#IW antis please leave me alone

[kitkatopinions]

What hurts the most about Ironwood's death (besides, you know, him DYING), is that we never learned his backstory! The closest was in V3 when he disqualified Yang. "Sometimes you see things that simply aren't there, even after the fight has passed", as he motions to his prosthetic arm. Did he hallucinate something? Did a Grimm take a bite out of half his body? How can anyone survive that?? And what about a canon explanation for Mettle? We were robbed of a great character arc, now it's too late.

This is one reason why Ironwood's story feels so incomplete.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; Ironwood turning evil is a plot direction I don't like and I'd still have a right to complain about it here using the proper tags even if it was executed well, but the fact that it was executed badly makes everything so much worse.

If Ironwood's arc was at least done well, it would've done what they intended to and made me sad, but it still would've felt realistic, in character, understandable, and actually take some time, and include some emotional depth. And yeah, a good character arc for Ironwood would include his semblance and probably at least some backstory, which there are ways to do while still having him slide down the path to villainy.

Instead what we got was the writers rushing him through increasingly out of character villainous actions at break neck speeds without letting the emotional impact of any of them touch most of the characters around him. They tried to strip him of every good characteristic he had, tried to suddenly spring 'sadistic' and 'heartless' on us when that previously hadn't been his character at all, and then had him blamed for Mantle's problems as if he hadn't been desperately trying to do what was best for the world on short notice while Jacques, Watts, and Salem, and systemic wealth inequality built into the foundations of the Kingdom before James was born were responsible for the increasingly bad state of Mantle. They acted like we were just supposed to go along with this portrayal of a 'fallen hero' that had very little groundwork and was carried out at the speed of light (two days of in-show time,) that was sloppily done, that gave Ironwood no sympathy, and had none of Ironwood's friends react with confusion or any real sadness or try to talk him down. And that launch into villainy was given to us only after Ruby had already decided he was wholly untrustworthy and had written him off because Ruby thought you should risk the lives of everyone on the off chance you'll be able to save everyone with no plan, and James thought that saving likely millions of lives and keeping the world-ending items away from Salem was more important than unattainable standards of morality they'd never be able to reach. I've heard incredibly believable rumors that they had to re-write some their work for Ironwood in volume eight because too many people were siding with Ironwood at the end of volume seven, and I believe that!

But I for the life of me cannot figure out why they even dropped knowledge of Ironwood's semblance out into the world. Like... Did they not realize that it'd make them look bad to have a character changing semblance that changes everything about the character and then they didn't even include it at all? Did they not realize that divulging that Ironwood has a passive semblance that at least partially forced his hand and seems to act like a partial form of mind control would make anyone who likes Ironwood even more dissatisfied and frustrated and disappointed in them than ever?

My boy deserved more. I would've preferred that Ironwood stay good, but if he was going to be evil, I can get past it and maybe potentially enjoy some of that. But I don't know how anyone (MKEK or the freaking fandom) can ask me to be happy with having a character I loved used as a scapegoat to try to make Team RWBYJNOR look better in comparison while dismissing any systemic issues that have been established in the world of RWBY and hanging them around his neck while billionaire characters are treated as either casual and comical nuisances or personally hurtful to the billionaire wife or children that are going to inherit their wealth and are good enough to give a care about people dying but who have never once fought the system.

...Sorry that that really went RWDE during the end there, but uh. Yeah. XD

[theshadowedqueen82]

Wandavision Ep 4

I have no people in my house to scream about this with and thus I shall be liveblogging my watching experience. Spoilers ahead, please only read once you’ve watched the episode!

oh? are we finally acknowledging the fact that the snap would have drastically changed the world? looking at that trauma now are we?

I already miss the Wandavision intro. superior to the marvel one by FAR

SWORD HQ looks like a train station. Or the JLA hall from young Justice

they went thru the effort to remove the security clearance from everybody who was dusted haha

my girl Monica getting some recognition in the house! Yes appreciate her!

hmm so SWORD was around before the snap? Working before IW on a space program? It makes sense that their funding was slashed and the program stopped but this could have Implications for world tech

The more I see Monica the more I love her? “I was the only choice” “I wasn’t going to say it” QUEEN

LET HER GO TO SPACE COWARDS

she does not need more time! Like any proper Marvel character she does her grieving through fighting aliens!

THE MAGIC TRICK COP FROM ANT MAN AND THE WASP

this witness seems VERY protected if even their family has forgotten them

“No such place!” Wish I had the confidence of this guy standing in front of the Westview sign proclaiming it doesn’t exist

the helicopter! now we’re getting somewhere

“Careful Rambeau!” don’t worry she comes from a long line of experts in touching weird energy fields

DARCY MY GIRL

astrophysics? a step up from poly sci I congratulate you!

“Dr Lewis” you tell him girl wow I’m proud of her she’s done so well

as an actual astrophysics student I Will be judging the science

Interesting using microwaves. This probably indicates that she does most of her work with radiowaves. Astrophysics is very familiar with all EMR but as far as I’m aware more spectral analysis is done with radiowaves than microwaves, but they’re right next to each other so easy for her to recognize

Analog system of delivering a television signal over radio waves! It’s legit although a little weird they didn’t mention radio waves by name

hello mr beekeeper. methinks this mission will not go as planned

So sitcom laugh tracks sound pretty creepy in a military base

oh I know this show! This is a good episode

...technically all radiation dates back to the Big Bang that’s not important information

the universe knows that this sitcom is literally all we want from the world

so are the credit names all in universe characters who are important? Or is that a massive fourth wall break?

fandom levels of analysis happening here

Hey! It looks like they got more episodes than we did! release the tapes marvel. where’s the missing wandavision eps

unsure why they made Darcy an astrophysicist at this point. She appears to be tracking down people and doing stuff with wavelength emission which there are regular physicists who do that stuff too? astrophysics is more for stuff like, yknow STARS. of the non television sort

So they’re also getting the commercial breaks? I hope they’re analyzing the heck out of those with a therapist as well as scientists

how long has this poor man been crawling through the sewers?

They’re all as invested as I am in watching Wanda and Vision be cute, this makes me very happy

“you want any” HE THOUGHT SHE MEANT BABIES I’M DYING

wow they’re really not getting any of the same creepy stuff we get huh? dang that editing

full anti Mr Rogers moment here

so this is the first time we’ve seen Wanda using her powers in the form of red lightning again isn’t it?

Also like. Full sympathy for Monica but I cannot help but cheer for Wanda. You go girl, one woman neighborhood watch, evict that outsider

she just wants to be happy with her family guys! Just leave her alone!

OH GOSH OH NO THE IW FLASHBACKS ARE HERE

well it is final. This couple will kill me. Wanda’s literally keeping Vision alive through the power of sheer will and created an AU to keep him safe and give them a place where they can be happy

“It’s all Wanda.” Yeah that’s right, this is what happens when your most powerful Avenger is given literally the worst hand of cards ever and no therapy!

Also can’t believe it’s canon that Wanda’s a better writer than all of Marvel

Wanda and Vision and Billy and Tommy on the couch together! A happy perfect family!

Final thoughts: although I enjoyed getting to see Monica and Darcy and Jimmy I cannot help but be sad Wanda and Vision did not get as much screen time (heh)

I am torn between wanting SWORD to rescue the missing town and just. letting Wanda live her life geez people

Also is the beekeeper gone? what happened to him? Did he get shot back into the sewers? Is this why the time period keeps changing?

Stay tuned for next Friday I guess as we receive more answers and questions! I love this show

[iamanartichoke]

This is neither eloquent nor organized. I’m very frustrated and I just need to get things off my chest. 

Please do not reblog this post. 

Cut for anti-Ragnarok discourse, pro-Ragnarok discourse, the Ragnarok discourse war, mention of Thorki, and general venting. 

I’m not using tags bc I don’t want this post to show up in them. Very sorry and if any of these things is one of your blacklists, please keep scrolling.

Yesterday, I read a fic.

I was wandering through some of the Thorki content on twitter, and followed a link to one of the big bang fics, bc it was a human AU and das my jam.

I didn’t recognize the author’s name. The fic was extremely well-written, though: lots of feels, beautiful narration, a sweet ending balanced with a lot of sadness. It was one of those fics that gave me a lump in my throat.

I was only going to leave kudos, but then I figured I’d take the extra five seconds and leave a comment, bc we all know how much authors like comments. I mean, I’d rather someone leave a comment than kudos, especially if the fic really affected them.I get it and I gotchu, fam. 

Anyway, so I left a comment and proceeded to click on the author’s profile to see what else they’ve written. As you do.

I recognized their AO3 icon, even though I didn’t recognize the name. I’d seen them around on some Ragnarok wank on tumblr. I went to double-check, and it was the same user, and also they’d blocked me.

I do not know this person. I have never spoken to this person. Yet they’ve gone out of their way to block me, most likely bc I associate with the anti-Ragnarok crowd. This happens to me a lot. I’ve even had a couple of former mutuals unfollow and block me (without saying anything to me) and those felt like punches to the gut.

I understand not wanting to see content that you don’t like or that upsets you. Everyone has the right to block whomever they wish. But I can’t deny that getting blocked like that – by someone I don’t know, let alone interact with – fucking hurts. I know it’s not that deep but I can admit it. It’s a shitty feeling and it’s hard not to take it personally.

It’s not really about this particular person at all, although it’s a shame bc they’re a good writer I probably would have followed otherwise. But this entire anti/pro Ragnarok war has gone so far and it’s exhausting. I stayed pretty neutral for as long as I could. 

And here’s the thing. My observations, both from being neutral and also being someone who, despite often being quietly blocked, tends to fly under the radar are this:

The majority of the negativity comes from the pro side.

Look, I side with and agree with the anti side on this one. I can admit, however, that sometimes it gets tiresome to see posts get turned into Ragnarok criticism or tiresome to see more posts on my dash about this that or another thing that sucks about Ragnarok and why. It, like anything, can be tiring.

But I also see that the anti side largely does its best to keep to itself. The pro side complained about the Ragnarok tags, so the anti side made an anti tag, and the pros still come into it to complain. The anti side will post their discussions and criticisms and they largely just circulate within the same group of people. The discussions are almost always criticisms on the source material (ie, the film) and not about anyone who enjoys it.

Now, maybe I don’t see everything. Though I don’t think I’m biased just bc I agree with the anti side – in fact, it was these attributes that made me take a closer look at what they were saying bc maybe they had a point after all. I don’t follow every anti Ragnarok user, but I do follow a lot. I can’t say personal attacks and whatever never happen - but, I hardly ever see them.

That’s not the case with the pro side. I don’t think I follow many from that side, but I see so much negativity from them. It’s like this kind of underhanded negativity that I’m not quite sure how to explain. It’s tonal negativity. 

I mean, sometimes it’s blatant. Name-calling (Loki stans, lackeys, pathetic, delusional, and racist come to mind) is an example. But more than that, there’s this collective tone among the pro side that smacks of condescension and I can’t stand it.

They make fun of the “dissertations” that have been written.

They always include an “lol” or laugh emoji or something to express that they’re not the ones taking this seriously.

They fall back on saying they don’t care about a two-year-old movie.

They’re laughing and making fun and at the same time acting like they’re so above it all.

They want us to just shut up already.

What it comes down to is this: it’s not just a matter of being able to agree to disagree because the pro side actively acts offended that the antis are even having these critical discussions, even if the antis have gone out of their way to not involve the rest of the fandom at all.

(Again, this is not every pro person, but the majority. Tone does matter online, and the overall tone of the pro side is not positive. I say this from a mostly neutral place.)

And here’s a thing about “oh my god, it came out two years ago, get over it!” Yeah, it came out two years ago. So fucking what? You guys are still engaging with it, via fics and headcanons and art. How old the movie is doesn’t matter when you’re having fun with it, but when someone wants to engage with it in a (valid) critical way that you don’t like? No. That’s unacceptable. That’s pathetic. That’s being a lackey. Get over it.

Even writing this, I know that things are much worse for others than they are for me. I get stealth blocked; others are called out by name in public posts, receive anon hate, and are actively targeted.

It’s just, this shit is so fucking toxic to this fandom and it honestly needs to stop. Both sides need to not only stop engaging one another, but also stop acknowledging one another. We get it: you either like the movie or you don’t.

Let people do their own thing. Don’t be fucking obnoxious. If you disagree and genuinely want to talk about it, then try to remember there’s a person on the other side of the screen and be civil. If you disagree and don’t want to talk about it, then just fucking don’t.

If you see a post you disagree with, scroll past. And, yes, block the person if you need to (and sometimes it might be me that needs blocking and I recognize my hurt feelings are my own personal problem, not whoever else’s).

There are a lot of movies in the MCU that are not perfect. (Btw, it baffles me a little to get hated on for my stance on Ragnarok, when I am so much more vocal [and emotionally invested] in hating the Russos and IW/Endgame – but, whatever.) There are a lot of interpretations of characters that are different. There are a lot of people who project their own identity or issues or whatever onto any particular character that resonates (and that’s okay!) and there are a lot of people who don’t project but still identify with a particular character (and that’s okay, too).

Stop judging whether someone is a “real” fan of a character/franchise or not. Just because someone isn’t engaging with the source material in the way you are, and just because they don’t see it in the same way that you do, does not make them wrong. (Yes, this applies to the pro side, too. None of them are wrong or less valid for enjoying and even stanning the movie.) It doesn’t make anyone better than anyone else here. 

Acting otherwise is honestly going to kill this fandom. Because it bleeds over. Fics will have less readers, bc they don’t want to interact with something posted by someone they dislike (or who blocked them). There’s less sharing of things like art and headcanons and content. People unfollow and block each other, people are having to watch what they say, people are losing friends (and potential friends) bc they may be a great person but they don’t agree with you about fucking Ragnarok.

I came to tumblr bc it was the only place where not only could I find other people who loved Loki as much as I did, but it was the only place where I could express that. Express it in fic, in headcanons, in meta. Being creative and starting dialogues and just interacting. I wish we could get that vibe back.

I wish none of this bothered me so much.

[victoriamedea]

[Contain IW spoiler] a Thorki fans perspective (basically I am whining )

I just finished watching IW.

(The following rant post contains spoilers, a lot. Sorry, please leave before we push you to this abyss)

To a certain extent I was grateful that I got spoilered (on Loki' s storyline )by accident, thanks to a certain fan comic posted on Tumblr. I thought I was ready for it (actually no, my heart is still hurt) but anyway...THE MAIN POINT IS, I think this is the most canon THORKI moment I have ever imagined to get from MCU so far.

I never expect Loki to show such deep emotion of protecting his brother. Okay, the fandom has summarized a lot of previous Thorki moments in TDW about how they saved each other, but nothing can beat this: they realised it could be their last time to see their loved ones:

1. At first, Loki tried to pull off his typical side-switching bluffing technique when Thanos threatened to kill Thor. But he definitely choked (bad choice of word here) back tears when he saw Thor was being tortured. (Thank you Tom for his acting skills, my baby is crying omg) Even my friend (who always denies the existence of any Yaoi ships) said, "alright he definitely loves his brother...Based on Thor 1 or Avengers 1, I thought he would enjoy seeing Thor suffer in pain for a little longer.. " We (fangirls) all know our baby is a tsundere when it comes to his shinny big brother. And his "I promise you, brother, the sun will shine on us again" is the sweetest thing he could say to Thor at that time. His claim of being Odin's son (with a pause that looks into Thor's direction if I remember correctly ) is another attempt to comfort Thor. (I think he is yelling "trust me brother I want to save you I love you I can't bear to see you getting hurt " internally )

I will live on any resurrection / reborn fanfics in the next 10 months for my shipper' s heart.

2. Thor has to watch his love dying / being murdered in front of him while he could do absolutely nothing. Some people (again, my anti-fandom/fandom existence-denial friends) argued right away that his anger was largely due to the loss of his people including Heimdall and not just because of Loki. Oh really? I mean, yes and no: yes he is FURIOUS when the enemies committed genocide to his people but Loki's death is not as significant as we "imagined"? Hold on there buddy, I think his chitchat with "Rabbit" Rocket explained everything. He was definitely mourning for the loss of Loki. As another Tumblr post mentioned, his strong will of seeking revenge is triggered by the death of Loki. The way he struggled to reach Loki' s body (by the way that's not how I want to see Jotun Loki damn you MCU you are like a drunk Santa Claus that gives dead rat to fulfill a child's wish of getting a pet Mickey ) before the explosion, the way he cried in agony when Loki fell on the floor (there are a few close up on Thor's face as if the whole scene is not heart breaking enough)....and he basically keep this rage til the very end of the movie. It's a cliche of "you never know how much you love someone until you loss him/her".

That's why I feel like everything he did in the movie was an attempt to sucide. He jumped into the machine for the creation of a new weapon like "I don't care if I die I have nothing to loss anyway . if i live, i will seek revenge, and if i die, i will be with my family" . It's heart breaking.

3. (Not exactly about Thorki) I am also a fans of Stucky. So yes, double strike to my shipper's heart when I see Steve touched the ground after Bucky turned into ashes. And basically every canon / non-canon ships are wrecked in the movie. (And this atrocity start from Thorki as if they know it's my fucking OTP) MCU you are evil damn you. At certain point I just feel numb sitting in the cinema witnessing the ships being destroyed one by one

4. Basically, Thanos started a revolution to create a world full of wrecked ships by killing canon or potential couples. It's a shitty plan, Thanos. That's not how you should spend your wish fuck you. No wonder you are forever alone. (A world full of crack ships!!!!!!!! Roarrrrr) and don't act like you are being forced to kill your adopted daughter and you lost everything. You bastard

Anyway, forgive me for posting this. Thank you for your patience to read through my rants. I honestly feel that Loki' s storyline would not end this way and I can't way to see how Avengers 4 will save the plot from here. But before I move to the serious movie plot discussion, let's just say I expect to see more fanfic in AO3 as I need to nourish my Thorki shipper's body mind and soul in a desperate manner. Please let me know I am not the only one feeling this way after watching IW....(crawling back to the corner and cry).

[kitkatopinions]

(Rabbithole Anon) Y'know, I was going to send in an ask about just they could have made a compelling way to show how some people may have become hunters through pressure rather than an age excuse if they wanted to say some people weren't ready (joining to protect a friend who wanted to be one, wanting to travel for a variety of reasons, it being a general expectation but the person being hesitant) but it led to me wondering wait, would certain careers require a hunting lisence?

Okay, I love this rabbit hole. XD It illustrates a couple of RWBY problems here and it's the fact that they often are lacking in the character development/character journey department, and that they're often lacking in the world building department.

We actually have plenty of characters that can serve as examples for people who maybe should've thought twice about entering the Academy (when they did.) There are people who entered the Academy for the wrong reasons/not noble reasons, people who entered the Academy during a time they might not have been ready, and people who would be full on dangerous with a Hunter badge, and most of our mains fall under one of these categories (though mostly the first two.)

Ruby - Two years below the standard age of her class. Whether or not she was at the skill level of a first year (she was,) and whether or not she'd received special training from Qrow (she had,) Ruby was still essentially a kid, and her mind and body both hadn't developed completely. Ruby should have been traumatized after the Fall of Beacon and been allowed to show that more as a character, she should've had straight up PTSD, she should've been allowed to have emotion in Volume 4 than Jaune's sidekick who makes sad eyes when she sees him grieving. Weiss - Her main motivation for joining Beacon was to reclaim her family legacy. Yes, her desire was to reclaim it and use it for good, but it was still arguably more about personal and familial glory. On top of that, Weiss has been blatantly anti Faunus and has never so much as addressed that. Weiss's character journey should have reflected more personal growth, and either her unlearning much of her Faunus racism and clearly changing priorities from her name and family legacy and onto the actual people in need, or her flaws should've led her into being more of a morally gray character who displays her selfishness and pride (in a way that's actually addressed and treated like a flaw.) Yang - She expresses admiration for people like Ruby who want to help people and be kind, but her main point in becoming a Huntress was getting thrills and going where the wind takes her. She didn't join Beacon for any sort of serious purpose, and even when she rejoined Team RWBY in volume five, it was to be with her sister and not because of her own morals (not that I think she's lacking in morals, just that her main motive was different.) This could lead to her having to figure out a lot of what she actually wants, being unsatisfied with being a Huntress in Atlas, being in over her head when things get serious, being more mentally exhausted than the others after long days, etc. Jaune - Wasn't ready to enter Beacon. Idk if he just wasn't allowed to go to a lesser combat school like Signal or if he flunked out, but he wasn't up to scratch to get into Beacon and cheated his way in. On top of that, he lacked in the emotional maturity department as well when he entered. Jaune was a little more invested in his own appearance than Ruby was, but still seemed to have similar good reasons for wanting to be a Hunter. And he did grow a lot. But he was much less prepared, skilled, or equipped to deal with the training or the career and it's a miracle he didn't die in the initiation. Granted, Jaune was handled arguably better than anyone else, since a lot of this was addressed, but these days it feels like it isn't actually playing a part in his character anymore that he's way below the people around him, and I feel like it should still be impacting him. Penny: Honestly, Penny seemed very newly born during the Beacon Arc. She might have been combat ready, but she also started spilling secrets to the first person who was a little bit nice to her, and was clearly naïve and childlike. Imagine if it had been Emerald that had befriended Penny instead of Ruby. Penny dying and then getting resurrected should've been deeply traumatizing for her and it should've made her undergo some major changes and been treated with importance in the show. Qrow: Literally wanted to be a Hunter in the first place to try and learn how to murder Huntsmen. He might have changed later and it’s not exactly relevant, but he arguably shouldn't have joined when he did either. Meanwhile, Nora's just one big mystery, because we don't know why she joined, and Ren likely joined for good reasons, but neither of them have ever actually talked about their motivations. The only character we can safely say joined for noble reasons and who was up to scratch and ready when she entered is Blake, who also had good reason to not fully trust the system she was working with, so there could've been complications and character interest there as well.

Please don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean I don't think the others should've been in school, I love that they were! I just think the writers should've explored the various ways they might've been not fully ready, not completely well suited to the job they took. The characters are allowed to be flawed and to flounder and it'd make them more full, nuanced characters imo.

On top of that, we have other Hunters to look to as well, outside of our main cast. Cardin, for example, was a terrible person, still in school and already abusing what little power he had to target a member of an oppressed minority group and blackmail other kids into doing his bidding, while plotting revenge on someone for correcting him on his anti-Faunus answer to a question. People like him should not be Hunters, and he was arguably our first sign (of many signs) that the position of Hunter can and will be taken advantage of and misused by bad people. And although the After the Fall/Before the Dawn books aren't canon, while reading BTD (I haven't finished it yet,) Coco and all her team members but Velvet also struck me as people I wouldn't want to be Hunters and wouldn't want to wield any sort of power. Coco is proudly described by one of her friends as sadistic, lets her unfounded opinions of people cloud her judgement, shows respect and admiration towards criminals, and enjoys her classmates being afraid of her. Fox is self-described as sadistic as well and is a bully who tried to use a classmate's phobia against them in a brute-like interrogation. And Yatsuhashi is leagues above the two of them, but also bullied Neptune despite saying the words 'I don't want to be a bully' and threatened him.

There are so many ways the writers could've explored people who went to Beacon too soon, weren't ready, or entered for the wrong reasons. Instead, outside of one conversation in season two about the girls’ motivations and Ren exploding that Jaune cheated his way into Beacon all the way in season eight, it seems like the only take away we're supposed to get is 'all these kids are officially the thing they wanted to be in the beginning and they're all amazing at it, woo!' No acknowledgement of the fact that they could use higher education still, that some of them are still immature or naïve, that some of them are still below the combat level they should be in, that some of them kinda haven't done super well since they left Beacon (cough Ruby cough.) It's all just... Flat, lackluster. And meanwhile, characters like Cardin were written out of the show easily. We've had plenty of examples of corruption in the Hunter business, but the show hasn't paid any attention to that and still is treating being a Hunter like the only true noble goal and the only good and non-corruptible way to defend people, despite the fact that it clearly isn’t. Being a Huntress is not better or safer or more noble in-universe than being an Atlas soldier/Ace Op/Atlas hunter. I’m not saying that all of this needed to be featured, but exploring the differences in motivation and how the Hunter lifestyle affected the various mains could really flesh out their characters. Instead, by the time everyone is heading to Atlas in volume six, they all pretty much have the same reactions to everything and the same motivations and the same beliefs. The rare deviation - like Ren in volume seven and eight - is treated as bad and a mistake that must be rectified, rather than... A natural consequence of the group being full of different people with different upbringings and different motivations that result in different opinions. That sort of thing is only ever explored as a problem that makes someone lacking, and it’s really weird and it makes the show feel... Juvenile, and lacking in nuance or depth when it comes to the characters, which is a really big shame, since the characters have a huge amount of potential and exploring the differences between them and their reactions to being in way over their heads would be - I think - the natural place to take their characters? Especially because so far their storyline has been... Not the highlight of the show.

But, as for how semblances and Hunters should impact the world building, there’s a lot to say about that! They don’t explore a lot in RWBY outside of what’s relevant to the mains, leaving the world building feeling flat and like the world itself doesn’t matter much. RWBY often feels more like a video game world than anything else, which I believe @why-i-hate-rwby-now has pointed out, so credit to them for helping me realize it. There’s one large location per continent and a couple small villages where they only really talk to a town leader and village blacksmith, or encounter a fight, relevant NPCs and characters only going to certain locations that can further the plot, characters only mattering through the ways they interact with the protagonists and seemingly getting benched with nothing to do if they aren’t currently plot relevant, health bars that can be monitored over scrolls, every weapon and semblance has a name even if that name isn’t ever mentioned in show or might not really make a lot of sense, frequently encountered enemies of various threat levels who the characters can plow down without remorse because they’re not sentient or don’t have souls... The list goes on. But one of the ways that it feels very video gamey is that the magical powers actually don’t seem to impact the world.

We know people can have auras even if they don’t have semblances (Mercury, Torchwick, Watts,) and we know lots of even grown people don’t have auras (the citizens of Mantle in danger of dying of cold while our aura having mains aren’t,) but also that auras can be unlocked, by well trained seventeen year olds (Pyrrha,) and we also know that semblances can be unlocked from a very young age due to trauma (Ren, Neptune in EU) but some people are born with their semblances (Qrow and notably Blake use language suggesting they were born with their semblances,) and some semblances are passed down or hereditary (the Schnees.) Semblances can be passive (Qrow, Clover, Ironwood in word of author,) and uncontrollable, or active (almost everyone else,) and some semblances have carried personal negative effects like in the case of Qrow who was even named for being bad luck and Robyn who said people were on edge with her because she can sus out the truth via skin contact when she wants to. Also Mercury’s father was able to somehow take away his semblance.

That’s... Pretty much the extent of our knowledge and it doesn’t tell us much. What RWBY does is give each character abilities that make them iconic and different from each other as fighters, with a shield function that wears down slowly to explain how they can take certain hits and keep going while also allowing them to eventually suffer higher damage when that shield wears down. They had a character get this shield ability unlocked to explain the existence and function of it, and featured some characters who didn’t have the super powered abilities like Roman, an early enemy meant to herald in new, harder enemies who are more plot relevant, and Mercury, who makes up for it by having higher speed and functions exclusive to him through his prosthetics. And then they seemingly built a regular world unaffected by these powers. It sounds like a video game. Civilians just don’t have this power or the shield because they act as non-playable characters. In a way, it almost makes sense to me in conception, because when RWBY was originally created, it was high on visual appeal, fight choreography, and character design. The plot elements were small and the character stories seemed to be pretty simple, the only real complication to this being the White Fang plot, which has always been a major blight in RWBY. But one of the reasons why this video-game feel kinda worked at the start of RWBY was because the story and characters weren’t meant to be the focus of the story, so although the world building at the start was definitely lacking, the audience knew that things like auras and semblances were meant to hype up and add interest to the main highlights of the show: Design and fight choreography. At least that’s what I assume. But in volume three, they started to lay the groundwork for more, bigger plots, more focus on the story, the characters journeying to the outside world, undergoing personal arcs, and that’s what V4 and onward started focusing on.

To be clear, I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. I started really liking RWBY for its potential and concepts after getting through the first couple episodes of V1, but I actually really enjoyed quite a bit of V4 and V5 even though the design drastically changed and the fighting had gone way down in quality because I found some of the new focus on characters and the plot to be compelling, interesting, or to also have a lot of potential (though I was let down over and over in regards to pay off later.) However, with the new focus on the characters and storyline rather than design and fight choreography, they really needed to do some legwork on fixing the aura and semblance systems and paying attention to world building and making sure the world felt well put together, nuanced, and real. And I don’t feel like they ever did that.

Why is Pyrrha able to unlock auras? Well, because the writers wanted to explain the concept of auras and used Jaune - the unprepared - to do it. But now, auras are actually an important part of the story - for example, the people of Mantle don’t have unlocked auras, so will die of cold, but it doesn’t affect our heroes because they do have unlocked auras. So who can unlock auras? Is it a learned skill or is it hereditary? If it’s a learned skill, why isn’t everyone eager to learn it especially in places where it’s life or death if they don’t like in Atlas? If it’s a hereditary skill, why aren’t the people who have that skill put on a pedestal and being pressured into using that skill to save civilians in places where having an aura is the difference between life and death? In either case, why aren’t there people who professionally unlock auras? Why aren’t they on the pay roll in Atlas and Mantle? If it’s a skill that all powerful hunters have, why aren’t our heroes (who we’re supposed to think are now more powerful than Atlas’s best) unlocking auras for dying children in Mantle? Why don’t specialists and longtime fighters with Qrow, Winter, Robyn, Maria, or James have this ability if it comes with skill, time, or talent?

Why are semblances unlocking or morphing in times of trauma so rare? Why didn’t the Fall of Beacon unlock loads of new semblances and new semblance abilities? Why didn’t Ruby get a new semblance upgrade when she saw Weiss getting stabbed? Why didn’t Weiss unlock a new semblance ability when her plane was crashing? Why didn’t Pilot Boi unlock his semblance during the same occasion? Why is it that Jaune didn’t get a semblance upgrade when the light bridges were disappearing? Why didn’t Blake get a semblance upgrade when Yang fell into the void? Why did Ren get a semblance upgrade because he was upset while with the Ace Ops after Oscar got captured, but Nora doesn’t get an upgrade while she’s electrocuting herself? If semblances sometimes unlock in times of truama, why is it that some characters like Oscar and Torchwick and Jaune pre-V5 who we know have encountered lots of trauma just still don’t get semblances? If you can train your semblance into upgrading, why is it that we don’t see long time hunters and fighters unlock more semblance abilities, like Qrow, Winter, Robyn, Maria, or James? It just doesn’t make any sense! And I get that stories always have things happening just because the writers want it, but in RWBY, the hand of the creator is so obvious that it’s ridiculous.

And then there are other questions. Do people avoid bad labor practices out of fear of causing a semblance awakening? Well, from what we see of the SDC, the answer is no. So why not? Why weren’t they worried about an uprising? Work rights becomes a lot trickier when you have to add in tons of qualifiers. Maybe it’s illegal to use a semblance at work, but the SDC also has a history of child workers like Adam who can’t always control it (like Neptune couldn’t control his,) so are there laws protecting child laborers? Perhaps not, since you know, they were already child laborers, so were already suffering unchecked. Are there laws forbidding the use of semblances in government buildings, non-combat driven schools, or parks and libraries? And meanwhile, how would any of this apply to people with a passive semblance? How do you figure out that someone has a passive semblance? How do people know if they’re born with a semblance? Are there people that spend their whole lives having semblances that never get discovered? Do people have semblance detection... Semblances, that they get paid to use or do so out of charity? Did the Schnees rise to power due to their powerful and hereditary semblance, perhaps? Are people discriminated against if they don’t have semblances or pressured to become Hunters if they discover they do have semblances? Shouldn’t civilians in Mantle and Atlas be joining combat schools in droves in the hopes of unlocking an aura so they can better survive? And shouldn’t there be discrimination against people with certain semblances? Outside of Robyn saying she’s personally experienced mistrust, and Qrow’s self-hatred, we don’t see any real prejudice against certain semblance types, or for that matter, any praise or extra significance pointed to certain other semblance types. It would go a long ways towards world building if there were things like people having to divulge their semblance or lack thereof before entering Beacon, or for people to have to register a semblance evolution, or for Emerald to have lied about her semblance because “everyone knows illusion semblances automatically draw suspicion,” or for Qrow to comment that he’d never seen Clover in a Vytal Tournament, only for Clover to say his semblance was deemed ‘cheating’ back when he was in school so he hadn’t qualified. And on the flip side, you could have things like semblances being judged as better and more powerful based on how useful it might be, Pyrrha keeping her semblance on the DL because it’ll just bring more unwanted admiration on her, Sun keeping his own semblance on the DL too because it always make people put a lot of expectations on him, while Neptune’s semblance leaks and he deals with people treating him like he’s selfish and cruel for not wanting to use his own “gift of a semblance.” And people like Jaune could be bullied extra because he doesn’t have his semblance yet, and people in the stands at the Vytal Tournament could be chatting about “when are they gonna pull out their semblances?” and get annoyed and pouty when people don’t. To be fair, we do get things like Mercury’s father having declared his semblance a crutch, but... Still. why isn’t there more of this?

And we see the need for Hunter protection in villages like Kuroyuri and the village that Team RNJR stops to help on the way to Mistral. Small villages outside of the four kingdoms fall to Grimm, or are in danger of falling to Grimm. Ships get attacked by large and dangerous Grimm, we see (corrupt) Hunters on the train to Argus, accompanying for safety, and we see that with a rise of Grimm activity in Mantle, Hunters are dispatched to help kids travel to school. In a world like RWBY, fighting is essential for survival outside of the Kingdoms, and became very essential in the kingdoms as well once schools started going down. You’d assume there should be Hunters accompanying everyone traveling outside of the Kingdoms, resident Hunters living in villages outside the Kingdoms as their on-hand protectors (and more than one Hunters seems to be needed.) Hunters also could be extra protection for anything that’s definitely going to increase negativity, like hiring Hunters to bodyguard funerals seems like something that could be normal in the world of Remnant, and for visiting graveyards (we see Ruby get attacked by tons of Grimm when she visited Summer’s grave in the red trailer.) On top of that, celebrities and rich people hiring Hunters seems like it’d become pretty common. But all that we see outside of Dee and Dudley are traveling Hunters stopping to help people out of the goodness of their heart while they go place to place, and Kingdom Hunters who are assigned to things like border control, clearing out Grimm near or in the Kingdoms, and things like that. What we see is a Kingdom-centered morality complex our protagonists are one hundred percent invested in, Hunters are Kingdom driven and anything outside of that is a kindness, a job they can take or leave in passing. And on top of that, it seems like there aren’t a lot of people in the Hunter profession, and I feel like there should definitely be more. There are people like Jaune who didn’t make the cut but accepted that, we can only assume that there are drop outs too, so like... How many kids are there actually in a year at Beacon? I mean, look at where the Relics were found in the forest during initiation at Beacon.

This gives us a rough idea of how many people are in each year at Beacon. Assuming everyone graduates school and there’s no drop outs and no deaths, that’s a graduating class of twenty. That’s a very small number, comparatively. The job of a Hunter is dangerous. We know of Hunters that died (Summer, Pyrrha, Amber.) We know a lot of Hunters that have other jobs that take a lot of their time (Glynda, Ozpin, Robyn,) and lots of people who quit being Hunters too (Maria, Tai, Raven,) and Hunters who aren’t always on the field like Qrow who was a teacher for a stretch and acted as Ozpin’s spy, the Ace Ops who became part of Ironwood’s inner circle and therefore had a bigger picture, and even all of Team RWBYJNR, who got their Hunter licenses but are also more concerned with bigger picture stuff (if you don’t believe me just look at volume eight where JRY stopped defending Mantle to go rescue Oscar, and Team RWBN + Penny, who were involved in big picture stuff like launching Amity and then saving Penny the Maiden/their friend.) So out of a class of twenty, how many of them are even staying on the field? For a show pushing the narrative that Hunters are the ultimate saviors who are the only true good defense for the world, that condemns even the notion of an army... Like they villainized sending Team FNKI onto the battlefield while also treating it like proof of Ironwood’s evil when he didn’t want to stay and fight when Team RWBY said to, and also made Ironwood’s desire to move into having a robotic army to get soldiers off of the battlefield part of his... Over reliance on machinery, which is full on suspicious considering their ableism towards Ironwood and the fact that he literally has to rely on machinery, but that’s a topic for a different post and this one is already so long. But yeah, my point is that we’re meant to see the army as bad. So if we’re meant to see Hunters as the only true and pure form of defense (which is already off because we know it’s corrupted,) there ought to be way more people in the Hunter field.

As for the schools, we only know of a couple of schools that exist outside of RWBY as combat schools that seem to act as basic training before people go to Beacon. We know of Signal, the school Ruby and Yang went to that Qrow was a teacher at for awhile (I have lots of teacher Qrow headcanons, but sadly Qrow being a teacher wasn’t very well explored,) and we also know of Sanctum in Mistral and (in the EU) Oscuro in Vacuo, presumably one of these existing in Atlas as well. I personally headcanon that there are a lot of these smaller combat schools littering the whole of Remnant (but then again, I also headcanon that the Kingdoms of Remnant are bigger than just one very large city, lol) and that a lot of people attend these schools even if they don’t go on to join one of the Hunter Academies, but this isn’t necessarily supported by canon, I think. But as for other schools...I think it’s fair to assume that there are at least elementary schools, since everyone can read, write, and presumably do basic math, and what we do know is that Ilia went to a prep school in Atlas (which was info dropped in Blake’s pre-V5 trailer, not even stated in the show proper,) so we can probably safely say that people who don’t go to the Huntsman academies go to some form of high school, but you’re right that we don’t see this actually in action. I personally always headcanon that Whitley had a tutor, since Jacques wanted to avoid too much outside influence.

I am so sorry that this response got so away from me and I myself got into so many rabbit holes as well. XD I just have a lot to say about the world building in RWBY (or sometimes lack thereof.) Although I admit that I’m not as into or as good at analyzing as blogs like why-i-hate-rwby-now, but yeah, this is... A very long post. Sorry!

[kitkatopinions]

Is it bad that i want ironwood to be alive in the show and travel with the ace ops and have a redemption? I know most of his fans are happy that he is dead so they cant ruin him anymore but still, his ending is so wrong to me like they redeemed cordo, emerald, FUCKING HAZEL, but not james? I was pulled back into rwby because of james and the atlas arc. v6 last episodes pissed me off so much i didnt even watched the finale to this day but then i saw scenes of james and winter and the ace ops in v7... and now i just want him to swim up from the ruins and be the amazing character he was before v8. His death is so fucking sad to me even with how much they ruined the character... he deserved a redemption arc the most (and better writers, sorry the ask got so long but james ironwood gives me so much feels)

You know, I am right there with you, anon. Here's the thing about James. We didn't see an on screen death and the writers kept his semblance completely unmentioned in volumes seven and eight, but made it public. Yes, Miles Luna said 'rest in pieces' (the total douche) when talking about him in a cameo, but tbh, Miles Luna is sloppy and unprofessional, he could straight up say whatever to try and make the next 'twist' in RWBY surprising.

In fact SPOILER ALERT. I don't remember who, but after Avengers Infinity War when Loki died, people in the project 'confirmed' that Loki was good and truly dead this time, and of course no one believed them and of course no one was surprised to see some version of Loki escape alive in End Game. They had a better ability to twist a not-quite lie out there, due to multiple universes and time travel or whatever (idk the details, I stopped paying attention after I watched and hated Thor Ragnarok.) But still, it stands that if you want to make a character death believable in today's day and age when 'character death' is taken back so regularly and sometimes multiple times per character, writers should A. show the death/show a body (which they didn't do for Ironwood or Watts,) and B. Not leave any character threads hanging.

With Ironwood, they didn't delve into enough emotional responses to things (like Oscar/Oz getting shot off a cliff, or Qrow ever confronting him,) which leaves his story feeling like it lacks a solution and like there's still a lot to be resolved there already. But confirming his semblance outside of the show proper, which seems to act as a form of at least partial mind control, is obviously one giant thread too. Of course, this is MKEK, so the likelihood that they were foolish enough to give Ironwood a semblance that forced his actions at least in part and then not address it, kill him off, and expect everyone to just be happy with that on top of the lack of emotional depth they bothered to give other characters in regards to his 'fall' is high. However, that doesn't make James feel dead, he still doesn't feel like a dead character to me, yet, even if I know a lot of the reasons for that feeling stem from bad writing.

But on top of his semblance being a very big thread that was left untouched, his semblance also would be a very easy out if the writers did want to bring him back or if they wanted to bring him back and redeem him. His semblance could help him survive Atlas and Mantle falling, and it could easily be explained as having pushed him into his acts of villainy. It would still feel like a big ol' retcon (especially with how hard they tried to convince everyone he's pure evil,) but for once, I would like a retcon that actually goes my way in this show. XD

On top of that, you're absolutely right that in the show where Hazel can get 'death equals redemptioned' and tell life lessons to Oscar, Ironwood could be able to be redeemed even without the semblance. In the show where Hazel can beat a child while victim blaming the already-a-victim-of-abuse guy in the kid's head for *checks notes* training young women to be able to fight the soulless monsters who will devour anyone (four to six year old child or not,) and then get redeemed within 24 hours of that... yeah, Ironwood could be able to be redeemed. Emerald can murder Penny, try to kill everyone else at Haven, try to murder Penny again in Atlas, and then join the friend group enough that everyone good naturedly ribs her, including Penny who giggles over Emerald saying 'switched sides' despite the fact that Emerald never once apologized for literally murdering her in cold blood. So yeah, I don't think it'd be off brand of the show to have the 'does bad for good reasons' guy get redeemed even if they did make him express regret that he hadn't tortured children. Clearly, the standard isn't 'if they apologize they're worthy of redemption,' and the standard isn't 'if they only always had good intentions they're worthy of redemption' or 'only kids who are villains can get redeemed,' or even 'so long as they haven't tortured or tried to kill children they're worthy of redemption.'

However, here's where things get a little tricky. Because the standard in RWBY seems to have much more to do with what was done personally against the main group that made them mad or sad, rather than actual moral standings, harm done to the world, intentions, etc. I've talked about that idea in another post, that the show (whether intentionally or otherwise) is treating going against Ruby and her team as worse than actual criminal acts. Emerald's actions are easily brushed aside without her ever admitting she was wrong or trying to apologize, but Ozpin's act of not explicitly trusting Team RWBY with dire secrets months after knowing them is so unquestioningly bad that he has to give an in-depth and very serious apology while explicitly saying he was in the wrong, which the mains then begrudgingly and seriously accept (even though they were laughing with Emerald mere seconds before.) Which isn't to say that I don't think Ozpin had anything to apologize for, just that the framing of Ozpin's dialogue and reception versus Emerald's is ridiculous. Therefore Ironwood being redeemed after wishing he could torture, shooting a child off a high place, and threatening to destroy a town... In the narrative of the show, that can be brushed aside fairly easily. But both the show and the FNDM at large have constructed a narrative where going against the mains is what's treated as hard to come back from and worthy of all the ire and disgust in the world - unless the character comes crawling back, bowing to Ruby's whims in every plan, and regretting ever doubting Ruby's amazing simple soul and the protagonist approved goals she's decided on.

If the price of Ironwood coming back and being redeemed is him kissing up to Ruby and joining the gang of people who just pat her on the back and assure her she doesn't ever need to change or listen to others... I might kindly ask MKEK to keep him dead. Ironwood belongs to his fans now as far as I'm concerned.

They can bring James back, and they even have an easy way to redeem him in their back pocket. But I don't trust them as far as I can throw them, and with the way they've been writing their show, I'd just as soon let James rest.

[kitkatopinions]

The thing with ironwood that people think he is right/ like him because he is "straight" is so wild to me. And on another note the whole shift of "ironwood was always an dictator etc" because when volume 4 aired? Everybody and their sister loved ironwood: he stood up for weiss, he was cool as fuck in the ballroom scene, so when volume 7 came almost everybody was excited to see him again and the atlas crew. The whole shift "he was always evil" is so bizare, because it really did only start when ruby told the others they shouldnt trust ironwood with the truth. Sure ironwood wasnt a saint but he wasnt evil like people really watched a different show or just shift it to support their weird takes.

I don't know much about the FNDM before I started this blog, but I've seen how wild the takes on Ren were and how everyone was just ready to throw out the whole character... And just how fast fans latched onto Hazel of all people once he 'turned good.' It's not surprising to me that many of the same people who are saying 'you'd be stupid not to see that Ironwood was always a heartless dictator' were once exclaiming about how awesome he is (and probably were holding him up as a reason the representation in RWBY is flawless.)

Honestly, I'm just going to stop trying. IW antis hating on James unfairly - especially without using filterables like 'anti Ironwood' - is annoying, but starting to see a rise in posts that paint anyone who likes Ironwood or thinks his arc was flubbed as immoral, bad, wrong, homophobic, or just 'biased for manly men' is just so frustrating. They have no interest in actually paying attention to what his fans are even saying, they decided from the get go on their opinions of us as a general whole. No amount of trying to communicate points is going to work, they're not interested in actually knowing what we think and what our biases actually are, why we connect to Ironwood or why we think he's right. They already decided nothing we say is going to matter. So from now on, any James Ironwood anti is just getting blocked. I don't care to talk to them, tbh.

(Note, this doesn't mean 'anyone who doesn't like James,' that's valid and fair. I specifically mean anyone who makes pointed jabs at fans, pretends liking him is immoral, or spreads the completely non-canon stupid stuff like 'he invaded Vale' or stuff like that.)

Also though, if anyone comes at me with 'Ironwood is definitely canon straight because he made a kind of flirty remark to a woman one time' that's another block, because we don't do bi erasure or ace or pan erasure here, even for characters many of these fickle fans now hate.

[kitkatopinions]

I literally am this close to snapping. Someone made a post saying that James Ironwood fans thought he was right because he's straight, and I pointed out TWICE that not only does having attraction to the opposite sex not make someone automatically straight, but that all the mains in RWBY are heteronormative just like if not more than Ironwood, and that MOST IW FANS think of him as queer and ship him with men. OP ignored me, both times, made posts about how everyone was missing the point they made which was about how people like Ironwood because they're biased for manly men that COMPLETELY IGNORED what I said about MOST OF HIS FANS HEADCANONING HIM AS GAY, and how Ironwood fans are biased. Since they're ignoring me, not responding on the actual post, and refusing to see the problem with the original post that legit misrepresented James fans and suggested we're homophobic, I've blocked them. But I just felt the need to rant.

This idea that all IW fans only like him because we think he's straight, or only like him because he's a man, or because we think he's white, is literally so dumb. And whenever we say 'actually there are very few RWDE posters who AREN'T LGBTQ, women, or people of color, and most (though not all) of us are actively pushing for clear queer rep in RWBY, better depictions of people of color, the removal of a character based on a N*zi, and more focus and growth for their female characters,' we're talked over or told we're lying.

Just for the record, I loved Ozpin way more than James at the start of the show, only started liking James in volume 3, and still he wasn't one of my favorite characters. Instead, until season six, my favorite characters were Nora, Blake, Yang, and Qrow. I hated characters like Cardin and Port BECAUSE of their insane toxic masculinity, as I've been a feminist since I was a teenager, and I even took awhile to like Jaune until he grew out of his more toxic traits. James only started being one of my favorite characters when my previous favorites started doing things like punching children, yelling at abuse victims and then never showing an ounce of regret, and yanking their crush into a forced kiss because he wasn't expressing his feelings fast enough. On top of that, Ironwood displayed a lot of gentleness and tenderness in the first couple eps of season 7, which strengthened the fact that he reminded me of my kind, loving, non-confrontational father. And I also started shipping him with Qrow and have written many a soft (nonpublished) fanfiction involving him and Qrow, and Ironwood LEARNING HE DOESN'T ALWAYS HAVE TO BE STRONG AND DO THINGS ALONE. Because I hate toxic masculinity and James has so many soft, generous, kind, and caring moments!

Honestly, idk if I should even post this because I already blocked OP, but after the passive aggressive side posts they made, I'm just... Feeling like they didn't even TRY to see where anyone else was coming from.