#I remember feeling so many things for her. Its the same now but with v2 and gabriel and probably still her if i thought about her for too

[minophus]

the way my first ever ultkill fanart was a suggestive mirage pic

[mediacinemtographyartetc]

Just watched MSM Spiderman

The disney+ one that so many people hated and thought was the worst spiderman. Well I liked it, it had lots of potential and sorry I tried Ultimate y'know the [BEST] one ever but I just...physically can't. but yeah I could write some reviews so heres a quickie.

Overall when I watched some episodes thought it was over hated and some plots made me go "Le Gasp PLOT TWIST!" And ended up enjoying the writing.

But then there were parts that were cringe the "It's obviously its made for kids hence why it's agony to watch part." Or when it went hard at some points like peter not telling Harry he's Spiderman because his dad has a vendetta and didn't want to be put in the position of having Harry use Spiderman only to capture him because he'll have to choose between his best friend or his dad and Peter thought Harry would never choose him.

As I'm limited with the spidey content I watched with only the raimi/andrew Peter/osborn stories this cartoon actualy conceputilsed harry and Peters friendship because other versions just never hit that close and their issues etc.

But I understand why some people dislike it. Sure I like it, but yeah first season as it kept going I thought "Ah...I get it now."

They introduced Miles Morales near the beggining. Then he ghosted.

Oh no something explosed they need spiderman! Miles was RIGHT there!

And then the story was like Miles is missing!

What a surprise, it's as if the writers just remembered they have a SPIDERMAN v2 in there!

And I got bored becuase most of it was just filler like yeah thats what the guy in charge wanted. [I had the same idea with Ben 10 Omniverse, I liked that show too and didn' understand the hate and when a friend said should he watched it I was like "Oh sure here a ten episodes and thats pretty much it." him: Isn't there a hundred episodes? Me: Ah...I see the problem now]

But GOD the potential, I mean sure the Superior Spiderman ep 1 maybe I'm not giving it a chance and should skip a few and try again [I probably won't those noses? ugly I can't just it looks like a toenail]

Like no I can't believe I live in a world where TOENAIL face is called superior over...

This face at least it looks like they HAVE a nose! jeez

Anyway moving on, I admit it got to the point where spiderman only started feeling like spider-man in the last two episodes when his quips were actually funny and I thought. Yeah I'll end it at Season one. Given that they brought in black cat, dropped. Miles Morales spiderman? Dropped until convinient, Gwen Stacy turned her into a bug. Sandman "I did this for my daughter angst." Her daughter : I'm a sand person too! No thanks to you, deadbeat dad! Le gasp plot twist Daughter KILLS sandman! Oh my god did they just do that holy cow and THEN The sysbiote jumps in holy shit-

Daughter/sandman episode gets dropped. Symbiote episode: Spider-Man: The symbiote is awesome strong powerful amazing! People: No spider-man its making you evil. Spider-man: Your right! I need help getting it off!

And this happens twice, like again could've pushed it a lot harder, it's like introducing a cool concept and then just tripping on their feet at the finish line. Like c'mon. And Otto octavious voice felt so cartoonishly evil it was hard to take seriously since it sounded like robin from teen titans go. [I know it's the same voice actor I'm just saying I hate western cartoons currently coz I'm like wow I grew up with darker and harder villians like SLADE from teen titans meanwhile current villains are as scary as kittens its physically painful]

Anyway, say what you will about MSM but I actually loved how Norman Osborn was almost using cancel culture to claim that Spider-man was part of a spider army and things would happen like the jackal confirming it and if Norman actually manipulated events to make public opinion and his own son hate Spider-man and have it spiralling out of control?

I thought that was cool, and actually intersting of Norman instead of being goblin first, or a two bit villain used image/lack of context and painted him in a bad light. I just thought it was cool and wished more versions did that.

__________________________________________________________

And the other things, love this episode with iron man [shut up I like the potential kay!]

This scene was cute like iron man is dealing with a threat is so used to lethal/suspicious/more dangerous foes. So seeing this nerdy fanboy just happy to see him? And then scans him to realise he's a kid? How he was first attacking then became impressed then even figured out his obvious identity [Peter can't lie for shit] and had some obvious interest that even Black Widow mentioned it? How they had a team up, and stark almost died because of his arc reactor - like ugh the angst and I wish there was more. Just more episodes like this...

But then the symbiote scene wish again, cool since it was anti-tech but then the whole song and dance AGAIN of, symbiote good no you're right get it off!

Like idk I think they could've yknow what forget it. I'm a 90's kid who is so used to DARKER stuff that when this series just shaves the tip of the iceberg I'm like OOHHH the potential!

Such a shame...anyway thats what fanfictions are for.

[joontier]

Subliminal in Scrubs | V2; report xiii

pairings: dr. jeon jungkook x female reader

chapter rating: NC-17 | genre: humor, workplace relationships

warnings: swearing 

word count: 1.8k

g/n: decided on a bit of a filler for this one as a sort of prelude to future scenes 👀👀 ((likewise manifesting my plan to post another chapter this week))

[taglist]:  @nottodayjjk @ditttiii @zeharilisharaban @btsbunny07 @turquoiseandplaidinautumn @aamxxrii @codeinebelle @btsmakesmehappy @stargukkie @moonchild1​

Subliminal in Scrubs (the records) |  navi. | m.list

Jungkook locks his apartment door behind him, jiggling the doorknob afterwards for ‘double security’ as one would usually call it. He grabs his backpack from the floor and places one of the straps on his shoulders and heads on his way. As he passes by two of his neighbors who live in the same floor, he nods at them, adding a brief hum in greeting. 

“Hey man!” One of the men, Jikwang (as what Jungkook believes this man’s name was), calls out just before Jungkook reaches the elevator. “There was this hot girl asking about you last night.” 

Jungkook raises a brow. He hadn’t really met anyone recently, besides that one cute law student who was looking for a new tenant - and eventually turned out to be your neighbor this whole time. She was cute and all, but she didn’t seem like the type that was ‘hot’ to these types of people. 

Jungkook racks his brain for anything, trying to remember the very few number of his one night stands.Surely,none of them would have gotten pregnant with protection on….surely? On top of that, he hadn’t really disclosed his address to a lot of people too, so there was no way someone would be looking for him, all the more a “hot” woman,as these two would claim. 

“Did she say what her name was?” 

The one beside Jikwang shakes his head, adjusting his beanie. He’d seen this dude a couple of times hanging around, but he never actually got his name.  “Nah bro, I don’t think you’re the commitment type of dude…” he comments, dark eyes looking at Jungkook from his head down to his toe. Who was this guy anyways and who was he to judge whether Jungkook was the type to enter a committed relationship or not? 

“She just...looked rich, rich. She had a driver... who helped her come down from a nice Benz.” 

Jungkook feels his heart drop to the ground. No way in hell. 

“I think her name was Hee something...Junghwa? I dunno man, I’m not good with names. But it sounds similar to that…” 

“Was it Junghee?” 

“Yeah I think that’s it…” bonnet-dude replies, tapping a finger against his chin as he approaches Jungkook. “You think maybe you can set me up? With you know…” 

Jikwang knocks the back of bonnet-man’s head. “I got dibs first, shithead. “If she’s not already yours though,” he adds, delivering a wink aimed at Jungkook. “Her friends will do.” 

Jungkook squints his eyes at the duo. “No. She’s my sister. And she doesn’t have any friends.” A chill courses through his spine as he replies, wondering how she managed to find out where he lived, and why would she even reach out? Why now, when she had so many years to do so? 

Beanie guy simply laughs at him - if it was even considered laughing, when he was practically splitting his sides with laughter - like the thought of having a sister was hilarious to him. “You’re real funny, man. There is no...way...in hell… that that lady was your sister.” 

Ah yes, this man is a health vice personified. Jungkook notes the discoloration of his teeth, the god-awful odor coming from his mouth, and they both reek of alcohol and drugs combined. From a safe distance, Jungkook watches their amusement over the subject that is his sister, thinking about why he even indulged these two in the first place. For all he knows, they might have been shitting on him the whole time. 

“Sorry man. I mean...she’s rich and hot… and you?” Jikwang shrugs his shoulders. 

‘And he?’ What about him? 

What the hell was that supposed to mean? 

Jungkook clicks his tongue silently, clearly taking full offense with Jikwang’s statement. Did they just imply he didn’t look rich and hot too? Well, compared to them though, they’ll obviously have way longer to go. 

Jungkook blinks before equally returning their level of disbelief. “For real, bro?” These men diss him, won’t believe he has a sister whose aura dwarfs his by a million percent, and now they want him to set up a date with her? He shakes his head. Only crooks like these would say insane shit like this. 

If only this wasn’t the cheapest and most convenient apartment he could find to accommodate his daily hustle, Jungkook would have moved out of this crap excuse of an apartment building a long time ago. 

“Keep dreaming man.” 

“Hey, this is what I get for selling you my bike for a good price?” Jikwang eyes Jungkook, taunting him. 

“I owe you nothing. I paid for it ages ago.” Jungkook turns on his heel, leaving the two in the crusty ass corridor of their apartment building. He needs to get a new place. Quickly. 

With a sigh, he pulls on his down jacket, keeping himself warm as he walks to the garage. 

‘King Auto’ 

There’s a certain warmth that envelops Jungkook whenever he sees the garage, a place he’d rather call home than his terrible apartment building. It sits right at the corner of two busy streets, just six blocks away from his apartment. 

Funnily enough, it wasn’t him who first found out about the garage but the other way around. Well, technically, the owner did. Lee Dongmin, owner and manager of ‘King Auto’ repairs and restores almost all types of cars and bikes alike, occasionally servicing high-end cars on lucky days. 

Dongmin would usually see Jungkook pass by the garage in the morning on his way to the university or his part-time job.Well, being located at a busy street in the city of Seoul, there would normally be a lot of passersby but Dongmin knew these people either worked or lived around the area; Jungkook, however, always lingered when he walks past the garage. 

It had come to Dongmin’s knowledge a few months later that Jungkook purposefully used a longer route on his way, walking two extra blocks just so that he could pass by the garage. Dongmin hadn’t initially done anything about it, as he thought Jungkook simply took interest in cars - especially when the shop had its fair share of servicing cars from the western market. 

There was this particular day though one summer, that their paths would finally cross. Jungkook’s bike, the same bike he bought from sketchy Jikwang, broke down. Coincidentally just in front of King Auto too. Funnily enough, no one in the garage was familiar with fixing up bikes, but Jungkook simply asked if he could borrow a few tools and he’d fix his bike himself. 

Ultimately, Jungkook became part of the King Auto family. He’d spend his spare time in the garage when he’s not busy with his part-time jobs and on occasion, Jungkook gets to keep a tiny commission whenever he helps out with the repairs. 

Jungkook goes through the front door greeting the new receptionist, Clark, a good morning before heading straight to the garage. Jungkook spots a familiar shade of blue peeking through the scissor lifts, just by the end row. He practically dashes to the car in excitement, too thrilled to greet his favorite car he had worked on previously. 

“My baby!” The boy exclaims as he rests his chin on the Porsche Panamera’s roof. “Kook! Get your hands off that! I just had it cleaned!” gruffs Mansik from the other side of the car, flinging his towel at Jungkook who mumbles a sorry but continues to cradle the car, a little more gently this time. 

“If you continue doing that, you know a towel isn’t the only thing Mansik is going to throw at you.” Lee Dongmin’s voice is low, careful that the man he’s referring to won’t hear his words. “I’m glad he hasn’t resorted to tools yet...just a couple of smelly socks and a t-shirt that smells like it hasn’t been washed for months... “ 

“Fuckers.” True to Jungkook’s foreboding, Mansik does throw a sock ball from out of nowhere, one which barely misses Jungkook’s face. Dongmin simply shakes his head at his workers, who he has considered family at this point, Jungkook included. “I’m just glad none of that fell into my first coffee of the day.” Dongmin observes, drawing himself father from the Porsche and any flying objects later on. 

“By the way, the owner is actually here to pick up the car. I may or may not have mentioned your infatuation with it.” 

Jungkook almost instantly jumps to his feet, searching for the owner inside the garage, but disappointingly ending up with all the familiar faces at the garage. “Chill, kid. He just grabbed some coffee down the street,” Dongmin mentions as he takes a sip of his own. “Ah, speaking of the devil,” the latter states, nodding his head towards someone behind Jungkook. 

“Seokjin-sunbaenim?” 

“Oh hey! Wasn’t expecting to see you here...Jungkook, right?” 

“Yes sir!” Jungkook’s pupils shake, animatedly looking back and forth between the garage owner and his upper-level resident. “So...you’re the one who owns this Porsche?” Seokjin raises his cup, adding a small nod in Jungkook’s direction. He internalizes his excitement, before confessing his love for Seokjin’s Panamera. 

“And so, Dongmin here mentioned. Also said you were the one who fixed her up. Thanks man!” 

Dongmin looks at the two of them, eyebrows creased in the middle. “You two know each other?” 

“Seokjin-sunbaenim is a senior of mine at Woocheon.” Seemingly shellshocked at the new piece of information, Dongmin turns to Seokjin, “You’re a doctor?” The owner of the Porsche rolls his eyes fondly, “Yes, Dongmin. We can have lives outside the hospital too, you know.” 

“Anyways, ‘Mera’s ready to go yeah?” 

“Of course. Kook fixed it up just fine.” 

“Alright. Got a shift today man? Need a ride to the hospital?” 

Jungkook is tempted to give in, but merely fixing Seokjin’s car is enough honor for him and he can’t take advantage of his generosity. “No thank you, sunbae. I’ve already got a ride to work today.” Jungkook points to his bike on the other side of the garage. 

Seokjin tuts his disbelief. “You’re kidding me right? In this weather?” The older doctor points outside, then rubs his palm against his down coat. “No way in hell, kid. Get in the car.” 

“Really?” Jungkook mumbles, dimple on display as his lips form a thin line. Seokjin makes a hum of approval as he takes off his jacket while Jungkook dashes back to where he’d left his backpack. “He’s a good kid, Jungkook. Can be a bit of a delinquent sometimes, but he’s good. Take care of him, yeah?” 

“Huh,” Seokjin smirks, “this handsome face got nothing he can’t handle.” Dongmin rolls his eyes this time, “Seriously doubt we’re the same age honestly.” 

Jungkook returns to where the Porsche is parked, and Seokjin gets a spur-of-the-moment idea. The surgical resident throws his keys to Jungkook before settling inside the passenger seat. Jungkook, surprised as ever, simply stands there in surprise. “Well?” Seokjin asks, ducking towards the dashboard so he could take a look at Jungkook, “We’re gonna be late!” 

© joontier 2021

[whitleyschn33]

Color in RWBY’s Designs

I’ve been trying to reblog this post for a good 10 minutes, and Tumblr just refuses to let me, and I don’t think I’m blocked, so @strqyr​ , have a reply

...

Okay, ignoring the out-of-left-field (hah) pivot to politics that cropped up in the comments -

I’m not an artist, but I do follow a few that discuss character design and have attempted some recolors myself, and when it comes to the various designs and colors of the RWBY girls, it’s not so much about the in-universe importance of color, it’s about the more meta principles of character design. Once again, I’m not the most qualified person to talk about this, so excuse me if I get something wrong or ramble.

In visual mediums, a character’s design, more specifically their silhouette and their colors, is what makes them stand out and memorable to an audience; in a lot of cartoons and anime, you’ll likely be able to recognize characters by their designs long before you remember their names, and even if you don’t know their names, seeing the silhouette or even color palette of that character can bring their image to your mind. For example, I haven’t seen an episode of Sailor Moon in my life, but show me Usagi’s silhouette, and I can tell you exactly who that is. I can show you this, and I would bet that 99% of you can tell me what character this is meant to represent despite it literally just being 5 rectangles.

(On a slight tangent, in action shows, colors and the smart placement there-of are doubly important, as they help with keeping track of a character as they move through a cluttered environment and interact with other characters, and keep track of how they move their bodies in that space. To use a specific example from RWBY itself, check out the Nevermore fight from Volume 1 - despite all the debris flying around the screen and the amount of wide shots, it’s easy to keep track of how the characters move around the screen. Yang’s gauntlets help direct your eyes to her punches, and the splash of red in Weiss’s collar makes sure she doesn’t turn into a white blob moving around the screen.)

RWBY specifically is a show that quite literally advertised itself and its character on the premise of color. The show is named not just after the main characters, but the main characters’ colors. The first trailers were the Red, White, Black, and Yellow trailers. Their original designs, while of course using other colors in the palettes, give an overall impression of red, white, black, and yellow, making the characters pop against the stark black, red, and white backgrounds of the trailers, as well as stand out against the background characters that were literally empty black voids of silhouettes. Their initial character designs are tied completely to them representing a specific color, and this color gimmick also makes the girls stand out as characters. Ruby’s red cloak and ruffles, Weiss’s white side ponytail and dress, Blake’s black bow and tuxedo vest, and Yang’s fiery yellow hair and gauntlets are instantly recognizable from a glance, and that’s a sign of good design that makes them distinct.

So, when you get to the later volumes and suddenly the characters are wearing less and less of their original, iconic colors on top of getting new silhouettes, it makes them start looking less and less recognizable as the characters they were originally designed to be, and more like completely different characters. Lets look at Blake and Weiss as an example. If you’d never seen RWBY, could you tell me if these were the same characters?

Alright, let’s fill in the details.

They look like two completely different pairs of characters. It’s not even the clothes themselves, but the colors and shapes of their clothes combined with the radically different hairstyles make the V7 designs look very much unlike the original designs. The girls got alternate outfits in V2, but they all fit the general silhouettes and color schemes of their typical outfits, and were still very much recognizable as the main team, just with new clothes. Such a drastic shift in what types of clothes and the colors they wear in V7, on the other hand, makes them look like different character designs. If you’re going to change what a character is wearing to something very different, keeping the colors consistent helps with keeping them recognizable as the character they are.

Now, changing the design of your character beyond the specific clothes they wear isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Characters change as they progress through a story, and in visual media, changes to character design can be used to signify how they’re changing or how they’re reacting to their environment and new situations. For example, in the S2 premire of Avatar, Zuko cuts off his distinguishing topknot to represent his fall from a Fire Nation prince to an outlaw on the run, and in season 3, the GAang don red Fire Nation clothes as a disguise, ditching their usual blue, orange, and green clothing. In the Owl House, Amity dyes her hair purple to represent her making her own choices rather than letting her family control her life (and I picked this up from gif sets, without having even seen the show). Design changes, even to hair and color, can be used to represent change - and RWBY has managed to do this fairly well in the past! For example, Weiss’s V4 design is very different from her original design - her sleeves and collar are tight rather than poofy, her colors are muted and overrun with greys and blues, her whites are mostly hidden and her red is nowhere to be seen. This works, though, because it represents Weiss’s current situation - she’s being controlled by her father, her individuality represented by her whites and reds being driven out, and her dress is mostly tight against her wrists and neck, like shackles and being chocked. It’s a good way of showing a character’s changed situation, while keeping her recognizable from her side ponytail and poofy skirt remaining the same.

The latest redesigns of Team RWBY, however, don’t do this. They change radically, in color, hair, and clothing shape, and there’s no clear reason why. Why do they change how they look so drastically? What prompted them to style their hair so differently, to cut it so short? Why have they decided to choose different colors to wear? To circle back to the initial post, what part of their character development has changed them from the color they were representing to the color they’re now representing?

For more specific question/examples - what prompted Blake to cover herself in a heavy white coat in V4, when she was heading to a tropical island to recover? Why does she wear a bright white coat for official Huntress business when she’s meant to be a ninja? Why does she cut her hair so short? Why does Weiss cover herself in blues and greys in V7 when blues and greys were used to show her unhappiness and imprisonment by Jacques, rather than returning to lots of whites? Why does she go from a sleek ponytail to a thick heavy braid? Why does Ruby replace her cape and start styling her hair differently? Why does she go from a poofy skirt with ruffles to a very sleek, low volume skirt? Why does Yang not wear any yellow anymore? Why do none of them seem to wear anything suited for the cold? None of these questions have real answers. We can speculate all day, but at the end, that would still just be speculation.

Why does Lillie in Pokemon change her hair and clothes? To prove that she’s not just something for her mother to control and dress up to her ideal of beauty; that Lillie can make her own choices and is ready to stand on her own two feet and do what needs to be done, rather than relying on Repels and the player character.

Why does Blake cut her hair and start wearing so much white? ....

Why does Persona 5′s Akechi’s palette switch from bright white, reds, and golds to dark blacks and purples? To show the tearing down of the Detective Prince façade to the true darkness underneath.

Why does Weiss start wearing so many dark blues and greys? ....

I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point. Things just change on RWBY, key aspects of their designs like their hair and colors, and for the most part, there just seems to be no reason given to change. I’m not saying things like colors can never change, clearly they can, but for character design, especially in a show so heavily focused on colors and how characters are represented by their colors, it’s not a thing that should be taken lightly; if a character has grown so dramatically that the manner in which they express themselves as a character has changed, like the original poster is implying it can, it should be clear to see why this character has changed in this manner.

Without a good reason for it to change, it feels unnatural, like the character isn’t the same character - so when RWBY’s colors seem to be changing without good reason, creating designs that don’t look right for the character they’re meant to be in the situations they’re meant to be in, it causes people to want to revert back to the original palettes. Not because they’re denying individuality of the characters, but because the characters are no longer designed like the individuals they once were, and artists want to bring that individuality and striking design back through the use of the colors these characters use to define themselves.

[littlemisssquiggles]

RWBY Musings #81: The Queen of Thieves. What if…Weiss Schnee will have to defend her family against Robyn Hill in the next episode?

Anon-ninja asked “Do you think Oscar might train with ironwood in the next episode? Maybe ironwood will eventually question him in private? That could be used ass a way to get this boy back into the story”

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Squiggles Answers:

No; not this family, sadly to say…

I mean the other one we don’t like to talk about.

This was originally just going to be just an answer post regarding my favourite best boy: Oscar Pine, however along the way it turned into a short musing post sharing this squiggle meister’s thoughts and theories for next episode, especially where Weiss is concerned. I don’t usually muse about the Weiss-cream but it’s actually an interesting small headcanon. 

Missing Little Prince

But before I get to talking about Weiss. Let’s talk about my boy again, just to answer the anon-ninja who asked me this question. If I can be honest with you anon-chan, I actually hope that's not the case. 

While I'm eager for Oscar to at least appear once next episode (like possibly in another memory flashback courtesy of Ruby to highlight the conclusion to her brief talk with Oscar from V7CH3), I honestly would better prefer for Oscar's training with Ironwood to be its own episode since Oscar could honestly use his own focus episode at this point.  Following his treatment during V6 and his treatment in the recent episode of V7, I am seriously very tired of the Writers overlooking him. Not saying that to sound disrespectful in any kind of way or to rag on the Writers but… I really need to ask---is Oscar a character or not? More than that; is he REALLY a part of the main cast and hero team or not? 

I’d like to think of Oscar as being in the same class as JNR. He’s part of the deuteroganist group whose story and development is just as important as our protagonist team. Or at least, it’s supposed to be?

 But I’m not sure anymore. I understand that good, exciting things were promised for the precious freckled farm boy turned little prince for this volume and while I’m trying my goshdarndiggity hardest to be as patient as I can be in anticipating that, apologies but my patience was surely tested last episode and it made me think back to V6 where I had a similar experience with Oscar’s story---anticipating him having a great season only for it to fall flat in the end with his overall treatment somehow being worse than V5. At least that’s how it was for me. Not speaking for all Pineheads here. This is only my opinion.

That being said, giving how the story went down last episode and given that CH5 was written by the same CRWBY Writer---Eddy Rivas---who mentioned that CH4 was his ‘baby’ chapter too, I have a feeling that we’re more likely to have a direct continuation to plot points established in that episode.

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Men On Mission

Now that our heroes have been rewarded their huntsmen licenses and were shown viewing the mission board at the end of the last episode, I feel like the next few episodes---CH5 to CH7 or just CH5 and 6---will be its own little mini-arc; just like how Brunswick Farms was its own little mini-arc back in V6.

I’m curious if the next few episodes might showcase our heroes going on missions around Solitas according to the mission board highlighted in CH4. I want to pay especial attention to the Solitas Mission board since it might provide a clue as to where JNR_RWBY might be next episode. 

Okay, so according to the Mission board: there are two escort missions and two perimeter defence missions that are open. The remaining two missions: Search and Rescue and Bounty are stated as “In Progress” so I’m assuming that those two missions already have huntsmen assigned to them.

I’m curious to know if that’s the mission that General Ironwood discussed with Clover beforehand.

Before Ironwood met with JNR_RWBY, he was last seen discussing something with Clover where he mentioned that he needed him on the ground while warning him to be subtle since if the people saw too many huntsmen around, it might attract trouble with the Grimm.

Speaking of, can I just take this moment to address how much Ironwood has grown here? I found it really ironic hearing Ironwood discussing subtly and the attraction of the Grimm with Clover since I still remember that this was the same man who wanted to bring the full force of the Atlesian Army to Vale and went behind his own colleague and fellow headmaster of many years to do so. You know what that’s called? Growth. It’s just a nice little parallel and call back to V2 that I appreciate.

So yeah, I’m assuming that Ironwood must’ve deployed Clover down in Mantle specifically to investigate what happened to Forest. 

Ironwood told Clover not to take Marrow since he’s probably not the most subtle or discreet of the team. Poor good boy. So I’m guessing that Clover must’ve taken Harriet instead since she was absent along with him in the end. 

Pfft…I almost want to make a wise crack about Clover taking Harriet as his mission partner for good luck since…y’know…she’s based off the Hare from the Tortoise and the Hare fable and y’know…rabbits represent good luck and all that jazz.

Anyways I’m going to assume that Clover and Harriet were deployed to one of the missions on the Board. Probably the Search and Rescue one since it’s slated as in progress. Since Tyrian has been confirmed to be targeting public leaders who speak out against Atlas, I’m curious if another public leader was reported missing in Mantle and Clover and Harriet were tasked in finding them and rescuing them if necessary. That’s pretty my hunch in regards to that.

Resuming talk about CH5, since the thumbnail for CH5 highlighted Robyn Hill making her debut next episode, I'm assuming that it'll continue from where CH4 left off. As I said, CH4 ended with the heroes taking up missions in Solitas.

We know that Jaune already accepted one of the Escort Mission with the pre-schoolers. That leaves the remaining three open missions on the board to be divided between Ren, Nora, Blake, Yang, Weiss and Ruby. 

Elm also hinted that one of the Perimeter Defence missions involving a lose Sayber needing two huntsmen for the job. 

So that leaves me to believe that the second Escort and the second Perimeter Defence mission on the board will probably require 2 huntsmen each depending on their difficulty level. 

That being said, here’s my squiggly theory for the next two episode mini-arc:

CH5 will be another mission-focused episode with JNR_RWBY each deployed on separate missions across Solitas. Since Jaune will be down in Mantle with his respective escort mission, my hunch is that Ren and Nora (Flower Power) will be joining him down in Mantle since they are the two who will be designated to tackle the Perimeter Defence Mission involving the lose Sayber down in the sewers.

This leaves Team RWBY. Since the season has been going really hard with them since episode 1, I’m going to take a wild guess and say that Yang and Blake (Bumblebee) are going to tag team for the second Perimeter Defence mission. This leaves Ruby and Weiss (Ice flower) with the second Escort mission which I’m going to assume is up in Atlas.

That’s my best guess.

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Queen Protects King?

Okay, now this is where things are really going to get headcanon-y. It’s also the part involving Weiss.

What if …for V7CH5, Ruby and Weiss take the Escort Mission and the person who they find out they’ll have to begrudgingly escort to wherever in Solitas is none other than Jacques Schnee and possibly Whitley too

Imagine…the look on Weiss’ face if she were to discover that her very first official mission after becoming an officially licensed huntress basically involves her working for her father and little brother---to be at their beck and call as she and Ruby play huntsmen body guards to protect them and escort them wherever in Solitas?

I think an episode like this would actually be pretty damn fascinating to watch play out, don’t you think? I think it would be great to see how Weiss would react to doing something like this especially after the awesometacular way she told off Jacques last episode. Not to mention that this could potentially be Weiss’ first time seeing Whitley again…now as an official huntress ESPECIALLY since the last time the two spoke, he basically told her that her becoming a huntress was a useless career path.

How did the young Schnee boy describe it? Barbaric? Beneath people like him and his father. I wonder just how barbaric and beneath Whitley it will be as he watches his sister use her abilities to protect his life before his very eyes? He might learn a thing or two.  

Besides I’m also curious to see how Whitley would react to seeing Weiss in action as a trained huntress; honed in her skills especially when she summons her knight. I wonder how Weiss would react having to protect her father and brother as part of her job. Seriously, I really would love for an episode like this.

And y’know what? I think it could potentially even be in the cards. My rationale for thinking an episode like this could potentially be canon is because, CH5 showed Robyn Hill in the thumbnail.

Robyn Hill is supposedly RWBY’s version of Robin Hood, right? Her and her Happy Huntresses are the RWBY-verse’s rendition of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, right?

That being said; wasn’t Robin Hood’s theme that he stole from the rich to give to the poor? Wasn’t there not a scene in the Robin Hood animated film by Disney where Robin and his Merry Men worked together to rob the greedy Prince John of his richies while he was on an excursion out of his kingdom carrying a chest of gold?

Robyn Hill will appear next episode. One of the missions in Solitas is an escort mission. 

What if…and this is a big if…CH5 will involve Ruby and Weiss tag-teaming for a mission to escort Jacques (and maybe Whitley) on some kind of business mission where they’re supposed to make a deal and collect money or something and during the mission, the group are not only ambushed by the Grimm but also Robyn Hill and her Happy Huntresses who arrived to pilfer from Jacques and take back what he’s exploited from the people of Mantle?

I know this sounds like farfetched idea but maybe I could be onto something. I’d like to think of Jacques as RWBY’s version of the Prince John apart from his double role as the Wicked Queen in Weiss’ Snow White story.

 I also think it could be pretty cool. 

Watching Weiss be a huntress and protect her family.  I know Weiss doesn’t necessarily need to prove anything to Jacques or even Whitley. However, I still think it’d be pretty awesome to see her in action and have Jacques be there to watch his cage bird soar high and kick ass to protect his sorry ass. 

I more like this idea as being a nice little segway into developing Weiss’ side of things. I’d especially love an episode like this so that we can have like a follow-up on what Jacques told Weiss about her dear mother. 

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Weeping Willow

First of all, I know Jacques has already been depicted as the scum of the Earth but how much lower can this man sink if he resorts to using his own ‘wife’s’ disease (I’ll come back to that in a minute) as a means of guilt-tripping Weiss into coming home or worse, make her feel bad for rightfully leaving home after how he treated her last time.

What’s noteworthy about that was Weiss’ reaction to learning about how her mother might have felt upon her departure.

This is intriguing to me since…not to make it sound bad in any kind of way but, it gave the impression that Weiss actually cares for her mother’s well-being which is…kind of new to me since the last time we saw Weiss in V4, she acted rather indifferent to her mother’s existence.

We never even saw them interact. I know she talked about her in V5, giving some more perspective on how things really were in Schnee Manor. But this is the first time I’ve seen Weiss show genuine concern for her mother and I feel like if she were to see Whitley again, she might be tempted to probe him with questions about the state of their mother.

“Y’know…your mother was devastated. Didn’t leave her room for days. Y’know how she gets when she’s upset?”

Y’know how she gets when she’s upset?

Huh. That’s an interesting thing for Jacques to imply here. I know he probably mentioned that to sort of hint at the common FNDM theory that Ms Schnee is an alcoholic, like Qrow used to be. However, I feel like there is more to it than that.

The first time we heard of Mama Schnee, the impression given was that she was an alcoholic who mostly spent her days drinking her sorrows away than raising her own children. Now, according to Jacques, she sounds more like an ailing mother and that there might be more to her circumstance than I initially pegged.

Due to this, I’m now inclined to ask the question or rather, make the theory:

What if… Mama Schnee suffers with chronic depression and alcohol is basically her coping mechanism to dealing with her condition as an alternative to seeking the right medical attention and help that she needs. 

Perhaps this could potentially tie in further to Jacques’ abuse of his own wife. Like imagine if...Jacques knew of his wife’s condition and used it as a means of manipulating her further?

Like in the beginning when he was being all nice just to get her to marry him and do what he wants, he used to make his wife feel like she didn’t need help at all because to him she was perfect in his eyes. Until the bomb finally went off and now, Jacques uses his wife’s condition as ammo to guilt his children, among other things?

It’s only a small theory. Like I said, I don’t usually muse about Weiss. But since we will be exploring more of her character and backstory this season, it’d be interesting to what’s in store for us with her and her family when we get into their family affairs. 

For now, I’ll just hoping that I’m correct about her and Ruby encountering Robyn Hill and the Happy Huntresses for the first time while defending Jacques of all people. I think that could be really cool to see. But as always, for now, it’s only a theory.

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 So to conclude...

Now that I’ve mused mostly over Weiss’ side of things for CH5, as for Ruby:

...Well technically Ruby has currently become the main driver for anything to do with Oscar since the subplot involving her deceit if Ironwood is shared with Oscar. 

The most I’m hoping for with CH5 as far as Oscar is concerned is that it’ll show the conclusion to his talk with Ruby from since CH3.

That’s mostly what I’m hoping for since...honestly I 'm starting to think that Oscar might be absent from the next episode again. At least, I don’t think the plot will focus on him as much as JNR_RWBY unless it’s in flashback mode. 

Similar to Brunswick Farm in RWBY V6, I feel like CH5 and CH6 are probably going to be a mini arc involving our heroes being huntsmen in the field which will lead into them encountering and possibly clashing with the likes of Robyn Hill and her Happy Huntresses.

I genuinely feel like we might not see Oscar training with Ironwood til CH7---the midseason episode. Heck I feel like we might not even see Oscar again at all in the plot until CH7. 

Then again, as I said, this is only my best assumption here and who’s to say I’ll be correct?  I’m just a humble squiggle meister sharing her thoughts and theories as per usual. Take it as you will, fam.  

More Squiggles’ RWBY Content

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~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

[servalias]

On why and how BS steals from BB

(Disclaimer: I am NOT saying you can’t ship blacks/un. Ship it all you want, I don’t care, hell it’s kinda growing on me, but it is not the ship that’s being set-up as endgame for Blake. Nor am I saying you have to like/ship bumbleby, the ship that IS being set-up as endgame for Blake.)

So I’d say this whole “stealing from the bees” starts in v2 but gets accentuated in v4, because we see Yang do these things where she helps Blake and all that, then when Sun does it people use those arguments like crazy. Can’t count the number of times people have used this “Sun helped her so much I hope they end up together” argument for bs-not gonna lie the boy did help- but it’s like they forget about Yang entirely?

 See, the first instance was when Yang helped Blake in v2 and made her go to the dance, you already know those, then there were small moments here and there (the talk on mountain glenn when she told blake that she believes in her), the biggest moment being the Adam fight (we’ll get into that later)

But whenever people used those as evidence (which, on themselves, shouldn’t be used like that, but when you count the whole scene/the vibes/the music/the feelings behind it etc, you can see how that happened) they were called delusionals.

So fast forward to v4, we have Sun help Blake while she was falling, maybe a few small moments there and here, and then we have the Ilia fight as the biggest moment (again we’ll get into that later)

At a first glance you can totally compare them, but you need to get deeper into this.

How did Yang get injured? Because she saw Adam over Blake after *stabbing* her and was willing to die to protect her. How did Sun get injured? Cause while he was helping Blake out (and, I wanna talk about this later too), and while Blake had the situation under control (she still had her aura, energy, was up and ready to fight if she had to) he decided to make some stupid comments which ended up hurting him. It wasn’t a “I will die for you” moment, it was a “I wanted to help but fucked up” moment

And about the help Sun gives Blake, you must understand that he was willing to fight from the start, he wanted to fight, he likes to fight. His reason for coming was cause he thought Blake was gonna fight the White Fang, and he’s a good friend who was willing to help Blake out (I still have a few questions about it: why did he go by himself if he thought she was gonna fight the whole wf? Why not bring the whole team? But whatever, that doesn’t really matter now). So, while yes, there’s no denying he knew he could get injured, you can’t say “he was willing to die for Blake” since there’s a reason he was shown getting injured because of his own mistakes (not only to show the audience that he doesn't know how bad racism against faunus is but also to show us the parallels between sun and yang w/ adam and ilia)

And now talking about parallels: it’s pretty clear to see who is getting paralleled with who and why: Yang/Adam and Sun/Ilia, and before continuing reading I need you to understand 2 things: why are they paralleled like this, and why do people (especially those who ship blake and sun) wanted so badly for sun to be paralleled with adam (and fight him). Ever since the start we get small, small hints ( I wouldn't count them but still: in the Blake short when Adam is using his semblance everything goes black while in yang’s short when she uses her semblance everything goes white) which build up to comparisons between them from Blake herself (see volume 3) then the fight that sets some things clear (but this isn’t about that)

As for Sun, while he doesn’t get as many hints (not that the audience can clearly see) he fights Ilia (and gets contrasted to Yang) and not to be controversial, this isn’t what it’s about, but later on you understand even better how: they have a lot of similarities, side characters that care about Blake, help her character development and push her to meet her goals (rwy and the white fang), and in the end, both had at some point a crush that isn't reciprocated.

So if this isn’t clear already, people wanted Sun to be paralleled with Adam (going as far as comparing them to Journey to the west and their semblence names) because the implications are obvious: Adam, Blake’s ex love interest? If someone needs to fight him its her current love interest. Ilia, Blake’s ex *friend* with an unrequited crush? Yeah, you got it.

There are other things too: such as the eyes/aura thingies. For example, remember when bb shippers were saying all the time how Blake’s aura is gonna be purple and how Blake and Yang are so nicely contrasted cause of that? And how “eyes are the windows of the soul” soulmates blah blah. A lot of people, especially during v4, were talking about how Blake’s eyes were amber and how they contrasted Sun’s blue now ( not only were his eyes originally black/dark gray, but also amber is a combination of yellow and orange, not just orange), so where did that argument really come from?

The names/meaning+ a side of songs: Sun? Literally the Sun? Blake? The moon? Well not quite, look, I know the show is in english, and that most of us speak it, but 1) Sun Wukong is in chinese, same as Yang Xiao Long and 2) They’re just names (even if the writers are doing some things with them, see Ilia “Amitola” aka rainbow), but for some they aint and I respect that. Sun Wukong as a meaning has nothing to do with the sun/day/whatever, his name coming from the monkey king and (Sūn Wùkōng (孫悟空)The name given to him by his first master, Patriarch Bodhi (Subodhi). The surname Sūn was given as an in-joke about the monkey, as monkeys are also called húsūn (猢猻), and can mean either a literal or a figurative "monkey" (or "macaque"). The surname sūn (孫) and the "monkey" sūn (猻) only differ in that the latter carries an extra "dog" (quǎn) radical to highlight that 猻 refers to an animal. The given name Wùkōng means "awakened to emptiness", sometimes translated as Aware of Vacuity.) while Yang literally means “sun” and Yang Xiao Long means “sunny little dragon”, some people said sun is “sun” cause of “LMFN” which is pretty weird and wrong, cause “morning’ is different from sun/day. So if you consider Blake moon/night (which, if you consider sun something just cause of a song, you should consider her that just cause of a song) then the “sun” contrast to her is Yang, and people knew this since like v2, cause even in “Burning the Candle” we had this imagery+ Gray’s commentary of (Yang is in the light, Blake’s in the shadows, and she’s a bit sunnier when Yang’s around etc.)

Also a thing I’ve been seeing recently: Beauty and the B/anana. It’s cute, sure, but where did this come from? For all I know BatB has been used by bb shippers ever since v3, or maybe even earlier cause of Red like Roses. There are no arguments for the name on BS’s side, yet there are hundreads on BB’s side.

And lastly, while it’s not that common, there are plenty of people who use renora/arkos parallels with BS, which is cool and all, but we’ve been doing this since v3.

So, considering how BB fans have been using the same arguments regarding the eyes/aura, the parallels with Adam, beauty and the beast, the meaning behind the names, the help/scenario with Blake and how either sooner or later BS fans started to use the *exact* same things it’s clear to see how they’re stealing (by putting Sun into Yang’s role) and why (cause its romantic)

[nikkil-rp]

OFF Day 4 - Quotes

(A/N): For @originalficfest . This has been a heck of a scavenger hunt, particularly for the NO LOYAL KNIGHT ones. I only have the first one or two chapters written for each of these stories (all of which can be read here), so I had to go digging through old drafts for some of these quotes. Pardon the quality on the NLK v2 quotes--Those were all written in 2013, with all the melodrama of a high school senior. I’ve included as many introductory quotes as I can, either from the character’s first appearance or their first POV scene, as well as a couple of quotes that really sum up the heart of the character or their story as a whole. You can read more about all these projects on my WIP page and my Characters and Worlds masterpost. Enjoy!

Opening Character Lines:

Koltor Bryant (MH)

Koltor cried out. He couldn’t move. They had him tied down, and intense pain pulsed through the right side of his body. He pulled against the restraints, but they refused to give.

He jerked his right arm and heard something rip. The unexpected release of tension set him off balance, and a loud thunk met his fall to the floor. The impact startled him the rest of the way awake. His breath came in short gasps, and every time the air rushed past the back of his throat, he felt a sharp prickle accompanied by the bitter taste of copper. He’d been shouting in his sleep again.

DiPersia Iaonsen (MH)

Di swung her legs over the edge of the catwalk and slid under the guard rails. She crouched low as her feet hit one of the long cylindrical pipelines that fed pressurized steam from one end of the engine to the next. Snapping one of her carabiners onto the safety wires almost as an afterthought, Di scurried over to one of the feedback panels set into the outer shell of the boiler.

Jericho (J)

This must be what the inside of an ice grinder feels like, Jericho thought dully. The dust-turned-ice storm had blown in quickly, and the temperature on the surface was well below freezing. Shards of ice howled around him in miniature tornadoes that felt like they were made of dull knives, and the oxygen converter on his face felt like it was about to short out at any second.

Ania Kyatei (NLK v3)

A leaf blew across the book on Ania’s lap, sticking in the crease between the pages. She brushed it away, and read the last line again. To understand yourself is to understand your opponent, and to understand is to respect. This is the meaning of victory.

Magatha Briggs (CofM)

Back pressed against the exterior wall of the tenement sphere, Magatha squeezed her eyes shut and tried to breathe. She gripped the catwalk railing with one hand, her fist so tight that the bones of her hand threatened to come apart at the joints. The blue morning light filtering through the leaves of the distant Mother Tree at the center of the spheres of the House was at odds with the black pit inside her chest. She was dizzy, and everything was out of focus. She had to hurry. The people inside the sphere needed her.

Kaelan West (CofM)

The speaker—a man about her age—was dichromatic, more so than any other person she could remember ever having seen. The dual skin tones, a deep brown and a paler beige, swirled around each other, like two dyes dropped into a beaker of water, frozen in that fraction of a moment before the solution diffused to a single color. 

Randen Derris (NLK v2)

Randen sat on the mattress with his shirt in his hands, and looked down at the scratches that covered his tan arms. Most of them were fairly shallow, but more than one was still a deep crimson, with white, enflamed skin puckering about the edges.  He couldn't really feel the pain – he'd pushed it to the back of his mind, where it was nothing more than a dull buzz – but just looking at the cuts brought back the wrenching fear that had filled his gut the night before. 

Elyys Faye (NLK v2)

His mother had always told him that he was useless, and he was incapable of doing anything, but he couldn't remember if he'd ever done anything besides just being a boy to prove her right. There had been a man among those three blood soldier. He hadn't seemed weaker than the others. In fact, he seemed like he was their equal.  

His mother had sent him here to die. He never had to see her again. He didn't have to live up to anything she thought ever again.  

"I decide who I am," he whispered. "I decide." 

Skaught Farstrend (NLK v2)

He fell to his knees as a scream forced its way out of his throat. His arm was on fire. It felt like the bone had shattered and was trying to force its way out through his old scar. The back of his neck was filled with shooting sparks of pain until his mind had nearly shut completely down. He'd never felt this much pain before. His heart started skipping beats. It couldn't keep up with the waves of pain that were shooting out of his arm.  

Mya Tohgis (NLK v2)

She yanked her knife out of one of the figures, twisting it on the way out the same way she did when slaughtering an animal back at home. She had a sick taste in her mouth, and it wasn't from the pale dust that covered her blade and hands where there should have been slick red blood. Strength? That girl obviously knew nothing of strength. There was no strength in words, only actions. There was power in knowing she could do anything to anyone and no one could stop her. That was why she was here – to have that power.

Quintessential Character Quotes:

Ania Kyatei (NLK v2)

"Oh, come now, Master – I thought tricks were what you were looking for," she shouted to the darkness. "Who can jump the highest, last the longest, fight the hardest? Who can be the best blood soldier? That's what you want me to be, isn't? You want me to be just like you!" With a vicious stab, she got rid of another black cloak, this time before it had even raised a weapon. "But that's the problem – you don't even know what you are! You think you're blood soldiers. You think you're apathetic, and apart from everything. You think nothing concerns you anymore. You think that you're above everything, and that even if you wanted to, there's nothing you could do to help anyone but yourselves!" She yanked her spear out of the gut of another black cloak. Her voice grew louder and louder with each word until it sounded like it was coming from the mouth of a giant. "That's what everyone else believes about you, and now you believe it, too. You think that just because someone expects it of you, that's what you have to be. And now you think you can do it to me. You think that you can decide who and what I am just because of a name, or what you think is most important. Well, let me tell you – I won't let you! I still believe in what Knights are, even if you don't. I believe in helping people, even if they are scared of what I am. You can't take that away from me, because I won't let you. You can't define who I am – I do that. You think I'm weak. You think I'm naive. But I still believe in myself, and that's all the strength I need!" 

Koltor Bryant (MH)

He hadn’t slept in five months. Sure, he’d close his eyes, and sometimes he’d slide in and out of consciousness, but the exhaustion was still there every time he crawled out of bed. Instead of resetting every night, the days strung together like a single never-ending nightmare. There was a dry ache in his left eye socket, and a dull pressure just behind his brow ridge, but those had been there long before the coma. Sleep had always been a rare commodity on deployment, but this was worse. He was used to “tired”, not this bone-melting exhaustion. He had no reason to be awake any more. Everything was so silent, like he’d been buried alive. His cabin was just a proactive coffin.

Sometimes, just before he woke up, he’d hear breathing near him, and he’d feel the heat of twenty bodies around him. He’d hear the snap as wind caught the edges of the tent. He’d feel the ground rumble beneath him, feel the weight of his rifle on the cot with him. But then the air conditioning unit would switch on, and he’d realize the rumbling he felt was the engines of the cityship Arboretum, and he was back in his cabin, alone, the same way he had been every day for the last five months.

Kaelan West (CofM)

“I thought these black and white birds were the most beautiful things in the sky. When they fly, they’re focused, like nothing in the world can stop them. When the sun catches their feathers, they shine like a stained glass window. They’re more than just black and white, but the starkness of their feathers is only emphasized by the iridescence.” The bird adjusted its wings, and Magatha saw it—a flash of the deepest greens and blues. “They are beautiful because they are different, but even that doesn’t matter. They are simply themselves.”

The magpie hopped up onto Kaelan’s hand, and he lifted the bird to his eye level. “I’ve noticed that the people of the House have a tendency to think in binaries, with no thought to the true nature of things. They see only the black and white, not the color that makes those things beautiful. Black, white. Success, failure. It isn’t all or nothing. Success isn’t dependent on you running yourself into the ground, trying to save the world all by yourself. Maybe everyone else sees you as the only one who can do this, but that isn’t the way the world works. There is nuance there, just like the color of a magpie’s wings.”

Jericho (J)

“If I say yes, will you stop disturbing the peace?”

“And let you die of boredom?” Jericho laughed as Joshua rolled his eyes, but then his voice turned quiet. “I’ve told you before, Joshua. I don’t disturb the peace. No one in their right mind can disturb true peace.”

“Oh? Then what do you do?”

“I make people notice things.” Jericho met the young man’s eyes. “But you already notice most of the important things. If you were in charge, something tells me that those shackles up top wouldn’t see use for a very long time.”

[xiaolongpunch]

Rwby’s redemption

I’ve started watching rwby ever since the summer that volume 2 was released. My friends made me watch the four trailers and I was immediately captivated by the breath of fresh air the show promise from its beginning. Four badass girls with unique weapons and abilities? I was already hooked from that point. I binge watch volume after that day, and I immediately got harry potter vibe with the school aspect of the show. I also understood from the get go the the 8 characters we were introduced to in the beginning would be the main cast, that being team RWBY and team JNPR.

This is where my first critique comes in, and it won’t be directed at rooster teeth or miles-kerry or even monty, but rather at the fandom. Volume 1 wasn't shy at showing us who the important characters were, how? The were coloured in and we got to know their names in the first few episodes. The rest was either shadowed in, appeared a couple of times, or simply never be seen again. We knew the main cast was the two teams, and other subsequent characters were more side characters, exemple: Cardin and team CRDL, Velvet, Ozpin, Glynda, Roman, and the other professors and Sun. And one of the major complaints that volume 1 gets is that it was focused on Jaune to much. Statistically speaking, his arc lasted 25% of volume 1, lasting from episode 11 to 14. Other arcs from this volume included Blake’s, Weiss’s conflict with Ruby and probably other minor ones I won’t speak about. Blake’s arc lasted from episode 15 to 16, buut continued into the subsequent volume. Making for 12.5% of the first volume, and about, well the entire volume. Volume 2 was dedicated into busting the white fang and Roman, which directly tied into Blake’s arc from Volume 1, making it the longest arc up to this date since it is still continuing into volume 5. The third arc was the conflict between Ruby and Weiss, although somewhat minor, this arc still lasted for a couple of episodes spread apart from one another. The point being, Jaune’s arc is minor compared to other arcs happening in the show, since his only lasted 4 episodes in volume 1 alone. Sure he had speaking times in other volumes, but none revolved around him, and yet the fandom is still bitching and moaning that jaune is taking too much space. As mentioned before, Jaune IS one of the main 8, not liking him as a character is totally fine, but saying he is taking too much space is somewhat overreacting since he is one of the main characters.

Let’s go on, from V1 came V2, and to this date, it is probably one of my least favourite volumes. I feel like they focused a bit too much on the characters motivation during the mountain glenn arc. What was the point of Oobleck asking everyone why they wanted to be huntresses? It was a bit awkward and I feel like they could've gotten the same result, if not more,  if they made the team sit down around a campfire and make them ask each other their motivation. They would’ve shared some exposition through, shown team rwby bonding, something the fandom has been asking for a while now (Something I will touch later on) aaand they would’ve been able to touch a lot more on Blake’s ongoing arc that way. Btw, this is how critiquing something is done, by talking about what felt wrong and give an example on how they could of improved themselves. I’ve seen way to many people complain and complain and never even explain how they could've improve on what they complained on, and then call what they did ‘critiquing’, but im digressing. Overall, they did what they wanted, expose us to more backstory and motivation, show us a bit more of who the characters are by telling us where they come from. This volume honestly showed me why Ruby is more childish in nature, and it also help set up what they wanted for her next volume. It showed me why Weiss is so cold and distant sometimes, it showed us why Blake acts the way she does..you get the point. It also helped setting up the next volume, which was a real plus.

Next comes V3, and I feel like, like the show, this was where the fandom started to really fall and divide. A reason why people started to become more toxic might have been because of Monty’s death. People started to think that because he died, Miles and Kerry started to ruin the show from his original idea. Especially after a controversial letter came out, you can read it here if you’d like. From that point, it was a shitstorm of fighting, between people who believed shane and people who didn’t. I have read the letter, and personally, I feel like they were some things right and some wrong. Shane seemed to have this idea that Monty was the only one planning the show, but it was with Miles and Kerry, Monty provided the ideas, MK wrote them out. Gray even addressed what the future of RWBY would be, and he mentioned this.

“For those wondering, Monty was heavily involved in shaping the future of the world of Remnant. His story ideas will live on, and you will also be able to see some of the animation he'd begun working on for Volume 3. For some time, the team has known the direction in which the next volumes will be headed, and Rooster Teeth is committed to bringing these tales to you.”

Like I said, you decide if you want to believe shane or not, but I think its clear that Monty planned his show with MK years ahead. And some of the ‘Critiques’ the show got addressed the wrong issues. That volume also sparked the lgbtq representaion controversy, ship wars begun, like I said, a shitshow began. It was also the volume that rwby turned dark and characters died off. And for some reason people got angry at MK for killing them off, because they thought it wasn't Monty’s idea. Except it was, and here is some other complaint. Roman was a major villain, you can't kill him! Actually he was said to be unimportant to the main story plot, and unfortunately I can't find the panel, but I remember that someone in the crwby mentioned that roman was kept alive longer than intended because he was like, but was eventually going to get killed off. Next was Penny’s death, not much complain on that side other then people saying they were sad she died, so nothing to say on that part. But the major character death that got lots of complaint was Pyrrha’s. People had two complaint about, it went too far, and that she was only meant to further Jaune’s character.

To address the first point, I will actually let Gray explain.

“Have we said thanks lately? Thanks again for sharing the story with our youngest audience members out there, it means a lot to us and we take the responsibility to heart. In return, we wanted to take a sec to reiterate some things. We've said from the very beginning that the story of RWBY is actually a pretty long journey, with all sorts of complex changes and themes over time. Because we can only put out so many episodes per year, and the story has been focused the way it has the first couple years, some viewers might assume that this is all there is to the show. Nnnnope. Much like other multi-year narratives such as the Harry Potters, Avatars (the airbending kind. well, the animated, not the live... look, the good one) and Star Wars...Warses... Warii? Forget it -- like other continuity-heavy sagas out there, RWBY will grow up over time. Our characters will be put to the test as the stakes get greater and the full scope of the story is revealed. The tone and imagery of the show will occasionally go darker and more mature. ...You did happen to notice the opening sequence that has been in front of the show all year, right?”

This comes from a blog post surrounding how dark rwby has turned. And I want to emphasize one particular point, because this will counter EVERY complaint on how the show is progressing in terms of change. RWBY was never meant to stay light hearted and happy, it was meant to grow and change, just like many other series out there, and the fact that people complain about it, is in my opinion, kinda ridiculous. When V3 came out, I understood this because it was new, but now? Really? You want change and character development, but complain once the plot thickens and the nature of the show changes? What kind of hypocritical shit is that? I also believe that Monty said that he got inspired by Games of Thrones in some aspect, and that was early on in the show, so death was going to be a thing, I guess the fandom just wants to ignore that though.

The second point is actually a bit more founded. But because of two sides. MK poorly handled team bonding, we barely got any bonding from any teams so we didnt know what they meant to each other other then a few things here and there. And the second side is the fandom’s collective hatred towards Jaune. The fandom complains that Pyrrha’s death was solely to further Jaune’s character, so im guessing they totally ignored her arc in v3 that actually explained why she decided to fight Cinder or why she died, or just simply decided to ignore, knowing the fandom, I wouldn’t be surprised with either reason. The fandom sometimes forgets to piece things together, to read between the lines. It was clear that Pyrrha had an internal conflict about becoming the maiden, and Jaune, being her combat partner, decided he wanted to be there for her, which only fueled the fandom’s belief that this arc was somehow around Jaune. I feel like fandom is honestly just pulling reasons out of their ass to hate on Jaune at this point, yes he did wrong things, but did anyone ever sat down to think that this was actually kinda the most natural portrayal of a teenage boy? Im digressing here, but Pyrrha’s was far more then Jaune, it was a sign, the show basically told us “Hey, things are getting serious, how serious? Welp a main character died trying to accomplish her goal” And her death couldnt of been more brilliant. It was extremely well executed, the symbolism behind it is incredible because it shows that the show isnt a fairy tail, not everything ends happily ever after, and most of all, it furthered Ruby’s character.

A lot of people dont realize that one of the premise of the show was loss of childhood and innocence. Ruby’s character is the very essence of that. And they broke her to pieces in V3, they killed her best friend, and then a close friend. She unlocked her powers and loss her innocence she had for the world. She grew so much as a character it that volume and its sad to see people not looking further then their noses to see how much has been happening in the show to focus on jaune and other minor things like ships.

To go back on Jaune’s portrayal, he is literally a fuckboi in v1/v2 and a bit of v3. Like, thats what his character is, you can hate it, hell I did, but screaming and shouting that his character needs to change because of that is fucking ridiculous, not everyone is meant to be liked, sometimes best portrayals are the ones that actually make you feel something strong about them, and the typical mary sue.

Lets move on, V4 in my opinion was the most poorly handled volume, for many things.They took to long to show how certain character grief and they didnt handle character development extremely well. Nora and Ren’s arc was...short, too short. I felt like they could of really digged into their childhood and their relationship since they grew up together, but they missed out on it. They tanked to show Ruby’s grief, or as the fandom would say, complete lack of. And the plot exposition from Qrow was too fast and really poorly handled in terms of delivery. I feel like they could’ve taken more time to explain some things like magic and the maidens, because the way it was delivered was more like it was speaking to the audience. The filled in gaps on what the audience didn’t know rather then explaining to the character what the hell was going on in their lives.

And I have a major problem with how the fandom ‘critiqued’ this volume. Again, the major complaints were not story, or plot related, they decided to complain on ships and portrayal, which btw is a valid thing if there is an actual problem. For exemple, they non-stopped complained on how Ruby seemingly didnt show any grief, but let me explain to you. People are different, whereas one person might cry their hearts out to someones death, another will feel sad for a bit and move on. We saw Ruby react to Pyrrha’s death, she unlocked her powers because of it. And there is many reason why she might have been shown grieving. Think about how much shit she went through, she saw her school get destroyed, three people she knew died in front of her in one night, she unlocked some weird magical power which she knows nothing about, her sister seems to hate life now, and her friends are mostly gone. Do you seriously think her mind has the time and effort to grief about ONE person dying? No, nobody would in fact, she probably is still in shock of everything that happened. Another reason, which was actually proven in V5, is that she doesn’t grief, she moves on. And they also foreshadowed it a bit, but I will talk about it in the V5 review of this.

The next thing people complained about was black sun, and how ooc blake felt during those moments. Again, I want to remind you that character development is a thing, and traumatic events may several affect someone’s view in life. The reason why Blake seemed ooc is because of her fears becoming a reality. Her friends got hurt because of Adam, she became paranoid, to the point of almost drawing out her sword to the captain when she was confronted. Sun on the other hand didnt experience all of that, and he thought he was doing the right thing by following her because he wanted to help her. And I saw sooooo many people saw he is a predator because she flinches when he touches her, but also completely forgets or ignore she acted the same way when her own mother hugged her. She is scared shitless of everything, this was probably one of the better handled character development in the volume, and the fandom seemingly ignored all of it to let their hatred go through.

The most blatant problem with V4 however was the animation, and I will let the youtuber Cake in his series “Animation analysis”. He really nails the head of what is wrong with the animation, and I highly recommend you watch this small serie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxP3lBW7wm4&list=PL-wKaeXzYOmbnc0cRXxGD0TEY5wgCUipw

I wont speak about Yang, because honestly, this was the one time the fandom is right, her ptsd arc was poorly handled and not well executed at all.

Then came V5, or as I like to call it, Rooster teeth’s redemption arc. This volume, imo, was so heavily touched upon to appease the angry mobs of the rwde tags its honestly kind of funny. Ship wars? Heres more character development surrounding all the characters involved in those ship and their view about each other. Poor character development? Heres ruby actual griefing and explaining how she moved and sooo much more character for the main cast. LGBT representation? Here's the first confirmed lgbt character! They did so many things right and so many things to fix past problems, and yet, the rwde tag is still greedy…

Volume 5 has done a lot of things right, and a lot of those things were things the fandom was asking since the beginning of the show. I believe it was partially RT testing out that if listening to us would actually change anything, and Im afraid the rwde side of this fandom is proving to them that nothing that they will do will change anything, and thats saying something about the rwde tag and the fandom in general.

Lets hit a few things that happened that rt did right. First being, Ruby’s grief. In V4, most of the fandom outcried for Ruby to show how she grieves the death of Pyrrha and Penny, and we got it. And just like I had thought, she moves on. The writers pulled our heart strings by using Monty’s signature quote “Keep moving forward”. This probably wasn't a last minute decision, since we did get a hint of it when Qrow mentioned the same thing to Yang in V3. And we all know how close Ruby is to Qrow, and he probably taught her to move on rather the grief when death hits someone close to you. The fandom, of course, was blind to all of it, and it dishearten me to see that. Because the fandom keeps asking for better writing, and when the are shown that MK can foreshadow things and give hints of two people’s relationship and that the fandom ignores it, it shows that they dont really care, and are probably finding reasons to hate rather then actually seeing their wishes come true.

Yang’s ptsd. V4 poorly handled this, they showed some sign of her illness but it was rushed and it felt unnatural. But rt did try to change this in V5. The random jerks of her hand and arm is a genius idea, it shows that she still suffers from her trauma even though she is trying to be strong for her own sake. This might be hinting at an actual ptsd episode later on when she fights. This is one thing rt did right and are showing they are listening.

First Lgbt character. Spoiler warning, if you havent watched V5EP8 then skip to the next point to not spoil yourself. So in the latest episode, Ilia was revealed to be first lgbt character, she is a lesbian/Bisexual character who is in love with Blake. And not surprisingly, the fandom find reasons to hate this decision rather than rejoice that rt is actually listening to them. This next part is a message straight for anyone who is criticizing ilia as the “villain lesbian” and say its problematic. Do you understand how hypocrite you are? You headcanon characters like Cinder, Salem, and Neo as lgbt, people who are actually show to be pure evil but hate and try to villainize the only villain who’s reason to be villain is due to her past? We have been shown why she chose this path, we have been shown why she sides with Adam at this moment. It hurts her to do so, we could see it when she ordered to kill Blake’s family, we have seen how conflicted she was to have captured Blake for adam, the only character who’s villainy is actual ambiguous and actually is a complex character because of it and you downgrade her to a “Bitter/Jealous murderous lesbian”? FUCK OUTTA HERE, that is completely hypocritical of everything you ever said, she is everything you ever wanted in a character and you still manage to be angry at rt for it?! Do you even hear yourselves sometimes? You wanna complain about something that is lgbt related? How about the lack of it, we have one, they have shown us they are listening so keep on insisting on that representation. You want to complain how the lack of complex character? Criticize MK for the lack of backstory for a lot of the main character, and a lack of personality shown. You want to complain about villains? HOW ABOUT THE ACTUAL BITTER AND MURDEROUS ONE ADAM FUCKING TAURUS. Stop being so blind jfc, there is so many other obvious things wrong about the points you are complaining about and yet you chose to bash Ilia, fucking incredible.

Rwby has a lot of issue, im not denying that, but its time for the fandom to stop complaining about ships and minor problems that have been fixed. Start critiquing instead of complaining and demanding. RT wont listen to you if you only demand things from them, start showing them explicitly what is wrong with the show and offer them solutions in a calm manner. Showing no evidence and not showing solutions is not critiquing on your part, its pure and simple entitlement. My final point is this. We dont own the show, some of us pay for a subscription, but that doesn't make them any more entitled to demand things from rt about their show. You can absolutely critique them for errors, but do it right. Show them what went wrong, explain why its wrong, and show and explain a possible solution. Complaining and whining isnt critiquing, its entitlement of something we dont own. Im probably missing some things I have thought of pointing out in this, and this is highly opinionated in some parts. But I hope my points do make some sense, and I hope anyone who reads this actual give a thought about the points I made. If you disagree with me, by all means, point out what was wrong with what I said and offer your counter-argument, like I said, some of it is facts and some of it is opinions, so let’s debate.

[fivenightsatfreddysfanfiction]

Do Me A Favor?

Damien has a favor to ask of Jeremy that is a favor asked of him by Stephanie Daughn. Jeremy has reservations about this favor and the lack of information on what is going on.

Jeremy jumped in his chair at the sound of his door slamming open and then closed, a young man's voice calling out loudly.

"Mr. Fitzgeraaaaald! Can I ask ya a favor?!" Damien ran into the workshop with bright eyes and a wide grin, an air of mischief around him. Jeremy turned in his chair with a faint groan of exasperation, fingers typing a quick command to save his work.

"I told you it was fine to call me Jeremy. Mr. Fitzgerald is what people called Papa and it feels weird when you call me that," he pointed out sternly. Damien stuck his tongue out, blowing a raspberry at him in response. "Very mature." He carefully rubbed fingertips over his eyes to soothe the strain of studying his screen for several hours. "Why are you here? What's this favor?"

"You know Ven's sister? She's friends with the lady that worked at Freddy's sister location and says that she took some data from the place before it all went-" Damien put his hands together at the fingertips, then pulled them apart dramatically, "-fwoooosh~!"

"Okay, I'm pretty sure that's illegal and I don't know if I want to be part of any of that," Jeremy remarked dryly, gesturing to encompass the smaller young man as if to ward off any more of the words. Damien rolled his eyes as he unshouldered his backpack, dropping it onto one of the workbenches and using it to nudge aside several parts to an order that Jeremy had yet to finish. "Hey, easy on Chibi Chica. I need to assemble and ship her out in working order."

"Isn't using the names and designs of the Fazband without the company's approval illegal too?" Damien asked sweetly, batting his eyelashes at him. Jeremy felt an eye twitch.

"Haaa... go on."

"Okay, so you remember the news about that rental place that went bust?" Damien started, opening his backpack and digging around inside.

"Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental? Yeah. Some of the stuff that was hauled out of there looked like the Toys. I thought the guy who owned the place stole designs from Papa and his siblings, the similarities were really close," Jeremy commented thoughtfully before blinking. "Wait, are you telling me that's the sister location?!"

"Yeah! Wild, huh?" Damien returned with laugh, pulling out a hard drive. "Anyway, so the lady that worked there as the technician did a dump of some of the data from their mainframe. Said it was stolen from her family so she was just taking what belonged to them and leaving the rest to burn." Jeremy raised an eyebrow at the drive now being held out to him. "Steph asked her for a copy and then asked me if I could ask you to take a look at it and see if there's anything we can build using the data."

He reached out and carefully took the drive in his hand, looking it over carefully. It looked to be an expensive model, capable of storing a very large quantity of data. Not something Damien could afford, but Stephanie Daughn would be able to with her fashion design-funded account.

"There's an animatronic schematic on here? That's pretty much all we can build, remember?" Jeremy asked as he turned in place to plug the drive into the computer. Damien pulled up a chair beside him and shrugged.

"I guess? The lady didn't say much about what went on down there, but she really wanted one of the animatronics to escape with her, according to Steph." The young man shook his head a little. "It didn't make it out."

Jeremy hummed to himself with a frown, clicking open the drive and searching through the file system for anything that could be blueprints for animatronics. It seemed out of the ordinary, for someone working at a Fazbear establishment to try and rescue an animatronic. Usually the machines were all attempting to kill the guards because of glitches or hacks or possession by angry spirits. Why would anyone want to pull a killer robot out of a place housing them?

Router's taunting words and laugh rang distantly in his memories and Jeremy shook his head hard to dismiss them.

Many of the files he saw right away looked strange. He recognized patterns for the framework of an A.I. but the software looked incomplete and fragmented in some cases. Several times his computer warned him of broken files and asked if he wished to attempt to repair them. The first time he almost clicked 'yes' but Damien pulled his hand away from the mouse.

"Leave it. Steph said everything has to stay exactly as it is on the drive. We're only supposed to get a copy of the blueprint she described," he said firmly.

"Your friend's friend wanted broken data?" Jeremy asked, one eyebrow hiking up.

"It's better that way. We don't want to see this fixed." Damien's eyes flicked black with glowing gold pupils. "Trust me on this."

So there was a spirit attached to the mess that happened there. Jeremy pursed his mouth into a thin line, humming to himself again as he continued digging through the files. If these broken files had something to do with it, then why would anyone want to bring that spirit out? Save it rather than banish it?

"Oh, hey, here's something." Damien pointed at the screen suddenly. "BAL... Ballora, maybe?"

"What the hell is a 'Ballora'?" Jeremy muttered, clicking on the file. His software ran a compatibility check before opening the blueprint. He squinted, frowning again as he looked over the schematics of what appeared to be a ballerina animatronic and then read over the mandatory hardware specifications. "Why the fuck was this built to divide parents from children? This is the exact opposite of the way the Toys were built and programmed." He looked over at Damien's scowling expression, a replica of the one he remembered seeing on his father's face numerous times before.

"I doubt we're getting the full story right away. This is something to investigate. For now, that isn't the animatronic we're after," the young man returned.

Jeremy printed a copy just in case, then closed the file and looked around for similar named blueprints. There were two named 'FF', one denoted with a '-BB'.

"Balloon Boy?" he asked aloud, opening the file. The blueprints of a familiar bear appeared on the screen, with equally as damning specs as Ballora. A rabbit shaped handpuppet gave Jeremy his answer; Bonnie or BonBon. Possibly stolen from the Fitzgerald Toys' designs? He traced out a wireframe model within the blueprint with his fingertip. "This is a storage tank, right? Is that... a person? Is this a springlock suit?" He studied the blueprint more closely, bringing up the model into three-dimensional view. "No, there's the endoskeleton and it's not compressed. This person is tucked into the storage tank. ...Abduction?"

"Definitely not the one Steph wants us to build." Damien huffed, sitting back in his chair with his arms folded over his chest. "What the fuck was going on in that place?"

"These animatronics are massive. Bigger than anything built for Freddy Fazbear's Pizza," Jeremy pointed out with a shake of his head. "No reason for entertainment animatronics to be so damn big. But I suppose hiding kids away inside themselves for transporting is one. How has no one come forward to say 'Hey I rented these things for a party and now a bunch of kids are missing'?" Damien shrugged again and Jeremy closed the file.

He left the other 'FF' file alone and hummed thoughtfully at another pair of files. 'Baby v1' and 'Baby v2'. Were there differences there that were important? Jeremy opened the first file and both he and Damien studied it.

A pig-tailed animatronic clutching a microphone appeared on the screen, its specifications including voice imitation and ice cream lures. Another one of those kidnapping robots; Jeremy frowned heavily. This one was even larger, towering over even Ballora. Something was folded within the body... some sort of claw? Like from a crane game?

"It looks close to what Steph said. A robot with pig-tails and a skirt, she said." Damien tilted his head, "But this one's too big. Stephanie said the one her friend was after was smaller. Like about as tall as her or Mike."

So, version 2 then. Jeremy closed the file and clicked on the other one. A similar blueprint opened, with a smaller and sleeker model of the pig-tailed animatronic. This one had the same voice mimicking ability but lacked the machinery and space for capturing and storing a child. Why had that been removed for this model but not the others?

"Oh yeah! That's the one!" Damien exclaimed, leaning forward to study the schematic. "Do we have the stuff to build this one?"

"Not at that size, no. I'd have to special order the materials to build her to these specs," Jeremy sighed, reading over the rest of the blueprints for the updated Circus Baby animatronic. "And this part here. It says she was built specifically to use the Eggs Benedict A.I. core. What is that? Sounds like something based on Android software...."

Damien squinted, muttering something under his breath. "...of them?" He spoke more clearly. "Steph said that that was what was stolen from her friend's family. The Eggs Benedict A.I.; it's a special software that took decades to compile."

Jeremy raised an eyebrow at that, then the other. "Decades? You're telling me some company stole old software from some family and only recently installed it into an animatronic, and that family barely did anything about it until now? Why not sue for ownership?" he asked incredulously. So maybe spirits weren’t involved? But then why would his father care about making sure the files on the drive stayed fragmented? "How would decades-old software even be compatible with today's technology?! Did they build this thing to be backwards compatible?" He looked again at the blueprint, searching harder for signs of old tech embedded in it. "It's old, so maybe.... when was the software stolen?"

Damien shrugged, glancing away. "I dunno exactly. Like early 80's or something?" he answered out of the side of his mouth, trying to make the words hard to understand. Jeremy twisted in his chair again, eyes wide and mouth open.

"The 1980's?! Are you fucking serious?!" he exclaimed, voice rising into a shriek, "Why would some animatronic rental company give two shits about installing and running software that took nearly 60 years to compile into a functioning artificial intelligence?!" Damien shrugged again, a look of innocence on his face that didn't fool Jeremy one bit. "And we're supposed to build a copy of this thing? Without that A.I., it's just gonna be useless."

"Oh, Steph said we don't have to worry about it. Her friend has a working version of the A.I. already. She just wants us to build the hardware to install it." Damien replied cheerfully, waving away Jeremy's concerns. "So can we do it?"

"Expensive ass favor..." Jeremy grumbled as he printed out the blueprints for a paper copy and left the digital version open for reference and modifying.

"Steph said she'll pay for supplies."

".... Pass me the phone. I gotta call my guy for parts."

END

[floralmotif]

Tighter threads (s12 finale thoughts)

Well, that happened.

I’m writing this without checking anyone else’s direct thoughts, so someone may have already touched on this but I want to get this out before I forget too much.

First off, I didn’t hate them. I especially liked 12.22(with the exception of one thing). It was very tightly written, in so, so many ways. 12.23 was good(mostly), but it felt more standard. Either way, they pretty much used their last token, and decided to make their narrative so tight, we are currently inside Jupiter.

Spoilers below.

Don’t you just love cliffhangers? No? Huh.. the show seems to think we do. Well, good news everyone! Cliffhangers are so prevalent that unless the show did the narrative equivalent of a lobotomy, the outcome should be pretty easy to read. 

And we’re gonna use 12.22 to do it... and a specific type of narrative parallel.

Ok, so the show has established Mary and Cas as narrative mirrors, and 12.22 and 12.23 basically tightened that spiral into a grinding, ear splitting whine. I had a feeling they would do that. I was hoping they wouldn’t cliff hanger it, but eh, can’t say I’m surprised. Good job SPN, you did the one thing that lets you get away with halting the narrative for a little longer. *slow clap*

Alright, let’s start with the set up of 12.22. For this entire season, Cas and Mary have had parallel narratives. Dean, Mary and Sam have had parallels with each other throughout the season and series in general, but the parallel A-Plot for the season seemed to be Mary = Cas(we’ll get to the other two as well). Mary is basically running her own version of s4 and 5(complete with Luci and apocalypse). Cas and Mary both run towards what’s comfortable for them and run away from real confrontation: Dean and Sam. They run towards the past and how it was, because the future is scary and uncertain and facing forward is hard when their pasts are so messy. Also Cas is just really old and breaking him of what he’s used to is understandably difficult. 

In 12.22, the level of parallel comes to a head and spirals down and tightens into what I’m gonna call an Analog Narrative... I don’t remember its actual name, but using the definitions for analog: 

relating to or using signals or information represented by a continuously variable physical quantity such as spatial position or voltage.

and: a person or thing seen as comparable to another.

I’m gonna go with that for now. It’s basically a tighter form of metaphor for our purposes, a sort of entanglement if you will. It roughly translates to “I am you.” and it allows elements that apply to one, to apply to the other without direct contact. Like a signal from one that is unseen, manifesting in the physical space of the other... like the conversation between Dean and Mary in 12.22. Many of you have probably seen this pop up in movies, many of you may have even seen it in the ep and in the series overall. It’s like the narrative parallel SPN generally uses, just a much tighter form. It’s been used a few other times in the series before. S11 used it a decent amount. I’m just gonna focus on it and give it a name to make it easier to talk about and to differentiate it from your standard parallel like what Dean and Mary are, and Cas and John.

In a standard parallel, one does what the other one does in some form of another, usually in some sort of tandem. In an “analog narrative” what happens to one, is related to the other without us seeing the other directly. Their signals are entangled. So like... a character saying or acting a certain way, means the other character also feels that way/does that thing even if not on screen. When this type of parallel is present, it often takes the form of Crowley reflecting various people. Usually Dean or Cas nowadays. His death may actually mean we’ll start to see more actual words exchanged between characters instead of them being filtered through him.(I will miss him though. He was neat.)

See Guardians of the Galaxy v2 if you want a recent, noticeable example that directly states what it is.

Both Cas and Mary had elements of mind control. The level of mind control with Mary is of the more direct sort, and “going in” is a very “filmed media” way to resolve it. It also allows for Mary to help with Kelly and for them to drag direct information out longer.

Like Cas, Mary had chose to follow “paradise”, a place without want, or suffering, or fear, etc. She had chose to stay away and to attempt to continue her perfect life where it was comfortable. She felt so much guilt for everything, that she ran away from Dean and Sam, just like Cas did. They both wanted to make up for their respective deals. Cas, under the nephilim’s influence chose that too instead of saw it for a lie. Never trust anything in a network tv show that lists a world free of want, fear, suffering, etc as attributes. They are pretty much always a trap unless they're an epilogue and there’s sufficient buildup or it’s part of a message. I’m still not convinced the nephilim is evil, I just think it has a very naive idea of what good is and may not function on a level comparable to humans. It’ll show Cas whatever it thinks will work to show him. It’s just lucky Cas was operating under the same logic Mary was and that allowing in “paradise” would absolve him of control, and by extension, guilt. 

Nope, can’t silence the lambs that easily. Just cause you can’t hear them, doesn’t mean they aren’t calling out.

“Right Mary?” I say as Dean calls out to her.

Mary’s paradise is kind of interesting. She’s basically got that scene in Dark of the Moon as her chosen paradise. Makes me wonder if Ketch has one, but anyway, in it are Sam and Dean in a simpler form. One where they don’t want or need or suffer, one where they are just children and don’t have true ambitions and can’t present a true instigated challenge. Cas’ idea of paradise would absolve him of want, of fear, of facing his feelings and the repercussions they may give.

This is the prison of their minds, peace over freedom. Even though Dean has the same fears about himself as Cas does, he pushes through and tries to talk to Mary. Eventually, while she doesn’t answer him, we get some highlights:

Mary: I only want good things for you Dean. I’ll never let anything bad happen to you.

Dean: I hate you.

Dean: I was a kid, you promised you’d keep me safe... and then you make a deal with Azazel.

Dean: You wanna know what that was like? They killed the girl that he loved, he got possessed by Lucifer, he lost his soul.... All because of you.

All of it was because of you.

Please note that Dean doesn’t mention the things that specifically happened to him.. but you know.. Dean.

Dean: I hate you. I hate you... and I love you... because I, I can’t help it. You’re my mom... and I understand.. and I have made deals to save the ones I love.. more than once. I forgive you. I forgive you.. for all of it... everything.

Dean: On the other side of this, we can start over. I need you to look at me, I need you to see me. 

Now, not all of this will apply or be exact, because Mary is still her own person with her own issues and stuff that she specifically did. Parallels aren’t usually exact. That’s too obvious and filmed works are a game of Dixit. Also, most of the transgressions they refer to are in the far past, so chances are, the parallel is addressing some further back issues as well...

So.. roughly translated to Analog speak... 

Dean: I hate you.

Dean: I needed you, and you promised you would keep me safe, and then you made a deal and left us alone. Do you know what that was like?

(I’m not sure which exact parallels they’re going for here with the listing, but I’m going with Cas breaking Sam’s wall and Cas raising Sam from hell without his soul. The only one I’m not sure about is the death of the girl he loved. Eileen maybe? Since he wasn’t present to help prevent the deaths of people with them. That one’s harder and maybe it kills the whole parallel but I doubt it. The intent may not be exact since Dean still hasn’t really had this conversation with Cas. It may be like “insert appropriate transgressions here”. *shrugs* The rest of the ep supports the parallel, so I’m going with this for now. Broad strokes are a thing)

I hate you. I hate you... and I love you... because I, I can’t help it. You’re Cas... and I understand.. and I have made deals to save the ones I love.. more than once. I forgive you. I forgive you.. for all of it... everything.

Dean: On the other side of this, we can start over. I need you to look at me, I need you to see me.

So there it is(probably). That’s why Dean didn’t say “I love you” back. He doesn’t know how to deal with his feelings. Cas’ actions have made him upset just like Mary’s have. He still loves her even after everything, and he still loves Cas, but he doesn’t know what to do about everything else. Mary and Cas both kept ditching and tricking him. Him being upset and confused makes sense.

After Ketch is killed and Mary and Dean start talking again. She says she does want to start over, she does want to make things better and she explains why she’s been running off and working with the BMoLs and everything. Cas sort of almost did this in 12.19, but not entirely. They’ve both been running away to make up for their transgressions at the expense of the people they love, as they have both been unable to forgive themselves. Yay for Mary and the writers for giving Dean an example of using his words and taking responsibility that ends in a direct good outcome. Enforced narrative for the win. Sam got one in the ep as well with leading the hunters against the BMoLs. It made me happy.

Ok, now that Mary and Cas are almost completely entangled, let’s take them to the finale.

The nephilim opens a tear in reality because reasons and we get to see an apocalypse where Bobby is weirdly still alive. I took it though, because I like Bobby. Oh yay, it’s the end of Mary’s s5... and guess where she ends up.. Mary carries the old ways remember? And where did the old ways get Sam in s5?

We get a big bunch of buildup with Mary taking Cas’ place soothing Kelly, me being really uncomfortable by Kelly's lines, Sam, Cas and Dean failing to kill Luci, Crowley going all heroic sacrifice and taking just long enough for Cas to get in.

Then we have the ending with Cas apparently dead, Dean staring up into the sky for help like Mary did with John and Mary getting pulled into the “cage” with Lucifer, just like Sam did in s5. Mary is paralleled with everyone this season, but especially Cas. Because this is the finale, all of those parallels have to merge in some way. Sam followed Mary into the BMoLs because he wanted to go the easy way and not lead, or have to deal with responsibility, Dean follows Mary in that he basically was Sam’s mother and he also carries her fears of the future and self doubt, Cas is the themes of the show and carries the potential for a better way. His arc this season basically fits into hers. This season enforces that agency and responsibility are essential.

We can pretty much infer than in some way or another Cas will be ok. Cas’ life is uncertain and so is Mary’s. Luci’s eyes glow just before the end, we don’t know what her fate was, but she’s almost certainly not dead. Dean also never walks back inside to meet back up with Sam. We end the season with him kneeling in front of Cas’ body. That holds some meaning in tv land and this show likes to start seasons up pretty close to the end of the previous season unless they use a time skip. Please don’t use a timeskip SPN, that is what is called retreading and you don’t want that. Death in media is usually about getting over or accepting, or understanding, or whatevering a death unless it holds some symbolic meaning.. which Cas only holds alive at this point. We already know what Dean grieving Cas looks like. We don’t need it again. No retreads.

Will Michael or God, or Jack come and save both Cas and Mary? Dunno, but next season will likely have something to do with universe hopping(and possibly human!cas) to find Mary... and maybe Cas. I’m hoping they just un-dead Cas right away though, because the alternative is annoying to me, but whatever. As long as OG Cas returns within a reasonable amount of time, I’ll deal.

[clockworkfromspace]

The Book v2 chapter 2

*Andrè begins to walk about the halls toward the door*

Chris was in there even though he was an Ultrabeings

Jea: Hi Chris!

He waves

Any teachers?

No? Good.

Mr. Taio: Okay everyone. Welcome to Ultra Study. If you took this class with me before, you should know that I am one of the seven most capable people equipped to teach this class.

*Andrè runs outside*

FREEEEEEEEDOMMMM

...

Freedom feels the same as being imprisoned

After school

Jea and Jenifer get on their bus

Josh goes to the car rider exit

*The next day*

Chris was already there

-Josh waits outside the bus ramp for the twins-

-their bus originally shows up-

Chris walks to the bus ramp but sees Josh and walks away

*Andrè shows up to school with a knife on his belt*

Morning

Chris was walking back needing to talk to jea

-the twins walk off the bus but Jea dresses like Jenifer so it's harder to tell them apart-

"Uuhh....jea?...."

-Jenifer subtlety points at Jea-

He looks at jea "Can I talk to you privately please?..."

Jea gasps

"How'd you know it was me? Do wolves have one sort of 6th sense or something?"

"No not really but this is important..."

Weird humans

Imma go inside

Jea: What do you need?

"Something happened yesterday and I need your help...."

Jea: Go on

"Can I talk to you without people around? Please"

Jenifer: I got where she goes

"Fine i-i'm...homeless my abusive brother threw me out yesterday"

Live in a tent-like I do

"So...the reason I wanted to talk to jea is that I trust her..."

Jenny: Need me to pound on your big bro? -she cracks her knuckles-

Need a hit?

Jea: No more fighting! You promised Jenny.

Just stole a night vision scope yesterday

Jenny: I promised I'd fight less.

Well I'm a free spirit

No parents

No relatives

No love or compassion

Jenifer: You dude, who are you anyway?

Andrè

I'm a hitman

Sorta

If someone would hire me

Jenifer: I have a few enemies.

Jea: Jennyyyyy

Jenifer: Kidding! -she mouths- "Sort of"

Heh

So

Who are you, people

Jea looks at both of them

"I'm not leaving the two of you alone. Now back to Chris"

Jea: I'm Jea and this is my sister Jenny. That's all there really is to us.

"Really...."

So Chris

"Hm?"

Tents are 15 bucks at Walmart

"I am not living in no tent!"

Man up

I live in one

"And I have no money my brother has it all"

Get a job

Jea: No one should have to live in a tent.

Jenifer: I agree but it's not like there's a variety of options

Jea frowns

Welp

My mom left and my dads dead soooooo

Jea: Oh! I know. He can live with us

Jenifer: Dad would never let that slide

Jea: You're right

Jenifer: Though, they don't really need to know...

If they found out

I don't think they'd appreciate having enough bombs in their basement to cause world war 3

Jenifer: Then I'll take the heat.

Jea: Jenny no.

Jenifer: Were not debating this.

Well

It's nicer than waking up to 3 wolf spiders

Jea: By the way, you weren't serious about the bombs right?

Ummm

Maybe

But I do have sniper rifles and assault rifles

Jenifer: Dude, as cool as it sounds, no heavy artillery in the house. Maybe a few handguns. Something easy to hide.

Where the hell am I supposed to keep my mini-nuke?

I'm joking

Jea: Thank god

But where am I supposed to, keep my guns

Jea: How about you keep all of your things that could be used to incriminate you in your tent.

Jea: and OUT OF OUR HOUSE

Jenifer: Also, where are we going to keep them? Andre and Chris I mean.

Jea: no one uses the attic.

Jenifer: Too many webs to clean.

Jenifer: though, if they're willing to clean it out.

Meh

Can't be that bad

Jea turns to Chris

"What do you say?"

He smiles and nods

-later that day, at the end of school-

So

Jea: Our dad shouldn't be home but just in case, well sneak you through the back door

"And your mom?"

Jea: Dead.

"Oh.....i'm sorry for asking...."

Jea: Its fine.

Jenifer: Come on, our bus is this way

He nods and follows

*Andrè follows*

They get to the house-

-Jenifer leads them to the attic-

"thank you again"

Jea: Anything for a new friend.

Thanks

I only have my micro smg and my 2 revolvers

That's it

Jea: NO GUNS!

Jenifer: Chill out sis

"Dang.."

Hm?

Jea: what's wrong Chris

"N-nothing..."

Jea: Why'd you say dang?

Hello strange human

"Forget i said anything"

hello

my name’s jeff

Jea: What are you doing in our house?

idk i just popped into existence

so who are all of you?

Jea: I'm Jea, this is my twin sister Jenny, this our friend Chris, and some random guy named Andre

I'm a psychotic motherfucker with guns

-You all hear the front door-

Great combination

Chris turns into a puppy and hides

dude that is awesome

Jenifer: Quickly, get into the attic

Jea: And you, mystery guy, sorry but you've got to go

me?

Jenifer: Yeah you

ok *dissappears and reappears in the attic*

Mr. Kon: Girls I'm home!

-Jea walks to the living room- "Hi daddy"

Jenifer: Andre hurry up while Jea distracts him

*wonders why I had to go into the attic*

*Andrè sneaks to the attic*

*whispers*oh hey.

*whispers* why are we in here?

We're not supposed to be here

oh ok

-Jenifer closes it-

wanna see something cool andrè?

Sure

watch this... *morphs into a pit viper and slithers around andrè*

Cool

I would shoot you but that would compromise us

*morphs back into a human*

That would*

don’t shoot me

Mr. Kon notices Christ's tail

Mr. Kon: Jea, did you bring home another stray?

I’m an animagus. I can transfigure into a snake at will

Jenifer whispers: go with it

He yelps scared and runs off

Jea: Yeah. But don't be upset.

don’t laugh at me... *disappears and reappears behind André*

behind*

I can teleport too

Jenifer: I told her not to but look at his eyes.

Mr. Kon: I can't he keeps running off.

so whatcha wanna do why we’re stuck up here

Chris sits down in front of Mr. Kon and looks at him with sad eyes

Jea: Can we pleaaaase keep him?

-Mr. Kon notices a lack of man parts- "I think you mean her and..... Sure."

Jenifer: She meant him. Meet the world's first transgender dog.

Mr. Kon: The fuck?

Jea: SWEAR JAR!

The dog smiles at jenny

Mr. Kon: Are you kidding me?

Jea: Nope!

His tail wags a lot

He jumps on Mr. Kon

Mr. Kon: Ah

-the next day-

Chris wakes up

He gets ready and heads to the bus stop without being seen

*Andrè sneaks out the house and walks to school

Out*

*teleports from the attic to the first block*

Chris was in his first block

ooh hey. I remember you. u were that puppy!

He blushes "y-ya...."

*teleports behind Chris* I can transfigure into a snake

Chris stabs jeff before he spoke not knowing who it was

*writhes in pain* ow-owwww

"Oh god...... I'm so sorry" he bandages it up

i-it’s fine

I heal fairly fast too

*wound stops bleeding*

"So your not human either?"

no

idk what I am

I’m a teleporting animagus

and I have fairly fast healing abilities

"Which is not human"

yeah

"And you already know I'm not human but anyway what's your name I forgot to ask"

it’s jeff

yours?

"Chris"

well nice to meet you, Chris! *sticks hand out to shake Chris's hand*

Chris shakes his hand

so, who were the other people?

"Idk their classes...."

well, who were they?

"Jea and jenny"

*time skip to lunch*

Jea, Jenifer, and Josh show up

Together

Chris walks up to them he looks at jea and jenny "please don't be mad at me because of yesterday"

Jea: Mad about what?

*walks into the cafeteria and over to Chris*

hey guys

"About your dad seeing me... And hey"

*whispers to Chris* do other people at the school know about us having abilities or do we have to keep that hidden?

Jea: That wasn't your fault

Jenifer: It was a little. He could have stayed calm and rushed to the attic instead of running off as a puppy.

"Keep them hidden"

Jenifer: Though things worked out for the better

"Y-ya...."

damn... that means I gotta walk places

Jenifer: It's better to have him disguised as a puppy then hiding him like Andre

you guys must me Jea and Jenifer. I’m jeff

Jea: We already met

oh yeah

Jea: You popped into our house

still don’t know how I got there

"Ya"

thanks

I wanna pull a prank *smirks*

"On who?"

I don’t know

we gotta find a group of preppy girls

Jea: That would be mean.

I know

Jenifer: Yet funny.

but hella funny

Jenifer: I'm in.

Jea: Jennyyyyy.

ayy... i like your attitude *smiles and looks at jenifer* u seem pretty cool.

well chris can turn into a puppy, correct?

Jea: You're a bad influence -she glares at Jeff-

i know *smirks*

Jenifer: Not really, sweety. I was born this way. He has nothing to do with it

Jea: Yeah but he came up with the prank idea.

"Ya jeff i can.."

Jea: Besides, you've already been written up 11 times and it's only the third day of school.

Jea: Make that 15

Jea: CHRIS NOT YOU TOO

so the plan is, you’re gonna lure them over to you with the adorable puppy eyes

Josh: Can I help?

Jenifer: ew, no way.

"Oh no...."

and then i’m gonna be in snake form and i’m going to teleportin between them and you

teleport in between*

it’ll be great.

Jenifer: More of a jump scare than a prank.

and sure josh i guess you and jenifer can point chris out

yeah but still funny as hell

so you guys in?

"Yes!"

Jea turns around and crosses her arms

Jenifer: Hell yeah

Josh: Yep

-jenifer pushes Josh aside-

[paradoxicalwebcomic-blog]

Tales of the Darkstar 2: The Blackened Trail 10

(3665 BBY Dathomir wilds)

The trees sped along under the hover-car that the man calling himself Kader Novar had rented. The woman from the Shattered Trunk clan was driving and Kader and his companion, who currently looked like a twi-lek, were seated in the back. She had not spoken once since they had left Ahnki outpost, since Kader had told her the story of the tragic death of his wife. Losha was a close friend, and he had told her the whole story, that Erinæ had died from an accident with an advanced Sith sorcery technique. The same that had claimed her older brother Konnor. It had, in fact, been Losha who had encouraged the young Erinæ to pursue Kader in an ancient Dathomiri tradition called the Right of Conquest. It was a fun little Dathomiri tradition in which the female of the species, considered dominant on this planet, wouldd pursue a male through the wilds until she caught and captured him. She would then proclaim her dominance over the male and they would become wed, the male would join her clan and sire children for the female. Kader had been drugged, bound, and dumped unceremoniously in the jungle with nothing to wear and no gear beside his practice saber. He had spent a week running from his pursuer before he ever even saw her. When they finally confronted each other and did battle, naked and covered in mud, their sorcery split the heavens and rocked the foundations of the world. Their lovemaking, Kader remembered with an embarrassed grin, could have used a bit more work. But then, they were more than happy to practice repeatedly over the next three years before their wedding. “We’re coming up on  the coordinates the Shattered Trunk sent me this morning.” Losha called over her shoulder, “We should be meeting scouts soon.” As if summoned by her words, Kader saw a massive reptilian creature climb up onto an outcropping of rock. Rancor’s were common in the wilds of Dathomir, but this one wore leather and steel armor, and had a woman mounted on its back. Losha waved and the woman waved them onwards and the armored Rancor dropped back into the forest with a grumbled roar. A short time later they came to a rise without any trees on it and Kader could see the entirety of the Shattered Trunk clans camp spread out below them. The hover-car was set down at the center of the clearing with two others and a dozen hover-bikes. Several of the woman of the clan started to wander over and greet Losha while Kader and Esper got out of the vehicle. A short dark haired woman approached the pair and beckoned for them to follow. “The Mother would like to speak with you,” she said, leading them towards a large animal skin tent on the other side of the camp. “She has been expecting you for weeks now. It was impolite to make her wait.” “I am truly sorry.” Kader said, sighing. The annoying thing about the clan mothers is that they were prone to visions through the Force but they were hardly temporally accurate. “Your friend will wait outside.” The woman held open a curtain for Kader to pass. Beyond was a single room spanning the length of the hut with a cauldron in the center emitting an acidic green luminescence; across the fire sat an ancient crone wrapped in grey robes and wearing a feathered head-dress. “It has been many years, young Darkstar.” the ancient mother croaked out. “Approach, and seat yourself across from me.” “Greetings Mother Bronwyn,” Kader knelt on the opposite side of the cauldron from the old crone. “Shall I assume you already know why I am here?” “You assume correctly.” She leaned forward until the light of the cauldron illuminated her face. “You wish us to break our vows and assist you in infiltrating the Academy of Sorcery in the Night-sister’s territory.” “I assure you, Mother Bronwyn, it is for a very good cause.” Kader said softly. His whole planned hinged on convincing this ancient Dathomiri woman to help him. “I am sure you believe it to be.” The old woman said, hey violet eyes shining across the crackling fire. “But do you even know why you seek this piece of your past?” “I must reclaim my former power.” Kader said, staring into the flame. “It was once my destiny and I laid it aside. Events over the last few years have shown me that it was a mistake, and so I seek to retrieve it.” “So it is glory you seek?” the old crone laughed. “You are even more deluded than when you were a student here. Power is not something you can claim, childe, it is what you are. The power of the Darkstar is inside of you, your mask merely allowed you to release it. It is a crutch and one you no longer need.” The fire crackled and Mother Bronwyn sighed. “You were always one of my favorite aliens.” She said, softening her voice with a smile. “If this is something you honestly feel you must do…” “I do, mother Bronwyn.” Kader replied, looking up into her eyes. “It’s the only way to defeat Darth Exodus.” “Then we shall help you, young Darkstar.” The old crone waved her hand and a shower of blue and green sparks erupted from the fire. “We will assist you in whatever way we can. Losha will be at your disposal as well as any who she deems will be needed. Now leave me so I may rest, these old bones tire so quickly these days.” “Of course, Mother Bronwyn.” Kader rose and bowed. he turned sharply on his heel, his robes billowing out around him as he exited the tent. Kader had the help he needed, and soon he would have the next clue to where the Mask of the Darkstar was hidden!

_______________________________________________________________________

If you haven’t seen it yet, go out and see Guardians of the Galaxy V2. it was well worth the ten bucks.

-Bill ParadoxicalWebcomic.Tumblr.com ParadoxicalComic@gmail.com