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[bobauthorman]

The Ace-Ops, the "Best Huntsmen in Atlas": Let's go indulge in the buffet table and not do anything productive.

Teams RWBY/JNPR, a ragtag group of teenagers with attitude: Let's investigate the corrupt businessman's home and see if we can find evidence of wrongdoing.

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Lately I’ve been rewatching Monster Rancher, an anime I enjoyed in college, first in English, and later (once I finish the dub) I’ll be watching it in Japanese. In the apparent absence of an active English-language fandom, I’ve been reading a bit of old discussion and meta about it, and there was one thing that struck me the wrong way. Someone called Holly a Mary Sue because she has a tragic backstory (but so does Suezo), almost never gets involved in the actual fighting even when she says she’s willing to, plus she got captured a couple of times.

Well, it’s true that Holly doesn’t fight much. She did fulfill that one town’s plan to defeat Bajarl by setting off the explosives the dead townspeople had prepared, but otherwise, her only real contribution is the ability to use the magic stone to look for the Phoenix.

But here’s the thing: Bilbo Baggins didn’t do a lot of fighting either. He was a noncombatant that the others had to protect throughout the journey. He had his little magic ring of invisibility, but every single time he rescued the (entire) group along the way happened only after literally everyone else was out of action and he had no one to fall back on but himself. Sound familiar?

Nobody calls Bilbo a Gary Stu for needing to be protected all the time. Yeah, he had a sword (Holly has a dagger), but it’s not as if he really knew how to use it, and there’s only so much training he could have done while simultaneously traveling as far as practicable virtually every single day. Bilbo only had one real function in his Quest, too: to be a burglar and steal back the dwarfs’ treasure from Smaug, and he couldn’t even try to do that until the Company got to Erebor–near the end of the story.

I don’t remember how Holly’s arc ends; and for that matter, the third season of Monster Rancher didn’t even get dubbed in English, so I have no idea what I’m in for when I move on to the sub, but I’m pretty sure she played a reasonably meaningful role in the end.

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[bobauthorman]

Cold Feathers

Raven Branwen and Winter Schnee being in close proximity has gotten fans speculating about what kind of association it would be.

Some have suggested Raven acting as a mentor or such to Winter, which I would not reject on Raven's part. she would try to help guide

But I think there would a lot of one-sided hate on Winter's part. Remember, Raven is, or was until recent events, the kind of person Winter would be fundamentally opposed to. The idea that she now had to deal with a robber and killer as part of the defense of the world would make her skin crawl. Obviously, she would put up with it, but I have no doubts that having to treat a bandit queen as an equal would make her...prickly.

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As a result of their experiences, Team Remnant have become Discworld-Atheists; They know gods exist, but refuse to pray to them.

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Idea: RWBY pulls a Justice League and has Jaune meet the now very old Lewis in some retirement home

Jaune: ...Lewis?

Lewis: ...Sir Knight?

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Don't talk to mama, she's praying for deliverance from damnation.

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The "Jr. Detectives" segment on RWBY Beyond is really interesting. At first, it looks like they've put a RWBY Chibi sketch in the main canon, with Sun and Neptune acting goofy as is their wont.

Then, "we told you the whole story, and now you're all caught up and why do you look so angry?"

And it transpires that Sun was explaining why Qrow caught him and Nep spying on the shadow council. Which means that Sun tends to default to "Goof" when under the scrutinization of an adult figure.

[bobauthorman]

The Straw Hats' first crime...

...Underage drinking.

[bobauthorman]

Say Uncle

I've been thinking about Theodore's allusion in RWBY; He's supposed to be based on Dorothy, that should be a given. But in RWBY: Before the Dawn, it's mentioned that Theodore has a picture of a little girl in his office with a dog.

Now, if Theodore is Dorothy, then who is the girl that was once important enough to keep a reminder of? My theory is that this girl is also Dorothy.

(Insert: "I connected the dots" "No you didn't" meme here)

Here me out. RWBY is not afraid to do combined allusions; Blake is most obvious, being Beauty and the Beast. What we may have here is something similar.

In Ozma of Oz by Baum, what causes Dorothy to return to the normal world is seeing her Uncle Henry dying from the sadness of losing his niece. What I'm saying is that Theodore might be both Dorothy and Henry; Theodore is what if Henry had been the one to fall to Oz, but instead of returning to Kansas, chose to remain in the magic land. In short, Henry in Dorothy's role.

[bobauthorman]

Just remember, whenever you want to get close to your girl, always know your kid sibling will be right there to ruin the mood.

[bobauthorman]

How Raven would mom

Raven: Yang, I'm respecting your privacy by knocking (Portals in) but asserting my authority as your mother by coming in anyway.

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The Adorable Evil Minions (tm) having a crisis of conscience.

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Cinder: Nobody pays you to think, Watts!

Watts: ...They actually pay to do nothing BUT think, you moron!

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How do you get two streams of tears from one giant eyeball?

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Oz: Every one of my followers become emotional wrecks and often turn against my mission despite swearing to always obey me.

Oz: Could it be that my methods and personal beliefs, that I instill in my followers, are so toxic and self-destructive that a single revealed truth could destroy all the goodwill we've built between us?

Oz: No. No, obviously it's the followers fault.