of rwby I do enjoy in concept. Ruby, Yang, and Qrow's familial relationship has me weak with feels. Qrowin is so much fun to think about because of the tsundere x shameless flirt dynamic they had going. Freezerburn I've begin to grown a fond appreciation for, etc. So there are things about Rwby I do like. But the show just ain't it for me.

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Some important news

For anyone who still follows me, I want to thank you for sticking by me for all this time.

I'm sure you've noticed a few reblogs for the past few months has been of rwde (rwby criticism) posts as well as Rick Riordan critical posts. With the pjo side it's a bit more of a recent thing ever since the Disney+ pjo TV show has officially announced the release date. As for rwby, my gripes with how the story was handled as well as the RT scandals that keep cropping up was something I held in for a few years.

I was very much aware of the rwby's fandom's visceral aversion against their show even being mildly criticized, especially on Twitter/X and here on Tumblr. It can range from constant harassment to straight up doxxing, and it terrified me to silence. But recently I stopped caring and started to openly let out all my frustrations through reblogging rwde posts, adding my two cents, and making my own short posts about it.

I've also gone out of my way to comment on people's tweets about rwby and express my discontent in a passive aggressive way. I go in guns blazing ready for a fight when I could just scroll pass or mute that person's profile instead. I am not proud of those actions. My pent-up anger and frustration with rwby, especially vol 9, as well as with RT is no way an excuse to drag random people into my grievances. My paranoia caused me to fear backlash, and my resolve to speak my mind drove me into a fight instinct, assuming someone is out there ready to claw my eyes out because I said don't particularly care for bumbl3by and how it was handled or how WBY were uncharacteristically callous and neglectful towards Ruby's declining mental wellbeing.

I want to do better. So my first step is to make a completely separate blog specifically for rwde criticisms as well as Rick Riordan/PJO criticisms (and any other crit of fandoms I am or was part of potentially). I will delete the crit posts from my main blog and reblog them on the new blog. Some of the reblogs where I add my two cents will remain here and will also be reblogged on the new blog. Rwde meme art will stay here.

This post does seem out of nowhere, but I have done some self reflecting recently. I have considered doing a separate blog for rwde and RR crit posts a few months back, so this isn't an impulsive decision. Thank you for your time, and please if you are interested in seeing my two cents, follow me here at grayskyzephyr

I also want to apologize for my unwarranted behavior here and on Twitter. Even if I am a smaller creator and won't draw much attention, it's still not an excuse. I will not apologize for my criticisms, but I will apologize for passively aggressively expressing them to people, who were just minding their own business, unprovoked. For that, I am sorry.

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Where the fuck did these 100 bots come from following my blog????

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It's so strange thinking back and realizing how terrible Annabeth is. And it sucks because Annabeth is one of my favorite characters.

Ok, I'm going to say something a bit dodgy, do take into account that my beef is with Rick and not Annabeth.

I might have been tempted to read The Chalice of the Gods (as opposed to anything after Staff of Serapis, which I've given a pass) if I didn't know that, as long as Annabeth is there as well, Percy won't be well-written. More specifically, he won't be written as himself.

When Rick wrote HoO, he had to figure out how to include Annabeth in the seven without having all these other powers dwarf her out. He did this by establishing a strict division of labour, according to which she was the strategist, and no one else. That has never been the case, at least not in such an exacting way.

Percy's saved their butts with his plans at the very least as often as she has. He's outsmarted his opponents, he's manipulated them, he has like a signature move that he pulls in almost every single book that basically goes "forget you're an almighty entity who could probably just ignore me without any problem and get down here and fight me at my level!" (tlt: Ares, Luke (unsuccessfully, since he refuses). som: Luke again (successfully, since he plays on his need to control his army's opinion of him). botl: Antaeus. tlo: Kronos. technically Gaia in son), he's been the one to figure out what they needed to from the prophecies (som: that they needed to send Clarisse to camp. ttc: the thing with Atlas's curse. botl: that Nico was the ghost king. I don't include tlo bc Annabeth figured it out first), he often comes up with the winning plans, like how he was the one who figured out how to get past Cerberus, even if it was Annabeth's expertise that allowed them to pull through (just like it was Percy's skill and weapon that allowed Annabeth's plan for Medusa to succeed) or tangling Antaeus on the ceiling chains. The scene with Chrysaor? Perfect blend of knowledge of myths, strategic genius and pure labia. For all the times we see him lose his cool or speak impulsively, we also se him go "wait, this person is trying to provoke me, I have to chill". I saw a comment a little while ago that Percy should've been dragging Giants to the gods feet for them to finish off -- that's what he did! Only he didn't physically drag them there, he planned them there. He tricked Polybotes into following him to Terminus, into pissing Terminus off so he'd agree to help, then killed him. While it was far from complex, he's the one who came up with the strategy to beat Otis and Ephialtes, so they only had to wait for Bacchus to step up.

I'm not saying Annabeth isn't smart. She has an impressive store of knowledge, which in itself is a clever thing to store, because it matches with her style of managing resources -- be they mental, like her facts, or physical, like her hat or things she finds in her surroundings, like the glass balls in Medusa's lair. Annabeth is probably the best at looking at a situation and going "okay, let's look at what we have. Ah, yes, a limitless credit card. Ah, yes, a store-full of clothes that no one's going to want back. Ah, yes, those weird-ass proteins that Hermes gave us, just like Hermes gave someone else food for a place just like this. Ah, yes, knowledge of how to fly a helicopter."

Here's the thing, though. When I read the phrase "Athena-like chatter", I almost broke something laughing. She's good with lies, hers are better and more believable than her friends'. When it comes to chatter, though... I couldn't even tell you how good she is, because I don't think I've ever seen her do something like that before MoA?

But, you know, okay, Rick has to spend more time in her head, she's been elevated in status to one of several protagonists instead of a deuteragonist as she was in PJO (he has to solve this oopsie - I don't agree with everything here, like how, except for her intelligence, Annabeth's other skills are "dump stats", but...), so he has her expand. Good for her. I think it worked alright in her fights in MoA -- a little bit of the old (impressive expertise in certain areas, management of resources), add a little bit of the new (a perceptiveness and gift of gab that she's rarely shown before, if ever, although you could argue she might have taken the "talk your enemy into beating itself" from Percy just like she learned to simplify from Frank).

That's not my real problem. It's this, from when they're fighting Akhlys:

Percy wanted to give her more time. She was the brains. Better for him to get attacked while she came up with a brilliant plan.

... What. Of everything that we've seen of Percy. That I've described just now. Makes sense with this? And please don't give me crap about "it's because his self-esteem is so low!" because 1) this isn't just about what he's thinking, it's about what he's doing, which is pretty much nothing while he waits for Annabeth to save them. He's never lacked initiative like this. Even while thinking, "wow, this absolutely crazy and dimwitted plan is so bad that it's going to get us all killed!" he still did it. ( 2) I've heard "it's bc of his self-esteem/ he plays dumb on purpose" to justify fandom's constant underestimation of Percy's smarts too many time to let it fly now.)

"It's because he trusts Annabeth's judgement more than his own, and he lets her do what she does best when she's available. Other times he's been forced to come up with a plan, it's because she isn't." Did he wait for Annabeth to shoot her shot with Ares before going in with his own plan? Did he keep quiet his misgivings about her level of preparation for the Labyrinth in BotL? Did he leave her to organize the battle plan in TLO? Did he give up after Chrysaor beat him twice in a sword fight and wait for her to come up with a plan? Absolutely not.

"Well, he still beat Akhlys, so I don't see what you're complaining about, it's not like he's useless or anything." True. It wouldn't be the first time he has to resort to brute force to get past an enemy he couldn't outthink (the telekhines come to mind) or that he never even bothered trying to outthink (Hyperion comes to mind), because it's not like strategizing is something that's essential to Percy's style, even if it does come up a lot. I said before that it's his actions that bother me and not what he was thinking, but there is some of that, too. That he wasn't thinking "I can't figure out what to do" or even too busy fighting to start to wonder about what to do, but "there's nothing I can contribute here but my fighting skills". It's sadly a dynamic that Rick has tried to encourage between them.

Sure, Percy only ever gets more powerful, but, even without Annabeth around, he loses any of his braincells. Look at his underwater fight with Polybotes. He starts off in the ship with an impressive display of power -- holding the ship together in the middle of a supernatural storm. Then he gets underwater and immediately loses to PB. The guy he would've one-shotted several times if he could kill him without a god's help. "He doesn't have experience fighting underwater," water not only gives him a strength boost, it gives him a skill boost, as we see in TLT. Besides, how much skill do you need to not swim directly into a cloud of poison? And really, he doesn't get to do anything but that.

Compare it to SON. He's fighting an almost-whole legion of dead people, with a mix of sword fighting and a whirlwind, and he might have won if they hadn't been able to reform. Recognizing that he was about to lose and to give Frank and Hazel a chance to fight Alcyoneus without having to worry about the army, he brings a whole end of the iceberg down to drown them all. And yet, you know what really struck me of all this? How smart Percy was, because he didn't just fight the legion. He aimed for the eagle, realizing that that would be the best way to keep them focused on him and not Frank.

If he's this capable, though, where does that leave Annabeth, who's a skilled warrior but whose most distinctive trait is thinking?

The whole power/smarts dichotomy is also the actual context of that line about Annabeth being the most powerful demigod. He's just spent two weeks teaching Magnus how to survive at sea, when it suddenly occurs to him that the most helpful thing for him to learn is how to "use what you've got on hand -- your team, your wits, the enemy's own magical stuff." Which is how, despite how often he's done just that, he concludes that Annabeth is the most powerful demigod and the best person to teach him how to survive. (Which is, sadly, all that that comment amounts to. Annabeth doesn't then get a chance to strut her stuff, teach Magnus, show off her smarts, play a part however small in his quest, give some insight into her mind -- nope! She says it was sweet of him and then just leaves with Percy.)

With a bit of luck, RR reread pjo to nail down the feel of it in order to write a book that's supposed to be a tie in for a tv show set in the early days (that's a lot of subordinates!), so he might've rediscovered the characters and found a way to balance that with the... way that he writes them now. I'm not optimistic, though.

(Also, if I have to read more of Percy being always afraid of Annabeth getting angry at him or her looking angry at the smallest of things and this being played as her being a girlboss, or how you "have to keep your boyfriend on his toes", I'll claw my own eyes out, but that's another topic.)