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tanoraqui · 1 year

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Notes for the 5th and final season of Crownless, the Young Aragorn show that has lived rent-free in my brain since a slightly insane message to a friend at 1am sometime in 2019:

[s1&2, s3, s4]

A few quick notes before we get juicy:

- Gandalf still appears once per season this whole time

- hopefully Stephen Colbert has been doing the same thing, as a random assortment of unrelated very minor characters

- the man who's herb-loremaster of the Houses of Healing in RotK, who explains the linguistic history of athelas rather than producing any of the plant, is a junior apprentice with the healers. We met a young Ioreth in Lossarnach in a MotW episode in s4 I think

- reminder that the theme song is a setting of the "All that is gold does not glitter" poem and that young Aragorn is SO hot. We WILL cast someone who could slam open the doors of Helm's Deep and swagger in like sex on legs.

- I am definitely playing fast and loose with canon timeline and geopolitical events this season

Okay, real stuff now:

Until now I’ve mostly just described character arcs and plot points but now it’s time for MAJOR THEMES. As manifested by character foils.

[maniacal delighted laughter]

Note: this season, Aragorn is like 40% protagonist and Arwen and Denethor are both 30%, and Dúnawen, Halbarad and Roddis are solidly secondary cast - but, to an extent, more notable than in s3-4, because we're spending less time on monster of the week with all its minor 1- or 2-ep characters.

Yes, we've completed the slow transition from pure MotW to nearly pure season-long plot. There's still an element of new problem and/or location each week, but the driving issue all season is the increasingly unavoidable war with Umbar. There is at least one episode where Aragorn is back in the northern woods with Halbarad and Dúnawen and they save a random hamlet from trolls or something...but it's not as simple as it used to be...but maybe it still feels more right than all the work Aragorn has been doing in the south...

[we'll get to that]

So, ideally, this show is a 5-season musing essay on leadership…and Denethor is a good leader. He is a good Steward of Gondor. I WILL die on this hill. He is too proud to bow his head to any other and he looks first to Gondor's advantage and only sometimes beyond that, but these are not terrible failings in the Steward of Gondor. By the time we meet him in LotR, he has led his country in an increasingly hopeless war for four decades, and they love or at least respect the hell out of them -

No, actually, let's talk about amdir vs estel.

Both are forms of hope. Amdir, as defined in the Athrabeth Finrod a Andreth (courtesy of Tolkien Gateway) is "an expectation of good, which though uncertain has some foundation in what is known." Denethor, I posit - I write in this show - has a good capacity for amdir. He believes in the strength of Gondor and its people...but Sauron overthrows his hope of victory by showing him the seemingly overwhelming forces set against him. Denethor isn't pessimistic by nature, but even when he's optimistic, he's realistic. He cannot bring himself to believe in goodness beyond what there is at least a glimmer of evidence for.

Estel is an unfortunately symptom of Tolkien's Catholocism more synonymous with "faith" than "hope." Finrod describes estel as, "not defeated by the ways of the world, for it does not come from experience, but from our nature and first being. If we are indeed the Eruchin, the Children of the One, then He will not suffer Himself to be deprived of His own, not by any Enemy, not even by ourselves." Or, if we strip out some of the religiosity for network television and my own preference: estel is hope beyond reason or any real evidence, save perhaps gut instinct. Estel is sending 2 halflings alone to take the Ring to Mordor and hurl it into Mount Doom, and in the end using yourself as bait to give them more time. Estel is the belief that joy always lies on the far side of sorrow, no matter how long the journey through the dark.

Aragorn, of course, is literally named Estel.

And estel is the empirically correct choice in Middle Earth, because that's how the world and story (same difference) is built. The characters do not and should not know that, but it is - we the audience knows that the answer to the question "who should rule Gondor, Denethor or Aragorn" is 100% "Aragorn." But the characters don't! And therein lies the conflict.

(Ecthelion is still here, being the actual Steward of Gondor. But Finduilas's death and the loss of his friend Thengel, and the mounting stress of the rising power of Mordor and how it's riling up all their southern and eastern neighbors, compound with his genuine age...he is still mighty in heart and mind, but his time is passing and everyone knows it.)

The question of the first 4 seasons, for audience and characters alike, was, "can Aragorn be King of Gondor?" Is he wise enough, is he charismatic enough, is skilled at diplomacy and at war, does he know how to care and command without being overbearing, he capable in a practical way at bureaucracy, tolerating fools and the hundred little tasks which a king must do daily...

By the end of s4, we all know that the answer is "yes." He still lacks experience, but he always will until he starts the job - Aragorn did some clever stately thing at the end of s4, and when Thengel fell he took able command of the battlefield before handing it gracefully to Theoden, and if Ecthelion died tomorrow Aragorn could successfully claim is crown and lead Gondor in the war they all know is coming...

The question now is: should Aragorn be King of Gondor? This is really multiple questions: Does Gondor need a central ruler at all? (What about democracy?) If so, does Gondor need a King, when they have a Steward? Does Gondor need a King right now? What about Arnor?

The answers, which will be clear by the end of the season, are in order:

1. Yes Gondor needs a central ruler; this isn't even really a question the show poses. We are NOT dropping modern political theory into my medievalesque fantasy show, thank you very much. We will continue to explore hte internal Gondorin politics set up in s4, though - the Steward's power isn't absolute; there are fiefs to the south and there are always other lords, merchants, scholars, craftsmen, farmers and laborers with their own power...

2. Gondor doesn't necessarily need a King...but it does need Aragorn more than it needs Denethor, see: amdir vs. estel. It will especially need Aragorn more, Aragorn's personal and political philosophy more, when at last the war is won and there is rebuilding to do for nor just Gondor but all Middle Earth...

3. But the sort of unlikely alliances at which Aragorn excels (because he is capable of thinking of other nations before Gondor) will not save then now, or, will not save them when Sauron truly begins to attack, except with Rohan. Rhun might be convinced to neutrality, but there is too much bad blood with Harad, with Khand, with Umbar... Aragorn can be king of this realm, he should be king of this realm, but there is nothing he can do for it for now that Denethor cannot...

4. And there is still trouble in Arnor, where there is no glory to be had for dealing it [see: aforementioned 'back in the woods' episode]. S5 is based out of Minas Tirith, but there is more travel - the designated "land of the season" is really the Kingdom of Gondor and Arnor as they will be in the Fourth Age. it opens with a 2-parter diplomatic mission to (Rhun?) to avert whatever war would otherwise have started from the attack on Rohan at the end of s4. Aragorn spends a lot of time in the southern fiefs (Lossarnach, Lebannin, Dol Amroth, etc), especially as the threat of the Corsairs of Umbar becomes paramount. And he returns to Arnor, as he has only a couple times since s1...

Though mostly it's Arwen who spends time in Arnor this season. Arwen's questions are different than Aragorn's. She's been competent this whole time - she has studied wise, strong, gentle rule with some of the greatest stewards Elvenkind ever knew. She did have to figure out how to adjust to Men, but she's done that, and moreover, she knows she wants to do that. She loves Aragorn, she loves Minas Tirith and Gondor, its hills and shores and people; she could make a life here, even if a short one, and something in her trills at the mystery of what would come next...

It also scares her. That she wants it, the ferocity with which she wants it, scares her. And the cost is so high...

The show's 100th episode would happen this season, and I would beg, I would blow half my budget, I would ritually sacrifice an unpaid intern...I would hopefully have proven myself enough with s1-4 that I could convince the Tolkien estate to sell me the rights to the extended Tale of Beren and Lúthien, or the Lay of Leithen or whatever complete form they're willing to share, for just one episode...so the 100th episode would some sort of flashback/dream sequence/illusion cast by a skilled elvish minstrel of the complete tale of Beren and Lúthien with Aragorn cast as Beren and Arwen as Lúthien, and etc. characters in corresponding roles.

(I'd do it with just what we have in LotR+Appendices, but I want the full rights so bad. For just 1 episode!)

With literally 22 episodes per season, this would be ep 12, in which case it is the final straw that prompts Arwen to flee Gondor and the fate she feels drawing in on her. If it's earlier, same. If later, she might've gone already, and this flashback/imagining comes as Galadriel tells her the story as she literally saw some of it.

There's also some sort of plot for Arwen to get involved with, maybe Dol Guldur again, or the barrows...Arwen with the Dúnedain, because she will be their queen, too - much easier than Gondor, for she has long been their cousin! but still a new thing. We ABSOLUTELY get 1 episode of pure Arwen, Elrohir and Elladan being a badass team.

She also discusses her Choice with them, and goes home to Rivendell and discusses it with Elrond. I forget what fic I read suggested that Arwen consciously makes the Choice not of Lúthien but of Elros, but it's SUCH a good point/interpretation and it 100% comes up in some conversation.

(I dunno if each episode is showing events in the south and north or if they wholesale switch back and forth or what.)

Throughout this, Arwen and Aragorn also start to develop the long-range dream-sharing they sometimes do in the LotR movies. They haven't done any of the traditional things elves do to bond telepathically (sex, cooperative meditation, etc), but they've grown close and the Great Song pulls them closer.

BACK TO THE SOUTH...

There’s an early-season episode in which Aragorn and Denethor both go back to Rohan to help young King Theoden with [stuff], and they both start to get competitive over it. Theoden ends up telling them both, “Full offense but I’m the King of Rohan actually, so thank you for your help and get the fuck out of my court.” Aragorn is duly chastised, and reminds himself to keep his pride in check. Denethor is chastised…for a while, and his pride will not forget this, we it has never forgotten any slight.

S5 is kind of a tragedy, and the tragedy is that Aragorn and Denethor could achieve so much if only they could get along. Or rather, if only they didn't naturally occupy the same ecological niche, that niche being ruler of Gondor.

Could Denethor ever serve Aragorn as Steward to King? No, because Denethor's pride is too great - he will never bend the knee to one he considers unworthy, and he will never consider anyone worthy above himself. Could Aragorn stay anonymously in Gondor forever, serve as Captain to Denethor's Steward? (This is Ecthelion's plan.) For Aragorn's pride...yes, Aragorn is capable of that with someone he deems greater than himself...but Denethor just does not qualify. Equal, perhaps, but not greater, and inevitable Aragorn would feel the need to step up and do what he thought right, and then there would be trouble...

Could they be true equal partners? No, because this, too, would try Denethor's pride, and Aragorn's more humble but also more righteous pride - and then Gondor would be lost, because if you took a poll in late s5 for who should succeed Ecthelion as Steward, Denethor or Thorongil...Denethor would win, but it'd be pretty close. Civil unrest–close.

(It needs to be clear why Aragorn could walk into this city 50 years later with no warning and be hailed and accepted as king)

(Denethor knows he has his father's support. He also knows he doesn't have many of his people's. This stings bad.)

(Aragorn is hurting his popularity a little by a couple times this season disappearing back north for Things up there)

(Also, to be clear, Denethor and Aragorn are both predominantly focussed on the growing problem of Mordor and its allies, and too wise to sabotage each other/themselves in that with rivalry...much.)

Btw the existence of the Minas Tirith Palantir was introduced in s4 (someone stole it maybe, and Aragorn had to get it back ASAP?). S5 sees Denethor start to use it...secretly. One time he's nearly found out; another time, he nearly tells someone...but he is not and does not. He promises himself he will only use it in diremost need, and he does hold to that promise (in these early years)

Then, late-season, Denethor finally figures out who Aragorn is. What Aragorn is. A comment let slip? A sketch of Isildur in the archives? A comment Finduilas made, before she died, about how Arwen plans to be a queen of somewhere someday soon? The Palantir?

Before he can do more than digest it, however, Ecthelion is assassinated! (Or, a harbor is deliberately attacked while he was visiting? They were aiming for him but it wasn't a 'knife in darkness' thing.)

Gondor is now AT WAR with Umbar and probably Near, maybe even Far Harad!

Yet on the eve of a big fight - or a month or so before, because travel times - Aragorn is needed urgently in the north! He must choose!

...He chooses to ride north. Just before he goes, Denethor confronts him about this abandonment of his duties to Gondor - and about his heritage. It ends with Denethor spitting, "Come back for your crown or don't come back at all!"

(Denethor regrets his words as soon as Aragorn is out hte door. What if he did come back for his crown? Would they tear Gondor apart between them? Denethor tells himself that for Gondor, he would hand over his scepter of office peacefully...but he knows he wouldn't. What right has Aragorn's ancient blood to the country that Denethor's family has served with blood and sweat all these generations! ...Anyway, he has more important things to worry about. The Corsairs besiege the coasts; the Haradrim advance from the south.)

Aragorn rides north as fast as can be, with (Dúnawen or Halbarad? Both work for different reasons). They meet up with Arwen and the Dúnadain to deal with the rising barrow-wrights (threatening the Shire, ultimate symbol of peaceful civilians!) Meanwhile in the south, Denethor, Halbarad and Roddis go to war--

Aragorn wraps up the fight in the north...for now. It'll be a problem again in the future...

He borrows a ship from the Havens and he and [whichever OG Ranger Trio friend] race the wind back south. (Arwen stays in the north)

Gondor has had victory in pitched battle on land, but the main problem is still the Corsairs. Was always the Corsairs, as Aragorn warned Ecthellon ago. Gondor has a navy, but not enough to win a pitched sea-battle, much less enough to guard their whole coastline.

Aragorn reaches Umbar ahead of the bulk of the army (which Denethor is with). He meets the vanguard, containing his friends (skilled scouts that they are)

Aragorn: I have an idea. Dúnawen: Is it another of your impossible plans based on ancient history. Aragorn: Maybe.

With a dozen-odd small ships as bait, they lure the bulk of the Corsair fleet into a vulnerable position... and then they burn the motherfucking pirates to the waterline.

When the Gondorin army catches up, they are met by Roddis, Dúnawen, and whoever else walked away from that naval escapade...with a message from Aragorn. [this text is pure canon!]

"To the Steward," Dúnawen said, and bowed to Denethor (though her voice was pitched to carry to all those watching). "He said, 'Other tasks now call me, lord, and much time and many perils must pass, ere I come again to Gondor, if that be my fate.’"

Denethor internally: what the FUCK does that mean. Is he coming back or not? If he comes back after this dramatic victory, the people will surely support him...

But he says something gracious and grateful, and goes home to be Steward of Gondor, watchful and warlike ever toward Mordor

Dúnawen stays in Gondor and marries Roddis. A couple weeks later, though, she hikes up the mountains behind Minas Tirith, where she spent much time in s3, and meets Halbarad, who spent much time there with her, and who left with Aragorn after the battle in Umbar. They catch up a little, clarify that she's staying, he's going north...

Dúnawen: You'll visit, I hope? Halbarad, looking out over Minas Tirith and the lands stretching out from it: No. The next time I lay eyes on these fields shall be the last.

(But he comes south anyway, in the War of the Ring! He knows he'll die there and he comes anyway, because there is Aragorn to aid and evil to fight!)

Dúnawen says, "Ah. Then Roddis and I shall have to visit you - and our crownless king, of course!"

Halbarad warns, "He meant his words, you know, and more. He will not return until the need is greatest and the time is right."

Dúnawen says, "I know. Aragorn always means his words. I did say we would visit you."

Halbarad laughs. "Indeed you did! Well, wait a few years - when we parted ways, he was paddling up toward Lothlórien, in expectation of meeting a lady there. Who knows how much time will pass in that enchanted wood, ere we see either of them again!"

The camera lifts as the music swells - Gondor's theme, Arnor's theme, the theme of the King as the camera flies through Gondor up the Anduin, passes a boat pulled over below the Falls of Rauros, passes the status of Anárion and Isildur by Amon Hen and Amon Lhaw, and catches up with a Man in a dark green cloak as he steps at last beneath the boughs of golden Lothlórien. He knows where to go, though they never discussed it, only shared a dream. The music changes to the theme of Aragorn and Arwen as he comes to where she waits on the white-flowered hill of Cerin Amroth. They take each other's hands while looking deeply into each other's eyes, pledge their troth, and embrace with a long kiss as the camera pulls out and twilight fades to dark...

And the dark turns to the flipping pages of a closing book, as the camera pulls out further to show once more a middle-aged Sam Gamgee - comfortably portly in his fireside armchair in Bag End - reading to half a dozen children.

"But aren't they going to get married?" a young hobbit-lass asks.

"Not in this story," says Sam.

Rosie comes in from where she was leaning contentedly on the doorway and says, "Not until after the king helps your Da and Mr. Frodo save the whole world. But--"

[young hobbits clamoring for that story! Nine-Fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom! Samwise the Brave! I wanna hear about the spider!]

"But," Rose repeats more loudly and firmly, picking up 1-2 children at once, "that's a story for another night. Right now it's bedtime."

"Listen to your mother!" Sam says, puts the red-bound book on a side table and gets up to lift a slightly larger protesting child. "This Da is getting too old to be reading at all hours anyway!"

They usher the children out, to bed. The camera lingers for an extra moment the cheerful living room: where Sting hangs on the wall above the fireplace and on the adjacent wall, a small but expertly woven tapestry, with gems-encrusted threads which almost glow with their own light, of a star breaking through dark clouds to shine on a small figure holding a mirrored-shining glass in a dark land [implication: personal gift from Arwen]. There is a mayoral sash draped haphazardly over the back of one sofa, toys and a late-snack plate or two scattered about, and the thick red book from which Sam was reading, with the bookmark only about 3/4 though. The tale is never over, you see.

Fade to black for real this time, credits roll over a choral cover of the full poem: All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king...

#aragorn #arwen #denethor #lord of the rings #lotr #fanfiction #my fic #if I get enough notes on all of these together I’ll take them and picket a tv exec with them #(I will not but a girl can dream)

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flower-boi16 · 1 year

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King is my favorite character from The Owl House - Here's Why

So The Owl House is a show I quite like. While I don't think it's exactly perfect, it's a great show with good animation, an interesting fantasy world and magic system, great emotional beats, great characters, and great LGBT representation. It's definitely a great show. There's one thing I do like about The Owl House the most though, and that's the characters. Sure, most of them are very rough in season 1 but in seasons 2 and 3 they get quite well-written and compelling. From our main protagonist Luz, to Eda to Amity or Hunter, the show has some solid character writing. But which character is my favorite? Well you've already seen the title of this post so let's talk about this little guy:

In this post, I am going to explain why King is my favorite character in The Owl House, by talking about his arc throughout the series and his development. This post WILL contain spoilers for The Owl House, so you have been warned.

First talk about the smaller reasons I like King before I talk about his development. First, I like how King acts as sort of a little brother to Luz. Their dynamic is a super sweet sibling-like bond. And also, King is just very funny mainly in season 1. His whole gimmick of thinking he's a king of demons somehow never gets old and is very funny. Plus it sets up his development in season 2. Alright...now I'm done.

So...let's talk about the reason why I love King, that being his development throughout the series, more specifically his development in season 2. I don't have much to say about King in season 1 other than he's a funny and cute comic relief character in that season.

Season 2 however is when King became a great character, starting with episode 3: Echoes of the Past. In this episode, Luz, Lilith King and Hooty go to an island that King claims he came from so he could prove that he was the king of demons. While they explore the cave and look at a bunch of murals, King in this episode tells the others a bunch of stories of what he did as the King of demons, saying that he was cursed by someone into his current tiny form. They get chased down by this rock monster thingy and Eda comes to rescue them.

Eda then explains the reason why King always acted like he was some kind of overlord. Eight years ago, while Eda was looking to hide from the EC while it was boiling rain she went to this island when she was looking for shelter. She went into the cave and found King when he was just a little dogo. Also...

Can we appreciate how adorable Baby King is? Like, awww just look at him he's SO cute!!! Okay so erm, anyway, she took King from the cave because that monster in it was going to kill them both, and she took home with her. When they got home, King was building a bunch of stuff out of random objects, and after Eda makes a remark about him being a "king amongst his subjects", it makes King wonder what a king really was, and Eda tells King what a king really means and that's how he got the idea that he was some kind of overlord.

After that, King's entire worldview kinda of crumbles. He begins to realize that all this time his memories of being a king with feasts, subjects, and all that stuff were all just memories of him as a baby pretending to be a King. What I like here is how this episode takes what was once just some running gag throughout the first season and recontextualizes it in the second, adding some context to why King thinks he's some kind of ruler.

For years King thought that this fantasy that he was some kind of king of demons was real, and that he was the king of demons that lost his memory. And now that he knows it's all been a lie, he breaks down. It also shows that King is still a little kid, which is why he believed this fantasy for so long; he's a child who thinks that he was this awesome amazing ruler who was feared and respected by all, only for it to be a lie. Anyways, back to the episode, King runs away to somewhere and Eda Luz and Lilith all go to find him on the island.

Luz finds King sitting on a log and goes to talk to him, and he's still upset. There's one line here that stands out to me;

King: Eda was right wasn't she? I'm not a king, I'm a nobody

Earlier the episode showed that this fantasy that King was the king of demons was very important to him, as shown by how he reacted when Lilith mocked his stories earlier in the episode. This line implies that believing this fantasy that he was some all-powerful king made him feel special in a way, and now that he knows he was never really a king, he thinks he's a nobody.

Alex Hirsch also does a great job voicing King here, you can hear the emotion in his voice during this scene. Luz says that maybe some of King's memories were real, and King goes and tries to remember some of the memories that were real. King reluctantly agrees and they go rejoin the others and they go back to the cave. After avoiding the monster in the cave, Luz shoots some fire at the hole blocked off by the rocks and they go up to the hole.

There they find some rooms that King finds familiar. He gets some of his memories reawakened and it's revealed that the monster thingy was trying to protect King, as it stops when King orders it to. The memory is King hatching as wil ol baby and then crawling to open the door, the rock monster carries them and they fall down the hole as they hear a roar sound. King says that the roar meant "son", which means that it was his dad. King says that he wants to find out who his dad is and they go back to isle leaving the island. Thus, an arc for King is set up about finding out who his father is.

So this episode was great! Like I said earlier, it takes a running gag in season 1 and recontextualizes it in a way that's interesting. It also does a good job of setting up King's arc of self-discovery this season.

The next two episodes I'll talk about are Eda's Requiem and Knock Knockin' on Hooty's Door. In Eda's Requiem King wants to win a race so he can record a message so his father can see it. They didn't win the race because King puked and they got 6th place. They do still record a message and post it online, and his dad does end up seeing it..or at least someone who looks like King's dad sees it. Before we continue...let's talk about this brilliant piece of subversion here.

See this guy? The first time you would see him you would instantly think that he is King's father. I mean, he looks a lot like King with the skull and general body shape, so it's very easy to assume that this is King's father. Buuuuuuut as we know now, he isn't King's father, he's a part of a certain group which I'll mention once I get to episode 17, Edge of the World. Anyway, the next episode I'll talk about is the one right after Eda's Requiem, Knock Knockin' on Hooty's Door.

This episode has Hooty trying to help Luz, King and Eda with some of their problems. Let's talk about the scenes with King, because...well this is a post talking about King lol. So here King really wants to know who his father is and Hooty tries to help King find out by trying to figure out what kind of demon he is.

After some funny scenes with Hooty trying (and failing) to figure out what kind of demon King is, he takes some of King's blood and runs a test. Turns out, Hooty still doesn't know what kind of demon King is and he says that King is "him". King is disappointed by this, and then King gets upset because he still can't know who his father is, as he's never responded to his message or wanted posters, and he thinks that maybe his dad is gone. He then gets upset that his dad was never there for him, that he supposedly disappeared and never talked to his son.

This scene definitely hits pretty hard as it shows King getting more desperate to find his father, and it's also when King ends up unlocking his powers. Basically, King shoots some yellow ring wave things whenever he roars or does the "weh" sound. And at the end of the episode we see this figure again and send a note to King, though Hooty eats it once he sees a bug on it.

This episode did a good job of continuing King's self-discovery arc and introducing his new powers. Now, let's skip to 9 episodes later in episode 17; Edge of the World. The episode's plot revolves around Luz, King and Hooty going to an island which transports them to the other side of the world to meet his dad. They do end up finding the same figure that sent the note to King, whose name is Tarak, though unfortunately, he isn't his dad. However, Tarak is one of the people in a village of Titan Hunters, witches who, as the name suggests, hunt titans. Later in the episode, Luz and Hooty meet the leader of the titan hunters, Bill. When Bill describes what a titan is, they realize that King is a titan, and that he is in big trouble.

They go to tell King that he is in danger, but when Bill finds out that King is a titan he sends a bird phone to tell Tarak about it and King gets taken to a ceremony where Bill almost kills him with a dagger. Luz and Hooty stop them before they could do that though and they run away. King gets enraged by this and says that the titan trappers weren't gonna hurt him. He also says that they "get him", and that they know how it feels to be left behind, and he also says that he knows that Luz is gonna go back to the human realm eventually, and that he is preparing for a life with them. Luz however tells King that he's a titan, and obviously, King is shocked by this revelation. The titan trappers eventually catch up to them but they end up escaping and destroying the way through. And the episode ends.

So this episode did a good job of concluding King's arc of self-discovery and wrapping it up. I like how King knows that Luz is going to leave the demon realm one day and go back to her mom, and that he's going to not be able to see her again, and King does care about Luz like an older sister so this would hit for him, and that the Titan Trappers would be his next family after Luz when she leaves. That gives more depth to King and I like that.

So, King is my favorite character in The Owl House. He's funny, he's cute, and his arc in the second season was great. There are other things I could talk about here, such as episode 19, but this post has gone on for long enough. Anyways, this is why I love King, so...bye.

#toh king #toh #the owl house #king the owl house #disney tva #disney cartoons #disney channel #toh characters #sorry if I had little to say at the end of this post #It was just taking so long to make that I just wanted to get it out quicker #king clawthorne

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thexgrayxlady · 1 month

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What I Read in June 2024

Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett - 4.25/5.00

This was a fun road trip. In spite of some bits that probably didn't age well, it was still an overall good time. I loved the bit where Granny Ogg whacks Gollum with an oar. The scene with the brazier is fantastic. Literally half of this review could just be talking about my favorite scenes. I am always in awe of how seamlessly Pratchett can take a scene from very silly and funny to chilling, uncomfortable, and tear jerking, almost without the reader noticing what's going on. The Big Bad Wolf now haunts rent free in my head. I really liked watching Granny Weatherwax go up against her Disney adult sister.

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin - 4.75/5.00

This was brutal and beautiful. I ripped through at least half in a day like it was nothing and was too caught up in it to take very many notes. The characters are deep and complex and the world building is incredible. The entire buildup to the last day on the island is horrifying and I could not look away. And the ending is fantastic. I can't wait to read the next one.

Godkiller by Hannah Kaner - 3.75/5.00

This is a strong debut novel with a fascinating, lived-in feeling world and an interesting protagonist. However, it's held back by too many POVs and cartoonish, mustache twirling antagonists. I liked when the gods felt appropriately inhuman and wish that their skewed morality came up more often. Skedi especially has a moment where he does something horrific to one of the main characters and it's just ignored and forgiven almost immediately. That being said, the antagonistic gods just feel too cartoonishly evil and not enough like they're acting in accordance with their nature.

The edition I have is also riddled with typos and misprints. I got it used so I don't know if I got some kind of ARC, but I don't appreciate the lack of quality control that went into it.

The atmosphere built up in the first part of the book is really cool. You can see a lot of influence from The Witcher and Elden Ring. The abandoned city of the gods feels appropriately creepy. For all of my little issues with it, I can't wait to see what the author does next and hope that she continues to grow and improve.

Garden of Lies by Amanda Quick - 3.00/5.00

This was a mostly satisfying romance/mystery novel. I appreciate that Ursula is an independent, professional businesswoman who knows what she wants. I appreciate that the author understands the importance of secretaries and equal pay. The main characters have a dynamic that's based on mutual respect. It could have done without the island subplot, but it's not too intrusive. Ultimately, not a bad way to spend a rainy afternoon.

#Gray Reads Stuff

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lostcauses-noregrets · 1 year

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I don't think a lot of people understand why Levi staying strong and remaining like a rock in a world where everything you believe in and the world around you constantly change. I am glad Isayama didn't go for the easy way and give every single character the same type of character arc. I don't think people understand why Levi is such a well written character just because he doesn't go through a "change" like Eren did even though Eren doesn't really change all that much. But there is one criticism against Levi that makes me question it; Levi pre season 4 is a great, well written character with his own believes his own personality and his own lines that he'd not cross no matter what and stuff like that. He is a great individual which makes Eruri an even better ship because both Levi and Erwin are so heavily depend on each other story teliing wise, you need Levi to understand Erwin better and Erwin completes Levi's story, they can't exist without each other but on the other hand they are still separately well written characters. But a lot of people believe that Isayama reduced Levi to a caricature of himself in S4 because of his obsession with his vow and I think wanting to avenge his comrades all his comrades and not just Erwin and wanting to fulfill his last promise is very much in character but I think the main problem is, Levi isn't allowed to much other than his vow, he's completely pushed to the background and he is only allowed to be in the story when it comes to that vow. That makes it look like Isayama was going for a very wattpad-ish romance story where a character is nothing more than his love story in this case his vow. I believe it wasn't Isayama's intention to reduce Levi like that just like I believe he didn't mean for Historia to be just... that. I still don't understand what they hell is going on with her in the last season but whatever. I think Levi's strength and him as a character in general was an obstacle to where Isayama wanted to take his story thus he had to reduce Levi to nothing more than a lover chasing to avenge his boyfriend's death? I also think he failed Hange's character, I think there was more to explore there since Hange had the worst luck out of all survey corps commanders, they were put in an incredibly difficult posiiton and job in a completly different world than what they knew out of nowhere. So I think Isayama wasn't very good to veterans in S4 or what's left of them, they didn't have much place in his story at this point because he was like every shounen writer was focusing on new generation.

I agree with a lot of what you’ve said here Anon; Levi is an amazing character but he doesn’t have a lot to do in the final arcs of the manga other than fulfil his vow, Hange is woefully underwritten, the Vets are sidelined, and who even knows what’s going on with Historia. However the thing is, SnK is a shounen manga and Isayama is broadly bound by the conventions of that genre, one of which is that the kids save the world. (Though just to make things a bit more interesting, in SnK it’s the kids who destroy the world too.)

I’ve always felt that Isayama’s real talent as a writer lies in characterisation and world building. But therein lies the problem, his secondary characters are so well written and developed, that it’s easy to forget that they are just side characters. And for better or for worse, that’s just what Levi and the rest of the Veterans are - side characters. Despite the important role that Levi, Erwin and Hange play in moving the plot forward, they’re not the protagonists. This story belongs to Eren, Mikasa, Armin and the Warriors. All the other characters are there to play an, admittedly very effective and compelling, supporting role.

So yes, Levi’s importance does diminish after Erwin’s death, and yes his only real role in the story from that point onwards is to fulfil his vow to Erwin and to embody the spirit of the Survey Corps. Isayama is actually explicit about this in the Character Guide where he says “Part of me feels like Levi fulfilled his duties by being there for Erwin’s last moments. He does of course still have the goal of killing the beast Titan, etc., etc.” And it’s there in the manga too. Like it or not, (and I don’t), the end of Midnight Sun is all about passing the torch on to the next generation. Levi himself even acknowledges the end of his role in chapter 136

Don’t get me wrong, there's nothing I would have loved to see more than the Veterans surviving to stop the Rumbling and save the world, but that would have been a very different story and it’s not the one that Isayama was ever going to write. Thankfully we have many talented fic writers who are more than happy to write that story, and for that I am eternally grateful 🙏

#asks #levi ackerman #levi meta #survey corps veterans #hajime isayama #snk

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bluedalahorse · 5 months

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Hey!! so... besides August representing (?) "the hanged man", what major arcana you think correspond to the other characters?

Hi hi!

Oh boy, I love tarot headcanons! I’ll share my general thoughts, though I have to say as someone who reads, who shows up as what would change depending on who I’m doing the reading for. Part of what I like about Tarot readings is that they create a triangular relationship between reader, cards, and querent/question, and every card has multiple shades of meaning. No two readings are quite the same, and I like that.

Generally speaking though, here’s how I’d see things playing out…

Wilhelm strikes me as The Fool. The Fool is a card with lots of coming-of-age protagonist energy; he’s at the edge of a cliff about to fall into something new. Or maybe he’s deliberately jumping into it. Wille can be thoughtful and impulsive in turn, but his impulsivity is usually what pushes the plot forward. We have Wille beginning his arc on an impulsive moment—getting into the fight at the club—and ending his arc on one when he goes running after the car.

Simon’s card would be Strength, traditionally symbolized by a gentle maiden holding back a lion, and generally representing the triumph of reason/compassion/moderation here over brute force. Simon is aware of his emotions and boundaries and—for the most part!—doesn’t let himself get swallowed up in toxic masculinity.

Sara and Felice both get nudged toward the Empress archetype at times, by other people, and each of them possesses different Empress-like traits. However, I am inclined to say that neither of them would feel fully comfortable in the Empress archetype.

I thought long and hard about Felice’s role arc the story, and I think the best Major Arcana card for her might be Judgement. Judgement deals with decisions, listening to your intuition and intellect, and truths coming to light. Early on in the series, Felice is surrounded by judgmental people, who are judgmental in the wrong way—her mother, her father, her friends. She finds herself struggling with their image of her, and feels like she’s not good enough, but early on she can’t put it into words. Over the course of the series, Felice gains wisdom about herself and the problems inherent to Hillerska’s system and is able to make decisions that are truer to herself. Her testimony to the school investigation team allows important things about Hillerska to come out. She is bringing about changes that are necessary. I was between Justice and Judgement for Felice, but ultimately settled on the latter.

Sara, meanwhile, feels like she might be the High Priestess. Her power lies in knowing and intuiting, and she’s one of the characters who often acts as a witness to the school’s secrets. She’s empathetic enough that she can understand the more “difficult” horses out there. While the socially obvious (but ultimately less genuine) thing to do in situations might be something that Sara misses or doesn’t quite grasp, she has an ability to cut through to the deeper emotions in a situation and name what people are inwardly struggling with. In a world like Hillerska, which is lacking in emotional honesty, the High Priestess’s energy can really shake things up.

I know I talked about August as The Hanged Man before, and I think that continues to be a space where he makes sense, I’d also argue that he spends a lot of his time in the mindset of The Chariot. The Chariot is all about momentum and attempts to control it, and an unhealthy excess of Chariot energy can look like “don’t stop don’t stop don’t stop if we stop we have to think about all our trauma so we won’t stop.” Which… August is very much in that place. Plus, there are horses on that card.

A few other thoughts: Hillerska and all the stuff surrounding it feels like it would tie in well to the energy of The Hierophant. A lot of the family trauma cycles would fall under The Devil. The monarchy stuff is The Devil with a dash of The Emperor thrown in there.

At some other point, I’m going to have to talk about Minor Arcana, because I love the Minor Arcana. Three of Cups seems like it would be such a meaningful card for this series, since a lot of the friendship interaction happens in trios. Simon-Rosh-Ayub let’s goooooo!

#young royals #tarot #asks #you can still send asks if you want to #I will be staggering the answers to go out over the week because i have a lot to do #But it’s fun to always have answers to work on

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kevin--of-desert-bluffs · 2 years

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What the heck happened to Kevin?

EDIT: newer version with updated info here!

-straps you in against your will- (it's long and I'm not sorry lol)

tl;dr: Kevin isn't an purely evil antagonist (at least not the entire way through the show). He did found the religion surrounding a Smiling God but no longer controls the version of it in NV. He did not found Strex. Strex did use the religion to control people and Kevin had some importance because of his standing. Kevin lies to us and himself but his tone and other things betray the truth. Charles might be good for him actually because of this??? More Kevin please.

WTNV is a great podcast because it highlights a truth about stories that people forget: protagonist just means 'the person whose point of view the story is in' and not 'the good guy'. Nor does having a protagonist who is good necessitate a continuous and obvious antagonist.

When Kevin is our protagonist we get the same unreliability we get with Cecil, but Kevin's brainwashing is overt and obvious whilst Cecil's is a subtle result of his upbringing in a conservative place like NV.

So just who is Kevin of Desert Bluffs? What are his ties to Strex? Ep.73 gives us the context we were terribly lacking during the Strex Arc.

Ep.73 - Past Kevin: “Strexcorp? That faux-friendly big business corporate monster? Don’t talk to me about them. Strexcorp is the worst. […] I actually tried to stop them from buying it! I tried very hard. I put my own body, this fragile thing, in between the Strex representatives and the entrance to the building but they forced their way past me using ethically brutal methods that left me forever physically changed."

Future Kevin: "Oh, what StrexCorp and their Smiling God did to my wonderful little town. What they did to me. I’m not myself anymore. I’m a smile, and a twitch of the wrist. It has been years, Cecil. I’ve drifted away from myself. Sometimes I am one me, and then again I am the other. What they did to the sentient heat trapped temporarily in my body."

In this episode, a Kevin before Strex has any power in my opinion doesn't have any reason to lie to Cecil about his involvement in Strex, unreliable narrator or no. He also emotes differently in the further-past, having a genuine flare of annoyance at the mention of Strex. He simply does not talk like this at all later on when Strex is in power. Something changed. And if he were lying about hating Strex to stay on Cecil's good side, why mention this? -

Ep. 73 Past Kevin: [...]You know they’ve been trying to buy the radio station? Can you imagine how awful that would be? They’d probably try to take me off the air, and replace me with someone else. Or, worse, try to change my personality completely. Oh! I would never let that happen[...]"

That is...basically what seems to have happened to him. In his 'present' form (which is really more of a recent past version of himself) during this episode when Cecil talks about Night Vale and Strex, Kevin happily talks about Strex despite Cecil again clearly not being happy about it. He shows no need to side with Cecil's opinion here because he's under Strex himself now.

As an aside, Kevin also states he's never heard of NV in the further-past whilst his recent-past self during that episode and his first appearances in the Strex Arc do know what NV is but has never been there. This is either an oversight by writers or a different Kevin or he just genuinely hadn't heard of NV then.

In the future, he once more speaks of how awful Strex was when they hurt his town and once more, in my opinion, has no reason to deny his involvement especially when he's been isolated for years and is clearly depressed and miserable and has nothing to lose.

Also, with dubious-canon, there is this from a patreon listener questions session:

Kevin: “So I smile over and over until the version of me in the mirror stops smiling along and starts looking scared and exhausted and then sits on the edge of the tub, muttering about the life he used to have before Strex got a hold of him.”

Which could be like, a literal alternate Kevin he can see through a mirror or just Kevin pretending it's just a mirror version of himself whilst it's actually him feeling negative emotions/effects of trauma he doesn't want to admit having.

And during the podcast, there are hints that something terrible did happen in DB which could have been Strex's takeover and which Kevin (by his tone more than his words) has been negatively affected by. For the life in me I cannot remember the exact episodes to quote it, but I think they're early episodes. The gist is that he mentions an 'incident' that 'some of them never woke up from again' during which Intern Vanessa died.

All of this evidence cannot be ignored. We can say with some certainty that the Kevin we hear the most from started out as a man who was ordinary by whatever ordinary in DB ever was, and was taken in and changed by Strex.

It also can't be ignored that later episodes and It Devours! increase Kevin's involvement in both Strex and the worship of the Smiling God, at least in theory.

But some of it just never sits right with me. In particular, this quote:

Ep. 137: “The mayor and I have been close for a long time. We’ve had our ups and downs, but I think our more difficult times were back when we used to run a company together. We had some typical disagreements over who was in charge. She thought because she was the president of the company, she should have final say on all decisions. Whereas I knew that I was one of the Smiling God’s chosen prophets, and our all-loving devourer would not choose a prophet who made mistakes.”

There's...inconsistency here that I can't ignore. Lauren was promoted from executive to vice-president as of episode 49. She was never promoted to president in our timeline. Also, Kevin only states that he should have more power than her because of his Smiling God connections, not because he was actually important in the company.

But did that hold merit, or did it only hold merit to him? Lauren is not in agreement during these later All Smiles' Eve to Mudstone Abyss episodes. And why not? Just because Strex was using the Joyous Congregation to help control DB (theocracy and capitalism do go hand in hand!) doesn't mean that Kevin had any real power BUT it may have led him into thinking he did. If he really did i.e. was Strex's founder or something and they were really fighting about it, he could easily have demoted or fired her. It wouldn't have been difficult.

Strex does not mind 'disappearing people' when necessary and there's no reason we can see for Kevin to have special affection for Lauren. They have a tumultuous relationship at best. If she had no power over him, he would have always treated her with the same disposability and control he does when he runs Desert Bluffs Too.

It Devours! ch 8: “You see, our prophet Kevin found an old oak door[...]"

We never really get to see how Kevin reacted to being in the desert otherworld after Old Oak Doors. But I theorise the reason he was able to start building so fast was because he had, genuinely, already been there and brought back a religion revolving around a Smiling God with him. (The book is new though, he's been in the desert otherworld ten or more years compared to NV time which is plenty of time to write it and get it sent back).

And what about the religion surrounding a Smiling God?

The nature of the Smiling God and what it is is...difficult. Kevin mentions in All Smiles' Eve and the Mudstone Abyss that the religion has been around since he was a child. He says he's celebrated All Smiles' with his family, and that he's dreamed of creating the MSA since being little. If we're taking this as truth, then if Kevin founded the religion he founded it as a child. Or he's lying. Again.

But also there isn't just one Smiling God. It's always referred to as a Smiling God (in the podcast at least), not the. Dana sees a Smiling God which is just a vast light and it's this which is dangerously trying to get into NV through the Old Oak Doors. But also, Kevin writes about a giant centipede as if it were a Smiling God (the movements of such a creature is also observed by either Dana or Carlos, I forgot I'm sorry ;; ) but only Pastor Munn/Gordon know about Kevin's book on the centipede and believe in that version of a Smiling God.

It was genuinely not known by other congregation members, even those like Darryl who grew up with the religion and members who lived in NV previously. Kevin also once said that a Smiling God has teeth and a tongue, which neither a centipede nor a light have. Congregation members also question whether Huntokar is a Smiling God and softly admit they're not sure what a Smiling God is.

It Devours! shows us a differing interpretation of their religion from the side of Darryl and other 'ordinary' congregation members and those actually running/leading it and deciding what the regular members are and aren't allowed to know. It's clear that it's very much like a cult at that point. But was it always? The Joyous Congregation exists happily without Kevin there to guide it and even after learning the weirder and more negative aspects of it they choose which version they like the best and follow that instead. Could the religion had also started out differently? Different ideals? Different ideas of what a Smiling God was? What did Strex influence in it, if at all? Is the version followed by NV citizens before any DB interference different too?

Kevin definitely hides things to show everyone (even himself) only the best things. (That's why Charles' has the potential to be really good for him, I get that now lol). But I don't get the vibes of 'mastermind perfectly in control of himself' from the man who was too brutally honest about his hatred of pasta salad and said this:

ep. 73 'recent past' Kevin: "I remember being a real grumpster, just a grouch and a half about everything! [...] But Strex bought out my radio station, and everything changed for the better. [...] Once Strex entered my life and showed me the power of the Smiling God, why, nothing was the same for me ever again! I felt so much happier. I did terrible things. I felt so much happier! I tore and bit and growled…I felt so incredibly happy! My skin rent, blood drops on the ceiling, someone’s throat in my hand! So deliriously happy!"

And he sounds a bit delirious whilst recounting this. Kevin's tone only ever changes when experiencing something genuine and that is not often.

So what do I think? I think that WTNV is written as socio-political commentary and Kevin reflects that. He is made to represent the influences a theocratic-capitalist society has on a person. He is made to be complex, and not just 'simply evil'.

Maybe there are many Kevin's we are hearing from even when we aren't made aware of such (but this feels like a cop out) and thus many Strex's and many religions surrounding a Smiling God.

But most likely:

DB was a mirror or close enough of NV. Kevin and Cecil were very similar pre-Strex. Strex was directly established in DB. Kevin spent some time in the Desert Otherworld and either discovered people there who already worshipped/observed the vast light which is a Smiling God which exists there or founded such a group of people based on others already lost there (evidence is found by Dana of there once being a civilisation doing such worship in the desert otherworld).

He brought that knowledge back with him and despite it being incomplete/not very solid/based mostly on his own interpretations, the religion really took off in DB and either dripped a bit to NV or the NV version is what created the otherworld version when some of them got lost in the dog park and ended up there. Anyway, Kevin becomes pretty important because of this.

Strex adopted that religion, changing it to suit them as they saw fit and even adopting it's triangle symbolism into their company logo, and used it to gain more power over DB and it's citizens so they could take total control (they also canonically invented control collars...).

Strex beat down and brainwashed Kevin but kept him in his job because people already looked to him as a prophet of a Smiling God. It works like this for years, with belief in a Smiling God becoming a mandatory part of the StrexCorp regime and Kevin himself still having some influence over it. He incorrectly believed this gave him power over StrexCorp and it's employees too. He would fight with Lauren about this and she was actually the one in the right hence why she never gets reprimanded, but also why she can't get rid of Kevin without destabilising the control they have.

The Strex Arc for NV happens. Kevin is returned to the desert otherworld and does research on a giant creature he sees there and mistakes(?) it for a different form of a Smiling God. He finds a way to send this book back, and since time works differently in NV (i.e. many years have passed in the desert otherworld but not in NV) the book looks 'old-ish'. Pastor Munn only shared the book with Gordon and they change the religion subtly based on what they gleam from it. This may or may not have been Kevin's intention as it seems more like general notes or even scientific research (gasp!) than any kind of dogma.

Kevin continues to believe and insist on his own version of events, maybe even to help him through his trauma, and eventually gets to live out his fantasy of control by running Desert Bluffs Too. He has a small religious crisis during this time (canon, mentioned during the All Smiles'-Mudstone Abyss arc), likely because neither the vast light nor the centipede he assigned a Smiling God nor any other version he imaged seems to be in the desert otherworld any more. Charles enters the picture and starts to challenge Kevin's perceptions of his own importance, what is correct emotional regulation and what his religion might actually mean. He has all but forgotten Strex at this time, but is unable or unwilling to look back on those times as completely negative especially because his religion (which he very well likely founded) became so linked with the company.

More Kevin please.

#wtnv #welcome to night vale #wtnv meta #long post #wtdb #welcome to desert bluffs #kevin of desert bluffs #a smiling god #strexcorp

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nikofortuna · 4 months

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The Legend of the White Snake (2019) First Impression

I would like to preface this with the information that I am only somewhat familiar with the original tale and the only other retelling I have experienced thus far was the White Snake animated movie of 2019. For this series I’ll be going off of the English subtitles from Netflix. Additionally I am a queer individual, so expect some queer reading on my part. Mild spoiler warning for the first twelve episodes of the series!

In light of Netflix removing the series soon I have decided to sit down to watch it before then and ended up binging the first twelve episodes in one day. Needless to say I really enjoyed it and would like to get my thoughts and appreciation out here.

To briefly touch on the visuals before getting into the characters and story, the overall vibe I got is comfortable. Like it is colourful but not oversaturated. The costumes are pretty but not over the top, similarly the makeup is clearly there but looks simple enough to not be distracting to me.

The CGI is stylized. It doesn’t try to bend over backwards to be photorealistic and I personally like that. It work for me, it’s, again, comfortable to watch.

Continuing with the characters, the one that stood out to me right away and who I grew to like very quickly is Xiao Qing.

She reads very queer to me starting off with her cultivation of a male human form for so long despite being afab. Now this was due to a desire to protect her mother and attempting to follow established gender roles thusly in a way, though she also had no apparent personal issue with it other than the transformation being a little more difficult, likely because it is a bigger change.

Then she basically flipped to a female human form on a dime out of convenience, so she could accompany Bai Suzhen. Her gender non-conformity persist in that form and all this combined to me paints a picture of her not quite caring about her own gender as such. Nevertheless I wouldn’t put any specific label on her, both because it would not be my place to do so and because I don’t see any for her other than maybe gender non-conform in a general sense.

However you cannot tell me she doesn't have a small crush on Bai Suzhen at least in the beginning.

Aside those things, the small quirk of her enjoying food is very adorable too. So far she has undergone some good character development as well becoming a better person and learning from her elders while still being true to her personality, I quite like that. One would think she’d be an annoying character at first, but she grows into a solid and likeable person.

Now to actually start from the top in terms of characters, beginning with the strong female lead Bai Suzhen.

Not only kind and compassionate, she gained enlightenment through the presence of Guanyin go figure how that might have factored into this, she is also very educated and skilled in martial arts. She is kind but not a pushover, strong willed but not obnoxious. Both a healer and a fighter depending on what is needed at the moment. Capable of handling herself, but not rejecting help when offered. All in all she’s just a great person and a highly likeable protagonist in my eyes.

The supporting ladies like Xu Jiaorong are wonderful as well when they come up, being very helpful where they can.

The male protagonists are nothing to sneeze at either! Of course our male lead Xu Xian is a kind and caring physician already making him quite likeable.

Additionally he falls in love with Bai Suzhen specifically because she is his equal and shares his values. Seeing them work together and help each other as physicians is so cute and really makes you root for them.

He is not without flaw however, much like the rest of the cast, and I am not just referring to his health troubles. While not being a particularly big character arc so far he does grow as a person and his past thus also his past growth is revealed, making his a well rounded character.

Then we have Li Gongfu.

He might not be quite as bright as our leads but is still capable in his job. He is also aware of his own shortcomings and accepts help and advice. And of course he is very loyal to his wife and clearly loves her, which is just so nice to see.

And the four immortals, which are initially with Qing and then Bai Suzhen as well, are great support characters. Funny, caring and useful! The one fight scene where they displayed the abilities of their animal forms was particularly enjoyable to watch.

So far the antagonists have been well balanced usually through an antagonist lady being paired up with antagonist men and both taking equal part in causing trouble. They have also been fleshed out rather nicely with motivations and goals as well as personal grievances.

Plus some were even somewhat sympathetic, particularly the mother who yes has done very bad things undeniably so, but has been pushed to a degree to act like that to begin with. Really a more tragic character than outright evil in my opinion.

Then we have Jin Ruyi of course, who is the classic jealous love rival.

Rather early on I developed hopes for her undergoing character development. Not necessarily in the direction of outright getting along with Bai Suzhen, but maturing, learning to see Xu Xian as his own person and subsequently letting those two be even if she might not like it. And I was pleased to see such an arc beginning towards the later end of the first twelve episodes.

She is not quite where I would like to see her yet, but she clearly has undergone development becoming less spoiled after tragedy struck her. And she can’t be blamed entirely for still being stuck to Xu Xian given how she has been strung along for a scheme by the Hu Kexin.

When speaking about character development we cannot forget about the monk Fahai.

In previous iterations he has been mostly an antagonistic force, but this time around he is here to learn! With a kind master to start him on his journey he still had to make the decision to follow his instructions of not harming the demons if his cane does not deem it necessary. Thusly he is gradually unlearning his prejudice and seeing the nuance in the world more instead of viewing it purely in black and white.

Jingsong, oh Jingsong, he messed up and he messed up big time, a supporting character turned antagonist in my eyes.

If he had decided to help with Xu Xian’s poisoning, like I believed for a moment he might, I could have seen him getting redeemed. But now that he is still so stuck in his ways and completely disregarding Bai Suzhen’s agency, no matter how ‘well meaning’ he might be, he has lost me. His mouse form is still funny though.

Last but not least shout out to Guanyin, my favourite bodhisattva, always happy to see her.

On the story overall there is not much miscommunication being the cause of problems, it is mainly other people deliberately trying to keep our two leads apart. However the two physicians have clearly growing wise to this and do not trust other peoples’ words about each other so easily anymore.

The theme of nuance is woven throughout those first twelve episodes and I am expecting this to continue. The protagonists have their flaws, some technically good people are shown to do bad things for one reason or another and some antagonists aren’t all bad either and generally have a motivation behind their actions.

In summary while it is mainly a romance drama, there are also plenty of funny moments, intrigue and suspense. I would definitely recommend giving this series a try if one has even a modicum of interest in it.

#The Legend of the White Snake #新白娘子传奇 #Bai Suzhen #Xu Xian #Xiao Qing #Jingsong #Jin Ruyi #Li Gongfu #Fahai

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yiifu · 1 year

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till the end of the moon random musings

needed to get it all out of my system after speed bingewatching like 26 episodes over the weekend so here goes the word vomit

carnival float scene

i keep going back to rewatch that carnival float scene when ye xiwu and tantaijin are acting out the skit of the killing of the devil god ... the music is so fitting (it’s probably my fav song in the entire ost) and the whole thing feels like foreshadowing? it’s a near-perfect summary of the entire story in one scene. when she takes his mask off but her mask stays on it’s like she sees and knows everything about him but he doesn’t know her at all. she knows all his intentions and what he will become. tantaijin is so sincere in his feelings at that moment but she’s still hiding her feelings and intentions behind her mask. same thing with the wedding ceremony and the veil - she’s still hidden, but he’s sincere. and he can’t see her so he doesn’t know.

wedding scene

also, like, wow. the ep 26(?) wedding scene was, as someone on tumblr put it, like ‘watching a car crash in slow motion’ even the date was wrong (ominous). the whole time i was shaking my head to myself while watching tantaijin look the happiest he’s ever been (like even though he wants her in a twisted way, u still gotta feel bad for him somehow, he was really so happy and put in effort to embroider the veil, etc.) the knives were all out here, i knew it was coming and it’s going to get worse once we get to the aftermath right. (i last stopped at the wedding scene right before she drives the nails into him.)

mingye/clam arc

is it just me or am i seeing so many parallels between this arc and the real lives of the protagonists? mingye and sangjiu played by the main couple. xiaolin dies. sangjiu turns evil and goes back for revenge which is almost like what li susu is doing to get back at the devil god before he turns evil. mingye and sangjiu end in tragedy, which is the same outcome for our main couple in the first half. tianhuan being a scheming evil person in general like bingchang. also the fact that xiaolin and li susu/ye wuxi were really martial siblings in li susu’s life, just like they were clam siblings in the mingye arc.

one thing i still don’t understand yet: why did ye xiwu keep wanting to go help xiaolin escape the prison? was it just because she cared for him more after being siblings in the mingye arc? or because her was her martial brother in her first life? or was it also something else? i feel like i missed a bunch of motivations here lol

xiaolin and tantaijin

so many things to unpack for xiaolin and tantaijin’s r/ship - right from their childhood to adulthood. you could see them as brothers in a way, like what xiaolin said in his letter. idk what they really feel about each other either - seems like xiaolin’s a little regretful, judging from his last letter. also taking into account parallels with the mingye/clam arc where they’re not even on the same side (clam family vs mingye/gods), and in the end xiaolin’s alter-ego is also dead, but not directly by tantaijin’s/mingye’s hand. unless xiaolin gets a second chance later on in the story, the two of them were never going to officially reconcile/fight together. gonna have to see what others said about this because i don’t even know where to begin organizing my thoughts about them LOL

pian ran and ye qingyu

really glad for pian ran and ye qingyu - i had to skip through some of their scenes due to a lack of time but the gist i got was that they got the chance to be relatively transparent with each other esp about pian ran’s past, and pian ran even got her love thread back (yay!). also her decision to stay in the city, both to be with ye qingyu and also to serve tantaijin, was pretty rad. wishing nothing but the best for this couple.

ye bingchang

ye bingchang .... she’s not typed on personalitydatabase but if i had to give her a type i’d guess she’s an infj, albeit a severely misguided one. basing it on another character who’s closest to her in terms of goals and the way they handle people - jin guangyao from mdzs who’s generally agreed to be an enfj. bingchang has a goal/vision of what she needs to survive (Ni) and uses Fe (manipulation of people) to achieve that. with jin guangyao, similar need to protect themselves, value themselves above others, very, very good at manipulating people by saying the right words, have attempted murder, villain origin backstory of having been mistreated by others for being of a lower social status, etc.

also mbti with ye bingchang and tantaijin

i keep talking about mbti but i’m no mbti expert, just really love using it to understand people. if you compare bingchang with tantaijin you can see they both have kinda similar methods of doing things? - manipulating people towards some common goal through a careful plan. it’s just that ye bingchang’s is purely for personal gain while tantaijin wants personal gain but also accounts for the wider society as well.

ye bingchang (infj): main goal of protecting herself (Ni). executes a plan to manipulate people to make it fall into place (Fe). able to adapt her behaviour to the people around her (Fe, Se?). uses whatever means necessary.

tantaijin: main goal of controlling and reuniting the two kingdoms to create peace (Ni), reduce the same kind of suffering he felt in his personal life (Ni, Fi). executes a plan to outsmart his enemies and recruit people (Te). uses whatever means necessary but also has some internal moral code he follows (Fi).

based on what i vaguely recall about the way tantaijin and bingchang convince people, there’s also a difference. bingchang is very value-oriented (asks ye xiwu to have pity on her, to not compete with her for tantaijin, justifying her actions using the universal value of justice for those who suffer unjustly, she uses universal values like compassion and pity, love, etc. to convince people, it’s giving Fe).

tantaijin uses a lot of psychological manipulation too - knows how to talk people into having no choice but to follow him, knows how to use scare tactics without being actually mean (e.g. the tonic pill he gave pian ran to swallow, threatening to kill those ministers who didn’t want to come teach him just to scare them) his manipulation is a different brand from bingchang’s but just as effective.

but compared to bingchang, i feel tantaijin is a lot more practical in manipulating people. if i recall correctly he usually resorts to logic to convince people (or fear of death lmao). making people understand that they have no other way out of the situation and the only plausible way is his way. e.g. bringing ye xiwu back to him after she helped xiaolin escape. he doesn’t plead with her to come back because he’s lonely and loves her etc., that’s what a high Fe user might do. instead he uses action and rearranges the environment to suit his plan (Te) he makes her kill xiaolin, makes her hated by all so that the only logical way she can get out is to flee back to him. he’s in the depths of emotional turmoil by that point but he still resorts to hard force and objective control (Te) to keep ye xiwu by his side so he can relieve his emotional frustration and loneliness

might write another thing on a comparison between him and william james moriarty from moriarty the patriot (also an intj commanding a group of loyal people towards a vision) later on, just to sort out my tantaijin intj agenda when i remember

the main pairing

going back to our main pairing, what i’m getting out of this is that the two of them can never be together in this configuration, i.e. with him as the emperor/future-devil-god and she as his so-called assassin. they were never going to work out like this because there’s too much to lose and too much going on for them to work anything out properly. (also given that both of them don’t seem to be people who prioritize emotions very much in their decision-making).

luo yunxi’s portrayal of tantaijin is so good, he manages to get that crazed-obsessed-yet good-looking character archetype down pat. truly deserving of the main character title. i keep thinking of that tweet which goes “but he murdered people. so? and he looked good doing it” etc.

for now li susu/ye xiwu’s feelings are still very murky (maybe some others might read her as already having fallen for him but still being bound by duty and fear and anger and other things) but for me it’s still difficult to figure out what exactly she’s feeling. gonna go look at some analysis posts on tumblr to understand what i’m missing.

to go off on a tangent (because i like to think of plot stuff in relation to tropes in other things), it’s sort of like wei wuxian and lan wangji in wwx’s first life. war was going on, wwx had too much to lose and his head wasn’t in the right place. the two of them were never going to work out in that first life no matter how hard they tried. only after wwx’s resurrection did they (more on wwx’s part) have time to bond and sort out their thoughts and feelings properly in a time of relative peace and stability, when the stakes weren’t as high.

similarly, tantaijin and yewuxi need that second half of the story, when stuff isn’t as high-stakes (no war going on) to sort everything out between them.

extra: characters who won my heart

pian ran - temperamental fox girl who just needs a break, still does her duties well, treated by tantaijin like a whiny younger sister or student, ye xiwu’s wingwoman

pang yizhi/scholar pang - literally the only carefree soul in this entire angst-fest (if it matters, he feels very enfp to me), would be fun to hang out with, the perfect foil to xiaolin, somehow managed to get on the wrong side of tantaijin alongside xiaolin and escaped unscathed, he’s here to assist and watch the show and fly back to the immortal world of daozhangs after it ends

gan baiyu - speaking of someone who’s always watching the show, who could forget the ever-loyal gan baiyu who’s stayed by tantaijin’s side as he rose to power? who stood by when tantaijin was throwing all his tantrums? best boy honestly

really looking forward to the second half/arc (?) of the drama after the 500 years!

#till the end of the moon #anyone wanna comment or add on to this feel free to do so!#i need answers #mine

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bytedykes · 1 year

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[ID: Four stickman memes. They are: a crying stickman laying on its back in a pool of tears, hands over its face. A stickman grabbing another's cheeks and screaming in their face. A stickman biting its own arm bloody. A red-eyed teary stickfigure grimacing and holding up a thumbs up. /end ID]

^ just finished twatf moodboard. my thoughts under the cut

genuinely so good. i am sick. i am wailing. i am going to throw up.

ok i lied it wasnt like, groundbreaking, but i did enjoy it! and it did give me new kinds of mental illness. im not typically into the "overpowered protagonist" trope at all but i feel like in this case it was more of a vehicle for the philosophy of the novel than the actual. point? im not a literature analysis person haha

i doubt i would have read this novel if it weren't by singshong. it is just generally not my thing. but im glad i did! i liked the character and i thought it was quite clever and funny, the world building was interesting (despite how overly complicated it is) and some parts made me so. oughhhbg. tearing my hair out

i also really enjoyed looking at this from a "how it compares to orv" standpoint (that's also the main reason i decided to read it). i liked seeing the "prototype" ideas in here that resemble parts of orv that were more developed/refined. and i liked the most specific messages that resembled orv's! there were a few bits regarding walls and connection that made me want to erm shrivel up and die

i guess i didn't really understand the ending but i don't think it was awful. those last 3 chapters are honestly what was worst to me, if i had stopped reading on chapter 244 i might have been happier with the openness of it. seeing all of jaehwan's friends dying and sirwen being left alone in the world was depressing as hell and didn't really feel necessary

orv is known for having everything in it and managing to pull off the most unhinged plots and details so i enjoyed seeing that same principle in twatf dsdjskks it threw a lot of things that i didnt expect at all and a lot of them were absurd but all together i think it made it work

goddd some parts just hit very close. maybe not the overall themes but some specific sections made me put my phone down and stare into space... the fall of time arc... the conversation jaehwan has with the long lived race after he's figured out the unclothing... what andersen tells him before she chooses to fight myad... many such cases

some of the criticisms for it that ive seen online are about the bad translation which is fair but i dont think that necessarily reflects the quality of the actual novel? idk the crappy translation and many typos did make it harder to read but i was still able to mostly understand what was happening and i got used to it pretty quickly. i do wish that the side characters were more developed, i was really interested in them and it felt like a lot of their development was dropped or forgotten, but i did love what growth was shown

i liked jaehwan!!! he is such a sopping wet silly guy. guy who is in the horrors forever. guy who is a billion years old but not actually but yes he is. guy who is so autism eyes incarnate. i liked him as a character and i liked following his journey even with his at times repetitive ideas and simple op solutions to everything. it was fun!

i enjoyed the characters in general, karlton grew on me for some reason lol... i liked anderson and runald a lot also... i liked how despite his identity as a lonely existence that works alone, jaehwan did actually forge so many bonds with people he met and did reciprocate them! him and yoonhwan, him hiring claire and meikal for govt positions when he became master of gorgon, him training with chunghuh, his care for runald and anderson, him verbally calling the fallbringers his friends when they reunite, even eventually his friendship with beastlain! i wasn't expecting him to make so many connections because of how set he is on doing everything alone, so i was really happy to see that he does consider them friends and isnt just coldly moving through the world alone, despite what his actions say

really liked the whole lore about [clothes]. i thought that was really cool. did not like the repeated instances of sexual harassment and pervy lines throughout the book

ive been telling people to read orv left and right, but in contrast twatf is a kind of novel that i dont think i would necessarily recommend to anyone (especially not to anyone who wasn't already an enjoyer of this genre and/or more "out there" plots in general) but i did enjoy reading it myself. however i would say that it provided some cool/valuable/fun insight into orv and singshong's writing in general so maybe i would recommend it to someone who has already read orv and wanted to expand on that

overall i did like it!!! i dont think ill be rereading it any time soon but i had fun reading and stewing over it :)

#twatf #oubghhhhh #this is not structured at all i have been writing it for an hour and need to go to bed #misc #blabbermouth tag #<- pls its been 10 months since ive used this. oh well. pretty sure its not even the right tag but im not finding the new one i never use

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mazojo · 2 years

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Your cast wishes to be as cool as mine

#letSGOOOO SEASON 3 SOON CRYING THEOWING UPPPP MY FAVORITE ARC #LOOK AT LIED PROTAGONIST ARC I AM SO HE IS SO WHEN HE WHEN WHEN THEYY FAV PANELS ANIMATED #I am like. freaking out. in a very uncool way. i am #m!ik #mairimashita! iruma kun #welcome to demon school iruma kun #anime

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bestworstcase · 2 years

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I'm sorry, but claiming that the people who are upset with how Cassandra and Varian were handled are not only part of the fandom, but misogynistic is absolutely insane. I'm sorry that I don't think one measly apology to Rapunzel, and no one else, after going out of her way to try and hurt and KILL Rapunzel and her loved ones is enough to redeem her or make her any type of hero. She was handled SO poorly, and so was Varian. Varian played an important role as the antagonist and to Rapunzel, challenging Rapunzel's morals and having to force her to ask the question: who do I prioritize, my friends or my kingdom? and then he was left to rot in a prison for an entire season. And then he was brought back and used as essentially bait and nothing more. But then the next season with Cassandra goes against her entire arc with Varian, because then she just drops everything, ignores her duties as a princess, and fixates on Cassandra. She ignores the fact that Cassandra is hurting her subjects and her loved ones, kidnaps Varian, and tries to fucking KILL Rapunzel, but somehow, she's more important to Rapunzel because "she can fix her", which is a problematic concept in itself. So, yeah, I think it's entirely unfair to assume that people who don't like how your favorite and least favorite characters were handled are part of the hatedom, and even worse, misogynistic and racist. It's really bold and disgusting and downright delusional. Please, think about how your words affect others and realize how the world doesn't revolve around you.

beloved are u trying to insinuate that i think the writing in season three was good? SKDHKLGSKDF

you must be new here

so to break it down:

s3 was objectively bad on technical merits

s3 is where the myriad structural weaknesses in the tts narrative collapsed, after two seasons of the story mostly making the 'grand overarching quest narrative but rigidly episodic storytelling' thing work. this is largely because cassandra is, structurally speaking, the protagonist during s3

the character writing from ep to ep was exceptionally poor for everyone in the cast, with cass, rapunzel, & varian getting the lion's share of the fucking-over

i am categorically anti-redemption arc for reasons i have discussed at length, literally just search 'redemption' on my blog lmao

the primary reason cassandra's villain arc got fumbled so badly is that tts was unwilling or unable, as a narrative, to tackle the actual legitimate grievances she had against rapunzel, and therefore resorted to using the gothel fig leaf and not allowing rapunzel to reflect or grow or change meaningfully throughout the season; varian's s3 arc suffered in a similar way but to a lesser extent from the inability of the disney princess cartoon to actually like. focus on the systemic problems that harmed him. the blame for this lies squarely on disney and corporate fiction in general

being cognizant of / acknowledging / talking about narrative weaknesses or failings and/or expressing disappointment or irritation at the way a story turned out =/= participating in hatedom, hatedom is the toxic phenomenon that emerges when subfandom spaces begin to revolve primarily around vitriolic vivisection of a piece of media

i want u to look me in the eyes and tell me that the tts fandom by and large taking the arab-coded man whose central motivation is attacking the kingdom that conquered his people a few hundred years ago and going 'this is a sadistic insane child rapist here are a hundred fics about him viciously abusing varian often so the white protagonists can brutally retaliate' isn't racist jesus christ anon

tts put the 'don't be blatantly racist about the racially diverse separatists of saporia' bar under the ground and the tts fandom collectively pulled out a shovel

anyway,

let me put it like this:

in s1, varian slips through the cracks of corona's non-existent support network and is let down by his friends while the king sends secret police to hunt him down after the traumatic (apparent) death of his father, and as a consequence he slides into a downward spiral which ends in him terroristically attacking the capital, grievously injuring many guards, kidnapping and threatening to murder the queen, and then trying to personally murder three people before he's stopped.

the typical hatedom stance here is that varian did nothing wrong because he was just a child and how dare that bitch rapunzel not help him like she promised (even though she...did, without hesitation, as soon as he got in touch with her and she discovered that her father was lying to her about having handled his problem!)

in s2, after two years of being taken for granted and having her boundaries stomped into the ground by rapunzel--who for all that she does truly care has zero experience with what it takes to be a good friend and fucks up a lot--& a LIFETIME of being expected to do two or three times the amount of work for a tiny fraction of the reward as anyone else, cass gets her hand burnt to a blackened husk by her best friend, who then 1. does not apologize for this, 2. gets mad at her for being upset, and 3. blames her for the injury. as a consequence, cassandra decides to trust the weird ghost who is kind and sympathetic to her and grabs the moonstone, then spirals hard on account of the ghost being a malicious demon bent on manipulating her, and eventually returns to corona to... terroristically attack and eventually raze the capital and try to murder rapunzel.

the typical hatedom stance here is that cassandra is a narcissistic abusive power-hungry bitch who had zero reasons for doing what she did and deserves to be executed or at least imprisoned or otherwise harshly punished for it. (even though the entire point of varian's imprisonment and subsequent radicalization by the separatists, and his hasty redemption arc after rapunzel offered him a second chance, was to illustrate the vague stance tts takes that punitive measures are not the answer to criminal behavior and are in fact actively counterproductive and harmful. which. is a stance that the folks in the tts hatedom will largely agree with as long as you are talking about varian instead of cassandra)

like u see the contradiction here, right. i invite u to explain to me why "boy does bad things because trauma = boy did nothing wrong, girl does bad things because trauma = girl is evil bitch who should die" isn't a misogynistic double standard gmksdfh

#also again like re fave/least favorite characters #my fave is zhan tiri. ZHAN TIRI #zhan 'all the depth and complexity of soggy cardboard' tiri #zhan tiri the plot device who exists to delete cassandra's agency #l i k e. come on.#look at my header. my icon #do a bare minimum of research before climbing into my inbox like an angry vole #ghsdkghnk

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jdrizzle15 · 3 years

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Her Second Return

Just like all of you, and especially my fellow Penny fans, I am absolutely devastated by the Volume 8 finale. I had been in quite a state these last few days, utterly heartbroken, and actually nauseous at times. It feels strange to me to be legitimately grieving a fictional character, but it’s not a bad thing to feel this way. To me, this just shows that CRWBY loves her just as much as us to have written her so well that we connect so completely with her, that it feels like we lost an actual piece of ourselves when she’s gone.

But as you can probably tell by the title, this mega post isn’t gonna be about accepting this end, not in the slightest! Today I want to share canon evidence that can point towards another return of our beloved quirky red headed cinnamon bun! I’m here to spread this hope that I and others in the Nuts & Dolts dolts Discord server have!

I have this separated into many different sections to keep these thoughts organized. With that said, here goes…

A Father’s Words:

In Episode 7 of Volume 7, ‘Worst Case Scenario’ we learn the origins of Penny’s aura, and thus her soul. We also learn that it takes more aura each time she’s brought back. This leaves open an option that could be used at a later point.

Many people theorized that Pietro could indeed revive Penny one more time, which he would absolutely do. But there also lies the possibility that someone else could donate some of theirs, I’m not sure about this as I feel like it’s akin to blood donation where compatibility matters or there's a high risk of altering her, but the possibility is definitely there.

Now, the conversation in Chapter 5 of Volume 8, ‘Amity’ that Pietro and Penny have is an important moment for both Father and Daughter. It was there to show how her death in PvP all that time ago really did have a heavy impact on him and is still affecting him to this day.

Instead of continuing to pretend that everything is A-okay, like he had done for most of Volume 7, he finally lets his true feelings about how it come out to Penny for what is quite likely the first time. Even going so far as to say "Are you asking me to go through that again?" when she offers to take the risk of trying to lift Amity with her power. He wants Penny to be able to live her life.

This entire scene with Pietro established “this is what will likely happen” even if circumstances are much different now, it doesn’t negate the fact that this is a key part of Penny’s story. Scenes like these have a purpose beyond simply making an eventual death all the more heart wrenching. Her never actually getting to live her life makes those scenes basically moot. It makes them effectively pointless from narrative point of view. Unless there's more to it.

Building Relationship:

The build up between Ruby and Penny the last two volumes has been absolutely phenomenal with a definite destination in mind, and this doesn’t feel like that destination. So much of the arc of this season was to help Penny. This girl that our main protagonist absolutely adores and treasures, it would just be awful to throw all of that out for what amounts to an avoidable end. Why use so much of their precious and very limited runtime on deliberately building up this relationship only to end it abruptly, and permanently, when they’re separated?

In my opinion, RT is definitely smarter now than to intentionally set up what was really looking like a budding gay relationship only to kill one of them for good. If N&D wasn't actually going in a romantic direction, why would they leave in all of the romance-adjacent stuff that they got, that's not how ‘just friends’ act. And that is not something you use such valuable time building up for absolutely no pay off whatsoever...

Representation of Hope:

At its core, RWBY has always been about hope. It’s not at the forefront the whole time, but there's been an underlying theme of hopefulness that has persisted since it began. Some describe the show as a Hopepunk, I personally find this to describe RWBY really well. This genre of storytelling is about caring for things deeply and the courage and strength it takes to do so. It’s about never submitting or accepting the way things are. Fighting for what you believe in and standing up for others. RWBY fits all of this extremely well. How does this relate to Penny? She has been shown to be a sign of hope for everyone, but especially for Ruby, the main main protagonist. A prerequisite for a Hopepunk story is the hope.

Her first death in V3 was something that fundamentally changed Ruby. For the first time in the series, we see our main character all but broken by this event. With the loss of Penny, immediately afterwards, Ruby’s hope followed. She made up for it through determination and force of will. We see it affect her multiple times throughout the journey to Volume 7. But upon her return in V7, Hope reached a high point for everyone, the sheer relief on Ruby’s face is plain to see!

In V8 chapter 5 ‘Amity’, Penny literally raises hope by lifting the arena into the sky so Ruby could spread her message. And when she falls, and Amity with her, the connection is lost and hope plummets again. From there things take a very negative turn with the hack begins to take Penny’s agency.

In chapter 11 ’Risk’ is the point in the arc where everyone is reunited for the moment, so two separate hero stories are no longer a thing at that point in time. For the time being focus seemed to be shifted to care about the characters and how they’re going to solve the current problems. This is also where Ruby reaches her lowest emotional point in the season.

It’s not huge, but it’s interesting how connected this is. Before Ruby and Yang share a good cry over learning the possible fate of Summer, Yang brings up restoring optimism and hope to Ruby after the younger sister storms out of the room in frustration. This is where Penny’s scenes take up the rest of the episode. Getting Penny back in control of her own body and safe again is what makes the ending of the episode much brighter, when just 5 minutes before Ruby had been distraught and scared. This then spills over into the group coming up with the plan to use the staff, putting the main group in a much better mood. Of all the things to go right, it’s interesting that it’s Penny.

Things go wrong with the plan in the end and Penny dies. I find it interesting that once again, Penny got them hopeful in their chances of doing something right. Given said plan succeeded but at the cost of Penny of all people, Penny is shown to be the beginning and end of hope for them

The highest and lowest points for hope seem to directly correlate to when Penny’s around. When she comes back again, hope will return too, just like it had before. And because she’ll likely be back for good this time, the second return will probably be close to when Ruby is nearing the complete abandonment of hope. This would be pretty par for the course of the show honestly.

A little aside, but in a sense, Penny also represents Unity. The CCT in Vale fell after her first death, knocking out global communications and the unifying connection it gave. When it was restored for the briefest moment, she was there. Her body connected so she could allow for its launch, her soul lighting the night to hold up Amity with every ounce of her strength. So of course when the Hack succeeds and she falls, she takes global comms down again with her. At a smaller scale - even at the Hack's second last attempt to control her, she draws everyone in the Schnee Manor together. At the start of the volume, Yang states the one thing that they all agree on is not surrendering Penny.

Unity seems appropriate for one whose first song and wish was for but one friend, who would go on to find so many more in the process, and permit for a moment the possibility of all Remnant becoming friends once more. Where she first died, the name of the episode devoted to her story - Amity, "friendship", from the Latin root amicus, "friend" - she almost lives and dies with the very possibility of a united Remnant. It's no wonder she's a priority target for Salem, the great divider, and it seems natural that her next restoration may very well allow the next bid to bring the world together.

The Void Screams:

Moments after Penny's death, we hear a weird scream in the void space. It was a guttural, pained, angry scream, almost like the void space itself was crying out. All the portals shuddered and flickered when it happened.

Some think that this scream was Salem returning, but that happens earlier than Penny’s death, her return is signaled with cinder's arm acting up. We know this because after the arm finished flailing uncontrollably, Cinder said triumphantly "she's back." If it were Salem screaming, it would have happened after she fixed herself, but it didn't.

And I doubt Cinder would have been surprised or unsettled by it considering she was happy Salem returned not long before it. And why would a Salem scream affect the portals anyway, she has no connection to the staff or it's magic.

Another thing to consider is the fact sound is not transmitted through the portals. Otherwise, they would've heard Oscar and the rest calling for them, or the screams of the citizens of Mantle and Atlas. This lowers the possibility of that scream being from Salem even further.

The sound really seems to be coming from something else entirely within the void, and that something is not at all happy. There’s also the fact that Penny was the only person who died in the void space, everyone else was just thrown out of it like Ruby and Co. The only logical cause to me is Penny. Her body was a product (or byproduct) of the same creation magic that made the void space, her blood seems to have been a trigger.

Now I can't be sure about it, but this makes me feel like Penny is almost a part of creation itself? For whatever this thing is to be so angry, that is the only explanation I can think of currently. But all of this could possibly relate to the Narnia allusion of 'the willing victim killed in a traitor's stead' that others have brought up, which will be covered next.

Narnia Parallels:

Atlas has several parallels and references to fictional places (putting aside real world ones like the United States). One of those is that of Narnia, both on the surface and on a deeper level. It is a land of winter year round, where people struggle to survive and there is a present divide between those loyal to the current Monarch and those who are not. James is a parallel to Jadis, the White Witch, a ruler whose thoughts and cares aren’t exactly centered around the actual well being of the people. The hologram table in Ironwood’s office is designed to look like stone, like the Stone Table which features prominently in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. He has a handpicked cadre of special agents/secret police, like how Maugrim and his wolves served Jadis. Another key parallel is how Jadis’s winter sets in to oppress and kill everyone in Narnia, but the Witch provides aid and protection to her loyal followers. She has all the power to spare harm to others, and uses it only for the loyal. As soon as Mantle splits from James and Atlas, no care is taken to protect them from the cold of Solitas even though he has every ability to turn the heating grid back on. His protection is only for the loyal.

Now that the parallel is established, let's look into the details. Starting with how James plays the role of Jadis.

"I had forgotten that you are only a common boy. How should you understand reasons of State? You must learn, child, that what would be wrong for you or for any of the common people is not wrong in a great Queen such as I. The weight of the world is on our shoulders. We must be freed from all rules. Ours is a high and lonely destiny." These are the words Jadis says in the Magician’s Nephew to justify the blood civil war she and her sister had waged for rulership of Charn, before she came to Narnia. She won that war, technically, but only after the last battle had been lost and her sister had marched right up to her so that they were face to face. Jadis’s troops were dead, her followers had surrendered, and the capital was under full control of her sister. But, she still had one card, one ultimate play to win and prove the throne of Charn was rightfully her. The Deplorable Word, a piece of old magic that killed everyone and everything except for her on Charn. It was monstrous, senseless, cruel beyond measure. But it got her that hollow victory. This mindset, the disregard for the people except as tools for her own will, the ultimate ‘aoe’ destructive move that no one had even considered her using, the unwillingness to stop even when by all practical measures the war is over, is a shocking parallel to James. In many ways, he is Jadis in mindset and deed.

Then there is the shared desire for A Thing that both James and Jadis have. For James it’s the Winter Maiden and control over her. For Jadis it’s the Silver Apples from the Tree of Youth. And funnily enough, the Maiden Powers parallel the Apples quiet well. These apples grant power and a life of eternal beauty, but should not be taken or eaten on one’s own initiative. They must be given, a gift granted by another, or only suffering will come from obtaining them. "For the fruit always works — it must work — but it does not work happily for any who pluck it at their own will. If any Narnian, unbidden, had stolen an apple and planted it here to protect Narnia, it would have protected Narnia. But it would have done so by making Narnia into another strong and cruel empire like Charn, not the kindly land I mean it to be.” Jadis’s immortality, and some of her power, come from the fact that she ate an Apple of her own will after stealing her way into the garden where the Tree of Youth had been planted. She gained the eternal life she had wanted and the power along with it, but she did so by taking it and was cursed because of it. Her skin turned pale and her lips blackened as if she were a frozen corpse given life. She will be trapped in a life of misery and hate according to Aslan- oh hey Cinder, how’s having stolen the Power you always wanted working out for you? Cinder had the power she wanted, but she only got hungrier, eager to claim more and increase her might. But in her pursuit she was defeated and humiliated by Raven, had to steal her way out of Mistral, and then suffered defeat after defeat while in Atlas. Only in the end, when she didn’t keep pursuing the Maiden Power, did she get any kind of victory.

The reason these parallels to Narnia are so important is one of the most famous events of the series. The cracking of the Stone Table and the rebirth of Aslan after his death. ‘When a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.’ Well, the ‘Stone Table’ in James’s office has cracked, and Penny strikes me as a pretty willing victim. She has never actually committed any actual treachery or harm, as she was the Protector of Mantle, and fought for its and Atlas’s people until the very end. And because of her death, the actual traitor, Winter, who loyally served James until he had gone too far, was saved. Through Penny’s self sacrifice, Winter was saved. So now Death itself will start working backward.

(Major props to my friend @catontheweb for writing this section, I was getting nowhere with it, if they weren't there this part wouldn't exist!)

Norse Mythology:

The tree we see in the post credit scene gives off some serious Yggdrasil vibes. Also called the World Tree, it is essentially all of creation in Norse Mythology. It connects all nine realms, including the God realms of Asgard, the human realm of Midgard, and the underworld of Hel.

Humans are born from the branches of Yggdrasil. The web of Wyrd is woven for every person once they're born, and their path is set from there regardless of how many times the souls cycle over. But at the end, they're destined to end up in one of the worlds, for a myriad of reasons.

I believe Penny landed closest to this giant tree. She was on the center platform in the void space, so if that space is directly above the island(?) the tree is on, it makes sense for her to fall by the center nearest to the tree. This would not only open up all kinds of possibilities for the volume in general, but it would also create options for Penny.

The whole of Yggdrasil’s representations fit well into Penny’s story. Birth, growth, death and rebirth. We can count Penny’s appearance in V7 as birth for now, her growth is all her development in leaving =the military and becoming a Maiden, her death just happened, and her rebirth would be her revival. And this is a cycle she’s gone through before.

The Norse god Odin and Yggdrasil have quite a connection. In one story, Odin cut out one of his own eyes to gain knowledge from a pool underneath Yggdrasil. The only one that fell whose eyes alone are incredibly significant to the story was Ruby. So, they could choose to have her allude to Odin by having Ruby make some kind of deal with whatever entity likely rules over this magical place. An eye for Penny’s life.

There’s another story about Odin, Yggdrasil and the pursuit of knowledge. Odin so loved knowledge, that he sacrificed himself in a quest to learn the deeper magic of runes. It was believed one could only learn the magic spells from runes in death. So, Odin hung himself on Yggdrasil for nine days as an offering, and teetered between life and death. After he mastered the last spell on the ninth night, he ritually died and all light was extinguished from the world. Odin’s death lasted until midnight, when he was reborn and light returned to the world.

This story doesn’t fit Penny perfectly, but allusions often don’t. So If she really did land near the tree, she could be another loose representation of Odin’s story here. What she did wasn’t for knowledge, but to save her friends and keep Cinder from getting the Winter Maiden power. She believed it necessary that she sacrifice herself to achieve this end. As we established, Penny represents Hope, so her death means the loss of hope. This parallels Odin’s story of his death meaning the loss of light itself. So if this theory holds up, it would make this death temporary, until her rebirth and the return of Hope with her once again.

Alternatively, Ruby has the potential of loosely representing Odin in this story as well. Odin later uses the knowledge of the runes to do many things, but the most relevant one right now is awakening the dead. Both of these stories are about making a personal sacrifice to gain something that is desired. Ruby would absolutely make such sacrifices if it meant saving Penny.

It is said that Odin lived “according to his highest will unconditionally, accepting whatever hardships arise from that pursuit, and allowing nothing, not even death, to stand between him and the attainment of his goals." This sounds like Penny's arc of accepting the WM powers. This is more just a general connection between Penny and Odin, but I found it interesting.

Side Note: I encourage anyone who’s interested to look into RWBY connections to Norse Myth, there’s a surprising amount of things that feel eerily similar to the show. Likely just coincidental, but it’s fun to think about!

(If I got any of this wrong, I sincerely apologize by the way. I researched as best I could, but I admit it could have been lacking.)

Ambrosius and the Staff:

Ruby told Ambrosius "we kinda wanna keep her around longer than that" as part of her very specific instructions. Then Penny died about ten to fifteen minutes, at the absolute most thirty minutes later in-universe. I don’t know about you, but to me that seems very short to be considered ‘longer than that’. Technically it is, but when writing a story and a character says something like that, you typically don’t just kill the character they were referring to basically right away. It makes sense for a week-by-week watch, but in a volume binge, which many viewers do, it becomes ironic how fast Penny dies after being removed from her robotic body.

The first time we see the staff of creation being used, it's to save Penny. Using the staff of creation to help Penny is a sign of how incredibly important she is.

They’ve even got this entire transformation sequence for her, so it wouldn’t make sense for them to throw all that away two episodes later. In a meta context, it’s a massive waste of time and budget considering the asset creation for Penny.

Penny is a character who has already hopped bodies two times. And now we're supposed to just believe that this time it really is a final death? Just two episodes after we were explicitly told her body isn't what matters, that "Her soul is who she is" and that "the mechanical parts are just extra"? From a writing perspective, it feels strange, like your breaking a promise right after making it. And frankly, CRWBY is better than that, which makes me think this is not the actual end for her.

A possible connection between Penny, Ruby, and the Staff (thus Creation) can be seen in the intro. As Ruby is falling and being dragged down into the darkness, she is shown reaching for the staff. In the void space, Penny is the one with the relic. So with Penny having this strong connection to Creation, and the lyrics “fight for every life” playing as Ruby reaches for the staff, it’s a safe assumption to make, with the knowledge we now have, that the Staff of Creation represents Penny in this particular moment. Which could mean that V9 will be about, at least partially, fighting for Penny’s life.

Musical Hints:

In terms of music, Friend, as a song for Penny, is very dissonant from the episode itself. The song is oddly cheerful for Penny’s recent untimely death, and it overall highlights the wrong parts of death. It’s simply too happy to be a song about losing one of the most, if not the most joyous characters in the entire show. The song also abruptly ends. There’s no outro, and while this could symbolize the fact that Penny died young, it could be that the song itself is unfinished in a story sense.

What do we hear just before the song finishes, though? A progression of notes that sounds eerily similar to the last line of the opening of Volume 8. The notes for “Fight for ev’ry life” and “Who fin’lly felt alive'' share a similar melodic structure, they aren’t perfect clones of each other, but they are incredibly similar, to the point where it seems intentional. Penny may very well be the life that the opening song is fighting for. It is also worth noting that the line “Fight for every life” comes just after “Sometimes it’s worth it all to risk the fall,” which is the exact wording used for the description in the Volume 8 finale. Team RWBY risked the fall, yet, strangely the opposite of fighting for every life happened with Penny’s sacrifice. Perhaps the time to fight for every life has yet to happen, and we will see it come Volume 9.

For another thing, the lyrics for Friend are entirely centered on Penny’s feelings for Ruby, to the point where they read very much like a bittersweet love song. The music itself is incredibly cheerful, as mentioned previously, creating a mood whiplash with the end of the volume. Why would we hear a song about Penny’s feelings for Ruby, sounding like a love song, if her death is supposed to be a tragic sacrifice akin to Pyrrha’s? The song may very well be giving a clue into its future use in the show proper.

If this was meant to be a good bye song, why make it so cheerful and romantic sounding? There's only one part about her dying and even then, it's just too accepting and goes right back into cheerfulness. The song is also pretty hopeful, telling Penny's story in a fairly chronological order. And the part where she talks about sacrifice is quite pointedly followed up by one about feeling alive. It also ends with the super cheerful chorus, the word "alive" being the last... (Remember the episode title: The Final Word)

(I want to thank my friend @shadow-0f-x for writing the majority of this section! I was struggling to choose how to tackle it as I am not well versed in music theory.)

What We Didn’t See:

It is likely that Penny understood Jaune's semblance better than him and figured something out about it’s abilities in the same way that she understood Ruby's semblance better than her. She had plenty of time to observe his semblance up close as he boosted her aura to stave off the virus. Because of that intentionally timed cutaway in the finale, we don’t get to hear her explain herself after her strained “Trust me.” All of that seems really suspicious to me.

Pyrrha Parallel:

Pyrrha and Penny both sacrificed themselves to stop or stall Cinder. Jaune tried to convince the both of them to stop. With Pyrrha, he failed, while with Penny he actively helped her sacrifice herself. Doesn’t make sense for the guy who was determined not to let anyone else do what Pyrrha did, unless of course Penny assured him she’d be alright.

The Moment:

RT including the suicide hotline in the description shows that they're aware that Penny basically committed assisted suicide, seeing it as a noble sacrifice worth doing to save her friends. They're aware, and I believe they're smart enough to condemn that decision to hell and back.

The best way to do that in my opinion is to pull her back into the land of the living and let her witness first hand the consequences of throwing her life away so freely. This would show Penny how her actions affected others so maybe she could learn to truly value herself. To not think herself expendable. It would be bold and unwise to portray this choice as something good, unless it was going to be called upon later and be pointed out for how horrible it really is.

On top of this, Penny was way too content with her death, happy even. There's no way team RWBY is letting her stay content with it. It’s almost as though we're supposed to join Ruby and Co. in calling bullshit on what Penny is saying and doing because no, Penny, this is not how things are meant to work. It's as if Penny was basically saying "I want to die for my friends" because most of the volume had been about everyone else making sure she didn't die. She knows it will hurt them. She knows.

At the peak of it all, a choice like this will totally destroy Ruby. It may very well be her breaking point for Volume 9. Curiously, the moment itself is written like it’s the first choice Penny’s ever made, yet the entire Volume shows this isn’t the case. However, this is the first choice that Penny’s made solely independently and it’s rather pertinent that the choice she makes is a mistake. Outside of giving Winter the Maiden gift and saving the day temporarily, this sacrifice will not have any lasting positive effects. Jaune will be saddled with the grief of killing Penny. Ruby will have to live with losing her best friend and not being able to protect her a second time, and Winter now has the burden of the Winter Maiden abilities, making her a target of Cinder. This is a bad thing, and Penny needs to see the long term consequences.

Transfer of Power:

As we all know, colors in RWBY are really important and get a lot of focus in the show. That means the yellow we see as Penny gives Winter the Maiden Powers was intentional and likely important, no matter how insignificant it may seem. It’s possible that the transfer effect being yellow could have something to do with Jaune’s semblance. When Fria gave the power to Penny, the effect was very much blue, so this transfer should have been green since she was the one giving it this time. The weirdness of this transfer and the focus on color in RWBY really makes it look like something’s up with how that went down.

A little off topic, but Penny saying "I won't be gone, I'll be part of you." makes me think... Winter is smart, so when she gets time to think about what Penny said, maybe she'll arrive at the same question many in the audience came to; if she's literally part of Winter, can they be separated again? If Winter starts questioning that, the possibility of Penny coming back just skyrockets.

Fria actually tells Penny "I'll be gone" before giving her powers up, which is an interesting contrast to Penny telling Winter "I won't be gone". She may have gotten that line from Winter be all philosophical in V7, saying Fria was now a part of Penny, but it hits differently coming from an actual Maiden. S5o it’s possible that Maidens usually actually will be gone, but Jaune's semblance did something to change that.

This could go well with the theory that they won't need to find an aura transfer machine, or build another one, because Jaune will have a semblance evolution allowing him to do the transfer instead. It might actually be that this evolution already happened and the golden light we saw was Jaune transferring penny's aura to Winter in some way?

An observation that I find interesting is when Penny gives winter the powers, not only is the aura yellow but penny completely glows yellow too, and she obviously starts to disappear, but she doesn’t seem to fully disappear, she just glows.

It's possibly a fading out effect and she does fully fade but animation makes bright light easier, and so we don't actually see her disappear because she's dead and not gone. But it does once again emphasize the color yellow here!

And the color is coming from Penny, it does go up Winter's arm a bit, but Penny is clearly the source. This transfer is so weird and I’m not really sure how to interpret it. There's just actually no reason that we are aware of to make the effect yellow here is the thing. Unless it has something to do with either Jaune or Ambrosius, or potentially a combination of both...

Jaune’s Aura:

The way we see Jaune's aura break in the finale is strange. His aura shouldn't be breaking here. It had been long enough since he was boosting Penny, he's had time to recharge, and it didn't look like it was a strain on him at all. Plus, we know he has a lot of aura, so there probably wasn't too much to recharge in the first place.

He has a massive amount of aura, it has never broken before as far as I remember. Even if it has though, that doesn’t make this occurrence any less odd. It should absolutely never be a one-hit KO. We didn't see anything that would've drained it, that should not have been enough to break his aura. Unless he did something - something that would require a huge amount of aura - that we just didn't see. That amount of aura drain is far more than just an attempt at healing would do, Jaune absolutely did something with his semblance that took up almost all of his aura.

Pinocchio Allusion:

As any Penny fan knows, her character allusion is Pinocchio, the puppet who became a real boy. Penny deviates from the allusion by having always been a real girl, as Ruby is quick to point out, but she shares many story beats with her original story including multiple deaths. In the original story, Pinocchio dies from being hung by his own strings due to his poor decision making and he dies. Sounds a little familiar, does it not? This is where his tale originally ended. Readers were unsatisfied with this ending however, so the author decided to change the story by reviving Pinocchio and teaching him to be more careful.

Unlike Pinocchio making all the wrong decisions, Penny often makes the right ones, or ones she thinks is right, when concerning others. While usually a good thing, this has meant Penny almost giving herself up multiple times during V8, her last attempt being successful. This is where Penny and Pinocchio begin to share similarities again. They are both very reckless when it concerns themselves. This carelessness comes from different places, but it ends with the same result of them endangering their lives and even sometimes losing them.

In the Disney movie, Pinocchio dies by drowning after going to rescue Geppetto and washes up on the shore (like the beach in V8’s post credit scene). His father is devastated and takes him home to grieve, but as a reward for his selflessness in rescuing his father, the Blue Fairy returns and brings him back to life, as well as granting him humanity. Penny sacrificed her life as well, and it stands to reason that she should be rewarded for it, much like her allusion was.

Penny got her maiden powers from someone with blue aura and then gave her powers to someone with blue aura. So it could be that not only Ambrosius, but Fria and Winter as well represent the Blue Fairy. It could be set up for Winter helping to bring Penny back to life once more. It’s an out there theory I admit, but it’s not outright impossible either. The Blue Fairy in Pinocchio saved him three times that I know of, so RWBY having three representations does make sense.

Geppetto wished for him to live as a real boy, but it depended on what path Pinocchio took. This is very reminiscent of Penny and Pietro. Pietro wants to see her live her life, and surely with him absent in V8C14 that didn't work, despite Penny choosing. Her father did not see her happy enough to live her life, and will only be able to learn her death through others. But Pinocchio's themes were life and being alive. So the likelihood that this is not her end yet is quite high!

A Girl That Fell Through the World:

Penny could be the girl who fell through the world. The girl in the story fled the consequences of a choice. The only person who chose her ultimate fate was Penny. The others were pushed into the void, but she chose to die. The consequence of her choice is Ruby’s grief first and foremost, which Penny won’t see. The girl who fell through the world does come back though, and the world will be changed severely with Penny’s absence. Alternatively, it could also be Penny coming back to Wonderland or wherever they currently are, as long as it’s unrecognizable to her.

What Returning Brings:

Others might say another return would have no story relevant purpose, but I wholeheartedly disagree. Penny gives a profoundly youthful, joyous, and wondrous outlook on the world and story that we hadn't seen since Ruby in Volumes 1-3(not the end), Penny returning would bring a much needed levity back in after the despair they will undoubtedly be going through. While not necessarily a huge thing in most other shows, for RWBY, a show largely about keeping up hope, an ounce of such relief is a necessity.

As much as I hate saying it, Penny’s death does actually make some narrative sense because she had to pass on the Maiden powers. (They could have done this in a number of ways, and I personally think they chose rather poorly, but I digress.) Throughout this whole volume, we can see Penny seemingly being set up to join the main cast, but would have been too strong with the powers. This also accomplishes ridding her of the burden of responsibility that comes with being a Maiden and lets her obtain the freedom that’s so important to her character.

Once she returns, seeing this grief that her actions caused, particularly to Ruby, will get her to realize more that her actions can have serious repercussions. She made a choice, but that choice hurt the people she loves. She must have known that it would but I’m not sure she ever realized just how much.

I didn’t want this post to be heavy in the shipping department, so I largely left it out, but I am going to say this one thing that could have an impact. If Nuts & Dolts is on its way to being canon, which this volume makes it feel highly likely, this could be a catalyst.

It could prompt an arc for the both of them in which Penny learns to live her life fighting for her loved ones, rather than sacrificing it for them. A relationship could potentially start from there. And Ruby seeing Penny learn these things may also help her to stop doing the occasional but very dangerous and reckless things she does. Ruby witnessing Penny coming to terms with what she did to the people that care about her would actually make her stop to think “wait, is this how everyone else would feel if I got myself killed?” That would be a very important moment of character growth for her.

I’m certain there are other significant things that Penny returning can bring to the show. And there are definitely more sections I could add to this. At this point though, assuming anyone even made it this far, I think I’ve been going long enough already. So let’s just roll into the outro!

As painful and hopeless as it seems, I'm choosing to trust them with this because there is absolutely no way they didn't see backlash coming. The way this finale went makes me think that they calculated for backlash and aren’t jumping into something they don’t have a plan to recover from. Whether this trust is unfounded or not remains to be seen, but I don’t think it is currently. I do think, however, that the cause of this backlash was a major misstep. Now that it has happened though, they have a chance to do something good with it.

I know for a lot of you, trust in CRWBY has been damaged, some even irreparably so. And for those that feel this way, I don’t blame you. My trust in them took a hit too, but isn’t broken completely yet. There are many ways that they can bring her back that would make sense with the narrative, they have the ability to make it right, and after going over all of the hints and general weirdness of things many times, I think they will.

I'm feeling pretty confident now and I really didn't expect that to happen at all to be honest. But discussing and theorizing with the discord server seriously helped get my hopes back up surprisingly fast! It’s actually thanks to all of them that this gigantic post even happened! So thanks a ton my fellow Dolts! And a special thanks to!!

@arcana-amicus

@catontheweb

@cosmokyrin

@gaydontmesswithme224

@jammatown919

@shadow-0f-x

They really helped get this thing across the finish line!

And thank YOU for reading all~ of this! I sincerely wish it gave you some of the hope and confidence that I now have!

#RWBY #rwby vol8 #rwby v8 #rwby spoilers #Penny Polendina #nuts and dolts #mechanical rose #a little #Essay #more like dissertation #I haven't written this much in #probably ever actually #Have HOPE people!

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